Chompie

In pick-up RP, I pretty much never use rolls. Rolls slow things down and.. honestly, I don't like just 'roll to see if success'. Fighting another player, it takes nothing into account, it's just a coin toss. Doing anything else in pick-up RP, it's pretty pointless. If I roll badly to find where the villain hideout is... that doesn't make our little scene more interesting. So, I tend towards freeform in pick-up RP! However. In fights between players, I hate when it becomes logic-boxing, which Verad brought up earlier. It's powergaming except there's no system to game, so there's just this morass of words that says 'every approach is covered because I've thought of all of them' and that's also not fun. Luckily, this is rarely a problem for me because my character is flighty, sees no shame in running away and is very good at it. So I can end those RPs pretty easy and go do something else. But.. What would drive people to try to cover everything? Why might some people frown at randomness? People hate when their characters get harmed in a way they didn't plan. This is a pretty big constant across lotsa people! Sure, it's sometimes quite unreasonable and can stifle character growth... but I wouldn't jump to saying it's because everyone's a poor sport. No, this frequently has more to do with the inherent problems of a Group of people doing scenes together. People naturally want to play together, but everyone writes in different genres. I'm over here writing The Adventures of Tintin, but my friend who also wants to be a part of things is writing Sin City. My end goal is that there'll be a wild tale to tell at the end, but players will generally come out just fine and ready for the next episode. My friend, let's call her Silbra, she wants things to be dark and grueling. She wants characters to overcome horrors, to amass scars from close calls, and generally have bad things that happen have a real effect on the characters! Neither of us are wrong. They're both good ways to write, they're just quite different and not particularly compatible. But we're friends, and we want to RP together with all our other friends! So how do we reconcile this? Rules. When it comes to big group events, it's very hard to get through them without rules of some kind! Rules like "Wait til everyone else has posted before you post again" are common. Sometimes there are disclaimers when someone's going to host one, like "Characters might be hurt in such a way/severity". And rules very easily give way to a roll system! Maybe a simple one, maybe a full tabletop system! I'll get back to that in a bit. Arbitration is the biggest problem in group RP events. Someone has to run it, someone has to be the one who says what's going on, someone has to make sure it's fun for everyone and not just That One Guy. But just.. needing to have someone arbitrating is rough. - They run the story, but generally don't get to play their own character - They need to know what the players' characters are good at, to properly understand how to give them fun. Which preeetty much amounts to character sheets if it's a group where you don't intimately know everyone. - Or you could distribute information on the kinds of things foes will do, and have everyone play and narrate trials and foes at the same time! But that requires a VERY good connection and trust between everyone. Which is rare! I think I've started rambling. Uuuh. Whatever point I was aiming at, I don't know.

Heyyyy guess what I'm capable of being back. Possibly. I think. Arblis is a perfect fit for Breaking and Entering though. Just like old times!

How well does your character get along with their coinpurse? Do they manage money well? Do they save up carefully for big things, or constantly spend here and there? Are they unnecessarily frugal about some things? Do they have a bad habit of overspending on their favorite food? How do they react when they have a big windfall? What do they do when money is tight? Do they prefer cold hard gil, or does their wealth consist of favors and debts owed to them? Are they a conspiracy theorist who swears the only real money that won't suddenly drop in value is Allagan Platinum? Does your character think they're in a different wealth bracket than they actually are? How does your character view people who are richer or poorer? Does your character give charitably? Do they refuse charity aimed at them? Please, spin me a tale about your character's wealth! Tell me what they think! I'm curious!

Dumping Arblis into the general reserve! Might as well, just in case things miraculously turn right~

Arblis Ellhis for Reserve Slot on No Longer Ignored- Reeeal high chance of missing that day

Arblis gonna go to that Final Act! She doesn't get in the way of the legal process, she ENHANCES the legal process!

If you're thinking "My character wouldn't attend this," don't be so down on yourself! There's lots of ways your character might find themselves showing up and giving some booths a look! - Go as moral support for a very fretful friend! Or if your character IS the fretful one, ask someone to join you, and make a little RP day of it! - That one super excitable friend of yours? I bet their player will be more than happy to be asked "Hey, can you have your character pester mine into going to this thing?" - Are you a sewer-cat of some sort? These sorts of events are known for having free food or candies for anyone who'll listen... - Go as a favor to your stalwart allies who are sick of being door-guards at home base. Use it as an excuse to start conversations with other sellsword companies! - Perhaps a moment of actually listening to those friends who say "Please do things that are less dangerous!!" Humor them~ - And more! IC conversations and interactions are fun, make whatever excuse you need to in order to go have some <3 I can't wait to conduct some totally legitimate interviews, and very much looking forward to browsing other booths around the world!

Arblis up for Stolen Bloom! (probably. Y'know, time.)

Arblis starts giving people really stupid nicknames. This quickly devolves into passionate arguments about things nobody really cares about, such as how nobody pronounces Miqo'te names right. These arguments, of course, require no basis in fact. Other than that, she doesn't worry nearly as much and gets waves of sleepiness and energy with no warning whatsoever. Though maybe that last bit isn't all that different from usual, come to think of it. >_>

Arblis is chock-full of esoteric worldly trivia, and even the things she doesn't understand, she can often make up a plausible explanation that makes it seem true. However, there are some pretty major gaps in her knowledge. She has almost no grasp on Ishgardian history, which really isn't helped by the current upheaval of the whole darn society. Ishgardians are under some kind of blood-curse or something..? And that's what makes them so sarcastic? Why are the nobles nobles again..? She also- and this one's definitely more in the spirit of the thread- doesn't believe the Elementals are a natural force. She's fairly certain the Padjals created the Elementals as a defensive ward for the Shroud, to try to keep the place how they wanted it. After all, they're just blobs of aether with a purpose, right? That's not much different from a magitek guard or a warding spell or an intruder-detecting void-summoning circle!

Arblis for Blooming Onions! DECISIONS ARE HARD, OKAY

The Mushroom Kingdom. Which, let's be honest, is completely different in every game, so let's go with the particular portrayal in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Honestly, Arblis would fit right in and probably have a great time.

I did not expect suddenly tons of response! ( also hello! ) I'll try to start with specifics here, before I hit Post without ever actually saying anything- Arblis' main jobs (general adventuring, and being responsible for the safety and well-being of quite a few people) often require things beyond her abilities. And so she very frequently goes around keeping an eye out for: - Unusual items for the element of surprise. (Because alchemic nonsense doesn't always cut it) - Makeshift and nonlethal weaponry. (People are hard to talk down while actively trying to kill you. It's weird!) - Investigation and tracking tools. (Number of successful missions to find a person who doesn't want to be found: 0. Number of other people's tracking missions utterly borked: At least 3.) For other RP that isn't just the exchange of items, a lot of it comes down to "I enjoy technobabble and making up plausible and interesting things that could be in the world." Some of the things I'd love to do include: - Silly tinkering with protective wards and alarm systems, and technobabbling together about how they work - OOC making ancient puzzles - "Liberating" poor neglected artifacts. And lastly but probably the biggest one- Exploring "useless" items. Helping people escape from 'cursed' or 'useless' or 'just plain annoying' items, and seeing those things for the beautiful special little crafted children that they are. And I'm sure I forgot to list some ideas!

Every time I think I've decided which event to join, I change my mind. AAAAAAAAAAA I'm not used to having TWO events I know I can make it to, how do you people handle this?!

Are you a collector of lost relics? Does your company safeguard knowledge man was not meant to know? Or are you sometimes responsible for strange artifacts? BOY DO I HAVE A DEAL FOR YOU! Even if you're an underworld group with a few pesky doodads you're stuck with, or a company who just happens to have a small pile of magical mystery ritual tools captured or discarded from other jobs, I want RP from you! ---- Looking for characters who are: - Leaders / Members of companies that hold relics!! - Merchants or marketeers who deal in magic items - Hired Guards - Counterfeit crafters I play a character who is: - Audaciously bold - Excited by the unknown - Reverent of the strangest things - A Scoundrelous Nuisance ---- (I realize I'm being extremely vague, but that's because I'm in the Bubbling Mind state of forward-thinking, where there are many ideas but it seems a shame to just throw em out into the void without proper tinkering and improving!) There are quite a few angles to the subject of Artifacts I'd like to explore and play with, and that means collaborating with others and meeting new people! So if you see yourself anywhere on that bulleted list, or if you have any ideas sparkling in your head from reading here: Hit me up, let's talk and collude and put together stories big and small that will be fun to make and fun for everyone else too! EDIT: Heyyy I just remembered it's probably important to mention that it's rare for me to be in-game before 8pm Pacific time / 10pm Central / 11pm Eastern, with the occasional weekday opening.

Oh boy oh boy Seeker sociology is fascinating A Nunh's job, pure and simple, is to make the strong children happen. Everything else is up to the specific tribe. Some tribes might have a tradition that means a Nunh is basically captive in their own village and not allowed to leave. Some might give them some powers of leadership. Some might require things entirely different! Some might have a 'be gone this long and you lose it' clause, some might just have an implied one, some might have the whole tribe follow and set up base camp wherever the Nunh goes. Maybe they treat him as the face of the tribe. Like a company spokesperson, he can't be away for very long, but he's certainly not stuck there. There's tons of room for interpretation, so long as it still makes sense in the context of the society of that tribe, and his position as "The male who makes the babies happen". However. Being a Nunh basically means that the RP community at large has a very specific idea of you that is probably completely wrong. I'm sorry. The general consensus image is some cat who is aggressive, testosterone-filled, and bangs everything in sight. So yeah, just for that OOC reason I'd agree with "just don't introduce yourself as one" We need to work together to change that reputation. When people see the word "Nunh" I want their brains to automatically replace it with "A Dad"

Arblis started out on her traveling for quite a few reasons that all pushed in the same direction. - Didn't get along with the rest of the kids - She was certain there was a better way to live, somewhere - Stories of her father's handful of adventures - Desperate need to prove she's the best - Heck, let's throw a tvtropes link in here- Never Accepted In Her Hometown No single one can really be called the one that motivated her, but put them all together and add a few more things and it's more than enough!

Arblis would leap away, and then approach again while chattering animatedly and asking things like "what does it feel like to be a ghost?"

By weekends at night, how late at night do you mean? I'm the most open after 8pm pacific, which turns to 11pm Eastern, which is frequently too gosh darn late. But if times work out, I can offer up one Arblis Ellhis, a Seeker who's naturally talented in being a friend / enemy / rival for all kinds of petty reasons! Stories I write in tend to either be silly and bizarre or deeply exploring the sociological implications of something or other. Complete with technobabble. Anyway, lemme know! I'd be happy to give some storyweaving with you a try, if time itself isn't in the way~

Oooh, this sounds like a lot of fun and a great way to get a somewhat estranged sister back toward business. Weekends are hell for me, and I have no idea whether I can make it or not, and I get the feeling I'm schedule-conflicting myself, but I'll try to be around!

Oh gosh, these ones I do so much. Though the last one I've stepped aside from. I now constantly make fun of my character and refer to her as a special snowflake queen so that I sound super cool and self-aware about my dork catgirl.

"I wonder how the glass feels, under all this weird scrutiny." - Arblis

Sign me Arbls up as a general reserve member! I have no guarantee I'll actually be able to make any of the events, but I'm down to fill in at the last minute if I suddenly discover that I can and you need me!

As an extra easy bonus, the Giantsgall weapons are given as quest rewards from some level 50 Main Story Quest stuff. *and* they're buyable on the market. Extremely easy to get either way you wanna do it!

Trivial and irrelevant quirks about Arblis, hmmm... - Arblis takes her work much more seriously than she appears to. Upon becoming a full-time trouble-hunter, she started studying makeup and acting to make better first impressions. An impressive adventurer is a better-paid adventurer! ... that counts as taking it seriously, right? - She is a huge fan of Doman-Style Art Novels. No one must ever know... - Arblis has an extremely malleable accent. She picks up a bit of whatever's around her, but nothing ever sticks for long. This has nothing to do with my own inability to keep accents, no way >_>