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Downtime
What Is Downtime?
Any time that you spend playing your character at society events is known as "uptime". Between the weekly uptime sessions of interactives and linears, both Grantabrugge and your characters continue to exist even though you are not physically determining their actions.
Each week they are played in uptime for at least half an hour, every character also gets one mechanical "downtime" slot, to represent actions they take during the week which may feed back into the game. "Mechanical" actions are things which try to achieve a specific goal, usually connected to xp skills, plot information or other characters. Generally if the result would create a change in the world that could have impact on other people, no matter how small, the action could be considered mechanical.
Sending Downtime
Downtimes are submitted by sending an email about what your characer does in the week to
Sending Clarifications and Gossip Articles
If we request further information from you, or you request a clarification, this must be submitted back to the refs by midday Thursday. Clarifications must be short requests, and they will generally receive short responses. If your character wishes to run an article in the Grantabrugge Gossip, articles should also be submitted to the refs by midday on Thursday at the latest.
We will sometimes attempt to run quick queries by our players on IRC while discussing downtimes, if we know the player uses it. This can save us the time needed to email a query, but is by no means a requirement.
Default Downtimes
If your character was not played for at least half an hour in uptime that week, they still continue to exist between events but the outcome of their downtime actions is more limited and has restrictions on what it can achieve (it is 'non-mechanical'), in this situation we ask that you do not submit a mechanical downtime and instead we will substitute your default downtime actions for that week.
When you create a new character and hand in their character sheet and background, we would also like you to submit a "default downtime" for them - a few lines about what sort of things they might usually do in their everyday life, and where they are likely to be during the week. If you are unsure about this, the refs can usually make some sensible suggestions for you based on your characters' skills and lifestyle.
The actions in your default downtime should be generic and non-mechanical, and not specifically related to any particular current events in the game. For example, you might "work hard in your temple" or "go on patrol around the city with the Milita" but you are unlikely to "try and research a new spell that does red damage for less mana" or "kill as many necromancers as possible".
Default downtimes are for general information only, so that the refs can try to provide feedback and spread information about what is taking place in hte game world. They will not be used to directly harm your character: eg: if someone downtimes burning down the temple which you occasionally attend then as usual this would not kill your character - but it does greatly increase the chances of you recieving a report of the event as a downtime response that week.
Other Downtime Policies
Downtime exists, primarily, to support uptime play. It's the description of what your character does in the rest of the week - making potions, following up leads on a murder case, searching the library for information on those strange blue wiggly creatures with the air magic. You submit downtime by emailing the refs at tt-refs@srcf.ucam.org, and after the refs have consulted you will be emailed back the outcome of your actions. We'll occasionally say 'you don't have time to do all that', if you sent in a vast list of things your character tries to achieve in downtime, however we are always interested in what your character is trying to achieve, and why.
Please do not feel that it is necessary to submit a downtime to the refs every week. If no mechanical downtime is submitted then we will assume that your character undertakes something similar to their stored default downtime.
If you missed that week's events/did not play the character, you may submit downtime purely confirming other people's actions (if required) so that their downtime is not held up, but may not undertake any novel mechanical actions of your own and your IC presence will not notably add to the success or failure of their plans. If you feel that it is unfair for you to not get a downtime due to special circumstances (such as monstering a specific NPC at ref request all evening) please email the refs, who will consider such on a case by case basis.
Your character cannot die in downtime, however anything we aren't convinced they'd pull off we'll ask you to enact in uptime (generally at the beginning of the next interactive). You cannot kill other PC's in downtime. You may commit suicide, unless you are being specifically prevented from doing so by other PCs, although consider doing that in uptime anyway. Downtime is not retroactive. If you didn't tell us you were doing it three weeks ago, you didn't do it three weeks ago. In general, if you could do it in uptime, then we prefer it to happen in uptime, because it's more interesting and fun that way. Asking to meet with a character will generally result in them arranging to meet you in the bar on a Friday, for example.
If you are trying to do something, think about how you are going to achieve it. 'I investigate X' will tend to give you what the average guy in the market knows about it. Tell us what we actually need to know - What resources you're prepared to use, what precautions you take, not what your character had for breakfast. Specific approaches 'I chase up all the street tramps who may have seen something' or 'I actively look around my Guildhouse for jobs that need doing, then do them competently and obviously when my superiors are watching' will work far better. In general, if you don't tell us how you are accomplishing something, we won't know. Occasionally we may email back with some queries or suggestions before giving a full response.
It is also possible for PC or Ref action to restrict your actions in downtime, eg: if you are in prison at the end of the interactive you are still in prison during downtime, unless specifically released!
Keep us informed of how this one thing you are doing fits into the big picture, and your characters long term goals. The information you get back from 'I go and look around this building' will be significantly different from 'I go and look around this building, with a mind to the fact I want my minions to storm it in three weeks time'.
While your PCs are assumed not to be stupid, you are not as effective in downtime as you are in uptime. In general, if you can arrange to do something in uptime instead (or as well as), you will get better results from it. For example - preaching about your faith tends to be more effective if you make converts in uptime. Organisations that recruit well in uptime or among other PC's tend to do better than organisations who don't. This is deliberate - you can't take over the city in downtime alone.
Conversations with NPC's in downtime: Let us know what result you are after, and what bribes you're offering. If you want to convey something complicated, write a letter. We are overwhelmed by downtimes that consist of 'if he says X, I say Y, unless Z' - if you get as far as having conditional statements, arrange to meet the NPC in uptime and talk to them then.
Conversations with PC's in downtime: We'd prefer these happened in uptime, but if you must plottyscheme together, do it in your own time and email us a copy of the conversation (preferably with a summary of key points). If you know where to find them, the refs will pass on letters etc.