Turnsheet deadline - THURSDAY MIDNIGHT

Players are encouraged to communicate outside the weekly Court meetings. You may not have enough time to speak to everyone you need to or you may come up with a brilliant scheme when given a bit more time to think.

We will provide a way of emailing the other characters. You can decide to send your emails either in- or out-of-character or a mixture of the two. We would ask that you copy the GMs into your plans as it will help us understand what you intend when we receive your turnsheets at the end of the week.

Turnsheeting is the process by which you tell the GM team what you want your character to be doing in the six-month gaps between Court sessions. You need not tell us the minutiae of everything they do, but any actions you wish to take to affect the rest of the gameworld, other PCs or NPCs, you should register with us.

You should upload your turnsheets directly to the wiki; instructions are provided on the user accounts page.

The deadline for turnsheeting is midnight on Thursday. We cannot guarantee that we will read any turnsheets submitted after this deadline.

Players who are Members of Parliament (either the House of Lords or Commons) should submit motions they wish to propose with their normal turnsheets. Votes will be conducted on Friday and Saturday, and all votes should be in by midnight on Saturday. See parliament for details.

Each turnsheet consists of eight Action Points (AP). Typical actions will cost 2AP; minor actions, or actions that your character doesn't put much thought or effort into, might cost 1AP; particularly complex or lengthy actions might cost more than 2.

Do bear in mind that while the “throw AP at it until it dies” technique may work for some tasks and problems, there are many cases in which a decent plan and good preparation will hold far more water.

Some actions will be so minor, or require so little participation on your character's part, that they will require 0AP. Examples of 0AP actions include attending a party (but not attempting to seduce anyone in particular), or voting in the House of Commons (but not attempting to sway anyone else to vote the same way). These minor actions are generally called housekeeping.

The Spanish Ambassador has said some downright rude things about your brother! It's hardly his fault that's he such easy prey to every man and woman with a uniform and a roving eye, it's the way he was made. You have a fleet of warships, Spanish Cadiz has a harbour full of galleons and you are determined that family honour (and personal profit) require the two to meet!

1 AP - You decide caution is the watch word. The Spanish Ambassador is a sly old fox and it may be a trick, so this time you'll just land an agent ashore. You'll bide your time and when you do strike you'll be sure the harbour is full of treasure and of the position of every shore battery and gunboat.

2 AP - You order your fleet to stand off Cadiz and you take some rich prizes, filling your holds with booty and with half your crew on captured merchantmen.

3 AP - You launch a daring raid into Cadiz and burn the ships at anchor. It's a telling blow against Spanish commerce, even more so against their pride and you'll be able to thumb your nose at that stupid ambassador.

8 AP - You have stormed Cadiz, defeated the garrison, burned all the ships in the harbour and taken the Mayor's cash-chests. Spain is horrified by your actions and swears vengeance on you and your associates and vows to take the war to England. This does not mean that Cadiz is utterly destroyed and levelled to the ground though, that would take several mass attacks like this one over a few turns.

Sometimes another player will oppose you. For example: Our old friend Bob has had a run of bad luck, the most painful and recent example being the mauling of the Countess of Pembroke at his ball at Gloriana House. Who would have thought a tiger, recently imported from the Indies, could escape a cage and six (six!) experienced handlers? Bob is determined to rebuild his reputation and spends 4 AP to hold the most fabulous party Oxford will see this decade.

Unfortunately, the source of Bob's misfortune is the sorcerer Alison. Failing to read the small print of a deal with a demon quite carefully enough she is bound to provide the Dolorous Patron of Misery with one boon every turn. And Dolorous really hates parties. Alison spends 2 AP to ensure that the canapés are possessed by imps and attempt to hurl themselves down the throats of their would be consumers.

In this case both actions may succeed. The canapies attack but Bob manages to salvage his party anyway, with only a few spoilsports fleeing in terror. If Alison were to spend more action points or Bob fewer it might go much worse for his party, perhaps the Viscountess of Southampton chokes on a particularly vicious pastry and Bob is ruined. Of course if Bob suspects demons were responsible for his previous setbacks he might contact a Theurge for aid…

Players may co-operate to achieve the same goal, pooling their AP to achieve it.

Frank is a master spy. He's spent the last two turns placing an agent high in the Papal Legate's embassy and he now knows everything that crosses that ambassador's desk. He learns that the Pope has managed to persuade France and Spain to join forces and wage ward against Protestant England! He tells Jill, an admiral of the privateers, and Jack a humble honest merchantman (i.e. powerful smuggler) about the danger and together they hatch a cunning plan. Frank will extract the plans of the secret alliance from the Pope, in particular where their fleet will gather, Jack will ensure that the gunpowder shipped to that combined fleet is as explosive as yoghurt and Jill will sail her fleet in and sink the helpless blackguards!

This plan plays to all of their strengths and as long as no-one opposes them it has an excellent chance of succeeding.

If you are co-operating with one or more other players on an action, please mention their names in your turnsheet.

As mentioned on the Skills page, you gain one Experience Point (XP) per turn, which you may spend on raising your Skills, if you have taken relevant actions in previous turns. If you wish to spend XP, note it in the Housekeeping / 0AP section of your turnsheet.

Some actions will be so minor that you don't need to spend AP on them. These are 0AP, or “Housekeeping” actions. You should generally put these at the bottom of your turnsheet. Examples include spending XP to raise a skill, forwarding correspondence, and other trivial actions which have no great effect on other players or the gameworld.

You will have many different quirks and skills which are relevant to the different actions you wish to perform. Please remember to list all those you believe applicable to a particular action to help us determine the outcome more precisely.

There is a sample turnsheet with formatting guidelines here to help you format your turnsheet so it's easy for us to read and process.