In the back of cupboard, a letter, carefully folded, stored in a hat box. The echo is dim, but undeniably an echo, an old one – interacted with just often enough to keep it alive.
When you get an account on this wiki, you will automatically have an email address created associated with the account. This will be linked to the email address you gave the GMs when you submitted your character creation form. You will be able to send emails to any echoes email address, and the receiver will get an email from “[your character]@echoes.oxfordlarp.com”.
Emails allow your characters to continue to interact during downtime. This may take the form of IC letters or of IC in-person interactions. Emails cannot be used to take any major steps or actions, but can be used for planning turnsheet actions or for more emotional interacts between characters.
The email period will begin at the end the session, and continue until 19:00 on the Monday after the session. Please note that this is 5 hours before the turnsheet deadline. This is to give people time to finish their turnsheets before the deadline, if emails are impacting their plans, and for those who are not night owls to sleep at a reasonable time.
Please note that emails are entirely optional. Some players and GMs will send many emails; others will send very few or none at all. It is worth checking with other players in session what their expectations are, and if they prefer not to email, to ensure that all plans with them are set before the send of uptime.
After each session, 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 21 hours (the time between the daily meetings that uptime represents).
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 don't delete the headings and tags - they help us work out what you're trying to do! (you can delete the 'A one sentence (OOC) description of…' etc bits though!)
In each turnsheet, you have one major action, in which you tell us what your character does in the time between uptimes.
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 (both IC and OOC, especially when they're different) 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 counted as one major action. 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.
If you want to ask any questions about actions, please contact the GM team and we'll do our best to help.
Echoes is a game about community; other people are going to be crucial to your character's day to day lives. 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.
Please also let us know if you think one of your Elements will be relevant to the action. Echoes is intended to be a much more character- and emotion-driven narrative than past OLS games, so telling us about Elements is less about perceived success and failure and more about which aspects of your character you'd like emphasised in your turnsheet.
Additionally, you will have the option to get a write-up for one echo per turn. Your character may interact with multiple echoes in a day, and will certainly experience multiple hazes. However, we will generally not give detailed description of the echoes you'd encounter. This action is designed to allow you to explore the setting, follow leads for information, or simply bask in the scene of a favourite memory. Please specify which echo you wish to interact with, which object it is (if known), and where it is located (or where you suspect it is located). It is also helpful to tell us your character's motivation for seeking out a particular echo and what they expect, so we can make the write up more targeted to your character's experience.
It is also permissible to specify with this action that you do not interact with any echoes in a specific downtime. If so, please also tell us why your character might be choosing to avoid echoes. You will still receive a write up, although it may be shorter.
It is possible to use echoes actions to move the plot forward, for example investigation, but the purpose of the action is primarily to drive your personal plot and provide a space for character introspection.
You do not have to visit an echo that has been previously established in-game by a GM; you can design an echo that is relevant to the themes you would like to explore. It's also ok to not have a specific echo in mind! You can use this action to ask the GM team for an echo with a particular character, theme or from a specific location or time, and let us create something for you.
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 major 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 help Alma build her stall for the fair”), you will not be very useful to 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.
If you are giving an item to another player please note this in your minor actions, even if the actual passing over of the items happens in session, in emails, or in another major action. This makes it much easier for us to keep track of who has what. 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 Mario never arrives with your princess”.
The deadline for turnsheets is 23:59 the Monday after each session.
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, usually the day before or the day of. 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.
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.
For an example turnsheet, see Sample Turnsheet.