Val

Well, I have seen people that RP robots.

One of the children may end up dead, or Val will do everything he can to convince Faye to do it for him. There was that one time that Val threatened to kill someone's kid because it wouldn't shut up, so I imagine anything would go.

Pretty much this for Val as well. I chose Seeker of the Sun only because it aligned well with the general personality I had planned out for the character. He is entirely obsessive/territorial of his lady because he sees her as his. He prides himself in combat and seeks it to settle all debts because that's how he was taught in said tribe. If he were a Midlander or something growing up in the city, while the personality could very well be somewhat the same, I don't think he'd have the same depth to him as he does now. He has mother and father issues that he simply will not talk about, nor admit to almost anyone. He's very prideful, but not for the right reasons. He's not well versed in society and his ignorance in etiquette and other things gives me a lot of comedic moments to throw around (like when he tried to write a book proclaiming himself the greatest lover in Eorzea). All of these things are what makes Val a unique character unto himself, and if his race/nationality changed, so would a great deal of that.

Trust goes a very, very long way for me. I won't involve myself in a lot of affairs if I can't bring myself to trust the people I RP with, especially when it comes to a relationship/companionship. I also need to have someone that can immerse me in their character, as well as someone that isn't going to try to change their character simply because they want a specific outcome. For that matter, I like people that can create 3-dimensional, believable characters that have thoughts and feelings of their own. I like those that can get involved in stories as well as come up with their own; someone that isn't going to sit on the sidelines and expect RP to come to them or not get involved if no one goes to them. I think spelling/grammar can play a big part in it as well and, along with this, people that can make posts that accurately describe and convey the scene. They don't have to be long posts, though I tend to be rather lengthy myself when it comes to more closed RP, but the posts need to be more than "So and so smiles at you." I'm certainly guilty of such posts myself, but I tend to only do such in a closed environment. As for spelling, if the person can't spell well, it tends to break my immersion (especially if it's really bad) by forcing me to try to understand what exactly was meant. To sum it up, just believable characters in a living, breathing world with people that you know and can trust. They don't even have to be like-minded, just capable.

I think conjury does, but you can expend your own soul to use it instead. It's very life-threatening, but I think it's possible? I can't say I'm 100% sure on that, though. Edit for afterthought: As for the gem thing, my caster has the gems either in the gloves he wears or he uses the enchanted ink, either through his book or as drawings he puts all over his body (discount tattoos) before going out on something he deems dangerous.

I'd definitely say to look as very little to gameplay as a roleplay platform as possible. As many people have listed above, while SE tries to make their game design decisions loosely fit in with lore (almost lazily so, imo), it never really translates well. If you look directly to gameplay for abilities, then you must also take into account that your character can really only do a handful of attacks. I like to think that our characters are far more lifelike and fluid and, rather than just doing the same three attacks over and over, can switch things up and improvise and use skills that aren't necessarily in the game itself. My casters, for example, use spells and things that aren't in game. I feel that this kind of improvisation is generally accepted and helps bring the characters, and the world, more to life. It also allows a great deal of fun and variety in combat-based RP as a whole. As for your question, yes, generally your character would need to be somehow trained in that skill. If they're really fit, you could perhaps balance it and say that they have the ability to mend light wounds, but it tires them out. Or maybe they're mediocre in both or something. It's really up to you and however you think you will have fun! When I try to "multiclass" or take on skills of different techniques, especially when it comes to a physical character having magical abilities, I try to balance them out by making one weaker than the other. It helps to add flavor to the character, I feel, and gives them a bit of a weakness to be exploited should others notice =)

Had a friend that is very high in the IT field sent me a huge list of new grad job opportunities since this is my last semester, all gaming related! Going to apply to them all and hope for the best ;-;!

You're awesome <3 drop me a line anytime

Hmmmm. But if, for example, the baseline were that 'everything in the wild is as dangerous as a Morbol', you'd still class all the characters at a much, MUCH higher general 'power level' than RL humans simply by virtue of being able to survive in that kind of environment. Right? Or, to put it another way... if the humans in that kind of world fought back against the monsters and actually came out on top, they would be at a much higher level than the ones who scurry around like rats trying not to get eaten. Even given wildly differing parameters, we can still use RL as a reference and understand that 'these guys are superhuman' even when the standard is that everything is at that same level. As I've said before, general rule of thumb is to keep those god tier NPCs/characters in a class of their own--a place that your character would likely never feasibly reach because they are not the main character of the story. They are of their own personal story, but what your character is doing is more or less a side quest. So think of the main characters in a FF game, and then the random characters you meet on the various side quests that ultimately can be strong, but not nearly as powerful as said main characters. That's what we play, or at least I personally feel that's what our characters equate to. Not everyone has to follow this, and I don't expect them to, but that's just how I consider it.

CTaPebuzzKQ

Val is Ryu Hayabusa.

No one is jumping down anyone's throat. People are debating. ...Huh. Well, maybe I've been reading a different thread.

Val is a 4. Cyrus is a 6. Vallois is a 5. Melfice is a 3, but only under certain circumstances, and as I've stated multiple times before, he's only there for plots that need a boss or people that need assistance with certain matters. I rarely ever, if at all, take him out in public.

Isn't that the nature of most fandoms? Star Wars is a big one? The fanbase is a HUGE proponent on a giant mass of that lore. I guarantee you Georgy didn't put in all that thought. Definitely. But without any definite truths, as Faye quoted just a moment ago, there's no reason to jump down each other's throats/be annoyed/snipe at people based on things that may or may not be true.

Pretty much this.

Have we, at any point, considered the possibility that SE said screw the lore and threw a bunch of races in a faction for the sake of variety? Not trying to make any direct claims or anything. Just.. you know. Throwing it out there.

Everyone's the MC of their own stories. However, the grand majority of the time no one is fighting anything, and no one is actively participating in any grand story. Such is the nature of public roleplaying. As such, the grand majority of time this entire thread is completely moot. It's only those rare one-off situations where someone is actually fighting someone else that this even matters. (Note that this sort of quibbling is why I don't participate in events like the Grindstone, and avoid RP-PVP entirely if I can at all help it.) But when the gloves come off, I prefer it if everyone is on the same playing field, otherwise we do get the situations where someone who's playing at MC-levels is facing off against someone playing at side-character levels and things just don't work out for anyone involved. It IS possible to have an ensemble cast of major protagonists and have it work, and I think that's the preferable way to go about things, rather than trying to mix everyone in without a baseline to go off of. However, that is simply my 'perfect world' version of events. Obviously, the reality is that we have a huge variety of PCs doing a huge variety of things at very different levels of competency, and that's just something we have to deal with. And my way of dealing with it is by placing 'weaker' characters at a lower level. Is that nice? No, but then again, neither is ignoring their existence entirely, which is something I see bandied about as a solution around here so often. They're background characters, which is fine, because the NPCs aren't alive enough to serve that role sufficiently, but I'm not going to bring myself down to their level just so that nobody butts heads or stands out from the crowd. AND THE THING IS - if nobody is OP, then nobody is OP. There's no point trying to homogenize everyone to fight against... heh... homogenization due to power creep or any such thing, especially when we already have a decent baseline to go off of. In the end, power levels are meaningless outside of the context in which they are used to further a story, and the constant quibbling over how OP one is allowed to be are just comical in the face of how little they matter in the grand scheme of things. The game clearly renders out these kinds of superheroics to be possible on a very regular basis now, so why are some so adamant about simply not allowing it? It's weird. I don't get it. If folks want to play NPCs, they can play NPCs. Just don't freakin' whine when I treat you like an NPC, nor join you in the effort, capiche? I'm fine with people not being as powerful as others. Why? Because it isn't a contest, as someone has said in the other thread (at least, I think it was the other one). When Val and Berrod first met, for example, they exchanged blows and were on par. They both won one and tied for their third, earning each other's respect. After a while, Val's story took him to helping Faye run the FC and being relatively unable to get as much combat in as he used to. Berrod, on the other hand, kept fighting and training. When they met and fought another time, Val found that Berrod far surpassed him, and I'm entirely okay with that. In fact, I expect it because it's realistic and it's simply what would happen. Another of my characters, Cyrus, is a knight in training. He's yet to find someone to actually teach him how to properly fight, and so while he can defend himself and is physically fit, he is largely without technique. Most fighters would take him out. I love watching people play normal characters, as someone else mentioned earlier about the random brass blade. I feel it adds more flavor. If I wanted to play a main character or something, I'd just.. you know. Play a game. I feel that one of the worst things you can do is try to make yourself the main character of anything. Yes, your character has their own personal story, but that isn't an excuse to make them super powered protagonist #whatever. I feel that it's respectful both to the community and the people you RP with to keep yourself, and your character, in check when it comes to limiting one's power. It's incredibly obnoxious otherwise, and when someone runs around wanting to mary sue themselves as the main character of whatever, they hopefully won't be surprised to find people don't want to do things with them. Edit: And let it be said I'm perfectly fine with losing fights so long as the other individual, in a non-rolled combat scenario, actually earns it. If they're not being realistic in their attacks or expect Val to stand there in a daze while they do some super somersault backflip and expect him NOT to try to move in the time they've given him, assuming he isn't already hurt or injured otherwise, they're going to be sorely disappointed. This isn't an anime. People don't stand still while you take six episodes to make an attack.

Correction: you are not. And that's perfectly okay. I, however, play the game with the assumption that Imogene is the main character of her own story. And I play her on the power level of a Final Fantasy party member. Then we'll have to agree to disagree. When everyone is a special snowflake, no one is a special snowflake

One day!! I hope We'll work something out soon, Franz! ONLY A FEW MORE WEEKS AND I'M DONE!!!!111oneone

A bunch of stuff. I'm actually not just fixed on Dragoons. I think that all skills should be taken in moderation unless we're just going to agree to RP anime #123807141. As for the rest of your stuff, we'll just simply have to agree to disagree =) You didn't advocate for moderation. You advocated for: I appreciate the attempt at shifting the goalposts, though. If you're unwilling or unable to answer any of my points then do feel free to 'agree to disagree' but realize that that is literally you being unable and/or unwilling to answer the points presented. As for us agreeing to disagree on you advocating for what is essentially someone telling others how to RP? No, sir, I do not agree to disagree. I avidly disagree and until someone can convince me with logic, facts, and sound reason otherwise; I'll always oppose that notion. I've seen what happens to a creative writing/Role playing community when thought policing and narrative denial is allowed to pervade; it's not pretty and I truly do not wish to see that happen here, unless an actual FF14 lore writer comes in and lays down some ground rules. I'm.. actually not telling people how they should RP. To be quite honest, all I was stating was my opinions on the matter. I would never tell people how they must RP. In fact, if I disagree with how people are RPing their characters, I will politely disengage or do my best to not interact with them as much as possible, or at the very least not get into any sort of lengthy thing/plot/whatever. I actually do have one character that is meant to be relatively powerful, and he's a boss-type character that is meant to help people in their plots. Has he been defeated? Certainly. Is he stronger than any other character I have? Definitely. Do I run around trying to get into fights on him with other characters? Nope.

A bunch of stuff. I'm actually not just fixed on Dragoons. I think that all skills should be taken in moderation unless we're just going to agree to RP anime #123807141. As for the rest of your stuff, we'll just simply have to agree to disagree =)

I could use some good combat RP. It's been forever since I had a nice, fun fight. I'd be up for it on most of my characters, honestly =) The only one I'd be uncomfortable doing combat on is Melfice. That out of the way, there's a lot of ways you can practice combat RP! My greatest tip is to make sure that you are as clear in your attacks as you can possibly be. If you're a physical fighter, make sure to denote limb position, stance, speed of the attack, proposed strength behind it, angle, etc. For ranged casters, really just try to describe the spell as well as you can, and the same for ranged shooting arrows and the like. One way, when I first started combat RP a long time ago, that we practiced was a minigame sort of thing. One person would post, then the other person would have to try to make a post longer than the previous, and then they'd respond and it had to be longer than that. It went on until the person couldn't best the other in the length of their post. It was meant to help us be more descriptive in our fights, and just all-around fun!

I don't think RP has to be 'fair'. It's not a competition. I feel quite the opposite. No, it isn't a competition, but yes, it does have to be fair. If someone runs around RPing a Midlander Super Saiyan, I'm going to ignore them. If a dragoon leaps into the air and rockets down at supersonic speeds, only to instantaneously change direction on a dime? I'm going to ignore them. Not only is it not "fair," but it is entirely against any sort of laws of momentum and physics ever. Yes, we have to distill belief of certain things when playing a fantasy game, but the laws of motion still exist. So let's please cease the fear mongering and realize that we (or our characters anyway) live in a powerful world filled with powerful people doing impossible things. Magic is prevalent and used in everyday life. Some nations have knights that leap through the sky and slay dragons while others having roving armored paladins who dispense justice and protect people and others still come from warrior lineages of fistfighters able to use chakra in ways that could probably cave in a small building. Does the enemy of a Dragoon have much to fear from said Dragoon? yes. But does any enemy of any $job have much to fear from said $job? Easily. The only thing I see as far as power is concerned are the main villains in the main quest and the main characters centered around them. Pretty much everywhere I've RPed--ever--it's been common courtesy to assume that those characters are in a tier of their own and your character is simply another individual living in the world. They're god tier. And if they're god tier, and the Ishgardian Elite are a tier of their own as well, then our characters wouldn't have the same power/skills they do. But that also means a line needs to be drawn or someone needs to figure out how to RP a caste of these elite properly. Everyone wants to be the emo Dark Knight, and everyone wants to be the flippy badass Dragoon. And I will agree that their powers are pretty cool, but I won't budge on their ability to not just dart forward over and over, and how a small, fast moving target can just jump out of the way (provided they see the dragoon coming in the first place). I suppose the balancing in that would be that other characters would also have super badass abilities, then, to counter it--which I imagine would be employed as they see fit. And then you have the people that use limit breaks as their personal special moves.