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

[Lilia Lia]

How is it that over 70% of miqo'te I have met were raised in a city...

 

From what I've seen a lot of this is intended to explain why some players don't have tribal names.  If fantasia came with a free name change it would be less of an issue.

 

Also, characters need to kind of explain why they aren't currently in a tribe.  That's easier to do account for with a city origin.

 

I agree I wish there were more tribal roleplay, and hopefully the Au Ra end up having a lot of that since we were given so much good tribe lore about them up-front.

[Manari]

• 
   
  
• More tribal roleplay - I know, this is a sensitive topic with Miqo'te, but Tribes are there for a reason, right? How is it that over 70% of miqo'te I have met were raised in a city...
   
  

 

I've also noticed this since way way back in 1.0 (however, we has almost no lore then), and it not only bothers me, but it also bothers Manari IC'ly. I understand that it's mostly due to people wanting the storyline they made up for their character not meshing with the in game lore to make sense, or because they wanted a different name, or some similar reason. But even so, when almost every single Miqo'te RP'er has a story about why their tribe was awful and they left, or they were raised by Hyur, or something similar, it just starts to feel lore breaking.... but I suppose the sheer massive amount of male Miqo'te around in RP is lore breaking enough on it's own, yes?

 

I've found a FC that has a few tribal Keepers in it, and I love it there, but this trend has effected Manari IC, and it has started to really negatively alter her perception of Seekers of the Sun even more than before. She is thinking to herself "Seeker life must truly be terrible if every single one I've ever met left their tribe."

[Caspar]

• More tribal roleplay - I know, this is a sensitive topic with Miqo'te, but Tribes are there for a reason, right? How is it that over 70% of miqo'te I have met were raised in a city...
   
  

 

I've also noticed this since way way back in 1.0 (however, we has almost no lore then), and it not only bothers me, but it also bothers Manari IC'ly.  I understand that it's mostly due to people wanting the storyline they made up for their character not meshing with the in game lore to make sense, or because they wanted a different name, or some similar reason.  But even so, when almost every single Miqo'te RP'er has a story about why their tribe was awful and they left, or they were raised by Hyur, or something similar, it just starts to feel lore breaking....  but I suppose the sheer massive amount of male Miqo'te around in RP is lore breaking enough on it's own, yes?

 

I've found a FC that has a few tribal Keepers in it, and I love it there, but this trend has effected Manari IC, and it has started to really negatively alter her perception of Seekers of the Sun even more than before.  She is thinking to herself "Seeker life must truly be terrible if every single one I've ever met left their tribe."

From a modern human perspective she's probably not wrong, haha.

 

I mean I figure the reason why so many people avoid tribal RP is because they are uncomfortable with the unusual social structure. Then again, I'm one to talk. Whenever given a round hole, I use a square peg. I've almost always played outsider types who didn't fit in to their society. I can't really throw stones. Granted I'd welcome suspicion or dislike by the "family oriented" lalafell, but the ones I encounter are already really welcoming of other races, as is somewhat supported by the lore, and usually sociable, so it's pretty hard for that to happen.

[Shoshopu]

playing illiterate characters

Combatant characters who aren't good at combat?

 

I'm three pages late to this party but one of my alts, Awyrbyrt Fyrilsunnsyn, is both illiterate and not that good at combat! He's 16 years old and a little babby White Wolf in the Twin Adders. He's gonna git gud soon but he is definitely the biggest loser right now and he is so much fun to play(and his dad, a naval engineer, is super embarrassed his estranged bastard son grew up not being able to read)

 

 

I second-- third--?? I share the sentiment on the almost-complete lack of racism. I understand it's for ease of roleplay-- our FC is an adventuring company associated with the Maelstrom and is a very diverse group-- but strangers could stand to be a little more racist, right .... I never thought I'd write that in any context ever.

 

Related to racism, Shoshopu and Fyrilsunn should really turn a lot more heads than they do, even if a good 70% of the time they just appear to be really, really good friends.

[Lilia Lia]

I've found a FC that has a few tribal Keepers in it, and I love it there, but this trend has effected Manari IC, and it has started to really negatively alter her perception of Seekers of the Sun even more than before.  She is thinking to herself "Seeker life must truly be terrible if every single one I've ever met left their tribe."

 

I'm curious - because I share your concern - how do you RP tribalism while living outside of the tribe?  Is the company like a mini tribe?  That sounds interesting.

[Manari]

I think the word "tribe" causes some stereotyped images in people's minds. Just because Miqo'te live in tribes doesn't mean they all wear loincloths and dance around a campfire with bones in our hair. We see the U tribe in Forgotten Springs, they have houses and a nice community and are essentially just a village of people. Our FC has a house in the Shroud's housing district because that's the only place the game lets us put houses.

 

The FC itself is a clan made up of Keepers of the Moon who have lost their tribes. We all were found, or found the clan, and came together to form a new tribe. So we all have our tragic backstory. It's really the only way to have a FC like this unless you have everyone make new characters specifically for this kind of group. A true Keeper tribe would have to be made up of a few close families living in a small community. Manari's IC hangup with this trend of Miqo'te forsaking their tribes is that she is so passionately traditional and loves her history and traditions so much, that seeing Miqo'te to scoff at and even hate their own ways just hurts her.

[OttoVann]

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.

 

Lilia and I are dedicated RPers towards Goldsmithing and Weaving. Its even how Otto introduces himself lately since I dropped the shitty UlDah politics IC. I flex those Mater GSM/WVR rings in my rp. But its incredibly rare. Most people are content to be generic adventurers "who take on odd jobs here an' there for a bit o' gil to drink mead at the tavern", and theres nothing wrong with it but its everywhere.

 

So few artisan RPers. Even fewer artisan RPers who can even remotely have a discussion about the actual crafting process. Sadly most people who rp crafters of some sort, can't even tell you the boiling point of water IC or OOC (if they are an alchemist or a culinarian for example), but thats its own problem. It reminds me of people who roleplay combative characters but never combat rp. Sure.

 

Ive actually ran into one other "fashion designer" rper who couldnt name or explain a single crochet stitch method of any kind for any application and they just expect to be taken seriously on it. The majority of crafting rp becomes super shallow, and doesn't rise above the level of tavern-tier rp, because no one does any OOC research to back up any IC crafting discussion. This is why most people dont both with crafter rp.

[Gegenji]

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.

 

Lilia and I are dedicated RPers towards Goldsmithing and Weaving.  Its even how Otto introduces himself lately since I dropped the shitty UlDah politics IC.  I flex those Mater GSM/WVR rings in my rp.  But its incredibly rare.  Most people are content to be generic adventurers "who take on odd jobs here an' there for a bit o' gil to drink mead at the tavern", and theres nothing wrong with it but its everywhere.

 

So few artisan RPers.  Even fewer artisan RPers who can even remotely have a discussion about the actual crafting process.

 

I find I'm shifting more and more toward Chachan's crafting background as of late. Like, he had his whole "becoming a Free Paladin" arc and still tries to help people in that regard... but he's also spending more time crafting solutions - weapons, armor, lacquers and the like. He still does participate in the combat and such, but he's becoming more and more like... I dunno the whole "legendary smith" trope who creates the weapon of power needed to defeat the big bad. He just also isn't afraid to strap on a few of his creations and step onto the battlefield himself.

 

EDIT:

Ive actually ran into one other "fashion designer" rper who couldnt name or explain a single crochet stitch method of any kind for any application and they just expect to be taken seriously on it.  The majority of crafting rp becomes super shallow, and doesn't rise above the level of tavern-tier rp, because no one does any OOC research to back up any IC crafting discussion.  This is why most people dont both with crafter rp.

 

This is actually my biggest concern with Chachan at times. I'm basically running off my basic knowledge of armor/weapon composition and what goes into them wrought from playing DnD. And sometimes a quick Google search for various things - like the melting point of cobalt - all stuff Chachan would know innately, but I haven't a clue on myself.

 

I still try my best, though, looking stuff up and at least trying to make it look like the kid knows what he's doing. Worse comes to worse, I can always fall back on generic handwaving (* Chachan rambles on about the various pros and cons of multiple alloys) if I can't find some readily available information. Just... don't expect me to be able to be able to identify all the different kinds of hammers a smith uses or something without having to take a moment to look it up. :blush:

[OttoVann]

 

EDIT:

Ive actually ran into one other "fashion designer" rper who couldnt name or explain a single crochet stitch method of any kind for any application and they just expect to be taken seriously on it.  The majority of crafting rp becomes super shallow, and doesn't rise above the level of tavern-tier rp, because no one does any OOC research to back up any IC crafting discussion.  This is why most people dont both with crafter rp.

 

This is actually my biggest concern with Chachan at times. I'm basically running off my basic knowledge of armor/weapon composition and what goes into them wrought from playing DnD. And sometimes a quick Google search for various things - like the melting point of cobalt - all stuff Chachan would know innately, but I haven't a clue on myself.

 

I still try my best, though, looking stuff up and at least trying to make it look like the kid knows what he's doing. Worse comes to worse, I can always fall back on generic handwaving (* Chachan rambles on about the various pros and cons of multiple alloys) if I can't find some readily available information. Just... don't expect me to be able to be able to identify all the different kinds of hammers a smith uses or something without having to take a moment to look it up. :blush:

 

Theres nothing wrong with not like, not knowing off hand the primary difference between various hammer shapes and forms, tbh I don't know half the names of common jeweler tools or weaving tools. I can probably name more variation blacksmith hammers than those things combined, but im a hobbyist at that so I cheat.

 

Researching here like Chachan (and myself does - constantly), is what makes better crafter RP. No one does it though really. Very few.

[Lilia Lia]

I don't go into it in as much depth as Otto does, but I do RP an artisan character.  For me, if I'm ever researching the "crafts" it has more to do with learning the historical differences and setting peculiarities... enough that I can write the character without making stupid mistakes or oversights.

 

There are things Lilia knows that I don't, and it's my responsibility to educate myself to a realistic degree so that I can portray her faithfully.  It's kind of like when you're watching crime dramas and all of a sudden a computer geek character shows up and starts talking in technobabble which just shows you that the show's writers have no idea what they're talking about... that's the kind of absurdity that I try to avoid.  But, if you handed me a needle and some fabric I wouldn't be able to produce the real-world equivalent of three-star crafting.  

 

Some of this is also laziness because you can get complacent if you never RP crafting with others who are like you.  Now that I've RPed with Otto I feel like I have to be a little more prepared to be familiar with the practical real-world aspects of crafting past my basic "I took sewing class in middle school and know how to put patches on things" level of weaving knowledge. 

 

This kind of depth is interesting and I think it's fair to expect some level of sophistication with it when someone is making it a central part of their character, particularly if it's their defining trait.  It just deepens your RP and that of everyone around you.

[Darien Cadell]

I've found a FC that has a few tribal Keepers in it, and I love it there, but this trend has effected Manari IC, and it has started to really negatively alter her perception of Seekers of the Sun even more than before. She is thinking to herself "Seeker life must truly be terrible if every single one I've ever met left their tribe."

 

See, I think of it more like the only miqo'te I'm meeting are the ones that left the tribal life because the tribal life doesn't appeal to the same demographics that appeal to adventuring. Miqo'te who love their tribal life stick with their tribes, don't bother with cities, don't bother with adventuring type things. As an adventurer, why would I meet them? Unless it was a U-tribe type circumstance where the adventure I'm on takes me to them.

 

By playing not-an-adventurer, the complaint is more valid, but ignores the player-world norms.

 

Maybe 99% of miqo'te are perfectly happy with tribal existence, but the 99% of the people we interact with are all within that 1% who aren't. It seems perfectly legitimate to me, and I don't question finding few tribal-leaning miqo'te. Tribal backgrounds that have shifted to a city/adventuring life instead make more sense to me than a character still deeply entrenched in their tribal culture. But that does make the tribal-leaning miqo'te that do wander into these sorts of crowds all that much more interesting.

 

When a roleplaying community is deciding what's showing, rather than the world builders, the show-don't-tell ideal has become awkward. The world builders have built a world that actually has very few male miqo'te NPCs. The ones that do exist stand out. But when we interact with other player characters, we're not interacting with the general populace. We're interacting with a very (theoretically) small segment of the whole world's population, a segment with goals and values that are (and I argue should be) highly skewed from what might be considered the world builders' norms.

[Makyn Loneseeker]

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.

Yeessss. Thiiiss.

 

I know many Hyur are taught from a young age, but with Makyn he grew up /not/ learning how to read. He was taught to count, but never to read. And up until recently he had been looking for a teacher (because he did find one) to teach him to read due to the voracious demands of having that crucial skill.

 

He just thought he was one of the only ones who didn't know how to read.

[Blue]

I think the word "tribe" causes some stereotyped images in people's minds. Just because Miqo'te live in tribes doesn't mean they all wear loincloths and dance around a campfire with bones in our hair. We see the U tribe in Forgotten Springs, they have houses and a nice community and are essentially just a village of people. Our FC has a house in the Shroud's housing district because that's the only place the game lets us put houses.

 

The FC itself is a clan made up of Keepers of the Moon who have lost their tribes. We all were found, or found the clan, and came together to form a new tribe. So we all have our tragic backstory. It's really the only way to have a FC like this unless you have everyone make new characters specifically for this kind of group. A true Keeper tribe would have to be made up of a few close families living in a small community. Manari's IC hangup with this trend of Miqo'te forsaking their tribes is that she is so passionately traditional and loves her history and traditions so much, that seeing Miqo'te to scoff at and even hate their own ways just hurts her.

 

The U tribe, much like the illiteracy stuff, is yet another example of a discrepancy between what the game gives us and what the Lore Panel tells us. Ferny said that the Nuhn is usually not the head of the tribe, and yet when you do U tribe quests, you hear NPCs say things like "The word of the Nuhn is the law" and so on. I'm fine if SOME tribes have Nuhns also taking care of leadership, but it wouldn't hurt to have some other NPC Seeker tribes out there that show us a Tia ruling about to justify the Lore Panel's statement, as well as Seeker tribes not looking like Maori tribes but something a little more westernized (for example, La Noscea is supposed to be a common area for Seekers of the Sun. I'd find it interesting to see an NPC Seeker Tribe of fishermen/pirates there, with the Nuhn being just a Nuhn, and not also the leader.

 

But I suppose that's something the devs don't worry about much.

[Jezikhana]

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.

 

Lilia and I are dedicated RPers towards Goldsmithing and Weaving.  Its even how Otto introduces himself lately since I dropped the shitty UlDah politics IC.  I flex those Mater GSM/WVR rings in my rp.  But its incredibly rare.  Most people are content to be generic adventurers "who take on odd jobs here an' there for a bit o' gil to drink mead at the tavern", and theres nothing wrong with it but its everywhere.

 

So few artisan RPers.  Even fewer artisan RPers who can even remotely have a discussion about the actual crafting process.  Sadly most people who rp crafters of some sort, can't even tell you the boiling point of water IC or OOC (if they are an alchemist or a culinarian for example), but thats its own problem.  It reminds me of people who roleplay combative characters but never combat rp.  Sure.

 

Ive actually ran into one other "fashion designer" rper who couldnt name or explain a single crochet stitch method of any kind for any application and they just expect to be taken seriously on it.  The majority of crafting rp becomes super shallow, and doesn't rise above the level of tavern-tier rp, because no one does any OOC research to back up any IC crafting discussion.  This is why most people dont both with crafter rp.

 

Yes that.  I would love to RP a weaver in game but fiber arts is my paying job so I know waaaaaaayy more about it than most folks do in game.  I don't expect people to know the amount of weaving stuff that I do by any means.  I do expect folks to do a little bit of research if they are going to RP a craft.  Though, to be fair, the game doesn't exactly accurately represent the craft anyway.  The spinning wheels are all wrong and the loom looks like a piano not a loom.     *Sigh*

[Griffith!]

I felt the same way about the various smithing tools. Having worked in a smithy (or even just seeing a movie or applying common sense) I can tell you that heat is pretty important in blacksmithing. You might say it sort of integral to the process.

 

But it's a game, so I'm not sweating it too much. I would hate to RP a crafting profession though. A gathering profession? Sure. Marten is an avid fisherman and works as a miner when he isn't fighting in the arena. All I really need to know is right there in the logs. But crafting would involve too much research and I'm lazy.