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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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A. To double check, it's okay if Rey gets arrested post-arrival log, right? (So I can still play on it mostly.)
A1. And it's ok if in the time before she got arrested, she laid the groundwork for approaching the Fischers as part of what gets her arrested right? (So that someone else can pick that up if she has offhandedly mentioned to them that she did it?)
B. I'm really into Rey getting grabbed and taken to a research outpost yes please let's do this. I love the idea of Rey getting herself in over her head because her Adults disappeared all at once.
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Once you have a plot in motion for this, or if you have any other questions you need answered for that, reach out to us again!
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That's the plot that would likely eventually need to be in motion, or discussed! (Along with the point with the Fischers, so you can have that in motion, too!)
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However, Rey had mentioned to Daisy, who she was investigating the research outposts with, that she was stopping by Fischer's family, and Damian can find her videos all over social media. Together they can put together that Rey was grabbed by the UNA for casting aspersions on the government and poking her nose where it didn't belong.
Rey had also mentioned to Daisy a plan to use Cassius' arrival log train to get out to the research outpost they'd learned about. Daisy can put this together when Kylo returns (Nov 27) and demands they find his missing girlfriend, facilitating a group of people going out to retrieve her. Poe, realizing that his roommate and buddy is NOT just normal disappeared but is UNA captive, is like fuck that I can yeet the train past the checkpoint. So they use Prompto's train job to figure out where an out-of-service train cart is that they can take out there.
With Damian and Daisy's help looking into her ID history for who her close friends are, Kylo puts together a group of her long-term friends because they're trustworthy (Damian, Poe, Sora, Riku, Prompto, Illya) and some names that he adds all his own to the list of people who are coming to storm the facility with him (Daenerys, Octavia).
Daisy, being the person she is, can leak the location as also being the outpost the Morningstar agents that have been captive are, and ensure that characters outside the Save Rey op also make it there with their focus being on rescuing the MS agents who weren't able to be grabbed because the UNA found Kurt Fischer too quickly for anyone to act on his information. At this point, Daisy will do whatever interaction is necessary with El to get their hands on scrambler masks as an option for arrival/fighting in the outpost.
They leave on Nov 28, let's say (that way new characters can participate fully). Once at the facility, the plan for the Rey Team looks like this: Daenerys, Sora, and Prompto can try to cause a distraction around the facility to take some of the heat off those trying to free Rey and others. Between the three of them, they should be able to withstand whatever repercussions that come with while Damian, Octavia, Kylo, and Illya on the stealth team see about finding where Rey is kept and violently liberating the prisoners. They prioritize breaking her out, and then also help break out the rest of the agents.
All PCs and rescued agents are smuggled back to a vehicle (some kind of MANY-PASSENGER van for UNA missions) that Poe has wrangled. He drives them to the outskirts of New Prague, where they use El to get in touch with New Prague Morningstar. They're smuggled inside and rest there overnight to let some of the heat die down. The rescued agents remain in New Prague, and Morningstar helps move the PCs out on a train back into New Amsterdam.
The whole mission will take about 48 hours.
Some questions that came up during the planning process to help facilitate logging:
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In order of the questions asked! Feel free to ask any follow up questions, and we promise that we'll be much quicker with it since we know you're looking to launch this plot soon.
1. There are not any scientists present! While most of these research outposts are actually used for research, the UNA is fairly cavalier when they want to take over a location.
2. Most of the interrogation would involve a mixture of drugs - most notably not the compliance drug - as well as various points of interrupting her sleep, messing with her cognizance of the passage of time, as well as trying to get her to exhibit the blue glow and injecting needles into her chest to see what it might do. She will be aware of a series of tests and MRI scans to see what might be within her. Unsurprisingly, all of these would come up negative. Let us know if they successfully got her to show off her power!
As for the questions, they would demand information about what she knows about Morningstar, as well as how they managed to put together a special unit utilizing this blue technology. Most of their questions would be linking the UNA assault and eventual failure in the September mission against Morningstar (our January event!) with what happened during the EMP. They would also ask questions about why Morningstar is so concerned with the neural implants, with what technology the UNA uses, and why they're seemingly unaware of typical practices in the world.
More than anything, it seems that they have a thesis: that Morningstar has been developing and raising special soldiers, but those soldiers are poorly trained compared to the UNA. They will believe that Morningstar developed these soldiers in response to the UNA, and that someone like Rey has been waiting in the wings.
There will be some questions about the art depicting people as glowing blue, as well as inquiries about whether or not these are Morningstar supporters (as they're concerned that Morningstar has far more support than they expected, and that they've tricked people into buying their art and displaying it in their homes). There will be no knowledge of the Displaced as an independent entity, as well as any explanation that might support Gaby's exception from the September assault. As a note, the answer for that lies elsewhere!
If Rey is able to think clearly, she will at least get some confirmation that they know nothing about the Displaced and that their information was incomplete. None of the new Morningstar recruits from the Displaced were compromised. They will be trying to get information out of Rey about this continued Morningstar in New Amsterdam, as they believe that their efforts at least subdued Morningstar in the city, even if they - the UNA - had little else to show for it.
3. The agents are in terrible shape! They already went through thorough interrogation to get answers, though none of that proved useful because of how El chose to separate the Morningstar chapters. At most, they learned that these chapters are separate, so no one knows about anyone in any other cities (a fact that's made secure with the use of aliases like Gaby's).
However, they recently went through a new round of interrogation about the blue technology. This interrogation was even more extreme. Most of the agents are catatonic, seemingly unaware of who they are or where they are, and some will react negatively and violently toward anyone who displays the blue glow in front of them. They've been conditioned to respond that way.
4. All of the Morningstar agents will be held under an abandoned convenience store. It will be apparent that this safehouse is not one of the ones that's typically used in New Prague, but instead one of the miscellaneous ones that they've had around. Unlike New Amsterdam, most of the safehouses in New Prague weren't compromised. The convenience store is located near the edge of the city, and it's meant to be a temporary stop. Of course, there is a high likelihood that this safehouse will be decommissioned after all of this.
The inside of the safehouse is like most safehouses, but since it's meant to be temporary, there aren't any clothes or food in place to help someone out. There will be Morningstar agents who come in to supply these things throughout the stay, showing up about an hour in to help out.
Anyone who wore an ID scrambler mask during the rescue of Rey or the other agents will be able to explore New Prague. Anyone else … can do that if they want, but it's not a good idea! The safehouse won't be fun, but jail will be worse.
As a final note: none of the agents in New Prague will know about El's real identity as Elysian/Lucifer. In offering zeir assistance, they'll remind everyone to keep this under wraps because it might compromise Morningstar as a whole. El is more concerned with helping the world, and knows that many people may not get the AI thing. This is not to say that people can't go against El's wishes. They can!
5. For time constraints reasons - and because we want to encourage players to do big plot things - we're not going to be putting up a log. However, we will happily put up a plurk for your OOC post and log when they're both ready! Just drop us a line. We'll make a ping in the Discord channel, too.
As for the locations:
The Outpost: A less grimy version of what was in the most recent arrival log. Many of the Displaced will find the interior is almost identical to what was present there, with some wings repurposed as jailing sites. There are bright, fluorescent lights with white walls and a sterile smell throughout. There will be soldiers handling every door. These are the UNA, so they're well armed boss battles. Even cleaned up, this won't be similar to any labs found in any dreams (prequel or dreamscape).
The Car: This would be a large, armored truck that's meant to transfer large numbers of the UNA. It will be spacious. Remember that it flies! But they will likely want to ensure that it remains lower so that it's more difficult to track on any visual devices. No one will get to keep this vehicle for obvious reasons.
The Safehouse: Located under an abandoned version of Meadowlark's worldwide 7-11. It's not called 7-11 - we haven't thought up a name - but if you want to come up with that name, feel free! We like giving the opportunity to name things to our players when possible. But if you can't think something up, we'll definitely give it to you. The upper part of the store is, as we said, abandoned. It's just an empty space, though there is a wall where it's clear that there were once icee machines.
New Prague: New Prague is a large, beautiful city housing around 30 million people. Unlike many of its brethren, it pays homage to the "Old" Prague in a number of ways: there are impractical cobblestone streets, and the architecture adheres to an older, gothic style throughout the city. In fact, there are ordinances that demand the city continues to look as if it harkens to an older past and time. Above all else, New Prague is very green: there are trees everywhere.
The weather here is just as extreme as it is in New Amsterdam, so anyone who's not been checking the news will find that the world really was screwed over by Cassius. Thanks, Cassius!
Throughout the city, there is a large, man-made river that cuts through to the underground, causing there to be beautiful falls underneath the main city itself. This river is called the New Vitava River, once again paying homage to the Prague of Old. The New Vitava River is maintained to the degree that there is no littering in it, and there are strict local rules about doing anything lewd in it. That includes using it as a toilet. Don't do that! There are bridges all over the city to easily across from one side to another, and all public transit has been constructed to adhere to the river and also offer its citizens views of it on the regular.
Food throughout the city is just as eclectic as it is anywhere else. Visually, it looks like they want to remember Prague, but culturally, it's just as varied. This isn't an Eastern European city in anything but aesthetic.
The Train: This will be similar to the train to and from New Tokyo, but a considerably shorter trip! They'll need to get off when they're in the vicinity of New Amsterdam, which will be extremely dangerous because there won't be a stop. They will need to devise a way to get off the train without dying in the process - this will be difficult, but not impossible. Have fun, kids! El will have agents go with them on the train to work on getting them back into the city, as they've done this rodeo before. The opening made by Cassius for the arrival log will work fine.
6. We think an OOC post would be great! Make sure to emphasize the difficulty of dealing with the UNA soldiers. They are not an easy fight. People might die and need to be revived in New Prague (and, of course, Morningstar's agents in New Prague will be happy to assist with that).
7. Rey will need to stay outside of New Amsterdam and will be guided there by the New Prague agents on the way back. There is an underground cave not far from the city that was taken over by Morningstar two decades ago, and it's where the very small handful of agents who stuck around after the UNA attacks have been staying. In general, it's a pretty nice hideout, but most of the food available is rations. Not that Rey isn't used to that kind of food!
By time she returns - this will take about a week - Rey will no longer exist. Rey Nolo will have died during her rescue, and Rey will need to take on an entirely new identity. Her neural implant will be scrubbed entirely, with a new identity in place. Any of her identifying features - her apartment, her accounts, her job - will be gone, and she wouldn't be able to live with Poe again (as that would be far too suspicious). Any identifying traces of her would be gone.
On the Morningstar network, she would be a completely new person. Rey Nolo would be one person, and her new identity would be another. There would be no links between these individuals.
El would not let her take the name Rey when she took on a new identity, and would advise that she cut and dye her hair for the time being while this blows over!
8. There will be consequences for this that we'll cover in the upcoming calendar! However, we do not want a lot of people to have to have their identities rewritten - so we would prefer that everyone involved avoid that outcome by using the ID scrambling masks. They will be available!
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re: 7 - rey having to stay out of new amsterdam for a bit, presumably this is so that she's able to recover and also gives them time to establish her new id, yes? would kylo be allowed to stay with her while she's in new prague or would he have to return to new amsterdam with the other group. i ask this purely because after finding her, and learning what she's endured, he'll be reluctant to leave her there on her own.
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Other than that, some ID stuff:
2. Can her new ID be Raeh Solo? Or will El say that's too close?
3. Will there be any requirements as far as what kinds of job openings she needs to stay away from (i.e., avoiding drawing attention)?
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1. In the immediate future, the UNA would go and interrogate the other agents about the powers. The agents who know Rey would be reluctant to give away her identity as a Morningstar agent, but would eventually give in, saying that Morningstar has started helping out a new group that emerged. Other details would help the UNA correlate the arrival of the Displaced with the firefight back during the first arrival in June. The UNA were not involved in this fight, which will be clear, but they're aware of it because they were tasked with cleaning up after it. Some of the agents taken during the January event will still be resentful of the Displaced, and this will help convince the UNA that the Displaced are separate from Morningstar.
As far as long term consequences, it's hard to say! There are a lot of different directions this can go. Players have plots in motion that can really impact which way things go from here, especially with the intel from Ball and what the Displaced are going to find when they go to those locations. Rey using her powers won't bring about anything like immediate bad circumstances but it will certainly have an impact on how broader events develop. We want people to do big things like this so that the world can continue to evolve, and so that everyone feels like they had a hand in changing it.
2. They would recommend that she pick a different first name - something like Rachel, or Rochelle - that could easily be shortened to Rey. (Or Raeh, for that matter!) The surname is fine! There are a lot of R names that can get her there.
3. Given her reach as both as Giles Bell employee and as a car mechanic - what with reaching out to people prior to the event going down to see if they might be favorable to her overtures - she's pretty out of luck with anything that might relate to these two ventures. She can certainly take up a job as a mechanic in a different industry since that's still her skill set, but she'll need to be careful. There are a lot of different mechanics jobs, of course! Fixing fridges, air conditioning, or anything like that.
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2. She'll go with Kira Solo in that case.
3. Thanks! I will probe at non-mechanic stuff in all likelihood. I've got some ideas.
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When you're ready, please reply to our taken list with the necessary updates!
We're looking forward to seeing where you take Rey after all of this. Thanks for running with this great plot!
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When you say Rey Nolo's accounts will be cleared, will El be able to help her get access to what money she has in them and transfer it to her new ID, or no? Rey has a pretty sweet job and basically spends zero money so she's been slowly saving.
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2. what would it look like for Rey to become the pilot of one of the shuttles between Earth and the Mars colony? I assume there might be a ladder to climb there, but is there an accessible position for Kira Solo in something related or a filter job?
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1. There are cots and places for limited washing! The key point would be to not attract attention by using too much water at an unsanctioned location, so it would be strict. She wouldn't come back as a gremlin! It's probably pretty familiar to her from her life on Jakku when it came to cleanliness.
2. It would take a really long time, and it's not something that they can fill in a background for. We covered a bit about this here. While the atmosphere of the game has changed, the time constraints and limitations haven't, so we'd advise you to pick something more Earth-based for Rey!
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Are any of the companies who were leading the charge on AI developments pre-war still around and in the tech/robotics business?
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We need to internally discuss that question, so we'll get back to you on our normal plot engagement day!
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1. Most of the records regarding ties to AIs have been scrubbed. It's reasonable to assume that all three of the companies headquartered in New Amsterdam have ties to AI development in the past, but they did a good job of working with the other corporations of the world to clean up that history. As a result, most past AI development is squarely left on Xelkov's shoulders. The only exception to this is Riverstone, which is based out of New Beijing and has a couple of small satellite subsidiaries in New Amsterdam. However, their stance has always been anti-AI. We wrote up a bit about Riverstone here. Most of their New Amsterdam presence is related to special effects and set production, with some emphasis on helping with the cybernetics production.
2. She can have a temporary ID set up to eventually evolve into her real one. So, she can begin to go by [Bad username or site: kira @ solo] as soon as she's out of New Prague and going into hiding! El will work out the back end particulars like he did with the most recent wave of newcomers.
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Would Rey be able to get a job working on robotics in New Amsterdam satellites with Riverstone, or is that New Beijing exclusive?
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She'll only be able to use the Morningstar network during that time!
As for Riverstone, that wouldn't be done in New Amsterdam! She could look into getting a job with their cybernetics branch in New Amsterdam. This is closely associated with Giles Bell, but it's unlikely that she would cross paths with anyone she did work with or for before.
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It'll probably take her a week or two after getting her ID fully set up to arrange interviews and all that, so she probably wouldn't start until like Dec 21 say?
Also: does their cybernetics research include implant tech? Basically, what kinds of cybernetics would she be working with?
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