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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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no subject
1) Thanks for the clarification! With the aftermath of the most recent event, and the NAPD's discovery that they can be rendered ineffective, and their desire to actively recruit people and push them through- I'm curious as to what effect this would have on Dick's training, if any- and what kind of hot goss is in the office regarding this, other than the general unease of it all.
2) I will see you down the line for more on this. I'm pretty excited to pick at these.
3) I'm gonna root for those two crazy kids. I have nothing else for this right now, other than to see if the aftermath of this event, with the MS connection, would have changed or altered anything about her in or around the office.
4) As for the networking previously mentioned, what exactly are my options with this?
As always, thanks so much!
no subject
1. Most of the "hot gossip" is frustration. Dick's training would largely revolve around a lot of the cases that got shoved aside, and he would get an inside view of how they determine if a case is or isn't related to the UNA. They would need to identify characteristics and information related to typical UNA presence, and if unable to find them, they can proceed with the cases. A lot of it would be busy work and training Dick and his follow trainees in busy work. But he would be aware of how tedious this all is, and how some of this is almost … typical, albeit never on this scale.
3. Just a bit of distance and frustration. She'll seem stressed. She'll seem happy and cheerful, especially if she comes across any recruits, but she'll be working long hours and almost seeming as if she's avoiding going home.
4. We're happy to let you NPC anyone in the precinct, as long as they don't have too much information or weight. We'll let you determine what kind of networking that Dick does while he works his way through training - if you're ever unsure, feel free to ask, and these connections can be the basis for how you pursue plot in the future.
no subject
1. Is there any way at all to follow up with cases determined to be related to the UNA and under their jurisdiction? Is there any frustrated grumblings along this line that anyone in the precinct is pretty sure this sort of process is how they had their hands so effectively tied during the MS agent shakedown?
2. Fitz asked Dick to look into a few cases here. For organizational purposes I'll break this up a little bit!
2a. The first thing he wants to be looking at are the murder cases of Francis Chopin and Hassan Spencer, given the MS' operations order to stun the UNA soldiers, not kill them. This sort of makes these two cases an anomaly. Is there any way he can look at the case files himself at this point, without penalization? Is there anyone who might be willing to spill the beans about it, if he were to subtly try to feel any of the officers out about it?
2b. While he wasn't here for the nurse's death, or any of the ensuing initial investigations into it, he's been brought up to date! While the displaced are aware that the files have been scrubbed, Fitz is curious if anyone's willing to talk about how frustrated they are to Dick, who's (I assume due to his personality) would have made himself a very friendly, sympathetic ear- especially as someone currently buried under the extreme scale of tedious busy work, and seemingly happy to do it- and whine about the potential for the UNA to have had a hand in it. Them being tight lipped would be telling in and of itself.
2c. He'd have wanted to note any deaths or strange disappearances (however short) as they were coming in and he'd been reviewing and sorting case files. I'm wondering how many, if any, were coming through since he started.
2d. LAST BUT NOT LEAST- he was asked to see what anyone knew about the Hei and Jake situation, especially since they've since left the game. Would anyone be privy to the details of the deal Riko made with them and willing to share it? What if any information about their escape and bitterness of that happening when their lack of ID's was such an anomaly might exist?
3. What is the relationship between the NAPD/NAFD? How closely do they work together, and how often is it like a regular cop show where the investigating detective gets called to the morgue to talk over the findings above the dead corpse? etc.
4. I'm wondering if- there's limitations to finding out in the real world, would it be possible in any capacity to look into it in the dream event? If he could access the files or talk more candidly to the fellow officers at the in-dream precinct, or if he could find a way to snoop into where any evidence is kept after hours and try to glean what he can from that himself?
no subject
1. If they're related to the UNA, they would typically verify it with the men in charge of that agency, and the case would be passed off. As far as the NAPD is concerned, they wouldn't be able to move forward on that. The case would be marked classified, and otherwise removed from the system.
If this doesn't answer your question, please let us know!
2a. This wouldn't be the first time Morningstar operatives killed someone. These cases would be marked as Morningstar-related because of the usage of the masks. As a note, the stun-only request came from Gaby specifically. That's not a standard Morningstar protocol. It's just that none of the PCs were agents so they wouldn't be aware of that.
2b. There wouldn't be any information on the nurse, mostly because the NAPD wouldn't be aware of him. A number of people died in that fire, after all.
If you're referring to a different sort of nudge nudge, let us know!
2c. There would be a few disappearances that could be traced back to the Displaced themselves! This would be PCs who have dropped. Their employers would eventually call in after they didn't show up at work, especially if they were diligent about it. Otherwise, they're still weighing which disappearances had to do with the UNA.
2d. This, too, would be a point of frustration because it would be found to not be in the NAPD's jurisdiction. The thing is, they know it happened - as well as the fact that it's never happened before. They might be more keen to act in favor of themselves in the future. Most of the information regarding the deal was kept between Riko and her boss, so none of the other officers would be privy to it, least of all anyone connected to a trainee like Dick.
In terms of Hei and Jake getting out of jail, a few people would have been privy to it because it was when they were all sitting ducks during the UNA raid. All of the officers agree there was a mysterious third party that was very official looking - they had actual official "papers" to support their claimed position with the New Beijing government - but many will assume the incident had to do with corporation politics more than the United Nations.
As for the arrangement, Doctor Strange is aware of it, and so is Gaby, given her relationship with Riko.
3. They work together as the situation permits and requires it! Most of the morgue involvement is the same as you've mentioned, though there are a lot of cases where they "film" it, translate it to a VR environment, and send it over to the NAPD. Not everyone wants to deal with a cadaver head on.
Keep in mind that the medi-units are available to the world at large, so someone dying without a known time of death would be a unique case in and of itself!
4. While Dick wouldn't be able to find precise information, he can certainly use the dreamscape to accelerate his training, butter up some of his fellow cops or even plant some ideas about the UNA in their heads! It's up to you what he's able to do and how he's able to accomplish it.
no subject
On to the new stuff:
Per his conversation with Gaby, Dick will be making an introduction to Riko under the guise of wanting to be mentored as a detective and see if this is the right path for him to take in his career, from someone who's been doing it for awhile with a solid case record behind her! He would not have approached her before as anything beyond a smile nod as he passes, the same polite courtesy you extend to coworkers you don't know.
He definitely wouldn't approach her too soon after the V Liberation, because that would definitely look a little weird. He'd coordinate with Gaby for a time that she thought Riko would be most agreeable to such a situation. So I'm here to see how you'd like to get that rolling, what that would entail, and leave some deets!
Dick, since he's been one in practice since he was little, would show enough skill in the process of this mentoring to not make her feel like she'd be wasting her time with him. The over all impression should be that he had a knack for it, and a lot of potential that could be nurtured and would benefit from that career track to hone it! He doesn't want to tip her off that his background is anything but what his interface says it is, after all.
As well, since he'll actually be doing more things at the precinct than just paperwork now, I'd love to get some more information about it! A general layout, the sort of things housed in it (beyond the holding cells, which I know of), etc! And also, questions that have no real consequence but that I should have asked earlier- what exactly does the uniform entail?
Thanks!