Toggle Theme

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Starfinder RPG Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition)

All Rules | Downtime Rules
Chapter 6: Other Rules

Downtime

Source Character Operations Manual pg. 150
Not even the most battle-scarred and seasoned mercenary spends every day in combat. Most adventurers have a few days or weeks between jobs, and even if their schedule is packed, interplanetary travel and journeys through the Drift require time—time that can’t be spent fighting foes or exploring. The rules here detail what adventurers might be doing in the quiet times, between the excitement of exploration and the terror of combat.

Downtime is measured in days of 24 consecutive hours of Pact Standard Time. During a day in which you don’t do any adventuring, engage in starship combat, use overland movement, or take part in other time-consuming or demanding activities, you can engage in one of the downtime activities described in this section (you can still engage in a single 8-hour rest). If you begin a downtime activity at the start of a day but that activity is interrupted during the day—for instance, if starship combat breaks out—that downtime activity provides no benefit, and you must start over on a new day. A notable exception to this is the maintain readiness activity (page 153), which provides a benefit when interrupted.

Most of the activities listed in this section include entries for Activity, Results, and Multiday, detailed below. Several downtime activities refer to or expand upon options in the Starfinder Core Rulebook; page references are included for convenience.

Activity: The downtime activity is described here, as well as all requirements for it, including skill checks, saving throws, equipment, starship expansion bays, and similar facilities. You can take 10 or take 20 on skill checks for downtime activities unless otherwise stated (in either these rules or those referenced in the Core Rulebook).

Results: The results of a downtime activity are resolved at the end of the day unless stated otherwise, and many downtime activities grant benefits for the following day. If there are penalties for failure, those are also listed here.

Multiday: If you can perform an activity for a longer period of time to gain a different or improved benefit, that’s listed here. Unless otherwise stated, this time period must be consecutive; if you are interrupted at any point during that interval (such as by a random encounter in the Drift) or if you choose a different downtime activity, you lose any progress made. If you choose to restart the activity, you must start over.