Downtime System
Many aspects of a character’s life are critical to her continued existence, yet they do not make for dramatic roleplaying during a game. It might be important for a character to maintain her holdings, learn disciplines, and see to other common tasks, but these are exceptionally dull to play out during a game. Instead, players use downtime actions to define their characters’ night-to-night activities. These downtime actions describe what your character is doing between game sessions, such as hunting to maintain her blood supply, spying on another character, or learning a discipline through research or physical exertion.
Nights pass quickly, even for immortal beings. Time is cluttered with many activities, and a vampire has a limited amount of time to take care of business before dawn. Players log their downtime actions with the Storyteller, who collects all actions for the troupe and then disseminates results as appropriate. Sometimes a Storyteller uses a player’s downtime actions to jumpstart plots or to provide interpersonal character roleplay away from the main session of the game.
All characters have 3 downtime actions for each month. These actions must be spent between game sessions, and they do not roll over to the next period of time.
A player should be able to describe each of her downtime actions in a single sentence. After the Storyteller receives these actions, she will decide if challenges, details, or further roleplay are required to successfully fulfill the downtime actions. The Storyteller will then adjudicate the results accordingly.
Downtime Actions
- Crafting
- Feeding
- Investigation
- Patrolling
- Growing Backgrounds
- Spiritual Growth