downtime [Origin Story]

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======Downtime======

Between each session of //Origin Story//, **one month** will pass for the characters. During this time, there may be light forum activity -- reflected in IC emailing -- but most of the forum action happens during the monthly "[[sparkinyou.org|active hours]]".

Downtime between sessions is when your character's life outside the forum takes place, which is captured by submitting **turnsheets** to the GM team telling us what you want to spend your time on.

=====IC Emailing=====

As with previous Society Games, we have set up an email system which allows players to communicate with each other and with GMs after a session ends; in character, these emails represent direct messages on the forum, or some other means of contact that you should specify for NPCs not on the forum. 

**For PCs:** The complete list of in-character email addresses can be found on the Characters page. 

**For NPCs:** NPCs should be contacted by emailing the relevant GM -- please see [[gm_team|GMs and NPCs]]. 

//Note -- if you want a GM’s attention, putting// FAO:[GM name] //in the subject line ensures we won't miss you!//

We ask that all email exchanges be wrapped up by the turnsheet deadline (**23:59 on Thursday**) -- partly so that no one's turnsheet plans end up changing at the last minute; partly so that everyone can get a break from their inbox for the rest of the week!

GMs are copied into all IC emails, so as to keep track of plans and developing themes within the game -- though, these are no substitute for turnsheets, and GMs are liable to miss things only contained in emails. Importantly, in the event that your turnsheet does not contain enough information about your Downtime plans, the GMs will not have time to search through their inboxes for additional information, and this may lead to a rather disappointing turnsheet response.

If you're having trouble receiving emails from GMs or players, before or during the game, try checking your Junk inbox -- if game emails tend to be filtered out, you may want to whitelist the 'originstory.oxfordrpg.com' domain.

Finally, please note that your OC email will never be displayed to other players when you email them, as any emails sent by you will appear to come from your in-character email address. However, other metadata contained in the email may be visible, such as whatever name you've set for your email.
=====Turnsheets=====

Turnsheets are the primary way //Origin Story// players engage with the wider world outside the forum. Each turn players get one **major action**, which represents their main focus in the month between sessions. This could be a long-term goal, or a single very focused operation -- or something in between. Each major action will receive a private response from the GMs on how it turned out, on your character page.

Players can also have any number of **minor actions**. These are more limited in scope than major actions and will receive at most a one line response from the GMs.

You can find more details about actions below.

====Writing Your Turnsheet====

Once your character has been approved by the GMs, we will send you a link to your private user page. This page can also be found by clicking the human-shaped icon at the very top right of the Wiki.

At the bottom of your user page should be a series of red links, named **'Turnsheet #'**. These link to pages that don't exist yet, so when you are ready to begin writing up your actions, click on the link for that week and then click the 'pencil sign' icon on the right-hand toolbar to get started. Hovering over it will bring up the 'Create this page' dialogue.

Once created, the Turnsheet page will have a handy template to save you time and to allow your GM easy reading. You don’t have to stick to it 100%, but similar layouts allow us to quickly and easily see what you are attempting to do with your time. (Please don't delete the {{tag>turnsheetX}} tag at the bottom of the page or we won't be notified when you've submitted it!)

While we very much enjoy reading your writings, it's usually best to keep your turnsheets concise so we can clearly see the focus of your action; a single sentence with no detail obviously isn't very helpful, but neither is a very long plan that aims to do too much in one go!

When you're happy with your turnsheet, click the save button in the bottom left, and you'll have a turnsheet that both you and all the GMs can see. It’s worthwhile doing a quick preview before saving, to check that everything reads how you want it to, but don’t forget to then save.

You can continue to edit your turnsheet until the deadline (23:59 on Thursday) as nothing will be taken as final by the GMs until that point.

====Major Action====

This is something that takes significant time and/or effort to accomplish. This could be a concentrated burst of activity, or a long term goal which will take the whole month between sessions to accomplish. Characters have one Major Action per turn. 

Examples of major actions could be:

  * Going to a student party -- all whilst trying to balance impressing your crush, //and// keeping your spark under wraps!
  * Masking up, and going out to use your spark as a friendly neighbourhood protector of Citropolis.
  * Working particularly hard on your final project at the [[CCVE]] -- an artistic expression of your inner self.
  * Finding a quiet warehouse in [[bay|The Bay]], and practicing getting your spark under control.

When submitting your major action, include a summary of what you want to achieve, and a plan of how you want to achieve it. There is also a space to include relevant assets you have to complete this plan -- this could be items, relationships (with NPCs or PCs), information, Quirks or applications of your spark.

Try to be as concise as possible when writing your plans. Don’t try to achieve too much with one action and remember that longer plans don’t always mean better plans!

If in doubt, don't hesitate to [[gm_team|contact the GMs]].

====Minor Actions====

A Minor Action is something that takes little time or effort to do, and doesn't advance the plot significantly. 

Examples include:

  * Giving someone an item.
  * Spending time in a specific area of the city.
  * Going to an event like a party, without wanting it to be a narrative focus.

You can have as many Minor Actions as you want within reason, but they should each be limited to one or two sentences of description, and should usually be able to be responded to by the GMs with “You do this”. The GMs may ignore Minor Actions if they become too numerous or significant.

If your Minor Action is to accompany other players on their Major Actions (e.g. “I watch the Sparks from the forum training together”), you will not be very useful to the action, and will not get any personal benefit from the action. If the action would require significant time or effort just to tag along, the GMs may say your character is too busy to attend.

====Deadline====

The deadline for turnsheets is **23:59 on the Thursday after session.** This is a strict deadline as the GM team need time to read through and prepare in advance for our meeting on Friday evening. This is also to benefit you, as it’s really not fair to be kept up waiting for that crucial plan-defining email until 3:00am in the morning. 

We do know life gets in the way sometimes, and that late turnsheets do happen. **If you are expecting to be late, please request an extension**, so we can accommodate it into our plans. Given our meetings are less than 24 hours after the deadline, please try and plan to get the turnsheet in on time where possible -- even if you wish to, for instance, complete it on Wednesday, and ask for an extension to make edits as a result of Thursday emails on Friday. It will be very difficult for us to manage a large number of extensions. We may become grumpy if you regularly complete your turnsheet late without asking for an extension!
====Response====

We will aim to get a response to your turnsheet to you on Monday before each session. These responses will be added to the end of your submitted turnsheet on the Wiki. Your GM will email you when they have completed your turnsheet response, but it's worth checking your turnsheet to be sure. 

If you have any questions about your turnsheet response, please contact your [[gm_team|GM]] before the start of the session, and we'll try to clear everything up.
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