Uptime & Sessions

Sessions take place every other Tuesday from 19.00-22.00 BST. Each session represents one episode of the show. No action takes place between sessions, including no IC emailing and no turnsheets. There are, however, downtimes to help plan the upcoming session. For more information, see Downtime.

Sessions take place every other Tuesday. The exception to this is the optional character creation session, taking place on the 11th July, one week before session 1; and the debrief (to be scheduled), where everyone gets a chance to talk about what they were up to. All sessions, including character creation and debrief, are scheduled to run 19.00 – 22.00 BST on the day they are scheduled.

Sessions are made up of Scenes, where characters chat, interact with the world and each other, and various plots unfold.

Each session consists of different Scenes. Scenes generally correspond to a set of related events happening within a single location. They are connected to a specific Discord channel (representing the location) and will be cut off at a natural ending point (including a suitable cliffhanger!) by a GM/crew member, causing a Scene message to appear. Time between Named Scenes in a location is also a Scene, and might include casual chat between characters who are hanging out there. The Scenes that have passed in a given Discord channel will be numbered, so it is possible to keep track.

If you change location, you have effectively exited that Scene. Some moving around within a location is possible, such as moving from one room of the Town Hall to another while staying in the same Scene/Discord channel (although the GMs may choose to make this a different Scene). In general however, if it's a different place, there is a different channel already created for it, which would have a different Scene in it. You can return to a Scene you have left as long as it's still running, but you will not be an active participant unless you're there. Unless stated otherwise, there is nothing stopping you from exiting or joining a Scene at any time of your choosing. That said, we expect players not to hop rapidly between two channels to be effectively present in both Scenes at once!

Different Mechanics can be used to influence what your character can do in a Scene. Some Mechanics can only be used a limited number of times per Scene, or per hour in OC time. It is each player's responsibility to keep track of Mechanic usage to make sure they aren't being overused!

It is also possible to get either physical or mental Injuries during a Scene. Some Injuries will last until the end of the Scene, but others may persist up to the end of that session. You can seek medical assistance to cure the Injury. There might be a Clinic for that…

Not everything fits neatly into a nice, named Scene, however. GMs will try to call Scenes based around natural ebbs and flows in the action (such as a lot of characters leaving or a big fight finishing), but these are not meant to be prescriptive. If you are engaged in a conversation or a standoff with someone when a Scene change is called, you can continue that interaction directly into the next one in the same channel. The IC backdrop might have changed slightly and Injuries may have disappeared, but it's still a direct continuation.

Each IC post in a location Channel indicates something your character is doing or saying. How exactly you differentiate between these two things is up to you. Below are a couple of examples, but you can use whatever format you like as long as it's clear to readers what you're trying to convey.

To help keep the action moving and to help others interact together, we encourage you to keep messages relatively short where reasonable.

Example 1:
Winsome Windmill sighs, her blades swaying mournfully.

I never liked that mouse, but…

She sighs again.

Example 2:
*digs through dirt* uh hey guys I think I found something. Or maybe it's just dirt.

(Note that Discord will format the space between the asterisks as italics, unless you write your message as \*text\*)

Example 3:
Harold sits on the bench. “Are you sure that TNT is the best way to make friends?”

You can also add quick OC notes or check things OC in an IC channel. You might want to do this for a variety of reasons, for example if you need to calibrate something with your scene partners, if you're trying to talk through a plan with a member of crew. Please don't use spoilered text for this unless the content is OC sensitive.

As long as the difference between your IC text and OC text is clear, you can use any reasonable format. Some examples include double brackets either side of the text, using 'OC:' before some OC text, or both.

When you are trying to do something which has an external effect, it's time for adjudication.

There are times when you can determine how something goes without getting GMs or crew involved. This includes:

• PvP – See PvP and PvE and Conflict in the Core Rules for more information
• Certain Mechanic-based actions – Some Mechanics have information on what happens when they are used. This can be followed to determine a suitable outcome
• Simple actions – Actions that are trivial and have no consequence can usually be self-adjudicated. Examples may include eating a cake, burning a book with the matches you have, watering flowers, etc.

When you are trying to do anything outside of that, you are likely to need a member of the crew or a GM to adjudicate. Situations include:

• Interacting with the world – If your actions result in changes to the world, such as blowing up a house, this should be adjudicate
• Getting information – For example, trying to investigate something, or testing how something works
• Interacting with an NPC – You cannot determine how an NPC will react to something you have done
• Learning about how the world works – Anything metaphysical will definitely need crew or GM assistance
• Uncertainty – If you're not sure how a situation should go, or if you want someone to referee a confrontation, crew or GMs are happy to step in

Please use the bot call “/get_help [your query]” in the Channel you want adjudication to take place in. We will be able to help you faster if we know where you need help.

At some point in this game, each character will take their Curtain Call: a final speech or small action in the #curtain-calls Channel before taking a final bow and exiting the show for good. Curtain Calls are intended to be relatively brief, with the more action-packed part of this last hurrah taking place before the Curtain Call itself.

You can take Curtain Calls with other characters (PC or NPC), or on your own with others looking on. Before the session your Curtain Call is due, you will receive an email from the GMs with the specific OC time in the session your Curtain Call is scheduled for. The email will also ask for specifics and clarify what comes next. The more information you give the GMs in advance, the smoother and more to plan your Curtain Call will be, so make sure to respond and prepare in advance of your Curtain Call session.

For more information on Curtain Calls, see Curtain Calls.

Not to be confused with Curtain Calls, a Call is a 1-2 word word message a player, crew member, or GM can use during uptime to indicate discomfort, something happening OC (like needing to step away for a few minutes from Discord), or beginning/end of a session (GM only). When a Call is used, please respect it immediately. These are all non-negotiable.

The full list of calls can be found on the Glossary.

All uptimes of That's All Folks! take place entirely over Discord. You will be emailed an invite to the Discord server once you are confirmed as a player or crew member.

Used for banter, asking OC questions, and sharing relevant OC information.

Each player will have a personal Channel at the bottom of the Channel list. This is an OC Channel just for your use, which only you, the GMs, and Crew can see. It's a good place to do things like asking your GM something specific (e.g. for a secret plan).

Since these are OC Channels, you can post here at the same time as posting in an IC Channel.

Everyone is free to post on the OC channels outside of sessions, but they will not be monitored constantly outside of session times. If you need to check something with a GM outside of session, we recommend you send an email to gm@taf.oxfordrpg.com.

Each IC Channel on the Discord server represents a specific location, and will have the name of that location. If you can see the Channel, you can access that location and trivially go there during a session. Some locations may not be available to you at the start of the game.

To check the description of the location the Channel represents, check the pinned messages in that location Channel.

You can read as many channels as you like. However, please only post actively in one location Channel at a time. Your character can move relatively quickly between two locations, but cannot be in two places at once.

Some channels are only accessible to GMs and crew. These are used to share information in advance about session timetabling, planning for plots, and other fun stuff to help the game run smoothly. These are all OC channels.

If you begin the game as a player and choose to join the crew after your character's Curtain Call, you will be given access to these channels.

Just like the title says, please don't use Discord private messages for IC interactions in this game. Private messages will make it difficult for us to help run the game and keep track of what's going on. If you want to be in a private location during a session, please move to a Channel which no one else is currently active in.

If you want to quickly OC calibrate something and do not feel comfortable doing so in a channel, you can send someone a private message. Likewise, if you want to talk to your GM with complete privacy, using a private message is a-okay. Please only do this in specific cases you're not comfortable checking something OC on the Discord server.

During a session, you might find that you need to get in touch with the game's crew or GMs, for example to reach a specific NPC, ask a mechanical question, or adjudicate an encounter you cannot adjudicate yourself.

Contact can be done by posting one of the below in a given Channel:

• /get_help [your message] – Use this to flag that you would like adjudication on something you are trying to do. Please do this instead of contacting all crew/GMs - we use a Discord bot to help us keep track of everything going on, and don't want to miss helping you!
• @GM – reaches the whole GM team
• @<specific-gm/crew-name> – reaches that specific GM/crew. Most appropriate if they are already helping you with something, you know they play a specific NPC you want to get attention from, or you want to contact your GM specifically