Overlapping Lore, or "How to use old stuff to make new ideas"

I've seen a few times, often done in a way that just bugs me in more ways than I can say, so I'll just address it here:


If you're going to use already existing, non-CoH lore to make a character in CoH, at least TRY to make it work within the lore of CoH. Please?

This includes, but isn't limited to:
- Dungeons and Dragons
- World of Darkness
- WH40k
- World of Warcraft
- Etc, etc, etc

I know of MANY folks who use the first two, only seen a few of the latter. But really, I know an entire VG who uses WoD setting-style characters...in a manner wholly inappropriate to CoH, that just makes me facepalm.

It's perfectly acceptable to make a WoD-clan vampire/werewolf/hunter in CoH.

Just don't try to apply the basis of the WoD/DnD/etc setting to CoH haphazardly. What does this mean?

- People are not prejudiced against you because you're not human. That sort of thing (according to CoH lore) died out AGES ago. Only people like Malta still outright hate you, and that's because Malta hates metas, not because you're a supernatural critter.

- No such thing as a Masquerade. Don't EVEN try to make that one fly. In a world where plenty of heroes can see or sense the energies of others, you'd be hard-pressed to keep it a secret, and even if you could, again, folks don't care.

- You're welcome to say your character is from some other Elemental Plane or what have you (DnD is RICH with planes of existence for characters to originate from), but remember how "Gods" work in CoH. All those Deities and Demigods from your handbook? Are basically Incarnates with the Omega slot unlocked. Even Mot is no exception, he didn't start as a 'god', he just got so strong that killing him became next to impossible. But he's basically a glorified Incarnate, just like Hamidon.

- Your origin story is just fine. Just...don't claim the origin story for the setting you're drawing from is factual (unless your character believes that, then it's cool to claim in IC, whether they're right or not). But to claim that the origin of the world/reality/universe is what this other lore says, disregarding CoH? Is just silly.

- If there's a clash between your lore and CoH's lore...go with CoH if you really, REALLY can't make a compromise. Why? Because it'll help other people RP with you. If there's a gray area in the lore? Try to compromise between yours and CoH as equally as possible. I've seen far too many people attempt to use rulesets or lore laws from other settings when it's silly or just plain stupid.


Sorry, all I can up with at this moment, but these stood out as the biggest things that just bugged me incessantly.

I was rolling my eyes at WoD vampires in Steel Canyon back in late '04. Some things never change. People have One Character and they're going to play him/her in Every Game, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. (I could make a crack here about limited imagination...)