So, I'm new to the server, as in freshly whitelisted and havent been on it yet. I wanted to use a character that Ive used in previous roleplays before. The issue? All my experience with this character has been on Chatzy... in an extremely combat oriented room. Im making an attempt to drop the combat orientation here. To add another level of difficulty...he was human to start with, but I prefer Novakid to play as. So here's what the basics of Lux are *as a novakid* Lux Argentis: At a fairly young age of 600 Lux is a light blue Novakid with a love for all things expensive. When he was younger Lux fell in with the wrong crowd and became a space pirate, a fearsome frontier buccaneer. They were silent, destructive, yet well known to take what they wanted with the least amount of death possible. After Lux's team double crossed him and turned him in, he barely managed to escape a holding facility. Although he crippled the entire station on the way out, thus making the Coalition forces very unhappy. Lux continued to be a pirate, racking up larger and large bounties continuously (Although never beating his being wanted for destroying a space station). Lux decided to take a break for a while, and see if he could build himself a safehouse out on the frontier, leading him to Antares where he meets the world with curiosity, and practiced intelligence. Personality. Lux is very smart, he prides himself on the ability to take apart a Inquisitor class frigate and put it back together clean as new. He also happens to be a bit cocky, years of pirating giving him a rough around the edges, Han Solo feel. He also happens to be a lone wolf, as trusting people is hard after his betrayal. His only friend being Jeeves, his personal AI (That he stole) Combat: Lux knows how to use guns and melee weapons with relative skill, but his preference are his stun gloves. Delivering electric shocks with each punch, these gloves can incapacitate or kill, depending on the weilders motive. As he enjoys an unarmed combat style, Lux is incredibly well versed in hand to hand combat, Think of a batman meets Jackie Chan level of hand to hand, although ranged enemies are a serious problem for him. Romance: Like mentioned earlier, Han Solo type deal, Lux may act flirty and like a hunk, but he isnt really in it for the long run, yet. He's never met anyone who convinced him to want to settle down, although Im leaving the option open. (Honestly... I dont think thats how Novakids work anyways) So, any tweaks or advice will be greatly appreciated
Realistically, this character is borderline Mary-Sue, which means he can do pretty much anything. He's apparently charming, intelligent, strong, proficient in combat, can disable an entire space station alone- why don't you try leaving some room for your character to grow? Why don't you just make him a regular-joe sorta fella with one or two practiced skills and traits and then learn everything else ICly on the server? Attempt robberies ICly. Try to woo ladies ICly. Judo people ICly. That's my suggestion. Just saying he can do everything already is boring. Leave some growing room.
If your PC is going to have a large focus in fist fighting, maybe try give him a specific fighting style that he's second-to-none at. Alternatively, you could have it so that Lux is self-taught ( which seems like that's what you were going for ). If the latter is the case, you could add some coolness points, and have a few special attacks with names. Hell, the fact that Lux uses a pair of stun gloves can give you some naming ideas, if you incorporate terms related to lightning and shocks into said attack names. If you choose to follow my advice, don't go the Jojo route and name them after songs, because stuff like that is overdone and might even be frowned upon. try something truly original!
I gotta agree with Ziggy, Lux seems to have too many skills, I'd say just make sure he has a more limited skill set. For example, he could be a pirate that has a great handle on a gun, specifically a revolver, And since he has spent alot of time on a ship he has gained some mechanical experience, specifically with ships and from his years of lying and swindling, he could be charming when it comes to persuasion and deception. You just have to come up with a system that makes the person balanced, because even though somebody may be a musical prodigy, they could have a limited vocabulary and maybe be a kleptomaniac. It just makes the character more enjoyable
I agree with everyone. On the deeper level server-wise, a lot of players are very specialized on the server for whatever job they do. It can be very crushing to another player who has worked hard to make their character realistic. It's like being the guy who spent weeks developing their character on the server only to have someone come in with skills over them plus more. Not saying that you should make characters to please everyone all the time. I'm just saying that t leaves a lot of people bitter. I agree with Ziggy though for most things. When it comes to physical stuff, all of that can only be proven IC on the server. We never allow for the whole "But my guy is a heavyweight boxing champion" thing because that forces a certain type of response from another player which is godmodding. Instead, physical activity needs to be RPed as if you actually know what you're doing. For example, a guy not well-versed in hand-to-hand wouldn't keep their hands up or block while punching. A trained hand-to-hand fighter would use feints, weaves, and combinations. It's up to you IC to make your character good at something. We can't just put things into backstory. A destructive backstory is alright. Questionable, but alright. Smokestack had a destructive backstory as well where he took down 300 people over 6 years as a competitive fighter pilot. It's what backstory is for. It's just flavor. As long as it is left as backstory, it is all good in my opinion. This is because we aren't here to share our exposition, but to create our own stories with one another in our server. So don't make your character all about their backstory though I recommend him having help getting out. Limit your skills. Think of what Lux's profession is. He's a space pirate. Yes, he'll be a good brawler and proficient with guns. Able to craft ships though? That's something that requires knowledge in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, machining, etc. A space pirate would probably know how to fix things that'd be involved in their daily life like body repair on their ship, the occasional circuit, and their weapons. Physical skills are proven in how you roleplay it when the situation applies. Learned skills are given from the start and have to make sense with who your character is. I'll provide an example with Smokestack. He is physically strong because he had to survive on a prison planet. That was apart of his backstory. IC he was apart of the USAF, the space marines, and was a PFC with them. He exercised daily on the server. He fights dirty because of his time on the prison planet. He has attempted to snap people's necks before. He throws elbows and low blows. He has a love for ships and is a self taught mechanical engineer because he worked in a ship manufacturing facility on the prison planet. That's apart of his backstory. IC he was a combat engineer for the USAF, he owned three shops that advertised his mechanics skills and shipcraft, and he made approximately 320,000 pixels IC. He trusts people too easily. He died because he opened a package given to him that had a nailbomb in it from a person who was actively trying to kill him. I never said he was good at fighting. He just became a good fighter and in turn became known as a good fighter from being RPed well as a fighter. He became known as a good engineer from being roleplayed as a good engineer. The best advice I got is to take only the skills you want him to have and balance him out. No need to saturate him. The server is a roleplay device. It's supposed to help you grow.
I agree much of what the others are saying. You character needs weakness, mental flaws, fears, etc. Frankly what makes an interesting character they need weakness to over come or better yet deal with, daily or not. Also tone the skills down. Also Nova's tend to be forgetful, so maybe as an example me him forgetful about peoples names, location, sense of direction, etc.
All the yes to the above. I will branch at the idea that people arn't really talking about. The Space Pirate. My first character on the server (He's still alive and I still play him somehow) is Raideck a space pirate. He's an Avian so he worked alongside Grounded Avians, stealing crystal technology IC on the server and helping learn how it works. The most "Badass" thing Raideck has every done is escape from slavers and managing to blow up one of their ships (It was a small one but still) but he ran away. He isn't an engineer or anything like that just because he worked with the crystal tech, the only thing he is good at (outside of using axes and spears) is cooking and stealing. Other than that he isn't good at any other things besides heavy lifting but besides that he doesn't have a skill set that makes people want to hire him or trust him because he is a SPACE PIRATE afterall. Why would anyone want to be near or even talk to a Pirate?
Okay, In his backstory, I'll keep the space station going kaboom, It was an accident, but he takes credit for it either way. He's smart with machines and ships, but has next to no survival skills when he's away from his tech. On the social side of things he's a swindler, but has no social skills outside of parting people with their possessions. He's awkward and comes across as an ass, even when he's being sincere. On his forgetful side, and keeping in line with his zero survival skills, he has absolutely no sense of direction. He has an subject fear of water, both due to being a novakid and that he gets seasick, although not space sick. As for fighting. He uses a largely self developed fighting style, using his own body to fuel plasma for his attacks, making his stun gloves more powerful. He still has a severe disadvantage go range based opponents, Any better?
Well all races are inherently the same survival wise, so you can't do the fueling plasma part. No race has an edge in combat. This is to prevent powergaming. Other than that, it looks good to me.
