It’s late but I’ve gotta write something. Which is weird because I’ve been writing all day. My D&D players gave me, the Dungeon Master, homework, which isn’t normally how things work.
Just joking. What happened is that a couple of my players wanted to do some research during their downtime to follow up on in-game plots and characters. They gave me a list of topics, and I told them the game mechanics of how that would work, and then I sat down and wrote out paragraphs of information, from the stuff everybody knows, to the facts that only learned scholars know after years of study. It was fun!
Mechanics-wise, the rules for downtime research in D&D 5E are pretty straightforward. Each topic takes about a work-week of time (5 days), and at least 50 GP in fees, bribes, or materials. At the end of the week the player makes an Intelligence check; the higher the result, the more information gained. Spending additional money gets a bonus to the roll; every 100 GP above and beyond gets a +1, up to a maximum of +6. And having access to a good library or knowledgable sage gets advantage on the roll.
Since it’s an Intelligence check, I also allow the players to apply the bonus for any applicable skill proficiency they may have. Researching magical items, for example, can benfit from a proficiency in Arcana.
The table in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for downtime research shows a scale, from one piece of lore to up to three pieces of lore, which kind of breaks my brain a little. I just wrote out a bunch of stuff, getting more and more detailed as I went, for each topic. I was a little sad that the players won’t see everything I write, unless they got really lucky, so I didn’t spend a lot of time on the more esoteric stuff.
There’s also the matter of complications, which for research are pretty low. A complication comes up at a rate of 10% per week spent in research, and range from mild, to gaining a rival or finding oneself obligated to another quest or adventure. All fun stuff!
But I’m really bad at keeping secrets. I want my players to know things. I want to reward them for their curiosity and engagement with my silly secondary world. Ah well, such is the nature of games. They’ll find all this out in due time, one way or another. My philosophy as a game master is that I try to only prep stuff I’m going to actually use. Now that I’ve come up with these plot hooks and lore, I will find ways to introduce it.
This group of players I’ve found myself in are a gift. They’re mature, intelligent, thoughtful. They pay attention to my silly plots and characters, take notes, show up to nearly every session ready to play. It’s terrific and I am so glad to have this bright spot in my life right now. So when they ask me for more information about the game and the world, I am more than happy to provide it to them. Having players like that makes worldbuilding easy. It’s so much fun. Did I mention the fun? I’m having a lot of fun with this campaign and this group of folks.
❤️❤️❤️