A Year in the City - House Rules

Setting expectations and parameters, or as I heard Ryan Howard describe it recently: Erecting Chesterton's Fence. 

In a bid to curtail the rampant 'Avengers'-style game play that 5e seems built for, and to control the pacing of the game, I am instituting a couple of overlooked 5e features. 

[Nuttin' Betta]

In a previous post I had mentioned a few overlooked rules I'd be enforcing for the Patrons, but these are specifically for the Players:

Training to Gain Levels (DMG) - Downtime activities): Characters are required to spend downtime training or studying before they gain the benefits of a new level. Once a character has earned enough experience points to attain a new level, he or she must train for a number of days before gaining any class features associated with the new level, this will require finding a suitable trainer. 

The training time required depends on the level to be gained, as shown on the Training to Gain Levels table of the DMG downtime activities. The training cost is for the total training time, and differs from the Downtime Training activity in Xanathar's, though any Complications that arise may be similar.

Drawing from D&D's illustrious past, I am instituting 'Training Jail', for the Players Characters. This may not be popular with my 5e players, but hopefully if I am upfront with them and we use this from the first session, it will be something they come to accept and embrace. 

"Oh man, my 5th level is stuck training for 20 days. But my 3rd level is free, I'll grab a couple Merc Hirelings and join you guys for tonight's adventure."

Everyone scoffs at the "You start in a Tavern trope", but when you own a Tavern, this goes from a Trope to a full-on centre for employment.

The second Player focused rule is the following:

Lifestyle Expenses (PHB) - At the start of each week, choose a lifestyle from the Expenses table and pay the price to sustain that lifestyle. The prices listed are per day, so to calculate the cost of your chosen lifestyle over the period multiply it by 10 (for a single in-game week). Your lifestyle might change from one period to the next, based on the funds you have at your disposal, or you might maintain the same lifestyle throughout your character's career. 

However, your lifestyle choice can have consequences. Maintaining a wealthy lifestyle might help you make contacts with the rich and powerful, though you run the risk of attracting thieves. Likewise, living frugally might help you avoid criminals, but you are unlikely to make powerful connections.

There is a provision for living in the woods and the wilds, but this would mean coming into town every day and having to constantly pay the fees at the gate.

Hopefully, this spurs the players towards the acquisition of wealth (sometimes a difficult thing to drive since they decoupled XP from the Gold standard).

Sure, the players could spend their downtime Working to earn a living, or they could spend that time planning how to delve into the Mega dungeon of Undermountain.

...I should probably have said that 'A Year in the City' combines Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage, so that characters can grow from 1st to 20th level (according to the modules at least).

The plan is to hook them in with the promise of a hidden cache of Dragons, and by the time they've found it they should also have a stable, or roster, of other characters with which they are enjoying pushing further into the mega dungeon beneath the city.

*****

As an aside, I have decided not to use the Gritty Realism resting variant that changes a Short Rest to 8 hours and a Long Rest to 7 days. I had implemented it in a previous campaign, to encourage the use of Downtime, and it worked about half as well as you'd expect.

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