Gaspard

I was disappointed in some of the wordplay I saw there. At one point people were just replacing the word Naul in TV and movie titles, and two really stood out: Naul from L.A. The Walking Naul It pained me because there were two easy ones right there. Escape from Naul York, starring Snake Plissken (an alias for Snaulid Snake in MGS2, sort of) at least stretches pronunciation, and they really should have latched onto The Naulking Dead. Step it up, Coerthas. Wh...what is this...? WHY ARE YOU ENCOURAGING THEM Some people just want to watch the Nauld burn. Nauld I'd like to hand you the Pun-jabi award of the Whorl. May you use it wisely. I seriously did nazi that one coming.

ell, I figured I'd jump the bandwagon. Own stuff: Fulfilled Commissions: Val: Liadan: EDIT: Drawings (Closed for now) I may also take drawing commission, but that depends how quickly I can improve my lineart in the following weeks, with the limited time i have.

I'll take a more harsh stance here; If all this fuss is over an IP alone, I suggest you unplug your internet right now, and your friend aswell. That you can be tracked back on the internet should be one of your least worries when it comes to privacy and the internet. Moreso, Side-Operators can see your IP simply by the fact that you connect to it. What they do with this information is up to them, and there's no 'ethic' grounds to it. There's a good reason the internet operates the way it does. Anonymity is a 'Myth' when it comes to the internet. If you want to hide your personal information, get used to using proxies and the likes. Otherwise, improbable. The moment someone gets your current IP, he can track 'everything'. Your Provider, your address, your home, and thanks to google earth, even a picture of your location + house. Anonymity, is, a myth. Also, I learned early in my time as online person that trust is missplaced when it comes to the internet. Never use an E-mail you need in your Real life/Professional Life. Use a 'hobby-one' instead. On another note: Not mentioning specific members of the Staff doesn't make it better. That way the Administration itself will be cast under a suspicious light, not only the accused. Moreso, I would suggest you take it to PM's next time, and address people privately, and only if denied a proper talk there, 'then' you resort to making such things public. This is in itself damaging If there's not a conclusive 'No we didn't do it' statement. And all you're perpetuating through it is a negative image of said on-sight leadership,.

I'm in, as Gaspard works as a sort of Private Investigator / Private eye

I had a military sharpshooter hold me in his scope during Pope benedicts visit in germany. No joke, I was one of the security guards there and the Sharpshooter kept scoping exactly through the row we stood at.

Their points are valid nonethenless. It's not as simple as calling it 'city-rp'. The moment you take charge over the 'Main-Story', or overarching continuity, You force everyone else to adhere to it. Who's to say who should have that control? Moreso, I want to point out that the argument, or point of 'there are GM's that do it so others can enjoy great RP!" is bogus. Most of the time, those GM's carry away alot of Quality RP from it, moreso being at the spotlight of each plot and an integral part of it. So even if it's being sold as 'great contribution to the people', it really isn't more then one or two person being vested with the right to play front row. That is ofcourse not the case should said GM choose not to involve himself Roleplay wise. (That being noted, I am not reffering to Askier, he seems to have a rather honest grasp about the situation.) Also, there's a simple, other issue. since FFXIV will receive constant updates, with more and more Lore being released through it, any plots like these stand the chance of being at serious odds with future updates. If that happens, the RP scene 'has' to retcon all roleplays leading back to the initial, overarching RP that involved Canon material. Which is like a hard-delete of all the progress everyone has made. If not, you're creating a large set of time-paradoxes and lore-breaking material, and that leads to, what I think we can all agree on, bad roleplay. Now, before anyone goes to say 'this is getting all too technical' Roleplay is meant to be very technical, atleast when it comes to the way you shape plots and the way you adhere to Canon Lore. The moment you not only deviate, but alter canon, you try to alter the reality for all characters on the Balmung RP server, and it's only logical that those that will have none of it will ignore said input. To just go 'well we'll keep doing it cause we enjoy it!' is essentially giving the finger to those that like to keep rp clean and proper, and more importantly, fair and balanced. Not to mention that you're then willfully creating seperation between Roleplayers, something that is contraproductive to roleplay in general. That being said, this was more a post to address the responses here and general opinions, not a direct reply to that Event currently going on in Ul'dah. My opinion on that one is different, simply because, as Melkire said, it's been blown out of proportions in regards to it's actual influence on the public.

* I was going to intitially disagree, but you are right. It 'is' everyones own choice how to play said 'consequences'. I think those that voiced concerns in this regard simply do not want to see it being brushed off like nothing happened. Moreso, my Orange outline is meant to highlight a slight double standard. If Everyone is free to choose how their characters will face their consequences in said scenario, and it is entirely unrelated to the outside RP world, or the events happening in said RP world, then everyone is also free to choose the reality of his character (By proxy). With that notion, we can also decide who to acknowledge IC wise and who to ignore. It's a catch 22 argument, where you cannot condemn one yet support the other. That being said, I have to concur with most on the notion that this has (mostly to my own credit) been going on for a bit too long, and I could've taken it to PM's and the likes. Still, I find things like these are necessary to be adressed atleast once, If only because now we have a certain understanding who view RP which way, which can be beneficial in planning future events and roleplays. EDIT: Nice post Askier

Aw D:, dem feels Seriously though. I don't think that all these talks are necessarily bad. Infact situations like these help promote a better understanding and moreso a better planning in future situations, since it helps to gauge out peoples sensitivities to certain scenarios/types of plays. Moreso, I think you've done a rather good job communicating Askier. It's hard to predict every variable the moment you make an event server wide, especially if you put high stakes into it (I.E the lifes of civilians) etc. The only thing I would personally propose for future Events, especially if they're meant to be large scale and touch upon various players and the whole 'rp scenery' itself, is to talk it out beforehand, as in, not just simply announce said events and phases, but actually gauge whether the majority Is for it. That way you can save yourself alot of trouble ahead with minimal clearing up beforehand. @ Kanaria: Please don't instigate. If you feel strongly about Natalies opinion that's fine, but calling her heartless seems somewhat extreme given she's not wrong when it comes to the basis alone.

That's all well and good, but this is a cooperative game. Some people are, rather understandably, attached to playing their characters. So going around drawing lines in the sand saying "this is how it should be, and if you don't conform to the way I see things, then to hell with you" is simply not the way to go about it. It does not set a good precedent for the community - and that's what we are, lest anyone forget. Make no mistake: I thoroughly encourage and support any and all IC reactions as your character (and this is a general "your," directed at no particular person, since it's evident that Aya isn't alone in her thinking) sees fit. What I don't support, on an OOC level, is 1.) blanket statements, for one, regarding a diverse group of characters with numerous motivations and differing circumstances, and 2.) declaring refusal to interact with someone because you disagree with their RP choices. The former is simply making assumptions, and the latter is at best exclusionist and, at worst, metagaming. Actually, I personally tend to always find a way to get somewhat 'adjusted' to a situation, aslong it is not too outlandish. So you needn't worry about me running around 'shunning people', unless it gets too ridiculous. As for ""this is how it should be, and if you don't conform to the way I see things, then to hell with you" is simply not the way to go about it." , That's not really the purpose or goal behind the whole Idea. As I mentioned before, It's a drastic, sub-optimal solution, but at times the only one left for players that feel as if there's no other choice in order to take themselves out of a plot/dynamic they don't want to be part of. I mean, what is the alternative? Always go along with plays you consider unrealistic/nonsensical? If so, you'd have to take every single barhopping, naked troll in the Quicksand seriously the moment he says 'i'm srs'. Ofcourse, it's a harsh and kind of over-the-top example, but it I think it conveys the message. What's Logical to you, isn't necessarily logical to others. If you're at a crossroad, you have the option of either : Trying to work it out if the person is willing to listen, or, if ignored in your request, in kind ignore their character. I for one try to find a way to make things work, by sometimes even finding opportunities and more logical explenations for how they could achieve what they'd wish to achieve. That is, until someone claims he's killed Bahamut, Married Momodi, Or wined and dined with Odin. I don't understand your point in regards to 'blanket statements', because I don't think any have been rendered. At most, I've voiced my personal theory, that I find logical as a result of that which apparently has, or will happen in this plot, and how the Ul'dahn Npc's (As in Military, Factions, Politicians, the common folk) will react to this scenario in regards to the characters involved. As for: 2.) declaring refusal to interact with someone because you disagree with their RP choices.is at best exclusionist and, at worst, metagaming. I'd have to disagree. Metagaming is using OOC knowledge Icly. in the form of 'bob knows your secret without having a way to know your secret' or ' in order to survive, I suddenly know the weakspot nobody ever found out' Outright ignoring a characters existence isn't metagaming, i'd rather call it as it is, ignoring another characters existence. Which again, is perhaps the only viable way for people to get control into their characters and their World/setting if things do not seem 'logical' and/or Lore-cohesive to them. Also, It's not about 'disagreeing' with the characters RP choices, It's about disagreeing with the presumed consequences by the Ul'dahn City State / the NPC's that 'will' react to it. Just as many of us opt out of using story central characters in our backgrounds because you run into that issue of Thancred suddenly being part of everyones background, and it making no sense whatsoever, the same applies, if not especially applies to using large scale locations such as Ul'dah, and 'moreso' applies when using Ul'dahs citizens, thus influencing ALL Characters and all their current situations out of nowhere. At last point, I'd like to address this: "Some people are, rather understandably, attached to playing their characters." I agree, we all carry certain attachment to our characters. However, that shouldn't expell us from consequences. Infact, everyone 'should' be aware that the moment you decide to trade blows with another character, or cause damage of any sort, you'r opening yourself up to negative feedback, which 'will' come in the form of violence or the likes. Either way, these are all theoretical scenarios so far as the plot is not done yet, nor have the right motions concluded so far. At the very core, we're all just arguing about how severe we assume the eventual feedback against those characters involved will be from Ul'dahs NPC perspective. I've been more or less playing devils advocate in this discussion ,as I'm curious whether some people here 'really' thought about what consequence means, as opposed to 'yeah, I get to be a terrorist and get away with a light slap on the wrist that I will then sell as 'grand consequence' "

OJ Simpson is an example out of a democratic/republican society of modern times, Ul'dah is more akin to a Medieval Oligarchy/Monarchy, governed through the laws of a Kingdom, not lawyers. Still, if you took a real-life example, you'd have to take an example like Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Both where hanged/killed without a trial. This would be similar to it, as you have a Terrorist group injuring an entire City, not just a singular person.

The problem in seperating the guilt of so many people that played on the 'Villain' side, as you put it, is that we're back into assuming how Ul'dah would react. Something we have no feasable way of knowing. They might only try to find the heads behind the operation, or they may want everyone involved in any fashion hanged, akin to a witch-hunt. Guilty by Association, and/or standing on the wrong side. In the end, it's not as much about deducting the degree of guilt in each character, but rather, what the Ul'dahn society will settle on as viable punishment, and given that Ul'dah follows a rather medieval system of governing, it's not improbable that it'd be rather a witch-hunt then fair, individual set of trials to deduct someones guilt or innocence. I think that in general people should distance themselves from thinking of this in terms of 'fairness' and or 'Character A is more guilty then Character B'. It's more likely(or plausible), that they'll trial everyone involved as guilty of treason against the Crown and the Citizens of Ul'dah, which will translate into hanging for all of them. There will be too much pressure form the Citizens themselves for a verdict that will please them, rather then be just,as many people will have dead relatives, friends and spouses by that point.

This is an absolutely valid position to take In Character - understand, however, that there are other characters who will find it absolutely absurd; being a victim coerced into performing an action, out of fear, does not equal being party to the crime. As a position to take as a player, out of character, this is absolutely unreasonable and moreover quite disappointing. Actually, this would root back to the point of 'how the world' as in, NPC's, law enforcement, etc, react to it. To give a few examples; Let's say, all those that got collared, end up surviving the ordeal. Given the current details of the situation, there's a very high chance that those involved, (and seen), Will be sentenced to death in Ul'dah, and to be brought towards the authorities on sight. This is not speculation alone, but if you take a moment to think about it, never has 'being forced to' acquitted someone entirely of their guilt. You can't simply say 'person A forced me to kill a hundred of people' (I know that's not the case with most involved, just a general example). In the Eyes of the Law, you should've then simply allowed yourself to be killed, instead of killing those people. Ofcourse, the sentence will be different then if you would've done it willingly, but I find it hard to believe that any other verdict would fall. You can't go massacre a place and say 'I had to, otherwise bobby B would've tazed me to death." Also, there's an old german proverb that says 'Not knowing doesn't meant not guilty'. It's a rough translation, but it still holds, and does so in most courts. Not knowing you helped kill a person doesn't make you any less guilty. It may change the sentence itself, but you're still guilty to a part. Now, as we're talking here about nigh-genocide, or atleast a health-epidemic that 'will' end fatally for many of Ul'dahs NPC's, you can liken it to a Nuclear Plants employee allowing some Core to go off cause 'Dude held a gun to my head'. Now all those theories are nice and dandy if we try to draw parallels for the reaction of Ul'dah towards those Individuals, but we still have to factor in the type of Government that Ul'dah currently is. It is not a democracy, Courts don't always deliver justice, and Death, hanging, and the likes, are probably common sentences for something as trivial as threatening the wrong politician. Given this poisoning of the wells probably endangered all of Ul'dahs Politicians, they 'will' scream for blood, and they will 'not' have to fear that the public will not support them. Quite on the contrary, the Public most certainly will. So Unless those in collars find a surefire way to denounce all and any involvement, and most importantly find a way to 'Prove' that they're innocent, I have a hard time seeing how some of them will get out of it. It may not sound fair, but in regards to this plot, that is the only 'logical' scenario I'd personally see. So my suggestion to those involved, that want to mend the wrath of Ul'dah on their characters, would be: *Escape Ul'dah once the collars are off, and then run and never come back, as you will probably be posted with a 'kill on sight' note in Ul'dah *Accept a certain Jail sentence depending your involvement (if it was low key involvement, settle for like one or two OOC Months) *Accept Death *Try to go the 'alter your features' route, which Is completely up to you, but will just seem kinda flaky if all those involved just go to the next 'plastic Eorzean surgeon' and get their faces fixed, assuming new identities etc. As for Aya's Point: As a Roleplayer in MMO's, the only direct control you have to make sure not to become victim to breeches of RP etiquette, in any fashion, is ignoring other parties. Ofcourse, it's a sub-optimal method, but sometimes, you're left with no other choice. If she says she's not willing to play with characters that, in her eyes, do not adhere to Lore, and make unrealistic plays, that is in her right to do, and perhaps the only method she can implore to manage the quality of roleplay she'll have. We all do it, when we for example ignore some dancing trolls in the Quicksand, or other trolls trying to disrupt our RP. I think what Aya tried to convey isn't 'If they don't die, i'm not playing with them' but rather 'If they don't find a good reason that makes sense in the current scenario to survive this, With the entirety of Ul'dah on their neck[including NPC's/Brass Blades/whatnot] out for their blood, I'm not going to aknowledge them because they're breaking with the reality of my Roleplaying World/Immersion' A wish to keep roleplay 'realistic' (With that, I mean cohesive with Lore), is something I can relate to very much, so I understand where she's coming from. And since MMO RP has no instance Like Admins or GM's you can address, who have the power to decide what 'is right' and 'what is not', in regards to the Plot, the survival of a character, and so on, your only option to maintain quality at such situation is either making said person understand where you're coming from, hopefully have them adjust said behavior, or, which is the easier course, simply ignore them.

vSkb0kDacjs PXkgn3QUA2w These two are the Main themes for Gaspard, followed by: BVzk1mKQOeY As his battle theme

I. Basic Info Characters:Gaspard Howlett, Lucaniel Clarke Primary character:Gaspard Howlett Linkshells:None Primary RP linkshell:None [*] II. RP Style Amount of RP (light, medium, heavy): Heavy Views on RP combat and injuries: All for it aslong it's done right keeping rp etiquette. Views on IC romance: BKPoHgKcqag Views on non-romantic RP (family ties, etc): -nod nod- Views on lore: Views on Lore? Has to be kept up. Liberties shouldn't be take. Views on chat functions (/say, /linkshell, etc): Uh..they're there, we use them? [*] III. Other Info Country:Germany Timezone:Gmt +2 Contact info:[email protected] , dantedgx(Skype) [*] [align=center][glow=blue]~Special announcements can be found in the posts below~[/glow][/align]

Well alright, JKA isn't 'that' old, but after playing it for a nigh decade it sure does feel like it. Still, awesome game, still peeved they never continued the Jedi Knight series

Yeah I consider my English rather well polished, but it still shows at times that i'm not 100 percent proficient in it. I like to mention it because I've used to have contact with alot of english/american natives that paid alot of attention to grammar and other details, simply to keep things..at a certain level. So I like to warn people before zhe german starts showing.

Haha, yeah I know. I'm still waiting for you to show up ingame again, got some stuff to catch up on

Name's Gaspard, and I thought that it was time to finally sign up around here. So!, a bit about me: I've been roleplaying steadily for the better part of 7-8 years now, I'm an avid fan of stories and fiction and nearly all forms (Movies, Books, Visual Novels, TV series, you name it). I began Roleplaying on the Star Wars scene, mostly on Text-RP boards and an old-ass game known as Jedi Academy, and kept venturing into other games for an RP fix over the years, and ofcourse alot of play-by-post RPing ,aswell as some Pen and Paper (mostly Vampire the Masquerade, and other TDW games) English is not my native language, (as some may've guessed already), but all the roleplaying and mass-consumption of English Media helped me to brush it up to the point it's on par with my native language (That being Zhe German, followed by Zhe Polish) Nowadays the only game I still play is XIV, as I lack the time for any different games. If you want to contact me via Skype, you can add me via male or Skype handle: [email protected] dantedgx Anyway, Looking forward to some amazing roleplays around here!

I have the same issues. In my experience, I've just dabbled with Comic Book timelines. When you're talking to people In The Know, the events happened. When you're dealing with someone not associated, the events never existed. It can make some ugly schisms down the road, but for my money it's the best bet. Right now everyone in this thread is reading Blood on the Sands #1, written by Osric and inked by Askier guest starring Kahn'a. But some people didn't want to read that issue, so they're still reading Hot Spring Love #600. Ah, comic books. Is there a problem you can't fix Reminds me of Champions Online, they've ran a similar model (since everyone 'was' infact a superhero) Either way, you might be right that it is one of the better solutions in regards of how to handle this, but those 'ugly shisms' can make or break future roleplays, even scratch at the authencity of your characters, or rather, the Roleplays you have. And while that Comic book method may work out the 'split-continuity' between different characters, It still leaves the part where we're involving a massive landscape in a plot, amongst important NPC's that are Vital to the story. I mean, already now people are kind of going 'Is that really how the Ul'dahn city would react?' I don't know if the certain liberties that where taken in the process will not end up too.. squishy. I mean, How Ul'dah, the Sultana, and all the other NPC's in Ul'dah will react is not at our liberty to choose, unless we go as far as assuming how NPC's react and act, which very well turns them into PC's without Ingame exposure, where those that write the story make calls like 'Sultana does A in regards to B'.

While I am not heavily involved in this play, I can relate to a handful of the adressed issues. Still, so far it seems to beat the off-the-mill barchat/socializing RP, which is fine from time to time, but becomes quite..dull. But back on the topic at hand. I think that, the core issue with this is that the Event itself takes alot of liberties with how the 'RP World', Eorzea and Ul'dah itself will react to this event. Given we're playing in an MMO, we usually have two options. We can choose to ignore a certain slight of Lore in order to create more opportunities for ourselves, or we stick to it 100 percent. That also means leaving our hands off any Higher-up NPC / Story important Lore and locations. It also creates alot of disharmony amongst players who are perhaps not as much involved with this site as others. For example, yesterday I've had a roleplay that was refferencing to said Event, and I had to quickly adjust my characters reaction, because I as an OOC person didn't even know Ul'dah's Wells where poisoned, nor that there where people dying from it. Still, as an Ul'dahn citizen well involved in rumours or hearsay, my character should've technically known it. I think that likewise is an issue for other players. Events in general are fine, but the moment they begin to influence and/or touch large scale locations, or Central plot Dynamics where all people are involved, things become messy. Another good example would be; If my character, logically, wouldn't know about the wells, and thus, went on wining and dining as he does, he'll probably be poisoned, and dead. By logic alone. If I don't adhere to this, I'm breaking Character, thus forcing me to use OOC knowledge in order to save my character from certain death. Still, this is not meant to be rant of sorts, just my perspective on the problematic nature of having such events affect the large scale roleplay community, such as poisoning City wells where 'every' roleplayer on FFXIV probably passes through, no matter whether they're involved in the Event or not. It creates a sort of tear in 'my rp reality/ your rp reality.' Because for some here this event will be fact, others will have to ignore it, and thus you're already playing in two different realities where a handful of people account said event to be in their lore, others don't. And that can lead to a massive amount of issues down the road, especially if said event becomes integral to future plots. Still, I'm looking forward to how things will work out regardless.

Imho Bleed-Through as it stands is something that always happens, in a smaller or bigger scale. I've always likened Roleplaying to a mixture of acting, aswell as dynamic playwriting. On one hand, you try to convey as realistically as possible what your 'character' (Which in a way is simply a fictive being who's personality you've outlined in your mind) does in a fictive world. What I personally do is that I try to get 'In character', into the mindset of what he would do, and how he would react. Ofcourse that will, in some way, move you or impact you, as we develop a certain attachment to our Creations. Plus, we're invested, with time, and effort. Now, straight out bleed-through for me is rather when I carry personal issues into the roleplay. and that breaks character. I think a little bleed-through is never bad, because it often can even help to give your character a more realistic, feasable edge, and it helps to translate real emotion into your play. Likewise however, if it starts breaking character, rather then enforcing it, it becomes problematic. I mean, I am sure we all know the old catch 22 situation of strict OOC/IC seperation, but sometimes, a very small bit will always go through. The question is if it's beneficial or contraproductive.