Do your characters care about the storyline?

Note, I say "your characters," not "you." It's very much possible, and indeed expected, that you personally could love and adore the storyline, yet still make characters who simply do not care. Rather than try to explain this, I'll give an example:

Praetorian Earth. Pretty much the first thing you do in Praetoria is choose between the Loyalists and the Resistance, a choice which expects your character to care about the loyalists or the resistance. Every "morality" choice thereafter isn't really about morality or good vs. evil, so much as it is a choice about faction loyalty and political views. These choices expect your character to care about the faction politics of Praetoria, to care about the propaganda on either side and generally, they expect your character to care about Praetoria.

Now contrast this with the old City of Heroes game. That basically comes down to "This is a city, you are a hero, have fun." Your character doesn't really care about Paragon City or even America? That's fine, he doesn't have to. There are plenty of other reasons to be beating up Nazi and zombies and Nazi zombies and such. Your character doesn't care about the alien threat? That's fine, he doesn't have to. The Rikti War Zone isn't mandatory. So long as you have a character who cares about the very basic theme of the game - being a hero - that character's actions will always be reasonable even if he doesn't care about much of anything within the storyline.

To be honest, it was the "patriotism" thread that inspired me to think about this, because it reminded me that pretty much none of my characters really care about the particular storylines all that much. I tend to build them with their own story in mind, and that's the storyline they care about. The game's canon stories are more filler in-between my characters' own, personal storyline missions, which just happen to take place off-panel and in tie-in books that I write by myself.

That's not a good or a bad thing, though, it's just a thing. The "patriotism" thread showed me that, unlike me, plenty of other people do enjoy tying their characters to the existing canon and making their characters care about in-game events with great passion. Some are born out of in-game storylines, others are attached to bits of lore or locations in the game, some consider their city of choice and its people to be "their own" and so someone they want to protect. And that's fine, really. We each do things as we like to do them.

So, think about it and tell me this: Do you prefer to design characters who actually care about the specific events that the story tells about, or would you rather make unconnected characters who simply exist in the same world but mostly care about other stuff you make up for them?

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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.

For me it depends on the individual character, and the individual plot element. When they run into a part of the story that interests them, they go after it. When none of the available story arcs really matches their interests, they do their own thing.

A number of my characters (SABRE Team) are very much a part of the ongoing Rikti plot.

I think, overall, pretty much every one of my characters cares very much about what happens in the world. The game canon (barring stuff I choose to flat out ignore as dross bad writing [Origin of Power, Puddle of Annoyance]) is pretty much the game world. How can my characters exist there and NOT care about it? It just...doesn't make sense to me.

I get the feeling Americans may find that mind set easier. After all, many of them believe their country is the entire world...

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Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Well, playing on Virtue, and there being a big RP community, I don't tie my main into being the one who discovered for instance that Hero One is Honoree.

Yes, it happened. Yes, she knows about it. But she wasn't the one discover it.

And really, in an RP sense, I'd laugh at anyone who said their character was the first to discover it.

Now if in a closer RP group this works, but when you go to open RP community, I'd laugh at it.

Of course, I also look at those with bios that makes them related to signature characters or responsible for whatever may happen in canon or due to game mechanics as being...well lets just say off.

I mean I RP that it rains in Paragon. Just because we don't see it due to game mechanic limitations doesn't make it so. We don't see it snow either. Do people just RP that it's warm all year long in Paragon, even during the winter events?

Again, if it's a closed group things like this become less of a matter. More so when it's just 1 person in their own little universe.

Basically, it depends. Am I trying to RP with the community at large or am I playing a character in it's own little world?

I came up with a concept once, the whole paragon universe was in the characters imagination, I was told it was a terrible RP concept because it effectively made everything everyone else RPed as not their character.

Personally, I think anything tacking themselves into game mechanics in such a way or attaching themselves to canon that much (like being the discoverer of such and such or the daughter of statesman) falls into the category of messing with every other character out there. May be different degrees but eh...if I'm covered with gasoline and lit on fire, throwing my charred dying body into lava isn't really doing much more damage.

That said, I do have my characters follow the canon in so much as, if I go up against Silver Mantis in a mission, then yes, my character is doing something to pit her against Silver Mantis (if she's an AV. I don't count it if it's not AV, as then it's like "Oh yeah. I fought Silver MAntis and kicked her ***. Of course...she wasn't at full strength, something was weakening her."

I'd rather say my character had to get help from someone. :P

Now my non RP, first 50...who did have a bio and all that, but it closed off into her own RP world, I tied her to Ms Liberty as a daughter of hers through stolen DNA and the Crey. And had her level up almost every single level in AP (maybe all, but I might have forgotten a couple levels...been awhile, so I dont recall).

A couple of my characters do care about the events going on around them, yes. Not all, but some. The two most involved are Andrea Blake (and her variants, Soulcatcher and Cassandra Dunstan) and Sorina Tavarisch. As much of their storylines is original material, they are also ineffably entwined with the canon of the game. Others are 'affected' by or created within the canon, but to a lesser extent (Mender Anomaly, Profiteer, and Cluster Flux come to mind).

I don't like those characters any less for it.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Some of them.

Most of them, not at all. If they happen to be there, to do the "right thing" by game mechanics--hooray for people. They're motivated by things that are bigger than people, and anything they do for people is entirely incidental.

Mine are on a pick and choose basis.

My main Disomnia, whos sleeping disorder (Narcolepsy) was made worse by Neuron Labs activating her psionic powers when she is in her "Sleep Tance" and then sent to the B.A.F. mental centre because she was considdered a threat, does care about the Preat invasion. Although I do play her without knowing so much of what is going on in Primal Earth. I figure she wouldn't know much of the general story, until it revleas it's self to her, which it is doing slowly. So yes, and no, but she can only know what she knows, and I try to use Cannon concepts as my base.

My alts have similar concepts. Some are ignorant to the goings on of the world around them, and discover things as they go, or have sub plots based on Cannon events, like Rikti or Kheldian events which have generally impacted them directly.

Some just are content with being low powered super heroes who fight street crime, and take out the bad guys mercenary style.

So I think for me it really depends on my expectation of the character and how I see it playing out based on it's original story and how they should interact with the world around them.

While I care a great deal about the story, most of my characters do not, until it effects them in some way. That said, I have a couple of characters whose origins tie into the Rikti War and those characters have very strong feelings about aspects of that whole storyline. Nearly all of them ARE affected in one way or another by the stories they participate in, but they don't end up attached to them, if you see what I'm saying.

So, I'd say it's something I take on a case-by-case basis. It's not a general rule one way or the other. These days, my characters don't even have a personal story most of the time until they reach level 10 and I feel like I'm going to play with them more than once or twice.

Heck, my single greater-than-level-ten villain is just a guy who actually likes being a soldier of Arachnos. He likes being tough and shooting things. He's turning into a Huntsman-style build instead of either of the specializations. I liken him to the Shoveler in the film _Mystery Men_, justifying his hero obsession to his wife: "I like shoveling. I'm good at it!" He couldn't care less about being a Destined One or about The Spider's big plans to rule the world.

My characters care about their own storyline which I fit into the overarcing game storyline.

For a Praetorian Example, during the recent Praetorian invasion, Maxi Pound and Zahir Rolando had a falling out. They're both PPD members who were in an incident with a Powers Division member, and Marshand offered to send them to Primal Earth to try in some small way to prevent further conflict.

When the Imperial Defence Force invaded, Zahir wanted to stay hunkered down, worried about reprisals if he stood against the IDF and later went home. Maxi on the other hand wanted to defend the city they had found friends and opportunities in, and struck him in order to get past him to fight.

The Hollowing as another example is quite important to several of my characters, of similar ages who were there at the time of the Hollowing. Several banded up and stayed in the zone, using their mutant abilities to fight off the various groups vying for power in there, but eventually they grew up and moved on into other professions and areas of the city.

The destruction of Galaxy City will affect a lot of my characters, and I'm hoping will inspire an existing NPC to heroism.

Since I make a lot of characters who are supposed to be part of NPC (or PC-joinable, sometimes) factions - yes, at least for them. The Hour Thief in particular is a big one, given how he's 92 years old and has not only lived through but participated in a fair bit of the city's history, because it makes no sense to me that someone who's been with the Midnight Squad since 1939 wouldn't have worked with the Dream Doctor, fought in WWII, responded to the first Rikti invasion, or otherwise become involved with events by now. Another is my teenage Praetorian mutant dominator, who's angry with the world in the usual confused teenage way due to Praetorian politics and her father being with the Syndicate, a fact she didn't learn until he was arrested. The less-tied-to-canon characters I make still care, for the same reason Techbot cited for his: They live in the game's world, and events in the world affect them such that they'd at least know about the major stuff.

However, in all cases, I don't say that any of my characters is personally responsible for any game story arc's completion, because if everyone can do it, it's just hubris to say that I was the one who, for example, took down all the Praetorian Archvillains even if that character has done Maria Jenkins's missions. I'll acknowledge having fought them, but will word it less like "I rescued Statesman from Praetoria" and more like "I've had one or two encounters with Diabolique... there is nothing I loathe more than an enemy who can phase shift," thus leaving room for whoever I'm RPing with to fit their own history in.

Generally, my characters care about their own storyline/situation. Those concerns may intersect with story/canon events but usually dont, other than origin story perhaps.

Also, I will say that none of my praetorians, whose personalities were created before ever playing in praetoria, gave a rats knuckle about the praetorian story. They just happen to come from there. But I only made two praetorians and will likely never make any more due to the fact that foe difficulty is too high for low levels for my tastes.

I hope the new Atlas and Mercy dont suffer (suck) for the same reason.

But yeah, most of my characters have their own story.


Lewis

I'm seeing some very interesting replies so far, and it's confirming what I suspected - most people integrate their characters into the story to a greater extent than I do. It's a bit surprising that so many make standalone characters that don't directly relate to City of Heroes, though. That I hadn't expected.

Let's see if I can't refine the question a tad:

If you completely ignored the game's plot, would your characters and their actions still make sense in the game's existing setting?

If a piece of story required your character to feel a certain way or perform a certain action that goes against their concept, what would you do about it?

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.

My characters pretty much don't follow canon storyline save as a sort of backdrop for my own personal storyline. If I'm fighting Council soldiers in canon, then I'm fighting some Nation's soldiers in my personal storyline. Vanguard and Longbow = UN-type Organizations.
None of my character's powers come from the established origins or incarnates either.

mostly. sometimes i have to go beyond existing canon or into areas not yet covered, so i tend to rely on the "unreliable narrator" excuse for dissonance, but i try to make my characters fit into the storyline, even if they go different ways at times. most characters drop the rikti general, and most vills fight project destiny, and my pb did his storyline, but i do add external stuff to the mix like dragons and angels that is not yet established canon.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I have run the entire spectrum on this. I'd say the majority of my characters are along the same lines as your namesake, Sam. They aren't necessarily focused on any one part of the in-game lore, but simply progress through a series of contacts, helping the "greater good."

I do have a few characters on whom I specifically incorporated into the lore, simply because the concept popped into my head one day and it sounded fun. For example, I have a tanker that (according to his back story) was subjected to Crey experiments similar to those used on Synapse. So in addition to serving the greater good, I was careful to seek out all arcs focused on Crey, eventually defeating Countess Crey, giving that particular character closure.

I actually had one character on whom I had intended to actually write completely unique content to take him from 1-50, using the Mission Architect. Though, due to alt-oholism and it taking longer to write the content than it would to play through it, that character was short-lived.

For me it depends on the character, I pretty much run the gamut. Some of my characters are inspired by various golden-age heroes and they basically have a self-contained origin and the city is simply where they do heroic things. They have no particular connection to any of the storylines, it is just things they get involved in.

Other characters are translations of characters I created back when I was 12 to 15 and was drawing my own comic books. They basically have their own stories outside the city and just do hero things in the game. (looking forward to Freedom for these since, for most of them, the powerset combinations available to villain ATs fir far better than hero ATs)

Then I have numerous characters that are linked to CoH lore or groups. (I'm up to over 125 or so heroes at the moment). They tend to seek out stories that focus on the groups that are a part of their origin.

All my hero's stories are tied both to my other hero's and the game lore. They were connected to the lore from the beginning, but once I remade William Valance the illusionist, I decided to tie them all together. Then when the incarnate stuff was first being hinted at I decided to push their stories into that direction. They are very concerned with what's going on in Praetoria and with the Coming storm. I have a few Praetorian Loyalist heroes that are in that group, and they care very much about what happens in Praetoria.

So yes, at least my heroes care about what's going on in the game world and with the various storylines in it.

I haven't figured out what I want to do with my Villains, though. Some of them are connected to the storylines, however, I don't know if I'm going to have them care about that fact.