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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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Faith is working security in a casino right now, and will be getting recruited based on her high performance to work security for a more prestigious firm. I'd like it to be one that serves one of the gubernatorial candidates of New Amsterdam, one who doesn't mind taking on troubled youths and grooming them. She'll be doing her first test as security for fancier people as one of the short term hires for the silent auction.
I'd like to dovetail these two things together, because my thought with Faith is this: she can expose the Displaced to either this politician she comes to work for, or if possible, to the UNA in hopes of getting in return some of the information about who could have done that with the Warehouse. She'll offer explicitly information on the blue light stuff, and she'll tell them all of what she knows (barely anything tbh) short of the gates and their location. The information she provides on the powers they have and the fact that those powers are all distinct will obviously confirm what they already know based on Rey's interrogation, so they'll know her info is good. (She will NOT immediately identify herself as one of them because she doesn't want to get experimented on and she's not That Stupid.)
I'm not in a BIG HURRY for this, so I don't mind developing it over time, but basically I'm curious about how long it would take and how viable it is, as well as if it would be better for Faith to share this with the gubernatorial candidate (or some other politician) she winds up working security for on-and-off or with a UNA official or if it's even feasible.
(Which involves also the question of whether there are like ... UNA officers at all, basically. Because the way the real military works is that there are officers who run administrative tasks and who manage assignments/etc. — that's done by military members, not by politicians and bureaucrats. So I'm curious about if the UNA has something similar: people who work for the UNA but who are high enough in the ranks to be individuated people, either because they worked up from soldier status or because they entered at that rank. Do they have their own lives? Are they accessible? Presumably some of them liaison with the government officials?)
This is VERY BROAD SPITBALLING so obviously all of this is super flexible but I wanted to explain my goals/intentions/direction as much as possible to make it easier to find a feasible path forward.
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The first thing we'd like to make clear here is that a plot that involves outing the Displaced to the general public is something that will need to involve the entire playerbase in some way. We're not sure whether or not Faith would have any interest in bringing this up to the other Displaced, but we'll need to fashion a reason that it becomes a discussion between the Displaced at large. It could even be something where another Displaced catches on to what she's doing and brings it to the rest of the Displaced, if Faith herself wouldn't do that.
However, we're not opposed to the Displaced ultimately being outed! This will be a long and involved plot but we're definitely open to that outcome.
As for your questions, we'd like to suggest that Faith go to a politician rather than the UNA because 1) the UNA is likely going to be a dead end and 2) it would also end up resembling the plot that you already did with Rey, which we'd rather not retread (and we imagine you'd prefer not to either!). However, getting a politician or anyone else to actually believe her and take her seriously will require work on her part, along with some hard proof. Also, most people in this world still correlate the Displaced with Morningstar, so that will be another point against her -- which may make whoever she goes to less willing to play ball. These are all things we'd just like you to keep in mind when approaching the plot.
Given that we're suggesting the candidates, both Durcell and Lynch are options! If you have a preference, let us know.
Re: the UNA officers, there are none! It's the eerie part of the UNA and how it functions, as it seems as if the orders come down from New Beijing. Faith would be able to see that this was likely because numerous soldiers keep being shipped back to New Beijing, especially if she was trying to find officers. Their movement out of the base is always as a unit, heading toward trains within UNA-affiliated trucks. Their homes are in barracks at the bases in each of the cities (if she goes worldhopping to verify), so they don't have any methods of reaching them for sabotage. None of them have personal lives beyond their commitment to the UNA. It seems as if there is an acknowledged direct line between the UNA soldiers and the government itself.
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Mid-April seems like a good time, especially since Lynch's recent polling successes point toward him being the likely frontrunner by the election in October. He'll be hiring her through word from the grapevine, at least partially because he'd be counting on her to be able to recognize familiar faces associated with Durcell from the casino.
Let us know if you need any additional information on this front! As for the gamewide plot, we suggest pitching it during the Engagement post tomorrow to see if anyone else is interested or on board! That should help provide some direction for you.