This page basically unrelated to TT, but related to LARP so it goes here.
Characters have a resource, let's call it 'time', to spend between events. Time may be spent on downtime actions.
List of downtime actions.
- Research. This costs time yada yada, and provides you a skill nobody's teaching you.
- Action. This is required for reasons of Game or Plot, and doesn't grant you a skill but instead gives you some other equivalent benefit.
- Teach. This costs a certain amount of time based on the skill you are trying to teach, and provides a skill to one or more other people.
- Make Stuff. This costs time yada yada, requires a Make Stuff skill, and provides you with Stuff.
- Mess With The World. This costs time yada yada, and lets you pick from a list of cool actions the refs have provided you, each of them basically a slice of plot pie.
Problem. For 'game balance reasons', there may be skills in the system that aren't much cop when you buy them, but which lead on to greater things. Buy-ins, if you like. People seem to really, really, really like buy-ins, they crop up all over the place. Basically they provide niche protection for your big wizard dude - respect him, for he put a whole year's being-crap into becoming awesome. Unfortunately, it sucks to be people who have invested in these skills, until they have finished their research.
- Possible Solution. Your buy-in skill comes with a briefing and lore sheet - basically granting you much of the investigative ability but none of the direct-power stuff that your research will give you. This is TT's solution. Still sucks to be you, but you can Detect Plot at a distance of ten centimetres and Recognise Plot by ten second rite.
- Possible Solution. You are only charged for the buy-in skill when you buy an awesome skill that requires it. Until that time, you have other skills, which you lose when you finish your research. Actually, I really like this idea and may develop it further.
- For example: The actual 'research' part of the "Holy Smite" skill involves summoning an angel down to live in your body for six months. For that time, you have appropriate abilities. Then the angel goes away, and you no longer have those abilities but can instead smite people in a holy fashion.
- For another example: Research is backwards. You gain the skill first, then it is six months until you may gain another. Your 'speed-bump' is an awesome ability with a long research cooldown.
- Idea from Valtiel: Performing magic involves putting your soul in Grave Peril. Learning a new spell is easy. The moment you cast a new spell, your soul becomes flooded with magic for the rest of the day, and stands out to demons like a Big Glowing Beacon. Luckily, being a competent wizard, you can protect it. After learning to cast a spell, you spend a couple of months learning how to cast the spell without flooding your soul with magic in the process. Flooding your soul with magic from two different sources usually results in it being Eaten By Demons. In game mechanic terms, you pay a small XP cost for the "Grave Peril" version of a spell, but if you try to cast two Grave Peril spells in one day then bad things happen to you. There is a larger XP cost for the safe version of a spell, but you need to know the Grave Peril version first.
- Um.
Problem. While you are spending your time making Stuff, you are not spending it learning skills. But people need Stuff - just not you.
- Possible Solution. Making Stuff also counts as research into the 'Make Better Stuff' or 'Use Stuff' skill.
- Possible Solution. You have a separate pool of time for Research and for Actions. This is the Eos solution, my jury's still out.