Drinking Game / Fan Works

We must remember that, no matter how lonely we are, flame wars are impolite and have the potential to cause more alcohol-induced depression than this page.

Everyone has their own opinions, still, so if you think anything below is inappropriate, you can bring it up on the discussions page. Tropes Are Not Bad, and that's why a lot have manifested here as Fan Fic archetypes. Many of these can also be justified in certain circumstances, even if they're usually cliché and boring.

Most of all, though, we must remember that this is Just for Fun.

Shot

• Whenever someone's eyes are described as "orbs"
• Some form of the verb 'gravitate' is used
• Canon character gains a non-canonical pet
• Rule 34
• Characters who have never shown an interest in the military join up
• Canon character acts completely OOC for no apparent reason
  • Canon character acts completely OOC to enable the central romance
    • The author tries to excuse the character's OOC behaviour by saying something like, "Bob's only acting different because he's in love with Alice!", even though there is no way Bob would act that way even if he were in love
  • Canon character who is meant to be The Stoic is instead Prone to Tears, a Nervous Wreck, a hopeless romantic, or a Mood-Swinger.
  • Canon character who is meant to be cheerful instead acts serious, reserved, or gloomy
  • Canon character is afraid of something that wouldn't normally scare them
  • Canon character is meant to be smart but acts dumb or irrational
  • Canon character starts out acting like themselves, but gets more and more OOC as the story drags on
• Arranged Marriage
• Aliens Made Them Do It
• Character who has never done X before is immediately amazing at X
• Nonsensical pop culture reference
  • Reference to an Urban Legend of Zelda
• Whenever you read something that's been Jossed
• OMG turned into "Oh my [insert deity here]"
• Infringement joke in the disclaimer
  • I Do Not Own / Please don't sue
• Every "If I owned this, I'd be rich." Or "If I own this I would've changed A and made it B."
• The author threatens to up the content rating later
• Every Plot Hole
• Every Fix Fic that undoes a Tear Jerker and/or Downer Ending
• Broad Strokes are applied
• When an author threatens to...
  • hold the story hostage unless a certain number of reviews are given
  • do something horrible to you or a cute puppy
• When the color of someone's eyes is especially descriptive (e.g. "blue" becomes "sapphire")
  • And if they are registered on the Starbucks Skin Scale
• Spared by the Adaptation
• Death by Adaptation (see Death Fic)
• When the series' Running Gag gets used
  • The fanfic creates a running gag and uses it to survive
• The author takes time out to rail against "haters"
• Music is suggested for listening to while reading
• A song is plagiarized
  • Double if the lyrics are adjusted
  • The fanfic's title is a song lyric
• Shameless promotion of another fanfic
  • Promotion of recursive fanfiction/fanart/whatever
  • Promotion of its own TV Tropes page
• Reminder to like/favorite/upvote/whatever the fic
• Obviously a Self-Insert Fic
  • And another if the OC is an avatar for the author to romantically hook up with his/her favorite character
• Interrupted Intimacy
  • Caught with Your Pants Down
• One of the characters (usually the Cloud Cuckoolander) becomes a stoner in high school
• The OC is written specifically to be one of the existing characters' new best friend
• A character says something like "I know I'm good, but you don't need to call me a god" after their sexual partner yells, "Oh my god!"
  • Or if they actually are a god and acknowledge this, added snark not necessary, but likely
• Characters watch the show they come from
• Characters read fanfiction
• Every trigger warning
  • Double shots if one is/some are about alcohol
  • Take another shot if the warning is about something which wouldn't usually be triggering
• Star Wars AU (you can skip this if the original work has a canonical Star Wars AU)
  • Star Wars characters in a different Universe... far, far away
• Alternate Universe Fic set in World War II in which Nazi Germany won the war.
• Whenever a character gets resurrected, either in the fic or after they died in the original work
  • And/or if their death in the original is just ignored for the sake of the fic's continuity
  • And/or if they miraculously survive something
  • Take two when how it was possible is given a Hand Wave or some rambling and nonsensical Techno Babble
• The Scrappy, or another less popular character, gets Killed Off for Real
  • The Scrappy gets killed off or sacrifices themselves to save whoever escapes their canonical death above
• Only one character is kidnapped
• The mention of "bashing" or "flames"
• Lemon fics. Take another shot if the incredibly graphic and detailed descriptions of the characters' adult anatomy actually makes you aroused.
  • Take a third if the fic featured aged/matured cartoon characters from a show whose art style would be Fan Disservice at best.
• Mood Whiplash. Just one if the fic is a one-shot, double if it takes place at the end of the first chapter of an updating story.
• There's an incredibly long author's note
• A Script Fic inside the author's notes between the author(s) and the characters
• The story is written solely to explain something from the source material
  • Two shots if the explanation makes it dark
• The premise is "X is sick and Y takes care of them". Two shots if:
  • X got sick in a way that would be impossible to in real life or within canon (e.g. from being cold)
  • This leads to X and Y falling in love
  • X and Y already are in love and they kiss, hug, or even have sex despite the risk of infection
  • X behaves completely OOC and it's meant to just be because they're sick
  • Y tries to give X soup
  • X makes an attempt at Working Through the Cold and is stopped by Y
  • The fanfic ends with Y catching X's disease
• The premise is "X has a nightmare and Y cheers them up"
• Two characters who aren't a couple are made to share a bed. Two shots if it makes them fall in love

Little Sip

• An event from the work is mentioned/becomes a Cryptic Background Reference
• A Catchphrase or tag line is used
• Artistic License is invoked
• A character's name is spelt wrong. Take another if a canon character is replaced by (or generates) a mini due to misspelling.
• An unusual/absurd sexual euphemism is used
• Purple Prose
• Every spelling error
• Grammar - every instance of:
  • Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma
  • Rouge Angles of Satin
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz
  • Colon Cancer
• Gratuitous Foreign Language
• Alternative Character Interpretation
• "this chapter if rated M for sexy times"
• Every lampshade hung
• Every time a girl joins a harem
  • Take an extra shot when those girls incidentally become bisexual
• When the interaction between the series' characters is slightly OOC
• When the fanfic takes a jab at a hated work for the author
• The author takes time out to engage in an Author Filibuster
• A canon character's name is spelt multiple different ways
• Editing old chapters
  • Removing chapters
  • Author's notes
• Each nonstandard section breaker line
• Characters watch existing TV shows or movies (unless it's their own work or another fanfic, see above)
• Character trips on a ridiculously small/hard to trip on object/carpet/self
• A character is able to do something impossible, even though they just failed to do something much easier.
• Author takes a break to clarify something
• Author takes a break to rant about their life
  • They give far too much info
  • You begin to care about a Tara
• The fanfic becomes too angsty/comedic, when the original was the other
• Character bashing
• Every expletive and reference to a person's nether regions in a lemon fic.
• Continuity Nod to the original work.
  • Another if there's a continuity nod to the author's other fanfics of the same work, but aren't linked to each other (i.e. they're not sequel stories or anything).
• There's a chapter Title Drop.

Chug

• Dominance (or a variation thereof) is mentioned somehow
• A protagonist does something illegal
• A character who has never shown an interest in the military before joins the Marines
• Canon love interest of a character becomes evil to enable the central romance
• OC's name is spelt wrong
• Someone is revealed to have a Dark and Troubled Past
  • Which involves abuse
• Extensive descriptions of clothing
• OC is a relative of a preexisting character
  • ...even though the character is stated in-universe to have no family
• Textual Celebrity Resemblance
• Fan-Preferred Couple get together
  • and the secondary pairing, in the same fic
• Every Ron the Death Eater
• Every Draco in Leather Pants
• Crossover that makes no sense even within the context of the fic
• "If you don't like, don't read!"
• A Nice Guy becomes a jerk in order to make them "cooler"
• Mana/Chakra/Ki are portrayed as completely different energy sources
• An Alpha female of the harem
• When no one gets jealous in a harem
• Peggy Sue fics
• When the OTP gets broken down
• An event from the original series gets exaggerated.
• The author shoots a Take That! at a work seen as terrible by many people.
  • Add a shot if said work is in the same continuum as the fic.
• The author spells a character's name two different ways in the same sentence
  • OC's name spelt multiple ways throughout
• Male pregnancy
• Origin Story
• Darker and Edgier retelling of the story
  • Add a shot if it's a grimdark version of an otherwise upbeat/starkly contrasted series
• Retelling from another character's POV
• What Could Have Been if an event that is Common Knowledge didn't happen is in the description
• Spotlight-Stealing Crossover
  • Finish two drinks if the series doing the hijacking isn't super/more popular
• Jerk Sue and Protagonist-Centered Morality overlaps
• A wild God-Mode Sue appears (diddly-diddly-do)
• The fic is of one work, but contains Shout Outs to other works.
• An OC's involvement in the storyline changes little, if anything, about it
• Characters committing villainous acts but still being treated as heroes because the narrative says so
• Characters committing not-all-that-villainous acts but still being treated as villains because the narrative says so

Finish your drink

• Main character and OC get together
• Highschool AU
  • Add another drink if it's a band fic.
• Highly improbable crossover
• Someone is a Time Lord ^note outside Doctor Who fics, of course
• Character who has joined the military immediately promoted to officer/ appropriate high rank
• Anatomically Impossible Sex
  • Questionable substitutes for lubricant, such as motor oil, blood, or a Chicken and Rice MRE.
• No Punctuation Period
• Ascended Fanon
• The fan fic you're reading is actually good for once, but you find out too late it's incomplete and hasn't been updated in years
• It becomes a Grammar Nazi's worst nightmare
• Upend the bottle if it is an unwarned for Superwholock crossover
• A gray and/or The Stoic villain become a Laughably Evil, Moral Event Horizon crossing For the Evulz, Slasher Smile bearing, nutcase
• A deity gets involved
• When the Alternative Character Interpretation is shoehorned in a Square Peg, Round Trope scenario/ when the Alternative Character Interpretation doesn't make sense in the Universe the series is in
• The author misspells a character's name while complaining about people getting the character's name wrong
• Anything you encounter triggers traumatic flashbacks to My Immortal
• Admitting to being drunk/on drugs while writing
  • Admitting to posting without running by the editors/proofreaders
• G!p aka girls with penises
  • And a shot every time it pops up
• Any of the aforementioned deities become main characters
• School students in canon are suddenly in an massively age-inappropriate AU
• Real-Person Fic
  • Actor Shipping
• A fic is blatantly plagiarized a short time later.
  • Start another drink if the copycat fic contains an author note saying they wrote it as a tribute to the original author for writing the fic they're stealing.
  • Down that bottle if it makes Blackout77's works look original by comparison.
• If the disclaimer saying "If I owned X, I would change Y and do Z" is something for which Y is loved by the fanbase and doing Z would only make the story worse.

Specials

• Use the bottle to club yourself to death (or get another and down that, too) if it is a Superwholock fic crossed over with something else as well
• Sign up for AA if the fanfic you're reading really is My Immortal
• Take a cab to a brewery and throw yourself into the vats if the character joining the military is an OC pony
• Call for a fresh bottle and a stomach pump if the character who has just joined the military after having no previous interest is described as the most skilled soldier/marine the CO has ever seen
• Drink with the characters: whatever they have, so do you!
  • Hit of heroin = vodka gold shots
  • Spliff = down half pint of lager
• Celebrity-tory drinks party if the pairing of a Real-Person Fic gets together. In Real Life.
  • Invite the fic author if it happens the same way they described before trying to obtain their psychic powers through excessive drinking.
• If it turns out any of the abducted characters end up being sent to a secret underground military organization, a child labor factory in a Middle Eastern country, or even an international prostitution ring, finish your entire pack of drinks then seek therapy
• Induce alcohol poisoning orally for fanfics written as part of a trend the entire fandom is currently going through.
  • Induce alcohol poisoning through butt-chugging if said trend/phase fanfics focus on a currently popular 'it' slash couple

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