Interest Check: BESM World Hopping Game (Closed: sandbagged by a cursed Character.)

Jade Takasaki is a Nisei girl in Washington state going to high school until one day she finds her forehead glowing with a yellow infinity symbol.

This starts an adventure as she discovers a series of gates opening all over her hometown of Walaganash, Washington, (fictional location created for story purposes), letting in all manner of bakemono, kame, and Seishin. As the situation spirals out of control Jade is forced to take matters into her own hands, and realizes that SHE is the one causing these long sealed gates to open. She realizes that the problem will only get worse as long as she stays here, so, she packs the heaviest backpack she can hike with (she's part of the high school wilderness camping club, so she's pretty fit,) full of essentials, a few little luxuries, and about 500 rounds of ammunition for her .22 pistol plus a reloading device. She proceeds to say goodbye to her friends and jumps through the latest portal to open, this one in her own basement.

Little did she know, however, she was at that point being followed by several other individuals, some from Earth, some from further afield, who joined her in her exile, and on the long journey to self-mastery that would allow her to control her emerging powers...

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Ok with the premise out of the way, time to explain the game. This would be a canon BESM multi-universe game.

For those who don't know, BESM stands for "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" is a game designed to allow you to roleplay anime and manga stories.

Jade is what is known as a "Skeleton Key" she can open and close any portal, gate, or door, including mundane ones, but can't control her powers yet. Everyone else would be her traveling companions, be they other high school students from earth, (probably with strange unknown powers of their own,) beings from other worlds that passed through the gates Jade accidentally opened, or individuals she meets in the new world...

Points are not established yet because we first need to pick an edition, (there have been three,) but whatever is decided Jade will be 25 to 75 points LOWER than the rest of the group, as she is a GMPC, and should, therefore, lag behind so as not to steal the spotlight.

Because BESM is a points-based system, at the end of each in-game day I will tally each meaningful post in the main thread and award that PC 0.1 points for character advancement which can be spent whenever the group meets the conditions for their posted advancements, which must be pre-approved for story consistency. Approval will be very likely, as long as it fits the story setting and/or your background and you have the points, BESM is well balanced to prevent most casual abuse.

Speaking of the setting, the world everyone winds up in is a D&D-esque fantasy world, but not any of the big-6 from canon BESM. Specifically, they step out of the wall of a supply room in the officer's training academy of the army of a very ethical 'Evil-Overlord', and are promptly apprehended and involuntarily enrolled...

The game will be "Adult", (Jade is a high-school senior who turned 18 early in the school year...) And I encourage any players to consider playing female characters, especially if playing Earth-Humans, as they are probably Jade's friends and classmates.

Last point of note, Jade is the only allowed Skeleton Key. Other characters could have lesser 'key' powers*, but she's the only one that can open and close world gates all willy-nilly.
*(Like unlocking any mundane lock or something...)

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Would anyone like to play?

Please post preferred edition, (if you have one,) and a rough character concept, (if you can come up with one,) when expressing interest.

 

We have one person who has expressed tentative interest, and I'm going to put it out there that both I and he are leaning towards the third edition, which is the latest one and has the multiverse setting that will be used for this game, with some slight modifications. (Earth has a total of Nine major dimensional portal sets, counting the one for the council chamber pocket dimension and the six known worlds. The other two were both severed during the days of the last ice age, one of which now has connected itself to the world where the first story arc will take place.)

EDIT: Assuming 3rd edition is chosen I'm looking at around 350 points for standard characters and 300 for Jade. Additionally, PCs should have no more than two secondary characters at character creation at the outside, and all character generation should be done in collaboration with the GM...

 

DID SOMEBODY SAY ANIME RPG!? THIS IS MY TIME!

Spoiler

What was Shall Be and What shall Be Was

In all honesty though, i'm not familiar with BESM at all. (I actually thought originally that it said 'BDSM' and my first reaction was all 'That doesn't sound like the Nemo I know').

On top of that, as written for the Superhero game, she's likely far too powerful and would have to be toned back from that incarnation. She also might be cursed, because I've tried to play a verson of her in two PbP game's and none of them went anywhere.

 

Oh, this is going somewhere, and no backstories this time! Now that we have at least one definite player (aside from me,) the game is going to happen! (Third Time's the Charm, eh?)

(Technically we're not quite playing BESM, we're actually going to be playing BBSW (Big Breasts, Small Waist) the 'Adult' version of BESM, but it's just an add-on to the standard BESM rules, so...)

In a little bit, I'm going to post the tentative stats for Jade, but here's some more background...

 

I'm not convinced, but eeeaahhh.....


I've always preferred being a player over a GM, so it's sometimes pretty easy to rake me into things like this if it fits certain criteria.

 

Jade Takasaki's Tentative Stats:

Name: Jade Takasaki
Species: Human
Race: Asiatic (Ethnically 'Japanese-American' aka 'Nisei')
(Racial Template: Skeleton Key, somewhat modified...)

Occupation: Former Highschool Student/Dimensional Refugee, Current First Form Cadet at the Kether Rock 'Special Services' Academy.
(Occupation Template: Student, heavily modified...)

Body: 5 (50 pts)
Mind: 3 (30 pts)
Soul: 6 (60 pts) Less Capable: Minor: Self Control 4 (-1 pt)

(Modified) Skeleton Key Template:
LEVEL POINTS ATTRIBUTE
+5 +40 Dimensional Portal (5 Links)
+5 +10 Divine Relationship
+1 +10 Dynamic Powers (Minor: Keys — Both Physical and Metaphysical) Restrictions: Strong emotions: 1 -2 pts, Unpredictable 2 (15 or higher soul roll to use deliberately) -4 pts, Uncontrolled 2 (15 or higher soul roll to avoid using accidentally when in grip of strong emotion...) -4 pts
+5 +10 Energy Bonus
+2 +20 Reincarnation (Difficult to Stop)
+1 +9 Sixth Sense (World Gates; Area 3 + 7 = 10 — 30 km)
LEVEL POINTS DEFECT
1 -1 Marked (Infinity symbol on her forehead when interacting with a Dimensional Portal)
3 -6 Skeleton in the Closet (Skeleton Key)
+1 -2 Owned (Under tighter control by Emperor Xander the 1st than even the rest of the cadets.)
Current Points Total: 120

(Modified) Student Template:
LEVEL POINTS ATTRIBUTE
+4 +8 Energy Bonus
+1 +1 Features (Ambidexterity)
+2 +4 Heightened Awareness
+1 +2 Organisational Ties (Iissadian Empire Army)
+2 +2 Skill: Area Knowledge
+2 +2 Skill: Gaming
+2 +2 Skill: Sports
+20 Unknown Power
POINTS DEFECT
-1 Girl / Guy Magnet
Points total: 40.

 

Just Google BESM third edition pdf and it should come right up!

 

Let's see how this goes:

Code:

Name:           DURAND, Béatrice
Species:        Human

Occupation:     High school student

STATS:
                Body:   6 (60)
                Mind:   3 (30)
                Soul:   6 (60)
  
TEMPLATE:
                Student (modified)
                LEVEL   POINTS  ATTRIBUTE
                5       10      Divine Relationship
                4       8       Energy Bonus
                1       1       Feature (Direction Sense)
                2       4       Heightened Awareness
                1       2       Organisational Ties (Iissadian Empire Army)
                1       1       Skill: Gaming (Board Games)
                2       6       Skill: Acrobatics (Balance)
                2       2       Skill: Performing Arts (Dance)
                2       2       Skill: Domestic Arts (Cooking)
                1       2       Skill: Driving (Car)
                1       2       Skill: Foreign Culture (French)
                3       3       Skill: Languages (French, English, German)
                        20      Unknown Power
                        POINTS  DEFECT
                        -2      Owned
                        -2      Phobia (Arachnids)
                TOTAL   59

BACKGROUND:
  Béatrice « Tris » Durand is an eighteen-year-old high school student in America. She was born in Paris and lived there with her single mother, Danièle, for her first fifteen years. Béatrice's mother was a dancer at cabaret Crazy Horse in Paris and she raised Tris alone, but Danièle had help from her younger brother, Pascal. The occasional boyfriend was also around, but Béatrice never bonded with any of them. Her biological father had left before her birth. Given Danièle's occupation as a burlesque perfomer, Béatrice spent a lot of time away from her and her mother's appartement with a group of friends or with her only father figure, her uncle. Pascal is a Parisian taxi driver, who supported his older sister and niece as much as he was able. Even given this rather unusual background, Tris’ childhood was surprisingly happy. Her mother was loving and caring, and her uncle loved his niece like the daughter he never had. Their modest background and her mother's work did not make her one of the popular students in school, but she was not ostracised and found a tight-knit clique. She shared her mother's love for dancing and music and her uncle provided her with an appreciation for French and International cinéma.
  Around Béatrice's fourteenth birthday, her mother met a business man from the USA, Thomas Hamilton. They became infatuated with each other and things developed quickly. Two months before her fifteenth, her mother married Thomas and planned to move to the US with him. Béatrice did not want to leave France, but her mother wanted her to come. Her uncle's small salary as a taxi driver could not provide a pleasant life for two people. So, having no other choice, she moved to Walaganash, Washington.
  The first few months in the US were miserable for Béatrice, she had severe homesickness and culture shock. She would spend long evenings talking to her uncle on the phone and basically shut her new step-father out. She resented him deeply for taking everything she loved away from her: (to an extend) her mother, her uncle, her friends and Paris.
  School was also difficult, her English, while not atrocious, was underdeveloped for a fifteen-year-old in America and she garnered the—at the time unwanted—attention of many boys due to her French origins. The popular girls in school also came to see that attention as a threat to themselves and started nasty rumours about her and her mother around school, they also roped some popular boys, who felt slighted by Tris, into the scheme.
  Things started to take a turn for the better when she was put together with a Japanese-American girl named Jade as her lab partner in chemistry. Jade was apprehensive about 'that French slut' at first but recognised that all the rumours about the foreign girl were only lies and quickly developed an understanding and budding friendship with the young Frenchwoman. The Nisei girl helped improve Béatrice's English and, in turn, Béatrice helped Jade to achieve an A in French in their freshman year, while Béatrice got a respectable B- in English. Béatrice never lost her French accent. she cherishes it and even plays it up when she's being playful.
  With their developing friendship, Béatrice learned to love Shogi and joined Jade's club. She also joined the rythmic gymnastics club, which her mother was quite proud of. Jade's love for hiking rubbed off on Béatrice, who had only lived in the city back home.
  Nearly at the end of their time in high school, nobody in school believed the old rumours about Béatrice. Many boys had had to learn the painful lesson that Béatrice was in fact not an 'easy lay'. She became known as the school's femme fatale, very beautiful but with thorns.

 

Ok, and now we continue with character creating: lets talk defects.

PCS can have no more than 25 points of defects, and two of those points are automatic: specifically, all PCs have 'owned' level 1. This represents that we all are First Form Cadets at the Kether Rock 'Special Services' Academy, meaning that we can have various privileges revoked if we disobey the instructors, or even be confined to a discipline hut or be whipped for severe enough infractions. This pays for the universal "Organisational Ties (Iissadian Empire Army)" attribute that we receive at level 1, (some through background packages, some not,)

Furthermore, the "Student" career package is appropriate for numerous reasons, but particularly because were, well, students, though is only guaranteed to last for the first story arc.

Now, a shout out to @merkros if you want help transferring your character into BESM stats, im available off-and-on all this week except tomorrow afternoon until about 10 at night, but to start with:

I would say, as currently written, she would have a nine or ten in her Body stat, with maybe some less-capable drawbacks on her dexterity and constitution. She would also have some levels of super strength.

 

Ok, since @merkros has said they're too busy, let's move on @unisol_gr44 ...

To start with: you've had a chance to give the book a cursory examination at this point, are you considering any companions or other secondary characters?

 

I don't want to ruin your game, Nemo, but I was kind of hoping for this to be more than 1-on-1.
I'm not sure, but I think a lot of people here might be put off by all the number crunching and dice rolling. Most games I've seen on here are more drama class improv with simple rules.

PS: I thoroughly enjoyed making Tris, though. So, thanks for inspiring me to sit down to do that.

 

You were right @merkros that character IS Cursed, never try to play her again.

Since both people who expressed interest have left, I'm closing this down.