Author: Mark Cleveland Massengale (SaveMeJebu5)

P153 (Downtime Activities): “You can only attempt actions that you’re in a position to accomplish. If an activity is contingent on another action, resolve that action first.”

My current set of players keep an eye on their heat tracker and wanted levels, frequently wanting to reduce heat and take dangerous actions to finish projects, train, etc. The characters are often in a position (often, a risky one) to reduce heat in one way or another (which I take to mean being “contingent on another action”). Hence, I read this to be saying Resolve the action to deal with the danger first to get them into position to safely take the DTA, and the reduce heat DTA instructions to then be adding to make a downtime activity roll using an action rating (not an action roll) to determine how much heat is reduced.

Problem is: these are going to be the same action roll, and it feels weird to do that (the first result, for the action roll to get into position, could be a Critical, then the second one to determine the DTA result could be a 1-3, reducing only 1 heat). The alternative seems to be to have them be one roll, but then this directly opposes the instructions in the quoted text. This leads me to wonder: am I reading too deeply into the directions in the quoted lines, thereby placing unnecessary layers of complexity between the PCs and their goals in downtime? Maybe I am missing something? Something else?

In free play, what would you say when a player is trying to angle for a Sway roll to impersonate an NPC to get 1 coin from another NPC? Then, after finding out it is desperate, they note their fine disguise kit (removing tier as a factor, since it was one), and ability for Master of Disguise ability for +1 effect level, arguing that should be 3 coin on the line, not 1?

It’s not an operation. Can they even do this? Seems “weasel-y” at best to sidestep a score to gain coin – especially when the game gives several methods built for getting stuff permanently (LTPs, upgrades), getting stuff temporarily (acquire asset) or conning your way to a few silver pieces – all of which tend to require action rolls as well as other expenses. At worst, it seems “bad GMing” of me to allow a single action roll for 3 coin when the last score netted 4 coin and required a series of actions.

So I guess it’s off to Discord, eh! What with the recent announcement about G+ and all..

[PS: not that serious of a suggestion]

How would you handle a PC who wants to acquire an asset during free play? To clarify why I am asking, despite the fact there is a downtime action designed to do this: “By default, the game is in free play. The characters talk to each other, they go places, they do things, they make rolls as needed.” [p.8]

This is actions during downtime which includes: Character Scenes, Actions & Consequences, Gather Information.

Disallowing came to mind, but felt a bit restrictive. So I have been assuming risks of:

* you upset them; lose this opportunity until the next downtime phase – but you could spend a downtime activity to acquire as usual

* you owe them a favor which will create an entanglement if you didn’t repay them from your payoff

but I am interested in opinions about these two I chose, and other ideas..