Castegyre

I have one character that would be classified with 'borderline personality disorder'. Only because of his age, really, or else they'd just call him a sociopath if he were a bit older. He's not beyond redemption, his personality and motivations are not set in stone. He's most definitely not a 'good guy' though. I'm hoping to let his interactions with other players mold his growth and see where he goes from there, but I doubt he'll ever be a model citizen.

This reminds me of two things from D&D. Kender, some people have a different concept of ownership. And traditional alignment; Lawful (evil) Bastard, Chaotic (evil) Stupid, and True (neutral) Evil. Meaning, this is the misconception of how most people view the alignments and play them as caricatures instead of characters. As was mentioned, as someone who spent more than a couple of decades playing and often running P&P and other games being able to step into the shoes of the bad guy is not only necessary, but sometimes satisfying. Especially if you can inspire others to drive their characters to new heights by being creative with the lows your character can present them to overcome. I'm actually not a fan of the thief with a heart of gold, but a particular quote has meaning to me in regards to playing the bad guy, "I don't play monsters, I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge." Vincent Price. EDIT: I have no idea why the forums just went psycho on my post...

The character creator is addictive. The mother of one of my characters. A possible spell flinging alt. And the lala who would be a kitty just because.

He looks like he just caught a baby to eat and he's very pleased with himself in that second picture.

Thanks Yeah, I wanted his face to have a bit of color from spending most of his time outdoors and that seemed a good way to do it. I tried to make it just barely noticeable.

A near finalized draft of my Hellsguard Bard, Oaken Jaw.

He's slight, young, and off putting. He seems shy and a bit sickly at first, but that soon turns into just plain creepy. The mark on his face is obviously not a battle scar to anyone familiar with such things but something purposefully carved there. I'm still working on it a bit.

I've seen similar ideas tried before in online games. Well, I guess after about 14 years of MMOs and another 8 of text based I've seen a lot of ideas tried so I should re-word that. It's a very workable concept if the people doing it are assertive and proactive about reaching out to other role players and bringing them into the action. Including other players, reminding them you're there, and making yourself a part of some of the stories going on goes a long way. If the players who want to be couriers just wait for jobs to come to them it probably won't be successful. I think I also wouldn't make being a courier service the sole purpose, but it could be a central one publicly.

There are certain names I reuse in games fairly often so long as they fit with the setting. Sort of 'go-to' names that I tend to associate with a character personality archetype. Generally speaking, though, all of my characters start with a concept and go from there so the name is a huge variable. Since part of my process developing a concept in MMOs involves hands on with the character creator and I haven't had that yet the two names I have picked out are subject to change. One of the names I'm tossing around at the moment is for a Hellsguard Bard who's main purpose for being out in the world is because he's romanticized a story he was told as a kid and wants to see the forests (He doesn't tell people that, he plays the tough mercenary). Anyways, partly because of that and to honor his father he's called Oaken Jaw. The other name I'm considering is for a fairly twisted and anti social Miqo'te is simply Nheu. He is a possibly mixed heritage Keeper who doesn't want any association with his family so getting more out of him like his actual full name isn't likely. I do have a last name picked from his personal story if I can't get just his first name for whatever reason, though. I can agonize for hours over names sometimes. I want them to fit well enough into the setting to make some sense, but I also need them to fit the character and their concept or I just can't play the character.

This is part of the information I need to know for, um, science... or something...

^Interesting stuff, thanks for babbling One of my two characters will likely be an Arcanist and I have something of an idea of how I want to go with the fairy thing if I decide to go full on Scholar from there. I need more of an idea how their lore works before I set anything in stone, though. I don't want to do anything too ridiculous. So I'll be keeping a lookout for more on this subject.

This is very true. I'm a military brat from a long line of generations of military service. My family is spread all over the place. I have scotch-irish family in the Appalachians and scottish descended family in upstate New York that even use some of the same wording for certain things and sound nothing alike in their accents. And none of them sound like my family in Missouri, Michigan, or Arizona, but many of them can trace back their family roots to similar origins.

It is senseless to assume that there's no link to previous or other languages for the peoples in the setting. Otherwise the naming conventions of some of the races would be pointless and make no sense. In fact, from the main page of the game's site: "The Hyur champion personal freedom and liberty, and their espousal of an eclectic variety of languages and traditions is a legacy of their diverse heritage―as is their resulting lack of a unified cultural identity." it's obvious that at least the Hyur are aware of more than one language themselves. Some of the peoples in the land probably still hold on to some vestiges of other languages besides the common Eorzean spoken. That doesn't necessarily mean there are scads of people running around speaking completely different languages, though, so players should be careful not to abuse it. It's also important for the players to remember as OOC information that in most fantasy settings a common tongue is a convenience for the players more so than the characters in the setting. Making up too many languages for the setting might work for the characters ICly, but might make the players behind the characters get lost or annoyed with the attempt at creativity.

Hi As I'm following some friends to the game and am new I'm interested in a non-legacy option for role play possibilities. It's nice to see a community shaping up with some focus. I hope to meet some of you there.