The way I see it, rather than thinking about whether it is enough strength or too much strength, I would argue it is more important to think about what purpose the strength or weakness serves in accentuating the story you want to tell.
Think about the kind of rp you want to do. What purpose does Sasha's weakness have in your rp? The struggle to overcome her aether sensitivity is obviously already very important to her, but if she finds herself helpless often, that's a very unpleasant feeling in such a dangerous world; maybe she tries to find other avenues of strength to protect herself. Or perhaps instead, it drives her to perform even more dangerous research. Perhaps in a place where most people can manipulate aether freely, it leads to a fatalistic attitude where she feels she'll never accomplish anything she desires in her research due to her own physical limitations. What matters most is how your character's power plays into what kind of story you are writing; if the power serves a narrative purpose, it is almost always accepted, I feel.
It is when people make their characters strong without good reason and demand respect because they want to be the strongest OOC that people grow resentful. Weakness too; your character is weak because it serves narrative purpose, but people put the noncom on a pedestal here, and I'd argue that an uneducated, lowly peasant that lacks a distinctive enough personality or any positive traits whatsoever for fear of being overpowered isn't much fun to play with. Even a pacifistic or weak character can have something to contribute, but being too weak your rp almost as much as being overly strong. Instead of being out of place in peaceful scenes, you're out of place in combat rp. When you want to get involved with dangerous scenarios, it becomes hard to explain why anyone would want you around. But you actually do something with your character's weakness, so that's not a problem necessarily. Sasha is smart, and if she finds other avenues to contribute, she has a place in more violent rp too. Of course, her aether problem is a weakness, but I think that there is enough of a hook for you to get involved in those scenes without every character struggling to find an IC reason to include yours.
It's sort of the reason why I tend to be attracted to making strong characters. Most rp characters I've made over the years have been pretty powerful in the context of their setting, but I wanted this not because they would be stronger than the other characters, but because I was interested in how it built their character, or how their character interacted with it. It's like X-Men... I feel a bit embarrassed for making that comparison, but it's the first thing to come to mind. (I even was in an X-Men rp...) The characters have a framework as a person that makes them seem believable. However, it's the way their personality and background interact with their exceptional strength that really draw readers to them.
Nero made a thread where you describe a character without talking about their background or powers a while back, and that made me interested. I liked this thread because it was an interesting writing challenge, yet I felt if taken the wrong way, it also encouraged a disconnect between strength and character, that their power or unique traits are trivialized. Obviously I don't think that's what Nero intended, but I feel like being strong has a major effect on a lot of character's personalities, so I'd argue a lot of people lose out doing this. Disconnect between strength and character leads to the "perception" of being overpowered, which is the real root of why people fear OP characters in rp. It feels like they're just arbitrarily powerful, and that that ability to destroy others has no significance in their life. People can respect an rp character who is strong or weak with reason, rather than just a tool of convenience for the player behind them, or a tool of inconvenience for the players in front of them.
Taking things back to X-Men, Cyclops is often regarded by fans as a jerk with a rod stuck up his ass, but I think he's one of the most seamless integrations of power and personality in the series. Writers who handle him well show him as a man who cannot control his power, so he micromanages every aspect of his life to compensate, making him stressful to be friends with, and straining his intimacy with his loved ones. There is a constant tension between Cyclops, who needs to hold back, and the other mutants, who need to exert themselves to do half of what he's capable of. He gets selected to be somewhat of a protege by Professor X, but feels constant self-doubt because of his "defect" in being unable to control his optic blast. Yet it's never because Cyclops can laser anything into dust that he's made leader; it's the symptom of his power, that micromanaging, that got him the position in the first place. I'd argue that using powers as a hook can make your character grab someone, and letting them see the person for who they are later leads to a more nuanced view of their outward strength. But again, it depends on the kind of story you want to write. Maybe the aetheric problem isn't that heavily weighted in your writing. In such cases, sure, I figure you can write your character compellingly even without using that weakness as a plot element, but the way I see it, you want to exploit it for its potential narrative draw.
Likewise, I made Virara strong *because* she needs to fail and suffer a crisis of confidence. She needs to be powerful because I want to put her in situations where that strength isn't necessarily useful, or is dwarfed by the threat she faces. There needs to be an emotional disconnect between her strength and her appearance; the unbelievability of it is unsettling and can drive others away. Nobody is surprised when a roegdyn or highlander male is a tough warrior. Power isolates. Strength isn't always useful. What did you give up to study your martial skill so obsessively? Sometimes you have to sacrifice reason for the power you need to accomplish your goals. These are all themes I have a habit of returning to, because I find a lot of people find them interesting, and I do too. Without a character's strength being written heavily into the narrative you approach, these ideas lack punch.
I think a lot of the same ideas can be applied to weaknesses as well. If I wanted to focus on Virara's social awkwardness, the fish out of water thing, or her lack of conventional wisdom, I could do so, but just like with the strength, if I did not supply a narrative vehicle to explain why she knows nothing that has emotional resonance, she becomes just another "immigrant" character who has to learn the same tired Eorzean traditions you saw in the Ninja questline. (It was actually brought up on my first day of rp.) Instead, I made her ignorant because being trained to fight was what sculpted her identity as a person. It literally is indistinguishable from personhood for her. And that sense of self was IMMEDIATELY challenged, just as I wanted it to be. Maybe the issue with character strength isn't necessarily your own, but how others react to it.
Think about the kind of rp you want to do. What purpose does Sasha's weakness have in your rp? The struggle to overcome her aether sensitivity is obviously already very important to her, but if she finds herself helpless often, that's a very unpleasant feeling in such a dangerous world; maybe she tries to find other avenues of strength to protect herself. Or perhaps instead, it drives her to perform even more dangerous research. Perhaps in a place where most people can manipulate aether freely, it leads to a fatalistic attitude where she feels she'll never accomplish anything she desires in her research due to her own physical limitations. What matters most is how your character's power plays into what kind of story you are writing; if the power serves a narrative purpose, it is almost always accepted, I feel.
It is when people make their characters strong without good reason and demand respect because they want to be the strongest OOC that people grow resentful. Weakness too; your character is weak because it serves narrative purpose, but people put the noncom on a pedestal here, and I'd argue that an uneducated, lowly peasant that lacks a distinctive enough personality or any positive traits whatsoever for fear of being overpowered isn't much fun to play with. Even a pacifistic or weak character can have something to contribute, but being too weak your rp almost as much as being overly strong. Instead of being out of place in peaceful scenes, you're out of place in combat rp. When you want to get involved with dangerous scenarios, it becomes hard to explain why anyone would want you around. But you actually do something with your character's weakness, so that's not a problem necessarily. Sasha is smart, and if she finds other avenues to contribute, she has a place in more violent rp too. Of course, her aether problem is a weakness, but I think that there is enough of a hook for you to get involved in those scenes without every character struggling to find an IC reason to include yours.
It's sort of the reason why I tend to be attracted to making strong characters. Most rp characters I've made over the years have been pretty powerful in the context of their setting, but I wanted this not because they would be stronger than the other characters, but because I was interested in how it built their character, or how their character interacted with it. It's like X-Men... I feel a bit embarrassed for making that comparison, but it's the first thing to come to mind. (I even was in an X-Men rp...) The characters have a framework as a person that makes them seem believable. However, it's the way their personality and background interact with their exceptional strength that really draw readers to them.
Nero made a thread where you describe a character without talking about their background or powers a while back, and that made me interested. I liked this thread because it was an interesting writing challenge, yet I felt if taken the wrong way, it also encouraged a disconnect between strength and character, that their power or unique traits are trivialized. Obviously I don't think that's what Nero intended, but I feel like being strong has a major effect on a lot of character's personalities, so I'd argue a lot of people lose out doing this. Disconnect between strength and character leads to the "perception" of being overpowered, which is the real root of why people fear OP characters in rp. It feels like they're just arbitrarily powerful, and that that ability to destroy others has no significance in their life. People can respect an rp character who is strong or weak with reason, rather than just a tool of convenience for the player behind them, or a tool of inconvenience for the players in front of them.
Taking things back to X-Men, Cyclops is often regarded by fans as a jerk with a rod stuck up his ass, but I think he's one of the most seamless integrations of power and personality in the series. Writers who handle him well show him as a man who cannot control his power, so he micromanages every aspect of his life to compensate, making him stressful to be friends with, and straining his intimacy with his loved ones. There is a constant tension between Cyclops, who needs to hold back, and the other mutants, who need to exert themselves to do half of what he's capable of. He gets selected to be somewhat of a protege by Professor X, but feels constant self-doubt because of his "defect" in being unable to control his optic blast. Yet it's never because Cyclops can laser anything into dust that he's made leader; it's the symptom of his power, that micromanaging, that got him the position in the first place. I'd argue that using powers as a hook can make your character grab someone, and letting them see the person for who they are later leads to a more nuanced view of their outward strength. But again, it depends on the kind of story you want to write. Maybe the aetheric problem isn't that heavily weighted in your writing. In such cases, sure, I figure you can write your character compellingly even without using that weakness as a plot element, but the way I see it, you want to exploit it for its potential narrative draw.
Likewise, I made Virara strong *because* she needs to fail and suffer a crisis of confidence. She needs to be powerful because I want to put her in situations where that strength isn't necessarily useful, or is dwarfed by the threat she faces. There needs to be an emotional disconnect between her strength and her appearance; the unbelievability of it is unsettling and can drive others away. Nobody is surprised when a roegdyn or highlander male is a tough warrior. Power isolates. Strength isn't always useful. What did you give up to study your martial skill so obsessively? Sometimes you have to sacrifice reason for the power you need to accomplish your goals. These are all themes I have a habit of returning to, because I find a lot of people find them interesting, and I do too. Without a character's strength being written heavily into the narrative you approach, these ideas lack punch.
I think a lot of the same ideas can be applied to weaknesses as well. If I wanted to focus on Virara's social awkwardness, the fish out of water thing, or her lack of conventional wisdom, I could do so, but just like with the strength, if I did not supply a narrative vehicle to explain why she knows nothing that has emotional resonance, she becomes just another "immigrant" character who has to learn the same tired Eorzean traditions you saw in the Ninja questline. (It was actually brought up on my first day of rp.) Instead, I made her ignorant because being trained to fight was what sculpted her identity as a person. It literally is indistinguishable from personhood for her. And that sense of self was IMMEDIATELY challenged, just as I wanted it to be. Maybe the issue with character strength isn't necessarily your own, but how others react to it.
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AV by Kura-Ou
Wiki (Last updated 01/16)
My Balmung profile.
AV by Kura-Ou
Wiki (Last updated 01/16)
My Balmung profile.
