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...do it as something along the lines of 'threat levels'. Probably 1 is the equivalent of a small harmless forest mammal and the highest is death in a barrel, and the assigned number is something that a certain item can tell you, or a file, or whatever. Still keeping the sort-of level mechanic, but making it make a bit more sense.
I'm not explaining this particularly well... Hm. I don't know about this game, but in most of the games I play there's an item or spell that gives you a detailed look at the other person's stats, and can usually be handwaved to say that it gives you a rough approximation of strength, etc., and then the estimated level of threat.
Um.
Hopefully there's something in there you that helps a little.

...levels.

With exams, certification, so on. This can work as well in some game verses where levels are explicit and used for semi in character things like what sort of contests you can enter who you can send.

For instance, in fencing, they actually have levels for you progress through that are determined by wins against what people and where you place in tournaments.

Many martial arts also do that through belts and color.

If you think it is needed, do some additional world building or hand waving to make it make sense in context of a story.

Hey there! Nice to meet you!

I'd avoid using the term levels. Saying stuff like "I was more experienced than so-and-so, but hadn't explored as much as she had" makes the story flow better than using numbers and levels. It's better to think as the numbers as there for the players benefit rather than the characters.

First, I believe a heap of thanks are in order. I am enthralled with all of these wonderful gifts, however, I have no idea of either their purpose or their meaning.

Moving on, I am a fan of the following:
Battlestar Galactica (NEW, the origional is great for the day, however it cannot compare with CGI)
Star Wars (ANYTHING)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Current project)
Ender's Game
Harry Potter

I have read the constutition, and I will follow all Da Rules.

Whats more, I was able to find you with many thanks to the wiki. It was featured on the sidebar of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fanfiction site; which is where my current project resides if you so choose to read it.
My screen name is the same.

Again, many thanks. Cheers to improvement, whatever the cost.

I like to think of it as an age. If you start adventuring at the age of eighteen then that is level one. Add one year for every level. This works because the older you get the more experience you have and the more spells you are likely to have learned.

It might also work to just not mention the level. Instead, refer to the characters level of experience. To use your example, "I was further advanced in my studies than my best friend Sabrina FireWeave, though I had yet to make it to Marleybone and she was already there." This allows you to keep the relative power levels without explicitly saying what level the characters are in the game.

Hope this helps.

Welcome! I offer you a sparkly rock. I hope you have fun here!

--anamia

I return! (Okay, so I only vanished for the hellmonth known as February, but who cares? I'm back now!) And, not only do I return, but I return with a question.

I'm thinking about probably writing at least one fanfic story for a computer game I play a lot. (I'm a nerd. I enjoy being a nerd. And yes, I write fanfic for computer games.) This isn't so much because I adore the game too much to live without it as that the present standard of writing on that site is... well, I believe atrocious might be putting a touch mildly. In all the corners of the internet I've visited, this place may be one of the worst in terms of abuse to the English language. So I want to at least submit something decent, if only to have one thing up there that I can bear to read.

Now, this game, like many games, has a system of leveling up based on accumulated experience points. You start at level one and end the game at level fifty. Your level determines the spells you can cast, the enemies you fight, etc. A lot of people who write stories based on this use the level terminology. "I was a level twenty-seven and not in Marleybone yet, even though my best friend Sabrina FireWeave was a level twenty-four and already there," for instance. I find this obnoxious and it throws me brutally out of the story. On the other hand, it's a part of the game, not something imported by the badfic writers.

How would you deal with this? Should I just use it, or can anyone think of a better alternative?

--anamia

It's a good thing they've all been male lately, or we'd be up to our ears in short ships!

Here have a 17 foot long, multi-colored wool knit scarf (curly wig not included), and a bag of jelly babies.

We have a n00bz0r! Yay, a n00bz0r! Welcome to the Board. Please deposit your sanity in the provided receptacle. *indicates bucket marked "Warg Fodder"* You shan't be needing it here. Also, here's a cup of tea.
What fandoms?

Okay. So. (Latidoremefa.)

Let's see here, not a PG, just gonna point some stuff out anyhow though that I would like the PGs to read before they say yay or nay.

First off, Max, you've got Mysterious!surprisefromnowhere!Agent. Very mysterious, very mysterious. And special.

And why is he wearing a tattered uniform? I know we're usually running in the red but last I checked we're generally willing to keep people from accidentally exploding into nudity in the corridors if they pop the wrong seam and the rest of their uniform falls apart.


*stares at Falras disconcertingly* He is seriousness! And not crazy? And 'unusally sane'? Are you sure he's sane? Most agents in the PPC are not quite sane and saying that he is 'unusally sane' implies he has a future breakdown or nine headed his way because one does not cope in the PPC by being just sane. Does not work that way, no siree. You've got to either be a bit nuts or a bit not with the reason brain processing or able to accept every single thing that happens to cope. Otherwise your brain shuts down at things like tree days filled with chlorophyll and bear hands and urple because these are from the strange territory beyond reality where things happen with less than logic and not quite so common sense.


Though I can see how that can lead to Hilarity and the Powers That Be going and smacking him with the Ironic Overpower each and every chance had.

*stares at Grall now*

Okay, so you have this mostly humanthingumfishnot dude. What's with the (REDACTED)? SCP people we are not. The parasitic continuum? How does tihs make sense? If it is a continuum then whtever is there is canon and while might be Sues elsewhere if it's all the same in there it can't be Sues because it is on par with what is there. Does that make sense at all? The pervertedness is interesting as a character quirk, that could be fun to watch, since hammerspace is occasionaly accessable.

*stares at Alice*

Okay, so more (REDACTED). This is no place to hide secrets suchly, it does not amuse or make for sense. You can just tiptoe around it and say BRELOOM HYBRID and avoid what else. The fact that she's part Pokemon is interesting though. Aso, again, PPC is generally not THIS IS A SECRET AND IT IS CLASSIFIED for everything, especially where involves agents and their bodyparts and species and all that. Fairly open type workplace.


Personality makes no sense. Why would she be part of the PPC if she hates it, and if she hates it so why is she being kept as part of it? And disguises are disguises and help on missions where it is required, so that is quite odd. The Flowers might force the agents to do a lot of AUGH stuff, but they don't force people to do the job if they seriously dont't want it. Most people generally accept the terrible missions as part of doing something to help the canon or for own personal reasons that involve

Okay, moving on to the writing thingy.


Wah wah wah. D: Despair and angst and things that are reasonable for your character.

But some things.

1) Does not quite mess with what is at least my view of the spirit of the PPC.
2) I do not quite appreciate looking at my screen and seeing "Rapeface" on it unexpectedly without warning especially since I'm typing this right now and trying to avoid my parents or younger siblings seeing it and going "omgwtf?". Warnings is good. Warnings is nice. Please use warnings for that sort of langauge because not everyone appreciates it.
4) There is no 3.
5) There are better ways to express shouting and yelling and general emphasis besides caps.
6) This is quite angstydark for a community whose pieces generally trend towards the light and moderatly hilarious cracky and happy.
7) Show, do not tell. If this is their first mission and they haven't known each other very long (I am assuming though I can't tell for sure the length of time meant to be implied) she wouldn't know that he is usually calm in the perhaps-I-have-overdosed-on-sedatives-but-am-still-awake way usually even on missions.

I've written too much because I'm rambling and wrapping lines around and around (yay WYSIWYG!) so I'll leave off for now so presumably someone else can go and tell me I was being too nitpicky.

Again, not a Permission Giver.

Looks okay and I'm not a PG. I just want to quibble one point.

At the end of Grall's wossname, this has LED. Not lead. Lead is either a present tense verb or a type of metal.

*twitches, fumes, and runs away to drown self in Ansela's vodka*

AS I SEEEEP INTO THE BLAAACKEST VOID OF AAAALL- Oh, sorry about that. I like that song a bit too much, that's all...


I, MAXinsanity, request permission to join the Protectors of the Plot Continuum. I swear that I will try to uphold canon, terminate badfic, and to utterly and completely despise the creatures known as Mary-Sues that infest the myraid worlds. I will try my best not just to write, but to prevent myself from being consumed by the drama monster inside. I request that I keep my sanity, or actually, what little is left of it right now. Losing any more of it would make me crazier than my agents. I don't really have any self-insert agents, so I swear that they'll do their best, otherwise they'll have a not so friendly meeting with me about it... D:
And yes, I'll try to keep the serious down. I can't guarantee that I can hold it back forever, though...

- MAXinsanity
____________________________________________________________________

MY AGENTS:

Falras

Age: 14 biologically, otherwise unknown
Species: Mimiga
Gender: Male
Partner(s): Alice Alexandria, Doctor Stephan Grall
Home Continuum: Cave Story
Department: Floaters
Fandom(s): Whatever is needed for the mission
Weapon Of Choice: AWP sniper rifle from Counter-Strike
Lust Object(s): None.

Appearence: Short, with messy white fur covering entire body. Two somewhat long floppy ears, one on each side of head. These are quite tattered, as is his PPC uniform. Dark green eyes. General posture is quite poor, constantly being exhausted from missions.

Personality: Falras is a bit of an enigma. Having suddenly appeared in response center 206 as if he was an agent his entire life, his past is a complete mystery. Unusually sane and calm, Falras is obsessed with work at the PPC, and is capable of navigating HQ quite well. Despite his apparently very high amount of experience, he thinks of himself as superior to most agents, sometimes leaving his partner or partners behind, thinking that they'll only get in the way. Also of note is his extremely serious and stubborn demeanor, not willing to accept failure in any way, or even pulling out of a mission when it's too tough. Falras is also extremely antisocial, only talking with Flowers or his partners (Mostly to whine about how they suck so much).
_________________________________________________________________

Doctor Stephan Grall

Age: 29
Species: Human... Mostly.
Gender: Male
Partner(s): Alice Alexandria, Falras
Home Continuum: (REDACTED)
Department: Floaters
Fandom(s): NiGHTS, Team Fortress 2, Pokemon, and several others.
Weapon Of Choice: Knives, pistols.
Lust Object(s): "Alice", and about a hundred others, all non-humans

Appearance: Mostly normal human, save the unusually angular features. Blue eyes, and wears ugly glasses. Posture is quite twitchy and erratic. PPC uniform is rather normal, but is usually concealed under a white labcoat.

Personality: Grall is highly unstable mentally, being from a parasitic continuum which apparently is filled to the brim with Sues from what intelligence there gathers. Frequently talking to himself or occasionally bursting into song, Grall has strangely fast reflexes, is extremely intelligent, and is also quite friendly and quick to learn. However, Grall can also be extremely irritating to female non-human agents, frequently flirting with them or generally getting on their nerves. This has lead to at least three incidents leading to Grall being physically injured by them, not counting the countless times that Alice has injured him.
_________________________________________________________________

Alice Alexandria

Age: 19
Species: Breloom-(REDACTED) Hybrid
Gender: Female
Partner(s): Doctor Stephan Grall, Falras
Home Continuum: Pokemon
Department: Floaters
Fandom(s): NiGHTS, Team Fortress 2, Pokemon, and several others.
Weapon Of Choice: Hammers
Lust Object(s): None, as of yet.

Appearance: Mostly green skin, except for head and neck, which is tan, along with a "Frill" below the neck. Mushroom-like cap on top of head with two small red sphere shaped protrusions on sides. Hands have only three fingers, with claws colored the same as the protrusions on top of her head. Feet are the same as an ordinary Breloom. PPC uniform is tidy and clean.

Personality: Quite quick to adapt to not acting like an animal, Alice seems rather sane for the most part, only lapsing into aggression when irritated by Grall. The most emotional of the three, and due to the unusual conditions she was recruited in, she displays hatred of the PPC, despite being part of it. Still somewhat paranoid about the entire concept, Alice does not use disguises for the most part, being somewhat afraid of some of the technology at her disposal. Among other problems with her career as an agent, she lacks the drive to kill sues.

ANNENDUM: Keep in mind that if not injected with the batch of chemicals created by Doctor Grall daily, she will begin to become more and more psychotic and aggressive until she goes into a coma.

________________________________________________________

And now, for my writing sample! Some of you out there have probably seen it before, but whatever... It's a mission from the perspective of one of my agents for a NiGHTS Into Dreams badfic.

And here's the link: <a href="http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgcbktf77c2wv5jc5">http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgcbktf7_7c2wv5jc5

...Whoo. It's taken quite a bit of guts to get this far. Let's hope I'll continue getting better at writing...

So, just for fun, I thought I'd try a MST. I chose a bad!fic that takes two things I like quite a bit and mixes them together, with just a dash of a fandom I am fairly ambivalent about. This is my first MST, so I would love to know what I'm doing wrong (or right!)

http://terrofen.livejournal.com/

It is the only entry thus far.

You have been poked.

Second, if you have not done so yet, please read our Board Constitution. We do expect everyone to abide by Da Rules, one of which calls for good spelling, punctuation, and grammar. *pointedly eyes your post title*

I hope you won't think of us as just something to "go through." We're basically a good lot, and the PPC has a history of being a community of friends. Or at least of friendly people with similar interests who like to have conversations about stuff together. Either way. {= )

I second Ansela's big Bag o' Links. There is fun and useful stuff in there. For myself, I also recommend a trip to the PPC Lost Tales archive for a further taste of what PPC writing is all about. Since GeoCities died, that's the only place to find some of the stories written contemporarily with the Original Series, and they're quite good. I maintain the site, so please let me know if you spot any typos, formatting errors, etc.

That should do for now. Welcome!

~Neshomeh

Welcome to the Board! Help yourself to a venomous arthropod, if you so please!

Hey! I don't really know much about what next, I've only been here a few days, but... have an anime character's blouse. (Even if you don't wear blouses, it has hammerspace somewhere in it; a little investigation should do the trick.)

I just got here myself, but welcome! Have a Poppins Carpetbag, those are always useful.

A venomous arthropod? Aww, it's cute in an ugly way... and any and all welcomes are delightful and unexpected, and I'm very grateful for them.

Welcome! Have an unusually proportioned frying pan and a bag full of miscellaneous punctuation. (You'd be surprised how often you'll need extra punctuation. Of course, some people over-use, but that's an entirely different bag.)

I comes bearing links. *drags out Big Bag O' Links and digs through it*

First off is the link to the Wiki, a veritable fount of information for a newbie to read through. Especially helpful for you if you want to write missions would be the page on Permission (note the capital P).

I would advise against reading any Legendary Badfic, unless you are of strong mind and stomach. Even the summaries have been known to give those of weaker constitution nightmares.

For your reading pleasure, not knowing what you have already managed to find, I have several links for you. The Original Series (not to be confused with Star Trek) is a good place to start, as the PPC did many aeons ago. What do you mean I'm exaggerating? The Department of Geographical Aberrations is another interesting place to visit, if you have the time and inclination. Also by hS is the Tangled Webs site, which contains backstory for the PPC as an organisation. If you would rather visit the Floaters, then July's site is the place you need to be. And last, but most definitely not least, Response Centre 45 is where Trojie and Pads' missions are archived.

Hope you enjoy your stay here. Please deposit your sanity into the container offered to you by another Boarder; you won't be needing it here.

Ouch. I haven't seen Robin Hood on the BBC, but I know enough of the original Robin Hood to know that something is very wrong with that story. I only started reading a little bit of the first chapter and had to stop. Hopefully your paperback copy is much better.

Dr. Horrible goodfic! Yay! *dances* I love that film. Actually, the author of that goodfic seems to have written a lot of goodfic, by what I can tell. I respect the canon, but I do like what happened to Captain Hammer in that fic.

*hates Captain Hammer with a loathing usually reserved for Legendary Badfic writers*

Welcome to the PPC! Here's an archery set from the Raven Armory and a bottle of bleeprin. (If you don't know, bleeprin is a medication made of bleach and asprin in the form of a white pill that is used to get rid of the scarring memories of bad fanfiction.) Enjoy your stay in the insanity!