Does ANYONE play on Goblin? - Printable Version

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Be prepared to do legwork. Lots of it. Be prepared for lots of people to tell you to "go to Balmung"/"go back to Balmung", even on your target server. Be prepared for lots of people to be uninterested. You have to keep going anyway. (This is essentially what you're paying to get out of it you decide to transfer, btw.)
Start looking for roleplay groups on the server. The RPC is very unlikely to help you here. Check your server's Official Forums sub-forum. Ask in /sh. Ask in party finder. Do this regularly. Follow up leads. You're looking for an LFRP (Looking For RolePlay) linkshell, or a weekly meeting, or something of that ilk. Did I mention that small realm RP is almost exclusively event-based? Because it usually is - spontaneous, open-world RP is only viable when a high percentage of the general population are roleplayers, and in XIV, if that's what you want, you go to Balmung. On small realms, you have to do a little more asking around - whether that's dropping a notice in an RP linkshell that you're looking for RP in the wilderness of Mor Dhona, or just showing up to somewhere a bit different than where you originally had in mind because that's where the rest of the roleplayers are.
There may be a linkshell or weekly meeting already, in which case: join it. Attend it. Feel out what the community is like, what they do, what tone they take, how complex their events are. Work out how welcome you are as a newcomer (sometimes small communities can be extremely insular and paranoid about griefers, and it can be offputting) and if you want to start running events as well. If you do, reach out to the people who already run them and ask to collaborate, or they might perceive you as trying to "push them out" (see: insular). If you're happy with the existing events, then just sit back and enjoy them.
If there isn't, then start thinking about what you want to run. Because you're running events now! Congratulations. Decide on something simple and largely self-directed to start with, like a bar night; that way, you "just" need to set the date and time, and people "just" need to show up. You also need to pick a venue - player housing is best on non-RP servers, because it's easier to filter who enters and who doesn't in case of griefers (yes, people will show up and grief at some point - the best way to deal with them is to ignore their existence entirely; they'll get bored and leave), but if you don't have a player housing location available, quiet places accessible by low-level characters are good - like Mih Khetto's Ampitheatre, The Anchor Yard, that indoor courtyard with the fountain in Ul'dah, and so on.
Advertise. Everywhere. Official forums (each server has its own sub-forum in the OF; use it). Party finder. City /sh. Country /sh. Make sure your macro includes the date, time (including timezone), in-game location, and the fact it's a roleplaying event. If you have friends, ask them to send out advertisement macros for you in different places and times of day than you can. Do this every night for at least a week leading up to your event. Then see who shows up.
Strongly consider making a linkshell to keep in touch, and inviting anyone who shows up and roleplays. Advertise your event there, too. Oh yeah, did I mention it should be weekly? Because it should. Giving people something to come back for makes it more worthwhile in most people's eyes, and might persuade people who haven't roleplayed before to give the hobby a try, if they don't think it's like a one-time thing.