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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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1. Ishani would tell Fitz, with tight lips, that the data is sent along encrypted Morningstar lines and handled by their tech agents, but that's about it. She'd mention that she's a little surprised to see him so soon after the attempted kidnapping. While she's grateful for how he helped her, she can't help but feel that she's a means to an end. Her opinion on the samples don't go beyond what she's already reported, but she will mention that the type of genetic engineering in the monster samples is not common.
2. Pulsar/UN: In an entry-level position, Fitz wouldn't really have access to any information about UN projects or who might be involved in those. He might have better luck partnering with Loki, who is higher up the corporate ladder. That said, corporations and government are very entangled - which is an everyday fact of life all citizens are aware of - so it would be reasonable to assume Pulsar has projects going for the UN.
Weapons/Defense tech: The UNA works with several contractors but no specific companies. Pulsar, like most other big name companies, would keep their flagship brand out of anything to do with weapons or the like, and instead work through one of their many subsidiaries. The network of subsidiaries is intentionally opaque, and this is another thing Fitz would have difficulty unraveling from his current entry-level position. That's not to say that he can't try and look at where the rabbit hole leads, but we'd like to explore how he'd approach that.
Locations: There are locations in nearly every megacity, but Pulsar is headquartered in New Amsterdam. None of the other locations would be their primary sites. For the most part, it's just a good idea for them to have feelers elsewhere, though some of those other offices (which are primarily their subsidiaries) are for their smaller projects. If there's anything else you wanted to know, let us know!
3. A second-hand hoverbike would not be hard to find or particularly expensive! Ride like the wind, Fitz.
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Just dropping a line to say I’m gonna liaise with Roni/Loki and get back to you on looking into the mysteries of Pulsar, etc. In the meantime, I wanted to talk through the potential of Fitz working his way up the space biz ladder following the Morningstar/UNA raids:
In line with Fitz’s goal to eventually get into multiversal travel (and his MS assisted backstory of being an aerospace engineer), his current job at Pulsar focuses on the physical science of space travel and sits within Exploration Science (ES) Division. His current research interest is focused on the development of concept designs and feasibility studies of science instruments and engineering experiments to be flown on robotic and human spacecraft missions (basically instrument and spacecraft development), working on optimising efficiency for space travel across the triple-bottom line (as was touched on in the mod reply to Sniper). As a recent transfer, Fitz has been quick to learn the ropes and adapt, working in a support capacity to shadow and better understand each member of his team while helping build and test others’ designs.
Between designing aircraft/spacecraft and analysing alien craft designs (laughs @ marvel) for SHIELD, he’s well-equipped to have a unique perspective on the practical work and brainstorm inventive fixes for a team of people otherwise trained in a similar manner (presumably by the mix of online engineering courses and practical apprenticeships at Pulsar). His jack-of-all-trades expertise in instrument design/fabrication, computational/experimental modeling, system engineering tests, and actual instrument construction have also served him well in this lower level and varied role, capable of filling any gaps or assisting anywhere across his team.
Following the Morningstar evacuation, there have been a few openings at Pulsar, including one at the head of a team like Fitz’s own. IF IT’S ALRIGHT WITH YOU MODS, this Pulsar team leader/MS agent didn’t die during the raid but was rescued by one of the displaced — and is available for a brief chat about their broad work and aims in the role while Fitz patched them up in medical. In speaking to them and subsequently striving to move up at Pulsar, Fitz can both serve his own ends and help fill the new holes in MS’s web of operatives. It fits with how he and Peggy want to work with Morningstar (and encourage others to join them). And even if the agent can’t or won’t share much, Fitz will be open about his intentions all the same!
Everyone in that team has moved up to compensate for their leader going missing, leaving open a more mid-level, clearly defined engineering role with input on designs. With Pulsar reluctant to advertise openings immediately in the purposefully quiet fallout of the event, Fitz has offered to step-in and help trouble-shoot (quietly) in the interim, working toward taking the role full-time over a period of a few IC months (with the aim of building up the credentials and designs to nab a leadership role in the more distant future).
BASICALLY HIT ME WITH ANYTHING for how this could be feasible/workshopped to get more into some sweet space science!!
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Unfortunately, the Morningstar agent - let's call her Ingrid - will have heard about Fitz from Ishani, believing that Fitz is more self-interested than not because of the angle that he took with Ishani. This is a belief propelled by rumors among the Morningstar agents that while the displaced saved many of their lives, they were only doing it to help themselves. While taking Ingrid's job is a part of Fitz's aim to overall help Morningstar, she wouldn't be keen to give Fitz much information about her position so that he could gain leverage. The only thing she would say is that Pulsar isn't a meritocracy and buttering up the right people is essential. She got the position herself because she played the politics game.
Ingrid will tell Fitz that if he proves that he's not only interested in protecting his own people, and is interested in helping the world he's landed in, Gaby may be able to provide him contact to her down the line. We're very interested in expanding Morningstar activities in game via the PCs, and believe our current world status is perfect for it. But the previous agents are understandably wary after their worlds were torn apart by the UNA.
For now, this position will be given over to someone else on their team (let's call him Jose). Jose is good at his job, but he definitely got the advancement through playing the politics game himself. He knows how to butter people up, and while he doesn't put in extra hours, his wife is best friends with one of the members of Pulsar's Board of Directors. The more annoying part is that Jose is smart. In fact, he's downright brilliant - and he would not be eager to give much mileage to Fitz if he shows that he's looking to advance himself. He had been eyeing Ingrid's position for years, and this new guy wants to prove that he's more worthwhile? The fact that Fitz is undoubtedly just as - if not more - qualified for the position will be seen as a threat.
All that said, Pulsar's executive board loves competition within their ranks, and would encourage both Fitz and Jose to prove themselves. There will be opportunities for Fitz to advance, but he'll need to eye the position as Jose's second in command before he can take that job for himself. In the meantime, Jose is going to give Fitz a lot of mediocre jobs - the stuff that would be beneath someone of his talent. Frustrating, but that's corporate New Amsterdam at its finest. And unfortunately for Fitz, he has to both show off his skill and get these easy jobs done at the same time, as he wouldn't want to look like he's slacking.
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Jose has been christened Jose Mercado, so Fitz can take his full name in vain for the drama, but otherwise I'll be back here with more concrete plans in future!