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Freemoon · **10-27-2013, 12:49 AM**

So I'm trying to establish a bit of a backstory for my Miqo'te, including such things as what happened to her birth parents as I have planned for her to have been adopted and raised by farmers.

None of my close friends nor my RP friends currently have FFXIV, but that hasn't stopped them from chiming in with unhelpful suggestions.

- Friend 1 suggested her parents sent her from their dying home world via a magically propelled container, only to land in a cornfield outside of a village called "Tinytown". Â It took me a few seconds to realize this was a Superman reference.

- Friend 2 suggested her parents were killed after seeing the play "The Mask of Zerro", leading her to grow up to become the masked hero Bat-Kitty. Â I wanted to smack her for that, but at least she tried to make a FF reference (even though for the wrong setting).

- Friend 3 suggested her parents were supposed to take some friends on their new boat for a three hour tour. Â I stopped her before she could continue.

- My teenage goddaughter suggested her parents were killed by the Black Mage "He-who-shouldn't-have-his-name-spoken-aloud". Â

Frustrated

I don't think I'll be asking them for any more suggestions anytime soon.

Rinh Hallani · **10-27-2013, 02:22 AM**

Hahaha oh gosh. Well, at least they tried! If I try to talk about my characters to friends and family, their eyes glaze over as soon as I say "Final Fantasy".

Faye · **10-27-2013, 02:22 AM**

Interesting advice. I usually get similar feedback from my friends because they like to be jerks. Tongue

Â If you still need actual advice... there's killed by Beastmen, killed by Garleans, died of disease, died during the Calamity... the usuals!

Magellan · **10-27-2013, 02:35 AM**

I say you have her parents be kidnapped by a secret society of Moogle ninjas who's plan to rule the world by converting Miqo'te into Cateria is finally at hand, after the fall of Dalamud allowed for their mystical space puppet Alakazoo to regain his former powers which he lost when he went through the trans-dimensional rift created when the character Lightning somehow found her way into FFXIV (which hasn't happened yet, but the real hook of your character's back story is that it happened in the future!*)

*The trans-dimensional rift allowed this to happen. Also, you have a mystical space puppet named Alakazoo in your backstory. No one's going to question this at this point.

Maqali Qulaan · **10-27-2013, 02:40 AM**

I know this might sound weird, but I actually really like it when I get weird suggestions, because the weirdness can help spur my own creativity, especially if I'm caught in a rut.

- Friend 1 suggested her parents sent her from their dying home world via a magically propelled container, only to land in a cornfield outside of a village called "Tinytown". Â It took me a few seconds to realize this was a Superman reference.

Due to the constant summonings of primals by the beast tribes, the land your home village was in was dying (see: FF1, FF5 type themes). Despite the best efforts of the town's mages, there was little to be done- and even trying to flee would have been futile due to the conditions of the land around. Thus, your family pooled their anima in an attempt to save what they could, magically casting you across Eorzea.

And so on and so on. Just like writers often use real world events as the basis for a story, at least in some capacity, we as RPers can often find a thread to pull at for a backstory even in completely unrelated things! Big Grin

Kismet · **10-27-2013, 02:44 AM**

Purely out of curiosity, the farmers that the character will be adopted and raised by... Are they going to be Hyur? Or will they be Miqo'te as well? Or one of the other races?

Freemoon · **10-27-2013, 03:14 AM**

(10-27-2013, 02:22 AM)Rinh Hallani Wrote: Hahaha oh gosh. Well, at least they tried! If I try to talk about my characters to friends and family, their eyes glaze over as soon as I say "Final Fantasy".

That is about 50/50 true with my friends as well. Â Normally I'd usually talk anything Final Fantasy with my younger brother and his wife, but they are expecting their first kid in the next few weeks and are understandably preoccupied. Â

(10-27-2013, 02:44 AM)Kismet Wrote: Purely out of curiosity, the farmers that the character will be adopted and raised by... Are they going to be Hyur? Or will they be Miqo'te as well? Or one of the other races?

The only thing I have set in stone is they wouldn't be Miqo'te. Â I'm coming up with a few various ideas and seeing which feels right to me, but at the moment nothing is set just yet.

Will have to respond to more later, I'm still giggling madly at Magellan's suggestion. Â I can't decide if it is hilarious, brilliant or brilliantly hilarious.

Torvhan · **10-27-2013, 03:24 AM**

I've had groups like that, thankfully for the longest time when I was in highschool I played Shadowrun with my uncle's friends from App State University. We alternated DM'ing so we tended to bounce ideas of of each other.

Before I could suggest anything I have some questions which pertain to the situation.

Is she a seeker or a keeper?
How old was she when her parents died?
How long ago did her parents die?
Where are her parents from?
Were they tribal or city miqo'te?
Where do the farmers live?

Think that should do it most of that would server to narrow down the infinite number of possibilities.

Also do you have any thoughts on how you wanted to have this affect your character the results of such an incident are usually equally important as the event it self.

Cato · **10-27-2013, 05:05 AM**

I'm lucky enough to have a handful of reliable friends who I tend to bounce ideas off of whenever I feel like getting some honest feedback on an idea. Most of them haven't taken the leap over to FFXIV, however - but they still try to help out from time to time.

Ironically they know very little about the game itself and still managed to piece together some potential character concepts that are far more interesting and very lore friendly compared to some of the stuff I've seen on this site.

Of course, some of my other friends are just plain awful at role-play or just don't have an interest in it. There's no hard feelings, though - there's stuff they're great at and I'm terrible at to balance it out.

K'dath · **10-27-2013, 10:09 AM**

I find it hard to imagine asking for help with a character concept. Then again, my imagination is very wild. I'm never really wanting for ideas. Rather, I spend days (sometimes weeks) culling and refining my ideas until I like a character well enough to deem them 'RPable'. And then some characters never get to the point I'm happy with them and they clutter up my list with alts for years...

Personally I think you have a very clever bunch of friends, they're good references to some of the better stories out there! And there's no shame in borrowing ideas from a time tested story! Sure, it leads to the use of tropes and cliches that are tired, but then you put your own spin, your flavor, on it. It's a test of your creativity to do something that has been done into the ground and do it in a way that people will look at and go 'Huh... Well, I've never seen that before.'

And you know, when it's not important enough to be assed going through so much effort, murdered by (bandits, wildlife, etc) and then found amongst their bloodied remains by (villagers, scavengers, etc) is pretty much the fantasy standard. Can never go wrong there.

Nirri · **10-27-2013, 10:12 AM**

That's one thing I never do. I keep my RP life and real social life as seperate as possible because I know they wouldn't understand or just give this odd advice Tongue

Nebbs · **10-27-2013, 12:59 PM**

They are all fine, it's not who your parents were that counts it's what you make of your life.

Though running around saying "I'm Rat Girl" just makes you crazy.

Freemoon · **10-27-2013, 05:04 PM**

(10-27-2013, 05:05 AM)Theodric Ironheart Wrote: I'm lucky enough to have a handful of reliable friends who I tend to bounce ideas off of whenever I feel like getting some honest feedback on an idea. Most of them haven't taken the leap over to FFXIV, however - but they still try to help out from time to time.

I used to have a group that I would regularly RP with as well as bounce story and RP ideas off of, but over the last few years they have all but disappeared (some have completely disappeared, others are just too busy with RL and we chat in an occasional email or IM, and sadly a couple are no longer with us). Â

(10-27-2013, 10:09 AM)K'dath Wrote: Personally I think you have a very clever bunch of friends, they're good references to some of the better stories out there! And there's no shame in borrowing ideas from a time tested story! Sure, it leads to the use of tropes and cliches that are tired, but then you put your own spin, your flavor, on it. It's a test of your creativity to do something that has been done into the ground and do it in a way that people will look at and go 'Huh... Well, I've never seen that before.'

I was always a little surprised when my old Star Wars Galaxies character was practically 2/3 a female Luke Skywalker in terms of history and origin, but nobody ever seemed to make the connection. Â I thought it would have been plain enough to see: raised on a moisture farm, Force sensitive but didn't know about it until later (although I used Creature Handler to portray it as an affinity with animals and was closer to a Force Witch of Dathomir than a Jedi), had a sister she didn't know about until later and so on.

(10-27-2013, 12:59 PM)Nebbs Wrote: Though running around saying "I'm Rat Girl" just makes you crazy.

Well, we don't want to mislead people into thinking I'm perfectly sane, do we? Â Big Grin

Nebbs · **10-27-2013, 05:17 PM**

(10-27-2013, 05:04 PM)Freemoon Wrote:
(10-27-2013, 12:59 PM)Nebbs Wrote: Though running around saying "I'm Rat Girl" just makes you crazy.

Well, we don't want to mislead people into thinking I'm perfectly sane, do we? Â

Then you will need a parter Lalafell called Robin. or Bobbin.. yes Bobbin

Brave · **10-27-2013, 05:22 PM**

There is a wonderful thread here:Â http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=2688
It has 100 questions to ask about your character, and although I am aware that the task is a bit daunting, I've found it very useful. Â I made it to question 53... with 22 pages written down. Â At which point I realized I probably need to seriously trim the fat...Â

ANYWAY

A lot of the questions here sparked things I never really thought about regarding my character and they may help you when trying to flesh out your background. Â The wiki also allows you to create your own page, so if you do decide to answer these questions I know there are a few players who have posted the answers along with their entry.

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This is why I don't ask friends for RP help.

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