#so i could just make server roles for players vs spectators

[weaselishmcdiesel]

GRIPS YOU. I would love to play test if you wanted

NOTED!

[nonotome]

4 and 20. 420. blaze it

4 - What are some things you are tired of seeing in the RPing community?

People having spars in Pearl Lane. ARGH.I don’t like RP-fight pileups. They’re less common in FFXIV because a majority of people seem to RP within their own houses and the like, which is fine but I wish more people would wander the streets of the main cities. I found it jarring to see so many people just standing around in the streets of Ul’dah OOC when I came over from World of Warcraft, but that’s a non-issue for another time.A pileup occurs when two characters have an altercation of some kind and there’s a considerable difference between narrative and real time. While it’s taking ten minutes for one character to respond to getting hit by the the other three emotes or so in to the fight, a handful of people could have gathered to watch because they are moving in real time around a city to look for RP.There are certain “traffic” lines in most hubs where people will go along to search for RP, in Ul’dah it’s Pearl Lane and the area beyond, through The Gold Court before looping back to the Quicksand. Character conflicts will inevitably happen here because that’s where the most RP is, that’s fine.I usually consider that each emote encompasses about 5 seconds of time passing, so roughly 15 seconds into a fight or other altercation starting, there could be any number of spectators from all over the place, who were on the other side of the city ten minutes ago that will stand, watch and interrupt. More about that later.What can be done about that? I don’t think much can besides communication, but that’s difficult with such a disjointed and large group of people. Don’t fight along those traffic lines if you don’t want any rubberneckers and if you do spot a fight somewhere, ask before you jump in because the first blow might not have even been struck!20 - Wild card: The mun discusses any situation/problem they want.I’m going to be frank and honest with you, I think the server lore around the weekly Mystic Runestone event is dumb.I’ll do my best to explain my reasoning why, the Mystic Runestone is an event on Balmung that happens every Sunday, it’s a tournament styled, 1 vs 1 /random event between mages. It’s a good way to kill some time and meet people. I thoroughly enjoy attending and I’m glad that it’s there.

However,

The Mystic Runestone allows for the usage of forbidden magic during the tournament and to the credit of the organizers, they do say that the appropriate authorities may deal with people after the event has been concluded. There are a few problems with this idea, though.

The Mystic Runestone takes place at Fesca’s Wash, which is probably a distance away from Ul’dah in character, but either way it is not very far. This is a public area as far as I am concerned.

This assumes that if player characters aren’t willing to deal with the issue of forbidden magicks in the open, then an NPC authority able to punish them does not exist unless the player playing as the forbidden mage takes it into their own hands and deals with their own consequences.

That NPCs don’t exist at all. Why would anybody allow this event to take place if it was openly stated that forbidden magic is allowed? Why would the Order of Nald’thal not come out in force and clean the place up? It’s stated several times in the BLM questline how illegal and taboo the art is, and how driven the Order is to lock away the books of Nald and Thal. I imagine they’re equally as thorough with any other questionable and dangerous magic.

The format of the event makes it very difficult to actually do something about these forbidden spell-flingers when there is the rare occasion that a player character is willing to deal with them.

The organizers will protect any forbidden mages during the event. I’m aware that this might exist as a way to stop interruptions and to keep things running smoothly, I understand that perfectly. There are stretches that I am willing to make, but I think the inclusion of forbidden magicks at the event at all makes the event need this constant and frankly unnecessary vigilance that I believe in my heart of hearts does not make loreworthy sense.

This story below is a personal experience and does not speak for the entire event by itself, but should enforce my above points.There was one time that I attended the Runestone and saw somebody who introduced themselves as a “Void User.” Well, that’s pretty suspicious. I spoke to them OOC to make sure it was fine for my character to try to detain his character and he might attack him if necessary, since Nonotome is more zeal than sense at times like these. I also asked them if they would like me to wait until their tournament bouts were over before I did, and they said that would be better because they didn’t want to lose out on the prize money. (??? - If there’s prize money, ditch it and ditch it now. Going to an RP event should be for the love of role playing, not because you want OOC Gil, what the heck.)

Fair enough, if that’s what they want I’m more than willing to wait until the end. We made a few arrangements,  he said that his character would run away after being attacked. I agreed to that, because it was a nice way to wrap things up. His character would not be killed or maimed, but will still suffer a consequence showing himself to be an illegal void wizard and my character would get to do their job as a Priest of Nald’thal - No fuss!The problems started to arise here. The more matches you win in the event, longer that you’re in it. RP takes time and I understand that fully. I could have ducked out at any moment but I’m a patient person, I had arranged an RP and I was willing to wait. It took a good few hours! That’s mostly where the format can get in the way of dealing with forbidden mages IC, I don’t imagine that everyone is going to wait that long to jump a void mage - Obviously that was not something that was in my control, but it’s a format issue nonetheless.Without asking me or making further arrangements, the Void Mage summoned his FC after his final bout, stood in the very middle of the group and went “Okay you can attack me now.” in a tell to me. There was a good six or seven of them and I’m pretty sure they weren’t at the Runestone during his fights. I know that he summoned his FC because he MT’d a “Come and help me I’m going to get beaten up” or something to that effect to me.It’s at that point I should have walked away, but I had waited for so long and it would feel like a waste of time if I didn’t, so I followed through. Nonotome approached, requested that the void mage put his weapons down and came quietly and to nobody’s surprise, everybody defends the void mage. Even members of the audience that were not affiliated with the void mage at all.

Long story short, the Void Mage tries to calmly walk away like they’re invincible, Nonotome throws a spell at them (which I felt was justified, especially since I was under the impression that he was going to run away) and the Priest of Nald’thal gets threatened and attacked, yes, attacked by not only members of the summoned group, but members of the audience.

Members of the public are more willing to stand up for a random Void Mage than a Priest of Nald’thal. In Thanalan. That’s right, a universally taboo practitioner has more favor than a member of the local clergy.

The “forbidden magicks are allowed” rule does not overrule the laws of the land, and it is the main reason many people that I know do not attend this event. Which is a danged shame, really.

The last thing that I wanted to rant about is that just because one can muster up more player characters to take one’s side, it does not mean that a scenario is automatically won by sheer numbers. It’s true that in real life, most things are easier if you summon your buddies - But in RP, you’re not more likely to succeed because you have more manpower, at least not in the way that one thinks! The bigger group is more likely to succeed because it’s very hard to talk and arrange things with seven people at once, while reading emotes being thrown at one lone person. They are more likely to succeed because it’s just difficult, it’s a hassle and too much is being expected of one person. Especially when the focal member of the altercation is walking away and pressuring the smaller group to quickly hammer out an emote to keep him there, making it seem like the smaller group is ignoring everybody else.Book-ending to the RP-pileup rant at the top there. There are things I could’ve done better on an OOC level but what is done is done and I can laugh and harmlessly rant about it.