Ah, shounen anime. There's just something so charming about it, isn't there? Whether it's the vibrant and memorable characters, the creative and interesting powers or the hype and exciting battles, shounen anime is just a ton of fun. "Battle school" shounen in particular were a type of series that I've always loved. Shows like My Hero Academia, Soul Eater and Naruto, stories about kids and teenagers going to a school that teaches them how to use their supernatural powers. And so I figured it would be really fun to make an RP intended to emulate this type of series and play up its tropes and cliches
This RP will specifically be playing on shounen anime cliches and tropes, as well as just anime tropes in general, so I'm looking for characters that intentionally play up the shounen character stereotypes. Y'know what I'm talking about: the firey, determined, naive airhead protagonist (Goku, Luffy, Naruto, Ichigo), the edgy, angsty, naturally talented rival (Vegeta, Sasuke, Hiei), the smart, supportive and motherly but also easily angered female character (Bulma, Sakura, Nami, Keiko), etc. If you can't really think of any character stereotypes that's perfectly fine, as long as your character is vibrant, fun and would fit in a shounen anime then they'll be welcome. You can even just base your character off of your favorite existing shounen character if you really want, as long as they're not a complete ripoff obviously. Speaking of ripoffs, there will also be a lot of things that I'll be taking pretty much directly from some shounen anime (Hunter X Hunter and Naruto are the ones I'll be taking the most from, but there's a lot of stuff from other shows as well)
Now I want to stress this fact as much as I can: the main driving force of the RP is intended to be the character relationships and interactions. I'm intending for the players to interact with the other players and develop relationships between characters. Romantic relationships, friendships, rivalries (both the friendly and bitter types), etc. Not to say that there won't be ANYTHING happening in the school, as there will definitely be big events that the students will be participating in, but they will mainly be designed around having the students interacting with each other in interesting ways. There also won't be that much of a formal school schedule to follow (not to say that the students won't be following a schedule in universe, just that you as a player won't be). I want the RP to be semi-open ended and freeflowing, so like, you can have your character be attending a certain class if you want them to be at whatever point in time for example
Here's what I've written up for the formal OP of the OOC so far:
OVERVIEW
Everyone in the world has a powerful energy deep inside them. This type of energy goes by many names: chi, ki, magic, mana, aura, spiritual pressure, chakra, and much more. Despite this however, only an extremely small percentage of the world has the ability to harness this power and wield it in whatever way they want, usually in ways that resemble super powers (shooting fire from their bodies, enhancing their natural strength, flight, etc). The few lucky people who have this ability are called "channellers" and for the most part live alongside regular humans in secret, but have also developed a secret society of channellers, most notably a school used for training those that have recently discovered their ability to manipulate their inner energy
ENERGY/POWERS DESCRIPTION
Those who discover their ability to control their energy always discover it between the ages of 10 to 18. Accounts of others discovering their powers later or earlier in life, while theorietically not impossible, are unheard of. A human's inner energy reacts most strongly to intense and powerful emotions, and therefore the best way to utilize your powers would be to feel those emotions as strongly as possible. The powers manifest according to a person's personality (an channeller being angry will usually result in pyrokinesis, for example). Logically, all this means that a person who usually tends to feel a certain type of emotion more strongly will use and develop a certain type of power more often, and their powers in general will be based on what their personality is like
Powers rely on a person's inner energy to function, in the same way that a car relies on fuel. A person can only use their powers so much in a short amount of time before they start running out of energy and can't use their powers any more. Luckily a person's energy regenerates naturally over time, but it is commonly very slow and cannot come back fast enough in the heat of battle. It is common for channellers to "charge" their energy, an ability that forces their energy to build back up at a faster rate, but this takes heavy concentration and the user can't do anything else while doing it, which leaves them wide open for an attack. Other ways to build energy up faster are the same kinds of methods you would use to build up regular physical energy, such as sleeping and overall not being too physical for a while
Usually, a channeller starts with a single power that they stick with for most of their life. Sometimes later in their life, an channeller might discover that they also have a natural affinity for a second power as well and start developing it. However, they also might choose not to do this and prefer to hone their original power to a fine point instead. The powers are much like real life talents and skills: there is technically no limit to how many powers a person can learn, but it relies heavily on their personality and skill, and the more powers you learn the less skilled you are at each one
All channellers also gain the ability to "feel" someone else's energy, something like a sixth sense. This ability can also be honed and perfected like any other regular sense, even to the point where some users can sense a channeller across the planet or be able to tell the difference between one person's energy and another's if they've practiced it enough. There are some channellers who are born without this natural sense, much like being blind or deaf, but this is particularly rare
CHANNELLER CATEGORIES
Generally, the abilities that channellers develop can be pretty much anything you can possibly imagine. Typically speaking however, the powers commonly manifest as one of 4 different categories: augmenters, architects, illusionists and alternatives
Augmenters are those who use their energy to enhance or alter their own bodies and physical abilities. This can manifest in a number of ways, such as increasing their physical strength, giving themselves faster reflexes and reaction times, being able to see through walls, and much more. They are the most straightforward of channellers, and so there isn't too much to say about them. Due to their focus on their bodies and physical abilities, augmenters are usually stereotyped as the "strong but dumb" type of people
Architects are those who use their energy to control or manifest types of energy (excluding one's inner energy, of course). By far the most common type of achitect is one who creates simplistic things, such as the 4 elements. However, it's also possible to make and control things like electricity, smoke and lasers, and even stranger and abstract things such as shadows, light and sound waves. It's even possible to create complex machines like cars or computers, but that requires a massive amount of skill controlling energy as well as knowledge of how the object is built and functions, and so things like that are extremely rare. Architects are by far the most common type of channellers, and therefore don't really have a stereotype about them due so many different people being that type
Illusionists are those who use their energy to control their minds and the minds of others. The most obvious type of illusionist ability would be hypnosis and mind control, but there are other types of abilities as well such as mind reading, hallucinations/altering what another person is seeing, communicating with someone through their mind, creating false memories, etc. As powerful as these abilities may seem, they rely heavily on the target not being aware of the illusionist performing these abilities on them, as becoming aware of the illusions being performed can usually break them out of the effect. Some supremely skilled illusionists can manage to hold the illusions even then, but it's extremely difficult and takes an immense amount of skill. Illusionists tend to be seen as smart, logical and strategically minded, but also heavily reliant on stealthy tactics, smoke and mirrors and not being able to actually fight
Alternatives are those whose energy manifests in some other way. The rarest of the 4 categories, these people are outliers that defy the other 3 categories either by having a power that could fit into more than one category, or don't really fit ANY of the categories. Powers such as the ability to alter and negate someone else's energy, clone themselves, change the shape of their body, etc. Alternatives are usually stereotyped as weirdos, freaks and unpredictable
THE INSTITUTE
In this world, there is an institution that has been made to help the younger channellers fully develop their powers. The school's staff is made up of a dream team of legendary and well known channellers, every staff member in the school is chosen due to their reputation for doing at least something majorly impressive in the channeller society. Though the institute is commonly referred to as a school, it's technically more of a combination of a school and a training camp. There ARE traditional school trappings, such as classrooms and proper classes which are used to teach the more overall basics of their powers, and these are definitely a large part of the school. However, because each student will develop their powers differently, a large part of the teaching proccess comes from the mentors. Mentors are a member of the school staff that are personally assigned a specific student and are meant to personally help develop and hone their skills and abilities in a more personal 1 on 1 way. Of course there aren't as many mentors as there are students, so most of the time the classroom teachers are given mentor duty as well, and it's also sometimes common to see more than one student assigned to the same mentor
When a child or teenager first discovers their powers, that energy will be sensed by the staff of the school, which notifies them that a new channeller has appeared in the world. The school then sends a member (or members) of the staff to find the new channeller, and talk with them and their parents about the proposition of attending the school. If they all agree to the proposition, the staff will arrive (a couple days later so the student can prepare), and will then take the new student to the school which they will live at for a full season
When being taught how to use their powers, teachers will tell their students to focus their powers in specific ways, in the form of "moves". For example, if a student had the ability to control electricity, that student would be trained to practice firing a steady bolt of electricity from their hand. These specific moves are chosen and developed by the student, (with help from the teachers). Students are also taught to give these specific moves names and to say them outloud when performing them, as this lets them focus more on imagining the move when they're trying to do it
Along with their usual classes and training with their mentors, another big part of the school are the big events known as "The Exams". Exams are trials and challenges designed and planned by the staff of the school which are intended to gauge all of the students' skills. There are multiple exams every year and, due to them being designed by the staff members, each exam is different. One exam can be as simple as a written test, while another can be as intimidating as a rigorous physical challenge. Most of these take up an entire day of the school, and some of them are even longer than that. The Exams are usually seen as a big event and, depending on what the event is, sometimes are even done in front of a large crowd of people within the channeller community
Welp, think I just sketched up a hotheaded tsundere female character so... Might be going for that spot I guess? Hopefully I'll figure something out from that I guess. XD
Okay, I know I probably don't have time for this, buuuuuuuuut I really am interested in this. I had an idea for someone that could either be the bro to the MC, or a quirky side character. I'm down for whatever.
Wow, I didn't expect quite this many responses in such a short amount of time. Due to this turnout, I'll probably get the OOC going early tomorrow or the day after
Also, one thing I meant to mention in the OP but forgot: I also want players joining as teachers and other staff as well. Students are more important, but I do want a fair amount of teachers/staff as part of the group of characters (mainly because of the mentor thing I talked about in the OP)
Potentially interested, though leery of illusionists as it seems an archetype that'll be all about taking away agency from other players. They can outright take away the ability to play via mind control, rewrite situations on the spot via illusions, metagaming via mindreading and generally just control how other people play the game. That just isn't very fun except for the person doing it. And making it so that awareness nulls all this also means that it's quite easy to trivialize the entire archetype as well.
Perhaps there should be a rule that the illusionist and the victim must agree on the effect of the illusion, whether it's successful or not. It's like a player vs player fight rule in general in a freeform rp, since there's no dice to decide which side should win.
This is a good point. TBH, I kinda made the illusionists powerful cause when I first wrote down the idea, they seemed kinda weak and boring and I was worried that no one would want to play as them, so I added a bit more to them. I guess I proooobably went a little overboard on that though. I suppose I could take out the more directly controlling based powers and make them more about creating images and stuff (much like Naruto's Genjutsu, which is what they're based on anyway). As for their weakness, maybe awareness of the illusions will instead make it easier for a victim to see through them, rather than completely neutralize them
I was never really confident in the idea of the illusionists in general really. I might just axe them entirely, though I'm not sure what I'd do to replace them (if anything)
@tipssyCalibrator How about having architects be those who specialize in creating actual physical constructs with their energy (arms, armor, attack pets etc) and having a separate category named, IDK, "projectors" (I'm awful with names on the fly) that focus on the genre staple of throwing around beams and fire and whatnot.
