D&D Downtime Activities and Events

Refreshing will generate new results for relevant activities. Most activities take a week unless stated otherwise. For all activities, complications can result in creating new rivals for the players. You can also reskin these activities to suit whatever your players come up with.

Lifestyle | Services
Buy Magic Item | Carousing | Craft Magic Item | Craft Mundane | Crime | Renown | Gambling | Pit Fighting | Sacred Rites | Religious Service | Research | Business | Scribe Scroll | Sell Magic Item | Rumors | Training | Work

Maintenance Costs

Lifestyle Expenses

Services

Buy Magic Item

Spend at least a week and 100 gp, then make a Persuasion check with a +1 bonus for each additional week or 100 gp spent (over the base) up to a max of +10. -10 penalty for low magic campaigns (and double cost), and +10 bonus for high magic. Compare the result with table below and check Magic Item Prices for the cost. Additionally, the seller is murdered before the sale.

Carousing

You earn modest winnings from gambling and recuperate your lifestyle expenses for the time spent carousing.

Craft Magic Item

You must have blueprints, relevant tool proficiency, and cast any relevant spells each day. DM can additionally require special materials or locations to craft. Check Magic Item Prices for individual items. You must work for 8 hours each day, and complete 25 gp worth of the total cost each day. Items can require hunting exotic monsters, with a CR based on the rarity below. Additionally, rumors swirl that what you're working on is unstable and a threat to the community.

Craft Mundane

Requires relevant tool proficiency. You must work for 8 hours each day, and complete 7 gp worth of the total cost each day.

Crime

Spend a week and 25 gp gathering information. Then make 3 checks with a DC selected by the player based on the table below. The checks are Stealth, Dexterity with Thieves' Tools, and finally the player's choice of Investigation or Perception or Deception.

If all checks fail, the character is caught and jailed, with a fine equal to the loot value and a number of weeks in jail based on the table below. With one success they get no loot and escape but your loot is a single, easily identified item that you can't fence in this region. With two successes, they get half the payout and only get the one success complication if their rival was involved.

Gain Renown

Spend a number of days equal to your renown times 10 to increase your renown by 1.

Gambling

Spend a week and bet a stake of 10 gp to 1000 gp. Make three checks: DC 18 Insight, DC 20 Deception, and DC 14 Intimidation. You can use a relevant gaming set proficiency instead of any relevant skill check. Results based on the table below. No additional complications.

Pit Fighting

Spend 1 week. Make three checks: DC 17 Athletics, DC 14 Acrobatics, and DC 10 Constitution with a bonus equal to your largest Hit Die. The player can replace one of the skill checks with a weapon attack roll instead. Results based on the table below. No additional complications.

Sacred Rites

Spend 10 days performing sacred rites to gain inspiration at the start of each day for the next 8 days.

Religious Service

Requires access to a temple that worships your god. Make a Religion or Persuasion check, on a 1-10 you fail to make a lasting imrpession, on 11-20 you earn a favor, and 21+ you earn two favors. A favor can be 50% cheaper service, or something the DM determines. You can have a max number of favors equal to 1+CHA mod (min 1). No additional complications.

Research

Requires access to a library or sage. Spend 50 gp for expenses and 1 week. Declare the focus of research (a person, place, or thing) and make an Intelligence check with a +1 bonus for each additional 100 gp spent to a maximum of +6. Get advantage if the library is well-stocked or sage is very knowledgeable. Result is based on table below. No additional complications.

Run a Business

The business covers its own maintenance cost for each of the days. It earns a profit of 5 gp.

Scribing A Scroll

Spell Level: Cantrip1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th
Must be trained in Arcana and have the spell known as well as the components. It takes 1 day(s), and costs 15 gp. No additional complications.

Sell Magic Item

Rarity: CommonUncommonRareVery RareLegendary
Make a DC 20 Investigation check per item. On fail, spend 10 days and find no buyer. On success, it takes 2 day(s). You find a shady buyer offering 1.5, no questions asked.

Sowing Rumors

Make a DC 15 Deception or Persuasion check and spend the number of days and cost from the table below. On success, the community's attitude shifts one step towards friendly or hostile as the player wishes. On fail, the rumor fails and can no longer be propagated.

Training

Intelligence modifier:
You can learn a new language or proficiency in a tool. It takes 10 weeks, and costs 250 gp. Additionally, your instructor disappears, forcing you to spend one workweek finding a new one.

As a variant, you can require characters to spend downtime training in order to gain a level once they reach the xp requirement. Levels 2-4: 10 days, 20gp. 5-10: 20 days, 40 gp. 11-16: 30 days, 60 gp. 17-20: 40 days, 80 gp.

Work

Spend 1 week and make a skill check choosing from one of the following: Athletics, Acrobatics, Intelligence with a set of tools, Performance, or Charisma with a musical instrument. The result determines your wages from the table below. No additional complications.

Need more help with your campaign? Check out all the other tools, generators, and articles: kassoon.com/dnd/

This website exists thanks to the contribution of patrons on Patreon. If you find these tools helpful, please consider supporting this site. Even just disabling your adblocker will help (it's only text and plain image ads I promise). Becoming a patron will upgrade your account to premium, giving you no ads and more features.

Shout outs: Stacey, John Patrick Callahan Jr, Gordon Alexander Fallon, and Max Puplett.
Their contribution stands as a beacon of hope for all adventurers!