Difference between revisions of "Advantages"

Revision as of 02:25, 22 October 2015

The kinds of characters that can be played at Multiverse Crisis MUSH are legion. This news file covers the advantages that these characters can have, encompassing powers such as telepathy, assets such as money, or ruling an evil empire, or skills such as martial arts or crafting.

1. MUSH Rules supersede the approved text of your +Advantages, as well as your setting's canon. Advantages will be reviewed and modified or removed as Staff deems necessary.
2. On our MUSH, all powers are created equal. Anyone can defeat anyone else using their fighting abilities, even if one is Mario or Solid Snake and the other is Zeus or Kratos. This is CRUCIAL and NON-NEGOTIABLE, and what it means is that fights work like a round of Super Smash Brothers. Character strength is defined by their Power Level, and Cthulhu isn't going to be much (if at all) stronger than Link. As a practical concern, this means that even the most deadly attacks and most impenetrable defenses, such as Harry Potter's Avada Kedavra or Fate/Stay Night's Avalon aren't much more than super attacks in a fighting game.
3. Big Versus Small is a problem with a history here. Whatever is appropriate in your setting for taking down a tank or a giant will work on anything similar. For characters like Superman, this might be punching. For Wander or Link, it's more about stabbing weak points or chucking bombs at joints. Or, for Solid Snake or Chris Redfield, you'd really want to grab a missile launcher or some grenades. Point is, don't abuse rule #2 to use a 9mm pistol to take down a main battle tank unless that's something your character can really do.
4. Attacks of Mass Destruction shouldn't be used to do more than a city block or two worth of damage without explicit Admin permission. Angel Arms and Death Stars are cheapened by frequent use, and should usually be the subject of a plot when they come into play. Bear in mind that the give-and-take nature of RP should be observed particularly strongly here; When the Death Star comes into play, it's usually not long for this world. In summary, don't ask to do a horrifying amount of damage if you're not willing to endure proportionate payback.
5. PCs cannot be "Depowered" unless they are explicitly vulnerable to such things in their setting. Superman is vulnerable to Kryptonite, and Power Rangers can have their morphers stolen, but as a rule this isn't the kind of story we want pursued here. PCs may consent to be depowered, but may not be compelled to be depowered to enter an area or participate in a plot.
6. Persistent effects (such as being turned to stone) are similar to OHKOs (see: Avada Kedavra, above) in that they are, at best, temporary status effects unless the target consents to be under their effects for longer. Otherwise, all PCs are assumed to have sufficient to break out immediately.
7. Any ability that robs a character of their agency, alters them significantly, or acquires information through personally invasive means (mind control, telepathy, assimilation, etc.) requires consent from the target PC for it to work. Additionally, due to high drama potential, Staff permission must be given for mind control or similar to persist beyond one scene.
8. Immunities and Invulnerability translate to high resistance and durability when it comes to PC interaction, much in the same manner as Avada Kedavra is "merely" a very powerful attack for our purposes. Fire Man can ignore a forest fire, but not a Firebender. Superman can shrug off a goon's bullets, but not Revolver Ocelot's. Flat-immunity is allowed for mind control/telepathy, persistent effects (being turned to stone), goons, environmental hazards, and stuns. See notes below for etiquette on this.
9. Characters who have a lot of advantages, like a Wizard with a spellbook, don't have to list them all. This is called an implicit advantage. Some things are NEVER allowed to be implicit advantages: Mind control, teleportation, time travel, immunities, anything to do with souls, etc. In other words, anything that is iffy or restricted needs to be explicitly listed and approved. We're more flexible on less strange or advanced advantages.
10. Time Travel is a restricted power. It may never be an implicit power, and will only be issued to players that Staff trusts. In summary though, Time Travel may not be used to change the past, and may not be used to define the future. Closed Time Loops only.
11. A TP Advantage is a subcategory of Advantage, which can only be used with Admin permission. These tend to be unusually powerful effects, which are not reasonable for use in regular play. These require the character, not the player, to be unable to utilize the power under ordinary circumstances. This is a "hard" restriction, not a "soft" restriction. A character who COULD use a TP Advantage but WON'T isn't good enough. They must be UNABLE to. That they are unable to does not need to be known In-Character necessarily.

Notes on Big vs Small & Immunities/Resistances: While it's true that you're not allowed to stonewall somebody with, 'Nuh-uh, you can't damage me with fire!', it's also true that it's kind of a dick move to attack Fire Man with fireballs if you have other options. So for instance, while a Firebender or Pyro from X-Men would be well within their rights to fight fire with fire and expect to do well, a Wizard who could cast any number of other spells really should use something other than fireball. In short, use some common sense and be nice to people. For the sake of not driving players and ourselves nuts with loopholes and exceptions, everybody can mess everybody up with everything, especially in the combat system. But we do expect you to do some self-moderation when it comes to stuff like this.

A similar idea applies to Big vs Small, in that while Goku can just punch a Gundam to death, a lot of characters -- for instance, Solid Snake -- really wouldn't be able to do similar.

On Long-Term Characters and the accumulation of Advantages: Some people play characters for keeps, or at least for a very long time. When this happens, it's not unusual for their characters to accumulate a large number of +Advantages derived from their adventures on the MUSH. While there is a lot of room for lateral advancement, the fact of the matter is that there comes a point where it gets silly. The character becomes an over-written, bloated mess. Staff regrets its existence, players complain about it wondering why Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura is also a Jedi Knight, etc.

Because of this, both people who play characters in the extreme long term, and people who play EXTREMELY active characters who accumulate a lot of "stuff" should be aware that they will eventually reach a point where one of the following will PROBABLY occur:

1. You'll be denied further upgrades because you already have too much Stuff.
2. You'll be required to LOSE some of your currently accumulated advantages to get new Stuff.
3. Or, in particularly extreme cases, you may face a Character audit in order to rectify the great big tumbleweed that your character's Advantages have become.

This can be avoided by doing your own housecleaning, or by simply not dipping your hand into too many metaphorical cookie jars. Either way, the point is that characters shouldn't usually end up being a Robot Ninja Wizard Mecha Pilot Demon Prince, and that while this sometimes happens as a result of gradual or semi-gradual advancement that is acceptable if taken by itself, it's not necessarily an acceptable end result.

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