Lament

I'm on the prowl for RP myself, so I'll just answer your question re: avatar stuff! On the top right, click the arrow next to your username (next to your avatar). Click Edit Profile. The option to list server &c should be under "Additional Information".

I figured it'd be a great place to go to for dungeons, but wasn't sure about other kinds of progression (like FATEs, hunting log, mob grinding etc for leveling alt classes). But if it fits, I'll look into joining up tonight! My main issue is the number of alts - I was thinking of joining up on my current main, and then just swapping to others as needed, so they don't take up space. That does mean I may seem to be offline often, since I could be on a different alt. That sound ok?

Hi guys, I know there's Balmung's Finest for dungeon runs and raids, but is there a LS aimed specifically at getting to 50 (or helping people get to 50)? Do dungeons to progress story, defeat the easy versions of primals, group up for FATEs/mob grinding, help people with their hunting log etc? I know there are probably plenty of them in general, but I was hoping for something specifically for RPers. Maybe even some lighthearted, no-strings-attached IC runs of things? Help people figure their characters out as they level and such. As a latecomer to Balmung with a bunch of alts (seriously, I have all 8 slots filled), I keep running into problems when leveling - finding groups for low level dungeons and primals takes a long time, and as nice as it is to have level 50s helping out, it'd be even nicer to run with people who are also trying to level (or, at least, want some dungeon gear). I feel like a bother when I'm leveling my bazillionth alt all "hey guys uh can you help me with ifrit again". If there isn't one, is there any interest in starting one? I have no problems soloing, myself, but it does feel like the social aspect ends up... lacking. Plus, if we can sneak some RP in when leveling (though hopefully not mandatory) it can help make it fun rather than just repetitive.

I think it's pretty interesting how it contrasts. In Japan, the tendency is to have teenager protagonists even in works aimed at adults (such as Akira, or for a more recent example, Gareki). The themes become more mature, but the characters are still young. You'll be hard pressed to find a full cast of adults in anything that is aimed at kids, and it's pretty difficult to find even in works made for adults. A notable exception I can think of is Rurouni Kenshin, which was shounen (and thus aimed at teenage boys), but had an older protagonist. Granted, Kenshin is only in his late 20s - and he still feels hella old for an audience of teens. Like, grandpa status, almost. In the US at least, the tendency used to be to have adult protagonists even in works aimed at children (most superheroes are adults, Barbie is an adult woman, etc). Recently, perhaps influenced by the popularity of anime, there's been a new trend of teenager or kid protagonists in superhero type works aimed at kids/teens (e.g. Ben 10, Winx). Not very long ago, you'd have kids as protagonists of cartoons aimed at very young children (e.g. Care Bears) and grown people as protagonists of cartoons aimed at older kids (e.g. He-Man). So those things tend to bleed into videogames. Since this game was made in Japan, we'll be seeing the Japanese trends - young-looking characters, young-looking key NPCs, and so forth. Still, it feels to me like on a personal level, most people tend to RP characters who are close to themselves in age. Someone in this topic said you know you're getting older when you start RPing characters younger than yourself, and it's pretty true. Personally, I'm glad I didn't RP older characters when I was a teen - I would have done a terrible job of it, and people actually past their 30s would probably have cringed.

I agree, a big chunk of Eorzea's soldier population - veteran or no - would've died 5 years ago. Young soldiers would also have died, so it's likely the majority of fighters currently active weren't soldiers 5 years ago. It is reasonable to have so many green fighters around, if war claimed that many lives recently. But I also think it's reasonable to assume that most older, seasoned warriors would be in positions of leadership, and while soldiers are disposable, leaders generally aren't. Of course, some leaders will take a Raubahn-like approach to it (Raubahn would have joined the fighting if he had been allowed to; the Echo shows that pretty clearly), but some would be away from the front lines, commanding. They could have survived. Likewise, some veterans would have survived along with some young soldiers. We know it's possible for people to have survived the battle, given Merlwyb&company are still alive. As for why they wouldn't be there - any number of reasons, I think. Some people just aren't the war type. Some may have tried to get there, but Bahamut showed up before they could. Some could have been taken prisoner. Some could have the "let them handle it, we'll die anyway" mentality. There didn't seem to be any Ishgardian leadership at the battle, so anyone from Ishgard has an excuse by default. So there are ways to explain seasoned veterans, if you want to make one! I just think people tend to gravitate toward characters that are closer to themselves in age. I do agree that people like Gandalf, Louisoix and the Padjal would be a little too rare regardless. Mortality rates and retirement would place most soldiers aged 40+ out of the battlefield. 40 isn't old, but chances are you'll be dead, traumatized, or just tired of war and fighting by then. That said, I have exactly one teenager (and I have all 8 alt slots filled, because I'm a loser). I am too old and cranky to think teens are cool. ):

Indeed. Either way you have some really nice art there! Hope you can find some satisfying RP/art. c:

D: I'd love to be your RP art buddy, but... I'm on Balmung.

Does anyone know of any hidden lore treasure troves? The sites I've been using for lore so far: Gamer Escape and their quality wiki The Final Fantasy Wikia has several articles, but a lot of them are outdated and have only 1.0 information (still a good place to go to for 1.0 info) The official website, obviously The official lore forum's stickied topics Is there anything else out there? I often find myself wanting to look into the advanced jobs' lore (e.g. Black Mage, White Mage etc) but since I haven't gone through those quests yet and the info out there is vague/incomplete, there doesn't seem to be anything reliable.

My mind went there. I just thought I should let you know that. I have a hell of a time trying to follow very active chat, too. I come from a text-RP-don't-need-everyone-online scene mostly, so while I can keep up with big events in forums and the like because each bubble of interaction has its own separate thread, I have difficulty keeping up with fast-paced chat-based RP, too. It doesn't help I take my time with posts unless they're pure dialogue, so by the time I'm ready to respond, it's completely outdated. I put my characters in situations I want them to be in all the time, but I also try to think of some kind of IC situation that would push them toward it. If, for instance, I wanted my antisocial researcher type to be in a party, I'd have the party be useful to her research in some way - a contact would be there, or a potential sponsor wants to meet her there. My meek mercenary would attend if it was a bodyguard type job. But some people aren't that keen on always excusing IC activities with IC behavior, and that's okay too. I could just attend OOC and disregard the interactions as canon for my character, for instance. Or act completely OOC and just be there for the fun of it. I get the most out of one-on-one, 3 people, and 4 people RP. I don't mind being part of big groups, but I have difficulty interacting with everyone at the same time. I like long scenes and too many people end up making them take too long. That means I have no idea how to tackle these various issues. But hey, I'm plenty happy with my personal, small group RP. I probably would only lurk in big events, one way or the other.

I've no doubts that much of it is fanservice. However, it being fanservice doesn't exclude it from being part of the lore too. I wouldn't call Sun Seekers promiscuous. Sex has a cultural role for them. Promiscuity is likely not a concept to them, because the ideal of having a single partner for a lifetime doesn't apply to their culture. I figure Miqo'te prostitutes would be looked down on by other members of their race just like any other prostitute, but likely for completely different reasons. Instead of judging them for the sex itself, it'd likely be due to who it's with, and because it's not conductive to the continuation of the tribe. Hell, they're likely to frown upon monogamous relationships for the same reason.

I have a Miqo who was sired by a Tia and (according to my headcanon for her original tribe, which I am leaving up to debate just in case it conflicts with anyone's headcanon for their own tribe) this caused her parents to be cast out of the tribe, so she doesn't have a tribe consonant, or the name of her sire as her last name. Instead she has her given name. Since not having a last name would be inconvenient (she does mercenary work for a living) she took on her mother's given name as her last name. Her brother uses the father's. There are plenty of reasons why someone could have a name that doesn't fit the lore, so I vote to get creative! Alias, nickname, picked their own name... lots of possibilities.

The lore says that of a lot of advanced classes - first one since ever. People will adapt to the restrictions in different ways. It's fine to stick to it very strictly (I personally prefer to, too), but not everyone has to. Nobody needs to back anything up to the Lore Police. That being said, I stand corrected - not the skills of a dragoon specifically, but dragoon-like skills, at least. The moves, but little else. Although, one can consider that it is possible for a foreigner to be chosen by the Eye - just extremely rare - so if someone wanted to say they were chosen, they technically could. Again, I myself would not, but I wouldn't judge if someone chose to play it from that angle, either.

You probably can't be a Dragoon-the-title without actually being part of the Dragoon force from Ishgard, but you could have the skills of one, absolutely. Not getting into the... questionable nature of The Last Samurai, you technically could be foreign and a samurai, provided that you were actually, you know. A samurai, as opposed to someone dressed like one with the skills of one.

If both parties are consenting adults, they can do whatever they want, no matter what their body looks like. What people look like is the least problematic thing that could come up in a relationship, sexual or no. Things like lack of consent, objectification, emotional/physical abuse and so forth are much more problematic than having sex with a consenting partner whose body is different from yours. Of course, consent implies the partner is -able- to consent, so I wouldn't consider sex with a non-humanoid race problematic. Maybe weird, in the "I don't get how you can be attracted to that" sense, but not problematic. What is problematic is having sex with animals, since they can't consent to it. That being said, obviously if the size differences are too brutal, you probably can't have certain forms of sex without mauling the smaller partner, so you'd have to get creative. As long as both partners are consenting and happy, power to them.

This happened to me last night, as well. The line was: We thought it might be the length, since splitting the message worked, but yours is much shorter, so length may not be it. But since splitting the text worked, it's probably not words, either, unless I got lucky and split the message in the right spot (I split it after the period before "I'm sorry(...)"). One solution we thought of was to use something that I used to in IM RP - follow the end of any post with ((done)), or whatever your equivalent of OOC is, so that if there isn't a post before it, we'll know it was skipped. If you're doing open world RP with strangers it may be a little trickier, though you can always party up to say done in party while this isn't solved. I'll confirm it in the official forums, too.

According to the wiki, Ala Mhigo is in a region called Gyr Abania, which is between the Black Shroud and Garlemald, so it sounds like the Black Shroud would actually be the first stop for refugees. There may also still be some bad blood between Ala Mhigans and Gridanians since AM tried to invade Gridania roughly 100 years ago. Since Elezen are apparently very long-lived, many would likely remember the war and may not be as welcoming to Ala Mhigan refugees as they might be to refugees from other places.

If you'd like, you could have her family settle down in Ul'dah along with most other refugees. Ul'dah, however, is a brutal place for refugees and you can see lots of them are beyond poor, most without so much as medicine. It could be that her family had managed to bring some money/jewelry/etc with them (I imagine some refugees would have once been healthy and/or influential). If you like the idea of tragedy/having lost everything, her family could've eventually fallen into debt and lost everything they still had, and she could've used the last of the money to move to Gridania (I'm assuming the trip would be easier than a trip to Limsa, which is much farther away and accessible by ship or airship only). There are quite a few scenes/quests with refugees being abused in Ul'dah, as well as at least one scene that comes to mind of debt collectors threatening someone, so it's reasonable for her family to have met a less than savory end once they were no longer rich. That would probably give her a grudge against the way things are run in Ul'dah, though, which may not be what you're looking for.

1. I've seen some open world RP going on, which I didn't in other servers. There's likely a lot more going on in LSes/FCs/parties and such. I'd say yes, active. 2. 23 is reroll-able, unless you also got to 15+ in most other classes. The main annoyance right now is dungeons, since a lot of people in Balmung are higher leveled, so finding parties for low level dungeons (necessary to progress the story) can be hard. 3. Not sure I can answer this one, I agree with Siobhain though - it depends a lot on whether your character/rp style would fit in.

There is definitely nothing wrong with enjoying the surprises and the discoveries, and liking spontaneity does not mean you're putting your character above you or the other player. It just means you prefer to watch and see how things will develop and react to things as they come. That's just a different preference. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was pointing fingers at people who don't share or ask for info OOC! I was more reacting to the idea that everything that starts IC should be played out IC regardless of any OOC knowledge. If you know that something is (or isn't) going to happen OOC and you know that's going to upset you, then you are entitled to not RPing it out if you don't want to. And for the record, nobody should force you to share any info OOC if you don't want it to. You control the way you RP your own character. If you don't want to share, don't. If that means someone doesn't feel comfortable RPing with you, so be it. You shouldn't have to deal with things you don't want to, either. Of course, it does likely mean that you two will end up not RPing something out, but that's much better for both parties than either being forced to do what they don't like. People should RP in the way they like to, whether it's plans or spontaneity or both.

I think it's a pretty interesting premise! I would like to be able to offer, but I already have so many character concepts that it would probably be pretty irresponsible of me. It may be interesting for people who would be willing to play your character's brother to see some of Aidan first? Maybe some test, non-canon RP with your character to have an idea what he's like and such? I find that the better I know a character, the more comfortable I am coming up with a full concept for a relative. I also think three things would be relevant to know: One is to know if you are open to him not actually having murdered their father. This would encompass a great deal more possible concepts than if he did do it. The second is to know what their father is like (this would greatly affect whether or not a murder was justified, for instance). If he might've been abusive, or dealing in something shady, or terminally ill, or basically anything that could make killing him sound less... criminal. The third would be less plot relevant: a picture of Aidan. Sure, you said the player can decide what his brother looks like, but brothers will rarely look completely different (unless they're half brothers, or adoptive brothers). So if they are full blooded brothers, it's more likely they'll share traits, like skin color, or eye color, or hair color, or all of them. Height may also be similar. Do take my advice with a grain of salt, though. I like planning and I like making sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to playing relatives and joint plots. Characters don't need to know the same things, but OOC I think the players should have the same amount of information about the family background, to avoid unpleasant surprises (e.g. the other player building their concept around the idea that the father was a terrible man and nothing like you, ooc, imagined.)

Guilty as charged, but I feel like it is excusable when the heartbreak/drama would be more trouble than it's worth. To avoid it, I just generally check with the other player beforehand. If it's a no and I don't feel like it's worth it to have my character deal with a one-sided crush/the rejection that follows, I'll pass on having the romantic interest actually happen IC. And then they can be BFFs or rivals or enemies, and no harm done. I despise that. Hell, I don't even understand it. Heartbreak and drama are great things IC to encounter and overcome. They can be really great tools for character development. In my opinion, it is never worth metagaming to avoid something that should be played out IC. I'm never going to put my character above me or other players in terms of importance. They're not me, but they exist through me. If I don't want something to happen to my character because it'd upset me, because it'd be boring for me to play out, because it'd greatly affect the character to the point that I would be uncomfortable playing them and so forth, then I won't let it happen to my character. OOC comes first, IC second. I'd rather be a decent person than a decent RPer; my feelings and those of my RP partners come first. There's no point in everything making sense IC when OOC people are unhappy about it. I check in advance so that if there will be OOC discomfort, it doesn't ever need to happen IC. And even if something does happen IC, and then it turns out it's a huge mess and making people upset, I'm in favor of retconning it if everyone is fine with it OOC. Alothia and LiadansWhisper are absolutely right. Communication is key. You should never have to force yourself (or expect other people to force themselves) to RP something out if you don't want to, no matter how fitting it would be IC. Period.

Most likely because romance is often associated with sexual intimacy and... that can get awkward with that level of size difference. Of course, there are a variety of creative ways you can go about it in spite of the size difference, but I suppose most people just don't want to go there. It's sort of silly, when you consider dwarfism, though I suppose lalas' childlike faces don't help much (while people with dwarfism don't really look like small children). Personally, I don't see why not.

It would help you find people to RP with if you listed your preferences, I think. If you prefer fluff, or plots, or heavy character interaction, if you like drama, if you prefer cheerful lighthearted adventures, that sort of thing. c: And if you don't mind sharing, talking a bit about your character could help too.

Guilty as charged, but I feel like it is excusable when the heartbreak/drama would be more trouble than it's worth. To avoid it, I just generally check with the other player beforehand. If it's a no and I don't feel like it's worth it to have my character deal with a one-sided crush/the rejection that follows, I'll pass on having the romantic interest actually happen IC. And then they can be BFFs or rivals or enemies, and no harm done.

I agree that it is more reasonable, when approaching a group (or starting one), to not do so expecting other people to be secondary to your character. Groups require, by default, some level of compromise between every member to work. I'd say they require rules and a certain degree of 'group headcanon', too, to prevent conflict between members down the road due to contradicting storylines and so forth, if your group is more story-driven. If everyone in a group has an agreement to no super power, you can't join the group and expect them to break that rule just for you. Likewise, if your group is perfectly OK with you being important and having a bunch of powers, a new person can't just come in talking about how you're all wrong and so forth. Basically, I agree. Groups thrive on agreement and/or compromise. Conflict kills them. If you're the guy constantly off doing your own thing and never bothering to actually try to respect the group dynamics, you're the guy who needs to go.