Do all of your D&D adventures occur on a sunny day in May? Shake it up a bit by saying that the downtime between adventures is two months or even three months.

That’s realistic, because the heroes are likely to do a fair amount of carousing and shopping with all that treasure before getting down to business with their training and studying to absorb their experience and only then start seeking out more rumors and information about the next adventure, which itself may take a couple of weeks.

This gives the heroes time to get weapons and armor custom made, do research, and practice new class features. They can also take care of personal business with any organization they may be a part of (druid circle, cleric temple, paladin order, wizard guild, etc.). If the heroes want to buy a ship or house (or their own tavern), you can just say, “Okay, it takes a few weeks, but you get one for X gp.”

That moves the calendar along. And that affects the weather and the hours of available daylight. It also changes what the peasants are doing in those villages the heroes pass thru.

Monthly Labors of Peasants & Daylight Hours

Month	Activity	Sunny South	Midlands	Chilly North
January	Maintenance/building Spinning wool into yarn	10 hrs (7a-5p) Chilly	9 hrs (8a-5p) Very Cold	9 hrs (8a-5p) Very Cold
February	Lambing Carnival	11 (7a-6p) Chilly	11 (7a-6p) Very Cold	11 (7a-6p) Very Cold
March	Plowing fields Fertilizing fields	12 (7a-7p) Wet	12 (7a-7p) Cold	12 (7a-7p) Cold
April	Sowing for grain & veg Coppicing trees	13 (7a-8p) Wet	14 (6a-8p) Cool	14 (6a-8p) Chilly
May	Gardening Ditching & fencing	14 (6a-8p) Warm	15 (6a-9p) Fair	16 (5a-9p) Fair
June	Haymaking Shearing sheep	15 (6a-9p) Warm	16 (5a-9p) Warm	17 (5a-10p) Fair
July	Weeding fields Gardening	14 (6a-8p) Hot	15 (6a-9p) Hot	16 (5a-9p) Warm
August	Harvesting (all hands, including from towns)	13 (7a-8p) Warm	14 (6a-8p) Warm	14 (6a-8p) Warm
September	Threshing grain Milling grain	12 (7a-7p) Warm	12 (7a-7p) Fair	12 (7a-7p) Fair
October	Plowing fields Sowing for hay & wheat	11 (7a-6p) Warm	11 (7a-6p) Cool	11 (7a-6p) Chilly
November	Pannaging nuts in the woods with pigs	10 (7a-5p) Fair	9 (8a-5p) Chilly	9 (8a-5p) Cold
December	Mending fences, tools Slaughtering livestock	9 (8a-5p) Cool	8 (8a-4p) Cold	7 (9a-4p) Very Cold

Extremes: Equatorial lands have 12-hour days year-round; the arctic region has a mere 4 hours of daylight in December but 21 hours in June.

Weather

You can implement my simple-but-realistic weather system or just use this dramatic one. You might even roll with advantage in a good or arid region and with disadvantage in an evil or damp one (depending on if you like more drama or more realism).

Modifiers: Very cold, wet, warm, and chilly get -1 to the roll.

1d20	V Cold (-1) or Cold	Wet (-1) or Cool	Warm (-1) or Hot	Chilly (-1) or Fair
1	Blizzard	Thunderstorm	Thunderstorm	Sleet
2-3	Snow	Hard rain	Drizzle	Rain
4-5	Biting wind	Relentless drizzle	Hotter than usual	Relentless drizzle
6-7	Dense fog	Whipping winds	Humid	Crackling frost
8-10	Sunnier than usual	Morning mist	Blustery wind	Gloomy and windy
11-14	Crackling frost	Warmer than usual	Cooler than usual	Crisp but sunny
15-20	Gloomy and windy	Pleasant and sunny	Warm and sunny	Pleasant and sunny

If you want specifics about the time of day snow or rain falls… (1d8: 1-2=early morning; 3=late morning; 4=afternoon; 5=early evening; 6=late evening; 7-8=overnight). The weather is “cloudy and threatening” until it rains.

Phases of the Moon

Whenever a full moon is of importance, you can use the current, real-life date of the full moon. Or you can roll 2d12 for how long until the next full moon. (In our world, they happen every 29 days.) The same goes for a new moon.

Time Between Adventures

This sort of thing ensures that your adventures don’t pile up back-to-back, with heroes going from 1st to 15th level in a matter of weeks. (You should always require the characters to spend a few weeks training, studying, and practicing in order gain a level.)

If there are two months between adventures, and the heroes winter over four months in a city, they can get in four or perhaps five adventures a year. If they level up every two adventures, then it should take six to seven years to get to 15th level, by which point the heroes are probably involved in adventures to save (or take over) the kingdom.

Wintering Over

The heroes don’t have to avoid adventuring in the winter. It’s merely a little riskier to do so, since the weather is harsher. And they could of course simply travel south to warmer regions to have adventures in the “warm south” or a desert or jungle, which would be oppressive at other times of the year. This would let them get in six adventures per year, thereby leveling up three times.

This would make them 4th level at the end of the first year and 16th level at the end of the fifth year.

Months vs Seasons

You can rename the months however you like, but it’s mostly confusing for players. And monkeying with the number of days in them is never going to be meaningful to them. Indeed, you might just stick to the seasons. You can say they can adventure three times per year: spring, summer, and autumn (four, if they go where it’s warm for winter), and that may work out well enough. At two adventures per level, that would take nearly ten years to make 15th level.

You can put this kind of restriction on the characters merely by saying they don’t hear many good rumors for weeks at a time. In the meantime, they’re living off their treasure and taking care of their family’s lands or business and studying their craft.

If you want to rename the months, you might try these:

• Janumon or Januember or Firstmoon or Primuary
• Februmon or Febrarch or Secondmoon or Secunduary
• Marmon or Marpril or Thirdmoon or Tertiuary
• Aprimon or Apray or Fourthmoon or Quartember
• Maymon or Mayune or Fifthmoon or Quintember
• Junemon or Junly or Sixthmoon or Sixember
• Julimon or Julust or Seventhmoon or Septuary
• Augmon or Augember or Eighthmoon or Octember
• Septemon or Septober or Ninthmoon or Novuary
• Octomon or Octember or Tenthmoon or Decembuary
• Novemon or Novuary or Eleventhmoon or Undecembuary
• Decemon or Decembuary or Twelfthmoon or Duodecembuary