Is there a way to keep the game ticking even if I've moved my focus to something else? Sometimes I'll tell my party to walk somewhere a bit far away and I'd like to be able to read something else or do something on my desktop at the same time.

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean an auto setting where the party will explore on its own randomly and fight automatically? If so, no, there's no setting for that.

Or do you mean can you minimize the game and have it still run? If so, have you tried windowed mode?

I'm in windowed mode. The problem is that when I switch to, say, my browser so I can participate in this forum thread, the game is suspended and nothing happens. When I switch back, it's as if no time has passed and the game continues on.