Cheating or Creativity?

I have all the various bonus packs, and of course, I or anyone else could make a toon of any origin who had *every* small bonus--Secondary Mutation, Mystic Fortune, Self-Destruction, Ninja Run, Beast Run, et al. But I'm what I think of as an "interior role player", so I try not to "cheat". I won't give a Natural Blaster a Secondary Mutation, or a Mutant Troller the Mystic Fortune power, if it doesn't fit their conceptual bio. None of my toons have "the full Monty Haul", but some have "extras" which a more purist player might argue don't really belong to their classes.

For instance, I have an Elven Plant / Weather troller who's a genuine citizen of Faerie on a sightseeing tour to Praetorian Earth. As a magical being, he of course has Mystic Fortune, but my conception of this toon is that, like most Faeries, he can do some minor magical "cantrips", that is, small temporary spells of protection and improvement. So Jobriath Windwood gets "Secondary Mutation", not as a mutant would have it, but as a form of intrinsic Faerie magic.

Laughing Justice is a Natural Blaster (rifle-toting type) who, in my conception, *doesn't* actually possess his Secondary Power, Mental Manipulation, as a "real" psionic power. The guy just has a lot of charisma, and is able to stupefy his foes with screams, threats and crazed wisecracks. It would help if I could make his "mental powers" FX-invisible, but no go, so I just think of the colours & FX as a comics convention, like speed lines. He's not a cyborg or robot, but there's no rule that a total Natural can't put a grenade in his pocket and pull the pin when he's overwhelmed, so L.J. gets "Self-Destruction" as part of his package.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Since we can't muliti-class, and create an armored Tanker who can fire energy blasts (a very common concept in comics, but unattainable by any technology known to Human or Rikti, somehow), or a pistolero who wears Kevlar & thus could profit from Defense enhancements (apparently nobody will sell flak jackets or bulletproof vests to Blasters), those of us who want to individualise our toons have to be creative. A great deal of "interior role-playing" (for me, anyhow; I speak only for myself) is:

Can I "realistically" justify giving a toon a small ability which seems to belong to another Origin? If so, even if I can't make it fit in his/her bio, then I don't feel I am cheating myself or being a greedhead. It's more like legitimately winning a "No-Prize".

I know many of us use "Ninja Run" to get around at lower levels, but once I earn a faster way to travel, I take "Ninja Run" off the board, unless I have an actual Ninja or Martial Arts type. I do have a Demonic MM with "Beast Run", but she *is* named Unholy Desire, & a beast at heart if not in body. UD does have "Fortune", but tends to be miserly about using it. She's another who has "Secondary Mutation" as a set of cantrips. Anyone who can summon demons surely knows enough Magick to heighten her senses or cast a modest self-protection spell.

Some spells in CoX seem easy to teach to "muggles", such as Sands of Mu, and Ghost Slaying Axes must be available in bargain barrels throughout the city, along with Blackwands and Nemesis Staffs. I don't like getting beat down any more than the rest of you, so most of my working toons have these. But I assume they come from friends, mentors, or relic-dealers.

The "inner" game is different for all of us, at least those who want more than a generic toon to go farming with. Any comments?

I do the same thing. I only give Secondary Mutation to Mutants and Fortune to Magics. I thought about cheating (using Secondary Mutation on my Science Brute who gets his powers from a chemical formula; it'd be pretty easy to cheat SM in as a side-effect of the formula) but I decided I value variety over convenience. The game is repetitious enough without making every character the same.

The exception is Ninja Run. It's too good not to use, especially if you want to go travelless on a build, but I do refuse to run it on Huge body types.

Is what you are doing cheating? Eh, in the strictest sense, maybe. But role-play is like written dogma: it can be used to justify anything.

WARNING: I bold names.

I have a general dislike for temporary powers and Booster powers, so I do my best to not use them most of the time. I do tend to keep Ninja Run on some of my characters, mostly Teleporters who have no means of fast indoor locomotion, but for the most part it fits, or can be made to fit.

That said, I won't take the Nemesis Staff on a Magical character, despite people claiming I'm stupid for doing so. I don't use those powers even when I take them, so it makes little difference.

For me, though, concept is what matters the most, and this isn't limited to temporary powers. It extends to all of character design. If a character is intended to fly, he will use Fly and Hover, even if conventional wisdom says I should be using Leaping for Acrobatics, just as a random example.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

The problem with the origins and trying to link them with the extra booster powers is...well, origins are pretty narrow as is...at least in the sense you put them as.

Some characters are better described as 'Dual Origined', mixing things like Natural ability and Science or Magic and Technology. Then there are those that dabble in other things: My natural scrapper relies on skill and reflexes, but he was also born with a mutation that lets him 'think fast' and he's rather forced into learning about magic considering the company he owns practically manufactures the stuff.

On the other hand, it's not so much about the inherent origin of a power and more about the general effect too. My DM/WP stalker is best described as mutation and has the annoying tendancy to never die (he can be vaporized and have his molecules scattered to the ends of the earth but he'll somehow manage to pull them back together through sheer force of will). With that, he also has an annoying tendancy to over extend his powers, effectively destroying himself and everything around him. He's not tech in the least, but Self Destruct is a perfect stand in until a mutation-version of Self Destruct comes around.

I use Secondary Mutation on every character. I just rationalize it as something within their origin. For example, for Magic characters, it is a spell they cast on themselves that has a random effect. Heck, that is how I rationalize inspirations as well.

I don't care about origins at all. I make all my characters Natural Origin because it allows me to choose either Nemesis Staff of Blackwand and get the extra damage, and because Natural SO's are easily identified for effect by name. I use all the bonus powers on all characters indiscriminately. They are just little buffs. I don't put any thought into the RP aspect at all.

That doesn't mean my characters are totally devoid of any identity or creativity. My characters all have a concept, even if I don't write a bio, or even if the concept is just a joke of some kind. I just choose not to limit my effectiveness in playing the game based on RP reasons. I don't mind hand waving away stuff that doesn't fit the concept.

In the past, I put more thought into these things. Most of the time, nowadays, I don't worry overly much about it and just use whatever on whoever.

Generally speaking, I have no problem with "extra" powers on a themed toon. You can explain anything if you take the time. Dick Tracy had a two-way wrist TV and an anti-gravity tube thing to fly around in when the story required it. If I want my character to fly or to have a magical deck of tarot cards, well, he or she just does. The source of it isn't really germane because they're accessories. They're not the main event, as it were.

That said, I HAVE had characters who stuck strictly to a concept. Lady Spirit is a homage to the comic book character, and therefore she is very much a fists and guns kind of character. Before power customization (thank you once again for that, devs) the only option she had was to be a base martial arts toon and skip nearly all of the MA kick powers in favor of power pool melee powers and recipe-made weapon powers like revolver, baseball bat, and sledgehammer. Even so, I allowed her the use of the Nemesis Staff because it was just that good and if I had to rationalize it, she just got it from a friend who owed her deceased father a favor. Same thing for the Blackwand, when it became possible to have both. I didn't waste energy worrying about the why's of it.

It takes three seconds to come up with a reason "why" if you really need it. We already get enough flashy temp powers as mission rewards that any given power pack power can be rationalized in the same fashion. It doesn't matter that you start the game with it, though if you really WANT to, you can roleplay the acquisition.

In fact, for the hardcore RP'er, I can imagine someone creating an AE mission that DOES roleplay the character being rewarded with, say, the Blackwand or the Nemesis Staff. It might even be a fun sort of initiation into a RP super group. "Rule 1 - You cannot use Nemesis Staff until you play and defeat mission #XXXX in the Architect."

When I play Spider Solitaire and get into an unsolvable situation I use the Undo option, is that cheating or creativity?