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Downtime in Zyan

Overview

This source is a full downtime framework built for old-school sandbox play. Its central claim is that the white space between expeditions should be procedural, meaningful, and tied back into adventure play.

Instead of hand-waving off-session activity, it gives each character one substantial downtime action and resolves results with a compact 2d6 structure. The result is a repeatable way to grow characters, institutions, relationships, and campaign pressure without replacing exploration-first play.

Core Procedure

Downtime begins when the party returns from an expedition. Each player character may handle ordinary errands freely, but gets one major downtime action per downtime phase.

Each action is resolved by:

  1. Stating approach in the fiction.
  2. Rolling 2d6 with bounded modifiers.
  3. Interpreting outcomes on a failure, mixed success, or success scale.

The design intentionally caps total modifiers, encourages situational framing, and allows other players to assist by giving up their own downtime action.

What It Adds To Campaigns

  • Converts treasure and social capital into long-term campaign change.
  • Gives quieter players a scaffold for meaningful between-session agency.
  • Produces hooks, rivals, obligations, and opportunities that feed future sessions.
  • Bridges low-level play and domain-style play by letting world impact start early.

This is one of the strongest parts of the system: downtime is not a side minigame, but a pressure-and-opportunity loop that feeds expeditions and is fed by them.

High-Value Use Cases

Use this framework when you want:

  • campaigns to feel like they continue between dungeon trips
  • player goals to reshape factions and locations over time
  • procedure-supported worldbuilding that still leaves room for rulings
  • a clear action economy for off-session plans

It is less useful for one-shots or very short arcs where long-horizon consequences do not have time to mature.

Comparison Hooks

Compared with looser downtime handling, this source is notably stronger at:

  • consequence consistency across sessions
  • rewarding long-term plans without requiring domain-level character tiers
  • generating new scenario inputs from player-driven activity

See Also

Sources

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