A Question for the Community

[AidenFletcher]

[This is a fairly lengthy post. All TL;DR's are completely understandable. :3]

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Hello All,

 

I haven't been around much, but I've been playing FFXIV on and off since beta. Roleplay is something I've wanted to do but just never had the time to invest in it to a point where I'd be satisfied. . . part of the reason being that I devote most of my creative energies elsewhere, which relates partly to what I'm posting about.

 

I recently decided to start a little mini-project of sorts. I'm studying sequential art/comics/manga in hopes of making a living off of it one day, and I'd like to try a short story based off of FFXIV, specifically the first battle with Iceheart, aka Shiva. The story would be from a much more narrative angle than the way it's portrayed in the game.The story of FFXIV is one of my favorite aspects of the game, and I would love to portray it in a way that anyone and everyone who loves fantasy and drama can enjoy, even if they're not a fan of the MMO scene.

 

So where does RP come into all of this? Well, it was my initial intention to try and start an FC and get a RP group together, in order to generate some ideas for characters, scenarios and situations that could work well in the format I'm thinking of. But herein lies a problem. . . I'm basing the main character's appearance off of the character I made in game, who would be the Warrior of Light, and as such would have a certain degree of "plot protection" and what not. The last thing I'd want to do is try and come up with a situation that puts me at an advantage of any sort over others, or try and put myself in 'god mode' when playing as this character. I understand this is highly unfavorable in the RP community, and so it's kind of discouraged me from pursuing this any further. But I'd like to know what you guys think. The character itself is extremely flawed (any further details might spoil potential stories to come), but it doesn't change the fact that he would be the Warrior of Light, and everyone else would be. . . well, adventurers. So positive or negative, share your opinions on this! I just want to see what the general opinion of the community would be about something like this.

 

Thanks guys, and look me up on Balmung sometime! I just got transferred there the other day! Take care, laddies and lasses! ^^

[Jana]

Casting your character as the WoL inherently leaves anyone else involved in a secondary role at best. I think this kind of thing is best kept as a fanfiction for you to write alone.

[Flashhelix]

While surely fine in a narrative written by a single person, I honestly don't see the appeal of an FC where the leader is considered THE hero and has various plot protections. Problems with leaders trying to steal the spotlight are prevalent in far too many FCs and are just about always frowned upon.

[AidenFletcher]

Casting your character as the WoL inherently leaves anyone else involved in a secondary role at best. I think this kind of thing is best kept as a fanfiction for you to write alone.

Right. That's what I've been thinking. It's why I wanted to run this by the general audience before taking the idea and running with it. Last thing I want to do is be pompous or self-promoting, as that's not why I'm doing this.

[AidenFletcher]

While surely fine in a narrative written by a single person, I honestly don't see the appeal of an FC where the leader is considered THE hero and has various plot protections. Problems with leaders trying to steal the spotlight are prevalent in far too many FCs and are just about always frowned upon.

 

That prevalent, huh? I'm glad I asked about this first. :3 By no means do I intend to hoard the spotlight. Just trying to take advantage of whatever resources I can get a hold of.

[chaoticsleepy]

I agree with what others have said: From a fanfiction point of view, it's all well and good. But from a cooperative roleplaying point of view, I can see it being difficult finding a whole group of people willing to be relegated to "secondary character" status by default. After all, in RP, everyone is essentially the main character in their own story.

 

What I might suggest is to keep your Fiction!Character and your RP!Character thematically connected, but ultimately separate. Perhaps they're largely the same person in terms of background story elements, personality traits, etc. However, they wouldn't necessarily share the same continuity and, obviously, the RP version of the character might be in need of some tweaking to be more RP compatible.

 

That way, you could use RP to develop your character in a more interactive environment and glean some inspiration for your storylines, but have the flexibility of being able to use that however you want in the separate Fiction!Character's continuity without stepping on anyone's toes, RP wise.

 

Just my two cents!

[AidenFletcher]

I agree with what others have said:  From a fanfiction point of view, it's all well and good. But from a cooperative roleplaying point of view, I can see it being difficult finding a whole group of people willing to be relegated to "secondary character" status by default. After all, in RP, everyone is essentially the main character in their own story.

 

What I might suggest is to keep your Fiction!Character and your RP!Character thematically connected, but ultimately separate. Perhaps they're largely the same person in terms of background story elements, personality traits, etc. However, they wouldn't necessarily share the same continuity and, obviously, the RP version of the character might be in need of some tweaking to be more RP compatible.

 

That way, you could use RP to develop your character in a more interactive environment and glean some inspiration for your storylines, but have the flexibility of being able to use that however you want in the separate Fiction!Character's continuity without stepping on anyone's toes, RP wise.

 

Just my two cents!

 

That's a good idea! Thanks! I'll take that into consideration!

[Momo]

You can do this, I am not sure how fun it would be, or to what success it could be done just because of the dedicated RP it would take to accomplish this. but it could be done.  Right now...from what we are seeing of previews for the new MSQ, it may be possible to have more than one warrior of light or warrior of darkness, which would lend itself to a team of RPers, but again finding those sorts of people willing to do this, not to mention what this "team" of warriors is, we aren't sure totally.

 

Lastly, and this is the most important, you are cut off from the community at large, meaning: no events, no random RP, no nothing that doesn't involve your circle of RPers only.  Now that may be okay, some people don't do many things outside their own FC, but then of course, you would need permission to use the other characters in your own FC, and have them agree on a narrative before-hand...which I think would become somewhat boring.

 

I think you should consider the more interesting story to tell, the stories of the non-WoLs.  Pick an instance in the MSQ you love, and try to fit an additional character into it from the perspective of an adventurer which experiences it.  There are many MSQ moments which you could probably do this from, and done the right way, with a decent theme, you could really tell an interesting story, maybe more interesting than the MSQ, which we all already know.

[Branson Thorne]

To be honest, I get wanting to do this, but having solely you be the WoL would certainly be off-putting as everybody else in the FC would be the underlings beneath you.

 

Now maybe you can find people that are okay with that, but I personally would pass on it.

 

Now I'd you wanted to RP that everyone in the FCs where WoL's then that would be a different story.

[AidenFletcher]

To be honest, I get wanting to do this, but having solely you be the WoL would certainly be off-putting as everybody else in the FC would be the underlings beneath you.

 

Now maybe you can find people that are okay with that, but I personally would pass on it.

 

Now I'd you wanted to RP that everyone in the FCs where WoL's then that would be a different story.

 

I've been thinking on this. If I were to do this I think I'd alter it to where the entire group were Hydaelyn's chosen as opposed to one. But after thinking on it some more I think I've decided to lay the idea to rest. Too many ifs and buts.

 

Roleplaying is each person acting out their own story in cooperation with others. My purposes are more broad and less individual, and while it may not be a bad thing, it doesn't really jive with the general idea of RP. So I'll probably be better off using less social resources (aside from sharing and what not, of course) to get my inspiration.

 

Thanks for the replies, everyone. It's nice to know this community is kind enough to 'gently' let someone know they might be on the verge of irritating a lot of people. haha.

[Ozma]

i could be talking bonkers here but does it really require one to be the WoL? I mean the whole idea could still work without appointing someone or the whole group as WoL. Just my thoughts.

[Steel Wolf]

If the idea is to find characters who would interact well with your main's comic/manga story, why not look at the character wikis? There's bound to be some personalities that could inspire some unique creations?

[Mia Moui]

In a previous game world, I was subject to the leadership of a somewhat unstable, controlling, obsessively detailed oriented leader.  I cannot deny that their plots were sometimes clever and intricate, highlighting the best features of each member of our group.  But we were all subject to their storyline, their plots, their pursuits.  While we were encouraged to have stories of our own, they could not interfere with or significantly combine with the Main Plot the leader set forth.

 

The got exceptionally tedious as one might guess.  That the leader was a person I'd known for years made it all the more difficult for me to question the status quo. Eventually, tensions got very high when Someone Else had a great idea to take the group in a different direction.

 

One can imagine how well that was received.

 

I ended up leaving the game and I've had to block my former friend who insists that I betrayed them and stabbed them in the back and whatever else.

 

I'm sure something like your idea might, maybe work.  And I bought into a similar idea for a couple of years.  But there's a lot of potential risk and there's already drama enough in plain vanilla role play in FFXIV.  I think it's best not to invite more.