Verad

Somewhere in the Silver Bazaar, many years ago: "What is it?" "Nothing." "You're sure?" "Y-yeah, Cor, I'm sure." "A'right then." A minute passes, marked only by the scribbling of a quill. "Dam-nation, Verad, why are you just standing there?!" "What?! I'm sorry!" "You should be! I'm trying to work and it's damned difficult if you just stand there staring at a person. At least step into the lantern, would you? Like you're about to pounce out of your cave, I swear." "I'm sorry, Cor, I'm sorry! I was being quiet!" "It's the staring, boy. You stare louder'n a gunshot. Now what do you want?" "I'm just bored, Cor, that's all." "And?" "And that's it, I'm just bored." "So much so that you're standing in the dark watching me scribble in the ledger. There's no more books?" "You've only got the dozen, and Godwald's out in Drybone, so I can't borrow from him." "And you can't just go out and play? Find some other kids and - " A pause. "No, right, I suppose you can't. Fine, well. Fine. Hrm. Let me see - I think I have something, just a moment . . . yes, here we go. Try these." "Knives?!" "Yeah, knives, so be careful with them. Hold them like that, right - no, that's too low on the grip. Right, there. Square your shoulders, and stab with the right - good. Like that. Now go do that a thousand times and come show me after." "W-what if I cut myself?" "Then it'll be more interesting than watching me write for both of us. Now go on!" The small, padding footsteps of a child fade away. "Watching me write, of all things. Odd kid. Can't even cook the books in peace anymore."

I'd suggest starting to treat character development and roleplay more like a picaresque than a standard rising and falling narrative. Go along for a ride in other people's stories. Rather than see how their plots change your character, see how your character changes their plots.

[align=center]Notice of Reprimand [/align] [align=center](A crude caricature of a Brass Blade wagging his finger at the reader is beneath, along with a series of symbols directing the bearer to conduct the letter to a public reader in the event of an unlettered recipient.) [/align] Be it known that Malin Greaves of the Order of the Orchid is hereby found to have committed the following offenses in the course of her duties (List all below): Jurysdyctionale Overreach Chonduckt unbec Ymproper beehayv Acting lyke a ryght pricke Assaultyng Swohrne Members Of The Rose Off-duty use and damage of Offyciale Eqypment Following an investigation by Officers of the , we have determined the following disciplinary action to be appropriate: (An exhaustive list of punishments follow. Some of the more obscene ones have been circled once, then rapidly crossed out. "Chocobo Stable Duty" was obviously selected several times, but the only clearly selected action appears to be "Central Administrative Duty for Observation") For a duration of untyl wee feel lyke lettynge you go. Signed, (The signatures of several senior officials in the Brass Blade administration are included, as well as that of Captain Longhaft of the Order of the Orchid. All of these signatures were obviously stamped onto the paper). [align=center]* * * [/align] The chirurgeon Malin had hired to tend her injuries was far from the finest money could buy, but “finest” was relative here. To a rich consortium head, he’d been nothing, but to Malin, who’d had to pay out her leve earnings and dip into Donnell’s savings, he’d been more than worth it. He’d cleaned and sutured the ragged cuts along her thighs and hips with the assurance that scarring would be minimal (about which he was probably wrong, but she supposed assurances came with the fee), and had, in addition to a few poultices to be used in avoiding infection, prescribed half a cheap bottle of wine nightly for the pain, to last the week. For that alone he’d been worth the housecall. When the notice arrived from the Blades’ central administration, neatly crumpled in her flat’s mail slot, she’d chosen to double her evening dosage; that, in addition to pasting the paper on the wall opposite her couch and flinging darts at the image of the scowling Blade that served as “official” notice imagery, served as a good bit of evening’s entertainment. Most of her shots missed, but one managed to hit the fellow in the hand that was wagging its finger at the reader. She took some comfort from that. She knew this was nobody’s fault but her own. If she had been clearer-headed, she likely wouldn’t have confronted the Horizon Blades as they went through their usual roughing-up-the-merchants rigmarole. And she had no particular reason to believe the merchant was an innocent victim. Merchants paid her coin; she knew exactly how rotten they could be. But no, a few gashes from the thickshells around the Footfalls, cutting through her haubergeon and getting saltwater in open wounds, and suddenly she was tackling members from the Orchid, pulling rank and shouting threats. And for what? The man’s cargo was still in Horizon and he was as likely to be swindled by the Blades - or to be fair, swindle them in kind - as if she hadn’t said a thing. And then, she realized with a shudder in the midst of prying the darts out of the notice, hiring the adventurers on top of all of that. Sending them out to get information on a Monetarist of all things. All well and good for the adventurers considering most of their ilk hated the Monetarists and Syndicate on principle and were generally immune from consequence, but as a class they were rarely subtle, and their knack for gathering information could be likened to a stampede of Aurochs with irritable bowels - able to get where it was going but leaving the worst possible mess in its wake. Whoever Fufutilo Keketilo was, he surely had enough power to make Malin’s life a hell if he found her nosing around in his business. She took a drink, slumped back in her couch, and lined up a dart for another throw. If her aim was true, maybe she’d hit the crotch. The front door opened a hair too quickly, slamming into the wall since the stopper had long since been removed. The dart landed in the wall a point some half-fulm from the notice, and Malin blamed the shot going wide on the noise rather than the drink. “Gosdammit,” she snarled, the words slurring together as she looked over her shoulder. “Couldya at least - “ She squinted, narrowing bright blue eyes. “Donnell? You’re on . . . shift though, righ’?” “Mm.” Her husband had entered the front room at a brisk pace, still wearing his garish blue retainer’s coatee. “There’s a sixth-bell left on this venture, and I’ve come up empty.” He passed into their small kitchen area, and started sifting through the cupboard near the stove. “Do we still have that dried fish from last week?” “Wha? Yeah, I think, third shelf - “ Realization dawned, and she groaned, pressing her hand against her cheek. “No, Don, just - no, okay? Not our stuff tonight. Just go grab some’un’s lawn ornament and hand it over.” “Would that I could, love,” he replied, making an “ah-ha” of triumph as he found a skewer of dried fish where she’d indicated. “Would that I could. No time tonight.” He passed into the living room again, bending to the side to peck Malin on the cheek. “Another three bells, I think. No more wine, all right?” As he rose up, he noticed the paper on the wall, the image of the Blade glaring back. “What’s this?” “Reprimand.” Malin scowled and gave a small, wobbly wave of her hand. “Filin’ paperwork in the city now.” “Oh.” He scanned over the notice, mouthing out the words. “Until they feel like . . .this is indefinite?” Her scowl deepened. “Try not to sound too happy about it.” “Yes, more time with you in the city when you’re not recuperating instead of at Highbridge. What was I thinking.” He shook his head. “Later. We can talk then. All right?” He was through their door, dried fish in hand, before she could raise any protest. Malin sighed while rubbing her temples. He was right, of course, or at least she knew she ought to think he was right. The two of them hadn’t had a lengthy stay together since all the incidents with those Ishgardian rosaries and the No-Eyed Man nearly two years ago. By all rights she should have taken this as a blessing. And yet. And yet . . . what? And yet nothing, there was nothing she could attach to that. Just “and yet.” That was all she needed to be dissatisfied. Wounded and out of action, stuck in a bureaucratic mess of a punishment until further notice? Filing papers when she should have been out on the Highbridge frontline, out where the Blades shined the brightest. Instead she would be nothing but a shipping agent, filing arrests, sorting out jurisdictional disputes, reading customs notices . . . Hm. She reached out for her bottle, silently apologizing to Donnell for not listening to him. But it appeared there was a blessing to this after all.

Put me in as a reserve for Brass Blade Bullies on Malin Greaves. I will also be around to perform actions during Open Action Block 1

If your goal is to value the immersion of other players, then framing the wiki in such a manner that it's as much a surprise to others OOC as it is IC is a good bet. In that case you'd make the wiki about publicly known information related to the character's false identity and not much else. The downside of this is that it could be logistically difficult to keep track of the two sides of the character's identity; say, for example, that the relationships section reflects the character's public opinion of somebody, while you keep track of his actual opinion in private. That can be a bit of a headache, but it could work. I am also legally required to advise you that some players who see playing secret Garleans as [insert pejorative here] will probably get annoyed if they find out they've been playing with a secret Garlean all along and didn't have fair warning. That's the price of valuing immersion, I say, but there it is. On the other hand, if you want to value collaborating with other players and setting up story ideas, you can be open about the Garlean backstory in the wiki - perhaps including the "secret" stuff behind a spoiler tag for modesty's sake - and include an OOC section in which you discuss possible points of connection between your Garlean and others. "Here's how you might reasonably know the character's public identity, and here's how you might know their private identity." People won't be surprised by the reveal, but they'll be approaching you with plot ideas of their own. Either route is feasible, and which is preferably only depends on your goals as a player.

That presumes the community respects the lore at large in the first place. I don't believe that's the case in FFXIV, though the RPC with its couple-dozen or so die-hard adherents and its prominence can and does give the position a lot of visibility. What I've found to be the case instead is that the RPC believes one thing, and the players in-game another. Because of that, I tell people to RP whatever they want.

There are still two spaces available, yes. Presuming at least one space is open by the time the event starts I will invite Jana to fill that slot, but otherwise I can sign you up if you're still interested.

Malin Greaves to guard a caravan.

1. Let the people who want to be involved, be involved. Do not force the people who aren't interested in being involved not be involved. As others have said, the players who are invested in the plot are going to put more time and effort into it than the people who aren't. This is pretty much inevitable, and I can point to the last three storylines I've run as having an "arc" of player investment: First, when the plot was in its infancy, events would have a broad number of players as everybody signed up to test things out. As the storyline progressed, some players would sign up more frequently and take a greater IC and OOC investment in events, and others would drop out, until by the storyline's end it was the people who were most involved who saw things through to the end. This is all pretty normal and expected. The important thing is to ensure that the players who don't participate are doing so because they choose not to do so, rather than because they feel like they are being excluded, intentionally or otherwise. Communicate with members who aren't involved or are only involved to limited degree to learn who you could incorporate. 2. To my dice-addled brain you've already fallen into one by going freeform. Grab sheets! In all seriousness this will cause some difficulty because you will have a hard time convincing players of failure. Often players will have a pretty set-in-stone idea of their characters' chances of success at a given action, and having that contradicted without some sort of randomizer to determine success and failure can lead to arguments and frustration. Even if it's a simple /random check, it's useful. Failing that, I think you can disregard some of the advice mentioned above like random encounters since they rely on tabletop conceits of having character sheets and measurable, expendable resources. I would also suggest you be prepared to have your plot derailed. People will talk about this in terms of avoiding railroading, but really it means plotting out all reasonable possibilities in your plot and still being surprised when the characters defy them, then choosing to roll with the unexpected. You should be prepared to have your plot end in a very different direction than what you originally anticipated when players both succeed and fail in unexpected ways. A useful way to construct a plot in this regard is not to think in terms of story arcs, but in terms of cause-and-effect. Give all parties goals and relative timetables, and figure out what happens if the cast doesn't interfere in some way. Use that to determine what happens if the players do alter things at a certain point, and change the goals of other characters accordingly. 3. Setoh already discussed the fail-forward philosophy, which I've used to great effect myself, so I won't repeat that here. One thing you should think about is how characters handle consequences directly impacting them. The obvious example is character death, but really any significant harm to a character could be something a player didn't sign up for. Make sure that players are aware of the potential end results - so, for example, when one of my storyline events could easily result in character death, I would mark them as Lethal to ensure players knew the risks.* 4. Partition a specific amount of OOC time for yourself to handle questions and discussion from the players each week, or you will be getting them at all times during an ongoing storyline. Setting office hours like this was a huge boon to my sanity. It's okay if there are lulls in the plot, especially if things proceed over a series of real-world months, and especially especially after a significant high point in the story. Just be sure to keep people aware of the storyline still-being ongoing and ready to go again once they've had time to recharge. *They haven't lost a character yet to these lethal events, but one of these days. Oh, one of these days . . .

Due to unforeseen work circumstances that are currently consuming my soul, Anybody NOAH Good Lab Assistant? will be rescheduled to Friday, May 6th, 8 PM CST If this alters your ability to attend in any way, please contact me and I will adjust the roster accordingly.

Quite a lot, but most of it has little to do with the character and more to do with plots I've run. Some of that has been more severe than others, but has included: Ala Mhigan guerilla fighters trying to level Quarrymill Dravanian relics getting distributed in Ul'dah. Dragons resulting from aformentioned relics getting distributed in Ul'dah A materia-like object that can be found in dragons and has an effect similar to what happened with Estinien and Nidhogg's eyes (this was pre-HW so I was largely pulling ideas out of my ass here). Padjal going rogue and actively resisting the authority of the Elementals. Expanding the scope of Toto-Rak such that there are abandoned wings people haven't explored yet. Rewriting the Pact of Gelmorra in a way that will matter to absolutely no other player ever. Taking a cynical interpretation of the political influence the Senna family has on the Seedseer Council and Gridanian governance in general. Giving voidsent the ability to grow and spread as a memetic virus. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff in that list. Suffice it to say that I have broken it and will probably continue to break it, but in ways that people have found, if not plausible, at least entertaining.

The OED is a really interesting dictionary to read.

Originally it was doing everything in Verad's power not to fight, especially by threatening to unseal his skills as Eorzea's Greatest Archer Pending Certain Conditions and other chuuni nonsense or by redirecting the conflict to some other means of resolution. This is still his go-to even after finding out he is pretty good with knives. He still has yet to actually kill anyone or do more than significantly wound. Thus far his style in that regard has been to lurk around the edges of a larger fight and wait for a critical moment before moving in to strike. When he has fought one-on-one, it's been at the Grindstone, where he brings whatever weird crap strikes him as being a good sales pitch and marketing ploy to the fore. When it comes to a serious single combat that he can't talk his way out of, what his style will be is anybody's guess.

To add on this and admit to my own tendencies, a button-push on my part would include modifiable character sheets.

If you push it, everybody on your server will roleplay in exactly the way you want forever, and they will be happy about it. What does this dreamworld look like to you? What kind of stories get told? Hard mode: Describe this in affirmative rather than negative terms. No "Well, those [concepts that are bad and stupid] won't exist anymore!"

Grim and cynical sorts: You must preach a sermon to a crowd of Eorzeans recently bereaved from a beast-tribe attack, with the goal of offering them hope and succor. Something terrible will happen to all of them if they are left feeling worse than when they came to listen. Low-fantasy, gritty characters: Go fight a high-fantasy character who won't be easily undone by dirty tricks, good ol' fashioned grit, and realistic combat techniques.

Anybody NOAH Good Lab Assistant? NOAH is seeking independent contractors and those interested in exploring the wonders of Allagan technology to assess an item recently excavated from the area surrounding the Crystal Tower for Doomsday Potential according to NOAH's Five-Point System for deciphering if an object can accidentally destroy the world. No prior experience with magitek or ancient technology required. Healers welcome. Please see Pfarorn Baraspaer at the NOAH Auxiliary Testing Facility in Mor Dhona at the date and time indicated. Pardon our dust; the last set of testers leveled three floors. When: April 29th, 8 PM CST 1. Vael'a Rhune 2. Aigiarn Kha 3. Adeya Evenar 4. 5. Tags: [investigation] [sCIENCE!] [High Possibility of Collateral Damage]

There were three collections of books in the Dubious Distributions estate. The first and most obvious of these was directly to the right of the front entrance, and contained anything in Verad’s inventory that he considered acceptable for purchase. Misprinted books with the wrong cover, journals that had trace amounts of pornographic woodcuts on the page after a bit of confusion and strong drink at the printing press, and tomes of sufficiently useless material (e.g. The Mating Habits of Golems) comprised these rows, and they sold as well as anything in his stock. He had considered converting the books into a lending library, provided they were returned in worse-but-nevertheless-legible condition, but was still sorting out the general plan for measuring what constituted “worse.” More respectable texts could be found in the numerous shelves in Verad’s employee lounge, set within the estate’s basement. There, the curious visitor could find more standard texts including general encyclopedias, listings of Ul’dahn tax code with layers of dust on their bindings thick enough to withstand a swordpoint, and tales of adventure and salacious exploits not attributable to the Duskwight himself. However, these were scattered among texts that were, upon closer inspection, anything but, revealing themselves to be cunningly painted blocks of wood with titles in fanciful Eorzean script, gilded and embossed to the point of being unreadable. Finding actual books was half the challenge of the downstairs shelves, and he took a certain pleasure in watching people distinguish the respectable-looking from the genuine article. Mayhaps there was a moral in this, but it was far more likely that he was being a shit, not that the two were contradictory positions. The third set wasn’t exactly private, but as it was to be found within Verad’s office and living space, it may as well have been for narrative purposes. If pressed, Verad would admit these to be one of, if not the, sources of his persuasive powers. These were not a defining element, to be sure - he had his own persistence, winning smile, command of the language, and above all a sense of humility to thank for that - but they were crucial nevertheless. These were what Verad found himself perusing in the dead of night, unable to sleep and possessed of the restless energy that often presaged a terminally bad idea on his part. He mumbled silently in the dark, lips moving as he mouthed out the titles, taking care to ensure that his words died before he left his throat. There was naught but a screen between the shelf and his bed, and he preferred not to wake its occupant. He lit upon one string of sideways script with his index finger, and his eyes brightened in the dark. There was a slight shuffling as he pulled the text free of its space on the shelf to get a better look at the title. There, in a simple embossed gilding, were these words: The Mummer’s Guide to Ishgardian Heraldry Just beneath the title on the front cover, a small, similarly gilded portrait of a cartoonish Lalafell, winking at the viewer, hand on his (her?) hip, the other holding up a single finger as if to indicate something. Verad exhaled in relief at finding the title. The Mummer’s Guides were some of his best-kept secrets. A key part of his trade was always knowing at least enough about a subject to pass himself off as an expert at best and a talented amateur at worst. For these, the guides were indispensible. Chocobo farming, swordfighting, poetry, armorsmithing, and metallurgy were common, amongst other, more esoteric topics, including but not limited to the book he held in his hand. With a very light step, Verad crossed the few fulms to his desk, and carefully pulled his chair aside to avoid letting it scrape on the office’s tiled floor, his fingers tight around its arms, his gaze over his shoulder to check for the slightest shift in his guest’s frame. Once he had enough space to seat himself, he took a piece of parchment and a small stick of charcoal out of his desk. Opening the guide and turning it to its index, he was about to begin reading when he paused. What he planned - what was going through his mind - was well beyond the usual range of his activities. It was dubious, to be certain, but he could hardly tell himself it wasn’t illicit, a common refrain in his own pitches. Far from it. This could very well have been fraud of the highest order. Was the goal worth going so far? With his chair so far back, he was able to crane his neck enough to peer into the section of the office that served as his living space, to see beyond it and to the edge of his bed. Even from this angle, there wasn’t much he could see; the curve of an arm, pale enough it seemed to stand out against white linens, and the ends of a few strands of deep, bloody red hair. After a moment’s contemplation, he turned back to his book and fell silent, save for the turning of a page and the scratch of charcoal across parchment.

Slight schedule change - Fishers of Men has been moved to Tuesday, same time. Please feel to let me know if this borks your schedule and you need to be removed.

Sign-ups have been updated to reflect remaining spaces and dates and times have been added. There's still at least one space left in each event, so don't hesitate to jump in! Aya, if I were going to make a suggestion, I would suggest Fishers of Men or Abiding in Death. Both A Perfect Pest and Where Two or Three Are Gathered are based on having prior information of the plot, and aren't very newbie-friendly accordingly. The other two you could get into and pick up the tenor of what's happening.

I understand that perfectly well, and it saddens me every time, because this is a terrible place for water-testing, precisely because of the results of threads like these. Where is a better place then? Reddit? The Official Forums? Tumblr? You could argue that people can just try things and see what happens, but it can be a rather heartbreaking experience to put a lot of time into a concept, only to see it shunned. Worse, it could even follow you like a reputation. I agree that people should RP what they like, but I also get why people make threads like these. I also don't have a problem with the fact they're often made every year or so on the same topics, (other notable ones include, White Mages, Custom Jobs, and Primals) because opinions change, so it's a topic worth rehashing now and then. I have no opinion on how these threads recur, but I can't recall a shift in opinion on any of the topics you've described. Depending on who's posting, they're either contentious at best or contemptuous of the concepts at worst.. The general attitude here to any concept with even a whiff of too much power is to downplay, depower, and discourage, regardless of whether or not the player is ever going to seriously engage with the concept of the person doing the asking in the first place. You're right, I do think people can just try things, and I understand that rejection can hurt upon that happening. I'd rather see that, hurt and all, than have interesting concepts strangled in their cribs by these kinds of threads. If there were more "Here's ways this concept could be made interesting, even though it's not really my thing" in these threads - and there is some of that in this one, thank goodness - then I wouldn't have these problems, and I wouldn't make these posts. As for a better place, you've got me there; this is the democracy palatable only because the alternatives are worse.

I understand that perfectly well, and it saddens me every time, because this is a terrible place for water-testing, precisely because of the results of threads like these.

Thread is over, everyone go home. I'd be flattered if anyone considered me that much of an authority. But it's fine, it's going to continue to be fine, and even the people saying "Well I won't RP with them" are still saying it's fine, just not fine for them. So why not?

Interacting with named NPCs and the WoL is fine. Go ahead and do it.

I believe so, but check with Spahro later to be on the safe side.