In-Character Tone Essay
Just What Kind o' RP is This Thing Anyway?
An essay on tone and content in WAAPT by Umbramatic.
Starring Alduin, Robin and some of his team, Odin, Gino and a special, rather pale guest.
NOTE TO NEWBIES: These characters are the creations of an experienced player and should not be used as a basis for your own.
Alduin the Hydreigon: <Hi there! If you're reading this, you probably want to join WAAPT or have already joined and have been directed to this essay somehow. Either way, you should read it, because it's important!>
<WAAPT is a very informal and freeform kind of RP, with all different kinds of crazy shenanigans throughout its history. However, there's one particular thing to keep in mind when making crazy shenanigans of your own:>
<Tone!>
Robin The Living Video Game Character: Er, what do you mean by that, Alduin?
Alduin: <I'm getting to that!>
<You see, the plot of WAAPT has three main ingredients. Humor...>
-cut to Alduin pieing Robin in the face-
<Awesomeness...>
-cut to Alduin playing an electric guitar as Robin drives the Ferrari they're in at high speed away from an explosion-
<And meaningful drama, in that order!>
-cut to Alduin holding a limp Robin in his arms and screaming to the skies-
<All those things are big parts of what WAAPT is, and it's generally a good idea to focus on all those things as you're RPing! Though usually not all three of them at once.>
-Cut to Alduin screaming to the sky holding a limp Robin with a pie on his face as the former drives a Ferrari with his feet-
<However, sometimes people lose sight of that and focus more on over-the-top angst...>
Random Guy: My cousin's best friend's uncle's secretary's Bidoof just died! -sobs uncontrollably-
Alduin: <...And excessive grimness.>
Odin the Cipher Admin: Muhaha! I've killed everyone you love, destroyed your hometown and Lumiose City, turned all your Pokemon into unpurifiable Shadow Pokemon, and left you with locked-in syndrome! -giggles creepily-
Generic Protagonist: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Alduin: <That... Shouldn't be the main focus.>
<You see, WAAPT is supposed to be a more idealistic story, where the good guys eventually recover and get their shit together while the bad guys get a heaping dose of karma.>
Odin: If I deserve karma may I be struck by-
-thunder rumbles-
...A flying ice cream truck!
-A shadow descends over him-
...AND LIVE
-the ice cream truck lightly crushes Odin-
Robin: Wait, Alduin, are you saying people can't write darker, more serious stuff? And that everyone has to write the same way?
Alduin: <What? Hell no! Meaningful drama is one of the tenets of WAAPT for a reason!>
<If every player wrote the same way, WAAPT would be awfully boring! There's all sorts of ways you can mix and match and emphasize and deemphasize the three main aspects, and that makes each player's posts more unique!>
<And on the subject of darker moments... WAAPT's had plenty of them, and when handled well they totally count towards the "meaningful drama" aspect! If something you're planning requires some angst or grimness, it's likely doable! Just make sure to ask more experienced players for advice and don't get too excessive or gratuitous.>
<Basically, what we're saying is that darker may serve your story well, but it isn't always more mature.>
Robin: Anything else I need to know?
Alduin: <Well, there's the content part of this essay, but there's really only one big thing here!>
<Again, WAAPT is very freeform, and both references to other works of fiction and stuff we make up ourselves are rather common. However, if you've read Every's Essay before this (and if you haven't READ IT NOW OR I'LL EAT YOU) you should remember one particular point: This is a Pokemon RP. As such, you should try to mesh whatever you do with that fact, no matter how out-there or crossovery it is.>
Robin: How so?
Alduin: <Well, for starters any actually-living creatures should generally be some sort of human or some sort of Pokemon.>
-cut to a female vampire talking to a Shiny Salamence-
Random Female Vampire: What do you mean, I can't get in on WAAPT?
Gino the Shiny Salamence: <Sorry, nyan, humans and Pokemon only.>
Vampire: You let that life-force-suck-y girl in!
Gino: <That's a side effect of other stuff, nyan. She's otherwise totally human.>
Vampire: Rrgh, this is so unfair...
Gino: <Try the Twilight RP down the street, nyan?>
Vampire: ...Ha ha.
Alduin: <There are exceptions, of course. Sentient inanimate objects and certain types of artificial intelligence have enough in-RP precedent to usually be fine. And certain kinds of gags allow you a bit more leeway on that rule!>
<Also, canon characters should be treated with respect! So no beating them up or killing them or severely character derailing them, no matter how much you or the fanbase hates them! That includes anime and manga characters; this is an RP meant for fans of any part of the franchise to enjoy, not a bashfic!>
Gino: <What about Actual Cannibal Professor Sycamore, nyan?>
Alduin: <NO.>
<And whatever you do, try to tie it into the existing lore and setting of WAAPT! There's a lot you can work with! And who knows, maybe you'll make up some lore of your own!>
Robin: Is that it?
Alduin: <...Wait actually, there's a third thing I should note... crunchiness versus fluffiness!>
Robin: ...Are you sure you aren't talking rock candy vs. cotton candy?
Alduin: <Not this time!>
<You see, crunch vs. fluff is a concept common to all kinds of roleplaying, and its exact interpretation depends on the RP, RP system, and/or RP community... But for this RP it means the following:>
<Fluff is approaching the RP more as story; doing this means you'll be making any decisions from what's narratively better, more interesting, and more fun in terms of plot and characterization.>
<Crunch, on the other hand, is approaching the RP as some sort of highly competitive game that can somehow be "won"; decisions are made on the basis of strategic advantage as well as beating anyone possible in a fight and accruing as much power/wealth/influence as possible, etc.>
<As you may have hopefully gleaned from Every's Essay and this one, we very much lean fluff in most cases; as for why... Robin, I'll need your help demonstrating again!>
Robin: ...Er, go on?
Alduin: <Well...>
-whispers in Robin's ear-
Robin: ...Oh, so take this RP's version of the minmaxing and eugenics stuff from you-know-what first and then... Got it!
-Rushes offscreen and returns wearing a backwards baseball cap, torn, baggy jeans, and a t-shirt with a Koffing on it-
Crunch!Robin: Yo, dawgs, I'm Smogonite Stan, and I'm the latest playa' to conquer this weakass RP of yours! My parents are Devon and Sliph executives so I can get anythin' I damn well want, I've got an unlimited supply of Master Balls and Legendary artifacts y'all chumps could only ever dream of touchin', and I've defeated every region's Elite 4 at least three times!
-Sends out a team of six mons that are high on the tier lists as of point of reading-
My whole fukcin' team's been honed to perfection! I've bred and trained 'em all to have max IVs, exactly right EV spreads, the very awesomest of special moves and Abilities, everythin'!
Random OU Mon: <I'm so inbred my life expectancy is a tenth of what it should be!>
Crunch!Robin: The bad news is they've all got extremely shallow, obnoxious, and unlikable personalities, but you expect someone as top-notch as me to give a fuck if it doesn't stop me from winnin', the most important thing in the history of, like, ever? I'm lookin' forward to pwnig all you motherfukin' n00bs and your Eeveeution teams and teams with fucking male Combee straight into the ground and become official top dawg of this RP!
...
...Alduin, is that good for that bit? I'm fighting an urge to vomit right now.
Alduin: -Nods all three heads- <Yeah, sorry about that, go set up Part 2.>
-Robin nods and rushes off as Alduin continues-
<But yeah... We don't want stuff like that. While the RP's Battle Mechanics (as with Every's Essay, READ THEM OR I'LL EAT YOU) do draw a fair bit from the main-series games, we still aren't the actual main series games, or a Smogon simulator for that matter. So trying to approach the RP as something hyper-competitive that you can somehow "win" is an exercise in futility that, as shown above, just leads to godmodding and Sueishness and other icky things. Now, having a competitively viable team and such in and of itself isn't a bad thing, especially if your character's genuinely the sort of person to do that to a far more reasonable degree than "Smogonite Stan", but it should be far from your primary focus.>
<As said earlier, that focus should be on the fluffiness! And for showing that... Let's see what Robin is really like, shall we?>
-Cut to Robin, who has dropped the Smogonite Stan guise and is with a Garchomp, Salamence, Druddigon, and Noibat; notably, Robin's having a friendly conversation with the Garchomp, the Salamence is curled up asleep cuddling a Pikachu plush, and the Druddigon is reading a crime novel intently-
<Now, as seen here, Robin is far more of a "fluffy" character than Smogonite Stan. His full story's complicated and one best not fully explained here for the sake of any newbies, but in an Apricorn shell he's a guy unsure of his place in the world and trying to find ways to and places where and people with he can truly belong, and that drives his actions in the RP's plot - not a gratuitous and futile desire by him to trump literally everyone else in a fight or something.>
<On that note, he also has a mono-Dragon team, which isn't particularly competitively viable, especially with-> -shudder- <Fairies around. However, Robin's team still holds its own in RP battles because due to the RP's focus on "fluff" said battles focus far more on being interesting in regards to the tenets of humor, awesomeness and meaningful drama gone over earlier in this essay than hard numbers. And the individual mons have "fluffy" aspects to their personalities with no ties to winning battles - his Garchomp's friendly and amicable but has a strong sense of right and wrong, his Salamence is simple-minded and naive but affectionate and fond of stuffed toys, his Druddigon is an aspiring master sleuth, and his Noibat... Steals anything not tied down.>
Sam the Kleptomaniac Noibat: -sitting amid a pile of valuables- <What? Smogonite Stan's parents gave me the money for this stuff, I swear.>
Alduin: <...Right.> Artistic Ambipom
<But on the note of keeping battles interesting from a humor/awesome/meaningful drama perspective... There are times where a battle can lean more heavily in the direction of crunch (or fluff for that matter - we've had circumstances of normal battle rules being thrown out the window for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure-tier over-the-topness before) depending on plot needs and player desires. However, those are the exceptions, not the rule, and even when they happen they need to be approved by all players involved.>
<And regardless, in an RP like this, if you're expecting your ultra-optimized Smogon-Approved™ team to inherently beat out, say, a lone, elderly Marowak...>
-Cut to an elderly Marowak grumpily sitting atop a mound of OU mon corpses-
<...You're gonna have a bad time.>
Robin: So I suppose that's all?
Alduin: <That's it! Enjoy your stay at WAAPT! Remember, Hydreigon deserve cuddles, not Moonblasts!>
Robin: Can I have some more pie?
-Alduin tosses another pie at Robin's face-
Gino: <Psst, newbies! Remember those random two words, nyan? Just like with Every's Essay you need them in your signup sheet, nyan!>
