Questions about the shell, (probably ones with obvious answers...)

[Misomar]

Hello --

With that witty and original opening to the post out of the way, I thought I'd ask a couple of questions about the Shell after stumbling across its description on a list somewhere (for some reason, stumbling always puts me in the mood to start asking things, often questions like, "Who put that rock in the way?," "Why can't I remember to look where I'm going? and "Er...just who am I again, anyway?").

Firstly, after reading a post about how a person could be a level X Whatever (a rare job to be introduced in the next expansion) but *roleplay* a level Y Thingmybob (a job only for those with extremely poor descriptive skills) I'm slightly confused as to the way the roleplaying part works. Bear with me. I'll get it eventually (that's what they used to say to me about measles, and look how that worked out).

Is the RP and RP Character entirely separated from the avatar/PC that runs around slaughtering monsters and levelling up (or as in my case, stumbling about being scared by bees and sending mocking /emotes to Rock Eaters), or are the two the same with a sort of ongoing narrative created by the way that character RPs with other characters in the shell?

(Does that make sense? I suppose I'm saying "is it a bit like playing the character all the time, or is it a game inside the game?" I should have said that earlier. Oh well.)

Second - or third, if you want to count the one lurking in the brackets as a full question...though technically there may actually be two in there) - assuming that my confusion is happily cleared up and I could write something vaguely resembling a character background, would there be much scope for someone in the GMT timezone (EST - 5, I think), mostly on a couple of hours at evenings and longer at weekends? I noticed the times of the important linkshell meetings were scheduled at hours when I would be either a) asleep, b ) dead to the world, or c) some terrible mixture of both.

Thanks for any helpful advice! I've been playing for about five months now, solidly duo-ing with a friend, and was looking to broaden the game experience a wee bit. This sounded like a good way to add colour and interest. I did try to add colour and interest by using crayons to make the monsters a variety of new and startling hues, but that didn't make my monitor terribly happy.

[Nautilus]

Really, your main character can be any job you already have. If you're currently a lvl 42 monk and you have a lvl 57 corsair that you want to rp as, go right ahead. We just ask that your main character's profession matches ones you already have. (You can also switch them out as you please. So long as you dont do it in battle)

You create your own story for your character. If you're in Dangruf Wadi and you want your rp character to be *insert place here*, then that's fine. "Story within a story"

I'm not so sure about the third (2nd?) question. I'm a little unfamiliar with global time (though I assume you're somewhere in the eastern hemisphere?)

I hope I cleared things up.

[Rocelyn]

I'll add to it a bit. Also our rules portion may help clear some of your questions up. But about your character. Within the RPLS, there is In character chat (IC) and Out of Character chat (OOC). In OOC which is typed in some form of brackets to separate it from IC chat, you can speak freely as you would anywhere else in the game. However in IC chat (w/o any kind of brackets) you become your character.

Your character's job must be one you've already leveled, you don't need to have it set on your real character at the time you're rping it though, but you need to be honest and not use abilities or spells that are not open to your job or level. Also you can't go to a rp battle as a warrior and decide that you'd like to cast spells and suddenly become a black mage. You can switch jobs IC anytime, as long as its not in the middle of nowhere, where it would seem unreasonable in the game and roleplay scope. (I think I'm confusing myself here now... but anyway the rules section should clear this up)

And about the question of how to roleplay, yes your character is a character in an ongoing narrative of your characters experiences in Vanadiel and how it gets influenced by the other members of the linkshell.

About the time. There are ways we can make it more reasonable for you and I know of some other members too that are GMT. Just post another thread about the times you are on and the times that are most convienient for you. We will try to get as close to that time as possible, but still remain convienient for other players as well.