[edit] random thoughts

[Mage]

have you ever just made a character for rp and be like "your past was tragic enough, you don't need anymore crap." or "you're going to be a joy, and have a sweet ending." then later on as you rp them they get into situations and get trapped and now you look at them and you just feel sad. like "i don't want to play you anymore because i know nothing happy is going to happen to you ever now." 

 

Or you have like that one friend who you rp with for like...ever all times all rps. and you suddenly get a sad idea, but instead of your friend saying "no, stop thinking that." they join you in the feels train, and it just makes it worse. and the worse part is is that it can be so damn cannon so your just sitting in the corner crying. 

 

i made unrealistic sounds talking about some of my ARR character. unrealistic. sounds.

 

i have no idea if this is where this little thing goes. *crawls away*

[Maril]

Never say never. 

 

I'm serious. RP is unpredictable, in far the most cases you can't ever plan and ending and neither should you. It's the input from the people and the world around you that helps shape them and make them feel more.. Real. The Characters that is. The more time that passes, the more the characters start to play you rather than the other way around and you get all like "No please do not do that", but it happens anyways and then you get all sorts of emotional. 

I think overall, it's healthy to have it like that sometimes. Just as long as it doesn't become a constant discouragement - They'll get out of the stuff they're in eventually. 

 

Though on the note with the backgrounds, I do tend to make mine not so heavy on the tragic events during their past. It's much more fun to see your character derail because stuff starts happening, in my opinion.

[Gray]

have you ever just made a character for rp and be like "your past was tragic enough, you don't need anymore crap." 

 

Not specifically, no, though I've had a couple characters like that, and tried to keep them from getting involved in too much sad stuff.  But it can be tough, because everyone is trying to rp the "tortured soul looking to be saved" so there's a lot of sad going around.

 

 

"or "you're going to be a joy, and have a sweet ending." then later on as you rp them they get into situations and get trapped and now you look at them and you just feel sad. like "i don't want to play you anymore because i know nothing happy is going to happen to you ever now." 

 

Many, many times...I don't even know what a happy ending is.

 

Or you have like that one friend who you rp with for like...ever all times all rps. and you suddenly get a sad idea, but instead of your friend saying "no, stop thinking that." they join you in the feels train, and it just makes it worse. and the worse part is is that it can be so damn cannon so your just sitting in the corner crying. 

 

No.  Never had anyone stick with me long enough for that.  Sometimes I get halfway there, then they bail.  The result is pretty much the same as yours though.

 

i made unrealistic sounds talking about some of my ARR character. unrealistic. sounds.

 

Do tell...

 

 

Point is...no, you aren't the only one.

[Mage]

I know, it's one of the many joys of rp. though it's hard not just look at a character and say, that they'll have something nice in the end. 

 

personally i  like to jump back and forth, but realized that a nice balance between happy and sad is pretty fun, because of how two different character might react to the same situation. 

 

I think the most fun i had was talking ooc about a situation or what might happen. then rping it out and finding out that the characters had either made your fears a thousand times worse, or not as bad as you had thought. it's kind of hit or miss.

[Jana]

I've had a character whom I'd intended to give a bad ending end to up with a happy one, for what it's worth.

[Mage]

I'm sorry guys, i'm like...on this super feels train today, i'll change the subject and ask about other things. 

 

So, what's your guys's take on retainers, like from an ic perspective. 

 

Idk if retainers were here since 1.0 or not. but my head cannon is that the retainer system was a way to provide shelter and possible work for refugees instead of having them live on the streets and probably resort to crime. and that you actually do pay your retainer to run like a shop or to help you out when your too busy to do small things.

[FreelanceWizard]

1.x had retainers, and they served to hold and sell your goods back then, too. The lore on them is that they're hired by the Adventurers' Guild to adventurers with proper authorization to help manage their affairs. The fees are paid by the Guild for all services except ventures, which are paid using Ventures (which, presumably, the retainers can exchange for gil somewhere).

 

Beyond that, you can pretty much do whatever you like, I think. If you wanted your retainers to be refugees, for instance, that'd work, but other options exist as well. By way of example, one of L'yhta's retainers was her master's retainer as well, and he's chosen to let his contract follow to the apprentice. Her other retainer is a relative who followed her to Limsa Lominsa and is working as a retainer while he learns the ropes of adventuring and combat.

 

EDIT: To the original question, yeah, I've been there. I had an extremely happy-go-lucky character in CoH who had an extremely dark backstory, and through the course of RP, things just got increasingly dark for her as she became more and more isolated. It got to the point where I just didn't want to RP her any more. The solution was to just put her aside for a bit and switch to an alt that wasn't so beaten up.

[Mage]

oh snap i didn't even know that, thanks ....i hate you smilies. disable you so hard. 

 

okay so another question. what's your thoughts about the soul stone? could it be something used in rp? like outside of personal ones. what are the disadvantages of having one. and such?

[Warren Castille]

oh snap i didn't even know that, thanks ....i hate you smilies. disable you so hard. 

 

okay so another question. what's your thoughts about the soul stone? could it be something used in rp? like outside of personal ones. what are the disadvantages of having one. and such?

Soulstones fall into a tricky situation lore-wise. They indicate your job, but they're received during the job questline. It's unreasonable to think that every White Mage is holding a soulstone because (SPOILERS). Similarly, there's an entire fleet of paladins working for the Sultana but I don't suspect that every one of them carries a soulstone.

 

There's no reason to suppose that there aren't other backgrounds or histories that could go into having one, but I don't think they're required. My two cents, anyway.

 

On the other, less-happy topic: I adhere to the idea of letting the world shape your character. Backstory serves as a jumping-on point but I tend to play pretty generic backgrounds. As a result of this, I tend to not really plan the sorts of highs and lows my folks meet along the way. I've had some people on cloud nine suddenly get their feet swept out from under them and crash fairly hard, but I also believe that pain is growth.

 

When bad things happen, your character can either get swept beneath the waves or rise up to meet the challenge. XIV is a fairly dire world when it comes down to brass tacks, so I think a little angst is par for the course, but part of the appeal for me is finding a way through no matter what. I keep Warren's history and experiences fairly close to the vest (I think maybe two people on these forums know what's going on with him) but that's sort of the idea: He's oathbound and isn't about to let his personal issues compromise that, so he carries on.

 

It sucks when things get so heavy you no longer enjoy playing the character, but there's outlets for that. Take them to a hub on a weekend night. Have them mingle at the Coffer and Coffin when they're hosting. Take them to the Grindstone and beat that aggression out. Just don't stop fighting. Pain is growth.

[Coatleque]

Warren, we still have to meet at some point. People keep comparing us to each other!

 

As to the OP's question, I think I actively go looking to mentally destroy my characters sometimes. The worst situation I've been in is way back in NWN. My character was a Ranger Captain in a LotR world. He fell in love with a woman who turned out to be a Black Numenorean trying to destroy them from within. Heady times.

 

CC has a borderline split personality. She's all business when in uniform, but a wall-flower when not. Internally she hates herself. Externally she tries to appear like more than she is. It will be interesting to see what pushes her over the edge.

[Warren Castille]

Warren, we still have to meet at some point.  People keep comparing us to each other!

 

As to the OP's question, I think I actively go looking to mentally destroy my characters sometimes.  The worst situation I've been in is way back in NWN.  My character was a Ranger Captain in a LotR world.  He fell in love with a woman who turned out to be a Black Numenorean trying to destroy them from within.  Heady times.

 

CC has a borderline split personality.  She's all business when in uniform, but a wall-flower when not.  Internally she hates herself.  Externally she tries to appear like more than she is.  It will be interesting to see what pushes her over the edge.

Oho? This is news to me. I'm looking forward to it!

[Aya]

Warren, we still have to meet at some point.  People keep comparing us to each other!

*Guilty*

[Warren Castille]

Warren, we still have to meet at some point.  People keep comparing us to each other!

*Guilty*

WHAT DID YOU DO, RAY.

 

WHAT DID YOU DO

[Jancis]

CC has a borderline split personality.  She's all business when in uniform, but a wall-flower when not.  Internally she hates herself.  Externally she tries to appear like more than she is.  It will be interesting to see what pushes her over the edge.

 

Either way she's so adorable. *love*

[Mae]

okay so another question. what's your thoughts about the soul stone? could it be something used in rp? like outside of personal ones. what are the disadvantages of having one. and such?

The two jobs that I can comment on (Bard and White Mage), the storylines very much have a "you're the only one" feel to them, and I'm under the impression that some of the other jobs are the same. If XIV were a single-player game, for those jobs there would only be one soul stone for it in existence. Buuuuuuut, it's not a single-player game, so the storyline lore doesn't quite make sense.

 

All that being said, I personally ignore the existence of soulstones up until someone someone else specifically brings them up... and then I go back to ignoring them afterwards. Mostly because I can't really find a good reason for them to exist other than a game mechanic that could be tied to why I can't talk to an NPC if I'm sitting on a mount. Mage/casting jobs could possibly justify them through saying they're a foci of some sort that's needed to channel special spells, but for the more melee jobs... it just doesn't make much sense to me. "Ohhai, I can't punch/stab/hack/jab/shoot you like that unless I wave around a magic stone first and transform!" It's kind of Sailor Moon-ish to me, and while I love Sailor Moon... it's just weird here.

 

have you ever just made a character for rp and be like "your past was tragic enough, you don't need anymore crap." or "you're going to be a joy, and have a sweet ending." then later on as you rp them they get into situations and get trapped and now you look at them and you just feel sad. like "i don't want to play you anymore because i know nothing happy is going to happen to you ever now." 

 

Or you have like that one friend who you rp with for like...ever all times all rps. and you suddenly get a sad idea, but instead of your friend saying "no, stop thinking that." they join you in the feels train, and it just makes it worse. and the worse part is is that it can be so damn cannon so your just sitting in the corner crying. 

There is almost always a way out of those unhappy situations. Sometimes you really have to search for them OOCly, and sometimes you have to have a character really crawl through the mud on their hands and knees before you can get there. I actually look forward to those times because I see them as opportunities to either make a character stronger or break them further so that later they'll get the chance to grow strong again.

 

My XI character (yes, I still play and RP in XI), the past year or so has totally chewed her up. Friends have disappeared, are going insane or changing, the guy she's in love with is dying, and every thing she's tried to do to help and protect the people she cares for has failed. And while I haven't personally liked going down the mental/emotional paths that everything has taken that character, I have every intention on turning the situation and further bad ones (cause I know things aren't going to start getting better for a long while) into a huge milestone in her personal growth.

 

I tend to find that characters I make that have absolutely no angst/trauma in their backstories are harder for me to motivate. They have everything they want, they really -would- be content to just sit around and be a normal person. This is another problem I had with my original character here; she was so stupidly happy and had as close to a perfect childhood as could be imagined, that the ONE bad thing that had happened to her (getting lost for a couple years), she barely even noticed. She's actually made for a much more amusing Retainer than an RP character.

 

So, what's your guys's take on retainers, like from an ic perspective. 

 

Idk if retainers were here since 1.0 or not. but my head cannon is that the retainer system was a way to provide shelter and possible work for refugees instead of having them live on the streets and probably resort to crime. and that you actually do pay your retainer to run like a shop or to help you out when your too busy to do small things.

Depends on the character. 

 

Kara doesn't have retainers ICly yet. When she does, the one that'll be dealing with Gridanian business will be my first RP character, which did get turned into a retainer (Silke/Sillke). The rest will be random people she gets assigned or hires.

 

The Gardener won't ever have IC retainers. Same with Swyn. Neither have the personality to have them.

 

Luc'a will also have Silke as a retainer. The other slots, I've no idea how I'll fill them. Maybe I'll make one of them his brother.

 

Whisper, hers will be refugees that got out of the camp and into real jobs.

 

My villain, his are personal slaves.

 

Mallow... her 'minions'. Stray children that she's found. I'll make them all Lalafells and give them flower names. Or after Titania's retainers in Midsummer Night's Dream...

[Hyakki]

Oh, do I know that feel...

 

Del is a character I've played in PSO and WoW. He was always was meant to be a happy, easygoing guy that wanted to explore, make friends along the way and have exciting stories to tell his family back home. He was my go-to guy when I needed a break from more serious RP on other characters.

 

Current RP is threatens to give the FFXIV Del grey hair and send him to an early grave via stress-induced heart attack or liver failure. To have him walk away from the situation and go back to being his happy-go-lucky self again would be out of character, so he is stuck seeing it through to the end. Even when the plot ends, he's changed. If Mama Merillat knew what her sweet little boy had gotten caught up in, it would break her heart. :cry:

 

I feel terrible every time have to log in and drag him through another unpleasant situation.

[Mage]

Thank you all for your responses :3

 

i love learning new things and peoples points of view. soulstones do have that sort of sailor moon feel to them lol. though i always looked at them sort of like Datarons. or holocrons where they teach you but you don't really need them. but also sort of always in your head, telling you what to do or how to handle a situation. a mentor on the go *giggles* 

 

 

As for my own character drama's Lafeal and I'sis are in one hell of a love box thing. it's just all kinds of bad choices mixed with feels. and then i sort of made a disease that my characters all have which is to sort of explain away my constant dc-ing. >.< which is, they black/pass out  and it just seems to get worse over the years. one of my character's mother is in a coma because of it.