# Reasoning behind God-Modding?



## Azrion/Zhalo (Dec 14, 2017)

So if you've spent any amount of time Roleplaying with various people, you might have ran across at least 1 or 2 with characters that are... ya know, insanely overpowered with no weaknesses and are a jack of all trades except they're also a master of all trades.

I'm curious as to why their characters need to be absurdly powerful to the point of being cringe-tastic. If you've got a character who you admit is a god-mod or you might have a solid understanding of why they're like this, then please feel free to share it down below


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## ellaerna (Dec 15, 2017)

I try my best not to be a Mary Sue or God Mod, but I do think a lot of people are tempted into it cause it feels nice.
It feels good to be powerful. To be important. To be special.
And what's even better than that?
Being the MOST powerful, important, and special.

People get attached to their characters. They want them to be amazing. They want them to be perfect. They never want them to come to harm or to be beaten.
So they make them insanely powerful and make sure that no one in the roleplay lands a hit on them.


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## ellaerna (Dec 15, 2017)

If you can pretend to be anything, why not be the most powerful being in existence?


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## Diretooth (Dec 15, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> If you can pretend to be anything, why not be the most powerful being in existence?


Because having no challenge is _boring_. When your flaws aren't really flaws, when your powers have a drawback that's actually extremely useful, or the 'terrible curse' is actually the most awesome thing, and the only 'terrible' thing is that it gives you wangst, then there is no fun, at all. The people who godmod are either extremely dissatisfied with their lives to the point that pretending they're omnipotent gives them satisfaction, or they're pricks who want to ruin a perfectly good RP.
That's why I stick with D&D, at least there's game mechanics to keep things from getting too crazy too quickly. I'll _earn_ my omnipotence, thank you very much!


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## Steelite (Dec 15, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> It feels good to be powerful. To be important. To be special.
> And what's even better than that?
> Being the MOST powerful, important, and special.
> 
> ...


Sounds so much like me back in my horribly cringy and ridiculous days... I'm glad I've grown outta that shit, though.
If I wanna be amazing, or perfect, I'm going with amazingly ordinary or perfectly normal now.



Diretooth said:


> When your flaws aren't really flaws, when your powers have a drawback that's actually extremely useful, or the 'terrible curse' is actually the most awesome thing, and the only 'terrible' thing is that it gives you wangst


I find it really hypocritical. Better to just be honest that you're OP as shit, than trying to justify for it with corruption and curse and bless and whatever.
At least, that's what I did, kind of.


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## It'sBlitz (Dec 15, 2017)

Having no flaws is the biggest flaw out there.


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## ChapterAquila92 (Dec 15, 2017)

Three things come to mind with god-modding: narcissism, power fantasies, and poor character creation.

Narcissism and power fantasies are both fairly straightforward when it comes to god-modding, so I won't go into great detail on those points. Suffice to say that quite a few god-modders love being the center of attention and will do whatever they can to stay in the spotlight for as long as possible.

God-modding can also be the result of the offending character's creator neither having the experience nor the ability to effectively play a demigod that others can still relate to somehow. I can't say I blame them completely since it's neither as simple nor as easy as most people initially think, but when the end result is invariably comparable to roleplaying the Goddamn Batman or the Doctor without any good justification in-setting as to why, it's perhaps time to return to the drawing board.


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## ellaerna (Dec 15, 2017)

Diretooth said:


> Because having no challenge is _boring_. When your flaws aren't really flaws, when your powers have a drawback that's actually extremely useful, or the 'terrible curse' is actually the most awesome thing, and the only 'terrible' thing is that it gives you wangst, then there is no fun, at all. The people who godmod are either extremely dissatisfied with their lives to the point that pretending they're omnipotent gives them satisfaction, or they're pricks who want to ruin a perfectly good RP.
> That's why I stick with D&D, at least there's game mechanics to keep things from getting too crazy too quickly. I'll _earn_ my omnipotence, thank you very much!


Yay another DnD nerd!
Earning your power does feel damn good. 



Steelite said:


> Sounds so much like me back in my horribly cringy and ridiculous days... I'm glad I've grown outta that shit, though.
> If I wanna be amazing, or perfect, I'm going with amazingly ordinary or perfectly normal now.


I do feel like youngins are susceptible to it. They get too excited to create something amazing. They don't yet understand what really makes a good character. They have so little power in their own lives that they make their characters ultra important.


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## Steelite (Dec 15, 2017)

ellaerna said:


> I do feel like youngins are susceptible to it. They get too excited to create something amazing. They don't yet understand what really makes a good character. They have so little power in their own lives that they make their characters ultra important.


Can't agree more, there.
When I first joined the fandom, when I was 16-17, all I got was a wolf archer with some low/medium-level of element lightning and earth. Done.
Unfortunately I started getting more and more ridiculous (and incomprehensibly/confusingly inconsistent) as time went by. Couldn't settle down what I wanted and what I didn't. And when I joined FAF, I was basically bad news to everyone because I'd settled down on ridiculously OP shit, and... was annoyingly stubborn about it.
But, if you've seen *the newest version* of my sona, those ridiculously nonsensical and cringy days of mine are long gone


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## silveredgreen (Dec 15, 2017)

Because people just wanna be the biggest badass. They want their character to have all the coolest powers and be the most awesome member of the party and that's the only thing that matters. These people don't understand balance and reason, or they do but they choose to toss it aside to be a fucking god of death and a buncha other shit.

I used to rp with a guy on Instagram whose OC was a god demon with at least 15 different more op forms, an entire arsenal crammed into thin air and so many muscles that he might as well subsist entirely on steroids and nothing else. 100% unkillable too and world famous for being "sexy". And he was the child of Freddy Fazbear and Chica and was raised by Darkiplier for a bit.


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## Blue_Jay (Dec 15, 2017)

Could have to do with peer pressure. People might feel out of place in a group that is mostly composed of (needlessly) super-powered characters and feel that it's a requirement.

I've noticed that in some groups there is a stigma against characters with personality defects. Like, I'm not talking about characters who are mass murderers so much as I'm referring to characters with reasonable antisocial tendencies or who otherwise have emotional or intellectual shortcomings that they'll probably never overcome. I can understand the reason behind this (perhaps to aversion to "edgy" characters is to protect the sensibilities of certain players). But as someone to tends to create characters who each bear at least one prejudice of some kind (some principal that might appear unreasonable or short sighted to other people) I find those sorts of groups to restrictive and often times oppressive. Usually what comes out of those are characters who are always well adjusted no matter what, as a rule. It's not an overpowered character, just one that I can't relate to at all. 

Maybe it's just me. I dunno.


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## Inkblooded (Dec 15, 2017)

Being insecure in their masculinity.
Thats why those "super powerful muscular god wolf who is a BDSM DOM and gets ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN" characters exist


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## silveredgreen (Dec 15, 2017)

Blue_Jay said:


> Could have to do with peer pressure. People might feel out of place in a group that is mostly composed of (needlessly) super-powered characters and feel that it's a requirement.
> 
> I've noticed that in some groups there is a stigma against characters with personality defects. Like, I'm not talking about characters who are mass murderers so much as I'm referring to characters with reasonable antisocial tendencies or who otherwise have emotional or intellectual shortcomings that they'll probably never overcome. I can understand the reason behind this (perhaps to aversion to "edgy" characters is to protect the sensibilities of certain players). But as someone to tends to create characters who each bear at least one prejudice of some kind (some principal that might appear unreasonable or short sighted to other people) I find those sorts of groups to restrictive and often times oppressive. Usually what comes out of those are characters who are always well adjusted no matter what, as a rule. It's not an overpowered character, just one that I can't relate to at all.
> 
> Maybe it's just me. I dunno.



I actually love it when a character has a prejudice against certain things. Makes em seem more realistic, especially when it makes sense for that character due to the upbringing they would have had. People are definitely too afraid to write things like that because of social justice.

I have an OC who was born and raised in a time much like the old days of Earth. A time when women were property, men ruled the world, being gay was extremely rare and frowned upon and nonbinary genders/trans people were basically nonexistent. Because of this, he only believes in two genders and is a bit iffy about the idea of transgender. He respects women and isn't against being gay (but he does find homosexuality a bit unusual). 

I like to imagine this character in our time and just him being all like "What the hell are you even saying!?"


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## Rant (Dec 15, 2017)

Part of it may be the control aspect. Like their real life is crap and they're a weak nobody but online they see themselves as a god. 

As for my experience RPing, it's been shit because the others immediately go have an orgie and forget about the campaign. RPing with furries sucks!


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## Steelite (Dec 15, 2017)

I'm feeling like Syndrome in The Incredibles now, planning to give away all my weapons and researches on superpowers, to the public. See how people wanna learn or even master those powers to be more OP, or at least become super OP from scratch.
And when everyone is super... you know what that means, hahaha.


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## KILL.MAIM.KILL (Dec 15, 2017)

They're obviously compensating for something.


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## ChapterAquila92 (Dec 16, 2017)

Alright, now that I'm not so sleep-fucked, I should be able to go further into giving my 2¢.

God-modding in an RP is usually because of one of two things: a roleplayer is deliberately attempting to throttle the RP solely in their favour, or, more innocently, the roleplayer lacks the imagination to work with the hand they're dealt. The two are not mutually exclusive, mind you, but Hanlon's razor is applicable regardless.

In the latter case, the roleplayer in question doesn't quite know how to improvise with their character in a given situation, and oftentimes this leads to said roleplayer relying on the powers of deus ex machina as a crutch to get them out of a bind. Now, it's one thing to get an assist once in a while as a one-off gimmick, but when it becomes a regular occurrence for that character it ceases to appear as a coincidence of the roleplayer trying to compensate for a momentary deficiency and starts to give off the impression that they're trying too hard to be the Goddamn Batman whilst writing by the seat of their pants.


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## dogryme6 (Dec 20, 2017)

Well... I try not to be overpowered, which is why Dogryme tries to rely on his physical strength alone and not use his unique magic, because that stuff's actually quite dangerous.
... He has it because of what he fears, what I fear. I don't want my damn character getting abused in a way I don't want him to be. Not vored, not raped, not crushed by macros or anything like that.
So he'll either be the light and vaporize the offender with several well-launched fire bombs, or be the darkness and cease to be in that area at all. Pursuers often get their comeuppance in the form of nasty traps.


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## Steelite (Dec 20, 2017)

One good way to steer clear off being overpowered, which I'm enjoying a lot more than I ever thought I would... is not using magic at all.
Not one bit.
Just pure physical strength.
And if I get in these situations...


dogryme6 said:


> vored


Literally GUT them alive from inside out. See how sharp my scythe is.


dogryme6 said:


> raped


Give them a half-ass transgender surgery.


dogryme6 said:


> crushed by macros


Depends on how they try to crush me, but I always got the worst "thorn" to prickle them back.
And if all else fails... I got one last resort.
*BLOCK* their ass.


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## Diretooth (Dec 20, 2017)

Steelite said:


> is not using magic at all


Or by having clearly defined limitations to the magic, such it running on a Vancian system, being limited to certain elements, or having very specific spells prepared ahead of time.


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## dogryme6 (Dec 20, 2017)

Diretooth said:


> Or by having clearly defined limitations to the magic, such it running on a Vancian system, being limited to certain elements, or having very specific spells prepared ahead of time.


Yeah, Dogryme's only got Three Cinder Cylinders a day. Luckily he can shoot like, at least 12 normal fireballs because it's such a simple spell, but beyond that any technical pyrotechnic devices he needs to conjure? He has to spend time making sure he knows how to conjure it the right way. Those are the rules I have for Dogryme when it comes to his normal (unique) element. (pyrotechnic)
His shadow form only comes up if he becomes incapacitated or emotionally shattered (freaks out beyond all reasoning) and he uses his Ash element that he changes to, to pretty much smokebomb and flee.


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## Azrion/Zhalo (Dec 20, 2017)

Diretooth said:


> Vancian


Huh, I start playing my modded Skyrim and I didn't expect to see that word any time soon outside of the Perk Ordinator


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## Steelite (Dec 20, 2017)

Diretooth said:


> Or by having clearly defined limitations to the magic, such it running on a Vancian system, being limited to certain elements, or having very specific spells prepared ahead of time.


Oooooor just none at all.
I'd just physical my way through. Far more plausible than anything with magic involved, at least in my opinion.


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## ChapterAquila92 (Dec 20, 2017)

dogryme6 said:


> Well... I try not to be overpowered, which is why Dogryme tries to rely on his physical strength alone and not use his unique magic, because that stuff's actually quite dangerous.
> ... He has it because of what he fears, what I fear. I don't want my damn character getting abused in a way I don't want him to be. Not vored, not raped, not crushed by macros or anything like that.
> So he'll either be the light and vaporize the offender with several well-launched fire bombs, or be the darkness and cease to be in that area at all. Pursuers often get their comeuppance in the form of nasty traps.





Steelite said:


> Oooooor just none at all.
> I'd just physical my way through. Far more plausible than anything with magic involved, at least in my opinion.


And here I am tinkering around with NANOMACHINES SON as a posthuman biological Swiss Army Knife...

People tend to forget how powerful and horrifying shapeshifters can be, especially if they're anything like Alex Mercer. Fortunately, I'm not interested in dominating the scene if and when I rarely roleplay, but with a very big caveat: push me too far and you'll very quickly learn how monstrous I can be.


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## Azrion/Zhalo (Dec 21, 2017)

ChapterAquila92 said:


> push me too far and you'll very quickly learn how monstrous I can be.


Oh yes, the good ol' "push me too far and I turn into a god-killing edgelord*...*" cliche

That's definitely not any better at all, but besides that, it seems like there is no primary but rather a bunch of reasons why god-mods choose to be god-mods, be it narcissism or the fear of losing and the like


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## dogryme6 (Dec 21, 2017)

ChapterAquila92 said:


> And here I am tinkering around with NANOMACHINES SON as a posthuman biological Swiss Army Knife...
> 
> People tend to forget how powerful and horrifying shapeshifters can be, especially if they're anything like Alex Mercer. Fortunately, I'm not interested in dominating the scene if and when I rarely roleplay, but with a very big caveat: push me too far and you'll very quickly learn how monstrous I can be.


Well, I have considered making another alternate version of dogryme where he's a Cyborg, and his body just manufactures weapons from the things he eats. He becomes a bit more the eater of the strange as a result, often seeking to consume certain kinds of ores, minerals, and composites.
I suppose a shapeshifting foe can get quite terrifying at times, since they have any ways of being lethal as you can imagine.
But...


Azrion/Zhalo said:


> Oh yes, the good ol' "push me too far and I turn into a god-killing edgelord*...*" cliche
> 
> That's definitely not any better at all, but besides that, it seems like there is no primary but rather a bunch of reasons why god-mods choose to be god-mods, be it narcissism or the fear of losing and the like


Yeah, I don't like this being overused in many roleplaying characters. I don't think ChapterAquila meant to say it like that, either.
... I hope Dogryme doesn't come off that way, either either. Really, he's always paranoid and a bit shaky if in an environment he doesn't trust, just always a bit of a loose cannon. He might even hide one of his cylinders somewhere in preparation for a confrontation, if he gets that feeling. At the snap of the fingers and one flashy distraction later, he can get a rather ruthless ambush in.
EDIT: /Fcuk/ I just fell into that second definition oh god why I hate myself kthanksbai


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## ChapterAquila92 (Dec 21, 2017)

Azrion/Zhalo said:


> Oh yes, the good ol' "push me too far and I turn into a god-killing edgelord*...*" cliche


When we're talking about something in which oneupmanship and serial escalation are a common occurrence, it's actually a rare thing to go from nobody to eldritch abomination in one step, even when it's in response to someone else's poor roleplaying skills.

Disrespectful roleplayers on the other hand...


			
				Job 41:8 said:
			
		

> If you lay a hand on it [Leviathan],
> you will remember the struggle and never do it again!


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## Zehlua (Jan 26, 2018)

I remember watching my two little cousins try to top each other with their pokemon oc's.

One was called Spikeball and the other was Firecatcher. They argued over whether or not you could have a pokemon at level infinity or level infinity plus. They had a heated debate over whether or not spikes were invincible to fire. They wanted their pokemon to be legendary, heroic, and powerful. Firecatcher saved an entire village that was lost in an avalanche, but Spikeball ended a war by being shot out of a cannon at the opposing army. Somehow, both of them saved "infinity number of people." Also, apparently no other pokemon could beat them in battle because Firecatcher makes a fire force field, and Spikeball's spikes are too thick to let anything near his actual body.

One cousin eventually won out over Firecatcher because Spikeball turned out to be an impenetrable water-type sea urchin, and of course, water beats fire. This led to Firecatcher cousin crying and me having to explain to both of them to stop trying to top each other and make funny characters instead of strong ones. After all, if they didn't compete with each other over whose pokemon could beat up whose, they'd be having fun with a silly prickle sphere and a one-eyed dragon with hands for ears.

They agreed, and proceeded to make Fartgun and Butt-butt. (Fartgun was a gun with angry eyes and stick legs who shot stink bombs. Butt-butt was a pair of orange golf balls joined together with an eyeball around the butthole area. Butt-butt's job was floating around making angry noises and smashing things.) Cut to: two small children rolling around on the rug with laughter.

It was a really fun and fascinating conversation to listen to.


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