What does being involved in a plot mean to you?
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I feel like to go along with Lemon Knight's thread about role playing discussion, I wanted to make a thread that discusses plots. Often times I see a lot of people who are just aching to get in on a good story, more so than those eventual widespread messages calling all adventurers to help with city-wide instances. But they don't know exactly how to. This is coming from me, a player who had many problems with this in the past.
One thoughtful evening spent here on CoA made me ask myself this question. It might seem like a weird question, but it's pretty straight forward. What does being involved in a plot mean to you? Is it simply at those random events where the plot-master makes that server wide sending calling for any available persons to come help fight a horde of enemies? Or is it when your character's story is directly tied to the plot in some fashion, more than just "Oh it's important to me because if this event fails, the city's safety is at stake, and I want to keep living in this city." That's just an incredibly dumbed down example, mind you.
I pondered on it for a bit, because personally I get bored at those events. My character's not actually involved in these other peoples' stories at all, he's just an extra plus one to help fight stuff. It also raises the question "What the hell is even going on right now?" I've asked myself that a lot in the past concerning various server plots. I'm curious to see what others' responses are in this thread, and I want it to be a place where we can share advice on how to get immersed into these great factions/plots that are going around. So long story short, I actually want to pose two questions to you:
What does being involved in a plot mean to you?
And…
What do you enjoy doing in order to get others involved in your characters' stories/plots?
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I enjoy the "everyone come fight the horde of demons/undead/very angry buffalos/whatever or the city is done for" events.
But I wouldn't say they make me feel "involved in a plot". I feel involved in a plot when I have a task, a goal, something of my own that I can puzzle over. Even -or sometimes especially- if there are five other people also trying to figure it out and more likely to succeed. When I individually can do something to get to a next step.
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The best way to get involved in a plot is to create it yourself.
The most enjoyment I've had from being involved in others plots, is when their goal opposed my characters goals, or viewpoint.
The best way I've found to get people involved in my own plots, is to make them (or the sub-events- along the way) either oppose other peoples viewpoints, political, religious, or otherwise, or to make them align with others.
Even the most bizarre and seemingly entirely personal stories/plots can have sub goals along the way, that will involve others in these ways.
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Join a faction, or involve other players into a plot you create yourself. Neither are fool proof, but are by far the most likely and easy ways to get involved with plots.
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Alot.
It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
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Most players miss plot hooks or ignore them. Many DM and personal plots involve a sending to hunt/gather/kill/investigate something and no one shows up.
DM NPCs drop plot hooks all the time, and often I see players ignore it.
If you struggle to be in a plot, consider blaming yourself for not paying attention!
Oh and I love random "orcs attacking east gate!" or "giant meteor strikes the ground spewing aberrations in the streets" events. I have loads of fun on those.
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@Undead:
Join a faction, or involve other players into a plot you create yourself. Neither are fool proof, but are by far the most likely and easy ways to get involved with plots.
I think the question here is not "how do I get involved in a plot" (I'm sure that one comes up a lot) as "how do I know or decide I am already involved in one".
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I am aware, I was just commenting on what you said, and elaborating Zools answer because it ties into the answer of this question. One knows you are involved in a plot when you get a plot hook (sometimes that is can be just a forum post like viewtopic.php?t=133140&p=907040). They are given out all the time. Very few people follow them up in a proactive manner, though sadly a few players that do, suffer from lack of dm attention due to time zones or other ooc issues.
However, that was not the question asked by Five Kings, and in an effort to re-rail this conversation I will add what plots (dm especially), and being involved in them mean to me. After character interaction with pcs I find interesting, plots were the most important thing for me as a player. They represented oppertunity for my character to push his agenda, world views, or otherwise effect change for the better (worse), even minor plots have the possibility to be turned into a tool for character progression and development.
When playing an Ilmatari cleric, I didnt see a large orcan threat as an existential threat, that if not thwarted he will die, or the city will burn. I saw it as an oppertunity to demonstrate Ilmaters relevance, mercy, and if nessecary, strenght to the rest of the city, if not the whole city, then at least some of the factions and adventurers, something that ended up happening. Plots are a way to make characters relevant in visable ways, as well as for them to grow, both in world view as well as influence and power.
So yes, very important to me.
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I'm not really that bothered when it comes to DM plots (I don't actually think I've been involved in a DM plot from start to finish), I much rather getting caught up in a plot imagined up by a player or players.
To me that's the essence of CoA!
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To me plots are akin to major character exploration. They are something my character is going on for one reason or another but they are major point in the story where something is going to happen and you'll remember. This covers the big "the city is going to die" plots to the "I lost my kitty and it's all I have help me" things. I prefer the talking portion of coa to the fighting and not because I don't know what's going on with the mechanics (Which many people who see my characters know I ignore constantly) but because it brings anticipation to what's going to happen next. Would this character I've met really jump at the chance to fight a dragon or run away like a little scaredy cat? I don't know. I love helping others figure out what their characters would really do when "stuff" hits the fan and holding them to it. Likewise I feel plots help me see some of the best examples of other players role playing at their best. I try to change up my character as major things happen to them and maybe I hope others do too who are invested in their characters story. I like to share those major things and make them more important as if the story of my character just hit a major chapter of the book and you want to read the next one so bad to see how he reacts but you have to go to bed cause the run on sentences are just too much for you! Either way I feel every plot event even if most of them aren't my own is a great chapter where everything you've been reading (aka talking about with the other pcs about) comes together to either create problems the pcs have to figure out how to fix or resolves some issues that have been building up in a spectacular manner. And you get to share that book while you're reading it with others!
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Ditto to ImMatty. Its a development opportunity that's not planned, and likely has more consequence/impact to the characters involvement than similar "talking" with other PCs.
But for the last several years, I will not go near them, as I know for sure, that it only leads to frustration, It's a timezone thing.