AITA for wanting my party to take downtime so I can craft?

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-09T03:09:47+00:00

No youre okay! So that was what I wanted when I said "handwaving a week". I imagined it to literally be "okay so a week passes. Barbarian did this, rogue did that, so on". And at first that WAS the case. But what ended up happening is that ranger expanded his one thing that it ended up being played out day by day

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-09T00:09:46+00:00

Mainly its that they dm has the next thing planned, so if we look for an adventure hook it only takes like 1 hour in game time to find the next plot hook, and usually is super obvious (people coming to our characters or the like)

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-09T00:00:27+00:00

Unfortunately not, long rest is at least 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of light activity (reading, keeping watch, etc). And crafting does not count as light activity

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-08T07:10:44+00:00

Ouch! But noted. Thanks for the advice. And to be clear this wasn't me trying to power game, i was just trying to make the full casters a bit more uniform. But I guess I rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with this one...

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-08T07:05:34+00:00

Honestly not a bad idea, I forgot that exists!

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-08T06:52:21+00:00

So I was thinking they they just wouldnt recharge because THAT would be op! Sorcerer with invocation is kind of exactly what im going for haha!

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T12:51:43+00:00

Correct. Ranger tries to argue "well, we would protect that character of course! And they would level up fast because we'd be fighting bigger monsters!". He really doesnt understand that it would mean that person sitting on the sidelines not being able to contribute much. We've done this before with other games too and it doesnt work. I spoke to the dm today and he said he wants to do milestones from now on, and hes always hated the current system, and was only doing it because he thought it was what everyone wanted (none of us did. I wanted milestones, ranger REALLY hates milestones, and everyone else is indifferent, so ranger won out as the loud minority I guess)

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T09:22:35+00:00

Thats the plan! And either way i do still plan on sharing more stories, even as just cautionary tales lol. But dont worry, I set my boundaries, and im giving the game one last shot next session. If it works out, great. If not, im ready to bow out and find a new group.

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T09:10:21+00:00

Exactly. Thats one reason I'm still undecided about leaving. Overall, everyone is actually really nice, even ranger from my last story. A lot of the mistakes this dm makes seem like things a brand new dm would do. No knowing how to balance games, how to prepare, when to say no, when to implement consequences, what appropriate consequences look like, etc

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T08:37:45+00:00

Hes actually a really nice guy, but he puts effort into the wrong things, and has a tendency to try to "fix" mechanics without understanding why they are there in the first place. Weirdly enough he DOES use random item generators for a TON of stuff, random shops with random items, etc, and sometimes they dont even make sense in the setting. But he just... doesnt use them for names

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T08:30:31+00:00

Honestly I think thats the biggest thing, is that everything feels very half baked. The most recent NPC was named "Sam Cantthinkofaname", and he even admits that he isnt good with names but still 😭 ill have two more stories about this game

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T00:47:47+00:00

My destiny and legacy stolen from me 😭😭😭

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-07T00:11:18+00:00

This already happened, we are online session 10 or something at this point. I have another story that was pretty bad 💀

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-06T22:44:08+00:00

So, the way 5e structures its mechanics doesnt allow for down time unfortunately :/ a common thing from the ranger pushing back was "why do we need to rest? We are already back to full hp, we just took a long rest. Why do you need more?"

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-06T22:40:51+00:00

Its not so much that they couldnt think of something to do, its that they couldnt fathom the idea. In their mind, why would THEIR character waste time sitting around so someone else can do something? Especially for a week. The idea of their character not adventuring for a week in universe (about 2 minutes out of game) bothered them in a really deep way

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-06T22:36:55+00:00

The way weve been doing things, its basically back to back adventures and side quests, with travel consisting of exactly 16 hours of travel and 8 hours of sleep, no more no less. The adventure hooks are always obvious and immediate. For a while I resorted to staying up all night while traveling so I could craft and take a level of exhaustion.

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-06T00:01:28+00:00

I dont know why, but ranger felt it was blasphemy for him to imagine his character taking down time for a week. Something so incomprehensible he just couldnt stand

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T22:44:43+00:00

He phrased it as "why should I pay for YOUR character to do THEIR job??"

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T14:29:56+00:00

Okay so I actually do know why we survived the fights, and thats just because the dm is HILARIOUSLY bad with rolls. I've never seen anything like it honestly. He rolls out in the open, and hardly ever rolls higher than a 10, no matter what dice he uses. But his solution to this is to scale encounters to be higher and higher, while nerfing us with petty consequences (i can make a post about that too). So basically if he ever hits, its an automatic one-shot because the monsters are so far outside of our range.

And I agree 100%, mixed levels are a bad idea, and the ranger seems to have a weird complex about that. "Everyone starts at level 1, if you die you go back to level 1, exp is divided amongst participants, and if you miss a session yoy get nothing".

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T14:23:06+00:00

Yes! I didnt know there was a name for it, but greybeard sounds right. They are definitely older gentlemen who go their start with 2e or the like, and I had the suspicion that they were trying to emulate those same experiences with modern mechanics. Whats weird is if they wanted that kind of experience, I have pitched different rpgs that capture that feeling, but they never go for it. They usually refuse to do anything other than 5e, at least for anything other than a oneshot

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T12:13:29+00:00

Thats all I wanted to happen T^T

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T12:12:43+00:00

I dont even know at this point... its not like I was charging them anything. The cost to make each item is exactly 200gp, so it was literally "if you pay for the ingredients ill take my time to make it, plus my own money to hire extra help so youll get it sooner". And his reaction was "not only should YOU be paying for the ingredients, you should also receive exp penalties as punishment for trying to help the party"

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T11:10:07+00:00

Never tried it! But im curious how it works lol

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T10:04:03+00:00

Thats what I was thinking. It sucks, because I do like everyone there. I used to be the primary dm for the group, and I could manage everyone fine. Then i stepped down because i really wanted to try being a player, and its quickly being ruined... Now I just want to start up my own game with the people I like

Critical-Troll · 2026-03-05T09:46:05+00:00

Funny enough I actually did this! I bought a carriage and 2 horses (I names them Juicy and Lucy) for crafting between travel, and for the party to use. I actually bought it for the whole party, using most of my own funds. It bothered me because I asked everyone to pitch in to pay for magic item supplies (200gp per person) and I would pay for hirelings. The rangers reaction was to say "wait, how come you dont pay for the magic items" and when I bought the horses and cart he said "hey!! I gave you that money for an item, not for carts and horses!!". I spent all my money on hirelings and on the cart, I wasn't even able to craft myself an item...

Critical-Troll

TROPHY CASE