Stuff you should do before starting to play CoH
Posted: April 24, 2004, 4:56 pm
Ok, for those of you that plan to play City of Heroes, heres a list of what you should do:
Select a server (ill be playing on Victory, most of the VV crew will, so ill hang out there too).
Select a cool name. (I already got The Chessmaster name reserved).
THINK ABOUT YOUR OUTFIT. Its hard, but its needed. You can spend XXXX hours designing if you dont have a basic idea on how your superhero have to look.
Think about your origin. Just as important as the outfit. If you dont know how your hero came to be, why even bother. Origin and outfit are usually connected, so do both. My Chess Man (in beta) on Prime made costume BEFORE i made up a backstory for him, and i will have the same backstory, but seriously changed outfit when i make my new char. It suck having to redo your hero because you didnt plan ahead. Remember, costume and backstory mean a LOT more in CoH than it do i EQ.
And now for the most important part of preparing for City of Heroes ..... the reccomended reading.
To do a roleplay game in a world of superheroes, you NEED to know some backstory about heroes. And im not just talking Superman and the Justice League and the 60'es TV series of Batman. You need to know that Superheroes are NOT nessecarily good, pleasant, or maybe not even "real" heroes at all. Lets try a few examples, the most well known superheroes:
Superman:
Hes our basic goodie hero, wanna do the best for everyone, and basically he's a superhero version of Barney. If you just read the basic Superman comics, and seen the movies, you miss an essential part of Superman. You miss what he really IS. What motivate Superman? In the mainsteam comics, your basic Superman is motivated by his parents idea of good and evil, and how humans should do. Superman is usually up agains 1 central badguy who he can stop from breaking the rules Supermans parents laid out to him. But what will happen if the world does NOT work like that? Thats the interesting part of Superman. If you wanna know the darker (and in my opinion more "real" side of Superman, you should look into the following:
Superman, peace on earth.
Kingdom Come.
Batman, the Dark Knight Returns.
Batman, the Dark Knight Strikes Again.
Batman:
Everyone know Batman. Hes the protector of Gotham, the main who without superpowers still manage to get the label superhero, simply because of what he is.
The problem is, what IS Batman really?
Most people would say somethink like: Hes a hero, he defeat the bad guys and protect the innocent, that make him a hero.
But do it?
Batman is the prime example of WHY a backstory is important. Because if you look at Batmans background, he is a Hero, yes, but not a "good" hero. Were talking about a man who saw his parent killed in front of him, who after that spend 18 years of his life preparing and perfecting himself to figth evil. Hes a man who life 2 lives, dresses up like a bat, showing clear schitzophrenic behaviour. He is a man who use teenagers to help him fight, regardless of the risks. Even though the 2nd Robin get killed by the Joker, he STILL take 2 more Robins (including Carrie Drake). Hes not above, and even in some cases enjoy, causing physical pain to his victims.
So if you only know the Batman from the 60'es series, or the Batman from the older comics (you know, the ones that at the end got so far out that we had Batman, Batdog, Batgirl and so on), you should take a look at the following:
Batman - Year One (Important backstory)
Batman - The Long Halloween (important backstory)
Batman - The Killing Joke (important backstory on both Batman, Joker and Oracle)
And for the more darker view of and older and more cynical Batman, i can highly reccomend:
Batman, the Dark Knight Returns.
Batman, the Dark Knight Strikes Again.
And of course top off with Kingdom Come.
That was a good overview of 2 VERY different Superheroes, both different in origin, powers and behaviour. That should show why you should put a LOT of thougth into that. Do your hero enjoy beating up gang members or not? Do he kill? Do he protect everyone, or have his own agenda?.
And to end it all for the reccomended reading, everyone should go read "Watchmen" by Alan Moore. That is in my opinion THE work on Superheroes, how they work together, and how the "normal" humans and the society affect them and their work. (its a 200 MB download if you find it on the net, but well worth the time).
Select a server (ill be playing on Victory, most of the VV crew will, so ill hang out there too).
Select a cool name. (I already got The Chessmaster name reserved).
THINK ABOUT YOUR OUTFIT. Its hard, but its needed. You can spend XXXX hours designing if you dont have a basic idea on how your superhero have to look.
Think about your origin. Just as important as the outfit. If you dont know how your hero came to be, why even bother. Origin and outfit are usually connected, so do both. My Chess Man (in beta) on Prime made costume BEFORE i made up a backstory for him, and i will have the same backstory, but seriously changed outfit when i make my new char. It suck having to redo your hero because you didnt plan ahead. Remember, costume and backstory mean a LOT more in CoH than it do i EQ.
And now for the most important part of preparing for City of Heroes ..... the reccomended reading.
To do a roleplay game in a world of superheroes, you NEED to know some backstory about heroes. And im not just talking Superman and the Justice League and the 60'es TV series of Batman. You need to know that Superheroes are NOT nessecarily good, pleasant, or maybe not even "real" heroes at all. Lets try a few examples, the most well known superheroes:
Superman:
Hes our basic goodie hero, wanna do the best for everyone, and basically he's a superhero version of Barney. If you just read the basic Superman comics, and seen the movies, you miss an essential part of Superman. You miss what he really IS. What motivate Superman? In the mainsteam comics, your basic Superman is motivated by his parents idea of good and evil, and how humans should do. Superman is usually up agains 1 central badguy who he can stop from breaking the rules Supermans parents laid out to him. But what will happen if the world does NOT work like that? Thats the interesting part of Superman. If you wanna know the darker (and in my opinion more "real" side of Superman, you should look into the following:
Superman, peace on earth.
Kingdom Come.
Batman, the Dark Knight Returns.
Batman, the Dark Knight Strikes Again.
Batman:
Everyone know Batman. Hes the protector of Gotham, the main who without superpowers still manage to get the label superhero, simply because of what he is.
The problem is, what IS Batman really?
Most people would say somethink like: Hes a hero, he defeat the bad guys and protect the innocent, that make him a hero.
But do it?
Batman is the prime example of WHY a backstory is important. Because if you look at Batmans background, he is a Hero, yes, but not a "good" hero. Were talking about a man who saw his parent killed in front of him, who after that spend 18 years of his life preparing and perfecting himself to figth evil. Hes a man who life 2 lives, dresses up like a bat, showing clear schitzophrenic behaviour. He is a man who use teenagers to help him fight, regardless of the risks. Even though the 2nd Robin get killed by the Joker, he STILL take 2 more Robins (including Carrie Drake). Hes not above, and even in some cases enjoy, causing physical pain to his victims.
So if you only know the Batman from the 60'es series, or the Batman from the older comics (you know, the ones that at the end got so far out that we had Batman, Batdog, Batgirl and so on), you should take a look at the following:
Batman - Year One (Important backstory)
Batman - The Long Halloween (important backstory)
Batman - The Killing Joke (important backstory on both Batman, Joker and Oracle)
And for the more darker view of and older and more cynical Batman, i can highly reccomend:
Batman, the Dark Knight Returns.
Batman, the Dark Knight Strikes Again.
And of course top off with Kingdom Come.
That was a good overview of 2 VERY different Superheroes, both different in origin, powers and behaviour. That should show why you should put a LOT of thougth into that. Do your hero enjoy beating up gang members or not? Do he kill? Do he protect everyone, or have his own agenda?.
And to end it all for the reccomended reading, everyone should go read "Watchmen" by Alan Moore. That is in my opinion THE work on Superheroes, how they work together, and how the "normal" humans and the society affect them and their work. (its a 200 MB download if you find it on the net, but well worth the time).