Verad

Study the commandments of others, and take notes.

This is a placeholder post to say that I think this is very cool and I'm glad you've posted this. I will have more substantive commentary later.

Validation is a crucial part of roleplaying in general, so much so that it could easily be renamed "Creative attention-getting," so that's no surprise. What you say about the idea of being able to roleplay a character "correctly" is really interesting to me, because I don't think the sentiment is all that different from many of the players here saying that playing canon characters is fine for others but not for them. Correctness is still a big deal, if all of the "Is this character kosher" threads can be considered a useful metric. Rather, it's correctness based on lore, rather than an individual portrayal. The difference seems to be one of scale and the unstated assumption that "in lore, I am not playing a canon character" which causes the divide. Regarding the idea of correctness and character, how do you do manage that when a canon character has a distinct lack of lore? To take Heavens' Ward players as an example, some of the Knights are well-established like Zephirin, Grinnaux, etc., but others have little more than a short blurb from the devs. How much does that influence how players portray these characters and how those portrayals are received? Is there more leeway than when one plays a better-established character like Haurchefant?

Please, please follow up on this and explain further. As the thread has shown, the RPC is mostly of one mind towards canon RPers, and I'd like to hear more from people who do like them about the draw, as well as some of the more complicated elements like how they handle characters that are canonically dead.

If your character is of a piratical or otherwise naval nature, we now have a set of rules to place you in command of a ship and do all the sorts of things we can't normally do in an MMO on account of being landlocked: Fate-14 Ship Rules These rules are currently in use in the storyline "Dead God's Chest," and will be a crucial component of upcoming plots as well.

Added! I will send you a PM with the relevant notes that others have received.

Due to OOC reasons I am pushing this Leve back to Friday, September 2nd, 8 PM CST.

From the depths, I rise. Balmung's RP community is generally one of the most receptive towards dice systems in RP that I've seen online in a while. Roll Eorzea is, as Osric mentioned, based on the FATE system. This system includes not only the gradual improvement of skills and abilities, but takes into account narrative elements about your character as a deciding factor for success. It is, however, a linkshell rather than a free company, and players are pulled from multiple FCs for these storylines. If you're looking for an FC that uses a roll system amongst its own ranks, I know there are a few that discussed adopting the ruleset Roll Eorzea uses, as well as a few others. Links to them will inevitably be forthcoming; I know for a fact there's another roll system specifically used by an FC that might work very well if you prefer something more like a traditional RPG than FATE. Finally, there is always the Grindstone and the Runestone, two popular smack-down-your enemy weekly tournaments that rely on a simple first-to-three /random roll. They can be a good substitute while looking for something more complex.

Arbitrator? I Barely Know 'Er! "I am looking for independent representation during my arbitration session with the Amajina & Sons Mineral Concern regarding the illegal acquisition of mineral rights to my land. My former representation resigned citing 'health concerns', and I suspect he was strongarmed into leaving. If you have experience with Ul'dahni law or a keen mind for business negotiations, please contact me at the listed address. Please help me keep the Syndicate from stamping down the common man! - F'thal Tia" When: Friday, August 26th, 8:00 PM CST 1. Haruko Kokojo 2. Leanne Delphium 3. Anstarra Silverain 4. Sukoa Dokusha Note: Players who have signed up will be assumed to have contacted the poster and received notes on the case. It will be possible to make rolls before the event to do preparatory work. Contact me via PM or in-game for more information.

Malin for Can't We Just Post Bail?

Presuming equivalence based on mechanics isn't a given considering how often roleplayers are willing to break from mechanics as a guideline for roleplay in other factors. I note that nobody presumes, for example, that everybody from Ishgard must be incredibly dangerous since they must all be at least 50+ to be there. I agree with you regarding weaknesses though. Include them if you plan to do something interesting with them. Don't include them out of a vague sense of point-buy fairness.

Everybody seems to be presuming equality of aptitude, so we've already tossed realism out the window.

Only if you presume that an RP community is completely interconnected and all characters must necessarily be having an impact on all other characters, however oblique that impact might be. Since the RP community is actually quite fragmented with many different smaller subsets of players never interacting with each other, or in some cases unaware of each others' existence, these concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Bumping and formatting.

Murder on the Dove, Malin Greaves, come on the connection is obvious.

No thank you.

Because there are players out there who see IC deaths as a mark of player skill and the statement "It is possible for my character to die" as an invitation instead of an option. I remember a lot of profiles from old RP chats which would include "I have killed this many characters" as a badge of honor.

Basically anything to do with the metaphysics of being turned into a Padjal beyond what we already know would mean having to bend backwards to make a six-month long plotline make sense, but otherwise I'm good. Verad is preparing to get mixed up in Ishgardian politics for Reasons, and the move to parliamentary republic is actually more of a boon than a bane.

1. I've killed many of my characters in tabletop, so much so that I have a reputation in my group for suicidal apathy, and I very much enjoy the idea of running a meatgrinder storyline in the vein of the OSR movement; I have yet to find many people who would agree. Online, I've killed a few characters. One was years ago in the wilds of AOL RP after a fight went bad, and he took his lumps and died. Life went on. Others have died as I deemed it appropriate to the plot. There was a post I made much earlier in my time on RPC where I said I rolled each month for Verad to abruptly die of old age, and the percent chance gradually increased. I eventually abandoned that, for reasons described in 3. But it was certainly in the cards, and it still is if I sign him up for a roll event where death is a possible consequence of failure. 2. Reactions were mixed, ranging from "I respect that had the guts to pull the trigger on your own character" to "How could you waste your own story like that?" 3. I'm conflicted on this, because I think most people are generally bad at killing their characters for roleplaying purposes no matter how much pomp and ceremony they put into it. I include myself in this; I look back at several of these deaths and feel that they were done mostly for my own self-aggrandizement in whatever plot was being run at the time. Even in tabletop, when the deaths were the product of bad dice, I had put myself in positions where I'd be the hero of the table if I managed to succeed. My ego was writ large in the decision and I suspect that's the case for a pretty significant number of dramatic roleplaying deaths, hence abandoning the death-by-old-age plan I'd originally put in place. Regarding the "unceremonious" part, I'm fine with that from my tabletop background, but I like to know at the start of the game if it's a possibility, and like to establish that it's a possibility if I'm the one running anything. Online, I think it's a contradiction; a sudden and unexpected death, however mundane the portrayal, becomes a big and shocking swerve because people either expect no deaths, or highly public, highly tragic ones. I'm not actually sure unceremonious death can happen at all online. I want to add a fourth question, though: All else being equal, why would you choose to kill your character over retiring them alive? For the purposes of this, set aside when the death may have some narrative impact, as Sasha is planning. I mean a situation like Virella's, where the character's story is effectively done, and there is no further progression to be made. At that point, what's the value of death over living retirement?

Papers, Trees Following an incident involving an undercooked pot of lentils and chestnuts stew, the customs outpost at Camp Tranquil requires adventurers to handle security and inspections while the resident Wood Wailers recover in convalescence. Workers will be expected to examine approved materials for signs of contraband, as well as ensure the safety of Hearers tasked with ensuring no cargo enters the woods without the approval of the elementals. Time: Friday, Jun 24th, 7 PM CST Avaliable Slots: 1. 2. 3. 4. Tags: [bureaucracy], [Gridanian]

I'll be available for the Open Action Blocks.

“You promised scrap and salvage, Bellveil. This is quite a lot of scrap and not a lot of salvage.” “My apologies for that, Miss Uro. Much of the salvageable material from the cache was given to a friend of mine for study. I could hardly say no. But I think you’ll find that everything in there is more than worthwhile for someone keen to study goblin engineering.” “Huh! You say that about everything you try to fob my way, but this is good enough just by the quality of the gears, I suppose. Usual trade? Just got a load of things in fell off the back of an airship.” “Did they actually fall?” “I suppose in a sense they did, yes. Lucky some of those sky pirates were in place to catch them, isn’t it? Go on and have a look.” “But of course, Miss Uro. Let’s see … ah, I like the cracked vase, that could be quite popular with some free companies I know who seek that ‘run-down and dilapidated look’. Oh, and - what’s the origin of that statue there?” “The totem? Said it was Vanu make. Supposed to be a warrior from ages past.” “My word, to think they used to look like paissa! It would be quite a find for the budding beastfolk historian. And - Oschon’s bunions, Miss Uro, what is that?” “What, that thing? Bit morbid, isn’t it? Said it was ancient technology or whatever, but you know how it is. Paint a few glowing lines on something and suddenly it’s an authentic wooden coin from ancient Allag or Amdapor or wherever.” “But I don’t see any glowing lines.” “Yeah, this one’s subtle, you just touch it here and - “ “Oh! My word! Very interesting. Do you know what it does?” “Mostly it upsets my customers when they look at it, is what it does, and you can see why. Haven’t tried using it. The people brought it in said it was a rejuvenation device, or preservation, or similar.” “Preservation? On what?” “People I suppose, but to use it you’d have to get in it, and you won’t catch me doing - “ “I’ll take it.” “What, that? It’s a mite large to sell at the Quicksand isn’t it?” “Quite so, Miss Uro. But this is for me. Just this. I think that’s a fair trade.” “Your - hah - your funeral, I suppose. I’ll have it crated and sent to your estate How d’you plan on using it?” “Oh, I don’t know. I could always stand to shave a few years off of my life.”

I think that's about right. I'm fine with Thordan being the first threat in 3.0, because it precludes looking for an easy out to the war. I'm also fine with Nidhogg being the final threat because it's established in 3.2 that unending grief and rage that cannot be sated has to be stopped in both the Ishgardians and the Dravanians, and as the symbol of that Nidhogg has to go. The Warriors of Darkness, however, could have been left out of that completely and we would have had much more time to deal with the particulars of the war, setting the WoD aside for a later patch.

I wish you had written it Verad Flattering, but I think you'd still be disappointed by the product. Whatever changes I made to the narrative and to the pacing of the story, I still would have arrived at the same conclusion, resolving the conflict by dismantling the authority of the church and reaching a tentative but genuine peace between Ishgard and the Dravanians. It's a good optimistic ending for the story, but it's a bit of a buzzkill for roleplayers. Edited to add: Did anybody find Alphinaud's shift in motivation for saving Estinien to be jarring? At the end of 3.2, he seemed resolved to doing so out of principle, rejecting the theses put forth by Matoya et al of sacrifices being necessary in the conflict. That's all well and good, but in 3.3 it seemed more like he was personally invested in saving Estinien like they were good friends, which had never seemed the case to me in 3.0. I don't know about anyone else, but I thought it was a jarring shift.

In the end, they didn't ask any of us how to write this, so what could it be but awful?