do you use your creativity to work with or against the game?

It really just depends for me. Something it isnt a lack of imagination, but rather I find the idea dumb

Having to go to a trainer. Nope. Don't care for that idea. Would of been better if it was "You level up" an a box opens up for you to train.

Enhancements. Dumb! Don't care for that idea either.

So obviously stores to buy them seem stupid to me. I ignore those.

I treat Icon as a clothing store that also happens to sell hero wear. I figure anyone can shop there.

Dr Aeon (or whoever it was) making it so powers were proliferated? Also to stupid for me to care for. I ignore it.

Why wouldn't you ignore some things in game? So you get captured, put ina cell, yet they don't take away weapons or put a power dampenner on...or barring all that...kill you? Or tie you up?

Now lots of the storylines I keep wiith when they're in game.

I also tend to ignore players who's characters are some how related to/in a relationship with an NPC. I don't care if they do it, but that seems like a concept that just steps on others toes.

I sort of 'compartmentalize' my characters. My characters as I conceive them don't exist in the COH universe, even though they 'play' there.

My characters exist in a world where super powers tend to be of the low key variety - think anything a human could really do, but enhanced to superhuman levels: so, super strength, reflexes, senses, etc, but even then those obey real world physics. No 100lb girl throwing a tank by its gun barrel... Some seemingly supernatural things are allowed, but with allowances to believe they could somehow have been 'natural' all along: Telepathy, certain ESPs, Healing...

So, as COH is the only game (worth a damn) in town where I can sort of bring these characters to life, it's what I use. I try to make my 'mains' fit within the above parameters as much as possible, but I don't sweat it if I use a power that doesn't fully fit. Likewise, all the COH missions I do I mentally modify after the fact to fit within my own created universe. Hard to do with some of the more cosmic things, like fighting Rularuu, but I don't let any of it bother me.

My PB, being much more flashy, is an exception to the above, but even she exists in her own universe, not COH, using the same mental acrobatics as above.

I really enjoy making my concepts work with the lore, and a lot of my stuff has been created because something in the game itself inspired me.

However, I do choose to ignore the 'no mutants before the split atom' crap.

On the subject of stores and trainers, depending on the character the trainer visit is usually just a check up about security level in my head. I do like the idea of shopping, especially with robotic characters.

All of my characters are part of the game world.

Since very few of them had any kind of existence before the game it just makes sense.

The only part of the game lore I actively ignore is the bit where they try and tell me how my characters got their powers. They're MY characters, if my cyborg scrapper is Science origin instead of Technology because he gained his powers through his own scientific research into how the brain tells your muscles to move, then the game isn't going to tell me otherwise. But, that same character is a cyborg in the first place because Crey blew up his robotics lab. With him in it.

I also flat out ignore the "no mutants until year X" bit. My DM/SR brute is a direct descendent of Vlad the Impaler (AKA Dracula). The vampire legends arose from the fact that he was a mutant with weird powers, but no one understood what that was back then so they attributed it to the supernatural. The mutation popped back up every couple generations, fueling more vampire legends along the way.

And of course superheroes buy things in stores. Who ever heard of a superhero with the "Summon Groceries" power?

I can take it or leave it.

Whilst all of my characters fit into the lore of the game (some heavily some not so heavily) there are a couple that live in their own worlds and Paragon is just an illusion.

Medicat for instance is from the Thundercats lore, but is currently in a radation induced coma. Paragon city is just his brain trying to heal the damage (think Life on Mars).

Dwarf From the North is a fat computer analyst from Newcastle but after playing a famous fantasy MMO for 7days straight without sleep his mind became so warped that, not only did he belive himself to be a dwarf mage but the entire world seemed to be an MMO to him. So although Paragon is real to him, he sees it as a game, including health bars and mana potions.

I can see some of my characters going shopping or out on the town, where as some live off the land and are self sufficent. While I can imagine my Natural characters having Military training, I have difficulty figuring out exactly what an aspect of grey is, or how I can have 5 telescopic lenses. I tend to just ignore that part.

I tend to change my costume to something suitable for my day job (all my toons have a 'Day Job' costume) and tend to use the 'walk' ability when the situation demands it (such as walking in the press conferance in SSA7, cant run about the place!)

Why does medicat have so many futa catgirls on his mind?

My slate of characters includes a Peacebringer (who actually is a Kheldian, unlike some ), a former Sky Raider, a Vahzilok Abomination, a Resistance Heavy Hands, a Wolf Spider Huntsman, and the spirit of Kings Row itself.

On the other hand, I reject and ignore what I feel to be ill-considered, problematic and deeply flawed attempts to explain game mechanics in terms of lore - for me, the Origin of Power arc is as absurd as "midichlorians" (and for many of the same reasons), and trying to pass off the Mission Architect / player-generated content as a public joint venture of Crey and Dr. Aeon, and expecting people who really should know better to use it anyway, strains my disbelief past the breaking point. Finally, while some of my Incarnates are empowered by the Well, others are just that powerful (or have the potential to become so) because of what they are - e.g., the aforementioned spirit of the Row.

EDIT: Looking at the above responses, I'd say I'm pretty much on the same page as Techbot Alpha and others. I try to work within the universe, not the game, because many elements of the latter are nonsensical if taken literally.

My characters either exist within the "white list" of the lore, or don't exist within the "black list" of the lore.

I consider the way the character stories are written in my head to be a collaborative effort. I take my ideas, they got their ideas, and then the mix-mash between the two. It is... scary how often it is that these two ideas will match perfectly, though. Maybe Spoilers up ahead.

For example, The Dean MacArthur arc about cloning and stuff. For the majority of my toons, cloning isn't a big deal at all, since their powers come from places completely unrelated to their genes. I had one mutant Villain, and also only one Villain at the time that had a grand design of taking over the world. The arc was released, and since that character happened to be the appropriate level, I played through. It made perfect sense, with her powers being from her genes and trying to make an army to replicate those genes for a grand design that only she had out of all of my toons... it made me all tingly inside. Now, for the "official lore" that is in my head, she has a non-villainous clone of herself running around that she'll use if ever she needs to prove innocence or need to be in two places at once.


A more recent example is the Bane Spider Ruben arc. Now, I decided to play this through with a Mercs/Pain Mastermind that was just fresh out of Praetoria. The story behind this guy is that he was a scientist with a god complex who obtained his Ph. D on manipulating behaviors of "animals" (*coughorphanscough*) through specifically administering and relieving pain to these individuals. This was my first MM ever, and he was going to be the Lord Nemesis of my personal villain lore; that one guy who actually does have the resources and the know-how to take over the world. Not knowing anything about Ruben's arc, I signed on to it only to discover that the arc is based around using technology and psychic powers to manipulate peoples behavior, and at the end of the arc it had my Mastermind controlling an incredibly large army of superheroes through using the device! I got goosebumps from that arc. I mean, what are the chances that the Mastermind who's story is that they have a Ph. D from studies of behavior manipulation would do an arc specifically about behavior manipulation and commanding an army?


So to that I say keep it up NCsoft. This stuff rocks, even if it is making me slightly paranoid that the world as I know it doesn't exist.

I make up my own lore.

Yes, I said that.

I have been a PnP gamer since June 1981. I started with superheroes with 1st edition That Other MMO (which I've never tried).

Most of my characters come from over 30 years of playing/gming in my own worlds, be they Fantasy, Sci Gi, or Superhero. As such, they fit into CoH about as much as I allow. If the CoH lore fits, I'll allow it. If not (incarnate system/no one can "ascend" and create their own dimension) then it's rewritten for me.

If those I RP with use the lore, great. They know how I operate and I just go with the flow. Not all darkness powers are nether.... Lady Omen's are a manifestation of her power as a walking, living, physical mana pool. No nether there and no powers taken that have that skull head.

Stores? Sure! Mally goes to the Farmer's Market all the time.

I agree with Sam (can't believe that! :P ) in that just using game lore stifles my creativity and restricts me into a shoehorned concept. Just because I play in the game world doesn't restrict me to it.

I play what I want.

"More organs means more human!"
-- Invader ZIM

Until someone reports a massive cookie shortage in game, I'm working against cannon.

I do what I can to make my characters plausible within existing lore if they bother to utilize existing lore at all. You almost need to suspend your disbelief when working out a character that has assumed a role within an in-game organization as to precisely why they're so much more amazing than everyone else (see: every Arachnos Soldier/Widow ever), so I use that as a little leeway to make those characters "super." I try to be as plausible as possible when considering anything that brushes up against major characters, and always work around future cannon to ensure it's never an egregious offender. It's admittedly almost never necessary to work in major characters, but if it's done properly (ie, not being Recluse's stepsister who's also secretly Captain Mako's wife) it can add a little flavor.

As far as actual game mechanics go, I tend to follow the lead of whatever the established handwave technique might be. Mediporters are totally a thing that exists. Badges are apparently physically in spots (admittedly that's never come up). Inspirations are really sort of just that, your character being inspired. Enhancements I take with a grain of salt, for obvious reasons, and much like badges it's never actually come up. I don't see any real harm in actually finding salvage, or blueprints for a helpful device, etc. Everything can offer a good springboard, and I'd prefer to take as much into account as possible when convenient, but obviously not every last thing can work that way.