Downtime

Downtime has been a bit of a rocky subject ever since Hyper campaign. I find a lot of things done during downtime to be harmless for the most part, and fun and engaging for the world at best, but there's no arguing that it has had a strained effect on several players at the table at its worst. I have talked to everyone at the table now about downtime and the general consensus is that downtime used for roleplay between characters (PC and NPC) is incredibly fun and engaging, but information gathering and beyond can cause problems. I think, without some solid rules and expectations, downtime has the potential to cause rifts in party cohesion and foster a disconnected sense of progression between players, and I want to give myself a backbone to say no when I need to.

Official Rules and Popular Opinions

The 2014 Players Handbook (PHB), Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG), and Xanathars Guide to Everything (XGE) all cover rules for downtime. XGE has the most up-to-date rules, but all three are very similar:

Player's Handbook

“Between adventures, the DM might ask you what your character is doing during his or her downtime. Periods of downtime can vary in duration, but each downtime activity requires a certain number of days to complete before you gain any benefit, and at least 8 hours of each day must be spent on the downtime activity for the day to count. The days do not need to be consecutive. If you have more than the minimum amount of days to spend, you can keep doing the same thing for a longer period of time, or switch to a new downtime activity. Downtime activities other than the ones presented (in this book) are possible. If you want your character to spend his or her downtime performing an activity not covered here, discuss it with your DM.” - Page 187

Dungeon Master's Guide

“The campaign benefits when characters have time between adventures to engage in other activities. Allowing days, weeks, or months to pass between adventures stretches the campaign over a longer period of time and helps to manage the characters' level progression, preventing them from gaining too much power too quickly.” - Page 127

Xanathar's Guide to Everything

“Downtime activities are tasks that usually take a workweek (5 days) or longer to perform. These tasks can include buying or creating magic items, pulling off crimes, and working at a job. A character selects a downtime activity from among those available and pays the cost of that activity in time and money. You, as DM, then follow the rules for the activity to resolve it, informing the player of the results and any complications that ensue…. Consider handling downtime away from the game table. For example, you could have the players pick their downtime activities at the end of a session, and then communicate about them by email or text, until you next see them in person… Most downtime activities require a workweek (5 days) to complete. Some activities require days, weeks (7 days), or months (30 days). A character must spend at least 8 hours of each day engaged in the downtime activity for that day to count toward the activity's completion. The days of an activity don't need to be consecutive; you can spread them over a longer period of time than is required for the activity.” - Page 123

From what little I could find online about running downtime away from the table (so many people do “downtime sessions”, which we will not be doing), the consensus is that XGE has the best rules for downtime.
The most important two rules surrounding downtime come from the DMG, and are mainly what I want to focus on in this document:

DMG Critical Ruling

“A downtime activity should never negate the need or desire for characters to go on adventures.” - Page 131
“Activities that reveal new adventure hooks and previously unknown facts about your campaign can help you foreshadow future events and conflicts.” - Page 131

Clearly, the rules about downtime activities within the DMG are written with the intent that some information is gathered during downtime, but is clear that nothing done during downtime should negate the need for an adventure. But that's a bit vague; I could send you all on an adventure to gather any information if I wanted; finding out what color the average daffodil is in my world could be an entire encounter if I so pleased. You can argue that, by letting a character look that up in the local library, I am “negating the need for adventure” and missing out on potential riveting roleplay at the table. On the flip side, I could let you all find the exact coordinates of the Athaneos during downtime if I wanted to. That could be argued as “revealing previously unknown facts for a hook or to foreshadow future conflict”. So there isn't a hard line defined in the DMG, nor any book really.
Next, I want to outline the specific rules each book gives for Research during downtime. Both the PHB and the DMG have the same rules:

Players Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide: Research Rules

“The time between adventures is a great chance to perform research, gaining insight into mysteries that have unfurled over the course of the campaign. Research can include poring over dusty tomes and crumbling scrolls in a library or buying drinks for the locals to pry rumors and gossip from their lips. When you begin your research, the DM determines whether the information is available, how many days of downtime it will take to find it, and whether there are any restrictions on your research (such as needing to seek out a specific individual, tome, or location). The DM might also require you to make one or more ability checks, such as an Intelligence (Investigation) check to find clues pointing toward the information you seek, or a Charisma (Persuasion) check to secure someone's aid. Once those conditions are met, you learn the information if it is available.” - PHB, Page 187. The DMG simply references back to the PHB (DMG, Page 128).

XGE has slightly altered rules, notably making research a more expensive endeavor:

Xanathars Guide to Everything: Research Rules

“Forewarned is forearmed. The research downtime activity allows a character to delve into lore concerning a monster, a location, a magic item, or some other particular topic. Typically, a character needs access to a library or a sage to conduct research. Assuming such access is available, conducting research requires one workweek of effort and at least 50 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses. The character declares the focus of the research—a specific person, place, or thing. After one workweek, the character makes an Intelligence check with a +1 bonus per 50 gp spent beyond the initial 50 gp, to a maximum of +6. In addition, a character who has access to a particularly well-stocked library or knowledgeable sages gains advantage on this check. Determine how much lore a character learns using the Research Outcomes table (the table shows that you can gain up to three pieces of lore). Each piece of lore is the equivalent of one true statement about a person, place, or thing. Examples include knowledge of a creature's resistances, the password needed to enter a sealed dungeon level, the spells commonly prepared by an order of wizards, and so on. As DM, you are the final arbiter concerning exactly what a character learns. For a monster or an NPC, you can reveal elements of statistics or personality. For a location, you can reveal secrets about it, such as a hidden entrance, the answer to a riddle, or the nature of a creature that guards the place.” - Page 132

So, between all three books, it's clear that the intent behind gathering information between sessions / adventures is designed to be slow, and even taxing.
With all that said, I think the rules on downtime as they are presented in all three books are designed for players who are less interested in roleplay. At the very least, XGE seems more geared towards roleplay with the introduction of a Rival mechanic (something we don't do just because we don't apply stats to NPC creation in that way, it's always kinda been allowed). I think it's noteworthy that the most roleplay-oriented book and the most recent ruling on the matter has the heaviest research restrictions.
I don't think every single downtime activity needs to take days, weeks, or months to complete. However, I do like the guidelines the DMG gives concerning downtime activities, and I will be using those as a starting point for my own ruling on the matter.

How I'm Ruling It

Downtime can happen any time a session is not being held and time in-game is passing. This means if you all have taken time while at a town or city to relax, or have returned to your bastions for any reason, or if you choose to forgo sleeping and instead scrounge around for herbs, things like that.
Any form of downtime will be limited by time in-game and location. You must be able to realistically complete the requested activities within the downtime provided, and you must be within the general vicinity of the requested activity in order to complete it. Travel is NOT a valid downtime activity, and I won't let you go beyond the limits of the town/city you are in, or beyond a mile or so of your campsite, for any downtime activity. Once you all gain high-distance teleportation spells, you may use those spells to bypass this limit as long as you have the spell slots to spare or the gold for such scrolls.
Roleplay between characters OR activities proposed with the primary purpose of inter-character interactions will not be limited further. These are activities like talking to other players, talking to NPCs, doing for-fun activities like going to see a play or going to have lunch somewhere, or going on a leisurely stroll.
Any other form of downtime will have different limitations depending on what activity you request and how much downtime is provided. As a general rule of thumb, the more downtime you have, the longer an activity will take. I do not care about realism here; too much information is too much information, regardless of how realistic the acquisition was. You also can NOT spend time "in the middle of downtime" doing other forms of downtime. If you're spending the day looking into local legends, you are NOT "crafting in the meantime" or "also keeping a close eye on an NPC who has no reason to accompany you for the day". This happens a lot, so I'm making it clear now; I don't care if you can realistically gather reagents while walking to the next library, I'm not allowing you to.
Here is a list of activities that I consider appropriate for downtime, including how much time the activity might take. This is not an absolute list, these are just examples provided to set your expectations:

• Inter-PC interactions: This is the standard "can me and (other PC) talk? This usually takes an hour or more
• NPC Interactions: This is also pretty standard, the "can I talk to (NPC)?" This usually takes an hour or more
• Leisure activities: These are activities such as exercise, hanging out at the local tavern, watching plays, etc. This usually takes an hour or more
• Simple Research: This kind of research revolves around finding general information, things that are either just above common knowledge (or below) or things specific to a location you are in (for example, doing some farming research while at a farm). This usually takes an hour or more depending on the topic and may require an appropriate skill check.
• Local Research: This kind of research revolves around looking into something local, such as reading about local legends, asking for rumors about something in your location, or snooping on an NPC you're with. This may take many hours (4-8 hours) or days depending on how much time I give you in-between sessions, and may require multiple appropriate skill checks.
• Grand Research: This kind of research revolves around looking for specific information about something well-known, such as the Athaneos or a well known ruler. You may not have access to this information depending on where you are. If you are somewhere that has information on this kind of topic, this may take many hours (4-8 hours) or days depending on how much time I give you in-between sessions, and may require multiple appropriate skill checks.
• Maintenance: This is any steady task, such as crafting a potion or item, tending to plants or animals, working a job, or learning a spell / crafting recipe. The time and checks for these activities are usually outlined in the specific crafting rules (Kibbles rules) or spellcasting rules for the character (such as the Wizard spell book rules), otherwise I'll rule it when we see it.
• Resource Gathering: Exploring the local environment for crafting resources such as reagents or exposed mineral deposits. This may take many hours (4-8) or days depending on how much time I give you in-between sessions, and will require any relevant foraging or survival rolls. Gathering while Traveling: Just a side note, I think it's fine to ask to look out for resources while you travel from place to place. This will, however, slow your travel pace and make you more vulnerable to things like an ambush or walking into dangerous territories. I have added a section in the Traveling Event System article to explain this in more detail.

Any of the above may kickstart something for the next session, like how talking to Li created the “Test” fight. I'm not going to prevent you from finding hooks during downtime.
Here is a list of activities I do NOT consider appropriate for downtime. These are also just examples and do not encompass everything I can say no to.

• Exploring a hook: This might mean following a lead you got while looking into local rumors, or continuing to pursue a quest after the session has ended. If you discuss with the rest of the table and everyone not already involved agrees, I may allow something like this to be done during downtime (AKA, if only one person wants to do something, I'm ok to do it during downtime. This should account for the "nobody wants to go with Didier to research his friends" type things). Generally, though, this is intended to be an encounter and can wait for the next session.
• Creating your own hook or completing a lofty goal: These are the “Urban helps Rayen to make the dream beast” or the “Katsumi creates the cure for the plague” type activities. I may still allow a player to set up a hook for the next session with something they have been planning or something they want to kickstart, but I need to treat this with more weight than I have been. This is how one person's plot takes control of a campaign. For the most part, I need to know that nothing else is on the agenda for next session and we need to agree that advancing a personal story or creating a player-specific hook is appropriate for the situation in order to deem the activity "downtime appropriate".
• Traveling: Like I mentioned above, there will be no level 1 fast travel options. Traveling is something you all must do at the table and something that causes encounters designed for the entire party; I won't let you tag along with an NPC to ride to the next town over for a few days, even if you have the time. Once you all gain regular access to teleportation spells, this becomes less of a worry.

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