The following is an experiment for perhaps helping out everyone with In-Character information flow:
What really is the word on the street? This is a spot for you to post what you would like other players to know and actually be able to use in their interactions.
I figured it might be fun to put it in the context of: “What would the average Babbager be able to hear from an urchin? And what else would they be able to learn if they perhaps tipped said urchin more?”
If this ends up being successful and useful (and full), we can create new threads every so often. (Thus the use of “Vol. 1”.)
So go ahead and tell me, “Well what do ya know?”
((Would you mind perhaps starting us out so we have an example of how you envision this going? I like the idea!))
((Certainly! Let’s just take Doc Miggins’ recent post as an example. It’s an excellent story about the Pennyfarthing Boys, yet, there is no way our characters would know all of those details (or perhaps any of it) unless word got around to us. So, if Doc Miggins wants it to be common knowledge that he’s been attacked he could post something to the effect of:
“Doc Miggins was recently kicked upside the head by a brute on a large pennyfarthing. He’s learned his lesson to not go into the Gut without their approval.”
You can add as many or as few details or info as you’d like. You don’t necessarily need a post to go off of, if you want to introduce some random knowledge that’s completely fine too. You can even make it a simple press release type tidbit like the above or make it more “In-Character” with urchin flare to it as well. It can even be an inaccurate rumor just for fun. It’s all up to you.
Just because it’s not here does not mean it didn’t happen, but if it is here, it definitely did happen and everyone knows about it.
Does that clarify a smidge?))
Lets have a go at this to get things started…
General information (That most people will know):
Miss Avariel Falcon is a clockwork being who moved into town a few years back to restart the old Clockhaven Power Station (Also known as the Aetheric Power & Engineering building). The AP&E company has its roots in a bygone golden age, but closed down during a bygone colapse of a golden age. With the arrival of Miss Falcon things got started again, including all the old machines and the old clockwork.
Moving to the present day. The power station is now in really good shape, a small army of clockwork workers keep the place in good order day and night. The rebuilt Aetheric Portal Laboratory allows the adventurous to buy a ticket to other lands, but this is considered dangerous and will leave you feeling like you have a really bad hangover. Only the most highly adventurous, or desperate, use this means of transport. It did however prove useful in sending aid to the hurricane stricken New Toulouse and is said to be becoming safer.
What a scientist may know:
There are many reasons to visit the AP&E building, not least of which is to use the giant analytical engine or to conduct research using the portal generator. Scientific visitors may also be interested in furthering their research studies into automatons and clockwork technology.
One of the greatest scientific mysteries of the old plant is the plant itself, the main generator does not consume fuel and appears to defy the laws of physics, there are many old machines, some of which predate the AP&E building itself. The plant extends for many levels under the main building and holds many secrets, although access to the lower levels is highly restricted.
Scientists and engineers may know that Avariel Falcon has been having some setbacks in her experiemnts to transfer clockwork consciousness between clockwork boddies, this has led to her being trapped inside an experimental prototype body for the time being.
What the average person may know:
The power station in Clockhaven keeps the lights on for those with electric light. For those with airships the Tesla power transmitter is a highly useful source of power for recharging your ships accumulators. Everyone knows the plant is run by clockwork, and that Miss Falcon is in charge, they will also know that she has been a lot more reclusive of late. Some may know of her new form.
What an urchin may know:
There are secret tunnels under the old power station! And in one you can find loads of mushrooms, some of which can walk about! The urchins were asked by the mysterious bunny to help look after the mushrooms and keep them company while he was away exploring far off lands. This is quite easy as the mushrooms look after themselves quite well. But the tunnels provide a good hiding place. The tunnels have a secret entrance that allows access to the power station itself, and access via the sewer system. Some tunnels are lit by strings of old electric lights and some have steam pipes.
What a cat may know:
The clockwork are friendly to cats and often give them milk to drink, occasionally they offer Wiggyfish, but this smells really bad, like its been baked on a radiator for weeks.
(Adoring the format Miss Falcon spearheaded)
General information (That most people will know):
Bianca Namori was adopted from a small orphanage at the age of 16 on the coast of Spain by Armand Foehammer. After traveling with him for a few years, she was and left in the care of her Uncle Michael Manonnen after Armand left to explore himself a bit more as a scientist. At the age of 20, Bianca was graced with the appearance of a mental condition that rocked the world of hers, and many around her. She tried dealing with the “mania” with medication, and even more intense scientific methods, yet the condition eventually took her over forcing Michael to call Armand back to “Deal with his daughter”.
Regaining herself a little and walking slowly on a more logical path, she recieved a letter from the orphanage she grew from and after reading it she found herself packing and preparing to leave New Babbage.What was in the letter, many didn’t know but the word of a new region known as Cala Mondrago obtaining a long lost heir spread like the plague.
Christined as the Magistrate of the Republic of Cala Mondrago, Sultana Namori lived in fought to keep the desert realm from sinking into the sands. Along the way she met many who wished to know if these rumors where true or not with great pride. A changed woman of state, she handled the business of her country as best she could until she let herself trust someone one too many times, and in turn, her world was destroyed, and the foundation of strength she had built up with it crumbled beneath her. She gained many loyalities from her people, and from the ashes rose with her a trusted and overly protective guardsman, Akidami Swift who is seen around sparingly within Clockhaven.
Now 25, Bianca’s return to Babbage wasn’t easy for her to deal with from the ghosts of her paths, to the awkward monsters of her present, she saw no hope of a peaceful future and many saw the emotional pain upon her face. Many couldn’t recover a week before where her with the questions of her kingdoms fate and if it would be reestablished or not. Almost convineced to return, she found herself approached by an opportunity to regain her pride and sense of worth within New Babbage, making her an offer she just couldn’t refuse…the offer of “feeling Loved and at Home”.
The people do not know exactly much about the organization she involved herself with is, other than it was nicknamed “The Family” and the offer she was given must of been something very appealing for someone to give up the return of their kingdom over.
The Family are known as being persuasive anyway, and the people who saw her talents as a former Magistrate worried that they would be exploited by this group that is heard as being governed by “The Cogfather”.
Now it is known by many that the psychotic irratic nature of Bianca is no more, and a dangerous cruel calculating woman that has influence in both business and personal endeavours around Babbage thrives within. Some even have boldly nicknamed her the “New Moses of New Babbage” to that which she has laughed and almost threatened those who let such a thing cross their lips with a well worked mangum to their heads for the comparison.
Rumors do have it, she did spend time with him before his sudden disapperance and he left her a great deal of knowledge on how “to make things work around here”.
What the average person may know:
Bianca isn’t outlandishly harmful or crass unless provoked in some manner. Those who have burnt bridges with her in the past and who have been brass-balled enough to sail across waters to engage her has either been snubbed, been treated civily, or sank she has viciously sank their battleships. She isn’t someone to go out of your way to mess with and is very dedicated to the now divorced Osgoode Underby of the Bucket of Blood.
She is financially set…and has been known to play “Loan Shark” to failing businesses. If you need her help, you can go to her, but depending on her mood is what decides how the help is adminstered and you better have a secure plan on how you will repay.
She is also the alleged mouth of The Cogfather, and takes care, and pride in making sure what he has to say to the family, or to you, is said very, very clearly.
What businesses she’s involved in openly:
The Pit, The White Rabbit, Gutters Row, and The Academy of Linguistic Studies. It’s said though that she has her fingers in many other aspects around Babbage, Caledon, and even Steelhead and is a cruel but legit business woman.
What an urchin may know:
Bianca loves children, and though she cannot bare any herself, she goes out of her way to ensure the safety and well being of them. She may even trust them to a fault, exposing some secrets that she wouldn’t to any other adult, having faith in the innocence of a child is what she is truly known for. She loves to take walks by herself along the wall out by Palisade and is very close to the Duchess Christine. She always leaves the back door of Gutters Row and the Kitchen within unlocked for the urchins and the bunkbeds are always clean, the scary baths drawn, and the food stockpiled.
What a cat may know:
Everytime I am around she sneezes horribly! I don’t know why? She then shoos me out of her area, never rudely though, just the typical, “Shoo! Achoo!”
Okay, I’ll give it a try….
General information (That most people will know):
Wiggy is a long time citizen of New Babbage and presently resides in the Wiggyfish Cannery in Port Babbage. Wiggy is a former officer in service of the New Babbage Militia. He is currently the sole proprietor of the Wiggyfish Cannery and is in the process of building a new, modern cannery in the Port Babbage location.
Wiggy’s passion is sailing. He loves all things nautical.
How Wiggy Views Himself:
Wiggy fancies himself to be a very logical, rational person. He favors science over mysticism, critical thinking over emotional response, and reasoned opinion over dogma of any origin. He is certain that a rational explanation exists for each case of so-called mystic activity, even when he can’t offer an expanation himself. He does not believe in ghosts, fairies, witches, or gods.
Wiggy considers himself to be handsome, macho, and an extremely moral and upright citizen who will respond quickly to any percieved villainly. He considers himself to be a ‘gentleman adventurer and hero’.
How the average person views Wiggy:
Most people consider Wiggy to be quite dense. He dogmatically refuses to accept the possiblitiy of magic or mysticism, even when it’s obvious. He is quite energetic and easily is engaged and is also distracted easily. Therefore, it is easy to dupe Wiggy into following almost any outlandish scheme, provided he thinks he is doing some overall good. Most villians in New Babbage are very happy to have a dunce like Wiggy about.
What businesses he is involved in openly:
Wiggyfish Cannery, providing tours of New Babbage, frequent visitor to the Bucket.
What an urchin may know:
Wiggy is always friendly and happy to see urchins. He is good friends with many of them and considers all their antics to be ‘just harmless pranks and youthful enthusiasm’.
What a cat may know:
Wiggyfish Cannery is a good place to snitch a piece of wiggyfish. It’s always easy to jump up on the counter and grab a scrap or two, and Wiggy rarely cleans the place.
What might be more useful, as I can imagine this thread becoming so overwhelming that no one wants to continue reading it, is that when people post blog entries, have an OOC comment at the end stating what parts of said blog will be public knowledge. General information could be added to people’s profiles here on the reader as well.
The direction this thread is going, while not the initial intent, is very worthwhile and revealing. I think we’d like to see it continue in this direction. Perhaps this is also a good place for people to start on their wiki entries.
To Tess’ point, which is quite valid, I think an OOC comment on what people may know ICly in blogs is a great idea. That said, in the new Rumors forum, it would be nice to gather IC rumors in one spot. I don’t know about everyone else, but there are times that I can’t keep up on every single blog entry. And it’s also possible that a rumor may resurface that was written about months ago.
Sounds good. And this kind of single character info could go on profiles or even better, the wiki, so if someone wants to know more clearly what would be common knowledge about a character and what is more secreted, they could go to the wiki and look them up?
“…there are times that I can’t keep up on every single blog entry.”
*cough*Current Events on the wiki*cough*
*grin*
Does the lovely Ms. Book wish to take my post and put it in le Wiki? You are the second wife after all. *ducks*
Well, we could ALL put our posts on the wiki here http://cityofnewbabbage.com/records/index.php?title=Category:Biographies
Thank you for pointing me to this… I had no idea a wiki existed!
I need to work out how to log into it. It tells me I’m not registered but doesn’t have a link to create an account.
Creation of new accounts was suspended a while ago, as we were having trouble with a metric ton of spam. You can email or contact me in SL, and I’ll help you get an account set up.
Ms. Book, I wasn’t aware of this page until you posted about it recently. How does one navigate to this page on the Reader? I’m not sure how I would have found it if you hadn’t posted a link.
I’ve noticed that navigating to the wiki itself is a bit troublesome — am I maybe just not seeing the most direct route?
I could (and will) bookmark these pages, but it might make a difference to the frequency of postings to the wiki and the current events page if they were more readily apparent.
(Again, if I’m really just overlooking it and it’s right in front of me, I do apologize!)
* Update — nevermind….I found the links under the Archives tab!*
Oh this is perfect–may I suggest this be the first direct link under the Resources section on the Home Page. I explored the wiki early on and completely forgot about this. Kudos to you Miss Book for diligently keeping it up-to-date.
General information (That most people will know):
Originally from Maine, Wallis began Graves Investigations with her brother many years ago. At the start it was just run of the mill detective work out of an office in Caledon. During a visit to South America her brother disappeared and has not been heard from since.
Wallis moved Graves Investigations to New Babbage and was given rooms by young Bob Streeter, who was unusually polite to her. Her offices are now in Sweetwater Square and she’s been there long enough to have had three landlords.
Her work now specialises in occult investigation and Wallis has an interesting collection of artefacts and a some rather odd books in her library. Despite her practice of and investigation into the occult, Wallis firmly believes that prophecy is bunk.
What the average person may know:
Wallis is a slim woman who would appear better suited to working in a library than running an investigative business. But she gets results. She’s been known to offer instruction to those seeking occult understanding.
What an urchin may know:
Information about strange groups like the Dagon Church, or the Clockhaven Ghosts is well paid for. Sometimes Wallis will ask for specific information and the urchin network can help fill in the blanks. She’s worried about the return of the Dagon Temple to Babbage.
What a cat may know:
Oddly for a human she’s often seen on rooftops or clambering up walls. While not as graceful as a cat, and lacking a tail, she is far quieter than some of the human folk blundering about at night.
~~ is quite amused that everyone is taking a whimsical “cat knows” comment by Miss Avariel and adding it to their entries~~
I think there have been enough blog entries about cats in New Babbage to warrant them as a significant part of the city.
Like fuzzy urchins :-)
I have added mine to the most excellent wiki… thank you Ms. Hienrichs! http://cityofnewbabbage.com/records/index.php?title=Doctor_Cyberusfaustus
Please feel free to use the format of my link (first line on the bio) to the main profile and this post by Mrs. Melnik.
General information (That most people will know):
Grendel Footman is an immigrant from the Antarctic colony of Harbor Landing, and heir to Footman Industries. He’s a surgeon, scientist, former adventurer, militiaman, and engineer, and has his interest in many of Babbage’s groups.
it’s known he was somehow connected with the first Babbage Outbreak of zombies, though how connected is hard to determine due to the Academy zombies that appeared at the same time.
He has a small army of steampowered penguin as his main workforce .
Some days he has a slight wiff of formaldehide.
.
What the average person may know:
He’s not often one to anger, or react harshly,
he occasionally gets carried away with experimental surgeries.
He’s not outwardly concerned with safety, either his own, or others.
He’s an avid fisherman.
He is happily single, but eyes the women on occasion.
He’s semi-dead
What businesses he’s involved in openly:
Footman Automotons, Footman Imports, Clankfights (coming soon), per diem doctor at the Wylde hospital, Babbage Militia
What an urchin may know:
is very uncomfortable around them, yells if you touch anything
What a cat may know:
a good source of fish
What He Thinks Of Himself:
has the best intentions, they just often tend to go wrong at times, horribly horribly wrong
General information (That most people will know):
Doctor Dinosaur Runner is a dinosaur that has somehow managed to gain the ability to talk, and not only wears suits, but claims to have come from ‘Jurassic Babbage”
He is loud
He is rude
He builds loud annoying machines in a bid to take over the city
.
What the average person may know:
He yells more than talks
He claims to be a time traveller, and vlaims to have eaten a man in a suit and fez and stole their ‘washing mashine’ whatever that is
despite building large machines, and metalraptor minions, he’s kind of an idiot
What businesses he’s involved in openly:
Dinolabs, Platform 11
What an urchin may know:
they tend to dissappear around him
What a cat may know:
they tend to dissappear around him
What He Thinks Of Himself:
the greatest mind in New Babbage, or the world, much better than all these mammals, YES! HEAR THAT? I AM BETTER THAN YOU!!!
needs to rule
General information (That most people will know):
She was a resident of New Babbage many (many) years ago with her then-husband, and has recently returned alone.
She is still recovering from a devestating inventory-fire that was an almost total loss.
She aims to restart her life in New Babbage and live it to the marrow-sucking fullest.
What the average person may know:
She has been leading a Bohemian lifestyle and has yet to find a way to be a productive member of New Babbage society.
Her sister and family are in a faraway village called Namhae, which is Junie’s ancestral home.
She’s restless, raucous, and flirtatious, but is prone to bouts of shyness.
She counts among her friends both the respectable and the reviled of the city.
Is prone to traveling to far-off locations on spur-of-the-moment excursions, and will drag along whomever she can.
Businesses she’s involved in:
None at the moment, but she’s proud to support the local economy by frequenting ‘Cuffs as often as possible.
What an urchin may know:
Ms. Junie loves de cinderberries wot grows outside de city wall, and says to us we don’t know what we’s been missin’ iffn we ‘aven’t been eatin’ ’em. She gots lotsa coin in her pockets for us doin’ errands an’ such.
Oh, an’ she shares ‘er cigars wit us, she does.
What a cat may know:
Ms. Junie likes to curl up on the couch in front of the fire almost as much as we do, and has been asking around for a kitten to adopt. We think she would make a fine kittymum.
congratulations! you owe the wiki an article on cinderberries!
Doh!
I mean….Done!
http://cityofnewbabbage.com/records/index.php?title=Cinderberries
(Also, welcome back!)
General Information That Most People Will Know:
Ceejay created the CocoaJava cafe, which she eventually sold to Mister Blackberry Harvey.
What the average person may know:
Ceejay left town quite a while ago, reportedly for her health. She has not been seen often around town since then.
What businesses she’s involved in openly:
At present, no business in Babbage. She did help her little sister Java pay for a rental cart to bring in some secondhand and curious goods Java wanted to try selling in Miss Elleon Bergamasco’s building in New Babbage.
What an urchin may know:
If she meets one on the streets, she is always kind.
What a cat may know:
The hems of her skirts are scented with salt water and the unfamiliar soil of other places.