Hydaelyn Role-Players

First of all, welcome to all future roleplayers of FFXIV! I'm extremely excited about the endless possibilities that await us all and I hope you all are too. Allow me to elaborate on not only the purpose of these forums but also the plan currently in motion.

The purpose of these forums consists of more than just eventually choosing an unofficial RP server (if necessary) before the game launches. These forums also provide a central location for all FF14 roleplayers to come together for various tasks. Among these tasks include discussing RP etiquette. Obviously, each guild will have its own varying set of rules and styles that may differ from the rest. So when we have a cross-guild event with 2 or more RP guilds, which rules are followed? This is one of the dilemmas to be discussed. I foresee a lot of discussion around RP etiquette and each one will eventually be voted upon by all of you before they become "official." It may help if you view the roleplay coalition (RPC) as the equivalent of the United Nations for the RP community. Each RP guild will have its own rules and way of doing things but when it comes to -interactions- with other RP guilds, we'll all end up deferring a bit more to the coalition.

Another purpose of this forum is to share with each other. This includes the advertisement of public RP events in game, sharing stories and character profiles with one another, and just bonding as comrades and roleplayers. Political issues regarding the RP community can also be discussed here (such as how to handle fears of one RP guild causing unnecessary OOC drama for other RP guilds). The possibilities here go as far as you all decide to take them. Yet another purpose of this forum and the site is to provide a central location for all RP guilds in Hydaelyn to be listed, along with details about each guild to help future new RPers find the guild that's right for them.

The RPC will also serve as the center for all lore related material eventually (not too different than FFXI's "History of Vana'diel" site).

I am not naive enough to ignore the fact that every RP guild will eventually have their own website and forums, if they haven't developed one already. So I do expect traffic to slowly dwindle after the game actually launches. Then again, maybe we'll be even more active than individual RP guild forums. Again, that choice will be yours. Just because I orchestrated most of this does not mean I will be calling any shots here aside from forum administration. This is meant for -all- of us. I consider myself nothing more than an ambassador for the RP community at this time and I even plan to avoid leading my own RP guild this time around for as long as humanly possible in order to better represent the community overall.

Here's the current plan. I am keeping the forums locked up for a little bit longer as I gradually send out invitations for each RP group to register themselves here. My goal is to reach 70+ registered members -before- we go public. This is a lofty goal but not impossible. I ask each RP group to recruit a minimum of 10 RP friends from FFXI or wherever to help make this possible. I anticipate 15-20+ RPers brought here by the Big 3 Vana'diel RP groups (Sylph, Leviathan, and Asura). If each group can meet those expectations, the goal will be an easy one to reach. I will send out a mass email via these boards to all registered members the very moment I open the forums up for discussions to begin. Who knows, our high numbers could even be enough to snag SE's attention for once. Wishful thinking perhaps, but you never know.

As a final note, I should warn you that any emails sent out from this forum will likely be marked as spam to you initially. To change this, I suggest sending yourself a private message to get an email notification. Then go into your spam folder and mark it as "not spam" so future emails to you won't be passed over accidently.

I look forward to the discussions we'll be having here and I also look forward to getting to know so many roleplayers. Talk to you soon!

~Castiel

Now that we’re gearing up to officially go public in a little over a week, a few things should be stated.

Moderators: Moderators will consist of each guild leader. If there are 10 RP guilds, there will be 10 RPC moderators (assuming the leaders are registered). That being said, moderators will not be able to delete posts in order to avoid any potential future “rogue” leader from laying waste to the forums unexpectedly. They will be able to move inappropriate posts/threads to a central location for review, lock/unlock threads, make stickies/announcements, edit the calendar, and so on. I will also eventually add at least one more administrator. This will be done just in case something ever happens to me (heaven forbid). It would suck to have a massive coalition without an admin so it’s always good to have a backup in order to keep the overall community in good shape. I reserve the right to take away forum powers from individual moderators if any use their power inappropriately (such as trying to silence people with different views, etc).

Guilds
Advertising: Please avoid trying to plug your new FF14 guild/linkshell at this time. During discussions in the Assembly Room, refrain from posting a link to your group’s forums. Everyone will have free advertisement for their groups eventually when I open up the guild section during open beta. All guilds will be listed both on the forums and the main site during open beta testing. It would be bad etiquette to allow one or two guilds a massive head start in recruitment efforts when all the others are still trying to create their structure and rules.
Development: If you wish to have a separate section of the forums to start building a new RP guild, please let me know. I’ll set it up so only you and those involved with the planning have access. Some may already have other sites designated for this purpose but if not, you can use a section of these forums as long as necessary.

Roleplay sections: The Storyboard, Town Square, and Bulletin Board sections will remain locked until during open beta. I feel there’s no need to open these yet and risk people posting stories or making events that may not even fit in with the lore. Also keep in mind that not everyone is a fan of interactive forum RP. Thus, the Town Square may have mixed popularity.

Donations: Donations of 1-4 dollars are GREATLY appreciated since I’m so poor myself at the moment xD. Extra money can go into the next month or be used to expand storage and/or getting a new domain name. If you wish to donate, please send me a PM for details. You must have a PayPal account, though they are super easy to set up if you haven't done so yet. Donors will be eventually added to a Hall of Fame of sorts. If you can afford it, I really would appreciate your help though.

IC/OOC: As it currently stands, the RPC is strictly an OOC concept only. That means you’ll want to avoid referring to it in any IC manner for the time being. If someone later comes up with a means of adding a minor IC element to it that others are on board for, we can possibly look into that via the Assembly Room.

Assembly Room: This is probably the most important section of these forums. The sticky has more details for you but there’s one thing I do want to stress right now. There are a LOT of things to discuss. Instead of bombarding everyone with a gazillion topics of discussion all at once, please try to pace yourself. I suggest making a personal list of things you’d like to discuss with other Rpers and spreading out the topics over the course of these next few months. Remember that not everyone is as active as others in checking these forums and having people fall behind on the discussions because of an explosion of topics would just be bad etiquette.

Further forum/site development: As stated before, the site will eventually get a massive overhaul to its look and feel. I'll start searching for people with all the necessary skills to do so within a few weeks. Hopefully we'll have a fantastic looking main page before the game actually launches. In regards to the forums, further modifications will also eventually come. Up to three new sections are being considered (see Forum Update thread), though none of them will be added until at least closer to the game's launch.

Don't hesitate to speak up if you have any questions or concerns!