Before requesting access, you are required to read the following:
Game rules may be subject to change.
Applications will not be accepted on a first come-first served basis. Please take some time and give some thought to your answers. Try to provide specific instead of generalised answers.
CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE
Think of this questionnaire like a pitch. You are pitching your character for the game. Some characters may not fit with the game I'm trying to run. Or perhaps won't fit with the characters other players are running. My philosophy is that there needs to be a synergy between the players, GM, and the
characters so that we're all rooting for the same thing.
Which in my opinion, should be "a successful game".
Write a character concept, like you'd see in a story outline, describing the most essential elements of your character. What kind of arc do you envision for the character? What do you envision their story to be about? Try to capture what makes them unique as a character. Compose your pitch in complete, grammatical sentences. No lists of abilities; no sentence fragments.
Next, tell me how your character came to the House on Durrow Street, keeping in mind some of the examples I gave in the premise to the game. Make it unique and personal to you and your character. For example, maybe instead of traveling through a painting in a museum, your character received a magical letter that couldn't be ignored (don't use that example).
Be flexible and open to changes with regard to your submission, as I'm sure that I will request many edits. Consider that there are certain things I have in mind for the game, and your first pass might not fit exactly.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Here are some answers to some questions you might have.
What is the Big Picture?
This game is about an unlikely group of young adults plunged into a fantastical world of powerful magic and thrust at the very center of a war with an ancient, implacable Enemy. The veil lifted from their eyes, they now see the world for what it is, one full of magic and wonder, but also terrible evil.
Most of the time, the game will revolve around a sort of slice of life of living in a magical place of learning, exploring the secrets within its walls, and interacting with your fellow wards. Sometimes however, you will be required to venture out into the perilous world at large in order to complete some vital quest, armed with the knowledge gained from
the Mysteries. These places can range from out into the modern contemporary world to weird and strange otherworldly circles of reality.
Who are the players supposed to be?
The characters are wards to a powerful Wizard. They begin the game already a ward to the Wizard with only a few spells to their name, common magic known to anyone with a basic understanding of
the Mysteries. We might play through some preludes to discover how your character began their relationship with the Wizard and came to the House on Durrow Street, but maybe not, we'll see.
The characters should be aged between 16 at the earliest and 20 at the very eldest. This game leans heavily on coming of age stories and as such it helps if the characters are still trying to figure out who they are.
You will need a strong, compelling reason to turn your life upside down and follow a strange person to learn magic. Likewise, you will need a strong pull back to your ordinary life, as we will be revisiting it from time to time.
What kind of powers can I choose?
I personally have no problem with
any power whatsoever. Whatever you decide, I can roll with, for the most part. Now, other people may have their own opinions, so if there's a power you personally would feel
uncomfortable being in the game, let your preferences be known as soon as possible. For example, maybe you don't like the idea of a power to induce torture, like the Cruciatus Curse in Harry Potter.
This is a
Mature game, so that means there's not to be any explicit or graphic sex or violence and such, and any power you selected would have to fit that scope. And we definitely want to respect people's boundaries. Just know that I have very few that don't already fit within the constraints of a Mature game. :)
Tricky to adjudicate powers will be handled with care, but they should certainly be doable. If you want to be able to travel in time or read minds, I will make accommodations for those powers. One thing I think might be tricky is if you have a Rogue or Peter Petrelli like power to copy other people's powers. Ensemble stories are all about making sure you have your own way to shine that other people can't mimic. If you can do it all, there's no point in making this a story about a group of characters, but more about one particular main character. That wouldn't be fun, I think, for the other players, but we can discuss it, if that's what you want to do. We can see about adding some fictional constraints to make it more interesting as a story.
Take this as my stance on any quote-unquote "problematic" powers. If there's an interesting story there, I'm willing to work a little harder, exert a little more effort, to make it work in the story we're all telling together. But remember that we
are telling a story together. Be open to feedback from other players as well as from me. :)
Something I want to explore in this game is how surreal, weird, strange, and frightening magic can be. How beyond our own understanding it is. How it plays with our perceptions of reality. To that end, there
are certain things that magic will not conform to. For example, I want to avoid concepts like
magical elements, like fire, earth, water, and air powers. If you must have fire or water powers, make it strange and interesting!
What do you mean by "home-brewed system"?
The system I'm using is more about using a quick resolution mechanic, to get the mechanics out of the way of the story and the fiction. Rolling a d20 with bonuses and penalties versus a specific target number is pretty easy to reason about. It is a level-less, class-less system that only inherits very broadly from its Dungeons and Dragons forbear and focuses more intently narrative, minimalist action.
If you are more interested in optimizing your build, killing everything in sight, and gaining treasure, this is probably not the game for you. Nor are we going to go into lengthy combats every time, with round by round blow-by-blows. That's not the point of this game.
I'm far more excited about exploring interesting characters in a fantastical milieu. :)
So this is freeform?
No. It's far more involved than simply freeform or even guided freeform or even freeform with rolls thrown in. This is my own personal system that I've successfully in the past that allows me to tell a good story while also not being very restricting in the kinds of characters most players might wnat to play.
What about game balance?
I take a more nuanced approach to balance than is espoused in D&D and other game systems. Remember that this game isn't about combat per se. As long as every character has something interesting to do, I don't see a really huge problem. Often in stories you have an ensemble cast of characters with widely differing skillsets.
Style
I expect players to think about their characters' inner life and thoughts and feelings and be descriptive about such in their posts. Some players have only posted their outward physical actions, which is fine for some games, but not the ones I run. I'm interested in character arcs and narratives and emotional pay-offs and so forth.
Lay out your character's backstory gradually. The tendency of most players is to get it all out at the beginning, sometimes in the first post. I've had some players whose first posts were their entire backstory, with 1000 words or more.
Don't do that.
Not only is it contravention to the posting guidelines, but we're just getting to know the characters, the world, the story. The less you spill, the more that is retained. Leave us wanting more, instead of wanting to skim.
Collaboration
I expect players to be open to collaboration in the fiction. I'll rein you back if I feel you come up with something that contradicts the world, but players should generally be open to suggestions from other players and the GM. We're all in charge of the fiction together. You can write for another NPC, just as much as I can. Someone else can even chime in and move other characters around if their idea makes for a more interesting story.
I'm even okay with player characters moving other player characters, with each other's permission, of course. Comfort levels may vary, but if I was playing Doc Brown, and another was playing Marty, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for me to move Marty in such a way:
quote:
"Great Scott!" said Doc Brown.
"What is it, Doc?" Marty said.
If you do move another PC or NPC, be sure to be open to making edits if someone says you're doing something to make them go out of character.
Regarding Romance
I'll leave it up to the players whether they'll engage their characters in a romance. Personally, I prefer for romance to arise organically in the story, as opposed to something that is forced or the "point" or the main driver of a game.
Nice as romance is, my aims and interests do not revolve around romance, but instead are concerned with the overarching narrative and the character arcs I'm trying to build in complicated webs between the characters. Romance can play its part, and maybe even a vital part for some arcs, but keep in mind that it's only one part amidst many others. o
