Roleplay, Plots and the World.

if you want to see a MM's weakness drop a AoE confuse over the pets and giggle, or any of those powers that "Phase out" the pets.

Makes sense why, if there was a super tough ranged character, it'd have to have really poor damage to offset it and I doubt people are going to find that much fun to play.

I'm getting to the point where I'll have to break my metaphorical piggybank on a second account, unless they give us 48 slots instead of 36

gosh this thread has wandered wide and far.

i see what your saying about VEATs as armoured blasters, but no one like the pre lvl24 wolf spider guy, or plays a Huntsman version at higher level.

As for balance how much armour is enough to make the concept work, while at the same time keeping the damage out put in line ? take for example the Defender level of damage , would that be higher or lower than your example of a DP/SR ? what about compared to a Corr ? to fit a DP/SR into the exsisting AT structure would be tricky to do in such a way as to make the DP/SR a viable AT.

There are a lot of threads hereabouts regarding "ultra-amazing-everything" characters and how to handle them (particularly from the point of view of playing one), so I'm not going to go into that again - I think if people want to discuss them in detail, those threads could be necro'd.

This does raise one interesting thing that's also been covered elsewhere, though, which is "game mechanics - do they matter in RP?"

In many respects, yes. Game mechanics (and also game lore, which says that Statesman is the strongest, toughest, most hard-hitting SOB out there... except Recluse) are there for a reason - they provide a limit to the capabilities of characters on the things that the game engine covers. So, damage output, combat skill, defences, whatever. If the game says you have these things, then it makes sense to RP having these things, and if the game says you don't, then it doesn'y make sense to RP having them.

However, not everything is covered by "The Rules" (i.e. the game mechanics) and that allows a lot of flexibility.

One concept I'm particularly fond of is that of the "Special Effect" (yep, I'm a Champions PnP fan), which basically says that the game mechanics let you do X, but it's up to you to define what X actually means in the game world. Here's a good case in point: Your character is effectively immortal. No matter how much of a pounding your character takes, when he drops to the floor, you hit "Go to Hospital" and PING! you're back at full health and endurance. For my main, I've translated that into "a sufficient burst of energy, such as that from the medical systems at the hospitals, is enough for him to rebuild his body instantly, healing all wounds". That's my special effect. Other people have turned Energy Blast into Water Blast (which isn't a bad translation), because the special effect results in the same thing when the powers are used.

On the other hand, though, I do not believe that characters should be restrained by the game mechanics except where those mechanics directly affect a character's interaction with other characters or the game-world. So, something like Ellie's (to borrow FFM's toon to illustrate a point) super-hearing is allowed. Unfortunately, her vulnerability to loud noises isn't modelled in the game world (I would actually love some form of enhancements that reduced certain attributes in favour of others - so Ellie could take vulnerability to Sonic effects, and gain elsewhere), but that's for RP to sort out.

If everyone approaches RP with the perspective that each other person is a rational human being whose aim is not to win an e-peen-waving contest, then the RP that can be had is awesome. Unfortunately some people believe it is, and that causes a lot of problems. For the most part we manage, we cope, we discuss and we compromise.

I would consider it a great thing if some sort of arbitration panel could be created within the Unionverse, so that those of us who are interested in RPing fairly and maturely can go to the panel for rulings on outcomes and so forth, but I can't see it happening, because there's no way everyone would agree.

i have no problem with Special Effects and powers that the game doesnt cover, up to the point where they are used to efect in-game powers and effects, the very simple example when some one say they know some one is stealth / invis because they can super- smelling, hearing, see energy fields, have x ray sight etc. Here i feel game powers must the winner.

As Shadowe said the PnP champoins was excellent for these little enhancments that flesh out and make a character unique, in Cox its a bit harder to make the powers fit, on a most basic level how Super is Supersmelling ?.. there was a nice example of this in the Find Annette chat about FFM's Ellie trying to track, which had the best smelling power a dog or a bear. Getting the level of the in game powers balanced takes the Devs vast amounts of testing (( well i hope they test )) were as us RPer c\ant do that we have to try it and see, each time we drop in what seems a reasonable power and hope.