Help me decide where to go with my character, please

[SunKittyEm]

I have a character who has, ICly, been a criminal and -wants- to be a criminal. And, aside from actually doing anything RP-wise that's criminal, she acts like one. She tends to be confident and aggressive, slightly paranoid, and frequently walks away from friends because she's got business to take care of.

 

I just never do the 'business'  IC, mostly because all of my current RP contacts are on the other side of thigns - they may be -aware- of her criminal aspect, but they don't help and don't participate, and E definitely wouldn't do anything to them. And there's also that, ICly, she's supposed to be the -boss- of her little syndicate - or large syndicate, or whatever. So it's not like I can go around RP'ing petty theft for others to get in on.

 

And I realise, there's an OOC reason for this. I won't name names, but i used to have a group I'd run with where we did the criminal element to my character. They'd meet up and discuss things quietly in character. Or we'd find someone who wants something done for them, and RP that out and my character -felt- like the big, scary, sadistic badass criminal bitch she is. I haven't felt that lately and the reason is because that group I used to be with I slipped quietly out of due to some OOC drama with one member.

 

And so, I've been void of contacts for that side of RP. I mean, sure, I'm also into progression, I like running my roulettes every day (It's the only way I can see to make money for someone who refuses to use the craft system) and so, I don't rp constantly, which may get in the way of finding more contacts. And to, I tend to hang out around my FC's housing, so I'm sabotaging myself there on finding new people. Although we do have that event every saturday, and people come in for random rp all the time... but anyway. 

 

My issue is that, I don't know. My character doesn't -feel- like a criminal when I RP her, which equates to not really feeling like... you know, like her. So I don't know. I could put out a call for some people willing to serve as underlings / lieutenants in E's organisation, or I could move away from the criminal part of her entirely, but then I'm not sure what she'd do to support herself. Sure, her past(wandering Eorzea on her own for seven years) and the habits it instilled in her means she really doesn't need to spend gil very often. She owns the house she lives in, she hunts for and prepares all of her own food, because she can and she doesn't really care much for constantly updating her wardrobe.

 

But a way for her to maintain income isn't the issue on that side, it's, what does she do to -live- then? She's already proven to herself IC that  she can't go back to wandering on her own and she's not the sort to really enjoy working -for- another, so I don't think defaulting to a position at the FC's establishment would be something I'd enjoy. Instead, I just kinda... have let the issue sit aside. And I had some conversation with someone else in the criminal rp thing, and we briefly discussed having E's group and theirs go up against each other, but I was like, I can't, because OOC I don't have anyone working for my character, and you've got, like, twenty PCs running around for you. 

 

So I dunno. What do y'all think. Should I try to find something else for E, or should I spend some time and energy looking for lieutenants to get back in on these criminal 'nanigans?

[Zhavi]

Come to meeeee, come to meeeee --

 

I'll send you a pm with some ideas I'd talked to another couple players with. While I'm not rping in game until May (usually when I'm in game now I'm farming while reading articles for class or taking notes for class), I've been doing a decent bit of forum rp, and brainstorming when the opportunities have presented themselves.

 

I put Zhi in the position of someone on the lower rung of things specifically for the purpose of helping make people with characters who do exist on the upper end feel a bit fuller. I usually play the role of spot filler, utilizing npcs and helping build framework to either graft myself into ongoing rp or help build in an area where things aren't as established. I've decided to stick to Limsa (the character doesn't ever leave the city and its surrounding area, heh), though, so there's that.

 

But, you know, I think there's a few sides to the criminal rp. There's the lifestyle (out of choice or necessity), profit (criminal activities are lucrative, and that feels good. Why does any rich criminal keep going even when they don't need to?), and control. Too, sometimes it's just a matter of being good at something, and either not being as good with something else or not knowing any other way.

 

But yeah, I can't promise twenty pcs running around or anything like that, but I can offer up intrigue and power plays that won't immediately require those pcs. There are others running about in Ul'dah, so that'd be something worth checking out too (there are some omgamazing criminal-esque characters in Ul'dah, I don't have their wikis offhand, but I remember reading several of them and thinking they were really awesome).

 

Imma send you that pm now.

[Valtiere]

I like to RP criminal characters and I usually have at least one character in any game who is up to no good. I don't have one in FFXIV yet, mainly because I haven't been here for a while, but its really tempting to roll a character to join you (T'zhumii might but I already have her in an FC and I'm not sure where I'm going with her just yet). I've also not seen too many criminal themed LS's or FC's around to join with that kind of character so I've held back from making one so far.

 

Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be free to RP too much until the middle of May because of offline stuff but if you do stick with it I might have a character to join you.

[MrPoopyButtHole]

You could always make your character an established criminal who made a boat load of gil off illegal things who is finally trying to make the illegal gil clean (Gil Laundering ). She tries to set up a "shop" or whatever business you like to make all her wealth seem legitimate but her criminal dealings in the past catch up with her slowly. 

 

Good luck and hopefully you work something out. If you were see Pyralis you can approach him for shady things. He has loose morals when it comes to many a things.

[Kage]

Gonna tell it straight how I see it. You can tell me I know nothing, cause I don't know anything.

 

It sounds like you want to be able to RP it out with E having an active criminal role, a sizeable one at that. To put it away, it seems like, means E isn't the character she's developed into for you. Also, it's not fun for you if she does give it up. Yet, at the moment you can't because there's no one RPing with E being the underlings, posse, etc.

 

I think you made that first step to what I was going to suggest which is just spend the time OOC to build E's syndicate since it seems a little hard to try and do it ICly. Maybe someone's willing to double cross their old group because E pays more... or she's more ruthless than their old boss... or she proves to be more competent than the old one etc.

[C'kayah Polaali]

As the guy who put together the group you're talking about (and presumable the one with the OOC drama you're blaming for the dissolution of said group), I'll give you a very public piece of advice:

 

It takes work to do what the NHSC used to do. Quite a bit of work.

 

Most of the work involved actually finding plots for us to participate in. You'll recall that the main charter of the group, OOCly, was to participate in other people's arcs on the criminal side. I spent probably about 5-10 hours a week talking to people about these arcs. OOC limitations, timing, consequences, storyline concepts and the like all have to be discussed. Sometimes things would crop up after a few hours of discussions that made it clear we weren't suited to the arc - For ever arc that resulted in an item in the NHSC forums, there were probably another 2 that never made it that far because of this.

 

Once we actually had something on the forums, the work didn't stop. Any arc that actually progressed required work to maintain. Talking to the other people involved; keeping up on changes; etc. 

 

As an aside, you'll recall how often those arcs failed to progress for reasons outside of our control: That's common. You have to accept it, and accept that the work you put into that is gone. Sunk costs are irrelevant.

 

Finding members, too, took work but that's mainly fun. Meeting people, talking to them, and the like. That's all fun, but it does require you to get out of your FC house. The way I'd typically do it (for new members, not people I knew who I brought in) was I'd go somewhere public when I was bored and simply look for roleplayers. I'd examine people who were RPing, or walking, or even just sitting around, and I'd look at their tags. Anyone who looked likely would get a /tell. We'd chat a little or a lot, and sometimes it would come out that they were interested in criminal RP.

 

Same thing goes for maintaining connections with other criminal RPers. It takes time. You have to identify them. Find them. Talk to them. Some are happy with a quick OOC convo to establish a relationship, while others want to RP out fairly involved stuff.

 

So I guess my advice to you, E, is that if you want to do more of that sort of thing, you need to either get out of your FC house and put it together, or you need to find someone else who is willing to do the work. From my own experience, joining a RP FC that runs organized RP is a fantastic thing. I know you're very happy in Lady, so this isn't necessarily something you feel comfortable doing. An alternative might be to link yourself in to some FCs long-running RP on the villain side. Again, though, you'd need to get out of your FC house and do the work.

 

 I wish you all the fortune in the world, E. Emelie is a fantastic character, you were good at criminal RP, and I know you liked it. I hope you're successful at finding it.

[Melkire]

An alternative might be to link yourself in to some FCs long-running RP on the villain side.

 

I feel like this can't be emphasized enough.

 

There is always demand for criminals/villains/antagonists for long-running FC plots. Mook, head honcho, either way, what it comes down to is that it's much easier and much more organic to have a unique PC handled by a different player managing the "bad guys", because otherwise whoever's in charge of running the plot has to double-time it as the villains in addition to their own characters.

 

It's not something I've personally done, as my sole RP character isn't currently positioned to engage in criminal activities, but getting in contact with leaders of small RP-oriented FCs to ask, "Hey, I like RPing criminals/villains/whatever, do you guys need a bad guy for your plot, and do you think my character would fit in that role?" is something that I imagine would make for faster progress than hanging around taverns/FC housing and trying to roleplay your way INTO such a position.

 

 

 

tl;dr: this is one of those cases where discussing and arranging things OoC will make for much more and much faster headway than trying to do it all IC.

[SunKittyEm]

Thanks for the advice Kage. Since making this post I've done a few little things here and there with the people I do know - mostly, I've just had E call in nameless NPCs to do things, casually demonstrating that she can, at will, call a dude to do something. Like clean up blood and hide bodies. (which she did!) So, yeah. But you're right; finding and building a group with an OOC search is going to get the desired results much quicker than going about with, like, an IC recruiting session.  ^^ I'll start asking 'round (though this thread is partially for that purpose too!

 

@T'zhumii: My character name is Emelie Annel on Balmung ^^ feel free to send me a friend request whenever you get around to making a character to help her out - if I'm not busy doing something else, I'm always 100% ready to help do things like level an alt or gear up a class or RP some shenanigans. Whatever it takes to be superbuddy!

 

@C: Thanks for the words, but while I am looking for -criminal- rp, I'm not looking to be NHSC 2.0, by which I mean to say... Emelie doesn't exist solely for the purpose of helping out other people by serving as a villain. She's not a -villain- character, she's not an -evil- character, because defining a person as one or the other tends to make the rp community react by saying "Oh, they're not a real character, they exist to be defeated." And that's not what I want with Emelie. Hell, I'm not adverse to playing an antagonistic role every so often - as a criminal, Emelie's likely to find other criminals to compete against, or even law-enforcement. Or, hey, a group of people trying to dismantle Emelie's group, essentially vigilantes. Who's to say people can't play the villain to Emelie's group, someone else playing the hero to be the antagonistic force that gets, if not outright defeated, at least evaded. It'd be a hell of a lot more fun to me to find someone who knows Emelie's dealing in criminal shit but can't seem to make it work. I don't really like how the community reads "Criminal roleplayer" and assumes "villain rp."

 

Skies above I am way too tired to be making my point here. >.>

 

(BTW Zhavi, sorry I haven't gotten around to responding to your pm. Fell asleep halfway through a reply an dhave just kinda forgotten about it and now I need to go collapse again)

[C'kayah Polaali]

I think you're misreading my point, E. I'm not saying "Here's a recipe for re-creating the NHSC". I'm simply illustrating that it takes work - both IC and OOC - in order to get any sort of RP going. I used the NHSC as an example because you're familiar with it, so you can look at what I'm saying and see the results that came out of it.

 

Re-reading your original post, I'm a little confused about what you're asking, to be honest. Are you looking for advice on how to cultivate criminal RP (which is what I thought you were asking)? Are you looking for advice on how to feel like a criminal without relying on other people? Are you simply looking for suggestions for your character?

 

I think that's the question you need to answer for yourself, to be honest. If you have a clear idea of where you want to go, then it'll be easier for you to see what you've got to do to get there.

[LandStander]

Im going to agree with what Kayah said. I think the important thing to do is get comfortable enough to step out of your FC <3. Sometimes I run into random RP and after getting to know them and I feel like they may gravitate towards criminal RP I ask them a series of questions IC to see how they answer. If that further gives me more reason to believe they are then I may out right pursue them and try to recruit. And other times I may be talking about Denn OOC and someones shows interest so we arrange a meeting to see if they would mix well. Sometimes I get turned down, sometimes it works!

 

There are a lot of characters in the game who are not into that, but you would be surprised about some who are. Just gotta take the risk of getting out there and asking ^^