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PLOT ENGAGEMENT
What is Plot Engagement and how does it work within Meadowlark? This is the page where players can come discuss with us how to facilitate plots within the setting. However, there will be occasions where a plot doesn't work within Meadowlark's world, and we'll suggest alternative routes. For small worldbuilding or gameplay details, please direct your question to the FAQ. If you're ever not sure if you're at the right page, don't worry—we'll help you get it sorted out. We know we have a load of info!
In addition, you do not need to have a complete plot in mind when you come to us. We aim for plot engagement to be more of a conversation between us and our players. If we propose a plot angle and it's not to your liking, we're more than happy to work with you to come up with something more to your tastes.
WHEN WILL YOU HEAR BACK?
◉ All Plot Engagement answers go out on Sunday, except during events.
◉ The deadline to submit a question and ensure you'll hear back from us on Sunday is 11:59 PM UTC on Saturday.
PLOT ENGAGEMENT INCLUDES
◉ Player plots! If you'd like your character to become a mafia boss, this is your place to start. Typically, this involves anything that could impact the setting or other player characters.
◉ Character career advancement that gives the character additional power or status within the setting.
◉ Metaplot exploration and information! We plan all events to give characters something to explore after the event ends. This is the place to do it!
SUBMISSION TIPS
◉ Specify what your character is looking for when they're investigating. What questions are they asking and what angle are they trying to explore?
◉ If you have a specific goal in mind but don't know how to reach it, please let us know.
◉ If you link a thread to us, please summarize it! That helps us process the plot in question.
◉ Don't worry about not knowing the setting like the back of your hand before you submit the plot—that's up to us! We're here to help you with any adjustments to get you on the right track.
◉ Plot engagement is meant to help with IC play so that characters can continue to interact. If you're not sure how to loop in others, let us know so that we can work with you on it! While this page is meant to be a conversation between players and mods, we know that the fun part of a plot is how it can change character arcs, spice up CR, and more.
NOTES & THINGS THAT YOU CAN HANDWAVE
◉ Characters always start out in entry level positions. Characters can update their skill sets to the 2512 standard through paid apprenticeships or internships.
◈ If a character is advancing within a major corporation (as noted on the Setting or Locations page) or one of its subsidiaries, we will need to approve this advancement.
◈ If a character becomes a supervisor at a local bar or other small business, we do not need to approve this advancement.
◉ Joining the police force within a city requires three months of IC training (six months OOC). There will be instances where this changes, and we'll keep you looped in on that.
◉ We'll approve whether someone has social media fame, but we will not be providing social media follower counts. Once you have a plot for how to use those followers, that's where we step in!
◉ All Morningstar business goes on our Morningstar page. Please feel free to discuss specific plots here (including joining), and go there for signups and anything else.
◉ Characters getting jobs, finding apartments, participating in the fighting rings, getting married, making workplace friends, the creation of minor NPCs, etc. do not need to be run by us. Please let us know if these expand into player plots or other plot bits!
QUICK LINKS
◉ Archived Plot Engagement: Previous Plot Engagement.
◉ FAQ: For small worldbuilding or gameplay details.
◉ Setting: Our setting page! We'll update as needed.
◉ Jobs: A reference for who's working where!
◉ Locations: Both major and minor locations within New Amsterdam, as well as outlines for other megacities.
◉ Mod Contact: For wider game concerns.
◉ The Story So Far: Gamewide plot events up to current (your CTRL+F best friend!).
◉ NPC page: Includes NPC blurbs and inboxes.
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no subject
Thank you for reassessing and coming up with some (frankly baller) stuff here. Point by point:
1. I love the idea of things going very well up until the point they dont't. This would not be the first time Nate has had to earn the trust of someone terrifying and powerful and it's fun for him to have to walk that tightrope, keeps him on his toes, et cet. I'd be very down for unintentionally working into a position of trust only for things to go horribly sideways in that regard.
2. Wicked into this, let's do it. Let me know what kind of stuff goes into gaining trust over time/working up the ladder just so I know how to communicate this effectively in game threads as behind-the-scenes progress.
3. & 4. It's good tech, and good insider intel for Morningstar to have on the mob. In a little time I think this is worth pursuing! Playing the side to see how it shakes out while getting to potentially collaborate would be awesome, and it would be interesting to see what comes up! I can reach out to Em and we can keep this on the backburner for future stuff!!
5. Fortunately I don't think Nate wants anyone to kill the guy on his behalf, but a little intimidation might go a long way in getting him to back off. Normally he deals with his problems himself so the show of investment would certainly cement things.
Nate likes helping people out and leading (in less savory and legal activities) when able, so setting up a small organized web is something I think he could accomplish given his background and experience, that way we could more easily incorporate more players into this avenue if it's something that interests them!
This all sounds really great and I'm looking forward to it!
no subject
Glad to hear this is more what you were looking for!
1. Since you're down with this idea, we're thinking that the corporation that the Mancetti family once had ties with some centuries ago was Giles Bell, particularly because of the Jimmy connection (since Nate will have a direct tie to him starting in March). That is, part of the reason the mob got forced out is because of Jimmy not approving of their methods back then. Now it's nothing but bad blood between Riverside and Giles Bell, it seems. In the process of earning Rose's trust, Nate could eventually learn about some of the specifics of this grudge and its history. As for how it comes out that Nate was responsible for revealing Rose's identity, we figure that can happen later down the line.
2. The setup with his thieving work for the mob would be that once it was brought to their attention (via Langley) that he'd managed to sneak into the home of someone that rich and powerful and steal something, they'd decide that was the sort of skill set they could put to some actual good use. They would run him through the basics of how to get around the surveillance systems of this world (which isn't foolproof, but they've mapped out a good chunk of the surveillance in the city to know where the blind spots are), and then start to send him on jobs to test him. Nothing too difficult at first, but he'd be primarily sent out to steal black market goods, such as illegal prosthetics, then eventually drugs, weapons, etc. A lot of this would also be about them testing his loyalty to the organization as well. Eventually, once he's really trusted, they might assign him to steal things from Giles Bell itself, because they really do want to stick it to them however they can. But that won't be until later on.
3 & 4. That sounds good to us! For now Nate can work on earning Mancetti's trust, along with the rest of Riverside, and we can circle back to this whenever it seems to make sense.
5. Roughing up Langley and intimidating him to get him to back off and realize that he's trying to pick a fight with the wrong criminal works for us! We can leave it at that and always bring him back in as an element if it makes sense for any future plots here.
Definitely feel free to have Nate start to bring other Displaced in on this, as would make sense! We're totally down for it and imagine these plots will be more fun to engage with if other PCs are involved.
no subject
• Roughly how many runs would he make on a weekly/monthly basis for Riverside? At what point is he considered "trustworthy" (or trustworthy enough, as organized crime systems tend to function less on a merit-based internal economy and more on an effectiveness in following orders)?
• To whom does he regularly report? What kind of dynamic is that? Does he see Rose with any regularity or on occasion to check in?
• If it's black market goods (prosthetics, drugs, weapons) that's more of a smuggling job than outright theft, unless they are also having him acquire items from legitimate businesses for them to replicate. Is that sort of where y'all were leaning with that assertion? Checking for clarification.
• What sort of internal help would they provide him beyond their documentation on urban surveillance and security? Equipment? A weapon?
• At what point would they be amenable to taking his recommendations on other thieves to incorporate into a small web?
no subject
First off: we're fleshing this out on the go, so if any of this doesn't work for you, let us know and we can adjust it to make it more fun. We're focusing on Nate still training, and that training will both be learning how to duck surveillance, but also knowing how to view the infrastructure of the Riverside Mob itself.
1. In terms of "runs," he would still likely be undergoing training and learning the ropes of how the Riverside infrastructure works at this stage. While he's been with them for a while via the casino, he'd start to learn a lot of the backend stuff. However, it would be from a distance. He would see how they get their weapons, who their enemies are (these are more likely to be the corporations rather than the Petrov Family, the "rival" New Amsterdam mob), as well as what kind of work they need him doing. He'll also learn which gangs they do and don't support. For example: Jason's gang, the Outlaws, was causing problems for them before Jason disappeared, but now they seem to be in disarray. On the other side, the Hi-Jacks are a universally respected gang in New Amsterdam because of their technical know-how. They'll never be as big as the mob, but they have carved out a place for themselves in the city.
Beyond that, he would be helping out with smuggling runs: getting things onto trains undetected, getting into buildings and ducking surveillance to pick up things that were agreed upon, and similar activities. This would also prove to be a test on how good he is for the higher ups.
Right now, we'll say that they're more interested in how good he is and how well he can pull things off without screwing them over. It's less merit-based, and more that they're making sure they're right to invest in him. They are, however, interested in hearing any feedback on how they can do better. Oddly enough, they're going to be pretty open to that—as long as it doesn't backfire.
2. He'll be reporting to an underling of Johnny Sperling (we just made him up, so don't worry about not recognizing the name), who's in charge of the smuggling operations. Johnny handles a lot of the infrastructure related to these operations, and handles sales, deals, etc. His underling, Kasumi Watanabe (also just made up!), has been with the mob since she joined up ten years ago. She was recruited for her talents in smuggling as a part of a smaller gang, and that gang is now long defunct. Kasumi is bright and methodical—she's slight in build, but she definitely can handle herself.
Both Johnny and Kasumi report to Micaela Yavuz, the Head of Security for Riverstone, and Rose's right hand. We have a bit about Micaela here, in addition to what came out during the Aerie.
At this stage, we'll say that Mic, Johnny, and Kasumi are all evaluating Nate to make sure that Rose made the right decision, but they're also doing it because Rose asked. He'll be reporting directly to Rose and taking on special projects soon, but these are the people assigned to make sure he's ready. The fact of the matter is that they're still a direct line to her, and that will be known to everyone involved (so, that does include Nate!).
In addition, given what you said about him leading operations, this is where Nate could start showing some of the other lower mob members that he's innovative enough and willing to take charge. Johnny and Kasumi are going to give him the rope to do that so he can prove himself. They are preparing him to be someone important to their operation, but they can't expedite the process lest they make people mad (and they want Nate's integration to go smoothly).
3. It's definitely smuggling right now, but that's a part of the training. In time, we'll say we're envisioning it as one part thievery (stealing prototypes) and one part spywork so that they can make deals by showing they have the knowledge about what's coming on the market. With that knowledge, they can also blackmail contacts within various corporate subsidiaries to give them a cut.
This is what we'll use to build up into the Morningstar technology.
4. He would be given equipment and a weapon, but nothing is on the level of the Morningstar identity-masking tech. Since so much data and surveillance is held on off-site cloud servers, they have to be careful about what they use because they can't just tamper with the evidence. This is where crime is really difficult to pull off in Meadowlark's world, and it's part of what makes the mobs so tetchy.
5. In terms of recruitment, we'll say it's once he's past the training and evaluation period. This would likely be in late April to early May OOC, if that's all right! We have an event in there too we know has mustered some interest.