Downtime

Downtime are special scenes that allow characters to take a break from adventuring to rest, recover, and engage in character development activities.

Groups should discuss when to engage in downtime, but the host has the final authority. Downtime requires a suitably safe environment free from immediate conflict, and that provides characters the opportunity to rest or perform light duties. If the group is not in a suitable location, the host can deny a request for downtime.

Activity Points

The host is responsible for allocating downtime activity points based on the intended rest interval and the quality of the group's environment during downtime. Activity points represent the narrative time used for downtime and provide appropriate constraints on how much players can accomplish during a specific downtime period.

The following table provides an example of allocating activity points for downtime scenarios.

SCENARIO	ACTIVITY POINTS
SHORT REST: The group rests for a short period (3-8 hours) while engaged in a situation with limited access to external support resources.	3
EXTENDED REST: The group is taking an extended rest (1-5 days) resting between situations in a developed area (like a village, town, or city), with at least some access to external support resources.	7
LONG REST: The group is taking a long rest (5+ days) in a well-resourced location with good access to external support resources.	12

Downtime Activities

Players can use their activity points to perform relevant downtime activities. Downtime activities include the following:

• TREAT CONDITIONS: Players can use downtime activities to treat wounds, repair damaged relationships, mitigate reputation and other Health or Status issues, etc.

• ADD FREE ASSETS: Players can pursue personal goals to build potential advantages when they return to adventuring. This can be accomplished by adding free assets (at the Common level) that provide narrative significance and permission such as gathering intelligence, acquiring security keys, forging documents, securing maps, etc.

• ADD RESOURCES: Players can gather resources. This can include performing side hustles to increase money resources, replenishing protective wards, or repairing damaged protective assets.

Similar to performing actions, when a player wants to perform a downtime activity, they describe their intentions to the host. If the activity is straightforward and easily accomplished within the downtime environment, no roll is required, and the player can change their character's conditions.

If the stated downtime activity is challenging with a risk of failure, the host can request the play to perform a Quick Encounter. The outcome of a quick encounter is a simple success or failure. If the result succeeds, the player can appropriately change their character's conditions. If the outcome is a failure, no change is permitted. The player is required to spend their activity point regardless of the result.

CHARACTER PROGRESSION

For campaigns that provide for experience-based character progression, downtime can also allow players to spend experience points to add or improve assets or add new features to their character.

To support character progression during downtime, in addition to activity points, hosts should consider rewarding players with experience points based on individual or group achievements and/or playtime duration. For more information, see Rewards.