My character isn't a god!

So you call yourself a Roleplayer…

The well of the furies. Incarnates. PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS! Oh, but your character concept wouldn’t work with that storyline, right?

Right?

…how long have you been roleplaying, again? I can think of very few character concepts that you cannot hand wave the reason behind the power away—and this isn’t limited to incarnate powers, either. A majority of the concept clashes are due to people being obstinate over the theme. So here, let me show you how you could think, if you actually wanted to roleplay it.

First off:

1. Drop the story.

I know, I know. “Oooh the well is turning my character into a god!” No, it’s not. Just ignore that, anyway. The storyline is silly. These “incarnate” powers, if chosen thematically, can make a lot of sense as extensions of your natural power progression, if you want it to.

2. Make it work.

Ok, let me give you some examples. Let’s say you’re a magical fire beast character. But you’re not a god. Well, that’s fine. Ignore the stupid well thing. It’s not that hard. Here’s the deal—yes, you’re going to Praetoria to fight these enemies. Well, how about that, you’re getting stronger. So maybe, your fire guy learns how to throw/breathe an epic fireball. Maybe their attacks deal additional damage over time, because of fiery punches. Maybe the destiny power is just a way of it getting an adrenaline boost. Maybe the lore pets are contacts that it has met in it’s adventures. But hey, maybe your character is “Natural,” so you can’t explain all that, right? Wrong.


How to explain incarnate powers on characters without super powers:

Alpha: It’s not a superpower. Moving on.

Interface: It depends on your character type. If you use guns, maybe you use incendiary rounds. If you’re a hand to hand fighter, maybe your attacks are so forceful that they can stop the enemy in it’s tracks, make them dazed and confused, whatever.

Judgment: This can be tricky, but can still be explained away. If you use guns, well look at that, you have a flamethrower mod on your rifle. If you’re a hand to hand, voila, you’re a ninja thanks to vorpal. That too epic for you? You can write off void as a battle cry, if you color it a certain way. You can also explain judgment away as a piece of tech you’ve picked up and/or made in your travels. You refuse to use technology, and none of those other explanations work for you? Congratulations, you’re obstinate. Just because you're a "Natural" character (meaning that your crime fighting abilities don't come from anything but yourself) doesn't mean you are forbidden to use a useful device. That kind of thinking is limiting, and stupid.

Destiny: Ok, almost all of these can be explained away the same way inspirations are. If you are not the type to use inspirations because it clashes with your concept, I guess getting an adrenaline rush in combat has escaped your imagination. The visual part bothers you? Color it the same as the rest of your powers, or color it in a way that looks like a battle cry. Quit being so picky. The only destiny that does not work in a way that can be made sense of as an adrenaline rush is incandescence, and I think you’ll agree that most people don’t choose that because it is of limited use. If you really want it for whatever reason and are challenging me to come up with a theory for it, it’s a tech teleporting device. Like how manticore uses the hospital teleporters. Or Star Trek.

Lore: Remember to ignore the whole well thing. If none of the pets works thematically with your powersets/concept, you know what will always work? Vanguard. You have joined the vanguard, right? If for some reason you cannot stand Vanguard, you have other options. For heroes, you could have Longbow contacts that will give you a hand via a quick radio/teleporting device. Villains get Arachnos. You don’t like those either? Robotic drones that have a short battery life can be activated to assist you in battle. Bam. If your character is an unapologetic loner that refuses to use technology and you’re still complaining that nothing works for you, go away. You’ve roleplayed yourself into an emo corner.


Thank you for reading, I hope this has helped give inspiration to those who were trying to make it work. Remember--you no longer need to unlock the Alpha slot via the Mender arc, so if you just do iTrials over and over, you really are just getting yourself stronger in much the same way progressing in levels did. Kill stuff, get xp, get stronger. If you can explain how a "Natural" character can get to level 50 and take on giant robots and Arch Villains, you can explain almost anything.

Yeah, a lot of people need this. Thanks.

Within this world and all the super-do-dah pals we have around us (and enemies and occasional side-effects), another great possibility for Judgement (and any of he powers, actually) is a magical item, a magical boon, a tech-gizmo and/or further mutation.


So far, I haven't had any issue with Electric-Knight. The only thing I might draw the line at is if his power level just exceeds what feels right for him (as I always think of him around a Spider-Man level of hero... but, then again, that is really not that limited!) then I may opt to not get certain powers and/or just not use them.

Now, if someone gets their enjoyment by not doing any content that doesn't match their In-Character aspects... more power to you and have your fun!

However, if you want the powers, but don't like the in-game context... c'mon! You can do it!

My character is a God, and you just messed everything up for me.

Great post, Stone Daemon!

I agree totally, Incarnate abilities can be easily explained through roleplay, assisted perhaps by blinking slowly at key moments during the power animations.

My main is a completely non-violent superhero. He has gotten to the Incarnate content through copious use of his Sleep attack, in addition to my own narcolepsy whenever I press the 'wrong key'. Ion Judgement is simply a "satellite mounted sleep power", and anyone lying on the ground merely lacks the rigor to sleep on his feet. Ion Judgement has a long activation time, sufficient to turn around 180 degrees. If he didn't see it, it didn't happen.

I'm also researching triffids, my gut tells me they could hold the key to roleplaying this guy.

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Good post and tips!

There is another perfectly logical way of dealing with this problem....


Don't take incarnate powers.

Yes, I know that in the eyes of some I have just uttered blasphemy, but think about it. Your character concept has them as a mere mortal. A well trained, equipped, whatever mortal but still only human. If you feel that dealing with the Well of the Furies (i.e. incarnate powers) would violate that concept, well, as we said in the 80's, JUST SAY NO.

This won't work for everyone, particularly those who enjoy the incarnate content, but it is an option.

You had some very good and useful suggestions there. I'm just presenting an alternative for those folks who just cannot justify incarnate powers in their character concept.

I can honestly say that I've met very few people who's character idea is so rigid that they cannot, under any circumstances, take incarnate powers. Most people are players before they are role players and they want to play with the shiney toys up there at 50+.

So, lets open this up a bit, forum readers. Like the man said at the beginning, how do you work near godlike abilities into your character concept? Do you just ignore it and play on? Do you work it into your story some how? Do you have a specific plan?

Oh, I suppose I can be goaded into some epic self-aggrandizing elitism by describing my "roleplay" justification for the incarnate powers.

My main, EtherFalcon, is a lvl50+ full incarnate natural origin MA/SR scrapper. A classically trained hand to hand combatant in a variety of fighting forms, who has acquired superhuman reflexes through exposure to extreme training conditions.

Alpha - Nerve Core Paragon: Having studied exotic fighting forms, he is a master at carefully placing strikes for precise desired effect (Accuracy). It also makes him able to anticipate incoming attacks well in advance (Defense).

Judgement - Pyronic Radial Final Judgement: Use of advanced flash/smoke grenades to disorient and strike from a cloud of smoke. Colored the flames to look like white/gray smoke, I almost always activate in close melee range so it looks like dropping a smoke/flash bomb.

Interface - Diamagnetic Core Flawless Interface: A learned ability to place strikes specifically to disorient (-toHit), or hit vital organs like chakra areas that would stop body functions essential to healing (-Regen).

Lore - Storm Elementals Radial Superior - This one is the biggest intellectual leap... the elementals represent "physical manifestations" of psychosomatic disturbances, creating distractions, fear, and intimidation that drains the opponent's energy and will to fight.

Destiny - Ageless Core Epiphany - Again with the training, exposure to extreme stress conditions while training has given him the ability to summon endurance at will to fight through even the most protracted skirmish.

So I may indeed be deluded, but that's how I justify it all. Anyone else care to share?

I've always believed that the Malleable Mechanic, my first 50, wouldn't fit with the whole idea of becoming an incarnate or "godlike being": he's more of the honest, everyman type hero. From an RP perspective, he juggles his heroic career with the trials of running a store with his father. He's got powers thanks to his tire-rubber skin, but that as remarkable as he gets. He has a T3 Alpha slot but I really pay no attention to it.

On the other hand, my newest 50 (as of today!) is a kid that turns into a dragon and can manipulate fire magic, so by all means I want to work toward Pyronic Judgement before I can't use it anymore due to falling to Premium in the next couple of months. Will he be an Incarnate? I haven't decided yet.

Everyone is also free to borrow my characterization technique- It's a blanket concept that I apply to all of my characters.

What I do is, I roleplay my creations as schizophrenic-paranoiacs who are convinced that they're characters in a video game. They're also avid practitioners of doublethink, which allows them to not only believe that they're fictional video game characters controlled by a benevolent being named TwoHeadedBoy, all the while speaking in character, but also that they have super powers and are completely capable of saving or destroying the world as they see fit.

I'm constantly roleplaying all of my characters at once, even as I type this. My creations believe that their incarnate powers came to them by something called "Developers," which are essentially a god-like entity that exists for the sake of making their world more interesting.

I definitely ignore the whole well of the furies storyline concept.

However...the powers definitely go against my concept...but I just gave in because they are too powerful not to have. I figured if I ever just want to play for pure concept...I would just unslot them for a bit.

It would be nice if you could have the interface proc act just like an IO proc...where it has no added fx.

Also...they need to come out with more Judgement abilties for more concept options. I eventually just took Vorpal and play it off as a "speed blitz" move.

Anyways...yes you can "easily" work around it...but the devs could also eliminate that need by adding more customization options so that you're not "forced" into potentially concept breaking powers.

Ray! If somebody asks you if you are a God, you say YES!

I would explain Incarnate powers as a button click. I press this, bad things happen to those bad guys over there on the computer screen.

Oddly enough, nobody has ever asked me to explain button clicks in a videogame.

Two out of three of my Incarnate characters get this treatment.

Illumineer, Science Ill/Rad troller: A female scientist displaced in time from just before women's suffrage was passed, whose work in particle physics and neurology (two fields that of course don't work together in the real world, but this is comic-book mad science a la Girl Genius) has of course picked up considerably now that she lives in the present day.

Judgement: Ion. It's a death ray. What's a scientist like her without a death ray? I really wish I could have either an "orbital laser cannon" animation for this or the ability to fire it out of one of the Beam Rifle models, but eh.
Lore: Phantoms. Nothing to see here, just more of what she's been doing for the rest of her career.
Interface: Reactive. In-character I should probably have gone Cognitive for fitting into what she already does, but I heard it was bad and didn't want to change. I might change anyway. Reactive is played not as anyone being actually set on fire, but they think they are.
Destiny: Clarion. This works great for her concept because she's all about psychosomatic effects, and having mez protection makes perfect sense for her.


Hour Thief or Horoclept, Magic Grav/Kin troller or Time/Sonic defender: Two versions of the same person, a Midnighter who gains immortality by tricking enemies out of their lifespans.

Judgement: Void. This was a hard one to choose because I play him as a very specialized sort of magic-caster and neither Ion, Cryo, or Pyro meshed well with his theme, and despite having vast stores of time in which to punch several people in the gut before they can react I don't really see him with Vorpal. However, since his powers are by concept very similar to Lady Grey's and she slings negative energy, Void works acceptably well.
Lore: Cimerorans, played as a pair of ghosts he knows through the Midnight Squad. Some of his best friends are ghosts.
Interface: Reactive. Fire makes no sense for him but the effect is easy to ignore, because the rest of his powers are colored gold for the time theme (I persist that gold still should have been the default color for Time Manip, but that's a different topic).
Destiny: Clarion. He needed it and its animation is shaped like an hourglass, and the Controller version has been able to grant mez protection to allies for some time already via Increase Density. No-brainer.


The third character is in fact a young demigod, but by birth rather than by the Well so I'm posting anyway.

Oougel, Fortunata: An escaped product of Arachnos superscience, hybrid human/Soldiers of Rularuu abomination.

Judgement: Void, colored like her psychic attacks. Rending enemies minds with terrible eldritch thoughts... essentially a second Psychic Wail, but darker.
Lore: Soldiers of Rularuu. She's not as strong as her divine heritage given that she's only two years old, so they're only half-real and fade after a few minutes.
Interface: Reactive. This is where I say she's a demigod, I don't gotta explain nothin'.
Destiny: Rebirth. Healing abilities are imitated from Faathim, so I left this as its default healy-green instead of coloring it purple like another psionic ability.

if ever brought up(which they havent been)

I always explain it this way, on my main.

Who is a magician as well as a psychic.

alpha: I took the endurance one so that's just...natural stamina.

Interfact: Pushing telekinetic powers farther into pyrokinesis(or even using it as the illusion of flames)

Judgement: I took pyronic and colored it purple/blue, I say they're psionic/Dream flames, a burst of telekinetic energy manifested as fire through use of magic.

Destiny: barrier spell...and or telekinetic bubble.

Lore: I took the storm elementals...penelope yin has a psychic singularity, I can always say that's what they are, or...you know, I could use magic to bind the storm elementals