Magical Girls: Fantasy Fucking Vietnam

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Revision as of 19:23, 22 April 2014 by MarianLH (talk | contribs) (Blue: Aoi: added leather armor & adjusted DX)
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A play-by-chat campaign run by The Wyzard.

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The Characters

Yellow: Hiromi

  • Name: TAKASHIMA Hiromi
  • Color: Yellow
  • Description: Tall, sporty girl with short hair. Captain of the girl's basketball team. Friendly and open. Popular with other girls.
  • Current XP:
  • Player: Alice

Attributes

  • ST: 10
  • DX: 11/ adjDX:
  • IQ: 11

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Thrown Weapons (2)
    • Tactics (1)
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Blue: Aoi

MagicalGirlsFFV-Aoi.jpg
  • Name: HIRAMATSU Aoi
  • Color: Blue
  • Description: Average height, hair worn in tight French braids. Member of the school's naginatadō club. Aoi tries to look tough and intimidating, but the effect is spoiled by her too-cute face.
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 12
  • DX: 12/ adjDX: 10
  • IQ: 8
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Pole Weapons (2)
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
    • Leather Armor
    • Lantern
  • Encumbrance:

Red: Ayaka

  • Name: NAKANO Ayaka
  • Color: Red
1227027075071.jpg
  • Description: Tall and athletic, with long dark hair and a peaceful smile. Ayaka is the adopted daughter of some Christian missionaries at a small chapel within walking distance of the school. She gets along well with people and tries to avoid the fights and rivalries that are common among people her age.
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 12
  • DX: 8 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 12

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Knife (1)
    • Sword (1)
    • Literacy (2)
    • Physicker (2)
  • Spells
    • Blur
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Green: Sakura

  • Name: TACHIBANA Sakura
  • Color: Green
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 9
  • DX: 11/ adjDX:
  • IQ: 12

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Charisma (2)
    • Bard (2)
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Deceased Characters

The Game

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the campaign! I hope we can have a good time playing together. You will find that as a referee, I make extensive use of wikis and other online tools to keep track of everything. And, also, to set mutual expectations. This is going to be less sandbox-ey than my normal games, at least at first. I don't have much of an endgame in mind, though, so it's going to be up to the PCs where things end up. There are a number of things that the players should be aware of, since these elements are not for everyone:

  • I let the dice fall where they may, and PCs can die, particularly starting PCs.
  • This campaign is going to be moderately dark. Bad things can happen. However, it is NOT "Grimdark," because the PCs can become strong enough to change things for the better. The system is malicious, but by working within it you can become powerful enough to effect change from within or, potentially, tear it down.
  • There is a horrifically powerful NPC who will be pushing you guys around a bit, mostly at the very start. This will not be as abusive and obnoxious as it is in most of the horror stories from TRO (at least not out of character), but she is out there and you'll have to interact with her at least occasionally. On the plus side, I don't expect you to like her or anything.

Preface

This stuff is on rails. We'll play through it, just for the prelude, but don't fight it too hard. It is, if you will, part of the buy-in to the game.

  • The player characters are girls going to Neo-Tokyo High School District N27. They're mostly sixteen years old, and may be either native Japanese or children from other countries who were adopted after the Year of Darkness. The high school, in terms of the layout, looks like every Japanese high school in every anime you've ever seen, except it's constructed from the ubiquitous Tuff-Crete that everything is made out of these days. It's a stronger, lighter version of concrete usually surfaced with a semi-gloss black composite.
  • The PCs will recognize each other from school, but may not know each other's names or be close friends.
  • One night, while dreaming, you all have a vision in your dreams. The Immortal Luna summons you to her palace on the dark side of the moon and marks you as her chosen ones. You'll have great power, and great magic, and be able to fight off the darkness that threatens the good in the world. However, first you have to 'earn' that power. These will all be tropes that your characters will be familiar with from watching normal amounts of television.
  • To that end, Luna will begin sending you to the magical land of Cidri in your dreams. There, you can have adventures, develop your powers, and learn lots of lessons about the magic of friendship.
  • When you get there, Cidri is not what you were expecting. For one thing, it's a great deal more dangerous than Luna might have led you to believe...

Style Guide

  • Major inspirations for this game include PMMM, Sailor Nothing, The World Ends With You, the Persona series of games, probably a ton of other anime, and various old-school RPGs. There will be some relatively minor cyberpunk and transhuman elements, but this is not a cyberpunk or transhuman game.
  • Everything in the campaign is mortal. The PCs can die, NPCs can die, named monsters can die, dragons and demons can die, the "Immortals" can die. If there are any Gods out there, you can bet that they could, in theory, be killed.
  • The PCs should be passionate individuals. There's a certain tension between mortality and ambition, between the fact that you could die in the attempt at doing big things and that playing a character who just sits on the couch is boring. To a large extent, the campaign happens because the PCs are doing something. Don't be afraid, if you think you can back it up, to bare your sword, hoist a fistful of gems to the sky, and declare yourself queen of the ground on which you stand.
  • There are boundaries of good taste in this game. Rape, torture, the cold-blooded murder of innocent non-combatants, anything resembling real-world bigotry, and similar squicky subjects, are not intended to be a part of this campaign. It is certainly true that evil lunatics or sinister monsters, for example, might engage in slavery, human sacrifice, and even worse vices. But the tone of those incidents should be closer to a somewhat exploitative pulp magazine rather than SAW or something. There is also a fairly substantial gulf between what the players should expect to see from the worst villains of the campaign and what I should expect to see from the PCs. Basically, it should be obvious to the reader that you are the good guys and the enemies are the bad guys, at least in a very loose sense.
  • Similarly, persons younger than around 14 years of age will very rarely appear on-screen. Awful things happening to children is a bit too much, IMHO.
  • There are a fairly small list of things that I must ask you to never do on account of the fact that they cause me to twitch in an unseemly manner. Please don't try to loot and sell purely mundane items. Retrieving normal weapons, armor, and clothing from your enemies in hopes of turning some extra profit sends me loopy. It's not like I don't hand out substantial treasure.
  • Secondly, please do not ask me if it's okay to put something on the wiki. The wiki is here for you to put things on it! Just make sure it's in the right place. That is, it doesn't interfere with anything already here or clutter up some vital existing page, it's categorized appropriately, and it's possible to find it. I have faith in your best judgment. If you must mention your intent, just let me know what you did and I'll tell you if it's a problem.
  • Information Sharing: I presume (and the other players may therefore presume) that PCs share relevant information at the earliest reasonable opportunity, unless the player informs us otherwise. If I suspect that information is likely to be concealed, I may or may not PM the player. However, secrecy and intra-party intrigue is strongly discouraged.
  • We're all adults, and I will typically expect that people can talk about any issues that arise. If there is an element that you really don't want to have appear in the game, or there is another issue that you want raised anonymously, bring it up with me.

How to Wiki

  • I use wikis to keep track of stuff in the campaign. This is partly because I like being able to look over a record of what's going on, and partly because I tend to produce a ton of information off the cuff during games, and if nobody writes it down then we end up with nobody able to remember the name of that important NPC from three weeks ago. Therefore, the wiki exists and maintaining it is largely the job of the players. As stuff happens in game, record what you think might be important later. This is a way for the players to help me keep track of everything, as well as for their own benefit.
  • I split the wiki up into lots of subsections so that people can edit only one part of it. Don't try to edit the entire section for player characters. Just edit the one for your own PC. This tends to prevent a lot of cross-edit issues, which are hard to fix.
  • If you mess something up, we can revert versions or something. If you absolutely don't know how to deal with wikis, that's okay. It's very simple, and I'll hold your hand through the first couple game sessions. This is not intended to be a barrier to entry, and I pretty much promise that you'll find it very helpful if we keep playing.

House Rules

The game system we will be using is The Fantasy Trip, with some modifications. I'll be providing a version of the rules to anyone who doesn't have access. This is an "old-school" system, but don't let that turn you off. It's actually all pretty easy, and I'll be holding everyone's hand a lot at the start. Some of the below clarifies rather than really changing the rules.

Character Creation

  • Characters start with the normal amount of attribute points. You begin with 8 points each in ST, DX, and IQ, and then have eight points to distribute among the three of them. This represents the attributes you have after Luna empowers you; your initial awakening as one of her chosen represents a substantial boost in power. An attribute value of 10 is a normal adult human, which means that you will be slightly superior to the average adult after your awakening.
  • The downside is that you start with less than the full complement of Talents. Characters begin with talent points equal to one-half of their IQ, round down, rather than their full IQ. Of course, many normal adults don't have much in the way of talents, either.
  • Some of you might develop magical abilities immediately after awakening. If your IQ is 12 or higher, you will begin knowing one or more spells immediately after awakening. For each point of IQ above 11, you will have one spell. The maximum IQ of the spells you can have is your actual IQ-4. So, starting characters aren't likely to have much powerful magic! But that will change...
  • Don't worry about starting equipment for your magical girl in Cidri. I'll be handing it out in play as needed. Characters in Neo-Tokyo will have normal teenage schoolgirl stuff. Assume that most of your parents aren't very well-off. You'll have a Link and a purse and uniforms and everything, but probably not the most new or expensive gear, or a motor scooter or anything.
  • Starting characters should have at most 100 words of description and stuff. Until you've built up some stats and made your character more survivable, it's not as desirable to develop heavy investment.
  • Characters are color-coded. When we make characters, each player should select a distinct color for their character. This will both feature strongly in their outfits when they've transformed, and also be used to make marks on battle maps.

Character Advancement

  • Characters will get experience according to enemies beaten, treasure obtained, and following their Aspirations (Aspirations will be developed in play.) I may also assign experience if I think you guys have done anything particularly cool. All experience points earned go into a common pool to be divided equally among the player characters. So, you are just as rewarded for helping your friends follow their aspirations as you are for following your own.
  • A character has a maximum amount of talent points and a maximum number of spells equal to their IQ. Magical girls combine the abilities of both Heroes and Magicians! If you gain a point of IQ, you immediately gain another Talent Point and another Spell. I may also hand out spell or talent points anytime I think that you guys need or deserve a small step of advancement. This will help you to "catch up" to your maximums, since you start out below them in character generation.
  • You can't gain talents or spells above your maximum.
  • Don't bother learning the rules for "forgetting" talents or spells or "training" them or whatever. We're going to ignore most of that.

Damage & Dying

  • Your "max HP" is effectively equal to your Strength attribute. Injuries add up as Damage, and spellcasting adds up as Fatigue. I personally think it will be easier to track these quantities as positive numbers that are compared to your Strength, rather than as something that are subtracted from it.
  • Whenever you take hits from an enemy attack of some kind, it will likely be reduced by whatever armor you're wearing. The remainder is applied to your character as damage. Damage typically heals at a rate of one point every two days, but it may heal faster.
  • Fatigue adds up from casting spells. It is just as life-threatening as damage from enemy attacks! However, it does heal faster. You reduce your Fatigue by one point every fifteen minutes.
  • If the sum of your Fatigue and Damage adds up to your Strength exactly, you fall unconscious. You can't cast spells that would raise your fatigue higher than that.
  • If the sum of your Fatigue and Damage add up to higher than your Strength, you fall unconscious and may die. The GM will roll a number of D6 equal to the amount by which your Fatigue + Damage exceeds your Strength. If the result is lower than or equal to your Strength, it may be possible for your friends to save you. If the result is higher than your strength, your character dies. Fortunately making a new character is fast!
  • In order to avoid insta-kills, triple damage results will add +2d6 damage instead, and double damage results will add +1d6 damage instead. The additional damage rolled will be considered minimum actual damage for the attack, regardless of armor, protective magics, etc.

Game Notes

This section is a good place to note where the most useful parts of the game book are, and we may end up using it as a quick reference guide. For page references, I'm using the number given by Adobe Reader and not the internal page numbering, so I can just type it in and go.

  • The damage done by character strength is on page 7 of Vol. 1. If your character has no weapon skills, find a club and deal unarmed +3. It's better than nothing!
  • Information on Experience Points can be found on page 20. We're going to be a bit more generous about XP, though. The value of a one-hit nuisance monster is five XP, the value of a larger nuisance monster is 10 XP, and the XP value of other creatures is their (ST+DX)x2. If that creature is a spellcaster or has other abilities that key off of IQ, their XP value is (ST+DX+IQ)x2. I am likely to hand out additional XP for enemies with particularly good equipment, etc.
  • Spells are also worth twice the book value. Every Fatigue gained from casting spells in a pressure situation is worth 2 XP.
  • Making a die roll in a pressure situation is worth something. If the results are relevant and there is risk associated with failure, then the award is 10 for a three-die roll, 20 for a four-die roll, 30 for a five-die roll, etc. If the hazards of failure are particularly bad, the XP will may be rewarded for a failure, as well. This rule applies to saving rolls and attempts to use talents, not for every roll made in combat.
  • Rather than time sessions, each session will be worth 20XP.
  • Travel XP is also doubled.
  • I will be assigning XP for treasure - 1XP for every silver piece worth of treasure obtained. I reserve the right to adjust that figure after seeing how it works out in play.
  • Most of you are probably not used to dealing with encumbrance. Let me tell you, I love encumbrance. Encumbrance rules are found on page 32-33. Common large denomination coins like gold or silver pieces weigh 1/50th of a Kg each; smaller coins, like copper coins weigh 1/100th of a Kg each. If you aren't wearing armor, it probably isn't necessary to count your encumbrance down to the individual coin weight.

Magic Notes

  • Please note the rules on iron, silver, and magic. It's difficult to cast if you have metal weapons or armor.
  • I'm going to give you guys a couple more free spells just from having your powers develop, but after that you will need to track down and learn spells in-character. I'm going to make it substantially easier than it is in the book, but some effort will be required. We'll have future developments on this as the PCs explore Cidri.
  • Magic is tricky and isn't a good go-to means of offense, unlike D&D. Magicians in TFT make adjustments to the course of battle and can be very effective, but they aren't artillery. The most efficient way to kill a bad guy is with heavy armor and a big goddamn sword.

Maps

  • Here is a basic, sample map put up on Google Drawings. Maps can be as intricate or as simple as we want to put in the effort for. You can mess around with this and get used to how it works. Make the arrows match the colors of the PCs, and learn to rotate them to face one hex side. Hint: Grab the little bar thing sticking up from the box when you select a piece. https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/15s5pM7y9fryR74J2Dvp11q8sWqWtyrbRyB3psZTMmlE/edit

The Campaign World: Neo-Tokyo

History

  • The year is now 2025. Ten years ago, the world was hit by a series of massive natural disasters. Earthquakes, major volcanic eruptions, solar flares, widespread climactic disturbance, plagues, and a viral attack that disabled a great deal of the internet's underlying architecture for months at a time. This was known as the Year of Darkness. A lot of people died, and a lot of people lost hope.
  • Since then, the governments that still exist have rebuilt as best they can. Neo-Tokyo is the greatest city in Japan, and probably the greatest success story in the post-Darkness era. The global population is down to around 4~5B, but things are mostly stable now. It's a darker world, but people can still find friendship and happiness even in the worst circumstances.
  • Technology is not really advanced much beyond our own world, but in some ways it's been more fully implemented. Everyone has a Link, a smartphone that has a wide variety of functions. It has a biometric reader installed, and functions as your ID, debit card, car keys, newspaper subscription, music player, camera...everything. There are a lot of different models available, more and less expensive, but you're actually mandated by the government to have one.
  • There's a lot of really bad things out there, like terrorism and natural disasters, and your Link helps keep you safe. If there's a big storm coming, for example, your link will tell you that you need to go to a shelter, and show you a map to tell you exactly where to go to get to your assigned shelter. If there's a disaster and you're nearby, your Link will tell you what to do to help. Most people think their Links are pretty great! It even monitors your heart rate when you do calisthenics in the morning, and it'll tell you if you need more exercise!

NPCs

Locations

Plot Hooks

Lore

Resources

The Campaign World: Cidri

Angel by janemere-d5dcjcq.jpg

NPCs

Locations

Plot Hooks

Lore

Resources

Campaign Journal

This is a really good place for people to put notes on what has happened in the game. If I noticed it's being dutifully maintained, I will hand out XP for that.

  • Achievments: Crybaby!
  • XP: 50

Sample Characters

I'm going to post a few sample PCs here, just to show you guys what the format looks like. Or, you could pick one of these off the rack and play them, with a few adjustments or not. Your choice! You can also Cut & Paste a blank character sheet from here up into your section above, in order to keep our format standardized (hint!)

Blank Character Sheet

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST:
  • DX: / adjDX:
  • IQ:
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Archery Club Member

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 9
  • DX: 15 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 8
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy
    • Bow
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Athlete

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 10
  • DX: 12 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 10
  • MA: 12

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Running (2)
    • Swimming (1)
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Dedicated Student

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 8
  • DX: 10 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 14
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Chemist (3)
    • Mathematician (2)
  • Spells
    • (3 spells, max IQ 10, suggested: Avert, Drop Weapon, Trip)
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Kendo Club member

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 12
  • DX: 12 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 8
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Sword (2)
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Future Idol

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 8
  • DX: 11 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 13
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Charisma (2)
    • Bard (2)
  • Spells (2 spells, max IQ 9, suggested: Light, Summon Wolf)
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Martial Arts Club member

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 9
  • DX: 13 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 10
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Unarmed Combat I (2) (Unarmed damage is 1d-2)
    • Knife or other 1-point talent
  • Spells
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

School Newspaper Reporter

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 8
  • DX: 12 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 12
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Alertness (2)
    • Detection of Lies (2)
  • Spells
    • (1 spell, max IQ 8, suggested: Detect Magic)
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Student Council Member

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 10
  • DX: 10 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 12
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Diplomacy (1)
    • Courtly Graces (1)
    • Tactics (1)
    • Any other 1-point talent)
  • Spells
    • (1 spell, max IQ 8, suggested: Blur)
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Japanese Veronica Mars

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 8
  • DX: 12 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 12
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Thief (2)
    • Silent Movement (2)
  • Spells
    • (1 spell, Max IQ 8, suggested: Image)
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance:

Wilderness Scout Club Member

  • Name:
  • Color:
  • Description:
  • Current XP:

Attributes

  • ST: 12
  • DX: 8 / adjDX:
  • IQ: 12
  • MA: 10

Abilities

  • Talents
    • Literacy (2)
    • Naturalist (2)
    • Tracking (1)
    • Woodsman (1)
  • Spells
    • (1 spell, max IQ 8, suggested: Slow Movement)
  • Special Abilities

Possessions

  • Neo-Tokyo
    • Yen:
    • Link
  • Cidri
    • Treasure:
  • Encumbrance: