Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => EVE OOC Summit => Topic started by: Victoria Stecker on 25 Jun 2012, 10:35
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Stolen idea from Kyber, throwing it out here for discussion. I’ll throw out some of my own thoughts.
When your corp is doing something, how do you get other people involved in a believable fashion?
[spoiler]I have a bit of interest in this just because my characters have spent a good bit of their existance doing Stuff™ that people would frown upon, but doing it in secret rather than blabbing about it publicly. Obvious Result: cool stories that could be sooooo much cooler if someone were involved that didn't live inside my head.[/spoiler]
As for stories, hm, hm. TS-F is rather insular as a product of its (IC) history, but there have been some great moments. Messing around in backwater Gallente low-security and later Minmatar FW space had some excellent opportunities for internal RP, and I often found it unfortunate that it was difficult to get other corporations involved "realistically", i.e. avoiding sudden catastrophic failures in secrecy or remarkable incidences of OOC-orchestrated IC providence.
Is there a thread on that theme of getting one corporation entwined in the machinations of another -- and if not, would there be any interest therein?
For something ongoing and not terribly secret, this is fairly simple. For example, Anshar has been producing and selling boosters for a good while, anyone in the Intaki region who might care knows about it. I’m sure that Milo & Co. wouldn’t mind if that provoked a bit of conflict as interested parties try to stop them (or muscle in on the business).
But what about something that’s ostensibly meant to be secret? In theory, any time you’re doing something illegal or which would attract significant opposition (like TS-F running operations in Minnie space) your characters are going to want to keep this quiet. But the fun in RP is in the conflict and the stories that are spawned from it – which requires that someone know that you’re up to no good. I think this might be some of the purpose behind this thread, to let people know that something is going on and leave it up to them to find out what.
[I know this has come up before, I believe I’m simply failing at forum-fu to find the old discussions. ]
Different ways this can be done –
“OOC-orchestrated IC providence” as Kyber put it. Sorting it out ahead of time so that someone shows up at exactly the right time and place to stop your nefarious scheme! Can be fun, but kinda puts a hurt on believability. In previous discussions, plenty of people have said they really don’t like this style.
PnP style RP – like Ken’s example of the hacking and corporate bombing, perhaps it would be possible to run something like this as an explanation for why you adversary knows what you’re up to in the first place. Then it doesn’t seem like quite as much of a stretch for them to show up in space to stop you, and it can be a lot of fun if you like that sorta thing.
And my brain just farted coming up with other options. I know there’s a happy middle ground somewhere, what do you all think?
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One thing you could consider doing is breadcrumbs. What I mean by that is drop subtle hints to what's going on and make them reasonably believable. For example:
TS-F is performing operations in Republic Space. What if one of the countless individuals that should be in space happened to notice the prominence of TS-F ships in the area and sent a note to EM or SKDI or anyone else that might have a desire to see what's going on?
Or maybe an internal communications missive was intercepted and sent to an interested party? Not even a whole missive? Maybe it was just a few strings of words that don't convey a whole, complete message but seriously suggest that something is amiss?
If you want to be more cryptic, you can cargo cans dropped in areas that you'll be operating, name the cans something like "Debris" and send in-character mails regarding evidence found in certain regions that Sansha ships were there.
Alternatively, you can intentionally perform operations in space that you know other RPers that opposed to you are likely to be in and RP in local about what's going on.
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I like this idea, especially noted cargo cans, but it's all too easy to go from leaving breadcrumbs, to dropping large trifles all over the place.
The last point though, is especially solid. With a little coordination, you can arrange for some neat, fun and non-consensual RP-PvP.
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This reminds me a bit of something Ghost talked about a couple years ago in OOC. He always carried a set of dogtags in a his cargo and if he got blown up would try to figure out who had them and tell them Something™. He then discovered that you can write notes in bookmarks and put them in your cargo and the notes will survive.
So you could make up a bunch of bookmarks in random places with tidbits written in them, and anyone who pops you has a chance to discover something.
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... He then discovered that you can write notes in bookmarks and put them in your cargo and the notes will survive ...
This ... is pure awesome!
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This reminds me a bit of something Ghost talked about a couple years ago in OOC. He always carried a set of dogtags in a his cargo and if he got blown up would try to figure out who had them and tell them Something™. He then discovered that you can write notes in bookmarks and put them in your cargo and the notes will survive.
So you could make up a bunch of bookmarks in random places with tidbits written in them, and anyone who pops you has a chance to discover something.
EVE RP Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Ship Logs
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... He then discovered that you can write notes in bookmarks and put them in your cargo and the notes will survive ...
This ... is pure awesome!
I...never knew that. I am so going to start doing this!
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Sometimes a tiny bit of ooc 'setup' to get the players on the stage makes for a better result.
Set the stage, let the chips fall where they may, so to speak.
We of course get into our traditional issues of overwhelming force and lopsided pvp (which we all have different opinions on).
But as always a small dash of planning and coordination can lead to better results.
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Sometimes a tiny bit of ooc 'setup' to get the players on the stage makes for a better result.
Could you elaborate or give examples?
I recall something like this happening with an event/arc that Scherezad ran recently, how did that go for people involved?
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Remember when the Sansha live events started? Remember all the cryptographic shenanigans and the like on the IGS at the time?
Wouldn't it be cool if that started again?
check next week
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TS-F is performing operations in Republic Space. What if one of the countless individuals that should be in space happened to notice the prominence of TS-F ships in the area and sent a note to EM or SKDI or anyone else that might have a desire to see what's going on?
Or maybe an internal communications missive was intercepted and sent to an interested party? Not even a whole missive? Maybe it was just a few strings of words that don't convey a whole, complete message but seriously suggest that something is amiss?
These are close to what I had in mind, the idea of "just show up and do things with cans" that I mentioned in another thread a while ago aside.
The two main problems I found when considering it were that it seemed to put whoever received the message in a bit of a position of "well, do something" -- even if they didn't particularly want to OOC -- and would often require an extra character as an alt to kick things off. Alternatively, I could just have used Kyber... but then it's tricky for me to overlook the message ostensibly from some other joker in his outbox saying "hey kids, drop in on TS-F". It's better than nothing, but it's not something I favour.
The local-RP is something the Sansha bloc has used extensively, in the past, to varying degrees of effect. Sometimes it has lead to entertaining interactions with combat; more often than I'd quite like to admit it's lead to little happening and us carrying on our merry ways after the fact. Slightly awkward, but there you go.
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This reminds me a bit of something Ghost talked about a couple years ago in OOC. He always carried a set of dogtags in a his cargo and if he got blown up would try to figure out who had them and tell them Something™. He then discovered that you can write notes in bookmarks and put them in your cargo and the notes will survive.
So you could make up a bunch of bookmarks in random places with tidbits written in them, and anyone who pops you has a chance to discover something.
There's a reason I quickly stopped using the bookmark idea, but I cannot remember what it was. The system does work that way, however. People have to put the bookmarks into their People & Places in order to read what the bookmark had, but that was it.
I'll get around to a bigger post when I can.
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When your corp is doing something, how do you get other people involved in a believable fashion?
Cookies! Everyone loves cookies so if you offer them to people, they will rush to join your RPG.
If you're not a baker, I find a good idea is to design your RPG with other people in mind. Ask yourself what specific groups or people outside your corp would be drawn to. Then *tell them.* RP often takes a small amount of OOC cooperation and planning.
You don't need to tell them everything, but it's not cheating to give someone a heads up that's something is coming their way, or clarifying how their character might react to a hook.
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I've been working on slowly seeding information about Bataav's own background for a long time now.
Actions in game and forum based RP that has pushed the character story line along have hinted towards the information and more recently I've been working with someone to create some *stuff* that would be leaked or would make its way into someone else's hands. At that point I'd have no say in what happens with that information forcing both myself and those around me to react to what ever happened next.
My hope is that it'll create some interesting reactions, raise some questions and doubts and will provide some depth to Bataav which has to some extent felt lacking despite the intentions I've had for him.
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I still have also a lot of background info that nobody knows anything about. And I bet that it will stay that way for a very long time, if not forever, to see the prerequisite conditions (that I do not am even sure what they are exactly) to see that stuff revealed. It is always what you run into when you start to create hidden agendas and even obnoxious mises en abîme ala inception with hidden agendas inside hidden agendas...
The easy way is to write something or blog about it. But it will never bear its fruits since nobody will know about it IC.
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I love the aforementioned Bookmark thing. Love love love it. But at the same time, it's not very intuitive - yet it's a great idea and I think (it seems like) it would be easy enough to implement as a full-fledged feature.
So... fund it?
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Why not set something up in a sort of "live events" structure? Have a facilitator or two to get the ball rolling and be "Game Masters" or "Storytellers" for the event. Start things with IC news articles (possibly on IGS), etc. Document the whole thing, including a rough outline for the event (so that the event can survive even if a Facilitator is unable to continue).
Shouldn't be too hard to start up if the scope is relatively small to begin with. There might be a problem of getting enough interest starting out, and the usual trolling.
I for one always wanted to do Infection 2.0 (http://community.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1182994).
EDIT: In fact, I'll try to write up a larger outline of ideas. This actually could lead to something awesome.
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I love the aforementioned Bookmark thing. Love love love it. But at the same time, it's not very intuitive - yet it's a great idea and I think (it seems like) it would be easy enough to implement as a full-fledged feature.
So... fund it?
The issue is more in how it can possibly be abused, as I and others have raised similar bread-crumb item like ideas in the past. That having been said, I imagine a lot of roleplayers would probably put support behind it.
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Public courier contracts.
An observant observer would see that Corporation X is accumulating Things at location Q.
It might be worth taking a Look.
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I think there should be a way to generate a physical item from a note in your client.
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Good luck with all that.
I had a sekrit plan from the beginning with this char, which ends with someone getting to perma-kill him. I used to meet Ushra'khan in space and do things that would get Grae run out of Amarr on a rail. I've handed every real enemy I've had something that could be used to end this toon.
In a decade, no one has ever picked up a ball and run with it.
(Edit: One guy once started a thread on the IGS with damning evidence, but his Matari directors made him edit/blank the thing within minutes. Auugh!)
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He's much to warm and likable for anyone to try to kill him.
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He's much to warm and likable for anyone to try to kill him.
This. Capsuleers these days grew up with their very own Graelyn plushy doll when they were kids. Perma-killing Graelyn would be like trying to murder Santa or the Easter bunny.
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Wait, you never tried to do that as kids?
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Good luck with all that.
I had a sekrit plan from the beginning with this char, which ends with someone getting to perma-kill him. I used to meet Ushra'khan in space and do things that would get Grae run out of Amarr on a rail. I've handed every real enemy I've had something that could be used to end this toon.
In a decade, no one has ever picked up a ball and run with it.
(Edit: One guy once started a thread on the IGS with damning evidence, but his Matari directors made him edit/blank the thing within minutes. Auugh!)
/me adds 'murder graelyn' to her to-do list
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He's much to warm and likable for anyone to try to kill him.
This. Capsuleers these days grew up with their very own Graelyn plushy doll when they were kids. Perma-killing Graelyn would be like trying to murder Santa or the Easter bunny.
Quoth the Crow: "And?"
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Capsuleers these days grew up with their very own Graelyn plushy doll when they were kids.
/me denies all responsibility.
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In a decade, no one has ever picked up a ball and run with it.
Ah. Have you ever really looked at the stuff that's been sitting in the PIE public hangar? Clues galore, but nobody ever picked up on it afaik.
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Have you ever really looked at the stuff that's been sitting in the PIE public hangar?
Strangely enough, no...
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I had a sekrit plan from the beginning with this char, which ends with someone getting to perma-kill him. I used to meet Ushra'khan in space and do things that would get Grae run out of Amarr on a rail. I've handed every real enemy I've had something that could be used to end this toon....
(Edit: One guy once started a thread on the IGS with damning evidence, but his Matari directors made him edit/blank the thing within minutes. Auugh!)
Yes, Graelyn has been untouchable for years. I know because I've tried to use information against him, only to be told, "Don't pursue this. Plans are in motion." I think people were probably using Graelyn for their own purposes. ;)
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That would have been nice, actually.
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In a decade, no one has ever picked up a ball and run with it.
Ah. Have you ever really looked at the stuff that's been sitting in the PIE public hangar? Clues galore, but nobody ever picked up on it afaik.
/me locks down all hangers until she gets to the bottom of this.
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Well???
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Teehee (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1923244#post1923244)
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Teehee (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1923244#post1923244)
(http://www.learcofinck.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Shocked1.bmp)
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Yuni considers adding 'infest Graelyn' to the list of things to do.
Rok shrugs 'meh, another worshipper of a primitive sky god' .... 'back to the SCIENCE!'
Dilaro tinkers with his Autocannons.
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Well???
I don't think you realize how much crap that there is to sift through!
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Matari....experts have been deployed to your location to help with the sifting.
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Well???
I don't think you realize how much crap that there is to sift through!
You can just contract some of that stuff to TS-F np ez.