Draw Your Own Story

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A Round Robin tradition at the Civilization Fanatics Forum, each Draw Your Own Story episode is a collaboratively-created comic, usually about the CF forum. The notoriously confusing and complex plot tends to involve the authors' self-insert characters combating a villain/seeking out an artifact who/which has incredible power. Lots of explosions and military hardware is usually involved. There is a massive supporting cast, most of which are characters imported from video games, tv shows, comics, literature, and historical and real life figures, resulting in a massive Mega Crossover and/or Anachronism Stew.

Also infamous for personality conflicts among the contributors (not so much nowadays) and frequent Series Hiatus.

Yes, it has a Wiki. There have been 13 episodes so far, but unfortunately threads for episodes 1-9 have been deleted and live on only in memory.

The available episodes include:

  • DYOS 10 - a story of the Avatar Wars, where people's old forum avatars rebel against their former masters;
  • DYOS 10.5 - a Sequel to the above;
  • DYOS 11 - tells about the struggle against a mysterious Hacker who closes the Off-Topic subforum, thus denying the forum users their daily dose of flame wars.
  • DYOS 12 - inspired by SOPA/PIPA, a Government Conspiracy shuts down most of the Internet.
Tropes used in Draw Your Own Story include:
  • Aborted Arc: The series is littered with these. Contributors sometimes became inactive and left their side-plot unresolved, or they'd forgotten about a side-plot or simply didn't want to continue it.
    • In an example of What Could Have Been, DaemonDD's Lucifer arc in DYOS XI would have provided a whole new act that brought together many of the story's "secondary" protagonists in a battle to save the universe. Ennui from the prolonged Hacker plot led him to drop it, and he has stated that he has no plans to continue the arc in future threads.
    • Similarly, Kan' Sharuminar and Captain2 were working on a side story originally intended to carry over into DYOS 12; so far it hasn't continued.
  • Action Girl: Seems to be a lot more of them than men.
  • All Germans Are Nazis: Averted. The Germans fight as hard as anyone against the Space Nazis, and after Berlin falls to Hickten, the Bundeswehr reorganizes under the FWA.
    • The Space Nazis are in fact originally Americans inferred to have bought into their fantasy a little too blindly. As Schäffer confesses to Krieger, they "don't know what Germany even means".
  • All Nations Are Superpowers: The many world wars are driven by contributor-led factions with little mention of "neutral" countries. In DYOS 5, this resulted in a plethora of Space-Filling Empires.
  • All There in the Manual: The Wiki started out having things that happened in comics, and now has way more information than the story itself, in plenty of cases way more than is necessary, much to the annoyance of the Wiki's Creator.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Used so much in DYOS that it's now considered a Discredited Meme
  • "Alone with Prisoner" Ploy: Feldmarschall Schäffer interrupts his own birthday party for a private audience with a recently-captured Krieger. While the particular scene is Schäffer waxing philosophical, later comics suggest he regularly feeds Krieger crucial information on Space Nazi activities.
  • Alternate Timeline: A plot twist halfway through DYOS XI involves Dr. Richtofen travelling back to 2003 to dissuade CivGeneral from joining the fight against CurtSibling, resulting in the "Tripartite" ascending to world supremacy.
  • Air Vent Passageway: Inverted with Ayane, Amanda, and Zelda when they infiltrated an Umbrella research facility.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Galava Narratorspace Team consists of six women.
    • And General Kwai
    • Hanna Antilles leads a squad consisting mainly of women
  • Anti-Magic
  • A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: Played mostly straight by Captain Locke. Reynaud's crew looks like an Anachronism Stew (and not just of pirates); but let them draw their guns...
  • Apocalypse How: Lucifer is attempting to do a Class X-4.
  • Archived Army: Napoleon's Coalition of the Leaderheads comprises most of the Civilization IV leader avatars. FDR's successor resistance includes prominent American historical figures.
  • Art Evolution: Most, if not all of the regular contributors have modified their styles in some way over the years, and not only the pen-and-paper crowd. Toward the end of DYOS XI, Kan' Sharuminar began experimenting with watercolour paints.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Gem
  • Ass Kicks You: Ayane performs this move against the brainwashed Faye, complete with saying a Russian reversal
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Chuck the Freaking Alien has this as a special ability. Also can be done with an Active/Industrious Beam.
  • Author Appeal: Pretty much everyone has at least one iconic trademark.
    • CivGeneral is best known for his love of Star Wars; in recent threads he commonly works characters, settings, and sometimes entire plots from the video games he's currently playing into his comics.
    • e350tb regularly crosses Nicktoons with the World War II British Army.
    • Thorvald has challenged the audience to count how many times he's referenced foxes since DYOS 10.
    • A risqué example, Stylesrj makes it clear starting in DYOS 11 that Buxom Is Better.
    • Almost every scene with Taniciusfox is a Shirtless Scene.
  • Author Existence Failure: Some of the contributors, for various reasons, left the story completely at some point. Some even left the site. One contributor is thought to have died in real life.
  • Author Filibuster: Just about everyone at some point. Some people more so than others.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: If someone is Coruscanti, they're probably this. Coupled with Brooklyn Rage if you push their Berserk Button.
  • Back from the Dead: Captain2
    • More like Only Mostly Dead, but yeah.
    • Kan' Sharuminar. Briefly. He later came back for good.
    • Stylesrj, but then, for him, Death Is Cheap.
    • Tama Shepard.
    • SpongeBob and Sandy, although the latter was dead for all of two panels.
  • Badass: Many characters and most of the leads.
  • Badass Longcoat: Commander Laes, Wesker, Rhiza Kalanin
  • Battle Couple: CivGeneral and Samus/Jill/Ayane; Stylesrj and Rhiza Kalanin; Spongebob and Sandy (occasionally); Marth & Martha Shepard
  • Beard of Evil: Generally inverted. Most of the major male protagonists have facial hair, while bad guys like Hickten and Johnson are cleaner-shaven.
    • Discussed by the villains in the Alternate Timeline. Perfection grows a beard to prove he's evil, while Thorvald laments that he already has a beard.
    • Commander Laes shaved everything but the goatee.
  • Beat Panel: Some comics do it right, some overdo it. Often leads to lolz moment if coupled with a Precision F-Strike in a deep voice.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Pretty much every character. This is of course due to limitations in the different games people use to gather images.
  • BFG: Both CivGeneral and Stylesrj love this trope. Complete with More Dakka and/or Beam Spam.
  • Big Eater: Gnowel Lawgiver does this a lot. Also crosses with Extreme Omnivore
  • Non Sequitur Episode: There were many, which often led to Flame War (because little-known forum comic is Serious Business)
  • Bounty Hunter: CivGeneral and his group; Talon Company's combat divisions
  • Boring but Practical: If this could apply to a person it would be Mr. Crane
  • Bowel-Breaking Bricks: Literally happened to Spongebob after Kaede showed her vectors to kill the RED spy.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy:
    • In DYOS XI, Faye Valentine is enslaved to the OS-tan as the assassin Sylux. CivGeneral and Co. free her by destroying the computer housing the OS-tan.
    • The Space Pirates try to use Roxane Rose as a Manchurian Agent to assassinate Major Kusanagi and CivGeneral.
    • One of Tama Shepard's new powers. Works best on Mooks though.
  • Brick Joke: Used occasionally.
    • In choxorn's conversation with Narakane, he comments that one frame is almost pure text, prompting Transit Advisor Jim to shout "YOU CAN'T CUT BACK ON THE COMIC! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!" Several comics later, choxorn inexplicably finds himself in the middle of a Nazi base. Cue Jim's evil laughter.
  • Broad Strokes: DYOS 10.5 gets this treatment in contemporary comics by CivGeneral.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: You see this a lot in CivGeneral and Stylesrj's fight scenes.
    • This comic begins with what looks like a third-person summary of the war in Germany. Midway through it turns out a soldier is narrating from the front.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: DYOS 10.5's stated purpose was to concentrate the 'serious' stories in a single thread and leave DYOS 11 for the usual madcap adventures. Debatable how well that worked.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Remember the Space Pirate Jingal's journal a year back?
  • The Chessmaster: Mr. House, who forms separate alliances with multiple factions beginning in DYOS XI, culminating in his playing both sides of the Hiram Rebellion off each other. His long-term objective remains unclear.
  • The Chosen One
    • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: e350tb and Judge_Deadd are killed before they even know they're Chosen. The Clone Guild learns the new identities and immediately embarks on a manhunt, captures taillesskangaru and literally rips the trait out of him, possibly inflicting brain damage.
      • Later on, it's found out he's a Chosen One again. But this time, it pays well.
  • CIA Evil, FBI Good: Unhappy with the state agenda, Randy Johnson goes rogue in a bid to remove 'misguided' government figureheads; the FBI is tasked with bringing him in.
  • City of Everywhere: Coruscant's fictional capital city; New Port City combines Big Applesauce, Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe, and Hollywood New England (With a touch of Lovecraft Country in the rural-suburban area).
  • Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: After the fight between Jill and Samus to settle who's CivGeneral's legal wife, he asks the G-man to bring his previous girlfriend Alyx out of stasis. It's clear to her they're never getting back together, so she dates Gordon instead.
  • Cloning Blues: Commander Laes seeks to kill Stylesrj to become the dominant avatar. Mariko tries to shoehorn herself into CivGeneral's family tree.
  • Colonel Badass: Stylesrj, Tama Shepard
  • Combat Medic: Rebecca Chambers, Martha Shepard, CivGeneral, and Valerie.
  • Continuity Snarl: A frequent problem within and between older threads as each contributor tended to have a unique take on the main story and canonical progression was never a serious concern. More recently, DYOS 11 presupposes the events of DYOS 10.5 when the latter thread isn't even halfway through.
    • While it hasn't caused friction yet, CivGeneral's comics date DYOS 12 twenty years after the Hacker's defeat, while everyone else assumes it's been a few months at most.[2]
  • Cool Airship: The Gogf, named after a forum member who has a blimp as his avatar.
  • Cool Guns: Some of the guns CivGeneral and Jill use would also tread into the Rare Guns category.
  • Coruscant Saves the Day
  • Crazy Prepared: The Eastern Union as a whole. Its secret weapons perform far beyond specs, its early warning network can detect interdimensional travel, and it has an emergency response certification system for each grade of Apocalypse How. Makes you wonder why it struggles in conventional wars...
  • Creator Backlash: A few regular contributors, specifically CivGeneral and taillesskangaru, have intermittently quit the project, typically due to Creator Breakdown.
  • Crossover: Too many to count.
    • Crossover Ship: Given the above, this was pretty much inevitable. Done by CivGeneral and the Styles brothers.
  • Cryptic Conversation: Pretty much everyone when speaking about Mr. Toyoda, including Toyoda himself.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Jill vs. Domination3000. Jill eventually showed him the power of the glow. It was in a non-canon comic though, one of the many "Take That, annoying forumers" comics that have been written over the course of the series.
    • The fight between Marsha Conrad and The Hacker. Complete with dropping a toilet on him and stomping on his groin.
    • Implied in many of Stylesrj's comics, so much that most of his enemies just go after easier targets.
    • Mjcommie's Daedalus tearing apart the Confederation of Space Iranians.
  • Cut and Paste Comic: In the early threads especially before the regular contributors developed more professional styles, as it's quick and easy.
  • Dark Action Girl: Ivanna Dostya, Mariko Antilles
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Qara Avethokastar
  • Day of the Jackboot: Grimsby's coup turns the FWA into a fascist Neo-British Empire, declaring the protagonists enemies of the state.
  • Death Is Cheap: Just how many times has Stylesrj died, exactly?
    • Not used much any more these days, as processes for resurrection are quite dangerous, expensive and/or just not done for plot reasons.
  • Deface of the Moon: The Hacker turns the Moon purple in DYOS 11.
    • Later in the story, the Gnomes' spaceship literally eats it.
      • Then in DYOS 12, the artificial replacement gets blown up as part of the war on POPA–SIPPA.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: CivGeneral, Jill, Marsha, and Spongebob invoked this trope with Kaede/Lucy, complete with But Your Horns are Beautiful
  • Deus Ex Machina: "An overly convenient plot device. Excellent!"
  • Didn't See That Coming: Villains frequently fall victim to this.
    • In a prime example of Didn't Think This Through, the Combine leads an all-out assault on the capital city of Arrakis in the hope of beating Coruscant to the Gem. They didn't seem to register they were taking on an interstellar empire, and in DYOS 10.5 the only reason they're still alive is because the Landsraad is blocking Corrino from completing the counterattack.
    • CivGeneral and Company are kidnapped and brought to Enclave headquarters where Dr. Breen tries to prompt a Face Heel Turn. Not only does he fail, but the kidnapping spurs Coruscant to launch a scary fast assault across the entire United States that drives the Enclave from the continent. Oops.
    • The Space Nazis anticipate a quick victory in Europe, thinking it's less unified than it really is. What happens? The invasion force wedges itself between two hostile blocs and now fights for survival.
    • Wesker grants Dr. Richtofen permission to travel back in time with the aim of preventing CivGeneral from rising to prominence and scuttling his evil plans. While the resulting Alternate Timeline sees Coruscant defeated early in DYOS, Wesker is captured and executed by the Sibling Empire.[3]
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: one example, Satan's decapitation by GuitarHero.
  • Digital Piracy Is Evil: Parodied.
    • Taken to Orwellian proportions in DYOS 12. It's still mostly satire, but a bloody topical one.
  • Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Seen with Thorvald and taillesskangaru in a coupe of comics. Probably non-canon since neither character is otherwise shown to smoke.
  • Divided States of America/Invaded States of America: At the start of DYOS 10.5, the USA is in complete disarray, with a handful of stable pockets controlled by the Enclave, Coruscant, and Toyoda's security staff. When the Enclave attacks Coruscant in D.C., the latter assumes responsibility for driving the former from the continent. This leads to
  • Doing Research: When Hannibal learns Toyoda is more involved in the Gem mystery than the heroes think, he goes to the archives to bone up on the lore. The end of the Hard Work Montage implies he now knows the full extent of the Ancient Conspiracy, while pretty much every other character is still stumbling in the dark.
  • Doomed by Canon: DYOS 10.5, being an interquel to 10 and 11, sees this- the Combine must be defeated, the main characters must survive, most plot threads must be resolved, et cetera.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: After the destruction of Wesker's Hammer, Mara takes control of Umbrella Corp. with an eye to correct Wesker's mistakes. Mara is in turn usurped (violently) by Mariko.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The elite Umbrella Corp. assassin HUNK vows a proper fight with CivGeneral after the Hacker is defeated. By that time, however, Umbrella is defunct and HUNK is out of a job. After drowning his sorrows at a local pub, he's hit by a bus while crossing the street.
  • Dude in Distress:
    • Toyoda is kidnapped just as he's about to reveal how he saved Thunderfall, prompting the heroes to launch a rescue attempt before the enemy can extract the information.
    • After going behind enemy lines, Krieger is captured by the Space Nazis. Marsha is given the task of breaking him out as part of Coruscant's investigations into Toyoda.
  • Duel to the Death: Unfortunately, our protagonist did not have a pistol.
  • Earth Is a Battlefield: Self-explanatory.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom: More times than should be legally allowed. Earth was destroyed at least once in every thread up until the 9th one, usually multiple times. In DYOS 8, it was destroyed, replaced by a Communist version, then destroyed again.
  • The Empire: Combine Empire, the Enclave, the Greater German Space Reich, The Second Galactic Empire, and Transatlasia, to some extent.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Parodied. Commander Laes is splattered with glitter, instantly summoning a swarm of screaming fangirls.
  • Evil Brit: Typically averted as most of e350tb's supporting cast is British, with the pointed exception of Agent Grimsby.
  • Evil Knockoff: For CivGeneral (multiple instances), Samus Aran and Spongebob.
  • Evil Redhead: Mara Jade DYOS 10/11, Darth Grievous.[4]
  • Extreme Omnivore: Gnowel Lawgiver can eat anything she wants. Including tanks and people!
  • Eyepatch of Power: General Leiong Leang got one after fighting Bayonetta
  • Face Heel Turn:
    • Mara Jade, CivGeneral's girlfriend in older installments, returns as a villain in DYOS 10.
    • kulade emerges as the initial Big Bad in DYOS 10.
    • In DYOS 10.5, Coruscanti commander Francis Durga defects to the Space Nazis simply to spite the Eastern Union.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Several people still think CG should've stuck with Samus.
  • The Federation: The Eastern Union, Republic of Coruscant, the Free Western Army.
  • Fiery Redhead: Qara Avethokastar
  • Filler Strips
  • Fingerless Gloves: Often worn by CivGeneral and his characters by virtue of the Half-Life 2 rebels.
  • Flame War: Many happened in the previous threads before more rules were added to prevent them.
  • Forceful Kiss: Rosalina does this to Stylesrj eventually. Even though Rhiza is nearby
  • Forever War: Not so much one war eternal as a perpetual stream of new enemies. CurtSibling is probably the closest example, striving for world supremacy in every story he was featured in.
  • Framed for Heroism: Marsha penetrates the Hacker's firewall and opens a portal to Xen, saving CivGeneral from an otherwise Invincible Villain... or so everyone thinks. In reality, the Eastern Union's IT corps inadvertently stripped the Hacker of his powers through an elaborate back-trace, and Marsha plugged in just after the barrier fell. Given the operation appears to have hacked every networked device on the planet, and that the officer in charge knew she'd probably be fired for it, the Union likely won't speak up.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: Stylesrj's team drinks fruit juice instead of regular alcohol at parties. The intoxicating effects could be claimed on a sugar rush.
  • Funetik Aksent: Regularly Played for Laughs with Manfred von Richtofen, Edward Richtofen, and Kim Jong-il.
  • Gag Boobs: Delia Steel in DYOS 12 has a matter compression device implanted in her chest that lets her use her cleavage as Hammerspace. When the implant breaks, it has predictable results.
  • Gas Mask Mooks: The Combine and Umbrella Soldiers as well as the Space Pirate foot soldiers.
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Quoted by Wesker.
  • Genre Shift: Different contributors play to different themes, and the plot can change as soon as the next comic. Some artists even run multiple genres simultaneously.
    • CivGeneral went from a mercenary-like character in the early threads into the leader of his own nation in response to escalating powergaming in the so-called Dark Ages. Recent episodes show him trying to revert to his mercenary roots.
    • Demonstrated most poignantly by lord_joakim's abrupt change from campy comedy to psychotic quasi-Mind Screw. And back.
    • Stylesrj every other month with the Narrator plots
    • taillesskangaru's entire Gem storyline, notable for being almost completely devoid of any attempt at humour, and for featuring lots of blood.
    • DYOS 10.5 as a whole. It keeps the humour bubbling on the surface, but the wars and diplomatic manoeuvres are much more nuanced, giving it the trappings of a political thriller.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: CivFanatics is rated PG, but that hasn't stopped people from trying. One of many examples: Ayane and Faye were wrestling and got into a few suggestive positions.
  • GIS Syndrome: Most prevalent in earlier episodes, coupled with Cut and Paste Comic.
    • Lampooned in DYOS 7, in which Stylesrj uses the "Copy-and-Paste Machine" to mass-produce a (crappy) army.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Corporal Reitan after the Gem led to the destruction of his squad.
  • Good Republic, Evil Empire: Coruscant versus its state-level enemies.[5]
    • Subverted by the Eastern Union: while it technically has a parliamentary legislature, for all practical purposes it's a velvet-gloved dictatorship.
  • Great Big Book of Everything/Tome of Prophecy: Lefty's Big Book of CFC, comprising ⅓ encyclopedia, ⅓ history, and ⅓ original "research", written in the form of cryptic forecasts.
  • Guns Akimbo: CivGeneral is especially fond of this trope.
    • His mother also dual wields blaster pistols.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Rhiza, oh so many times.
  • Healing Hands: Martha Shepard, despite being an undead, zombie-slaying cleric
  • Heel Face Turn
    • Captain Locke is persuaded to call off attacks on the main protagonists in exchange for a seat in the Union's government, $500 of ice cream, and a pony. He later does clandestine work for General Gedeonin in DYOS XII.
    • Mara reconsiders her vendetta after CivGeneral spares her life at the end of DYOS XI.
    • Dr. Richtofen is brought back to life in DYOS XII with a much sunnier disposition, and later defects to Coruscant.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: CivGeneral's girlfriend in the early stories was Mara Jade.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Kan' Sharuminar. And made only about two seconds after being resurrected by time travel...
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: The goddamn CIA, complete with Conservation of Ninjutsu.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: As Marsha prepares to break into Schäffer's headquarters, she remarks that Krieger isn't going to rescue himself. Cue the next page, and he does exactly that.
  • Hitchhiker Heroes: CivGeneral's and the Styles Brothers' supporting cast.
  • Hitler Rants: First done by e350tb and Stylesjl as panel comics. Thorvald occasionally submits full videos, typically criticizing his Schedule Slip.
  • Hollywood Hacking: CivGeneral's characters are firm disciples, and a few confront the Hacker in a Cyberspace setting. CivGeneral fights the anthropomorphism of his hate in a virtual reality environment.
    • Averted by Rhiza (although how she ended up physically injuring the Hacker is anyone's guess) and Octavia Deaconescu.
  • Hollywood Old: Hanna Antilles.
  • Hostage Situation
  • If It Was Funny the First Time: Tragically, the fate/origin of many of the comic's Running Gags
  • I Have Your Wife: Happens to Rhiza Kalanin quite frequently. The first time it was serious, the others... Rhiza handled it easily herself.
  • Implausible Deniability: Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi Information Minister in 2003, appears in comics to do this. He is later imbued with Author Powers and reality will bend to conform to his denials.
  • Incredible Shrinking Man: What the Lazy Beam does to people.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Invoked by Agent Grimsby after the cock-up on Thear.
  • Insistent Terminology: Coruscant was originally called both a republic and empire interchangeably, but since DYOS 10 CivGeneral only uses 'Republic', likely to avoid the latter's negative connotations.
  • Inspector Javert: The head of Britain's Internet Regulatory Commission is named André Javert, and is unrelenting in executing his duties.
  • Internal Reformist: Various characters within Coruscant, at different times over different crises. In DYOS 10.5, Kusanagi confronts the nation's victim complex and a renegade CIA.
  • It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time: Following the defeat of the New British Empire, the FWA overhauls its command structure to prevent secessionist coups by amalgamating the armed forces. This backfires spectacularly when Margaret Thatcher becomes British PM and uses the FWA for imperial expansion. Turns out abolishing national armies might not have been a safeguard after all...
  • Killed Off for Real: A few people actually have died and remained dead, although the only dead among the self-insert characters are e350tb and Judge Deadd
  • Klingon Promotion: choxorn became the leader of the Zombie Apocalypse after vaporizing the original leaders with a Kill Sat. Mythmonster briefly became the leader of Apolyton after shooting the previous one in the head, then forgot about that plotline as a result of his update schedule of "almost never"
  • Kudzu Plot: So much of it.
  • Lampshade Hanging: So much so that people have even begun hanging lampshades on how much Lampshade Hanging there is.
  • Legendary Carp: The carp from Dwarf Fortress is used as a weapon by the Hacker.
  • Let No Crisis Go to Waste: DYOS 10.5 opens with the world in utter chaos, the perfect opportunity for an invasion by Coruscant's enemies.[6]
    • Ironically, Coruscant profited as much, if not more: the campaign against the Enclave netted it America and a sizable chunk of the Asian Pacific, not to mention the star systems that flipped after the Galactic Federation imploded...
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Subverted by CG-X; he challenges CivGeneral to fisticuffs, only to keep his armour on and beat him to a pulp.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Stylesrj used to have this, only wearing the one set of clothes/armour. Then he started changing outfits after he met his wife.
    • Marth & Martha Shepard are either in their armour or in the clothes underneath
    • Generals Kwai & Leang. When Kwai went on a date, his normal brown suit was dyed grey.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Enough to warrant a character page. Just look at this picture. And that was drawn more than a year ago—there's even more characters now.
  • Lost Episode: DYOS 1-9 were deleted when then-host board Forum Games was purged to free up server space.[7] The contributors still have a few individual comics from those threads, though, as well as some pages dredged up through the Wayback Machine, and upload some of them to the side-threads at times.
    • A good chunk of DYOS 10 is missing, too, due to CFC's Uploads and Downloads Folder being hacked and deleted in 2008, taking a large amount of the comics for the thread with it. Then ImageShack changed its terms of service in 2012, punching holes in the successor threads.
    • The DYOS Wiki fell victim to this when Wikki's servers went offline in 2014. The backup restored to ShoutWiki was only current to 2013, missing the completed DYOS XI timeline and revised article on the Hacker that summarized the whole plot.
  • Machinomics: Popular engines include Garry's Mod, Fallout 3, Operation Flashpoint, and The Sims 3.
  • MacGuffin : all the quest items.
  • Made of Iron: Rhiza Kalanin. If it hurts her, then it'd have to be pretty painful or it could be mind control
    • Most of the heroes, when you think about it.
  • The Mafia: The minor villain Scalise belongs to the Mafia. Two Masakari operatives are mistaken for members.
  • The Magazine Rule: One of the Hacker's pranks subscribes choxorn to Zombie Girls Gone Wild.
  • Magic From Technology: Magic was banned until DYOS 12, so you see a lot of this.
  • Make It Look Like a Struggle: Marsha and Krieger unexpectedly encounter Schäffer while fleeing the Space Nazi base. Krieger orders Marsha further on before engaging in a mock fight to give the officer an alibi on the security cameras.
  • Malignant Plot Tumor: The Gem arc, introduced in DYOS 10 but grew so fast that it earned its own sequel thread. Thorvald has repeatedly hinted that it has in turn provided the foundation for yet a third act.
    • Within DYOS 10.5, the Nazi War. Originally intended as filler until lord_joakim could resume regular contributions, a combination of Schedule Slip, Continuity Snarl stemming from joakim shifting literally everything plot-critical to DYOS 11, and CivGeneral's disinterest in the more delicate facets of the Gem arc saw the war grossly overshadow the "main" story.
  • The Man Behind the Man
    • The Enclave Remnant in DYOS XI under command of General Townes is in turn a front for Chuck the Freaking Alien.
    • The Hacker does this to himself.
  • Manly Tears: CivGeneral shed them at Spongebob's funeral
  • Marshmallow Hell: Both Stylesrj and CivGeneral experienced this. Spongebob thinks it's a kind of dessert.
  • The Matchmaker/Relationship Sabotage: Coach manages to scuttle CivGeneral's marriages twice, using the same woman!
    • Soon after Jill confides her feelings for CivGeneral, Coach promises to do what he can to hook them up; when the Hacker stages a fight between her and Samus to determine who gets to stay CG's wife, Coach throws her a rocket launcher, saving her from impending defeat.
      • This receives a Call Forward in DYOS 10.5 when Jill asks Thorvald to hook her up while Samus is in a coma; he weasels his way out of becoming the saboteur, sarcastically quipping that one of CG's other friends would be more than happy to oblige.
    • Later during the Time Travel Arc, Coach sees CG dancing with Ayane at the 2003 prom, and later persuades Jill to annul the marriage when they return. As to why he would've hooked them up in the first place...[8]
  • The Medic: Dr. Terrance Hastings, Princess Peach
  • Medium Awareness: Exploited by nearly everyone, especially Thorvald, choxorn and taillesskangaru. Memorable examples include Krieger leaving DYOS 11 to fight in the prequel, Zheng He pondering whether he's in a tragedy or a comedy, and tailless going meta to escape a hostile space fleet.
  • Mega Corp: Umbrella Corporation and, arguably, the Clone Guild.
    • Talon Company probably counts, and Toyoda is inferred to run one.
  • Mega Crossover: StarCraft, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dick Cheney, The Fairly OddParents, Cthulhu, Star Wars, Dune, Ozy and Millie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Half Life, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, Metroid, Fallout, Dead or Alive, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Command & Conquer and of course Civilization
  • Meta Fic: Commonly demonstrated in "Narratorspace", "The Reality Warpers' Club", and "Ask that Ninja".
  • Mind Screw: The Thear arc. Didn't help that E350 lost one of the pages and was too lazy to redraw it, resulting in an As You Know.
  • Mood Whiplash: With so many different participants, it's inevitable that consecutive comics won't always carry the same tone.
  • Moral Dissonance: Ayane exploits Jill's confidence in her marriage to pursue intimate relations with CivGeneral, yet after the time travel shenanigans cause Jill to divorce him, Ayane insists he pledge himself solely to her. Watching Morrigan pull the same stunt in DYOS XII is nothing short of poetic.
  • Mr. Exposition: Vyacheslav Molotov occasionally appears to brief the audience on the state of the plot.
  • Multinational Team: Among the characters are nearly every European and East Asian nationality that exists, and a few that don't. Also true of the story writers, whose present and past ranks include around 15 Americans, 4 Canadians, 5 Australians, 2 English, a Scot, 2 Danes, a Norwegian, 2 Swedes, a Pole, an Asian-Australian, a Pakistani-American, an Indonesian, and some people with an unknown nationality.
  • Mysterious Woman: Kuraki Tojikawa, a close associate of Toyoda who advises choxorn and provides insider information to Marshal Brusilov.
  • Nice Hat
  • No Fourth Wall: Several of the main characters seem to be perfectly aware it's a comic. Others settle for just breaking and painting the wall.
  • No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Invoked by Colonel Maxium. Commander Laes does the same to Stylesrj's brother.
  • No Name Given: Most self-insert characters are only known by their username, which rolls into Only One Name for a majority of self-insert characters. Though some over time were given surnames, like Stylesrj, or opted to adopt their spouse's name, like CivGeneral. The hacker in DYOS 11 is known simply as the Hacker.
    • Regularly defied by CivGeneral's minor characters, some of whom get a first and last name despite a single appearance.
  • Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: Regularly played for laughs with the Eastern Union's "Federal Legislature", a council comprising the leaders of its member states. Ironically, they do manage to reach a consensus in the end.
  • Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Defied in the cruellest irony imaginable: a nuclear-armed Tupolev bomber sets off to strike an Enclave oil rig from Hiroshima.
    • Sometimes Stylesrj makes a big explosion and explains that it's not a nuke, but an N2 mine.
  • Nuke'Em: The above example is only one of hundreds...
  • Occupiers Out of Our Country!
    • The Combine Empire's sneak-attack against Coruscant in DYOS X leads to a brief occupation of Republic Island and a bitter resistance movement.
      • Coruscant becomes the victim of this in DYOS XI when Omega124 attempts lead New York State in secession. Unfortunately the plot stalled and CivGeneral had no interest in picking it up.
    • Captain2 and Thorvald engage in a humorous back-and-forth between DYOS X-XI as Canada tries to repel the Eastern Union's occupation.
  • Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Used often when the contributor doesn't want to spoil something or just hasn't thought of anything thus far.
  • One of Us: Everyone who is writing this story, some more so than others, is one of us.
  • Only Six Faces: Frequently occurs in CivGeneral's comics, but then, it's a limitation of the medium. Amusingly, the same face model was used for both the Chancellor of the Republic (good guy) and the CIA Deputy Director (bad guy).
    • A notable Lampshade Hanging occurs in choxorn's conversation with Tanaka. Ironically, Tanaka's model was unique.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell. Not only is she the Chancellor of the Republic of Coruscant but she is also an Action Girl in CivGeneral's Mercenary group.
    • Stylesrj once was president of France (It's a Long Story) and he spent very little of it leading.
    • Someone once remarked that Thorvald was vying for the King Richard award for most time in office spent outside the country.
  • Out Giving Birth; Back in Two Minutes: While Ayane describes it as painful, she's remarkably nonchalant about the whole thing.
  • Overnight Conquest: Just about every war prior to DYOS 10.
    • The Sequel Hook to DYOS 10.5 describes the Galactic Federation imploding shortly after the fall of Daiban, with planets flipping to Coruscant or being steamrolled by the Space Nazis.
    • The so-called Battle of the Bulge sees the Coruscanti army reaching from Chicago to the Pacific in the span of a single comic.[9]
    • Originally, Mariko took control of Coruscant, Kuat and Kessel on the same day she founded the Second Empire. Recognized as unfeasible at best, this was later retconned as an overly-ambitious boast on her part.
  • People's Republic of Tyranny: Taillenia in DYOS 6. Its vestigial space fleet, despite being a literal junta, ironically practices a much softer rule.
  • Planet of Hats: Teh Emo Republic is Exactly What it Says on the Tin.
  • Private Military Contractors: Mr. Toyoda's Security Company, CivGeneral's Brotherhood of Steel and S.T.A.R.S. factions, Stylesrj's Space Mercenaries, Talon Company.
  • Punch Clock Hero: Most of the FWA troops would rather be fishing.
  • The Quest: the central plot of most DYOS threads, though the story often became so chaotic the original goal was forgotten.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Martha Shepard
  • Reality Warper: The Hacker, and a few others.
  • Reality Writing Book: The Collected DYOS Episodes 1–9, the only surviving copy of the threads before the server switch deleted them, is stolen by the Hacker and used to erase choxorn and the zombies from the timeline. Surprisingly little else is made of this potentially catastrophic plot device.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Tons of examples, sometimes even other fictional things writing the plot. In DYOS 10.5, the volcano in Iceland with an unspellable name delayed an invasion of France (It Makes Sense in Context)
  • Recap Episode: The final comic of DYOS X is the Convenient Plot Device summarizing the story.
  • Redemption Quest: Some of CivGeneral's sideplots are this in DYOS 11, representing the fight against his inner daemons and atonement for his attitude in the past.
  • Redshirt Army
  • Reimagining the Artifact: The 'Luxury Diamond' introduced at the start of DYOS 10 returns midway through the story as the mysterious 'Gem'.
  • Remember the New Guy?: With the Loads and Loads of Characters, many of them end up being this.
  • The Remnant: Some extremely wayward Enclave survivors reappear on a different planet in DYOS 11.
    • Averted by the New Avatar Order in DYOS 10.5, who opt instead to drink themselves into irrelevance.
  • Renegade Russian: In DYOS IX, Georgy Kalanin convinces Sweden to join the race to claim the North Pole, triggering a war between America and the Eastern Union.
    • In contrast to his canonical role, General Guba actually avoids this, opting instead to berate Thorvald at every opportunity from the comfort of his armchair.
  • Retirony: Invoked with Rodney McKay.
  • Rule of Cool: Kan' Sharuminar rescuing Captain2 while riding a T-Rex that has been outfitted with a jetpack
  • Rule 34: In-story, one of the Hacker's furry henchmen finds a Rule 34 pic of himself and the Hacker (although the actual pic is not shown since it's against the forum rules, and it's not something anyone would want to see anyway.)
  • Running Gag
  • Scars Are Forever: Tama Shepard's resurrection
    • Hanna has two scars on her cheek from defending her son many years ago.
  • Schedule Slip: The better they've gotten at their art, the longer it seems to take them to make it...
  • Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Two of CivGeneral's past bullies, Bryan and Melinda, are Umbrella's goons. Word of God states they are based on an amalgamation of the kids who bullied the poster CivGeneral in the past.
  • Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Seen in concept posters
  • Security Blanket: Taillesskangaru in place of Linus in one of the "Why Haven't Contributor Drawn Comics Lately" comics.
  • Self Deprecating Humor: All the writers do this, rather frequently, except for CivGeneral, and even he's starting to do it some now.
  • Self-Insert Fic: Pretty much every major character is a self-insert. The exception is whoever e350tb's main character is at the time- he uses characters from Nickelodeon cartoons as his main chracter(s) instead of himself. He had a self-insert like everyone else for two seconds, but said self-insert was killed in his first comic.
  • Series Hiatus: DYOS occasionally suffers from this due to contributors being busy with real life.
  • She's Back: When last we left, a despondent Sandy shot Grimsby in revenge for SpongeBob's death. In TB's next page...[10]
  • Shoe Slap: Happened to Martha Shepard. Hit with a pair of Vintage 2004 Converse Sneakers thrown by Stylesrj. Her reaction? Who throws a shoe, honestly?
    • She only managed to stop one of them. Even Bush could do better than that!
  • Shoot the Medic First: Mariko's Empire does not hold the Geneva Convention in high regard.[11]
  • Shout-Out: To just about everything at some point.
  • Shrink Ray: The Lazy Beam
  • Sir Swearsalot: George S. M***g Patton.
  • Small Annoying Creature: Fergy the Fudgehog for a while. Then kulade killed him, And There Was Much Rejoicing.
  • Something Completely Different: in among the world wars and massive space battles, we get... Joseph Crane, manager, Yardy's Office Supplies.
  • Space Cold War: Between the Republic of Corusant and the Combine Empire
  • Space Pirates: The titular faction from Metroid is an early foe in DYOS XI.
  • Space Sailing: Admiral Zheng He's Ming Treasure Ship Armada, Thorvald's Golden Fleet, the Three Wise Guys' canoe.
  • Spell My Name with an "S":
    • Georgy Kalanin is usually referred to by everyone other than Stylesjl[12] as Georgie, probably due to the audience's English-language bias (joer-jee rather than the Russian yeor-gee).
    • Manfred von Richthofen is always spelled Richtofen. Given his brutal character assassination in DYOS V, this may be the contributors' way of separating his portrayal in the comic from the historical figure.
  • Spin-Off
  • Sprite Comic: Most famously done by Splime, who created an original army set for DYOS IX. Also used by Omega124, and CivGeneral when his gaming computer was being repaired.
  • Standard Female Grab Area: Subverted with Marsha Conrad. Don't ever try to grab her arm or you will find yourself flat on the floor.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Jessica Daibijin is Stylesjl's Axe Crazy Stalker. Her plans of cutting out Stylesjl's heart with her axe were put on hold to deal with the Hacker.
  • Statler and Waldorf: doing what they do best. Cameoed as Space Nazi soldiers during the invasion of Britain in DYOS 10.5; in DYOS 11, they're perched at the bow of a pirate ship à la Muppet Treasure Island.
  • Stomach of Holding: Gnowel Lawgiver and her High Cleric Juline Sane both have these.
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy: Roger Faarlander and Alex Merc, respectively.
  • Stupid Jetpack Hitler: The Greater German Space Reich
  • Swirlie: inverted, Marsha spawns an unflushed toilet above the Hacker. Cue in gravity and a moment of toilet water getting into the hacker's eye.
  • Symbol Swearing: Justified as CFC is PG-rated. Used in conjunction with Censor Boxes, sometimes as a gag by censoring the word "cake" and other non-swear words.
  • Take That; can get uncomfortable when it's aiming close to home. CivGeneral tends to be more hash and mean-spirited with his Take Thats.
  • Technical Pacifist: Rhiza Kalanin fits this trope. Her kills always have been indirectly caused.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Employed liberally by CivGeneral, both with heroes and villains, although the latter often come across as Straw Hypocrites.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: Though the end has Symbol Swearing, Marsha Conrad delivered this line right before serving the Hacker's ass to him.
  • This Is Sparta: used OVER 9000 times.
  • Those Two Guys: Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko and Sergeant Abigail Belmont, of the F.W.A.
    • Rudolph and Peter were originally this, until Rudolph got tapped to infiltrate the Canadian resistance.
  • Tragic Villain: Space Nazi field marshal Kurt Schäffer. While he harbours no love for Coruscant, he adheres to a higher ethical standard than his fellow officers and works within the system to mitigate the damage as much as possible, even leaking critical information to Krieger.
  • Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: True for pretty much all of the writers.
    • In fact, sometimes it seems like some of the writers only put something in a comic so that it could be listed on this page...
  • Tsundere: Tama Shepard and Kaede, and CivGeneral.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: The main plot of DYOS 10, when forum avatars revolted against the posters.
  • United Nations Is a Super Power: Not knowing how it actually works, Stylesrj coups the General Assembly in DYOS IX and uses it to hold the world hostage. Inevitably, a world war results.
    • Averted in later threads, though Mariko claims it's a puppet of the Eastern Union.
  • Unwilling Roboticisation: Happened to the entirety of Planet Thear - and many other planets, which were fed by produce from Thear. Well, It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time.
    • Happens again later in, when Sandy ends up on the wrong side of an Emergency Roboticiser. Happily for the plot, her mind is intact.
  • United Europe: A subversion that tries to play itself straight. The continent is split longitudinally between the Eastern Union and Free Western Army, who work very closely with each other. No Iron Curtain here, folks!
  • Vagueness Is Coming: Almost from the start of the Gem arc, several characters have alluded to some impending world-shaking event, and the references have steadily increased throughout DYOS 10.5.
  • Very Special Episode: Happens around Christmas time with special edition comics. A few lampooning comics consist of other posters from the forums. Almost all of the special episode comics are considered non-canon.
    • Stylesrj did a parody of a whole bunch of Soap Opera Special Episode themes midway through DYOS 11.
  • Vestigial Empire: By DYOS 10, Taillenia has virtually ceased to exist, and the Space Fleet last flies the flag in the battle over Earth midway through the story. The survivors reorganize as the Cosmonarmada Vostok in DYOS 10.5, policing the planet of the same name.
  • Villain by Default: The Combine in DYOS 10, the Space Nazis in DYOS 10.5, Umbrella Corp. in DYOS 11, and CurtSibling whenever he appears.
  • The Virus: The FEV and various strains of the progenitor virus (T-virus, etc)
  • Visible Invisibility: In two flavors, distortion & invisible to the reader.
  • Vodka Drunkenski: Georgy Kalanin.
  • Washington, D.C. Invasion: In DYOS 10.5, the Enclave assaults Coruscanti patrols, sparking the war for America. Hilariously, Coruscant seizes most of the country before the D.C. fight concludes.
  • Webcomic Time: Often occurs due to the frequent hiatuses- comics months apart from each other can, in-story, take place within the space of a few minutes.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The mysterious Mr. Brown convenes the heroes early on in DYOS XII to fight POPA–SIPPA. When he reveals his solution is to destroy the Internet altogether, they promptly turn on him.
  • Wham! Episode: They happen from time to time.
  • Wham! Line:
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: New Port City in DYOS 10. In later threads Word of God placed it on the U.S. eastern seaboard.
    • Now true of wherever the hell the Zombies' secret base is, although it IS a secret, and it's mostly only this because choxorn updates about once every 4 months these days.
      • When Thorvald placed it in Lusaka for a Civ3 mod, choxorn decided: "Sure, Why Not?"
  • Whole-Plot Reference: Beginning with the Combine arc in DYOS X and up until Wesker's final defeat in XI, CivGeneral's stories closely paralleled their inspiring franchises. In order, they are: Combine Insurgency = Half-Life 2; The Troubles = Left 4 Dead; the Enclave = Fallout 3; the Space Nazis = World War II; the Space Pirates = Metroid; Umbrella Inc. = Resident Evil; and the Time Travel Arc = Back to The Future.
  • Who Writes This Crap?: choxorn sometimes complains about something in the story, at which point he's reminded by someone else that he's the one who's writing this crap.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Thorvald muses this after CivGeneral's fight with the X-clones.
  • The World Is Always Doomed: And how!
  • World War II: Among the supporting cast are Erwin Rommel, Bernard Montgomery, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Patton, and just about the entire Soviet and Nazi leadership at one point or another.
  • Yandere: Jessica Daibijin is the possessive sort.
  • You Gotta Have Blue/Purple/Pink Hair: Ayane, Faye Valentine, Rhiza Kalanin, Major Kusanagi, Kaede/Lucy/Nyu
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Hiram rebellion looks like a clear-cut example of La Résistance versus Thatcherite imperialism... but the heroes are working for London and the rebel leader is implied to routinely commit war crimes. Add that Mr. House is playing both sides, and you wonder if you can root for anyone in this.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: Zombified versions of the DYOS 1 contributors invade at the tail-end of the Avatar Wars in DYOS 10. choxorn eventually kills them and steals their army, taking over Japan in his search for Stylesrj. By the end of that arc most of them have been killed, and choxorn's crew has whittled down to the precious few that can actually think.
    • Relapses in DYOS 11 when choxorn crash-lands in Poland and the zombies "accidentally" attack the Gogf.
  • Zombie Infectee: Averted HARD by CivGeneral: the other characters realize before he does, he certainly doesn't deny it, and he's treated and cured before symptoms begin to manifest.
  1. ↑ holding Thunderfall's soul
  2. ↑ This was likely done so that Nozomi would be fit to fight.
  3. ↑ It's also suggested Umbrella was defunct and Wesker on the run for some years prior.
  4. ↑ Not to be confused with one General Grievous, who appears as a character in his own right.
  5. ↑ Ironically, Coruscant used to call itself an empire, then CivGeneral became proactive about dodging negative connotations.
  6. ↑ At least, it should have been.
  7. ↑ They're theoretically backed up in a server dump file, but no-one knows how to read it.
  8. ↑ There's also the Plot Hole of why he'd assume CG's social life was the same eight years later.
  9. ↑ As a background event, no less!
  10. ↑ Sadly, that power glove was never seen again.
  11. ↑ Although given Rebecca is a Combat Medic, her protest was kinda hypocritical.
  12. ↑ even his brother
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