Getting too complicated?

[ThisAdamGuy]

Does anyone else kill their own enthusiasm for a project by making it too big before they even start it? I've been talking a lot about the superhero litrpg I want to write. Before I start writing a story, I always want to make notes, build the world, and plot out where I want the story to go. My stories always turn out better when I have an outline to work with rather than just winging it. But lately, instead of giving myself a cornerstone to build the rest of my story around, I've just been burying myself under a pile of questions that spawn more questions, which spawn more questions, until I realize I've backed myself into a corner and the relatively simple story I started out with doesn't work anymore.

Basically, the worldbuilding process here has gone like this:

What's the story about?
A superhero who uses an rpg system to increase his powers.
Where are the superheroes coming from?
A weird sentient moon appeared in Earth's sky and its light mutates people so they get superpowers.
How does the MC increase his powers?
By absorbing the mutation-energy-stuff from other people with powers.
Doesn't stealing powers from superheroes make him a villain?
No, because all the people with powers are bad.
And what's his ultimate goal?
To bring down this ultra super powerful "hero" who's taken over a huge chunk of the country and could potentially destroy the whole world.
Like Steelheart? Sounds like you're just ripping off Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners series.
No I'm not, because the heroes aren't evil, the powers are driving them crazy and they think they're saving the day when they're actually just causing chaos.
Why are their powers driving them crazy?
Because there are actually two sentient moons, one is good and one is bad, and the bad moon goes around to planets with sentient life and spawns huge armies of monsters to drive them extinct for unknowable godlike reasons, and the good moon follows it around and gives the people powers so they can defend themselves. But this time the good moon got here first and the bad moon is intentionally hanging back, and without the monsters to serve as their uniting enemy the heroes have nothing to use their powers on, which drives them crazy, and now they're turning on each other and essentially doing the bad moon's job for it.
Why isn't the main character crazy?
He was, but the group he's working with gave him a gadget that lets him keep his powers without them driving him insane.
Why don't they give all the heroes one of those?
Because most of them are too far gone. He was given the gadget while there was still enough "him" left in his head that his psyche could heal.
So the main character is beating up mentally ill people who don't understand what they're doing wrong? That doesn't sound very heroic.
Maybe instead of just wanting to take down every hero he meets, he wants to save them?
How?
By coming up with a sort of Hero's Code that every superhero has to follow that keeps them in line even if they're not in their right minds. And once they've been given a unifying purpose instead of just following their instinct to fight anything they see as a threat, their minds start to heal. Of course, most of them are so far gone that he still has to beat some sense into them before they'll listen, but still...
And if they don't follow the code?
Then he fights them and absorbs their power.
So the rpg system that levels him up and increases his powers only comes into play as a last resort?
Yes, because his goal is to be an archetype for the other heroes to follow so they can be healed before the nonpowered people get tired of their crap and commit a superhero genocide.
Can you really call this a litrpg when leveling up is exactly what he doesn't want to do?
He still needs to level up. There are heroes with powers stronger than his, so if he wants to stand a chance against them he needs to make his own powers stronger.
How is he going to level up his powers if he's actively trying not to absorb other heroes' powers?
Maybe he could do stuff besides fight other heroes. Like, help the community with whatever non-hero related problems they're having. They could be like sidequests!
But how will those sidequests level him up if his powers only increase when he absorbs power from other heroes?
I, uh...well crap...

So now I can either go back to the drawing board and redo this whole system to make it work, which will undoubtedly change the entire story and the world it takes place in, or I can give up and starting trying to come up with another story which will undoubtedly go through the same freaking process.

Does anybody else have this problem?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

It seems you have contracted something known as the world-builder's disease. Rather than focusing on the plot and characters, you've delved further into the world-building aspect. Doing this is often how people end up not writing their story. Especially when plots are ambitious, I like to think about the plot in terms of early character development. I am not a planner, but I do think about things that need to happen in an arc. I would recommend stepping back to think about the main character more.

You've explained his powers and goal, but what are some other facets of his character? Some of these questions you're asking could be asked by the main character himself. It's up to the readers to draw the conclusion of your main character on their own, but a self-aware main character could ask himself the exact question you asked here.

So the main character is beating up mentally ill people who don't understand what they're doing wrong? That doesn't sound very heroic.

Maybe the main character doesn't even consider himself a hero, but his actions prove that he is. This is kind of how Superman worked. He always questioned if he's doing the right thing. Even if he saved the world from a god, he would question if it's his fault that innocent people died in their battle.

 

[Deleted member 167438]

This is why I am a pantser. I know I'd get myself stuck in the weeds if I planned too much.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

You've explained his powers and goal, but what are some other facets of his character?

I want to kind of combine Kelsier from Mistborn and Dalinar from Stormlight Archive as the base for his character. Kelsier because he's a lone guy trying to start a revolution against overwhelming odds, knowing that he has to become something more than human in the eyes of the people he's inspiring. In Kelsier's case, he has to become a relgious figure. In my hero's case, he has to become the archetype that every superhero wants to base themselves off of. And Dalinar because they both follow a strict code that they expect everyone else to follow as well, and if they ever break that code everything they're fighting for will fall apart.

 

[gaylolis]

i don't really care much about fleshing things out. i find just experimenting as a way to write more interesting, so yeah at most part i might think of several possible scenarios but when it comes to it, i just wing it during the actual writing.

whether it works or not, may not matter much, i'm just there to have fun for the most part.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

A common malady in writing superhero material; I think it may be called "Chris Claremont Syndrome" (the first time he left Marvel's X-Men titles, a group of fans went through his work from Giant X-Men #1 around 1980 to his departure in, IIRC, 1996 and counted one hundred and seventeen plot threads either abandoned or rendered impossible to continue due to later events in the books; when I run superhero games beyond the convention "one-shot" length, I warn my players "I learned plotting from Chris Claremont")...

 

[corruption]

How do side quests help improve his powers?
Simple: They help him refine and master his powers