Applying sliding scales to your works.

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. In this thread, we apply sliding scales to our works.

For instance, in my story The Matter With Francesynopsis

• Sliding Scale of Beauty: In heaven, everyone looks the way they did when young, and Bradamante is either Flawed Average or Special Average (YMMV). On earth, Bradamante looks just as she did when she died, and is Normal Ugly. Her descendants range from World Class Beauty to Super Ugly. Robespierre is a Common Beauty.
• On the Sliding Scale of Anti Heroes, Bradamante is a type 3.
• On the Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains, Robespierre is a type 3
• On the Sliding Scale of Proactiveness, Bradamante is The Reactionary (in more than one sense), and her descendants are either The Reactionary or Arbitrary Skeptic. Robespierre is The Man With The Plan.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: national threat.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: High.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Well-Intentioned Extremist

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.

Innocence Lost (Steampunk World War One war drama)

In no particular order:

• Abusing The Kardashev Scale For Fun And Profit: The civilizations of Earth are currently in 1921-1926 (the timeline of the story). They are a mid-level steampunk society. They're also a Type II on the scale, without actually knowing that.
• Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness: Between a Type 1 and Type 2. Tries for a solid Type 2.
• Asimov's Three Kinds of Science Fiction: Adventure is the primary, with Social as a subtext.
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes: Most of the nations are Type IIIs; France and Germany edge into Type IV territory towards the end.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains: The United States is a Type III.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Somewhere in the middle; both make an appearance, though it naturally gravitates towards Gritty because of the copious amounts of mud and dirt that are endemic to warfare.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Unusual, very solidly.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Begins somewhere in the center, favoring Cynical over Idealistic, and slowly gravitating towards the right (Cynical) end of the scale as the story goes.
• Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: One Type III/IV point of divergence, one Type I point of divergence, and one Type X point of divergence, followed by a timeline that is largely II/III, primarily II.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Basically all the countries rate a Credible... except the Ottoman Empire, which, when shown, is typically a Low.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Kind of unfair, since it's a war between nations, meaning it's National-level threat by default. Technically, Britain, the United States, and the Russian Empire could rate a Global-level threat, but in practice they couldn't pull it off. (Note that none of the nations are really proper villains).
• Morality Type: Gray-and-Gray Morality, with hints of Black-and-Gray Morality.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Serious. Deadly, deadly serious. Any humor that shows up is often Black Comedy, if not because of situational issues than because of Values Dissonance.
• Super Weight: The average soldier is a 0, where point of view characters tend to vary between 0 and 1. The average war machine rates a 0 to 1, while bigger things like floating fortresses might rate a 2 at best (and are subject to sudden drops to -1 due to Anyone Can Die). The Anthem of the Angels airship rates a Type 3 compared to everything around it, as it easily slaughters entire branches of the enemy military without much hassle, and literally nothing can touch it.

edited 2nd Jul '11 11:35:52 PM by USAF713

I am now known as Flyboy.

Fun! I've already done a thread for the Sorting Algorithm of Tropes, but as for the rest (in my comics):

• Abusing The Kardashev Scale For Fun And Profit: Most of the main species are borderline type I, with FTL, reactionless drive, and artificial gravity (all based off the same principles) but with only their homeworlds, if that, fully developed. There's also a fair amount of Schizo Tech, as relatively few civilizations have gotten into space on their own. The older races (qrtxians, cthwui, and possibly picilnk) are probably true Type I. The remaining active precursors are all theoretically type III, but they have a mutual agreement limiting how advanced technology they can use. It's noted that very few civilizations get beyond type II without ceasing to exist in their current forms.
• Asimov's Three Kinds of Science Fiction: Focuses mainly on Adventure, somewhat in contrast to my normal works.
• Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness: Probably a 2.5 - they're surprisingly internally consistent, but between all the different kinds of Applied Phlebotinum and the fact that some stuff is flat out impossible even with handwaving, it gets bumped down from a full type 3.
• Season Fluidity: Obviously, there's no seasons in a comic, but overall it fits as "Self-contained season-arcs, with some overarching plots" - most stories are multi-part, self-contained, but there is an overall continuity and some myth arcs, more as it went on.
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes: The Nerds all tend to be Type I, with a few exceptions, though most grow out of it - by the end, even Amir winds up finishing off the big bad. Type II and especially III are common amongst the supporting cast. The only lower individual is a parody Type V - Macho Man II, a violent nut job who eventually loses it completely, tries to murder the mayor of Seattle after deciding he is a supervillain, and winds up being jailed. All Played for Laughs, of course.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains: All exist, with Type II as the least common due to their more dramatic nature. See my Unpublished Works page (not yet written) for who's who, as I'm not going to list them all here.
• Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: Type X (superheroes), with somewhere between Type II and III since the 1940s PoD - on the one hand, there's a lot (mostly in the background) of evidence that there's been some changes since then to historical events. On the other hand, pop culture remains unchanged from real life, save for a number of fictional counterpart works.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: Varies a little - normally, outside of non-canon comics, the fourth wall is entirely solid, but some characters (especially the designated Meta Guys) tend to develop Medium Awareness when it would serve the purposes of a joke to do so, especially when I'm hanging a lampshade on something.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Type 4 - it's possible to predict the future, but no one ever says your predictions have to be right.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Hard to place, actually: while The Good Guys Always Win (eventually), most typical setups of an idealistic work tend to be subverted, and this even gets explicitly stated once. So it comes out more as optimistic cynicism.
• Sliding Scale of Law Enforcement: Very much towards the positive end of the scale, as the police in the main setting (the imaginatively named "Comics City") are basically a Badass Army - in fact, they appear on a couple of times to be more badass then the actual Army. In-universe, this is because of the abnormally high number of local costumed malcontents, out-of-universe, it's because I hate Police Are Useless. Police seen elsewhere are more hit-and-miss.
• Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted: As stated, the comics are explicitly Alternate History.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Despite being something of a Planet Eris, it's only Unusual due to the fact that the various genres tend to be highly consistent and compartmentalized (for instance, magic flat out does not work in our reality unless reality-warping individuals or artifacts are involved).
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Nothing is smarter then a Brick, except the Kovrons, technically an AI lifeform following their mass uploading several million years ago. There is an implication that this is why nothing is smarter then a Brick - the Kovrons have a tremendous fear of something taking their place.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Shiny, definitely, except in a few rare cases.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Definitely tends overall to the silly side. Of the four "genres" that appear most frequently, the superhero and spy stories are somewhat sillier then the science fiction and fantasy stories, but even the latter have such elements as evil space Teletubbies as The Empire and a giant intelligent cheeseburger as the local super-powerful benevolent wizard.
• Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: Dialogue, of course, seeing as it's a Stick-Figure Comic.
• Superhero Prevalence Stages: Middle stage, but with some elements of late-stage, including many supervillain team-ups and a Super Registration Act that's been in place since 1951.
• Super Weight: It's extremely rare for characters to go beyond Lottery Weight and still play an active role in the story. Nothing is explicitly confirmed to be at Author Weight, though there are suggestions in a few cases.

edited 2nd Jul '11 9:11:50 PM by nrjxll

For Remus:

• Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: Aside from a rather glaring Infodump on the second page, mostly on the Visuals end of things.
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes:
  • Ryan: Type III
  • Nicole: Type IV
  • Jason: Type III
  • Janice: Type II
  • Bill: Type II
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains:
  • Gus: Type III
  • Marcus: Type II
  • Seth: Does not qualify. At all. Ever.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: National threat.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Very high.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness:
  • Marcus: Pelagian Villain
  • Gus: Well-Intentioned Extremist
  • Seth: Complete Monster
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: WAY on the gritty side. It's not at Cyberpunk levels, but it's certainly getting there.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Largely serious, although there are a few Rule of Cool moments to break the otherwise-very-depressing tone.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Despite the premise, it actually leans ever so slightly towards idealism.
• Sliding Scale of Law Enforcement: State police are generally portrayed positively. Unfortunately, due to Jurisdiction Friction and a rather nasty turn of events they've also been Nerfed to the point that they physically can't do much good.
• Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted: Next Sunday A.D.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Almost completely mundane, with a few Made of Iron characters pushing it towards slightly unrealistic.

edited 2nd Jul '11 10:11:12 PM by KyleJacobs

A lot of these are hard for me to gauge. Take the Sliding Scale of Beauty, for instance—all I say about one character's appearance is that she's very dark-haired and dark-skinned and tends to vanish in shadows. (Another character is in love with her, but that's more a result of their personalities meshing.)

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

So, Manifestation Files:Book One:

• Season Fluidity: Dammed (probably).
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes: Bryan's a type II, bordering type III. Finn's a distinct type I.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: Bryan borders Common Beauty, with Finn being Special Average.
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Balanced.
• Sliding Scale of Endings: Bittersweet Ending.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: Visible Fourth Wall due to lampshades.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Type 0.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Unusual.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Cynical, with Gray-and-Grey Morality with the humans and Orange And Blue Morality with the Manifestation, but with Earn Your Happy Ending.
• Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted: Urban Fantasy in our timeline.
• Sliding Scale of Proactiveness: Bryan swings from less proactive to more proactive.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Leans towards seriousness.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Global Threat.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Inadvertent/High.
• Super Weight: Super Weight.

Zaran il Legio:

• Season Fluidity: Fluid, type 2 (no arcs but has internal continuity).
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes: Zaran might pass as type 1. Technically, I don't consider the comic to have any real "heroes", just protagonists.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: Zaran is Imperfect Beauty: she'd be very cute if it weren't for the glowing eyes, shark-like teeth and whatsnot. Most of the other characters are Flawed Average.
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Comedy Dominant.
• Sliding Scale of Endings: No ending planned, aside from the fact that eventually the timeline should reach the point where Forgotten Lore begins.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: Visible Fourth Wall.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Type 0 or 5. It's kinda hard to tell those two apart unless the setting specifically elaborates on the matter.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Fantastic.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Gritty.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The setting's leaning on the cynical side (altho the main character seems to believe it's more idealistic).
• Sliding Scale of Proactiveness: Zaran's usually Chaotic, as most plots stem from her doing something. Most other characters are Reactive.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Silly. The world the comic is set on, however, is actually pretty serious.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: No real villains, but there are several antions at war with eachother. The war could be considered a national scale threat.
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Not much real antagonists. The other Overlords would fall anywhere from Anti Villain to Ordinary Villain (altho they mostly exist in the background and have little effect on the plot of the comic).
• Super Weight: Zaran is Type 1 (she is actually somewhat more powerful than the average due to lots of training, but it rarely shows as she dislikes fighting). Jeff is type 0. The Chancellor is Type 1-2 (he's actually a fairly powerful mage, even if he's physically very frail). Zaran's father is Type 2-3 (as are all the Overlords. In the setting Authority Equals Asskicking).

edited 3rd Jul '11 1:06:44 AM by Nomic

Oh, me, me, me! I'm next!

The Hopewell Club

• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: While far from being a Disney film, it's unexpectly idealist: kind of reconstructs the Power of Friendship trope ("we're together...at least we can beat the sh*t out of them together!")
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: More of them are "common beauty", but the main male character is depicted as more handsome than anybody else because well...my main demographic is female
• Season Fluidity: Rotating Arcs
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Between Unusual and Fantastic
• Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted: Like Reality, Unless Noted
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: Sarah, the resident Perky Goth Strange Girl often acts like a Fourth-Wall Observer
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes: Allyson is a type I, Jake is mostly a type V and Sarah is just too chaotic to even be considered a heroine, an anti heroine or a villainess

edited 3rd Jul '11 8:32:31 AM by Anthony_H

My Entire series, basically.

• Season Fluidity: Fluid, type 3 and 4 (series long myth arc, but all episodes stand alone)
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Somewhere in the middle, going back and forth, but tends to settle on idealism, oddly enough.
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes:
  • Sam is a mix of type 1 and 2
  • Arianne is a mix of type 3 and 4,
  • Erin is a borderline type 5,
  • Céleste is a type 1,
  • Cierra is type 3.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains:
  • Type 3, Gabriel is trying to stop Erin from escaping the void out of a (reincarnation trasmitted) fear she would destroy the country. he is justified in thinking that, since she has done it before. however he initially doesnt care about the methods involved and ends up killing Sasha, despite it having no impact on Erin at all. His past incarnation on the otherhand is a straight up villain tho...
  • Type 1, Juste Mercier is not in the best of businesses. he has to make sacrifices and hard decisions. he is affable and ultimately only in it for himself, but he holds back on ruining lives just for the sake of it, or even for revenge. its all about self gain and preservation. you help him, he helps or leaves you alone. you threaten his family or his lifestyle though, and you've made a dangerous enemy.
  • Type 4, Sam considers anyone he meets as an enemy this.
  • Type 2, Markus doesn't like doing what he does. but he does it anyway because its the only way to keep his family alive.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: while not on the silly side, the characters themselves try not to take events too seriously.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Gabriel is of no threat to Erin at all, instead being a threat to whoever helps her. on the otherhand, Gabriel considers Erin a national threat, with good reason. any other villains are almost always personal threats, except Eli, who is a planetary, personal and at one point universal threat. Verdandi is also a universal threat, her mere existance is destroying reality, and she is virtually unkillable even by her own powers. (and even if someone did somehow get rid of her, its too late, since the universe is already too far gone to save). a trio of former contracts are rather severe personal threats to Céleste, who is more or less kept safe by current contracts, who is in turn, a personal threat to the trio. everyone is a personal threat to April. sheesh.
• Sliding Scale of Endings:
  • Erin's story: either Bittersweet Ending or a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending.
  • Adele's story: Happily Ever After, Everyone Lives(due to Sascha's Thou Shall Not Kill attitude extending to the whole team).
  • Arianne's story: Downer Ending, with the villain getting away, Arianne's brother abandoning her because she refuses to tell him why she ordered a hit on her own family, Blaise going back to jail, and Flore MIA.
  • Eli's story: Bolivian Army Ending, but Céleste's/Finale story confirms it as The Bad Guys Win(the protagonist).
  • Side Story: fakes you out with a Downer Ending, then a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending, and then eventually making it to an Earn Your Happy Ending.
  • Céleste's story: Bittersweet Ending/It's a Wonderful Failure.
    • Sam's story: No Ending.
    • Dante's story: Bittersweet Ending.
    • Shiina's story: Gainax Ending.
      • Machi's story: Downer Ending.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Type 2 as far as any contract is concerned. for almost everyone else Type 5, there technically isnt such a thing as fate. Type 4 for the few clairvoyants that aren't Verdandi.
• Super Weight:
  • Author Weight:Verdandi,The Cosmic Powers(Eldritch Abominations basically)
  • Deus Weight: Every Céleste era Contract after 7 years. Erin, Jeff, The cannibal demon hybrid from god knows what story.
  • Lottery Weight: Verdandi (prior Ret-Gone), Rhys, Eli (while not powerful or endowed with any power, that he became the successor for the observer is basically like winning a lottery, and opens the door for him to get much more powerful.)
  • Super Weight: Almost every main character in Dante's story. Céleste, The Observer. Juste Mercier. All shapeshifters.
  • Iron Weight: Sam, Ian, Ennis, Adele, Sascha, Blaise, Gabriel, Cierra, Luc, Sasha, Andrew.
  • Muggle Weight: Emma, Lauren, Jade, Jill, April, N029, Céleste (due to him not using his powers he ends up here), Léa, pretty much everyone who hasnt been mentioned yet.
  • Shirt Weight: Erin's doll bodies.

I think I should stop for now. Am I the only one who had trouble understanding some of these scales?

edited 3rd Jul '11 11:55:34 AM by Tarsen

Forgotten Lore (despite not having started doing anything with it, I have a very clear idea of how the story should go):

• Season Fluidity: Fluid, type 2 (stand alone episodes, but with continuity).
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes: Zaran still maybe Type 1, Phil maybe Type 1 aswell. Howard is Type 2.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty: Zaran still Imperfect Beauty, the Herald is Uncanny Valley, just about everybody else is just Average.
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Mixes both but leans toward comdey. Gets more serious towards the end, tho.
• Sliding Scale of Endings: Happily Ever After.
• Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness: Visible Fourth Wall by the way of occasional lampshade hanging or aside.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: 0 or 5.
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Unusual.
• Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted: Urban Fantasy (technically set in an alternative universe, but one that is mostly similar to ours, exept for the fantasy part).
• Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: Aside from the supernatural stuff (which is largely unknown to humans and therefore doesn't affect history much), the setting largelyis Hard/Soft (mostly similar to real world with some divergences. Mostly due to rules of cool, but tends to remain in realms of plausibility).
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Rather gritty.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Leaning towards idealistic. The universe is a dark place but people can still prevail.
• Sliding Scale of Proactiveness: Most villaisn are Chaotic (the Herald is a mix of Chaotic and the Man with the Plan), protagonists are Reactionary.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Generally pretty lighthearted, but does also contain serious stuff.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Most villains are City-scale, the Herald is Multi-Planetary or higher.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Credible to High, depending on the villain. The Herald is High to Infinite (he loses in the end, but it's just a small setback).
• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Most Villains are Ordinary Villains. The Herald has crossed the Moral Event Horizon (he's in it For the Evulz, and because he's a dick).
• Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: Visual dominant, which si the reason I haven't started working on it yet (I can't draw well enough).
• Super Weight: Phil is Type 0, Howard is Type 1 to low 2 (he's a magic user but not particularly powerful one). Zaran is Type 1-2 (she's low 1 compared to the average demon, and since demons are stronger than humans, her rank gets boosted up a bit when compared to the average human). The Herald is Type 4.

edited 3rd Jul '11 12:48:14 PM by Nomic

• Brain Chain
  • Adam: Book Dumb
  • Coral: Book Dumb
  • Qwerty: Child Prodigy
  • Tania: Book Dumb
  • Agents of VICTOR: Vary from Genius Ditz to Insufferable Genius
• Emotions vs. Stoicism
  • Adam: Balanced
  • Coral: Stoic
  • Qwerty: Stoic
  • Tania: Emotional
  • Agents of VICTOR: Vary
• Kinsey Scale Of Tropes
  • Adam: 0
  • Coral: 1-2
  • Qwerty: X
  • Tania: 3
  • Agents of VICTOR: Unknown
• Moh's Scale of Science Fiction Hardness: Soft
• Scale Of Scientific Sins: Up to cheating death.
• Sliding Scales:
• Sliding Scale Of Antagonist Vileness: VICTOR is Evilly Affable
• Sliding Scale Of Anthropomorphism: Coral is Littlebit Beastly
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes:
  • Adam: 1
  • Coral: 2-3
  • Qwerty: 2
  • Tania: 1

o Sliding Scale Of Beauty

• Adam: Super Ugly
• Coral: Imperfect Beauty
• Qwerty: Flawed Average
• Tania: Monstrous
• Agents of VICTOR: The monsters are, of course, monstrous, but most agents are flawed average-special average, and the public faces of the organization are common beauty

• Sliding Scale Of Comedy And Horror: Heavily slanted to horror
• Sliding Scale Of Free Will Vs Fate: Heavily slanted to free will
• Sliding Scale Of Gender Inequality: Level 5
• Sliding Scale Of Law Enforcement: VICTOR claims to be a law enforcement agency primarily.
• Sliding Scale Of Libertarianism And Authoritarianism: VICTOR is authoritarian in nature.
• Sliding Scale Of Proactiveness: Heroes are between Reactionary and Man With The Plan
• Sliding Scale Of Realistic Versus Fantastic: Unusual-fantastic
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Qwerty is between Average Joe and Nobel Bot
• Sliding Scale Of Shiny Versus Gritty: Gritty
• Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: Mostly serious
• Sliding Scale Of Undead Regeneration: Adam is type 2. The people he resurrects are type 1.
• Sliding Scale Of Villain Effectiveness: High
• Sliding Scale Of Villain Threat: VICTOR pretty much owns the city, but if it has the chance, it will go national or even international.
• Super Weight:
  • Adam: Super
  • Coral: Super
  • Qwerty: Super
  • Tania: Super
  • Agents of VICTOR: Monsters may be super or lottery, most agents are iron

edited 18th Jul '11 1:56:37 PM by LeighSabio

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.

From Danparan's universe:

• Apocalypse How - Class 2, caused by extraterrestrial prions
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes - Kibest is a Type II, developing slowly into a Type III
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror - Balanced, but with the Otherworld leaning slightly towards comedy
• Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic - Earth is Unusual, other planets (when they appear) are Fantastic
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence - Earth and Otherworld robots are 1, Spades Empire robots are 3-4
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - mostly Idealist
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness - main setting leans towards Seriousness, Otherworld is heavily weighted towards Silliness
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness - Genovefa has None, Dr. Feidl's is Credible, Boogie's is High, Waste's is High
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat - Boogie is Personal, Waste is easily National, Dr. Feidl is at least Global
• Super Weight - most of the characters are 0-2, hulderkind are 2 without even trying, the S4I7 entity is at least a 3

edited 16th Jul '11 7:25:55 AM by BobbyG

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Expect to see lots of spoilers here of my WIP story Reconnected (Working Title), but I'm not going to put any spoiler tags here, since you won't understand what I'm talking about:

• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Sticks in the middle and moves around back and forth. Oddly enough there's nothing wrong being idealistic or cynical despite setting in a Crapsack World.
• Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes:
  • Jade's Type II or III (or a mix of both), depends on how you look at it.
  • Maven's Type I but eventually gets out of it in his Let's Get Dangerous! moment.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains:
  • Type I: Akio. Sure, this doctor won't stop anyone who uses the most violent ways to gather crucial info, but using medicine to kill people? He does not approve of it. Otherwise he tends to be affable, most of the time.
  • Type II: Cecilia. She is the biggest Woobie of all the characters, with all the bad things that has been happening to her (physically abused by her boss, meeting the wrong people, a Well-Intentioned Extremist keeps going after her of a crime she did not commit). Poor girl can't catch a break. Being the Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds has its downside...
  • Type III: Foren Roth, full stop. He's pretty much a Knight In Shining Armour, likes doing good, popular with his colleagues and is a great family man. Until you found out what he did to Cecilia and thinks in black and white when it comes to morality. Eventually he became less sympathetic as the plot deepens, doing anything, absolutely anything to achieve his goals.
  • Type IV: Waite Malban. Despite having to capture 'Cee' (since she's now a fugitive) and her group and as seen as villainous by her group at first (more like cranky and hot-tempered), he is depicted to have a valid reason (his entire family was killed by the most wanted criminals at that time) why he hated criminals like 'Cee'. One thing for sure, he is never portrayed as evil and corrupt even when he's all alone. He eventually helps 'Cee' clear her name and joined her group after that.
• Sliding Scale of Beauty:
  • World Class Beauty: Akio and Amaya, Adora.
  • Imperfect Beauty: 'Cee' and Riona, their facial markings indicate that they are from the same village.
  • Average Beauty: Most of the characters.
  • Normal-Ugly: Fletcher, having several scars on his face and is a cripple after being beaten times too many by his abusive father when young.
• Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality:
  • Type 1 or 2 in the city populated with technopaths (since in the universe of this story technopaths are usually males) though there are some instances when women are found walking in the streets (most likely Pactums, since human females will not survive for long in a place where threats are commonplace.)
  • Type 5 in most of the places the protagonists visit; also as a whole in the overall story.
  • Type 8 in the Empire of Gynaika, being a matriarchal society and ruled by an Empress ever since the empire was formed.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Shiny in many places 'Cee' and her group visits, suddenly becomes Gritty (as in Cyberpunk Gritty) when they first visit the city populated with technopaths (and also where the main group of villains are residing.)
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Serious in the main plot, very silly when it comes to sub-plots and appearance of the light-hearted side characters.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat:
  • Personal Threat: Kel, to Alexis...in FASHION! Waite Malban to 'Cee' and her group. Chase to Jade, after successfully killing the people that Jade are very close to.
  • City Threat: Several low levels technopaths, but fortunately they aren't too much of a threat.
  • National Threat: Most of the higher levels technopaths, but they are doing it slowly and cautiously not to make any mistakes to take over some of the more important countries that poses a threat to them. Can also become a Nationa Threat if the enemies of the higher levels technopaths lack competence.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: High on the scale for the main villain's side and the AEGIS Squad, the latter really much being a group of law enforcers.
• Sliding Scale of Endings: Bittersweet Ending at the end, but I think otherwise (Esoteric Downer Ending, in fact.)
• Super Weight:
  • Shirt Weight: Unnamed civilians, Adam, Alma, Corrina. (Basically, all the named characters are just normal people, no powers, just ordinary humans.)
  • Muggle Weight: Most unnamed low level technopaths, AEGIS mooks, several AEGIS officers (Cassidy & Amadeus), Maven.
  • Iron Weight: 'Cee', Waite Malban, Chase, Sophia Klipsch-Choi.
  • Super Weight: Most Pactums (People who made a contract with a technopath), Jade, Amaya (not at full power), Elita, Juliane (after confessing her love for Theodore).
  • Lottery Weight: Most technopaths, Amaya (at full power)
  • Deus Weight: Riona ('Cee's' niece). (Apparently Riona's not the only person in here, but going beyond that is too spoliery.)

• Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness: Dage is at best a Hero Antagonist and at Worst a mild Knight Templar, although she does use some slightly questionable tactics. Gerem starts as a Hero Antagonist but rapidly drops to a Nietzsche Wannabe. Gant himself can be construed as a Pelagian Villain to a Noble Demon, although he carries slight elements of a Psychofor Hire, not enough to truly lower him far.
• Sliding Schale Of Anti-Heroes: Gant is a very solid IV, whereas Itou, Holz, and Karr are III's.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains: Dage stands at III, Gerem at IV.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Gant believes in a variant of 1, where fate is a general spread of outcomes which cannot be avoided, but a specific one can be chosen through individual action. Everyone else believes in 0.
• Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: 5, with women in the military, as well as one of the best fighters of the protagonist's group being female.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Cynical, with idealistic moments from Gant and Itou, with the former believing strongly in Honor Before Reason and the latter in The Power of Love, but the world in general tends not to share these ideas at all.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Gritty, with most beings dilapidated and nothing being perfect or unmarred.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Personal.

edited 16th Jul '11 8:44:28 AM by Morgulion

This is this.