NationStates Jolt Archive

Recently, there seems to have been an influx of newer members, most likely due to the added publicity that comes from being on the Jolt network. With that increase in new members comes an increase in new roleplay characters, some one which seem somewhat over-powered.

As a side note for the newer members, incredably power, skilled, fast, strong, intelligent, or otherwise super-human characters are frowned apon by the more serious roleplayers. Characters that people can connect & identify with have flaws, weaknesses, emotions, and make mistakes.


This thread is something of a research tool designed to gage the favorite hero type of the majority of the NS community. The categories are those from classic literature, which most of the better-rounded characters fall into.

American Romantic-Era Hero
Gothic-Era Hero
Age of Reason Hero
Great Awakening-Era Hero

I thank you for your input.

-WA

"Super people" are not frowed upon by the serious roleplaying community...but by the modern-day roleplaying community. I am a highly respected roleplayer and often RP fantasy and/or science fiction. However, you must remember that even heros with super abilities should have weaknesses...and often more glaring ones. Many of the best and most famous roleplayers on Nationstates use characters other than your run of the mill human...if human at all.

I think WA's referring to the 'super ninjas', modified vampires, and invincible cyborgs we see around here occasionally.

WA actually prefers oversized reptiles for his characters.

Personally, most of my characters are Romantic-Era based, like most of today's movie heros.

I'm honestly not sure where some of my characters would fall. Most are "hard as nails" naval captains with a penchant for creating diplomatic incidents.

Probably Romantic-Era. The name's misleading, but it includes guys like Indiana Jones & Luke Skywalker. Hell, I think Josey Wales falls under that category, too.

I tend to enjoy interacting with extremely fallible, quirky personalities. Those that are riddled with vice really intrigue me. I'm kinda tired of seeing all these 'supa-leet-ninja-jedi-demigod/esses' running around. Stale and unimaginative.

Super characters frowned upon by the good RPers? Two words: Damien Dreadfire. Okay, so he isn't a hero, but still.

I'm not sure what my 'hero' types catagory is... I go for the common soldier doing his job or the superhuman vampire type or the giant pissed off lizard. All depends on what is appropriate for the RP.

A few of my heros have died at least once and they just keep coming back for more. Good message for the kids: just get right back up and kick the bastard that killed you in the crotch.

Super characters frowned upon by the good RPers? Two words: Damien Dreadfire. Okay, so he isn't a hero, but still.
And who says he isn't frowned upon? Depends on who you ask, to be sure, but angsty demigodlings from Hell and Adobe Photoshop red filters fail to impress me. (To AMF: Yes, you're a good writer. No, I don't like your characterization. Just this fool's opinion.)

Hrm... I think most of my characters don't really fall into any categories--none of them are really heroes in the sense of any of those mentioned. Sometimes they do heroic things, occasionally they do cowardly things; overall I try to ensure they're just people.

I like to call them Real Folk Blues characters (yes, definite Cowboy Bebop reference there) mostly because I try to keep them as realistic as possible. There's definitely a postmodern noir feel to most of them (secondary reason for classifying them using a noir-ish CB reference), as most of my characters have a tragic bent, either through their histories or via just what happens to them...

Speaker's basically a war orphan (even if he was orphaned in his early adulthood). Razak's been a widower for thirty years. Garbo sacrificed his idealism for the greater good and now takes a perverse joy out of being the seedy underside necessary to keep everyone else's noses clean. Kommetrez was riddled with doubt, then became a social pariah, and still is something of a man out-of-place. Spoilsport got corrupted and was killed (by Garbo). Hertzfeldt was and is, quite simply, a good-meaning loser. Sky Marshal Pandousco is very much a guarded emotional near-wreck due to three extremely traumatic incidents throughout his life. Sky Marshal Mandrake was a go-getter that got screwed by go-getting. Lieutenant Bondayehr... well, if being chased through the woods to the point of exhaustion, getting shot, and being forced to kill in cold blood for the good of all wasn't enough, I'm not done with him yet.

I will admit, I have two superhuman characters (kzin exempted as they're just as flawed as the rest). Magnus Hesche is a parody on 1930s serial ubermenschen such as Doc Savage, Buck Rodgers, or Flash Gordon (and thus, by extension, is a parody on most supercharacters seen on NS) who will always win the day with swash in his buckle but always, in the words of Holy Vatican See, look like a "total nerd" doing so. The aforementioned Lieutenant Bondayehr was never meant to be uber, but the whole learning-biofeedback-in-Sakkra thing lead to some other interesting levels up, which is one of the reasons I lean on him heavily (I hate the kid for that and other reasons). Still, I try to make sure they're at least a little balanced.

Because balance and moderation in all things are the keys to airpower.

Hrm, I seem to have wandered off from the point. Anyway, my ideal hero is a normal, average person who does what needs to be done--nothin' special about it.

My favorite type of hero would have to be the film noir anti-hero. The problem? I'm terrible at writing them, and so nearly all my characters end up channeling my personality very heavily, distorted through various lenses.

James, for instance, was largely based upon myself, although I've recently taken to showing him as an increasingly bitter misognyst and being increasingly driven by the revenge filter.

In general, most of my characters end up being quite average to even below average physically and mentally. The 'super-characters' I try to write (Bradsworth, Ashtonbury, Dhawan, or Redford) almost always end up relying on eloquence ahead of physical force of any kind. I just think that someone who always makes the right decisions ends up being boring in the end.

Gah. Looking back, that made no damn sense. I'm going to bed.

I don't like Heroes. My characters tend to be lacking common morals in some cases. They are of a more self centred focus and are not the most friendly people. I think it's just as interesting to play around with the psyche and mentallity of a character as it is to give them supernatural abilities.

Some of my characters aren't flawed enough, but that is part of their mentallity. Of course they're not invincible, but it is in their nature to be perfectionist.

:rolleyes:

Invincable? Dear god, the number of times my chracter has been shot, wounded close to death and chased down alleys. Well, one of each really exept for the shot thing, in total he's been shot four times and he's only been in one thread so far. I find it as much fun getting Andreus shot as him crushing people with his bionics. Unfortunately I'm not very good at the 'Forum' style of battle, one post for one move etc. I just ask people for any uneeded charactors and write the whole battle myself, always including wounds for both sides and deciding the outcome beforehand with the owner.

Super characters frowned upon by the good RPers? Two words: Damien Dreadfire.

No idea who that is, but just the name is causing me to frown. Of course, whether or not I qualify as a good RPer is open to debate.

I generally don't go in for heroes. Characters I play with Stickwood, and my various other nations, are generally useless, either average joes or complete idiots, who either win by accident, or die and fail. Writing about losers is much more fun than writing about a collection of superpowers.

I don't know...it can be quite fun to write about how your character manages to evade certain-death situations, although I've only really taken part in one RPG, and that's the one I'm doing at the moment, Xenos Flare.

I normally use "magnified" characters, where they play out as people, but with their traits expanded to make more sense in a short form. When I use long RP series, with extended developement, most are just people, caught in circumstances beyond their control, and they become heros or villains.

The main "hero" I use is of the Tragic kind, as his good intentions and ideals serve him well in the current state, but as situations change, his strengths become his weaknesses, and he refuses to change, going down in flames (literally), with the current status.

I dunno. You might say I use characters that turn out uber-powerful at first, but I do try to develop them with flaws, both physiological and psychological........Arashi Hiyuuki's a good example of one of my characters who seems godmodded now (thanks a lot, 5CN), but really I'm trying to find a weakness for him i can live with. So, well, my two cents.

I don’t tend to think so much of the individual as of the idea, if that makes much sense.

Walmington doesn’t tend to breed heroes, so that’s probably for the best. We have a destroyer named the Quixotic, which I half remember Iansisle noting as especially appropriate, which probably says a lot.
Other than the hapless idealists, which I do quite enjoy for their innocence if not so much success, the retro moneybags villains, looking like your granddad and apt to be foiled at the last moment of their hopelessly complicated plot, are fun enough to include.

I’m not sure that I could say that any Walmingtonian heroes or any others that I would enjoy taking the time to read are likely to fall into one of the given categories. As I was suggesting, I’m rarely impressed by individual characters, and... I’m trying to think of the Vonnegut quote that’d sum-up how I feel on the matter, I’m thinking Breakfast of Champions, but can’t pin it down. I mean, in the idea, one person is no more important than another, and in a nation there are millions of people, so I’m generally uncomfortable with singling any out for too long.
I’ve long intended to develop that idea side of things, but it turns out that in role play, sometimes ideas don’t live so long as characters, and I’m just too damn lazy.

Oh well, I’m done with my complete tangent of a contribution.

Can you explain what each of these categories is? I know each of the eras you refer to, just not the literary side. At least not enough to know what their typical hero was.

Well...what an interesting thread to force me to review my own RPing characters...

Maximus Destroi, once a rather stout human turned vampire could perhaps be seen as on the upper end of my range of characters. He was killed by Damien Black (of Roania) in a fierce battle, but in two years time, with the help of various other beings managed to be brought back to life, but in a different body. He is no longer a vampire, but now an elf. He used to be seriously prone to his anger controlling him, and would often have to be held back. Now, he has learned from his death, but he is still weak as far as an elf can go physically.

One of my other characters, Travis O'neill is a regular human who just happens to have the ability to manipulate any source of water to his will. Besides this manipulation, he is slightly more stout and of greater constitution than the average human, but not by much. He currently has been 'captured' by Adamarian forces in Xenos Flares, and will be subjected to various scientific tests to determine just how he 'ticks', so to speak.

I myself, don't particularly like doing characters that are completely bland and completely in the norm. I like to put one or two things that really mix up the equation a bit and allow for greater RPing possibilities. However, I am a strong advocate for balanced, reasonable characters.