Shadowmaster Chronicles

"Think of all the stories you can. Now, imagine if they all had a single person tossed into the mix. A person that could change and alter events simply by BEING THERE. That is my fate..."
—Dakota Nazo, in the intro to Volume III of Shadowmaster Chronicles

Shadowmaster Chronicles (or "SC" as sometimes abbreviated by fans) is a Single-Player RPG made for IRC (Internet Relay Chat) gameplay. It chronicles the exploits of the main character, Dakota Nazo, as he travels through Time and Space. However, unlike the traditional "Must Right Wrongs" of Time-Traveler games, Dakota's job is simply to make sure things turn out all right, instead of ending up as a Happily Ever After scenario.

The game was originally designed as a gigantic crossover-fanfiction, wich sprouted the lust for a playable version. Gameplay takes elements from many diffrent series for gameplay reminicient of the Kingdom Hearts series. Games are split into "Volumes" that generally have a theme (Such as Love, Darkness, The Parting of Ways, Initiations and the like) and "Chronicles" which actually tell the story of the specific adventure.

There is currently a Sprite Version of the first game in Volume II (The Guardian Chronicles) in the works. It will use RPG Maker VX. There is also a Multiplayer IRC Game based on it, called Dark Sun Dome, made by the same person.

Tropes used in Shadowmaster Chronicles include:

Irma: "And thanks to you, America won the war!!"
Dakota: "Not true. You're forgetting that I'm Japanese."
Irma: "So...JAPAN won the Civil War?"
Dakota: "Indirectly, yes."

  • Badass Bookworm: Taranee for nonmagical stuff, and Dakota for magical. Taranee's rising in her Magic Knowledge, though.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Dakota loves this trope, and he's actually hung a massive sapphire lampshade on it.

Cedric: "Impossible! You would've had to timed your arrival at the exact moment I'd attempt to kill them!!"
Dakota: "Yeah, pretty much. But it's no fun if I'm early, and it's certianly no help if I arrive late, so yeah, here we are..."

  • Bilingual Bonus: The game has bits and pieces of other languages scattered in, including French, Japanese, Spanish, Latin, German, Italian, and even some fictional languages such as Al Bhed, and the Ancient Language.
  • Bond One-Liner: Only used by Dakota a couple of times, however more commonly used by Elizabeth. And by "commonly" we mean most of her attacks.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Guardian Chronicles gives us these little gems:

Dakota: "We're only 2 minutes into the game and we're already making fun of the fact that we're in a game."
Aya: "What Fourth Wall?"

  • Bullet Catch: At first only Dakota can do this, but eventually most of the playable characters (and ALL of the recurring characters) learn to do this.
  • Car Cushion: Parodied. When asked why she didn't simply land on the car to take less damage, Corneilia responds that "somebody owns that car".
  • Casual Danger Dialog: Dakota, Will, Corneilia, Lilian, Taranee...The list gets fairly long as the main characters get more comfortable in combat.
  • The Cavalry: When Dakota, Susan, Elizabeth, and Anna come out of retirement to kick the asses of the Metamoorian Soldiers holding the W.I.T.C.H. girls captive
  • Ceiling Cling: Just add a Stealth Mission.
  • Conveniently Timed Guard: Parodied and Subverted

Hay Lin: "Why not just take out a guard and blend in?"
Dakota: "Because that's stupid. The point of espionage is to NOT BE NOTICED BY ANYONE. What if that guard had buddies? Or was invited to play poker or something?"

  • Curb Stomp Battle: Those poor mortal souls that thought they could take on X member of the main cast.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Comes with the Sharingan.
  • Deal with the Devil: While only used a couple of times, it is a well-known (at least by the main cast) fact that Aura can pretty much get you ANYTHING you want. For a price of course.
    • Slightly subverted, however, since Aura is actually the Goddess of Equivalent Exchange, a Benign being, and not the Devil.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Parodied/Lampshaded by Dakota, who jokingly claims to a group of Christians that he's "Killed God".
    • And yet, also played straight, since Dakota/The Active Party collectively defeats Aura every game.
    • And Falis, who's easily more powerful (combat-wise) than Aura.
  • Do Not Spoil This Ending: Falis' True identity.
  • Downer Ending: Usually this is closely avoided to an Subverted Trope ALMOST Happily Ever After scenario, although there ARE Frames where the Party is forced to turn events in the favor of the Frame's Protagonists' Misery.
  • Dual-Wielding: Dakota, sometimes crossing into Gun and Sword and/or Guns Akimbo territory, but almost always in some fashion.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Played 100% straight. Even if it doesn't always make sense right away, you can rest assured that there is a cost for every single breath that the main characters take.
  • Fan Work: The whole thing.
  • Here There Were Dragons: Heatherfield, and in some cases literally when you take into account that Heatherfield was built on top of the Shadow Tribe's ancient home, and the Shadow Tribe worshipped Dragons to the point where their patron spirit IS a dragon.
  • I Do Not Own: Subverted, as the creator knows that it doesn't really legally matter if he posts a disclaimer or not.
    • This doesn't always stop him from doing it out of habit, however.
    • He'll also strongly remind people that he DIDN'T make most of the characters, just gave them so many modifications that there was little of the original character left except for the name and (sometimes) their physical appearance.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Mercilessly applied.
  • Magic Knight: Dakota
  • Mental World: When Dakota needs to think, he retreats to one via Meditation.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Irma. That is all.
    • Aya's battle quotes can get pretty Fanservice-y, such as when she's using Provoke:

Aya: *playfully* Oh boys, Over here!!

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