(08-22-2013, 06:43 PM)Uther Wrote: I feel like if you have to impress someone to win their RP approval, you should find a different crowd. All I'm saying is, if you don't mind telling someone "((Hey this isn't an axe))" or whatever, you should have every right to go for it. Anyone who gets insanely upset about it isn't worth RPing with.
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I do think some justification is fair though. For instance, why does Eko fight using his bare hands and a knife? Because he was born on a jungle island unknown to the rest of Hydaelyn and that's what he was raised doing and what he's most comfortable with. That's just playing by the rules. You should be free to do whatever you want, but if someone asks you should have reasoning behind it. That's my thoughts anyway.
I think we agree, actually. There's a cost associated with going away from the "norm" (with regards to lore, mechanics, appearance, or what have you) -- in this case, realistically, the major cost is just having to ensure that you weave information about your variant weapon into your RP so that people know it's there and can react accordingly. But, of course, everyone has a varying level of acceptance of things that are different, and that's where you can get the snippiness, claims of "Mary Sue" or "special snowflake," or people just refusing to RP with you. That's a cost, too, although perhaps not a fair one. My point's just that, since there's a cost, you should make sure that, in your mind, the narrative benefits (to you and others) outweigh the costs. Not everyone's aware of these costs, which is why I bring them up.
Is the cost for a custom weapon all that high? No, probably not. Personally, though, I think custom weapons that don't elucidate backstory, don't bring out elements of a character, or don't strike up interesting RP don't outweigh the costs; the narrative benefits are too low. IMO, if the whole purpose is to make your character look cool and unique, there's ways to do it that don't incur costs at all, and I think people should evaluate those first. Sometimes, though, you have to accept the higher cost to do what you want with the character, and that's fine too, as long as you know what you're getting into.
All that aside, yes, definitely, if you choose to do this -- indeed, if you choose to deviate from the norm in any circumstance -- you definitely need to have an explanation for it that meshes with lore, if nothing else so you can use it in RP.
The Freelance Wizard
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((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))
