The game is completed, this is here for players to update in the postgame.
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Background
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It’s the world as we know it and the time is now. Your characters are living in the (fictional) city of Kapok Bay, which sits on an island south east of the Florida Keys. It and the Island are named after the Kapok tree that is very common there. It is an “unincorporated territory” of the United States somewhat like Puerto Rico. So it has its own government and some strange political arrangements.
The city is based around Kapok University. A large top rate international research school established by a consortium of investors and professors from many countries who were tired of being in universities where they had to deal with the restrictive immigration laws of other nations and also tired of working more than a mile from a beautiful tropical beach. It’s highly international nature means the city has people and cultural elements from nearly everywhere on the globe.
At this point the city has about 600,000 people of which about 50,000 are university students, many of the rest are also somehow affiliated with the university. This includes your characters, who start off not knowing each other, though they probably have seen each other around a time or two or seen them in class.
However the world as we know it is changing. Around the globe, but especially in Kapok, spirits have been merging with people and occasionally animals. While the host is initially unaware this has happened, they gain the ability to assume an alternate form with a huge array of possible abilities, determined by the host’s subconscious.
Of course the host doesn’t know why or how they are doing what they do. One day they are a normal student, janitor, or whatever, and the next, often during a time of stress, they suddenly shift into something else. Many have been generic batman rip-offs or magical girls. Some have been truly bizarre. Some have been tiny fairies others have been huge.
The world was initially slow to accept this with many claims of swamp gas and drugs. But slowly people are accepting the situation. Or not accepting it. Some governments have already started rounding people up, though not in Kapok, and some vigilantes have cropped up, sadly also in Kapok. So new “shifters” are increasingly secretive about revealing their new abilities. Luckily since they generally assume at least a slightly different or disguised form when they shift some degree of secrecy isn’t too hard to achieve. However present in all known shifters so far is a desire to be around others of their kind. Even if they don’t know the other is also a shifter they’ll feel drawn to that person. This is not yet known to the world in general however some shifters have started to get suspicious.
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Character Creation
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You’re fairly limitless in selecting what your alternate persona (that you change into) looks like, what its abilities are, and if you can materialize a “helper” of some kind.
However their abilities are quantized in a very rough manner by points. You have 100 points to distribute between appropriate categories for your powers.
For example let’s say you wanted to be able to fly, control the wind, and manifest a talking owl with weaker but similarish powers. A distribution might be
Flight 20 points
Combat 40 points
Pushing around objects 10 points
Wind sense 10 points (can feel things the wind is moving over)
Owl helper (sentient and useful 10 points)
Owl combat ability 10 points
Obviously higher scores are better. For bookkeeping as much as anything every category should be worth at least 10. 20 means you’re impressive at non combat things, 30+ means you’ve got increasing amounts of range and wow factor. If you have a specific feat you wish to achieve feel free to PM me.
Note that while combat can happen it is not the solution to everything nor is it better rewarded, so a range of abilities is a good idea.
Each player also starts with one NPC that is “theirs”. This NPC can’t be controlled or affected much by other characters. They're essentially a "normal" person your character sometimes interacts with.
Characters are assumed by default to be “normal” in wealth, status, and capabilities. A general example would be a university student with an apartment and not too much money. If you wanted to be rich, work for the police, be incredably good looking in regular human form, or be skilled at something far beyond what a typical university student might be you could spend points for that.
Sample Character Sheet
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance:
Alternate persona appearance:
Alternate persona abilities:
Personality:
rough Bio:
Person you know already:
Other:
Sample Character
Name: John Taylor
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Appearance: frazzled brown hair, blue eyes, usually wears jeans and T-shirts with various animals or trees on them.
Alternate persona appearance: A wispy form seemingly made of cloud in the shape of a man in a cloak.
Alternate persona abilities: Control over wind and the air
Flight 20 points
Combat 40 points
Pushing around objects 10 points
Wind sense 10 points (can feel things the wind is moving over)
Owl helper (sentient and useful 10 points)
Owl combat ability 10 points
Personality/ Bio: John is a nature guy. He came to Kapok to major in biology. He lives in the campus dorm but is just as likely to be found camping out in the nearby park or by the beach. John comes from Britain and has had a hard time making friends. Being far more comfortable around creatures than people.
Person you know already: Hachiro Sato. An old man who works at the local Outdoor Outfitters store. He has taken a real liking to John who is a regular customer and loves to talk about local gossip over tea.
Other: The Owl has rather limited experience and knowledge. But always tries to appear wise by speaking in riddles and platitudes.
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Playstyle:
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I’m trying out a slightly different format for this game that I hope will be fun for all. In the past I’ve done the more traditional styles of either pure freeform (essentially collaborative writing), or full dice based tabletop game systems by forum.
Here I’d like to try a mostly freeform method. That means you as a player can say things about the game world, often including other players. I do hope the different players will interact with each other instead of it being more like a bunch of separate people playing solitaire.
For example you might make a post where you describe your character walking along the beach when you see someone drowning, and use your ability to rescue them (hopefully with much more detail than that J ) .
Someone posting after could say that they see you doing so, and that they attempt to follow you. (Again hopefully with more detail). And it goes from there.
There are also some NPCs and situations I'll control. But character interaction is important.
As a general rule if they come into play I'll use the numerical values for different powers if they come into conflict. i.e. someone with flight 40 should be able to catch or ditch someone with flight 20. And someone with combat 40 should generally be able to beat someone with combat 20. Of course there’s always a chance of something so if you really want to go against the trend again PM me.
I’ll make occasional posts to add new situations and the like.
But as much as I do that I’ll operate behind the scenes. Sending PMs to different players with special information only they may have, situations they’ll have to deal with or encounter, and sometimes goals for them.
You could also PM me with goals your character wishes to acheive.
Achieving goals and being a good poster will get you awards of “points” the same as those used in character generation you can use to improve your character.
Clear as mud? Well, let’s give it a try together.
There will also be an OOC thread where you can ask questions, discuss what’s going on and the like.
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