Downtime Actions

Things to do between crime sprees

Mission rewards in-game can be in a variety of forms: hard currency like UCAS dollars, untraceable digital currency like nuyen on certified credsticks, corporate script, large quantities of easily resold or bartered product like high-grade pharmaceuticals or ICE breaker software, or even (the old fashioned approach) precious metals, gemstones, or bearer bonds.

In game mechanics, we handle all of these as Payout. Each point of Payout awarded after a mission buys one Downtime Action that you can do before the money runs out and it’s time to look for work again.

Downtime Actions do not have to be all declared upfront. For example, an injured character might choose to use their first action on Rest & Recuperation, and then depending on how the roll goes, might repeat the action or switch to something else.

When Downtime Actions require aby kind of die roll, note that you cannot spend Bennies on this roll. Bennies are for when the camera is focused on your character!

A note for my players: you can roll Savage Worlds style dice in Slack with the syntax /roll 1d6x + 1d8x. Obviously, change the d8 for whatever your skill is. The x will make the dice exploding. This can be used for any downtime dice-rolling, as a more convenient option to Foundry.

Advancing

Although advancing typically happens during downtime, it does not have to, and it does not take a downtime action when it does.

Healing & recovery actions

Lie low

If you attracted an unusually breathtaking amount of attention on the last run and so have a Heat Die, you will need to skip town for a while until the heat dies down. This takes one of your actions and clears the Heat Die. In extraordinary circumstances (a Heat Die of d10 or more), it might even take multiple actions. Be less obvious next time!

Rest & recuperation

For one Downtime Action, you can make a normal Natural Healing roll (see SWADE pg 96 for full details). Roll Vigor; success clears a Wound, each raise clears another Wound.

Characters with the Fast Healer Edge can make two Healing rolls for a single downtime action.

Other characters can Support this roll if they also spend a downtime action. This will usually involve them rolling their Healing skill, for obvious reasons.

Buff actions

Actions that give characters a temporary boost or advantage of some kind.

Carouse

Your character decides to blow off some steam and celebrate still being alive. They spend an extended period of time indulging whatever hedonistic vices most appeal to them.

Take a one-step penalty to your wealth die type die for the next session.

There is no mechanical game benefit to carousing. This is deliberate ;)

Centre / Hang out?

Character gets Conviction. If unused, this will expire at the next downtime phase.

You spend some quality time with your nearest and dearest. Write a scene telling us what you do together, and take a free point of karma for your trouble! (If you don’t want to write a scene, see Train below.)

Intense training

Your character chooses to focus their efforts on honing a particular skill or attribute. They have to already have the skill – ie. at least have a d4 in it.

Until the next downtime phase, the character can get a free re-roll on any failed roll for the trait. This stacks with any other re-rolls or bonuses the character might have. Activating the re-roll is a free action.

You can only be trained in one trait at once; if you repeat the action, you lose the previous training.

Side hustle

Shadowrunner’s skill sets can be used for more mundane activities than the epic, daring heists we play out at the table. Riggers can do courier work; streetsams can work as bodyguards; mages can provide protection services; deckers can skim low-security systems for paydata.

If your character spends their downtime on a side hustle, they can earn a little extra cash in their pocket. Take a one-off bonus to their wealth die type for the next mission.

You can only do Side Hustle once in a given downtime.

Changing the world

Long-term project

Maybe your character is engaged in some sort of longer-term thing: researching something, making something, trying to create a spell… anything we’ve agreed upon.

We’ll handle this a bit like a Dramatic Task in SWADE or a Clock in Blades in the Dark. You’ll have some fixed number of segments to complete - you might or might not know how many, depending on what you are up to. For a single downtime action, you can make a Trait Test using any appropriate skill to work on the project.

Test success will tick a segment on the progress clock. Each Raise will tick a further segment. On a critical failure, you lose one segment.

Stash nuyen

Your character is saving up for a rainy day. Retirement? Paying off their dear old ma’s mortgage? Up to you. They spend their downtime living thriftily so they can divert as much money as possible to their savings. If you want to work to a specific goal, let me know what it is, and we’ll set up a clock to track progress towards it.

Attune spirits

An attuned summoner mage with the Initiate edge can journey to the metaplanes, explore a new metaplane, and learn its True Name. From then on, they can summon spirits from that metaplane whenever they please. You can do this action multiple times in a single downtime phase if you want.

See summoning traditions.

Network

You spend time working your contacts, buttering them up, making sure the next time you come calling they’ll have the good stuff set aside for you.

Roll a standard Networking test (Persuasion or Intimidate vs target number 4). If you succeed, take bonus LP on the next mission according to the table below. For each raise, take a further bonus LP (again, as per below). You cannot spend Bennies on this roll.

No penalty for failures, but you can’t try again; people have had enough of you for now. You can only do Network once in a given downtime.

Character rankLP bonus on SuccessLP bonus on Raise
Novice+10
Seasoned+20
Veteran+3+1
Heroic+4+1
Legendary+5+2