larkers: (Default)
MEADOWLARK MODS ([personal profile] larkers) wrote2018-06-17 09:38 pm

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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preceded: (Default)

[personal profile] preceded 2019-03-30 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! Now that I have more specific things to look into, I'm back again!

1. Is there any way at all to follow up with cases determined to be related to the UNA and under their jurisdiction? Is there any frustrated grumblings along this line that anyone in the precinct is pretty sure this sort of process is how they had their hands so effectively tied during the MS agent shakedown?

2. Fitz asked Dick to look into a few cases here. For organizational purposes I'll break this up a little bit!

2a. The first thing he wants to be looking at are the murder cases of Francis Chopin and Hassan Spencer, given the MS' operations order to stun the UNA soldiers, not kill them. This sort of makes these two cases an anomaly. Is there any way he can look at the case files himself at this point, without penalization? Is there anyone who might be willing to spill the beans about it, if he were to subtly try to feel any of the officers out about it?

2b. While he wasn't here for the nurse's death, or any of the ensuing initial investigations into it, he's been brought up to date! While the displaced are aware that the files have been scrubbed, Fitz is curious if anyone's willing to talk about how frustrated they are to Dick, who's (I assume due to his personality) would have made himself a very friendly, sympathetic ear- especially as someone currently buried under the extreme scale of tedious busy work, and seemingly happy to do it- and whine about the potential for the UNA to have had a hand in it. Them being tight lipped would be telling in and of itself.

2c. He'd have wanted to note any deaths or strange disappearances (however short) as they were coming in and he'd been reviewing and sorting case files. I'm wondering how many, if any, were coming through since he started.

2d. LAST BUT NOT LEAST- he was asked to see what anyone knew about the Hei and Jake situation, especially since they've since left the game. Would anyone be privy to the details of the deal Riko made with them and willing to share it? What if any information about their escape and bitterness of that happening when their lack of ID's was such an anomaly might exist?

3. What is the relationship between the NAPD/NAFD? How closely do they work together, and how often is it like a regular cop show where the investigating detective gets called to the morgue to talk over the findings above the dead corpse? etc.

4. I'm wondering if- there's limitations to finding out in the real world, would it be possible in any capacity to look into it in the dream event? If he could access the files or talk more candidly to the fellow officers at the in-dream precinct, or if he could find a way to snoop into where any evidence is kept after hours and try to glean what he can from that himself?
Edited (i can english i swear) 2019-03-30 23:11 (UTC)
selfimage: — ɢᴀʀʙᴇᴛᴛ — (Anyway anyhow anywhere.)

[personal profile] selfimage 2019-04-03 02:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi mods! Just an fyi to let you know I haven't forgotten about this, Jen and I are going to wait until post-dream event to follow-up, since we have something in store there with the murals too.

Thanks!!!
retravel: (Default)

[personal profile] retravel 2019-04-13 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey mods! It's Laura and Ellie here to talk Rebuilding (New) Morningstar!

Off the back of our initial plotting and in line with their open network post for recruitment (and the IC feedback received there), Peggy and Fitz intend to take the first steps to rebuilding a Morningstar branch in New Amsterdam. Although they began their efforts with support in mind, the PCs asking them for guidance on their efforts to help MS and execute independent missions (and being won over by the concept of an organisation with familiar faces at the front) means they’ll elevate their efforts to lead actively. They’ll discuss this with Gaby and El, workshopping the extent of their remit and how to work with Morningstar’s remaining local agents and NPCs in need of assistance — with both Peggy and Fitz willing to do whatever needs to be done, however it needs to be done.

With Peggy’s training with the SOE and work with resistance groups in Nazi-occupied Europe during WWII, she intends to structure New Morningstar and its fledgeling information network similarly. She will also train less experienced recruits in the art of fieldwork, self-defense/combat, and espionage should they require or request it. (She has already begun to do this with some PCs.) Similarly, Fitz’s work with SHIELD for the last decade has led him to become a nudgy nudger before now, helping others identify the occupations in New Amsterdam that suit their skillset and serve the needs of the displaced community, which he’ll continue to do, with the new aim to establish a network that serves Morningstar’s (and, y’know, the planet’s) present needs. He’s also been coaching various PCs in scientific and technological endeavours alongside the old school espionage work, so he’ll continue to open that to recruits.

Their proposed plan for rebuilding MS operations is as follows, with three key strands: Relief, Information, and Resistance.
— In RELIEF, any character can assist with the ongoing efforts to help recover from New Amsterdam’s various unnatural and natural disasters.
— Within this strand, Sansa Stark and Nill presented the idea for donations and clothing repairs, updating their network post with this information. Going forward, Peggy and Fitz intend to maintain this, with a specific focus on preparing for the upcoming shifts in weather to the rainy season and working on more permanent infrastructure to help anyone “displaced,” not just by the multiverse but by the ongoing political and economical struggles in New Amsterdam.
— In INFORMATION, both willing contacts and active agents can contribute to Morningstar’s need to understand he ever-shifting environment and work to acquire intelligence to the benefit of the organisation as a whole (with information-gathering a never-ending operation, when they hope to anticipate corporate and government moves before they occur; as well as the active effort to identify and dismantle corruption across sectors).
- INFORMATION will include passive intel-gathering and targeted operations to solve mysteries and get deets on corporate and government targets, gang. To this end, they have compiled a network of active agents (who have explicitly said they wish to help Morningstar as needed and believe in its ideals, which is roughly 10 PCs at present) and contacts (those who haven’t fully signed on to work for Morningstar but are interested in aiding specific projects or acting as informants; roughly 12 PCs at present) and made a note of their strengths and skills. OOCly, we hope to make a post for official sign-ups to ensure that everyone’s characters are where they wish for PC Morningstar ventures going forward, if that works for you mods.
- Peggy plans to liaise with the New Tokyo branch of Morningstar while in the city for relief work. Specifically to coordinate efforts, gather intel, and maintain outside communications, if possible. Most importantly, it’s to ensure Morningstar knows New Amsterdam has not gone dark. (This will adjust to the dream event aftermath if necessary.)
- QUESTIONS: We know that local agents are wary of collaborating with the displaced from our last plot engagement comment. Will Peggy and Fitz be able to work with the local MS agents that survived the raids? Can you elaborate on the professional relationship there? Peggy and Fitz are happy to work from nothing and begin forming connections with individuals to liaise with them in future. They’re not asking for anything from the locals/pre-existing agents besides how best to help them, if they can.
— In RESISTANCE, once they have a pool of recruits and (hopefully) firmer links to Morningstar as a whole, Peggy and Fitz are keen to do their spy thing and support the rebellion with field missions. This is further off, but something they’d express interest in now! OOCly, we also love spy shenanigans, so this is the Dream Goal.
Finally, RE: MORNINGSTAR SAFEHOUSE. In response to, “Gaby will say that while the displaced set up their own safehouse, another new one will be needed for other people. Any of the three locations not used will likely need to be set up for NPCs who need assistance in the future.”
— Will the unused third location need to be prepped for NPC use, as indicated above? We’re happy to workshop how to do this IC and OOC.
— We know the safehouse plot is still underway and that it’s looking like two locations of the three will be used by PCs going forward, so we were wondering if we could propose an alternative space. We’ve been thinking about fun spaces to play around with in game and base spy operations at, and have a new location idea we’d love to run past you mods, if you’re open to it! Whether the new location already exists for NPC Morningstar agents or is one Peggy uses her government position to locate would be flexible ICly, as this could be in place of or in addition to the space leftover by the PC plot.
— Whatever the case, this location would serve as Morningstar HQ and be strictly relegated to related business as a matter of safety and mission confidentiality. This is in line with Morningstar’s previously established procedure of segmenting information to protect the whole organisation from becoming compromised.
As a note, Peggy and Fitz would have brought this to Gaby and El before Peggy left for New Tokyo with the relief group (and therefore prior to the dreamscape event). We're flexible and open on everything, as per, so hit us with what ya got, mods!
forcevisions: (bad trip)

[personal profile] forcevisions 2019-04-14 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Rey and Sora are out here trying to galaxy brain the bridge dream in backdated land; would Rey be able to find on Meadowlark Google any weird blue glowing bridges that exist on Earth as it is today, or in its history?
stabilis: (Default)

[personal profile] stabilis 2019-04-19 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
hi mods!! Please help us sound like smart hackers re: this.

Namely,

a) Do Daisy and Johnny have any chance of accessing UN public records? For their soldiers, or for anyone in the general public.
b) If yes, is it the kind of access that they could either find evidence of algorithms that are checking citizens for suspicious patterns of behavior (related to Morningstar), OR
c) Failing that, could they get enough access to personal records to try to predict things the UN might flag? Not sure if they'd do this bc it's basically setting up their own digital witch hunt, but could be an attempt at predictive defense.

And to pitch some specifics, this could either be just direct hacking (more likely to see if the UN has set up flags), or cobbling together data through more mundane personal data logging (insurance companies that track health, social apps that track purchases/travel, personal networks, etc), or looking for any extra suspicious behavior on those sorts of app (like what is and isn't being funneled into UN databases). OR, if they can determine some sources of data collection that might be easier to access, trying to piggyback on those less secure apps and plant a backdoor of some kind further up the line (tl;dr if they can't hack the UN directly can they hack facebook, who is clearly shilling out info 2 the government).

For reference, Johnny is ofc a big plot device genius nerd and has been absorbing what he can as a techie at Vyonation for about 2 months, using the access he's got to snoop on higher level programs/jobs without pushing his luck too much, and studying up on any hacker circles he can (probably not the really good ones, if they're visible). Daisy is also a ~*~master hacker~*~ and has been at Vyonation for about 2.5 months, practicing back end access on small businesses and working her way up to higher security targets (she tried hitting a tax collector's office a month+ ago, which was a close call, but has been working on leveling up since).

Thank you!
Edited 2019-04-19 16:45 (UTC)
girlcorrupted: (Default)

[personal profile] girlcorrupted 2019-04-20 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi mods!

I'm hoping to get Angel some work in the fields she's best at, and was thinking she could do something along the lines of IT work at Vyonation, infobroker for Morningstar and affiliates by night. With her history and parentage she knows the corporate world well, and could easily be a woman on the inside for the rebels.

theseuschip: (g~`PW !)POWER d-x 1\ s)

[personal profile] theseuschip 2019-04-22 05:55 am (UTC)(link)
hello mods!!

what I want is..... a museum (so Simon can work in it, but also maybe homesick time travelers can hang out there).

What kind of history would the people of New Amsterdam be into (history of technology, maybe?? anthropology??) and what would be kept there? What eras of human history have been well preserved after the shakeups that have culminated in 26th century Earth being what it is.... like would there be 21st century stuff in a museum? Like would there be paper books and Nokias held reverently in glass displays?
replicates: (Default)

[personal profile] replicates 2019-04-22 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
Hi mods! Just some quick questions (first time here, please bear with me!):

1) Since the replica (I'm just going to refer to him as Repliku for ease from now on) has sort of got the idea that his status as a replica/clone of Riku isn't something that's commonplace, and also because Riku has been here longer and he doesn't want more identity confusion, he's going to want to make some changes to his appearance as soon as possible. Specifically, is there anything he's limited to, i.e.: hair dye, color contacts, etc.?
2) If he wanted to start participating in the fight rings, how would he go about it icly?
rehandle: (Default)

[personal profile] rehandle 2019-04-22 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Heya! A really belated follow-up on question 2: how much of what what was detailed in the relevant event log might she have talked to him about? ie the security cam footage/any word of mouth accounts of their collection from the station? Or was all of that already public knowledge?

Excuse the massive time lapse here, it's about to crop up in a thread haha so I just want to make sure of what he knows and what he doesn't
rehandle: (Default)

[personal profile] rehandle 2019-04-22 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
That perfectly bridges the little gap I wasn't sure about, thank you mods!
covertness: (Default)

[personal profile] covertness 2019-04-23 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
hi mods!

clarke and bobbi have been talking about working on a vaccine to the anger flu/something to counteract the effects of monster bits. they've got bits of a monster carcass to analyse, they've got the analyses of blood samples from various displaced both affected and not, they're hoping to take samples of people while engaging in the empathy bond and not, etc.

i think they might also see about getting their hands on some of the drugs circulating that make people particularly angry.

i realise this is a broad question, but could they make some steps towards developing a counter agent/cure/vaccine or even do it? and if not, is there any direction you could point us in?
realists: (ro » meh)

[personal profile] realists 2019-04-24 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
upon returning to n.a. jyn will want to sign up officially with morningstar and she would mention to gaby/el that she has experience in forgeries, specifically identification, travel clearance docs, invitations attached to specific identities, misc documents and news articles, many many imperial documents, and also credits. these forgeries are good enough that she's never been caught.

(the one time she was caught was because she was set up by an imperial officer who extorted her and used her as a scapegoat.)

she's been trying to do the same thing here, handicapped by learning a new interface to do so, but she would want to try to create a separate id to practice all of this stuff on and i don't know if that is possible or feasible or if she could have any success on those endeavors.
blyat: (★ you carved the words)

[personal profile] blyat 2019-04-26 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Hello, mods!

I was curious, is there some kind of futuristic "dating app" in New Amsterdam? If so, what is it called/how would it function? Asking important plot questions here.
Edited (moving my other question to the faq) 2019-04-26 02:06 (UTC)