Sonic Spindash RP - Television Tropes & Idioms

The splash image, courtesy of member John.

(often shortened to SSRP) is a forum-based roleplay based on... well, take a wild guess, with an exclusive focus on the game canon. The current iteration of the SSRP, started in March 2010, is the most recent in an almost ten-years-running series of Sonic RPs, and is in the middle of its fourth* story arc.

Its stories have taken it through an Eggman-based arc, a combination MacGuffin hunt/Tournament Arc with a smarmy villain, a mystery story in a far-flung land, a space arc on the Space Colony ARK that attempted to work Sonic Chronicles into the story, and coming full-circle to another Eggman-centric story.

Heavily story- and character-based, with an emphasis on adventure, storytelling, and continuity, the pace is slow but of remarkably high quality. Original characters are welcome— and are, in fact, more heavily featured than the canon cast.Hey, wait, don't run away just yet— there's strict quality control, with none of the kind of OCs that the Sonic fandom is known for making it through the application process.

Altogether, a stylish, if somewhat slow-paced Sonic play-by-post game, with a close-knit collection of members; the forums are here

, and the wiki, containing all of the rules and profiles and other such things, is over here

This roleplay contains examples of:

Above The Ruins: The Chapter 2 epilogue thread.
Action Girl: Is there a female character? She's probably an action girl. Jam, Jack, and Tracer spring readily to mind.
All Planets Are Earth-Like
All There in the Manual: A decent amount of material, ranging from the comedic supplementary material (the GUN Database) to the useful (as the index of which entries in the Sonic series are considered canon to the story of the RP) are contained on the wiki and may not be readily obvious.
Alliterative Name: Cooper Coopmore and Lazarus Lochert.
Ancient Astronauts: Chapter 3b
Apes in Space: Rock and Jam in Chapter 3b. Arharhar.
Applied Phlebotinum: Chaos energy, which is the go-to explanation for most of the characters' supernatural powers, why rings can protect an individual from (certain amounts of) damage, et al. It's assumed that most characters have some innate ability to manipulate it, but characters with more developed abilities (such as Jam's electricity, or Shadow's plethora of Chaos energy attacks, or even Blaze's functionally-identical Sol-energy-powered fire) are more adept at utilizing it than others.
The Bait: Mako's fate directly after his appearance, after...
Banging For Help: How Mako is found by the group at large in Chapter 1.
Bare Your Midriff: Jam, at all times. Even in her official Eggman Army uniform, she finds a way to modify it for such a purpose.
Battle Amongst the Flames: The lower portion of the (very troperiffic) Chapter 2 finale. Before tackling with a Chaos Emerald powered, biological abomination with flamethrowers, the entire cast participating in the fight had to bypass a bed of flame spawned by Target's misaimed incendiary grenades. If only there was some water to cool everything down...
Battle Couple: Jam and Rock.
The Big Guy: Several characters whose focus is on power— Coop, Tank, Murdoch, Tracer, and the canon examples of Knuckles and Big come to mind.
Big Heroic Run: The Chapter 3b finale
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Suzy and Mako in Chapter 2. Not even a YMMV consideration here.
- To elaborate: A very boisterous and outgoing character, Suzy, was introduced in one thread. The most her player accomplished was having Mako assume that Suzy was trying to kill him. The player sort of fell out of activity after that, leaving it one of the more bizarre moments in continuity. The only further mention it receives is Mako developing a fear of large, purple individuals. *
  Like Big.
Bodyguard Babes: Vince's entourage
Boisterous Bruiser: Coop and Tank, though Coop's larger-than-life persona kind of unnerves others. Tank plays it straight.
Bookends: As noted below, Chapter 2's start and end are both heralded by the titanic explosions of Chaosol emeralds.
Bound and Gagged: Jack, Ember, and Key at one point in Chapter 3a
Breather Episode: The Hospital thread and the post-kablooey-Above The Ruins thread which followed Chapters 1 and 2, respectively
Butt Monkey: Mako
Calling Your Attacks: Wild Badge— in true Sentai fashion. Most of them come in the form of 'Wild: blank'.
Car Cushion: Frequently.
City Planet: Somewhat in Chapter 3b. The planet visited isn't completely covered in city (only about half), but it certainly was heading that way before the residents were wiped out.
Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity: Chapter 1's Mist Island
Combat Engineer: Rock. He probably breaks more than he fixes, but for a prominent protagonist, he does a lot of tech work on- and offscreen.
Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Seven, as of Chapter 4
Cosmic Plaything: Mako. Who else?
Cowardly Lion: Mako
Cowgirl: Sheriff Jack
Deadpan Snarker: Rodolf and Mako are both prone to snark. Not coincidentally, they're both played by the same player.
Death Dealer: Ace.
Derelict Graveyard: Multitudes of lost, empty spaceships orbit the Nocturnus planet in Chapter 3b. One is even visited.
Determinator: Rock, Rodolf, and possibly Ace. (It's just that Rock has had more opportunities to prove it.)
Dirt Forcefield: Runs the gamut of subverted to played straight to entirely averted, depending on the character and member— some characters don't have many clothes to ruin, some rarely get scuffed, and some basically destroy every piece of clothing they own every chapter.
Dissonant Serenity: Jam, when she finally faces Seven in the Chapter 2 finale and refuses to fall victim to his trollery.
Doomed Hometown: The town of Yellow Desert, which gets leveled in a nigh-nuclear explosion.
Do-Anything Robot: Omnis, in a way. Being a Gizoid, he can copy most things over time, so he at least has the potential to "do anything".
The Drag Along: Mako.
Elevator Escape: Tracer and Archer in the GUN base, in Chapter 2
Everything's Better With Sparkles: Geoff's ability, according to Mako. This has led the shark to attach many a nickname to Geoff, mostly revolving around "Captain Sparkly".
Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Subverted... kind of. Mako's a wuss, but the universe hates him, and so hates everyone he's in company with by association
Everything's Worse with Bears: FLEX (A very minor very... special character)
Extremely Short Timespan: Chapter 3b took place over a matter of days in-character
Fragile Speedster: Tabitha and Midian.
The Gambler: Ace
Gentleman Thief: Ace, subverted— he acts superficially like a Robin Hood figure, but is... ... less so, in reality.
Giant Wall of Watery Doom: The Chapter 2 finale.
Got Volunteered: How does Mako get into half of the crap he gets into? Usually this.
Grappling-Hook Pistol: Aga's main means of navigating obstacles, as well as his primary weapon.
Hard Head: Rodolf's unique ability: a nigh-impervious head, enabling his use thereof.
Heel Face Revolving Door: Rock.
Hero Stole My Bike: Midian, making use of an Eggman Empire van in Chapter 4.
Heroes R Us: Wild Labs
Hero with an F in Good: Rock
Hoist by His Own Petard: The fate of the giant gizoid at the end of Chapter 3b. Already heavily damaged, it attempted to copy Rock. Of course, by this point, Rock had taken a healthy dose of missile to the face and his physical condition was mimicked by the robot.
Hyper Awareness: The essence of Rock's unique ability.
I Did What I Had to Do: Rock. All the time. Every time.
Impossible Mission Collapse: Chapter 3b, more than once.
Impressive Pyrotechnics: Anything — ANYTHING — involving Coop.
Improbable Age: Almost everyone. It is a Sonic RP, after all.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Essentially Sheriff Jack's unique ability.
IN SPACE!: The... ... well, space arc.
Jack-of-All-Stats: Rock and Rodolf, the only two "balance"-classed characters.
Jerkass: A number of characters have shades of it, but the reigning champion is Seven, who inspired, and inspires, out-of-character hatred from several players.
Jerk With A Heart Of Jerk: Murdoch
Killer Robot: The "final boss" of chapter 3b.
Last Villain Stand: The Chapter 2 finale versus Seven. (It was hardcore.)
Large Ham: Wild Badge and Tank, as an art form.
La Résistance: In a slightly loose definition, most of the active protagonist characters in chapter 4.
Le Parkour: Tabitha's first and foremost skill.
Love to Hate: Seven, though mileage varies— some players just plain hate him.
Made of Explodium: The Chaosol emeralds, being incredibly unstable; the explosions thereof heralded both the start and end of Chapter 2.
Masked Luchador: Tank's, er, gimmick
Mass Oh Crap: The end of the chapter 2 finale.
Meaningful Echo: The beginning of Chapter 4, calling all the way back to Chapter 2.
Rock: Just 'doing the right thing.'
Mineral MacGuffin: The Chaosol emeralds in Chapter 2
Mangst: Ace, Chapter 3b through to 4.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Caz — at least, seemingly.
Mismatched Eyes: Rock
Mistaken for Badass: Mako, or at least so the GUN file on him would indicate...
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Completely inverted by Rock in the beginning of Chapter 4 when he happily betrays two shiploads of (what he considers to be) thankless crew and refugees under his charge, delivering them straight into the hands of the Big Bad in a sudden Face Heel Turn. Allegedly.
Multiple Endings: The (currently ongoing) finale of Chapter 4 has branched off, with various differening scenarios based on who's left on a platform after an explosion, one divergent thread for each character; once they all finish, one will be elevated to canon.
Mythology Gag: There are occasional passing references to the previous iterations of the roleplay.
The Napoleon: Murdoch, who (at barely three feet tall) is one of the shortest player-created characters, is extremely strong (both for his size and objectively), and is overall a deeply unpleasant individual.
Nebulous Evil Organisation: The Eggman Empire
No Indoor Voice: FLEX
No OSHA Compliance: Any and all of Eggman's establishments.
Not Quite Dead: Seven, who returns in Chapter 4 despite apparently falling to his death and being crushed by an advancing wall of water at the end of chapter 2.
Only Known by Their Nickname: A number of characters (Rock, Jam, Ace, Tank/Power Mask, Wild Badge, Mako, et al) are known primarily by their nicknames.
Open Says Me: Our heroes-at-large's preferred method for opening doors. Keys are for losers.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Murdoch
Powered Armor: Tracer's main gimmick.
Prehensile Tail: Most prominently made use of by Jam. Rock tends to save it for opportune moments.
Put on a Bus: The fate of characters whose players, due to real-life concerns or otherwise, fall inactive.
Ragtag Band of Misfits
Reformed Criminal: Ace
Robot War: A good portion of chapter 3b. The cast is thrown against small groups or entire hordes of Gizoids throughout the entire chapter, a near army of the buggers being an obstacle towards the end.
Rock Steady: Geoff, whose primary power (thanks to an incident late in chapter 1) is the generation of crystalline rock on his body for both defensive and offensive purposes.
Rolling Attack: It is a Sonic RP. The only member of the non-official cast who really uses this is Geoff, though Tank has a belly-sliding Spin Attack variant.
Rooftop Confrontation: Chapter 2 finale, more or less.
Sentai: Hoji, AKA Super Vigilante Officer Wild Badge. Or just Wild Badge.
Shark Pool: Eggman's Jawz-filled underwater base in Chapter 2.
Shock and Awe: Jam's M.O.
Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Examples exist for the first four types:
- Type I: Mako, the hapless loser
- Type II: Geoff and Ace, who are grumpy and sarcastic but otherwise heroic
- Type III: Rodolf, with (occasionally very) questionable actions but ultimately good intentions
- Type IV: Rock, who just kind of kind of sucks at being good
Small Name, Big Ego: Juke, often to hilarious effect.
Smug Snake: Seven. So much.
Stuff Blowing Up: Frequently.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Nearly all the time. Grumpy Bears, Knights in Sour Armor, and Sour Supporters abound, while the only effectual leaders tend to have methods that raise suspicion.
Time Abyss: The Phoenix and associates
Time Bomb: The Chapter 2 finale, again
Too Dumb to Live: A number of Eggman-produced Mooks— actually-intelligent AI is not Eggman's strong suit, it would seem.
Tournament Arc: the boxing tournament that took up and set the stage for much of Chapter 2.
Trash Landing: Chapter 4
Turtle Power: Tank the Giant Tortoise is, statistically, the most powerful original character in the story. To say nothing of the fortune inherited by his wrestling super-star father, his host of high-flying luchador techniques, or the Master's Degree in Philosophy hung proudly on his wall.
Unicorn: Rodolf.
Use Your Head: Rodolf's preferred method of attack. Or of taking down doors. Or... really, a lot of things that Rodolf does.
Villainous Breakdown: Seven does not take the events of the final thread of Chapter 2 well. At all.
Walking Shirtless Scene: While it's common for characters in a Sonic RP to forgo clothing almost entirely, Rock always wears pants, but never a shirt.
Wasn't That Fun?: Rodolf is prone to making sarcastic comments along these lines.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Coop.
When All You Have Is a Hammer: There are few problems that Rodolf will not, at least initially, attempt to solve by smashing his head into it. His tendency to do this is actually remarked upon in the narration in a Chapter 4 thread.