Sprite Wars is an online, forum based Massive Multiplayer Crossover game with user-made and controlled factions. To say it simply, it's Daleks vs. UNSC vs. US vs. Hellghast vs. Tundran Territories vs. Imperial Guard vs. Zentradi vs. Rebels etc. in Mêlée à Trois. Add mix with several completely original factions and WMDs, and you get Sprite Wars. All this in sprite comic form.
Been around for 10 (or 11, depending how you count it) years, it has grown into a rather stable group with a canon of it's own. Wars are divided into "Campaigns", depending their size and "Seasons" between breaks. When it comes to rules, there are very few, the main rule being, of course, "Don't God Mod". Otherwise, you pretty much free to do what you want with you army. Demon worshipers? Go ahead. Communist army, either Dirty Commies or Glorious Mother Russia flavor? Bring it on. Snowmen? Yeah, we had those too... Giant crabs? Tried to summon the Chaos God at one point.
It is mainly a spriter group, with every other kind of artist welcome.
Can be found here
. Note when adding tropes: only add tropes that apply over seasons or long standing factions.
This site has examples of:
- Aborted Arc: When a spriter ceases activity in a campaign without any form of outro comic, this usually happens.
- A Commander Is You: There are lots of different sets, from Zerg Rushing to single powerful units, and everything in-between.
- Action Girl: Any female CO.
- Alien Invasion: Some more recent seasons featured not so friendly visits from the Voltor and the Imperial Guards from 40k.
- Also, earlier seasons included the Mobian Empire.
- And who can forget, the classic Corvolt Invasion? Notable for being the only time in Sprite Wars canon where the bad guys have gained canon victory over The Alliance.
- Subverted with the Kugestaldt "invasion" in the West Campaign. They were just kicking out the Lyvek, who had played this trope straight.
- Also, earlier seasons included the Mobian Empire.
- All There in the Manual: Rules are rarely brought up, unless you are being a dick. Superweapon rule, for example, is rarely used anymore.
- Also, character backstories, technical information, and relationships usually only come up in the profiles for the Campaigns, and not during the actual Campaigns.
- Alter-Ego Acting: Most characters who are named after forum members are essentially the forum members in the Sprite Wars universe, though this isn't always the case.
- Alternate Universe: Most Campaigns are in alternate universes from each other.
- Causes troubles sometimes since it's generally accepted that season 1 and 2 are canon, whereas season 3 is semi-canon. This eventually lead to a complete reboot where all canon was erased and Earth was restored to pre-war status to allow newcomers get into the game easily.
- Anachronism Stew: Even ignoring the varying tech levels between factions, a lot of Earth-based factions have both hover technology, lasers, and anti-orbit cannons alongside contemporary trucks and assault rifles. Some versions of the USA are egregious in this regard.
- Liberators take the cake, though. Apart from having Tau as allies they also have old bolt-action rifles... fighting alongside Humongous Mecha
- Fortunately,this has been subverted after the Liberator's got modernized.
- In the first season of the Global campaign, the Liberalis Terra was another example. Their troops wore no body armor, simply outfitted with green fatigues, red berets and FAL rifles, with M113s and T-62s for armored support. Later on in the season they got their own super soldier program underway,and received some space ships with Terran command's help, but it wasn't until recently in the 2nd season that their regular forces received modern equipment and training.
- Apocalypse How: Every single one has happened or nearly happened at least once, usually because of Worldbuilders.
- Armed Farces: The East Campaign and a few stand-alone comic series make for a good laugh.
- Attack Drone: Seen in use at some point or another.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The CO's. 'Nuff said.
- Also averted, some CO's are just ordinary humans/Mobians/whatevers who can be killed with a basic gun. Of course, these guys rarely go into the frontlines.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Worldbuilders.
- Badass Army: Many to choose from and root for.
- Battle Couple: While there are a few of them, Briano and Vivian of the Liberators Army have this trope played best.
- Battle Cry
- Beam Spam: The best example. ◊
- Big Bad: Leaders of evil factions are usually this.
- Bilingual Bonus: Infrequently.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Despite there being some truly good armies, the fact that everyone is ready to invade neutral countries for resources make it more "do you just take resource or do you oppress people for a kick" morality.
- Cannon Fodder: Many of the grunts suffer from this. Other times, it can become What Measure Is a Mook?.
- Captain Ersatz: Some armies are pretty much just renamed copies of well know armies. Some are direct ripoffs.
- Clone Army: Part of the Kugestaldt Republics Armed Forces. Their supersoldier GEHDI's are all clones, and they have clone reserves of regular infantry and specialized, genetically modified soldiers for more specific purposes.
- Crapsack World: Considering that the World War III has been going for who knows how many years, debris from battleships in space, and the use of nukes and several other superweapons has left large parts of Earth a barren wasteland by now.
- Cryptic Background Reference: A few were made in part one of the Global Campaign, being a new setting with no previous set lore.
- To new users, any in-universe reference to stuff from past campaigns, and there were some in Global, can seem like this.
- The Cavalry; Battles usually have several of these. Whether they actually help is another thing.
- Child Soldiers: The 907th Witch Squadron is comprised of young girls who use magic, big guns, and Striker Units. Don't forget the animal ears and tails.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: At least one per faction, usually female..
- Common Military Units: Most of the time.
- Common Ranks: Often Played Straight, usually by factions based off real-world countries (USA, Canada). Other times subverted.
- Colonel Badass
- Colonel Kilgore
- Custom Uniform: Most Main Characters and CO's are guilty of this. Justified in that it makes them easier to pick out from the standard mooks.
- Darkerand Edgier: The belief that this was happening to Sprite wars became a major point of debate at around 2008, specifically due to the content of the second grand campaign (Which is not remembered fondly by some participants).
- Death World: Everything Trying to Kill You in the Earth-based Campaigns, certain Single Biome Planets in the North/Space Campaigns.
- Delaying Action
- Divided States of America: Appeared in the West Campaign most prominently. This changed rather quickly, though.
- The Dragon: At least one in every evil faction.
- Earth Is a Battlefield: Obviously.
- Fantastic Racism: Happens to Mobians and Lylatians almost all the time. Slowly became a
Discredited Trope due to overuse. - Fanservice: What else can you call having a female, naked, cloaked spy being hunted by spreading powder so she can be seen? Oh, and to hide from everyone she hides in a bath. With every other female character.
- Father to His Men: Generally most of the factions that belonged under the umbrella of the old Alliance. TMWK's Character in Season three.
- Fighting for a Homeland
- Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: How many starships in Sprite Wars are equipped.
- Flaunting Your Fleets
- Forever War
- Friend or Foe?
- Gas Mask Mooks: Appears for both good guys and bad guys.
- Gender Is No Object: A few factions have both male and female soldiers in fully integrated combat units.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Pretty much how alliances work. Someone gets attacked, s/he calls for allies to bail him/her out.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Sometimes played straight, sometimes averted. Some CO's wear helmets, Kevlar and other protective headgear, other CO's don't.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: A handful of older factions were guilty of this, though the prize should go to the Liberators Army...they wear ORANGE BDU's!
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Some fights have this attitude in them. NCAF demonstrated this attitude against the Imperium's invasion of Europe.
- Humongous Mecha: From BattleTech to Macross
- Invaded States of America: Has happened several times in past seasons.
- Kill Sat: A few factions like to use these.
- La Résistance: At least one a Season. Briano's long-running Liberators apparently started out this way, according to his origin side-comic.
- Lighter and Softer: The Color Coated Campaign was conceived by a newer member as a way to get back to the less complex roots of Sprite wars. it's been a moderate success, with many long-time members participating. It was not however, the first attempt at a more light-hearted campaign.
- Macross Missile Massacre
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: As said before, it's the only explanation as to how Warhammer 40,000, Halo, Metal Slug, Macross, Modern Warfare, Sonic, Star Fox or dozens of other well known Media names can coverage and exist in this entire miniature reality. Add a few Original Characters with expansion, conversion and utilization of these many and varied references and plots that somehow seem to mesh no matter how odd, silly, confusing, and over the top they may be.
- In some cases, there are more specific Crossovers with one franchise or another. The Biohazard chronicles, for example, was set in the RE universe following the events of Resident evil 5. It even had custom sprites of RE 4 enemies!
- Before Biohazard chronicles, there was Operation undead metropolis, in which players would fight zombies and Umbrella soldiers in Racoon City.
- There was also a short lived S.T.A.L.K.E.R. comic which was basically "Sprite wars characters as rookie S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s go into the zone." It too had custom sprites.
- In some cases, there are more specific Crossovers with one franchise or another. The Biohazard chronicles, for example, was set in the RE universe following the events of Resident evil 5. It even had custom sprites of RE 4 enemies!
- MegaCorp: Many villainous factions start out, or are this.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Happens every so often. Usually players will improve the design and aesthetics of their sprites between seasons.
- Military Alphabet: Sometimes played straight, other times subverted.
- Million Mook March: Used by huge factions, usually large superpowers or alien invaders.
- Mirror Universe: Part of a subplot in GC 3. Sadly, this plot is not currently viewable in it's entirety on the web.
- More Dakka
- No New Fashions in the Future: Played straight and subverted- although Sprite Wars is only in the near future and this should be expected, many space factions- alien /and/ human have citizens with contemporary clothes.
- One-Man Army: Played straight, subverted and averted. really depends on the situation. Main philosophy appears to be "if it bleeds and ain't dead, you don't have enough dakka"
- Opposing Combat Philosophies
- Parody: Comics in and out of campaigns are frequently made with this in mind.
- Pleasure Planet: Hydronia has been implied to be this, but this is due more to its tropical climate.
- Pinned Down
- Private Military Contractors: Several.
- Propaganda Machine: Terran command's Terran news network, formerly Tiger news network, whose broadcasts usually consist of anchors Bashing various factions that don't support TC for supposedly being dirty communists or secretly working to further the international mobofascist takeover conspiracy. Though others presumably existed, this one is the most recent.
- Putting on the Reich: A handful of factions have this trope going for them, most notably the SS Paranormal Division.
- The Kugestaldt Republic, complete with futuristic Stahlhelms and all-black uniforms swam in this trope. When they were retconned into good guys, they maintained their intimidating appearance.
- The Axonian empire is another example, especially in earlier campaigns.
- Power Armor: Some factions have these. the Kuradian Armed forces took the cake however, for they did not deploy non-powered armor troops in direct frontline combat.
- Retcon: Sometimes a comic shows something weird, impossible, or out of character happening, and it gets removed/edited by the maker or another author. Of course, then there's the reboots...
- Loads of things from Season 2 onwards of the Grand campaign have been retconned out of existence due to all the problems they caused.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: This in spades. Kugels serve as the best example, their only defining traits are male baldness and exclusively black hair for females.
- Rule of Cool: The explanation for why there are things like Tanks the size of three-story buildings mounting laser cannons and soldiers who wear bright blue uniforms.
- Semper Fi: The USMC. They ARE this trope.
- Some other factions have their own version of a Marine Corps, but the USMC do truly embody the trope.
- Shout-Out: appears every so often.
- In one of Commander Evil's GC 1-era Imperium comics, there's a panel dedicated to showing a chaotic aerial battle between Imperial and SS paranormal division forces. One can clearly make out a Tyrannosaurus Rex in an F-14 among the combatants.
- Single-Biome Planet: Many planets turn out to be like this. Sometimes averted, as well.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Sometimes crops up for humor in the Campaigns.
- Spin-Off: What many threads in the "sprite comics" section are. Some are humorous in nature, featuring the sprite versions of forum members getting together and being the subject of wacky hijinks. "Life on SW" is the best example.
- There are also other, usually more serious ones set in the actual Sprite wars universe. They are centered around the histories of factions and characters, or sometimes general adventures. Shiki has made several of them over the years.
- Stand Your Ground
- State Sec: The FSA's K19. The Corvolt's Civil Protection officers
- Super-Soldier: A few factions have at least one of these.
- Tank Goodness: A few factions proudly display their behemoth, powerful, oversized tanks.
- That's an Order!
- The Alliance: A few of the factions are either this or become this.
- The Squad
- Those Wacky Nazis: The SS Paranormal Division.
- To Serve Man: Many play this trope, although the Lyvek deserve special mention; although carnivorous, Lyvek were originally not carrion creatures, until feasting on other species was enforced as an official part of their military doctrine through drugs and cybernetic control- it was used as a scare tactic and became second nature to some, but this part of their character has stopped as Characterization Marches On.
- United Nations Is A Super Power: The UN functions much like it's counterpart in Doctor Who, and also controls UNIT, as well as UNATCO.
- Units Not to Scale: All the time. Some members have been working on averting this lately, however, to the praise of everyone.
- Urban Warfare: Of course.
- War Is Glorious: Mixed with War Is Hell, as it keeps jumping between them in various Campaigns, and occasionally within Campaigns.
- War Is Hell: Mixed with War Is Glorious, as it keeps jumping between them in various Campaigns, and occasionally within Campaigns.
- Weapon Tombstone: Not seen very often, but when they do pop up, it can really tug at your heart strings a bit.
- World War III: And IV and V and... at this point, any mentioned "World War III" is probably hypothesized or just nonimportant backstory. By the time of most SW campaigns it's at-
- World War Whatever: World War 4 or 5, if that early.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: Many of the "Good" factions try and follow this. The Liberators Army make this a part of their SOP, making sure to keep civilians out of their crosshairs and hate it when the bad guys shoot civilians. Averted in season 2, when the Alliance didn't have the luxury when fighting the Corvolt Empire
- Zerg Rush
