Downtimes are the weeks that pass between game sessions. During this time, your character does not exist in suspended animation, but rather goes about her normal business and even accomplishes significant tasks. To reflect what happens in the spaces in between, to foster further intrigue and plot, and to bring certain long-term talents to bear, all players may fill out the template and send it to the Storytellers via e-mail.

Downtime Format and Due Date

E-mail your downtime report to TCGarouSTs@gmail.com by midnight on the Friday one week before each game.

Use "Character Name Downtimes" as the subject of your e-mail, e.g., "Golgol Fangs-First Downtimes."

If you want your downtimes to be private from your teachers use this format: Learning Rites and Lores Confirmations. You DO STILL HAVE TO STILL SPEND THE DOWNTIME ON LEARNING even if you use this format.

Copy the following template, fill it out, and send it:

The Downtime E-Mail Explained

1. Major Events from the Last Game

In the first numbered section, describe the major events your character participated in at the last game. This helps the Storytellers keep informed of everything important that's going on.

2 and 3. First and Second Major Downtime Actions

In the third and fourth numbered sections, describe the two major activities your character attempts between sessions. Each one represents about six days of focused effort on your character's part. If your character's goals require more effort than this, the Storytellers will respond with your progress toward those goals. For traits, abilities, backgrounds, tempers, etc, all levels ("dots") are available to be listed unless it is permanently bound or the source granting the dot states an exception.

Use the following sub-format for these sections:

• ST: Include the name of the ST that is responsible for this plot. If none currently exists, this can be left blank. 
• Goal: Describe your overall goal in a single, simple statement. Example: Looking for Dracula to get the money he owes me.
• Means: List the relevant Traits, Abilities, Backgrounds, Gifts and other advantages you can bring to bear toward this goal (with ST approval). Example: rite Questing stone, gift open seal, area knowledge, 10 mental, 9 physicals and 8 socials, awareness x2, brawl x3
• Method: Here, give a detailed description of how your character accomplishes their goal. Example: I know where this jerk lives. I am going to break into his house and demand he pay me back the money he owes me. If he talks back i am gonna try to beat him up.

Here are some examples of the sort of goals appropriate for a downtime:

• Scout out a neighborhood for signs of supernatural creatures
• Travel to another state/country through conventional means.
• Travel to a friendly Umbral Realm through unconventional means.
• Look for trouble.
• Destroy found trouble, if it's routine and not too dangerous.

If any goal you attempt is particularly risky, the Storytellers may not be able to adjudicate it through a Downtime e-mail. You may need to request a scene from them during a game session instead. They will inform you of this in their response to your downtime. 

You may also spend your Major Downtime Actions doing things that can be done in Development actions, as detailed below.

4 and 5. First and Second Development Actions

In the fifth and sixth sections, you focus on actions that grow and develop your sheet, or create items that will benefit the game floor. These actions can be used to:

• Learn rites from others (2 minor or 1 basic per Downtime action, 2 Downtimes for intermediate, 4 Downtimes for advanced)
• Create talens (2 for non-theurges, 3 for theurges)
• Create plot to justify purchasing Backgrounds, exotic Lores/Abilities, Influences, Merits, etc with ST approval.
• Create plot to justify buying off Flaws, Derangements, Negative Traits, etc.
• Crafting Items, creating a Ritual, creating a Gift, or creating a custom Martial Art.

ONLY actions of this sort can be taken in development actions. Any other sorts of actions would be done in Major Downtime actions, detailed above. You can use these for shelved characters to justify the spends when you play them again. Using these for a shelved character means you cannot use it for your active character.

6. *** Storyteller/Player Rep/Council Member/XP Lord/Cleanup Helper/Den Parent Action

A special extra downtime you can receive for helping the game. Works like a Development downtime action. Only two special downtimes can be gained from any game, one for holding a position that aids the game (ST, Player Rep, Council Member, XP Lord, or Den Parent) and one for helping with cleanup after game. Special downtimes gained on 5th Saturday games may be utilized during the first downtime cycle of the next month in addition to any special downtimes gained from the 1st Saturday game.

7. Influence/Allies/Kinfolk/Contacts/Spirit Network

Simple instructions to Influences, contacts, spirit network, Allies, and Kinfolk belong here. Keep in mind that kinfolk and contacts seldom have access to Gnosis or the supernatural directly, thus, they can only assist on mundane tasks. This downtime is good for getting forged IDs, borrowing cash, learning about the pulse of the city, shopping for basic hunting gear, and other simple tasks where a Garou struggles to blend in with the crowd. Allies and Spirits Networks will be limited to their own skill sets and will not always have a reliable answer. The level of your Influence can determine what actions are possible. The level of your Allies and Kinfolk count as a 1-to-1 representation of an ability being called to use. The level of your Contacts and Spirit Network also translate 1-to-1 in the form of Influences for information-only purposes.

Obtaining Items with Kinfolk, Contacts, or Allies

Allies, Contacts, and Kinfolk can help you obtain items. Your Kinfolk can make small purchases using your Resources (see below), but you can also use any of these three backgrounds to have your companions or friends seek out special items (for the Rite of the Fetish, etc.)  You may obtain an item of up to Crafts 5 this way, although these Crafts items will not gain additional effects (no +1 Damage, no Mastercraft, etc.) To obtain an item with a Crafts Rating of X, you must spend X dots of these backgrounds (total - you can mix and match.) This takes one week per Crafts item - so it'll be one Downtime for Crafts 1 or 2, two Downtimes for Crafts 3 and 4, and three Downtimes for Crafts 5. 

Kinfolk-Specific Downtime Mechanics

These rules apply to the Kinfolk background for Garou. The Colony background for Ratkin can take any action allowed for Homid Kinfolk here, along with its other uses.

Homid Kinfolk

You may expend 1 dot of Homid Kinfolk to:

• Research a canonical Fetish. (See Fetish Creation rules.)

• Go to places and perform basic tasks that might be impaired by your Rage, such as making small purchases or picking up dry cleaning.

You may expend 3 dots of Homid Kinfolk to:

• Gain a single development action towards an Influence, up to the second level. It can't be the last development for that level. 

• Find out public information about an individual who's known to the local Kinfolk community. Generally speaking, this means other Gaian Garou or Kinfolk, and it's often not a lot.

You may expend 5 dots of Homid Kinfolk to:

• Gain a single development action towards an Influence, up to the third level. It can't be the last development for that level.  

Lupus Kinfolk

You may expend dots of Lupus kinfolk to patrol a small area of wilderness in which wolves can move relatively frequently, and get a broad description of what the Kinfolk notice. Lupus Kinfolk are intelligent animals, but they are still animals, and their observations may not always be clear. You may cover about a 5 mile x 5 mile square per dot of Kinfolk.

8. Minor Downtime Actions

Use this section to list very simple additional activities your character performs during the downtime, but for which you need little or no feedback from the Storytellers. They should be able to respond with yes/no actions, a few words of description, or simple acknowledgment of your character's efforts. You can use these to describe what your shelved character is doing.

9. Pack Downtime Action (Pack Alphas Only)

If your character is the Alpha of a pack that has at least 2 other active PCs in our chronicle (for a total of at least 3 in the pack), you receive one final Downtime activity that represents the coordinated effort of your pack members. Use the same ST, Goal, Means and Method format as in your personal downtime actions, but be sure to describe what resources your packmates can bring to bear. This functions with the same scope of a Major Downtime and can be spent to assist one member of a pack in accomplishing things normally possible with a Major Downtime (such as helping one packmate develop a background or merit) or spent to pursue a plot using abilities from all characters. Pack Downtimes spent for learning basic or minor rituals allow all members of the pack to learn that rite. Pack Downtimes spent on talen creation create 2 talens, unless the pack has a Theurge, then they gain 3.               

Special Downtime Rule: Long-Term Projects

At times, PCs may embark on long-term projects that will require a number of Downtime Actions. Developing the Merit Jupiter Rising, for instance, takes 35 Downtime Actions, or over four months of dedicated Downtimes. This requires a lot of emails that are ultimately the same, putting extra work on both the player and the Storytellers.

When a single character is undertaking a single project with a defined amount of downtimes (such as creating a Rite, developing a Custom Martial Art, or developing a high-point Merit), and they don't intend to do anything in downtimes but work on the project until it's complete, the player may send in a single downtime email detailing this project. The email must contain the following:

•  The goal of the project. ("Develop the Merit Jupiter Rising, which I've been approved for")
• How many downtimes the project will take. (35 Downtimes)
• The means and method for the project as usual. (Means: Garou Astrology x5, Meditation x5, Spirit Lore x5. Method: imagine I've written a cool description of studying Zarok while meditating on a mountain or something)
• The date or downtime cycle that the project will be completed. (August 21st, 2001)
• Any Minor Rites that your PC will continue to perform the whole time, for bookkeeping purposes. (I'm still performing Greet the Sun and Greet the Moon every day). 

The STs will then approve or deny the beginning of this project. Once the time has elapsed and the project's completion date is reached, it is the responsibility of the player whose character is undertaking the project to bump the original project email with a new email reminding the STs that this project is completed.

This can only be done for things wherein a single PC is devoting all downtimes to a single form of pre-defined development. If a character's downtimes contain unique actions for Major Actions, this system may not be used, because the unique actions require attention of STs.