YesGood

I think the problem you may be encountering might be related to the "burlesque club" concept, to be honest. Some RPers are going to see that, think "front for ERP," and dismiss the character and the group. That'll happen whether or not your group actually even has any ERP in it, because concept suggests it and that's enough for some. As for being written off as uninteresting, I think everyone gets that from time to time, albeit usually not to their face. Not every character is everyone's cup of tea, and I'm sure there are several (many?) people who look at L'yhta and say, "Genki Girl wizard, likes to use exclamation marks, boooor-ing." Undoubtedly, some look at your concept, say "Burlesque club mistress, boooor-ing" and move on, too. It's unfortunate for a character to be judged that way, but that's the way of it. See... I'm completely on the other side of the sadly existent popular misconception when I heard 'burlesque RP characters/company'. I said it once on the page for Ambrosia and I'll say this again with a bit of elaboration: First off, I LOVE this concept. I've always wanted to be in a guild with a legitimate burlesque background. The problem, as Freelance said, is the perception that all it is is a front for ERP. It's kind of ridiculous. Didn't anyone watch Firefly? Anara? Yeah... She's a companion, she's an entertainer and a type of psychologist, she's awesome. In the whole series there aren't a lot of examples of her conducting the more physical side of her business (I think it really only happens once and even then it's not really so black and white). I've gone on and on about the potential power behind such a concept and if it's played well, which I hear it is, then it's an amazing idea with a lot of possible catalysts for character development. People get squeamish about such characters just like they get squeamish about so many other topics in RP. Elitism, ERP, combat drama, meta-gaming, god-modding, etc. etc. and more likely than not people are doing all those things anyway or misconstruing what someone else is doing and making it look like they're participating in one of those things. I mourn the fact that Ambrosia is on Gilgamesh. I want it on Balmung. I also mourn the fact that I can't bring myself to level more than one character, less, on more than one server. But I digress. Y'vali does sound like a multi-dimensional character which is good. I keep saying that people shouldn't have to feel obligated to play bad guys because they're needed and those people might be great at it, but it's starting to sound like, if you've got the time, it'll be a good idea. I personally have an idea for a villain I'll likely never be able to play. I just don't have the time. Q.Q But maybe someday in the future something catastrophic will happen and my one character will take a trip down the dark road to true and unshakable evil. Maybe...

John Cheese and Star Wars. I dunno. Anything related to David Wong or John amuses me. q-fZO3Kxjtg

Faye raises a ton of good points. Bad guys -are- usually short lived-- but the thing about bad guys, or good guys for that matter, is that they usually aren't one-dimensional characters. What we consider to be good or bad varies greatly. If you have a criminal type character who works for malicious reasons and hurts a lot of people to get his way, chances are he's got to be charismatic enough to have people working with him. Leovold, I think the guy's name was, from the Gladiator storyline is a perfect example. Most of them aren't truly bad people underneath it all, they just know what they want or what they need to do and people have to be sacrificed or harmed to accomplish that goal. If you're just a bad guy for the sake of being bad and you have one love interest or a little sister or something that's supposed to be the counterbalance, that's -something- but it's not everything. Part of being evil is having a force of convinced, loyal people behind you to help you achieve those goals. Another issue is-- antagonists really would have a hard time successfully playing bad guys if there aren't any real good guys cast to create a stark difference between them. USUALLY, these days, good guys are construed as being naive, close-minded, short-sighted, and just plain annoying. Bad guys are usually the ones with depth and in a small way we sort of wish they'd win sometimes. Dr Horrible anyone? Yeah. This is roleplay so you might want an 'evil' character but consider the potential that you don't have to go around swiping kids' lunch money and beating up innocent women in order to accomplish that image. Be subtle? Doesn't hurt at all. If enough people like your character ICly despite how evil they may be, it'll only increase the longevity. Problem also with bad guys is that force behind them. One bad guy shows up to a party of good guys and tries to crash it? You'll get twenty white knights in your face ready to put you down for anything. I find it hard to see characters as being intimidating most of the time. Thus far, I honestly don't know OOCly (and don't want to know because it's amazing...) whether Horace Rook is a bad guy or not. All I know is when he is somewhere he scares the poop out of me and Siobhain ends up unsettled and it's magnificent. Likewise Lost River is a great antagonist character. I OOCly know her background and the depth within the character but ICly the fact that she can show up and just be... creepy... is wonderful! Siobhain usually beats a swift retreat from either of these characters because while she's good and while they might be a bit scary, they haven't -really- given her any reason to think they're evil. Without that proof she's still open to being convinced to ally with them and essentially being twisted to their purpose -if- they have otherwise nefarious intentions under everything. There's a different between a legitimately -evil- person and a thug. Thug-type characters are generally (no offense) kind of mindless brutes who just come in swinging and making people angry for no reason other than trying to get a rise out of them. It's -very- easy to mistake this as trolling, and honestly, sometimes it is. I'm ready for some purely evil characters and I will help however I can. If I can. Even if it means all I can do is lend a little credit to your character and passing the word around that they're villains.

Stop talking about me =p I've already mentioned before how very one-sided it is. People that I've had the pleasure of encountering are either neutral or super good. There's nothin WRONG with that, mind you. It'd just be nice to have someone or something to spice things up a bit! I do have a character that is meant to be evil, I just haven't rolled him out due to being too busy with my main. If I have to, I suppose I can. I'll talk about chu if I want! Joo ain't teh boss o' me! D:< I don't know. I don't feel like people should feel obligated to roll bad guys just for the sake of having them around. Can't that be left to people who want to play them full time? I know they're out there. They're everywhere... Gotta stop throwin' them monkey wrenches in the potential bad-guy characters' plans. The monkey wrench of kindness.

Absolutely gorgeous stuff! <3 it! I love your coloring, it feels pretty traditional almost like paint.

I can't say on having a bad guy character as it's been some time since I played a legitimate bad guy. I can say the reason for it: Often, whereever I go, there are just. too. many. of them. Apparently this isn't the case on Gilgamesh! On Balmung, and mind I mostly see the who come to the Grindstone (and Horace Rook is probably the scariest of them), the majority of them seem to be neutral. Not -really- evil but not -really- good either. More inclined to be self-concerned and while they have tendencies to -be- good to others or at least protective, just as often they have tendencies to freak out and punch others in the face for not-a-whole-lot-of-reason. I enjoy seeing black and white good/bad guys once in a while. Without them everyone feels too neutral. I can't say Siobhain is a 'white knight', honestly, I don't think anyone assumes she is when they first meet her. But personality wise she's about as good and honorable as they come. -Yes- it's mixed in with a solid blend of 'I'll destroy you if you touch that woman, even if she asks me not to' but otherwise pretty wholly good. She's a fairly altruistic character as well, despite how brusque she can be and I personally very much enjoy playing her. I get the feeling she's an original and memorable character. She's a 'traditional Paladin' by my view. 1. A paragon of chivalry; a heroic champion. 2. A strong supporter or defender of a cause. She's a religious knight who aimed to become a Sultansworn but didn't want to lock herself down to Ul'dah where she'd always be forced to keep shadow politics in the back of her mind. Just didn't fly with her. So she left. Not totally in line with being Lawful Good, I suppose. I'm looking forward to meeting plenty of bad guys but thus far-- way more neutrals. Waaaay more neutrals.

WRA? Kolab Shatterskull. Best Korkron Deadeye known to man... Otherwise I can't say about them other things. My biggest issue before I left (about two or three months ago) was that no one seemed to know -exactly- what the status was ICly. Some people said Trolls were outcasts (usually Korkron RPers), some people said the issue was already over, some thought it was early on (pre-rebellion), some thought it was already over, and some just flat out pretended it didn't exist. *adjusts glasses* Never happened in my day on ol' Ravenholdt. Admittedly that was several years ago and I've been on and off WRA Horde (mostly) and Alliance side since. So it's good to meet you here! Sorry about all that silly WoW ... business. Thing to note about Conjury that if you decide to go the Lore route there's some important info to pick up through the storyline that they'll tell you (Won't spoiler you~<3) . Also Conjurers and WHMs are pretty rare? And often you want to go through the Padjal in Gridania. This has been brought up before on this forum and some people are sticklers for things like that-- I personally don't mind if anyone just has natural healing abilities or has some other aetheric approach. Or even non-aetheric approaches. It's why I always gotta ask how healers heal ICly. /semi-sad about dat Gilgamesh.

I wanted to make an update for our current and future members: Recently it's been brought to my attention that we're rapidly nearing our member cap in the Grindstone LS. In order to bring more people in, I am considering starting a secondary LS and separating all our spectators from our healers/combatants into said LS for updates on when tournaments are being held. While this will separate a large member group, I hope to give as many people access as possible and I feel that this will help accomplish this goal.

Hate to keep updating this over and over BUT! Update: So it looks like our Blood Match Tournament trial went over great. Frighteningly, I think we had more people there than ever before! We even had more combatants than ever, as well as healers, and Overseers. ICly Siobhain had to leave prematurely but I know OOCly the emergency maintenance maaaay have cut things short. I'm fairly certain there was a winner and I'll be editing this post with their name in due course! They made at least 15,000 gil which is a pretty sweet deal ICly (and OOCly, for that matter.) First off, I want to thank everyone who decided to enter the tournament. You guys are pros and while I hadn't seen most of you before, you helped me expedite the rules ICly beautifully, which I appreciate. I know it took longer than average to get things going but I really wanted to make sure as many people could fight as possible. Secondly, I want to thank the healers and the Overseers who also showed up and helped out. You guys are beautiful, and while I know sometimes having a job to do like that ICly can be a bit boring, you helped me out grandly by establishing the necessary factors in character. I hope that it gave you guys a bit of character development and I look forward to seeing you guys again, as well as whomever else is available in the future. Finally, thanks to all the spectators. I -loooove- spectators. I know that splitting the groups up into three might've been hard for some of you to watch all the fights at once but with the potentially massive floods of chat, I didn't want any of the fighters (especially those new to us) to... yanno.... die. So thank you very much for all the support for the fighters and for sticking it out as long as you could. I also hope you guys got some development out of it. From now on, we should be able to take a -maximum- of SIXTEEN fighters per tournament at this rate. So the numbers will go thusly depending on how many people get involved: 4 combatants 6 combatants (first to win in their bracket can skip the semi-final) 8 combatants 12 combatants (same situation as 6) 16 combatants (Hurrah.) So if five people want to fight, sadly, the last person to enter is going to have to be refunded, for example. This means that in the event of 16 fighters, we'll need as many Overseers available as possible. Similarly, as many healers as possible. I'm pretty proud that things worked out and Sylas Peregrine, Davian Ackerman, and A'khenna Khai made me very proud. As an update, ICly, unless something critical happens, Siobhain will miss the next one or two tournaments. As he was informed in character, Sylas Peregrine will be acting in her stead UNLESS Gharen Wolfsong is available. If you are an Overseer or are interested in becoming one, please let either of these two know and they should be able to share some of their pearls. Undoubtedly you'll be a great help. I want to make sure that tournaments can go on in the event I have an emergency with family or something similar IRL and the best time to find out is when I -am- available to help in case something goes drastically south. For the next several days after tonight, Siobhain will be found in La Noscea/Limsa Lominsa. If you have a character there and would like to arrange a meeting, please feel free to talk to me via a PM and we'll set things up. Thank you guys again so much, that last tournament was beautiful and I look forward to seeing more beautiful tournaments. If you have any questions or comments, you can feel free to PM me~ Gah. So effin happy. =3= <33333 Edit: Also updated the flyer that you can see on the first page with rules + location + new information. Please feel free to give that a look-over.

Sorry that my times have been so bad Neb. Sio should be in La Noscea today or tomorrow. <3

Bumping this again. We'll be starting in roughly two hours and I haven't had a chance to log in to see if anyone is interested in participating. As always, we'll be near the bridge in Central Thanalan outside Fesca's Watch. <3

I'm with Aysun! Hnnngh... dem brushes. Q.Q Even if I had them I wouldn't be able to employ them as beautifully. Love dat Folken. *puts band aids on him* I also love his nose. I have so much trouble with noses.

Hello there! I think that this is just the right thread to post this in. While I can appreciate your not posting character details yet, I do have to say that it makes it hard to offer an appropriate LS or FC for your purpose if... if we don't know what you're looking for ICly. <3 The Grindstone Free Company is a neutral good group that works beneath the Immortal Flames in Ul'dah. They generally aim to help fighters and wayward warriors, refugees and slaves, to get out from under whatever chains or burdens afflict them. They offer food, housing, training, and armor as well as jobs to see that their members can get a solid footing before they set back out into Eorzea. Essentially, they want to plant seeds of loyalty, honor, and kindness into individuals who have been at the whims of their more malicious brethren. Anyone who wants to try to help and offer their support by organizing, leading, training, healing, or providing a diplomatic service is also welcome.

I think that's a fantastic idea. Having merchants peddling their wares like Aleister would be great at the tournaments. I think our FC could also use some mercantile relations, for discounts and information if they have it. I need to find an FC member to dedicate to relations with merchants; setting up alliances and making arrangements for discounts in return for inviting them to peddle their things at the events. I thought for sure I responded to this earlier! So sorry. I'll be starting a Grindstone relations thread soon for those other LSs that think that working something out would be a great idea. I also noticed during the Linkshell leader meeting someone brought up the idea that I believe Lost River proposed: That FC vs FC competitions should be held. I'm going to go c+p that post into the new thread as well. Thank you guys for all the feedback. I think I have a fleshed out idea of what to do from here on and it's just a matter of organizing at this point.

Fiiiiiix iiiiiiit Feeeeen. Thank you, Zarek! And sorry there Dogberry. If we have enough Overseers available (ever) maybe we can add another day. I feel like three times a week is just a bit too much, perhaps. Don't want people to get burned out, yanno?

Today at 10 pm EST, our first Blood Matches will be held in place of the tournaments. On the flyers you all may see and as you will hear at the event, some alterations have been made. 'The Blood Matches have only three rules. 1. No killing blows. 2. No magic. 3. A win is decided by a knock out, pinning and disarming, or a verbal or physical surrender. The entrance fees for this tournament will be 500 gil per entrant.'

Hang on a tick... You can get Riolu in these games or did you transfer him over? You can, near the start where you find Azuril and such. Hnnnnnnngh.... Thank you. Q_Q

Hang on a tick... You can get Riolu in these games or did you transfer him over?

I appreciate it! You can roll on over anytime and be sure to send me a PM! I can get really caught up in the events and it becomes hard for me to keep track of everything going on.

Darling. It's not a bad idea, it's quite funny. I don't mind it at all. You need to see some of the silly things that have been done in the past, methinks. By the amazing Mtoto. Aaaaand, Shawnzy's response: You're good, brah.

Buahahahahaha.

I'm sorry but if Eorzea's male fighters don't know how to properly guard their junk, maybe it's time to teach them.

........A 'friend' suggested this, eh? *slow eyebrow arch*

You're good, Fen! Don't worry about it. And Navisse, I wanted to say, your character is absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely. ^.^ I look forward to seeing you again.

Lmao. It's alright, Denn. Soon we'll have blood matches which'll be even more up your alley. And Gharen, jobs are moar important.