Persona: The City of Lost Dreams (Interest Check)

[Florence]

I'm going to kick myself for starting an rp on here, but damnit, I can't fight this urge.

I know there's another Persona rp recently posted on here, but I have my own idea burning in my mind, so I suppose we'll see if they can co-exist.

Anyway, on to the idea!



"Hey, have you heard the rumor about the ghost train?"
"Oh please, Chiyo, don't tell me you buy into that sort of thing?"
"W-Well, of course not, but come on, its an interesting legend isn't it?"
"What? That a mysterious train shows up in the middle of the night and takes you away to the land of the dead? That's so cliche!"
"Well... I guess when you put it that way..."
"You're so lame... why are we friends again?"

So... for whatever reason it is, you were talked into trying out a stupid urban legend with some other kids from school. Its not like its really true, after all, right? So you've all come to the train station just before midnight. The legend goes that at the stroke of midnight, a ghost train will arrive at the station, and any who board it will be transported to the land of the dead. Silly rumors like this crop up all the time, so its not like there's anything to worry about.

Of course, something feels... different this time... and there was that dream you had last night... how weird was that dream? That strange man... What was it that he said again?

"Hello, it is a pleasure to meet you. It seems you are about to embark on a strange new journey. The road ahead of you seems as though it will be full of trial and tribulation. Unfortunately, there is not much I can do for you now, but we will meet again soon, once you have awakened to your true self. For now, though, all I can do is wish you luck. My name is Igor, and I look forward to our next meeting..."

Eh, it was probably just nerves... nothing to worry about.



Okay, to sum up the gist of it, the rp will be set in both a normal Japanese town (exact details have yet to be worked out, but I'm thinking a smaller town like Inaba from P4, though I might do a larger city, or even just set it in Tokyo), as well as... well, I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say you'll have your monsters to fight.

I'll be basing it mostly off of Persona 3 and 4, but I may also take some concepts from Persona 2: Innocent Sin... since I love it. I want it to be Persona in more than just 'high school students beat up monsters by summoning mythological beings'. I want each character to have some dark secret or hidden flaw that they have to come to terms with over the course of the story. Also, if I can figure out how to work it, I'd like the characters relationships to have an effect on things. Also note that characters will NOT have access to their Persona immediately, I want it to be more like Persona 4, where characters need to face a challenge to unlock their Persona.

Edit: Also, for Persona... basically, I would prefer people avoid major Persona from previous Persona games (Orpheus, Izanagi, Thanatos, etc.) but basically as long as its either from the Persona games, or a mythological/folklore creature, I'm willing to consider it.

I'm not entirely sure how many players to shoot for, but I'm thinking somewhere in the area of 6-8, though I may accept more than that if I can get a co-GM or two to work with me on things.

This isn't a completely formed story, yet, as I want to keep it true to Persona, by working the characters relationships and faults into the plot. I'll be up for suggestions on just how to handle this on a character-by-character basis.

While this is an interest check, I'll toss up a little character sheet to help you all come up with basic character outlines. Note that I may set up a more detailed character sheet if this garners enough interest.



Don't list any of their dark secrets or anything that shouldn't be public knowledge on this sheet if you plan to post it onto the thread, I'll work those out with players in PMs privately once I've seen how much interest this gets.

Code Select Expand

[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]

[b]Appearance:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b]

[b]Weapon:[/b]

[b]Persona:[/b]



Anyway. There you have it. Interest check, goooooo...

[Empyrean]

I'll express interest. :)

[Florence]

Woohoo! Interest! Lemme know if you have any questions! :>

[MelisaArtemis]

Interested. played a Persona RP before though unfortunately it had died soon after I joined... *Go figure....* I have 1 question though: Is it possible to have an original persona? As in... not exactly an existing mythological figure, just an OC.

[Florence]

Interested. played a Persona RP before though unfortunately it had died soon after I joined... *Go figure....* I have 1 question though: Is it possible to have an original persona? As in... not exactly an existing mythological figure, just an OC.

I'll handle those on a case-by-case basis, so if you run your idea by me I'll see if I think it fits.

[MelisaArtemis]

well... I can give you the link to my character from the old persona game I was at, that should speed things up since I am considering to make pretty much the exact same character as that 1. Should I PM you with it or just put the link here?

[Florence]

well... I can give you the link to my character from the old persona game I was at, that should speed things up since I am considering to make pretty much the exact same character as that 1. Should I PM you with it or just put the link here?

Whichever you're more comfortable with, honestly.

[MelisaArtemis]

well, pretty much something like this: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=124200.msg5482087#msg5482087

[Florence]

I'll mull it over, though is there any more mythologically grounded persona you would consider if it doesn't work out?

[MelisaArtemis]

I do, actually. A certain favorite goddess of mine from Greek Mythology.

[Florence]

I think I might be more in favor of that, honestly.

I probably won't be accepting many, if any, original persona, though I'm not going to outright ban the idea.

I just want to keep it with that classic Persona feel of mythology and all that.

I may allow some original ones, but I just wanna be clear up front that I'll be pretty strict about any I let in.

[Florence]

Just thought I'd make a separate post to list a few details I've decided upon.

The Persona usage and combat will be based on how its done in Persona 4 the Animation. If you haven't seen it... watch it now. Seriously.

But anyway, if you haven't seen it, essentially, you summon your persona and stays out, rather than just coming out to cast a spell or something. The characters also feel the damage their persona takes in battle. To make character weapons not completely useless, I'm going to say that having your persona out slowly drains your stamina, so you can only keep it out for so long before you're worn out.

Additionally, as the player characters are civilians and not a part of SEES or any such organization, they will not use evokers like in Persona 3, unless you can explain how your character has one and why. As much as I love the gun-to-head method of summoning, it just doesn't make sense for random students to have them. I think it'll be more like card-based summoning from Persona 4.

Also, unless you can provide a very compelling case as to why I should make an exception for your character, I will not be allowing Wild Cards for obvious balancing reasons.

[Empyrean]

Do we each pick a Tarot our character is associated with?

[Florence]

I've been considering that, but I'm not 100%

I guess I'll see what everyone else wants, because I don't feel terribly strongly about it either way.

[MelisaArtemis]

well, if we can pick which tarot represent ourselves, I'll pick The High Priestess for sure, The Star would be my second choice.

[Florence]

Well, I'd probably ask they retain the Arcana from the games if they're from the games, provided they've had a relatively consistent arcana. For instance, I would still have Angel be Justice.

Ame-no-Uzume would probably best be Priestess, since that was her arcana in P1 and her only other appearance in Persona has been in P4 Golden under the Aeon arcana.

[MelisaArtemis]

Well, there isn't exactly a certain condition for The High Priestess Arcana persona. If any, its that most of the high priestess personas female deities (I don't think there's any male persona in that arcana). The goddess I'm thinking of as my character's persona is Artemis/Diana from the Greek mythology. I just want to pick something original, I don't really like re-using existing ones.

[Empyrean]

I agree with Melisa. I'd like to pick something original as well if possible.

[Florence]

If you mean totally original persona not based on mythology, I've already said I'll consider those, but am likely going to be pretty strict.

If you're using one based on mythology that weren't in the games, that's fine and you can put them in any arcana you want, though if there's one I think they'll fit more in I may suggest you change the arcana just out of personal preference, but I'm willing to work with you on that front. For instance if your persona is a type of angel or something like that, I'll probably suggest the Justice arcana, as that's where Angel, Archangel, Principality, Power, Virtue, Dominion and Uriel are in P3 and P4.

If you're using one already in the game, I'd PREFER if they have an arcana they've held in a previous Persona game, but I'm willing to hear out arcana changes, ESPECIALLY if their appearances had them in the Aeon arcana of P4 Golden, or if their last appearance was in P1 or P2, as the design, arcana and stats of various Persona changed pretty noticeably between P2 and P3.



In addition, I'd like to ask you guys a question. This seems to be taking a little slowly to build up interest. Any suggestions for things I might do to make people more interested in it? I have to believe there are more Persona fans on E than this.

[MelisaArtemis]

well, its probably mostly because you hasn't got the primary setting yet. You got the basic background and the character sheet but thats it, people tend to look for more in-depth information before going in. Like... where the RP background is exactly (Just saying "Japan" is not good enough. If you make an original city, explain the city in depth. Even if you don't use original city but the one in the original game "Inaba" its still better to give a little detail on it, just a general knowledge).

You also need to tell WHEN this exactly happen? Is it after P4? Or is it another timeline entirely? What year is this happening? what kind of technology are we looking for here? Same as current technology age or a little bit more futuristic or even something hundreds of years in the future with flying cars and all?

Lastly, the story, this is probably the most important thing to attract people: What is exactly the story of this RP and what direction are you looking for with how this RP goes? Persona series tend to deal with disappearing people but there are always different things about it. The Ooening rumor is good and all but it pretty much tells us nothing about what is going on.

[Florence]

Hmm, all very good points. Honestly, I was planning on working on all that out and addressing it in a proper recruitment thread, since this is basically just an interest check, ya know, to see if people are interested enough to make it worth the effort of hammering out all those details, though I might just re-do the first post to add more detail here.

To sum up some of the answers though. It takes place in the modern day... well, maybe a few years in the future. Persona games have a tendency of taking place a year or two after their release date. For example, the trailers for Persona 4 the Animation were released on certain days that events took place in the original game, as the game actually took place during that year, rather than the year it had been released. Regardless, the technology will be modern technology, just as it had been in previous Persona. (With perhaps a little sci-fi sprinkled about, but... any sci-fi technology would not be anything the players would be aware of at the start.)

I didn't think it was entirely important to list the date as each of the Persona games are fairly stand alone. Even Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment can be played independently of eachother. (Though obviously, you'll get more of the complete story if you play them both in order.)

More or less, the events of this rp will have almost nothing to do with the events of Persona 1-4, apart from thematic and stylistic similarities; just like the plot of P4 had nothing to do with the plot of P3.

I don't really want to give too much away of the plot either, as Persona games have always had a strong sense of mystery. I suppose the best way to put it is... There's a rumor that there's a ghost train that will take you to the land of the dead, that only appears at midnight. I guess its not much of a spoiler to point out that... yes, the rumor turns out to be (mostly) true. I mean, this is a Persona game, and there wouldn't be much plot if they went to the station, nothing happened, and they all went home and had a good night's sleep. The main characters go off to the station for one reason or another. They could all be a group of friends, or all showed up independently due to some mass-challenge or dare put up. We can work out the hows and whys when we have players.

Some people in the area have gone missing, and of course the rumors say they got on the train and were carried off to the land of the dead and trapped their for eternity... you know how students spread silly rumors like that. Apart from that... I'd really rather let the players enjoy unraveling the mysteries themselves, then just handing them the script in advance. I mean... there will be monsters, you have persona, you smash the monsters... classic Persona stuff.

As for the direction, well, I have a rough outline, but narrowing it down too much before I even know the characters is just a recipe for disaster. To sum it up, there will be the usual duality seen in P3 and P4. As in, there will be the run around and smash monsters and try to solve the mystery segments, and then the parts where they go home and socialize. I'll likely provide NPCs to serve as sort of... 'social links', though not being wild cards, the characters won't exactly unlock new persona or anything. And of course, the player characters can also interact with eachother. I would also be interested in finding someone else to play the NPCs that I'm not able to or... perhaps the type that I'm not especially good at.

Really, other than that, I'm willing to let the players determine how they want to go about solving this mystery, and I have a number of ideas depending on what route they chose to take.

Addressing the city... I was hoping I'd be able to attract a co-GM to help me with building the city, but I can do it myself if I have to. The structure of it, will essentially consist of a number of key locations (which may each have their own thread, or be condensed into a single thread, depending on how many players we get) which can be thought of as sort of the main map from P3. I figure there will be a school, a mall, some little misc locations like a shrine and whatnot, and a residential area where the player characters live.

I'm mulling over how to handle transitioning time... with a few ideas, that I could once again use a co-GM to bounce them off of... but if not, I'll figure it out. I'm thinking of dividing it into 3 sections. Before School, During School and After School, with weekends and holidays just being one section. I'd either have the players say in OOC what their characters would do during the next time period and set up a scene for them and control when it moves on, which would restrict freedom a little, but allow things to keep more neat and orderly, or I could simply let players do scenes on their own, and move on to the next section when all scenes have wrapped up... which allows more freedom, but could get things messy quick. There may be a middle-ground option, letting people rp on their own, and telling them to wrap things up when its time to switch to the next section.

Or I could drop the whole time management concept if its too much of a mess, and just let characters proceed as things go, with time just sort of progressing as the plot demands. It might lose some of the Persona feel, but may be the best way to avoid a jumbled mess.

[Florence]

Alright, well... this flatlined, I'm calling time of death.

I might do a system game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten if that can get ANY interest... though I've never run a system game before so... not sure how that'd go :I