Rebellion Q & A

[gamemakers]

Here are the mod moving pieces and some information about them. Please note some of this is still in development stage, especially the stuff with the Hacker and Brainy working together and District 13, so this information is not set in stone, and may change as needed. However, it will be set in stone and announced before it goes live.

The Hacker is currently positioned near the Capitol, and will be helping in bringing people to District 13. He will eventually have Sherlock with him for a period of time, and with that may get more involved in physical plots in the city (right now he is in a position where it is too dangerous for him to travel solo.)

Either way, he and Brainy (under the alias Lonestar) will be working together to find ways to get people communicating. The communicating still will not be easy, but it will be possible. Some will be completely anon, like the Hacker posts thus far, and some will be targeted groups to organize the rebellion a bit more, which will be more on Brainy’s end.

The NPC Elias is also now in the city as a physical rebellion entity. He can start reaching out to people face-to-face who want to get involved. He will be listening and following news, etc.; however, OOC it will be easier for all if you come to us if you want Elias to find you, and we can work out what he might have heard from the grapevine to do as such. On the one hand, everytime he reaches out, he knows there’s a high chance he’ll eat it, on the other the Capitol killed his family and this is what he plans to do with the rest of his life, so although he is careful, dying isn’t his primary concern.

And District 13!

So the plan right now is that there is a team of scientists in the District 2 building where Tributes are being pulled in (the revival mechanism) that, instead of sending the Tributes who they feel are not pro-Capitol back to the Capitol, will be sending them through to the Hacker and through a kind of underground railroad to D13. So when they are on a shift together they’re just like “oops, no one who died came back, so sorry” and shuffle Tributes out the door.

Right now we are thinking that the communication will be mainly through written letters, and that most of the people in D13 will have activity based on that, since we are aware until that area builds up, activity might be a bit harder to get there. And again, characters will be appable in D13, the same as in the Capitol (Canon, OCs and AUs)

Hopefully that plot will start, not this arena, but next. There are still details being ironed out though, mainly technical ones.

For those that are not familiar with the Hunger Game, 13 is the District that was “destroyed” in the war that the Hunger Games were born from. In reality it was the District that made nuclear weapons, and the Capitol and 13 made a deal that if 13 separated from Panem the Capitol would leave them alone. In return, 13 wouldn’t nuke them off the face of the earth. 13 is underground, has issues with population due to residual radiation, and a not-so-nice leader with less than moral goals. It is also a very controlled environments, with perfectly rationed food, supplies, etc.

The other districts are in a similar place to before the Quarter Quell in the books. There is a “peace” in Panem, but it is a rough peace. Lots of turmoil, lots of “incidents”, but no District has full-on rebelled yet.


Player Character Plots (little R rebellions)

Cinderella/Eva/Enjolras propaganda
Eva has access to a printing press, and Cinderella and Enjolras are going to be writing seditious pamplets and spreading them around under a pseudonym.
Sandy and Pruna propaganda under Cinna
Cinna has encouraged the use of seditious graffiti.
Venus is mapping blind spots in the Capitol
She’s been studying camera angles from Capitol footage. Other characters are welcome to do this as well and independently.
Punchy hacked the network over the summer.
Sherlock BBC has the computer virus that can crash it again now.
John and Sherlock BBC have investigated Avox chambers
The Initiate has been telling people District 13 is still in existence.
They also know some of the details of the Peacekeeper security systems.
Eva is trying to amass a little group of rebels for her slow-burn sabotage of the Capitol. In two Arenas or so, she’s going to make her move. Hit me up if you want in, although it has to make sense ICly that Eva would bring your character into the fold.

From Enjolras’ Crowning Log:
- Cuthbert knows that Peacekeeper HQ has muttation scientists working with Tribute DNA.
- Bashir knows that as of that Crowning, security around the ‘revival mechanism’ for Tributes has tripled.
- Terezi knows that people have been spraypainting “you’re playing with fire” at Peacekeeper HQ.
- John Watson knows nano-robots suppress superpowers and someone in D3 is working on technology to rewire brains.

Generally Lisa is the mod to go to for organizing smaller character rebellions that don’t involve the Hacker, D13, or those NPCs. If it’s your character taking initiative and working with other player characters, bring it to Lisa. Everything goes by both mods but she is the beancounter for these things. She is not all that helpful with rebellious stuff happening in the Districts, as that’s mostly Te’s bailiwick.

For the record, we also don’t hand out plot stuff, we simply approve it when it comes to us and sometimes use our characters to facilitate it. The only times we’re offering shiny new things to players are in the big mod posts, like the secrets in the dream-crowning post, and anyone who asks can get one there. But we can’t come up with ideas for 100+ characters to have things to do, so just approach us with your ideas and we’ll find a way to make them work.

Please note that while we can probably make most ideas work, we may have to set them a few months off, depending on where they’d fall in the plot. You’ll have to work with us on the timing and don’t be afraid to occasionally poke us if you feel we’ve forgotten you - we might have, our memory isn’t nearly as good as we wish it was, and it’s not personal.

Also please note that there may be IC consequences for these actions if your character gets caught. Punchy, for example, spent three months as an Avox. Potential punishments range from torture of themselves or a loved one, Avoxing, death, or intentional sabotage in the next Arena. We’ll definitely work with you to not make your character unplayable, but there are some things your character might not be able to get away with.

Some ideas off the top of Lisa’s head for things you can explore:

- Look for blind spots. Any character can do this, as long as they are decently observant. Venus is doing it by looking at camera angles, but characters can watch patterns of civilians, see where people feel comfortable shoplifting, look for graffiti, or anything that indicates there's a spot the Capitol doesn't have eyes on.
- Tech-savvy characters can attempt to hack the network, look for government secrets, spy on encrypted files, so on.
- Lobby the Capitol for more District visits.
- I mean, you could always kidnap a Peacekeeper and interrogate him. I’m not saying this will go well for you, but you can. (Alternately, you could seduce a Peacekeeper. I hear Wallander’s really lonely.)
- Someone should totally find out where they’re making the mutts. Team Science?
- There are pods of boobytraps under the Capitol. Just saying. We’re keeping them for the mod plot but we’re open to having your characters discover them, explore and test the boundaries.

This is not an all-inclusive list! We are happy to entertain other ideas as well (it requires less thinking on our parts).

Leave any and all questions here for the mods!

Comments

[revvinguptheharley]

I dunno if it was just overlooked but I think worth mentioning is that The Grand Highblood was using his powers to tell people that District 13 is alive and well because I think he got that secret from Enjolra's crowning.

Not strictly rebellion related but I was wondering when we can expect the four way crowning ceremony from our mini arena?

[gamemakers]

I don't remember him getting that secret from Enjolras' crowning, I'll have to check to see where we approved it.

There will be no crowning ceremony, but I'm putting a network post up about it tonight.

-Lisa

[retrieverchef]

Eliot also overheard something during Enjolras' crowning. I'd have to look up what it was, though.

[gamemakers]

It shouldn't be too hard to track it down still. Everything is tagged to our knowledge.

[futilecycle]

Hello mods! What are the chances of working towards having a double-agent character, in the same vein as Plutarch? In my case, I wanted to do something in the future with Sigma working for the Capitol while slipping details to the Rebellion. Is it at all possible?

The way I was swinging this ICly is that Sigma's lover, Diana, was brought in during the event and Sigma's commitment to her basically gives the Capitol complete power over him (no matter what excuse they give when they leave, he will be paranoid that they're hurting her). He would want to get as close to the Capitol and its government as possible to ensure Diana wasn't being mistreated. Sigma was virtually a Gamemaker in his canon and spent his entire adult life coming up with ways to kill people in his 'Arena' for the 'greater good'. I think that's a bit of a big thing for a player character to take on, of course, so him actually working for the Gamemakers would be unlikely but it would probably do something towards convincing the Capitol to let him work for them in some different way, perhaps. In reality, Sigma hates killing, but was forced to run his Games or Bad Things would happen. In the same way, Sigma wants the Rebellion to succeed, and would act as a mole for the Rebellion.

This is all just ideas, of course, and perhaps I'll choose to go a different direction (I love the Arenas and I can't see myself giving them up anytime soon, haha). But just for future reference, would any of this work in game?

[gamemakers]

This'd be absolutely possible. We actually had another player who dropped who had a similar idea, but we'd love to work this out with you.

[amoral_savior]

Topher is ready for a first run build. How will the Capitol take this? Will his work be stolen right away or would he be brought in for a little "chat?"

[gamemakers]

This will fall under Penny's jurisdiction (lucky you, Topher). He'll probably be brought in for a chat and even pampered a little bit as they try to pull him over to their side.

[the_marshal]

I'm down to have Wyatt continue helping Elias where he can. (Maybe he could pass on what he knows to Venus and Enj. now that he's told Max, get them connected too? I don't know, just spitballing.)

More, I'd really love to get Wesker involved. Boy needs something to do.

[gamemakers]

Elias will pretty much take Wyatt's word on anything at this point. So any of them would work out just fine.

What are you looking for with wesker?

[gardienne]

Can Eva include Eps in her little rebel gang? After the Thenardier plot, she's going to be a mess of worry that she'll be arrested for murder and executed and - well, you know Eponine a little at least by now. She'll need something to distract her. She'd definitely be against the Capitol out of pure fear of what they'd do to her if she went willingly.

[gamemakers]

Absolutely!

-Lisa

[carnagecarnival]

So on top of:
-finding out d13 + rebel base
-inciting fear of capitol in the capitolites to create dissent
-spreading info to a select few people in the prior arena (as well as Terezi before then)
Initiate is still looking for allies and trying to collect them. (One such person for example is Maximus.)

I'm hoping to eventually bring this group of people together for some actual action against the capitol, more work in finding info and trying to taking capitol out from within. WHAT to do I haven't actually figured out yet (if anyone has input feel free to slide it by.) In fact I'd love to work out more than one if possible. (The trickiest thing is that he ICly will be trying things that don't get his loved ones killed/tortured and will back out if he thinks it's too risky for them. But I will work something.)

Finally, I do want eventually Avox Initiate in 1) a way that will help further plots/rebellion 2) lets me play him that way right to endgame. :') Obviously I don't want this happening to soon, but since it's never been a secret, I shall put it on the table.

[gamemakers]

I think that is solidly something that can be developed!

[polyturtle]

I wouldn't mind Donatello or Homura getting involved in the rebellion. Don would especially love to find out about how they're making Tribute mutts, and the fact they are making those mutts, given his own issues with his DNA.

Also, IDK if its of any consequence, but are there any characters aside from Don who are actually aware of Plutarch's rebellious tendencies? And would it be something that would be important for him to reveal/hint at to other allies as time goes by?

[gamemakers]

You will have tot all to hats specifically about Plutarch, though it think rn he is the only PC who knows.

And here is potential mutt pottage down the page with Julian, might be worth working together towards?

[earthborn]

Shepard's been taking note of every camera and security device she can easily see— and since she's used to a certain level of surveillance sophistication (thanks Liara you're not helping her paranoia issues here) so she's probably never going to assume she's completely in the clear.

I really really want Shep involved in this mess, so I think it'd be fun for her to maybe notice an unguarded manhole or something and maybe start spending short amounts of time poking at dangerous things in the boobytrap pods.

She could take other people, maybe one or two, on these ventures as well??? Is that a thing? What are the consequences??

If Elias would be inclined to talk to Shep, she's at this point more than willing to work with the rebellion on coordinating basically anything— just off the top of my head, she could coordinate the timing of people's deaths to arrange for any specific people to get shuffled off to D13, maybe?

[gamemakers]

Shep seems like a good candidate for pod exploration.

And I believe at this point she's said enough things openly to catch someone's attention. He is mainly at the speakeasy, maybe they can get hooked up there?

Brainy/Lonestar Stuff

[googledox]

Lisa said this was the place to put this so I wrote a thing.

There's been a little bit of confusion over the Brainiac 5/Lonestar stuff so here are the basics on it so people know what can and can't be done with that, to use for their plotting.

Basics for the canonblind:

Brainiac 5 is a superhero in canon and a pretty decent dude who wants to help everybody and by virtue of a canon quirk where his timeline being destroyed in grand DC comics event book fashion, the Capitol can't really background check his past or the pasts of any of the people directly from his timeline. So in person Brainiac 5 is pretending to be a villainous dickish kind of pathetic guy that would be too selfish to protect people. Online, he's masquerading as Lonestar, a Capitol citizen hacking the Capitol that wants to help the Tributes because he's sick of the system and had someone hurt (implied to have been avoxed). He's hoping the in-person villain act will help people not connect him to the fake capitol citizen persona because as soon as the Capitol realizes he's an internal threat it'd be easy to narrow down and he'd be toast.

His main function will be working with the Capitol Hacker to provide periodic posts that are secure from the Capitol, including some sessions of the Tributes having a brief time to communicate with each other in encrypted and private posts. He's also occasionally providing and delivering tech to the Tributes to use in their own rebellious shenanigans because canonically he's been shown to have a base intelligence that'd make him smarter than any Capitol scientist. But he's not really meant to be a figurehead of the resistance or someone planning the major movements against them. He's more like the internet innkeeper letting the Tribute side of the resistance meet in his digital basement, occasionally sneaking them Q-style weapons and gadgets.

Things he can do for your character:
✦ provide periodic anon posts where characters will be able to privately message their friends/allies secure from Capitol view. These have to be mod approved but they've said he'll probably be able to get away with 1-2 in each period between arenas.
✦ pass information your character wants passed along to the Panem Rebel Hacker and HOPE the rebels take it into consideration
✦ make the Tributes technology that can help them get up to shenanigans (Tech request post here. It's linked on his profile.)
✦ occasionally hack stuff or help other hackers hack stuff if they can't do it solo
✦ employ some of your characters in helping him personally with his tech stuff. It isn't like they'd be participating in schemes that directly hurt the Capitol but for anyone to fight them, they need tech and he needs help delivering and making the tech without getting caught, as well as stealing components, or making some parts. He has to spread it out among multiple people. So he will be forming a network of people to help him steal parts/buy electronics to take apart, deliver tech, and build tech. This is the inner circle of people he's been slowly dragging people into. It would be important work the characters would be doing considering how important the tech could be but won't hurt the Capitol directly and potentially full of dangerous plots where they almost get caught stealing stuff.
✦ occasionally toss a scheme idea their way to maybe turn into a plan (like he might find out something important for them to go after but the Tributes would have to work out the plan and he'd just make them tech for it). Basically if you have a plot idea but the characters need to know Capitol Security Official Alexus Starburns has some vital thing they need to steal, if you get it mod approved that he can come across the information, you can use him as the source that tosses it to them to start them looking into it.
✦ occasionally act as a voicebox for a trustworthy tribute that has an idea for a really good scheme against the Capitol but doesn't want to get caught, pretending the whole thing is his idea so they'll always be looking for just one non-Tribute person. If you have a plot idea but want a nice centralized place to have your character give everyone a plan that hides who they are, you can use him. For example, his team-mate Cosmic Boy just apped in and Cos is a great tactician so Brainy'll probably be feeding people Cos' plans through the Lonestar persona even though Cos is thinking them up, to held hide the source and protect Cos.

Things he can't do:
✦ Lead. He's really not the best leader. He can hatch the occasional scheme but he's more a see-a-problem-fix-it guy, not really some Machiavellian plotter. The people he's recruiting into his personal circle are ones he intends to rely on to help with get away with creating technology in secret since that involves sneaking and stealing and scheming. He will only maybe lead directly in a plot against the Capitol once in a blue moon. So your characters have to be the schemers and leaders.
✦ Provide a solid tie to the Panem Rebels. He talks to the Hacker but the Hacker is cautiously keeping him at a distance so he's not really going to be getting much more about the rebels out of him than anyone else. Since he's such a threat tech skill-wise and the Rebel Hacker isn't truly sure of his loyalties it's probably going to stay that way. Other characters that the rebels trust more will have to be the ones creating more solid ties to the Panem/district side of the rebels.
✦ Provide a solid tie to Eva or any other Tribute/Capitol rebels. So far, he has no connections to them though that may change in time if they ever ally or if he has any overlapping agents.
✦ Provide direction in a plot his tech is being used in. Unless I'm the player running it or I specifically made it clear he's leading the gang for once, any plots his tech has been requested and approved to be used for will be handled by whatever character/player is running the scheme/plot. Unless otherwise specified, once he has the tech in their hands, his job is done.
✦ provide tech/secure posts/intel that the mods haven't approved. I have permission for Brainy to make anything the mods give the go ahead for and it'd be you guys' responsibility to get their permission before I have him give your character the tech you need them to have. You have to have ooc mod approval for your plots and what they require for me to have him provide anything.

That's about it. If any of you ever have ideas for plots that'd be out of your characters technological scope of expertise and think you could use the stuff he does to make them possible, lemme know, and I'd be glad to help you facilitate your plots. I'm really trying to use him as a tool to help people get around the Capitol's technological dominance so they can do plots their characters normally couldn't get away with.

And feel free to ask me any questions about stuff here.

[gunshiptotheface]

I'd like to get Garrus involved with the rellion since back during Arena 8 there was that suggestion that the capitol had cloned a previous version of him to figure out Dextro-DNA. That could maybe be somehow tied in with the mutts?

Might also run a few trips in mapping bland spots as well as going into boobytrapped areas? Cover more ground that way in the types of traps?

[gamemakers]

Sounds good! And yes somewhere this is like a whole mass frame of garrus bodies near d2 from them letting him starve over and over til they figured out the dextro

[asklepian]

Julian, should he petition out, could very credibly position himself as an expert on genetics. Surely the Capitol's people would be interested in snapping up someone of his skill level and intelligence.

That's one way to find out where the mutts're being made, anyway. c:

[carsassian]

Oh, I like this plan.

[retrieverchef]

Also, Eliot's going to be using his "dates" as a means of gathering intel. He doesn't know who's actually part of the rebellion yet, but when he does, he'll be passing things on as he gets the opportunity.

[crabulous]

Also I'm not sure how he came to know it, but Marius is also aware of District 13's existence.

[carnagecarnival]

That would be because of my guy. But Initiate wiped Marius's memory of it being him who shared it so as to keep things on the low for a little while.

[hit_girl_mindy]

Mindy has always, always been looking for an opportunity to fight against the Capitol, but aside from the Ian attempt has tried to keep her head down and nose clean. The latest incident involving Guy, however, is now going to result in her looking for anyone who has those leanings (looking at you, Eva OR Shep).

She'll have no problem running errands and risking her life (its pretty much her deal), but be aware she also has a quiet homicidal hatred for Penny that may be festering in the back of her mind.

[gamemakers]

Hating Penny is never a bad thing.

[pythianjudgment]

I would like to get Terezi more involved in the Rebellion. She's looking for a way to get in touch with rebellion people while keeping up a generally pleasant attitude about the Capitol in public.

Because of the graffiti info, she's been stepping up her own casual graffiti around the tower and out into the city to see what she can get away with before Peacekeepers and the like start to give her the side-eye. She also pays special attention to whatever graffiti might already be out there in the city. She could be looking out for blindspots and whatnot in that manner?

She's also trying to get others involved in the graffiti, but it's been limited to the training room so far--more an attempt to raise morale than anything seditious yet. She figures the more background noise she can get going with that, the easier it might be to send signal or messages through that channel--or at least to keep the ones doing the graffiti propaganda from getting caught. Would that be a viable/helpful strategy?

Most importantly, she wants to use her seer powers to be able to further rebellion goals by scouting out the success of future plans, but those are only available to her when power limiters are off. Is there a way to get in contact with and broker a deal with Rebel people to quietly have her seer powers working when they shouldn't be? There's no physical manifestation of those powers, so there'd be no way to tell when she's using them. Alternatively, she could use them in the arena (when allowed) to scout out things that happen after the arena, if that's permissible?

[gamemakers]

Graffiti all sounds good.

We'll keep an eye out for a way to work the seer stuff in!

[sleeplessinalternia]

It looks like Susannah's getting recruited via Carlos into the loud, clown side of the Rebellion, so there's that.

I'd like Karkat to get involved somehow too--and he's been talking with Lonestar a little--but I'm not sure how. Anyone willing to take a chance on a grumpy alien kid?

[gamemakers]

They will be keeping an eye on Lonestar stuff so that will probably be a good in.

[silberfuchs]

Considering Albert's just vocally outed himself as very anti-capitol, he'd be happy to get his hands dirty for the rebellion! In pretty much any capacity, though subtlety is now sort of out the window.

[gamemakers]

Elias will be talking to him for sure. I wanna do an open thread soon for him, so keep an eye out!

[bindsthedead]

So Sabriel just got in, but I'd love to get her involved in rebellion stuff? She's not pretending to be happy about her situation, but right now she's just trying to observe as much as she can.

[gamemakers]

I can try and send Eva her way, or Venus in the Arena! She seems like the sort of person Eva especially would take an interest in, and Eva's got a big plot to try and take down the Capitol coming up.

-Lisamod

[saveswithsong]

Rat's got experience with this whole Bringing-down-supposedly-utopian-cities thing, so he's totally in.

One thing I've been meaning to bring in with him is that he is very capable of building small rat-shaped robots (resembling Manx rats, they're smaller and have no tails) that are visually identical to the real thing. They can record audio and video, project images that can be altered with the right tools, and run for days on a solar charge. They can be detected by tech meant to pick up that kind of thing, though.

He did this with the leavings of technology that made it to the slum outside No. 6, so I'm sure he has plenty of access to technology here to make them. He'd do so outside the tower, of course.

But if there's any snooping that needs doing, there's critters that can do it. And even his normal rats have been trained to deliver short messages (shorter than a tweet) in capsules held in their mouths.

[gamemakers]

this is a thing that could work.

I think as long as he was just using them very subtly, they wouldn't be picked up, simply because the capitol wouldn't notice. the one big things is that rats would be noticed more as animals then tech going through like, the tribute tower.

[polyturtle]

Coming back here with a quick update/question. Don and Brainy are currently plotting a possible means to map the underground pods and traps of the Capitol using radar. This would be a very long-term thing, since it would be a project that Brainy and Don don't necessarily want to get caught doing/get others involved in getting in trouble for it. Or, if they do start doing it sooner rather than later, the improvised equipment they would be using would be very weak and inaccurate with its readings at best, as a trade-off to minimizing suspicion. Good radar-and-jamming equipment would be more difficult and riskier to procure.

"Mapping" anything on paper would also take a long time, as well, since Don would be "encoding" both the map Brainy created and whatever future pod map that might materialize, in a specific way, also to minimize suspicion, so it can be potentially distributed.

My question is, would attempting something like this be possible?

[gamemakers]

Unfortunately, there would not be enough time and tech to make any kind of comprehensive map.

They could explore an area here or there, but with the way the pods are set up, it would be hard to get any sort of big picture going on at this point. The pods are made to be hard to detect as a system/network, and not some sort of freak anomaly.

(Also just a mod note- although vague knowledge there is "something" likely under the city is fine, the pods or any specifics are still secret)