We Are All Pokémon Trainers

We Are All Pokémon Trainers, or WAAPT for short or ITT: We Are All Pokémon Trainers in full, is a play-by-post roleplay game running in the TVTropes forums. There, players assume the role of Pokémon Trainers and go on various adventures while also training their teams. Created in February 2011 by Troper gamerex27, it has grown steadily to become one of the largest roleplays of TVTropes.

History

WAAPT, unlike most other RPs, wasn't planned. Originally, it was little more than another Forum Game in TVT's Forum Game section when it came into existence in 2011, but then some things happened. Chief among them was unlike most other Forum Games, WAAPT through sheer improvised storytelling managed to create a mostly coherent if at times random narrative. Another was that due to Gamer having a mostly hands-off approach to governing the RP despite being technically the GM, things were allowed to be formed organically. Finally, perhaps the most important of all, following the end of the PMD-1 Arc, the player characters were left with the ability to speak Monese due to their transformation into Pokémon due to voting, which eventually became the one of the major cornerstones of the entire RP. It is hard to imagine how WAAPT might've been if the vote had been different.

Following the end of the first Unova arc, WAAPT was somewhere between a Forum Game and a traditional RP. Too organized to be considered a true Forum Game anymore, but having a certain chaoticness to it that made it not fully RP either, leading to its move to the RP section of TV Tropes. Following that and the creation of its Discussion thread, WAAPT become a true if still mostly freeform RP.

Structure

WAAPT, due to its Forum Game roots, tends to primarily use script format as opposed to prose, though individual players have and do continue to use the latter. While there can be and often is an overarching plot, due to the lack of a singular GM, players can do any subplot they wish provided it stays within the rules.

The overarching plots of WAAPT are placed in an arc, which are themselves part of a greater thematic saga.

Aside from the primary thread on TVT, the trope page, and its Discussion and Signup pages, WAAPT also has its own personal forum for slower plots, character testing, and other things that wouldn't make sense on the main thread. Also included is this very wiki, and the WAAPT Media page.

Unique Aspects

While most Pokémon RPs tend to base themselves on only one aspect of the Pokémon world, such as just the games and anime, WAAPT is different in that regard. While WAAPT is primarily based on and follows the canon of the main series Pokémon games to the best of its ability, it also incorporates elements of the anime, Pokémon Special/Adventures manga, game spinoffs (Pokémon Ranger, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, and the Orre duology), and the TCG (See EX-Pokémon and Delta Pokémon to make its own unique creature. Due to some of its founding members being part of the TVT Fanon Pokédex, PEFE articles have semi-canon status within the RP (Meaning that they're considered more or less canon as long as they don't contradict anything already existing in the RP), along with a WAAPT version of the project. It also has incorporated things from numerous non-Pokémon series over the years.

Also, while most RPs tend to center primarily on the trainers while the Pokémon are ignored, despite its name WAAPT ideally has trainers and their Pokémon have equal billing in terms of importance. Created by Troper SilentReverence in his earlier works through extrapolation of the Sinnoh myths, the Vow serves as the explanation for the Human-Pokémon mutual partnership, and many a plot has dealt with how both groups have interpreted it over the millenia.

WAAPT also has a fairly robust multiverse, which has played a role in numerous major and minor personal and RP-wide plots. Another unique aspect would be the Auric Quartet originally imagined by the Troper and former WAAPT member CalamityJane.

Tone

WAAPT can be best described as zigzagging the Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness. While overall WAAPT can be considered fairly lighthearted, it can also delve into heavier subjects and plots while still somehow managing not to feel like an out-of-genre experience. It is not considered unusual to have very light and very heavy plots happening at the same time due to the freedom the RP provides. To see how that balance is kept, read the Tone Essay.

Joining

While originally a walk-in RP as per its Forum Game roots, as time has gone on a proper signup procedure has had to be established in order to head off plot derailment and Sue/Studom. For more, see the Signup thread above.