... No. We are not going to go into the interesting debates about Invun characters that got brought up a while ago. Please, hell no. ><
I'M SORRY GIDEON! I NEVER MEANT TO ASK THAT QUESTION OUT LOUD ABOUT SARA AEGIS!
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Game Canon can only do so much. To be able to effectively RP within the game, we need a lot of detail and its up to us to fill in those gaps. Of course, we may all fill them differently and therein lies the problem. And of course, there are situations where game lore comes along and trumps player canon. Dante used to be one of the last members of the Midnight Squad but with i12 where anyone with a gaudy costume and a baseball bat can be part of the order, I had to retcon that out. In a recent plot, I had to speculate on how the Will of the Earth virus works. If we get an issue that focuses on the Devoured Earth, I can see myself having to do the same again. Hey ho. I think it would be more or less impossible to cover the millions of details required in some sort of game lore bible so of course, there will be some fudge required regardless of what were provided with.
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I agree wholeheartedly with this.
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As for overpowered characters, I really dont see the need. I find them, and no offence intended to anyone who plays one, dull. I like my RP to work within the game world and having someone who is almost god-like in their abilities spoils that as nothing is really a threat to them. Rikti invasion? Sent them home in the wink of an eye. Nemesis plot? Bah, saw right through it. Lord Recluse? Smacked him around with one arm tied behind my back. There would be no danger to me, no thrill of triumphing over incredible odds. It would all just be in a days work. Wheres the danger? The risk? The only threats to them would have to RP threats rather than in-game and that would make it difficult to actually play the game with them. Its why I find Superman consistently boring and why most of my characters are reasonably normal folk who have acquired power some way.
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No argument from me on this score. Bearing in mind that I play an "overpowered" character, if only in terms of his theoretical maximum capabilities, I have to say that the thought of not being able to play the game as the game IC would be terminally boring.
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The one exception is Dante but even then, just because hes old, doesnt mean hes invulnerable. He can do some fairly powerful conjuration if given the time and concentration but the powers he has in-game tend to be the things he can do immediately and without preparation. I also find that having a character too powerful can be immersion breaking. If Im in a team where were all kissing the floor regularly, why doesnt the uber-character just hit their I Win button?
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Now, I'm going to say something potentially controversial, here. It's not meant to be, and as before, if everyone can bear in mind that I play a character that could be described as overpowered.
From reading what you wrote there, Dante fits within the 'overpowered' category, because he is capable of doing things that cannot be represented in-game (and I don't mean minor things like telepathic communication, which can be represented by /tells anyway - I mean having access to powers that could have a combat effect that simply don't exist in the game system).
Now, having said that, those of us who have an 'overpowered' character (for the purposes of this, I'm going to use the following definition of an overpowered character: The character has powers and abilities that are not or are not able to be represented by game-mechanics) also enjoy playing the game, and we (well, I do) like to take our overpowered characters along on some IC missions every once in a while. The disparity needs to be explained (Dante's inability to use his long and complex rituals in a combat situation being a case in point, Shadowe's unknown artificial self-restriction on power output being another). It doesn't need to be made public, but there does need to be a rational explanation, or the character cannot be used for IC missions. Forum RP or some other form of RP, fine and fair enough, but if there is a huge discrepancy in what a character does in one fight, compared to what they can do in-game, then it needs to be addressed.
The worst thing a player can do, with respect to this, is end up in a situation previously described: On an 8-man IC team in the RWZ, face down on the floor after a teamwipe when their alleged powers should have made them win.
Taking my own overpowered character as an example: As other people have mentioned, he doesn't seem overpowered. If you meet him, mission with him, socialise with him, he seems to be nothing more than any other Level 50 hero. Once you learn his background and the source of his power, though, pretty much the first question that springs into anyone's mind is "Why the HELL isn't he HUGELY more powerful than this?" It's a question I answered in my own mind a long time ago, and is so far the root of an ongoing, 3 year old IC plotline that will resolve in one of two ways:
Option 1) Shadowe will become comfortable with what he is, lose his humanity, and leave Earth.
Option 2) Richard Huntington will decide that he actually is human after all, and carry on as he is now.
So far, pretty much everything that's happened to him is pushing him towards option 2. But it's not resolved, by any means, and is the source of everything going on with his social life. The women, the flirting, the unrelenting, constant drive to look after people. That ongoing conflict, which is what makes him a compelling character to me, in one fell swoop explains why he's never pushed the boundaries of his power beyond that of a Level 50 hero and gives me some very interesting things to RP.
And before anyone turns around and says "Ah, but that means you could push beyond those boundaries, in forum RP, or IRC-RP, or wherever", well, yes, I could, but it's fundamental to Richard's character that he doesn't want to. The moment he actually starts using his ober-omg ultimate power levels to affect things in people (not merely as a threat that he will NEVER carry out) is the moment I stop RPing him, because he's ceased to be the character I want to play.
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Of course, therell always be things that cant be described in game terms. Ive struggled forever to find an acceptable AT for my villain, mainly because they wont let us create Necro/Mind Control MMs (Boo Hiss!!! 
). But at least having something that can be threatened by in-game events would be challenging. I guess it all depends on individual styles of RP. For those who do a lot of forum and IIRC RP, in-game restrictions apply less and there will be appropriately levelled threats to them within their stories.
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Much agreement here, too.
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But of course, were all here together, in one game and the styles will rub against each other occasionally, causing friction. And when that happens, the best we can do it respect each other and work out a compromise.
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Words of wisdom.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise ; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
One thing about out of game combat RP is that you have the option of being a little more creative in your attacks and combat styles. In game, Arrow Azure is a bit of a damp squib when it comes to kicking [censored], even with his quivers full of trick arrows.
Take his Ice Arrow. In game, it's a hold. Out of game, he could fire it at the floor to create a freezing patch, or at a door to block it off, or freeze some water over, or...
Heck, the list is endless with what you can do! And it is cool to do those kind of things that you see in the comics and can't do out of game.
As someone who effectively has two uber toons I may as well make their cases how I use them.
Mileena Lim is a powerful sorceress, she would essentially be a level 50 were I bothered to get anyone too that point. As such she doesn't hero, she's a teacher and property own and makes a fair amount of money from it by using said properties as a hotel franchise which recently went public so she doesn't make quite so much anymore. She lives on a tropical island with her NPC girlfriend who she'd rather spend her with than making her a target. She also rather vulnerable, a gun shot, with shields down for casual purposes, would kill her, she'd probably get her [censored] handed to her by the majority of sidekick scrappers on their first day of heroing were she to take them on in a fist fight, and she doesn't get too much exercise so she would likely be bettered in all sporting activities.
So she's not game breakingly uber, but if needed she'll help.
Starborn is a more tricky one, since she's inspired by Superman, and this is an IC element to her as she's a fan. The original reasoning when I thought of Starborn was "Well, Nevermore is GG's Batman...we could probably have a Superman too." but Starborn was ignored mostly, probably because, which seems to happen with almost all my male toons (YES THERE HAS BEEN SOME DAMNIT!), so I rerolled as a female and hey, some reaction!
Thing is the biggest problem in concept is I've effectively made Superman in a world without Kryptonite...
However she doesn't go against the rules of the game, she can be knocked out, she can be harmed, but she can't be cut, bleed, bones can't break and so on, but her physical stress levels can reach a limit where she would pass out, become dizzy, and other such situations, it's just really hard to do, as it should be for an invulnerable tanker. And this has happened, the Rikti Drop Ships have been ICly stated to shoot her out of the Galaxy sky, and she didn't turn up to GG for a while after the attack because she was currently a little unconcious.
Personality wise she's also flawed, she has trouble being social, and for years feared she would harm someone thanks to her strength, this has been quelled lately but is still a risk in her mind. She also is too forgiving perhaps, but this is thanks to her way of thinking, if something hurts her she'd rather forgive the person so they don't feel bad and go away to break some space rocks.
So yeah, those are my uber toons, it should be noted that even though they are more powerful, the best hero of mine is a martial artist with regen, IC she's a far more effective hero, far more experienced at being one in Paragon, but is also a little more aggressive, as my recent story of her's shows she can be quite brutal the even the odds. :P
Tigergirl/Yoko Hatori - Full time hero
Kiyarii Kade - Model and part time hero
Mileena Lim - Alien Demon Bat Sorceress or rather Hotel property owner
Starborn/Klair Elwin - Full time hero and Journalist
Good point, Z.
When writing prose, I tend to stick to the core powers displayed in-game, particularly in fight scenes, but I also assume that it's reasonable for a character to be able to do less and I have absolutely no problem with a character being able to do other, as long as the overall effect is consistent with the things shown in-game.
Essentially, I treat the in-game attacks as 'default' settings, and allow characters to do 'tricks'. If I want Shad to be able to send a pencil-thin trickle of energy, then he can. If I want a very small energy torrent in a circle around himself without going full nova, then he can.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise ; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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Thing is the biggest problem in concept is I've effectively made Superman in a world without Kryptonite...
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But plenty of Magic.
I tend not to give my characters abilities that cannot be represented in-game somehow. Knightmare is a brute and thus has the SMASH, but since he's Mr. Fear, the various fear attacks from DM/DA represent his fear based nature. In fact, come I13, his 2nd build will be alot more control oriented and will have the Presence pool to boot.
----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059
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Thing is the biggest problem in concept is I've effectively made Superman in a world without Kryptonite...
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But plenty of Magic.
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Indeed, and Star does struggle against Thorns. :P
Tigergirl/Yoko Hatori - Full time hero
Kiyarii Kade - Model and part time hero
Mileena Lim - Alien Demon Bat Sorceress or rather Hotel property owner
Starborn/Klair Elwin - Full time hero and Journalist
If she's weak too it then it's probably an even bigger weakness than Kryptonite and certainly makes you a little mortal!
After all, even the Hellions can get their hands on some weak magical items.
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... No. We are not going to go into the interesting debates about Invun characters that got brought up a while ago. Please, hell no. ><
I'M SORRY GIDEON! I NEVER MEANT TO ASK THAT QUESTION OUT LOUD ABOUT SARA AEGIS!
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What qu.... oh.
oh.
*Washes brain out with mind-bleach. A lot.*
That said, Sara blatently is OTT in the invulnerability stakes. I mean, by game, a 50 invuln isn't all that much any more. By story, sara has basically survived discorporation, an attempt to make her move by what was effectively a demigod (admittedly, that was countergodmodding a godmodder,) at least one trip to hell, having numerous buildings dropped on her, and the periphery of a nuke blast.
Main reason she hasn't had to do worse is throwing worse around at GG would be very hard to do without breaking things like streets, cities, planets, kind of thing. Specifically though, her resistance is mainly plot-related. Like John Constantine said about the Spectre "whatever it is, sometimes it's practically the most powerful thing in the universe. Sometimes it's little more than a bloke in white tights and a green hood. It's been up and down the occult league tables faster than a [censored]'s drawers."
Metafictioning plot-armour can be amusing.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Depends on how you spin your invulnerability. As a play on the game mechanics Carnal Sin is entirely invulnerable, completely undestroyable thus far by any known force. You could use the woman as ammo in a c-fractional railgun and fail to damage her.
Which is entirely irrelevant to her because I took the 'Heightened Senses' in the Willpower set and ramped it up to lunatic levels. Loud noises she can just about cope with since she's kind of forced to get used to it, you can't realistically block the world out. But otherwise there's all sorts of ways to knock her out through sheer sensory overload. She eats the blandest food humanly possible and can be punched out simply via a pain overload. You could defeat the woman Discworld style (Thief of Time) by managing to land a chocolate in her mouth. She only wears the softest and lightest fabrics (with a preference for nothing) because otherwise it's like wearing a sandpaper suit (she has Vanguard armour pieces she hates), unrepresentable in the game would be her preferred grappling fighting style since striking damn well hurts, and she hovers everywhere. Doesn't even touch the floor.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
So she's a hyper sensitive woman, impervious to pain but can be brought to her knees by chocolate?
Sounds like an ex of mine...
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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Depends on how you spin your invulnerability. As a play on the game mechanics Carnal Sin is entirely invulnerable, completely undestroyable thus far by any known force. You could use the woman as ammo in a c-fractional railgun and fail to damage her.
Which is entirely irrelevant to her because I took the 'Heightened Senses' in the Willpower set and ramped it up to lunatic levels. Loud noises she can just about cope with since she's kind of forced to get used to it, you can't realistically block the world out. But otherwise there's all sorts of ways to knock her out through sheer sensory overload. She eats the blandest food humanly possible and can be punched out simply via a pain overload. You could defeat the woman Discworld style (Thief of Time) by managing to land a chocolate in her mouth. She only wears the softest and lightest fabrics (with a preference for nothing) because otherwise it's like wearing a sandpaper suit (she has Vanguard armour pieces she hates), unrepresentable in the game would be her preferred grappling fighting style since striking damn well hurts, and she hovers everywhere. Doesn't even touch the floor.
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Nice.
Brawling Cactus from a distant planet.
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So she's a hyper sensitive woman, impervious to pain but can be brought to her knees by chocolate?
Sounds like an ex of mine...
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Impervious to damage. She still feels pain, she does in fact feel it orders of magnitude more than any of us do, which is how she can be fought and defeated like anyone else. It just gets to the point where you cause her so much pain (or sensory input in general, like the strong taste example), she simply falls unconcious because her brain can't actually deal with it anymore.
It ties into the Willpower set being very bad at taking alpha strikes. You simply overwhelm her with too much to deal with all at the same time and you just knock her clean out. Otherwise you're giving her chance to concentrate on it and deal with it.....and then rip your damn arms off.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
Nice.
I find Willpower quite a flexible set to RP with.
A vampiric character of mine uses Rise to the Challenge as leeching regeneration from the foes around him.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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By story, sara has basically survived ... at least one trip to hell
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Jason Caine memorably fell out of the air over the GG plaza smelling a lot of sulphur and having to wease a lot for a day or so while his lungs regenerated. All that to try and sort out a problem for his girlfriend.
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having numerous buildings dropped on her
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And, of course, explained his lac of physical prowess on arrival in Paragon City as the effects of having spent a century or so under a fallen cliff face somewhere in Germany.
Jason is, technically, an uber-character, but not really. He cannot die. End of story. But then, he was born of the desire to embody the game mechanics. No chracter ever dies in this game. Not unless the owner wants it. 
Of course, Jason isn't hard to damage, and you can tae him out of a fight easily enough. He just won't stay down.
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 find Willpower quite a flexible set to RP with.
A vampiric character of mine uses Rise to the Challenge as leeching regeneration from the foes around him.
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Loving Willpower myself, it's let me make a human girl who has trained herself using Jackie Chan movies, Chronicles of Riddick, martial arts books, ninjutsu texts, you name it. She survives fights by simply ignoring the fact she's getting cut up and shot. She then goes home and lies in a bath of special herbs and minerals (Wanted-style) to heal all the damage. Hightened Senses for her means she's totally aware of her surroundings, Rise to the Challenge is an extreme ability to produce focused bursts of adrenalin and endorphins. I don't think I've even touched where I can take Ni's roleplayed WP powers. It would, actually, be quite easy to make her very uber, but I somehow feel I'll stop myself.
It is a really amazing set for roleplaying with.
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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Jason is, technically, an uber-character, but not really. He cannot die. End of story. But then, he was born of the desire to embody the game mechanics. No chracter ever dies in this game. Not unless the owner wants it.
Of course, Jason isn't hard to damage, and you can tae him out of a fight easily enough. He just won't stay down.
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My concept for Doctor Bindweed is similar in as much as he can be easily overwhelmed, but his physical body is destroyed and turns to a kind of compost and he reincorporates another body from organic components in the ground and in the local environment - including the spores and particle residue of his last body. He's like a zombie Swamp Thing, but he's far from uber. For a kick-off, he stinks to high heaven... And the Red Caps don't carry Weedol...
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(WP) is a really amazing set for roleplaying with.
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Agreed. Lots of possibilities. I spotted a lot of potential in your Nitoichi to become a so-called "uber" character, and my character, Columbia, is a WP tank and would probably be the closest thing I had to a "Superman". Although the main reason I chose it was because it had none of those horrible glowie auras that they've inflicted on Inv and (shudder) Energy Armour... 
I've been thinking about a few of my own characters;
The only thing I can think of that's a little OTT on Quinsisdos is the fact his magical source can cause minor temporal effects, but I like to use this to explain how he moves fast (SS+Teleport), attacks fast (Hasten) and in a convuluted way, how his MA/ stuff disorients (Unsyncing a person's stomach by a few seconds to make them feel sick through Temporal Nausea). The fact it's merged with his central nervous system also gives him his /Regen stuff.
But since magic is magic, I've usually given Quin some leeway when it comes to learning simple (i.e. non-offensive) utility spells in addition to his array of standard attack powers. One I recall early in Quin's RP career was using ice charms of Eastern design to cool his feet.
In the grand scheme of things though, this makes him pretty killable, and would be pretty hard done by without the Mediport system, although I suppose I could Deus Ex Machina the effects of the magic source under stress performing a minor timeline re-write that keeps him alive.
Keeping options open on development anyway.
Eientei is...interesting, mostly because we have to deal with low amounts of lore with regards to Kheldians before they came to Earth (Outside the fact that Nictus are teh evils). The power to manipulate negative energy (Or whatever shadowy stuff Nictus use) gives a reasonable amount of leeway with how he can act in RP situations.
I've usually made reference to the fact that he can survive without food and sleep, because the background energy he absorbs is usually enough to keep him fighting fit, similar to photosynthesis. His barriers can probably stop a few bullets, and i'm sure he's pretty strong for a human, despite Warshades not getting any melee attacks.
Shoot him with a Quantum Array Gun though...
Danmaku is obstensibly based on danmaku shooters, although the biggest inspiration was probably the Touhou Project. I'm half tempted to write some sort of "hitbox" enchantment into his backstory, where he contains a single solitary weakspot, which if hit, will cripple him (Requiring a mediport), but anything else will glance off. In this instance, the health bar we see as part of the game simply reflects his ability to dodge, and when it runs out, the next hit does him in.
So if you see him at the statue, don't hit him in the liver, he'll probably keel over almost immediatly.
Speaking of the Touhou Project, there's a good example of how immortality is treated. When facing down Fujiwara no Mokou, it's implied that she is killed each time you deplete her life bar (She has 9 or so), but her immortaility from drinking the Hourai Elixir (Elixir of Life) allows her to continue fighting. When you deplete her final bar, she simply concedes that you are stronger, and she doesn't want to die any more, because apparantly, it still hurts like [censored].
This would only apply to immortals who are immortal in soul, but not immortal in body (i.e: Indestructable). Simply place them in an unescapible situation and "kill" them over and over until they do what you want.
That's me done, don't ever let me post at 2am ever again, I tend to ramble.
I feel like I'm in the minority here but I side myself with those who don't understand the importance of making a super uber character.. who can't back it up in game, thus forcing elaborate artificial (sometimes flimsy) excuses on why face planting happens... or why a friendly arena match ends up with severe and repeated beatings.
In the Cage Fight thread someone said something on the lines of 'I'd participate but I can't explain why my (implied IC uber) character would get beaten by a broad sword wielding midget straight out of Atlas' or something to these lines.
That pretty much exemplifies my feelings. I'm a firm believer of *downplaying* a character's strengths, of saying Lea's just a tough old cat and then let the super duper characters decide a reason why they were unable to put her down.
S'okay, I accept the 'she looks cute, I didn't want to hurt her' excuses.
But yer, joking aside one of the reasons I'm leery of playing Lea scrapper is because being tough is such an integral part of Lea. In fact the armor Lea tank wears is annoying me in the sense that it makes it look like she depends on it for being tough, even if IC wearing it makes perfect sense since she is not invulnerable and no one likes being cut, bruised, shot, zapped, burned and frozen even if healing it off in the next seconds.
I might ditch it for a impervium mesh or something like it, except I liked the RP before, during and after getting it since it involved all of the White Cats and, IMO, it was really well played.
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I feel like I'm in the minority here but I side myself with those who don't understand the importance of making a super uber character.. who can't back it up in game, thus forcing elaborate artificial (sometimes flimsy) excuses on why face planting happens... or why a friendly arena match ends up with severe and repeated beatings.
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Well, I would say that not being able to support a conceptual power in-game is no reason not to have that power in concept anyway. The number of power choices in-game is just too limited to allow us real freedom; even the classic hero concept of a super-speedster is currently impossible within CoX.
Some "extra" powers are just inescapable consequence of a reasonable concept. For example, if a character possesses their powers because they're a spellcaster - one of the main aspects of the Magic origin - then it stands to reason that they can cast a variety of spells. Likewise a character with cold-based powers freezing water in forum RP, even though there's no in-game power to represent it.
There are other reasons to add these things that have nothing to do with the desire to be "uber". The ability to speak an extra language (or nine) is technically an embellishment on the character, but it seems unreasonable to fault it if there's a good explanation. The power to heal at a slightly-above-normal rate and recover from any injury is already built into the way the game works. A photographic memory is quite a substantial benefit in RP terms, but it doesn't have any combat applications; it's not something that could be backed up in-game anyway.
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In the Cage Fight thread someone said something on the lines of 'I'd participate but I can't explain why my (implied IC uber) character would get beaten by a broad sword wielding midget straight out of Atlas' or something to these lines.
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Arena fights complicate things even further. I would have presumed that most arena combat happens between fighters of comparable power level; to use a comic book example, imagine someone setting up a sparring match between the Punisher and Magneto, or between Green Arrow and Darkseid. In my view, if a character's concept is particularly high-powered, they should stick to fighting similarly-powered opponents; that way, either outcome is reasonable.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
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Well, I would say that not being able to support a conceptual power in-game is no reason not to have that power in concept anyway.
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Perfectly true. However, none of the examples you give require that the character in question can casually wipe the floor with anything and anyone, which is the case we are really discussing here.
Just because you can cast spells, and are a fire mage, does not mean that in an RP battle you can wash away whole hordes of bad guys in a massive fireball, not unless you can do the same thing in the game for real. It may well mean you can light your ciggarettes with your finger, or provide people with smores, or shoot fireworks out your... trouser legs or something.
I've taken to having Ni seeing things that are happening behind her lately. She has Hightened Senses, amazing situational awareness, and a partioned mind... and I have the ability to zoom the camera out. It has no real combat benefit, it's just character colour.
I have not taken to saying that she can put her fist through Impervium armour plate due to her amazing physical conditioning, grab someone's intestines, and yank them out to tie them up with. There's nothing to stop me doing that, aside from my own sense that I stopped attending school over 30 years ago and don't wish to return to school yard roleplay.
I actually trust FFM, and Ghosty, and Shadowe to keep the more uber aspects of their characters out of the way of plots they should avoid (much as I took to doing with Crow when he got too powerful), but if they did choose to intervene in some way that I felt was inappropriate, I'd be forced into ignoring them or absenting myself from that plot.
We do get into issues with things like the Unity Towers Battle, where (as I think Dan explained) some characters were left feeling distinctly underpowered. OTOH, in that particular situation, some RP grew out of it (for Dan and me, and others) and there was enough going on in multiple locations that you could mostly just get on with doing your thing.
But the problem exists.
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 actually trust FFM, and Ghosty, and Shadowe to keep the more uber aspects of their characters out of the way of plots they should avoid (much as I took to doing with Crow when he got too powerful), but if they did choose to intervene in some way that I felt was inappropriate, I'd be forced into ignoring them or absenting myself from that plot.
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Which is exactly why I don't involve Ellie in plots that I don't have some kind of GM control over. In fact, The shadow plot is just about the ONLY plot Ellie's been properly involved in for a good 18 months or so... What's going on with her powers isn't plot, it's character development.
Most of Ellie's "uberness" usually comes out in harmless banter; like her regular jokey threats to stuff Spearmint into a trashcan for being cheeky.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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I actually trust FFM, and Ghosty, and Shadowe to keep the more uber aspects of their characters out of the way of plots they should avoid (much as I took to doing with Crow when he got too powerful), but if they did choose to intervene in some way that I felt was inappropriate, I'd be forced into ignoring them or absenting myself from that plot.
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Thanks for this, Birdy. Speaking for myself (mainly because I can't speak for anyone else), if the above described situation happened, and it looked like Shadowe was getting involved, and anyone in the plot felt that Shad was likely to overpower to the challenge (due to inattention on my part, most likely), then I would prefer someone (anyone! Whether the plot-runner or any of the participants) to ask me to back off. It's happened before, and I was quite happy with the outcome, which allowed me to sit back, enjoy the plot and get involved in the conversations without dominating the scenes (which, in hindsight, was entirely possible at the time, though certainly not something I realised going in).
And, as a corollary to what was said earlier - the only times Shad gets involved is if a) he believes there's a threat to people who can't look out for themselves, or b) he has a personal reason to be involved.
Oh, he'll casually swat away any Hellions that get too close to the Galaxy Girl statue as a result of some ill-advised griefing attempt, but if it's a job that requires a screwdriver, he won't insist on people taking along a hammer.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise ; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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As Dante said, Peacebringers are described as "masters of energy", so it wouldn't be any great stretch of the imagination for them to be able to vary the effect their attacks have. In fact, I can even DO that to some extent with IO's and their procs.
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Hacking through the in-universe equivalent of adamantium though, is a pointless personal empowerment and even worse, writes you into a corner. Now you have to make up reasons why you can't go anywhere and everywhere you want, or why you're not on speed dial for dealing with Kronos Titans, since you could cut through anything. All of a sudden there's a strange excess of exceptionally thick Impervium everywhere the bad guys need it despite its rarity, and where is everyone getting these Me-proof force fields?
Before you know it everyone is walking around in Kryptonite underpants until the writers get fed up and Infinite Crisis you into mortality.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."