Welcome to The Red Dragon Brigade!

This is the way we salute new members in the RDB Linkshell.

The Red Dragon Brigade was created as a friend based group with the idea to help each other, level up characters together, recollect information and have fun playing Final Fantasy XI Online. FFXI is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing game that challenges the normal solo gamer that used to play RPGs in a computer or console. This is another good reason to think about a community instead of any personal agenda. Although, only few of the original gang members still in the LS and in the game; we are always in a constant search of knowledge to complete quests, missions, campaign, besieged and any other task through our journey across the lands in the Vana'Diel world.

Why The Red Dragon Brigade?

The choice was obvious to me. In the late 90's I started to play a top table game known as Dungeons & Dragons. The game just hooked me immediately, dragging me down to strange and magical places. D&D appears in 1977 and it has been in the market for more than 30 years. It becomes the core format for most of the Role-playing games which appears lately after the first edition and most of the basic terms used for any RPG are based on D&D statistic character charts, whether the RPG has been designed for PC, Console, Top Table or Trading Cards.

Days passed and became years; changes in technology made possible to built better computers and game consoles. From Nintendo came the Final Fantasy franchise, making its way through Play Station One and there after Play Station 2. Now you can play any FF game on PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox360, Nintendo DS, and so on. I have been playing RPGs for PC and game consoles that I feel very familiar with this kind of software. The basics... you play a role of a fictional character, you quest, you fight, you level up, you die and you resurrect and become a Hero. In 2004 Final Fantasy franchise releases FFXI Online in the US and the game captured my attention for this computerized era as D&D did it in the 90's.

So, I was a Dungeon Master (the recipient of all knowledge in the D&D game) and when I started FFXI my mind was set to build a community similar to the one I got for D&D.

Dragons... ancient creatures of legend, might and majesty, owe and wonder, with their peculiar personality and psychology... and from the chromatic dragons the Red Dragon is the fearless and noble one. The idea of a Brigade came from Final Fantasy X-2. In the storyline there was a Crimson Brigade... an elite group of warriors who were slaughter and sacrificed for some kind of political game... the three leaders which survived the massacre were involved in a personal quest to find the true reason behind such an act.

I started to play FFXI in 2006 as a Red Mage without a true idea about the role I have to play. In my mind, I did not want to be a healer... nor a wizard acting behind the curtains... fighters... no... they need muscles and I believe that an idea can kill millions... Red Mage... yes, I am.

Story of a Beginning

I am a RDM40 now... I have been saving some Gil for this... I can purchase a Linkpearl now!... Red... yeah! the color must be Red as the crimson fluid running through my veins, but... Crimson... Red... hmmm! almost the same... a red platoon? why red?... a crimson platoon... it has to be a powerful group... yeah! we should show power... the power of a Dragon... but not any Dragon... a Red Dragon... a brigade... a brigade wearing Dragon' Scale Armor... a Red Dragon Brigade... Yes... We are The Red Dragon Brigade!!!

Understanding some abbreviations

From Dungeons & Dragons:

D&D - Dungeons & Dragons
DM - Dungeon Master
RPG - Role-playing Game

From Final Fantasy XI:

FFXI - Final Fantasy Eleventh Online
LS - Linkshell
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game
RDB - Red Dragon Brigade
RDM - Red Mage