RPG

Recently, Anime-Vice has been having a problem with overpowered characters. To help ‘depower’ the Vice I have created this tutorial to teach people how they can be considered strong without overpowering their character. This list goes from least important to most important. The farther down you go, the better the advice.

 

I left most of this tutorial vague, there are very few examples. I don’t want to impede on your creativity. Examples may give the impression that this is right and that is wrong, I don’t want to give that feeling so I am leaving this up to you to be creative. Don’t worry about trying something out, if it is wrong then you are always welcomed to change it.

 

1.        Not everyone needs to be Bad@$$

 

While this is the least important advice of the tutorial, it is still pretty important advice. When a character acts bad@$$ then the writer is unlikely to make their character’s power moderate. So avoid acting high and mighty. Instead, try something else, like these.

 

Arrogance- This type of personality is when a character believes they are high and mighty but aren’t. Arrogance is a good personality to use because they can be strong but the writer will not feel like they need to always win.

Timid- This person tends to be shy and tends to undersell themselves on most occasions. If they are shy enough then that could be what is holding them back in battles.

Ambitious- Like arrogance, this personality means they think highly of themselves. But this style is much more modest. These kinds of people are always looking for a challenge and if they ever lose then they learn from it. In a way, losing is just as important as winning to them.

Unlucky- While it is not exactly a personality it is something you can use. This is when someone coincidently gets in a bad situation. They do not want to be in it and they don’t particularly care of they win, they just don’t want to die.

 

2.        Dodge the Punch, Do a Roundhouse Kick, Trip on a Rock

 

Anther sign of overpowering is when your character never makes a mistake in battles. They are the best of the best with their fighting style and have incredible luck. To avoid this, make a mistake of two in battles. Sometimes a character can stumble or even fall down. That’s alright, just get up quickly. The idea is that something unexpected will happen and they will mess up or an attack doesn’t work right. But be careful; don’t do this all the time (unless your character is clumsy or really unlucky).

 

3.        Magnetism doesn’t work on Gold

 

That is actually a true fact, it is rare for gold to be susceptible to magnetism. But the point of this hint is that all powers should have a limitation. Like a character that has the power of magnetism; their power would only work on tin, iron, and nickel. Most other metals are not very magnetic, that would be the magnetic person’s limitation. So all you have to do is give a realistic limitation to your powers. This shouldn’t be too hard, in fact, you may have already done so.

 

4.        Human Error

 

This bit of advice should be fun, add some human traits to your character. As easy as that sounds, this is one of that least used methods of depowering. By human traits I am not just referring to ambition, having a good sense of justice, and resourceful. I also mean traits like impatient, fear, selfish, or even ugly. Don’t make your character perfect, add some flawed traits.

 

5.        Multiverse Buster

 

Don’t be so powerful that one wrong sneeze could destroy everything in existence. The common misconception is that the strong people are all powerful. Let me tell you the truth, this is misleading.

To be considered strong, you have to overcome difficult odds. If you can destroy a planet with a wave of your hand then no one will be impressed if you take someone down. You would be considered overpowered, not strong. But if you are not even a city buster but you manage to take down someone who is more powerful then you are strong.

An important hint I should offer is that you should fight intelligently and well. Push your character to their limits, even if you lose, you may be considered strong.

 

6.        Kryptonite

 

We can all guess what this section is about, weaknesses. But what you probably didn’t expect, I am going to recommend that you don’t use kryptonite. Weaknesses are a good thing but if you use something that can instantly kill you then you picked a bad one. Don’t choose something extremely rare, something that would make you completely powerless, or anything on the opposite spectrum. A good weakness should handicap you and shouldn’t be too uncommon to get or use. Sometimes it doesn’t even need to be an object. Maybe it could be based on the lunar cycle or you have an allergy. You’re going to need to be creative with this because it needs to be related to your character. If you are human with no extraordinary powers then you may not have to worry about this, you have the human weakness.

 

7.        The Self-Proclaimed Chosen One Effect

 

This is the number one example of overpowering. This is when you enter a story thinking yourself unstoppable or make a situation that is meant for you to win. If you are battling someone who clearly doesn’t stand a chance then you are doing this.

This is the worse way you could borderline on godmodding. So not only are you making yourself overpowered but also the situation. Now whoever is also RPGing will have to deal with a RPG that is clearly against them and try not to completely lose. Plus, the writer has it in their head that they are meant to be the winner of the event, they will not even consider the possibility of losing.

To avoid this, do not do it. Simple as that. Don’t make the situation an all win for you and don’t be so arrogant that you can not accept that you may lose. You can hope to win, that is normal. Just don’t make it so you have every single advantage imaginable. You are not the chosen one of the event and you are certainly not the one who gets to decide that you are.

 

 

 

Those are my seven pieces of advice to be strong with being almighty. If you read them and discovered that you fall into many of the categories then do not worry. You can always use the given advice to amend your character so they are not overpowered.

 

@OmegaMekix: 
Really well made, I tried following something like this when I made my character a ways back, I just need to write down the back story, but a really good article.

Amen! This is one of the most intelligent things I read about character creation in this whole forum!

@Cogito:  Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I am glad that you already knew most of this.
 
@Kuma_From_Argentina: Thanks for the compliment. I hope it can really help depower the vice.

@OmegaMekix said:

" Recently, Anime-Vice has been having a problem with overpowered characters. To help ‘depower’ the Vice I have created this tutorial to teach people how they can be considered strong without overpowering their character. This list goes from least important to most important. The farther down you go, the better the advice.

 

I left most of this tutorial vague, there are very few examples. I don’t want to impede on your creativity. Examples may give the impression that this is right and that is wrong, I don’t want to give that feeling so I am leaving this up to you to be creative. Don’t worry about trying something out, if it is wrong then you are always welcomed to change it.

 

1.        Not everyone needs to be Bad@$$

 

While this is the least important advice of the tutorial, it is still pretty important advice. When a character acts bad@$$ then the writer is unlikely to make their character’s power moderate. So avoid acting high and mighty. Instead, try something else, like these.

 

Arrogance- This type of personality is when a character believes they are high and mighty but aren’t. Arrogance is a good personality to use because they can be strong but the writer will not feel like they need to always win.

Timid- This person tends to be shy and tends to undersell themselves on most occasions. If they are shy enough then that could be what is holding them back in battles.

Ambitious- Like arrogance, this personality means they think highly of themselves. But this style is much more modest. These kinds of people are always looking for a challenge and if they ever lose then they learn from it. In a way, losing is just as important as winning to them.

Unlucky- While it is not exactly a personality it is something you can use. This is when someone coincidently gets in a bad situation. They do not want to be in it and they don’t particularly care of they win, they just don’t want to die.

 

2.        Dodge the Punch, Do a Roundhouse Kick, Trip on a Rock

 

Anther sign of overpowering is when your character never makes a mistake in battles. They are the best of the best with their fighting style and have incredible luck. To avoid this, make a mistake of two in battles. Sometimes a character can stumble or even fall down. That’s alright, just get up quickly. The idea is that something unexpected will happen and they will mess up or an attack doesn’t work right. But be careful; don’t do this all the time (unless your character is clumsy or really unlucky).

 

3.        Magnetism doesn’t work on Gold

 

That is actually a true fact, it is rare for gold to be susceptible to magnetism. But the point of this hint is that all powers should have a limitation. Like a character that has the power of magnetism; their power would only work on tin, iron, and nickel. Most other metals are not very magnetic, that would be the magnetic person’s limitation. So all you have to do is give a realistic limitation to your powers. This shouldn’t be too hard, in fact, you may have already done so.

 

4.        Human Error

 

This bit of advice should be fun, add some human traits to your character. As easy as that sounds, this is one of that least used methods of depowering. By human traits I am not just referring to ambition, having a good sense of justice, and resourceful. I also mean traits like impatient, fear, selfish, or even ugly. Don’t make your character perfect, add some flawed traits.

 

5.        Multiverse Buster

 

Don’t be so powerful that one wrong sneeze could destroy everything in existence. The common misconception is that the strong people are all powerful. Let me tell you the truth, this is misleading.

To be considered strong, you have to overcome difficult odds. If you can destroy a planet with a wave of your hand then no one will be impressed if you take someone down. You would be considered overpowered, not strong. But if you are not even a city buster but you manage to take down someone who is more powerful then you are strong.

An important hint I should offer is that you should fight intelligently and well. Push your character to their limits, even if you lose, you may be considered strong.

 

6.        Kryptonite

 

We can all guess what this section is about, weaknesses. But what you probably didn’t expect, I am going to recommend that you don’t use kryptonite. Weaknesses are a good thing but if you use something that can instantly kill you then you picked a bad one. Don’t choose something extremely rare, something that would make you completely powerless, or anything on the opposite spectrum. A good weakness should handicap you and shouldn’t be too uncommon to get or use. Sometimes it doesn’t even need to be an object. Maybe it could be based on the lunar cycle or you have an allergy. You’re going to need to be creative with this because it needs to be related to your character. If you are human with no extraordinary powers then you may not have to worry about this, you have the human weakness.

 

7.        The Self-Proclaimed Chosen One Effect

 

This is the number one example of overpowering. This is when you enter a story thinking yourself unstoppable or make a situation that is meant for you to win. If you are battling someone who clearly doesn’t stand a chance then you are doing this.

This is the worse way you could borderline on godmodding. So not only are you making yourself overpowered but also the situation. Now whoever is also RPGing will have to deal with a RPG that is clearly against them and try not to completely lose. Plus, the writer has it in their head that they are meant to be the winner of the event, they will not even consider the possibility of losing.

To avoid this, do not do it. Simple as that. Don’t make the situation an all win for you and don’t be so arrogant that you can not accept that you may lose. You can hope to win, that is normal. Just don’t make it so you have every single advantage imaginable. You are not the chosen one of the event and you are certainly not the one who gets to decide that you are.

 

 

 

Those are my seven pieces of advice to be strong with being almighty. If you read them and discovered that you fall into many of the categories then do not worry. You can always use the given advice to amend your character so they are not overpowered.

  "

1) Ok this one is hard to answer cause i don't really think my char is bad@$$
2) Not only make mistakes but also let them to beat crap out of me(who cares if i can regenerate XD)
3) Telekinesis is far more better and useful
4) I use only 20% of my powers(14% before but times are dangerous now especially with Mesa around :P) and how much of a human my char is?
5)Well i could do that but only if fighting really really really strong enemy cause using 100% of my power makes me unstable and there is great possibility that i'll stop being human but don't worry i wear power dumper because of wich i can use only 70% of my powers
6) Am weak against strong magic but because of my kwnoledge it won't be enough to beat me.
7) My char would most likely end up like main hero(hero isn't the exact word to describe Elric but still) of Michael Moorcock's Elric nove 
So what you think?

@battleheiz said:

" @OmegaMekix said:
1) Ok this one is hard to answer cause i don't really think my char is bad@$$
2) Not only make mistakes but also let them to beat crap out of me(who cares if i can regenerate XD)
3) Telekinesis is far more better and useful
4) I use only 20% of my powers(14% before but times are dangerous now especially with Mesa around :P) and how much of a human my char is?
5)Well i could do that but only if fighting really really really strong enemy cause using 100% of my power makes me unstable and there is great possibility that i'll stop being human but don't worry i wear power dumper because of wich i can use only 70% of my powers
6) Am weak against strong magic but because of my kwnoledge it won't be enough to beat me.
7) My char would most likely end up like main hero(hero isn't the exact word to describe Elric but still) of Michael Moorcock's Elric nove  So what you think? "

Please don't take offense to what I am about to say. But you've either missed that point of the hint or underrated it. 
 

1. If you don't think your character is bad@$$ then you probably aren't one.
2. Okay, you have this one down except for the regeneration. A mistake is useless unless you it handicaps you.
3. Missed the point entirely. The goal wasn't to pick on magnetism but to show that everything should have a limitation. And restraining yourself doesn't count.
4. Just because someone isn't human doesn't mean that they can't have similarities. Plus, self-restraint is too noble. The point is a flawed characteristic.
5. That still makes you overpowered. You still have it in reserve. Sorry but a power dampener doesn't cut it.
6. Not enough. That is too rare among RPGers and not effective enough.
   
7. Miss the point. Believing that you are the main hero clearly falls under this category.

 
Sorry if this sounded a little harsh but you are overpowered and fall under a few of these categories. If you want help to 'depower' your character I could help you. But this is not be forced on you, it is your choice if you want to depower Battleheiz. I am only offering, it is your decision if you want to change him. 

@OmegaMekix: 
1) passed
2) passed
3) Telekinesis has no limitation maybe only mind and it counts if i use power dampener
4) I am huma and act as one
5)  Cuts if you can't take it off without strong technopath
7) You should really read that book.