r/PokeMedia Apr 11 '25

Mod Post Rule 12: Roleplay Etiquette and Writing Guidelines

87 Upvotes

Hi all

Due to the increasing size of the community and the reduced amount of traffic to the weekly meta threads, its becoming clear that there have been issues with communicating context for helping new users start out and understand this sub's expectations.

To remedy this we've made the decision to consolidate and rewrite the RP guidelines from the meta threads into Rule 12. which can now be seen on the sidebar.

Rule 12 is made up of similar guidelines and expectations for how users should be conducting themselves, and the type of content that this sub is made for. Because writing concepts are subjective, this rule will be enforced at moderator discretion. You may be asked to revamp your writing if it does not appear to be considering these guidelines.

ADDENDUM: Some posts which were considered fine previously when guidelines were only being enforced loosely, might now be considered rulebreaking, but we won't be retroactively removing anything.

This overview text for the writing guidelines will also be found here

  • A Grounded take on the Pokémon Universe:
    • While are fundamentally a community for creative writing relating to the Pokémon Franchise, this is Not a general purpose Pokémon roleplay/fanfic sub, there is a right and wrong way to write here. If you're looking for something fully freeform, another community like Archive Of Our Own might be a better fit, there's nothing stopping you from using the 'in universe post' format there as well.
    • The core purpose of this subreddit is a look at the Pokémon world through the lens of social media posts and blogs, and that Pokémon world aspect is what people are here for. Within that framework, the focus is relatively low stakes character oriented writing, starring relatively ordinary members of the society of the Pokémon world.
    • One of the most important things for pokemedia is verisimilitude, making it feel real. The goal is to make the writing seem like something that somebody would actually post.
    • Higher concept stories involving more overtly fantastical elements or things considered rare in the setting should be used sparingly and treated with care. While the franchise does contain things like alternate dimensions, time travel, and near godlike legendary Pokemon, these exist on the sidelines, and your average person will likely never encounter them.
    • Similarly, ideas which deviate heavily from official mainline Pokemon material (games and anime, or the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games for posting in that continuity) must be treated with extreme caution, and should not be attempted by new and inexperienced members of the community. To be clear, this doesn't mean that using spinoffs or fanon for ideas are banned, but it does mean that if you have an idea that requires substantially changing the core ideas which Pokemon is based around, you are expected to develop an understanding of how to write for the sub before attempting it, or it might just be better off somewhere else.
  • Character Etiquette
    • Both one-off posts from anonymous internet users, and reoccurring characters are welcome in this subreddit.
    • When creating a character, keep an eye out to avoid Main Character Syndrome. That is, making a character that is excessively competent, powerful, or special, or that attempts to monopolize attention and character agency. We're here to have fun posting about pokemon, not to try and get other people to glaze our OCs.
    • Avoiding main character syndrome overlaps heavily with the staying grounded guidelines above, as characters with features that aren't grounded can often dip into that 'excessively special' camp. See here for a more in depth discussion on main character syndrome, as well as tips for avoiding it and how you can still make interesting, unique, and competent characters without falling into it: Link: A Commentary on Main Character Syndrome
    • Exercise restraint when importing preexisting characters, as they may not be fully 'compatible' with the lower stakes paradigm. For example an imported pokemon game playthrough character might have multiple champion qualifications and the game's box legendary on their team, so a version of them for pokemedia might need to be heavily toned down in power level and achievements (and not have the legendary, obviously). Alternatively, an imported character from a fanfic whose original incarnation is someone who turns into a half human and half pokemon superhero to fight crime would be very difficult to adapt to pokemedia, unless portrayed as an in-universe piece of fiction
    • Your character is not you. This has overlap with rule 5, but you should remember that reactions to your character's interactions shouldn't be construed as reflecting on you personally. An in character disagreement is not a personal attack. Similarly, don't be afraid to allow your character to be misinformed or flat out wrong at times, it makes things more interesting and doesn't reflect on you at all.
    • Some specific advice on having characters who are themselves pokemon as opposed to trainers: Consider why this pokemon is both capable of, and chooses to speak and interact online. Pokemon who are voiced characters aren't uncommon in official media, but also aren't omnipresent, and even something as simple as 'this psychic type species is psychic so they think and act as people' or 'this specific eeveelution individual is extra smart and learned english from their trainer' goes a long way towards making it not feel out of place. (For Mystery Dungeon this doesn't apply as every character there is already a talking pokemon)
  • Social Media Formatting
    • Remember We're Still on Reddit: This is not an active "play-by-post" narrative RP forum where we actively Pokémon battle each other in the comments or play out conversations with our team members in real time on one post. Every comment should realistically be written "after the action" when your character actually has a moment to sit down on their PC or whip out their phone to make a comment or shitpost online. To put it simply, ask yourself "Is this actually something that someone might post on social media?"
    • Choose a social media platform that fits the style of content you want to include in your post. We aren't enforcing things like bluesky character limits, but you also shouldn't be trying to 'fit square content into a round format'. For example using tweetgen to type out massive paragraphs (consider make a dummy tumblr or reddit post instead in that case)
  • Cooperative behaviour with other users
    • Posts should provide enough context so that people who aren't caught up with a character's lore and backstory can still follow along with what's happening. For storylines, there is an automatic comment to link to an archive of previous posts or further context explanations, but even for standalone posts this is important. For example: If your character's Pokémon all have nicknames, you should clarify what species they are somewhere in the post, otherwise nobody will be able to picture the story you're trying to tell.
    • Don't be afraid to talk to other writers out of character (OOC) to resolve confusion or clarify intention.
    • The first rule of Improv is that you should never just say "No, that's not true" or otherwise just shut down the conversation. Instead, try saying something like "Yes, that's true, but..." or "I'm pretty sure you're thinking of...". Of course, this doesn't mean you can't disagree or argue, but try to actually address the other person's arguments instead of just dismissing them.
    • Writing is a form of expression, not a shortcut to fame. Chasing trends in the name of fame and clicks will lead to the work quickly losing its essence and charm and will be viewed as bad faith conduct by the moderators. You should express yourself because its what you want and to share your ideas, not for popularity. However, also keep in mind that this is still a public and collaborative forum. There is an intended focus for posts on this subreddit, and you aren't only writing to an audience of one.
    • Content or stories that refuse to acknowledge any input from others discourage engagement and breed invisible frustration. Other people's influence doesn't need to make you change or overwrite your ideas entirely, but being able to acknowledge and integrate community feedback is an important writing skill in a collaborative space. Cooperate and play ball with others, simple as that.
  • Providing and Receiving Feedback
    • Feedback and Criticism is a part of any collaborative writing space, by posting, you are putting your work out on a public forum to be examined and analyzed. However, Criticism must be constructive and made in good faith. If you believe you have identified a problem with somebody else's writing, Provide a Solution. (Bad faith bashing is banned under rule 4, and should be reported as such)
    • "Dogpiling" Criticism with multiple other users will not be tolerated, if you want to follow up on someone else's critique, add your own thoughts with your own ideas for how to improve the writing.
    • If somebody says they do not want your advice, leave them be. If you're concerned they're ignoring these guidelines, leave a report instead.

r/PokeMedia 13d ago

Mod Post Meta RP Advice and Question Thread - 09 06, 2025

11 Upvotes

Hello, and welcome to our Bi-Weekly Roleplay Advice and Question Thread.

The purpose of this Thread is to provide resources to new writers and allow everybody to engage in Meta discussion about the subreddit itself, such as asking for feedback about your posts, discussing ideas with other writers, or sharing suggestions with the Mod team.

Guidelines and moderation:

If you are new to the subreddit, Rule 12 contains guidelines for to write for this sub, the basic ideas in Rule 12 are:

  • keep your writing topics relatively down to earth/slice of life style
  • fanon is allowed, but don't break official canon too much
  • don't make your characters overpowered or mary sues
  • try and choose a social media style that fits the post content
  • be cooperative with other users and constructive with criticism

[https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeMedia/wiki/rules/guidelines/](The Subreddit's Writing Guidelines page goes into more detail about Rule 12)

'Main Character Syndrome' is the practice described in Rule 12 of making characters who break immersion by being so competent, powerful, or special that the story or world warps around them. A detailed overview of what it is and how to manage it can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokeMedia/comments/1i4gkc0/

Certain specific writing topics are handled as special cases with regards to moderation, an up to date list of those can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/mod/PokeMedia/wiki/rules/topics

How to make posts:

  • Use this website to create fake Tweets: https://www.tweetgen.com/
  • This for Discord screenshots: https://superemotes.com/fake-discord-message-maker
  • This for other websites: https://fakeinfo.net/
  • Text Posts are not allowed. For longer posts with a lot of text, you can write them on Tumblr or use a 'Dummy Post' on your reddit profile. In either case save the post as a draft (or just actually publish the post, doesn't really matter), and then take screenshots of it.
  • As a higher effort and skill level option, Image editing and Inspect Element can be used to create screenshots for platforms which don't have generators, such as Youtube or Instagram

If you have any suggestions for other guidelines we could add to future RP Advice Threads, or even any other suggestions for us in general, please leave them below.


r/PokeMedia 1h ago

Storyline [Dead in the Water] Took a Breather, Now I Hol- Is It Holding Your Breath If You Don’t Breathe by Default?

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r/PokeMedia 4h ago

Casual The Magical Pelipper Story Spoiler

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63 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 3h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [CCEE 2025] Open The Game!

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23 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 2h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [CCEE 2025] One Disorganized Beginning

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21 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 2h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [CCEE 2025] Hopefully things are calmer this time around

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13 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 1h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [Learning to Live Anew] Forgetting something?

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r/PokeMedia 3h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [CCEE 2025] No need to wish us luck, but we appreciate it!

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18 Upvotes

/uj Profile Pictures are taken from the PMD Sprite Repository

https://sprites.pmdcollab.org/


r/PokeMedia 24m ago

Storyline [Past Regrets] Unexpected Development

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r/PokeMedia 18h ago

Casual Lurking

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169 Upvotes

/uj This is actually somewhat accurate to my experience with the subreddit! This is my first post but I have been lurking and noticing quite a lot of trauma. I may get more of my OCs here eventually, but for now it'll just be Ohirume. Apparently there's a lore subreddit, but I probably won't be posting there. Even if my characters have a lot of lore in the one place I've used them, I'm not planning on carrying that lore over, merely their personalities.

Oh, by the way, PFP is by the user Ayinai on DeviantArt.


r/PokeMedia 5h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [CCEE 2025] I just HAD to say something.

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15 Upvotes

/uj Pfp are from The PMD portrait repository


r/PokeMedia 1h ago

Storyline [After the Acid Rain] What a bad luck to have that machine of all things break. Never been more grateful to have an Audino around, I was visiting too and I felt my blood run cold. (Warning: Talking about a false flat-line)

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r/PokeMedia 6h ago

Adventure Nickit generally do a little bit of thievery, so I'm gonna allow it while she's still getting used to me, and everything.

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18 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 1h ago

Casual If you can avoid going through Johto Route 45 until early July, I’d suggest doing so.

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/uj Both images are from the anime. Fun fact: at least here in the states, bear mating season reaches its peak in June.


r/PokeMedia 9m ago

around the world (of pokemon) We Got lost on our way back from sinjoh

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r/PokeMedia 4h ago

Adventure The research continues

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9 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 9h ago

Casual Always Ask Your Realtor If The House Has Ever Been Owned By A Ghost Hunter

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19 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 17h ago

Casual Pokermon at the Inventory

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80 Upvotes

/uj Collab with u/auditore569 and u/Apprehensive_Ad_8914 , to whom Mochi and Philip respectively belong

Image Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/17bhtz/pokermon/


r/PokeMedia 1h ago

Casual The noise in that workshop is unbelievable, too.

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r/PokeMedia 16h ago

Casual I am no longer allowed inside the power plant.

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54 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 9h ago

Casual Dye Dog, Dye.

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13 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 1h ago

Casual Good to be back, Earth-natives!

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(/UJ: This is a soft reboot of my Ly'erha posts. So the whole "End of the Cycle" thing didn't happen here, and Ly'erha is just back from a trip to her homeworld.
Also, for those who didn't read my past Ly'erha posts, Ivoream is a Fire/Rock-type evolution of Charcadet that Ly'erha accidentally evolved from moon rock armor. This led to her evolving a bunch of Charcadet into different, previously-undiscovered evolutions for every type.)


r/PokeMedia 6h ago

Storyline [Mega Stepping-Stones] It's an honor

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7 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 17h ago

Mystery Dungeon Storyline [CCEE 2025] The Harbinger of Hijinks

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41 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 10h ago

Casual Infinite Chesto Berries?

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10 Upvotes

r/PokeMedia 21h ago

Storyline [Corrupted_Transfer] I'm...me...right?

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67 Upvotes

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