In case anyone recognizes it, this is the second Persona RP I'm trying to host. My previous one made the mistakes of having a setting that was too drastic a departure from the typical Persona setting, and too much background information the players needed to take in. Both of these have been remedied in this second attempt, which takes place in an alternate version of modern Earth that's very similar to real life on the surface level; it should be much easier for people to make characters and jump in.
I have a Discord server that I use for discussions related to my RPs. However, if you're interested, please make at least one post here expressing said interest so that others can see that the RP is gaining traction.
This is an RP based on the Persona franchise. However, it is an entirely self-contained alternate universe, so no canon characters or organizations will appear. Some mechanics are similar to those in Persona games, but some are different. They will all be explained in this post, so prior knowledge of Persona games is not required.
The setting is much like the modern Earth we're familiar with, except that all well-known contemporary public figures do not exist, their roles taken by NPCs as needed; historical figures are usually fair game, but ask me if you're unsure. Unlike real life, there is no pandemic, but the world is still not without a fair share of major problems.
It is the year 2022. Social media is more widespread than ever, due to the efforts of Lin Yao-Yu, the richest man in the world and the first ever trillionaire. His company, OmniLink Inc., managed in the past two decades to acquire nearly every single one of the major tech giants in the world, seamlessly merging all of their online services into a single continuous whole. And with the thorough integration of facial and vocal recognition algorithms, it is now easier than ever to find and connect with others. But this connection is only superficial, as people cherry-pick only what they want others to see, while misinformation, echo chambers, and filter bubbles run rampant. While shouting into this all-pervasive white noise, introspection is too often forgotten, and the darkness within builds up and festers until it bursts forth from beneath the surface.
In the past months, a rumor of unclear origin has been circulating that speaks of the so-called "Saklas Syndrome". It alleges that a user of OmniLink's ubiquitous O-Phone can have his soul itself sucked into the device, resulting in a range of possible symptoms including depression, psychosis, catatonia, coma, and even death, supposedly spreading via a supernatural virus that infects smartphones. You likely dismissed this as hogwash… until it happened before your very eyes.
The screen of your O-Phone cracks open, but the cracks extend into the space itself around you. The next thing you know, you are surrounded by a thick, impenetrable, blinding white fog. From the fog it emerges, a shadowy figure with an uncanny resemblance to yourself, surrounded by an ominous dark aura that you find unsettling on some primal, instinctual level that you cannot quite explain. "I am the Shadow, the true self..." The shadowy figure speaks, its voice a horrible distortion of your own, before letting loose the deepest, darkest secrets that you have admitted to no one, not even yourself. But just as you cry out to reject this gratuitous affront to your very identity, the shadowy figure contorts in grotesque defiance of human anatomy, before exploding into a monstrosity from your worst nightmares.
Will you simply go down and become just another victim? No. Your heart may be scarred, but you won't let it end like this. If getting out alive means facing your own inner darkness… As you gather your resolve, you see it then, a shimmering, ethereal blue butterfly that morphs into what seems to be a Tarot card. Desperately, you reach out to grasp it, and-
Even though the supernatural powers of Shadows and Personas may not be called exactly that, I call it "magic" for convenience.
To make sure magic doesn't contradict real life physics, the physics of this setting resembles real life only on the surface level, and not on the subatomic level. This may affect some well-known pieces of popular science and history, e.g. there is no longer time dilation in Einstein's relativity. This should have no effect on most characters, but please consult me first if you want to make references to real life theoretical physics concepts. There are also some unintuitive quirks in this new physics that I had to add for the sake of consistency, but I’ll only bring them up when necessary.
The most common magical ability is the sixth sense, an extrasensory ability to detect magic around oneself. All magic users have it by default, though skill levels vary. Accuracy and range improve with skill, and the most skilled can replace their mundane senses entirely with the sixth sense. Most magical objects have specific "auras" that register to the sixth sense as synesthesia, conveying appropriate feelings of images and concepts. Certain effects can mask objects from the sixth sense or block it out, which can in turn be defeated by more skilled sensors.
Most magical effects are roughly categorized by elements and combinations thereof. Every element has a good degree of variety within itself, and someone may have aptitude for only a subset of an element, e.g. an earth user who specializes in metal. The general fighting style of each element is given, though a user with very high skill level or unusual aptitude may be able to subvert these styles (e.g. a defensive wind user with walls of compressed air). Also, note that due to the power level rule earlier, there is no elemental immunity, absorption, or reflection, only resistance.
A blank character sheet can be found below and copied for your convenience.
All guild rules apply. In addition, there are a few points that I want to clarify and emphasize.
- Each player is not limited to one character. Feel free to make multiple characters if you think you can handle it, within reason. You can make minor characters that are more akin to NPCs, and potentially turn them into major characters later if you want.
- I am someone who takes internal consistency and verisimilitude very seriously. Therefore, if I see something in your post that I believe to be a plot hole, I'm almost always going to ask you to fix it. If you don't, I may have to gratuitously retcon some things, or even declare your post invalid.
- Don't godmod. When interacting with another character, work together with that character's owner to ensure everyone's actions, reactions, and consequences remain consistent. That includes NPCs controlled by the GM and co-GM.
- I'll try to give player characters a moderate amount of plot armor and good luck. But actions have consequences, and the suspension of disbelief only stretches so far. Keep that in mind before you try to make a dangerously reckless character.
- Mature topics involving corruption on both personal and societal levels will be discussed in the plot. As per forum rules, there won't be anything explicit, nor will I make things pointlessly grimdark, but just be aware that this isn't an innocent kids' show.
- If you want to leave the game, I'll try to retcon out your character's existence. If that's not feasible, I'll try to remove your character from the plot as painlessly as possible.
I have a Discord server that I use for discussions related to my RPs. However, if you're interested, please make at least one post here expressing said interest so that others can see that the RP is gaining traction.
Introduction
This is an RP based on the Persona franchise. However, it is an entirely self-contained alternate universe, so no canon characters or organizations will appear. Some mechanics are similar to those in Persona games, but some are different. They will all be explained in this post, so prior knowledge of Persona games is not required.
The setting is much like the modern Earth we're familiar with, except that all well-known contemporary public figures do not exist, their roles taken by NPCs as needed; historical figures are usually fair game, but ask me if you're unsure. Unlike real life, there is no pandemic, but the world is still not without a fair share of major problems.
It is the year 2022. Social media is more widespread than ever, due to the efforts of Lin Yao-Yu, the richest man in the world and the first ever trillionaire. His company, OmniLink Inc., managed in the past two decades to acquire nearly every single one of the major tech giants in the world, seamlessly merging all of their online services into a single continuous whole. And with the thorough integration of facial and vocal recognition algorithms, it is now easier than ever to find and connect with others. But this connection is only superficial, as people cherry-pick only what they want others to see, while misinformation, echo chambers, and filter bubbles run rampant. While shouting into this all-pervasive white noise, introspection is too often forgotten, and the darkness within builds up and festers until it bursts forth from beneath the surface.
In the past months, a rumor of unclear origin has been circulating that speaks of the so-called "Saklas Syndrome". It alleges that a user of OmniLink's ubiquitous O-Phone can have his soul itself sucked into the device, resulting in a range of possible symptoms including depression, psychosis, catatonia, coma, and even death, supposedly spreading via a supernatural virus that infects smartphones. You likely dismissed this as hogwash… until it happened before your very eyes.
The screen of your O-Phone cracks open, but the cracks extend into the space itself around you. The next thing you know, you are surrounded by a thick, impenetrable, blinding white fog. From the fog it emerges, a shadowy figure with an uncanny resemblance to yourself, surrounded by an ominous dark aura that you find unsettling on some primal, instinctual level that you cannot quite explain. "I am the Shadow, the true self..." The shadowy figure speaks, its voice a horrible distortion of your own, before letting loose the deepest, darkest secrets that you have admitted to no one, not even yourself. But just as you cry out to reject this gratuitous affront to your very identity, the shadowy figure contorts in grotesque defiance of human anatomy, before exploding into a monstrosity from your worst nightmares.
Will you simply go down and become just another victim? No. Your heart may be scarred, but you won't let it end like this. If getting out alive means facing your own inner darkness… As you gather your resolve, you see it then, a shimmering, ethereal blue butterfly that morphs into what seems to be a Tarot card. Desperately, you reach out to grasp it, and-
Magic System
Even though the supernatural powers of Shadows and Personas may not be called exactly that, I call it "magic" for convenience.
To make sure magic doesn't contradict real life physics, the physics of this setting resembles real life only on the surface level, and not on the subatomic level. This may affect some well-known pieces of popular science and history, e.g. there is no longer time dilation in Einstein's relativity. This should have no effect on most characters, but please consult me first if you want to make references to real life theoretical physics concepts. There are also some unintuitive quirks in this new physics that I had to add for the sake of consistency, but I’ll only bring them up when necessary.
The most common magical ability is the sixth sense, an extrasensory ability to detect magic around oneself. All magic users have it by default, though skill levels vary. Accuracy and range improve with skill, and the most skilled can replace their mundane senses entirely with the sixth sense. Most magical objects have specific "auras" that register to the sixth sense as synesthesia, conveying appropriate feelings of images and concepts. Certain effects can mask objects from the sixth sense or block it out, which can in turn be defeated by more skilled sensors.
Most magical effects are roughly categorized by elements and combinations thereof. Every element has a good degree of variety within itself, and someone may have aptitude for only a subset of an element, e.g. an earth user who specializes in metal. The general fighting style of each element is given, though a user with very high skill level or unusual aptitude may be able to subvert these styles (e.g. a defensive wind user with walls of compressed air). Also, note that due to the power level rule earlier, there is no elemental immunity, absorption, or reflection, only resistance.
Character Sheet
A blank character sheet can be found below and copied for your convenience.
Rules
All guild rules apply. In addition, there are a few points that I want to clarify and emphasize.
- Each player is not limited to one character. Feel free to make multiple characters if you think you can handle it, within reason. You can make minor characters that are more akin to NPCs, and potentially turn them into major characters later if you want.
- I am someone who takes internal consistency and verisimilitude very seriously. Therefore, if I see something in your post that I believe to be a plot hole, I'm almost always going to ask you to fix it. If you don't, I may have to gratuitously retcon some things, or even declare your post invalid.
- Don't godmod. When interacting with another character, work together with that character's owner to ensure everyone's actions, reactions, and consequences remain consistent. That includes NPCs controlled by the GM and co-GM.
- I'll try to give player characters a moderate amount of plot armor and good luck. But actions have consequences, and the suspension of disbelief only stretches so far. Keep that in mind before you try to make a dangerously reckless character.
- Mature topics involving corruption on both personal and societal levels will be discussed in the plot. As per forum rules, there won't be anything explicit, nor will I make things pointlessly grimdark, but just be aware that this isn't an innocent kids' show.
- If you want to leave the game, I'll try to retcon out your character's existence. If that's not feasible, I'll try to remove your character from the plot as painlessly as possible.
