Smiling River

Verence: Can different races crossbreed? Even if they do provide a simple yes/no answer, it will go a long way into furthering our understanding of that sticky issue. The words chosen there were, Iâm ashamed to say, intentional. The question also allows them to expand and go into some details you have questions about, without us specifically asking and possibly affecting their answers. Endemerrin: Does Garlean technology have civic/public use outside of the military in Garlemald? I think that sums up your questions, yet gives them room to expand on it how they see fit. More specific questions can always be added on later, in reply to whatever they may answer. Eva: How widespread is the worship of the Twelve? Is there a mythology about the Twelve that isnât mentioned in-game? (Holy books, manuscripts, rituals, etc.) Can you expand on the history and origins of races? I think those three sum up your concerns Eva. If any of these sound weird or if you think of a better phrasing let me know! Still looking for more questions

The RPers of FFXIV have been left to interpret many aspects of the lore for which no clear answer is provided by SE. There are also aspects of gameplay which are difficult to understand/use IC'ly. The goal of this thread is to compile a set of questions that RPers have about the lore, or gameplay with regards to RP, and present them to SE via the official forums. First, post any questions you can think of. Then, a total of ten will be selected, as not to flood the devs/mods of forums with a huge list of questions that would seem to daunting to address. Finally the "top ten" will be discussed and edited, so that they're phrased just right. Afterwards I will post them up on the main SE boards, be sure to BUMP/like the thread so that it gets attention. :cheer: If there are questions "left on the cutting room floor" which you yourself or someone else asked that you'd like to see addressed, please feel free to create your own thread to ask them on the main forums. If we succeed in getting some answers however, I will likely do a "round 2" of this process, and hopefully get those 'left over' questions in next time. If you like this idea, please provide a link to this thread to your linkshell and friends.

Welcome back! RP is still kicking, although the activity server-wide seems to depend on patch releases, with people coming back to try FFXIV after updates. To be honest I RP with 2ish Linkshells outside my own, so I don't really know about anyone else. From my point of view RP is a-plenty if you know where to look, how to find it, know people, etc. Unsure about EU population, sorry.

Updated email/twitter info :approve:

...no this isn't one of those ads that crop up once in a while Did you know that Seraphine -and- Alothia have birthdays today?! BOTH OF THEM ON THE SAME DAY?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY x2! in super huge font. Needless to say both of yous are awesome leaders... nay pillars... nay paragons of the community. Thanks for all the hard work you've put into that And have great birthdays!

Everwatch Monthly Update II (Oct/Nov) Dust Settles Salutations, plebs! Oskar here with your monthly updates! You heard it here first; the union is still strong, huzzah! (Imagine if the prez really did say that? Epic win, world peace.) The second month of Everwatchâs lifespan was a lot less hectic than the first. We saw the events slow down due to the poll taken from the first monthâs update. However aside from me granting your every wish, this was also due to many members being absent for a week or more at a time. Somehow we all managed to busy ourselves with real life at the same time. That and the natural growth of the linkshell into something more stable did offer plenty of time for individual RP and passion projects for the members who were able to be on, although I admit that it has been too quiet some days for my taste. THIS WILL CHANGE! Yes, even if I have to completely metagame and make Oskar shout into the Linkshell when I am around. No wait, at this point, it wouldnât even be completely metagaming. Oh, women, what they do to our hearts. *le sigh* What? I wasnât crying⦠*clears his throat* Letâs move on, yes? *shifts away awkwardly* (I heard that Oskar and Deir broke up.) News First Woodswatch training cycle and graduation was completed this month, and what an effort. Only one member was able to pass the required trainings and earn the honor of becoming part of Woodswatch, and that member is *drumroll* Syesta! *fanfare* Syesta has also been scheduling more CORE Field Testing events, letting the rest of us play with her elaborate mechanisms and whatnot. To be honest, I do not even know how she does it, or WHAT she is doing (note to self: this may be a problem) but it's AWESOME. Oh did I mention Ariciont died? Yeah, that happened. Everwatch had a small ceremony in his honor at the Thalâs temple out in Thanalan, where Deirdre cut her hand and bled all over like some emo teenager and Eva burned a letter she wrote to him. Just in case youâre wondering, heâs aight, just had prolonged away-time from the game and used it to further his characterâs story. He is reborn, Twelve bless us. In more bad news, Nel was abducted for a number of days by a creepy mage who could have been Mason, but wasn't, because Mason is dead. This guy is less creepy, but a lot more able. The full story can be found here. Everwatch pulled Corvus Cinis and TALE to work together and bring her back safely. We've succeeded, at least in part, and forged some alliances. It is from this event that our bond with Covus solidified, although I am sure 90% of their members still hate Oskar Everwatch has been finally building itself up to challenge the endgame content released in patch 1.20. We take it slow, so what?! Some people like that! You can't just always, you know, rush into things and make a mess. Plus, we've been setting up an interesting RP story to go along with it all, so that's our excuse. Members This month our application rate has seen a much needed decline, which gave the current members time to assimilate and get to know each other. We're still a small Linkshell with a handful of very active members. Recently I've cleaned up the roster both IC'ly and OOC'ly by removing inactive members. Our list of occupations within Everwatch is current as of 11/20/11. That said I'd like to welcome our new members: Tahrara Vaare Tier Hope you guys enjoy your time with Everwatch! Monthly Mentions Poll of the month: This month's poll asked the members to vote on how their characters felt about Oskar as the leader of Everwatch. Slightly discontent: 2 votes Neutral: 3 votes Slightly content: 2 votes Very content: 2 votes And before you ask, no I did not vote! Based on the results I can at least breathe easy because no one voted âVery discontent,â however Oskar's got some improvements to make. The poll spurred discussion on the subject, as members clarified their character's views. Report of the month: Gunther Knox Great detail and effort put into this, very all-inclusive and informative as always. Gunther pwns, we all knew this. Journal of the month: Ariciont Von Croix It's as if Ariciont distilled BRUTAL and bottled it, right there. It's supersaturated with tough manliness, too. If you drink it, you grow beards, be careful. A Glance Ahead A glimpse to the horizon will yield a view of what's to come. Everwatch is looking to expand and will be devoting time into events which are aimed at gaining members. We will also be delving deeply into new content, such as the Ifrit battle and stronghold raids. A task board will be introduced to get all members involved in our continual effort of making Everwatch a beehive of RP activity. The next month should prove to be fun and challenging, so until next time!

Heya and welcome to the community! This site has been around well before the game even launched. Enjoy your stay and hit me up in game if you want to RP!

Hey Rathium, player of Berkan/Darkcat/Dirant here. Welcome to the community! Glad to see that you've come around on the game

I'd recommend Corvus Cinis or T.A.L.E, they are (mostly) good-aligned linkshells who are moderate in RP. Unfortunately I don't know the other heavy RP Linkshells well enough to recommend any aside from the one I'm in.

Hello welcome to the community. If I were you I'd size up the Linkshells based on your preference for the /type/ of RP they do rather than how much they do, since a lot of events/RP that you're not into means zilch.

Posted in the Adventurer Guilds of all the major cities. [align=center][/align]

Agreed with Eva. Totally felt like I was typing away into the abyss mid-response last time. Mass email would help. I'll hold off on the discussion Rain and I seem to be having, since we might as well just be doing over skype or something if it's just us two contributing, and hammer out a proposal which has both of our ideas. I'll make sure to promote this next time we record Remotely Plausible, but I can't do much else. I've let my LS know of this post.

Quick sidenote: *** Reply to Rain The RPC is still administrator run, just like any other site... I was refering to an abuse of power, drawing lines in the sand, outcasting a portion of the community, etc.. While I can rehash all of that - given I take time out to do so - I would rather not, since Kylin did state that the discussion should focus on what to do from this point on. In my post, I wasn't so much as making a point, as referencing something in the past to ask the questions that I did. If you are not sure why I asked those questions, well, I pointed you and whoever else is curious in the right direction. I am not trying to rehash old debates, but rather asking if any views/positions/approaches are changed since then. I don't need quotes to ask simple questions, especially when I've pointed (pretty clearly) the reader to the direction where had they wanted to, they can read up on what happened and make their own opinions by reading the posts entirely, not just snippets. Alright, agree to disagree indeed then. I personally encourage people to check out this site, people I am close to, yet they have their own reasons not to bother. Since we're not speaking on anyones behalf, I'll avoid listing some reasons I've heard. So, that's why to me your points don't hit the mark. That and maybe I've heard the message of 'we should all be friends, we should RP with more people, we should have a united community' one too many times. That to me needs no reiteration, since that's pretty much all I've heard. And there is no need to define self-centered for me, I believe my competence in this language is good enough to know what it means. If I didn't, I'd look it up myself (as I often do). Note though, that in the quote you pulled up from my original post, I never did say you are self-centered. Yet you said in reply: Bold added by me. It seems to me that you interpreted me actually saying something that just isn't there in text. What actually said was in reference to the general idea of making normative statements, which I explained further in the post before this one. I see how, if I was quoting you, you could interpret that the way you did, yet I wasn't. I don't think anyone should assume, going forward, that someone is indirectly responding to them or hinting at them or winking at them or nodding to them or w/e... Unless it's quoted/stated outright, don't assume. Think about it this way, if I wanted to respond to a point you made specifically, why wouldn't I quote it in reference? Furthermore you accused me of misconstruing your post, when I never even quoted a single line from it. That's a pretty heavy charge to toss around basing it on nothing but an assumption. My point was counter to the general idea that we should all RP together, Verence mentioned a similar point in his post: Anyway that's all for my reply... I hope we got things more or less ironed out and can move on. *** The devil in the details I do have a question about your proposal, Rain. Here is what is what you made clear is happening in the game already (correct me if I am wrong): Friendships are being made, RP storylines are happening, Cross-LS RP is present, big events happen, in general there is RP to be found. Your answer to increasing activity on the RPC seems to be to strengthen in-game community cohesion and increase RP between people who usually don't RP with each other. Is that the general gist of it? If I got it wrong, correct me. If community = RPC, how do you bring more activity to the RPC? Given, that people are already making friends/RPing - how much more of that needs to happen to bring more activity here? What is the actual plan going forward? A general statement supporting community solidarity and cohesion is easy to make, but I really didn't see an actual proposal/course of action based on your stated beliefs. Given, that there have been many large events, many new and veteran RPers who met and formed bonds, while RPC remained in a lull, what do you propose we do to change that? Many OOC pearls for RPers have failed/are not used, what will be different? How do you get people to bond, who have completely different tastes in what they like/dislike or what they find fun/interesting? How do people like myself and Verence who would rather not bother with people who are known to have different preferences when it comes to RP (note: not people we've never RPed with, but people with whom we have and didn't find it rewarding) factor into this? Furthermore, if there is more bonding, how do you translate that over to activity here on the RPC? What about the people who would love to RP with anyone, yet strongly dislike the RPC itself? *** Regarding questions based on my proposals Just to clarify, my idea was based around new LInkshells. I understand why Linkshells who already have websites wouldn't need this. To be honest, it completely depends on what someone wanted to do. If they wanted to start a photobook, taking pics of all characters they RPed with, and writing a journal entry below about their impression, maybe a space somewhere on this website (outside the forum) where one can cycle through the 'profiles'. Basically, community support should be encouraged, and not just with words. If someone wants to start a podcast about their adventures, provide them with anything they need to make that successful, RSS feed (if possible), a page on the website, discussion forums, and so on. Welcome people who want to contribute and be present in the community, and the RPC will start to /look/ more like a community website. This in turn will provide the RPC with features/content which will drive up interest in the site.

I am not interested in rehashing the past quote by quote, nor do I have time to find and pull up specific posts. I asked those questions, and come to think of it, missed some other important ones, to make sure that lessons were learned from before. I am not so sure they have been, since I've seen similar political lines being drawn and purposefully vague accusations as well. It's bad to do it on purpose, it's worse to not even be aware that you're doing it. Rain, since you've been around, you can go back read some of the threads from the charter abandonment, old moderator forums discussions, and on. This is a little outrageous. You ask me a question, and answer it yourself. I believe that's called a straw man, another thing we should avoid. Aside from that, either I wasn't clear or you misunderstood my original point. I did not say that we shouldn't widen social circles. I said that we should NOT tell people how to play the game and RP. It's outside of this discussion. Whether I agree with your specific suggestions or not doesn't matter, I disagree with the entire premise of telling people what they ought to do. I don't think this belongs in this thread at all. The reasons I gave for WHY it doesn't belong in this thread, are 1) RP in game doesn't influence this site nearly as much. Maybe in your experience, RP has been as dead/insular as depicted by the RPC activity, but from my POV, it's been pretty good (half-done game considering). I have seen and participated in cross LS RP w/o the use of these forums. It's not a matter of telling people what they need to do in game, but as I stated later in my post, incentives for people to use this website. 2) When you prescribe people what they should/shouldn't do, you're making a normative statement. It is based on your own personal judgement and subjective values. You telling people how they should play the game IS based on specifically your preferences/experiences/values/judgement and thus cannot be disputed or proven wrong by appeal to facts. This to me shows that you do not understand my point about RPC not being equated to the community overall. While it would be nice if the RPC did directly represent the RP community, it clearly doesn't. For example, the events posted here barely get any views/replies, yet in game attendance is far beyond that. There are whole linkshells who are not listed here. There are discussions between leaders, discussions on RP, new players who happened to stumble upon RP . . . none of that transfers over to here. RPC has become synonymous with major drama fest which is not worth the effort. It's toxic to a lot of the RP community, even if they weren't directly involved. It's time to realize that the community thrives (slowly) despite the RPC. I thought the purpose of this thread is to focus on how to get the RPC back on track, not the community as a whole. I'll pull up my quote from above with regards to how the community is fairing: That actual ties to what Rain says next: I completely disagree that friendships in game = more activity here. Clearly this has not been the case, or do you honestly think little/NO friendships have been made in-game, judging by these boards? I agree that the community can exist without the RPC, but in limited terms, w/o the help of a functioning central hub. Which is a state where're at now, and I guess the thing we're trying to brainstorm here. How to get RPC back on track. Actually, I didn't take apart your post and counter each point you made. I mentioned you once in my post. What makes you think this is a direct reply to you? What makes you think that what I said is a way to misconstrue your point? Verence stated that in his post, and I echo this in my own. You jumping on it like you did, without me mentioning you, seems like you've done something wrong lol. My statement was general, so no, I wasnt trying to misconstrue your post. That point has been made so many times, and the counter argument not NEARLY enough. It feels as though someone is an ass if they don't want to RP with everyone, like we're all expected to enjoy everyone else's company, want to mingle and RP with everyone on the server. If that's what you think, okay have at it hoss. I think this attitude permeates the community though, and makes the people who do NOT want to RP with /everyone/ seem like the bad guy. There is moderation. I personally don't mind RPing with someone once or twice and then making up my mind. If we're on the same page, awesome, if not, then why the hell would I waste my time? Final thing: From earlier in your reply. The claim to be offended is another thing which kills good discussion, on top of all the other stuff I mentioned above. I don't think I've made any personal attacks, in fact I didn't even take apart your post, and mentioned you once. I certainly never called you self-centered, my argument against telling people what ought to be done is laid out pretty clearly, and I am fairly certain, doesn't contain any attacks against you personally. If you are offended by my counter arguments to your points, I am afraid to say ,"that's too bad." Whether you or anyone else is offended by reasonable discourse doesn't prove my points to be invalid, nor does it mean that I have done something wrong. If you get offended when people take apart your points, I sincerely suggest not taking part, as it can do more harm than good to the overall discussion. Addendum Whew, with that long reply out of the way, I'd also like to add a couple of other things which might attract people to this site: >Personal projects. If someone has an idea related to RP, the RPC should be able to offer them several resources to house that idea, and to grow it. The RPC shouldn't claim the ideas/effort as their own, but rather be a tool for community feedback and so on. >Temporary linkshell space. I was thinking how Archavolon has a page linked to the RPC, why can't others do the same? Slap a 3 month max time frame on it, and offer free LS hosting for starting RP groups! A pretty good incentive to start a Linkshell, if you ask me.

Settling the Past The final point of Verenceâs âwhatâs to be doneâ list, top of the second post. I agree with it completely, however Iâve not seen any evidence that the RPC will operate differently. The reason many people have a negative view of the RPC does stem back to the arguments between two (general) camps of RPers in the past. While I myself am willing to let it go, I have to make sure that something has been learned from that conflict (or a series of conflicts) before I do that. I want to improve the community, but I cannot say that the RPC at its core is any different than it was before, from an administrative side of things. To avoid circumlocution, Kylin, can you elaborate on your position with regards to these forums? Does your status as the administrator, provider of bandwith/monthly forum charge going to matter if there is (and there are bound to be) disagreements? Will you argue points one way or the other using your title as administrator? Are your personal views separate from your position as admin of the boards? I personally have lost that connection a long time ago. Back then, when I contributed on the RPC, I was under the impression that I was helping the community as a whole, but when it was made clear that itâs not exactly a place which was welcoming of every RPer, but more like an administrator-controlled forum (which sat in the camp I and others were opposed to), I and many many others stopped contributing because it no longer felt like I was contributing to the RP community, but rather creating content for someoneâs forum disguised as a community website. As you can see, itâs easy to say âletâs just move onâ but really â no one wants to walk into the same BS again, even if they have the slightest interest in doing more as a community. What individual Role-Players ought to do? I dislike prescribing to people how they should spend their time. Yes, I have my opinions of what you ought to do with your time, but I am not you, so itâs pointless for me to try to change what anyone does. Even if I could take up your puppet strings and make you do as I say, you wonât be happy, and then what the hell is the point of playing this game? This is why I avoid making arguments similar Rainâs. They are completely centered on the preferences and opinions of the person making the suggestions. Changing it up Then how do we change the behavior of individuals? Here are three ways I can think of off the top of my head. >Re-branding. From changing the name of the community website, to re-launching it as a place welcoming everyone, with defined rules/guidelines for participation for both the users and administrator(s)/moderators. >Changing the look of the site/forums. Tied to the re-branding, currently the forums are not the pinnacle of aesthetic excellence. Changing it up for the better may also influence activity, to a more psychological point; it would âfeelâ different. >Encouraging activity via the leaders of the community. Instead of prescribing every person with guidelines on what they ought to do and how they should RP, leaders of the community (LS leaders, people who want to be proactive freelancers, etc) should get to know one another, and evaluate if itâs worth investing the time/energy/creativity into making cross-LS RP events/story archs etc. via the forums. If we all had the same ideas of what âgoodâ and âfunâ RP is, this would not be needed, but unfortunately when you open up RP to a group of people who do not share your views, it ruins your RP, story, experience, and character progression. No one wants that. So a way to avoid that would be to actually communicate, thatâs what this forum is for, right? Thatâs one reason I am for the leader-only boards being added. Itâs an outlet which can generate some RP, with no real loss if it doesnât. There are other ways which I am sure are out there, the above were just off the top of my head. Iâd like to hear more suggestions. Encourage website participation, not RP Iâd like to make sure that we remain on the topic of the RPC, instead of RP in general. Individual RPers (of various/multiple linkshells) have been RPing together, despite the drop in activity on these boards. This means that encouraging people to RP with âstrangersâ in game will not necessarily bring anything to this website. RP will go on, regardless if this site is used or not. As a sidenote, let's not guilt-trip people who chose not to RP with every single person. If you're the type not to get bothered by jarring styles, or enjoy massive gatherings, and tavern RP - do not fault others for simply not finding those things fun to do. I personally knew RPers who hated groups larger than five. I myself avoid RPing with certain individuals because of prior experiences which weren't fun/interesting for me. It's not a bad thing. I think if we all really did RP with everyone else, the dramz from miscommunication and varying perspectives would far outweigh any benefits. Incentives What the RPC should aim for is to consolidate various ways people can/do interact in one place, while welcoming all RPers. It should also offer something which is not easily obtained elsewhere, thus drawing people to it. The wiki is a good example, an epic is another, but there needs to be a lot more. All of these things are incentives for people to check this site. The fewer disincentives there are and the more incentives offered by the RPC, the more people will participate in this site. We will be on the right track once we stop thinking about how to prescribe behavior, and instead focus on what factors into people avoiding/visiting this site. There may be some who avoid it even given the best circumstances, and that behavior would fall to being irrational, which is outside the scope of our discussion.

Didn't get to RP with you at all the first time around, but glad to see you're back Endi.

I would just roll my eyes at SE writers/developers, is how I'd handle it. I am not sure honestly, to me following lore in the case that they do state that there is one common language would be a step down from taking into account various languages. As for the specifics you mentioned in your spoiler: Personally, I've not seen anything to compelling to switch me over to the "one language" camp, but that said I am not even sure if I recall exact cases (if there are any) where it /did/ make clear that Garleans have their own language. So, it's up in the air for now - but since I am a linguistics nerd I prefer the multiple languages.

Rhio Aldul, an officer of our LS, who is IC'ly a liaison between our group and others, has drafted an IC contract. Check it out! Contact Rhio or myself if you are interested in RPing with Everwatch, or cross-LS RP.

I am unsure of the exact instance you are referring to (spoiler tags ftw) so I am unsure of this case and its impact on lore. Personally I just think it is a lot more interesting and fun to RP minor differences like that. Are you sure the Garleans in this case do not know Eorzean? Maybe they are speaking the common tongue? I think in some instances SE sort of breaks the fourth wall, because it /is/ a MMO which is trying to appeal to people who might be intrigued by the story, but not the full emersion of the world around them. Small details such as language difference might be overlooked by the SE writers, in exchange for easy to understand storyline. Most players, heck a lot of RPers even, might not have even thought about any language difference, and how it might affect their character/background.

Welcome back!

Welcome to the community. I thought some linkshells did allow one to join without an application, but that might have changed. There are also groups not listed on the RPC here (not sure why not). If you wonder around long enough, I am sure you will find a type of group to suit your playstyle.

Thanks Gospel, I edited that in now, and added some more stuff to the guide.

Thanks Gospel, I edited that in now, and added some more stuff to the guide.

Thanks Gospel, I edited that in now, and added some more stuff to the guide.

I've written a small guide to sum up the new content that will be released in patch 1.19 from an RP perspective. It's also pretty useful, since the actual patch notes are insanely long and a bit confusing to navigate. Link: A brief guide to patch 1.19 Check it out and leave feedback.