I've been thinking for awhile about how to address the somewhat lack of excitement that people have for our social RPs, largely because I when we started Chains of Promathia we decided that we wanted more socials and yet it still feels like missions are "where it's at" so to speak.

Not wanting to jump to making missions more common, I want to fix the RP social to give it something to open up more content to our characters. We began Chains of Promathia on a strong note, and people particularly seemed to enjoy the organization that was required with the famine scenario we had planned. While I still think scenarios should play a role in the future of the RP, I think its become evident that we need something to fill in the gap between scenarios to keep the socials active.

Last night we discussed about while the current set up of the RP has served us well–the band of friends who go on to save the world–our characters have, in many ways, outgrown that level of organization. Some of the characters have saved the world, are regarded as national heroes even. Some may have not been there for some of the previous events but are still equally powerful in what they will be able to bring to the group.

In this game, players start out, form a linkshell with a few friends, and as they progress and become skilled, they often form a tighter bond of equally skilled players either for their own purposes or join an endgame linkshell. I was thinking that kind of shift should happen to our characters, in the formation of what we're temporarily calling an adventurer company.

You could describe this as an in character endgame linkshell. Our characters would create an adventuring organization designed to help the nations of Vana'diel, as well as eliminate the Notorious Monsters that are terrorizing Vana'diel's areas. The word mercenary comes to mind but it's more in the do-goody nature of the idea of the adventurer. The group would seek profit but would not necessarily only help for profit; after all, we'd want good public reputation wouldn't we? That requires volunteering.

Merits to this idea include:

Notorious Monster Storyline:

Notorious Monsters are everywhere in Vana'diel, yet very few of them have any storyline to them at all. I'd like to turn this over to our RPers to come up with storyline regarding the monsters… have one of us receive a report regarding a Goobbue destroying the Rolanberry patches near Jeuno, and we've been contracted to eliminate it. We could use this forum, in fact, as a Notorious Monster posting board, where we write up reports that we receive IC regarding the monster, where its located, what its done, etc, and begin the hunt in an RP.

Player Advancement:

One of the problems with the mission RPs that we've realized over time is that only a few benefit from the mission RPs in terms of in-game progress. This idea would allow people who have already completed the missions in the past be able to get something out of the roleplay in terms of notorious monster hunting or other various quests. It also gives people an excuse to RP NM hunting that they would otherwise complete solo.

Another way to run into each other easily:

As we'd be part of an organization it wouldn't be weird for us to just pop in or be regularly in travel or in contact with each other. I was thinking we may be able to use the compass item sold by linkshell vendors to ICly track each other so we can easily find each other, but whether or not people like or hate this idea is to be determined. There would, of course, be a way to turn the compass off and not allow yourself to be tracked.

Organizational Drama:

There's a lot of RP content to be had just in how the group, in character, decides to organize themselves. Struggles for power, disagreements, taking care of day to day chores would give everyone something to do. What is nice under this situation is that even when there are disagreements, if we are all part of this adventuring company for mutual goals, we can't just not avoid each other, so things will need to be hashed out and this promotes more character interaction.

Things this idea is not intended to do in any way, shape, or form:

Transform the shell into an HNM linkshell: RP is still the focus here, and should not be traded in favor of killing notorious monsters. This idea is only intended as one way to enhance RP, not replace RP.

Stamp out RP or require people to participate in HNM hunting: I expect some people will hunt the HNMs, some will not. Some may not even join the organization. All this is fine, all the characters still have the freedom of choice in this regard. Character development and social interaction is still going to be a huge, and important, part of the RP. This is merely to give people something to do when we all hit those mental roadblocks.

I have posted up a poll, give some thoughts, questions, etc below, suggestions too are always welcome. If we get a majority vote with this leaning towards one direction.

As I said last night, I've seen this sort of setup done decent/well, and I've seen it done horribly. Fortunately, the decent/well attempts far outnumber the horrible ones – the horrible one, turned out, was a "I'm gonna make a LS dedicated to getting me geared up AND getting everyone else to farm my crafting mats by making a "Merchant/Merc" RP theme!"

Now…

I'm not a big fan of what I'm used to calling "tea party RP" – when a group just kind of gathers around in a city and chit-chats. I prefer to be "in the field", be it just running/riding around, or just clearing out beastmen strongholds. So the idea of putting a solid RP reason behind running around Castle Zvhal is attractive to me. HNM's, not so much for me, but myeh.

This all sounds very good Avi.

I don't really have any complaints or much to add to it even. Just need to discuss who to transition from "Let's go save the world!" to "Let's go kill shit(and maybe save someone)!"


And just because it hasn't been tossed out there in a while. ToAUplskthxbai ;)

And just because it hasn't been tossed out there in a while. ToAUplskthxbai ;)Aurou

And since it's been mentioned… When we get to ToAU stuff, the "adventurer company" concept will lend -really- well to the Assault/Salvage events. Same with Campaign events in WotG. Any wrinkles we can iron out now with the concept will be well-worth it later on.


… As to the actual -when- for ToAU… while I know I've previously advocated before for making it available soon, I'd personally (and, admittedly, selfishly!) prefer a to continue to wait because of a potential upcoming change in my lifestyle. ToAU is the expansion I'm -really- looking forward to RPing with, heh.

… As to the actual -when- for ToAU… while I know I've previously advocated before for making it available soon, I'd personally (and, admittedly, selfishly!) prefer a to continue to wait because of a potential upcoming change in my lifestyle. ToAU is the expansion I'm -really- looking forward to RPing with, heh.Draenen Wen

This…is going to be a very active story line…

Speaking of ToAU that give me an idea for some context for this idea. Our group could be a bit like Salaheem's Sentinels only on a much smaller scale. Could even make a plot out of Naja Salaheem doing a kind of “hostile takeover” of our adventuring company incorporating it into her mercenary ranks.

If nothing else ToAU provides a solid lore based model for what an adventuring company could look like.

I think it also provides us with a much needed time schedule, we should have the IC group organized before we hit ToAU that is if we decide to go through with the idea.

I would also suggest not just basing the company on hunting random NMs we should also take this opportunity to do as many of the quests that are available to us as we can. It could be fun to just talk to random NPCs and see what quests they flag and then do the quests for the sake of doing quests. Quests that reveal bits of plot or lore should defiantly be done. There are a lot of very simple quests that are very good for RP. In an old RP shell the quest where you gather twinstone earrings provided some very emotional moments for that incarnation of Kaolla. It’s a very simple repeatable fetch quest that even now is giving me ideas for how Kaolla would react in this version of Kaolla.

There are hundreds of small quests like it, small simple quests that at first seem unimportant but if you look deeper reveal those tiny details that breath life into a world.

Okay that’s enough from me for now lol just some stuff to think about.

I would also suggest not just basing the company on hunting random NMs we should also take this opportunity to do as many of the quests that are available to us as we can. It could be fun to just talk to random NPCs and see what quests they flag and then do the quests for the sake of doing quests. Quests that reveal bits of plot or lore should defiantly be done. There are a lot of very simple quests that are very good for RP. In an old RP shell the quest where you gather twinstone earrings provided some very emotional moments for that incarnation of Kaolla. It’s a very simple repeatable fetch quest that even now is giving me ideas for how Kaolla would react in this version of Kaolla.Kaolla

Very much agree on not just doing NMs/HNMs. I'm not a fan of monster camping; if I'm killing an NM, it's because I've either been dragged by the hair to camp it or it was up when I wandered by. Monster camping is not an activity I enjoy.

Quests and missions, I enjoy. We've got some fresh meat new blood in the group, getting them caught up with nation missions with "alternative" storylines would be fun, in my opinion.

… As to the actual -when- for ToAU… while I know I've previously advocated before for making it available soon, I'd personally (and, admittedly, selfishly!) prefer a to continue to wait because of a potential upcoming change in my lifestyle. ToAU is the expansion I'm -really- looking forward to RPing with, heh.Draenen Wen

This…is going to be a very active story line…Kirious

Yes, it is…

Just popping in really quick b/c I have a couple minutes and want to follow up on some of the things that have been mentioned here.

Once again, I in no way intend to make this an organization only devoted to Notorious Monster/HNM camping. I see it more as an opportunity to set up side storylines and 'bosses' for us IC, with us opening up to the idea of creating our own notorious monster storylines, etc. I'm mostly thinking of pop-NMs, etc, but camping an NM could involve 'lying in wait' for a time, having a conversation with a party member while you wait for the beast to appear.

Certainly though, I don't expect this to be the only thing the organization does. It was just one of many ideas we could do.

With regards to questing, there are a lot of different quests in particular right now that go along with the Chains of Promathia plotline. The goblin quest in bastok makes me meet up with Jabbos, another one in San d'Oria has you run in with Louverance, and there are several more. We should do these for sure!

Another idea with this, is that once we establish a group, we must have a central base of operations for us to gather. I vote that this takes place outside of a nation… it doesn't need to be fancy or anything. It could be in an ignored corner of the Valkurm Dunes for all I care. But some place without a lot of foot traffic that could serve as this organization's default gathering point… so for all those times that people come into a social not knowing what to do, they can simply start at the default gathering spot, where other roleplayers will be. I will be putting up a list soon, complete with pics, of some locations I find while scouting around, to get you guys thinking. However, that post will not include a poll, because we will need to decide on the location ICly. :)

Regarding the central base, as I said the other night, I think it should change depending on where the group's activities are focusing at that moment (namely, missions). I know that warp is fast and of the game lore etc, but if for example we were in Aht Urhgan and knew the new Ragnarok was about to fall on us any moment, I doubt my character would take the risk and leave to go at the group's base far away in the continent of Quon. True, there's warp but IC you can never know when you'll be needed when the big stuff is happening. If Prishe tells us she'll need our help soon, then we might want our rendezvous point to be near tavnazia for now, and so on.

As for people wanting to do AU (I'm on of them though I prefer to wait), I want to remind you that access to aht urhgan is already open, we had a large discussion about this in the past. What's closed is mission-related stuff (salvage, einerhjar, assaults, being a member of salaheem sentinels, and crap). If you want to go to Aht Urhgan for whatever other reason, go for it.

My thoughts regarding a base of operations, I think that having one that doesn't change, regardless of what mission/expansion line we're on is something that SHOULD be done. A permanent base gives people who either are a) new to RP'ing with the group or b) have missed several sessions someplace logically to go. Now, I do understand KJ's point of being able to have a base/camp close to where the action is. Everyone sitting on their butts in Windurst when all the action is in Tavnazia makes no logical sense.

My suggested solution: a Main Office and Field Offices.

Field Offices can change locations to suit the group's needs: Tavnazia, Al Zabhi, WotG areas, what have you. A place where when Something Big happens, it's the -first- place that knows about it and has all the first responders.

A Main office would be most useful for people who can't always make every mission-based expansion: this is where they can go to look at reports to get caught up, or find out where the new Field Office is (if it's been moved). Basically, a central information center. It's also where the paycheques (so to speak…) come from, when someone (NPC's) wanted to hire us to go out on a grand adventure (send us on a quest) they stop by there, notifications of violations of the company's dress code get dropped into the mailboxes there, filing…

… Y'know, I'd LOVE to RP a desk jockey. I seriously would. I'd go and repurpose one of my mules to be an office manager.