Godmodding: How Not To
So Godmodding is a term used in two different ways, on one hand it’s a limited term used specifically for people who ignore physics and logic to win. On the other hand, popular culture took this form of Munching (which is another term for this second type of Godmodding) and turned it into an umbrella term. When used these days, it typically covers any type of unfair roleplays or ones that that break disbelief to win. It stopped just being a character action being illogical, and became everything to do with playing your character unfairly to win.
Most commonly in RP these days you have Godmodders, Metaing/Miss Cleos, Puppetmasters, McFlys, Speedhackers, and Twinks.
Godmodders are the jerks who just do whatever they want regardless of the RP. Suddenly their character is invincible when you punch them. When you roleplay seriously out putting them in cement, they can fade through it. When you have legitimate reason to believe they are fully strapped down and punch, they just dodge your attack. You can’t land anything, hurt them, outwit them, or stop them. And they’re gonna keep trying to show you how much better they are than you.
These suck so hard. We hate roleplaying with a person who just waves off whatever you do, and then tries to use the rules you want to play by against you to ‘prove’ they are the stronger character. When you’re roleplaying, the way to avoid this is to take everything a little bit more seriously. Explain in detail how things work, and do it logically. Give the other character a chance to hit you, don’t magically get missed. Don’t randomly attack people to prove your power and then disregard what they say to block it.
To deal with a Godmodder– deep breathing exercises, then asking them to try and play the field more equally power-wise. You might also ask someone to play judge, someone who isn’t unfairly biased. Show them what’s wrong, explain why it’s not fun for you, and if that doesn’t work… Well tell them you aren’t having fun and wish to discontinue RP with them until they work on their character a little. When you fail to rehabilitate them, just, block and walk.
Miss Cleos are known these days by a new name; Meta. Meta is Greek, from the prefix “μετά,” meaning “after”, or “beyond”. When someone uses knowledge on your homepage or that the player knows (OOC Knowledge), but character wouldn’t, meta is them being a jerk. If it is beyond the character, beyond their knowledge, it should never be used by the character in RP. Don’t waltz up to Dean and give him pie unless he says it outloud. Don’t wave a crowbar at Batman unless you’re a Joker looking to be beat up. Okay? You weren’t there IC, it wasn’t a thing you should know about, put it down.
The most common use of this is using someone’s name before they introduce themselves, or knowing their race if they have no visual traits. The only thing you get to respond to is things they tell you verbally in RP, visually come up in RP narration, or things they agree with you OOC you should know because of special reasons like smelling a cologne or something. Only use things your character would be strictly knowledgeable about, and never ever use player knowledge to forward an IC agenda/advantage
Respond to meta-ers simply, ask them not to do that. If they persist, simply tell them you don’t want to play with them until they understand OOC knowledge =/= IC knowledge, and they have to learn to separate what the player knows from what the character knows. If they try to force it, block them and walk. .
Puppetmasters are simple, they try to control how your character behaves, reacts, or in the really sneaky ones, they try to define characteristics of your character without deferring to you or past RP with you. The first two are easy to spot, and stop. If your post implicates a character you don’t control doing something that they haven’t mentioned, don’t. If you want to reply to something you think they might do, suggest you’re looking for a response in a general sense, and are ready to reply with something, but it gives them an out to not do that. What a twist! Bite the apple and glance to see if they show signs of wanting one. Don’t bite the apple and then give it because they look hungry and lick their lips. They didn’t write that, so you shouldn’t assume.
Do not ever, ever, (unless you check with a player), drag a non-RPed story about someone else’s character into an RP. Don’t sit there, talking, about a past history that you’re making up for a character you don’t play. This is not cute, this doesn’t build history or repertoire.
So dealing with this is simple, ask them not to. If they don’t stop, tell them to never mention your character in RP again. If they continue, make it a point to correct them, in public, every time they try to throw in something about you specifically
McFlys! You ever post a thing, and then have someone come up with some bullshit never-before-mentioned thing that blocks what you said entirely? You say, “I attack him with my sword, since he has no armor,” and he says, “but he had armor. Sword reflecting armor. The whole time I swear.”
Don’t do this backpedaling thing. If your character’s glaring weakness takes him down this time, gracefully give them their win. It hurts, play it up, enjoy how much misery you can rain on them by sloshing blood around crying. Have fun with not magically avoiding the hit and primping your magical sparkles. Yell at them, why did you hit me with a sword I wasn’t even armed. Characterize, plot, expand. Between RPs sure, edit all you want, but if you walk into an RP, you stay the way you are until the RP changes it. Next time you RP, and you smugly mention your new armor, you have HISTORY behind it, REASON, and you can talk about that jerk with a sword.
To deal with these people, call them on their stuff privately. Flatly. Screenshot it, show them specifically what they did, point out the timestamp. Then tell them that doing that is unfair. Mention that if he does it again you don’t really want to play with him. Then block and walk if he doesn’t listen. No need to wraggle your proof around to anyone but maybe the mods if they are supposed to handle things like this. Always good to bring their attention to a troublemaker so maybe they can handle it better with more of their personal BLUE FLAME POWER.
Speedhackers! These people like to post a ton of stuff for you to reply to all at once, so they can make a million things happen and magically win. They are miserable to deal with. You’ll take a swing in your post, and they’ll duck it, go home, have a sandwich, rule England for 80 years, marry your girlfriend, and then wait for your post. Uhm, no.
We use prodigy fight rules for combat so that avoids some of this.
So how not to speedhack: Play in relative time with your partner. Consider how many actions they put into their post. Typically anything involving the other person’s time or body is an action you should have, at most, three of in a post. Anything you do personally that expands time in your post but doesn’t really effect them you can do as many as make sense. You can pull out a cig, tap it, light it up, bite the filter, breathe in, blow the smoke out, and then clap them on the shoulder. But that takes in-roleplay time, and the other character might watch you, or get bored.
It’s a great way to draw out a dramatic pause, a bunch of fidgeting, and chewing on your lips, cocking your head, playing with your hair– that shit’s all fine and dandy. Then nudge them, or tug on their hair, their clothing. Do not grab them, heft them, twirl them, throw them, pick them up, eat them, and then go do other things. They should have the right to avoid or respond to each of these things in turn. The better you get along with another RPer the more you can do.
Additional Information
SO SHORT VERSION: Take your earned knocks they build character, don’t change your stuff mid RP, don’t write for other people’s characters, don’t cram a bunch of stuff in one post to try and force their hands, don’t hem and haw because a weakness might make you lose, and in general try to be fair and open to the idea of not getting your way all the time.
“But… what happens if I’m not the best character in a room?” you might ask. Well Billy, We will explain: - ̗̀ Character growth. ̖́- When you trip in real life, do you skim over everything that happens and just don’t do it? Or do you fall, get scared, skin your knee, learn something about tying your shoe, and end up limping for a few days? Maybe you can’t sleep because the blankets stick to it, and you call your friend to talk and the relationship gets deeper. Maybe you cry, and another character tries to help. Maybe you learn about your healing ability, to have to hide it because They are looking for you. Could it be the cherry on top of a really bad day, and make you break down and lash out, destroying a friendship?
Characterized by the use of “You”. An odd style to most people, as they are probably roleplaying a character of their own. The idea of using you is ingrained in having someone manipulate or tell you stuff about yourself. It can be very uncomfortable. It’s okay in some cases, such as a narrator actually manipulating another character as a GAME MASTER in a game (“You see the Tarn!”) but in most it is simply clunky and annoying to use.
Anything can happen if you pick a losing battle. Your character learns about fear, learns about weakness and limitations. They start thinking about the world, what if I died? What if this? What if that? Does losing have implications where half your money is taken? Is it a hero or villain origin story? Do you have to save what is lost? Do you fight to get stronger? Do you figure out why you lost? Did you find out they cheated later? Did you need your friends to help you, or lover to cheer you on? Does it hurt your self esteem and make things hard for a while? Do you laugh it off, and try to fight until you go down long after you should, impressing your opponent even outmatched? Worse case scenario you die? Great you get to recerate and try again. Do not unrealistically hang on to a character when the spontaneity of Roleplay causes a death. Simply accept the death gracefully and move on. Make another and stretch wings in different ways. Become some else.
Winning is cool, you get the thing, oh look accolades, rest on your laurels a bit… but losing? Losing has so much MORE you can do in an RP. So many directions! Experiences! Changes! LIFE to live! You can be amazing and strong, or weak and searching. You can shift an entire character around! I lost, that was my greatest plan, I was wrong, I must turn to the side of good now because I made a vow. I’m a slave now. I’m lost now. I was sent to another city. I lost the thing I love most. I’ve realized my ego isn’t appropriate for my prowess. So– So much depth. So much crisis and struggle, and things to work through, and even new treasures you find.
Plus, it makes it fun, just sometimes, letting someone else win. They smile, maybe they stop and make friends with you. You let them play out a fantasy, and bring their character some earned respect where no one else gave it. You’ve made them OOC respect you more. It’s amazing what you can do with a failure.
Don’t godmod. Either outcome, good or bad,enjoy the story. If you character lives... they can change so much, and see so many things. when it comes to an end, you make it the end, together. Because that’s what RP is when it comes down to it isn’t it? Working together to make an entire world blossom, enriching the lives of your characters, and the people around them. RP isn’t who’s the best, it’s a journey together to find more to life than that.
And in the end always remember, once you know the rules and why they were created in the first place, you can create loopholes and break the rules, so long as you pay deference to the spirit of it.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Simply chose a link below that best suits your next step you want to take.
Most commonly in RP these days you have Godmodders, Metaing/Miss Cleos, Puppetmasters, McFlys, Speedhackers, and Twinks.
Godmodders are the jerks who just do whatever they want regardless of the RP. Suddenly their character is invincible when you punch them. When you roleplay seriously out putting them in cement, they can fade through it. When you have legitimate reason to believe they are fully strapped down and punch, they just dodge your attack. You can’t land anything, hurt them, outwit them, or stop them. And they’re gonna keep trying to show you how much better they are than you.
These suck so hard. We hate roleplaying with a person who just waves off whatever you do, and then tries to use the rules you want to play by against you to ‘prove’ they are the stronger character. When you’re roleplaying, the way to avoid this is to take everything a little bit more seriously. Explain in detail how things work, and do it logically. Give the other character a chance to hit you, don’t magically get missed. Don’t randomly attack people to prove your power and then disregard what they say to block it.
To deal with a Godmodder– deep breathing exercises, then asking them to try and play the field more equally power-wise. You might also ask someone to play judge, someone who isn’t unfairly biased. Show them what’s wrong, explain why it’s not fun for you, and if that doesn’t work… Well tell them you aren’t having fun and wish to discontinue RP with them until they work on their character a little. When you fail to rehabilitate them, just, block and walk.
Miss Cleos are known these days by a new name; Meta. Meta is Greek, from the prefix “μετά,” meaning “after”, or “beyond”. When someone uses knowledge on your homepage or that the player knows (OOC Knowledge), but character wouldn’t, meta is them being a jerk. If it is beyond the character, beyond their knowledge, it should never be used by the character in RP. Don’t waltz up to Dean and give him pie unless he says it outloud. Don’t wave a crowbar at Batman unless you’re a Joker looking to be beat up. Okay? You weren’t there IC, it wasn’t a thing you should know about, put it down.
The most common use of this is using someone’s name before they introduce themselves, or knowing their race if they have no visual traits. The only thing you get to respond to is things they tell you verbally in RP, visually come up in RP narration, or things they agree with you OOC you should know because of special reasons like smelling a cologne or something. Only use things your character would be strictly knowledgeable about, and never ever use player knowledge to forward an IC agenda/advantage
Respond to meta-ers simply, ask them not to do that. If they persist, simply tell them you don’t want to play with them until they understand OOC knowledge =/= IC knowledge, and they have to learn to separate what the player knows from what the character knows. If they try to force it, block them and walk. .
Puppetmasters are simple, they try to control how your character behaves, reacts, or in the really sneaky ones, they try to define characteristics of your character without deferring to you or past RP with you. The first two are easy to spot, and stop. If your post implicates a character you don’t control doing something that they haven’t mentioned, don’t. If you want to reply to something you think they might do, suggest you’re looking for a response in a general sense, and are ready to reply with something, but it gives them an out to not do that. What a twist! Bite the apple and glance to see if they show signs of wanting one. Don’t bite the apple and then give it because they look hungry and lick their lips. They didn’t write that, so you shouldn’t assume.
Do not ever, ever, (unless you check with a player), drag a non-RPed story about someone else’s character into an RP. Don’t sit there, talking, about a past history that you’re making up for a character you don’t play. This is not cute, this doesn’t build history or repertoire.
So dealing with this is simple, ask them not to. If they don’t stop, tell them to never mention your character in RP again. If they continue, make it a point to correct them, in public, every time they try to throw in something about you specifically
McFlys! You ever post a thing, and then have someone come up with some bullshit never-before-mentioned thing that blocks what you said entirely? You say, “I attack him with my sword, since he has no armor,” and he says, “but he had armor. Sword reflecting armor. The whole time I swear.”
Don’t do this backpedaling thing. If your character’s glaring weakness takes him down this time, gracefully give them their win. It hurts, play it up, enjoy how much misery you can rain on them by sloshing blood around crying. Have fun with not magically avoiding the hit and primping your magical sparkles. Yell at them, why did you hit me with a sword I wasn’t even armed. Characterize, plot, expand. Between RPs sure, edit all you want, but if you walk into an RP, you stay the way you are until the RP changes it. Next time you RP, and you smugly mention your new armor, you have HISTORY behind it, REASON, and you can talk about that jerk with a sword.
To deal with these people, call them on their stuff privately. Flatly. Screenshot it, show them specifically what they did, point out the timestamp. Then tell them that doing that is unfair. Mention that if he does it again you don’t really want to play with him. Then block and walk if he doesn’t listen. No need to wraggle your proof around to anyone but maybe the mods if they are supposed to handle things like this. Always good to bring their attention to a troublemaker so maybe they can handle it better with more of their personal BLUE FLAME POWER.
Speedhackers! These people like to post a ton of stuff for you to reply to all at once, so they can make a million things happen and magically win. They are miserable to deal with. You’ll take a swing in your post, and they’ll duck it, go home, have a sandwich, rule England for 80 years, marry your girlfriend, and then wait for your post. Uhm, no.
We use prodigy fight rules for combat so that avoids some of this.
So how not to speedhack: Play in relative time with your partner. Consider how many actions they put into their post. Typically anything involving the other person’s time or body is an action you should have, at most, three of in a post. Anything you do personally that expands time in your post but doesn’t really effect them you can do as many as make sense. You can pull out a cig, tap it, light it up, bite the filter, breathe in, blow the smoke out, and then clap them on the shoulder. But that takes in-roleplay time, and the other character might watch you, or get bored.
It’s a great way to draw out a dramatic pause, a bunch of fidgeting, and chewing on your lips, cocking your head, playing with your hair– that shit’s all fine and dandy. Then nudge them, or tug on their hair, their clothing. Do not grab them, heft them, twirl them, throw them, pick them up, eat them, and then go do other things. They should have the right to avoid or respond to each of these things in turn. The better you get along with another RPer the more you can do.
Additional Information
SO SHORT VERSION: Take your earned knocks they build character, don’t change your stuff mid RP, don’t write for other people’s characters, don’t cram a bunch of stuff in one post to try and force their hands, don’t hem and haw because a weakness might make you lose, and in general try to be fair and open to the idea of not getting your way all the time.
“But… what happens if I’m not the best character in a room?” you might ask. Well Billy, We will explain: - ̗̀ Character growth. ̖́- When you trip in real life, do you skim over everything that happens and just don’t do it? Or do you fall, get scared, skin your knee, learn something about tying your shoe, and end up limping for a few days? Maybe you can’t sleep because the blankets stick to it, and you call your friend to talk and the relationship gets deeper. Maybe you cry, and another character tries to help. Maybe you learn about your healing ability, to have to hide it because They are looking for you. Could it be the cherry on top of a really bad day, and make you break down and lash out, destroying a friendship?
Characterized by the use of “You”. An odd style to most people, as they are probably roleplaying a character of their own. The idea of using you is ingrained in having someone manipulate or tell you stuff about yourself. It can be very uncomfortable. It’s okay in some cases, such as a narrator actually manipulating another character as a GAME MASTER in a game (“You see the Tarn!”) but in most it is simply clunky and annoying to use.
Anything can happen if you pick a losing battle. Your character learns about fear, learns about weakness and limitations. They start thinking about the world, what if I died? What if this? What if that? Does losing have implications where half your money is taken? Is it a hero or villain origin story? Do you have to save what is lost? Do you fight to get stronger? Do you figure out why you lost? Did you find out they cheated later? Did you need your friends to help you, or lover to cheer you on? Does it hurt your self esteem and make things hard for a while? Do you laugh it off, and try to fight until you go down long after you should, impressing your opponent even outmatched? Worse case scenario you die? Great you get to recerate and try again. Do not unrealistically hang on to a character when the spontaneity of Roleplay causes a death. Simply accept the death gracefully and move on. Make another and stretch wings in different ways. Become some else.
Winning is cool, you get the thing, oh look accolades, rest on your laurels a bit… but losing? Losing has so much MORE you can do in an RP. So many directions! Experiences! Changes! LIFE to live! You can be amazing and strong, or weak and searching. You can shift an entire character around! I lost, that was my greatest plan, I was wrong, I must turn to the side of good now because I made a vow. I’m a slave now. I’m lost now. I was sent to another city. I lost the thing I love most. I’ve realized my ego isn’t appropriate for my prowess. So– So much depth. So much crisis and struggle, and things to work through, and even new treasures you find.
Plus, it makes it fun, just sometimes, letting someone else win. They smile, maybe they stop and make friends with you. You let them play out a fantasy, and bring their character some earned respect where no one else gave it. You’ve made them OOC respect you more. It’s amazing what you can do with a failure.
Don’t godmod. Either outcome, good or bad,enjoy the story. If you character lives... they can change so much, and see so many things. when it comes to an end, you make it the end, together. Because that’s what RP is when it comes down to it isn’t it? Working together to make an entire world blossom, enriching the lives of your characters, and the people around them. RP isn’t who’s the best, it’s a journey together to find more to life than that.
And in the end always remember, once you know the rules and why they were created in the first place, you can create loopholes and break the rules, so long as you pay deference to the spirit of it.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Simply chose a link below that best suits your next step you want to take.
