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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
Peggy, with the help of her brand new promotion in government dealing more fully with customs and border security, will be looking into the records of anything — or anyone — leaving New Amsterdam between the first arrival of the displaced in June and the end of September (post-UNA raids). In particular, she'd be looking for "suspicious shipments" leaving New Amsterdam heading towards New Beijing and any major spaceport hubs, and then widening her search to the other.... hundred... megacities if nothing catches her eye. In short: she's looking into the captured Morningstar agents and where they might have been taken.
A few quick details/questions:
1) What are the usual exports/shipments out of NA and thus would be easily dismissed from her search? What would be flagged as unusual or out of place to anyone looking closely? Would there be "weapons" listed on any manifests (similar to how the first crop of displaced were labelled)?
2) Are tour groups common and if so, would she be able to access the itineraries of all travellers and the agency that organised the group?
3) She'd look into the schedule of the the trains that departed NA between June and the end of September to see if any broke down en route or had an unscheduled stop. She'd also check if the number of passengers / recorded cargo that departed NA match what arrived at its indicated destination. Would she find any discrepancies?
4) On the issue of border security, is the underground cave network regularly patrolled and is there access to the outskirts of the city? I know the cave network isn't as extensive as it is in the dreamscape and that you have indicated that it overlaps with man-made structures and tunnels. Even so, are there any holes in the dam that the government (and thus, Peggy) is aware of? Are there check points down there? Does any smuggling go on with the black market?
Thank you!
no subject
Unfortunately, none of these questions would immediately get any hits - but there are small bits of information that would stand out. As it is, any UNA movement wouldn't be available to her, so anything they would do would be treated as confidential. Plus, they wouldn't need to be as careful as someone else might want to be.
1. As a point of clarification, the Displaced were never listed as weapons on any manifest. Instead, it was assumed that the cargo was UNA weapons because of the level of secrecy behind it, as well as the care. The actual gunfight that ensued didn't involve the UNA at all. They were involved in the cleanup, as a fight of that nature would need to be swept away quickly so that the public would never find out and because they would be able to identify that half the people on the scene were Morningstar agents (and therefore good sources of intel). Any witnesses who heard gunfire were likely forced into silence.
Simply put: it was a case of Morningstar's assumptions and intel being wrong.
Any weapons would otherwise not be on any manifests that she would have access to.
2. Tour groups are more common within cities, rather than between megacities. Besides, the UNA wouldn't use these.
3. The trains wouldn't have any unusual unscheduled stops. This may lead her to believe that someone is familiar with the trains to know how to use any and all scheduled shops to their advantage. There are stops between specific megacities, at research outposts (though these stops aren't visited on every trip, for obvious reasons - they're hit during supply runs).
4. They won't lead out of the city, but they do lead up into different buildings. Some black market smuggling does utilize the caverns, but they have to be careful - the underground part of New Amsterdam is adjacent to these caverns, so there is always the risk of surveillance.
no subject
To clarify, Peggy wouldn't limit her search to UNA-related things and would be looking into any and all transports departing New Amsterdam. But re: your first point, who would have access to that confidential info on the UNA? Would any of Peggy's friendly work colleagues within the embassy (since both her job and the embassy deal with intercity travel and they do meet occasionally to discuss that) be a possible direction to look into?
1) I understand, thank you! Just for general world building knowledge for Peggy's job, though, what are the usual transports leaving New Amsterdam for other cities? As I feel this is something that would cross her (virtual) desk pretty regularly.
3) Could you elaborate on the research outposts? What are they for, who would be working there, and are they public knowledge?
no subject
First, in short: no. The UNA is very careful about their information. Things will pass through the grapevine, as Peggy will have noticed before, but they generally keep a tight lid on those things. Even having a better position within the city wouldn't help. If anything, she may get the impression that they have a means to bypass her entirely.
On to the rest!
1. There are a lot of technological exports from the city that she can easily overlook, as Pulsar, Vyonation and Giles Bell are headquartered in the city, and their primary technology is built within factories located within city limits. There is a lot that goes out under these three companies and their associated subsidiaries, so the list would be pretty long given that they dabble in just about anything. Given Giles Bell's pharmaceutical interests, there is also a lot of medicine passing through New Amsterdam's gates to go to other cities (and some back in as they're manufactured for quality control reasons, among other things). Basically, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
3. As far as anyone knows, these research outposts are both publicly known and extremely uninteresting. They're primarily set up in areas of interest to document environmental changes and ensure that the atmospheric stabilizers are running properly. Again - as far as anyone knows, these outposts are pretty generic, get just enough shipments for the people inside to survive and wouldn't draw too much attention.