Oh yes. In fact, it's the story that got me into this fandom.

heh, those two are what got me into Dresden Files, so glad, it is AWESOME!

What's My Little Denarians about?

I think I'd have trouble getting into a crossover if I wasn't familiar with both sides of it.

This is... odd. It's a poll, asking if you would rather live in a zombie apocalypse, or MLP. MLP wins, but not by much. (It has 55% percent of the votes) For the life of me, I can't work out why they are so close. Regardless of my like of MLP, I would rather live in a colourful land of ponies, than a land where my friends, family, and myself will get inevitably eaten by the undead. People must really hate MLP to prefer that, else there is some advantage to the zombie apocalypse that I just don't get...

Cookoo: I think it's partly because the zombie apocalypse is so glorified these days. Back when I used to frequent some Left 4 Dead boards, plenty of people seemed to be under the impression that if there ever was a zombie apocalypse they'd be unstoppable zombie killing machines. With the attitudes they had, I'd think bait would be more appropriate, though.

Yeah, they tend to forget that in the midst of a zombie outbreak, basic social infrastructure is gone. It wouldn't be long before you wouldn't have running water, electricity, etc. Not to mention the whole "everything trying to kill you" aspect of the thing.

Also, before you get to the scenario of the ragtag group of survivors hiding in a fortified warehouse fending off hordes of zombies? Guess where all those zombies came from?

Good luck trying to make it to the 1%.

What you did there. I see it.

edited 4th Sep '12 10:59:26 AM by KylerThatch

I'm not going to contemplate it. I mean, geeze, ponies, or being eaten alive eventually? It's a no brainer!

I know, you'd think it would be a no brainer. Even if I wasn't a brony, I'd much rather take a Sugar Bowl over a Zombie Apocalypse.

Sometimes reading a crossover you don't know the other part to can work, if done right it might even get you intrested in the other part of it.

And My Little Denarians, The Denarians, which are an order of fallen angles, each one contained inside one of 30 roman denarian coins, or 30 pieces of silver. That either find a human to willingly host them and join with them, or just let them take over there body, (It varies from person to person, most just end up the puppets to there Fallen, while the leaders and most powerful ones work with there Fallen.) Found a way to Equestria (makes sense in Dresden verse physics, everything created by mortal imagination ends up being created 'Outside' it's just traveling outside is both incredibly hard, dangerous, and if the White Council catch you even trying, it's a summary execution sentence.)

Why would an order of Fallen Angles bent on creating the apocalypse go to Equeastria? To free and bring back to Earth their own personal Chaos God.

http://asdflove.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5db6xp Pony Elan.

We need more MLPFIM/OOTS fanarts

http://asdflove.deviantart.com/art/Ponified-Vaarsuvius-324948639 Vaarsuvius

edited 4th Sep '12 11:10:26 AM by DeathCloud

The thing is, crossovers leverage the fact that you care about the characters on either side of it. If I know nothing about half of the characters, the crossover isn't likely to introduce them adequately, and I'm not likely to care.

I want to see ponies as OOTS-style humans. (Or half-elves or dwarves or whatever.)

OOTS In-Joke-Based Idea Time: Pony V's cutie mark: Guess what spell I cast to get my cutie mark.

edited 4th Sep '12 11:12:51 AM by KylerThatch

http://asdflove.deviantart.com/art/Group-Shot-325193295 All team.

Harry Dresden is your Friendly Neighborhood Wizard Private Detective, and has the personality that comes with it.

One day, while running for his life yet again, he makes a random jump and ends up in, in his own words, "a Disney movie". He proceeds to bump into Twilight, accidentally traumatizing her with a Soul Gaze (Exactly What It Says on the Tin; Harry didn't have a nice life). After weighing his options (which suddenly don't look so good anymore), Harry decides to seek help in Fluttershy's cottage, and it kinda spirals from there.

The sequel has him come back to Equestria, this time for official summons. Hilarity (and more running for dear life) ensues.

Something I forgot to mention is that there is a distinct difference between character crossovers and concept crossovers. Character crossovers are those that have characters from both works interacting (i.e. these Dresden Files crossovers). Concept crossovers are those that merely fuse the settings or introduce a key mechanic of one setting to change the other (i.e. Fallout Equestria). Concept crossovers don't rely on franchise knowledge to tell a good story, most of the time, but risk running horribly askew to the tone(s) of the source materials. Character crossovers rely on the reader knowing about the characters involved, most of the time, but since the settings remain intact, the their tones are less likely to be muddled (though it can still happen).

edited 4th Sep '12 11:20:40 AM by PerpetualLurker

that's The Dresden Fillies, not My Little Denarians

Which is why a good crossover will have enough information that you don't need to have previous knowledge, without being a basic info-dumb that bores readers that know it

edited 4th Sep '12 11:34:38 AM by Seraphem

Oh, my bad. Haven't read My Little Denarians, so I don't know much more than what's written in the recommendations.

The problem being, of course, that it's really hard to hit that balance. And I have to admit, I'm not big into crossovers for many of the same reasons Perpetual brought up. The other issue I have with a lot of it is that in a lot of cases, bringing in characters from another game is going to futz up the tone of one or both works in a way that I don't really care for. E.G. in a hypothetical Warhammer 40,000 crossover, either the lightheartedness of the ponies is going to get shot to hell really fast, or else the grimdark of 40K is going to be nonexistent. And yes, I realize that A Us can get around that issue, but I vastly prefer stories that explore how the characters would realistically (meaning consistent with what we know of their characterization) react to new situations, and overhauling it like that doesn't really interest me. Pretty much all of my favorite fics are Original Flavor.

The only thing that can get me over that obstacle is Rule of Funny.

edited 4th Sep '12 11:57:40 AM by JapaneseTeeth

What if there is no balance in the first place? You either alienate the readers that aren't familiar, or bore the readers that are?

Of course I only remember after ATG is over that I've had this bookmarked since July.

*facepalm*

edited 4th Sep '12 12:07:12 PM by Wryte

I want to see MLP Stick Tales.

Or you do just enough to show the reader this other work and get them intrigued enough to go read it on there own. You can't just lump all crossover works as having issues, some do yes. Others don't. take it on a case by case basis of why each individual crossover failed or succeeded, don't just lump it as they all have issues.

BUCK YES!

edited 4th Sep '12 12:25:48 PM by Seraphem

I can't say much since the only major crossover I've read is Fallout Equestria.