Downtime, Emails and Turnsheets

“Now, my friend, you run as fast as you can, first to the east, and then to the north. I will wait until midnight, and then we shall begin”. Catbuk sprang away, giddy at the plan Dadak had concocted, as Dadak made his way towards the camp.

– An extract from the Xhuva legend Dadak Frees the Captives.

Between each session of Ventures, one quarter of a year of in game time will pass. During this time, players can communicate via email and take actions as conveyed to the GM team through turnsheets.

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 either interactions you have on your respective digital devices (through IC emails) or any other in-person interaction you might have with PCs or NPCs. The complete list of in-character email addresses can be found on the Characters page. All email exchanges should end by 22:59 on the Thursday after session, partly so that no one's turnsheet plans end up changing at the last minute, and partly so that everyone can get a break from their inbox before next uptime.

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.

You can also direct emails to GMs if you'd like to ask us anything you didn't get round to mentioning during Uptime, and this should be your main method of OC communication with GMs once a session ends – we won't necessarily be checking our Discord messages between sessions! IC communication with NPCs can also be done this way by emailing the GM who plays that character. In either case, please add “[FAO: GM/NPC name]” to the subject line so that we don't miss your message!

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 'ventures.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. Further information can be found in the Privacy Policy.

A turnsheet details what you would like to do in Downtime after session and after IC emails have taken place. In Ventures, we are giving players one Major Action and one Goal Action per turn. Your Major Action should include the main goal of your character during Downtime. The Goal Action should include one standard action from a preset list of Goal Actions that can be found on the Turnsheet template. The GMs will then respond before the following Uptime with information about how your character's choices turn out. Although you will receive a longer writeup for your Major Action, both your Major and Goal Actions have equal weight in how they impact the game. Your turnsheet may also include any number of Minor Actions, which are significantly more limited in scope than the Major Action and will usually only receive a one-line response from the GMs.

Once your character has been approved by the GMs, we will send you a link to your private user page – this 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 allows us to quickly and easily see what you are attempting to do with your time. (Please don't delete {{tag>turnsheetX}} 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 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. If you need it, you can ask for an extension, but please do try to make the deadline!

A Major Action is something that would take your character significant time and effort to accomplish. Examples include:

• Decipher an alien language.
• Recover a sample of extra-terrestrial organic matter for the Bio-Engineers Guild.
• Smuggle contraband to the off-world Balra community in the Oasis Republic.
• Negotiate a treaty between Kallimar and the Thousand Colours Moon.

This Major Action will receive a write-up by one of the GMs before the next uptime. The Major action has no explicit time duration (it can last a few seconds or go over the whole downtime), but it should be the main thing your character (or at the very least, you OC) should want to focus on.

Your actions should include an overarching goal of what you want to achieve, a plan of how you intend to achieve it, and a note of what Quirks you think might be useful to affect the action. Be sure to note other PCs or NPCs who are involved in your action in the relevant section of the template too!

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, ask. Please contact the GMs and we will do our best to help with any action queries you may have.

A Goal Action is a standard action chosen from the pre-set list given below and on the Turnsheet template. A Goal Action is done alongside your Major Action – while the two do not have to be related, you may find that it is more useful to perform complementary Goal and Major actions. Whilst they are given a smaller write-up than your major action, often just one or two sentences, they have an equal weight (a Major Action spent researching a particular technology will contribute just as much as a Goal Action spent researching the same technology).

• Research Culture: Conduct research into another civilisation's language and culture. Will allow more favourable interactions with this civilisation, or developing a greater understanding of their past if done through archaeology. This typically only needs to be done once for a skilled person to get a good understanding of a specific culture, although may need to be done more times for an unskilled person.
• Procure Equipment: Gain 4 Equipment Tokens, which can be used to buy Equipment from both the Equipment list and the Body Augmentation list. List the Equipment that you are acquiring. You may instead choose to create a piece of custom Equipment, in which case, describe what you are planning to make. It may be subject to GM balancing.
• Research Technology: Conduct research to further the development of a specific technology. Technology research often requires repeated, focused effort from multiple people. Multiple “milestone” technologies may be unlocked on the path to researching a more complicated or advanced technology. Skilled people can research technologies relevant to their field at a much faster rate, and support from other PCs or NPCs can also help. Examples of new technologies that might be discovered in play include new Station Modules, new advances in Equipment, development of terraforming processes, improvement of genetic engineering, or more.
• Survey System: Rigorously survey a system, giving information on its planets, resources, species, and any other useful information. Generally the first requirement when charting a new system. The general findings of the survey will be published for everyone to see (both IC and OC), although specific details might be kept hidden for you. Most systems will require more than 1 survey in order to get a full account of the details present (typically between 2 and 6), which could be achieved by many PCs in the same turn, or a few over multiple turns.
• Expand Presence: Build up connections and resources. By building or developing an outpost, recruiting people to your cause, or amassing a collection of ships, you are increasing your own Influence. Gain 2 Expansion Points, and choose Influence Assets to spend them on. While acquiring Expansion Points in this way requires an Action, spending them does not, and they can be spent in a later turnsheet.

Any of these can be replicated by a Major Action. For instance, if you choose to spend both your Major Action and a Goal Action building an outpost (Expand Presence), then you will have 4 Expansion Points to spend on Influence Installations. Doing this will still receive a full write-up for the Major Action.

All of these benefit from having a relevant Academic Discipline. As a rule, each Discipline benefits two Goal Actions. While you can attempt anything without particular training or knowledge, the rate at which you are able to do things will dramatically increase if you are skilled.

In addition to your personal actions, you may also give orders to Influence Assets you control. Doing so does not interfere with your Major, Goal, or Minor Actions for the turn (although they can be linked if you want).

An assignment takes the form of one to three sentences describing your orders to a particular Asset for the turnsheet. This may be very simple, and possible to summarise with a single phrase (e.g. “Lead Research at this Installation”), or it may be more complex, (e.g. “Lead Research at this Installation. However, I'm concerned that this Installation is compromised by Agents from a hostile Faction, so I would like the Agent to primarily focus on counter-espionage”). For Companies, working at an Installation counts as their full assignment.

Agents, Companies, and Squadrons may all receive assignments. What happens at Installations is determined by the Companies that have been assigned to work there.

Assets may need to move to a given System or Systems during a Turnsheet, and are typically transported by a Squadron. By default, a Squadron can make two Jumps per turn between systems, and can be used for transporting resources, Agents, and Companies. Companies and Agents can move within the same star system without a Squadron, but otherwise can each only make one Jump per turn on their own between systems, represented by chartering a Cartographer ship. Be careful with this: most requests to charter a ship will be approved, but aggressive or suspicious actions (such as moving many armed soldiers to a colony world) are unlikely to be approved.

Moving does not limit the ability of an Asset to carry out their assignment: a Company assigned to work at a different Factory will still be able to work there the same turn that they are moved.

EP earned from Factories and Actions may be spent the turn they are aquired. If they are not spent the turn they are acquired, they can be spent on any future turn.

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

• Checking the security protocols on the Cartographers' Guild Space Station.
• Spending an evening at the Shooting Star.
• Avoiding Professor Half Leaf's eye contact to prevent an impromptu lecture on the “Optimal Shape”.

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 join the Guild research team”), you will not be very useful to the action (i.e. your Skills will not be taken into consideration), 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.

If you are giving something to another player please note this in your Minor Actions, even if the exchange occurred as part of your Major Action. It can be helpful to list any items you are expecting to receive, but if you put it in your turnsheet and the sender does not turnsheet to give the item to you, the response will likely be along the lines of “You wait patiently, but it doesn't turn up”.

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 Saturday. This is also to benefit you as it’s really not fair to be kept up scheming and planning until 3 in the morning. We do know life gets in the way sometimes and late turnsheets do happen, but you must request an extension if you are expecting to hand in your turnsheet late so we can accommodate it into our plans – we may become grumpy should it become a regular occurrence or if you fail to let us know!

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 before the start of the session and we'll try to clear everything up.

See sample turnsheets here!