Heartbreaker - A KILLER Isekai Adventure

[Dead Cruiser]

@Izurich Honestly I like Terra a lot, I play a very similar character with the same inspirations named Dandelion in sci-fi RPs.

[Izurich]

@Izurich Honestly I like Terra a lot, I play a very similar character with the same inspirations named Dandelion in sci-fi RPs.

@Dead Cruiser

I like Ophidias too! I have no problems with the concept of very powerful PCs itself, but it’s a matter of matching expectations see, you don’t create a Lvl 1 PC when the rest of the party is Lvl 6, instead you make a Lvl 6 PC to not be a deadweight.

Fortunately, Yam confirmed that this is not strictly a power fantasy RP, power helps but it’s not the main focus.

[Dead Cruiser]

@Izurich Right my intent was to have just an over the top ridiculous wizard, I shoved basically every evil magic/magician trope I could think of into him. I tried also to spell out explicitly that he's not as strong as a demon in a straight battle, his strength mostly comes from the diversity and flexibilty of his magic.

[LadyAnnaLee]

@Izurich

I'm pretty positive Katrina is a level 1 character in this case. She's clever, but she's not winning fights against the other characters with brute strength. Yam I Am didn't say anything negative about her, so I think she qualified for the scenario. Whether she'll be accepted is a whole other question, but I don't think you need to worry about your character being over or under powered.

[Antediluvixen]

The obvious solution is to make a pc that is possibly the single most powerful living being in existence - yet can't use that power and instead lives in perpetual pants-shitting terror of the continued vengeance of the bitch of a goddess and wants for absolutely nothing but the end of the nightmare

Subversion of power fantasy! Also cute fluffu

I am a genius without peer

[Izurich]

@Izurich Right my intent was to have just an over the top ridiculous wizard, I shoved basically every evil magic/magician trope I could think of into him. I tried also to spell out explicitly that he's not as strong as a demon in a straight battle, his strength mostly comes from the diversity and flexibilty of his magic.

@Dead Cruiser

I can bring up the opinion that Arcane Omnipotence is basically being a deity/god/divine being wrapped in a different flavor, but I won’t because I believe you, that you designed Ophidias with good intentions, to have a fun villainy shenanigans with the rest the cast, as opposed to the malicious motivations of a powergamer. So yeah~ I understand where you’re coming from.

@Izurich

I'm pretty positive Katrina is a level 1 character in this case. She's clever, but she's not winning fights against the other characters with brute strength. Yam I Am didn't say anything negative about her, so I think she qualified for the scenario. Whether she'll be accepted is a whole other question, but I don't think you need to worry about your character being over or under powered.

@LadyAnnaLee

That she is, I agree, and since Katrina was the only CS available to use as a reference when I was working on mine, I used her as a benchmark for Terra’s power level. Of course, raw power wise, she’d get bulldozed by both Medai and Ophidias, doesn’t require a genius to see that Medai can just delete her down to a single cell or Ophi can cryomancy-freeze her solid without a sweat then shatter her.

With that context, it brings us back to my “Mumen Rider among Genoses and Saitamas” statement or “Hawkeye among Supermen and Wonder Women” for a more western-inclined reference. I presume you’re the type of player who enjoys being the clear underdog among the PCs, aye? Well, I am not, not at all. I have gotten in such a situation 4 years ago (albeit unintentionally) and the moment I knew my PC couldn’t hold a candle to around half of the cast, I was heartbroken to such a degree that I didn’t touch Group RPs until recently.

RIP Karina, I failed you.

That said, I knew I had to ask the confirmation question to Yam when I saw Medai and Ophi’s CS. I don’t want to relive my trauma.

Sorry for the infodump, but I believe it’s best that you know the full context of my actions.

[Cu Chulainn]

Sorry, but my app's going to be the strongest in existence. Literally immune to swords and arrows.

[Antediluvixen]

@Izurich
In fairness Medai's op plz nerf living God level strength *didn't help* - much as yam said. My intent with her character is more that I find the concept of someone that powerful who's also afraid, vulnerable, and just wants it to be over to be far more interesting.

To me the concept of "former demon lord who was cast down by the isekai protagonist and mind wiped and with every successive demon lord to be defeated her mind gets wiped again and again leaving only a tiny shriveled core of identity with each cycle that she clings to out of cosmic terror of being stripped of any identity beyond 'the disgraced living weapon' and apparently the isekai goddess responsible for this is the good guy?" is actually a pretty damn fun idea. It doesn't matter how powerful you are if you've been trapped in a hellish cycle for longer than recorded history because you can't even remember the face of the previous demon lord or what they did to get defeated. Let alone how you yourself fucked up back then.

[LadyAnnaLee]

@Izurich

See, I had rhe exact opposite experience in my early RP days. I had crafted a Mary-Sue completely by accident. The GM took her, but the rest of the players were not happy. I loved my character. I loved their characters. I loved the story. But the OoC interactions were not fun and this was at the height of my depression. So, now I try really hard to create balanced characters. It wasn't my intent to make Katrina the clear underdog like she'sturning out to be, but she's not completely useless. So, right now I'm happy with her. Maybe over the course of the story she'll pull a magic sword or merge with Rolf or gain the wisdom of the ages. Or maybe she'll die forever. Whatever the case, I'm hoping to have fun.

[Antediluvixen]

@LadyAnnaLee
Fwiw if it helps I reckon Medai would like Karina far more than any of the others we've seen thus far. Not to mention thinking she has the best chance of the lot - she won't try to brute force her way into victory like the cycle Medai's been stuck in for ᴇʀʀ.ɪɴᴛᴇɢᴇʀ.ᴏᴠᴇʀꜰʟᴏᴡ years.

To couch it in one of the few anime references that I actually understand - Medai is Saitama but in a world where no amount of punching will be enough to solve the problem.

[LadyAnnaLee]

@Lady Lascivious

That's promising! For lots of reasons. It gives me hope that our characters, our being all of us, will actually be able to work together without spending all their free time plotting against each other.

[Izurich]

@Lady Lascivious That’s fair and I’m glad you’ve found your muse with the concept. However, I must point out that my concern is not about a character’s theme, backstory, or motivations, it’s simply about power level, raw power, and nothing more.

Is Hawkeye or Mumen Rider a good, well-designed, and compelling character? Absolutely, they are excellent characters with nuances that one can greatly enjoy. However, I do not want to play as them when the rest of the PCs are Supermen and Wonder Women, I have experienced how it felt for me years ago, and I will never want to relive it again, even if you give me the best Hawkeye ever to play.

@LadyAnnaLee Opposite cases it may be, but to me, it reinforces my point that being the Odd One Out in terms of power level is not fun, it’s heartbreakingly unfun. I wish for my PC to stand on an even level as the rest of the cast in terms of raw power, that’s basically it.

[LadyAnnaLee]

@Izurich

And that's completely fair! I can't wait to see what you come up with! I do mean that sincerely.

[TruthHurts22]

Since it's the topic here, personally I love playing as characters that don't match up in terms of raw power. Having them either go above and beyond to be on even footing, or just having to circumvent the same sorts of challenges the best they can, it's the sorta stuff I like reading, so I like writing it too!

[Antediluvixen]

@Izurich
I mean fair, I completely understand that even if those references go completely over my head. My point was more that in this context it isn't how powerful you are that matters. Either way I hope you like whatever you come up with ^-^

[Dead Cruiser]

@Izurich lol I appreciate the benefit of the doubt. My foremost goal for Seht was "dickass anime wizard that pisses everyone off." I tried to make what I thought was the most archetypal anime warlock possible, and kind of wrote his CS like it was Seht himself writing it.

I definitely wouldn't call him omnipotent. I listed all his different magic specialties mostly as a joke, but also to demonstrate that his abilities lie almost exclusively in black magic. That said, a big part of his identity is projecting the image of omnipotence, which helps in keeping small-fries off his back.

[Izurich]

@Izurich
I mean fair, I completely understand that even if those references go completely over my head. My point was more that in this context it isn't how powerful you are that matters. Either way I hope you like whatever you come up with ^-^

@Lady Lascivious

Since your avatar is The God-Emperor of Mankind, then I will use this reference, I don’t want to play an Imperial Guardsman when the rest of the cast are Astartes or in the case of Medai and Ophidias, the Chaos Gods. Even if that particular guardsman is the most compelling, well-written, and nuanced guardsman ever.

@TruthHurts22 Haha, I only like reading such characters, but I don’t like writing them, not one bit. I may be a minority in this though, as people often love underdog stories.

@Lady Lascivious @LadyAnnaLee And thank you! Yeah, well, I’ll either Mega-buff Terra or come up with an entirely new char. Or I can decide that the rp is nor for me after all and rescind my participation. Whatever the case, I will inform Yam about it.

Regardless, I sincerely hope y’all have fun!

EDIT: Just read @Dead Cruiser’s reply.

Indeed! He’s a fun character. I can see many great scenes instigated by him, I’ll certainly enjoy reading his scenes.

[Antediluvixen]

@Izurich
I mean I don't think that's really a fitting parallel, frankly. No amount of sheer bs anime superpowers is going to win this game is the point. The way I envisioned Medai it's straight up pointless trying to equal her in power - and all of that power has done absolutely zero good for her. If anything it's been a curse. I understand what you're saying don't get me wrong but even in the context of 40k a guardsman might think of a completely out of the box solution that goes infinitely better than just charging the enemy and hitting them with a sword.

Not to mention, at present Medai isn't at full blown living God strength - because that's kind of boring? She's powerful, very powerful, but with the sword in her chest I'd certainly no longer rank her in the top.

What's far more "powerful" in this context is, well, genre savviness as yam said.

But eh differences in perspective and I do really understand you. I just think that you're slightly missing a piece of the puzzle is all.

[Yam I Am]

So if I can catch the power-scaling discussion in the thick of it, i'm gonna go ahead and bring up a point that I haven't really seen touched upon, but i'd like to reiterate in a hinted-at point in the introductory post:

Power scaling works both ways.

What I mean by this is that making the most omnipresent, powerful character isn't necessarily always even the best course of action. Making a demigod that will blow up everything with the snap of a finger is bound to cause a lot of attention. Being the God of the Lyches and having an army of undead is great and all, but use too much force, and you'll make yourself a big target. Make yourself a big target, and now congratulations, you turned killing an unassuming teenager into getting a seventeen nation coalition on your target because now there's an angry Evil Wizard out on the loose who's going around blowing up villages and Lord Ahriman's cover all willy-nilly. And that just won't do.

Now, this isn't to say that you shouldn't make powerful characters. It's me saying that you should consider other approaches, and that you should consider the fact that - in general - the more powerful you are, the more you get noticed. The more powerful you seemingly are, the more people talk. The more people talk, the more attention is painted onto you, and the more support you unintentionally give to Protagonist-kun. The more support you give him, the harder your job gets. Blending in, seeming innocuous, and overall getting rid of the Isekai Protag before anyone knows they're a big deal is often a far better way to go about it than to go all Rick Astley-era World Wrestling Foundation on their ass.

Also in a way, the machinations of Her Guidance^TM - if it wasn't clear - oftentimes makes it such that a well-laid plan is far more valuable than any display of superhuman strength or eldritch magic. In this way, sometimes it's actually more of an advantage to just be a regular anybody, since your average dude on the street is way less likely to be seen as "The Agent of the Demon Lord" than, say...some living demigoddess or an Anubis-sorcerer.

So please, use some discretion. Sometimes, having a character who's actually a lot weaker in power makes them likewise a far less susceptible target, which is what you may end up wanting in a lot of cases.

[LadyAnnaLee]

@Yam I Am

Random question. What happens to heros once they save the day in this universe. Are they sent back home or is there a whole flock of retired heros in the land.