tutorial An Overly Long Post Talking About Lore, Canon, and Headcanon (TM)

[McSpazz]

Hey again! It’s me! McSpazz! Here with another breakdown of an important roleplay concept. Today we are going to be discussing LORE!

Fair warning: This is going to be long. Very, very long. I know I have said this before, but it’s long enough that I started writing this in Google Docs so I could edit it more easily. If you are new to roleplay in an MMO, this is VERY vital information, so please keep that in mind before you click off.

 

1. What is Lore and Canon?
Lore is everything in a fictional world. No, I don’t mean metaphorically, I mean everything. Every explanation of the purpose of a ritual, every mountain, every blade of grass, the name of the store merchant that appeared for a single page and was never mentioned again, all of it. Lore makes up the backbone of any good story or setting. Of course, there’s only one real lore about any one setting. The world cannot both be flat and found.

That’s where canon comes in. Canon isn’t just lore, it’s the established lore as designated by the author or whoever has the authority to make decisions about the game’s lore with the greatest authority landing with whoever owns the property. For example, while there are many comics about Spiderman, Marvel has the ultimate say on what is real and not authors who previously worked on the project.

But, as that might imply, that does mean that canon is not set in stone after publication. New media or announcements can dramatically change the context, meaning, or even the exact contents of a setting’s lore. The most dramatic example I can think of is Star Wars. While the third trilogy was in development, it was announced that the vast majority of the Star Wars expanded universe was no longer canon. This was huge as there was a LOT of media published using the Star Wars setting after the second trilogy was completed and all of it was no longer considered part of the official canon. They weren’t disavowed or anything, but they no longer were considered to have actually happened.

 

More importantly for our uses, canon, retconned or otherwise, is extremely important because it’s something we can all agree has or is happening. There is no debate as to who the Rikti are, where they come from, that they have staged two full scale invasions, and still have a presence on Earth.

 

2. Headcanon
But we’re roleplayers. Our goal isn’t to just read lore, our goal is to be part of lore! Obviously, what we make isn’t canon. In fact, literally nothing a roleplayer produces as a result of their hobby is canon (unless you seriously impress the owner, I guess). Instead, what we deal in is headcanon.

Headcanon is any lore created by someone without authority over a property that explains, alters, or adds to established canon. This can range from fanfiction to fan theories (I see you, MatPat!) and everything in between. It’s a pretty easy concept, right? Headcanon is just the stuff you read into the world. Like your theory as to why Sherlock and Dr. Who would make an amazing couple.

But there’s a problem with headcanon. There’s nobody enforcing headcanon as being good, bad, invalid, or just flat out contradictory. This isn’t a problem for all situations where the canon is being altered for the enjoyment of multiple people. If you don’t like headcanon in a fanfiction or fan theory, you can just ignore it. In a tabletop setting, while the DM might alter the established canon in the source, the owners of the property aren’t going to care and the normal players in that tabletop game are sort of at the mercy of the dungeon master. Heck, in freeform RP with a select group of friends, while there may or may not be an arbiter of truth, it’s not hard to cooperate together to create a unified understanding of the world.

What makes MMO roleplay difficult as far as headcanon is concerned is that it requires interaction with other players, has no arbiter to dictate what is true or not, and no universally accepted standard as to how one should go about writing headcanon. This can lead to a lot of conflicts between character stories and a lot of headaches. While canon might be something we can all agree upon, obviously, your own personal changes to the lore aren’t.

 

So how do you go about putting together a character’s story and your headcanon for the world? Let’s get into that.

 

3. Canon Reliability
Not all canon is created equal. When we, as fans of a property, examine lore to determine how useful it is to our purposes, we need to recognize that the source of what we believe is canon isn’t actually very useful. So before we talk about how you can utilize canon to make your headcanon for roleplay, it’s important we talk about the three arbitrary types of canon that I made up for the purposes of this write-up.

 

1. Standard Canon
   This type of canon is very readily available, apparent, not hard to find, and/or is easy to look up via search engine. This is easily the best canon to work with; especially if you are new to a setting. The more grounded your headcanon is in canon that can easily be found, the more quickly others will pick up what you’re offering and know exactly what you are talking about. Examples might be Statesman and what he’s up to these days (not much), names of important groups like Arachnos or Longbow, the name of the guy depicted with the statue in Atlas Park, and the contents of frequently run story arcs or missions such as the purpose of the web like structure in Grandville.
    
2. Obscure Canon
   This type of canon is not as easily available, obscure, out of the way, and/or requires some digging using a search engine. It might not even be spelled out in the game’s wiki! While obscure canon is still very useful and helps add additional depth to the game, too much reliance on it can confuse new players or force you to dig up relevant materials to show you know what you’re talking about.
   
   While NPCs are frequently not obscure, this mainly applies to big name NPCs or NPCs you will without a doubt come across in your gameplay. For example, to avoid spoilers, there’s an orphanage in Grandville that serves a secret purpose. The person who runs the orphanage and the ulterior purpose of the orphanage is probably not known to everyone. While Penny Yin is very well known, as Faultline is not frequently traveled, the storyline that introduced her as well as her grandfather likely isn’t. That’s the real rub with obscure canon. Even if it isn’t hard to find, it could become obscure if people just don’t go to it.
   
   Another less obvious form of obscure canon is media that exists outside of what you are currently looking at. For example, did you know that City of Heroes has SEVERAL comics that are fully canon? They, not any in-game mission, detail why Positron is able to take off his helmet now.
   
   In short: Feel free to use more obscure canon, but be aware that it might not be fair to expect everyone else to know it as well.
    
3. Questionably Canon
   This type of canon is extremely difficult to access, barely known by anyone, not in any official published media, and/or requires knowing exactly where to look. I have seen some very cool ideas be born from this kind of canon, but I always highly discourage people from over utilizing it. Examples might be leaked documents, AMA’s with people involved in the project, unverified documents floating around online, and stuff that a friend assures you is canon but you can find absolutely no evidence of.
   
   Don’t get me wrong, AMA’s and confirmed leak documents could very well say what is actually going on in the world. However, until it has actually been published, there are a lot of things that can change. Different writers, realizations of continuity, changed minds, you name it. Leaked documents in particular are especially unreliable as, even if you can absolutely confirm it was leaked, there’s no guarantee as to how old it is or if they had even decided if they were going to follow through on it.
   
   Even more dangerous to use, however, are unverified leaks or hearsay that you cannot verify. As mentioned, canon’s ultimate utility to a roleplayer is that it’s something that all parties can agree upon as existing. Even if the way in universe groups view it as different, that event and those different views all exist without a doubt. Once you get into something that is so removed from what can be provably true in the world, you start to encounter the exact same problems you have with headcanon. While things that are questionably canon are fine to play with, you should generally treat it as headcanon.
    

4. Making It Without Breaking It
So you have a general idea of what you want to do. How do you create your headcanon in such a way that it doesn’t interfere with other players? The trick lies in canon. As mentioned, canon is really the only arbiter you have to rely on and, thus, the primary thing roleplayers utilize to ground their characters in reality. There are three ways you can address canon to bring your headcanon into reality.

 

1. IGNORE IT
   Jees, I thought Spazzy just said that canon should be respected and followed! What gives? Well, many people hunger for that freedom that tabletop and especially freeform RP provides while still playing within the MMO itself. So instead of trying to make headcanon make sense in the world, this method focuses on just having fun and doing what you want to do. While this is an entirely valid way of going about things, it’s not very useful for when you want to do roleplay outside of your select circle (be it friends or an SG). After all, how are you supposed to explain some dramatic character change that involved killing Lord Recluse with your bare hands outside of the circle that happened with when the guy is still standing around Grandville? Sure, it’s possible to have an alternate explanation for when you roleplay with others, but you can see where the complications start.
    
2. Work With the Lore
   This method, while more restrictive than the others, yields characters that are not just easier for other players to understand, but also more resistant to newly introduced lore (outside of retcons). The idea is to craft character traits and history that line up with what is detailed in the official canon. Examples might include having a character that escaped from the Galaxy City disaster, is employed by the PPD, is most known for patrolling the Hollows, or all of the above at the same time! References to existing elements in lore lets you place your character on a solid foundation within the game world and introduce new elements to the world without making unnecessary, drastic changes.
    
3. Work Around the Lore
   This strikes a middle ground between 1 and 2. Instead of doing whatever you want or only working with what has been established, this seeks to build off of what is unspoken while still maintaining the general theme of the setting. While City of Heroes has made it clear aliens exist, they make no mention of what form they might take. While the canon might only show certain Ouroborus menders standing around, there’s nothing that says those are the only menders that exist. So why wouldn’t you be able to make a mender that is also an alien? After all, such a thing wouldn’t violate the game’s themes or tone at all.
   
   Likewise, you can also take advantage of implication. Portal Corp exists, as do a theoretical infinite number of dimensions. So could you make a character that’s from a dimension that is effectively World of Warcraft? Sure! You can even introduce complications that prevent your character from going back or bringing anything else from there! Just remember that whatever you introduce should fit the tone of the game and not go too far beyond what has been established. While City of Heroes has a great deal of time travel and jumping between alternate dimensions, Guild Wars 2 doesn’t which would make a dimension hopper stick out far more aggressively and be far less welcome by the community.
    

For best results, I recommend utilizing both 2 and 3 together in varying amounts. Work around the lore to explore your creativity and work with the lore to help ground it into what already exists within the world. Together, they can help really give you a solid foundation to build off of. But there is one other thing to consider when making headcanon that doesn’t break the canon of the world.

 

Put simply? Why haven’t I heard about it?

 

When putting together headcanon, it is entirely possible to make headcanon that is so massive, have such importance, other people are forced to ask, “why hasn’t my character heard about this,” or, “why hasn’t this had a huge impact on the world?” Since the goal of headcanon in an MMO roleplay setting is to set up a character that doesn’t conflict with the canon or other characters, introducing elements that would have drastic implications on the world at large are potentially canon breaking if its visible existence/appearance contradicts what you are saying or, alternatively, if it is something that should really be addressed by the developers (more on that in the next section).

 

5. Utilizing Canon Characters and Locations
While using locations and characters that are easily recognizable to other players might be a tool, they should be approached carefully and with a great deal of tact.

 

Friends in High Places
Canon characters are everywhere in an MMO. What’s more, they are all easily recognizable and their involvement in any story can make it stand out. It’s all fun and games until Arbiter Daos asks to see you. But there is something that should be avoided heavily and that’s integrating an NPC into your character’s story in such a way that they had an active role in your character’s life if not still do.

 

For example, it would be one thing to say that you had worked alongside Statesman before his passing. After all, many people did. It wouldn’t even be a stretch to say you might have managed to save his skin and he appreciated your hard work. However, after the character was killed off, it wasn’t uncommon for characters to claim that they were good friends with him. It doesn’t end there of course. Sons or daughters of Manticore, ex-lovers of Ghost Widow, or, dare I say, the secret lover of HORB!

 

The core issue with making a canon character too involved in your character is that you don’t actually have the right to make decisions for that character. They aren’t yours. As they are NPC characters, it’s fine to make some educated guess as to how they would react to something. However, remember what I said earlier. Canon characters are what everyone can agree with. We all agree Ghost Widow exists. But if she exists, who is her true ex-lover? When Statesman was alive, which stories of heartfelt Statesman friendship moments really happened? Can we all really agree that Manticore kicked that guy’s puppy thus turning them evil?

 

No. We can’t. We can agree that Manticore is an edgy edge boi who makes edgy choices, but kicking someone’s dog for no reason is a big claim that has no real basis in the canon. As a matter of fact, while some GM’s are willing to step into the shoes of an NPC and participate in roleplay upon request (such as @GM Kal), they are very much in agreement on this and will only have a character act in ways that make sense to the character and will likely go out of their way to prevent you from doing things like making Ghost Widow your waifu.

It’s The End of the City as We Know It (again?)
Many people want story arcs to be big, grand, and have a real impact on the overall world. But there’s a bit of a problem going overboard. As we mentioned before when discussing making headcanon without breaking the lore, presenting events in roleplay that did not occur in canon but would have very visible ramifications in the world at large can not just break everyone else’s immersion but make actually using that lore cumbersome.

Messing with locations not accessible by normal play is one thing.

 

After all, if you say that the Sears Tower (NOT WILLIS FAK YOU) had a massive fire and blew out most of its windows, people are far more likely to play along and might mention they heard about that happening or show surprise. If you were to say that Paragon’s City Hall was razed to the ground and is still undergoing repairs, however, people are going to push back on that. Not just because City Hall is still very much in the game and a place you can at any moment visit and see is doing just fine. Even if Atlas gets attacked by big enemy groups once in a while, you would expect news that it was totally torn down and is being rebuilt would get around a little bit more. Especially to a character that might work in City Hall.

 

When using a location that exists within the canon of the game (ESPECIALLY if you can actually go see it), consider the ramifications of what you are doing and how realistic it would be for someone to have heard of it, but not necessarily demand that they have had a reaction to it yesterday. If you want to do big events that actually could if not do level a city, consider utilizing a part of Paragon not accessible to other players (ie: homebrew your own section of the city) or use a different location entirely. Remember: AE is your friend! Use it!

Didn’t know we had a king! Well. I didn’t vote for you.
There’s a lot of ways you can go about involving yourself in canon organizations! You could join the PPD! Enlist with the Longbow! Rise through the ranks of Arachnos! What no one will appreciate, however, is you proclaiming that you won the presidency with a 90% majority. They also probably wouldn’t appreciate you claiming that your ragtag group of mercenaries have successfully toppled the Australian government.

 

Much like my previous point, the issue here is, effectively, inserting yourself into the canon or doing something within the canon that would have such a significant impact on the world at large that should really only be in the hands of those with the metaphorical keys to the world (ie: the developers). This can be mitigated by finding reasons other people might not have heard about it or limiting the scope of your awesome big event, but people generally aren’t very impressed with impressive stories when they force your own ideas into the world at large.

6. Terms of Service and Other Considerations
Before we get into tips on how to actually put together your character's story, it needs to be mentioned that you should ALWAYS be cognizant of the terms of service of the game as well as its intended audience. While roleplayers are often given some degree of leniency for in character behavior, that doesn't mean you can post things that are inappropriate as far as the ToS is concerned. That extends not only to your posts, but also to character descriptions.

 

Some games can let you get away with quite a lot. The Secret World, for example, is rated M. It carries many mature themes and images with very heavy implications and sexual themes. While it's likely many of its players are not actually old enough to be playing it, the general idea is that you should be 17 or older and capable of handling harsh material. Just because you enjoy a game that's rated lower doesn't mean you can post whatever you want. I doubt human sacrifice would fly in Club Penguin.

 

City of Heroes is rated T for Teen and should be treated as such. I want to SERIOUSLY emphasize this because the moderators take this EXTREMELY seriously. While they aren't puritans, they aren't going to look kindly on open breaches of the ToS violation in public spaces and might even consider action on actions taken in private while in game. Even if your character description links to an external site, moderators might very well be willing to take that into consideration based on what they are investigating. Remember, no matter how old the game might be, we should respect that kids might be playing. A good rule of thumb is that if it exists in the game, it's safe to use yourself.

That is with one final major consideration: triggers. No, you don't need to tailor your character's story to ensure that any sensitive content is removed and as sanitized as possible. Instead, subjects that are likely to trigger someone (excessive violence, assault, explicit descriptions of addiction, etc) should not be presented in the "foreground" of your character's presentation. That is to say that you shouldn't open with these kinds of sensitive subjects without a trigger warning or, alternatively, strictly imply these sensitive subjects and only go into more detail in private with some form of warning as to what's coming. Not only can this help you stay in line with the ToS, it can also give others the necessary warning they need to know if they need to duck out of an RP or ask to fade to black.

 

7. This is a Video Game
What a strange name to title a section, I bet you’re thinking. WELL!

(WARNING: WHAT PROCEEDS IS VERY MUCH SPAZZY’S OPINION AND CAN BE IGNORED…but it I’d appreciate if you didn’t uwu)

 

Something I think a lot of roleplayers in an MMO forget is that we are playing a video game. I don’t mean that SUPER literally, but I more so mean that they forget certain things have to happen in order for this to function as a video game and, moreover, an MMO.

 

One of the more common examples of this is equating power level to a character’s actual power level (which I go into in my write-up on power levels), but this also extends to how people perceive the world at large.

 

For example, take Ziggursky Penitentiary. Every indication in the game is that it is one of the best places to detain meta-humans and that it is effectively the ultra-max security prisons of ulta-max security prisons. Given the actual prison’s actual design, it’s hard to not see that. However,  if you were to listen to much of the community talk about it, you would walk away with the impression that it is a complete revolving door with terrible security and very frequent break-outs.

 

Why do they get that impression? For one, for the vast majority of the game’s life span before sunset, the tutorial mission for villains was set to have Arachnos break you out of the Zig. So your very first experience playing a villain was breaking out of what was supposed to be max security. It was the equivalent of a nation state laying down military grade hardware and training against prison guards. Since that was your first impression of the prison as a literal level 1 villain, it was going to stick one way or another.

 

It also doesn’t help that the zone is filled with the escaped prisoner faction, but that does bring me into another thing people often fail to consider: the developers needed to not just populate zones with enemies that made sense for the zone, but also with enough so that the city didn’t feel barren. This doesn’t just give the impression that Brickstown is under a constant jailbreak with prisoners swarming under every nook and cranny, but also that even supposedly safe places like Steel Canyon have an average of two grannies getting mugged per block. The reason for this is in large part due to the time when the game was released.

 

Remember, this was when MMO’s were still trying to grow into a fully fledged genera and good game design for MMO’s wasn’t fully understood yet. World of Warcraft wasn’t due to be released for several months until CoH was first coming out and at launch it had something of the same struggle. How do you populate a zone with enough enemies to keep people occupied without making them look like they’re just standing around waiting to get shot up? This actually becomes very apparent when you view how mobs are placed about the city in City of Villains which came out some time later and even in Atlas Park which was revamped before sunset. Enemy groups that are milling about up to no good are used sparingly or are with groups that likely would just be milling about while everyone else is set up to be actively doing something within the environment.

 

On the old maps? Randomly starting fires, mugging people, hanging out on street corners with bombs, etc. This does, of course, still exist to some extent in Atlas and the Rogue Isles. Just, from my experience, not as much. I think the idea for the original design was so that it always felt like you were being a big hero and stopping something important. Even if that meant having several people getting mugged within a few yards of one another.

 

Though, this does bring me to my final point for this section: feeling like the hero. There are some missions that have you doing truly spectacular things that would normally be unthinkable because, for that moment, you are the hero of the story. This can, of course, give people the impression that they are always the hero of the story. A single mission where you raid Grandville to stop a Bane Spider from getting executed gives the player the impression that raiding Grandville isn’t a big deal or defeating Ms. Liberty and all of her allies under the statue of Atlas might give the impression that those capes are pushovers. Not only are the authors generally trying to make you feel like a mighty hero, but City of Heroes is pretty easy to break mechanically. If you throw enough money at a build, you can turn even faceplant prone blaster into an untouchable killing machine. In fact, it’s basically standard practice to build yourself up into such a character. Not only that, but groups that  you outlevel don’t suddenly become less dangerous just because you are no longer security level 12. It’s not even as if lower level enemies are always less dangerous. The Snakes, an enemy group originally found in the Villain starting zone, are never seen again…up until level 50 at which point they are once again a viable threat to you.

 

Basically, as far as the game world and lore are concerned, you should always pay more attention to the intention of the authors than limitations or expectations found in MMO’s. It will go a long way to help keep threats feeling like actual threats when dealing with them ICly.

 

8. Sharing Your Headcanon
One last thing to go over before we discuss how to actually come up with how to go about making your headcanon and that is sharing it. I don’t mean how to go over everything point by point with others, however. I mean how do you present your headcanon in roleplay that will actually engage people. Here are some things to consider to do just that.

 

1. Don’t Info Dump
   I know you are probably excited and want to share everything about your character’s super interesting life, but sharing literally everything about a character in one sitting can not just be time consuming but boring. Focus on delivering aspects of your character’s background or other headcanon when it’s appropriate and relevant.
    
2. Involve the Audience
   Part of the reason info dumping can be so boring is that it often comes with walls and walls of text. The absolute least engaging way you can present headcanon is as a lecture. Instead, try and give other characters a moment to react to big points, ask questions of others, give other people a chance to ask you questions. Not only will other players enjoy hearing about whatever you have to share more, but they are more likely to remember details about it later.
    
3. Remember to Emote
   I don’t mean you need to remember to use emotes. Your character is sharing something, likely of some importance to them. Don’t just write what your character is saying, but also add emotion to it! Facial expressions, hand movements, tone, and anything else that could help get across how this information impacts your character on a personal level.
    
4. Consider the Audience
   Who is listening to what you’re sharing? What are they interested in? Depending on who you are sharing your stories with in character, you should consider what they would be most interested in hearing. After all, while fellow criminals would be more interested in hearing how much money you snagged, a cape would probably be more keen on hearing what you did to avoid hurting civilians.

 

9. Respecting the Creations of Others

You know, I didn't think I'd have to make a section on this, but someone at one of the workshops said this was a growing problem. Soooo let's talk about it.

 

The canon works we write our story around are at the heart of what we do as roleplayers. Part of the fun about roleplaying is sharing what you've come up with to others and then using your shared love of writing to create something new. An unusual mistake, however, is to presume that because you are roleplaying your concept, that makes it just as fair game to utilize as the canon of the world you are roleplaying in.

 

A published work is intended to be read and enjoyed. For our purposes, a published work is also being shared with the intent of us crafting our own stories. However, the same cannot be said for concepts created in roleplay. When we create our characters, our custom groups, our custom concepts, we are doing so with the belief that we have control over it if not the expectation there of. If you wouldn't do things to a character without the player's permission, why would you do the same to their concepts?

 

If you have a lot of interest in utilizing another player's headcanon and/or concept in your own creations, you MUST talk to them about it and get EXPLICIT permission. While there's no law nor ToS code that prevents you from doing so, not getting permission is a huge sign of disregard for the other player's creative control over their own ideas. If your headcanon is building directly off of another player's, you need to ask for permission before you show it off. Not all surprises are welcome ones.

 

10. How to Make Your Headcanon
I’m not going to pretend I have all of the answers, least of all on this. The thing is, everyone has their own writing styles, everyone has their own interests, and, let’s be honest, you could violate just about everything I have brought up so far and still find an audience. So instead of giving any hard and fast rules here, I’m instead going to give you an idea on how to come up with ideas, put them together, and expand further on them.

 

1. Reality is Stranger than Fiction
   If you look at the world at large, there are a lot of strange things that really sound like they were ripped straight from a movie. Conspiracies, crazy animal behavior, strange science, and more. If you need inspiration for a concept, sometimes you need only look out the window. Or through Google. There are few things as satisfying as implementing something in a story that actually exists and blowing people’s minds when you tell them that you didn’t make it up out of whole cloth.
    
2. Keep It Simple Stupid!
   Or, should I say, keep it as simple as you can handle. Many new roleplayers really want to throw a ton of ideas into a single character and end up bloating their concept into oblivion. There’s no word count requirement or necessary level of complexity. Figure out the core of your character and don’t include too much more than you need to accomplish it well. While extra stuff can be fun, it often doesn’t serve much use and ends up being forgotten after it’s brought up once.
    
3. What Kind of Story Do You Want to Tell?
   I’m sure we’ve all seen a movie, read a book, or played a game that didn’t know what it wanted to be. Some of the most confusing and garbage fire of media out there is bad, in part, because it was trying to do a ton of things at once. This is especially common when you have media designed by a committee which is trying to copy something popular without understanding why it is popular.  So when you are making a character, ask yourself what kind of story you want to explore with them. What general narrative are you trying to accomplish? Is there a particular style you want to emulate? Really figure out the end goal of creating this character.
    
4. Don’t Make a Character for the Sake of Making a Character
   One of the fastest ways a character can become less interesting is when they are made purely out of necessity or because you had a general concept and dove in before really exploring what you wanted to do with it. While it might be cool to make a character that’s related to a friend’s in some way, don’t do it just because they asked you to. If you make a character for roleplay, be sure that it’s something you actively want to play and not something you just like the idea of.
    
5. If You Go Elaborate, Take Notes!
   How you go about it is up to you, but if you make a super complicated backstory or lore to go with your character, it can help to keep notes so you can keep your story straight. It isn't hard to go overboard and find yourself forgetting important elements of your background such as names, locations, and/or dates. There's no shame in taking notes and doing so can allow you to remember small tidbits to use later on

 

 

This is part of a series of tutorials regarding roleplay! You can find the full list of tutorials here!

Edited June 25, 2022 by McSpazz
Added a new point talking about using other people's headcanon.

[Andreah]

I occasionally create fairly deep backgrounds for my characters. Usually, I try to compartment that background headcanon away from the existing game's well established canon, specifically to avoid glaring contradictions. For example, a character maybe from another city, country, or even an entirely different dimension with its own history and take on superhumans. 

 

This way, when I present my character's background to others, I can be definitive about it, and not be concerned I'll step on someone else's. In that light, what I find another player presenting their headcanon as if it were already agreed-upon and accepted game canon, I'm a bit bothered. It doesn't happen that often, but it sticks out to me. I'm sure I do this myself from time to time, but I hope I am at least somewhat aware of it and try to give a fair attempt to avoiding it. A big part of this is to know one's audience, and try to roll with it a bit, and be flexible about what happened, or its significance, or how widely it would be known -- even if, to the small tight group who participated, it literally saved the universe. 

[McSpazz]

10 minutes ago, Andreah said:

I occasionally create fairly deep backgrounds for my characters. Usually, I try to compartment that background headcanon away from the existing game's well established canon, specifically to avoid glaring contradictions. For example, a character maybe from another city, country, or even an entirely different dimension with its own history and take on superhumans. 

 

This way, when I present my character's background to others, I can be definitive about it, and not be concerned I'll step on someone else's. In that light, what I find another player presenting their headcanon as if it were already agreed-upon and accepted game canon, I'm a bit bothered. It doesn't happen that often, but it sticks out to me. I'm sure I do this myself from time to time, but I hope I am at least somewhat aware of it and try to give a fair attempt to avoiding it. A big part of this is to know one's audience, and try to roll with it a bit, and be flexible about what happened, or its significance, or how widely it would be known -- even if, to the small tight group who participated, it literally saved the universe. 

A very good point! I actually advise people to come up with a character concept before integrating their character into the world itself. Not only does it let the character stand more on their own, but it also allows you to use the character in other similar settings. I plan on touching on this once I write on making a character concept in the near future.

[Black Zot]

13 hours ago, McSpazz said:

 

For example, take Ziggursky Penitentiary. Every indication in the game is that it is one of the best places to detain meta-humans and that it is effectively the ultra-max security prisons of ulta-max security prisons. Given the actual prison’s actual design, it’s hard to not see that. However,  if you were to listen to much of the community talk about it, you would walk away with the impression that it is a complete revolving door with terrible security and very frequent break-outs.

 

 

The problem here is that the Zig DOES crack open quite frequently in canon.  Besides the villain tutorial, several alignment/morality missions send you into the Zig, either to stop a jailbreak or to cause one, and many other missions reference escapees - no way in hell did they all get out from that one Arachnos attack, the place would be completely empty. 

 

ALL the Zig maps show some level of damage, and ingame text makes it clear the place is in a constant state of "under repair from one or more breaches".  Which makes perfect sense, considering that supermax or no, it's still an effort to keep superhumans (some of whom are capable of Boomtown-level destruction) locked up with mostly mundane technology.  Breaches WILL happen even without outside shenanigans, and they're going to be messy when they do.

 

So yeah, Ziggursky is every bit as cardboard as any prison in a comic book world.  Much like the police, it's there to get Worfed to show how dangerous so-and-so is and why the heroes need to step in.  You make a nice overall point, but you picked a terrible example to make it with.

[McSpazz]

5 hours ago, Black Zot said:

 

The problem here is that the Zig DOES crack open quite frequently in canon.  Besides the villain tutorial, several alignment/morality missions send you into the Zig, either to stop a jailbreak or to cause one, and many other missions reference escapees - no way in hell did they all get out from that one Arachnos attack, the place would be completely empty. 

 

ALL the Zig maps show some level of damage, and ingame text makes it clear the place is in a constant state of "under repair from one or more breaches".  Which makes perfect sense, considering that supermax or no, it's still an effort to keep superhumans (some of whom are capable of Boomtown-level destruction) locked up with mostly mundane technology.  Breaches WILL happen even without outside shenanigans, and they're going to be messy when they do.

 

So yeah, Ziggursky is every bit as cardboard as any prison in a comic book world.  Much like the police, it's there to get Worfed to show how dangerous so-and-so is and why the heroes need to step in.  You make a nice overall point, but you picked a terrible example to make it with.

True, but as I mentioned a bit later, there is very little reason narratively to see or go to the zig, interior or otherwise, when there isn't a disaster you need to mend. While I can accept that breaches aren't the least common thing in the world, it's the revolving door nature of the prison I take issue with. Basically, the only news we are likely to hear of the Zig is going to be bad news, so that's the majority of what we know about it.

 

But as I said, that section was VERY opinion based. Unfortunately, because many of the issues that come with trying to interpret a game world rely on what the game developers show us, we don't get to see what the Zig is like on a good day because that might not be fun gameplay material. This is to the point that I have an entire headcanon explaining how the entirety of Brickstown serves as the prison and not just the Zig since leaving an area surrounded by War Walls with very few points of egress without authorization would be extremely difficult without the assistance of one of the major villain orgs (Arachnos, Council, Crey, etc). But I didn't go into that because while that's my headcanon and something I feel has a lot of support, it's still just my own headcanon.

[Kismet Cowboy]

Such an important thing to get on the same page about, if you're going to be RPing with someone regularly I think.

 

Craziest headcanon I ever saw from someone ingame that drove me up the wall, despite it being kind of a small detail? Marvel and DC were canon things in the CoHverse. Even ignoring the potential issues with ToS there, I just don't understand how that could ever work. As far as I'm aware, Statesman was around since the 20s, and the Freedom Phalanx since the early 30s, several years before the RL debut of Superman in 1938. Why on (Primal) Earth would the superhero genre develop the same way as RL when there would be so many actual stories, from their perspective, to draw from? And yet, one time, my character got stuck in a RP scene in which everyone was discussing the latest MCU releases and wanted to organise a movie night. Wild.

 

This is also why I tend to shy away from Magic origin characters, unless they're some dope that got their hands on some artifact they don't understand. Science and technology at least has some actual, real life foundation to draw and build on. You can go read up on neat physics and use that as an excuse as to how your character is firing lasers. How magic works, even in game, seems to be fairly poorly defined, which keeps it open sure, but also means there's a chance for conflicting headcanon for magician characters.

 

 

[McSpazz]

11 minutes ago, Kismet Cowboy said:

Such an important thing to get on the same page about, if you're going to be RPing with someone regularly I think.

 

Craziest headcanon I ever saw from someone ingame that drove me up the wall, despite it being kind of a small detail? Marvel and DC were canon things in the CoHverse. Even ignoring the potential issues with ToS there, I just don't understand how that could ever work. As far as I'm aware, Statesman was around since the 20s, and the Freedom Phalanx since the early 30s, several years before the RL debut of Superman in 1938. Why on (Primal) Earth would the superhero genre develop the same way as RL when there would be so many actual stories, from their perspective, to draw from? And yet, one time, my character got stuck in a RP scene in which everyone was discussing the latest MCU releases and wanted to organise a movie night. Wild.

 

This is also why I tend to shy away from Magic origin characters, unless they're some dope that got their hands on some artifact they don't understand. Science and technology at least has some actual, real life foundation to draw and build on. You can go read up on neat physics and use that as an excuse as to how your character is firing lasers. How magic works, even in game, seems to be fairly poorly defined, which keeps it open sure, but also means there's a chance for conflicting headcanon for magician characters.

 

 

I don't think the idea of superhero fiction is too out there. In the real world, we have fiction about everything from space to war which are all based on modern understandings of science and technology. They would likely be considered less nerdy in the old days than they were in the real world, but I don't see it being totally out of the bounds of reality.

And, yes, magic is a HUGE can of worms I might address later. But consider for a moment that ANY concept that goes beyond what is accessible in the real world has the same issue as magic. How do advanced nanites function? What rules do they follow? There's a very limited amount we could say about them based on our current understanding. A better example would probably be quantum computing. I saw people roleplaying concepts around the subject since 2010ish and, all these years later, even as we have a better grasp of what it can do, you're still probably not going to be accurate unless you have a super solid understanding of the subject which is...pretty unlikely.

 

The biggest issue with subjects like this isn't necessarily the headcanon aspect. So long as you follow what I said about giving other characters an "out" as to explain why your headcanon does not apply, you'll be fine. The bigger issue is balancing power and keeping it from being the ultimate Swiss army knife. While I address that in my post on power levels, if I write an article on utilizing magic in roleplay, it'll go into special considerations for magic.

[Coyotedancer]

These have been an interesting read... but in all honestly that one is probably just going to remind me of all the reasons I eventually gave up and said to hell with roleplaying in the City. 

[McSpazz]

1 hour ago, Coyotedancer said:

These have been an interesting read... but in all honestly that one is probably just going to remind me of all the reasons I eventually gave up and said to hell with roleplaying in the City. 

For what it's worth, examples that I give of mistakes made in roleplay are put into the context of City of Heroes because that's the game we are in. Literally every MMO I have ever been in has at least one example of every mistake I put forward. They exist in different amounts, but they happen all the same. I've actually found the Homecoming roleplay community to be extremely high quality overall.

[Kiken]

On 2/27/2022 at 10:24 PM, Kismet Cowboy said:

Craziest headcanon I ever saw from someone ingame that drove me up the wall, despite it being kind of a small detail? Marvel and DC were canon things in the CoHverse. Even ignoring the potential issues with ToS there, I just don't understand how that could ever work. 

When this used to come up around me on live I had my character take the view that these comics about made-up heroes were obviously flimsy attempts by the publishers to cash in on heroes without having the rights to publish true life stories about them. ("Superman?  Oh that cheap Statesman rip-off.")  I don't see why fictional accounts of fictional superheroes wouldn't exist in CoH.  Detective stories and police procedurals are very popular in RL despite real police existing after all.

 

 

[chase]

Great posts.  I personally like seeing COMMUNITY Headcanon come to life.

What's community headcanon? Lore that you multiple people and collaboratively build, sometimes just from a seed planted by one person.   

 

Your Supergroup is a good example of one.   It's not canon in the game, but it has a backstory and history and continuing development.  You probably have someone acting as the loremaster authority shaping their vision, but the best ones leave room for people to add their own twist to it.

 

The incredible supergroup-base social spaces do this as well- Yes, they're mostly the architect's headcanon, but as we all get to use them and interact in them, we in our own way can add to their lore.

 

You can also have them be very open concepts not tied to a supergroup.  They may start as one person's canon that others just love and latch onto,. 

- It can be as simple as a certain box of cold cereal or Saul Rubenstein, Agent to Paragon's Elite?

 

-  Maybe you have an idea for your own giant shadow organization that's stalking your hero and realize that it's so big that it's probably tracking other heroes.   Pitch it and invite others to incorporate it into their stories.  Give them the leeway to make it work.   Or maybe you find another character with a similar ominous threat.. are they the same organization under multiple fronts.

- Maybe it's a metahuman sporting league that your hero participated in.   You have it in your backstory, and it'd be cool to have a supergroup based around it, but wouldn't it be even cooler to encounter *another* character you never knew, only to realize that they were on the team you bumped from the playoffs with that last-minute win...

 

- They can be spontaneous-  The Paragon Police Force is canon.   Roleplaying a detective in the Paragon Police Force requires a degree of headcanon-creation. Two PPD detectives running into each other in Atlas park and commiserating on bizzarre Police Union grievances is Roleplaying.  When that police union grievance board takes on a life of its own- that's community headcanon.

 

Community Headcanon always comes with risks- you're putting your creation out there and no matter how detailed of a vision you shared, the moment you invite others to incorporate it into their vision, it will morph.  Sometimes for good, sometimes into something unrecognizable.    Some communities credit the original creator for having a "veto" rule, but the best of these can outlive the original author's participation in the game, leading to no clear "head."

There's also the risk that it'll go nowhere.  Sometimes, your idea isn't picked up or used by anyone other than yourself... and that really can be disappointing, but keep in mind that this really no different than any of your other headcanon- its largely your creation for your characters, and it's still available for you to use as you always would have, even if its never adopted by others.

 

That's what happened with St. Ives Prep.  After making (and encountering) young heroines and villains with troubled past and times spent in juvie, I decided to flesh out the place and see if others wanted to add their stories to it.    To my knowledge, it didn't go anywhere.   It's not something I'd tried to recruit for or build behind.

 

That's something to keep in mind-- if you REALLY want to bring a community headcanon to life, you need to treat it like any online community- it needs some recruitment, some passionate advocates, and some time spent cultivating the community before everyone feels like a collaborator.    

 

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

The only real problem that I've had with roleplayers and and roleplaying in City of Heroes is that everyone that I've encountered is of Galactus levels of power. Everyone has saved the universe a zillion times and their power dwarfs that of Statesman and all of us "lesser beings."

 

I'm interested in actual roleplaying, not just a bunch of 15 year olds power tripping, so beyond usually staying in character during party chat I don't roleplay in City of Heroes.

 

Head canon is fine and all, but your head canon has to leave room for other people to also be super heroes in a super hero game.

[McSpazz]

1 minute ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

The only real problem that I've had with roleplayers and and roleplaying in City of Heroes is that everyone that I've encountered is of Galactus levels of power. Everyone has saved the universe a zillion times and their power dwarfs that of Statesman and all of us "lesser beings."

 

I'm interested in actual roleplaying, not just a bunch of 15 year olds power tripping, so beyond usually staying in character during party chat I don't roleplay in City of Heroes.

 

Head canon is fine and all, but your head canon has to leave room for other people to also be super heroes in a super hero game.

I'm not sure I agree that is a huge problem. Galactus levels of power, that is. Even insane levels of influence on the world isn't overly common. The biggest issue I've seen are characters that are super "jaded", so they have very casual reactions to really huge events because they've seen it all or something. This is more of an issue with power levels than lore/canon, though.

[PeregrineFalcon]

Admittedly I haven't been involved in the roleplaying community on Homecoming, so maybe they don't have that issue here. It sure seemed to be an issue on the retail servers though.

 

I know exactly what you mean by jaded characters. I think that goes along with being very powerful. After all, if you can just port yourself to another dimension, or whatever, you don't have a whole lot of reason to be that concerned about this one. Which always left me wondering why even be a hero in the first place if you don't really care about what happens to this world.

 

My headcanon is always very self-contained as well. The characters in my Paragon PD SG have met Blue Steel, but he doesn't look up to them or owe my characters any favors. If anything it's likely to be the other way around. My main, an Invuln/EM tanker, is on equivalent power level to X-Men's Colossus, not Statesman or Superman. My most powerful character is an Arch-Mage, but even she isn't as powerful as Doctor Strange or Magik.

 

I think it's better for roleplaying if you're of moderate level superhero instead of Galactus. I actually think that level of power is a real trap for actual roleplayers.

[Crasical]

28 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I'm interested in actual roleplaying, not just a bunch of 15 year olds power tripping, so beyond usually staying in character during party chat I don't roleplay in City of Heroes.

5 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Admittedly I haven't been involved in the roleplaying community on Homecoming, so maybe they don't have that issue here. It sure seemed to be an issue on the retail servers though.

 

So you don't roleplay in City of Heroes.... but you DID come to the roleplay section of the forums, to tell us you don't roleplay, because everyone is 15 year olds power tripping... but you're not sure they're actually doing that, because you don't roleplay.

Okay.

 

Anyway those power-tripping 15 year olds are 25 years old now, post-shutdown.

[PeregrineFalcon]

13 minutes ago, Crasical said:

So you don't roleplay in City of Heroes.... but you DID come to the roleplay section of the forums, to tell us you don't roleplay, because everyone is 15 year olds power tripping... but you're not sure they're actually doing that, because you don't roleplay.

Okay.

I wasn't aware that I needed your permission to post in the roleplaying section of the forums. I'll make sure to check with you next time, sir.

 

I guess my point is pretty much the same as Andreah's. That your head canon should be self-contained and actually leave room for roleplaying and others to roleplay as well.

 

So I was commenting on my ideas as far as head canon. "My character met Blue Steel or Statesman" is fine, in my opinion, "My character saved Blue Steel's life a dozen times and now he's in love and won't stop stalking my character" not so much.

 

And, "how dare you speak with me mortal, I don't care if this dimension is destroyed, I'm uber-Galactus" also not great for head canon and roleplaying, in my opinion.

Edited March 3, 2022 by PeregrineFalcon
typo

[Coyotedancer]

Eh. I've run into a couple of Great Cosmic POWAH!!-types among the Homecoming roleplayers, but it's not a common thing as far as I've seen. If there are whole hordes of them out there, they must have been keeping to themselves in their own dedicated groups. And if that's what floats their proverbial boats? No harm done. As long as the group they play with is fine with it, it's not the issue it could turn into in a more open setting. 

 

I have to say, though, that I did actually have some fun with one of those types awhile back. The character was supposedly some sort of ancient archangel type thing... who hated Oranbegans for one reason or another. I mean, he absolutely LOATHED them, and made it clear that he basically wanted to see them all burned to ash with Holy Fire any time the Circle came up in conversation. Which they sometimes did, with various characters from my gang being around.

 

He just could never understand why Kai (Who was, as far as he could tell, just some mortal human college-girl with a little magical ability-) kept giving him such a  serious stink-eye whenever he threated to murder them "as they all so justly deserved". Particularly when it was Artemian (aka "That demented Madness Mage")  or Tavaris he'd threatened. He just couldn't wrap his head around the idea that Kai was Tav's apprentice, or that the "demented Madness Mage" was her sidekick and best friend.

 

I think we both had a pretty good time with the interactions between those two. As played/written, he was vastly more powerful than Kai was, and in character, they both knew that. But being reasonable people OOC, that power imbalance never actually caused any problems. COULD he have tried squishing Kai or Arte like bugs? Sure... But that would have ruined the fun. Everyone knew that. So it was never tossed on the proverbial table as an option.   

[Crasical]

On 2/25/2022 at 7:25 PM, McSpazz said:

making Ghost Widow your wifu.

 

This is the most nitpicky thing and I apologize but shouldn't that be 'waifu'

[McSpazz]

3 minutes ago, Crasical said:

 

This is the most nitpicky thing and I apologize but shouldn't that be 'waifu'

.........you are correct and I apologize to the internets.

[chase]

19 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I wasn't aware that I needed your permission to post in the roleplaying section of the forums. I'll make sure to check with you next time, sir.

 

I guess my point is pretty much the same as Andreah's. That your head canon should be self-contained and actually leave room for roleplaying and others to roleplay as well.

 

So I was commenting on my ideas as far as head canon. "My character met Blue Steel or Statesman" is fine, in my opinion, "My character saved Blue Steel's life a dozen times and now he's in love and won't stop stalking my character" not so much.

 

And, "how dare you speak with me mortal, I don't care if this dimension is destroyed, I'm uber-Galactus" also not great for head canon and roleplaying, in my opinion.

In the spectrum of superheroes  that ranges between "cosplayers that like to punch things" to "cosmic entity that barely acknowledges humanity exists"  my preferences are far closer to cosplayers, so I do know where you're coming from.   I've seen it particularly in social situations, where you encounter a powerful entity who so discards your characters' challenges as so trivial and meaningless that it just sours things very early. 

 

Some of those cosmic-powered folk are exploring the trope of the person who's grown in power so far that he's lost some of his attachment to humanity.  It's a great topic to explore, but the best examples of it remember that although the character may lose his empathy with those more common folk, extra effort is needed to assure the player does not.   The people you're encountering may be insignificant insects from where you stand, but the players behind them are seeking something out of this encounter as well and exist to do more than serve your cosmic-sized ego.   If they remember that, the cosmic-hero-level encounter can sometimes work for me.

If it doesn't, I have no problem unilaterally retconning away the whole encounter.  (I'd not "acknowledge their headcanon" using the terminology of this thread.).


 

[Crystal Dragon]

On 2/28/2022 at 9:42 AM, Coyotedancer said:

but in all honestly that one is probably just going to remind me of all the reasons I eventually gave up and said to hell with roleplaying in the City. 

Please note, if you do happen to give it another solid shot, feel free to touch base with me, I'm always looking for players to delve into RP with, and I do mean always.

[McSpazz]

I added a new section talking about respecting the lore of other players. Really shocked me that this was a problem, but it doesn't surprise me that it could be. Keep on keeping on, everyone! :3

[McSpazz]

4 hours ago, FriezaReturns00001 said:

Yo McSpazz I got a few questions I'm not sure about Lore wise:

• Generally speaking, is there usually a frequency of kidnappings from Crey? Like is this always just a common known occurance? As in "hey I saw Sally yesterday at the wedding and... a few months later, she was on the Missing Person's boards!"
• What even happened to Crey in Praetoria? Did her organization just get cosumed into a conglomerate later or her husband never ended up the way he is in Primal-Earth?
• What is a general focus of the "Paragon Protector" types's powers? Fire/Spines/Energy projection? Do they have like cloning style members they used i.e. he/she can multiply a duplicate and so on. I have an OC called Crey Registered Lie not sure if it's out of line or not. Just want insight. Thanks!

Sure! In order...
 

1. Yes and no. Different projects are going to call for different kidnappings. What's more, any Crey operation working out of Paragon is going to either try to be careful who they kidnap or be sure that they actually need the person they're kidnapping. Remember that Crey is generally portrayed as being seen as a normal company by the general public. They have segmented their operations enough that when one of their bad doings gets found out, it doesn't travel far to the top. So steps are likely taken to reduce exposure. It wouldn't surprise me if someone who was kidnapped by a different group was literally purchased by Crey and taken off their hands.
2. I don't believe that is ever shared. I'm rusty on my Praetorian lore, but I'm pretty sure that Neuron would narratively take over the role of horrific genetic experiments and Anti-Matter would be doing the weird computer stuff.
3. The Crey Protectors origins are not known to the public. As far as most are concerned, they are an independent org made up of men and women acting anomalously to protect Paragon. They just have a preference for Crey for whatever reason. The reality is that:
   Spoiler

   Not only do the Paragon Protectors work directly for Crey, but they are all brainwashed clones. Heroes would be kidnapped and killed so that Crey could get sufficient DNA samples to create clones. Their DNA would then be placed in a template that could be created several times over. So it's less that they have a general focus and more so that they have templates that they create over and over again.  https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Gordon_Stacy#Souvenir

   
   
   Remember. It might be obvious to US that Crey is a villain group and horrible, but the game goes out of its way to show that between manipulating PR and an army of lawyers, most people are unaware. Hell, you might be buying products produced by a Crey subsidiary and not even know it.

Edited July 3, 2022 by McSpazz

[McSpazz]

11 hours ago, FriezaReturns00001 said:

Huh interesting, so Crey is shielded by a group of lawyers to protect them and top to bottom is almost aware of any issues that pop up; similar to how the Hive Cities in WarHammer 40k where Rioting basically doesn't exist as they have members throughout the citiy itself eye everywhere but that's a terrible comparission lol but not that such a degree that people get killed outright and silence but... you know what I mean, right? I could actually justify a Crey Protector as a loyal Pro-Crey member whose DNA is duplication?

Yeah, basically. It's easy to get into the mindset that Crey is evil top to bottom, but the company is MASSIVE. For every one illegitimate operation they do, they likely have two that are totally on the up and up. They make a ton of products over many different industries. I think Umbrella from the Resident Evil games is a great comparison myself. While Umbrella did create the zombie virus, that was just one branch of the megacorp. The people who made cosmetics for Umbrella were likely just as surprised as everybody else.

 

As my link said, Paragon Protectors are basically set from the ground up to be loyal to Crey. Convincing them otherwise is a huge undertaking. And, yes, it would make sense for a Paragon Protector line to be capable of duplication, but I would advise you to make it a prototype or in the trial phase. Write in an explanation as to why you don't see it widespread.

[Vic Raiden]

This was an interesting read. With all of it in consideration, I have a question to ask.

I have a redside toon who would normally be the leader of a large organized evil organization comparable to Arachnos or the Council in terms of resources. Minions and other relevant assets would be confined to AE material for obvious reasons, but what I want to know is how to roleplay such an "evil overlord" character without violating points 5 (respect to canon material) and 9 (respect to others' headcanons) too hard?