Well, when I worked for a roleplaying game company in Toronto, one of the categories I was writing for was 'People, places, things'. The publisher considered these as the essential elements of any story.
In EVE, we might consider 'livestock/ passengers', plus 'commodity item', plus 'location', equals 'problem' as the essential elements of a story.
For example:
A scientist plus hydrogen batteries, and the location is Sobaseki.
The person, object, and thing are plot devices. Now to further the plot, we need some conflict. Let's say he has to deliver these batteries to Jita, during the 'burn Jita' event. That is a problem.
According to Cory Doctorow ('Down and out in the Magic Kingdom'), these are the five essential elements of a plot.
1. A person, in a place, has a problem. (exposition)
2. The person tries to solve this problem intelligently, but fails. (rising action)
3. The failure to solve this problem causes an event or series of events to happen. (Climax).
4. The person (friends, society) struggles to deal with the resulting consequences of their failure. (Falling action).
5. The person and situation are both somehow changed as a result of the consequences (Resolution).
Optionally, adding in 'more stuff' to the original three, such as more commodity items (strippers, marines, DNA, etc.) would be a 'plot coupon' to help further the story along.
1. The person (scientist), in a place (Sobaseki) has a problem (hydrogen batteries).
2. The scientist tries to deliver the batteries through a courier contract, but no one is interested in hauling such a low value item. He decides that hauling a badger full of batteries is too high risk. He tries to fly the blueprints to Jita himself in a shuttle, and buy the minerals and make the batteries right inside Jita, (Intelligent solution) but he gets ganked. (Failure)
3. The scientist can't understand why his shuttle full of hydrogen battery blueprints was ganked, until he finds out they were a special prototype worth half a billion ISK. His CEO is furious. He fires the scientist, and hires mercenaries to track down the gankers and retrieve the prototype batteries. The unemployed scientist falls into a state of depression.
4. The Mercenaries discover that the batteries were ganked by Gallente pirates, who are now intending to reverse engineer and use them as the power source for a new, improved POS shield. The Mercenaries also tell the Caldari state what happened. The corporation is investigated, and a look at the corporate wallet shows transactions were made between the corporation and well known Gallente faction war corporations. The scientist and his CEO are now considered as possibly cooperating with the gankers. They are arrested and incarcerated, where they are now facing charges of treason against the state.
5. The scientist and CEO explain to the Caldari Navy how the battery works, and how it can be deactivated. They hand over the blueprint to the Caldari Navy. The Navy can now use that information against the Gallente pirates. The CEO explains that 'money is money', and the scientist and the CEO are both officially cleared of charges.
-So the way to 'play' this game would be to contract these roleplaying props to someone else on the OOC mailing list. These things should be able to be put into a contract, so contraband would be have to be excluded (slaves, drugs, etc.)
-It is possible to have a story written by a committee in a sort of relay method.
a) One person receives the plot devices (stripper, khumaak, Kor-Azor Prime). Then, they come up with the problem (The stripper is in possession of a sacred artifact which is forbidden in the Kor-Azor region). Then, they contract these things to the next person.
b) The next person has to come up with how the person (stripper) tried to solve the problem (intelligently), but somehow still failed.
c) Then, onto the next person. 'What were the results of the stripper's failure?'
d) Then the next person. 'How were the stripper and his/ her friends affected as a consequence of the failure? How did they cope? What happened to them?'
e) Then, passed onto the next person. 'How were all the loose ends of the story tied up?'
1. Ideally, the location should probably be at a local trade hub, so if any hauling is involved from one location to another at least it's not a chore, there is at least an opportunity to make some profit.
2. However, hauling is not an essential part of the story's development. The objects can stay safely in your hangar, be destroyed, sold, re-contracted etc. The person, object and location that were assigned to you are merely related to your character in some minor way. The who, what, and where are already provided for you. Now it is up to you to figure out why these things are related to your character, and how you will deal with it.
3. Once you have decided the relationship between the scientist, the hydrogen batteries, and Sobaseki, submit that information onto an OOC mailing list. Make it into flash fiction. Explain your character's relationship with these things, if any, and how you contribute to the plot problem.
4. Contract it to someone else if you want, perhaps even a newbie who is still flying his industrial around in high sec running courier missions.
I would suggest contracting these things to newer players. Not only do newbies need the money, but they are eager to make new friends in EVE, help out and learn more about the game. I am a little concerned with how EVE drops it's new members into the cold dark void and tells them to start swimming with sharks. There has to be some other alternative to mining in high sec, only to get your mining barge ganked by griefers, while veterans laugh and CCP simply shrugs their shoulders.
I know when I was a newbie myself, I was flying my industrial around high sec shipping commodities like hydrogen batteries and soil from one station to another for piddly profits. I probably would have made more money and had more fun ratting in high sec, but nobody told me this.
Courier contracts are awful. The courier contracts ask for an exorbitant deposit, and in exchange offer a paltry reward. High sec shipping should be a viable career choice for a newbie to jump into, but unless they skill up in arbitrage trading it's just another low paying grind. With the introduction of jump fatigue however, we are bound to see an increase in the use of tech 1 industrials in high sec. A juicy (e.g. ten million isk) 'roleplay' contract delivery might even pay the newbie enough to make them consider shipping and hauling as an exciting and profitable career choice in EVE.
Also, it's pretty helpful for the veteran player / character to cultivate and maintain good relations with 'protege' haulers. Many of us have lots of junk everywhere, and carting it around is tedious work. Many of the people that role-play are bored Freighter pilots. Also, logistics is king in EVE.
I suppose you could think of these roleplay courier contracts as a 'mini-mission'.
Mission running is probably the best exposure many EVE players ever get to roleplay or the lore. Adding something on top of that, such as a 'roleplay' courier delivery from a mission hub back to a major (or minor) trade hub, provides content and incentive. No hauler wants to make a trip unless they have a full cargo hold both ways. Joining the mailing list means they can participate in the roleplay fun as well.
I think my friend that ran a 48 hour science fiction film contest in my home town had a similar means of randomly generating plot. The contest was to see who could come up with the best Science fiction themed film in a 48 hour period. In order to make sure no one used a preconceived film script idea, he chose a noun, a verb, and a line of dialogue, all three of which had to be in the film.
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Topic: An idea to spark an RP resurgence. Looking for support. (Read 7888 times)