What is downtime?
Downtime is the time between adventures that the explorers spend researching the new technologies they’ve acquired, healing their wounds, reconnecting with their sentiments, addressing the damage they have caused, and reflecting on their emotional states. Downtime is not camping out overnight in the middle of an adventure. It represents a time span greater than that, from weeks to months, where adventure isn’t actively being sought out. How long one “unit” of time during downtime takes should have been established when defining scope, but agree on that now if you haven’t already.
Rolling for complications
The legacy of the explorers’ interference doesn’t stop progressing just because they have left the area.At the start of each downtime phase, you will roll for complications for the Location you just left to see the immediate effects of your actions.You will roll for additional locations as described in the Downtime at Home section.
The number of ticks on the Collateral Clock of the location in focus determines which of the following tables is used to see how the Collateral is progressing there. Take the result and collectively describe what it means and looks like in that location. Describe any rippling effects that this progression might have in the surrounding area. Don’t hold back on these descriptions. Be honest with how the actions your adventurers take affect the world they are exploring, even if it causes problems with your character’s goals and ambitions. Increase the Collateral Clock if it makes sense to during your description.
The result prompts are intentionally vague so that your table has more to work with. Every game is different, so the prompts here should apply to just about any situation you’ve found yourselves in.
Selecting a table
Look at the Collateral Clock for the location that you are rolling complications for and select the table below that corresponds to current number of ticks. Roll a d6 to get the result.
Locations with 1-3 Collateral 1 Area in recovery 2-3 Problem Intensifies/An Unforeseen Side Effect 4-5 RelationsWorsen 6 Problem Spreads Elsewhere
Locations with 4-5 Collateral 1-3 Problem Intensifies or RelationsWorsen 4-5 Problem Spreads Elsewhere 6 Those Affected Flee
Locations with 6-7 Collateral 1-3 RelationsWorsen/Problem Spreads Elsewhere 4-5 Those Affected Flee 6 Problem Intensifies
What is the effect at home?
Once you have rolled and described the complication for a location, take some time to describe any changes to your home that may have occurred since we have last seen it Consider the rippling effect of any collateral as well as the treasures you have returned to as a reference.
Taking Downtime Actions
Once you have rolled and described the complication for the Location you last adventured in, it’s time to take Downtime Actions.The actions are described starting on the next page, and are mechanical representations of the things that the characters are doing between adventures.
Each character gets one Downtime Action. Once per Downtime Phase, each character can also do both of the Downtime Free Actions.
Downtime at Home
If your downtime is taking place in your home settlement, or otherwise somewhere that you are able to sleep comfortably with both eyes closed, the characters can rest easy.You each take 1 recovery point, which is tracked next to the Harm Details on the character sheet. Collectively decide how much time passes. For each unit of time that you decide passes, each character gets an additional Downtime action. However, you will also roll for additional complications for each unit of time. Choose a revealed location and use the table on page 36 for each one.
Downtime actions “on screen”
Each action should make sense in the fiction, but you don’t need to zoom in or stage scenes for every action that people take. Often, a simple description of what’s happening will suffice. However, sometimes some really interesting things can happen in downtime and this should be encouraged. If you think somebody’s downtime activities might be a fun scene to play out, play it out.
What actions can you take?
Below are the Downtime Actions that you can take.There are also two Downtime Free Actions that each player gets to use once per Downtime phase.The following pages have detailed descriptions of what to do when you select each action.
Downtime Free Actions • Recover Harm • Upgrade Skills
Downtime Actions • Long-Term Project • Reconnect with sentiments • Introspection • Address collateral • Train Skills • Seek recovery • Scout
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 a relevant Mood and Aspect (including skills). Mark a number of segments equal to the difference of the two dice.
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, or forging and reconnecting sentiments in a more controlled way. Based on the goal of the project, collectively decide how many steps the clock(s) you will create have and suggest a method by which you might make progress. Usually, this will be 4, 6, or 8 steps.
In order to work on a project, you must have to achieve the means to pursue it—which can be a project in itself. For example, you might want to build a new meeting house, but have no access to carpentry skills.You must first acquire these skills, so you start a learn carpentry project first, describing how you come to learn these skills. Once that project completes, you could start a new project to actually build the meeting house.
Reconnect with Sentiments
You can spend downtime reconnecting with your lost or at risk sentiments.Alternatively, if one is lost and doesn’t make sense to be reconnected with, you can forge a new one. This action allows you to reconnect or forge only one sentiment; additional actions would need to be taken if multiple sentiments are lost or At Risk.
Reconnecting or forging new sentiments is an emotional event, so you increase a relevant Mood Level by the following amount:
Reconnect to a lost sentiment by raising the Mood Level by three, moving the sentiment to At Risk.
Clear the At Risk checkbox by raising the Mood Level by two.
Forge a new sentiment by raising the Mood Level by four.
Introspection
Emotions run high while explorers go adventuring, and they often need some much needed rest to reflect on what they were feeling while out and why they were feeling it. Choosing the Introspection action means that the character is reflecting on their experience and the moods that their actions put them in. Roll your Heart die, and reduce that number of ticks from your various Mood Levels. Describe what your character is reflecting on and how they do this.
Additionally, while in introspection, you can swap any two Moods. Swapping means you swap the die that is associated with one of your Moods with another.Transfer the Mood Levels as well. You can also replace one mood that has a Mood Level of 0 entirely if you feel that your character no longer sits in that mood often.
Address Collateral
While adventuring, you track the damage done to the environment you are exploring with the Collateral Clock. Addressing collateral requires both a method with which to reverse the harm done and the resources to apply that method.
Choose a location that your group has affected, and describe your plan to undo the damage.The other players discuss whether or not you have the resources to enact your plan. For each player that believes that your plan is good and you have the resources to enact it, take +1 to the roll. For each player that dissents, take -1 to the roll.
If you do not like your odds after these modifiers, you can instead pivot this action to starting a Long-Term Project to address the concerns about your plan raised by the other players.
If you are going through with the plan, roll your Mind die. Reduce the Collateral Clock of the chosen location by a number of ticks equal (die roll + modifers) - (Collateral Level). if you don’t quite make it to your target, you or someone else can spend an additional downtime action to add another die to the mix. This can be either Mind, Heart, or Body, depending on what you think was causing the plan to be ineffective. Each die you roll adds to your current total. A negative final result will increase the Collateral Level. Your attempts to address the situation at hand do more harm than good.
Train Skills
Roll your Mind, Body, or Heart die and check off the box for the resultant number of skills corresponding to that die. For example, if you roll your Body die and get a 3, you can check off the Body box for 3 skills.
Seek recovery
Explorers can get pretty beat up while adventuring, and choosing this action means that the character is spending time to heal their wounds. Roll your Body die, and take that many Recovery Points. If you have access to a healer or healing facilities at your settlement, you can roll your Body die twice. You can also add any relevant skills. If a teammate is helping you with this, that player can also roll their Heart die and apply their skills to add to your total.
Scout
Most of the locations on the map are face down.The people of the settlement might know vaguely of the contents of these cards, but nobody is quite sure where in the world these rumors originate from. Scouting can help see what is on nearby cards. Describe how you are scouting and choose a facedown card that is close enough that it makes sense for you to scout during this downtime. Typically this means it’s neighboring where you currently are or you can get there through known and non-hostile locations.
Follow the Action Roll steps to see if you are successful. All players that don’t choose to assist act as Arbiters for the sake of adding Details given by the Action Roll. If you lose the roll, you can choose to either reject the details and return home, or accept the Details to press forward. If you accept the Details or win the roll, privately look at the card.Take mental note of it, and return it to the board face down. Share the information if you like, perhaps one of the other adventurers has heard rumors about the place and can provide more detail.
Recover Harm
You spend a number of Recovery Points equal to the number of Harm Details you have to convert one harm detail into a scar. You can do this as many times as you can afford. Scars are Details that are shadows of former harm. For example, you could convert embarrassed into bashful, broken wrist into stiff wrist, or cast out into mistrusted.
Upgrade Skills
Characters may upgrade the skills that have all 3 checkboxes filled. Increment the modifier by one.