Lament

I did IC runs a few times - usually cut it close with the timer, yeah, but 90 minutes for low level dungeons tends to be enough. Entering the dungeon tends to be what takes the longest, so there is also the possibility of going in, RPing the first part of the scene, then going out/back in for actual running.

Sure! I was thinking of mostly going with low level dungeons for the inclusive factor, and also because if we have themed runs like underwear/bikini etc you can still avoid getting butchered.

It'll take me a little bit to finish this (and the other requests! I'm sorry!), but here's a WIP:

I'm not sure about its size, but try checking The Travelers' Guild out. It's an EU FC, too.

Will do! 10PM-3AM is fairly close to my times, I just get on a bit earlier.

I CANNOT FIND ANYONE (that I haven't gotten in touch with yet) D: Seriously, I wrote names down on paper and every so often I try to player search for you guys, but no dice. I'm sorry! ): Please bother at will if you see me! I'm always looking for RP (still looking mainly on Maliqa), and I have a new alt (SHHH), Nanaya Naya (see first post). Also! My hours are about to change. Daylight savings come into effect in my country midnight today - I'm usually GMT -3, so I'll be the equivalent of GMT -2. This usually lines up with daylight savings ending in the US, so instead of an hour ahead of EST, I'll be 3 hours ahead (when savings end there). I'll actually be on earlier and leave earlier (which still isn't very early) from now on - from around 7 PM eastern to 1-3 AM eastern (sometimes later). This until daylight savings change again.

Oh psh, no worries! I'm actually about to get daylight savings (tomorrow) and you're about to have it end, so we'll end up being 2 more hours apart (I think 4 hours total?)... and I'll be around earlier, for you. It works. Instead of 9 PM EST I'll be online around 7 PM EST or so. And besides, more RP is always good in my book. Branch away!

I know that you said most, but! I'd just like to address this: When I started, I preferred private (I do public now). I have a tiiiiny bit of social anxiety, and I got nervous about RPing with everyone listening in. Now, though, that's subsided. It wasn't so much not wanting others to butt in, it was more a fear of being judged/messing up. Doing things in public can be hard for some folks. I've also taken RP to private venues twice before: once when someone was being an IC troll, completely breaking the immersion in an otherwise serious scene; once when my character was going to make a very rude remark about a lively conversation behind her, and I felt it could disrupt their RP. I can also understand private RP happening in Linkshells/party chat/tells when characters are physically apart, since... well, they're physically apart.

Yeah. Obviously, if others want variety too, then awesome! But sadly, if it doesn't happen, it's better to try for greener grass elsewhere. I understand the frustration, though.

Haha, not at all Some people just read very quickly. I used to do that as well, but I was never able to speed read AND absorb everything I read 100%. Annnnd I aaaaam wary *flail* Doesn't mean that I can't ham it up with the best of 'em though lol. Tease I say.

You make a good point, but we are not asking for someone to go about and deem who should play what. Variety is the spice of life. That's how I feel. When everyone does the exact same thing, and are happy-well, then were all happy then. But were not robots or machines. Variety is what keeps people playing, and if something get's too saturated with a certain type-it ruins the experience and chances for everybody in the long run. You may love Taco's a lot, and eat Taco's constantly, but sooner or later your never gonna wanna touch them again. No matter how many styles you try of the Taco, it will be the same everytime in some way or form. And you will burn out. I can't tell what's going to happen in the future-I Just hope that the community doesn't die due to what I have seen. Atleast on Gilgamesh. Saying variety should exist is implying that it's not OK for it to not exist. It is, if everyone's happy about that. Saying there should be balance is, yes, telling people they shouldn't all be playing the same thing. If you like variety, be the variety (which you are). Others won't necessarily follow suit. Variety may keep you playing, but it's not necessarily true for everyone else. People are entitled to playing the same old thing endlessly if they want to. Implying it's the natural state of things is a little exclusionary, to be honest. I, too, prefer variety. That's why I have seven alts rolled, all with different personalities. Some people do not, and ultimately, RP is as much an individual experience as it is a group one. And if the community dies due to a lack of variety - not much that can be done about it. Again, expecting people to play what they're not comfortable with leads nowhere, and would kill the community just the same. If you're not enjoying the RP you have, find something more suited to your tastes. If there's nothing, start something. If there's no interest, try another server. If that doesn't work either, what can you do? Sometimes you just can't find people you mesh with. It happens.

Yup, respect to your fellow players is my only general rule for good RP vs bad RP. I also agree that it's at least courteous to acknowledge someone new coming in - even if my character is likely to ignore them completely, I tend to at least emote that my character is unaware/ignoring/uncaring of the new person in the conversation - or, depending, send the player a /tell to say they're welcome to join in. If my character is hostile for any reason, I also like to communicate OOC to say my character is an ass, but you're welcome to interact. I also tend to check in advance/ask for permission when my character is likely to rudely butt into a conversation, since that can be pretty disruptive. It's only polite, and you could be helping a new person still trying to fit in! No matter how rude your character is IC, there's no reason to be an ass OOC. That said, I'm with Vito - I prefer small, consistent groups, with some occasional random interaction to spice things up. I generally start by throwing all my characters around to find interactions with good chemistry, then narrow things down to a group of steady relationships. I also love little ongoing storylines - helps character grow closer together (or hate each other more!) and I thrive on character relationships. I like my characters to grow with and through others.

I'm on Balmung, so my experience may be different. I think people's preferences are extremely personal, so it's hard for me to judge why someone would gravitate more toward 'lawful' characters, so to speak - but in all honesty, I don't see it too often. Yes, there is an abundance of decent folks being played, but I also see a lot of characters who are likely closer to the 'neutral' side of the spectrum. Criminals in general, I agree, tend to be rare - but perhaps folks are just uncomfortable playing them. Crime isn't really a positive thing IRL, and the focus tends to be on the heroic types in fiction. Personally, I find that more neutral/morally fluid characters tend to get the most opportunities for RP, so that may also be a factor. That said, I don't think there should be balance. People should RP what is fun to them, and if that means everyone is a goody or everyone is a baddy, then so be it. If everyone wants to be lawful good and someone tries to enforce a balance, it means some people will have to be something else - and will not be happy about it. No point, then.

The Grindstone hosts two weekly open world RP tournaments in Soot Creek bridge just outside of Ul'dah at Wed/Sat 10 PM EST. There are usually quite a few people hanging out there. Otherwise, there's frequent open RP in taverns (most notably the Quicksand and Coffer & Coffin in Ul'dah, seen it in Limsa and Gridania too). I don't really have any FC recs (at the moment, I don't have one), but I am putting together a fairly non-restrictive RP LS with an IC premise that can be summarized as "get sponsored, do mercenary work in exchange". Basically they can pay for your travel expenses and such (good if your character is seeking to do good for no pay) and in exchange you do jobs for them, like hunt monsters, collect pelts, what have you. I'm hoping to have scheduled IC stuff starting on the 26th, but until then we've been doing some random RP with each other, unrelated to the IC premise. Here's the LS hall entry, if you're curious.

Is... is it bad I read it in a minute and the song had 4 left to go D: 'Twas a lovely read. And you say you're wary about IC romance? What a tease you are, sir.

Largely curious what you guys think! Halloween is on a Thursday, which is also a scheduled RP day for my linkshell. I was considering having it be an IC dungeon run night (we have few people, so we can reasonably pull this) - mainly Haukke Manor, which seems perfect for it and is reasonably low level (28+) to fit as many people as possible. Someone also suggested Dzemael Darkhold, for the higher leveled (44+) players. It wouldn't need to be "canon" IC (as in, it doesn't actually need to have happened to your character). Could be a dream, or retconned, or just for fun. Likely we'd have an IC excuse for it - like a treasure hunt with big rewards. Anyway! This is likely a thing we'll do, but it sounded fun enough to pitch the idea to everyone else. And! A friend of mine was running dungeons/Primals in swimsuits with his FC mates, which sounded like fun, too. So how would you guys feel about holding a biweekly (or monthly?) 'event' for IC dungeon runs? It could have some themes, for fun - run a spooky dungeon for Halloween, run a dungeon in underwear (probably a low level one to avoid horrible death), wear a certain color, wear a silly hat, anything you can think of. And then figure out an IC excuse for your character to be doing it (if they need one). Or it could just be a more serious thing without the themed elements, for those who prefer that (but personally, I think themed is more fun - you can do IC runs anytime, but only in an event would a massive amount of people wearing swimsuits gather in front of Sastasha). It could start at a specific hour and just go on as long as there are people still wanting to run. Could probably happen Friday so as to not overlap with the Grindstone tournaments, and allow people who don't work/study Saturday to stay up for it if they want to. :oa (For plot purposes, I can say this would be sponsored by the IC organization behind my LS, as needed. I'll probably do this regardless for LS members, so!)

Sure! Might as well, to get that rust off. I need to finish the current requests first though! If that's OK.

Thanks to those who expressed interest! We have 12 people so far. I'm hoping to be able to get some RP going by next week. c:

i'm only marginally sorry

Dude, that's absolutely fine! You discover lore as you go, and just adjust your concept. Ishgard is a very strict country, but it's not a sin if you need to twist the lore's arm a bit. If your character has leave to travel (I imagine it'd be difficult to get leave, but screw that), he wouldn't be hunted down. If you're still leveling, you should start doing quests near Ishgard after the Titan storyline. Chat with NPCs in Coerthas, it'll give you an idea what it's like there.

A minor thing - but Keepers are said in lore to typically group in small communities of a few families. It's very likely each community has its own hierarchy/structure/customs, with some similarities between them. I mean, the one Seeker tribe we see spits in the face of lore, with the Nunh also acting as leader (which lore says is rare). It's safe to say even among Seeker tribes there may be variety in societal roles, and there are only twenty-something of them. There are probably countless more Keeper communities, so really, you can pretty much make up your own headcanon and run with it. Keep in mind humans are all the same species, yet we've managed to fragment into countless different cultures, and then subcultures within those cultures, and then groups within those... we may all be driven by certain primal instincts (eat, drink, breed, sleep, survive), but how each culture will approach them is different. Few males does imply fewer breeding options, but there are so many ways it could play out that I don't think one's more right than the other.

I'm not sure if you're following the game lore, but a bit of advice if you are: dragoons who abandon the cause (the war against dragons)/leave Ishgard are branded heretics, and typically hunted down for execution. Ishgard is isolationist at this point and doesn't much care about the rest of Eorzea. If he's still in good standing with his home country, you may want him to have special leave or some such to be wandering. If not, then please ignore me. c:

It may help if you mention what he does/where he is currently living (or if he's nomadic). For instance, the LS I'm working on sponsors adventurers, mercenaries, crafters etc - but a rich sort may not have use for their sponsorship. So knowing what he does for a living would help figure out if he's a fit for it, or other LSes. c:

Cool! c: I'll try to find you in-game. Edit: Found!

I don't have a FC, but mercenaries could (?) be interested in the LS I'm trying to put together, Wings. Basically, it's an "adventurer's association" with well-paying jobs that will sponsor you. You need to be an affiliate, but as long as you can finish the jobs they ask you to, you're good.