Action Chatroom

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"I REPEAT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, ET, AND ALL THAT IS MUFFIN-BASED, THIS WAS ONLY A DRILL. IF THIS WAS NOT A DRILL, YOU WOULD HEAR ME SCREAMING, AND CRYING FOR MOMMY, WHILE PEEING MY PANTS."
—Lighthearter; Pacific War: Empires Clash

Lubber:"Could you guys explain I wasn't molesting her?
DT: "Weren't you?"
Lubber: "Not Entirely. Partly."
Marcus:"Not entirely? PARTLY?"

—Landlubber, Dem Taqat & Marcus; Special Services Division'

Mechaerik: "FIRE!"
LH: "There's nothing there."
Mech: "FIRE ANYWAYS!"

—Lighthearter and Mechaerik; American Uprising

The Action Chatroom is a game genre started by Lighthearter on CFC. The basic point of the game is that the Game Master will set up a chatroom and a forum thread, and the players will purchase equipment in the thread and get together for the game in the chatroom, a la Dungeons and Dragons. So far,[when?] there have been roughly five such games,[please verify] each one doing its best to top the latter for sheer hilarity, and in many cases, pure awesome.

Due to the number of Action Chatrooms that have sprung into being, this page can no longer offer full summaries of them. Instead, they are listed in chronological order.

  • Pacific War(Pacwar) - Lighthearter
  • American Uprising(AU) - Lighthearter
  • Red Alert(RA) - Sonereal
  • Spiral Tower(ST) - Sonereal
  • Special Services Division(SSD) - Lighthearter
  • Heroes Rise and Fall(Heroes) - Arya126
  • Desron: Pacific War 2(Desron) - Lighthearter
  • Great Patriotic War(GPW) - Omega124
  • Island of Dreams(Io D) - Lighthearter
  • The Infiltrators(Infiltrators) - Electric
  • Saviors of a Broken World(Saviors) - Lighthearter
  • Metropolis(Metro) - Sonereal
  • Stellar War(SW) - Lighthearter
  • Flash of Swords, Dance of Fate, Lights of Magic(FSM) - Arya126
  • Special Services Division 2(SSD 2) - Lighthearter
  • Shadows of Tenochtitlan(Shadows) - Civoasis
  • Joint Strike Force(JSF) - Nukeknockout
  • United Strike Force(USF) - Dem Taqat
  • Duality(Duality) - Lighthearter
  • The Day Before(DB) - Omega124
  • Metropolis 2(Metro2) - Sonereal
  • Pacific War: Battlefield Burials(Burials) - Arya126
  • The Survival Games(Games) - Lighthearter

Conceptual ACs:

Tropes used in Action Chatroom include:

Player Tropes

General Tropes

  • Action Girl: LH has made a career of playing these, though recently more players have been trying it out for themselves.
  • Alien Invasion: The Federation acts as this for Haven in Stellar War.
  • All Monks Know Kung Fu: In 'Shadows of Tenochtitlan' Missionaries and Preists are only allowed knives as weapons. But they can get the Unarmed combat skill. Gerani and Patli are thus religious figures that fight with thier fists.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: With the amount of times Dem re-uses characters, this is something of a given
    • The most noticable was Metropolis Lord Crumpet, who was an an anti-hero in Metro1 and a complete villain in Metro2, despite usually being one of the most moralistic characters around
  • Alternate History: Most ACs feature this one way or another, but Island of Dreams was jam-packed with many conflicting ones, seeing as it featured people from hundreds of worlds thrown into one area.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Tovarishch in Io D is described as a personification of Communism.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: Spiral Tower's Haulsee.
  • Anyone Can Die: This is an element of many ACs, some more than others.
    • Red Spy died on the first mission of Red Alert.
    • Everyone but LH died on the first mission of Great Patriotic War.
  • A-Team Firing: Averted in Saviors Of A Broken World. The only thug to fire a shot at Salazar used a shotgun. Not only did the thug hit, but the shotgun missed the human shield Salazar had been using.
  • Badass: This was actually a perk in USF
  • Badass Normal: A specific background in Saviours, but Metro 1 and 2 also allowed players to be these
  • Battle Cry: Stellar War's Private L. Jenkins: "OVER THE TOP!!!"
  • Blindfolded Vision: The visually impaired Vya Fedha in Saviors wore a blindfold when she fought. She "saw" by using echolocation.
  • Brains and Bondage: Most of LH's characters. Notably Reva in Metropolis 2, as evidenced by her log.
  • Britain Is Only London: Inverted, the recurring character Lord Crumpet comes from the completely obscure region of Crumpetshire, as does his sister.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: In Spiral Tower, we had Nuke's Baron Bludgetsen von Badguy.
  • Cast from Hit Points: How Salazar managed to destroy half a city in Saviors with only the Default levels of INT and WIS.
  • Captain Patriotic: Sergeant Russia in Saviors.
  • Casting a Shadow: The 'Dark' powers in Metropolis and Lord Crumpet from Metropolis 2
  • Coat, Hat, Mask: Signan Origanam from Metropolis 2, and the NPC 'Dave' from USF both used this style
  • Cold Sniper: Anyone with a sniper rifle, regardless of the game.
  • A Commander Is You: AU, Metro, Red Alert, Heroes and Stellar War have all featured the ability to command armies.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Anna Fyre's culinary specialty in Saviors? Cockroach anything.
  • Cool Boat: Arguably, the entire premise of Pacwar.
  • Crossover: On one mission of Saviors, the team have to set right what went wrong in other ACs - leading to this little gem when Fear encounters Lord Crumpet: "You turn and critical hit yourself in the face with an elbow."
  • Cultured Warrior: Lord and Lady Crumpet.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Desron's League squadron in their first mission. Ironically, the USA squadron in their first mission as well... only they are on the losing side.
  • Dark Action Girl: LH has been known to play these on occasion, as has Nuke.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: a number of characters use this as a backstory
  • Dark Is Evil: The Black Guard in The Infiltrators.
  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Winston Churchill and Tovarishch did this to the Valkyre Bastet in Io D.
  • Development Hell: The Final Frontier AC is universally desired by players, but LH either has little interest or the amount of work required is unbelievably huge. Or both.
  • Downer Ending: Pacwar concluded with the players fighting to the last man in Singapore against the Japanese onslaught.
  • Eagle Land: Almost invariably portrayed as Type 2.
    • However, in Heroes Rise And Fall, Arya attempted a Type 1 portrayal, partially by giving all the good equipment to the USA.
  • Enemy Civil War: American Uprising: from the Federation's perspective, the split of Free America between the loyal forces of Eagle and the deserting Condor Legion led by John "Condor" Smith qualify.
  • Enemy Mine: In American Uprising, Condor Legion has on numerous occasions helped out Federation forces, despite having the same goal of independence as Free America. On the last Condor Legion mission, Smith points out that eventually that they're going to do battle with each other. That moment never came due to the crash of the game.
  • Failed a Spot Check: In JSS, the tank coming down the road fires at random, having failed to notice JoanK running out to distract it...
  • Genre Savvy: Actually a power in Io D.
  • GMPC: Admiral James Arion and the battleship Honolulu in Pacwar.
  • Sociopathic Hero: Sonereal has made his career on this trope. To a lesser extent, so has Arya.
  • Invincible Hero: LH has never died in an AC. Ever. The only even potential death was in FSM, and that was more him quitting the game. In an odd twist of fate, his brother Nukeknockout has never died in an AC either. Ever.
  • I Am Very British: Lord and Lady Crumpet.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Io D's Ivan gets his jetpack shot off by a gunship, goes into a free fall, and pulls off a head shot on the gunship pilot that shot him down. With a crossbow.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Spiral Tower: LH's General Haulsee, to a T.
  • Last Stand: Pacwar: Dem Taqat and Nuke were surrounded by the Japanese fleet at Singapore (along with a few NPCs), and both fought to the last man.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Innumerable instances. The most common culprit is Arya, however, and occasionally Best, Joan K and LH.
  • Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Inverted in Saviors; the Supernatual origins let 'magical' characters start with great abilities which they struggled to improve, whilst normal origin characters grew much faster when all the potential synergies started coming into play.
  • Magic Is a Monster Magnet: Using Dream powers in Io D attracts the Valkyries...
  • My Greatest Failure: Many players have this as backstory.
  • Officer and a Gentleman: Lord and Lady Crumpet.
  • Off the Rails: ....in what AC has this NOT happened?
  • One-Man Army: Players almost invariably become this.
  • Only Sane Man: Desron: Captain Killroy, or Celticfury. At Surabaya, he only followed his Leeroy Jenkins party because his odds of success weren't any better forging to Port Moresby alone.
  • Opposing Combat Philosophies: From Desron's disciplined League vs. Leeroy Jenkins US, to AU's organized Federation and Leeroy Jenkins US, all the way to Stellar War's Leeroy Jenkins Federation and organized Haven, this happens in every two-team game.
  • Perma-Stubble: Signan Origanam from Metropolis 2
  • Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Anna's backstory in Saviors, and the reason she took up the "Thou Shalt Not Kill" code.
  • Quintessential British Gentleman: Lady and Lord Crumpet.
  • Schrödinger's Butterfly: Was Io D a dream . . . or was it real, and the "real" world was the dream?
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Gerani in Saviors: "Romance? It's just a conversation!"
  • Shipping: Every AC since Saviors has had lots of it.
  • Ship Tease: Plenty of Fyrani (Fyre/Gerani) action occurred in the Saviors "Battle Royale" Christmas Special. It was all non-cannon though...
  • Single-Power Superheroes: A lot of players are this across the ACs - but a lot manage to be the Jack of All Stats too.
  • Sole Survivor: Pacwar: Duke Blackstone fled the battle of Singapore in his last plane, after his ship had been sunk (he'd moved his planes to the airfield beforehand) and all his allies had been killed.
  • Spot of Tea: Lord Crumpet lives on this trope.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Every AC ever has had copious amounts of this.
  • Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: N.P.C. in USF began life as a mook who rolled a 20 against a grenade, before survivng 3 more turns of attack unscathed by just standing still. Then he was promoted to full NPC...
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: EVERY SINGLE GAME has at least one pair that cannot work together well, but have to. Usually, Arya or Son is involved.
  • Team Killer: Several people, either on purpose or by accident
  • That Came Out Wrong: A lot.
  • The Big Guy: Nuke in Red Alert, playing Peter Korovich. He was strong enough to punch through walls, but too stupid to form complete sentences.
  • The Vamp: Shannon Dreyfus. Ye gods.
  • The War of Earthly Aggression: Stellar War's Federation comes from Earth and is invading Haven.
  • Too Dumb to Live: American Uprising: In a hilarious version, a lone foot soldier refuses to surrender to the head of the Condor Legion, who is in a tank, simply because said leader, Smith, was a Red Sox fan while the soldier was a Yankees fan. Eventually Smith got out of the tank and wrestled him down, too amused to kill him.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Every AC "team" comes off as this, even in games about groups of elite professionals.
  • Running Gag: DT's Lord Crumpet, to the level that LH once played as "Lady Crumpet" just to lampshade it.
    • Dem rigging the dice is another one of these.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Delphine Rose Watson (DR Watson) in the Day Before
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Churchill In Io D was actually working with the Valkyries
  • Using You All Along: The plot twist that USF didn't live to deliver; that the player's boss was the Big Bad who had actually been using the team to ease the EU into a single German-dominated state
  • Washington DC: With the exception of the prologue missions, the entirety of AU took place in war torn DC.
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Almost every player plan, and a large amount of NPC ones.
  • What the Hell, Player?: Happens in every game, and almost every mission.
    • Dem Taqat's 2nd USF test run was just a string of these moments held together by the fact that Red knew where to go

SSD Series Tropes

  • Accidental Aiming Skills: Hayakawa manages to blow up an entire ship when her shot misses the SAM Launcher and hits the ammunition store.
  • Action Girl: Captain Andropov.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Everyone calls the main helicopter "the Choppah", and, due to the Danish government not releasing his name at first, everyone calls Hans "Viking", even after he told his actual name to them.
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: On Mission Nine, Bestrfcplayer was being so incredibly annoying that he was tranquilized six times and injured by Captain Andropov five times before Red Spy finally killed him and fed him to a shark.
  • Armor Is Useless: Both played straight and inverted, as most characters would be dead if not for armor. Most non-player characters wearing armor are tougher as well. However, it usually doesn't matter if normal Mooks are wearing armor.
  • A-Team Firing: Despite his enhanced energy weapon, Best RF Cplayer never hits what he is aiming for.
    • At one point he tries to blast his way into a NYC warehouse. He ends up toppling the Statue of Liberty.
  • Back from the Dead: Viking, even though he was blown into tiny chunks, later was revived as a clone
  • Acceptable Targets: Americans. Most Non-American members of the SSD look down on them, including their own members.
  • Berserk Button: Viking will break your crap if you dare call him a Swede
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Viking, one of few members of the team that could be considered "Nice", went completely ballistic on Dale during interrogation, breaking his balls and pelvis in a single kick. The fact that he killed his Morality Pet/potential love interest didn't help matters.
  • Born Lucky: Lord Crumpet (DT) has been constantly accused of rigging the dice, given the number of 20's he gets
    • Wayne (Arya) Also has several examples of this.
      • Omega got accused for eating luck for breakfast at one point. Part of the reason his suicide bombing worked so well because he got a natural 20 on dodging bullets.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Lord Crumpets euipment list includes: Guns, Grenades, Knives; and a bottle of urine. And he uses it. Repeatedly...
  • Britain Is Only London: Inverted, Lord Crumpet comes from the completely obscure region of Crumpetshire.
  • Casual Danger Dialog: After Viking became suicidial after Andropov's death, he would always greet his enemies, even those who haven't yet noticed him, with a friendly "Oh hi there", for he stopped caring about the danger.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Red Spy: 'VIVA LA FRANCE! I SURRENDER!'
  • Closest Thing We Got: Crumpet doesnt have a med skill, but when they don't have a Medic his jury-rig skill and a few cloths are the closest thing they've got to a bandage
  • Cloning Blues: The US government secretly had a cloning project, and all of them are slaughtered by the SSD like if the clones were trying to kill them except for the clone of Viking, which actually did try to kill them in their first meeting
  • Cloning Gambit: Could be desribed as the entire plot of the latter half of SSD; almost everything is linked to America's secret cloning project, and both heroes and villians alike make use of the project.
  • Cold Sniper: Dem Taqat(Lord Crumpet) and Sam Sniped(Marcus).
  • Continuity Nod: One mission takes place near the Statue of Liberty. Or rather, what's left of it.
  • Determinator: Viking would just not give up trying to save Andropov when she tried pulling a Heroic Sacrifice, even when she threataned to charge him with sexual harrasment
  • Deadpan Snarker: Landlubber.
    • "Considering that she's not bi in the first place and her kids are in danger, the best decision she could make is obviously to leave her husband and fall in love with Sexton."
  • Drop the Hammer: Wayne carriers a utility hammer that he occasionally uses in combat.
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: The first indication Sven is in love with Andropov is him kissing her whilst she is unconsious. Then he does it again later. The next time she's unconsious he restrains himself, but she assumes he did it anyway.
  • Epic Fail: One of the Mooks Svensgaard fired at, I quote- "... LEAPED. INTO. THE. BLEEPING. BULLETS."
  • Failed a Spot Check: When players go hunting for the trapdoor in a burning warehouse, they all forget that it is on a highly visible raised platform...
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Captain Arthur Nix, new commander of the SSD after the "Season Two Finale" and Andropov's death.
  • Friendly Fire Index: Everywhere
  • Freudian Slip: Omega: "Give me a sex" (Where he meant sec)
  • Groin Attack: DT scored a critical hit on an opponent's groin in one mission, lifting him six inches into the air and breaking his pelvis.
    • He has since shot a clone of the same man in the groin with a sniper rifle. DT now refers to 'Flaggs Groin' as crumpets favoured enemy, claiming he has a '+5 racial bonus' to hitting it
  • Heroic Sociopath: Sasha Coronova.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Viking blew himself up to kill 24 grunts (Out of 80) and to allow the rest of the team to escape to safety.
  • Honor Before Reason: Lord Crumpet tells Red to patch up Rose (who has a minor wound and no combat ability) before himself (an elite soldier with 'firearms mastery' who is unable to use one of his arms) because his honour demands the ladies are healed first.
  • I Am Very British: Lord Crumpet
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Now saves lives!
    • Viking saying, "THIS GOD, IF HE IS LIGHTER OR HEARTER THAN ME, KNOWS I LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND", led to Lighthearter having the choppah drop some ropes to the Captian and Viking.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: The Season 3 opening see's the team attacked bu Ninjas
  • It Got Worse: Fleeing from the exploding base with most of the squad wounded after the fight with Dale, the squad run into: Another Dale... With another super energy weapon.(Crumpet then shoots him in the heart as they run away
  • Jerkass: Captain Nix, so bad that Sven slit his throat in their first mission together
  • Karma Houdini: Redspy, Sasha Coronova and Tigershark.
  • Manchurian Agent: Sasha Coronova, for the President of Russia
  • Morality Pet: A very strange example. After indirectly allowing Wayne torture a girl for info after his attempt of consoleing her, Viking tried helping her to make himself not feel as bad. Key word being tried, here. He left her in her cell because he chickened out, got drunk in order to help motivate himself but ended up passing out, and the team left with Viking but not the girl. On a return trip, he was able to rescue her, but she got shot by Dale during the operation and bled to death.
  • Multinational Team: There is the standard American, Russian, French, and British characters, but random nationalities such as Korean (Which unified between the timespan of 2012-2014 without any true explanation given), Dansih, and Swiss are thrown into the mix.
  • Mundane Solution: Lubber uses his jury rig skill to bandage Andropov when she has been hit. To make a bandage, he cannibalizes a box she was carrying. The box was a super-medkit...
  • Not Good with Rejection: After his initial rejection, Sven attempted to walk into a fire. He was stopped, but this is the same fire that Marcus walked through later...
  • One-Hit Polykill: Marcus six man collateral with the Barret .50 cal
    • Best RFC killed 8 people with one laser blast in one of the few times he actually hit the enemy with it
      • Viking killed 24 in one attack, but he went down with it
        • Sasha (Nuke) Killed 79 people, Including President Dale, with 1 rocket.
  • One-Winged Angel: Rare Heroic version where Lord Crumpet uses the piloting mastery he hadn't gotten a chance to use all game and defeated President Dale's UFO while flying a captured F-22a Raptor.
  • Quintessential British Gentleman: Lord Crumpet (again)
  • One-Man Army: Arya takes on Vice President Young as he escapes. He singlehandedly kills her and at least 7 of her "Greenie" supersoldiers.
  • Out of the Inferno: Marcus walks through the fire in the warehouse.
  • President Evil: POTUS Christian Dale.
  • Playing with Fire: Red Spy and RFC jumped over a raging fire. Marcus just walked through it. No one got hurt.
  • Rules Lawyer: Both Lawful Evil and Lawful Good versions. YMMV on whether Nukeknockout or Arya126 is which.
  • Shout-Out: Frederick Gerani is: '[Shoutout to the Last Game]Official member of: 'the p0wnage league of 1337 sniperz' [/Shoutout to the Last Game]'
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Sven (landlubber) and Anropov(NPC)'s Relationship is perfectly summed up by this trope.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Everyone, Everywhere.
    • RFC blowing up the NYC warehouse
    • Arya launched a (completely unnecessary) carbomb at a Brotherhood safehouse
  • Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: One mook managed to hold of most of the squad for over 3 rounds, whilst Arya (who had been captured)looked on asking why nobody would just stick a pistol to his head and shoot him, which DT eventually did (after shooting Lubber in the leg)
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Arya and Andropov. Never ends well.
    • Lubber and RFC exhibit this trope when on missions with Captain Andropov
  • Team Killer: Zered Killed multiple memebers of the SSD. Usually to the delight of his other teamates
  • Tsundere: Captain Katrina Andropov, commanding officer of the SSD.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Redspy hurled his knife at Rose, leaving in a helicopter, specifically to invoke this trope. He actually hits, but she's fine.
    • During one mission, he threw a knife threw a wall and hit.
    • And Now Lubber's doing it too! With an Actual sword!
  • That Came Out Wrong:

Dem Taqat: SCREW YOUR GF, WE NEED TO KILL DALE!
Dem Taqat: wait, that came out wrong
Various Others: SCREW YOUR GF
Land Lubber: I TAKE KATRINA and go into the warehouse
Nukeknockout: sounds like an excellent plan :P

    • Nuke gives us a second example with the typo: 'I wish you were in her'(here) Talking to Lubber whilst LH announces Andropovs turn. The response? 'I wish that too.'
      • Roughly one third of everything Nukeknockout says, and a tenth of what Sasha says.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Implied with the President of Russia and Tigershark.
  • Uriah Gambit: During the mission to Denver, the entire squad leaves Sasha to defeat a 'Greenie' Super Soldier in hand-to-hand combat by herself. She survives by accidentally blowing up a tanker truck. YMMV on whether they SSD squad tried to kill Sasha, or whether they simply forgot she was in trouble
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: The SSD Anti terrorist-squad plans to launch a teambuilding exercise. The goal? Burn down Wall Street.
  • What the Hell, Player?: The Best RFC Player incident saw a lot of this. Including a full scale rant in the thread.
  • When All You Have Is a Hammer: Viking would always tried to solve his problems through liberal use of explosives.
  • You Shall Not Pass: The nature of Andropov's attempted Heroic Sacrifice
  • You Just Had to Say It: Out of character, almost everyone said a variation when Red, also out of character, stated "In before the cap lets go" during the mission she dies by letting go of the rope.
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