Reading missions to fandoms outside your knowledge is an interesting experience. Some fandoms and authors tend to assume that you, the reader, are fairly familiar with canon, and will not have their agents re-inventing the wheel to explain canon problems. That kind of thing is most likely to be found, in my experience, in fandoms like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter that are or have been very popular.

Canons that are currently very rare usually go to lengths to explain the canon issues. This is usually accomplished by one or the other of the agents being unfamiliar with the canon, and therefore standing in for the audience and giving the agent who does know an excuse to engage in what would otherwise be As You Know Bob conversations.

I do have a bit of an unusual perspective on this, I think, because I read the Merlin mission that Trojie and Pads did before I had heard of the show. They explained it enough that I understood why the charges were charges, but after I had watched the show (And loved it. Everyone should watch it!) I re-read the mission, and I did get more out of it. Just knowing what the characters looked like helped me a lot, and there were subtle things that knowing the character gives you that written explanations just can't cover.

So yeah, I did get more out of the mission once I knew the canon, but the mission was thoroughly enjoyable without that extra layer of understanding.

I have to hope that people are willing to read less well known or popular (within the PPC) fandoms. While there is now a small contingent of people that know Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, and NCIS those were all canons with no or only a very few missions in them when I joined. Sherlock Holmes had none (two old missions were later recovered, but they are for a sub-canon of Sherlock Holmes). Merlin had the one mission, Psych (I'll finish it eventually!) still has none, and there is only one other person in the PPC that I know of that knows and likes Sanctuary.

As for the practice missions, I point you back to July's response, again. It was well thought out and sound advice.

I was also worried about humor when I joined the PPC, and I have to admit that my results have been mixed at times. I think the one thing that writing for the PPC has taught me above anything else is to relax. Not relax in SPaG, which I think I am slowly getting better at, but with the process and characters. I've had problems in original fiction and fanfiction writing of being so afraid to mess things up, that I end up paralyzed and never get anything finished. I wish I had learned some kind of advice that I could share with you about relaxing while writing, but though I've consistently managed it with my PPC agents, I still stress over the others. If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know, because most of the best things I've come up with in missions were a result of having no plan whatsoever and writing myself into a corner that I then had to write myself out of, and I wish I could bring that to my other writings.

Anyway, I'm done with the rambling. Good luck!

I'm currently working on the first PPC mission in the Thundercats continuum and to my knowledge there have only been two or three X-men missions too. Working the less known continuums just means there's more badfic for you that you don't need to share.

So far, I have written the one Dr. Horrible mission, and as soon as it's beta'd, the one Alex Rider mission. (Although it should be noted that it's a crossover with Harry Potter.) It's not a real disadvantage- I've read a few missions in canons I have no familiarity with and enjoyed them- but you're right in saying that you won't necessarily get everything from them someone who is familiar with the canon will. At the same time, the canon is usually not the main focus of the mission- badfic is, and badfic is pretty universally bad. I think a well written mission, no matter what the canon, is fun to read, even if you don't get the inside reference

As for the practice missions, I can't say that it's a bad idea or a good idea. See July's answer for more info.

... yes, go ahead, but don't hang your heart on anyone else seeing them ever. :P

The real question is, what canons do you know? I'm quite astonished you've found something our mission backlog doesn't cover (and not everything's even on that list...1)

hS

No one's forcing you to do missions in "popular" works, honest. As long as it's some form of published fiction, it falls under the jurisdiction of the PPC. Personally, I haven't done missions in any of the three works you mentioned. I've done missions in Happy Tree Friends and Gorillaz, for goodness' sake. We'd much rather you write missions in a book/game/etc. you *do* know than fumble through a "popular" work you don't know. If you want to do a mission in The Death Gate Cycle or The Edge Chronicles or Psychonauts (also totally okay if you don't know what those are), then by all means, have fun and make sure you post it for us once you have permission.

And don't worry, I haven't read Lord of the Rings either.

What sort of canons do you know? LotR is actually fairly lower on the ranks of recent missions in terms of frequency, so it doesn't matter too terribly now, if you haven't read it. For example, I've done missions in Doom, Discworld, Harry Potter, Legend of Zelda, and so on, and there are others who've tackled other canons beyond what I've just mentioned as well.

As to getting references? This isn't a disadvantage at all; inside references are inside references, and the important thing is getting the broad strokes and intended tone and humor when reading a mission.

As to experimenting with missions before you receive permission to write them, honestly? There's no one really stopping you. We're not going to go to your door with a battering ram and a writ demanding you to come with us or you end up in prison, but the reason for permission so so that we know you have a vague idea of the humor and general gist of the PPC. Writing missions before you get permission, and, if you say, get turned down because you don't capture the tone or mood, or if you take things down a dramatic and serious road and the PG goes 'eeeeh, try again later, this is way too serious for us' makes it more likely for you to get overly attached to what you did without any way to tackle it properly because you've put yourself into a pattern that you like already.