Imo

Magitek limbs.

In addition to what everyone and their dog already said (use sad/tragic RP sparingly, too much and it loses its flavour), there's one thing I'd like to mention: Tragic RP works best when you play with people who already know your character well. People who are attached to it, and will feel bad when something bad happens to it, instead of rolling their eyes and going "ugh another emo kid using drama for cheap sympathy". Don't drop your whole tragic baggage on someone with whom you only RPed for two short sessions before. Pacing is important.

Being a roleplayer is not an excuse to suck at the game. It's really not that hard to be at least passably competent. Also, most people I know who are very good at roleplaying are also very good at PVE, and I doubt it's a coincidence.

Don't you know? There's only one undeniably true way to measure the quality of your roleplaying: the less powerful your character is, the better of a roleplayer you are. Nothing else matters. And if your character is anything more special than a moderately skilled sellsword in battered old mail, you might as well be roleplaying Naruto. Final Fantasy? What's Final Fantasy? I thought this is called Game of Thrones Online.

Where are the hats? I demand to see hats.

Everything Hyrist said so far is gold. Though exceptions could be made for mostly harmless low-key crooks and other bad guys who are not villains in a comic book meaning of the word. Well, Ul'dah is more or less under the control of a clown in a mask right now.

There's one elephant in the room that needs to be addressed here: most of the time, the default assumption is that in the end, the bad guys will lose. Therefore, if you want to play a villain, you have to be ready for your character to lose. What's more, this is not a courtesy that will be necessarily shared by your opponents! Some of them may be willing to lose, but most won't. You might have some successes on the way, but unless you're a harmless or funny villain, most hero-type characters will expect to beat you in the end. You have to accept this. If you don't, you should reconsider playing a villain.

Imogene is a free paladin who goes where she's needed. While technically an instructor at Vylbrand Academy, her wandering lifestyle means she runs classes sporadically at best. She used to be in the Flames in her backstory, but left after Ultima Weapon was destroyed.

My guess who'll be #1 was off, though not by much. Congratulations to the winners!

Those two were outcast for being an interracial couple. They didn't even mention being discriminated against for being gay. Do they mention it's interracial? As far as I remember they only say they were discriminated against, and the game lets you draw your own conclusions whether it was because they're gay or different races. Possibly both.

Any kind of "item X costs Z dollars in real life and Y gil in the game, that means 1 dollar = Y/Z gil" math is bound to fail and not make any sense, because the comparative prices of various items varied a lot over history, and a lot of the game prices were pulled out of nowhere anyway. And that's before magic enters the equation. I think the only thing we can agree on is that an average PC/successful adventurer has much more money to spend than an average Eorzean.

Eternal Bond is an euphemism. For all purposes, it's marriage. And I believe that there are some places where homophobia is a thing (there are two gay guys who had to flee their village because other people there didn't approve of their relationship), but in the bigger and more open-minded cities, gay marriage exists. Same with marriage between different races.

So, who won? Any screencaps? I wasn't there for reasons.

Wish I could come, but I'm running a tabletop game at the same time.

Oh, what the hell. Let's do this.

That's good then. Remember an important rule about playing characters with special/rare powers: if the character concept requires other people to agree that their character is automatically weaker than yours, then it's not good RP, but going on a power trip. And same applies to FCs. You're worried about stepping on other people's toes and keeping things plausible and within role, so your idea might work. Because intent is very important.

Sturgeon's Law applies heavily to characters with mental illnesses. Some people manage to play them well, most people don't. When in doubt, exercise caution, be respectful, and do research to make sure you portray the disorder accurately instead of going for a Holywood version. Also, reason is important. If you give your character a disorder in order to make them cooler, more speshul or edgier, then you're doing it wrong and I guarantee you're not going to play it in a tasteful manner. Bonus points if it's multiple personality disorder.

I don't think adding a powerful, hi-tech military force (that doesn't exist in lore) to the game is a good idea. Most free companies get away with having magitek weaponry because they're just a handful of adventurers that don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. But playing your FC as a big, heavily armed military force is a different matter entirely - this is something that would change the global balance of power in Eorzea. You're pretty much forcing others to either agree that yes, your military force is (or is going to be) a major global player, or to ignore you. And most people will probably go with the latter. As for playing Garleans: Garlean refugee who's loyal to Eorzea - a very viable concept. Hell, I'm playing such a character. You probably shouldn't ba a pureblood Garlean, though, just someone from a land they conquered. Garlean character who secretly supports the empire - same as other villain characters. Which is to say, thread carefully, because most people don't know how to play villains well. Garlean character who openly supports the empire - no. Just don't. How are you even still alive?

And yet at the same time, notes and letters written by and/or adressed to lower-class citizens appear all the time in the game. I smell an inconsistency.

Playing a hyur as a padjal is better than playing an au'ra as one. You know what's better than both? Not playing a padjal.

Screw tarot, my Astrologian will be based on Triple Triad. It's time to d-d-d-duel!

Fittingly, Dark Knight lore is almost 100% Batman. He's not the hero Ishgard needs, but one it deserves. Personally, I find Dark Knight to be a bit too edgy. I'll stay with my good old knight in shining armor Paladin class, thank you very much.

I must say, it's refreshing to see an epidemic of a non-lethal, non-crippling disease, as opposed to MURDEROUS PLAGUE THAT KILLS THOUSANDS AND YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, which is the usual way RP plague events go.

Imogene is 4 or a bit above 4 by my standards, but do note that I consider this game to be a high-power setting where experienced warriors can perform amazing feats. This doesn't change her ranking, however; fighting half a dozen NPCs or a single PC on equal footing is where I see her. She's just flashy about it. I wonder are there any people who seriously, and non-terribly, RP 1 or 2. I saw a few people who were on level 1, but they were fascinatingly awful about it, and their characters were juvenile and angsty Mary Sues.

Correction: you are not. And that's perfectly okay. I, however, play the game with the assumption that Imogene is the main character of her own story. And I play her on the power level of a Final Fantasy party member. As someone very familiar with DND, quoted for truth. In fact, DND players were partially what prompted me to write this, because I see this "magic can do anything, non-mages are limited by RL physics" attitude among them way too often.