Tips on Creating a Story Crossover!

Worlds collide in the new Unvale crossover special-! 

Just kidding~ To put it simply, story crossover is an event where two or more separate storylines merge into one. This can be anything from a special TV show episode for the fans (The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour), to a movie special where monsters fight (Godzilla vs. Kong), to even video games (Marvel vs. Capcom). But for folks on Unvale, a story crossover to us might look more like another person’s OC appearing in a different story or even a creator merging two of their worlds. This article will focus on individual tips to aid in the smooth crossover between stories. Bon voyage!

Tip Number 1: Establish Intentions

My first tip is figure out what your plans are with this crossover. Crossovers can be exciting and chaotic and if you don’t make sure to keep your intentions clear, it can be easy to get sidetracked. Even if the main point is to just have fun (which it usually is), the more you can narrow in on what you want to do the better. Here are some main ‘intentions’ for you to consider. Are you doing a crossover to…

• … have specific OCs interact?
• … show that two different stories or characters are in the same world?
• … explore how an OC interacts with another setting?
• … mix everything together and pull out the parts you like for a new canon?
• … give your fans a fun thing to read?

Tip Number 2: Merging Worlds

When it comes to crossovers, there are plenty of ways to go about it, so I’ll give you a few examples.

The first way to do it is to pick a world to serve as a ‘host world’ that will serve as the ‘rules’ for the interaction. This can also go two different ways:

• Method 1: All guest characters adjust to the rules of the host’s world. This means adjusting the character’s powers and backstory to fit the host world. I’d refer to this as the integration method.
• Method 2: The guest characters have the same powers and backstory as their home world and are just showing up through a portal or a tear in dimensions. I’d refer to this as the visitor method.

The second way to do it is to create a new world to serve as neutral ground. This might mean dropping all the OCs into a haunted mansion to escape from or have them fight it out in an interdimensional arena. 

Tip Number 3: Ways to Adapt Backstories

Adapting a backstory to a new world can be the hardest part of doing a crossover! A lot of creators who adore their OCs can struggle with changing things to fit a new setting. To be honest, it often means making compromises. Adapting a fantasy elf princess who’s lived in the woods all her life and has powerful magic to a regular modern setting means making a lot of adjustments. 

The trick to adapting a character like this is to just focus on events and a lifestyle that would lead your OC to having the same personality as they normally would. Here are some examples!

• The elf princess example I mentioned above might have her backstory change to this instead: she’s the daughter of a village chief of an isolated forest community. Maybe they don’t use modern technology for religious reasons, or because they can’t easily access it. This makes the character curious and unfamiliar with the outside world, and distrustful of outsiders.
• Sometimes you have to remove all the supernatural elements from a character. If I was going to adapt my character Bea to our world, I’d remove all her powers, her backstory about being arrested for using her powers, and adjust her appearance to match the regular features a person has. It might make your character seem more boring, but if you keep all the personality of the character, the interaction should still be fun!
• Unlike the two above examples, sometimes you might adapt a regular human OC like you or me to another more fantastical world! This might mean altering their appearance and giving them powers. Instead of being intimidated, make it into an opportunity to show off your character’s personality through these changes.

If you’ve read this tip and realized that you might be struggling with not having enough backstory or having an undefined personality, I recommend you check out Backstory Building Questions for your OCs and 5 Big Questions to Develop your OCs.

Tip Number 4: Dealing With ‘Difficult’ OCs

Sometimes you want your OC to meet another OC, but one of those OCs is… difficult. Maybe they’re mean, or quiet and don’t talk to strangers, or maybe they literally eat people. It can be hard keeping an OC in character while also having them interact with other characters… so, here are some specific tips!

• Have the characters work towards a common goal… or make them enemies! Their fight could be the whole point of the crossover.
• Put the characters in close proximity and require them to interact if they normally wouldn’t. Maybe one needs something the other has, or they need help with something.
• Create a pre-existing relationship if possible to smooth out interactions. This means adapting the characters to the same world, or maybe you have something else in mind to make this work.

Tip Number 5: How to Make Crossovers Interesting

After you’ve figured out what you want to do with the crossover (as mentioned in tip number one), you’ll have a basic plan for how to proceed. How do you make it fun to read though? Well, firstly, if it’s just for you (and a friend), you don’t need to do anything extra to make it more appealing for others to read. After all, if it’s just a fun exercise for you, then other people can’t judge!

But if you want other people to read and enjoy the crossover, here are some suggestions…

• Make sure to introduce and familiarize your readers with the characters being featured. Maybe they’re fans of one creator and they don’t know the other creator’s characters. Since the characters might be slightly different due to the crossover, it’s important to introduce the fans of your OCs to the new versions of them too!
• Introduce the world to your readers as much as it makes sense. If the world is familiar to most readers (such as our modern world or a popular piece of media), you can gloss over the details a bit; but if it’s your (or someone else’s) original world, you should take the chance to show it off as much as possible.
• Show off the chemistry and dynamics of the characters that are crossing over. They’re the stars of the show, after all! Think about how their personalities might interact, and how they might react to each other’s backstories.
• Have fun! When the creators are enjoying something, it often makes it more fun for the readers too. 

Tip Number 6: Organize!

If you’re doing a crossover for, say, a collab world, you want to keep everything super clean and organized. Who’s OC is who, what boundaries other creators have for their characters, and what lore has been established; in a collab world, things can be a bit messy. That’s why organization is so important. Here are some things worth organizing and keeping track of:

• In big groups, who’s OCs belong to who and which OCs have certain boundaries (such as ships, ways they can be drawn, etc.)
• What plots you want to arrange and the OCs involved
• If you’re doing group RP, keep track of past RPs

If you’re using something other than Unvale, make sure to keep your email or personal information private and safe. You can learn more about online user safety here. 

Shout Outs

For a recent big crossover, take a look at the Unvale Awards Red Carpet Lookbook (hosted by Ponyo). Featuring more than 20 artists, this is a great example of an art crossover. 

Here are some other crossovers I found!

• Ganenboar, a Pokémon and Legend of Zelda crossover; what if Ganon was a Pokémon?! Created by user GingerHug.
• Moondancer and Venom, a dynamic duo of pony and symbiote. This crossover of Spider-Man and My Little Pony was created by user chillykitty.
• Finally, we have a recently created world called The Hole in the Sky, which is a crossover between James Cameron’s Avatar and Pokémon. Featuring the character Emmet (from Pokémon Black and White) going on an adventure in Pandora, user tdart has just begun their Unvale journey, so stay tuned!

Check out #crossover for more crossover OCs, worlds and writing!