I am also experiencing some troubles with this with my 3 level 50 characters all made for their backstory with defininitive personal goals. One I have a solution for that works perfectly for her as a character... the other two? I'm going to have to come up with something...
My main, Terrini, hasn't been fun to play for a while, and it has had a lot to do with the fact that she was landed with leadership of a free company that she never wanted or expected - this free company was made within the roleplay by another roleplayer and my character joined and supported the company - in fact, all three characters I'm having troubles with were the founding members of this company and the fact that the creator of the company left without a word to another server saddling me with it was something that did not just affect me out of character but in character as well. Terrini can be seen in my roleplays to be struggling valiantly with the responsibility, and worked really hard to accomplish the goal of getting a large house for the company to act as a base, a home for the wanderers and nomads, and after that happened, things started to fall apart because I didn't know how to lead a company and it just got to the point where me and my alts were the only people logging in. Throughout this process, Terrini had a boyfriend and they finally got married recently and now all her personal goals are done (get married and be able to settle in a personal home in Gridania has always been her goal, before personal housing was even available). So I am giving FC leadership to another and am "retiring" Terrini. She may come back one day and get involved with her friends, but she's being put out to pasture for RPing until further notice since I just don't RP her much anymore...
The next person screwed over by the original leader jumping servers is Deianera. She had an AWESOME roleplay relationship with him. He was strong and ambitions and goal oriented and really warmed my cold mercenary's heart with how much she admired him. And then he disappeared without a word and she went back to ice. Her own roleplay story ended up with her killing her only friend as well, because of a promise she had made. All of this resulting in her leaving the company she helped to create because she wasn't able to prevent the dark roleplays that happened there (all other character storylines) and so she decided to make a change and go to the other RP company. Deianera, though, is a hard character to play. She doesn't open up to people very well, is very cynical and she doesn't make friends easily (only with people that have a similar jaded personal view). She needs to get involved, but she needs to have someone to play off of to do that!! There are a few possibilities but I don't want to steal options from other people arbitrarily, that's no fun... so she's in quite a quandary. She's fun to play as the stoic cynic, but only when there is someone to play off of that.
Finally there's Sakha, and she's now kinda stuck as a bookkeeper for the free company with no other avenues available to her. Her defining premise was built around the hope of playing with a friend of mine as her brother, but he ended up not getting into it and Sakha's been on a "never-ending quest to find her brother". Up for random RP "Oh, I was just in the area looking for my brother." There's only so much you can do with that, and the bookkeeper thing at least has given her something to play off of besides her brother, but with the activity level of the company... not working so well lately. A friend even thought to surprise me and made a new character as her brother. I had no clue and was shell-shocked and it took a couple months for me to even accept it enough to try and initiate a roleplay about it and when I suggest it, he says that he won't be able to follow through because of his main character goals for Heavensward, so it seems that little bit of development is retconned and she's back to being a bookkeeper looking for love, but the only one interested is a lesbian that just doesn't connect with Sakha on a personal level. They're similar in some ways, but way too different in others.
I've tried to start conversations about this with the RP linkshell, but it seems whenever I say "RP" it just seems to be "not with me" or better for my more light-hearted alts to enter into things because their purpose is not in the story behind them but instead how they interact with the world, so it's easy to just throw them in anywhere, while my main 3 need to have a reason because of being weighed down by their stories and personal goals. I love these characters and put a lot of work into them, and they're all beautiful to me and I'm proud of them but another part of me is saying that there isn't really anything left for them... It'd kinda depressing...
My main, Terrini, hasn't been fun to play for a while, and it has had a lot to do with the fact that she was landed with leadership of a free company that she never wanted or expected - this free company was made within the roleplay by another roleplayer and my character joined and supported the company - in fact, all three characters I'm having troubles with were the founding members of this company and the fact that the creator of the company left without a word to another server saddling me with it was something that did not just affect me out of character but in character as well. Terrini can be seen in my roleplays to be struggling valiantly with the responsibility, and worked really hard to accomplish the goal of getting a large house for the company to act as a base, a home for the wanderers and nomads, and after that happened, things started to fall apart because I didn't know how to lead a company and it just got to the point where me and my alts were the only people logging in. Throughout this process, Terrini had a boyfriend and they finally got married recently and now all her personal goals are done (get married and be able to settle in a personal home in Gridania has always been her goal, before personal housing was even available). So I am giving FC leadership to another and am "retiring" Terrini. She may come back one day and get involved with her friends, but she's being put out to pasture for RPing until further notice since I just don't RP her much anymore...
The next person screwed over by the original leader jumping servers is Deianera. She had an AWESOME roleplay relationship with him. He was strong and ambitions and goal oriented and really warmed my cold mercenary's heart with how much she admired him. And then he disappeared without a word and she went back to ice. Her own roleplay story ended up with her killing her only friend as well, because of a promise she had made. All of this resulting in her leaving the company she helped to create because she wasn't able to prevent the dark roleplays that happened there (all other character storylines) and so she decided to make a change and go to the other RP company. Deianera, though, is a hard character to play. She doesn't open up to people very well, is very cynical and she doesn't make friends easily (only with people that have a similar jaded personal view). She needs to get involved, but she needs to have someone to play off of to do that!! There are a few possibilities but I don't want to steal options from other people arbitrarily, that's no fun... so she's in quite a quandary. She's fun to play as the stoic cynic, but only when there is someone to play off of that.
Finally there's Sakha, and she's now kinda stuck as a bookkeeper for the free company with no other avenues available to her. Her defining premise was built around the hope of playing with a friend of mine as her brother, but he ended up not getting into it and Sakha's been on a "never-ending quest to find her brother". Up for random RP "Oh, I was just in the area looking for my brother." There's only so much you can do with that, and the bookkeeper thing at least has given her something to play off of besides her brother, but with the activity level of the company... not working so well lately. A friend even thought to surprise me and made a new character as her brother. I had no clue and was shell-shocked and it took a couple months for me to even accept it enough to try and initiate a roleplay about it and when I suggest it, he says that he won't be able to follow through because of his main character goals for Heavensward, so it seems that little bit of development is retconned and she's back to being a bookkeeper looking for love, but the only one interested is a lesbian that just doesn't connect with Sakha on a personal level. They're similar in some ways, but way too different in others.
I've tried to start conversations about this with the RP linkshell, but it seems whenever I say "RP" it just seems to be "not with me" or better for my more light-hearted alts to enter into things because their purpose is not in the story behind them but instead how they interact with the world, so it's easy to just throw them in anywhere, while my main 3 need to have a reason because of being weighed down by their stories and personal goals. I love these characters and put a lot of work into them, and they're all beautiful to me and I'm proud of them but another part of me is saying that there isn't really anything left for them... It'd kinda depressing...