Blueprints of The PC Metaplot - Response to the 2017 feedback comments

[OneBatchTwoBatch]

Warning: This is a big ass forum post, even by my standards which some people know can be kind of robust.

I wanted to flesh things out again because this has come up in the 2017 feedback thread and I wanted to help show some folks the behind the scenes efforts that went into attempting to help both DMs and PCs facilitate some pretty crazy events.

I'm not saying this will work every time, and I do feel like we've managed to get lightning in a bottle of a pretty awesome pursuit of PC + DM involvement and exchange in all instances so I wanted to try and help showcase (At least from my end) some of the blueprint that lead to some significant stir ups.

It all started with a pretty simple notion.

[Tell] [Elmo]: Also just so you know you're allowed to follow the Spellguard Bounty on the Dragon too if you want.

This lead to a firestorm of PC and DM events alike that lead to this response in the 2017 feedback thread.

It's been great to see the attention to detail, like messages about angry aristocrats being forced out of Final Sanctuary, and messages about baublium shortage. The whole thing where Final Sanctuary couldn't be entered and sendings couldn't be made until enough baublium was turned in was great. I'm under the assumption that the whole ley siphoning thing is an RwG player initiative - I think it's awesome that DMs have thrown weight behind it and spawned NPCs in the moldmire to portray it. It's great to see a PC's persistent labors bearing fruit and having what looks to be serious impact.

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It was really, REALLY nice to see the monolithic SG take another hit.
It also seems to have drawn a lot of attention to one of my favourite factions: STEWARDS!
This new Steward-aggressive conflict has me scared out of my pants for them, but it's also getting them out there and, I think, I hope, maybe drawing some people to get involved with them (I don't mean wanting to kill them >_>)
So, yeah. Cool stuff, for sure.

Just to clarify some things. The Steward Conflict is indeed a PC driven pursuit but it has also had some help and assistance with the DMs (understandably). Without giving away too many spoilers here's the basic progression of how it came to be, if other PCs want to try and follow "Picking up the hook" so to speak.

If you don't want to read on and want a TL;DR from this post feel free to just take this from this thread.

This is by no means my own pursuit though I've been doing a lot of quarterbacking. My PC has been mostly involved in the logistics/orchestrating end of things and far from the front lines. Somewhat by purpose but also by allowing PCs to help shape things. PCs on EFU willing to play ball but also conflict against one another without search and destroy PvP can be supremely fun. The past few weeks have had dozens of PCs on many sides with many DM events doing all kinds of crazy and drastic efforts in a mixture of PC driven plot and DM supported efforts.

That's not to say there isn't fun conflict in search and destroy PvP but if you're willing to take risks and put it all on the line in permadeath events and relying on other PCs to carry out objectives for you it can lead to a lot of fun.

Otherwise just know there's more unknown fun coming from what I'm considering one of my first attempts at a PC METAPLOT rather than just a "PC Plot" as it is known by usually of PCs pushing their ideas and agendas.

And I just want to thanks everyone involved even before this conflict is over or has come to a head. It's been a blast and so engaging on a lot of levels.

If you want to see how this came to be and everything else, feel free to read post 2. Otherwise

Keep on rockin' EFU.

[OneBatchTwoBatch]

Step one: The Dragon Hunt, The Refinery Attack

The main notion came from the idea that a lot of people were disregarding the Mound of Magnatz's bounty upon the Drake and the Steward Horns bounty for many months. So the DMs had altered things to have the SG also raising a bounty. Taking that hook and running with it since my PC was already in the SG and I wanted to impress my NPC bosses and had my own beef with Horns and by proxy the stewards for supporting WITCHES in the past on EFU a large scale effort was made in the form of some pretty sizable "operation" files on the forum, doing legwork to send PCs in the faction to do scouting while also getting informant PCs pursuing other aspects of potential pursuits.

Elmo (Dm involved in the Dragon event) and I had a pretty rough and quick chat about the idea that while no DM would be needed for the pursuit of the PC angle of the plot, there would naturally need to be a DM available for any attempt of a strike on the Drake. Furthermore we agreed it'd be good sport to try and coordinate a time when many PCs could be involved from both sides to allow a potential defensive effort if PCs wanted to protect the drake.

Since I love drama and more PC involvement I was all for it.

So Multiple angles of pursuit such as siege plans and scouting the region = More PCs involved having PCs scouting but also negotiations and otherwise with potential enemies = More size of an event = More drama of an event

After we secured the information of the location efforts were undertaken for a wide net cast. After getting the Watcher PCs on-board to help the SG pursuit, PC mercenaries, wannabe councilors looking to make a name for themselves, our on again off again enemies of the "Great Journey" and countless other powers were pitched ideas of the threat of a Red Dragon coming to maturity.

Also to make things fun and interesting for PCs the idea of "Operational Security" as some PCs tend to pursue was thrown to the window. Like a week previous to the attack a huge and public robust challenge was made to court PCs to join our march and let our rivals know "Hey we're coming for you". This allowing PCs times to make moves, counter moves, panic, run in circles screaming, and other notions that are sometimes overlooked. While it's perfectly fine to have secret missions, shadowy objectives, taking steps to try and keep your objectives hidden, etc - sometimes public knowledge is the best way to get people involved in things on EFU.

Sure it's a chance your PC may die, or your plans may get ruined, but it gets more people involved in active things like NPC raids or PC on PC conflict or otherwise which is a great way to get both the servers and the DM's attention.

With the DM involvement itself it presented one if not maybe two Permadeath events resulting in some pretty monumentally fun twists on things. I'm not sure the other end of the spectrum with the refinery attack of how that came to be but from what was learned IG there was concerted PC effort on everyone's part and PCs willing to accept the fact that PERMADEATH EVENTS = More juice.

So when you've got a lot of PCs, more Drama, and Permadeath Juice it's basically plot alchemy for mayhem.

Step Two: Pandemonium into Progress

I can say wholeheartedly that the refinery attack was 100% unexpected. We had been gearing up all week for some potential PvP throwdown expecting some dragon NPC flying around while we had to slog against PCs and NPCs in a climb up the spire or otherwise.

Instead the outcome was a fucking manic and disaterous series of events first involving an attack on the refinery and later learning our precious RUBY GROTTO had been nuked. Yet while all hell was breaking lose and some people attempted to try and deviate from the Dragon Pursuit, the PCs involved stuck to their guns and still made their mad dash for the Spire. The result was a crazy and hectic event from the sound of things and the reports I got back but out of about 8+ PCs sent only two returned alive.

Yet at the same time this was going on our precious baby was hit. The SG was made to look both inept and incapable of protecting it's own efforts (Which has been a great transition from the ULTRAPOWER of pre-crystal war era SG hegemony).

While the PC efforts of the SG were wholly shifted towards the pursuit of Baublium with like some crazy amount of PC effort seeing like 100+ pieces turned in another PC, Agent Dimes, raised a simple forum post with an alternative A long overlooked plot hook forum post from a while ago the and information from one of the many Illusory Chambers. That the ARK is SATURATED WITH ANCIENT LEY and that it COULD SERVE as a POWER SOURCE. This was left for consideration but mostly overlooked as we continued our push for Baublium.

However a few days later a "Priority One" Comminique from the NPCs to our faction forum. That matters were worse than we originally thought and that alternatives of fuel were required and that this was to be considered a fairly large crisis since the Ruby Grotto allowed us to do a whole lot but its loss put us at a fairly vulnerable position.

Step Three: Upping the Ante

After another DM event involving just two PCs it was reported that Horns was dead, which lead to some celebration for a few days, until another DM event revealed that Horns may still be in play on the field. Some PC to NPC dealings were made with some unsavory elements that could have backfired sizably. We had IC assumptions and suspicions we were pursuing but with enough believable proof that it may well be the actions undertaken failed, things grew more.

Picking up Agent Dimes' idea As sort of a lark I sent a very menacing but public PC letter about all the ways out of spite I'd just continually mess with nature/the wilds to try and goad the stewards to either turn Horns over or he himself turn himself in. 7 actions in 7 days culminating in a "Reassessment of Matters".

So while pursuing this petty little vendetta of mine and other IC events/etc the idea hatched that as PCs have been able to turn in Saturated Leystones, there's a giant Saturated Leystone out there just waiting to be plucked if anyone was brave (or fucking crazy) enough to pursuit. However it's hard to build on things and keep things moving towards a fun climax.

I mean the plot opened with us attacking a dragon and the counter attack being a catastrophic disaster counter guerilla attack by the combined forces of many PC and DM factions against us.

How do we up the ante on that?

After the 7 days of 7 petty antics against nature, around day 5 seeing that we had 4 councilors raised and a Warden on the Mayor's council I had the bright idea to do try and use that to our advantage. A full council is rare in EFU since people have high turnover/etc so I approached the DMs with a request. Then made an effort to coordinate times with the Councilors (who mostly hate me and could have just said "Hey, Zurello, fuck off" ICly.)

Throwing my PC who has been in huge conflict with many Councilors at the mercy of the court and request a formal meeting of the Mayor's Council to reveal a request for a formal declaration of War against the Stewards of the Ark.

It was a huge 2-ish hour public event open to majority of the server to see Sanctuary politics in action. A huge display of PC conflict and ideological debate as I made my case and then the Mayor made some rebuking, the floor was open to the PC council and high power NPCs like Amblecrown and others in attendance. The debate raged back and forth as personal insults fired, NPC implications questioned, PCs were promoted up by the crowd by some and shot down by the others, even a Drow getting in on the fun.

Ultimately it was decided to have been an awesome event all around for everyone involved and lead to a big decision for the PC Council.

Yet the SG was told we've got the Mayor's permission to pursue this one way or another.

Step Four: Enter the Stewards

With the notion of a huge and public declaration of War by the combined powers of many councilors against another DM-faction power in the region things were swirling sizably. Tons of meetings were held with the Watchers, Warders, PC assets, allies elsewhere, and beyond almost immediately. It set a fair fire under things with the notion of "DO WE WANT THE SG TO HAVE MORE POWER BACK" vs "SANCTUARY CAN FINALLY STAND INDEPENDANT AGAIN" vs "PROTECT NATURE AND ALL THE GOOD THAT MAY COME OF THE STEWARDS OF THE ARK".

While there was some early worry and backlash from other PCs when I dropped a fat 7,000 gold bounty on a PC in question the results were thankfully as expected

- Some PCs took to hunting the Steward for the menacing PC's bounty
- Some PCs took to trying to meet the Steward to court peace

The hope was never that the PC would be killed in a day, but the opposite. Everyone knew of/about Horns and his presence as an actor but then there was this other player that had been on our radar for a while and suddenly was revealed first privately and then publicly to be a steward. This PC, Nahzi, who I did speak with a bit to extend an apology if the sudden bounty was jarring, was very receptive of it but also said it sounded like a fun challenged. Out of the blue this obscure PC who made a forum post now has some serious juice to try and cut deals and known as an enemy of the SG which is both a good thing and a bad thing depending on how PCs play out matters.

The Ley Siphon itself was introduced as a response to the Council Meeting and the potential Declaration of War as a chance for the SG to show headway and progress against the Stewards and a former Druidic Ritual Area was ravaged and savaged by an Animatronic Machine mixed with Magic to "Drain" the Ley. A Chance for Watcher and Warder PCs to actively harm nature, stir the pursuits of wildlings, and give the Stewards and their allies something to tangibly fight back against.

Do they let us harvest at the risk of us getting more pre-war power? Or do they try to halt it but also risk capture or otherwise? Do they court local monsters to fight the SG to prevent the risks of the Ark's security while halting our push? Or etc?

PC efforts are being made on both sides to sway the Council's vote but there's no telling what will happen between now and then.

Also there have been no IC plans made in any form to see how this will turn out or what actions the Stewards may make in retaliation to the Declaration of War (Even if the Council does vote us down) I'm pleased to say this is the closest feeling in all my time playing on EFU that has ever felt like not just a PC plot but a PC METAPLOT, typically reserved for DM plots. Dozens of PCs on dozens of sides have made dozens of moves with three very helpful DMs in a multitude of events.

I am pleasantly pleased to say I have no idea how this plot will turn out.

And I'm super stoked to see what comes next.