Group Engagement

One major challenge of downtime is keeping the whole group involved. When you can, combine multiple people's tasks into one. For instance, if one PC wants to Earn Income with Performance and another wants to work as a medic, you might say that a Steward battleship is stopping briefly in the same port, seeking entertainment and treatment for injuries their group suffered engaging the Swarm. That means you can put both PCs in the same scene. You can also look for downtime activities that affect multiple characters' interests. For instance, if the operative's contact from the Golden League wants a special augmentation, a different PC might Craft that augmentation. This lets those PCs help each other more directly. If the soldier's player doesn't plan to do anything in downtime, you might let the soldier Aid another character in crafting weapons—finding blueprints on the infosphere and sorting parts and tools, for instance.

If a player really isn't interested in downtime, they might not want to engage at all. In that case, it's best to shorten the time you spend on downtime and give their actions a one-sentence description. If other players want a deeper downtime experience, consider extending game sessions or running side sessions for just those players.