So, in City of Heroes, this was a common problem, as you can imagine. Empaths and telepaths quite legitimately, by lore, could argue that they could read your character's thoughts, especially if mechanically you had no protection against Psionics. My SG, its coalition members, and many of the RPers on the server came to two approaches that work in parallel.
First, for "passive" powers like empathy -- or, in this case, superhuman senses used passively -- we floated it to the other player as an RP hook. We'd say something to the effect of, "Hey, my miqo'te has an amazing sense of smell, so if there's anything you want to tell me about how your character smells that might make for some interesting RP, feel free to let me know. If not, that's cool, too." In that way, you put the ball in the other player's court; if they want to use the hook, they can, and if not, you can easily RP that there's nothing particularly interesting about them.
Second, for active uses of powers -- in this case, actively sniffing someone to, for instance, see if they've committed some crime, or actively listening in on a conversation -- you request consent. That means reaching out to the player OOC and saying, "Hey, I'd like to have my character listen in on this conversation, because he has superhuman hearing. Is that cool?" If they say no, and there's no reason why they'd have to consent, then for some reason your character just can't use that ability. Requesting consent makes the RP process collaborative and is not godmoding if the ability is supported by lore (since you're not demanding the ability to do something to someone). People are also more likely to grant consent when asked as opposed to when they're told to do so because of (possibly questionable) interpretations of lore. Remember that, mechanically, being miqo'te doesn't extend your character's vision or hearing range, so it's easy to chalk up the racial advantage as "superior but within human range."
I mentioned situations where people have to consent. Obviously, you can't enforce that with random RPers, but in an LS or FC or alliance thereof, you can enforce the rule of IC Actions Equal IC Consequences (and good RPers will play that way anyway, even with random people
). So, if a person uses something active on you, and you agree to it, they have to consent to you doing the same to them. Likewise, if they murder a friend of yours, they consent to the powers and actions that could reasonably result from that.
Of course, with NPCs and in storylines, you can do whatever you want. But I'm a strong believer that, when dealing with other players, you put the ball in their court as much as possible and let them run with the hook, and possibly other mixed metaphors. It makes everyone's lives easier and can produce some great RP.
First, for "passive" powers like empathy -- or, in this case, superhuman senses used passively -- we floated it to the other player as an RP hook. We'd say something to the effect of, "Hey, my miqo'te has an amazing sense of smell, so if there's anything you want to tell me about how your character smells that might make for some interesting RP, feel free to let me know. If not, that's cool, too." In that way, you put the ball in the other player's court; if they want to use the hook, they can, and if not, you can easily RP that there's nothing particularly interesting about them.
Second, for active uses of powers -- in this case, actively sniffing someone to, for instance, see if they've committed some crime, or actively listening in on a conversation -- you request consent. That means reaching out to the player OOC and saying, "Hey, I'd like to have my character listen in on this conversation, because he has superhuman hearing. Is that cool?" If they say no, and there's no reason why they'd have to consent, then for some reason your character just can't use that ability. Requesting consent makes the RP process collaborative and is not godmoding if the ability is supported by lore (since you're not demanding the ability to do something to someone). People are also more likely to grant consent when asked as opposed to when they're told to do so because of (possibly questionable) interpretations of lore. Remember that, mechanically, being miqo'te doesn't extend your character's vision or hearing range, so it's easy to chalk up the racial advantage as "superior but within human range."
I mentioned situations where people have to consent. Obviously, you can't enforce that with random RPers, but in an LS or FC or alliance thereof, you can enforce the rule of IC Actions Equal IC Consequences (and good RPers will play that way anyway, even with random people
). So, if a person uses something active on you, and you agree to it, they have to consent to you doing the same to them. Likewise, if they murder a friend of yours, they consent to the powers and actions that could reasonably result from that.Of course, with NPCs and in storylines, you can do whatever you want.
But I'm a strong believer that, when dealing with other players, you put the ball in their court as much as possible and let them run with the hook, and possibly other mixed metaphors. It makes everyone's lives easier and can produce some great RP.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
