Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, anyone?

[Rook Seidhr]

It's finally available for people who didn't back the Kickstarter—only in ePub format for now, but PDF and POD will be out later this year. So, I'm recruiting.

So what is Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, anyway?

It's an engine! Chuubo built it, and it grants him wishes! Often they don't work out so well….

It's also (to quote from TVTropes)

• …a tabletop role-playing game by Jenna Moran about growing up and finding your place in a miraculous world. It's geared mainly towards playing pastoral slice-of-life fantasy, à la Studio Ghibli movies, Adventure Time, or Friendship is Magic, although gameplay is flexible enough to cover a wide variety of genres and story styles, even to works as complicated as Homestuck or as symbolism-ridden as Revolutionary Girl Utena. While it has its origins in another of Jenna's games, Nobilis, and some of its tone comes from her Hitherby Dragons project, for the most part, Chuubo's is its own thing.

In fact, if you aren't scarred for life from reading TVTropes too much, you should probably read their page on the game. It's pretty accurate. Just don't spend the rest of your life clicking on links.

Anyway, I want to run a game of it here—specifically the Glass-Maker's Dragon campaign (the campaign book is not yet available to non-backers, but you won't need to read it). Most of the characters start out under 16 so it belongs firmly in the Non-Adult section. Looking for 3–6 players with good writing skills and patience; even if we post rapidly, the game itself is slow-paced, which can be difficult to get used to for players used to action-packed fantasy adventure. The mood in general is more like memories of a long summer years ago than it is like Pathfinder.

[Nadir]

This perks my interest *grin*

[Mnemaxa]

Sounds very similar to the Golden Sky Stories RPG, which is very nice.  You may also color me interested.

That's usually a pale cream color with large black swathes.

[Rook Seidhr]

That's usually a pale cream color with large black swathes.

My stepmother has a cat who's interested, then.

[Mnemaxa]

Cats are always interested, unless you're paying attention to them in which case they no longer care.

[Kythia]

I'm a huge Nobilis fan, so would like to give this a go if you'll have me.

[Rook Seidhr]

I don't want to make this first-come-first-served, but with three good writers interested already, this is definitely going to happen one way or another. Therefore, people may as well start thinking about their characters. This campaign uses a slate of eight pregenerated characters with a lot of room for customization. So come with me…

Come with me to a little town surrounded by the multicolored void. It sits in the middle of no true place, or nothingness, and it is circled by its sun. It is a peaceful town. It's sleepy. It's practically bucolic. It's not involved in the carnival of great dreams and bloody events that Creation so frequently becomes.

Come and be…

• The Wishing Boy, Chuubo, if you want
  
  
  • to make precious memories with your friends
  • to be central and important
  • to be a little laid-back, ordinary, and passive
  (or are you the girl variant, Shokyou, the Wishing Girl?)
• The Best Friend, Seizhi Schwan, if you want
  
  
  • to stress out a lot
  • to see the wishes in a person's heart
  • to have weird powers that practically ignore most defenses
  (or are you the girl variant, Suzy Schwan, instead?)
• Nightmares' Angel, Leonardo de Montreal, if you want
  
  
  • to be arrogant and morally ambiguous
  • to have a lot of back-story
  • to practice extraordinary Science!
  (or are you the girl variant, Dulcinea de Montreal, instead?)
• The Troublemaker, Rinley Yatskaya, if you want
  
  
  • to tell stories and be goofy
  • to talk to cats
  • to be a creature out of fable and tall tales
  (or are you the boy variant, Rinley Yatskiy, instead?)
• The Prodigy, Natalia Koutolika, if you want
  
  
  • to be emo, yet heroic
  • to have "mad skillz"
  • to be new in Town
  (or are you the boy variant, Antony Yurievich, instead?)
• The Child of the Sun, Jasper Irinka, if you want
  
  
  • to be a confused alien visitor to the human world
  • to be sweet and sunny
  • to have weird alien limbs and tendrils sometimes
  • to be at the center of a lot of drama and spiritual stuff
  (or are you the boy variant, Raven Irinka, instead?)
• The Angel of Fortitude, Entropy II, if you want
  
  
  • to be comparatively mature and established
  • to be freaky and scary
  • to be a sorrowful and numinous figure
  (or are you the girl variant, Attaris II, instead?)
• The Dream-Witch, Miramie Mesmer, if you want
  
  
  • to be a central figure in the campaign, but not the world
  • to run a little shop
  • to be extremely dangerous when provoked
  • to have taken over your life from someone else—someone evil
  (or are you the boy variant, Reynard Mesmer, instead?)

I would like it if someone played Chuubo/Shokyou. It's awkward to have the Wishing Child be an NPC.

List 2–3 choices in descending order, please.

[Kythia]

All as the female choice:

Dream Witch
Angel of Fortitude
Wishing Girl

[Mnemaxa]

Rinley Yatskaya, The Troublemaking Girl
Reynard Mesmer, the Dream Warlock
Suzy Schwan, the Best Girl Friend

[Rook Seidhr]

Well. Dim Hon's got problems, the other person who privately expressed interest hasn't shown up to post character choices, so…maybe this isn't happening after all. *sigh*

[Nadir]

I here! Don't despair, just had some things that took way too much attention.


My preferences are;

Child of the Sun (because tentacles)
The Wishing Boi
The Troublemaker

[Lady Mew]

The Trouble Maker
The Wish Girl
The Prodigy

The Wish Girl is tied first with the Troublemaker.

[Rook Seidhr]

And the results are… *drumroll*

Kythia: the Dream-Witch, female version
Mnemaxa: the Troublemaker, female version
Dim Hon: the Child of the Sun, genderqueer version I take it?
Lady Mew: the Wishing Girl

EDIT: A friend of mine is going to register here in order to play the Best Friend, male version.

I will PM everyone with the next step of chargen (it varies from character to character).

[Kythia]

Man, I feel like such a central figure in this campaign (but not the world).

Looking forwards to this, Riveda.  Thanks for running.

[Nadir]

Aw yiss, tentacles and drama. ^_^

And if it isn't too much hassle, I'd like my character to be gender neutral. If not, genderqueer works

[Rook Seidhr]

Aw yiss, tentacles and drama. ^_^

And if it isn't too much hassle, I'd like my character to be gender neutral. If not, genderqueer works

Gender-neutral is fine, as you are the child of the Angel of the Houses of the Sun and the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy, who is sometimes called Death, and were raised in the sky among bird-faced spirit people; with that background it's a little surprising you're humanoid at all. Don't obsess too much about the tentacles, though—you only have them when you're using certain powers.

You will need to pick a name that sounds just slightly odd. (The usual names, as mentioned previously, are Jasper for a girl, Raven for a boy. Mom was not clear on gender-conventional names anyway.)

[Nadir]

*grins* fabulous~ and Jasper is fine

[Kythia]

What IC pronouns do you want from us guys, Dim?

[Nadir]

Let's go with

zhi = she/he
zir = her/him
zirs = hers/his

but it's perfectly fine to use the gender Jasper appears to be to your character.

[Kythia]

Coolio.  I'll play it by ear a little then and hopefully you can shout at me and threaten me with all sorts of outlandish punishments should I get it wrong.

If you want to bring your tentacles into play in these punishments, BTW, then, well, I guess I can't stop you.

[Nadir]

*laughs*

[Rook Seidhr]

If you want to bring your tentacles into play in these punishments, BTW, then, well, I guess I can't stop you.

Non-Adult board. 15-year-old kids. Do not make me get all cross and foot-stompy. I will! I will stomp my foot at you!

Srsly, keep a lid on the naughty-tentacle jokes, please? I know it's not my job to be a moderator and stuff, it's actually Dim's and Dim's just laughing at it, but…for me. OK? It just makes me feel a little ooky.

[Kythia]

Non-Adult board. 15-year-old kids. Do not make me get all cross and foot-stompy. I will! I will stomp my foot at you!

Srsly, keep a lid on the naughty-tentacle jokes, please? I know it's not my job to be a moderator and stuff, it's actually Dim's and Dim's just laughing at it, but…for me. OK? It just makes me feel a little ooky.

Consider the naughty tentacle jokes be-lidded.  Lidified?  I dunno, whatever the past participle of the verb meaning "having a lid on" is. 

[Mnemaxa]

Topped. :P

[Mnemaxa]

Incidentally, in case anyone was wondering why the blood types are listed in the character sheets, it's effectively similar to the Western horoscope - a measure of your personality traits.   A simplistic breakdown for you:

[Rook Seidhr]

Also there is a character who can look at you and instantly know your academic skill, sports skill, favorite foods, blood type, etc.—those specific things at the top of your character sheet. Not that the knowledge is necessarily useful! But it's obvious to him.

[Nadir]

Incidentally, in case anyone was wondering why the blood types are listed in the character sheets, it's effectively similar to the Western horoscope - a measure of your personality traits.   A simplistic breakdown for you:

I always wondered about that. Thanks for the table ^_^

Also there is a character who can look at you and instantly know your academic skill, sports skill, favorite foods, blood type, etc.—those specific things at the top of your character sheet. Not that the knowledge is necessarily useful! But it's obvious to him.

Oooh, ominous

[Mnemaxa]

Oooh, ominous

Lucky Dim-kun, gets to see the OTHER side of my insanity for once.

[Rook Seidhr]

*digs through a blizzard of PMs*

OK, Mnemaxa and Kythia are done with character customization, Lady Mew is waiting on me and I'm waiting on Dim Hon. I think. Sing out if I've gotten that wrong.

Once everyone's finished character customization I will email you your playbooks as PDFs or somehow put them up for you to download. They're too long to cut-and-paste as PMs. Also I will post rules familiarization stuff to this thread, but if you want to get a jump on that you can buy the core book as an ePub (PDF and POD will be out later this year): http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128212/Chuubos-Marvelous-WishGranting-Engine--EOS7000-ePub-only

[Nadir]

I'll be replying tomorrow, just had some issues to take care of today and didn't get a chance to think character

[Rook Seidhr]

No problemo. Wasn't meaning to call you out, just checking whether I'd missed seeing one PM in thirty others

[Rook Seidhr]

Kythia has left E.

Sadness!

[Mnemaxa]

She'll be back someday, one hopes. 

[Rook Seidhr]

I apologize for bringing things to a standstill here, but I am dealing with Issues right now. Prep will resume when I am more functional.

[Mnemaxa]

Issues are acceptable delay.  Don't worry, I think we're patient enough.

[Rook Seidhr]

I have lost all enthusiasm for this project and I don't even know why. I wish I did; I could correct it, or at least avoid it in future. But I don't.

Very very sorry.

[Mnemaxa]

That's all right.  You've introduced me to a new game, and I'll be looking into playing it at home with friends at a later date. 

Or twisting into some nightmare version and dragging people into playing it with me here.

[Rook Seidhr]

Mnemaxa, based on how you got into character before character generation was even finished, I would like to say that your Rinley would have been made of pure awesome.

[Mnemaxa]

I do my best.  She'll be waiting for another opportunity...