Hello everyone! I had a post a while back talking about a few Urban Fantasy ideas that I was considering running. After a good deal of thinking along with all of the distractions and slowdown over the holidays, I've finally thought it all through and I want to ask for a little advice and see if people are interested. But first, I'll run through the concept.

Concept: The base concept of this game is a few people who are, through various circumstances, are turned into non human creatures against their will. Some of these include vampires, Frankenstein Style golems, Werewolves, fey and so on and so forth. No matter what they've become, they now have to deal with great changes in their lives, and a whole world of new problems and circumstances. On some level, they'll have to choose whether to Embrace their new selves, or Defy fate and cling to their humanity.

Setting: I'm currently considering setting it in a small American city, or the suburbs of a larger one perhaps. More vitally, I'm personally most interested in setting the game in High School. While the setting is perhaps somewhat overused, it provides interesting choices, situations, and other elements. It brings in the ideas of cliques, school teachers, and family a bit stronger than a more adult setting. For example, what do you tell your parents is one intriguing question that a more adult character might not have to deal with. It also has the easy ability to bring characters from different cliques and social groups together organically. It also provides a sort of 'twisted coming of age story'. Of course, if people aren't interested in such a setting I could always switch it, possibly to College or even adult life.

Rules/System: For this game, I was thinking of starting off as a Guided Freeform and getting some people's opinions on whether or not they even want a heavier system. If we do decide to use codified mechnaics, I'd probably go with Savage Worlds Accursed. It already has a lot of things that I want baked in to the game, including different levels of acceptance for curses and the like, and would not need a great deal of extra work. Not to mention if people want to learn magic or other powers the framework is rather easy to let them do that. I have considered other systems of course. World of Darkness is a powerful system that I enjoy, but dealing with the more varied mechanics of Changelings, Vampires, Werewolves, etc would be a challenge I'd rather avoid. I could use another 'generic' system, but I can't think of any that I'd honestly prefer. I'm not terribly interested in FATE or GURPs, and Powered by the Apocalypse games are a tad too abstract for this particular idea. No matter the system I'd make sure that all players are able to jump in regardless of skill level, experience, or ownership of the rules.

The game is currently proposed as Mature.

Advice/Help: That being said, while I have a lot of the basic ideas figured out, I'm a little worried about a few pieces of the implementation, which I'll describe below.

1. Origin Stories: The origin stories of how one became a monster are something that could potentially be very exciting. I'd rather have customized ones for each type, personalized to the character. These are thrilling, but I do worry that having private threads a the beginning could stunt the game's growth or prevent character interaction. Should I give the character's amnesia bout their changes and fill in the details later? Have room for pre-change character interaction? Skip it entirely? Something else?

2. Setting Concerns: I'm considering a Catholic High School setting for delicious irony, but I know some hate High School settings. You can read more in the setting section on this matter.

3. Game Title: If I'm terrible at anything, it's game titles. I have a few ideas below...but I would very, very, very much like other recommendations.

High School of the Damned has a nice ring to it, but sounds very much like a completely unrelated anime with a very, very different tone.

St. Martha's Academy for Monsters is slightly misleading since it's not necessarily built for that purpose or anything. It's functional, although perhaps a bit boring.

Transformed: Trials of the Marked is also quite functional, but I'm just not sure about it.

Thanks for reading! I hope I can get some interest and get this game off the ground!

I like your concept and would be interested in playing or maybe observing if possible.

I like the guided free form approach if the characters are detailed in what capabilities and disadvantages they have.

Individual threads for character origins could work but as you say it could lead to a slow take off and make interaction difficult especially if some of the characters finish before others. Would a group origin work maybe the were on a field trip or a group summer vacation as part of a school club, and the group finds some cursed item which causes the transformations or something along those lines.

I think the Catholic High School setting would work well.

As for title I am pretty much like you, coming up with a good title is always the hardest part.

I could definitely do a group origin story, but I'd slightly prefer personalized ones. It would let me indulge myself in a few horror style fantasy stories, from run ins with mad scientists and werewolves to more dramatic vampire tales. It might be a good idea to just scrap that part of it though. Kind of split.

The Catholic part of the High school won't be terribly important though. If you've been to one these days, it basically just means there are a few priests around. I doubt that it would turn anyone off ha ha.