What have YOU done to spread RP to places not Ul'Dah?

[OttoVann]

A lot of us, though not everyone, laments how other city-states have relatively dead RP in them. Whether its simple tavern-rp stuff or something more, Ul'Dah dominates the RP scene handily. This isn't really a bad thing, but variety is also not a bad thing. A lot of us have echoed similar thoughts in the vein of "I with there was more of a hub than just the Quicksand."

 

So, well, what have you done to fix this? I'll tell you what I did the other day, my own drop to add to the bucket.

 

About a week or so ago I just randomly sat at my desk and said "Fuck it, I'm going to TP to Gridania right now and if there is anyone IC inside the tavern Im going to rp with them." And I did. Lucky for me it was a fem-elezen who was rather interesting. In fact, she possesses a lot of IC talents and ideas that are very useful to Ottos materia and aether research (which you can find here http://ffxiv-roleplayers.com/showthread.php?tid=11359&pid=184119#pid184119). Now, I know that's not much, one guy roleplaying with some random chick once in Gridania won't do much, but thats what I've done so far at least to help out Gridania's rp scene. I've also just been asking people who I have scheduled RP with if they care for a change of scenery, but thats less spontaneous of course and more akin to a hair transplant versus organic growth by interacting with someone already there. Still, I'm doing something about it. Not much, and it wont change anything on its own.

 

So, what have others here done to help out Limsa, and Gridania, and perhaps to a lesser extent Mor Dhona?

[Darien Cadell]

I'm always a little amused by this topic, because I see RP in Gridania and Limsa constantly. I'm always cheapskating the airship to Gridania and see RP as I pass through the guild. And every time I'm popping in the Bismarck for ingredients, there's people RPing there. I suppose it's never the Quicksand's level of ridiculous constant crowd, but I see people in the other cities roleplaying all the time. All the time.

 

As for me? I've done nothing. Except the occasional nod in passing perhaps. But it's not because I'm in the Quicksand. I'm not there either. But I say good on all you Ottos out there doing your thing in places outside the usual crowd. Might be nobody else sees you, but I see you. Keep on keeping on.

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

i have clio in limsa quite a bit actually ic usually for picking up parts and such or just on "day off". i'd say time there is about 35% of rp i do and the rest is ul'dah heavy but so's her story (flame and all o3o ) i also try to have things happen outside of those areas as well. usually i will figure some sort of ic reason for her to be out somewhere odd....if it's an event i see and want to go to; easy enough reason is she picked up a flyer randomly if no one she knows previously told her it was going on. ;3 if it's meeting someone for some rp that sometimes requires a bit more thought if it's a "bump into" instance.

[OttoVann]

I'm always a little amused by this topic, because I see RP in Gridania and Limsa constantly. I'm always cheapskating the airship to Gridania and see RP as I pass through the guild. And every time I'm popping in the Bismarck for ingredients, there's people RPing there. I suppose it's never the Quicksand's level of ridiculous constant crowd, but I see people in the other cities roleplaying all the time. All the time.

 

As for me? I've done nothing. Except the occasional nod in passing perhaps. But it's not because I'm in the Quicksand. I'm not there either. But I say good on all you Ottos out there doing your thing in places outside the usual crowd. Might be nobody else sees you, but I see you. Keep on keeping on.

 

This is true, the Bismarck will usually, during peak hours only, have a couple or more there doing their thing. But its not always populated. Ive been on Balmung during non-peak hours a lot lately, the cities, from what I can see, are ghost-towns except for Ul'Dah.

[Erik Mynhier]

I make it a point to take all fc rp and personal rp outside the goblet/ul'dah excet for lunch rp with clio. Tavern is always qs fun.

[Nebbs]

I avoid Ul'dah, especially Quicksand unless things are very thin and I can't face another craft. In fact I tend to avoid the cities for RP and base thing out there is wilderness land.

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

I make it a point to take all fc rp and personal rp outside the goblet/ul'dah excet for lunch rp with clio. Tavern is always qs fun.

 

that we seemingly never get to eat and enjoy for one reason or another. *threatens to smash both pearls with her hammer* ;p

[Melkire]

I make a point of roleplaying where roleplay makes sense for the given characters at any given point in their arcs. If that means RPing in Ul'dah, or at Final Prayer in Eastern Thanalan, or traveling to the Shroud, or swinging by Lavender Beds while I'm there, or hopping on a ferry to Limsa Lominsa, I do it.

 

When a scene isn't necessarily best had in a given location (i.e. I can justify why character X can be in location Y at time Z), I try to push for locales that aren't often used. Spent some time in the Carline Canopy a couple months back (I need to reignite that plotline, it got dropped when my laptop died), and while that was a nice change of scenery, I could do far more and I'm planning to. Wolves' Den. God damn it, I love that place. Hell, if I'm out of the housing wards, I usually end up spending more one-on-one RP time outside of Thanalan than in. Vylbrand / La Noscea is my favorite (soooo many underused places, like Skylift) but I'll go for just about anything, really.

 

Slight disclaimer for those who go "wait what?" Osric is not my only character.

[Reshie]

Our FC is a tavern located in the Lavender Beds. We try to have a monthly event to let everyone know we're out there as well as invite our "regulars" to a LS so they can ask if we're around if they don't want to just wander in and RP with an NPC until someone gets there. We tend to have our own members as well as regulars show up in the evenings to RP throughout the week. People are more than welcome to come by. In fact, Clio is holding her Drinking Contest there on the 29th!

 

Wanderer's Lantern

Lavender Beds

Ward 1

Plot 38

[Chris Ganale]

I moved Chao out of the QS and into Limsa area a few months ago, but honestly I haven't actually made it any better because now she only hangs out at USH. That'll change, soon-ish, though, when I get her into the Dark Magic II arc.

 

The others don't even really go to Ul'dah. Ganale has a few loose ends to tie up concerning the 2.55 stuff, but that's it. I honestly just need to get out more and play on everyone.

 

Our FC is a tavern located in the Lavender Beds. We try to have a monthly event to let everyone know we're out there as well as invite our "regulars" to a LS so they can ask if we're around if they don't want to just wander in and RP with an NPC until someone gets there. We tend to have our own members as well as regulars show up in the evenings to RP throughout the week. People are more than welcome to come by. In fact, Clio is holding her Drinking Contest there on the 29th!

 

Wanderer's Lantern

Lavender Beds

Ward 1

Plot 38

 

Our FC house, too, is a tavern that is depressingly barren most of the time. While mostly you'll see us standing around goofing off on the entry arch or on the roof (DRGs ftw), we're all willing to stop being derps and start RPing if anybody were to come by looking for that.

 

Hell, you want to meet with any character of mine other than Chao (or Ghost), the tavern is where you can 100% guarantee that they'll be at any given time. We are:

 

The Oak Inn

Lavender Beds

Ward 6

Plot 16

[C'kayah Polaali]

I RP with various allies, rivals, lawmen, customers, and the like all across Eorzea. I tend to avoid Gridania for IC reasons, and Tylwyth Narah doesn't have a particularly big presence in Limsa, but I do RP out in the sticks all over the place.

[Dasair]

I avoid Ul'dah, especially Quicksand unless things are very thin and I can't face another craft. In fact I tend to avoid the cities for RP and base thing out there is wilderness land.

 

Basically this. I've not been RPing a whole lot lately, (due to life and crazy alt leveling) but I think I've only RP'd in Ul'dah three times ever.

 

Otherwise, my character will be out in the world somewhere. I've had RPs trying to get out of a sandstorm in Thanalan and going to some ruins for 'safety', up high on The Eyes in La Noscea, had an IC run through Wanderer's Palace, took a trip to the Ruins of Nym, nerdy wandering around Camp Bronzelake, some times looking for crystals at the Burning Wall, a number of rps exploring all manner of places in the Shroud, rp'd a few times nervously wandering around Limsa, an instance of getting sick in Mor Dhona, and being brought to a safehouse in Coerthas. And then there were the times where rituals are held in a cave, or things happened in the bookstore my character works at. And so on, and so forth.

 

... Basically, when I RP, just about everything happens outside of Ul'dah; there is so much more that my nervous nerd finds faaar more interesting than a crowded, noisy city.

[Marisa]

Parked myself in Camp Dragonhead several weeks ago. I'll go anywhere in Coerthas, but I will not be IC outside of the borders of Ishgard. 

 

Frankly, I kinda hate RPing in Ul'dah. Too crowded and nobody's really doing anything other than talking.

[Candor]

I've always thought this was a problem, and I've been with Balmung since the game's launch. After seeing that no one else was going to break the trend, I decided to do it myself by working very hard to bring attention to Limsa Lominsa - the city with the most RP potential, in my opinion. So, I did quite a bit to get people out of Ul'dah.

 

I started with this thread: Which City is Your Flavor? It was just the beginning stage to build attention.

 

Then I moved onto this thread: Limsa Lominsa: A City Reborn which detailed my plan out so that others could see exactly what I was trying to do and get on board.

 

From there I established a Limsa Lominsan LS called Lominsan Society. It reached upwards of 70+ people at its peek.

 

And finally, to bring it all together, I started this thread: Limsa Lominsa Character Directory.

 

Of all of them, only the final thread there survived. Though, for a short while, there was quite a burst in Limsa Lominsa RP. Then it fizzled, to my great regret.

 

Now I'm preparing to do the same for Coerthas and Ishgard, but rather than a serv-wide effort, I'm making it a free company. That can be found here at An Ishgard Project.

 

What I learned during my Lominsa effort was that ultimately people will go where it's easiest to find RP, and for some reason that's the Quicksand on Balmung. It would take a great deal of trying to break the pattern. Believe me, I've tried.

[TheLastCandle]

I often see (and occasionally participate in) tavern RP in the Canopy in Gridania these days . It doesn't quite have the hustle and bustle of the Quicksand, but I consider that a plus.

[Maril]

My characters are all based in Ul'dah, but I frequently get to other parts of the world too. I've been helping out with JH-RP's seaside bar events north of Costa, and sometimes my RP takes me to Limsa for example, where I was just yesterday on an alt. I actually also frequently see RP going on in Gridania, when I have been questing around the adventurers guild there's usually always rp'ers in there. I can't help but feel that this might just come down to people never being in the right place at the right time, but run about missing each other.

 

But honestly I don't really see what the problem is with having one city state that is popular, from what I can see there's a number of events in other places, like lavender beds/camp bronze lake. There's also FC's that base themselves off of gridania and limsa. I don't really understand why there's such a strong need to have something going on in a different place just because one place is too popular or too used, I get that you can get sick of being constantly in one place but you can remedy that by taking your character on a trip (One of the reasons why I love not having a house in Mists is that going to the beach -always- seems exotic when it's not right outside your door). Get a few FC mates/Friends involved, find a reason.

Not to mention that Limsa actually was once far more popular, at least from my view, around six or so months after launch - I remember that because my FC took a turn where Ul'dah was the better IC option for it to be in, and Ul'dah was very hard to find RP in at any point in the day/night at that time. We may just have been unlucky, I suppose. And so what if everyone suddenly flocks to Limsa? You'll just have the Quicksand in Limsa, and that wont really change the fact that people like to stand about and talk. If you need peace and quiet, Ul'dah has a second tavern up at the airship, Limsa has the missing member and I'm sure Gridania has a couple of nooks where people don't usually go. But even more so, the world is riddled with taverns and awesome RP spots.

 

I'm going to continue to RP my characters where it makes sense for them to be, where-ever that may be. They can all travel with short notice, something I as a player have made sure of because I like to be able to jump on opportunities.

[DeletedUser]

All my characters and my FC are based in or around Limsa so I actually only RP in Ul'dah if there's an event there. We run the Sunny Seaside Bar in Costa (thank you Nailah for helping out!) and one of our goals when setting it up was to encourage people to RP out in the world. We also go to the Missing Member in Limsa every Monday and, whilst it tends to be just us there, we've run into strangers occasionally and had some fun RP with them too.

[Tali]

As Nailah touched 'pon above, we host a fortnightly realm-wide bar over in Costa, which gets a nice turnout every time.  Additionally, every Monday we have a FC get together in the Missing Member, just across the ways from the Wench, which is also open to just about anyone who wants to stop by and get in some RP.

 

Nearly all of J&H's RP events, with the exception of the last, have been out in the world, and we've bumped into wild RPers on a regular basis doing this, and all has been amazing!

 

Is this done because we want to start a new RP hub?  No, that would be a fruitless effort attempted many times by many people.  To steal some of that RP away from Ul'dah?  Nope, again, not going to happen.  Too many people are too invested in Ul'dah to be easily diverted away, and with Heavensward around the corner, it'd be a pointless endeavour now more than ever.  If the main RP hub is ever going to change of its own accord now, it'll be 'cause of Heavensward offering a better alternative/setting/insert other reasons.

 

However, we're a Limsan-based FC and it makes sense for us to be around La Noscea, and around La Noscea we shall remain!  If you're looking for RP outside of Ul'dah, and you see a Jackal that isn't crafting, or looking like they're about to head out on a gathering expedition, prod them.  We loves our RP, we does! :3

[Kellach Woods]

I RP not in Ul'dah.

 

Next question.

[Khadan]

I RP not in Ul'dah.

 

Next question.

 

^^^

[D'aito Kuji]

I tend to RP all over the realm, depending on whether or not I'm concentrating on leveling.

 

I've only RP'd a few times in Ul'Dah and that had more to do with unexpectedly running into a IRL friend's character.

 

But one thing I enjoy doing is RP'ing with NPCs in open chat.  This has got the attention of more than a few people.  I have got some crit from it, not everyone is pleased by having a RP'er around, especially outside of the "correct" areas.  Chatting aloud with NPCs is also just a fun way to stretch my imagination even if nothing comes of it.

 

Also, I've been known to wander around the various housing districts and if there's a sign that says "feel free to come in and look around" or something like that - then I'll do just that.  I've run into several people that way and had good conversations.  I even had D'aito accept the offer to stay for the night.

 

The last way is also fairly traditional and my least favorite: tavern chat.  I do most of my tavern chats in Limsa as that is where me and the character feel the most comfortable.  Sometimes I just sit around but other times I'll see if I can wedge myself into a conversation if D'aito has anything good to add.  One of my starters is asking for directions to one place or another.

 

Next time I see a large RP gathering announced here or elsewhere, I'm gonna try to get in on that.

[Blue]

I for one can say to have been one of the proud lamenters who have also tried to bring interest to other areas. The Classroom-type RP mini-events did have a moderate success for as long as I personally worked to attend and support every class being held. Unfortunately, when I decided it was time to back off and see if the trend would stay afloat on its own, it didn't work too well. Teachers got demotivated by the lack of students showing up (guess people like to RP characters who don't need to learn anything, eh? *eyeroll* Just teasing!), or never showed up to the classes they scheduled entirely, discouraging students in turn.

All in all, I did thoroughly enjoy the classroom roleplays, I still think it's a great way to make class guilds popular and also to force people to form bonds with strangers (that's what schools do IRL as well, after all. Sit 5 hours a day, 40 hours a week with the same group of people and bonds, whether they're bad or good, WILL form). Maybe I'll attempt to bring it back when I'm not so superbusy devoting all my RP hours and RP days to TalesofHydaelyn.

 

With all that being said, I still avoid the Quicksands with passion. I have nothing against those who go there (and how could I? I have no idea who they are!), but the few times I've been there I seemed to always have horrible luck and only manage to meet people who'd hit on me IC and get disappointed with me OOC when I'd reject them (except that one time I had a few-seconds long conversation with Aya as Jet'a. I treasure that moment!), so I opted with the theory that my character is just too hawt to have non-romance-centered exchanges there.

 

For the past two years my group and I have had all sorts of different hangouts spots, usually lasting about a month each because we do RP travelling and moving home as kind of a big deal which requires lots of thought and preparation (funds, supplies, clothes fitting the climate, etc.), unless emergencies forced us to move out quickly (I guess we've been watching too much The Walking Dead!).

 

I don't remember them all, but here's what we've been using:

2013:

August/September: The Hermit's Hovel, Limsa Lominsa (Mizzenmast)

October: Summerford Farms

November: Red Rooster Stead, Swiftperch

December: Moraby Drydocks

2014

January: Limsa Lominsa (Mizzenmast)

(This is when we got the airship pass at last)

February: Gridania (the Roost)

March: Ul'dah (the Hourglass)

April: Vesper Bay (a week), Camp Drybone

May: Hawthorne's Hut, Little Solace

June: Buscarron's Druthers

July: Vesper Bay (a week), Highbridge

August: Little Ala Mhigo > Quarrymill > Little Ala Mhigo

September: Vesper Bay (a week), Fallgourd Float

October: Vesper Bay (a few days), The Gray Fleet (a week)

November: Costa del Sol

December: Camp Tranquil

2015

January: Forgotten Springs

February: Wineport, Camp Bronze Lake

March: Church of Saint Andama Landama, Coerthas

April: Aleport (a couple days), Gridania (the Roost) (a week), Mor Dhona

May: Vesper Bay, Althaea's Orphanage (Mist) (current)

[Zelmanov]

Ic'ly in Coerthas, Orrin has a little Dragoon perch up in Dragonhead...no one comes to visit him T_T

[Faye]

We have our weekly Tavern Nights in Lavender Beds (which started at our house in the Mist), our two date auctions were in Gridania, and we try to help others with their events or let them host them at our FC house (such as providing guards for Jancis's pilgrimage events, or hosting Red Wings' date auction in our basement). Our FC used to have a "beach day" every week where we would visit a beach or hot spring and alternate locations each week. Those fizzled out, but I'd like to revive them sometime, though we are holding a beach party for our company this week at a member's personal house in the Mist. For me personally, whenever someone wants to role-play with me, I let them choose the location and tell them I can go anywhere. You'd be surprised how many people don't opt for the Quicksand or Ul'dah in general.

[Aaron]

Well, Aaron is a contracted hunter (Not a tribe hunter or anything in that sense. He gets paid to kill problem beasts either too dangerous for mercs or not important enough to devote soldier to kill) so he frequently is out in the wilds of every area hunting beasts (he refuses to hunt humans)

 

It's fun rping him just watching a target or following tracks and all that. Even more fun when a passerby catches him and messes up his hunting.