Koen

Thanks for all the responses. To be honest, I thought the old guy wouldn't get much interest, but I'm not complaining about more people to RP with! I've sent some of you a PM, but I thought I'd respond to a couple things that I probably should've included in the main post. Whoops. This is a good question, and, like I said, is something I should've included in the main post. I've done a combat training class before on a previous character, and I don't feel like it gives enough individual attention to the 'students', and only worked on that character because first, not many people would show up to it, and second, that character was kind of a prick, so he didn't care if they actually learned anything or not. Koen's aim is to pass on his accumulated knowledge so that it doesn't die with him. He cares about results, and having a 5'6" Hyur and a 6'5" Elezen learn to fight in the same way just wouldn't be practical, so the training will be personalised to the person's body, strengths, and goals. In the same way he won't teach people of vastly different heights or builds the exact same things, he also wouldn't teach someone just looking for basic self-defense tips how to find the carotid artery. I'm going to add a list of weapons Koen can teach to the main post. Speaking generally, if a character is comfortable with a weapon, he's not going to tell them to switch. That being said, if he was training someone who only used a spear, he might advise them to keep a sidearm handy in case someone gets within their spear's reach. Monks are an odd thing, because of how extraordinary they are as their number of chakras unlocked climbs. I imagine there are different techniques involved when you can punch holes in people and when you can't, but we'll see how it goes!

I'm making this thread because the old Making Connections one I made for Koen is extremely outdated. On to the actual point of the thread: I'm looking for people who'd like some combat training for their character(s). To put it bluntly: Koen's getting too old to be going out at nights to mess with the Garleans, or killing bandits to keep his arm in, and so with his newfound free time he's decided to take on some students so what he's learned over the years won't go to waste when he kicks the bucket. It'd be lazy to just direct people to Koen's RPC page, and to be honest it needs updating as well, so I'll give a few details about him to give an idea of who your character would be learning from. He was trained in hand-to-hand, warfare and the use of most weapons in the Ala Mhigan military. After leaving Ala Mhigo, he spent nearly a decade in Abalathia's Spine training and sparring with a tribe of Hellsguard Warriors. He's got fourteen years military experience, and over fourty years in general combat using mainly hand-to-hand and his greatsword. He'll take pretty much anyone on as a student; whether your character's preparing for a war, generally wants to know more about fighting, or just wants to know how to look after them self, feel free to pop me a message here or in-game if you're interested. :^)

My alt, Keltwaen, would fit this description pretty well. While Koen is by far more developed and he'd be much more useful, he's too much experience and training under his belt to be classed as an 'everyman', despite being as realistic as I could make him (looked over how age affects different martial arts, soldiers, took experience from IRL people I know etc.). Koen's also not the type to go on an adventure. Kelt, however, is entirely average when it comes to his premise and most of his character. He's as morally grey as his skin, and while he tries to help people out, at the end of the day he's got mouths to feed and giving handouts or taking stupid risks isn't going to do him or his any good. Despite having ties (loose ones) to the Rogue guild, he's a 7'6 500+lb Roegadyn, and I'm under no illusion that he could hide from anything with functioning eyes. I've got a couple decades worth of MMA experience IRL, and tend to use that in his fights to add as much realism (relative to the fantasy setting) as I can, so he won't be doing any 'ninja flips', haha. He's not super talented and his only 'special ability' is being born in to a race that makes him a big, strong bleeder. Hell, he'd rather be a lot shorter: he wouldn't have to spend as much on booze to get drunk, and he'd be a smaller target! When he's out of work he goes fishing, practices, or just plain chills out with a smoke somewhere peaceful. As I said before, I have IRL knowledge that leaks over, and Kelt does know how to handle himself in hand-to-hand fights (enough to know that most of the time it's not worth it!) He rarely goes outside of La Noscea though, and if you asked him to fight a dragon or some kind of MSQ-level mage, he'd exit first the conversation and then the room. As for the dark side of things, he should fit the bill. He's done some things he's not proud of in the past when times were hard and his makeshift family needed the gil more than he needed to stick to his morals, and has suffered the consequences of mistakes. I only just made him and I'm too broke to afford another name change/fantasia, so I'm not comfortable with him dying or getting any injuries /too/ permanent, since I haven't developed his personality enough to figure out how it'd affect him, but luckily he's the cautious type and doesn't risk a fight when he can get away with another option. His #1 tactic is always avoiding it. I'm in the GMT timezone and I'm normally up fairly late if I haven't had a busy day, so feel free to poke me in-game on Koen Stone or Keltwaen Slettbhirsyn if you wanna set something up. :^)

I've got an alt (going on second main) who hangs around La Noscea and can get along with most people. He likes to fish and does whatever work he can get his hands on. More Roegadyn are always welcome, so feel free to pop him an invite. He's called Keltwaen Slettbhirsyn, and here's his ugly mug:

Just make as realistic a character as you can. Don't be one of those people whose characters have 'flaws' like "He's too nice!", "He's just so powerful it's hard" blahblahblah, crap like that. My starting point when making a character is to get a general idea of what I want them to be. I wanted Koen to be an older soldier who'd been absent for a long time, since I'd come back from a break and didn't know the lore, and I didn't want him to be anything special, just reasonably skilled with what he does. From there, you have to look at their starting point and do a lot of research. See how the environment they grew up in would have shaped their personality. Koen was raised in Ala Mhigo not too long after the Garleans had become a major threat, so naturally he would've had anti-Garlemald prejudices beaten into him from a young age. His parents were both military, so he'd aim to be the same and look up to them, and would also see discipline and respect as the highest virtues to have. Things like that are how you start to form your character's values, and if you want to change them you can bring things in. I wanted Koen to be less strict with his values and not be a harsh military type, so I wrote into his backstory that he had two children, and lost one. The loss wasn't just to give him a tragic past, it was to make him appreciate his one child more, and it humanised him. So I managed to shift him from a super militaristic soldier to a skilled soldier who has a soft spot for kids and is kinder than he otherwise would've been. Apologies if none of this makes sense, but that's how I try to make an interesting, or at least realistic, character. tl;dr: Do a bunch of research into what it would've been like for them as they progressed through their life, and don't add anything for the sake of it being there. :^)

You're wonderful for doing this, here's hoping my /random luck doesn't carry over to here. :^)

If the lore isn't an issue for you, I don't see why you can't just make your character's motivation to find someone and use that to create interactions. A weird looking guy spouting crap about sucking blood approaching every young girl he sees might bring issues in itself, but that's part of the fun: you don't know what's going to happen. A NPC would better serve you than another person who might not go along with the big plot you've got planned out. Plenty of people RP without giving too much of a shit about lore, you just need to put it in your search info so people who are strict with the lore know to avoid you.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Have you seen the kind of messed up things that have happened in the FFXIV world? The Corpse Brigade straight up rape an NPC, to give one example. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that someone might have a crush on their brother. As long as you're not pushing it in everyone's face and using it to somehow appear special and different, I don't see what the problem would be. I think it's important with anything like this, whether it's a mental illness, a crippling injury or something else that would seriously affect a person's personality, to respect the kind of effect it would have. You see characters all the time that have mental issues that only seem to come up in convenient times when they want to create drama or some other equally crappy reason. As long as you don't carry a big sign saying "Incest ftw!!" and seriously think through how your character would act differently because of this, you'll be fine. As someone said, there's always gonna be muppets out there who won't RP with you, but that's the same for pretty much everyone. Anyone with serious 'triggers' will know how to deal with them already and I don't think you need to worry about them when coming up with a RP character. You do you. tl;dr: Don't shove it in anyone's face, think it through well enough, and you'll be fine.

Welcome back to the game, a lot of new stuff has happened. That's not the kind of thing I know a great deal about though, because I'm prone to take month-long breaks as well, haha. When I came back from my most recent break, Square was pretty cool about resetting my password for me after I sent in a support ticket. Hopefully it goes as smooth for you as it did for me! I really like the sound of your character, and I think he'd fit right in with plenty of the FC's and LS's around the server. No idea what kind of RP you're looking for or what kinds of characters you're looking to interact with, but feel free to poke me on Koen Stone if you want to set something up. He's an old soldier who's spent most of his years traveling to different places and missing his kids. You can see his wiki in my brand spanking new signature, if you want to prod around for more info. Good luck getting back into the flow of things and finding IC pals for your Keeper. :^)

Shush you, go back to your cooking and your kitchen knives. :^p Brinn and Daire both sound like people he'd be interested in meeting. It took Koen a while to get used to not constantly being outside of Gyr Abania, so he could help Brinn out if he sees him having trouble adjusting to things. He last hung around Little Ala Mhigo a few years after the Garleans took the proper one, so they might not have ran into each other before, but a couple of his men were there for years after he left and Brinn could well have heard one of them talking about their old commander who helped them escape. He has a soft spot for kids too, so if he saw Daire practicing he'd definitely give him a few tips or words of advice. He hangs around Little Ala Mhigo often enough that they could run in to each other, so that's one way both characters could meet Koen. Other than that, he goes for jogs all around Thanalan, relaxes in Forgotten Springs/the Sagoli and frequents the Coffer and Coffin. I'll have to poke one of those listed people about the work you mentioned.

Got an RPC wiki page up and I've thrown together a quick signature for the forums. I've managed to find Koen a great smith and a person or two to teach, but I still need to bother more people for healer and general goods store connections. He's also been doing more sewing lately, if that's something someone would be able to help the poor guy with.

Koen's a simple man to please. A scarf to keep his neck warm, a new sewing kit or something to make his back stop aching. Any of them would make his day/month/whatever this game calls that crap.

Penguins can fire out their crap with four times the velocity of a human pooping. They can also get pretty aggressive in a fight. Nothing awkward about them, they're pretty cool! I don't know what your character's like, but if they don't mind chatting with a soldier who's getting on in the years, feel free to pop me a tell in game and we can set up some RP. Welcome to the RPC, have fun. ^^

Pretty much.

Hahaha, you got me curious with the title. Totally fell for it. I'm not witty enough to come up for another meaning fot ERP, but I wouldn't mind some normal RPing some time. Koen's old and experienced enough not to be bothered that she was raised to kill, that just means she's a less disciplined soldier as far as he's concerned. He had to adjust to civillian life himself, so he could probably help her out with that too. Hit me up in-game or pop me a message here if you want to set something up.