Powers and skills

Supernatural powers

A "supernatural power" is defined here as one that is not related so much to the character's physical abilities, but instead to special abilities like manipulating energy, elements, and so on, and so forth. Many characters have supernatural powers, and that's perfectly cool. Here are the conditions we place on them.

Chaos energy powers

"Chaos energy" is our catch-all term for most of the Sonic series' BS powers. For example, why does Knuckles get fiery auras around his punches? Chaos energy. Why does Sonic glow blue and do colossal, destructive damage when he spins into things, without getting hurt himself? Chaos energy. Why do rings protect people from getting hurt? Chaos energy. How does Blaze create fire? Chaos— err, well, Sol energy, but you get the drift.

In short, we assume that most Sonic characters have some sort of ability to use chaos energy, some better than others. Whether it's making a punch a little more explosive by energizing it, or turning a tail swipe into a tail slice (like Tails has been known to do in some games), strong, fit, combative original characters may be able to do a number of interesting things.

The only restricted ability for most characters is Chaos Control teleportation. See the "restricted powers and skills" section below. For more information on chaos energy powers, see Chaos Control.

Elemental powers

These will be allowed if handled in some sort of interesting way. As always, chaos energy still stands as the go-to BS explanation for what powers elemental abilities, but you'll need a little something more to get a pass on these for your character—some sort of interesting origin for the ability, be it an artifact, science, some sort of exposure to something that could (even remotely plausibly) grant such an ability, or something else to that effect. (In short, don't just say, "Oh, my character was born with the ability to SHOOT FIRE OUT HIS EYEBALLS for no readily apparent reason!" Make it interesting.)

Also, you're more likely to get the character accepted if its particular power hasn't been done yet. (At the time of this writing, fire, electricity, and earth [or at least crystal] are already accounted for.)

Justification of unusual powers

Ideally, if you're submitting a character with some sort of unusual power or other supernatural, abnormal capability, you should do at least one of the following two things in the character's profile:

1. Make the power thematically fit the character so that it just makes sense that the character has it, and it plays into the character's identity.

or

2. Come up with an origin story for the power, explaining (at least vaguely) how it came to be.

In regards to the second option, there, please understand: "This is just how my character's chaos energy powers manifest" is not an acceptable origin story. Yes, you can successfully attribute almost any superpower to chaos energy in our story, but you have to go a step beyond that to try to explain why the energy works that way in your character, get it?

Acceptable strength of supernatural/elemental powers

Don't make the power capable of rendering your character unapproachable or unstoppable. Have some limitations on how much it can be used, and to what magnitude. For instance, consider the likes of Blaze, whose attacks are powerfully enhanced by fire, rather than some overblown character that can engulf whole city blocks with typhoons of flame on a whim.

Remember that a player's first character should always leave room for gradual development and improvement over time, anyway, so this isn't just applicable to supernatural stuff.

Restricted powers and skills

Completely restricted

The skills and powers below are not allowed:

• Fantasy-RPG-like "magic"
• Clairvoyance ("psychic" or otherwise supernatural prediction of future events)
• DBZ-like "chi" powers (including unexplained flight / hovering)

Effects very similar to the above (excluding clairvoyance) are allowable as long as they're explained through means that fit in the scope of the classic Sonic series. For example, some characters have shown mysterious abilities through manipulation of Chaos energy, and can focus energy into attacks (visually akin to abilities the official characters have historically had through the games, such as Knuckles' glowing, flaming punches, Sonic's glowing spin/homing attacks, etc.)

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Conditionally restricted

We sometimes allow the following skills, but we restrict the number (and sometimes type) of characters allowed to have them, so that we don't end up with way too many.

"Perfect" marksmanship

Restricted for fairness purposes so that no characters may be made with near-flawless aim without express permission. Some robots may be exempt, to a certain extent.

Super reaction time

We're going to keep a quota on this one. Superior reaction time and awareness is actually an extremely powerful ability, especially in RP, and can be almost gamebreaking when coupled with super speed or agility. It's a Sonic RP, but not everyone should be like Sonic, so we will seldom allow this skill alongside Sonic-like attributes.

Small characters with immense super strength

Making small-statured (usually female) characters with amazing super-strength equal to or even beyond the power of many huge bruisers has been done enough here to warrant restriction, lest it become cliché. At the time of this writing, there are no less than four characters in the story who fit this profile. This rule does not affect characters already in the story, but it does mean that no more will be permitted.

Chaos Control teleportation

Most characters should be unaware that Chaos Control teleportation even exists. It shouldn't be common knowledge, and it should not be easily learned. Your character must meet certain requirements to obtain this ability. If you're really interested, ask an admin, but don't expect it to come easily.

"Secret" powers

It is acceptable to make a character that has a "secret" ability without mentioning it in the character's profile. The only catch is that you have make sure a mod is cool with it first, so be sure to PM or IM one about it.