Post by empireoffire on Aug 29, 2014 0:28:44 GMT -6
For funsies, I'll share a random, vague concept for a crossover I've thought up while in the shower one day for you to rate out of ten. The idea could also encompass CYOAs, but the idea had RPs in mind, so I'll refer to them more throughout the summary.
Summary:
In the land of [Original Setting that doesn't exist in any of the RPs in the crossover; I'll abbreviate it as "OZ" as "OS" makes me think of Osranger before anything else], a great conflict has arisen. For this example, I'll say that the conflict is this: The king of this world has been corrupted by the forces of darkness and has begun to unleash dark creatures upon the land. The soldiers of the central army have fallen victim to petrification magic sent by the King, leaving the civilians unable to reliably defend themselves against the forces of darkness.
However, a powerful sorcerer/sorceress (or scientist if OZ is more technology-capable, but let's stick with sorcerer/ess for now) has learned how to open a portal between worlds/dimensions. As OZ is about to fall into darkness and the remaining resistance has turned desperate, the sorcerer/ess calls upon warriors from these unknown worlds to grant them aid.
The worlds from which the warriors are summoned are obviously the worlds of the RPs that are crossing over. Since I don't want to come up with random fake-RPs to use as an example, I'll use some of my own "lead" characters as an example: John Doe from Team Nova and Irving from Austur (since I'm pretty sure most people are familiar with at least 1 one of those RPs). John Doe and Irving are both pulled out of their worlds because of the sorceror/ess's call for aid and agree to help (obviously some persuasion will be needed for most characters, but it's a hypothetical example so I don't feel the need to write the entire persuasion).
Now, you might be wondering "but EoF, what if I don't want to use JUST my lead character for the crossover"? Rest assured that this next bit will answer your question. After John Doe and Irving pass through their portals, they find that they suddenly have a deck of cards in their inventories. Looking through the cards, they see that they're cards of other characters for their own universes; John Doe has Yancy, Hugh, Riley, etc. while Irving has Elijah, wood-mask, etc. (I barely have other Austur characters for the moment, so bear with me). The sorceror/ess explains that those cards are of characters they share an invisible, not-fully-understood "link" with, and teaches them how to summon and un-summon them. Thus, they have the ability to summon other characters from their world to aid in their quest and can un-summon them back into card form at their leisure. Said summons explain that they were also pulled from their world when John Doe/Irving were also pulled here, but had their spirits stored into those cards somehow and fell into what felt like a deep sleep.
Translation: A Player's "lead character" to an RP that's being crossed-over is summoned into OZ while the Player's OTHER (usually side) characters that they control are converted into cards that the lead character can use to bring them into the crossover. This lets Players pick and choose who they want to participate in the crossover-RP, so we're not stuck with an arbitrary "roster limit" that some Players are affected by more than others (because there are those like me who enjoy making a f***-load of characters).
Once OZ's central conflict is resolved, the crossover'd characters are sent back to their own worlds while OZ begins rebuilding.
Additional Notes:
- Detailed mechanics of the "card" characters can freely change and be discussed. For example, whether a "card" character's death reverts them to card form for a day before they can be re-summoned, or if it kills them off permanently for the remainder of the crossover.
- All crossover'd characters do NOT have to start at the sorcerer/ess's beck-and-call. For instance, it could be multiple sorcerers who are calling different groups of characters at different points of the map, or some could start in enemy territory because the King realized what was going on and decided to counter it by summoning characters of his own to imprison/manipulate into working on his side.
- OZ should typically be somewhat of a balance between the worlds being cross over; enough technology that can deal with the worlds being pulled in, for example. It can even combine multiple elements from the RPs being crossed over; OZ having Pokemon as well as all of Austur's non-human species and Magistine/Sacred Wings from Eden, for example.
- Elements about crossover'd characters that would handicap them when brought to another world (like if a World Tree is the source of a setting's magic and OZ doesn't have one) will likely need to be handwaved, compensated for, or incorporated into OZ in some way.
That's the general gist of it; you may rate now. Here are some Pros and Cons I can consider off the top of my head.
Pros:
- Anyone can pick and choose whoever they want to participate in a crossover at any time.
- Conflicts regarding different settings are put at ease by the crossover setting being a mostly original setting that may or may not combine elements from the two.
- Possible duels/shippings/interactions/etc. between characters from completely different universes. Typical crossover stuff.
- Plots of on-going RPs can be paused throughout the crossover without repercussions.
Cons:
- Since RPs typically have differing power levels from one another, the power gap can be far too wide, which can lead to the crossover'd-RP with higher power levels either ROFL-stomping OZ's threats, or causing OZ's threats to get a power boost to become equals to the crossover'd-RP and as a result causing lower-powered RPs to be unable to catch up and be stuck with meat shield roles.
- A possible clash in technology-gaps between CYOAs/RPs can be jarring to matter what. Not only can medieval-ear RPs need to interact with, say, a futuristic sci-fi RP, but the original setting will need to strike a balance somehow between technology levels.
- Obviously, not all RPs will share the same battle systems. It can have typical "write a fight scene" combat like Austur and Nova, or have actual RPG mechanics such as A Single SparkI could've abbreviated it, but I'd imagine people wouldn't understand what I was talking about if I said "ASS". Obviously, this would cause integration problems.
- The resolution of the plot isn't set in stone and therefore can be reached either very quickly or can take forever.
- If participating RPs are still ongoing, the crossover is almost certainly guaranteed to be non-canon, lest the original story become halted because of the crossover even if a Team Nova Mailbag-esque stunt is pulled where they're (supposedly) dropped off back in their stories exactly as they were and with their memories wiped. This especially comes into play when two same-universe characters meet in the crossover only to (chronologically speaking) meet again in the main story despite the main-story meeting being written first (real-life, wise) and as thus not recognize each other.
- People who don't participate in (or at least read) an RP that's in the crossover might be completely locked out of the looped regarding what's going on with them and what they're doing. This could be resolved between prior discussions/PMs/etc., or could be used as method acting in the form akin to "my characters don't recognize these people either, so..."
- Slow posters will get a greater workload.
- Plot armor is in greater effect than ever and can ruin elements of drama if not handled well.
Can-go-either-way:
- Extensive planning is required.
Summary:
In the land of [Original Setting that doesn't exist in any of the RPs in the crossover; I'll abbreviate it as "OZ" as "OS" makes me think of Osranger before anything else], a great conflict has arisen. For this example, I'll say that the conflict is this: The king of this world has been corrupted by the forces of darkness and has begun to unleash dark creatures upon the land. The soldiers of the central army have fallen victim to petrification magic sent by the King, leaving the civilians unable to reliably defend themselves against the forces of darkness.
However, a powerful sorcerer/sorceress (or scientist if OZ is more technology-capable, but let's stick with sorcerer/ess for now) has learned how to open a portal between worlds/dimensions. As OZ is about to fall into darkness and the remaining resistance has turned desperate, the sorcerer/ess calls upon warriors from these unknown worlds to grant them aid.
The worlds from which the warriors are summoned are obviously the worlds of the RPs that are crossing over. Since I don't want to come up with random fake-RPs to use as an example, I'll use some of my own "lead" characters as an example: John Doe from Team Nova and Irving from Austur (since I'm pretty sure most people are familiar with at least 1 one of those RPs). John Doe and Irving are both pulled out of their worlds because of the sorceror/ess's call for aid and agree to help (obviously some persuasion will be needed for most characters, but it's a hypothetical example so I don't feel the need to write the entire persuasion).
Now, you might be wondering "but EoF, what if I don't want to use JUST my lead character for the crossover"? Rest assured that this next bit will answer your question. After John Doe and Irving pass through their portals, they find that they suddenly have a deck of cards in their inventories. Looking through the cards, they see that they're cards of other characters for their own universes; John Doe has Yancy, Hugh, Riley, etc. while Irving has Elijah, wood-mask, etc. (I barely have other Austur characters for the moment, so bear with me). The sorceror/ess explains that those cards are of characters they share an invisible, not-fully-understood "link" with, and teaches them how to summon and un-summon them. Thus, they have the ability to summon other characters from their world to aid in their quest and can un-summon them back into card form at their leisure. Said summons explain that they were also pulled from their world when John Doe/Irving were also pulled here, but had their spirits stored into those cards somehow and fell into what felt like a deep sleep.
Translation: A Player's "lead character" to an RP that's being crossed-over is summoned into OZ while the Player's OTHER (usually side) characters that they control are converted into cards that the lead character can use to bring them into the crossover. This lets Players pick and choose who they want to participate in the crossover-RP, so we're not stuck with an arbitrary "roster limit" that some Players are affected by more than others (because there are those like me who enjoy making a f***-load of characters).
Once OZ's central conflict is resolved, the crossover'd characters are sent back to their own worlds while OZ begins rebuilding.
Additional Notes:
- Detailed mechanics of the "card" characters can freely change and be discussed. For example, whether a "card" character's death reverts them to card form for a day before they can be re-summoned, or if it kills them off permanently for the remainder of the crossover.
- All crossover'd characters do NOT have to start at the sorcerer/ess's beck-and-call. For instance, it could be multiple sorcerers who are calling different groups of characters at different points of the map, or some could start in enemy territory because the King realized what was going on and decided to counter it by summoning characters of his own to imprison/manipulate into working on his side.
- OZ should typically be somewhat of a balance between the worlds being cross over; enough technology that can deal with the worlds being pulled in, for example. It can even combine multiple elements from the RPs being crossed over; OZ having Pokemon as well as all of Austur's non-human species and Magistine/Sacred Wings from Eden, for example.
- Elements about crossover'd characters that would handicap them when brought to another world (like if a World Tree is the source of a setting's magic and OZ doesn't have one) will likely need to be handwaved, compensated for, or incorporated into OZ in some way.
That's the general gist of it; you may rate now. Here are some Pros and Cons I can consider off the top of my head.
Pros:
- Anyone can pick and choose whoever they want to participate in a crossover at any time.
- Conflicts regarding different settings are put at ease by the crossover setting being a mostly original setting that may or may not combine elements from the two.
- Possible duels/shippings/interactions/etc. between characters from completely different universes. Typical crossover stuff.
- Plots of on-going RPs can be paused throughout the crossover without repercussions.
Cons:
- Since RPs typically have differing power levels from one another, the power gap can be far too wide, which can lead to the crossover'd-RP with higher power levels either ROFL-stomping OZ's threats, or causing OZ's threats to get a power boost to become equals to the crossover'd-RP and as a result causing lower-powered RPs to be unable to catch up and be stuck with meat shield roles.
- A possible clash in technology-gaps between CYOAs/RPs can be jarring to matter what. Not only can medieval-ear RPs need to interact with, say, a futuristic sci-fi RP, but the original setting will need to strike a balance somehow between technology levels.
- Obviously, not all RPs will share the same battle systems. It can have typical "write a fight scene" combat like Austur and Nova, or have actual RPG mechanics such as A Single Spark
- The resolution of the plot isn't set in stone and therefore can be reached either very quickly or can take forever.
- If participating RPs are still ongoing, the crossover is almost certainly guaranteed to be non-canon, lest the original story become halted because of the crossover even if a Team Nova Mailbag-esque stunt is pulled where they're (supposedly) dropped off back in their stories exactly as they were and with their memories wiped. This especially comes into play when two same-universe characters meet in the crossover only to (chronologically speaking) meet again in the main story despite the main-story meeting being written first (real-life, wise) and as thus not recognize each other.
- People who don't participate in (or at least read) an RP that's in the crossover might be completely locked out of the looped regarding what's going on with them and what they're doing. This could be resolved between prior discussions/PMs/etc., or could be used as method acting in the form akin to "my characters don't recognize these people either, so..."
- Slow posters will get a greater workload.
- Plot armor is in greater effect than ever and can ruin elements of drama if not handled well.
Can-go-either-way:
- Extensive planning is required.
