McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Writing godlike characters (without making everything Kryptonite)
LizW65:
Maybe assign each of your characters a finite amount of power, and every time they use some of it it's gone for good? (I'm still working on my coffee; I'll try and think of something better when I'm fully awake.)
Aminar:
The big thing really is fear of failure. You need to make us believe that despite amazing power these guys can fail. The best way to do that- in my mind- is to make them care. Make their failures have catastrophic consequences to those around them... Their people, less godlike friends, etc. Make the threat be to those that worship them and show how hard it can be for a deity to interfere without hurting somebody else while they're at it.
lt_murgen:
One simple way is to make them immensly powerful, but not knowledgable. Omnipotent does not mean omniscient. Therefore, they hold back and use only the minimum of power needed. Think of Superman- holding back for fear of the 'tissue paper' world he lives in. There is a great scene in one of the DC cartoons where Superman thanks Darkseid. Why Darkseid asks why, SUperman replies that against Darksied, he can finally, really really let loose. The ensuing battle levels entire city blocks.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Aminar on September 07, 2012, 02:27:58 PM ---The big thing really is fear of failure. You need to make us believe that despite amazing power these guys can fail.
--- End quote ---
With characters that powerful, fear of success can also be worth playing with.
o_O:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on September 07, 2012, 03:45:35 PM ---With characters that powerful, fear of success can also be worth playing with.
--- End quote ---
That seems an easy strong motivator for the laissez faire entity; I'm having trouble seeing it as a limitation on the highly active controlling one.
Do you mean in a "dares not put it to the touch, to gain or lose it all" way? That seems a bad fit.
Or perhaps you mean fear of success as in "Once I'm done, whatever will I do?"
Or perhaps as an entity so used to control that it's utterly unable to self-edit?
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