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What's in a Round?
Each Round, the party works together to achieve their goals. One or more characters act directly to do this, while the rest of the party helps out in other ways to make it happen. This requires a bit of coordination, but allows parties to defy the odds and accomplish staggering feats!
First, the party decides who is Spotlighting. Multiple characters may Spotlight, but at least one has to each round or else the party can't make any progress. Spotlighting characters describe their plan, and other characters can Support these to help them succeed. Characters take turns Spotlighting, allowing the party to take full advantage of everyone's strengths.
While the Spotlight has a key role in moving the story forward, everyone is important in making sure the party succeeds. This model doesn't restrict what actions you're allowed to take, but instead gives an understanding of how they impact the world around you.
Taking an Action
Each Round, every character is entitled to an action to help move the story forward to success. In most Rounds, the whole party works together, with characters taking turns driving the plan. Generally, everything you do in a given Round is referred to as your 'turn', even though lots of things can be happening at once, and your specific actions might be staggered over a bit of time.
In a Round, you decide whether your Action will be a Spotlight or Support. Alternatively, instead of either, you may opt to Catch Your Breath to regain resources in place of affecting the story that Round. You can also take any number of Extra actions, no matter what else you do.
Spotlight
An action that directly moves the story forward in a direction of your choosing, pushing to accomplish an objective in a particular way. To Spotlight, a character must spend 3 Spirit. The results of Spotlight actions are the ones that determine how much a party accomplishes each Round, and what consequences there might be for the party.
Spotlight actions must directly explain how the character accomplishes their stated goals for the Scene.
Support
An action that assists a Spotlighting character. The results of Support actions give Spotlighting characters Good Luck on their actions this round if successful, or Good Luck twice if the Support action Excels. Supporting costs no Spirit.
Support actions must explain how they help the Spotlight action, but a wider range of Skills and tactics can be applicable. Where a certain Spotlight action might only be able to use one or two Skills, perhaps several different ones might have ways of explaining how they could Support that action.
Catch Your Breath
Instead of Spotlighting or Supporting, you may spend your turn Catching Your Breath. When you Catch Your Breath, you do not make any flips or affect the Scene as usual. In exchange, you gain 1 Spirit.
Feel free to describe this however you choose. This doesn't have to be literally catching your breath: while poring over books for a night, you might need to rest your eyes for a minute; while searching a haunted house for clues, you might need to retrieve more lantern oil from the wagon.
(And no, you can't just spend your spare time Catching Your Breath to always have infinite Spirit. You have to be in the middle of some kind of trouble - if you're not working hard, you don't have any breath to catch!)
Extra Actions
Something minor that can be done as a small part of your turn. Many items and Techniques are used as Extra actions, allowing them to be used while also Spotlighting or Supporting. You can do any number of Extra actions on your turn, although some of them have their own limits as to how often they can be used.
Results of the Round
Regardless of outcome, there is always some expenditure of effort. This usually takes the form of Stamina or Willpower loss, often for the Spotlighting character. However, it's usually more manageable the better your results.
Depending on the results of each Spotlight action, the party may make progress towards their goal for the Scene. Excelling will grant extra progress, mitigate some of the consequences for the party, or something similar. If nobody succeeds on a Spotlight action in a Round, the results are worse.
Once the party has progressed enough to accomplish what they wanted to, the Scene is concluded with the TS describing what happens.
Should everyone in the party be removed from the Scene, usually for losing all of their Stamina or Willpower, instead the party fails to accomplish their goal. The Scene is concluded, with the TS describing the consequences.
If nobody in the party can take a Spotlight action in a given Round, instead everyone must Catch Their Breath. When this happens, the party suffers the results of not having succeeded on a Spotlight action that Round.
What Does This All Look Like?
First, the Talespinner sets the stage, describing the current Scene the party is in. Each character gains 1 Spirit. Then, Rounds begin:
The party determines their plan for the Round
Players decide if they will be Spotlighting or Supporting this Round
Supporting characters declare which Spotlighting characters they're helping
Each Supporting character, in turn, describes their action this round, announces any Extra actions they're taking, and resolves all of them
Each Spotlighting character does the same, applying bonuses from successful Support Actions
The Talespinner describes the results of all actions, including the new state of the Scene
The TS also declares whether a new Round begins, or if the Scene is concluded
At the end of each Scene, each character sets their Stamina and Willpower to their current maximums.
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