ICRPG?

Anyone interested in trying this one out? I'm willing to GM and be flex on the setting

Never played but sounds fun from reading the free starter PDF. So sure.

Awesome! What kind of world do we want to build?

I'm interested. *raises hand*

I'd give it a whirl! I love trying new stuff.

Awesome! You can pick up the QuickStart from DriveThru RPG for free. It's basically a d20 system, but with some clever tweaks and a lot of flexibility. Our first goal is to figure out the world we want to be in. I'd like to create it together. Does anyone have any preferences of genre?

I'm new to the system too, but I'd be down to give it a try!

As to world building, I'm open to anything, but I'll start the conversation by proposing a Magic School.

Nice, tell me a little bit about the school. Is it divided into schools by the arts, by houses ala Harry Potter, or is it organized another way? Does anyone want to weigh in on the world we're in? Maybe our school is under threat because it opposes the dominant cultural paradigm, or we have a mortal enemy, or we are the ones trying to rebuild after a cataclysm....

How about a steam punk/Victorian setting, and the magic school is a training/recruiting facility for agents who protect the Earth from Shadow Earth, a demonic parallel universe.

Possible storylines:
1. The new school administration is corrupt and is slowly committing more and more unethical acts which are unknown to the general public
2. The unknowing, non-magical public has discovered the existence of the school
3. The school has become cursed and the students/faculty are beginning to disappear under mysterious circumstances

I like the idea of the school pumping out agents to do a serious task protecting others as Qralloq mentioned. There might be people joining to do the right thing and a few renegades just to seek thrills, but all of them know that after training things get real. Also the steampunk thing with magic sounds awesome.

I like it! We're in a Victorian/Steam Punk world, where the public is largely unaware of the fact that there is a Shadow Earth slowly encroaching on us. Our agents, and students - the future agents - are the last line of defense. Meanwhile, strange happenings are occurring at the school that may indicate that the administration has been compromised, but only a few students seem to be awaking to that fact. Does that work?

I got the feeling that the possible conflict with this "shadow earth" is ongoing, always looming for the students.

Yes that sounds really good!

Oh my gods, that sounds awesome.

Whoohoo! What's the name of our school, and where is it located? Who's the headmistress/master?

Is it a "league" or an "academy"...?

Oh, an academy definitely. The Eton of magical schools ;)

well perhaps "The Academy" then? Mysterious or just boring?

The Academy could be the simple title everyone uses, as maybe it's THE top school for the training of those that will graduate to become agents. But perhaps it has a longer, more ridiculous official title like Benford Kluckbuckle Master Academy, and most would rather just call it "The Academy."

It all sounds very cool, BTW!

Wondering, are we on a Victorian alternate Earth, or somewhere else entirely? Are we in the midst of the game of Empires and/or the rise of the socialist v automaton v Haves revolution?

+1

It’s a go. Welcome apprentices, to the Benford Klucklebuckle Master Academy!

Alternate earth would have it's pros. The locales could be something totally wild. Say the center of all magic on earth is the Bering sea and The Academy controls the peninsula around it. Maybe the source of magic is the portal to the shadow realm, on the bottom of the sea?

Man, this game is becoming tempting haha

and of course, using our earth doesn't mean we can't make up countries and coalitions.

Lol, I’m glad to hear that Naat. :)

Turtle, absolutely! The world is ours to forge.

Alternate earth is good. Of course, it goes without saying that actual Earth is the darkest timeline, haha.

Headmaster of Benford Kluckbuckle Master Academy: Seymore Pliddingtop, one of the youngest headmasters ever, and possibly the least qualified. He only took the position out of an impossibly exaggerated sense of self worth and a lack of legitimate candidates applying for the position due to a series of suspicious and gruesome accidents. Did someone say curse?

I love it. Is the academy in Britannia somewhere? The names seem Englandy and that comfortably fits the genre.

The Academy COULD be in Britannia, but I'd like it if we could make this something else than Harry Potter. How do you feel about this subject?

I'd like to be a foreign exchange student from Japan -de gozaru.

(★´Д｀)ﾉ －－－＝＝＝≡≡≡ 卍

I'm not married to an English school. I do like the idea of it being more international.

Iceland?

I see the academy as trancending nationalities and other "petty" aspects of humanity (and other races that joined the cause from other dimensions and such). It would fit somewhere remote I think. Somewhere where the Academy can contain the rift to other worlds and control what comes through and what expeditions go in.

edit. Also, I'd like to be a middle aged former drop-out turned janitor, who's gleaned some magical aptitude and sword fighting skills along the years.

That's probably the most dangerous job of all!

So less Harry Potter and more Magical Sensei Negi? XD

Also we might have 5 now. Guess I'll try and find the player's book in PDF Friday. Xd... (Nin-Nin)

I don't know what that is but I meant more gritty and physical, perhaps akin to the start of final fantasy 8 and Balamb Garden. That's not say we should copy that exactly.

Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with FF or Balamb, or much of anything in that genre, but gritty and physical works. I like the idea of the school as an international entity, especially since this will be at the height of the age of empires when nationalism was becoming a really powerful force. That would put us on the side of humanity as a whole and often at odds with the designs of the great powers. Iceland might be a good location - close enough to the centers of power, but enough off the beaten track as to possibly be off their radar.

Ideas I have so far - let me know what you think:
-The earth is criss-crossed by a network of ley lines that are conduits for magical energy which is more powerful the closer you get to a nexus, or a point where lines intersect. Magical energies ebb and flow along these lines, and according to some logic which no one has fully sussed out, at intervals different nexi/nexuses(sp?) will surge with power which is something mages covet as it makes the strongest enchantments possible and allows them to distill large quantities of Essence for later use.
-The Shadow Earth is also crossed by a matching pattern of these lines which operate similarly. When the same nexus surges on both worlds, tremendous energies are produced which create rifts in the fabric of reality and allows things to travel between realities. Things could mean people, creatures, or corrupting energies as the locations near the rifts move toward a kind of equilibrium. Luckily, these rifts tend not to stay active for very long....
-If one of the great powers should discover a way to lock one of these rifts open, they would have access to amazing magical power which would totally upset the balance of power and likely lead to a massive war.
-The Academy and its predecessors have been around for a long, long time (since ancient Egypt); know certain mystic secrets which they keep jealously guarded; and have made it their mission to root out corruption caused by the rifts and hunt down any Shadow Walkers they can find, as well as any of their collaborators who might be trying to use them or their powers for their own ends.
-The previous Academy, which was located in Britannia, was compromised a decade or so ago and destroyed by someone (most probably the British government, but it remains unproven), with devastating loss of life. The institution is now rebuilding in a new location and keeping this a secret is of the utmost importance.

You say ley lines, but if we do use Iceland, maybe there is a correspondence between ley lines and volcanic activity.

How apocalyptic would it be if locking a rift open meant a permanent volcanic eruption?

Magic in General: Globally, only about 5% of the population is magically adept and in limited ways. With proper training and the attunement of artifacts, they can channel magical energies into specific effects (essentially one 'spell' per artifact). There are limits to how many artifacts one person can attune and carry as the latent amount of competing magical energies can overwhelm a lesser mage's ability to control it, resulting in all manner of unfortunate things. Also, attunement comes at a cost of one's life energies.

What Makes You Unique: Less than 1% of the population is innately magically gifted. Magic is simply a part of them, and they don't require artifacts to channel magical energies and turn them into effects. This means that unlike adepts, the gifted can create 'spells' on the fly and tailor their effects to the situation. There are some downsides to innate magic, however. Each gifted is born with affinities for certain techniques and forms, but are incapable of using the others. Gifted are also incapable of attuning artifacts. They make up for this, however, in their ability (with sufficient training of course) to channel the energies of raw essence to empower their free form spells. The gifted also grow in power as they gain experience without having to sacrifice life energy to attune to more and more powerful artifacts. You are all gifted.

Q: Yeah, that would be bad. ;)

I agree with everything you posted. I think that some of the Gifted would choose to keep their gift a secret, as most of them would probably be given little choice of career and such because of their low numbers and importance. Or maybe they can do whatever they like, like a sort of mercenary that the academy hopes to guide in the right direction.

And I kind of like the idea of volcanic leylines.

Turtledragon, I'm reminded of rogue telepaths in Babylon 5 (which I finished rewatching recently). Refusing to join the overbearing PSICORP, they were branded criminals and hunted.

Yes, there might be something like that going on. Some of the gifted trying to tear new portals and advance the shadow walkers or something.

My concern with tying the leylines to some kind of easily identifiable phenomena, like volcanoes or seismic faults, is that if this were known, it would lead to a mad scramble by the imperial powers to control those resources (a little like oil now). If that were the case, it might be hard to find a place that was magically empowered but remote enough that it wouldn't get absorbed by one empire or another. Of course that doesn't mean that a leyline nexus couldn't be located at one of those sites just by coincidence....

I like the idea of rogue gifted! And it makes perfect sense - power corrupts, and just being gifted doesn't preclude a weakness for the seductions of power.

Man now you got me thinking of Iceland and it's Lava Demons (black cats) yelling at them to get back in their Lava Bucket from the webcomic...

Okay maybe not volcanic leylines then. But what about the portals discussed earlier? I'm fine with them being able to open randomly anywhere but that would mean that people know about them and that the Academy sends some kind of strike teams to close the portals. Which would be cool. Another possibility is that the Academy sits on top of the only portal.

People would be aware of the portals as magical phenomena, but maybe not exactly what risks they represent? When governments or corporations (hmm, hadn’t thought about them) find portals they cordon them off to ‘protect’ the public (partially true), then send in adepts to exploit the resources the can get out of them before they close.

I was thinking of you all as a sort of mobile strike force that often gets to a portal before anyone else. That’s because Seymour Pliddington, putz that he he is almost all regards, is a savant in terms of Metamagic (Form: Magicae) and is capable of sensing ley line surges and rifts before other mages. This is one of the reasons why he was selected to head the new academy.

Do you all think we are in a good place to start? A lot of the other details we can flesh out as we go. If you’ve read the ICRPG QuickStart, you can see that I’ve riffed on the rules regarding loot, skills, and leveling. Is that ok, or would you rather stick closer to RAW for your first go round with the system?

Hmm, should I create an actual game thread? If so, let’s vote on an official name for it. :)

That sounds about right. I must say the strike team thing with it's dungeon crawling possibilities is right up my alley. How about moving this up to a game page?

We could run a very short one shot with some pregens so you can get used to the system, and then decide if you want to keep with the rules as written, or try some house rules. What do you think?

This game is sounding more and more like the beloved TV show Fringe.

I agree with your plan KaeJae.

Sounds legit.

Hi all, I'm working on the pregens and the rule tweaks that need to happen and will start up the test game thread soon. Anyone who wants to give it a shot, let me know and I'll send an invite. :)

Sure, send me an invite when you're set up.

Agreed, I'll play.

I'm game.

I am interested, never played it, but just grabbed the quick start.

If you need another player, I'll join in, but if others what to try it out, I'll probably have to bow out. I'm feeling pretty pack with my current load. :(

Wow, this is great. Thanks everybody! I’ll add you both, and if you can make it, Joress, that will be awesome!