Getting Started with FFXIV RP for WoW RPers

[Lintian]

This guide has been moved to Chaos Archives with the imminent closure of this forum in mind. This page's HTML source still contains the old version.

Guide version: 1.8.1 (last updated 22 May 2022)

Introduction

Greetings, traveler from Azeroth! In this guide, you will find advice on acclimating yourself to the new, unfamiliar land of Eorzea, as well as meeting and making an impression on others like yourself.

 

For various reasons, at the moment of this guide’s writing, there is heightened interest from World of Warcraft (WoW) players in other MMO games, most notably Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV). While there is no shortage of guides for general players, casual and hardcore alike, this one is aimed specifically at roleplayers.

 

I myself am a roleplayer coming from WoW; if you are from the Argent Dawn (EU) server, you may know my main character, the night elf Lintian Wintermist. I’m very new to FFXIV and its RP scene, though I’ve had help from friends who had started the game earlier. My aim is to compile what I’ve learned so far in a centralized place, so others won’t have to piece this information together by themselves from scattered sources.

 

Who is this guide for?

 

This guide assumes you’re familiar with WoW and have some experience with its RP, and would now like to try out FFXIV RP. This is not a guide for people new to RP as a concept; for that, see the excellent Role-Play Handbook on this very forum.

This guide does not assume any knowledge of Final Fantasy XIV except that there is an MMO by that name. It is thus appropriate for people completely new to the game. If you have played FFXIV before and only need RP-specific knowledge, feel free to jump straight to the “Roleplaying” section.

 

Jargon

 

Before we start, let’s clarify a few terms that you will see throughout this guide.

• Square Enix: The Japanese video game company that created the Final Fantasy series of RPGs, among other things.
• Gil: In-game currency. Unlike gold in WoW, it doesn’t come in smaller denominations (silver and copper coins), it’s just gil.
• Free Company: The equivalent of guild in WoW.
• Glamour: The equivalent of transmog in WoW.
• Sprout: New player, distinguished by a sprout icon to the left of their name (like murloc in WoW since 9.0).
• Yoshi-P, aka Naoki Yoshida: The director of FFXIV. Much beloved by the playerbase, and for good reason. He replaced the original leadership, fired after 1.0 was a critical and commercial flop, and turned the game into a resounding success.
• The Warrior of Light (WoL): The player character of the official story. Think of it as FFXIV’s counterpart of Garrison Commander/Champion of Azeroth/Maw Walker: in other words, the character exists in lore but their canonical identity is not specified. Like in WoW, your RP character will be someone else IC.

 

Versions and expansions:

• A Realm Reborn (ARR): Version 2.0. The vanilla game. Included in the free trial.
• Heavensward (HW): Version 3.0. The first expansion. Included in the free trial.
• Stormblood (SB): Version 4.0. The second expansion.
• Shadowbringers (ShB): Version 5.0. The third expansion.
• Endwalker (EW): Version 6.0. The fourth expansion.

 

What about version 1.0?

The version number 1.0 refers to the original, failed 2010 version of Final Fantasy XIV. After Yoshida was brought on board after the initial launch, he and the team gradually improved the game from “atrocious” to “somewhat playable”, but it was ultimately decided to completely remake and relaunch it under the same title. The remade version received the version number 2.0 and the subtitle “A Realm Reborn”. The final days of 1.0 were actually incorporated in the story as a cataclysmic event called the Seventh Umbral Calamity, or just "the Calamity". Version 2.0, A Realm Reborn, takes place five years after this event, with the world still recovering.

 

Locations:

• Hydaelyn: 1) The planet. 2) You'll discover the other meaning by playing through the story.
• Eorzea: The western landmass of the planet, where ARR and Heavensward take place, as does most RP. Consists of the continent of Aldenard and the island of Vylbrand. See map.
• The Garlean Empire: An expansionist empire occupying an enormous landmass to the east of Eorzea. They’re bad guys. That’s all I'll say, you’ll discover the rest through the story.

 

Nations of Eorzea (player hubs):

• Limsa Lominsa: A maritime nation in La Noscea, on the island of Vylbrand. The closest WoW analogue is Kul Tiras.
• Gridania: A forest nation of nature worshipers in the Black Shroud. Think wood elves crossed with The Shire.
• Ul’dah: A desert sultanate in Thanalan. Think Arabian Nights but with runaway capitalism.
• Ishgard: Not a starting nation. Only available once you’ve unlocked the Heavensward expansion, so your character will start in one of the above three nations. An industrial nation with gothic architecture and religious fanaticism that are both reminescent of continental Europe.

 

Nations of Eorzea (non-player-hubs):

• Sharlayan: A nation of scholars. The Sharlayan colony in northwestern Eorzea is now abandoned; it was evacuated to islands even farther north (Old Sharlayan) prior to the events of the game. Spoiler for Endwalker below:
  Spoiler

  Old Sharlayan is a player hub in Endwalker. However, since it's current content and there are many OOCers there, RP in Old Sharlayan might be problematic.

• Ala Mhigo: The eastermost nation. Conquered by the Garlean Empire before the start of the game. Some of the refugees dwelled in Thanalan in cave slums called Little Ala Mhigo. Spoiler for Stormblood below:
  Spoiler

  Liberated and rebuilt during Stormblood, though the war with the Empire continues in a stalemate.

   

Creating an account and installing the game

Do I need to buy the game to RP? What are the limitations of free trial?

 

Right — here’s the good news! FFXIV has a much, much more generous and RP-friendly free trial than WoW. In theory, if it’s only RP you’re interested in, you don’t have to buy the game at all.

 

Unlike WoW, free trial accounts can:

• level up to 60, which includes access to both the base game and its first expansion, Heavensward;
• use the say and emote channels.

 

Free trial players cannot:

• join free companies (the FFXIV term for player guilds);
• trade with other players by any means;
• send tells (whispers) to other players, but unlike WoW, you’ll see an error message instead of the message appearing to be delivered but actually being ignored;
• use retainers (NPC servants) and the Market Board (Auction House counterpart), so you're limited to items you can procure yourself.

 

Therefore, I highly recommend playing the free trial before you commit to buying the game (or don’t). You have all the time in the world to make an informed decision.

 

How do I create an account?

 

I highly recommend creating a free trial account using the official FFXIV website finalfantasyxiv.com, even if you plan to buy the game on Steam later. You will be able to upgrade from a free trial account created this way to any version of the game, either Steam or non-Steam.

 

Creating an account is very straightforward. Click the “Start Your Free Trial” button, then fill in the registration form. The country you select affects your region (America, Europe, etc.), but as far as I can tell, for FFXIV specific purposes it doesn’t affect anything. Unlike WoW, you can create characters in any region on the same account.

 

After you submit the sign-up form, you will be sent a confirmation email. Click the link in it to finish signing up. You can now download and install the game client. Use the provided link to install, not Steam; the Steam client cannot be used to play the free trial, at least when using the official launcher.

 

What about the Steam free trial?

Steam has its own demo, but I don't recommend it. The Steam demo is limited to 14 days and apparently cannot be upgraded to a paid version, whereas the regular free trial is of unlimited duration and can later be upgraded to the Steam paid version if you so desire.

 

What should I do after creating an account?

 

You can just play the game as is. But I personally recommend three improvements:

• Protect your account with one-time passwords. FFXIV's implementation of them is compatible with any generic authenticator app, be it mobile or desktop. You will get an extra, free "hearthstone" location without a cooldown, handy when leveling!
• Install GShade, a set of shader presets that improve the game's lighting. I myself use the GShadeGameplayLegacy preset.
• Optional: There is an an unofficial alternate launcher that comes with useful quality of life features, but since it's third-party software, I won't name or link it here.

 

Can I play FFXIV under Linux/Wine?

 

Yes! I myself do that, and it works very well. As with WoW, DXVK is recommended for best performance. There are only two small workarounds needed under Wine; you can find them on WineHQ.

 

GShade works under Wine, too, and is compatible with DXVK. There is a shell script specifically for installing GShade under Wine.

 

Creating your first character

Note: because of the large influx of new players, I currently recommend creating a new character in the morning or early during the day. At peak hours, some or even all servers may be unavailable for new character creation.

 

So I have started the game, and it prompts me to select a datacenter. Which one should I choose?

 

The de facto RP datacenters are Crystal for North America and Chaos for Europe.

 

At the moment of writing, you can freely visit other worlds on the same datacenter, but you cannot visit other data centers, though that feature is planned to be released in the future (in which case I'll update the guide accordingly). However, even free trial allows you to create one character per world, so if you create your first character somewhere else, there's no need to delete it. You can even create characters on both American and European worlds on the same account!

 

Where can I find lore on the races?

 

See the Final Fantasy Wiki page. There are other sources too.

 

As you have noticed, FFXIV races don't cleanly map onto familiar D&D-esque fantasy archetypes that WoW largely follows, so it's best to refrain from making assumptions based on visual similarities (though Hyur — the FFXIV word for humans — are, as usual, the most culturally diverse race). Furthermore, the nation-states of Eorzea are largely multiracial, unlike WoW where there are human lands, orc lands, dwarf lands and so on. You will get the "feel" of each race as you play through the storyline.

 

One more thing to keep in mind is that race matters much less in FFXIV than in WoW. There are some expectations, but they're much fuzzier than in WoW. Race identity matters less here; there are general trends, but there aren't really default personalities that your character is expected to conform to. While xenophobia is very much a thing in the FFXIV universe, the relations, both positive and negative, are between nations, not between races, and even the most isolationist and xenophobic places on Hydaelyn are multiracial (though there are racial majorities, like elezen in Ishgard). If you don't feel strongly about the races, you can pick the one that most appeals to you aesthetically. For details on city demographics, see below.

 

The classes are confusing!

 

To someone new to the Final Fantasy franchise, unfortunately, they are. When I started, I had no idea what the difference between a conjurer, thaumaturge and arcanist was.

 

Here's the problem: WoW classes mostly come from D&D, with some renames that nonetheless keep the gist of the class obvious (fighter -> warrior, wizard -> mage, etc). A lot of Western fantasy games borrow from D&D, so you're familiar with these class archetypes through sheer exposure. FFXIV's classes are patterned on previous Final Fantasy games, so there are some that are not obvious.

 

Here's good news, though: unlike WoW, you are not limited to one class. In fact, you can level every class on the same character if you so choose. This is a great boon to RPers because it allows switching between different class-specific gear (and different spell effects) on the same character. No need to level several versions of the same character just to use class-specific transmogs!

 

Also, of course, like WoW, your character doesn't have to belong to their in-game class IC. They can even be a civilian; it helps that crafting jobs in FFXIV work similarly to combat classes.

 

Are there at least rough analogies between WoW and FFXIV classes?

 

Well, here's my personal reading of it. Note that at level 30, every class evolves into a job, some of which have names more familiar from WoW.

 

Disciples of War (martial classes):

• gladiator — paladin (in fact, gladiators become paladins at level 30)
• lancer — no direct equivalent, think of them as warriors restricted to polearms
• marauder — warrior, but limited to axes (in fact, marauders become warriors at level 30)
• pugilist — monk (in fact, pugilists become monks at level 30), and no, I didn't know this word either
• archer — exactly what it means, Marksmanship hunter without pet
• rogue — rogue (but you cannot start as this class)

 

Disciples of Magic (spellcaster classes):

• conjurer — shaman/druid (elemental/nature-worshiping healer)
• thaumaturge — warlock flavor-wise, mage gameplay-wise (direct damage spells)
• arcanist — mage flavor-wise, warlock gameplay-wise (DoTs and pets)

 

Your starting class determines your starting city — either Limsa Lominsa (Seatown), Gridania (Naturetown) or Ul'dah (Arabtown), and you can unlock each class only in its associated city. You will unlock the ability to level other classes after completing the level 10 quest for your starting class. After you complete the main storyline up to level 15, you will unlock the two cities you didn't start in, and will therefore get access to leveling classes exclusive to those cities.

 

As usual in RP, your character doesn't have to come from your starting city IC — though if your character actually is trained in their in-game class, that class's guild in its city is the simplest and most natural explanation for how they acquired that training.

 

The game asks me to pick my character's birthday and patron deity before I even know anything about the setting!

 

Yes, I don't know why these choices are there when they have no gameplay significance at all. If you don't feel like deciding now, feel free to pick at random. It will never come up, and of course your character's IC birthday and deity can be something else. I picked my birth month by rolling a d12, yes, really.

 

Do note the naming pattern for Eorzean months, though. Some people use them in RP. There are 12 months, each consisting of 32 days, and there are 8 days in a week.

 

I'm almost finished creating my character. Which world should I pick?

 

Ultimately, it doesn't matter much as long as you've selected the right datacenter. It's better to select Balmung or Mateus for North America and Omega for Europe, because that's where most RP is. But even if you select a different world, you'll still be able to visit other worlds on the same datacenter and RP there. Free Companies (player guilds), however, are limited to players from the same world.

 

My world is unavailable for character creation!

 

For North America, I don't know if Balmung and Mateus are available for character creation at all — feel free to correct me if they are.

 

For Europe, all worlds, including Omega, periodically become available for character creation. Because of the way the FFXIV server infrastructure is set up, with so many new players, at peak hours most worlds are unavailable for character creation. Square Enix is working to improve the situation, but it's complicated by the COVID pandemic.

 

You can check the current status of the servers here: North America, Europe. Typically, in the morning, all servers will be available; at midday, only some, but European servers will rotate every few minutes, so if Omega is unavailable, you can wait a few minutes and try again. At evening, if you absolutely can't create a character at an earlier time of day, you're unfortunately stuck with whatever servers are available. Otherwise it's best to just try tomorrow morning.

 

Note that once you do create your character, you will be able to play as normal, at any time of day, with only a short login queue in your way.

 

Won't I lose all my progress if I quit character creation?

 

Worry not — the game prompts you to save your appearance customization. Once you're ready to retry creating your character, press the create character button and the game will offer you to load a saved appearance. You'll have to select everything else (birthday, deity, class, world and name) once again, though.

 

This way, if you so desire, you can create exact copies of the same character on different worlds, or create family members by loading a saved customization and changing some appearance details.

 

The last thing left is the character name. What are the naming conventions for the different races?

 

Here's an official thread on naming conventions. Also, each Final Fantasy Wiki race page has a subpage on naming conventions, with a copy of the same material.

 

There is a random name generator that selects first and last name from a long list of premade names. They're guaranteed to be lore-accurate. These names can be viewed on ffxiv.consolegamingwiki.com for each subrace separately; select a subrace from this page to view the entire list of first and last names used in that subrace's random name generator.

 

I've entered the world! What should I focus on first?

 

Your main focus should be getting to level 15 and completing all main story quests and class quests as they are unlocked along the way. Level 15 is a very important milestone for RP for several reasons:

• The main story quests at level 15 unlock all three ARR cities and let you freely travel between them. This is important because many RP events happen all across La Noscea, the Shroud and Thanalan, as well as in three different player housing areas adjacent to the three cities.
• With access to all three cities, you can multiclass into any of the starting classes and use gear specific to them.
• Also at level 15, you unlock glamours (transmog) via a quest in Vesper Bay.

 

Also as a matter of taste, I personally hide nameplates to make my world display more immersive and less cluttered. I've hidden my own name and set everyone else's name to only appear when targeted.

 

Roleplaying: Community

Where are the roleplayers?

 

The unofficial RP world servers are:

• Balmung and Mateus, on the Crystal datacenter, for North America;
• Omega, on the Chaos datacenter, for Europe.

 

Since you can visit other worlds on the same data center, you can pick any world on the appropriate data center (Chaos or Crystal). Eventually, you will be able to visit other data centers, so even that restriction will cease to matter. You're also not restricted to your region: you can create characters on both American and European servers, and attend RP events on both.

 

How do I visit a different world on the same datacenter?

 

Use any major city's aetheryte. Note that you can see your current world above the minimap.

 

How do I find other roleplayers? Are there online communities?

 

Well, one of them is this very website, ffxiv-roleplayers.com! Here, you will find helpful RP guides, a wiki with character profiles, lore discussions, and more.

 

There are also datacenter-wide Discord communities. Reportedly there are several ones for the Crystal data center for North America. For Europe, I recommend the very active Chaos RP Discord community. I myself dwell there and use it to find events.

 

One thing to keep in mind for EU RPers is that Chaos is a much smaller community than either Crystal or WoW's Argent Dawn. Random walk-up RP is rare. Your best bet in getting to know the community lies in daily Tavern Roulette events and in asking for RP on the #lfrp channel. I do, however, hope to help grow the community and eventually remedy this.

 

Update: the Chaos community is now working to make Vesper Bay, Western Thanalan into an open-world RP hub. You, too, can help the initiative take off!

 

Where are other Argent Dawn EU people at?

 

Most of us are on Chaos, some, including me, are in the Chaos RP Discord community. There is also a CWLS (cross-world linkshell, basically in-game chat channel) with some of the frequent Argent Dawn forum posters. If you're from Argent Dawn and I know you, you can PM me on this forum or poke me in the Discord community, and I'll contact you in-game to add you to the Argent Dawn CWLS.

 

Is there an Argent Archives equivalent?

 

To my knowledge, there's nothing comparable to the sheer convenience and sense of community that AA offers. That said, if you're just looking for a place to host your character profile, you can use the wiki here.

 

For Chaos (EU) there is the recently launched Chaos Archives, a character/story/event directory explicitly inspired by Argent Archives. As it's only just been launched, most character profiles will be found on the Chaos RP Discord instead — but feel free to use it for your characters!

 

Where can I find RP event announcements?

 

For North America (Crystal), ffxiv-rp.org provides an event calendar.

For Europe (Chaos), the aforementioned Chaos Archives website has an event calendar. Check out also the #rp-event-announcements channel in the Discord community.

 

Roleplaying: Gameplay general

What RP-specific conveniences are there in-game?

 

While FFXIV doesn't have official RP servers specifically designated as such, it at least acknowledges RP as a valid mode of gameplay:

• There is a roleplaying flag (/roleplaying).
• There is a transmog equivalent, called glamour.
• You can dye some (but not all) gear.
• There is a run/walk toggle.
• There is a random number generator, unlike certain other MMOs (coughGW2cough).
• There is no sharding or "megaservers" (again, coughGW2cough). You will see players from your current world server and nobody else.
• There is player housing, which is customizable with your own furniture.
• Dungeons have an "Explorer Mode": once you have cleared a dungeon once, you can access it in a cleared state with no mobs or other gameplay obstacles.

 

How do I use the RP flag?

 

To mark yourself as roleplaying, use the /roleplaying command. It will change the icon next to your character name to the letters "RP". The RP flag is reset at logout, so you're always marked as OOC upon logging in and need to repeat the command when starting RP.

 

Is there a transmog equivalent, and how do I unlock it?

 

At level 15, a quest becomes available in Vesper Bay (the very west of Western Thanalan) to unlock glamours, FFXIV's equivalent of transmog.

 

There's one problem with glamours: the UI is absolutely atrocious and unintuitive. If you just use glamour prisms to glamour items individually, you'll quickly burn out of them. It's also very inconvenient.

 

Instead, the best way to glamour is to assemble transmog sets, which are known in FFXIV as "glamour plates". Here's a step-by-step guide for assembling your desired look:

 

• Approach the glamour dresser in your inn room.
• Put all items whose appearances you want to use in the glamour dresser (note: this will remove them from your inventory, so if you actually want to wear them, you can buy some other level-appropriate gear from vendors in cities). Putting an item in the glamour dresser consumes a glamour prism, you get 12 of them from the unlocking quest.
• Use the dresser to create a glamour plate, FFXIV's term for transmog set. Add item appearances that you want. You don't have to add an appearance for every gear slot, you can leave as many of them blank as you want.
• Save the glamour plate. From that point on, you can apply it for free in any of the three major cities with the click of a button from the character screen (C).

 

Note that glamours can only be applied if the gear whose appearance is used can be worn by your current class. So, for example, you cannot glamour into Disciple of War gear if you're currently using a Disciple of Magic class.

 

How do I get more glamour prisms?

 

If you've bought the game, you can buy them on the market board. If you're on free trial, that option is unavailable, but you can still craft them. However, I think that by far the most convenient option is to buy them with company seals — a special currency that you will unlock around level 20. Keep doing FATEs (dynamic world events akin to GW2's) and random dungeons, and you'll soon have more company seals than you can spend.

 

How do I dye my gear?

 

Not all gear is dyeable. The quest to unlock dyes, like glamours, is available in Vesper Bay at level 15. Once unlocked, if a piece of gear is dyeable, right-clicking it will show a "Dye" menu item where you can preview how it will look with different dyes.

 

Common dyes (and terebinth, which removes dyes) are available from vendors in the market areas of each of the three starting cities.

 

How do I unequip my weapon?

 

You can't. Gameplay-wise you always have a weapon equipped, because that's how the game determines your current class/job. However, what you can do is hide your weapon using a button under your paperdoll on the character screen (C).

 

How do I hide my headgear?

 

There is a button for that, also under your paperdoll.

 

How do I enter a player housing area?

 

Each of the three ARR player housing areas has a quest to unlock it, called "Where the Heart Is".

• The quest to unlock Mist (Limsa Lominsa housing area) is given in Lower La Noscea.
• The quest to unlock the Lavender Beds (Gridania housing area) is given in the Central Shroud.
• The quest to unlock the Goblet (Ul'dah housing area) is given in Western Thanalan.

 

After you complete that quest, you will be able to teleport to the housing area directly from the corresponding city's aetheryte.

 

Announcements for RP events that take place in housing areas typically have a ward and plot number specified, e.g. "Ward 13, Plot 25" (or just W13 P25 for short). You travel to a ward by selecting it from the aetheryte and clicking "Select", and once there, you run to the plot with said number as written in the map interface. You may have to travel to the sub-ward first (each ward is split into the main ward and the sub-ward) with the aethernet teleporter in the housing area.

 

Unlocking Empyreum and Shirogane, the Ishgard and Kugane housing areas, is more involved. To unlock Empyreum, you need to complete the ARR and Heavensward storylines up to and including patch 5.3. (You'll know when you've done it.) To unlock Shirogane, you need to also complete the Stormblood storyline up to unlocking the city of Kugane. However, if you're a member of a Free Company that has a house in one of these areas, and that house has a Miniature Aetheryte, you will be able to teleport to it even if you haven't unlocked the housing area yourself.

 

How do I hide the UI?

 

The default keybinding is Scroll Lock, you can change it in keybinding settings.

 

How do I toggle run/walk?

 

The default keybinding is /, just like in WoW.

 

How do I transfer my UI settings and gear sets to another machine?

 

Unlike in WoW, action bars and key bindings, as well as HUD positioning, are stored on the client side, not on the server side. If you have multiple installations of FFXIV, you will have to copy files between them to keep them in sync.

 

The settings files are located in the folder Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\FFXIV_CHR[some_numbers] (there is one such folder for each of your character). Here are the files you need to copy to your other system to sync settings:

• ADDON.DAT: HUD positioning.
• GEARSET.DAT: Gear sets.
• HOTBAR.DAT: Positioning of abilities on action bars.
• KEYBIND.DAT: Key bindings.

 

Roleplaying: Player interaction

How do I switch channels between say and party?

 

Use the button to the left of the current channel name, just above the chat input box. Alternatively, typing /s, /p, and similar by itself and pressing Enter switches the channel permanently.

 

You can also temporarily change the current channel via Alt+S, Alt+P, and so on. This only accepts the next chat message you send, after which your previous channel is restored.

 

How do I move or resize the chat window?

There is a resize bar in the corner of the chat window. As for moving, drag it with your mouse by grabbing a spot just left of the channel switcher and input box. Not very intuitive, I know.

 

How do I enable chat bubbles?

 

The game itself doesn't have chat bubbles, but there is third-party software with an in-game plugin for that. Since it skirts the ToS, though in a harmless and purely cosmetic way, standard disclaimers apply and that's all I'll say on the matter.

 

What other features useful in RP can be achieved with third-party software?

 

While I won't name them, there is third-party software that allows you to:

• see who's targeting you
• play sound notifications when words of your choice are mentioned in chat
• see your target's chat history in a separate window (like WoW's Listener addon)

 

Is there an addon for RP profiles like TotalRP?

 

Sadly, no. FFXIV has no official support for addons and thus it's impossible to exchange information between clients beyond what the game itself does.

 

How do I see what standard emotes are available?

 

There is an "Emotes" menu item in the Social menu at the bottom right of your screen. Emotes are also accessible via slash commands, like in WoW; you can find the list here.

 

And yes, they're all animated. Even /facepalm! One caveat is that they don't have aliases, unlike WoW's emotes, and the commands are often not obvious. For example, "You bid farewell to <target>" is /goodbye, not /bye or /farewell.

 

Is it possible to emote with animation only, without a chat message?

 

It is! To do this for a single emote, add " motion" to the command, for example, /wave motion. This will make your character wave their hand without printing anything in the chat log. To disable chat messages for all standard emotes, uncheck the "Display log message" checkbox in the Emotes window (see previous entry).

 

How do I adjust my idle pose?

 

Type /cpose. There are several available poses: just standing, standing with folded arms, akimbo, etc. Sadly, there's no quick way to switch to a specific pose, you have to cycle through them.

 

The /cpose command works while standing, while sitting, while lying down, and even with your weapon unsheathed — with different selections of poses to choose from!

 

How do I type a custom emote?

 

Use the /em command. Unlike WoW, FFXIV won't accept its aliases /e and /me. In fact, /me is a special emote and it's a common novice RPer mistake to type a custom emote, only to see "You point to yourself".

 

How do I sit on a chair?

 

You can sit on chairs, benches, couches, and other seats by approaching them and typing /sit. In LOTRO, where this command actually teleports the nearby chair under your character, making them sit down facing exactly the same direction as when they stood. Here, alas, it isn’t possible; chairs are static.

 

Some seats can fit multiple people; for example, a typical bench has room for three. You can control where you’ll sit down — in the middle, or on the left or right — by standing near that part of the bench before typing /sit.

 

You can force your character to sit on the ground with the /groundsit command.

 

How do I roll?

 

There are two commands for this: /dice <max_number> and /random <max_number>. In RP, it's the former one that you'll be using most of the time.

• /dice with no arguments rolls 0-1000.
• /dice 20 rolls 1-20.
• /dice 100 rolls 1-100, etc.

 

The difference between these two commands is that /random broadcasts the roll result to the say channel while /dice broadcasts it to whatever non-say channel you have selected, so typically /dice is appropriate for game-mechanical rolls (like an attack roll) while /random is appropriate for random events perceivable in the world, such as your character rolling a die. (This is a change from WoW, where there are no random rolls visible outside your party.)

 

Note that /dice will give you an error message if your current channel is set to say. You can press Alt+P to temporarily set the channel to party, send the command, and it will automatically switch the channel to say again.

 

Are there raid markers?

 

Yes, and you can use them in a party, too.

 

Roleplaying: Bardic performances

How do I play musical instruments?

 

If you've played the game even once, you have probably heard in-game musical performances. You may also be used to WoW's fantastic Musician addon by Lenwe. When it comes to FFXIV, there is good news and bad news.

 

The good news is that musical instruments are built into the base game and you don't have to (and indeed can't) install an addon to hear them. This means everyone will hear your performances, not just roleplayers with an addon.

 

The bad news is that they're quite limited compared to the Musician addon. Here are the limitations:

• You can only play one instrument at at time.
• You cannot play more than one note at once, so no chords (though you can play notes very quickly one after the other).
• You are limited to three octaves (from C3 to B5).

 

So how do you unlock musical instruments? Well, for that, you need to unlock the bard job!

• First, you need to level the archer class to 30 and complete its entire questline. If you started as a different class, you can unlock the archer class after completing the level 10 quest for your starting class; after that you can visit the Archers' Guild in Gridania. If you started in Limsa Lominsa or Ul'dah, you will first need to complete the main story quests until level 15 to unlock travel to Gridania.
• At archer level 30, the first bard questline becomes available. Completing it will unlock the bard job.
• As a bard, you will get a new blue quest in Gridania to unlock performance actions. This will make all musical instruments available — no need to unlock them separately.

 

Do I have to play music manually? In WoW, I could play MIDI files.

 

There is third-party software for playing MIDI files in FFXIV. Decide for yourself if you want to use it.

 

Making screenshots in photo mode (gpose)

While not strictly related to roleplaying, this guide would be incomplete without mentioning a very powerful tool for making choreographed screenshots: the /gpose command. Typing it enters a "photo mode", where you can do many things to create exactly the right screenshot, including but not limited to:

• performing a specific movement or emote animation
• freezing/unfreezing your character's animation
• freezing the time of day while you make other adjustments
• turn your character's head in any direction you want
• tilt the camera in ways impossible in normal gameplay, even upside down
• make some of the customizations apply to nearby NPCs (such as making them face the camera, appear to talk, etc.)
• and much more!

 

Lore

FFXIV lore is a very involved subject, and you'll learn most of what you need to RP by playing the story, but here are some starting points. The standard disclaimer applies: all of these are unofficial, and fan-created lore compilations can be inaccurate, so don't use them as a sole source without checking. Beware of unmarked story spoilers.

• An excellent compilation of introductory lore: geography, races, classes, organizations, religions.
• The FFXIV page on the Final Fantasy wiki gives a high-level overview of the setting, with useful links.
• Mirke's Menagerie on Tumblr.
• Plot summary of the end of FFXIV 1.0 — the events leading to the Calamity and the five-year timeskip from 1.0 to 2.0 (ARR). Short version: bad guy tries to drop the lesser of the two moons, everyone else tries but fails to prevent it, moon descends and turns out to be a prison for a giga-dragon that would have Deathwing for breakfast. Destruction ensues.

 

Here is a map of the three continents of Hydaelyn. Aldenard and Vylbrand together comprise Eorzea, the setting of ARR and Heavensward.

 

I'll leave the rest of the lore for you to discover by playing through the game's storyline. I'll address some specific lore questions that may cause confusion for new RPers.

 

What is the world's actual name?

 

By all indications, the absolute majority of denizens of the FFXIV world — including, most likely, your character — would just call it Hydaelyn if they call it by any name at all, with the other meaning of that name being also unknown to most. Indeed, that's the name by which the world is called in Encyclopedia Eorzea.

 

There are two other known names for the world; one is a Heavensward spoiler and the other is an Endwalker spoiler. They are context-specific. Unless your character had dealings with the inner circle of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, they most likely don't know the world by either of these names, or even the reason these names exist at all.

 

Which races are the most likely to come from which cities?

 

According to Encyclopedia Eorzea, the demographics of Eorzea's city-states are:

 

• Limsa Lominsa: 40% Sea Wolf Roegadyn, 20% Plainsfolk Lalafell, 20% Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te, 10% Midlander Hyur, 10% other
• Gridania: 40% Midlander Hyur, 30% Wildwood Elezen, 10% Duskwight Elezen, 10% Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te, 10% other
• Ul'dah: 40% Dunesfolk Lalafell, 30% Midlander Hyur, 10% Highlander Hyur, 10% Hellsguard Roegadyn, 10% other
• Ishgard: 70% Ishgardian Elezen, 20% Midlander Hyur, 10% other
• Sharlayan: officially unknown; in-game it's a mixture of pretty much all races
• Ala Mhigo: 60% Highlander Hyur, 10% Hellsguard Roegadyn, 10% Midlander Hyur, 10% Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te, 10% other

 

Don't treat these figures as saying your character must come from the city where your subrace is most prominent — though if your character comes from an unlikely place, other RPers will likely be curious about how that came to be.

 

Note that this applies to the races available in 1.0 and ARR. Races from Heavensward onwards (Au Ra, Hrothgar, and Viera) come from outside Eorzea and have their own unique lore. Personally, I would recommend playing through Stormblood before deciding to RP an Au Ra, and through Shadowbringers for Hrothgar and Viera.

 

Which classes/jobs would make sense for my character to be IC?

 

This is a topic that can provoke heated discussions, so I'm not going to delve into it too deeply. Let's deal with the hard facts first.

 

• All starting Disciple of War and Magic classes — as opposed to their upgrades that use soul crystals — are fair game. They have organized guilds in the starting cities, and generic NPCs of these classes are readily found across the world. Of course, your character doesn't have to have learned their profession in one of these guilds; for example, your pugilist may have learned the art of fistfighting from a wandering master, and your spellcaster may have studied in Sharlayan.
• All Disciple of the Hand and Land jobs are likewise fair game, for the same reason: these arts are taught in organized guilds in a formalized way.
• White mage and black mage are pretty much off limits to RP characters. Black mages are outright banned (though the base profession, thaumaturge, isn't), and if your character claims to be one, they'll quickly attract the attention of law enforcement. White magic is legally restricted to the Padjal of Gridania, and currently there are only three or four in existence: the Senna siblings and possibly the Warrior of Light if you have unlocked the job.

 

For other jobs with soul crystals, we're entering speculation territory, so use your common sense and the lore presented in the job questline. For example, machinist is a brand new job and its creator is actively recruiting trainees, whereas the way the WoL becomes a dark knight is through a very specific combination of circumstances. For most of those jobs, while it's not literally impossible for your character to have that training, it will probably require you to think of a backstory explaining why they have it.

 

Does the Fantasia potion exist in-universe?

 

Short answer: No.

 

Long answer: There's nothing stopping your character from claiming to have used a Fantasia, but don't expect other RP characters to believe such a thing exists. If you do use it, it's best to use it to either make small cosmetic changes (do check if the Aesthetician will suffice — for things like hairstyle, tattoos and scars, Fantasia is overkill), or to make your in-game character represent a different IC person entirely.

 

Buying and subscribing

 

I like FFXIV and want to upgrade from free trial. How do I buy the game?

 

Listen carefully, because this is somewhat confusing, and this is the part where you make an important and irreversible decision.

 

FFXIV paid accounts are tied to a specific platform. Steam and Windows (non-Steam) are considered separate platforms despite the actual game client being identical. As such:

• If you buy the game on the Square Enix website, you won't be able to install the game via Steam or buy expansions and game time on Steam.
• If you buy the game on Steam, your FFXIV account will forever be tied to your Steam account. You will have to use Steam to buy expansions, too. As for game time, you can set up a subscription either via the Square Enix website or via Steam Wallet.

 

The choice comes down mostly to personal preference. The Square Enix store has more frequent sales, but in some regions, such as the former Soviet Union, Steam offers more lucrative prices overall.

 

How do I buy the game via the Square Enix website?

 

There is a "Buy Now" button on finalfantasyxiv.com. Click it and follow the instructions. You can then log in to the same game client with the same account, without the need to reinstall anything. Alternatively, you can select the "Upgrade via MogStation" link in your FFXIV account management on MogStation.

 

How do I upgrade my free trial to the Steam version?

 

This is a bit more complicated.

 

First, buy FFXIV on Steam — either Starter Edition or Complete Edition. You will get a game code — a series of letters and numbers. (You can view it at any time by right-clicking FFXIV in your Steam library and selecting Manage -> CD Keys.

 

Then, open MogStation and log in with your FFXIV account. Under the "Windows" tab at the bottom of your account settings, click "Enter Registration Code" and enter the code from Steam. You will be asked to confirm linking your accounts, which will permanently change the type of your FFXIV account from "Windows" to "Steam", keeping all characters and progress.

 

Why can't I log in anymore after upgrading to Steam?

 

Your account is not a Windows trial account anymore, it's a Steam account, and those require the game to be installed via Steam (unless you use the unofficial launcher).

 

To save time and avoid redownloading the game from Steam, you can do the following:

• Open the game installation folder (it contains folders named "boot" and "game") and move the "game" folder somewhere else.
• Uninstall FFXIV.
• Click the Install button in Steam, which will install the Steam-compatible version of the launcher.
• Open the Steam FFXIV installation folder (typically <Steam folder>\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY XIV Online) and replace the "game" folder with the one you moved out previously.

 

All your client settings (HUD, keybindings, etc.) will be preserved.

 

---

 

And that's all. Enjoy Eorzea, and feel free to post corrections and suggestions!

Edited August 30, 2022 by Lintian
expansion

[Kayplays]

Really loving this guide so far; WoW is the closest analogue I have for FF14, outside of the other Final Fantasy games which... Are a little bit of a departure, gameplay wise!  Without a doubt the thing that trips me up the most is the lack of speech bubbles over the character heads, and it's probably the one thing I miss quite a bit.  (the /me emote follows close behind, though I figured that one out pretty quickly!)

[Lintian]

Updated the post to reflect:

• the launch of the Endwalker expansion
• the launch of Chaos Archives for Chaos (EU), a directory website similar to Argent Archives for WoW's Argent Dawn server.

[Lintian]

Now that I actually finished the story with all expansions some time ago, I've made some lore updates for subjects that, from my experience, frequently come up among new RPers. Also added some more RP gameplay advice.

[Nelryth]

As a old-heavy RPer from them ol'WoW days?
This helps more than anything, thanks.

[Maril]

On 5/22/2022 at 1:56 PM, Lintian said:

Now that I actually finished the story with all expansions some time ago, I've made some lore updates for subjects that, from my experience, frequently come up among new RPers. Also added some more RP gameplay advice.

 

Hey there - I am hoping this might ping you. 
I'm in the process of trying to find all of the various guides with the intent to save them in a Google Docs, since the RPC is shutting down for good soon. 
Do you have a backup of this guide already? If not, then you may wish to back it up before the 1st of september. 

[Lintian]

On 8/15/2022 at 2:21 AM, Maril said:

Do you have a backup of this guide already?

I'm in the process of moving I've moved this guide to Chaos Archives, which will get a wiki feature so it can store any future guides as well.

 

Do feel free to make a copy on Google Docs. I hereby license this guide under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA) license. Everyone is free to share it and make derivative works, as long as they credit me and license them under the same terms, without the need to get my explicit permission.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Lintian