Tales of Volwick City - Interest and Signup Thread

The line between the mundane and fantastical is, to some perceptions, as large and resilient as a reinforced wall. Once on one side it\'s hard to ever cross into the other life. A mundane person will probably spend their whole life lightly touched by the supernatural and will never notice a thing amiss. An orderly world, where things makes sense, where the rules are made by man and Universe spins along guided by the rigid laws of physics. A being of the fantastical world? Their lives are a bit a different. They know as a child that something truly may be hiding under their bed, that the darkness holds many things best left untouched and that there are forces toying with the life of man... the wonders of magic which shift reality with seemingly no purpose... besides that of those who can work its secrets.

The wall that divides both worlds is strong and enduring... however, sometimes things slip through its cracks. Sometimes a phenomenon with no explanation leaves the scientific community without an explanation. Sometimes a member of the fantastical is made blind to their own origins and sinks into a life of pure mundanity. And sometimes... those who live perfectly normal lives stumble upon magic they are not meant to understand.

However, something strange happened in the otherwise quiet city of Volwick... as a few days ago, in the middle of the night a huge flash of light lit up the night sky at 3:38 AM. To most people it was an impressive event just from the light... however, to those on the side of the Supernatural it was something else entirely... and that flash of light carried more magical energy within than anything else they had experienced... and even though it happened high up on the sky, the sheer power of it could be felt through the entire city.

A few days have passed since the event and things have gone back to normal... or so do most people think. However, there is a rumor going through the streets... that the explosion of magic cast something on the city... that hiding somewhere is an artifact of magic of such power as to grant the wish of whoever can get their hands on it. A meaningless rumor... and yet, one that can break the precarious balance of the city... and bring dangerous elements within it.

Hello everyone and welcome to the relaunch of one of my oldest R Ps. Another Shade of the World - An Urban Fantasy RP.

This is a sandbox RP, set in the city of Volwick. A medium sized city tucked somewhere in the valley of California. Geographically, it has a mountain range right to the west, gentle hills to the north and south with scattered pockets of woodlands, plains and fields extending as far as eye can see to the east. There is a small lake to the Northwest of the city as well as a couple rivers flowing down from it, most notable of which is Volwick river cutting the city in half in its flow.

As medium sized city, Volwick has around three big shopping malls, some radio stations, a busy commercial center with plenty tall buildings, a big central park with its own small artificial lake as well as an expanding metro system which currently mostly helps move up or down town. It mostly exports food from the goods traded by the farms in the east side of town and some precious metals from the mountain range to the west. It\'s a pretty bad place for tourism, having little to offer beyond a museum or two which are more for the benefit of the city itself than drawing curious outsiders. It\'s even a bit out of the way of most roads, so it doesn\'t even get an influx of travelers as a rest stop. It has its own small University as well as some community colleges. It\'s population is pretty diverse all things said, giving way to a mix match of cultures and religions. There is a big protestant church in town, though the most fervent believers in the city tend to be the Catholic Latino population. Crime is one the low end of the scale, though it is present and a source of some concern. There is even a well run crime syndicate in town, which everyone tries to stay away from.

However, all of that is merely what lies over the surface... as those who look closely will see the traces of witchcraft around town, the refuse of trolls under the bridges, a wizard\'s number in the phone book, faeries playing at night through the park and many other mysteries lying just under the surface.

Well, that would be our sandbox! I encourage players to try and make up their own plots and adventures if they so like and of course, I will be around providing some more. If there are questions about what may be allowed and what may be a bit too much I will be here to answer them.

As for power levels... The modern would tends to be an altogether difficult place for magic compared with times past. Humanity and even Magical Creatures experience decreasing amount of mana on average with every passing generation and the very air and land carries less magical energy than before. Compounded with this is the so called Crowd Effect, an unexplained phenomenon which affects magic depending on how many disbelievers of it are around to witness it. A single common person will suppress a little the power of a spell, while a whole crowd may disrupt it completely from even taking effect if they are to take notice of it. Given these factors and the loss of some knowledge and practice from ancient times, magic users of the modern era, besides some super powered elite and prodigies, have to ration their use of magic and recur quite often to outside means to help their spellcasting. Taking advantage of leylines, rituals, magic items, places of power, magic workshops, collaborative spellcasting, storing mana over time in containers and vigorous study tends to be the order of the day for scholarly spellcasters... while more application focused individuals simply rely on constant practice of a basic art or subset of spells to become more efficient at their use. Some families, over generations, develop their craft to the point that a bloodline is more fitting to carry on with the magical traditions of said family and thus spells come more easily to them. Supernatural beings, for their part, work on a similar principle but tend to have their otherworldly characteristics sustained by their native magic... and more often than not, keep themselves disguised or shielded from the sight of mundane mortals. There is very much a masquerade, enforced by both mortal wizards as well as the big guns from the fantasy side.

With that said, here is the character sheet for the RP.

• Name: What are you called? Include Aliases or fake names Hint: It may be good but completely not necessary to have a middle name.
• Age: How old age you?
• Gender: Female, male, neither, both, cursed for it to change with the phases of the moon, male sex but the soul of a long dead female shaman? Whatever it is, name it here.
• Religion: Do you have one? None? Whatever it is or may not be, share it here.
• Species: Are you human or one of those things that we can\'t tell humans that exist?
• Appearance: What do you look like to those who glance upon you? Both to mortals and supernaturals.
• Personality: How do you act? How do you think? What lies upon your soul?
• Bio: What interesting things have happened in your life? Can be as short as you like or as extensive as you prefer.
• Skills and Abilities: What can you do? Both mundane skills as well as those that aren\'t. As well as anything noteworthy or special about your character.
• Possessions and Assets: What do you own? Where do you live? Do you have a bike? A car? A magical staff?

Well, that\'s about it. As you join, think of the things you may like to do, or accomplish within the RP and that may give motivation to your character. It can be frustrating to have nothing to do and if your character has nothing to pursue, then they are more likely to need to wait for something to interact with them instead of going out to do things.

I will be taking suggestions about plots or events that people would like their character to go through and I may run them for them. At the moment there is the background plot of the mysterious flare of magic over the city... however, don\'t count on it to manifest into something substantial anytime too soon, so do come up with something for your character to do from the very beginning. It may be a good idea to look for the profile of other characters and establish relationships, from the personal to professional. In a world where magic works as this does, you may need to help of others in order to pull of certain feats or fight certain foes. As with all of my previous Volwick R Ps, I have two NP Cs, Gabriel Green and Sue McCoy, who can run an introductory plot for anyone who wants to play a normal human dragged into the Masquerade, finding out about magic and then being guided into obtaining powers of their own.

Also, since it\'s been asked a lot, a few things that won\'t be accepted into the RP are, 1. Ultra Millionaires, 2. Heads of Powerful Crime Syndicates 3. Drug Dealing Organizations, Magical or Otherwise.

I incentivize everyone to consult on me on what your character concepts will be like and if you\'re playing a magical race I can give insight on how most of them would work in this world. Likewise with magical items and other powers. Usually you either have a few tricks and powers you can do really well with practice or passed down by blood or you can do a wider variety of effects with study and some time to prepare... or a mix of both. As for physical abilities, being part of the magic community, having magic blood or otherwise having taken measures to amp up your mana production does wonders for the body. If you do, in a wide variety of means, you don\'t even need to cast spells... if you train very hard at a craft or physical ability the magic coursing through your body will help you develop your skills at a heightened rate and eventually even beyond human limits.

Are there any specific rules/concepts/etc for supernatural things, like all Weres being werewolves, all vampires being sunlight-exploding undead? Or are things loose enough that people can develop their own brand of vampirism, where new supernatural species are made whenever someone gets bored, etc? In fact, how difficult is it to create artificial lifeforms through magic?

Though besides that I was thinking of playing a character whose a "Proto-Demon", born from possessed parents and once fully embracing evil would become a True "Demon". I wanted to play someone who has to try being good even as Good itself (like holy water, angels, etc) classify them as evil. Mostly just the general concept, don't actually care about specifying demonic connection.

Things are loose, all sorts of creatures of all kind roaming around. People who turn into wolves have like a thousand different origins, from nature spirits, to a race of wolf humanoids, to cursed lycanthropes, true monsters like those of mythology, animals who have become magical beings and can turn into humans and many more.

Currently creating life with magic is a very difficult affair. Small things like a traditional humunculous which is a cat sized artificial construct imbued with life to serve as an assistant is possible, though creating a humanoid sized creature entirely by magic or the like would be very difficult, probably the realm of truly specialized families and the like.

What's the tone of this? Are we talking World Of Darkness or Dresden Files?

edited 29th Jan '15 9:53:24 PM by TroyandHawk

Lighter than both, closer to Dresden but still lighter.

Okay.

How do you feel about characters with families, like ones that have kids or have parents they live with/near?

Let's do the thing!

• Name: Maria Anna Gutierrez
• Age: 18
• Gender: Female
• Religion: Catholic. Maria remembers her Mexican grandmother as being intensely religious, with a strong folk element to her belief — as a kid, Maria was always vaguely creeped out by the santos and candles when she went to visit her house. Her parents were much more conventional, Americanized Catholics, and Maria (although she still believes in God) has no plans to attend mass or get involved with the faith once she moves to Volwick.
• Species: Human
• Appearance: A young Hispanic-American female, of average height and build. Not a fashion plate by any means, more likely to wear jeans and t-shirts than dresses and makeup.
• Personality: Maria would consider her ideal life as living in an artsy neighborhood in a big city, working as a barista or in an organic food co-op by day and going out to hear the latest up-and-coming bands in the local performance space by night. Unfortunately, so far she has lived in (to her) the hell of suburban Phoenix, where the pinnacle of coolness is the high school football team, the acceptable life goal is making as much money as possible, and the common values are those of evangelical Christianity and the Republican Party. If this has made her more snarky, short-tempered, and (at heart) depressed than she would otherwise be, perhaps she can't be blamed - she still has much to see in the world.
• Bio: Maria spent her entire childhood dreaming of getting out of her town and moving to a vibrant urban hub for college. Her dreams of attending Columbia or Berkeley were not to be. In her junior year of high school, her grandmother died, and to everyone's surprise, when the will was read, Maria was granted money for a free ride to university — with the stipulation that she attend Volwick U. (or whatever else the university is called). After a few moments of where?, Maria's next reaction was to indignantly turn down the offer. However, for her parents, children of Mexican immigrants who had spent their lives working their way into the middle class, an all-expenses-paid college education was too good to turn up, and they laid down an ultimatum that Maria would attend Volwick, no more questions. In the next year, relations between Maria and her parents were strained, to say the least. Still, with few options, she agreed to the inevitable, and she has just moved to Volwick to start her education.
• Skills and Abilities: Maria is an A student, and is known among her friends for having a beautiful singing voice. She has excellent verbal ability, and is a natural at Scrabble and Boggle. She also has a personal interest in history. What others don't know about her, however, is her dreams. Not only are they exceedingly vivid, but at some times in the past, they have been prophetic. In junior high, the mean girl clique had latched onto her as a target — and then, one night, she dreamt of the alcoholism and infidelity of the queen bee's father. On a lark, she shot back with this the next time she was picked on, and she still remembers the shock and anger on her tormenter's face. She was left alone after that. Another time, when a serial killer had emerged in Phoenix, she had a dream of a homeless man being murdered outside of the city's cathedral. She kept this one to herself, even after this made headlines three days later. Deep down, she still feels guilt about not telling anyone about this. Finally, once she dreamt of a fire, and in her dream she poured buckets after buckets of water to put it out. Waking up in a start and looking for a midnight snack to settle her nerves, she not only saw that one of her father's cigarettes had fallen out of the ashtray and burnt part of the kitchen table, but that the table itself was wet, despite her parents having gone to bed hours before. That one freaked her out a bit.
• Possessions and assets: The standard college student possessions. A wide variety of music on her iPad, ranging from Celtic folk to metal. A picture of a dragon she once found at an art fair and somehow felt drawn to.

edited 30th Jan '15 9:41:02 AM by BokhuraBurnes

I'll have to talk to daltar about whether or not I can use two characters.

Multiple characters are alright!

Cool! I'll probably see if I can rework Lucerna and Aewyn to fit the setting, then.

Yay, sign up. Now to come up with a good concept...I think I want to play a supernatural creature who has settled into a mundane life. While I am thinking I may as well ask some questions to see what my options are.

How does the basic supernatural community look like? Like does all the supernatural know more or less about the rest of the supernatural types, or would say a monster would freak out if they found a ghost. Is there a range we should shoot for with how human like a supernatural creature should be? or is all fair game so long as they can operate without breaking the masquerade? Is blue/orange morality or playing a hive mind be ok?

Ooh, this is kind of what I was looking for a while back.

What's your say on human characters that are possessed by a magical entity, almost like a split-personality?

I was toying with the idea of one of the heavens being run sort of corporation type, and my character being an "angel" sent from there by one of the god who had part in creation, to run an inspection on the planet.

^A sort of Algalon thing, huh? Interesting, though maybe a bit high on the power scale depending on what sort of angel you're looking to play.

As for my characters, I'll be adapting a pair I worked with for a very short time on another RP - a mute(-ish) mage and her bodyguard wife.

Angel in only the sense that he/she would be a direct agent of this big powerful being, my character him/herself probably won't be all that powerful.

I think a lot of that depends on the question of "Is there a higher god/creator god in this setting that intervenes that closely with others?" I feel like this setting would probably want figures more low key than that. Probably not even "Those who hear the angels" or something. Would be my guess?

GIG: Families are of course, ok. You may control your family as your PC's NP Cs and such.

Maria Anna Gutierrez: Approved.

Immortal Neet: The degree of knowledge of other supernaturals depends on the supernatural in question. At the very least, once you know the supernatural you'll notice them in the crowds and encounter many more... however, you can ignore them and not learn more about them. Likewise, you may not know much about other kinds of supernatural people... it all depends on your species, general disposition and the like. Most supernaturals keep to themselves and their own unless they form part of a greater community.

As for kinds of supernatural allowed... the closer to humanity the easier to get in, however I'll judge on a case by case basis.

Truth Hurts: A possessed character can work!

Sanojutsu: Angel not so much. Problem is, you should limit yourself to characters that have a nebulous relation at best with the beyond. A shaman calling on the spirit of the dead? Perfect. Someone who comes from Heaven and the afterlife itself? Who knows Gods in a met with them basis? There it starts to become a bit iffy.

Oh alright, I'll think of something else then.

EDIT: Would, and pardon the cliche, a runaway disgraced aristocrat be all right? or maybe a guy looking to form a cult?

edited 30th Jan '15 10:26:18 PM by Sanojutsu

Tomorrow I'll have a sheet up for the characters I'm planning.

I'm potentially considering two characters, with the second being a humanoid humonculus made as a servant of a specialized family (specifically to protect/serve the youngest son). How many of these kind of specialized families would you say there are, and what could they ultimately do when creating life? In addition, are magical(ly created) entities able to use enchanted objects and/or external magic, or do they only have their internal magic for use?

By the way, would it be allowed for someone to play a character cursed with inverted morality read (ie, good things think they're bad and thus evil things think they're one of them)? I could make the character religious so they'll be morally conflicted to even use evil objects (the conflict is what I want anyways), and it gives my character a nifty reason to pursue the wish granting object.

Sanojutsu: In theory, both of those work but it depends on context.

kkutwar: Number of specialized families around the world would be too big to count and in Volwick it depends on how many people make. Magic created beings can use external magic.

As for inverted morality... I don't even know how that would work, really. Good things think they are bad? You're either bad or come from an 'evil aligned' origin to give out that impression and if you do good it starts to show.

I think he means some kind of Cassandra Truth curse where even if he does good things, they get interpreted in the worst possible meanings? I mean, it'd be almost impossible for a curse to affect everyone to the extent that beneficial things seemed bad to them and then stayed bad in their recollections.

Well it would be a curse. Like if you casted something like Detect Evil on them, even if they're rescuing diabetic puppies from a burning building, they would be detected as Evil. It wasn't supposed to be a Cassandra Truth thing though, but I do like the idea of when it comes to sentient entities the curse puts off an illusion to further convince them of the person's "evil".

Basically, I want to play as a genuinely Good character that Good itself thinks is evil, with evil-detecting dogs barking at them, holy water burning them, and Demons/something going "Sup, you do genocide or mass destruction for fun?". Sentient evil things could probably figure out they're not actually Evil, and I doubt unholy artifacts are just littered around. So it would really be a disadvantage outside of specific situational things.

However, if you really don't want it, no skin off my nose. Got multiple other concepts I could use instead.

The multiple characters sounds kind of appealing. Could play my own straight man or dip my finger into more then one story thread. Well here is a few character concepts to see what would be acceptable, may not settle on one til I see what direction other R Pers are taking.

1.A pair of delinquents part of a small time gang. Being small time, their activities mostly consist of hanging out with a few misdemeanors just so they could claim them selves a gang. Will probably have a protective sense for their small supernatural community. Would probably consist of an american born oni (could probably make it a troll or some other western brute, just like the look of the oni) that is either a male who grew up watching super sentai stuff and spouts nonsense on justice or a female kuudere. Also maybe a stray cat girl tsundere.

2. A small group of fairies who are urban fey folk. So instead of spiriting away people and playing tricks on travelers, they are stealing credit card information and being internet trolls.

3. A melodramatic vampire running a small talent agency. Used to be rich and powerful, now laments his current situation.

4. A vampire or succubus nun. Runs a support group for reformed "evil" creatures on how to live good christian lives. (Sounds like kkutwar wants to do something along the same lines so may not try for this character, or maybe I should so the two characters would have some common ground to interact.

5. A LARP mage with actual magic. Plays at being an evil wizard but has difficulties getting around the Crowd Effect, so no one believes they can actually do anything.