Between each session of Scoop!, one week of in-game time will pass. During this time, players can take actions as conveyed to the GMs through Turnsheets.
A Turnsheet details what you would like to do in Downtime after session. In Scoop!, you will have one Major Action per turn, which encompasses your character's main goal that Downtime. The GMs will then respond before the following Uptime with the results of your actions. 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.
To simulate the unpredictable quality of the information a journalist might discover, the GMs will use a dice roll to determine the truthfulness of the information received in your Turnsheet response, when your character’s Major Action involves gathering facts. The Quirks you take will impact your character’s chances of being able to discern truth from misdirection, where they are relevant to your Major Action. This also means that in some Turnsheets, your character will receive information that later turns out to be false.
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.
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 and intent 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 worth-while 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 (17:59 on Wednesday) as nothing will be taken as final by the GMs until that point.
A Major Action is something that would take your character significant time and effort to accomplish. It has no explicit time duration (it could 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) 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 will 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.
It is assumed that during the course of the Downtime, your character continues to complete the day-to-day tasks of their job (i.e. writing smaller or less plot-relevant articles). If you would like to go beyond this and write a more impactful article, you may use your Major Action to research a topic of your choosing.
Once you think you have enough information, your character may write an article as a free action and pitch it to your Head of Department in Uptime. (If you can't make an Uptime, you can still pitch a story — just let us know in advance!)
There is no OC obligation to actually write any articles, but feel free to suggest a headline or other details (and of course we won't stop you writing it if you want to!).
A Minor Action is something that takes little time or effort to do, and doesn't advance the plot significantly.
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, you will not be very useful to the action (i.e. your Quirks 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”. It can also be helpful to list any items you gave or received in Uptime, if relevant.
The deadline for Turnsheets is 6pm on the Wednesday after Uptime. This is a strict deadline, as the GM meeting will be that evening. We do know life gets in the way sometimes and late Turnsheets do happen but please let us know so we can try to accommodate it into our plans! Note that late Turnsheets may have less impact as we will not have had a chance to discuss it.
You will receive a response to your turnsheet on Tuesday morning, detailing the results of your Major and Minor Actions. These responses will be added to the end of your submitted Turnsheet on the wiki. If you don't see a response after noon on Tuesday, please let us know! 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.
You can find some sample Turnsheets here!