Temi's Revised Guide to Plotting Plots

[Temi]

I previously wrote up a guide to plots, but with the revised system, it's no longer quite right. This guide goes through the basic functions and walks you through some different types of plot, step by step. The system can seem a little intimidating, Instead of concentrating on what's changed, we'll just look at the new flow.

Now, Jack wants to know who trounced his flowerbeds, and he would like some staff help in interrogating his neighbors, who are all NPCs.

So, Jack starts up a plot advance to investigate with the plot advance command.

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plot advance
Vnum          : 0
Title         : Plot
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Roleplay Assistance
Shared To     : (null)
Requirements  :
[1] 10 Quest points (Unfilled)
[2] An action description (Unfilled)
Contributions : None.
Actions       : None.
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

As you can see, this puts Jack into the Plot Advance POLCA. A lot of the fields are already where we need them, as we're not doing much. It's something private for Jack, so a Roleplay Assistance type makes sense, and it's not related to any bigger events going on, so the header doesn't need changed. It's just him, so he doesn't need to share with anyone else. Jack needs to be able to keep track of the plot, so next, he sets the plot title with the title command.

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title Flower Trompers
Plot title set to 'Flower Trompers'.

The Requirements list tells us what Jack still needs to do. There is the 10 QP charge for RPA, based on the type, and he has to fill out the action description, to describe what Jack is doing to investigate. To fill out the action, Jack uses the action command, which puts him into an editor.

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action

                -=======- Entering APPEND Mode -========-
                   Type @h on a new line for help
              Type @x on a new line to close the editor.
                -=======================================-
> 
Jack's garden has been tromped all upon, leaving his flowers in a terrible state.  He is going to 
go around to each of his neighbors and politely ask them if they saw what happened.  He'll also be 
looking for anyone that seems squirrelly about it, in case they are involved.
> 
@f
String formatted.
> 
@x

Now to see how things look, Jack uses the show command to view the current state of the POLCA.

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show
Vnum          : 0
Title         : Flower Trompers
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Roleplay Assistance
Shared To     : (null)
Requirements  :
[1] 10 Quest points (Unfilled)
[2] An action description
Contributions : None.
Actions       :
[1] Save Jack's garden has been tromped all upon, leaving his flowers in a
terrible state.  He is going to go around to each of his neighbors and
politely ask them if they saw what happened.  He'll also be looking for
anyone that seems squirrelly about it, in case they are involved. 
 [Jack]
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

It looks like Jack still needs to meet that QP requirement. He can use the contribute command to add the 10 QPs, and then check again.

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contribute qp 10
Jack contributes 10 quest points to Flower Trompers.
> 
show
Vnum          : 0
Title         : Flower Trompers
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Roleplay Assistance
Shared To     : (null)
Requirements  :
[1] 10 Quest points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 10 Quest points [Jack]
Actions       :
[1] Jack's garden has been tromped all upon, leaving his flowers in a
terrible state.  He is going to go around to each of his neighbors and
politely ask them if they saw what happened.  He'll also be looking for
anyone that seems squirrelly about it, in case they are involved. 
 [Jack]
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

Okay! That takes care of all of the requirements, and we can see where Jack added the QP under contributions. Everything looks good, so now he can submit it.

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submit
Plot submitted.

Now, Jack can check plot list to see what the status is.

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plot list
VNUM     TITLE                         CONTRIBUTOR     START DATE  STATUS
1118   * Flower Trompers               Jack            Jan 27 2019 Queued

We can see that it has been automatically assigned vnum 1118 and that the status has been updated from Draft to Queued, which means it is waiting for staff to look at it.

Next, Jack receives a notice that staff have processed the plot, and he can see the status has changed to Complete in plot list. When he checks plot review, he sees the response from staff describing what he discovered as note.

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INFO> A daemon has written a new note, Processing of Plot Advancement 1118 Flower Trompers, against
No Header, on the Plots board.
> 
plot list
VNUM     TITLE                         CONTRIBUTOR     START DATE  STATUS
1118   * Flower Trompers               Jack            Jan 27 2019 Complete
> 
plot review 1118
Vnum          : 1118
Title         : Flower Trompers
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Complete
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Roleplay Assistance
Shared To     : (null)
Requirements  :
[1] 10 Quest points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 10 Quest points [Jack]
Actions       :
[1] Jack's garden has been tromped all upon, leaving his flowers in a
terrible state.  He is going to go around to each of his neighbors and
politely ask them if they saw what happened.  He'll also be looking for
anyone that seems squirrelly about it, in case they are involved. 
 [Jack]
Notes         :
[1] From: Temi         To: Jack
Date: Sun Jan 27 17:14 2019
Message:  When Jack asks his neighbor Mary if she saw what happened, she notes that she
saw a group of kids playing out there, jumping on his flowers.  There were
three of them, probably all about eight or nine and boys, and they all looked
very similar: curly blond hair, blue eyes, button noses. 

Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

This completes the plot and gives Jack the answer he was looking for. Easy peasy!

[Temi]

Now, how about a slightly more involved example? Let's say Jack is back at work as a Reeve cadet. He's been tasked with finding a missing statue.

He creates a plot advance and sets the title and the action.

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plot create
Vnum          : 0
Title         : Plot
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Roleplay Assistance
Shared To     : (null)
Requirements  :
[1] 10 Quest points (Unfilled)
[2] An action description (Unfilled)
Contributions : None.
Actions       : None.
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

> 
title On the Hunt for a Statue
Plot title set to 'On the Hunt for a Statue'.

> 
action

                -=======- Entering APPEND Mode -========-
                   Type @h on a new line for help
              Type @x on a new line to close the editor.
                -=======================================-
> 
Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a dancing unicorn was stolen 
from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy drinks for the regulars as he plies them with 
questions.  He asks if they saw anything next door and if there have been any shady characters 
hanging around.
> 
@f
String formatted.
> 
@x

> 

Guilds can do a limited number of free investigations for guild business. Since Jack is investigating as a Reeve on Reeve business using normal Reeve methods, his plot would be eligible. Each guild receives a number of 'guild points' or gpoints each week, based on city metrics. These represent guild bandwidth for things like guild investigations, and can be assigned by the guildleader.

In order to take advantage of this, Jack changes the type of the plot to a guild investigation using the type command.

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type guild investigation
Plot type set; requirements reset.

Now, if Jack takes a look at the plot, he sees that instead of the requirement for 10 Quest Points, there is now a new requirement for 1 Guild Point.

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show
Vnum          : 0
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : (null)
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points (Unfilled)
[2] An action description
Contributions : None.
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

> 

Jack wants his guildmates to have access to his plot, so that they can see what is going on and be able to help out. He uses the share command to include his boss Jill, and then decides to include the Reeves as well - he can include a mix of guilds and individuals.

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share Jill Reeves
Plot shared with 'jill Reeves '.

Jack doesn't have access to the Reeve gpoints so he can't submit the plot yet. Instead, he'll need to store it. This creates the plot and assigns a vnum to it. It will be in a draft state, but Jill and the other Reeves will all have access to it in the meantime.

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store
Plot stored.

> 
plot list
VNUM     TITLE                         CONTRIBUTOR     START DATE  STATUS
1121   * On the Hunt for a Statue      Jack            Feb 01 2019 Draft

Jack chats with Jill, who agrees that the Reeves should be using their resources on this. She uses the plot contribute command to add a Reeve gpoint onto the plot.

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    >    
plot contribute 1121 gpoints 1
Jill contributes 1 quest points to On the Hunt for a Statue.

Now when Jack reviews the plot, he can see that Jill has contributed 1 guild point and the guild point requirement is now filled.

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plot review 1121
Vnum          : 1121
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : jill Reeves 
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 1 Guild points [Jill]
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

The plot is ready to submit to staff, so Jack edits it to double-check everything.

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plot edit 1121
Vnum          : 1121
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : jill Reeves 
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 1 Guild points [Jill]
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : No

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

> 

While Jack is looking at the plot, he decides to spread a rumor along with the plot, since people might notice his chatting people up at the tavern. The spread_rumor command toggles whether or not the plot advance will automatically spread a rumor.

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spread_rumor
The plot will now post a rumor.

> 

Now the rumor, rumor_sub and circle commands can be used to set the rumor, its subject and the circles it is running in, respectively.

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rumor You know that handsome Reeve with the moustache?  Well, he was buying an awful lot of folks 
drinks at the tavern the other night - and I don't mean just the pretty ladies, either.
Rumor set.

> 
rumor_sub Generous Reeve
Rumor subject set.

> 
circle Freeman, Reeves
Rumor circles set to Freeman, Reeves.

> 
show
Vnum          : 1121
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Draft
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : jill Reeves 
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 1 Guild points [Jill]
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         : None.
Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : Yes
Rumor         : You know that handsome Reeve with the moustache?  Well, he was buying an awful lot
of folks drinks at the tavern the other night - and I don't mean just the pretty ladies, either.
Rumor Subject : Generous Reeve
Circle        : Freeman, Reeves

Type "submit" to advance the completed plot, "store" to store a partial plot, or "cancel" to abort.
Type "commands" alone for a list of commands.

Jack decides it's ready for staff to review and so he goes ahead and submits it using the submit command.

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submit
Plot submitted.

INFO> A daemon has written a new note, Edit of Plot Advancement 1121 On the Hunt for a Statue,
against No Header, on the Plots board.

Sometime later, Jack receives a note that the status of the plot has changed to Needs Input. When he reviews the plot, he sees that staff would like him to contribute silver to the plot, since he is spending silver as part of the actions he is doing.

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INFO> A daemon has written a new note, Plot Advancement 1121 - On the Hunt for a Statue Status:
Needs Input, on the Plots board.
> 
plot review 1121
Vnum          : 1121
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Needs Input
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : jill Reeves 
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 1 Guild points [Jill]
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         :
[1] From: Temi         To: Jack
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:06 2019
Message:  Hey there!  I'll start looking into this, but can you contribute the silver
that you're spending buying drinks at the tavern into the plot? 

Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : Yes
Rumor         : You know that handsome Reeve with the moustache?  Well, he was buying an awful lot
of folks drinks at the tavern the other night - and I don't mean just the pretty ladies, either.
Rumor Subject : Generous Reeve
Circle        : Freeman, Reeves

> 

This seems reasonable, so Jack can contribute the silver using the plot contribute command without even going into the POLCA again.

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plot contribute 1121 silver 10
Jack contributes 10 silver crowns to On the Hunt for a Statue.

He can also add a note to explain to staff with the plot note command. This puts him into a mini-POLCA where he can specify who can read it with share. This allows him to share it with Jill, but not the rest of the Reeves, even though they can see the remaining parts of the plot. Then the message command lets him set the message, which is posted once he uses the done command.

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plot note 1121
From: Jack       To: None
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:28 2019
Message:  (null)

Type "done" to post the note to the plot or "cancel" to abort.

> 
share Jill, Staff
Note shared with 'jill, staff '.

> 
message

                -=======- Entering APPEND Mode -========-
                   Type @h on a new line for help
              Type @x on a new line to close the editor.
                -=======================================-
> 
I've added the silver - 10 as I said I was looking at.  This comes from the special fund Jill set 
up for Jack, that he isn't supposed to tell the other Reeves about.
> 
@f
String formatted.
> 
@x

> 
done
Note posted to the plot.

Now, all of this is visible if Jack looks at the plot again.

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plot review 1121
Vnum          : 1121
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Needs Input
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : jill Reeves 
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 1 Guild points [Jill]
[2] 10 Silver crowns [Jack]
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         :
[1] From: Temi         To: Jack 
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:06 2019
Message:  Hey there!  I'll start looking into this, but can you contribute the silver
that you're spending buying drinks at the tavern into the plot? 

[2] From: Jack         To: jill, staff 
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:28 2019
Message:  I've added the silver - 10 as I said I was looking at.  This comes from the
special fund Jill set up for Jack, that he isn't supposed to tell the other
Reeves about. 

Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : Yes
Rumor         : You know that handsome Reeve with the moustache?  Well, he was buying an awful lot
of folks drinks at the tavern the other night - and I don't mean just the pretty ladies, either.
Rumor Subject : Generous Reeve
Circle        : Freeman, Reeves

> 

When staff finally processes the plot, Jack receives another notification, and the plot has another note with the information Jack was looking for. The rumor has also automatically posted.

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INFO> A daemon has written a new note, Processing of Plot Advancement 1121 On the Hunt for a Statue,
against No Header, on the Plots board.
    >    
plot review 1121
Vnum          : 1121
Title         : On the Hunt for a Statue
Header        : 0, Unset
Status        : Complete
Owner         : Jack
Type          : Guild Investigation
Shared To     : jill Reeves 
Requirements  :
[1] 1 Guild points
[2] An action description
Contributions :
[1] 1 Guild points [Jill]
[2] 10 Silver crowns [Jack]
Actions       :
[1] Jack is going around the tavern next to the house where the statue of a
dancing unicorn was stolen from.  He is spending up to 10 silver to buy
drinks for the regulars as he plies them with questions.  He asks if they saw
anything next door and if there have been any shady characters hanging
around. 
 [Jack]
Notes         :
[1] From: Temi         To: jack 
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:06 2019
Message:  Hey there!  I'll start looking into this, but can you contribute the silver
that you're spending buying drinks at the tavern into the plot? 

[2] From: Jack   To: jill, staff 
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:28 2019
Message:  I've added the silver - 10 as I said I was looking at.  This comes from the
special fund Jill set up for Jack, that he isn't supposed to tell the other
Reeves about. 

[3] From: Temi         To: jack, jill, Reeves 
Date: Fri Feb 01 02:35 2019
Message:  Three drinks in, a fat man tells Jack at length that he saw a couple of men
in black cloaks carting a statue away from the house next door.  He thought
it was a great idea to follow them until they slipped into the house next
door - the big one with the courtyard and the gates - with the statue. 

Post Event    : No
Spread Rumor  : Yes
Rumor         : You know that handsome Reeve with the moustache?  Well, he was buying an awful lot
of folks drinks at the tavern the other night - and I don't mean just the pretty ladies, either.
Rumor Subject : Generous Reeve
Circle        : Freeman, Reeves

rumor all
These are the rumors Jack has heard:

Num Known     Circles             Cost Subject
001  No       Public                10 Inquisition Search Heats Up
...
045  Yes      Freeman, Reeves        0 Generous Reeve

And that completes Jack's investigation plot into the case of the missing statue. Easy enough, even with a few more complications!