Hey all,

I’ve been getting some feedback lately regarding how the roleplay is going and wanted to address an issue that’s been coming up, regarding members who tune in but may not regularly roleplay, or are require other characters to move their plotline forward and are left hanging. While there are some circumstances that I think merit a roleplayer ‘going quiet’ for a time, it has lately started to become the norm more and more for people to watch. Here’s a couple things that concern me about it;

1. It gives the appearance to others that there isn’t a lot of activity here, hence, a ‘dying shell.’ I know that having talked to the roleplayers within Tales of Vana’diel that there is still a lot of plot and storyline that we want to still see played out, that we’re not hitting a point of exhaustion of when it comes to our ideas, but we run risks if everyone isn’t contributing something because…
2. When there are couple of specific characters who are driving the RP in such circumstances, people gradually start to feel more and more like the story revolves around the characters who come and readily get into RPing quite quickly, and people start to feel like their characters are insignificant. I don’t actually know of anyone who particularly wants to be the driving force behind the RP, which leads to…
3. …roleplayers getting burned out when it seems like RP won’t happen unless they do something. It also exhausts roleplayers creatively if they have to keep coming up with ideas and others choose to jump in when that idea works with their character.
4. Overtime, inactivity tends to breed inactivity, so its best if we nip this in the bud.

There are a few reasons why I think this is happening now. A few of them I think is that:

1. FFXI as a whole is sorta in a lull. Seekers of Adoulin isn’t quite warmed up yet, some people got disappointed, so FFXI itself is kinda hurting.
2. People (partly as a result of the problems above) are either getting somewhat exhausted from RP
3. Some of the new roleplayers don’t feel quite ‘integrated’ yet with the ‘main group,’ and are trying to think of ways to get more involved.
4. The schedule, and the possibility of not being able to stay for the whole duration of the RP on a given day reinforces a “I’ll just sit and watch this one” mentality.

I think though, that there are ways to combat these urges to sit and be ‘entertained’ and be more proactive. I first of all want to preface these ideas by saying that no one needs to attend every single RP session. This should be something you attend because you want to attend and you want to come to RP. In particular, I know that personally for me the back to back Sunday/Monday RP days is a little bit tough on my schedule and I typically need more time to recharge than that. So I may RP less on Monday than I would on Sunday.

I also think that people end up waiting a lot for certain things to happen, particularly involving other roleplayers. But if, for example, you are waiting for something to happen with Avina, or one of my characters, that doesn’t mean you can’t RP with other people in the meantime. People sort of mistakenly have the impression that if they want to get the most out of Tales of Vana’diel, there’s sort of a ‘hub’ of characters they need to break into and become involved with. But none of these plotlines are really meant to be the sole focus of the RP; you are free to make your own. Some of my most rewarding RP experiences have happened with characters that really didn’t have to do with anything that was going on with the ‘current RP focus.’ So even if several people are in Aht Urhgan, and you don’t have a reason for your character to be there, have your character RP something wherever they are. Give us some insight in what’s going on outside of the AU circle. People are interested and will read what you are writing, and it really does help contribute.

Lastly, and this addresses what I would like to see happen going forward; you don’t need to come intending to roleplay for the full time. If we start at 6:00 PM EST, you don’t have to come planning to stick around til midnight. Again, you should roleplay for the amount of time and how often you feel like roleplaying for, but you should roleplay! So for example, if you really only have it in your to roleplay for just an hour and not the whole night, come and RP for an hour. A lot of insight and intrigue can be revealed about a character who sits and has a short conversation with another RPer, or even just a character’s own internal musings. People here do actually care about what your character is thinking. It may not be very convenient for them to be in the same area as your character currently is, or to have a run-in with your character, but that doesn’t mean you should sit on the sidelines and watch. So, what I’d like to see is, if you are tuning in for RP (as in your pearl is on) and you’re going to be watching for an hour or more, I’d like for you to RP something. Doesn’t have to be super lengthy, or super plot-filled, or involving others. It can just be your character, like I said, musing to themselves in their Mog House for 30 minutes. But its important for your character to make regular appearances and contributions, in one way or another. Obviously I know sometimes its just not going to happen, but lets try to make this a new rule of thumb.

What do you guys think?

Roleplaying is not a skill like, say, the proverbial riding a bike – where once you learn how to do it, you never forget. It's more like playing an instrument: where if you stop playing for a while, you run the risk of rather quickly falling out of practice. We have people returning from hiatus' and others that have felt out of touch for a while, and they may feel that their skills and ideas are rusty… the only way this can be fixed is by getting back out there and trying.

A lot of insight and intrigue can be revealed about a character who sits and has a short conversation with another RPer, or even just a character’s own internal musings. People here do actually care about what your character is thinking. It may not be very convenient for them to be in the same area as your character currently is, or to have a run-in with your character, but that doesn't mean you should sit on the sidelines and watch. So, what I’d like to see is, if you are tuning in for RP (as in your pearl is on) and you’re going to be watching for an hour or more, I’d like for you to RP something. Doesn't have to be super lengthy, or super plot-filled, or involving others. It can just be your character, like I said, musing to themselves in their Mog House for 30 minutes. But its important for your character to make regular appearances and contributions, in one way or another.Avina

I think this is a good idea, and not just for those who are somewhat "sidelined". I think everyone should come prepared every time they attend an RP day with something already in mind that they can do solo for at least thirty minutes (less if your time-table is that thin). If you don't have to use it because you're able to get involved with other's RP, that's great! If you do use it, that's great too: others can see how your character is progressing and, if you're in a 'public area', you might even strike up RP with someone with similar interests, or someone who's just interested in general. Some of the best solo RP's that I've seen tend to be when someone does a normally mundane task that has some comedy elements (Garonne's epic battle with a spider while sweeping out cells during [.S] RP comes to mind), or just random silliness in general (Farseer's Smilebringer routine in Bastok, various character's interactions with their moogles).
– Though, I do differ on the idea of the solo RP happening inside a Mog House (hence why I didn't highlight that part). If you're on a time schedule that will not give you a chance to interact with others, that's fine. If you've got an open evening, I think it'd be better to be out in the open where others can possibly find you.
– Note to self: Sink claws into Avi and get working on that 'generic quests' list. There is RP fodder to be found that way, and some of it makes sense to be repeated…

Now, just a couple other things, starting with two technical things I'd like to see start happening:

The first is if people able to be online for the start of the RP timeslot, please be as ready (all mule-hops done, leveling parties finished up, etc) as close to the start time as possible, that way we can start forming up the OOC party quickly and transferring OOC chat to /party. We all tend to like to chat before we get down to RP, but there's been a few times that some of us have been kind of chomping at the bit to start while everyone is still chatting in the shell. This may include moving your character 'out of position' for a few minutes so you can get your invite, but for people who may have an earlier stop-time this could be a great help in getting/keeping them involved.
– Guilty of some of this, I know, since I always tend to have to go AFK just when RP starts… this is due to when we do RP mostly; between 4pm CST and 7pm CST weekdays and 10am CST to 2pm CST weekends, tends to be the most common time for me to be arriving at a shipper or receiver. Which is why I try to be logged in and sitting around, ready to go right at the start of the timeslot.

The second, please announce AFK's and returns with some vigilance if at all humanly possible. If your house is burning down or someone is dying or something other major happens, I think we can all understand it when someone disappears from their keyboard under such circumstances. But to suddenly go silent when you had reasonable opportunity to hit seven keys very quickly… yeah. Announcing returns is just as important; I've gotten snarked at by a few people when I walked by them and didn't say anything, because the last thing I saw from them was an "AFK" nearly a half-hour before..
– Another one I'm guilty of, at least when it comes to going AFK without announcing. 99.99% of the time, it's because what I'm getting up to do should only take me ten seconds, but somehow ends up taking ten minutes. I should just announce my AFKishness, no matter if I'm only planning on being up long enough to stretch my back. Cause I know that that's always going to be the moment that Kat decides he's hungry or Cory wants to take a walk…

So, some other things. I know some of us have what can be perceived to be 'unapproachable characters' but almost all of those who have these types of characters also have alts that are fairly easy-going. If someone is on their Unapproachable Character but nothing is going on, I don't think they'd mind too much most of the time if a request is made to switch to the easy-going ones. They're not mind readers, and often these characters are their default log-in choice.
– Totally guilty of this one myself. I know Draen isn't always easy to approach (particularly if you've got a male character, and especially right now for ANYBODY since she's having a nervous breakdown and can lash out at anyone), and logging into her over another character is just habit. Mirror, by contrast, has been developing into an awkwardly-social butterfly. If I'm not already involved in something or have plans, if someone would rather RP with him I'd rather switch than stand around solo RP'ing feeding the seagulls as Draen. Bonus reason (especially for the guys) to initiate RP with Mirror: getting Mirror's favor helps get you closer to Draen's good side, faster.

Another idea I'd like to throw out there that people might want to consider, is what I call a "Throw Away Character/Personality". The entire concept around this character/personality is to give you a reason to interact/RP when you're under a circumstance that you can't do so with your main or have no appropriate alts. They don't have an in-depth personality nor huge motives or involved backstory, and they're very easy to RP when you've got little time or not many ideas. At their most badass, they can be used to point a plot into a direction and then fade (or die) away once they're no longer needed.
– I'll use Path as an example. Path came about from me having Draen involved elsewhere, but I wanted to participate in an RP'd Assault. Path's entire character and motives can be summed up in just one sentence: she's an Aht Urghan native who left her inner-continent village to come to Whitegate and become a mercenary so she could make and send money back to her family. She's represented by me having the Mirke on ICly, and instead of knives she has blades that are somewhat between a kukri and a katana. And while I have gotten more mileage out of her than I originally considered, I have no real attachment to her and can very easily be handed a character death by anyone at any time.

1. It gives the appearance to others that there isn’t a lot of activity here, hence, a ‘dying shell.’ I know that having talked to the roleplayers within Tales of Vana’diel that there is still a lot of plot and storyline that we want to still see played out, that we’re not hitting a point of exhaustion of when it comes to our ideas, but we run risks if everyone isn’t contributing something because…
2. When there are couple of specific characters who are driving the RP in such circumstances, people gradually start to feel more and more like the story revolves around the characters who come and readily get into RPing quite quickly, and people start to feel like their characters are insignificant. I don’t actually know of anyone who particularly wants to be the driving force behind the RP, which leads to…
3. …roleplayers getting burned out when it seems like RP won’t happen unless they do something. It also exhausts roleplayers creatively if they have to keep coming up with ideas and others choose to jump in when that idea works with their character.Avina

I will be honest. With the exception of it coming from one specific person, there is NOTHING in RP that makes me panic more than seeing any variation of the words "What's the plan for today?" pop up in OOC chat or /tells when I know there was no structured (Mission-driven or Scheduled Events) RP scheduled/talked about at the end of the previous RP session. Automatically my brain starts to scramble to try to find ways to "fix" this "problem", and oftentimes leads me to becoming derailed/distracted – I end up focusing on trying to figure out what other people could be doing, rather than what I wanted to do.
– Alright, before someone tries to bust me on this one, yes I have said it before, but context has been different: either I was making sure that someone else didn't have something planned before I stole the spotlight, or I was sick and trying to figure out if I wasn't going to be needed at all.

Not a single one of us is blameless when it comes to the RP doldrums we're kind of in (geez, look at all the ones I admit to…), but I think with a little work we can all personally improve a thing or two, and start reviving the overall RP content of the shell.

One last thing. Monday attendance in general has more often than not been very poor since we moved weekend RP to Sunday. I originally liked the idea of having two days back-to-back, but it's turning out to be a day that very little happens and then there's a huge gap in the last half of the week that's sort of wasted. Even more, according to the poll that was last done, the numbers that voted for Sun/Mon/Weds rarely reflects close to the numbers that normally show up on Monday. And seeing that, again according to the last poll, there wasn't going to be anyone who would be cut out completely if Monday was taken away, then perhaps we should again put it up to a vote.


… Geez, I've rambled a lot tonight…

The moment that I returned, quite literally was the same time in which my network problems began. Yeah, I've felt a little out of place since coming back, maybe it's because I wanted to give a new character a shot for a while, since she will later play an integral role in rp later to come. I also enjoy the fact I'm playing someone who's motivations are solely her own, and in all fairness could not care less what happens to anyone within the group, as long as whatever happens to them doesn't get in the way of her own objectives.

Granted, I haven't quite figured out what those objectives are, but I'm still enjoying developing her character.

However, as much as it might appear a good idea to simply "Roleplay what is happening now, even if no one else is there", you've failed to take in one point (I haven't read all of Draenen's post yet, so I'm not sure if she mentioned this. I'm low on time and wanted to put my point in whilst it was on my mind.). Not everyone feels they can roleplay on their own. I am a perfect example, nothing is more difficult or more boring than solo'ing, and I mean this in all context, from playing a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, to Roleplaying in general.

On occasion I might find myself inspired to make something on the spot, perhaps I had a grand-slam Idea and decide to put it across without the need of anothers input. However, this is a once in a blue moon thing, it rarely happens and I rarely find the motivation and courage to be able to solo play in front of an audiance.

If i intended to roleplay myself, i'd write a novel, as it were.

So, in certain circumstances I might find myself stuck. Like if the roleplay is taking place in Aht'Urghan, yeah, I could jump on Muri and run over and join in. But then, Evangelene, who is required to get her story bit and connection to the party prior to with any luck, the end of Aht'Urghan, needs her part and at this time is locked out of Aht'Urghan. Not that I am blaming anyone, I'd do this but then as people have been aware (since I've hardly been secretive about it), I've had nothing but problems with my internet since my return.

If it's not blinking on and off for small intervals, it's simply running so slowly, that I can't stream minute long youtube videos, let alone playing a game that requires at least a decent connection to play without issue.

That's just my point, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but since my unwanted departure, I've found it hard to fill my old seat again, and even harder to just get in. I'll try harder.

Your connection issues added to a new character from scratch puts you in a separate circumstance right now, Muri. Don't worry about it.

Just to clarify, my message isn't targeted at anyone in particular. Even I show up to RPs on some days and just feel kinda meh, and tend to sit back and may or may not do anything. So its something that I think I personally too should be better at and am planning on trying to do more on my part to bring things with me to do.

Obviously, connectivity issues present problems that make it very difficult to RP, if not entirely impossible. No one is being faulted because their connection isn't good, not at all. It's out of your control for the most part. I've had to deal with frustrating internet disconnections during RP and trust me, I reeeeeally sympathize with you.

But, since you commented Muri, just a couple thoughts. I think that you should try to RP more often, connection permitting and even if there aren't others around for your characters to interact with. Because I can guarantee you, the times you'll be made to solo RP are going to be rare if everyone makes it a point to RP something, even for a short time, for the RP sessions that you attend. There will be more interaction taking place as a whole if people come with at least 30 minutes planned of RP for their character to do. What starts as Evangelene doing something off on her own, may lead to someone else running into her. People are often very ready to find ways to jump in when they see someone starting something. The issue is, more people need to be starting things up. For example, I have a bunch of characters not in Aht Urhgan that could use some RPing, so if anyone is over there in the Middle Lands, I can swap to them easily.

I also want to reiterate that when its RP time, that pretty much whenever someone is ready to dive in-character, they should go for it. The shell is open at many other hours of the days for socialness. Let's not feel like we're being rude to each other and 'killing the conversation' if you are ready to RP. In all likelihood, there are probably several others who are ready to start RPing as well. The conversation can easily continue via /tells or in /party.

To be fair, it'd be nice if others could feel like making sub-antagonists all as co-apprentices or associates to Evangeline, just to thicken the plot a little and get my gears going, if anyone is interested of course. I know Drae and Kiri have that whole "Seven Sin's" thing going, it'd be nice to have something like that, though maybe not in the same context.

Once had the idea of doing something like it but with chess pieces to justify the 'rank' of individuals, but it was only something i temporarily mused over and never put too much thought into.

Ah… I think if you want to ask about this, you should put it in it's own topic in Bainstorming.

Hey all,

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone who attended and RPed yesterday. :) Everyone who showed up came and RPed something, and there was a lot going on. Kept things interesting, and thank you all for your dedication!

See you guys tonight!

My biggest problem is my job, I'm either working during RP or am so tired on my days off that I can't get my head In Character. And unfortunately there is little going on at the moment that is sparking any ideas for my character. Unfortunately any ideas I can come up with for my character are solo ideas, I doubt anyone wants to waste RP time helping Kaolla hunt for alchemy ingredients. I'm looking for a new job but until i have a job with a steady schedule I doubt I'll be much use.

My biggest problem is my job, I'm either working during RP or am so tired on my days off that I can't get my head In Character. And unfortunately there is little going on at the moment that is sparking any ideas for my character. Unfortunately any ideas I can come up with for my character are solo ideas, I doubt anyone wants to waste RP time helping Kaolla hunt for alchemy ingredients. I'm looking for a new job but until i have a job with a steady schedule I doubt I'll be much use.Kaolla

For the first, do what Avi's trying out recently: on days you can make it and feeling tired, take a short nap before logging in. Starting late but feeling a little more perky is better than nothing.

For the second and third (little going on that is interesting and nothing but solo ideas)… this is what we're trying to encourage. Solo RP in any form. Farming for crafting mats or to auction have (in every MMO RP community I've been in) always been acceptable RP activities… and in all honesty, there are some alchemy mats that ICly I wouldn't mind help collect, as there are mats that drop alongside that I could use as well. My character isn't a mind reader though, so I need an IC request to do it.

–––––––-

What we're trying to go for in promoting Solo RP is trying to get ideas flowing. We've currently got two larger personal storylines running in the group, and not everyone is interested in them… and there may not be a way to -get- everyone 100% involved. This often makes people feel sidelined… and it's not being done on purpose. The stuff I'm personally involved in doesn't yet involve every single RP day that I can make, so getting involved in other things would be a nice occasional change of pace for me.

I don't know if it's maybe just the concept of solo RP that might be scaring some people? We're not asking that everyone do something hugely involved solo scene where you need to puppet three characters at the same time. Running around from vendor to vendor trying to get scrolls cheaper than AH or even just sorting/cleaning out your inventory can all be done ICly. Neither is the expectation that people continuously type; depending on what you're doing, thirty minutes of RP can equal out to nothing more than one line every one to two minutes.

The other option being that, if Solo RP is really that intimidating, is to ask for weekly short stories posted here on the forums? Just so people can see that you you're not frozen in carbonite or put into crystal stasis the moment you step "off screen". We just want to see what others are doing.