Other What makes a good fantasy/super power RP? (In your opinion)

[Sugar Rose]

I've got some vague ideas for a fantastical super power RP, but I would like to know...

What do you think makes a good super power RP? What makes you want to respond to the interest check? Is it plot? World building? Something else entirely? Something really minor but makes all the difference to you? I'm curious to know your thoughts!

 

[rae2nerdy]

Well for a group the thing I look for the following three things from a GM:

Organization - Do you have your information presented in an easy to read format? Is it organized in such a way I can readily follow along with what you are trying to tell me. Things to avoid :

• codes that aren't viewable on mobiles
• busy backgrounds that distract from the text
• text that is not viewable on both light and dark themes
• blocks of text with no spaces or headers

Expectations - What are you looking for in terms of player commitment? What am I going to have to bring to the table to take part in the roleplay? Things to include here :

• how often do you want the players to post
• what kind of characters can be made
• what are the limits for powers

Engagement - I want to feel like you are going to be an active part of the roleplay. I also want to feel like you are capable of managing things effectively in terms of player conflict or inactivity. Some thing I look for :

• What are the consequences for breaking the rules?
• What happens if someone leaves the roleplay?
• What happens if there is an argument in the OOC?

 

[Sugar Rose]

Well for a group the thing I look for the following three things from a GM:

Organization - Do you have your information presented in an easy to read format? Is it organized in such a way I can readily follow along with what you are trying to tell me. Things to avoid :

• codes that aren't viewable on mobiles
• busy backgrounds that distract from the text
• text that is not viewable on both light and dark themes
• blocks of text with no spaces or headers

Expectations - What are you looking for in terms of player commitment? What am I going to have to bring to the table to take part in the roleplay? Things to include here :

• how often do you want the players to post
• what kind of characters can be made
• what are the limits for powers

Engagement - I want to feel like you are going to be an active part of the roleplay. I also want to feel like you are capable of managing things effectively in terms of player conflict or inactivity. Some thing I look for :

• What are the consequences for breaking the rules?
• What happens if someone leaves the roleplay?
• What happens if there is an argument in the OOC?

Thank you so much for the helpful points! I'll have to make sure I include all of these things when I make the interest check.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Thank you so much for the helpful points! I'll have to make sure I include all of these things when I make the interest check.

Your very welcome, good luck with your idea

 

[Idea]

I've got some vague ideas for a fantastical super power RP, but I would like to know...

*cough cough* Roleplay Discussion & Advice

What do you think makes a good super power RP?

Well, this is a bit of a two part question for me. On one hand, you have "what makes a good roleplay (in general)?" and on the other you have "what makes a superpower roleplay good regarding that aspect of it specifically?"

The first question, to not get into too much of the enormous complexity of the question, needs a good balance of freedoom and structure, needs to give a properly involving experience to the players and be an experience that is worthwhile. The obvious problem therefore is that these are very vague ideas (though to be fair the question is so general they HAVE to be), however I give you this rule of thumb: The roleplay is only yours to the extent that it is your creation. In every other person it belongs to a group, a group where each member is an individual with invidual needs and interests. Your task as a GM is to properly appeal to and coordenate these individuals.
You're not going to please everyone. Ever.
Knowing what sacrifices to make is important.
Rmemebering that ultimately you're trying to appeal to other people and not simply to your own interests.

I do apologize if that answer still isn't entirely too helpful. There's more to say, but honestly how good an RP is more often than not depends on how the players are, get the melting pot right and something nice will usually come out of it, unbearable people will at the very least make things awkward. On a more personal note, I'm generally happy in an RP I took interest in if I'm allowed to express my creativity (if I feel I can't trust the people in the RP due to being flimsy or tyranical I won't keep it up); have my RPing style respected or better yet, catered to; and if I feel like I'm actually being involved in the roleplay (if my existence is replaceable then I'm better off replaced).

the answer to the second question is a bit of an application of the first question's answer but to superpowers specifically. You need to know what powers to allow or not allow, having a good balancing system while also being willing to help players get to a fairer way of achieving the overall idea of their powers.
Then you need to make sure that people get the proper spotlight for their powers to feel useful and warranted, their place in the story to some extent essential.

What makes you want to respond to the interest check?

I'll go with a more personal approach, as I've already laid down what makes a good interest check, right here: Tutorial - Principles of A Good Interest Check

A lot of factors go into looking at interest checks for me. If I had to sum it up in one or two words, I'd say I want "interest" and "reliability". I want to be interested by the presented premise or it's potential. I want to be able to rely on the notion that this will be a roleplay in which I will be able to roleplay in the style I like to with a GM that I can trust, not just in general, but also who is at least barebones competent.

This a general overview of my process:

1. Seeing a title that interests me: I don't have time to look at every single interest check, so your title needs to spark my curiosity somehow

2. Size of the thread: Your interest check is your pitch to me. If you don't have more than three lines of stuff to tell me you are not someone I want to roleplay with. Not necessarily because I don't think you may be a good roleplayer, but because I roleplay in long and detailed posts, and if you can't even do that in your sales pitch, I doubt you do it in any sustainable fashion during the real RP.

3. Does the content have potential and does that potential appeal to me: Generally measured by the branching possibilities I see to explore an idea and whether any of them would be one I personally would like to explore. Sometimes this part can be won over just by allowing a specific kind of character that's trending for me, or by fitting into a rarer type of genre or appeal that I really like and want to do (like harem, isekai and generally anime-ish RPs tend to do for me)

4. How are the rules? : Is this person posting rules at all? What kind of writing requirements to do they have? I generally prefer bigger writing requirements. Do the rules allow the kind of roleplay style I have and enable it? Do they allow me to play the characters I want to play?

5. What does the GM seem like? : This isn't really the last point, but it is the last I finish, as I actually look for it throughout the entire look at the interest check. In essence, there's a lot you can pick up about someone from how they type if you know what you're looking. Very relevant in this case what is the central thing for the GM and how prepared they are. It's very complex so hard to describe, but for instance, if someone puts a CS in a group interest check, I check out because the GM is going to be focused on that character over the roleplay. If a word is repeated so much you'd think the person just learned it, it's likely to be important to the concept. If the GM is unable to give any concrete answers on lore they are either going to be the kind of GM that is extremely focused on building up a mystery (by literally hiding all the info, so not a very good mystery generally) or they didn't actually put any thought into those kinds of things.

6. Who else is there: Sometimes what other people are there can impact whether I want to join a certain roleplay.



Generally speaking, I like good world building and hard magic systems for the superpowers, this is, the superpowers having concrete rules biding how they work, preferably based on their origin. I also want to see how the society and culture of the world is affected by the superpowers and like the freedoom to build more unnusual characters.

One more thing that I extremely value in superpower RPs is a GM with some backbone in scrutinizing powers for things that matter. Scientific accuracy in quantum mechanics isn't the top tier of importance compared to, say, making sure the powers aren't easy to abuse, outright OP or completely overshadow others to the point of potentially making it hard for them to properly participate in the plot.



I apologize if this response broke down somewhat at some point, I ended up writing it until much later than I anticipated and the hurry may have affected some of what I said. DO telll me if you wish me to clarify anything.

Regardless, hope it is useful, best of luck and happy RPing!

 

[Sugar Rose]

*cough cough* Roleplay Discussion & Advice


Well, this is a bit of a two part question for me. On one hand, you have "what makes a good roleplay (in general)?" and on the other you have "what makes a superpower roleplay good regarding that aspect of it specifically?"

The first question, to not get into too much of the enormous complexity of the question, needs a good balance of freedoom and structure, needs to give a properly involving experience to the players and be an experience that is worthwhile. The obvious problem therefore is that these are very vague ideas (though to be fair the question is so general they HAVE to be), however I give you this rule of thumb: The roleplay is only yours to the extent that it is your creation. In every other person it belongs to a group, a group where each member is an individual with invidual needs and interests. Your task as a GM is to properly appeal to and coordenate these individuals.
You're not going to please everyone. Ever.
Knowing what sacrifices to make is important.
Rmemebering that ultimately you're trying to appeal to other people and not simply to your own interests.

I do apologize if that answer still isn't entirely too helpful. There's more to say, but honestly how good an RP is more often than not depends on how the players are, get the melting pot right and something nice will usually come out of it, unbearable people will at the very least make things awkward. On a more personal note, I'm generally happy in an RP I took interest in if I'm allowed to express my creativity (if I feel I can't trust the people in the RP due to being flimsy or tyranical I won't keep it up); have my RPing style respected or better yet, catered to; and if I feel like I'm actually being involved in the roleplay (if my existence is replaceable then I'm better off replaced).

the answer to the second question is a bit of an application of the first question's answer but to superpowers specifically. You need to know what powers to allow or not allow, having a good balancing system while also being willing to help players get to a fairer way of achieving the overall idea of their powers.
Then you need to make sure that people get the proper spotlight for their powers to feel useful and warranted, their place in the story to some extent essential.




I'll go with a more personal approach, as I've already laid down what makes a good interest check, right here: Tutorial - Principles of A Good Interest Check

A lot of factors go into looking at interest checks for me. If I had to sum it up in one or two words, I'd say I want "interest" and "reliability". I want to be interested by the presented premise or it's potential. I want to be able to rely on the notion that this will be a roleplay in which I will be able to roleplay in the style I like to with a GM that I can trust, not just in general, but also who is at least barebones competent.

This a general overview of my process:

1. Seeing a title that interests me: I don't have time to look at every single interest check, so your title needs to spark my curiosity somehow

2. Size of the thread: Your interest check is your pitch to me. If you don't have more than three lines of stuff to tell me you are not someone I want to roleplay with. Not necessarily because I don't think you may be a good roleplayer, but because I roleplay in long and detailed posts, and if you can't even do that in your sales pitch, I doubt you do it in any sustainable fashion during the real RP.

3. Does the content have potential and does that potential appeal to me: Generally measured by the branching possibilities I see to explore an idea and whether any of them would be one I personally would like to explore. Sometimes this part can be won over just by allowing a specific kind of character that's trending for me, or by fitting into a rarer type of genre or appeal that I really like and want to do (like harem, isekai and generally anime-ish RPs tend to do for me)

4. How are the rules? : Is this person posting rules at all? What kind of writing requirements to do they have? I generally prefer bigger writing requirements. Do the rules allow the kind of roleplay style I have and enable it? Do they allow me to play the characters I want to play?

5. What does the GM seem like? : This isn't really the last point, but it is the last I finish, as I actually look for it throughout the entire look at the interest check. In essence, there's a lot you can pick up about someone from how they type if you know what you're looking. Very relevant in this case what is the central thing for the GM and how prepared they are. It's very complex so hard to describe, but for instance, if someone puts a CS in a group interest check, I check out because the GM is going to be focused on that character over the roleplay. If a word is repeated so much you'd think the person just learned it, it's likely to be important to the concept. If the GM is unable to give any concrete answers on lore they are either going to be the kind of GM that is extremely focused on building up a mystery (by literally hiding all the info, so not a very good mystery generally) or they didn't actually put any thought into those kinds of things.

6. Who else is there: Sometimes what other people are there can impact whether I want to join a certain roleplay.



Generally speaking, I like good world building and hard magic systems for the superpowers, this is, the superpowers having concrete rules biding how they work, preferably based on their origin. I also want to see how the society and culture of the world is affected by the superpowers and like the freedoom to build more unnusual characters.

One more thing that I extremely value in superpower RPs is a GM with some backbone in scrutinizing powers for things that matter. Scientific accuracy in quantum mechanics isn't the top tier of importance compared to, say, making sure the powers aren't easy to abuse, outright OP or completely overshadow others to the point of potentially making it hard for them to properly participate in the plot.



I apologize if this response broke down somewhat at some point, I ended up writing it until much later than I anticipated and the hurry may have affected some of what I said. DO telll me if you wish me to clarify anything.

Regardless, hope it is useful, best of luck and happy RPing!

Thank you for the in depth response! I now think I have a good idea for an RP, so thank you once again!
P.S) I didn't know the role play discussion and advice thread existed XD

 

[Jannah]

I think a big one, due to the nature of the RP, is to have limits and restrictions laid out right at the beginning. If this isn't clear then you will get all sorts of inexperienced players trying to "one-up" each other in creating the most powerful character. No superhero is omnipotent. They all have weaknesses and these need to be made very clear so they can be utilized in the RP in order to avoid godmodding or anybody being too over-powered.

 

[CatGirl]

An easy way to use pre-existing guidelines is to use characters already written into canon. ie Superheroes who have been established in comics/movies/cartoons. They've been balanced so you don't have to bother setting the rules. I've had to deal with OCs of the genre, and it can get very very tricky to tell people what is or is not allowed. Or why.

 

[Idea]

An easy way to use pre-existing guidelines is to use characters already written into canon. ie Superheroes who have been established in comics/movies/cartoons. They've been balanced so you don't have to bother setting the rules.

I'd like to respectfully disagree. A good chunk of canon characters from superhero franchises are comically (pun absolutely intended) unbalanced. Even if we ignore DC, in which one half is pretty much demigods on the powerscale and the other half are batman lookalikes, the powers and power level are all over the place, and often not on the lower end.

The fact of the matter is those superheroes only work because their stories are made to accomodate them. Shaping the obstacles and events is a key aspect of making most of these god-like abilities seem like they might work in a story, but you can't expect these in an RP because you don't have that degree of control in the story.

 

[CatGirl]

Ironically it has worked for us, and we have been using DC characters for 9months without facing many problems. It's the OCs that are the issue, not the canon characters.

 

[Idea]

Sure. But that's a fandom RP. I'm talking about using those characters as metrics, since from what i could tell at least, the OP is talking about an original RP not a fandom one.

 

[CatGirl]

Sure. But that's a fandom RP. I'm talking about using those characters as metrics, since from what i could tell at least, the OP is talking about an original RP not a fandom one.

Yeah I noticed that, that's why I suggested to use an existing fandom. Otherwise it'll be very hard to balance OCs when it comes to the superhero genre. You've really got to go into specifics with every member involved in the RP, and sometimes you'll have to be tough to lay down the rules so that it'll be fair to all. People may not be happy. Just prepare for that.

 

[Idea]

Indeed, and I disagreed with that suggestion, with the grounds that those fandoms aren't in any shape or form balanced.

 

[Jannah]

An easy way to use pre-existing guidelines is to use characters already written into canon. ie Superheroes who have been established in comics/movies/cartoons. They've been balanced so you don't have to bother setting the rules. I've had to deal with OCs of the genre, and it can get very very tricky to tell people what is or is not allowed. Or why.

Not necessarily true. Superman, for example, is over-powered. In my opinion anyway.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Popping back into the discussion I think a better way to ensure that characters are balanced is simply to make weaknesses mandatory.

And furthermore define weaknesses as :

1. An ability that a non-powered individual could reasonably use against your character
2. An ability that offers a physical limitation on the ability in question

So say my character's superpower is luck.

A Good Weakness : My character can only bring luck to things in their direct line of sight.
This is something simple that can be used against them and it offers a physical limitation to the power.

A Bad Weakness : My characters power is subconscious so they can't force X thing to happen
This doesn't give any realistic weakness to the power that can be used by other players. It also doesn't say exactly how the power is limited by being subconscious.

 

[CatGirl]

Not necessarily true. Superman, for example, is over-powered. In my opinion anyway.

Well he was, till through the years he was balanced with weakness against Kryptonite and magic. Even Batman managed to take him down. That's why it's good to have canon characters, all that has been tried and tested before your personal usage.

 

[Idea]

Well he was, till through the years he was balanced with weakness against Kryptonite and magic. Even Batman managed to take him down. That's why it's good to have canon characters, all that has been tried and tested before your personal usage.

Kryptonite is a laughably bad weakness. Is a space rock that you need to have with you when supertanker shows up to most of the time take away his powers. Assuming you can even acquire the thing, and that you would want to in the first place, you still need to consistently get superman to be exposed to it (a rather hard feat unless he is an idiot) and to prevent any escape attempts. It's a big hurdle to take, and it doesn't hold a candle to the slew of powers and abilities the character has demonstrated to have, in both the movie and comic cannons.

Super man is anything but balanced.

 

[Jannah]

Kryptonite is a laughably bad weakness. Is a space rock that you need to have with you when supertanker shows up to most of the time take away his powers. Assuming you can even acquire the thing, and that you would want to in the first place, you still need to consistently get superman to be exposed to it (a rather hard feat unless he is an idiot) and to prevent any escape attempts. It's a big hurdle to take, and it doesn't hold a candle to the slew of powers and abilities the character has demonstrated to have, in both the movie and comic cannons.

Super man is anything but balanced.

Exactly. Kryptonite is not exactly something common that can be easily exploited to weaken Superman.

 

[CatGirl]

Maybe you forget that the writers have control over the story, and given that your Superman writer has to be someone responsible and reasonable. Regardless of what Superman could do to overcome a little green rock, it has for years in comic history served to keep the Kryptonian in check. To add to that, like I said, Superman is weak to magic.

 

[Idea]

Maybe you forget that the writers have control over the story, and given that your Superman writer has to be someone responsible and reasonable. Regardless of what Superman could do to overcome a little green rock, it has for years in comic history served to keep the Kryptonian in check. To add to that, like I said, Superman is weak to magic.

That is exactly why the character is a bad standard for RP. You do not have that degree of control guaranteed in RP. Seldom is the partner willing to properly discuss an occasional scene, let alone the kind of planning required to even approach the degree of control that the he comic and screenwriters have, which is needed to make these utterly unbalanced characters workable.

 

[Windsock]

Much like any RP, if the players are good and have good chemistry..

 

[kevintheradioguy]

Just one thing. And, surprisingly, it's realism. The more magic there is in your world, the more realistic everything else should be.

Good example would be "Witcher" series IMO. Books build a very real, cruel medieval-ish world, that just so happens to have ghosts, and elves, and magic... and everything of that is mostly vile as well.

 

[CatGirl]

Seldom is the partner willing to properly discuss an occasional scene, let alone the kind of planning required to even approach the degree of control that the he comic and screenwriters have.

What? Who have you been RPing with? No offense, but it sounds like you need new partners.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Just one thing. And, surprisingly, it's realism. The more magic there is in your world, the more realistic everything else should be.

Good example would be "Witcher" series IMO. Books build a very real, cruel medieval-ish world, that just so happens to have ghosts, and elves, and magic... and everything of that is mostly vile as well.

I like the idea but I might use the term grounded instead of realism. As realism tends to give the connotation that you are talking about a real world scenario (at least on this site specifically that's been my experience). Whereas grounded gives the impression I think your going for.

Which is that the world has to have consistent ground rules. You can't just make stuff up willy nilly, you have to have a clear foundation of how your world works. Whether it's a fantasy world you made up or based on the real world.


CatGirl I would say Idea makes a solid point honestly. Superman works in the comics because he is used as an allegory to tell a grounded story (or at least when he's written at his best). So the stories that don't focus on all the cool abilities but instead focus on the man himself. But the problem with that is that in roleplays if you make a character that is over-powered like Superman chances are you're going to want to utilize all those nifty abilities you gave your character. Because otherwise why give them the powers in the first place? So it becomes less about grounding the character and more about showing off how cool they are.

And that is the last thing you want to focus on with over-powered characters. At best it makes them boring to read about. At worst it makes them Mary Sue nightmares.

So that's why the less power the better in roleplays. It forces you to focus more on the character and less on the abilities. There are exceptions of course, some people do have the talent to pull off nuanced OP characters. But I wouldn't bank on enough of them existing to be able to fill a group, even a particularly small one.

 

[Idea]

What? Who have you been RPing with?

The few whom I could find who were actually willing to go along with my style, which ultimately does involve more planning. Far from the sample just being my own experience though, it'd be relatively simple to notice just through the discussion forums alone that if anything there's a degree of contempt for the idea of large-scale planning like the kind required to approach the degree of control of a single writer or team fo writers.

So the stories that don't focus on all the cool abilities but instead focus on the man himself. But the problem with that is that in roleplays if you make a character that is over-powered like Superman chances are you're going to want to utilize all those nifty abilities you gave your character

I'd actually like to add that there's a drive to "be on top", which may include wanting to win, but it essentially just includes all kinds of things from not wanting to be useless and thus always wanting to be useful (as opposed to having a variety of being or not useful), to wanting to be the best, etc... Imbalanced characters can:
->create scenarios of players consistently trying to one up each other
->make it hard to the GM to know how to set up antagonists and challenges given the disparity of the power level
->make the entire RP seem about one person given the difference in power level
->utterly destroy any would-be adversity

But, ultimately, this whole issue of power scaling boils down to this: Is everyone genuinely being involved, does everyone matter in the story and be allowed to have their place, or is one person ultimately a threat to the story's ability to involve people like that?
That is why kryptonite is a horrible weakness, CatGirl and I want to make it clear I'm not saying this to gang up on you or anything. The problem here is that kryptonite isn't an accessible weakness, you won't find it selling in the nearest supermarket, you can't must it with a bit of will, it requires preparation /(from the character's part) or plot contrivences neither of which you necessarily want or can expect.