View source for CAPOW

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[[Fun with Acronyms|An "acronym"]] for "Creative Anime Prose Original Writing", ''[[CAPOW]]'' was a mailing-list [[Round Robin]] writing group that was part [[Fan Fiction]], part [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]], and part diceless [[Role-Playing Game]].

It originated from the depths of ''[[UseNet]]'' as a "sister" group to the [[Global Ranma Insanity Thread]] and moved to its own moderated mailing list (first on a member's personal server, and then on Yahoo Groups) where aspiring members have to apply and pass muster from existing members before they can join the group. By mid-1994 most of the groups' founding members had moved on to other projects and the group died a slow, agonizing death as people simply stopped posting.

The basic premise of the group as a whole was this: you have Capow, a town/suburb/district of Tokyo that is home to the strangest collection of characters ever, and [[Hilarity Ensues]] (as well as [[Drama]], [[Romance]], and [[Stuff Blowing Up]], among other things) as a result.

The posts in raw form can be read at [https://web.archive.org/web/20050207105142/http://groups.yahoo.com/group/capowstory/ Yahoo Groups]; it also has an information page (that hasn't been updated in years) [http://capow.tripod.com/admin/capow.html on Tripod].

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* [[Author Appeal]] - Since every character was required to have some sort of anime influence, that meant every member had plenty of opportunities to gush about their favorite series.
* [[Blessed with Suck]] / [[Cursed with Awesome]] - Powers above [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] levels are only acceptable unless they have some kind of handicap, and sometimes not even then.
* [[Four Lines, All Waiting]] - Several members were juggling different stories, so when things got very busy you could have a ton of concurrently ongoing plots.
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]] - Many characters explicitly have the power to access "malletspace", and most of them carry more things on their person than is advisable in real life.
* [[Inn Between the Worlds]] - The bar, which has a back door into [[GRIT]]; Capow as a whole is a Town Between The Worlds as well, since anybody from any series could theoretically end up there.
* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] - Some of the members wrote their posts as if they were just reporting the "real life" goings-on of Capow.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] - Even after the rules change restricted every member to two characters each, this still resulted in a LOT of characters.
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]] - Inevitable given the wide range of genres that get brought into the series. (There may have been ''actual'' ninja pirate zombie robots.)
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] - Occasionally a member will leave the group (causing their characters to become [[NPC|NPCs]] or completely unavailable), causing the stories that they were in to either become [[Aborted Arc|orphaned]] or necessitating workarounds.
* [[Rule of Index]]
* [[Running the Asylum]] - All of the members were expected to write, with the member providing the first post of any particular story arc acting as the impromptu "[[Game Master]]".
* [[Stock Super Powers]] - Name a character, odds are they will have one or more of those powers in some form.
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]] - Capow is said to be one of the districts of Tokyo, but it's never made clear exactly where it is.
* [[Weirdness Magnet]] - Capow

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