Downtime (IB)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark hack

Between operations, 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 base.

1: At war. Lodgings away from your base. Roughing it out with camping gear.

0: Roughing out 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 them in order.

A PC can make time for more than two activities, at a cost. Each additional activity from the list costs 1 Credit or 1 Reputation. This reflects the time and resulting resource drain while you're “off the clock” and not earning from a operation. When you complete a new operation, you reset and get two “free” activities again. During downtime, you can still go places, do things, make action rolls, gather information, talk with other characters, etc. Such casual activity do not count as downtime actions, but neither do they have as powerful effects.

Cohorts can perform one free downtime action each.

If you can leverage another faction in a better position than your own crew for a downtime action, add or subtract a number of dice equal to your Status with that group. If a faction dominates the area, you may have to consult them even if your Status in negative.

When you roll for a downtime activity, you may spend Credit after the roll to improving the level of success by one step: Fumble → Failure → Opposed success → Success → 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 heard of the need to unionize the dockworkers? Do you want to work on that? Okay, start a long-term project — six segments — called 'Meet the dockworkers' — this will get you in touch with them and build some trust”

Downtime Actions

Downtime Action Results

In many cases, the result of a downtime action is standardized, based on the result of you Action roll. Tier applies to the result of actions that result in Quality or other reading of Tier, Ticks is the number of filds you fill in a clock for a Long-Term Action. A fumble has consequences (which can be resisted), it may endanger the action or project which can be solved with an Operation or has some other Risky consequence.

Die result	Tiers	Ticks
1	Fumble	Fumble
2–3	-1	1
4–5	+/- 0	2
6	+1	3
66	+2	5

Acquire Asset

Gain temporary use of an asset:

• One special item or set of common items, enough for a team of your Tier scale.
• A cohort, an expert or team hired for a short time.
• 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 operation. An asset may also be acquired for “standby” use in the future. You might hire a team to guard your base, for example, and they’ll stick around until after the first serious battle.

To acquire the asset, Consort is the typical action to use, the GM can allow others . 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 uniforms of a Tier IV group, you’d need to acquire a Tier IV asset. A lower result adds the Unreliable tag. Since you can spend Credit to get an extra downtime activity, you can essentially “rent” an asset indefinitely. Spend a Credit 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 advancing your crew) or work on it as a long-term project to set up a permanent acquisition.

Confirm Contact

You turn a non-player character you got along with during a recent operation into a contact. If the result is in doubt, you may have to make a roll (typically Command, Sway, or an action appropriate to the contact, such as Tinker for a craftsman or Study for a scholar). Depending on the result, you can turn someone of increasing tiers into a contact. This makes them friendly to you and willing to give you the support a contact gives, but they may still betray you at some point if the GM says so.

1 Gain an enemy instead

2-3: Lower than your Tier.

4-5: Equal Tier.

6: 1 Tier higher

Critical: Any Tier.

Many contacts will lack a Tier, for such anything except a fumble succeeds. You can spend Credit normally to improve this result.

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 designing a new item, 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.

The GM might present you with a series of shorter projects instead of one very long project. This creates decision points where you gain some of the benefits of your projects and have to decide how to proceed. For example , 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, or the GM may present you with a juicy distraction; to steal the party fund.

There is a list of suggested Long-Term Projects below.

Cohort Recovery

At the start of downtime each cohort immediately recovers any armor it may have, and then automatically heals one wound box. This represents a mix of recruiting and recovery. You can spend a downtime action to heal all damage a cohort has taken. If you lack any ability that improves another's recovery checks , you must spend one Credit doing this.

Gather Information

Gathering information as a downtime action is the same but more effective than more effective than Gather Information in free play or on an operation, improving the level of success by one step: Fumble → Failure → Opposed success → Success → Critical.

Reduce Friction

Say what your character does to reduce the Friction level of the crew and make an action roll. Maybe you Consort with your friend in the police and she arranges for a few incriminating reports to disappear. Or maybe you Rig to repair your old pile of junk of a ship. Reduce Friction according to the result:

1: Crisis.

2/3: One Friction.

4/5: Two Friction.

6: Three Friction.

Critical: Five Friction.

Friction can take many forms. Almost any action can be used as long as you present any kind of excuse for how it increases readiness.

Train

When you spend time in training, mark 1 xp on the xp track for an attribute or playbook advancement. You need an external trainer or the appropriate crew Training upgrade unlocked to do this. You can train only once per downtime.

Indulge Vice

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

Long-Term Projects

Here are example long-term projects to spend downtime.

Add Upgrade

Adding an upgrade to your base is a ten-tick clock.

Develop Crew

You can work on developing the capabilities of your crew, earning crew Xp. This is a four-tick clock that uses Command or any action typical of what your crew does. On completion your crew gains one point of Xp.

Earn Credit

Working to earn Credit for your crew is usually a 4-tick-clock to earn 1 Credit for the crew. You are engaging in the typical activities of your crew, whatever that is, and can use appropriate actions.

Earn Reputation

You can advance your crew by earning reputation. A four-tick-clock gives your crew one point of reputation. This uses an action appropriate for what the group does, and in most cases Command, Consort, and Sway also work.

Improve Status

Improving the Status of another faction is 4 to 8 tick clock, depending how well the purposes of your and their factions mesh. Remember to add or subtract dice for the difference in Tier. In some cases this may be impossible, or entirely based on lies and deception, creating a very unstable Status. A fumble creates a crisis; worsen Status or do an Operation to save the situation. What actions can be used depends on the other group: Consort and Sway is almost always applicable, Command against groups with an informal pecking order, other actions that fit the theme of the other group.

Anton is trying to improve the relations between his Soldier faction of rebels and another Soldier faction working for The Man. The crews are similar, but this is based on a lie as the two groups work for opposing interests. The clock has 6 ticks. Deception is applicable, as is Mark or Terran, the target group mainly exercises on the living floor of a space habitat. Any Status gained this way is easily lost if the truth is revealed, but it might be possible to sway the loyalist group to become rebels as the result of an Operation.

Improve Inventory

If you want to acquire an asset permanently, you can work on it as a long-term project to set up access to a limited item (for example a License or an item with a Quality of Tier +2. The clock has 4 to 10 ticks depending on how it fits your playbook(s) and origin.

Example — Arthur's Hierloom Sword

Arthur is a duelist, and would like a fancy sword to add to her Inventory. Her player starts a long-term project: “Get My Family Sword out of the Museum of Antiquities.” Note how this example expands on the fiction, it now becomes established that Arthur or someone she inherited once owned this weapon, adding some personal stake to the situation. The GM says this will be an 8-segment clock. She can work on it by Consorting or Swaying the curator or Terran to impress with her sword arts.

Heal

When you heal, you seek treatment and heal your harm. This is best done in a hospital of your base's Medical section if you have one.

The basic healing roll with no treatment in zero: roll 2d and take the worst. Naturally you will want to avoid this.

• A hospital or Medical section on a base adds dice equal to its Tier.
• A Philosopher's Medicine ability adds dice equal to their Study.
• A Praxic's Surgeon ability adds dice equal to their Rig.

Mark a number of segments on your healing 4-tick 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, ticks “roll over.”

Cross has two injuries: a level 3 “Shattered Right Leg” and level 1 “Battered.” During downtime in the wild, he gets treatment from Quellyn, a contact of the crew's Lancer. Quellyn is a competent healer and the team is Tier 2, 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 Credit 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.”

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.

Investigation

Some questions are too complex to answer immediately with a single gather information roll. For instance, you might want to map a network of contraband smuggling routes. In these cases, the GM will tell you to start a long-term project that you work on during downtime.

You track the investigation project using a progress clock. Once the clock is filled, you have the evidence you need to ask several questions about the subject of your investigation as if you had rolled a critical on gather information.

On the last operation, Ti pursued a smuggler ship that seemed to disappear into empty space. How is this possible? This is beyond the scope of a simple gather information roll, so Ti starts a long-term project to investigate this mystery. The GM says it will be an 8-segment clock. Ti spends a downtime activity researching, looking for any clues. The player rolls Ti's Study and gets a 4: two segments of progress on the clock.

Language Study

Long-term actions can be used to learn more languages. This uses a 6-tick clock, requiring several rounds to overcome the difference between the languages you know and the language you are trying to learn. The selection of action to roll depends on what study options are available. You need to have either a teacher, study material, or conversation to roll to learn a language at all.

Condition Met	Action Allowed	Clocks if Failed
Baseline minimum	—	Always 1
Shares root language (header)	—	1
Same language family (sub header)	—	1
Supernatural language (Aklo, Sphinx)	Attune	Always 1
Teacher	Sway	1
Reading material	Study	1
Circle of conversation	Consort	1

Serving as a teacher or conversationalist does not require spending downtime actions. The number of conversationalists needed depend on Tier (p. 211).

Vice

Heroes live tense and exiting lives, repeatedly doing remarkable and unlikely things. But this comes at a cost. A hero's life is one of constant stress. Inevitably, each turns to the seduction of a vice in order to cope. 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. This indulgence takes time, so it can only be done when the crew has downtime.

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 Friction event.
• Brag about your exploits. +2 Friction.
• Health Issues. You take some harm appropriate to your vice.
• Jaded. Your vice is not as attractive as it was. Find a new vice or reinvent your current vice.
• 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.
• Overspend. Spend 1d3 Credit. If this takes you into debt, this debt is converted into Friction.
• Reputation. You make a fool of yourself, -2 reputation for your crew.
• Tapped. Your current purveyor cuts you off. Find a new source for your vice.

Friction and Entropy

Friction is what, more or less, distinguishes real war from war on paper.

— Carl von Clausewitz, On War (1832), abridged translation

Friction represents the slow accumulation of strain on your crew — tension in the crew, wear, overreach, debts, and attention from rivals or bureaucrats. Entropy marks the long-term decay that results when you fail to shed that strain. Together they track the health and stability of your operation.

Friction

Every operation leaves residue: overextended crews, mechanical wear, social backlash, and bureaucratic drag. This is Friction.

At significant events in an operation and the end of each Operation, the GM adds Friction to the crew based on how turbulent, costly, or conspicuous the operation was. Friction is not only about reputation — it measures stress on the entire machine.

Minor operation (+1 Friction)

Quiet job, routine delivery, minimal risk or exposure.

Noticeable operation (+2 Friction)

Some danger or damage; moderate visibility; the job drew attention from interested parties.

Major operation (+4 Friction)

High stakes, multiple fronts, visible success or disaster. People noticed, systems strained.

Catastrophic operation (+6 Friction)

Severe collateral, political fallout, or mechanical exhaustion. Someone will have to answer for this.

Add Friction if

+1 Friction for each person who died up to +3.

+1 Friction for using Conspicious items Restricted or Military item used with a license.

+2 Friction for using Restricted item without a license.

+4 Friction for using Military item without a license.

Friction has an upper limit of 9. When friction reaches 10 Friction reverts to zero, and Entropy increases by one. If this happens during an Operation, make an immediate Friction roll before reducing Friction. Crews may spend Downtime actions to Reduce Friction by downtime actions involving maintenance, rest, diplomacy, or repair.

Entropy

When Friction lingers, it solidifies into Entropy — permanent decay of systems, relationships, or efficiency. Entropy represents the lasting cost of friction: corroded trust, exhausted crew, or bureaucratic rot. Entropy is cumulative. It rarely decreases except through major restructuring: retiring debts, moving bases, rebuilding infrastructure, or completing long-term projects.

Spending Friction in Play

The GM may optionally “burn” Friction points during an Operation to introduce complications or setbacks reflecting accumulated strain. Each point spent imposes one unexpected obstacle, equipment flaw, or social demand and reduces the current Friction score by one or more points. 1 point is similar to an Annoyance from the Friction Events Table, a small, immediate problem. 2 point results are similar to an Impairing result from the Friction Events Table, a serious setback. 4 point results are similar to a Mission Critical result from the Friction Events Table, often ending an operation.

Friction Events

After Downtime concludes, the GM makes a Friction Roll to see how residual strain manifests.

Roll a number of dice equal to your current 'Friction + Entropy. Read the highest die:

1 — Boon. Unexpected advantage, easy passage, or goodwill.

2–3 — Neutral. Routine wear; no event.

4–5 — Annoyance. Minor setback; a delay, rumor, or small failure.

6 — Impairing. Significant malfunction or social complication.

66 — Mission Critical. Major development or system failure that shapes the next Operation.

Cross-reference the result with the operation type (Assault, Deception, Science, Social, Stealth, Transport) on the Friction Events Table.

Friction events are not punishment — they are texture. They describe how stress and wear shape the next operation.

Friction Events Table

Roll Tier + Friction + Entropy dice at the end of Downtime; read the highest die. Apply the result based on your an operation type. The GM should usually select usually current type of operation, but sometimes the operation before where you picked up the friction, or some other type that fits the situation, might be more appropriate.

Result	Assault	Deception	Science	Social	Stealth	Transport
1 – Boon	Allies offer each of the crew one free Load of items.	Your identities coincide with logs and will not be questioned.	Expert calibration: +1d on Gather Information using sensors.	A patron’s gossip improves your reputation — +1d to next introduction.	A distraction delays security; extend a stealth clock by 2 ticks.	Advantageous launch window; +1 Effect at start.
2–3 – Neutral	Sight over long distances is unusually clear.	A random civilian is present.	Research logs are unusually rich on story.	One of your contacts show up at the event.	Focus on color, heat, noise, radio, touch, or scent.	Heavy traffic slows the lanes down.
4–5 – Annoyance	Ammo low, all auto-fire becomes Charged.	An ID or clearance code expires mid-operation.	Poor calibration, sensors are Unreliable.	One of the PCs' enemies are at the event, needs to be distracted.	The comms you planned to use turn out to be Unreliable.	Navigation data is old and Unreliable.
6 – Impairing	Ammo very low, all weapon fire becomes Charged.	One key disguise or narrative thread exposed; go to plan B.	Sample contamination; sensors are Volatile giving false data.	One of the PCs' enemies and their team are on a conflicting operation.	Planned access blocked; go to plan B.	Law/customs/pirates; takes time, may demand Credits or board.
66 – Mission Critical	Armor and vehicles in the operation fail.	Rival intelligence preempts your scheme; they’ve set a counter-con.	Reactor or experiment breach — operation is now to survive and salvage.	Scandal breaks publicly; protests or riots in the net and/or real life.	One of the PCs' enemies and their team are on the same operation.	Catastrophic failure strands or isolates you — operation is now to survive.