After D&D, Vampire (first Masquerade and then Requiem) were the first RPGs that I ever played. I eventually quit playing them for a variety of reasons; the most prominent being the pretentiousness of the setting's tone/terminology, the second being the lack of really feeling like an immortal undead monstrosity.

I think this was because Vampire has never had downtime mechanics (that weren't put together by my friends). The game would've been more more fun if the PCs had an option to set their diabolical plans in motion and disappear for a few months/years/decades of game-time before returning to see if their machinations were foiled by enemies or twists of fate.

What RPGs have good and/or interesting mechanics for when the PCs are not actively going about their normal business of adventuring or whatever?

How would you even implement mechanics like that.  Seems to me the best way would be intelligent players and an intelligent GM that allows this style of play to be put in motion.  About all you could do for a mechanics is probably a couple skill rolls and some random 'event' charts that would make the entire thing seem rather arbitrary and pointless.

I've heard that Reign covers some of these topics.

True, I forgot about Reign.  It does cover these topics but it also does it at a slightly different level.

I can't think of an example, but it sounds like a neat idea.

King Arthur Pendragon.

-clash

I've heard of the name, but not much else. What's downtime like?

Quote from: dsivisI've heard of the name, but not much else. What's downtime like?

It happens every year, during winter. You see if you have children, gain honors, see how the harvest went, etc. In other words, all the stuff that was hanging fire while you ran around killing Saxons or Picts.

-clash

The Mentzer series of D&D books - more specifically, the ones dealing with high-level play - gave quite a few ideas on what might be happening to characters and their lands in-between adventures. Harvest, taxes, knightly tournaments, rebellious peasants, etc. etc.. You might want to take a peek for ideas.

Okay, Pendragon is starting to sound pretty cool now.

Mentzer? I checked wikipedia; Companion's, Master's and Immortal's rulebooks. They sound interesting...any books for 3rd ed that do this?

Quote from: dsivisOkay, Pendragon is starting to sound pretty cool now.

Mentzer? I checked wikipedia; Companion's, Master's and Immortal's rulebooks. They sound interesting...any books for 3rd ed that do this?

Not that I'm aware of, which is not saying much. However, I think you could run these particular bits largely independent of edition.

Mearls did a 3.0 book on managing PC dominions that might be helpful.  It was called "Empire", published by AEG.

Thanks jrients, premier and flyingmice! I'll see what I can dig up at the FLGS.