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Turnsheeting
Summary
- A turnsheet period represents one night of in game time, when the family are asleep and the toys can move more freely.
- You have two actions during this time.
- One action will be limited by your class.
- One action is yours to do whatever you want with.
- You can also trade items, and do some minor actions
- Actions with a plan are more likely to go according to said plan; actions where you have relevant skills, quirks, and any other advantages are more likely to be successful.
- The deadline for turnsheeting each week is 23:59 on the Monday after the session. Deadlines are strict - GMs start processing responses the next day.
- A list of turnsheets for each week can be found on your user page.
- Turnsheets can be submitted via the turnsheet form - the links to this on your userpage will pre-fill this with the appropriate turn number.
- Alternatively, follow the “view” link for the turnsheet on your page, and then click “Create this page” and fill in the template there.
How To Turnsheet
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.
Writing Your Turnsheet
Turnsheets can be found on your user page towards the bottom. There will be a list of hyperlinks to pages called 'Turnsheet 1', 'Turnsheet 2' etc. If you click on these, 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 the 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!)
Actions
Class Action
In each turnsheet, you may take one action defined by your class.
You can choose to change class as part of this action - taking the action from your new class, but as your character will still be getting used to their new talents, this will result in some complications for that action (future actions in your new class are not affected).
The scope of each class action is defined on the page for each class.
New classes may become available during the game, as the toys discover more about the house and the monsters within - these will also have their associated actions.
Freeform Action
They can be anything you can think of that your character might reasonably do. We will try to interpret your plan, along with any external factors involved, when adjudicating what happened in your turnsheet response. Telling us what outcome you want is often a good way to be clear about what you're trying to achieve.
Generally, anything that hangs together coherently as a single subject can be done with this action. If you are trying to do two things with wildly different scope within the same action, you are less likely to achieve either of them - trying to fit in too much in a single action may not give you the results you want.
Writing Actions
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.
Traits, Resources & People Involved
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 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.
Trades
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
Minor Actions
In addition, you have minor actions. Your character may need to pass on an item in their possession to someone else or receive an item from someone. 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:
- “I attend Mr Fluffikins' Tea Party”
- You will attend the tea party, and probably have a lovely time - though if anything goes wrong at the tea party (e.g. an attack by monsters), then you won't contribute particularly towards helping with that situation.
- “I water the plants in my PlayGarden”
- You can do this - the plants are generally going to just be there to look pretty and as a hobby for your character, unless you've previously put a major action into cultivating something specific and useful.
Example less appropriate minor actions:
- “I join the expedition to delve into the Depths Under the Bed and fight the horrors within”
- This action would be time consuming and hazardous - your character can't reasonably go along without contributing to the party, so this should be part of your freeform action (or part of an Adventurer or Scout class action)
- “I use my Adorable Face to help MegaFighter with their attempt to charm the Things Beyond the Window”
- Your Adorable Face is an inherent part of your character, not an item you could trivially lend out to someone else, so using this trait to help in an action would require a full action.
- “I ask the Blocky Microfigures (NPCs) to construct a fortification to block off the cupboard”
- Generally, this should be done in session, or via email if not possible in session. Also, if you're asking NPCs to do story-relevant things, this should usually be part of a plan someone is putting full actions in to. NPCs acting on their own will be less successful than players (and from an OC perspective, it's harder for us to track as GMs).
Deadline
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.
Turnsheet Response
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.
Sample Turnsheet
See an Example Turnsheet.