[MINI GUIDE] God-modding and Force User Rank

[Darth Atrox]

Hey all, just thought I would type up a neat little guide thing on one of the most annoying things I have encountered over my many sites, and on a few occasions here.

First of all, god-modding is basically making your character invincible to the other play, and listing attack after attack after attack in the same post, making it impossible for your character to be able to react in a realistic way without being dragged into that vicious circle.

Secondly I'd like to address a little think I've been noticing - Acolytes and Padawans with abilities like a Lord/Master. Whilst I am probably guilty of this myself, having your Padawan be an expert in lightsaber duelling and a master of all skills under the sun is a huge extreme to go to.

Now, the main event. When you're writing your posts in a duel, always try to consider how your opponent could respond to it. So, if your 360 no scope floor smash force explosion has no reaction, edit it a little.

Also, one of the beauties of having an open sandbox format is the ability to learn whatever you want, so learn it, but in due time and at a more progressed stage in your character's storyline, it's what makes writing fun.

Happy new year / Christmas / Hannukkah / any other happys.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

I believe you're referencing 'god-modding' when you speak of characters being invincible/having more power than they should in an interaction.

Powerplaying is controlling/assuming someone else's character's actions.

Regardless, fair points about force abilities for those at acolyte level. Personally I think it takes something away from the experience to play a character who's good at everything all the time, or all powerful. That's why I beat on Matsu so much.

Happy holidays to you as well.

[member="Darth Krieg"]

 

[Darth Atrox]

That's the word I was looking for, thanks [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Regardless, fair points about force abilities for those at acolyte level. Personally I think it takes something away from the experience to play a character who's good at everything all the time, or all powerful. That's why I beat on Matsu so much.

* high fives her partner in sadistic writing *


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Do I get to join the party for being an avid inflicted of pain?

 

[Klesta]

Godawans. I even wrote a whole blog topic about it... Sometimes it can occur because the master had real-world issues to tend to and the padawan nevertheless carries on writing the character and, as a result, the padawan is kept too long in that condition, sometimes it can occur because the character had significant screen time as a NFU beforehand.

 

[Tellos]

I think one shoudl be careful to consider when somebody is using a power in a less straightforward way to avoid thinkign this is godmodding or such. Often raw power alone in a force users isint a deciding factor. Check kenobi and anakin. Anikin out powered obi won but he lost at Mustifar. Fact is some seem to think padawans are idiots. They spend over a decade training and some have years of actual combat expeirence. While in general yes Knights win out over padawans circumstances matter in combat. In war dtails decide who lives or dies. Standing just a few meters too close to the wrong building can get you killed.

 

[Ellie Mors]

I think one shoudl be careful to consider when somebody is using a power in a less straightforward way to avoid thinkign this is godmodding or such. Often raw power alone in a force users isint a deciding factor. Check kenobi and anakin. Anikin out powered obi won but he lost at Mustifar. Fact is some seem to think padawans are idiots. They spend over a decade training and some have years of actual combat expeirence. While in general yes Knights win out over padawans circumstances matter in combat. In war dtails decide who lives or dies. Standing just a few meters too close to the wrong building can get you killed.

Anakin was a Jedi Master in every way but name (literally on the Jedi Council but was not "promoted" to Jedi Master).

And he was a Sith Lord following that duel, after suffering such extreme wounds that he was actually less capable for the first few years after becoming Lord Vader.

That being said, nobody is saying that considering yourself to be more capable than you are is wrong (foolish, maybe, but not "wrong").

But writing an Acolyte/Padawan as being a master of the force is unacceptable to most/all writers.

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

[member="Tellos"]

I don't think anyone thinks of Padawans/Acolytes as 'idiots' (unless they demonstrate themselves as such). What they generally are is inexperienced: they might have plenty of raw power, but they will lack the experience required to use it effectively. For a Force User, you need to slowly accustom your body to channeling Force Energy, so an older and more experienced Force User is less likely to suffer negative effects from this, and more likely to be able to channel greater amounts of energy with more control than a student. Anakin was remarkable for being naturally 'attuned' to the Force in ways that normally take more experienced Force Users decades of training to achieve. So when we see new arrivals setting themselves up as 'powerful' or 'strong with the Force', the inclination is to roll the eyes, because it's rarely actually the case.

The other thing you have to recognise is that this isn't a numbers game: a Master can't roll a d20 and naturally beat out an Acolyte's d4. Here, the name of the game is writing, which means things can fluctuate, develop and grow considerably. I've seen Acolytes defeat Masters because they wrote better, made their story more plausible and used their brains to put the Master in a jam: as you'd expect in any combat situation. Experienced fighters can be beaten by amateurs, whether through luck, using an approach that's unconventional or expected, or simply by catching their opponent at the right moment. It's all possible here.

That said, the issue with the 'Godawan' isn't that they could defeat a Master, it's that they must. People with 'Godawan' characters tend to lack weaknesses, have very significant character traits that are written to give them an advantage (e.g. powerful duelist, very strong in the Force etc) or, even worse than this, suggest characteristics that they never actually display properly in their writing (e.g. highly intelligent or very charismatic, when you're actually looking at a very dumb character or one lacking in social skills). That's what a Godawan looks like: either no weaknesses, weaknesses that aren't really weaknesses ("Tends to resort to brute force", as an example: would be a weakness for some, but when they spend most of their time fighting, not so much!), or simply have strengths that massively overpower any weaknesses they might have. And, when it comes to the writing, they don't take hits, magically have a counter for everything thrown at them, and never accept defeat.

Also worth noting that most such characters are incredibly emotionally shallow, tend not to show fear, trepidation, feel grief, sorrow or anger (unless it empowers them), and ultimately walk around like nothing in the world touches them.

I'll be honest: if I see any such character, I just stop writing with them, or ignore them and carry on threading with everyone else. They're honestly not worth the bother, because they're too busy thinking that ego validation is more important than the writing, which is not what any of us are here for. If anyone writes like that, or if the above description sounds like you...you should rethink the approach, because it gets really old, really fast. Most of us won't put up with it for very long.

 

[Tellos]

[member="Tirdarius"]
[member="Darth Vitium"]

BOth your points are not in dispute here. However again for say my Mirukula acolyte shes stronger in the force than you're average acolyte. Cause well shes jsut natrually a race attuned to the force. She uses it to see literily sicne she was little. For her the force has always been a way of life. Also I;ve been called weilding master level pwoers for using telekineses to throw up objects as barriers. So sometimes sometiems soem of us are accused without good reason simplycause we get creative in the pwoers we do have.

 

[Darth Atrox]

my Mirukula acolyte shes stronger in the force than you're average acolyte.

I think this is a recurrent theme amongst Padawans and Acolytes - they're all above average and leave little room for improvement once they advanced the Force User ranks. Sure, you provide IC reasoning for this such as race, heritage etc. but when push comes to shove and your character is put into a duel situation or in a roleplay requiring the use of your Force prowess, they are no more average than the last 'above average' padawan/acolyte.

 

[Six-O]

I think a lot of Force Users seem to forget that these super scaled powers also require a vast amount of concentration to achieve, no matter how much practice and time they've spent mastering them. Yoda is widely considered one of the greatest Masters in the history of the canon and something as "simple" as telekinesis required him to entirely disengage from combat on at least two occasions. This isn't a video game, or a movie, not a television show, it's not even a book or comic. It's a cooperative writing environment told from the perspective of every character. Focus on the content, not the ego flexing

 

[Tellos]

[member="Darth Krieg"] no shes been bested by others before. In fact most ofm y duels I lose for fairly normal reasons. Differance is I also play them as more heroicish charatcers. To me I disliek battles lasting 4 to 6 posts to me it's boring. It feelsl iek stacking wins for soembody. I don't mind losing but I want a good battle not a one two death or such. you are also again forgetting the mirukula are in that specific case notible for the fact they all natrually use a force pwoer by isntct that takes everyone else efffort to learn. I again agree 90% of the time a knight trumps a padawan/acolypte. But my observation is this gets leveled when soembody jsut does something with a poer thats not a straight reading of the pwoer. My telekinsese example beign a perfect one. Telkeinetics are a early power every youngling learns. Learnign to use it to pick up and move objects is hardly amazing and if they couldint they woudl be in the agricultrual corps by age 12. Again creativity in use of power matters but if we wanna say no to that fine then we need strict stats and hard locked data otherwise the complaint is moot. Now if some people want quick hard fast duels fine I don't I saw war IRL and I dont much care to relive it for no purpose. SO to me duels in this unvierse i want mien to be memorible and intersting. If all it is are fast losses it makes there seem no point in them but to just max out on my pwoers and rank and wait till I hit master. Cause there is apparantly no acocuntign for the multitude of battles duesl and out right strange situatiosn my charatcers been thorugh. Also average is a range and the average was there when I started her. Now that padawan is growing with every encounter. Shes continued to grow she has had to. Lackign a master who won't vanish in a week the imputus for her is to grow to learn and to expand herself from her own drive.

Liek I said I am not saying you are wrong that usually knights beat those below. My thing is many seem to think win means instant kill. If thats how we wanna handle it I argue we soudl ban duels not of equal power. Cause it's then unfair to anyone else and you shoudl have to fight those on you're own damn tier. So My opinion is either accept you won't stack 50 wins in a battle or if I were a sith lord I'd kill you for pickign on easy targets as weak cause you obviously are wasting time on padawans. OR we ban the idea of those outside their respecitive ranks from dueling cause it's obvious the hgiher ranked guys only want fast wins.

Also I'd note noen force users have killed full on kngihts. hell we see a dman republic trooper in the Star Wars MMORPG harm a sith lord with a damn grenade. Power alone means nothing if you get out smarted.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

I'd second what [member="Darth Krieg"] said.


When I started Elpsis as an apprentice level char, she got some powers that could be considered unconventional or a bit special: Pyromancy, farsight and empathy. The last two she inherited from her mother, [member="Coryth Elaris"], who's a natural empath and seer. Also a powerful healer and illusionist...but it would've obviously been over the top if Elpsis had immediately gained access to those skills (and she's only now just learning them).


However, to keep her from being over the top, Elpsis got a number of drawbacks. Empathy obviously has its uses, but more often than not it gave her appalling headaches whenever she was in a crowd and she often lost focus in battle. After all, feeling the pain of various people isn't fun, especially when you're trying to kill someone.


Precognition has its uses in combat, but farsight was more of a curse for her since the visions she got scared her. Rather than gaining a tangible benefit, she spent most of the start of her arc actively running away from the Force. Pyromancy is quite handy in her fight and I started her as a somewhat experienced acolyte, but her lightsabre skills were about the same level as Finn's in TFA since she never received proper training due to having run away from the Jedi at a young age. That hasn't really changed despite her being a Master now.


She held her own well in her first, very brutal duel, but got her arse kicked and almost died. That was fun. Oh, and she was blinded during the last board event and is now reliant on the Force to see since she stubbornly (and probably foolishly ) refused to get cloned or cybernetic replacements. This would obviously get her in trouble in a Ysalamiri field. Caused a friendly fire incident in a Mando dominion when she was trying to shoot a terentatek, but a ysalamiri field mucked with her vision a bit so she accidentally hit an ally.

Do I get to join the party for being an avid inflicted of pain?

You must not only inflict pain, but suffer it. Brutal maimings are an important step in your development. Do you meet this criteria?


[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Tellos]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] again my point isint even such exotic pwoers and my point isint to sday I shoudl win. My padawans lsot MOST of her battles with hgiher level FU's thats normal. My issue is compaints where by me using force powers every force user who gets trained hsoudl know to imrpovem y odds of not dying in half a second gets called for god modding or such. It's retarded. Also my point still stands that if all we want are to rack up fast wins then hoenstly why bother? again I can go get paid in the navy to help do that. I left for a reason and itwasitn cause I needed to use a light saber for it.

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

[member="Tellos"]

Being a Miraluka does not make you more or less Force Sensitive than any other Force User, quite bluntly. You may have 'lived with the Force' every day of your life, but quietly, so has every other Force Sensitive. They simply might not know that they had. Being a racially-Force Sensitive being does not make you stronger, any more than perpetual use of Force Sight does: there are a couple of things to bear in mind with that. Firstly, it is a natural evolutionary gift that the Miraluka developed in response to their blindness, but it's also worth noting that, for them, it's a passive ability. It doesn't provide them with greater levels of concentration, better channeling capabilities or stronger skill levels. It's an adaptation, not a trained skill, so it affords you no particular advantage over a sighted Force User. Indeed, it's a disadvantage: anyone with the ability to 'muddy the waters' or distort your Force Sight has you dead to rights: you won't be able to detect them, and they can see you.

Now, with respects to other powers, it's true that many students learn them early, but this does not mean they have an unlimited degree of proficiency with them: Yoda proved rather strongly that something as 'simple' as Telekinesis is actually a very difficult thing, requiring considerable concentration and focus. He became exhausted lifting an X-Wing from that swamp, not because he was old, but because the level of focus required to achieve it was considerable. Add to that something Luke Skywalker later observed in the Hand of Thrawn Duology: when one uses the Force for magnificent displays of power, they often receive little to no insight from the Force. As he put it, "You can't hear a whisper in a room if all you do is shout". An experienced Force User will understand this balance, and a Miraluka must understand this, because their ability to perceive things through the Force is vital to them: massive uses of power would therefore blind them. Willing to bet you'd not factored that in.

Using the Force ultimately takes a toll on the individual, and this is why the ranks scale as they do, in many cases. Your body simply isn't accustomed to channeling the energies required - and we know that prolonged, sustained or strong use of the Force has a damaging effect on an individual. Palpatine showed this with his prolonged use of Force Lightning; Barriss Offee became utterly exhausted when using her Force Healing skills to fix a relatively minor injury over the space of several hours (because the energy she channeled gradually over time), and Yoda tired out moving a little X-Wing a few metres. It takes a toll: good writing should reflect this! It's also one of the reasons NFUs can defeat Force Users: they know that the best way to kill them is to make them use too much power, or play with their senses, such that they become distracted. HK-47 did a good job of listing quite a few different methods, and most of them made use of the fact that Jedi are oftentimes blind under certain circumstances, or can be made so (sonic weaponry, for example, being excellent for this).

Finally, just a personal request: please use spellcheck. Your posts are coming across a little incoherent because you're not doing so, and it was a little hard to understand a few of your points. We'll be much more likely to understand where you're coming from if we can, well, understand you.

 

[Nima Tann]

 

[Connor Harrison]

[member="Darth Krieg"] Nice view, and Happy New Year to you and yours!

And don't worry, some of us write Masters who still have only won about 1 duel in 2.8 years of RP spanning 10 years IC and has a body like a run over ronto. BUT still going. Just.

 

[Tellos]

[member="Tirdarius"] I normaly I do I was writing at 4 in the morning however. Also spell check on the browser seems busted.

 

[Tellos]

[member="Tirdarius"] Before I go you already as others have simply dismissed any points I have made. So all this tells me is you guys want quick 5 post duels. Whatever I knwo I don't god mod but I also know some will call pwoer gaming if things are not 100% their own way. All this thread now seems to me is a lsit of people to watch out for. And one member of staff not to trust. Cause apparantly their not in this for the community jsut to pump others who want fast wins and to pump up their charatcers kills and victories. Good day.