Yes, as long as you (or whoever's personal plot it is - gonna use "you" in this post for simplicity) are completely and unconditionally okay with FC members influencing that personal storyline. If you'd want there to be limits to how or who could cause changes to your personal storyline, then keep it personal.
On the players' end, it sucks to be not "allowed" to influence the flow of a storyline. Most players want to feel like their presence makes a difference, and like they're having fun. That fun thing means most players will seek to influence things about the storyline that they find interesting. So... players in a scenario will immediately sniff out any boundaries you try to put in place, even if you dress them up in IC reasons, and then ask why they're there, how they could get around them, will assume there's a plot point hidden on the other side... because the "forbidden" is interesting. Trying to block people off from certain aspects will just breed resentment. You have to be prepared for this when making public a storyline you have personal investment in.
On the DM's end, being a good DM means making sure the players can have that fun. That's your basic role. Crafting a high-quality storyline with compelling characters and occurences is a big part of that for most people, but it should not come at the expense of the players' freedom to influence, or you'd be better off writing fiction. Basically... in very simple terms... assume as soon as you open a storyline to players, they're going to try to break it. They're going to do stuff you didn't plan (and may not want). You cannot respond to these occurences by just shutting them down (this is called railroading, and it's bad). A good DM is reasonably flexible to these things, and remembers that the story is as much the players' to steer as theirs, if the players want. If weaving your personal story in with the FC plot will make you feel weird about that, don't do it, because it hinders everything for everyone.
It's a different and less complicated thing to use this as a lead-in as opposed to the focus of a plotline. I've done this with Aghurlal's personal plot VS the free company's plot for now, for example - Aghurlal's with his current free company because he's a Dutiful Sister, and the free company are smugglers who may or may not be pirates and may or may not need stringing up and/or murdering by the Dutiful Sisters as an organisation. Aghurlal's there to spy and investigate. (This was OK'd by my GM.) But the actual... spying-ness is all behind the scenes for now; it was used to get my character into the FC, but it's not driving the FC's current plot, so I don't have to worry about adapting it for a wider audience just yet.
But if you want FC members to influence your plot - like I will be doing once it's convenient, both to my personal storyline and the flow of the FC storyline, for Aghurlal's motivations to be revealed to the other FC members - if you want their input, and relish the idea of them getting to share in affecting a plot you enjoy, then go for it. The main thing to remember is that you should be treating it like any other plot - if you find yourself going "okay but I should get to choose because it's my character", it's maybe... worth disentangling the plot from the FC a little bit.
As for recording stuff, recording things serves two purposes:
A) A "last time on [FC name]" for people who were absent for OOC reasons to pick up easily where everyone else left off
B) A resource for FC members to look back at if they OOCly forget details or occurences their character would remember
If your record is mostly for purpose A, then only record major events, because a huge log of tiny details will make it intimidating to back-read. If your record is mostly for purpose B, have someone record everything (this is one of the "low people-contact" things you can pass off to someone who's not otherwise officer material - I do this for my FC and I'm not on the officer team), because you never know what will be significant later on.
On the players' end, it sucks to be not "allowed" to influence the flow of a storyline. Most players want to feel like their presence makes a difference, and like they're having fun. That fun thing means most players will seek to influence things about the storyline that they find interesting. So... players in a scenario will immediately sniff out any boundaries you try to put in place, even if you dress them up in IC reasons, and then ask why they're there, how they could get around them, will assume there's a plot point hidden on the other side... because the "forbidden" is interesting. Trying to block people off from certain aspects will just breed resentment. You have to be prepared for this when making public a storyline you have personal investment in.
On the DM's end, being a good DM means making sure the players can have that fun. That's your basic role. Crafting a high-quality storyline with compelling characters and occurences is a big part of that for most people, but it should not come at the expense of the players' freedom to influence, or you'd be better off writing fiction. Basically... in very simple terms... assume as soon as you open a storyline to players, they're going to try to break it. They're going to do stuff you didn't plan (and may not want). You cannot respond to these occurences by just shutting them down (this is called railroading, and it's bad). A good DM is reasonably flexible to these things, and remembers that the story is as much the players' to steer as theirs, if the players want. If weaving your personal story in with the FC plot will make you feel weird about that, don't do it, because it hinders everything for everyone.
It's a different and less complicated thing to use this as a lead-in as opposed to the focus of a plotline. I've done this with Aghurlal's personal plot VS the free company's plot for now, for example - Aghurlal's with his current free company because he's a Dutiful Sister, and the free company are smugglers who may or may not be pirates and may or may not need stringing up and/or murdering by the Dutiful Sisters as an organisation. Aghurlal's there to spy and investigate. (This was OK'd by my GM.) But the actual... spying-ness is all behind the scenes for now; it was used to get my character into the FC, but it's not driving the FC's current plot, so I don't have to worry about adapting it for a wider audience just yet.
But if you want FC members to influence your plot - like I will be doing once it's convenient, both to my personal storyline and the flow of the FC storyline, for Aghurlal's motivations to be revealed to the other FC members - if you want their input, and relish the idea of them getting to share in affecting a plot you enjoy, then go for it. The main thing to remember is that you should be treating it like any other plot - if you find yourself going "okay but I should get to choose because it's my character", it's maybe... worth disentangling the plot from the FC a little bit.
As for recording stuff, recording things serves two purposes:
A) A "last time on [FC name]" for people who were absent for OOC reasons to pick up easily where everyone else left off
B) A resource for FC members to look back at if they OOCly forget details or occurences their character would remember
If your record is mostly for purpose A, then only record major events, because a huge log of tiny details will make it intimidating to back-read. If your record is mostly for purpose B, have someone record everything (this is one of the "low people-contact" things you can pass off to someone who's not otherwise officer material - I do this for my FC and I'm not on the officer team), because you never know what will be significant later on.
![[Image: tUzrT.png]](https://puu.sh/tUzrT.png)
