@Mr Rage I like Mako quite a bit. Incidentally, I also gravitated toward a sickly or weak character who gained a new lease on things when I was in the original campaign this RP's based on. And since I'm quite likely to play her again, there's probably some room for our characters to have met each other at the hospital or something.
In terms of their Shifted Forms, are you looking for more monster girl-ish or Kamen Rider; or a mix of both. Since you want this to be more eldritch than Magical Girl.
I'd probably say more a mix of both. Here are some examples from Cthulhutech's illustrations. Though, if you find something more human-like but still clearly monstrous, that's fine too. I'm cool with taking plenty of liberties as-is, but hopefully we can at least avoid everyone being really cute horrible monsters or something.
Oh man, that looks great. I've always wanted an anime-toned Eldritch-themed roleplay. I'm super not into magical-girl stuff, but I'd like to express cautious interest anyways!
Honestly, other than the fact that your characters are girls of a certain age, there's not much "magical girl" about this. I suppose there's potential for themes of friendship and wanting to befriend or understand one's enemies instead of just annihilate them. But for the most part, tagers in total are more kamen rider or the guyver. But by trying to put on a magical girl angle, I get to mess with that, too.
So anime toned eldritch stuff? Totally going to deliver on that. Honestly not even sure how much so on the rest. Glad to have your interest.
The year is 2085. Fifty years ago, the Ashcroft Foundation shocked the world by revealing that magic was real, and they had harnessed its principles in new technology. The old gods have also taken notice, and now their cults are more active than ever. Operating in secret, they threaten to destabilize society and bring about the return of the Old Ones in a new era of madness. Fighting in a shadow war against them is the Eldritch Society, an international secret society dedicated to protecting the mortal world and driving back the advances of horrible deities. Their greatest warriors are tagers, people who have survived a powerful magical ritual and been bound in symbiosis with a "higher being," gaining incredible power.
A group of young women are about to be in the right place at the wrong time. A ritual gone out of control leaves them the unwitting subjects, and they have been found worthy by the alien beings summoned forth. They will have to learn how to use their new powers, and find allies in the shadow war quickly if they want to survive in a world of monsters. Because they are tagers, holy warriors, and they are destined to fight.
Welcome to the Strange Aeon.
Information
The Characters
Your characters will be young women who have been granted incredible power, and dragged into what would normally be the concern of adults. Until they became tagers by accident, your characters probably didn't even know there was a secret war against the Old Ones, but now they won't be able to avoid it. And they still have to go to school and maintain a normal life.
Your characters are still exceptional people on some level. Not anyone can be judged worthy by the "divine" beings that join with them to become tagers. It requires a certain amount of willpower and conviction.
In addition to your character, you will also get to create their form and abilities when they change into a living, power-armored monstrous warrior. This isn't a monster girl sort of thing so much as just a full-on monster. Tagers are more like the Guyver or Tekkaman Blade.
The Setting
The world is essentially a cyberpunk dystopian world, if everything in the Cthulhu Mythos was real. Humanity has developed arcane technology powered by magic, and the cult of Nyarlathotep has gone corporate. Megacorporations wield as much power as the New Earth Government, and cities are replaced by ultramodern arcologies. Environmentalism and conservation efforts are going strong. So is organized crime.
The RP will take place in the Kojiki arcology. An ultramodern city in Japan, Kojiki is a safe and beautiful place, on the surface. But like the rest of the world, cults, sorcerers, and monsters lurk just beneath the surface. Your characters can move around discreetly in mortal society, and will need to do so to survive.
Themes and Style
This RP is something of a bizarre pastiche of both magical girl anime and Mythos fiction. While there are definitely themes of Lovecraftian horror, the horror aspect may not be front and center. You're an eldritch super hero, after all. The overall expectation is also hopeful. Rather than despair and madness at humanity's insignificance, the focus is on humanity's ability to push back the night.
There will be violence. There will probably also be graphic descriptions of gore. There may be swearing and depictions of drugs and alcohol use. This RP won't be extremely grim and gritty all the time, but it certainly has the potential to get dark at times.
Themes of insanity will be at a relative minimum for the genre. The focus will be less on "you saw a deep one, roll SAN" and more on things like "When you tell people the guy next door is a monster, they think you're crazy." It's not that one is insane, merely that one knows some of the hidden truths of the world. There will be opportunity for introspection and the mental effects of the characters' situation on them. How do you react to fighting monsters? How does your symbiont influence you?
The writing style I'm aiming for is somewhere around the casual level. Be able to write a paragraph or two, although feel free to write as much or as little as you want or need to. As a writer, I tend to go for shorter posts myself. I'd prefer posts be written in the third person. Collaborations for long conversations or other opportunities are fine, but there probably won't be a large focus on needing collabs.
I expect a posting rate of about once a week. I'm not sure exactly how to describe things between a linear plot and a sandbox, but it's probably that you will have some freedom, but there will be some plot beats you'll need to choose how to confront and NPCs with their own agendas that will play out in certain ways if the PCs don't interfere. I will try to post at least once a week to try and move things along or start a new scene. I will not, conversely, wait for everyone to post if it would risk things staying quiet for too long.
I'm looking for around 4-5 other people total.
If you have any questions that I haven't answered, feel free to ask them.
Some questions and things
Some questions to spur discussion for prospective players:
Do you want a discord server for the RP?
How much of a focus would you want on action versus horror?
How much focus would you want on planning things and being careful not to be caught?
The world is far greater than we know. Even as far as humanity has come, there are things beyond understanding, and threats that the police cannot handle. And you just learned a lot about that the hard way. A powerful ritual has gone out of control, and through some quirk of fate, you've survived an ordeal meant for another and bonded with an eldritch symbiont from another dimension. Like it or not, you're now part of the occult side of the world, and are on the front line of a secret war. And so, the curtain rises...
The Setting
The setting for this roleplay is Kojiki Arcology. The time is 2085. Your home combines architecture and ecology into a single three-dimensional urban structure. The arcology is more sprawling than most, covering several green spaces and temples. Residences, parks, schools, and workplaces are all designed to be close together, and aside from emergency vehicles, few vehicles are permitted aside from bicycles. Most people get around using public transportation monorails, or by walking. Much of the city's architecture seems to take cues from art deco, and overall there is an odd mixture of the old 1920s style and the ultra-modern holographic displays and so-on. Wireless communication access is near-ubiquitous, and everyone has their ultramodern smartphone handy.
Like all arcologies, Kojiki is built with security in mind. Scanners and checkpoints at every entrance scan for contraband and undesirables, including inhuman or monstrous infiltrators. Contraband still manages to sneak in and there is a black market for everything from weapons to magic tomes, if one knows where to look.
About fifty years ago, the Ashcroft Foundation shocked the world by going public with the following: magic was real. And they had used it to develop new technology capable of generating steady, clean energy. This Dimensional Engine soon propelled mankind forward by leaps and bounds. Finally, we had the revolution in energy futurists had anticipated would come with the atomic age. Soon after the development of the D-engine, antigravity systems were also developed, and humanity has leveraged them both to usher in a new age of exploration. Powered armor and even larger humanoid mecha have been developed for both peaceful purposes like construction and for war.
Additional advances in fields such as cybernetics, nanotechnology, and biological engineering have led to revolutions in medicine and everyday life. One can generate just about anything with a nanofactory...provided one has access to it. Medical cybernetics exist, although far more common are replacement tissues created using a person's own cells and then attached with the help of nanomedicine or beneficial sorcery.
Founded by renegades among the Children of Chaos who stole the Ta'ge fragments, The Eldritch Society is a loose society of sorcerers, psychics, and others who know of the hidden truths of the world and act to protect it and humanity from these darker influences. The society has developed the Rite of Sacred Union from information contained within the fragments, a ritual similar to the Rite of Transfiguration that does not force one to lose their mortality. Instead, it calls out into the universe, to bring a mortal and a "higher being" together in symbiosis. However, participants in the rite would be "judged worthy". Tagers, as they have come to be called, are mortals who have undergone the Rite of Sacred Union and survived. They are monsters with the hearts of men, and are the Eldritch Society's greatest warriors.
The Chrysalis Corporation is one of the world's most influential and largest megacorporations, often chief competitor to the Ashcroft Foundation itself. It is also rotten from the inside. Decades ago, Chrysalis rediscovered the Rite of Transfiguration, a powerful ritual that transforms a human into...something else. This attracted the attention of the god Nyarlatheotep, and it gathered its mortal cult, the Children of Chaos, and silently took over. Most Chrysalis employees are completely unaware of the cult's existence, or any other darker influences, although eventually cult initiation and promotion are one and the same.
A mortal undergoing the Rite of Transfiguration is changed into a form "more suiting to his masters." He becomes a shapeshifting monstrosity known as a Dhoanoid. Although they walk around like men, their true form lurks just under the surface. Utterly inhuman in body and soul, a dhoanoid is easily discovered by genetic scans or mystical means.
The Black Lodge is a cabal of sorcerers founded in America that has since spread tendrils of influence across the world. All members of the Lodge are dedicated to the practice of sorcery unrestricted by moral or legal boundaries. Many of its members are powerful maestros of evil enchantment, who have traded away their humanity for even greater heights of power.
Player Characters
You will be playing one of a small group of girls aged 10-16 who are suddenly swept into a secret war between powerful forces. Each of them has encountered an alien lifeform from another dimension, summoned as part of an interrupted ritual, and has managed to survive the experience, overmastering it or making a pact with it to become something more than human. Each character is a tager, and has been granted incredible abilities. Your character can manifest their "divine" powers in an instant, transforming into an armored battle form or even a subtler hybrid form. This allows them to blend into society and operate discreetly until they need to face danger. Shortly after you all become tagers, you are approached by someone claiming to be a member of the "eldritch society," that they can explain what has happened to you, and they need your help.
Your characters all attend the same school, although they do not need to be in the same grade or class. The details of their home life are also entirely up to you. If you would like to work with other players to have a common background, you are more than welcome to.
Tager common abilities
Tagers can shift instantly between their human and alien forms, and no physical objects or restraints can stop the transformation. The symbiont simply destroys anything in the way. At least your clothing is instead stored in another dimension, instead of being shredded every time.
All tagers enjoy enhanced physical attributes compared to a normal human. Speed, strength, agility, perception, and even mental fortitude are affected. While tagers enjoy a small boost in their unshifted human form, they gain far greater boons when in heir shifted, alien form. The extent to which a tager's attributes are boosted does vary by individual type.
Due to your mystical connection to your symbiont, it influences you in subtle ways. Some of its own personality traits, so to speak, might begin to bleed into your own. When you are in a stressful or dangerous situation, your symbiont may try to manifest itself partially or fully, whether you want it to or not.
Abilities by form
In mortal human form,
Minor enhancement to strength, agility, and so-on.
Regenerate from injury at a slow but steady rate, recovering in only hours or days from most wounds. Any injuries suffered in your mortal form heal at this rate, even if you later change forms.
Detect Dhoanoids and other nonhuman beings. This takes about a minute of observation. While dhoanoids are recognizable as such, anything else will simply be registered as something "Other."
Communicate telepathically with tagers (shifted or not) within 100m. Sense other tagers within 10m.
In their clearly alien battle form, all tagers have the following abilities.
Full enhancement to strength, speed, agility, etc.
Ability to leap great distances with little effort.
Stick to and crawl on walls and other sheer surfaces.
Life support: your mortal form is mystically protected and you can survive in space or the deep oceans.
Armored and more resistant to injuries.
Regenerate rapidly from injury. You cannot shift back until any injuries suffered while in your alien form are healed.
Every tager has a variety of weapons and other supernatural abilities, although the specifics differ between symbionts.
Limit Weapon: A unique and powerful attack that you can use once a day, often to devastating effect.
Communicate telepathically with other tagers within 2 km. Automatically sense other tagers within 100m.
Tagers can also manifest only part of their symbiont. Although this takes an act of will under most circumstances, your symbiont does appreciate the value of discretion. When active, a tager's still appears mostly human, although their eyes take on a clearly inhuman appearance, such as becoming pitch black, blood red, or segmented like an insect's. You gain access to one of your natural weapons or supernatural abilities, can leap great distances, and can cling to walls like in your shifted form.
Character Sheet
Feel free to pretty up or embellish the sheet below as you see fit. Add extra sections, use code to make it look nice. Whatever floats your boat.
Name: Your character's name Age: Your character's age. Optionally, also include their grade/year in school. Appearance Your character's appearance. Images are fine, and while artwork, particularly anime-styled is recommended, I will not require it either. Please also provide a good paragraph description of your character's appearance, should you feel the need to elaborate with additional details not present in the image. History: At least a paragraph about who your character is. Where are they from? What's their family life like? What events have shaped who they are today? Personality: A very brief sketch about how your character tends to act or see the world. Also consider how their ta'ge symbiont's influence has or will change their mentality over time.
Ta'ge Symbiont Appearance: The shifted appearance you take on when you fully manifest your symbiont. While humanoid, one is still clearly alien, monstrous, and likely to frighten anyone who saw them. Think the Guyver, or other biological or living armors or just plain old cool looking monsters, really. Images are encouraged, just as before. Natural weapons: The natural weapons available to you. Be they claws, blades, a powerful bite, tentacles, or even more unusual or mystical ranged attacks. Limit Weapon: Your signature special move. Make it nice and flashy. Examples would include the Guyver's mega-smashers or similar anime wave-motion guns, an ability to create several illusory copies of oneself, an unstoppable armored charge, the ability to teleport around an area and make multiple attacks from many angles or against several enemies, and so-on. Other supernatural Abilities: Other supernatural abilities you possess, if any. Some examples could include flight with or without wings, the ability to turn invisible, a sort of displacement effect to appear slightly next to where one actually is, or the ability to phase through solid matter. Personality traits: The personality traits your symbiont tends to bleed into your own. Hybrid Form: When you partially manifest your symbiont, what weapon or ability do you gain? What obvious change happens to your eyes?
I expect decent writing. As long as there’s a solid attempt at correct spelling and English grammar, I’m happy. Lord knows I make mistakes myself, anyway.
I expect reasonable posting times. At least once a week should be sufficient. If you have things happening in your life, I know that can happen. Please let us know if you can, and about when you’ll be back, if you know. I will be doing my best to move the story along regularly, and will not necessarily wait on everyone to post if enough has happened in the current scene.
This RP will contain violence, death, foul language, and possibly graphic descriptions of gore and grievous bodily harm. It might also contain alcohol and drug use and even mentions of sex, although I hope that last one is unlikely.
The Cthulhu Mythos Deus Machina Demonbane The Cthulhutech RPG - It’s based on an old campaign in this system, and a lot of the names, and everything about tagers is taken right from there. Bioboosted Armor Guyver - Ctech’s already ripping this off to an obvious degree, it’d be wrong not to list it here.
And might as well update with something approaching a better write-up of that first idea. It has been far too long since I've written a pitch for an RP. Far, far too long. Enjoy more information that's pretty setting-agnostic and possibly still too vague. But hopefully it gives a better idea of how things work.
From Beyond
You have entered into a sort of symbiosis with an extradimensional being. You provide it with some of your magical energy and a way to access your world, and it provides you with the power to fight. The world is not as small as you until recently thought it was, and worse, it’s under threat. You’ve been tasked with saving it.
If only it were that simple. There’s a whole secret war going on, and while it means you can find help, it doesn’t make it any less daunting of a task. Your allies: the Eldritch Society, a loose organization of sorcerers and occult scholars. Armed with knowledge of the enemy, they fight their shadow war against occult threats. And it was, after all, one of their rituals gone awry that got you into this in the first place…
So you’re bonded in symbiosis with an extradimensional creature. What does that even get you? Quite a lot, actually. While some abilities will depend on your specific symbiont, many abilities are common to all.
You can mentally call your symbiont at any time to form a sort of armor around you. The transformation is near-instantaneous, and cannot be stopped by normal means, even destroying bonds or other things right next to you. Your new form is clearly monstrous, but also quite powerful. The specific appearance and attacks depend on the type of symbiont, of course. You've even got a sort of really powerful attack you can only use once a day, whether it be a giant anime wave motion gun or teleporting around and hitting everyone in the room or whatever else.
When transformed, your physical abilities are greatly enhanced, and you regenerate from injury quickly. Even when not transformed, you have lesser improvements to your abilities and still heal quickly. Note however that your symbiont won’t let you drop your transformation until any injuries are healed, and any injuries taken in human form will heal at the rate for your human form, regardless of which form you are in. Most importantly, perhaps, you can sense monsters. Anything inhuman, you can now pick out with a sort of sixth sense, although it can take a bit of study to really be sure.
Shadows in the Dark
Your primary enemies are the Children of Chaos, a cult that has infiltrated a powerful corporation, and now controls it from the inside. Careful to operate in secret, they carry out their work for Nyarlathotep subtly, while the public face of the corporation remains unchanged. Their most dangerous agents are the dhoanoids, monsters who can take the form of men. A dark mirror of your own powers, these creatures may be able to appear in their human form, but the ritual that creates them leaves nothing truly human behind.
You know about magic. It’s something you can learn in school if you have the gift for it. Of course, sorcerers are expected to register with the government and are carefully monitored, unless they go underground. Among those that do, some take a darker path, often even giving up some aspect of their humanity for greater power. Unlike dhoanoids, who can learn and use magic if they choose, sorcerers pursuing such paths to power are often strange and varied in their methods and abilities.
Izurich