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Plot: The metropolis of Akemishi, otherwise known as Akemi to the locals, is a booming multicultural bastion off the Northern coast of Japan. Founded in the 1990's, construction concluded in the year of 2019 and has seen a massive population surge since. People from all over the world flooded in to buy up property, and allowing the city to become an architectural marvel of the modern day. Society was a perfect mix of the world's brightest, and technological advancements in the following years were swift and merciless. Despite all of this however, there was always something wrong with it - something integral and deeply ingrained to the design of the entire city. Whenever questioned about it, no one could muster a reasonable response that didn't mention the words "demons" or "Indian Burial Ground". "Crazed lunatics and paranoia", the mayor of Akemishi, Hiro Daiba, commented. Rumors began spreading of cults and religious sects controlling the nightly affairs within the city, poking and prodding at its roots bit by bit behind the scenes. There was no solid proof of this; or rather, there wasn't until recently.

Recently there have been mass blackouts blanketing entire districts of Akemishi. On an average day one could expect up to a quarter of the city's lights and electricity to be shut down. As soon as one district has been dealt with, the problem crops up elsewhere. It isn't due to lack of electrical power, and industry professionals can't explain it as by all rights the city should be fully functional 24/7. On top of the blackouts, rumors have been spreading of people vanishing without a trace during the darkness. There has been no public outcry as of yet due to the rumors stating that it's only affecting people that are loners of society and whom "no one would miss anyway". There has been no official evidence, though there are more police patrols in areas of dense electricity loss - a sign that perhaps there is a sliver of truth to the rumors. Locals are claiming it's crazed cultists or kidnappers taking advantage of the confusion to sell people into a human trafficking business.

For most, life continues as normal. At a certain high school within the darkened metropolis, rumors are buzzing about among students that the blackouts until now have been the kidnappers' figuring out how to tamper with the city's power - and that it's only a matter of time until they deliver focused attacks towards the more vulnerable.

For a particular group of unknowing students, a harrowing conflict concerning their very lives is about to begin. To survive, they'll need to uncover the mysteries of the blackouts and delve deeper into the rumors of those skulking the shadows. The more perceptive among them might even notice a flickering light, every now and again...

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Akemishi is a city built on a dream: to revolutionize technology and bring a sense of oneness to the human race while doing it. That's why all registered citizens are given an Auto-Lingual Translator, or ALT for short. The device comes in a watch, bracelet or glasses form, and is the primary method by which Akemishi succeeds as a multicultural society. The ALT is the pride and joy of the city's accomplishments, being a device that interacts wirelessly with a separate speaker chip implanted within the head of the person. This feature auto-translates all spoken words into that of their preferred, typically most comfortable, language; though this setting can be changed via the interface of the exterior device. The most recent update has even included a visual portion, in which all text is automatically translated into their preferred language similarly to the vocal portion, and visually edited live. These functions can be turned off at any point, however.

The ALT has been the largest focus among ambitious new scientists in recent years, believing that only true progress can be achieved once the baseline known as human communication can be reached as easily as possible.

Akemishi has many different districts, from the high-tech metropolis it's famous for closer to the center spreading outwards, to more humble suburbs or even countryside stretching further towards the outskirts. There does also exist a lower class area of the city where homeless and the less fortunate tend to gather, but most of the high society within Akemishi often pretend it doesn't exist.

More locations and location details added as they're revealed.

The Districts

Specific Locations

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Character stats will be required for combat purposes, and will determine the various things your character can reasonably accomplish. These stats won't be as hard and fast as in a full RPG or tabletop, but are merely a means of revealing the full extent of what your character is capable of in combat.

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Combat will be common within the story, as Persona Users are resolved and fated to fight against the unknown. To go along with this, there will be some general terminology, descriptions and mechanics to go over. In general, aside from RNG-based abilities such as ailments, combat is free-form using the spells and positioning of characters as guidelines.

All-Out Attack: When the Mental Fields of all members of an enemy group are destroyed, the party may each choose to sacrifice their next turn to deliver an All-Out Attack. This must be a group decision, as all must contribute to the AOA in order for it to work. If even a single member chooses not to participate in it, it will fail and those that participated will have their turns wasted. All party members must be at 1 HP or higher in order to perform an AOA.

All-Out Attack is an AOE attack on all Field-broken enemies that will deal damage equal to the entire party's STR + MAG damage, combined with each of their weapons' damage, as an automatic critical hit for x2 damage on the total that ignores Miracles and cannot be avoided even with Absolute Dodge.

In order to queue in for an All-Out Attack, party members won't need to write out a multi-paragraph speech about the assault, but may simply write in the action *All-Out Attack* to confirm their willingness to participate.

Instant-Kill Spells: Contrary to the name, these spells found within the Bless and Curse spell trees will not instantly kill when they hit. Instead, they will deplete all remaining Mental Field from a target. If used on a target that has no Mental Field remaining, it will instead leave them at 1 HP on a successful cast.

Weaknesses: Most things have a weakness of some sort. Nobody's perfect. As it is with life, all players and most enemies will have weaknesses and strengths. Hitting a weakness will deal 1.5x damage (rounding up) to Mental Fields, or two higher number ranks in the respective damage stat to Endurance. Alternatively, hitting an elemental resist will deal 0.5x damage (rounding up) to Mental Fields, or two lower number ranks in the respective damage stat to Endurance.

The list of elements will be tagged below, as well as what users of these elements are typically weak and resistant to. They are not a hard and fast rule, and there are many exceptions to this rule, but they are the most common regardless.



Ailments: Ailments are special negative statuses that can be inflicted upon a character for a period of time or until cured. Below lists the various ailments that a character can be affected by.



Spell Tiers: Spells and skills are separated into multiple tiers of effectiveness. Below lists the tiers and their respective bonuses.

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The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed. To that end, the faces that make up the Arcana determine oneself and how one affects their surroundings. Every person is bestowed an Arcana at birth, determining their destiny, and rarely do they ever change throughout life. Each Arcana will give power to the individual, and not one among them is to be scoffed at - for at the round table known as The Arcana, none are weak. Some, however, are stronger at certain facets of life than others. As such, an Arcana may lock a Persona out from certain abilities.



Social Links will also be a factor of the campaign, and will serve to grant new spell slots for ranking up one's own Arcana, or special passives for ranking up with others' Arcana.

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Each Persona is unique, and develops with their User. Personas will start out weak, but gradually become a force to be reckoned with over time as its User develops and grows as their own individual. Only by accomplishing their goals, learning the ups and downs of life, and surviving through danger can a User temper a Persona as they were always meant to be.

In addition to the starting stats given by the Arcana chosen, each player will get an additional +2 stat ranks to place anywhere they want. All characters start with 1 in everything, and stats cannot go below 1. Any Arcana drawbacks that give -1 rank to a stat mean that the User will need to be buffed for +2 or higher to start seeing results. +2 would give a +1 buff, etc. This also applies for putting ranks into stats that give a -1.

So ultimately I wrote a lot more for the RP regarding systems than I initially thought I would. I hope this is still fine for the Casual section? Despite all of the mechanics I've included I still don't intend to write as many paragraphs per post as I would on Advanced, just interested in making it feel like a close experience to true Persona. Let me know what you guys think.

Will probably get a CS up in a few hours, gonna go for Chariot.

I'll start working on something too. For Arcana either Hanged Man or Sun.

Since a lot of the choices so far seem to include +Str/Weapons, will probably go with a magical user. Was thinking Death or Devil for either ailment or curse related shenanigans - I've got an idea for a character for either one. Curious about the effects of luck as well (yay gambling) so Fortune is also intriguing.

Though, just to be sure, what does this part mean? Does it mean that for example... for Agi, instead of spending 5 SP, they may choose to spend 1 MF or 1 HP instead?

may cast magic spells for the MF/HP equivalent to the tier instead of SP

Anyone planning on having heal (and/or buff) stuff btw? Since Chariot, Death, Devil and Fortune cannot use heals.

I was thinking of having Zane heal, considering offensive magic is pointless for Emperor Arcana.

@Vertigo Yep. Devil's a balancing act of offensive spellcasting, basically. Using the MF/HP equivalent of the tier on SP skills like a deal with the devil.

@Ryteb Pymeroce
@Duoya
@Chi

I also forgot something in the character app! I forgot to add an appearance section and a spells section. Should be good to go now, so please copy/paste those bits in when you can. For spells... I assume everybody here knows how the spells work and what the starter elemental/physical spells look like and are called? I don't think I need to go into detail on how those will look. Basically just copy and paste the T1 spell rules for the spell type you're looking for, and replace "T1 [Spell]" with the element and name of the spell. For example...

T1 MAG: +2 dmg / 10 meter range / 5 SP

Becomes

[Fire] Agi: +2 dmg / 10 meter range / 5 SP

For the purpose of spells for your Persona.

Edit mine to include the new stuff.

@Ryteb Pymeroce

Just two things I see that need fixing.

Stats: Stats cannot go below 1. If your Arcana gives you a -1, it just means that whenever buffed for that stat, a +1 buff will do nothing. A +2 buff will instead give you +1, a +3 buff would give you +2, etc. It also means that if you try to put ranks into that stat later as permanent increases, the first rank put in will do nothing, and then ranks put into it from then on will function as normal.

Vargia Blast: It seems you used the template for a Magic spell for this. Phys/Gun spells use MF/HP as the cost rather than SP and have different range/radius, so use the template for a T1 physical spell instead.

Other than those, it looks good and ready! I got some Kanji vibes from the character and I can always appreciate that.

Edited, should I post in the CS section?

Edited, should I post in the CS section?

Yep, it all checks out

@Ryteb Pymeroce@Vertigo@Chi@Duoya

It has also occurred to me that there was no area for max and current MF and HP in the CS, so I've also added that. Makes it easier than needing to calculate based on your current stats + bonuses and all. Please add those in to your character sheets when you can.

Separate it by current/max for each. So if your MF's max is 5 for example, and you've taken 2 damage, write it as 3 / 5, representing your current status left of the slash mark and your max on the right of the slash mark.

Make sure to update whenever you take damage in battle, or keep track of it per post while in battle.

Might also want to add an SP meter.

Might also want to add an SP meter.

Done.

@Vertigo@Chi@Duoya

You guys still good?

Yeah, I'm about to finish mine.
Edit: Here's it.

Yeah, finals are hurting me pretty bad rn, will try to get my character out tomorrow.

All good ye, working on it.

Question, though. It says that Gun spells cost half for Fortune, but I don't see a category for them in the spell tier listing, since they're separate from Phys ones. Would they have the range of a magic spell but cost of a physical one...?

T1 GUN: +2 dmg / 10 meter range / 1 MF or HP

Or something? Also, would they use STR as their damage modifier?

Edit: Settled on the Devil, though still curious about the above. Also, do insta-kill curse spells count for the half SP effect Devil gives? I assume they at least count as magic for the purpose of the HP/MF usage effect.

Edit2: Very barebones wip

Edit3: Done!

@Pompadourius
Pretty sure this guy is filled out properly - anything need fixing?