#isolafaq

WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR STARTING A BUSINESS / ORGANIZATION?

Good question! For a character to open a business or organization you first need the following:

A character that’s at least dwarf rank (be in the group for a whole month). The longer your character is in the group, the more income they should have and the easier it should be.

A means to fund their organization. 

A building to use as a headquarters.

A sideblog or blog page to run the organization on. It’s here you’ll be listing important information and recruiting

Now startup businesses often don’t generally require a lot of resources, and so at dwarf rank you’ll likely not be renting out a skyscraper and running a company of 100+ employees. We know what you criminally inclined character muns are thinking!

IS THERE ANY EASY WAY TO GET WHAT I NEED TO START THINGS UP?

Sure is! You can purchase this goodest kit with Stars on the Galaxy Marketplace:

It not only provides you with the money necessary to start a small business, but likewise gives you the space needed to run it! A very handy tool if you don’t want to map out a workaround!

CAN WE STEAL MONEY TO FUND OUR ORGANIZATION?

Short answer: yes! Long answer: within reason. Something you need to keep in mind is that criminal actions will not go unpunished and there is never a way to completely erase proof from the scene of a crime. If you choose to have your character steal or kill to take things for themselves you waive the right to prevent other characters from finding out provided they have a means to do so. This is so there’s a healthy sense of fairness and villains don’t have a free money card other characters don’t. Every action has a price.

Likewise the authorities shouldn’t be able to just snap their fingers and find out the culprit of a crime, but more on this in the guidelines later.

HOW DO I OBTAIN A PLACE TO RUN MY ORGANIZATION FROM?

There are several ways this is possible! The first is the Entrepreneur Kit two sections up that gives you a small retain place on a budget. You can likewise ICly map up an alternative solution, such as repurposing an abandoned building or shelling out Dust to rent something otherwise. You could also do it the criminal way and occupy an existing locale by force, but don’t expect that to go unnoticed.

Naturally if you’re running a small crafts business from your housing or something like that, it’s absolutely fine to not need your own space first.

MY BUSINESS / ORGANIZATION HAS BEEN GROWING A WHILE, CAN I MAKE USE OF NPCS?

Again yes, but it isn’t as simple as yes and no. These NPCs should be treated like actual, independent people and as such prove to be liability risks. For example, if you put an NPC in a position where they can learn company secrets it’s possible they may leak them; if you run a criminal organization NPC members may give away information to investigators or law enforcement; if they’re part of a vigilante group, they may get injured in a scuffle or be followed back to base; etc.

Going forward if you would like NPCs for your organization you’ll need to send a message to the galaxy blog requesting approval to make use of them. Please tell us how many you’d like and what they’ll be used for. This is so members don’t bolster their ranks with vague or outlandish numbers. EDIT: This is no longer applicable! But please use NPCs within reason!

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT A SIDEBLOG OR BLOG PAGE FOR MY GROUP?

You 100% need one! You can choose whether or not it’s available IC for characters to view, but it needs to be used for the following:

Providing information about your organization including the history of the organization and a link to the blog of the character running it (if a sideblog). 

Making recruiting information available, be it an IC application or speaking with the owner to plan things.

A list of characters that are employed or otherwise working with.

Where the group’s home base is located.

The number of NPCs approved for employment if needed.

Any other additional information you think might be helpful!

AS YOUR ORGANIZATION GETS BIGGER...

Word of it may spread! Of course you can plug it on the dash, but that’s not what we mean. This is largely regarding the general NPC populace of the city, and as your organization becomes larger their renown will rise. Now whether that renown is good or bad may depend on the type of organization you run and won’t always be cut and dry, so here’s a few examples:

Your character runs a local business! NPCs will generally start giving them more business the longer they’re open provided there’s a positive customer experience (like any store). If you have rude staff however, people may be more evasive.

Your character runs a law enforcement agency! Have they been doing good work? Are they proactive in what they do? Then people will probably have a favorable view of them! But reputations for the many can be tarnished by the actions of a few!

Your character runs a crime organization! There’s no such thing as a crime group that can remain hidden once it gets too big. NPCs will begin to murmur about your group and make the general populace more aware of their presence. That said, it may be easier for your group to extort others if people are afraid.

Your character opened a church! Spreading the word of their home religion? If they’re good at explaining, have a welcoming environment, and show good faith then NPCs might start coming to check it out or even becoming regulars. The beliefs could slowly start taking off.

This is just to give you a general idea however and you’re free to play around with things provided it’s realistic. Keep in mind the city is, to the characters, a living, breathing environment with many elements that cannot be controlled. 

HOW MUCH CONTROL DO I HAVE OVER WHAT HAPPENS TO MY ORGANIZATION?

Unfortunately a common misconception seems to be that “nothing can happen to my group without my explicit permission”. While this is true to a point, and no one should generally be doing anything to another character’s organization without talking to the mun of the owner first, there are a few things to keep in mind:

How big is my organization? The bigger it gets, the harder it becomes to exert privilege over what transpires surrounding it. If you run a police force with fifty NPC cops for example, you can’t exactly go “there’s no way some criminals would gang up on and kill one of the cops on patrol”. Of course you’d have full authority to now investigate it, otherwise implicating the criminals that did it. Likewise if you run a criminal group with similar numbers you can’t really bar NPC gang members from being caught or investigated within reason.

What might the player characters involved with my group do? This probably won’t be a concern for people running small businesses, but for larger organizations you only have so much say over what the other characters in your group do. They should at least run their plans by you, of course, if it affects the organization directly, but you can’t tie the hands of other muns for having their characters respond naturally to current events and feelings.

Is what I’m doing realistic? Is it fair? This is something you really need to weigh whenever you plan on doing something with your group that may affect the city proper. You shouldn’t be using your organization to do things that can’t be reacted to or investigated if asked. Basically, you can’t close your group off from the city and live in your own little bubble where you’re untouchable because it isn’t realistic nor fair. You need to leave avenues for other characters to interact.

So what control do I have? Plenty! As previously stated, no one should be touching parts of your organization without first talking to you so you aren’t blindsided. If it isn’t realistic you can likewise give feedback and maybe explore other avenues. However if you’re consistently telling people no, avoiding giving permission, or otherwise rejecting plausible pitches you may get spoken to by the mods and then receive a warning if it continues. You also still have 100% control over your character and their direct assets, so no one should be harming your character or destroying their home, you organization’s base, or your belongings without explicit permission.

NOW... THOSE GUIDELINES?

Who doesn’t like rules? (everyone vc) US! Okay, fair. But these are things that need to be said to create a fair environment for everyone. Don’t be too worried though, you’re not going to get punished for slipping up especially when this information is new. If anything you might get a warning if you continue to not follow them after being talked to! Ideally you read everything above before you read this section, because this is largely paraphrasing things explained better higher up.

If you already have an organization in the group, please make sure they’re following these guidelines ASAP.

To start an organization your character must be in the group for a whole month, have the funds to run it, and a place to run it from.

You must have a sideblog or visible page on your blog dedicated to your organization, including group info, a link to the owner’s blog, members, application info, and approved NPC numbers. 

If you would like to use NPCs in your organization, you must send the Galaxy blog an ask including how many you’d like and what they’ll be used for. EDIT: No longer applicable!

Please keep in mind that only so much control can be exerted over NPCs and you cannot use privilege as an organization creator to gag or shield them from the actions of other characters. Likewise, NPCs run the risk of talking about your organization in public. 

Please think realistically about how your organization will interact with the city. Law enforcement may come under public scrutiny, underground organizations can be sniffed out, if you’re exclusively selling Twilight DVDs your store might not survive, etc.

If you’d like to interfere with an organization you must approach the owner first. They’ll likely want to talk out what you’re doing first, and that’s okay! But if you are the owner of an organization remember to keep in mind...

You only have complete control over elements of your business directly tied to your character. You need to keep an open mind when others approach with interest in mingling with your group. While you can tell people that their ideas might not work you cannot bar people if they have a plausible means and you may open yourself up to mod intervention if members believe you aren’t being fair.

Likewise, you cannot bar members of your own group from acting as they please. If, for example, something turns a character against your organization you can’t bar them from interfering, leaving, or otherwise talking about the organization publicly within reason.

Just generally always be fair. No character can act with total immunity in the group and that applies to organizations as well. Every action has a consequence and trying to sidestep those consequences is effectively godmodding.