Babylon 4: Downtimes
In between sessions, each player may send an email describing what their character gets up to during downtime in the form of a downtime action. This is a chance for you to interact with the setting via the GMs; it may involve using objects, talking to NPCs, traveling places, and using any skills or abilities your character possesses.
These downtime emails should be sent in no later than one week after the previous session, and the GMs will send you back a response before the next session that describes how your actions play out.
Downtime Action
Your character can undertake one significant activity during each downtime and it should be written up as no more than 300 words. You can get other players to help out with your downtime but each player has to send in their own downtime action describing what they are contributing. If no email is received, we'll assume they've decided not to help.
Examples of suitable actions:
- "Use Engineering to assemble a motorbike from the parts I previously purchased."
- "Spend money to charter a survey ship and scout the Sigma 957 system."
- "Assist N'Grath in smuggling contraband onto the station."
- "Use my medical skills to treat sick people in Downbelow."
- "Study the ancient Minbari writings that the Minbari Ambassador gave me during the last game."
- "Work an extra job as a waiter in the Happy Daze Bar to raise some money." (You'll start the next session with some extra credits)
Action Guidelines:
- Be specific about what you want to achieve and avoid vague actions like "I want to find something interesting".
- Avoid actions that are just a conversation with another PC. e.g. "I contact the Minbari Ambassador and negotiate a deal". You need to have this conversation with the other player which you can do whenever is suitable for the both of you, it's not a downtime action with the GMs.
- Describe what your goal is but don't assume success. Skill rolls may be made, other NPCs and PCs may oppose your action, you may not succeed.
- Don't try to account for every possible contingency, the GMs will try to be fair and will assume you're character is competent at dealing with the unexpected so you don't need to write a lot of "if this happens then... and if this happens then... and if this other thing happens then..."
Merits
The Ally, Contact, and Patron merits provide you with additional activities during downtime:
- Ally is the most reliable. They get their own downtime action and you can specify what it is and how they should carry it out (max 300 words). They may deviate from it based on their personality and what they think is best but they are always loyal and try their best.
- You can ask each Contact one question during your downtime and this doesn't count towards your action. They will do their best to answer the question truthfully and they can be used as spies and informants. Asking your contact a question uses them up for the following session.
- Patron's have the most power to get things done but are the least predictable. You can send them a request (again not part of your action) but you have no control over whether they carry it out or how they go about it. Your Patron views themselves as your superior, not your servant, so may not react well to being given trivial commands.
Example: If a character had the Ally and Contacts x2 merits, then each downtime their player could send in an email with their own action, an action for their ally, and could ask two questions from their contacts.
Reporting In
Some characters may wish to report back to NPCs during downtime, particularly Ambassadors reporting to their governments.
All PCs can send a report during downtime. This is in addition to their normal action and works in a similar way and is limited to 300 words except that it's only usable for one specific thing: You can send a message to an NPC of your choice which can contain any information you're passing along and any recommendations you might have about their best course of action.
For example Ambassadors might report the secrets they have learnt back to their governments, commercial telepaths might report back to Psi Corps, other characters might report to their patron or to any other NPCs they've met along the way.
These NPCs, governments, and organisations have their own agenda and may ignore any recommendations you make, but they will be at least factored in to their decision and the more they like you, the more likely they are to follow your suggestions.
You don't have to write this like an actual report or cram preamble, etiquette, or detailed information into the word limit, we assume you're sending them a nicely formatted and detailed document that is significantly longer than what you are sending the GMs, this is just to let us know what sort of information it contains.
For example "I tell my government that the Minbari have ships in the Epsilon sector" is fine, you don't need to start with "May the Lords and Ladies of the Centauri Royal Court find within these pages...".
This is only used for sending to NPCs, if you want to report to a PC you can just do that in a time that is convenient for all involved players, you don't need to include that in your downtime.
General
Rules and Character Creation