OOC chat

OOC chat

Yay, it's operational.

And now onto the not quite yay parts. I read the threads and I'm . . . not very confident in my understanding of character creation. Here are some things that uncertainty for me:

- The recruitment thread mentions Lineages being optional Keywords. The Genre Pack thread lists Abilities within Lineages. Are those meant to be Breakouts under the Lineage Keyword instead, or are they actual Stand-Alone Abilities?
- What happens if a Lineage partially overlaps with another Keyword in terms of Scope, e.g. the Brawny Keyword (possibly with a Breakout such as Feats of Strength) and the Hidesato Lineage (whose listed Abilities also include 'Perform feats of extraordinary strength')? Should everyone just avoid Lineages that have overlapping scope with Distinguishing Characteristics, Occupational Keywords, and other taken Keywords? Or are they pretty much reserved for being Augments (and thus should be taken but not raised much due to rapidly diminishing returns)?
- Question similar to Lineages: is the whole Petalframe (e.g. Steel Lotus) a Keyword, and its listed Abilities actually Breakouts?
- I am immediately uncertain what to do with the fact that Petal Keywords start at 5M. There is mention that Petals allow using all of the pilot's skills applied to the Petal. So if I were to take, say, the occupational Keyword Sniper 15 (raised to 5M with Improvement Points) and Petal Keyword Silver Snowdrop (which includes a sniper rifle), am I being redundant? If it's redundant, then I'm not sure what to do - seems like a combat-suitable (both on-foot and in-Petal) Occupation is a wasteful choice of a concept. Or am I supposed to always Augment one with the other (in either direction), recuperating some of the investment thus?
- Character Advancement lists the following option for improving Keywords: ' 5 improvement points across keywords and increase an existing breakout ability by +5'. Does a Breakout that is mentioned in a Keyword, but not raised before (i.e. a +0) count as 'existing' for this purpose? Or do I need to ensure that I have at least one Breakout to spend these upgrades on I must only spend this on already-raised-and-separate Breakouts?

Ok; oh well, so much for being bent on finishing it before being allowed to finally sleep.

To start, yes: the abilities in the description of every keyword are to be taken as possible suggestions of breakouts (I should change that to be more clear). This also answers your last question: breakouts are just specializations under a keyword, and their appearance behind the description is just an extra help on knowing what that keyword can be used for. Breakouts on keywords are things the character could already do with that keyword, but with the breakout, they're better at doing that specific thing. About the Character Advancement, the option just below what you're referring says "Add a new breakout at +5" as an option.

Overlapping abilities aren't a problem at all, first off, at character creation, it doesn't costs anything, and can make your character more flavorful. Besides that, there's a use for them: you cannot ever retry a contest with the same tactic (I. e. with the same ability), so the most different abilities that can be used on the same situation you have, the more chances you got. In-game, you would describe your tactic with each ability differently too, enriching the story; despite that, augments must always feel fresh and interesting, so the size of the bonus they give decreases with subsequent uses of the same ability. In that case, having other abilities to cover for more augments can be a good idea. Also, sometimes you will have to roll for augments (using the augmenting ability) to determine if you can augment, and how much will be the bonus.

All that being said, it's totally viable to, feeling that your character is already covered by a keyword, not have a redundant ability; that's totally up to you.

Yeah, petalframes are keywords.

A character with a sniper ability and a petalframe with a sniper rifle in it would be capable of using well a sniper rifle on foot (which can come in handy), and she will be able to augment her petalframe's ability with it.

You should really focus on making a character that you find interesting at the end of the day.

You don't have to respond immediately next time.
Yes, there is the latter option. But it's ambiguous whether a Keyword with a bunch of explicitly-listed Breakouts but all at +0s count as 'having an existing Breakout' or needing to take the 'Add a new Breakout' option first.
Full disclosure: this is about the idea of prioritising character's Occupation Keyword (which would be combat-inclusive) over the Petalframe Keyword. Which, yes, goes hand in hand with the idea of being competent at fighting both on foot and in the frame. Now, clearly putting as many Improvement Points into an Occupation Keyword only brings it up to 5M, while Petalframe Keywords already start at 5M, so I'd be setting myself back compared to someone who puts the Improvements into the Petalframe Keyword. The long-term plan is to focus on spending XP/Advancements on the Occupation Keyword and not the Petalframe Keyword (since they both do the same-ish thing).


What I'm uncertain about is how much I'm shooting myself in the foot if I decide to go ahead with this idea.
I do have a good idea what concept I want to play, but I'm contemplating how to make that concept fit well into both the campaign/setting and the system/sheet, as sometimes there's more than one way to mechanise the same idea (but some ways may be unwise compared to others).

(I think I already gave some glimpses of what I'm aiming for by listing the actual concept phrase and influences; the examples in this thread so far have been deliberately steering away from that concept to avoid further 'contamination' of the discussion. If this is a problem, I can stop and 'steer back' again.)

Oh, I was talking about having written most of the stuff in this forum and the recruitment post at 3am fighting to keep my eyes opened; figured some stuff was written less than optimally.

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I don't think you can shoot yourself in the foot here. The system is designed specifically so that hurdles over the system don't happen. In the worst case scenario where you somehow distribute your points unwisely, that means more failures, which means more XP, which means quicker advancement.

And you're free to discuss anything in this thread!

Edit: and yeah, the abilities listed under a keyword are merely suggestions, if I wasn't clear in the previous post.

Thanks for the invite! I'm thinking of playing with the Joanine lineage, but my overall character concept is still forming.

Great! Take your time.

I haven't quite figured out how I want to assign abilities, but here's a summary of my character concept:

Chimera Roosevelt (real name: Princess Juliana Jacoba Catheline Elizabeth Alexander Wilhelmina) is the princess of the Netherlands and a shameless chuunibyou. Possessing a sparkling admiration for anything "cool", Chimera has taken it upon herself to become "cool". Despite her predilection for sagacious declarations, Chimera is quite youthful and naive in many aspects (including romance, much to the consternation of her mother) and considered cute due to her relatively diminutive figure (much to her own consternation).

I also figure that she would have a couple of relationship abilities (ex. cool person that she strives to be on the same level as, declaring herself the rival to someone because they're that cool, the royal family, etc.)

As for her combat capabilities, I'm not too sure. I figure that she'd think magic is cool, but I think it's funnier if she can't do magic despite her efforts (at least not yet). Ideas I have:
- pugilist (maybe with a pilebunker)
- some esoteric weapon like a rope dart or a scythe
- various gadgets that she bills as "secret techniques"
- sniper (partly because the idea of a sniper wearing an eyepatch is mildly amusing to me)

Oh, that's an amusing concept! I think you could lengthen it a little bit to include more aspects of her.

About the relationship abilities, that just had me come up with a rule to help you guys out like stuff like this, the prose method where you write this text to describe the character is considered the 'advanced' method, while there's also the 'as-you-go' method, where you assign abilities on the fly during the game, up to 12 slots.

So, let's do this, to help out people that are unsure: if your character ends up with less than 12 abilities and 3 flaws, you can hold up to those slots for use during play.

In this way, princess chimera can decide on a present character to be her 'role-model' as the game start, either a frequent NPC or even some other PC!

Since we're sharing drafts, here's a bit more of what I have on the drawing board:

- Concept (Characteristic+Occupation): Charismatic Swashbuckler (alternativvely, Suave Swashbuckler), with Breakouts being either Allure or Magnetic Presence and either Combat Prowess or Agility respectively.
- Other, +0, Breakouts under the Charismatic (Suave?) Keyword: Persuasion, Magnetic Presence, Leadership, Allure, Public Speaking/Performance.
- Other, +0, Breakouts under Swashbuckler: Combat Prowess, Quickness and Agility, Showing Off, Being Stylish, Taunting and Teasing, Flashy Entrances and Daring Escapes, Karma Houdini, Smile in the Face of Danger.
- For the deductive side, I am inclined to take the Keyword Astute Mind with the likely Breakout being something like Get Into Someone's Head (in both senses, unless that's too broad).
- I'm undecided between taking the Cleopatric Lineage (which would mean French-and-Greek roots), no Lineage (likely French), or a homebrew Lineage based on the real and mythic exploits of La Maupin (French). I'm somewhat wary of investing into a Lineage because it's likely to overlap a lot with the Concept Keywords and since repeated Augments are discouraged (and it would likely become relegated to Augmenting most of the time it's used). Hypothetical Breakouts for the Maupin Lineage: Fencing, Singing, Dancing, Epicene Appeal, 'Reports of my Death Are Greatly Exaggerated', Evading a Manhunt, Disguise and Impersonation, Basic Academics, 'Corrupting' the Pious, First Aid, Defying Conventions and Getting Away With It.
- I'm not entirely sure how Community is meant to be chosen, but if I understand it correctly, something like Cosmopolitan Aristocrat is the likely demographic of origin and group to hang out with before joining the academy.
- I'd spend one Ability slot on having a valet.
- For the Petalframe, I'm thinking either Crimson Rose or Emerald Fern. I generally like the Rose better as a platform, but I'm ambivalent about the weaponry. I feel vulnerable without having a (secondary) ranged weapon, so the Fern has that going for it with the vines. I think I'd prefer a sabre and sidearm both in and outside the cockpit, which doesn't fit either Frame's default style.
- I like my swashbuckler to do some flash-steps (both inside the Frame and on foot) and maybe the occasional Batman-style disappearance from behind the corner, so I think I'd invest in the Blink Teleportation Konsha.
- Regarding Flaws, I would rather not bite more than I can chew, as I'm not yet confident in my understanding of how they work in this system: I see that they are assigned a rating starting with the highest Keyword+Breakout of the PC, which seems like a lot and that seems to escalate as the character grows. I'm wondering if the heavy mechanics might mean I'm better off taking some flaws as 'just colour' (along the lines of the box on page 102 of the corebook).
- Of the flaws I'm considering, a rival is likely to be interesting, and something like a penchant to seek glory and/or show off might be too.

Please help me out in resolving the uncertainties (e.g. when I'm unsure what to factor when choosing out of multiple similar phrasings) and fixing things that are inappropriate or wrong (e.g. things that are too narrow, broad, or just incorrect).

Abenanka "Chizuru" Kim'unko - Current Draft

Abenanka is the first daughter of the illustrious Kim’unko family, who lived as the guardians of the land long before Japan formally existed. She embodies her ancestors spirit; tall, strong, fearless and skilled. She does not shy away from her duties, nor from her training. She engages in both scholarly and martial pursuits, and strives to excel in everything she does. Only, excel she doesn’t.

While it’s certainly true that she’s a cut above average at the unique fighting techniques of her family, and that her historical knowledge is extensive, her tendency to distraction and weakness to pressure stop her from being the true best she strives for.

Even still, she strives to be earnest and straightforward. She doesn’t hide what she likes, what she strives for and what motivates her. This attitude tends to lend her an endearing charm, and helps her keep her head in a fight. After all, the bear lives in her blood.

For the record, I think samurai (traditionally a subdued, prim-and-proper, disciplined archetype) vs. swashbuckler (flamboyant and over-the-top) is a sufficiently contrasting duo that there wouldn't be much risk of toe-stepping. But you seem to be doing fine with the other concept too, so do whatever you would enjoy more.

I apologise that I didn't telegraph enough of my concept early enough to prevent the false start on the other concept without being informed about the parallels and contrasts; I did mention a swashbuckler somewhere in the interest check thread in broad strokes.

No, it's fine. Honestly it was an idea that popped into my head the moment I saw the game being advertised, but not something more fleshed out than that. No hard feelings!

I've got my draft together! I wasn't sure if Flaws scale after you assign your points, so they're currently based on the three highest abilities before I assigned them.

Name: Homura Kusakabe

Concept: Fiery Model

Homura is a model that left her hometown of Osaka to pursue greater opportunities in the Imperial Capital of Tokyo. Her incredible looks and force of personality quickly made her a sensation that has even gained some international fans. This has caused her to gain the ire of Yuki Adachi, a fellow model that is being pushed aside in favor of Homura. Yuki often tries to sabotage Homura.

Above all else, Homura is an idealist that refuses to let despair overcome her or the people around her. She possesses a hero complex, being quick to spring to the aid of others. If she can't help for whatever reason, it eats away at her. When she feels she is 'right', it can be difficult for her to compromise. Her temper can get the better of her at times.

In a fight, she relies on the power of pyrokinesis. She pilots the Sunrise Flare, which specializes in wide area flame attacks and interference.

Abilities
Joanine Lineage 3M
= Unshakeable Hope +5
= Rallying Cry +5
= Protected by Providence +5
Model 3M
= Stunning Looks +5
= Force of Personality +5
Wealth 10
Idealist 10
Pyrokinesis 10
🌸Sunset Flare 9M
= Flamethrower +5

Flaws
Hero Complex 5M
Reluctance to compromise 20
Adversary: Yuki Adachi 10
Ill-Tempered 10

Improvement Points Allocation
4 to Sunset Flare
8 to Joanine Lineage
8 to Model

Sunset Flare
Sunset Flare is a unit equipped to cover large areas with attacks and support its allies. It carries a large flamethrower fueled by a pack on the back of the petalframe. Thrusters in the legs and back allow it to achieve flight and attack from above, though the flight speed is nothing remarkable. The mecha can launch holy flares that are blinding and damaging to shamons but harmless to allies. It carries smoke bombs that can provide cover. Lastly, it is highly resistant to high temperatures.
Abilities: Flamethrower, Flight, Holy Flares, Smoke Bombs, Heat Resistance

Great, more character concepts out of the oven!

Well, let me start from last to first:
Eltesla's character seems fine and done, that's about how it should be made. There's just one thing: you assign a rating of 15 to your most important ability, then 15 to your distinguishing characteristic. By definition, the distinguishing characteristic is what makes your character unique, it can't be an occupational or lineage keyword, as those are general stuff that wouldn't make her unique. By the rules, the occupational keyword is taken from the noun on your concept (model, in this case), and the distinguishing characteristic from the adjective (in this case, 'fiery'); so normally your distinguishing characteristic would be fiery. I suspect that means more than just her pyrokenesis and has to do with her personality (in that case, Hot-temperate seems a better wording for her flaw); If that's the case, she could maybe have a Fiery keyword as her distinguishing characteristic (rated at 15) and then have Pyrokinesis as a breakout from it. In that case, the less defining of the other two keywords (I suspect it to be the Joanine lineage) would start at 10, not 15.

Also, yes, the flaws scale with the highest, second highest and lowest abilities.

With all that said: loved the character!

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As for Tickettbror's draft, I think all is well for now; please feel free to ask about any doubts you have concerning abilities. If you're unsure on how to word it all, Eltesla just offered a good template to follow~

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As for Vicky, to start off, I think using the term '+0 breakouts' could produce some confusion; also, most ordinary keywords (like Model), wouldn't need a description with breakout ideas. That being said, if she's going with Swashbuckler for her occupational keyword, some describing would be fine, though I suspect that would be made clear by her character description.

Your wariness to 'invest' in a lineage probably comes from the fact that you're doing the reverse order of things (which isn't necessarily wrong), thinking of specific abilities first. If you came up with your character concept first, adding a lineage keyword (should you think it fits your character) wouldn't cost anything, you'd just have to write it into your description.

Community mostly has to do with the main community in the game, I. e. the Steel Petal Division. you mostly shouldn't worry about this one, unless you want your character to have a relationship with some other community (E. g. some fencer's guild, the mafia, stuff like that).

A valet is totally fine.

If none of my petalframe examples fits your idea, you can always make one from scratch, there's on limitations on having secondary weapons for them, though having them specialize in a combat style would be better.

You wouldn't necessarily need the teleportation power to do that dramatic vanishing, as far as the system is concerned, a teleportation ability and a 'dramatic vanish' one would be just as effective to create that effect.

Flaws serve to color your character, be used to create interesting scenes and give you experience points; you shouldn't be wary of taking them. The ones you suggested are good ones.

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After some thought I think I'll expand on Chizuru's Ainu heritage a bit more and make her more on the spiritual and magical side, while keeping the core tank in mind. I'll try and get a reworked / finished character sheet up soon!

I'm fine using whatever term you suggest. The concept I'm trying to convey with that term is a subset of a Keyword that has not been improved above the Keyword's level (i.e. things that the Keyword covers, but that haven't been invested in separately from the Keyword investment). What do you suggest?
For starters, I did start with the concept early on (though I only wrote down two words initially). What I'm doing now is making sure the mechanics reflect the concept and help its key points shine. That being said, I'm increasingly warming up to the idea of taking the Maupin Lineage (probably has something to do with being a major influence on the concept in the first place). What do you think of the description of what the Maupin Keyword covers in an earlier post (above)? It's based on all the noteworthy events attributed to Julie in the Wikipedia article; should it be trimmed down or is it fine?
So we should all just take the Division as our Community? If yes, what do I think I should do with the 'cosmopolitan aristocrat' descriptor? Should it be broken into two separate traits? Does it interact with the Culture slot? I think if I try to break it, I'll exceed the 12-slot norm on Abilities.
Style-wise I still want to stay close to the Crimson Rose with some fraction of the Emerald Fern thrown in. Could be named Rose Verte or Rosa Monstrosa as a result, I suppose.
Is it bad that I'm considering taking it because it's meant to be very rare? (Or maybe because I played a teleporter before? I do understand in Steel Petals teleportation is more limited.)
I think there might be a misunderstanding going on. I like the flaws conceptually. I'm wary of how they're game-mechanised in this system, which is why I am looking longingly at the box on page 102 and wondering if it's better to apply the same principle to some of the characterisation flaws.

Right now it looks like Flaws automatically grow with the top two Abilities of a PC, which means so does their Hindrance and the odds of them overcoming attempts to Resist (since under most circumstances, the resistance score doesn't grow unless very specifically prioritised). I'm wary of my PC becoming more and more of a caricature throughout the campaign due to the way that works. At best that encourages picking the kind of Flaws that can be pitted against the character's strong points, and that feels more limited than the 'just for colour' variant.

I'm not sure on a specific term or the necessity of one. It's just important to have in mind that the abilities listed in a keywords description are merely suggestions and PCs aren't limited to them.

The lineage keyword description seems perfectly fine. I'm just not sure where 'basic academics' come from, then again, I didn't research on the character, but I don't think that academic knowledge would come naturally just because you're descended from someone (I may be contradicting myself here with the example lineages I made, don't know).

I'll probably give everyone the community keyword mid game. There's no 12 ability limit with the prose method, in fact, I just established 12 abilities as the minimum free slots.

Rose Verte is a nice name :)

Yes, flaws scale with the abilities, meaning that the odds against them keep more or less the same. There's also no limit to them, with most flaws above 3 scaling with your lowest ability (probably being a consistent 10).

I must add that I wouldn't see any problem on we changing some parts of your character during the game, should we feel displeased. So you mustn't worry too much about it.

Ah, okay, I'll fix that then. I'd taken the concept part as just a guideline. I'll make Pyrokinesis a breakout from Fiery, and while I'm at it, Force of Personality would make more sense as a Fiery breakout too. I'll also make Wealth a breakout of Model.Should be good now!

I took the 'Protected by Providence' breakout because I liked the sound of it, but what does it mean exactly? Is it essentially luck? A form of divine intervention?

Yeah, I conceptualized it as being saved by 'luck' in dire situations, stuff like that.

I think that would make her a Famous Model (or something like that)!

I'm honestly uncertain if I should try to make a custom character sheet for this, the way Eltesla laid out her character seems fine enough.

I'm thinking of adding an aspect where Chimera is actually quite gifted with crafts, getting the idea for something "cool" (whether that be a weapon or some clothes) and making it. If anybody asks her to make something, she'll end up adding her own "cool" touches that they didn't ask for. However, Chimera does this to make cool things, not because she thinks tinkering itself is cool. In her ideal world, she wouldn't need to rely on external means, but she lacks the constitution to be her ideal hero. She does training to hone her physical and magical potential, to marginal effect.

As for Chimera's weapon, something like a mechashift scythe/gun weapon sounds like something she would use.

An incomplete draft, all names tenative:
Chimera Roosevelt
Abilities:
Chuunibyou Princess
+ Sagacious Words Unbound by Shame
Hands of the Mad Visionary
+ Thousand Secret Techniques (in the form of gadgets and such)
Alexandrine Lineage
+ Unnamed technique(s)
#1 fan of Unnamed Hero
Small and Cute
Unnamed Petalframe
+ Mechashift Scythe-Sniper Rifle
+ Unamed mech abilities

Flaws:
Unsatisfied with Her Level of Talent
Unnamed Rivalry
Youthful Ignorance

Some rule questions:
- The SRD says that the default rating is 13, and distinguishing characteristic is 17, I just want to clarify that it is different for this game.
- Do the petalframe/lineage abilities and any breakout abilities count towards the starting 12 ability slots? I just get a bit confused because there are a lot of different terms (ex. abilities, keywords, breakout abilities) flying around for things that seem to work the same way mechanically.
- Is there a limit to how many breakouts can be under one keyword? I figure that a lot of things about Chimera stem from her chuunibyou tendencies.

Oh, I think you're consulting a not-up-to-date version of the file. The latest edition, which you can download here, uses basically just multiples of 5 for starting ratings, bonuses, etc.

Again, 12 isn't a limit to the amount of abilities you can have, and let me try to clarify the terms: abilities are everything that describes what a character can do, they can be either stand-alone abilities or keywords, keywords can have breakouts as further specializations. There's no hard limit to how many breakouts a keyword can have.

I must say I'm intrigued about the Roosevelt alias... Is that some reference that flew above my head?

I don't think I was using an up to date edition, this one is a lot more clear. XD

Okay, going with the Maupin lineage then.


Regarding descent and skills, if basic academics are inappropriate, sure, let's drop them from Maupin. (This was meant to mean the general basic education, which in the past often suffered from gaps. But whatever.) I'm surprised about what is and isn't appropriate for a Lineage benefit, since Cleopatra's Lineage (which I originally considered) has this line:
So I'm now unsure whether Lineages are meant to be semi-mystified inherited talents, or things that also come from traditions of the family's education priorities.
I guess I'll try to go ahead with this for now then.

Here is my draft:Some questions and comments:
- What does the Culture Keyword cover? I know we should have them, so wrote one down based on country of origin, but I haven't found any listing of cultural competences in the Genre Pack.
- The rulebook states that characters are assumed to be sufficiently fluent in the base language of the campaign, so I'm assuming all foreign characters are at least bilingual (maybe trilingual) without dedicating a Keyword. (So I'm not shoving 'Cosmopolitan' into the current version of the draft.) Is this right?
- I wrote down Well-Rounded Education as a Breakout because it came naturally in the sentence, but I'm not sure if it was a bad/silly idea and I should undo that. What do you think?
- I'm still indecisive about whether to pick Allure or Magnetic Presence as the Breakout under Charisma. I might end up swapping the two (maybe even several times) before finalising.
- Is this a suitable example of a Community? (You mentioned we will eventually get the Division community afterwards, so given the origin I wrote down the old community, with which Claude will stay in contact anyway.)
- Should I just write 'Finesse', or narrow down to 'Combat Finesse' in the Breakout under Swashbuckler? I know an example character had Combat Prowess. I'm guessing I should narrow it down.
- I'm putting the main Improvement Points on the Concept Adjective and Noun, which puts them at an even level with the Petalframe Keyword. I am still unsure whether that was a silly thing to do.
- Apparently the Sidekick gets a separate pool of Improvement points. I'm spending those on the Occupational Keyword.
- Added a description of La Rose Verte. What do you think?

Abenanka "Chizuru" Kim'Unko - 2nd DraftAbenanka is the first daughter of the illustrious Kim’unko family, who lived as the guardians of the land long before Japan formally existed. She embodies her ancestors' spirit; precise, measured and fearless. She does not shy away from her duties, nor from her training. She engages in both scholarly and martial pursuits, though with a focus on her magical training, and strives to excel in everything she does. Only, excel she doesn’t.

While it’s certainly true that she takes well to her theoretical training, she struggles with the practical applications of such concepts. She struggles under pressure, and has trouble adjusting her pace to fit that of other people. Her earnest demeanour and straightforward goals earn her a lot of forgiveness though.

When she reaches her boiling point, Abenanka becomes withdrawn. She’ll try and find patches of greenery. She’s not good with animals, beyond birds, but she prefers the peace and quiet away from cities and people.AbilitiesSpiritual (20)
= Charms and Tokens +5
= Bird Affinity +5
Guide (15)
= Wilderness Expert +5
Kim’Unko Lineage (14)
= Barrier Expert +5
Linguist (12)
Martial Artist (11)
= Grappler +5
Snowdrop Lotus (8M)
= Digging Claws +5

FlawsBoiling Point (13M)
Unaccustomed to Cities (20)
Slow and Steady (11)

Thanks for the updated link!

As for the Roosevelt thing, I just thought of a coolish sounding name. It does happen to fit the time period, after all. Not knowing what the name's origin was, I looked it up and it turns the family started as Dutch immigrants (Rosenvelt), which I decided was as good a way as any to decide where she hailed from.

Anyways, I've submitted a character sheet, also posted below. Didn't assign improvement points yet, and still haven't decided on a suitable mech yet.

I did have a question about flaws: is the petalmark keyword (which starts at 5M plus any breakouts) meant to count for the flaw rating? I assume so, but just making sure.

Nice, I finished character!

About the the flaw question, I decide that they don't consider petalframe abilities, as they're higher than normal and will hardly be used against flaws (unless they hail from the petalframe itself), so no, they don't consider the petalframe keyword when assigning their rating.

And Tickettbror's character seems just fine too.

I added the custom Petalframe and Lineage to the Genre Pack thread. I trimmed down the Abilities listing to something more manageable, along with a minor adjustment towards being more theme than fine-grained enumeration. Does that look OK? Also, any commentary on the draft of the prose-and-stats upthread? @Moyreau

Sorry, didn't saw the post at the time.
- Yeah, everyone is fluent in Japanese and in their mother language;
- Indeed I messed up, the academics for the lineage is indeed suitable. I don't think well-rounded education is a good ability, it seems to me that it means your character has an average level of knowledge of common things, that's presumed from all characters and would hardly be used in a contest; it could be used on other knowledge-based contests with a Stretch, though;
- Yeah, the French nobility is a suitable ability.
- Finesse is good as an ability too.
- The descriptions of the lineage and petalframe are good too, just a heads-up: technically you guys will be piloting among the first petalframes (they're still prototypes), and the ones I listed as examples don't necessarily actually exist in the setting, so describing yours as based on them doesn't make much sense. That's very minor and irrelevant though, your character seems good for me.

It seems we got all characters done, and they all look great.

Some potential caveats though: Homura Kusakabe and Claude d'Armanngnac, with their heights of 183 and 185 cm would be seen as extraordinarily tall girls in the setting's time period, specially for the former (as a Japanese girl); if that's intended, that's then fine, I just wanted to keep sure we're on the same page.

Before I can start, I would just like you all to do this: pick a main motivation for your character, if she don't already have one, for participating on the Steel Petal Force and defending Tokyo - talking of which, I just wrote a draft about it, which is prone to receive more detail in the future, thus it's the ideal time for you/your characters propose any 'customization' for it. Besides that, any other shorter term goal for the PC would be nice, but not required.

Then, I would like everyone to establish a connection with at least one other character, the order being this:
Homura Kusakabe -> Abenanka Kim'Unko -> Chimera Roosevelt -> Claude d'Armagnac -> Homura Kusakabe

It mustn't be anything too complex or that goes back some years. Something simply like 'travelled together to Japan or the Capital to join the Steel Petal Force'.

On that same note, everyone is light on background for now, which is fine (and according to what I asked), my plan is to develop these as the game plays out, when it becomes necessary.

I understand that this height is remarkable, but it does happen in real. It's also about in the range of Martina Batini, which seems a fitting inspiration for a swashbuckler. (That being said, above-average height is a trend for my PCs, the 'normality' in your previous campaign was an outlier.)

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Unfolding what was briefly mentioned about motivation:

I see Claude as liking glory and attention and opportunities to show off (which all are in line with the values of French nobility), and so would be a pleasant position to take. Also, seems this Petal project is a joint project involving many countries, and that likely means the French monarch personally approved participation in this project, and probably thus tasked the noble families to contribute to it in some way.

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Regarding the connections, I'm not sure how to read the arrows, so I'm just going to post ideas for the two connections involving Claude; please correct me if one of them is extraneous.

Regarding Chimera Roosevelt: Since both of our PCs are from high-born families of Europe, perhaps they met at some royal court? Now, Claude is not royalty, and is a bit young (18-20 at the start of the campaign, perhaps a bit younger during the backstory event) to have a landed title (in the local system of titles anyway). I could imagine maybe Claude having a semi-ceremonial job relating to the royal guard at a court Chimera visited (at the risk of ominous parallels with the Rose of Versailles)? If we want some drama, perhaps at there was some incident culminating with Claude getting involved in a (nonlethal) duel that Chimera witnessed, or maybe was a Second in, or something?

Regarding Homura Kusakabe: this one is harder for me. A Japanese model . . . I guess that warrants some sort of coincidental encounter, maybe soon after arrival but before joining the unit? Or maybe the Joanine lineage offers some sort of connection to France?

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*Looks at the characters thread*
Aww, I was expecting that our commander would be able to compete with Kamiyama Seijuro visually.

All good by me. My intent with the arrows was that you would assign a connection to the character that your arrow is pointing at, and the character pointing an arrow at you would assign one to yours.

That's the general commander grandpa, not the division's commander (which I'm going to call captain to avoid confusion).

The other one, previously listed as 'Akira Hoshikawa' / 'Steward', the one that looks like the general commander's sibling? Or is that a yet-unlisted role that will be filled by a new character ranked as a captain?

It's unlisted, as he will show up after the first chapter~

For the record, I wasn't thinking of a duel with Chimera, but rather with some NPC adversary, most likely over someone's affections.

But what sort of loss and what sort of duel-in-quotes are you envisioning? It seems you might be having in mind something different from my idea, and I'd like to know more.

Also, do you want the butting heads thing to have already started as part of the background connection events, or are you just fereseeing it happening during the campaign?

Yeah, it's intentional. i think it'd be a part of her appeal :P

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Homura's main motivation is that she simply feels morally obligated to fight the shamons, playing into her main flaw Hero Complex, as well as her lineage. She can't sit by when she has the power to help. I say there's also a patriotic element to it, so she's proud to be able to serve her country like this.

As for a shorter term goal, maybe she wants to destroy a certain powerful shamon that tore apart much of Osaka, resulting in the death of her best friend. This would be somewhat before discovering she was a Seisha.

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Homura's connection to Abenanka... I suppose they could've met in the Academy that was mentioned in the IC thread and ended up hitting it off. Homura's fiery nature would balance out Abenanka's slower, more methodical nature and vice versa, though I imagine it'd also make them clash sometimes. Homura tends to use 'Chizuru' rather than Abenanka.
They probably could have met at some social event in Tokyo. Homura is "common" (possessing noble blood but not a house) but I imagine her burgeoning modeling career would give her the connections to be at the sort of events Claude would attend.

I kinda dipped that academy idea from the thread, meaning the characters wouldn't be required to attend any military academy before entering the force. They could though. Maybe the two of them met in another place some time back? I'm pretty sure there wasn't compulsory school in Japan in the time as we have now too.

So some kind of exposition that the high society from across the world attends? Or did you have something else in mind?

Also, both our PCs have adversaries (in your case a named one, in my case a situational one that may vary from episode to episode). Is there perhaps some sort of connection that can be made through those? Example ideas (mutually exclusive):

- Claude's adversary at the time was none other than Adachi Yuki (optional reason: both competing for someone's affection). At some point, Claude and Homura joined forces.
- Yuki tried to manipulate Claude and Homura into butting heads, but things somehow worked out.
- Claude and Claude's adversary competed for Yuki's affections. Homura got tangled up in that mess somehow, and either defused or detonated the situation, resulting in much fallout but eventually establishing some odd positive relationship between Claude and Homura. (I did not think this through - it looks like a recepe for a rather chaotic story, and I'm just throwing it at the wall in case you have an idea how to resolve it in an interesting way.)

Thoughts?

Ah okay, I'd been wondering why that entire bit was absent from the recruitment thread. Alright, then how about this instead for how they met: Homura was having a photo shoot in the forests of Tokyo. She happened to wander off during a break and ended up meeting Chizuru, whose in the middle of one of her 'Boiling Point' retreats.

A potential idea to add onto that, maybe they stopped a sudden wildfire by working together? Homura stops the flames from spreading with her pyrokinesis, giving Chizuru long enough to set up a barrier that traps the flames and smoke. The wildfire burns itself out without a constant flow of oxygen to fuel it.

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An exposition with a bunch of high society figures sounds fine, Vicky. In fact, it could be a gala celebrating the successful launch of the petalframe prototypes, in which case most of the attendees would be benefactors that had a hand in the project one way or another.

Your ideas are all good, but I find myself leaning towards the second one. Or perhaps a combination of the first and second. Yuki felt that Claude was a threat, so she tried to set Claude and Homura against one another. Then they'd wise up and turns the tables on Yuki.

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On another note, I'm changing Homura's backstory a bit to strengthen her motivation. I originally had her move from Osaka to Tokyo, but after looking over the world history, I thought I should have her be born in Tokyo instead, but the devastation of the Imperial Capital of Tokyo during the Second Great Demon War forced her and her family to move away to Osaka. Her best friend still dies, but that takes place in Tokyo instead. The powerful shamon that was mainly responsible was wounded and scarred by Empress Kiyomoto's last stand, but it went into hiding to slowly regain its strength. Upon returning to Tokyo years later, Homura's motivation for piloting is not just to defend Tokyo and Japan as a whole out of obligation, but also to prevent a tragedy like the Second Great Demon War from ever happening again.

On that note, will we get some more details on shamons later? All we know is that they're evil monsters that have plagued the world for one and a half millennia, and they seem to originate from another world. What do they typically look like? What common abilities do they have?

Oh, those ideas sound exciting! Just pointing out that petalframes are secret weapons (the PCs would only know about them when being invited into the force, unless they have some previous relation to them).

As for the shamos, I can share some images I plan to use in a minute. What the public knows about them is basically that what you said. As the story progresses, I plan to expand on that (as the PCs learn it themselves).

Also, it would be interesting if you guys throw any extra info on your characters that you come up with, like background bits, on the character sheets, for our ease of access.

Based on what Moyreau wrote, seems the gala would be celebrating something else. But otherwise with similar details and participants. At this point I'm setting on assignment of semi-ceremonial positions in the guard for the élites of society (palaces, envoys, embassies &c.) being a part of Claude's background.
I think it might be nice to flesh out this Yuki of yours a bit more, both because of being a recurring character, and because those details would make it clearer what sort of 'toolkit' she used against the PCs. Is her competence area social-only, or does she also have a combat-oriented, mystical, and/or sneaky side?

If sneaky, then perhaps there was a stolen-and-planeted item involved, leading to some false accusations of theft and investigation. If a combatant, then perhaps the situation could eventually escalate to a duel. For the social focus, which seems to be the default, if taking a bit from the first idea-variant from the initial list, I suppose it could be something about both Yuki and Claud 'chasing' the same hottie at the time, and Yuki somehow (face to face or through indirect trickery) convincing Claude that it is Homura and not Yuki who is the other contender, with misunderstandings and shenanigans ensuing for a while.

What do you think of those possible directions of the incident? Which ones would we make canon and flesh out more?

Hmmm. I'm trying to think how that would start and unfold. I'm seeing Claude's default personality as chill and playful until provoked, and switching to SpiritedCompetitor mentality when pulled into a harmless challenge - graceful loser, courteous winner. (Serious enmity is an entirely different matter.)
Would it be plausible that maybe Claude was at some point assigned to Chimera for the sake of providing fencing lessons, in the hopes of helping achieve that living weapon status?

I apologise for veering off-course and suggesting an entirely different flavour of a connection above. I'm just not sure what areas of rivalry are likely between the two:
- Claude knows nothing about crafting.
- Chimera is small, cute, hammy, and is ignorant in matters of romance; Claude is tall, libertine, nonchalant, and sees romance as extraneous in a relationship. So on the social side, it seems that they can't compete because they appeal to two entirely non-overlapping 'target audiences'.
- If I'm reading Chimera's sheet correctly, there's too much disparity in martial arts (outisde of a Frame) for Claude to consider starting a competition unless provoked. OTOH, Claude would admire Chimera's attitude towards self-perfection (if witnessed). Actually, on a related front, Claude would probably not really buy into the 'cuteness' factor given Chimera's attitude, so the odds of triggering that consternation are also lowered.

Regarding Dominique, that might be an interesting connection. The 'butler stereotype' is close enough (valet, not butler, though - primary specialisation being a personal aide, not a manager of a big mansion). Is there any more you'd want to add to it, or questions you have for me?

And what thoughts and adjustments to the connection would you have in relation to the above added information and thoughts of mine?

Also, you mentioned childish personality. Approximately how old is Chimera at the start of the campaign, and at the pre-campaign encounter?

I know we are not mandated to have a connection, but I'm offering this possibility anyway just in case it'll be met with interest:

If Chizuru engages in martial pursuits, perhaps Chizuru and Claude may have met after the latter's arrival in Japan, but before the campaign start, e.g. upon visiting a kendou dojo where Chizuru is a member. You know, just looking for local training grounds, since obviously Claude wouldn't be able to attend the salle d'armes attened back home anymore.

Or, less likely, maybe Claude was on the lookout for places to continue occult studies in Japan, and that somehow led to intersecting paths with Chizuru.

As a suggestion, the gala could be celebrating the end of the war in 1918. Though the characters would be quite young at that point.

It could also be the anniversary of the last Holy Pact, 15 or 20 years of it.

What exact year does the campaign start? I'm aiming for age 19-20, possibly 18-21 if needed, at campaign start. How old everyone is at that point does affect what kinds of prior events are or aren't plausible.

The game starts at the spring of 1923.

1923 vs. 1918 makes that 5ish years ago. 5 years younger. So 15ish for Claude. It's not impossible, but implies that 1918s France has similar expectation as l'Ancien régime era regarding when nobles begin taking on semi-combat duties (and again produces some fun but ominious parallels).

Would you rather prefer the expectations regarding age nobles are expected to get 'appropriate' jobs to be retained from the olden times into the 1920s, or to have them changed? (I think I can roll with either, but it does influence character backgrounds.)

Sorry, it wasn't very clear what you were asking, but yeah, French (and pretty much the rest of the world) is pretty much ancien régime.

On another note, I think there's only @Tickettbror left to stabilish Abenanka's connection, so I'll go ahead and start thinking of an initial scene, the details in the connections and everything else can be fleshed out as we go.

In that case, age 15 (maybe 14) seems like about right for getting some of the first service assignments. Like being attached to some higher dignitary attending the event as a royal guard. So Homura and Claude could meet at the gala for the end of the war in 1918, depending on Homura's age at the start of the campaign. Unfortunately, at that age they'd both still be a bit short.

Spirited competitor and harmless challenge sounds about right for what I'm going for. As for the subject of the competition, I figure that since Claude has quite a few traits related to showing off, Chimera would naturally take it as a challenge to show off harder, no matter what the actual task is. If you don't see it working out like that, let me know and I'll think of something different (like Chimera bugging Claude to teach her stuff like the blink step and fencing).

As for Dominique, my question would be what you see them doing during the game.

In terms of age, I figure Chimera to be around 15/16 years old. Any past incidents probably happened within the last couple of years at most.

Hmm, let's see, just kind of stuff Claude might have been involved in as a showoff that could get princess Chimera pulled in . . .
- Performing trick shots from a sidearm at some event. Probably hard to compete there against 5M-10M rating (either Swashbuckler/Showing Off or Swashbuckler/Finesse).
- Verbal performances, such as public speaking, poetry-reading, perhaps those semi-improvised poetic showdowns. Charismatic 5M, probably a tough pick.
- Playing chess, Whist, and the like. At a rating of 10 (Astute Mind), Chimera may be on even ground with the right approach, and that may actually fire up Claude's enthusiasm for the competition.
- Song (Maupin's Lineage 10) and Dance (Maupin's 10 or Nobility 10). Uh, might be competitive, or be something Chimera is better at, depending on what you consider to fall under Princess?
- Equestrian stuff at some event out in the field (Noble 10). Racing, foxhunts, trick riding. As above.

Any of those seem like it makes sense both to happen at an event the two were at during those years, and for Chimera to get hooked by enough to get involved?
I don't object to the above options working out if you think they make sense, but I do think it would be good if the teaching option also happened (whether with or without major results though - whichever you prefer). If that's OK by you. If yes, can we combine the competitive aspect and the educational one, or do you think that's too contradictory a relationship? If your response is no, that's fine too.
Doing chores (cooking, cleaning, washing, serving breakfast, heating water, maintaining fireplaces), running errands, delivering messages, greeting guests, handling minor arrangements (such as booking a table).

All that seems good! We can further develop any pending relation as the game goes on. I would just ask everyone to add all this info into their character sheets for ease of reference (and because I couldn't follow with the discussion for some of them~).

Oh, my bad, I read that Breakout satirically, interpreting this side of your PC in the style of Tagashi Yuuta and Takanashi Rikka. But turns out Chimera is more like Keiichi the wizard of words. In which case, seems Chlaude ran into a worthy opponent, or perhaps even is bested more often than not.
I'm not sure what's going to happen with theatre yet. I guess Claude should be able to do OK there, but not be remarkable in the technical skill department, and be typecast into self-similar roles. Hard to comment on the gadgets and the unassigned slots, will have to see those in action.
Cool. I think being assigned as a guard of honour at one occasion, as a fencing personal tutor at another, and going head to head at several events involving public speaking, would be a cool background for the two (not necessarily in the listed order). Or at least two out of those three things (the guard subplot can be droped with no loss, whichever you prefer). For ease of RP, the connection may be not particularly deep/strong at the moment the campaign starts, but I think it's nice to have those things already there rather than making them from scratch during the campaign given what we discussed so far.

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Random thought: between the name Chimera and the Cursed Hands of the Mad Visionary, I'm now imagining that Chimera's Petalframe looks something like this:

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My sheet should now be visible to everyone, has motivation added and will have the connections added once they are fleshed out more / finalised in the thread.

We'll go with it being in celebration of the Second Great Demon War's end then, as Moyreau suggested. This would make Homura around 13 at the time, so she'd probably be attending with her parents rather than on her own. I hadn't thought about what her parents do anyway, so I'll make Homura's mother an esteemed seamstress and her father a journalist.
I'd say she's got both sneakiness and social finesse in her 'toolkit'. Juxtaposing Homura's earnestness, Yuki constantly masks her true nature and uses manipulation to get what she wants. I'm also thinking of establishing her as the potential heir to the Adachi Corporation, which would mainly be a defense contractor. Her family adheres strictly to a meritocratic mindset regarding inheritance, so she's competing with her siblings to earn the right to be the heir. She'd be 16 at the time of the gala, and 21 in present day.

Hm... To expand on the sneaky steal-and-plant approach, she could've stolen something important off of Claude, like a signet ring bearing the d'Armagnac crest. She planted it on Homura, then directed Claude towards her. While the two of them got into a heated dispute, Yuki would pursue the hottie she and Claude were after. How's that?

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Looks like I can put the connection down on my sheet then, but I'm curious about why Abenanka has mixed feelings about 'Chizuru'. Is it something you'd rather explore or reveal in play?

Wow, that escalated. A signet ring would be both rather tricky to steal normally (then again, Claude is portrayed with no rings, so I guess it not being worn makes it easier to steal), and of such importance that such a theft would be more than some harmless rivalry. I guess ultimately nothing was proven, so Claude is still unsure if it's really Yuki, but did eventually figure out that Homura is being truthful (Getting into Others' Heads), but it took a while, and the whole investigation was ultimately very inconclusive, full of 'coincidences' that are probably not coincidences.

So what's the resulting relationship? Is there a grudge from Homura's side for the mistaken accusations Claude levelled at her?

I'd say Homura does hold a grudge, though not too much of one as she suspects Yuki's involvement. Regardless, I think it'd be more interesting for Homura and Claude to work past their bad first impressions of one another.

OK, writing it thus on my sheet:

Homura Kusakabe: an uneasy acquaintance after an incident where Claude accused Homura of theft due to Yuki's machinations (eventually cleared up, but without being able to prove who the real culprit is).

Mainly because she's used to Japanese people ignoring her Ainu name and using her Japanese name instead. Although she doesn't hate it, she would like her Ainu heritage being appreciated occasionally. That said Homura paying attention to her instead of overlooking her means she appreciates the attention on it's own regardless of what name she uses.

Looks good, I've added the same to mine. Now, I should make my post sooner rather than later :P

Ohhh. Well, I feel Homura would respect Abenanka's culture, so I'll have her not use Chizuru most of the time.

I see repeated mention of steam-powered stuff here. I think I may have overlooked something in the world history. I thought it's set in the roaring twenties with a bit of an implicit dieselpunk slant, but apparently I was wrong, and instead the dominant internal combustion power system is steam?

Yeah, the fuel being those super powerful soulstones. No need for diesel (and honestly we would be a decade or two too early for full blown diesel-punk).

Ah, I mistook some of the æsthetics as an indication of diesel engines becoming popular already. Still, what about petrol?

Eh... take as much less relevant in the setting.

Eh... take as much less relevant in the setting.

Is this everyone's first time at the Imperial Café-Theatre?

I presume so (that's your pick, really)

Hmm, I'll say this is Homura's first time then.

I much rather explore the dynamic through play, but if I had to choose, a guard of honor as a previous encounter would make sense. In that case, Claude probably knows Chimera from before her chuunibyou phase when she was more of a typical princess (maybe around when she was 12?). As a result, Claude might be taken aback after seeing what Chimera is like now.
Hey, the CASTIGATE THE ENEMIES OF THE GODHEAD ability pretty much exists for all petalmarks in this setting. I'm still thinking about the specifics of what Chimera would pilot, but unfortunately cool spikes will probably get in the way of the cool cape she's inevitably going to try to add (but maybe...a few cool spikes as a treat?).

Hmm. So do you mean remove the event with the public speaking challenge with Sagacious Words, probably also remove the education connection, and just make the two acquainted through minor interactions as a honorary guard and VIP? Sure, that works.

I don't think Claude would be particularly taken aback, but amused and surprised by the 'sudden' change - sure.

I figure that we could work the speaking challenges and education into the story somewhat soon. Thinking more on the honorary guard thing, I figure Chimera would've bugged Claude to show her a few things, at least. Sorry if it's not clear yet how Chimera will interact with Claude, I'm still getting a feel for everyone's personality.

It's cool. It's just best to decide whether Claude already gave any fencing (or other) lessons to Chimera or not, and whether the Chimera nickname is new or old, and whether the Sagacious Words are known or not. Otherwise I'm unsure what to bring up in conversation and what not to, for example.

1. I don't know about lessons, but I figure Chimera has had Claude show her before.
2. I figure Claude met Chimera before her chuunibyou phase (as Princess Juliana), so the nickname's new.
3. In the same vein, she wouldn't know about how sagaciously dramatic Chimera can be.

Now that I think about it, maybe Claude was an influence on why Chimera is so dramatic.

If you guys want to compete on a booth, we could make a contest to see who's victorious! In this case, there's no resistance for me to roll, you guys compare your own results.

Alright! I don't have a relevant ability for this, so I'll roll against a rating of 5.

Ouch. I mean, not even for an augment? E. g. Using her good looks on the boothman to cheat or something (of course, if that's according to her personality)

She could, but I feel that'd be against her personality. If she were going to cheat, it'd be for something with more stakes than friendly competition.

The matsuri plot so far sure turned in unexpected ways. I wasn't looking to start a Claude-Homura challenge, and I'm surprised that Homura did this to herself (I could predict Chimera doing something of the sort, but not Homura), especially after realising she has no applicable Abilities. Also did not expect that contest to be defused.

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Also, seems we have another candidate. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

OK, discussion time. Given that Resistance is 10M, that means that anyone directly participating in the Group Contest with less than a 10M total rating is skewing the odds in favour of the monster. OTOH, if there is one 'big hitter' (or two), while others are allowed to perform Assist actions instead of fighting directly in the Group Contest, improving the scores of the big hitters, then the odds of scoring an overall victory are improved.

How does the party feel about engaging in such tactics?

Remembering that this resistance is for the monster in a numerical disadvantage of at least 3:1. If that doesn't happen, it will be higher.

I went for it while trying to set up a situation where others might get bonuses. Darn those last minute petalframe calibrations!

How much do I augment for? +5?

Oh sorry, yeah +5. And you're a good candidate for using the bonus created by Chimera (since she mentioned the inflammable part)

Alright, I'll take advantage of the bonus!

Gee, a 16... Tragic!

Can I add a success with a story point?

Hello! I just joined so I will focus on learning the system real fast and making my character sheet pretty. :)

Oh, sure. If you think it is important for her to succeed in this one (oh no, I forgot to explain story points to anyone who didn't check the rules first-hand!!)
Hi there! I'll approve your character, just check your point distribution, I suspect something isn't right. You should have 1 ability at 15 (normally your main keyword) and another at 15 or at +10 if it's a breakout, the rest of them is 10. Then you spend 20 points among them. Also, the main flaw is equal to your highest ability, another flaw equal to your second highest and after that, everything is equal to your lowest one.

Furthermore, if you have any modification to the Steel Lotus petalframe (I presume it by the 'banged up' prefix), you're free to describe what's different about it, or maybe it's just a flavorful customization? At any rate, describing it in a short phrase can yield you some breakouts on it. Also, the petalframe ability starts at 5M, not 10, as normal abilities.

Never mind, I DID mentioned story points... I just forgot.

Alright, I'll spend the story point then.

Also, welcome to the game, handle and Typhoonflame!

Okay, I added where I spent my points to boost some of the abilities, and added a few extra details to the petalframe. My idea is that she's so reckless as a pilot that they eventually just gave her a petalframe that was cheap, hardy, and could function with tons of damage. Like the terminator that loses its legs and still keeps crawling.

Great! We're just waiting for the last player to make their action on this scene, we can introduce yours on the next one.

Cool sheet, by the way.

Not sure if intentionally, but a private one.

Whoops, I think I have it public now. I copied from everyone else. 🧐

@Moyreau You might have forgotten to give Typhoonflame some feedback and guidance on their character.

I did it through PMs~

Ah, I hadn't considered that. Never mind then

Cool character, handle, I like the pictures that you used!

I've also added more details about Chimera's petalmark. In short, yeah, kind of like the Manticore mech in that it's got spikes and lightning, lol.

Hey Tickettbror, that wasn't a close one, when you roll the exact number of your rating, you gain 2 successes, so it's the best possible outcome!

With my last post I prompted for handle's character to make her entrance on stage!

I'd like to request a more detailed elaboration regarding how we were briefed about the long-term constraints of our mission, especially in relation to our legend for the media. Specifically, at least some of the PCs are (a) public persons and (b) known to be combat-competent. So what happened right now isn't exactly a surprising outcome, and presumably there is some sort of guidance regarding how to spin the media reports when (not if) the public sees something like what happened now.

(I'm expecting that Claude will be making a statement, and for that it would be important for me to know what the character knows about the expectations of making statements given the peculiarity of the job.)

Good point.

While some characters are public figures, the thing being kept secret is that a military group is secretly grouping girls with great spiritual powers to pilot the petalframes for the purpose of fighting the incoming shamon (the fact that their occurrences are growing is being attempted to be kept secret, for avoiding public panic).

Publicly, the girls should present themselves as simply the starts of the café, while they could be known to have combat capabilities, the sight of them fighting and defeating a shamon whould cause quite quite the astonishment of the public.

Though it isn't a necessity that the public knows their combat ability either: Abenanka is widely unknown to the public, Homura is locally famous as a model, I don't think the fact that she can make things explode would be public knowledge (and could, maybe, even damage her public persona)

As for the other girls, they're all from abroad, the average Japanese person wouldn't know them (besides Chimera, but she's using an alias).

I'm still not sure what's Shizuka Gozen's relation to the public, or how she will explain being a part of the café.

Hmm, if she's the daughter of the city's Chief of Police (or Magistrate, or whatever the correct word for that would be in this setting) then she would be somewhat known in an "important guy's daughter" sort of way.

Perhaps the cafe is so popular that they build a little police box across the street to deal with any issue and to look good. However, cop they stationed there was a creeper, so they replaced him with their most straight-laced female officer.

She'd also be placed there to keep an eye on the secret military operation going on, since there's probably a power struggle between the city and imperial military officials. Plus, if any combat or suspicious activity happens around the cafe, Shizuku would be the reputable source for the cover stories.

Just an idea! Or she can be put on administrative leave and forced to work at the cafe to generate "good publicity" for the city.

Hmm... I don't think even the police or the rest of the military are aware of what's going on though, this is top secret stuff (of course, her daughter could be involved, that would help).

I think we'd benefit from her having an occupation closer to the café (I. e. inside it, as to participate in all the scenes that will take place in it); while that could still have something to her police current occupation.

Hmmm. Nepotism scandal in other city areas causes the police to move her to a desk position. Safety Inspector for the building and weapons/props they use in the plays?

I guess I should have just wrote her as already be apart of the secret military thing, I can still change it if that makes it easier!

Sure, anything not yet displayed in the narrative can be modified.

Well, if Gozen has a Petalframe, that seems to imply being in the know.

We worked it out fairly simply, Shizuka's dad just has DEEP connections and got her recruited on the team to keep tabs on them. So she's 'undercover' in that she's a cop working as Steel Petal pilot who is pretending to be the cafe's barista. But she doesn't read mission files or anything so she doesn't know who the other pilots are yet.

Oops, seems like you posted while I was working on my post.

Can we add that, as she speaks with Shizuka and throws her oily thing, she's being dragged by Rika? She wouldn't have to worry with the small legs then!

Oh, I didn't notice, but sure! I also edited in some "secret technique" names, which I imagine as being animated in the same way as actual techniques would be (ex. technique name superimposed on the background).

Oh yeah I didn't have a good introduction plan or something, I figure we'll meet at the cafe when you see me working there eventually anyway. :P

I'm currently writing your opportunity to introduce yourself.

Fun-fact: In traditional Japanese age-counting, called kazoedoshi (数え年), a person is considered 1 year old at birth and adds a year to their age every New Year's day. It was still widely used in Japan in the 20s; though I'm not sure if holding any legal weight by that point, in this setting where politics and culture are a bit more old-fashioned than they should be, maybe it does...

At any rate, maybe Homura would only need to wait 1 year to be able to drink in front of Shizuka!

I was trying to figure that out as well. Family registries were sort of like the birth certificates, it's not fun going THAT much into the weeds. :P

I'm not seeing a medic among the base's NPCs. What's the usual handling of situations such as Claude's?

Oops, I must fill in that post with some more NPCs, noted.

Tough to be fair, she only got minor bruises, nothing too serious, the consequence will disappear on the next in-game day.

Eh? Claude didn't go in her starry pajamas? Not very épatagée of her, if you ask me~

What pajamas? But sure, I can shift the portrayal into a less presentable direction. Edited.

(No pajamas, noted) I was just jesting with you though!

Oh, new player! Welcome, glad we got a full crew. ^^

Welcome!

@Moyreau Are we running with 'she was there the whole time' in regards to Hana? I assume you gave the go-ahead for aiurjordan to insert themselves into the scene, so I wanted to be sure of the intent there.

I think she could have appeared a bit later during the battle, with the other girls not yet meeting her.

Okay, that'd make more sense.

Sounds good to me, we can do introductions, just imagine that she has arrived fashionably late to the battle, and an arrow from her petalframe strikes one of the shamon or whizzes by and everyone goes, wait what was that?!

That is my idea at least.

Also, Hello! Thank you for the warm welcome.

Ok, I decided to skip Tickettbror's action this turn and will start going through the posts and describing the results.

I need help understanding what happens with my resistance roll.

Hana's resistance - (d20)
(17) = 17

My roll was for Forest Warrior + Archery Breakout. I rolled 14 (I add my +10 for archery and my +16 for Forest Warrior right?) So i have a 30.

You said the Shamons resistance is 10M does this mean that you have to roll OVER 30 to hit them? (10 + M(20) = 30).

You roll under your rating for a success, and then if you have an "M" next to your rank you have 1 automatic success. So if your rank is 5M and you roll a 6, then you have 1 success. And if you roll the exact same as your rank you get 2 successes.

The enemies (or whatever you are rolling against) also roll for their side. Whichever side has more successes "wins", basically.

The resistance rolls in the last post were for the shamon resisting our attacks, I beleive.

I think you got it wrong. The rules are these: your score in an ability determines the target number, you need to roll equal or below your target number to gain a success. If you roll exactly your target number, you get 2 successes. If your score goes over 20, you go to 1M and so forth. A mastery (M) means a free extra success.in th

So if your keyword+breakout was rated at 26, I. e. 6M, you have a free success, and must roll 6 or under to get more.

In this case, you rolled 14, over your target number, you only get 1 succes from the mastery. The resistance also only got 1 success from the mastery.

Since you two got the same number of success, the winner of the contest is the highest roller, in this case, the shamons, so you got a 0 degrees of defeat outcome (which normally means you didn't achieve your goal, but got some benefit out of your try)

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Once I get home I'll send the 1 page rules again in here. Also, I didn't yet finish my post because I had to go out, sorry.

Rules are found here.

This clears it up for me a bit, I was very confused by the Mastery part.
Thank you :)

Also im working on sketching a new version of my petalframe that is more in-line with the universe expectations dont worry!

@Handle

Did you want to maybe come up with some connection possibly between our characters since we share the Gozen lineage?
GM suggested it might be a cool idea, I'm happy to if you like the idea.

Oooh do you? You might have to make your character sheet public since it shows nothing right now.

I gave myself the Gozen name but didn't make it a noble family or anything. I can't see any of your backstory for Hana, but maybe the Takizawa side split off and they are cousins of some kind? Shizuka grew up in Tokyo, not sure where Hana was at but they still could have known visited each other or something.

I have looked and I swear I have not found a way to make a sheet public, trying to figure it out.

I think I figured it out

Yes, I can read it now! Maybe their fathers are brothers so they are cousins? We could be dramatic and have Hana blame the Tokyo Gozen family for her sisters death or something?

Interesting thought, I had intended for her sister to have died fighting the Shamon. Though I will need the @GM to tell me if she died inside a petalframe or if she was a BlossomMaiden, or perhaps all Hana knows is that her sister was Murdered by the Shamon. That would be sufficient for her to seek revenge regardless.

She probably questions why she was killed, I'm not sure how she could connect that blame to the Tokyo Gozen family; you can help me fill that blank in!

Her sister is unnamed so.. let's call her Kira Takizawa for now and she died (X YEARS/MONTHS AGO [Decided by the GM]).

I know your backstory says that Shizuka's father has connections, is that to the Tokyo Secret Police or something?

I had the idea of adding a short-term goal for Hana, she wants to learn more about her sister's death, perhaps she can find out the connection through some investigation

I was thinking the Shamon came from Tokyo or something, and maybe she blames the the Magistrate (Shizuka's father). Blaming someone for her death might be too unrepairable, though. Maybe something more fun and magical, since Shizuka doesn't have anything ~magical~ going on with her.

Hey all, sorry if I disappear now and then and particularly on weekends. I'm currently dealing with ongoing health conditions, and weekends are my recovery days so I don't tend to have the energy or headspace to post around then. I'll always try and catch up or keep up where I can though, so in the meantime assume Abenanka is present but doing things in her own time!

@aiurjordan I feel like Abenanka and Hana would definitely know each other beforehand...

My post is up.

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As for Shizuka and Hana: I think we could say that Kira was in the army on the anti-shamon division (what would become the Steel Petal Force), fighting in the great war some years prior (which ended in 1918). I think it would be better if the circumstances of her death were unknown to Hana for now. She could be acquainted with other veterans of the war as they would be her sisters comrades, like Moriyama and Hoshikawa, and maybe Shizuka's father (if he was one, that's up to Handle).
Hello!

I see you got a reasonable reason for being absent sometimes, no problem with that.

Shizuka would be that friend with a constantly cracked phone screen, only with her mech. :P

@aiurjordan What about them having a past event when they were kids where they helped defend a local shrine from being destroyed by a rampaging boar (or some other animal)? Would tie into your character's spirit animal thing, and maybe give a connection to a spiritual city animal of some kind.

I will adpot Moyreau's ideas for Kira (Hana's sister) I like the idea of the circumstances of her death being unknown just that she died fighting the shamon in around 1918. The connection to Moriyama and Hoshikawa, and possibly Shizuka's father if @handle likes that idea.

@Tickettbror How do you think they might have met eachother?

@handle I think the shrine idea is neat, maybe Hana was brought in because the boar was a malevolent spirit or something, and Hana's Animal Soul-link power would have been useful in calming the spirit somehow, it would make sense that her power is known after it was discovered and maybe she was specifically requested by Shizuka's father, since he was aware of her sister Kira. Shizuka's father might have known that Hana's father had a daughter with a strange animal power, that could possibly be useful in calming or sealing this spirit-boar. (Ideas?)

I'm cool with the mysterious death having connection with the older, political folks. Shizuka wouldn't be directly involved but it could set up dramatic reveals in the future.

For the shine, I think it'd be more fun if they just did it own their own. Maybe there was some reason why their families were meeting in Tokyo, but as kids they could have just run off to do something fun and they ran into the crazy boar and shrine spirit. Then after helping the shrine Shizuka would just take Hana's word for it that there were spirits involved, since she wouldn't be able to see them I assume 😂

We can go with that, and drop the spirit part. I was taking a liberty on the animal-soul link thing.

Let's say perhaps that they met at a shrine, Hana was visiting Tokyo, and there was a wild boar that appeared and Hana was able to calm it using her power. That would be a memorable event, and cause them to know each-other.

Sounds good! Would they still be related or do you want to do more of a really-distant relative thing?

I like the idea of them being cousins.
Perhaps they have visited eachother a few times during their earlier lives and are actually decently acquainted :)

I have been really struggling to find some kind of art that looks like what I am envisioning for Viper Lily, even tried to draw it myself 4-5 times and was not satisfied with the result..


Basically imagine this one but without guns, and instead a big bow to shoot laser arrows.

Or this one without the claw, but a big bow.

These are about the two closest images I can find that match the vision I have, hopefully we can just use the power of imagination and fill in the blanks. The visual aid is very important to me.

It's a bit hard, I'm still trying to find one I like. I think a body type without a weapon is the best to hope for, I swap between searching for "dieselpunk mecha" and "heavy mecha" for the stout little mechs in this setting.

Oh I found one I like!

This one is perfect if you just imagine the weapon is difference, just lean and sleek enough to work!

@aiurjordan The two are fairly similar in their origins and backgrounds, both being forest warriors with spiritual and strict upbringings based in tradition and politeness. One represents Japan and the other Ainu, and their approach to how they live are very different. It's more than possible their families have come into contact before, for these exact reasons.

Also, I'm not sure if you'd want to play up Abenanka's difficulty with animals and wariness in how the two of them interact?

I could see them having met before but in a more official capacity, like Hana was dragged along as her father's daughter to an official function where she was somewhat reluctant to attend perhaps.

I don't actually believe they could have been childhood companions or anything like that though.

Would she know about Abenaka's difficulty with animals, if she sees it I'm sure I could play it up a little bit more.

I am not sure how to respond to the current situation, so skip my action if you need to. I need a bit more prompting I think, I'm not used to such a free-form RP just yet.

Right now the most straightforward prompt seems to be (perhaps more implied than explicit) who leans towards preferring which of the role(s), and the PCs making those leanings known.

Shizuka is tired from only getting a little sleep in the truck on the way back, so she's just going with the flow~

@Eltesla, we can frame your action as a contest: your prize is getting better at acting, compelled by your flaw. You can describe your tactic and roll. Since you don't have any ability that seems directly useful for this, you'll have to be creative =P

Hmm, well, maybe the Force of Personality breakout might help here, at a stretch. Maybe that passion and charisma gives her a lot of stage presence?

Okay, you can roll with that breakout at a -5 stretch.

Ok, Homura succeed with 0 degrees of Victory... A rough but still promising start!

About Shizuka's and Chimera's sparing, you could do a contest to see how serviceable the training is. The one with the higher ability being used can make the main roll, while the other one rolls to augment her partner. I presume the one making the primary roll would be Shizuka with her 5M wakizashi?

Finally, Hana could reword her action to make her 'focus' more clear, so she could take some benefit, something she'd strive to do now.

Edit: as for the sparing scene, I could see Chimera's flaws making her impulsive in the sparing, make it a bit riskier (and getting an XP). Though I can't see any specific flaw Shizuka would have for the same case, I could see her struggling to control her huge strength! This is just an idea though, don't feel forced to it.

I apologise, does 'with no just a hint' mean 'with no hint' or 'with more than a hint'? I think with Getting into Others' Heads, it might be possible to notice Abenanka's attitude if it's a troubled one.

Also, would you like to be 'randomly wandered into' to engage in some interactions, or would that just lead to two people talking without saying anything meaningful and then parting ways?

So "not just a hint" is a bit of a sarcastic way of saying "making it very obvious". I'm always happy to have interactions; Abenanka isn't super forthcoming (with most people) but she's also in a mood so she might be more likely to let something slip!

I didn't mean to have the little bit about Claude understanding Italian be criticising an overstep (although Abenanka does have Linguist as one of her skills) but more a bit of character in her letting her guard down / not being used to other multilingual people.

Ah, I forgot about the Linguist. That does increase the likely/plausible gap in understanding between the two characters. A shame, since I thought it was a rather cool hook to latch onto.

I'll just wait for a bit more prompts from Shizuka's and Chimera's sparring to narrate it all. As for your question, it's very credible that Claude would understand the Italian: 1. French has a lot of mutual vocabulary with it, 2. It would be expected of any western educated person to be familiar with Latin at that time and with Italian too, at least some decades prior, and 3. If Claude where from southern France (which is very feasible) she'd have lots of contact with the language.

Just a heads-up: it's everything the girls present at the theatre would mostly be in Japanese, though familiarity with the originals from Europe isn't far-fetched, of course.

Technically Armagnac is in the south, but on the western side of south, not eastern. Otherwise yeah.

Duh, it's right in her surname... Somehow I missed that =P

Posted with the sparring since I don't want to hold back the plot! I just did a normal roll, but I'm not sure if the +5 (Sword and Pistol) counts since Shizuka wore a bunch of pads and a shield to simulate being in her petalframe.

Hey, so I kinda want to raise a little issue @Moyreau, nothing significant but I feel like Abenanka is being a bit overlooked.

When making the roles for the play there were only 5, despite there being six player characters. I appreciate I was having a rough weekend so wasn't there at the time to weigh in on the decision making for who was cast as who though so no hard feelings, but I wanted to point it out.

Then with the most recent continuation; you've mentioned Homura's acting practice, Claude's bath, Shizuka and Chimera's sparring, and Hana's studying. Not only did your continuation with Claude not mention her conversation with Abenanka, but also the continuation fails to mention Abenanka at all. She's the only one not mentioned, in exactly the same way as with the roles.

Once, and at my own absence, is something I don't really have a problem with. Twice starts to look like a pattern, and I don't want to seem like I'm kicking up a fuss but I'd rather check in before it becomes an issue.

All of this said; I really like the characters, dynamic and relationships we've got going on here, and I enjoy playing with the players we have too!

Thank you for bringing your concern.

As for the play, I have intended to have less major roles than the amount of PCs, and that it would create some interesting dynamics (which pretty much happened, seeing Abenanka's interaction with Claude). There will be a bunch of plays throughout the campaign, with rotating actors as protagonists (and some may very well have less than 5 major roles, that's the case with many plays), and these will probably be chosen by me (I. e. the theatre management); I just gave everyone the choice in this one because I didn't yet know the characters very well.

About Abenanka's action in the free-time scene, I'm sorry if you felt overlooked. I thought her conversation with Claude was going well enough (and aren't sure if it is over yet), and thought that I didn't have anything to add to it on my part; but if you're bringing this up, it's probably was an error of judgement.

Oh, and the scene with Abenanka and Claude mustn't necessarily end now, you could continue it in the background as we go through the next one, no problem by my part.

Oops, I could swear I posted yesterday and not the day before... I'll post as soon as I can.

As for Eltesla suggestion, sure: everybody feel free to make side threads if they would like to linger on a particular interaction. I'll make a subforum soon.

@Tickettbror, do we need a thread to finish the dialogue, or do you think it can be wrapped up as part of one more post?

I wont be able to post for a couple days, working 12 hr shifts all weekend sorry! I just got home and am exhausted.

I don't mind. I'd say it depends how much you want Claude to press. Up to you!

Press? Probably not if Abenanka telegraphs avoidance of answers (e.g. avoids answering the last question or gives ambiguous answers), which is what I'm now assuming. But I (and perhaps others who are inclined towards long dialogues) should consider spinning off threads next time.

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I should also wonder whether I need an IC post to portray some moment when Claude asks Dominique to look into the sources of the rare camera.

I would be expecting that, actually.

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That's harsh!

It's ok, thanks for letting us know of your absence.

thank you im still going to read, might be able to sneak in a reply at work but just wanted to forewarn. :)

Before I post, I would like Vicky to roll for Dominique's investigation on the camera sources.