Plot Requests & Suggestions

[faderifting]

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PLOT REQUESTS & SUGGESTIONS

The world of Dragon Age is big and open and many of our players know at least as much about it as the mods. We hope that Fade Rift will be a collaborative effort where players feel free to contribute and to take ownership of the setting and of the game's direction. To that end, we strongly encourage player plots. We're also always open to ideas if players have something in mind but feel for some reason that they can't run a prospective plot themselves.

In all cases, we'll get back to you as soon as we're able! (Please make sure to note if your request is urgent so we can prioritize it.) Not every idea will be viable as-written, or necessarily at all, but we will do our best to help find ways to fit the things players want to do in around setting constraints or behind-the-scenes plot considerations whenever we can.

Comments to this post are screened. And if you need to reference older plot or info requests, our previous page is here.

PLAYER PLOTS

These are plots that a player runs, which includes posting any OOC sign-ups, logs, and info, as well as GMing for other players as needed or desired. These plots can involve the plot-runner's character or not, and they can either be personal in nature ("let's go rescue my brother!") or be relevant to the war effort and mod plot ("let's go spy on an enemy!"). For more info on what sorts of activities require a plot request and what don't, please take a look at the FAQ.

Please note that “dibs” on a particular event/location/NPC for a player plot will last for approximately three months after the plot’s submission or proposed date, whichever is later. If you’re delayed longer than three months but still plan to run something, please check in with us. Otherwise we’ll allow new plot requests that may overlap with your proposal to go ahead without consulting you.

To submit a player plot, respond to the body of this post with the following form:

<b>WHO:</b> Which characters (if any) are definitely going to be involved? <b>HOW MANY:</b> How many characters total do you envision this involving? <b>OPEN/CLOSED:</b> Will this be open to sign-ups from any character in the game, or is it closed to particular group? <b>WHERE:</b> Where do you plan for this to take place? <b>WHEN:</b> When, ICly and OOCly, are you hoping this will run? <b>WHAT:</b> Briefly—in a few sentences—what are characters going to go do? You don't have to give us details or explain the OOC plot mechanics. Just give us the general idea/elevator pitch. If we need more details, we'll follow up to ask you for them. <b>GOAL:</b> What's your ultimate goal for this? To explore a particular area? Acquire a special object? Trigger some sort of character development? Highlight a particular aspect of the setting/theme? Get characters talking about X or Y? Again, you don't need to provide extensive details of everything you plan to happen, just give us a high-level overview of what you want to accomplish so that we know what's most important to you about it. <b>ORDERS:</B> Do you want this to be an official Riftwatch mission that leadership is aware of and approves, or something the PCs go do without getting permission? If you've already discussed permission for this endeavor with the relevant IC leaders (or with their players OOC), please let us know what they said, but it's fine if you haven't done that part yet. <b>IMPACT & CONSEQUENCES:</b> Will this have an impact on PCs other than those that sign up to participate, or on a large number of NPCs? Could it impact the standing of a particular group of PCs (<em>i.e.</em> changing local opinions of Rifters, or creating ill-will toward dwarves in Ansburg, etc.)? What impact do you foresee this having on Riftwatch as a whole? Is it something you think could impact Riftwatch's goals, reputation, or security? What (if any) IC consequences do you foresee for involved characters? Are there limits on the consequences you're willing to accept? <b>MOD INVOLVEMENT:</b> What do you need from us to make this happen? 'Nothing' is an acceptable answer! Please note that as a general rule we won't be GMing or NPCing in player plots, but we can provide information, intel, etc. to you OOC. If you need additional information in order to run your plot, please ask specific questions. General requests like 'let me know what they can learn about lyrium' are difficult and very time-consuming for us to answer because they require us to guess what steps your characters would take to investigate what is usually a very broad subject before we can determine what they might learn about it. Please provide us with context about what your characters will be attempting, how they'll go about it, what theories you/they want to test, and some ideas about potential outcomes. You don't need to have every detail 100% fleshed out, but you do at the very least need to bring us specific ideas about how your character would try to learn the information that you want or what could happen as a result of the experiment you want to try so we have something to work with.

PROJECT PROPOSALS

IC, projects are the result of characters being put in charge of achieving a goal that's bigger than just one mission. They'll be responsible for figuring out how to achieve it, pulling people in to help as needed, and deciding how to use the funding and resources at their disposal. Our default assumption is that this goal will also be the character's idea/proposal, or at least something they're interested in and take initiative to volunteer to spearhead, so they can take the IC credit for your OOC ideas as well. But if it’s not IC for them to take initiative on it, it may be possible for the div heads to assign it to them, depending on the circumstances.)

OOC, projects are essentially a series of player plots. The difference between proposing a project and proposing a player plot is that with a project, we work with you to establish an end goal up front. Rather than doing three or five player plots that try to inch toward an achievement, hoping that we'll eventually say "you did it! you cracked it!" and let you achieve something big, we'll just all agree up front what steps need to be taken to reach the desired end point, such as: "They'll have to figure out this part through research, and they'll have to go find an artifact to help, and they'll have to convince a this mage to help, and that should do it." From there you can expand the steps into plots and be confident they're going to pay off at the end.

Outside of very unusual circumstances you'll be required to make your project open for other characters to sign on to assist. A project can't be something your character is doing alone or with a closed/preselected team. For solo or closed plot efforts, you can continue submitting info requests and player plots the usual way. (As a reminder, player plots can also be official Riftwatch missions!) Project goals must be goals that Riftwatch would realistically pursue and sign off on; "overthrow the Empress" can't be a project goal because it is both bigger and more controversial than anything they could get away with really doing.

More details and some examples can be found in the form below.

<b>CODE NAME:</b> Projects get code names because it's fun. If you have one you want to use, let us know. Otherwise we will randomly assign something to it and you'll be stuck with Project Tusket forever. <b>LEADER(S):</b> Which character is going to be leading this project? Co-led projects with two leaders are allowed, but for the sake of simplicity, no more than that. You're welcome to ICly handle project hierarchy however you like, but the DHs will need 1 or 2 people officially responsible. <b>GOAL:</b> What is this project trying to achieve? The sweet spot for a goal is something that's going to take more than one or two steps to achieve, but narrow enough for only a subset of characters to be working on it, and realistic to achieve it in under a year. "Kill Corypheus" is a bad project goal because it's something the entire organization is trying to do and that we won't/can't allow to happen except as part of the mod plot. "Convince the Viscount to let Riftwatch help with Kirkwall's defenses" is a bad project goal because it's something that could probably be achieved by one person during a single meeting. "Design, fund, and build anti-dragon defenses around Kirkwall" is a good goal because it has room for multiple steps, is reasonable for more than one but fewer than every member of Riftwatch to be working on, and feasible to achieve in a few months. If you need help figuring out a goal–for example, if you know you want your character to lead a project that does something to help with Kirkwall's defenses, but you aren't sure what's reasonable or needed IC–we can help you with that! Just let us know what your area of interest is ("they want to do something to help make Kirkwall more secure in the event of an attack, but I'm not sure OOC what that should be") and we'll chat with you to help zero in on a specific goal. We will not, however, come up with an interest for you; "I want my character to do something but I'm not sure what, maybe something in Kirkwall that uses their engineering skills?" doesn't give us enough to go on. We're not going to create projects for characters, only help people nail down the details of their own. <b>PLOT IDEAS:</b> What sort of plots or intermediary steps do you already know you want to use to achieve the goal? What kind of work (spying, schmoozing, fighting, researching, etc.) do you want it to focus on, or do you want to try to work in some of everything? Is there anything in particular you're hoping to incorporate, whether a type of scene, a place, a dilemma? Similar to goals, we don't expect you to come in with a full series of plot and info requests already drafted up and ready to go, but please put some thought into what you'd like to do along the way to your goal. We're happy to work with you from there to refine ideas and fill in gaps, but we aren't going to generate plots for you from scratch. Once a project is approved, you'll still need to expand on the steps we've agreed on and submit plot or info requests (and their corresponding reports) before achieving the project goal. Some project work can be research, letter-writing, and info gathering that those working on the project do from the Gallows or as lowkey background assignments. But to achieve a goal we will always require at least one planned plot/event that has sign-ups. The more significant the goal you want to achieve, the more opportunities for inclusive and on-screen RP we're likely to require.

PLOT SUGGESTIONS

If there's some aspect of Thedas you think we should explore or some conflict or plot element you want to see addressed but don't want to run yourself, you can suggest them! This includes:

• Conflicts, regions, etc., you want the game to address somehow.
  
• War table assignment ideas that your character wouldn't propose IC, which we'll pass along to the relevant people.
  
• Status effect/CR-focused event ideas.
  
• Requests for certain types of plots/missions, like "more diplomacy opportunities suited to nonhumans.”

If you have such an idea, you can reply with this form, which is very simple.

<b>PLOT SUGGESTION:</b> Vague or specific, whichever.

INFO REQUESTS

If your character is looking into something—reading books, conducting experiments, writing to ask NPCs for information, etc.—that falls short of a plot request, or you need to know what's going on somewhere we haven't mentioned lately to be able to start plotting about it, let us know here.

Please keep in mind that these requests must be specific. "My character is reading about the Fade; what will they learn?" is too broad. "My character is researching previous instances of individuals physically entering the Fade; beyond those in canon, are there any in FR's universe I should know about?" is specific.

AFTERWARDS

As a final note, if you run a plot that pertains to the war effort/larger plot, or if you submit an info request and get something back that your character should/would logically share with the rest of the organization, please file a report using the form on therookery and tag the post with any relevant divisions and projects. This is to help everyone keep up with plot developments so they can be built on and acknowledged! It's also generally required to get AC bonus points for running a plot.

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Comments

[faderifting]

The overall response to their interest in learning, especially from organized/official quarters like the Merchant's Guild or leaders in Orzammar's Smith Caste, would be negative and suspicious–this would be taken as a threat to their monopoly. For that reason they wouldn't have a lot of luck going through those official channels to ask for training or assistance. (And it would be reasonable of them to anticipate this and not waste their time trying.)

However, they absolutely would be able to find dwarven smiths willing to train them. They would be people who needed to be dug up specifically for being weird or egalitarian or vocal about sharing knowledge, is all. If you wanted to use a canon NPC for this, they would have no problem convincing Dagna (off in Skyhold still) to assist them, as an example. You could also make up your own NPC for it, including someone who's already in Kirkwall, and have them be as excited or as reluctant and grouchy as you want. But regardless of personality, the vibe will be that whoever is teaching them is a bit of a renegade for doing so.

Once they do know how to enchant, that in itself wouldn't necessarily be considered a serious threat, especially because there are so few rifters compared to dwarves and no way for their output of basic enchanted goods to ever match those of the dwarves and hurt them financially. It's more that among the dwarves they would encounter a lot of skepticism and wariness about their abilities and skill.

But they may run into stronger opposition if/when they begin publicly using or showing off really cool new inventions, like airships for example, that didn't go through dwarven smiths and that the Smiths and Merchant's Guild can't claim some responsibility for the success of. In that case there would likely be some attacks on their credibility. They would also experience things like people trying to steal and reproduce their work for mass (or at least more) production and public sale, or sabotage attempts to hurt their credibility, or assassination attempts to nip the problem in the bud. You'd have some control over when and how these things occurred–basically, we hope it'd be fun to RP about, not punishing, so you could use those occurrences as player plot proposals (or parts of larger player plot proposals) and create circumstances that are fun for you, rather than us telling you when and where and how it has to happen. But it would ultimately definitely happen.