@HylianRose Hmmm, you made some good points, but I need to settle something with you to properly gauge whether I'll fit with the vibe of the RP or not.

Right now, to me, between this part:

I just think that, considering my own age, we need to be very careful and cognizant of how we are portraying minors.

Plus your rather extensive elaboration about limits, all tied to one aspect, the ages of these fictional characters, I have the feeling that we won't see eye-to-eye in how we see fictional characters as storytelling tools. Personally, I do not like to censor my creativity, but I understand that in a group RP, compromises and concessions are inevitable, so I just wish to know whether or not we're too different in the way we enjoy fiction.

If we don't, great, then we can work something out, but if not, I'd rather we find out now rather than later, save the both of us the potentially wasted effort and all that.

@HylianRose Hmmm, you made some good points, but I need to settle something with you to properly gauge whether I'll fit with the vibe of the RP or not.

Right now, to me, between this part:
<Snipped quote by HylianRose>
Plus your rather extensive elaboration about limits, all tied to one aspect, the ages of these fictional characters, I have the feeling that we won't see eye-to-eye in how we see fictional characters as storytelling tools. Personally, I do not like to censor my creativity, but I understand that in a group RP, compromises and concessions are inevitable, so I just wish to know whether or not we're too different in the way we enjoy fiction.

If we don't, great, then we can work something out, but if not, I'd rather we find out now rather than later, save the both of us the potentially wasted effort and all that.

Honestly, very fair and thank you for wording it so respectfully.

In what ways do you see this potentially censoring your creativity? I'm trying to understand, I guess, what the real question is here? I think, from my perspective, I'd just like to be careful about portraying minors because they are so young. Not that I think anyone would portray them in a bad/poor way. Hmm...

When you say characters are story telling tools, what do you mean by that?

<Snipped quote by Izurich>

Honestly, very fair and thank you for wording it so respectfully.

In what ways do you see this potentially censoring your creativity? I'm trying to understand, I guess, what the real question is here? I think, from my perspective, I'd just like to be careful about portraying minors because they are so young. Not that I think anyone would portray them in a bad/poor way. Hmm...

When you say characters are story telling tools, what do you mean by that?

Thank you in return for being patient and not make wild assumptions when I brought up these kind of topics.

To make long story short, essentially, I do not put fictional minors on a pedestal, I don't see them as deserving any special treatment, I enjoy stories that does not tip-toe around the fact that all sorts of things can happen to people, just people, regardless of age.

If a story strays away from gore, sexual matters, or other heavy stuff on a meta-narrative level because the author wishes to maintain a certain atmosphere, then that's fine, but if the story does so specifically because the characters aren't adults? Then... I'll respectfully disagree and will live and let live, I do not agree with such sentiments but I won't fault them for having those either, and in such situations, the best way to avoid needless conflict due to subjective preferences is to stay out of each other's way.

That reminds me, do mythical creatures exist in this world?

<Snipped quote by HylianRose>

Thank you in return for being patient and not make wild assumptions when I brought up these kind of topics.

To make long story short, essentially, I do not put fictional minors on a pedestal, I don't see them as deserving any special treatment, I enjoy stories that does not tip-toe around the fact that all sorts of things can happen to people, just people, regardless of age.

If a story strays away from gore, sexual matters, or other heavy stuff on a meta-narrative level because the author wishes to maintain a certain atmosphere, then that's fine, but if the story does so specifically because the characters aren't adults? Then... I'll respectfully disagree and will live and let live, I do not agree with such sentiments but I won't fault them for having those either, and in such situations, the best way to avoid needless conflict due to subjective preferences is to stay out of each other's way.

Honestly, you do make a great point. Things do happen to minors in real life just like anyone else and censoring that is taking away from level of realism and reality from the world. I suppose then, my points do still hold that I don't want to read details of gore and/or drugs etc but more on the level of regardless of age. I keep thinking about things like My Hero Academy and how they handle drama and heavy topics because those are children and things do happen to them. People die, children have their abilities taken from them, hurt horribly. And I don't really think twice about it other than enjoying the story. I think it may just take some time for me to get away from this idea and this discomfort of being 29 and writing stories where children are the subject. But that's not something I need to project onto you or this story.

However, there are still limits to things and as you said, compromises that need to take place in a group rp. We need to be aware of everyone's limits and what they are comfortable reading/writing/interacting with. I fully believe that heavier plots should be discussed with all writers who might be involved prior to implementation. I'm not going to include a character who was a survivor of SA without first clearing it with ALL who might need to read or interact with it.

That reminds me, do mythical creatures exist in this world?

I've thought about that! And considering there is magic, I wouldn't be opposed. Though I do think it would be fun if they were incredibly mythical. Like no one thinks they're real, not even the teachers. So when one does show up, very rarely, it's more.. impactful?

<Snipped quote by Izurich>

Honestly, you do make a great point. Things do happen to minors in real life just like anyone else and censoring that is taking away from level of realism and reality from the world. I suppose then, my points do still hold that I don't want to read details of gore and/or drugs etc but more on the level of regardless of age. I keep thinking about things like My Hero Academy and how they handle drama and heavy topics because those are children and things do happen to them. People die, children have their abilities taken from them, hurt horribly. And I don't really think twice about it other than enjoying the story. I think it may just take some time for me to get away from this idea and this discomfort of being 29 and writing stories where children are the subject. But that's not something I need to project onto you or this story.

However, there are still limits to things and as you said, compromises that need to take place in a group rp. We need to be aware of everyone's limits and what they are comfortable reading/writing/interacting with. I fully believe that heavier plots should be discussed with all writers who might be involved prior to implementation. I'm not going to include a character who was a survivor of SA without first clearing it with ALL who might need to read or interact with it.

Understood, thank you for your wisdom and respect for differences in preferences.

For context, I'm in my early 30s, and I've been roleplaying for almost 2 decades now, which meant I started in my teenage years, from then till now, I've never let the age of fictional characters ever affect me from writing the story I want to tell.

I grew up with Doraemon (the Adventure series is most relevant to this topic), Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc. In all of those aforementioned fictional series, plenty of heavy stuff ranging from violence to SA happened to minors as well as adults. I've never felt discomfort because one, I know being a minor doesn't somehow make you immune to them, and two, they're fictional, they're - essentially - storytelling tools.

Regardless, I'll always respect your authority as the GM as this is your world and here, your word is law.

So, with that said about yourself and myself, if we can find a middle ground that satisfies us both, it'll be awesome, but if not, then it's no issue.

<Snipped quote by HylianRose>

Understood, thank you for your wisdom and respect for differences in preferences.

For context, I'm in my early 30s, and I've been roleplaying for almost 2 decades now, which meant I started in my teenage years, from then till now, I've never let the age of fictional characters ever affect me from writing the story I want to tell.

I grew up with Doraemon (the Adventure series is most relevant to this topic), Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc. In all of those aforementioned fictional series, plenty of heavy stuff ranging from violence to SA happened to minors as well as adults. I've never felt discomfort because one, I know being a minor doesn't somehow make you immune to them, and two, they're fictional, they're - essentially - storytelling tools.

Regardless, I'll always respect your authority as the GM as this is your world and here, your word is law.

So, with that said about yourself and myself, if we can find a middle ground that satisfies us both, it'll be awesome, but if not, then it's no issue.

Absolutely! I've been RPing since my teenage years as well and as a younger person never really thought about it as much, but as I grew into adulthood, I started to be a bit more uncomfortable with how minors are some times portrayed in writing and in stories. At least, I think I have. I'm not sure if that's a product of pop culture and the media manifesting itself, but there is still some level of discomfort I feel deep down with it. And if I'm honest, I'm finding difficulty in placing the feelings into words. Because I do absolutely agree with you and I do think we can come to a compromise as writers. For now, I'm okay with things happening to our characters as they would adults, with the except of those things that I find to be hard limits for myself in writing. Sometimes heavy topics can be difficult to deal with on any given day just based on all the other stress you've had to deal with in the day.

I want to be sure, regardless of the age of our characters, that at the end of the day writing is a fun past time. If you can agree to that, then I think we'll have no issues RPing together.

<Snipped quote by Izurich>

Absolutely! I've been RPing since my teenage years as well and as a younger person never really thought about it as much, but as I grew into adulthood, I started to be a bit more uncomfortable with how minors are some times portrayed in writing and in stories. At least, I think I have. I'm not sure if that's a product of pop culture and the media manifesting itself, but there is still some level of discomfort I feel deep down with it. And if I'm honest, I'm finding difficulty in placing the feelings into words. Because I do absolutely agree with you and I do think we can come to a compromise as writers. For now, I'm okay with things happening to our characters as they would adults, with the except of those things that I find to be hard limits for myself in writing. Sometimes heavy topics can be difficult to deal with on any given day just based on all the other stress you've had to deal with in the day.

I want to be sure, regardless of the age of our characters, that at the end of the day writing is a fun past time. If you can agree to that, then I think we'll have no issues RPing together.

As long as those hard limits also apply to adults (which practically means there are no minor-exclusive hard limits), then I'm very sure I can adapt without any nagging feeling, because they're off limits, period, regardless of the age of the fictional character in question.

That said, once you confirm my statement above, I believe this discussion will be over.

Speaking generally, I think we can just treat this in the standards of modern shounen anime?

Violence is A-Ok, and characters are allowed to explore their sexuality, but no on-screen sex, no portrayals of drug use by characters, and I feel like we can all agree that sexual harrassment and assault is super fucking awkward to just flatout write out in public? Generally I don't make a distinction in terms of the age of the characters myself; I just default to that sorta ruleset no matter how old the kiddos are.

I personally say 'one hit = loss' for the Duel setup though. Like, considering the presence of poisons and curses and all, just a scratch upon your Noble's pretty face could have massive consequences. Don't want the Knights to start approaching their actual bodyguarding careers with the reflex of "Nah, I can let two hits pass".

For TTRPGs, it largely just depends on whether or not you want to have stats to begin with. I'd say that flat modifiers and extra dice could exist together though. One indicates that a skill is more consistent, while the other one indicates that a skill is more risky. Could have people's natural dice pool exist in tiers too, so say, a beginner Knight naturally rolls with a 2d6, while a more experienced Knight naturally rolls with a 3d6.

The plot itself will definitely have to be figured out though. Right now, the state of the world itself seems kinda nebulous, so it's personally hard for me to imagine what would happen to the school. Like, what do Nobles do? Why are there Knights, rather than professional bodyguards with guns and shades? If there are Nobles, does that mean monarchies are still in place for powerful nations? What's America doing? etc.

I believe that most role-plays, particularly public group role-plays, do not require a rating higher than TV 14/PG 13 (am I setting this as a hard limit? No. Just a reference point), regardless of the characters' ages. That is why the term "fade to black" exists. Yes, a character can engage in sexual situations or situations involving drugs and alcohol at any age. Minors in high school regularly participate in such activities, but does it need to be explicitly written? No. It can be referenced without going into fine detail about the setting/scene/situation.

<Snipped quote by HylianRose>

As long as those hard limits also apply to adults (which practically means there are no minor-exclusive hard limits), then I'm very sure I can adapt without any nagging feeling, because they're off limits, period, regardless of the age of the fictional character in question.

That said, once you confirm my statement above, I believe this discussion will be over.

Oh! I'm sorry, yes! The exclusions absolutely would apply to all characters. Sorry if I made it seem like it would only apply to the child characters. That's not the case at all!

Speaking generally, I think we can just treat this in the standards of modern shounen anime?

Violence is A-Ok, and characters are allowed to explore their sexuality, but no on-screen sex, no portrayals of drug use by characters, and I feel like we can all agree that sexual harrassment and assault is super fucking awkward to just flatout write out in public? Generally I don't make a distinction in terms of the age of the characters myself; I just default to that sorta ruleset no matter how old the kiddos are.

I personally say 'one hit = loss' for the Duel setup though. Like, considering the presence of poisons and curses and all, just a scratch upon your Noble's pretty face could have massive consequences. Don't want the Knights to start approaching their actual bodyguarding careers with the reflex of "Nah, I can let two hits pass".

For TTRPGs, it largely just depends on whether or not you want to have stats to begin with. I'd say that flat modifiers and extra dice could exist together though. One indicates that a skill is more consistent, while the other one indicates that a skill is more risky. Could have people's natural dice pool exist in tiers too, so say, a beginner Knight naturally rolls with a 2d6, while a more experienced Knight naturally rolls with a 3d6.

The plot itself will definitely have to be figured out though. Right now, the state of the world itself seems kinda nebulous, so it's personally hard for me to imagine what would happen to the school. Like, what do Nobles do? Why are there Knights, rather than professional bodyguards with guns and shades? If there are Nobles, does that mean monarchies are still in place for powerful nations? What's America doing? etc.

As usual, excellent points and questions! I'll try to address them piecemeal.

For the first part about violence and sexual acts, etc, I agree. That's a very good way to address it and treat it.

The one hit k/o definitely made me chuckle because you are correct. The dice roll could just determine who got hit first and then it's up to the writers to write out how that happened.

I'm pretty opposed to a stats system. While I do think it could be fun, I think it does lean us as someone mentioned previously more towards the ttrpg side of the site. Which, I don't want to do. I just want an easy way to determine who would win to avoid any arguments players might have over fights. I do really like the idea of number of dice being affixed to the year/seniority of the character and then the abilities then modifying that roll if that's something that we'd like to do. Again, I'd likely be handling rolls just to keep things fair for all which means that a lot of these roll things aren't something you'll even really need to worry about. Just, "hey rose, A and B are going to duel, can you roll to see who wins?" I'll go to their sheets, make the rolls and respond, "Here's the scores! Looks like A will win this duel by a small margin."

I'm definitely in agreement concerning plot and the world itself. Let's see if we can't figure that out together as well.

Questions to Answer
What are the Roles of Nobles?

Nobles are the elite of the world. They are the future leaders, the CEOs, the Business men and women. They are at this academy to learn and to grow as future leaders of the world to make it a better place. Nobles are often from families that have existed for centuries and are tied to former royalty in the nation. You can think of them like land owning dukes, lords, and such. Many of them are setting up to become mayors, governors, political party leaders, etc.

Why Knights and not Pro Bodyguards?

Let's assume that 'Knights' are like pro-bodyguards, or will be once they've grown up. The idea behind the Knight/Noble pairing is that the Noble grows up with the Knight and develops a level of trust with them as they grow together. It's meant to be an incredibly close bond and the Knight is meant to act not only as their bodyguard but as their support. I.E. A Knight should be able to do anything a Noble can do in order to help support their success.

My thoughts for this were set on tradition. We can make a decision on whether or not guns exist in this world, but for the purpose of the RP, let's assume that regardless guns are prohibited in the school. At most, they might hold gun safety/gun classes where they teach you how to use a gun. However, the duel is meant to be a more traditional, cultural thing. Something that has developed over time in their culture into the event that it is today. Obviously I'm fine with expanding that more and understand that it might not explain everything.

Monarchies?

The original thought was that Monarchies do exist but only as a show, not necessarily a bit part of the government. However, I am not at all opposed to Monarchies existing and there being kings/queens, princes/princesses, etc. I quite like that sort of stuff so I certainly wouldn't say no.

America?

I mean... If England still has Monarchies, who's to say America doesn't too. But maybe they don't follow the duel traditions and have a different way of teaching, educating and otherwise preparing their elite for the world.

@The Savant

I absolutely agree.

If guns are being considered, then it would pretty cool if they were magic based weapons, since we already have examples of magic influencing technology/services and all that.

The idea of an alternate universe where the monarchies held power with magic and the age of revolutions has culminated in peak Slice Of Life magic duel academies is highly amusing.

I feel like it'd be kind of fun to have a split of old-world nobility and more contemporary people of power, there could be tension there where neither generally see eye to eye but have to interact since they're all playing on the same field. Perhaps that could be the difference between nations where some have nobility still and others (probably like America since it was brought up) have different systems entirely.

Perhaps Saint Valerius has a pretty well-defined amount of classic nobility students, but has got attention from other people wealthy or powerful enough to send students recently, and have got a number of people who may be foreign to the overall culture but are still there for the education offered? It could be a small side plot if characters "from abroad" are made.

If guns are being considered, then it would pretty cool if they were magic based weapons, since we already have examples of magic influencing technology/services and all that.

Magical firearms would probably be way easier to write duels with than actual ones if we're having any at all, though I'm not married to having them either way.

I wouldn't mind seeing the pairings and an character example, want to make sure I'm filling out this sheet right

The idea of an alternate universe where the monarchies held power with magic and the age of revolutions has culminated in peak Slice Of Life magic duel academies is highly amusing.

There's an alternate world book by Randall Garret about a noble named Lord Darcy, he and his forensic sorcerer investigates events involving nobles. There's tech, but a lot of it is very steampunk - wooden sailing ships, carriages, steam locomotives (of course, it was very much a Murder on the Orient Express style), and preserver boxes. While duels are fought, usually it's with swords, not magic.

I've read a book recently called A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, where the background history of it basically manifests from something along the lines of...

Nobles kept power and Kings justfified Divine Mandate by being massively powerful wizards who fought in wars where magic was flung and shit. Got to the point where the abuses of dark magic (necromancy, vampire shit, mind control) made things out into a Dark Age that was ultimately resolved by basically exterminating anyone with a hint of having such potent powers and then suppressing the magic of commoners utilizing cuffs that burned their flesh in response to attempts at casting magic.

Nobility could totally persist in a world like that, where peasant revolutions are less like "they have the military on their side so it'll be a tough one, but we can power through" and more like "we're literally fighting Fire Jesus on his home turf; this is gonna suckkkkk". And you can toss in some good ol' noble eugenics to constantly breed bloodlines with high magic potential and voila, thar ye go.

And then our characters, who are basically the next generation of traditional Noble-Knight rules of the world, are the ones that have to grow up in a world where technology/magitech has finally caught up to the powers of their bloodline inheritance? Gonna take a bit more to puzzle things out though, because admittedly, the book that I read was set during the French Revolution, while this setting is a good bit beyond that.

...

On a side note, because I'm a sucker for drama, it'd be nice if the Noble-Knight pairings aren't set in stone. Have there be a process for swapping out one Knight for another Knight-student n such. Or have the opportunity to be a solo Noble or a mercenary-kinda Knight.

On a side note, because I'm a sucker for drama, it'd be nice if the Noble-Knight pairings aren't set in stone. Have there be a process for swapping out one Knight for another Knight-student n such. Or have the opportunity to be a solo Noble or a mercenary-kinda Knight.

Isn't there kind of a thing for that already where if a Knight is under punishment they get taken and a replacement knight is given until the punishment is up? Though that's not quite the same, admittedly.

I think it could be a fun thing to have knights and nobles potentially enter without a pair and have to make one before a certain time limit or they're kicked out or held back or something. It could be a "first arc" for at least some of the characters if we wanted to go that way.

Perhaps it's a ranking thing? Top student gets the top knight, second student gets the second knight, etc.

I feel like it'd be kind of fun to have a split of old-world nobility and more contemporary people of power, there could be tension there where neither generally see eye to eye but have to interact since they're all playing on the same field. Perhaps that could be the difference between nations where some have nobility still and others (probably like America since it was brought up) have different systems entirely.

Perhaps Saint Valerius has a pretty well-defined amount of classic nobility students, but has got attention from other people wealthy or powerful enough to send students recently, and have got a number of people who may be foreign to the overall culture but are still there for the education offered? It could be a small side plot if characters "from abroad" are made.

<Snipped quote by Animal>

Magical firearms would probably be way easier to write duels with than actual ones if we're having any at all, though I'm not married to having them either way.

If we really wanted to spice things up, we could do things similarly to Fire Emblem Three houses and have students there that aren't necessarily there because they want to be but because of politics, they are there as an olive branch or a power move, etc.

@Expendable

I'll post the Headmaster and some of the example pairings soon. The example pairings were never super fleshed out, but I can give rough ideas of their dynamic.

@ERode

That's pretty good! I think we could potentially take bits from that to our world. Like, commoners typically don't have magic. And it's outlawed for them to have it so when little peasant boys and girls (the common folk) have powers, their parents force them to hide it or their children risk getting taken away.

As for the drama bit, I don't necessarily mind that as long as we're all able to interact. My biggest concern with "solo" anything is that the player will get stuck by themselves and basically write their character in this little bubble, separated from others. Which is fine for a time, but I just want to avoid that. IF you join a public, large group RP to write by yourself, good on you. But maybe just go write by yourself. So, to reiterate, yeah I'm fine with pairings changing and for there to be solo knights or nobles. Maybe a Noble lost their knight who went to become the knight for a more powerful noble, or maybe they died along time ago? I think there's some potential there for fun.

@Crowvette@Expendable

Hmm... That wasn't necessarily in the original plans, since a Knight/Noble pairing is meant to be a strong bond, but I suppose if we think about it their first Knight might not always be the best fit. I certainly don't mind having a first week were there are little to no pairings and the characters are getting introduced to one another however I do find that moments like that, we tend to get lost in the weeds, so to speak. We'll spend so much time on the intro and pairings that we'll never get to the good story bits. That's my only caveat to that.

Otherwise, I'm perfectly fine with whatever we'd prefer to do with the pairings. I certainly do like that top knight and top nobles get paired, but I also think that we might run into trouble with that potentially? Feel free to shake me out of my thoughts if I'm being weird or too critical but if Rank 1 Knight and Noble are incredibly good together, how does one fall rank before the other? How would Rank 1 Knight lose their position with Rank 1 Noble or vice versa?