![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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.
.
no subject
There are a few things to cover, so please bear with us as we give you the rundown.
re: Museum curator position
This is not a job that any person can get without the credentials, training, and experience required to be considered qualified. In addition, most museums are much smaller in the year 2512 and less likely to be tied to any academic institution. El would not be able to get her in at an institution to begin this research that you're angling toward, and her relationship with the Lynches is unlikely to help her in this arena, as well. We'll say that this isn't going to be a route that's ultimately fruitful to Yennefer's research, but if you'd like to have her work with art, please note the following paragraph!
One alternate route that she can take is to work with a gallery (like Diana!) or for a private collector that may give her access to older pieces of technology from around the world. This will allow her to move much more freely, rather than being tied down by a specific museum group. This is where the Lynch assistance can come into play: as they can recommend her to someone and help her get an "in" with little trouble. That said, Yennfer's limited knowledge of the world might undercut her recommendation from the Lynches, so she'll need to be careful and approach it from an angle that may be within her own experience and resources.
re: the research project
As for her actual research interests, we do feel that she doesn't need to be in a curator position to begin her research. The creation of the megacities is public knowledge: they were developed as an answer to isolating humanity from the rest of the world so that it could continue to "heal" from the devastating wars in the 21st century. The idea was that these cities would allow humanity to grow up and down within the chosen areas.
Of course, there is the issue with how they're all revolving around the gates, right?
Well, that won't be public knowledge, and Yennefer can feel free to assume that there's something suspicious going on. As far as the world is concerned, there is no need to censor or conceal the construction of the megacities (though there is a bit of "the United Nations came up with this ambitious idea, yada yada" propaganda that she'll find throughout). The megacities were developed around the idea of ensuring that there would be able to be a maglev train moving throughout the world, allowing people to travel between locations while not polluting the atmosphere. They were also dictated by climate change and rising sea levels. As such, the megacities were developed around this well-known transportation system—as far as the public knows, anyway!
As for the temple on Mt. Everest and the pyramids, they're built very similarly to how they were in our world (at least according to the public record). There won't be any acknowledgement of the secret valley or hidden compartment in them.
The true mystery here is how the heck the transportation system aligns so cleanly with the gates themselves. Who had the power to enforce this and make this happen? We will say that the art route is unlikely to be very fruitful for her in learning about this!
re: the relics
Thanks to the Lynches' involvement in the auctions, Yennefer will be able to find several people who bought relics there. She'll be able to confirm that these relics do not glow in their households (while apart from any of the Displaced). Of course, these could simply be relics that don't glow. However, she may need a story prepared for why she's interested in these relics (since the curator position is a no go, and the Lynches will personally know anyone who's taken her on privately).
Where to go from here?
With all this in mind, where should she go next? The question that she has to ask herself is this: who had the power to influence the creation of the megacities in the 21st century? Who made sure that they were built this way over the following few centuries? After all, they weren't all developed in the 21st century. Someone had to keep them on this path! We'll add that her answers aren't likely to be found prior to the 21st century.
no subject
my understanding (from friends working there) is that modern museums hire some people who are lower skilled/expertise to do legwork. i get that this might not be the case anymore in 2512! but is there a comparable space that would have academics in the field of history available to basically serve at the behest of the wealthy to provide their cultural arts fix, but also have people who are basically there to do the legwork, as our museums of today have?
yennefer obviously doesn't have the world-specific knowledge of art and history, but she has the social skills for this type of labor, and lots of rich people don't actually have the knowledge either (again basing this off friends who are in the field) and wouldn't recognize bullshit if it was fed to them, so that's basically the kind of space/position i'm trying to find. i'm open to suggestions of what kinds of fields/positions might have that still in the ML setting.
in short:
- frequented by """cultured""" rich folks
- linked to / done in coordination with experts in the field of history (not art-exclusive)
no subject
Real quick reply that hopefully helps:
Our biggest concern is that we don't feel that this route is going to get her the answers that she wants research-wise, so we think it might be best for her to consider another path that would get her the information that she wants. We're thinking someone that would perform a similar role to a librarian or information technologist, which may be an archivist who's working for a city. She could be an apprentice/training in this role, for example. Otherwise, she could help manage someone's estate, potentially being recommended for the role by the Lynch family. If you have any ideas that would be similar (or would like to make something up!), let us know!
no subject
To that end, when questioning about the relics, she'll mostly present herself as a friend of the Lynches who is a history buff. She will connect it to curiosity about her work, and she'd understood that these relics were dug up from a site that she hadn't heard about previously. She'd turn the question around and express interest as to why these collectors went for these relics in turn — Looks? Prestige? Scarcity?
On the subject of further research, she'll start pursuing the question as to which mega-corporations built the trains and when individual routes were completed. (A clarification included in this: were the trains built after North America was allegedly destroyed? Or before? Was there ever a plan to reach that area?) She'll also dig at who at the United Nations was making policies around approval of these train routes, budgets, etc.
no subject
Unfortunately, there's nothing very surprising around the purchase of the relics. They went to private collectors and those with money to burn, or were auctioned off for charity. Some of the buyers were likely interested in the time period or place the relics came from, some bought them as status symbols, and some just bought them because they were beautiful or rare.
As for the trains, the UN took over after the destruction of North America and began building the megacities then. It was only after the megacities were established that the network of trains was built. Prior to that, there was no plan to link North America to any sort of global train network. As far as Yennefer's research will tell her, the trains were simply an attempt to connect far flung locations that were now under control of a global government. The trains themselves were built largely by local contractors, and not any one corporation. Most of those specific contractors have been lost to time, but they likely wouldn't be of any interest to Yennefer, anyway.
We encourage you to have Yennefer draw her own conclusions and chase those leads, since we meant for this to be more straightforward - so if you have any ideas for where to go from here, we welcome them!