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The Long awaited information...
Herein lie's the amended guide to downtime project submission which replaces anything previously mentioned in the rule book. Please ensure project proposals are submitted to the downtime e-mail address by the end of April to give plenty of time for them to be sorted, assimilated into the game world and their responses formulated.
Please pass the message on to other players who may not have seen this.
E-mail: downtime (dot) submission (at) googlemail.com
Next game
I'm currently in negotiations with venue and timetable for the next game to be in June. Will avoid clashes with Maelstrom, CP, LT and SINergy and try to allow a weekends recovery between events if practical
Guide to Downtime
In the year that passes In Character between games your character has opportunity to get involved in a number of activities and influence the world around them. This time inbetween games is known as the 'downtime' period as you are not actively roleplaying during this time.
Downtime's in 'An Evening of Science and Mystery' take the form of Project Proposals. These proposals outline...> What they are trying to achieve.
> Who is assisting.
> Who is leading the Project.
Leading and assisting
When determining how successful a project is the overall skills, means, influence and fame of the characters taking part in the project is taken into account and compared to the relative impact of, difficulty in achieving or opposition to the project.
> The more projects they contribute to, the less effect their contributions have.
> A character not leading a project may contribute to as many projects as they wish.
Types of Project
> Motion – A political manoeuvre to influence the world.
> Expedition – Exploring the unknown for riches and information.
> Research – Developing a new gadget or honing a new ability.
Research
The objective of a research project is to develop new gadgets or abilities such as spells, drugs or translations of ancient languages. These projects can result in Patents being awarded which may then be adopted by other players or NPC groups to increase the means, influence and fame of those involved.
All research projects result in the character gaining some benefit, even if the patent is not awarded for a successful device the character may develop a working Prototype which they may use at games but which needs further research before it may be adopted by other characters.
Patents –
Each character involved in a project has a Share in the patent, this gives them the right to offer the device or ability to other characters or NPC's for adoption. When ten characters or one large NPC group adopts a patent everyone with a share in the patent benefits. The project leader gains one point of Means, Influence and Fame whilst those who contributed to the project gain one point of Means.
A character may sell their share in a patent, this is done by exchanging their right to offer the patent for adoption and any future benefits of the patent being adopted for an agreed number of Means. e.g. Herman Munster has decided to sell his share in the 'Steam gun' patent gained by assisting Hurtz Van Rentall. He exchanges his right to offer the patent for adoption and any future gain in means for it being adopted with the Parasol Foundation for three points of Means which are removed from the Foundations total and added to Herman's.
> These shares may be traded for Means.
> Everyone involved in the project has a share in the patent.They represent reliable devices or abilities that may be adopted by others.
Prototypes
A prototype weapon may be subject to jamming, a prototype spell may attract malign spirits if used in certain circumstances and a prototype chemical preparation may be poisonous to those of poor constitution.
A prototype may be physically given to another character to perform their own research upon, if you really want you may trade it for Means but that is often considered an imprudent use of resources.
Once a prototype has been created, future research using the prototype will make it easier to develop the intended device or ability.
> They always have a humorous or dangerous side effect.
> Prototypes are awarded for unsuccessful projects.
Expedition
The objective of an expedition project is to explore the unknown parts of the world in search of old secrets and new discoveries. These projects can result in important plot clues and the artefacts from which new abilities may be researched to found new Patents. Artefacts can be traded to players or NPC's in exchange for means and successful expeditions often result in increased influence and fame of those involved.
Successful expedition projects will result in clues, artefacts and fame, unsuccessful expeditions may result in forgeries or actual clues other than those intended. Any items picked up by an expedition will be given to the project leader to do with as they will, in the same way that patents may be used to gain means, influence and fame, getting an NPC group to display the items as part of an exhibition or researching new abilities from artefacts picked up on expeditions will increase the Means, Influence and Fame of the project leader and the Fame of anybody involved in the original expedition. An increase of one to each relevant entitlement is gained each time an artefact is lent to an NPC group or a new ability is researched using the artefact.
Some unscrupulous characters may decide to fake an expedition, in this case the successful expedition results in passable fake artefacts and expedition diaries whilst failure may result in public humiliation and a loss of fame and influence.
Warning: Whilst expeditions are the best way to find the artefacts to supplement linguistic and occult research, there is the risk of contracting tropical disease or ancient curses. Make sure you take a rounded expedition group to minimise risks.> It is possible to mount a fake expedition to fool the public and gain fame.
> An unsuccessful expedition may result in forgeries or actual clues other than those intended.
> An expedition is generally used to find artefacts, information on long lost abilities and clues to help solve plotlines.
Motion
The seeds sown by a motion are not easily removed, it is possible to obtain a successful motion with minimal resources through persistent proposal.
Whenever a motion is successful (passed by the target government/organisation) the project leader gains one point of means and fame, and two points of influence whilst all those involved in the project gain two points of influence.
> Persistent proposal will eventually result in success if unopposed.
> There are no restrictions on what may be proposed.
Opposition
The members of the opposed project team will not know who has opposed their project unless their project is led by a Master Politician, but they will be aware that their efforts have been sabotaged.
A successful sabotage results in the saboteur leader gaining one means, influence and fame whilst those contributing to the sabotage project gain one means.
> Characters will know they have been sabotaged, but won't know who did it.
> If they do not stop the target project, they will reduces it's chances of success.