1) How are we going to deal with beings that have abilities that are way up there on the power scale? It seems to me that this is kinda' supposed to be a high-power RP, but if someone comes from, let's say, a race of sentient grandfather clocks with control over the passage of time, how are we going to balance that in a way that's fun for everyone?
For the most part, I judge god-moddy-ness more based on the player's actions than on the character. With a setting like Omnibus, it makes sense that we'd have some very powerful characters. But if the player can handle that well and not abuse those powers, then it shouldn't be an issue. If a player
does abuse those powers then, well, I'll deal with that when it comes up.
As for something like controlling time -- I probably wouldn't allow anything like that to play out in the first place, just because it would be so hard to do in a forum RP. :P Which is really the only big thing I'll be looking for with people's powers -- whether or not it makes any sense in a forum RP.
And sometimes there are specific powers that jump out at me as having a high potential for abuse, but, it sort of depends on how the CS is written... A character just being
really strong usually isn't as big of a red flag as a long list of very specific ways that a character could completely annihilate someone else in combat... And, yeah, listing/explaining powers in a very combat-oriented way is
also sometimes a red flag.
The point is, I deal with this sort of thing in a very case-by-case-basis sort of way. I don't like putting overall restrictions on what everyone can do.
2) It was mentioned that something is only made canon when a player's species or character makes it so, but what if two characters have conflicting canons? If one player states that their race of eldritch, lovecraftian monsters are the biggest, baddest motherfuckers around, with terrible power unrivaled in all the universe, and one person is playing a race of angels that serve an omnipotent creator, what happens? Does somebody have to change? Is there a retcon, allowing for forces equally omnipotent to co-exist? Something else entirely?
Well, that's why you have a GM who has to
approve every race, and who can prevent such conflicts from cropping up in the first place by making sure that a new race description still makes sense with everything we already have.
In addition, I probably wouldn't allow any "greatest power in all the universe" descriptions to begin with, because that can be extremely limiting for anyone who comes after. I know it's inevitable that players who join earlier will get certain perks compared to players who come later (like being able to snatch up popular races before anyone else), but, I do want to try to prevent early players from grabbing any definitive "
only my race can do X, Y, and Z" sort of thing.
And, depending on the nature of the conflict that comes up, I'd probably be more likely to just ask the ambassador of the older race whether or not such-and-such would work and/or how to tweak things in order to make it work, rather than always favoring the older member and just telling the newbie "you can't do that, you're sort of almost stepping on this other person's toes with that idea".
In any case -- the point is, although the lore is primarily player-generated, you still have a GM to make sure everything fits together right. XD
...This feels rambly. I sure hope I'm making sense to everyone. XD