Downtime Character Growth

Player characters should generally be allowed to use any NON-COMBAT related skill in their downtime, provided the game keeper gives approval. A good rule of thumb is allow characters to make one skill check per day while working on an in-game project or idea. Craft skills may require several skill checks to create fine items such as masterwork weaponry or even a carpentry project. Let players use these skills, as appropriate during down time. For game balance, combat based skills can not be studied or practiced during downtime unless the character has 6 or fewer ranks in a combat skill. The examples below are presented only as guidelines.

• Negotiations, Information Gathering, Street Savvy, Deceit: Daily haggling with merchants or suppliers. Perhaps the character has a day job as a bureaucrat, peace officer, or political figure.
• Research, knowledge skills: The character has access to a library and goes and reads. See the rules for learning from a book or tutoring.
• Any crafting skill: The character is working on in game projects such as the creation of a weapon, artwork, or object.
• Performance, Gymnastics: The character spends his down time practicing or performing.
• Survival, Hunting/Fishing, Climbing, Swimming: Perhaps the character chooses to go out in the wilderness for a few uneventful days to "rough it", mountain climb, work out, swim, etc.
• Spellcraft and Alchemy: The character takes the time to study new spells, examine magical items, or craft goods.
• Herbalism, First Aid or Medicine: Perhaps the character has a day job as an apothecary, doctor, priest, or emergency care worker, or perhaps she volunteers her skills to the needy at a church or hospital. Book study is also an option
• Animal Handling: The character practices training animals or has a job doing so.
• Meditation: The character can practice meditation techniques or learn new ones from a master.

These downtime tests vary in difficulty and reward. Presented here is a chart which lists the difficulty of the test and the experience awarded for various test results. The difficulty of the test must be declared before the skill test is actually rolled. Game keeper approval must be received before earning experience in this manner. A limit of 4 weeks worth of downtime should be imposed except in special situations approved by the game keeper.

Characters with access to a library or tutor can quickly develop knowledge skills, and occasionally other kinds of skills. This method should be typically be restricted to only knowledge based skills such as Engineering, Demonology, Undead Lore, Lycanthrop Lore, Photography, Chemistry, Astronomy, Navigation, History, Religion, Cultural customs, Archaeology, etc.

This method is a little more complex and GM's should be very careful with its use. Important books and information can be found in adventures in the form of ledgers, diaries, and history books. If a character must consult a library, small fees to may be expected depending upon the era and the game setting, as many libraries were not free to the public until modern times. Tutors or scholarly mentors can often be hired instead of doing book research.

This method is fairly simple to use. Each day that the character devotes completely to studying a topic grants them a certain amount of experience in the subject. A Research skill test is made to determine success. At most, a character should be allowed 5 checks in a given week, since some down time would be required for the information to "absorb." The amount of experience gained in the desired knowledge skill is determined by the character's reasoning score. Once the character reaches a Rank 10 in that knowledge skill, the experience gained from a dedicated day of study is cut in half. Using this method a dedicated character can gain a respectable amount of knowledge in a subject relatively quickly.

Depending upon the obscurity of the information being sought, research skill tests may be harder or easier. Below are some example difficulties for various subjects.

50 TAV	Common subject: Languages, national history, current events, carpentry, cooking, brewing, agriculture, etc.
90 TAV	Uncommon subject: Ancient history (pre-Aesthetic War), astronomy, navigation, religious history, engineering, physics, advanced mathematics, undead lore, lycanthrop lore, anthropology and cultural studies, etc.
130 TAV	Rare subject: Demonology, dimensional lore, advanced physics subjects, etc.

Most books havea limited number of skill ranks that a particular research venue can grant. Perhaps it is an incomplete history or has some inaccurate information. Most books will have a maximum knowledge rank between 4 and 12. Exceptional books may have a knowledge rank of 16 or 20, but these are the rare gems of the academic world. Tutors can teach someone a knowledge skill until the student equals the teacher's own rank. No matter how often a character studies, a book can never grant more than 1d6 experience to someone who knows more than the book does. Some books may even be so simple or bad that they are essentially worthless.

This is an alternate method of learning new spells and abilities that does not require the expenditure of experience. When learning new magic or psychic abilities in a discipline that the character already knows, a character must succeed in a series of Research or Spellcraft tests. There are two basic steps to this process.

First, determine the number of tests required. The number of successful tests to learn the spell or ability is determined by calculating the minimum difficulty TAV required to cast the spell in its weakest form, divide by 10, and round up. A minimum of three successful research or spellcraft is required, no matter how easy the spell is to learn. Up to one test can be performed each day.

Once the number of required tests is determined, the difficulty of the tests must be determined. Use the following methods to determine the difficulty of the tests.

• From a mentor: When learning a new spell or ability from a mentor or teacher, the student must make either a Research test against a target difficulty equal to the strain * 5 if the spell were cast in it's easiest form.
• From a book, scroll, or tome: When learning from a book or tome, the difficulty of the Research test is 25 + minimum strain * 5 if the spell were cast in it's easiest form.
• Self Taught: When self-teaching a new spell, the difficulty of the Research test is 50 + the minimum strain of the spell multiplied by 10.

Every time that a research test is failed, the character gains a +5 AV bonus to the next check, as long as the next check occurs within one week. These bonuses are cumulative if the character continues to fail Research checks, but disappear as soon as the character makes a successful check. Essentially, a character can eventually learn just about anything given the right amount of time.