[Deleted]

Every pokemon site that I've been on has always been 100% OCs, even gym leaders and elite four members. I've seen pretty good results with allowing people to expand on these roles and take a step up.

Sites will generally set up their gyms and the types, and then allow people to apply for those roles and flesh out an original character. I've seen it work out really well!

[cfree]

Hey all! no I'm not stalking you Milachan/Fate i swear

I actually think that it'd be a cool idea to allow canons, but without their actual positions or special roles in the plot. It would be kind of an alternate universe thing. After all, tons of the canons (namely gym leaders) have secondary professions that could be fleshed out if they didn't have their canon positions. For example, Volkner's a gym leader, but he's also a highly intelligent engineer who developed Sunyshore City's entire power system. I wouldn't mind seeing a Volkner who is a full time engineer instead of a gym leader (especially since he apparently hates being a gym leader anyway, lol).

But I dunno. Though I don't think it'd be a problem as long as the roleplayers stuck to the canons' basic concepts, allowing canons with significantly different roles from their official ones could be kinda tacky and turn some people off. It might be best to leave canons out altogether.

But yeah, I definitely love the idea of non canon gym leaders/elite four members. There's so many cool archetypes that haven't been explored in the canon that we could really flesh out! If the positions are filled by good characters, not having canons shouldn't be a problem.

[zerohour]

The AU canon thing is a neat idea, but I'm not sure how you could actually pull it off. I've personally never been on a canon site before, which is why I kind of wanted to play around with it. Even so, creating an OC around a certain type of gym is always fun. Everything seems to be based in original regions these days, it would be kind of cool to play around in the game-based regions with OCs.

...it occurs to me that none of that was really helpful, but there ya go.

[milachan ★]

Well, considering how quickly the gym leaders changed in Black/White/2 and the fact that there was only two years between that, I think we could possibly work it that the cycle has gone through and many of the leaders retired because someone else expressed interest. You could always allow people to play canons as themselves but as CFree said (x3 stalk away lovely, this is supposed to be an attractive Pokemon idea, haha, I want people to come looking!) most of the leaders have other Professions. Even Brock could go be a cook or something. xD So if people are attracted to the idea of canons and playing around with them, we could give them a very basic sort of allowance.

If nothing else, canons in Pokemon have so much art it's nice to use them just for the sheer amount of graphic use you can have. For example I have over 1500 Mei icons. >> I went on sprees for like two weeks straight with iconning, but I am 99% sure that nearly any situation she's in she has an icon for or at least an emotion to represent her feelings. xD

But basically, I kind of like the au-dom of CFree's idea - if we allow them, it's because they've moved on past their roles as Gym Leaders.

[BRIONY]

i absolutely love the idea of OCs in gym leader/elite 4 roles. i was once on a site like that, and it was probably one of my favourite pokemon rps overall tbh. i suppose i'm a bit biased since i personally prefer OC only rps. canon only and canon+OC sites aren't as appealing for reasons already mentioned in this thread, but since there haven't been many pokemon rps at all lately, i'd probably join either way l-lol

anyway, i'll definitely be stalking this thread hehe

[Kodiak]

I'd be interested in an all OC Poke site, I was on one and it was pretty fun, for the time i was there anyway. I feel like I'm a bit biased against canons though, since its mostly cause I have this weird thought process that canons can only be largely part of things if certain people play them, idk i said i thought i was biased or whatever. Anyway will stalk this thread a little, sounds like an interesting convo.

[cfree]

I can definitely see why people are against having any canons at all. I think that OC gym leaders are awesome, and I'd hate for them to be overshadowed by the more popular retired gym leaders. Even in character they could be shoved under the bus.

Which is why if canons are included, they shouldn't be any more significant than the non gym leader/elite original characters. I like what Mila said about the plot line being set after all of the current Pokemon League guys either retire or lose their position. However, to keep with our theme of making a unique site, this shouldn't govern the entire plot. It should simply be a feature that allows members a bit more creativity and should give more depth to the canons.

Another idea is to go for a full AU roleplay in which the canons never held the positions they hold in the series, which would make them more like glorified face claims than canons. I'm pretty fond of this idea, as it gives the OC gym leaders more flexibility in how long they remain gym leaders and in what path their career takes them. This would also keep the canons from stealing the limelight. The option would be there for roleplayers to have, but would make them insignificant enough that the concept could be explained in a few sentences on the rules page (something along the lines of: "You may create a canon character if you wish, but they will not hold their canon positions. Instead, feel free to flesh out their personality or background minus their involvement with the Pokemon League. Check the face claims page for taken canons," with an example thrown in for good measure) I think that as long as this is done in a way that it doesn't detract from the importance of the non canon characters, essentially putting the canons on the same level as any OC.

But I dunno. Every option has its own opportunity to be great. We should take a poll and make a decision soon, or else I fear we could be debating and proposing ideas for the next month!

[milachan ★]

Well I personally think that going with the AU and allowing people to use the fcs or basic personality would definitely be alright in my books, so I guess like CFree said we should take it to a poll. I definitely want OCs as the gym leaders and everyone gets a pokedex etc, but what are people's votes on allowing AU canons? We'll say they never had their roles but people can use their face claims if they wish? What say you?


(I also apologise if this is choppy sounding, I wrote it on my phone xD)

[Deleted]

Like I said earlier, if you're going to allow people to use canon face claims and let them have similar personalities you're just better off having canons instead of attempting to parade them off as original characters. If what you want from this site is to have canon characters, ultimately, you're not going to be happy if you don't go that way.

On Avidgamers and AcornRack, I had a pokemon site set in Kanto that was 100% original characters and had no canons and it went off without a hitch. There's no problem in making a site using an already existing region that people are familiar with/enjoy and taking the canons out of it. Because when you do that, you are letting people shape the world instead of letting the path already be carved out.

The argument that canon characters have so much art can be applied to nearly any animanga faceclaim, so I don't really see that holding weight on its own. Also, my worry earlier about canons being favoured over original characters wasn't about them being the center of the plot. As you can already see in this thread, people have a strong bias towards canon characters. When it comes time to plot these characters, who do you think would get more attention?

The original character, or the canon that everyone already loves?

This is just things you have to think about. I've found that it is never a good idea to create a site around the idea that you want to play a certain character.

Also, CFREE, what do you mean allow people to have a canon character but not their personality? The personality is that canon character. At that point, you're merely letting them become a faceclaim, and if that's the case, that's fine. If someone wants to use a faceclaim for their character, who just happens to be canon, shouldn't be a problem if that person gives them an entirely different name and personality.

What you're suggesting is basically allowing them to make an original character with the name and all the popularity attached to that name but without the personality. So, why not just let them use the person as a faceclaim with a different name and personality, completely eliminating the idea of canons altogether? Since that seems to be what you're suggesting -- unless I misinterpreted your post, and if that's the case, I'm sorry.

[milachan ★]

^ largely what you're saying cadance is actually what I co sider. Allowing them to be a face claim and that's all. I don't want people to have to exclude Pokemon fcs. You worded it better than I did. XD

[Deleted]

I see absolutely no problem with them just being a face claim as long as there is an obvious difference in personality! c:

[milachan ★]

XD it was such a simple wording but ugh of course I couldn't brain it. Mornings.

Okay so yes, all those in favour of allowing pkmn fcs but not in their canon roles?

[cfree]

Yeah, I feel y'all. I'd be happy with going full OC! If my idea's already been misinterpreted/considered ineffective, then it will only become more problematic as the site goes on. admits to having a crack moment

I think we've discussed this as much as we can. I say that we just forget about canons altogether and go full OC. After all, while not everyone here likes canon roleplays, all of us are fond of OC roleplays, at least to some degree.

Jeez, who thought a pokemon roleplay prep thread could get intense? And we haven't even begun to discuss the plot! I like it though. It means that we care enough to create something awesome!

EDIT: To confirm, I am in favor, Mila. Wanted to make sure that was clear xD

[zerohour]

Yeah. What you said.

It's cool to know there are this many people who care, though. XD

[milachan ★]

Yeah, it really is. For those of who are interested in helping, it's not open and it still needs a fair slab of work done but the URL is pokemon-rpg.boards.net (yeah, pokemon-rpg xD) but I kind of think that its working to head towards OCs only and just give the option to use the FCs. As it is I already have a rule written that we don't want our characters being carbon copies of their FC so we'll just make that also apply to Pokemon FCs. xD

ALSO CAD - I miss AG/AR so much. I was around when AG1 was still allowing URLS.

And can I get interest in people who actually want to help staff this Pokesite. From the interest just sort of grabbed in this thread I'm fairly certain that me alone is far from enough in the way of staffing. xD I've kind of handled AT mostly on my own up until now and that in itself has been a little stressful. Having real help is going to be like.. a godsend.