Nihka

Just one hour left before it's time for us to open our doors! Hope all of our prospective guests are hype for the opening ♥

You spy a short red-headed Seeker doing... something. She spends an inordinately long time inspecting a wall before bursting into a sudden flurry of motion, slapping a currant-purple poster squarely onto the wall with rather more force than necessary. She gives it a satisfied nod and whirls around, wearing a huge toothy grin. "Oooh, are you interested? Here, I've got some spare flyers! The Host Club is AMAZING and you should really go to it because there are just not that many better ways to spend a few hours! Are you gonna be there? "Oh. I should explain it, shouldn't I? It's a lot like a cafe except even better! It's really fancy and our cooks are increeeedible and we have teas that are actually quite good even if you don't like tea very much like me, though if you're extra hateful of teas that's okay because our hot chocolate is absolutely perfect, it's what I usually get- <gasp> "Ah, but the main thing that makes it a Host Club and not just a fancy cafe is that, along with getting your own booth and delicious things, you also get to pick out a Host to join you! We have so many fantastic people who're there specifically to be friendly, helpful, listeny, entertaining, or whatever it is that'll make you feel at home! Um. Getting lewd with your Host is not okay though. We respect your boundaries, you respect ours, and everyone's happy, right? "It's pretty silly, 1000 gil is ridiculously cheap for such droolworthy food and caring companionship! Honestly, I'm not sure how we afford to stay running at that price. I suppose we stay open through the power of sheer determination, eager to make Rendezvous the most beloved place anyone could ask for! "Look for me when you go there- I go by Quetzalcoatl! Though you'd better arrive early, since guests pick their hosts on a first-come first-served basis, and I'm always the first one to be chosen!" Her whirlwind of animated talking finished, Quetzalcoatl waves cheerily and runs off to find another strategic poster-posting spot. இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ— OoC Info இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ— We will be hosting Sunday, September 1st at 3:00 PM CST / 4:00 PM EST! The entrance fee is 1,000 gil*, and will be collected at the door. The location is Ward 8, Plot 13, (in the Goblet) and Hosts and Hostesses will be selected at a first come, first serve basis. (In other words, if the Host or Hostess you want has already been selected, then you will have to choose another, or depart until next time. The person who arrives first will get the first selection, and so on until all Hosts and Hostesses are spoken for.) Note: To avoid confusion, please line up on the lawn in the order of arrival when first entering the grounds. Please do not run in past the guard posted at the door, or your character will just be immediately ushered back out. Here is the menu that the Host Club offers! Here is a look at the dossiers that are posted outside of the Club! (Note: Not all employees may be present on the day of the opening, depending on schedules. Feel free to ask the person at the door if a particular Host or Hostess is available, if you have a particular one in mind. Rest assured though - all of our Hosts and Hostesses have their own unique merits and advantages!) As always, please let me know if there are any questions! Here's looking forward to another fun event! Be there or be a sad cactaur who misses Host Club! * Gil is IC only; no OoC gil needs to be brought or exchanged for this event. ♥

For all of his life Gagaroda Yayaroda had believed that the desert was his home. He was dunesfolk, born and bred for the blowing sands and the burning sun, but he was now realizing that he was mistaken. Somehow he had gotten lost and was now farther south in the Sagolii than he had ever been before. His world was split evenly at the horizon between the coarse brown sand below and the azure blue cloudless sky above. A man could see forever out here, but there was no sign of any life whatsoever, much less the mining camp he was supposed to be delivering supplies to. His chocobo was wilting in the head, its head hanging low and its tread heavy under the packed bags on its back. Gagaroda tugged the lead again, drawing the bird ever forward, forcing it to keep up. It was time to turn back. Hopefully he could retrace his steps back to Forgotten Springs and refill his supplies before the head drove him to the ground, never to stand again. Under his feet he felt a tremor and froze, pulling the chocobo up short. A sandworm was stalking the area. The first sign of life he’d noticed in over a day. What was it doing out here with nothing to eat? Well, nothing to eat save a lost Lalafel and a chocobo too tired to run. Gagaroda cursed his luck. This trip was proving to be entirely unprofitable. Perhaps his wife was right and he should have set up shop in Silver Bazaar instead of insisting on being a travelling merchant. After a few tense minutes the tremors grew faint, and then stopped, so gagaroda began moving again, heading back towards civilization, or at least where he thought civilization might be. But then something caught his eye, barely visible at the edge of the horizon. It shimmered in the heat coming up from the sand, and for a moment gagaroda thought it was a trick of the eye, but no, there it was. A gleaming city of purest white standing out brightly against the sky. It was far, ten malms, maybe more. For a moment he considered heading there, perhaps finding some water and continuing his journey, but he thought better of it quickly. A lost city this far out in the desert? It must be ruins, perhaps recently uncovered by the shifting wind blown dunes. There’d be no water there, and at the moment he needed that more than he needed the risks and rewards of exploring a lost ruin. So he pulled out his map and marked down where he thought the city was, though he had to admit he wasn’t even entirely sure where he was. If he could keep this a secret and then return, better supplied and prepared… Well, more than one man had made his fortune on lost relics from forgotten ruins. Perhaps it was time for Gagaroda to join them. Leve: Gagaroda Yayaroda would like a brave troupe of adventurers to explore the ruins of a recently discovered lost city in the far southern Sagolii desert. Gagaroda will split the profits of the expedition 50/50 with the adventurers with the adventurer’s share to be split amongst themselves by their own means. Please bring adequate supplies and preparations for a long trip into the desert. Saturday, Sept 29 8:00 PM Central time Five player slots 1. Nheu'a 2. Kiht 3. S'imba (effin' Tia) 4. Anstarra 5. Wauren

Flurries of snow drifted down the cold cobbles of an Ishgardian plaza until the breeze reached an imposing stone building and pushed the ice up along the wall. From a single window, the faint light of an oil lamp tried to fight its way through the layers of frost and fog that extended from the corners of each pane of glass, slowly working towards the center. Inside was a small office; a young woman worked against an endless stack of papers. Lyssa sighed, scrubbing her hand across her face. The day had ended, but the work had not. The flickering shadows of her inkwell and pens stretched out across the desk, and two stacks of papers made a hulking shadow across the far wall. The war was over, but old habits die hard: She imagined it as the shadow of a dragon flying overhead, a great beast that would devour her if she couldn’t escape. Ishgard was no strange to the levemete. The Central Highlands had been home to Adventurers’ Guild outposts for years. When the Holy See opened its doors to adventurers, though, the sheer volume of requests had more than tripled. There was more business, more trade, and more jobs for clerks such as herself. Everyone wanted something done, from killing rats in a basement, to taming a skittish antelope, to finding the lost pages of some mysterious void tome. She slid over the next sheet of paper and squinted her eyes to read the shaky, unpracticed script. “I’m worried about my grandfather. A sennight past, he set out to our old home in Western Coerthas. Our family lived there before the Calamity, and now that the war has ended he hoped to bring home what we left behind. The trip was only supposed to take four suns, but we are well past that now. I can’t sleep, for imagining him trapped in a cave while horrible wolves prowl about. Please find us some strong adventurers to bring him home to meet his new great-grandaughter. - Addie” Lyssa scowled. Leave it to a Brumie to go running off in foul weather chasing ghosts of the past. Saturday, July 28th, 3 PM Central, four players 1 S'imba 2 Zelmanov 3 Anstarra 4 R'shesha Sadly, no child was ever found in the search for the missing Donner girl. Now, it is presumed to be a search for her body, or perhaps an attempt to identify the strange creature they encountered before. Saturday, July 21st, 8 PM Central, four players 1 Renaea 2 Edda 3 Lan 4 Jana Reserve: Vincent Reserve, either event: Kiht

The girl did not know for how long she had been running, but she had begun when no light had filtered down through the heavy canopy above at all and her steps had been unsure and often painful as her bare limbs met the hidden dangers of fallen branches and caught in ruts in the ground that threatened to snap delicate ankles. Now the cool of the dark had turned to the warmth of the dim, and though there was still nothing to see beyond the leaves and vines above every once in a while a stray beam of light snuck down to the ground for the flicker of an instant; a glimmer of something beyond the shrouded forest. She was hot now, sweating and panting as the unmoving air between the trunks of the great trees became harder and harder to keep in her lungs. She must rest. Nothing can run forever, neither prey nor hunter. One must give before the other. This was the law of nature. A sound hit her ears, the trickling familiarity of moving water. The girl turned her desperate sprint towards it, and beyond the next heady oak she found the source. A waterfall fed into a small pond created by a fallen tree across the width of a shallow stream. The water was cold and clear, no higher than her thighs. It was too small for fish, and she could see that it was empty, secluded behind the fallen tree. Hesitantly, cautiously, timidly she came out from behind the tree, her breath still coming in raw heaves of her chest. Her body demanded the cooling touch of the pond. Her throat begged for the water. She knew then that she could run no more and instead fell into the pond. In an instant her skin erupted in goosebumps and icy cold stabbed through her flesh and into her bones. She almost cried out but cupped her hands over her mouth to hide her voice from the woods. After a few moments the cold was bearable. She plunged her face into the water and took great bellowy gulps of the cold. When she rose up again she was not alone. A man stood at the edge of the water. He wore furs over his shoulders and his bare arms were thick with muscle. In one calloused hand he held a worn bow made of antler. His thick beard split open to show yellowing teeth as he spoke. “Aren’t you a pretty little thing?” The girl did not respond. She stood, staring at the man, her arms clutched tightly to her chest, her eyes unblinking, afraid to lose sight of him for even a heartbeat. The wood did not forgive carelessness such as that. She knew it. Careless. The man stayed at the edge of the pond clutching a tree branch above him with one hand, his yellow teeth a wolf’s grin. “A pretty pretty little thing. What are you doing out here where even grown men fear to tread, hmm?” He leaned towards her and the scent of fresh blood and tallow came with him. “Anything at all could happen to you so far from home little miss. Perhaps old Theron could keep an eye on you. It’s not safe out here, oh no. You need protection.” The girl didn’t move, as still as a stone while the man spoke. Her heart beat fast against her ribs, ribs that stuck out under her skin, gaunt and fragile. The man took a step into the water, his eyes travelling across her body and behind him the forest began to move. And then the screaming began. Leve from the Donner family of The Central Shroud. It reads as follows. “Two nights past our daughter went in search of berries in the woods and has yet to return. A neighbor said he spotted her heading into the Western Shroud. Please find her whatever her fate and bring her back to us.” Saturday, June 9th 8:30 CST Six players. 1- Edda (alt) 2- Kiht 3- Virara 4- Artoria 5- Jana 6- Alera

Nihka wants to go with, to claim the Crucible

Nihka must be there for the Bright Ones C for Nihka

B. Nihka needs to take responsibility for her actions.

We're one single hour away from the Rendezvous Host Club opening its doors! Don't be a sad cactuar! :cactuar:

Past midnight, it's officially Friday. That means tomorrow is Saturday, and so tomorrow is Host Club! I'm excited (and a bit anxious) ♥

Hey everyone! Just wanted to remind everyone that this month someone new is running the Host Club. Maia has put this together so many times and it's finally her chance to participate as a guest or hostess. We need to make sure she has a great time, so lets make sure tons of people show up! <3

[align=center] [/align] [align=center]A curious Keeper with fiery red hair walks the piers of Limsa Lominsa, hanging up fliers on the various flat surfaces he passes. As he places one at the height of your average Lalafell, he looks up...[/align] [align=center]"So, tired of the humdrum are you? Quite curious what a night away from the usual day can bring? You're not alone. Far too many like you out there, who wish a night of being treated like a king, or perhaps just matching wits with an interesting character. We've many such characters, all fit for our stage, you see."[/align] [align=center]"What is our stage? It's tea house, but so much more. It's a place of gallant artistry. Of subtle deviations. Of fine meals and finer drink. It's a place where life is... simple. It begins when you choose your host. Some choose by biography, some by sight. Some merely let the winds choose for them. But once chosen? The night is what you make of it. Would you find yourself unraveling the enigma that is Seraph? Perhaps taking in the quiet dignity of Eden. Or perhaps just writing a story all your own with me, Zeromus. No choice is wrong, and every one is distinct."[/align] [align=center]"Now let us be clear. This is not a night destined to lead to the pleasures of the flesh. Such things are not without merit, but also not where our deviations lead. Ours is a house built from comfort that can come from any form. Not just those of the body. So bring an open mind, but please.. keep those pants closed. You may need to open your wallet a bit. A thousand gil. A meager price for the night you receive. We aim to make every last coin return to you in tenfold the enjoyment."[/align] [align=center]"So, should you make it... Remember that we are there to comfort. There to distract. And there to serve."[/align] [align=center]The man turns to walk away before turning back,[/align] [align=center]"And everyone deserves a bit of fluff in their story as well, don't they?"[/align] [align=center] இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ— OoC Info இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ— [/align] [align=center]You might notice this post is coming from someone different than usual. Never fear, you shall have no less than the top quality hosting experience you've come to expect! [/align] [align=center]We will be hosting Saturday, August 26th at 4:00 PM CST / 5:00 PM EST! The entrance fee is 1,000 gil*, and will be collected at the door. [/align] [align=center]The location is Ward 8, Plot 13, (in the Goblet) and Hosts and Hostesses will be selected at a first come, first serve basis. (In other words, if the Host or Hostess you want has already been selected, then you will have to choose another, or depart until next time. The person who arrives first will get the first selection, and so on until all Hosts and Hostesses are spoken for.) [/align] [align=center]Note: To avoid confusion, please line up on the lawn in the order of arrival when first entering the grounds. Please do not run in past the guard posted at the door, or your character will just be immediately ushered back out. [/align] [align=center]Here is the menu that the Host Club offers! [/align] [align=center]Here is a look at the dossiers that are posted outside of the Club! (Note: Not all employees may be present on the day of the opening, depending on schedules. Feel free to ask the person at the door if a particular Host or Hostess is available, if you have a particular one in mind. Rest assured though - all of our Hosts and Hostesses have their own unique merits and advantages!)[/align] [align=center]As always, please let me know if there are any questions! Here's looking forward to another fun event! Be there or be a sad cactaur who misses Host Club! :cactuar:[/align] [align=center]* Gil is OoCly collected currency, because this event costs real gil to conduct. While the costs of running the Host Club are minimal (providing uniforms, dyes, and upgrades to each seating room for the amusement and comfort of our Guests), we believe the fee is also reasonably minimal. Usually, the entire collected fee from all Guests equals about 10k total, and it really does help offset these costs (the majority of which are still paid for by the guild leader.) Any OoC tips offered to a specific Host is kept by the Host, unless they choose to donate it back to the guild. Hope this helps to explain some things - thank you all for your continued patronage! ♥[/align]

The event tomorrow is being pushed back one week in anticipation of heavy server congestion.

Host club in less than an hour! Be there or... be somewhere else.... But really, being there is a great choice!

It was pointed out to me that the sixteenth is early access. that event will be rescheduled soon

[align=center]Iron Chef Eorzea Phase One: The Single Chef Challenges[/align] [align=center] [/align] [align=center]Round One: The Very Basic Cooking Challenge[/align] Contestants will be asked to create, and will be graded upon, three dishes. To allow contestants time to practice and prepare for the challenges, these dishes are announced beforehand. [align=center]Challenge one: Boiled Water - A simple thirst quencher[/align] [align=center]Challenge two: Grilled Cheese Sandwich - A quick midday snack[/align] [align=center]Challenge three: Marmot Steak Dinner - A full plated meal[/align] [align=center] [/align] All participants have access to: /Well Stocked Larder/, /Abundant Pots and Pans/, /Functional Plumbing/, /Wood Burning Stoves with Plentiful Wood/ Tuesday, June 6th, 9:00 PM Central time 1. Zanzan Yanzan 2. Tilala Tila 3. Virara 4. Friday, June 16th, 9:00 PM Central time 1. S'imba Tia 2. Anstarra 3. 4. Reserve/Queue: - Astra, Sartorie To promote inclusivity and participation. I will run as many events as needed to get all players who wish to enroll in the competition a chance to play. If you cannot make either of the pre-scheduled events, still sign up and we will find a time to add a third (or more). Each event slot can fit three to four players. To avoid burnout and have a chance to RP, I will be limiting myself to one or two events run per week. Sign ups for Round One will be open for two weeks: anyone who posts in this thread in that time period will be able to participate in Round One. Events will be added until all players are able to participate or are withdrawn due to scheduling difficulties. Available Timeslots: Unfortunately, I am limited to certain time slots that I can run events. Due to my personal schedule and obligations outside of game, these are the only time slots I can reasonably commit to running an event on any given week. Tuesdays @ 9:00 PM Central Fridays @ 9:00 PM Central Saturdays @ 2:00 PM Central Turns: All players who sign up for a spot in Phase One also receive two “Turns” that they may take prior to their event. If you choose to use them, send a message in PM or on the Roll Eorzea Discord. If you need invited to the Roll Eorzea Discord, please let me know.

[align=center]Iron Chef Eorzea [/align] [align=center]Introduction:[/align] There are few things more beautiful and timeless than a story. Some stories are about mystery and dirty dealings in dark alleys, while others chronicle the struggles of a small group seeking freedom and independence beset on all sides by pirates and privateers. There are tales of vast combats against monsters brought back from the dead, of escaped criminals earning the sympathy of the very people who sought to recapture them, and of difficult moral quandaries that are too easily forgotten. There are stories of men who chase godhood as normal people strive to stop them, stories of tormented souls rising in the wake of corrupted magic, and there are even stories about rugs and debt slavery. Iron Chef Eorzea is about cooking. [align=center]The story so far:[/align] [align=center][in Character Thread coming soon][/align] Chefs across Eorzea have been disappearing under unexplained circumstances. This mysterious plot has claimed some of the most renowned chefs and food preparers, leaving many restaurants scrambling for some type of replacement. At the same time, a reclusive gilionaire Bloegoht Ganzharr has chosen to host an Eorzea-wide cooking competition, promising riches and fame to the team that wins. With so few professional chefs able to answer the call, it’s up to amateurs and adventurers to step in to seek riches, or to try and unravel the secrets behind it all. [align=center]Current Event Posting:[/align] Iron Chef Eorzea begins in June. Events will be posted to this thread soon. Iron Chef Eorzea will take place over the course of several phases. Each phase will have a number of rounds, and each round will have a variable number of events to suit player interest. Events will generally fit around 3-4 players with a preference towards 3 because it is easier to manage a smaller group of players. The length of each phase will depend on player interest, but I currently predict that the plot will last four months. [align=center]Dramatis Personae:[/align] The Competition Judges: Bloegoht Ganzharr A reclusive and mysterious gilionaire who has shown up in the Eorzean social scene only recently. His motives and past are a mystery. He is the one hosting and funding this cooking competition. Some say it’s just so he can try the best foods in Eorzea. The Reclusive Gilionaire with Perfect Hair Obsessed with his Looks Falafel Lafel A lalafell of indeterminate gender (standard for lalafell, honestly) who sits at Bloegoht’s right side. He/she boasts immense cooking expertise and provides many a raised eyebrow and/or snarky comment to the competition, doing his/her best to make the competitors feel like utter failures. Demands Only Perfection Loves Spicy Food B’aihk Rehd A miqo’te who loves to eat. She seems content with anything even remotely edible and serves as the judge at Bloegoht’s left side. Young, Energetic, and Hyperactive All Food is Delicious Full NPC list [align=center]Rules[/align] New Members This plot is for members of the Roll Eorzea linkshell. It is also for anyone else who is interested in events that use dice to help determine outcomes. If you are interested in joining the linkshell, or just joining this plot, please do not hesitate to contact me. One character per player: I do not want to restrict players from participating in multiple concurrent storylines. However, there have been issues where some players inundate the story with several alts and new players struggle to get involved. As such, each player may only have one character in my plot. It is not required, but advised to use an alt that is not in any other storylines. There have been instances where a character was physically trapped in one plot that interfered with their ability to participate in other plots or RPs. If you choose to use a single character in multiple plots, you accept that there might be times where one plot interferes with the other. I reserve the right to deny a player if I feel they are preventing new players from fully participating in the plots Roll Eorzea has to offer. This plot restriction ignores any non-public plots. Private playtests, non-Roll Eorzea storylines, etcetera, have no bearing on whether I will allow you to play in my game. My intent is to be inclusive while avoiding oversaturation that prevents new players from joining. If at any time this rule runs counter to that goal, it will change. Character swapping: If you wish to swap an alt in to replace the character you started this plot with, the initial character is permanently barred from re-entry. Like baseball. New sheets and skill list: Returning players and newcomers alike will start on equal footing in Iron Chef Eorzea. We will be using the basic Fate-14 2.0 ruleset with a new skill list. Interested players should create a new character sheet; they are not restricted to keep any aspects from currently existing sheets, and also do not benefit from any milestones earned in other storylines. The new skill list is linked below. Iron Chef Eorzea Character Creation Guide Fate-14 2.0 Base Rules Turns: Iron Chef Eorzea will be using a modified version of the Turns system that was introduced in Merchant, Marine. An updated set of rules will be linked here as the plotline’s beginning approaches. [align=center]Lore Policy:[/align] Iron Chef Eorzea is going to bend lore. Iron Chef Eorzea is going to turn lore into a contortionist. It’s goofy and silly and meant to have fun more than anything else. It’s a story about a cooking competition open to adventurers. There will be ridiculous locations and silly plot twists and probably voidsent or dragons involved at some point. The purpose is to tell a fun story, not to get everything exactly right. Though my hope is that when the plot is over, you’ll have stories you can tell other characters that won’t seem too out of place in the world we play in, but in the interest of fun there may be times that these stories seem a bit of a stretch. Just a fair warning.

Super hyped for hosting! :love: It's always been a great chance to meet new and interesting people and I always hope for really big crowds.

The State of the Linkshell, May 2017 As what I have arbitrarily chosen to call the third season of Roll Eorzea kicks off, I wanted to put up a state of the linkshell, a document to help people understand what I have noticed and what I hope to accomplish with this group. We’re in the middle of the pre-expansion slump, and there is less RP than normal. Many players have drifted to other games (most of them in anticipation of binge-playing the new expansion). This is a normal part of the MMO cycle, and I am just as guilty of being around less often. But I am still here, and it is my commitment to you that will do what I can to make this linkshell a fun place to find friends and stories to participate in. I have scoured the results of the first Roll Eorzea player survey, and have come up with a few goals and methods that I feel will improve the linkshell for all involved. Current goals: Improve membership We have entered a null period in recruitment. I believe that adding more members to our roster can help us by putting new people into plots and possibly finding more players who also want to run plots of their own. Facilitate cross friend-group communication In the survey, several people expressed concern that there seems to be a core membership of Roll Eorzea who tend to play with each other and no one else. I hope to find a way to help these small groups of friends communicate with one another. Help players find the right game for them It is far too common that a player joins up into a plot and discovers it is not for them. Then, they fade into obscurity, never trying again. Not everyone runs a plot the same, and not everyone likes the same sort of game. If we can find a way to help every player find the story that fits them best, then we will have better retention of players in the linkshell. How to accomplish this: I have some ideas in mind that I will be implementing. However, I cannot do this on my own. I will need the help and cooperation of every member of the linkshell. Improve Membership We receive a few new friends via the RPC every couple months, but if you know anyone who might be interested in dice based RP, send them our way. Facilitate cross friend-group communication If you see someone in the linkshell who doesn’t seem to have any social connections, please reach out to them. Don’t just play with the people you’re used to and know Help players find the right game for them As a player, talk with new people in the linkshell about the currently running plots. As a storyteller/GM, be open about what sort of story you’re going to be running. It’s better to have a few people who love your style of running than to go for quantity of players when many of them won’t be back later. Openly discussing the types of stories and GMs you enjoy, for both players and storytellers, can make sure players find a good fit. What I will be doing: GM Dossier: One of the suggestions on the survey struck me as a particularly good idea, though it will need the cooperation of the GMs we have. I would like to create a single location dossier of all the people in Roll Eorzea who are currently running or will soon be running their own plots. Players should be able to get a good idea of what sort of events to expect when signing up for a plot and what kind of GM they will be playing with. Suggested GM rules: Based on my own past experiences as a GM and as Assistant GM, I am going to start another document with guidelines for GMs in Roll Eorzea. None of these are binding, as they are just guidelines and I feel that each GM should run their plot how they see fit; however, I feel that the suggestions that make it into the document will be very helpful to maintaining a healthy player population, and happy players themselves.

With the end of Noirzea, I need to reflect on elements of the plot and of the way it was run. I’m borrowing yet another idea from Verad and writing up a little Post Mortem to reflect upon elements of Noirzea (both running it, and the story itself). [align=center]What Worked:[/align] Turns: Adopting the turn system that Verad ... adopted from somewhere else... was the best thing I did for Noirzea. When I started the plot, I knew I wanted people to be taking action in the background, between events. Initially, I tried setting blocks of time akin to “office hours” where people could take action. However, very few people took advantage of these time periods. When a resource is limited, it becomes more desirable. The Turns system gave a clear incentive for players to take action before the turns ran out. There are quite a few tweaks that I think might improve the turn system, though. Most of them, Verad has already mentioned in his own Post Mortem: “Discuss” is pointless Act is difficult to schedule and can delay plots when trying to coax players into being available I was faced with players wanting to use their turns to do large tasks, akin to an Act. It is something I intend to contemplate further, as I allowed players to perform a skill challenge, multiple rolls with greater risk and greater reward possible. It meant players could do more complex tasks behind the scenes without needing to create a whole new event for it, and provided good IC post fodder (which sadly, rarely came up). All that said, turns were overall an incredible boon to the plot and I suggest anyone wanting to run a story to adopt some form of turn rules and limits. Mister Blue: The recurring voidsent popped up late in the plot, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Though very few of the players actually got a chance to meet him, I will never not enjoy playing this character. The Butler: Yep, the butler did it. Little goofy clues: Even if no one saw them, I peppered events with hints and red herrings. In the very first event I ran for Noirzea, a fisherman was packing kippers into a crate. If you don’t know what a kipper is, it’s a smoked herring or other tiny fish, often colored red due to the preservation process. Everything he said was wrong, and red herrings like this were all over the story. My favorite has to be the roegadyn named Rhotfisk (literally: Red Fish) who was a suspect in the death of Fufutilo Keketilo. No, he didn’t do it. It was the butler. [align=center]What maybe worked:[/align] The Ambiguous Ending: Trying to do Noir has left this plot in a difficult place. Many crime stories end without a clear answer, especially gritty and dark stories. However, I knew that my players wouldn’t want to let it go. I had to wrap up more details of the story than I originally intended to. I think it resulted in a slightly unsatisfying ending for both player and GM, and it is something that anyone who wants to run a noir style game will need to take into account when they start. I think a more casual mystery might have worked better, rather than trying to fit it into the dark noir aesthetic. A mystery with a clear and final solution. Many people have no idea what the final resolution of Noirzea is. While this suits a noir thematic, it does not suit a plot run for many people. Something I will need to think about. [align=center]What will be improved next plot:[/align] Weird side-plots: I have a tendency to create large webs of weird side plots that are only tangentially related to the main plot. It can be beneficial to some types of stories, but does not lend itself well to mystery, where everything could be a clue. I’m good at little clues, the clever connections between two seemingly unrelated things. The hints that get missed, but can mean a lot to the people who notice them. Sometimes, however, I go a bit overboard. I’m not going to stop including the weird side plots that I like to do, but I will be rethinking how I go about them, to improve relevance to the plot as a whole. Character Limits: I didn’t limit characters at the start. This is an incredibly touchy subject because people hate feeling left out of things. Everyone wants to be involved in every plot, but when this happens every plot suffers for it. Scheduling becomes a nightmare, as there are only so many nights that the active GMs can run, and we GMs do like to play, too. Some players added several characters to the plot, and this makes it impossible to get any single character fully invested in the story, and investment is what’s important. A game like this can never live up to its full potential if the players aren’t worried about what will happen next, if consequences cease to matter or if one player has an alt that can solve any trouble between events. In Character Posts: I didn’t make nearly enough posts to support my own plot. This resulted from two things: limited time and mystery theming. Initially, I avoided writing too many in character posts because I did not want to give away the mystery by writing about it. This ended up not mattering, as I wrote an in character post in which I gave away that the butler did it, and no one noticed. That said, because I was trying to spread myself too thin, between Merchant, Marine; Noirzea; and Starsfall, I did not have a lot of time that I could put into writing these posts. These posts, on the part of the GM and the players, drive character involvement and allow players a chance to show off their spotlights. I want to make these posts a greater focus in the future, to shore up this weakness that plagued Noirzea. Hiatus: When I became overwhelmed by the plot and took a break from it, the interest in the story itself crumbled. Though Noirzea ended on a high note, it never fully recovered from the period of time where I was unable to run events. I think it is important for everyone who runs, or wants to run a plot: avoid burning yourself out, pace yourself with events so that you don’t need a long break. If this means only running an event every one to two weeks, but you think you can do it consistently, then do it that way. Not every plot needs to be epic or world spanning. I tried to make Noirzea as big as Crimes was, but I tried to do so without any backup. This meant I needed a break to recover. Next plot I will keep in mind the scope, and what I am capable of, to avoid this. In addition to the damage the hiatus did to Noirzea, it resulted in an unstable environment for every other plot that was active at the time. Without an easy way to know how many events there would be, many players lost interest, or moved to new plots, and then were faced with the difficult choice of which plot to get involved in with their limited time. Everyone is welcome to try their hand at being a GM, and as the owner of the linkshell I highly encourage it. But my advice to anyone who wants to try is to avoid biting off more than you can chew. It would be better to have a multitude of small plots than to have a series of major stories that struggle to come to completion. Rules: This is an issue not with the plot, or with the linkshell. This is an issue with gamers in general, and I deal with it every week with my local gaming group. There are many players who simply don’t read the rules. We like to learn by doing, which isn’t inherently bad, but does result in a lot of misinformation getting spread about between players like a giant game of Telephone. [align=center]What’s next?[/align] I know that Verad is running something new as a playtest. But some day in the future, he will run another plot meant to be large. And when that day comes, I’ll be right there beside him to offer my full support and assistance with the story and with events. To that end, I need to avoid getting too involved in my own plots, which fits nicely with my intentions as is. My next plot, which will be starting once I’ve had some time to do a lot of much-needed work for the Linkshell administration, is going to be light-hearted with a focus on fun and an aversion to grit, seriousness, and world-shattering consequences. Before I can do that, I need to finally collect the results of the first Roll Eorzea survey, and take action based on what was found. I intend to have one survey every quarter, which will be used to cull inactive members, and to determine what sort of services players want or expect from the linkshell. I want to grow our community, because the more players we have, the more plots we can sustain without having too much overlap. With more players, the issue of character limitations per plot can be reduced. My dream is to someday have several plots running at all times, with characters moving from story to story when one ends and another begins. There have been some complaints of cliquism, and I need to address this. People will always be more inclined to play with their friends more than strangers, and I don’t want to fight against that. However, I implore you all to keep an open mind to the stories we tell and the friends we bring into the linkshell. Remember, we’re more than just a small group of people playing in a single event. We’re the linkshell dedicated to spreading the joy of dice roll systems into MMO RP.

Don't you understand? The free kupo nuts are a lie! They make you -work- for them, kupo!!

Turns: Player Turns: 30 -Hihisa Hisa, Prepare (1 turn) -Hihisa Hisa, Prepare (1 turn) -Hihisa Hisa, Investigate (2 turns) -Khunbish Adarkim, Investigate (2 turns) -Anstarra Silverain, Discuss (2 turns) - Being organized -Anstarra Silverain, Act (4 turns) - Being organized -Hihisa Hisa, Prepare (1 turn) Remaining Player Turns: 17 Khena, Investigate (2 turns) Anstarra, Prepare (1 turn) Anstarra, Prepare (1 turn) Malin Greaves, Contacts (2 turns) Remaining: 11

Breaking and Entering (Saturday, March 25 , 2 pm Central time) 1. Anstarra 2. Rini 3. Arblis 4. S'imba 5. 6. Reserve Anstarra Silverain is putting a group together. The group's purpose? Break into Kokoripu's estate. The goal? Find evidence to connect him to a nebulous quantity of wrong-doings. The method? She's not really sure about that, yet... Blueblood sands (TBD) 1. S'imba Tia, "The Hellcat" 2. Anstarra Silverain, "Muse" 3. Hihisa Hisa, "The Rose of Nald" 4. 5. 6. ?. Reserve Despite the unfortunate and inexplicable delays, the Gilionaire Bloegoht Ganzarr has not given up his search for a champion. The tournament he plans to host will determine the best warrior in Thanalan, and earn the winner a lavish monetary prize and sponsorship in the Colosseum. Though there were construction delays, the temporary arena is approaching completion, and any who wish to fight in this tournament are welcome.

A new system is in the works! It is still in testing phase, but Verad has adapted yet another gaming system to the FFXIV world. This time, HeroQuest. Links to the rules will be posted once it is out of testing! Remember, we are happy to include links to any dice systems that people like to use.

Good Old Patriotism Time: Tuesday, March 7th, 9:00 PM Central 1. Anstarra Silverain 2. Rini Kett 3. Ojine Suinuet 4. //Event will be run by Nihka Anstarra is trying to find a way to combat the unsettling New Patriotism that has begun to take root in Limsa. With events spiraling out of control and little time to plan, she's desperate to find a solution. Her goal: remind Limsa about good old fashioned Limsan pride. Her method: whatever it takes; whether it's handing out fliers, giving rallying speeches to a crowd, or even wrestling a coeurl bare handed