Each week, you have the opportunity to submit a turnsheet. The turnsheet represents what your character does in the period of time between meetings (this is sometimes referred to as downtime). In character, this period is one night.
Turnsheets can be found on your user page towards the bottom. There will be a list of “Create” links which will take you to the turnsheet form, and “view” links which will take you to the page for the turnsheet.
If you click on the “create” link for a turnsheet, you will be taken to the turnsheet form pre-filled in for that turnsheet number. Fill in the boxes with your actions, click submit, and then follow the link to make sure everything has gone through correctly.
Note that you cannot replace an already submitted turnsheet using this form - if you wish to use the form again for the same turnsheet, you will need to delete what has already been submitted - follow the steps below for editing your turnsheet, and delete everything in the edit box before hitting save. You will then be able to resumbit via the form.
If you click on the “view” link before you have submitted the form, you will be directed to a blank wiki page with the option to create the page by clicking on the pencil icon to the right hand side of the screen.
You will then be able to edit this page! The edit window will come with a template that you just have to fill in with what your character wants to do. Please do not delete the headings and tags, or alter the formatting - they help us work out what you're trying to do, and make the actions much easier to parse! (you can delete the 'A one sentence (OOC) description of…' etc bits though!)
The same process can be used to edit an already submitted turnsheet (which you are allowed to do up to the usual turnsheet deadline).
In each turnsheet, you may take one action during the day. There will generally be a few hours where the house is quiet enough for toys to leave Jordan's room - Jordan and Kelly might be at school, or out at a club, and Dad might be in the office working. There are no monsters to worry about, unless you venture into the attic, and it's an ideal time to socialise, explore the house, or prepare for the night ahead.
Everyone in the house is asleep, so there's less likely to be rooms you can't access, but at the same time it's dark so exploration is more hazardous. Also, at night, the monsters come for Jordan - so you'll need to make sure enough toys are defending the room.
As a rule, all you can define in your action is what your character intends to do - other features of the world are up to the GMs, and the actions of other PCs are up to their players.
Concise plans that are easier for the GMs to understand and keep in mind when resolving turnsheets are preferable to multi-paragraph epics. If possible, keep plans brief, and remember that longer plans are not the same as better plans. Bullet points can be very useful here.
If you want to ask any questions about actions, please contact the GM team and we'll do our best to help.
The most important part of any plan is having the resources to pull it off. In Night Knights, your character and equipment that has been made or scavenged grant you certain traits. Simply having a trait is not helpful unless you can exploit it as part of an action. “Throw my Animal Magnetism Power at X problem” is not a plan and won't get you very far, especially if X is an inanimate object. “Use my Animal Magnetism to persuade the squirrels in the garden to steal X and take it out of the house” is much better.
Positive traits which you are relying on for an action should be listed below that action. You can also list negative traits which you think are likely to come up in that action — this won't change how often your negative traits affect you1), but it can make the GM's life easier.
Other people are going to be crucial to your actions. They may help you or hinder you. If you are relying on another character to help you, make sure to note their assistance on your turnsheet. If an NPC has agreed in session to do something for you, note that down as well - we play a lot of different people and may forget, and the person writing the results of your action might not be the person who played that NPC. It can also help if you tell us how you think the other characters are likely to respond - this helps us judge your actions and responses in kind - and to distinguish between genuine miscommunications and deliberate betrayals.
Generally, if you want an NPC to help, you should contact them in session - you can request that any NPC turn up in session at the GM desk, and we will try to accommodate this where possible. NPCs can also be emailed, though interaction in session is preferred.
The Trades section of your turnsheet allows you to record any items you are giving or lending to someone else. Please be clear whether you are expecting to give over the item permanently, or just lend it - if you say you are just lending something, and the other person does not explicitly say they are keeping it, then we will assume you get it back after they are done using it in an action.
You can also use this to record items you expect to receive - though you won't get the item unless the sender has put a trade in their turnsheet to give it to you. If you are just borrowing the item for one of your other actions, you can just note that in the action. If someone is lending you an item, and you are not planning to give the item back, please be explicit about this.
Note that if you pass items to someone else in emails or in session, you should also record that trade in your next turnsheet - this makes it much easier for the GM team to keep track of who has what.
You can only trade items that would make sense to pass over - e.g. you could trade a flashlight to someone, but you could not trade your skill at lockpicking
In addition, you have minor actions. Your character may have minor tasks they wish to complete that would have no mechanical effect, such as watering plants, or painting for enjoyment. Or you may get invited to parties. To register that your character is doing this, but without putting in the effort that a full action would imply, you can use a minor action. A minor action should be possible for the GMs to completely answer with no more than a sentence (and preferably just “you do this”). There's no hard limit to the number of Minor Actions you can take, though we will appreciate it if you can be sensible about it.
If your minor action is to accompany other players on their major actions (e.g. “I join the expedition to search for the Abominable Snowman”), you will not be very useful to the action (i.e. your traits 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 reserve the right to say your character is too busy to attend.
Example minors:
Example less appropriate minor actions:
The deadline for turnsheets is 23:59 the Monday after each session.
Ideally it would be best if you could resolve your plans for the turn in session, but you can use the period between the end of session and the deadline to correspond with other players via email.
Please contact the GM team if you believe you have extenuating circumstances (we understand if real life gets in the way sometimes), but please don't expect to be able to hand in your turnsheet late on a regular basis.
We will aim to get a response to your turnsheet to you before session begins each week. 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 user page to be sure.
If you have any questions about your turnsheet response, contact your GM before the start of the session and we'll try to clear everything up.
There will also be some news released between turnsheets and session, providing updates on generally known consequences of people's actions.
See an Example Turnsheet.