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yic17 · **04-08-2014, 09:37 PM**

Hi guys.

I am wondering if it's possible to use the main scenario in the game as my character's personal story?

One possible problem I imagine is that let's say I am 20% into the game ... and someone else is 80% into the game ... If I talk to the person about "current events" (for me), it will not be current events to them since they have already experienced the part of story that I am currently at (20%), is that correct?

Does this mean you can't really use main scenario as your character's personal story? And I should probably come up with something else for my character's personal story?

Thanks.

Koninbeor · **04-08-2014, 09:53 PM**

(04-08-2014, 09:37 PM)yic17 Wrote: Hi guys.

I am wondering if it's possible to use the main scenario in the game as my character's personal story?

One possible problem I imagine is that let's say I am 20% into the game ... and someone else is 80% into the game ... If I talk to the person about "current events" (for me), it will not be current events to them since they have already experienced the part of story that I am currently at (20%), is that correct?

Does this mean you can't really use main scenario as your character's personal story? And I should probably come up with something else for my character's personal story?

Thanks.

The main scenario kind of makes you the most important person in the world. Being a part of events that take place in the story is fine, but I wouldn't make your character the one guy who did it all. The storyline is a way for you to feel connected to the world and learn about what's going on. If you have half a dozen people RPing that they're the story's main character then things are going to get really weird in a big hurry.

yic17 · **04-08-2014, 11:06 PM**

(04-08-2014, 09:53 PM)Koninbeor Wrote: The main scenario kind of makes you the most important person in the world. Being a part of events that take place in the story is fine, but I wouldn't make your character the one guy who did it all. The storyline is a way for you to feel connected to the world and learn about what's going on. If you have half a dozen people RPing that they're the story's main character then things are going to get really weird in a big hurry.

I see~

So doesn't really work huh ....

Besides using the main scenario as my character's personal story, how about just talking about current event then? When you RP, do you avoid talking about the main scenario story/events as current events?

Koninbeor · **04-08-2014, 11:22 PM**

Treating a current patch as current events can be tricky because people are going to be at different points in the story. If you're going to RP the latest content as current events then you need to make sure that the people you're playing with are on the same page. It isn't safe to assume that the community in general will see events as having fully transpired until a new patch is released. When one patch is released, the events of the previous patch have concluded by that release date. It's certainly acceptable to keep your character in the moment, just realize that some of what you may consider to be current events may be months in the past or even months in the future for another person. As you can see, this can be a slippery slope. I would personally not RP aspects of a current patch as being current for my character unless it was with a group of likeminded players. I would not publicly declare that I have slain Leviathan, for example, even if I have him on farm status.

Ultimately, you must bear in mind that RP is meant to be fun. If you are playing with likeminded individuals then you can pretty much play things however you want to. Just understand that if you do certain things in the middle of the Quicksand then it might not be as well received. I wouldn't bother playing with someone who was bragging about how he cut off Leviathan's head, for example. Others probably would have no problem with that scenario.

Sounsyy · **04-08-2014, 11:35 PM**

Can be a bit tricky. For myself, I tend to stay away from the central story plot of the game. As you've said, not everyone has gotten to the end to see the spoilers-spoilers-spoilers-spoilers. And since my characters aren't technically an integral part of what's going on in the MSQ, my character wouldn't really have the knowledge to gossip extensively about it anyways.

Now, I do reference some current events if I believe my character would be privy to them. Liiiiiiiiike, um, oh Leviathan being summoned. You and your character or anyone else might not have gotten to that in the story, but Patch 2.2 just dropped and that's what's happening in 2.2. I consider what is happening in the latest patch to be the "current" events. Just like Revenant's Toll has grown from campgrounds to small city in reference to the storyline. Whereas, if you're at the start of your storyline, technically, Mor Dhona should still be a small camp out in the middle of nowhere with no people living in it. Yet, the game is progressing. (One of the things I love about FFXIV is that it's a living game and has been that way since 1.0.)

The other day I RP'd with someone in Limsa who's character was referencing events from the Lv15 MSQ. OOCly, I got the reference, but my character, who did not participate in such events, was pretty oblivious to the finer, darker details of that quest. But I played along like it was just another day-in-the-life sort of thing. Aleport gets attacked by Reavers, big whoop right? Likewise, the crap your character gets put through in the MSQ can, for the most part, be hand-waved away as everyday happenstance, and that's easy to RP with to the general populace.

What most RP'rs caution against, in regards to roleplaying strictly by the MSQ, is that eventually you're going to get in deep and do some things that are pretty god-mode-y, special snowflake, chosen one esque. And opening up your RP by casually talking about Ascians and slaying Primals all by your lonesome and being the savior of Eorzea and stuff like that might be met with a bit of resistance.

yic17 · **04-09-2014, 12:12 AM**

Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Both of your posts are great. Thank you.

I will go craft a personal story that is unrelated to the MSQ now. XD

Blue · **04-09-2014, 04:07 AM**

Hello. While currently not super active due to our leader being on college finals, Tales of Hydaelyn is an RP LS based on quests roleplaying. You are free to follow the advice you have received, but I'll still explain to you how we work:

First off, we RP on two channels. /say for open, social RP, and a specific linkshell for quests/main scenario RP. This is to respect those RPers who do not appreciate story-roleplaying. Using the linkshell as an alternate /say channel, we post there any comments related to main scenario and quests (for example, having a conversation in the Quicksand about the recent clash with Ifrit, the memorial ceremony in the three nations, etcetera). This way, other RPers out of our group will not see that we are RPing the main scenario and won't be bothered.

Secondly, we have a pacekeeper. A pacekeeper is a player chosen to "sync" the main scenario events on, to decide at what point the story plot is for all participants. For example, our pacekeeper (Blade Belisaire, who is one of our leaders with me) has currently completed the Envoy mission, but has not yet visited Baderon to be asked to investigate on Sastasha. This means that the participants cannot mention having fought the primals yet (unless they are referring to 1.0 primal fights, of course), or the mention any event that has yet to occur on the Pacekeeper's quest line.

Third, we do not RP the events happening to the single player. No one is the "only one chosen hero". When we roleplayed receiving the call of Hydaelyn (the goobbue fight in Lominsa, the Treants fight in Gridania, or the Gargoyle fight in Ul'dah), we interpreted all those other adventurers you see flying around the crystal of Hydaelyn to be other adventurers to have received the call (and personally I think that's the truth). So, all the participants can choose to have seen that vision, received a crystal, and possess the Echo. If, say, you were to join our group, and OOCly beforewarned that you ICly want to have received the call of Hydaelyn, then we will adjust our characters accordingly, and remember having seen you in the Hydaelyn Call vision, flying with us. Your face would at the least be familiar.

Fourth and final point: "who was there?". When talking about specific events, such as fighting the first Paragon in any of the three nations, or any of the quests we have already RPed (as I said, we currently are 'paused' at the end of the lv14 quests), we try to keep vague who was there and who wasn't. This to avoid conflicts among players who could not attend a main-scenario RP scheduled session. So, I cannot claim to have been the only one to have saved the Victory from pirates. There were others helping, and my character just was too distracted with the events taking place to realize.

The rest of the details are usually discussed as a group if a person needs individual information to better fit in the story. The general rule is "Everyone on the same page". Sync to the Pacekeeper's progress, keep confidentiality with NPCs even among the participants, and do not push to take the spotlight. This has always worked for the veterans of our group (some of us have been in the group since 2008, first on FFXI and then here on XIV) and kept newcomers and seniors happy alike, making no distinctions or putting anyone on a lower level on the wonderful stage that the main scenario is.

Should you still be interested in RPing the main scenario, and should you like to give our group a try (as small as it may be. RPing quests is not very popular), you can visit our page and our site. You can also contact me in game if you are on Balmung. I am usually online as Jet'a Vann.

The only small issue right now is that, as I said, with Blade busy on graduation our main scenario progress is on pause. We still do RP though, both on LS and in /say, so if you'd like to check us out, we'd be happy to have you!

yic17 · **04-09-2014, 06:37 AM**

@Blue

Thanks for sharing the information about your guild! So it's a guild that is focused on the MSQ to make it seem like a group of heroes (instead of one hero) tackling the MSQ together huh ... yes I may be interested in it!

I am thinking maybe I can follow your guild for MSQ RP and on the side create a slice of life styled personal story for other RP. Not sure how it would work but I guess I could try. For example, I imagine I can set my character as both an adventurer (for MSQ RP) and a monster researcher - since he is an animal/monster lover (for slice of life RP). This way when I am on MSQ, I can be an adventurer, while other times I can talk from the perspective of a monster researcher and say I went on a trip (MSQ) and collected information about such and such fascinating creatures - without giving away details of the MSQ. Something like that ..... XD

Question, is your guild mainly stationed in Balmung though? Because I am actually a new player to FF14 so I plan to join Gilgamesh since Balmung is a legacy server - though I don't know if the legacy/non-legacy thing really matters?

Also, what if one person progresses much faster or slower in the guild? Or does your guild basically encourage everyone to play at the same pace by setting a guild schedule?

Blue · **04-09-2014, 01:05 PM**

(04-09-2014, 06:37 AM)yic17 Wrote: @Blue

Thanks for sharing the information about your guild! So it's a guild that is focused on the MSQ to make it seem like a group of heroes (instead of one hero) tackling the MSQ together huh ... yes I may be interested in it!

I am thinking maybe I can follow your guild for MSQ RP and on the side create a slice of life styled personal story for other RP. Not sure how it would work but I guess I could try. For example, I imagine I can set my character as both an adventurer (for MSQ RP) and a monster researcher - since he is an animal/monster lover (for slice of life RP). This way when I am on MSQ, I can be an adventurer, while other times I can talk from the perspective of a monster researcher and say I went on a trip (MSQ) and collected information about such and such fascinating creatures - without giving away details of the MSQ. Something like that ..... XD

Question, is your guild mainly stationed in Balmung though? Because I am actually a new player to FF14 so I plan to join Gilgamesh since Balmung is a legacy server - though I don't know if the legacy/non-legacy thing really matters?

Also, what if one person progresses much faster or slower in the guild? Or does your guild basically encourage everyone to play at the same pace by setting a guild schedule?

Thanks for your interest! Yes, we are stationed on Balmung (our leader, Blade, is a Legacy player and could not move his character from there back when we started), but I assure you being Legacy or not doesn't matter, as I am not a Legacy member myself. Feel free to create a character on Balmung and give us a shot.

Everyone is free to progress in the game as fast as they wish; in fact, a couple of our members have already completed the main scenario. As stated though, we have a Pacekeeper and his progress is currently paused at the lv14 quests (just before "It's Probably Pirates"). This means that the other participants whose progress is further than that point will have to consider any information past that quest to be OOC.

We always write the NPC's scripts on the /ls channel for everyone to know what exactly is going on, so even those who cannot see the cutscene will know how to respond with their character to the events taking place.

Personally, I like to be able to watch the cutscenes (especially because 99% of the time I am the one in charge of writing the NPC's dialogue from bubbles to LS channelÂ Undecided

), so I made a character specifically (Blue) to RP the main scenario while keeping the same pace of the Pacekeeper. Jet'a Vann is the character I made to RP/do OOC things at higher levels without having to wait for the Pacekeeper, as his plot is completely extraneous to the main scenario.

So as you can see, you are free to progress in the MSQ as fast as you want, long as you keep the information OOC and adapt your IC knowledge to our pace. I know sometimes it can be a drag to wait, but it's a really cool story, and everyone in the group wants to be a part of it, so we always want to do our best to make everyone happy with our MSQ-RP pace.

Koninbeor · **04-09-2014, 01:22 PM**

(04-08-2014, 11:22 PM)Koninbeor Wrote: If you are playing with likeminded individuals then you can pretty much play things however you want to.

That LS would fall into this category. It's always good to find a group of people who have the same RP interests as you do. Have fun with it. Smile

Mae · **04-09-2014, 02:55 PM**

Allu, I'm in the same LS as Blue, and to answer...

Quote:Also, what if one person progresses much faster or slower in the guild? Or does your guild basically encourage everyone to play at the same pace by setting a guild schedule?

Â As someone who is well past where the story is being considered (they're on "It's Probably Pirates", which is level... 16, I think? while I'm on "Lady of the Vortex" which is somewhere in the 40's), it's generally considered polite for those of us who have already gone through the content to not consider it as 'happened' until the pacekeeper reaches that point. We also have the choice to run alongside the pacekeeper and participate as if we are doing the quests ourselves for the first time. As Blue said, quest text is copied into /ls for us all to see and react to.

For those who progress slower, we don't have that much of an issue with that right now (leader is in the middle of a killer college semester) But in the future, I would assume that we will do as we did in FFXI, and work with a newcomer to get them caught up OOCly and then have them 'join up' with the group at whatever point the pacekeeper is at. How these people got to the same point the pacekeeper did is up to them, and if they wished we would work with a newcomer to help come up with an alternate 'path' to how they reached that point.

yic17 · **04-09-2014, 03:18 PM**

(04-09-2014, 02:55 PM)Mae Wrote: Allu, I'm in the same LS as Blue, and to answer...

Â As someone who is well past where the story is being considered (they're on "It's Probably Pirates", which is level... 16, I think? while I'm on "Lady of the Vortex" which is somewhere in the 40's), it's generally considered polite for those of us who have already gone through the content to not consider it as 'happened' until the pacekeeper reaches that point. We also have the choice to run alongside the pacekeeper and participate as if we are doing the quests ourselves for the first time. As Blue said, quest text is copied into /ls for us all to see and react to.

For those who progress slower, we don't have that much of an issue with that right now (leader is in the middle of a killer college semester) But in the future, I would assume that we will do as we did in FFXI, and work with a newcomer to get them caught up OOCly and then have them 'join up' with the group at whatever point the pacekeeper is at. How these people got to the same point the pacekeeper did is up to them, and if they wished we would work with a newcomer to help come up with an alternate 'path' to how they reached that point.

Hi there!

Okay, I understand. So ... will it be difficult to RP in the case when one person is @ level 16 while another is @ 40? Or do you guys generally have no problem with it? :o

When you say "run alongside the pacekeeper" ... does this mean a higher level character can participate/replay events that they have already gone through? I imagine it would only work for dungeons right? Not story events as well?

Good to know about lower level characters too since that will be me in the beginning .... =P

Mae · **04-09-2014, 03:58 PM**

(04-09-2014, 03:18 PM)yic17Â Wrote: Hi there!

Okay, I understand. So ... will it be difficult to RP in the case when one person is @ level 16 while another is @ 40? Or do you guys generally have no problem with it? :o

When you say "run alongside the pacekeeper" ... does this mean a higher level character can participate/replay events that they have already gone through? I imagine it would only work for dungeons right? Not story events as well?

Good to know about lower level characters too since that will be me in the beginning .... =P

I haven't had much issue, to be honest, doing things with the group because I'm a higher level. Open-world fighting, I have the option to just sit and auto-attack, play support by taking on non-related links or heal, or I have the option to switch to a class that's closer to the pacekeeper's level and participate in the fight without overpowering the situation (yes, Kara sometimes gets frustrated, throws her bow, and starts punching things. She also runs out of arrows!).

Phased fights (when you enter the little private one-person instanced events) can be a bit tricky to handle, but for those who have already done the event we just take cues from those who are currently doing them, and react to their RP and descriptions.

For example, at level 10, there is a fight with a monster. At the time "Team Ul'dah" went to do it, I was level 30-ish, AND (due to me starting my character as an Archer) had done the Gridania variant OOCly. Â
The character that was the pacekeeper for the Ul'dah storyline went in, and transcribed the event into /ls for me and the other member of Team Ul'dah to see what was going on. The pacekeeper did the technical fight, but myself and the other member RP'd into /ls as if we were still there.Â
My character (at the time) had just learned to be a miner, so I RP'd her going into the fight swinging a pickaxe. In reality, I was just standing there picking on Spriggans to pass the time until the pacekeeper came back into phase, and we just continued on from there.

Other MSQ's that just involve running around talking to people or we're sent to go fetch items for one reason or another, the pacekeeper again transcribes the NPC text into /ls and we react to it.Â It takes a little bit more imagination for those who have already done the quests, and a bit more work for the pacekeeper because part of their job involves so much extra typing, but it works for us.

Dungeons are probably the one that's going to give us an issue, now that we're reaching that point. Up until mid/late 40's, all dungeons are 4-player content. I imagine that if we go to do one and we have eight people, we'll just split into two groups and 'split' the content in the dungeon (OOC'ly, maybe one team takes bosses 1 and 3, other team takes bosses 2 and 4, and then we just hang around until both teams are on the final boss and run that at the same time). If we have more than four players but less than eight, we would prioritize the team that goes in for people who are on the same content as the pacekeeper, and those who have already cleared and don't go in just, again, react to the events described in /ls. Some who already cleared the content might use it as an opportunity to go and do something else.

... Written all out, it sounds kind of complicated. But in actual practice it's fairly easy. For those of us who have already cleared content, it's a lot like RPing in a text-based MUD.

Question: Using main scenario as personal story?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes