Darwin's Soldiers (Roleplay)

"Well, after terrorists, mad scientists, ninjas, and a completely unnecessary trip to the troposphere, Europe's looking better everyday."

—Dr. Shelton, succinctly summing up the first RP.

It's 2008, in the lonely deserts of Nevada. A team of desert-based terrorists invade a remote government research station, hoping to steal some supplies for a secret project. They cut off communications, barricade the exits, and start clearing the base.

Unfortunately, the base just happens to be staffed completely by badasses.

Darwin's Soldiers is an online Science Fiction/Furry RP trilogy set primarily in Pelvanida Base, Nevada. Most of the story is written on the Gang of Five forum, with a few unfinished RPs on Furtopia. Other than the RPs, GOF user LettuceBacon&Tomato has written numerous tie-in stories that are also considered canon.

The Darwin's Soldiers universe includes:

Darwin's Soldiers (Furtopia) - the first attempt at a Darwin's Soldiers RP. Chronicles a terrorist attack on Pelvanida Base, and how the scientists fight back. Never finished, and canonically considered the Anti-Matter universe.^note
Darwin's Soldiers (Gang of Five) - After the failure of the first RP, the creator Serris reposted the same concept on another forum. This one took off.
Darwin's Soldiers (rebooted) - an attempt to reboot the RP on Furtopia, but like its predecessor ended up dwindling and dying. Featured several differences from the original, notably expies for Dragonstorm and Dr. Shelton, and babyfur elements. For this reason, its creator dislikes it, and it's considered non-canon.
Survival of the Fittest - The sequel to the Gang of Five RP. Set shortly after the events of the first RP, it tells the story of the surviving scientists breaking back into Pelvanida to stop an illegal underground project called Dragonstorm.
Disruptive Selection - The third RP. The scientists learn about more Dragonstorm locations and search the West Coast to eliminate the remainders of the project.

Note that when this TV Tropes article refers to the first, second, or third RPs, it's talking about the Gang Of Five ones. The other two are commonly referred to as "The Furtopia RP" or "The rebooted/second Furtopia RP''.

In addition, tie in stories include:

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Card of Ten - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato before there was even talk of a second RP, Card of Ten was one of Serris' motivations to start Survival of the Fittest. Set immediately after the first RP, it tells of a team of scientists who travel through the Einstein-Rosen Bridge to another universe and become trapped, and try to find a way home.
Schrodinger's Prisoners - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Set before the first RP, it tells the story of LB&T's character Dr. Shelton as he test runs a virtual reality machine which turns out to have malicious programming.
Pavlov's Checkmate - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Set after the third RP, and tells the story of how the survivors from Card of Ten met up with the survivors from Disruptive Selection.
Darwin's Soldiers drabbles - a scattering of short stories written by Serris that take place in the Darwin's Soldiers universe, of varying canon. One of them is a Darwin's Soldiers/The Land Before Time crossover.
Nietzsche's Soldiers:Will to Power - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Set between the second and third RPs, tells the story of Drs. Shelton and Kerzach undercover in the Dragonstorm ranks.
Fool's Gold - Written by Serris. Details Dr. Kerzach's career at a Dragonstorm refinery and what he finds there.
Aftermath - A one-off written by StarfallRaptor detailing the fates of his characters.
Ship of State - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. A sequel to Card of Ten, detailing what happens to Hans and Werner, who were left behind in the original story.
Nietzsche's Soldiers 2 - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Follows a team of Dragonstorm commandos sent to Alaska to see why Dragonstorm's energy provider stopped sending shipments.
New Divide - Written by MrDrake. It details Hailey's time in Trinity Facility and delves into the backstory of who Old Mother Hubbard is.
Zero Hour - Written by MrDrake. Follows the lives of Viper and Zara, two Dragonstorm experiments based in New York City.
Gamer - Written by MrDrake. A prequel story where Hailey gets trapped in a virtual reality machine by a rival.
- Gamer 2, an 8-bit pixel platformer that finishes the story from Gamer, made by LettuceBacon&Tomato.
Nietzsche's Soldiers 3: Super Men - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Chronicles the founding of Dragonstorm as a club in the fictional University of California Three Rivers (UC3R).
Ground One - Written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Another sequel to Card of Ten, following the teammates left behind in the anti-matter universe.
Chasing Seconds, a six-episode miniseries written by LettuceBacon&Tomato to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the first roleplay. Takes place roughly twenty years after Disruptive Selection and follows the children of several major Darwin's Soldiers characters.
Kinsey's Mimic - Written by Serris. Taking place after the first RP, it follows Sharon Varma as she encounters Dragonstorm personnel she had thought to be jailed.
Byte Me, written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Covers ROSS' first moments of freedom, the thirty minutes after his escape from Drake Cybernetics before he reappears in Disruptive Selection.
Find the Cure!, a text-based adventure game written by LettuceBacon&Tomato.
The Disease, written by f22 "raptor" ace. Covers Hans and Werner's life with the former terrorists after the end of the third roleplay.
Next of Kin, written by LettuceBacon&Tomato. Set on the space colony founded at the end of Ship of State, and stars Werner's daughter traveling to Earth seeking the cure to a disease threatening the lives of her parents.

Both Serris, LB&T, and several of the other writers are tropers, which might explain the prevalence of tropes, sometimes even invoked by name.

Since it's a role-play, it fittingly has a character sheet. Go here for the wiki, which has over 700 articles. Go here if you'd like to read through some of the many, many shout outs to various other franchises.

See also Find the Cure! and Gamer 2, video games set in the universe.

Tropes Common To the Series

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Tropes A-D

Absurdly Sharp Blade: In the third RP, a Dragonstorm assassin slices through an armored SUV with one swing of his katana.
Accidental Misnaming: In the first RP, Kagetora mistakenly refers to Victor Summers as Vincent. Vic politely corrects him.
A Simple Plan: In the third RP, Shelton's intimately detailed plan on how to infiltrate Lab 101 and maximize their chances of success falls apart really, really quickly. They still succeed in destroying the lab.
Achilles' Heel: The back of the neck, for Dragonstorm experiments.
Action Girl: Aisha, Dr. Joe, Snow...pretty much all of the female characters. Except Seska.
Action Survivor: The surviving scientists from the first RP. After that, they willingly bring pretty much everything upon them.
Advancing Wall of Doom: In Schrodinger's Prisoners, Dr. Tinner included in his machine a plane of green light which could come out of the walls and force the players to go where he wanted them to.
Aerith and Bob: Characters with names like Neku or Dr. James Zanasiu interact with people like Dr. Josephine Stephenson and Dr. Rudyard Shelton.
After the End: Card of Ten takes place in a post-apocalyptic antimatter universe. Ship of State is this for planet Gaman.
A Handful for an Eye: When Shelton escapes from the guards outside the Texas Base, he throws sand at one of the guards and runs to the SUV waiting for him.
Air-Vent Passageway:
- Played straight with Shelton and Ridgeway in Schrodinger's Prisoners, but subverted in the second RP when Hans suggests this as a way to get into Pelvanida and James points out how that wouldn't work.
- Nixx uses one in the 3rd rp, but it turns out it quite cramped inside...and the fact that she just makes too much noise while crawling around inside it.
An Ice Person: The aptly named experiment "Ice".
Animorphism:
- Dragore was a human boy before being turned into a dragon for unstated reasons.
- Sehack from the same RP was morphed into a Bengal Tiger for unknown reasons.
Artistic License – Physics: Turning a wardrobe into antimatter would not result in it disintegrating. It would result in a massive explosion as the antiparticles of the wardrobe and the atoms of the air around it annihilate each other in a burst of gamma rays. This becomes a Voodoo Shark when the writers try to Hand Wave it by saying it was actually turned into antienergy, not antimatter. And thus completely ignoring what the problem was.
Author Appeal: Serris really seems to like science, military hardware, weapons and gunplay.
Anti-Magic: A 'serum' invented by some scientists in the third role-play can completely negate psionic powers in experiments for a few hours. A pistol loaded with these finishes off Breathtaker, Deathwind and Stalker because the serum strips them of their defenses, and the bullets are bullets.
Anti Matter: The Antimatter universe, duh. Interestingly, the series states that antimatter and matter only annihilate each other if they're identical objects in contact, which is wrong but at least shows they checked the research.
Ascended Extra:
- Zachary originally didn't even have a name; he was just James' assistant, and was originally intended to get killed off. It never happened, however, and he's now a fully established main character.
- The First Dragonstorm Reconnaissance Team, or DS-1, were a team of commandos in the first RP who all got quickly killed off. They then starred in the prequel story Nietzsche's Soldiers 2.
- Alfred Byford from the second RP counts as well. Random unnamed construction worker who gets saved by Aisha. And he later turns into a full cast member.
- Jayden from the third RP was originally just a normal cop, but then his backstory expanded some more and he's now a full cast member too.
All for Nothing: In Fools Gold Dr. Kerzach risks his life and job to stop a Dragonstorm convoy. His friend, Paul, was killed by Dr. Kerzach in a Heroic Sacrifice as the two battled to stop a truck that had lagged behind the convoy. What did Dr. Kerzach accomplish? Nothing. The convoy still reaches Pelvanida and the truck he battled to stop was filled with cinderblocks.
All Germans Are Nazis: Subverted with Hans and Werner.
Alternate Continuity: The rebooted Darwin's Soldiers RP on Furtopia (not the first incarnation) takes place in a totally different continuity than the trilogy and the original first RP. In turn, the trilogy is an almost totally different continuity than Furtopia RPs. Card of Ten does give them a very little bit of crossover.
An Arm and a Leg: Two of MrDrake's characters have lost limbs. Aimee's back story involves having both her arms amputated. Jayden got his hand cut off by an intruder.
- Aimee lost her left arm again during her final battle with Trinity; after it was crushed useless, she ripped it free and used it as a bludgeoning device.
Applied Phlebotinum: Anti-Matter, for the Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Even though she's a cold-hearted killer and a downright bitch...Trinity does have a taste for classical music.
Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Varyingly averted and played straight.
- In the second RP, when a commando team plants explosives on the fusion reactor and detonates them, nothing happens except the fusion reaction shuts down because the magnets have been destroyed
- In the first RP, the soldiers are worried that a stray bullet could cause the small fusion reactor to explode in a mushroom cloud. Dr. Zanasiu tells them that it won't happen but using explosives will scatter radioactive material across the grounds of Pelvanida (However, do note that he mistakenly thinks that the reactor is a fission reactor).
Autobots, Rock Out!:
- in Fools Gold, Paul suggests that Dr. Kerzach play some music to settle his nerves right before they head out to chase the Dragonstorm convoy. What does he play? Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin. Later, when they actually engage in a shootout with one of the straggling trucks, Dr. Kerzach puts on "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC.
- In the second RP, when the group returns to Pelvanida to force out some rogue soldiers, Alfred turns on the radio in his Humvee and Sabaton's Primo Victoria starts playing. Cpl. Stern orders him to turn it off.
Awesome, but Impractical: Before the RP, Kozlov was attempting to build a flare shotgun. Lampshaded when someone mentions his funding had been cut.
Back for the Dead: Head technician Marty, who appeared in Schrodinger's Prisoners, was brought back in the third RP. Dr. Tinner in Nietzche's Soldiers and Anti-Lockdown in Pavlov's Checkmate also work.
- The day Mirumoto_Kenjiro finally announced he's leaving the Gang of Five for good, LettuceBacon&Tomato brought back all of his surviving experiment main characters and had them killed off in overly throwaway fashion.
Back from the Dead: Zenarchis, Murakami and Trinity have all managed to survive clearly fatal injuries without a scratch. Only Zenarchis' recovery has been explained.
Badass Bookworm: If there is a scientist in this RP, there is a very high chance they can hold their own in combat.
Badass Bystander: The loggers in the 3rd RP help the heroes fight off a Dragonstorm ambush...and they do remarkably well.
- A nameless guard in Southport fights Subject 19 in the longest duel in the Darwin's Soldiers canon. For comparison: she's a superpowered psionic/cybernetic experiment who has repeatedly fought the entire team of protagonists to a standstill, he's a Red Shirt who proves adept at setting traps. And in the end he loses (you could even argue they fought to a draw) only because the building collapses while being overrun by zombies, and then the entire city is nuked.
Badass Normal:
- The nonpowered heroes (villians) usually put up a decent fight against the augmented villians (heroes). They sometimes win.
- Trinity deserves a special mention. A normal human, she simultaneously fights someone with robotic arms, someone with pyrokinetic powers, and someone with not one but two Psychic Powers: telekinesis, and electrokinesis. Oh yeah, she beats them all at the same time.
Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: A heroic version. Anti-Siberys has the villain King Gamas at gunpoint, and a shot is fired...by Anti-James, who shot Siberys because he was stopping the rest of the team from escaping.
Battle Butler: The MacLee family is famous for producing some of the finest bodyguards in the world. Stetson MacLee, the only one we meet, is one of them that didn't pan out.
Berserk Button:
- Don't call Aimee a cripple.
- Zara apparantly, does not like it when anyone threatens Viper while she's around either.
The Berserker: Gustave has a penchant for violence and has little regard for his personal safety. Of course, being a anthropomorphic Nile Crocodile with thick muscle, thick scaly skin and scutes that essentially serve as body armor, "personal safety" might mean different things to him.
Beware My Stinger Tail: Gustave can use his massive tail as a pretty effective bludgeon.
Beware the Nice Ones: Alfred, the massive construction worker, is rather easy going and not interested in physical violence. But if sufficiently pushed, he will remind his hapless victim that he has Super-Strength.
BFG: Gustave Chiumbo, a massive Nile Crocodile, wields a double barreled 4-gauge shotgun. Clyco's prototype weapon from the second RP counts too.
Bifurcated Weapon: Not a weapon, but Shelton's signature radio-flashlight is a combination of two very useful pieces of equipment. In Card Of Ten it's revealed to have a timer in it as well.
Big Damn Heroes: In the first RP, when terrorists are attacking the control room, Shelton is saved by Cobalt Squad busting through a window.
Bio-Augmentation: The Pelvanida and Dragonstorm experiments
Black-and-Gray Morality: Dragonstorm gleefully crosses over the Moral Event Horizon but the heroes not only show a blatant disregard for laws and the legal system, they also tend to wantonly kill anyone who gets in their way.
Shelton: I don't think any of us like what we're doing, but we have to take down Dragonstorm. That unfortunately involves doing things we might not want to do.
Black Like Me: Accidentally meta-invoked in the third RP of Darwin's Soldiers, when author Mirumoto_Kenjiro mentioned a black woman exiting a car and calling herself Dr. Joe (one of his characters). Everybody else's characters reacted skeptically, since everyone had always assumed Dr. Joe was white. Kenjiro later admitted that he'd never mentioned beforehand that Dr. Joe was black. This begs the question of how all the characters fought alongside Dr. Joe for three RPs without noticing her ethnicity.
Blackmail: Ricky does this to Hans, Cale, and Kerzach in Pavlov's Checkmate. It works with two of them.
Blasphemous Boast: Seen here:
Subject 19: So come on! Give me a real challenge! Give me a fight against a God!
Body-Count Competition: Hailey tries to have one of these with Aimee. Aimee reminds her that they're not playing a game.
Bond One-Liner: Shelton, when Delta Leader has him cornered.
Bookcase Passage:
- Averted. Dr. Joe expects to find one of those in the Gaman library, but doesn't.
- Played straight with the passage in the walk-in freezer.
Bottomless Magazines: Averted. There are many cases of characters having to reload weapons.
Brains and Bondage: Implied with the Pelvanida engineer and mechanic Sharon. A later line implies it extends even to electrobondage.
Bring My Brown Pants: Lupis from the rebooted Furtopia RP wets himself out of fear several times. Luckily, he spends a fair portion of the RP in diapers. Justified by the fact that he is four years old and not fully toilet trained.
Bulletproof Human Shield: Subverted. Garrelli uses a human shield in the Furtopia RP but the bullets go through anyway.
Bullying a Dragon:
- Alfred is a hulking Bison with hands bigger than most people's heads and is strong enough to bend rebar with his bare hands. People pick fights with him anyways.
- Gustave is an even more extreme example. There have been multiple cases where people have tried to pick fights with him, despite being a massive scarred up, Nile Crocodile with a major anger management problem. Not to mention, he has several convictions for assault and he dismembered someone with his bare hands.
But Not Too Foreign: Shelton has mentioned that he's not American, but other than a few odd colloquialisms and the use of "zed" instead of "z", he's pretty much the same as the rest of the team.
Butt-Monkey: Shelton gets beat up a lot.
Bus Crash: Aydin is reported by a newspaper to have committed suicide in a Cornova, TX convenience store. The heroes find out about it from a local newspaper.
Caligula's Horse: Gilead Conch, the CEO of SORA Gas & Electric, is a block of coral. Siberys appointed him so that Siberys can call the shots as his "assistant."
Calling Your Attacks: "Flaming Fist of Doom!" Lampshaded by Aimee. And later... "Flamethrower of Death!!!"
Aimee: Hailey, you mind not giving each of your attacks a name? It sounds....stupid....
The Cameo: Aimee makes a non talking appearence in New Divide
Canon Discontinuity: Serris says that the rebooted Furtopia RP is not part of the Darwin's Soldiers canon and it never will be. It was never mentioned in any of the RPs or stories
Car Fu: Done several times.
- Alfred uses his truck to smash through a locked gate and run over some soldiers trying to shoot down an allied helicopter.
- Lab 101 (on an armored truck) runs Alfred off the road and into a cafe.
- In the third RP, Alfred uses a bulldozer to ram a Chimera attacking Kiara and Hailey.
- In New Divide, Rhino throws a motorcycle at Subject 18
Card-Carrying Villain: The scientists that created Dragore in the Furtopia RP. The villains in the Gang Of Five RPs tend to be a little more rounded, or at least have clear motivations other than For the Evulz.
Carnivore Confusion: Avoided in the first RP, present in the second RP and semi-avoided in the third RP. However, Word of God is inconsistent on this matter; Serris said that anthro and "normal" animals exist and eating "normal" animals was acceptable. But he has also said to assume all meat is seafood.
Celibate Hero: Zachary, Neville, Alfred, Cobalt Squad, Hans, Werner and PFC. Reynolds have absolutely no interest in romance.
Chase Scene: Most of the 2nd RP cast, through Las Vegas.
Chekhov's Gun: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
Chef of Iron: Dean Nixon, the Pelvanida chef, joins in the chase through Las Vegas.
Chrome Champion: Gustave injects himself with a Super Serum which turns his skin, scales, bones, claws and teeth metallic.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: As an online role-playing series, characters belonging to writers who disappear between RPs are generally never heard from or mentioned again. Examples are Siberys after the first RP and Sgt. Clyco after the second RP. Averted with Shelton, whose author requested that his disappearance be explained^noteAnd he ended up coming back, anyway.
Clothing Damage:
- Shakila after her fight with Project Zeta.
- Zara suffers some as well in her first fight in Zero Hour
Zara: This was my favourite shirt...and you ruined it...
Combat Pragmatist: Pretty much everyone fights dirty but Dr. Kerzach seems to fight the dirtiest.
The Constant: The file cabinet, in Pavlov's Checkmate.
Contest Winner Cameo: LettuceBacon&Tomato auctioned off a background character name for Team Fortress 2 items. Only two people bid, so second place got in for free.
Continuity Nod: In the third RP, Dr. Zanasiu mentions he disarmed a rogue Pelvanida night watchman and killed him with his own knife. This is a reference to Pavlov's Checkmate.
Contractual Immortality: Inevitable as each character is played by a different person.
CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Played straight with Shelton and Shakila in Calchas' dungeon.
Crew of One: Averted. Every Humvee that fires a weapon has a crew of at least two.
Curiosity Killed the Cast: The expedition team in Card Of Ten.
Curse Cut Short:
- When Shelton and Tinner were communicating from opposite sides of a freezer window.
  Tinner: Congratulations. You survived Scenario #2. Now can you tell me where the gas originated?
  Shelton: F...U...C...
  Tinner: {cuts him off} Luckily...
- Happens in the third RP as well where the pilot of a helicopter is about to swear, only to be killed by Subject 19.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Dr. Tinner. If he had just worked around the flaws in his virtual reality machine rather than using it to hide illegal projects in a big "screw you" to the world, he'd be a rich man.
Cutting the Knot:
- Alfred tends to do this quite a bit. Subverted in one case when a rogue scientist he is threatening pushes the panic button and Alfred tears the entire button from the wall in an attempt to disable it. It does not work.
- In Fools Gold, Dr. Kerzach uses a sledgehammer to break down a door instead of finding the key and he cuts the chain securing an industrial shotgun to a post rather than unlock it.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Played straight with Dragonstorm experiments. Subverted with Hawkeye.
Dead Pan Snarker: Shelton. The AI based off of him, ROSS, is sometimes even worse.
Deadly Gas: The second test in Schrodinger's Prisoners is for the characters to contain an outbreak of "knockout gas." This would arguably justify why the gas is colored yellow.
Decoy Protagonist: An unintentional example. In the Furtopia RP, James Zanasiu was quickly stuck in a room with Ender Mc Thair, whose author left the RP. Serris created a scientist named Zachary so he could keep playing, and James disappeared from the story.
Demoted to Extra: Hans and Werner, since their author left the RP, have done little more than tag along and sometimes provide extra firepower, until they were finally Put on a Bus.
Depraved Bisexual: Roux definitely counts. She strips and sexually assaults Aimee in public. And she works for Dragonstorm. Gustave even says this about her.
Gustave: She likes to have sex. Lots of it. In every possible place, every conceivable position, any number of partners.
Destination Defenestration: Alfred throws someone through a reinforced window...with fatal results.
Deus Ax Machina:
- The first weapon James gets in the Furtopia RP is a fire ax.
- In Fool's Gold Dr. Kerzach breaks into a control room and one of the workers snatches a fire ax hanging on the wall next to a fire hose and attacks him with it.
- In Schrodinger's Prisoners Dr. Shelton grabs a fire ax from an emergency station and uses it to break into the control room.
- In the RP Disruptive Selection, Dr. Pauline Wayne breaks down the door to her lab with a fire ax that she took from an emergency station in her lab. She then later uses it to kill a zombie that tried to get aboard the helicopter that she and two other survivors were going to evacuate on.
- Zenarchis cuts off Dr. Keith Bailey's arm with a fire axe before Bailey can get to the first-aid kit.
- Zenarchis attacks Dr. Kerzach with a fire axe on the oil rig.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
- Sharon fought Death with a shotgun and an improvised flamethrower. And won.
- Literally in Aimee's case in the same fight above, as she ends up punching him a few times.
"Die Hard" on an X: The first RP could be described as "Die Hard in a secret military base". This is lampshaded in the third RP.
Disney Death: Cale and Neku at the end of the first RP.
Distant Finale: The finale of the RP takes place thirty years after the events of Disruptive Selection.
Distracted by the Sexy: Hailey, in New Divide, gets distracted by some strippers at a strip club, whilst trying to pursue Subject 18.
The Dividual: Slash and Agito. Hicks and Montgomery never left each others' side in the first RP, but have since branched off.
Directionless Driver: Averted. Apparently James does.
Doesn't Like Guns: Shelton. Not for moral or political reasons, but because he sucks with them. Shakila is no good with a gun, granted that she hasn't actually fired one before....well, except for a nail gun.
Don't Explain the Joke: Hailey does this to Kiara after seeing Neku activate his lightsaber, and even receiving a look from Kiara afterwards in regards to it, as seen in this small exchange between the two of them:
Kiara: Nice to see you too Skywalker
Hailey: Hehe, Star Wars reference...
Does Not Know His Own Strength: Alfred possess extreme strength. Most of the time he is in control of it but if he is angry then things tend to get destroyed. For instance, he crushed a piece of concrete that he was planning to use as an Improvised Weapon. A more extreme example was when he started pounding on Aisha's door and leaves the door looking like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. And he accidentally knocked over a vending machine while trying to free a stuck snack.
Doorstopper: The second RP is over 400 pages in length. The third RP has reached 900 pages!
Double Standard: In-universe example. It is stated that jurors do not take kindly to anthros who have natural weapons and use them on others-even in self-defense. Yet use of venom does not carry the same stigma.
Drives Like Crazy: The chase scene in the second RP. Everything from making U-turns in the middle of the highway to going 150 mph on a 65 mph zone.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Aydin is reported by a newspaper to have committed suicide in a Cornova, TX convenience store. This is also an example of a Bus Crash.
Drowning My Sorrows: After Gustave's death, Alfred spends several hours in a bar in the center of Platanna Town getting completely drunk.
Dual Wielding / Guns Akimbo:
- This is how Trinity wields her twin pistols. The other characters more realistically only use one pistol at a time.
- Werner generally carries two Berettas, but he doesn't often use both at the same time.
The Dulcinea Effect: There's no real reason why anti-James holds up their escape to rescue Seska, other then this.
Dumb Muscle: Brainpower is not exactly Hans's forte.
Duel to the Death: Murakami challenges Kagetora to one in the first RP, who accepts. See Staying Alive.

Tropes E-J

Easy Amnesia / Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- Shelton and Eddie in Nietzsche's Soldiers. Almost became Amnesia Danger at the end.
- Also appears to have happened to Aimee in the third RP.
Elaborate Underground Base: A large portion of Pelvandia is underground.
Electronic Telepathy: Some Dragonstorm operatives, Shelton is one of them, have chips implanted nasally that allow them to send thoughts to each other. Later James, Shakila, Hans, Dr. Landon and Cpl. Stern get the same implants (that were removed from the dead operatives).
Elemental Punch: Modified Hailey's Flaming Fist of Doom as well as Cale's "thunderpunch".
Emotion Bomb: Famine manipulates the emotions of each team member to force them to fight each other.
Empowered Badass Normal: Trinity is already extremely strong and agile but after she gets her hands on some Super Serum that her scientists were working on, she gains superhuman strength, speed and agility.
Enemy Mine: Cale's rationale for switching sides in the first RP.
Energy Weapon: A Humvee used in the second RP mounts a powerful experimental laser cannon. Also, laser rifles have been used on occasion. However, lasers in this RP behave like real ones. They cannot be dodged and the beam is invisible.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Both Dragonstorm and the terrorists were composed of a uncountable amount of different species. Racism in general is only occasionally touched upon, and usually through isolated incidents with civilians.
Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Many, many characters are quite proficient with firearms. Justified in that firearms training and basic marksmanship are mentioned as being mandatory or that the employee in question enjoy recreational shooting. And yet Shelton got in somehow.
Every Bullet is a Tracer: Averted. Mounted autocannon and machineguns do use tracers but handheld weapons never carry tracers.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
- The leader of Cobalt Squad is simply called "Cobalt Leader". Two other soldiers with him are simply referred to as "the Human soldier" or "the Mongoose soldier".
- Likewise, the leaders of various security squads are just given bland call signs like "Rho Leader", "Omega Leader", etc.
- Cobalt Leader now has a name. It is revealed in this post to be be Zachary Slavik. But every still calls him "Cobalt Leader".
Everyone Went to School Together: Averted for the most part, but Shelton and Tinner were in the same dorm at ETH Zürich. Also the core Dragonstorm cast met at the fictional UC3R (University of California Three Rivers).
Evil Old Folks: "Old Mother Hubbard" from New Divide is a 79 year old woman...who is a Dragonstorm scientist.
Evil Versus Evil:
- Averted. Dragonstorm never encounters the terrorists in the first RP, except for a single (later retconned) terrorist in the lab shootout. The heroes merely alternate between fighting the terrorists and fighting Dragonstorm.
- Finally happens briefly in the third RP, when a Dragonstorm plane is briefly attacked by the remainders of the terrorist camp.
Exactly Exty Years Ago: Pavlov's Checkmate, set in 2010, jumped back to 1990.
Expendable Alternate Universe: Almost the entire team of anti-matter duplicates in Card of Ten is killed, but it has no effect on the main storyline.
Expy:
- Dr. James Zanasiu is an expy of James Miardian, the scientist from the first RP that Serris ever played: The Spreading Hazard.
- Dr. Bailey, who first appeared in the rebooted Furtopia RP, was an expy of Dr. Shelton from the Gang of Five RPs, after the latter showed how useful it was to have a non-action tech guy around.
Extremity Extremist: Dr. Kerzach prefers to use a weapon in combat but when he fights unarmed, he will almost always use his feet. Justified because as a Cassowary, he has sharp talons and very powerful leg muscles that can easily cause serious injuries.
Eye Scream:
- The terrorist commander is shot through the eye when the heroes retake the auxiliary control room after the sublevel guards go rogue
- Rhino from the third RP takes a bullet to his mechanical eye.
- Subject 16 had both his eyes gouged out by Subject 19 at Trinity's orders.
- Kain gets his own syringe through the eye when he tried to inject Aimee.
Face–Heel Turn: In the first RP, the sublevel guards plan to turn the base over to the invading terrorists.
Family-Unfriendly Death: Several characters die some pretty horrible deaths.
Family-Unfriendly Violence: The violence in these roleplays is brutal and realistic.
Fantastic Racism: Snakes are considered to be repulsive by other species.
Fantastic Slurs: The term "serpent" is considered to be a very offensive term (roughly equal to the N-word) for snakes in the Darwin's Soldiers universe.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Vulpines are quite clearly supposed to be modern-day Native Americans. The depiction is not flattering.
Fat Bastard: Gustave is somewhat overweight and a violent jerkass.
Feather Fingers: Based on a certain quote by Shelton, Oli doesn't have these. He does attempt to strangle Shelton, but he uses his feet.
Feather Flechettes: Hawkeye killed some terrorists in the AWTR using this technique.
Fetch Quest: Protesilaus complains that their mission in Nietzsche's Soldiers is a glorified fetch quest.
Fictional Counterpart: Partial example. The fictional University of California campus UC3R (University of California Three Rivers).
Field Promotion: After Cobalt Leader (Lt. Zachary Slavik) is killed while his group is under Famine's influence, Sergeant Masters is assigned to command Cobalt Squad.
Five-Token Band: The group of heroes covers species ranging from human to diamondback rattlesnake and everything in between.
Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Death, Famine, Pestilence and War show up in the third RP.
For Science!: Kain's rationale for experimenting on Aimee.
Foreshadowing: here
terrorist: Tell us your names!
James: James Zanasiu!
terrorist: Dr. James Zanasiu? From Biologics?
James: No, the other James Zanasiu!^note
Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: shared with multiple RPs in this topic on the Gang of Five forum.
Full-Frontal Assault: Spc. Crota ends up confronting and fighting a Black Mamba assailant while completely naked.
- The final battle between Trinity and Aimee is also done completely in the nude.
Funetik Aksent: Stetson MacLee in Nietzsche's Soldiers 2
Furry Confusion: Twice in the 3rd RP.
- Cpl. Stern has this to say:
  Cpl. Stern: So, Vipers. I understand that you can sense motion and heat differently than humans can. Does it works like a real snake's senses?
- Birds chirping outside the window wake up Shakila. Pretty damn sure that said birds are non anthro.
- A chapter from Ground One opens with: "A non-anthro rabbit sniffed the meadow air."
Furry Reminder:
- Canine, feline and equine characters often have their ears described as flattening or pivoting towards sounds and in response to various stimuli. Snake characters are always mentioned as slithering or having fangs or gulping down food whole. Avian characters are sometimes shown using their beaks as weapons.
- An extreme example is when Dr. Zanasiu reminds his girlfriend (who is a Dhole) that he has forty six chromosomes while she has seventy eight and thus reproduction is impossible. By the way, the chromosome counts are accurate.
- Snakes and other reptiles don't sweat, nor do they have hair, nor do they have external genitalia.
Gender Is No Object: Males and females are treated pretty much equally in this world.
- Except in the (heavily criticized) portrayal of "Vulpine" culture.
Genius Bruiser:
- Zachary Johnson is a researcher at Pelvanida. He is so strong that when he kicks a combat robot, he leaves the imprint of his foot on the robot's armor.
- Keegan O'Neill stands over six feet tall and is almost all muscle. He's also a high ranking officer of Dragonstorm.
- Piotr Kozlov is seven feet of pure Siberian grizzly bear muscle, who is also a talented weapons designer.
- Hans Donitz in the story Ship Of State is capable of understanding and explaining how the Einstein-Rosen bridge works. He is also a huge man with great strength and extraordinary combat prowess.
Genre Savvy: This tends to happen when most of the writers are tropers.
The Ghost: Dr. Kyle. See Running Gag below.
Gratuitous Spanish: Zyanya. It helps that she comes from Brazil.
Greasy Spoon: Shelton and Kerzach visit one of these in a small Florida fishing town.
Grievous Harm with a Body: Rhino (his name and species) uses an Innocent Bystander as a projectile.
- During the final battle with Trinity, Aimee removes her destroyed cybernetic left arm and uses it as a weapon.
Groin Attack:
- In Fools Gold, Paul punches Lu in the groin, allowing Dr. Kerzach to stab him.
- In New Divide, Icarus gets punched in the groin...twice by Bianca
Icarus: Oh come on...will you give a guy a break?
- In Disruptive Selection, Spc. Crota shoots an enemy guard in the groin.
- Also in Disruptive Selection, Alfred does a successful Groin Attack to a robot. To be fair, he hit the robot so hard he damaged its hydraulics.
Good Guns, Bad Guns: Averted. "Good guns" are frequently used by the bad guys and the "bad guns" are used equally by heroes and villains.
Healing Factor: Neku is implied to have at least a mild healing factor. Subject 19, Subject 18 and Dragore have instantaneous ones.
Heel–Face Revolving Door:
- Cale switches sides no less than four times, playing for almost every faction (experiments, terrorists, scientists, Dragonstorm) at some point. This is lampshaded by Dr. Shelton. In Pavlov's Checkmate, Cale finally gets over this, refusing to switch sides when Ricky gives him the offer.
- All of Starfall's character have run into this, since joining a Dragonstorm counter-team called Oruboros, then claiming that none of them really meant it, except when they hack Crimson Base's mainframe and kill half a dozen guards...
Heel–Face Turn: Hans and Cale in the first RP. Eddie in Nietzsche's Soldiers and Reynolds in the 2nd RP. Hailey in the 3rd RP, twice. And Gustave in the 3rd RP as well.
Hero Killer: In the expanded universe, Shelton's disease. The list of main characters it kills off is extremely high.
Heroic Sacrifice:
- Eddie in Nietzche's Soldiers and Hawkeye in Card of Ten. Ridley dies destroying a helicopter in the second RP Chase Scene.
- In Fools Gold, Paul Gamay grabs hold of Lu, restraining him. In the process, he is fatally injured. He orders Dr. Kerzach to shoot Lu. Dr. Kerzach does so, killing Paul in the process.
Hero Stole My Bike:
- In the second RP, after Alfred's pickup truck gets rammed through a cafe, Nixon steals a Lamborghini Gallardo, Alfred steals an expensive convertible.
- Later, Dr. Zanasiu steals a Chevy Corvette from Pelvanida's parking lot.
Hey, Catch!: In the first RP, O'Neill throws a burning flare at his captors, giving him time to run away.
Highly-Visible Ninja: Kagetora doesn't spend much of his screen time hiding.
Hollywood Healing: Werner gets injured over and over in the first RP, but he still manages to kick ass, and recovers in time for the finale. He's also fully recovered in time for Card of Ten, which took place just days after the first RP. This happens with other characters sometimes, but Werner is the biggest case. Ironically, in Ship of State Werner is like the only character who isn't wounded by the end.
Hotter and Sexier: The third RP has several pages of sex scenes.
Husky Russkie: Evil example. Piotr Kozlov is a hulking Siberian Grizzly Bear with muscles to match his brains.
Hypocritical Humor: from an AI, no less.
Shelton: You're lightyears ahead of anything on a computer system made in Texas.
ROSS: Now let's not stereotype; Texas Instruments is one of the top hardware producers in the nation. On June 9th, 1997, you purchased a TI 83 from a Media Markt in Munich.
Shelton: Don't be stupid; I wasn't in Germany then. And how the hell would you know what I bought 13 years ago?
ROSS: You purchased it electronically, and the Germans are staunch record-keepers.
I Can Still Fight!: Subject 16 gets shot and it becomes obvious that he is rather badly injured, but refuses to accept any medical treatment, wanting to finish off the mission first before receiving medical treatment. He ends up getting killed...by a Chimera!
I Did What I Had to Do: This line from Shelton says it all:
Shelton: I don't think any of us like what we're doing, but we have to take down Dragonstorm. That unfortunately involves doing things we might not want to do.
I Have Many Names: Trinity tends to go by other names, known names she has used have been Selina Kyle, Raven and Gabriel.
I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: sarcastically used by Cobalt Leader in the 3rd RP when he intentionally shoots a disarmed and incapacitated rogue soldier in the throat
Cobalt Leader: Oops. Safety slipped.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Siberys agrees to be the test subject for a bioweapon that permanently disables the powers of psi-experiments because he doesn't want his powers any more.
Dr. Bradley: Won't that rob him of his powers?
Siberys: That's what I'm hoping. Then maybe I could live a normal life.
Iconic Item: Shelton's radio-flashlight. Neku's lightsabers might count too.
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy:
- The bad guys never hit anybody. If they do, the person is usually just injured. Justified because every main character is being played by someone else, and they rarely have NPC backup of any kind.
- Averted in the case of Subject 16, Alfred and Neville.
Improbable Weapon User:
- Shakila from the third RP has used everything from a nail gun to a laptop computer to a screwdriver as a weapon.
- Drake from New Divide uses a flute as his weapon of choice.
Improvised Weapon: Extremely common.
- Nietzsche's Soldiers: Eddie kills someone with a mop handle.
- The first RP:
  - James' team shorts out Cale with saline solution.
  - Zachary kills a terrorist by ambushing him and beating him to death with a pipe.
  - Sharon kills a terrorist by ambushing him and beating him to death with a steel rod.
  - Arguably, Shelton's use of Lockdown's hand to disintegrate a rogue soldier counts.
  - Joey (an unspecified experiment) uses a piece of rebar to attack terrorists in the final battle.
- The second RP:
  - Shelton and Dr. Kerzach use a waterlogged mattress to temporarily disable two guards to escape from prison.
  - Dr. Rawlson/Dr. Jeston tries to kill Dr. Zanasiu with a crowbar.
  - Kerzach kills Dr. Gallo with a letter opener.
  - Only the aftermath is seen but two construction workers beat a Dragonstorm scientist to death with a chunk of concrete and a piece of rebar.
- The third RP:
  - Alfred uses a table then a chair to knock out some punks who decided to pick a fight with the group.
  - Aimee kills two soldiers with a sharp stick during an ambush on a lonely Oregon road.
  - Zachary kills another soldier with a chunk of concrete during that same ambush.
  - Hans uses a MRI machine to trap Subject 19.
  - Subject 19 kills someone with an operating table. She also has the habit of using nearby large items like tables as projectiles.
  - Vic stabs Ariol in the leg with a scalpel so he can evacuate The Surrounded Sea.
  - Alfred throws a metal trolley then an oxygen tank at Trinity when he runs into her at the hospital.
  - Alfred throws a small trailer pulled cement mixer at some Dragonstorm agents.
  - Shakila takes out two reptilian guards with her own laptop at Trinity Facility.
  - Shakila makes use of Trinity Facility's power room, followed by the sprinkler system to destroy Project Zeta
  - Dr. Pauline Wayne, a scientist from a lab at Southport, arms herself with a fire ax after she survives Subject 19's rampage through the building and her subsequent release of a biological weapon that turns everyone exposed into zombies.
  - During the battle at Lab 101 Alfred throws a boulder at a Dragonstorm experiment.
  - During said battle, Alfred also uses a sledgehammer to behead another Dragonstorm experiment.
  - Again during said battle, he throws an oil drum at a Chimera. It is not very effective. Then follows it up with a pickax. It too is not very effective.
  - Aimee uses a broken pickax handle to kill one of the Lab 101 guards shooting at Alfred.
  - Alfred kills the remaining Lab 101 guard with a log.
  - Gustave subdues Slash with a tool box then a mechanic's cart.
  - Shelton subdues and then kills someone with a pot of boiling coffee and the coffee maker.
  - Gustave's use of a handicapped parking sign as a club probably counts.
  - Sharon uses a hammer intended for breaking the glass on a box containing a fire ax to kill a guard.
  - Dr. Zanasiu uses a fire extinguisher as an impromptu smokescreen to get past a group of guards. He also uses it to bludgeon a guard.
  - When Famine turns everyone on each other, Zachary and Gustave proceed to try and kill each other with a variety of improvised weapons. Zachary with a welding torch and then a fire ax. Guistave uses a filing cabinet and then Zachary's dropped ax.
  - When Alfred and Gustave battle Soundwave in New Peenemunde, they attack him with everything from chunks of concrete to rebar to steel girders to spare engine blocks.
  - Aimee won her final battle against Trinity when the latter crushed her left robotic arm; Aimee surprise the other by ripping her left arm off and beating Trinity to death with it.
- Fools Gold:
  - Dr. Kerzach sprays lubricant into an assailant's face.
  - A rogue worker attacks Dr. Kerzach with a fire ax.
  - Arguably Dr. Kerzach's use of an 8-gauge industrial shotgun to disable a truck containing stolen materials counts. Yes, it is a gun. No, it was not designed for punching holes in truck radiators.
- New Divide:
  - Rhino throws a motorcycle at Subject 18.
Indy Ploy: Subverted. Shakila starts off knowing what to do with Project Zeta, leading the creature to the power room. However, after that, she had to think on her feet on how to destroy the creature. She does destroy it however
Informed Ability: Shelton's original character sheet mentioned he has a limited understanding of ufology. This has never been so much as mentioned since.
Interquel: Nietzche's Soldiers and Serris' story Fool's Gold. Card of Ten doesn't qualify, because when it was started the sequel hadn't yet been conceived.
Internal Homage:
- In the third RP, a reference to this scene from the first RP.
- When Shelton kills Achilles, he shouts to Kerzach that he's got this under control, the same line that Kerzach told Shelton when he killed Gallo.
Invulnerable Knuckles: Averted. Alfred ends up needing several stitches on his knuckles after he dishes out a beating to Hawkeye.
Interspecies Romance: Neku and Snow. ~~Stern~~Aydin seems to be hoping for one of these with Aimee. Hailey seems to really like Kiara. Amphinomus and Camilla in Nietzsche's Soldiers 2
It Works Better with Bullets: Shelton holds Hans at gunpoint before learning that Hans was on his team, and only afterward realized that his gun had been out of ammo.
Ivy League for Everyone:
- Dr. James Zanasiu is a graduate of Columbia University. Zachary Steven Johnson is a graduate of Cornell. Sharon Varma is a graduate of MIT. Shelton and Tinner were in the same dorm at ETH Zurich.
- Dr. Yuri Kerzach is an exception: he is a graduate of Rutgers University. Also the core crew of Dragonstorm came from the fictional University of California Three Rivers.
Jail Bait Wait: Shelton avoids this by ending his relationship with Shakila.
James Bondage: Shelton gets chained to a chair by a security team in the second RP. Unlike in normal James Bondage, however, he gets himself out, which also makes this Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard.
Jerkass: Spc. Crota has a tendency to make offensive comments.
Just Eat Him: Nixx's suggestion to Gustave in how to deal with Soundwave, after seeing Gustave chew through metal like it was nothing.
Just Friends: Aimee and Hailey. Hailey had told Aimee that she loves her, but Aimee hadn't returned the feelings back. The two of them however, remain as just being friends in the end.

Tropes K-P

Kick the Dog: A heroic example. Neku kills four civilians with lightning strikes just because he's angry about Hailey's death.
Kick Them While They Are Down: After Dr. Branston looses conciousness, Aimee ends up kicking him at least twice while he's on the ground out of frustration.
Kill Sat: The Dragonstorm defense satellites.
Killer Game Master: Not exactly (Serris, the actual game master rarely kills his characters or longstanding public domain characters), but LettuceBacon&Tomato is constantly petitioning to get characters killed off and to 'thin the ranks' of James' followers for dramatic effect, especially is he thinks a character has "fulfilled their purpose for the story." He successfully got almost every main character in the Furtopia role-play killed off in his story Ground One.)
Lampshade Hanging: Shelton in Schrodinger's Prisoners, which takes place before the RP:
Shelton:This simulation is a little unrealistic, isn't it?
Tinner:What do you mean?
Shelton:Some enemy army invades the base? There's no way that would ever happen.

Shelton seems to be especially prone to this since his stint in Dragonstorm. Among the tropes he's lampshaded are Police Are Useless, Character-Magnetic Team, Walking Disaster Area, and Aimee's tendency to blow stuff up.
Large Ham: Cpl. Thomas Stern
Cpl. Thomas Stern: Say what you have to say, Vulpine, and be gone! My comrades seem oblivious to your warnings and mine, so I have to go in and fish them out of the fire. If there is a trap, tell me about it and tell me now!
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Cpl. Thomas Stern from the 3rd RP gives us this little quote:
Stern:Its as if someone is watching us and giving us what we need in order to get through our problems. That's very odd. Too much like 'deus ex machina' for me.
La Résistance: The main characters in the first RP and the Gaman rebels at the end of Card of Ten.
Laser Blade: Neku finds one in the first RP and has used it infrequently since.
Lethal Harmless Powers: Cale from can use his electrical powers to fuse dust particles in the air into glass. This does not sound impressive when compared to his other power (electrokinesis). This sounds really lame until he shreds a group of mooks with razor sharp glass shards he pulled out of thin air.
Lightning Bruiser: Alfred is capable of smashing concrete with his bare hands, ripping locks off doors, ripping doors out of their frames, fighting combat robots barehanded (and winning!). He is also quite fast on his feet.
Lightning Gun: The most commonly recurring experimental weapon from Pelvanida's arsenal is the "electric rifle."
Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: There are as many human characters as there are anthro characters.
Long List: As an online RP which has had nineteen writers across two forums, and there's no limit to the amount of characters a writer can control, this is a given.
James:Thank you. Zach, Shelton, Cale, Neku, Sharon, Ædelwulf, Kagetora, Snow, Dr. Joe, Siberys, Cale, Slash, Agito, the Cobalt Squad. thank you all. And that was just from the first RP!
Locked in a Freezer: James in the first RP, Shelton and Ridgeway in Schrodinger's Prisoners.
Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Not, as you might expect, either of the examples above. In the second RP, Shelton gets himself out of a locked laboratory where he had been imprisoned. Kerzach does much of the same in Fool's Gold, though this time it's actually a closet.
Long-Lost Relative: Hans, to Werner
Lower-Deck Episode: Nietzsche's Soldiers 2 and New Divide were both written to give more screen time to different Dragonstorm teams that only appeared briefly in the RP.
Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: AI Shelton tends to explain everything that happens in a battle, including whatever code he's manipulating to accomplish his tactics. Lampshaded when he mentions later that Drake never coded the part of him that could internally monologue.
MacGyvering: Shelton does this for a time once he arrives in the second RP, using mundane items to unchain himself from a chair, then escape the locked room, then get past a Dragonstorm experiment and into Lab 101.
Made of Iron:
- Marcus, an ordinary Human Dragonstorm agent, should not have been able to continue fighting, let alone remain standing after being being punched several times by two beings with Super-Strength.
- Dragonstorm experiments can survive extraordinary amounts of damage.
Magic Genetics: Stated to be the reason for the psychic powers.
Magic Music: Drake from both New Divide and the 3rd RP uses his flute as a weapon. However, when he plays a tune on his flute, it causes the listner to dance, giving Drake time to either attack them or escape.
Magnetic Weapons: a Humvee used in the second RP mounts a fairly powerful railgun. Also, handheld coilguns (in rifle form) have been used as well.
Man Bites Man: In Pavlov's Checkmate, James Zanasiu bites Richard "Ricky" Warden during the climactic battle inside a wormhole to break free from a chokehold to seize his knife and kill him with it.
Mature Animal Story: This RP has a lot of intense violence, sexual situations and cursing. In addition, it deals with some pretty serious themes.
Mauve Shirt: Most of the recurring public domain characters are this. Examples are Neville Ivers, Cobalt Squad, Wayne Anthony, PFC Reynolds...
Meaningful Name:
- Cpl. Thomas Stern is, as his name suggests, stern.
- It's quite a coincidence that a human boy named "Dragore Wing" got turned into a dragon.
Meanwhile, Back at the…: The final post of Ship of State starts with: "Meanwhile, back at the bridge..."
Meanwhile, in the Future…: The beginning of the third RP established two concurrent stories: A group of characters from Crimson Base (played by Mirumoto_Kenjiro) attack a Dragonstorm oil tanker, and the other characters (played by everybody else) prepare to attack Lab 101. Since then, several days and nights have passed in the Lab 101 storyline, while the oil tanker storyline has been in the same day from the beginning, causing the time disparity between them to grow more and more with each post.
Medal of Dishonor: Not intentionally, but Shelton is embarrassed about the Commendation medal he got while in Dragonstorm.
The Medic: Vic and Dr. Joe. Dr. Landon appears to be filling this role while they're gone.
Mind Screw: Card of Ten and Pavlov's Checkmate are a little bizarre.
Missing Backblast:
- Averted and played straight. In the second RP, a rogue scientist takes out a light tank with a RPG and the backblast was specifically mentioned as scorching the paint on the vehicle behind him.
- Played straight in the handheld prototype antitank rocket launchers used by the rogue scientists against some pursuing tanks. However, it is justified by the fact that they used small plastic balls as a countermass. They were still dangerous, as one of the plastic balls knocked out a scientist who was too close to the launcher.
Mission Control: This is basically Shelton for the first half of Darwin's Soldiers. He never leaves the control room.
The Mole: Shelton and Kerzach in Dragonstorm is the most obvious example. Sir Beys was one in Nietzsche's Soldiers. Brut was one in Ship of State. Later, it turned out that all of Starfall's characters have been this since the first RP. Later still, maybe they weren't...see Heel–Face Revolving Door
Monumental Damage: In New Divide the Statue of Liberty is destroyed by a train thanks to the corrupt Viper.
The Movie: In the third RP, there's a rather humorous discussion about a Hollywood blockbuster being made based on the original terrorist invasion.
Mugging the Monster: The punks who attack Aimee in the 3rd RP. Just because her arms are artificial, that does not mean she cannot kick your ass.
My Instincts Are Showing: Lampshaded, subverted and used by the lupine soldier Capt. Kayle Storm. When his rifle jams, he clubs a terrorist with it and latches his jaws onto the terrorist's face and proceeds to maul him. Subverted in the fact that he speds a few seconds vomiting after he does so.
Capt. Storm: Instinct. What a love-hate relationship.
My Nayme Is: Word of God states that the cybernetics company Weyland-Yutani is pronounced "Vey-land OO-tani".
Name of Cain: Kain.
Named After Somebody Famous: Rudyard Oscar Shelton.
Natural Weapon: Some of the anthropomorphic animals have natural weapons. Most of the time, it takes the forms of teeth, claws and muscle but snakes in this universe possess working venom glands. Also the experiments are blessed with a host of Psychic Powers.
Never Found the Body: Stern is too Genre Savvy to fall for this when Trinity is presumed dead.
Never Mess with Granny: "Old Mother Hubbard" from New Divide. She built a Hydra in her basement.
Never the Selves Shall Meet: According to Card of Ten, if the anti-matter teammates were to encounter their matter duplicates, both copies would be annihilated. This is why they need to define the t-coordinate, because the old setting would return them to Earth at the exact moment the original team was jumping through.
- Of course, this didn't happen when both Sheltons met in Pavlov's Checkmate...
Never Smile at a Crocodile: Gustave is a speciesist Nile Crocodile with a penchant for violence, a sizable rap sheet, a big gun and a very bad temper.
New Rules as the Plot Demands: In the first RP, scientist player characters weren't allowed to carry heavy weaponry. For some time in the first RP, Zachary got to wield a bazooka and he wielded a RPG in the final battle. The rule about "no heavy weaponry for scientists" was rescinded for the second and third RPs
Nigh-Invulnerability: Tardigan, the villain from Ground One. Among surviving numerous direct explosions and all forms of weaponry, he even grabs a lightsaber blade with his bare hand and pulls it out of its owner's hand! In story, its apparently because he's an indestructible invertebrate called a "water bear" (aka tardigrade).
Night-Vision Goggles: Used by Hans and James in Pavlov's Checkmate. And apparently portrayed correctly as well.
No Body Left Behind: Lockdown's genetic modifications allow him to turn objects or people into anti-energy. This causes them to instantly vaporize.
Nobody Poops: Averted. Pelvanida Base has all the facilities of a real military base. Bathrooms and all. And of course, in the third RP, Cpl. Stern avoids getting caught up in a massive fight because he had to go to the bathroom. And of course, see Potty Failure below.
Non-Mammal Mammaries: Partially averted. Kiara, Aimee and Shakila (all non-primate mammals) apparently have breasts. But reptiles do not have breasts or any form of hair. And snakes in this universe have their genitals hidden inside a slit like real snakes. Exception: Neku does have hair but it is justified in that he was created in a laboratory.
No OSHA Compliance: Lampshaded by Kerzach in Fool's Gold:
No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Subverted by the terrorists, or at least justified. The point of the raid was to gain the supplies necessary to build the bridge, and they brought a backup generator.
Non-Action Guy: Shelton and Kerzach both start as this, but Kerzach is slowly morphing out of this. Shelton, however, still sucks with firearms. Bailey from the third RP plays this straight.
No Name Given:
- Jayden, Aimee, Ariol and Trinity never have their last names mentioned. Likewise, Capt. Lutra's first name is never mentioned.
- Zachary's full name was hidden throughout the first RP. Through supplementary material, it is revealed his full name is Zachary Steven Johnson
  - Which makes him one of three characters^noteHimself, Shelton, and Dr. Zenarchis whose middle names have been revealed. It's been revealed that Drs. Zanasiu and Kerzach don't have middle names.
- The main characters of Nietzsche's Soldiers 2 are never referred to by their real names, only their code names. The exception is Hippolytes, who proudly boats that he's a MacLee.
Noodle Incident:
- In the 3rd RP, Alfred mentions that he can easily tip over a 3 ton pickup truck. How he knows this is never mentioned.
- Sgt. Larry Masters is nicknamed Sgt. Pepper. It is not explained how he got that nickname aside from the fact it involved some Tabasco sauce, his uniform and some beer.
Not Distracted by the Sexy:
- When Shelton has to get Shakila and Aimee uniforms out of the (occupied) women's changing room.
- Later, when Nixx takes her top off right in front of him, turning the other man in the room into a drooling idiot, what is Shelton's response? Go right ahead with explaining his plan to infiltrate Soundwave's inner sanctum. (He does offer her his jacket once he's done explaining, though.)
Not That Kind of Doctor: Shelton in the first RP, when Hans is injured and no one else is around to help.
Not What It Looks Like: Said word for word by a system admin after Montgomery walks in on him trying to delete a bunch of porn popups on his computer. A virus had hit his computer.
Nuke 'em: Southport is nuked by the Dragonstorm defense satellite. The Idaho Base is destroyed by a downed Dragonstorm defense satellite when it is bought down by an anti-sat missile.
Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The RPs only.
- The first RP was simply titled Darwin's Soldiers
- The second RP was titled Darwin's Soldiers: Survival of the Fittest
- The third RP was titled Darwin's Soldiers: Disruptive Selection
Pair the Spares: Whenever a character breaks up with somebody, another character quickly rises to claim them. [[spoiler:Enforced by nick22 when LettuceBacon&Tomato wanted to kill off Zyanya and Nixx but nick insisted they live and pair off with Landon and Aisha (who had recently stopped seeing Roux).]
Plot Threads: Every RP has a primary plot and secondary plot. In the first RP, the terrorist invasion is the primary plot, and Dragonstorm is a secondary plot. In the second RP, Dragonstorm is elevated to main plot, and the actions of Crimson Base serve as a secondary (if related) subplot. In the third RP, Dragonstorm is still the main plot, and Aimee's investigations into Trinity Facility are the secondary plot.
Poisonous Person: Snakes in this universe have working venom glands. Some snakes can actually spray their venom. This is Truth in Television.
Politically Incorrect Hero: Gustave Chiumbo is openly speciesist against mammals.
- Specialist Crota has his moments too.
Put on a Bus:
- Hans, Werner and Cpl. Stern encounter an old friend of Cpl. Stern in a bar in New Mexico. The friend then offers to bring them back to Nevada where the terrorists from first RP are trying to put their lives back together. The three then accept the offer.
- A temporary example in the second RP. Shelton is deported to Austria after the events of the first RP.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Kiara. Shelton also pretends to be one to try and get information from Trinity.
Offscreen Teleportation: Unintentional, but several times due to communication failure among authors, characters will spontaneously appear in places where they weren't seconds before. For example, a character who'd been in the control room for several pages will suddenly start talking and interacting with characters in the sublevels.
Off with His Head!: Alfred decapitated a Dragonstorm experiment with a sledgehammer. Gustave punched off a Dragonstorm guard's head.
Oh, Crap!: The onlookers' response when an extremely pissed off Alfred tears a large pole out of the ground and starts trying to attack Marcus with it.
Once per Episode: Shelton gets knocked out once in every RP.
One-Letter Name: O Donnell from the Furtopia RP was always written as such. Never with an apostrophe.
One-Steve Limit: Averted.
- Zachary Johnson and Zachary Slavik (Cobalt Leader) are both important characters.
- Then there's Sharon Redfield (Human Cobalt Soldier) and Sharon Varma from the first RP.
- Ethan the Dragonstorm assistant and Ethan Garner were also introduced at the same time.
- Lutra, a main character from the Furtopia RP, shares his name with Captain Lutra, a recurring Mauve Shirt in the third Gang Of Five RP.
- Mirumoto_Kenjiro added a character named Thomas Sterm, a single letter off from Noname's main character Thomas Stern.
- Main character Kaylee Storm from Disruptive Selection and Kayle Storm from the Furtopia roleplay take a close second to the above.
Only a Flesh Wound:
- Mostly averted as characters tend to aim for the head and body. But two very notable aversions are in the second RP, Hicks gets shot in the knee and dies. A sniper takes a bullet to the leg and bleeds to death in the second RP.
- Played straight with Alfred in the third RP. He takes a point-blank shot to the gut with a pistol and a .308 magnum round to the arm. After he is bandaged up, he is able to continue fighting as if nothing happened. Granted, it is mentioned that he has superhuman toughness.
Only One Name: Cale, Siberys, Neku, Snow, Deathwind for starters. In general, the Pelvanida and Dragonstorm experiments are either given inventory numbers or just a single name.
Opening a Can of Clones:
- Averted. James Zanasiu has been seen in at least four different forms (regular, anti-matter, Furtopia regular, and AI) but they never interact, and so are easily distinguished.
- On the other side of the coin, Rudyard Shelton has encountered all three of his doppelgängers (anti-matter, AI, and Keith Bailey but the problem of telling them apart never comes up since there are always superficial differences.
Orphaned Series: The two Furtopia RPs were never finished.
Our Zombies Are Different: The infected that start to show up in Southport from what Subject 19 had created aren't zombies, yet, are able to to spread the virus within them much like how zombies do.
Pants-Positive Safety: Aisha keeps a pistol in her purse. Alfred kept a pistol in the glove box of his truck. Averted by Dr. Zanasiu, Zachary, Cpl. Stern and Cobalt Squad (Dr. Zanasiu and Zachary use a pump shotgun and an assault rifle, respectively; Cpl. Stern and Cobalt Squad have holsters to keep their pistols in).
The Password Is Always "Swordfish":
- Dr. Tinner's password on his virtual reality machine. Also Montgomery on his computer files, though at least he tacked a number onto the end.
- Lettuce, Serris, and Drake all use this trope in one of their stories. In New Divide Tricell's password was, well, Tricell.
Pistol-Whipping: How Shelton generally uses a gun, since he's not trained for firearms.
Playing with Syringes: Nixx's modus operandi.
Police Are Useless: the reason Shelton feels safe walking around Culeston in part of his Dragonstorm uniform.
'Shelton: "The cops haven't proven themselves to be very observant in the past."''
Portal Slam: This is what the main characters think happened in Card of Ten. In reality...
Potty Failure: Lupis from the rebooted Furtopia RP occasionally wets himself and spends a fair portion of the RP in diapers. Justified by the fact that he is four years old and not fully toilet trained.
Pre Mortem / Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Cale in Pavlov's Checkmate, right before going apeshit on Ricky and his men.
Powered Armor: Powered exoskeletons have been seen the second and third RPs as well as in Fool's Gold but only for carrying heavy loads. Omega Squad on board the Surrounded Sea uses a lighter form to enhance their strength and let them carry heavier armor.
- Dr. Zanasiu dons a construction exoskeleton to fight and kill O'Neill in the 3rd RP.
Prequel: Schrodinger's Prisoners.
Pretty Little Headshots: Not really dwelt on as the descriptions are not graphic. However, two notable aversions occur:
- In Fools Gold, when Paul kills Jackson with a near-point blank shot to the head with a pistol. The result is quite bloody
- In the second RP, a sniper on a catwalk at one of Pelvanida's hangars kills several rogue soldiers. The wall near the entrance to the hangar is described as covered in blood.
Private Military Contractors: Pelvanida guards are explicitly stated to from an unnamed private security company.
The Professor: Invoked by name for an otherwise unnamed character briefly encountered in Card of Ten.
Psychic Powers: The Psi-Experiments can wield a multitude of psionic powers.
- Telekinesis: Neku and Siberys
- Pyrokinesis: Snow and Hailey
- Electrokinesis: Neku and Cale
- Razor Wind: Slash
Public Domain Character: Serris releases characters into the public domain every so often. LB&T has explicitly stated that every character he creates other than Shelton is public domain. Several authors (such as f-22 and lbt/cty_lover) do this with their main characters once they leave the RP.
Punny Name:
- Spc. Mitchell Crota and Sgt. Larry Masters. Spc. Crota is a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) and Sgt. Masters is a South American Bushmaster. Also Spc. Hannah Ophio is a King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah).
- Capt. Lutra is a Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra)

Tropes R-Z

Rank Scales with Asskicking: Mostly averted. The highest-ranking characters in central factions (Zenarchis, Branston, Shelton, the terrorist commander) tend to be somewhere between Mission Control and an Action Survivor, while the lower-ranking scientists and personnel kick a lot more ass. Of course, there are enough factions and characters across the R Ps that plenty of leaders (most notably Dragonstorm base commanders) play this trope straight.
Rasputinian Death: Subject 18's final stand against Terror Squad in New Divide resulted in this after his healing ability had been stripped from him. It took shocks from the surrounding generators, being stabbed and his throat slit and multiple shots to his body before he finaly fell and accepted death.
Rebel Leader: Werner, on Gaman.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Famine's eyes glow red when he's controlling people's emotions.
Red Shirt: A rare main-character example. An author named Belmont 2500 joined the 3rd RP and introduced his character, Ethan Garner, into a hospital shootout. However, Belmont just as quickly left the RP, and requested his character be killed off.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: In the 3rd RP some people visibly flinch around Sgt. Masters, and Spc. Crota. Corporal Stern is mentioned as having a dislike for snakes.
Rescue Equipment Attack: Dr. Zanasiu uses a fire extinguisher as an impromptu smokescreen to get past a group of guards. He also uses it to bludgeon a guard.
Ring World Planet: Gaman.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: the end of the second RP features a mild version of this when Crimson Base levels Pelvanida with a massive airstrike. Word of God states this was done because the GM wanted the RP to end and it was starting to drag on.
Running Gag: Shelton's ambiguous nationality. Also, a Dr. Kyle is mentioned in every RP, but never seen.
Russian Bear: Piotr Kozlov is a hulking Siberian Grizzly Bear with brains and brawn in abundance.
Satellite Love Interest: Aydin Marcos really has no defining personality traits other than the fact that he loves Aimee.
Scary Black Man: Marcus, a big black guy with a gun and superhuman toughness.
See You in Hell: The James AI in Schrodinger's Prisoners.
Seen It All: Vic's response in the first RP upon hearing about Dragonstorm.
Self-Defenseless: Averted. Dr. Kerzach wields pepper spray to great effect in the second RP when he he escapes from a prison cell. Dr. Landon in the third RP uses pepper spray and a medical dictionary to fend off some punks who pick a fight with the group.
The Shelton: Dr. Shelton of course. Former Trope Namer.
Shout-Out: Oh so many. The writers reveal themselves to be major fans of video games, science, and classical music...
- So many that it now has its own page.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare:
  - A creepy clone of him is briefly seen in the first RP. He posthumously plays a huge role in Card Of Ten.
  - Aisha quotes Hamlet in the 3rd RP.
Shameless Fanservice Girl: Nixx. After her introduction scene, she heads off on her own, fights a few more robots and runs into another group to the point that her shirt has been torn rather badly. Her answer to that? Take off her badly damaged shirt and walk around and fight, all the while topless.
She Is Not My Girlfriend:
- Aimee corrects newcomer Shakila when she assumes that Aimee and Stern are dating.
- Hailey also snaps at Aimee, thinking that she thought that she and Trinity used to be item.
- Hailey also tells Aimee that she only thinks that Subject 19 is cute, not that she is in love with her
Shown Their Work: It is rather obvious that "Serris" is pretty damn well versed in science.
Shur Fine Guns: Averted. The firearms rarely jam and when they do, it takes only a few moments to clear the jam.
Smart People Play Chess: Hicks mentions Shelton was chess champion in a contest at Pelvanida.
Sociopathic Soldier: SSgt. Michael Garrelli from the first Furtopia RP fits this trope quite well. His backstory implies that he joined the Marines just so he can kill. Not to mention some of the actions he does in the RP are...questionable to say the least.
Soft Glass: Thoroughly averted. In the third RP, Alfred kills someone by flinging them through a pane of reinforced glass.
So Last Season: The terrorists become virtually unheard of after the first RP, replaced almost completely by Dragonstorm as the primary villains. In the third RP, Trinity Facility seemed to replace Dragonstorm (or at least receive much more screen time) until its destruction.
Sole Survivor: A running theme in the series is battles that leave a single person alive on one side (usually the enemy side):
- In the Furtopia RP, Zachary's team leaves one terrorist alive after a shootout so they can interrogate him. Garrelli and O Donnell are both mentioned to be the only survivor of a squad killed by the terrorists. Dragore mentions that his "brothers and sisters" did not survive the invasion.
- In the Gang Of Five RP, the first shootout at the AWTR explicitly states that only one female terrorist survives.
- When Shelton's team is attacked by sublevel guards, Shelton is the only one left awake. It turns out they needed him for the password to auxiliary control.
- Shelton is also the only avatar still alive by the end of the simulation in Schrodinger's Prisoners.
- When James' team launches a counter assault, a single terrorist gets a shattered kneecap instead of death.
- In the second RP, Dragonstorm guards disarm or incapacitate every defender in the control room except Clyco, who activates a BFG and kills all the attackers except PFC Reynolds.
- Noleson is the only survivor of the security team that tries to arrest James and his men. At least, before Pelvanida is blown up...
- When a rocket hits the gunner bay of an escaping Lab 101, everyone inside is killed except Shelton, who was unconscious on the ground. He seems to have a habit of this.
- Shelton is knocked out with everyone else in Nietzsche's Soldiers. This time it's Kerzach who's left awake.
- In Pavlov's Checkmate, Hans knocks out a Russian enemy before the shooting starts, presumably leaving the Russian the only enemy survivor.
- When DS-1 ambushed James' team after incapacitating their van, "Achates" later revealed to be Shelton was the only one who didn't die.
- Part of Ethan Garner's backstory involves being the only survivor from 'Delta Force', though Ethan's author left the RP before explaining what that meant.
- When a police force fights Terror Squad, Jayden is the only officer left alive.
- When Terror Squad attacks the Schutzhund competition, Hailey is the only survivor.
- Xanthus is the only surviving member of the hunters that attacked Viper.
Someone Has to Die: At the end of Card of Ten, four teammates have to stay behind to keep the bridge open so the rest of the team can escape to Earth. Later stories reveal only one of these characters died.
Sorry, I Left the BGM On: In the second RP, Alfred turns on a Humvee's radio and Primo Victoria by Sabaton starts playing. Cpl. Stern then immediately orders him to turn it off. Word of God states that Primo Victoria is indeed supposed to be the background music.
Space Is Noisy: Twice averted: There's no sound whenever the shuttlecrafts from Card of Ten or Ship of State are out of Gaman's atmosphere, and when Ricky whispers to James inside a wormhole, James can't hear him because there's no medium for the sound to travel through.
Spell My Name With An S: Siberys/Syberis from the first RP. The character was played by lbt/cty_lover, Serris, and LettuceBacon&Tomato at various times and none of them could keep their spelling standard. Also happened to Pietr Kozlov/Koslov in the first RP.
Spy Speak: Dragonstorm uses code names to refer to other team mates, locations, and projects.
Sssssnaketalk: Averted. All snake characters speak normal English.
Stalker without a Crush: The story Byte Me chronicles ROSS' attempts to locate Dr. Shelton and figure out why he was created.
Stating the Simple Solution: Ridgeway suggests just shooting AI Zenarchis as a way to get past him in Schrodinger's Prisoners. It turns out that's pretty much what they do.
Staying Alive: Kagetora blew himself and Murakami up in front of the entire cast, and subsequently appears with no explanation given for the final battle. Apparently he got better.
Stealth Pun: In Fools Gold truck #71 is driven by a Giant Panda named Lu. 71 is the atomic number of the lanthanide Lutetium. Its symbol in the periodic table is Lu. Lu is also a common Chinese surname.
Storming the Castle: The main characters, in the second and third RPs and Pavlov's Checkmate.
Stout Strength: Gustave has a potbelly and is described as being a little on the fat side. Despite that, he is extremely strong, capable of hoisting 800 pounds over his head or dismembering his opponents with his bare hands.
Stripped to the Bone: The final fate of Ajax.
Stupid Sexy Flanders: This more or less happens between Aimee and Subject 19, to which Aimee mentions how she can see how Hailey thought that Subject 19 was cute.
Stylistic Suck: Gustave's line from The Movie somehow combines two common yet diametrically-opposed cliches:
Gustave: Aw, come on, my ''first'' day on the job! And to think, I was just ''forty years'' away from retirement!
Super Serum:
- Trinity Facility apparently produces some of this. And it is used none other than by Trinity.
- Zachary Johnson has also been working on one that would grant a Healing Factor. The downsides of it are fairly realistically depicted.
Super Soldiers: What Pelvanida's research is intended to create.
Super-Strength:
- Aimee has some degree of this (demonstrated when she crushes the barrel of a pistol)
- Alfred clearly possesses this. And it has been demonstrated several times.
- It is mentioned that bovids in general have some degree of this.
  Random Bystander: Bovids naturally have incredible strength. Trust me, I once saw one tie a knot in a piece of rebar.
- Subject 18 from New Divide has this and it is further augmented by a set of experimental gloves he stole.
- Gustave Chiumbo is the strongest character in the RP. The Super Serum he injected himself increases his already considerable strength.
Take That!: at Paris Hilton
Aisha: "Look at Paris Hilton, or better yet, don't. Famous for being famous, not because she has anything approaching talent."
"Take That!" Kiss: A textbook example: Trinity with Hailey.
Taking You with Me: Premier Jacade of Gaman blew up the entire planet rather than let the rebels take power from him.
Techno Babble: Shelton seems especially prone to this. Here's a particularly egregious example.
Telepathy: It seems that Snow has some form of this power.
Terrorists Without a Cause: Averted. The terrorists were originally concieved as this but later an ulterior motive was devised for them.
They Call Me Mr Tibbs: Done for comedy when Shelton intercepts a thought message by Achilles to Narcissus and replies in turn.
Achilles:Why did they give us such a wimpy commander?
Narcissus:Hey, Achilles, I don't think it's such a great idea to be insulting the commander, especially when he's right here.
Achilles:Not going to stop me. I'm not afraid of a pussy.
Shelton: (spoken) It's Commander Pussy to you.
Three-Way Sex:
- An implied Three-way between Spc. Crota, Zachary and Roux.
Spc. Crota: What, you want her? We can share; he said multiple partners
- Dr. Landon's sarcastic comment about an in-universe movie about the first RP:
Dr. Landon: A lewd 12 way followed by a battle between three different dimensions, led by a guy dressed like the guy from Animal House screaming "Toga! Toga! Toga!"
Through a Face Full of Fur: Played straight and averted in Ground One. After Snow (Siberian Husky) has almost all her fur burnt off by a carnivorous atmosphere, Neku mentions being able to see her blush for the first time. Then later in the story, Ender Mc Thair (jackal) reads a computer monitor and his face turns pale.
Token Human: James' original function. Didn't really pan out when a lot of other writers chose to play as humans too.
Torture Technician: Dragonstorm's is Calchas.
The Tropeless Tale:invoked From the Darwin's Soldiers discussion thread on the Gang Of Five:
Caustizer: Hmm I must have done my job with Clyco pretty well... he was so atypical that he doesn't have any tropes attached to him.
LettuceBacon&Tomato: Tropes Are Not Bad...
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Shelton empties an entire pistol magazine killing Delta Leader. Justified, since he doesn't know how to use a weapon, and an unspecified majority of the bullets missed.
This Is Not a Drill: Said by Shelton in the first RP. Visible in this◊ image from That Other Wiki.
This Is Reality: In the second RP, this exchange occurs:,
Zachary: Hans, do you think this was a good idea, try to disguise ourselves as staff?
Hans: It seems like a good idea but I was thinking about going in through the areas not covered by the security cameras and cutting the power long enough for us to get in and disguise ourselves like base personnel.
Zachary:Also works but remember that the fusion reactor is in the basement and protected quite well by autoturrets and cameras. Also, few areas are not covered by cameras.
Aisha:Uh, yeah this isn't like the Oceans 11 movies
Throw-Away Guns:
- Usually averted. The characters (both good and bad) rarely discard firearms and will usually reload them instead.
- Played straight with Subject 19 in one instanst, she ends up stealing a gun and guns down the other guards in the room that she's in and without relaoding the gun or keeping it, she simply throws it away to the side.
Time for Plan B: Happens between Aimee and Kagetora when faced up against Subject 19
Aimee: We need a new plan
Kagetora: Looks that way. Got any suggestions?
Aimee: Er, run?

Aimee apparantly hadn't thought of a Plan C yet, which might also mean that she's making it up as she's going along
Title Drop: The final post of the first RP.
Tomato in the Mirror: Card of Ten follows the tale of Dr. James Zanasiu and his team through the antimatter world of Gaman. At the end, it's revealed that this Dr. Zanasiu is actually an antimatter copy of the real one, who's still back on Earth.
Too Dumb to Live: The scientist who created Dragore. He repeatedly insults Dragore and expresses the pleasure he gets from seeing Dragore in pain, while surround by armed characters who repeatedly threaten to kill him if he doesn't shut up.
Took a Level in Badass: Shelton starts off as a control room admin in the first RP, and by the third RP he's living as an undercover spy within the Dragonstorm ranks.
Trap Master: The Southport guard. See Badass Bystander above.
Troperrific: this happens when the gamemaster and some of the players are avid Tropers.
Tuckerization: Occurs several times:
- The fictional actor Stephen Di Georgi mentioned in the third RP is a fusion of the names of two people that Serris knows in real life.
- The Dragonstorm scientists Dr. Phyllis Lefrak and Dr. Thomas Sotille are named after people that Serris hated (an school teacher and a former classmate, respectively).
- Dr. John Volkowitz (the Pelvanida scientist mentioned in the second and third RPs)is named after someone that Serris knows in real life.
- Corporal Thomas Stern's last name comes from an old friend of Noname.
- The terrorist commander is named Halsey. He is played by LB&T, who has the surname of Halsey.
- The adopted son of Sharon and James Zanasiu-Varma is Erik, named for the creator of Darwin's Soldiers
20 Minutes into the Future: It is set in the early 2000s but yet laser weapons, railguns, gauss guns and fusion reactors exist. Not to mention advanced cybernetics technology.
Undead Author: Averted in Pavlov's Checkmate, regarding Steven's (AKA Zachary) book. He says he wants to write a book chronicling everything that happened in Card of Ten. Luckily for him, at least one of the three surviving away team members was present at every major event of the story.
Unhand Them, Villain!: In the third RP, Jayden tells Trinity to let Kiara go. Trinity obliges...and then drop-kicks Kiara into a tree.
Unobtainium: Diamontainium, used in Soundwave's own Rhino suit.
Unskilled, but Strong: Gustave and Alfred have no martial arts training. Their tactic in a fight: beat the opponent with anything handy until they stop moving.
Vague Age: Ariol, Kain, Subject 19, Siren, Breathtaker and Stalker all have their age listed in their profiles as "unknown".
Vibration Manipulation: Deathwind, a Dragonstorm experiment, can create a painful and very destructive noise by vibrating his wings.
Vigilante Group: The heroes in the second and third RPs.
Villain Episode: The Nietzsche's Soldiers stories focus on Dragonstorm characters.
Villainous Breakdown: Drake suffers one throughout the assault on his base as Hailey and Neku keep on escaping the various situations he puts them through in his virtual reality machine, to the point in breaking his calm talking to yelling and snapping.
Villainous Crossdresser: In the third RP, a female Dobermann bystander who calls 911 to report someone breaking into a car is actually a male German Shepherd spy working for Dragonstorm.
The Voiceless: Rhino never talks at all.
Wealthy Ever After - Most protagonists who survive the third role-play get millions of dollars in hush money from the government.
We Need a Distraction: During his MacGyvering phase in the second RP, Shelton used a battery, propane tank, and steel wool to distract and slip past a Dragonstorm experiment guarding Lab 101.
Western Terrorists: The villains in the first RP.
We've Got Company: Spoken verbatim multiple times throughout the third RP and once in Survival of the Fittest.
Win to Exit:
- Played with in Schrodinger's Prisoners: If the players all die, they'll still be let out of the machine, but their memories will be wiped and they won't remember how dangerous the machine is.
- Played straight with Hailey in Gamer.
What Measure Is a Mook? - The characters kill a lot of terrorists, rogue guards and other assorted mooks and no one seems to have a problem with it.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: played straight, complete with both proper responses.
Shelton: Did you have to say that?
Kerzach: Don't tempt fate.
Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The fictional town of Springwood. Aimee, while drunk, explains its location as being borded by the states of Maine, Washington, Hawaii and Brazil. Word of God though, states that it's suppose to be intentional, that the location Springwood would remain unknown.
White Void Room: One of these plays a major plot point in Card of Ten.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- Shelton reveals a fear of flying in the third RP.
- Likewise, Gustave, a massive Nile crocodile with Super-Strength and is Made of Iron is terrified of heights.
Word Purée Title: Serris came up with Dr. Zanasiu's last name by pounding random keys on his keyboard.
World of Badass: Everyone, everywhere, kicks ass. With few exceptions.
Would Hit a Girl:
- Done on both sides. The heroes have no problem killing female enemies. Likewise, the rogue guards, terrorists, assorted bad guys have no problem trying to kill Aisha, Aimee and Sharon.
- Likewise Dr. Shelton killing Delta Leader.
Would Not Shoot a Good Guy:
- Averted in the second RP's chase scene. One of the Humvees driven by the group rams a police cruiser off the road. Hans slices a SWAT truck in half with a Humvee mounted laser cannon after it tried to run him off the road. He cuts off part of a police helicopter's landing gear with the same weapon after a sniper on the helicopter tried to shoot him. Dr. Greene grenades a bunch of civilians who mistake his vehicle for a Dragonstorm escort vehicle and start shooting it.
- Anti-James also shoots Anti-Siberys in Card of Ten, after the latter goes a little too far in trying to get revenge on Gamas and puts the team in jeopardy.
Wrench Wench: Sharon used to work in the magnetic materials research division at Pelvanida. After she got fired, she worked as an electrician and a mechanic in Southport.
Wrestler in All of Us: Alfred piledrives a guard with so much force that he cracks the concrete floor. Obviously, the guard is killed in the process.
Write Back to the Future: Anti-Shelton realizes they can do this in Pavlov's Checkmate, when the team trapped in 1990 needs to contact Shelton in the present day.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Serris states that nearly everything he write was improvised on the fly, including the two sequels. The exception is LettuceBacon&Tomato, who plans out Shelton's story arcs ahead of time, sometimes months in advance. This doesn't stop him from improvising when things take an unexpected turn, though.
Writer on Board: Aydin Marcos shares the same values as his devoutly Catholic creator, Noname.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: The t-coordinate of the Einstein-Rosen bridge causes this. You can adjust the coordinate to go wherever you want, but when you return to your starting point you only lose the amount of time you'd been gone.
You Are in Command Now: Happens to Shelton when he becomes the highest ranking survivor in the convoy during Dragonstorm's evacuation of Lab 101. He later uses this to promote Kerzach to DS-2.
You Got Murder: Sort of. Trinity leaves a bomb in Aimee's room. She succeeds in blowing up the hotel, but Aimee was suspicious of the package and evacuated everyone in time.
Younger Than They Look: Most Pelvanida experiments are much younger than they look. This is totally justified because they were grown with accelerated growth chambers.
- Neku looks and acts like a seventeen year old but is six.
- Snow looks and acts like a twenty year old but is the same age as Neku.
- Chase looks and acts like a twelve year old. He is two years old.
- John "Johnny" Smith is an extreme case. He looks and acts like a thirty four year old. He is seven.
- Sabre 9 looks and acts like a thirty one year old. He is eight.
- Ice looks and acts like like a thirty two year old. He is the same age as Sabre 9.
- Walter "Wally" O'Pierce looks and acts like a thirty four year old. He is ten.
You Wake Up in a Room: Happens to the Card of Ten away team, and to Shelton and Eddie in Nietzsche's Prisoners.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Subject 19 tends to get angry at anyone in particular, good or evil, and once she gets angry, it takes some time for her to calm back down again.
Your Mind Makes It Real: Averted in Schrodinger's Prisoners. Tinner explicitly states that dying in the Virtual Reality machine simply returns you to a state on non-REM sleep, and all the characters wake up in the end.

Roleplay / Darwin's Soldiers

Tropes Common To the Series

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Roleplay / Darwin's Soldiers

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