Researching your RP: Clever Subtitle

[Hyrist]

That's, a difficult question to ask.

There's a variety of sources have and continue to research from ,but mainly comes from a variety of knowledge in fiction writing, tabletop roleplaying games and, more and more lately, researching online.

 

This is backed up by what is nearing to be twenty years of roleplay experience in open RP settings, hitting a fairly broad range of subjects.

 

For me, more or less there's a process. It starts with inspiration, a drive to play a certain theme. This is followed by a touch of brainstorming to get the general idea of what I want to relay out in the plot.

 

Then there's Lore research - figure out where I'm breaking or bending Lore and make adjustments to make it believable, even if it goes against some established conventions (This is easier with FFXIV as they commonly break their own lore rules.) What I'm looking for more in my lore research is proof of concept - can it exist in the world?

 

Then it comes down to refinement of execution. These are the moment to moment posts of situations scenes, etc that need to be displayed accurately. Fight scenes are somewhat easier for me as I've been writing and dealing with various 'mechanics' for them for years and have some experience in live sword-fighting to help with some work. Other than that it's practice, if I find myself in a catch, I watch/read something of a similar subject of what I'm doing and let the input start to sort out ideas.

 

Needless to say this is a long process and it is not done all at once or all the time, I tend to build my plots pretty far in advance (which can mean they fall apart and I have to improvise but Ceste La Vi). However it is nice to have a routine to work when when you got the time or are suffering from writer's block.

 

Trade secret, also listen to a wide variety of music. A lot of movies, show, and film tend to use music as a way of controlling emotion and inspiration, and listening to music can sometimes trigger inspiration by invoking similar emotions. Something to do if you're looking for ideas or wanting motivation for research.

[Klynzahr]

To help portray my Sea Wolves, I put a ton of research into sailing techniques and terminology. When writing dialog for Dani in particular, I will often keep several wiki pages open, with references to the points of sail, components of rigging, and their relation to the weather conditions. Dani references these concepts quite frequently in her conversation and I enjoy coming up with new 'sayings' for her on the fly.

 

Another area, where I am a little bit over my head is physical combat. For this, I refer primarily to historical novels or sometimes youtube. I also have a great reference person in my fiance, who fenced for years with his local renaissance fair. He's given me a number of solid pointers.

 

Some things that I am familiar with and have utilized are first aid, backpacking and open water swimming. I used to kayak competitively, which invariably leads to being unceremoniously dumped into every kind of lake and river you might imagine. I utilize this when portraying Klyn's love of the ocean and strong swimming abilities. I also keep a mental note of the items packed in my character's kits for long journeys. While I don't mention it in most emotes, I like to know what they would reasonably have on hand.

 

For injuries, first aid, and most healing scenes I am able to rely on my knowledge of wilderness first aid. Although I'm no paramedic, I can generally emote a fairly realistic non-magical response to injuries. I do rely on google to find extra details or information on more complex injuries.

 

.... So in other words, I've had to research all of the same RP points as Sounsyy, with the exception of FFXIV lore itself because I just look at her posts. :roll:

[ArmachiA]

Things I've had to research for Armi:

 

• Being a Nun/Priest: Armi was pretty much a Nun so I had to do a bit of research to see what being a nun is actually like. Did a lot of reading, watched a few documentaries. She was a devout as they came. Now she's an ex-priestess simply because there just wasn't enough lore about the subject ever put into game for me to be comfortable and in 2.0 I pulled her out. However, it's very ingrained in her history.
  
• PTSD - Carteneau did a number on her, so did things that happened in the FC in 2.0. Honestly, if your character if in dark, deep storylines this is pretty much mandatory study.
  
• Musical Theory! Since I planned on making Armi a singer/songwriter (Eventual Eorzean Idol) I actually studied song crafting, lyric writing, and melody composition. The orginal intent was to just write all my own music, but that... was an over shoot. So now I just write lyrics to already established (But not well known) melodies.
  
• How to be shy - I'm not actually a shy person at all, but Armi is. I actually had to study how to do that... and while she's a lot less shy now (More weird) I still have to remember how to play shy.

[Edvyn]

i've been roleplaying mages for ages, and with good reason: i've been fascinated by occultism since i was quite young

 

i have read deep into chaos magic (my main topic of study), thelema, hermeticism, goetia (both medieval and modern), tribal sympathetic magic, a bunch of edgy black magic, a bit of petro voodoo and a heap of other weird shit

 

liber null, liber kaos, the lesser key of solomon, the grimorium verum, the apophenion and the book of saint cyprian all sit on my desk

 

most of this reading comes into my RP wizardry in some form or another

[Caspar]

I just watch lots of kung fu stuff and play lots of fighting games. o3o

 

I've been able to derive some faintly authentic movements from observing exaggerated but derivative forms from various games and works of fiction. They are usually based on some motion or real form that can be observed in action by reverse engineering the kanji name and applying it to Chinese video websites, lol.

 

The characteristics of the "hidden world" of martial artists as they interact with the setting are basically just me trying to fit the Jin Yong Jianghu into Hydaelyn and what I can flex around the existing lore I research on the wiki or through the forum.

 

The most martial arts I ever did was some tai chi and kendo in my college years.

 

If there's something I need to talk about at length, I usually study it on the internet extensively before or during the scene I do it in. Generally, I've fallen on strategic manuals like Book of Five rings to give some of the more esoteric theory involved a more genuine feeling. That's one resource I did actually read before, but I haven't actually used it for this character.

[Khorijin Orben]

Nick uses a happy medium of alchemy/non-magical healing and healing with magic. I don't have a heavy background in medicine, but I did take several anatomy/physiology and biology classes in college when my major was nursing, and I do have training as a first responder, so my RP tends to dabble in all that.

[Kellach Woods]

Last I checked, I'm white as fuck.

 

I also don't do that much research - I use what's in the game and extrapolate from there. I'll do the research when it comes to actual RL stuff, but let's be real here - we're using crystal shards to synthesize stuff together, EVEN IN COOKING.

[Knight Kat]

HEMA videos, other visual material on traditional and contemporary techniques for knives and daggers (there was this one particularly good one that went into how both standard grip and reverse grip are valid, and the relative strengths and weaknesses of each), more material-by-osmosis on various infighting techniques than I can be bothered to remember at the moment... but that's all the physical stuff that I have little to no practical experience in.

 

 

 

EDIT: Others have mentioned that they read a lot. I do, too. Not just fiction, either, but mythology, documentaries, various treatises on a number of different subjects, etc.

 

I do this as well. The only skill Kiht has that I also have IRL is archery. However, she is a better archer as I only shoot at static targets.

 

I have researched pole-arm combat, knife-fighting, scouting and hunting for Kiht. But I do none of those IRL. I have done no research on leather-working or woodcraft.

 

Any other skills Kiht has, she and I learned in-game. Leadership is a good example of a skill I learned and improve upon with the help of RP and FC/LS organizing.

[Berrod Armstrong]

The only real research I did outside of lore stuff was on different martial arts and the seven chakras. I have enough daddy issues to play Berrod without needing to refer to much else.

[Marisa]

I don't think I've ever done any research specifically for my Final Fantasy character other than reading the FF wiki. However, I have done some very extensive research on the history of, and daily life in, the Holy Reich. I'm a bit of a history buff, but I mainly focus on a few very specific areas, that being one of them. Now, what I do for FFXIV, is I take what I learn from the FF wiki, basically overlay that with information about middle and late-period Germany, and decide from there how things are supposed to work.  

Fortunately, Ryoko's really only got two things going on: living in Ishgard, and worshipping in Ishgard, both of which align very closely to the history of the Holy Roman Empire, especially in the Nordlands.

[cuideag]

I hand wave A LOT of things. I've never fought a soul in my life and goodness knows I would probably kill myself trying to smelt metals. I'm also incredibly bad at studying things. Tried to do some research into tarot and haruspicy once but it all just kind of flew over my head.

[Edvyn]

I hand wave A LOT of things. I've never fought a soul in my life and goodness knows I would probably kill myself trying to smelt metals. I'm also incredibly bad at studying things. Tried to do some research into tarot and haruspicy once but it all just kind of flew over my head.

tarot's way easier than it first appears, you just gotta pick up the "meanings" of the cards then you learn to make shit up on the spot when you do readings for people

 

think of it less as a magical exercise and more a literary one

 

picking up cold reading/hot reading techniques helps too, there's a lot of guessing involved in tarot

 

haruspicy is a little harder to understand because it's an ancient thing that's more or less fallen out of practice, it's fairly well-documented though - history books are your friend

 

all methods of divination function more or less on the same principles anyway, the only difference is in the physical medium used - fire, birds, guts, cards, bones, weather, etc.

 

learn one method and you've learnt 'em all

[ChewableMorphine]

[align=center]Disclaimer: Lack of knowledge regarding your character or specific fantasy intricacy, be it lore, weapon ballistics, whatever the hell wootz is made out of, 'unique' armors (AF gear, primal gear); is ok, and anybody who thinks it's cool to be a shit and point it out is not a good time. Enjoy your damn RP and have some leniency toward your partner, they may not know as much as you, and that's okay.[/align]

 

Anyways, I recommend the magical power of google.

 

"Synonyms for strike"

 

Google's got that shit covered.

 

"Common medieval armor material"

 

Got it yo.

 

"Cockney slang. Old English insults."

 

Shit's got it's own website.

 

Have that tab ready to alt-tab to any time whenever you need something known and quick. Being a human thesaurus helps when it comes to adjectives.

 

Now from an anecdotal perspective:

 

When it comes to RPing combat, which I adore, I use maneuvers I picked up from other games! They're usually general terms, like a belly-to-belly suplex or short hook, rabbit punch even. If it's generally accepted to be popular, spouting shit like Zandatsu or Double Dempsey Roll may garner a laugh or two. Hell, using in-game attacks helps a TON, you know exactly what it looks like, has a name familiar to pretty much anybody in game, and with that be able to describe the motion in your emote.

 

Imo, the key is just to be able to describe in a short sentence whatever the hell you're doing, basic anatomy and knowledge regarding motions are a nice thing to have. 

 

Describing weapons? Stare at that shit, memorize it's animations if it has any, think of a color other than 'purple' for you carnage blade RPer's. There's nothing wrong with personalizing it if it's subtle. I for one use Wootz daggers when I RP, I don't call them an ancient Allagan design, but I do play on the fact it's forked, gold, and has wicked glowy shit on it. So I link that up with my Ironworks gauntlets as if they worked in tandem, where I like to believe that the Ironworks gear are mechanized and have augmenting properties to them hell, they're even called Augmented Ironworks, though it refers to the item itself and not the wielder.

 

Mailbreaker, a weapon I never used before, I know it spins, likely made of tampered steel and brass parts. Grip is likely leather, blade stands at maybe 4'10'' from the hilt on a Hyur. Factor in that moving parts = fragility in prolonged use and you have yourself a solid weapon to RP with, knowing it's weaknesses and strengths. 

 

Yeah that's my two cents.

[Zhavi]

I love research. I spent a couple months on and off reading/watching documentaries on gangs and the various ways people interact with that kinda ... thing. I've lived most of my life in a place where there was a gang-related incident exactly once, and all other criminal activity is not in the least organized. Or it's corporate stuff, lulz.

 

For fightery stuff, I've read testimonials, watched fighting videos with people who were actually familiar with it and could explain shit to me, and talked to a couple amateur/semi-pro mma fighters (my favorite stories were when he had his retina detached during a fight, and what it felt like to piss blood after someone got in a good hit on his kidneys). STILL NOT VERY GOOD AT WRITING IT, THOUGH. (which is why I tend to make characters who aren't very good at fighting)

 

The rest is more just general knowledge or common sense (though I'm sure I still do a bajillion things wrong or in a way that wouldn't make sense to someone, but hey, it's a learning process!).

 

To me, it makes your writing --rp or otherwise-- feel way more visceral and real (and as a result, interesting). It's not always necessary, as common sense will go a long, long way, but to me it's what makes the rp more enjoyable.

[Steel Wolf]

I actually did do a fair bit of research about smithing techniques and armor manufacture when I thought up Steel, just in case I was pressed in to further details during RP.

 

It all was for nothing, as she's yet to really be tested in that avenue, and most of her RP has been about her combat abilities and gaining power, which is more a narrative thing than something that can be researched.

 

Still made for interesting reading though....

 

As for my real-world skills...well, being a call center cubicle monkey isn't exactly something one can interject in a world of adventure, though I have found my customer service skills bleed in to when I do waitressing stuff with Cliaux.

[MadWater]

My character's background limits her (mostly) to skills that can be acquired solely through reading. I picked her primary area of interest and knowledge to be mathematics and physical sciences. I did that because that's what I do. I'm currently working on an engineering degree, and I spent my time in the navy as a nuclear reactor operator. My goal is to infuse just enough real world physics and math into my RP to give it some good flavor. A long term arc I want to start working on would be Brave designing her "Iron Maiden" suit which is a suit of armor modified with magitek to make powered armor. If you've seen the exo suits from CoD Advanced Warfare, it would look similar to that, as those suits are based on real world concepts. Luckily in this setting, I can throw in just enough "it's magic, bruh" to make things work. She will have to collaborate with other characters for the smithing and machining required.

 

As far as combat, I've looked into sword fighting a little bit to add some good flavor to Brave's fights, but usually I just make shit up that makes sense to me.

 

I keep using the word "flavor" because I feel that's what OOC research lends to RP. You can do perfectly good, functional roleplay based on common sense, but those bits of reality folded in make things nice and tasty.