Firefly

Sent you a PM! Let me know if you need more info!

This thread aims to answer some commonly asked questions that aren't covered in our brochure. No. However, we do prune our ranks to get rid of inactive elements from time to time. It's also worth noting that attending more of our FC-plot events will, obviously, allow you to follow the story better. Furthermore, we encourage regular activity with your fellow FC-mates in-game. Our weekly events all start at 8PM Eastern Time (GMT-4). When Daylight Savings (or whatever it is) is in effect, we become inconsistent spaghetti, due to our mix of non-Americans and Americans, so members are expected to watch our Discord's announcements for event timings. As to the days, under Eastern Time again, we have the following on schedule: One-shot Wednesdays (aka. Hump Day in the FC); where members may participate in a one-off, GMed event that's usually self-contained Team Dinner Thursdays; where members get together in the mess hall for some chow and shenanigans FC-plot Friday (aka. Ironclaw MSQ); self explanatory. Occasionally, Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays may be commandeered for back-to-back story missions Personal Story Sundays; also self explanatory. Sundays may also be One-shot event days, should there be no Personal Story Events scheduled. No, our events are primarily held in-game. We use Roll20 for special set-pieces, or where we feel the game is too limiting. In general, we tend to use it for our Season Finales. No. While we sometimes experiment with systems, we've found that complex systems don't work with the volume of participants in our events; and actively encourages a focus upon numbers over emote content. Occasionally, we will use dice to determine the effects of an action, but this is usually used at a GM's discretion. We are trying to construct our own system that will take the best of all worlds, but that will take some time. Members send a brief pitch of a Personal Story event (SINGULAR, not plural!!!) to the GM in charge of PSEs. The GM will speak with the member to flesh out the idea/provide advice as to its execution, as well as establish boundaries (whether the player wants to GM it themselves, or have the GM team do it), before it's scheduled. In the event that a PSE time-conflicts with an FC-plot event, the FC-plot will take priority on the schedule/calendar. If a member is unable to attend their own PSE with prior notification, the PSE can be rescheduled to another day, depending on the week's schedule. If a member is unable to attend their own PSE without prior notification, the PSE will be cancelled, and the member will have to go through the process again. The Ironclaws routinely post recruitment material on Adventurer's Guild noticeboards. Non-combatants and specialists are sometimes headhunted, and occasionally, Grand Company personnel apply to transfer over. Ironclaw training sessions will primarily focus on protocol (ie. how we organise/categorise threats, how to approach them), as well as tactical and strategic concepts. Training will also be given to round out a character's specialisation, so that they have basic competency in the other roles of the order. However, it's worth noting that our training sessions are less about 'learning something new', and more about getting to know your fellow recruits, the officers, and members as well as understanding the ins and outs of the Order's day-to-day operations. While we intend to have a fairly professional atmosphere ICly, we have not forgotten that this game is Final Fantasy, and that our entire mission is to create the most Final Fantasy-esque experience imaginable. As such, we do have some comic-relief. We try to justify all story/character/lore elements within the confines of the setting; but we ultimately have to remember that this setting is fairly absurd, and full of the strangest things. Our plots, characters, and... things, therefore, are serious affairs -- but we know when to pull down the dull grey of grim 'reality' and inject a little bit of colour when necessary Quite, but not inflexible. We won't immediately dismiss someone for having an outlandish interpretation of the lore; but as with everything in this FC, we base our opinions on good execution rather than the ideas/interpretations themselves. This does not mean you can join us on your trans-dimensional vampire alien from the planet Xanaheim simply because it's a novel or 'good idea'. Nor does it mean that you can if you can justify it with lore. And it certainly doesn't mean you can if you can't. What it does mean, however, is that if you can nail the execution and make this concept seem believable, and in-place with the setting and its theme, then you've got a chance! While we do not go out of our way to write graphic/disturbing content, we do deal with scenes of violence, creepy-weird-crap, and their after-effects. RPer discretion is advised.

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Cleanliness isn't as related to technology as you'd think. Plumbing and waterworks are definitely possible with Eorzea's current technology level, and baths are likely very easy to find -- public, natural, or private. Contrary to popular belief, bathing and cleanliness was greatly sought after in antiquity. People bathed as often as they could, be it in a stream, a bath drawn from a water source, or a public bath (a la the Romans). There's numerous references to bathing and personal hygiene routines, from the implied (plenty of bathing women in Greek Mythology, told as a very common/ordinary situation), to the explicit (Scandinavians were said to bathe frequently). In general, humans have always had a desire to seek cleanliness. Regarding hand-washing: If you can find drinking water, you can find hand-washing water. Regarding dental hygiene: Firstly, dental problems wouldn't be as big of a problem in a pre-industrial/globalised society as it is now; due to there being less sugary foods. Further, oral/dental hygiene is something that can be maintained with pre-industrial tools fairly easily, and is something that we, as social creatures, will innately pursue. Ancients with access to mint frequently consumed it to have better-smelling breath; and garlic in many cultures has been avoided due to its bad breath issues. Cleaning teeth is also possible with toothbrushes or toothpaste. Arabs used 'miswak' -- a twig of a specific type of tree, which they basically chewed on to floss, remove plaque, and freshen their breath. tl;dr: There are lots of ways to keep clean without modern showers/plumbing/etc. and they'd be very accessible to the common person in some form Though, imo, with Eorzea's current tech level, I wouldn't even worry about it. Showers and plumbing do exist in lore.

10/10 concept, would participate

You're absolutely right, and I wouldn't worry about sounding too 'peace and love'-y, since your point here is entirely reasonable. False positives are a thing, and considering some people here have listed some incredibly bizarre, borderline petty things that could simply be either personality quirks or them on a bad day, or not being native English speakers/writers. My insignificant opinion, is that Kieron's green flags are integral to 'categorising' or figuring out whether you'd like to RP with someone or not. When it comes to finding friends/meeting people, it's both immature and unrealistic to expect said friends/potential co-writers/whatever to be 100% perfect. Watching out for 'Green Flags', imo is just as (if not more) important as looking for 'Red Flags'. I've known amazing RPers with horrible, bland writing or florid, purple prose; I've known people who use the 'I'm an asshole' tag because they have a low self-esteem and are really just beating themselves up over having an opinion; and I've known people who get embroiled in drama because they're people pleasers and don't know how to say 'no', at no fault of their own. Do these traits/flags make them bad RP Partners? Yes and no. Probably stating the obvious here, but ultimately, whether they're a good RP Partner or not falls to you -- can you put up with the crap for the good they have, or are you just going to look at the bad sides and not their potential?

Jesus H. Christ, yes. That kind of thing was the most infuriating writing to read -- nevermind it being insanely petty or rude, most of the time the people who did this made zero effort in masking their passive aggression in wit or irony, so it wasn't even entertaining.

I currently lead a small-ish (approx. 15 active members; +/-5 depending on the time of year), plot-focused, neutral-good aligned FC. They've made themselves responsible for hunting voidsent and neutralising high-threat, magical anomalies. Sometimes they do consulting and research on said aetheric-based threats (one of our members tl;dr'd us as 'SHIELD crossed with the Witchers, but in Eorzea'). As of the start of Stormblood, they (the Ironclaws) have been integrated into the Alliance Military, and report to a council of representatives from the four city-states. Lore-wise, we like to adhere to it, but are very open to taking liberties that make thematic or logical sense. Currently, our FC is doing a plot related to the war in Ala Mhigo and the events of Stormblood, with plans to head to Othard, in case you wish to have your character go there. We don't go out of our way to involve people in our plots (as in, we just post announcements + times, and won't go out of our way to bug you to come along), and expect our members to keep up independently (if you're lost re: story details, ask!) and explore the setpieces our GMs write up. FC-plots and storylines are organised into Seasons, each centered around specific themes/ideas that will last several months. We are currently on our 3rd Season, which centers around some political aspects + big bad voidsent juju. If you're a Final Fantasy fanatic, you'll probably enjoy the level of detail and care we put in to try and make our stories as Final Fantasy as possible c: Every Season is capstoned by epic finales that take into account every choice made during the Season's events. As they're generally larger in scope than our normal in-game events, we tend to host them on Roll20 (click for a screenshot of our Season 1 finale!, and here for the climax of our Season 2 finale!) Our members are a fun-loving bunch that likes to hang out out of game as much as in-game. We aren't 100% super serious RP all the time, and enjoy having silly 'filler' moments in our RP to round out the edges of plot-focused RP. We have a pretty active (but small) community at the late hours, and while our peak activity is generally around 8-10PM EST, we usually hit 11PM-3AM EST pretty easily. We used to have an application system, but we found it a bit limiting and intimidating to new members, so now we just do a 'guest system'. If you'd like to join, we cordially invite you to tag along for an event or two of ours (we can discuss potential ins/hooks for your character), so you can get a feel for our FC's atmosphere and our member's diverse writing styles. If you give us a good impression, and us, you, we'll probably invite you to join us! Word of warning, however -- the FC is slightly 'paramilitary themed'. There is a chain of command, and while the in-character atmosphere is much more (much much more) lenient and open to loose cannons than a real-life paramilitary organisation, we understand that not everyone wants to RP a character tied down by obligations/responsibilities. Therefore, we'd also understand if we're not the FC for you, if this is the case. It's not all discipline and raramilitary, though! Our cast is diverse and we are actually fairly light-hearted. Also, despite our small-ish size, we do have fairly good relations with a couple of FCs, and are frequently in touch with them! (plus, we got 2 WYNG members ok?????) So, look forward to hearing back from you! (Should you have any questions, please ask me or our OOC-relations & Recruitment Officer, Iteza!) P.S. We have a sense of humour.

1. Bring back Spring to Coerthas 2. Super speed, and the ridiculous metabolism that'd come from it 3. Envy and pettiness To the person's character below me: 1. Who is your role-model? 2. Describe your family's dynamic. Are you satisfied with it? 3. What is the greatest challenge you've had to face?

motherfucker 1) Coconut anything. 2) Red. 3) Open a self-defense school. Run a gym. Or guard duty. Whichever is most practical at the time. Questions for Warren: 1. Do you play an instrument? ii] What is your favourite animal? Three: Political power grows from the tip of a sword. Agree or disagree?

yo, wouldnt it work better if you ask the person below you? because if i ask you 3 questions, and then you answer, we'll be stuck in a loop

Colouring and linework is top-notch as always. My only wish was that we could see more of what Gemini was doing!

I'd assume venombite is done with actual poison arrows, seeing as it's unaspected. Windbite probably does use aether. Considering a lot of bard abilities are aether-based (songs etc.), I think it's relatively safe to assume that they like to use aether in their techniques. Besides, magic among Eorzeans isn't particularly a rare thing.

Most, if not all weapons (save katanas) in the game have the same problem; just hanging off your belt with no scabbard. The best way around this is to just RP and assume everyone having a scabbard/sheath for their hip-based weapons, and a carry strap for the larger weapons. Alternatively, you can forgo the invisible backstraps and just RP your character carrying the things, which would technically be more realistic; but it's Final Fantasy, so I recommend the backstraps for convenience's sake/not having to emote that your character's literally walking around carrying a giant sword or polearm in their hands in civilian areas.

I mean that's all well and good if you're the sort of person who values realism in combat, but it doesn't mean much for somebody who's trying to emulate 1938 Robin Hood, most of Kung Fu Hustle, or large portions of Final Fantasy cutscene fights. You can see why the latter in particular might be a desired end-goal in this game for some of the playerbase, right? Yeah, I do! The cutscene fights are great, because they're an absolute spectacle; which is the point of those gifs. If you look at those two gifs, you see the first being a very clinical, very direct approach that appeals to one type of audience, and in the second, you see a very flashy, spectacle-oriented approach. My point is that when you go blow-by-blow/hyper-detail-oriented/omg-logic-wars, a lot of the personality of your character comes from their approach and their actions. When you're RPing in a Highest-Roll = win scenario, the characterisation comes from the spectacle and the outcome of the fight itself. It's no longer about how the characters fight, but who wins. If you use a blow-by-blow approach in that scenario, the dice will sometimes (as they aren't influenced by anything) create a situation where both fighters are flailing around with no real gameplan or objective, which can be distracting. EDIT: I guess the best way I can fumble with this is that after the dice have been cast, the suspense is gone, if that makes sense? I admit, it was all wrapped in a cheeky jab, but I just wanted an excuse to use that Anakin vs Obi-Wan gif.

Precisely what I mean when I say: I should probably rephrase what I mean: What I don't mean: "NEVER USE DICE ROLLS THEY'RE HORRIBLE AND KILL MUH REALISM" What I do mean: "The dice should be used in dramatic situations or moments where players can't 100% agree, or when necessary." RP is about action and consequence. Relying on, and resolving every action in combat with only a dice roll (no modifiers, etc.) places everything to chance rather than character choice and personality. I think rolling/roll-systems are incredible for resolving disputes, and are entirely necessary in situations where you have large amounts of people with varying opinions on Fight RP/fighting in general. In the world of Final Fantasy 14, there's a lot of ways for someone to express their character's personality through their fighting style, realism be damned. They're completely valid, and can make sense within the context of the game's magical setting. I 100% agree that actions in fighting RP shouldn't be determined by OOC factors -- it's, after all, an IC affair about your character's decisions and their personality/personal philosophy. RPing is pretty much founded on the suspension of disbelief. Sure, our setting is magical as all hell, with dragons, big beasties roaming around, and people who can set you on fire; but it all starts from our base experiences in the real world. From there, we change things based on the context of the setting, and break the rules. Magic breaks a lot of the rules, but the rules are there. Leverage and physics are still a thing, time flows at a similar rate, and a jab is still a fast punch. This provides perspective. Take your Dongfang vs Feraud example. Sure, completely different characters from different genres, but that's absolutely reconciled in FFXIV. Dongfang's needlework can easily be justified through magic and if it's written with enough care and respect towards that base perspective (ie. the writer makes it clear that Dongfang is doing superhuman feats), it can be incredibly enjoyable! Even if you're the fencing-manual-reading player of Feraud, writing him getting his absolute ass handed to him. Digressions aside, what I meant to say in my previous post is that any system of conflict resolution is valid, but work better depending on the type of players involved. Ultimately, people just want to have the fight happen, and for character development to happen.

Obviously, it's not as simple as this (exceptions to everything), but here's my take on roll-systems and free-form systems for Combat RP: Both are absolutely fine, valid, and should, ideally, be used together. Ideally, combatants in an RP fight should pay great attention to their (and definitely their adversary's) character's actions, strengths, weaknesses, and strategy; with these traits/decisions forming the basis of the outcomes of the fight. They should at most be supplemented by rolls (ie. success/failure is not decided by them), to simulate mistakes, circumstance, and the general chaos of combat. Of course, this takes a lot of trust between players, and for them to both be on the same page, which brings me onto the true reason for the divided opinions on rolling/RNG-RP: Combat RP is one of those things that everyone likes to do, but don't put enough work into. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- it's unreasonable to expect people to go deep and research the intricacies of fighting for the sake of playing pretend on the internet; much like how it's unreasonable to expect people to go deep and research the intricacies of mental/physical disorders etc. -- but its necessary to acknowledge/recognise this when talking about the strengths/weaknesses of Combat Resolution Systems in RP, as it highlights the demographic you'll exclude by going one direction or the other. Competent combat is an incredibly technical (but sometimes simple) art that requires an innate, instinctual, subconcious understanding of biomechanics and basic physics to do. There is a huge divide between a trained (MMA, boxer, fencer, etc.) and untrained (average joe bar brawler) fighter, and that divide is the aforementioned technical knowledge; and the nerves/experience to apply it under stress/pressure. Unfortunately, the huge problems are: To the untrained eye, fights are just fights; they can't exactly pick out the technical intricacies of someone's movements/gameplan Nobody gives a shit about how Holly Holm beat the shit out of Ronda Rousey; just that she did Text is an incredibly difficult medium to portray close-combat, when trying to avoid using technical terms (the average RPer would have no idea on what an 'absetzen' is, for example) RP/writing isn't the only artistic medium that's faced these problems. Films have historically been plagued with the issue; which is why you have editors slowing down Bruce Lee's kicks, or shaky-cam-rapid-cuts in the Jason Bourne series. These things are done to give the audience the spectacle and thrill of combat by either (in Bruce Lee's case) making the actions slower/telegraphed and much clearer so that the audience can follow what's going on (see John Wick and the Raid for some kick-ass clarity-of-technique examples); or (in the Bourne series' case) shake the camera, cut rapidly, and end the scene early to obfuscate the technical details, and simply convey the struggle through chaos. The reason I highlight this is because this is the exact situation Combat RP Resolution is in. RPers have to either describe their character's actions in detail, or do it vaguely and let the dice determine success/failure. Doing both at the same time is a nightmare; as they take away each other's strengths as systems. Finally, one thing to consider is that if you try to RP fight without doing any meaningful research, you make your fights look less like this, and more like this.

I honestly love RPing AI. But I never get a chance to these days =( Serious answer: Both. I tend to create female characters as my 'mains', purely because I find it quicker to relate to them; but as a GM, I create a lot of side-characters for my plots/campaigns, and they're coin-toss f/m. I treat them with as much depth as my mains, but I usually don't RP them as much.

I tend to generally agree with this; but I do feel that 'writers' do get often detailed in their character as well. I certainly try to write a character as a character but consider how this individual character will perceive or do something; ie. timeline/teleportation, things that the character might eat- etc. So I tend to think that is more of a thought of someone who generally creates concepts for their character whether it's a writer/rper or an immersion-rper. I feel this can be done without becoming one's character; as it were. I think it's not really a 'you are or you aren't' thing; it's more of a sliding scale. If it were binary, I'd say the distinguishing factor is the immersion-trending RPer's meticulous consideration of their surroundings. The thing to consider though is that it's not really about becoming one's character, but knowing, completely (and I stress completely; or close to it as possible), the context of their actions.

Depends on who you ask, but in general, as an 'immersion-focused' RPer myself, they aren't the same thing, but not mutually exclusive. 'Avatar' RP is pretty much the only standard that exists that 'defines' a 'good' RPer, as from what I understand, it just means that the RPer in question understands and practices the IC/OOC divide. There's honestly absolutely nothing that stops an immersion-focused RPer from doing that, because a focus on immersion is just a different perspective on RP. It's not in the same family as Avatar RP vs Self-insert RP -- it's in the same family/comparison pool as 'Plot-focused' RP or 'Story-driven' or 'Erotic-focused'. An immersion-focused RPer tends to go extremely into the nitty-gritty details of their characters, their mindset, and their actions. They also, but not always, try to consider what other characters and players see; so they tend to avoid including their character's thoughts in their emotes, or use subjective adjectives. This way, they put the onus on the reader to figure out their character's emotions/thoughts through their detailed actions. These details, and the depth of which these players take them, can vary greatly; but they're always usually little things that most RPers and writers tend to gloss over. Things like their character's need to eat, their travel time, the amount of money they have on hand, what exactly they've brought with them, environmental conditions, etc. The reason for this focus on such inane details is that most immersion-RPers like and see potential character development/exploration in these interactions. They like the extra perspective and little nuggets of personality that come from these. This is why, as others in above posts have said, immersion-RPers tend to ignore or not communicate in OOC often -- the entire RP philosophy revolves around going with the flow and taking IC happenings and consequences as purely that -- roleplay. They immerse themselves by paying attention to more than just the surface details, in order to give them their character's perspective, so that they may better understand the character and write them in a more consistent and believable manner. EDIT: This type of RP is honestly very difficult to do in MMOs, which is why it's rare. Most people, upon seeing a fight or a conversation happen, tend to overlook the flow of time in the RP; so you have situations in MMOs where Patron 1 of the Quicksand starts a brawl with Patron 2. One punch is thrown, and then suddenly all 50 people in the bar have crowded around and moved into restrain the brawlers before Patron 2 can respond. Some Immersion RPers will sit and wait for several emotes to pass before reacting, to bypass the RP-time-dilation effect, and staying in accordance to what they call 'timescale'.

Ser Vilette Laurent of Falcon's Nest will be hosting basic lessons on the ~**knightly arte**~ of fencing in order to represent the people of Western Coerthas (and to shill promote her book/treatise)! There will be 4 1-hour lessons from 12PM to 4PM, that will consist of basic techniques, principles, and tactics, as well as a Q&A session. Participants will be provided equipment.

This is a very wholesome character concept. 5/7 with rice

Vilette's the kind of character who I feel deserves a peaceful retirement; especially in the context of Final Fantasy 14. She's already been through so much -- watched the moon fall from the sky, lived through an apocalypse, had her dreams shattered one by one, experienced the horrors of war before adulthood -- and only now, as an adult, and free of her frozen wasteland of a home, things are finally turning on the up and up for her. The character is defined by how hard she works and struggles to find herself, and because of that, I think the most satisfying conclusion for her arcs is to ultimately achieve that. Were the setting/story-I-wished-to-tell more grim and nihilist; sure, I'd kill her off to prove a point -- but as it stands, in the magical world of Hydaelyn, Vilette deserves to end her story as a scarred, yet ultimately wisened woman; living quietly with the man of her dreams, running a fencing guild on work days, and tending to her orchard on her off days.