The definitive Fiddler's Green FAQ

[Iluna]

(I'm putting this document here instead of in FAQs because it's specific to the IC experience. Please page #mail Ceri or Meri ingame if you have other questions about the Green, or think of something that could be added to this list. Thanks!)

I. Inn and lodging services
A. How do I get a room?
B. How do I get a job?
C. Are the owners real characters?
D. Are there housekeepers / cleaning staff?
E. What other positions does the Green employ?

II. Structural and building issues
A. What's the building made of?
B. Is there a sprinkler system? / What defenses does the building have?
C. How is damage of property handled?
D. Are there alternate entrances / exits?

III. Food and bar services
A. Are there menus?
B. How many staff are out and about?
C. Can I spoof NPC barstaff?
D. How's the coffee?
E. What's the deal with the jukebox?

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I. Inn and lodging services

A. How do I get a room?

In Character, you get a room by asking Meri or Ceri about it. As there's no set currency in town, they accept barter, whatever passes as valuables or money where you come from, or will find a way for you to work for your keep. The upstairs rooms run on an electronic door lock system, where you program your fingerprint (or nearest equivalent, if you don't have fingers) into the lock, and that sets it to recognize you for the duration of your stay.

Out of Character, you don't have to wait for a scene to take a room. We only ask two things: that you don't appoint yourself a job and start playing it without discussing it with the IC owners of the space first (it's okay to assume they'd have hired you in some capacity, but please don't just up and start tending bar!), and that you use one of the generic rooms (A Small Room, Another Small Room) if you don't intend to be using the room for roleplay on a regular basis.

The generic rooms are designed to represent any room along the hallway, and they are there for you to use for a one-off scene, or if you want someplace out of the way to disconnect. If you're worried about the chances of reconnecting in one of those rooms in the middle of someone else's scene, then just disconnect out in the hallway instead. If you find yourself playing in A Small Room on a regular basis, though, feel free to claim your own room.

B. How do I get a job?

See above. You ask the owners to hire you. Unless you're a completely despicable character with serious hygiene issues and communicable diseases, or have an obvious intent to blow the place up and kill off all the patrons and staff, they'll probably find some kind of opportunity for you to start earning your keep. Again, though, please don't appoint yourself bartender or start acting like you run the place, without talking it out with the owners.

C. Are the owners real characters? I never see them in there.

Yes. Meri and Ceri are player characters and take an active role in the Fiddler's Green, even if they're not necessarily on line all the time. Having what amounts to a parent's watchful eye presiding over every scene and ready to scold people for misbehavior would deter RP rather than foster it, so they tend to leave people to their own devices. Besides which, they aren't NPCs who exist merely to serve drinks to other players. They have their own detailed histories, their own personalities and ongoing plotlines.

While they can be assumed to be somewhere in the building a good bit of the time, and will sometimes hang out in the common room or tend the bar, they trust their staff to be able to handle their own jobs, too. If you want to reach them and they're not online, page #mail them. They'll see your message when they log in next.

D. Are there housekeepers / cleaning staff?

This is my favorite question, and it's actually THE most frequently asked one. Why? Because it is, almost without exception, the way that people ask, "How long will it be till someone finds the corpse?" without actually asking, "How long will it be till someone finds the corpse?"

Yes, there is a cleaning staff, and they tend to each of the rooms every day. Generally, they will strip the old linens, and leave clean sheets and towels. Their other functions are just to check that nothing's been destroyed, make sure that nobody's squatting in an 'empty' room without paying, and, yes, to discover dead bodies.

E. What other staff positions does the Green employ?

Anything you'd need to run an inn and bar, really. Cooks, cooks' assistants, stockroom people to lift and unpack supplies, waitstaff, bartenders, dishwashers, laundry and housekeeping folks, tailors to mend and replace linen and a carpenter to keep a surplus of furniture onhand, musicians to entertain the drinking crowd, and whatever else your imagination or ours can come up with.

II. Structural

A. What's the building made of?

The Fiddler's Green is a brick building. The interior is wood paneled, with wood floors over concrete, but the structure itself is brick.

B. Is there a sprinkler system? / What defenses does the building have?

1. Sprinklers
There is an extensive sprinkler system, especially notable in the rafters of the common room and in the kitchen, though present in the upstairs, as well. It's not sensitive enough to pick up the smoke of a single candle burning, but it will activate in the case of a major fire, drenching all with water.

It's a low tech system, not reliant too much on the chance of technology failure. We're talking pipes with pressurized water, and spigots sealed with special wax. If the temperature gets high enough that the wax melts, the barrier is removed and the water will flow. (n.b., this is the same sprinkler technology my current office building uses, and it works.)

2. Other defenses
A panic button behind the bar connects the Green directly to Mist Knight HQ, so that reinforcements can be summoned in case of emergency. A player character installed this feature, ICly.

Hidden recording devices may also be employed in the Green, both audio alone and/or audio and video. These have a chance of failure, and are dependent on the people able to monitor them actually doing so, but the common area of the Green should not be considered private. At the very least, the bar staff are in the room with you and kitchen staff can hear conversation through the door, and the staff can report back to their employers.

C. How is damage of property handled?

It's inevitable that a place where people congregate and alcohol flows freely will suffer some property damage. While the owners of the bar try to keep this to a minimum, they are not unprepared for it. Ceri is able to use magic to repair or replace broken glass, and there is a surplus of furniture tucked away in a storage room so that chairs and tables, as well as the bedroom furnishings upstairs, can be replaced in short order.

Large scale damage to the Green will take longer to resolve. Please do not think that you can set off a bomb in the bar and go back to carousing happily there an hour later. In Character Actions have In Character Consequences, and if the place is blasted out through an IC fight scene, the owners have no qualms about closing it down IC for a reasonable amount of time while it's repaired. They have done so in the past. The same goes for harming or killing NPC staff. We're not telling you that it's forbidden, we just warn you that it will be taken into account and may affect roleplay (including whether your character is welcome) in the Green. The message here is the same ICly as it is OOCly: if you want to be able to use this space, treat it with a little respect.

If anything happens in the bar that the owners should know about, including damage to the property or the injury or death of an NPC staff member, please page #mail Meri and/or Ceri and let them know. It is only reasonable, after all, that they would ICly know if something had happened to their employees or their building.

Please do not take serious action, such as trying to burn down or blow up the bar completely, without at least letting a Wizard know of your intentions and giving the owners a chance to defend their space. We don't come in and smash your home to bits while you're not logged in, and we would ask that you show other players the same consideration and respect.

D. Are there alternate entrances / exits?

IC, there is a back door from the kitchen out to the alley, and there are fire escapes with ladders leading out of each guest room.

However, the only alternate exit that also exists OOC as a usable Roleplay tool is the Empty Room upstairs, which leads directly into the mist.

III. Food and bar services
A. Are there menus?

There are NO MENUS in the Fiddler's Green. Part of the charm of the Green is their ability to whip up any sort of dish or drink that can be described to them, and their knack of having some of the most obscure and bizarre ingredients on hand. Plus, just like there's no standard currency in Caligo, there's no standard language either, and no desire to discriminate against patrons who can't read.

B. How many staff are out and about?

At any given time, there may be one or two bartenders behind the bar, and one or two wandering waitstaff. More if it's busy, less if it's quiet. But there will almost always be at least one person behind the bar and one waiter wandering between the kitchen and the front room at all times, as well as a cook or three in the kitchen. Many of them live in the Green, working for their room and board just as several player characters do.

C. Can I spoof NPC barstaff?

You are welcome to spoof NPCs in any public scene, to add atmosphere and interaction, and the bar is no exception. The bar is rarely empty, and adding staff and other patrons into your scenes is not only allowed but encouraged.

A couple things to keep in mind:

* Not all staff, or all customers, are humans.

* Not all staff are inept or rude to customers. I know it's the cliche, but if someone was consistently rude and drove away business, they wouldn't stay in business for long.

* The staff have probably seen just about everything by now, and aren't likely to be shocked by someone's appearance just because they're not human, or by a bizarre food request.

D. How's the coffee?

This question is asked fairly frequently, and the answer is, it's pretty good! The Green buys their coffee from the Spero coffee shop in town. Also, oddly, no matter how many interesting and unusual coffeemakers the owners try to install, they all seem to revert to the standard drip coffeepot style in time, because that is what people seem to expect to see.

E. What's the deal with the jukebox?

The jukebox is not a physical object in the code, but random jukebox noise events are triggered by other actions that can be performed in the Green's common room. The jukebox random events are almost all ambient sounds rather than music. It does have music stored in it, though very little of it is from any one given world or time period.