Miskatonic University - Sorority of Magic

[Crash]

Welcome to Gamma Rho Lambda House, Guardians against the Dark, Defenders of Humanity and Sorority of the Strange and Unusual.  Every four years a new group of students are chosen to participate in Miskatonic’s prestigious School of Occult Studies, but the school has secrets, some benign others mind-wrenching.

Miskatonic University is an Ivy League university in the Massachusetts country side.  It is not a large institution, but a well-respected one.  Its Occult Studies program is only rivaled in the United States by nearby Dunwich-Whateley University.  The rivalry between the schools has ranged from friendly to deadly in the past and currently simmers under a veil of civility.

The students can be from all walks of life and from any culture.  This game will have a plot but it there will be plenty of time given to players to explore the campus, interact with staff and each other and make plots and scenes of their own.  I picture this as a sandbox with GM driven material trickled in here and there.  The game is meant to not take itself overly serious.  I don’t intend for it to be overly dark or grim.  Those plots that are should be darkly humorous. 

It's Earth, but in the late 21st century.

It's a place where the wonders of the Information Age are taken for granted. Kids grow up with touchscreens, learn to edit their first social profile in kindergarten, and customize their AR glasses by high school. You can get reception in tunnels. Save icons still look like floppy disks. All your favorite dubstep beats are now music for granddads.

The times have changed and elder things they are awakening...

The Game

I envision this game as a campy and smutty, darkly humorous game.  It is a sorority so all characters will be female. I may open up a Fraternity at Dunwich-Whately University later, but that is not guaranteed.  The characters will be Freshmen or Sophomores.  They will have received an acceptance letter to the Occult Studies program and may have some experience with magic and the occult before they were invited to the program.  Some of the game will be simply RPing the college experience with things like rush week and sorority and fraternity games, but with some magical hijinx thrown in.  Other times something more sinister may rear its head and the women of Gamma Rho Lambda will need to gather their resources and save the day!

This game is mostly freeform with a very light system that will work behind the scenes in case conflict management is needed.  You will not have to know any rules to play and it should feel freeform with a little GM improve thrown in to make your lives interesting.

I am not allowing futa or characters that were once guys but were somehow turned into women. This is a story of young curious college girls that find themselves thrust into the role of cosmic protectors against Lovecraftian horrors. 

I do not have any issue with males playing female characters and vise versa.  That said I hope to get a good mix of male and female writers.  If I do not get a good mix the game probably won't get off the ground.  If you have issues writing sex scenes with writers based on their gender this is probably not the game for you.

The amount of sex in this game is really up to the players.  Some may want more smut and others less. NPC's will be open to it, but I don't want to get completely bogged down in smut as the GM and do like plot too! Talk to other players to gauge their interest in smutty scenes so that you are on the same page. 

If there is interest I will get more information up for the game and how to make characters.  Please ask questions!

A word on Magic and how I am running it.

When you want to cast a spell please let me know that you are planning to do so and let me know what approach you are going to use.

The Approaches are listed on your character sheet.  I will let you know if you succeed, partially succeed or fail and you can post the result accordingly.  If it is a minor spell you can assume success with some minor drawback.

A example would be the spell Sally Aces just cast for Isabelle.  I would deem that a flashy spell.  Isabelle isn't all that great at Flashy spells but it is a relatively minor spell so she can assume success.  However there will be a drawback.

So Sally.  I am going to say that at some point in the night your outfit will suddenly disappear when you least expect it leaving you either naked or in your underwear.   >:)

Areas of Study

Basic Student

Joining Gamma Rho Lambda means you know the fundamentals of occult science, and can automatically justify:
•  Knowing basic occult theory and history
•  Assisting in occult rituals
•  Copying simple rituals from a book and hoping they’re accurate
•  Researching the occult in the Library
•  Using Occultar apps and simple occultech (“push button, receive magic”)
•  Occult safety awareness (what not to touch, evacuation procedures, who you gonna call)

Sorcery 101

Sorcery 101 establishes that you’re taking occult science classes. Any character who can manage a passing grade in occult science can perform rituals on their own. These classes usually teach things that are useful to multiple fields of occult study, like:
•  Personal Wards: Creating advantages to protect yourself from harm. Students are taught personal wards
ASAP for occult safety reasons.
•  Defensive Wards: Marking an area (usually with chalk, ink or cables) and empowering it to defend those
inside against the occult. Taught by having students ward their workstations before experiments.
•  Entropy Dynamics: Messing with local entropy lets you mess with sound, light and temperature in neat
ways. These techniques lay the groundwork for greater things in more specific classes.
•  Symbology: Drawing and identifying magic circles, equations, and other symbols.
•  Occultech: Basic occultech theory and practical knowledge, like maintaining your gear, repairs, and
knowing when to call tech support before you melt your desk.
•  Decontamination: Rituals that undo occult wards, or clean the residue and fallout from other rituals (read:
your messed-up classwork). These techniques lay the groundwork for banishment and exorcism.

With these fundamental skills, you can attempt to study and perform any rituals you come across, including
ones you find in forbidden tomes and the like. You’re assumed to have standard occult gear (occultech
smartphone, Foundation apps, textbook PDFs) and access to the University's occult resources, including a
library pass and membership in some occult school club.

The school doesn’t teach how to attack with magic, as they have no interest in teaching people how to kill. You can still hurt people if you get creative, but you probably want to keep that to yourself.

Alchemy

Modern alchemy relies on occult science to create exotic particles, alter the properties of matter, and squeeze
occult substances out of organic material. Your lessons focus on useful things, with anything that could be
used to make explosives or toxins redacted. As a talented alchemist you can figure out how to do those things
and more, though, and there are a few illegal tomes and cookbooks rumoured to be floating around campus.
With an alchemist aspect, you can justify:
•  Knowledge of chemistry and occult chemistry beyond the basics
•  Making “potions”—liquids that contain elements or occult code which transmutes the target. Great for
overcoming and advantages, but long-term use can cause major health issues.
•  Figuring out dangerous, illegal or morally dubious things like explosives, poisons, and energy drinks. Like
potions, but you can attack with them. MU won’t teach you this stuff, so you might have to improvise.

Alchemists need tools to do their thing. Simple things can be done with portable tools, but real alchemy needs
a proper lab. Alchemists who haven’t set up a space of their own (in their dorm kitchen, for example) can
do it in the Science Block.

Occultechnician

Occultechnicians are inventors. They dabble in fields like engineering, robotics, and bioethics, but what really draws them in is the magic stuff. Whether you’re writing programs to crunch occult equations for you or putting together helpful devices with common parts and a little duct tape, you’re at your best when making a super-science machine do your job for you.
Occultechnicians can justify:
•  Knowledge of occultech and related scientific fields
•  Being able to identify, use, modify and repair occultech far beyond what most people are capable of
•  Creating occultech to solve problems, using available hardware plus software you found or coded.

Occultechnicians need tools to work. For software, you need something to code on. For hardware, you can get by with a bag of parts, some pocket tools and a smartphone, but large-scale projects may require larger, complex or hard-to-obtain parts. You can assume your dorm room is also a workshop if you like, and if you need to, you can scavenge more parts from around campus. Just be careful where you get it from.

Occult Historian

STEM fields are helpful, but the Foundation knows you can’t get by on that alone. Students also need schooling in the humanities. Your specialty is occult history—how occult science was encountered, used, and how it came to be rediscovered.

Occult history is a tricky field. Before the Weird Age, occult science was the domain of little-known cranks who weren’t in the habit of writing things down, and when they were, everyone else was in the habit of throwing it in the garbage. Most occult history is pieced together through painstaking research, but sometimes we’ll find an actual magic tome.

As an occult historian, you can justify understanding and identifying ancient stuff well beyond what most students can achieve. If there’s something you don’t know, you probably know where to find out. You can also have a collection of (only partially redacted) history books and ancient tomes, in paper or on file.

If you want, some of these tomes can contain occult science rituals. Rituals derived from ancient tomes tend to be weirder than standard ones, in purpose or methods—you might need to carry odd reagents like rice, animal bones or guano to pull it off, but they can also do things that don’t quite seem like “science”.

Where these tomes are from and what they do is up to you. Try to be respectful about this: making up occult stuff based on ancient mythology is cool, but turning someone else’s culture into exotic magical fun times is something scientists have termed “pretty sketch”. Use your best judgement and you should be fine.

Newtype

Newtypes are born with psychic powers, like telepathy or electrokinesis. You only get one power, but you can do things with it that most sorcerers can’t without complex rituals or million-dollar occultech. The University is very interested in studying these powers, so they’ll take care of you.

The downside? Nobody understands why newtypes are born or how they work, so the government doesn’t trust you. You get more tests and medicals than other students, and they’re a little more invasive. If your powers are invasive or dangerous, you have to wear a badge and you’ll be in big trouble if you abuse them. You may be dependent on the University for power-suppressing pills. Finally, some newtypes manifest physical changes (like unusual ears, eyes, and so on) that can make hiding difficult.

The Five Rings

The Five Rings was formed by hip young Shinjuku sorcerers who wanted to be retro. It uses special symbols that compress complex occult equations and techniques into a few strokes, like an algorithm; by picturing these symbols in their heads, users can quick-cast Five Rings spells without an occultech app.

The style’s spells and algorithms are themed around the classical Japanese elements, and can do things that nothing else can. The downsides are a steep learning curve and the stress it puts on your mind—most users can only handle one or two Rings, and screwing up a ritual is physically and mentally draining.

Five Rings compression algorithms are at the cutting edge of occult science. The style is constantly being improved  and  refined,  but  each  advancement  brings  research  a  step  closer  to  being  reined  in  by  the government. It doesn’t help that the original creator, a reclusive genius known only as Banchou, seems to be actively avoiding the authorities.

The Five Rings is an example of a unique, self-contained occult style.

THE RINGS
Five Rings spells don’t all manipulate elements; the Rings are more about intent and state of mind than
anything else. You still get to shoot wind at people, though.

Earth: Earth manipulates rock and metal, hardens the body and steels the mind. A lot of the cool things
talented sorcerers can do involve magnetism.

Water: Water is useful for manipulating water (spoilers), creating ice, alchemy, aiding the body’s natural
healing processes, and being kicked out of the swim team.

Fire: Fire is useful for throwing around palm-sized fireballs, controlling heat, showing off, getting suspended
for setting off the fire alarm, and burning your food.

Wind: Wind is useful for defensive magic, gliding, and making your hair blow dramatically as you stare
pensively into the distance. Talented sorcerers can fly for short periods.

Void: Void is a bit of a cheat—it’s mostly a catch-all for stuff that doesn’t fit in the other Rings, and some
all-purpose spells and meditative techniques everyone knows. Some Void symbols could theoretically aid
with outer science.

Outer Science

This is the stuff in that you are guarding from others.   It’s the weird rituals in the back of the forbidden tome, the stuff the bad guys are doing to awaken the Ancient One, or what you find in that weird University lab you weren’t supposed to see. It’s the dark stuff that can shatter minds and destroy lives, even before it’s used. It is the worst.

Sometimes outer science falls into the hands of players. Usually, it’s something you’ll come across during the course of play—and may be forced to use to save the Academy, or at least yourself. Most students just know of it as some vague kind of super-science the University’s old geezers dabble in, and leave it at that.

Character Sheet

Code Select Expand


[float=right][img height=300 padding=2]http://<insert image>[/img][/float][b]Name:[/b]
[b]Student ID:[/b] OSXXX-XXXX
[b]Home:[/b]
[b]Age/Year:[/b] <Students should be Freshmen or Sophomore, Ages 18-20>
[b]Blood Type:[/b]
[b]Orientation:[/b]
[b]Likes:[/b] <Non-Sexual>
[b]Dislikes:[/b] <Non-Sexual>

[b]Character Concept:[/b] <3-5 words that describe your character.  You can expand on this in your background.>
[b]Area of Study:[/b] <Pick one of the Areas of Study>
[b]Type of Student:[/b] <3-5 words that describe the kind of student you are.  You can expand on this in your background.>
[b]Motivation:[/b]<3-5 words about what motivates your.  You can expand on this in your background.>

[b]Approaches[/b]
[i]Careful:[/i]
[i]Clever:[/i]
[i]Flashy:[/i]
[i]Forceful:[/i]
[i]Quick:[/i]
[i]Sneaky:[/i]

<Approaches are who you deal with things.  Are you flashy or careful or sneaky?  You get one approach at +3, two approaches at +2, two approaches at +1 and one approach at 0>

[b]Background:[/b]  <Three decent paragraphs is usually plenty>


[b]Character Ons:[/b]
[b]Character Offs:[/b]



Name: Juliette Whateley
Student ID: OS668-1B29
Home: Dunwich, Massachusetts
Age/Year: 22 / Senior
Blood Type: O-
Orientation: Pansexual
Likes: Ancient Latin, Anachronistic Clothing, Blues and Greens
Dislikes: Swimming, Sea Food, Dunwich-Whateley Students,

Character Concept: Sole Surviving Senior
Area of Study: Sorcery 101
Type of Student: Legacy of Dunwich-Whateley
Motivation: Train the Untrainable

Approaches
Careful: 0
Clever: +3
Flashy: +1
Forceful: +2
Quick: +1
Sneaky: +2

Background:  Juliette is the last of the Gamma Rho Lambda upper classman.  No one talks about what happened to the rest of the girls, especially Juliette.  What is known is that the Sorority President has strange nightmares that cause her to cry out in the middle of the night and sometimes speak in strange tongues.

Juliette knows it is her duty to get the next set of girls ready to defend the school against whatever mind blowing entity tries to plumb its secrets and endeavors to do so in her own awkward way.  She can come off as absent-minded from time to time, but there is terrible experience and wicked intelligence in her eyes that makes people wonder if she is as absent-minded as she lets on.

Juliette seems to vacillate between helpful and aloof.   She doles out strange information seemingly at random that later on turns out to be quite helpful.  Other times Juliette can become sullen and withdrawn and needs help pulling her out of whatever funk she has sunken into.  All in all Juliette comes off as generally sweet, if a bit of a klutz with moments of brilliant lucidity.

Character Ons: BDSM (Juliette is Dom, but terrible at it.  Her escapades usually end in some highly embarrassing predicament), Libraries, Nerdy girls, Frilly Things
Character Offs: Tentacles, Pushy People, Scat, Gore

Name: Charlotte Deirdre Ward
Student ID: OS800-9W16
Home: Arkham, Massachusetts
Age/Year: 19 / Sophomore
Blood Type: B+
Orientation: Lesbian
Likes: Occult Apps, Tattoos, Soy Mochaccinos, Tofu
Dislikes: Meat, Exercise, Wastefulness

Character Concept: Re-animator’s Daughter
Area of Study: Occult Historian
Type of Student: Actually Studies for Fun
Motivation: Forbidden Fruit is the Tastiest Kind

Approaches
Careful: +3
Clever: +2
Flashy: +1
Forceful: 0
Quick: +2
Sneaky: +1

Background:  Charlotte is the daughter of Charles Dexter Ward, noted doctor and reanimator who was recently released from the Arkham Insane Asylum and promptly snatched up by Miskatonic University for a Professorship.  Now that her dad is one some serious meds he really doesn’t seem like such a bad guy.  They both kind of went off the deep end when Charlotte’s mom died.  She hit the alcohol and drugs hard and he reanimated her mother’s corpse into a rage filled zombie.  They both had their issues, but it seems to be working out now.  Mom is at peace, dad has a good job and Charlotte was accepted into the Occult Studies department at Miskatonic U. 

Charlotte has become close with Juliette since pledging the sorority and has the bruises to show for it, but she seems to be able to keep the senior lucid and happy and it isn’t like Charlotte isn’t getting something for her troubles either.  Again it is a win/win!

Charlotte is a nerd.  She has put on the Freshmen 15 and spends much of her time in the school library.  When not at the library she is gaming or watching sci-fi re-runs on tv.  She would love to get a good look at the restricted section, but hasn’t been able to talk Juliette into taking her there just yet, but she has a plan that they both might enjoy.

Character Ons: BDSM (Charlotte is a submissive in the sack), Libraries, Anal, Toys
Character Offs: Gore, Scat

Threads

Accepted Characters
OOC
Gamma Rho Lambda House
Smut Thread
History Thread

[ElvenKitten]

*Pounces in*

[Crash]

Hi EK!

Added areas of study.

[ElvenKitten]

I'm definitely thinking Occultechnician and maybe dabbling in a little Outer Science or Alchemy.

[Crash]

I will have everyone pick one as the focus of there study, but you can dabble in others.  Outer Science has to be found or bargained for in game as it hardly ever results in good times. ;)

[Sally Aces]

Count me in two... thanks for the clarification on Outer Science. I was thinking of playing someone who was rescued by the sorority when she was about to be sacrificed by a Dark Cult. Her focus is now Occult History as she tries to figure out why the cult kept referring to her as the "Adjzadalac"

[Crash]

Sounds good Sally!

[ElvenKitten]

I'm drawing inspiration for my character from the Laundry files, able to stop transdimensional horrors with a tablet pc a conductive marker and a pizza box.

[Crash]

Not familiar with Laundry Files but I like where you are going.

[ShadowFox89]

I still have the tag in my sig from the first run through of this game!

Which brings the question... can I bring that character back?

[ElvenKitten]

I still have the tag in my sig from the first run through of this game!

Which brings the question... can I bring that character back?

It's a strange mix of computer nerds Lovecraftian horror and espionage. In one of the books the protagonist traps a soul eating parasite in a pizza box by drawing a pentagram on it using a conductive marker. Magic can be done with computers and the proper hardware (replace the sacrificed goat killed with a knife touched only by virgins with an industrial grade capacitor)

[Crash]

I still have the tag in my sig from the first run through of this game!

Which brings the question... can I bring that character back?

No, this should be different enough I want new characters.

[Crash]

It's a strange mix of computer nerds Lovecraftian horror and espionage. In one of the books the protagonist traps a soul eating parasite in a pizza box by drawing a pentagram on it using a conductive marker. Magic can be done with computers and the proper hardware (replace the sacrificed goat killed with a knife touched only by virgins with an industrial grade capacitor)

Sounds about right for an Occultechnician.

[Sally Aces]

Thanks for the thumbs up, Crash. I'll start working on my girl soon.

Quick questions:

• Will there be a common sheet for us to use?
• Are we all freshmen or can we be in any of the 4 years of college?

I was thinking of playing a Junior, possibly the Sorority's VP

I just saw the sheet in the world building thread https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=257803.msg12743683#msg12743683

[Crash]

Freshmen and Sophomore to start.

Yes that is the character sheet.  I want to get an example character up soon but you can start if you want.

[Sally Aces]

Thanks, I'll go with a sophmore then. To represent the training she got post rescue last year. Sound good?

[Crash]

Sounds good.

[Idlewyld]

Definitely considering this one.

[Crash]

Hey Idle how ya been?

[Idlewyld]

I've been doing well. How about you, Crash?

[Crash]

Not bad.  Getting over a cold and playing hookie with the kids so I can take them to the movies.  After I get back I will post a character sheet and an NPC or two.

[Crash]

Character sheet has been added for those that want to give this a go!  Go ahead and post characters here if you like as long as you PM them to me as well.

If your character has a secret or agenda you can leave that out if you post it here.

Added a bunch of NPC's here... https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=258039.msg12743763#msg12743763

[Crash]

Accepted Characters
OOC

[Crash]

We have our first accepted character and she looks lovely!

Welcome Sally!

[Sally Aces]

Awww, thanks, Crash. Happy to be aboard and looking forward to what's going to happen. Here's my character, Isabelle.

Quick question, Crash. Can an Occult History cast 'ancient' spells or does she need to take Sorcery 101 to learn spellcasting?

Also, I was wondering if Riley and Isabelle could have a 'thing' - probably started as Isabelle helped her with app-less occult science.