LilMomoshi

I love this post. That is all.

This is pretty much where I stand on it, too. I once got bored in High School, a couple years into being a roleplayer. So I sat down and thought up an entire family tree for my dwarf, with unique names for most of them. I then never used it. I just like switching it up from time to time, and enjoy the variation in my characters. Also, I always get a little kick out of it when people are shocked to find out that two vastly different characters are both played by me. That's always fun.

((Just a short teaser/intro for now, much more to come when I get a chance to actually write it.)) ---------- It was a story told to me when I was younger. There was a man, who had lost much in his many years, who had weathered it all and devoted himself to making the world around him a better place. He traveled the seas, wandering with those who would join him, facing many trials and making a name for himself. He was betrayed in the end, by someone he had trusted and become close to. I remember the bard who told this tale saying it was not a tragedy, but that this man was a hero. For all he had faced, the darkness that had dominated his life, he had remained a beacon of light against the shadows that surrounded him. He had made the world a better place, if only in some small way, and that he would have been content in the end. Such a foolish sentiment. ------------ The young woman sat alone, watching the waves as they lapped gently against the shore, the overcast night sky lending an eerie light to the world. Her thoughts were quiet, offering a rare moment of peace in her life of struggle and conflict. Somehow it left her uncomfortable. She stood, turning her attention away as she brushed the sand from her robes, collecting the leather-bound tome she often carried and placing it in her satchel gently. Even as the small figure approached from the distance she readied herself, adopting the calm smile that she so often wore, her expression brightening as he came closer. He laughed as he slowed to a confident stride, his child-like face beaming up at her, the many years he’d lived unclear to any but his own kind. She spoke as she knelt to hug the little man, her practiced tone of voice soft and kind. “Hello, Momoshi.” He smirked, pulling away after a short moment. “Good to see you, Anrie.” ---------- Momoshi had never been a man who thought himself destined for some great calling. The simple life had always suited him best, and he was quick to accept that. So, with little more than a few gil and a fishing pole, he had relocated from Ul’dah to Limsa Lominsa, and now spent his days fishing and selling what little he could catch with his meager talents. It was enough to keep himself fed, and keep himself sleeping with a roof over his head most nights. He had not been in the city long, and was still learning the streets. Getting lost had become commonplace, and there were few people in the city he had the fortune of knowing. It had been his fortune to meet a young woman a few weeks past, who had been kind enough to help him settle in to his new, unexpectedly harsh surroundings. The kind hyur was tall, her dark skin contrasted by fair golden hair, and icy blue eyes. She had been friendly, however, and seemed to want nothing of him save for company and conversation, which was an offer he was more than glad to accept. The benefit was entirely in his favor, in the worst scenario. So he had come to his friend again, on this quiet night, escaping the noise of the sailors and privateers in the streets, some celebrating their recent successes, others joining in the celebrations just for fun. Here, at least, he could find some quiet company away from it all, and share his thoughts. Momoshi had always preferred the simple life, and a quiet evening with a friend was more than enough for him. For the others that night, it was certainly not the same.

Another subject thread from Momoshi! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Okay, on subject and all that now. I've noticed in the past that some people will gravitate towards one side or another: magic users or martial artists (martial artists in this case referencing anyone who uses physical means and training in combat). Now, granted, there are characters that lie in the middle ground, such as Paladins in WoW lore, who though martially trained, have their burdens (the weight of their armor and weapons) lessened through the magical/divine power they call on. Of course, there are always people who play both, because why not? The other thing, and this of course is a much bigger decision in a game like FFXIV, is people who play multiple characters. I tend to have many toons, as I'm drawn towards developing multiple storylines and multiple characters. I just like to see where they go, and who they all become, given different backgrounds and experiences (as well as play all the classes I'm interested in). In this game you don't really need multiple characters to play every class, though. So, where do you all stand? Do you want to get up close and personal? Snipe enemies from afar? Or are you a glass cannon, weaving spells to decimate your foes while running about in a pointy hat? Do you devote yourself to one character, or divide your attention among many? Why? Discuss.

I personally tend to involve myself in group RP events against DM'ed opponents (this can actually be a lot of fun, and I loved that my last guild on WoW did it), and get it out that way. I've been in too many situations where I'd get involved in a fight or conflict involving other players that just brushed off my involvement or ended up in me getting smashed up by a godmodder. Of course, that's something I'm going to be working on getting over, and being more of a part of again, now that I'm away from the WoW community. I tend to take my level/skill-centric approach to my character in fights and use that as kind of a basis for it all, though. If my character knows few spells, that's all he or she has to work with, and they have to adapt it to the situation. If they're maxed out, then they have more to work with, and I try to adapt what spells/skills they use to the opponent they're facing, just as I would in PvP. Dunno if that answers you, but there we are!

Google drive saves as you add or subtract from your work. Ever since I lost 127 pages of Warcraft short stories to the death of a computer, I've sworn by it.

Some of the finest, most enjoyable casual RP I've ever had was while fishing. That is all. ... okay, really though, I love the idea of RPing a craftsman. I once RPed a cook for no reason other than to just RP a cook. I even gave away cookies to passerby. It was wonderful, and I had a lot of fun with it. If you plan to venture into dangerous places, though, I highly recommend your character has a hobby that involves using pointy objects in a violent fashion. You never know when that will come in handy.

Well folks, I've enjoyed this quite a bit, and I'm glad to see so much debate and varied ideas around the subject, but I for one will probably head off to topics other than my own! Also, I should probably stop staring at this page at work. >.> Even if my job is fairly relaxed on that front. Looking forward to joining you all as soon as Balmung lets me!

I'll concede that point without blinking. I'm also bothered, however, when super low level characters run around with power beyond the scope of players who have put all that time into leveling. It can really go either way, good or bad. I thought that players who put time into levelling are interested on the game itself. I mean, you don't need to power level your character if you simply want to RP them. You only power level to play the game further. At least that's what I'm doing o.oa; If a character tells me that they're uber powerful because of their past experiences, I personally will accept it and play along, no matter what their level is. That a character is lv.1 doesn't mean they were just born *sweatdrops*. I wouldn't consider them just born, either. For my characters, it tends to mean they'er inexperienced, if they're IC. Again, these are rules I place for myself, not others. And if I'm out in the world, no matter what I'm doing, I'm probably IC. Questing or whatever. I'm killing little fuzzy things for level two, and I'm in character doing it (well, not in character level chasing, but you get the idea).

I'll concede that point without blinking. I'm also bothered, however, when super low level characters run around with power beyond the scope of players who have put all that time into leveling. It can really go either way, good or bad.

This is kind of my problem with it, but I'm also speaking as someone who works full time, is headed back to college this fall... I know how time constraints can be. I just try to balance it as best I can, for my own reasons. I figure not everyone wants to do that, which is fine. Again, this is just my approach.

My meaning on that last bit was more "Don't go dropping meteors on people". I'd also like to add, this is really just how I approach it all. I know lots of people who disagree with me on many aspects, and I've also roleplayed with a lot of people who take a different approach. These are rules I've placed on myself, not the community as a whole.

Welcome, fellow WoW vet! There's a lot of us, I'm pretty sure.

We actually had a discussion about that on Mysterium's forums recently, since as a guild of mages, coming to consensus on what we can plausibly do in RP is sort of important. Our consensus was largely that you can scale down effects, but you can't change their essential nature. So, if you can cast Fire, you can light a pipe. If you can cast Fluid Aura, you can create water. If you can cast Bio, you can afflict someone with a temporary biological handicap (nausea, vertigo, blurred vision, etc.). Note that I say you "can" do this; since we know magic in the setting is spell-based, most of us agreed that you'd have to devise some sort of spell and expend the narrative effort to devise it ICly. Your Discipline shows you the boundaries of what you can do, but you have to devise the means. For us, this works, because it gives a solid justification for magical research and training outside of the guilds proper. That's really just the baseline, though -- the consensus of what's nominally okay, bearing in mind usual consent rules. That said, could you scale up Flare to blow a building up? Scale up Miasma to inflict a horrific wasting curse? All of that would have to be decided and consented to by all the involved parties. Communication, as you mentioned, is always key! I like this. Scaling down, of course, is always within reason. Scaling up is dangerous, especially in a game like this. I mean, we've got limit breaks. BOOM! Meteor comes down on somethings head. Am I ever going to pull that in an RP fight with another player? Absolutely not. There's a time and a place for the big, draining, high-powered moment, and to me that place is away from an RP situation where having that kind of power, whatever drawbacks you may suffer, tips the scales heavily in your favor.

And of course, if another character is "more skilled" than them, it's made apparent in my lack of tools compared to theirs.

The way I look at it (regarding level as skill) is that I have more practice, and more tools at my disposal. For instance, let's pit two mages against each other. Now, a fireball is a fireball. If someone flings fire into your face, it burns. Lets say the less experienced mage does this. If it his the other mage in the face, that fire will still burn, just like a sword will still cut, or an arrow will still pierce. However, this more practiced and learned mage has more tools at his disposal (levels/skills). He can, if he sees it coming, perform a counterspell, step aside, whatever. This allows an even playing field, but also takes into account the progress a character has made in their studies (or respective class/classes). A spell is a spell, a blade is a blade, but the skill you hold with it and the abilities you have at your disposal are based purely on how much time you've put into honing them. Now, for the grind-to-50 characters, I fully agree that no character actually makes this leap in a week. If I'm grinding it out, I never display my characters skill until they hit that level, and can live up to it. I'll never master thaumaturgy in a week, but if you didn't know my character was proficient in it to begin with, their skill might have been practiced for some length of time beyond my actual leveling. Is it a little dance, and a delicate balance? Sure. But it allows for a character to grow and progress, and never hold power beyond the scope of others without good reasoning behind it. If my character is powerful, they should have to earn that power. And their awesome little black hat.

One of the things I like about this game so much, and I see it as the way around altering your character in certain ways (demonic, robotic, what have you) is the class system. We have the tool to ICly explain why we're able to do things beyond our normal class handed right to us. I for one intend to use that.

I never hit level cap until near the end of Wrath of the Lich King, in WoW. I started playing it in January 2005. Roleplay first!

I approve of this person! Because I can. Welcome to the site/game/awesomehappyfuntimes!

Yup. This is pretty much exactly how I feel, but far shorter.

YAY! Discussion happened! While I'm thinking of it, another thought, in relation to RP and game mechanics. I've always taken the approach, in terms of power of my character and the skills they have, of directly relating this to the game. If they can't cast it in game, they can't cast it in RP. If it's a spell outside of their class (which, granted, will require some self-restrictions in this game) then they can't use it. Level isn't related to power, but it certainly is to skill and study, then. How do you wonderful people approach this?

Giant people are just as important as little people! Love the artwork, by the way!

Hm. Looks like I'll be waking up early on Wednesday.

I agree wholeheartedly that a character has to have room to grow. Of course, I'll also say that there is such a thing as too much adversity. I've seen characters with backgrounds so messed up that it just seems overboard. Or their damages, whatever they may be, are played off in unrealistic ways, or used to excuse behavior out of the norm (sometimes in way that people who have actually suffered might find incredibly offensive). Hence why I stand by the "realistic" approach. These are people, and they should act like people. No one emotion or reaction should define them, just as no one moment in their past should define them. It's a story, even if each of us is a small part of the whole. All of it matters.

Roleplay by yourself as you level! Remember, it's important to have a reason why you're massacring fields of cute things in order to gain some small favor from your teachers. And talking to yourself is only creepy in reality. Maybe.