After a game of Solitude, your PC may have goals that you'd like to follow up on before the next gathering. As part of your post-event letter, you can submit a downtime action that you'd like to take.
Any PC can propose a downtime action after any game of solitude. However, not every downtime action proposal will be successfully achieved after each game. Instead of processing every downtime proposal, we instead seek to ensure that each successful downtime action will have a substantial impact on the setting. Your PC won't be the only one affected by any downtime action; you'll be helping or harming an entire faction. The best way to ensure that your downtime action comes to pass is to band together with others who want the same thing.
Any downtime action must target a faction. This can be a faction you are a part of, either by formal enrollment or self-identification, or a faction that you oppose and wish to weaken. During the time between games of Solitude, you'll work behind the scenes to aid, sabotage, persuade, or provoke that faction. This could be because you want to directly bolster or harm that faction, or because that faction can produce a resource or investigate a question you care about for your own purposes.
A typical downtime action with a friendly faction takes the form of "Comrades, join me in...", "Let me help you accomplish..." or "I'll trade you something for your...". Ultimately, you're relying on the faction having the people and resources to help you meet your goal. Factions won't act against their own interests, but few factions have a formal leadership with firm opinions about what those interests are, so your downtime action can often persuade the loosely organized members of a faction to pursue a goal of yours. Even if there is formal leadership that opposes your plan, every faction has its hangers-on and dissidents that might still put the resources of their faction at your disposal.
When you work against a hostile faction during downtime, you'll need help. There's a time and place for individual heroism... and that's during games. During downtimes, to act against a hostile faction you'll identify another faction that you'll rally against your enemies. You and the members of some other faction will work together to destroy a resource or pry open some secret belonging to your shared enemy. You might make temporary allies out of any faction with the right persuasion, even a normally hostile one.
When you fill out your post-event letter, you'll indicate whether you have a downtime action proposal. If you're selected in the lottery (see below), game staff will reach out to you and ask you to propose a specific downtime action. In your proposal, you'll want to as specific as you can: who do you want to influence, what means will you use to pull a faction towards your goal, and what outcome do you expect to happen? If your downtime action is selected by the lottery process, game staff will reach out to resolve your downtime action
These categories are used during the resolution of downtime actions. You should always say specifically what you are trying to do in your downtime action, rather than just naming a category, but keeping these categories in mind can help you get the outcome you want from a downtime action.
A faction may:
Conduct diplomacy
Claim by force
Infiltrate
Build a tool
Supply consumable gear
Investigate secrets
Some factions may have special action categories available to them.
A downtime action is an opportunity to generate some excitement in a corner of the world you're excited about. The most common outcome of a downtime action is a mixed result, where the faction you are working with achieves some of your goals but also gets into some fresh trouble as a result.
After post-event letters are in for each game, some of the submitted downtime actions will be processed by game staff. How many will depend on staff resources, the amount of time until the next game, and how efficiently we can process the actions we do select.
Although we may, at times, choose certain actions to process because we find them especially interesting, most downtime actions will be selected randomly.
Tickets represent your PC's ability to invest time and effort into your downtime goals. When you propose a downtime action, it's more likely to be chosen in the lottery if you have a lot of tickets. After your downtime action is chosen for processing, your supply of tickets is reset to 0. If your action is not chosen during one downtime period, your tickets roll forward into the next period.
Attending a game and filling out the post-event letter earns 1 ticket. You do not need to answer survey questions or submit a downtime action to earn this ticket, but the letter serves as a record of who attended and has earned a ticket.
Both PCs and NPCs are eligible to earn tickets and may submit downtime actions. Tickets are tied to the player, so if you swap to a new PC you do not lose any tickets.
Signing up for a game at least 7 days in advance earns an additional ticket (assuming you attend).
Tickets may also be earned for service to the game, and perhaps some in-game resources might be uncovered that can be exchanged for tickets.
The best way to get the outcome you want during a downtime is to work together with other PCs. If your ticket is drawn, you can include any number of (willing) PCs on your downtime adventure. If everyone enters the lottery pushing for the same outcome, your chances go up considerably.