By The Way series follows three characters Daniel, Hosuh and Stephen. They usually get involved in survival games such as By the way, Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?, in which Daniel is often the Game Master, having little involvement in the plot in most videos, with some exceptions such as the By the way, Can You Survive an RPG Game? series.In January of 2020, it was announced that the channel would be inactive for the time being. It eventually returned in April of 2020 with Daniel and new cast members under a live-action format, with the old animated format reintroduced several months later, with the new cast. Hosuh is still on mandatory military leave for Korea, while Stephen left the group after a wage dispute with Daniel.
Sometime after the schism, Stephen made some DanPlan-style videos occasionally on his channel, and later with Hosuh, started a new channel called Plan 3, with new member Hart joining them, making animated DanPlan-style content, as Stephen and Hosuh were still fond of the format.
DanPlan's videos provide examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: The three titular characters of Danplan are Daniel, Stephen....and Hosuh.
- Alien Invasion: At the end of By the way, Can You Survive an ALIEN ENCOUNTER? the alien escapes. A week later, the alien race invades earth and annihilates all human life.
- Alliterative Name: Here, the characters are called Happy Hosuh, Delusional Daniel and Savage Stephen.
- Anyone Can Die: Downplayed, "permanent" deaths still allow characters to interact with alive players as ghosts.
- Art Shift: The art style changes in every video due to the different art styles of the animators.
- Author Avatar: All the main characters are named after and based off real people.
- Ax-Crazy: Played for laughs when it comes to Stephen as he jokes about violence and gruesome things.
- Birthday Episode: Hosuh collaborates with friends and other animators to post birthday videos for Daniel in Daniel doesn't know that I'm posting this video. and The Fiiinest Gift a Man can Give another Man.
- The Bus Came Back: Jay returns in By the way, Are You a Sociopath? after getting Put on a Bus for a while when they stopped making gaming videos.
- Deadly Game: Almost every episode is a variation of this.
- Derailed for Details: In Can You Survive The CALL?, While Daniel explains the caller seems to live in the same house he is in right now, Elias asks for many details, Disrupting Daniel's narration.
- Embarrassing First Name: In the Christmas podcast, Santa Claus manipulates Stephen's memory to give him a flashback, Daniel lets Stephen name his daughter in the process. He proceeds to name her Ted.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Stephen thinks that killing minors is wrong.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Though never mentioned in name, Jay and Jocat make an appearance in By the Way, What if the Same Day Repeated Over and Over? .
- Genre Savvy: Much to Daniel’s chagrin, several small plot twists, and sometimes The Reveal of some episodes are figured out long before they happen, and he has to adjust the story to avoid the others (often Stephen) from ending the game early.
- Halloween Episode: In By the way, Horror Stories, Daniel, Hosuh and Stephen sit in a campfire telling horror stories.
- Human Shield: After Stephen assassinates Daniel and resurrects him into a zombie, Daniel's mom becomes shocked and enraged, turning her into a mob boss. Afterwards, Stephen uses Daniel to shield him while he runs away, subverted as Daniel reunites with his mom and they turn back on Stephen to attack him.
- Kick the Dog: Daniel calls the doglike SCP-999 “an ugly orange thing” in the second part of Can You Survive SCP Containment Breach.
- The Leader: Daniel is the Leader of the three main characters and lead the story in most videos.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Hosuh is the nicest out of the three, Stephen is the polar opposite that appears to be the Anti-Hero and Daniel is the in-between Nice Guy.
- Railroading: Daniel is extremely guilty of this; most notably by completely preventing Jay and Stephen’s attempts to kill the disguised Tethered Daniel in Can You Survive “US”.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Hosuh and Daniel are the blue to Stephen's red
- Hosuh is the blue to Daniel's red
- Token Good Teammate: With Stephen and Jay tending to play as psychotic murderers during videos, Hosuh often ends up with this role.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Sometimes Stephen and the others think things are going in a dark direction when the NPC’s they are interacting with are completely benign.
- Stephen: *In many situations* [They] are a [demon/ghost/monster]! I [stab/shoot/attack] them!
- Yet Another Stupid Death: Stephen willingly killing himself (and others) in By the Way, What if the Same Day Repeated Over and Over? .
- This also applies to Jay and Stephen’s deaths in By the Way, Can You Survive Haunted Island? Part Two.
- This also applies to Jay and Stephen’s deaths in By the Way, Can You Survive Haunted Island? Part Two
