DT: Create or Improve Something
This is the category of actions that covers attempting to increase one of the many types of background stat a character has.
Assets
Creating Asset
Creating a new Asset can be done with this Downtime action, and the provision of enough goods.
A check will be made on behalf of the character (or retainer/ghoul) doing the action to see how well they manage this - someone with an appropriate skill to use will have a better outcome than somebody without. Asset building will only fail in very rare circumstances, however a poor check may result in, for example, additional materials being needed the following downtime to finish the job or repair a defect.
Building an asset requires materials equal to 3 x the asset’s rank. The asset rank is listed against the entry here, however if you want to create an asset which is not listed, please speak to the STs. Some examples of existing assets:
Grain Farm is rank 1
Salt Mine and Chapel are both rank 2
Iron Mine and Light Cavalry Stable are both rank 3.
Therefore to build a farm would take 3 goods with the Material type, such as Material (Wood), Material (Stone) and so on. To build a Chapel would take 6, and to build an Iron Mine would take 9.
Assets will begin to produce their output or bonus from the following downtime period, assuming they are managed and given any necessary inputs.
Upgrading Assets
Simple and Complex assets can be given upgrades. This can allow them to provide more goods or a better bonus, be easier to defend, and so on. Available upgrades and their costs can be found on this page. Upgrades will add an additional requirement for upkeep.
Improving Assets
Subtly distinct from an upgrade, the act of improving a complex asset will give it an additional keyword to use, for the flat cost of two goods with the Material type and a downtime action. For example, a Brothel comes as standard with the Blood keyword, meaning that it gives a bonus to feeding checks. However, it could be improved to also have the Rumour keyword.
This does not mean that the Brothel will provide both bonuses at once - the owner must choose which keyword is being used in each downtime period. It will provide either the Blood bonus or the Rumour bonus, not both. If the keyword is not specified, we will always assume it defaults to the original one (Blood in this case).
Simple and Unique assets cannot be improved in this way.
Backgrounds
Allies, Thralls and Resources can all be improved through this action. In order to do so you must provide some detail of your character’s plan, what skills/disciplines etc are being used, and what the increase of the background would look like should it succeed.
Influence
With this action, your character works to improve their standing with a particular faction. It is possible that other actions may gain or lose them standing with factions, but this is a dedicated action where the sole purpose is to gain support from the faction and will therefore grant much larger gains. The write-up of the downtime action should say what your character is specifically doing to improve their standing with the faction - and do be sure to double check that the action is actually something that the faction would approve of! The Order of Saint Benedict is unlikely to be grateful for a pile of dead enemies after all, no matter how impressive.