Alright, so I'm going to try and cover a few people at once per topic so that everything is a bit more cohesive.
1. Age. Seems like the majority either want High School age or are ambivalent towards the ages of the characters. After thinking about it myself (and considering things like Pokemon and My Hero Academia ages) I think I'd be perfectly fine with playing characters age 16-18. I just think that, considering my own age, we need to be very careful and cognizant of how we are portraying minors. I don't think it will be an issue, but I just want to say it all the same.
2. I want the combat to still be mostly story-driven. The idea here is to create an exciting fight and have an end result that contributes to the over-all story and plot of our world we're building here. I do think that people's suggestions (thank you to
@ERode and
@Duoya) concerning changing from a d20 to a d6 system. I did want to ask if you had any more suggestions for that? Should major and minor abilities modify the roll as a plus numerical
or should they add a d6 to your roll. I'm not super familiar with TTRPGs outside of Pathfinder/Savage Worlds/Deadlands so any help and advice there is appreciated for the betterment of the RP as a whole.
3. Seems like most people want to keep the NPCs open and a little vague until it's necessary that they are.. no longer vague. I do really like the idea that
@ERode mentioned regarding making 1-2 NPC characters that have some relationship/connection with your main character. Maybe they were childhood friends that became estranged due to drama between families. Maybe this person is someone that used to work at their home (one of the faculty in this case), etc.
Something that I used to do as a DM for DnD is have people create characters, give me some back story, and then I gave each character a connection to the others. For example, let's say player A creates a delinquent knight and player B creates a Noble who's father is the head of the Police Department for the area. I might PM both players and let them know that Player B's character knows about Player A's character's reputation and is keeping tabs on them. Things like that that might connect characters a bit more organically? Obviously, you guys can do things like that too. I think it's important that the world
feels real, alive. Otherwise it's all just separate character who have no reason to interact with one another.
4. Seems like the consensus here is to start off more light and care-free but slowly develop into something a bit darker. I'd love to hear some of the ideas here for what kind of darker plot we can get into. I can formulate ideas, but those are my ideas and what
I might find fun. I want to know what
YOU find fun. I also want to know what people's boundaries are. I don't anticipate getting too heavy with such young characters, but I don't think death is necessarily off the table. But I want to gauge everyone's level of comfort and how far they're willing to go. I'm going to classify this RP as like.. E for everyone? But obviously drama is best served when there are real stakes involved. So.. but anyway, please just let me know what your limits are. For me, I'm a bit iffy on things like drugs and anything sexual (obviously considering the age of the characters) and explicit descriptions of gore. I'm fine with things like loss of limb/etc, death, etc but I don't want it described. Like.. for example, if there's a revolution and a rogue band of rebels comes through because the school still support the current prime minister (or what have you) and they take the life of a random npc student or something. I would deem that a pretty heavy topic I'd want to discuss with you all prior to introducing it.
I also want to start off with a lighter plot to begin with, that much I know. Something with lower stakes like the gossip Douya mentioned. As always if you have ideas, please send!
5.
@ERode, I honestly love your idea here. I think that adding Nobles in the fights gives them more stakes and does make sense lore/world wise why the duels even take place. This world is pretty but only on the surface level. Underneath it's nasty and violent (marginally at least). I also think we could fluff it a bit, kind of like laser tag? you know how the chest thingy lights up when it's been hit? Maybe the barrier has a system built in where it can take three hits before it throws an alarm to stop the fight and that a victor has been decided.
@Duoya Let me take some time to brainstorm some class ideas as well as advantages that ranks might have. I'm thinking classes would be your general core education classes like a normal HS might have, but along side PE you might have mandatory "Duel Ed" or "Offensive/Defensive Magic". And Extras like Practical Magic or Business. If you guys have any ideas for classes or privileges that might be given to the top ranked students, please let me know!
Now to address questions and everything else;
@Fading MemoryI personally have no qualms with someone just hanging out!
@ExpendableI'm thinking somewhere in between. European inspired but not an exact match if that makes sense. Mostly so we can have some wiggle room if we need to change up Europe to suit our story needs. You absolutely can have npc servants as a noble! Your Knight would likely be your main bodyguard, but I don't think I'm opposed to them having more than one body guard. That is something we can decide together. I'm going to spend time this weekend (hopefully) creating a spreadsheet for the dorms so we can easily track who rooms with who, who stays where, etc. But that's still up for debate and your input. I personally like them needing to share a room with another noble because that lends itself to even more interaction which is important for an RP like this to thrive. But if you're confident your noble would still interact in a meaningful way with other characters, then I don't mind their money getting them some special treatment.
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I do have some example pairings that I made previously when I had NPCs for this RP. If you'd like me to share them, I'd be happy to.
If I didn't answer your question or you feel like I ignored you, please, please let me know!
