Your thoughts on allowing OP characters?

[Jaxx 317]

So I'm in the very early stages of the process of opening a Marvel site. I want to accept characters even if they're powerful enough that they would be considered OP, like Doctor Strange or the Scarlet Witch or Asgardians or Deadpool. Now, usually these powers are either banned or restricted because of the potential for abuse, and there's good reasons for that. But I'd prefer to not have any restrictions on accepted powers or power levels whenever I get things up and running. 

 

Since I'm not familiar with any sites that allow such characters, to check with their staff on how they run things and how it's worked out for them, I thought I'd pitch the question to the Initiative at large. The site would have the 'standard' rules for powered characters. No godmodding, no metagaming, only use powers on played characters with permission, IC actions have IC consequences. There will also be one against using powers to modify site canon (for example, time travel powers couldn't be used to kill Erik Lehnsherr before he created the Brotherhood).

 

Of course, there's going to be people that try to break the rules. But I've always encouraged member-to-member and member-to-staff communication, and had an open door policy. I hope that by doing that, and by enforcing the rules mentioned above, I can keep it to a minimum. 

 

So I'm here to ask fellow staff, Marvel or not: What other rules or guidelines would you have in place? If you've tried this before, on any sort of site, how did it work out for you? What problems, if any, did you have besides players attempting to take advantage of it? 

 

I'd also love to hear input from the member side of things! If you saw that a site allowed vastly powered characters, how would you want staff to handle situations where players abused power IC? Would you be more likely to avoid a site that allowed such high levels of power? And if so, why? What would your concerns be, or problems that you might anticipate? 

[Arceus 1,082]

I come from 12 years of running a shounen animanga site. Lots of OP happens in that world. This is gonna sound weird, but, what you've got here sounds just fine to me.

 

Here's the thing. Focus on cultivating a site community that does not like actually-OP. Many won't just because it's obnoxious, albeit you may have OP1 and OP2 trying to out-OP each other (what's the harm in that though, free entertainment, and pull on your boots when they turn into OOC fighting if they do, nbd), but try to angle it in a way that attracts the people that like to write, not just be the bestiest. Because if you do, your problem members will filter themselves out. The Bestiest is a pretty damned lonely mountain to live on, and it gets very boring very quick. Sooner or later, all their threads and plot action will dry up and they'll go away on their own. I've seen it happen countless times. Nobody takes their Uber Great Power Lord any sort of seriously, and they get annoyed, or run out of people that will tolerate them long enough to get through a thread, and they go away. Will you perhaps have fits pitched on the way out? Most likely, honestly, it does depend a little on what kind of person they are. But that doesn't endear anyone to them any more than they already were, and you can justify hurrying their exit. The thing is, though, essentially nobody's gonna happily play their punching bag. Nobody's ever happy to lose all the time. So they'll always be all talk and no proof, and not interesting, either.

 

Gonna be honest. I still had the problem players. I still had OP1 and OP2 trying to out-OP each other. I still had IC fights turning into OOC ones. I still had that yammerhead that never shut up about how cool and awesome their character was. But it became very clear very quick that my site is not designed or intended to be a long string of fights as its fandom is. End of story. Nobody is the hero on Plain of Ice and nobody ever will be. And those looking for such very soon figured out we weren't it, and started filtering themselves out before they even hit the registration page. If you set a standard, and enforce that standard, of focusing on writing and building great stories, and treat your members like grown adults, they'll eventually begin either rising to the challenge or backing the fuck up, and you'll become attractive to the people you want. Because there are many, many very creative players out there, that would likely really love to join a site they can do what they want with their characters' powers on. Honestly, the kinds of abilities my players have come up with have been a joy to read about, and a joy to see in action, and I really can't say I've had any more or less headaches than I would've otherwise.

[Zahhy 130]

OP players exist in every genre. Everyone is a mary-sue. People meta. They don't want consequences for their actions. They don't want to talk with admin about their actions before or after they do them. They happen everywhere and in most games. You cannot premake every rule to stop these types of people from doing what they want and then refusing to work with you. Some people just don't like admin interaction. It isn't because of the type of character, it is the player.

What you can do though is write IC Actions = IC Consequences clearly in your rules. Write your open door policy and what it would ideally look like. Then follow through. Build a strong relationship with your players. Let them believe they can talk to you. Enforce the standard for everyone. Write down a realistic hypothetical IC consequence to power abuse as an example. 

Some players will thrive. You'll get players that adore this kind of free world where they have the power to do whatever they want with the understanding that the game will react. You will also get players that don't know what they can and can't do. And you'll also get players that try to abuse it, but if you play out all consequences consistently for all players, and you remind them of your policy about how you're open to discussions prior to their IC actions, you'll be golden. It won't stop issues from happening, but it is the best you can do. Most people want to play by the rules - even the unspoken ones - because that's what keeps games going. Anyone that is causing you trouble (especially those abusing their power in game) should be dealt with quickly OOC so it doesn't slow down the game or distract you, and it sounds like you already have IC consequences already planned, so you're already halfway there!

[Kazetatsu 263]

op characters do not necessarily mean broken characters.

 

you will attract some players who are op to be op. they flaunt their stats, and are always comparing muscles with the other players' ocs. they claim they could beat the other characters even if the character couldn't and the powers they give their characters often make little sense for the character's actual background.

Then you get op for the sake of a good story. These characters have great power, but often severe crutches and weaknesses to help balance them out. the powers make sense for their position and role, and they are able to show significant moderation of those abilities. they don't go all out unless pressed, and by the time they do, others probably know enough about their weaknesses to corner them. These players aren't making op characters in order to always be in the spotlight. they can and often do use their characters to spotlight other characters.

so yes you can absolutely have op characters on your site. one key however is as those above have said, to create a culture where story matters more than stats, and where opness for opness sake is discouraged

[StormWolfe 557]

After well more than 20 years in RP of some form or another - you will always have that player or ten. Super powers or not, you get writers that grandstand with their characters. The ones that are always better than anyone else at everything in general. As was said above, those players tend to fade away because people stop writing with them and catering to them.

 

Also, said above, be consistent in enforcing your rules. Make them clear and concise... what will be allowed in-story and what won't (i.e. impacts to other characters that were not agreed on by those players).

 

There's also allowing players to have really big sticks but have a bigger stick in reserve yourself....

 

Back when I managed a S.H.I.E.L.D. RPG, I had a single OP character whose actual full potential was unknown. He was an OC and in the powers section of his bio, his range of abilities was stated. However, I never wrote him using his full potential unless I needed to take down another OP whose player was abusing the rules. In the normal course of play, my character rarely resorted to any of his powers...but they were there just in case.  It all worked out. No one wanted their character's backside handed to them so everyone self-regulated their game writing.

 

Anyway, good luck with your site! I like your desire to be really open in regard to what types of characters you are willing to allow in.

[Prophetess 137]

I've put some small OP races in my lore. I've made them limited and with admin permission to avoid the problem. Also so that they don't end up picked up and then discarded, I've added the small caveat of having played for 6 months with a different main character race. I'm hoping this cuts back on that. This came from watching as staff for other places and being a member and seeing it happen. I don't know if it would work for you, but it seems to be going okay for me. There's always going to be those ones that want their OP and to be better than everyone else. Just have to find what works for you and makes you happy (and avoids headaches).

[Jaxx 317]

Thank you very much for replying, everyone! ❤️ It's definitely given me a bit to think about, and I think so far I'm on the right track! 

[Huskerdust 625]

I like OP characters. I have a player playing a god character on my site. But I trust my players because I mostly gather chill people who want to explore interesting concepts, not out OP each other. In a Marvel setting that can definitely be a problem but I think Arceus said it better than I can. The OPs will OP or try to. And the rest of us will ignore it and play like the site was meant to be played.