Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jakiin]

So how, precisely, do you determine your character's non-pod power? Inmany RPGs with a decent RP community this can become pretty problematic, as you have 'Desiree Ravenbeak the beautiful emerald-eyed child of dragons, raised by <famous canon character here> to be a battlemage of terrible power', but in EVE this seem to be less prevalent. I'm pretty sure there are three reasons for this.

1. The game itself is a bit of an 'idiot filter' (As I lovingly refer to it) so you don't get a lot of the young kids that are responsible for it.

2. The community are, by and large, elitist assholes. And I love you all for it, because on the rare occassions one does make it through we all join forces across the political and social borders which divide us to mock them until they regret having made their pseudo-Heir character known to us. Which is great.

3. CCP beat you to it. You're alright a nearly immortal demigod that earns more ISK in a day than the average planetary defense budget.  In fact, you kill the average planet's population once every month or so. You command ships of destruction so great that you can wipe out fleets without a thought, and you are able of jamming decades of knowledge into your brains with a few weeks of skill training. Making yourself a child prodigy seems rather pointless after what you as an average capsuleer take for granted.

But still, my question still stands: How do you define the status/ability limits for your character pre-capsule? A lot of people seem to let it be defined by their faction choice: You hear about a lot more Caldari who worked in Lai Dai factory floors or as Corporate Security/CalNav pilots than you hear about them being farmers or real estate magnates. Gallente pilots seem to enjoy the Navy story as well, with a good amount of 'average joes' thrown in as well, with no specific background. The Minmatar really seem to enjoy the poverty background (How many Matari do you see that were wealthy industrialists before they leapt into a rifter?) . Amarr, of course, well, we all love the Holder background. It makes a certain amount of sense: In a caste system like the Amarr, the unwashed masses (Though apparently well educated) aren't really going to be able to either afford the training nor be given the training on the whim of the government with regularity. Occassionally, you will get servants or former slaves, but this is fairly rare and the average Amarr RPer seems to have lands.

I decided to make Jakiin's family one of the more powerful Holders in his faction, primarily due to a few mitigating factors.

A) His faction is small, and so being on the list of the top twenty or so most powerful still only gives the Torash holdings in half a dozen systems and whatever influence they might have (Which, for obvious reasons,is mentioned sparingly and in small incidents) isn't going to be cluster-changing.
B) He's only the heir, and so has little actual power over the family. Since his parents aren't even two hundred yet he's not going to inherit this thing for decades. In other words, unless EVE has longevity that would make Everquest gape in surprise, he's never going to actually head this thing. He can ask for a favour now and then, but that's just about it.
3) The factions backstory supports it. After secession and civil war, there was massive opportunity to grow exponentially quick, so Jak's family has only been in the upper crust for the past couple hundred years.

So what about you? Where do you draw the line in ability or power? And keep in mind this is referring to non-capsuleer background, since obviously your place in capsuleer society is defined by your actual in-game power and influence.

[Casiella]

Casiella comes from a non-descript, middle class family, the only child of a tribal bureaucrat who died while she was in university. In the past, I treated her out-of-pod abilities as a bit over the top, trying to translate what she could do (evasion, hacking, etc.) into personal terms.

And keep in mind this is referring to non-capsuleer background, since obviously your place in capsuleer society is defined by your actual in-game power and influence.

I think this actually creates part of the filter, though. It's all fine and good to say you're actually Maleatu Shakor's sekrit love child, but so what? Other folks have achieved high Republic standings via any number of other methods and can point to actual accomplishments. In the EVE roleplay sub-subculture, this has grown to mean much more. Perhaps in certain cliques or factions, one's background might mean more (though I doubt it), but in general, if you can't back it up, it doesn't mean much.

[Lillith Blackheart]

I tend to avoid overly powerful characters. As it is Lillith having been grown in a test tube to be hyper-intelligent and with a photographic memory as she was being created to be a pod pilot is a great stretch from the normal level I put people at.

It's more fun otherwise.

To give an example I was the guy (there's always one!) in my RPG groups that made Warriors with 17 int, 18dex, and 8str. Or wizards that barely managed.

Etc.

[lallara zhuul]

Well, Lall is from a wine making family.

I have come across a few Amarrians that still cling to their fantasy backstory, like the one who is a former Amarrian Admiral who saved an Emperor 600 years ago and was frozen and woke up to be a capsuleer, then there is her husband who stole the Holder tech to survive the time in between so that their love could be forever.

Or something.

Of course there is the psychic assassins with genetic superiority.

I think in EVE a lot of the players actually realize that their characters are actual humans, just in a different setting, of course there are a few special cases....

[Saede Riordan]

With me I've tried to stay away from too directly pushing my characters out of pod power unless I've already talked it out with them.

In terms of power I claim, with Nikita, she's a fairly close ally of the Dominations, she was a Captain in the cartel, and had a fair bit of power before...events...caused her to request a mindwipe, and be transferred to the MIASMA project. Since she's came back, the Cartel has been using her as sort of a wetworks agent, for doing their dirty work, a position which she enjoys as long as they don't attempt to force anything on her. She's been making it increasingly clear that she's a capsuleer, not their lackey, still she commands if nothing else, a fair bit of influence within the cartel, (which I will play up more when I get actually good standings with them)

Arci is a Sister of Eve, she holds a decent amount of power within the Sisters and is not afraid to throw that power around when the situation requires it. That said, she's also very careful not to abuse the trust of her sisters, and is normally fairly restrained when calling on them for aid.

[Seriphyn]

Seri's paternal family, the Inhonores, is a long-line of pro-Federation Caldari, with a long history in the military, that were around since the first War and remained loyal. His father was a senior sergeant in the Federation Army but has since retired.

However, it is his mother, Xiuying Inhonores, that hopped on their wave of influence. She's a rear admiral, capital ship pilot in the FedNav, though naturally almost fully skilled in all things Gallentean. She came from a Saan Go family that were the administrators of a Jing Ko mining town, ruling on behalf of the Sang Do that controlled the region. Thus it makes her son Saan Go by birthright, though as a mongrel, his heritage will have him outcasted if he ever chose to pursue it.

I took the military path with Seriphyn as a Federal Marine, though the couple differences is his mother's occupation, and the fact Seriphyn was mostly a private/corporal rank, and was never an officer. Grunts thus wouldn't normally be screened for capsuleer aptitude, but thanks to the influence of his mother, she was able to pull him through. Seriphyn was the runt of the litter in terms of upholding the Inhonores family military name, as he was a youth criminal in a GalPrime Matar enclave for his adolescence, and his marine career was a five-year judicial conscription. So, him becoming a big Luminaire General has thus brought pride to his mother, who received a lot of shame beforehand.

In terms of his own power, as was discussed, there is little reason for Seriphyn to do his own "combat duties" since he has a myriad of staff to do that for him, though naturally when idle in pod he busies himself with VR combat simulations to keep himself busy. He is one of the FedNav's leading capsuleer lapdogs who does it for more than just ISK (unlike the majority of them, ie. nonRPers) and is thus awared an array of benefits from them, including the ability to influence lower-level command structures.

Moreover I imagine ranks in FDU, in terms of RP and fluff, is not totally pointless, so Seriphyn thus commands a division of non-egger personnel and staff, most of those crew his ships etc. In secret, he is one of the Black Eagles' capsuleer, though his honesty and intellectual inability has led him to just be a combat one (read, mission agent work ^^")

[Louella Dougans]

I am simply a young Amarrian lady whose family's wealth meant capsule training was affordable.

Same goes for mum, pretty much. Family wealth being created initially through a business in planetary land restoration. Cleaning up mine workings, spoil tips, disused and derelict land and such. The application of Amarrian Science at its finest.

[Esna Pitoojee]

Esna doesn't have any family or inherent power backing him - he's merely an ascended commoner, and even had to work to pay off his debts resulting from his capsuleer training.

Instead, I try to play with Esna's contacts that he might have established since becoming a capsuleer. For instance, since joining the game, I've done missions near-exclusively for Carthum Conglomerate (simply because they had good agents where I was living when I started playing). Hence, I RP Esna as having contacts in Carthum who will be willing to do things for him.

However, I find this is highly dependent on the situation. At least twice, Esna has strapped on some armor and gone SPAEC MARINE! on someone. However, this was done not only with the permission, but with the urging of the sole other participant in the RP; it's not likely to be Esna's first choice because it's not his (nor mine as an RPer's) style. Another example of "dependent on situation" is a case where someone being looked for was found to be in a system I had lived in for some time (again, for non-RP related reasons. Hence, I RPed Esna as having some knowledge of the area. He couldn't pinpoint exactly where said person was, but he could make an educated guess at why they were there by conbining his knowledge of the current situation and his knowledge of the "lay of the land" so to speak.

It's really a trick of approaching things with a feather touch that makes the difference between "advancing the plot" and "overrunning the plot"

[Ghost Hunter]

Ghost was built and designed to be an Overseer for other slave units. He himself is really not that impressive aside from his extensive cybernetic replacements. Now, the constant swarm of seen and unseen slave units he keeps around himself is a different question.

[Goshien]

Goshien's a tard who busted a quick stint in the military, ended up being compatible with a pod, and went from there. As soon as he attained the status, the spiral towards doing whatever he wanted without regard to others began. His life experience tells him that the only power you have is the one you can enforce. You could be crowned emperor of the universe and it wouldn't make one bit of difference. Exception being that you might be worth money to someone.

In-game his pre-capsuleer background is vague. He doesn't think anyone needs to know it, and it's not that interesting anyway. From his eyes, why would you care about anything like that after becoming 90% immortal.

[Raphael Saint]

Raphael is just a commoner who inherited his father's mining company upon said father's death.  Struck it rich on a lucky find and used the funds gained to finance becoming a capsuleer.  Any contacts before capsuleer status are business.  Since, however, he's gained contacts in the Navy (and of course other capsuleer contacts), and routinely uses his rank in the Navy to get himself into places or secure himself a nice security detail.

[Mizhara]

Miz: Former slave, lost her arm as punishment, her leg during the escape. Capsuleer assisted raid on a Holding, gone slightly wrong. Capsuleer takes a little pity, pays her through capsuleer training. She spends time learning the industry trade, then starts quietly branching out into terrorism against the Empire.

Gherena: Former Caldari Navy. Only days away from finishing capsuleer training when a mission goes horribly wrong, leaving her stranded in space. 'Clean up' crews intent on removing all traces of the illegal mission almost take her out, if it hadn't been for a capsuleer showing up. Miz. Capsuleer takes an interest, and protects Gherena until the training's done and Gherena turns untouchable by the ones after her. The two becomes like sisters.

Derena: Born into poverty, but possessing a bit of a knack for numbercrunching. Her family realizes this, and while they don't quite approve of her choice, helps her educate herself as a trader and business-woman. After amassing a decent amount of wealth and ensuring her family's well-being, she decides to reach out to the enormous wealth of the capsuleer market. Possessing very little proficiency with actual spaceflight, she nonetheless managed to graduate and quickly became a figure of note through her wealth. Connects with Miz and Gher when she unwittingly gets involved in a transaction intended to give a devastating financial blow to an Amarr Holder capsuleer. Realizing how useful it'd be to have access to dangerous individuals like that, she joins forces. After a while they grow closer.

Currently, the three considers eachother sisters to the point of taking the same last name. Each providing expertise in fields the others neglect/dislike, together they become a force to be reckoned with and holds vast amounts of wealth, contacts, hardware and sheer grunt in space combat.

As for out of Pod 'power':

Miz having access to vast fortunes have prosthetic limbs that cost more than most cruisers and battlecruisers, do to miniaturization tech being 'spensive. They're enormously strong, giving her a dangerous advantage in hand to hand combat. However, she's not very skilled at it, and if she is forced to use her electrical discharge ability, that will also fry her visual implant (she's blind, needs it to see) for some time, meaning that she needs to spend weeks in the Pod or quite some time in a medbay.

Gher's... well, she's big. She's always been big. Practically raised in the Navy, her instructors quickly decided to use her freakish strength and gave her much training in all manners of hand to hand combat, and much training with small-arms. But far more with the heavier kinds of weapons since she wielded those effortlessly compared to her smaller peers. She lacks education in more... mundane things, and can often be a little ignorant of cultures, manners, etiquette and so on. Capsuleer training's the best thing that ever happened to her, giving her at least the basics in all these things.

Derena rarely leaves her Pod. Using holographic interfaces as much as possible, she spends her 'free' time in elaborate holosimulation recreation areas instead of seeking real life contact with her siblings or others.

[Z.Sinraali]

So how, precisely, do you determine your character's non-pod power?
....
How do you define the status/ability limits for your character pre-capsule?

Backwards reasoning. I looked at the things to do in EVE, found myself drawn towards booster manufacturing. The kind of person who'd get into booster manufacturing would likely be a scientist or medical professional. Why would someone with a good, respectable job like that become a capsuleer? Either selfishly for the power/money/prestige, which as a motivation doesn't really interest me, or because it represented a way to escape a bad personal or professional situation. Being in a bad position prior to becoming a capsuleer would seem to imply that he had fairly little power at the time. And then I reasoned that he had to burn almost all the political capital he had just to get out.

Given those background conditions, his power level now mostly comes down to what's dramatically appropriate. Still got a few contacts in the State, but has burned most of the favors he was owed in the course of RP. Slowly building up relationships in the SoE and other places. Of late, he's been completely stymied by the Provists stalling on the Kyonoke defense initiative. (Which is also a convenient way to avoid the fact that even if I claimed we were actually doing the research, nothing could ever come of it in the storyline.)

Failure is just so much more interesting than success anyways. At least in a narrative sense.

[Boma Airaken]

Boma took it a little bit further, as a Baatsu "prince". Not so much of a big deal if I hadn't invented the Baatsu as a pre-unification Achur faction.

At the end of the day, as long as you don't get all thrice-illustrious with it, it is pretty harmless and makes for engaging RP. Don't sweat it. Seriously.

[Kimochi Rendar]

Kim was an orphan who was given Capsuleer training by the Royal Khanid Navy as a part of a very short-lived outreach programme which offered training to people who had the unique combination of genes and natural talent to interface with a Capsule, but lacked the money to pay for it themselves. In return the trainees would be tied in to a long contract of service with the military.

It worked well up until a point - the trainees who were mostly from non-noble families gained a new lease of life as Capsuleers and the relatively small (at the time) Khanid Navy gained a fresh batch of pilots. In theory everyone's a winner. Capsuleer training is expensive however - especially in the Kingdom and Amarr Empire where cultural and financial divides are more severe - and coupled with the extremely high drop-out / mortality rate of trainee Capsuleers meant the programme was forced to close as the cost turned out to be even more prohibitively expensive than the organizers imagined.

With regard to actual 'power', I try not to portray Kim as having any more influence than she could have reasonably obtained during her short career as a Capsuleer. She has made some contacts in the Cartel whom she has relied on several times in the past, but these are very much under-the-table deals to grease the wheels behind the scenes in her favour. Outside of these shady criminal circles she is relatively unknown, although like any Capsuleer she is treated with a certan mixture of awe and distrust by those not used to eggers or their myriad eccentricities.

Being trained specifically to be a Capsuleer, she has not had the same degree of hand-to-hand or firearms training that other military recruits might have had, which means that she is practically useless in personal combat. Instead she relies on bodyguards, her own personnel or hiring mercs to do any wetwork for her. Khanid females are not known for their physical prowess so I think this approach works well for Kim.