John Spiegel

My wikis are barebones as giving godmodders/metagamers insight on super awesome stuff about my character is my primary reason not to do more wiki stuff. My secondary reason is I am lazy! Give only enough information as you want others (including godmodders/metagamers) to see!

I share your sentiment, there's too many "adventurers" or "great fighters" riding barstools at the Quicksand. My characters rarely do that with one being an adventurer, he's always out and about. I traveled from Gridania to Ul'dah to Limsa on foot and maybe 1/10 times I see folks out of the cities (the weekly battle pit outside Ul'dah doesn't count ) It's a lonely road out there but when you do find RP it is a real treat.

Making it in just in time for August! New tag, same old same old! To differentiate in the sea of tags we're trying out a new tag from a grand total of two people that said to do it when I took a poll (out of two people polled at 1AM... super democratic!). Crystalline, being the name of our company, shares the namesake with the mineral property... and in geology shorthand, 'crystalline' is commonly written 'xln'. So I got to flex my geologist muscles for giggles. (If you ask me to identify a rock you think is a meteorite, it is always slag.) New tag, same old same old.

Journals, at least on my company's forums, are regarded as unobtainable unless consent is given as they're regarded as physical items. There was one instance where a particular character found and partially read (her reading was basic) and subsequently made a flip-book of various pages of his journal, which is still somewhere in Alex's first journal on my forums. After this, Alex started writing in old Ala Mhigan rather than common tongue and still does to this day, in the journals at least. They are an invaluable tool to the writer to get into the intricacies of a new or even long-standing character. I extensively journal'd when I was fleshing out Alex and still do time to time but haven't publicly posted in a long time. For awhile, I was even doing an entry a day, which was crucial in getting Alex's style in my head... which is vastly different than John's. Really the only rules I'd say for you to establish is: Who could possibly access the item? Is it on your person or at your residence? I am, of course, referring on making the journal an obtainable item to others. I am always cautious of what I write, even if it hasn't been posted, but if someone took the journal they would get a lore dump of posts. Anything Alex has written would not give vital information, at least that's how he meticulously worked it he hopes.

I have two characters, brother and sister, about your character's age. They're Alex and Grace Windfist, they're third generation namesake after the name their grandfather took on account of his technique. They're monks. Both active in the invisible Little Ala Mhigo scene with Alex also being the leader of Crystalline, a free company. They're by no means super monks of invincibility, but they harbor the Ala Mhigan spirit and all that. I try to hang out with either of them in Little Ala Mhigo on the off chance I'd find some random RP out there, but feel free to drop a line or something here.

Not really anything super new for June. We're more or less rolling on merrily. Semi regular Sunday RP or content things. Fri-Sat-Sunday availability by at least me for any needs of the company. Various character stories that don't always intertwine within the company. We're story-driven, not "amount of stuff" driven. We're slow and enjoy quality over quantity... also helps that the majority of us have full-time jobs or dependables, so we don't do the whole 'required to attend' thing. See you next month~

I have enough information given to not give godmodders fodder, then again I usually keep to my circle most of the time anyways. To learn what makes John tic or to learn Alex's motivations and ambitions in life are to learn and meet the characters. To me, it takes away from the experience if you learn literally everything about my characters and there's nearly always information the character doesn't learn which is how life is really. Some mystery.

Benevolent Dictator of Crystalline here, since I couldn't push the task on someone else again! May has shown to be yet another typical moon for us. Little tid bits of individual RPs going on, a planned event this coming Sunday in the mid-afternoon about Little Ala Mhigo. Those random Ala Mhigan RP folk should skulk that out. It's not going to be big or complex, don't be afraid to say hi. Awhile back, like a year or ten, we made a Skype for the company. About twenty five hours ago we made a Discord channel, evolving out of Skype and it's silly inability to have a mobile app that isn't cluttered and inability to make it dark. So that's been exciting. That's really all I got. We're really bad and boring. Don't checks us out at http://www.crystalline-rp.net/ and totes don't chat me up via forums. I'm a horrible person. ~See you next month~

With the unwilling to accept death part I think that also ties into the fact that all the hero characters will want to be the one to kill said character to boost their badass level Obviously. When you're in a position (good or bad) where death is the end result, there's far few RPers out there to accept that, which is fine. But to be RAWR antagonist is more of a target than RAWR good guy!

This falls under the category of "No one ever does it good" for me. I've said in a few other topics that the details and working with the lore should be paramount to doing something "because I want to". Really, though, if your niche group is fine with it, go for it, but expect the public to react as they want (mob! pitchforks!). Playing voidsent, garlean etc automatically paints a target on you, and being unwilling to accept death or fights, makes RPing a negative entity boring and no one wants to RP with you.

1.) What’s the best way to get and keep everyone involved, so the plot doesn’t end up solely gravitating around one individual / group? First of all, knowing what your group likes or might like to try would be key. And to keep people involved? Break up branches. Think FF6 where everyone splits up for awhile and makes new friends! 2.) What sort of pitfalls or common / easy mistakes would you guys warn against falling into? Common pitfalls is thinking that everyone wants one thing. Communication is key. 3.) Conversely, what are the things that may not be obvious, but I should be doing anyway? Communication to the point it might seem annoying to your folks. See what they want, see what they could add, pool their writing abilities OOCly. 4.) Any other tips, tricks, suggestions, warnings…? Communicateeeeee! Know your audience. If your group is pretty happy with short but consistent stuff, but you want to lay on some major mechanics change, you should bring it up with them. Some groups are all about constant and big moving plots while other FCs are a tad looser or prefer closer-knit things. It's the nature of large and small RP circles. It's inevitable every few months I get a sense of dread that my folks aren't happy since we really don't do massive overarching FC plots but rather all have our own things going on and weave in and out and also have some group things in the form of jobs or gatherings nearly weekly. Then again, most of my ilk have been spurned in the past of not making "REQUIRED GAME EVENTS" and such, which, again, might appease some folks especially those in college or on break. Adult life is a tad more difficult! TL;DR -- Communicate until you become the next AT&T and then communicate more.

I've been wanting to do some Rp there. With many Monks and Ala Mhigan Rpers floating around, it would be neat to see more going on openly there. I'd sure like to get my plot on that vein, eventually heading towards that spot in due time. The place is plenty large after all. :moogle: My characters Alex and Grace frequent LAM for monkhood meetings and Resistance stuff, it's just me hangingout and walking around LAM though. I'm far too thin spread to be involved in a constant thing that needs everyday attention, but I am entirely in favor of Resistance and all around Ala Mhigo stuff.

A cornerstone of my FC and all around RP circle: It's all about the details. Give an engineer unlimited resources and a blank slate and they'll struggle to create but give them constrictions and they'll perform outstandingly. That being said, having NO rules means it will inevitably escalate to godhood/godmodding RP and all around un-uniqueness of RP. Not everyone is an adventurer, great at fighting or knowledgeable as most of us are OOC. Having a spectrum of folks keeps things interesting! While my group is small and not booming with plots, we enjoy digging into lore and working with it! The lore of this game is plentiful but there's so much missing or fragmented (pls Lore Book now pls pls).

I personally RP wherever the winds may take me.. John being an adventurer, I often walk through an area or hamlet and hang out. See some sparse RP here and there of other travelers or whatnot. It's much more rewarding to me for that character to naturally be out traveling (and never in the Quicksands). Alex is a tad more stationary, he's most often at my company HQ since he's sorta kinda the boss (actually, he is the boss) so he's couped up in the office. If I think about it, I'll have Alex out training and whatnot too, he hangs around a tavern here or there for food but more often than not he's at HQ. RP is out there in the wilds, just have to find it. It's not the destination but the journey! (If it works for your character to be traveling)

Hey! I remembered this month! AND it's only a partial copy-paste from our forums! http://www.crystalline-rp.net/ So March 2016, fresh into patch 3.2 with all that juicy stuff (Hildy, Flying adamantoise, jukebox, and tank tweaks being my personal faves in order). I am extremely pleased to announce we have had a few contests over the past month, one for our new banner and one for our theme song. Mackenzie Hawk, our resident midlander novice fighter with a streak for getting her ass handed to her, made this lovely banner which will eventually be put over our website's home page. She saved us all from having Aanzo's banner hang over our website. As for our other contest, Knotted Ivy, also formerly known as Flandre (and known as Batu as well as Ivy currently), surprised everyone with a song made years ago for the direct predecessor of Crystalline in FFXIV. Forever Watching as she described, is an unused theme she put together for Crystalline's FFXIV 1.0 predecessor, Everwatch. I hope those that were there in those days feel a tad nostalgic and I hope everyone just gives Ivy hugs for such a rad thing. While we are not Everwatch, the core of that group lives on as FFXI's Crystalline lived on in Everwatch and its predecessors in 1.0. It's never about the numbers nor popularity or even always having a log on the fire -- it's about having fun through intricate and long-lasting plots that weave into each other in unexpected ways, ever welcoming new faces while paying some quiet homage to days past. That fire beacon in the yard of HQ is just such a homage. During the early days of 2.0, the old camp of the Everwatch was picked as a little nook in East Shroud where each successive gathering brought more and more of Eva's lost friends together until near everyone was accounted for. New friends came to those as well to the former Everwatch circle. The characters lit a vigil much like we have in the yard now. Ever since we had that housing plot, we have had that vigil burning still for those that came and left and for those that never returned at all from the days of the Calamity. That's my perspective coming from post-Everwatch times anyways.

(Thanks UM!) Another year, another successful Starlight party hosted by our "bestest adventurer" K'hylia. (https://gyazo.com/71a94bc691d626181d4b70072b1e5f53 for the hugbox to end all hugboxes) I'm not big on advertising promises since for the longest time I personally have been a cluster with my worklife but I'm one month in on a new job and the realization I'll be having a solid schedule in the very near future, I hope to be more proactive in getting outsiders interested in the company. We're always welcome to outsiders wanting to do something with a "Mercs with Morals" company (that's us, btw!). Simply drop me a line here on the forums or in-game (John Spiegel or Alex Windfist). Click the linky in my siggy to get to our website, PM me here, find me in-game or yell really loud from a peak at least 6 km above sea level and I promise you will look silly.

*didn't read past OP* Way before DRK was even announced the emotion-powered means was pretty much the way I went about John Spiegel as being Void-powered didn't really make sense imo. He's always been an outcast with even those he's close to and whatnot, he doesn't dick with the details, he just goes about life. So you're not alone, OP. Though I'm quite pleased a lot of folks are just normies with big swords. It's realistic, too. Just like we would see pirates use guns, knives, swords or axes, we too can see a standard fighter use various sorts of weapons without having the edgyness behind it!

Semi-Unregular Update! We are still trucking along and ever changing in our ways. 3.0 brought an overall lull in activity due to the game simply being superb, yet we have seen large scale implications to characters as well as budding relationships, adventures and so on. Our overall "all reaching" plot is rather timid right now, boring you could even say: Pick up jobs from HQ, go do jobs. Not really that exciting but from what I've seen the individual members are really great at bringing things to the table... they help me run this group more than I help! Our recruitment is still open, and I try to handle applications as they come in and try to get newer folks involved but that annoying thing called "real life" rears its head all the time. Inquire at our website, with me on this site, on skype (john.d.spiegel) or in-game (my characters Alex Windfist or John Spiegel) or Yashaix Ki'lari, who is around way too much too. I am almost always available to chat for curious members or possible cross-company RP!

Brief update of our affairs (17 June, 2015) At Crystalline's core there are die-hard RPers, gamers and a rotten egg-headed lallafel. Our central goals are to maintain a believable and consistent continuity that changes with the ebb and flow of the members' stories as well as with Eorzea's story itself. We've been around for ages and there's no sight to our demise. Crystalline: Mercenaries with Morals. and punch and pie As I am still terrible about writing anything formal for this, I'll simply copy-paste what my most resent admin post on my company's forums. (Link as my siggy and in the OP of this thread). So with the expansion drawing ever closer, there's a few things I can think of going to affect us as a company both ICly and OOCly. ((Also to totally make it look like I'm a good leader by posting frequent updates on stuff!)) We'll start with the OOC side: OMFG! New jobs/quests/levels/everything! The bulk of us, no doubt, will be grinding and exploring all that the northlands have to show. Some of us have talked about leveling together -- which I hope to do 100% of my leveling with friends in any matter of party configurations. We're going to keep the EXP FC buff up 24/7 as well as probably the company seal generation bonus up or some other thing.. we're under 200k seals so ideally we'd like to be making more than the cost to keep the buffs up everyday. *cracks whip* Get to work! There's probably going to be a rather strong dip in RP but I personally will try to make up slack for those that aren't able to experience the xp right off the bat or for those that aren't going to rush things! (I being one of those non-rushers aside from omfg DRK getting) Guys! Let's level everything together forever! Wooo! Let's look at the IC side: A good number of plots will start/explode upon access northward. John and Cartie are venturing north John's reason: He just wants to go! Dat adventurer Cartie's prob gonna pick up some airship designing and stuff, also get more DRKly and whatnot. The airship bit is pretty much going to start our FC-group airship building I think! Prob going to end up dragging other characters along.. no set plot, just gonna go and.. well.. adventure.... aka: If you're up north and in trouble, throw up the bat signal call for JJ! Eva's probably going to have some hardcore soulsearching going on cuz daddy was from Ishgard. Also she's deathly afraid of heights. :D :D Some folks have no immediate business northward or aren't adventurers, which is cool! Down the line, Crystalline will start getting work from the northlands... Alex asked his father (JJ!!) to pass along the lay of things up there.. what factions are trustworthy and whatnot.. so expect that to take some time at least on my end! It's good that not everyone suddenly has a plot northward... there will be reason enough for any active member to go there for work if not for their own reasons! Please look forward to it~ So those are some of the high points... That being said, Crystalline is still open to recruitment but do understand that things will get hellacious when the expansion hits! Much hype! Much excite!

For Crystalline, it will be Eva Zelorius and myself as Alex Windfist representing. I think we had some discrepancy about it awhile back.. but it will either be one or both of us with our RL permitting. Sorry for the lack of attentiveness. :thumbsup:

My group Crystalline is a merc company and we're always looking to branch out to other groups and such. "Mercenaries with Morales" is our unofficial motto since we try not to get wrapped up in shady jobs but that's inevitable probably. We're EU-friendly.. a good chunk of our folks are from over there.

This is where I differ and that is quite well and good. Different strokes. I like to work within the constraints of the lore, if my character was not from Eorzea, I would not make up a nation or whatever, rather, choose from the known ones or keep it vague. Garlemald is the only known current technologically advanced society due to the discovery of badass Allagan tech. Where -I- personally add lore are things that are more of a grey area of minuscule relevance such as naming some small conflict and tagging it into my lore during the King Theodric reign and subsequent Garlean takeover of Ala Mhigo... there were no doubt skirmishes between the Fists/worshipers of Rhalgr and the royalists as well as the Fists/worshipers vs Garleans... and many many people fled, died and so on. So taking liberties of how your village got destroyed by the kingdom or Garleans isn't too much of a stretch. War is hell. Again, nothing inherently wrong with being from a made up location but simply folks may either be turned off OOCly or just think you're nuts ICly. Villages/islands, ok. "Kingdoms/nations" = meh, not my cup of tea. (I prefer coffee) No understanding of existing lore isn't a good excuse to make up big lore in my opinion, but then again, I'm not saying you can't do it~~ :cactuar:

FFXI JJ directly influenced by Vash from Trigun and lastname from Spike from Cowboy Bebop (I know, baby's first anime.. thanks Adult Swim~) also unknowingly somewhat influenced by Guts from Berserker (battle bastard! scarred to hell). Much dark. So wow. Early incarnations were horrible. FFXIV JJ influenced by FFXI JJ (insane, big weapons, dark knighty...) as well as shaped with more mature themes. I was like 12 back in FFXI days. He's more quiet but when he does talk it's still in what is known as "JJ-speak" which is observational plus off-beat comments.. sometimes riddles. Usually just grunts. Immature as hell. He's the guy that grabs a goblin bomb and hands it back to the goblins and 'boops' their nose before running off.. (So part Deadpool? lol) Well the goblin thing's never happened, JJ's friends with most gob-folk. Alex, JJ's son, was influenced by.. well, I can't think of any. I just modeled him after part of myself and bits of his parents. Grace, JJ's daughter, was influenced a lot by the XI version of her mother (who doesn't play XIV or anything). Hot-tempered, quick to act, shy. Punches things.

You said older mature folks. What about older immature/crazy? *points to profile pic* John's like, 57 (62 chronologically.. five year jumper, whatever), and he's never going to stop. Drop. Or roll. Also, OP, Kingdom of Nerem? Where in the lore is that? I'm a stickler for.. sticking to the lore. A number of folks might brush that aspect aside "That girl's silly." or "Kingdom of Nero? Garlean scum!" Other than that, well, nothing really outlandish aside from lorebreaking stuff.

Hire a group to do a thing! Rather than scoping the adventurer's guild for the 100th person to talk to (I ain't banging that technique) for someone to tell your story to and hopefully join them in adventures, hire a group! That's why there's merc groups or free agents! It's a different and unique way to meet new characters and possibly ones that simply aren't centered in Ul'dah or frequent taverns. Setting up a job, no matter how large or small, requires a good bit of legwork on your part with the prospecting group. Something like: 1. Initial meeting (wandering to that group's HQ)/letter correspondence 2. Job meeting 3. Job! 4. Post-job success/fail debriefing. 5. ???? 6. Profit! While I personally don't frequent the Quicksands that much, I have run into random folks by, well, wandering the wilds. No doubt some folks have seen a bald one-eyed man in black armor walking a path in the Shroud. Even scratched out a job by randomly wandering into a RPer ICly looking for directions. It's 5AM and I think that's all a coherent post... I'll punctuate this with the most important thing ever. Coffee.