New Downtime Policy

norman b

Squire
Hi Players!

First, if you're new to downtimes, you might be wondering what downtime actions even are? Here is a post from JP explaining:

Downtime activities are a great way to round out your character. What does your character do when she's not busy saving the world, rescuing the princess, or conquering new life and new civilizations? It can be a great way to learn a little bit more about the world you are inhabiting or the NPCs that maybe you didn't get enough gametime to interact with. And, best yet, it can give us, the plot team, some insight into what sort of goals you, as the player, have for your character!

Feel free to send in plot submissions as ideas come to you, however, be aware that the plot team both reserves the right to address your downtimes in a way that keeps them consistent with our world and keeps them in line with time constraints, nor will we respond (other than to confirm we've received your submission) until one week prior to the next Event or Game Day, regardless of whether or not you plan on actually attending the Event. We need time to coordinate what everyone is doing and fit it into the larger picture of the campaign, and we want to make sure we're all on the same page to provide as consistent a game world as we can.

Downtime activities should have a certain level of openness to their timing ("when I get a chance, I talk to so-and-so" or "sometime in the next couple of weeks, I jigga-jigga with the whatsahoosit" work much better than "immediately after the event, I blah-diddy-blah-blah"), and the best ones might include a few fallback actions ("if I get this response, I'd follow up with doing such-and-such"). You can even make requests for your character that your character might never seek out for herself! ("My character would never willingly do this, but I think it would be cool if she were magically loved to Duke Ferdinand.") One thing to keep in mind is that a concise description of your actions is generally preferable to a long, drawn out narrative. Think of it this way: we're likely only going to retain about two pages of information in our brains on your submission. If you write up three pages, something will likely get missed. If you write up nine, we're likely to miss a whole heckuva lot! We like enthusiasm, but we're just mere mortals on our side of the screen (game devices aside. ;) ).

Send all emails to oregonplot@gmail.com, that way the plot team can all read your submissions in one location as we receive them.

Here is our new change:

New Downtime Action Policy

We are changing how we do our Downtimes. We are decreasing the amount of downtimes per player to 1 action between events. We are also no longer allowing players to buy more downtimes with goblin stamps. This allows us to focus more on getting a detailed downtime to each player. The deadline for submission is changing to two weeks after an event (Sunday by midnight, 14 days after the conclusion of an event).

The timeframe change will help allow us to write in your downtimes into the upcoming game, should it be earthshattering! Otherwise, it allows us to seed plotlines based upon what you have done.

We are also clarifying group downtimes. If you submit a group downtime you must CC all players involved and they must confirm with an email. We will not accept players as part of a downtime unless their email is attached. We do not want their downtime to be used up without their consent. Due to the nature of group downtimes, we will allow each player who does a group downtime to submit a secondary Personal downtime (no secondary group downtime) which we will get to if we have time. This means it is not guaranteed but we will work hard to get one to you. This group downtime policy is to help promote cooperation between players.


Edit: downtimes due 2 weeks after an event.
 
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Do 2 people constitute a group deadline? I assume so, but just checking. Thanks all!
 
Yes they do. As two is not Individual :p
 
Bump. Get your downtimes in!
 
Hey guys!

Reminder that we have changed our downtime policy again! We are trying for 2 weeks AFTER our event ends. You will have until Midnight on 12/20 to get them in. We are maintaining the ONE group downtime with one personal downtime if we have time. Otherwise it is a singular downtime.

Thanks for bearing with us!
 
I'm PCing my first event this January. Do I need to do a downtime to account for the event I was an NPC for or do I just start from the January event?
 
You typically just start your first event. Downtimes explain what your character is doing between events, usually involving something that has happened at the event.

You can send in a downtime if you would like, I don't see much of a problem.
 
It is completely okay (and I would encourage you) to send a note to Plot so that they can wrap you into the Plot straight away! When I came in during my first game as Cael, I had another couple of paragraphs tacked onto my backstory which acted kind of like a downtime and got me involved in everything from the get go.
 
Edited with updated due date for downtime submissions. They are due two weeks from the Sunday of the event.
 
Bumping this until it can get moved to the Important section.
 
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