Characters can spend their downtime engaged in a variety of hedonistic activities such as attending parties, binge drinking, gambling, or anything else that helps them cope with the perils they face on their adventures.
A carousing character spends money as though maintaining a wealthy lifestyle (see chapter 5, "Equipment," of the Player's Handbook). At the end of the period spent carousing, the player rolls percentile dice and adds the character's level, then compares the total to the Carousing table to determine what happens to the character, or you choose.
| d100 + Level |
Result |
| 01-10 |
You are jailed for 1d4 days at the end of the downtime period on charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. You can pay a fine of 10 gp to avoid jail time, or you can try to resist arrest. |
| 11-20 |
You regain consciousness in a strange place with no memory of how you got there, and you have been robbed of 3d6 × 5 gp. |
| 21-30 |
You make an enemy. This person, business, or organization is now hostile to you. The DM determines the offended party. You decide how you offended them. |
| 31-40 |
You are caught up in a whirlwind romance. Roll a d20 . On a 1–5, the romance ends badly. On a 6–10, the romance ends amicably. On an 11–20, the romance is ongoing. You determine the identity of the love interest, subject to your DM's approval. If the romance ends badly, you might gain a new flaw. If it ends well or is ongoing, your new love interest might represent a new bond. |
| 41-80 |
You earn modest winnings from gambling and recuperate your lifestyle expenses for the time spent carousing. |
| 81-90 |
You earn modest winnings from gambling. You recuperate your lifestyle expenses for the time spent carousing and gain 1d20 × 4 gp. |
| 91-100 |
You make a small fortune gambling. You recuperate your lifestyle expenses for the time spent carousing and gain 4d6 × 10 gp. Your carousing becomes the stuff of local legend. |
Carousing Variant Rules
Carousing is a default downtime activity for many characters. Between adventures, who doesn't want to relax with a few drinks and a group of friends at a tavern?
Resources
Carousing covers a workweek of fine food, strong drink, and socializing. A character can attempt to carouse among lower-, middle-, or upper-class folk. A character can carouse with the lower class for 10 gp to cover expenses, or 50 gp for the middle class. Carousing with the upper class requires 250 gp for the workweek and access to the local nobility.
A character with the noble background can mingle with the upper class, but other characters can do so only if you judge that the character has made sufficient contacts. Alternatively, a character might use a disguise kit and the Deception skill to pass as a noble visiting from a distant city.
Resolution
After a workweek of carousing, a character stands to make contacts within the selected social class. The character makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check using the Carousing table.
| Check Total |
Result |
| 1–5 |
Character has made a hostile contact. |
| 6–10 |
Character has made no new contacts. |
| 11–15 |
Character has made an allied contact. |
| 16–20 |
Character has made two allied contacts. |
| 21+ |
Character has made three allied contacts. |
Contacts are NPCs who now share a bond with the character. Each one either owes the character a favor or has some reason to bear a grudge. A hostile contact works against the character, placing obstacles but stopping short of committing a crime or a violent act. Allied contacts are friends who will render aid to the character, but not at the risk of their lives.
Lower-class contacts include criminals, laborers, mercenaries, the town guard, and any other folk who normally frequent the cheapest taverns in town.
Middle-class contacts include guild members, spellcasters, town officials, and other folk who frequent well-kept establishments.
Upper-class contacts are nobles and their personal servants. Carousing with such folk covers formal banquets, state dinners, and the like.
Once a contact has helped or hindered a character, the character needs to carouse again to get back into the NPC's good graces. A contact provides help once, not help for life. The contact remains friendly, which can influence roleplaying and how the characters interact with them, but doesn't come with a guarantee of help.
You can assign specific NPCs as contacts. You might decide that the barkeep at the Wretched Gorgon and a guard stationed at the western gate are the character's allied contacts. Assigning specific NPCs gives the players concrete options. It brings the campaign to life and seeds the area with NPCs that the characters care about. On the other hand, it can prove difficult to track and might render a contact useless if that character doesn't come into play.
Alternatively, you can allow the player to make an NPC into a contact on the spot, after carousing. When the characters are in the area in which they caroused, a player can expend an allied contact and designate an NPC they meet as a contact, assuming the NPC is of the correct social class based on how the character caroused. The player should provide a reasonable explanation for this relationship and work it into the game.
Using a mix of the two approaches is a good idea, since it gives you the added depth of specific contacts while giving players the freedom to ensure that the contacts they accumulate are useful.
The same process can apply to hostile contacts. You can give the characters a specific NPC they should avoid, or you might introduce one at an inopportune or dramatic moment.
At any time, a character can have a maximum number of unspecified allied contacts equal to 1 + the character's Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). Specific, named contacts don't count toward this limit—only ones that can be used at any time to declare an NPC as a contact.
Complications
Characters who carouse risk bar brawls, accumulating a cloud of nasty rumors, and building a bad reputation around town. As a rule of thumb, a character has a 10 percent chance of triggering a complication for each workweek of carousing.
Lower-Class Carousing Complications
| d8 |
Complication |
| 1 |
A pickpocket lifts 1d10 × 5 gp from you.* |
| 2 |
A bar brawl leaves you with a scar.* |
| 3 |
You have fuzzy memories of doing something very, very illegal, but can't remember exactly what. |
| 4 |
You are banned from a tavern after some obnoxious behavior.* |
| 5 |
After a few drinks, you swore in the town square to pursue a dangerous quest. |
| 6 |
Surprise! You're married. |
| 7 |
Streaking naked through the streets seemed like a great idea at the time. |
| 8 |
Everyone is calling you by some weird, embarrassing nickname, like Puddle Drinker or Bench Slayer, and no one will say why.* |
*Might involve a rival
Middle-Class Carousing Complications
| d8 |
Complication |
| 1 |
You accidentally insulted a guild master, and only a public apology will let you do business with the guild again.* |
| 2 |
You swore to complete some quest on behalf of a temple or a guild. |
| 3 |
A social gaffe has made you the talk of the town.* |
| 4 |
A particularly obnoxious person has taken an intense romantic interest in you.* |
| 5 |
You have made a foe out of a local spellcaster.* |
| 6 |
You have been recruited to help run a local festival, play, or similar event. |
| 7 |
You made a drunken toast that scandalized the locals. |
| 8 |
You spent an additional 100 gp trying to impress people. |
*Might involve a rival
Middle-Class Carousing Complications
| d8 |
Complication |
| 1 |
A pushy noble family wants to marry off one of their scions to you.* |
| 2 |
You tripped and fell during a dance, and people can't stop talking about it. |
| 3 |
You have agreed to take on a noble's debts. |
| 4 |
You have been challenged to a joust by a knight.* |
| 5 |
You have made a foe out of a local noble.* |
| 6 |
A boring noble insists you visit each day and listen to long, tedious theories of magic. |
| 7 |
You have become the target of a variety of embarrassing rumors.* |
| 8 |
You spent an additional 500 gp trying to impress people. |
*Might involve a rival
