busyThe thing is ... there are people with multiple minority traits. There are gay Asians. There are autistic Pagans. There are poor black lesbians in wheelchairs. And those people sometimes feel overlooked because the stacking effect can change their experiences so much that a single-trait character doesn't feel much like them. I've read essays upholding this end of the debate but couldn't find one to use as an example here.
My stance is that I write characters as they need to be. I have a lot of characters who are female/other trait because roughly half of humanity is female. Other combinations are less common but also appear. Brelig is a normal-sized Duurludirj man (which we'd consider a dwarf) and missing one hand. Maryam Smith is African-British, genderqueer, duoclass, and of illegitimate birth. I'm more likely to focus on minority protagonists than to use them as filler, something my audience seems to enjoy if you look over what's been published. I don't tend to write a lot of straight white Christian men, though, so the core of the mainstream doesn't get a lot of traffic from me. Meh.
Also, if I haven't specified a trait in canon, yes it could fall outside the mainstream. Characters have done this to me often enough, and my cultural awareness is diverse enough, that there's no permanent default. They may pop out an uncommon religion or sexual orientation or invisible handicap or whatnot, and they may do that after two stories or six poems or twenty years. I'm more likely to mention physical features such as skin tone and gender up front, because they're noticeable points of diversity. But I've also had characters refuse to reveal their sex/gender, and not just the ones for whom "I'm not telling" is their gender.
I'm interested in other people's perspectives on the matter of single vs. stacked traits.
Re: Thoughts
June 13 2013, 22:54:14 UTC 8 years ago
As an example, I know that even the specific and limited ability to change the color of a single small spot on a nearby surface could be used to play mind tricks on people, or communicate (in code or otherwise), or even to obscure visual details (like blotting out or altering part of a phone number or password). And what if that could be expanded to a full-on alteration across the entire target surface, given the right user?
So there are ways to involve specific skills, as well as integrative skills. Perhaps this hero group needs to improve teamwork and leadership skills, or even work on simultaneous fronting, to gain more effective use of their powers.
That'd be a heck of a storyline, I think.
Re: Thoughts
June 22 2013, 01:16:32 UTC 8 years ago
No. The powers are innate with the vessel, and would have existed regardless of plural state. However, using them requires a certain concentration that not everyone can pull off. (The powers involve absorbing copious amounts of damage and deflecting some of it through a shockwave. For it to have any practical effect requires the vessel take what would normally be a lethal amount of trauma... and it can't deflect ALL of the damage. So the powers are intrinsically risky to use.)
If some members were shut down in some way, would any of them have great skill or power with a particular ability?
Not really. As I mentioned, the powers are innate with the vessel; if their face member goes down, some of the other members can sort of use them... but not at all reliably. And seeing how the powers work, that can be dangerous.
The skill can be used in more minor ways and still be helpful--it gives the system an illusion of being tougher than usual, when really they're just deflecting damage that's too small to create a shockwave. In theory, they could mimic a form of very minor, erratic telekinesis by doing something like--I don't know, smashing their hand against a wall hard enough to make tiny mini-shockwaves to push a very light object ahead. Definitely not the most intuitive use of them though.
I might actually practice that, though, have different system members using the powers in different, seemingly trivial ways that, if used properly, can make a big difference.
--Rogan
Re: Thoughts
June 22 2013, 03:05:02 UTC 8 years ago
That makes sense.
>> However, using them requires a certain concentration that not everyone can pull off. (The powers involve absorbing copious amounts of damage and deflecting some of it through a shockwave. For it to have any practical effect requires the vessel take what would normally be a lethal amount of trauma... and it can't deflect ALL of the damage. So the powers are intrinsically risky to use.) <<
This makes me wonder how anyone gets good enough to use the powers adroitly, without getting killed during the practice phase. Do some members just have an inborn knack at using the power for a certain purpose?
>>The skill can be used in more minor ways and still be helpful--it gives the system an illusion of being tougher than usual, when really they're just deflecting damage that's too small to create a shockwave.<<
Good idea. Also, if energy can be deflected, can it be crossed with itself? That can be a clever way to light something on fire, or whatever, as the peaks heterodyne.
>>I might actually practice that, though, have different system members using the powers in different, seemingly trivial ways that, if used properly, can make a big difference.<<
I'm quite a fan of using a small or subtle skill in just the right way to have a big impact.
Re: Thoughts
June 22 2013, 03:58:40 UTC 8 years ago
I plan on the system being trauma-based (stereotypical, I know, but it is what I know), and so they had to learn 'on the job,' as it were. The attacks weren't enough to cause the shockwaves, so they thought they were just tougher than average, until early in adulthood, where they got hit by a car and ended up destroying it. But it does require a certain mindframe that accepts pain and possible death calmly and controls it, and that's not something most people come with.
As someone who dissociates from pain, I hoped to tie the experiences together.
Re: Thoughts
June 22 2013, 04:50:54 UTC 8 years ago
That makes sense. Trauma does seem to be a prevailing source for multiple systems, though not universal. The earliest one I can think of from my own work is natural. The one I'm building right now is traumatic, but different from the usual stress fracture: the natal personality was literally sliced into pieces by a telepath.
>> and so they had to learn 'on the job,' as it were. The attacks weren't enough to cause the shockwaves, so they thought they were just tougher than average, until early in adulthood, where they got hit by a car and ended up destroying it. <<
Fascinating! I like this angle.
>> But it does require a certain mindframe that accepts pain and possible death calmly and controls it, and that's not something most people come with. <<
True. I've seen it occasionally in fiction, though; high-price magic is an established trope. It will be interesting to see where you go with this.
>> As someone who dissociates from pain, I hoped to tie the experiences together. <<
That should work.
The system I'm designing now has one member whose job is to handle pain, so the others don't have to; and that ties into energy powers in general.