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[Discussion] Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Printable Version

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RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Arashin Kujqai - 08-15-2017

(08-15-2017, 05:42 AM)Kieron Lohengrin Wrote:
(08-14-2017, 11:57 AM)Valic Wrote: On the subject of time, I've been curious how people handle the time of day as far as RP goes. I usually don't bother with it or if it happens to be night, I'll just use RL time + the fact the game looks like it's in night time and say "it's getting late" or something to that degree. However when you're RP'ing, it easily gets to be 1-2 cycles through the whole session. I feel like I used to handle this np but now it's feeling odd, I know some people who just overall ignore it and just use RL time. What's everyone's take on all this or how do you personally handle it when regarding a session?

Say it's night time but your character technically just got up or something... do you ignore the time of day and say good morning or do you bring up it's awfully late to be awake at the game's particular hours?

Have your character bring up time once it becomes relevant to the conversation, usually when all other topics have been dealt with. RP winding down and it's evening ingame? "It's getting late, I'm off to bed." If it's morning daylight ingame? "Good seeing you. I'm going to head out for a bit to catch up with work!"

You can use ingame settings to display all three clocks simultaneously: your local OOC RL time, OOC RL server time, and Eorzea ingame/IC time.
Well for example my casual RP once was going on for in game days, just changing night and day cycles just like that. Somehow we managed to ignore it I guess until we had to go, or we pretended it was getting late (after in game of like 4 days going by lol).

Then today I was RP'ing with my retainer ICly(and relative to my char's long term plot) and she was discussing with me delivering an item my char requested by a specific time. I think we just said so long as it's delivered by the end of the day but that felt so generic like it could mean at any point in time lol. I mean I know that statement claims that but if I applied an actual time to it that was literally "I need this by the end of the day without failure", it leaves so much room for someone to say they can either deliver it by RL hours or by the in game's time. It's a bit of a hand wavey subject it feels like varying on the area of RP.

As for the subject of time bubbles, I'm curious if anyone uses these and also marks things as not canon to their character's long term plot. I mean, say your character is in a hectic pursuit of garleans... but you really want to attend that bakery cafe(sponsored by Mandragora's Munchiesâ„¢... Damn that rolanberry cheesecake!), do you just kinda pause the session and attend the event as if you weren't doing your plot and kinda leave it off your character's canon lore? Or is that just something that varies by an RP'ers intensity to keep a constant?

(08-15-2017, 05:11 AM)Valence Wrote: Also, the title is misleading and doesn't even have much to do with the actual OP, which is about how to handle time and journeys.

It's been a mixed talk about how it's handled casually vs long term. I guess you're right though, I could add in "time travel" to it. It's a discussion though so it should be pretty open to both ends of the spectrum on the topic.


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Mermaid - 08-15-2017

(08-15-2017, 05:11 AM)Valence Wrote: But that's totally on topic. We can't seriously talk about time bubbles, the context of journeys and suspension of disbelief without bringing the tone of the story into the equation.

Also, the title is misleading and doesn't even have much to do with the actual OP, which is about how to handle time and journeys.

I don't even know why I spend time writing and contributing if I'm not even sure I'll still find my post the next day. Thanks for deleting everything I guess.

I agree with the sentiment that some of that line of discussion was related to the topic as a whole but some of what was deleted had devolved into political insults. I genuinely thought the thread might get locked after I read it.


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Mermaid - 08-15-2017

And since I have trouble quoting two people in one post...

(08-15-2017, 06:12 AM)Valic Wrote: As for the subject of time bubbles, I'm curious if anyone uses these and also marks things as not canon to their character's long term plot. I mean, say your character is in a hectic pursuit of garleans... but you really want to attend that bakery cafe(sponsored by Mandragora's Munchiesâ„¢... Damn that rolanberry cheesecake!), do you just kinda pause the session and attend the event as if you weren't doing your plot and kinda leave it off your character's canon lore? Or is that just something that varies by an RP'ers intensity to keep a constant?

I'm pretty sure RPers still attend events when they're in a long term plot. Consider the fact that not everything you're doing has to be happening sequentially. You could've attended that event before, after, or during a break in your plot. You can put the event where you want it in your timeline though it could become a problem if you compare your timeline to others involved or if there was a development as a result of your plot.

But that's assuming you're keeping everything canon and not relying too heavily on time bubbles.


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Arashin Kujqai - 08-15-2017

(08-15-2017, 07:14 AM)Mermaid Wrote: And since I have trouble quoting two people in one post...

(08-15-2017, 06:12 AM)Valic Wrote: As for the subject of time bubbles, I'm curious if anyone uses these and also marks things as not canon to their character's long term plot. I mean, say your character is in a hectic pursuit of garleans... but you really want to attend that bakery cafe(sponsored by Mandragora's Munchiesâ„¢... Damn that rolanberry cheesecake!), do you just kinda pause the session and attend the event as if you weren't doing your plot and kinda leave it off your character's canon lore? Or is that just something that varies by an RP'ers intensity to keep a constant?

I'm pretty sure RPers still attend events when they're in a long term plot. Consider the fact that not everything you're doing has to be happening sequentially. You could've attended that event before, after, or during a break in your plot. You can put the event where you want it in your timeline though it could become a problem if you compare your timeline to others involved or if there was a development as a result of your plot.

But that's assuming you're keeping everything canon and not relying too heavily on time bubbles.
I guess I just need to be more flexible overall and not so stingy about how hardcore/heavy with plot I go. Pretty good read so far, makes me feel a bit at ease.


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Gegenji - 08-15-2017

Yeah, I've frequently had situations where I felt like I "needed" to explain why my character was going to a thing. Or, more frequently, why they couldn't - varying from it being "too far away" to being caught up in other RP situations. "Oh, he's stuck on an island right now, so he couldn't be able to attend X." It's kept me from a few things...

Meanwhile, there are those who are adaptable enough that some random RP could be out in the middle of Coerthas and they can manage to finagle "I'M HERE NOW" into it. Whether they are actually fitting it into an actual RP timeline, bubbling it, or just RPing for the sake of it without any plan to really have it "count," I don't know. But it's definitely amazing to see people who can adjust to scenes/locations so smoothly - it's a skill I'm still trying to hone myself. Blush


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - ExAtomos - 08-15-2017

Everyone I RP with does the whole "Oh, I can't go to X event cause my character is Y." Not even exaggerating. As someone who "bubbles" (lol) often and enjoys going to events, it's incredibly frustrating. I did manage to convince a friend to go to events with me and just say it was before a certain plot point happened, but they kept repeating that it was confusing and weird. Sad


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Kilieit - 08-15-2017

On the topic of continuity since although I posted my 2p earlier in the thread, I didn't touch on it for some reason:

I recently "bubbled" a pretty significant and heavily attended RP event I went to. The event portrayed the finale of the 4.0 MSQ. I really enjoyed my attendance there and what happened to my character, and it fits in neatly with what I had in mind for him to do after the MSQ was concluded.

So it will be canon to my character's progression...

...but not yet?

I still have RP I want to do with people who are RPing, quite fairly so, that the 4.0 MSQ is still progressing and that the finale has not yet been reached. Some of it is even MSQ relevant, meaning the RP I want to do is necessarily set before that event I already attended. There's literally about 3 or 4 groups with a little (but not a whole lot) of overlap that I want to be doing this kind of RP with, too, all at different paces - so it's not even a case of "next week", I'm looking more at "4.1 release" for when I will finally canonise the bubbled session.

The thing I'm not feeling confident about is... there are some characters that mine met and bonded with during that bubbled session. What is the etiquette for communicating my situation to them? If they approach me at a public RP event and act as though they know my character, obviously I'll roll with it, but... it wouldn't be offensive, right, if I downplayed the event they met during as simply being "part of the war effort" and not the actual MSQ finale until I'm ready to canonise the thing? What's the least confusing way to communicate that it's an OOC fudge that I'm making and not for once an IC lie?


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Kieron Lohengrin - 08-15-2017

Blame Alexander time travel radiation. Get all the friendship character development you want while still having a canon explanation for nonlinear bubbles. Problem solved


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Sorcini - 08-15-2017

(08-15-2017, 11:28 AM)Kilieit Wrote: The thing I'm not feeling confident about is... there are some characters that mine met and bonded with during that bubbled session. What is the etiquette for communicating my situation to them? If they approach me at a public RP event and act as though they know my character, obviously I'll roll with it, but... it wouldn't be offensive, right, if I downplayed the event they met during as simply being "part of the war effort" and not the actual MSQ finale until I'm ready to canonise the thing? What's the least confusing way to communicate that it's an OOC fudge that I'm making and not for once an IC lie?

I'd RP with them whilst communicating OOC the situation of your character. Agree to talk less about politics (none if you can manage it, otherwise esoteric references) and focus more on the bond you created or the relationship you have with the other player characters. The time bubble should remain intact and I find it works quite nicely. 

The relationship and bonds, new or old, between characters is the focus.


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - ExAtomos - 08-15-2017

(08-15-2017, 11:28 AM)Kilieit Wrote: The thing I'm not feeling confident about is... there are some characters that mine met and bonded with during that bubbled session. What is the etiquette for communicating my situation to them? If they approach me at a public RP event and act as though they know my character, obviously I'll roll with it, but... it wouldn't be offensive, right, if I downplayed the event they met during as simply being "part of the war effort" and not the actual MSQ finale until I'm ready to canonise the thing? What's the least confusing way to communicate that it's an OOC fudge that I'm making and not for once an IC lie?

I know you probably won't like my answer, but I would suggest trying to 'catch up' ICly asap. It is easier imo to deal with a scene that happened in the past and move some small things around in current rp, then to rp a scene in the future and try to make what happens now (the past) move to line up with it (as well as telling people 'sorry I don't know you yet'.)


RE: Long term plot Vs Casual RP - Sophia_Grave - 08-15-2017

Do what I do and handwave the fuck out of it.
I for one will never fault someone for going for RP even if their character is technically tied up in a plotline. RP whatever/whenever you want, and put it on your character's timeline later. Its not the end of the world if a few RP sessions don't line up with someone else's. Think of it like the comic universe. Everything significant happened a vague "few years ago", even comics that came out in the 90s. Hell, the game's timeline places everything that's happened since ARR in, what, a year iirc? You're already condensing 4 years of RP into one year of lore time, so I think its all fine.