When is a character too skilled?

[Diskwrite]

You know, this isn't really a question I concern myself too much about. Often enough, I'll play it by ear. I try to give the impression, based on the skillsets of the people around her, where my character stands in comparison to them. But even though I picture her as one of the strongest people around, that doesn't mean she can just wrestle anyone into submission.

 

It's a balancing game, and the ways I show her strengths and weaknesses change depending on who I'm playing with. Because in the end, roleplay is about mutual storytelling. Not making my character out to be the most powerful person in the room.

 

I think, as long as you keep that at the forefront of your mind, this really isn't a big deal. Your character might be one of the best at what they do, sure, but there's always a bigger fish.

[allgivenover]

I find it more believable that a person could be pretty good at several things rather than an amazing expert of a single thing.

 

I feel like the motivation, talent, and innovative creativity necessary to go from "pretty good" at something to "amazing expert" is a huge gap compared to say... going from "novice" to "pretty good".

[arkamas]

I'd say so long as you can justify their level of skill in something, along with a fairly appropriate amount of time to reach that skill level in their backstory.  For instance: my main Fyrilsunn grew up amongst tradesmen.  He was apprenticed to his father, a shipwright, and learned that trade to at least a journeyman level, before taking up the roll as a privateer ships carpenter for nearly thirteen years,  which he adapts into a superb understanding of carpentry and woodworking. He also spent a good amount of time with his grandfather in the forge, and knows the basics of most metalcrafts, though he could never compare to an actual tradesman in the field.  

 

Then throw in the fact that he's been aboard a privateer vessel for most of his adult life, swinging a battleaxe, followed by five years a high risk adventurer, he's been fighting for nealry 17 years. You don't live that long without either a good amount of luck, a good amount of skill, or a hefty dosage of both.  

 

I dont feel like he's too skilled, but then again, he's only TRULY masterful at two things.  He's just a fair amount of latent talent in the crafting department that he never gets to tap into.

 

Furthermore, there is the idea that once you reach a certain point of mastery in something, the lines of how skilled you are get blurry. Can you compare the works of Raphael and Michelangelo? They where both brilliant, but who was more so?

 

In short... its okay to be extremely skilled. Your character can be good, he could be one of the best. But how can you tell he IS the best? Just dont make him so at litteraly everything. Characters without some flaws are boring.

[Paradox]

I think I'm one of the only people that doesn't care how skilled or unskilled anyone's character is, as long as they don't shove their roleplay standards in my face. Ie, the 'your character is too strong/too this/too etc so you're a mary sue/special snowflake/so edgy' or other condescending crap that tends to come out of the mouths of people who think they're the resident RP experts. I don't care if your character is a god among men, or a fumbling beginner, an expert in one field or an expert in ten. Admittedly I like certain styles of RP others may not. But if your character interests me in other areas than the ones I'm prone to dislike, I will play with that character because interest is fluid. If your character is better, harder, stronger faster than mine..who gives a rat's ass? I think people get far too hung up on how powerful other people's characters are because they don't want to have a diminished sense of usefulness by choosing to play someone who isn't as skilled. But at the end of the day, that's just the rub isn't it? Personal choice. You chose to play someone who isn't powerful or a certain level of strength. That does not mean someone else is not permitted to do so, and many have this bad habit of making people with strong characters feel bad because they're not on the same even level playing field with everyone else in the playground. If I have a strong character, I don't feel a need to justify their strength. I'm not here to make a spreadsheet about why my character may or may not be able to beat someone's face or fast talk them out of their gil. I let my play speak for itself. If people don't like it, then that's fine.

 

 

We all play this game to have fun. Some groups of roleplayers likes stronger characters, for various reasons. Others don't. Also for various reasons. The bottom line is, what's too much is a matter of opinion of each individual roleplayer and has no specific status quo. That's why discussions like these generally always degrade (but I'm glad to see this one hasn't! <3) But! Powerful people exist in the world, and weaker people exist in the world. Life isn't fair. There's always a bigger fish. And if that bigger fish is someone else's character, then, that's just how it is. As long as that person isn't antagonizing you unnecessarily, then there's nothing wrong with strength..especially in a fantasy world that basically runs on a mix of Wuxia fighting mechanics, explosions everywhere, and the Rule of Cool. I know some people like hardcore realism especially in abilities and skills of a character, but this is Final Fantasy. The world itself is basically nonsensical in the 'power' department. So sometimes you need a little suspension of disbelief as to someone's level of skill.

 

So when is a character too skilled, the topic asks? That's up to each individual to decide. There is no blanket right or wrong answer, because everyone has their preferences. If you think someone's too strong and diminishes others around them by your own opinion, but I don't think the same, then obviously one of us will be playing with that person, and one of us won't. If a large majority agree that person diminishes someone and they're not just following the crowd when saying it, but it's their real opinion, perhaps that player is being a bit too bombastic in how he portrays his strength, but the measure of his strength itself may not be the problem. Feeling like one needs to be a certain way or maintain a certain power level or skill level to adjust to the common law opinion of a community majority who likes a certain type of play at the exclusion of all other types kills RP rather than encourages it. I myself have a standing rule I'll RP with anyone unless the *player* is specifically antagonistic or pushy. Hell, I'm more likely to play with a superman character than I am with someone's character whose player is quoting lore at me in PM because one tiny thing on my profile or one single letter in my name isn't *exact* to the high lore standards that player happens to hold.

 

 

Basically, in my opinion (And just my opinion) there's no such thing as too skilled, or too unskilled, if played in such a way that it makes sense to the environment they are part of the story and still allows others their own opportunities to mesh in the play itself. We can't make everyone happy. Play to enjoy with the whole, or with small groups whichever suits you, and find your niche with people that think like you but at the same time try to not be closed off in the process and see from all angles, even if they don't suit you at first. Expand your horizon to the idea of what skill or strength even is. Use suspension of disbelief to a point, without throwing all reason out the window. The number of characters good at 'everything' is surprisingly rare from what I've seen, so it shouldn't be a huge issue in the long run. Game on~.

[Caspar]

I find it more believable that a person could be pretty good at several things rather than an amazing expert of a single thing.

 

I feel like the motivation, talent, and innovative creativity necessary to go from "pretty good" at something to "amazing expert" is a huge gap compared to say... going from "novice" to "pretty good".

I think either works so long as the sacrifice seems appropriate to the amount of proficiency. I do think it's rare to find someone who would dedicate most of their life to the pursuit of a single skill, but the concept is relatively common in fiction. Likewise though, I think it's totally fair to say one person devoted reasonable amounts of time to learning several hobbies, and jumped between multiple professions. If the backstory reflects this in effort spent, I figure it's easy to believe, probably even easier, since it's pretty common IRL anyway.

[Val]

Remember to have a clean discussion, follow rules, etc. etc. I'm just a poster, not a mod.

 

Here's the question I'm going to ask:

 

How many areas can a person be skilled in before they are considered "skilled in too many areas?"

 

Have at thee, RPC!

 

 

Subjective.

 

You can be infinitely skilled if you want. Most people won't like it though.

 

Having more than one field of expertise is too skilled for some people.

 

Not to mention that it's more than just "areas," if you're literally the Best Bard Ever, are you too skilled even if you trip and fumble and fall on your own sword in every other category ever?

 

Depends on who you ask.

 

There's also the concept of Skill vs. Age. Is it more plausible to be the Best Arcanist in the Whole Wide World at the ripe old age of 89, or the tiny babby age of 13? Who knows. You'll get plenty of varying opinions on all of this though.

 

The can of worms has been OPENED.

 

I pretty much agree with all of this. It's subjective and you're never going to find one answer to suit everyone. I fall into the Skill vs. Age camp as a good indicator. A lot of people like to argue in FF's behalf that their characters are 16-17-20ish and can hold their own and be super powerful, so why can't we? My response to this is always simply "Your character isn't the main character. They're just a person in a world full of many others like them."

 

But that's just my thoughts on the matter. As long as someone can manage to balance something in some way, I don't really care what they do. If I'm given a plausible reason for a character to have the abilities/skills that they do, I'll roll with it.

[S'imba]

In my opinion the more skills you give a character the less interesting they become...not just to others but to the player themselves. They end up with nowhere to grow, nothing to challenge themselves with or overcome. To be this swiss army knife of a character that has the right tool for the right job at every situation can only be interesting for so long. 

 

I'll admit I have an extremely skilled character I wrote as an attempt to get more people involved in RP to act as a method to drive other peoples characters to grow and get involved. Despite him serving his purpose he is still really bland to me for the exact reasons above. I never really get him involved other than giving other characters the motivation or extra tools they need to beat a challenge.

 

In the end it comes to the point that all villains have to come to an end as well as the heroes. The faster you push yourself to that point the sooner that will occur. Otherwise the rp just gets repetitive and old. 

 

Basically I feel a character is too skilled when they no longer have any area to grow in. Though sometimes it is hard for a player to accept that a character has reached this point.

[Warren Castille]

A lot of people like to argue in FF's behalf that their characters are 16-17-20ish and can hold their own and be super powerful, so why can't we? My response to this is always simply "Your character isn't the main character. They're just a person in a world full of many others like them."

 

Put this on a banner and hang it in the rafters. There's sometimes a lot of conflict that stems from this sentiment. There's nothing wrong with being the main character in your own story, but RP is a collaborative effort. As soon as you begin to interact with others, you cease to be the main character. Some people resist or resent this, and feel entitled to being comparatively powerful or capable because their written-and-vetted-by-one-person backstory says they should be.

 

It's selfish to do that, and impacts a cooperative environment in a negative way. Of course, there's some folks who have no issue being relegated to subordinate or sidekick roles when in the presence of suitably powerful characters, but in my experiences that's the exception to the rule.

[-no longer matters-]

A lot of people like to argue in FF's behalf that their characters are 16-17-20ish and can hold their own and be super powerful, so why can't we? My response to this is always simply "Your character isn't the main character. They're just a person in a world full of many others like them."

 

Put this on a banner and hang it in the rafters. There's sometimes a lot of conflict that stems from this sentiment. There's nothing wrong with being the main character in your own story, but RP is a collaborative effort. As soon as you begin to interact with others, you cease to be the main character. Some people resist or resent this, and feel entitled to being comparatively powerful or capable because their written-and-vetted-by-one-person backstory says they should be.

 

It's selfish to do that, and impacts a cooperative environment in a negative way. Of course, there's some folks who have no issue being relegated to subordinate or sidekick roles when in the presence of suitably powerful characters, but in my experiences that's the exception to the rule.

I personally think a "good" roleplay group is kind of like reading a Justice League comic, where eventually every character gets the spot light at some point and people don't mind rotating that and being a background or side kick. 

 

But for public events and BIG events you pretty much have to accept you are a face in the crowd (unless arranged otherwise.).

 

Back onto being too skilled.

 

Here's how I view it.

Like in DnD and other table tops the more you branch out the less specialized you become, the less potent you become at every skill set. You sacrifice being a mast by becoming a jack of all trades. The issue is NO ONE RPs that.

 

Now there as always are exceptions to this, like some skills feed into another and if you can use lore to justify it, I don't see it being any different than being a Paragon class in DnD.. but they have to reasonably flow together and you still have to be limited in power level. 

 

wish I had more time to explain, but hopefully people got the jist of what I meant.

[13uddy]

Here's how I view it.

Like in DnD and other table tops the more you branch out the less specialized you become, the less potent you become at every skill set. You sacrifice being a mast by becoming a jack of all trades. The issue is NO ONE RPs that.

 

*raises hand*

 

 

I do!  Well, I try to for the most part.  I prefer playing a character that isn't really a master of anything, and while he might be better than some people at something, he is nowhere near an expert at these things.  The things my characters ARE experts of are usually small trivial things, like being a connoisseur of sweets or something generally "useless" like that.  Who really needs to know from what region a particular sugar or fruit used in the sweets originates?

 

My characters still have their own stories to tell, they just aren't the "chosen one" or anything like that of the overall story.  To use a comic book metaphor, others can play Superman or Batman, but I'm happy trying to play Jimmy Olsen or Alfred.

[V'aleera]

"You're just a regular person"

 

My problem with this logic is that we're shown in the lore time and time again nobodies from nowhere rising up to the challenge and making themselves special/powerful.

 

Examples include but are not limited to: 

 

Ysayle, Raubahn, Aymeric, WoL, Thancred, J'moldva, the good Crystal Braves, Edda, etc.

 

Eorzea is a land where ordinary people have extraordinary potential; it's literally in the air.

[Oroban]

Here's a little fuel for the fire; Why is it almost always accepted for a protagonist to be skilled, but not TOO skilled (i.e. needing friends and such), but it's a hugely popular trope that the villains are just that much better at so much? I mean, I know it's obviously to do with the whole theme of needing a nigh insurmountable obstacle for the heroic character to overcome...but doesn't the villain's existence in itself point out that yes, someone can be insanely skilled? (just that it might not be you. And that through the power of narrative plot, you can kick their ass anyway.)

 

tldr: Fiction is full of people who are crazy skilled. It generally means nothing in a narrative sense unless you want it to, and in an RP setting wanting it to and giving consent mean more than any six hundred page backstory regaling the tales of how he once killed two dragons with one punch.

[OverlordOutpost]

"You're just a regular person"

 

My problem with this logic is that we're shown in the lore time and time again nobodies from nowhere rising up to the challenge and making themselves special/powerful.

 

Examples include but are not limited to: 

 

Ysayle, Raubahn, Aymeric, WoL, Thancred, J'moldva, the good Crystal Braves, Edda, etc.

 

Eorzea is a land where ordinary people have extraordinary potential; it's literally in the air.

There's a bit of truth to that, but behind each of those people there's army of folks who are either so unspecial they aren't even given names, or only existed to die.   Ysayle had legions of unnamed heretics, Raubahn the unknown Twin Flames, Aymeric had tons of bodies near him, the good Crystal Braves are at the moment just really loyal folks, and Edda was special because of how terrible she was at what she wanted to do.

 

Those are all major characters in some form.  And it's fine to have a few major characters, it's fine to be good at something (or so terrible at it you kill your friends), it's fine to have potential.  Not everyone needs to be a civilian.

 

The issue is when everyone is a major character, and they start stumbling over each other.  It works in D&D, smaller groups, and FCs because everyone is roughly the same strength in different ways.  You get a good balance of everyone being awesome at something everyone else isn't and they can cover each other.  But once you move out into Open RP, and everyone is a IC level 50 swordsman swinging whirling blades of death, it's less going on a balanced adventure, and more absolutely stomping someone else's content.

 

There's been a few times by simple merit of being on the lower end of the adventurer scale of power that I'm just absolutely locked out because everyone else is Major character level.  There's RP events made with the idea that everyone going there is already incredibly powerful in some form.  They can shoot off Fire 3 while another person Holmgang's the big beasties breathe, and the archer shoots out it's eyes with precise marksmanship.  Meanwhile, the novice adventurer can maybe shoot a Blizzard 1 and take copious notes during that fight, safely from the massive boulder they're cowering behind.

 

What it ultimately comes down to is balancing the overall party strength, recognizing your audience, then adapting.

 

You become too skilled when the environment you're in suffers from your skill.

 

On the note of my personal beliefs, I'm of the Age vs. Skill camp.  The older you are, the more I feel you're allowed to be skilled in without veering in Main Character or unfun territories.

[SaintEaon]

When you use your character to completely one up the other player. Strange example incoming:

 

I was ERPing this one time with this girl I'd met and a Futa, and no matter what I posted the Futa would just do shit in more extreme detail with demensions that didn't make sense/weren't possible, and did so in such away that I basically got blocked out of an RP I'd set up. 

 

There's a difference between say my character who's a trained Dark Knight and assumed to be quiet dangerous because he does have some violent tendencies and is a firm believer in absolute Justice/ensuring "evil" is dealt with, so when this skilled warrior walks up to a Merchant who's being a twat and when the Merchant gives him an attitude or pulls a knife, and my character ends up breaking his arm or something or running him out in someway, its not always cool to do to someone (because it ends someone's RP perhaps prematurely), it makes sense. 

 

Where as when someone's just soooooo amazing in the time it took my character to shatter someone's femur, they summoned turned invisible then with ninja abilities showed up and had a knife at my neck whilst also evading the two other people who were there making sure I didn't push too hard and kill the poor sod with the shattered femur, that gets a little silly. You assumed my character wouldn't notice a ninja, which he may not have, but not only did he not notice you trying to sneak up often in broad day light because the skill says you were "hidden" you then drew blades and put me on the defensive without even assuming I had help who might be well versed in killing Ninja.

[Dravus]

Uh...well this thread certainly took a turn for the strange and bizarre...

[SaintEaon]

Uh...well this thread certainly took a turn for the strange and bizarre...

 I sincerely hope I contributed to that ^.^, I also didn't read literally any posts above mine, I read the topic and gave my opinion

[Val]

Put this on a banner and hang it in the rafters. There's sometimes a lot of conflict that stems from this sentiment. There's nothing wrong with being the main character in your own story, but RP is a collaborative effort. As soon as you begin to interact with others, you cease to be the main character. Some people resist or resent this, and feel entitled to being comparatively powerful or capable because their written-and-vetted-by-one-person backstory says they should be.

 

I think far too often people forget that they're writing and playing with other people, and instead are trying to write at them. When you realize that it's meant to be a collaboration and no one is really meant to have the spotlight, I think it becomes a lot easier to simmer your character down and just have fun with it rather than being mad about getting beaten in a story and so on and so forth.

[V'aleera]

But isn't that much more of a meta game issue than a "this character is too skilled" issue? The core root of the problem is someone simply wanting all the attention and to never lose; character capability is simply a symptom resulting from that mindset, not the cause of it.

[SaintEaon]

Put this on a banner and hang it in the rafters. There's sometimes a lot of conflict that stems from this sentiment. There's nothing wrong with being the main character in your own story, but RP is a collaborative effort. As soon as you begin to interact with others, you cease to be the main character. Some people resist or resent this, and feel entitled to being comparatively powerful or capable because their written-and-vetted-by-one-person backstory says they should be.

 

I think far too often people forget that they're writing and playing with other people, and instead are trying to write at them. When you realize that it's meant to be a collaboration and no one is really meant to have the spotlight, I think it becomes a lot easier to simmer your character down and just have fun with it rather than being mad about getting beaten in a story and so on and so forth.

 

In some people's defense its hard too though. For instance in an RP I've often become the center of attention not because I was doing anything particularly spectacular or anything, but because usually two of the key characters way of interracting with mine promoted him to the spot light. For instance if some guy was creeping on a girl my character would have no problem putting a blade to his neck and telling him if he ever saw him around the girl again, no one would ever be seeing him again. One of my two characters would recognize this as my character being extreme and dangerous and needing to calm down before he hurt someone. The other wouldn't get involved, he would note his disagreed with the harshness, but as a general rule the guy was a problem who needed to be dealt with. 

 

So we end up with, this other victim guy, my character, a guy who staunchly believes what my character is doing is wrong, thus causing a scene giving my character a spot light, but because of their friendship not immediately being willing to fight him, and yet another character who while he disagrees with the action thinks there should be SOME action, but is unwilling to get his own hands dirty to do so, so instead he'd just let his friend do the morally wrong thing, but effective thing. In that regard I can become a "main character" very, very easily because of the types of relationships my character has, its easy for him to become the center of attention. That doesn't mean he necessarily hindering anyone else's RP. 

 

I do think however, that there are people (there's an entire FC of these people but I wont name names, PM me if you want to know though I'd love nothing more than to continue my Crucification of them as this shit mixed with metagaming, godmodding and their shit has now driven several friends from RPing entirely on FFXIV) that RP with people who think their characters are Gods, then also make themselves gods to compete and don't realize why this is a problem. Hell Godly characters persay aren't even an issue, they're annoying and not very fun to play with, but a super strong, terrifying character who's RP'd by someone who's considerate of others isn't necessarily someone who's so skilled they have to be avoided. Its the RPer who has all that "power" and just wants to feel mighty.

[Warren Castille]

But isn't that much more of a meta game issue than a "this character is too skilled" issue? The core root of the problem is someone simply wanting all the attention and to never lose; character capability is simply a symptom resulting from that mindset, not the cause of it.

 

Fair. I admit my tabletop biases come to the forefront when discussing this kind of thing, on top of it all. I've always felt that conflict is the core of engaging roleplay - be it social, or physical, or political, we need something to overcome or aspire to in order to get anything out of it. This is a personal feeling, obviously, but it's where I come from. When engaging in a plot and someone develops an issue, having one person being able to solve for all issues makes it unfun for everyone not also playing Superman. A sword-swinging researcher-by-night who grew up in a Syndicate household might be capable of fighting, knowing and negotiating through any quagmire that might come up, but is that fun to RP with? Is that fun to RP?

 

I guess the reduced answer to the question is "When you no longer need to interact with anyone to get anything done."

[That Guy]

I'll throw my two cents here since I have another hour before my next class and refuse to be productive.

 

I always ask myself these questions:

 

Can someone (Who is not an NPC but an actual character played by another person) kick your character's butt on a regular basis? Yes? Then you're good.

 

Can someone kick your butt through skill alone, not by using some odd weakness? For example a lot of people make the mistake of saying 'my blind character's one weakness is his blindness.' Nope. Got to have something else. A handicap is not an excuse to remove all other weaknesses from your character.

 

Can YOU beat your character at something? If a nerdy rper can out do some magical fantasy elf from Narnia then you're golden.

 

Weaknesses aren't a bad thing. Neither is loosing. If your character always won they'd never learn something new and that means no growth or development. If your struggling to think of a weakness try personality flaws! If you're not sure which ones your character would have a really simple thing to do might be to try and take a personality quiz for your character. Might give you some inspiration.

[Dante Abigor]

Personally I have a pretty wide range of tolerance for a character's skill level, as long as lore means said skills can exist and the character in question can actually function in a Rp community, then honestly I have no problem whatsoever.

 

The issues for me come into play when the character is so skilled that another character becomes meaningless. And By this I do not mean character A is skilled in X things so character B who is only skilled in Y things cannot really contribute. What I mean is that when a character is so skilled that the skills of another character contributing can be absolutely negated.

 

That probably sounds like a contradiction so I will explain. Within the lore, you have a range from being something as simple as a powerless homeless type stuck in the dumps, or a being as powerful as the Warrior of Light, which most people incorrectly assume there can only be one of typically because only one is portrayed as so famous and powerful in the story.

 

The Warrior of Light power level, if I can use it as such, is such that xe literally renders everyone else meaningless before their skill and power. They can deliver all of the food and crafts, kill demi gods, travel to alternate dimensions, gain the favor of planets and aliens, apparently stop an entire thousand year war, and save people from execution (Except for when the story decides they cant act cause REASONS), all while still having the time to go chocobo racing, win at the Cactpot, gather and use and be the chosen one for ALL of the soul stones in the game, befriend and have fun with moogles....the list goes on. The point is they can do whatever the F**k they want within a time bubble without any consequences things going wrong for them and without any real help from anyone else, as the story honestly shows time and again.

 

Realistically, you can write your character like this and get away with it with SOMEONE. The problem I would have with it rather than it being something you just should not do, is that that leaves no real room for anyone else to develop and contribute. If your character can do everything or anything without anyone else, even if my character WERE a super skilled dragoon or something, why would it matter in the face of your character? There would be no point in our characters interacting in the first place at that point, because your character is in need of NOTHING, and if they are, then they will immediately get whatever it is they need elsewhere, because that is how the character is written.

 

 

 

So basically, in my opinion, a character is too skilled when there is absolutely zero plausible room for another character to exist in their story. Just as the Warrior of Light does not truly have party members or characters that assist them with battles, if your character is so skilled they are not in need of anyone else ever in any way, then that is when they are too skilled, TO ME.

 

EDIT: Id also like to add that the older a character gets, naturally this line can get harder to maintain as naturally a character in a story might try to cover their weaknesses and bases. So I think having an established character "Existence" is important too, since your character having all of these developments off screen tends to make it less....realistic(?) for many people.

 

Beware, Rpers be a fickle and critical bunch at times, yar.

[CrimsonMars]

I tend to have my characters specialist in only one specific area at a time, with a few others fields they can be semi-decent at, and bad at everything else. In which case, Chiyo is technically a monk now with six charkas in her name. She is also fairly good at swinging an axe, and to a lesser degree, daggers and lances, but in terms of combat, that's pretty much it. Even as a monk though, she's barely a match for any real monks from Ala Mhagio if at all, especially if they have unlocked more charka than her, Berrod for example. 

 

She's also inexperienced in fighting primals. The only reason she 'defeated' Ifirt aside from having the echo is because her group mostly carried her, and that Ifirt is at his weaker state I guess (we fought him on easy mode).

[Warren Castille]

The biggest challenge you can run into with time-as-experience is that, even if you've been roleplaying on XIV since day zero and you're around all the time, a random stranger still won't know you from Adam, and all of your actually-roleplayed history and experiences amount to nothing more than "But seriously, she spent sixty years training in the Time Chamber." It's all-but-impossible to "prove" yourself to someone who doesn't believe you should be as powerful as you think if they disagree in the first place, and even if you've got books and books of lovingly recorded RP logs to point them at, in any given encounter with strangers everyone is on equal footing.

[SaintEaon]

The biggest challenge you can run into with time-as-experience is that, even if you've been roleplaying on XIV since day zero and you're around all the time, a random stranger still won't know you from Adam, and all of your actually-roleplayed history and experiences amount to nothing more than "But seriously, she spent sixty years training in the Time Chamber." It's all-but-impossible to "prove" yourself to someone who doesn't believe you should be as powerful as you think if they disagree in the first place, and even if you've got books and books of lovingly recorded RP logs to point them at, in any given encounter with strangers everyone is on equal footing.

 

This actually,

 

When I was still new to the Server my character got into a fight with another in the QS and she tried to "throw" my character. I didn't know who she was, however I did know while being relatively new my character was apart of the Immortal Flames and had been for sometime, he was experienced but maybe not seasoned. So an issue arose when this character I knew nothing about attempted to throw my character because I was bigger, I was in heavy armor, and from what I could tell she was some random blind chick, so being an armored warrior, who's decently trained and experienced in the field I took issue with this character sacrificing my character's physcality by saying she could walk up to him without him defending himself and throw him acrossed a room. A lot of this could be styles, this RPer apparently was more FF style physics where ridicules shit can happen, however I prefer realism so that didn't jive with me, so I took a middle ground I didn't get thrown but I got staggered and nearly fell over.

 

However this person then said I wasn't RPing correctly and left the RP claiming we were ignoring her messages (ignoring that fighting in the QS invites all the spectators and chat scrolling so it's possible we just missed what she was saying because she was doing so in /say). I then later found out she'd won some server wide fighting tournaments that I didn't even know were a thing and its quiet possible her character was that strong. Was her reaction a little over the top? Yes. Was my reaction to her original throw a little subpar? Yes. However I think you can really state that the cause of the problem was an older more experienced RPer on the server assumed that her strength was known and then got annoyed and made an ass out of herself when it wasn't. The whole thing could have been avoided with a few PMs too, had I known her resume I would have reacted differently, had she asked I could have explained my thoughts on why I did what I did, but her perceived "skill' made it to where she felt she was being treated poorly so she quit. 

 

This same critique isn't just valid for skilled characters though, if you can't back up your claims then don't make them. Or vice versa if you want to claim something to set up an RP for later let your partners know 99% of the time they'll be willing to work with you because it helps their character development too. However don't just go around assuming you're a force to be reckoned with, because there's always a bigger fish and finding them can be very tricky.