Godmodding/Over 9000 characters

[Neiska]

Hello Forums,

 

First off, I want to say far be it from me to dictate to another player who/what/how to roleplay their character. That said however, it seems like there are more and more "Ultimate POWAH" sorts of characters as of late.  And so I am curious if other people tend to run into characters that tend to be over the top, in terms of "power level", and how they interact with such people.  

 

Here are a few examples off the top if my head, what I am referring to. And yes, these are all very real examples that I have run into.

 

- Existed before time/A Bajillion years old.

- Can punch a healthy star hard enough to make it collapse into a black hole.

- Automatically knows the thoughts/emotions of everyone within a 10 mile radius.

- Knows every spell/get out of jail or problem card on a whim.

- Their super power was literally, to be better than everyone else in every way.

- Utter immortality/immunity to everything.

- Can warp reality at a whim.

- Multi-dimensional/immune to any negative/hampering effect in "this" reality.

- Questionable "Bloodlines" that seem way over the top or that don't make sense - Half Dragon, Demon, Angel, Vampire, Star-born, Werewolf, all rolled into one. Isn't that just a bit... much?

- Related to/knows X famous NPC/Monster/Group 

etc.

 

Now to me personally, some of these are just a bit over the top. I mean, first off if they are level 2, then they haven't actually accomplished that much yet, despite their backstory. But to me overpowered characters is.. well, boring. I mean, where is the development? The obstacles to overcome? The trials that cause bonding and friendship? If you are an entire super league all on your own, then what's the point?

 

For me, I usually give my characters a weakness or negative. My main character, well she's a cyborg that's super great with technology and robots. She may not be as powerful as others, but where she shines is she can be different each fight. She can literally swap parts and go from a melee specialist to a tanker to a support character. From an OOC perspective that was my IC reason why she was different classes. ICly, it was all the same "person", but OOCly I was learning the game and powersets, and I didn't want to loose my roleplay or friends I was making in my journey. She is settled on a main setup now though, a robot mastermind.

 

But her drawback? Magic. She's 100% absolutely clueless when it comes to anything magic, be it races, people, items, spells, all of it. To her magic is rabbits from hats and card tricks. She relies on her friends for any and all magical problems and challenges, but in turn they rely on her for anything tech related, like resetting their microwave clock, setting up their new phone apps, and fixing their printer.

 

I do have 1 "immortal" character, but not in the Divine sense. She can die, she simply doesn't stay dead. She is more or less similar to highlander. Physically? She's a normal human. It isn't difficult to put her down. The trick is "keeping" her down for good, that's the hard bit. 

 

I only use my characters as examples for context here. But I am really wondering if its just me, or are some characters essentially full on Omnipotent Gods just walking around, and if so, is that "too much" or "over the top?" I mean, where is the acceptable line drawn, as far as roleplay is concerned?

 

I have no qualms against Strong or Super Impressive powers. But if that's all there is to a character, I usually find them boring and dull to interact with. Either from them being so aloof ICly, or having a lack of common things to relate on with one another.

 

Again, I want to stress that I don't tell others  how to RP their character, its their character. But honestly, some if it seems just too much. And I am hoping there is a sense of Plateu out there on HC that everyone generally deems is acceptable, in roleplay. Otherwise, it can just be Godmodding.

 

So, is it just me? Or what do you do with the Superman/One Punch Man/Genku/Mary Sues/Joes? 

[Coyotedancer]

17 minutes ago, Neiska said:

 

- Related to/knows X famous NPC/Monster/Group 

etc.

 

 

If that's enough to count as "god-modding" in your estimation, just do us both a favor and put me on /gignore the next time you're in game... You'd be offended by every single one of my active characters. ('Oranbegan magi and their assorted apprentices, Abyssal side-kicks, living spells, arcane artifacts and such-) 😝

 

Personally, I think it takes a little more than just knowing Statesman, say, or being affiliated with the Council or even being Michael White's granny (Yes. I know the person who plays Granny White. That character's a hoot. I love her.) to count as anything problematic or disruptive... but then that's just me. I'm not exactly a 'serious roleplayer', so what do I know?

[PeregrineFalcon]

Neiska, may I respectfully suggest that you stop inviting 13 year-olds to your D&D game?

 

Yes. What you're describing has been a problem for DM's, and roleplayers, since the 80's when 13 year-olds first discovered D&D (and other RPG's) and began using them to play out their power fantasies. The best way to deal with a situation like this isn't to complain about it on the forum, it's to just stop allowing that person into your roleplay group. Don't bother trying to explain anything to them, just avoid the drama and avoid them.

 

 

(P.S. Mods, once my post gets reported, don't waste my time claiming that I'm insulting anyone with this post. Claiming that children are immature isn't an insult, it's a known fact. Saying that a child is immature is like saying water's wet. If you're going to ban me please at least come up with a believable reason.)

[Neiska]

1 hour ago, Coyotedancer said:

If that's enough to count as "god-modding" in your estimation, just do us both a favor and put me on /gignore the next time you're in game... You'd be offended by every single one of my active characters. ('Oranbegan magi and their assorted apprentices, Abyssal side-kicks, living spells, arcane artifacts and such-) 😝

 

 

I would call being a blood relative of Statesman, or Miss Liberties BFF Godmodding, yes. Any sort of intimate or insider relationship with established storyline NPCs would be overboard in my book. 

 

@PeregrineFalcon - I know, that is a thing. But my point was here in HC, is there a general level of power that's accepted, or is it pretty much anything you can imagine is allowed, as far as the rp community is concerned. How much is "too much" for the general community I guess is the question, because as Coyotedancer demonstrated, people have different ideas of what is and is not Godmodding.

[Coyotedancer]

Right... So, like I said,  /gignore is likely to be your friend here.

 

You're going to find out that there are quite a few of us who play characters with "NPC affiliations" of various sorts. That's been a thing for as long as roleplaying in the City has existed. I doubt your disapproval is going to change that...

[Neiska]

52 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

Right... So, like I said,  /gignore is likely to be your friend here.

 

You're going to find out that there are quite a few of us who play characters with "NPC affiliations" of various sorts. That's been a thing for as long as roleplaying in the City has existed. I doubt your disapproval is going to change that...

 

 

I think you are misunderstanding me. I know and RP with people who are members of the skulls, hellions, etc. I am fine with that. What I meant is like, someone claiming to be equal/greater than established leaders of such factions, not the foot guys or even the lieutenants, but like, the leaders/organizers/founders of such organizations. Essentially inflating their importance in the organizations. 

 

I mean, how would you react to someone suddenly showing up claiming to be an Overlord of Rikti or Nemesis's right hand man? (had both happen)

[Coyotedancer]

Honestly? If they managed to pull it off well, like Granny White's player does, I wouldn't have a problem with it at all. Execution of the concept would matter a whole lot more to me than the basic idea that they were playing someone related to a canon character, or with more of a position in their NPC faction than Random McRedshirt. But then, like I said, I play Oranbegans myself. None of them are minions. A few of them are Death Mages. One of them, Amtes, is described in-character as the unfortunate soul charged with leading the cabal at the temple complex in Primeva. She isn't one of the canon arch-magi, but she's also far from being a random nobody.

 

Do I pull off playing a mildly annoyed, fifteen-thousand year-old arcane cat-herder well enough to justify it? Maybe. You'd have to ask the people who have met her. But so far no one has ever voiced any objections or complaints about the way I do it. (Well, there have been no complaints about her CHARACTER, anyway. She's a Demons mastermind, so there have definitely been some gripes about certain other practical, game-related issues about having her on a team.... You have no idea how many times I've heard "Hey! Get your intern's big, demon butt out of the way. 'Silly, howling menace-"... But *that* had nothing to do with the character's backstory. 😆 ) 

 

Anyway, it's all about the way the character is actually played for me. I tend to think that a good player would do just fine with almost anything, no matter how silly it might sound in the abstract. Given a light enough touch, even the ridiculous can work.

[Crystal Dragon]

6 hours ago, Neiska said:

- Multi-dimensional/immune to any negative/hampering effect in "this" reality.

- Questionable "Bloodlines" that seem way over the top or that don't make sense - Half Dragon, Demon, Angel, Vampire, Star-born, Werewolf, all rolled into one. Isn't that just a bit... much?

This sets me to question quite a few things actually. I have at least a couple dozen multidimensional characters but none of them are immune to the effects of this reality. 

Questionable "bloodlines" um, hybridization happens. Portal Corp has been opening portals all over the place for how long now? Counting sunset, and there's no telling exactly what kind of worlds they all were, or what dimensions they opened to. The open loopholes are quite broad in spectrum in that sense but everyone has their own ideas of what might be a cool character and I just kind of flow with it until it crosses lines that simply don't make sense with what I know of the game world and it's dimension cross overs. 

 

No, godmoding is more like players not taking into mind the limits of their own abilities, and definitely not asking for permissions to act, interact, or perform with you or other players around you. I find selective reasoning to global ignore them is a fine way to get around the nonsense, but starring/character noting the account will help with making sure you know WHY that person was ignored in the first place. Additionally, I'd like to add this as a recommendation: If hyper creativity is an issue, avoid those players. It's not all that hard to do with how big the game world really is.

 

Edited addition: To answer your question about how to deal with those types and what limits I play by, I generally try to keep an open mind, but there does come a point that I pull all strings and take my toys to play with someone else. Ultrapowerful characters tend to be the line drawn in the sand with me, being strong is great, having a lot of knowledge to use as a caster is wonderful, but there is always something new to learn, always something new to experience and explore. There's no way anyone could ever really fully encompass those particular aspects as an "expert" given that the game is still in operation and development with a volunteer team and updates come as they are tested and proven stable. It's okay to play a character from a different dimension, but don't judge the character based on that sole aspect. The last line that I draw, is meta gaming. I hate when someone uses backstory I wrote for my own character as a means to pull information that isn't listed as public details known to City Hall. Hooks are listed for a reason, use that to your fullest advantage, but don't exploit my backstory for your own story writing without discussing it with me first. I'm very approachable, I have no problem with talking over story concepts, character growth plans and issues with character play, but what I write for my characters is mine, and I would appreciate others respecting my brainchildren as much as I respect everyone elses.

Edited September 7, 2021 by CrystalDragon
Forgot to answer the last question in the OP post, sorry added that in the last bit. <3 Have fun!

[Neiska]

42 minutes ago, CrystalDragon said:

This sets me to question quite a few things actually. I have at least a couple dozen multidimensional characters but none of them are immune to the effects of this reality. 

Questionable "bloodlines" um, hybridization happens. Portal Corp has been opening portals all over the place for how long now? Counting sunset, and there's no telling exactly what kind of worlds they all were, or what dimensions they opened to. The open loopholes are quite broad in spectrum in that sense but everyone has their own ideas of what might be a cool character and I just kind of flow with it until it crosses lines that simply don't make sense with what I know of the game world and it's dimension cross overs. 

 

 

 

 

I agree with several of your points hon. But I will try to expand -

 

The multidimensional thing, well, the 2 people who did it essentially were like "this is only one of our bodies. whatever you do we just replace it" sort of angle. So they were effectively, immune to anything done to them. That is a pretty simple explanation that they gave. Most multi-dimensional folks don't play this card. But it did stand out in memory, sort of an "i win any argument/obstacle" card.

 

Sure, bloodlines are a thing. Half dragons, sure. Half or even full demons? great. Werewolf? go nuts. But I have seen people roll like 8 or 9 things all into one. Half-half-half-half-half etc. Well, just how many "halves" can you have? To my mind, the more you added, the more "Watered down" features you would have from each thing, and you might very well end up weaker, not stronger as was implied. You wouldn't usually get the "cream" of everything you added in games. 

[_Kai_]

5 hours ago, Neiska said:

 

But my point was here in HC, is there a general level of power that's accepted, or is it pretty much anything you can imagine is allowed, as far as the rp community is concerned. How much is "too much" for the general community I guess is the question, because as Coyotedancer demonstrated, people have different ideas of what is and is not Godmodding.

 

So, the Big Ugly Secret is that there is no 'general community', there are just many little pocket communities of SGs, or global channels, or type of roleplayers that hang out together and/or agree with each other on forums, any occasionally you can get a majority of them to agree to a thing, but 'which ones' and 'what thing' varies widely.  I mean I can 100% guarantee someone read that you have one IC character with multiple ATs and rolled their eyes, muttered 'godmodder' and left the thread, for instance 🙂

I will say Pocket D has the most extremes going on, so you will find less 'out there' takes in SGs, but there are also SGs that you will violently disagree about the entire premise of, so it's sort of just a trial and error to find your people you're on the same wavelength as to play with and smile, nod, and disengage from people that annoy you in how they want to RP.

[Neiska]

Thank you @_Kai_, answers my question. Depends on the crowd you hang with!

[Crystal Dragon]

3 hours ago, Neiska said:

 

 

I agree with several of your points hon. But I will try to expand -

 

The multidimensional thing, well, the 2 people who did it essentially were like "this is only one of our bodies. whatever you do we just replace it" sort of angle. So they were effectively, immune to anything done to them. That is a pretty simple explanation that they gave. Most multi-dimensional folks don't play this card. But it did stand out in memory, sort of an "i win any argument/obstacle" card.

 

Sure, bloodlines are a thing. Half dragons, sure. Half or even full demons? great. Werewolf? go nuts. But I have seen people roll like 8 or 9 things all into one. Half-half-half-half-half etc. Well, just how many "halves" can you have? To my mind, the more you added, the more "Watered down" features you would have from each thing, and you might very well end up weaker, not stronger as was implied. You wouldn't usually get the "cream" of everything you added in games. 

Oof, yeah sounds like you ran into a really poor group to play with. But yeah, the splicing genes matter there with hybrid that big of a number would be near impossible, even within this world we're playing in. I tend to do a lot of randomized rolls for some of my characters pros and cons, just so I play fairly and leave it to chance. I get ya though, that can be absolutely annoying to put up with. Most of the good roleplayers tend to avoid Pocket D except for rare instances they WANT to get utterly plastered. (counting myself there since I do sometimes take a stroll through to see what's up and if anything new is happening with a few friends that haunt the space.)

[GraspingVileTerror]

It's absolutely fair and reasonable to NOT want to associate with players who you feel cross lines that ruin your personal enjoyment of the game.  But short of harassment, we don't really need to police anyone here (and even then, handling harassment is best left to the GMs.  Remember to report, and then do your best to move on in those cases).  

 

I tend to like to cavort around in the space which the ludonarrative dissonance generates in City when it comes to power levels.  I have virtually no interest in playing as Incarnate characters, and in fact tend to go in the extreme opposite direction; playing as mundane characters by-and-large.  The circumstances of the setting are geared toward the exceptional, but the gameplay explicitly demonstrates that individuals with no super powers can and DO thrive.  I know a lot of people don't like to "over"think these sorts of things, and would rather just pretend this game is as bereft of nuance and depth as four-colour comics**; but it seems fairly evident to me that is not what the gameplay or the narrative actually present.  

 

So, sure.  There are players with ridiculously overpowered concepts for their personal headcanons and they bring those to the table for roleplay with other players.  But so what?  If I find myself interacting with them, I'll just as easily assign them an unreliable narrator identity, and move on from that point.

And yeah; a player-character can boast that they're Statesman's son.  My characters would treat them with as much credulence as I would if I met someone in real life claiming to be the offspring of Satan.  That may well be their lived experience and their personal truth, but it doesn't need to affect me.

 

And really, we're ALL playing immortal characters frankly.  Unless we choose to actively kill them* then each of our characters can (and DO, according to the gameplay and narrative) survive events which should be undeniably fatal.

*(or a GM deletes them out from under our noses, but I very much doubt that would ever happen.  And even then, it could easily be argued that without fully informed consent, such an act should not hold any kind of weight in a roleplay.)

 

 

All that being said . . . 

We can politely encourage other players to consider our own points of view, and see if they would be willing to play the game by our own personal standards; but it's something that should happen with mutually informed consent instead of shame tactics, as far as I'm concerned. 

So, to that end . . . why not take a collectivistic and cooperative approach, rather than an accusatory one?  Rather than telling someone "your character is bad and you should feel bad," why not say "I'm not comfortable playing with you on that character, but maybe we can explore something else some time instead?"  If the other player shows interest, try to discuss things in a personable way, using constructive rather than destructive conversational tactics.

Ask questions.  Leaving openings.  Offer suggestions.  Don't assume that the other player is incapable of depth and nuance in their characters, and be prepared for the possibility that they see things from a very different point of view.

 

It's true that you just might have irreconcilable differences, but there's also a chance that maybe their "godmod" character isn't the only character in their roster, and maybe you can find common ground on someone else.

[Coyotedancer]

"And really, we're ALL playing immortal characters frankly. Unless we choose to actively kill them* then each of our characters can (and DO, according to the gameplay and narrative) survive events which should be undeniably fatal."

 

Hey now... some of us are *undead*. 

Don't be all Livingist. 😝  

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Coyotedancer

[GraspingVileTerror]

Hey hey!  Now now!

I'm undead too, thank you very kindly.

Immortal may also be defined as "exempt from oblivion."  I think that's a fair term to use for certain kinds of undead, no?

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Existed before time/A Bajillion years old.(( abit on the overkill side of things perhaps but ona  well decked out 50 with a ton of vet levels I would not think it out of bounds)

- Can punch a healthy star hard enough to make it collapse into a black hole.( I would think that on the over board side of things, but top end SS builds I would certainly tolerate hulk lifting a mountain range stuff))

- Automatically knows the thoughts/emotions of everyone within a 10 mile radius.( If they are playing a real psi build, its max level and well kitted then I would allow it with the caveat any power set with mez and CC protection negates said ability just as it does in actual game play))

- Knows every spell/get out of jail or problem card on a whim.( Not really sure what you mean by this, I guess in pure RP context, well I tend to RP based on actual builds and powers so it would need to be reflected in such for me to really roll with such things smoothly))

- Their super power was literally, to be better than everyone else in every way.(( actually a very common power in comics these days, especially for G.E.L.Fs and androids etc. The old Khan better at everything/kryptonian is always popular. Keep in mind that is the core of what superman is, and by extension every player with a superman homage is going for))

- Utter immortality/immunity to everything.(( Well immortality is actually a very logical concept to RP in MMO as its the easiest way to explain never actually getting killed. As for immunity, as above better be reflected in the actual build. I consider anyone with an inherent res of 30% or higher to be immune to mundane sources of such damage types but require it capped to RP being immune or near immune to a super powered source of such a type., that is my rule of thumb ofcourse you are free to do you)

- Can warp reality at a whim.(( Again a very common concept in MMO, infact many even RP a form of something like Neo from the Matrix, They actively rp this is what it is a game but with the idea they are actually in the game world in some way)

- Multi-dimensional/immune to any negative/hampering effect in "this" reality.(( phase shift literally is all it takes to RP this viably))

- Questionable "Bloodlines" that seem way over the top or that don't make sense - Half Dragon, Demon, Angel, Vampire, Star-born, Werewolf, all rolled into one. Isn't that just a bit... much?( Its called a genetic chimera and in a setting like this with groups like Crey it actually is not remotely that weird to be a many creature blend)

- Related to/knows X famous NPC/Monster/Group (( Not just common but was highly praised on live by the devs. I rolled around on live since year one as T'Keron Valmaz based on names drawn from the lore of the NPC Infernal, met the dev Infernal as that character at an official CC, greeted him with a hail friend K'Varr, and ended up on his friends list and chatted with him off and on for a while. Nice guy, though I got along better with Ghost Falcon being that I had a character named Invisible Falcon based on the lore. Fun fact he ran GF as a ill/kin troller because that was his main and favored play style, but that was not GFs official power sets. Yes GF was a fellow playing this game long before he got hired on the dev team.

 

So the whole being tied to in game factions and NPCs is actually something we tend to call lore based RP, and obviously while some do not like it, and sometimes concepts can even conflict, the goal of it is to use the world and lore to make it easier to pug rp with others of a like mind. For example I have a toon who is in vanguard, and in theory that should make it easy to random pug rp with others who rep as vanguard.

 

Honestly my own biggest pet peeve in RP with strangers is this need to basically act like your a nameless nobody who wouldnt be known. If one is on a 50, that alone should be enough for any and all to be RPing they are at least aware of their existence. And non 50s should be treating 50s the way we would expect them to treat Statesman himself. I always scan bio pages looking for RP hooks especially things like you may know this character for this event type of things. Example I have a character who was born and raised in Paragon Heights aka galaxy city. He was a young hero there the day of the rikti invasion and I rep he was part of the group of  "young Heroes" Trapped with alexis cole duncan who was leading an evacuation effort there when they got trapped. If by chance I encounter someone else on that character who used that same bit of lore we can easily RP as having been fighting alongside each other that fateful and tragic day so long ago.

 

This also leads to the content being more meaningful. I ran above character on live for most of it, and when the first sig story arc landed, and I ran the part with ACD well lets just say it meant something to that character of mine in a very personal way.

 

So really man you do you, find those you get along with, and try to get along best you can with those you pug rp with. improving can go well if one is flexible enough. For example I made a friend out of an alien GELF a while back IC and our entire interaction was doing improv off of each other about alien worlds, space federations and galactic trading corporations we likely drew out of our sci fi mental database. The point is it was all just fun random sci fi babble that lead to a now semi regular bit of rp with a cool alien character who likes to visit my space ship.

[Neiska]

Thank you for your composed and thought out reply @Llewellyn Blackwell, which I do appreciate. But I respectfully disagree with some of your points. But I will simply summarize them by simply asking what you would consider "over the top" or "too much?" I mean, if everyone is Neo/Superman/One Punch Man/Captain Marvel levels of untouchable, how would even minor threats exist for very long?

 

I do agree it makes for stale interactions and roleplays. I regularly find myself clubbing with beings of deity-levels of power and usually find myself thinking "So you are a demi-god, basically. Right? And you what.. spend your free time hanging out at clubs, sipping cheap booze and using bad pickup lines? Shouldn't you be off you know, fighting some galactic war/answering prayers/creating worlds/creating life kinda stuff?"

 

My main concern about such beings is a lot of the times, that's all they are. A power level. No personality, no goals, no journey. A lot of them rarely create roleplay and instead only react to it. A lot of the time when roleplaying with such characters it feels as if I am roleplaying by myself. They ask no questions. Endure no hardships. Have no obstacles to overcome or current goals they are working toward. They often interact by giving blunt single word answers, which add little to the scene or story. Which makes me question the entire point of them being there.

 

But I do agree that I usually don't go to great lengths to involve them in whatever else I got going on. 

 

Again, thank you for your reply. I do appreciate it.

[Siouxsie]

My answer is to pull out a lawn chair, a drink with a little umbrella, and send them after the bad guys.  "You got this?  Great, I'll watch.  Ice, get that straggler."

 

Though I'm a Mastermind, so I kind of already do that.

[Latex]

You know what makes Superman, Invincible and Homelander interesting despite their absurd power? Their flaws. Story would not exist without them, players who neglect flaws in their character are not Roleplaying to their full potential.

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Latex

[Greycat]

See, half the OP's list, to me, is fine as just "an item." It's completely about *how* the player plays it.

 

Some of the rest is just cringy, yes. No, you do not get to know every thought my character has. Emotion, to a point, I can deal with - there are social and chemical components to it, after all, and I can even deal with "unless you're actively working to hide it, there's a surface-skimming psychic component - me not picking it up is like you shouting two feet away and telling me I can't hear it." You *certainly* don't just get to dictate it or insert yourself into my life or hijack bits of it. Even little things like a costume can have much more meaning than a set of clothes.  "Knows every spell and can get out of every trap" is just ... boring, and while I'd find playing with that person likely dull, I'd probably feel sorry for them after a while, too.

 

Heck, some sound bad at first, but could have some really good hooks. "Utter immortality?" Why? Did you make a deal with something when you were younger that sounded good at the time and now you've seen your family and friends die many times over? How is this affecting your "humanity" or morality? You're immune to everything? Are you a villain because that's what your ever-increasing thrill seeking is labeled?

 

SO, yeah... and the OP touches on this a bit, but I'd say a good bit of that list isn't flat out bad because "it's that way," but because of how the player uses it.

[retiarius]

My two thoughts:

 

'You are the hero of your own story, not the sidekick in someone else's.'

 

'Comparison is the thief of joy.'

[Triumphant]

The last thing in your list doesn't bother me.  That's just background fluff.  Anyway, Statesman was punked by Darrin Wade and Ms. Liberty doesn't have anything better to do than stand on a platform in Atlas park all day long and train noobs.  I wouldn't admit to being related to either one of them.  😛

 

The rest of it, though- yeah, it can be kind of annoying.

 

 

[Neiska]

Several well made and spoken points all around. Thank you everyone for your input. I do agree that the "how" is just as important as the "what" where rp is concerned.

[Kyksie]

5 hours ago, Latex said:

You know what makes Superman, Invincible and Homelander interesting despite their absurd power? Their flaws. Story would not exist without them, players who neglect flaws in their character are not Roleplaying to their full potential.

 

 

Don't use Superman and Homelander in the same sentence.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

10 hours ago, Neiska said:

Thank you for your composed and thought out reply @Llewellyn Blackwell, which I do appreciate. But I respectfully disagree with some of your points. But I will simply summarize them by simply asking what you would consider "over the top" or "too much?" I mean, if everyone is Neo/Superman/One Punch Man/Captain Marvel levels of untouchable, how would even minor threats exist for very long?

 

I do agree it makes for stale interactions and roleplays. I regularly find myself clubbing with beings of deity-levels of power and usually find myself thinking "So you are a demi-god, basically. Right? And you what.. spend your free time hanging out at clubs, sipping cheap booze and using bad pickup lines? Shouldn't you be off you know, fighting some galactic war/answering prayers/creating worlds/creating life kinda stuff?"

 

My main concern about such beings is a lot of the times, that's all they are. A power level. No personality, no goals, no journey. A lot of them rarely create roleplay and instead only react to it. A lot of the time when roleplaying with such characters it feels as if I am roleplaying by myself. They ask no questions. Endure no hardships. Have no obstacles to overcome or current goals they are working toward. They often interact by giving blunt single word answers, which add little to the scene or story. Which makes me question the entire point of them being there.

 

But I do agree that I usually don't go to great lengths to involve them in whatever else I got going on. 

 

Again, thank you for your reply. I do appreciate it.

So Statesman is a literal gods avatar and a family man. Zero the master of Pocket D a being with power quite beyond any player's scope. Recluse another literal avatar of a god seems content to rule over a very minor area of the globe most days. Bentley Berkeley the one actual Immortal in coh lore is basically a classic in over his head npc hostage. The D is a club that exist outside of space and time, and really its the mere mortals there that are the odd ones imo. Lucky now days a lot of in city sg base clubs exist for those mortals so they do not have to dirty up the realm of the divine for the true Powers;)

 

This may shock you but most people wont care about your character or the story of it. Expecting some random to want to play 20 q about your toon is asking a lot of a strangers time actually. Most I know who RP at the D are looking for casual chatter while being in character, not trying to share a life story or learn someone elses. Hell a lot seem to be there just to RP taking offense to some random statement so they can argue and insult IC and seem to think that is good RP.

 

I am really curious what exactly is your idea of an ideal random pug RP encounter that is not during actual content running? I myself am not really looking for much beyond momentary amusement in random RP. The only deeper RP story I care about is my toons, and those of friends toons associated with my toons. I am not looking to blend your story with mine unless you have really made a lasting and good impression on me while playing content normally. Then again i also have 0 qualm about putting people I consider bad at RP on ignore rather then suffer their inane babble.