The call has gone out. Magi from across the world have dreamt of the Holy Grail and Command Seals have appeared on their hands, indicating the start of a Holy Grail War in Vienna, Austria. A Grail has been crafted, and it will be filled with the mana of seven Masters and their Servants, to grant a wish to one of each. The Mage's Association, the Salem Academy, the Anglican Church, the Einzbern family, a descendant of an ancient fangshi family, a monster and a renegade homunculus have all been gifted the chance, and each has prepared carefully for the battles to come.

However, not all is exactly as it seems in Vienna. The residents are haunted by odd dreams, and the city seems to hold its breath in anticipation. In the shadows, a mysterious cult worshipping “the White Princess" has made itself known, and mana seems unusually thick in the air. Something stirs beneath the streets, its ancient seal weakening slowly, just waiting for someone foolish enough to break it free, while people have been vanishing from the Thirteenth District, only to reappear some days later, their existence a Mystery beyond what even many magi have experienced. A mysterious white-haired Servant stands atop der Stephansdom, watching and waiting, while in the distant East, a woman leaves the home that has been her refuge for decades to investigate her dreams...

Hello all, and welcome to my first attempt at doing an RP here on this site. I have pitched this idea in various corners across the internet, but have never quite managed to get enough consistent interest and attention that it's ever taken off in a real way.

A few things about me:

• I have about a decade’s worth of experience in roleplaying, much of which has been on the GM’s side of the table. I try to be the best partner I can to my players, with the exception of when outside circumstances that force me to act otherwise.
• I’m not neurotypical. Generally, this means that unless you say something directly, I may not understand what it is you intend to say. Implications are often lost on me in ways that I find difficult to express, because they are such large blind spots to me.
• I am very uncomfortable with OOC drama and conflict, and as such, I ask that if you want to join this game, play nice with myself and any other potential players. Be gentle with me – like many people, I do not always grasp sarcasm or jokes when they’re transmitted across the textual medium.

With that out of the way, I think I should explain in further detail what this RP shall entail. The short version is that Fate/Awakening World is intended to offer one or two players a more interactive Fate/Stay night VN experience. What does this mean specifically?

Well, I will be taking on the role of the Storyteller, GM, DM, or whatever you want to call it, and portraying the world in which your character(s) interact and play. I am looking specifically for either one or two players who are reasonably familiar with the Type-Moon material (having read the VN for FSN is a huge plus), who want to play a Master, a Servant, or a Master/Servant pair that are engaged in the Holy Grail War described in the plot hook above.

The world of Fate/Awakening World (and isn't that just a marvelous mouthful?) departs from the world of Fate/Stay night in a number of ways. Below are a few things that will differ from what is usually assumed about the Fate world.

• After the Fourth Fuyuki Grail War (which occurred somewhat differently than it is shown in Zero), the Greater Grail was stolen from Fuyuki City by forces unknown, whereupon it was transported to its current resting point along the Danube river nearby to Vienna, Austria.
• This critically weakened the already flagging Matou family of Fuyuki, and it faded swiftly from prominence, having lost both its patriarch and its heir in swift succession.
• Magi and other scholars of Mystery have been noticing an unusual amount of mana being generated by the planet - it is as though, in contrast to what had been thought to be the previous trend, Gaia is reviving. There are mixed feelings on this matter, ranging from absolute terror to an almost religious ecstasy.
• Just recently, the Catholic Church has announced the discovery of another Holy Grail, and Command Spells have appeared on magi across the world. Dreams have become vivid, a call has been sent out. A wish will be fulfilled, and it will be fulfilled in the ritual of the Heaven's Feel - a Holy Grail War.

This will be a freeform roleplay, in that I’m not using any specific dice-based rules. This does mean that I will be basically the final word on what works and what doesn’t, but I’m not here to stop you from having fun, and I want to enjoy this as much as I want my player(s) to. I may ask the player of a Servant to create (or share with me) their Parameters, as is often shown in the Fate media, or I might make one with them, if they prefer.

While romance may blossom – whether between the PCs or between a PC and NPCs, note that I’m not hugely interested in sexual content, and the tag above is purely there as a just in case clause – it might happen, but it might not, and if it does, it will be in a way that doesn’t violate the site rules.

Exactly what medium this will be taking place on or in is still an open question – it may be via Discord’s text chat function, it may be via PMs here onsite, or something completely different.

My understanding of the Nasuverse and of the mechanics of Fate and magecraft, in my humble opinion, is above average. Inasmuch as there is information available to English-speakers, I have collected and tried to grasp it. I've read the VNs (FSN and Hollow Ataraxia), played Extra, Extella, and Grand Order, and read the novels that have been fan-translated. This means that I may say no to certain powers or ideas that are pitched to me, because it contradicts what image of the lore I have.

That said, I am also very aware that Nasu is kind of reticent on the specifics, and that the specifics are enormously confusing. I'm here to help with that, and am also willing to throw out some of the more obscure "rules" of the setting in favor of what is awesome or makes for a good story.

Here's some of the administrative details of the RP, or a tl;dr, if you will.

• This will be a game wherein I play the role of the GM/ST/DM/whatever, portraying the world in which the player character(s) interact.
• I am looking for one or two players (with a hard cap on four) to play a Master and Servant pairing. Ideally, players will have a working knowledge of the Fate franchise.
• It is as yet uncertain what medium this game will take place over, but potential players should feel free to suggest ideas.
• For this role-play, I won't be using any specific Tabletop system, nor will there be much mechanical grit to get into. I may ask the player of a Servant to show off or create their set of parameters, as is often displayed in canon, but as in canon, there won't be a hard and fast ruleset to which those parameters cling.
• I won't be making you play in the role of characters that have already been made. You can play canon Masters, but note that the timeline in Awakening World is rather different than the one in FSN's mainline, and canon Servants are acceptable as well.

If you have any questions that burn so brightly that you need them answered, or if you just want me to talk your ear off about the ideas I have for this RP, I’m available on Discord as #2543. I’m not actually on the server for this site, because I find it far too overwhelming – too many people and too much happening all at once, and I get confused.

Depending on the level of interest I get, I may try to run more than one game of this concurrently, but at my current place emotionally and physically, I do not think that that is hugely likely. More likely, I’ll up the number of players I’ll accept to four, but that’s the hard cap – I prefer to go into more depth with the player characters, and thus having my attention divided makes that more of a struggle.

Hope that this interests some folks out there!

I'm not really use to doing 1x1 roleplays however I've done plenty of fate/stay roleplays, and have played Umbral Star/Grand Order. I haven't read the original visual novel personally however I have a basic understand of how it went for the most part. I tend only pair up with myself in terms of characters so while I'm willing to join up I'd much prefer to have a servant (usually), and master of my own making. My own character will probably be a re-used one unless you have an issue with him for one reason, or another (he's a fairly a-typical elemental mage). If you're looking for something else in this regard I understand but I'd figure I would throw that out there.

Hello @vancexentan, and welcome! Good to hear that you are interested! While the primary inspiration for this RP will be the original VN, there are some aspects of Umbral Star that might come up, and while Grand Order is unlikely to provide much background, it does allow for the understanding of the basic classes (though I will note that the rock-paper-scissors of the classes is something that won't carry over, just to be clear).

I am understanding several different implicit questions from your post, which I may be misunderstanding, so I'm going to lay them out here.

First, you seemed to indicate that when you've RP'd romance in the past, it was usually within your own characters. Is this understanding correct?

Second, you seemed to indicate you'd prefer to play a Servant - but was that a Servant alone, or a Servant and a Master simultaneously? I don't want to misunderstand or give the false impression, so I wanted to be sure.

Thirdly, you want to have a Master and/or Servant of your own making? From what I understand, you would like to design your PC (assuming acceptance) yourself rather than have one assigned to you, which I am totally fine with, and that said PC would likely be a repeat from an earlier (other) RP - which I would likely want to look over more closely before giving a yea/nay on it.

Did I get those correct?

1. I have done romance is roleplays but it normally isn't the main focus. If romance works between them i'm ok with that if it doesn't seem like it will work then I'd prefer not to force it.

2. I'd prefer to play the master. I'd also like to play a servant alongside my own master. Depending on others for a servant character usually has not gone well from my experience. I tend to play 'canonical' servants and can mull over details if my character is fine for this roleplay.

3. I have a master of my own making that I would like to re-use. He can be scaled down, or up in age depending on what you need he tends to be in his early twenties from experience and while not from a mage family of particular note they are talented magi from north america. I would like to play this character and I can show you a pre-existing CS that will need to be changed to fit the mold of this rp but give you a basic overview of how his character is. I like to play my own characters.

1. I have done romance is roleplays but it normally isn't the main focus. If romance works between them i'm ok with that if it doesn't seem like it will work then I'd prefer not to force it.

Yeah, that's my sense as well. If it works, it works, if not, it's not central to the RP.

2. I'd prefer to play the master. I'd also like to play a servant alongside my own master. Depending on others for a servant character usually has not gone well from my experience. I tend to play 'canonical' servants and can mull over details if my character is fine for this roleplay.

Noted. I personally am somewhat hoping that there are separate players for the Master and the Servant, respectively, in part because I'm not super enthusiastic about having the same person play two characters. It's not a definite no, but I am more ambivalent about it than about the previous. The specifics of this could wait until I finalize the cast and whatnot.
I have no issues with the player Servant being canonical, but I am relatively proud to say that the Servants I have in mind for the PC(s) opponents are almost entirely of my own design. One has a canonical form, but that is not the class that he is being used in for this RP's purposes.

3. I have a master of my own making that I would like to re-use. He can be scaled down, or up in age depending on what you need he tends to be in his early twenties from experience and while not from a mage family of particular note they are talented magi from north america. I would like to play this character and I can show you a pre-existing CS that will need to be changed to fit the mold of this rp but give you a basic overview of how his character is. I like to play my own characters.

I have no intention of making you play a character that isn't yours - sorry if that was unclear. Interestingly, that background is relatively similar to one of the potential opposing Masters as planned in the RP... we'll see what happens in the future with that, depending on the circumstances. That all sounds perfectly reasonable, as well.

I'll update the opening post soon (later today) with some more details about the specifics of this RP, but I wanted to gauge the interest first. At the moment, I'm reluctant to go into too great detail, as this is primarily an interest check. I am probably going to wait at least a couple more days to see if others are interested before moving to the primary recruitment stage, if that seems fair.

If someone wants to play a servant character to my master that's fine however I'd grown to not trust others in terms of not leaving the roleplay for personal, or real life reasons. My character is also going to male so if the other player chooses a male character for a servant I will not do a romance as MxM stuff is a hard no for me. I have nothing against it but it doesn't fit me at all.

If you want to know the servants I'd play if given the chance if you'd prefer a female role Mordred (Saber), Scathach (lancer), Brynhildr (Lancer), Medb (Rider for a darker side), or Jeanne D'Arc (Custom Saber).

If you'd prefer male I'd go with Lancelot (saber), Child Gilgamesh (if you're unfamiliar with FGO He's a weaker version of Gil but less cocky), Fergus Mac Roich (saber), Li Shuwen (Assassin old), and maybe Cu Chulainn, and Diarmuid.

If none of those are ok for whatever reason I'd guess I'd be fine with Nero maybe? I guess I could always make a custom rider, or Saber. I'm fine with weakening servants if needed to in order to fit the given narrative.

I have updated the OP for some administrative details, and marked out where I will update for more plot details.

EDIT: Ninja'd!

If someone wants to play a servant character to my master that's fine however I'd grown to not trust others in terms of not leaving the roleplay for personal, or real life reasons. My character is also going to male so if the other player chooses a male character for a servant I will not do a romance as MxM stuff is a hard no for me. I have nothing against it but it doesn't fit me at all.

If you want to know the servants I'd play if given the chance if you'd prefer a female role Mordred (Saber), Scathach (lancer), Brynhildr (Lancer), Medb (Rider for a darker side), or Jeanne D'Arc (Custom Saber).

If you'd prefer male I'd go with Lancelot (saber), Child Gilgamesh (if you're unfamiliar with FGO He's a weaker version of Gil but less cocky), Fergus Mac Roich (saber), Li Shuwen (Assassin old), and maybe Cu Chulainn, and Diarmuid.

If none of those are ok for whatever reason I'd guess I'd be fine with Nero maybe? I guess I could always make a custom rider, or Saber. I'm fine with weakening servants if needed to in order to fit the given narrative.

Sounds reasonable, more or less. I hear you on the trust stuff, because it can make things tough for us internet RP-folk, but I still live in hope. xD

As to the Servants: Ko-Gil is funny and interesting, but I have a general distaste for having Gil in general. The others are all up for discussion, definitely.

Hmmm...interesting idea here! :D

I'll throw in my interest for this RP idea. I've played Fate Extra, Extella, and the English Grand Order game thus far. I have also seen Fate/Zero, and have partially seen the latest UBW TV series. I have also participated in some past Fate/Stay Night RP's. So overall i enjoy the universe for this stuff, though even with experience i must humbly admit i am definitely not a master of everything Nasu. XD

I'd prefer taking up a servant role rather than a master one if given the chance, using an OC servant rather than just making a canon one if possible. As for pairing up, you could throw me together with Van's master. OR, out of respect for Van's not too kind past experiences with people leaving RP's, i could make a servant paired with another one of the masters if you would like. Whatever works best!

Also, welcome to Roleplayerguild, @endwaar! :)

Thanks for your welcome, @Holy Grail, and I appreciate that my humble idea your interest. (I was also somewhat amused and surprised to see that your avatar is the image I ended up using to introduce the idea. xD)

As to preferring to be a Servant, esp. a non-canon one, that's perfectly fair. While I'm still hesitant to make a final say on who is paired with whom (because of my eternal optimism that maybe more people will express interest), I do appreciate your willingness to be flexible. I do have a number of NPC Masters in mind already (that is to say, I have seven Masters and six Servants already prepared, so I'm probably going to have to do some shuffling around if things don't lay out quite as I expected them when I was designing the RP.

I'm also updating the OP a few things that differ about the timeline of Awakening World from... well, whichever other timeline you prefer to look at. xD

I am thinking of leaving this interest check open for another day or so before beginning to discuss in more detail the roles of the players. As it stands, I have the number of players I was looking for who are interested, and I would be happy (even eager) to jump right in, but I want to make sure I don't shut it off from people who might be interested. Depending on how long my patience lasts vs. my excitement for this increases, I may move forwards sooner than that, but I think that I'll leave it open for others to express interest for at least one more day before starting in on the deeper details.

Well I'm glad you decided to hold out a little longer as I only just discovered this. I'd like to state my interest in this as well, but just so you all know, my fate knowledge is probably average at best as I have only played through the fate route, and have only a cursory knowledge about the other routes.

Hey, welcome @Alternax! While I do prefer more experience, I am glad that I left it open for longer as well, because more interest in my plots pleases me. (I mean, I would assume that's the same for everyone.) I was thinking of beginning discussions on who wanted to play what, so as to better decide who gets in on this. Mostly 'cause I don't want to run it for more than a couple players, due to other circumstances, admittedly, but there you go.

Did you have any ideas or preferences that you wanted to try?

Actually this is a little awkward but one of my professors just sprung something on us and I'm gonna say I can't be here for this. Honestly you're probably better off without me, I wish you guys luck.

Eh, these things happen - no worries.

Europeans sure love stealing the Fuyuki Grail not looking at you at all, Darnic and moving it to their homelands.

Given that this follows after some iteration of the Fourth, am I wrong to assume that

@Write and I have a Master/Servant tag team we've wanted to use for a minute now, if this is still open.

Can confirm we got this on lock if you’ll have us

Whoah, lots of messages since I last checked. o_O Welcome, all, and thanks for the interest!

Europeans sure love stealing the Fuyuki Grail not looking at you at all, Darnic and moving it to their homelands.

Given that this follows after some iteration of the Fourth, am I wrong to assume that

Hider [+]

the Einzberns still fucked up their chance of world salvation back in the Third with Avenger, or did they use Ruler and thus avoid both the corruption, yet also managing to not have the Grail stolen by the Nazis?

@Plank Sinatra and @Write: With the amount of interest that has suddenly arisen, I am no longer certain I can guarantee a spot in an RP - that said, if you want to PM me your Master & Servant combo, I might run two of this concurrently, as mentioned in the OP.

(I also wanted to add that I am so grateful to everyone for their interest. I honestly wish I could take you all, but that would rather defeat some of the point of the RP as it is currently designed.)