Kazukata

Kazukata might also be able to lend some help, though he may be the opposite of what you're looking for. Kazukata is very much a "help the realm" type guy, but he's got enough experience and heartbreak under his belt that he goes about it more calmly. He doesn't go around whacking primals, but he does try to do what good he can wherever he can. Also, Doman, lost just about everybody he ever knew, could probably bring the full weight of the world's cruelty home to Tali'ra without turning him into a complete nihilist, though he wouldn't share it too quickly. I don't know if it's the direction you want your character to go, but he'd probably try to nurture Tali'ra's heroic spirit while prepping him for all the dangers and horrors that come with the job.

Did I just hear someone say adventure rp? I think I just heard someone say adventure rp. If that's the case, sign me up! Taverns are (in my mind) a necessary evil, since the world is vast and full of empty space to never run into someone. You need to have some sort of gathering place, but I love the hell out of anything that drags me out of the tavern for more than the standard trading stories over a pint rp. That said, if we're talking world rp, Kasi's ShroudLife linkshell is certainly a good start, since I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet. Outside of that, though, I'm game to hear any ideas anyone's got.

Great! Arietty's our fc leader, so she'll be the one to direct any questions to about that. Other than that, check out our fc page, fill out an application, and we'll go from there. As for Ehmra, yeah, I had similar thoughts. Add me in-game or send me a pm and we can get that one rolling.

A nerd!? Our FC needs more nerds! I'm part of Azeyma's Oath, a group of adventurous treasure hunters that go delving for lost artifacts, study the good ones, and lock away the bad stuff. I don't know how into ancient artifacts Ysolda would be, but we're always on the lookout for more people to poke at the stuff we dig up (and, of course, go out into the field and identify the stuff in the first place). If you're interested but also wanted to send a different character our way, we also accept brawn to guard the bookies while they poke around ruins for artifacts. Outside of that, I'm always happy to make more connections for my character Kazukata. He'd probably see some of his younger self in Ehmra and could click with her. Give Kazu's wiki page a looksie below and tell me if there are any hooks there that interest you. You also might want to look into the ShroudLife linkshell. It's a linkshell for characters that tend to wander the wilds/travel the roads. You can organize some good world rp through that. Kasi (who runs it) will doubtless be around soon enough to pitch that.

Building on this, I'm fond of the saying that "you need to know the rules before you can break them." Nothing, art least of all, is created in a vacuum, and even if you try to actively break from archetypes, you'll still inevitably end up playing into one to some degree. I find starting with an archetype as a rough skeleton is a perfectly acceptable, if not desirable, course. As you put some meat on the bones, you find inspiration and follow ideas to their logical conclusions, and the archetype gets tweaked, added to, and taken away from until eventually it isn't really recognizable. Then, bam, you get a character in the vein of what Gegenji's talking about.

The best I can think of is Emperor Xande in Syrcus Tower, but I'm afraid I don't know the details of his longevity/resurrection. It's been a long time sine I did the quest, but iirc, he's an Allagan emperor resurrected in the Crystal Tower, so -somebody- has the ability to do it. That said, you'd be intertwining your backstory with godlike characters, which comes with its own hazards. You might be able to produce something interesting, though.

Here's hoping. Otherwise, my options are to A. have my character go to Doma and never leave, likely hamstringing rp opportunities, B. have my character never go back to a country he fought two wars to protect for...reasons? or C. just ignore the distance and have him be wherever he needs to be by...some means I'm never going to lay out. So basically C. That said, I'm fully expecting some aethernet shenanigans at the very least just as a practicality to keep the MSQ plot moving along, and that'll probably just have to be good enough.

More than anything, I'm trying to wrap my head around the scale of distance and how that's going to affect rp. Admittedly, the idea of teleporting literally halfway around the world to go rp somewhere else boggles my mind more than a little bit, assuming the Aethernet works like that, but the alternative of anyone in Doma being ICly isolated from the rest of the server by a month-long boat ride kind of makes it a necessary handwave. Going from Doma to Ul'dah just to get a pint at the Quicksand just feels...way too casual a use for something as momentously powerful as teleporting halfway around the world, when there's probably a perfectly fine bar down the street back in Doma. But again, gonna have to just handwave it away for the sake of the rp.

Hey, I've got a character born in an unspecified town in Doma's mountains! Kazukata would've been leaving his hometown around the time Natsumi was born, so it's unlikely they would know each other personally, but it's entirely possible he's heard of the family's inn or even known her parents. It could be an interesting hook to draw him in if he recognizes the name and gets curious, particularly since he knows Hikari and she could easily drop the name of the inn in conversation... But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Regardless, I'm sure I can give him an excuse to end up in Thanalan at Natsumi's door if you want another Doman contact. Check out his wiki in my signature and see if anything in there piques your interest.

I get what you mean about not wanting to talk to people because your character has no motivation to do so. I used to do this a lot as well. After all, it's more polite to just not bother random strangers around you with small talk, and I, at the very least, usually imprint that social rule on whatever universes I'm rping in, as well. But rp walk-ups are kind of like jumping into a random beach volleyball game on vacation. Yeah, they're all strangers. Yeah, it might be a little awkward at first. But you're all there to have fun, and there's a 90% chance they'll let you play. So my OOC advice is to just not sweat it too much. It's probably not the most heartening advice, but it's a lot easier to follow once you realize that if someone didn't want to ever meet new people, they'd go rp in their private apartment instead of the Quicksand As for your character's introvertedness, I've got two suggestions for getting around that. I think your best shot is to make a thread in the Making Connections subforum. Doing that lets you connect with other players OOCly first, then figure out the IC details, which sounds like exactly what you're looking for. Look at a few examples in there to see what I'm talking about. Throw up a thread describing your character and see what you can reel in. Look around that forum at other threads and see if you find any other interesting characters that speak to you. Chances are you'll start running into people that have things in common with your character or present an interesting dynamic. And once you figure out OOCly who you're interested in rping with, you can go about coordinating meeting them and can get as in-depth as you want as to the why and how you're having that initial conversation. And from there, it works like normal socializing. You meet friends of friends and so on. For walk-ups, if you choose to engage in them, I'd recommend the most simple motivation you can possibly give your character: they don't have anything else to do and need to pass the time. If the alternative is to stare at the wall and watch paint dry, it's entirely reasonable to end up conversing with your neighbors, particularly if you're sitting next to each other at a bar or some other social gathering. Granted, your character may be the type to just happen to have a book in their pocket to read instead, and if that's how you want to play it, more power to you, but it's a no muss, no fuss solution that can break you into a lot of situations if you're willing to go with it. And it's always possible to overhear some tidbit that piques your character's interest (though by no means guaranteed), and then you have an in. With your FC mates, I'd say you have a similarly easy in: you're basically co-workers. Sure, your character might not care about their problems or whatever grand, world-saving quest they're in the middle of right away, but there's plenty of opportunity for small talk. I'll admit I don't know how your FC is run, but I imagine there's still rp on the nights between the big plot events, and that's a good opportunity to get your foot in the door. But, if this single, big plotline is absolutely the only thing going on and your character isn't invested, then it might unfortunately be time to move on to a new FC. If you've spent years of your time and still don't feel comfortable or like you fit in, it's probably not going to get better. We've got a subforum for Free Companies, too. I can almost guarantee you can find something there to pique both your and your character's interest, and if your character's interested, well, then, they have a reason to get involved and start socializing, don't they? Most FCs also have a theme or mission statement that usually binds them all together. Whether it's a free company that's gathering a particular race of people together or an adventuring guild on a mission, you're all there either because you have the same goal or you're seeking a home with likeminded individuals, and that's plenty of motivation to at least be curious about the people your character is working/living alongside every day. I know that ended up a lot, but I hope something in there helps! Shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

Hey Wymar, welcome aboard! I'd agree with the others and say you just had a rough start and it's about to get a lot better. I used the RPC as a springboard to dive into the rp community here, and I can honestly say after getting to know some of the people here that out of a half dozen MMOs I've rped in, FFXIV has by far been the best experience I've had. You're in good hands. I definitely second the recommendation to jump into a making connections thread when you get a chance. And don't be shy about responding to other people's threads if something really catches your eye.

Well, outside of the low-hanging arrow to the knee joke, I've noticed that a lot of people don't treat healing as a magical cure-all for all your problems. There's a bit of leeway to say that your character was injured so grievously that even after getting healed, their leg still doesn't work quite right, or they just didn't have access to a healer at the time and it had to heal naturally. If it's your backstory, you've got plenty of wiggle room. As for the injury itself, I'm not a huge expert on niggling injuries, but maybe focus on nerve damage? Certainly, I think a bad burn could accomplish that.

I'll freely admit that my character's backstory literally could not work if I didn't use rl days to measure time, so my stance should be pretty clear. :lol: In rl time, the patch that introduced the first Doman refugees was, what, three years ago, now? But in the lore time bubble, it's been a matter of months. Long story short, Kazu's backstory has him come to Eorzea with the first refugees, turn into a complete depressed alcoholic wreck, then over time slowly recover and become a more hopeful individual with a new lease on life. That's just not the kind of character development you can have happen in a few months. Honestly, though, I'm kind of surprised to learn that so little time has passed in the lore. Nevermind the fact that that means the WoL is almost killing Primals on a weekly basis, can you imagine the ridiculous levels of strain this puts on the City States? Their militaries must be on the verge of buckling with all the shit they have to deal with going on in Eorzea, particularly Ishgard's. I get that a lot of the damage is mitigated by the WoL, but it's still a miracle they have any troops to commit to Ala Mhigo at all as I assume they eventually will. And let's not even get into the state of the crystal industry with how often stolen shipments were used to hand wave the Primal summoning of the week in 2.0. The whole market must be crashing at this point.

Well, there was the Stone Vigil run I ended up on with an ilvl 15 tank. Even more bizarre, they didn't seem to have their normal leveling gear anywhere on them. After getting nearly instagibbed and wiping us twice, they slunk off. Party Finder took pity on us and gave us an ilvl 260 tank after that. Stark contrast. Then there was the Dun Scaith run my poor tank friend's UI wigged out on. Any and all text just up and vanished for him the second combat started, boss attacks included. We survived the run just fine, but the poor guy couldn't even read all the angry messages the other tanks were flinging his way in alliance chat.

My, we've got a small tribe of Domans in here. I am, of course, also interested in meeting any and all of the other Domans in here. Hell, could even have a small get-together if we wanted.

Considering the specific "desperate and shady for the coin" subset of criminality, Ala Mhigans are the ones who most "stereotypically" fit the bill (or so in-game cultural/racial biases would have you believe), but the various races are really open-ended in what they allow, and even within each race, there are numerous different nationalities and cultures that would change your character's backstory (such as, for example, Ala Mhigo). Any can fulfill what you're looking for in some fashion or another. You could be a Miqo'te who left their tribe and couldn't make it in a city-based society, or a pirate who didn't get with the changing times and lost everything fighting against Limsa Lominsa. You could even be an Ul'dahn Dunesfolk Lalafell merchant baron who's fallen from grace and been stripped of riches, reduced to petty crime. Hell, you could be that same merchant baron without even being a Lalafell. The ways your character could find themself bankrupt and turning towards crime are many, so I'd focus on picking a race you like for that race's flavor first, then figure out how you want to make them poor and desperate. Look at some of the other aspects of the races (Miqo'te clan structure, Au Ra's far eastern lore, etc.) and see which race's quirks speak to you. Once you've gotten that far, you'll probably have some inspiration working inside that racial framework of what you want to do for a backstory to make your criminal tick. The one direction I would nudge you in is the city of Ul'dah. The city's overrun by more refugees and impoverished individuals than the government knows what to do with, and, as already mentioned, the city has extremely sharp divides in social class based on wealth. Desperate petty criminals like you're looking to make are a dime a dozen there, so you'd fit right in, though you could likely find circumstances to also place your character elsewhere if the city's lore isn't to your liking.

Hey, fellow Doman, checking in! Kazu's a veteran soldier who fought against the Garleans both during the initial conquest and the revolt, and he, too, lost pretty much everyone he knew, including his wife. Between lost love and their shared...distaste...for Garlemald, they'd probably have quite a lot to commiserate about. Kazu's mostly based out of Gridania, but he is a wandering adventurer, so he could technically pop up anywhere.

But what if it's Al'Kohawl, stout Primal of Beer and Spirits? Called by the patrons' desire for a cheap drink? Then I think we'd see the death squads roll in to quietly dispose of an entire bar of tempered patrons. Not a good look.

Most arguments that I could contribute have already been made. Personally, I'm conflicted on the issue, because on the one hand, I firmly believe in the improv comedy "yes, and..." rule, but on the other hand, there's a lot of baggage, much of it already being explored in this thread, to navigate. One thing no one has mentioned is a gentler version of the "you must be crazy" method. You don't necessarily have to go so far as to call someone out as a raving lunatic. It's possible to just have your character openly disbelieve whoever's playing the NPC, thinking they're either a good impressionist or just stubbornly refusing to believe that they'd ever experience the equivalent of running into Johnny Depp at a coffee shop. If that's as far as you push it, you get a sort of Schrodinger's NPC situation. They could be the NPC, they could not. It doesn't matter either way, because you don't believe them. And on the other side, it doesn't matter whether you belief or not, because beliefs can contradict factual reality. This way, you dodge the uncomfortable "becoming besties with Minfilia" situation without directly contradicting their rp. Both players' "realities" can coexist long enough to get through one or two rp sessions, and after that, you just don't need to involve yourself in longterm rp with that player. Of course, if players begin doing things like using their power to suddenly siccing an entire squad of soldiers on you or branding you a criminal, that starts approaching "sir, you're doing things to my character that I don't approve of, please stop" territory, and likely where I would start drawing a hard line, especially if it's walk-up rp with someone I'm not familiar with. Those are consequences that reach far farther than that one-off rp ever will, and the non-npc player is likely going to have to play them out on their own. That said, if I ever saw a bleeding Primal walk into the Quicksand, I might take umbrage, as that goes so completely against established Primal behavior (not to mention raise serious questions abut the efficacy of Ul'dah's guards) that it becomes lore breaking.

Ooh, another Doman! Kazukata could use a few more people to butt heads with, and it looks like they'd definitely have plenty of reason to dislike each other, particularly if Itumi is one of the traitor shinobi (which I'm getting the vibe she is?) Kazu's a Doman footsoldier that fought two wars against Garlemald and now runs around trying to "make a difference" in Eorzea. He and Itumi sound pretty antithetical to each other, so seeing them interact could be interesting. I'm not sure exactly how the two would be able to stand each other long enough to stay in the same room for five minutes (always tricky, that), but if you get mixed up with the Coven, you're bound to run into Kazu. Poor guy's a goody-two-shoes that doesn't realize he's drinking in a den of thieves.

Aegir plz [align=center][/align] Needs more magitek rockets. 5/10, would not beat a carbuncle in a fight.

I don't wander in here that often, so someone might have already mentioned this... But how 'bout that update to Crypt of the Necrodancer? [video=youtube] Because of course the game's newest boss gets a rap battle for his song. The lyrics are corny as hell, but that's what a rap battle's all about, in a way.

I'd say that's definitely a good takeaway. Heck, some people are even fine with posts that are pure dialog, though I personally really like having accompanying emotes to catch those things like body posture and a person's expressions. From the sound of it, you put in enough thought and care that I don't think a lack of detail will be much of a concern.

I'm going to echo a lot of what Virella said. By and large, people keep their characters' internal thoughts to themselves since others can't just read their minds and know what they're thinking. It's much better to, as Virella mentioned, use your character's actions to show how the character is feeling, rather than just telling. This could be as simple as using -ly adverbs, but sometimes I do find myself clarifying or summarizing a character's disposition when it's the result of multiple motions or expressions (e.g. "John folded his arms and gave Jane a flat stare, clearly not believing her." "Lara sat quietly and got a distant look in her eyes, the gears in her head clearly turning as she processed the information.") I also usually just say something along the lines of "gave such-and-such an incredulous look" instead of going through the long form of all the different visual cues (motion in the eyebrows, staring, leaning in a bit, maybe a slightly slack jaw) that would create that effect. Sometimes, I'll have one, maybe two of those cues, but never the whole shebang. Outright using thought like internal speech, however, isn't very fruitful, as no one else can hear you think and they have no way of reacting to it. At best, people might view it as a flowery and unnecessary addition in a medium that's usually concerned with space constraints, and at worst, you're opening the door for someone to magically know things they shouldn't or running the risk of someone forgetting two months down the line that you only thought that super incriminating thing about yourself and didn't say it. Any internal thoughts you write essentially become OOC knowledge that needs to be kept separate from what the characters know, and they come with all the same baggage. Anyway, that got a little soap box-y, but I hope that helps!

I'm on central time, but if you're interested in rping, you'd be able to catch me on the weekends. I'm seeing a lot of interesting parallels between Eli and my character, Kazukata, particularly in the dreams and aspirations department. Kazu could use someone who could show him the ropes of the Twelveswood, particularly what does and doesn't count as poaching, since he's also a former hunter.