Line #15 Literature/CAPOW


1	[[FunWithAcronyms An "acronym"]] for "Creative Anime Prose Original Writing", CAPOW was a mailing-list RoundRobin writing group that was part FanFiction, part MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, and part diceless RoleplayingGame.
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3	It originated from the depths of UsefulNotes/{{Usenet}} as a "sister" group to the Roleplay/GlobalRanmaInsanityThread and moved to its own moderated mailing list (first on a member's personal server, and then on Yahoo Groups) where aspiring members have to apply and pass muster from existing members before they can join the group. By mid-1994 most of the groups' founding members had moved on to other projects and the group died a slow, agonizing death as people simply stopped posting.
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5	The basic premise of the group as a whole was this: you have Capow, a town/suburb/district of Tokyo that is home to the strangest collection of characters ever, and HilarityEnsues (as well as {{Drama\|tropes}}, {{Romance}}, and StuffBlowingUp, among other things) as a result.
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7	The posts in raw form can be read at [[https://web.archive.org/web/20050207105142/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/capowstory/ Yahoo Groups (in archived form)]]; it also has an information page [[http://capow.tripod.com/admin/capow.html on Tripod]].
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9	!This series has examples of:
10	* AuthorAppeal - Since every character was required to have some sort of anime influence, that meant every member had plenty of opportunities to gush about their favorite series.
11	* BasedOnAGreatBigLie - Some of the members wrote their posts as if they were just reporting the "real life" goings-on of Capow.
12	* BlessedWithSuck - Powers above CharlesAtlasSuperpower levels are only acceptable unless they have some kind of handicap, and sometimes not even then.
13	* FourLinesAllWaiting - Several members were juggling different stories, so when things got very busy you could have a ton of concurrently ongoing plots.
14	* HyperspaceArsenal - Many characters explicitly have the power to access "malletspace", and most of them carry more things on their person than is advisable in real life.
15	* InnBetweenTheWorlds - The bar, which has a back door into Roleplay/{{GRIT}}; Capow as a whole is a Town Between The Worlds as well, since anybody from any series could theoretically end up there.
16	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot - Inevitable given the wide range of genres that get brought into the series. (There may have been ''actual'' ninja pirate zombie robots.)
17	* RealLifeWritesThePlot - Occasionally a member will leave the group (causing their characters to become {{NPC}}s or completely unavailable), causing the stories that they were in to either become [[AbortedArc orphaned]] or necessitating workarounds.
18	* RuleOfIndex
19	* RunningTheAsylum - All of the members were expected to write, with the member providing the first post of any particular story arc acting as the impromptu "GameMaster".
20	* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield - Capow is said to be one of the districts of Tokyo, but it's never made clear exactly where it is.
21	* WeirdnessMagnet - Capow

Context Literature / CAPOW