God-Modding

Only the first two really apply to here, but it really never hurts to hit all the bases.

We all have an idea as to what the term means, and we all know that we should "Just Say 'No' to God-Moding."

But what exactly constitutes God Moding? An old acquaintance of mine actually broke it down for me when I first started RP-ing way back when Pluto was still a Planet. Most of this was written by him with just a couple modifications by me for this site.

1) Deific Moding
2) Skill Moding
3) Diplomatic Moding
4) MMPR Moding
5) Speed Moding


Time to define:
Deific Moding
Deific Moding is what we’re all most familiar with. Basically, one person says “BWAHAHAHAHA, I CAN DO WHATEVERS I WANTSES TO DO, MY PRECIOUS!”

While it’s rarely that annoying, it comes in various forms, more or less subtle - such as poorly defined abilities and/or backgrounds that leave much open to interpretation. So things such as "great power in X" or poorly defined upgrades, and whatnot can turn out to be a potentilly awkward situation all around. It’s still bad and grounds for corrective measures. We don't expect such a problem, but it never hurts to reiterate the point proactively.


Skill Moding
Skill Moding is where you have a person who is already highly experienced and skilled expecting to get around a situation - just because they’re highly skilled. Now before I go any farther, I’ll confess. I’ve done this before - way back when Pluto was still a planet.

Yes, it’s true.

Now what does Skill Moding look like? Well, some theoretical examples:

“Captain of X division Shyunpo’s past the Gate Guardians to their blind sides and rips their kneecaps out with his bare hands!
But the gate is locked? Ohnoes! Fortunately, the Captain can pick locks! Zomg, we’re through! But what’s this, a broken bridge? I’ll just tear a chunk out of the stone wall with my Bankai and throw it across the opening!”

Again, rarely this obvious. But you get the idea. Highly skilled and intelligent characters can still get stymied by certain problems, issues, or obstacles - that's what makes RP fun and interesting. What works should be left to whoever’s designed the scenario and your partner(s). This rule also applies to them on the receiving end of your own skills - you as an RPer cannot block everything your RP partner or NPC throws at you.

And again, not a real problem at here, but it never hurts to cover the bases. Knowing about this method of God Moding helped me out in how to define my characters' abilities and backgrounds. As those body-builders in those whacked out to-good-to-be-true fitness/weight loss info-mercials say: "If it worked for me, it'll work for you..."

Except this time it's actually true.


Dimplomatic Moding
I include it for the sake of completeness. This is mainly for people in RPGs with skill sets, power ladders and stuff like that (DnD/d20, Palladium, Exalted, ect) where there’s a skill that simply lets you talk people down... And a person does that all the time. It’s very annoying, but can’t happen much here. This can overlap with Skills Moding in chat RP in that a character may talk down another player and includes that their partner shrank away from them when the partner-character had no reason/intention to do so.


Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Moding
Fourthly, there’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger’s Moding. This is also sometimes called Team-Moding. It occurs when one or two players have a group of perhaps three to five characters (total, not each) that are completely balanced by themselves. BUT, they are almost always together/within easy access of each other/intuitively know when their friends are in danger, and can always rally to meet any threat, resulting in a ridiculously overpowered group that cannot be harmed.

Now I don’t like to pick on the twins or the girl and her dog, but they’re the most obvious examples. It’s true. It's necessary to be careful with groups like this (this is one of the reasons I try to have my own characters avoid each other as much as possible). Try not to always place your character with the characters they already work best with. Real life is almost never like that, and it shouldn’t be like that in RP, either. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t role play with the other players you like to role play with… but try to strike out on your own and be independent, too. =P


Speed Moding
Speed Moders are most highly observed in Chat RPGs. Basically, these people just out-talk the other players. They dictate their own actions so fast the rest don’t have time to respond. Most speed moders rule unregulated chat games where there’s only a general code of conduct, and no real moderators.. and we really doubt that'll happen here on a forum but we included it regardless.

People, I know it’s boring to wait for other people to show up and post. But it’s even more annoying to have one person be able to travel half-way across the scene, sit down, eat a sandwich, read the paper, cast a spell or two, hold a deep philosophical discussion on the meaning of life, love, happiness, fish and the number 42, in the same amount of time it takes another person swing their sword. Show a little consideration for your fellow players and temporal mechanics, and hold back on the posting a little. I understand there’s a time to push on, but it’s often later than most think. Wait around a little, huh? Especially if it’s the moderator running a thread who hasn’t posted yet.