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Overpowered or underpowered characters?


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

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Poll: Which Character do you relate to most?
You do not have permission to vote in this poll.
Adventurer 1
4.76%
2 4.76%
Adventurer 2
23.81%
10 23.81%
The Voidsent Potato
42.86%
18 42.86%
The Courier
28.57%
12 28.57%
Total 42 vote(s) 100%
* You voted for this item. [Show Results]

Overpowered or underpowered characters?
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Magellanv
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#46
03-04-2015, 07:08 PM
I have yet to come across a good OP character. I'm not saying its impossible, but things can (and often do) become such an epeen measuring contest, because there is no 'authority' (read, DM,) who can settle who does, in fact have the stronger character in a combat situation. You can settle on /random rolls, though that might be a little too basic for some people.

On the whole, I actually try to avoid combat rp altogether, unless I am on my underpowered characters. Then, I know my characterbis gonna lose anyway, and I can have fun with it. On my stronger characters, however, well... people tend to act like their characters have never lost a fight in anything, and it can quickly escalate in a dragonball z episode, which is not a show that ever interested me.

Npc'd OP characters, however, can be very fun. OP player characters, not so much.
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#47
03-04-2015, 08:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-04-2015, 08:55 PM by Hyrist.)
(03-04-2015, 07:08 PM)Magellan Wrote: I have yet to come across a good OP character. I'm not saying its impossible, but things can (and often do) become such an epeen measuring contest, because there is no 'authority' (read, DM,) who can settle who does, in fact have the stronger character in a combat situation. You can settle on /random rolls, though that might be a little too basic for some people.

Usually, those are the ones that are picking powerful characters to RP for the wrong reasons.

See, I don't mind the result of a fight being left to Dice Rolls, having a powerful character fail is a challenge, and far more fun to me than just failing because your character was under-powered.

But honestly, I'm not much of a PvP player.  That's where the Epeen comes from, I think. My character has power because part of her story is a question of how she deals with the consequences and mysteries of it. And, honestly, it mostly results in her running and hiding from it. She doesn't want to be abnormal, but at the same time, with the world so dangerous, can she really say she has the right to refuse it? This inner conflict got even more intense when it came to the battle of Cartneau and the aftermath. Losing so many of her friends dying to protect people, then being forgotten. She's traumatized but she's a legacy of those lost at the same time.

In the end the role play becomes more about the conflict of responsibility and personal desires, and the consequences of ignoring one's past than that of someone who's powerful. Lin does not feel like she's better than anyone, in fact she feels like a freak, and this gets compounded on by the mental instability inflicted by the trauma of the Calamity.

So, it's all in the approach, I think. Some people, especially if they're young or new to RPing, will tend to RP powerful characters for the sake of satisfying a need for importance or trying to meet story to game-play. But that's speculation. I'm ok with powerful character so long a they are kept in check OOCly, and that can be done with communication.
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#48
03-05-2015, 03:10 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-05-2015, 03:10 AM by Caspar.)
(03-04-2015, 07:08 PM)Magellan Wrote: I have yet to come across a good OP character. I'm not saying its impossible, but things can (and often do) become such an epeen measuring contest, because there is no 'authority' (read, DM,) who can settle who does, in fact have the stronger character in a combat situation. You can settle on /random rolls, though that might be a little too basic for some people.

On the whole, I actually try to avoid combat rp altogether, unless I am on my underpowered characters. Then, I know my characterbis gonna lose anyway, and I can have fun with it. On my stronger characters, however, well... people tend to act like their characters have never lost a fight in anything, and it can quickly escalate in a dragonball z episode, which is not a show that ever interested me.

Npc'd OP characters, however, can be very fun. OP player characters, not so much.
You say that, but I don't know. What would you define as OP, then?

I'd like for my character to have credibility for RP purposes, but /random just hates me and she's never won a single fight using it. That's just bad luck, but it definitely stretches the plausibility of her having trained her entire life to beat people to death with her bare hands. I don't really care about her being the strongest, but I'd like people to at least have IC reason to take her seriously, lol.

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#49
03-05-2015, 05:45 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-05-2015, 05:46 AM by Tiergan.)
(02-25-2015, 02:30 PM)Graeham Ridgefield Wrote: The biggest problem with powerful characters is that many role-players seek to embrace all the perks and none of the drawbacks that accompany such a role. An experienced soldier would realistically spend most of their time fighting their foes and would be exhausted during what little free time they actually have to piece together something resembling a social life.

Yet because of how frequently instant teleportation is embraced that eliminates the 'distance' drawback for many. You'll see people fighting in La Noscea one minute and then teleporting to Gridania shortly afterwards.

So what other drawbacks does that leave us with? Well, anyone who has actually been to a real battlefield will agree that it isn't something you just get over. It affects one's ability to connect with their friends and family due to the trauma that arises as a result of injuring and killing others for a living.

...and yet that is rarely exploited as a drawback either since the majority of powerful characters happen to be role-played as social butterflies who somehow manage to juggle everything at once.

Putting aside the mental trauma there's also the risk of physical trauma which, again, so rarely ends up being embraced as a realistic drawback. Instant healing is often embraced, eliminating much of the danger and potential for scarring. Thankfully some role-players are brave enough to go down the route of allowing their character to bear some lasting damage but it seems to be fairly rare from what I've seen in-game.

In short, I have no issue with powerful characters...assuming they're not just created with the intention of wanking off their creator's ego. If you're going to put your character on a pedestal above everybody else's then the least that can be done is to exploit some realistic drawbacks that are actually drawbacks and not just vague cop outs like 'he is too nice'.

I bolded the part I feel really nails the fear lot of people might have towards 'overpowered' characters.

We've all run into that one roleplayer who was essentially godmoding his or her character as being super strong, super rich, super fast, super skilled at everything - but it's all okay because he or she has flaws too! Like being too nice! Or too trusting! Or too strong for their own good! It kind of leaves you with the sense that they're not roleplaying a character and crafting a decent narrative so much as playing out some wish fufillment fantasies of being popular, rich, skilled, or well-loved by all.

Everything has to have balance. Even if you're playing a super strong/skilled/rich/etc character, there should be some reasonable consequences/drawbacks to that power that make them feel more like people than tropes. A lady who is a highly skilled and power soldier from participating in so many wars and battles might be struggling with some serious PTSD. A man who's an incredibly powerful healer capable of mending almost any wound might be completely socially inept from doing almost nothing else but studying conjury and communing with the elementals. There has to be a give and take, because the flaws and conflict they generate is not just fun for you, but for all the folks you interact with.

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#50
03-05-2015, 07:06 AM
from my own experience, rpers in general tend to think of things in real simple, concrete terms. in many cases, not only do they think in concrete terms, they focus solely on physical aspects i.e. what their imaginary person can beat up and how totally cool their imaginary character is for being able to beat things up!

if any thought is given to what goes on in the character's head, it's often just as concrete and measured in terms of "my character is THIS strong". i have seen many, many characters that are "intelligent" solely because the player says they are. they don't demonstrate any knowledge beyond what the average joe has (emoting reading a book doesn't count), they don't say anything profound or wise, they don't show cunning or wit. these "intelligent" characters often just use their VAST cognitive ability to throw bigger fireballs, say really condescending things and various other forms of dickwaving (in other words, their intelligence is really just another ability that helps them beat things up). it's a power fantasy of the mind.

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).

thankyou for reading my opinions have a good night god bless Cool

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#51
03-05-2015, 07:10 AM
The above is why it's super hard for me to RP Lurial 75% of the time, because she's supposed to be super smart and I'm super derp. :V

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#52
03-05-2015, 08:13 AM
(03-05-2015, 07:10 AM)Tiergan Wrote: The above is why it's super hard for me to RP Lurial 75% of the time, because she's supposed to be super smart and I'm super derp. :V

QFT. Chao may be a magitek genius, but I am halfway technologically inept.

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#53
03-05-2015, 08:49 AM
(03-05-2015, 03:10 AM)Caspar Wrote:
(03-04-2015, 07:08 PM)Magellan Wrote: I have yet to come across a good OP character. I'm not saying its impossible, but things can (and often do) become such an epeen measuring contest, because there is no 'authority' (read, DM,) who can settle who does, in fact have the stronger character in a combat situation. You can settle on /random rolls, though that might be a little too basic for some people.

On the whole, I actually try to avoid combat rp altogether, unless I am on my underpowered characters. Then, I know my characterbis gonna lose anyway, and I can have fun with it. On my stronger characters, however, well... people tend to act like their characters have never lost a fight in anything, and it can quickly escalate in a dragonball z episode, which is not a show that ever interested me.

Npc'd OP characters, however, can be very fun. OP player characters, not so much.
You say that, but I don't know. What would you define as OP, then?

I'd like for my character to have credibility for RP purposes, but /random just hates me and she's never won a single fight using it. That's just bad luck, but it definitely stretches the plausibility of her having trained her entire life to beat people to death with her bare hands. I don't really care about her being the strongest, but I'd like people to at least have IC reason to take her seriously, lol.
See, and there's a problem there (bolded part). Not on your end; its certainly plausible for you to construct a viscious killer (and/or just strong, capable fighter), but there are not too many people out there who seem willing to let their PC's die, or get their butts handed to them. In order to build up the plausability of your characters fierce veracity, you'd almost have to have her attack npcs just to show what she's capable of. I agree the dice system can be too simplistic, and those of us prone to bad rolls (such as yours truly) can get nowhere with it.

I had a character who was supposed to be an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, a skill she tried to train others on. Only, she kept losing every sparring match because characters who had had zero training in this combat style were pulling off moves that'd put Jason Bourne to shame. And that smacks of OP; implausibly giving your characters skills they simply don't have cuz: Nope. I don't lose fights.

There are enough of these sorts out there that I only combat rp with close, trusted friends. Even if two characters fight that are equally trained, there's not really a good system in place to determine the outcome, so OOC trust between combatants is key.
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#54
03-05-2015, 09:11 AM
I kind of wander between the two. My alt is severely underpowered. She can't find physically or aetherically. She's a damn fast runner though, and she can easily slip away from situations.

My main character is more complicated. Based on her knowledge with magic and skill, she should be OP, however, due to a condition she was born with, it makes her aetherial management quite unreliable, in the sense that, if she's unstable, she cannot cast magic because either she loses control (and it backfires), or she simply doens't have the energy to, and would have to resort to using her life force to fight, SEVERELY putting her life at risk. There have been several instances where she was unable to cast magic due to her condition and got attacked when nobody was around to protect her, and many times, these led to her nearly getting killed. She is very physically weak as well, at least, against a common brute who would seek to fight her. If she is lucky enough to be aetherically stable, and IF she is in a place where she can safely cast magic, then yes, I usually make her as OP as my opponent allows me to make her (without going over to the "primal destroyer demi-god." side), and of course, even then, she can get hurt.

In other words, I think a character will always be balanced if their weaknesses are as big as their strengths.
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#55
03-05-2015, 10:33 AM
(02-23-2015, 06:59 PM)Mitzer The Mighty Wrote: I see a lot of different types of roleplay. I was wondering which type appeals more to you. Do you like playing powerful characters? How do you keep it interesting? Or do you enjoy regular joes, how do you make mundane life interesting in roleplay? Both types are needed in stories It's what keeps things moving. More interested in which is more fun to play and why.

There is a door in front of you, it is locked.

Adventurer 1 is a powerful Captain of Everything, born half demon/ half angel/ half primal/ half key so they pushed the door open with ease. They see Ifrit, who says "Dear gods not again." Afterward they go to the quicksand and cant find a seat so they drink in a dark dank corner and brood while the other half voidsent/ half potatoes ask "Did you kill primals today?".

Adventurer 2 is a young refugee with no particular skills in trade. He is attempting to break in to the room of a famous thief and prove himself to be worthy of his attention. He has no skill in lock picking and just realized the key was lost in the long travel through a freak flash storm. It was with luck a courier from Gridania had crossed their path, seeing as the boy struggled with the lock. "Just what are you trying to get from that shack boy?" The courier would only see the eyes of desperation. She took pity on the trembling figure who reminded her of her son at home. With a novice's understanding of carpentry she took an awl and mallet to the hinges of the door. A crack of wood, creak of rusted metal, the door found it's way to the floor. Beyond the cloud of dust was a small table with single wooden box. Inside, was the spare key and a parchment with a laughing face inscribed in charcoal. The spectacle caused the courier to laugh at the boy's misfortune. The thief was a clever one who would not be found so easily. She took him back to Gridania to fill his belly by the fire, in the company of a few friends who might have some meaningful work with plenty of room to teach in exchange for the boy's humorous tale of misadventure.

In my opinion: Viva Adventurer 2, the bringer of laughs and endless entertainment.
I'd agree with Franz's view that these seem a bit polarized, and add that there seems to be a specific emphasis on making Adventurer 2 look better. If you've seen many different types of roleplay, then you know that there are many, many more types than Adventurers 1 and 2, and that many of them bring a healthy balance to the two. 

There's really nothing stopping an overpowered character from having a mundane life -- and still being interesting. It becomes all about the character themselves, and how they're written. I don't like either of those examples listed because they force the character into a mold (one of which is brief and empty for the apparent purposes of demonstration!).

I'll use my own character to demonstrate. Looking at his wiki alone, Berrod seems overpowered. A skilled monk, open chakras, leader of a free company? Oh goodness! Very little of that actually comes into play when I roleplay with him, though. My screen time on Berrod tends to emphasize on his stresses, his insecurities, and his fight to adjust to a role that was forced upon him. It shows his struggle with his relationship, his sexuality, his finances and his self-image. I enjoy placing him in awkward and comedic situations that test the limits of his meagre social graces, and people are probably fed up of seeing him plod into the Quicksand just to drop off leves for Eustace every day. 

Ask him to reduce a boulder to gravel, he can do it! That doesn't really define him as a character though. Even with all his abilities, during a fight or a similarly trying adventure, the decisions he has to make regarding what challenges he faces can be explored in a deeper sense than "Hoho! I shall punch it into the sun! BECAUSE I CAN."

Therein lies the balance, and why neither of those examples feel 'real' to me. 

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#56
03-05-2015, 10:58 AM
(03-05-2015, 07:06 AM)Edvyn Wrote: from my own experience, rpers in general tend to think of things in real simple, concrete terms. in many cases, not only do they think in concrete terms, they focus solely on physical aspects i.e. what their imaginary person can beat up and how totally cool their imaginary character is for being able to beat things up!

if any thought is given to what goes on in the character's head, it's often just as concrete and measured in terms of "my character is THIS strong". i have seen many, many characters that are "intelligent" solely because the player says they are. they don't demonstrate any knowledge beyond what the average joe has (emoting reading a book doesn't count), they don't say anything profound or wise, they don't show cunning or wit. these "intelligent" characters often just use their VAST cognitive ability to throw bigger fireballs, say really condescending things and various other forms of dickwaving (in other words, their intelligence is really just another ability that helps them beat things up). it's a power fantasy of the mind.

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).

thankyou for reading my opinions have a good night god bless Cool

While I agree with most of what you said, one question remains for me;

How do you define intelligence? Obviously you seem to have a standard you're comparing these examples to that they need to reach to be considered intelligent, wise or witty.

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#57
03-05-2015, 11:56 AM
I thought I replied in this.


Anyways, I've always been wary of overpowered characters because I don't understand how they are supposed to meld well together with regular characters who lean more toward realism. Like, take for instance someone who, in previous scenes, used to drop numerous enemies like flies and now they find themselves in a situation where 2-4 people are surrounded by 4-5 Amalj'aa and are treating it like a very threatening situation... what is the OP character supposed to do? Stay true to his character and clean them all out swiftly and easily? Or downplay his character so that it doesn't eliminate the sense of tension/the scene in general for the others - in which case it just stops being a character's trait and more of a "I am OP when I can get away with it" card?

(03-05-2015, 07:06 AM)Edvyn Wrote: from my own experience, rpers in general tend to think of things in real simple, concrete terms. in many cases, not only do they think in concrete terms, they focus solely on physical aspects i.e. what their imaginary person can beat up and how totally cool their imaginary character is for being able to beat things up!

if any thought is given to what goes on in the character's head, it's often just as concrete and measured in terms of "my character is THIS strong". i have seen many, many characters that are "intelligent" solely because the player says they are. they don't demonstrate any knowledge beyond what the average joe has (emoting reading a book doesn't count), they don't say anything profound or wise, they don't show cunning or wit. these "intelligent" characters often just use their VAST cognitive ability to throw bigger fireballs, say really condescending things and various other forms of dickwaving (in other words, their intelligence is really just another ability that helps them beat things up). it's a power fantasy of the mind.

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).

While I'd agree in the case of self-proclaimed beautiful/pretty characters, funny characters, wise and witty characters, I'd draw a line at intelligence. I don't see any good reason why someone needs to be intelligent and very well-versed in the lore because they want to play a particularly smart character. Is it nice if they can live up to the title? Sure... but that's a pretty big expectation of them otherwise. In the case of personality quirks then they seem far more necessary because they rely a lot more on delivery and reception whereas people can conclude that someone is knowledgable or smart and perhaps OOCly help their character come up with ideas or offer advice for an IC scene if they struggle otherwise.

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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#58
03-05-2015, 12:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-05-2015, 12:12 PM by Caspar.)
Edvyn and Magellan:
I'll definitely admit to having way more success in characterizing Virara's social retardation than her skill in combat, lol.
But I think that it's fine to have a goal in mind as to what sort of character you want to play, and to what impression you should give. Maybe I'm spoiled from pbp and bbs rp, where others only have your writing to go off of, but there's plenty of reason why playing an expert in something is not out of the question and should be respected. The kind of story I want to tell demands that level of skill. There is no reason for me to play the character otherwise. If that is not something another rper can respect, that's less my problem and more theirs, I feel. If you do nothing more complex than tavern rp with an expert, sure I'd say it was a waste, and just there to bloat the player's own ego, but to me rp is group writing, not acting, and my character has a purpose to fulfill in the narrative. Besides, I think it's fair for people to want to write a character that doesn't resemble themselves. I'll let the most airheaded rper play a genius if they give enough ic reason for me to respect them, background wise, even if I think their writing ability doesn't communicate it well. God knows I've played dozens of characters who were scientifically or mathematically inclined and I have the worst track record with those things. Not by choice either, I often got pressured into that role by friends or forum members who expected me to do so, a kind of OOC typecasting, lol.

But say that the character had no background in burger flipping or whatever, and yet made the best burger anyone has seen when it was time to have a cooking competition. Then I'd question the narrative purpose of them just being super good at it suddenly. The example Magellan gave is pretty good for understanding why people are afraid to play an expert; given background, it's easy to respect an expert, but without it the player is just trying to look cool...

Quote:Anyways, I've always been wary of overpowered characters because I don't understand how they are supposed to meld well together with regular characters who lean more toward realism. Like, take for instance someone who, in previous scenes, used to drop numerous enemies like flies and now they find themselves in a situation where 2-4 people are surrounded by 4-5 Amalj'aa and are treating it like a very threatening situation... what is the OP character supposed to do? Stay true to his character and clean them all out swiftly and easily? Or downplay his character so that it doesn't eliminate the sense of tension/the scene in general for the others - in which case it just stops being a character's trait and more of a "I am OP when I can get away with it" card?
That's actually sort of a good point. I have to be wary of these things because my character suddenly gained the ability to punch through cobalt when sufficiently enraged. I mean I'm fine with that, lol. It's just that it was a totally unexpected result of an inconclusive rp fight, and not even something I wrote myself. I just wrote "she hit really, really hard" in purpleprose like I always do, but the result on the defender's side was broken armor... So now I do have to consider, well, this really wouldn't be a challenge for Virara, and try to figure out a way to either communicate this to other players so the challenge is appropriate, or otherwise come up with an excuse to explain why it is. Not to mention some people like fighting at a level of rather mundane swordplay or martial skill. (In a world where people fly around and shoot fireballs, but whatever floats their boat, I guess.) So I have to tone down what my character can do for them. If I say "she's literally so fast that she can't be seen for a moment," that would be unfair, so I would say "she's almost too fast to follow with the naked eye." The wiggle room offered is pretty important, IMO. I can't just assume they're weaker because they're essentially playing a different game.

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Hyristv
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#59
03-05-2015, 12:47 PM
(03-05-2015, 11:56 AM)K Wrote: I thought I replied in this.


Anyways, I've always been wary of overpowered characters because I don't understand how they are supposed to meld well together with regular characters who lean more toward realism. Like, take for instance someone who, in previous scenes, used to drop numerous enemies like flies and now they find themselves in a situation where 2-4 people are surrounded by 4-5 Amalj'aa and are treating it like a very threatening situation... what is the OP character supposed to do? Stay true to his character and clean them all out swiftly and easily? Or downplay his character so that it doesn't eliminate the sense of tension/the scene in general for the others - in which case it just stops being a character's trait and more of a "I am OP when I can get away with it" card?
This question may have been Rhetorical, but the true answer is reliant on the character.

The tension for the 'overpowered' character comes from the lingering question of whether or not this powerful character, while being powerful, be able to defend others from harm while doing it.

I'm going to use Lin again as an example. She may be able to deftly kill multiple enemies on her own, but much of her tactics require her to be highly mobile or have personal space to do so, as she's a Dragoon. That does not lend itself to protecting others very well, and she's suffered the consequences of that before.

There's the risk of harming someone inadvertently when swinging wide with her spear, or over focusing on one opponent when the others focus on a 'weak link'. For Lin, that's a major trauma point because she's lost people that way so there's a matter of whether or not she even has to focus to behave with the same efficiency she does solo. So the tension in that confrontation remains.

I'd imagine situations could be made to maintain that situation for many of the characters. A mage may be able to handle perhaps a single small group of enemies with a Sleep or Bind spell, but some of the more destructive forces are liable for Friendly fire issues in RP.

A skilled tank, such as a Paladin or Warrior, however, may be able to fend off multiple enemies, (using flash as a great opener) as is their design, but finishing opponents deftly would take a secondary objective than protecting others.

So even with powerful characters, the base premises can still keep situations intense in those circumstances. Again, it's all in the execution which, honestly, comes with expierence and care. 

Most of the arguments here against power characters fall more in line with characters that lack depth, and honestly, that applies on the whole spectrum. A shallow character is a boring and often frustrating character to play with.
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RE: Overpowered or underpowered characters? |
#60
03-05-2015, 01:25 PM
(03-05-2015, 11:56 AM)Knahli Wrote: Stay true to his character and clean them all out swiftly and easily? Or downplay his character so that it doesn't eliminate the sense of tension/the scene in general for the others - in which case it just stops being a character's trait and more of a "I am OP when I can get away with it" card?

Do what's best for the story, is what I'd say. Smile If you subscribe to the "everyone at the same tier has the same level of power" superhero comics logic, then if the story says that small group of Amalj'aa are a real threat, then they are. It's up to the player to decide how best to achieve that, whether it's by external circumstance ("they're wearing corrupted crystals -- my spells can't affect them"), internal conflict ("I was abused by Amalj'aa -- I just can't do this"), or pure bad luck ("I tripped and fell, losing my staff"). A key part of playing a powerful character in situations with less powerful characters is that you have to share the spotlight by only asserting the level of power necessary for the story in which you find yourself. That's one of the characteristics that separates a well-played powerful character from the "super-power wish fulfillment solves every problem" nightmare that everyone's seen far too many times.

With that said, it can often be difficult to combine the stories of powerful characters with those that aren't powerful. The Avengers just aren't operating on the same level as the Runaways, for instance, and putting them into the same story requires the narrative chicanery outlined above to ensure that the Avengers just don't resolve the issue themselves. This is another reason why cross-FC or world-spanning plots tend to have issues -- with legitimately varying takes on the average power level of characters in the setting, it's almost impossible to write a plot that lets everyone participate in the manner they feel is appropriate for their character. You don't have these sorts of issues in "hangout RP" or events like the Grindstone where the dice specify the narrative and part of the RP challenge is making that work.

I may be somewhat cynical in this regard through experience, though. Smile

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