Experiences Do Parallel Fandom Universes Work?

[Chordling]

My first experience with a fandom roleplay was over ten years ago. I'm not sure if this is even the correct term but I'm curious to hear what some of you have experienced. I'm referring to fandom roleplays that take place during the original plot of the fandom.

What is the correct term for this type of fandom roleplay (assuming mine is incorrect)? How were these roleplays conducted? Were there cannon characters? Were there original characters? What went really well? What caused the roleplay to die? I may come up with more questions as the discussion continues.




Definitely not planning a fandom roleplay or anything. baka.

 

[Crayons]

During the plot, as in the plot happens in the background and you do other stuff elsewhere in the same timeline? I would call that AU (if things are sufficiently different) or just ... a fandom rp.

Or the plot goes ahead with people RPing canon characters and/or replacing them with OCs but things change in the plot because of rp events? That would be a canon-divergent or sometimes AU rp.

I've mainly done the first kind. They all work just fine.

 

[Chordling]

During the plot, as in the plot happens in the background and you do other stuff elsewhere in the same timeline?

Yes, this is exactly what I mean! It's good to know that AU still covers this kind of roleplay. I don't think I would care too much about canon-divergent roleplays (right now). I worry about players that are used to having goals and objectives in roleplays or if it's okay to have it an open/ sandbox type of environment.

 

[Crayons]

Yes, this is exactly what I mean! It's good to know that AU still covers this kind of roleplay. I don't think I would care too much about canon-divergent roleplays (right now). I worry about players that are used to having goals and objectives in roleplays or if it's okay to have it an open/ sandbox type of environment.

The vast majority of fandom roleplays I've done are like this. Some people might count it as AU, others not. For example, if the events happen alongside the main storyline and are never mentioned or interfered with except in passing then it can't really be considered AU at all. Other times fandoms are only considered AU if they are set in a completely different setting, e.g. Naruto, but it's a space opera. (Or: similar universe but characters, countries, etc. are different.)

I think most players prefer to have goals and objectives. Sandbox works too as long as you have some players willing to create their own plots and involve others but I'd say that giving the players at least a general goal is useful.

 

[Laix_Lake]

The vast majority of fandom roleplays I've done are like this. Some people might count it as AU, others not. For example, if the events happen alongside the main storyline and are never mentioned or interfered with except in passing then it can't really be considered AU at all. Other times fandoms are only considered AU if they are set in a completely different setting, e.g. Naruto, but it's a space opera. (Or: similar universe but characters, countries, etc. are different.)

This is something that I do wonder about sometimes, any chance you could provide an example of how a gm has handled the cannon story alongside the RP?

 

[Crayons]

This is something that I do wonder about sometimes, any chance you could provide an example of how a gm has handled the cannon story alongside the RP?

The canon story is happening, but it's outside of the events taking place. So for example, if there was a big incident in the canon story like the palace got blown up, for example, your characters would know about it and it might affect their actions, but they don't directly impact the story you're telling.

Here's an example from a Fullmetal Alchemist RP I ran: In FMA a known murderer of alchemists called Scar is on the loose, and he's had run-ins with the military about town. In our story, one of the characters needed to an excuse because someone trying to kill him (an alchemist) accidentally killed someone he was meeting (another alchemist). And because he didn't want to get implicated in this attempted murder he claimed that he had seen Scar running from the scene of the crime. (It was actually a tad more complex than that but you get the drift.)

We also had a couple of minor canon characters in the RP, who would have been doing the RP events in between their scenes in the canon story.

Right now I'm in a Naruto RP run by The Silent Z and while the Naruto chunin exams were going on in the Leaf village, our characters were at an alternate chunin exams in the Rock village. But, for example, my character's brother (an NPC) was at the Leaf village chunin exams and was knocked out early on. There's nothing in canon to say a random background character wasn't Tsutsuji Asagi, so why not have him be there?

 

[Chordling]

The canon story is happening, but it's outside of the events taking place. So for example, if there was a big incident in the canon story like the palace got blown up, for example, your characters would know about it and it might affect their actions, but they don't directly impact the story you're telling.

This is exactly what I would like to attempt!

 

[Kaihaku]

I've often seen successful RPs along these lines take one of two routes. There's also a third route that I've seen but it's less successful.

I'll call the first From a Distance. The RP characters are in the same world, maybe the same organization, and are impacted by the source material's plot but it's all from a safe distance. They rarely, or never, interact directly with the primary protagonists of the source material but fill in gaps left open by the source material. Rogue One is a good example of this kind of kind of plot. Side characters from the source material show up and might play very important roles but the important ones have 'plot immunity' and the others are fair game. This style of RP might be used to explain what happened to character X who just kind of disappeared. Sometimes the RP characters are very far removed from the source material but still impacted by its plot. I had an early Dungeon Master who ran a campaign like for some Dragonlance fans that danced around events, hitting major plot points, but never interacting directly with the protagonists. I think this character divide is important for ensuring that the RP characters get to experience memorable events from the source material and feel like they are in that world, but not have to worry about them setting the source material's plot on a different trajectory.

I'll call the second From the Shadows. The RP characters are fully aware of the source material's characters and their secret mission is to keep the plot as seen in the source material on track. The novel Ender's Shadow is a good example of this, it retcons the original novel Ender's Game to include shadowy figures who engineer pretty much everything in the source material. The original plot remains intact...but, secretly, only because of the RP characters manipulating things. Something that can frustrate players in these RPs is that it strips away the source material's agency and gives it to them. The only reason Ender succeeded in all those things is because you were there in the shadows...is actually not a great plot device when the players liked Ender and didn't want to see him disempowered. It's like saying Naruto won all those fights only because we were there manipulating events, it can be cool but it also completely undermines Naruto's character arc. I've most often seen these as 'multiverse' or 'time traveler' RPs, where the RP characters are keeping things on track after some kind of disruption, but occasionally there's been one where it's a secret organization mentioned by the source material.

The way the television show Agents of Shield interacts with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bit of a combination of these two routes. Sometimes they're impacted by the movies, sometimes they're setting up the movies - but they never change the movie plotlines. Minor characters make regular cameos. Major characters make occasional cameos but have plot immunity. As far as the MCU cares, Agents of Shield doesn't exist.

The third route that I've seen is Along Side. This puts the RP characters right in the middle of the source material's plot. They interact heavily with the protagonists and share their struggles. The problem that I've seen with this route is that it tends to drift either towards railroading, with the GM locking down the RP players to keep the narrative intact, or towards a very different narrative that's decidedly AU. Going hardcore AU isn't a bad thing in itself but I've seen it cause conflict - often one player wants a faithful adaptation of the source material with just their OC added while another may want the freedom to drastically impact the source material's plot. There's also often conflict between players over what constitutes "OoC" knowledge of the plot. This is particularly a problem with secret identities or mysteries... It's often hard to know where to draw the line. In the Shin Megami Tensei series, Louis Cyphre is a recurring mystery character who usually guides the events of the plot... In the source material, it's rarely revealed until the end game or even post game that he's Lucifer in disguise. But tell that to a someone in a RP who says "Lou Cyphre" out loud a few times. There are a lot of characters like this in fandom, the author put an obvious clue in to cue the audience but the characters in the source material don't figure it out until much later. That causes issues with RPs that are suppose to stick close to the source material's plot.

Personally, I prefer to go hard AU myself. I'll replace the source material's protagonists with the RP characters and shift the plot around to be based on them. I usually keep some characters but they might be in very different roles which adds a sense of discovery. I try to do this in ways that make sense to the source material in an 'It's a Wonderful Life' sort of way. Oh, because so and so wasn't around that character became a barkeep instead of a priest?!