Post by Andrea on Jun 19, 2016 23:12:01 GMT -5
Timeblocks are a mechanical representation of what your character accomplishes when not on an expedition. It is assumed that expeditioners do not stay in Aldgate when an expedition is not in progress (though they can), as this is not a year-round endeavor and they each have their own lives to attend to.
Timeblocks are relatively simplified; rather than taking into account how much time there is between Events, the default use of Timeblocks allows one “Action” that your character took and one “Question” that they researched. Actions and Questions should be submitted in the form of a single, non-compound sentence. Additional notes can be provided after that sentence for clarification, however we reserve the right to ignore anything that could be considered a separate Action or Question in those notes. Some examples of acceptable Actions and Questions are as follows:
“I travel around Althaenia attempting to garner public support for the expedition.”
“I work to deliver aid to recovering Valician towns.”
“Where are the Separatists operating out of?”
“What causes spirits to linger in an area?”
You can further invest in your Timeblock productivity by taking Skills that allow you additional, specialized Questions; these include Academic Mind, Naturalism, Gather Information, Meditation, and Thaumaturgical Research. If you know any Crafting Skills, you can also expend available Shares and/or Components in order to produce Items during Timeblocks.
In order to use Shares, Components, or other Items during Timeblocks, they must be in your character bag when you check out at the end of an Event. You cannot retro-actively transfer resources from one player to another, and we strongly recommend that you make a list of available resources before checking out, as it is a significant logistical strain to then track down those resources on our end.
You do NOT need to expend Timeblock resources to learn new Skills. You also do not need a teacher to learn new Skills, unless the Skill explicitly states “Requires In-Game Training” or does not appear in the rulebook. The amount that you can learn between games is limited only by your available CP. You will be given an opportunity in your Timeblocks to indicate what new Skills you would like to learn, and how you would like to have learned them (such as from a specific NPC), so that staff can establish consistency between your story and ours. We reserve the right to reject these details--perhaps that NPC was missing and not available to teach you--but this does not prevent you from learning the Skill.
Timeblocks are due 1 week after a corresponding mid-season event (May, August), and 2 weeks after a corresponding end-season event (June, September). Always defer to the post-event announcement for the deadline in case of any changes. Timeblocks are a free service, which you can take full advantage of if you attended the corresponding Event. As of August 2018, we will no longer be supporting Timeblock services for players who do not attend the corresponding event (sorry!).
Just like with Character Sheets, Timeblocks will be compiled in a personal Google Doc--that means that going forward, you'll only need to check the same document again to see your updates, and you can reference your previous entries at any time.
Timeblocks are relatively simplified; rather than taking into account how much time there is between Events, the default use of Timeblocks allows one “Action” that your character took and one “Question” that they researched. Actions and Questions should be submitted in the form of a single, non-compound sentence. Additional notes can be provided after that sentence for clarification, however we reserve the right to ignore anything that could be considered a separate Action or Question in those notes. Some examples of acceptable Actions and Questions are as follows:
“I travel around Althaenia attempting to garner public support for the expedition.”
“I work to deliver aid to recovering Valician towns.”
“Where are the Separatists operating out of?”
“What causes spirits to linger in an area?”
You can further invest in your Timeblock productivity by taking Skills that allow you additional, specialized Questions; these include Academic Mind, Naturalism, Gather Information, Meditation, and Thaumaturgical Research. If you know any Crafting Skills, you can also expend available Shares and/or Components in order to produce Items during Timeblocks.
In order to use Shares, Components, or other Items during Timeblocks, they must be in your character bag when you check out at the end of an Event. You cannot retro-actively transfer resources from one player to another, and we strongly recommend that you make a list of available resources before checking out, as it is a significant logistical strain to then track down those resources on our end.
You do NOT need to expend Timeblock resources to learn new Skills. You also do not need a teacher to learn new Skills, unless the Skill explicitly states “Requires In-Game Training” or does not appear in the rulebook. The amount that you can learn between games is limited only by your available CP. You will be given an opportunity in your Timeblocks to indicate what new Skills you would like to learn, and how you would like to have learned them (such as from a specific NPC), so that staff can establish consistency between your story and ours. We reserve the right to reject these details--perhaps that NPC was missing and not available to teach you--but this does not prevent you from learning the Skill.
Timeblocks are due 1 week after a corresponding mid-season event (May, August), and 2 weeks after a corresponding end-season event (June, September). Always defer to the post-event announcement for the deadline in case of any changes. Timeblocks are a free service, which you can take full advantage of if you attended the corresponding Event. As of August 2018, we will no longer be supporting Timeblock services for players who do not attend the corresponding event (sorry!).
Just like with Character Sheets, Timeblocks will be compiled in a personal Google Doc--that means that going forward, you'll only need to check the same document again to see your updates, and you can reference your previous entries at any time.