Sure, we've all heard of them: Master Cheif, Samus Arran, and more importantly... Gordon Freeman.
How do you escape your power-armor wearing MC from being called a clone or a steryotype from one of these guys?
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| Norsehound | MCs in Power armor |
 50,131 / 50,000 Joined: Oct 12, 2006
Location: Livermore CA, CSU Hayward CA Posts: 87
Posted on:
Dec 12, 2007 - 20 50 |
Sure, we've all heard of them: Master Cheif, Samus Arran, and more importantly... Gordon Freeman. How do you escape your power-armor wearing MC from being called a clone or a steryotype from one of these guys? |
50,240 / 50,000
Dec 12, 2007 - 21 03
Easy. 1) give them a soul, and 2) have them make mistakes. The problem with the super-powered soldiers is that they have no real identity - they're nothing but an empty shell inside an empty shell. And they're infallible. They never have to think, they only act, and when they act, they do everything perfectly.
Have them think hard about decisions and their consequences. Have them make mistakes and have to struggle to fix them. Not only does it make them human, it gives you conflict for your story.
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47,684 / 50,000
Dec 12, 2007 - 23 22
Make it so that power armour is nothing special, that should be a nice step in the right direction. I mean, seriously. If you can build those things, then why don't you try to build a lot of them rather than just one for the hero? Yeah, I heard the 'it's so good it rips any normal human apart' thing with Halo, but why not give the grunts a watered down version then?
63,834 / 50,000
Dec 13, 2007 - 16 35
Just because a person has power armour, doesnt take away the fact they're still a person, and can make mistakes. They can get scared on the battlefield, they can run away from battle (probably faster thanks to their power armour.)
As some said up there, you see games of people in power armour and they're just.. SUPERAWESOME! Can not do anything wrong!
Or, you should READ 'Starship Troopers'. That has awesum stuff about power arumour, but the story is not power armour centric
----------50,223 / 50,000
Dec 14, 2007 - 12 24
Books are not video games. Games generally focus more on being fun to play than the storyline, with some exceptions (particularly RPGs). The protagonist in many video games is generally only as "super awesome" as your ability to save and reload whenever you screw up. :p
----------Best line so far:
"So, what are we going to do with the pink elephant?"
50,056 / 50,000
Dec 15, 2007 - 22 23
I have said it somewhere else, but
----------Armor, John Steakley
It's based on Starship Troopers, but is longer and focuses more on the power armor.
2006: R.M. 1968 - Incomplete - 18,285
2007: The Value of LIfe
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50,062 / 50,000
Jan 9, 2008 - 10 48
Power armor is just a tool... like unpowered armor before it. Putting your hero into powered armor doesn't turn him into Gordon any more than putting your hero into plate armor turns him into Lancelot.
What matters is what the character thinks, does, loves, hates, believes.
----------2003 - On the Fall of Evarim. winner!
2004 - A Natural History of Gryphons winner!
2005 - Worlds Apart winner!
2006 - Dark Red Sky winner!
2007 - The Black winner!
62,249 / 50,000
Jan 20, 2008 - 22 23
Power armor is absolutely the coolest. My MC also spends most of the book in some form of armor. Heck, I even gave him a Mech to fight in at the end.
Just make sure that the MC is not invinsible. Mine gets pretty injured throughout my story, and the armor keeps him going... among other things.
Many of my favorite stories involve Powered Armor. Starship Troopers, Armor, the Posleen books by John Ringo and way back when there was a series called CADS that had really good armor.
Good Luck
----------The Force Will Be With You Always
6,378 / 50,000
Mar 24, 2008 - 12 18
Make the armor fallible too. Fred Saberhagen had his heros alter the functions of a squad in armor. Internal heating, altered targeting, limb servos slower on the right than left, these help the suit and MC show personality. Bio-waste disposal failure while doing a long EVA would add some good comedy.