RolePlay onLine

The Last of the Magi

Premise: Long have the ancient magi been at the forefront of the grand struggle between the immortal forces that shape reality. Yet their power is fading, as the darkness encroaches, testing and breaking the defences that keep the cosmos safe. It is long since time for a new generation of magi to take up the mantle in place of the old. To that end, the Wizard has summoned likely students from across the world, sequestered them in relative safety, all to learn the Mysteries.

How you arrived at the House on Durrow Street is unique to you. Perhaps you purchased a grimoire from a mysterious old man from a shop you didn't know was on that particular street corner; when you opened the book, you found yourself transported to another time and place, on the doorstep of the House, the Wizard waiting for you patiently. Or maybe you dream of the House on Durrow Street every night, studying diligently, waking each morning to go to school or work. Or perhaps more tellingly, you walked by a strange old painting in a museum every week, enchanted by the quaint painting of the House; on a whim, you walked through the painting, where suddenly everything seemed so much more real than you ever thought possible.

Many others have come to the House where dwells the Wizard, each with their own story to tell. Therein, you were gifted with magical spells that allowed you to shape and bend the cosmos to your will. Such power, so the Mysteries say, must be tempered by the wisdom and compassion to know when to use such extraordinary abilities for the right reasons. Yet as the knowledge and wisdom of the magi begins to fail, and the darkness threatens to consume the world, the new generation will have to make many difficult choices.

Notes: It can be difficult to know just what to expect from a wizard school game, since there's so much you can do with it. So with that in mind, here are some of the elements of the game that I'd like to focus on:

• The wizard school is a safe environment to learn magic. The player characters must learn magical spells, mostly from books, though learning can come from unlikely places, including art, crafting, and even other students.
  
• The "school" is not really a school, as in an institution of learning, but more like the Wizard's dwelling place. Still, other people live there, including other students, as well as various servants of the Wizard.
  
• In fact, the House on Durrow Street has secrets of its own, and it is encouraged that players explore its many mysteries!
  
• The students can come from all walks of life, but they will usually be in their late teens to very early twenties. Additionally, they come from the modern contemporary world (though there are students at the school who come from different times, places, dimensions, et cetera).
  
• The magic is surreal, weird, strange, and frightening! Magic comes from touching otherworldly dimension and circles to draw upon their power, therefore, Earthly knowledge has no place in this magical system! Modern contemporary tropes and understandings of magic (pentagrams, Horus, Athena, et cetera) will not help here!
  
• Students will go on quests to keep the encroaching dark forces at bay. The rewards for these quests will be rare artifacts, unique spells, and even one to one tutelage with the Wizard!
  
• Periodically, there will be points in the game where the players will revisit their old lives and have to deal with things going on there.

System: Over the years, I've developed my own home-brewed system that I use in play-by-post games. Its virtues are that it's very minimal and doesn't get in the way of telling a good story, but most importantly, it allows players to play the kinds of characters they want to play.