To remain consistent with character or game.
By
BrightEyes_EU,
Posted on: 2006-02-17 10:16 in Roleplaying
It happened to me with the Hollows. They never gave a year, and until the Hollows Zone guide came up on the offical site I had set a year, day and time for the Hollowing. I carried on regardless. Not going to retcon nearly 21 characters just because they didn't have the information out at the time, even though the zone was.
Yep. Nevermore was originally a complete contradiction to the setting because I had no idea what it was like.
Info on the CoH setting is notoriously sparse, vague, and sometimes contradictory.
On the other hand, that famous catchphrase is now canon.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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Yep. Nevermore was originally a complete contradiction to the setting because I had no idea what it was like.
Info on the CoH setting is notoriously sparse, vague, and sometimes contradictory.
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Yeah... but... Nevermore is still a complete contradiction to the setting, and the information on the background is less sparse than you care to admit. You didn't know there was a full timeline until I pointed it out. 
Slightly more seriously, the background for CoH is dire. I heavily doubt it's internally consistent itself. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't. If Cryptic can't keep it straight, why should you?
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.
Quiet Birdy! I'm trying to maintain a facade of credibility here!
But in any case, comic books themselves frequently have things change depending on the writer at the time. And as has been said, Cryptic aren't all that good at keeping the CoH setting consistent, so I wouldn't hold it against a player if I happened to find out at some point that some details of their background didn't mesh exactly with the setting.
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Slightly more seriously, the background for CoH is dire. I heavily doubt it's internally consistent itself.
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Well, it wouldn't be much of a super-hero setting if it was, now would it? :-p
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You didn't know there was a full timeline until I pointed it out.
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There is? I presume you're not refering to the official timeline which is obviously incredibly out of date, fails to take in any of the backplot from CoV or Web of Arachnos, and ends abruptly half way through the Rikti War. It doesn't even tally with the plaques found around CoH
If there is a complete timeline, I'd love to see it.
That's what counts as a full timeline for CoH.
Please Cryptic, release all the information at once or don't at all, dribbling it out when it should be readily availible (Or doesn't Paragon have libraries where people can read history in, or reports to look at gangs and areas?) is really annoying.
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Or doesn't Paragon have libraries where people can read history in, or reports to look at gangs and areas?
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Of course Paragon has libraries. In fact, Paragon has the highest per-capita rate of libraries of any North-American city. Unfortunately, they're all only accessible by bus.
Yeah it would be much better if they produced a coherent time line/history in one go. And make it available in the gme boxes..as opposed to trawling through the net.
When I first came to coh a number of my chars were totaly out of synch with the game (like a lot of peoples) as there is no information provided in the game boxes.
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As a gm I try to make sure that my players are aware that suppliments and updates are only used in my games if I have had a chance to go through them first. 1: to see if I want to use it all. 2: to "edit" them for the games I am running.
In COH in has not effected my rp yet...oh except for a couple of my heroes not being overly impressed by certain heroes actions as there was no real risk..(I then learnt that the med-evac teleporters were introduced after the Rikti war..oh well).
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I'm curious about how others view this sort of thing.
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It really depends on how I'm using the character. If it was a character that I used in a public setting like GG or in a closed group like the old League of Vigilance I'ld probably keep the character as is.
When RPing in public it's far more important to be consistent with the world since it can confuse people otherwise.
Shadowplay - Scrapper DM/DA SL 50
Doctor Storm- Brute SS/Elec SL 50
"speed boosts someone in the face" - Cognito
i been making it up as i went, i'm not a big reader of the plaques and in anycase the only relavent bacstory i have based on stuff in the coh game (and not real history) is to do with the very inner workings of the column and the council (and the center ...shhh..) which suffice to say I feel i can make up quite happily.
As someone up the thread a bit said - comics are bad at continuity themselves (arrrgggg marvel universes.. so... many... arrrgh) so I wouldn't worry too much about it
Given that the CoH Universe isn't consistent and with Nemesis etc. in charge of the timelines, the entire idea of consistency is variable. 
The best way to look at it is that consistency, like the timeline is only available OOC; IC the consistency is all observed, and thus your view makes as much sense as anyone else's unless it God-Mod's their character; or yours.
Given we all KNOW Crey is evil; why are they still allowed to exist legally?
If Nemesis has cloned himself that many times; how do we know we haven't already defeated him? And what stops a clone from becoming the Real Nemesis?
How come Tyrant can beat Statesman but Recluse can't?
If Teleportation is available, why isn't Replication?
With that many Fire-Tankers running around, why hasn't the Oxygen level failed?
Inconsistencies can often produce good RP rather than hinder it. If Statesman is the Incarnate of Zeus, that means most major religions have serious flaws to their arguments.....unless.....*fill in RP here* 
One of my favourite CoV characters has a back story which had him with the skulls from the age of 12 through 18. As a result these formative years are central to his backstory, and have influenced virtually every plot he's been involved in to some degree.
Yesterday on the US website they posted the New Updated Villain Group Info on the Skulls
It makes a really nice read. Unfortunately it also contradicts certain aspects of my characters backstory and makes other aspects very dubious.
I'm probably going to change my character history just a little, to bring certain things into line, but there are some things I just don't feel comfortable changing because they are too central to the character..
Has this sort of thing happened to other people in game? If it was a tabletop RPG and I was GMing and a supplement contradicted something which had already happened I'd just ignore the new material, but in a game with thousands of players cannon becomes more important.
I'm curious about how others view this sort of thing.