Down Time, What do you do about it? Options

[Kurb]

My real life game asked me if they could have a game of just down time, to explore other avenues of Shadowrun. I've never thought of this before, and it turned out to be my favorite game ever. So I figured I'll ask everyone else.

If this has already been addressed, I apologize and take it down.

[Kagetenshi]

If the group wants downtime specifically addressed, I address it. Otherwise, I gloss it over unless I want to do horrible things to them during downtime.

~J

[nezumi]

I think most people take as long as they feel they need to take. If no one is doing anything extra special, I'll gloss over the details of the month in maybe half an hour. If someone wants to do a lil roleplaying, nows a great chance to do it.

[Sahandrian]

Not an issue for my group. If they want a downtime game in the online group, they just IM me and if I feel like it, we do an AIM RP.

Back when I ran a real-life game in high school, the standard method to do downtime business was to find me in the cafeteria and talk me into letting something happen "off-camera."

[Slash_Thompson]

I put not an issue. my group has to go find runs themselves, so every session starts as down-time, unless we're in the middle of a run.

they also self-motivate a lot of the 'runs' but those don't pay them anything either, so they're probably more downtime than shadowrun.

[Req]

Not an issue. We don't have "down time" per se, since the shopping-talking to contacts-hanging out often turns into excitement. It's also been a bit since we've gone on a "run."

I certainly do "skip a few days" now and then, but it seems my players are always looking for money and don't take time off. Could be because I generally pay them just enough to cover their medical bills after their most recent grisly mistake.

[Dun Fe'Ran]

For the most part, down time is glossed over. We role play any time it is requested, but it usually takes up no more than an hour or two at the beginning of any given run. Equipment is bought, wards are erected, etc. I try to go slumming, but GM's tend to frown upon that. :D

[easytohate]

I run downtimes as much as I can. Nothing fleshes out a character better, makes people treat equipment and contacts better when getting them and keeping them is made a bigger part of the game.

And the "sorry you can't do anything until you heal" makes people think twice about taking damage when they don't have an nifty way to heal it.

[Dim Sum]

I run a continous campaign where each session is like an episode in a TV season so there's no real "downtime" as such - everything is role-played but some events that take some time are done with flavour text depending on the pace I'm out to set.

Easy2Hate is right about such "downtimes" contributing to character development - my players often just role-play their interactions between their characters where the topic is nothing more important than what dressing tastes best with various salads or stuff like that. They find out more about each other's characteristics, moods, and so forth. Same goes for their interaction with my NPCs. It's fulfilling to find months/years down the road when players can sit around and talk about how so-and-so would have done this in that situation because they "know" the characters (PCs or NPCs) so well.

[Rajaat99]

My characters role play every day of their lives. The only time we gloss over anything is if someone is injured and everyone is waiting for them to heal, or some one is putting a ward up and everyone is gaurding them, etc...
I love playing everyday with my players, sometimes we'll go over a week in one session, or sometimes half a day.

[bwdemon]

I tend to handle downtime by email, IM, or in-person when a portion of the group can't make it to the game. If the players want to interact between themselves, then I encourage it wholeheartedly and will let them do their thing as needed. If a player want to handle something independently that can't be (easily) handled over email/IM, then I'll try to work out an individual game session. I'm very conscious about game balance and the group dynamic, though, so rewards tend to be low for individual events and karma is negligible.

[Talia Invierno]

There's no such thing as downtime in our campaigns. Edit: it's to the point that players sometimes use non-game time to try to squeeze in some specific questions and quests, which sometimes ends up as extra one-on-one SR sessions.

This might possibly change when a player finally chooses to have some 'ware upgrades done in-game.

Mostly it's because we don't have discreet runs, and because healing is never an issue (whenever I'm the magic type in the group, I always find myself with a high powered healing spell or three, and I'll always heal myself and maybe centre before healing the low Essence types. It's "just" life, ongoing and entangling, game-story merging with backstory, and the runs PCs go looking for too often bring chickens home into their regular lives to roost.

[Morthis]

My games tend to run more to character development and interaction, than they do actual runs, most games start as 'downtime' and then runs develop from what the characters are doing/want to do, or what ever debts/favors they owe to various NPC's.

[moosegod]

I run primarily merc games, so downtime can be a huge issue between jobs and sitting around camps. We tend to just cram in what needs doing and more to the guns and explosions part.