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abovegrounds2017-06-28 11:05 pm
undergroundmods) wrote in abovegrounds2017-06-28 11:05 pm
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July 2017 Plotting Post
July 2017
Welcome to your July plotting post! You can make use of the information here to plot what your character will be doing in the next month. Before we get into plans for the upcoming month, I'd like to draw your attention to a couple of shiny new things that have recently been introduced to the game. Firstly, we now have a Discord channel! It's open to everyone, so feel free to pop in and chat.
We also now have a permanent AU character workshop, as well as a dedicated channel on Discord. You can use these to discuss your character's AU background before applying to the game. So if you know anyone thinking about applying, do encourage them to use these spaces to brainstorm ideas. The game navigation has been updated with links to all of these to help you easily find your way around.
Thirdly, I'd like to announce a rule change to territory claims. All claims now require sign-ups, including guaranteed claims, and at least two players (other than the player posting the claim) must sign up within the 3-day window in order for the claim to go ahead. This is implementing a suggestion from the last How's My Driving post to address the disparity in engagement between guaranteed and non-guaranteed posts. I think it's a low enough threshold that it shouldn't stop anyone from running a territory claim while still encouraging more participation, but let's test it out and see how it goes.
Speaking of, the next How's My Driving post will be coming up mid-month. Everything I've just announced has happened as a direct result of player feedback or player initiative, so please do take the opportunity to feedback. Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions!
So after all that preamble... What's happening in July? Our main action this month will see the results of two petitions play out, as well as the continuing fallout from the Night Council election. Check out the calendar for a quick summary of when things are happening. You can also check the game timeline to see what has happened in the game so far.
Petitions
Two petitions were put forward to the Night Council in June. The Council has debated the motions and have ICly announced the results in the last week of June. They are as follows:
Motion 1: Reclassify summoning magic as dark magic.
This petition was put forward by the Seelie/Unseelie Court and has been ACCEPTED. The law will be reversed to reclassify summoning magic as dark magic, thus making it illegal again in the eyes of the law.
Peter Vrinak, Yasmine Merad and John Cooper voted aye.
Cesare Borgia and Samantha Okeke voted nay.
Motion 2: Repeal the 7th law of the Night Council which states that "killing a witch, no matter the provocation, is punishable by death".
This petition was put forward by the East End Pack and has been REJECTED. The law will not be changed.
Yasmine Merad and John Cooper voted aye.
Cesare Borgia, Peter Vrinak and Samantha Okeke voted nay.
Important note: How the individual Night Council reps voted is not public knowledge and should not be widely known by characters. The reps themselves all know how each of them voted, but they are under no obligation to reveal that to anyone else. Every motion is treated as confidential: the end result is announced but not the discussion or voting.
Factions
With a vampire President now leading the Night Council, the supernatural community is paying more attention than usual to the Council's edicts, waiting to see what sort of governance they can expect. Some commentators believe that the reversal on the law allowing summoning magic means that the witches' stranglehold on the Council has finally been broken. They may be right, but the real story behind the scenes is that the Seelie/Unseelie Court have taken matters into their own hands. Having acquired some rather juicy blackmail material on Peter Vrinak, they successfully influenced Vrinak to vote in their interests on the issue of summoning magic. He thinks they deleted it so it hasn't been used against him since, but the Vice President's position certainly looks compromised.
Speaking of compromise, following last month's tense stand-off between the Hillingdon Clan and Circle Daybreak, the witches will finally be allowed to resume operations at the Magical Innovation Centre this month, though with summoning magic now banned there will be no more experiments on fae. The Centre will quietly reopen in mid-July, with Samantha Okeke the Mother of Witches notably absent. Meanwhile, relations between the two factions remain at an all-time low.
The East End Pack has been looking for new allies after its rather spectacular falling out with Circle Daybreak, and has now made approaches to both the Hillingdon Clan and Redbright Institute. All of these factions have a greater or lesser interest in improving representation on the Night Council and reducing the power of the Islington Nest. Which of these goals will take priority remains to be seen.
However, following the shock of Sylvia Redbright's exit from the Night Council and the rise in tensions between a number of factions, some students at the Redbright Institute will take it upon themselves to organise a peace and unity march early in July. It's not all peace and love, however: there are those who want to protest at what they see as gross corruption both within the Night Council and outside of it, including those angry at the fact that the Presidential election ended up being between a vampire and a vampire – which for many was no choice at all.
Territories
There were no changes in territories in the past month. The Islington Nest remains the most powerful faction in the city with eight territories. See the Territories page for more information.
If your faction would like to claim a new territory, please comment to the appropriate thread. Players will then have three days from the date and time of the initial claim to sign up for the conflict. Anyone can sign up, but please only volunteer your character if they are a member of a faction involved in the conflict or they have IC reasons to actively help out. Please do not volunteer if you won't be able to participate in the plot.
If the outcome of the conflict is not already guaranteed, I will then look at the sign-ups list to calculate which faction will emerge victorious. It is up to players to plan and play out the actual conflict itself. If you comment to claim a territory, then you should also take the lead in planning and organizing it.
Minions
The following lucky minions will be promoted this month:
Events
Plots
The following prompts are up for grabs this month:
About plots and events
• You may claim one plot prompt per month.
• You can also run your own plots based on the events listed above, or create your own.
• If you claim a plot, then you also volunteer to take the lead OOCly i.e. planning and organizing with other players, deciding on the outcome, setting a timeline etc.
• Once you have claimed a plot, you should introduce it ICly within the next month.
• Plots may not be entirely handwaved. You may handwave some of the plot, but you should play out at least part of it.
• Some plots will require NPCs as well as player characters to fill different roles. Please feel free to make up and play the NPCs yourselves.
• Plots are generally open-ended enough that you can make them big or small. It is up to the player who claims the plot to decide how they would like to handle it. You may want to do open sign-ups for your plot and specify whether there is a limit on how many characters can participate.
• Plots can also be self-contained or form part of an ongoing storyline. Again, it is your choice on how you would like to handle it.
• Please feel free to integrate plots and events or join plots up where appropriate. For example, if you claim a plot that involves a murder, why not choose an event during which the murder could happen? As long as the mod and other players are aware of your plans, I'm happy to accommodate.
• Do not ask the mod to explain what the plot is and what your character should do or discover. That is up to you. These plot ideas are just that, ideas, and it is up to you to run with them and decide how and why these events are happening, what your characters are going to do about it, and what the consequences will be.
• You may ask the mod questions pertaining to game mythology, to check that what you are planning to do makes sense within the game world.
• This list is not meant to be limiting in any way! Player plots are also very welcome.
• If you have an idea for a player plot, please feel free to comment here and see if there is any interest. Run it by the mod first if you're unsure of anything.
Welcome to your July plotting post! You can make use of the information here to plot what your character will be doing in the next month. Before we get into plans for the upcoming month, I'd like to draw your attention to a couple of shiny new things that have recently been introduced to the game. Firstly, we now have a Discord channel! It's open to everyone, so feel free to pop in and chat.
We also now have a permanent AU character workshop, as well as a dedicated channel on Discord. You can use these to discuss your character's AU background before applying to the game. So if you know anyone thinking about applying, do encourage them to use these spaces to brainstorm ideas. The game navigation has been updated with links to all of these to help you easily find your way around.
Thirdly, I'd like to announce a rule change to territory claims. All claims now require sign-ups, including guaranteed claims, and at least two players (other than the player posting the claim) must sign up within the 3-day window in order for the claim to go ahead. This is implementing a suggestion from the last How's My Driving post to address the disparity in engagement between guaranteed and non-guaranteed posts. I think it's a low enough threshold that it shouldn't stop anyone from running a territory claim while still encouraging more participation, but let's test it out and see how it goes.
Speaking of, the next How's My Driving post will be coming up mid-month. Everything I've just announced has happened as a direct result of player feedback or player initiative, so please do take the opportunity to feedback. Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions!
So after all that preamble... What's happening in July? Our main action this month will see the results of two petitions play out, as well as the continuing fallout from the Night Council election. Check out the calendar for a quick summary of when things are happening. You can also check the game timeline to see what has happened in the game so far.
Petitions
Two petitions were put forward to the Night Council in June. The Council has debated the motions and have ICly announced the results in the last week of June. They are as follows:
Motion 1: Reclassify summoning magic as dark magic.
This petition was put forward by the Seelie/Unseelie Court and has been ACCEPTED. The law will be reversed to reclassify summoning magic as dark magic, thus making it illegal again in the eyes of the law.
Peter Vrinak, Yasmine Merad and John Cooper voted aye.
Cesare Borgia and Samantha Okeke voted nay.
Motion 2: Repeal the 7th law of the Night Council which states that "killing a witch, no matter the provocation, is punishable by death".
This petition was put forward by the East End Pack and has been REJECTED. The law will not be changed.
Yasmine Merad and John Cooper voted aye.
Cesare Borgia, Peter Vrinak and Samantha Okeke voted nay.
Important note: How the individual Night Council reps voted is not public knowledge and should not be widely known by characters. The reps themselves all know how each of them voted, but they are under no obligation to reveal that to anyone else. Every motion is treated as confidential: the end result is announced but not the discussion or voting.
Factions
With a vampire President now leading the Night Council, the supernatural community is paying more attention than usual to the Council's edicts, waiting to see what sort of governance they can expect. Some commentators believe that the reversal on the law allowing summoning magic means that the witches' stranglehold on the Council has finally been broken. They may be right, but the real story behind the scenes is that the Seelie/Unseelie Court have taken matters into their own hands. Having acquired some rather juicy blackmail material on Peter Vrinak, they successfully influenced Vrinak to vote in their interests on the issue of summoning magic. He thinks they deleted it so it hasn't been used against him since, but the Vice President's position certainly looks compromised.
Speaking of compromise, following last month's tense stand-off between the Hillingdon Clan and Circle Daybreak, the witches will finally be allowed to resume operations at the Magical Innovation Centre this month, though with summoning magic now banned there will be no more experiments on fae. The Centre will quietly reopen in mid-July, with Samantha Okeke the Mother of Witches notably absent. Meanwhile, relations between the two factions remain at an all-time low.
The East End Pack has been looking for new allies after its rather spectacular falling out with Circle Daybreak, and has now made approaches to both the Hillingdon Clan and Redbright Institute. All of these factions have a greater or lesser interest in improving representation on the Night Council and reducing the power of the Islington Nest. Which of these goals will take priority remains to be seen.
However, following the shock of Sylvia Redbright's exit from the Night Council and the rise in tensions between a number of factions, some students at the Redbright Institute will take it upon themselves to organise a peace and unity march early in July. It's not all peace and love, however: there are those who want to protest at what they see as gross corruption both within the Night Council and outside of it, including those angry at the fact that the Presidential election ended up being between a vampire and a vampire – which for many was no choice at all.
Territories
There were no changes in territories in the past month. The Islington Nest remains the most powerful faction in the city with eight territories. See the Territories page for more information.
If your faction would like to claim a new territory, please comment to the appropriate thread. Players will then have three days from the date and time of the initial claim to sign up for the conflict. Anyone can sign up, but please only volunteer your character if they are a member of a faction involved in the conflict or they have IC reasons to actively help out. Please do not volunteer if you won't be able to participate in the plot.
If the outcome of the conflict is not already guaranteed, I will then look at the sign-ups list to calculate which faction will emerge victorious. It is up to players to plan and play out the actual conflict itself. If you comment to claim a territory, then you should also take the lead in planning and organizing it.
Minions
The following lucky minions will be promoted this month:
Honeydew | Fae, Circle Daybreak | Level 1These minions will decide to leave town this month:
‣ A tiny winged fae who likes to zip around and spy on people. The familiar of Daisy Connell.
September Spring | Werewolf, East End Pack | Level 1
‣ The local oddball. A romantic occultist with a chemical dependency. Convinced she can tell the future when under the influence.
Kenneth Corduroy | Ghost, Hillingdon Clan | Level 1
‣ He's already dead but no one seems to remember that, so anytime anyone sees him, they get upset that he's died. Again.
Carrine Taylor | Human, Hillingdon Clan | Level 1
‣ Claims to be a direct descendant of Lord Byron and uses this as an excuse to spout poetry at the vampires she kills.
Betty Pernelli | Fae, Hillingdon Clan | Level 1
‣ A changeling who hasn't quite figured it out yet. She thinks she's a meta human with a natural gift for sniffing out magic and uses it to make sure no one's scrying on anyone in the House.
Alex Rawlins | Human, Hillingdon Clan | Level 2And these less fortunate minions will sadly die this month:
‣ Alex became a hunter after he was disillusioned to the romantic stories about vampires due to his vampire ex eating his pets.
Elisa Sirni | Meta Human, Hillingdon Clan | Level 1
‣ She likes the Pina Colada song, but not Pina Coladas. Also, she can make fruit dance. Just fruit. Not even veggies. Fruit.
Parthenope | Fae, Unseelie Court | Level 2
‣ An ancient siren with a peculiar soft spot for nu-metal.
Mike Roe-Wavovin | Shapeshifter, Hillingdon Clan | Level 1Factions may decide how and when their minions die, leave town or receive a promotion. Feel free to work these developments into any of this month's plots.
‣ A pigeon shifter who 'decorates' his boss' car any time he's given overtime.
Events
1st-22nd July – HUNTING SEASON. Of course there's never a bad time for a hunt in the Other Realm, but in July they really make a festival of it. This year the Seelie king and queen have set a three part challenge. In the first week, they will hunt down traitors (those that have betrayed their own kind or cause). In the second week, they will hunt self-deceivers (those who deny their own nature) and in the third week they will hunt cowards (those who fail to stand up for themselves and others). Finally they will come to the legendary White Hart whose capture signals the start of a great feast. (Should a hunting party pass through into the mortal realm during this hunt, they will appear as drunken louts searching for a pub.) As the hunting season reaches its peak, the influence of the fae will be felt across supernatural communities in London. Hunting instincts will be heightened in all predatory types.
8th July – PEACE AND UNITY MARCH.* Organised by students at the Redbright Institute but open to all, this march to demonstrate support for a unified supernatural community will take place in central London, going past the Night Council headquarters. Despite the name it's anything but unified as it will attract a variety of protesters all of whom want different things. Some are angry at perceived corruption within the Night Council and other factions, some are anti-vampire, some are anti-witch, while others want to demonstrate solidarity between all supernatural species. Witches from the Night Council will disguise the march as an environmental protest so that no one in the human media will pay attention to it, and Guardians will closely monitor the situation to ensure that the march doesn't get out of hand.
9th July – FULL MOON. Werewolves, it's that time of the month! Will you chain yourself up or spend the night in a cage? Roam wild in the London parks? Or perhaps find a witch to make you a wolfsbane potion. Whatever you choose, better be prepared.
17th July – MAGICAL INNOVATION CENTRE REOPENS. The Centre will reopen with very little fanfare and a notable absence from the Mother of Witches. All of its work related to fae has been dropped since the change in law.
21st July – SCHOOL YEAR ENDS. School's out for the summer! Hope you did well in your exams. Teachers, this is your chance to sit back, relax, and... wait, what do you mean summer camp? Enjoy the break while you can, summer camp starts in August.
23rd July – GRADUATION. It's graduation time for the latest batch of Redbright students. There will be a short ceremony for the graduates, taking place at the Institute, and then tea and cakes on the lawn. Family and friends are of course invited to attend.
*There will be a mod-posted log for this event.
Plots
The following prompts are up for grabs this month:
1) There is a bounty on a werewolf who has been hunting vampires in Islington territory. Reward: £1000 – Claimed by Lil
2) (Warning: Mention of suicide) A teenager hangs themselves in mysterious circumstances. No suicide note is found. Perhaps someone made them do it – and there's every chance they'll strike again.
3) A group of fae are having a hunting party in the Other Realm – and you're the prey.
4) An art collector invites you to attend or exhibit your work at their private estate. What they don't mention is that they're more interested in you than the art...
About plots and events
• You may claim one plot prompt per month.
• You can also run your own plots based on the events listed above, or create your own.
• If you claim a plot, then you also volunteer to take the lead OOCly i.e. planning and organizing with other players, deciding on the outcome, setting a timeline etc.
• Once you have claimed a plot, you should introduce it ICly within the next month.
• Plots may not be entirely handwaved. You may handwave some of the plot, but you should play out at least part of it.
• Some plots will require NPCs as well as player characters to fill different roles. Please feel free to make up and play the NPCs yourselves.
• Plots are generally open-ended enough that you can make them big or small. It is up to the player who claims the plot to decide how they would like to handle it. You may want to do open sign-ups for your plot and specify whether there is a limit on how many characters can participate.
• Plots can also be self-contained or form part of an ongoing storyline. Again, it is your choice on how you would like to handle it.
• Please feel free to integrate plots and events or join plots up where appropriate. For example, if you claim a plot that involves a murder, why not choose an event during which the murder could happen? As long as the mod and other players are aware of your plans, I'm happy to accommodate.
• Do not ask the mod to explain what the plot is and what your character should do or discover. That is up to you. These plot ideas are just that, ideas, and it is up to you to run with them and decide how and why these events are happening, what your characters are going to do about it, and what the consequences will be.
• You may ask the mod questions pertaining to game mythology, to check that what you are planning to do makes sense within the game world.
• This list is not meant to be limiting in any way! Player plots are also very welcome.
• If you have an idea for a player plot, please feel free to comment here and see if there is any interest. Run it by the mod first if you're unsure of anything.