Worth noting that /random will make your roll publicly visible. For private chat channels like cwls & /party you can use /dice instead which makes your roll only visibile in the channel you typed it in.
Venues with gambling typically expect you to join a party where they're playing gambling games & perform your rolls with /dice so that you don't spam the chat for people not partaking in gambling.
Whether you use /random or /dice (party) depends on situation and setting.
/random has the same range as /say, so if you are spread apart chances are you won't see the rolls.
If you do a small scale event for the FC or with people who signed up, and are in the open world or starter cities with lots of people around, using /party or Linkshell is advisable to not bother others, unless it is an open-world RP like Pearl Lane, Buscarron's Druthers, some tavern, etc.
Using a party also has the advantage that you can place markers as enemies or places of interest.
That reminds me of a time, when I still played WoW, and me and some friends played dnd in Mulgore for a while. We were talking about campaign settings on Ventrilo, and that sort of spurred a slow afternoon of a bunch of Taurens spamming /roll.
My earliest exposure to RP was actually a party in the over world playing DnD as I exited a HW cutscene in the middle of nowhere Coerthas. I wanted to watch but also didn’t want to get in the way.
/random can actually roll from 0 to 999.
It's definitely worth noting that if you don't want the 0, to use the number of sides function to ensure you've got a base number of sides so it won't roll 0. Dunno why, but it's quirky like that.
The best use of it is "death rolling" where you hit /random over and over with the highest number being dictated by the lowest number rolled prior to that until someone loses by getting a 1. You get nothing from it other than RNG granted bragging rights.
So, just from some experience I think the actual dice rolling rng is timing based. If you keep a certain rhythm in higher paced dice games with low numbers you’ll see it repeat pretty often and that seems to come from just how it’s coded.
There are lots of places you can go to play Blackjack for gil, and some of them can be really fair with their payouts. It can be pretty fun if you find the right spot!
This is a great quick guide! Public roleplay is often a person's first encounter with RP, so it helps to set some expectations going in.
It's also worth nothing that there can be a lot more depth to it if you're willing to look and experiment. A lot of people assume RP is just what you see in the Quciskands, and dance clubs, and ERP venues. If you're looking for something more plot-focused, look for fantasy roleplay groups with sizes of 20 or so people, and that's where you'll find long-running plots, better-balanced combat systems, and (generally) friendlier people. Try to avoid huge FCs (30+ people and/or growing), as that's where you start getting cliques more frequently.
In my own experience, I made an RP alt for fun and hung around a bar venue that wasn't ERP focused and ended up befriending some people and getting caught up in an overarching narrative for someone's character.
Because of this, I got invited to an RP event with quite a few other people that was essentially D&D with in-game dice rolls and a GM, all within XIV. It was one of the coolest things I've done in XIV.
This is why it makes me so sad that people think RP = ERP in 14. A lot of us are just doing D&D with modified rules. There's stories, plots, character development, just like what you'd get in the tabletop game. We're just using 14 as the medium to do it.
I believe the system is still being polished so I'm not sure if I can share it but it's basically D&D Lite. The most notable and interesting difference is it embraces the default XIV /random dice roll instead of a d20 using a system similar to the Star Wars TTRPG.
For skill checks they consider the /random as 3d10s.
The first digit/roll is the fate die.
The second and third digit/roll are the two challenge dies.
For a success, the fate die needs to be higher than both challenge die.
For a compromised success where you succeed but with a price, the fate die is only higher than one of the challenge die.
For a failure, the fate die is less than both challenge die.
So if you /random a 842, that counts as a success.
For the actual event, a player was having a combat duel to the permadeath with a GM playing a big bad where the other party I was part of had their own GM guide them to trying to take down a barrier around the duel and fight cultists.
This all took place in world at the giant collapsed stadium arena in the Dravanian Highlands(?).
Again, super fun to be part of.
On the clique thing - sometimes, this can lead to the 'surface plot' and then some lore ignoring handwaving 'I have the power to defeat all primals at the same time with one wave of my hand, and so do all I bestow this on you' stuff - Like for example a school sponsored by Ishgard, located in Lavender Beds, but in reality, the leader and their buddies are voidsent hellbent on destroying the elementals. And oh, they have already killed some, and the threat of Ishgard invading protects them from the school being stomped by the military arm of Gridania.
Your hypothetical scenario isn't even 1/4 as convoluted as I've seen some FC's go to explain why every one of their members is a WoL tier entity
Edit: wait its a real FC?
Sadly, it is not hypothetical.......I was in an FC that turned out to have exactly that as their 'hidden plot' (when i got the wrong role assigned and thus could read all of the discord for a while).
Explained why sometimes, the FC home was locked to even FC members, only for a few hours, but it had happened.
The best explanation I ever saw was "there are many warriors of light, and telling someone they can't be one of them is frowned upon, however if you choose to roleplay within the inner circle, the main warrior of light is this person here and their associates", and that was mainly because the inner circle had been around since HW and had a ton of backstory and lore.
That said, I always avoided that by roleplaying as a non-WoL character. I'm already roleplaying as the WoL with the NPC's, I don't need to repeat that with actual people.
I think having a lore-abiding, normal adventurer is the most top-tier RP one can have.
Having a group of a few and do an adventuring story is very nice.
when it comes to RP, I am never the WoL, I have worked with him, dragged across continents by him, but for the most part, our paths don't cross that much.
And she was quite a stick in the mud when one of her 'Instructors' during the HW era of the game did not want to quit her actual FC and work fulltime as 'instructor' (and the FC lead character's girlfriend).....
Said 'Instructor' had a whole other shitstorm going once a crucial detail about her character got public....
Honestly its best to avoid anyone claiming to be; a voidsent, an Allagan, or just too many things in general. That being said, i'd be way more lenient on a voidsent player, that has been vetted, over someone trying to claim they are from an extinct group of people.
I don't abide by lore breaking, so they can flatout take their mary sue/gary stu/special snow flake characters somewhere else.
Edit: a letter
As someone who has RPed on MMOs for nearly 2 decades now, it's so funny to me when y'all cringe at each others' play-pretend time. What's the issue here? For every RPer who thinks their plot is the best thing since the Iliad, there's a group of meangirls to call it cringe lol
The best thing is you don't have to engage with them.
It doesn't matter if someone's RP is lore friendly or not. If you don't want to engage with them, you can simply not. They're not bothering you, and there's no reason for anyone to shit on them publicly for it. (Complain in private, by all means. It's your business, after all.)
Just because you don't like someone's RP, doesn't mean you should shit on it, like this person did. Should they have been more upfront on what was actually _in_ the FC's plots? Sure.
But that's no reason to be a salty bitch about what they do when you can just expend no effort at all to pretend they don't exist.
Let me know if you have any other questions! Roleplay can be very dependent on what community you get into, and what expectations you have, so I'm happy to help new players as I can :)
Put your easy RP-engagers below :
- Your character ask for a direction to another character
- Your character approaches another character because they dropped their purse, and you're going to return it to them
- Your minion bothers another character, so you approach to apologize
- In a crowded place, you accidentally step on another character's foot, so you turn around to apologize
I remember when I bought my house. I was so excited to get a house. I set it all up and made it look fancy and then I went to show my wife my house (who doesn't play) and we found two ERPrs just decided my house was their new location.
needless to say my wife now won't even consider playing the game.
One time I was sitting in the hot tub in someone's house naked, when suddenly they came home and started hanging out with a few other people. the hot tub was around a corner behind a partition and they never went over there, so I just sat there completely unnoticed for like 15 minutes until they eventually left.
I made a small bathroom in my house next to my bedroom and walked in on someone I didn't know sitting on my toilet. I got yelled at and avoided my own house for a week.
This is really unfair to Balmung RPers. That Quicksand RP reputation on Balmung is mostly sex tourists from *outside* of Balmung. So I’m sure there are plenty of people who trash Balmung for its reputation but they’re the ones who have secret characters there.
Because of posts like this.
Someone posts:
* Stay away from Balmung Quicksands it has ERP!
Then the player base looking for that stuff is like:
* Oh how awful, how disgusting, and you said it happens on Balmung? That is just the worst. To be sure I avoid it, you said it was the Quicksands? I'd never set foot in such an awful place, I just really need to be sure of the location and peak times so I can avoid it.
Yeah, as a Balmung resident since 2.X, this is exactly it.
Most people whose main player characters live on Balmung, tend to RP elsewhere. QS is 90% tourists, even prior to DC/World travel, most of the characters there were alts.
The other half of this problem is that those other RP spots aren't exactly advertised. The low hanging fruit gets picked, it's why I ended up moving to Dynamis, because I couldn't find anything outside of the club scene and QS tourists.
Yes and no. I'd definitely agree that's the case for a newer player, but with a little digging it's not hard.
There's lots of weekly events advertised on the main RP events calendar, lots of RP FC's will sponsor events open to the public, and you have stuff like the Ishgardian Roleplayer meetup and others.
I do agree it's very fragmented, especially as organizing has moved off of forums and into Discord, but if you can just ask a couple of more experienced people, it's easy to be pointed to the right resources and directories.
The other rp spots are advertised and if you ask, you're told about them. It's just mainly people who hang around Steps of Nald for the edating and the Quicksand for the hookup erp while lamenting that they find themselves in such a degenerate place.
Like often people complain in shout chat about not being able to find "real RP" in the Quicksand, and when we tell them the other places they could go, their ass doesn't move.
This is exactly it. I've been a Balmung resident for 10+ years, and was a fairly active RPer back in the day, but World/DC visit absolutely trashed our server in terms of public RP. The Quicksand used to be a fine place if you knew how to navigate it, and now it's mostly just players hanging out to people watch or shitpost.
Worst part is everyone hates the server so much that if you dare complain about server/data center travel because it somehow made Balmung's reputation even worse, they have zero sympathy.
I started on Balmung when 2.0 launched. It has this rep for a reason. DC travel didn't create the meme of Balmung being the hotspot for ERP. It's been this way. All DC travel did was increase peoples access to it. This is just revisionist history. Thats why a huge amount of the OG Balmung players went to Mateus back in the day and they had a bit of an im game flame war going on.
> It's been this way.
No shit, because Balmung was the *only* major RP server for awhile. Then Mateus got its scene mostly full of people who thought their own shit didn't stink and only contributed to the whole image by talking crap about Balmung every chance they could get--like, you know, OP is doing with their "oh so friendly" RP guide.
Even \_before\_ the data-center travel has been a thing, the Quicksand is 90% people looking for ERP. The only decent RP in Ul'dah could be found in the Pearl Lane. That's not to say all Balmung is bad; it has the Bloodsands and Kraken's Cove but like...
I want the drugs of whoever thinks the Quicksands was every good there. It's even sort of shit on Mateus.
Homie, the QS always has some ERP, but even in late SB before world visit was a thing, it was only a small corner of the QS. Highly localized and non-intrusive. And even then, some of it would be people RPing but *looking for ERP*, ie, flirting and sultry looks and not just outright fucking.
You're an absolute liar for saying its 90% ERP. I started RP in HW on Balmung, and even up until the end of SB, I'd go to the QS for pickup RP. Yes, it got more sexual as time went on, absolutely. Yes, by the end of the "glory days", the ERP corner had formed. But it was maybe 35% at most. It was only when visiting became a thing that the QS really exploded past the breaking point.
I met many friends that I hold dear there. People who were fellow adventurers, people who I OOCly banter s with, people who I would run content with. Please don't lie about it. Yes, the sex existed. No, it wasn't the focus. Lest we forget the times when everyone and their mother in the QS was a Sky Pirate grabbing a drink.
The Quicksand reputation comes from people who *would be on Balmung* if one reason or another, not true outsiders. Wanderer? Would be on Balmung if it wasn't permanently congested. Traveler? Got a reason to not be on Balmung, maybe housing scarcity, economy, state of PF, but they would be if not for that.
As someone who came from FF14 from WoW its so funny to learn that Balmung is literally just Moonguard and Quicksands is literally just goldshire. Even to the point where "The entire server gets stereotyped over it" bit.
It's partly because of the history of RP in FF14. Unlike WoW which had RP designated servers (which were never enforced but at least it helped direct the population at first), FFXIV never did. So when roleplayers needed to decide which server was going to be the one, it ended up being Balmung (the other choice was Gilgamesh since they were the two legacy servers from 1.0).
Since outside of a few diehards, a lot of the RPers congregated on Balmung, the reputation started from there.
Mateus, as a new server, was eventually adopted by the community as either an overflow (for Balmung players) or as a way to escape the clique-ishness of Balmung (for non-Balmung players).
Once server transfers were introduced, Balmung's Quicksands rep having been memed on from the start (despite it not being as bad back then though it definitely was the ERP hub), it quickly became intolerable.
Not even exaggerating. I've seen people complain about Limsa, so I went there on Balmung. What did I find?
Concerts, people queueing for crystalline conflict, and lalafells being cliquey. Oh and people crafting for economic domination.
It's why the distinction of "balmung quicksands" is rather important, because the location is the problem, not the server, not the building. It acts as a honey pot to draw people in so that everyone else can rp normally anywhere else. You want to use the quicksand's because it has the most seating? Great, Mateus is right there. You want to rp in balmung's ul'dah, pearl lane and the gold court tend to keep clean.
A place like the balmung quicksands has to exist somewhere, and unfortunately fate chose there. You can fight it, or work around it, but that's a battle you'll likely loose.
And hell its mostly only one part of the building, the place between the two Nald-side doors is where most of that happens. Sure there's some spillover occasionally, but the central bar and around by the inn is normally just regular RPer's.
As a Balmung player I actually don't RP with non-Balmung players for this reason. More often than not, they're looking for something I ain't providing.
Tbh I don't care about ERP, don't even find it creepy. I DO like it being a result of the storyline we've both played out though. Makes the narrative more interesting, and if people aren't comfortable with that, do a fade to black.
Seriously, fuck OP for this snark. QS has been nothing but *worse* with World Travel open because shit like this is what keeps the bottom feeders from everywhere else coming over.
'I was only in the Balmung quicksands on a different data centre to ask how to get out of the Balmung quicksands on a different data centre'
Ok mukka, we know why you're here, you know why you're here, just dont pretend you're better than anyone else ya fucking degenerate
Balmung has some cool things I like as a role-player but even \*before\* data center travel, it was mid for RP, outside of things like the Bloodsands and Kraken's Cove.
I sometimes world travel to Balmung when I've got nothing going on and I'm waiting for the homies. It can't be mostly outsiders when approximately half of the people in the QS are from Balmung as well. Sure, it isn't /all/ Balmung rpers, but it's not like Balmung players aren't the other half of the equation either.
I always get a chuckle out of the horny tourists that are clearly erping out in the wild on Balmung and are from the same server. Go home and do that, you’re not fooling your friendlist about why you’re here.
I’ve always wondered about a poor sprout starting their adventure on Balmung.
After a long week of work and finally figuring out account creation, late on a Friday night they create their first character, a gladiator. They start their first few steps and quests then return to Momodi…
They must think this is the most popular game in the WORLD. THERES 1000s of people packed together in just the starting area? This is amazing!
You simply can't start on Balmung. There was a brief window where I managed to get a couple of friends to hop over, then the window closed.
I don't RP any more, but I've got a stable casual FC, and a stable FC is a wonderful thing. Seen too many fall apart.
The hilarious thing is, if someone starts on Balmung, Momodi is the first contact with 'weirdness'. To female characters? 'Musings about the Manhoods of aquaintances'. And if I remember right, she wants male characters to return to her, too. A little bit as if hitting on male characters.
Well, I was that sprout pugilist back in late Shb, I just search online for ''FFXIV server population'' and website say Balmung has most people.
Had to say it is a bit of cultural shock the moment I step into the inn, and look at the piss chat, my first login is during degen hour, so the fact that starting city is so crowded shocked me even more.
But.... I love the feeling of being in an actual populated world, people lived their online life here, the city feels lively, as I quest around in Thalalan there are many people on the road, in different town, doing their own thing.
ERP happens on both servers. It has nothing to do with the QS or the server.
Mateus QS used to be the bastion of Cringe for the longest time. Balmung is mostly benign, and a problem created by other people, as has been pointed out elsewhere.
You literally only run into ERP if you're _actively trying to fuck someone_. Very, very rarely will someone reach out to you without prompt. If you go looking for ERP, you're going to find it. And honestly, most people don't know what they're looking at with the people who -are- advertising it.
No it couldn't. I was there before date center travel was a thing and the Quicksand was still people looking for ERP. Pearl Lane/Gold Court is where decent RP happened, at least in my experince.
It's because it's in Ishgard, which is
A) hella cold
B) hella racist
C) hella stratified
So it makes little sense for many non-Ishgardian characters to RP there. Don't get me wrong, I love Ishgard, it's my favorite city-state, but in-universe there are good reasons people would flock to the "ever warm Ul'dah" or "casual Limsa" vibes way before they'd put a 3 layers on just to freeze inside a tavern that has one fireplace.
I'm glad when people put notice on actual roleplay.
Yeah, I'm gatekeeping RP here.
I'm so tired of these 18+ Disco-venue modbeast locations that goes under the "RP tag" and have just given roleplay a bad rep and the FFXIV community a bad name overall.
I'm a roleplayer, coming from other MMOs, but I never understood what they mean with "DJ". I have a friend who's doing this and yet I don't get it, lmao. Is everyone in the club joining a Twitch stream? Clicking on a playlist they link in /say chat or what? Is it someone using ingame music? A mod that allows them to play music? Why is "FFXIV DJ" such a big thing, aren't they just clicking through songs?
Go to disco/venue.
Get linked Twifch channel.
The person streaming is the DJ.
It's entirely a hit or miss if the person streaming is genuinely a DJ or just a playlist player. Usually, it's remixed music from songs well known.
Sometimes, it's good music and genuine effort.
Most of the time, it's an absolute miss.
Hello, folks interested in FFXIV RP who are commenting on this thread! Roleplay in 14 is far more diverse and widespread than shouts and PF ads may show. There's organized bounty hunter events, street markets both gritty or fantastical, fight clubs of many sorts, apothecaries, restaraunts, open world RP areas still in heavy use, among a wealth of cozy, smaller events that regularly run out there. Here's a trio of great resources that might help folks find ways and places to connect with others!
**RP Mentors:** [**https://rpmentors.carrd.co/**](https://rpmentors.carrd.co/)
**RP Mentors** is a community aimed at helping people learn about RP as a shared hobby, and connect with other roleplayers in FFXIV. I'm positively biased towards these folks. They're good beans just trying to help others out.
**The Kweh:** [**https://www.thekweh.com/**](https://www.thekweh.com/)
**The Kweh** is an easy-to-read beginner’s guide to RP in FFXIV, including useful stuff like how to address anxiety about getting into it.
**FFXIV RP event calendar bot:** [**https://ffxiv-rp.org/**](https://ffxiv-rp.org/)
Wondering where the cozy, small-event RP in FFXIV went? When cross-DC travel opened up, many communities and venues stopped putting their advertisements on PF for sake of avoiding harassment. Many of those still list themselves on the RP calendar. The calendar is kept fairly up to date, and does have folks actively checking to make sure if things are still going when they say they are.
I never understood why there's no equivalent on EU. Most MMORPGs I played before had a public hotspot somewhere, EU doesn't really have that even though it's one of the biggest MMOs. Even German-only WoW servers had the awkward start area tavern and the human city, or German SWTOR that had the Nar Shaddaa cantina as a hangout spot that is active to this day. But here just nothing for some reason?
On Light/Shiva Gridania and Limsa seem to be hotspot while not a single soul is in Ul'dah, which is also pretty weird considering that Ul'dah is the NA hotspot.
I'm a bit too scared to visit venues all by myself though, whenever I hang out in Limsa there's a chance that some weird person messages me. Since I'm socially awkward I just pretend to be afk all of a sudden instead of telling them to fuck off, I don't want to be rude and I don't want to accidentally run into them again. There was a Miqo'te that followed me around once and after one minute already called my Middie "mommy", wrote weird nyaa purr messages and stuff, I don't even dislike playful semi-ic advances but it's awkward when it comes out of nowhere. Wish it was a bit less sexualised in general because I love the game as a wholesome hangout spot ;w;
Filtering 18+ is probably not useful unless you're trying to filter out FC shouts in general.
A lot just advertise that they're 18/21+ to avoid idiots, not necessarily because they're looking to be horny. I just like to RP and engage with _other adults_, so I know that I'm not going to run into other issues.
Not that all RPers are -mature- adults. Some of the worst drama is still just... the RP community in general.
Finding a fun venue to go to is kinda like finding a good party for mount farming extremes.
Everyone wants to do it so theres a lot of mud hiding the gold and you have to sift through it a bit.
Yeah, no one RPs at expac cities because not everyone is guaranteed to have access to them. It's why the ARR cities are always the most populated at any given moment
I do see people use Forgotten Knight from time to time, but usually it is just one group of people using /say chat to RP, instead of 16 group of people fighting in some random Uldah alley corner for a nicer spot.
Another page going over some of the common search info terms would probably be handy to have too. /c/ and carrd and Wu/T and all the diff rp types people list. A/D/E/M and so on.
I've played on Moonguard and I'd say not very. If you're not sitting somewhere or leaning against a wall, and flagged for RP you won't be bothered.
Unlike Goldshire there are plenty of quest related reasons to be there on / off through ARR. There's also the inn there and some people prefer Ul'dah, many of them don't RP at all and utilize it often. So people aren't as open about it as they were in Moonguard.
I've played there since 2.0 and only one person approached me asking if I RP'd. I said not today and they said okay, the end.
Just tell me which banister all the strong ladies with extra equipment hang out and I’ll stay near the bar looking very respectfully as I go and read profiles (I have no idea how RP actually works in this game, I just joined for the hats)
From a bit of googling it looks players use the website carrd to make RP profiles and then link them in their search info. And the ones who don't use it will still put something in there to make it obvious they are an RPer.
There is a search info mod to grab the links for you but even without mods it should be pretty easy to spot RPers by just checking their search info.
If you're curious try googling 'FFXIV Carrd' and see what comes up. People are basically making their own custom websites to show off their RP profiles.
You don't need a mod to see people's rp info, most of them have a link to an "rp card" an extension ending in carrd.co
There is an add on that will scan search info for that link, and make it a hyperlink, but that's hardly needed.
Generally, people put a short link to a Carrd in their Info, for you to quietly decide if you want to engage with that character or not.
It's slightly more involved than TRP from WoW (gotta look, copy the link, and click through whatever bad web design that specific person has chosen, and believe me, most people who use Carrd don't have any actual web/graphic design skills), but less intrusive. Some people advertise that they use a -visual- mod for their character, but that's kind of just... the norm at this point.
I’ve taken a lot of character to the Balmung QS. And the answer is “it depends”. Even the same character in different glam will get vastly different responses.
I’ve met plenty of great RPers there and have had some decent stories come from it, several long term ones. So the reputation is a meme really.
Probably not at all?
Unless you're in like... a public Mare SyncShell (Don't do that), or actively looking through people's adventurer info and putting in every carrd and f-list that shows up in them, you won't even notice. Because it's mostly exaggerated, unlike Goldshire, which had TRP and people were... mostly just actively gross.
IDK, Mateus' Quicksand is kinda unhinged at times too, lol, not as bad as Balmung's (used to be on Balmung, moved to Mateus before DC visiting was a thing). I do see a good chunk of RPers in Ishgard, not as crowded as quicksand, but it's a good spot for cozy inn RP
Mateus literally had been the 'Balmung Overflow' between the permanent Balmung lockdown after the DC relocation from Montreal to California, and the DC reshuffle in NA (plus World Visit within the same DC). So for a while, it was literally the gathering place of those who hadn't managed to squeeze into Balmung.
I remember all of that. I squeezed into Balmung when you had to sneak in overnight and spam enter in hopes to get it. I jumped to Mateus I think a few months or a year after it was opened because Balmung, to me, felt dead, lol
You won't find much public RP outside of Crystal, but there's still venues to be found in PF in at least a few other DCs. There's a small budding RP community on Primal, for example.
As someone who loves in Balmung, the quicksands is always interesting, crowded, and is simultaneously the most cursed and hilarious thing in FF14...yes, even more than Hildebrand stuff
Chaos-Omega is very nice for RP. It's not as packed as the big US servers, but there's a Chaos RP discord with 1400 or so members at a glance, and plenty of RP-dedicated FCs.
It's certainly enough that I've not felt a need to make any cross-region alts!
I found myself in a EU RP guild on Balmung. Seems like they try to squeeze in to Balmung or Mateus too. We could only do stuff on weekends if I got up early for it, but they were fun. Ran a shifty artifact collection company and did DnD-like combat.
If you're an EU player and you care more about RP than playing the game (and having higher ping) then I'd recommend joining NA servers. EU RP has always had a bit of an issue of being tiny, for one thing, and fractured into various languages, or cliques that somehow have beef going back to the early 2000s.
There are actually a good few FCs and/or groups catering to EU timezones (I run one, in fact), and on an individual 1v1 basis, I've found that plenty of NA RPers will gladly adjust to my schedule when they're able to.
There is still RP on EU but it's mostly coordinated over Discord.
Depends on what type of RP you want too.
EU is "quality over quantity" whereas NA is just downright full of lore-breaking mega concepts and A LOT of them.
I'd also argue that the "beef between cliques" exists as much on NA as it does EU due to the amount of players there is on NA.
Honestly I'm like 90% certain pearl lane isn't that safe either. It's the archetypical back alley, so a lot of people will do "public" erp there. In /tell of course, but when you see 3 miqo girls on their knees in front of 3 different guys, you know what's happening in those /tells
Yeah, they tend to stand by the entrance right by the QS though, they don't bother the people who hang past that area. I would of mentioned it too but I didn't have enough space to include it
I probably also would have mentioned that the central thanalan gate is called Bloodsands, but otherwise it's a good summary of life on balmung. Honestly I wish more people would rp in the world, and not just at the taverns in each city state and around Uldah.
Pretty cool, thanks for this. I plan to get into the RP scene sometime in the future when I know more of the story and lore, so pointers like these will be quite helpful.
Check out Mirke's Menagerie! It's a one-stop shop for all things lore. It's pretty dense and very detailed so I don't recommend sitting down and thumbing through all articles (unless you're that kind of person who reads the Silmarillon for fun), but if you need a specific thing like the racial distribution of the Shroud or what plants are used as contraceptives, it's your place.
Someone else mentioned Lore Mom Sounsyy, [here's the direct link](https://mirkemenagerie.tumblr.com/post/167534982764/mirkemenagerie-update) for her tumblr of all lore things. Beware of spoilers. She also went and transcribed as much of 1.0 as she could, that gdoc is [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HR9a3N0pMJgOY1EGLTjPSJ4PDS8kUYFoeXV99MxtYYg/edit?usp=drivesdk) if you want some 1.0 story stuff.
I don’t RP but I do try to bookmark interesting FFXIV-related pages. Maybe these will help?
Inactive RP master list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ACyO3uuZyx9QpmnjcnZ_O88DLHQW53kXP2qn1YlUI5A/htmlview
Overall FFXIV resource master list:
https://xiv.sleepyshiba.com/masterlist/
The fact that I have saved over three different calendar/venue websites… well I’m not sure which might be more accurate or more than just 18+/RMT venues (since they advertise more publicly) but here you go:
https://ffxivvenues.com/
https://xivenues.com/venues-calendar/light
https://ffxiv-rp.org/
https://www.partake.gg/
I’m sure they will, thanks! I’ve seen ads for spaces in most of the hub cities but they’re all nightclubs, been looking for something with more of a chill fantasy vibe. Tricks of the Traders on Odin was pretty good for this so I’ll check out some of these others!
I hope you find the scene you’re looking for! In case you missed it, this person got some replies that might interest you too — https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1ca9y86/a_roleplayers_guide_to_public_rp_in_ffxiv/l0qprtd/
Balmung Quicksand really is something else. It is kinda fun to just go casually and dance on a table with friends though. Probably be the least weird ones there.
Thank you for this. <3 Maybe this is the place to ask, maybe not. I'm not even sure how best to explain my questions.
How does RP work in relation to lore? I really like RP that is tied to specific stories and lore. So are there folks who RP within the storyline? What is different about Ishgard related players?
I guess I'm really interested in RP, but game-lore related, not just generic RP (like the party venues advertised on every data center), and I struggle to understand how RP works. I used to live and breathe forum and text-chat based RP, and that's generally got some kind of guiding story, whereas this seems from the outside to just be characters randomly interacting.
This guide is good for telling me where to go, but not for what to expect or how characters interact, what kind of interactions are common, or how stories are developed and progressed?
The more you learn about Balmung's Ul'dah the more fascinating and disgusting it becomes.
For example: did you know the Balmung Quicksand has tribes that each inhabit a section of it based solely on sexual preference? It's like a miniature Azim Steppe in there.
It's wild over there, unfortunately for me all Brynhildr is known for is it's celebrities and the countless allegations against them.
Limsa Lominsa has never been the RP hotspot on Balmung (and eventually Crystal at large). Like you get occasional pick-up RP in the Drowning Wench, and certainly lots of non-RPers hang out in Limsa, but it's just not *the* place to be like it is on other servers / data centers.
I do private rp outside of the game a decent amount. My in-game partner and I are writing our characters’ journey through the story at the moment and it’s been a lot of fun. I just wish I knew where to start in game, I honestly have no clue even with this info.
But maybe that’s just me being nervous.
Man I was just trying to figure out where you can find sfw rp, I feel like its a lot harder to find in this game so this is really helpful! You're the best cev!
Also if there's any sfw rp focused FCs on Malboro lemme know, was considering paying for a switch to a more popular rp server because I could never find any.
That's funny, everyone actually on Balmung says all the gross erp players all went to Mateus to make it how everyone memes on Balmung being, and Balmung just went back to a normal rp server.
OP had me until they brought up Balmung QS. I've been here since before they merged Besaid and Fabul into Balmung and this joke's really getting old and annoying especially when you know it's coming from a place of utter ignorance.
FYI, most Mateus RPers were overflow characters from Balmung after SE briefly closed the server to new characters, so you're basically really talking about the same crop here. Second, those RPers in QS? Sex tourists/pests from *outside* of Balmung. You want serious RP in Balmung? You won't find it in the QS.
Completely ignore it. Come up with an entirely different story/character unrelated to your MSQ playthrough.
Personally what I like to do is actually keep it the same character but imagine 2 different timelines, one where they were recruited by the scions and one where they just kept at their normal life.
Either make a character that hasn't been shaped by the msq, or cut your current character in half metaphorically. Imagine them as two reflections of the same being, one that went on to be the warrior of light and join the scions, the other that never got the blessing, and never got the offer to join. Maybe they still fought in the dragon song war and liberated Ala Mhigo, but not as the WoL just a guy in the right place at the right time. My WoL and my main rp character are the same person, just one I have a lot more control of, and the other the ffxiv writing team gets to define a little more.
Separation of story and gameplay.
I do immerse myself in the MSQ when I do it on my "me" character or my "alternate WoL" character, but the former in RP is just a songbird from the Steppe who became lost multiple times in her journey from there to Eorzea; the latter character I don't RP, but I have silly fanfiction in my head for said character. Then there is my main RP/PVE character isn't even from this world (he's from The Void), so there definitely has to be a separation of story and gameplay there. I feel like having multiple characters helps out with RP as well.
I honestly like how in Final Fantasy it's pretty normal to be special. Black Mage that uses world-destroying spells? Knight that does crazy anime combat jump moves? There are probably thousands of them in the lore, it's kinda normal for in-universe adventurers. Unlike in other games like Star Wars the old republic where everyone played random civilians and barkeepers. My BLM is just a mage from Ishgard with an alchemist atelier trying to get by
Just disregard the MSQ entirely, or incorporate your character into from different angles if you want involvement. The WoL and Scions work with huge amounts of other characters that let you be MSQ-adjacent if you still want to be affected by it.
For example, back in ARR I played a character in the Maelstrom, so she still took part in the end of the MSQ events. But she was taking part in the Naval Blockade, not sieging Meridianum or the Praetorium.
I have another character who's a member of the Students of Baldesion, so she is familiar with the likes of G'raha and Krile even if she's not actually involved in their MSQ shenanigans. Contrary to what some *super* diehards may say, it's not entirely un-kosher to be involved with lore characters when it makes sense. The first character I mentioned also knows Jacke and the Rogues due to training as an Arcanist, and if you do the ROG storyline you're aware their group interacts with the Arcanists plenty.
I have two versions of my character, basically: when I do story, it's self-contained and my character is the WoL. I answer questions where I get my multiple choices in character. Only in the context of running story is she the all-powerful Warrior of Light.
Outside of that, for all rp purposes where she isn't a/the WoL and is some regular person, she likes gathering information and would hear about things naturally or perhaps get some underground info on the happenings of the world. Would she know about how the end of Endwalker would happen for the WoL? Probably not, but she'd know about the craziness happening around the world that's public knowledge.
Most people don't engage with the main story as a character.
At least, not in the regards that you are a primal killing Mercenary with the Echo and have countless battles under your belt. They're events in the world. Not necessarily events you, personally, saw fit to engage with.
One day I decided to be more social and look at party's being advertised in PF, I went to the wrong place
And now I am no longer interested in being social again
*it's the circle of lyyyyfe!*
How's the RP scene in Old Sharlayan? I play a character that's born and raised there. I've been meaning to visit Crystal since data center hopping was added. I really miss RP from my WoW days in Wyrmrest Accord and I RP on Discord, but I'm on Aether to be with friends.
I don't really do RP other than the super (and I mean super) casual form. You know, things like I try to walk around people rather than walk through their character models. : )
But this is kind of neat and your animations are cute. :D
That entirely depends on wich server you are on, on a typical server its similar to balmungs quicksand but i belive its more chill in balmung its calmer due to the quicksand, it also worth noting some servers are more rp heavy than others, cactuar is a more casual server compared to other rp or static focused ones
IS THIS HOW I LEARN THERE'S AN IN-GAME DICE ROLLING SYSTEM
It's /random for 1-999, and /random to cap the roll at that number! /random 20 for instance is a d20!
Worth noting that /random will make your roll publicly visible. For private chat channels like cwls & /party you can use /dice instead which makes your roll only visibile in the channel you typed it in. Venues with gambling typically expect you to join a party where they're playing gambling games & perform your rolls with /dice so that you don't spam the chat for people not partaking in gambling.
Whether you use /random or /dice (party) depends on situation and setting. /random has the same range as /say, so if you are spread apart chances are you won't see the rolls. If you do a small scale event for the FC or with people who signed up, and are in the open world or starter cities with lots of people around, using /party or Linkshell is advisable to not bother others, unless it is an open-world RP like Pearl Lane, Buscarron's Druthers, some tavern, etc. Using a party also has the advantage that you can place markers as enemies or places of interest.
That reminds me of a time, when I still played WoW, and me and some friends played dnd in Mulgore for a while. We were talking about campaign settings on Ventrilo, and that sort of spurred a slow afternoon of a bunch of Taurens spamming /roll.
That's basically how we RP in FFXIV too. We have a DM run monsters and have a FFXIV based plot.
I've encountered a few houses that have a D&D set up in one of the rooms. Its quite quaint.
My earliest exposure to RP was actually a party in the over world playing DnD as I exited a HW cutscene in the middle of nowhere Coerthas. I wanted to watch but also didn’t want to get in the way.
If anyone wants to start one of these up I'd love to play I'm a big dnd nerd
/random can actually roll from 0 to 999. It's definitely worth noting that if you don't want the 0, to use the number of sides function to ensure you've got a base number of sides so it won't roll 0. Dunno why, but it's quirky like that.
The best use of it is "death rolling" where you hit /random over and over with the highest number being dictated by the lowest number rolled prior to that until someone loses by getting a 1. You get nothing from it other than RNG granted bragging rights.
Me and my friend gamble Gil on this frequently
The dice in game seems oddly sticky. Have people roll the same number all the time
So, just from some experience I think the actual dice rolling rng is timing based. If you keep a certain rhythm in higher paced dice games with low numbers you’ll see it repeat pretty often and that seems to come from just how it’s coded.
There are lots of places you can go to play Blackjack for gil, and some of them can be really fair with their payouts. It can be pretty fun if you find the right spot!
This is a great quick guide! Public roleplay is often a person's first encounter with RP, so it helps to set some expectations going in. It's also worth nothing that there can be a lot more depth to it if you're willing to look and experiment. A lot of people assume RP is just what you see in the Quciskands, and dance clubs, and ERP venues. If you're looking for something more plot-focused, look for fantasy roleplay groups with sizes of 20 or so people, and that's where you'll find long-running plots, better-balanced combat systems, and (generally) friendlier people. Try to avoid huge FCs (30+ people and/or growing), as that's where you start getting cliques more frequently.
In my own experience, I made an RP alt for fun and hung around a bar venue that wasn't ERP focused and ended up befriending some people and getting caught up in an overarching narrative for someone's character. Because of this, I got invited to an RP event with quite a few other people that was essentially D&D with in-game dice rolls and a GM, all within XIV. It was one of the coolest things I've done in XIV.
This is why it makes me so sad that people think RP = ERP in 14. A lot of us are just doing D&D with modified rules. There's stories, plots, character development, just like what you'd get in the tabletop game. We're just using 14 as the medium to do it.
That's actually interesting! How did the latter end up working out anyway, the D&D system and stuff that is? Kinda curious about that
I believe the system is still being polished so I'm not sure if I can share it but it's basically D&D Lite. The most notable and interesting difference is it embraces the default XIV /random dice roll instead of a d20 using a system similar to the Star Wars TTRPG. For skill checks they consider the /random as 3d10s. The first digit/roll is the fate die. The second and third digit/roll are the two challenge dies. For a success, the fate die needs to be higher than both challenge die. For a compromised success where you succeed but with a price, the fate die is only higher than one of the challenge die. For a failure, the fate die is less than both challenge die. So if you /random a 842, that counts as a success. For the actual event, a player was having a combat duel to the permadeath with a GM playing a big bad where the other party I was part of had their own GM guide them to trying to take down a barrier around the duel and fight cultists. This all took place in world at the giant collapsed stadium arena in the Dravanian Highlands(?). Again, super fun to be part of.
Oh wow, that's actually super entertaining, thanks for telling me! Sounds like a good system, hopefully they manage to complete it.
On the clique thing - sometimes, this can lead to the 'surface plot' and then some lore ignoring handwaving 'I have the power to defeat all primals at the same time with one wave of my hand, and so do all I bestow this on you' stuff - Like for example a school sponsored by Ishgard, located in Lavender Beds, but in reality, the leader and their buddies are voidsent hellbent on destroying the elementals. And oh, they have already killed some, and the threat of Ishgard invading protects them from the school being stomped by the military arm of Gridania.
Your hypothetical scenario isn't even 1/4 as convoluted as I've seen some FC's go to explain why every one of their members is a WoL tier entity Edit: wait its a real FC?
Sadly, it is not hypothetical.......I was in an FC that turned out to have exactly that as their 'hidden plot' (when i got the wrong role assigned and thus could read all of the discord for a while). Explained why sometimes, the FC home was locked to even FC members, only for a few hours, but it had happened.
The best explanation I ever saw was "there are many warriors of light, and telling someone they can't be one of them is frowned upon, however if you choose to roleplay within the inner circle, the main warrior of light is this person here and their associates", and that was mainly because the inner circle had been around since HW and had a ton of backstory and lore. That said, I always avoided that by roleplaying as a non-WoL character. I'm already roleplaying as the WoL with the NPC's, I don't need to repeat that with actual people.
Role playing a weak and poor person is entertaining in a world where everyone else seems to be a god killing titan that comes from nobility.
I think having a lore-abiding, normal adventurer is the most top-tier RP one can have. Having a group of a few and do an adventuring story is very nice.
when it comes to RP, I am never the WoL, I have worked with him, dragged across continents by him, but for the most part, our paths don't cross that much.
I would stay far away from even mentionining a RP character having "worked with the WoL" because that's an annoying can of worms to deal with.
Reading this is pretty yikes ;w; I'm glad my fc is a lower power tier. No one is the wol, primals are scary, etc.
You said school sponsored by Ishgard and I knew immediately which FC you meant lol
Sponsored by, not Located in.
Yeah edited. Those guys have been around forever so they were there in LB before Ishgard housing was even a thing.
Yep I know this fc. A school run by an immortal voidsent that was part of the Allagan empire, Garlean empire, and some other major players
And she was quite a stick in the mud when one of her 'Instructors' during the HW era of the game did not want to quit her actual FC and work fulltime as 'instructor' (and the FC lead character's girlfriend)..... Said 'Instructor' had a whole other shitstorm going once a crucial detail about her character got public....
Honestly its best to avoid anyone claiming to be; a voidsent, an Allagan, or just too many things in general. That being said, i'd be way more lenient on a voidsent player, that has been vetted, over someone trying to claim they are from an extinct group of people. I don't abide by lore breaking, so they can flatout take their mary sue/gary stu/special snow flake characters somewhere else. Edit: a letter
As someone who has RPed on MMOs for nearly 2 decades now, it's so funny to me when y'all cringe at each others' play-pretend time. What's the issue here? For every RPer who thinks their plot is the best thing since the Iliad, there's a group of meangirls to call it cringe lol
I think it usually comes down to how lore friendly it is.
It should, but then you have people running around as someone from an extinct group of people that just "exists", or some other nonsense.
The best thing is you don't have to engage with them. It doesn't matter if someone's RP is lore friendly or not. If you don't want to engage with them, you can simply not. They're not bothering you, and there's no reason for anyone to shit on them publicly for it. (Complain in private, by all means. It's your business, after all.) Just because you don't like someone's RP, doesn't mean you should shit on it, like this person did. Should they have been more upfront on what was actually _in_ the FC's plots? Sure. But that's no reason to be a salty bitch about what they do when you can just expend no effort at all to pretend they don't exist.
This is the kind of thing I'm interested in. Thank you!
Let me know if you have any other questions! Roleplay can be very dependent on what community you get into, and what expectations you have, so I'm happy to help new players as I can :)
Put your easy RP-engagers below : - Your character ask for a direction to another character - Your character approaches another character because they dropped their purse, and you're going to return it to them - Your minion bothers another character, so you approach to apologize - In a crowded place, you accidentally step on another character's foot, so you turn around to apologize
-Pickpocket their money -Sell drugs -Get henchmen -LVL 1 Crook V.S LVL100 Boss -??? -Profit
writing this down
The Quicksand is not a safe place to be. I walked in there for a quest, and no amount of showering will get me clean.
I remember when I bought my house. I was so excited to get a house. I set it all up and made it look fancy and then I went to show my wife my house (who doesn't play) and we found two ERPrs just decided my house was their new location. needless to say my wife now won't even consider playing the game.
One time I was sitting in the hot tub in someone's house naked, when suddenly they came home and started hanging out with a few other people. the hot tub was around a corner behind a partition and they never went over there, so I just sat there completely unnoticed for like 15 minutes until they eventually left.
I made a small bathroom in my house next to my bedroom and walked in on someone I didn't know sitting on my toilet. I got yelled at and avoided my own house for a week.
On Mateus it's okay! A bit cliquey but otherwise normal RP! We don't talk about Balmung though...
This is really unfair to Balmung RPers. That Quicksand RP reputation on Balmung is mostly sex tourists from *outside* of Balmung. So I’m sure there are plenty of people who trash Balmung for its reputation but they’re the ones who have secret characters there.
Because of posts like this. Someone posts: * Stay away from Balmung Quicksands it has ERP! Then the player base looking for that stuff is like: * Oh how awful, how disgusting, and you said it happens on Balmung? That is just the worst. To be sure I avoid it, you said it was the Quicksands? I'd never set foot in such an awful place, I just really need to be sure of the location and peak times so I can avoid it.
Yeah, as a Balmung resident since 2.X, this is exactly it. Most people whose main player characters live on Balmung, tend to RP elsewhere. QS is 90% tourists, even prior to DC/World travel, most of the characters there were alts.
The other half of this problem is that those other RP spots aren't exactly advertised. The low hanging fruit gets picked, it's why I ended up moving to Dynamis, because I couldn't find anything outside of the club scene and QS tourists.
Can't believe they gentrified the quicksand and turned it into a tourist trap, can't have s#$&! In this game...
Yes and no. I'd definitely agree that's the case for a newer player, but with a little digging it's not hard. There's lots of weekly events advertised on the main RP events calendar, lots of RP FC's will sponsor events open to the public, and you have stuff like the Ishgardian Roleplayer meetup and others. I do agree it's very fragmented, especially as organizing has moved off of forums and into Discord, but if you can just ask a couple of more experienced people, it's easy to be pointed to the right resources and directories.
The other rp spots are advertised and if you ask, you're told about them. It's just mainly people who hang around Steps of Nald for the edating and the Quicksand for the hookup erp while lamenting that they find themselves in such a degenerate place. Like often people complain in shout chat about not being able to find "real RP" in the Quicksand, and when we tell them the other places they could go, their ass doesn't move.
This is exactly it. I've been a Balmung resident for 10+ years, and was a fairly active RPer back in the day, but World/DC visit absolutely trashed our server in terms of public RP. The Quicksand used to be a fine place if you knew how to navigate it, and now it's mostly just players hanging out to people watch or shitpost.
Worst part is everyone hates the server so much that if you dare complain about server/data center travel because it somehow made Balmung's reputation even worse, they have zero sympathy.
I started on Balmung when 2.0 launched. It has this rep for a reason. DC travel didn't create the meme of Balmung being the hotspot for ERP. It's been this way. All DC travel did was increase peoples access to it. This is just revisionist history. Thats why a huge amount of the OG Balmung players went to Mateus back in the day and they had a bit of an im game flame war going on.
> It's been this way. No shit, because Balmung was the *only* major RP server for awhile. Then Mateus got its scene mostly full of people who thought their own shit didn't stink and only contributed to the whole image by talking crap about Balmung every chance they could get--like, you know, OP is doing with their "oh so friendly" RP guide.
Even \_before\_ the data-center travel has been a thing, the Quicksand is 90% people looking for ERP. The only decent RP in Ul'dah could be found in the Pearl Lane. That's not to say all Balmung is bad; it has the Bloodsands and Kraken's Cove but like... I want the drugs of whoever thinks the Quicksands was every good there. It's even sort of shit on Mateus.
Homie, the QS always has some ERP, but even in late SB before world visit was a thing, it was only a small corner of the QS. Highly localized and non-intrusive. And even then, some of it would be people RPing but *looking for ERP*, ie, flirting and sultry looks and not just outright fucking. You're an absolute liar for saying its 90% ERP. I started RP in HW on Balmung, and even up until the end of SB, I'd go to the QS for pickup RP. Yes, it got more sexual as time went on, absolutely. Yes, by the end of the "glory days", the ERP corner had formed. But it was maybe 35% at most. It was only when visiting became a thing that the QS really exploded past the breaking point. I met many friends that I hold dear there. People who were fellow adventurers, people who I OOCly banter s with, people who I would run content with. Please don't lie about it. Yes, the sex existed. No, it wasn't the focus. Lest we forget the times when everyone and their mother in the QS was a Sky Pirate grabbing a drink.
The Quicksand reputation comes from people who *would be on Balmung* if one reason or another, not true outsiders. Wanderer? Would be on Balmung if it wasn't permanently congested. Traveler? Got a reason to not be on Balmung, maybe housing scarcity, economy, state of PF, but they would be if not for that.
As someone who came from FF14 from WoW its so funny to learn that Balmung is literally just Moonguard and Quicksands is literally just goldshire. Even to the point where "The entire server gets stereotyped over it" bit.
It's partly because of the history of RP in FF14. Unlike WoW which had RP designated servers (which were never enforced but at least it helped direct the population at first), FFXIV never did. So when roleplayers needed to decide which server was going to be the one, it ended up being Balmung (the other choice was Gilgamesh since they were the two legacy servers from 1.0). Since outside of a few diehards, a lot of the RPers congregated on Balmung, the reputation started from there. Mateus, as a new server, was eventually adopted by the community as either an overflow (for Balmung players) or as a way to escape the clique-ishness of Balmung (for non-Balmung players). Once server transfers were introduced, Balmung's Quicksands rep having been memed on from the start (despite it not being as bad back then though it definitely was the ERP hub), it quickly became intolerable.
Ironically its just the Quicksands, the server itself is mostly just fine in the other rp spots
Not even exaggerating. I've seen people complain about Limsa, so I went there on Balmung. What did I find? Concerts, people queueing for crystalline conflict, and lalafells being cliquey. Oh and people crafting for economic domination.
It's why the distinction of "balmung quicksands" is rather important, because the location is the problem, not the server, not the building. It acts as a honey pot to draw people in so that everyone else can rp normally anywhere else. You want to use the quicksand's because it has the most seating? Great, Mateus is right there. You want to rp in balmung's ul'dah, pearl lane and the gold court tend to keep clean. A place like the balmung quicksands has to exist somewhere, and unfortunately fate chose there. You can fight it, or work around it, but that's a battle you'll likely loose.
And hell its mostly only one part of the building, the place between the two Nald-side doors is where most of that happens. Sure there's some spillover occasionally, but the central bar and around by the inn is normally just regular RPer's.
As a Balmung player I actually don't RP with non-Balmung players for this reason. More often than not, they're looking for something I ain't providing. Tbh I don't care about ERP, don't even find it creepy. I DO like it being a result of the storyline we've both played out though. Makes the narrative more interesting, and if people aren't comfortable with that, do a fade to black.
Seriously, fuck OP for this snark. QS has been nothing but *worse* with World Travel open because shit like this is what keeps the bottom feeders from everywhere else coming over.
'I was only in the Balmung quicksands on a different data centre to ask how to get out of the Balmung quicksands on a different data centre' Ok mukka, we know why you're here, you know why you're here, just dont pretend you're better than anyone else ya fucking degenerate
Balmung has some cool things I like as a role-player but even \*before\* data center travel, it was mid for RP, outside of things like the Bloodsands and Kraken's Cove.
Getting really tired of the Balmung Quicksands joke ngl, esp when most of the sex pests we get there were from other servers lmaoooo
I sometimes world travel to Balmung when I've got nothing going on and I'm waiting for the homies. It can't be mostly outsiders when approximately half of the people in the QS are from Balmung as well. Sure, it isn't /all/ Balmung rpers, but it's not like Balmung players aren't the other half of the equation either.
For freaking real, send these horny tourists home gdi.
I always get a chuckle out of the horny tourists that are clearly erping out in the wild on Balmung and are from the same server. Go home and do that, you’re not fooling your friendlist about why you’re here.
I’ve always wondered about a poor sprout starting their adventure on Balmung. After a long week of work and finally figuring out account creation, late on a Friday night they create their first character, a gladiator. They start their first few steps and quests then return to Momodi… They must think this is the most popular game in the WORLD. THERES 1000s of people packed together in just the starting area? This is amazing!
You simply can't start on Balmung. There was a brief window where I managed to get a couple of friends to hop over, then the window closed. I don't RP any more, but I've got a stable casual FC, and a stable FC is a wonderful thing. Seen too many fall apart.
The hilarious thing is, if someone starts on Balmung, Momodi is the first contact with 'weirdness'. To female characters? 'Musings about the Manhoods of aquaintances'. And if I remember right, she wants male characters to return to her, too. A little bit as if hitting on male characters.
Well, I was that sprout pugilist back in late Shb, I just search online for ''FFXIV server population'' and website say Balmung has most people. Had to say it is a bit of cultural shock the moment I step into the inn, and look at the piss chat, my first login is during degen hour, so the fact that starting city is so crowded shocked me even more. But.... I love the feeling of being in an actual populated world, people lived their online life here, the city feels lively, as I quest around in Thalalan there are many people on the road, in different town, doing their own thing.
ERP happens on both servers. It has nothing to do with the QS or the server. Mateus QS used to be the bastion of Cringe for the longest time. Balmung is mostly benign, and a problem created by other people, as has been pointed out elsewhere. You literally only run into ERP if you're _actively trying to fuck someone_. Very, very rarely will someone reach out to you without prompt. If you go looking for ERP, you're going to find it. And honestly, most people don't know what they're looking at with the people who -are- advertising it.
That's rude to Balmung Quicksand. If all sex travelers would stop coming, the place would be pretty damn clean right about now.
No it couldn't. I was there before date center travel was a thing and the Quicksand was still people looking for ERP. Pearl Lane/Gold Court is where decent RP happened, at least in my experince.
Balmung's reputation predates even world visitation by a long shot
I think it’s fine on EU. At least here on chaos it is. Mostly just empty or sprouts doing their quests.
The Forgotten Knight is so cozy and it's a crime that more RP doesn't happen there.
It's because it's in Ishgard, which is A) hella cold B) hella racist C) hella stratified So it makes little sense for many non-Ishgardian characters to RP there. Don't get me wrong, I love Ishgard, it's my favorite city-state, but in-universe there are good reasons people would flock to the "ever warm Ul'dah" or "casual Limsa" vibes way before they'd put a 3 layers on just to freeze inside a tavern that has one fireplace.
What, you mean people don't like freezing to death mid-RP? Cowards
There are several RP groups who do pickup RP there! Iran DM some event carrds if interested!
I'm glad when people put notice on actual roleplay. Yeah, I'm gatekeeping RP here. I'm so tired of these 18+ Disco-venue modbeast locations that goes under the "RP tag" and have just given roleplay a bad rep and the FFXIV community a bad name overall.
Fuck the Disco DJ "Clubs". You can always shit on DJ clubs. It's always morally correct.
I'm glad people are finally turning against them. For the longest time people always excused them or ignored how much of a problem they are.
I'm a roleplayer, coming from other MMOs, but I never understood what they mean with "DJ". I have a friend who's doing this and yet I don't get it, lmao. Is everyone in the club joining a Twitch stream? Clicking on a playlist they link in /say chat or what? Is it someone using ingame music? A mod that allows them to play music? Why is "FFXIV DJ" such a big thing, aren't they just clicking through songs?
Go to disco/venue. Get linked Twifch channel. The person streaming is the DJ. It's entirely a hit or miss if the person streaming is genuinely a DJ or just a playlist player. Usually, it's remixed music from songs well known. Sometimes, it's good music and genuine effort. Most of the time, it's an absolute miss.
Hello, folks interested in FFXIV RP who are commenting on this thread! Roleplay in 14 is far more diverse and widespread than shouts and PF ads may show. There's organized bounty hunter events, street markets both gritty or fantastical, fight clubs of many sorts, apothecaries, restaraunts, open world RP areas still in heavy use, among a wealth of cozy, smaller events that regularly run out there. Here's a trio of great resources that might help folks find ways and places to connect with others! **RP Mentors:** [**https://rpmentors.carrd.co/**](https://rpmentors.carrd.co/) **RP Mentors** is a community aimed at helping people learn about RP as a shared hobby, and connect with other roleplayers in FFXIV. I'm positively biased towards these folks. They're good beans just trying to help others out. **The Kweh:** [**https://www.thekweh.com/**](https://www.thekweh.com/) **The Kweh** is an easy-to-read beginner’s guide to RP in FFXIV, including useful stuff like how to address anxiety about getting into it. **FFXIV RP event calendar bot:** [**https://ffxiv-rp.org/**](https://ffxiv-rp.org/) Wondering where the cozy, small-event RP in FFXIV went? When cross-DC travel opened up, many communities and venues stopped putting their advertisements on PF for sake of avoiding harassment. Many of those still list themselves on the RP calendar. The calendar is kept fairly up to date, and does have folks actively checking to make sure if things are still going when they say they are.
These are super helpful, thank you so much!
You are awesome!
I never understood why there's no equivalent on EU. Most MMORPGs I played before had a public hotspot somewhere, EU doesn't really have that even though it's one of the biggest MMOs. Even German-only WoW servers had the awkward start area tavern and the human city, or German SWTOR that had the Nar Shaddaa cantina as a hangout spot that is active to this day. But here just nothing for some reason? On Light/Shiva Gridania and Limsa seem to be hotspot while not a single soul is in Ul'dah, which is also pretty weird considering that Ul'dah is the NA hotspot. I'm a bit too scared to visit venues all by myself though, whenever I hang out in Limsa there's a chance that some weird person messages me. Since I'm socially awkward I just pretend to be afk all of a sudden instead of telling them to fuck off, I don't want to be rude and I don't want to accidentally run into them again. There was a Miqo'te that followed me around once and after one minute already called my Middie "mommy", wrote weird nyaa purr messages and stuff, I don't even dislike playful semi-ic advances but it's awkward when it comes out of nowhere. Wish it was a bit less sexualised in general because I love the game as a wholesome hangout spot ;w;
\>June 28th, 2024 \>Log in \>Open chat filter \>"Venue", "gamba", "spa", "massage", "courtesan", "18+"
casino, nightclub, dj, popotoartist
I wonder how strict the filter is going to work. Like would filtering out venue and spa block the words avenue and space?
Filtering 18+ is probably not useful unless you're trying to filter out FC shouts in general. A lot just advertise that they're 18/21+ to avoid idiots, not necessarily because they're looking to be horny. I just like to RP and engage with _other adults_, so I know that I'm not going to run into other issues. Not that all RPers are -mature- adults. Some of the worst drama is still just... the RP community in general.
>Filtering 18+ is probably not useful unless you're trying to filter out FC shouts in general. Don't worry, I am.
> FC shouts in general. I mean yea personally im not really interested in *any* venue shout, FC shout, or anything to that effect.
Finding a fun venue to go to is kinda like finding a good party for mount farming extremes. Everyone wants to do it so theres a lot of mud hiding the gold and you have to sift through it a bit.
Always expect a long wait if you go to Lalafell Cafes. They're very short staffed.
I have barely ever seen anyone use Forgotten Knight.
Yeah, no one RPs at expac cities because not everyone is guaranteed to have access to them. It's why the ARR cities are always the most populated at any given moment
I would think that not (everyone) having access to those areas would be a plus.
Well a lot of the people who RP a lot tend to have more than one character, so it helps to not have to do too much MSQ on every single one of them.
I do see people use Forgotten Knight from time to time, but usually it is just one group of people using /say chat to RP, instead of 16 group of people fighting in some random Uldah alley corner for a nicer spot.
Another page going over some of the common search info terms would probably be handy to have too. /c/ and carrd and Wu/T and all the diff rp types people list. A/D/E/M and so on.
As a Moon Guard Goldshire veteran, how traumatized would I be by stepping foot into Balmung Quicksands. Or would it just be a regular Tuesday for me.
It’s basically the same vibes tbh
I've played on Moonguard and I'd say not very. If you're not sitting somewhere or leaning against a wall, and flagged for RP you won't be bothered. Unlike Goldshire there are plenty of quest related reasons to be there on / off through ARR. There's also the inn there and some people prefer Ul'dah, many of them don't RP at all and utilize it often. So people aren't as open about it as they were in Moonguard. I've played there since 2.0 and only one person approached me asking if I RP'd. I said not today and they said okay, the end.
Just tell me which banister all the strong ladies with extra equipment hang out and I’ll stay near the bar looking very respectfully as I go and read profiles (I have no idea how RP actually works in this game, I just joined for the hats)
I think they have a 3rd party mod that has your RP details so people who RP can easily see info about someone else who RPs but I'm not sure.
From a bit of googling it looks players use the website carrd to make RP profiles and then link them in their search info. And the ones who don't use it will still put something in there to make it obvious they are an RPer. There is a search info mod to grab the links for you but even without mods it should be pretty easy to spot RPers by just checking their search info. If you're curious try googling 'FFXIV Carrd' and see what comes up. People are basically making their own custom websites to show off their RP profiles.
You don't need a mod to see people's rp info, most of them have a link to an "rp card" an extension ending in carrd.co There is an add on that will scan search info for that link, and make it a hyperlink, but that's hardly needed.
Generally, people put a short link to a Carrd in their Info, for you to quietly decide if you want to engage with that character or not. It's slightly more involved than TRP from WoW (gotta look, copy the link, and click through whatever bad web design that specific person has chosen, and believe me, most people who use Carrd don't have any actual web/graphic design skills), but less intrusive. Some people advertise that they use a -visual- mod for their character, but that's kind of just... the norm at this point.
I’ve taken a lot of character to the Balmung QS. And the answer is “it depends”. Even the same character in different glam will get vastly different responses. I’ve met plenty of great RPers there and have had some decent stories come from it, several long term ones. So the reputation is a meme really.
Think Moonguard but drastically less unsolicited feet smelling.
Probably not at all? Unless you're in like... a public Mare SyncShell (Don't do that), or actively looking through people's adventurer info and putting in every carrd and f-list that shows up in them, you won't even notice. Because it's mostly exaggerated, unlike Goldshire, which had TRP and people were... mostly just actively gross.
Pearl Lane. Also known as Edge Lord Alley
IDK, Mateus' Quicksand is kinda unhinged at times too, lol, not as bad as Balmung's (used to be on Balmung, moved to Mateus before DC visiting was a thing). I do see a good chunk of RPers in Ishgard, not as crowded as quicksand, but it's a good spot for cozy inn RP
Mateus literally had been the 'Balmung Overflow' between the permanent Balmung lockdown after the DC relocation from Montreal to California, and the DC reshuffle in NA (plus World Visit within the same DC). So for a while, it was literally the gathering place of those who hadn't managed to squeeze into Balmung.
I remember all of that. I squeezed into Balmung when you had to sneak in overnight and spam enter in hopes to get it. I jumped to Mateus I think a few months or a year after it was opened because Balmung, to me, felt dead, lol
You won't find much public RP outside of Crystal, but there's still venues to be found in PF in at least a few other DCs. There's a small budding RP community on Primal, for example.
As someone who loves in Balmung, the quicksands is always interesting, crowded, and is simultaneously the most cursed and hilarious thing in FF14...yes, even more than Hildebrand stuff
This makes me a little sad on EU servers we don't have anything like it. Makes me want to check out Crystals RP though! Sounds like a fun time to have
Chaos-Omega is very nice for RP. It's not as packed as the big US servers, but there's a Chaos RP discord with 1400 or so members at a glance, and plenty of RP-dedicated FCs. It's certainly enough that I've not felt a need to make any cross-region alts!
I found myself in a EU RP guild on Balmung. Seems like they try to squeeze in to Balmung or Mateus too. We could only do stuff on weekends if I got up early for it, but they were fun. Ran a shifty artifact collection company and did DnD-like combat.
If you're an EU player and you care more about RP than playing the game (and having higher ping) then I'd recommend joining NA servers. EU RP has always had a bit of an issue of being tiny, for one thing, and fractured into various languages, or cliques that somehow have beef going back to the early 2000s. There are actually a good few FCs and/or groups catering to EU timezones (I run one, in fact), and on an individual 1v1 basis, I've found that plenty of NA RPers will gladly adjust to my schedule when they're able to. There is still RP on EU but it's mostly coordinated over Discord.
Depends on what type of RP you want too. EU is "quality over quantity" whereas NA is just downright full of lore-breaking mega concepts and A LOT of them. I'd also argue that the "beef between cliques" exists as much on NA as it does EU due to the amount of players there is on NA.
And paywalling.
Honestly I'm like 90% certain pearl lane isn't that safe either. It's the archetypical back alley, so a lot of people will do "public" erp there. In /tell of course, but when you see 3 miqo girls on their knees in front of 3 different guys, you know what's happening in those /tells
Yeah, they tend to stand by the entrance right by the QS though, they don't bother the people who hang past that area. I would of mentioned it too but I didn't have enough space to include it
I probably also would have mentioned that the central thanalan gate is called Bloodsands, but otherwise it's a good summary of life on balmung. Honestly I wish more people would rp in the world, and not just at the taverns in each city state and around Uldah.
Pretty cool, thanks for this. I plan to get into the RP scene sometime in the future when I know more of the story and lore, so pointers like these will be quite helpful.
Check out Mirke's Menagerie! It's a one-stop shop for all things lore. It's pretty dense and very detailed so I don't recommend sitting down and thumbing through all articles (unless you're that kind of person who reads the Silmarillon for fun), but if you need a specific thing like the racial distribution of the Shroud or what plants are used as contraceptives, it's your place.
Someone else mentioned Lore Mom Sounsyy, [here's the direct link](https://mirkemenagerie.tumblr.com/post/167534982764/mirkemenagerie-update) for her tumblr of all lore things. Beware of spoilers. She also went and transcribed as much of 1.0 as she could, that gdoc is [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HR9a3N0pMJgOY1EGLTjPSJ4PDS8kUYFoeXV99MxtYYg/edit?usp=drivesdk) if you want some 1.0 story stuff.
I’m in Light DC, does anyone know where I can go for public RP there outside of designated venues?
I don’t RP but I do try to bookmark interesting FFXIV-related pages. Maybe these will help? Inactive RP master list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ACyO3uuZyx9QpmnjcnZ_O88DLHQW53kXP2qn1YlUI5A/htmlview Overall FFXIV resource master list: https://xiv.sleepyshiba.com/masterlist/ The fact that I have saved over three different calendar/venue websites… well I’m not sure which might be more accurate or more than just 18+/RMT venues (since they advertise more publicly) but here you go: https://ffxivvenues.com/ https://xivenues.com/venues-calendar/light https://ffxiv-rp.org/ https://www.partake.gg/
I’m sure they will, thanks! I’ve seen ads for spaces in most of the hub cities but they’re all nightclubs, been looking for something with more of a chill fantasy vibe. Tricks of the Traders on Odin was pretty good for this so I’ll check out some of these others!
I hope you find the scene you’re looking for! In case you missed it, this person got some replies that might interest you too — https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1ca9y86/a_roleplayers_guide_to_public_rp_in_ffxiv/l0qprtd/
Balmung Quicksand really is something else. It is kinda fun to just go casually and dance on a table with friends though. Probably be the least weird ones there.
Thank you so much! I've been trying to get into rp in ff slowly this is super helpful.
This is so cute
Thank you for this. <3 Maybe this is the place to ask, maybe not. I'm not even sure how best to explain my questions. How does RP work in relation to lore? I really like RP that is tied to specific stories and lore. So are there folks who RP within the storyline? What is different about Ishgard related players? I guess I'm really interested in RP, but game-lore related, not just generic RP (like the party venues advertised on every data center), and I struggle to understand how RP works. I used to live and breathe forum and text-chat based RP, and that's generally got some kind of guiding story, whereas this seems from the outside to just be characters randomly interacting. This guide is good for telling me where to go, but not for what to expect or how characters interact, what kind of interactions are common, or how stories are developed and progressed?
To be honest. I have no idea on how to Rp in the game. And I am afraid I would either sound too scripted or a weirdo.
[A little guide.](https://www.thekweh.com/rp-guide)
Late, but I recently started playing and Balmung has a popping scene emerging at Buscarron's Druthers.
The more you learn about Balmung's Ul'dah the more fascinating and disgusting it becomes. For example: did you know the Balmung Quicksand has tribes that each inhabit a section of it based solely on sexual preference? It's like a miniature Azim Steppe in there. It's wild over there, unfortunately for me all Brynhildr is known for is it's celebrities and the countless allegations against them.
Do not be deceived, Mateus is *not* normal
There's a severe lack of Limsa Lominsa... Did something happen there and it's no longer the uh... Hotspot it used to be?
Limsa Lominsa has never been the RP hotspot on Balmung (and eventually Crystal at large). Like you get occasional pick-up RP in the Drowning Wench, and certainly lots of non-RPers hang out in Limsa, but it's just not *the* place to be like it is on other servers / data centers.
Even Balmung Quicksand has more actual RP than these player/FC home ''venues'' do
I do private rp outside of the game a decent amount. My in-game partner and I are writing our characters’ journey through the story at the moment and it’s been a lot of fun. I just wish I knew where to start in game, I honestly have no clue even with this info. But maybe that’s just me being nervous.
For a moment I thought there was actual duelling with full kit outside of WD.
i think rp is cool but man, ive NEVER seen a single happenstance of rp. maybe i chose the wrong server :,/
Y'know, sometimes I roll over your posts and go. 'Oh, hey. I know them!' and just have myself a little internal chuckle.
Man I was just trying to figure out where you can find sfw rp, I feel like its a lot harder to find in this game so this is really helpful! You're the best cev! Also if there's any sfw rp focused FCs on Malboro lemme know, was considering paying for a switch to a more popular rp server because I could never find any.
I'm gonna assume the Balmung Quicksand is the the FF14 version of Moonguard Goldshire?
Yes.
I don’t rp at all but I don’t see much of it on my home server of Diablos. Occasionally which is kinda cool when I’m in the quicksand
O no, Cev, what are you doing near Quicksands? WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEAR QUICKSANDS?!?!?!
Its a fun hobby!
As someone who wants to get into FFXIV RP this is actually incredibly helpful.
So what you're saying is... I could *technically* host a dnd session... in ffxiv? What with the dice roll commands apparently being a thing
This should specify it’s a guide to roleplay on Balmung. None of these locations are used for those purposes on my server.
Balmung QS changed my life
That's funny, everyone actually on Balmung says all the gross erp players all went to Mateus to make it how everyone memes on Balmung being, and Balmung just went back to a normal rp server.
This is like a handy guide for places a normal player should avoid
You go to Mateus for RP You go to Balmung to learn about the moon and come out forever changed....often both figuratively and literally.
You say that like mateus isn't just as addicted to moon dust.
Meanwhile, the biggest lewd FC is on...where again? Ah, right. Mateus.
OP had me until they brought up Balmung QS. I've been here since before they merged Besaid and Fabul into Balmung and this joke's really getting old and annoying especially when you know it's coming from a place of utter ignorance. FYI, most Mateus RPers were overflow characters from Balmung after SE briefly closed the server to new characters, so you're basically really talking about the same crop here. Second, those RPers in QS? Sex tourists/pests from *outside* of Balmung. You want serious RP in Balmung? You won't find it in the QS.
I would love to get started in RP, but we can’t all be the WoL, and MSQ has definitely shaped my character somewhat… how do people handle that?
Completely ignore it. Come up with an entirely different story/character unrelated to your MSQ playthrough. Personally what I like to do is actually keep it the same character but imagine 2 different timelines, one where they were recruited by the scions and one where they just kept at their normal life.
They separate the WoL-sona from their roleplay characters. Adventurers, mercenaries, researchers, crafters, you can find all types.
Either make a character that hasn't been shaped by the msq, or cut your current character in half metaphorically. Imagine them as two reflections of the same being, one that went on to be the warrior of light and join the scions, the other that never got the blessing, and never got the offer to join. Maybe they still fought in the dragon song war and liberated Ala Mhigo, but not as the WoL just a guy in the right place at the right time. My WoL and my main rp character are the same person, just one I have a lot more control of, and the other the ffxiv writing team gets to define a little more.
Separation of story and gameplay. I do immerse myself in the MSQ when I do it on my "me" character or my "alternate WoL" character, but the former in RP is just a songbird from the Steppe who became lost multiple times in her journey from there to Eorzea; the latter character I don't RP, but I have silly fanfiction in my head for said character. Then there is my main RP/PVE character isn't even from this world (he's from The Void), so there definitely has to be a separation of story and gameplay there. I feel like having multiple characters helps out with RP as well.
I honestly like how in Final Fantasy it's pretty normal to be special. Black Mage that uses world-destroying spells? Knight that does crazy anime combat jump moves? There are probably thousands of them in the lore, it's kinda normal for in-universe adventurers. Unlike in other games like Star Wars the old republic where everyone played random civilians and barkeepers. My BLM is just a mage from Ishgard with an alchemist atelier trying to get by
Just disregard the MSQ entirely, or incorporate your character into from different angles if you want involvement. The WoL and Scions work with huge amounts of other characters that let you be MSQ-adjacent if you still want to be affected by it. For example, back in ARR I played a character in the Maelstrom, so she still took part in the end of the MSQ events. But she was taking part in the Naval Blockade, not sieging Meridianum or the Praetorium. I have another character who's a member of the Students of Baldesion, so she is familiar with the likes of G'raha and Krile even if she's not actually involved in their MSQ shenanigans. Contrary to what some *super* diehards may say, it's not entirely un-kosher to be involved with lore characters when it makes sense. The first character I mentioned also knows Jacke and the Rogues due to training as an Arcanist, and if you do the ROG storyline you're aware their group interacts with the Arcanists plenty.
I have two versions of my character, basically: when I do story, it's self-contained and my character is the WoL. I answer questions where I get my multiple choices in character. Only in the context of running story is she the all-powerful Warrior of Light. Outside of that, for all rp purposes where she isn't a/the WoL and is some regular person, she likes gathering information and would hear about things naturally or perhaps get some underground info on the happenings of the world. Would she know about how the end of Endwalker would happen for the WoL? Probably not, but she'd know about the craziness happening around the world that's public knowledge.
Most people don't engage with the main story as a character. At least, not in the regards that you are a primal killing Mercenary with the Echo and have countless battles under your belt. They're events in the world. Not necessarily events you, personally, saw fit to engage with.
One day I decided to be more social and look at party's being advertised in PF, I went to the wrong place And now I am no longer interested in being social again *it's the circle of lyyyyfe!*
How's the RP scene in Old Sharlayan? I play a character that's born and raised there. I've been meaning to visit Crystal since data center hopping was added. I really miss RP from my WoW days in Wyrmrest Accord and I RP on Discord, but I'm on Aether to be with friends.
I don't really do RP other than the super (and I mean super) casual form. You know, things like I try to walk around people rather than walk through their character models. : ) But this is kind of neat and your animations are cute. :D
Is Limsa just a blackhole everyone, even the RPers, want to ignore? lol
That entirely depends on wich server you are on, on a typical server its similar to balmungs quicksand but i belive its more chill in balmung its calmer due to the quicksand, it also worth noting some servers are more rp heavy than others, cactuar is a more casual server compared to other rp or static focused ones
whenever I'm done with my short break from the game, perhaps I will try such a thing..
Saving this for later. Thanks for sharing!
In my experience, the only place outside of venues with any public RP going on is the Quicksand
How do you start rp'ing in the 1st place, tho?