Spotlight Letter Template
This template is optional. Write however fits your character.
Basic Template
# [Title or Subject]
**From:** [Your character]
**To:** [Recipient, if applicable]
**Date:** [In-world date, if you track it]
---
[Your letter content here. Write in-character. Describe what happened, what you learned, what you did. Let your character's voice come through.]
---
**Progress:** [Yes/No — Use the *Reach a Milestone* move as your guide.]
Example: Starforged
# Transmission from the Outer Reach
**From:** Captain Vex Morrow, *The Silent Drift*
**To:** Anyone still listening
**Date:** Cycle 47, Day 12
---
We found another dead station today. Third one this month.
The Risen Union's banners were still hanging in the command center, but the people were gone. All of them. No signs of struggle, no damage to the hull. Just... empty. Like they walked out an airlock and never came back.
I pulled the station logs before we left. Most of it was corrupted, but I recovered fragments. They mention "the signal" — same thing the miners on Ackriss-2 were talking about before they went dark.
I'm transmitting everything I found to the Circle's relay network. If anyone else is tracking this, maybe together we can figure out what the Union is really doing out here.
Morrow out.
---
**Progress:** *Yes — Recovered critical data about the Union's activities.*
Example: Ironsworn
# Scratched into bark, left at the Oldstone crossing
**From:** Kira of the Ash Valley
**Date:** Three days past the autumn moon
---
To whoever finds this —
The blight has reached the eastern woods. I saw it myself. Trees blackened from the inside, animals fleeing west in numbers I've never seen. The hunters from Thornwall say it started near the old barrow, the one the elders forbade us from entering.
I went anyway.
The door was open. Something had broken out, not in. The iron chains that once held it shut were shattered — not rusted, not worn. Shattered. Whatever was bound there is loose now.
I'm heading to the Havens to warn them. If you're reading this, don't go east. And if you know anything about what was buried in that barrow, find me.
We need answers.
— Kira
---
**Progress:** *Yes — Discovered the source of the blight.*
Example: Sundered Isles
# Captain's Log — The Crimson Tide
**From:** Captain Isabela Vance
**Date:** Seventeenth day out of Port Sorrow
---
The ghost fleet struck again last night.
We spotted their lanterns through the fog — green fire, like always — and ran dark. Cut the engines, doused every light, and drifted. For three hours we listened to them pass, close enough to hear their rigging creak.
They took the *Merchant's Promise* instead. We watched from the dark as they boarded her. No cannon fire. No screams. The crew just... stopped moving. Then the ghost ships swallowed her whole and vanished back into the fog.
I marked their heading before they disappeared. They're not raiding at random — they're following the old trade currents, the ones that dried up a century ago. Someone on this crew knows those charts.
We found where they anchor. A hidden cove on the far side of the Shattered Reef, masked by the fog they seem to command. We're going back with allies.
— Vance
---
**Progress:** *Yes — Located the ghost fleet's anchorage.*
Tips
- Voice matters more than format. A gruff mercenary writes differently than a scholarly mystic. Let your character come through.
- Show, don't tell. Describe what happened, what you saw, what you felt. The narrative is more engaging than a summary.
- Connect to The Trouble and Shared Vow. Your letter should relate to the shared threat.
- Leave threads for others. Mention rumors, sightings, or questions that other players might pick up.
- "Yes, and..." always. Reference others' content as inspiration, not targets. Don't write definitive fates for characters, ships, or places that aren't yours.