Ah, the endless problem with power levels in RP. On one hand we have people who demand absolute realism (in a Final Fantasy game), will scoff at you for playing a character who's not completely mundane, and expect every aspect in which it goes above the capabilities of an average sellsword to be explained and justified and balanced with a million flaws. On the other hand, we have DarkMasterX1999, whose half-demon voidlord dragonrider makes Sephiroth looks like a wimp and will poweremote you with every line if you're foolish enough to RP with him. I'm not a fan of either approach.
I take the controversial approach of using my character's level as its power baseline. If the character did something in the game proper, then it's probably powerful enough to do the same IC as well. In Imogene's case, that means she doesn't have the Echo and isn't a chosen one or anything like that, but she did do things like fight against the Primals, participate in the assault on the Praetorium, and explore Crystal Tower (because all of those were IC accomplished by a large group of people, not a single hero or just a few of them), and can do all the fancy borderline magic swordplay a high level paladin can do. I sometimes break out of this mold, but when that happens, I always power my characters down, never up - that way DarkMaster's realm lies.
I'm perfectly okay if other people roleplay their characters as 100% mundane Average Joes, not heroes. Just please, don't expect the same from everyone else. Some of us like to play heroes. That doesn't make us powergamers.
Side note on IC characters fights and power flaunting: first, I'd like to say that I'm personally not a fan, because in my opinion most of the time it's little more than e-peen waving. But there's something I noticed and found very annoying, which didn't happen in FF14 yet (good riddance), but did in other games; sometimes, when my character is just minding her business, it's approached by another character, trying to pick a fight. But I'm very high or even max level, while the other character is level 4 or 5. For me, this is not an even fight; it's an upstart trying to jump up to a much stronger opponent who can beat it effortlessly. Surprising nobody, those people tend to get annoyed when I point it it out them. The way I see it, if you want to play a strong character, you have to earn the right; either level to the point where your character can be considered one, or do something smart or amazing that will make me decide "okay, for you I can make an exception because you're a good RPer". Or better yet, both. Also, don't play characters whose sole reason is to pick fights with others, that's just rude and annoying.
This is an excellent approach. Want to show that your character is badass, or cool, or smart, or funny? Prove it through your RP. In the end it's other players who decide if your characters live up to the labels you give them. And if they're worth RPing with, or are just piles of annoyance and ego.
I take the controversial approach of using my character's level as its power baseline. If the character did something in the game proper, then it's probably powerful enough to do the same IC as well. In Imogene's case, that means she doesn't have the Echo and isn't a chosen one or anything like that, but she did do things like fight against the Primals, participate in the assault on the Praetorium, and explore Crystal Tower (because all of those were IC accomplished by a large group of people, not a single hero or just a few of them), and can do all the fancy borderline magic swordplay a high level paladin can do. I sometimes break out of this mold, but when that happens, I always power my characters down, never up - that way DarkMaster's realm lies.
I'm perfectly okay if other people roleplay their characters as 100% mundane Average Joes, not heroes. Just please, don't expect the same from everyone else. Some of us like to play heroes. That doesn't make us powergamers.
Side note on IC characters fights and power flaunting: first, I'd like to say that I'm personally not a fan, because in my opinion most of the time it's little more than e-peen waving. But there's something I noticed and found very annoying, which didn't happen in FF14 yet (good riddance), but did in other games; sometimes, when my character is just minding her business, it's approached by another character, trying to pick a fight. But I'm very high or even max level, while the other character is level 4 or 5. For me, this is not an even fight; it's an upstart trying to jump up to a much stronger opponent who can beat it effortlessly. Surprising nobody, those people tend to get annoyed when I point it it out them. The way I see it, if you want to play a strong character, you have to earn the right; either level to the point where your character can be considered one, or do something smart or amazing that will make me decide "okay, for you I can make an exception because you're a good RPer". Or better yet, both. Also, don't play characters whose sole reason is to pick fights with others, that's just rude and annoying.
(03-05-2015, 07:06 AM)Edvyn Wrote: i hold the belief that it is the player's responsibility to prove, through action, their character's personal strengths and weaknesses. it's all well and good to tell people about your character and what they can do, but nobody should be expected to simply take what's told to them about someone else's character at face value. a self-described "badass" character is almost invariably not badass in the slightest. the player just desperately wants the character to be seen that way without doing anything for it. other people decide if you're badass, not you. similarly, a self-described witty and sarcastic character is probably neither witty nor sarcastic but pretty likely to be annoying as shit (and not in the funny way either).
This is an excellent approach. Want to show that your character is badass, or cool, or smart, or funny? Prove it through your RP. In the end it's other players who decide if your characters live up to the labels you give them. And if they're worth RPing with, or are just piles of annoyance and ego.
