How to make hax

[The_real_cal_howard]

Ryu is right, a fun and questions board could be used. This is something that I wish I could really understand. While I'm working on my scripts, I realized that it's pretty hard writing hax to fit into a story without making it game-breaking for lack of a better term. This thread is for fun as well as to inform me. Could people tell me ways to come up with interesting haxxes (can be many. SS and DI and Marvel characters aren't limited to one), series that have certain haxxes and how they do it well, or etcetera. Video Games are allowed only to give ideas of haxxes, as video games are easy to add hax in (Look at most of Nintendo or Square Enix)

 

[-BANLK-]

 

[Legion350]

As long as you make the hax seem real you should be fine.

 

[JustSomeWeirdo]

Well, I accidentally made a super haxxed God of destruction in my own verse without realizing what hax was, I made them able to destroy memories, concepts, abilities, levels of existence (Ex: Making an acausal just a regular being), TIME (had actually destroyed a time stop done by the god of time), the physical capabilities of a being (had actually made someone unable to walk, talk, think, or move, also weakened someone to the strength of a literal vegetable being thrown at someone), and even destroy the air temporarily

I also had a character that hits something (or someone) and whatever is hit falls off or detaches, with a chain barely keeping it together, breaking the chain will cause permanent damage if the piece is forced back together (this also bypasses regen, so gg) or the piece just breaks off all together (also bypasses regen), they also have the ability to create a chain from their arm and also attach a chain from one thing to another, but that's not nearly as notable.

Basically, hax is usually made on accident....

Except this one time where one of my characters changed every life form in the entire universe into 10-C monster like creatures, that was totally intentional

Then again my first example is probably a mix of hax and anti hax....

Just go wild with an ability and you make hax, just don't make it too haxxed so it can be countered somehow, I guess

 

[KittBetelgeuse]

Ohh id totally love if this thread continues, i love dabbling into narrative and storytelling subjects.

Alrigh, the first thing is that when youre making a haxxy character you should forget about things like vs battles completely, as your character should be haxxy only for your own verse, at least that first and foremost.

the idea of creating haxxy characters is for make for interesting plot ideas, and they make absolutely fantastic villains because they impose a much tougher challenge for the main cast, I can mostly think of Jojo as the best example, specially speaking of certain enemy stand users, you have extremely cheaty abilities like regressing people's age, timestopping, sending all the damage you receive to another host multiplied, invading peoples bodies and so on. Hax characters create intense dramatic tension because they seem impossible to beat witouth making a huge sacrifice. for this reason it's generally viewed as a bad move to make haxy protagonists, as the dramatic tension starts to get lost very quickly

 

[DontTalk]

Video games are easy to add hax in? Well, I suppose, then again I think that is because they are handled pretty inconsequential.

Basically I know more or less two types of hax video game characters:

1. Didn't appear in the game but there is lore that tells you that that character is super hax

2. Has hax, but either the protagonists gain resistance ex machina against it or the character just decides to not use it in the battle, out of game mechanics reasons


In my opinion both types are not all that great for a story, but you can easily do the same thing for other media.

Basically "shonen hax" as I call them, are the type of hax one often finds in shonen, that just randomly stop working once a character had a power-up.

Timestop? Power-up, doesn't work anymore.

Space cutting sword? Power-up, doesn't work anymore.

etc. Extremly bad writing (and honestly I wonder if we consider such abilities as hax, or things that should be hax, but are flawed to not work against anything of greater power), but an easy way to incorporate hax in your verse without breaking the plot.


Something that is a better way to incorporate hax is to have a villain, that you defeat through special circumstances. Like Sir Crocodile being only defeatable through Luffy having water, Enel due to luffy being made out of rubber or Thor due to a train (or technically something similar) being in the area.

Of course this method can also be bad if it becomes too deus ex machina, but generally use of ones environment is a plus in hax battles.


Another way to write hax is Touhous or Uminekos. Touhou has the spell card rules, which state that, while hax might be used, it is limited to a fair use that in the end just means enabling unique kinds of bullet hell through ones hax.

Umineko on the other hand centers around the mystery game battler and beatrice are playing and not which characters could destroy which else.

So basically by making characters willingly (or by being forced though higher forces like for umineko at times) abide rules for a game or battle you can let them have hax without having to bother about how they can defeat each other if the characters would use their hax to full extent.

In that setting, if the game they are playing is clever enough, giving them hax might even be justified and important to the story.

I think in "Mondaiji-tachi ga isekai kara kuru sou desu yo?" they, at least at the beginning, use their various abilities in various games and Maken Ki also has an arc in that direction.

By limiting the games to no combat, hax you give can be used otherwise.

A similar thing I will add here is of course that a verse with supernatural abilities, which isn't a story with combat in the first place, can have pretty much any hax it likes.


Another simple way is the hax that pretty much the whole verse has resistance against. Take Shakugan no Shana for example. Basically every character can time stop and almost every character casually resists it.

This hax exist in a verse, but are completely irrelevant for battle. In Shanas case it just is that way so that they can fight in the middle of a populated city, without causing permanent destruction or panic.

So this is a way to bring in hax, but not one that any reader cares for except vs people like us.


Lastly you can write hax like gun battles. The Skulduggery pleasant series for example has pretty early on things like a character that kills anyone he points at, a sceptre that destroys anyone it hits with its lightning etc.

As long as protagonists and opponents are able to learn of the existence of such a hax before it gets used against them, a fight in which the user is just not given the opportunity to fire or hindered to aim is a way to write it.


If one doesn't want to restrict oneself to such things, but maybe go more in the JoJo or To Aru direction of hax battles the following might be helpful to consider:

1. The Protagonist abilities: Choice of the correct abilities for the protagonist are important.

Toumas ability of negating all other supernatural things he touches with his right hand is actually a good choice for this, because it enables him to buy time and fight almost all hax without being instantly slaughtered by the hax effect. At the same time, due to it being limited to his right hand and letting the opponent use their abilities freely aside from that, he doesn't just completely negate the reason this opponents have hax in the first place, due to being affected by it as long as it doesn't hit his right hand.

I think protagonists that can do something involving negation of abilities aren't that rare in hax series actually. I think Mondaiji-tachi's can it to some extent and Shiba Tatsuya can do it as well.


The latter two bring me to a second possibility on abilities choice and that would be someone that is pretty op from the beginning. Beatrice with her 14000 fire abilities comes to mind as well in that regards.

Basically if you give your protagonist the tools to deal with everything from the beginning, due to being pretty strong and having powerful skills, you can defend them against everything without breaking your writing. The problem with this is just that it very easily ends in writing a Mary Sue and generally it gets more difficult to keep the fights exiting.


2. Not just the Protagonist is the Hero: To Aru has 3 main Heros (Touma, Accelerator and Hamazura) and if you count to aru kagaku no railgun a main heroine in Misaka as well.

Additionally there are arcs and battles where other characters take the center spot and become the point of view for the reader.

In writing hax having many people take the spotlight is a clever method. That way you can explore combinations of abilities and hax that your main character with his ability set is not suited for can be dealt with by or with the help of other characters, which have better tools for the job. (or if your main character would defeat the opponent too easily the fight can focus on someone with worse tools for the fight).


3. Hax battles are not like shonen ones: At least in my opinion they are mostly not.

Battles between/against hax characters is usually more like a riddle.

In that context not disclosing what the opponents ability is at the start (or at least not the details) is a good method.

One thing To Aru and Zashiki Warashi do well in that regards is to give the abilities mythological backgrounds based on legends, so that a reader can guess at the mechanics and details of the abilities. Generally defining the rules of the powers is a good idea.

The essential questions that the protagonist in a hax battle can think about to find a solution to defeat the opponent are: What does the opponents ability do and how does it work? Which weaknesses does it possibly have? Which abilities do I have and how do they interact with the opponents in certain situations? Can I engage in a direct confrontation or should I run away until I get an opportunity for a turnaround? What does the environment give me that could be used to get an advantage?

etc. So Hax battles often involve strategy more than full force fighting (unless you pull some method to make the hax not really work. Like some of the ones mentioned above).


So that are a few things one can do to get a bunch of hax in a verse, without breaking the setting.

Obviously the choice of hax is still restricted. Playing non-corporeality without someone with a specific counter ability is probably pretty impossible for example.

 

[Ciruno_Fortes_(COB)]

Agreeing with Nedoiko's points.

Though I'm still new here in terms of writing I think haxx is prominent when a user needs a way to keep up with other powerful combatants, or if they need to be stated to be above certain combatants. I personally think the scale of the haxx is important depending on the setting you're creating whether you're making everyone capable of tossing stars and universes around or if the strongest guy is the one who can bust a city, it's definitely easier for the low end.

Though you're asking for haxx abilities but I think an important basis for it is to have it basically have a weakness. Although by that I don't mean just a weakness is fine but I think it being vulnerable to a certain trick or aspect or have a limiting factor would be important. Another thing to consider is whether or not the ability uses wits or not or whether it was purposely broken. Another thing to add on is how they develop the haxx as in if they're worth it. Did they work hard and deserve such a power that makes them powerful? On another note I think one key aspects of why we love certain powers is because of how ambiguous it can be and how as time passes we begin to understand more of it, or more of the ability is uncovered. On a non subjective stand point the Almighty is personally a favorite ability of mine (though it got way too broken) but as it's uncovered the presentation of the haxx is pretty overwhelming. (Of course let's not get into a heated argument about it, this is just my opinion).

In the end I'm not sure if we're on the same scale here but in the end I think hey defining aspects are as follows

• Does it have any weaknesses? Limitations?
• If User A is on the level of User B's group, but given the haxx skyrockets them above them? Or is User A so below them that they need to use the haxx to keep up?
• Does it serve its purpose to create the advantage/disadvantage for the main characters?
• In theory does the haxx make sense to exist in that place?

Then again you did ask for some haxx and how to develop them but after writing a paragraph about powers.... I thought I was just self-advertising so I deleted that. Either way all of the above is my opinion.

 

[Follow_Doctor_Freeman]

Always prioritize story above these sorts of things. The quality of most stories tend to suffer from characters who are too haxxed because hax usually has to be introduced by direct exposition, which is almost always poorly delivered. You've gotta be really good at delivering ideas to the audience to avoid the all-too-common trap of putting the plot and pacing on halt to bonk the audience on the head to flesh out certain aspects of the story world. Even worse is the Worf Effect, which is the device of hyping up Character A only to have Character B stomp him. Look at the Masadaverse; we all know about Reinhard's appreciation of the Worf Effect, but some characters have abilities and even stats via narraration!

So, in short, hax is good for a story only if it is used to progress the plot or even flesh out characters, and one should usually balance things out as well. Let me see if I can think of any haxxed characters that are better written due to their hax. I think Umineko might actually be a good example of this, what with many characters having unfathomable strength but are unable to change their fate to their liking, but there are others who could tell you more about that series than I could. I'll come up with some others...

Oh, and haxxed video game characters like Kirby and Dante are a different case entirely; they have an enormous amount of non-story relevant hax at their disposal, but what's cool is that the audience/player gets to wield it (preferably earning it by overcoming a challenge) by playing the games.

EDIT: Ninja'd to some degree by DontTalk and COB.

 

[KittBetelgeuse]

Oh another idea I can think about is that of the correlation between the hax and the character using it, Something I like about one piece is that characters with extremely haxxy abilities are incredibly flawed regardless of their actual power, which makes them work and give the other characters at least small chances at beating them, a characters own personality and ideals can interfeere on their abilities a lot. funnily enough, the haxxiest characters in One Piece usually get handled to either Usopp or Nami, the weakest protagonists but comparativelly the wittiest.

examples include: Foxy, Who can slow people down but has exploitable personality traits such as his cockyness and his weak self esteem. Perona, who can make people depressed to the point of potentially beating all the strongest strawhats, but is so gullible Usopp could beat her. Califa with the power of greatly weakening her foes underestimating Nami, even taking a fricking bath in front of her. heck even now we know characters like Kaido and Big mom are strong as hell, probably very haxy (specially considering we know bigmoms powers now), yet theire extremelly flawed with the suicidal tendencies, tantrum cravings, unstopable wrath and well, id even count bigmoms odd organization and priorities, shes quite the goofball

Basically, The powers may be a part of the characters personality, thats always a plus, BUT the powers in the end can't cover the character's personality flaws, whats more, a Haxxy power actually tends to increase the characters bad traits

 

[Blahblah9755]

I started writing this a while ago so some of it may seem like a repeat

If you're intentionally creating hax, how you design it should depend on what kind of setting you have. If you want to have straightforward anything goes fights, then you should give the hax various restrictions like: prep time, usage conditions, activation on contact, time limits, effectiveness varying by time, range, specific things that it can or can not work against, and more. The best examples of which I can think of being in JoJo's bizarre adventure and HunterxHunter. There's always the option of throwing in power negation or some system where hax doesn't work on strong enough opponents, but, as DT said, those can seem like a cop out if they aren't evident from the beginning. The best example I can think of for this, by a huge margin, is Kamijou Touma from A Certain Magical Index. More general hax abilities work best in a series with specific rules for combat, or an "arena" with special properties. My favorite example of this is Medaka Box, where they do things like fighting on a highly unstable platform above a pit of poisonous snakes, attempting to knock an opponent off a structure to the ground instead of harming them, trying to strip the opponent naked, and even just having highly haxed and powerful characters compete in psychological battles like card or word games instead of fights.

Of course those assume that you want the main focus of your series to involve using these hax in combat, if that's not the case then they obviously don't apply. (I've gotta disagree with the notion that any hax is fine without restriction outside of combat). If you want your focus to be on drama rather than action, then I think it's best to give characters a CIS condition for their hax. For instance in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, where the main character is basically God, but doesn't realize it. If you want to focus on comedy or gags, you can make the hax one of the major gags, like in Doctor Slump where one of the gags in the series is Arale's plot manipulation, or in Sponge Bob where there's an episode focusing on them finding a pencil that can draw things into and erase things out of reality. If you have something episodic you can have a hax act as a giant reset button at the end of each episode, like in Code Lyoko, or you can do something like have the protagonist discover and use a new power each episode, like they did in the beginning of Ben 10, or have someone create a new hax device each episode, like they do in series like Dexter's Lab Johnny Test, and Phinneas and Ferb.

There's also the option of making the hax the end goal rather than a way to get there. One way to do this is sending characters on a Dragon Ball style collectathon. You can also focus on the gathering of ingredients/parts for, a recipe/blueprint for, and then creating some hax or power granting food, medicine, or machine. This is, to an extend done in series like Toriko and Fight Break Sphere/Battle Through the Heavens; though they only really do it for power, it could be done for hax as well. Lastly there's the option of focusing on training, which can be done through training to get/use a hax, or through giving the character a hax that allows them to get stronger at high speeds. Good examples of these can be found in Douluo Dalu and The Gamer respectively.

The last way of introducing a hax without making it too absolute or dull, that I can think of, is by giving it a consequence. This works in pretty much anything that isn't episodic, so I saved it for last. It can be something simple like being badly injured, having to wait to use it again, or using up a lot of "energy", or as a 4th wall breaker might put it "use this power and you become irrelevant for the rest of the arc", or you can make something more interesting like Darker than Black's personalized consequences, or FMA's equal exchange.

Those are my thoughts on the matter.