I'm a new GM. Several of my PCs really enjoy crafting/potion-making/resource-farming and have builds that are well-suited to it. In the past I wanted to reward their enthusiasm for searching for new materials and cool uses for them, so I supplied a lot of interesting materials on the map and in the monsters they killed. However, these resource farming and crafting activites are taking more and more of our time. These processes have also ballooned into a lot of shared spreadsheets tracking what we have, where to find it, what it does, and how much crafting uses.
At this point, I'm looking to dial this back because it's getting tedious for me to plan for and preside over, not to mention that our barbarian and sorcerer don't have a lot to do when we spend all day standing around a cauldron brewing potions. They're good sports about it, and they both benefit from the supply of crafted stuff. However, they visibly check out during the crafting portions of the sessions.
However, I'm not really sure how to back out of the current state of affairs without overturning our pre-established knowledge about crafting. For example, since the PCs already know that there's X ore on Y mountain (or X herb in Y NPC's garden, or x monster has y poison sacs that can be used to augment z special arrows… etc. etc. etc.), I can't really stop them from going to the right place to look for what they want or from spending a day gathering and processing it into items or potions. Furthermore, I don't want to undermine their considerable investment in having learned about all these materials, especially after I seeded them in the map in the first place.
I've tried:
- Letting things happen on their own clock in game. For example, when the PCs used 3 days to mine quartz in the mountains on the way to Plot Village, my demon attack happened without them on the day I'd planned. Their mission became investigating the attack and tracking the aggressors down, but the group was irritated because they said they couldn't have known the attack was imminent.
- Assigning progressively higher DCs to areas that they've already harvested resource from. Sometimes this works; sometimes when they're really committed to getting the thing, they take a long rest and search again the next day–rinse and repeat until they get it.
- Tying plot hooks to player backstories, and asking players more directly in our group check-ins what kinds of adventures would interest them. I wondered if they were farming because they weren't interested in the plot hooks, but they say that they're invested (and I'm REALLY trying to plan meaningful adventures) and that they just want to get better stuff before doing the plot…
TLDR: how do I then gently discourage players from spending a lot of time resource farming or crafting without limiting their agency? The 2 PCs that craft really like it, but we're consistently spending about half of every session, multiple in-game days, and a couple follow-up emails per session doing craft-adjacent activities, and they prioritize resource gathering over the actual game plot.
- How do I rebalance this?
- What nudges can I use?
- What are some constructive ways to open a conversation with them about scaling back the crafting?
Best Answer
If the players are enjoying this it may not be an issue, but some advice.
The key part to every game is to have fun. It seems, or sounds like, your players are having fun but that you are not. Perhaps one of the possible solutions to this issue is for you to somehow, work your own interests and things you enjoy doing as a DM into what the players are doing?
Possible issue 1: Magic items may be too easy to craft
It sounds like they have plentiful access to magic-item-creating resources, which could be a part of the issue. Maybe whatever rules you are using are too lenient or letting the players get the impression they should focus solely on something that is being misrepresented as easy?
I suggest taking a look at the rules in Xanathar's Guide to Everything when it comes to creating magic items. One of the rules it suggests is something you mentioned, it requires a physical object to create magic items, but it requires a specific item AND a CR specific creature to create. This creature can be killed, bartered with, or just asked for assistance for certain magic items. (Example: Killing a troll and using its blood...or simply bartering with the troll for some, or its spit, etc)
One of the important things Xanathar's Guide suggests that I didn't see mentioned is something that may help this issue: You need recipes to create magic items. Where could they get these recipes? Completing quests and helping people. (This is the part where you slip them into the plots you wanted them to run)
Possible Issue 2: Someone has to save the world.
You mentioned having scenarios where time is of the essence, and that's good, but more of that should happen if the campaign has visible, and invisible, threats to the world. Outright tell your players in a forthcoming way: You don't have enough time to sit down and farm for fun, or mine rocks.
Though perhaps they do, on downtime, and this could be helped or alleviated by...
Possible issue 3: Letting them do most of this...while on the move
If the players are putting this much effort into resource gathering and are enjoying it, and you enjoy the systems used, there's a secret option E to this entire situation. Purchase or find a large enough wagon to store most of this stuff, or a small train of wagons, and use them for crafting while on the move. You can travel, fight bad guys, AND get your crafting fix.
If it wouldn't make sense for some of the stuff they have to do, you can alleviate it with magic or special items. A 'bigger on the inside than outside' wagon would make a great portable greenhouse, alchemy shop, etc. Some things still wouldn't make sense (Monster parts, mining, etc.) but they could be gathered while on the move and, hopefully, towards their next big quest.
At the end of the day: Talk to them
Your players seem to really like this thing they have going on, how do the other characters feel about this? Lay out your issues with the group, or the players themselves, and air your grievances.
My personal solution? A little bit of everything.
I'd lay out in an OOC conversation with the party: Magic items and creations have been too easy up to this point. I'll let them keep happening but we'll be making them a bit harder to craft. You can craft on the go but I'd appreciate if you bought some sort of land vehicle (Or insert your magic wagon here) to keep things on the move. We're here to play heroes, not magic-shop owners.