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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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• What’s the relationship with City Hall in New Amsterdam, the local UN embassy, and the headquarters in New Beijing? Is there a known hierarchy? How does New Beijing function as the centre of government?
• Peggy would express an interest in wanting to work in the UN embassy of New Amsterdam someday, likely framed as seeing the sudden changes and threats to the city and wanting to do her bit to help. What steps should she take to ensure that and roughly how long would it take in IC time for her to make the jump from City Hall, assuming she does exemplary work and is proactive and takes initiative? Nothing as grand as an ambassador or consul position, but say, as an assistant (or second assistant) or secretary to Someone Relatively Important?
• As per the calendar post re: Morningstar agents leaving certain jobs vacant, would any of those be an option down the line?
• Are there any government events/cocktail parties/etc on the calendar that she'd be able to attend for networking
and eavesdroppingpurposes?.......basically i'm shooting for her devil wears prada life in new amsterdam with a side order of #spy
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In order:
1. New Beijing, as the capital of the United Nations, mandates all regulations related to environmental concerns, travel within megacities, and universal standards and laws that each city must abide by. Think of it as a major governing body, with the different megacities acting as independent hubs of activity (provinces, states, or similar entities). For instance, it's New Beijing that set up mandatory education until the age of eighteen, as well as universal health care. All UNA orders are approved from New Beijing and move down the ladder.
The UN Embassy acts as the agent to carry out a lot of the regulations, as well as granting and regulating travel between the megacities. It works to ensure that all megacity laws adhere to UN sanctions, as well as not breaking any major human rights violations.
City Hall, and therefore the governor's head of operations, is essentially an independent operating group from the UN, trying to handle and mandate laws and customs according to the needs of that megacity.
2/3. We're going to put the second and third points together! It would take her a while, but she can definitely use an absence or two to her advantage to stand out. If you have any ideas about how she might do this - let us know! We'll leave it up to you for how she tries to use this situation to her advantage. Some will know the cause for the absences and others will suspect, so they won't be quick to fill these positions. How long it takes will be up to you, ultimately: since it's politics and government work, she would have to prove herself. We would be happy to work with you, and encourage you to bring us any plots or ideas she has to advance herself.
That said, Peggy has only been at her job for a short while, so she would need to start using the absence to her advantage as soon as possible. It would be this job that would potentially set her on the track for her new one.
4. There are parties, but Peggy's position largely means that she'll be very new to it, and won't be invited. We'll say this - getting an invite to one of those parties should be a goal for her in making networking connections, especially in getting brought on to a job with the UN Embassy. She should be doing what she can to catch the eye of someone who wants her to have that opportunity.
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2/3/4. Peggy in canon is extremely proactive both in the field and in the office, often completing important paperwork and tasks days ahead of schedule and before being asked to do so. She would show the same diligence in City Hall from the get-go, even if she's only been working there for a month. Peggy's been keeping up with the (digital) paperwork and memos coming in/out of meetings (covering general local gov't business and current projects; she goes where she's needed), taking minutes, preparing and distributing agendas, and doing follow-up on actions and directives (which are all within her purview as a deputy city clerk). Her demeanour throughout would be notable as being charismatic, hardworking, and discreet with a sincere desire to help the people of New Amsterdam*. Her skill at a polite turn of phrase is notably well-suited to diplomacy. In meetings, she'll show (and has already shown, at least once) she has a head for government matters. If her opinion is asked for in an offhand sort of way while taking down minutes, she'd offer a sharp, perceptive insight and would easily jump into the discussion more fully.
My specific idea in taking steps to advance herself is this: in the wake of the two border guards being killed sometime in July (with Morningstar named as the culprits), a small committee was pulled together to address customs and border protection policy. If it's cool, I imagine one of the junior members of that committee was a Morningstar operative who never returned to work after the UNA raids (and was involved to keep an eye on travel regulations). Because she's been up to date and in the room doing the duties mentioned above, Peggy would be diligent about picking up the slack left by that absence. Given the rumours flying around about why people were arrested, they wouldn't fill the position immediately and the committee would ask Peggy on board more fully as an extra set of hands and someone who knows the ropes rather than looping in someone new and catching them up.
More long-term: given that the UN embassy regulates travel between the megacities and this quiet little committee is tackling their local border issue (and that deputy city clerks are sometimes passport agents), I imagine there is communication between the two. And Peggy's duties do involve communication between departments, handling the documentation of the project, and maintaining records of appointments, should those meetings between the UN and City Hall take place. She'd be glad to accompany a City Hall official to those meetings or go in their stead if their schedule gets in the way, if only because she has such a keen memory for the details. This would be her point of contact with the UN embassy and she'd work on that connection from there. Tl;dr she's a Grade A secretary and liaison between organisations (it's not dissimilar to what she did back home between US and British gov'ts and military).
On a broader scope, Peggy had expressed an interest in inter-city travel during her first conversation with Gaby in the safehouse, so this is something she'd be especially keen on — particularly now that they're working to move MS agents out of town. This is what I have so far! I'll be glad to work with you on adjusting it wherever necessary since I don't know what plans you may have in your back pocket!
5. AND FINALLY re: Morningstar moving forward after the arrests... Peggy and Fitz have been talking and will approach Gaby saying they know Morningstar's presence won't be the same in the city but that they do believe in the group's mission and want to contribute beyond where their goals align (solving the mystery of the displaced, etc). How would this offer go?
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*And beyond, like New Venice and New Oslo, which is a a detail that will be further fleshed out pending an answer on the event aftermath post! But no rush!!
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This plan sounds great. It would take a few IC months to pursue, and you can come to us with other plot opportunities related to it as things evolve in game. As a note, this is extremely thoughtful and well done, so thank you!
As for the second question - Gaby will make it clear that certain members of the displaced led to Morningstar believing that they could no longer rely on them to help meet Morningstar's goals. She won't name names, but there was the sense that a more equal partnership could be gained if they bypassed the need for people to join and treated it as a relationship that involved both giving and returning. She'll welcome additional assistance from both Peggy and Fitz, however - they can take on a lot of additional assignments and see if there's anyone else who's of a like mind to help out.
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Re: the second point, this is great to hear! Laura or I will bring any further questions or ideas we may have to you at a later date, but for now, it's safe to assume both Fitz and Peggy will start actively passing their government/corporate information in reports to Gaby. And if there's anything specific she'd ask of them, please let us know!
Also on a more personal note, Peggy would ask how she's doing because, you know. Shit sucks.
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Gaby will primarily want to make sure that the lesser fortunate people around the city are getting food and clothing. Morningstar can't give all of them better lives, but they do participate in a lot of charitable acts. Delivering food to boarded up buildings full of people squatting will be a priority for her, and they'll learn that when she's not babysitting the displaced, that's where she's often lending an extra hand.
Otherwise, she knows that they're going to have to recreate their network of information in the city. Having it done with the displaced may help, so trying to figure out the connected dots may be a good way to go about things. They have no way of knowing who might need Morningstar's help, outside of a few remaining projects where they wanted to reach out to corporate and government targets. If Fitz and Peggy take on these projects, they'll be directed to pull them in to one of the other safehouses (one that was set up and established after a certain string of Morningstar agents joined, since they were left alone). It's the best they can offer. 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. That said, some of the people marked for "assistance" will already be dead and scrubbed away - it'll be something that Gaby and El are eager to share, all to give perspective on how Morningstar was actively saving lives apart from the displaced.
As for Gaby: shit does suck. She's stressed out and barely sleeping, and barely going home. While Morningstar has always credited her for her diligence and dedication, she never asked to be in charge of operations like this one. It's not in her wheelhouse. She'll admit that anything she emphasizes will be narrower in focus, partly because she's more small picture than big picture. The big picture when it comes to New Amsterdam was left to many other agents, and she was happy to be a cog in the system.
We're interested in seeing what the PCs do with Morningstar's current status, but we'll repeat something we're also telling Laura: the original agents and contacts outside of Gaby will be wary of leaving behind or passing along any information to the displaced. There were rumors of the displaced feeling as if they were entitled to better positions and trust despite seeming as if they don't care for this world, and that spread among the New Amsterdam Morningstar people. Now is the time for the PCs to prove that they aren't just concerned with getting home. This is, of course, a fair concern: they were taken from their homes and all of Morningstar's contacts sympathize with what happened to them. But that doesn't make them entitled to special treatment, and some of them will exit with the impression that Gaby and El are giving them too much leverage in their absences. Gaby believes things can change, but doesn't want to force anyone to feel as if they have to further Morningstar's goals unless they have to. In fact, it was her decision to change things up, and stop asking the displaced to join up to get assistance from Morningstar, when they can use one another instead.
That's not to say that things won't change, and Fitz and Peggy approaching her is encouraging. Gaby knows that her setup is not enough to help as many people as they need to be helping, or even undermining many of the human rights abuses that happen in New Amsterdam thanks to the large corporate presence. She'll give them leeway and encouragement to draw other people into their plans.
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As for Gaby, if they can lessen the workload on her at all outside the aforementioned tasks, they'll offer to do so. Or even just bring her a sandwich sometimes, damn.
If Laura or I have any further questions, we'll hit you up here! Thank you again!
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Gaby will be very happy about the assistance, and may ask that they try to reach out to any newcomers to explain the ropes when they come in.
We're really excited to see what Fitz and Peggy do with Morningstar! Right now, we're angling toward Morningstar's New Amsterdam chapter being a PC-run organization with Fitz and Peggy at the helm, and will begin making that clearer as they take steps toward fortifying their ranks once again. If you need any assistance from us, please let us know!
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