Rhio

Really! The imperial unit of mass is the slug, which has fallen out of common use as the scientific community has largely moved over to the metric system. Most people will refer to mass as if it was weight under metric as well, since the equation for measuring mass is fairly simple (measure force and divide by acceleration due to gravity, which is 9.83 m/s^2).

I can show you the world, Or what's left after Bahamut wrecked it; Tell me, stranger, When did you last lay eyes on Ul'dah? Climates shifted and changed, Rivers were redirected, The Primals waken, But ships still dock in Limsa Lominsa. A whole new world; All our adventurers are dead, But that was years ago! You ought to know Your odds are better yet.

Weight is the result of the force gravity exerts upon your body mass. Due to the strong gravitational force of the planet, weight is constant on the Earth's surface and provides a constant force pulling you downward toward the planet, meaning in essence that you are always exerting a force equal to your mass multiplied by acceleration due to gravity. The metric unit for weight is the newton, the imperial unit for weight is the pound. A common misconception among Americans is that grams measure weight, when in fact they measure mass. Thus, while your mass in kilograms would be constant if you moved from the Earth to the moon, your weight in pounds would not. If you need weight explained further, I'm sure I could offer some suggestions.

I somehow missed previous drives, but I wanted to make sure this one got funded well and quick.

After seeing this yesterday I wound up having an extensive dream revolving around Nel last evening. I think I need to step away from this thread; it was intensely disturbing.

Seconded. I am totes jealous.

Rhio probably won't be able to go, but it might be a good event for Mal and his wife. Looks like fun.

... My first pet was a female cat. I broke the system.

every girl crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed cat

I. Basic Info Characters: Rhio Aldul, Marice Foxe (others possible in ARR) Primary character: Rhio Aldul Linkshells: Many former, none presently. Primary RP linkshell: See above II. RP Style Amount of RP (light, medium, heavy): I'd generally classify myself as a heavy roleplayer, but it's unfortunately not terribly descriptive to say all by itself. The fact is that I tend to be pretty method with my characters, focusing on their individual personalities over my own; however, at the same time I don't like to be inaccessible OOC. (I've written about a million columns emphasizing the need for OOC communication, so it's obviously important to me.) This also combines with the fact that I am a semi-public figure, so there's a certain amount of necessary break from immersion right there. All that having been said, I'm in-character unless there's a compelling need or reason not to be in a given scene. Nor am I averse to the occasional OOC aside in the middle of a dramatic scene, because someone has to break the tension. Views on RP combat and injuries: When it comes down to straight PvP or text-based dueling, I think there are cases to be made for both. The former has a role when a fight is supposed to be somewhat random, possibly a contest of equals, and when consequences for failure are fairly light. The latter is more important for scenes where the outcome matters, especially when used correctly to elaborate upon your character's traits as a whole. It's not whether or not you win, it's how you try to win. Injuries are a natural outgrowth of any environment wherein people are swinging sharp bits of metal at one another. It should always be the subject of OOC discussion first, but adding some lasting injuries adds a lot of flavor to characters and roleplaying. It's just a matter of communicating with the player first and making sure that you won't be crossing a line. Views on IC romance: Considering how many entanglements my characters in various games have had over the years, I'd be a hypocrite to say I was opposed to it. As I mentioned before, I tend to go for method acting when I'm playing my characters, which often means they form attachments and attractions that I don't share myself. The important thing is making it clear that these are not my own feelings in the slightest; while I usually like the people behind the characters (otherwise I wouldn't be roleplaying with them) I've been in a happy relationship for eight years now and don't really look to change that. OOC communications become key here, as it's almost mandatory that both parties be aware of what's going on with the other one and where any uncomfortable lines might lie. If Rhio winds up attracted to someone who's uncomfortable with the idea, I'll gladly step out of her shoes and quash that by fiat. Played properly, romance leads to a much more engaging roleplaying environment because there's something actually at stake. Played improperly, romance either becomes a tumorous element that subsumes everything else about the character. The trick is, just like everything else, making sure that your character has dimensions beyond lovelorn. Pining after someone is well and good; doing nothing else is another matter. As far as steamier content goes, I'll just say I favor a modest fade to black and leave it there. I'm well aware that my characters have a life between the sheets, but I've no need to be quite that method. Views on non-romantic RP (family ties, etc): Just as romance is a major element in roleplaying, the lack thereof is important as well. None of us go through our lives with nothing more than significant others; we have family, friends, rivals, bosses, and the like. Roleplaying encompasses all of those relationships in turn. One of my personal preferences is to avoid soap opera syndrome, where every relationship is one filled with dramatic moments. Quiet friendships, low-key rivalries, and even mild dislike feels far more true to life. Cultivating people my characters actually want to just be around is an important element of roleplaying, a chance to create long-standing IC friendships that feel organic rather than forced. Views on lore: There are two sides of lore, when you get right down to it. There's continuity, which is the part of lore that tells you exactly what happened when in varying degrees of detail. Then there's feel, which is the part of the lore that establishes what makes sense in the game world as a whole. Continuity is inevitably filled with holes, because there's no way to create an absolute history of a fictional setting. Within those holes, there's plenty of space to add to or expand upon the existing lore of the game; Rhio, for example, traveled to places beyond what has been explained in the lore, but she avoids mentioning them by name. The key is ensuring that whatever you do to add upon the existing lore is still grounded in the same feel of the game, that whatever blank spots you choose to work within still carry the same basic essence of the core work. Something that flat-out ignores or defies the lore is right out. Something that's working within the established framework but expands upon unseen elements is perfectly fine, so long as it matches the tone of the existing lore. Views on chat functions (/say, /linkshell, etc): I always do most of my roleplaying in /say and /emote, since that's how characters would logically be communicating. If characters are meant to be somewhere other than their physical location - inside of a house, for instance - /party is a better option. /shout is usually off the table, and /linkshell is, well, linkshell chat - it's audio communication over long distances. III. Other Info Country: United States Timezone: EST Contact info: Private messages are fine. Email is fine. Posting a message on the front page saying "HEY RHIO!" is fine but probably excessive. I write a whole lot of things that are published on a regular basis; my contact information floats around everywhere. [align=center][glow=blue]~Special announcements can be found in the posts below~[/glow][/align]

Edit: Most of the discussion here has been gutted and with legitimate cause. So I'm gutting this post as well. It was pretty boring, really. Except for the part in the middle about free motorcycles.

Don't worry; you'll get plenty of time in 2.0 to roleplay and start getting all associative with your character. It's not as creepy as it sounds.

I think it depends a lot on how relevant it really is for your character. So, more or less a matter of having a specialty or two and a variety of other fields of study that just aren't as important in the grand scheme of things. One of those enforced bits of gameplay and story segregation, like how your character doesn't suddenly become dumber when he switches from Thaumaturge to Marauder.

See, I don't know that this is necessarily the same for everyone. I'm definitely looking forward to all of the new things that start at level 1 and go from there. I've got several classes midway along the leveling path, as well, so there's going to be plenty for me to do on my non-50 options, and I've got an entirely new class to play as well. I also do intend to roll a couple of new characters along the way, to see things new from the ground up. But starting over entirely is something I couldn't do, because that would mean leaving behind a character at the end of the old game. Leaving behind a character whose story ended with her alone, separated from every single person and place she loved, waiting for death in the desperate hope that it would give her life up to that point some meaning. You can argue that recreating her would be fundamentally the same, that I could just fudge it and say it's the same person, but she'd be missing possessions that matter, a history that matters, the time I spent playing her from launch until the game went cold and dark. Starting fresh is really neat. But I'd rather be exploring a strange and yet familiar world with an old friend.

Yeah, I need to fix Rhio's height a bit as well. (She's tall for a miqo'te, but she's still short in the grand scheme of things. I aimed a bit too high despite that, mostly because everyone in a Final Fantasy game is tall by normal human standards.)

I've never liked handwaving things with the Echo; I assumed that Louisoix pretty much sent every living non-Garlean on the field forward, because even John Failspear the Level 0 Crowd-Surfer is going to do more good in the distant future than the immediate future. (The immediate future at that point consisted of getting killed by Bahamut.) By my reading, at this point Louisoix had a lot of power without a lot of scope or time. He had the physical strength left for one more cast (funneling the power of gods through a mortal body is always going to result in some serious fatigue, just like running 10 gigawatts through a 6 watt fuse), and he had to make it count. So he scooped up everyone in range and shoved them forward. Of course, that's only half a step away from assuming everything just works at the speed of plot. (Who did he pick to send into the future? All the people that got sent into the future. Doy.)

Welcome back! Man, I ain't got no cred to welcome anyone back.

I believe this discussion chiefly concerns beta server selection, not live server selection. We've been told that the final server list will likely contain a server designated as the RP destination, and all players will be given the option to transfer as they wish, so I believe at that point life will be somewhat more straightforward. That having been said, I could be wrong.

This was one of those things mentioned back in the day that I'll believe when I see. Assuming it does come to pass, however, I can only hope that piloting one immediately plays the obvious music. Or, if that's not available due to copyright concerns, I have another suggestion.

At this point there are traditional racial names, traditional regional names, and just plain names. Rhio Aldul's name is a traditional miqo'te given name and a traditional Ul'dahn name, both of which have undergone major changes in spelling over a long period of time. (Her given name traditionally was produced through a light rumble in the back of the throat similar to a purr followed by the vowel sounds, which was best approximated through "R'hio," with the apostrophe dropped over time. Her surname originally was written "al-Dhul" and has retained the same basic sound while the transliteration has grown simpler.) I think that more important than having a fully normal name is having one that sounds roughly correct for the character and background. My given name is Scottish despite the fact that I'm pretty unambiguously not Scottish, but no one ever asks me what a man with a French family name is doing with a Scottish given name. Actually, most people just ask me how the heck to pronounce my last name, but that's not the point.

I always get self-conscious about these, but at least one of these songs grabbed my by the throat when I first heard it and screamed "THIS IS A RHIO SONG." So whatever. Character Theme: Mumford & Sons - Hopeless Wanderer [video=youtube] Instrumental: Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan - Bustle of the Capital (composed by Naoshi Mizuta) [video=youtube] Suddenly, a Musical: Mieka Pauley - All the Same Mistakes [video=youtube]

For however much it helps, for many of our characters, we didn't really experience most of it firsthand. As far as Rhio's concerned, it's been like ten minutes.

Without breaking NDA, there are three big things that happened about five years ago... 1) Aether got all bent out of shape. This was happening already before Bahamut's arrival, and the landing of Dalamud did nothing to help matters. 2) Huge and immediate changes were made to the landscape. Rivers shifted course, forests burned, dams broke, and so forth. We've seen some of the extensive damage already from preview screenshots, and watching the end of an era made it clear that ain't nothing getting by without scratches. 3) The adventurer population dropped off immensely. This might not seem like a big deal until you remember that adventurers were the people going out and ensuring that wildlife remained small, manageable, and non-threatening. All those leves you did in which you ensured that no miteling stepped within a hundred yalms of Gridania? Yeah. As a result, while Bahamut may not have summoned a big Monster Convention and told everyone to go wreck things, he was arguably directly responsible for the huge changes to landscape and environment that prompted a monster population encounter. The last five years have featured monsters getting more aggressive partly because they've just had fewer restraints.

I get paid to talk about roleplaying in a broad sense; this is just the narrower single-target version.

Heck no. If no one knows your character IC, the players might not be used to the name change, but until you start interacting with others in a strictly IC sense you don't have to feel stuck with a name you don't want. Once you're in-game and interacting canonically, as it were, you're locked in. But until it's been put on the record, anything is subject to change. Nah, I already have people who pay me. I show up here pro bono.