I honestly didn't know OCs were so disliked, either. I've got just a couple FCs I like playing and if they're taken, I'll go for an OC. I've never personally experienced backlash for my OCs, but maybe it was never to my face.
Or maybe it's a shift in dynamics since I last regularly played superhero games.
@mietze said in FCs on Comic MUs:
Reading up on all the comic MU stuff makes me glad I never tried them, honestly it is pretty stunning to me that OCs are so disdained! Since I often like the worlds/themes of a genre or place more than I enjoy endless chaining to source material detail (and yes, I understand from reading wikipedia that comic book FCs probably have ten million ways you can go with any given character since they like to rewrite/mix up/alt universe it up) that I would not wish to offend someone by playing a beloved character "wrong" because I didn't know as much about them as a true fangirl should.
I'm not a huge comics fan (though I love reading about them as well as listening to friends talk about them). But I have gone to a few events for comics fans as the driver/interested companion/for interesting peoplewatching/because I really enjoy people, and I have seen people almost literally froth at the mouth over canon and deviations and stuff.
It seems like if you're not a totally ovaries to the wall fan person, but wanted to try out a new mush experience you never had before, that you'd want to pick either a super obscure (but how would you know if it was?!) or OC character!
This opinion is held by a lot of people; some people feel they might play a character wrong (my opinion? Tell me if someone tells you that because I'll happily ban them), or just doesn't like playing 'other peoples stories'.
Some of my best friends who I invited over to m1963 were gunshy on the FC thing so made some OC's and got comfortable and now have a mix of OC's and FC's.
I love OC's, myself. I'd never play on a comic game which had a culture that was negative about them.
I have a hard time engaging with OCs sometimes, because I tend to lean on established dynamics between characters to guide me going forward. But I'd never try and restrict people from playing them.
@the-tree-of-woe said in FCs on Comic MUs:
I have a hard time engaging with OCs sometimes, because I tend to lean on established dynamics between characters to guide me going forward. But I'd never try and restrict people from playing them.
Do you only play games with FCs?
I've always played a good mix of OCs and FCs on superhero games and never had anyone take issue with my OCs. I think a good RPer is a good RPer and a bad RPer is a bad RPer regardless of what character they're in, though.
@ixokai I confess I have never chargenned at a Superhero game that didn't have features.
@the-tree-of-woe said in FCs on Comic MUs:
@ixokai I confess I have never chargenned at a Superhero game that didn't have features.
Nothing wrong with that, your response just surprised me.
This is my first comic game as I've said, so for me "engaging with OCs" is like, "I RP with them like I RP with anyone on any other game I've ever played." I meet folk and get to know them and fight beside and see how we click.
Then again I emphatically do not try to mimic FC relationships/dynamics when I play a FC. I always try to take my own... interpretation, inspired by the FC, yes, with a similar feel.
I mean I'm playing Johnny Storm on M1963. I have a base assumption that he and Ben will have a tense relationship, that he'll trust his sister, and that he'll trust but roll his eyes at Reed. But that's just a base assumption. If it doesn't go that way, no big.
I've never read a F4 comic in my life, will never do so, and am not especially impressed with any F4 movies. (Especially that last one: shudder). However, reading over Johnny's story, I was inspired to have a certain take on him, and I enjoy it and I go with it.
@the-tree-of-woe said in FCs on Comic MUs:
@ixokai I confess I have never chargenned at a Superhero game that didn't have features.
I have, they were all stat/dice system places tho
@mietze said in FCs on Comic MUs:
Reading up on all the comic MU stuff makes me glad I never tried them, honestly it is pretty stunning to me that OCs are so disdained! Since I often like the worlds/themes of a genre or place more than I enjoy endless chaining to source material detail (and yes, I understand from reading wikipedia that comic book FCs probably have ten million ways you can go with any given character since they like to rewrite/mix up/alt universe it up) that I would not wish to offend someone by playing a beloved character "wrong" because I didn't know as much about them as a true fangirl should.
I'm not a huge comics fan (though I love reading about them as well as listening to friends talk about them). But I have gone to a few events for comics fans as the driver/interested companion/for interesting peoplewatching/because I really enjoy people, and I have seen people almost literally froth at the mouth over canon and deviations and stuff.
It seems like if you're not a totally ovaries to the wall fan person, but wanted to try out a new mush experience you never had before, that you'd want to pick either a super obscure (but how would you know if it was?!) or OC character!
I hate so so so much that this is such a prevelant attitude and I hate even more that people have been shitty enough to've made people think this way. It's why I've always had such a crazy hard time getting some of my friends to try comic places. Like I've even had people refuse to risk it even after I flat out said I'd write apps for them.
The single best Freefall and the single best Shadowcat I've ever seen were played by people who basically just knew about those chars rather than having exhaustively read their stuff. Like, the only Gen13 stuff Freefall ever read was Magical Drama Queen and a single story thing I put on imgur for her, and only AFTER she'd been totally killing it as Roxy for like three months.
Yeah, idk, I've staffed multiple comic MUs and played lots of characters and I have literally never in my life owned a 'single issue' of a comic or been to an actual comic store (or if I went, it was to buy MTG cards cough). I've read a handful of the 'big book' things that get put out to like Borders/Barnes & Noble/etc where they have like "half of an entire series run in one book". New Avengers, some X-Men, some Cable & Deadpool, and some Batman, and that's about it.
Comicvine, etc, are great resources. I've apped tons of characters off of mostly just reading about them there.
There is definitely room on these games for people who aren't comic know-it-alls, even as FCs. Yeah, there's a dick or two around who'll go "omg don't you know what happened to your character in XYZ Series!!? How are you even playing them!!!" Ignore them.
RP quality and storytelling effort matter infinitely more than "how many Batman comics have you read?"
@Tempest It's absurd to think of FCs as some sort of singular entities whose ways and personalities are well defined.
With some creator-owned exceptions any given character has been written by multiple different writers over the years, so they have acted... inconsistently themselves in their own works. Some of those writers weren't nearly as good as others or had the FCs act in controversial ways to fit the story they were telling at the time, too.
The spirit of the character is what matters. It's hardly as if past a certain point reading more Batman gives you brand new insights into the character, all it gives you is more versions of the FC written by different people.
@arkandel said in FCs on Comic MUs:
@Tempest It's absurd to think of FCs as some sort of singular entities whose ways and personalities are well defined.
With some creator-owned exceptions any given character has been written by multiple different writers over the years, so they have acted... inconsistently themselves in their own works. Some of those writers weren't nearly as good as others or had the FCs act in controversial ways to fit the story they were telling at the time, too.
The spirit of the character is what matters. It's hardly as if past a certain point reading more Batman gives you brand new insights into the character, all it gives you is more versions of the FC written by different people.
Yeah, I mean, even just with Illyana Rasputin alone there've been something like... 3-4 pretty radically different versions/personalities/whatever just since she came back to life. It's probably high for one char in a relatively short span of time but it's something ridiculously common for comics as a whole, especially with guys like Bendis who write basically every char in exactly the same way no matter who or what they were before his first issues.
So, like, even on places with canon cutoffs I think there's plenty of room for player interpretation
And if Wolverine and Hercules can get it on in canon, it's time to just stop worrying about whether an FC has been 'turned gay'. Just consider it an Alt U version and get over it. It's not like there's a ton of gay, lesbian, trans, etc FCs to choose from to begin with.
@tnp said in FCs on Comic MUs:
And if Wolverine and Hercules can get it on in canon, it's time to just stop worrying about whether an FC has been 'turned gay'. Just consider it an Alt U version and get over it. It's not like there's a ton of gay, lesbian, trans, etc FCs to choose from to begin with.
Yeah probably the only time anybody should give a fuck about fucking is if it's become disruptive to other people for reasons better than "I just don't like it"
I'd say "or if it's literally the only thing they do" but if it's all they do then id think that falls under the category of activity/alt squatting/etc etc anyway
@tnp Jesus Christ, this. Like, bisexuality is a thing that exists and it's a thing that plenty of people IRL discover and explore later in their life, it doesn't have to be an invalidation of previous canon relationships they had.
For me, there are so many takes on an FC that most end up being OC that looks like and has power set of the FC. Why not just make an OC game and do that?
Inverse is true. There are so many canon characters, from FC down to single appearance with a vast array of powers and abilities, almost any OC can find correalation to a canon character, why not find a canon and tweak these details just the same.
Personally I would just like more original theme Mu*s.
Ultimately, while I ABSOLUTELY believe in intent mattering when you play a feature character, I do view "intent" as broad rather than narrow. I use Shadowcat as an example, again because she's an oft-abused character:
IF you play Shadowcat you are playing a Jewish girl who likes to dance, is good with computers, and is handy in a fight. She is a Mutant; she phases through walls. She will almost certainly be associated with the X-Men in some manner or possibly Excalibur though she is unlikely to ignore either group even if she winds up further afield, in SHIELD or the Avengers or tending bar in Chicago or something. That is the broad parameter of "intent" I mean when I talk about checking for intent when you app an FC. It's a big landing strip with a lot of places to touch down, but you should still shoot for it rather than parachuting out into the avocado jungle.
You may or may not choose to explore relationships with Colossus, Pete Wisdom, or an acrimonious attraction to ex-husband Star Lord, friendships with Magik, Storm, Cypher, Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, and a tight relationship with Wolverine. Call those optional parts of the package, or "narrow" intent.
This is not cut and dried with no flex or ability to redefine - I have no theoretical problem with Shadowcat and Magik having a relationship, for instance*. During my roleplay relationships between characters have evolved where when they did appear in canon stories they never got beyond the embryonic stage... so I get wanting to do your own thing. I do.
*In practice hearing about this would send me to the other end of the football field in a hurry unless I knew and trusted both players, because the horror stories about people playing out this as a "romance" run back about... two and a half decades.
“Real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
@lotherio said in FCs on Comic MUs:
For me, there are so many takes on an FC that most end up being OC that looks like and has power set of the FC. Why not just make an OC game and do that?
Because people want to play Captain America. Its a sort of adult make believe, running around playing our favorite heros.
Personally I would just like more original theme Mu*s.
This I can agree with fo' sho'.
@the-tree-of-woe said in FCs on Comic MUs:
IF you play Shadowcat you are playing a Jewish girl who likes to dance, is good with computers, and is handy in a fight. She is a Mutant; she phases through walls. She will almost certainly be associated with the X-Men in some manner or possibly Excalibur though she is unlikely to ignore either group even if she winds up further afield, in SHIELD or the Avengers or tending bar in Chicago or something. That is the broad parameter of "intent" I mean when I talk about checking for intent when you app an FC. It's a big landing strip with a lot of places to touch down, but you should still shoot for it rather than parachuting out into the avocado jungle.
That's pretty much what we mean when we say 'the character needs to be recognizable'. Though with one difference: we don't care about gender. In most cases, it's not integral to the character and can easily be changed.
@tnp said in FCs on Comic MUs:
@the-tree-of-woe said in FCs on Comic MUs:
That's pretty much what we mean when we say 'the character needs to be recognizable'. Though with one difference: we don't care about gender. In most cases, it's not integral to the character and can easily be changed.
Re: gender-swapping, of interest it has only ever to my remembrance been used to flip M2F.
I think this might have something to do with the number of cool guys vs cool ladies in comics. But I'm not a subject matter expert on that.
I honestly didn't know OCs were so disliked, either. I've got just a couple FCs I like playing and if they're taken, I'll go for an OC. I've never personally experienced backlash for my OCs, but maybe it was never to my face.
Or maybe it's a shift in dynamics since I last regularly played superhero games.
