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Ritual · **04-08-2014, 07:00 AM**

I have never tried RPing before and I will be getting FFXIV: ARR on the 14th when it is released for the PS4, I already have a character with a simple back-story made up along with a motivation for why they do what they do, however because of my complete lack of RPing in any way or form, I don't know where to go from there. XD.

How would I integrate myself into a RP group?

How does one progress their characters storyline?

When is it acceptable to become OOC?

How powerful is too powerful? (Even though my characters aren't really all that powerful anyway.)Â

Can I use my character for OOC stuff with my friends that have no interest in RP?

These are the questions I'm mostly thinking of right now I'm sure many more will pop up seeing as I think too much (ISTP), but I'll only post these to get me started.

Elyscia · **04-08-2014, 08:00 AM**

Hi!

I only started RP'ing (never had RP'ed before in my life) five months ago, I'll share what I know from noob-to-noob and the things I've picked-up on, hehe.

By RP group do you mean a posse of RP'ers who are involved with your storyline? Get a group of friends, browse people's profiles who interest you (here!! http://www.ffxiv-roleplayers.com/wiki/ ) and message them asking if there's anything you could work out - most I've found are looking for childhood friends, family members, stuff like that and they're usually very friendly and nice about it! Or join a Free Company (Guild.)

Character progression is up to you, but... like I re-made my character's personality three times over the course of the months :/ S'been quite a battle. The more I thought about how my character acted; how her background and storyline affected her as a person now, the more I had to change how she acted outwardly towards others. I find in the early stages there's not too much wrong with playing about and changing their personality, but create a foundation first to help yourself so you don't risk changing too much. Get a character background basis sorted out, and what kinda personality you'd like to play.Â
Leave things vague!Â If you're unsure with how exactly you want to play out things, leave it vague!Â
Example: my character is a country bumpkin, and wasÂ from random make-believe village land, untilÂ I got to talk about with some well-knowledgeable people about in-game locations and now I was able to choose where she's from that made sense in my head, and for my character. Another example is that I left her family vague, and was able to incorporate a lovely lady into my storyline as her sister! Big Grin

Oh! Also! If you mean character progression as well with her own battles in-life, like an event that made her re-think life, or want to grow stronger as a person, make a post about it in the forums asking for help/people to help RP as the background characters, or PM people as well!

Anytime is acceptable for OOC should it call for it! Most people surround their messages ((like this)) to show that they're speaking OOC - to show that they're correcting a typo they've made or need to go. Though, I personally don't use brackets much because I always type in quotation marks if I'm RP'ing, and I chat to non-RP'ers as well.

Powerful? I think... from what I was told, say your character is an elite soldier, and should be able to beat-up a squire (I haven't RP'ed fighting yet at all) I'm told everything is handled by roll, so should the squire get a better roll he'll get a 'lucky shot.' But as far as in-general goes, if you're God-moding it's a no-no where you can automatically beat everybodyÂ up and/or kill them or decide their fates.Â
(Or Super Saiyan, super-duper-amazing-powers that shouldn't exist like magical princess from the planet of unicorns.)

Why couldn't you use your character for OOC? You don't need to stay in IC all the time Big Grin

Â I'm a PVE'er foremost, and I have two characters: I made this one solely for RP, but then I started grinding her in dungeons because the gear's toooo preetttyy. There is a problem sometimes where you're not in IC gear and people try to RP thinking you're in canon-gear, but I just politely whisper and tell them I'm not, and then do ninja-clothes-changing-jutsu and resume to do RP with them (if I'm in the mood.)

[EDIT] I Edited my post like five gazillion times <_< Kept having more to say. Hope I helped.

MrPoopyButtHole · **04-08-2014, 08:22 AM**

It also helps to talk like a pirate! People love pirates.

Ritual · **04-08-2014, 08:47 AM**

(04-08-2014, 08:00 AM)Elyscia Wrote: Hi!

I only started RP'ing (never had RP'ed before in my life) five months ago, I'll share what I know from noob-to-noob, hehe.

By RP group, do you mean like a posse of RP'ers who are involved with your storyline? Get a group of friends, browse people's profiles who interest you and message them asking if there's anything you could work out - most I've found are looking for childhood friends, family members, stuff like that and they're usually very friendly and nice about it! Or join a Free Company (Guild.)

Character progression is up to you - but... like I re-made my character's personality three times over the course of the months :/ S'been quite a battle. The more I thought about how my character acted; how her background and storyline affected her as a person now, the more I had to change how she acted outwardly towards others. I find in the early stages there's not too much wrong with that, but create a foundation first to help yourself so you don't risk changing too much. Get a character background basis sorted out, and what kinda personality you'd like to play.Â

Anytime is acceptable for OOC should it call for it! Most people surround their messages ((like this)) to show that they're speaking OOC - to show that they're correcting a typo they've made or need to go. Though, I personally don't use brackets much because I always type in quotation marks if I'm RP'ing, and I chat to non-RP'ers as well.

Powerful? I think... from what I was told, say your character is an elite soldier, and should be able to beat-up a squire (I haven't RP'ed fighting yet at all) I'm told everything is handled by roll, so should the squire get a better roll he'll get a 'lucky shot.' But as far as in-general goes, if you're God-moding it's a no-no (Super Saiyan, super-duper-amazing-powers that shouldn't exist like magical princess from the planet of unicorns.)

Why couldn't you use your character for OOC! You don't need to stay in IC all the time Â I'm a PVE'er foremost, and I have two characters - I made this one solely for RP, but then I started grinding her in dungeons. There is a problem sometimes where you're not in IC gear and people try to RP thinking you're in canon-gear, but I just politely whisper and tell them I'm not, and then do ninja-clothes-changing-jutsu and resume to do RP with them (if I'm in the mood.)

Thanks for the advice!Â

Yeah by RP group I meant what you said XD, I guess I'd be more comfortable just joining a Free Company, asking someone to RP with me just kinda... makes me feel uncomfortable I haven't got a clue as to why, probably because I haven't done this sort of thing before.Â Blush

.

I have a background set out for my character and her brother along with a personality for the two of them, my... plot I guess you could call it isn't really a big thing, the brother has some psychological issues and it's basically the story of the sister (Who I'll make a WHM when I can.) trying to "heal" him. This being set in a world were I don't think much has been done on psychology so it's basically her figuring it all out, so I guess my characters would be in the background to most RPs going on which works in my favour tbh.Â

It's good to know if the situation is a reasonable one then being OOC is acceptable.

I love the Super Saiyan form XD, this is what I was trying to clear up because whilst I understand being a "God" in RP and expecting others to bow to you or whatever if unacceptable, what about "Gods" like Algol from Soul Calibur, he doesn't do anything to the world around him he just observes and he isn't immortal just ageless, he doesn't have much to do with the story-lines at all, are those types of characters also unacceptable? He does do a few things in the later games but because of the story-lines just being arcade mode he doesn't affect more than a few characters at most.

You... you have to have IC clothing and what-not? Well thinking about it it makes sense to me I don't even know how I didn't think of that. You must teach me this ninja-clothes-changing-jutsu you speak of, I like that I can use my character out of RP, it would've probably become annoying if they could only level and things in RP.

Again thanks for the great advice. Thumbsup

Ritual · **04-08-2014, 08:52 AM**

(04-08-2014, 08:22 AM)ForbieJD Wrote: It also helps to talk like a pirate! People love pirates.

Â Hmm I never thought of that, I'll keep it in mind.

Ritual · **04-08-2014, 09:02 AM**

Oh another question I have is how do families work? How do people have kids etc.?

Gwen · **04-08-2014, 09:10 AM**

Expanding on what Elyscia said about being vague with the character at first. I think it's much easier (and better) to think less about the characters themselves in terms of personality. For example, you work out a simple backstory and then just roll with what you find fun, that way the character's future responses will come naturally to you, and you can then expand on their personality.

Like with my current character, I didn't really have much of an idea of what she'd be like, and she ended up being a sassy bitch. Which was totally out of my idea zone. But now I've gotten so used to it that I don't even need to think about how to respond to most things despite not being sassy at all in real life. I find that if you plan too much beforehand, depending on experience and such you end up forcing yourself to sit there and think 'How would my character respond to that' And that's not exactly a problem, but you want it to flow naturally.Â

This isn't to say you should just start RP'ing with nothing planned. You can have some ideas, and should do. But for me It's always easier to plan less and jump into it and see what happens. You might plan to play a horrible person, but then the first person you meet could be dying and for whatever reasons you decide to be a nice person and suddenly you're disliking your initial ideas.

Also yes, pirate talk always helps.

I just saw your next post, so I'll edit in a response!

Families work just like any other character relations really, except obviously you have similar back stories usually. RP is for the most part real time (Although you could RP as like... this is the conversation they had last night if that person couldn't log in that day or something like that). So if say you got pregnant, you would emote around that for the full length of the pregnancy in real life time, and eventually turn up one day holding a baby.

That isn't always the case though. If you're just RP'ing with the same few people every day in a closed off private kind, then doing timeskips, or something like that is quite common. It's just when you RP with lots of random players and suddenly you're holding a baby it just seems out of place since everyone else has only seen that as a few days.

Ritual · **04-08-2014, 09:42 AM**

(04-08-2014, 09:10 AM)Amyness Wrote: Expanding on what Elyscia said about being vague with the character at first. I think it's much easier (and better) to think less about the characters themselves in terms of personality. For example, you work out a simple backstory and then just roll with what you find fun, that way the character's future responses will come naturally to you, and you can then expand on their personality.

Like with my current character, I didn't really have much of an idea of what she'd be like, and she ended up being a sassy bitch. Which was totally out of my idea zone. But now I've gotten so used to it that I don't even need to think about how to respond to most things despite not being sassy at all in real life. I find that if you plan too much beforehand, depending on experience and such you end up forcing yourself to sit there and think 'How would my character respond to that' And that's not exactly a problem, but you want it to flow naturally.Â

This isn't to say you should just start RP'ing with nothing planned. You can have some ideas, and should do. But for me It's always easier to plan less and jump into it and see what happens. You might plan to play a horrible person, but then the first person you meet could be dying and for whatever reasons you decide to be a nice person and suddenly you're disliking your initial ideas.

Also yes, pirate talk always helps.

I just saw your next post, so I'll edit in a response!

Families work just like any other character relations really, except obviously you have similar back stories usually. RP is for the most part real time (Although you could RP as like... this is the conversation they had last night if that person couldn't log in that day or something like that). So if say you got pregnant, you would emote around that for the full length of the pregnancy in real life time, and eventually turn up one day holding a baby.

That isn't always the case though. If you're just RP'ing with the same few people every day in a closed off private kind, then doing timeskips, or something like that is quite common. It's just when you RP with lots of random players and suddenly you're holding a baby it just seems out of place since everyone else has only seen that as a few days.

I completely agree with you both on being vague with your characters, I haven't gone really in-depth at all about their personalities besides they're both quiet, introverted individuals, which is helpful for me being an introverted individual myself.Â

The plan I have for the characters is rather slice-of-life actually, I've given myself (Without realizing it.) a relatively easy story line with sprinklings of emotional drama here and there, this basically leaves me open for just jumping in a lot of things which'll be fun.

I'm going to leave my characters fairly ambiguous when it comes to things like morality, it's like you said I could make an evil person and then suddenly do something good and really throw off my plans, this kind of leaves me for an "in the moment" type of morality I guess.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion on the whole family thing, this is embarrassing but I don't get what emoting is... XD I mean I get when you do emotes like sit and stuff but how would you emote pregnancy?

Gwen · **04-08-2014, 10:35 AM**

(04-08-2014, 09:42 AM)Ritual Wrote: Thanks for clearing up my confusion on the whole family thing, this is embarrassing but I don't get what emoting is... XD I mean I get when you do emotes like sit and stuff but how would you emote pregnancy?

I mean custom emotes. So basically anything you type that isn't speech really.. it's what your character is doing. Instead of just sitting down with the in game emote you can type that they do it at the same time. For example... You wouldn't just walk up to someone saying you'll help them up and then they'd just get up without any responses. You need to make an emote describing what they are doing like: - Bob extends his arm out towards the fish before snatching it out of the water - Is much more entertaining than just walking up to water and being all "I caught one!"

As for pregnancy you'd incorporate that into it. So as you'd include something about how Bob can't actually reach the fish because his baby lump is too huge. It's basically just letting people know what your character is doing at any time. Think of it as if you're reading a book. It's not all just a list of speeches, you want to know what the characters are doing as well. Your best bet is to watch other RP's and learn from them.

Ritual · **04-08-2014, 10:44 AM**

(04-08-2014, 10:35 AM)Amyness Wrote:
(04-08-2014, 09:42 AM)Ritual Wrote: Thanks for clearing up my confusion on the whole family thing, this is embarrassing but I don't get what emoting is... XD I mean I get when you do emotes like sit and stuff but how would you emote pregnancy?
I mean custom emotes. So basically anything you type that isn't speech really.. it's what your character is doing. Instead of just sitting down with the in game emote you can type that they do it at the same time. For example... You wouldn't just walk up to someone saying you'll help them up and then they'd just get up without any responses. You need to make an emote describing what they are doing like: - Bob extends his arm out towards the fish before snatching it out of the water - Is much more entertaining than just walking up to water and being all "I caught one!"

As for pregnancy you'd incorporate that into it. So as you'd include something about how Bob can't actually reach the fish because his baby lump is too huge. It's basically just letting people know what your character is doing at any time. Think of it as if you're reading a book. It's not all just a list of speeches, you want to know what the characters are doing as well. Your best bet is to watch other RP's and learn from them.

Thanks this is all much appreciated.

Elyscia · **04-08-2014, 12:01 PM**

(04-08-2014, 08:47 AM)Ritual Wrote: Thanks for the advice!Â

Yeah by RP group I meant what you said XD, I guess I'd be more comfortable just joining a Free Company, asking someone to RP with me just kinda... makes me feel uncomfortable I haven't got a clue as to why, probably because I haven't done this sort of thing before.Â .

I have a background set out for my character and her brother along with a personality for the two of them, my... plot I guess you could call it isn't really a big thing, the brother has some psychological issues and it's basically the story of the sister (Who I'll make a WHM when I can.) trying to "heal" him. This being set in a world were I don't think much has been done on psychology so it's basically her figuring it all out, so I guess my characters would be in the background to most RPs going on which works in my favour tbh.Â

It's good to know if the situation is a reasonable one then being OOC is acceptable.

I love the Super Saiyan form XD, this is what I was trying to clear up because whilst I understand being a "God" in RP and expecting others to bow to you or whatever if unacceptable, what about "Gods" like Algol from Soul Calibur, he doesn't do anything to the world around him he just observes and he isn't immortal just ageless, he doesn't have much to do with the story-lines at all, are those types of characters also unacceptable? He does do a few things in the later games but because of the story-lines just being arcade mode he doesn't affect more than a few characters at most.

You... you have to have IC clothing and what-not? Well thinking about it it makes sense to me I don't even know how I didn't think of that. You must teach me this ninja-clothes-changing-jutsu you speak of, I like that I can use my character out of RP, it would've probably become annoying if they could only level and things in RP.

Again thanks for the great advice.

I know what you meaaaaan about feeling uncomfortable and shy to get people to RP with you :/ I have a bit of social anxiety so I don't ask very much because I always feel like nobody has time for me. Though, it's even trickier to get people to RP with me because my character doesn't like talking to new people (she's cautious and wary of them) but when someone new talks to me, OOC I'm like "YAAY RP! ..But.. Goddamn my character's personality!" It takes awhile for her to build bridges with people, but I find that's fun Smile

Your background story sounds good so far, though I personally don't know too much about the lore and how to incorporate things. Try reading about FFXIV's wiki - AFAIK WHM's are like.. druids, where they take healing energy from the earth's aether (energy) but can't do it so carelessly, or (in)experienced ones can heal from using their own life force, I think?

Well, as far as the whole 'God-playing' thing... people will tell you you can play whatever the Hell you want which is very true! Play whatever you want, personality, background etc. But just bear in mind that some people take their lore very seriously and will be apprehensive or just won't roleplay with you completely if you're doing something ominpotent like that.

Hehe, IC clothing makes sense! My character doesn't have much money and she has a signature green tabard (that her partner bought for her) so she's seen in that, or her work clothes which is a yellow vest and shorts Smile

Â She wouldn't be able to afford many other clothes, and sometimes some clothes just don't work out for your character's personality, you know? Like if you get some really weird armor that you wouldn't see her get caught wearing even when dead...!
The ninja-clothes-changing jutsu is very easy! When you're in game you have a character panel and you can create 'Gear Sets', and all you need to do is click one button and hey - presto! All your gear is changed with the touch of a button!

As for the whole pregnancy thing, yes! What Amyness said about it being progression: I know someone who OOC will say a month or two = the nine months of Eorzean times IG (timelines is very personal and up to you to decide when this or that happened.)
So, for my character... Amyness is actually my in-game sister. I'll try to explain quickly:

My character came from a rural, shanky middle-of-nowhere secluded village and left recently (In-game time six-seven months ago currently) and I discussed with Amy a quick history of our character's background, where our characters were estranged, but found each other again years, and years later in Ul'dah (one of the cities) and they've been trying to reconnect ever since.
So some brainstorming is needed!

Evie · **04-08-2014, 12:46 PM**

(04-08-2014, 07:00 AM)Ritual Wrote: How would I integrate myself into a RP group?

How does one progress their characters storyline?

When is it acceptable to become OOC?

How powerful is too powerful? (Even though my characters aren't really all that powerful anyway.)Â

Can I use my character for OOC stuff with my friends that have no interest in RP?

There has been a lot of good advice here so far, I'm going to add a few things as well.

Free Companies and linkshells haven't really been mentioned in depth. So these are a good way to find an RP group. There are a lot that you can look at in the Linkshell Hall. These include Linkshells (both IC and OOC) as well as Free Companies.

Time for shameless plug as I'm a officer in my Free Company. You can check out more about Equilibrium on our website or in the linkshell hall. We're a dual sided RP FC, so we take both good aligned and evil aligned characters. We also have our own FC storyline that can be participated in as well. End shameless plug.

Free companies and linkshells are great places to find like minded people. Another good place to go are the adventuring guilds. I know the U'ldah one, the Quicksand, is always busy with RPers. And merely sitting at a table and emoting will get peoples attention. I know someone mentioned custom emotes, all you have to do is type something after /emote and it will appear as your action. /emote drinks from her mug while reading an immense tome would show up as Evelyn Strider drinks from her mug while reading an immense tome.

OOC is normally accepted at any time. If your in an IC linkshell, only speaks IC in the linkshell, you can denote OOC by putting things in parentheses. (( This would be considered OOC talk in most linkshells and RP areas.)) Though some people do different things, this is the style I've seen most often.

Some other notations you might run into is the use of the * which typically means an action, so like an emote. For example a person may emote in say and so the action would be bracketed with *s.

I've also seen > or -c- as meaning the RP is continuing. This is typically used on long posts where someone has hit the character limit and has to continue in a second post. This gives the RPers a clue that you aren't quite finished yet. Though I haven't seen this much in FF as it seems to have a larger character limit than the last MMO I played.

Too powerful is always a hard one. In my idea if your character is flawless...perfect at everything then yah, probably too powerful. Perfect characters are also frustrating to RP with, because they're always right and always win when it comes to RP fights. But again a lot of it depends on the people you RP with. However, I have seen some pretty OP characters played in a way that even though they are technically OP, that OP never really comes into the RP. It only happens in extreme circumstances, under very particular conditions.

I'm not sure I quite understand your question about god characters, I've never played soul caliber so going to go with how I'm interpreting it. I'm not sure about playing a literal god character...the pantheon is pretty set with no indication of whether or not there are additional gods or even demi-gods (think Hercules). From what I understand in lore the gods have essentially withdrawn from interfering in Eorzea. Though on that note I have RPed with a few Void-beings, which has been interesting, but they've been in no way OP. Actually had one defeated in our FC story recently.

RP clothes are up to you, what your character would like. But whatever you decide I would suggest saving those RP sets in the clothing sets that you get as you unlock more classes and jobs. I have my RP set saved so it's just a matter of selecting it and voila! I'm clothed appropriately for RP. Though these sets seem to be expanding and I've hoarded way to many clothes at this point >.>.

Hope this helps and sorry if anything has been repeated!

Good luck on your RP! And feel free to contact me in game if you'd like. My main is Evelyn Strider, though I have 8 other RP alts XD.

Eva · **04-08-2014, 01:53 PM**

For once I'm going to try and avoid any longwindedness and say simply that your priority should be to make a character (or characters) that you enjoy and have fun playing. Â To every RPer this may mean something different and you may need to take some time actually experiencing it to figure out what that means to you individually.

Someone once told me [of jazz music] that "if you're thinking too hard about it, than you're thinking too hard about it." Â I think the same sort of applies to RP as well.

Good luck to you in finding your niche out there! Â Thumbsup

Gwen · **04-08-2014, 02:09 PM**

(04-08-2014, 01:53 PM)Eva Wrote: Someone once told me [of jazz music] that "if you're thinking too hard about it, than you're thinking too hard about it." Â I think the same sort of applies to RP as well.

It's so much this. A lot of people don't realize that they essentially have to -be- this person, so if you spend hours crafting a personality that you can't even relate to then it's going to make RP'ing harder and less enjoyable.

Sophia_Grave · **04-08-2014, 03:09 PM**

Be as social as possible (OOC of course, your character can be a grumpy-grump IC). Roleplaying is just writing without other participants. Don't be afraid to send /tells or PMs to people, ask about organizations you find interesting, or anything else. This is not a community that turns people down typically unless there's a significant clash or ideas or a bad fit. Its safe to say that every group would like another solid RP'er to write with.

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