Stories
From Scratchpad
While staff will certainly be running stories for our players, the wizards of Heart of the Wyld feel that player-driven stories are essential to any good MU*. This is a game of cooperative storytelling, and anyone can have good ideas that benefit the game as a whole, whether by reshaping it in some way, or just keeping people entertained for a night or two.
If your story is something that is going to be short-term and have only minimal impact on the game as a whole, then it does not require any kind of formal application. For ease of distinction, we will refer to this type of story as a One Night Stand, or ONS. Despite the name, an ONS may run over a short period of time, not just a single night. Since the wizards will be familiar with all ongoing plots, we do ask that you page one of us to run the idea past us. If you're wanting to run an ONS where your pack goes and kills some vampires, and someone else has a story running with vampires, your ONS might just help to get you (and others) involved in a completely different plot, turning one night of enjoyment into quite a bit more. It also helps the wizards maintain continuity - the actions of the PCs can change the setting, so someone else's story from last week that you haven't heard about yet might necessitate changes to the idea that you'd come up with. Even if there's some reason your story can't be run as-is, we'll try to help you come up with alternatives. We want you to have fun, and not only that, to help others have fun.
If, for any reason, there is no wizard available and you want to run your ONS for a few people right now, go ahead and run it. Please +mail the wizards and give us a brief summary of what happened and who was involved, so that we can work what happened into the overall HotW storyline. ONS that have not been run by a wizard should not include attacks of any kind on the bawn, vampires, mages, BSDs, or any other major supernatural threat, travel to the Deep Umbra/Umbral Realms -- basically, keep the scope small. Some examples of ONS that are going to be perfectly acceptable without approval: a stray Weaver or Wyrm spirit or two entering Yellowstone, particularly in the touristy areas. Non-violent dealings with friendly minor spirits around the bawn, such as a lune challenging some of the PCs to a contest of wits. Dealing with mortal antagonists/rivals in the city, particularly if the situation isn't one that's going to be resolved violently. Dealing with larger infestations of Weaver/Wyrm spirits in unbuilt areas of Gardiner (if it's not on the grid, hasn't been named, and would reasonably be there - cleaning out a nest of corrupted pattern spiders from Joe's Self-Storage, for instance.)
If, on the other hand, your story is something larger in scope that could reasonably involve a large portion of the playerbase or could reshape the game in some way, this requires a formal submission, much like a character application. For ease of distinction, once again, we will call this type of story a TinyPlot, or TP. First, you are strongly encouraged to run the gist of the ideas past a wizard before submitting a proposal. If it absolutely can't be done (for whatever reason), better to find out before you've invested the time and effort involved in a full writeup, but hopefully, we'll be able to give you some guidance in relation to the story to help minimize the amount of revision necessary.
The actual story application should include the name of the TP, your character name on HotW, a summary of the TP that ranges from a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages, depending on scope. It should list any major NPCs for the TP, to include their initial and likely future roles on HotW. The application should include multiple ways of getting characters involved in the story at various points along the way. If relevant, be sure to at least touch on what will happen if the PCs should fail, and likewise, the consequences should they do nothing at all. Also important to list is any assistance you will need from the wizards, and any building that might need to be done for the TP. Assuming the TP is likely to last a period of months, please also include the name of an alternate who can stand in for you should you cease being able to run things at some point before the TP is complete.
When all of this is put together, email it (no attachments, please) to HotWstories@yahoogroups.com. Please use the following format for your email subject line: (HotW) Story Title by CharacterName -- this helps us quickly and easily reference the story later. If you haven't gotten at least an acknowledgement of receipt within 3-4 days, page any of the plotstaff and confirm receipt. Actual approval time may vary, depending on the scope of the plot in question.
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