The people who say "do what you want" seem to be misunderstanding what you are asking, I think. I get the impression you just want to know what the RP climate is like and what things are generally frowned upon. There are certainly things that are considered bad manners in RP generally speaking, so "do what you want" is a little overly simplistic and people are likely to furrow their brow at you if you do distasteful things on the grounds of "hey, it's my subscription that I'm paying for, I can play a character however I want!"
It would be a good rule if RP was a one-player experience, but since it's not, it's good to observe a few general guidelines.
As a new player, here's a few ground rules: you are not the Warrior of Light, you are not the Slayer of Primals. You are not an existing anime or video game character transplanted into the FF world from another dimension. Any time you write your character as being "the only one" of something, stop yourself and think about it.
For developing a character, my main pet peeve is characters who don't seem to have come from the game world. Take a little time to talk to the NPCs in the towns and get a feel for what the world is like. Read the story while you're playing, even the side quests (maybe especially the side quests) because those will help you understand the world. Making a lore-based character is a very big "do" in my opinion. Your character should feel like they were born and grew up in the FFXIV world. This takes a bit of research, but it can be fun research because a lot of it is in-game.
Examples of cliches that bother me? I'll give you a few at the risk of upsetting some of the people in the community.
Well, the orphan thing is a good start, generally characters with no parents or dubious parentage strike me as a scapegoat for "it's less work than coming up with a real childhood." There ought to be people in your past, and it can be fun to come up with them. It doesn't even have to be much, but have a hometown, have parents, have a past that continues to be relevant to your character.
Something that bothers me personally is when people don't RP their race. I think I'm in the minority on this one, though. There's not much explicitly stated race lore, but there's a lot that you can derive from the story, NPC dialogue, and common sense. Anyone whose race is more than just a cosmetic thing, and particularly people who add in a few things that are "typical of their race," always get brownie points with me. The huge racial diversity of the FFXIV world is just part of the fantasy experience to me and I like thinking of the races as discrete and internally consistent.
Going along with this, a big annoyance for me is IC fantasia, especially when it comes with big detailed justifications. The reason this annoys me is because it undermines the significance of race, "I was a Roegadyn but now I'm an Elezen woman because a wizard cast a spell on me" etc etc. It also tends to be something that doesn't naturally grow out of the character but is a reflection of an OOC desire to arbitrarily change their appearance because they no longer want to have kitty ears. A lesser evil here is retconning, in my opinion, but I generally don't like when people use fantasia on their characters.
As for creating an interesting character without being a Mary Sue, I think that stems from basing a character in their past and their future motivations. Flaws can make your character interesting, and they can also add a lot of levity to RP if you play them up at your own character's expense. You run the risk of creating conflict, but as a friend of mine once said, "conflict is the center of good RP."
Glad for the question and I hope it helps you understand the community a little better. Welcome!
It would be a good rule if RP was a one-player experience, but since it's not, it's good to observe a few general guidelines.
As a new player, here's a few ground rules: you are not the Warrior of Light, you are not the Slayer of Primals. You are not an existing anime or video game character transplanted into the FF world from another dimension. Any time you write your character as being "the only one" of something, stop yourself and think about it.
For developing a character, my main pet peeve is characters who don't seem to have come from the game world. Take a little time to talk to the NPCs in the towns and get a feel for what the world is like. Read the story while you're playing, even the side quests (maybe especially the side quests) because those will help you understand the world. Making a lore-based character is a very big "do" in my opinion. Your character should feel like they were born and grew up in the FFXIV world. This takes a bit of research, but it can be fun research because a lot of it is in-game.
Examples of cliches that bother me? I'll give you a few at the risk of upsetting some of the people in the community.
Well, the orphan thing is a good start, generally characters with no parents or dubious parentage strike me as a scapegoat for "it's less work than coming up with a real childhood." There ought to be people in your past, and it can be fun to come up with them. It doesn't even have to be much, but have a hometown, have parents, have a past that continues to be relevant to your character.
Something that bothers me personally is when people don't RP their race. I think I'm in the minority on this one, though. There's not much explicitly stated race lore, but there's a lot that you can derive from the story, NPC dialogue, and common sense. Anyone whose race is more than just a cosmetic thing, and particularly people who add in a few things that are "typical of their race," always get brownie points with me. The huge racial diversity of the FFXIV world is just part of the fantasy experience to me and I like thinking of the races as discrete and internally consistent.
Going along with this, a big annoyance for me is IC fantasia, especially when it comes with big detailed justifications. The reason this annoys me is because it undermines the significance of race, "I was a Roegadyn but now I'm an Elezen woman because a wizard cast a spell on me" etc etc. It also tends to be something that doesn't naturally grow out of the character but is a reflection of an OOC desire to arbitrarily change their appearance because they no longer want to have kitty ears. A lesser evil here is retconning, in my opinion, but I generally don't like when people use fantasia on their characters.
As for creating an interesting character without being a Mary Sue, I think that stems from basing a character in their past and their future motivations. Flaws can make your character interesting, and they can also add a lot of levity to RP if you play them up at your own character's expense. You run the risk of creating conflict, but as a friend of mine once said, "conflict is the center of good RP."
Glad for the question and I hope it helps you understand the community a little better. Welcome!