Project Roll

As a respite activity (see Respite in Chapter 1: The Basics), you make a project roll for one of your own projects. Alternatively, you can make a project roll to contribute to another hero's project. A project roll is a test with a special outcome that isn't divided into tiers. The characteristic used in the test is determined by the project.

When you make a project roll, the total—no matter how low—becomes project points that are accrued by the project. Even if you have a penalty on a project roll, the minimum total for the roll is 1. If you obtain a critical success—a natural 19 or 20—on a project roll, this is called a breakthrough, and you can make another project roll for the same project as part of the same respite activity.

A downtime project is complete when it accrues project points equal to or greater than its project goal-the number of points it takes to complete the project, noted in each project's description.

As you work on a downtime project, the Director can add events that help form the narrative of your research, crafting, or other activities. These events might provide unexpected benefits or challenges as you work on your project, to help make the journey as dramatic as arriving at the destination. See For the Director: Project Events below for more information.

Project Roll Edges and Banes

Since project rolls don't use success tiers, they don't follow the usual rules for double edges and double banes. If you gain an edge on a project roll, you add 2 to the roll, as usual. But if you have a double edge, you add 4 to the roll. Likewise, you subtract 2 from a project roll that takes a bane, and you subtract 4 from a roll that has a double bane.

Skills and Project Rolls

You can apply skills from either the crafting or lore skill groups to project rolls that directly relate to a downtime project (see Skills in Chapter 9: Tests). For example, you could use the Tailoring skill for project rolls related to making a magic cloak, and you could use the History skill while attempting to research the location of an ancient battle where a magic crown was lost. At the Director's discretion, you can also use skills from other skill groups, but a skill used for a project roll must be directly related to the project.

Language and Project Rolls

If you know the language of a project source, you can make a project roll without any issues. If you don't know the language of the source but you know a related language, the project roll takes a bane. If you don't know the source's language or a related language, the project roll has a double bane.

Guides

Heroes sometimes find guides—special books, schematics, knowledgeable NPCs, supernatural recordings, and so forth—providing important and easy-to-understand information relating to a downtime project. Each guide has a knowledge value and a connection to a specific project that greatly decreases the time required to complete the project. When a hero studies a guide as a respite activity, they gain the guide's knowledge value as project points toward its project. The guide can't be used with that specific instance of the project again, though it can be used for a different project of the same type.

Guides are awarded at the Director's discretion, usually as a tool that can be used to increase the speed of complex projects for campaigns with little downtime. For example, the Build Airship downtime project has a project goal of 3,000, requiring a fair bit of downtime. But if a hero finds a manual that describes how to craft an airship and grants them 1,000 or more project points toward the Build Airship project, the crafting time can be significantly reduced.

A guide must provide its information in a language you understand for you to gain its full benefit. If a guide uses a language related to one you know, you gain only half the guide's knowledge value (rounded down) as project points toward your project.

For the Director: Project Events

Project events are story events that present boons and challenges to heroes as they complete research and crafting projects. These events are entirely optional. If your group prefers a game where the heroes simply work toward their goals by making project rolls, that's fine. But using these events can help a Director inject more drama into the processes of research and crafting.

When To Use Project Events

Projects don't need an event every time a hero makes a project roll. If they did, the heroes would likely spend all their time trying to manage their projects and never do any adventuring. Instead, you as the Director pick one of the following methods to determine when an event occurs during a downtime project. You can always switch up the method you use during a campaign, doing whatever you think works best for the current situation.

Roll for Event

If you want events to be a surprise for you as much as for the other players, then once during any respite when one or more heroes makes a project roll, roll a d6. On a 6, an event occurs. This is a good option if you enjoy coming up with story on the fly during play.

Event Milestones

If you want to guarantee that events occur during a downtime project, use event milestones based on project points. When the project accrues a certain number of points, an event occurs the next time a hero wants to make a project roll. This approach works well if you want to plan your event in detail before it occurs.

You can use the Suggested Event Milestones table to determine when an event should occur during a project.

Suggested Event Milestones

Whenever You Want

Whenever you think the heroes could use a little drama during a respite, throw in an event. This approach allows you to plan an event in detail when a downtime project starts, then deploy it at the most dramatic moment—or even throw it in during an encounter if you're feeling saucy!

Deploying Events

A project event occurs when a hero makes a project roll. You can roll for or choose an event from the appropriate events prompts table, or use the tables to inspire your own events. Each event entry on the table is a narrative prompt written for you as the Director, and which you can change and flesh out as you determine. Each event specifies whether it occurs before or after the project roll is resolved.

Automatic Breakthrough

If an event grants an automatic breakthrough on a downtime project, the project gains 20 project points and the hero can make another project roll for the same project as part of the same respite activity.