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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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They will be aware of a larger presence following them, and will alert Maeda about it. The fact that it will eventually lead to Doctor Strange showing up will be equally strange (ha ha). They will alert Maeda about Strange's presence there and earlier with Hideki, and someone will be showing up at Stephen's place of business to ask some questions. They won't be keen to bother with most of Red Wings' personnel, instead focusing on Stephen's interest in Hideki and what he's aiming for there.
In terms of information he'd get before that point, he'd learn that Aoi Maeda is always followed by a group of loyal guards. While she's expanded her workforce of guards in recent months, only the ones closest to her have earned a permanent place in her employ. The guard he follows will be just as uncertain about his future with her, and even a little afraid, too (as he knows that if he messes up, he'll lose his job). Let us know how Stephen would play with this information.
We're debating bringing in an independent, unrelated to the overall metaplot mercenary group into this as one of her guard units because we want to expand the role of mercenaries overall. However, this is something that could change the makeup of aspects of this plot, so we wanted to check with you before we went ahead with it! Let us know which direction you'd like to take this, or what interests you have!
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So whoever shows up at the bar Stephen will offer a drink and invite into the office to spin some tale about being on the lookout for influencers to collaborate with to boost his mentalist side business. He'll explain that alongside other avenues he's been contemplating stepping into the club scene for promo videos and cooltalk content and Hideki's got a sizeable enough group of friends that observing him on a night out seemed a decent way to get eyes on a few people at the same time - he'll admit that since running his own bar he's become a little more conscious of people's behaviour under the influence and wanted to get a sense of whether or not Hideki and his pals were people he could do business with without it reflecting badly on him later. Difficult to claim you care about your staff and the public if you're going to try to turn a profit elsewhere by collaborating with somebody without any respect for other people on a night out! He'll have a fairly extensive list of notes he's taken about potential collaborators that expand beyond just Hideki including new starters, middle and heavy weight cooltalkers, which he'll be happy to share.
He'll take the length of the conversation to do some snooping in this staff member's mind for anything worth overhearing too. Primarily intending to listen in on any thoughts about incoming or outgoing messages, freshly written files and considerations of who they'll be sent to, looking for any sense of staff structure or hierarchy and any names of who he's being reported on to, and whether this staff member themselves is anyone of significance to Maeda. Fortunately he always layers up at work to avoid any glowing.
If you guys have any suggestions on where to chase the info he got from the guard (would said guard have known the identities of any of her loyal guards?) and any info Stephen might get from this most recent interaction, that would be great! We're looking for ways to wrap this up sooner rather than later (this is on me for taking a month off haha) so if it's going to take a while to wind down the subtler roads I'll hand over to Jason's ready-lit fuse.
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While Maeda's guard isn't going to believe him in the least - and Stephen will know this before the conversation ends! - there will be a chance to get some juicy information. He'll know who some of the loyal guards are, how they're typically chosen by Maeda, and what someone can do to get in there. The guard is a better source of shifts, but there's the sense that anyone outside of the inner circle is expendable.
We're assuming that Stephen wouldn't be able to simultaneously push the BS he's spinning while also prying into the guard's mind, by the way!
That said, Stephen will likely come away with two impressions:
1. That he's likely going to be in trouble if Maeda isn't put in check quickly, if only because he's tested his luck one too many times. That means that people close to Stephen are in danger (so, his employees, his business partner, etc.).
2. That he can use those guards to get close to Maeda. They'll have to do some legwork to find them, but this is where big Jason can come in, since those guys will be known in criminal circles. She recruits guys who Know Their Shit, but also know how to be loyal - so it's similar to how people in the mob families end up going up the ranks and how loyalty is tested. From there, we'll let you guys decide how to do this, but let us know if you need more help!