yo, have some questions

[imayosh]

yo i'm imayosh, you can call me ima or whatever else. been playing ffxiv for going on a year now with too many alts, all for rp purposes. i'm a fairly skilled healer (whm/ast main), caught up to the current patch story-wise, have multiple lv 60 classes, overall experienced in the (battle side of the) game. i won't need any guidance in that respect, and can provide it as wanted!

 

i've also been rping for many, many years, but never in the mmo format -- the rp alts mentioned previously are just me and my friends making characters with the name and appearance of our fave characters to play, very minimal actual rping involved. my past rping has been on gaiaonline and tumblr, as well as scattered forums and rarely skype.

 

i've been itching for a new place to rp (+ a place in general to rp a character that's been brewing), and i already waste hours and hours on this damn game so... dots connected, this feels like a possible next step.

 

i'm looking for a... medium? rp experience? i want to do plenty of rping but not in a stuffy environment. i want to be able to talk about ooc things, especially related to the character like amusing hypotheticals and info that would never come up in-character.

 

now here are my questions surrounding that -- and potential problems:

 

-- server-wise, is there, like... a third option?

i'm NA datacenter (Aether), and obviously balmung and gilgamesh are closed for new characters. i don't want to spend real money on a server transfer, especially before i'm sure i enjoy this style of rping anyway. are there other servers with active rping, even if it's just getting into a good group and sticking with that group? what are my options?

 

-- i know Special Snowflakes, etc., are generally considered to be in bad taste. however.

i'm not especially interested in playing Your Average Townsperson/Lowbie Adventurer. i enjoy rps with groups of unique, maybe not strictly realistic, characters (the key here being groups, not a single powerful person but a group of unique individuals that might seem overpowered in normal context). is it reasonable to look for a group that supports the idea of not adhering strictly to ffxiv lore, playing off the lore into branching ideas, things like that? i've got ideas that would not necessarily adhere neatly to the currently-known lore, but wouldn't be entirely out of left field either.

 

-- i need an lgbtq+-friendly group!

not a question just a fact, any and all of my characters are going to be queer in some way or another and i'll need a place that's comfortable and welcoming of that! i've heard faerie is the "official lgbt server" but i don't imagine there's much overlap with that and rp... so a group will have to do.

 

as for myself, i'm 22, genderfluid (please use they/them to refer to me!), and a manager at my local convenience store. i have no life so i just work, play ffxiv, and occasionally sleep. in the future i'm planning on being a game creator but lmao who has the time.

[imayosh]

after looking around the forums and getting a feel for the character/playerbase here, i better understand the general style of rp and characters. as such, the second point is largely moot -- it seems i'll have not just better luck but more fun working within the confines provided (to an extent). i'm used to these kinds of environments encouraging a style of rp i don't mesh well with, but it seems there's no need to worry!

[Virella]

Sadly enough Balmung is THE RP server, so I fear to get a good experience of FFXIV RP, getting onto Balmung is a near must.

 

And thankfully for you, we rarely see regular normal peasants in FFXIV being roleplayed. As for lore adherence ect? We got folk in various degrees. Ones who stick completely to FFXIV lore, others who take their liberties, others who just don't care at all. So I wouldn't worry about that either.

 

In any case... FFXIV community is in general very much accepting of anything not straight. Even more so on Balmung. Being a person who falls under the non-straight folk, I never had the need to find myself a specific LS or FC for it, as no one really cares on Balmung what you, or your character identifies as. We are here to RP after all. Whereas you might get some comments IC at best, although with Ave swinging to whatever person she finds attractive, I never had any issues. However if your character only focuses onto getting into people's pants, you will get some offhand comments no doubt. And that comes from the RPer who lost count on how many lovers their char has.

[imayosh]

thanks for the answers! honestly looking around the "balmung is necessary" consensus seems well-earned, most of the interesting characters or plots i've seen have been balmung... it seems i might have to make an investment after all. hopefully pre-planning and buildup here will suffice until the paycheck hits and i can justify it haha.

 

it's such a relief to hear about the accepting community -- all my time in ffxiv i've only really interacted with my close friends, and the sparingly few times i've met a friend of a friend, they've been major bigots lmao. turns out the same person brought all the bad eggs in, but it still had me nervous to enter a totally new community! (and while i have nothing against those whose characters are pants-focused, i won't have to worry about that myself, so i'm not concerned)

[Virella]

Mind you, if you happen to end up transferring, you can transfer more than 1 char along at the same time

[Valence]

I wouldn't have to worry too much about styles of RP over there. It's quite diverse.

 

If there is one type that might get harder to find, it's the opposite of what you are looking for actually, much to my dismay. 

 

It's FF. Most people are here for the grandiose and epic.

[Kibu]

I jumped into Balmung feet-first a little bit ago, somehow fell in with a really great group of people, and haven't bothered to look back. I hope the same happens for you! Even if you aren't sure how you'll do in the RP setting, if you want to do it and then just spend a little bit watching and learning how people do it in-game, I'm certain you'll pick it up no problem!

 

The lgbtqa+ thing as well was something I was concerned about, but like it's been said, that became pretty quickly a moot point. I'm sure as with anywhere there will be jerks, but it seems like the overwhelming majority of people I've run into have been incredibly cool about it.

 

If you do transfer to Balmung, I hope you enjoy your stay!! You're welcome to send me a /tell if you'd like, although I don't think my Cam quite fits what you're looking for - he's rather ordinary