Original Characters

SRTMOO encourages Original Characters, or OCs! OCs can add texture to the world and take the plot in interesting directions that a feature character simply cannot.

OCs do not necessarily originate from any one theme. We've taken significant steps to make sure the world feels like a cohesive whole, and avoid a sense that a given character or theme has primary to exclusive claim on any one topic or area. OCs are simply OCs.

To help players focus their ideas, create a sense of fairness in OC development, and make it clear what we think would be beneficial to the game, we've set out a few expectations.

Guidelines

SRTMOO's universe is, from an OOC perspective, unique. Characters have been adjusted to fit a unified theme. This applies as much to original characters as it does to feature characters.

• OCs that closely mimic FCs from unintegrated themes will not be allowed. We will take an extremely dim view of attempts to "stealth integrate" a theme.
  • This is fairly narrow in its application. 'A heavily bug-themed Ultraman-hunter created by G-Hound, with a human form and a heart that desires justice' is technically an OC; it's also pretty clearly trying to stealth-integrate Kamen Rider. A certain amount of homage is fine; the problem is one where overt dishonesty about what you're trying to do is the biggest problem.
• Characters exist, for the time of their tenure, entirely within the scope of Super Robot Taisen MOO. Characters are not actively hopping to other RPs entirely and coming back with that content. There are a handful of feature characters who are dimension-hoppers in our theme; we'll work with their players on the details of previous universes they may have been in. While most concepts are available in equal measure to both feature characters and original characters, as of Phase 1 and 2, OCs who have directly and personally experienced other timelines will not be allowed. We want to allow the handful of FCs for whom that's an essential background hook the first shot at that type of hook.
• Characters should have their own unique hooks, within reason. Stealing another character's hook or tying it entirely around a single existing FC entirely cheapens both characters. Characters should form those sorts of powerful connections on-grid anyway. (Note that this is a fair bit more elastic in the case of it not eating a current FC's lunch; concepts like '14th Prince of the Britannian Union' or 'vaguely related to the Zabis through a series of cloning projects' are perfectly fine. The point of this isn't necessarily avoiding ever having a character be related in any way to an FC, but instead about respecting the conceptual space those characters occupy.)
  • The intent of this rule is applied at the broad strokes layer, not the micro scale individual events and weapon systems layer. We are not interested in very hyper-specifically preserving who-does-what every time; usually, a character has a couple of key identity-points and capabilities we'll do our best to preserve. For instance, a character with a Geass power should have a distinct one rather than duplicating a canon one; it does not mean that "a Knight of Rounds with a Geass power can necessarily not exist, because Bismarck has those traits." This also applies to events; "the Devil Gundam scare has already happened" does not mean "there can never be another nanomachine-related crisis before or after," nor does it mean "the only use of DG Cells should be the one laid out in SRW T's G Gundam content."
• Characters should intersect with the theme and tone of the game. SRTMOO is fundamentally a hard-PG-13-to-soft-R anime mecha game. While there's room for a variety of takes on those key points, characters should actually be able to engage those key points.

Promises

This sort of thing can come off as diktat rather than collegial engagement. To that end, we want to lay out some guidelines for the game's engagement with OCs, just as we have OCs' engagement with the game.

• Just as original characters are discouraged from poaching feature characters' gimmicks, feature characters are discouraged from trying to invalidate original characters. If you're playing a mecha designer, for instance, Nina Einstein from Code Geass shouldn't OOCly scoop you on an exciting development along your own development tree. It's equally unfair to if you scooped her on FLEIJA and will be approached the same way.
• The actions of original characters have the same capacity to affect the setting as those of feature characters. There are admittedly some cases where feature characters have additional access to the levers of power initially, but having a leg up on touching the setting does not mean having a leg up on touching the story.

Addenda

These don't really serve as guidelines or promises, but further notes.

• Some things might not be integrated whole cloth, but their components might be. This particularly applies to long-running series like Front Mission and Universal Century Gundam, or series with a lot of alternative content that's difficult to fit in like Code Geass. There are a lot of really cool designs in side manga and unintegratable bad games. We encourage pillaging these things because they allow characters to have distinctive units that already fit the 'texture' of the world.
• If something isn't working, or you want to add something, please reach out. Want to add something to an OC's background to give them a hook? Came up with a cool idea that requires tweaks to your baseline concept? Great! ... But please let us know. Send something to the appbox or through the request system.
• If staff discover we've made a terrible mistake, we reserve the right to fix it. If something snuck through in approval that shouldn't have, such as something that's clearly a stealth integration or steals space from a character, we're going to adjust.