Powers, Abilities, Trends & Hypocrisies

I find it interesting, when it's done well.  I don't really think any of my characters have any super special abilities, then someone tells me, 'Wait. Enveri can do -what?-'  or 'Jon's a beast-tal-- wahaaa?'  and then I'm super embarassed and try to shuffle it under the rug like 'NOTHING TO SEE HERE CARRY ON'  and I angst over whether I should re-examine the ability and remove it entirely. 

Regarding other people doing the same things... I have never really run into anyone that runs the same things I do.  And if I did, hey it's a great big wide world out there, it makes sense that someone else has this ability!  I think I'd probably be a little crankyface if everyone took something that was supposed to be really special and unique about my character and suddenly everyone on the server had it... but if for instance suddenly everyone said 'Veri, the way you RP the hunter bond with their pet is seriously awesome, I wanna use that!' I'd... be kinda pleased, if that makes sense, since that feels like more of a compliment than idea-stealing.

/rambling

Does having the ability to make the worst decisions ever count as a power?

But seriously, I think it's okay so long as A) it is logical from a lore perspective and B) there are limitations placed on it so it does not become too OP or silly. 

I tend to evaluate mondo super uber mega powers on a storyline basis-- I think this harkens back to my days of LARP storytelling, but it is applicable in WoW RP too. 

Your character has this amazing power. That's cool bro, but how are you going to use it? Are you just going to be a jerk with that power and flaunt it with no real story effect? Will you hoard it and any associated plot cookies? How would you use that power to make the game fun for other people involved in your RP or storyline? I would ask these questions a lot when I'd get players asking for a fifth level discipline in Vampire. They're pretty broken powers that, when not handled with care, can really make things not very fun. 

I'll admit, this is something I've had to learn over the years in my own RP. I've had some really derpy godmoding RP in the past that I'm not particularly proud of, but you live and learn, right? 

TL;DR: I guess this response sounds wishy-washy as hell, but with great powers comes the responsibility of portraying them well. I'm willing to give anyone a chance who's got a  fleshed out background, a good story hook and a willingness to cooperate with others.

ohboyohboyohb--

I don't mean the character has cat ears and a cat tail, so apologies if you were hoping that was this discussion!

oh.

I'll leave. ._.

Unrelated, but that was adorable, Astrid. :D

Welp.

Frostgage started “decursifying” herself long before the curse of flesh even existed in-game. It was somewhat unique, and it fit her crazy character concept. When the curse became part of the lore, it seemed like everyone just started going cyborg.

I mean, I’m not going to lie – as the player, I'm human and I got a little miffed the first time I saw a female Draenei running around with a robotic left eye. The worst? Frost stopped to talk with her ex-husband and some random Draenei guy in Trade district, and I noticed all of us had replacements. So I made an in-character quip that you could build another person out of our mechanical parts combined.

People are going to RP what they want, so I’m not going to object. And … it's kind of like tattoos. I’ve got some flash (wall art) which I know others must have, too, but we all have our own reasons and stories behind them. That’s good enough for me.

Some people turn their characters into comic book stereotypes with their replacements. Frost’s hardly grant any “powerful” abilities other than the fact they replicate the organic originals almost perfectly, which is pretty damned miraculous in my opinion.

then someone tells me, 'Wait. Enveri can do -what?-'  or 'Jon's a beast-tal-- wahaaa?'  and then I'm super embarassed and try to shuffle it under the rug like 'NOTHING TO SEE HERE CARRY ON'  and I angst over whether I should re-examine the ability and remove it entirely. 

ok lets get srs

I see a lot of people going to extreme lengths to make their characters as ordinary and plain and unspecial as possible because of this craptastic "mary sue" mislabeling that's so wildly popular, and I absolutely HATE it. 

Normal people doing normal day-to-day things are boring as hell, peoples, stop trying to make your characters super-bland. Just...stop it, it's no fun.

An out-of-the-norm special ability can take an otherwise blase character and make them intriguing--to play or play with on many levels. As with any important trait, it should be balanced by a flaw of some kind--a limit, or hindrance, maybe it's an inconvenient, uncontrolled thing, maybe it's tied to a traumatic event, so that it forces introspection--whatever, just, as others have said, as long as it doesn't dominate and become "OP". 

When you have someone pulling off some kind of ~unique~ shtick to the appeasement of the squeaky wheels, I think, people see it as "safe" attribute to add flavor and then you have giant piles of RPers doing that thing or some variation of it. 

I just wish RPers would stop worrying so much about what other RPers think of their setup and be more bold with their characters. 

Astrid, I think that players who go out of their way to make a very "normal" character can get a story that's awesome! They just have to have a definite plan in mind for their character's development. Normal people can become extraordinary by being thrown into a series of disturbing events. Lore-wise, the Cataclysm is reason enough for, say, a Stormwind peasant whose home got blown up with the Park to join the military and discover that he's REALLY good at swordfighting. Or maybe a person joins the clergy and finds they have an innate connection with the Light they never knew about. 

Yeah, I will agree that when a character is made really boring and mundane (for lack of a better word) just because the player is afraid of being called out as a sue... that ain't cool, man. It's not fun. But I have seen and participated in RP where normal characters become amazing. It just has to be done with care, and comes back to "portraying it responsibly."

IDK if this was meant to mirror 'powers, principalities, thrones and dominions' or not but I'm going to say it is whether it is or not because it makes me smile. X)

Basically, I see a lot of people doing a lot of things that are technically outside of the lore, but fit because people try to make them actively work with the lore.

Sandboxing!

I don't really have any problem with sandboxing, as long as it vaguely starts off from/alludes to/is semi-compatible with lore. Goodness knows that I do enough of it to not be able to cast a lot of stones in that area. 

Some people play only things that are 100% fully within quest text canon. That's awesome. Some people don't, and that can be pretty fun too. It's all about how you do it, I think - the key to sandboxing imo is to not force/expect other people to accept your view.

Don't try to claim your sandbox as the end-all, be-all of sand. If someone doesn't want to play in your sandbox, don't kick it into their eyes.

If someone seems uncomfortable with a concept, but the two of you want to keep playing? Find a way around the concept. A lot of sandboxy things aren't the sort of thing likely to come up in casual conversation, anyway. At least when I'm walking down the street, I don't usually high-five a stranger and go 'dang, son, did you know that I can communicate telepathically'? I mean, I do that like, maybe, three times a week maximum. Maybe your character does that more often, and that's cool, just talking from personal experience here. 

Mind-talking from personal experience, I mean.

But be flexible, and recognize that not everyone likes to make sand castles. Some people enjoy playing with rubber chips, thank you very much, or bark, or asphalt, or bad meandering analogies.

And that's Okay. Just adjust for it when you guys decide to play.

What I'm wondering about is whether or not people recognize the trend in certain skills and powers? I've seen some people do things that are considered "lame" for reasons that are often a little petty, but then I've seen that power/trait/ability/story/what have you turn around and become popular, where it feels like too many people are doing it. It almost feels common.

Oh, for sure. Trends in powers are like trends in anything. People see things that they like/being done in a way that they like/by someone they like and they pick up on it, however consciously or unconsciously. I think most of the time it's unconscious, I've definitely found myself looking up and pausing to go '...wait. didn't so and so have X trait I want to give this character?', gotten self-conscious about it for a while, and then said 'fuck it' and gone with it anyway.

Trends happen. People get inspired by them. Some will stick, some will fade - it depends on whether the characters that picked them up are keepers or not. If they do turn out to be keepers? They're usually solid enough characters in their own right that even without Trend they'd be interesting.

Trends come and go. I try not to worry too much on it, although it can make for some funny IC commentary sometimes.

"Light, it seems like every elf is missing at least part of their ear lately."

"What? Sorry, I can't hear you because someone cut my ear off."

Okay, well. That's actually not really funny at all, but you get what I mean.

(I'll be here all week.)

Which brings me to the next point -- at what point is it okay to object to someone else RPing the special/out of the ordinary trait that you're RPing? This isn't a passive aggressive pot shot -- I'm trying to keep both sides of this balanced. Is it okay to object and why? If it isn't, why not?

It's always okay to object to someone's RP or ideas, imo, no matter what the reason is.

People can't help having opinions, and RP is about having fun. Playing with something or someone you don't like (for whatever reason) is not conducive to fun.

That said: It's important to not be a dick about it.

I'll snark with friends, I admit it. This is because I'm sort of an asshole sometimes. And occasionally, we'll snark things or traits that our own characters also have or do. This is because I'm a hypocritical asshole.

Like anything, special powers come down to how you pull it off. I've seen some dumb as hell special psychic powers that I would not play with. Yet I would gladly play with other roleplayers who had characters with those same, or similar powers. Usually it's because I trust the player to be good in their own right. Special powers or not, I trust them to not powergame, unless they're an NPC/PC for a specific role (Big Bad, Distant Authority Figure Not Super Involved with Plot, etc.) and we've agreed on it.

Or if they just do it really well.

Like all RP, it's how you write that's more important than what you write, imo. I've seen some really well-done dragons that I'd happily accept as really being ~dargons~ with all their dargonic powers. I've also seen some '...no, you're not a dragon, I'm just going to pretend you're a bit off, la la la la I can't hear you shapeshifting over there nope you're not doing that'.

It's in the quality, and in the ability to cooperate and be flexible.

If you've had a character that picked up an power/ability after a few others (or several others) had it, why? How did you work it into your character's story and why did you feel the need to? Again this isn't an attack! Just want to see all sides of everything.

Oh man, okay.

One of my NPCs does branestuff. I admit fully that this is because my friends were doing Things with it, and it looked neat and gave me Ideas for possible interactions with them and plotstuff. I've given her a pretty big amount of power in it, because

1. NPC

2. NPC destined to be killed off at some point.

3. It's a very specific sort of power, and one she'd need to be pretty close to someone to use/catch them off-guard with. If confronted directly in a fight, her plan is basically psychic scream + run like hell.

Another one of my NPCs is a pretty powerful mage. I suck at subtle characters and I know it, so she's where she is mostly because of her brute force abilities rather than her blunt, guileless personality. She can fuck your shit up. This is again because she's an NPC who at some point is absolutely going to be killed off. She's supposed to be hard to kill, but I think that's okay there because I'm willing and expecting to kill her off permanently - something I wouldn't do with a PC.

I try to avoid special powers on my PCs, but one of my PCs will eventually be able to go into the Shadow itself and travel using it in a possibly OP way except that it really sucks to go there and he'll be terrible at it.

This is because his bff knows how to do it, and it makes IC sense that he'd want to try to learn. So far it's been stalled by his friend really not wanting to try to teach that sort of thing, and not really knowing how.

I'm going after it because I feel it would be IC of him to go after it (and since he has like...zero combat skills, it gives him an escape route out of some types of fights). Kinda wary of combat with it, though, because throwing sand in people's eyes etc. So it'd be something I'd discuss with people first, and be easy enough to counter as long as someone was like. At all touching him.

TL;DR - Sandboxing is fun, building off of trends is fun, just don't let your fun ruin other people's fun. If someone doesn't like your fun, have fun with people who do instead of them.

I don't mean the character has cat ears and a cat tail, so apologies if you were hoping that was this discussion!

:C i was excited nvm

Yeah, I will agree that when a character is made really boring and mundane (for lack of a better word) just because the player is afraid of being called out as a sue... that ain't cool, man. It's not fun. But I have seen and participated in RP where normal characters become amazing. It just has to be done with care, and comes back to "portraying it responsibly."

It's not those that have a background in being plain and ordinary that make me sad, it's the ones that actively deny anything 'amazing' happening to their character. "nopenope, I'm just a baker. I just bake. I'm going to sit on a bench in the cathedral square with my normal face. Forever.", which plays back to people being afraid of "thinking outside the box" because anything out of the stamped-OK-by-blizz lore could potentially be mocked by lore-stringent people--there's a difference between being outside the box and not even being able to remember what the box LOOKED like. 

For me, the kicker is always time and mechanics. Lots of blah-blah-here's-how-I-do-it below. 

Considering that the game advances day-to-day like real life, we often assume that RP advances the same way. A month in-game is a month IRL. What happens over the course of a month IRL can vary depending on your lifestyle, and thus the same is applicable to characters. But how long does it take to travel from one place to another? How long does it take to complete a semester of school? How long does it take to gestate a babbus? References to real-life time frames help me when it comes to planning the development of a character and thusly their abilities. Example: Agnes Yardley started off at the White Sigil knowing nothing more than basic alchemy (through apprenticing as a perfumier), basic first aide, and how to tell a really good lie. Today, nine months later, she is capable of Light-mending wounds from mild to grievous, basic resurrection (though she requires assistance if taxed), advanced triage, low level (non-invasive) surgical procedures, countless herbal remedies, and meditative mental defense and communication. That's a lot to learn in nine months, but -- nine months is also a long time. She also had teachers/tutors, with whom I negotiated and chatted plenty OOCly to discuss the RP possibilities. I also like to leave a lot of room for her to grow and improve and adapt further. She has not, by any means, reached a ceiling. I can also use Saman'thiel as an example of BALANCING ability growth -- in the course of three years of roleplay, she has changed a lot. She has become a much more powerful Arcane mage, but she has also degraded in a lot of skills in which she once excelled. She can shoot a bird mid-flight with an Arcane Missile, but she couldn't cast a Flamestrike to save her life.  

Now, for some people, that's probably just too much time to develop a character's abilities. To each their own. But it justifies, for me as the storyteller, the levels that my characters sit upon. I think this is where the 'trend' issue tends to come in. How many times have you heard (or thought to yourself) "Sheesh, I've been roleplaying my character doing Magical Ass Basketweaving and suddenly EVERYONE else on the server is a friggin' savant at it!!" It kind of makes you feel cheap that they adapted it into their character development after such a short time span. Yeah, some of that can be petty RPer elitism, but nothing stings more than getting an A for effort and feeling like you were imitated by less imaginative players who couldn't do the day-to-day. And I don't know what to tell you to say to those roleplayers -- you could: 1) be a passive-aggressive about it (I hear this doesn't get people very far) 2) just keep on doing your thing and watch as they start copying Billybob whose character is a master of the Gun-kata-sword-fish, 3) talk to them OOCly and ask them for the mechanics they used to justify how their character got on board with the ability. Or maybe you could throw your character at theirs to defeat them like Highlander and absorb their powers (I am rambling now because I usually just choose Option 2) to become the very best like no one ever was. 

SPEAKING OF MECHANICS, I feel like that is the item that gets a lot of people up in a fluster. How do you play the cool powers and abilities? How are they portrayed? Do you get with the players and organize a structure of dice rolls or combat order before-hand, or do you spring it without notice? Do you choose to use long-emotes or short-emotes? And, stylistically, what are you DOING with that character's abilities? Is your character a big-evil-bad who has lots of scary lightning powers that kill all the innocent orphans around you? Can your character be defeated by conventional means, or does he have some weird third butthole that serves as his Achilles' heel? Everyone is going to answer these questions differently, and that's where I think the scrutinizing and conflict tends to come in. Somebody once worded in a post long ago, 'We're all playing by sets of rules, and when someone breaks the rules and expects us to accept them, we tend to get kind of mad.' Compromise that with the fact that everyone's rules are a little different, and ... well, there you go. 

It gets said over and over, but I do agree that if you can play it out convincingly and with clear enough communication, then whatever you do is cool. Be the believable and communicable storyteller, and make the story worth playing, and the enjoyment will follow. And keep in mind that everyone's a critic, and as long as you're having fun with your fifteen bucks, their words are no more than suggestions and options. 

IN THE TIME IT TOOK ME TO TYPE THIS POST, I SEE THAT A TON OF POSTS WERE ALREADY MADE THAT I PRETTY MUCH AGREE WITH, and they worded it even better than I, but -- there's my two pennies and an ice cream cone. Huzzah! 

Normal people doing normal day-to-day things are boring as hell, peoples, stop trying to make your characters super-bland. Just...stop it, it's no fun.

Normal characters can be super fun.

But the thing to remember is that even the most normal characters in WoW have been through some seriously tough shit. Every single race in game has a had a horrible tragedy - even if you're a kobold. Actually, if you are a kobold, I'm sorry. The regular massacres of your people are a terrible thing to behold. Maybe Ash'lee the belf survived the Invasion with her parents alive, has no magical ability beyond that of a standard belf, is a mediocre baker, looks perfectly average, and doesn't do anything wild or crazy.

But Ash'lee still survived the Invasion - that's an interesting point to ponder. How does she deal with her parents still be around when so many other people lost their entire extended families? How does she feel being Mundane McNo-Magic in one of the most magical cities in Azeroth? Is she content to be a baker - if so, why? What does she like about it?

Further, maybe she doesn't do wild and crazy things, but she's almost certainly going to be interacting with people who have. Most player characters aren't that normal. Stick the characters from just this thread in a room together for an hour and there would be more Issues by the end of it than a Goblin Gentleman's Magazine.

It's cool to play 'normal' characters. They can be a lot of fun. But that's when you let them adapt, change, and develop. Ultimately, most PCs get progressively less 'normal' as they're forced to interact with their fellow PCs.

Unremarkable can be a great place to start (although I have to admit that I cringe a little when a flag goes to great lengths to describe that unremarkability - it definitely can be used reactionarily to not wanting to be seen as a sue and really I'd just rather that you have a character you feel confident in playing than the polar opposite of whatever the Mary Sue Litmus Test told you was bad) but if it stays absolutely static, that can be a problem.

TL;DR - normalness, like specialness, works best when you still have a character without it

I just wish RPers would stop worrying so much about what other RPers think of their setup and be more bold with their characters.  

 I have, to an extent.  Enveri is a shaman that has a very weak link with the elements, but her abilities with the spiritual realm are such that she has to actively block communication or she'll go out of her mind.  She's a wicked good medium.  But every spirit with an axe to grind comes and chats if she doesn't shield herself all the time. And that shit's exhausting to keep up.

Jon accidentally 'bonded' another person like he would a companion animal.   He has absolutely no idea how it happened and freaked out (along with the person on the other end of the link) when they discovered it.  It gives them the ability to sense each other's thoughts and emotions if they concentrate, and they can find each other anywhere in the world, but that's pretty much it. And being able to sense your partner's thoughts and emotions has its drawbacks too.

So.. yeah. I think that if you have interesting special powers, it's good to come up with some interesting flaws to go with them (or vice versa).  Balance is good.

B) there are limitations placed on it so it does not become too OP or silly.

with great powers comes the responsibility of portraying them well. I'm willing to give anyone a chance who's got a  fleshed out background, a good story hook and a willingness to cooperate with others.

So I made an in-character quip that you could build another person out of our mechanical parts combined.

I just wish RPers would stop worrying so much about what other RPers think of their setup and be more bold with their characters. 

and comes back to "portraying it responsibly."

t

 

"Light, it seems like every elf is missing at least part of their ear lately."

"What? Sorry, I can't hear you because someone cut my ear off."

 

 

he key to sandboxing imo is to not force/expect other people to accept your view.

This sums up my view on it pretty well.

Take it with a spoonful of sugar, let your smile be tween and your mind open.

I'll have more in a moment. Don't want to clog with one super-long post.

You're absolutely right. Silly is a subjective term and the wrong word. A better term would be lore-breaking. As far as what would be considered "OP" I often find a simple litmus test does the trick. I think all of us can agree the basis of any good story is conflict. It's a central pillar of story telling and without it, things get rather dull. So whenever incorporating new powers or what have you into my stories I always ask "Does this solve my character's problem too easily? Is it an easy way out?" More often than not, if the answer is yes I find it's probably something I shouldn't be incorporating. Obviously different strokes for different folks, but I know it's helped me a lot. 

Edited for clarity. Responding from my phone. Damn you auto correct. 

I agree with Vorrick. (Which doesn't surprise me, I do find I'm often on board with her in many things game-related.)

I like the idea of being creative, but not in such a way that is at odds with the setting. I do all kinds of finagling engineering stuff with Alinor, especially where 'technomage' stuff goes and her experimenting with combining tech and arcane, but I do try to think about the setting, and even a particular storyline-- sometimes it's good for a person to stop and think, "Hey, is this special thing something that could potentially derail this storyline, or bring it to an early end because my Awesome saves everyone and we lose out on potentially cool RP?" and so forth.

I hope that makes sense.

I love to see characters develop over the course of RP, and learn new things even of those things might not be in game mechanics; in her storyline situation last year, near the end (Decemberish), Lucrezia made use of some basic Spellbreaking abilities that she had been taught by another character who was a former Spellbreaker. Is it something I think she can do anytime? Nah, not really. This was a time of major major emotion and stress, which fed that. In my own RPing, that is. Otherwise, Lucy is a talented warrior and blacksmith who only recently has been able to unbend a bit to allow herself some happy.

Balance is good, and awareness not only of your surroundings/setting but also of other people is good. Which goes for most RP anyway, I think. Again, I hope this makes sense. It's very off-the-top-of-my-head right now, while taking a break from job applications and whatnot.

I'm 525/525 iPhone typing. 

Okay. A short, concise list of things, special or otherwise, that I have run across, or been a part of, and been like: "Idgaf let's roll with it."

1. A titan construct of a girl. (In fact, I was involved in helping brainstorm her. She's great, she's played well, she's about as human as can be.)

2. A spellbreaker (If you have ever read anything on Spellbreakers, they have almost NO weaknesses. The individual in question's most notable weakness? He was a caustic bitch and didn't get along with people well. We love him for it.)

3. The Field Marshal Lightbringer (Aka one of my good friends. He's a very strong character, with a missing eye not because of a wound inflicted by an enemy, but because he underwent the ritual used by Demon Hunters to sense demons and undead with said eye. I later adapted this idea to my own paladin. After the two had spoken.)

There are more, but here's the thing. I really am okay with everyone's interpretation of lore, abilities, powers, etc. I adhere to some soft truths, but I found it's much more difficult to fight people, and far less enjoyable, than to simply talk it out and work together on ideas.

I play a number of powerful characters with serious weaknesses as well. Balance is incredibly important for my peace-of-mind....But it doesn't have to be for everyone. Nowadays, I think I am much more okay with incredibly strong characters that, on the surface have no weaknesses. Mainly because it is a challenge. A challenge to find that weakness, to show that character icly 'you aren't all that and a bag of chips.'

I take a spoonful of sugar before I walk into RP. Because I play a blood elf, it isn't unusual for me to see characters with a lot of crazy abilities and skills. Myself included.

*Thumbs up* S'all good man...just play how ya like.

don't fair so well against rogue types?

Pretty much this, but yes I get your point.

In some cases, despite my mellow approach to character strength, I do have to question where their combat-related weaknesses lie.

I, however, think that weaknesses that are unrelated are just as valid. Of course, that is up for debate of its own.

Personally, I mostly stick with non-combat abilities. Having something that doesn't mean a "win" (or at least people don't think it does, the drama over RP combat is always huge) just fits more with my mentality.

In D/S's case, it's fleshcrafting. The base concepts of which are taken from a mixture of V:tM Tzimisce Vicissitude and old fashioned alchemical concepts (such as making homunculi). Everything, in the end, focuses on blood.

Beyond the specialized materials he needs for work (such as enchanted crystals and other magical regents), he requires large amounts of blood. I'm not talking in terms of pints, but more like liters. A recent large-scale project took about a human body worth of blood (several liters) which usually means someone, if not multiple someones, has to die. Or a lot of people have to be harvested. Because on top of using blood, it has to be relatively freshly drawn; nothing that's been sitting around on ice for weeks.

If he isn't using a "pre-fabricated" dead sample (such as grafting someone's own arm back on or a suitable dead replacement) which he can seal shut with the use of blood runes/magic, the quantities of blood required rise.

So essentially the drawbacks of his "power" (which is ultimately based upon the usage of blood runes+rune tapping) is that it requires a lot of blood, would likely be considered unacceptable/criminal on a societal level (lol necromancy), and that secondary materials such as foci are expensive. There's also a time component. Unless it is minor "spot" clinic healing, like someone coming to him with a chopped off finger or shallow wounds, it requires time. Reattachment of limbs or reconstruction of a spine, especially from scratch, can take him days to weeks. Possibly months. He's very "slow" compared to most healer/mender type characters to boot.

And even the possession of this ability comes at an overall cost for him, both physically "in character" and on his "character sheet" since he is not the strong melee combatant many undead, especially death knights, tend to be.

PS: To answer the rest of the question: I don't really care if other people use it.

It's such a base, broad concept that for anyone to strike a claim as the Highlander of the power would just be impossible. I've met other people with it and each uses a variation that more fits their character -- blood, shadow, fel, increased regeneration, use of the Curse of Flesh, so on. Only irks me when someone goes around boasting about it, since the necromancy/blood-based version (and likely the fel based version) would not be considered very acceptable on a broad, societal level. Even post WotLK there's going to be people who immediately assume the worst -- and with just cause. IMHO it's more like Fight Club. You don't talk about Fight Club.

Well, I play Aurric (cheers), and he's on the powerful side of the character spectrum. Not because he was born a savant or discovered a mystic artifact that empowered him (but mind you, I love those sort of stories when they're done well. Characters who learn to cope, deal with, and use natural talent and affinity can be very engaging to read), but because he's in his late forties, with several decades of his life devoted to war, magic, and healing. The man's had practice, and he's got a never-be-stopped and totally self assured mind set that make using the Light as easy as breathing for him (The Light is powered by good deeds, discipline, and positive thinking, and he's got them all.) He's not the best, but he's rather good. Now, I'll be the first to point out that he stretches a few things. He's a Paladin who sometimes uses priest spells in Rp (Things like Barriers and levitation and even penance barrages), being that he's the analog of a Holy specced paladin who spent a lot of time learning how you could use the light, which extends to light-things that aren't in either class spell book. He's done mage-style Holy Fireballs and demon banishing. He also does some things that are really pushing the character description. By which I mean, he can do mindstuffs. He can connect to, protect (and in some cases repair) other sentient minds. If he wasn't such a responsible goody-two-shoes, in theory, he could manipulate them too. Now, he has serious moral and ethical reservations about the sanctity of someone's mind. He doesn't go around listening to people's thoughts or giving subliminal messages, and even in situations where he's up against evil warlocks, he still considers it immoral to try and alter their thoughts in any way. This is reflective of him in general; for the most part, he's a pacifist, despite the fact that war has made him who he is. Simply, he's been enough battles to know he doesn't like them. If a fight breaks out on the streets, he'll be decisive to stop it, but he won't maim anyone, even if they're a criminal (A KO is perfectly acceptable). He certainly won't trespass their mind just because it's "easier".

Now, what does this potentially OP Paladin-Priest do with his spare time? Altriusm and Philanthropy. He helps run clinics, soup kitchens, and other charity events. He frequently helps out the orphanage, like many, and volunteers for community projects. His outlook is that more has to be done to the world than taking away the bad. Good has to be fostered. He recently spent a week and a half in Westfall disseminating medical and ration supplies in moonbrook, and treating an outbreak of the measles. So, why, if he's so humble in intent, did I make him so "Powerful"? Because I absolutely love the depth of character it gives him, in all the Rp he gets into. He's a tired veteran who just wants to make the world a better place. That's sort of my outlook on giving characters special abilities. I don't mean that you can only give a character an ability if he never uses it, I mean the why of it. Everything we do in RP is to write (or even just follow) a story. We make our characters a certain way because we enjoy continuously writing and emoting their exploits. If you add something extra to them, that's fine, as long as you pay attention to the Universe you're writing in, and you're doing it because you think it adds something to the story. A Gunsman who's trained to the point of curving bullets is a fine enough set up for a character in Warcraft, if you're doing it to make them interesting. If you're doing it to win every Rp fight you ever go into and be adored by the community as the Server's best Gunman, and powerplay to do so, you might find that people don't want to Rp fight with you, and don't adore you that much.

One thing I refuse to do, is cast judgement based on someone's character story. I will not read an Mrp and think "That doesn't sound lore-right, I'm going to avoid Rp'ing with them". I will admit that I quirk brows at some, but that doesn't change my belief in equal opportunity. If someone expects Random Rp from me, that's exactly what I give them. This being because I believe in community (The Rp community, the Wra community, the Wow community), and if someone is trying to build their own sandcastle, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. My own character can be called special, so I'm in no position to look down on anyone, not that I'd want to.

at what point is it okay to object to someone else RPing the special/out of the ordinary trait that you're RPing?

For the same reason, when I do see something that I really can't suspend disbelief for, I'm hesitant to give the friendliest of whispers questioning their concept/character. I leave that to the braver and bolder, when it comes down to it. On the flip-side, I will listen to any criticism that anyone has about Aurric. I will defend him, my writing, and my motivations, but I will hear what anyone has to say about them. So far, in two years of playing him, that hasn't happened. Every time I whisper  "So, Aurric is trying to enter ______'s mind", I have never been told "... I don't think Paladins can do that." I like to think it's because I write it well, and because the community is an accepting one. So, in the same spirit, I respect creative liberties.

I agree with Vorrick.

this is because I'm holding her home nation hostage

I think all of us can agree the basis of any good story is conflict. It's a central pillar of story telling and without it, things get rather dull. So whenever incorporating new powers or what have you into my stories I always ask "Does this solve my character's problem too easily? Is it an easy way out?" More often than not, if the answer is yes I find it's probably something I shouldn't be incorporating. Obviously different strokes for different folks, but I know it's helped me a lot. 

This, this, exactly this.

On our last server, there was a backlash against any characters that were out of the ordinary unless you were on good terms with the not so friendly folk.

Eww, okay thank you for clarifying. 'Normaller than thou' attitudes are not something I think anyone likes to see.

POWAS AND ABILITIES AND SHOOTING BULLETS THAT CURVE IN THE AIR OR SOMETHING (and vorrick, the shadow stuff with the ability to transport/travel sounds reaaaaaaaaally cool)

Stop making me want to watch Wanted again. 8[

And I think it's cool too so high five! But I can claim no credit for it. It's from Fang and Lar expanding on shadowstep and stuff on their own and I just vulture in on it like I do most things they do.

I, however, think that weaknesses that are unrelated are just as valid

I sort of agree and disagree with this! On the one hand, non-combat weaknesses can very often be a character's downfall, especially if they are a Combat Badass otherwise. Underestimation, arrogance, jackassery, etc are all traits that consistently bring powerful characters their own defeat in stories and movies and plays and all sorts of other wonderful things.

On the other hand, even a great fighter with decades of experience is going to have some weaker points - how weak of course it up to you.

IDK, I guess is what I'm trying to say. It seems like it could work either way, but I'd be cautious to do it personally, because I'm just not confident in my rp enough to do it. That you are is great!

IMHO it's more like Fight Club. You don't talk about Fight Club.

This is a good idea for a lot of more shady things in WoW, including a number of special powers, imo. Do you really want everyone on the block to know that you can do that sort of shady magic, or turn into a mushroom, or feel others' emotions?

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Which brings me to a brief segue:

If you're playing an empath or someone who can read thoughts or always knows when someone's lying or anything else that allows your character to know something they otherwise wouldn't about someone else's character: always always always ask the person if it's okay OOC first, and try not to get too offended if they say 'no'.

If you have a character with those powers, and you have no reason they'd ever possibly miss a thought, or misjudge someone's emotions or the truth of a statement they made - hold up, pause, find a reason. Maybe they can get distracted by other things, maybe they don't have it turned on constantly, maybe it only works if they eat a lot of potassium and the last banana shipment from Stranglethorn was delayed.

But if you don't have an 'out' for that sort of thing, you will hit a brick wall of 'that makes no sense that they wouldn't know!!!' when someone inevitably objects to your character instantly knowing all the things.

I've seen the player of an empath get quite upset ooc over their character ic not being able to know that their lover was cheating on them, as if their character was fundamentally entitled to know by virtue of powers. Save yourself and your rp partners the frustration and work out an excuse for that kind of thing beforehand. Even if you've agreed ooc that nothing like that will happen - backup plans are always good to have.

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RIGHT.

don't mean that you can only give a character an ability if he never uses it, I mean the why of it. Everything we do in RP is to write (or even just follow) a story. We make our characters a certain way because we enjoy continuously writing and emoting their exploits. If you add something extra to them, that's fine, as long as you pay attention to the Universe you're writing in, and you're doing it because you think it adds something to the story. A Gunsman who's trained to the point of curving bullets is a fine enough set up for a character in Warcraft, if you're doing it to make them interesting. If you're doing it to win every Rp fight you ever go into and be adored by the community as the Server's best Gunman, and powerplay to do so, you might find that people don't want to Rp fight with you, and don't adore you that much.

This. Your character's powers might influence them, but that shouldn't be their sole reason for existence, imo.

For me, what makes the use of speshal powuhz and things like that okay is logical development. You can always tell when someone saw an ability somewhere (a blog or RP log on WrA.net, their favorite anime or fantasy novel, etc.) and decided to adopt it without bothering to give it any context. That, to me, is kind of... eh. I'm all for adopting cool abilities, and Lord knows that my characters have plenty of their own, but I try to give them backstories and spread out development. 

Senkha's probably my best example (because she has the speshalest powuhz). To sum up, she's a talented acrobatic fighter and powerful mentalist. The former was something I came up with on my own (because lolrogue), and I gave it the context of her being taught to fight and do acrobatics that way by her brother Ioan and cousin Llew, the former of whom was a street thief made good and the latter of whom was a circus performer. Give her the bulk of her childhood/early adult life learning acrobatics and knife fighting from them, and presto! Talented acrobatic fighter. As to the powerful mentalist part, that sort of came about through RP--essentially, to make her relationship with her undead husband easier, she had a friend of hers who could do the womwoms thing train her in it, and everyone who ever encountered her doing it was like "WOW YOU ARE GOOD AT THIS" to which Senkha's low self-esteem was like "REALLY???" and it just sort of took off from there. I do admit to a little bit of frustration in that field, since it was shortly after everyone was like "WOW YOU ARE GOOD AT THIS" that every Joe Shmoe could suddenly do brain tricks with absolutely no drawbacks, so Senkha's development was kind of put on fast forward so I'd still feel legit. 

Which brings me to the second thing that makes me okay with speshal powuhz: drawbacks. I don't care what you're doing; everything has a down side to it, and when people ignore that down side completely, I kind of go :| For me, half the fun of my character having some sort of insane ability comes in the drawbacks of it. Sure, Senkha can brane like a bawss, but she also doesn't have a lot of control of those abilities, has a tendency to become far too attached to the people she's mentally interacting with (see: Arubrey, Marius), and can get splitting headaches if things don't proceed in a certain way. And that's the kind of thing I like seeing. Maybe your ultra powerful mage gets the shakes when it's been too long since s/he's had a good dose of mana. Maybe your uber paladin feels too much pressure because of the way everyone sees him/her. Maybe your wicked warlock has incredible fel powers but those powers are draining away his or her life essence and making him/her all skeletal and wraith-like (aside: wtb more wraith-like warlocks pls). 

Drawbacks create instant conflict for your character, and conflict (not necessarily fighting!) is what moves RP forward, develops characters, and progresses storylines. If your character has all of these AMAZING POWAGHS but doesn't really have any of the logical drawbacks that would come with them, I... kind of side-eye. That doesn't strike me as good storytelling. It strikes me as a cry for attention.

Which brings me to my third condition for acceptance of speshal powuhz: OOC motivation. A lot of the time, you can kind of tell when someone is saying their character has speshal powuhz just for attention or so that they can win all the battles or whatever. Likewise, you can tell when someone is saying their character has speshal powuhz because it came about through RP, because they think it would be a fun thing to explore, or because it just makes sense for their character. When speshal powuhz are just an attempt at getting attention or for the sake of winning battles, they tend to also be what makes up the whole of the character, and that gets boring pretty fast. I don't want to talk to amazing fire powers. I want to talk to people with interesting lives, personalities, and stories. On the other hand, when the motivations are more "basically, RP happened and now this" or "I kind of wanted to explore what would happen if that" or "well, Senkha is a rogue so Senkha dodges," there tends to be more to the character than just that power. More backstory, more interest in their life, more personality. And that makes me want to RP with the character more.

And my final point about things that make me okay with speshal powuhz: they aren't flaunted. Nothing turns me off to RPing with someone faster than reading in his/her MRP about all the NEAT THINGZ s/he can do (well. Except when they're sexualized child characters. Then I run away very fast. And yes, I have seen this and dnw). I'd much rather find out through RP. For example, if your character can do mentalist stuff, great! Just don't start off by throwing that in your flag and introducing yourself to my character like, "Hello, my name is Bob, and I will womwom your braincells until they explode." If your character is a skilled fighter, fantastic! Just don't start off by having a kill count in your MRP (wtf is with that trend, and who the heck has time to kill 10,000 people?) or trying to pick a fight with my character so you can show off your leet skillz.

I honestly think just about anything can fly in RP if it's done well, and I don't think that people should limit themselves to playing average, run-of-the-mill, everyday peasants and bakers and librarians and whatever because they think that will make them a more legitimate RPer (side note: if you want to RP an everyday peasant, baker, librarian, whatever because you think it'd be a fun character to play, more power to you! I've played those in my day, and they can be a blast). Likewise, I don't think that people should shy away from having characters who can do speshal thingz because they think that it will make them a more legitimate RPer. 

I mean. At the end of the day, nobody should be doing anything for the sole reason of wanting to be a more legitimate RPer. Do things because they make you happy and because they're fun.

Also, to answer the questions properly!

What I'm wondering about is whether or not people recognize the trend in certain skills and powers?

Things tend to be trendy in RP and those trends tend to ebb and flow with time. It happens, and honestly, it's mostly because people read blogs and stories and such and say "Wow, that is really freaking cool! I want to do a storyline like that!" and so they do. And idk if I think there's anything wrong with it overall. I do see a sort of "eh" thing about it when your character suddenly has powers that make no sense for him/her because you want to join the RP flavor of the week club (e.g., a handful of people all post blogs about their characters learning to make special animals out of fire magic. Joe sees this and decides to join in...even though Joe is a warrior who couldn't command the arcane to save his life), but overall, trends are trends, and it's natural to want to participate in something you think is cool.

Which brings me to the next point -- at what point is it okay to object to someone else RPing the special/out of the ordinary trait that you're RPing? This isn't a passive aggressive pot shot -- I'm trying to keep both sides of this balanced. Is it okay to object and why? If it isn't, why not?

Honestly, it really depends so much on circumstances that I don't think there's a universal "THIS IS WHEN YOU CAN OBJECT." Different lines fall in different places for different people, and RPers have comfort zones that vary from person to person and situation to situation. Two people who've had a falling out probably have a much lower tolerance for borrowing each others' ideas than two people who are bffs and constantly saying, "Oh, yeah! I can totally see how [Character X] could do this!"

As to if it's okay to object, I'd only say yes if it's realllllllly bothering you or if it's causing serious drama. But then again, I'm more confrontational than most (by which I mean, I'd rather whisper someone and say, "Look, I know there's a problem here; can we talk it through and figure it out instead of snarking about it privately?" than-- well, snark about it privately), so other people might just prefer to keep their objections to themselves.

If you've had a character that picked up an power/ability after a few others (or several others) had it, why? How did you work it into your character's story and why did you feel the need to?

The only time I really did this was wayyyyyyyy back in the day with Senkha. She had a friend, Alerahn, who had learned to do the mentalist stuff as part of his job torturing people in the Scourge and constantly poked at her with it. As her relationship with Oliver grew, she wanted some way to be intimate with him (because zombie sex is never sexy), so she asked Alerahn to teach her what he knew. She started learning at what I thought was a slow pace but was apparently pretty fast to everyone else, so ICly, everyone started saying, "Wow, Senkha. You are powerful with teh branez." And I rolled with it. Eventually, I started working it into her backstory, too, saying that she'd had these abilities for a while but--due to some nasty parental issues--had suppressed them to the point where they drove her quite literally insane. And she's still learning a lot (in the offscreen realm because she is retired), so it's not like she magically woke up one morning and could create Inception.

As to why, it was simply because I OOCly wanted Senkha and Oliver to have a way to have some sort of deeper intimacy in their relationship, since physical intimacy was out of the question.

And to all those with special powers traits and what have you, do you struggle with finding limitations in what the power, skill, trait, w/e can do (as in, how to make it not OP), or is that a non-issue?

I basically just go with the flow. If someone who is a tutor to my character in some way says, "[Character], you can do [XYZ] by [ABC]ing!" I will go with it. The only limitations I have are as follows:

1. I will not use any speshal powuhz on other characters unless (a) I've explained it to them OOCly and they've given me explicit permission (e.g., "Oh, sure, Senkha can brane the bullet out of Liotuse's back!") or (b) I've been RPing with them a while and know that pretty much anything goes (e.g., Mac). 

2. I don't do easy fixes overall. If something seems like it's going to magically solve all of my character's problems overnight, I just won't do it. That takes out 90% of the fun of RP for me. 

TL;DR:

THIS IS MY SPESHAL POWUH. THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT BUT THIS ONE IS MINE.

Does having the ability to make the worst decisions ever count as a power?

it's a superpower

Anyway.

I feel like most of what I could say has been said already. IMO, any ~special~ powers are only as valid and interesting as the story they may create.

This topic is pretty valid for me as I definitely seem to fall into the weird lore-whippin' powers category. Because magic is cool. And because there is a ton of dark and awesome potential that can be milked and milked for story, and surrealistic pseudo-horror fiction is kind of my thing. So, I end up pinning for it regardless of initial plans. Wilhiem is a shadow-drain addict and dream-weaver. Drevover is a shapeshifting, blood-magic-witchcraft-dabbling bastard. Headtrip is a shadow ascendant that eats people's dreams and fears.

And the biggest thing - at least for me - is how much thought a person put into the bits of lore they are developing on my own. I absolutely DELIGHT in developing said lore IC and OOC, through progressing storylines, through sharing notes and compiling whole Google Docs (hi Penna) on things that have been never expanded on in actual lore. I have pages and pages and pages on dream theory and shadowy biological stuff. 

TL;DR, my point here is - if you are implementing an unusual power, do enough work to make it seem believable! 

if you are implementing an unusual power, do enough work to make it seem believable!

rhrhghgh YES you summed up my thoughts in my big ol' other post in one exact and accurate sentence.

One of my favorite things ever is to see a character that someone has obviously put a lot of work into. Not just attachment and emotion -- because all RP comes with a certain degree of that -- but work. When you can tell that someone has sat around and thought this character out in multiple dimensions and has developed their personality to the point of little branching idiosyncracies and quirks. The more the character feels like a real person, the easier it is for me to believe that they might be capable of far-out things.