Wu Xing Interdimensional Fantasy Adventure

Not why I was considering my characters potentially underpowered, though. Was looking at the accepted characters. ^^;

Not like I was buffing them, anyway... it just seems that Maria might be less of a problem than I initially thought. >.>

Honestly, if there's a strong issue with direct anti-magic, I can drop Alice's beloved knife and have the grenades be a replacement instead of a buff. They have the advantage, for the sanity of RPers, of having a very explicit and essentially mundane nature: they just make it hard to concentrate on casting magic, instead of affecting the mechanics of the magic itself. But anything that'll stop a cloud of mustard gas — gas masks, wind control powers, et cetera — will throw a wrench in the plan. As will sufficient Heroic Willpower or its villainous equivalent.

I can take Alice being underpowered — hell, she's underpowered in her own 'verse, reliant on being a clever, vicious woman to punch well above her own Super Weight, and that's my plan here as well. But I'd like her to have some tools to make the playing field a tad less arcane, even if it's in a way that requires her to use a lot of intelligence in order to apply it. As said, one wind mage makes her toys useless, unless she figures out a way to deal with him first, whether personally or with help from the more directly powerful.

edited 22nd Apr '12 9:45:34 AM by KillerClowns

For reference: yes, the sword is a divine artefact. That's not its proper name.

I'd also be okay-ish if Jonathan didn't have his orichalcum — they distort magic and make it unpredictable — but I still want him to have frag grenades now. Maybe some flashbangs, too. It feels like if you don't want to use a lot of magic, you'll be utterly outclassed to a ridiculous extent, and stuff like frags or flashbangs could make the playing field slightly less magic-heavy. I don't like an over-reliance on magic.

edited 22nd Apr '12 10:00:04 AM by TeraChimera

Theoretically, anti-magic can be pulled off pretty well, with enough thought put into it. Protagonist-esque super unique power? With no logical explanation? Probably not acceptable in a roleplay. On the other hand, something along the lines of, say, combating a wave based magical power source (Wave as in light wave, or sound wave) with another wave to nullify it within a certain area for as long as you're standing in the right spot and magic waves act like actual waves—within reason, of course. It really depends on where you are on the scale from no anti-magic to being able to nullify everything preternatural by being in the same multiverse as them.

Anyways. I'll submit a bio. If anyone has any objections to me being in this roleplay for any reason other than me submitting a poorly written character or blatantly disregarding a rule, kindly PM me and I'll leave without a word. I don't exactly have a good history with a lot of you, and I would understand if any of you wouldn't want to roleplay with me, so it would probably be for the best if I knew that ahead of time.

Hoo boy. Okay, I admit balancing 20-something characters isn't obvious, but I'll post some more details about the setting mechanics here soon, and possibly some in-setting stat sheets, so everyone can see how there characters are in the power levels and/or if everyone is balanced. We're not starting right away, so we have some time to adjust as necessary.

I have to warn everyone so far, that When All You Have Is a Hammer…-style tactics may be less overpowered or even as successful in this setting than it seems at first glance. While there will be at least a few Damage-Sponge Boss enemies, there will also be many other enemies not so easily dispatched, and strategy, tactics, and negotiation plays a larger role, as there will be many times when you may want to be stealthy or blend in, and possibly gather aid from others. Also, don't underestimate the surprise factor of non-magical weapons in a magical setting - there may be quite a few fewer defenses against weapons that don't exist.

Certainly, these characters are powerful, but can even this group stand up alone to an army? A nation?

If anyone has any specific concerns about character X being too powerful, or that their character is too weak, you can also PM me and I'll see what I can do.

I'd usually say that a good rule of thumb is to ask, "If these powers/weapons/spells/whatever are this easy to come by, then would the civilization dissolve into chaos within minutes? If so, tone it down," but given that this is based on a multiverse...

...Then again, I guess they all came from civilizations of there own. So long as there aren't too many, "I happen to be the strongest entity on my world, so that explains why I can blow up planets and my contemporaries cannot," in the character pool, my guess is it would be fine. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what the logic is behind, "His character is really strong, so I want mine to be strong too," is, probably because I find that there are funner ways of defeating an enemy than just being strong, but I digress.

edited 22nd Apr '12 1:16:50 PM by FakeCrowley

Yeah, its far more awesome to beat the Grim Reaper as the Completely Normal Guy with a paper clip and a good strategy than simply blowing the planet up with the Holy Handgrenade.

I don't want those two to be stronger... just think I ought to have someone more consistently useful. =P

I'm not criticising anyone for wanting their character to be stronger. Merely suggesting that it be kept within rational limits. That common sense keep the Id in check. Both strong and weak characters can be fun, depending on the roleplayer—I'm personally more inclined to the former, and thus I do my best to move towards the latter end of the scale. Suffice to say, I sadly suffer from Superfluous Snowflake Syndrome.

edited 22nd Apr '12 1:37:09 PM by FakeCrowley

You also suffer from walls of text. >.>

Moved!

This post's information is now at Wu Xing Interdimensional Fantasy Adventure to clear up any confusion, and provide more easily-accessible detail.

edited 22nd Apr '12 8:54:54 PM by Sonzai

Sure, I sometimes scribe substandardly succinct story-segments that solicit substantial summary. So?

edited 22nd Apr '12 2:09:34 PM by FakeCrowley

I'm... going to drop out, sorry, this isn't what I thought it was going to be.

...Eh, I can work with an element chart, since I imagine that would be self-explanatory, really. But if we're going to introduce stats, I'll need to leave. I can't really stand them in RP's. sorry.

Following suit... HP is easy to adapt to. But an entire roleplaying system, complete with stats and damage typing? I... can't really muster the enthusiasm for that. Text based roleplaying always seems more... y'know, story and character based, not complicated systems. Hell, even Nasuverse Servant stats are simplistic and don't have to be exhaustively tracked.

Sorry...

edited 22nd Apr '12 2:14:47 PM by RainehDaze

... Sorry, but, um...

If we have to adhere to that, I'm not going to be sticking around either.

edited 22nd Apr '12 2:14:47 PM by AnnoR

Yeah, I think I'm gonna' take my leave too.

For the reasons listed above and the fact that my characters are really shitty.

edited 22nd Apr '12 2:14:59 PM by Bindlestick

I'm dropping out too. I don't like complicated stat systems in text-based RPs.

edited 22nd Apr '12 2:21:02 PM by kagescorpionakki

Aww, man, you mean I can't rely on just plain getting myself over so I can get away with basically whatever in the Nine Circles I feel like? I'll miss that. Then again, it also means a jackass with a cute plan can't try and hijack the plot as easily as in more freeform RPs. So I'm still in. Let's see how this goes. If nothing else, the qi means I can now justify Alice pulling off the sort of fancy inhuman Waif-Fu she's not actually capable of at home.

edited 22nd Apr '12 3:02:12 PM by KillerClowns

*(everyone): Jeez - you're not even going to wait and see what I'm going to post?

This is NOT A STAT-BASED RP, and honestly I didn't want to post any stat sheets (or even the elemental stuff above), the only reason I'm doing it at all is to balance out the characters with approximate values. How can you claim a character is overpowered if you don't know how powerful they are in the setting? (That being said, there will now not be any stat sheets, I'll just read the character descriptions and see how the balance is.)

The damage types are only really relevant because you'll be fighting elementals, etc. and some attacks will work better than others. It's just how the combat in the world works.

The ideal situation is to have everyone write what they do, and I take care of all the other details like the elements, and hitpoints behind the scenes - no tracking of anything is required by the players. (The hitpoints aren't even really explicit, it's like you can take damage without getting your arm cut off, etc.)

I'm definitely planning on this being a very story-intensive RP, but I still want to have fight scenes in some parts (although ingenuity is usually the best way to defeat enemies), so I just wanted to explain a little about how the world works. This being an interdimensional RP, your characters do NOT need to correspond at all to those elements, or have ANY stats whatsoever.

If you want to leave because you don't like how the world's setting is going to work, then that is your decision. I'd just hate to have everyone leave over a misunderstanding.

EDIT: Just to try to clear this up a bit more: YES, write whatever you want, try to derail the plot, etc. There are no stats, and the elements only matter for combat purposes. (And in-setting magic, etc.) Your characters do not have to play by the rules of the setting!

edited 22nd Apr '12 3:02:01 PM by Sonzai

Heh, guess we over-reacted, sorry. I'll be staying, then!

By the way, is my character from last page accepted?

I'd rather not derail the plot, eheh. Still, looking forward to using Erin. XD

Ah, sorry about that.

Umm... can you reply to my PM, please? ^^;

A few characters of mine who I want to give another chance after their RPs died...

• Name: Jeremy Martin, but goes by the alias "Nowhere Man"
• Age: 28
• Gender: Male
• Species: Human.
• Appearance: British born, American raised. About five-foot-six, with pale skin, and a bit of stubble. Black hair, blue eyes, pale complexion. Looks extraordinarily average, to the point of being nondescript. His "costume" consists of black jeans, a white shirt, and a leather jacket, the last bearing "Nowhere Man" on the front right pocket and across the back, in a font that brings to mind a label-maker.◊ Has poor posture.
• Basic powers/skills description: Jeremy has always been good at keeping his head down and had an eye for details. A forced injection of the Blackbird serum augmented this with superpowers, the big-name ones being invisibility, intangibility, and inaudibility, though he's still working on control and mastery of those, especially extending them to things he's in contact with and not falling through floors. His most reliable power, however, is a Perception Filter that renders him Beneath Notice unless he draws attention to himself.
• Any other info: Jeremy has poor self-esteem and is given to depression, which he does his best to cover up by alternating between silence and snark. He has difficulty relying on others, and is easily startled; understandable, given his present situation, but he was like that before he was kidnapped for use as a human guinea pig. Was something of a creature of habit, but his routine's clearly been shot to hell at this point.

For the most part, Jeremy Martin was nobody special. No, scratch that. Jeremy Matin was, essentially, nobody. Stuck in a dead-end job and barely making rent, he slogged through day to day, with the only thing he hated more than his daily routine being disruptions in it. Until one day, he made the mistake of complaining within earshot of a man he came to know only as Mr. Kite. Mr Kite had a vision to grant America a new class of supervillain, gathering up people from all walks of life who'd become disillusioned with the world, and taking them to the Octopus's Garden, where he offered them a chance to seize the American dream by force of arms. The Blackbird serum would given them new powers, a new life, and the respect they'd never had. All they had to do was work with him, and they'd have money, power, and vindication. And at that point, Jeremy had decided he'd heard enough, and tried to sneak out... When two of Kite's goons grabbed him and brought him back to the boss, who quickly won the crowd by giving them a demonstration of just what Blackbird could do, with Jeremy as the test subject. He wasn't quite sure how the crowd reacted after he ran through a wall on the way out, but at least a few seemed to have been convinced, and after a near-fatal encounter with a man calling himself the Silver Hammer, he was forced to leave his home in Tuscon, Arizona, and found himself a man on the run.

• Any relevant prior adventuring or interdimensional work experience: Worked both solo and with a group of superheroes to bring down a number of villains, including Revolution 9, the organization that was respsonsible for his changes. Has an extensive collection of foes, most of which seem to draw inspiration either from the Beatles or the solo careers of their members; unsurprising, as most were also granted their power by Blackbird. After a final confrontation with Mr. Kite, now empowered by Blackbird and calling himself the Sun King, he was left for dead in the Norwegian woods.

• Name: Kris Hunter
• Age: 21
• Gender: Male
• Species: Human
• Appearance: Leather jacket, white shirt, black jeans, spiked wristbands, sunglasses. Black hair, normal caucasian skin tone. Stands about six feet tall. All attempts to discover his eye color have failed.
• Basic powers/skills description: Radiates an aura of pure, crazy badass, with a side of creepy. Capable of sudden bursts of extreme speed, agility, and/or strength. Can walk on walls and ceilings like it's no big deal.
• Any other info: A bit of a loner by nature. Technically doesn't exist and never did in his home universe.
• Any relevant prior adventuring or interdimensional work experience: Joined up with a group of other people who never existed to take revenge on the places they never existed in. Was eventually defeated not by his enemies, but by a moment of clarity in which the true nature of the quest and those on it became clear, and a certain personal ability he considered a curse was removed. After that, he just kind of... wandered off.

edited 22nd Apr '12 9:12:05 PM by Scrounge