Royal Court in Allegory

Royal Court in Allegory

Due to the fact that various games have various interpretations of what Royal Court looks like and our version invariably differs in key ways from the others, I thought it would be beneficial to the playerbase to establish an OOC guideline on how Royal Court will look in Allegory. 

Royal Court in Allegory is representative of a larger scale event in which courtiers and diplomats from around the country and continent travel to the Royal Palace and hobnob among the who’s who of society. It is a very political world filled with subtlety and conflict in equal measure. To represent this in our game, the Italian Crown will host this Court event three times annually. 

During the week leading up to the event, retinues, entourages, groups, envoys and diplomats will begin to arrive in the city. Each of the consulates will have access to their group and well as information provided to help sell the story and make it easier to share the knowledge you will gain. We encourage you to use the tools and information we will provide to the best of your ability with the intent to share story and source material with your fellow players. 

On the day of the Court event, you will experience an event in two parts. The first part of the event will be fairly spectatorial in nature. You will learn things about the world outside the city, the intricate relationships between the various nations as well as clues and character traits of some of the biggest players in the political realm. This is a chance to take it all in and then interpret it through the lens of your character’s experience and loyalty. I would counsel that everyone take an opportunity to read through all the source material available again regarding the various nations of the game so you can better understand the intricacy of the things we will provide in the future. 

The King will hear select petitions during a Royal Audience, making his determinations on the spot. The citizens of the city are invited to submit petitions for consideration. They are due roughly one week before the event to accommodate the time needed to screen them and discuss before presenting them to the Crown. During the Royal Audience itself, we kindly ask that all unnecessary emoting and disruption be limited. With upwards of 20+ players expected to attend among an already large roster of important VPs and NPC groups, the risk of lag and spam burying important information is high and we ask that out of consideration for everyone who is trying to get as much as possible from the event, you limit overkill roleplay. 

Examples of acceptable things would be whispering to your group (proxy whisper), occasional glances, simple reactions to events that convey your stance in as concise a way as possible and other brief reactive emotes. Please be sure to “bulk” text your whispers as opposed to “machine gun” your whispers. We will put “sections” into the throne room that are targetable by your alliance (example; the northwestern section of the room, targeted as the French section) so that you can all gather in your respective section to make proxy whispering to your group an easier task. In order to proxy whisper, you simply whisper as opposed to whispering TO something directly. 

Concise Example: 

Bob glances at Susan distastefully. 

Bob whispers quietly  to Joe, Mark, Sally and Margot, “I ran into her the other day. She was in the Spanish Consulate and very close to Lord Guacamole. She’s apparently loyal to England but I suspect she might be spying!”

Overkill Example:

Bob lifts his eyes eastward. 

Bob narrows his eyes slowly at Susan. 

Bob clearly dislikes Susan. 

Bob leans closer to Joe. 

Bob whispers quietly to Joe, “I ran into her the other day. She was in the Spanish Consulate and very close to Lord Guacamole.”

Bob whispers more to Joe, “She’s apparently loyal to England but I suspect she might be spying!”

Bob moves from Joe to Mark.

Bob whispers to Mark, “I ran into her-.....” (you get the point!!)

Back to the Royal Audience and the petitions to the Crown of Italy. What makes an acceptable petition? Consider what you would normally submit to the Federal Government as a petition. The President doesn’t care if you want to add benches to parks in your neighborhood. That is not a good thing to petition for. The President will probably care a lot if you want to rebuild the Federal Library though. Petitions to change or implement laws is a good example of an acceptable petition. Petitions to deal with loitering probably not so much. Use your judgement when crafting a petition and be ready to accept the answer you might receive in response! 

The second part of the Court experience is a chance to experience the rubbing elbows and subtle dance of courtly drama and politics in a controlled setting. This part of the event will be where you and your group are encouraged to take everything you have experienced and dive head first into continuing and growing the story with your own characters. You will be able to mingle and move and talk with others. Make connections, learn, share, influence and otherwise experience the intricate political workings of the Italian Royal Court. 

While this part of the event will naturally become more spammy, we ask you to avoid going too far overboard to avoid getting lost in the scroll of a fast paced screen filled with emits. If it doesn’t add to the overall experience, you might want to consider holding off until after the event. What do I mean by this? Examples below!!

Adds to the Scene Examples;

Judy knowingly directs her gaze to Lord Doug. 

Frank steps to Lord Mark, “Good evening! Please allow me to introduce myself and my peers! We are honored to meet a delegate of the great nation of Scotland!”

Bob genuinely suspects about Susan and Lord Guacamole. 

Beth inconspicuously inches toward Kevin’s left side. 

Does Not Add to the Scene Examples;

Jennifer strokes her hair luxuriously. 

George really likes his glass of red wine. 

Lady Penny admires King Dominic’s left eyebrow outrightly. 

Joe sighs to himself yet-again. 

The difference, while subtle, should be easy to see. The goal of the event is to drive a lot of storylines in a short period of time while everyone is essentially a captive audience. Self-indulgent roleplay with no clear goal or reason won't add to the combined experience of the event and will only make it harder to see the important pieces for everyone involved. During the period of mingling and political maneuvering, we ask that you again dive into the story that is happening at the moment and try to maximize everything you get from it during the short period of time that you will be there. You will have hours and days and weeks and months to interpret and react and discuss the event before it happens again, so use the time during the event to grab as many of those straws as possible while maximizing how many of your own straws you put in place. 

Like the throne room, the banquet room will also have easily labeled “tables” so you can move from one section to another without getting confused about who is where and doing what. If Germany wants to make a political statement and cross over toward the French, you will be able to look at the French table, see who is there, walk over to it and say your piece. We hope that with the ease of targeting and some organization behind where the groups will be arranged, it will make experiencing the scene easier for everyone involved! 

Regardless of your own personal goals and experiences, Royal Court in Allegory is an opportunity to get involved in a large number of different plot lines and learn a large amount of the backstory in a very short period of time. We are working diligently behind the scenes to weave a very complex web and this event will be an opportunity for you to learn pieces of the puzzle while also working to influence that web with your own experiences and involvement. The Court events will be jam packed with lots of little tidbits, some big and some small, but in the grand scheme of the game lore, each piece is important and unique in its own way. Whether or not your character is politically motivated or not, there will be things to experience and learn and respond to no matter what and the event promises to be a great one for everyone! We look forward to seeing you in the royal throne room and can’t wait to see what each of you bring to the table!!