CaptainManbeard

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

Okay, cool! And to explain how the suits can create weapons and such, I'm thinking each Scarab has a pocket dimension within its power core where extra nano-mass is stored. This matter is then summoned when they suit-up and when they conjure weapons and accessories. The Dark Ranger has expelled some of his extra nano-mass to create the organic-cybernetic hybrid monsters with the goal of achieving full breeding capabilities to grow an endless supply of nano-mass. This falls in line with the original programming of the Scarabs, which is conquer planets and then dial home once all resistance has been destroyed.

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

You had my interest at Power Rangers

@Duthguy

So potentially five rangers now XD. What color did you want?

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

Alright! I'm honestly really excited about all this!!

@Dragonfly 9

Me too! So, we've got at least four players on board, so four Rangers at least - Red, Pink, Blue, and whatever color Martian picks. And then the Black/Dark Ranger as the first villain. If we don't get any other players interested in the next day or so, we can just start with us four and then either play extra characters or maybe keep the extra Scarabs locked away until we find new hosts, which can come in at a later time if more players become interested down the line.

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

Sounds awesome! I'll probably take the Blue Ranger(either gonna make a chill, guitarist nonbinary teen who's actually pretty smart about robotics/mechanics, but who hides it and pretends to be dumb for some reason, or a seemingly typical nerd who has an athletic family/older, more successful brother and kinda learned about how to fight/is more athletic than you'd expect him to be)!

@Dragonfly 9

Cool! Your char and my char could probably work together to eventually design them some extra gear and maybe a Command Center/Bat Cave thing underneath his mansion. It seems your char would be more geared towards the hardware/mechanical/engineering side, while my character leans more towards software/programming/hacking. Eventually they could also build a beetle airship thing like in the movie that can cloak itself and serve as a mobile base of operations.

As for aesthetic for their first Command Center, I'm thinking something similar to the updated one at CranstonTech in the new Power Rangers: Once & Always movie, but that's not really utility-friendly, so we'll see.

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

Oh, and as for the initial gathering, I'm thinking it will be a couple weeks into the start of the school year, and the media is abuzz with footage of an armored person fighting small groups of monsters. Many thought it was just some marketing campaign for an upcoming movie or something until the FBI started crawling all over Angel Grove and the greater Los Angeles area. The media has labeled him the Power Ranger, and then when footage of the Black Scarab host also surfaced, they dubbed him the Dark Ranger. So when my character invites your characters over to his house, they already know about the existence of these supposed super-powered individuals, but are shocked to discover their friend is the Power Ranger. Once they begin fighting as a group, the media switches the name to plural and begins referring to the original as the Red Ranger and all the others by their colors as well.

So, of course, since the FBI is crawling around, we have a strong interest in protecting our identities. Perhaps towards the climax of the first story arc, we can form some kind of agreement with the Agent in charge of the investigation and work together to thwart the Dark Ranger.

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

Cool! So, we have Red, Black, and Pink claimed. What colors are the rest of you thinking?

Power Rangers: Scarab Squad

I've been away from RPing for a while now, but I've had an idea bumping around in my head that I figured I'd share and see if there was any interest. It's sort of a mixture of the suit from the new Blue Beetle movie and Power Rangers, wherein a group of seniors at Angel Grove High bond with different colored Scarabs. Beyond the references to Angel Grove and the Scarabs, this would be a completely original continuity that we develop as we write. Here's the trailer if you haven't seen it to get an idea how the suits work:

To keep the story from getting as convoluted as in my past RPs, I want to keep the initial plot fairly simple: My character spent the Summer before Senior Year visiting his archeologist father in Egypt, who had recently uncovered a hidden chamber in a tomb and unwittingly awakened a small swarm of alien robot Scarabs who had been locked away millennia ago. They used their cloaking abilities to become invisible and stow away in my character's luggage when he leaves to return to Angel Grove, and upon getting home and opening his suitcase, the Red Scarab jumps out and bonds to him. It tries to take over his body and command him to find hosts for the other Scarabs, but he is able to overpower the AI and maintain control of himself.

After learning to navigate the alien software of the suit, he is able to hack into the other Scarabs to reprogram their AI systems as well, except for the Black Scarab, which manages to escape. It later finds a host that will become the first major villain and begins breeding organic-cybernetic hybrid monsters. Knowing he needs to find willing hosts for the other Scarabs to fight off the growing armies of monsters, he invites his friends (your characters) over to his mansion and reveals the truth to them. Just then, the Black Ranger and the monsters swarm the mansion, and your characters bond with the other Scarabs to fight them off.

Feel free to pick any colors you all want, except for Red (my character) and Black (the villain). The suits all look like the Blue Beetle one in the movie, just imagine your chosen color instead of blue. The powers are similar to the movie suit as well. I'll leave it there for now, we can flesh it out more if there is interest.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

@CaptainManbeard

Would you be open to co-writing / co-gm? As I've said before, world building and lore are some of my favorite (and most experienced) facets of roleplaying. I'd be more than happy to help organize and consolidate ideas with you.

@Light

Thank you for the offer, but my issue lies more in communicating pages of information within only a few paragraphs rather than the worldbuilding itself. When it's just me writing one of my novels, I can create to my heart's content. Worldbuilding, characters, narrative flow - these are all some of my greatest literary strengths. But when it comes to communicating that to co-writers who are also actively developing the story and need to constantly remember everything I created while they are continually adding to the plot, that's where I run into issues. When it's in my own mind and my own personal notes, I can let everything get as bloated as I want and remember everything just fine, because in the part the reader actually sees, they are learning information at the same time the protagonists are. But when it's multiple people at the wheel, all that information needs to be known upfront and all at once to avoid creating plotholes and paradoxes.

I've never been a fan of co-GMing, but for the sake of getting this moving before everyone begins to lose interest, I think it's probably a good idea to hand the reigns over to you, Light. I'm gonna step away from this RP, but before I go, I'll share what I had for my characters and the info in this current re-write I was working on, and then you can salvage what you want from that for your thread.

Setting

RP Opening Theme

Setting

Unbeknownst to much of the human population of modern Earth, there exist many parallel universes that occupy the same space at different vibrational frequencies. They are colloquially known as the Mortal Planes, and travel between them is possible through a variety of magical transportation methods. Many of these realms participate in two primary unions called the Planar Republic and the Commonwealth of Arcane Universities - the former for political discussions and alliances and the latter to oversee schools of magical education.

One such institution is Qrowdell Academy, where the main characters are about to start their freshman year. It is located on Feywood Island, which itself sits amidst the Endless Sea, an artificial subplanar realm that loops back on itself if one ventures too far from land. The environment is enchanted to simulate weather, climate, and a night and day cycle based around Greenwich Mean Time at the Royal Observatory in London on Earth.

The plot will follow three Side Stories that thread into the Main Story of Volume I, which will center around the characters at the Academy and their involvement within three distinct groups.

Side Story A - Stormhawks

The Intercollegiate Battlemancer League is a combat sport association composed of dozens of participating schools who compete in Battlemancer Matches wherein two teams of sixteen players each try to score goals with small handheld rubber orbs called Mancerballs. They take place on Feywood Island, in the underground Battlemancer Arena.

When the referee blows the whistle to start a match, they throw a Mancerball into the air in the center of the Arena, and a team has to try and grab it before the other. Once they’ve secured it, they hand it to their Tank, the player who guards the Mancerball and runs to the nearest Charging Station. These are runic circles on the floor lined along the outer perimeter of the Arena, and there are three Red, three Blue, and three Green. Once a Tank steps into one, the Mancerball begins to charge up that color, and they must charge in all three colors and then run past the Goal Line at their end of the Arena to score a Point.

The Mancerball is synced with the Display Board overlooking the Arena, showing which team has the ball and the progress on charging. The Tank must stand in a Red Charging Station, a Blue Charging Station, and a Green Charging Station for sixty seconds each to have the Mancerball fully charged and ready to head past the Goal Line. The order in which they do this does not matter, but if the other team manages to get the Mancerball away from the Tank and makes it to a Charging Station, the first team’s progress on that charge is lost and overwritten with the other team’s progress.

So, that means that if all three colors are charged and the Tank is intercepted before they can make it to the Goal Line and an Interceptor from the other team manages to get the Mancerball to their Tank and then to a Charging Station, the first team loses all three color charges. Additionally, each team has six Defenders who guard the Tank, as well as six Attackers who engage in magical duels against the other team’s Defenders in an attempt to create an opening for their Interceptors to steal the Mancerball from the Tank.

Each team consists of a single Tank, six Defenders, six Attackers, and three Interceptors, for a total of sixteen active players for each team in the Arena. However, there are usually reserve/back-up players who can be called upon should an active player need to step away.

This Side Story focuses on the characters who join their school’s team, the Qrowdell Stormhawks. They play matches against other teams within Branch One over the course of the school year, with the goal of earning a Silver Cup, of which there are eight (one for each Branch). These eight winning teams then compete in Elimination Matches to earn one of four Gold Cups, which grants them passage to the Crimson Cup Championship on Battle Island. On this separate landmass within the Endless Sea, the four Gold Cup teams start at four separate Starting Zones around the island’s shore and must spend up to three days trying to locate the seven Super Mancerballs spread about the island.

The island is filled with underground dungeons, winding tunnels, and wizard towers with dozens of chests spread about. Sometimes they are mimics, sometimes they hold potions or helpful items, or sometimes they hold an actual Super Mancerball. Once a Tank has all seven held in their Mancerpurse (small pouch with a Bag of Holding enchantment), they need to head to the center of Battle Island, where there are three Super Charging Stations - one Red, one Blue, and one Green. The Tank must stand in each for sixty seconds with all seven Super Mancerballs, and then once they are fully charged (the Super variants have displays on the actual balls), they polymorph together and take the shape of a huge red goblet - the Crimson Cup.

At this point, if at least one member of the team can make it back to their Starting Zone with the Crimson Cup in tow, their team wins the Championship. However, the other three teams can intercept the Cup regardless of which team actually unlocked it, and whoever gets it to their Starting Zone first wins.

But things do not go as planned at the Championship, which leads this Side Story into the Main Story.

Side Story B - Monster Club

Qrowdell’s eccentric Creature Keeper, Samronious “Big Sam” Digglebone (son of Headmaster Addamarius Digglebone and Grand Maester Isabelle Digglebone), has recently become the Aedrazoology Professor as well, an elective class that focuses on the biology of magical beasts, caring for them, what natural environments they thrive in, etc. The students who join this class affectionately refer to it as Monster Club, and eventually each get a magical egg that hatches into an Ectomon, a slime-like shapeshifting being.

The Ectomon bonds with the first Magi it sees upon hatching, forming a psychic link and becoming that person’s familiar. It uses their personality and memories to shapeshift into something from their mind, and this becomes their new base form. So, for instance, if a young Magi is partial to Pokemon, their familiar may end up becoming a Pikachu. The Ectomon may be naive and infant-like at first, but over their first few months of life they learn and grow, eventually developing the same level of sentience as their partner and the ability to speak telepathically and/or out loud. Their abilities are largely based around the imagination of their partner at the moment of their hatching.

During the course of this Side Story, the students learn about various magical creatures and go on field trips to dozens of locations around the Mortal Planes. Same as the others, this ties into the Main Story towards the end of the school year.

Side Story C - Dark Acolytes

Unbeknownst to the rest of the school at first, a new freshman named Zack Silvador is the apprentice of a sadistic sorceress who goes by the alias Speaker Storm, a member of the Chromatic Council of the Cult of Tiamat. This dark organization was thought to have been wiped out centuries ago, but has persisted from the shadows. They have infiltrated a number of militaries, governments, and corporations, and intend to set in motion a series of events with the goal of returning the dark dragon goddess Tiamat to the Mortal Planes.

Zack Silvador is a vital component of that nefarious scheme, and has been instructed to stealthily recruit fellow freshmen to learn Dark Arts at the Secret Arena, a pocket dimension hidden inside a music box that works similar to a Room of Requirement. The Dark Acolytes are pulled in amidst a swirling tornado of magical lights, where they meet astral projections of Speaker Storm and several other instructors.

Characters

Tomayasu “Tommy” Miyazoko

Age: 18
Birthday: January 7th
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan, Earth
Height: 6’0
Body Type: Athletic
Race: Human
Eyes: Brown (Green when powered-up)
Hair: Dark Brown (Green when powered-up)
Pronouns: He/Him
Orientation: Heterosexual

Voice

Peter Sudarso

Musical Themes

Personality

Coming soon…

Arcane Conduits

MagiTech Card Reader (Arcane Runic Cards teleport inside)

Arcane Runic Cards

(Cards teleport inside kind of like this:)

MagiTech Katana (trigger separates blade from hilt so Arcane Runic Tokens can slide inside like loading a shotgun)

Arcane Runic Tokens

Talents & Magical Abilities

Tommy’s primary focus is electric-based magic, which he uses to create lightning attacks and achieve superhuman speeds, but he also dips into other types of magic to bolster his physical capabilities, including strength, endurance, and dexterity. He utilizes his Arcane Conduits for more powerful and complex abilities, for which he has a variety of spells pre-written on Cards and Tokens in the Arcane Tongue. Additionally, they are imbued with tiny memory fragments so that he knows what Cards and Tokens he is touching without having to look at them.

When not in active combat or practice, Tommy has a black backpack in which he keeps all his belongings. The interior space has been expanded to about the size of a large vehicle trunk/boot with a Bag of Holding enchantment, and straps against all four sides inside keep everything from jostling around.

When he is in active combat or practice, he wears a black utility belt with a thick strap reaching up along his chest and over his left shoulder. Square leather cases along the belt hold his Cards, Tokens, herbs, potions, and anything else he might need in combat, all with easy snap-open covers. His katana is held along the strap on his back, which he can reach up over his left shoulder with his right hand to unsheath when necessary.

Biography

Darwin Varrick

Age: 18
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Height:
Body Type:
Race: Azurelf
Eyes:
Hair:
Pronouns:
Orientation:

Arcane Conduits

Voice

Musical Themes

Personality

Talents & Magical Abilities

Biography

Zachary “Zack” Silvador

Age:
Birthday:
Height:
Body Type:
Eyes:
Hair:
Pronouns:
Orientation:

Arcane Conduits

Voice

Musical Themes

Personality

Talents & Magical Abilities

Biography

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

Sorry it's taking so long, I keep writing, erasing, and then re-writing shit like: "No, damn it, that's still too much information for everyone to remember. I need to get more across with as little information as possible." I'm trying to define the school, the classes, the fundamentals of the three Side Stories and the Main Story, the magic system, the locations of importance, etc. But I keep finding myself with a wall of text comparable to a short story and realize most people are going to skim over it and it will need to be re-explained multiple times when something is posted that contradicts it.

I almost want to just make the Academy much smaller for only a small group of apprentices who are studying under a few mentors. Just have it be something similar to the Xavier Institute, place it in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, and have the students take classes in the attic and go on field trips to various realms across the Mortal Planes. They can still fight in the Battlemancer League, which we can just say is like Pokemon battles but between teams of Magi, and some of the apprentices can still be part of secret dark arts lessons. If we go this route, then I can scrap the walls of text and get this shit moving faster. Otherwise, I am beginning to feel like the cycle of writing, erasing, and re-writing will never end, lol.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

And if you're curious, I made the title in GIMP. Here's a screenshot of my desktop, but since the image is so huge, I'm just gonna link it: https://i.imgur.com/IRPIova.png