Persona: Secundum Vestri Umbra

[Hikari]

This is, for the moment, largely an interest check.  This would be a system game, albeit using a system quite different from any generally in use: firstly, it would be based primarily around the concepts that became central to the Persona series with the third installment, time management and the cultivation of Social Links; second, it would be particularly engineered to take advantage of, rather than suffer by, the peculiarities of play-by-post format.  Needless to say, this means the systemic aspects are going to have to be built from the ground-up, and while I don't intend for the system used to be especially complex, it still represents a considerable investiture of time.  I'd prefer to know someone will be interested before setting myself to such a task.

The idea, essentially, is very simple: everyone plays a Gekkoukan High student who has, at some point or another, 'awakened' to the reality of the Dark Hour and gained the ability to summon their Persona.  There is no 'main character'; like the supporting cast of the games, characters have a single card of the Major Arcana that represents them, and a single Persona buried in their subconscious.  However, the form of 'evolving' that Persona will be far more detailed, as the characters will be permitted to use Social Links to incorporate elements of other's Arcana into their own Persona, adapting and improving it gradually rather than waiting for a major traumatic event to spur a complete evolution...

To this end, the much-loved 'dating system' of Persona would, of course, be included and open to all players.  This factors directly into the time management aspect; a major part of the game will be the decisions characters make in who to hang out with, which relationships to cultivate and which to let lie fallow, and exactly how these interpersonal relationships help their own Persona to grow and change.  Players will be able to not only have their characters pursue relationships with non-player characters, but with other player characters as well, resulting in on-the-fly scenes between players.

Of course, as members of Gekkoukan High, the player characters will also have to juggle the trials and tribulations of teenage life not only with their growing network of friends and lovers, but also with their midnight excursions into a dark world of hungering shadows.  They will have 'social attributes'--things like Academics, Athletics, and Popularity--to develop and apply toward everything from being members of student council or sports teams, to succeeding on college entry exams and participating in extracurricular clubs.  How much time do they spend honing their Persona's skills inside the Dark Hour--or rather, how much can they afford to spend when they have a full day of school the next morning?  How many nights can they afford to spend dating--and cultivating the Social Links that will empower their Persona--when the next exam is right around the bend?  Who will they meet as a result of their choices to put their time into clubs and sports?  There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to how to best be a high school student-cum-hero, and half the fun is seeing where the journey takes you!

The story is quite simple, as it is set in Gekkoukan High but during the period of Persona 4; the main cast of Persona 3 have, for the most part, graduated and moved on, leaving the hallowed halls to a new generation.  Unfortunately, the threat of the Shadows has not vanished completely, and without SEES to spearhead the battle against the horrors of the Dark Hour, a new generation of Persona-users must find their own way through the darkness.  Of course, the threat of the Shadows looming on the horizon is almost secondary to the drama that is the day-to-day life of our plucky, hormonal, and no doubt altogether fucked-up teenage heroes.

How will it work?  Quite simply, really.  Every few days of real-world time will correspond to a certain amount of in-game time; posters can chime in at any point during each period to dictate their character's actions for it.  There will be certain events that take place outside the flow of 'restricted' time--such as when two player characters are on a date together, or certain particularly important forays into the Dark Hour--so that the scenes can fully develop without worry for a time limit, but for the most part the orderly procession of days will be as much a part of the game as it is the real world.  Players will allot activities to available timeslots in the main thread, reaping the rewards as appropriate, and when these actions synch up--when two characters are both doing the same thing, or decide to go on a date together--they'll open a mini-thread to play out the resulting scene outside the restricted time of the main thread.  However, time will march inexorably forward in the main thread, so even if a side-event stalls out due to a player being unable to participate, everyone will still be able to carry forward with the game as a whole.

Let me know if you're interested.  As an aside, I'm also looking to play in (rather than GM) D&D/adventure type games, Exalted, or Shadowrun 3rd Edition, if anyone's looking for players.

NOTE: The original game concept is on the back-burner for the moment.  See the last page for the game currently being recruited for.

[Empyrean]

I'd definitely be interested. :)

[ReijiTabibito]

I'm interested.  The Persona games (although 1, 3, and 4 are the only ones released over here) are some of my favorite RPGs.  I do have a few questions, though.

1 - Persona 4 takes place when in relation to 3?  Granted, at the end of the game, the seniors - Mitsuru and Akihiko - are graduating.  But I do seem to recall one of the Persona 3 characters making a cameo in 4.  Plus, Ken Amada is a middle schooler during P3.  So unless P4 took place at least 4 years after P3 (and that's assuming that Ken was a last-year middle schooler during P3), then he would be around at the very least.  I do have an idea about that, though - I'll PM you.

2 - I take it that we're allowed to pick our own Arcana, as well as what year student at Gekkoukan we are.  Yes?

[Creeper]

Also interested!

[Wolfy]

I'd be interested....o-o though I'm new to systems...

[ReijiTabibito]

From what I understand, though you'd have to ask Hikari about it, this isn't a *typical* system.  It's not one where you roll dice or draw cards or anything like that.  Basically, as I understand it, it goes like this.  Persona had the day divided up into time sections.  What Hikari is going to be doing is saying, OK, it's this time section, tell me what you're going to be doing.  And then we go from there.  I think.

[NotoriusBEN]

lady friend, you have just exploded my interest. I'd like to join in as well ^^.
*fingers crossed for Tanaka Home Shopping Network*

I havent played P3 so I couldnt give you an idea of timeline relations, but P4 takes place in Inaba, Japan from April to December 2011.

[ReijiTabibito]

It's PERSONA.  Persona without Tanaka is like a date with a hot girl without alcohol.

Okay...that means that P4 takes place about 2 years after P3.  So...most of the main cast would be gone, but Ken Amada would still be around, and maybe Aigis.


And it's Souji!

[NotoriusBEN]

So I can assume that our starter personas are going to be along the lines of:

Slime
Jack Frost
Pixie
Angel

until we get stronger? or am I getting ahead of myself at the moment?

[ReijiTabibito]

I don't think so.  Hikari said in the initial post that our characters were to be treated as the 'supporting cast' from the games.  You played P4, so we'd be like Yosuke, Chie, Rise, and the like.  We would essentially be limited to a single Arcana (probably not the Fool, since that's been the purview of the game MCs, and the Persona-switcher), and a single Persona.  However, we can learn skills and abilities from other Arcana by leveling up our Social Links with other Arcana.

Because of that, I am led to believe that A: we get to pick whichever Arcana we want, and B: whichever Persona we want, since we're all starting at the same place.

[Wolfy]

Hmm....I'm thinking I might want to play my character like Takaya, Jin, or Chidori..you know, Strega...but I'm not sure. o-o

[ReijiTabibito]

I don't know what Hikari would say about that...but the impression I got from her is that although we've awakened to Persona, we're also high school students.  Which would kinda put a hamper on doing things like Strega did in P3.

[Wolfy]

Well yes, but It wouldn't hamper taking the drugs to keep it under control. o-o.....and as he takes the drugs, his mind slowly erodes away...

And then it turns out he was the Big Bad all along. *gasp* Lol.

[NotoriusBEN]

well~ then, if we are like the supporting characters:

If I'm allowed to start picking, I'd like to pick the Chariot Arcana and have Siegfried from the epic poem Nibelungenlied as my Persona.
I'll mull over a character concept, later. Since Siegfried is such a hero, maybe I'll make the student be cowardly or a delinquent.

[Empyrean]

If we're allowed to pick now, I'd like to pick the Moon arcana, with the persona of Ame-no-Uzume from Shinto mythology. For an evolved version of Ame-no-Uzume I would go with a female version of Tsukiyomi-no-Mikoto. I'm thinking my character might be a bit of a dreamer herself, but I'll work on the idea some more.

Edited in light of Hikari's below statement.

[ReijiTabibito]

Everyone, please keep in mind that I am not Hikari.  At this point, I'm just another player in the game.  So I could very well be wrong about getting to pick.  I don't *think* that I am, considering that we're supposed to be able to make our own characters to our liking, and that the game does very well in linking the traits of its characters to the traits of their respective Arcana.  That being said, we should probably have Hikari define for us which Persona game - P3 or P4 - we would take our Persona from.  Or maybe both, I don't know.

If I had to pick my Arcana now, though...it'd probably be either Death or Temperance.  (I'd pick Judgment...but that might be going a little too far.)

[Creeper]

Strength here. Will probably play some loud asshole foreigner, who completely reinforces the stereotype of foreigners being loud, and, well, assholes.

[NotoriusBEN]

darn you creeper, you took the obligatory foreigner slot  :'(
maybe a second exchange student could be had... oh well, Im sure Hikari will like the post volume here when she comes back.

[ReijiTabibito]

@Creeper: You could play Strength...you could also play either Emperor, Star, or even Justice, depending on the method of assholery you're seeking.  Though, if Ken shows up, that'd be another Justice player.

[Hikari]

A few notes:

Yes, you will be limited to one Persona.  It doesn't have to be a 'known' Persona (one that actually appears as a usable Persona in the games); after all, the supporting characters from the games all have 'unique' Personae that the respective main characters are unable to obtain.  Thus, you can make up your own Persona entirely, if you like, or use a variation on an existing one.  There are no Persona that are specifically off-limits, though do bear in mind that just because you have a Persona that's traditionally very powerful in the games (Thanatos) that doesn't mean you're stronger than someone with a traditionally weaker Persona (like Fairy).

You will be able to select your own Arcana, and the Fool may be accessible as a choice, but will not enjoy the benefit of Persona-switching if so.  There can be more than one character with the same Arcana, but for the most part it will be encouraged for player characters to have a unique Arcana if one is available, and if not the preference will be for player characters to share an Arcana with an NPC rather than another PC.  Additionally, you will also be able to set certain starting parameters for your character, such as putting a few points in your social attributes (unlike poor Minatou, not everyone enters their junior year of high school not knowing a soccer ball from long division), and determining what your Social Link Requirements are for other PCs who try and date you.  (Essentially, you can determine that your character--like the characters in the game--requires a certain level of a given social attribute in order to begin/advance your Social Link.  There will, of course, be certain benefits to doing so.)

As for the timeframe of the setting, Ben is correct in that the basic setup is a few years after the events of Persona 3.  A few of the freshmen/pre-freshmen characters (Chihiro and Ken being the only ones that spring immediately to mind) from the game may still be loitering about, but SEES as an organization is effectively defunct, and given that the surviving members had no reason to believe the Shadows or Dark Hour remain, you most likely won't be seeing much of them.  (The Kirijo Group, after all, is also largely dismantled as a result of the game, and the SEES dormitory is no longer in operation.)  Player characters can be students of any year, but they must be students who are not currently expelled, as it directly relates to the time-management aspect of the game.  Unlike the ever-faithful main characters of the series, your character will have the option of delinquency (with attendant consequences), but you can't be a complete dropout, adult graduate, or pre-high school student.  The school is the hub around which the social aspect of the game revolves, after all.

As surmised, a large part of the game will be centered around 'periods' of each day and how you want to spend them in-character.  You'll probably end up with more 'periods' than a normal Persona day--which is often as abbreviated as 'afternoon' and 'evening' for all intents and purposes--but a lot of those periods will probably be spent in class for students who aren't trying to get on the truancy rolls!  There will also be a return to the nighttime excursion aspect of Dark Hour exploration with related fatigue, rather than the unlimited exploring of Persona 4.  (Sorry, no one's going into any TVs in Gekkoukan.)

The game will likely be listed on the higher end of the Exotic scale, but individual players will largely determine what 'level' of sexual content they want in their play; if you don't want to do more Exotic/Extreme scenes, simply avoid pursuing Social Links with the characters of players who are intent on doing so.  This should be a sufficiently self-policing method of allowing players of widely disparate tastes and comfort levels to play together without feeling they have to step outside their personal boundaries.

[Wolfy]

So, who would be playing the NPC social Link Characters?..You, Hikari?

[Schrödinger]

Actually, I am interested. I am also of the opinion that there are plenty of excellent gaming systems available already that could be used for this endeavour, so you may not even have to break your mind over the system to be used  :-)

First, for the character, would it be alright to play higher-grade students (third or fourth?) or even adults connected to Gekkoukan that have the awakened potential of Persona? I certainly can work with whatever angle, and I have several concepts I've been dying to try out since I've seen various Persona games trying to get off before they inevitably crashed and burned before the actual game was run due to RL issues or simple disinterest ( :-( ). Seriously, I'm aching for some system-based Persona game. I'm most interested in the Major Arcana's of Tower or Hanged Man, I could give some Jungian archetypes if you'd like for the characters that could easily go with them. Everyone else, also remember that the Persona series borrows really, really heavily from Carl Jung's psychology views. Think character arcetypes, the Collective Unconcious.

Second, the system. Hikari, are you at all familiar with d20 Mutants & Masterminds, or Atomic Sock Monkey's Prose Descriptive Qualities - PDQ? The former system has a few rules, but is easily learned if you even lack the smallest experience with D&D. PDQ is a very rules-light, user input-heavy game system that allows the game master to pick up on the player's actions and cues and continue the story from there with a flourish. Free system, as well, give it a look-over  :-)

EDIT: Oh, right! What Persona mythos do you want to see from our Persona's? Stick to the Dark Hour's Persona's based on Graeco-Roman myth, or with the Inaba heroes' Japanese folklore?

[Wolfy]

I'll take the Lovers Arcana.



...What, a guy can't be Manly with the lovers Arcana? D:

[NotoriusBEN]

@Schrodinger, Hikari said that we *must* be students attending Gekkoukan High that are not expelled from school. Gekkoukan is a major site from what I understand, and so if you are expelled, you'd lose large sections of time you'd use for Social Links.

With the personas, you can choose whoever from Paul Bunion to Fairy to Zues to Musashi to Black Frost. But they are going to be rather weak in the beginning.

[Schrödinger]

@Schrodinger, Hikari said that we *must* be students attending Gekkoukan High that are not expelled from school. Gekkoukan is a major site from what I understand, and so if you are expelled, you'd lose large sections of time you'd use for Social Links.

Totally missed that. Someone bludgeon me or something