Daily Legend Point Award

There is a Daily Legend Point award of 5 LP a day that you get for just being alive. When using the Downtime System, you’ll get these points no matter what your character is doing, unless you don’t show up for the game session.

 

Cost of Living

These costs do not apply while adventuring, so when we’re actually gaming you’ll never have to worry about that. Player characters must maintain at least a Comfortable standard of living, or their step numbers will suffer (-1 to all steps per level below Comfortable.) The cost of living for Adepts is 150 silver a month through 5th Circle. At 6th through 10th, it goes up to 300 silver a month, and after that it’s 600 silver a month. Obviously, as you characters go higher and higher in Circle, life will get more expensive, and high-powered Adepts live quite well, although it costs them. On the other hand, they can charge more for their services. (See Working, below) Why does this work differently for Adepts than most people? Because most people have to spend their time surviving. They must focus all time and effort on that task, and they rarely have time to think about other things. An Adept, on the other hand, has to think about other things. If you’re reduced to focusing only on day-to-day survival, your focus on your Discipline will suffer. Thus, you put out more money to not have to worry about things, and spend your time being an Adept. It’s one of the prices of power.

The standard of living costs cover things like daily food & drink, supplies and equipment (parchment/lute strings/armor polish & whetstones/pet food/embalming fluid/etc.) and taxes. Everyone who lives in Throal pays taxes, although citizens of Throal pay less. The reason is simple: you’re enjoying the protection of her armed forces, the services of her city government, and the opportunity to live and make money in a well-populated and established kingdom. And rather than apply those taxes directly to your pocketbooks, it’s easier to just make it part of the overall cost.

 

Time Taken

For simplicity’s sake, a day is defined as being 8 hours, a week is seven days, and a month is four weeks, unless otherwise stated. Also, please assume that unless the description says otherwise, you cannot combine activities. You must do only the activity during the time it takes to do it. However, some activities take only a little time, so you can sometimes do more than one thing per day.  The simple fact is, your character is a person as well, and would want to get some rest. Resting and absorbing what you've learned is just as important as actively studying and training. Downtime is important for your mind and body, and pushing yourself 16 hours a day to learn or do anything would wipe you out in only a few days. Slaves are driven in this manner - work until you drop, and when you wake up start working again. That's why they only last a short while. Also, this is the same reason you can't do more than one thing per day. "I research my Key Knowledge while I'm on guard duty making money" won't fly, because one or both of those will suffer. Burning the candle at both ends leads to self-destruction.  

However, there are ways around this if you're desperate. There exist in the world certain herbs, chemicals, potions or even spells (and I think a Blood Charm) that will allow you to continue functioning without sleep. However, these have a cost of their own, depending on the item in question. You could work all day, take some down time, and instead of sleeping that night take this effect and put in another 8 hours of activity. This may have some game repercussions, however. Most Tutors, especially Circle Tutors, aren't going to allow you to do that. You're going to need all your strength for training, and giving yourself "artificial" strength is not an acceptable substitute. Also, you can't get into the library after it's closed, and your teachers probably won't stay up all night with you to teach you anything. But it's possible.

The other exception I would allow to this rule is using Talents that have a specific stated time listed, like Item History. You could work/study/travel all day, and still take half an hour out of your evening to Item History. Trostlos could take the time to cast a long spell (like Bone Circle), assuming he doesn't take more than a few hours. After working all day, if he spends 4-6 more hours weaving threads, he's going to be exhausted, and have minuses to his step numbers. Also remember, Karma Ritualing is a "free" activity, almost counting as rest. In addition to building a supply of personal power, it is a way for your character to release the weight of the day and let go of tension, much in the same way as real-life meditation works. I'll discuss Karma Rituals more below.

 

What can you do?

There are a wide variety of activities that are recorded on the Downtime system sheet. For convenience, they are all recorded and defined below.  Activities will have various elements associated with them, like the time required to engage in them, or a monetary cost required, or other elements listed with the description. If an element is not listed or defined, you can assume it doesn’t apply to that activity.

 

Adventuring – Playing the game. You get your Daily LP, and there’s no cost of living. The time spent varies, but we’re going to be sitting right there doing it, so there’s no need for this system.

 

Attribute Increase – It takes a number of days equal to the new Attribute Rank (not step) to increase an Attribute. However, these days do not have to be consecutive, and do not have to be done during Circle training. You may now simply increase 1 Attribute per Circle, by spending the required time and LP, anytime after gaining that Circle. You must spend 8 hours a day training for this (doing puzzles and riddles, lifting weights, walking tightropes, getting beat up, engaging in philosophical discussions, being sociable, whatever.)

 

Circle Increase – This activity requires consecutive days equal to the new Circle to perform, and requires that the character find and hire a Tutor (which is listed below.) Naturally, you must also meet the minimum requirements to advance. Training costs are per the rule book, but you can change the cost by making a successful Charisma roll when locating a Tutor (see Locate Tutor, below.) Also, remember that after 8th Circle you no longer need to hire a Tutor, but you must still spend the appropriate time.

 

Enchanting – Later…

 

Karma Ritual – Although your Karma Ritual takes 30 minutes of your time, I’m willing to call it a “non-activity” for bookkeeping purposes, meaning you may squeeze it into an otherwise busy day. As normal, you may only do this once per day.

 

Knack Adaptation - You can adapt a Knack from another Discipline to your own by finding a Tutor that knows the Knack, and then doubling the amount of time and money spent. Thus, a Rank 4 Knack will take 8 days and cost 200 silver per day.

 

Knack Creation – This is similar to Learning Knacks, but is much more difficult. This requires a number of days equal to the Talent Rank x4, or x2 for a Discipline Talent. The LP  cost is double the normal cost listed on the table in the Earthdawn Companion. There is no need to find a Tutor obviously, but you must be at least 6th Circle in your Discipline before creating Knacks for it.

 

Knack Learning - You can learn any of the existing knacks from your Tutor when you go up in Circle. You must be sure to indicate to the GM when you're looking for this Tutor that they should know the particular Knacks you want. On top of the established training time, it will take an additional number of days to learn the Knack you want equal to the required Talent rank for that Knack. When studying a Knack for a Discipline Talent, this time is halved. The Tutor will charge an additional 100 silver per day, on top of the training costs. Since these times and costs will be established ahead of time, you can add the Circle cost and Knack cost together and take your discount off of the total, assuming you got one from locating a Tutor. The LP cost is listed with the Knack description.

 

Learn Versatility Talent – First, you must find a Tutor willing to teach you the Talent. It then takes a number of days equal to the Circle of the Talent, and 100 silver per day. Thus, if you wanted to learn Riposte, a 4th Circle Swordmaster Talent, once you’ve found a Tutor you must spend 4 consecutive days and 400 silver to learn the Talent. Once you’ve learned it, increasing it is covered under Talent Increase, below.

 

Learn Spells – This refers only to hiring someone to teach you some spells. This is separate from Spells learned as part of Circling up. Those spells are granted as part of the whole process, and you don’t need to spend additional time or money to learn them. Also, this does not apply to learning spells from Grimoires you find/borrow/steal.

First, you will have to find a Tutor.  The GM will determine what spells that Tutor has that they are willing to teach you (They have a clever table for this very purpose.) If you’re looking for a specific spell, you’ll just have to take your chances. Not every magician will know every spell, or be willing to teach it. The cost of the Tutors time is 100 silver per Circle of the spell being learned. Each spell has a learning difficulty, based on its Circle. Normally, you make a Read & Write Magic test against this number to learn the spell from a Grimoire. To learn from a teacher, you spend a number of days training equal to the Circle of the spell, after which you will add your teacher’s Read & Write Magic Talent rank to your Read & Write Magic Test result to learn the spell. You must then spend one more day to scribe the spell in your Grimoire, as per the standard rules.

 

Locate Tutor – This activity must be carried out in some kind of settlement (village, town, city.) This is for learning Spells, Knacks, Skills, Talents, or going up in Circle. This activity costs a flat 50 silver per attempt, whether successful or not. The GM will calculate the Rank/Circle/Skill level for your Tutor by adding a D4 to your current Rank/Skill/Circle that you’re looking to improve, and then you will roll your Charisma step (or appropriate skill or Talent) against that target number. If you fail the roll, you’ve lost nothing but money & time. If you succeed, the level by which you succeeded can affect the cost you pay: -10% to the cost for each success level above Average, to a maximum of –30%. You may begin to see a problem here: higher Circle Tutors are rare and hard to find. This is where Ghost Master rituals and other alternate methods can be indispensable. Also remember that 8th Circle is the last Circle where you have to find a Tutor, after that you can Circle yourself up.

 

No Activity – You perform no activity of consequence that day, just wandering around, taking in the sights, sitting a bar drinking, or whatever. Alternatively, this is time spent recovering from damage, wounds, disease, poison, etc. Nothing is gained and nothing lost. If you don’t tell me that you’re doing something with your time, this is the default assumption.

 

Purchase Goods – Shopping for general goods & services takes half a day. When looking for an item, There are three factors to consider: Availability, Quantity, and Quality. When you go shopping, you’re going to roll step 9 or your Haggle skill/Talent (whichever is greater) against a target number of 9 (average merchant’s Haggle of 4 and Perception of 5). The factors of Availability, Quantity, Quality can make it harder to find, however you can make it easier to find by offering to pay more money.

Availability: There is a chart on ED 194 for Availability, but they’re rather vague about the whole thing. Here’s my own breakdown:

 

Everyday (-2) – Food & drink, parchment/paper, ink, tools, clothing, standard animals

Average (+0) – Weapons and armor, any legal adventuring equipment, vehicles

Unusual (+2) – Specialized weapons, non-thread magical equipment, Booster Potions, Kelix’s Poultice, Resist Disease Potions, Light Crystals, magical animals

Rare (+5) – Magic weapons & equipment, illegal weapons, thief tools and equipment, all Blood Charms in the main book, Common thread items, Cure Disease Potion, Healing Potion, Kelia’s Antidote, Last Chance salve

Very rare (+7) – Legendary (Named) thread items and weapons, potions or items you’ve never heard of before (not mentioned in the main book), anything else I don’t want you to have

 

Quantity: For every item past the first that you want, add another +1 to the difficulty.

Quality: Anything magical that's not normally magical (like clothing) is considered to be higher quality. Nicer and magical things are more expensive and harder to find. Add +50% (rounded up) to the cost for increased quality/magic, and move it up one rank on the Availability table. Thus, a standard wool cloak costs 5 silver, and can be found with a 7 or better. A well-woven and impressive wool cloak, or one that keeps itself magically clean, would cost 8 silver, and be found on a 9 or better. Also, these costs increase separately, so if you wanted a really nice-looking cloak and you want it to repel dirt and stains magically, it’s an 11 or better and 10 silver.

Finally, you can make it easier to find something by agreeing to pay more for it. For every +10% above the normal cost, you get –1 to the difficulty, to a maximum of –3. So if you make it known that you’re willing to pay 13 silver for a very nice self-cleaning cloak, you can find it on an 8 or better – they’ll be falling over each other to sell you that cloak, you rich bastard.

Remember also that these target numbers represent 1 half-day of shopping. You can potentially try twice a day, or if you want a lot of rare items, just look to buy two a day. You can also Haggle these prices normally, with one exception: you cannot agree to pay more to lower the target number, and then Haggle the price back down. If you try that, no one will do business with you, you lying shit.

 

Research – This is for researching just about anything, although this will mostly be used for researching Key Knowledges.  This must be done in a settlement somewhere. It is assumed that in this settlement you have access to libraries, scholars, historians, sages and storytellers who can help you find this info. Any major settlement that has a Name on the map can do this for you. The research takes a number of weeks equal to the rank of the Key Knowledge, at a cost of 100 silvers per week. No roll is required, only time and money spent. If you have a knowledge skill relating to the subject, you can make a roll against a target number of 6 plus the Key Knowledge rank, and every success past Average takes one week off the time, down to a minimum of 1 week. Thus, for Phylinius to learn the rank 2 Key Knowledge for his Threaded Pouch (once he learns the Test Knowledge) would take him two weeks and cost 200 silver, unless he rolls a 13 or better with his Pre-Scourge Lore skill.

 

Ritual Magic – Later…

 

Skill Increase – This covers learning new skills as well as increasing existing ones. First, as with so many things, you must find a Tutor. General and Artisan skills take less time to learn than Knowledge skills. Consult the table below for the training time required to advance to the indicated rank. Naturally, you cannot skip ranks, but must proceed from each one to the next, taking the indicated time.