When using Lore goes wrong.

So, I promise I'm not trying to be confrontational, or throw any shade. Especially now that it seems this thread migrated from its original point.

But is anyone going to point out to the OP that his RP policing looks bad when 'Bentley Berkley' is a canon character in the Midnighter lore, and RPing a lore character you didn't come up with is usually pretty bad practice in an RP community.

So, I promise I'm not trying to be confrontational, or throw any shade. Especially now that it seems this thread migrated from its original point.

 

But is anyone going to point out to the OP that his RP policing looks bad when 'Bentley Berkley' is a canon character in the Midnighter lore, and RPing a lore character you didn't come up with is usually pretty bad practice in an RP community.

Bingo.

Why notice things when you can argue about something else, instead? It's threads like this that give roleplayers a bad worse name.

So, I promise I'm not trying to be confrontational, or throw any shade. Especially now that it seems this thread migrated from its original point.

 

But is anyone going to point out to the OP that his RP policing looks bad when 'Bentley Berkley' is a canon character in the Midnighter lore, and RPing a lore character you didn't come up with is usually pretty bad practice in an RP community.

lmao imagine getting uppity about someone using 'muh galaxy city' and not just summing it up to an alt dimension or timeline

the circus left but the clowns stayed

Hey guys! This looks like an interesting discussion. Mind if I join in and give my opinion on the matter?

Hey guys! This looks like an interesting discussion. Mind if I join in and give my opinion on the matter?

reported and banned loser!!!!

Hey guys! This looks like an interesting discussion. Mind if I join in and give my opinion on the matter?

Please do!

While I don't think people should be rude to others who ignore the lore, I do think people should make some attempt in incorporating the Lore with their backstories. There's still a lot about CoH that leaves many, many gaps that real lore-breaking stuff is mostly a non-issue. But as long as anyone isn't Ghost Widow's sister or whatever, its all good.

It'd be cool to have a forum thread asking questions about Lore and whatnot. I know there's a little Lore channel in the RP Discord. But that's Discord and a bit hard to navigate. Paragonwiki can be a bit hard to compile everythng about a certain topic in like 10-15 minutes anyway.

*flies in*

Hey its me Goku from DragonBall Super, I'm just here to say that minor lore inconsistencies happen and most of us just deal with it and don't feel the need to publicly take a dump on someone for being wrong in a universe where the time line is literally so inconsistent that an entire group of time travelers have come together dedicated to fixing it all! Thanks and make sure to buy my merch!

So, I promise I'm not trying to be confrontational, or throw any shade. Especially now that it seems this thread migrated from its original point.

 

But is anyone going to point out to the OP that his RP policing looks bad when 'Bentley Berkley' is a canon character in the Midnighter lore, and RPing a lore character you didn't come up with is usually pretty bad practice in an RP community.

Interesting point… But that's never really seemed to be the case in the City community? A fair few of us have done it with one character or another, even though many of them have been lower-profile than BB.

Like I said in another thread, I had a player character verison of Ashton Fletcher myself. No one ever seemed to have an issue with him. Or me, because of him. Maybe that was because he never had an in-game avatar or any particular detailing done by the Paragon devs… but, still. No one ever accused me of "Bad Practice" for playing my sweet, ghostly sailor.

It'd be cool to have a forum thread asking questions about Lore and whatnot. I know there's a little Lore channel in the RP Discord. But that's Discord and a bit hard to navigate. Paragonwiki can be a bit hard to compile everythng about a certain topic in like 10-15 minutes anyway.

And that? That RIGHT THERE?

That's an excellent idea.

I should clarify. I actually don't super care if someone plays a lore character that the game itself hasn't really developed or fleshed out. Both Berkley or your guy count among that. What anyone does with their time is entirely up to them, and everyone has the opportunity to cultivate their own experiences, and more power to them.

The issue is that this thread is really just an elitist bit of whinging when, to someone of another stripe, the OP himself would be under intense scrutiny.

I ultimately have no dog in this fight, I just thought it was odd to throw stones, given the circumstances.

The people stating to just have fun, do what you want, and try not to let the haters dab on you, have the right general idea.

I don't know the rules here but it was against the rules in the original private server to claim a lore character since those were reserved for GMs.

Asking someone (a total stranger at that) to rename their character, when they have likely spent quite a while either building the character's backstory or even finding that name in the first place, is a bit cheeky you have to admit.

I don't know the rules here but it was against the rules in the original private server to claim a lore character since those were reserved for GMs.

From what I understand, that was more reserved for the signature characters, which were kind of seen as avatars for the old devs themselves. So like Manticore, War Witch, Captain Mako, etc. were out of the question, but random NPC's from the game world are fair game.

I certainly think there are ways to RP chars like this that are interesting, but none of those ways involve alienating yourself from other players due to a strict adherence to the lore (which completely goes against the entire point of both RPing in general and playing this video game).

I should clarify. I actually don't super care if someone plays a lore character that the game itself hasn't really developed or fleshed out. Both Berkley or your guy count among that. What anyone does with their time is entirely up to them, and everyone has the opportunity to cultivate their own experiences, and more power to them.

 

The issue is that this thread is really just an elitist bit of whinging when, to someone of another stripe, the OP himself would be under intense scrutiny.

 

I ultimately have no dog in this fight, I just thought it was odd to throw stones, given the circumstances.

 

The people stating to just have fun, do what you want, and try not to let the haters dab on you, have the right general idea.

Under intense scrutiny by whom? Because I was known even to the devs on live. I talked with ghost falcon as invisible falcon, I hailed Infernal by his name Kvarr on T'Keron Valmaz. Some fools tried to get said characters genericed not understanding the rules of such, and was in fact given props by said devs for actively taking part as a player in expanding the lore  via RP.

I guess youve never played a session of D&D where all the characters are pre rolled and its part of a test of an RPers skill to like any actor take any character role and make it their own. Look at the history of The Doctor in doctor who as an example. Each actor has taken the same role and made it a unqiue new incarnation.

Because since year 1 of live Lore Based RP was a thing with a fairly active community, and frankly Ive been getting plenty of in game props for my ol Berk. Been rebuilding the Midnight Club, and even getting friendly tells from those saying hey didnt I rescue you the other day to which I always reply, yes and thanks for the save this ol berk has a knack for biting off  abit too much.

Its actually those who ignore lore to say they are this or that often subscribing to being more powerful then characters in lore like Statesman etc, before they are incarnates that are RP elitist, basically god moders wanting to act all powerful or above established lore to sate their ego.

Hell I use self destruct every time I enter a council map with a cell block so I have to be rescued by my party while I break out from inside. And you know what even in rp pugs that always gets a laugh from them.

Asking someone (a total stranger at that) to rename their character, when they have likely spent quite a while either building the character's backstory or even finding that name in the first place, is a bit cheeky you have to admit.

You seem to have failed to understand what I wrote. As I never told the player to rename their character. What I did was suggest in their bio refer to an earlier identity used prior to the destruction of galaxy city, and that they had adopted the new galaxy city related name as a way to honor that which was destroyed.

And frankly no there is nothing wrong with that as I have done it a number of times these last weeks and mostly been thanked for helping them make their character back ground better fit in the game world.

For recent example I met a guy at the Keyes Lounge, that was an alien in his bio he had the Rikti being galaxy invading monsters, and I pointed out OOC politely rikti are not space aliens but humans from an alternate earth who where tricked into  attacking our world by Nemesis. By the end of our chat not only had he thanked me several times, but also simply switched his alien invaders in his bio from the rikti to the Nictus and that little change made his whole bio still work and his reason for being on earth, hunting the nictus still give him an in game faction to focus on as his main foe. And in doing so made his character be a firm ally of Berks in his battle against the Path of the Dark.

So, I promise I'm not trying to be confrontational, or throw any shade. Especially now that it seems this thread migrated from its original point.

 

But is anyone going to point out to the OP that his RP policing looks bad when 'Bentley Berkley' is a canon character in the Midnighter lore, and RPing a lore character you didn't come up with is usually pretty bad practice in an RP community.

Nope the opposite,, in CoH it was always seen as a true sign of loving the game to find lore based names and flesh them out into active characters.

Seeing as how the majority of this thread is actively disagreeing with you and politely saying "You're the kind of person I would never want to roleplay with" without saying it, it's incredibly arrogant to say "In CoH it's always seen as a true sign of loving the game" when clearly you have no idea what the consensus is. Maybe you should just step back and take your L.

A brand new character has just completed the Galaxy City tutorial on the real world date of June 23rd, 2019. They have had no other adventures since. It just happened to them. The dust of the fallen buildings hasn't been cleaned off their jacket as they speak with Matthew Habashy, who fears for the safety of his wife, still missing from the same incident. When did the destruction of Galaxy City take place in the game's timeline?

 

The vast majority of characters have completed few, if any, incarnate trials. Has Tyrant detonated a nuke on Praetoria yet?

 

How long has Sam Wincott been missing in the Hollows? Has he been rescued yet? Which heroes were on the team that rescued him?

 

It doesn't matter what your answers were, because every answer is wrong. The game's timeline is already intractable. If you can't roleplay with the punches, you can't roleplay.

actually no there was back on the days of live a very interesting discussion about how years pass as we level. the single best in game way to see this is penelope yin

Penny is basically around 14, a young mutant  in 2006. one could argue that when we are in that level range going to faultline and working those arcs, that is the year and even the very month, that the issue was released.

its 5 and a half to 6 years later when our characters reach Ip and meet the older Penny. It doesnt matter how fast or slow we play through the content. nor what year we made our  characters as there is an in game timeline

Galaxy City was destroyed near the end of 2011. now personally  I skip any content that doesnt fit in with a given character concepts personal timeline and then use time travel to clean up those arcs later.

Granted the timeline issue can bea  real  bit of timey whimeyness. Hoever since most characters start time traveling before they are even high enough to go to faultline, it adds  flexibility.

Most RPers I role with either keep their origin specifics vague enough to avoid conflict, or use a specific historical event to anchor that characters personal timeline to.

Ultimately I find it kind of funny this has worked up so many people. As my intent was simply to discuss lore and how to try and sync it up enough to avoid RP conflicts.

Because just like any conflict be it play style, social behavior etc we dont have to deal with those that negatively impact our personal preference. My own is as thorough an immersive experience as possible. I also dont tolerate alot of deplorable social behaviors and put such on ignore. Does that make me an evil elitist as well because I dont care to here douche bags disparage people of differing culture, skin color, gender, or the like? When I put a guy RPing a crude Pimp on ignore because nothing about such a character or their RP was something I wanted to interact with, did that make me an evil elitist?

We each get to pick and choose our social circles and should strive for ones we enjoy rather then ones that in any way ruin our play time.

It just makes you look like a bit of a jerk when you come online to tell everyone you didn't like how someone did something.

Ultimately I find it kind of funny this has worked up so many people. As my intent was simply to discuss lore and how to try and sync it up enough to avoid RP conflicts.

You make a thread titled, literally, "When using Lore goes wrong."

The body of the first message can be summed up to:

*self aggrandizing statement about lore knowledge*

"This guy had the lore wrong, and wouldn't change his character so I ignored him."

Then you're surprised when people respond saying that the way to avoid such conflicts is to chill, instead you double down, and imply that people who don't RP the same way you do don't love the game as much as you do, while insisting that you don't have to roleplay with anyone you don't want to. (Not that anyone said you did.)

You are also claiming to not be elitist, while very clearly advertising that if someone doesn't live up to your standards, you will just ignore them and be done with it.

This doesn't sound to me so much like you wanted a discussion as you wanted to say "my way is the right way, so do it my way or don't do it (with me) at all."

I wouldn't roleplay with this guy either after reading his comments in the thread.

Galaxy City was destroyed near the end of 2011.

Teenage characters created in 2019 go through the exact same tutorial and then play through follow-up events that heavily rely on Galaxy City having happened no more than a few weeks ago, maximum. If they're sixteen now, they would have been a maximum of nine during Galaxy City, and yet initial blueside missions clearly connect them temporally to that event. Not only that, but one such early mission directly referencing Galaxy City involves fighting a difficult Skulls boss, which pushes them strongly towards asking for help with it. Teenage heroes are not just able but encouraged to interact with a villain whose motivation is directly based on a recent devastation of Galaxy City in such a way that makes it plainly obvious that it happened no more than maybe a year ago at an absolute maximum. It's also a direct follow-up to the Matthew Habashy arc, which is clearly even more recent.

That tutorial is official game content offered to every single character without exception, and 80% of all characters are heroes who are offered the Matthew and Veles arcs. Not only that, but Veles in particular is a really good arc, and most people will want to run it in character, particularly since it was part of the tragically aborted attempt to make arcs with more story meat to them, which really gives characters something to care about and interact with.

You cannot invalidate that with a reference to a community discussion held nearly a decade ago. Your answer is wrong because every answer is wrong because the CoH timeline is an impossible paradox. If you cannot accept that and work with it, you are bad at roleplaying in CoH.

The CoX timeline explicitly works on "wibbly wobbley, timey wimey stuff" where you can see Praetoria be destroyed by Hamidon at level 30 but then beat the god out of Tyrant in an incarnate trial but because you put off the maria Jenkins arc you have to save Positron from an Olympian Guard.

Just go with whatever feels best to you.

Dumping on someone's character concept like you did in the tone you did is kind of a douchemove.  The number one rule of criticism I learned while honing my craft as a professional is that unsolicited criticism is nearly always useless.

Why would I want to play D&D as someone else's character? I hate to pull out such pretentious guns to the argument but I've had a job as a professional writer for seven years and honestly one thing over another doesn't make one a better roleplayer. It's great you're able to put such meat to the bones of an obscure lore character but a lot of rules are meant to be broken over in favor of what's fun.