4/What is it with all the RPers that go to caprice and say something like 'Hey Joe...give me your best, strongest and most expensive alcohol'...only to down the bottle and get another one. Are all superheroes boozaholics these days?
I have kind of a funny story regarding alcohol in Club Caprice. I was playing Bluey, my main, and some other player was apparently playing a bartender. She asked me what I wanted to drink, and listed out some things she could make. I don't know alcohol very well so the only one that sounded vaguely familiar was a "coke royale". I chose that, and the bartender said "that's kind of a girly drink, but okay *winky face*". And I thought that was so perfect. Accidentally getting a girly drink is exactly the kind of naive faux pas that Bluey would do. I completely accidentally played him correctly. This RP went off without a hitch, I thought, as I strapped on my jetpack and blew through the ceiling to my next adventure.
Another silly little thing is when I was playing a Dungeons and Dragons game (I was a dragonborn of course). The party was in a tavern, and one of my party members ordered the strongest thing they had. The DM elaborately described this powerfully alcoholic drink. Then he looked at me and asked what I wanted. I said, give me the weakest thing you got. The DM paused and then flatly said, "he gives you water."
Back on topic, I have a god character of my own (Alric), because I got tired of all the overpowered god characters around and defiantly decided to prove that a character could be a god and not be insufferable. Unfortunately, since I don't roleplay on CO much, and since he doesn't really fit in any of my other characters' settings, his god-ness hasn't come out much. And since I suck at sorcery he still dies quite often.
I think you hit it on the head, Kittyotix. Many people today, especially teens/ tweens and younger, only know supernatural folklore through the filter of contemporary television, movies, and other pop-culture references, which of course heavily alter the source material to suit their own storytelling purposes. They don't advertise that fact, or even as you note, sell it as the "true" folklore.
I suppose disguised revisionism of the supernatural for pop fiction purposes goes back at least as far as Bram Stoker. But at least Dracula requires opening a book. :rolleyes:
I think you hit it on the head, Kittyotix. Many people today, especially teens/ tweens and younger, only know supernatural folklore through the filter of contemporary television, movies, and other pop-culture references, which of course heavily alter the source material to suit their own storytelling purposes. They don't advertise that fact, or even as you note, sell it as the "true" folklore.
I suppose disguised revisionism of the supernatural for pop fiction purposes goes back at least as far as Bram Stoker. But at least Dracula requires opening a book. :rolleyes:
Ironically, Bram Stoker wrote Dracula as some sort of protest against wanton sexual behavior, or something like that (basic get off my lawn attitude of the day) and instead, the people who was attempting to criticize used the book as some sort of icon instead. Ironic in another way considering most of the novel is actually heavily plagiarized as well.
That being said, at least Dracula was still a monster and even looked like a monster when he vamped out in the book. The movie made it more so when he became a monster.
That started with Frank Langella's interpretation of Dracula over thirty years ago, on the Broadway stage and then on film, as handsome, romantic, and melancholy. The entertainment industry discovered that sexy vampires appealed to a whole other, lucrative, market.
I just find it a shame that so much of our traditional folk stories are lost or *******ised in modern films. I see that there is now a film based on Edgar Allen Poes Raven. I know this is not a traditional fable as such, but I doubt it will have much to do with his amazing poem and more to do with appealing to the post twighlight psudo-gothic horror film goers (as you may have noticed from my tone i HATE Twighlight and similar pop culture vampirism lol).
Give me a bloated, stinking, shambling eastern european vampire, or a monsterous, man eating, vavenous werewolf over the glowing vamps or the shirt ripping lycans of today.
I just find it a shame that so much of our traditional folk stories are lost or *******ised in modern films. I see that there is now a film based on Edgar Allen Poes Raven. I know this is not a traditional fable as such, but I doubt it will have much to do with his amazing poem and more to do with appealing to the post twighlight psudo-gothic horror film goers (as you may have noticed from my tone i HATE Twighlight and similar pop culture vampirism lol).
Give me a bloated, stinking, shambling eastern european vampire, or a monsterous, man eating, vavenous werewolf over the glowing vamps or the shirt ripping lycans of today.
Are you kidding, we cant even preserve relative modern fables intact. Case in point, the new Lone Ranger movie will be having him fighting werewolves. Yup, silver for purity is lame. Silver bullets HAVE to be used for werewolves.
It only dates back to the 30's, its not that old. And we cant even keep those fables intact.
I think it was on the History Channel that I saw this, but they were doign a documentary about Vampires and their culture and such on the silver screen, and one of the speakers they had mentioned the old movie Nosferatu, and that even though the title vamp was fugly as sin, the movie had a very charged sexual undertone. Something about the victim being in a situation in which they have no control and have no ability to change the outcome. Apparently, this appealed to a lot of different people, cause we have things like Vore fetishism now, which is... Well, the idea of vore is being swallowed whole.
As it's explained to me, the whole reason why vore is popular with the people it's popular with is because it's supposed to represent helplessness and inevitability. Someone else is in control, and they're so much stronger then you that even if you wanted to resist, you couldn't. Which apparently gets a lot of people's rocks off.
Please note that the Vampire docu I saw didn't mention Vore fetishism, merely that the reason vampires started being depicted in a more sexual manner was due to the whole "helplessness and inevitability" thing in Nosferatu. Which is something I remember being told when I had asked a friend why they dug Vore so much.
I hate to say it, but the only thing worse for Vampires than True Blood is Blade and Underworld.
But all of their lameness combined can't beat Twililght.
I hate Underworld. Blade I don't so much mind the fact that it is a comic book movie and I treat it as such though I don't know if I can watch it anymore, the cliches and stuff start grating on my nerves. But Underworld, how the hell do you take the once, long ago, awesome idea of a werewolf vampire and come up with a bloody smurf? Seriously, that had to be the lamest, and dumbest thing to ever happen. Not to mention Underworld was BORING.
I hate Underworld. Blade I don't so much mind the fact that it is a comic book movie and I treat it as such though I don't know if I can watch it anymore, the cliches and stuff start grating on my nerves. But Underworld, how the hell do you take the once, long ago, awesome idea of a werewolf vampire and come up with a bloody smurf? Seriously, that had to be the lamest, and dumbest thing to ever happen. Not to mention Underworld was BORING.
Underworld was just one in many to use the following formula:
1- Get a hot chick. It doesn't matter if she can act, or speak English for that matter.
2- Put her in a skin-tight catsuit or skin-tight miniskirt.
Underworld was just one in many to use the following formula:
1- Get a hot chick. It doesn't matter if she can act, or speak English for that matter.
2- Put her in a skin-tight catsuit or skin-tight miniskirt.
3- Give her two guns.
4- Show side boob.
5- MOVIE COMPLETED.
Number 4 didn't happen until the second movie. And I know this cause one of my former guild masters in WoW talked non-stop about how much skin he got to see of Kate Beckinsale near naked. Went on for hours about it. :rolleyes:
Twilight is just the latest in long line of media that is surely seeing to the *****fication of vampires. I fell asleep in Underworld and so I missed it. I did try to see them all, but instead found myself well rested. True Blood I actually made it through an episode or two before I moved on. Admittedly, I don't watch a lot of TV. And I am very particular about movies. So I will say this, if your gohna be a vampire scare me.:eek:. Don't act like you're gonna hump my leg.
To get back to what the OP was saying, there's the other side of the story as well:
- Player enters Caprice.
- Goes to the bar, sees a horned girl, gray skin, white hair, obviously of demonic heritage
- Player's reaction: "Pffff, oh, yeah, another succubus hunting for a quick ERP"
...
A bit unnerving when the demon in question is your main, has about 5 pages of bio and is closer to Hellboy in its concept than any Hell-Tramp trolling for a quick intercourse.
(Especially when the first line of her bio states that she's not interested and already taken...)
Now it's true there're god-moders, hate'em, with a passion.
But it's usually not the lone girl in a corner, drinking her glass of juice waiting for a friend, wearing simple chaps and a tank top...
More likely, the big glob of horns, spikes, and GLOW using the super magnifier, sitting in the middle of the room, shouting "ALL BEND TO MY WILL" in all-caps... ^_^
Why so much darkness in a super-hero game?
Go ask those that made Hellboy, Spawn, Ghost Rider, etc... etc...
From 10 years of D&D, I've learned that where your character comes from isn't as important as its motivations and its acts.
A golden high-elf could be turned vampire and keep company to some Strahd von Zarovich in Castle Ravenloft... ^_^
Well, had a library card, was doing D&D 5 times a week and saw the WotC logo on the book. :-p
It was fun for once to enter a dark and twisted realm.
But my favorites remain the Underdark part of Drizzt's story, and the Spellfire saga.
Outside of the rant, feelings I empathize with freely, there is good RP to be had in CO: RP where human characters live with weaknesses and characters flaws, where the dialog consists of more than lame pickup lines, and characters struggle heroically against seemingly never-ending evil.
Well, had a library card, was doing D&D 5 times a week and saw the WotC logo on the book. :-p
It was fun for once to enter a dark and twisted realm.
But my favorites remain the Underdark part of Drizzt's story, and the Spellfire saga.
And at least, that vampire doesn't sparkle. XD
Well technically, he did they made it clear that he would glimmer in sunlight. never was all that interested in Jandar Sunstar as I was in the character of Strahd, since he was actually pretty complex. Jandar, on the other hand, was a a bit of a one note instrument, always playing the exact same tune everywhere. And while I love Christie Golden's work as an author, I rather loathed it when Jandar was in the picture.
To get back to what the OP was saying, there's the other side of the story as well:
- Player enters Caprice.
- Goes to the bar, sees a horned girl, gray skin, white hair, obviously of demonic heritage
- Player's reaction: "Pffff, oh, yeah, another succubus hunting for a quick ERP"
...
A bit unnerving when the demon in question is your main, has about 5 pages of bio and is closer to Hellboy in its concept than any Hell-Tramp trolling for a quick intercourse.
(Especially when the first line of her bio states that she's not interested and already taken...)
Now it's true there're god-moders, hate'em, with a passion.
But it's usually not the lone girl in a corner, drinking her glass of juice waiting for a friend, wearing simple chaps and a tank top...
More likely, the big glob of horns, spikes, and GLOW using the super magnifier, sitting in the middle of the room, shouting "ALL BED TO MY WILL" in all-caps... ^_^
Why so much darkness in a super-hero game?
Go ask those that made Hellboy, Spawn, Ghost Rider, etc... etc...
From 10 years of D&D, I've learned that where your character comes from isn't as important as its motivations and its acts.
A golden high-elf could be turned vampire and keep company to some Strahd von Zarovich in Castle Ravenloft... ^_^
Technically I totally agree with this, as my Main, Mia has a form that looks like a demon, but it is caused by a failed sacrafice she endured as a child, and now her soul is fractured like a broken mirror and lets in energy from another realm. She rarely uses it coz there is always that assumtion that she is after a bit of erp, when in fact, up until recently she was in a relationship and is technically still has 'all her virtues intact'. In fact, if it was not for the fact i would need to retcon her story a bit, I would completely change the costume.
Its kinda funny the amount of snobbishness that comes out in these kinds of threads when it comes to people and there inspiration/source for there hero so what if the source of there inspiration is twilight it should be what they do with the character thats really important.
Also given the fact we have a sparcly vamp as a NPC i would say sparkly vamp is a valid choice for desperation.
Its kinda funny the amount of snobbishness that comes out in these kinds of threads when it comes to people and there inspiration/source for there hero so what if the source of there inspiration is twilight it should be what they do with the character thats really important.
Also given the fact we have a sparcly vamp as a NPC i would say sparkly vamp is a valid choice for desperation.
Yes, because a cahracter named Lillith witht eh description that they "seduce others for their own ways" or "their father is an all powerful god and they can do anything they want" really took a lot of depth or thought to develop
Its kinda funny the amount of snobbishness that comes out in these kinds of threads when it comes to people and there inspiration/source for there hero so what if the source of there inspiration is twilight it should be what they do with the character thats really important.
Also given the fact we have a sparcly vamp as a NPC i would say sparkly vamp is a valid choice for desperation.
I agree with Silverspar on this. I dont think its snobby just to hope some RPers have some degree of imagination when they make their characters. Even if they do steal the source material, try and make it a little different. I know there is only a limited amount of truly original concepts out there, but try and me a bit individual...for example Mia reads tarot...and i have even done live reads for peoples characters in Caprice while in IC, just to make things somewhat unusual
Yes, because a cahracter named Lillith witht eh description that they "seduce others for their own ways" or "their father is an all powerful god and they can do anything they want" really took a lot of depth or thought to develop
That's not even getting into the plagiarism.
Ignoring plagiarism (which is just silly and unimaginative no matter the venue), I really can't be arsed to care about the quality of people I don't intend to RP with insofar as backstory or character depth. If they, and those they play with regularly, are enjoying themselves... Who'm I to say what is good or isn't? It's their time to waste, after all.
I'll admit, I tend to ignore those kind of people outright (I'll admit to being a dirty elitist and narcissist, t'would be disingenuous to deny), but neither will I necessarily go out of my way to attempt to belittle their attempts at enjoying themselves.
S'a free internet. If I don't like it, I just won't interact with'em. Cut, dry, plain, simple.
Ignoring plagiarism (which is just silly and unimaginative no matter the venue), I really can't be arsed to care about the quality of people I don't intend to RP with insofar as backstory or character depth. If they, and those they play with regularly, are enjoying themselves... Who'm I to say what is good or isn't? It's their time to waste, after all.
I'll admit, I tend to ignore those kind of people outright (I'll admit to being a dirty elitist and narcissist, t'would be disingenuous to deny), but neither will I necessarily go out of my way to attempt to belittle their attempts at enjoying themselves.
S'a free internet. If I don't like it, I just won't interact with'em. Cut, dry, plain, simple.
If I get called a dirty elitist cause I would rather people put at least some effort into creating a character and story instead of being unimaginative and potentially hurting this game further with blatant plagiarism, well call me a dirty elitist. Not to mention when you walk into a room and a third of the people you see have nearly identical bios, then there's a problem IMO.
Hi everyone,
I love a bit of RP. I like to RP my characters from lvl 1 to 40. BUT I have a question or two that niggle me.....
1/ Why are there so many gods and super uber omnipotent deities....and why would such an omnipotent being stand around in Caprice talking to lonely mortals like my characters.
2/Why are there so many demons that are so very very bad that even satan vomited before throwing them out of hell for out-sataning satan....and again, if they were this bad, why are they in caprice at lvl 6 ? Does this mean that satan is only lvl 4 haha?
3/What is it with all the succubi? And they are always lesbians....succubus (plural succubi) is a female demon who takes the form of a hot human woman in order to seduce and sleep with men A male one is called an incubus. A succubus collects semen from the men she sleeps with. The incubi then use this to impregnate human females. Now...my beef with lesbian succubi is that they dont seem to want to have sex with men (as they are in fact lesbian). Does that not make them just a demon?
4/What is it with all the RPers that go to caprice and say something like 'Hey Joe...give me your best, strongest and most expensive alcohol'...only to down the bottle and get another one. Are all superheroes boozaholics these days?
Saturday Rant over (brought on by godmodding demons in caprice last night lol)
2. Satan sent them to train in how to convince a mortal to sell their soul, and it is easier to fool a drunk guy/girl
3. It is the XXI century! lesbian succubi have existed since ever, but now they do not need to hide their sexuality anymore
4. Iron-man syndrome, they want to be like Tony Stark, as they can not get the money and the women he has, they copy the only thing they can: his alcoholism
Judging by my name, yes I play a God Character. I enjoy using the Olympian Pantheon and making it my own. So many focus on the Myths that are from thousands of years ago. I like taking that and building up what has happened since.
One thing I dont do is God-Mod, even with a God. I belong to a RPSG and that is a major no for us. I like to look at it as, the Gods were the Super Heros of their time and are long lived. Then I take some of D&D and have it to where there worlds (i.e. Olympus and Asgard to name a couple) are a seperate plane.
It has opened up a lot of fun RP, to the point that most of the toons I run dont ever lift a finger, they (and others who run a couple) do the same thing. It is just fun when RPing with mature players.
Never once have I played the I am Ares you must respect me. My Ares knows this is 2012, the world is different, there are others he has dealt with that are just as strong as he, Thundrax who has posted in this thread has been one of those Heros.
I take pride in the fact that my Ares has lost in fights to villains, after all, how many times have we seen Supes and Thor go down? MANY times.
If I get called a dirty elitist cause I would rather people put at least some effort into creating a character and story instead of being unimaginative and potentially hurting this game further with blatant plagiarism, well call me a dirty elitist. Not to mention when you walk into a room and a third of the people you see have nearly identical bios, then there's a problem IMO.
Outside of things that are infringements (and should be reported if you feel so inclined), I don't really see why it should bother you if other people are awful, which is entirely my point. They have every right to be awful in a public space as long as they're working within the bounds of the ToS and EULA (if not, again - report'em and call it a day). You're under no obligation whatsoever to interact with them, and it's a real jerkass thing to do to badger them about it if they, and the people they're playing with, are having fun with it.
You can just ignore them and hang out with people that are more acceptable to whatever standard you hold. I certainly do. If your complaint is that there isn't anyone to your standard, then that's more of a problem with you then it is anyone else. Go hang out someplace else with a more appropriate group, and don't go to places you know aren't going to provide your level of enjoyment. It's not exactly that complicated. If you know Public Space A attracts predominately Crowd A, and Crowd A annoys you... Don't go there. You know what's gonna happen and who you're gonna run into, don't act so surprised when it happens.
It's a game, after all. People should be enjoying the time they spend in it. How they choose to go about that is really their business, as long as they're not exploiting or breaking any other rules. Last I checked, 'don't be awful and put work into your characters' wasn't one of those rules. :U
(DISCLAIMER: This post written in a very broad, general sense. The term 'you' as used applies to no one person in particular, and should be considered the general 'you' of the human population instead.)
Seriously. Give the Incubus Club the Caprice treatment so all the dudes can have their lesbian succubus ERP somewhere else.
You realize, and this might shock some people, that many of those ERPers are just people trolling right? Since they removed their way of being physical griefers, they try to be obnoxious vocal griefers instead. Kind of like Goldshire in WoW, most of the people there are just the trolls.
You realize, and this might shock some people, that many of those ERPers are just people trolling right? Since they removed their way of being physical griefers, they try to be obnoxious vocal griefers instead. Kind of like Goldshire in WoW, most of the people there are just the trolls.
So, what you are saying, is that ERPers are dERPing?
And yeah, someone remove that damn running man dance animation...
You know, there are a lot of people legitimately Rping in the Caprice at any time, and there is tons of 'UR HOT! U WANNA SEX?" Of the two, which one do you think you notice the most when it pops up on your screen? Personally, I find the easy route is to use team speak for any serious conversations, and only glance at local, in case something of vauge interest comes up.
In character, I call it whispering, since everything on Local can be heard half way across the damn bar anyways.
As for the rest? Not everyone IS creative. While you should stay away from them, to keep hold of your own sanity, you should also let them be. Many of them are only one snarky comment short of becoming a Troll; don't be the one that pushes them to that side of the game. Besides, the Caprice was put aside to be a sandbox for RPG. No one promised it'd be good RPG all the time.
On a complete side note? I have a half succubus character. She has no interest in sex; believes strongly in the golden age hero morals, abhors killing, and isn't at all evil. You can run with a cliched idea and still make it your own...
I do have another question to ask those that do play as omnipotent super gods. I am keen to find out how you actually RP effectively with one of those. I was watching some RP on Thursday when a planet destroying demon (lvl 11) sqaured up to a lvl 36 human. The bluff and bluster coming from the god was rediculous. Eventually he left, stating that he was only acting in character. My point being that surely behaving like this must severly limit the rp stories open to you. After all, who is going to want to chat to a rude low level planet eater that cant duel a human swordsman?
I agree with Masamudane. Not everyone is a creative genius. Nor should they have to be. However, the games framework puts certain limits on what any of us can do. Godmodding messes with that. Frankly if people can have fun with that, more power to 'em assuming they are not trying to shove their scripting down other people's throats. Which is where Masamundane hits the nail on the head. When you don't 'play along' some of them get pretty hostile. And this is coming out of someone who has a toon that has said, 'I'm just a spaz with a messiah complex.' Some of this has been reportable. Now I have no problem with well done god toons.
I like to make complicated toons, with complicated pasts, who then have to lead complicated lives. I like to use the canon of the game to do this, I find the stories to be much easier for others to take if they fit with the scope of the game. It seems to create a 'level of mutal understanding'. I use my toons as a springboard to hopefully bring others in, engage and entertain them, as well as myself. But there have been a couple of times in Caprice that if I played along with half the people I see, between the godmodders, and erp'ers my poor toons wouldn't able to get off their knees long enough to get anything else done. So I end up just leaving.
Outside of things that are infringements (and should be reported if you feel so inclined), I don't really see why it should bother you if other people are awful, which is entirely my point. They have every right to be awful in a public space as long as they're working within the bounds of the ToS and EULA (if not, again - report'em and call it a day). You're under no obligation whatsoever to interact with them, and it's a real jerkass thing to do to badger them about it if they, and the people they're playing with, are having fun with it.
You can just ignore them and hang out with people that are more acceptable to whatever standard you hold. I certainly do. If your complaint is that there isn't anyone to your standard, then that's more of a problem with you then it is anyone else. Go hang out someplace else with a more appropriate group, and don't go to places you know aren't going to provide your level of enjoyment. It's not exactly that complicated. If you know Public Space A attracts predominately Crowd A, and Crowd A annoys you... Don't go there. You know what's gonna happen and who you're gonna run into, don't act so surprised when it happens.
It's a game, after all. People should be enjoying the time they spend in it. How they choose to go about that is really their business, as long as they're not exploiting or breaking any other rules. Last I checked, 'don't be awful and put work into your characters' wasn't one of those rules. :U
(DISCLAIMER: This post written in a very broad, general sense. The term 'you' as used applies to no one person in particular, and should be considered the general 'you' of the human population instead.)
Couldn't have said it better myself, really.
When I was still playing Warhammer Online, I had one player PM me and tell me I was playing my class (goblin shaman) wrong. My reply was "When you start picking up the tab for my subscription, I'll play it any way you want."
I have the same view when it comes to RPing. I'm not a fan of Godmode. It's boring as all getout. But we take the chance of running into them in the wonderful world of MMOs. Gods and demons....yes, they're a widely used archetype. Almost sickeningly so. But I think a lot of people who play this game are like me: We've had this character concept since we played PnP roleplaying games, or since we read a certain scifi novel\comic, and here we get the opportunity to play it. To bring it to virtual life.
My main, Razer, is a gun and sword wielding anti-hero type. You can't swing a cat without hitting one. But I've had this character for a looooong time. Ever since I started playing superhero-themed RPGs, and I'm thrilled to be able to actually create him and play him.
Sorry if I went off on one there.
Anyhow, I'd be thrilled to participate in some good RP. Throw me a tell sometime if you see me in game.
Non godmode guaranteed
When I was still playing Warhammer Online, I had one player PM me and tell me I was playing my class (goblin shaman) wrong.
How could a person even play a goblin shaman wrong? Were you not putting Zs everywhere?
It's funny actually, I had THE most fun in WAR when it first went live. I was playing my black orc, and I was just questing, and came across a group quest. I trundled over to the cave and there were a few goblins outside. We started chatting, in character, and then teamed up (Arrite you gitz, get ye lil arses in dat cave, we'z got some squig bashin' ta do!) before finding another in character goblin inside. We stayed in our group for several hours, just going through the greenskin starting zone in character, picking up another orc along the way on an open mission who was also in character.
Yes, because a cahracter named Lillith witht eh description that they "seduce others for their own ways" or "their father is an all powerful god and they can do anything they want" really took a lot of depth or thought to develop
That's not even getting into the plagiarism.
Hence why I said
it should be what they do with the character thats really important.
My point being so what if there a sparkly vampire or a ancient god of teriable power if they RP that role well do they not deserve some credit instead of being labled as a unimaginative dolt strait off the bat.
Hell going by you avatar you play some kind of werewolf or humanoid wolf there like 10 a penny around these parts probably as common if not more so than the emo god daemon who just want to be good and/or destroy the world
The argument that really gets my goat regarding Superman is that "he's real not a hero because he's so powerful."
It's a load of bull. Moreover, it's patently stupid bull.
Yeah, he's powerful, but he's more than willing to fight in his weight class. Mongul. Metallo. The Anti-Monitor. Fricking Darkseid. He regularly goes up against a creature whom he's powerless against (Mxy and his 5D magicks) and beats him purely with his wits.
Doomsday killed him once? Supes still goes up against him. I could go on and on. Zod? Jax-Ur? Bizarro?Parasite? None of these are a picnic for Supes, but he still keeps going. And then there's Luthor who, even in the hands of a half-decent author, has the resources and intelligence to together a plan that's capable of killing him. If fighting people who can kill you is what defines the "hero" part of a "superhero", then only someone's who's an idiot or deliberately obtuse can deny Supes the label.
But let's go to the corollary... "Supes isn't a hero because he picks on normal level characters" There's no question he does. And so does Batman. Both characters outclass any thug they encounter: Supes by his rubber bullet bumper pecs, Bats by his Batmany badassedness. And forgive me if I scoff at the "at least guns can theoretically hurt Batman theoretically". When Bats and Supes take on thugs, we know how both scenes will play out. Just as we know the same for when Spider-Man, Cap, the Punisher etc. and their scenes take on mooks. Mooks have two dramatic functions in comics: first, they're a bit of a speebump between the hero and the main antagonist; second, they give him a chance to show off and look cool. They almost never present a significant threat: the last time any major hero or their loved ones was significantly threatened by a mook was when Uncle Ben died, fifty years ago. When Jason Todd died, they didn't have an anonymous thug do it -- it was the Joker, with the crowbar, in the library... well, not the library. Thugs don't do anything of consequence to any major character anymore.
If you want to say Supes is dull, boring, or irrelevant... well, I wouldn't agree, but that's an opinion to which a person is entitled. Think a lot of his stories are lacking? I won't disagree with that: I can't think of too many comics characters who have that longevity who don't have a lot of dross. Dislike him as the poster boy for boy scout/four color heroes? Well, judging by costumes and bios, a lot of CO's audience shares your opinion.
However, please spare me the line that he's not a "real hero". Not liking a character does not give you the right to strip a character of that label when they consistently demonstrate the three main qualities of a hero: courage, perserverance, and self-sacrifice. Supes doesn't back down against opponents who outmatch him, and he's willing to take a heckuva beating and keep going, and he wouldn't hesitate to take a kryptonite bullet for those he loves... or a stranger... or even most of his enemies. Sure seems like a classic hero to me.
Except that he isn't a hero because at heart, he isn't human. It's something that has always cast a shadow over the character, because he relates to normal people very much like a god among mortals. He is a benevolent god, but even with the attempts to humanize him, he is just too alien to be called one. He's good I fear, not because he learned to be, but because it's in the Krypton nature to act a certain way. It's kind of telling he usually only is "bad" when under mind control. He's never selfish, he never really fights with anyone and is in the wrong for bad reasons (apart from pure dystopia like the dark night returns, where EVERYONE is bad. Even in Kingdom Come it was him being good and acting according to his nature that caused all the problems) and he stands apart from other characters in doing so.
You could compare him to the silver surfer, who seems as bland but is actually a complex character that had severe moral choices. I don't think there's ever been a time where supes has not acted like a hero, and when you are always courageous, all the time, you really aren't. It's just your nature.
Except that he isn't a hero because at heart, he isn't human. It's something that has always cast a shadow over the character, because he relates to normal people very much like a god among mortals. He is a benevolent god, but even with the attempts to humanize him, he is just too alien to be called one. He's good I fear, not because he learned to be, but because it's in the Krypton nature to act a certain way. It's kind of telling he usually only is "bad" when under mind control. He's never selfish, he never really fights with anyone and is in the wrong for bad reasons (apart from pure dystopia like the dark night returns, where EVERYONE is bad. Even in Kingdom Come it was him being good and acting according to his nature that caused all the problems) and he stands apart from other characters in doing so.
You could compare him to the silver surfer, who seems as bland but is actually a complex character that had severe moral choices. I don't think there's ever been a time where supes has not acted like a hero, and when you are always courageous, all the time, you really aren't. It's just your nature.
So he can't be a hero because he's TOO much of a boyscout? I call absolute bunk on it being a Kryptonian trait, as Zod, Ursa, and Non did a pretty thorough job of disproving the crap out of that theory, as did a number of other Kryptonian (and related characters) over the years. There was even an entire city of them at one point (pre-NuDC reboot, part the hundredth) that weren't exactly stellar examples of character.
Come on. That's a terrible argument. You can dislike him as a character for being 'too' heroic, but that's the absolute dumbest thing I've seen to disqualify someone from the 'hero' label, or for some ridiculous qualifier like 'not being human'.
Since Crisis, the characterization of Superman has consistently been that the alien side of him is cold, calculating, and decidedly unheroic, and that it's his Kent background that is responsible for instilling his heroic values. He may not be human, but he's heroic because of humanity. There have been stories where he's slipped because he's gotten "too Kryptonian", so I don't believe the argument holds much water.
(And I note, for the last 25 years, Supes has stood on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate.)
Bright cheery (it's all a lie!) demoness chiming in!
Anyway, I'm sure this has been said, but really it does come down to execution. As a personal challenge, I love to take familiar concepts and twist them to take on a realistic approach. Flare, my main, is a half demon and a redeemed villain. And I play it up, a lot (this game is based on the Silver Age after all), and Flare does act as if her life is wonderful. But hidden beneath the veneer is a character who is morally conflicted and troubled by the life she leads since her father who she imprisoned swears by his life that she is doing wrong. It really is about how you execute the life of your characters, not the power your characters have.
Often I like to work on the principle of balancing power with personality to give a character that is not only fun to play with but doesn't come across as a 'uber, OP, GODLIKE' being.
In most cases, any character I have that happens to be incredibly powerful (see Claire or Rene for examples on my character list) often have a personality that leaves them either unlikely to fight or weak in terms of personal strength, Rene might be able to cause mass particle acceleration but she has no willpower or self-belief to truely utilise it.
In the same way, a character that seems quite weak in terms of ability, for example, Defara or Lucky Shot (also in my characters list) often have personalities that either, make them appear stronger than they really are, or have personalities that embrace their weaknesses or strive to overcome them.
It really does come down to how you flesh out a character and how you balance them out to be LIKEABLE, no story became a bestseller with the main character never facing a difficult trial or challenge.
The official Champions Universe has an NPC named Josiah Brimstone, a powerful mystic who had his soul torn out by the arch-devil Belial, who replaced it with the soul of one of his demons. Brimstone has to keep himself under tight emotional control lest the demon fully possess him and wreak havoc.
Brimstone attempts to do the right thing in the hope that good deeds will help him regain his soul; but he's arrogant, sarcastic, and condescending to others at the best of times, and when the influence of the demon in him is strong his actions are outright evil. Heroic mystics often find Brimstone's "help" to be more trouble than it's worth and tend to shun him.
In other words, notwithstanding the tragic elements to his character, Josiah Brimstone is a powerful d!ck, and heroes treat him as a d!ck. There's a place for such characters, but if they're PCs they should expect a particular response from other PCs. Now if everyone involved is willing to roleplay that response such characters can actually be fun.
Except that he isn't a hero because at heart, he isn't human. It's something that has always cast a shadow over the character, because he relates to normal people very much like a god among mortals. He is a benevolent god, but even with the attempts to humanize him, he is just too alien to be called one. He's good I fear, not because he learned to be, but because it's in the Krypton nature to act a certain way. It's kind of telling he usually only is "bad" when under mind control. He's never selfish, he never really fights with anyone and is in the wrong for bad reasons (apart from pure dystopia like the dark night returns, where EVERYONE is bad. Even in Kingdom Come it was him being good and acting according to his nature that caused all the problems) and he stands apart from other characters in doing so.
The problem with that line of thought is that it brakes down when you look at other Kryptonians sure supergirl's nice and friendly as is power girl but Zod is a compleat and uterr B and when the others got out of Kandor they weren't all that much better.
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Another silly little thing is when I was playing a Dungeons and Dragons game (I was a dragonborn of course). The party was in a tavern, and one of my party members ordered the strongest thing they had. The DM elaborately described this powerfully alcoholic drink. Then he looked at me and asked what I wanted. I said, give me the weakest thing you got. The DM paused and then flatly said, "he gives you water."
Back on topic, I have a god character of my own (Alric), because I got tired of all the overpowered god characters around and defiantly decided to prove that a character could be a god and not be insufferable. Unfortunately, since I don't roleplay on CO much, and since he doesn't really fit in any of my other characters' settings, his god-ness hasn't come out much. And since I suck at sorcery he still dies quite often.
I suppose disguised revisionism of the supernatural for pop fiction purposes goes back at least as far as Bram Stoker. But at least Dracula requires opening a book. :rolleyes:
Ironically, Bram Stoker wrote Dracula as some sort of protest against wanton sexual behavior, or something like that (basic get off my lawn attitude of the day) and instead, the people who was attempting to criticize used the book as some sort of icon instead. Ironic in another way considering most of the novel is actually heavily plagiarized as well.
That being said, at least Dracula was still a monster and even looked like a monster when he vamped out in the book. The movie made it more so when he became a monster.
But all of their lameness combined can't beat Twililght.
Give me a bloated, stinking, shambling eastern european vampire, or a monsterous, man eating, vavenous werewolf over the glowing vamps or the shirt ripping lycans of today.
Are you kidding, we cant even preserve relative modern fables intact. Case in point, the new Lone Ranger movie will be having him fighting werewolves. Yup, silver for purity is lame. Silver bullets HAVE to be used for werewolves.
It only dates back to the 30's, its not that old. And we cant even keep those fables intact.
As it's explained to me, the whole reason why vore is popular with the people it's popular with is because it's supposed to represent helplessness and inevitability. Someone else is in control, and they're so much stronger then you that even if you wanted to resist, you couldn't. Which apparently gets a lot of people's rocks off.
Please note that the Vampire docu I saw didn't mention Vore fetishism, merely that the reason vampires started being depicted in a more sexual manner was due to the whole "helplessness and inevitability" thing in Nosferatu. Which is something I remember being told when I had asked a friend why they dug Vore so much.
I hate Underworld. Blade I don't so much mind the fact that it is a comic book movie and I treat it as such though I don't know if I can watch it anymore, the cliches and stuff start grating on my nerves. But Underworld, how the hell do you take the once, long ago, awesome idea of a werewolf vampire and come up with a bloody smurf? Seriously, that had to be the lamest, and dumbest thing to ever happen. Not to mention Underworld was BORING.
Underworld was just one in many to use the following formula:
1- Get a hot chick. It doesn't matter if she can act, or speak English for that matter.
2- Put her in a skin-tight catsuit or skin-tight miniskirt.
3- Give her two guns.
4- Show side boob.
5- MOVIE COMPLETED.
Number 4 didn't happen until the second movie. And I know this cause one of my former guild masters in WoW talked non-stop about how much skin he got to see of Kate Beckinsale near naked. Went on for hours about it. :rolleyes:
- Player enters Caprice.
- Goes to the bar, sees a horned girl, gray skin, white hair, obviously of demonic heritage
- Player's reaction: "Pffff, oh, yeah, another succubus hunting for a quick ERP"
...
A bit unnerving when the demon in question is your main, has about 5 pages of bio and is closer to Hellboy in its concept than any Hell-Tramp trolling for a quick intercourse.
(Especially when the first line of her bio states that she's not interested and already taken...)
Now it's true there're god-moders, hate'em, with a passion.
But it's usually not the lone girl in a corner, drinking her glass of juice waiting for a friend, wearing simple chaps and a tank top...
More likely, the big glob of horns, spikes, and GLOW using the super magnifier, sitting in the middle of the room, shouting "ALL BEND TO MY WILL" in all-caps... ^_^
Why so much darkness in a super-hero game?
Go ask those that made Hellboy, Spawn, Ghost Rider, etc... etc...
From 10 years of D&D, I've learned that where your character comes from isn't as important as its motivations and its acts.
A golden high-elf could be turned vampire and keep company to some Strahd von Zarovich in Castle Ravenloft... ^_^
Wow, Im not the only one who read that ?
Well, had a library card, was doing D&D 5 times a week and saw the WotC logo on the book. :-p
It was fun for once to enter a dark and twisted realm.
But my favorites remain the Underdark part of Drizzt's story, and the Spellfire saga.
And at least, that vampire doesn't sparkle. XD
If that's what you're looking for, let me suggest The Ultimate Guardians, The Silver Guard, and/or The Silver Age Sentinels. Something between those three groups should be able to fulfill a great deal of RP needs.
I have every one of the Ravenloft novels, and despite my sister drew all over it, the original hard cover of I, Strahd.
Well technically, he did they made it clear that he would glimmer in sunlight. never was all that interested in Jandar Sunstar as I was in the character of Strahd, since he was actually pretty complex. Jandar, on the other hand, was a a bit of a one note instrument, always playing the exact same tune everywhere. And while I love Christie Golden's work as an author, I rather loathed it when Jandar was in the picture.
Technically I totally agree with this, as my Main, Mia has a form that looks like a demon, but it is caused by a failed sacrafice she endured as a child, and now her soul is fractured like a broken mirror and lets in energy from another realm. She rarely uses it coz there is always that assumtion that she is after a bit of erp, when in fact, up until recently she was in a relationship and is technically still has 'all her virtues intact'. In fact, if it was not for the fact i would need to retcon her story a bit, I would completely change the costume.
Also given the fact we have a sparcly vamp as a NPC i would say sparkly vamp is a valid choice for desperation.
Yes, because a cahracter named Lillith witht eh description that they "seduce others for their own ways" or "their father is an all powerful god and they can do anything they want" really took a lot of depth or thought to develop
That's not even getting into the plagiarism.
I agree with Silverspar on this. I dont think its snobby just to hope some RPers have some degree of imagination when they make their characters. Even if they do steal the source material, try and make it a little different. I know there is only a limited amount of truly original concepts out there, but try and me a bit individual...for example Mia reads tarot...and i have even done live reads for peoples characters in Caprice while in IC, just to make things somewhat unusual
Ignoring plagiarism (which is just silly and unimaginative no matter the venue), I really can't be arsed to care about the quality of people I don't intend to RP with insofar as backstory or character depth. If they, and those they play with regularly, are enjoying themselves... Who'm I to say what is good or isn't? It's their time to waste, after all.
I'll admit, I tend to ignore those kind of people outright (I'll admit to being a dirty elitist and narcissist, t'would be disingenuous to deny), but neither will I necessarily go out of my way to attempt to belittle their attempts at enjoying themselves.
S'a free internet. If I don't like it, I just won't interact with'em. Cut, dry, plain, simple.
If I get called a dirty elitist cause I would rather people put at least some effort into creating a character and story instead of being unimaginative and potentially hurting this game further with blatant plagiarism, well call me a dirty elitist. Not to mention when you walk into a room and a third of the people you see have nearly identical bios, then there's a problem IMO.
1. Do not feel special, gods do it all the time, take a look at all Zeus' consorts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus#Consorts_and_children the list has tons of mortals
2. Satan sent them to train in how to convince a mortal to sell their soul, and it is easier to fool a drunk guy/girl
3. It is the XXI century! lesbian succubi have existed since ever, but now they do not need to hide their sexuality anymore
4. Iron-man syndrome, they want to be like Tony Stark, as they can not get the money and the women he has, they copy the only thing they can: his alcoholism
One thing I dont do is God-Mod, even with a God. I belong to a RPSG and that is a major no for us. I like to look at it as, the Gods were the Super Heros of their time and are long lived. Then I take some of D&D and have it to where there worlds (i.e. Olympus and Asgard to name a couple) are a seperate plane.
It has opened up a lot of fun RP, to the point that most of the toons I run dont ever lift a finger, they (and others who run a couple) do the same thing. It is just fun when RPing with mature players.
Never once have I played the I am Ares you must respect me. My Ares knows this is 2012, the world is different, there are others he has dealt with that are just as strong as he, Thundrax who has posted in this thread has been one of those Heros.
I take pride in the fact that my Ares has lost in fights to villains, after all, how many times have we seen Supes and Thor go down? MANY times.
It all comes down to the maturity of the player.
If you decide to hang out at a Lesbian Succubus club you really shouldn't be all that surprised to find it filled with Lesbian Succubi.
It would be like hanging out at a sports bar and complaining that the big screen TV's are set to show the big game...
Outside of things that are infringements (and should be reported if you feel so inclined), I don't really see why it should bother you if other people are awful, which is entirely my point. They have every right to be awful in a public space as long as they're working within the bounds of the ToS and EULA (if not, again - report'em and call it a day). You're under no obligation whatsoever to interact with them, and it's a real jerkass thing to do to badger them about it if they, and the people they're playing with, are having fun with it.
You can just ignore them and hang out with people that are more acceptable to whatever standard you hold. I certainly do. If your complaint is that there isn't anyone to your standard, then that's more of a problem with you then it is anyone else. Go hang out someplace else with a more appropriate group, and don't go to places you know aren't going to provide your level of enjoyment. It's not exactly that complicated. If you know Public Space A attracts predominately Crowd A, and Crowd A annoys you... Don't go there. You know what's gonna happen and who you're gonna run into, don't act so surprised when it happens.
It's a game, after all. People should be enjoying the time they spend in it. How they choose to go about that is really their business, as long as they're not exploiting or breaking any other rules. Last I checked, 'don't be awful and put work into your characters' wasn't one of those rules. :U
(DISCLAIMER: This post written in a very broad, general sense. The term 'you' as used applies to no one person in particular, and should be considered the general 'you' of the human population instead.)
... We told them to make the Incubus Club down-town a social area, and make Caprice a pajama-wearing super-hero club again... XD
You realize, and this might shock some people, that many of those ERPers are just people trolling right? Since they removed their way of being physical griefers, they try to be obnoxious vocal griefers instead. Kind of like Goldshire in WoW, most of the people there are just the trolls.
So, what you are saying, is that ERPers are dERPing?
And yeah, someone remove that damn running man dance animation...
In character, I call it whispering, since everything on Local can be heard half way across the damn bar anyways.
As for the rest? Not everyone IS creative. While you should stay away from them, to keep hold of your own sanity, you should also let them be. Many of them are only one snarky comment short of becoming a Troll; don't be the one that pushes them to that side of the game. Besides, the Caprice was put aside to be a sandbox for RPG. No one promised it'd be good RPG all the time.
On a complete side note? I have a half succubus character. She has no interest in sex; believes strongly in the golden age hero morals, abhors killing, and isn't at all evil. You can run with a cliched idea and still make it your own...
I like to make complicated toons, with complicated pasts, who then have to lead complicated lives. I like to use the canon of the game to do this, I find the stories to be much easier for others to take if they fit with the scope of the game. It seems to create a 'level of mutal understanding'. I use my toons as a springboard to hopefully bring others in, engage and entertain them, as well as myself. But there have been a couple of times in Caprice that if I played along with half the people I see, between the godmodders, and erp'ers my poor toons wouldn't able to get off their knees long enough to get anything else done. So I end up just leaving.
Couldn't have said it better myself, really.
When I was still playing Warhammer Online, I had one player PM me and tell me I was playing my class (goblin shaman) wrong. My reply was "When you start picking up the tab for my subscription, I'll play it any way you want."
I have the same view when it comes to RPing. I'm not a fan of Godmode. It's boring as all getout. But we take the chance of running into them in the wonderful world of MMOs. Gods and demons....yes, they're a widely used archetype. Almost sickeningly so. But I think a lot of people who play this game are like me: We've had this character concept since we played PnP roleplaying games, or since we read a certain scifi novel\comic, and here we get the opportunity to play it. To bring it to virtual life.
My main, Razer, is a gun and sword wielding anti-hero type. You can't swing a cat without hitting one. But I've had this character for a looooong time. Ever since I started playing superhero-themed RPGs, and I'm thrilled to be able to actually create him and play him.
Sorry if I went off on one there.
Anyhow, I'd be thrilled to participate in some good RP. Throw me a tell sometime if you see me in game.
Non godmode guaranteed
That's horrible! Why would you do that? You're lucky Tiyshen is no longer a mod here, or you'd get editted so fast....
Though taken out of context like this, it sounds like you're saying you can't swing a cat without hitting (a cat).
How could a person even play a goblin shaman wrong? Were you not putting Zs everywhere?
It's funny actually, I had THE most fun in WAR when it first went live. I was playing my black orc, and I was just questing, and came across a group quest. I trundled over to the cave and there were a few goblins outside. We started chatting, in character, and then teamed up (Arrite you gitz, get ye lil arses in dat cave, we'z got some squig bashin' ta do!) before finding another in character goblin inside. We stayed in our group for several hours, just going through the greenskin starting zone in character, picking up another orc along the way on an open mission who was also in character.
You don't need to be unique to be amazing.
Hence why I said
My point being so what if there a sparkly vampire or a ancient god of teriable power if they RP that role well do they not deserve some credit instead of being labled as a unimaginative dolt strait off the bat.
Hell going by you avatar you play some kind of werewolf or humanoid wolf there like 10 a penny around these parts probably as common if not more so than the emo god daemon who just want to be good and/or destroy the world
Straight up, yo.
Just goes to show you - as long as everyone is capable of having fun with it, anything can work.
(Also, man, I wish WAR had gotten it's act together. I miss my Sorceress every now and then.)
Totally, I loved my black orc :<
Except that he isn't a hero because at heart, he isn't human. It's something that has always cast a shadow over the character, because he relates to normal people very much like a god among mortals. He is a benevolent god, but even with the attempts to humanize him, he is just too alien to be called one. He's good I fear, not because he learned to be, but because it's in the Krypton nature to act a certain way. It's kind of telling he usually only is "bad" when under mind control. He's never selfish, he never really fights with anyone and is in the wrong for bad reasons (apart from pure dystopia like the dark night returns, where EVERYONE is bad. Even in Kingdom Come it was him being good and acting according to his nature that caused all the problems) and he stands apart from other characters in doing so.
You could compare him to the silver surfer, who seems as bland but is actually a complex character that had severe moral choices. I don't think there's ever been a time where supes has not acted like a hero, and when you are always courageous, all the time, you really aren't. It's just your nature.
So he can't be a hero because he's TOO much of a boyscout? I call absolute bunk on it being a Kryptonian trait, as Zod, Ursa, and Non did a pretty thorough job of disproving the crap out of that theory, as did a number of other Kryptonian (and related characters) over the years. There was even an entire city of them at one point (pre-NuDC reboot, part the hundredth) that weren't exactly stellar examples of character.
Come on. That's a terrible argument. You can dislike him as a character for being 'too' heroic, but that's the absolute dumbest thing I've seen to disqualify someone from the 'hero' label, or for some ridiculous qualifier like 'not being human'.
racist!
just kidding, calm down
(And I note, for the last 25 years, Supes has stood on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate.)
Anyway, I'm sure this has been said, but really it does come down to execution. As a personal challenge, I love to take familiar concepts and twist them to take on a realistic approach. Flare, my main, is a half demon and a redeemed villain. And I play it up, a lot (this game is based on the Silver Age after all), and Flare does act as if her life is wonderful. But hidden beneath the veneer is a character who is morally conflicted and troubled by the life she leads since her father who she imprisoned swears by his life that she is doing wrong. It really is about how you execute the life of your characters, not the power your characters have.
In most cases, any character I have that happens to be incredibly powerful (see Claire or Rene for examples on my character list) often have a personality that leaves them either unlikely to fight or weak in terms of personal strength, Rene might be able to cause mass particle acceleration but she has no willpower or self-belief to truely utilise it.
In the same way, a character that seems quite weak in terms of ability, for example, Defara or Lucky Shot (also in my characters list) often have personalities that either, make them appear stronger than they really are, or have personalities that embrace their weaknesses or strive to overcome them.
It really does come down to how you flesh out a character and how you balance them out to be LIKEABLE, no story became a bestseller with the main character never facing a difficult trial or challenge.
Brimstone attempts to do the right thing in the hope that good deeds will help him regain his soul; but he's arrogant, sarcastic, and condescending to others at the best of times, and when the influence of the demon in him is strong his actions are outright evil. Heroic mystics often find Brimstone's "help" to be more trouble than it's worth and tend to shun him.
In other words, notwithstanding the tragic elements to his character, Josiah Brimstone is a powerful d!ck, and heroes treat him as a d!ck. There's a place for such characters, but if they're PCs they should expect a particular response from other PCs. Now if everyone involved is willing to roleplay that response such characters can actually be fun.
The problem with that line of thought is that it brakes down when you look at other Kryptonians sure supergirl's nice and friendly as is power girl but Zod is a compleat and uterr B and when the others got out of Kandor they weren't all that much better.