The first thing to remember is that downtimes are done on a voluntary basis by the ref(s) involved, so sometimes due to personal real world commitments they may not have time to respond, this is particularly the case when events run very close to each other.
The main purpose of the downtimes is to give you a response to a question that you would need or would like to know before the start of the event to allow you to role-play your character. The Refs will not always have time to answer questions personally at an event before it starts. They also allow you to continue the background story of your character and to do things that are impossible to represent at an event.
Please get your downtimes in promptly as this will help.
Downtimes that arrive less than 4 weeks before the 1st day of the next event will not be answered and the actions you have said you want to do will not have been done.
You get a downtime by playing the system and booking and paying for events, we only answer downtimes for players booked on to events.

• You get a downtime for the event you will be attending, not the one you just played. If you’re not playing the next event your downtime will not be looked at and will need to be resubmitted as a new downtime.

Players are asked to try and abide by guidance rules below, this keeps it fair for all players and keeps the refs workload to a manageable levels. Downtimes are not storable, if you don’t send it before your next event it is lost.

Submitting downtime

You should ideally send the information in the body of an email, but we will accept documents saved as a file and sent as an attachment, or links to writeable Google documents. As there are numerous file formats available, can you please ensure to save any files in an “.rtf “or “.txt” format.
We have seen a few downtimes submitted via social messaging systems, this is not a good way to submit a downtime for us as it makes record keeping and retrieval difficult.
All downtimes go into a pool document for the refs to look at so it’s important they are easy to copy and paste.
Send your Actions and ideally an up to date Character Sheet to: ascendancylrp@gmail.com who will keep a master copy and forward it to appropriate ref to answer.
Please include all relevant details, skills, background, etc about your character.
If you also have not submitted a character sheet with a background to the refs already, please do so on your downtime.
Make the subject/title line of your email “Character name, Downtime, Month” ie “Subject: John Little’s Downtime, January”.
YOU GET ONE DOWNTIME QUESTION ONLY, NOT PER CHARACTER.

Downtime questions

There are many common downtimes that are easily answered, they may be simple but they still count as your one downtime question.
Examples include:

• Visit a psychiatrist to restore a mind point or start the repair of sanity loss.
• Increase a Skill Level by one or find a teacher to improve a skill level by one.
  • NOTE A Teacher is only required upon getting a new skill (level 1) or increasing Skills to levels 4 or 5.
• Attempt to gain a level of influence with a group.
• Raise funds, attempt to gain funds for project.
• Designing a new device/learn a new alchemy formula etc.
• Building/making an item.
• Research/Looking a place/person/item/creature etc.

More complex questions

You may ask one question and one question only no matter what your skills. You should explain what skills & resources you are using and then add as much detail as you wish, but anything over 1/2 page of normal text is probably too much.
For example “I would like to find out how to make Red Viper Snake antidote, so my character John Little will be going to the central library in his main town to look up snake bite antidotes, he will then ask his contacts in the Hatters Guild & visit the local medical practitioner to see what they know about the subject.”
Submit your downtime with an updated character sheet as this helps the refs determine what you can do. This also will help the refs to write plot suitable for your character.
Note: Don’t expect an answer just because you submit a question, you may not get an answer, or even a false answer, it may be a simple ‘You find nothing’ or a comprehensive report, depending what question you ask and the skills and resources at your disposal.

Updates about what your character is doing

As well as your question you may also advise the refs what you have been and will be doing in the future or attempting to do at the next event, this is useful information, but won’t be answered unless you have hit upon a topic that is very relevant.
For example “John Little at the last event made friends with Mr Big and asked for his help on a future matter, he also acquired the Sword of Doom off a dead body so at the next event he wants to do a ritual with the sword.’
This information should be labelled as for information, so it does not get confused with your actual downtime.

Battles

Occasionally we run table top battles, Players that send a character to a battle will not get a downtime question answered, since they are considered involved in travelling, healing, organisation etc. they also may end up with other bonuses and information as result of taking part in the battle.

Additional notes

None of this prevents a player asking refs questions at events when it is appropriate to do so. Likewise if you have a question relating to game mechanics then please still email your questions, the above are only to IC actions.
Making basic items for other PC’s does not necessarily count as your downtime, however making something with abilities beyond being quality well-made items does. For example a quality sharp swords will not require a downtime, but building a imbued magic ring will. If you are making an item request for another player, you may use their downtime to make it, if they allow it. If unsure ask.