Posts tagged "Rules"

There are 8 posts with this tag.

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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
Yeah, it's back.

How It Works

You post a question for a character in The Quest for the Legends or its spin-offs. I reply to the thread and answer the question in-character.

The Rules

- Everything here is based around the ILCOE. When "the fic" is referenced, it refers strictly to that version.
- You can ask any character who has physically appeared in the fic at some point and is currently alive.
- It does not technically have to be a question, per se, but at least make it something that the character can sensibly answer (in-character).
- Nonetheless, don't just say or "do" something utterly random to make the characters react to it, or at least only very sparingly when you have something that seems like it would be particularly amusing.
- No giving the characters important information they don't actually know in the story. Stick to questions they can personally answer, not "Hey, this happened while you weren't there! What do you think about it?" These questions are really awkward to answer; the character would start thinking, acting, and generally deviating from their in-story selves the moment you give them the information, and then they generally have better things to do than trying to explain their thoughts on the matter to a vaguely defined transient entity harassing them in the void between chapters. This still applies even if you phrase the question as a hypothetical ("What would you do if you found out that this had happened?") unless you have a very good reason to believe you know the character has already considered the possibility of that happening in the story (as otherwise, if not precisely giving them information, you are giving them ideas they should not have had).
- Do not ask too many characters at the same time; restrict yourself to one character per question or asking only one or two questions to a maximum of three or four characters. Also don't ask just for the sake of asking; this takes up a lot of my time and I have better things to do than spend hours every day making the characters reply to something completely meaningless.
- Keep in mind that the characters know what they know in the story and are ready to reveal what they are ready to reveal in the story. They don't know what will happen in the future, and if they refuse to express themselves on some matter in the story they will probably refuse to do so here too. They could also be unreliable narrators or simply mistaken about whatever you ask them; there is no guarantee that because you ask a character about something, their answer is canon.
- Because of this, if you just want to know the answer to some simple factual question vaguely related to a character, you're probably better off asking me in the Ask the Author thread than trying to drag it out of the character's own mouth. Some characters can be quite uncooperative in here.

Ask away.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
Since the Ask the Characters thread was getting filled with questions for out-of-character me on the previous incarnation of the Quest for the Legends forum, this is here so you can ask me whatever you like. It does not necessarily have to be related to The Quest for the Legends.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
Mark: Well, you are… wait, now you're confusing me…

By the way, guys, can you please stop it with all the stupid fourth-wall-breaking questions? A while ago I added a rule to the first post of this thread:

- No giving the characters important information they don't actually know in the story. Stick to questions they can personally answer, not "Hey, this happened while you weren't there! What do you think about it?" These questions are really awkward to answer; the character would start thinking, acting, and generally deviating from their in-story selves the moment you give them the information, and then generally have better things to do than trying to explain their thoughts on the matter to a vaguely defined transient entity harassing them in the void between chapters. This still applies even if you phrase the question as a hypothetical ("What would you do if you found out that this had happened?")

I'll have to start widening the scope of that rule if you don't stop telling the characters they're fictional.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
Sparky to Emerald Espeon: I like to think it can chuck however much wood it likes. You can't just lump all woodchucks together as if they don't have individual tastes and preferences. ;3

Mitch to blazheirio888: That venom was from a rare Ouen-native Pokémon named Spinnomer. It's a sort of spider - very rare, but powerful. Normally the venom doesn't do that, but that man had been bitten several times by a high-level one.

Sparky to blazheirio888: That would be quite… electrifying. :D

I don't mind the random questions. The attention is rather flattering and fun. :3

Mitch to blazheirio888 (again): I imagine it would be quite painful if you're a human. A Pokémon, of course, would think little of it - it's not much more powerful than a good Thunder attack.

I don't quite see why you keep asking these questions, and I'm a busy man, but when they're questions, they aren't too bad.

steele, those aren't questions. Please don't just make random statements for the sake of having the characters react to them. Either ask questions or make statements that sensibly prompt an answer. Those warrant a raised eyebrow at most. :/

Michael: I think they were pretty disappointed and confused… in a way I wish I'd told them what was wrong, but then they'd start worrying about me and I don't want that. I tried to continue training, really, but after a while I just couldn't. I just hope they're happy in the wild.

Aaron: Well, yeah; she beat me, after all. I still thought I might win all the way up until the end when she pulled out her Tyranitar. I can't take on Pokémon like that with only one and a half Pokémon left. They still put up a good fight, though.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
Wierd scenarios are 100% legal.
No, they are not. You are not gods over the void between chapters; I am. Thus, no weird situations with rules made up as you go along. They are not going to answer; they're just going to stare at you like the psychopath you will naturally appear to be if you try to proclaim yourself God and announce you are going to make Mark hang over a boiling pot of magma.

This falls under the same category as the rule noted in the first post about how you can't tell the characters important information they don't know in the story; the moment you give them important information, or put them through traumatic experiences, or physically harm them, they will begin deviating from their in-story selves. Odds are actually, if you put them in that situation, they would all be too scared out of their wits to actually do anything sensible, owing to the fact that they're twelve-year-old kids and all, and while me being me I'd probably find that interesting to write about anyway, I would not do that here in this thread where everything is in script format, and since I like to keep something of a context between individual answers in this thread, I can't just give them all PTSD and make them continue to answer questions that way.

Aside from that, May already told you that if the situation were somehow set up so that a third option couldn't be taken, she'd (in theory) save Spirit rather than Mark, which should be your answer.

That said, it is also pretty pointless to minimod, since it's not as if I'll miss anything that goes on here.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
That is not a proper question; it's just you asking for a reaction to some information that would make the character start deviating from his in-story self. Stop it.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
May: *raises eyebrow* Compensating for something, huh?

Charizard: *freaked-out stare*

Mark: What'd you do that for? <_<


…honestly, though, please stop wasting my time with twelve thousand attempts to make the characters react to random hijinks and poking. This thread isn't for bothering the characters endlessly; it's for when you actually want to know something about them or their opinions on something. I don't mind occasional goofing off, but this is really just tiring and takes up a lot of time I could be using to actually do something useful. You know it's bad when I'm starting to dread looking at this thread and put off replying to it as long as I can let myself get away with.



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Butterfree

  • Posts: 1781
Oh, stop with the dragon questions and attempts to find out who Alan's mom is already. Don't waste my time making me type up the same things I've already typed up fifteen billion times or sit here coming up with excuses to not tell you about Alan's mom. It's very tiring.

Floatzel: Battling is fun. Pain itself, not.

Ash: I'm still in contact with some of them. Others I haven't met in ages - would be fun to see them again.



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