Naraka
A Battle Royale inspired by Fortissimo, Fate/Stay Night, and Dies Irae, among others
Interest Check
In theory, every existence possesses desire. A child's desire to be stronger, a fetus's desire to be born, a friend's desire to shoulder others' pain. In order to be a sapient being without a single desire, you must be an impossible being. You must be something that has glimpsed what mankind calls "Enlightenment", something that has seen the truth of the world and escaped its laws as a result.
So then, if that is the case...what should happen when one's desire is tapped into?
This is what we call "magic". Those capable of tapping into their deepest desire, the locus of their existence, the origin point that their nature springs from, acquire with it the capability to manifest that desire into the world.
In this simple town, in the year 2017, those with that potential have been gathered by the red string of fate spun by an ancient fool. By her will, a separate world paints over theirs, taking only those chosen few with it. By her will, the potential of these individuals is forcibly awakened.
-And by her will, a declaration is passed. Those gathered here shall fight to the death. This world, this Naraka, will not fade away until one has died. The mundane world will reappear, and normal life may resume until the next day when a new Naraka begins.
Each day, they will be pulled back into this separate world and made to kill one another, lest they wish for Naraka to feed on them should it not obtain a sacrifice in due time.
And should they make it to the end, perhaps they shall be granted a reward for their troubles. Perhaps.
Welcome to Naraka. Do try to put on a good show.
Once a day, there will be an "instance" of Naraka. So, at, say, 4:00 PM, the world will seem to change, the sky changing color and every human and animal (with the exception of PCs) will disappear. This signifies that Naraka has begun. This will be explained in the roleplay itself, but once Naraka has begun, it starts a twenty-four hour countdown.
If, in that time, nobody dies, then everyone present in Naraka will automatically be killed. If, in that time, someone does die, then Naraka will automatically end, and the world will return to normal, now at the time of 4:05 PM. Then, the next day at some time, Naraka will happen again. This continues until only one person's left.
As an aside, Naraka and the normal world can be considered fully separate, so blowing up a building in Naraka won't have an effect on the normal world's building.
The powers of PCs are based off their core desire. For instance, to use an example from Dies Irae, your core desire being "I want this moment to last forever" would give you the ability to slow the flow of time. You can only have one such core desire, but it can be exhibited in a few different ways. This is further explained in the character sheet.
In terms of the framing, this pulls most heavily from the Fortissimo series. In terms of the themes, this pulls most heavily from the Fate/ series. In terms of the character abilities themselves, it pulls most heavily from Dies Irae.
If, in that time, nobody dies, then everyone present in Naraka will automatically be killed. If, in that time, someone does die, then Naraka will automatically end, and the world will return to normal, now at the time of 4:05 PM. Then, the next day at some time, Naraka will happen again. This continues until only one person's left.
As an aside, Naraka and the normal world can be considered fully separate, so blowing up a building in Naraka won't have an effect on the normal world's building.
The powers of PCs are based off their core desire. For instance, to use an example from Dies Irae, your core desire being "I want this moment to last forever" would give you the ability to slow the flow of time. You can only have one such core desire, but it can be exhibited in a few different ways. This is further explained in the character sheet.
In terms of the framing, this pulls most heavily from the Fortissimo series. In terms of the themes, this pulls most heavily from the Fate/ series. In terms of the character abilities themselves, it pulls most heavily from Dies Irae.
Name: The first and last name of your character. Maybe a middle name, if you're so inclined.
Age: No younger than 10, no older than 80.
Gender: Self-explanatory
Appearance: A picture is fine, a written description is fine, a stick figure is probably not fine.
Personality: Don't skimp on this.
History: Everything that has occurred in their life up until now, which is worth noting. Nobody is allowed to know about the existence of magic, Naraka, or so on. Also, whether born in it, or having just moved in last week, your character must be in the small, largely suburban town of Riversfield at the start of the roleplay.
Skills: Noteworthy abilities, talents, or knowledge. Please put it here if you have any intention of using it.
Other: Anything else you want to note.
Desire: The fundamental concept your character revolves around. If you had to sum up the heart of their nature in one sentence, structured as "I want X", then this is what that should be.
Assiah: The most basic manifestation of a desire. It can best be compared to something like a "psychic power". For instance, the ability to burn something with a glance, or to cut something without contact. However, as the strength of the souls is similar, it is impossible to affect another player character with these effects a priori. For instance, you cannot light a fire inside of their skull; instead, you can only create the fire outside of their body and manipulate it from there. A passive capability that, for all intents and purposes, can be used without constraint while in Naraka.
Yetzirah: Granting of physical form to a desire. In other words, formation of a construct which represents that desire. Weapons are the most common among these, but there are Yetzirah which are not weapons. The Yetzirah inherits and amplifies the trait of the Assiah in strength, but with its manifestation, one's ability can only be used through the conduit of the Yetzirah. There is thus a tradeoff between the Yetzirah's power and the Assiah's versatility. To invoke the Yetzirah requires one second. To keep things from being messier than they need to be, a Yetzirah cannot be a gun.
Beriah: Overwriting the rules of reality with one's desire. This can take one of two forms. The first is internal, in which one rewrites the reality of their own body and Yetzirah in line with the rule of their desire, for instance allowing their physical abilities to be amplified heavily. The second is external, which projects a space that overwrites the world and paints over it with one's own; in other words, creating a bounded-off "dimension" which is the crystallization of one's desire. Use of this stage taxes the body and soul. Internal Beriah-users can maintain it for five minutes before they become incapacitated under the strain, while external users are limited to one minute. To invoke the Beriah requires one second.
Parameters are on a scale from E to A, with E being the lowest and A the highest. The average value for your parameters should be C. For instance, all parameters being C, two being A and two being E, or two being D and two being B would be acceptable.
These are to be used for guidelines, do not attempt to outskirts battledome powerlevel arguments this. I am not giving the rankings numerical values for a reason.
Power: The strength your desire outputs. In other words, your damage stat. To clarify, this applies to things outside of mere "damage inflicted"; as it is the strength your desire outputs, it feeds into most things. For instance, if you create barriers, this determined the strength of the barrier. This is primarily applicable to Assiah and Yetzirah, but not exclusively; with Beriah, things can become weirder due to their nature.
Vitality: How much of a beating your body/soul can take from external sources. In other words, the consolidation of your defense stat and HP stat. This also applies to the hardiness of your Yetzirah as well. As an aside, the importance of vital body parts while in Naraka is heavily lessened; rather, the true importance is on the damage sustained by the soul being attacked by an opposing desire.
Range: Maximum range you can influence. E rank range means that you need physical contact to use your Assiah, and your Yetzirah is useless unless it touches the enemy. A rank range means the ability spans an entire "area", for instance a school grounds or a shopping mall. This only applies to Assiah and Yetzirah; for Beriah, range is not a function of this parameter, but is rather a function of if it's internal or external. Internal Beriah have a functional range of E, and external of A. The range of your Beriah does not factor into this parameter whatsoever.
Growth Potential: Capacity to strengthen yourself through the souls of the fallen. When your desire kills another, it is possible to claim some of their strength; this determines the likelihood of that. At A rank, you have a 50% chance of parameters increasing through killing an enemy. At E rank, you have a 10% chance. The level of increase will scale with the number of enemies that the enemy in question killed, but the likelihood of increase will not. The presence of this parameter makes it ill-advised to avoid combat entirely, as if you survive to the end by hiding, the person opposite you will have gorged themselves on the strength of their kills.
Age: No younger than 10, no older than 80.
Gender: Self-explanatory
Appearance: A picture is fine, a written description is fine, a stick figure is probably not fine.
Personality: Don't skimp on this.
History: Everything that has occurred in their life up until now, which is worth noting. Nobody is allowed to know about the existence of magic, Naraka, or so on. Also, whether born in it, or having just moved in last week, your character must be in the small, largely suburban town of Riversfield at the start of the roleplay.
Skills: Noteworthy abilities, talents, or knowledge. Please put it here if you have any intention of using it.
Other: Anything else you want to note.
Desire: The fundamental concept your character revolves around. If you had to sum up the heart of their nature in one sentence, structured as "I want X", then this is what that should be.
Assiah: The most basic manifestation of a desire. It can best be compared to something like a "psychic power". For instance, the ability to burn something with a glance, or to cut something without contact. However, as the strength of the souls is similar, it is impossible to affect another player character with these effects a priori. For instance, you cannot light a fire inside of their skull; instead, you can only create the fire outside of their body and manipulate it from there. A passive capability that, for all intents and purposes, can be used without constraint while in Naraka.
Yetzirah: Granting of physical form to a desire. In other words, formation of a construct which represents that desire. Weapons are the most common among these, but there are Yetzirah which are not weapons. The Yetzirah inherits and amplifies the trait of the Assiah in strength, but with its manifestation, one's ability can only be used through the conduit of the Yetzirah. There is thus a tradeoff between the Yetzirah's power and the Assiah's versatility. To invoke the Yetzirah requires one second. To keep things from being messier than they need to be, a Yetzirah cannot be a gun.
Beriah: Overwriting the rules of reality with one's desire. This can take one of two forms. The first is internal, in which one rewrites the reality of their own body and Yetzirah in line with the rule of their desire, for instance allowing their physical abilities to be amplified heavily. The second is external, which projects a space that overwrites the world and paints over it with one's own; in other words, creating a bounded-off "dimension" which is the crystallization of one's desire. Use of this stage taxes the body and soul. Internal Beriah-users can maintain it for five minutes before they become incapacitated under the strain, while external users are limited to one minute. To invoke the Beriah requires one second.
Parameters are on a scale from E to A, with E being the lowest and A the highest. The average value for your parameters should be C. For instance, all parameters being C, two being A and two being E, or two being D and two being B would be acceptable.
These are to be used for guidelines, do not attempt to outskirts battledome powerlevel arguments this. I am not giving the rankings numerical values for a reason.
Power: The strength your desire outputs. In other words, your damage stat. To clarify, this applies to things outside of mere "damage inflicted"; as it is the strength your desire outputs, it feeds into most things. For instance, if you create barriers, this determined the strength of the barrier. This is primarily applicable to Assiah and Yetzirah, but not exclusively; with Beriah, things can become weirder due to their nature.
Vitality: How much of a beating your body/soul can take from external sources. In other words, the consolidation of your defense stat and HP stat. This also applies to the hardiness of your Yetzirah as well. As an aside, the importance of vital body parts while in Naraka is heavily lessened; rather, the true importance is on the damage sustained by the soul being attacked by an opposing desire.
Range: Maximum range you can influence. E rank range means that you need physical contact to use your Assiah, and your Yetzirah is useless unless it touches the enemy. A rank range means the ability spans an entire "area", for instance a school grounds or a shopping mall. This only applies to Assiah and Yetzirah; for Beriah, range is not a function of this parameter, but is rather a function of if it's internal or external. Internal Beriah have a functional range of E, and external of A. The range of your Beriah does not factor into this parameter whatsoever.
Growth Potential: Capacity to strengthen yourself through the souls of the fallen. When your desire kills another, it is possible to claim some of their strength; this determines the likelihood of that. At A rank, you have a 50% chance of parameters increasing through killing an enemy. At E rank, you have a 10% chance. The level of increase will scale with the number of enemies that the enemy in question killed, but the likelihood of increase will not. The presence of this parameter makes it ill-advised to avoid combat entirely, as if you survive to the end by hiding, the person opposite you will have gorged themselves on the strength of their kills.
Q: How does combat work?
A: The system is largely going to be freeform, though stats should be used as a guideline. Combat generally works off of a time system. In other words, as a rule of thumb, if your opponent does an action that takes X time to do, then you're allowed to act at the same time as them. Be warned though that, since you're acting simultaneously to them in this case, you can't "respond" to their attack, as it hasn't happened yet. Once you've posted your character doing an action, they are locked into it and you cannot retcon in light of what your opponent posts. For this reason, it's recommended that you are careful about when you post, and what you post.
Q: What does this body/soul stuff mean?
A: So, put simply, attacks caused by an Assiah, Yetzirah, or Beriah deal spiritual damage as well as whatever physical component there is to it, as your existence is being attacked by a foreign desire. This means that, as explained in the Vitality stat description, the only way to reliably kill someone in Naraka is through use of your own desires, rather than through buying a gun online and shooting them in the head. In other words, if you're not killing them with your magic nonsense power, they won't die.
Q: Can't I just buy a gun and then shoot them outside of Naraka, like in the normal world where there's no magic stuff?
A: Sure, but as the IC Game Master will inform you, this will make her very upset and you will probably die as punishment.
Q: So if I say "bullshit you shouldn't have been able to dodge my magic beam" during a fight, what happens?
A: Conflict resolution in the case of disagreement between two players on what should happen in a fight will have two stages. First, the participants can chat it out about their own perspective and whatnot; others are welcome to chime in, but don't use that to persuade your friends to gang up on somebody with you. This'll at least let people air their perspectives, and also because the chuuni debates over which power should win are just fun to have. After everyone's said their piece, I'll evaluate everything and pass down a verdict. For those familiar with Fate/Stay Night, I'll also be including a Tiger Dojo knockoff to explain things further, in the case of a character death.
Q: I've been waiting on [Name] to respond to my combat post forever, when can I kill him?
A: If you're in an interaction with someone, whether combat or conversation, then that person has 24 hours to respond. If, after 24 hours, they have not posted, you're free to do as you wish. For a conversation, this means you can just walk away. For a fight, this means that you can say your attack connected, ergo you can "auto-hit" as the term goes. This means it's a bad idea to not post, when someone just posted swinging a sword at your character. Extensions to this deadline will be given on a case-by-case basis; I won't penalize you if real life makes you unable to respond for a while, I'm not that tyrannical, but please please try to give me advance notice on this before the 24 hour deadline's passed. Just a quick OOC post or PM saying "rl shits killing me" is fine, just give me something.
Q: What if I don't want to fight the other characters?
A: Perfectly understandable for a normal human. You can just not do anything during Naraka, make alliances, hell, you can even try and form a coalition against the Game Master and try to end Naraka forever. The choice is up to you.
Q: So are there, like, rules?
A: Don't godmod, don't autohit, don't be a jerk OOC, don't do things you shouldn't be able to do. Please don't write in first-person. Really, just standard RP etiquette. If you have questions about what those terms mean though, then just ask.
A: The system is largely going to be freeform, though stats should be used as a guideline. Combat generally works off of a time system. In other words, as a rule of thumb, if your opponent does an action that takes X time to do, then you're allowed to act at the same time as them. Be warned though that, since you're acting simultaneously to them in this case, you can't "respond" to their attack, as it hasn't happened yet. Once you've posted your character doing an action, they are locked into it and you cannot retcon in light of what your opponent posts. For this reason, it's recommended that you are careful about when you post, and what you post.
Q: What does this body/soul stuff mean?
A: So, put simply, attacks caused by an Assiah, Yetzirah, or Beriah deal spiritual damage as well as whatever physical component there is to it, as your existence is being attacked by a foreign desire. This means that, as explained in the Vitality stat description, the only way to reliably kill someone in Naraka is through use of your own desires, rather than through buying a gun online and shooting them in the head. In other words, if you're not killing them with your magic nonsense power, they won't die.
Q: Can't I just buy a gun and then shoot them outside of Naraka, like in the normal world where there's no magic stuff?
A: Sure, but as the IC Game Master will inform you, this will make her very upset and you will probably die as punishment.
Q: So if I say "bullshit you shouldn't have been able to dodge my magic beam" during a fight, what happens?
A: Conflict resolution in the case of disagreement between two players on what should happen in a fight will have two stages. First, the participants can chat it out about their own perspective and whatnot; others are welcome to chime in, but don't use that to persuade your friends to gang up on somebody with you. This'll at least let people air their perspectives, and also because the chuuni debates over which power should win are just fun to have. After everyone's said their piece, I'll evaluate everything and pass down a verdict. For those familiar with Fate/Stay Night, I'll also be including a Tiger Dojo knockoff to explain things further, in the case of a character death.
Q: I've been waiting on [Name] to respond to my combat post forever, when can I kill him?
A: If you're in an interaction with someone, whether combat or conversation, then that person has 24 hours to respond. If, after 24 hours, they have not posted, you're free to do as you wish. For a conversation, this means you can just walk away. For a fight, this means that you can say your attack connected, ergo you can "auto-hit" as the term goes. This means it's a bad idea to not post, when someone just posted swinging a sword at your character. Extensions to this deadline will be given on a case-by-case basis; I won't penalize you if real life makes you unable to respond for a while, I'm not that tyrannical, but please please try to give me advance notice on this before the 24 hour deadline's passed. Just a quick OOC post or PM saying "rl shits killing me" is fine, just give me something.
Q: What if I don't want to fight the other characters?
A: Perfectly understandable for a normal human. You can just not do anything during Naraka, make alliances, hell, you can even try and form a coalition against the Game Master and try to end Naraka forever. The choice is up to you.
Q: So are there, like, rules?
A: Don't godmod, don't autohit, don't be a jerk OOC, don't do things you shouldn't be able to do. Please don't write in first-person. Really, just standard RP etiquette. If you have questions about what those terms mean though, then just ask.
For use in coordination, a couple of seconds were spent in Microsoft Paint making this:
The city has been split up into "districts". These separations only exist OOC as a way to easier categorize things. When posting, please try to be as clear as possible about where in the city your character is at any given point in time; if you are ambiguous, then it may fall to me to make a decision if a conflict comes up. For instance, if your post is unclear about if you're by the schools or the town center, and someone in the town center sees/attacks you, then I will need to decide based on your post about your location, and while you may have intended for them to be by the schools, I may reach a different conclusion based on the post.
So please be clear.
Here are the nonexistent "districts" that have been labeled:
1: The north side of town, with a decent smattering of residences. One could consider it a sort of residential area, most of the families that have been in Riversfield for around a decade or upwards live around here. The number of public parks are considerable, and the nearby Lake Eva is a common spot for residents to visit and host events at.
2: The campus of Scanlan University, Riversfield's very own private college, is in this area. There's little else to speak of, as few people are usually here other than the students who live at the dorms or in the handful of other housing options available. Plenty of students who grew up in RIversfield also commute here. The university campus itself is surprisingly wealthy and can be considered a good space for shopping and eating, if one is a college student at least.
3: The area that the K-12 public schools are centered around, along with a few residences that were recently built a couple of years back. Fairly little to say, on the whole.
4: The town center, including city hall, movie theaters, stores and restaurants, and the like. There are a few residences on the fringe, and there are actually current plans to set up a condominium in the center, but this area can be considered primarily non-residential and the nexus of city activity.
5: Pretty much just roads.
6: The second core residential area, and like with the few houses in "district 3", a fairly new one at that. Primarily filled with apartments rather than houses, and is where the younger professionals of the town reside, generally commuting south to work in the more major metropolitan areas.
7: A construction zone where the current project of expanding the airport is being worked on, to meet the growing demand.
8: The Riversfield Airport. While not international, it is one of the larger exclusively-domestic airports in the country. Demand does not actually flow from Riversfield itself, but from the metropolitan area to the south. In recent years, construction's begun to expand the airport considerably to accommodate this.
The city has been split up into "districts". These separations only exist OOC as a way to easier categorize things. When posting, please try to be as clear as possible about where in the city your character is at any given point in time; if you are ambiguous, then it may fall to me to make a decision if a conflict comes up. For instance, if your post is unclear about if you're by the schools or the town center, and someone in the town center sees/attacks you, then I will need to decide based on your post about your location, and while you may have intended for them to be by the schools, I may reach a different conclusion based on the post.
So please be clear.
Here are the nonexistent "districts" that have been labeled:
1: The north side of town, with a decent smattering of residences. One could consider it a sort of residential area, most of the families that have been in Riversfield for around a decade or upwards live around here. The number of public parks are considerable, and the nearby Lake Eva is a common spot for residents to visit and host events at.
2: The campus of Scanlan University, Riversfield's very own private college, is in this area. There's little else to speak of, as few people are usually here other than the students who live at the dorms or in the handful of other housing options available. Plenty of students who grew up in RIversfield also commute here. The university campus itself is surprisingly wealthy and can be considered a good space for shopping and eating, if one is a college student at least.
3: The area that the K-12 public schools are centered around, along with a few residences that were recently built a couple of years back. Fairly little to say, on the whole.
4: The town center, including city hall, movie theaters, stores and restaurants, and the like. There are a few residences on the fringe, and there are actually current plans to set up a condominium in the center, but this area can be considered primarily non-residential and the nexus of city activity.
5: Pretty much just roads.
6: The second core residential area, and like with the few houses in "district 3", a fairly new one at that. Primarily filled with apartments rather than houses, and is where the younger professionals of the town reside, generally commuting south to work in the more major metropolitan areas.
7: A construction zone where the current project of expanding the airport is being worked on, to meet the growing demand.
8: The Riversfield Airport. While not international, it is one of the larger exclusively-domestic airports in the country. Demand does not actually flow from Riversfield itself, but from the metropolitan area to the south. In recent years, construction's begun to expand the airport considerably to accommodate this.
