Spoiler
Forewarned is forearmed, and preparation is an important part of any adventurer's long-term survival. However, there's only so much time in a day to find out important information before going into an event. Even the most powerful magician, richest Monetarist, and strongest warrior has to contend with the rise and fall of the sun.

To represent the issue of limited time in a storyline between events, a modified version of the Turn system from the Guild-Fate (or Seasons) FC management system, by Halren Rhalsgard, will be used to limit the amount of actions players can take between events. Actions will be broken down into one of three categories, with a different turn value for each:

Prepare
Cost: 1 Turn
Prepare actions involve single characters gaining advantages to improve their own chances of success. These actions are performed on their own time, and often require little personal investment on the characters' part.

Common Prepare actions include looking for/making new equipment, getting consequences healed, hiring help for a future event, or in the case of ship-based events repairing damages and replacing crew.

Research/Investigate
Cost: 2 Turns
Some actions take a lengthier time commitment because they require the character to spend a lot of time reading books, talking to old contacts, or piecing together clues. Attempts to take actions involving the Lore, Investigate, and Contacts skills in particular are considered research actions. However, these actions can often yield information and results critical to resolving a plot.

In general, actions that take suggest a long period of time to work like the skills above indicate a Research/Investigate. Actions that require multiple different skills to work are also candidates. It's possible for a simple Prepare action to become a Research/Investigate as the situation becomes more complicated.

Discussion
Cost: 2 Turns
Getting together to pool information with other players requires some organization and time spent gathering everyone in one place, in addition to the actual RP scene itself. No rolls are needed for a Discussion.

Discussions indicate fairly large gatherings of characters, at least four or more. If you need to coordinate everyone's schedules OOC, it's a Discussion. No rolls are necessary.

Act
Cost: 3/4 Turns
Why wait for the DM to come up with events all the time? This is supposed to be a proactive system, and you're adventurers! You don't always have time to wait for other people to cause problems for you to solve. Get out there and cause problems of your own!

Acting indicates that you want to organize an event outside of the usual list that come with sign ups. The cost varies based on the size of the event. Small events with no more than three players cost 3 Turns. Larger ones that would be the size of a normal event, up to four to six players, cost 4 turns. Make sure everybody's schedules are clear for this - especially the DM!

Restrictions
There are only a few restrictions on being able to use Turns to prepare outside of events, as follows:

Characters who have signed up for events marked as TRAVEL events cannot perform actions - they are too busy getting to the event itself.
There are only a limited number of Turns to be used in each round, collectively shared between all members of the plot. Turn usage will be tracked in the sign-up thread, but once they're gone, you're out of time.
Turns do not guarantee success - they give you a chance at success.

Spoiler
General Turns - 18 / 18 remaining

NPC Turns - 8 / 8 remaining