PCs can build buildings, create organizations, establish businesses, craft items, or do many other things when they aren’t spending their time adventuring or running a kingdom. The complete rules for using Downtime are here.

The system is very flexible and can be used to create a wide range of buildings, organizations, and combinations of buildings and organizations (a thieves’ guild and their hideout, for example). Background items can earn a PC an income, grant bonuses on skill checks, just provide a safe place to come home to, and many other things.

Unlike the month-long turns of the Kingdom Building system, Downtime turns span a single day and can be performed whenever a PC has a day free from their other duties. Here are 2 examples from the Downtime system rules:

Inn

Suppose you want to spend downtime constructing a friendly traveler’s Inn. It needs a Bar so it can sell drinks, and a Kitchen so it can serve food. Guests need a place to eat and rooms to sleep in, so it must include a Common Room and a Lodging. To keep your guests’ horses safe, it must include a Stall. By adding up all the Goods, Influence, Labor, and Magic values in the Create and Time entries of the rooms’ stat blocks, you get a total of 33 points of Goods, 3 points of Influence, 32 points of Labor, and 90 days. By spending that capital, after 90 days of construction time your inn is finished.

Alternatively, if you just wanted to purchase a completed Inn and the GM says one is available, you can add up the gp cost listed in the Create entries of the Inn’s rooms and pay that amount to the current owner. For the friendly traveler’s Inn described above, that total price is 1,390 gp.

Thieves’ Guild

Suppose you want to create a network of thieves and spies in town. You need eyes and ears on the street, so you should include a Cutpurse team. You want people to be able to break into homes and steal valuables, so you should include a Robber team. To hide your wealth from the tax collector, you need a Bureaucrat team. By adding up all the Goods, Influence, Labor, and Magic values in the Create and Time entries of the rooms’ stat blocks, you get a total of 3 points of Goods, 11 points of Influence, 6 points of Labor, and 6 days. If you spend that capital, after 6 days of recruiting, your guild is ready to work.

Alternatively, if you wanted to just purchase an existing guild, with the GM’s approval you can add up the gp prices for those teams and pay that amount to the current guildmaster. For the Thieves’ Guild described above, the total price is 510 gp.

Charter Downtime Activities:
Asher:
Bronin:
Parin:
Surion:

Five Kings Downtime Activities:
Billy:
Iri:
Laren:
Milo: