I swear, it’s like she writes this stuff specifically for me. Aywren’s latest blog post, about playing a Warrior of Light character that’s taking unexpected backstory and roleplay-related lore turns as a result of the MSQ of Final Fantasy XIV (spoiler warning in that blog, by the way), engaged my neurons, particularly since I play a character who… isn’t a WoL but still has adventures. While I’m definitely not alone in this line of thinking, I felt like this was a great opportunity to steal her topic football and generally run with it to explain how I mentally get into my own main character’s head and let her have some grand adventures — without being a Warrior of Light herself. Read more: Adventuring as the Not-Warrior of Light A few points of clarification that I want to make here: A lot of my lady’s in-character adventuring is very often done through headcanon and personal storytelling — a topic that I feel as though I should write about at some point later. Much of my actual roleplay interaction and my character’s presentation can best be described as “barstool RP”; she’s not some hero or the main character and generally fills in the world as a companion and entertainer. Maybe not everyone wants to be a moisture farmer in gameplay, but it’s my experience that most people want to roleplay as much. That said, she has been on some big personal arcs, again primarily written out in my head or on the rare occasion through direct roleplay with others, either in-game or in forums. It’s through these vehicles that I can express her growth in power, in knowledge, and in lived experiences that are just as grand as those in the MSQ of FFXIV without resorting to such direct links. This has the twin benefit of not just unhitching your backstory wagon to the main MSQ but also opening up even more possibilities in terms of character stories. Personally I try to keep things grounded more within established lore limitations because limitations encourage creativity, but there are points when I also feel empowered to push those boundaries, and I’ve known RPers who go even further outside of those margins. They may not be the kinds of stories that I’m personally in to, but if they’re within a consenting group of others who play along and everyone has fun, then who cares? I also will point out that there tend to be a lot more opportunities to RP with others when you’re not chained to being a WoL. The vast majority of the RPers that I’ve interacted with in my personal circles think very similarly when it comes to their avatars. That’s not to suggest that Aywren or folks like her are doing things “wrong,” I should point out, but it does open up more chances for connection and friendship, and when it comes to roleplay, the more connections, the better. These facets have all allowed my character to have some great movements in her own personal story that have just as much impact to me directly as anything I might experience in the MSQ. Right now, she’s slowly coming to grips with the idea of being open to combat, where previously she’s been drilled to keep her skills a secret for years and years, which has allowed me the grace to consider more “typical” combat adventures and sellsword exploits, which hasn’t been anything she’s had a chance to do previously due to a number of in-character restrictions that I imposed. It admittedly took me a long time, but I’ve gotten better at clearing those lockdowns and peeling away those layers. Again, I want to stress: Making a WoL in FFXIV roleplay doesn’t make you a bad roleplayer or automatically mean you’ve designed a bad character. It is just, in my view, more fun, more freeing, and more open when you’ve got someone who is a resident of the world — even a powerful one — who isn’t so intricately woven into a game’s main quest line. Because then you have to come up with some creative ways of separating what your character is like from what the game’s story writers are creating. But then, like I said before, restrictions do encourage creative thinking, and Aywren’s solution is elegant in that regard. I suppose all I wanted to do was provide my own two gil on a parallel topic. I’m most certainly not here to argue against Aywren’s line of thinking, but I did feel as though providing another idea had some merit. Even if that idea isn’t really all that original in the grander scheme of things. I support her line of thinking as much as I prop up my own. Roleplay is meant to be creative and entertaining, after all.