Downtime (FiD)

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Downtime Activities

Between scores, your crew 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. When you’re at war, each PC has time for only one. When resting away from your base, such as hiding out at some flophouse, you can only do one downtime action. The same applies if you are roughing it out in the wild and have camping gear.

Downtime Actions

2: At peace operating from your lair.

1: At war. Away from your lair. Roughing it out with camping gear.

0: Roughing out in the wild without camping gear.

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 or 1 rep. This reflects the time and resulting resource drain while you're “off the clock” and not earning from a score. When you complete a new score, 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, you may spend coin after the roll to improve the result level. Increase the result level by one for each coin 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 Tip: 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. “Remember how you had that weird vision at the altar to the Forgotten Gods? Yeah, do you want to get to the bottom of that? Okay, start a long-term project— six segments—called Weird God Vibes. What do you do to work on that?”

Acquire Asset

Gain temporary use of an asset:

• One special item or set of common items (enough for a gang of your Tier scale).
• A cohort (an expert or gang).
• A vehicle.
• A service. Transport from a smuggler or driver, 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 score. An asset may also be acquired for “standby” use in the future. You might hire a gang to guard your lair, for example, and they’ll stick around until after the first serious battle, or until a week goes by and they lose interest.

To acquire the asset, roll the crew’s Tier. The result indicates the quality of the asset you get, using the crew's Tier as the base: 1-3: Tier -1, 4/5: Tier, 6: Tier +1, critical: Tier +2. 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 Spirit Warden uniforms and masks, you’d need to acquire a Tier IV asset. A lower result won’t do. If you acquire the same asset again in the future, you get +1d to your roll. Since you can spend coin to get an extra downtime activity, you can essentially “rent” an asset indefinitely. Spend a coin during downtime for the activity, then roll Tier to see what quality it is right now.

If you want to acquire an asset permanently, you can either gain it as a crew upgrade (using the rules for advancement, see page 48) or work on it as a long-term project to set up a permanent acquisition.

Zamira the Whisper is a duelist in the Iruvian style, and would like a fine sword to add to her permanent items. Her player starts a long-term project: “Get My Family Sword out of Hock from the Pawn Shop.” The GM says this will be an 8-segment clock (she can work on it by Consorting or Swaying the pawn shop owner or maybe rolling her lifestyle level to represent small payments), followed by the final acquire asset roll to gain the sword permanently.

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 an arcane ritual, investigating a mystery, establishing someone’s trust, courting a new friend or contact, changing your character's vice, 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.

On the last score, Oksarr disintegrated Silver's body with electroplasm and destroyed her spirit. But now her ghost is haunting him! How is this possible? This is beyond the scope of a simple gather information roll, so Oskarr starts a long-term project to investigate this mystery. The GM says it will be an 8-segment clock. Oskarr spends a downtime activity in the occult library at his lair, looking for any clues. The player rolls Oksarr's Study action and gets a 4: two segments of progress on the clock. 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 City 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.

When long-term projects are directed towards another faction of a tier other than your own, instead of modifying the effect, you modify the die pool by ±1d per difference in tier.

See below for a number of examples of long-term projects.

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 witch who specializes in healing charms and restorative alchemy. 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 crew.

Recovery is like a long-term project. Your healer rolls (Tinker for a PC with the Physicker special ability or the quality level of an NPC) and then you mark a number of segments on your healing clock. 1-3: one segment, 4/5: two segments, 6: three segments, critical: five segments. When you fill your healing clock, reduce each instance of harm on your sheet by one level, then clear the clock. If you have more segments to mark, they “roll over.”

Cross has two injuries: a level 3 “Shattered Right Leg” and level 1 “Battered.” During downtime, he gets treatment from Quellyn, a witch friend of the crew's Whisper. Quellyn is a competent healer, so the GM says quality 2 makes sense. The player rolls 2d to recover and gets a 6: three segments on the healing clock. He decides to spend 1 coin to improve the result to a critical to get five segments instead. Four segments fill the clock—all of Cross's harm is reduced by one level, then he clears the clock and marks one more segment. His level 3 harm “Shattered Right Leg” is reduced to level 2 harm. His level 1 harm “Battered” is reduced to zero and goes away. Cross is left with one injury on his sheet: level 2 “Broken Leg.”

You may heal yourself if you have the Physicker or a similar special ability, but you take 2 stress when you do so. You can also choose to simply tough it out and attempt to heal without any treatment—in this case, take 1 stress and roll 0d. Note that it's the recovering character that takes the recovery action. Healing someone else does not cost a downtime activity for the healer. Whenever you suffer new harm, clear any ticks on your healing clock.

Reduce Heat

Say what your character does to reduce the heat level of the crew and make an action roll. Maybe you Consort with your friend who’s a Bluecoat and she arranges for a few incriminating Watch reports to disappear. Or maybe you Command the fear of the local citizens so they’re afraid to snitch. Reduce heat according to the result: 1-3: one, 4/5: two, 6: three, critical: five.

Heat in my games is more about tension and enemy activity than about police attention, which modifies what you have to do to reduce heat. Almost any action can be used as long as you present any kind of excuse for how it reduces Heat.

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 crew Training upgrade unlocked, mark +1 xp (2 total). See Crew Upgrades, page 95. You can train a given xp track only once per downtime.

Indulge Vice

Visit your vice purveyor to relieve stress. See the next section for details.

Vice

The scoundrels of Doskvol are a special lot. They defy the powers-that-be and dare to prey on those who are considered to be their betters. They push themselves further than ordinary people are willing to go. Heroes live tense and exiting lives, repeatedly doing remarkable and unlikely things. But this comes at a cost. A scoundrel’s life is one of constant stress. Inevitably, each turns to the seduction of a vice in order to cope.

A scoundrel’s vice is their obsession. But with this indulgence comes relief from stress and the ability to once again face the overwhelming challenge of the their daring life.

Indulging Your Vice

When you indulge your vice, you clear some stress from your character’s stress track. Say how your character indulges their vice, including which purveyor of vice they use to satisfy their needs (see page 299 or specific campaign). This indulgence takes time, so it can only be done when the crew has downtime. Alternately, you may choose to release your character to be “lost in their vice” during a game session, allowing them to indulge off-camera while you play a different PC. A gang member, friend, or contact of the crew might be created as an alternate character to play, thus fleshing out the landscape of PCs.

You roll to find out how much stress relief your character receives. A vice roll is like a resistance roll in reverse—rather than gaining stress levels, you clear stress levels. The effectiveness of your indulgence depends upon your character’s worst 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). An established, named vice provider assists on this die roll. Clear stress equal to the highest die result.

Overindulgence

If your vice roll clears more stress levels than you had marked, you overindulge. A vice is not a reliable, controllable habit. It’s a risk—and one that can drive your character to act against their own best interests. When you overindulge, you make a bad call because of your vice—in acquiring it or while under its influence. To bring the effect of this bad decision into the game, select an overindulgence from the list:

• Attract Trouble. Select or roll an additional entanglement.
• Brag about your exploits. +2 heat.
• Lost. You vanish for a few weeks. Play a different character until this one returns from their bender. When you return, you’ve also healed any harm you had.
• Tapped. Your current purveyor cuts you off. Find a new source for your vice.
• Overspend. Spend 1d3 coin. If this takes you into debt, this debt is to another faction. Until this debt is paid, you must either pay an interest of 1 coin at the start of each downtime phase, or your crew's status with that group worsens.

Downtime Activities in Play

Oskarr wants to discover how Silver’s ghost survived disintegration by electroplasm. He works on a long-term project called “Learn Ghost Secrets from Silver”—an 8-segment clock. The result of the Attune roll is a 6! Oskarr ticks three segments on the clock. Morlan wants to reduce heat on his crew. He grabs some thugs from the gang and makes the rounds, roughing up shopkeeps, smashing windows, and generally terrorizing everyone into submission. The result of the Wreck roll is a critical! The crew’s heat drops by five levels as the local citizens decide to forget everything they’ve seen recently.

Canter needs some very special ammunition in order to hunt the demon Setarra. He acquires an asset from the Dimmer Sisters (who happen to be friendly with his crew right now): bullets made from quicksilver and deathlands ash, consecrated to the forgotten god of The Unbroken Sun, ancient enemy of all demons. The Tier roll is a 4: only standard quality, which isn’t enough for this rare item. Adam (Canter’s player) spends 2 coin to bump up the result to a critical: exquisite quality. Canter gets his bullets—powerful enough to seriously harm the infernal creature.

NPC & Faction Downtime

This entire section is replaced with random events and GM fiat. NPCs and factions also do things when the PCs have downtime. The GM advances their project clocks and chooses a downtime maneuver or two for each faction that they’re interested in at the moment. Choose any maneuver that makes sense for that faction to pursue. For example:

• Seize a claim or increase hold, make an enemy vulnerable, or reduce the hold of a vulnerable enemy.
• Gather information on the PCs (may be opposed by a PC roll) or another subject.
• Achieve a short-term goal they’re in position to accomplish.
• Acquire a new asset.
• Call in a favor from another faction.
• Employ political pressure or threats to force someone’s hand.

GM: Choose downtime maneuvers and advance clocks for the factions you’re interested in right now. Don’t worry about the rest. Later, when you turn your attention to a faction you’ve ignored for a while, go ahead and give them several downtime phases and project clock ticks to “catch up” to current events. When factions do things that are known in the criminal underworld, tell the players about it through one of their friends or contacts or vice purveyors. These rumors and bits of gossip can lead to future scores and opportunities for the PCs.