Magical Teacher Professor Landry! - Sign-Ups

[Teal Mage]

Well, after a long time spent in selection and preparation, the game is almost ready to begin! All that's left to survive is seven pages of information, and design a character in a (moderately) complicated system!

Scared yet? You probably should be. So, without further adieu~!

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Welcome to Magical Teacher Professor Landry! In this game, players will be students attending the prestigious Amaranth Institute for the Gifted. Assigned to the loving care of Professor Rebecca Landry, players will quickly find that any stories about the woman are far from exaggerations; crazy things really do follow the mysterious auburn haired Professor of Love and Fightiology.

You might even be one of them.

But we'll get back to you in a bit. Firstly, we let's look at some setting information.

Setting, In a nutshell, Magical Teacher Professor Landry takes place on Earth, with magic. The earth is mainly populated by humans, but other races – basically anything that has ever existed in myth – is probably real. However, most creatures of myth prefer keep a low profile in an effort to blend into human society, or take an isolationist approach and remove themselves entirely. Consequently, the average human would scoff at the idea that vampires or werewolves exist; which serves the vampires just fine. This ignorance isn't limited to humans either, just because you might be a werewolf doesn't mean you believe in ninja and fairies. Some things really are just stories.

Otherwise, the world's pretty much the same as the one you live in now.

Ansidor, located ambiguously in North America, Ansidor is a bustling city that's best known for its beautiful scenery, mild weather, and the prestigious Amaranth Institute for the Gifted, or Amaranth High. Built in a hilly area not far from the ocean and within walking distance of a variety of old-growth forests, the city is a common tourist destination, even if it does rain a lot. Players might be residents of the city itself, or students from abroad staying in one of the academy's dorms.

It's a very pretty city!

But players will probably be spending most of their time in:

Amaranth Institute for the Gifted, a private high school dedicated to the pursuit of excellence through experimental methods of education. Amaranth High's campus is a spawning collection of stone buildings, well kept gardens, fountains, shallow streams and decorative bridges, seemingly designed more as a high class resort than a school. Along with a reputation for turning out highly skilled students, the Institute is also famous for its exceedingly wide variety of extra curricular clubs; the majority of which have state of the art facilities. As a rule, every student is required to join at least one.

But otherwise, it's just a normal school.

That's the basics of the setting. Now, getting back to you!

Players, may be human or non-human, but either way will need to look human. Even in a school that's known (in certain circles) to use education methods that favor the paranormally inclined, Supernatural Creatures don't want to advertise their presence - not even to each other. But, human students don't need to worry about that kind of thing! They'll probably just think the school is nice and normal. Because it actually (mostly) is!

Let's break down the general groups of characters:

Humans: Characters who are human won't know about the Paranormal but, unlike most people, will have supernatural powers. However, because they aren't trained, their powers will manifest subtly; if you don't believe it can happen, it can't! Some examples of this are: a swordsman who always finds a sword whenever he gets into trouble, or a cooking student throwing curry powder that somehow turns into a stinging cyclone around them. The powers humans develop will often be related to subjects that interest them, and are often used without a second thought. After all, they don't know they're supposed to hide these things!

Parahumans: Are humans who, somehow, have entered the world of the paranormal; while remaining human. Wizards, Witches, Ninja, Demon Slayers, Mikos and users of more magical martial arts are all common examples of parahumans. Their abilities are more overt than regular Human applications of the Paranormal (if with some thematic limitations) but still more diverse than Non-Humans. Ninja means a lot of things! However, because they know the rules about keeping their powers hidden, they aren't allowed to use them in public; even in competition with someone who is. Parahuman Oragizations are, in many ways, humanity's own secret police force, established to protect them against malicious use of the supernatural.

It should be noted that no human, no matter their training, remains human if they become immortal. Not technically at least. However, in practice, paranormally aware humans heavily blur the line between human and non-human. In many ways, learning about the supernatural causes a natural drift from being a human toward being a non-human.

Non-Humans: While human manifestations of the paranormal are unpredictable and extremely varied, non-humans are limited to a small pool of race-specific abilities. However because they aren't human, they have access to certain skills that humans aren't able to perform, like shapeshifting, and may also be immortal. Non-Humans can learn how to use skills that aren't typical for their species, however, they need to receive special training in a (typically) human style to do so. Suffice to say, this is uncommon.

Though rare, a handful of Non-Humans may not know that they aren't human. They may have been adopted by unsuspecting human parents, been born with a genetic abnormality, or been created by a human who wanted an heir, but couldn't have children. Either way, it's a fair bet that they won't know what they are exactly, but will be aware that they aren't normal. Whether or not they know about other supernatural creatures is another matter entirely. Any abilities they have will have been developed naturally and likely in secret.

After all, if their abilities became known, a supernatural group would probably have picked them up by now.

The Laws of Secrecy: A set of rules governing human and non-human interaction which can be summed up as, "If something isn't supposed to exist, don't do it in public." Neither Paranormal Human Organizations or Non-Human ones have anything to gain from the general public learning that fairytales and legends are real. The more people who know about the paranormal, the better the chance that someone will try to harness it for less-than-noble reasons, putting both humans and non-humans in danger. In addition, despite being outnumbered (by a large extent) by humans, there are still collectively more non-humans who can manifest paranormal phenomena than humans and, should it come to war, that's the only advantage they have. However, so long as humans believe magic a myth, they also (probably) think Vampires are myths – which keeps them even safer.

Whether or not you think these reasons are good is up to you, however, punishments for exposing people to magic are generally harsh. Human organizations are usually more lenient in their punishments, assuming the exposure and damage is contained and the person in question had good reasons for what they did. Non-Human groups are typically less forgiving, as a situation where it is deemed permissible to expose your own presence is harder to come by; humans are generally considered less valuable than non-humans. Some of the more common punishments for exposure include power sealing, being turned into a frog, and, if you happen to be immortal, sentencing you to several years of mind numbing boredom.

Your attendance of Amaranth High might be the test to decide if your organization can trust you in mainstream society again.

Paranormal Organizations: Though it has already been implied, it is highly likely that anyone who knows about the paranormal is affiliated (even if it is only loosely) with some kind of larger paranormal organization. A mutual agreement exists among these organizations to allow them to police themselves and their own kind, so long as whatever happens does not threaten another group. Comparatively, non-human groups, like the Undead (Vampires and other clinically dead beings) or Fairy (Fae, Dryads, Nymphs and Pixies, for instance) Association(s) of America, tend to be more homogenous, while human organizations are often more eclectic combinations of the paranormally talented, usually with some form of ideological goal. It should be noted that the rule of thumb in a Non-Human Paranormal organization is to let a race deal with its own problems, before asking for help outside itself (even if that other race is part of the same paranormal organization).

Though they rarely consider themselves as such, religions are an example of a human paranormal organization. Interestingly, they are one of the few supernatural groups that contain only an extremely small percentage of people who know about supernatural creatures, while still maintaining a fair amount of humans with paranormal abilities.

I don't expect these groups to play a large part in the game, but players should consider them when designing their characters.

That should cover the main points about the game itself.

Onto the magic system!

Magic, such as it is, is basically just energy that the paranormally aware can harness, like light bulbs with a flow of electricity. The way this energy is channeled varies from discipline to discipline, though most non-humans draw from inside themselves, while humans generally manipulate the fields around themselves. Terms like magic, spiritual power, ki and anything else you can think of are all really just different ways of viewing that energy. In the end, they're all just power.

Auras: When channeling supernatural power, a thin halo of colored light will appear around the edges of the caster's body, though only to those who are looking for it. The strength of the ability determines how obvious and bright this light is, while the color is determined by the kinds of powers available to the user. Red light denotes eastern mythology influences, blue western mythos, while more bestial, natural or powers that focus on the body are yellow. Brighter, paler, colors relate to more refined, civilized powers and, by that same token, the darker the shade, the more instinctual the channeling. Pure white auras are generally reserved for divine beings. Few auras are purely one color however; most are some combination of them. Objects created or enchanted with supernatural powers will carry the aura of the one who created them.

As a general guideline, most humans have shades of red or blue powers, while most non-humans have varying shades of orange, yellow and green.

Auras also appear when someone, human or otherwise, is performing at the best of their abilities; be it writing a test, running a race, or playing a video game; basically, whenever a person enters 'the zone' an aura will appear. This is a natural effect, and only noticeable if someone happens to be looking - compared to conscious (or even unconscious) use of the supernatural, the effect is minimal. In other words, the Laws of Secrecy don't appeal to it.

Barrier Fields: When the Supernatural is meant to be a secret, out-and-out battles become difficult to manage. Barrier Fields were designed to counter this sort of thing. Typically erected by via magic circle, or through creating a closed boundary with paper seals, trees or some other set of marks, Barrier Fields separate everyone within their border from everything outside it. The most common style of Barrier Field shifts everything with a set amount of supernatural powers to half a dimension away from the sealed area; in effect, turning them into ghosts. However, there are other kinds of Barrier Fields; the kind used often depends entirely on the situation.

In order to counter the main downsides of all Barrier Fields - that they require time to set up and are often (but not always) single use - Supernatural groups have developed devices that expand Barrier Fields into the area around them at the push of a button. But the only ones that can do so repeatedly, thus far, are impractically large. The portable ones on the other hand suffer from non-uniform range and can, potentially, drag bystanders into the battlezone. In addition to only being single use, of course.

Some humans have developed techniques that allow them to expand Barrier Fields on their own. However, most of them suffer from the unfortunate downside that, if broken or damaged, the backlash often flows directly back to the creator. At best, it knocks them out. But at worst, it destroys their ego and drives them insane; making this style of Barrier Field unpopular, despite its practical benefits.

Similarly, techniques and devices that generate personal Barrier Fields also exist. They're effective for spying and setting ambushes but little else, since to interact with something outside the barrier the user needs to deactivate the Barrier - something most spiritually aware people can sense easily.

Regardless of their practicality issues, Barrier Fields remain an important component to battles with paranormal entities today.

Special Abilities, Case Studies:

In an effort to avoid some questions, and to offer some examples the kind of starting powers players will be looking at, here's a small list. I tried to include powers that are more common in games as examples as well, to show how they'd be different in the game. Though it'll be explained in the bio section, players will have three starting skills, which can be improved as the game progresses. Keep that in mind while you read this.

Anyway, onto the game info!

Instinctive Human Powers: Though I've already given a vague guideline for human ability design, I thought it would be best to offer further detail. Any supernatural abilities that humans use will always be Instinctive, which means most are reactionary or passive and can not be triggered consciously. Human abilities often seek to keep themselves hidden, or maintain a logical explanation to their presence and are, consequently, often tied to objects or are very subtle; like a gust of wind which causes thrown objects to just miss their target. Either way, learning to use these powers at will isn't terribly difficult, but does require the human to become a parahuman, adding some limitations to the directions their development can take. Normally, human abilities have some relation to their user's interests, personality, motives, or talents.

Summon: Weapon, allows the user to always have a weapon if they need it. For humans, that usually means conveniently finding their weapon of choice when they're in trouble, like having one fall out of a window when they get jumped in an alley, or alternatively, just having one appear in their hand (they usually don't notice). Parahumans and non-humans typically have more obviously magical summoning abilities, and the weapons called by non-humans usually reflect their race somehow; a sword summoned by a vampire probably have a bat-wing shaded guard. Regardless of the differences, this sort of ability is one of the more common applications of paranormal power, since carrying weapons around in this day and age can have unfortunate consequences. It should be noted that just because you can summon a weapon doesn't mean you can use it well, your background determines that.

Summoned Creatures: Just because a player may be able to summon a demon, doesn't mean the demon has a host of magical powers at its disposal. They may start with a single power, but, every additional ability requires another skill slot/skill level to use. The same rule applies to enchanted items and weapons. It should be noted that, if the summoner is knocked out, the summon is dismissed.

Guns: Since this is an RP set in modern times, modern weapons like guns and grenades are, theoretically, available for summoning and/or use. I won't go into much detail regarding these, however, suffice to say that they will be balanced with weapons like swords and bows and will be much less lethal than they are in real life. In addition, summoned firearms (this does include bows) won't have bullets automatically at this stage, and will be require and additional skill point to obtain. Fireballs are really much simpler.

Elemental Manipulation is a pretty common ability in RPs like this. At this early stage in the game however, a skill like 'can create and control fire' is too strong and too vague to be allowed without some heavy limitations. To use elemental manipulation, a character would need a skill to generate the element (and it would only be in small amounts at first) and a separate ability to control it (which would have range limitations). In addition, a comment about Psionics (they'd be non-humans, by the way), if a player wants to use an ability like pyrokinesis, their character's personality should somehow reflect it. More obscure skills like control of magnetism, gravity or blood will be harder to receive approval for as a Psionic character, since they don't have the same personality connotations that the more traditional ones do. I'd have less objection to a parahuman (like a wizard) with those powers though.

Instant Movement, in Magical Teacher Professor Landry comes in three (main) forms. Flash Step, a straight-line long distance move, which leaves the user vulnerable for a moment after using it (its very disorienting to move that fast!), limiting its battle potential. Since it isn't teleportation, so it can't go through walls. Flash Move on the other hand, is teleportation, but a very short range one; it only moves one person-length in any direction once triggered. It should be noted that motion carries through the Flash Move, so if an attack is started before activating the ability, the attack will continue after the Flash Move is complete. Regardless of their differences, both abilities are difficult to use in rapid succession – at this point anyway.

The third ability, Flash Action, makes a single movement (like drawing a sword) instantaneously quick. However, each Flash Action requires a lot of practice to perform, making the motions themselves set-in-stone during battle (a horizontal slash Flash Action will always be a horizontal slash, and can't be changed to a vertical one), consequently, the ability is rarely fatal because how difficult it is to aim. When preparing (which takes a few moments), or casting, a Flash Action, the user's aura glows brightly; making the ability easy to avoid if you know its coming.

These three abilities are, for the most part, available to every character. Flash Actions are one of the few skills that humans can use at will (though they need to go through incredible amounts of training first), while Flash Move is almost exclusive to Parahumans and Non-Humans.

Curses, abilities that do things like boil blood, turn people to stone, rip flesh from bones or kill from a distance are all curses. While these have reasonable success rates on things without any magical abilities, they generally only have limited effects on beings with any degree of magical power. Curse-like abilities appear as blasts of invisible light (color coded to the caster's aura) which often hang around their target for a few moments while the curses take effect.

Illusions, are hard to make! A character who can 'create illusions' will have trouble making them believable at the drop of a hat. In order to create good illusions, the caster usually needs to practice the particular illusory form beforehand. Illusions that move (or worse, can cause real damage) tend to require their creator's full attention and guidance, though there are some short cuts; like creating an illusion that acts like a mirror to its caster's motions.

Invisibility works fine when dealing with people who can't see auras, but is pretty ineffective at dealing with the paranormal. While certain skills may be able to mask an aura, doing so while moving is very difficult and, when the power lapses, there is typically an aura surge effect; announcing the user's location. In short, not the most useful thing at low levels.

As you can see, the key words for abilities are low power, specific and subdued.

Growth: Though the abilities list implied it, the abilities you start with and obtain as the game progresses can be improved (I call it leveling up!). After certain events in-game, players will receive skill points that can be used to add a new skill to their list, or improve one of their existing abilities. For instance, improving Flash Move or Flash Step might allow the character to use them more than twice in rapid succession without becoming exhausted, or increase the distance that can be traveled with each skill. Either way, abilities will improve slowly and gradually.

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Now, finally, to the bios. I hope my long, complicated, rule heavy set-up didn't scare off too many of you.

Name: Try to keep it realistic; this is still planet earth. Try to keep the character's cultural background in mind when you select it too.

Gender: It matters!

Aura: What color is your aura? Refer to the small write-up about aura colors if you've forgotten how they mix and what they mean.

Appearance: Characters should all appear, roughly, between the ages of sixteen and twenty, even if they're actually much, much older. Talk about what they look like physically, hair, eyes, skin, height, build, typical clothes, that kind of thing. No, the school doesn't have official uniforms. It does have jackets and stuff like that you can buy, but they're tacky, so why would you?

Race: If you're just a human, say human. If you're a parahuman mention your main role (Ninja, Demon Slayer, Wizard, etc) and put humans in brackets. If you're a non-human, unless you've been trained as a Ninja or something, just say your race. If you're a Vampire Wizard though, make sure you say that. There's no racial abilities by the way, just weaknesses.

Abilities: Ah, the ability section where I'm sure I will fail several bios. Players get three abilities (they can be special items, like a suspiciously accurate textbook on the paranormal, too), make sure you include a short description of what they do and any drawbacks they may have. I may request that you revise some of them if they're too strong, not strong enough, or not thematically appropriate. If players are willing to start with less than three abilities, they can sacrifice one to increase one of the other's levels. Most level one abilities only do one thing (and may have some limitations on top of that), by the way.

Background: I don't need your life's story, just tell me a bit about where your character came from, how they picked up their practical skills, a little about why they're coming to the school, and that sort of thing. A little about the character's personality and views wouldn't hurt either.

Clubs: While the school might be home to a disturbingly large amount of supernatural creatures, you'd be surprised at how many enjoy photography and painting. Clubs in this school are pretty normal, really. You need to have at least one club here. Sports teams, as it happens, do count as clubs. This section is a good way to demonstrate a character's interests.

Notes: If you haven't already explained how your non-human blends in with society, put it here. Mad make-up skills? A really good perfume? That sort of thing. Anything else that you think is worth mentioning about your character should go here too, like if they carry a hidden silver dagger around because, uh, never know who's a were-creature, right? Most equipment of note should really go into the ability section though, unless it really is something incredibly mundane.

Relationships: While you don't strictly need these, isn't having friends nice? There's not much to say here, just give me the names of some characters (who will become NPCs, probably), what they look like, a bit about them (especially if they aren't human), and how they relate to your characters. Even though this is a new school for you, that doesn't mean your old neighborhood rival won't show up! Be creative, there's a lot of different relationships.

So, there you have it. A lot of information just to write such a short profile, right? You might notice there's nothing about Professor Landry in here too. There's a good reason for that. The only thing players might know about her is that she's eccentric, whatever that means.

Anyway, good luck. I'm available on IM and via PM if you've any questions.