My problem with the brewery plugin has always been that it makes drinks unique to a region, or to a certain brewer, craftable by anyone. Lannis's character, Jaret, used to be the sole maker of King's Reserve in Vigil's Rest for example because he was a king. Or Teeke was the only maker of that nasty watermelon drink.
With brewery, anyone can stumble upon that recipe and say they know how to make it. Things are no longer special or exclusive to the original brewer, or a trade commodity of the region they're supposedly manufactured in.
I'm building up am absinthe gig in Eastwatch, so my question is this: Why would anyone want to put their region or characters special drink in the plugin if it means everyone else can make and sell it too? What benefit is there in doing it via plugin, rather than purely through roleplay?
This is relevant, especially to my ooc vs ic knowledge point. I'm not staff and this is unsolicited, but here is my suggestion and thoughts on the topic.
I don't think the plugin has per drink permission, so ooc discovery cannot be stopped. But now that we have a dedicated manager of this plugin, hi
Raal, I think we have a better shot at differentiating between ooc and ic actions just like any other profession.
My recommendation is that naming new custom drinks should come from the source. So there should be a generic absinthe, for example, but if its an ic brewing operation that makes absinthe, and that operation is named Niah, then the player who runs the operation applies for a custom absinthe recipe, which would be called Niah's Absinthe. The plugin manager keeps track of IC breweries and has criteria that must be met to qualify for an IC brewery and for custom recipes, such as legitimately sourcing the knowledge, tools, produce, and mechanisms for making the drink. Can't poof in ic stills, barrels, or the knowledge of how to make them. Must have appropriate source for produce, et cetera.
While those recipes are technically discoverable ooc, any named custom recipes should be ICly protected, and people making protected drinks who are not authorized to make them should be considered to be meta/power gaming (using ooc knowledge for ic purposes, saying you can make somebody else's custom drink). Selling somebody else's drinks, ooc or ic, without permission, should be against the rules.
Staff should keep a list of every custom drink. I think the list of breweries who have custom drinks should be public. I am torn on publicizing the list of custom drinks. But absolutely do not ever release custom drink recipes to anybody but the owner of said drink. With that said, I am against using custom drinks as forum, event, or special occasion rewards. It should be treated as an IC profession, and custom drinks should only be given to those who are devoted to the craft.
The second component of all of this should be... don't be a dick. I'm not gonna brew Lannis's ale, but I don't want Lannis brewing my wines. This also goes for consumers. If you want to protect the integrity of the profession, make sure you buy drinks properly sourced instead of ones poofed in. If you're just goofing around ooc, make and drink whatever you want.
Generic drinks should be okay in rp, but they should not be sourced to the player who made them unless that player has legitimately sourced everything needed for IC brewing. Otherwise, brewing generic drinks should be considered buying them from an NPC.
Tldr: Treat brewing as an IC profession just like any other profession, and play nice. Application process for breweries to ensure sourcing. Application process for breweries to apply for custom drinks.