While there's a lot going on in the background of the world we play in, that isn't the storyline we're playing. The storyline we're playing is the story that includes you, and all of the other people who play on this game, and the characters you want to play.
There inevitably will be some NPCs to get involved, but the primary actors are you.
What this means:
You have to be proactive, not reactive.
Other things are not always going to happen for you to react to. Sometimes you'll have to go out and do something to get the ball rolling. Your area staff will be happy to help you come up with ideas for things you can do, but they won't do it for you.
There are no designated bad guys.
It's certainly possible that someone could create a character to play an entirely antagonistic function with staff assistance, such a committing a crime in order to get tracked down and punished, but for the most part? This is like the real world. The person who is opposed to you thinks he's doing the right thing—and he might be doing the right thing for him, and you the right thing for you, without either of you being 'evil' or 'wrong'.
People have layers. Like pie.
Accordingly, when staff helps to work out IC conflicts like combat, remember, they aren't there to make sure that the good guys win. The good thing for you is… they're not there to make sure the other guy wins, either.
Your ideas matter.
Staff isn't likely to throw a plague out just to watch everybody catch the plague. But if a couple Healers would like to have some kind of disease go around so that they get a chance to play their characters at work? That's the sort of thing we want to hear.
While you do need to get approval for stuff that's going to have a big influence (like the aforementioned plague), this approval is not a giant flaming hoop for you to jump through to prove you're good enough. It's just enough to make sure that staff can fit all the big things together.
There are no secrets.
Not that every event's going to be announced in advance. But if your plot idea isn't going to work because it conflicts with another plot already in progress, you'll be told. If a major event is going to be interrupted by something else, the event's announcement should include enough for players to expect that, so that they don't arrive with different things they want to accomplish. We operate under the assumption that people like surprises but they hate things that interrupt their own plans, and try to accommodate both.
