Hey, everyone! :3

[Swift]

Hiya! Thanks for stopping by my first little thread here, hopefully I'll get the chance to chat with 'ya soon ^^

 

I suppose I should start with a little about myself, considering this is an introduction and all. I'm a male college student of 22 years (I actually just celebrated my birthday on July 8th ;D) with an overabundance of imagination and not enough outlets to sling it all out at. Though my major is in Graphic Design, another big hobby of mine (aside from being an avid gamer and trying to fill out sketchbooks) is creative writing--particularly the roleplaying sort, but I'll get into that in a sec. 

 

Adventure games and RPGs have always been towards the top of my list when it comes to gaming, and I feel pretty comfortable saying that the Legend of Zelda is my favorite series among them. Final Fantasy is also particularly close to my heart despite the fact that I've not owned any Sony consoles (I was always more of a Nintendo and Xbox kind of guy. Though I donno about all this XboxOne business--perhaps that's another thread entirely in and of itself ). However, Final Fantasy XI was my first experience with a large, subscription-based MMO, and thus I have very many fond memories of playing it for who-knows-how-long. I came in somewhere shortly after Rise of the Zilart and quit a few months after Treasures of AU. The sense of immersion and adventure really plucked some strings in my creative engine, and to this day, I often find myself humming the Gustaberg theme while daydreaming about my first steps in Vana'diel.

 

But enough about all that--let's talk about why I'm here!

As I mentioned, roleplaying is a big hobby of mine, and serves as a means to "simulate my own RPG" when games fail to scratch my adventuring itch from time to time. My beginnings were fairly humble, taking place on the RuneScape roleplaying forums of all things, where I met most of the wonderful people that I still write with, today. A series of unfortunate events, a surge of (very) young players, and some unsympathetic moderators eventually forced my friends and I away from those boards and into our own private sites. The rest after that, is history.

 

However, if one fundamental thing popped out of all this, it's that I never mentioned any history of roleplaying on any games--that's because, quite frankly, I haven't! Almost all of my creative writing has been done via forums, message boards, chatrooms, etc., where most players would play via writing long, detailed paragraphs. The descriptions themselves were our immersion, and allowed the scenes, characters, and worlds to be painted within our minds.

 

But now, I wish to challenge myself. I want to branch out and try something new with my creativity--I want to try RPing in-game for the first time. This is the part where I'm going to need your help.

 

See, when it came to what made my characters not just unique among my friends' characters but also among each of my own were the heavy descriptions and subtle details I mentioned before.

My gloomy Tiefling refused to look people in the eye; my Master Thief frequently attached fluent gestures to his suave manor of speaking; my passionate Elf wielded her greatsword with twirling, almost dance-like motions; and of course my curious Catfolk had a nasty habit of only pushing doors open just far enough for him to squeeze through, almost shutting his tail in the doorway as it shut behind him every time. 

One of my biggest concerns about roleplaying in-game the inability to point out such subtle--but meaningful--details frequently. If I walk Merkaris through a door, for example, it always opens up all the way. Of course, the quirks I listed are just one of the many that all of those character exhibited, and as I said before, all these little things come together to make my characters who they are.

 

In order to achieve the same effect, I'm going to have to find another way to convey these little characteristics, or simply abandon them (for the most part, anyway) in favor of another method of personalizing them. So far, with my lack of experience in in-game roleplaying, however, I've yet to come up with a solid solution.

 

So, that's why I'm here--I need your help! It's all part of my personal challenge, and I'd love to see what I'm missing out on!

 

If you've read all the way through this (It got a LOT longer than I thought it would, lol), thank you very much for your time and interest, and I can't wait to meet you ^^

[Gideon Aryeh]

Oh wow, Leviathan folk, I was wondering when you guys were going to show up. Welcome to the site.

[Swift]

Leviathan was the server I randomly received on XI, and so--not knowing of any special qualities among the XIV beta servers--I decided to stick to my roots when I had to pick one for the beta ;P

 

I've met a lot of really awesome people there, and I plan on going back to meet them in Phase 4 ^^

[Xenedra]

Hello! Please tell me you're going to draw for us. It's always great to see a new art thread :3! As for your quirks.. just emote them! There's a lovely feature in game where you can write out your own. Example:

 

/em enters the room, soaking for head to toe from a sudden downpour. Her mood is CLEARLY sour and she refuses to acknowledge any inside with more than a grunt.

 

The game just tacks your name onto the beginning and puts it in a different color to differentiate it from and spoken text. So easy, right?

 

Anyhoo, welcome to the RPC!

[Monogatari]

Welcome to the RPC! As Xenedra said, you can always emote things. I try not to get too tied down by the game's limitations as I figure we all have enough imagination to cope with small details like the ones you mentioned. My main character will be on Balmung, but I'm planning on visiting every server people RP on. Hopefully I'll get to meet your character in-game one day!

[Swift]

An art thread? Hm.. I don't know about that just yet It takes me a lot of effort and motivation to make something that's presentable enough for public viewing, lol.

 

I am familiar with the emote system, and I love using it for casual goofing-off, but I'm not quite sure how much I'd really like it for actual roleplaying just yet. The fact that my name always appears at the start of the sentence kind of limits how I can structure it. That, and if my user name differs from my character's name... it'd feel odd.

 

I had a thought. Would it be acceptable to ramble-out actions and descriptions in /say (or /party as the case may be)? For example:

 

Turning this...

/em slumps himself up against the rough trunk of a nearby tree, panting heavily as his ears laid flat against the top of his head in a distressed fashion.

/say That was close! How could a marmot be so ferocious!?

 

Into...

/say Slumping himself up against the rough trunk of a nearby tree, Merkaris panted heavily, laying his feline ears against the top of his head in a distressed manner. "That was close!" he huffed out, exhausted. "How could a marmot be so ferocious!?"

[Martiallais]

Welcome aboard!

 

As for the answer about emote use...if this game follows most others, it will all fall to preference. Who you're rp'ing with, how busy the area is, as well as what you feel comfortable with will dictate what works. I'd be willing to be that both variants will be welcome, even if it just takes a little time for people to adjust & adapt to one or the other.