The Astrological Calendar of Amalthea is much more precise than our real world calendar. It has 12 months of exactly 30 days each. In Tisoria, each week is 7 days as in real life, with 5 work days and 2 rest days, although this only applies strictly to the working class. Adventurers and the wealthy are free to work or idle as they choose.
One month in character roughly equates to one month out of character, although the precise order of events within a month is vague unless there’s a causal sequence. When a player starts a scene, they must decide if that scene is current, or flashback. A current scene is up to date, and occurs somewhere in the month when it started. A flashback scene takes place months or even years in the past. Scenes are assumed to be current, unless explicitly labeled as a flashback. Players can have as many concurrent scenes as they wish, and are under no rush to finish old scenes that began in previous months. However, they must conclude a scene if they wish to start new scenes that directly result from events in that previous scene.
The following table shows the in- and out-of-character analogues for each month:
| Amalthean Month | Real Life Equivalent | Season |
|---|
| Allerasil | January | Winter |
| Saphrillan | February | Winter |
| Surocan | March | Spring |
| Vardathil | April | Spring |
| Khalaman | May | Spring |
| Imrathil | June | Summer |
| Acamaran | July | Summer |
| Valkyan | August | Summer |
| Illia | September | Autumn |
| Vethunil | October | Autumn |
| Khiritil | November | Autumn |
| Zugoran | December | Winter |
Downtime
At the start of each real life month, you are given 30 days of downtime to spend on downtime activities, with 8 hours to spend during each day. You may go on quests as you please without consuming any downtime days. You can choose to spend any number of downtime days at any point in the month. At the end of each month, you have a 5-day grace period to use up any unused downtime, after which the previous month's downtime is no longer available.
The following activities consume downtime:
Class Feature Modification
Some classes, such as the Armiger, Armorist, and Technician, can spend 8 hours modifying special equipment granted by their class features. Modifying equipment this way consumes 1 downtime day.
Crafting
In Amalthea, the creation of magic items relies on complex processes performed by multiple experts with access to industrial forges or arcane workshops. Crafting magic items on one’s own, especially as an adventurer without a lot of free time, is a difficult and costly process. However, pre-processed materials can be purchased, and crafting facilities can be rented, by adventurers in good standing with Factions that provide them, no matter the adventurer's personal skill level. Because of this, crafting rules in Amalthea are modified from vanilla, as follows:
- By default, you may only craft or purchase magic items with a maximum cost of 1500GP. To obtain more expensive items, you must have Favor with a corresponding Faction (see Factions and Favor).
- The crafting cost of all mundane and magic items is 80% of the purchasing price, and cannot be reduced by any class features, feats, or other abilities. The exception is ammunition for weapons, which may be crafted normally, but you may not craft ammunition for sale.
- The selling price of all mundane and magic items is also 80% of the purchasing price.
- Mundane crafting tracks progress by day, rather than by week.
- Item creation feats have no caster level prerequisites.
- Race, class, or alignment prerequisites for crafting can be ignored, unless the item itself possesses an alignment, or it bestows or modifies a class feature. In the latter case, any character with an equivalent class feature qualifies. For example, a 10th level Life Oracle or Soul Weaver meets the requirements for a Phylactery of Positive Channeling.
- You may not craft any banned items, including the following "Big 6" and stat boost items:
- Amulet of Natural Armor
- Belt of Physical Ability
- Cloak of Resistance
- Headband of Mental Ability
- Ioun Stone of Physical/Mental Ability
- Manual of Physical Ability
- Protean Cloak
- Ring of Protection
- Ring of Resistance
- Tome of Mental Ability
- Magical weapons and armor don’t need an enhancement bonus to have a special property applied to them. In fact, magical weapons and armor can’t have enhancement bonuses at all. Unarmed and unarmored items follow similar rules.
- You can craft more than 1 magic item in a day, if the item's crafting time is less than 8 hours. However, you may not spend more than 8 hours a day crafting.
- Temporary bonuses can only be applied to crafting checks if their duration is 1 hour/level or longer.
Crafting Vanilla Items
Plenty of vanilla magic items require Vancian spells not accessible to a Spherecaster. To fulfill spellcasting requirements, use the following rules:
- Consult the following table to determine the base spheres associated with that item, based on the school, subschool, or effect of required spells. You must have at least one of the item’s associated base spheres to craft that item, and your caster level in that sphere must be equal to or higher than the item’s caster level
| Spell School, Subschool, or Effect | Sphere Equivalent |
|---|
| Abjuration (good, evil, lawful, chaotic) |
Fate, Protection |
| Abjuration (others) |
Protection |
| Conjuration (calling, summoning) |
Conjuration |
| Conjuration (creation) |
Creation |
| Conjuration (healing) |
Life, effects that heal others directly |
| Conjuration (teleportation) |
Warp |
| Conjuration (other) |
Warp |
| Divination (mind-affecting) |
Divination, Mind |
| Divination (other) |
Divination |
| Evocation (darkness) |
Dark |
| Evocation (light) |
Light, Destruction |
| Evocation (force) spells that don’t deal damage |
Telekinesis |
| Evocation (other) |
Destruction, Nature |
| Enchantment spells that grant morale bonus |
Mind, War |
| Enchantment (other) |
Mind |
| Illusion |
Illusion |
| Necromancy spells that create undead |
Death |
| Necromancy (other) |
Blood, Death |
| Transmutation (polymorph) |
Alteration |
| Transmutation (earth, air, fire, water) |
Nature, Weather |
| Transmutation spells that manipulate space |
Warp |
| Transmutation spells that manipulate time |
Time |
| Transmutation spells with telekinesis or gravity effects |
Telekinesis |
| Transmutation (other) |
Creation, Enhancement |
| Universal |
Mana |
- If the spells have descriptors, you must also possess talents with the same descriptors. Consult the Using Spheres of Power page for how to determine the descriptors of sphere effects.
- You can qualify for a spell’s descriptors with talents from different spheres, and they don’t have to be from the item’s base sphere.
- If multiple spells have the same descriptor, you can use a single talent to qualify for all of them.
- If you don’t have the associated base sphere or descriptor for a spell, you don’t meet the requirement for that spell, and must increase the item’s craft DC as normal.
- Since Mana Sphere is banned, items that require one or more Universal spells have their craft DC raised by 5, but you don’t need the Versatile Crafter feat to craft them.
Example: To craft a Ring of Shooting Stars (CL12, craft DC 17), you normally need the spells Faerie Fire, Fireball, Light, and Lightning Bolt. These spells are Evocation, with the Fire, Light, and Electricity descriptors, which means you must have CL 12 in Destruction, Light, or Nature. If you have CL 12 in Destruction with the Fire Blast, Electric Blast, and Radiant blast talents, you can craft this item at DC 17. Alternatively, if you have CL 12 in Light, but you don’t have Destruction or Nature, your craft DC for this item increases to 27 due to missing the base spheres and descriptors for Fireball and Lightning Bolt.
Retraining
- Retraining doesn’t require a trainer.
- Retraining skill ranks, feats, talents, class features, and class levels with synergy take only 3 days, instead of 5. Retraining a class level without synergy takes 6 days.
- When retraining a class level, you benefit from retraining synergy if and only if you keep at least one feat, talent, or some other shared feature gained with that level.
- This feat, talent, or feature doesn’t have to come from the same source between the two classes. For example, a character with 1 level in Wizard with Life specialization has retraining synergy if he retrains into Cleric and takes Life sphere through Necromantic Focus.
- Retraining sphere talents is treated as retraining feats, and follow the same rules for costs.
- You can retrain casting and martial traditions as follows:
- Your new traditions must follow character creation rules
- If retraining tradition talents, simply treat them as retraining any other talent
- If retraining your casting tradition drawbacks and boons, treat each drawback or boon as a feat. Replacing a drawback or boon with another costs exactly the same amount of time and gold as removing a drawback or boon.
- You can retrain favored class bonuses as follows:
- If they are feats or talents, treat them as retraining those features as normal.
- Otherwise, treat each level of your favored class as a skill rank to determine the time and cost of retraining.
- Traits, with the exceptions of those that give items or gold on character creation, can be retrained using the same rules as retraining feats.
Downtime Quests
Downtime quests are a means for players to gain wealth, XP, and favor without attending ongoing sessions. These quests represent tasks player characters can accomplish that are low risk yet time-consuming, and unlikely to require extensive amounts of combat or roleplaying.
Downtime quests will periodically appear as part of storylines or server-wide events, allowing players to participate even if they don’t have time to play in sessioned adventures. GMs can also post downtime quests to provide additional context for their session-based adventures, to provide lore in an interactive manner, or simply to give players that last bit or wealth or XP for them to gain the item they’ve been saving up for, or to finally level up.
A downtime quest is a skill challenge, with a format not unlike an occult ritual. Players are expected to succeed on a minimum number of skill checks out of a total, in order to complete the downtime quest. Succeeding in every single check results in a critical success, which provides bonus rewards. Failing a downtime quest has no drawbacks, but failing all checks results in a critical failure, which inflicts a penalty. This penalty may be a negative condition on the character’s next quest, or favor loss with the Faction providing the quest. Downtime quest failure may never inflict permanent penalties, but these penalties can’t be removed by any means except by completing a quest, or waiting until the end of the month.
Downtime Quest checks are an arbitrarily large number of checks represented with just one roll, meaning that no instantaneous bonus with a limited number of uses per day can contribute to Downtime Quest checks. Temporary bonuses can only be applied to downtime checks if their duration is 1 hour/level or longer. Players may take 10 on downtime quests, but not take 20. You do not benefit from critical successes if you take 10.
Downtime quests use the following format:
- Name: The quest name, which should be short and to the point.
- Location: Quest location can be a district in Tisoria, a small town beyond it, or a large geographic region such as “a forest between Cossina and the Ashen Canyon”.
- Date: Use the starting date, which is assumed to be IC and OOC the same date. This date is usually when the quest is posted, but could be different depending on where the downtime quest is chronologically in relation to connected quest arcs.
- Description: Be as detailed as you need to be, and don’t be afraid to use this section for exposition.
- Quest Type: See the types of quests below.
- Length: The number of Downtime days the quest consumes. In general, a player may not make more than two skill checks per downtime day.
- Rolls: A list of required skills or other rolls that players must succeed on, in order to complete the quest. Usually, a downtime quest should require an odd number of rolls (minimum 3, but up to 9), and the player should succeed on at least half of them.
- DC: The skill check DCs for the quest. Combat quests usually have a lower DC for attack rolls and saving throws.
- Success: The XP, GP, and Favor rewards. A downtime quest should never award PCs with more XP/GP than 1/10 the amount required for a player to reach their next level. At the GM’s discretion, a downtime quest can grant a point of Favor instead.
- Critical Success: An additional bonus for succeeding on all checks of a downtime quest. This could be up to half again the GP/XP reward, or simply a positive condition (such as +1 to all saving throws) on their next quest.
- Critical Failure: Penalty for failing all checks, which could cause Favor loss, or a negative condition (such as -1 to all Attack rolls) on the PC’s next quest, or until the end of the month, whichever comes faster.
- Repeatable: Whether this quest can be done multiple times, whether by the same characters, or multiple characters.
- Open: Whether anyone can take this quest, or if it’s restricted to a select group of PCs. Downtime quests should only be closed if they’re directly connected to sessioned adventures.
- Expires: The IC/OOC date after which the quest can no longer be picked up.
Downtime quests can be engaged individually, or as a group. All rewards (except for Favor and positive conditional bonus) are divided evenly among participants. On a critical failure, all participants receive the same penalty. You may not complete a downtime quest with different characters played by yourself.
You may form a group to attempt a downtime quest with a number of members equal to the number of checks required for the attempt. Each player handles one or more of the checks involved, using their result as the group's. Each member of the group must handle at least 1 check in order to gain any rewards from the quest completion or to contribute to the quest's completion parameters. For quests with restrictions or parameters regarding repeated attempts, always take the worst restrictions or parameters of each member and apply it for the group. Members of the group increment their quest completion counts individually after completed attempts."
Example 1: If Miles has repeated a quest twice on his own and Lothaire has repeated the same quest once on his own, then a group including Miles and Lothaire is treated as having repeated the quest twice for the purposes of repetition DCs or other parameters. After the quest's completion, Miles will have completed the quest three times and Lothaire twice if either attempted the quest again alone or in another group.
If the above group included Ulga, who had never attempted the quest previously, then Ulga would receive no first time completion bonuses if there was one and would forfeit being able to gain a first time completion bonus if she attempted the quest alone again alone.
Alternatively, if she made a group with Qira, who also never attempted the quest, both would gain any first time completion benefits.
Example 2: If Qira has completed a downtime quest that does not allow repetitions, Qira cannot join a group attempt towards that same mission.
The following types of content can be covered by downtime quests, instead of sessions.
Combat
Combat quests should only be given if the combat is not meant to pose significant danger to PCs, and the combat encounter would be tedious to play out in a proper game session. Typical examples call for players to exterminate large numbers of low CR, non-sapient enemies over a large region, such as an infestation of small animals or weak undead. Such scenarios can provide interesting roleplay with quest NPCs or provide lore for a location, but the combat itself would be a chore, warranting a Combat downtime quest instead.
Combat quests require PCs to make attack rolls, saving throws, and MSB or Spellcraft checks for spellcasters to optimize their methods. Other skill checks can be suggested as substitution, such as Craft (Alchemy) or Craft (Traps).
Criminal
Criminal quests involve performing illegal operations, usually for one of Tisoria’s criminal Factions, but may also be dirty work done for more upstanding Factions who want to keep their hands clean. Typical criminal quests involve smuggling, theft, and vandalism. A criminal quest can also be used to case the joint, establish false identities, and make other preparations before PCs go on a sessioned quest, such as a heist or an assassination.
Criminal quests typically call for Bluff, Disguise, Disable Device, Local, Perception, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. Many other skills are also applicable.
Exploration
Exploration quests involve exploring a certain area, usually with the goal of discovering a specific object, individual, or location. Typical examples include the search for a rare ingredient, a bounty target, a town that lost contact, or a hidden dungeon. Whenever a GM wishes to represent difficult travel between combat or social sessions, an Exploration downtime quest should be given to all PCs involved.
Exploration quests usually involve Geography, Perception, Stealth, and Survival checks, as well as Constitution checks for forced march if the situation demands it. Other checks can be used as the GM needs, such as Acrobatics, Climb, or Swim to navigate difficult terrain.
Provisions
Provisions quests require players craft, gather, or otherwise aid in the creation of large amounts of mundane items and materials, or provide services to a large group of people.
Provisions quests are typically small and call for Craft or Profession checks, although GMs can call for other checks, such as Heal to aid the sick and injured.
Research
Research quests require players to spend time poring through large amounts of information in a library, examining magical or historical relics, doing science (or mad science) in a lab, among many other similar things.
Research quests typically call for Knowledge or Spellcraft checks.
Social
Social quests involve speaking to large numbers of unnamed or unimportant NPCs for a long period of time. Typical social quests include gathering information, spreading rumors, putting together a performance, or collecting guests for a social event.
Social quests usually call for Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perform, and Sense Motive checks, although as usual, GMs are free to call for different types of checks if applicable.
