Your thoughts on panfandom games

[Keaton 133]

I'm really curious about this!

I originally come from the world of LiveJournal/Dreamwidth RP, and there was a point probably in the mid-aughts where panfandom became the norm in that space. In DW in particular now, it's hard to find single-fandom games. Yet I switch to forum RP, and the opposite is true!

Lately, I've noticed more panfandom forum games advertising, which is super encouraging for me personally. I'd love if there was a good mix of fandom and panfandom games, particularly for the folks who have characters they're dying to play from obscure sources who only have a slim hope of ever finding a game based on their fandom.

So what do you think? Have you played in a panfandom game? If so, how was the experience in terms of gameplay? Would you do it again? If not, are you curious about panfandom? I've got a panfandom game currently cooking, and even after several years here, I've never felt like I've gotten a good read on what you guys think about that genre just because it doesn't get talked about much.

(For those who don't know what panfandom is, they are games that allow you play a character from any fandom together with characters from all sorts of other fandoms. Sometimes these are sandboxes, sometimes full-fledged games with plot and events and such. It's pretty common, at least in my experience, for the premise to involve these characters being randomly thrown together in a place, often by unseen "mysterious" forces, but the settings and world rules run the gamut. Sometimes they're AU versions of the character created for the setting, but more often the character is pulled directly from their source canon. The fun is throwing together these characters who would otherwise never interact. Non-fandom original characters are sometimes allowed in these games as well.)

[Keaton 133]

32 minutes ago, SithLordOfSnark said:

I run a panfandom and they're really my favorite type of game. I much prefer being able to play any character I want and put them with someone from another fandom.

 

It really does open so many amazing opportunities for interaction. I can remember the first time I ever saw a panfandom game, it blew my mind; it had been what I was looking for all along without even knowing it.

[periphescent 4]

It's funny -- when I started RPing, I inadvertently threw myself into a panfandom without realizing it. My first RP was on the AnimeFantasia forums waaaaaay back in the early 2000s. I was a kid then, and thought the idea of doing actions and thoughts as a character, and interacting with other characters. I'd loved playing pretend as a kid, and it became clear that RP was just another way of doing that. 

 

Over the next few years I delved more into wholly original RP, before a friend of mine asked me to join a Harry Potter forum. I stuck to OCs on there, because OCs were all I really knew at that point, but eventually I made the plunge on a panfandom RP around 2011-2012ish. It was super intimidating -- I thought, who am I to dictate what someone else's characters would say and do in a situation? But I quickly fell in love with canon RP, and have pretty much stuck to canon RP since, with panfandoms being a favorite of mine.

 

I agree, they are a lot more common these days, but still aren't as big as, say, Marvel/DC RPs or slice of life sites. In particular, there are a lot of animated-only panfandoms, where no non-illustrated mediums are allowed. I had actually asked around on another resource site why they thought these were so popular, as opposed to the reverse concept (no anime/cartoons allowed), but no one seemed to have a good answer. 

 

I took a break from panfandoms for a while, mostly sticking around Marvel RPs, but I've been itching to get back into one. I haven't found an existing panfan that I'm interested in joining yet, and I've actually been debating throwing up an interest check for a non-animated panfandom to see if there would be any interest in that.

[DivineRabbit 64]

 am not sure I have ever been in one. Mine is a mixture of systems and character lore that is similar to such an ideal. But I would love to try one.

[Keaton 133]

2 hours ago, periphescent said:

I agree, they are a lot more common these days, but still aren't as big as, say, Marvel/DC RPs or slice of life sites.

 

This is still funny to me because of course this is true for forum-based games, but my background is journal-based (LiveJournal, DreamWidth, etc) and pan-fandom is almost all there is there now. It's interesting how different platforms adopt different styles. It makes me wonder what the hinge was for those journal sites back in the day where everyone started switching from single-canon to pan-fandom.

Edited May 11, 2021 by Keaton

[NyxDarklore 92]

I can see why people like panfandom games. But I hate them.

When I go onto a roleplaying site, I like to be immersed in the world and to roleplay with as many of the other members as is reasonable (based on characters and viable interactions, etc.) What I find with panfandom sites is that they don't really allow for that; it seems like a site that is too general and even those that try to do some sort of weird crossover situation don't often blend fandoms that work well together.

Regardless, I'm too much of a world-oriented person for panfandoms to work for me, it's also part of the reason I've been drifting away from fandoms in general (as someone who likes original lore).

[Brie 51]

As someone who runs a panfandom, I can certainly say I like them. I’ve seen ones that focus on similar series (think Buffy and SPN, Farscape and Stargate) and those that allow literally anything into the melting pot. Some of them are sandbox. Some of them are modern. Some are set on totally different worlds.

 

Mine is set on an alternate fantasy world that has all kinds of weird on it so that, even though the world is one cohesive whole, some of the areas are different enough to support various characters. I’ve found it works pretty well for us and we’ve been going on for three years now.

[Keaton 133]

2 hours ago, Brie said:

Mine is set on an alternate fantasy world that has all kinds of weird on it so that, even though the world is one cohesive whole, some of the areas are different enough to support various characters. I’ve found it works pretty well for us and we’ve been going on for three years now.

 

That's awesome, congrats on the longevity!

 

In terms of forum RP, I do see a lot of more sandbox style games, generic setting, or sites that say they're panfandom, but really what they mean is anybody can create a sub for any fandom, not necessarily "throw them all together into the melting pot," as you say. (My background is melting pots, haha -- Both of the "I just got yanked here from my canon universe" nexus type, and the "I'm an AU version who has always existed in this setting" type.)

 

I definitely understand where @NyxDarklore is coming from for sure, just based on the above experience poking around forum panfandom games, but I personally have experience with a number of panfandom games where the world building is a big, big part of the game, and that have fully-fledged, unique settings in their own right that expand and get more and more in-depth over time. I've run several like this (one with a crazy in-depth sci-fi/fantasy world and mystery plot arc that took over 3 years), I am running a new one thats entire thrust is exploring different, interesting worlds, and it sounds like you have something similar, too, @Brie, which is fantastic to hear. I guess what I'm saying is panfandom actually does run the gamut, but I also get that they can seem few and far between, and kind of all alike. It would be great to change that perception, but that probably just entails having more of them.

[periphescent 4]

Having hosted two panfandoms myself, and been a longtime member of a few others, I agree that it's challenging to find a concept that is both unique/interesting AND can account for the logistics of characters arriving from a limitless number of fandoms. Not that there's anything wrong going with the default route of "here is a world your character appears in for mysterious reasons", but the monotony of having your characters appear, acclimate, and introduce themselves to others can wear on someone who primarily plays in panfandom spaces. There was one RP a while back that let you backdate your character's entrance as long as you wanted so that they could either be brand new or a resident for decades, which was cool. 

 

But it really takes a special group of people to world build a panfandom to the point where it becomes a world with lore of its own and not just a sandbox. Just like any other RP, these are rare because forums tend to have a really short life span, but I always find myself willing to give them a shot to see where it goes. And I think if folks join panfandoms only to interact with folks from the same fandoms, well -- that's on them! Some of the most memorable RPs I've had were mixing fandoms. Jim Kirk and Poe Dameron? Totally space bros. 

[Brie 51]

Hah! Space bros.

 

In my current panfandom, people can backdate their arrival to this new weird world, have been born there, or simply drop in, in thread one. It's honestly up to the player and what kind of experience they want/would fit their character better. It makes for a nice mix.

 

I also think it's important in panfandoms for the staff team to set up situations and ways for characters who wouldn't normally meet to meet. People do naturally gravitate towards their tribe, so to speak. Even on BtL our largest IC faction is all superheroes (mostly marvel, some DC, some others). Site-wide events that are available to all characters, ways for characters who can't fly or teleport to get around if your world is large, common enemies, etc. This might be easier for crossovers that focus on two to four shows where the characters are all similar or that have a smaller IC area (say one city), but it's still vital.

[reuwille 4]

As someone who has spent upwards of 7 years on panfandom sites in the past, there are definite pros and cons.

 

The first, as you mentioned, is that people can play their favorite characters from more obscure fandoms. This is especially true of fandoms not "large enough" to warrant their own board — particularly if it's an animanga panfandom. Animanga sites are particularly difficult to find on jcink (where I usually rp), and panfandoms are by far the largest and most common.

 

You also get introduced to a lot of new media through panfandoms! One of my favorite things was role playing with characters from fandoms I hadn't the smallest idea about, and getting introduced to that show / game / etc. through the character I was playing against. To add onto the last point, sites being panfandom also allow for interactions that simply wouldn't happen if you were dealing with one source material.

 

The two biggest negatives I've noticed are — well, one is more of a negative, and the other is personal preference. I've definitely noticed people from more obscure fandoms getting ignored and overlooked, especially when they had no hope of any castmates ever joining. If you weren't into the "big fandoms" (and every panfandom has a few main fandoms that all the most popular rpers have characters in) then you tended to be shifted to the sidelines.

 

The con for personal preference is that panfandoms, because they're so general, tend to explode in member count, and I personally find that overwhelming. I'm someone who prefers smaller sites (15 members max) because I like getting involved with everyone, however the panfandom sites I've both staffed and joined frequently exceed 20-30 members. It's too much for me to keep up with, so I end up feeling left behind and demotivated.

 

Ultimately, I prefer panfandom to single-fandom sites for the reasons I listed above. These days, however, I prefer original sites to fandom, even if the original site's lore is based on multiple fandoms.

[Keaton 133]

8 minutes ago, reuwille said:

I've definitely noticed people from more obscure fandoms getting ignored and overlooked, especially when they had no hope of any castmates ever joining.

 

Yeah, I've seen this happen a lot, too. If you have someone from a "popular" fandom, you definitely don't have to do as much work, because people are more likely to come to you. Being able to play someone obscure is awesome, but you can't be shy about reaching out to people or yeah, in certain bigger games particularly, you run the risk of being overlooked.

 

In panfandoms I've run in the past, we'd run events that rewarded threading with characters that you'd never threaded with before, which seemed to help a lot. Once people establish a relationship, I think it's easier, but having run games without this sort of admin encouragement and one that did, I can definitely say it made a difference in getting folks together in the first place.

[Arduinna 1]

I'm kinda mixed in my opinion. If a panfandom is done well, it can be pretty great. Unfortunately, a lot are done rather poorly in my experience and that just ruins it for me.

[Lawman 88]

On 5/14/2021 at 4:39 AM, periphescent said:

Having hosted two panfandoms myself, and been a longtime member of a few others, I agree that it's challenging to find a concept that is both unique/interesting AND can account for the logistics of characters arriving from a limitless number of fandoms. Not that there's anything wrong going with the default route of "here is a world your character appears in for mysterious reasons", but the monotony of having your characters appear, acclimate, and introduce themselves to others can wear on someone who primarily plays in panfandom spaces. There was one RP a while back that let you backdate your character's entrance as long as you wanted so that they could either be brand new or a resident for decades, which was cool. 

 

But it really takes a special group of people to world build a panfandom to the point where it becomes a world with lore of its own and not just a sandbox. Just like any other RP, these are rare because forums tend to have a really short life span, but I always find myself willing to give them a shot to see where it goes. And I think if folks join panfandoms only to interact with folks from the same fandoms, well -- that's on them! Some of the most memorable RPs I've had were mixing fandoms. Jim Kirk and Poe Dameron? Totally space bros. 

 

With this in mind, plus what @Brie@Brie said about limited panfandoms that allow only "similar" series brings in mind one of my current projects, as well as earlier ones I'd involved myself in.  In both cases, one approach I had to resolving the issue in the bolded portion about characters needed to get acclimated to a new world and all is to do away with the isekai approach, and instead reimagined fandoms in a new, different context. 

 

Like, instead of a scenario where the characters from various fandoms are rifted from their native worlds and dumped into a new, unfamiliar world, what I do instead is to reimagine them as being natives to the setting. 

 

Like say, in a hypothetical crossover between say, Senran Kagura and Toji no Miko; instead of having one appear in the other's world, I instead rewrite the narrative to make it such that the shinobi and Toji have always coexisted in the same world - albeit in different parts of Japan. And that the Yoma and Aradama are just different names for the same foe. 

 

But yeah, for panfandoms and crossovers I personally find it more fun to recontextualise my favourite fandoms, rather than simply transplanting them straight as they are. Think along the lines of the Elseworlds comics series - like what if we reimagine Shinji Ikari's backstory and general character concept for say, the Gundam setting instead of Evangelion? That sort of stuff. And I can't speak for others, but it's definitely something I have a blast with. 

[Keaton 133]

10 minutes ago, Lawman said:

Like, instead of a scenario where the characters from various fandoms are rifted from their native worlds and dumped into a new, unfamiliar world, what I do instead is to reimagine them as being natives to the setting. 

 

I've done this as well; we referred to it as everyone being an AU version of the character for the setting. I enjoyed it a lot, as did some others, but I found that it was hard for certain people who were super used to the standard panfandom "dropped in straight from their canon" (or, alternately, who had played in single-fandom games) to get their brains around it. They really tried, but it was a challenge and they felt out of their depth, partially because they were coming from a culture that so intensely emphasized characters aligning with their source canon. It was hard for them to think outside of that box without getting anxious. I really loved it, though, and would absolutely do it again.