Tonight was game night, and I was super excited to bring the new Final Fantasy XIV Tabletop Role Playing Game to the group. All of us are devoted FFXIV players, so we wouldn’t need any time at all to get accustomed to the setting of Eorzea, the magical continent where most of the MMORPG takes place.
Character Creation
Character creation was simple and streamlined, allowing each player to choose from among cat girl, bunny girl, or the tiny sexless Lalafell race of dwarfs. Since there are no stats to roll — your stats are determined by your gear — character creation was largely about making sure nobody else had copied your hair color.
Game Setup
The first ten or so pages of the densely typeset book sets up the history of the world, the calamity that shook the world, the political situation in Limsa Lominsa, the city of pirates, how the various guilds wheel and deal behind the scenes, all told through a slow dialog with a chocobo cart driver ferrying your party and some other passengers to the fabled city of bri…
Guys? Guys? I thought we were playing FFXIVTTRPG tonight?
Oh, well, we already knew all this stuff, so we just skipped the cutscene.
Oh, okay. Well, I’ll skip ahead to
Meeting your Guildmasters
Everyone starts out with a quest from their guildmaster meant to teach them the basics of their jobs and to provide them with decent starting gear. As in the MMO, a balanced party has a tank, a healer, and two damage classes. So what have you chosen, and I’ll give you your starting quest.
“I’m a fisher.”
“That’s not really an adventuring class, but…”
(Rolls dice), “okay, I rolled a 15. What do I catch?”
“We’ll come back to you.” (Hey, I just rolled a 12! What do I catch now?) “Anyone else?”
“I want to be a bard!”
“Well, first you have to be an archer, then a ranger, and then you can choose bard. Also, you cannot take the job unless you’re a Lalafell, so…”
“Okay, I will take a fantasia. I’m a Lalafell now. I go to the central crystal plaza and start selling gil for dollars at a really good price, with a sudden discount if you say “GIL$4$CHEEP420″ to me first! I’ve got ten million gil and I’m looking to make some money tonight.”
“How… how do you even have that much gil?”
“I wrote it on my character sheet, see?”
Okay, sure. Let’s move on to
Your First Dungeon
“Okay, you have all been suddenly pulled into an adventuring party. You find yourself at the entrance of a watery dungeon. The air carries a distinctive, damp aroma mixed with earthy undertones, signifying the transition from the lush forest to the mysterious underworld. Your ears catch the faint, distant sound of dripping water, a gentle but constant reminder of the subterranean world that beckons.
Peering past the threshold, you see the cave passageway sloping gently downward, its slick, uneven floor glistening with moisture. This… hey, you’re not listening. Again.”
“I’m fishing. I roll…” (rolls dice) “… an 8. What do I catch?”
“You catch a goldfish. What are the rest of you doing?”
“Busting out sweet, sweet dance moves.”
“Fishing.” (Rolls dice). “14!”
“Anyone need some gil? I can promise discreet and sudden delivery!”
