We're so serious about No Godmodding or Powerposing here at My Mutation is Awesome that I decided to make a separate thread just for discussing what exactly we mean by this.  Let's start with an OOC discussion that started on another game...

*Braces for the inevitable OOC fight about power gaming*

"Now everyone.  Let's be gentle.  We're all perfectly rational here.  Let's start with a definition we can all agree upon.  I took the liberty of looking it up online:"



by way of reminder:



Of course, if Elemental Mutant and Strong Mutant are played by the same player, or they agreed on this set of poses ahead of time along with GM's approval, I might look silly for bringing this up... but then I CAN'T be the only one here who didn't know these important details.

I'm sorry, forgot that little detail. I edited my post.

Wow!  That went much better than expected!  Yay!  ^.^

I have no trouble admitting to mistakes, and you have my thanks for pointing mine out to me. Game on.

Haha nicely done Mittens.

Glad you approve!  There's more to the story....
This message was last edited by the player at 04:14, Sun 22 Aug 2010.

  So when is Elemental Mutant going to edit the Godmodding out of their pose?

Edit: Oh, didn't realize it was worse earlier.  Edited from 'I automatically grab you and yank you' to...



  Smaller amount of Goddmodding, yeah.  But as reasonable as me posting 'Joe wrapped their hands around insert person here's neck before they could even react, and tried to strangle them'.

  I'm admittedly somewhat twitchy about this sort of thing with every other X-Men game I've been in degenerating into 'Thus and such uses power and it connects/affects them. oh, you can pose your reaction now that you have already been grabbed/encased in ice/mind controlled now' as primary form of posting.

Note I am not attempting to strangle anyone; which is quite different than trying to stop someone from getting to where they want to go.  Strong Mutant still had a choice as to how she reacted; which was assuming I was pulling her towards me. Which I wasn't but I just went with it.

  So, the only one to actually land a solid shot on Strong Mutant up to that point so far is jeopardizing the mission.  Learn something new everyday ;D

  That and Mitten's in post mentions not firing unless there was a clear shot, yet more godmodding from Elemental Mutant automatically grabbing Strong Mutant again. (First water whip auto-hits, now rock shackles auto hit, what's next?)

  Could I get some clarification from GM on what the exact cut off point Auto-posing results goes from not godmodding to Godmodding?  Elemental and Teleport Mutant spazzing out over Mittens Tim and Joe makes IC sense at least, but not so much our location and actions being altered according to Elemental's posts along with their auto-results to Strong Mutant.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:54, Mon 23 Aug 2010.

I'm not god modding this time. Strong Mutant and I agreed to this.

Back and forth it went, the two having different definitions of godmodding....

That was a long post, so I am going to put my two cents in on this. In my original post I stated that I "tried" to pull her away from the door. So Strong Mutant still had a choice as to how she reacted; she could have held onto the door with one hand and used the other one to break the whip, or she could have let herself get thrown across the room, or she could have used it launch an attack against me etc. So, my post did have a little bit of godmodding in it, but it in no way limited what Strong Mutant could do. If my post had said that I simply threw Strong Mutant into a wall so hard that she was knocked unconscious (without her approval) then yes that would be crossing the line.

All that being said. If someone wants to try to throw me across a room or to subdue me through grappling or wrestling ('try' being the key word here) in a way that does not restrict my choices; then I have absolutely no problem with it.

In my opinion: a bit of unexpected happenings (like getting thrown across a room by someone with inhuman strength) can actually make a game more interesting.

Here is my two cents; I hope this clarifies things and doesn't lead to more arguing. Note: this all is my opinion on god-modding and in no way sets rules or precedents in the game.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:55, Mon 23 Aug 2010.

It's a matter of degree.  Allow me to illustrate with the following exchange:

<illustrative story>
Player 1: Mittens arrives at the impact crater and lands on the ridge and inspects the center.  No sign of what caused all this carnage.

Player 2: Philip arrives and stands next to her.  For a brief moment, there's a break in the clouds and Mittens is illuminated in a sunbeam, catching his eye.  His conscious mocks him for not having the will to keep his eyes off her.

Player 1: Mittens casts a glance at heaven.  "Oh.  Heh.  Thanks for the spotlight?"  She follows the sunbeam to the glint it illuminated in the center of the crater.  "There's something buried here!"  ((OOC: I thought we were in the middle of the Australian outback on a sunny day. ))

Player 2: Phil admires the way Mittens' tail sways in sync with her hips as she approaches the center.  He kicks himself again.  She took a vow of chastity!  He follows her down to where she stands.  What she saw was just an optical illusion.  There's nothing buried there.  "I don't see anything."  ((OOC: So it happens to be a cloudy day.  Not impossible.))

Player 1: Mittens blink-blinks as what she saw vanishes from sight.  She reaches down, and grabs hold of something.  She discovers it was the hilt of an invisible sword and pulls it from the ground with a resounding metallic KERSHINK sound!  "Woah!  Neat!  It's only visible in a sunbeam!  Check it out!"  She swings the sword in and out of the sunlight.  ((OOC: Cloudy day in the desert.  K. ))

Player 2: Phil's eyes widen when Mittens bent over.  Her tail even brushed against his leg.  Now she's playing with a SWORD?  If that isn't an invitation, he doesn't know what is.  He finds something else on the ground.  A sensu bean!  He munches it, and he becomes incredibly strong and irresistibly handsome!  "Hey Mittens.  I couldn't help but notice how attracted you are to me."  He puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her close.  "I like you too."  ((OOC: Where'd that sword come from?! ))

Player 1: Mittens totally dodged the attempt at touching her.  She has a bigger personal bubble than most.  "Hands off!" she says, angrily, pointing the invisible sword at Phil.  Her anger triggers the magic in the sword and she becomes super strong AND super fast.  ((OOC: Same place the sunbeam and sensu bean came from! ))

Player 2: Phil frowns.  "I don't appreciate threats!" he says as he grabs hold of the sword with his bare hand.  He's so tough it doesn't cut him.  He yanks the sword out of her hand, and now he has all the power Mittens used to have.  "And to think I thought you were hot.  You're ugly!"  The power of the sword activates and turns Mittens into a toad.  ((OOC: Two can play at THAT game!))

Player 1: Mittens knows frog fu.  She jumps up to Phil's face and the camera freeze-pans all matrix style before she kicks him in the forehead, making his head explode!  She takes the sword back, mounts Phil's head as a trophy on her wall, and conquers the Universe.  The end.  ((OOC: Indeed they can!))

Player 2: Phil revives as a god of explosions, turns back time, turns Mittens into a pair of fuzzy slippers that he wears while dating every pretty girl in the Universe...
<and the story goes on...>

And it all started so innocently...


Wow...

If Players 1 and 2 from Mittens example were, in fact, JUST players, then the powergaming/godmodding began from pose 1 since it would be up to the GM to describe the scene and whether or not there were signs of what caused the crater. However, if one of the players was the GM, then regardless of which one was GM, here's where the godmodding began.



....because she doesn't have the choice to dodge the arm. And thus, she is forced to follow up with altering history by saying he didn't manage. So. My proposal. If anyone perceives a post as godmodding (And as we all know, Elemental Mutant isn't a malicious sort, so at worst, he's not doing so on purpose), simply re-write history with your reply by posing that a movement forced on you didn't happen. Example:

Mittens moved her shoulders out of the way before Phil could even touch her.

Problem solved. Thoughts? After all, from what I can tell, Elemental is totally fine with that style of response.

Okay. I'm gone for a day and something bad happens.  Elemental Mutant isn't god modding. Which whatever happens between Strong Mutant and Elemental Mutant is none of any of your concern, they have worked it out privately and I have monitored it. We discuss things before we go in. Teleport Mutant and Elemental Mutant's reaction to Joe, Mittens, and Tim being there is because of the surprise that they're there. They were sent on a mission to capture Strong Mutant and bring her back to the X-Mansion. That is their goal, and we have talked to Strong Mutant about this. I have myself, more than once discussed things with her.

You all are making yourselves look like fools trying to override something I have okayed. This conversation should not have happened in the OOC. From my view, you all broke one of my rules. You should have PMed my first and questioned it before you broke out in an argument in the OOC. Now, I'm not going to babysit you all. If you can't work together at all, then I'm going to have to start punishing everyone.

Now since you all have made a big deal about everything, I will be debating whether or not to make you all roll dice when in combat. It's a lot of work, and I rather you all get along and discuss things, without arguing, but if it comes down to it, I will set more restrictions.

If you have any questions about anything PM me. If you don't and you find yourself in a position of defeat, that's on you.

Worst GM ever!!  Not like our Mittens, she's awesome.

*Blush*  Thank you very much!  I'll admit I was very offended, but from the stories I hear from GM Joe, that X-Men GM was comparatively tame.

So yeah.  The point of this thread is to push the idea that Powergaming / Godmodding = any post that forces another player or NPC into a position of having no choice but to react a certain way.  If we grant a power that affects others, or their possessions, or their immediate surroundings, we expect you to post especially responsibly.

Please do not post: "Captain Awesome uses his telekinesis on the bad-guy's shoelaces and ties them together!"

Instead post: "Captain Awesome concentrates his telekinesis on the bad-guy's shoelaces to try and tie them together!"

Please do not post: "Miss Marksman fires a shot that blows out the tire of the bad-guy's car!"

Instead post: "Miss Marksman fires a shot at the tire of the bad-guy's car!"