Maril

[align=center][/align] [align=left]Europa is a linkshell for EU players, and people from other regions of the world who play during the EU peak hours (GMT) on Balmung (NA Legacy). Due to time zone differences, EU players are many hours ahead of the majority of the server's RP population. This subsequently means we have less RP and less events going on, and an increased need to stick together and organize. The LS was originally started by Rinh & Taeh, and is now under my care. Europa serves as both a social hub and a place to find RP. In the chat, we love to see: Looking for RP messages, initiatives to starting RP etc. Advertising for events, and the planning of events - especially those in the EU peak hours. Getting connected with FC companies. We're not interested in seeing macros in the Linkshell, but spreading general awareness of existing and new FC's is encouraged. People requesting help with PVE content, forming groups & raids General chitchat that does not break the rules below I should point out that the leadership of the Europa linkshell does not organize any events specifically for the linkshell. Any content of any sorts that comes out of it is solely on the shoulders of the individual members. [/align] [align=left] Rules: [/align] [align=left] Do not bring drama to the linkshell, take any disputes to /tell. Contact a gold/silver star for assistance if need be. Move personal conversations to /tell when appropriate. Debate and some strong language is expected from time to time, but don't cross the line to the obscene or abusive/vulgar. Behave respectfully towards other members, greet people, welcome new people and do your bit to make the linkshell a happy place to be. When chatting in Europa, please consider not to use excessive amounts of caps lock. Furthermore, private conversations between two people should generally take place in tells. [/align] Any breaches of these rules may result in your removal without warning. Who can join? [align=left]All roleplayers can join, as long as you stick to the rules. We currently only allow 1 character per person to join, due to the LS cap. Please inform us or remove yourself if you know you're going to be in active for a longer period of time. You can always get a re-invite when you return. [/align] [align=left]Contact any of the below for an invitation, or if you have any questions: Sastra Mortier [/align]

Our FC is in touch with of the hand/land type aspects, within the umbrella of seeking jobs for our members, we have about three culinarians associated with us and such.. It's not the majority of our member-base granted, playing more down to earth roles have always been a niéche, which is why we're being as broad as we can with our concept. Anyhow, we have a festival event coming up in late February, and we'll actively ic'ly be looking for people to provide supplies of various sorts for the event, so as to do some lead-up RP that also gives it reason (so we didn't just magically get everything to appear) - if you have anyone connected to your group, there might be a way for some RP to unfold. We're relying heavily on imagination and improvisation for this, so the supplies would most likely not be physical game items.

By the looks of it you catch on to the end of my FC/LS's primetime hours. We're european (mostly), some of us are nightowls and your 5PM is our 10PM We have a linkshell, though it is not very chatty, but regardless we could toss you an invite and see about doing some rp - I know how hard it can be to initiate RP and such, I was like that myself some years ago, but these days I rather like trying to toss people openings and the likes. You might arrive late to our events and such, but if anything, your char might gain a new friend or two among our bunch ^^ Toss me a PM or a tell in-game if you're interested

You just summarized the big problem for just about any RP community out there. There's a real issue with a consume-only culture that is devouring communities, people do not want inactivity and nothing happening, but at the same time they do not do anything to combat it, and choose leaving shells and even entire games because not enough was happening. In my FC, I constantly push people to generate their own plots. Character progression isn't something that should happen in a story or background, to me it's one of the best motivations to get a storyline rolling, which generates RP and inspires others to do the same. My FC is doing well, but we didn't push for generating RP then I don't think we'd be doing fine these days at all. We still keep bronze lake active as a hub, but a couple of months in and people are really getting tired of it, I was hoping that there would be more initiatives on the rise following bronze lake, but nothing really seems to be happening - at least not in the EU prime-time. So that we could spread the attention on multiple activities and reduce the chance of people doing the same every weeknight. I can't put my finger on what is causing some people to approach RP with that attitude, beyond knowing that generating events of course mean you have to dedicate the time and effort for it. The sad thing is that, the less people generate, the more it wears out those who do (such as fc leaders and such) because they run out of ideas.

The Europa one is still alive and kicking.

No matter what side of the good/evil lawful/criminal fence you're on, you should always ask OOCly before you do something that for sure turns the characters story upside down and spin it around. Even though actions have consequences, and they rightfully have to be followed, when you play in either end of the scale you need to have a very healthy respect for people's plots and events, and the time/dedication they have to their character. Lawful people that have the right to arrest need to ask, and evil people who have the power to kidnap people (examples) need to ask, there's no difference at all. Being evil/bad doesn't mean you automatically sign a contract saying you're ready to accept everything (there are exceptions, of course). It doesn't give the people a get out of jail card from monopoly, but if someone went and severely injured your character right before an event where your role is so important the whole thing have to be moved, because of a random act of violence.. I mean, I'd be pretty grumpy, if that happened to me - even if it was completely logical icly. We're all roleplayers at the end of the day, I think it wouldn't hurt if more people remembered this. So, absolutely is it alright that you say that people shouldn't stick their nose in your plot right at this moment. There might be a development later on where that character could get their nose involved again, which would suit everyone better and still secure a sense of influence on the final outcome/the future, where they can let their character react true to its nature. In many situations where these things arise as problems, I have found that you can usually always figure out a logical reason for the character not to react (Like, why arrest two people when you're alone and outnumbered, etc). Happy to hear that the situation was solved ^^ Just felt like pitching in with my two gil.

It's a tricky balance. I personally find that journals can be a really powerful character development tool, and especially for long lasting characters it becomes living proof of how the character changes over time - and how events, written and unwritten, affect their way of thinking. Journals can also become powerful items in the RP itself, if you were to say, let your journal get stolen and you happened to be one of those mages who writes down their secret, powerful and desirable spells. I tend to keep one if I feel the inspiration for it, Sastra's currently only has one entry because she's hardly got the time to sit down and write anything these days. However, as to where I would post it, is an entirely different thing. More often than not, I wouldn't post it to anywhere where I can't moderate who sees it. Having been the victim of rather intensive metagaming in the past, I'm super paranoid that something similar might happen again. So, these days I only post my journals on our website, where only the members can see it. That way, if someone does metagame on the information, I will know that it was one of my own and that I will be able to fix it before it spreads. I also never use journals as a way to progress any ongoing RP/Plot, as I think one shouldn't mix the medias - since you inadvertently end up blocking out other characters influence because they don't use all types of media. At most, I will try to tease or confuse the players behind the other characters, so as to make my characters choices be even harder to predict. It's a shame that the notion of "Do not metagame" isn't as crystal clear for everyone as it is for one self, because when it happens it can have very serious consequences both IC and OOC, but it's practically impossible to make sure everyone understands it the same way.

(Thanks to Bexy for making the poster!) Hello everyone! I am here to announce, after a full month of planning, TCRP's first attempt at a server-wide event, during the EU prime-time. We will be doing a Beach Festival in the Mist (Limsa Lominsa housing area), at the beach (duh!) - And hopefully have some fun! The whole thing takes place on the 28th of Feburary 2014, starting at 8PM GMT. Not european? Check here for some time conversions. We'd love to see all sorts of roleplayers join this We have three planned IC events taking place: 1. Auction off: Dates & Mercs. - In order to raise money for charity, we will be auctioning off (using IC money, no real gil is involved) several gorgeous individuals for either a date, or a day as your personal mercenary. Beyond our own wonderful FC members, we'd love to see more people dare to get auctioned off! Who knows, this might be a wonderful opportunity to get more contacts for you Simply contact us ahead of time to let us know (along with a preference if you want to go on a date or offer your services as a mercenary) 2. Fashion Competition. - Everyone loves to look their best right? If you put together your best outfit for the occasion, you can get to have a shot at showing it off in our fashion competition. A selection of judges will hand out a prize to the top 3 entries, along with a crown and a title of Beach King/Queen. 3. Magical Showmanship competition - This is a bit of an experimental twist on magic duels. Rather than facing off against each other, we want you to compose the most stunning and beautiful display of your abilities. Amaze people's socks off with your aether, and walk off with a prize! Additionally.. We will on an OOC level be hosting a raffle, where 80% of the total will be given out to one lucky winner. We're doing this as an attempt to gain a little money for our company house wish, as well as help with others housing wishes (if they want to share the money with their FC, that is ) The raffle will be done fair and square by assigning you a number and rolling for a winner (I am aware there is no /roll, but we will find a way) - So please remember your number once you get it. You can buy one ticket, and those will go for 1000 gil each. Needless to say, TCRP's own members are not permitted to partake in the raffle We could use some help: As mentioned, we need judges for our two competitions. In other to make sure it's not biased, I'd like to see at least two people act as judges for the competitions. This does mean your character can not enter the competitions. Donations for the prices would be much appreciated as well, if you can for example craft something we'd love to see it, and you will of course be given credit for your deed! Donations to the raffle would also be welcome. As we still have about a month to go, I would like to reserve the rights to make changes to the program etc. Feel free to toss feedback & suggestions our way. We want to generate as much RP from this as possible, so if you think your character could be a help in the event, don't be shy! Any questions can be lobbed at Sastra Mortier (alt: Thala'to Relehna) or Mikh'a Elakha in-game, in a reply to this post or via PM. We hope to see you all there! - TCRP.

I could probably play Naira, doesn't seem to complex and reminds somewhat of a role I've had before ^^ Otherwise, posting this on my guilds website to see if anyone else is interested. Perhaps if you could make a little list of what roles have been taken already? Would make it a little easier

I can enjoy events where there is a DM, but more often than not I end up not really enjoying the events. There are certain things I consider pet-peeves of mine when it comes to RP, and one of them I have seen a lot of in DM'ed events is that everything is railroaded - meaning that the people who are there for the events have no real influence, they're just there to do a set role. Ie, there is a set goal with the event, as an example it could be to find a weapon of a sort, and your role is to help finding set weapon - or clues as to where it could be, but what you find is that you're not allowed to actually come up with your own clues, and that the person who ends up finding the sword has been pre-determined already, reducing you to a person who just fills up some space and maybe some logic because sometimes it doesn't make sense for only two people to go on an adventure. In some events, I have even stood about for a full hour without even emoting because there wasn't an actual need for my character to do anything but follow the group (and that becomes real boring to emote after a little while) - this usually happens in DM events with more than five people involved. The type of DM'ing I most enjoy is when it's something environmental. So you have a person emoting for the environment or maybe the big bad person, so if you for example go through a canyon there could be a rock-slide locking the group in on both sides and you can have a survival scenario unfold. Or maybe the big bad guy had laid a trap for you, like a good ol' team rocket hole. Otherwise I much prefer using PC's as NPC's - if people can do a text based event in an out-of-map location they should also be able to understand that if someone is disguised as a big bad guy, they're taking the NPC role upon them and not being their actual character - or better yet people use alts with no rp profile to play out these roles. That's probably one area where I wish XIV was a bit more alt-friendly, so that this would be more of a thing. In other games such as Rift, it was pretty standard that people had alts they could use and reuse as npcs for various events - also giving them some experiences they might not otherwise have had on their mains.

You can always prod me when I am around, if I can not offer RP myself, I can at least ask about with my fc/ls members to see if there's any open rp anywhere. We have a few young characters in my FC as well. I myself am EU based, so if you're a US player you'd be more likely to see me in your dayhours than primetime (as said prime time occurs between like 3-6am for me, in most cases)

Updated this topic with dyes from the next Amiljaa step I am personally really liking the peacock blue, it's a really pleasant color.

Bronze lake is open tonight (GMT), swing on by

.. From Denmark, where it's been 2014 for approx 35 minutes now What are your hopes for the new year? Any goals? I hope you all have/had a very awesome night

Progress report! We now count 15 gorgeous daily-active people, from both the EU and the US. I think it is safe to say that we can cater to daytime US players ^^ We have become very active in the running of the community-project "Bronze Lake Resort" which you can see us open several times a week, during the EU evening hours. We continue to pick up contracts & work and hatch plotlines of our own, which has been very fun so far! Feel free to take contact if you're curious on roleplaying with us, we'd also love to hear from other FC's and their events.

I think it is a good idea. Communities need space to develop ^^ Another twist on it could be to simply turn the event forums into a general forum for talking about the server and posting events, it might be a bit more cluttered but that isn't always a bad thing.

In my FC's case, we chose something that relates to the gaming community we come from and the guilds name, combined with RP as if to signal we roleplay. In the end we chose [TCRP] which (to me) sounds good when you say it, is fairly easy to remember, relates to our name and what we do ^^ When it comes to promoting a guild, picking a name and tag that is easy to remember is a very important step - so in that sense, in my opinion - it matters.

It should be a very serious desire for it tbh, where you just cant wait to get one. The one-time restoration will likely affect your accounts status overall, so if you are ever in an unfortunate situation later down the line (and that could be in several years too) it'd possibly influence what kind of help you get. I would imagine that they will start selling Fantasia potions as a service soon enough.

The colors I presented are from both factions. Algoat, Shale, Lime and Marsh belong to the Sylph faction, and the other 3 belong to the Amil'ja faction. Edit: I have not missed a daily rotation since they became available, as such I have both factions at the same level atm

Indeed there is a slight difference, it turned from night to day when I took the pictures so it's not too visible sadly. The new dyes are unlocked via the beastmen tribe dailies which start around level 43 at Gridania and Uldah's GC locations. You need to achieve the Recognized rank before you can purchase them (the vendor price is around 200 gil) - but I think they are otherwise trade-able and I wouldn't be surprised if you can find them on the AH already

There will always be a % of any given online community, related to gaming or not, that is toxic. Where there are roleplayers, there will be roleplay griefers - and despite the situations I have witnessed myself have been rather harsh and severe, they've not occurred nearly as much as my experience is with other and far older games. In reality, Balmung might just be one of the nicer servers around. Having an RP presence, even unofficially, just attracts more mature non-rp'ers to the servers because they have a general reputation of being nicer, less toxic servers. My opinion on these things, even if it is a bit blunt, has always been that if you can't stand talk about mature subjects (such as ERP), get offended over curse words and are unable to shrug off griefers entirely, then you probably should not be playing an MMORPG. Especially not one that has the T for Teen rating.

A thread to display my progress in finding the new dyes that the beastmen offer as reward. The dyes all cost 334 gil per bottle and can be tradable (and as such, found on marketboards too at times). I am personally progressing the Amiljaa faction at the moment, but when I find the dyes from the Sylph faction I will upload them too Amiljaa & Sylphs: Recognized.

Does old pets count? I very unfortunately do not have my cat anymore, since the landlord was a meanypants and changed the rules about having pets. She was an awesome cat who thought she was a dog, she'd retrieve her ball if you thew it and drop it in front of you, being like "Why did you do that you stupid hoomans. Also do it again please?" and when she was tired she would sleep in the gap between my monitor and keyboard for super convenient cuddles.

RP can be really hectic, having taken on the roll of a barmaid/servant many times in my RP career, I have experienced a lot of people being disgruntled that I was "Ignoring them" in settings where there were upwards of 25 people within my emote-range and probably around five of them wanting me to serve them, standing in a way that doesn't make getting any turn-order going that easy. I think it's also important to remember that people can easily miss an emote (and especially in XIV with the rather selective chatbug going on. I once did a five-lined emote about hot chocolate which no one could see cause of the chatbug), and that just like in most other situations IRL, you may have to repeat yourself to make yourself heard. I think the worst thing you can do is to whisper people and say, "Hey you're ignoring me you ****" - even if you suspect you are being ignored or even can prove that you are, it's not a time to whisper accusations like that, it'd never mend a situation into something better. Also, if you -are- being ignored, try to question why that might be. I have met a handful of good and honest people that I have had to either partially or completely ignore because they in some -severe- way are breaking the lore of a universe, or are playing out the main storyline of a game as having happened to them, because it's big big world-altering things for my character. I will usually always try to play it off as thinking someone is a bit coo-coo, but sometimes not even that is possible. And I never mean it in a harmful way, but when the versions of the universes story aren't compatible (I respect that people do what they want to do) the roleplay that would form isn't going to be enjoyable for anyone involved. So just to say that some players do it in order not to break character, and not to be a big meanie :3

Indeed. On my community's forum, we require anything concerning sensitive topics (so all of what you mentioned and then some) are wrapped in spoiler-tags, not just exclusively sex. Heck, I'm the type of person who'd rather read an erotic novel than an intense description of someone smashing a brain.. And with the spoiler hiding things, we also do not hinder people's creative abilities to have exactly what they want happening in their rp-related stories.