Civilian Identities in Roleplaying


Arctic_Princess

 

Posted

As everybody knows theres a bit of a gripe that CoH does not have some sort of secret identity mode. Some will argue that you cant really have one seeing as you must give up your ID when licensed by Freedom Corps, however im here to challenge that thinking.

Game canon says that you give up your ID to the authorities, fine! i got no problem with that. However just because the authorities know your identity there is no reason to believe this is public knowledge. You dont get out of "Outbreak" walk up to Miss liberty or Brawler and they shout "hey everybody this is Joe Bloggs aka the Magnificent Mr Hero!". My thoughts are that hero identity are not public domain and need to be accessed through proper channels (or bribery, computer hacking, etc)so as to protect the heroes, their friends ,and family from reprisals.

Another point,whats to say the information given to Freedom Corps is correct, not been falsified, or later hacked in some way by the Hero in question.

Also even with a public ID most people probably wouldnt remember names anyway. Everybody knows a the names of a few soap characters but im willing to bet many cant place the actors name. People are more likley to identify with the heroic ID rather than its civilian one. And if they did run into a guy in the street who looked like a famous hero most will probably think "hmmm that bloke looks like {Insert Hero Here!}.

In a story on my own SGs forums my main Brits ID was publically outed by a Skull gangmember as his rite of initiation.

Brits civilian ID was Eric "Shades" Mitchel Architect and CEO of Citadel Construction and Planning. The nickname "Shades" was due to the fact he never removed his trademark custom sunglasses. Common thought was the shades were an intimidating negotiating aid and helped him maintain an almost constant "Poker Face"(he actually lost an eye during the war but slowly regenerated it, and now both his eyes glow with a white light).

Partisan an Enemy of Britanic had discovered his identity and his Mutant heritage. After finding out Eric "Shades" Mitchell was attending a public ceremony to open the new pediatric wing his company had been refurbishing in the Kings Row hospital Partisan formulated a plan. Finding a Skull gang member wannabe, Partisan told the Skull that if he was to rip "Shades" glasses of his face during the ceremony the Skull would reveal to the world a shocking secret and then after maybe a night in the cells the Skull's rep would be assured. Sure enough the Skull did this, publically revealing Britanic's glowing eyes.

Once revealed the next stage of the plan was to fan the flames. It was easy for Partisan to encourage Paragons gangs to strike back at Britanic, but rather than go for the man the reprisals hit at his company and home. Graffiti, arson, and attacks on Brits company and employees soon followed. Contracts were broken, and the Insurance refused to pay out due to "Non-disclosure of relevant information", and the value of Brits company started to plummet forcing him to sell up to a business rival to avoid bankruptcy. Rather than blaming the criminals many blamed Britanic for the chaos, as he was the reason they became a target. And all that was from a simple unmasking.

A Secret Identity mode in game would be great, but as you can see above you can easily roleplay it in just watch out for dem Skulls!


(Currently Brit has managed to regain a huge amount of his former wealth and now runs his new company "Sentinel Industries" which handles specialist building projects such as supergroup bases, war wall maintenance etc, from its Founders Falls headquarters "Sentinel Tower". There is much specualation in the business world on just where did the money come from this time, but thats a story from another time.)


 

Posted

Im guessing you got this from the chat you had with Arc "Arrow Flame" Bled a few nights ago?

And yeah its a good idea,i myself have no RP toons that want to hide,but some here might

GO BRIT BRIT!


 

Posted

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Im guessing you got this from the chat you had with Arc "Arrow Flame" Bled a few nights ago?

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In part yes, also influenced by US Angel,s interactions with Telepath.


 

Posted

Had this happen all too often where your 'description' is used as common knowledge, to find out that info about my main, Echo Hammer you'd probably have to be high up in the FBI / CIA / Or high up in one of the Meta-human agencys (Longbow.. FC, all the rest) if you hack into these agencys to get the info pretty sure that'd be arrestible, if your character is Longbow, FBI, CIA whatever.. ive no problem about it. But when people seem to know your character even knowing relatives knowing 'real' second names bleh it just seems like godding someone ive never met before IC knows my characters full name, who shes associated with, her Sister... well, just feels like godmoding.

Pretty sure you were witness to it in D's the other night Brit. I can also understand reputation but to know everything its pretty clear the person read Echos bio and used it as public knowledge.


 

Posted

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Pretty sure you were witness to it in D's the other night Brit. I can also understand reputation but to know everything its pretty clear the person read Echos bio and used it as public knowledge.


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Yes i remember the incident and it can really kill the atmosphere . I read bios for obvious info, anything else i wait for to come up in conversation, get overheard etc.

For example with Echo Hammer Brits thoughts were "Sounds like shes from back home (English Accent). Thats one hell of a fetish outfit shes got there(Echo's Cossie) bet shes been to Soho before." which was pretty much the extent of Echo's and Brits conversation.

Sometimes its reasonable to know other stuff due to things like papers, tv, radio, etc.

An example is Brit running into Tracey Lionheart and remembering her from the Friday Night Talkshow.

Or visually recognising if not knowing the names of various Militia members because of the recent media activity surrounding that Dragonfly business.

In the end it all comes down to Freedom Corps may know but you probably dont!


 

Posted

me and ech where talking about this earlier, and yep its pretty annoying.
even if the guy had done his research, he'd probably still refer (atleast in lunk's case) to them by their codename, and definatly not calling a person theyve only just met by their first name.
Lunk only just tollerates close friends calling him Ben, so understandably, he threatened to tear Mr Godmoder's legs off


 

Posted

Sometimes I wonder why people write their life's story into their bio field. RP-wise it makes little sense and just gives OOC info. You can't know someone's story just by looking at them and that's what a bio effectively does.

Personally I wrote into Coile's bio some stuff that has been published about him. That is information that other characters can know, although of course they don't have to know. The neat bit is that even if every single thing from bio is taken directly as IC info, it doesn't bork anything.


 

Posted

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Had this happen all too often where your 'description' is used as common knowledge

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Sorry, I have no sympathy. If it's supposed to be top secret and only possible to know through the right contacts then why have you written it where everyone can read it?

Put things in your bio which aren't obvious from your avatar, but things which would be obvious to someone meeting the character. Velvet's bio talks about her voice (which is distinctive) and mentions some bits of back history which the general populace might know. War Crow's bio says he has a Welsh accent, because he does. Neither of them reveals secrets about the character. If you want to know that stuff, you talk to them.

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to find out that info about my main, Echo Hammer you'd probably have to be high up in the FBI / CIA / Or high up in one of the Meta-human agencys

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Any toon who has done the mid-range Rikti Origin story arc has 'Omega Level Clearance' with the ability to access virtually an secret document in the US. (From an RP point of view, this could really suck, but most people never use it.) If they wanted to research Echo Hammer's background, they could. I still don't see that as a reason to paste it all over your bio.

So, basically, you should treat your bio as being public knowledge.

And be glad anyone has read it! Half the time, people don't bother.


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.

 

Posted

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Any toon who has done the mid-range Rikti Origin story arc has 'Omega Level Clearance' with the ability to access virtually an secret document in the US.

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which is part of the reason its there in the bio.
with the numerous warrents and whatnot out on him, Lunk's information would be readily available to anyone with the reason to look. (say, an associate, or someone with a grudge)

but when it comes down to it, "arent you 'so and so'"/"hey, i know you.." are acceptable, "oh, hi ben campbel" from someone you never met, and has obviously no reason to know, is just poor.


 

Posted

SO, you put a note in the bio saying:

(( Anyone with high-level security clearance or access to XXX, pm me for details. ))

One of mine, Operative Seven, has something like this in her bio:

(( Those with special senses, please pm me if you are examining Operative Seven. ))

She has a weird backstory, and those able to sense some things could look at her and go "Oh, wow, did you know that..." There's text there to tell people that there's something to uncover, but if I wrote down every detail of her plot in her bio, what would be the point in playing her?

Sorry, if you write their whole bio out in detail for all the world to see, that's an exercise in making yourself feel good, demonstrating you can actually write back history for a character. Writing the back history is about roleplaying. Putting it on public display and then complaining when people use it isn't anything to do with roleplaying.


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.

 

Posted

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If it's supposed to be top secret and only possible to know through the right contacts then why have you written it where everyone can read it?


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Possibly because it makes no sense to 'know' someone by right-clicking their avatar and reading some info? The person in question may have been new to RPing or just used to a different way of doing things.

Although it is annoying if it happens, just simply send a tell to said person. On my first ever venture into Roleplaying I did the same thing with a character by calling him by his first name. People make mistakes, just send em a quick tell and then it's just as easy to 'forget' it.

Oh and in case this is taken the wrong way: Pretendy Fun-Time Game