Darien Cadell

I've seen an amazingly geared tank take a metric buttload of damage where crappier geared tanks have held up like boulders. I have theories as to why this happened but at the time I was busy picking my jaw up off the floor. I didn't notice if they had a lot of STR gear on at the time. Now I wonder. As for levelling on the way up, even if your gear is getting downleveled, I've noticed some instances just seem to be rougher than others in terms of how much damage is going out. So add that to letting gear slack a bit, and it's gonna feel like an elephant stampede.

My characters don't really have mental illnesses per se. They have things that happened to them and ways they reacted to those things that if transported into modern reality would more than likely have them diagnosed and in therapy. If I were trying to portray a particular set of symptoms for... some reason? (Why would I do that? To teach people what it's like? To be more authentic to some real world situation?) Then I'd be honor-bound to do the research? As it is, what I'm actually doing is thinking 'how would this person with these experiences and these values and ideals react to this situation'? And the resulting answer is highly unstable. I'm not really interested in what the DSM has to say about that result, what it categorizes as, or how to treat it, unless it happens that the character ends up wanting a diagnosis for some reason? Should they be seeking out an Eorzean psychiatrist? That's not likely. When I played with amnesia, there wasn't anything real-world about it. It was a magic side effect of magic things that happened. How it happened to the character was a fictional construct. How the character reacted to it was a fictional construct. Yes, it sucked for him. No, I wasn't interested in how real people in reality react to or live with amnesia. It was all about the trope and unashamedly so. I was only interested in how he reacted to and lived with the memories he did or didn't have. Maybe if I was working with some difference the character was born with and had to grow up with, I'd want to know a bit more about other people, real and otherwise, who grow up with similar issues. But since I'm inducing fake reactions to fake circumstances, I'm okay with having thoroughly fake results that someone else might point to a psychology textbook and say "they wouldn't do that" and I just shrug and say "well, that's what they did".

I've done the amnesia thing. That's something I wouldn't wish on anyone, and it messed my character up pretty badly. He had ways of handling it, but they weren't good ways, and they came back to bite him. My current character is a mental and emotional basketcase, but she wasn't always. She was the picture of mental health when I built her and there's situational rationale behind all of her current incapacitating feelings, shattered headspace, and inability to respond appropriately in social situations. I don't think I could label her without the help of some psychiatric research, because the ways she's bent out of shape are myriad and reflective of her past experiences and current reality. I have more experience with textbook depression than I care to dwell on. I can see giving an endearing quality to coping mechanisms that are harmless quirks maybe, and empathy is something that should be exercised around mental illness, rather than immediately shunning someone who acts and interacts differently. But I can see how some people can find encountering stereotypical mental and emotional problem tropes so frustrating that the first card they pull out of the deck is not empathy but annoyance. That's not me, but I appreciate where those people are coming from.

http://i.imgur.com/yZFm37h.webm

I make so many alts that will never see the light of day. I have two alts I log into on occasion, but as soon as I start playing I think "I could be doing things on the main" and just... don't. Of course, none of them are thought-out enough for this exercise, I think, even the two I occasionally play with, but I share the feels. So sad that they will forever lump in the shadows.

Forum RP is generally a separate beast from in-game RP. Some things, like Jancis' Celebration threads are compiled from in-game events. Character journals and things like them are probably responses to in-game events. But straight up forum RP is what it is. It's just different. Yes, you can be more cinematic because there's a lot more time to craft. At the same time, while not requiring instant response, you lose out on the instant response that you get in the game. Also, if you want to mesh a Forum RP with your in-game timeline, it often requires a statement of when said things happened (recently, a week ago, just before or after such and such event, some sort of in between not-important time, whatever). If a thread is labeled [Open], generally you're absolutely welcome to jump right in and you should! If you want to start your own, go nuts! You can do anything you can think up. No limits. I did all different kinds of IC foruming back in WoW (compiling, character journaling, closed backstories, open collaboration threads, IC newspapers, alternate universe just-for-fun wackiness, etc). Here, I've only done a couple of sporadic posts and an occasional journal posted elsewhere, but there's definitely a lot of fun to be had with Forum RP for those who enjoy it.

Meracydia! Oh fine. Ala Mhigo.

I was one of those people who did the SoF duty finder on the first day, got a group that went "Oh, no, not this again!" and then asked "Who's been here before?" and then delegated cannons and important things to the people who had, and it was smooth and simple and fast. But I stopped doing Trial Roulette because of The Chrysalis because that was too hard for most DF groups. However, I apologize profusely if anyone was in SoF the day I went in as a tank. I tried to join a group of friends by intentionally queuing in progress, and of course, it was not the group I was trying to get in, but rather than just arrive and ditch, I thought I'd at least try and help out this poor bunch of complete strangers who were tank-waiting. Unfortunately, I'm sure I did more harm than good. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, hadn't played the class in oh six months, tried to do what I thought they did on the day SoF launched when I was healing, instead got stomped on, didn't understand at all how to dodge anything, just an absolute mess. I left without even explaining myself in shame, pretty much sure I was causing them more problems than they would have had 7-manning it. That being said, if you end up with someone like me in there getting stomped on, not knowing where the adds come from to pick them up, generally flailing, I'd wager it's still going to be rough going even with these new nerfs.

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Qhora, too. Well, she's not so worried about safety, but she's not going to scale skywalls with a bunch of angry men with spears on the other side for the sake of mere curiosity. She's not completely unfamiliar with the place, but I'll get to decide what she might remember from travelling the area (not the city itself) before the Calamity. And I'm rather hoping that getting to be an adventuring tourist in a place she's developed a sort of fondness for will help brush away some of the uber-emo she's been suffering from for the past year or so. Of course, it might make it worse, but that's the adventure!

Qhora would grunt and leave. If the Black Mage didn't also leave in the opposite direction, she might imply to certain someones in authority that someone's been messing with too much aether, then leave the trouble to create itself.

Happy Mother's Day from Qhora.

Hadn't heard that rumor before. Was at the Red Wings event only long enough to watch Otto sell Clio. Whorehouse it is. For Qhora, it's pretty much just "What's your problem?" You. You are my problem. If I keep hearing this question, you will continue to be my problem.

I have a macro for Eos, because she's so incredibly stupid I have to use her on Obey to prevent her from being stupid. Even with the macro, she ends up being stupid and not finishing it for whatever reasons she decides, but at least it's all on one hotkey I can mash. Everything else, I do manually. I have on occasion had macros for crafting, but they change so often, I just stopped. If it's important, I'll do it by hand. If it's not, I'll quicksynth or Steady Hand II/Rapid Synth. If it's a big deal, I'll head to google to find someone else's macro.

I'd just say my character's a snowflake and keep on keeping on. She actually already is in many ways. Her background touches on what's in the lore, but the core of it is intentionally "unusual" (far from ludicrous, but certainly atypical). Unless they say something like Keepers never left the Shroud in the past 50 years, I'm not sure what they could really say that would mess me up much.

Stealth is a go-to favorite for me, usually in a more natural form, but still a go-to. As is jerkass - not really a power. Add in a huge dose of curiosity for a touch of magic. And voila, stealth jerkass scholar. 'cause I enjoy it.

I really like "Hide" as an indicator of "I'm sneaking now" and since the character isn't really invisible to other characters, they can decide if they see her or not, but they at least know she was trying to hide. Other than that, while she can do a variety of things - use a bow, create arcane constructs, etc. - I don't usually use the in-game skills unless they happen to really suit the situation. Like I'm sure she coats her daggers in wasp venom, but I'm not sure I'd ever refer to it as Kiss of the Wasp.

Qhora thinks the glass will be better used as shards to put in someone's shoe.

This is what I go with, too. She also doesn't have powers, certainly nothing mystical that would need a trigger beyond the basic "everyone has some aether, some more than others" idea, but she loves to learn, and so will scrub floors and wash dishes and polish shoes and kiss feet in exchange for lessons in interesting things. I liked the idea at first that she actually learned the skills from the guilds, at least the classes not as much the jobs, but these days I'm narrowing it down to a combination of what she knows because of her backstory plus a couple other classes that she's learned very recently (essentially archer -> arcanist -> rogue). Having every class at 50 was getting way too unwieldy to play as a skillset effectively.

I had some issues like that in WoW, since I'm also a roll-with-it kind of person. I'd end up being friends with a smattering of individuals outside the "group" so to say because I'd indulge their powerplays, and because I was happy to have my character "lose" to make them happy and keep their story going. Meanwhile, those "inside" the group would constantly ask me why I even spoke to this person, or warn me that I should stay away from them as much as possible. It was all sorts of unpleasant and awkward for me trying to play diplomat. I ended up just keeping the friendships separate to try and keep both groups as such happy. I'd do little one-on-one scenes with the powerplayers, maybe even forum stories, but if they asked if anyone else I knew might like to join in, I'd make excuses rather than go where I knew they weren't wanted and avoid conflict. Don't have that problem in FFXIV, but I keep to myself much much more than I did back then.

I think a bi-annual festival type thing would be great, especially if you can build up a little hype for each one. When Erik did his second Ul'dah ball, I know some of the hype was from knowing it had happened the year before, and people's positive memories and experiences from the previous event helped push the next one. Multiple days sounds really interesting, but I wonder if going more than two days might put too much stress on organizers? I know I can't really commit to much this far in advance, so other people might be in the same boat. Might be easier to find helpers as the time gets closer and people know if they'll be free on such and such days, or to help with specific things that need to get done before? Plus, people might not want to commit without knowing how much time they might still be investing in the expansion. Thumbs up and good luck from me!

The truthful version of this is too revealing, so here's an IC version instead. Halone, the Fury — What are you passionate about? ● As far as you know, cash. Maybe fish? That sounds nasty, but they taste great and look great on the wall. What more is there to say? Menphina, the Lover — Do you have any lovers? ● No. No, thank you. No, no, and no. Thaliak, the Scholar — What topics or subjects do you like to learn about? ● That depends on who I have to learn it from. You? How to get away from you. Someone who actually knows what they're talking about? Anything. Books? Even more anything. These days, I'm especially interested in population geography, but only as a hobby. Applies to fish, too, you know. Nymeia, the Spinner — Do you have any extraordinary skills in crafting? ● Extraordinary? I know how to make all sorts of things. I've learned from a lot of different people all over Eorzea. But I wouldn't call any of them extraordinary. The best I've got is amateur chemistry. Llymlaen, the Navigator — What is your dream vacation? Where would you go? Who or what would you bring with you? ● If I thought I could get there, Meracydia. There's got to be so many things to learn there. I'd go with nothing but the clothes on my back, start from the beginning, learn everything, try everything. Somewhere more reasonable? Ishgard. If all this dragon business doesn't turn out for the worst, I'll be there as soon as tourism gets the go ahead, which it must if they're going to be asking for outside help all the time. Oschon, the Wanderer — Where is your character from? Where do you consider your home to be now? ● Born and bred Ul'dahn, sort of, but I've done a lot of travelling round in circles between the city states. I still live in Ul'dah, technically, but I don't like to stay homebound for more than a couple days at a time. Byregot, the Builder — What are the building blocks of your personality from your childhood that determine your reactions and behaviors as an adult? ● You get beat up enough, you watch your friends get beat up, you start to form opinions, you know. Rhalgr, the Destroyer — If you had the power, what would you destroy? ● Ahahaha! Almost everyone I meet. It's a good thing I don't have the power, huh? Azeyma, the Warden — Who has been the most important role model in your life? ● That's a hard question to answer. Actually, it's an easy question to answer, but I'm just not going to answer it. Nald’thal, the Traders — What do you do for a living? What is your favorite job to work on? What is your least favorite job to do? ● I find things and fix things, things that don't necessarily want to be found, and problems that need to be fixed before too many people know they're broken. I like doing things so that the only people who know I've succeeded are me and the person who paid me. I hate doing things that call attention to myself, but that has to be done on at least some level in order to get any work at all. Nophica, the Matron — Describe your parents? Who is your mother? Who is your father? ● Easy. Don't know. Never met them. Althyk, the Keeper — If you could go back into the past and change one thing, what would it be and why? ● There are certain people who should never have been born. Let's put it that way. It gets to the point without needing the detail.

That must be interesting when he encounters Urianger.

Maybe... like ears... they're rubbery cartilage, and none of these problems are problems. Bahaha... ha... *shrug*