Difference between revisions of "Advantages"

Revision as of 23:38, 8 July 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. Powers from your setting aren't better than anybody else's, and everyone can be defeated using any fighting abilities, even if they're literally an Immortal God. This is CRUCIAL for everyone to have fun with this many different settings interacting. If Darth Vader, Voldemort, Wing Zero, Alucard, and Ranma Saotome fight, it's going to work like a round of Super Smash Brothers. How one character compares to another is defined by their Power Level, and even Cthulhu isn't going to be much stronger than Ryu. As a practical concern, this means that things like One Hit Kills/KOs, Invincibility, Elemental Immunity, etc. don't work against other PCs as much more than having high attack power or durability.
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. The biggest KABOOM! we want to see normally is one or two city blocks. Characters MAY have advantages that permit them to destroy more than this, but Angel Arms and Death Stars are cheapened by frequent use, and should usually be the subject of a TP when they come into play. Staff consultation is required for usage of continent+ scale destruction outside of TPs. Characters reliant on military hardware get a bit of leeway here, since what allows them to fight is often incompatible with other forms of RP due to size constraints. Usage of continent+ scale destructive advantages usually comes with the caveat that you'll expect to get hit similarly heavily in return somewhere down the road.
5. PCs cannot be "Depowered" unless the setting they come from permits this. Superman can be exposed to Kryptonite, and Power Rangers can have morphers stolen, but there's not much you can do to Goku or Link. PCs may consent to be depowered even if they lack a vulnerability, but may not be compelled to surrender their powers or power level as a condition of entering an area or participating in a plot.
6. Persistent effects (such as being turned into stone), are similar to OHKOs in that they don't work as well as might be expected. Consent and/or special circumstances (TPs) are required for long-term/permanent persistent effects. Otherwise, all PCs are assumed to have sufficient resistance to break out sooner or later.
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 usually translate to high resistance and durability when it comes to PC interaction. 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, goons, environmental hazards, and stuns.
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.

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.