unplug: (spoon)
SYSTEMWIDE | INFO ([personal profile] unplug) wrote2015-01-10 04:41 pm

MISSION CONTROL

MISSION CONTROL ◀
BASICS
01 - Premise
02 - Rules
03 - FAQ
04 - Taken List
05 - Applications
06 - Reserves

OOC
07 - Calendar
08 - Mission Control
09 - CR Meme
10 - Test Drive Meme
11 - Hiatus/Drops
12 - Player Contact
13 - Mod Contact

WORLD
14 - History
15 - The Matrix
16 - Reality
17 - Zion Defence Grid
18 - ZDG Fleet
19 - Uploads
20 - Recruitment
21 - NPCs

COMMS
22 - Info
23 - Network
24 - Logs
25 - Memes
26 - OOC

▶ OVERVIEW

This page is a resource for RP hooks of different types and characters (crews, civilians, unplugged and Native, etc.). Some are designed to require minimal GM/mod contribution, whereas others will capitalize on or even result in the IC acquisition of new information about the metaplot or setting. In general, what is offered here are not essential throughline scenes for the metaplot, but they can create extremely significant changes for the game. It is our hope that all of them constitute exciting opportunities for roleplay.

APPROVAL NOT REQUIRED
SIMULATION STATIONS | LOW-CLEARANCE MISSIONS
MOD-APPROVAL
PLAYER-RUN PLOT PROPOSALS | MOD-RUN PLOT OPTIONS

▶ PLAYER-RUN OPTIONS

THE SIM STATIONS

There are two sim stations in Zion, competing businesses. The Sleeping Sphynx is a rough-looking, 10-chair unit lit by erratic neon, operated by a former Irkallan who immigrated at age 15 but nonetheless carries the stigma, a sharp businesswoman. Mirage is better-furnished, better-lit, and surfaced in stone, operated by a former Zion Defense Grid defense corp specialist. However, both serve the same essential purpose: to run simulations for the unplugged as well as operators, using limited world maps.

Unlike jacking in to simulations on ships such as The Shangrila, these worlds have more failsafes (less lethality).

There are a wide variety of potential objectives and offerings. Some 'maps' consist of no more than a long white strip of sandy Bahamian beach with a single umbrella, having sea tides changing over the course of a recursive month. Others may draw directly from a character’s canon, highly detailed down to storefronts and television programming, but these are almost always limited to a single city and a single repeating day. Some of these canon scenarios are fraught with Agents to evade, for training purposes; others are geared to teaching the basic use of magic. Should a character become overpowered by one of these sim-Agents, or other catastrophes occur within the sequence, the exercise shuts down and the character is auto-extracted.

All sims are designed based on matrixes that have previously been visited, such as for extraction.

The mods strongly recommend playing only in simulated matrixes from canons on the Taken List. Both businesses charge by the hour, and offer running tabs; the Mirage offers a discount to ZDG crew, whereas the Sleeping Sphynx is more likely to accept whimsical offerings such as stories, songs, or performances-- clearly a public relations effort. Both facilities will also give time generously if you offer to help develop their simulations via software artefacts and programs harvested from canons you have visited (for example, a spell book downloaded from a Matrix and uploaded onto their servers, or a piece of unique technology).

Apart from these exceptions, a single three-hour simulation will cost half a unit of bread, spices, or dried vegetables, a morning’s manual labor (e.g., helping to clean and repair equipment). A piece of clothing or well-articulated jewelry or rare items may buy off as much as a dozen hour-long simulations.

More information about the business-owners will be available on the NPC page. For now, please PM the mod account to establish off-screen interaction with them.

LOW-CLEARANCE MISSIONS

These are player-run missions that do not require mod approval. To participate in these missions, operatives travel in groups of two or larger, with the expectation that they look out for each other, as well as providing sparring partners and test subjects for relevant experiments. They are given flimsy but passable false identities. Generally, at least one character in the team should have previously visited the specific Matrix before (i.e., have familiarity) or should be from that Matrix.

The Zion Defense Grid prohibits violence and injuries to others whenever possible. Not only do these incidents increase the likelihood the Agents will come, but there is a high probability that it is other humans, not yet extracted, who will die. Dead programs are less their concern.

Note for new characters: Newer characters who have not yet signed onto a permanent hovercrew position can still participate. They can access the Matrix from the Shangrila, with an NPC set of operators and Captain to steer them. The Shangrila often engages in these types of missions, which are seen as an important part of training. The individual must seem generally fit for duty.

Here are some common low-risk mission types:

  • Mapping: Although operators normally guide/navigate for operatives through their missions using live feed from the Matrix, the Zion Defense Grid welcomes information about the physical layouts and equipment from each world. The layouts are part of an ongoing research program to determine why the successful Matrixes are so—is it similarities to true Earth as it was, or differences? For characters engaging in mapping, the objective is to explore the worlds without affecting the central storyline or ‘canon.’ Throughout their time plugged in, an operator is recording their progress. This leaves a wide range of possible avenues, such as practicing Earthbending on the cabbages of Bah Sing Se, taking tea with Narnian foxes, or picking through Lake-town in the aftermath of the Battle of Five Armies.
  • Equipment Research: Intelligence on canon technology and equipment is important for a more obvious reason: uploads. Schematics, usage techniques, locally-compliant physics, sensory idiosyncrasies, and numerous other details are required to instantiate the armory, so that they can be provided to operatives for tactical missions. Additionally, this intelligence forms the basis of the skills that can be uploaded directly into operatives’ minds. For this type of research, the characters must gain access to equipment and specs as discreetly as possible. This may mean burgling a pump-action shotgun out of a dive bar near a demonic crossroads, chopping down a mountain ash tree in werewolf county of California, attending the Stark Expo, or giving one’s patronage to Ollivander’s Wand Shop.
  • Machine Espionage: Over the decades, the Zion Defense Grid has built an algorithm with increasing accuracy for profiling Agents and identifying programs despite the diversity of Matrix worlds. The algorithm is still far away from being able to predict whether a specific sentient individual is a human or an AI without some interaction, but patterns are surfacing—and that is the objective. Characters are asked to observe or spy on low-level machines and likely humans. A Mangalore who forgets regularly to eat and occasionally mutters about buggy settings may well be a program, but a Terminator T-800 could as easily be a woman asleep and dreaming in a pod. Operatives may need to use bugging equipment, camp out in ventilation shafts, or loiter in cars for hours of good old-fashioned stakeout.

Other guidelines to keep in mind are the following. Note that not only should this be the characters’ IC best effort, but also what the players will bear in mind.

  • Low-risk objectives: the characters should not engage in abductions, killings, or reveal themselves as extracted to programs

  • Minimal impact on the Matrix: the canon world and storyline will not change. Perhaps the mission takes place in a geographic location far away from the main characters, or it wreaks only subtle changes. You are welcome to note your character had a brief corridor conversation with 13-year-old Harry Potter about the Christmas pudding, but you certainly did not mention Voldemort is coming. To elaborate:
    • Extractions are not allowed. They require mod approval.
    • Little or no combat should be involved, though operatives may spar with or test equipment on each other. Taking pot shots at NPC humans or Machines with rare skills or equipment is likely to create wider-spread problems.
  • Little or no Agent involvement: if Agents happen to be alerted, characters will be extracted speedily if narrowly and without close-quarter encounter. The danger should be real, but given the extremely high likelihood of character death during such engagements, operatives must run—and generally cannot visit the Matrix again for some months.

If you would like to pursue a mission that deviates from these guidelines in a big way, that is fantastic and we would love to help you out. This includes accidental or reckless errors made in one of the above low-risk missions (e.g., detected as extracted by programs), as well as flouting the rules, such as trying to kill a “dreamer” (i.e., not extracted) in revenge. Just head down to Player Proposals.

HIGH-CLEARANCE (MOD-APPROVED) PROPOSALS

We invite you to propose plot that require mod-approval. Such plots include missions into the Matrix where Agents will feature. We may suggest alterations or additions to integrate your proposal more fully with the metaplot.

We encourage plots that focus on the Real as well as on Matrixes. For example, Irkallan pirate raids, fires, political protests, or major structural accidents may all fall in this category. For more Matrix-focused missions, extractions and intelligence-gathering may qualify.

Please see the comment thread below for the submission form.

▶ MOD-RUN OPTIONS

Please see our catalogue of plot options that require mod attention for some aspect of resolution. This may mean GMing on a more rigorous schedule, but will also include story options that will be resolved in infodumps (via PM). Not all of these are essential to the metaplot, but may strongly influence Zion and your character’s position in it.

Please use the attached form under each comment in order to sign up. In the interest of egalitarianism, characters and players who have not previously received this opportunity will have priority.