What's all this then?
This is an open recruitment thread for Girl by Moonlight, a hack of Blades in the Dark focused on Magical Girls (EG: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Madoka Magica) This game will be a second season of Kawaii Cataclysm. I'm looking for five or six players with a reputation for long-term commitment.
Expectations and Authority
First and foremost, I write a lot. Don’t let this intimidate you. If you’ve hit a block in writing, or you’re just not a prose writer, I can still use a simple, out-of-character post about intentions to give you a few options about how your character might achieve those ends. If I wrote too much, or you need a summary, ask. I can post an ooc summary, no problem.
Next, don’t shy away from describing your intentions in detail. We have some tropes like Daydream Surprise where we can snap out of a daydream to face the tempered reality of those intents.
Also, my word is neither final nor authoritative, especially if I’m describing your character. Don’t shy away from stopping to correct or tweak how I represent the flow of action. Often, I’m just trying to weave everyone’s actions together in a way that makes sense and gives everyone a sense of where they are in-fiction.
I’m not really here to ‘beat’ you or tell a planned story. My style is a feedback loop of creativity, and a love for random chance. I ask questions and take notes, and if it’s not clear what follows, I roll dice.
Mechanics
Bonus die from help: If you want to help someone (even if I’ve described the outcome of the roll) feel free to describe how your character might help and roll the die yourself.
What is Known About the End of Season 1
A small town called Obusa reported strange lunar activity and a devastating tsunami. This would be awful if any of it were true. Meteorologists across the country reported no such activity. The media scare displaced hundreds of people in an evacuation, and the town has since gone dark. Those who evacuated, without exception, refuse to return, and those who may still remain are not making contact with anyone outside the town limits.
Possible Plot sheets
Before we begin creating characters, we need to decide on a plot, and get acquainted with the setting. All of these are flexible depending on where we want to go. These are just the hooks I thought of when going over the rules.
Darkest Night
This is GbM sad-mode. We play this knowing everyone is doomed, and waiting to see who will fall when. The mechanics are taxing, but if we do push through to the end, it’ll be epic. This would be most similar to Season 1. No one paid Death’s toll, and the world is ending.
In a Starlit Kingdom
Traditional GbM with a clear and unambiguous Evil and uplifting stories of redemption. Kiyomi struck a deal with Death, and the rules of magic have shifted.
On a Sea of Stars
GbM in spaaace! In this one you get mecha. This option focuses on the not-so-distant future, and Airi’s dilapidated space ark.
In a Maze of Dreams
GbM in dreamland! In this option, Tenshi paid Death’s toll, and we explore her ever-expanding domain, working to uncover a conspiracy.
Links
Playbook PDF
Character sheets
Okay, something moving forward would be awesome and I'd like to participate, but something brighter rather than darker, please?
We kinda went all Evangelion at the end and I'd rather not do that?
I would agree that Darkest Night feels like a repeat. I'm personally more jazzed about the other three plots.
I only have expirience with Madoka, and I've no idea how representative of the genre that is, but I pick stuff up fast,a nd Speak fluent TV-Tropes
The first season was basically Madoka. Power Rangers (American version) follows a lot of the same plot structure. Kids spend the first half of the episode getting berated by school/life until they find evil, transform, and fight evil... possibly 'healing' the evil.
Edit: Oh, also influenced by Steven Universe.
I've put together a massive Google Form [HERE] to boil down a lot of the smaller questions so we can get the setting discussion rolling once we have a few more interested parties. Feel free to browse through and answer questions, even if you're not sure if you'll be able to participate.
oka, from a breif time on Tv tropes... Emotionally unstable young characters with magical powers... how wll I ever do that (though, apparently, isolation is kinda the purview of the baddies, so that's new for me).
also, for vote, starlit kingdom or Maze of Dreams (or #1, but others don't seem into that)
Yessss.
I'll take a dose of Starlit Kingdom, and try and figure out the what all the questions relate to.
Anything I should know coming in to this one?
Yessss.
I'll take a dose of Starlit Kingdom, and try and figure out the what all the questions relate to.
Anything I should know coming in to this one?
This system doesn't escalate as wildly as the last one, but has a lot more moving parts.
the complexity is front-loaded, though. Once we get going it'll be about as simple as the last game.
Calling attention to [this] form at the end of each of my posts for a bit.
I'm possibly interested, though probably not for Darkest Night. Been a while since I've watched much anime.
Is there a particular part of the old game's IC thread you'd hold up as a good "how the game works" example? Anything we'd need to know about the events, beyond the summary in the OP?
What kind of posting rate are you hoping for?
The first season used a very rules-light 2d6 system that was not intended for the three-year game we ended up playing. For "how the game works" there are vods of the creator Andrew Gillis (@CommutingCrow) playing an early beta with a creator of Dungeon World, Adam Koeble (@skinnyGhost) [here]. The system is episodic, and leans into imperfect player attendance.
The last season also ended with a bang. The players from that season who choose to rejoin will bring in those characters and themes they want to carry over. I'll post links where needed.
Our rhythm has been weekly with some speedups / slowdowns depending on group activity. It has been my slower game. I'm notoriously verbose.
Calling attention to [this] form at the end of each of my posts for a bit.
The game is still in development. I'm working off of the current playtest material. I'm fairly familiar with the game it's hacked from, and have been watching the development process.
Calling attention to [this] form at the end of each of my posts for a bit.
Filling out the form has me pretty excited for this. it looks like it could be very cool.
I don't wanna Sway any votes with spoilers, but things are lining up with some season 1 plot points, so I think we may be able to retain some semblance of continuity.
We'll talk about the common denominators late tomorrow and into Friday probably. Then we'll see where we are for player count.
Definitely interested again, though mecha got mentioned, and... well, I'm a sucker for mecha, or at least exo-suits.
I'm curious how Mecha would work, but at the same time the idea of a Macross-ian sort of journey is kind of wearying?
My lean is towards the Kingdom, with Mechatimez as a distant second.
Darkest night is sad-making, and dreams are dangerous when Gamer Consensual Reality is being flung around.
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Wow. Now I gotta go through & read all that happened after I dropped off the face of the earth.
I'm curious how Mecha would work, but at the same time the idea of a Macross-ian sort of journey is kind of wearying?My lean is towards the Kingdom, with Mechatimez as a distant second.
Darkest night is sad-making, and dreams are dangerous when Gamer Consensual Reality is being flung around.
Yeah, the mecha story is kinda like Battlestar Galactica. Happy ending, rough journey.
I'll be crunching the numbers today, and posting the findings after lunch. We won't just take the best-voted options in each category, but this will jump-start the discussion.
Nature of the Darkness:
1: a malevolent timeline
2: the dark heart of a world
3: a grand cosmic order
The context I’m seeing here is that through the first season, Kiyomi AKA Juno, our taurus and senshi of wealth, constantly ran into… reputation problems. She was the first to gain a corrupt feature, she killed another senshi, and eventually got the moon pregnant with her gunslinger SO. “The dark heart of a world” and “a malevolent timeline” might match up with our Darkness coming from that general direction.
Thoughts?
Its Agenda
1: to propagate and thrive
2: to see its emptiness reflected in others
3: to avenge an ancient wrong
Propagate and thrive reminds me of the process of hatching new Youkai after a senshi has sacrificed all of her humanity for power and became a Cthulhu/Akira tentacle beast, and has been defeated by other senshi. Her trinkets then become eggs which hatch into youkai, which fulfill a guiding role for new senshi.
I’m also reminded of the big bad from season one, the ophiachus, and senshi of nature, Kyou Oshiro AKA Ninsar. She had been using her old team of senshi to harvest the magical energy of civilians and spirits in order to make magical batteries in the hopes of making everyone a magical girl.
If we run with the Darkness being associated with the moon baby, this choice really determines its mood. What emotion motivates them?
Its Subjects
1: a court of petty Gods
2: travelers from a dark future
3: saints and their attendant priests
A court of petty Gods reminds me of the ‘past lives’ of season one’s mechanics. In that game, your transformed self was a reflection of a matron spirit and included Gods like Juno and Pele. During the final battle, during an eclipse, a God associated with the moon came down demanding a toll be paid to keep reality from tearing itself apart. He was very interested in acquiring the fertilized moon.
There was also a crew of witch hunters under a saint-like leader who was secretly a Magical Girl who called himself Hughes, like Hugues de Payens, the leader of the knights templar. (he was also Baphomet, though that was only hinted at) These hunters had skills, and one of them was a gunsmith (and juno’s SO). Another of these hunters was infatuated with another character, Junpei AKA Airi. He had a motorcycle which was also an exosuit, and was Good with a capital G.
There was also a dark future glimpsed near the end of the season. Airi (Junpei’s matron spirit) was shown struggling to maintain an ark full of folks in suspended animation. Benji was also an NPC who was a prophet in that he perceived the world as a dating sim, and was working on 100% completion.
Who are we most interested in working against?
The Mundane World (pick 1 or 2)
1: class struggle
2: authoritarian government
3: an ancient city
Obusa was an idyllic town which was growing quickly because Kiyomi’s mother, Aratani Shirakawa, used magic to become super rich and gain a seat on the city council. Because of her, the town had a robust transit system, everyone had satisfying jobs, and rich and poor kids went to the same school. The city also had a bay solely because Aratani nuked it with magic a few decades past, and her daughter was a four-year-old for ten years, but everyone thought they were happy.
We are not playing in Obusa. What’s this place like?
What is Held to be Sacred (pick 1 or 2)
1: achievement
2: privilege
3: tradition / control
Sora (AKA Tenshi), Emi, and Kazue were part of a tween pop band called BBpop. Aratani, in adition to owning everything in Obusa, combed through gradeschoolers looking for potential magical girls, and groomed them by making them into child stars. This might have been her participating in a larger regional child star industry. Maybe our meritocratic class struggle is a division between the famous and the private?
What is Considered Profane (pick 1 or 2)
1: gender
2: bodies
3: love
Junpei and Paresh were males who transformed into magical girls. Dedric (AKA Tiresias) and Wei Zhou (AKA Pele) were homosexual males. Dedric hoped they could more easily find love in their magical girl form. We had a trans PC early in the game named Hiro. The gunslinger Yuki also had a complicated relationship with gender. Sora took issue with the skimpy clothes Aratani put her in. Something about our new (possibly ancient) city fosters a culture of prudence and an intolerance of some form of gender expression or celebrations of the human form. What’s going on here?
Our Magical Origin
1: a magical world hidden within the mundane
2: a heroic refutation of the Darkness
3: an embodiment of the stars
Season one was very much a magical world hidden within the mundane. Spirits, creatures, saints, and magical girls interacted with mundane folk. Aratani’s domains revolved around mirrors, the moon, and illusions. She would have been in charge of keeping folks from discovering magic in Obusa, but magic was ubiquitous.
Season one also put a hard limit on the number of active magical girls in a region (bordered by leylines) to thirteen, and mapped those thirteen to the zodiac.
The senshi in the first season gained their magic in exchange for one of seven bodily fluids, associated loosely with the seven deadly sins, in order to create their trinkets. This was part of the Youkai hatching process detailed above. However, because of the cataclysm, magic might not work that way anymore. It’s up to you folks. Thoughts?
Your Hideout
1: a place between worlds
2: an overlooked place
3: a majestic castle
Mr Zhou (Pele) owned a themed cafe (Alice in Wonderland) which was warded to hide the second and third floors from sight. Tenshi could slip into the dreamscape, which reflected the real world. Where do we go to discuss strategy and generally escape the world at large?
Wildly popular topics from other plots…
Who else hunts: dark predators / desperate survivors
Last bastion of humanity: ancient fortress
Held sacred: strength / sacrifice
How they keep us in line: gilded cages
Any of these elements worth exploring?
As an aside, it looks like Alex got his original Wish.
Dotting. I haven't read anything yet, but only just saw this. :)
Unfortunately, I has to go to work. So that's a thing! But I'll definitely look into catching up, ASAP!
Edit: I lied. Tenshi would totally have paid the toll if it meant protecting May/otherpeople. But that's only if she were asked to do so. I've still gotta read things, but I was willing to delay my trip for a bit to read at least a little...
*flails excitedly*
We'll be discussing this for a bit. Absolutely will not move on to Characters until next Monday.
Nature of the Darkness
I like any of the options, though dark timeline is the most compelling to me
Agenda
this is really bg thing for me. it determines a lot of the darkness, to me. the first option makes me think 'animal', whereas 2 makes me think 'tragic anti-villain', and the third makes me think 'guy fighting a war that's long since over'. they're even ordered from least to most evil
subjects
I'm strongly drawn to 2 and 3, because they kinda... allow for more nuanced evil characters thn I think 1 would
Mundane world
1 & 3 are cool, but a vaguely dystopian government personally doesn't really interest me. it would start to feel like too much, I think
sacred & Profane
I can roll with whatever, though I'm not quite sure about ow to incorporate all of this.
Magical origin
again, any of these work, but I have a mild preference for stars or hidden world
Hiding place
I think, especially if we use dark timeline or hidden wold for the darkness or magical origins (respectively), it is really cool for us to have a space neither here nor there,and sets us u[ for some cool twists, maybe of the 'not so different' variety
Misc
I think who else hunts and how they keep us in line are both potentially really cool
Sacred and Profane are qualities of the Mundane World, as opposed to the Darkness. They're about how the protagonists don't fit in in the world they're trying to save.
I think I'll be looking at these out of order.
As far as subjects go, you weren't the only one making the past lives link as far as petty gods go, but I think I'd want to focus on Travellers from a Dark Future. There's, as mentioned, Airi, working away on the ark and using the rift to find a solution to an as of yet unknown issue. Her, and any others from then, would be motivated to bend time in order to fix their problems...Airi already got a start on that by using the rift to connect with Junpei.
From there, it's not too much a stretch to segue onto A Malevolent Timeline...because frankly, Airi's time is a crappy place. Going this route gives more drive to the time itself, either from its people meddling with the past and hell to the consequences, or some aspect of it itself manipulating those who were part of it in order to ensure its terrible reality to the greatest degree possible.
Something along those lines, anyway. The main thing is the threat of a time and its inhabitants that care little for what effect it has outside of achieving its own agenda. It's entirely possible our Moon Baby here could be a vehicle for, or driving force in all of this.
If it ends up progressing like this, To Propagate and Thrive is an obvious agenda whether it's people trying to make their own lives better at others' expense, a facet of the time trying to replicate what brought it to being, or something else of that nature.
That's as far as my linking things together goes, anyway. I think I'll need to think, and hopefully get perspective and ideas from everyone else before I feel right to offer thoughts on the rest. Particularly on The Mundane World/General Setting, since knowing how that ends up being is likely what will help frame the rest.
If I do end up carrying over Junpei though, or someone of similar aspect, I'd love to hammer in on Gender, or otherwise something in that area. Never got to play with the twin aspect of Junpei/Iris the way I wanted to.
The options of Who Else Hunts is also something I'm interested in, with both ideas there holding their own appeal. The answer and question of How They Keep Us In Line stands to be interesting as well, though I feel like this may again depend on the setting for its representation. Right now, I'm more focused on potential fellow hunters - probably the Desperate Survivors if I absolutely had to pick from them.
Oh, and for the record, I couldn't think to fit this in elsewhere, but I'd love to see more of Benji again. I really did a number on him.
Huh, just noticed this. System seems pretty cool, looking through it, and the premise is neat! While I can't do the form now, I'd be interested in joining in (if I can).
Just my two cents here.
The Nature of the Darkness:
A malevolent timeline seems the most interesting, since it gives a perspective on what could have happened. Heck, the malevolent timeline could even be justified in trying to invade another timeline, whether to save their own lives, or to try and stop events through immoral means.
Its Agenda
Avenge an ancient wrong seems correct for a malevolent timeline, but if we want them to be more evil, propagate and thrive would work.
Its Subjects
Travelers from a dark future feels... redundant if its a malevolent timeline. Saints and their attendant priests could have the malevolent timeline acting as some kind of holy crusade, which seems kind of fun to do with the Starlight Kingdom's emphasis on freeing people from the Darkness.
The Mundane World
Ancient City or Class Struggle. Maybe both, if the Ancient City has some pretty old traditions that don't mesh well with the current culture.
What is held to be Sacred
While achievement would be nice, it doesn't lend itself to much narrative tension (unless it means those that can't achieve are punished, but that seems pretty extreme). Privilege could be connected to the class struggle, and seems fun to play around with.
What is considered Profane
Hmm... Don't really have any strong feelings here. All of them would drive the story in a good direction, as they affect each party member personally.
Our Magical Origin
Embodiment of the Stars is always cool, take Saint Seiya for example (which, now that I look back on it, was really just a magical girl manga with men instead). A heroic refutation of the Darkness would make it an ability anyone could theoretically muster - its just that only a few can exercise the will needed.
Your Hideout
A place between worlds is easily my favorite. Perhaps its, like Elsine suggested above, some kind of place the Darkness cannot reach. Perhaps, if the Darkness can time-travel, it would be outside of time as well.
Other Topics
I like the idea of being a last bastion for humanity, but maybe it fuels a hopeless situation too much. Maybe the area is a last bastion for humanity, but its so well defended that its focus is more on expanding outwards from that point.
Who else hunts can add a second faction, perhaps with a separate agenda. If the malevolent timeline wants this timeline for itself, then perhaps the other hunter could be a group that wants to simply destroy the timeline.
So... I really like that little bombshell that Aratani was collecting -other- magical girls by trolling the schools. :P
Moving on.
GrandCosmicOrder/DarkHeart/MalevolentTime
My favorite is 'A Grand Cosmic Order', with a major caveat:
A Grand Cosmic Order is a good idea, conceptually, for what happens if you make a deal with death. You broke the scales - maybe by even pressing too hard on one side. Pulling back towards balance
A Malevolent Timeline is neat if our foes are 'what could have been', but I don't feel as compelled by this concept.
I don't feel 'the world is evil at its core' is particularly fitting, so the 'Dark Heart of the World' is less good. Though I absolutely like that idea best if it's reinforcing the idea that desire is what fuels the darkness. It's very fitting to come from season one and very fitting to be the result of Kiyomi's sacrifice.
The Darkness's Agenda:
AvengeAncientWrong/Propagate/Emptiness
Without your leadin, I feel absolutely to avenge an ancient wrong. Making our 'darkness' the forgotten Patrons or those patrons who had to do things the hard way is my favorite idea, inherently. But I also really like Propagate and Thrive if our foe is based on a constant cycle like your Youkai example. Emptiness isn't going to be something I feel would be fun to roleplay for the DM.
Its Subjects:
PettyGods/DarkFuture/Saints
Absolutely gonna vote for the past lives and/or youkai themselves. I don't want our enemies to be the Templars. I absolutely do want to see them return as a faction, but I like them as a neutral faction. If other want them as our foes, then I suppose that means Youkai can become the neutral faction if we get one. Heck, I'm even happy if we're the ones playing the templars this go round.
The Mundane World:
AncientCity/ClassStruggle/Authoritative
I want something large, with twists and turns and hidden places around every corner. Nooks and crannies that you can get lost in, or that people can get lost in. The government doesn't matter much for me or any of my concepts inherently. Class struggles can be neat, if handled well, but it depends on what the classes are.
What is Held to be Sacred:
Achievement/Tradition/Privilege
I'm not a fan of Tradition/Control or Privelege being the motivating factors for our society. I Very much prefer Achievement, because that feeds into a 'success is all that matters' vibe that is utilitarian, and changes a lot of outlooks about the world. This speaks to me of something like academics or science. By the way, I really like the idea that the society cares a lot more about science than other things.
What is Considered Profane:
Love
If I follow with the world caring more about science, 'love' seems the best choice for what isn't considered of import... but otherwise, none of the above spark an interest for me, inherently. Whatever is chosen would help me to build a character, though.
Our Magical Origin:
SecretWorld/NotDark/Stars
Embodiment of the Stars is the one I'm least into, unless I play as Kazue ;)
My favorite Genre is urban fantasy, and as a direct result, A magical world hidden from the mundane is my first choice, hands down. A heroic refutation of the darkness is my next choice, as 'Don't be a jerk' is always fun. If we go with the hollow/empty enemies, then we get to play with 'Passion/Desire' being our driving force still, as it was in Season One.
Our Hideout:
Any
My first choice is 'Somewhere Only We Know' ;)
I'm pretty happy with any of those. Each one is really neat, and sells its own theme.
Other:
Who else hunts? I absolutely love there being other factions with other ideas on how to solve the problem.
Last bastion? Ancient fortress I'm neutral about.
Held Sacred? Everyone is expected to make sacrifices works for me. Being expected to always be strong is also cool.
Kept in line by gilded cages: This could be neat, apathy towards change is a strong demotivator. :P
Here are some write-ups I put together based on what I'm seeing here. (this isn't a point of no return, but i am trying to help keep things moving) How do these sound?
Refugees of a Broken Space/Time (AKA Southpark Season 08 Episode 07)
(a malevolent timeline / propagate and thrive / travelers from a dark future)
By hijacking Benji’s user interface, Junpei’s sorcery has fed Airi a cornucopia of data on alternate timelines. The Cataclysm occurred anyway, and the Darkness that consumes Airi’s future is breathing down the last senshi’s neck. Desperate, and fearful of her own corruption, Airi sends her people back through Benji’s save states, not to change the past, but to flee into it.
Under an Eggshell Moon (AKA Sailor Chibi Cthulhu Moon)
(the dark heart of a world / avenge and ancient wrong / saints and their attendant priests)
Kiyomi and Aratani are missing, leaving Yuki to defend their child. The Enclave flees, taking the magic-spawned child under their wing, and gathering around her a cabal of corrupted saints lead from the shadows by an ancient, scorned immortal. This place is their cage too. It’s the people you wish to save who are acting out your oppression.
The Swinging Scales of Death (AKA Wrath of Sailor Pluto)
(a grand cosmic order / see its emptiness reflected / a court of petty Gods)
The toll goes unanswered. The Veil consumes reality, but it’s not the end of time, only a transitional state. The matron spirits, gods, angels (these words are ours, not theirs) are no longer limited to possessing a dozen or so individuals at a time. They walk the earth. Those three who had escaped the Veil are now hunted by a ravenous court of principalities lead by the archangel of war in her many faces.
~~~
Toride Japan, 2025
(class struggle / achievement / love)
There are those that can, and those that cannot, and there will always be more to take your place should your next QA review come back negative. You think you remember a time when things weren’t like this. You remember families, couples strolling in gardens, dates… None of that is necessary now. What is necessary is that you make breakthrough, improve the city’s efficiency, and most importantly, avoid re-education... or worse...
//Jericho.edu
(an ancient city / tradition / bodies)
You don’t remember what it’s like outside Jericho’s walls, but in here, it sucks. You know it’s a simulation, or VR, or whatever they want to call it- it’s not real. Nobody else seems to notice. Maybe it’s because they’re all treated like royalty in this feudal version of modern life. Your Youkai does all of the real work. They’re also always watching... making sure you tend the shrine, or stop fishing at noon to praise the sun. Maybe it would have been better if you hadn’t been unplugged, but now that you have- now that you’ve held another human in your arms, you can’t sleep knowing everyone else is trapped. One question rings out over everything else, unanswered: why?
Neo Jimazan
(authoritarian government / privilege / gender)
They don’t like how we characterize them. How we insisted, once, that they would conform to either masculine or feminine ideals which were, admittedly, more fluid than we ourselves cared to admit. Not so now. These days it seems the individual has been completely sublimated into the collective. Any rights you have are assigned, along with your role, without any consideration given to who you might be. You’re expected to ‘grow into’ your role. Worst of all, we asked for it. These changes have brought about paradise. Discrimination is uprooted. Engineered scarcity is a thing of the past. They provide for us everything our heart desires, but there’s no suppressing human nature. Your role, your uniform, and how you’re expected to act don’t reflect who you are, how you think, or how you wish to be seen. Your daily life is plagued by dysphoria, and you can only feel like yourself when you’re in your hideout, among like-minded individuals.
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In order of most interested to least interested:
//Jericho.edu
Swinging Scales of Death
Eggshell Moon
Neo Jimazan
Refugees of a Broken SpaceTime
Toride Japan, 2025
Toride is the only one that I don't like, inherently, for what it's worth. :)
Edit: I gave a ton of feedback but didn't copy it before clicking submit, so it's all gone. I'll do more later, but I have to go to work now. Blech.
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I'm assuming these are separate plot/setting setups - the first three being things that can slot into the latter.
That said...
Probably unsurprisingly, my preferences for the setups go
Refugees --> Swinging Scales --> Eggshell
And
Neo Jimazan --> //Jericho.edu --> Toride
I have to agree that...well, while I can't say I inherently dislike it, Toride is my least favourite. It's bitter and bleak in a way I'm not particularly fond of, and just seems outright corporate, which I can't say I'm looking for.
Apart from that...
Jimazan is an interesting example. The changes were instituted not just to get the cogs going, but outright to the benefit of the people subject to it, eliminate many of the evils and petty things they strived to get rid of...but at that one cost that makes it seem just not worth it. Unlike the others, even if everyone knows it sucks, there's a serious matter of if you even should go against it. Chasing your own expression comes with the threat of bringing back every terrible thing you were trying to get rid of in the first place, and that's going to be staring you down one way or another.
There's just a lot of interesting facets to the place to play with...I wonder what the contraband of such a place might be.
Jericho is a simple false paradise scenario. Apart from a few little things that can really be overlooked generally, everything is just about perfect, except for the fact it's not real and deceptively constraining besides. You immerse yourself in all of it...and don't even want to consider that it might not be.
There's plenty to play with here, and it is admittedly a very close second, but Jimazan intrigues me just that bit more.
I'm not sure how Refugees would play out, but I'm very interested in how it might. Things have all gone wrong, people are being desperately cast across time and space through means that may well just lead to more problems, and overall hope has been given up on saving the situation over saving themselves, leaving our upcoming cast to face consequences old and new themselves.
It's...it just feels like something with a far more human focus than the other plots, and as I found in the last game, I'm kind of a sucker for that. Apart from that, I really wonder how this would contrast with the others, with enveloping of reality and grant cult of the others. Really, with this, I'd be looking for (Cataclysm aside) a subtler hand in how this all plays out, the same grand changes but lurking just out of sight. There's definitely the potential.
I...may have to get back to you on the other two. They're great, but I'm having a seriously hard time articulating my thoughts there.
I'm drawing a complete blank and numbness atm.
May your story be memorable and monumental.
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think I might be in the minority here, possibly due to continuity lockout, but here's how I feel
refugees of a broken spacetime: 2
I'll be honest, I'm having trouble understanding this one and eggshell, but what I see of it seems fairly interesting/compelling, people fleeing from a dangerous future, inadvertently dooming the past and forcing us to fix their mistakes
Eggshell moon: 3
honestly, If I knew who any of those people in the first sentence are, I would have a much better idea of who the villain is. as it is, I only kinda get it, maybe better than the other one, but I can't actually figure out who the bad guy is in this
swinging scales: 1
honestly, the one I'm most into, maybe because it relies on tropes from/shared with a genre I'm more familiar with, maybe because it relies the least on the previous game (or I really misunderstand it), I'm pretty drawn to the whole "alone against the world" thing,a nd fixing the mistakes of the past is a cool theme
Toride: 1
I like the mundane world being grounded-ish at least, and this si the closest to grounded, in my head. plus achievement being held sacred in a kinda cutthroat society gives us ample temptation to use magic selfishly , and love being profane... well, some cliches are cliche for a reason.
Jericho: 3
While I'm not opposed to the "real-world" not being real, I think it kinda takes away from the magic. and honestly, I think adding in matrix to a thing that already has like 4 genres is kinda pushing it, IMHO
Neo Jimazan: 2
I have nothing really against it. it is kinda grounded enough that it serves it's purpose, and I can see it being an interesting setting, with less to distract from the other half of things than //Jericho.edu, but I dunno, it feels darker than Toride, to me, and not in a way that I think creates as many options.
Each of the three Darknesses I proposed is based on stuff from Season 1. This tells me swinging scales might have a better chance at keeping the attention of new players, as it's based on the lore that's easiest for me to explain.
It's killing me, but I've gotta wait for some more details from Hotaru and maybe one other player.
Feel free to post your own write-ups for different combinations of the Darkness and Mundane traits listed above.
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In order of most interested to least interested:
//Jericho.edu
Swinging Scales of Death
Eggshell Moon
Neo Jimazan
Refugees of a Broken SpaceTime
Toride Japan, 2025Toride is the only one that I don't like, inherently, for what it's worth. :)
Edit: I gave a ton of feedback but didn't copy it before clicking submit, so it's all gone. I'll do more later, but I have to go to work now. Blech.
My worries for Refugees of a Broken Spacetime is how exactly that plays out in full. Like, are we all cast away into different parts of the timeline? Are the villains? Everything is very much up in the air for how all of it is supposed to work exactly. The redeeming factor is that it's Benji-based.
Eggshell Moon gets bonus points for being about 'saving' the priests from their ?false? god. I like that the crux is that they're defending something they believe is right, though, and that isn't inhumanly wrong.
Scales of Death is my favorite, because it's the most natural progression. The cosmic rift was closed, or so we thought, by our unwillingness to make a sacrifice - or perhaps, the wrong sacrifice. As a result, the patrons who once used us to try to reach their own ends from somewhere far away are now forced to make other choices - or perhaps, they no longer need the particular vessels that they had. As it's most like the original game, it's totally my favorite for a seasonal segue.
Toride is too much like my work life for me to enjoy. Without going into too much detail, I work on a different shift from my bosses, which means that the only thing that they see is the results of my labors, not my struggles. They don't see that I come in to unfinished work from the prior shift. They don't see that I'm doing the same work load of three people on the prior shift by myself. They just know whether I succeeded or failed in their expectations. So... maybe too close to home for me to enjoy in that environment.
Jericho is my favorite because it puts Youkai front and center. The things that were meant to one day guide Senshi are instead guiding everyone. Everything appears perfect on the surface, but there's something strange and unsettling. There's a whole hidden world that we need to puzzle out. This doesn't have to be matrix-y, but it does need to have hidden machinations to work. I really dig it.
Neo Jimazan, finally, is quite interesting to me in that it's a Utopia in the same way that we were warned to fear utopias by media. Everything is good, everything is ideal, everything is fit in or get out wonderful. Having a place called home where you can return to be who you were meant to be with like-minded individuals seems the best experience for a CORE magical girls setup.
Neo Jimazan, seat of Erohin, garden of youkai
a grand cosmic order - avenge an ancient wrong - authoritarian, class struggle - privilege, tradition - gender, love
Neo Jimazan is a replica of the kingdom of the heavens carved from a mountain of strange lavender marble with gold veining. It is the seat of power for the spirits from beyond the Veil. Since the Cataclysm, these eerily familiar God figures have dominated the earth, breaking down human social structures and uniting humanity under them as cherished, wayward children. They call themselves the Erohin, and they have reshaped our culture in little over a decade. They didn’t like how we characterized them. How we insisted, once, that they would conform to either masculine or feminine ideals which were, admittedly, more fluid than we ourselves cared to admit. Not so now. These days it seems the individual has been completely sublimated into the collective.
Any rights you have are assigned, along with your role and your attendant youkai, without any consideration given to those traits engendered in you. You’re expected to ‘grow into’ your role. These changes have brought about paradise. Discrimination is uprooted. Engineered scarcity is a thing of the past. They provide for us everything our heart desires, but there’s no suppressing human nature. Your role, your uniform, and how you’re expected to act don’t reflect who you are, how you think, or how you wish to be seen. You are terminally ill-suited to the role Erohin have asked you to take, and your life-long youkai attendant knows this. Your daily life is plagued by dysphoria, and you can only feel like yourself when you’re in your hideout, among like-minded individuals. In what ways do you all transgress against privilege and/or tradition?
Recently, there have been… incidents. Youma, horrible monstrosities of Darkness, have attacked Jimizan from within. Libraries, shrines, and gardens have also sunk into Darkness, corrupting those who visit them, and bringing about the strife that we thought to leave behind us. The Erohin are unable to protect us from these attacks. A conspirator was captured. A man, of all things, with a heavy, fire-belching weapon of tubes and hoses. You were drawn to the scene to see this man’s clothes, intrigued by his stubborn rejection of the wisdom of the Erohin. While you were there, you each found an oddly shaped jade trinket, like a claw with a hole drilled through the base.
After some experimentation, you each find that these trinkets allow you access to a place outside of this world where the youkai cannot find you. As you spend more and more time escaping to this peaceful place, you find each other, talk, and become friends. One of you finds that these trinkets also allow you to Transcend. How does it feel to Transcend? What aspect of Transcendence is shared by everyone? What aspect is personalized?
Obligations
High-school - The Erohin have noticed your struggle to conform to perfection, and have, in their wisdom, brought you to Neo Jimazan for training.
Temple - You are attendants to the grand temple, as your youkai attend you. You fill roles of social service, and at times it can be exhausting.
Royal court - You are attendants to the Erohin themselves. Your role and youkai are shaped by the Erohin you each attend.
What are we striving for? What calamity do we fight to prevent? What great change are we destined to bring? (the author often rephrases these questions as ‘how do we know we won, and how do we know we lost?’)
This is the last round of discussion before the setting is cemented. If there are any features or concepts you want to see woven in, this is the time to mention it. After this, we pick Roles and Playbooks, so I need everyone still interested in playing to post something after this.
Necessarily, I've been a little deceptive here. There's a few bits of misdirection here for us to work through during play.
I really like the setting. Having seen more of it, there's stuff I can work with. Not sure but I think I have some ideas forming
A question. As I understand the word, yokai is Japanese for "malevolent spirit " possibly exclusive to Shinto, I don't recall. What does it mean in this context?
Nekomata, Kappa, Tengu, Kitsune, Tanuki, etc. They're your witch's familiar and your connection to all things inherantly wild or magical. Before the Cataclysm, they saught out girls to form pacts and led them down a dark path to power. This gave the Erohin (trapped on the other side of the Veil) people to possess, and if they reached for too much power, would spawn new yokai.
Notably, they have not been described as loyal to the Erohin. It's a relationship of convenience.
Don't know if I telegraphed the prompt well, but we do pick one obligation as a group.
Looks like this is the way we're going, then. Looks good to me.
I can't think of anything I'm desperate to see incorporated at the moment. At most, I'd just be happy to see some of the legacy cast return - not necessarily in a major capacity, but I would like to see them, and possibly learn what we lacked the chance to before about them.
Edit: Pick an obligation, you say?
Right now, I think Royal Court is my favourite. It puts us right up front with our new overlords benevolent leaders, and in particular the aspect of how the ones we end up attending shape everything else fascinates me.
Elsine, Hotaru, Infernal, and Sbodd may post in the Discussion thread and dot Gameplay whenever.
In season 1, people made pacts with the youkai to seal a portion of their humanity into a trinket with which they could evoke one of the Erohin and the ghestalt experiences of all past magical girls who evoked that Erohin.
Late in that season, it was revealed that one of the senior senshi was collecting ki and creating (ala philosophers' stone) the trinkets we're seeing this season: modeled after magatama. Her motivation (revealed, I think, to a player who left) was to make a pure source of magic everyone could use without evoking or channeling spirits.
The dream senshi had a cache of stolen magatama at the time of the Cataclysm.
Embellishment works well. Completely unnecessary flourishes to show individuality. That makes it really easy for no one to feel compelled to change who they are, but also gives them the option to be more of who they are than the setting would inherently make true of people. I like it.
The only thing that I have to say on how transcending feels at this time is 'different'. I'll likely cheerlead someone else's idea on this, as well. :)
Royal Court as an obligation is pretty solid, as it results in a varied group that stands to be able to make sweeping changes if we're victorious in some way.
I stand with Royal Court as well. It gives the obligation some real importance, as well as some measure of influence on the non-magical end.
I suppose Transcendance, if the theme is going to be more of individuality, could be a feeling of expression or a release of the true self. I guess a sensation of freedom, at minimum.
Head on over to Discussion, Pixels.
Recruitment is closed to all but players from Season 1. PM me if you need a summary.
The weekend is my busy time, so I could not get my summary in before the write-up.
I'm getting a serious Utena vibe from the write-up, with a touch of Madoka from that introduced darkness via the Youkai— or that sinister student council. So if that gets flipped, and we're the sinister student council, trained to lead those who cannot attain the enlightenment of Neo Jimzan, but are close enough to stand in its light, that raises the question of what we're standing against... What influence, what seeks to undermine it?
Just a thought. If you're too full, I'm game for sitting on the sidelines and watching things unfold. Pulling Ao— or his descendant– into that might be fun. Then again, these cold meds might be messing with my interpretation of things.
Take a minute to get caught up on the conversation in Discussion, see if you can cook up some answers to the prompt that's up there. If you feel confident about posting something for a character, I won't open the playbooks up to dibs-callers until Monday.