Awesome but Impractical/New Media

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"A flashy feature that has limited usability for victory."


  • Survival of the Fittest
    • Many of the guns fall under this, simply because they're good, but require training that no Ordinary High School Student should have to be used effectively. It is also played very straight when the villain Adam Reeves receives a Damascus sword as a prize, then discards it because it is too heavy.
    • The FP-45 Liberator in v4 seems like this at first to the user, because it comes with 10 .45 caliber rounds, each of which can be a kill if aimed right and it's better than a melee weapon. Then the user realizes that not only is it a one-shot weapon with practically no accuracy outside of point blank range, you need a wooden dowel to tap out the empty cartridge casing just so you can reload. Suddenly, the one-shot kill gun became practically useless.
  • Around 2007, Gaia Online developed a forum based RPG System for use in its Halloween Events. The system works by granting users XP with every attack, granting them an item upon a level up. Upon reaching the final level, players typically receive powerful abilities such as full heals or one hit kills. However, since they already have all the items they can get through that faction, these skills are useless. This was Subverted with the most recent event (Camp Chaos), due to a massive revamp to the system. (Battles are one on one, and items can only be obtained by defeating bosses). Players receive their most powerful skills just prior to facing the final four bosses, which makes the final battles against the Camp Councillors a breeze!
  • Kozlov, a scientist from Darwin's Soldiers had attempted to build a flare shotgun prior to the events of the first RP. Lampshaded when someone mentions his funding had been cut.
  • The Alondoite in Mitadake Highit attacks two panels away, but saps your HP like a spah, and the setting makes that an in-game equal to one real life hour. Funnily enough, it never gets used..
  • Linkara has both a power morpher and a set of zeonizers, and can morph with either of them for a powerup. The latter is significantly more powerful, but requires an absurd charging time of more than a week, whereas the former works whenever its needed.
  • Kingdom of Loathing features the "Ridiculously Overelaborate Ninja Weapon", an arcane assemblage of blades, staves, spikes, and chains. It's one of the few three-handed weapons and the description text outright states you have no clue how you're supposed to use it; it has triple the chance to strike critical, and triple the chance to fumble.
  • In Mall Fight 3, Tox crafted a weapon which was a mix of dozens of weapons, but it was too heavy for anyone to use.
  • MSF High Forum: Lily loves this. Her weapon of choice is a pair of daggers made from two of her own bones! Simply drawing them (out of her wrists, no less) hurts her.
    • Awesome yet Practical: Lily has tired of this, and worked in a minor healing spell to negate the hit point loss.
  • In Cracked.com: