Adventurer's Guild

[Coral]

Super Unique:

A psychoticly paranoidic superotic smarteristic retardish beetlish.... Ant Eater.

[BugHunter]

"Superotic"?

[Jalathas]

Oh, ok. You should have a fantasy game that allows unique people.

[copyKatt]

actully, we do.. or did. thats what Maho is... or was. try starting one yourself. some people liek to play superunique characters. but just rememeber, it doesnt matter what kinda character you have, a good roleplayer can make any character (be it some cliche half-blooded-demon-warrior-from-hell-with-a-magic-sword or just 'normal' people with weapons, like Will and Katt from Soul Saber) unique in there own way. we jsut like to leave out all of the super unique-ness out of RPGs like soul saber becuase it leaves more up to the actual RPer.

[Tassatul]

righto. it helps with powerplaying too. So you cant just be like, "oh, my demon half blood mixed with my being a werewolf and the son of a dragon hunter magi makes me invulnerable to everything but allergies. nya nya!" ;D ;D

[Cobra5]

Actually, me and dan were talking about this today. he amde some good points, but I generally wasn't paying attention- He was, after all, preaching to the chior. He was trying to convince me just how bad RPing a super-unique character is, but I already agree... soo...

Anyway, I had a long conversation about this with one of the new members, Alys DeLyon. She wanted to know why I didn't like maho, and its becauce of super uniqueness. Here's some highlights-

Er, back on topic, using 'super-unique...ness' is kinda a cheap trick, not to mention it totally removes any type of realism, or believeabilty. By cheap trick, I mean... hm... its the kind of stuff a small child would come up with. Its... immature... unrefined, I guess. Anyone could come up with a universe or context like that and make an RPG in it...

Yeah, I do play d20 RPGs (D20 modern, to be exact). If everything in the whole universe is different then what it is in real life, then super-uniqueness isn't a problem- after all, if the whole universe is unique, and not just a small group of people or a single person, then it isn't a problem- that's why D&D dosn't suck.

As for believabilty, I meant something a little different then that. Realisim and believability are different things in my book. Realism would be something that tries to make it as close to the real world as possable- but believabilty is trying to make it feel like it could be possable... with some minor differences.

For example, D&D isn't realistic at all- fireballs, dragons, and all that. I'd say it is believable, though- People act like people in the real world, and I could really think of people being people in a world like that. Living day to day lives, etc, etc.

Something liek maho though... the fact that such a small percentage of people are so unique... These characters are so shallow. All that is to them is their uniquness- nothing else matters. Their whole character, thier whole personality, their whole storyline- it always revolves around 'look at me! I'm different!'. And that's all. I don't find this believable, really... all I see is a walking cliche, not a person.

To answer a previous question, this is who 'palla' was. Every single one of her characters were, or at least tired to be, super-unique. If she couldn't have exactly want she wanted, she gave up. In soul saber, for example, she wanted to be a half-demon with dragonfly wings, who was forced away from home or something. In bugshunting she was a shapshifter- no no, a half shapeshifter- that turned into a wolf and was suffering from some painful, fatal illness and always wanted sympathy and pity from everyone.

In soul saber, Every other chracter, every single one, was a normal human. Tanyu is a ninja-type guy, who hunts evil. Katt and me are travelers from the other major continent in the world, Dan is a mage who is high ranking in the government, and tassatul is his apprentice. And she wants to be some winged half-demon. Everyone else dosn't have even a little problem making their character feel unique and special- Kal is a real aristocrat, who loathes the company of such under-class scum. Tanyu gets drunk a lot, to try and forget his sad past. Tassatul wants to be a powerful mage, and trys as hard as he can to follow his masters exacting expectations. They are all realistic characters, and I could see any one of them existing in the real world, if your stripped away the magic. I mean, I practically know people like each one of those characters- My frainds parents are world-travelers from england, the snobby aristocrat reminds a bit of some of the more popular people at school , and the ever-studying underling reminds me of Bughunter in real life- always working, working, working, to make himself as good as he can possably be. And tanyu, getting drunk to forget his past? Well, who dosn't know someone like that...

And that's the big difference- not realism, as those character aren't realstic (mages, demon hunters, etc)... but they are very believable.

But a winged half-demon that was chased from home and is shunned by anyone that sees her? How am I supposed to believe that? We rejected her character. So she got all pouty and is like "Fine! You guys make me a character." and "How am I supposed to play a normal character?" and all this crap. So we all made a character for her- a mageling just becoming old enough to go out adventureing on her own- and she never... did anything. I hardly even remember what her character was supposed to be anymore.

And, coincidentally, Palla created Maho.

Maho suffers the same problem in my eyes. There isn't anything to the characters short of "hide/run from maho, use magic". Some people like that, I guess... but cirtainly not me. My character in maho was originally going to be a subtle joke of me making fun of them for it- a character where I stuffed as many cliches into one guy as I could. I gave up though, after like, my first post or something, and after a while, I stopped reading it all together...

To sum it up:
My big arguments are two things
A)Super unique characters take no skill.
B)Super unique characters have no character

A) A big part of the judgment on who is a good RPer and who isn't, is how well they can make a beliveably and realistic character. How they can make their character stand out from the crowd. Now, just making a super-unique character is pretty dumb... you totally focus on the characters single, overpowering defining trait.

B) Super unique characters arn't characters at all. In trying to create a totally unique individual, you actually end up creating someone who is extremly plain. Yes, they have wings/half-blood/strange mental issue/super powers, but what else do they have? Nothing. Ever. I have never, not once, seen a fully fleshed out super-unique character. They are all, as I say above, just their uniqe trait played to the max... and everything revolves around only that.

[Deimos]

this was the issue that troubled me as I created Sho...hmm...at times- even now...

[Cobra5]

Why, becuase he shoots fire? In Soul Saber, magic is normal...

OH, and by the way, super-unique-ness isn't a problem in bugshunting, so if your into that kind of stuff, check that one out. My character, for example, was two beings, a psychic manifestation and a physical menifestation, merged in to one being (I say 'was merged' becuase they were recently split). Talk about unique but for bughunting, thats normal. We have extra-planar Archons, space-faring bounty hunters, swordsmen, and anything else you could want.

[Coral]

So when can I join the fun in Soul Saber?

[Jalathas]

I'm joining now, so...

[Cobra5]

Ok, firstly, here's a description of Bugshunting, becuase Jalathas asked.

BugsHunting (or Bugs itch): A sci-fi universe that is very open ended... players are allowed to add-on to the universe now and then, and most anything goes for characters, as long as its cool. Our longest running RPG, probably for a reason. The players character's play on both sides of the conlict- some trying to stop the evil infestation of the bugs, But others have already fallen prey to the bug's infestations, joining their ranks as eliete shock soldiers.

If you guys like sci-fi, check out Bug Hunting (or "Bugs Itch", sometimes). Its a pretty open-ended sci-fi universe. It takes place in the far future, but we've had D&D style fantasy stuff pop in there as well. Its our longest running (in fact, it was the original reason this board was created, our very first RPG) RPG yet, and one of the best. It is currently about the resergence of an old threat- the Bugs, your classic parasitic species that infects other living things. An infected being becomes one of them, and serves their new King unquestioningly. An infecteds body also becomes warped, growing claws, fangs, an armored carapace, or sometimes even acid glands or other nasty surpirses. An even newer mutation allows them to infect another being right then and there, instead of having to bring them all the way back to the hive.

There are three other species in Bugshunting, not including the Bugs. The Pop-ups are an evil race, who use other species as slave-drones, and have highly advanced warping and cloaking technology. The pop-up army have pretty much been destoryed, however, during the second Bug War- all that remains are a few stragglers. The Kaiou-Ter are a psychicly gifted race of warriors, And of course there are humans.

Other then that, bughunting is very free-form with the universe. People add-on to it and make new stuff for it all the time. It takes palce in space, with, you know... space ships. And lasers, and energy shields, and other over-used sci-fi stuff

[edit]: Secondly, about joining soul saber. Right now is fine, or, if you don't want to join while we are in Pyralis, we are probably going to be doing some traveling around after we leave, and we can find you while we are moving about. Pyralis is currently rejoicing becuase we just ended a rebelion. Our characters might've built up a bit of reputation becuase of that... maybe thats a good way to meet us?

[Saknicep]

Ahh, Yes I have heard that you have finished the battle, and are right now relaxing, or so I've heard and read.

[Coral]

I was gonna join but now I just dont feel like it. I dunno, maybe its that its because I see no practical way of inserting my character.

[copyKatt]

well, we'll be traveling. and soon enough, (i think anyway) we'll be going to a big city, where you would likely find alot of different people. maybe one of those people is your character. you can approach us there. cuz i mean, me and will are fugitives from the west, and your hunting fugitives (or at least you were), maybe that would attract you to the gruop. you know, just be creative. you'll find a way in, im sure.

[BugHunter]

Hey Will, what are you're thoughts on X-Men?

And its easy to jump into an rpg. Just be like some guy in the background that strikes up a conversation with one of our guys. Or maybe make a big embarrassing scene and we all find your new character at the cause of it. Or maybe grab a pint along side all the soldiers at the bar and get drunk with the rest. hehehe