Writing How do you deal with/prevent/manage power creep/rising stakes in story telling?

[DekuKurohi]

Any longrunning story or expanding universe with many different title under its belt is gonna have a problem with power scaling. (Especially unplanned story)

I know a good deal of stories here have some actions going on and therefore some sort of power scaling that authors have to deal with.

I also know that a good deal of those goes for hundreds of chapters or a sequel or two, which means a lot of texts, a lot of story development and probably more than a few change in status quo/heroes/villians/goals/etc. and that's a high risk of ever increasing power level.

From author's perspective obviously that's something you wanna avoid or manage. It'll risk breaking the suspension of disbelief (Specifically if there's no real precedence for the power creep beforehand) or devalue the previous climatic achievement. Now you have to make sure that didn't happen, and hopefully not contradicting anything you already established and not make your story a complete mess or have unengaging stakes/killing tension or reader's investment.

There are many way to allivate that so let's talk about it. Gonna use my stories as example. They are all interconnected so this technically counts as something longrunning.

Honestly speaking my first published story is a bit high on the power scale (Characters are technically continental-level), but I have an ending planned for it there isn't actually problem with it when I first publish it with no other story to compared to.
My second story is set in a parallel universe with completely different setting/era so it doesn't exactly continue from the first one so there's need to compare the stakes.
A side story to one of the first story's prequel is where power level was quite low, with the one character from the main story appearing and completely dwarfed the main cast in strenght and therefore acting as the main antagonistic force that really keeps the tension going.

Basically the way I'm dealing with my penchant for coming up with new stories that I'm very adamant to all be in the same 'verse (Which is a recipe for inevitable power creep) is to make sure each story have entirely different perspective/setting each time, and with prequels/side story keep the power level way lower than the main story so to not devalue it, and actually try to use the disparity to make the main story seem more impressive.
I feel like I'm starting to forget what I'm talking about halfway through talking about my own story but whatever.

Anyway yada yada talk about how you deal with this and shill your stuff and answer the poll.

 

[SailusGebel]

It's a mundane setting so there's no way power scaling will get out of whack

 

[melchi]

Stick to a theme per character. Avoid generalized powers.

Most of all, I tell myself I hate profession fantasy where the actors are demi gods and resolve to not be a hypocrite.

 

[Premier]

There's a hard cap on power level, and any further power is gained by broadening your options and gaining tactical skill with what you have, not just amassing raw power.

 

[Jerynboe]

My story has a set endpoint but is hazy before that. All power creep is bringing the MC closer to punching a specific godlike entity in the face. When he does, that’s the end of the story.

 

[Snusmumriken]

You keep in in control from the beginning.

Rather than constantly slap upgrades to keep interest, you start writing with an idea in mind for how far you want your powers to grow and then slowly and consistently grow it across the story.

It is like inflation 1-2% is good, Zimbabwe is bad.

 

[Succubiome]

I Was A Hero, But...: Usually the tension is not in who would win what fight if it came down to it, but who is willing to do what. The protagonist is not usually particularly powerful on a personal level, and usually ends up relying on their allies, all of whom have agendas of their own to one extent or another. I don't think anyone has power crept the ridiculous mind control/general physical prowess combo that the deteuragonist often has access to-- and even there, the things the deteuragonist really wants can't be gained by brute forcing everything.

Their Pet Next Door: Mundane and kind of slice of life-y. The only thing I really need to be aware of power creeping is how rich people are. And even money can't solve everything.

An Inclement Proposal: The protagonist is ridiculously OP, but is doing her best to hide this power so she can continue to sub for the romantic lead.

 

[Rhaps]

I established from early on, when it was still the info dump phase, about how strong my MC is. And give characters readers can compare with.

Build a good foundation, that's how I do it.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

In gamebuilding, there's something called "goldsink" to prevent player accumulating too much useless gold currency.

There should be something or some expenses that were needed that cost some player their earned golds.

PowerCreep happens when there's too much power accumulated while there's not enough expenses.

One of the options I would like to consider is to reduce or re-explain, or re-establish the whole monetary value as the story goes on.

It's like when a man dreaming buy a very expensive car; it cost a whole $1,000,000,- and the journey to reach that amount of money isn't easy.

Once the man worked his ass off and fuck his brain and body for decades and finally reach the $1,000,000,- saving, he wouldn't be the most rich protagonist or anything, as it turns out that the buyer of said dream car were the kind of rich people who already receive $1,000,000,- every year or even month.

It's rather established and clear cut from beginning.

Of course, there's gonna be readers who's going to be thrown off by this kind of story telling. Therefore, make sure to blame it on MC's shitty comprehension ability/Exposition dump character's bad explanation.

 

[AliceShiki]

Ah, I don't write Action, so it's actually pretty easy for me.

Like... Slice of Life stuff, even if it involves magic, simply won't need a constant powercreep to be relevant.

If I were to ever write an action story though, I would probably just get a vague idea of the ending before I started... I don't write while planning things, but as long as I have an ending in mind, I can move the story towards said ending as I write, so... The power would be limited by the ending I'd have planned.

 

[TransCatGirl]

What power is used for can change over different levels.
e.g. light magic
low: for when it's dark
med: a flash to blind enemies
high: lasers... death lasers
extreme: make nuclear power plants redundant
ultimate: death star

If you're worried about challenges become obsolete bring a fundamentally different challenge.

 

[QuercusMalus]

Well mc may have gained power, the enemies are such that it hardly matters due to either(or some/all) a). Having the same powers, but vastly more experience wielding them, b). Having more resources so can zerg-rush them, or c). Powers being ineffective against the foe.
So creative application of the Powers is the key to victory.

 

[Aiyoki]

A changing of techniques that the MC encounters in foes.

Perhaps the MC is on an incredible level but a new foe finds an alternative way to fight that poses a real and viable threat to the MC's own safety.

Übel from Freiren is a good example of a character who's "Magical abilities" stack differently against others in different ways simply due to the fact that she is able to envision a believable outcome for what her magic does based solely on logic.

 

[Story_Marc]

I'll just drop this back in here.

 

[FebyA]

I chose other. I don't think I'm actively trying to deal with it. Weak enemies are fine too from time to time. It doesn't always have to be a tense power struggle.

 

[GoodPerson]

I have a limitation for my character's power. It was created by the lead technician. The game decides whether the character's ability are limited, sealed, or banished for the sake of game balance.

 

[QuercusMalus]

I chose other. I don't think I'm actively trying to deal with it. Weak enemies are fine too from time to time. It doesn't always have to be a tense power struggle.

'Weak' enemies+clever application of powers= (potentially) as/ more dangerous then more powerful enemies who just attack blindly, relying on their power to win the fight.

I am dealing with an iteration of this in my current story- the mc is decently powerful(for the setting) but the Villain is essentially a near-god. How does she defeat her? By playing on her expectations and making her react in a given way, then change the input to something she isn't expecting and where the conditioned response doesn't work.

 

[ZanderDander]

You keep in in control from the beginning.

Rather than constantly slap upgrades to keep interest, you start writing with an idea in mind for how far you want your powers to grow and then slowly and consistently grow it across the story.

It is like inflation 1-2% is good, Zimbabwe is bad.

This is the correct answer for planned stories. You won't have issues seeing it coming if you have everything outlined beforehand.

When you don't have the benefit of this and you're pantsing it, there is one thing to keep in mind: Powercreep goes hand in hand with your badguys. Protagonists will need to rise up to/above the challenge, so giving the badguys busted abilities to look cool and threatening will come back to bite you if not careful. Have a clear idea of what your protagonists will need in that moment and how that might affect the future.

 

[FebyA]

'Weak' enemies+clever application of powers= (potentially) as/ more dangerous then more powerful enemies who just attack blindly, relying on their power to win the fight.

I am dealing with an iteration of this in my current story- the mc is decently powerful(for the setting) but the Villain is essentially a near-god. How does she defeat her? By playing on her expectations and making her react in a given way, then change the input to something she isn't expecting and where the conditioned response doesn't work.

I was thinking of a more relaxed/comedy moments, but hey, your idea sounds lit.

It would be like having Dantalian from Dungeon Defense as your enemy. Power creep? OP MC? What does it matter?


They're going down.