I'm not going to look these up, so I'm assuming the kinetics effects you're describing have a To Hit roll? If yes, then you take option A and 'leave yourself open to bad roleplayers.'
Frankly, you are always open to bad roleplayers, doesn't mean you should be one. If a kinetics 'attack' has a to hit roll then there's a chance it can miss. Equally, the target may be immune to slow effects (for example) meaning that your option D is god-modding.
If there isn't a to hit roll for these powers then it's different, but I'm pretty sure that the only players powers left without to hit rolls are direct and aura heals. I've used Transfusion and I seem to remember missing with it.
Oh, and if it's really so important whether or not your powers affect a situation, I'd suggest taking it to the Arena and actually playing it out.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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I'm not going to look these up, so I'm assuming the kinetics effects you're describing have a To Hit roll?
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Yup..
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If yes, then you take option A and 'leave yourself open to bad roleplayers.'
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Which is pretty much what I would do. I know perfectly well that if I missed againt a I'd just do it again..and again until it worked, or became damned obvious that it was never going to work, but I have no idea what the other player knows, and in a roleplaying situation almost anything could be in play (see the hologram example above).
None of the options feels entirely right though, so I think there are probaly two better ways to handle it. The first is to use any near by computer controlled NPC.
/e siphons speed from Sdney the bystander allowing him to run rapidly away.
or perhaps better still to handle it through a private tell,and work out how to handle it in advance with the other player.
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meaning that your option D is god-modding.
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Yes it is. I would never do it, and would be surprised if someone else did, but probably wouldn't argue the case unless it was pretty significant. I was just trying to give the senarios form least offensive to most offensive, and determine where people would draw the cutoff point.
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Oh, and if it's really so important whether or not your powers affect a situation, I'd suggest taking it to the Arena and actually playing it out.
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I really hate roleplaying in the arena, since they disabled half the channels, including emote and private tells. Having said that I've ended up there three times in the last week..twice because Heroes and Villains wanted to meet somewhere private, and once because we actually wanted to play something out using the game mechanics.
So far I've never actually found a non-fight roleplay moment in CoH/CoV where its actually made any difference whether a power (kinetics or not) actually hits. Having said that I still think its an interesting discussion and may some day have a bearing. I'm glad to see my views pretty much tally with yours
Depends upon the game and what type of interaction it supports between characters.
If a person wishes to engage in combat with my char then they can take it to a pvp or arean zone, which I know is not fluidic or perfect way of dealing with the situation. But it is the only real way provided to those who choose to role play in this non role play game.
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If a person wishes to engage in combat with my char then they can take it to a pvp or arean zone, which I know is not fluidic or perfect way of dealing with the situation. But it is the only real way provided to those who choose to role play in this non role play game.
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Not really. We handle RP combat via a different mechanism, such as the Fudge rules, quite often running the actual game in IRC. Doing it in IRC is basically just so we don't need to worry about actually creating a cast of a hundred NPCs in game, IRC is not inherently better at being a text-based RP system.
Roleplaying combat in CoH would require them to actually balance the PvP system, for one thing. it's about doable in the Arenas, I wouldn't like to even consider doing it in a PvP zone.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Just thought I'd better add that I'm easy with what people do to my chars and would not mind people using any power on my char as long as it was not with intent to cause his direct demise and deletion 
If such is the outcome then I would prefer it to go to the areana/pvp zone, though I am happy to admit I doubt it would make much difference to the overall outcome (me being defeated) :P
Its always been my understanding that we should avoid actions which directly influence someone elses character. These are often things which would be okay in tabletop play since there are rules to dictate what happens (if you try to hit someone you roll some dice to see if you hit). In MMORPG roleplay we normally leave the result up to the recipient:
For example I might:
/em throws a punch at Dr.Evil Dude
Leaving Dr.Evil Dud's player free to respond with a variety of possibilities, for example:
/em sidsteps the punch and starts laughing, "You're so slow its laughable"
/em reals backwards, blood streaming from his nose.
/em fades out momentarily revealling Dr.Evil Dude to be a hologram
etc.
But kinetic powers cause an inherent problem here. Many kinetic powers, for example Transference, Transfusion, Fulcrum shift, Siphon speed and siphon power have a dual effect both supporting the users, but also acting detrimentally to the target. As a result actions which usually would seem fairly innocuous (such as healing yourself, or using incredible speed to escape a situation) suddenly verge on Godemoding.
I'd be interested to know how people handle these. Obvious possibilities include:
a) leaving the results to the target
/em fires off transfusion at Dr.Evil Dude in an attempt to heal himself."
(but this leaves you very vulnerable to poor roleplayers)
b) Ignore the negative effects
/em fires off transfusion at Dr.Evil Dude healing himself of his mortal wound."
c) Reduce the negative effects into a Desciption with little or no effect
/em fires off transfusion at Dr.Evil Dude, transforming a fraction of his enegry into healing energies."
d) Assume the full negative effect (which whilst minor for Transfusion becomes much more significant for the likes of Siphon Speed)
/em siphons speed from Dr.Evil Dude, slowing the Doc to a crawl whilst allowing him to escape at incredible speed.
My main consideration has always been, would I be upset at someone doing something to my characters. The truth is unless any of these put me in inherrent danger I wouldn't object to any of them, although the last might cause me to raise an eyebrow (in a Spock like way).