Application and Plot Help

[Valo56]

I make a character, I befriend the members of a faction, I start making speeches, going out on quests with them, offer them advice, help against their enemies with needed.. I put in an app, and it's rejected. I am simply not good with apps, even after playing since the start of EfU:A.

So, in the interest of not looking like a complete moron in the future by putting in an app that has what has been described as filler goals, generic, or poorly planned, I'm asking for advice.

Also, plot-pushing. I hate that in the last few years of playing, despite all the different concepts I've tried, that I've never truly -succeeded- in any character goals. My most "successful" character to date was a member of RwG's Camarilla, who most people seemed to like, and took part in some major things (like raising a dracolich, and the battle against Shevorth - which was his last), but ultimately, never did get to do the things I set out to do. Helping others was easy enough, doing my own stuff failed. Every time I got close to doing something, I died, or it became a simple impossibility.. or someone else did it.

With that in mind the application itself seems like a lie. So I've tried to do simple things that I'm fairly confident I can manage ("build relationships between Order and Mayor," for instance, or to organize regular patrols of certain areas). Of course, being "just a regular member of Faction X" is something reserved for NPC's, and PC's are expected to be special in some way when joining a faction.

So.. general advice on coming up with plots, and then for getting things done, is needed. Thank you.

[Arch Rogue]

Don't worry about applications. Start with your PC's agenda.

A good agenda needs one thing, and one thing only: to engender conflict in the gameworld.

I'm not talking about PvP, I'm talking about creating disagreements, tensions, and thus an invigorating atmosphere in game. Your agenda should both polarize some sections of the PC populace against you and it should also leave room for recruitment of other sections of the PC populace to your PC's agenda. PvP will often follow as your PC's agenda manifests in game, and should not be avoided in my opinion.

Examples of an agenda, of varying ambitiousness, include:

- A rogue wanting to monopolize the drug trade, from production to distribution.
- A Cyricist wanting to impress the High Priest in Murdertown by infiltrating a position of public authority in Mistlocke and abusing that power to protect the local cult.
- A priest of Tempus who spies only military weakness in the democratic apparatus and goes rebel in an attempt end the return to elected leadership and restore the position of Warlord as Mistlocke's position of rulership...with the Church of Tempus deciding who is worthy and pious enough to claim such a title.
- An exiled Traensyrian drow needing to reclaim his legitimacy in the city by subjugating a human village on the surface and then delivering it to his former leaders as a gift to display his worth.
- A necromancer cultist of H'bala desiring to impress his self-adopted Queen by drawing the villagers into her service one way or another.
- A knight of Torm involving himself in politics in the hope of winning an election and ultimately using the newfound power to remove unseemly elements from positions of authority and elevate goodhearted allies in their stead.


As you can see these are all legitimate agendas. Every one of them creates tensions and conflict in the gameworld. DMs look for this, because as stewards of EFU they understand better than most that EFU is always at its best when the atmosphere in the gameworld is charged with opposition, debate and violence between PCs.

Once you have chosen an agenda, which should be simplistic instead of convoluted, you then simply jot down some goals. Goals are easy. Let's look at the first agenda listed and what goals such a PC might have (rogue attemting to monopolize the drug trade). I tend to list mine in roughly chronological order:

- Move into Old Stones and set it up as my base of operations. Learn who's who in the criminal scene, and if there isn't one, do my best to create one.
- Identify who is rich and mug them for the capital to start the operation.
- Cash in on the resultant notority of your criminal exploits (Note: INFAMY is the -premiere- currency of any villain, and is more valuable than any potion or amount of gold) to attract and recruit some underlings to you, who will provide information and protection which is essential for any PC.
- Investigate who produces or is capable of producing the drugs and ensure they begin working for me using diplomacy or force as needed.
- Investigate current peddlers and either eliminate them or win them over to my service, once again using either force of diplomacy as needed.
- Ensure there is a market for the drugs, using beggar sending advertisements, free giveaways to stoke addictions, or if I'm desperate muggings and force-addictions.
- Use minions to infiltrate the Muster and any other faction naturally opposed to my operation so we receive advance word of their plans, and can identify and murder especially troublesome individuals.

Goals done. Easy. They are straightforward, relate directly to the PC's agenda, and create tensions and conflict at every turn. If you do these things you will generate ambience in the gameworld and this will make PCs log in and partake. DMs will know and appreciate this. You DO NOT need to generate 'deep' or convoluted goals for your application.

The final steps in the agenda are mostly just basic character creation things. These include:

- Physical characteristics (Failed experiments with alchemy have left my errant drug kingpin with a burnt face and pockmarked skin, giving him a somewhat menacing aspect)
- Backstory (Almost always relatively unimportant)
- Manner of speech (Grimey cockney)
- Build (Important, never make a weak PC just for the sake of it, it will almost always guarantee you failure, but DO NOT overoptimize the build to the point of lamery, DMs have a sharp eye for this and its an easy way for them to lose interest in a PC)

Your application then just follows the ascribed format, you put your goals in (which you should already have in your head, they're just a logical extension of your PC's agenda) and then voila, you are done.

If you have the base idea for a PC, the application should not stress you out at all and should take 15 mins to type up at most. If you are sitting there trying to come up with some extensive goal process while doing the application you need to go back a step and simply come up with a simple agenda that will engender conflict in one way or another.

[derfo]

Arch Rogue offers some excellent advice, and you can notice successful major groups had simple ideas which were steadily built upon, most importantly building conflict. It's fine to have goals that aspire to greater things, but goals that involve conflict and an agenda that don't necessarily involve DMs will be looked upon very favorably.

Also, in general, do not let a declined application send the wrong message; we may feel you are capable of a lot better and only wish to encourage that you create an interesting and fruitful character for yourself and others. Maybe there are too many of what you are applying for, or it's not currently desirable in the game world.

The great majority of DMs were formerly players who also submitted applications with varying degrees of success. Don't be discouraged.

[Daemonic Daz]

So, in the interest of not looking like a complete moron in the future by putting in an app that has what has been described as filler goals, generic, or poorly planned, I'm asking for advice.

I'd like to take a moment to point out that any application voted on by the DM's is taken seriously, a rejection by the team shouldn't be as the DM team saying "LOL THIS SUCKZ". In my time as a DM, I've seen some outrageously unique applications that have spanned pages and pages of DM comments discussing with each other over the positive and negative aspects of the app proposed by a player.

We'd love everyone to fill DM factions or have unique quirky characters that bring something to the server, but it needs to be moderated and overviewed by the team so certain aspects do not become the generic. Thats not to say we're going to vote a app down if we think its similar to other apps that have recently been accepted. Talk to other players, interact with the DMs, see what you can do to make your application that bit better and we might just give it the thumbs up.