I'm sure I'm not the only person who longs for a reasonable AFK option – I'm a smoker so like to nip out for a cigarette from time to time. I'm also human so need to go the toilet/get a drink etc as well.
Now I get that a 'pause' would break the immersion (and be a cop out), but having to travel to a secure island base or else log out every time you want to step away from the computer for a few minutes is just a pain. OK – you can clear a crypt and use that, but that feels a bit of a cop out, deriving mostly from practical issues building the game – I can't see any in-game reason they'd be safe.
There is one time that you don't get events though – when you sleep. Fits with the idea that in order to step AFK you need to be in a safe place, at an appropriate time, without any nasties prowling around. All it would take is to have (say) hit space bar to 'wake up' rather than just automatically waking. It could also be sensibly time-limited (after say 10 minutes' 'sleeping' start a dice roll that will spawn an event to 'wake' the player) – You'd need to prepare to leave (either returning to a base or building an adequate shelter) so to my limited imagination, it would feel reasonably 'authentic'.
Just a thought.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/12cmucg/afk_suggestion/