Turn

A Turn, or Round, lasts for about 3 seconds and is used to divide up the actions of different characters in situations where speed is of the essence - such as combat, with each character taking a turn in order of Initiative, before the sequence begins again.

A turn is just enough time to carry out one normal action - such as casting a Spell, using a Technique or making an Attack. The GM may rule that some Skill Checks take several turns, or perhaps much longer, but most simple actions should only take a single turn. Additionally some things, such as Ritual Spells or Crafting Techniques always take more than a single turn to perform.

As well as performing an action, a character can normally also Walk or Run and, if the action does not require use of their voice, can also talk, shout, sing or whatever. Sprinting is an action in its own right however, and cannot be combined with most normal actions.

It is sometimes possible to carry out more than one action in a turn, by making multiple attacks - or by carrying out a Vocal Technique at the same time as something that makes use of their hands, but not their voice, for example. Typically the split in concentration required to do this applies a penalty however - applying Multiple Attack Penalties when attacking several times and a -3 penalty to both checks when combining a Vocal Technique with a normal action.

Certain actions can also be performed between turns, i.e. during the turns of other characters. These are known as Reactions and are normally defences of one kind or another.

When an effect refers to a duration in turns this always means a number of the originating character's turns - not a number of turns in general. I.e. durations do not count the turns taken by other characters in between one of the acting character's turns and his next one.