An escape from reality or a descent into madness?
Premise
Nichibotsu-ku - a largely independent ward of the nearby city of Hitome - harbors the prestigious Koden Academy: a private high school in which students live on campus. The school itself houses a variety of scientific facilities; the largest of which is dedicated to researching the geographical phenomena that is prevalent within this region of Japan. As a new school year approaches, strange rumors concerning Nichibotsu begin to circulate. One of the more prominent rumors is about a second library located somewhere within Koden Academy - a rumor that was quickly dismissed by the school faculty but is still making the rounds. Then there is a rumor concerning the massive forest on the borders of Nichibotsu. Residents warn about mysterious white-furred animals leading people into the forest and are never seen again. Finally, there are sightings of strange holes appearing out of nowhere at different locales throughout Nichibotsu. That particular rumor has piqued the interest of Koden Academy's geography committee.
You are a student of Koden Academy whether through good fortune, hard work, or inherent privilege, and you've been randomly selected to participate in a new experimental class that focuses on geography during the upcoming school year. Through a series of events at the beginning of the school year, you'll acquire the power of Persona that you must use to stop the advent of a global calamity that starts here in Nichibotsu. But do not worry, you are not alone in this fight. Your fellow classmates and friends, armed with the same power, will stand alongside you. When the line between reality and madness blurs, you must embrace both within yourself if you wish to escape intact.
Escapism
The overarching theme that we'll explore within this Persona RP is escapism. To roughly define escapism: it is the desire to distract oneself from the harsh and/or mundane realities of life. This is usually done through books, films, video games, etc. Our characters, who are attending a prestigious private academy, have certain expectations placed upon them and the strict grind of schooling leaves them feeling an overbearing sense of boredom and unpleasantness. Such a mundane existence would eventually drive anyone mad if they could not "escape" into other worlds even if only temporarily. I want this to be the drive for our characters and hopefully you'll be able to implement this theme into your character in an interesting and/or various ways.
Characters
As already mentioned, your character will be a student of Koden Academy. The main cast will most likely consist of somewhere between 6-9 people maximum because I want every character to feel important and integral to the story. The majority of the characters should be third-year students because the third year of a Japanese high school has an intense focus on preparation for college which should add to your characters' desires of wanting to escape reality. Each character will have a different animal mask which represents a "beautiful" memory and is the Persona summoning method (you hold the mask in front of your face or it automatically forms over your face as you call upon your Persona). Also, each character uses a different weapon in battle.
There will be an MC, or avatar character, primarily controlled by me, the GM. However, at certain key story points, you guys, the participants which excludes me, will be able to vote and choose what action the MC will take during these events and those decision will greatly affect the plot which extends to the ending (hopefully we'll get there). Also, as the MC, I'll do my best to make him a more quiet character as per tradition in the Persona games. Finally, if you guys want, you'll be able to vote on a name for the MC.
Personae & Arcana
Since the theme is escapism, our characters' initial, and later prime, Personae are based on characters from fairy tales, folklore, stories, poems, etc. If you want, you can use this list to look for characters to base your initial Persona off of. Each player character will represent an Arcana in which they will have full access to every Persona within that Arcana for fusion and the likes (we have to discuss whether we'll use a fusion system or not). Then, you can select two more Arcana classes that your character is compatible with which you will have access to the majority of Personae within those classes. This does not affect the MC since he'll have the power of the Wild Card. Initially, every character will only be able to hold five Personae.
Dungeons in this RP will also be based on fairy tales and such. If you have dungeon ideas, let me know or I could even put up a dungeon sheet but I think the former method would be less of a hassle.
So this is just a general overview of the RP. Topics such as world building, combat, and whatever else you can think off is up for discussion.
