Evaleigh

I'm not going to touch on what I try to stay away from as far as RP content... I think folks have covered that pretty well. Red flags as far as partners? I've learned a few new ones over the past few years on Balmung. It's pretty much summed up into a set of personal guidelines I tend to live by before I get anyone heavily involved in my characters and plots. Never wants to RP in a group setting, ONLY does one-on-one RP. These people usually are only after self-indulgent relationship rp. It may be ERP related it may just be "waifu" related but it usually leads to people being OOCly clingly and wanting to dig their claws into me not just my avatar. People who trip this flag also tend to either get possessive and needy or don't actually care about the RP beyond surface indulgences. "Watch out for ____" folk who love to warn you about people. While on the surface it might seem like they're just looking out for your best interests if you don't know the person well already (or even if you do) these folks are usually at the center of drama. How else do they get all these stories? My experience is they often blow things out of proportion to suit their own ego as being in the "know" of who's who or they're a hair's breath away from shit-talking you the very second you do one thing they don't approve of. Double red flag if when you respond with "I prefer to come to my own conclusions" they get snarky or rude about it. "I'm an asshole" Self-proclamation means no guilt. People who claim they're jerks or assholes wanting you to disagree with them or be their friend in spite this will later hide behind their initial claim if they ever show asshole behavior later on. I might still RP with an asshole but I'll take them at face value if they make this kind of claim.

Leveworks is out in force \o/ Look forward to seeing people!

A couple notes. If you're going to use grindstone rules, please establish this ahead of time. Not everyone on the server uses/likes Grindstone rules.

[b][u]Guild[/u]:[/b] Aldenard Leveworks [b][u]Website[/u]:[/b] [url=http://leveworks.enjin.com]leveworks.enjin.com[/url] [b][u]Description[/u]:[/b] "Strength through collaboration" a division-based adventurer co-op. LS & FC with a Mission Board provided through Discord we're a Heavy RP FC that mixes long-term dark/mature story arcs with short episodic DM'd events and open-world RP. The organization is especially interested in hiring the magically inclined (but mentally stable). [b][u]Booth Location[/u]:[/b] Silver Bazaar LEVE would like to sign up.

I've got at least 2 members of my FC that have voiced keen interest when I mentioned this in our discord.

Suen I love your wiki page it's amazing and ty for the credit back for the pieces of my template you used :3 I'm going to try and reach out to you in game in the next few days after the new year stuff dies down

We're still here

How long do you stand around Faye? Maybe that's the factor that makes the experiences different. I just think it's rather rude of us as a group to dismiss or even be hostile toward those expressing their frustrations of being ignored just because others have a different experience. It seems to me a little belittling and dehumanizing which is the off-putting sentiment I was trying to express earlier. I think the veteran roleplayers could as a whole be more accepting and understanding of this frustration instead of dismissing it as "well I don't have a problem therefore it must be -you-" attitude. I've had characters that get readily approached and I've had characters that get ignored. I'll tell you this when it comes to the Quicksand... race/gender seems to matter a great deal along with 'cute' factor.

I agree though it can be double-edged if it gets a lot of people you don't want (like non-Rpers) I do find it's an awesome way to be reminded about events. There's also a few Event linkshells that post reminders.

What in Eorzea do you mean by Realistic/Dark? My playstyle comes with an expectation that the world of Eorzea is based in the realm of plausible realism and while magic exists there are rules to it. If you cast a lot of magic it is going to be draining on the body. If you wear a lot of armor you're not going to be doing nifty ninja flips without being slowed down a little. If your character decides to act like a badass and flip off the group of enemies with guns he's probably going to be shot if not killed. When it comes to 'dark' roleplay I mean the gritty, violent world that reflects the elements already presented to us. Slavery, violence, abuse, betrayal, murder, drug and alcohol abuse are all completely plausible. Though as a responsible storyteller I will never seek to kill another person's character the fear of death I think should be a real thing and could happen if a character is absurdly obtuse (e.g. charging single handedly into battle against Ifrit). What do you mean by Everyman? No "Warriors of Light" need apply. While it's important that a character be unique in their own way I find the most fun with playing and interacting with individuals that enjoy a character with flaws and drawbacks. That is more interested in the struggle of those characters trying to survive (thrive?) in a world that's much, much bigger than they are. I'm not interested in characters that are lore-breaking or supremely edgy so while I am not saying there's anything wrong with your voidsent-character or child-black-mage-prodigy it just doesn't fit with me. Story-Driven? I fancy myself a storyteller and I like to create compelling stories that are motivated or pushed by the orchestration of individuals I have to play with. I often create a lot of NPCs for my plots or I try to showcase other people's characters for their talents. I love to make fun and have fun though my stories are often slow to unfold and have a lot of layers and twists. I'm not limited by this, I also enjoy playing in the stories other people create but I felt the need to distinguish this style from the "slice of life" RP a lot of people enjoy. The every-day RP of course happens but as a whole I am a lot more plot-driven. Have I lost you yet? I am active most evenings EST: 5pm - 11pm Weekdays I am active starting in the early morning hours throughout the day. My availability tends to make me a great contact for EU players that stay up a little late or NA players that are more active earlier rather than later.

There's no need to get defensive over the semantics I'm not attacking an individual or even you for that matter. I empathize with the OP. I don't suffer for Roleplay, I have an established and wonderful Free Company and I adore and cherish its membership. I even have people in my FC that actively engage those outside of our company. They're definately part of the proactive influence in our RP world and I'm certain that there's a lot of other people on this RPC that are the same way. Maril for example I know is -very- active and does a lot for the community as a whole. You're correct saying that the community as a whole is toxic was unfair of me to say. I still stand by my belief that there is a lot of very, very negative and hostile elements that are both off-putting and self-damning within the community. The very sentiment I've seen of - You don't owe anyone roleplay - If you just try you'll get RP, it worked for me so it'll work for you - Knee-jerk criticism as to why someone is doing it wrong. It seems like every time there's criticism there's this defensiveness that rises up to try and attack the person who is having a rough time. That's what I find to be toxic. Even reading through this thread I've seen the "advice" given and that was part of my experiment I wanted to see if the advice I was given actually works. That is part of what I'm trying to share and maybe I need to repeat the experiment but telling me "why what you're doing is wrong" isn't actually that helpful, it's combative and furthers my point (and to a degree I think the OP's point) that our community is stand-offish and difficult to break into for someone coming in new. --- To Virella's advice.. During my experiment I didn't go to "huge" events. They're not my style in general the events I attended usually had at most 20 people at them so the scroll was never unbearable and unlike a true green RPer I've got a lot of experience under my belt for how to handle RPing in crowds or to make more niche smaller groups when needed. I'm not counting events that were like the Roses or Kiss performance events where you're more or less watching RP instead of participating or the huge events like the Grindstone where, no offense, it's too orchestrated to be able to establish any sort of contact of substance unless you're part of the audience. Please do not take this as an attack on the Grindstone, I appreciate those who organize such an undertaking and know it's very popular.. I empathize with the new adventurer, the green roleplayer and instead of just wanting to shove the advice of someone who is established I wanted to see what their perspective was. It's a lot harder now than I remember it being when I started on Balmung but then again even the Quicksand has changed. There seems to be a lot more jaded rpers. I agree though Virella, a lot of it is the character you play. This point has been made earlier in this thread.. and I can attest to it across my alts as well. A fun-loving outgoing character that initiates walkups gets RP a lot easier and faster than a cold, reclusive loner. Question Has anyone ever used Party Finder to find RP contacts? Did that work for you?

I recently did an experiment that was kind of along these lines. Now I have an established Free Company full of some awesome people that engage strangers and work for more collaborative communities. I am very grateful for my FC mates and how they make Eorzea a better place.. but I kept hearing things like this OP's pov where they can't get any RP, they get ignored, etc. I made an alt, I levelled it up to a respectable level and I told nobody about it. I tried to work organically the way I did when I first came to Balmung. I started out in the Quicksand and then I'd attend RPC events to try and engage people or be approached. What I discovered is the following: - If you have a green leaf on your head you're very likely to get ignored. - 90% of the time if someone puts on their RP tag and goes and sit alone in a corner you end up with 10 people sitting alone and nobody interacting. - If you approach people directly you will get a decent contact about 3 or 4 times out of 10. This number goes up if you send them a /tell first asking to RP before you just walk up. - Approaching a group that's RPing is VERY likely to be ignored. - Approaching an FC to try and get involved in their RP is about as effective as cold walkups. FCs by their very nature are cliquish. I actually had a VERY negative experience with a walkup to an FC where I was OOCly chewed out because their RP was "closed" in spite being in a public setting and all their emotes being done in /em. My conclusion is that we have a very toxic and insular community on Balmung. Cliques form of tight-knit groups of people of like minds and similar RP styles probably due to bad experiences from people outside of those groups. Growing an RP contact network takes a lot of time, energy and luck. What is made worse is the fickle nature of people it's not uncommon to make a contact that you never talk to again. The best luck I've had so far is to try and figure out my character's niche or drive and make it specific enough then find others who have similar qualities or drives. There are certain setups and tropes that seem to get a lot of mobility as well. The worst case scenario is using Party Finder or the RPC to advertise what you're looking for and go from there. My heart seriously goes out for any new RPer or ones struggling to get established contacts. Having character motivation and drive helps because too often I see people struggle but when they do make a contact they have an expectation of "being entertained" or included. At the same time I've also seen it to where even when effort is made.. people ignore you. I hope things improve.

http://i.imgur.com/3q3jSQ2.png[/img] Name: Star Type of Date: Yes! Why settle when you could have a friendly, romantic date on a boat! Gender Preference: Girlies! Fellas! Mammets! Brief Description of the Character: Mayhaps loud and outspoken, a little provoking, you won't be heartbroken Whether it's for a nice spar, you will go far, by throwing your coin on your very own Star! This fun and friendly woman loves adventure and mischief full of games and affection for whatever it is you are thinking. A protective fist-fighter to have at your back or merely a friendly game of tag. A lover of the open-road and plenty of sea-shanties this quirky adventurer is eager to please!

A few questions we've received recently. Yes, we're active. We are most active in the NA evening times during the week however we do have a few EU players. You'll find 2-5 people active during the day with our peak hours having 8-11 players online. A few more come and go as Real Life permits but given the setup of the FC it works just fine for this transient sort of style. We have events primarily in the evening (After 7pm EST) or on Sat/Sun we have more EU-friendly events. What sort of events? What do you mean? Events are company-run planned RP sessions that can be as light-hearted as a party for the company and friends, a one-shot job where people whom work for the company are set out to escort a caravan or cull the local bandit population, to even the milestone for an ongoing story-arc. Most combat events are "GM'd" meaning that someone organizes the event and controls all the NPCs involved. But I prefer my RP to be more organic... We have a mixture of both. We strive to balance the ad-hoc world and as a Heavy RP FC actions have consequences. Sometimes the natural way things progress causes character conflicts, sometimes it causes the group to have to shift and mold its stories to fit the reality of the characters involved and even between events there is a community of people to pull from for establishing report. What we don't have a lot of are character-villains. While they do exist, most plotlines involved NPCs or alt-played characters. How do I join? Preferred Method: Come RP with us. Goblet Ward 4, House 5 is the headquarters. They advertise ICly as an Employment Agency / Adventuring Guild. Evaleigh is also a known healer for anyone seeking medical attention and Deli is known to be an excellent cook for the hungry. The company provides succor to the refugees of Ul'dah on a regular basis. Our members also sometimes travel to the Quicksand and the Drunken Wench for public RP (among other places). If you need help setting up a time to come RP just reach out to any of us and we'll try and work something out. Getting involved organically through the linkshell and then asking to join the FC is our preferred method of recruitment. It's slower but it's more organic. OOC Application: There is an application on our website that you can fill out but it will take some time and we often close our OOC recruitment. We strive to maintain a balance between activity levels and involvement. It's been my experience that when an FC grows too quickly or too large people fall through the cracks or cliques start to form. A lot of people don't enjoy large-group RP so the bigger the FC the more likely smaller groups form within it. While you can never 100% prevent this as friendships are something that should happen, we want everyone to be given as many opportunities as possible to be included. If you come to us OOCly just know we usually only accept a few people at a time each month so you may end up on a waiting list. However you can always come RP with us regardless. We love RP! Please don't think of this as elitism, we just want to protect what we've built and make sure we don't waste your time

We're still around. <3

Thank you so much Nailah for putting this on it was absolutely wonderful having a different kind of event for prime time

I actually play a villain and I believe we have even RP'd together once or twice. N'kara Shaihl I'm in another LS for Dark RP that has a similar concept but I'd love to branch out further.

We have opened our recruitment looking for a few good characters to join our ranks!We have active players in both EU and NA times! Our weekend events are quite EU friendly.

Hello Ava! I wanted to point your attention to the Sagolii Aldgoat's Tribe view page There are about 12 players in the tribe right now (spanning across both EU and US timezones) with a Skype group we use to coordinate by. Many are also in the tribe FC but it's not mandatory to join that to be part of the tribe itself. The Tribe itself has a canon of a very dark and sordid past and while they are in most cases fully integrated with regular Eorzean society (thanks to the progressive direction of their Nunh) many are leery or paranoid of outsiders. I've been playing with this group for a couple years now after making a Seeker alt to play with N'Khai and I've had an absolute blast.

We are very much still alive, kicking and recruiting!

Welcome aboard Chase! How strict are people generally with lore-related stuff? It really depends. There are a lot of jargon you'll seen thrown around. From my experience most people who categorize themselves as 'Heavy' RPers tend to be sticklers for lore but there are a few points of contention that they don't always agree on (and often argue on this site about. The best advice I can give you is if you don't know--ask! I know for me personally I'm not someone who goes and reads every single quest there ever was written to verify everything I ever do but I tend to research specifics my character would know. (For example if you want to know anything about the Twelve or the mythology of Eorzea I'm a great resource because my main is a Priestess. If you want to know the details about the lore surrounding machinist... I'm not your gal) Feel free to ping me (Evaleigh Cevas) or even Nailah in game sometime for an invite to the Heavy RP OOC LS. One of the biggest (and greatest) resources about the LS is the ability to discuss lore-topics. If you don't know--ask! We're very friendly people and have a lot of different folks who can provide. You can also ask specific questions on the forums if you'd like. How do you get over the "AAAAAH" factor of walking up to people? I'm not sure you can. I'm the leader of a Free Company (Aldenard Leveworks), I am active in a large number of linkshells and I'm always and constantly fishing for new connections and ways to grow and collaborate. I love to weave people together! My best contacts usually come from walk-ups. I've met a good number of long-lasting friends and rp partners this way but I'd say what's probably true for asking a girl on a date is true for establishing a new rp contact... you might try 100 times and get only 1 success but repetition makes it a little easier. That said, in spite being a veteran roleplayer I still get that knot in my stomach and sometimes my apprehension gets the better of me and I'm not able to walk-up at all. I usually try to make characters that would have a personality type or a -reason- to approach people to help ease myself into it and overcome my more naturally introverted self. Evaleigh is a traveling healer and priestess who also tries to find new employees. She approaches people to ask how they're doing, bless them and ask if they might be interested in "fair work for fair pay" Sashana is a perky nut who likes to have fun and tease people. She usually is the goofball that interjects the monotony of someone's routine just because it's "fun" to be different. It's not out of her character to just walk up to strangers and prod them just to see how they respond. I'm a little worried I'm going to do it "wrong" somehow or come off as annoying/intrusive I can't speak for others but I appreciate the approach. If you're being intrusive there are ways for someone to brusk you off icly. I'm of the opinion if you're roleplaying out in public you're fair game. If people appear to be rping in party or ignoring you, that's a good sign that they're not going to engage. I doubt you're doing in wrong in fact it sounds like you're doing it exactly right Check out the Linkshells page on this site. They're a great tool for both IC and OOC reasons to find new connections outside of the Quicksand.

I have done this in the past. The lifespan of my characters in other places have been short, often meeting in a bad end (planned and unplanned) depending on how the story progressed. I have also created characters that I expected to have short lives only to find that they somehow survive. In fact the first character I created with the anticipation of a short life-span survived numerous encounters and became a pawn in a much larger plot before her final (and unexpected) demise at the hands of an ally. It was a wonderful tale and I had a lot of fun with it. I have two more characters I expect to die at (some) point just due to the nature of who and what they are. One is a lawful evil woman whom is currently crafting her diabolical schemes and research using "human" test subjects and working to manipulate the minds of other players. I've had a number of people have interest in being involved with me in this, subjecting their "good" characters to the plot devices I am crafting but in every great fantasy epic eventually the villain is vanquished and I do not expect this to be any different. One day... I expect the story will come to an end and she will be killed but until then.. I am enjoying stirring the pot and creating a nemesis of good. I enjoy the "risk of death" in my roleplay. I also enjoy observing the mortality of characters which is why everyone my characters legitimately lose due to character death often comes with true mourning and observation. My main alone has hosted a few funerals and now a widow whom has buried two past loves... there is a sadness to her and a reservation when it comes to making new romantic ties. Seeing how characters change and grow... is one of the main driving forces that makes me love RP.

Everyone knows the REAL WoL is mute.

I never have luck finding you guys when I'm on D:

For Evaleigh - They appear rugged, strong & able (To potentially hire them as a fighter) - They are in need of healing / injured - They speak about the Twelve (fellow faithful) - They're homeless and aimless, the downtrodden --those whom life has shit upon. (She often icly feeds and tends to the refugees outside Ul'dah) - They speak with manners and sophistication. Many see it as 'haughty' though for Evaleigh she just sees it as the way they were brought up in a similar setting as herself. A taste of home.