BASE RULES

Downtime  Actions cost a varying number of “points,” based upon how difficult and time-consuming the action is to accomplish, and how much work it makes for the STs:

1pt: Trivial downtimes that are easy for both the character to accomplish and for the STs to adjudicate
2pts: Downtime actions that require effort, on the part of the character and/or the STs
3pts: Highly complex downtime actions on the part of the character, requiring a great amount of work, and/or downtime actions that cause exceptional research, debate, and work for the STs.
Trivial (1pt) downtime actions should have a listed Skill or Merit in order to be favorably considered by the STs.  More complex downtime actions (2pt or 3pt) require either a listed Skill or Merit, or a detailed description of the effort made by the character to pull off the desired downtime action.

Submitting Downtime Actions to the STs

Deadlines

In general, downtime action submissions will be due to the STs on the Sunday prior to the next game (i.e., we will start reviewing your actions on Monday).  This is to allow the STs enough time to set point totals – and for you to revise your actions if necessary – and to allow the other PCs enough time to react to any particularly blatant actions.  The STs will try to address late submissions, but make no guarantees.

At this time, the STs do not anticipate that deadlines will be any later than the Sunday before game.  However, deadlines may be set earlier, particularly if there is a longer-than-usual break between games.

Format

[submission info redacted~]

Each individual action should include the following:

A title for the action -  so we can reference it when we give you the results.
What assets you’re assigning to the action (pick one or more of the following):
How many personal Action points (if any) you’ve assigned to the action (no more than Resolve + 1, spread across all your actions).  You don’t need to spend personal points if your Merits are handling the entire action.
Which Allies, Contacts, Retainers, or Mentors (if any) are assigned to the action, including the ratings of each.
The number dots of Resources (if any) assigned to the action.
Any relevant skills,  disciplines, or other assets your character is using to enhance the action.
A brief (1-2 sentence) description of what you intend to accomplish.
A short (2-4 sentence) description of how you’re going about it, including any instructions to your Allies, etc.

EXTENDED RULES

Personal Actions:

Each player has a number of downtime “points”, equal to their character’s (Resolve + 1), which may be spent upon downtime actions which the character takes a personal hand in.

Actions and Merits:

Handing Off Actions:

The Allies, Contacts, and Retainer merits represent people who can help your character accomplish her goals.  Each individual Ally, Contact, or Retainer may be assigned to a single Downtime Action each game (these represent other people/agencies with their own lives and agendas, who cannot dedicate their entire lives to serving your agenda).  Note that you do not have to spend your personal downtime points on these actions unless you are actively aiding your Ally/Contact/Retainer.  These minions do your dirty work, so that you don’t have to.

The effectiveness of the Ally/Contact/Retainer is limited in proportion to the number of dots in that instance of the Merit.  A 1-dot Retainer can only reliably carry out 1pt actions, while an Ally must have at least 3 dots invested by the player in order to reliably carry out 3pt actions.  Players are free to assign actions beyond the abilities of their retainers, allies, and contacts – and to reap the consequences of their misjudgment (though PCs with Common Sense will get a warning from the STs, of course).  Likewise, Allies/Contacts/etc assigned to tasks outside their bailiwick or area of expertise will generally be less effective.  Allies / Contacts / etc assigned to a task which is beneath their abilities will generally deliver more than was asked, at ST discretion.  See below.

Resources may be used to hand off actions as well, but at a -1 penalty: e.g., a 2pt action requires at least 3 dots of Resources to accomplish.  The other applicable merits represent sunk, specialized costs.  Duplicating the effects of these with Resources requires time spent searching for qualified people, adequate bribes to get them access to places from which they usually are restricted, paying expenses, price gouging for wanting the job done immediately, etc.

Instances of Mentor may also be handed actions for downtime.  However, this should be done only after careful consideration: mentors do what they do for their own reasons, especially in the Danse Macabre.  Forcing their largesse may anger the Mentor, prompting a loss of dots in that merit, and/or hasten the time when the Mentor calls in the resulting owed boon.

Combining Actions

Multiple Allies / Contacts / Retainers assigned to the same action will usually add their point values, assuming the task is within each Ally’s area of expertise.  Your own, hands-on assistance adds however many personal “points” you choose directly to the total for the action.  Likewise, dots of Resources expended on an action add directly to the total (the -1 penalty only applies when trying to accomplish something with cash alone).

Sharing Merit dots

While players can coordinate on Downtime Actions, only the player who controls the Merit dots may dictate their actions.  In other words, you cannot simply “loan” your dots to another player to use as they see fit.  You must write up their actions, or they do nothing.

The one exception to this is the Resources background.  The lender must submit a Downtime Action saying that they are loaning X dots of Resources to the borrower.  The borrower can then use them as she sees fit.  However, separate instances of Resources do not stack.  You cannot borrow 2 dots, combine them with your own 2 dots, and spend 4 dots of Resources on a single action.  You could, however, spend 2 dots each on 2 separate actions.

Downtime action point values – revisited

Suggesting / Setting point values:

Players are free to suggest point costs for their downtime actions, but the ultimate determination of point costs for downtime actions rest with the STs.  Should a player overdraw on their downtime point budget, the STs shall so inform them, along with the decided-upon costs for their actions.  Players can then decide how to re-allocate points for their downtime actions.  (including points irrevocably spent on heavy lifting by the STs).

Allocated point total vs. Action difficulty

Actions which cost more “action points” than you or your Ally can provide may still be attempted, although you run the risk of failure, pyrrhic victory (which is often worse), and/or notoriety.  Overspending on an action may give you even more than you asked for, or it may make the action harder for others to detect.  Typically, the larger and more spectacular an action is, the more likely it is to show up in the city’s rumor mill (or worse: the newspaper).  Overspending on an action makes this less likely, while underspending makes it almost impossible to keep the action completely under the radar.  For actions which involve Discipline use, too much notoriety may result in a Masquerade Breach.

“Free” actions

Actions taking place between PCs do not cost downtime points, unless these actions start requiring effort on the part of the STs – at which point costs shall be determined and assigned accordingly.  Some examples of “free” actions would be: scenes without contested actions, scenes involving pure conversation and/or mundane cooperation.

Contested actions during downtime

Directly contested actions between PCs is generally frowned upon, and permissible only with the agreement of both parties.  Indirect contested actions (i.e. a PC attempts to surmount a static defense of some sort established previously by another PC) are allowed.  Any sort of test (whether directly or indirectly contested) requires ST oversight, and that oversight will generally cost at least one action point. Please note that combat and character death both fall into the category of “directly contested actions”.

SAMPLE DOWNTIMES

—-You smelt it, I dealt it—————
Goal: Acquire iron & coal.
Assets: 4 personal points, Resources 4 (borrowed), Allies: Rail Freight 1, my fishing trawler-cum-smuggling-boat
Approach: For that construction project I hope to kick off at Game 6, I need to acquire some supplies.  Specifically: high-grade coal, and iron ore.  Last month, I scouted out some prospective suppliers in the ore-rich Kentucky hills.  Now, I’m going to place a rather sizeable order (whatever $$$ can buy), and make as many trips as I can to go pick it all up.  Whatever I can’t transport personally will reach Chicago by rail.  My friends in the freight office will ”help” with the paperwork, both to make the shipment look legitimate (I’m not a corporate entity) and to keep the freight costs down.

—–Lifeline of the Party———–
Goal: Acquire bootleg whiskey
Assets:  Resources 2, Allies: Great Lakes Smugglers 2, Contacts: Coast Guard 1
Approach: Brad needs some Canadian whiskey for his Game 6 bash, it’s up to Chicago’s smuggler king to supply him.  Since I’m too busy (see above) to make the trip myself, I’ll have to subcontract.  My Smuggler friends can make the pick-up, although I’ll have to fund the purchase out of my own pocket.  As usual, my Coast Guard contacts will give me their patrol routes, which I can pass along to my smuggler friends to prevent any interference by the authorities.