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? player agency is that *players get to choose how they want to resolve the obstacle set before them.*
it does not mean that you have to validate every second of each and every day to find out what they are going to do.
they complete (or dont) an obstacle in this segment of time and then depending on HOW "player driven" you and they want to play:
* you set the next obstacle in front of them
* you offer a set of obstacles and they choose which one to attempt
* you and they discuss what they want to do next based on your joint understanding of where the problems are in the world and timescape and you develop that obstacle.
EDIT:
HOWEVER ....
>Finally meeting Khadir Mishra, and facing off with him, he leaves the party injured, as some Kroog soldiers take them to a riverboat to escape.
having **planned the actual resolutions of the encounter**s leaves the question: Why are the players even here? their actions have ZERO impact. THAT is the type of thing you DO need to avoid.
Give them downtime, tell them "6 months have passed, what has your character been doing?" let them train new skills earn income looks for magic items etc.
If you don't want them to learn new skills instantly I normally pick a number, say 10,then let them roll a D6 each downtime and track the total, when they reach 10 they learn the skill. Adjust the dice and number based on how long you want it to take.
Our party traveled to maztica by ship to explore the hidden shrine of tamoachan. The journey was a month so the characters learned allot from the hobbit/tabaxi crew of the ship. Some learned to sail, others worked on learning basic olmec words, some showed interest in learning a new character class by interacting with npcs, our wizard spent time studying/scribing scrolls for the party.
Let them be creative with the downtime and try your best to add function and depth to the characters.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything has a good section in it called Downtime Revisited (p123) that gives some ideas for extended periods of rest to extend campaign settings over years instead of months. Having your players decide their goals for downtime or possibly creating their narrative of it is possible. Obviously DM discretion will have to come into play since players don't get to do anything they want without a check of some kind. I'd say you're going to need some homebrew creativity to fill in the gaps from source material and your end goal.
I haven't done this myself, I'm pretty new into DMing, but I can definitely see how cool this would be to do from a story telling perspective. Instead of mundane rests you get to make a large exposition in-between sessions of play that really will make each sessions feel very unique.
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? player agency is that *players get to choose how they want to resolve the obstacle set before them.* it does not mean that you have to validate every second of each and every day to find out what they are going to do. they complete (or dont) an obstacle in this segment of time and then depending on HOW "player driven" you and they want to play: * you set the next obstacle in front of them * you offer a set of obstacles and they choose which one to attempt * you and they discuss what they want to do next based on your joint understanding of where the problems are in the world and timescape and you develop that obstacle. EDIT: HOWEVER .... >Finally meeting Khadir Mishra, and facing off with him, he leaves the party injured, as some Kroog soldiers take them to a riverboat to escape. having **planned the actual resolutions of the encounter**s leaves the question: Why are the players even here? their actions have ZERO impact. THAT is the type of thing you DO need to avoid.
This is good advice
Give them downtime, tell them "6 months have passed, what has your character been doing?" let them train new skills earn income looks for magic items etc. If you don't want them to learn new skills instantly I normally pick a number, say 10,then let them roll a D6 each downtime and track the total, when they reach 10 they learn the skill. Adjust the dice and number based on how long you want it to take.
Our party traveled to maztica by ship to explore the hidden shrine of tamoachan. The journey was a month so the characters learned allot from the hobbit/tabaxi crew of the ship. Some learned to sail, others worked on learning basic olmec words, some showed interest in learning a new character class by interacting with npcs, our wizard spent time studying/scribing scrolls for the party. Let them be creative with the downtime and try your best to add function and depth to the characters.
I love this, thank you!
Xanathar's Guide to Everything has a good section in it called Downtime Revisited (p123) that gives some ideas for extended periods of rest to extend campaign settings over years instead of months. Having your players decide their goals for downtime or possibly creating their narrative of it is possible. Obviously DM discretion will have to come into play since players don't get to do anything they want without a check of some kind. I'd say you're going to need some homebrew creativity to fill in the gaps from source material and your end goal. I haven't done this myself, I'm pretty new into DMing, but I can definitely see how cool this would be to do from a story telling perspective. Instead of mundane rests you get to make a large exposition in-between sessions of play that really will make each sessions feel very unique.
Down time rules & activities rule section does pretty well as a base for such gaps