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Caspar · **04-16-2015, 06:18 AM**

(04-15-2015, 09:42 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote:
(04-15-2015, 08:49 PM)Caspar Wrote: The F/SN comparison works poorly because most TM works focus on those exceptions, and it's perfectly reasonable to focus on those exceptions in rp as well.
Eh. I say it works perfectly fine, because those exceptions only work because they are just that - exceptions. The grand majority of the time servants are depicted as being far above ordinary humans, and usually the exceptions either have some kind of plan or tool (or both) to use to even the playing field. In scripted RP this is perfectly acceptable, because some level of planning and familiarity is likely to be present, but in random encounters? 9 times out of ten the mage is going to get his or her ass kicked, end of story.

FFXIV's story doesn't lend itself too well to random macguffins and happenstance changing the course of entire battles. For the most part, the WoL succeeds because he and his friends are just that good, with a little bit of pushing from the Mother Crystal (and now, probably, Midgardsormyr). If we ever see a random mook take down a major character in open combat, I'll probably change my stance on this, but until then...

I think it's more a matter of you happening into multiple separate instances of rping those exceptions, and that not really fitting your impression with how strong the characters in the setting should be vs characters we play. In other words, the individual players who rp exceptions to the rule didn't plan on nor should have to plan around the thousands of other players out there doing the same exact thing. It is a shared story, to be true, but you can't pla with literally everyone on the server at once, and therefore, I think it's reasonable for them to want to rp that underdog situation in their own controlled group. Everyone is going to play their story out according to what they find entertaining, and sometimes multiple individuals will find the same thing entertaining and do so without regard for how common it actually is overall, because these are stories that don't necessarily intersect. So you get a scenario where in reality, the underdog winning is very common, but in setting it is not, and you are forced to reconcile those different impressions. That's just part of playing with other people, I think. If that displeases you, perhaps a fic might suit you better than rp.

That and while I did things according to the topic of the thread, I also think that levels of strength aren't a linear scale of quantifiable power. Since you seem to like TM stuff, I think an example you've probably heard of is the three way Bazette/Kotomine/Souichirou comparison, wherein given different circumstances and different periods in their character development, age, strength, knowledge, etc., any given one of them can win. It's all about situation, and what situation is depicted can have a huge effect on the dramatic value of one character winning over the others. The example I gave is one where there is a combatant that wins outright in a straight up fight, a combatant that always wins if they get the first strike, and a combatant who, at his prime, was stronger than the other two, but weaker as he aged. There's a huge variation there that is hard to gauge, and there are still many outside factors that can skew the results. And ultimately, it matters very little, because the winner is usually (ideally) the one who carries the greatest dramatic value in doing so. Of course that's going to get complicated; there are two or more writers who each think their character is that person.

What's Your Powerlevel?

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes