Interest check: Persona freeform RP

Started by Rayve13, December 07, 2008, 07:03:26 PM

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Rayve13

I've been playing Persona 3 for the second time in preparation for Persona 4 releasing this coming week (no way I'm even going to have started "The Answer" by then; glad the stories are mostly unconnected!), and have found a desire to RP in that world.

For those not familiar with the Persona game series, it's tough to explain. Basically, people are fighting demons and harnessing the power of aspects of their psyche (manifested in Jungian archetypes) to perform magic. That's a really short version, and doesn't do the thing justice, but it's something.

Right now I just want to see who's interested. I'm not sure I'm up to running something, but I have some ideas (centered around the Russian mafia, since I like Russian myth/folk characters) that I'd at least share with someone interested in running things, or make an effort to run myself.

Any takers?

Mnemaxa

While I'm not familiar with Persona per se, I am familiar with the concept and most anime (i was an anime addict before most people in the states knew what it was beyond 'robotech') so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out how to portray such a thing.  So, one interested person, at least.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Arlyn

I've been interested in this for a while, my one x one thread actually has a suggested SMT-style setting for something I'm looking for in an RP.  Make that two interested people.

MadPanda

I know nothing of the game in question, but Interested Panda is Interested...  :)
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
Group Game Suggestion Box
Pandariffic Ons and Otherwise
In Memory of Bishrook

Rayve13

Hurray for interest, even if no one is jumping up to run it instead of me  :P

Hopefully we'll get a couple more, but those of you who are interested should start looking into what the game was about. It's an inspired-by scenario, not following the game's story arc. For characters, think junior college age level. I'll get into more detail in a bit, partially as I flesh out the idea in my head.

MadPanda

Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
Group Game Suggestion Box
Pandariffic Ons and Otherwise
In Memory of Bishrook

Rayve13

That would help, wouldn't it? Sorry, new at the concept of starting/running things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei:_Persona_3


The wiki page will give some basic info on the plot,

http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Persona_3


Knowing about the MegaTen (Shin Megami Tensei) series, of which Persona is a spinoff, can't hurt either. The above link is for a megaten wiki, starting on the Persona 3 page. Feel free to browse around there as well, getting a feel for the world.

MadPanda

Arigato!
I'll see what I can cook up, should the Cub leave me any free processing cycles tonight.
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
Group Game Suggestion Box
Pandariffic Ons and Otherwise
In Memory of Bishrook

Rayve13

For those considering character concepts, you'll want to figure out a starting Persona. Remember, personas are representations of your character's personality, so they should reflect that. They assume the forms of mythological creatures, gods, goddesses, and folk heroes, so if you have any background in mythology, that would help. If not, let me know, and I'll try to suggest.

Mnemaxa

While I'm not very familiar with the Russian Mafia or it's setups, I am familiar with the ideas in the game world.  So, some questions:

What sort of scenarios would you like to see in this game?  What limits/nonlimits on situations and inter-personal/party relations are you expecting/wanting to see/interested in occurring?  will the night Hour be in existence, or will the enemy be something more human in nature (though Persona users vrs. Persona users could be interesting...)?  If you can give me some ideas on what you want to see, and what everyone else would like to see happen, I might be willing to co-run this.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Rayve13

Short answers, because my son needs to be put to bed:

1. Yes, there will be dark hour, and some Shadows to fight, but it will not be limited to a single location like most of P3.
2. The shadows will as often be transformed humans (as indicated in P3: FES happened to some of the test subjects; they became Shadows rather than gaining Personas)
3. Relationships would be primarily inter-party, but I'm not planning on too many limits. I'll go with the flow.
4. The main enemies will be other Persona users, leaders in the Mafia harnessing this unexpected power source, with a little guidance from an old enemy (from a different MegaTen game).

Back later to provide more as needed.

Mnemaxa

Sounds like a plan.  I'll see if I can help, certainly.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

MadPanda

I think I'm getting the hang of the setting, but you may need to bear with me from time to time...  :P
Voluptas ailuri fulgentis decretum est!
Omnis nimis, temperantia ob coenobitae.
(Jes, tiuj frazoj estas malĝustaj. Pandoj fakte ne komprenas la latinan!)

One on Ones Suggestion Box
Group Game Suggestion Box
Pandariffic Ons and Otherwise
In Memory of Bishrook

Rayve13

One more note: you need to choose one ancient weapon to use. Try to make it fit with your character (for example, Junpei Iroi uses a 2-handed sword, but he uses it like a baseball bat, since he has no training). They have to be ancient weapons, because modern stuff doesn't work during the Dark Hour.

Arlyn

#14
Have you thought about basing it as something more like Persona 4, because that's kinda what this sounds like, I have to admit.

Also, are we looking for the "Wild Card" factor for everyone, or something more along the line of Ascension Personas (with a basic, weaker form which evolves to an advanced and much more powerful form)?  That could be useful in figuring out which Personas we want.  Personally, if we go with the P3 Tarot Tier system, I would favor a three-Persona-evolution type of thing.  Then again, I'm familiar with a number of the SMT games, some of which have evolving Personas/Demons.

Mnemaxa

#15


Yukino Taiga
Age 20, Sophomore
Persona:  Yamato no Orochi (Destruction: the Tower)
Magic Types:  Lightning and Poison
Weapon:  8' chain
Yukino Taiga was the boy your mother warned you about, the one who rides a dangerous motorcycle, smoked in high school, and skipped classes all the time. 

Unfortunately, Yukino was also a girl.

Needless to say, the tomboy was both picked on and respected in her younger years, depending on who you spoke to.  she was not a bad student, surprisingly; she had consistently good grades, though her homework was often undone.  Bright and rebellious, she disliked her mother and father's high society friends, and would often take long walks or even rides while their entertaining was going on.  It didn't help that her parent's friend's children of the same age were just as stuck up, snobbish, and generally irritating as her parents were.   Her first experience with the Shadows came when she was attacked during a strange time that no one but her seemed to remember.  She managed to bludgeon the Shadow into nonexistence by grabbing a pipe and beating it to pieces.  When the body faded as Dark Hour ended she collapsed in a faint.

Waking up in a hospital, she discovered that she was not the only person to have seen or fought such things.  However, unlike most every other person who was able to stay 'awake' during the dark Hour, she refused to be trained, refused to become involved, and refused to have anything to do with the weird happenings of the Dark Hour or any shady government group.  At least, so she claimed.  Despite her lack of cooperation, when she was released, she studied whatever she could hack, steal, or bribe out of the hands of people who knew about the Shadows and Dark Hour.  Thereafter, every Dark Hour, she stalks the frozen world, exploring and hunting Shadows.  When she saw people, other human people fighting Shadows through use of the Evokers and their Personas, she began struggling to discover her own Persona.  It only led to disappointment and frustration.

Only when she 'accidentally' discovered an Evoker lost by someone in a terrible fight was she able to summon her Persona....and it fought.  It raged and hated and ravened.  It tried every way possible to escape her but she mastered it, being stronger, more angry, more enraged....just as the agent who had left the Evoker there after it's owner's death had expected.  The half-dozen Shadows that had killed the weapon's previous owner had not left the area, but when they arrived, Yukino was there...along with the terrifying black dragon Yamato no Orochi, the Persona linked to the tarot card of destruction - The Tower.  They did not last long, and an exhausted, gratified Yukino returned to the real world pleased with her successes. 

Thereafter, whenever or wherever the Dark Hour occurred, Yukino would show up, a wild card among the organizations as they battled the alien monstrosities.  She would help them, then run off as quickly and quietly as she arrived.  As she moved on with her life, she changed very little, the renegade scholar who causes disruptions in class, learns well, and yet charms the people she's around.  but underneath, she is an angry, angry young woman struggling to find a purpose, a reason, and above all, a family that she can love.

Persona:  Yamato no Orochi is the dragon of legend that the Japanese God Susano-Oh fought to free Japan of its evil influence and win back the favor of Amaterasu the Sun Goddess.  He appears now as a towering black dragon, seething with white flames at the edges of his scales and glaring at all though eyes of green flame; his breath is lighting, and his claws are poisonous.  He rages still at his defeat at the hands of Susano-Oh, and only greater rage than his own constrains him.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Rayve13

Quote from: Arlyn on December 12, 2008, 12:30:20 AM
Have you thought about basing it as something more like Persona 4, because that's kinda what this sounds like, I have to admit.

Also, are we looking for the "Wild Card" factor for everyone, or something more along the line of Ascension Personas (with a basic, weaker form which evolves to an advanced and much more powerful form)?  That could be useful in figuring out which Personas we want.  Personally, if we go with the P3 Tarot Tier system, I would favor a three-Persona-evolution type of thing.  Then again, I'm familiar with a number of the SMT games, some of which have evolving Personas/Demons.

I've only just started Persona 4, and I'm avoiding spoilers like a plague, so I can't base too much on that  ;D

As for Persona's, I'm leaning at the Ascension style, with 2 tiers. However, I'm not opposed to three tiers, as long as it's not the total openness of wild cards. Ideally, I envisioned starting with hero or minor mythic being types and advancing towards myth-god personas, but I'm not married to that idea.

Rayve13

Mnemaxa: the concept looks good, just may need a couple of small tweaks, as I'm not planning on using SEES in the form it took in the game. My basic thought is some other groups have gained access to the place the Shadows come from, and are attempting to harness them.

But other than that, it works for me!

Also, don't feel bound at all the the Personas in any of the games. Not sure if that's where you grabbed Orochi (he's been around in them, though not in that form), but I'm open to most anything.

Elohim

I might be interested,  though a bit more about the setting might be nice.

Mnemaxa

Quote from: Rayve13 on December 12, 2008, 02:33:46 PM
Mnemaxa: the concept looks good, just may need a couple of small tweaks, as I'm not planning on using SEES in the form it took in the game. My basic thought is some other groups have gained access to the place the Shadows come from, and are attempting to harness them.

But other than that, it works for me!

Also, don't feel bound at all the the Personas in any of the games. Not sure if that's where you grabbed Orochi (he's been around in them, though not in that form), but I'm open to most anything.

I actually took him from Japanese legend, and will eventually combine it with a manga called Horobi in a final form. But it was a generalized concept, to see if it was acceptable and would make a good template of sorts for other unfamiliar with the series as well.  I'll tweak it a bit, as you suggested, and then we can hope for others popping up.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Krule

Hmm.. this has caught my interest... I have played several of the persona games, so thought I'd drop in and say hello.

Rayve13

Alright, let me lay out what I have so far in regards to concept, and feel free to suggest. This will include some background material which those familiar with the Persona and MegaTen games will already know, but it bears repeating. Some is an interpretation of the MegaTen cosmology that may not be exactly cannon, but doesn't deviate horribly, so, again, tolerate if you can  ;D.

Backstory: Mankind is not alone in the universe. Beside our world, there is a different place, where the Shadows live. Their world intersects with our on occasion, at certain places and certain times. Some of these have been accidental, others deliberate. The worst of these deliberate crossovers was engineered by the Kirijo Corporation, a large corporation with a dark hidden agenda: the end of the world. Fortunately for the world, a lab accident prevented them from releasing a massive Shadow called Nyx into the world in its true form. Instead, the monster was fragmented, and the world changed. The essence of Nyx created a linkage between our world and that of the Shadows, giving the Shadows limited access to our world at midnight each night, the Dark Hour. At that time, time as we know it stopped, and the Shadows walked while we slept, transformed into coffins.

But there were those who were active during the Dark Hour. Many were simply victims, who were preyed on by the Shadows and left as hollow, emotionless shells suffering from what the media called "Apathy Syndrome". But others gained the ability to unleash parts of their psyche and use those aspects of themselves to perform amazing feats. Some gained this power naturally, while others gained it by experiments performed by the Kirijo Group, some of which still wanted to end the world. The main body of the group, however, sought to end what the previous generation had created. The daughter of the current head of the company, himself the son of the CEO who wanted to end the world, ended up gathering a team of empowered teens from her school, which was itself built on hte site where Nyx originally entered this world. This group, dubbed SEES, the "Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad," eventually was able to unwittingly reform, than defeat, Nyx and end the Dark Hour forever ten years after it came into being.

Or so it was thought....

Fifteen years have passed, and the Dark Hour has returned. Rogue elements of the Kirijo group, along with a mysterious outsider who calls himself Rasputin, have reopened the door to the world of the Shadows. They have found the old research, and set up shop in a new place. And with this new place has come new ideas. This new group does not seem to want to end the world. So far, they seem to want money and power, and have used the Shadows to get them. They have learned the lessons of the past as well. The last time the Shadows walked, they were mostly limited to the accident site, which turned into a massive tower called Tarturus during the Dark Hour. And so, rather than rely on the monsters themselves, they have fused them to footsoldiers, creating monsters that can walk the land during the Dark Hour. They also have generals, humans who have gained access to their Persona through dark experiments in order to serve their master. This new organization, calling itself Bogatyr, is still relatively small, but it is gaining power, and it clearly has evil intentions.

Mitsuru Kirijo, now unable to go into battle herself, has found a new generation of young heroes, heroes who have only recently themselves awakened to the power they hold and the truth of night. She has provided resources for them to use, and now prepares to send them into battle to once again drive back the darkness.

The practical part:
- The characters in this game are college students, so the age range is quite broad. The game focused on high schoolers, but I'm going a bit older for assorted reasons.
- The focus is going to be on stopping Bogatyr from doing whatever it wants to do; not as much focus will be placed on the social aspects of the world beyond the team.
- Each player needs to choose a primary weapon type for their character. This needs to be an ancient-style weapon, as modern weapons like guns do not work during the Dark Hour. Modern versions of old-fashioned weapons are fine (a modern knife works as well as an ancient one). Think nothing more advanced than a crossbow.
- Each player will also need to choose a starting Persona, and should ahve an idea at least for how they want it to evolve:
1. Persona generally appear as myth and folktale characters. They can be gods, monsters, fairies, angels, demons, heroes, or villains. In reality, they are simply representations of parts of the character's psyche. For example, someone who feels they are very wise may have a persona like Thoth, a god of wisdom.
2. Persona allow the character to use magic. The magic effects available (in general terms) are:
   a. Fire
   b. Ice
   c. Wind
   d. Lightning
   e. Earth/Rock
   f. Status effects (poison, charm, confuse, frighten, paralyze)
   g. Healing
   h. buff/debuff
   i. Physical attacks
  Persona typically are focused on two areas, usually an elemental-type and something else (healing, status, physical, etc.). Persona effects are limited in their use, so don't expect to constantly use magic. Persona are invoked by using an Evoker, a gun-like item (it can't be used as a weapon, sorry!) that frees the Persona to perform an effect. The Persona can change as a result of major events in the character's life (i.e.: The death of a friend, learning an important truth, etc.), evolving into a more powerful form. This new form is typically in the same pantheon as the original (i.e. Someone with a Greek titan as a persona would still have a Greek persona when it evolved, but it may be a god instead of a titan). The change typically allows the character access to more powerful versions of existing spells, and sometimes a new type of ability as well (i.e.: access to healing spells).
- I have not thought much about sexual content. I expect some, but I'm happy to take suggestions as to what people want in that regard.

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking right now. I worry that this will be difficult without a system, or that it will generally be difficult to run, but I'm still willing to give it a go. Let me know what you think, or any questions.

Mnemaxa

Seems very straightforward to me; I think it could be done freeform, really.  I do have a question - when a Persona is formed, it does it's magical attacks, then fades, yes?  Or does it sort of 'follow' or shadow the person who summoned it, sort of 'looking over their shoulder' so to speak?  this is where not playing the games leaves me at a disadvantage.

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.

Rayve13

It fades out after the action until the next time it is summoned. The basic pattern is:

- User decides to use Persona
- User draws Evoker and applies to head (remember, the Evoker is basically a gun, so you get to shoot yourself in the head in a non-fatal way  ;D)
- Persona emerges either behind (typically very large Persona, like dragons or giants) or in front (large human size or smaller) of the user and acts.
- Persona fades away.

Mnemaxa

Thank you.  That is what I suspected (my SO is very fond of Final Fantasy and the later versions use a mechanic similar).

The Well of my Dreams is Poisoned; I draw off the Poison, which becomes the Ink of my Authorship, the Paint upon my Brush.