SaintEaon

For instance suppose you're deciding to take a character in a newer direction, the status quo's been the same for awhile and you meet some new RPers and start making a plot with them. At some point something happens, it could be from your old RP having some change, it could be something new you learn (be it true or false ICly), how big would it have to be in order to make you change your new plot and plans?

About the time you start hitting dungeons you end up with like The armor you can get from doing quests, as well as alternative sets from dungeons. Then eventually once you unlock your new Job most of them have gear specific to their class and at this point you have optional dungeons with unique drops too. So you'll have like 5 or 6 unique armor sets from dungeons a lot of time, quest armor, class armor, and then when you hit 50 you add in Raid Armor. HW added a lot of new stuff too and in 3.1 they're changing the way some of the armor works so it'll be even more variety soon.

Likewise the customization of Non Midlander Hyur are all comparable to GW2. Played GW2 for awhile, felt like the customization was lacking there. FFXIV doesn't have the greatest as far as basic character appearance goes, but between armor skins, dyes, the hair and skin colors, tattoo and face paint systems it is actually surprisingly difficult to find characters that look a lot alike. I think every class looks relatively similar to other people in its class if you leave the armors the same, but if you want to make them look different its not super challenging to do so.

Other jobs do weird stuff like this too. The Dark Knight storyline between 30 and 50 establishes stuff that in theory you could do in character that is just bonkers. Not only is it out there insane if you RP'd half of it with people who haven't read up on it or experienced it themselves they'd probably accuse you of some manner of BS just because it sounds sooooo unreal if someone explains it to you. (PM me if you want to know but there are serious spoilers in it so I'm not gonna go into too much detail here)

I would also make sure you know 100% who you're RPing with. Like someone else here mentioned no one wants to lose to a villain 100% of the time, but changing their character's personality OOCly so they don't get affected by manipulations or machinations isn't fair to you, and if for some reason people start making it out that your RP choices as the villain are insignificant or not worth RPing they'll undo all your hard work. I've been the bad guy in several RPs on several different games. In one of them its been enjoyable the entire way through. In most you just have someone strong enough to stop you just happen to start meditating outside your house and then when you're leaving get the feeling you're up to something. Or they'll call for help OOCly in their LS or FC and not make mention of it to you OOCly or ICly so suddenly you're surrounded by 15 people for no reason. Or they'll refuse to RP, or tell you by slandering their character's name and coming after them you're griefing their plot and they'll stop RPing with you if you don't fall into lockstep with them. Finding the right people is the most important thing.

Oooh I can see Aya and Lunae becoming great friends! They'd probably get a long really just based off their personalities I would like to meet both of you, I would go to this rehearsal. I don't think this troupe is the sort from which an adventurer would emerge, hence my thought of a friend of a friend, but it is possible that there may be some older ties there! So far only one person has stumbled on Aya rehearsing and it was actually really fun (Thanks Vaughn! ^^ - note that Aya was not at all pleased, but they made up and became friends later!). I will look for both of you in either case regardless, trying to get more contacts. My name's Raeaon Norellia

Oooh I can see Aya and Lunae becoming great friends! They'd probably get a long really just based off their personalities I would like to meet both of you, I would go to this rehearsal.

A lot of this actually. At least this last weekend I had so much shit going on ICly and OOCly that even when I wasn't doing anything and was just in the Quicksand I didn't want to start an RP out of fear I'd bail half way through or I wouldn't be 100% focused on it. Last night though I ended up in an RP fight with a new RPer, rather than quit I'd just give him some pointers on how things were usually done and what /random was/is. New RPers are fun, you'll never know what you're gonna get.

I usually just send them a /tell or if I see them walking around looking walk up and talk to them. Sometimes I regret it though, nothing worse than Au Ra history /sarcasm

Its a little weird. I work for my family and we run an electrical estimation consulting company. Basically for a lot of new construction companies or companies that can't quiet afford proper staffing like Electrical Estimators who need estimation done send us blueprints and we tell them what our hourly rate is, how long it'll take to do the job, estimate the job and send our estimations back to them in such away that they can redo the work and make it look like it came out of their office. In particular I manage counts, counting light fixtures, counting receptacles, counting security cameras, and fire alarms all that electrical stuff. I also do printing of blue plans and run errands for the shop, which is why I tend to be on here CONSTANTLY Mon-Fri because a grasshopper could do a lot of my work and if I don't multi-task or do something to break up the monotony I'll go insane and the work day never ends.

Someone ICly has you look at your character in away that makes you look at him OOCly and you actually see that everything the character wanted when you made him has come true. That night by night, hour by hour, your work paid off and even if the journey wasn't quiet what you expected, and even though you know the next day you'll get up because the story continues, you have for a little bit the chance to go. "Wow he did it. Through all the heart break and anger, the fights and the drinking, the naive little farm boy became a warrior, and from there the Knight he always wanted to be." Thanks for everyone who took part in the journey ^.^ Not sure where Rae's next steps will take him, but looking back, he did accomplish everything I'd thought he'd want.

Interstellar Sound Track currently. Feeling a lot of instrumentals lately, Oh and also Pierce the Veil.

It really depends I guess. In general in games like Final Fantasy, EQ2,and SWG was like this to some extent its hard to RP bad guys because a decent enough number of people don't want to "lose". I find myself in a situation currently where my character is definitely the bad guy in an RP that's taking place between my character and three others. Even though two of the three of them have been RPing with me for months I'm not sure how they'll respond to having my character be the "Bad guy". I guess the starting thing is their relationship has always been very manipulative, so when my character hires people to try and manipulate their thoughts on another character I get worried because A) Some of the characters I hired have my former FC's tag in their name, its almost a dead OOC give away that I hired them even though ICly they wouldn't know, and B) Will this or because they don't want to lose their plot or damage it in some way, will they even bother letting it affect their RP. I mean if they didn't that would be super unfair to me right? Especially since we've had our characters be this way for over three months, so to for the sake of a new RPer basically decide my character's actions don't matter would be really bad and hurtful honestly. Its saying they only want to RP with me when its going their way, and the reason I'm even talking about this because that's the point I'm gonna bring up. Everybody wants to win, and because of the way the game works, they'll do shit to make sure they win. And I know what you're thinking "Not everyone tries to "win" " But more specifically they do what they can to make sure their plots don't get "messed up". This can be a variety of things from OOCly refusing to RP a group of people trying to kill them or having their RP partners ignore false accusations made to slander their character. Things I've seen is people getting mugged or jumped refusing to RP until help "accidentally" wonders into them if they feel outnumbered. There's always the classic "Even though I'm alone and unexpecting it someone pulled a gun on me and I immediately responded with Bruce Lee like instincts to handle the situation." To just kind of annoying stuff like people not Roleplaying like a gun in your face is some how less deadly so you shouldn't be afraid of it. And some people do have reasons for all these things. But if we go back to the example I provided above, the reason that RP is happening is because my character had to live with the choices and actions of others. Me, the RPer wasn't happy about it, but that's the way it is sometime, my plot was changed because of someone else's actions. Is it fair to me if to preserve their plot they ignore my character's reactions to them changing his? The answer is no, but most people work very, very hard on their plots and in order to get the result they want OOCly will ignore bad things ICly no matter how compelling. If I pay several other Miqo'te girls to go accuse a girl's new boyfriend of rape and abuse ICly and OOCly they know its not true and they want a happy ending or a certain development to take place OOCly, very often ICly they'll ignore it or find some reason to not care even if its going on blind faith for their lover they've been with all of a week and known all of two weeks. There are some good RPers who wont do this (in fact I wouldn't make the generalization and say most people won't RP correctly), however it happens enough to where anytime an RP like this comes up I'm uncomfortable with it immediately because I feel like its too easy to tell the bad guy that what he does, doesn't matter. Clarification edit: By refusing to RP I don't mean not RPing at all persay, but either running away immediately without RP or posting incredibly slow until help from an FC or LS arrives, then when the tables turn expect you to RP because "Calling for help is something they'd do." Even though they gave you no chance to stop it or way to know it was coming. Further Edit: (Because I'm waiting for Blueprints to print) Another issue I have is say my people I've been RPing with are okay with RPing the bad things my character does. What if their new friend isn't? What if he refuses to RP the bad things my character does because he doesn't like it? That puts our mutual friend in an awkward spot? They've been wanting this new plot for awhile, to they recton their older friend and their character's history with him out? That's unfair and I don't think they'd do that, but do the then tell me "Hey we're gonna ignore the slander/blackmail/assassins and if you want to RP with us, despite our months of preexisting RP you can either be okay with this new development or we'll not RP anymore. These are the problems I have with being the bad guy, all it takes is one person not willing to "lose" or be endanger of losing something and they will inflict all that they're afraid of on the villain who often put as much or more work into being the counter force to the plot. I mean for this story if they told me what I did didn't matter, I'd have at least 4 or 5 other players I'd have to tell not to RP something they've been planning for at least two days. I ICly had to investigate to learn this other character's name I didn't know OOCly and didn't ask, I had to do that organically so the time investigating was lost. The planning ICly and OOCly is lost, and my character and what he does/stands for is told it doesn't matter. This guy OOCly probably didn't know what he was getting into when he chose the RP he chose, but just because you don't know all of your partner's friends and who they are, does that mean if you don't like them you can tell them they don't count or refuse to RP with them? Some people honestly might, and enough people do to where I'm here ranting off examples of why playing the bad guy makes me anxious. Here's another good question. What if the new guy refuses to RP it and my friend trying to compromise says "Look I'm going to remain in this situation with him but we can still RP and still do everything we were before but ICly our relationship will be different." Well that's not exactly okay either because you're telling me the entire reason my character became the bad guy in the first place OOCly he can't change and I just have to live with it as I become a second priority in a plot in all respects I should be a main character in. Not the main characters that'd be my friend and her friend, but considering our past and my character he's up there. Post Lunch Edit: Another issue I think tends to hinder bad guys or villains is /random. This effectively says that it doesn't matter that I'm a 200 Pound man in full suit of plate mail carrying a great sword the size of tiny Miqo'te dancer girl's entirely unarmored body, tiny little dancer girl has the exact same chance of winning in a threatening encounter, or getting away free of any real damage. Sometimes you'll get lucky and /tell someone and be able to work out not using /random, but if I'm in a situation where I go up to a bisexual courtesian catboy with zero combat experience who's trying to make money and tell him for messing with my girls I'm going to kill him, and he just immediately goes into combat because despite having a seasoned veteran warrior who got the jump on him because /random can bail him out is horrid. In short I think the fact he game's mechanics of FCs/PMs/Linkshells, as well as the reliance on /random really hinders a good villain. Villains already had a hard time because no one wants to have "bad stuff" happen to their plots and ideas but then when you have in game and relied on methods of RP that make it even harder for a well thought out, well prepared villain to beat even the most under equipped and meek of opponents/enemies is just borderline unfair.

Raeaon Norellia would love to meet her. He loves to meet most people but right now he's working on meeting new people. He's been around a pretty long amount of time in game (not as long as some, but I think I'm getting close to four or five months on him.) In that time he's gone from an illiterate farmer's hand to a very troubled knight. His attitude can range from super kind and caring to incredibly hurt and betrayed feeling to out right angry and destructive. Normally he's at least kind of consolable and especially if he just met you its incredibly hard to push him to one of those extremes. He too is single (and while he feel's he was dumped and betrayed), he by nature is very flirty. I'd be very happy to RP with you as I'm on as much as possible. PM me if you want to do some plot stuff or if you want to know more, I'd be happy to let you know.

I think Metagaming is usually malicious or something that breaks down RP. If you have a player who's not comfortable with something and you choose not to do it, that's being respectful to them, I don't think anyone would consider that metagaming.

I don't really know if I'd call that metagaming. I offered a friend an out the other night because he wasn't comfortable with the turn an RP had taken. He said no, but the offer was still there. I just think that's being a decent person.

Yep. L'yhta, for all her positive qualities, can also be a self-righteous, judgmental, selfish jerkass. While she's gotten better at holding her tongue over time, she still picks fights with people over tribal traditions, screws up others' plans because of her sometimes hardline interpretation of the Code of the Magi, and can't help but shoot her mouth off at "zealots" (such as Ishgardians who are politically active), and so on. While I do like a bit of conflict RP, I have to confess that I feel a bit bad when L'yhta decides to start trouble. So, I tend to send OOC tells afterwards apologizing for my character being a prick. I know IC is IC and OOC is OOC, but I can't help feel a twinge of unhappiness that I might've made someone's RP less fun. I'm closer to being more like that. But like say my character is seeing another character and then a third character ends up having a thing for them. The moment my character catches wind of that he tears down their life. He goes after their friends, if they're in a Free Company, he runs disinformation to their mutual interest, and once he starts putting all that pressure on its just about feeling out and seeing what their character can and can't take, and once you find out what they can't take and get that scent of blood you move in for the kill. Its proven incredibly effective, in general Love mixed with a willingness to intimidate someone by letting them know they should be afraid of this other party is a super effective way of dealing with things. Then you mix that in with a few "professionals" who are good at observation and provocation and you can warn someone to be afraid of this person because they do XYZ and then convienently provoke those exact reactions at the worst possible time. And as good as we've gotten and doing that to people we're "enemies" with, there are times OOCly where I'm like, "Man I hope both our "victim" and the people we're manipulating aren't too upset by this OOCly. I'm not pulling my IC punches but if this works it'll really disrupt things for them." and some people don't handle it well. We lost an RP partner a few weeks ago because we ran this campaign and trying to fight our information network that's existed for awhile this character tried to make their own and pull in help and to do so they ended up metagaming a lot and lying to people to get shit done and it resulted in a huge issue that temporarily made me look bad then a week or two later reversed when they started talking to this other RPer and it got her in serious trouble and cleared my name a bit. Its always a little difficult to gauge a person's reactions OOCly but in the words of some rapper "This is every day business so manage it or run away now if your ass can't handle it."

In those situations though the only ones that I'd really feel bad about is the fiance bit. I don't necessarily feel bad for the characters involved, but anytime I take a spy away, or if there's an ERPer who wants to make someone their pet and I step in and make the pet the hunter and totally disrupt their plans, I almost feel bad for the other people because sometimes weeks if not months of effort and work goes into that and I am very very good at persuading character's to see things my character's way, so very rarely has he not gotten his intended goal eventually.

I mean specifically when you do something ICly that's totally in character for your character and you know its going to annoy/anger/disrupt other people ICly? I know for instance my character has a tendency to twist arms and intimidate people's characters into not dealing with other characters with the intention of messing up the other character's plans. And every time I do it I get that smug feeling that I imagine like someone in Game of Thrones might feel knowing they made a problem for a rival, but OOCly sometimes I'm like "Yeah I won, but you know, my character's kind of a bad person sometimes." I mean it hasn't stopped me from doing it almost every time the option comes up to do so. I mean that's how the game's played if you're jockying for power within an FC or with street gangs in Ul'Dah or whatever. Sometimes political rivals need to be undermined and I'm never hesitant to do something to further my character's status as it is his nature to twist arms and extort people for information or whatever he's trying to get. So I'm curious are there any other people that their character does stuff like this, and do you ever feel kinda bad for it?

So like. I'm from Nebraska. I'm living in Nebraska. My rant of the day is about people who generalize/stereotype others... Concur. Also in Nebraska. If anything, Nebraska should be nuked because of Husker fans, not the fringe wackos. I kid, I kid... maybe... Enlisted soon to be Air Force, very specifically requesting "Not Nebraska" 10 times on dreamsheet. Currently in Northern Colorado, it like Nebraska but not awful. Big difference.

I'd totally be down to RP with you ^.^

This actually, When I was still new to the Server my character got into a fight with another in the QS and she tried to "throw" my character. I didn't know who she was, however I did know while being relatively new my character was apart of the Immortal Flames and had been for sometime, he was experienced but maybe not seasoned. So an issue arose when this character I knew nothing about attempted to throw my character because I was bigger, I was in heavy armor, and from what I could tell she was some random blind chick, so being an armored warrior, who's decently trained and experienced in the field I took issue with this character sacrificing my character's physcality by saying she could walk up to him without him defending himself and throw him acrossed a room. A lot of this could be styles, this RPer apparently was more FF style physics where ridicules shit can happen, however I prefer realism so that didn't jive with me, so I took a middle ground I didn't get thrown but I got staggered and nearly fell over. However this person then said I wasn't RPing correctly and left the RP claiming we were ignoring her messages (ignoring that fighting in the QS invites all the spectators and chat scrolling so it's possible we just missed what she was saying because she was doing so in /say). I then later found out she'd won some server wide fighting tournaments that I didn't even know were a thing and its quiet possible her character was that strong. Was her reaction a little over the top? Yes. Was my reaction to her original throw a little subpar? Yes. However I think you can really state that the cause of the problem was an older more experienced RPer on the server assumed that her strength was known and then got annoyed and made an ass out of herself when it wasn't. The whole thing could have been avoided with a few PMs too, had I known her resume I would have reacted differently, had she asked I could have explained my thoughts on why I did what I did, but her perceived "skill' made it to where she felt she was being treated poorly so she quit. This same critique isn't just valid for skilled characters though, if you can't back up your claims then don't make them. Or vice versa if you want to claim something to set up an RP for later let your partners know 99% of the time they'll be willing to work with you because it helps their character development too. However don't just go around assuming you're a force to be reckoned with, because there's always a bigger fish and finding them can be very tricky.

Good luck homie, if you need to meet some people to RP when you get here (assuming here is Balmung) feel free to PM Raeaon Norellia, I'd be happy to introduce you to some people and help you get your foot in the door. ^.^

I had a buddy's happen just after HW in like 10 mins.

You know if you'd like to play on Balmaung you don't have to sacrifice your characters, you can just transfer them over and play, costs a bit yeah but it also doesn't give a damn about server pop.