Maril

[align=center]A Meeting of Minds[/align] Where: Mists Ward 12, plot 1. When: Friday 29th of July, 7pm EST | 01 AM BST Do you like to debate things? Have you got some strong opinions that you want to air to a crowd? Is there anything that you just need to rant about? Have you spotted a conspiracy theory that you want to test in front of others? Then a meeting of minds is for you. On this evening the floor will be open for the discussions of different subjects, rants, theories, heck even poetry and other verbal activities that require a small crowd. Your imagination sets the limits! Anonymity is completely allowed! If you do not want to show your face, or speak in your real voice, you don't have to. The Meeting of Minds will not reveal your identity unless you choose to do so yourself. Refreshments will be available and passed around during the event. In order to ensure a safe environment to debate in, weapons need be left by the door and violence is strictly prohibited. Any such behavior will lead to a permanent ban to all future meetings of mind. P.S - Hiring bouncers. Contact Nailah Quill for details. -------------------------- The OOC bit: This event has limited capacity! In order to keep the chat from overflowing and ensure that everyone gets heard, the doors will be closed when a set amount of people have joined the event. In order to participate, please line up in front of the door to the estate before the event starts. Topics of discussion and further instructions on how the debates will be managed will be briefed about icly when the event starts. Event rules: 1. Participate - You don't have to bring a subject with you, but please offer opinions and be active. The more you can contribute, the better it'll be. 2. Please stick to the canon lore as best as you can, to minimize confusion. 3. If you're unsure on if a topic is OK to discuss, feel free to ask first. 4. Please also stick to the common RP guidelines; especially keep your IC and OOC apart, and be prepared to deal with any consequences coming from what your character says. If the event proves successful, then it'll become recurring. As to how often, that will be evaluated after this initial event, however the weekday/time will not change. My hope is that this will contribute positively to the social aspect of RP, and also help be a different setting where you can meet people and have fun. Cheers for reading o/

Welcome aboard!

If you hit O/Open your social menu (Image in the spoiler box), then right click on your own name you'll get the option to edit your search info. There's not much space but you can squeeze in just enough to let people know you roleplay and such

So let's talk about what's in just about everyone's search comments: A remark about the player being welcoming/accepting of random, walk-up RP. I'm curious about what makes people walk up, and just in general what you go through before you take IC contact to someone. There's so many ways to go about things, and I like reading about what others do to learn a little about what I can do better, and such. Do you check people's search comments? Do you "google" them on the RPC's wiki? Do you just go "Hey that person looks nice" or do you follow their RP first and then decide? Do you feel the need to have a hook-emote (A casual remark/emote you can respond to) before you walk up? And if so, what seems to work the best? Or, alternatively if you never walk-up/initiate then why is that?

Welcome aboard!

I would chime in and say that if your guild has decided to stick to a certain standard, including making standpoints on the more controversial points of lore and interpretations about how you take game mechanics into your RP, then you really should stick to it. You appeal to people who agree with it, and I think players themselves have a degree of responsibility to research and test out if they fit into a guild. Of course you should try to be accommodating to new recruits, but there are limits. It's much better, in my eyes, to let people part ways without hard feelings over waiting for it to build up and cause a trainwreck of drama due to differing opinions. Personally I do not consider IC gearchanges-on-the-quick-go to be a thing. If anything it usually makes me assume that the person is OOC. I wouldn't accept something like it as canon unless it was really well reasoned, and also something that isn't used just because they want to wear a different dress half way through a social event. It could be canon lore, but it's an OP move to have your character running around with, due to it's potential use in combat situations. It takes two emotes and a little walk away for a minute or three to get away with changing your outfit, and there's many creative ways for it to be carried around or stored conveniently nearby that doesn't involve "Hey lets put it into a pocket of magical air."

I met my boyfriend, we started playing together when Rift launched back in the day. It took us around about two years to fess up that there was feelings, and then actually get to meet up. Lots of insecurities about it because we're in two different countries. We've been together for three years now Beyond that, I helped organize two guild-meet up's for my Rift guild, which was really awesome. Made some lasting friends who I still visit when I can And then I've met a couple of people from final as well, most recently in May where I was in London for a weekend. One of the best weekends I've had for a long time. I don't have a strong social network irl where I live. So it's a very lovely experience to get to hang around irl with people who I can actually talk nerdy stuff with and not be met with blank or confused expressions.

Welcome aboard

Yes, the laws do tend to cause issues. It's also why you sometimes see give-aways and other such promotions where certain countries despite being in the EU are excluded. I faintly remember, but back in Rift I think it was The Netherlands that tended to get excluded because whatever give-aways (like through streams) that were done ended up getting caught in some variety of anti-pyramid-scheme laws, which only the Netherlands has. There's only certain areas where the law that's in place comes straight from the EU, and some countries like Denmark has exceptions/reservations where they're basically holding the right to make laws within a certain area without the EU sticking it's nose in things. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason for them making campaigns different from country to country is because of these laws, beyond the fact that you'll be hard pushed to find anything that distributes the same thing to all of the EU. I wish I had anything I could link you but I can't really seem to find anything that explains it.

I have two alts that I rp on regularly besides my main, and they're both at level 60. I've chipped at them little by little when it comes to their levelling, sometimes doing as little as one roulette a day. Basically whenever I got rather bored I'd jump over to them and nudge them along. It was, for me, a really nice way of going about them. What I also do is that I completely segregate character from class, meaning that I level their pve as per what I feel like trying out where it doesn't influence their RP. Sometimes I pay some thought to RP gear, but even my tank who I RP as not-even-slightly the type who'd wear heavy gear has a good wardrobe now a days. I've gone back and forth concept-wise on one of the alt slots, but I am back to having the same two in my rotation as I made them something like two years ago. Obviously I spend far the most time on my main, but I seem to have found a balance where I can fill the other two with enough plot to keep them interesting.

Additionally, a reddit thread has pointed out that the Game Master magazine was linked to an early GamerGate scandal. Apparently they fixed the scores of a very buggy game, and didn't handle the situation well when it was found out. As if the wait and the selfie-requirement wasn't bad enough, I'd feel bad about supporting a magazine that'd do something like that. Fortunately I don't live in the UK, so I am hoping whatever they have in store for the Nordic territories is better. I know we have a 7-11 chain here so one could hope it'd be sorta similar.

Welcome aboard!

Whilst it isn't a secret that lalafell characters have struggles, I would just like to say that persistence can pay off. My main character Nailah for example, doesn't like most lalafell - this is based on several unfortunate events which have unfolded in the time I've been rping her. She has met many lalafells that were annoying, acting like kids or have had a racial bias towards her as a highlander. It doesn't mean that I don't RP with lalafells, but it does mean that in for example a social environment, Nailah isn't going to be the one who walks up to a lalafell and initiates conversation. She even has a few lalafell among her contacts, which are the ones that proved her views wrong by persistently interacting with her in ways that weren't what she'd expected. I think it's completely alright to play characters that have an IC ( In general I think lalafell characters can be played very well, I especially like to see them played as not comic-relief characters but as serious characters. Doesn't mean they have to be serious all the time, mind. You may face some adversity from some people, but keep on trying, don't get completely demotivated by five people blanking you. There might be more to it than just an ooc dislike, and if there isn't then perhaps those people aren't the ones you want to be rping with anyways?

I keep journals for my characters, albeit I do not post them here. There isn't really any rules, and the style can variate. I've done one where it was simply me writing down what my character would have said when they were talking to themselves, because the character either didn't know how to write or wasn't the type to sit down and write a journal. With other characters a more traditional "Dear Journal" type style have been the best one suited. Journals can be very useful to keep for your characters, as it's like saving a statement report of their progress and what they've been up to - which you can then go back and read later on, and you can then see how much they've changed since you started. I think the most important thing when you read others journals is not to use what they write icly without permission - Journals, as I see it at least, do not tend to be publicly available.

1. Have you killed your character before? Yes, both when it comes to alts and mains. I like to involve realism and improvisation in my RP, and the former is sometimes what drives the characters death. If there is a situation where nothing but divine intervention could save the character - then there are times where I have said, alright - fair game, and let the character die. (Note: This doesn't mean I'd let my characters die to a random street stabbing. If it's done by another's hand there has to be a substance to it, for me.) The first character that was subjected to this was my former main in WoW, whom I played as a cultist - When I started playing her, I was fully accepting already then that they might not live for as long as a regular goody-two-shoes character. Her plot-arch involved certain degrees of insanity and extreme belief/faith in an old god, which eventually lead to careless/reckless behavior - thus allowing her enemies (the good guys) to come and kill her. In that same fight, there was also a character loss on the good-guy side, and it's one of the most interesting fights I've ever had. Back then, through playing a main on the villain side of life, debates between the people who would chase us around Azeroth and ourselves were quite common. Mostly, we were continuously accused of playing OP characters with the simple reasoning that because our characters are evil they must die. To the hands of the good people of course, who in turn would accept no such thing as a death to their own character. It wasn't the case for everyone of course, and very interestingly I did actually end up having requests from people who wanted their goody-two-shoes-character to die by the hands of one of my evil characters plots. Sometimes I have also killed characters off because I knew I'd be leaving a game for good, or because I -really- wouldn't go back to the character (this often after having them on hiatus and trying to revamp them). Sometimes a character just has nothing left to give, especially if it's one you've played for years, and it feels natural to conclude them. One of my personal biggest regrets for one character was not to kill it off sooner. I forced every bit of juice out of it, and looking back to the last few months of that character's life is a bit of a meh-experience. In some of those cases, I have simply decided that the next time they get into a situation they can't get out of, then they would die. It retains a level of unpredictability for yourself and also keeps the moment of surprise intact for those around you. 2. How did your friends take it? I've never experienced a negative backlash to one of my characters dying. I think, where I have roleplayed through times it's something that is seen as your own decision, and that if you make that decision then the rest will have to respect it. I think that, yes, if your character is a very close part of another character and you seem to sense that your characters death would push theirs into a turmoil beyond the "normal" reaction to death, then you should make sure they're on board with it and also discuss options for "damage control" so your friend doesn't burn out. But otherwise it's entirely up to the players themselves to decide what to do with their characters, and how to do it. So in conclusion my friends have taken it well. I also think one of the big factors of their positive reactions is that I always stick with the decision. There's no do-overs, no magically returning from the dead nonsense, even if I regret killing them off. I know that with time I will once again design a character that I'll love and adore (and subject to horrible things). 3. Would you not want to RP with someone who may unceremoniously kill off their character? Why? As mentioned above, I consider it to be the players own decision. The only way I'd get a little miffed is if the player repeatedly killed the character and then went "HAHA NOT REALLY", because being stuck in a loop like that is exhausting. It also drains the storytelling value of a character death to a minimal, more of a "Oh he died again, bleh" reaction than character developing effects. Even an unceremonious death can leave good developing material for those around you.

The rule of thumb I tend to go by is that if someone is rping in a public location, then their RP is usually approachable. The worst thing that can happen is that people will tell your character to mind their own business. If you want to be on the complete safe side, you can always ask in a /tell first if it's ok. Welcome aboard and good luck out there!

The OP has been updated Cheers guys.

Thanks for merging them instead of just deleting one! I was a little worried some of the cool responses might be lost, but that was a huge relief. As a new member, I wasn't really sure how to go about reaching out to a moderator for a swift response. Is there a way I can tell which moderators are currently online and available for pestering? Thanks for letting me know! The team list is here - You can see our names in Green and Blue in the currently browsing list at the bottom of the forum index. All moderators tend to be very active, and you can always send any of us a PM with any questions and concerns

Modhat on: I have merged two identical topics, and moved this thread to Lore discussion. Please just post the thread in one place, if you're unsure if it's in the right place, you can always alert a moderator for help /modhat off

Welcome aboard!

The link to what GhostlyMaiden is on about is in my signature Feel free to fill out the template as well, it's great to see so many Europeans joining up recently.

That is a coincidence, while I do have her at around 15 during Heavensward (tentatively) I was planning having her be 33 at least by the start of 4.0 (The implication being that she took to learning about the other combat arts after the Dragonsong war, with a talent in Black Magic to start, and branching out into Astromancy between 3.0 and 3.3) Well, we have it in a quest that between patch 2.2 and patch 3.2, roughly two years have passed which lines up pretty well with how much IRL time that has passed as well. I wouldn't be one to assume that 4.0 is going to happen 15+ years into the future, since we're already getting some hints to it's coming in the present MSQ. There's also quite a lot of roleplayers who don't move time in the more comic-book-like bubble style or whichever you call it, but rather just follow the IRL time, so when they first start rping a character at such and such an age, the character follows irl time and doesn't age again until an actual rl year has passed. Depending on who you RP with, different understandings of time could cause some issues, just so you're aware. You can browse this topic here as well for more stuff about time: http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=15625&pid=249424#pid24942

Pretty much what Aya stated. As much as the game itself is geared towards having all classes on one character, you can't quite so easily do it IC'ly. I mean, sure, you can feasibly know perhaps a couple of classes (You can shave off some time by claiming they have a talent/affinity for the skill) - but mastery is not something someone obtains before their hair is grey. And even then I'd say you'd really be limited to one mastery per lifetime, with like a dedicated/focused effort. Even more so with magic, I would assume. If you want to RP as someone who's got good knowledge and experience with more than one thing, it's a much more realistic option if you play a character that is up in the years - around thirty and there-above, depending on the skill. That's at least my take on it.

Yes, there's quite a lot of us Europeans on Balmung. Check out the link in my signature

There is a very in-depth guide right here, which I recommend giving a read through - possibly with a cup of tea or something as it is quite long. I can't give you many tips on how to go from one form of roleplaying to another, as I myself started out, at least in a more serious manner, in mmorpgs. One thing I have heard others say when they talk about going from say forum rp to mmorpg-rp is that the latter is a lot more fast paced and that can take some time getting used to. However I can say that Balmung is a server teeming with roleplayers, there's many of us here and a plethora of guilds that are based around it. I would recommend trying to find a good guild which is welcoming of newcomers, I find at least that once you have established some contacts oocly it gets a bit easier to break into the rp so to speak. That, and some guilds also do have various ways of mentoring newcomers. If you click on "Linkshells" in the top you get to the page with quite a few guild listings. You can also try to find people through this Directory of Contacts for New Players. Otherwise I would also suggest that you, if you haven't already, start thinking about a possible background for your character - if you know roughly what theme you're aiming for, and what sort of things you'd possibly like to see happen in RP, it'll make finding people/a guild/etc a lot easier. Having some things in common with other characters does wonders for future conversations and plots. Good luck with it all!