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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realists: (ro » sarcastic)

[personal profile] realists 2019-07-16 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
terraforming jupiter is dumb, jyn supports all these voices!

thanks for the nerd gossip, mods!
forcevisions: (tlj_148)

[personal profile] forcevisions 2019-07-16 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Following Rey's communication with Kurt Fischer's family, the UNA looks into her social media to figure out who it is that's trying to get in touch with them. She didn't get flagged before, but she gets pinned for that and black bagged on Nov 24 when they track her down to Kylo Ren's apartment, where she's been kicking around since he vanished on the 19th.

However, Rey had mentioned to Daisy, who she was investigating the research outposts with, that she was stopping by Fischer's family, and Damian can find her videos all over social media. Together they can put together that Rey was grabbed by the UNA for casting aspersions on the government and poking her nose where it didn't belong.

Rey had also mentioned to Daisy a plan to use Cassius' arrival log train to get out to the research outpost they'd learned about. Daisy can put this together when Kylo returns (Nov 27) and demands they find his missing girlfriend, facilitating a group of people going out to retrieve her. Poe, realizing that his roommate and buddy is NOT just normal disappeared but is UNA captive, is like fuck that I can yeet the train past the checkpoint. So they use Prompto's train job to figure out where an out-of-service train cart is that they can take out there.

With Damian and Daisy's help looking into her ID history for who her close friends are, Kylo puts together a group of her long-term friends because they're trustworthy (Damian, Poe, Sora, Riku, Prompto, Illya) and some names that he adds all his own to the list of people who are coming to storm the facility with him (Daenerys, Octavia).

Daisy, being the person she is, can leak the location as also being the outpost the Morningstar agents that have been captive are, and ensure that characters outside the Save Rey op also make it there with their focus being on rescuing the MS agents who weren't able to be grabbed because the UNA found Kurt Fischer too quickly for anyone to act on his information. At this point, Daisy will do whatever interaction is necessary with El to get their hands on scrambler masks as an option for arrival/fighting in the outpost.

They leave on Nov 28, let's say (that way new characters can participate fully). Once at the facility, the plan for the Rey Team looks like this: Daenerys, Sora, and Prompto can try to cause a distraction around the facility to take some of the heat off those trying to free Rey and others. Between the three of them, they should be able to withstand whatever repercussions that come with while Damian, Octavia, Kylo, and Illya on the stealth team see about finding where Rey is kept and violently liberating the prisoners. They prioritize breaking her out, and then also help break out the rest of the agents.

All PCs and rescued agents are smuggled back to a vehicle (some kind of MANY-PASSENGER van for UNA missions) that Poe has wrangled. He drives them to the outskirts of New Prague, where they use El to get in touch with New Prague Morningstar. They're smuggled inside and rest there overnight to let some of the heat die down. The rescued agents remain in New Prague, and Morningstar helps move the PCs out on a train back into New Amsterdam.

The whole mission will take about 48 hours.

Some questions that came up during the planning process to help facilitate logging:
1. How well-staffed in this outpost? Proportionally, how thick with UNA soldiers vs scientists?

2. What kind of interrogation are they doing of Rey while she's there and what kind of shape will she be in when they find her?

3. What kind of shape will the missing agents be in?

4. Where will Morningstar house them in New Prague overnight? How much freedom of movement will they have around the city between when they arrive and when they leave on the train the next day?

5. If I'm gonna put up an open log for threading stuff related to this with locations for the train car, the research outpost, the car ride to New Prague, the New Prague overnight, and the train. Are there any setting details I should make sure to capture in the top level for this log? (Or since this will be open to basically anyone bc of the agents thing, will y'all be putting up a log?)

6. Should I do an OOC post explaining all of it and contextualizing the openness of the log and the fact that Daisy spreading things around is common knowledge so ppl can make plans prior to any possible network to that effect going up?

7. The obvious: what will the state of Rey's ID be when she gets back to New Amsterdam? (Probably same question for anyone who doesn't use a scrambler mask while smashing up the outpost.)

8. AND MORE OBVIOUSLY, LET ME KNOW IF WE NEED TO ADJUST ANYTHING HERE. (Note I reordered some dates from when I shared a draft of this for plotting purposes because I realized only the facility thing makes a difference for new ppl and the Poe bit works better if Rey's been gone a few days instead of just one.)
998: (times are tough)

[personal profile] 998 2019-07-18 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
sorry for not following up in the previous conversation, the dream event happened and I got........pretty distracted......I just wanted an easy assignment for jon so he could learn on the job without drawing attention to himself. he will probably mention his corporate bartending aspirations to gaby, but he won't want to seem ungrateful for the job she did get him! he's trying to cultivate his good-puppy image.
dragonwarder: (i need some space)

[personal profile] dragonwarder 2019-07-19 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks mods! (No worries, I am in job transition and electrician hell, so I am only just getting back to this)

I will MOST LIKELY pursue both of those options (mostly bc Rey and Dany already have a pretty solid rapport, and I will never say no to more CR via Riku :') ) but I think the social media angle is definitely one she will have looked into -- probably slowly, given her shaky handle on the technology involved. She would focus on searching for what she could on the report and search for links to the facility -- maybe also link up with anyone who has done other research to see if there is any relevance between them, or if they are specialized in any way (for example: containment vs splicing/research vs adaptation observation).

Given the most recent arrival log (and her powerset), she would be keyed in on trying to learn more, and would recognize the need for legitimacy. I'm ok with the long path on that -- maybe starting with finding someone who works there, upping her rep with them via flattery/a game of nerd checking with simple factoids she could have found googling to start with the goal of just getting visitation, and working through that person afterwards to search for a role in a research division that would eventually lead her to the actual facilities much further down the line.

(If this plan sounds solid to y'all, I would also be happy to build a basic character sheet for that NPC if that would help, but I am just as happy having them be a nobody until/if it becomes relevant later)

EDIT: Oh also, I mentioned this on the arrival log, but I will put it here for ease of reference since it is relevant: Dany is also going to be taking samples and searching for research at the outpost in said arrival log.
Edited 2019-07-19 00:35 (UTC)
evasives: (183)

[personal profile] evasives 2019-07-20 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
omg i'm losing my mind about all this. this is all so cool!!! thanks so much!

once cassian discovers how deeply intertwined the neural implants and the cyberkinetics are, he would think reach out to el, so i would like to throw him at el's inbox to chat about the implants sometime soon if that might lead to any kind of interesting conversations? since he knows el does a lot with the implants.

what kind of company is riverstone? cassian would also look into the basics of what they do and what other companies they might be connected with, if that information is on the neural network or through any of his contacts, even if it's just rumors to begin with.

can i ask if this was the hint?
Anyone in a hospital receiving care from a doctor or a medi-unit may find their life slipping away from them – and if someone's in a medi-unit when the EMP hits, they're almost sure to be dead or permanently injured, requiring different medical intervention.

if so i'd like him to make the connection there! or at least run with that as a theory. he would begin to look into some of the more recent history of new amsterdam, to see if there have been any significant power outages, even if it was for certain grids or areas of the city. he'd ask some of the people he knows if there had been any similar events as well as doing the new amsterdam google equivalent.

if not i will look over it again for more hints haha.
covertness: (Default)

[personal profile] covertness 2019-07-21 07:59 am (UTC)(link)
'sup modlies, a couple small questions to get me back in the swing of things:

1. bobbi was missing for a bit while i was on hiatus; if fitz called in sick for her, would she still have her job and the lab access and all that or would her situation at work have changed?

2. would samples of the smaller monsters from the facility match samples of the monsters from earlier? i'm assuming yes, but bobbi would want to confirm
end_recording: (Default)

[personal profile] end_recording 2019-07-22 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello!

Jon needs to lay hands on a tape-recorder or some other kind of non-digital recording device. Would he be able to find an item like this, and if so, how expensive would it be? If it has to be built, would that be particularly difficult?
reneger: (Default)

[personal profile] reneger 2019-07-24 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
Hi again, and thanks!

It'd be a lot of empty promises, tbh. He'd show off what he's capable of, show off his id scramblers, and give lines about earning it. Since El was willing to hand over blueprints--Jason will be using those to get a mask for Kovacs and Loki, too. Kovacs will be (eventually) taking a place as Jason's right hand man, and Jason will be pretty adamant about how Kovacs earned his place and his toys!

Jason will also be taking advantage of Loki's weapon cache, since he offered to share! But again--it'll be a show of force and of tools he has, but he won't be sharing with any of the gang members for a while.

He just wants to keep them on their toes and waiting for it!

Re: the tech anyway! Any really detailed plans would wait until he established his place among them better. And he'll likely go to El or Gaby for a good hitlist.
Edited 2019-07-24 04:40 (UTC)

[personal profile] ex_dictator317 2019-07-24 04:46 am (UTC)(link)
are you sure she can't pull a phantom thieves and just steal their hearts??

jokes aside, thanks for the information! that'll come in handy to keep in mind. in terms of 'going after', it's likely to be a combination of all three (more in the sense that she'll be catering to gang member's personal grudges at first, to try to earn their respect/trust, so she isn't going to exactly stop someone if they're going to go ham on someone who really, really wronged them) but with less emphasis on murder and more emphasis on intimidation tactics and, where possible, legal trouble that's not exactly ... always in line with the law (blackmail, ruining their public image, threatening them into confessions, exposing them on social media, stealing evidence, etc - whatever it takes to get certain individuals to stop and/or turn themselves in, basically).

i'm not sure if all of that makes sense, but lmk if more clarification is needed. i know it'll be the long game, of course, and take significant development; i'm fine with it backfiring on her, especially in the beginning stages when she'll need to somehow get her hands on the proper equipment.

also — ty, i'll be sure to reach out when i get all of my thoughts and ideas sorted and know which directions i can take! as you can see, i'm partially brainstorming as i go along.
reneger: (you know you got me to help out.)

[personal profile] reneger 2019-07-24 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you, mods!

For the initial plot I just want to note down a date of November 27th! For posterity.
warfares: <user name="recadreuse"> (kylo0275_zpsm8omygzu)

[personal profile] warfares 2019-07-24 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
hi guys, so sorry to interject - tifa said it was ok that i just hop on here, but

re: 7 - rey having to stay out of new amsterdam for a bit, presumably this is so that she's able to recover and also gives them time to establish her new id, yes? would kylo be allowed to stay with her while she's in new prague or would he have to return to new amsterdam with the other group. i ask this purely because after finding her, and learning what she's endured, he'll be reluctant to leave her there on her own.
warfares: <user name="skittys"> (pic#12890170)

[personal profile] warfares 2019-07-24 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
fantastic! and thank you for the clarification, it'll definitely help with figuring out what happens post-rescue, while the dust settles.
forcevisions: (tfa_083)

[personal profile] forcevisions 2019-07-24 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Can you give me more information about possible consequences around Rey revealing her power before I decide I'M AFRAID OF PEEING IN THE SANDBOX BY ... REVEALING POWERS ... WITH THE BLUE LIGHT ... but also Rey has shown precedent of being real resilient to interrogation (she won't give them the answers they want) and also lashing out at them, and this event will be spurring a huge power growth for her so it would make sense for that to manifest. I'M NERVOUS FAM.

Other than that, some ID stuff:

2. Can her new ID be Raeh Solo? Or will El say that's too close?

3. Will there be any requirements as far as what kinds of job openings she needs to stay away from (i.e., avoiding drawing attention)?