So how does your character concept explain exemplaring?

I am sure a lot of people try to ignore it but do how do you explain it? Outside of Ouroboros there are many cases for exemplaring such as trials, joining low level teams, or joining a task force. Ouroboros explains it as time travel but how do you explain it in these other cases?

For my main character, he is a person that has learned to control his Ki energy. (think Dragonball Z) -- He is a SS/Fire Aura.

Part of the thing I do with him is that he has transformations similar to what Super Saiyans go through. 30-44 he gains the SS blonde hair and such... 45-50 he has blue hair and blue auras, and in Incarnate trial fully level shifted he is a purple/red.

Basically in times he holds back his power because he loves a challenge in order not to decimate his opponent in one to two blows. I also illustrate this by the changing colors.

How does your character do it?

My main shoots arrows and heals people. It doesn't change much from level to level, she prefers to allow others to take the spotlight so she doesn't use her more devastating attacks when with younger heroes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

I explain it as bagged "collector's edition" classic issues of the comic book in which an earlier interpretation of my character is featured.

Personally, I don't think it particularly needs to be explained at all, much like leveling up.

wizard did it

I ignore it. It's just one of those things where sometimes in game mechanics should just be left out of RP.

Why do we need to explain every little mechanic? Sometimes that winds up with the worst material (*coughDoctorBrainstormcough!*).

his enemies are magnificent..but he has something to tell them..he is not really left handed. in all seriousness, rian is always holding back, he is physically half dragon and he is powerful enough to smash a person like they had been hit by a truch, thats why he can destroy a kronos titan, or a behemoth lord. but he holds back because if he fights alongside new heroes and doesn't let them develop...he is only one dragon, cant be everywhere the only way they can grow is by him holding back and letting the new kids take their hits and learn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scythus Why do we need to explain every little mechanic? Sometimes that winds up with the worst material (*coughDoctorBrainstormcough!*).

eh, nobody needs to, but sometimes people come up with clever creative stuff and he was asking them to share.

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

Yeah in general I just don't try to explain it. If I were I would probably say that the contact had requested that my Hero restrict some of his powers for some reason or another (i.e. Synapse has requested that I don't fire my Assault Rifle on full auto due to the risk of damaging the Power Substations so I'm keeping the shot-selector on Three-Round-Burst).

Well, my badge collector is a /Time Manipulation Corruptor. Self-explanatory, really...

My tech-origin grav/kin controller uses it as a training exercise to see how well she can apply the tactical experience she's gained over time while restricting which programs she runs through her gauntlets.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I never really paid attention to it at all. As far as I considered it, Ourobos was quite literal in that it was just events that took place in the past.

"The kids won't learn if I do the heavy lifting."

Rubber bullets, or a less severe tranq if I wanted to explain it at all.

I ignore it, and for the most part I try to avoid it because I really don't like losing access to my powers.

You know how sometimes, depending on the book/writer/story, Batman can take down the entire rest of the Justice League single-handedly, but other times a single thug with a small-caliber handgun is a legitimate, credible threat to him?

You know how that's because the protagonist of any story is only as powerful as they need to be in order to make the story interesting, dramatic and exciting?

That.

Nanomachines

That's how I explain exemplaring and AE.

I won't delve too deeply into specific reasons, because they might not be totally engrossing to read about and I have a lot of characters with different motivations. A couple of my characters exemplar simply because they'll always feel the greatest sense of loyalty to the neighborhoods they grew up in, no matter how small the crime is in relation to their growing capabilities. I have truly powerful characters who would rather respond to gang warfare in a small neighborhood than an interdimensional crisis, if, say, it was the neighborhood where their parents lived.

Instead I'll be more general.

One of the greatest and most backwards things you learn as a writer is that goals, limitations, rules, and boundaries are all things that can set you free. But this wisdom is old hat to me. Great writers have been repeating this mantra to me in books and interviews ever since I picked up my first issue of Writer's Digest at age 10.

Of course, when I want to write something just to get the juices flowing, to heck with goals. But when it's time to get serious, goals and rules are just as important to me as characters and plots. Sometimes they're one in the same. A believable science fiction story generally has an author who imposed certain limitations on the capabilities of the science of his imaginary world, lest his malfunctioning nano assembler array try something truly unwelcome, like spitting out cream puff goblins from some dimension that really doesn't belong in his grim, dystopian fictional universe. Every single fiction writer I've ever personally known has talked about characters who seemed to take on lives of their own, despite the author's original intentions for them. I have always believed this partly to be a consequence of the emergence of the framework of goals and limitations that surround the author's work and give it true life, and the way the characters bounce around inside that framework--a situation of unintended consequences.

This is why I love wrapping game mechanics around my characters lives. Because I have approached every character on my roster as a comic book nerd and as a creator. I have lots of video games to turn to when I just want to play video games. But I realized a couple of years ago during my trial period that City of Heroes was not simply a video game for me. I waited too long for an adventure construction set like this. I created my first comic book super hero when I was 7 or 8 years old--Captain-Electric.

Game mechanics are physical laws. They are the gravity and space and time of my characters universe. Most often not in any way they'd be directly aware of, but that's how physics works. Much in the way the real world feels so real because it shapes one's life into one giant compromise, I have made all sorts of conceptual compromises with the game's mechanics that have helped shape my characters in various ways.

Probably in all sorts of ways that I'm not even aware of. Unintended consequences. The stuff of life.

As an example:

When exemplaring, I imagine that Brou's with some cocky, younger heroes that like to screech, pull his hair, bring up cheesy topics, randomly poke him in places until it really hurts, stomp his feet, throw tantrums, trip him over, burst out of air vents to scare him, and other things that would lower his efficacy in fighting.

My characters don't explain it.

It's a game mechanic that has nothing to do with my story-line. My character doesn't know it's happening, it just does.

My meta take on it is that when you're exemplaring, you're not the star of the story. You're a special guest star in the other person's comic book, and the guest always take a backseat to the main character. It's not so much that your powers are weakened in-universe as that their role in the story can't be allowed to overshadow the regular hero. In game mechanic terms, that translates into being matched to their level.

For an in-universe explanation, I sometimes think of it as my character holding back so that nobody gets hurt by accident. For characters who have a no-killing rule, this make more sense (it's the same reason Superman never punches random muggers with anywhere near his real strength), and for the rest, it could be that they're worried about their less-powerful teammates getting caught in the crossfire.