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(08-21-2015, 10:44 AM)LadyRochester Wrote: People who get offended when your "non-genius" character out-smarts them. I speak of those people.Â
I have a problem with the "non-genius" character outsmarts a genius theory.Â
Every character is capable of displaying a certain level of intelligence and wit, based on the player of said character being able to adequately display that intelligence. That said, people are also capable of playing characters who are 'less intelligent or knowledgeable' than they personally are about certain subjects.
As an audience, I can perceive a character to be more or less intelligent than they actually are. However, as a player, if I'm going out of my way to 'outstrip' a character who claims to be a genius when my character would clearly have no idea what this other character is talking about, that's akin to me trying to deliberately shut that individual down with OOC information.
A good example is my character Liviana. If someone was talking to Liviana, and the subject of aether suddenly came up in the conversation, despite the fact that I've read about the different types of aether, and the common methods of utilizing aether for magic in game, Liviana has no idea about the details of such.
Say that someone tells her that expelling aether from inside the body is the way to practice arcanima. I'm aware that the method they're talking about using isn't arcanima, but thaumaturgy. I know this, from past RP experience, and from reading while playing the game.Â
Liviana isn't a 'genius' when it comes to aether at all. And while I can send that player a tell saying, 'C'mon now, you know that's wrong," Liviana has to reply accordingly. She just does not know. I'm under no obligation to have my non-genius character comment on a subject that he or she knows absolutely nothing about.Â
A lot of cases of a non-genius character outsmarting a genius character seem to boil down to that type of situation.Â
Character A says something to seem intelligent, even if Player A knows that the information they're giving is wrong, to try and impress Character B.
Character B corrects Character A, even if Character B is meant to be the less intelligent of the two on that subject matter, because Player B knows that what Character A said is wrong.
That isn't a case of a non-genius character outsmarting a genius character, but instead one player using their character as a vehicle to tell the opposite player that they are in fact wrong and their character is not a genius. And while this isn't an 'absolute' example of any kind, that is hands down the most common example of a non-genius outsmarting a genius that I see portrayed in the RP community.
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