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Downtime Activities

Between quests, your party spends time at their liberty, attending to personal needs and side projects. These are called downtime activities. During a downtime phase, each PC has time for two downtime activities.

You may choose the same activity more than once. You can only attempt actions that you’re in a position to accomplish. If an activity is contingent on another action, resolve that action first.

A PC can make time for more than two activities, at a cost. Each additional activity from the list costs 1 coin, 1 rep or 3 provisions. This reflects the time and resulting resource drain while you’re “off the clock” and not earning from a quest. When you complete a new quest, you reset and get two “free” activities again.

Activities on the downtime list are limited; normal actions are not. During downtime, you can still go places, do things, make action rolls, gather information, talk with other characters, etc. In other words, only activities that are on the list are limited.

For any downtime activity, take +1d to the roll if a friend or contact helps you. After the roll, you may spend coin or provisions after the roll to improve the result level. Increase the result level by one for each coin or every three provisions spent. So, a 1-3 result becomes a 4 or a 5, a 4/5 result becomes a 6, and a 6 becomes a critical.

GM: If a player can’t decide which downtime activity to pick, offer them a long-term project idea. You know what the player is interested in and what they like. Suggest a project that will head in a fun direction for them.

Acquire Asset​

Gain temporary use of an asset:

  • One special item or set of common items.
  • An expert.
  • A vehicle.
  • A service. Transport from a ship captain, use of a warehouse for temporary storage, legal representation, etc.

“Temporary use” constitutes one significant period of usage that makes sense for the asset—typically the duration of one quest. An asset may also be acquired for “standby” use in the future.

To acquire the asset, roll the party’s Tier. The result indicates the quality of the asset you get, using the party’s Tier as the base. 1-3: Tier - 1, 4/5: Tier, 6: Tier + 1, critical: Tier + 2. You can spend coin to raise the result of this roll beyond critical by spending 2 coin per additional Tier level added.

The GM may set a minimum quality level that must be achieved to acquire a particular asset. For example, if you want to get a set of Palace Guard uniforms, you’d need to acquire a Tier 4 asset. A lower result won’t do.

If you acquire the same asset again, you get +1d to your roll. If you continue to re-acquire an asset every time it’s used, you can effectively rent it indefinitely.

If you want to acquire an asset permanently, you can either gain it as a party upgrade or work on it as a long-term project to set up a permanent acquisition.

Long-Term Project​

When you work on a long-term project (either a brand new one, or an already existing one), describe what your character does to advance the project clock, and roll one of your actions. Mark segments on the clock according to your result: 1-3: one segment, 4/5: two segments, 6: three segments, critical: five segments.

A long-term project can cover a wide variety of activities, like doing research into a magical ritual, investigating a mystery, establishing someone’s trust, courting a new friend or contact, and so on.

Based on the goal of the project, the GM will tell you the clock(s) to create and suggest a method by which you might make progress.

In order to work on a project, you might first have to achieve the means to pursue it—which can be a project in itself. For example, you might want to make friends with a member of the king's council, but you have no connection to them. You could first work on a project to Consort in their circles so you have the opportunity to meet one of them. Once that’s accomplished, you could start a new project to form a friendly relationship.

Recover​

When you recover, you seek treatment and heal your harm. You might visit a physicker who can stitch your wounds and soothe your mind with anatomical science or a priest who channels restorative powers via their faith. If you don’t have a contact or fellow PC who can provide treatment, you can use the acquire asset activity to gain access to a healer, who can provide service for the whole party, or you can use provisions instead.

Your healer rolls (an action roll for a PC, or the quality level of an NPC or provisions) and you heal harm based on the result. 1-3: only level 1 harm is healed, 4-5: all harm moves down 1 step, 6: all harm moves down 2 steps, critical: heal all harm. When using provisions to recover, you cannot increase the result by spending coins or provisions.

Train​

When you spend time in training, mark 1 xp on the xp track for an attribute or playbook advancement. If you have the appropriate party Training upgrade unlocked, mark +1 xp (2 total). You can train a given xp track only once per downtime.

Indulge Your Vice​

When you indulge your vice, you clear some stress from your character's stress track. Describe how your character indulges their vice, including which purveyor of vice they use to satisfy their needs.

You roll to find out how much stress relief your character receives. The effectiveness of your indulgence depends upon your character’s lowest attribute rating. It’s their weakest quality (Insight, Prowess, or Resolve) that is most in thrall to vice.

Make an attribute roll using your character’s lowest attribute rating (if there’s a tie, that’s fine—simply use that rating). You clear stress based on the result: 1-3: Recover up to 3 stress, 4-5: Recover up to 5 stress, 6: Recover all your stress, critical: Recover all your stress and remove one level 1 harm

Gather Provisions​

When you gather provisions, you add to the total number of provisions your party has to use. Describe what you're doing to gather these provisions and make an action roll. The number of provisions you get depends on the result: 1-3: one provision, 4/5: two provisions, 6: three provisions, critical: five provisions.

While in a settlement or similar location where you can reasonably shop, you can spend coins to buy provisions without without using a downtime activity. You can buy 3 provisions per coin you spend.

Resupply​

When you resupply, you and all your party members regain their consumed items, including any permanent items that were broken, destroyed or lost. Describe how you're acquiring these supplies and make an action roll. Your entire party recovers items based on your result: 1-3: each party member only recovers 1 of their consumed items, 4-5: each party member only recovers half their consumed items (rounded up), 6: each party member recovers all their consumed items, critical: each party member recovers all their consumed items, and one party member gets one additional load for the next quest.

While in a settlement or similar location where you can reasonably shop, you can spend coin equal to your Tier + 1 to resupply all party members all their consumed items without using a downtime activity.