Downtime Guide

Downtimes allow a character to advance their aims and improve between game sessions. Players may submit one downtime per game session whether they attended the session or not. Downtime uses a point system, where a player spends Action Points (AP) to take mundane actions and Power Experience (PxP) to improve their powers.

A character gains 10 PxP for attending a session, and will have 10 AP to spend regardless of whether they show up or not. AP does not carry over between games, and any amount of PxP can be stored at any time.

After each session, you will have until midnight the following Sunday to submit your downtime to 'aftermathrefs@gmail.com. 'A reminder will be posted on the Aftermath Facebook page and any emails received after this time may not be processed.

In your downtime you may submit how you're spending your PxP, how you're spending your AP, and any minor details which you think the ref team should be aware of.

If you're unsure of how this will work, please find an example downtime submission and response here

Power Exerience
PxP can be spent in three different ways: When either improving powers or developing new powers, players may either blind spend an amount of PxP or submit an idea/goal for their power and receive feedback from the ref team.
 * Spend it discovering new and stronger powers.
 * Spend it improving existing powers.
 * Spend it to increase your Fatigue pool.

In the case of blind expenditure of PxP the player should simply tell us the amount of PxP being spent, and which strain or existing power they are spending it on. The refs will then give the player the rules for the power they have newly developed when returning Downtime.

Players may submit ideas for powers or improvements that they want. The ref team will consider the request and reply to the player in the Downtime return with the results of their research. This feedback will include the PxP costs and rules for the power, which can be bought during any subsequent Downtime by the player if they have sufficient PxP. If the player is unsatisfied with the power returned to them or feels it doesn't adequately represent their vision they are free to refine their request in subsequent Downtime emails.

In general the powers granted by blind spend will lean towards being more efficient, simple and have fewer caveats than feedback from research actions.

''[Note that blind spending a small amount of PxP is unlikely to result in a new power or development, but will be counted as invested in whichever area you indicated in your DT. It is not lost, it just hasn't manifested any returns as of yet]''

The final method of PxP expenditure is increasing your Fatigue Pool. You may spend 10 PxP to increase your Fatigue pool permanently by 3. This may be purchased up to 5 times.

A character may take as many of these actions as he has the PxP to fund, including researching a new ability. A character attempting to get the most out of their time (and with a lot of PxP floating around) may research a new power, blind spend on an existing power and their strain, increase their PxP and then submit their AP actions, all in the same DT.

Action Points
You will receive Action Points, even if you don't attend the session. These AP represent your character spending time on activities between session. This includes attempts to buy items which are not commonly available, improving one's standing in the city or practising and learning a mundane skill. A character can also attempt something which would require planning, possibly with uptime consequences. When you spend these, you should accompany them with a short and direct paragraph detailing how you go about it. Actions which may put you in danger, or that could have multiple outcomes will require a short roleplay scene with the refs at your convenience.

Some higher level skills that you gain through AP may require you to spend further actions in future DTs to maintain them. These are likely to be things like maintaining physical fitness, keeping high level knowledge up to date, holding a regular training session at a firing range. Whilst low levels of these abilities will not eat up your spare time, a regular training regimen will be required to keep stronger ones. Upkeep does not need to be paid on abilities in the DT in which they are acquired. Any character may only ever allot 5AP to maintaining abilities during downtime. Even when empowered, concentration can only be maintained for so long.

Here is a short list of ways to spend your AP, and  Here  is a list of ways to spend your AP on a building of your very own.

Tinkers (3A)
The abilities of the Tinker subtype work a little differently to those of their kin. Their inventions and creations are dreamt up with PxP. Spending this will give them a blueprint from which they can work off. A blueprint will contain all of the details of the item they're creating, and the AP cost of building the item itself. Having access to a workshop of high enough quality may reduce the amount of AP required to create the item. The blueprint can also be improved by the same means other Empowered improve their own abilities. Note that a Tinker will not be able to build an item in the same DT as they get the blueprint, as they won't know the AP cost or any specific materials which may be required.