Interest check for a superpower Academy game

[AidenWhite]

 *Everything that I marked with an asterisk is a subject that I’d like feedback or suggestions on, however feel free to point out your concerns about non-marked items.
       

        This is an interest check for an academy game revolving around students having super powers interacting with those without. The powers themselves don’t really matter, just the fact that some of the students have them. The game has a modern setting and the academy itself will be located near a rather large city which will allow the students to be able to go out of school premises during their freetime. The city (name W.I.P) is a half hour walk by foot but there will also be a bus system running every hour.*

   The academy itself was originally just for normal people without powers and the people with powers had their own specialized schools. After a political change, the new leader abolished these specialized schools. The people with powers were spread out to the normal schools, all of this in an attempt to get rid of the alienating nature of the people without powers towards those that had powers.

   This is a country-wide policy, so this is happening in multiple schools. If anyone is in a club/makes a club that can compete and is simple enough, I could possibly go out of my way to make up another school and few PCs tied to that school in order to RP that.*

   I’m leaning towards the idea that instead of having one huge plot and making everything we do dedicated to that huge plot, there would instead be multiple popular events (and sometimes the days of preparation behind those events), like a Fall Festival or Christmas event, the obligatory beach episode, etc.*

FAQ
I’m going to try to preempt some questions but I am not omnipotent so feel free to ask any question you do not see in this FAQ or if you need clarification

Q. Where is this game taking place?
A. Quick answer would be modern-day Japan, considering how this game will be played, though I might reconsider since this is solely an interest check, nothing is written in stone.


Q. Are we using real-life models as our characters or anime models?
A. Definitely anime models, mainly for the reason that there are plenty of them to work with and with a ton of variety for which ever one you pick


Q. How do you feel about transfer students from foreign countries?
A. It should be fine as long as it doesn’t get out of hand and 70% of the player base is all from France. It adds some variety and lets people play a culture they’re interested in or more comfortable with since Japanese culture can be confusing at some times (much like any other culture that isn’t your own). Oh, and foreign students can have powers.


Q. How did the people with powers get their powers?*
A. I have a list of possible reasons that I’m considering, like a side-effect of some medicine that was quickly taken off the shelves and gotten rid of or maybe a mutation that was caused by the Earth being close to a meteor shower and space particles affected babies yet to be born, newborns and one to three year olds. Some ideas are a bit far-fetched but this is still a work in progress.

Q. Do the powers have any catches/downsides?
A. Yes, in order to keep this game more about the interactions between characters and less of a "hey look what I can do" farce, I will require everyone to have at least a single well-reasoned downside to their powers (if their character has any, that is.)

Q. Will we be roleplaying classes?
A. Usually no, scenes involving classrooms will probably take place before and after class, but if there is an upcoming event that requires there to be an in-class scene, then so be it.


Q. How are the living arrangements?*
A. I’ve been mulling over this and I have come to the tentative decision that there will be both dormitories and outside the school living arrangements. I want this game to not be super-restrictive but since be controllable, so I kindly ask those that choose to live outside of the school to pay attention and not get left behind since that sucks for every party involved. Whether you live on your own or have parent(s) is up to your own discretion, but again please be careful.


Q. How are the dorms like?
A. Two huge buildings, one for each gender (since the headmasters take no tomfoolery from anyone). Everyone will have the option to either live on their own or with another character. Each building has several suites equipped with a bathroom, a bedroom (number of beds depending whether or not it is a single or double suite), a decently sized living room (comfortable for 3-4 people, tight for 6 or more) and a small kitchen (small stove, microwave, and a sink/counter-type deal).


Q. Are there any writing requirements?
A. I, and I would wager most of the other players, would appreciate it if everyone could write at least two well-written paragraphs. I don’t mean to sound snooty but I want everyone to be able to write and have enough to work with. I’ve been in the scenario where I have to respond to a two sentence post and there is nothing to work with. A post should have more than what the other person said and what you said. How is your character feeling what is your character thinking, how your character feels about the person he/she is talking to, etc. Other than that, check your grammar and give your post a once-over for any confusing typos. I’m not too anal about grammar as long as I and the person or group of people you’re writing with understand what you wrote.


FAQ list possible still in progress


DISCLAIMER: This is just an interest check, nothing is (entirely) written in stone.

[Lynnette]

Well, you already know I'm interested :P

[Inari]

I'm interested too. Cos reasons!

[Sally Aces]

Count me in. I'd love to play a Dandere whose powers force her into the limelight. See below for face claims :)

in uniform		Superheroine transformation

[Cassandra LeMay]

Two Questions:

Q1: Will all PCs be students, or will there also be teachers as player characters?

Q2: Have all "supers" in this world gained their powers around the same time/through the same event, or are there also adult "supers" in this setting who might have gotten their powers in a different way?

[AidenWhite]

Welcome everyone, thanks for your interest.

@Cass: Teachers are mainly going to be plot devices, i.e. when an event comes around and it needs explaining or there's a rare class IC session. So there won't be many opportunities to use a teacher character. So to answer your first question, all PCs will be students.

For your second question, that's something that I'm on the fence about but I'm leaning towards a singular event that has affected multiple people regardless of age. I'm probably going to go for a rare mutation that spawned back a few hundred years back and as time progressed and the population increased, more and more people got that mutation and could pass it on, so to answer your second question: yes, there are also adults with powers.

If you have concerns with my answers, please inform me. Thanks!

[Cassandra LeMay]

If you have concerns with my answers, please inform me. Thanks!

I'm good. :) When it comes to school settings I always find myself drawn to the teacher characters, as I find it difficult to get into the mindset of a teenager after so many years of not having been on myself. I might still come up with a student character, but I am a bit one the fence, so you might not want to rely on me.

For your second question, that's something that I'm on the fence about but I'm leaning towards a singular event that has affected multiple people regardless of age. I'm probably going to go for a rare mutation that spawned back a few hundred years back and as time progressed and the population increased, more and more people got that mutation and could pass it on, so to answer your second question: yes, there are also adults with powers.

Maybe tie it to the radiation from a comet or something like that? You could have a regularly recurring event set at time intervals you like. Might not even have to be something genetically transmitted if the recepients of this "gift" also gain longevity. Their children might be more likely to be effected at the next event, but you might also have children of "supers" who just didn't get the "gift" the last time the comet passed Earth. Might make for a club of nasty, vindictive folks who feel left out and snub the "supers" because they think they should have gotten the gift. Add to that a bunch of "super parents" who feel their children should excell and you might have some interesting, non-powered, characters with a serious chip on their shoulder.

[LeSane]

I through my interest in for this.

[AndyZ]

My ideas have been failing utterly of late, but I like this idea and will see what sprouts of it.

[AidenWhite]

Thanks for the interest @LeSane and @AndyZ

@Cass: I see where you're coming from, sorry about that. And yeah, that's how it's going to be since the way genes work is that even if both parents both have blue eyes, the child might still end up with brown because of the grandparents; I'll leave family to the discretion of the player. I had that comet/meteor shower idea, previously, so perhaps I'll have that be the cause for the initial mutation. I also have the idea of starting the game around the same time a similar meteor shower/comet crosses the Earth for the first time since it happened initially. But, anyways, thanks for the suggestion.

So to sum it up,

Powered parents can have nonpowered children
Nonpowered parents can have powered children
Powered children can have nonpowered siblings and vice versa.

[Inari]

In Mass Effect that is pretty much how some Biotics got their powers. 

[Cassandra LeMay]

Okay, I have another question:

Q: How powerful are the "superpowers" in this setting? What are we really talking about here, in amounts of awesomeness? Can you give a few examples what you might consider right or wrong for the setting? Are we talking about characters who can level a city in an eyeblink, someone who can lift a car with some effort? What's the "power level" supposed to be?

[King Serperior]

Hmmm, very interesting!  I have an idea for a possible female character

Female;  Power is called 'Monster Girl' which gives her animal traits at the cost of physical transformation:  Harpy means she can fly short distances;  Mermaid means she can breath underwater;  Neko gives her perfect balance and coordination;  Minotaur gives her increased strength;  Lamia gives her a super-flexible body;  Dragon gives her armored skin and fire breath;  Etc.  However, she can only become one form at a time and she has no 'human form' anymore.  This means her weakness is the inability to be hidden easily.....as well as the fact that clothing for one monster might not fit or be suitable for another.  Plus, changing form requires at least a minute of meditation and she remains in that form until she changes into another.

So, while she can technically have numerous super powers, she can only ever have one or two minor ones at a time, depending on her form.  I see her as taking the more Neko form as, other than the tail, she looks mostly human.

[pdragon]

throwing in my interest as well.

[Angel Fire]

I shall plant my interest seed and see if it sprouts up and blooms.

[AidenWhite]

Okay, I have another question:

Q: How powerful are the "superpowers" in this setting? What are we really talking about here, in amounts of awesomeness? Can you give a few examples what you might consider right or wrong for the setting? Are we talking about characters who can level a city in an eyeblink, someone who can lift a car with some effort? What's the "power level" supposed to be?

Great question.

I don't really want powers to be the main thing in this RP in order for people to just pick the most over-powered abilities just to compete with the other players. If you're going to pick a power (you don't have to, by the way), I'm sure everyone has the sense not to pick abilities like Stop Time or Instant Destruction. Powers that can spawn fire, water, ice etc. are fine in moderation. But if I have to put a general limit on powers: don't make yourself into the main protagonist of an anime.

Super strength is fine like in your example of lifting a car with effort but keep in mind that every power will have a downside, and I will expect that with stronger power, the more detrimental the weakness.

I hope that clarifies things, if not just say so and I'll try my best to make the boundaries more clear.

@KS: that seems alright as long as her abilities don't exceed those that specialize in a certain ability, for example her Minotaur form's super strength cannot be stronger than a character whose sole ability is super strength, just to keep things balance.

I don't want this to be a competition of who has the strongest power but rather how these people will interact with each other, if that makes sense. The academy won't teach students how to use their powers but rather give them an "in" to the regular society they were once shunned from.

Also, @KS, @pdragon, and @Angel Fire: thanks for the interest!

Another note: I think the interest is enough to warrant me to start a recruitment thread, so I will get on that later today and have it up by tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who has shown their support thus far. 

[King Serperior]

@KS: that seems alright as long as her abilities don't exceed those that specialize in a certain ability, for example her Minotaur form's super strength cannot be stronger than a character whose sole ability is super strength, just to keep things balance.

I don't want this to be a competition of who has the strongest power but rather how these people will interact with each other, if that makes sense. The academy won't teach students how to use their powers but rather give them an "in" to the regular society they were once shunned from.

Oh, no, that's not what I was meaning at all.  These powers would in each form would be the 'average' one would expect.  For example, her Minotaur form could lift a car with some effort, but couldn't lift a Tank.  The real power would come in being limited versatility.

Of course, I am still debating, so I'll wait and see who else has interest and see the character sheet.

[FarFetched]

Sounds interesting!

How hard are the downsides going to be? Do seriously effect how that person can act throughout the RP, or is it a simple weakness in their abilities? *is a fan of the former*

[AidenWhite]

@FarFetched: Welcome!

As for your question: the weakness is up to the discretion of the player as long as it's reasonable.

For example: a character has super strength and they can use it for a period of time of their choosing up to a certain point but after the time limit, they become unable to lift up something light like a spoon. Something like that.

Does that answer your question?

[FarFetched]

Yep! I was just thinking up characters and my favorite at the moment has a weakness that severely hampers how they live. Just curious about how it measures up to the others!

[Lynnette]

Yep! I was just thinking up characters and my favorite at the moment has a weakness that severely hampers how they live. Just curious about how it measures up to the others!

Nothing's stopping you from revealing it early :P

[King Serperior]

Yep! I was just thinking up characters and my favorite at the moment has a weakness that severely hampers how they live. Just curious about how it measures up to the others!

No worries as to how a downside compares to others.  The character I am thinking about has the downsides of:  1).  Never looking fully human, 2).  Clothing not always fitting or suitable for her forms, 3).  Clothing often being ruined if she changes form with the wrong clothes on, 4).  Takes some time to change forms and even then the forms have limited powers and some forms have special weaknesses (Arachnee form allows her to make silk and crawl up walls for example;  Slime form makes her hard to hurt physically, but makes her weak to water).

[FarFetched]

Bah, fiiiine!

Here's what I had in mind:

Pic

My idea was to make a character whose super-power was "All Seeing Eyes". Her supernaturally sharp eyes, paired with a brain entirely dedicated to examination, allows her to accurately inspect virtually anything she sees with efficiency past that of a super-computer. Much like a certain cucumber patch, she is able to deduce incredible amounts of data from little more than a glimpse.

For example, she can tell password combination of a keypad just from the minute wear on the buttons, or the answers on a math test from a simple glance. She can discern things about people too; like the weaknesses in someone else's superpower, their attraction to others, or how their powers might be best used in a situation.

The big problem with her sight is that she is literally incapable of turning it off. Sitting in a classroom sends an overwhelming amount of information to her mind. It's too much for one person to process. Just opening her eyes is like having a panic attack. If she uses them for more than a minute at a time, she becomes overwhelmed by all the information and can easily faint from the stress. She has to blind herself just to attend school.

[AidenWhite]

@FF

That sounds pretty cool, so you already have my okay! It'll be fun to see how she interacts with others.

[Angel Fire]

Guess that I'll reveal my character's power.

Her power is fire based but she can't control fire itself.  She can start fires with super heat but if they get out of control, she can't stop the fires from spreading.  I would say that her weakness is extreme cold... or cold in general.  She would always bundle up in layers of clothes, even when it is 80 degrees outside.  To her, during a normal heat wave is too cold for her (Her preferred outside temperature is 115 degrees).  She would also be susceptible to common colds more frequently than the average human.

I am thinking of her being a transfer student from Phoenix or somewhere in the desert Southwestern US... where it is summer and she is loving the dry heat but as soon as she lands in Japan, she is freezing from the cooler temperatures.

If there are uniforms for her to wear, she would probably be against it as she would not be able to conform to those clothes since she would almost always feel too cold.

How does that sound to y'all?