Overpowered chars /rant

Saying "it's fantasy" is hardly any justification. Play any fantasy RPG. Actually, no, play any game, period. They all have rules and limitations, checks and balances between skill sets. You can't pick up Neverwinter Nights, roll up a level 1 character, and go kill a dragon. Even if you take the time to become level 20, killing that dragon is still a group effort. No matter what skills you have chosen (and you won't be able to learn all of them), you can't totally kick its ass singlehandedly. Then factor in the fear a normal person (like you) would feel staring down a 100-foot-tall fire-breathing reptile with hideous bat wings, regardless of how much you go to the gym. And destroying the entire world is, well, impossible by any means. Plus, there are laws and physics within the game world, like gravity, and how sharp things cut people easier. Without fundamental science, nothing makes sense.

This is Aeria, where trolls, vampires, Tieflings, cat-people (seriously guys? ), and werewolves all run around an elvish city shooting magic at each other. How is this in any way "too real"?

The problem with removing OP'd characters now is, of course, there's way too many played by way too many people. The IC logistics of this would be obscenely difficult to work out, and you'd alienate most of the community's players. I can't really offer a solution to this; it practically killed Desertia when something similar happened there. We just brute-forced our way through it.

If you want to make powers more balanced, just remember Newton's famous law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The more power your character exerts, the greater this "opposite reaction" is, be it draining his vitality, his strength, or otherwise making him unable to use the power for a long time. And generally speaking, all powers should have drawbacks or requirements for use.

As I look at it at the moment, Aeria has a problem with admins. I'm not pointing any fingers, but most of them are too lazy to read even half of most applications, and would rather just look at the poster's name and say "Accepted. You're a mature and good RPer." even without seeing them roleplay at all, just basing their decision on how much they like them.

One solution could be to make most powers require so many cons, that there would barely be any use in using powers at all.
For example, an average fireball spell could have the side-effect of burning the caster's hand and maybe even setting his/her clothes on fire.
Healing magic could be made into "sacrifice yourself to save someone."
I.E: Jack gets stabbed in the gut, and I cast a powerful healing spell, healing his wound but instead taking the same wound upon myself, forcing me to use my powers less frequently if I wish to survive.
And resurrection spells could come at the cost of maybe a limb/advanced brain functions/magical knowledge.
And the rock-throwing ability that Richard has for example, could be made so that he can only throw rocks as far as he could if he was to use his hands, thus preventing him from throwing whole mountains and even larger rocks at people.

Let me give an example of how I think magic should be played:

I have a character in another RPG who is a warlock. Warlock's obtain their power's by bargaining with demons in exchange for -something-. His his case, it's pain and blood.

He is pale, and scrawny, and shorter then average (though the last one is non-related). He is covered in scars, ritualistic scars that he has to re carve daily, and even while casting spells. He stutters, he is hideous to behold (even more so because without the scars he'd be good looking), and is socially awkward. He gets nervous around people. The only time he has anything beyond weak strength is when he's infused by the fel energies, and afterwards he's weak.

He also mopes and seems depressed and tired ALL THE TIME, a side affect of the bargain. I'm not sure if I've posted them before but here are the rules of magic as far as I'm concerned...

* Magic is Powerful.

Magic is the difference between a slave and a master, a foot soldier and king. Few races and nations can operate without powerful mages and warlocks. The use of arcane magic is growing; historically, each time this has happened before, a great disaster shortly follows. However, even though the history of the arcane is well known, mages and their patrons invariably come to the same self-serving conclusion: It won't happen to them.

* Magic is Corrupting.

Magic corrupts the soul; if the humblest person in the world became a practitioner of the arcane, by the time the practitioner reached the higher levels in their art, all traces of her humble roots would be lost. Magic breeds pride and arrogance. Magic corrupts the body; it ages the caster before their time and hastens the blight that the world inflicts on things fair and beautiful.

* Magic is an Addiction.

When one feels the power of an arcane spell coursing through one's body as it's being cast, resisting the urge to cast it again is difficult. Frequent use leads to a desire for more and, eventually, to a desire for the evil fel energy.

* Magic attracts Demons Like Flies to Honey.

Magic is a literal gateway drug that allows dark titans to bring evil influences to the world. Those who employ arcane magic must deal with demons and other serveants of the Dungeon Dimensions.

What you posted sounds very fancy indeed, Prone. But that's all it is. It doesn't offer any solution to the problem of overpowered characters. What you said is that magic users age before their time and will have to deal with demons. This'll be a problem. Because nobody can monitor all the magic users at once, and thus we don't know who has casted what spell and when, and they can easily metagame out of aging/sacrificing something. And the admins won't know when to send in demons.

Mack wrote:

As I look at it at the moment, Aeria has a problem with admins. I'm not pointing any fingers, but most of them are too lazy to read even half of most applications, and would rather just look at the poster's name and say "Accepted. You're a mature and good RPer." even without seeing them roleplay at all, just basing their decision on how much they like them.

Or they just ignore the applications, which is a huge no-no. That kind of thing makes people leave. Players don't want to wait weeks to see if they can RP their own character, and if they do wait weeks, they won't react well to a deny. And most players (myself included) toss an app in and RP until they see a deny. I do this because of how inefficient it is at the moment.

The first step to policing anything is to give people the motivation to try and police themselves....

I police myself. Not everyone will but maybe trying to teach people to do it...maybe.

Something I've started using is what I call the "scalar system". While it may not be entirely realistic, it's best for ensuring a fun and powerplay-free outcome. Here's how it works:

1. Assess your opponent. How strong is he? How skilled is he? What are his abilities?

2. Assess your own character. What are they capable of?

3. If your opponent is weaker than your character, adjust your RP to make the fight balanced. Factor out things like super-strength, all-powerful magic spells, etc., and bring your character down to a more reasonable skill level that gives the opponent a fighting chance to win. Now obviously, there's a limit to how low you can go, because some fights you're just going to win, plain and simple (a veteran knight with a claymore vs. an unarmed drunkard). Oppositely, if the character you're fighting happens to be more powerful than yours, don't powerplay or overextend your character, but give yourself freedom to use the full extent of their abilities. It's only fair.

4. If you think your opponent is powerplaying or otherwise being unfair, there's a couple things you can do. First, redo steps 1 and 2, and ask yourself, "Did I bite off more than I could chew?" If you started the fight, then you'll want to make an IC getaway. Negotiate with the player, and come to a reasonable agreement. If the player is unreasonable, then it becomes a problem an admin needs to deal with. If the opponent started the fight, then you can simply refuse to RP the fight any further. Don't be an ass about it, and if the opponent is an ass, then again, admins can handle it.