Now that we have our own
playground I mean child board, maybe I can make an attempt at putting all Useful Information in one post! Feel free to ask if there's anything more you'd like to know, or if anything seems unclear ^________^
- What's is a self-insert?If you imagine yourself as a character in the SSSS-verse, who would you be? Would you be a skald, a cleanser, a troll hunter, a mage, or something completely different? Maybe a courier, a simple farmer, or a book binder? The possibilities are endless. Would you be immune? What languages would you speak? What would be your heritage? ...You wouldn't be a
troll, would you?
self-insert, SSSSona, SSSS oc... there are many names we call our characters.
- What's going on?Okay, now for a history lesson on this entire thing.
Some months ago,
koalalou and I posted our self-insert characters in the fanart thread, completely independent of one another. This sparked a trend, which caused the posts to be taken out of the fanart thread to avoid clogging - and into
their own. So if you feel like the original thread starts a little randomly and out of context - it is.
Nobody expected the trend to grow to such proportions. It started out as just people posting their bios and drawing their character, but we didn't stop there, oh no. First there were some plans of drawing 'the whole team together', but as soon as the headcount started to reach the tens, twenties, thirties... that proved to be a pretty hard task. Some valiant souls did attempt to draw everyone - some still do! But mostly, we've been doing art trades. Or other kind of trades, with those who don't feel like drawing.
I'd love to explain the "main thread" in simple terms, but it's hard. I'd say it's a collection of bios and art-trades and some short stories, but there's a lot more than that. It's pretty much the thread where most hijinks and shenanigans have been born, like "the blart incident" - a
certain troll hunter swinging a
certain mage by the wrists like a mace into a troll. It started out as a joke but is now accepted as SSSSona canon. And that's just
one example of that happening, honestly. There are also various trends, like drawing your character in the clothes they would wear in their dreamworld, or like a magical girl. It's a fun thread,
probably rewarding to skim through, but probably very intimidating for newbies to get into.
- Is it too late to join?nope! you can pop in with your character bio whenever!
- Does my character have to be exactly like me? Are there any ground rules I should follow?No, most people have characters merely
based on themself. Some characters are more autobiographical than others, some are steering into more OC (Original Character) territory. And some characters - like trolls - are just 'sonas, not self-inserts. (but if you want to make a biographical trollsona, go ahead!)
we never talked about any
rules, but there seems to be a consensus that your character should fit into the established SSSS-verse. Of course, there are limits to what we know of the SSSS-verse, especially when it comes to mages and the dreamworld... no harm in trying, though.
another ground rule is to be respectful of the other characters and their owners. If you want to collaborate with someone, it's better to talk to them first (PM works wonders!) than just assuming things and running with it!
- WHAT IF I CAN'T DRAWFRET NOT. The self-insert trend started out very artsy - it did start in the fanart thread - and that may be a little intimidating for non-artists, I know. But you don't need to be an artist to create a character bio or a description! And hey, chances are that an artist will draw your character for you. I'm not kidding, we really will draw you.
- There are so many characters... you're not seriously expecting me to trudge through 200+ pages to find out who everyone is, are you?a haha ha no... There has been an attempt at gathering all the bios onto
an infodump. It's maintained by Curry, KauniitaUnia and ParanormalAndroid.
Update: Misea has also provided with
more statistics-y spreadsheets!!
As for art, there is a
pinterest board where you can see most of it. I think Eriaror is working on a solution for finding all art for specific 'sonas, too.
(artists can give permission to get their art pinterested
in this thread)
- hang on hang on expedition?oh yeah, after months of our characters slowly shaping up, and the silhouette of a plot starting to be seen - we're slowly making our characters move intot he world and a story. There are several threads for that on this board. Keep in mind that it's very much a
collaboration project, so it goes a little slow and there are a lot of participants. Maybe it will never truly be one continuous story with a full plot and everything, but more of a collection of smaller stories and happenings.
(more updates and information to follow in the future sometime)
