So I've been pondering ways players might have their characters spend time periods while adventuring. Sometimes things can take a large chunk of time and between adventures I always imply there's a decent amount of time passing.

I know DH2 already has a few subsystems in it to engage in from the splat books, but I was thinking of some more.

One I thought of (inspired by Rollplay: Court of Swords) was getting a new divination. Players visit an Imperial Tarot reader to see how their fate has been altered from their adventures. They re-roll their divination, and may choose from the straight roll or the inverse (for example 39 or 93).

Was thinking of importing the Contact system from DH1's Inquisitor's Handbook as well, but don't know how that might mesh with the Requisition system. I think it'd work fairly well.

Anyone have similar ideas?

Are we talking about spending days/weeks during an adventure, or weeks/months/years between adventures? You're alternating between both in your first paragraph, and my answer would be different for each.

During adventures, I'd always make it depend on the location. Different worlds will offer different pastimes. A stroll through the market might offer an opportunity to acquire new gear. Shady characters might depart for a few days to make contacts in the local underworld, whilst more analytical agents could sift data and make a few rolls concerning leads/hints. I also like the idea about the tarot/divinations, although I think it would only really fit to very spiritual folks, which may not apply to every single character even in the Imperium. The general idea would be to taylor these opportunities to the different characters and their roles/personalities/interests -- although the players should ideally make suggestions by themselves, rather than having the GM tell them where to go in their spare time.

As for between adventures, I would say this is up to the individual character's background. Some agents still have ties to public institutions in the Imperium and may partake in official business, while more independent characters may wander off to pursue their own agenda. DH1 actually had the right idea when it talked about downtime, although I maintain that its suggestions did not fit to every class and should not have gone quite as far. For example, I doubt that an Imperial Guard soldier who managed to get recruited by the Inquisition will just return to their regiment's current warzone, disappearing and showing up again every few months without people asking questions. A priest from planet A temporarily tending to the spiritual needs of random citizens on planet B? Sure. Wandering missionaries are a thing with the Ecclesiarchy. And there's always alternatives where a character's old lifepath wouldn't fit -- the aforementioned soldier, for example, could sign on as some noble's bodyguard, or do some mercenary work, or go fight in the cages like John Rambo. Worst case, the Inquisition will find them something to do behind the scenes, be it training at an Inquisitorial Fortress or an assignment that only gets mentioned in passing as you tell your players what their characters did over the past six months.

10 hours ago, Lynata said:

Are we talking about spending days/weeks during an adventure, or weeks/months/years between adventures? You're alternating between both in your first paragraph, and my answer would be different for each.

I would think it depends on the amount of time honestly. You can get some stuff going even in an hour depending on where you're at and what you're trying to do.

10 hours ago, Lynata said:

DH1 actually had the right idea when it talked about downtime, although I maintain that its suggestions did not fit to every class and should not have gone quite as far. For example, I doubt that an Imperial Guard soldier who managed to get recruited by the Inquisition will just return to their regiment's current warzone, disappearing and showing up again every few months without people asking questions. A priest from planet A temporarily tending to the spiritual needs of random citizens on planet B? Sure. Wandering missionaries are a thing with the Ecclesiarchy. And there's always alternatives where a character's old lifepath wouldn't fit -- the aforementioned soldier, for example, could sign on as some noble's bodyguard, or do some mercenary work, or go fight in the cages like John Rambo. Worst case, the Inquisition will find them something to do behind the scenes, be it training at an Inquisitorial Fortress or an assignment that only gets mentioned in passing as you tell your players what their characters did over the past six months.

Did DH1 specifically talk about downtime? Or are you referring to the career descriptions in general?

7 hours ago, ThenDoctor said:

Did DH1 specifically talk about downtime? Or are you referring to the career descriptions in general?

More or less -- the book was rather specific about some of the careers when it mentioned how the Scum gets their income, for example, or how Sororitas Novices would return to their convents in-between assignments. It was all part of the career or crafting or income descriptions and other such texts; there was no specific sections for handling downtime per se, but there was enough that'd give you an idea. I would go as far as saying it made a specific paragraph for downtime redundant, unless you wanted to be extra-specific with stuff like dice rolls.

The following is what I use as a foundation for acolytes in a religious and crazy society that is 40k...

This list was derived from the video game Darkest Dungeon - which had "downtime" mechanics for your "heroes" to partake in.

So the idea is each "setting" or activity can alleviate Sanity gains...
On top of which a crafty GM can then devise other activities maybe not tied to actual game mechanics but more to the RP aspect certain players clamor for?

Cloister to me sounds like it has manuscripts, books, scroll, and the like > if I were a player looking to learning a new Lore Skill - that would be my catalyst of play (i.e. how it happened)...

Without actually defining in stone what each location can do - its then open ended enough / flexible to scale - as all encompassing or narrow focused you choose to make each place.

In the Core Book an acolyte can rid themselves of a Sanity Point for 100xp

In my campaign I took this idea a step futher;

Headquarters = 50 xp per Sanity Point removal
Loved One = 25 xp per SP removal

Now a headquarters can be lost via Subtly losses and just poor attention to details on the players part - so as good as this is it can be lost; and re-outfitting a new headquarters "yourselves" should be a challenge (think Endeavor from Rouge Trader) in and of itself...

On the players start jumping world to world finding a sound headquarters may become problematic to non-existent!

Loved Ones; perfect target for any GM worth their salt to target (just too easy) - but otherwise the concept here is > character falls in love or has a loved one they can confide with... (its a concept I believe taken from the Gumshoe System for COC).

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Headquarters
Base of Operations

Abbey
Cloister
Transept
Penance Hall

Hostelry
Bar
Gambling
Brothel

Sanitarium
Treatment Library
Medical Devices
Patient Cells

Inglenook
Weaponsmith
Armorsmith
Furnace