larkers | PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

> PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

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!

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.

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).
◉ 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

◉ 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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> NAVIGATION

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi Froot!

A few notes going forward:

- Heine will be released within a day of being brought in (right at the 24 hour mark).

- Jake and Hei won't have access to the network or the safehouse until we have the plot proceed. We'll let you know here when the next stage is occurring. Since this will overlap timewise with the January event, there may be a delay. They won't be able to participate in the January event.

- Once they do get access to the safehouse again, they'll have their IDs expedited. After that, they will not be allowed in the safehouse ever again. Any permissions they have for the house itself will be barred. They will be allowed to have network permissions.

- The log to kick off the consequences for this is here.

- There will be some other things that come up as planned for this plot. Hopefully they'll be some nice surprises!

this is amazing, thank you so much. sorry morningstar... we know not what we do...

Hey mods!

So to clarify, if Giovanni was to bite off a guy's ear, or part of a guy's ear, in relation to the fighting ring, would there be any IC consequences I should know about?

Thanks!

Hello, it's me again! A few questions!

1. So when Markus isn't at his piano-playing gig, he sometimes volunteers his aid to local art galleries (or even larger museums if they'll have him). Given that the shrines found during the lantern festival are obviously created by very artistic hands, would he be able to poke around in his art social circles (by being inquisitive) and locate one or several of those responsible for them?

2. This question hinges on the assumption that Markus is able to find and talk with someone! Assuming he can, he'd obviously just pose as a fellow interested artist and nothing more, and try to strike up conversation regarding the motivations behind creating these shrines, their opinions on the figures depicted, and if there are any other rumors of interest about them. And, of course, if there's a meaning behind the geometric shapes/patterns found in all of the designs.

Basically just putting his finger on the figurative pulse of this particular group's public opinion!

had another question about this, actually—

would jake and hei be in a holding cell at the police station, or would "jail" actually mean a full-blown prison? if so, i'd love to know what it's like there and what to expect from it (lifestyle inside, general amenities, how it'd differ from regular 21st century prisons, et cetera).

hi-tech future prison sounds interesting, but so does being jailed in holding cells and getting side-eyed by a bunch of cops.

Hi Froot!

It would be a holding cell. They can't send anyone to a large-scale prison without names.

Hello, mods! Thanks so much as usual for all your effort on this, it's really appreciated!

So my question is for Jake's options once he's out of confinement. The thug life is all he knows, etc., and I had plans to get him into the drug trade. Would it be possible for him to overhear a name while at the station that could be a contact to get him started? Or, even better, if he could intro himself to someone in another holding cell (in the vaguest of terms, given surveillance). I read in another answer that these gangs and organizations look for people to prove themselves, so I was thinking him getting arrested would be a pretty good sign that he's no snitch or potential mole.

A long-term idea I've been kicking around is him partnering with Hei (since he's already identified him to be equally scummy) who, if he got a job at a restaurant or something similar, could help him funnel product and profits through a front.

hey, can we get a brief little overview on what to expect from the holding cell?

appearance-wise, what's in it? how often will they get fed, if cops will be coming and going, if they'll be interrogated again, etc?

It's more like a room than a cell that you'd picture today. There are two sets of bunk beds, a toilet, and a sink for them to wash their hands. They wouldn't have a view into the rest of the precinct, with the door offering them their only view outward. The police officer's implant is what opens or closes the door. They would have two cellmates at first, but they would be moved to another cell.

Since conditions are meant to be more humane, they're allowed to shower every two days (normally more when rationing isn't in effect), and they get meals three times a day.

"Tak" in particular will be monitored for signs that he's going through withdrawal.

Riko will check in to see if they have anything different to say or a different story to tell, but otherwise, there won't be any further interrogations. The fact that they seem to be left in stasis and not going anywhere should be strange. For all terms and purposes, they did commit these murders.

Edited 2019-01-11 01:21 (UTC)

TWO CELLMATES, LMFAO GOD

i love it, thank you so much!

Hi, mods! Just a few questions as I'm trying to get Cain more involved with the game/setting.

1. Cain has been fighting in the ring after being introduced by Jason with the impetus that he could use it to gather information in general. Is there anything of notable value he could learn in the ring, or people he should approach? I don't mind if this is info that's already been given to other characters and you copy/paste here. It'd just be nice to know if Cain icly has heard anything to bring back to Jason!

2. He is very, very interested in the UN colonies. While it would take too long (both IC and OOC) to go to most of them, especially the Mars colony which is Cain's highest interest, I was wondering if there might be an alternative way to gather information about them. I know this is pretty general, but any direction you can point me in would be super awesome, since I... am new to this whole plot engagement thing and Cain doesn't have a ton of connections yet. If he needs connections first, I can def work on that, if I know who he'd have to find/finagle with.

3. More minor, but I was thinking of having Cain work in construction as a second job. Any major construction projects happening around the city? Also, would it be difficult to get hired for something like this? I figured he could just show up and they'd see he's bodily capable enough, haha. I mean, if they don't just use robots for manual labor at this point.......

Anything you can offer is excellent!! Thanks for the hard work, you guys!

Edited 2019-01-12 00:14 (UTC)

Awesome, thank you!

I've got one follow-up:

1. Loki will be purchasing one of the smaller bags of monster powder from the Black Market.

Additionally, would it be feasible to stake out a drop sight from the calendar to get a full monster corpse? I'm not certain how heavily guarded they are, but Loki and Jason will try to take a look to see if they can approach and rummage for a full corpse. If some incognito work is required for this (sneaking, lying, stealing uniforms, taking it before someone else gets their hands on it), they'll be willing to put together a plan for it. The end goal is to pass this off to Clarke so she can get some testing done via Morningstar.

Let me know. Thanks!

Hi mods! A few more questions that have come up from some of the things I'm doing around game.

Jughead is going to be checking out the gangs around New Amsterdam! Some of the smaller street gangs that are into illegal street racing, specifically. He'll be frequenting the bars, willing to get into a few scuffles, and generally being a sort of loner-weirdo who really likes those hover car races. I saw there were some larger gangs on this post, and I don't want to particularly involve him in something bigger (yet), but is it possible to start to get him involved with some low level hooligans about the same age as he is (probably a little older)? And about how long would it take of this hanging around to become a member?
Loki's been at his Pulsar job a few months, and while he doesn't put in more than the ordinary amount of hours, he's got a good brain on him that's probably cleverly managed a few ways of looking at the business. He's also, uh, probably thrown a few of his more nasty coworkers under the bus and played some office politics. Would it be fair to say that he could get a promotion, and maaaaybe a paybump?
In the last log, I asked about the geometric shapes on the shrines being similar to that of the ones that were at the Insomniac's Ball! Are these symbols anywhere else in the city? Loki's going to be keeping his eyes open for anything that's similar to them while he goes about his normal routine (to work in the financial district) to underground bars, gambling and fighting rings. He has a decently wide range, and may even go out of his way to explore new parts of the city if he's curious.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Gaia! Thanks for the questions!

Dick can definitely feel free to enter the police force, and El and Gaby would have encouraged him to take that path. Having more people in the force is better. When it comes to training, as long as he passes the entrance exam - which we presume he would! - he would get paid while going through the program. There's no kind of entry level job while he does this. All of his work would be training, and this would go on for a while. We know that having a character in training for a long time can be less than fun, so we are definitely open to him building a network of connections while he goes through this aspect of things. We gave a similar kind of outline to Eppy here for Bellamy, so you can use that, too!

Obviously, there are some NPCs in the police force that have been brought into play. Detective Satou is the most significant one because of her (unknown to her) tangential ties to Morningstar. In joining up, Dick will definitely hear about the murder suspects who had no identity and how strange it was. This would have moved like wildfire throughout the city and its police precincts.

Hi Tona! Thanks for the follow up.

1. That's fine! Again - she'll have to be working on another project at the same time.

2. We'll go ahead and say she can do most blood and DNA testing right now for humans, but any non-human testing may involve her having to come up with a reason to go elsewhere in her facility. We'll leave this up to you to decide how to go about, and how she's going to get around that complication!

Any tests need to be brought to us even if it seems redundant! We'll try our best to get back to you ASAP on these since it'll be a simple answer.

5. That's right.

6. Prompto's cell decay would be altered and stopped. There may still be signs that it occurred at one point, but been reversed. As a note, cellular decay is reversible in Meadowlark's world, providing people with longer lives. It's a part of the many world advancements.

Hi Kam! Thanks for the question!

Giovanni would have upset one of the gangs, so we'll go with the Kings! They'll start harassing him in and outside of the rings. The guy in question would have his ear reattached rather easily. At first, the Kings will just follow him around a lot at a distance and may start heckling, so Giovanni will have to be cautious if he's heading back to the safehouse. They won't be subtle about their actions, instead trying to talk a big game and instigate another fight with him. This time, it wouldn't be one on one.

Please let us know about how Giovanni would go from there!

Hi Jen! Thanks for the questions.

1. His art circles will be just as curious as he is! There's one or two people who have really dedicated themselves to tracking down the artist to no avail, going as far as to sleep out in spots that they think this mystery street artist will hit next. Despite the shrines and other graffiti being in very public places, not only will anyone have gotten a glimpse of them, but each place seems to be a security blindspot. They're very meticulous about their identity. There's a lot of speculation to the subject, everyone seems to have an opinion. They're either a talented scrub, or one of the upper class with distinct training trying to make a statement.

However, some of the elite in the city are starting to go to great lengths to remove the shrines and other pieces of similar art for their own personal collections. Shortly after the shrines begin to move around the city, that they're beginning to pop up in some swanky silent auction houses. It's mostly graffiti that has been carefully cut from the building walls that it inhabits, at expense of the architecture, the people living there, and the art itself. Markus' art circle will be able to tell him this, and they'll all have strong opinions about the art being stolen, repurposed, and sold. Many feel resentful as it was meant to be shared with everyone, others feel that part of the art was keeping it within the environment that it was produced, and there are more still who feel like it's counter intuitive to the message of graffiti completely. The highest bid for one of the smaller shrines is currently at three years salary, with some of the larger going for more.

2. He'll find a few! You can imagine now that there's a mysterious artist whose identity can't be pinpointed, there's going to be some ruckus and piqued interest in the community. Anyone of his art people will be ready and willing with their own artistic interpretation, but their opinions on motivations will vary. The gist is that it's an elaborate metaphor for the state of the city, and possibly the world. Many see these deified figures as the ascent of those that have been torn down, directly impacted by the disparity of wealth. Some feel like it's a message directly meant for Governor Gill-Jade. There's only one person out of the bunch that believes the people depicted in the shrines are literal, but is dismissed by the rest. No one will have much to say on the geometric shapes except as an aesthetic decision. There will be some comments on the extraordinary linework and symmetry.

There are even a few inspired toward their own street art, seeing it as a call to arms. They're readying their supplies and conversing about their own ideas. There are even some copycats who have turned up, using their own artistic talents to mold the people glowing blue with their own political and social messages.

Hi Emily! Thanks for the questions.

You can either have him introduce himself to one of the guys in his holding cell before they're moved, or he can do it while taking showers every few days in the precinct. The fact that he doesn't have a history that's trackable would immediately be intriguing to anyone who runs drugs - for hopefully obvious reasons!

We wrote some information about drug running gangs here. Both gangs are now helping cell an unusual drug taken via vape in the fighting rings that inspire someone to take vengeance on anyone they're fighting. He wouldn't find out about this until he's out of jail, as it's new on the market, but it would be all the rage (pun not intended!) once he started exploring what's out there.

The idea with Hei is definitely something he and Hei could look at doing long term in getting out of jail, and they could use their cell networking to find the right restaurant, and even be pointed in that direction for "if they ever see the light of day." They'll be told to give the name of the guy in the cell with them. We'll let you figure out this NPC for yourself.

Edited 2019-01-14 02:09 (UTC)

Hi Julia! Thanks for the questions.

1. There are a varied motivations for being in the fighting rings. Some feel the need to do it to supplement their salary, some do it for fun, and others are gamblers looking to make some quick money. It makes it difficult to pinpoint anything of value that hasn't already been passed down through a game of telephone. Cain will learn of the emergence of a new drug that fuels the fighters' aggression, taken by vape. He'll also learn that there are a handful of the regulars are wary of stepping into the fighting ring, as there have been outlandish rumors about some who have supernatural abilities. Some dismiss it as fear mongering to control the stakes, others want to prove their worth and are actively seeking them out, and a majority find it ridiculous, superstitious chance talk.

2. It would largely depend on what he's looking to find out about the colonies, but there is a great deal of information online. A lot of this information comes with advertisements of a new life, propelling humanity into the future, and offering new opportunities for everyone while they're there. Harder to find information would be about the poor living conditions, but it's not impossible - and Gaby would be more than happy to fill him in if he asked. She's made some public remarks about the colonies in the past, and most recently on her post. Of course, that's a lot, so he can always poke around Morningstar and get the answers in an unrelated fashion.

If he does ask Morningstar, he'll get a lot of information similar to what's here. Basically: the colonies suck and are an avenue for corporations to take advantage of working class people so they can offer humanity a future. They are a necessary evil and not a lie, but things could be better out there and simply aren't.

3. While the city has mostly recovered from the monster attack back in July, there is always reconstructive work to be done in the city. As long as Cain can work a few long shifts of manual labor, he should have no trouble landing a job. There are many aspects of construction that are still manual, but some technological advances in machines have made the job easier. There are 3D printers that dictate the shape and density of certain polymers, and elaborate machinery that can pinpoint exact mathematical equations for unique architectural framework. Cain will be among those that move around these constructed pieces, carrying bags of supplies from point A to point B. As the city is still on a nighttime schedule, a majority of the work will be done in long shifts from 8 p.m - 6 a.m. When the hours shift again, he'll be working during the daytime. We'll announce this on a future calendar!

Hi Veronica!

Assume that all incognito work would be necessary, but you can go ahead with that plan to get more parts! The drop sites in the underground are their best bets, as they're getting the most drop offs following the fire that happened. There is surveillance on the site, and men come to pick up the corpses (or whatever's left there) once a day. Think of it as like a high tech mailbox, albeit for dropping off monster parts. There is a camera watching anyone that comes by, but these are meant to be anonymous.

Once they go digging, they'll find that there is more than just monster parts in there. Some of it is just trash. It will probably be a little gross. Sorry about that, Loki!

Hi again, Veronica! Thanks for the questions.

1. Jughead can definitely start looking into the gangs. Depending on the size of the gang and their desperation to make a name for themselves, he can either join up immediately or after running some races for them himself. We'll let you come up with the name of the gang he inevitably joins himself!

2. Loki can definitely have a modest raise and a title bump. It won't be much, but his bosses will notice both his ambition and clever ideas. Yes, they'll know he played office politics, and they'll want to reward him for it. For now!

3. There won't be anymore geometric shapes around the city independent of the shrines, but the shrines will be popping up all over the place. As he gets around, he'll notice the scale of them. Most of the shrines are built with more simplistic images, cloth coverings, and candles, but there will be some of the painted ones in various locations, as well.

Hello again!

I know the info pages say things like coffee and chocolate are super expensive and hard to get, but are there cafes or restaurants around the city that sell them for the super rich? Like a coffee shop for the .1% or something, basically. Also, if there are, how hard would it be to get hired there and eavesdrop/creep on the customers?

Thanks!

Hi Jenny! Thanks for the question.

A majority of cafes that sell luxury items would be clustered in the financial district, where the more affluent in the city could afford it. Where there used to be coffee chains, it's no longer a sustainable business due to how difficult it is to purchase the commodities. Coffee and cocoa require a specific type of climate to flourish, and because of climate change, difficult to keep as they cannot be bred to demand in enclosures. There is a lengthy, highly lucrative process that brings the beans overseas. As a result, the majority of the cafes are privately owned and held tightly by nameless investors.

Most cafes no longer have such a varied menu, but have a limited choice in options that revolve around espresso, hot pours and cold brew. There are some lattes, but they're primarily focused around the trend of bringing out the "correct" taste of the beans and balancing out the acidic content. People can also buy coffee by the ounce. They roast their beans in house, and store them in small batches. The taste of the coffee has become more important than adding syrups or other flavors.

That said, they would be open for her employment, but she would need to impress them by being able to mingle with their high class and business customers. There's a demand for quality. She would also be required to have a deep knowledge of coffee as well as take a handful of online training courses. It's all about the water to bean ratio! She'd need to be able to work the espresso machine, roast the beans, and time the drips for the coffee, as well as make a nice bit of latte art once she gets some more hands-on training.

Awesome, thanks so much! Kate definitely has experience mingling with powerful people through her dad's connections. I assume it'll take her a bit to go through the training and get officially hired, but after that, should I check in with you guys about what sort of gossip she might overhear?

That's right! If you have any ideas related to any events or plots that go on, we're interested in helping you out!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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PLOT ENGAGEMENT (ARCHIVED)

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