God RPing

[John80sk]

This is what happens in all open RP, one up manship can't really be avoided, that's why we have stats... which come with their own list of problems of course.

[Pestilence]

I was requested to add the link to the post I was refering to about the stats. Posted by Chaos third post.

http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=25053.0

[eldoth_terevan]

Maybe I am being obtuse, but I am assuming you are talking about a character who is not powerful attempting to RP a god? I see a characters abilities in RP to be ONLY those things that cannot be done with current game mechanics. If someone is supposedly an invincible god then they should be on open PVP setting and have played that character for years and their description should say "you evaluate that X could destroy you with an eyeblink". A less powerful character trying to do this would just make me highly irritated. Nice post...

[bilbous]

my personal opinion is that any roleplay that includes any elements that are not explicitly built in to the game world are Out Of Context. Therefor any psychic ability is unacceptable. Your dagger to the throat move could be included as Assassin Strike even though it is not implimented yet. Anyone claiming Godly powers should be immediately cursed by the legitimate in-game Gods being transformed into a rat or some such thing for a period of time. this might require RP'ers to keep logs and would probably annoy GM's to no end.

We can see some of what the future holds for the game and anything extra should be lobbied for outside of the game and not included in RP until there is some concrete indication that it will be included in the future. "That is a good idea we will take a look at it" is not such an indication, a new skill listing on everyones skills page whether or not it can currently be practiced is. Otherwise if it is not in the game it is not a suitable Role Play element.

That is my opinion anyway and I'm not much into RP'ing as most of it seems to be self-aggrandizing nonsense to me. Ohh I can fake middle English better  than you hee hee hee, I am a Lord and you are my Lady even though such titles do not exist in this world, really there is the Octarch and Vigesemis but democratically elected civil servants do not get European nobility titles.

[eldoth_terevan]

Roleplay at its WORST is self-aggrandizing nonsense, I agree. At its best it is people making up stories and using their characters to tell them within a setting that has acknowledged limits. There are -- I am generalizing -- two types of people who play something like this: those that wish to have fun and hang out with their friends and possibly have an interesting story come their way ... and those who do not deal well with real life or other people to begin with. This has always been true of immersive games, even when they were just pen, paper and miniatures. There is always the /ignore command option...

[bilbous]

...
 two types of people who play something like this: those that wish to have fun and hang out with their friends and possibly have an interesting story come their way ... and those who do not deal well with real life or other people to begin with.  ...

I can't argue with this although it doesn't really determine who is who. Some people like the feeling of progressing their character (like me) and the various statistics make this something well defined. Other people like to make a story and try to develop a plot line for their character and this is a more nebulous endeavor as there is nothing inherent in the character to show their past. You may keep logs of your adventures and post them somewhere on the net or even use them to create stories posted on the internet but they will not be apparent to the casual player in the game. I see nothing wrong with either approach and typically there is some overlap between these types. My character tends to be a matter-of-fact lets improve our abilities type but he also has created an outrageous fable of the origins of the Kran that he likes to tell as plain fact. Some of you will have heard of it and his description has been altered from the standard life history to reference it.

Of course there are other people who just like to make life difficult for people and they can be of either type, the less said about them the better.

[zhai]

Nobody starts out being god-like nor should they be allowed to. That's the only clear level we have in this game: LEVEL 0, with 0 experience, 0 Progression points, 0 tiras, 0 training beyond what they were created with. No matter how much they write in their background stories, they should only limit to what their starting stats are (if you're born with Crystal 18 or mining 9 you can use it, but that's aeons away from being a god). You can write about how you suffered or lived before but making up strange abilities or objects in order to RP an edge over other players is plain pretencious and undeserved.

[eldoth_terevan]

Bilbous' way of saying that there are people who like to make life harder for others is probably the better way of saying it. I was just making a vague generalization between the people who are mature and play for enjoyment, and others who play to lord over others with massive l33t pwrlvling bull and hijack the game so nobody can have fun. Thankfully, in PS we might have to deal with these people but the community has enough cohesion to survive an onslaught of them, and the way the game is created basically everybody can have a good time. \o/ dev team

[Pestilence]

Well personally I don't mind if someone RPs being stronger then his stats for RP purposes. I mean you don't want new players not to have a chance at all in a fight, but I do feel if for example someone has trained agility to the highest possible you shouldn't be able to say that in RP terms you are even faster becuase of years of training or something. In such a case you simply shouldn't be able to be faster unless you are doing something your character is simply trained in. like perhaps drawing a sword when you are swordsmen and the other only trained daggers. Then you could be faster, but you shouldn't be able to without effort be way faster then that person in things like running when neither have any handicap. Then you are obviously going outside the setting to what is "humanly" possible in PlaneShift.

And there in my book begins godly powers.

[dying_inside]

I Hate God modding.
Firstly if  you were some deity or extremely powerful being,  that is currently posessing a body, your not so unkillable anymore. Your  body is mortal and  therefore, although your soul cannot "die" etc, your not immortal and your shell is just as mortal as the person attacking you.
The body would not have the abilities your  natural body does and therefore your eyes cannot fire laserbeams and you cannot beat Laanx or Talad in an arm wrestle.
Case, friggin closed.

[Allive]

hey now this post i like the way i see it your rp should be mesured and presented based on your lvls in game. yes ok im always talking about magic but its the easiest system to base demos on. example you should not have a special ability in a way of magic unless you have masterd it. and ppl aboveyour lvl should be able to partialy diminish your attack or even reflect it or desolve it completely if there that much more experienced. i also think there should be a chance facter maybe a roll of a dice if your gonna deflect it you get higher than attacker then it get reflected back if not then you take some dmg this is ofcourse if your more experienced in that way than your attacker.

[Dahoma]

Ugh!RPing always encounters multiple problems like this.

Did you try asking the guy/person/fenki if they could play maybe play into a little bit more within the grip of reality?But you seem like a guy who did that. But I don't think you can do much more than that other than leaving the RP that would be going on.

[Siofra]

While I agree that always RP'ing someone who is more powerful than your current stats indicate is poor form, there is a time and a place to do this. Many people are commenting on how one shuold always RP at a level consistant with your in game stats, but if you are trying to facilitate a new RP session with some great threat, are you prepared to powerlevel a char for 3 months just to have an ALT character worthy of playing this great evil? I think not. You will create an ALT on the fly and then it is up to the others in the RP to react to this character in the appropriate way. There is always a certain amount of suspension of disbelief that is required in this world in order to carry out an effective and fun RP. While I find those who *always* RP a god-like character annoying, it is equally poor form in an RP where you react to some "powerful" character with scoffing because you read in thier desciption that they would pose no challenge to you. Yes, it is a 0 level ALT char created for the purpose of the RP. Use your imagination. That said, I have taken part in some great RP sessions where people have done the 'right' thing and treated this ALT char in the right way and all has been fun and games.

[zhai]

The notion that all evil characters need to be uber powerful is a bit off... you can play a perfect lowlife at level 0 who lies, cheats and steals his way and RP stealthy skills that do not give them an edge in str or any other stat they can't actually be better at. We don't need more "sources of all evil", just plain bad guys. And besides, many players choose to make their main character the evil one, and they PL them accordingly. And, in my own experience I can say that usually well played alts do not pretend to be God-like unless there's an agreement set previously with all the players involved. A totally different thing is when someone tries to impose their god-like powers on others just because they want to RP a god-like character. Also, in my experience, these players will always tell you they are totally not doing god-like RP, so it's hard to talk them out of it.

[Pestilence]

I agree with Zai. First of I don't mind is someone uses an alt that isn't really trained for RP purposes, but then it should only be used for this purpose and should really be an alt.

If you plan on playing the character more often some training should be put into the person aswell.

Anyhow my main problem isn't people playing themselves stronger then they are within the possibilities. It the one that desolve knives with a smile. That effortlessly beat you in any kind of speed eventhough you have max agility, that will always beat you in armwrestling eventhough your strength is maxed.

The powers that aren't supposed to exist in the PS universe. And no not talking about things like lockpicking becuase the skill isn't implemented or breathing becuase there is no skill for that Just some common sence. A thief should be able to lockpick and anyone should be able to breath [however the Kran might do that]

Those however that can't stay within those limits is what is annoying. That is why D&D and similar games have Dungeon Masters. To say  "hello your not a giant you can't lift that much"or "hello you as a player might know that the world is round but these people don't know it isn't flat". People need to be their own DMs now and apparently not everyone is able to do that.