<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=262653.msg12988216#msg12988216">Quote from: Arcannyx on 18-02-2017, 21:37:32</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">So while doing stuff in downtime makes sense... 'earning' it does not.  This is where you're losing me, every time you use the word.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>In standard D&D, by the rules, you can spend 8 hours of a day doing<em>something</em>. Be that adventuring, crafting, researching, etc. After that you need a break. Your long rest takes up 8 hours. And then you have another 8 hours that you can theoretically use on a different task.<br/><br/>At a table it would be like:<br/><br/>Me: Arcannyx, you guys are laying low for the day. What are you going to spend your time doing?<br/>Arcannyx: Getting drunk and nailing bitches.<br/>Me: At six in the morning?<br/>Arcannyx: Yup!<br/>Me: Okay, so you head off the the Grimey Hoe, where all the best sultry farm ladies are.<br/>Me: -Turns to Rummy- And in your day off, you want to do?<br/>Rummy: Well I'd like to copy some of these scrolls into my spell book. I've got two 2nd level spells, and a third. What can I get done?<br/>Me: Well it takes like 4 hours, plus 50gp, and an arcana check per spell level to start that process. So today you could finish one of the 2nd level spells or start the 3rd and finish it up tomorrow.<br/>Rummy: I'll do the 2nd for now.<br/>Me: Great. -Looks to Mira- And how are you going to spend the day?<br/>Mira: Well I'm going to look for some information since we're just hanging out. I want to be extra prepared for this infiltration we're getting ready to do, so I want to see if I can find anything extra about the location or the people we're going to be dealing with.<br/>Me: Alright go ahead and roll a gather information and we'll get back to you in a second. -Looks at Aribeth- And lastly, what about you?<br/>Aribeth: I want to slaughter the innocent in the name of my god, then pray on their bloodied corpses while setting the precedent for the locals that Bhaal has come for them.<br/>Me: Oh... Alright well, we'll take care of that once I've dealt with Mira. One sec.<br/><br/>And bam. Day done.<br/><br/>That conversation? Not compelling writing centric RP.<br/><br/>Instead this would look like... Okay you guys are going to have 3 days off. Each day is worth 2 segments. So you earn a total of 6 segments to do<em>stuff</em>. You then start "spending" them doing the same thing.<br/><br/>Arcannyx spends a segment to go play a side scene (character development) at a tavern. Something may come from this. A new quest. Companion. Money. Something. Or it may just be a fuck fest, who knows how these things turn out!<br/><br/>Rummy has 7 segments worth of spells to transcribe so he's not even going to be able to do all of that in the amount of down time that they have. So he does the two 2nd levels and now has 2 segments left over to do whatever he wants.<br/><br/>Mira is going to spend (at least) one segment RPing some information gathering to see what more she can piece together as she tries to investigate the mission coming up.<br/><br/>Aribeth is going to RP a scene where she finds someone and kills them in the name of her god.<br/><br/>The benefit of earning segments is... That what if you had some left over from the time before? Say everyone had... 2 segments left over from before. Well this means suddenly everyone has 8 segmenets to use. This means that Rummy<strong>can</strong>transcribe all of his spells in this period of downtime. Which is a big difference having access to that third level he might not have had otherwise.<br/><br/>Doing it like this lets writers who write at different paces, or have lots to do just push through things quickly. It makes sure that no one loses time because they can't write as much as someone else. Arc, you can post multiple times a day. CeruleanSerenity can post maybe twice a week. The amount of stuff that YOU can get done in downtime is astronomically more than what she could get done.