Downtime Rules

Not every hour in Crimson Blues is spent on the road or in the heat of combat. Between desperate drives across the Outback and gun battles in jungle clearings, there are periods of genuine calm: days spent in a township pub nursing cold beers and having dangerous conversations, mornings in a city hotel counting wounds and what remains of the kitty, evenings spent doing the sort of thing that cannot be easily explained to authorities.

These rules govern what happens during those periods. They are organised around Downtime, any period when the party is settled in a location, not actively travelling or in an Engagement. Downtime can last anywhere from a single afternoon to several weeks, and what the party does with it shapes them as much as any firefight.

During downtime, SUPPLY is assumed to be easily maintained through normal commerce. The party does not track its consumption while in a settlement with functioning markets. Daily food and lodging costs are subsumed into the Services prices listed in this document.

Each full day of downtime, every party member may undertake one Primary Activity and any number of Incidental Activities. Primary Activities represent the focus of the day, the thing that actually takes time and attention. Incidental Activities are things that happen in the margins: eating meals, brief social conversations, checking the job board at the guildhouse, writing correspondence, or buying a round of ammunition at the corner shop. They require no dedicated time and impose no mechanical cost.

Settlement Scale

Not every Oceanykan settlement offers the same resources. Before beginning downtime, the GM should establish what kind of settlement the party is in.

Outpost

Population in the hundreds, perhaps over a thousand. A mining camp, a fishing village, a farming compound, a remote railway siding, or a bush township that has not quite decided whether it is a town yet. Services are minimal but hospitality is often genuine. Everyone knows everyone, and strangers are noticed immediately.

Available Services: Basic lodging, food and basic supplies, first aid, informal repairs, local information.

Township

Population from a few thousand to a few tens of thousands. A functioning community with commerce, civic infrastructure, and at least rudimentary law enforcement. Townships have markets, medical facilities, mechanics, arms dealers of varying legality, and a more complex social landscape.

Available Services: All Outpost services plus proper lodging, medical care, vehicle repair, arms trading, legal and illegal goods markets, professional hire.

City

Population in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. The largest of these is the capital City of Cestlep 🌆 in southern Oceanyka, a true megalopolis. Cities are everything Oceanyka is, amplified: opportunity, danger, luxury, squalor, political complexity, and the constant background hum of factions manoeuvring against each other.

Available Services: All Township services plus hospitals, specialist professionals, black markets, faction headquarters, government institutions, and things that cannot be found anywhere else.

Rest & Recovery

The most fundamental purpose of downtime is getting the party back on their feet. Recovery depends on two factors: the quality of shelter and the quality of medical attention received.

Recovery is calculated per full day of rest. A full day means the creature is not travelling, not engaging in strenuous physical activity, and has reliable access to food and water.

These rates are cumulative across days. CHPS recovers more slowly because it represents deeper systemic damage to, such as that of vital organs. Even hospital care restores only half per day, meaning a creature who has burned through their CHPS pool needs several days of proper attention before they are genuinely whole again.

If a character possesses First Aid 4, they are able to provide Basic Care to the entire party, including themselves.
If a character possesses Medicine 3, they are able to provide Medical Care to the entire party, including themselves.

Status Effects

Most Status Effects resolve naturally after a full day of proper rest. The following are exceptions:

• Serious conditions: Insane, Catatonic, Possessed, Crippled, Soulwound, Addicted and severe infections require active medical or psionic intervention and do not resolve through rest alone. A physician, a Sorcerer with appropriate knowledge, or specific items are required.
  
  
• Permanent conditions: Cancerous, Brainrot, Amputated and Hollowed may not fully resolve through any amount of rest and may require extremely specialised treatment.

If a character with mental afflictions (Insane, Catatonic) or psionic afflictions (Soulwound, Hollowed, Possessed) can be treated by a character with the appropriate level of the Neurology General Skill, provided they have at least Hospital Care.

Sorcery

Downtime Activities

The GM is encouraged to play these out as scenes rather than rolling tables wherever possible. A day spent carousing is more interesting as a conversation with a fascinating stranger than as a dice result. Activities marked as [PRIMARY] take a full day. Activities marked as [INCIDENTAL] can be done alongside any primary activity.

[PRIMARY] - Rest and Recuperate

The character does nothing of particular consequence. They sleep, eat, read, sit in the sun, and allow their body to heal. No skill checks required. Recovery proceeds at the standard rate for their current care level.

Benefit: Full daily recovery. No complications.

[PRIMARY] - Seek Medical Attention

The character actively pursues proper medical care: visiting a clinic, finding a doctor, having wounds properly dressed and treated. Requires a Township or City and payment for services.

Benefit: Moves the character to the Medical Care or Hospital recovery rate for that day, depending on what is available.

In settlements where no formal medical care exists, the character may attempt to locate an informal practitioner with a WIS skill check. Success provides basic care rates. Failure means no improvement beyond camping rates.

[PRIMARY] - Carouse

The character spends the day and evening socialising: drinking, talking, gambling, and making themselves present in the community. Carousing is one of the most productive things a party can do in terms of information and contacts, and one of the most likely to cause complications.

Benefit: Roll on the Carousing Results table below.

Restriction: Carousing attracts attention. If the character's Heat is already 2 or higher, carousing causes +1 Heat.

Recovery: A day spent carousing counts as basic care at best, regardless of lodging, due to the effects of alcohol, late nights, and general excess on the healing body.

[PRIMARY] - Gather Intelligence

The character spends the day deliberately collecting information: visiting archives, speaking to informants, monitoring radio traffic, making discreet enquiries, or analysing documents. Requires an INT or WIS skill check modified by the Investigation General Skill.