YesGood

Oh thank you so much! I really like the one on the right! Thankyouthankyouthankyou... Also you're pretty. Thank you. And teh bewbs shall be foregone until joining happens. There's plenty of bewbs in teh LS.

I agree with K'nahli, this -is- really random sounding. What about RP styles is in any way connected to the ToS?

I think I need to find you again. <3

Ya lied ta me!

No problem at all, Arlas, we'll be happy to have you and I'm happy to help! And thank you very much for that code, S'janna~ Very helpful.

Your experiences might have been bad due to coincidence, maybe they weren't long term enough, maybe what you saw is the exception rather than the rule. Very likely any of those, especially the last, is the case. What you may, intentionally or otherwise, be doing is skewing people's perception of the place before they have a chance to go there and they might have a great time and really enjoy it-- clearly that's the case for many of these people who love Gilgamesh and want to be there. It doesn't take sugar-coating or beating around the bush to say 'I saw a lot of this so I decided to stay on Balmung' without all the unnecessarily derogatory trappings. If you -don't- care what your opinion does to other people, then why do you even bother saying anything about it? Clearly you must be trying to look out for the well-being of other RPers who might decide to go to Gilgamesh by warning them of what they -might- see, but doesn't it defeat the purpose if you end up discrediting yourself by presenting your opinion in such an abrasive way?

See. This right here... This is a prime example of why these threads are not only stupid, but blatantly become a tossing of biased opinions and crap. I'll throw my example here on how to prove this wrong though. There is one key community on the internet known for 'giant ERP circle' type RP. That's a website called Darknest. Go there and look in "Other Game Ads" and tell me what server all the ads for Final Fantasy XIV are for. This is just a prime example that... Hey, guess what, every RP community has this. But don't go waving your elitist bullshit and attacking a full community of RPers because you feel the need to make your own part of the community seem better. I've seen some RP that's not exactly publicly acceptable. I've also seen some amazing RP come about. Most of my RP has been random, found in the world with people I didn't know before on Gilgamesh. Long standing, serious RPs are starting. Serious, extremely well written characters. Development and just exciting things are happening everywhere. As for this thread? It should be closed. Because this is just stupid. Elitists and biased opinions will attack it in waves. If you're not sure where you want to settle? Roll a toon on both servers and stay where you feel more welcome. That's what I did and I brought a lot of people with me. Simple as that. I have a bias for Gilgamesh, but that's because of the reactions I've gotten. If you want to shoot your mouth off, talk shit or the like? Take it elsewhere. I don't care to hear this shit and it's not needed in a community of AMAZING people. Both servers are amazing in their own ways. Don't agree? Then you're looking through rose colored glasses to the one you prefer. And if this kind of blow up gets me in trouble? I really don't care. It needs to be said. Do what you find fun. Get your money per month out of it. Make friends, write good stories and promote the good and not the bad. Peace, love and fluffy kittens. Responding this way doesn't do anything but propagate the issue. There are much more civil ways of responding to what J'hared said than this. I don't agree with it either, but putting people down doesn't help anything and several other people have said this exact same thing already. Try to consider that sometimes when any of us posture this way it only gives other, less-experienced people the mindset that they should do it also. True as it may be, perhaps a slightly different wording might have been better. Tact.

I think that's a major issue right now. There are all these LS's with public places they do RP.. and none of us know where they are. I would love to see this thread happen. I agree. I think, past the leveling to a certain point thing, as much as I've been advocating walk up versus feeling obligated to join an existing group, I feel that many of the LS/FCs are trying to get their footing still and start some bonds in their respective groups. This might be causing a bit of an issue with members having plenty of free time to walk around and RP with strangers; initially slowing us down even more. Maybe one of the mods could start these threads? We could keep them civil and only list our places so they could be sticky'd for all the new people who join the RPC. *I should stress again that I hope we won't be trying to advertise our groups or pressure anyone to join us. Some people like to play the lone wolf and just wander around, getting a feel for different people rather than joining anything officially. I keep saying people can come to our things but I don't mean to pressure anyone myself =3=; ARGH!

I think that we should consider maybe starting a thread for each server with a list of places where our RP tends to happen. As Nahv'ir said, after a spur of the moment sparring match between two of our members, the Grindstone has taken to hanging around out on the bridge in Central Thanalan outside of Ul'dah. A good number of our members so far have been walk-ups who came in, sat down, and watched the fights going on, then brought friends in, which is marvelous. Even if you don't want to join our LS, you're always welcome to come. I, personally, seem to find RP everywhere when I'm running around cities but it's rarely where you might expect it, and as it's been said, it really depends on the time. At night most of our people are on so we're usually doing pretty well. I've seen RP in the guilds in two of the three cities (Limsa and Ul'dah), as well as the Bismarck and even out on the streets in Ul'dah. Again, I propose maybe the LS/FC leaders who have group ups in a regular area might possibly form two solid threads with lists of those places for newer people to stray across them. Not for recruitment purposes but for walk up RP. I don't mean to lock us down in certain areas or carve territories but if anyone has had similar situations as us, we're pretty happy in our spot for now and might move to something bigger to accommodate a larger group in the future. So far, I'm happy to say all my new friends in my LS are open to walk up-- ICly, though, we don't handle people who disrespect our fighters very well, but we're not a bunch of thugs looking to start a fight. I'm sure many if not all of the other LS/FCs out there feel the same way and would love to see their members RPing outside of their groups. Just a suggestion.

Just to be sure, do we just randomly pick people from the list and mail them? Cus, there might be some tiny Lalafell getting letters soon.

Welcoooome! First off, I am so happy you picked Balmung and also a Hellsguard because if there's anything I love to see, it's dem Hellsguard sisters. You must be one of those masters who can play multiple characters-- I stink at time management. Linkshells kind of scared me too there for a while. Basically, if you go to the Linkshell directory (remember to click on Balmung at the top so you don't accidentally get attached to an LS on another serve!) you'll usually see some contact information and possibly some procedure for joining the LS. This sometimes means you need to register on the LS's website. There are also Free Companies in there too, (which are more like guilds from WoW and SWTOR and I believe you can only be in one FC at a time) so make sure if you only want to join a LS that whichever you choose can accommodate you. Many, many, many of the people here are magnificently nice so I'm sure you can pick any one of them and get plenty of help. Europa (for European time-zone RPers, I believe) and Intermission are two of the OOC LSs that I see in the directory, if you're interested in those. Like with guilds in other games, all you have to do is get the attention of a LS leader or master and they'll be able to bring you in, so long as you meet their prerequisites (if they have any). You can have a lot of LSs but, like I said, only one FC (so far as I know, I haven't joined one myself yet.) On another note, two of your characters look like they might enjoy a good fight-- if -you- like /roll or free form combat RP then you can always look over The Grindstone. Since we started, we've been hanging out, outside Ul'dah in Central Thanalan on the bridge you take to get to the Coffin and Coffer. Coffer...and Coffin? Pretty sure it's the first. I admit, there's a lot to read there in the Grindstone directory, but it's only a LS so I've yet to see a reason to start a site. Maybe when there's too much information for the directory page to hold, I'll have to go off and do that... We also like healers! Because we tend to hurt each other. (Bruises, sprains, sometimes gashes, etc.) White mages have sort of a funky lore thing I'm not sure you know about, but it might have thrown me a bit if I'd decided to roll one myself and I found out about it on these forums. White magic, the arcane art of succor, was conceived eras past that the world might know comfort. Alas, man began perverting its powers for self-gain, and by his wickedness brought about the Sixth Umbral catastrophe. Although the art subsequently became forbidden, it is now in the midst of a revival at the hands of the Padjal, chosen of the elementals. Those who would walk the path of the white mage are healers without peer, possessed of the power to deliver comrades from the direst of afflictions—even the icy grip of death itself. You might want to incorporate that into your story somehow for Arlas-- that the Padjal (who are those elemental-blessed Hyur with horns that look like children from the Twelveswood/Gridania) are the primary teachers of White Mages, so in order to become one you -may- want to be on good terms with them ICly. Apparently White Mages are fairly rare, according to lore, as are conjurers. But then again, so are male Miqo'te and there's a plethora of them. (Love dem catboys, amirite?) You can take that with a grain of salt. If you have any questions or concerns or anything regarding the LSs, feel free to ask and I'm sure anyone here would be happy to give you all the insight they have. (*On another note, there's a little word bubble at the bottom left hand corner of your text box in game. When you join an LS, you can click it and it will allow you to talk straight into the LS chat without having to type in... whatever /code there is for it. Quite handy for me since I've yet to figure out what the /code is. =3=; )

Two things occur to me though. One is that, while I was recruiting one of our members, he sent a mail and subsequently had to send two because there was a 250 or something character limit? The other is that I think the person has to be on your friends list to send mail. Are these true?

It sounds too cute to resist. Siobhain is fairly good with writing, at least better than speaking-- Maybe it could be IC. There could be a bunch of accidental letters delivered to the wrong people and pen pals could blossom from that. Siobhain Surtsthalwyn - Roegadyn

I think a 400 x 400 max would be wonderful. I can reduce the size to use it for the directory, and maaaybe if I don't fail miserably, (also with your permission) I could make it into a signature as well. A friend offered this picture as a reference: So the basic circle + support minus the backing there and even the handle if needbe (so just the wheel + cross section) I would really like. At the risk of having it look too much like So long as it's simple for you to do, feel free to take any artistic freedoms with it. I know you are spectacular with your digital coloring versus me with my scribbly-doos, so I appreciate you considering it at all, Kaoru.

I tried to put the supports in there, but somehow I think I made it worse. Admittedly, I'm -very- -very- terrible with geometric shapes, and as can be seen in my art thread, I tend to get a bit overzealous with the details. I'll try to put cracks in there-- maybe I'm trying too hard to make it look less like Nymeia's symbol.

I have a strange request for any artists who are comfortable with making icons... Is there any way that any kind soul out there might be able to help the Grindstone out by creating a fairly simple icon? I've been trying to replace our place holder: With something cleaner and maybe a bit prettier. Particularly just the grindstone without the woman or the little soldiers. My own efforts have come out looking... a lot... like a boob... And I can't seem to envision it any other way. If there's no one willing or able to help (I know many of us are busy and since I've been RPing so much, I can't even generate enough gil for a fair price), I would take any advice given. Thank you, anyone who takes the time to give this a look.

While I also suggest being patient and waiting for one of the two unofficial RP servers to open (*cough cough* Balmung *cough*) there are some linkshells on other servers. http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=15&filtertf_srvr=Other I know at least the Three Tails is on Faerie. Otherwise, I only skimmed. As the others have said, try holding out until very early or very late. The first time I made my Roegadyn, I got right in on Balmung.

Heeee... every time I see this topic in the recent posts I die a little inside ;w; Go away topic! Let everything I have read here be false and just in my head! Albeit, I ended up posting again in the end. Me too. q-q

There may not be many of us but we exist! I personally roam Ul'dah and Limsa when I'm RPing so maybe I might spot you one day. :> I also frequent Limsa and Ul'dah. Mostly Ul'dah lately, as I've been hanging out in Central Thanalan-- So not as much in the city as I guess I should! I foresee a lot of Sio having to check around her feet to make sure she doesn't accidentally kick anyone.

While I agree with you for the most part, dismissing a critical discussion doesn't help anything. You can like something while being critical of it, and from where I'm standing that's all I see this thread doing. But again, I do agree with your main point. I saw it in WoW with Blood Elves. Playing the mana addiction part was too "icky" for some so their Blood Elves were magically blue eyed and untainted. Then again, it's individual choice as to how you enjoy your RP. That all said, considering some of the Miqo'te real life influences, the jokey portrayal of their sexuality comes across as a bit... ugh... I'm surprised, first of all, that people are still going on about this! Not in a bad way, just a...surprised way. Blizzard has soooo much lore for Warcraft that is either inconsistent, unfinished, unpolished, or not reflected in the actual game. Many people kind of have to pick and choose what they use because there are -so- many loose ends-- THE FREAKING ADDICTION THING WITH HELF/BELFS DOES NOT COUNT-- so they do. While the same can kind of be applied to FFXIV, really, there's a basic structure to go off that doesn't bump into itself and twist weird knots with pitfalls and 'why is it again that I -have- to play a green orc?'s. In a sense, the lack of details thus far are actually kind of helpful because they leave things open to interpretation. Why bother sitting there and getting mad over it when at -least- they -give- something to go off of instead of letting you flail in the wind, trying desperately to make something make sense without being unreasonable? I dunno. I don't really get it. As you said, it's really left up to how one wishes to RP. Seeing promiscuous Seekers as a 'joke' is -no where NEAR- as bad as the pointless easter eggs that laden WoW that you really can't do anything with except take them as a joke. I am still waiting for the day that I see the Tauren Chieftains taken really seriously by an RPer. Considering they're a blatant in-game reflection of Blizzard people. And don't even get me started on the self-proclaimed king of Silvermoon who is based off a roleplayer... We're going to keep picking and choosing the lore we acknowledge and more, we'll keep accentuating little things the make a case for the 'original-ness' of our characters. It's going to happen on until forever.

Yanno, sadly, Siobhain is far more shaped by her weaknesses thus far than her strengths, I think. Since starting the Grindstone, she's encountered several Miqo'te. She has a particular weakness for their ears and tails which manifests in, sometimes, an inability to speak or really... angry... glowering. She tends to make darker and darker expressions while she tries to contain herself and at two points she's stalked off from a group of Miqo'te that congregated too close to her. Though, after prolonged exposure to the rather rowdy ones in the linkshell, she's slowly becoming more and more acclimated. She just doesn't want to touch any of them. Also, after enduring some many, many rather derisive comments from others over a long period of time about her manner of conducting herself ('being overly sensitive and concerned for others as well as religious'), she tends to take those who present themselves as noble, pious individuals at face-value, assuming that they -must- be devout simply because they say that they are. Those few people will likely be the ones she holds in higher regard, and while she doesn't often defend herself against the jaded verbal onslaught, she may or may not be more protective of them. I'm really eager to see how those conversations play out! And finally, despite the skill level I intended for her to have, she's lost two matches. One was in a 2 v 2 where she was caught off guard by a Pugilist who virtually attacked her under a Lancer's arm and knocked her down. (And the Pugilist ended up getting conked in the forehead with her peace-bound sword) In the other fight, she ended up distracted by shouting at her brother who was harassing a pair of Miqo'te and the distraction was taken well advantage of by her opponent. In a rush to get away from him, she slipped (after a recent drizzle in Thanalan that turned the dust and sand collected on the stone bridge too slick) and sprained her ankle, as well as caught her opponent in the side of the leg with her sword, nearly toppling him as well. And not to mention her slight naivety will likely still extend to Plainsfolk Lalafell, if not Dunesfolk as well. Yet to meet one ICly but really hoping for it. So I think Siobhain has plenty of weaknesses. Perhaps -too- many.

Absolutely! Tonight, as every other night for the past few days, I (and hopefully others Q_Q) will be at the bridge outside Ul'dah into Central Thanalan, before you get the the Coffin and Coffer. Hope that name is right. If one shows some interest in the goings-on to anyone already in the Shell, they'll very likely be redirected to Malek Mil'ner, Brock Praetus, Jael'li Erisha'an, or Siobhain Surtsthalwyn who is pretty difficult to miss. Was both. <.<; *tucks tissues into her bleeding nostrils from the memory* Actually, Sio will take in anyone who wants to spectate regularly or heal or gamble (probably) as well as fight. So, you don't have to fight your way in but you're welcome to fight your way through if you so desire it!

UPDATED: Added our times on Wednesdays and Saturdays after 10 pm EST for our 'meetings'; hoping enough of us are on to hold our official matches and events. I'd like any future members to please tell me if you -prefer- rolling or free form. I am probably going to post this information on the first page of the comments under my first post as ranks. Though... I really should consider starting a guild portal or something. If you are uncomfortable with RP combat, I invite you to see some of our matches and start out with rolling where an Overseer can help you through it a bit. So far our matches have been going brilliantly! I love to see how things turn out-- even if Sio has lost both her fights by falling over like a big klutz. Also, I'm proud to say that within the week of us existing (or less) we already have nearly twenty members. Sooooo happy about that, especially given that everyone has been really active so far.

I'm just going to throw this out there at the risk of losing like two of my favorite friends! *fist clench* So, first off, once upon a time I had an Orc warrior named Krona Rockfist. This is the only time I've ever done it, but... despite the lore I knew at the time, I had a necromancer warlock from another guild affix a soul stone of a Sin'dorei friend of his into the body of a dead Orc woman to preserve her. 1. Neither he nor she went around boasting about this. In fact, I don't think I ever mentioned it ICly, save for the periodic... 2. Rotting. It wasn't -really- rotting so much as, when the soul stone's magic began to deteriorate, parts of her body, beginning in the extremities, would begin to lose feeling. She had to find him once a week to have the connection re-established. 3. When she couldn't find him in the end, she ended up dying. This involved runes and daaaays (iICly) of prep and the character went on for a few months, more or less passing as an Orc warrior, when the Orc female had been a warlock in her life before her corpse was shang-hai'd. This meant trying to keep the body alive and building muscle where it hadn't been there before and made her somewhat weaker than your average built-through-a-lifetime-of-training Orc warrior. This isn't, really, in any realm of WoW plausible except by a necromancer of super skill such as the original Orc warlocks or one (or several) under the tutelage of the lichs/Lich King at one point. Still, when I mentioned it OOCly, people didn't flip out or ostracize me or call me a newb. This might have been because most of the people I knew back then were already familiar with my other, strictly lore-abiding characters and decided to let me slide just this once. So, anyhow, Klarimel and I were joking some time ago about what would happen if Siobhain ended up taking one of the Fantasia potions and ended up turning into anything else. Literally -anything- else would be smaller than her as a Roe. On one hand, the idea of going on some epic quest to find one of these potions in order to change herself into something else, maybe even finding it but by that time not wanting it, appeals to me. I would love to have an excuse to turn this character into something tiny and cute and maintain her frosty, I-art-bigger-than-thou personality. On the other hand, part of why I play a Roegadyn female is because they're not as numerous as some of the other female races. I built her to fill the niche I wanted and that I thought fit in with a race that could be monastic, superstitious, and extremely dedicated-- a paladin. But looking at these replies, I realize some of the people I respect most might, really lose all their respect for me if I pulled such a stunt just to swap my Roe out for something like a cute Miqo'te, even if I had a really good excuse for it. I admit, it slows me down considerably. Ultimately, if I -really- wanted to do it, I would do it regardless and just hope that people gave me the benefit of the doubt. I'm not that attached to the idea, but I do respect the people who might implement it reasonably, and I just want to point out that those negative responses -do- have some effect on those of us that might be considering it. Not really in a good way, either. Why wouldn't I just roll a whole new character? Because the personality would be exactly the same and essentially I would just have a Hyur or Miqo'te or Elezen version of Siobhain. If I let Siobhain die and decide to roll anew, I will probably just use her IC retainer/employee Xhosa Tau who, though I rarely mention her now since Shiv still a-fears the Miqo'tes and I don't want to accidentally meta-game by actively RPing two characters who are related to one another ICly. I would totally use a Fantasia if it changed the name of the character and keep my classes and such. Xhosa would try to be like Siobhain, and though there would be a lot more doubt and skittishness in her due to her roots, essentially, she would try to emulate her as sort of a successor, to carry on her memory. Of course, that'll really only happen if Sio dies so... Yarr.

I would personally like to see a Miqo'te child who has been abducted from their family and sold to Hyur parents. *nods sagely* I mean, adoption is swell, I whole-heartedly support it, but after participating in another thread about Miqo'tes being abducted and turned into exotic dancers and slaves-- I start to wonder if there isn't some demand for Miqo babies. I imagine they're adorable. Anyhow, their Hyur adoptive parents might not be terrible at all. Maybe the child doesn't even remember what happened when they were tiny babies. I just like to see things spiced up too, once in a while. On another note, I don't mean to do this -at all- but I kind of assume when I see a traditional Miqo'te name that the person is an RPer. That's not necessarily the case, and adversely, there are plenty of Miqo characters with 'unconventional' names. I just sort of automatically assume from the name like, in wow, if I saw a troll with a name like Jin'tok, I might assume they were an RPer over someone whose name was Tusksaplenty. Though on the other hand, I suppose I usually wait to see if the person is RPing anyway, so the name doesn't entirely matter most of the time! I'm always interested to hear the reasons behind names, OOCly and ICly, and Siobhain only recently realized that all Miqo'tes named 'Nunh' aren't related to each other. Until recently, she kept her dealing with Miqo'tes limited.