Downtime

In Death Unto Darkness the world does not stop moving around the players when events end -- the impact of actions taken during an event may continue to ripple outwards and the machinations of Nobles, Enemies and others do not stagnate waiting for your Agents to arrive at the next convenient location to impact them.

And neither do your Agents and their Inquisitors sit idle waiting for these machinations to complete or twiddle their thumbs waiting to be called to action alongside their peers.

Correspondence and Interpersonal Roleplay

A common form of interaction between players is to send letters and emails to each other.

This can be incredibly helpful - an integral pillar of Death Unto Darkness as a system is the gathering of information and a great deal of players get game out of compiling information and comparing notes. We absolutely thrive as a game team on distributing the pieces of puzzles amongst our players and allow them to assemble them as they see fit.

There’s no requirement to do this, it’s perfectly fine to play a character who doesn’t keep track of intelligence and is a blunt instrument deployed to events - but we’ll only clarify or give so much of the puzzle when we write lore sheets and pregame briefs.

Other players like to share these pieces of the puzzle by conversing in character in person or over the internet. The Game Team does not seek to regulate this roleplay, but we ask to be kept informed of the development of interpersonal relationships and information being shared - both because it often has served as inspiration for understanding characters better, and because it helps us benchmark where the player group is at understanding a plot.

Generally, when you send IC Correspondence we would like icmail.deathuntodarkness@gmail.com to be copied in - if you are sending hand-produced correspondence please try to scan it in and send it to us so we’re aware of it. Where you have engaged in interpersonal roleplay we would appreciate any important notes, if it’s just fluff there’s no need to tell us at all, but where you feel something would be important for us to know (you can use your own judgement) if you could report it to writingteam.deathuntodarkness@gmail.com it’ll be handy - though we will not necessarily respond to your message we like to keep notes.

Death by PCs - if your character is going to reveal a deep dark secret and get themselves killed by doing so please talk to the Game Team first we may be planning and writing things based around that deep dark secret and we might want to talk though your decision first just incase you don’t realise you are effectively retiring your character from play.

Corresponding with NPCs is available by request only - please reach out to writingteam.deathuntodarkness@gmail.com before sending it - or wait for us to invite correspondence via a public announcement. Please try to keep correspondence with NPCs short and concise as we will struggle to respond to masses of questions.

Downtime Cycles and Orders

At points between events (schedules permitting), we will open a Downtime Cycle - this will open with a set of Orders - this is an IC update from the Inquisitors of the Prosperitas Conclave, outlining the business of the Conclave during the cycle, and the various missions and investigations being undertaken to thwart the machinations of the enemies of the Imperium. Not -every- issue in the sector will be directly addressed -- the Inquisition does not want to stretch it’s agents too thin, and some issues are outside its purview.

Orders are generally set based on information arising out of events, or sector report, developments which we usually use to signpost the next steps of the story leading into the next events or setting up future events, or resolving plot threads coming out of events.

If you wish to Petition your Inquisitor to issue a certain set of Orders, you should send a OC message to writingteam.deathuntodarkness@gmail.com before we open a Downtime Cycle, in order to make a suggestion - we do NOT make our NPCs omnipotent, you may be aware of a problem that they are not.

After Orders have been posted, they will not change: a Downtime Form will open and you will be able to select the Order your character is choosing to follow (it is ok to ask the writing team via an OC email if your Inquisitor has any preference, but you will never be punished for following any Order unless specifically signposted in a message from your Inquisitor) - if you notice an Order on the form not publicly posted don't select it unless you have been told to - sometimes Inquisitors will issue clandestine requests to specific agents.

After selecting an Order, you have a free text field called "Influence". This is how you think your character will seek to influence the outcome of the Order, this can involve sabotaging it, but there will be consequences for doing so. This is the field to share any information your character knows that you believe will help, as well as any skills or assets they have access to that you think will be important - or simply just describing what your character would do to complete the Order.

Once downtimes close and all influences on an Order have been taken into account, the players of the characters involved will receive a write-up of the results of whatever is undertaken - this will not normally be personalised to the individual and all involved will receive the same writeup. However, where it might be thematic, we may choose to include small tidbits of information that only specific characters might not (as and when we wish, as additional bullet points).

Generic Options

During downtime Cycles there are a handful of generic options available for characters who do not feel any of the options are relevant to their character's current drives.

Aid the Crusade (Generic Option)

Your character chooses to support whatever ongoing conflicts the Prosperitas Crusade is engaged with, as noted by the 'Crusade Objective' section of the Orders for each downtime - this option remains available as long as the Inquisition remains in good standing with the Crusade and Warmaster Khan and is appropriate for military characters wanting to demonstrate their continued alignment to the Crusade and come back with war stories. While this order does not necessarily advance the central narrative path of our events it has a deep impact on the Sector if the Crusade succeeds and fails. Your objectives will be much harder to succeed if the forces of Chaos invade more planets.

Hold Back the Darkness (Generic Option)

It is the duty of the Inquisition to root out threats to the Imperium from within its ranks - and where Orders will cover the most obvious and prevalent issues, there are always cults of the Warp, and the eldritch entity known as The Darkness that need to be held back. This is appropriate for characters who feel none of the Orders for a given cycle fit well with their characters drives but still want to be doing standard Inquisition things. The 'Current Auguries' section gives some clue what one might encounter if you choose this option. While this Order does not necessarily advance the central narrative path of our events it has a deep impact on the Sector if the Cults and corruption grow and spread further and may impact events if Cults, Criminals and Aliens go unchecked.