The recent debate taking place in Metal Frontier's unapproved character list got me thinking, just what constitutes powerplaying, how do you spot it, and what do you do about it? Using my massive Intelligence stat, I have compiled a document of handy facts to help you spot powerplayers and, depending on how lenient you want to be, either grind them beneath your heel or reach out to them and try to mold them into productive writers. Either way, no more munchkin bullshit! It's win-win! The fact that you've read this far says to me you're very smart, and what's more, you're quite good-looking. But maybe you're ignorant, and don't know what a powerplayer IS. That's what definitions of things are for! Read further!

Powerplayer- (noun, forum slang) A writer in a cooperative creative writing environment who takes advantages of situations and other players' trust to make his character ludicrously badass.

Okay, so this stuff is general knowledge. But not everyone just comes in and goes all Cyrex Wingblade on us immediately. There are subtle changes in level of powerplaying, and different risks associated with each level. Here's an easy-reference chart to help YOU know just what sort of danger you're in on any given board!

[b]Psycko's Powerplayer Threat Assessment Rainbow

MINIMAL
Narrative flow moving at optimum pace, characters interacting within personality parameters, mild risk of player putting words in other characters' mouths

MODERATE
Increased risk of stat miscalculations and jack-of-all trades skill allocations, enhanced potential for characters to have their own vehicles and lairs that they never use

ELEVATED
Mild to major risk of brooding loner swordsmen and stoic emotionless assassins, Prism and/or Lightspeed running amuck, characters bringing knives to gunfights and winning on a regular basis

SEVERE
Overabundance of Transmetal IIs and Technorganics, increased risk of wacky characters breaking fourth wall at regular intervals, high probability of Endless attack

EXTREME
High risk of characters with telepathy/mind control powers, non-plot device time travelers and shapeshifters, Sin hopped up on aphrodisiacs and let loose among populace

CATASTROPHIC
OpMaximus given mod capability and retcon privileges; tuck your head between legs and kiss your ass goodbye.

Now that you know the quickest and easiest ways to rate the risk of a given board, what can you do? Craft a character just as powerful as the worst of the lot, create an non-powerful character to be goofy and suck at everything (I call this the Threatener Gambit), or cover your computer monitor in duct tape to escape the harmful munchkin rays emanating from it? None of the above! You simply remember that the primary focus of AUG is to write a story cooperatively, with the ups and downs and character flaws and tribulations of any good story, and try to think more of the spirit of things than the letter of the law. Some powerplayer characters are not so bad as others, it's moreso the intent of them that stands out. Just so long as we -all- remember that Fuzors SUCK. Thanks for reading!


(Yes, this entire post is meant as a joke. Hope it gave you some giggles, heh.)

Catastrophic isn't a high enough rank.

I demand something higher!

Catastrophic description is off. No one gives OpMax mod and retcon powers. He TAKES them!

Ironically though, the one time OpMax actually was a mod, he was pretty well behaved. Until he randomly disappeared.

Oh, and by the way now that CA3 is over, I can finally reveal that and the Endless were really just puppets of the Meta-Endless, who was inhabiting Backlash all along -- in every incarnation, yes including Crazyhorse and the TM character Wizardlash who never got submitted because a mage made entirely of gemstones of all five types wasn't allowed in a PC for some reason. Cage's true purpose was to bring all the Backlashes to CA where they would face off against the Quintesson Megazord that has also been polluting their minds. In the end, the entire multiverse is exploded by their battle, but the denizens of CA live on by Backlash's grace, so they can tell all their friends what a badass Backlash was before he sacrificed himself for the greater good. Or did he???? Backlash!

Speaking of things we can't do to fit in... I remember that I didn't end up joining Terra Mechanica because I wanted a darn sword that I could put the gems into... sort of trite but still kewl, but I really don't think those should have been banned.The sword had an additional non-combat function of winding his quartz, gear based method of charging himself. My real name is Lancelot; how dare anyone deny me my right to a sword!

Man, I think I still haven't quite vented that irritation out yet from those years ago... Maybe Catfish can lend us some old Terra Mechanica background material so we can make some stories in Spark Fragments that happened the way we wanted them to... ::crosses fingers::

Hey Pter, remember old skool BM: AoE days with Zevais and Isotron (which I ended up inheritting after you left my ass by itself here)... I think we really got swept away by all that Neobiotic and Tricon overpowered villain cycle there and didn't really realize how powerful we made our guys just to survive... man, that board gave us so much extra points to work with... what ever happened to Vasdenjas(sp?)?

OPMax had this moments, but he was a pretty good guy.

Yeah all kidding aside he was a good player and writer and a good guy as far as I knew him. But, man, could he hijack a story thread.

So true, old friend. So true.

He was one of many colorful characters that made this place what it was/is.

I've had my share of stunts over the years too though. But, all in good fun. Usually.

A random thread on another message board makes me nostalgic and I start snooping around my old haunts only to find my memory's honored by putting me up as the ultimate example of how NOT TO RP.





Oh Lord, it wouldn't be nearly as funny if it wasn't so goddamn accurate!


EDIT: And silly people. Saying my name summons me. I'm like Candlejack or Candyman.

Holy crap! I knew that saying 'OpMaximus' five times into a mirror at midnight was a bad idea! He's returned under a new name to haunt us all!

Heh. Hiya, OpMax. I'm glad to see you're a really good sport about us ribbing you.

Seconded! I like the icon, very appropriate somehow.

Heheh. Yeah, I abandoned the OpMaximus handle a few years ago when I "restructured" myself and condensed my Net Handle down to either "Rust" or, when not available "GC Rust". And as the years have gone by, I've come to realize just how poorly I did RP.

Well, to be totally fair, I don't consider myself a poor RPer, but I always felt I had to be the center of attention, and I somehow managed to drag everyone else into it. I suppose in that regard, I was a terrific RPer!


But in all seriousness guys, it's great to see this place is still active in some capacity. I have a lot of fond memories of this place (Which, as time has passed, as turned into shared bemusement with how you all put up with me for as long as you did).


And yeah Ribo, I like this Avatar. I've gone through a lot of them over the years, but this one speaks to me.

Finally, careful when you pick on Backlash. He's only managed to acquire a spot in a fan made MTMTE completion. Yup, he's still kicking around. Though I haven't updated him since Energon, so I suppose you could say he's quasi-retired.

I find a well-placed baseball bat also works quite well when dealing with powerplayers and metagamers.

... What?