downtime cards, you say? :3
If you don’t know, anon is asking about A Pilot’s Purpose, the tactical, mechsploitation TTRPG!
In between missions in A Pilot’s Purpose, pilots take three “downtime actions,” which all do something discretely beneficial for the players, such as lowering their Frenzy, affixing new parts to their mech, giving them free Equipment, and so on. You can see this kind of mechanic in other games, namely His Majesty the Worm, Blades in the Dark, and Ars Magica.
Something cool about A Pilot’s Purpose is that in addition to the benefit, each downtime action has a small table of random events! For each action taken during that period of downtime, the player rolls on that action’s table and writes down the result on an index card. Then, they hand it to the GM (or, as we call them, the Director.)
Here's an example~! You can see the Pilot's name and callsign at the top, the downtime actions they took, and the results they rolled!
The GM then lays out each player's card before them, and, reading the results, decides which scenes to play out, which to pass over, and in what order!
For a real example that occurred in one of my games: a pilot named Angel decides take Digging action as part of her Downtime, which allows her to progress one of the campaign's Intrigue Tracks. Having seen something curious at her Handler's apartment earlier in the campaign, she chose to progress the "Personal" Intrigue track, hoping to reveal more about her Handler and the rest of the HQ's staff. She notes down the benefits she gets for taking the action, then rolls a d6 for the random result: a 2.
Looking at the result, Angel's player tells the Director that Angel probably snuck back into her Handler's apartment to go through her things.
The Director agrees this is is dramatic, and describes how Angel finds sepia-soaked pictures of her Handler's father founding the Company and building the HQ. Not only does this reveal that the Handler is the heir to the Company, but family photos also reveal that the Handler is one of Angel's fellow pilot's sister. Frustrated that her teammate is rich and connected enough that she could have any life, and chose to be a pilot, Angel screams and tears up the photos. Only to realize her Handler is standing behind her, gun pointed at her head.
What follows is a brutal scene of the Handler leading Angel back to HQ at gunpoint, then throwing her around by her hair and forcing her to clean up the dead body of someone else who dug too deep into the Company's doings and origins.
Everyone at the table is engaged, afraid for Angel’s life. Then, the Director reads that the second Downtime Action Angel took was Chilling Alone, and she rolled a 3.
Not sensing much drama there, the players and the Director briefly describe what that looks like, how Angel is feeling post-body cleanup, then move on quickly.
Even without such a reveal, you can imagine how this mechanic drives fun and drama. Since the rules say that if two players are taking the same downtime action they are most likely doing it in proximity, and the story of the campaign is in part explored through downtime actions (ask me about that next), the game encourages novel, plot-propelling scenes with ever-changing combinations of player characters.
Downtime Cards allows the Director and the players to collaborate and create the most dramatic narrative possible using their characters and the rules of the game. The game uses randomness to suggest scenes, but players deciding themselves which scenes to explore, in what order, and in what detail, is SO fun. Speaking humbly, of course.
So, those are downtime cards! They’re a vital part of the game and perhaps the single most novel part of A Pilot’s Purpose. Although that title may go to the brainwashing…
