What are some things that are common in Eorzea, but rare in the roleplay community?

[Lilia Lia]

I have been thinking lately of how rare it is that I see people playing illiterate characters, even though literacy is considered rare in Eorzea.  It made me wonder generally whether there are other aspects of Eorzean life that are underrepresented in RP.

 

So just a general question, what are some things about Eorzean life that you wish you saw people RPing more?

[Mercer]

I'd like to see more RPers take into account how ruthless the world is. Life spans are short and death is around every corner.

[Nero]

I'd like to see more RPers take into account how ruthless the world is. Life spans are short and death is around every corner.

 

I'm curious to know in what form you'd like this representation to take, because I'm going to assume you're not necessarily advocating for arbitrary player character deaths. Major injuries from the many monsters that prowl around unchecked? Disease? Poverty?

 

As for the subject matter, curiously enough I don't believe I see much of artisan-centric or gatherer roleplay. There are plenty of player characters who are adventurers, merchants, and self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, but a dedicated alchemist character? A dedicated armorer? A dedicated weaver? A miner who wants to strike it rich? A botanist who wants to cultivate rare flora? Hell, a travelling fisherman? Sure, these mundane aspirations aren't too interesting on the surface, and having a character who is a noncombatant can make certain situations awkward, but I think there is a good amount of material to build a character off of these concepts.

[Magellan]

There is racism prevalent in all corners. People do not rp racists (as I've said before, I'm a hypocrite, because my characters are pretty tolerant ; p)

[Gone.]

Life is only short in Eorzea if one lacks the common sense to survive. The number of hamlets and/or outposts scattered out in the game world seem to counter the very idea of a so-called ruthless environment, at least until one reaches the outskirts of a region.

 

I'm also skeptical on the lack of literacy, as well; the number of books used as decoration in the game world is pretty staggering. The poor and homeless I can understand, but the average player character? I doubt it.

 

Honestly, the only thing I'd like to see is people being more welcoming towards each other. Even with the moderate racial tensions, Eorzeans seem to get along with each other better than the RPC user base does.

[Roen]

As for the subject matter, curiously enough I don't believe I see much of artisan-centric or gatherer roleplay. There are plenty of player characters who are adventurers, merchants, and self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, but a dedicated alchemist character? A dedicated armorer? A dedicated weaver? A miner who wants to strike it rich? A botanist who wants to cultivate rare flora? Hell, a travelling fisherman? Sure, these mundane aspirations aren't too interesting on the surface, and having a character who is a noncombatant can make certain situations awkward, but I think there is a good amount of material to build a character off of these concepts.

 

I actually saw a character RPing just that. A fisherman selling fish in Ul'dah. He was advertising in shout. Guthree Jenkins I think? I wanted to hunt him down for random RP but by the time I was free to do so, he had logged.

 

Alas!

 

I wouldn't mind seeing more disgruntled Highlander refugees in Ul'dah especially in Pearl Lane. Or a drunken revelry in the Drowning Wench. Or Yellow Jackets. Or Wood Wailers.

[Hammersmith]

Actual injury and respect for pain that comes with it.  This gets Setsu Beaned out of existence via magic and healing potions most of the time, No one needs to every worry about it in an RP setting.  This is also not a complete surprise since injury takes you out of the game and limits how you can play on a platform you're paying to...play on.  Crippling injury really isn't fair to force be played, especially if it's the years/months length recovery most of those entail.

[Aaron]

Actual injury and respect for pain that comes with it.  This gets Setsu Beaned out of existence via magic and healing potions most of the time, No one needs to every worry about it in an RP setting.  This is also not a complete surprise since injury takes you out of the game and limits how you can play on a platform you're paying to...play on.  Crippling injury really isn't fair to force be played, especially if it's the years/months length recovery most of those entail.

[Magellan]

Claire is a semi - professional culinarian. She has icly gone to an Academy to learn cooking, interned at the Bismrack, worked at a restaurant in Wineport, catered a wedding, and hosted dinner parties. Now she has aspirations of opening her own restaurant. Admittedly, this kind of rp is not for all, but I find it fun, and in her circle she runs into a lot of IC crafters and gatherers ")

[Kage]

Lalafell and adventurers' talk of being eaten. Multiple fates talk about so and so creature eating lalafell.

 

There's either a guildleve or a fate in Wineport that talks about Lalafell-eating Ziz.

 

Kage saw Ziz in Stone Vigil and his reaction was "KILL IT BEFORE IT TRIES TO EAT ME" and others were like "There there Kage."

 

MY PEOPLE ARE EATEN BY THEM. I WILL NOT BE CALM.

[Arter Wood]

Lalafell and adventurers' talk of being eaten. Multiple fates talk about so and so creature eating lalafell.

 

There's either a guildleve or a fate in Wineport that talks about Lalafell-eating Ziz.

 

Kage saw Ziz in Stone Vigil and his reaction was "KILL IT BEFORE IT TRIES TO EAT ME" and others were like "There there Kage."

 

MY PEOPLE ARE EATEN BY THEM. I WILL NOT BE CALM.

:tonberry: Your time will come soon enough Kage. :tonberry:

[Gone.]

Actual injury and respect for pain that comes with it.  This gets Setsu Beaned out of existence via magic and healing potions most of the time, No one needs to every worry about it in an RP setting.  This is also not a complete surprise since injury takes you out of the game and limits how you can play on a platform you're paying to...play on.  Crippling injury really isn't fair to force be played, especially if it's the years/months length recovery most of those entail.

 

I'm actually more than willing to have my characters be severely wounded so long as a. they don't lose a limb/eye/etc. and b. don't die. Everything else is fair game around these parts.

 

As for the subject matter, curiously enough I don't believe I see much of artisan-centric or gatherer roleplay. There are plenty of player characters who are adventurers, merchants, and self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, but a dedicated alchemist character? A dedicated armorer? A dedicated weaver? A miner who wants to strike it rich? A botanist who wants to cultivate rare flora? Hell, a travelling fisherman? Sure, these mundane aspirations aren't too interesting on the surface, and having a character who is a noncombatant can make certain situations awkward, but I think there is a good amount of material to build a character off of these concepts.

 

Lot of my friends RP the Hand/Land jobs. I know Foxberry's C'sien is an IC alchemist; Vetiver has met her buried deep into brewing potions before.

[banndsand]

I haven't RPed much yet so I can't really add much to this...

 

On the other hand, though, I'm glad to see this thread as it reinforces the decisions I made with some of my characters.

For example, my current main is a novice smith, so 70% of the time I have her in the workshops and the other 30% she's out gathering/buying mats, testing product, or getting dragged on adventures and thus shaking in her boots.

And once I get my Au Ra, he'll probably be asking people for help with directions and things because (if the still-unannounced lore permits), he will probably be pretty illiterate.

 

Definitely going to be keeping an eye on this thread to see how I could help out in making RP more immersive.

[Suviyo Viyo]

I have been thinking lately of how rare it is that I see people playing illiterate characters, even though literacy is considered rare in Eorzea.

 

You know, I've seen this stated in the forums here a few times while looking around and I'm a little confused about it. Is there anything in-game that supports the idea of a large number of illiterate people? Because... so far... all I've seen are examples of people being pretty literate in general. Books, logs, journals, letters, etc... all being passed around in quests.... Signs and posters on the walls... Wearable "reading glasses".... Books decorating buildings... etc...

 

There's also a statement in the Hyur character creation about how Midlanders are taught to read very young or "trained in letters from infancy" if you will.

 

The only thing I've seen to support illiteracy in game was a one-off statement from a game dev without much elaboration (or racial/regional/cultural specifics). Curious if anyone here could point to more examples from in-game text/lore to support this at all?

 

I'd LOVE to know though, because I'm thinking of having my character be pretty literate... or perhaps a "book nerd" if you will. It would be nice to know how odd/rare that kind of thing actually is amongst people (or Lalafell specifically) so I can RP appropriately.

[Lilia Lia]

I'd LOVE to know though, because I'm thinking of having my character be pretty literate... or perhaps a "book nerd" if you will. It would be nice to know how odd/rare that kind of thing actually is amongst people (or Lalafell specifically) so I can RP appropriately.

 

I'm not really invested in the idea of a largely-illiterate Eorzea, but it seems to make sense to me given the lack of public education.  If people can read and write then it probably means their parents were rich enough to afford to have them taught, or someone else taught them.  That combined with the one-off dev statement makes it make sense to me in a setting sort of way.  I would compare it to England pre-public-education. 

 

As for the lack of public education, do you know of any schools in Eorzea?  It seems that people are mostly trained vocationally. 

 

Lots of books everywhere, but that's fine even if there's only a minority of people who can read them, because they're relevant to the people who can read them.  Outside of the Ossuary we don't really have a huge library in Eorzea, and libraries in academic centers have been common prior to widespread public literacy.

 

NPCs who are illiterate that you actually interact with also seem to be rare though.  So yeah I see why it's potentially a matter of contention.  I just frankly don't see where the majority of people would learn to read.

 

As for Lalafell and Dunesfolk, I think they'd be pretty high on the literacy chart given the fact that they're wealthier than the norm, more likely to have parents who read or have been taught to read. Plainsfolk on the other hand are mostly farmers and labourers so I find that less likely.

[Chris Ganale]

As for the subject matter, curiously enough I don't believe I see much of artisan-centric or gatherer roleplay. There are plenty of player characters who are adventurers, merchants, and self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, but a dedicated alchemist character? A dedicated armorer? A dedicated weaver? A miner who wants to strike it rich? A botanist who wants to cultivate rare flora? Hell, a travelling fisherman? Sure, these mundane aspirations aren't too interesting on the surface, and having a character who is a noncombatant can make certain situations awkward, but I think there is a good amount of material to build a character off of these concepts.

 

Not my character, but my friend's character Satomi Hakase is a very prominent alchemist. Such that when a fight descended on us, she was in over her head the entire conflict.

[Suviyo Viyo]

Interesting to know and thanks for the quick reply. I guess I'll just have to continue to keep my eyes open as I play the game and explore the lore more. I do admit that, asides from the vocational crafting guilds, I haven't seen much in the way of schools or academies in-game either... then agian, I haven't been playing long.

 

It's good to know Dunesfolk would likely be more educated since bookish little Suviyo is a Dunesfolk Lalafell and all.

[BroodingFicus]

I have been thinking lately of how rare it is that I see people playing illiterate characters, even though literacy is considered rare in Eorzea.  It made me wonder generally whether there are other aspects of Eorzean life that are underrepresented in RP.

 

So just a general question, what are some things about Eorzean life that you wish you saw people RPing more?

 

I can get behind you there. I have an Ala Mhigan who is in his 30's and can't write or read much beyond his own name. He has a midlander teen teaching him but I haven't run into too many others with that sort of thing either. Granted I think some races may be more literate than others. I would expect a higher percentage of illiterates among refugees and the more nomadic races like Miqo'te etc. 

 

Personally its travel that I'd like to see more of. Most of my people live on ships or travel continuously but I often here people talking about traveling very long distances in a days time (Ul'dah to Gridania etc). Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like teleporting/airships are not common use items going by the opening scenes of the game consisting of us traveling to the city by ship/cart etc. Walking, chocobos, boats and the like seem like they are more common in Eorzea for adventurers and merchants to get around. I'd like to see more people who crew ships or ferries, who travel between towns with supplies and good and the like or even just everyday adventurers on the road.

[Gone.]

Just because places of learning aren't frequently shown in-game doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist; they're just unimportant on a mechanical level outside of the class guilds and thus no development time was spared on it just for the sake of minor immersion.

 

Final Fantasy XIV may be the most RP-friendly MMO I've ever played, but some things are still on the onus of our imaginations to fill in. This would be one of those times.

 

Personally its travel that I'd like to see more of. Most of my people live on ships or travel continuously but I often here people talking about traveling very long distances in a days time (Ul'dah to Gridania etc). Maybe I'm wrong but it seems like teleporting/airships are not common use items going by the opening scenes of the game consisting of us traveling to the city by ship/cart etc. Walking, chocobos, boats and the like seem like they are more common in Eorzea for adventurers and merchants to get around. I'd like to see more people who crew ships or ferries, who travel between towns with supplies and good and the like or even just everyday adventurers on the road.

 

Heh, I drag pretty much all my RP partners out into the game world, but given the expansiveness it's rare for us to bump into anyone else outside of the odd silent on-looker or two.

[Kellach Woods]

Non-Miqo'tes.

[Zyrusticae]

Non-Miqo'tes.

Hyur are still more popular than Miqo'te. Try again.

[Kellach Woods]

Not in the RP community. The question was RP community.

 

Overall, there's more Hyur than Miqo'te - I'd wager from the fact that before 2.0 you couldn't roll Miqo male. Had that been in from the start we'd probably be seeing reverse numbers (More Miqo than Hyur).

 

In the RP community though? Way too many.

[Nako Vesh]

Actual injury and respect for pain that comes with it.  This gets Setsu Beaned out of existence via magic and healing potions most of the time, No one needs to every worry about it in an RP setting.  This is also not a complete surprise since injury takes you out of the game and limits how you can play on a platform you're paying to...play on.  Crippling injury really isn't fair to force be played, especially if it's the years/months length recovery most of those entail.

 

The reason I allow my character to get somewhat Senzu Beaned through healing magic is because I don't want to hog the spotlight too much. Getting stabbed is, I'm sure, blindingly, insanely painful, but to have my character writhing on the ground, or passing out in the middle of a scene sometimes feels a little grabby. It depends on the scene of course though.

[Kellach Woods]

There's even a negative RP trope about that behavior.

 

Honestly, if the healing is applied shortly after the injury is sustained I'll just have the character stand up. It's RPing the injury when NOBODY knows how to heal around, or all you have is a measly X-Potion (nevermind just a high or a regular potion!)

[Gone.]

Non-Miqo'tes.

 

But I love having so many cuddly catgirls to potentially snuggle with.