[center][b][i]Princess the Hopeful: Freeform Contagion[/i][/b]
[img]https://imgur.com/dm54s8N.jpg[/img][/center]

[B]Disclaimer:[/b] The idea was someone else's, but I was allowed to borrow it.

[b]I. Intro[/b]

In the independent archipelago-nation of Beaux Rêve (Sweet Dream), situated in the Pacific Northwest, ideas and [i]ideals[/i] clash as the world knocks on its door, seeking access to resources both mundane and supernatural. As a place that is radically different from most of its neighbors, many of the customs are alien even on the global stage. Colonized first by the French elite when Europeans first came and claimed what they saw as the New World,  Beaux Rêve has adopted a number of notably French customs and expressions, intermixed with British, American, Russian, and Japanese influences. 

The Capital, Beaux Rêve City, is famous for its extreme and bizarre one-school policy. A space the size of a whole city district has been carved out to make space for a truly massive educational complex, ranging from nurseries all the way up to university faculties. Children from all over the city are made to mix regardless of their economic circumstances or housing situations. This brings a number of advantages and issues. Bullying is high, many classrooms or even whole buildings are left vacant due to issues or a lack of funding, teachers face extreme workloads and massive classes and the economy of the whole city has shifted to accommodate this. Everybody knows somebody who works at the school, and rumors spread like wildfire about the daily happenings. The district and the schooling system is just commonly known as "The Complex" or "Beaux Rêve Educational."

As the center of the nation's economic life, the Capital is also split into a number of districts that serve various needs. The Complex is the main district, located at the center of the city. The residential district isn't split by any official lines, but the disparity between rich and poor is clear to see, with worn-down apartments overshadowed by massive skyscrapers and penthouses belonging to the ultra-rich. It's not particularly rare for people to live in other districts above shops, in barracks-like accommodations for laborers, or on the more rural and suburban city borders. Other districts include the commercial district full of bustling markets and French imports, which contrasts with the industrial district full of broken-down warehouses and demolished factories.

The party currently in charge is the Autocrats, who have used Beaux Rêve as a testing ground for their larger plans over the years. Challenging this party are the Humanitarians, a slightly awkward and needs-must party made up of a mixture of people who genuinely want to change things for the better, and others who are simply riding the wave for power or for more cynical reasons. Rumors of more extreme elements of the party decry extremism and violent demonstrations.

Princesses and Princes, aka Magical Girls and Boys, are the dominant supernatural force in Beaux Rêve, if one does not count Hunters, who serve as their oversight. Both Princesses and Hunters have taken up arms to protect the Capital and wider nation, with average folk becoming empowered to take the fight to the core of the issues facing the town, as Mortals squabble about their differences on the streets. The Light that they represent is delicate, however, flickering in the face of so much darkness and suffering. Individuals struggle with their burden, far too spread out and fractured amongst themselves to weather the looming storm. The chances are low, but if those standing for what is right can brook the crashing wave, the path to a brighter future could be left in the wake.

Everything is on the verge of collapse, and that weight falls squarely on your shoulders. If you don't have to strength to lift it up, the dedication to make this place better, then it will drag you down with it, along with all you've ever loved.

[b]II. Haphazard Info and Exposition[/b]

All right, what is Princess the Hopeful and why should we care?

[url=https://princesswod.fandom.com/wiki/Princess:_The_Hopeful_Wiki]Princess the Hopeful[/url] (Tv. Tropes page [url=https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful]here[/url]) is a homebrew tabletop game, a custom splat based on the [url=https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Chronicles_of_Darkness?so=search]Chronicles of Darkness[/url] (New World of Darkness 2e) setting and system created by White Wolf Publishing, now owned by Paradox Interactive. The homebrew focuses on Magical Girls and Boys (or Magical Women and Men) who are literally driven to be 'Good People in a Grimdark Universe', fighting for a legitimate cause that does [i]not[/i] give them a guarantee of victory. They fight because a cause is genuinely right, even if they're slated to lose, and that's where the horror of the game line comes in.

Thanks to the reality-warping plague called the [url=https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Contagion?so=search]Contagion[/url] (which exists in Canon), there are significant differences between this world and 'Vanilla' Chronicles of Darkness, namely that [i]Princesses are as powerful as Mages in this RP[/i] (to make sure people don't ignore this ruling, I will be managing everything related to Mages as well as Princesses). Also, Beasts don't exist here for reasons anyone who knows about them can understand. Every other CofD 'race/template/splat' does exist here, though.

But what do we do? Are we part of one single party? 

Yes, you're part of one single group of 6 folk (8 counting GMPCs), whose goal is to prevent the city from going to crap due to partisan infighting between the two [i]fictional[/i] political parties of Beaux Rêve City (the rest of the archipelago will be explored in due time).

Beaux Rêve City is the size of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington]Wellington[/url], and has a slightly smaller population. The island it stands on, Beaux Rêve Island, is as big as [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_(island)]Hawaii (the island)[/url], with the surrounding environment being similar to [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_National_Park]Olympic National Park[/url], only developed with farms and sawmills and factories, although large parts remain pristine.

There is also a volcano, Mt. D' Albret, named after [URL=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_d%27Albret]Jeanne d' Albret[/url], a notable figure among the Calvinists in the French Wars of Religion. Said Volcano has a large deposit of red diamonds, the rarest kind of diamond on earth IRL, which in turn makes Beaux Rêve (the nation) extremely rich and important.

The other islands of the archipelago are roughly estimated to be as big as the other islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago; this is to reduce the GM's workload. Also, Beaux Rêve Island is 1609.25 kms/621.34 miles away from Graham Island in Canada; a moderately wide stretch of ocean away.

Anyway, if you want to play someone not a Princess (aka any other template in the Chronicles of Darkness except Beast), consult the [url=https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Chronicles_of_Darkness]White Wolf Wiki[/url].

[b]III. Rules[/b]

1) No Godmodding or Powergaming, aka no controlling other players' actions
2) Any consenting relationship between people of the same age group is allowed, whether it's Homosexual or Heterosexual. If you cannot stand such things, don't post here in the first place. That said, do not violate SB rules; that means no sexualizing minors.
3) Be polite to others.
4) Please notify me if you will be gone for more than a week, I myself will let you guys know if I will be gone for that same amount of time.
5) The GM reserves the right to control inactive PCs as NPCs in order to keep the plot moving.
6.) If anything conflicts with a strict reading of the Chronicles of Darkness canon, the Contagion changed reality to make it so.
7.) If you want to play a Vampire, Werewolf, Demon, or any other Template (that isn't Beast), you are in charge of writing up what powers your OC has; do [i]not[/i] abuse this right to god mode. And if you can prove that you know the lore for those Templates, the GM might consult with you from time to time.
8.) We're not using dice or stats; we use the honor system, narrative necessity and plausibility, and [i]common sense[/i].

[b]IV. Character Sheet[/b]

[code]
[b]Name:[/b] (What’s your characters name?)

[b]Age:[/b] (How old is your character? 16 - 30 preferred, but younger/older OCs can be applied for on special request)

[b]Physical Description:[/b] (What does your character look like?)

(Place any photos or written descriptions here. If a Princess, post your Transformed Self's costume)

[b]Weapons and Items:[/b] (What kind of weapons or other important items does your character have? If your character has cash, put it there too.)

[b]Are you a Princess/Prince? :[/b] (Simple Y/N question)

[Spoiler=If a Princess]
[b]Calling:[/b] (Champion, Grace, Mender, Seeker, Troubadour; consult the Princess Wiki for more details)

[b]Court:[/b] (Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, Swords; no Tears, Storms, and Mirrors, but their Invocations might be allowed - See below. Consult the Princess Wiki for more details.)

[b]Invocation:[/b] (Consult the Princess Wiki for details. All 'Vanilla' Invocations plus the ones from the Road of Dawn supplement are allowed if you can explain why your OC can access them. Also, you get 1 Invocation at Level 3, 1 Invocation at Level 2, and 1 Invocation at Level 1).

[b]Charms:[/b] (As part of the buffs to Princesses and Princes, you get to buy dots in Charm [i]Families[/i] not just Individual Charms. This means that you can buy Fight 3 and get all Charms that are compatible with your Invocations up to that level. To balance this, you only have 5 Charm Dots and you are capped to Level 3 in any Charm Family on Character Creation. However, for your Calling's Affinity Charm, aka Fight for Champions, Connect for Graces, etc, you get a [i]sixth[/i] dot you can only invest in it.)
[/spoiler]

[Spoiler=If a Mage]
[b]Path:[/b] (Acathus, Obrimos, Mastigos, Moros, Thyrsus.)

[b]Order:[/b] (Adamantine Arrow, Guardians of the Veil, Mysterium, Silver Ladder, Free Council.)

[b]Arcana:[/b] (4 Dots, but your Affinity Arcanum gets a fifth and a sixth you can only invest in those. Consult the Wikis on what the Arcanum are.)
[/spoiler]

[b]Short Bio:[/b] Tell us your character's story up to this point. Who are they exactly? Where did they come from? What are they like? All of the above goes here.
[/code]

[b]V. Sample Bio[/b]

[hider=Ken Aizawa]
[b]Name:[/b] Ken Aizawa

[b]Age:[/b] 16

[b]Physical Description:[/b] 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/TbY15yt.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/8R1fHTv.jpg[/img]

[b]Weapons and Items:[/b] Beaux Rêve school uniform (silken), wallet, personal documentation, Smartphone, Laptop, Backpack, Textbooks, Pepper Spray, and a Taser plus a Wooden Kendo Sword. Also cash and debit cards worth $50,000 (Resources 3 equivalent).

[b]Are you a Princess/Prince? :[/b] Y.

[b]Calling:[/b] Champion.

[b]Court:[/b] (Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts, Swords; no Tears, Storms, and Mirrors, but their Invocations might be allowed - See below. Consult the Princess Wiki for more details.)

[b]Invocation:[/b] Fuoco 3, Acqua 2, Terra 1.

[b]Charms:[/b] Fight 3, Perfect 2, Govern 1.

[b]Short Bio:[/b] Ken was born in Tokyo to a Japanese Father and a Caucasian Mother from the (fictional) city of Beaux Rêves. This was made more ‘unusual’ than it is now due to his father being a member of the [url=https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Hototogisu]Hototogisu[/url] and his mother being a Princess who fell in love with the man despite the former trying to ‘steal’ her powers in the first place. And so Ken was raised with two sometimes-conflicting influences, his father’s, who was focused on money and influence and ambition, and his mother’s, who was focused on compassion, philanthropy, and sometimes self-righteousness. Nevertheless, the boy quickly learned from both, leaning towards his mother more.

At school in Tokyo, Ken was frequently bullied for his half-foreign heritage and quickly learned to stand up for himself. Standing up for others, though, was harder for him, but then he met a boy, a boy who awakened him to his budding bisexuality. He tried to ignore these feelings at first, but seeing that other boy being bullied in school, even worse than he was, because he was ‘weak’, slowly roused a desire for justice and a desire to protect him, and one day, he stood up to protect the person he had to admit, he loved.

In a flash of light, Ken’s clothes transformed into that of a soldier wearing the ballistics vest of an elite JSSDF Infantryman, and the boy punched the lights out of the bullies threatening to beat his fellow student. And his life changed forever.

His parents soon caught wind of what happened and paid a huge amount of money to keep the mouths of any witnesses shut. Then after accepting that yes, Ken did in fact like both genders ‘that way’, the two debated on what to do to protect him. This resulted in his father inducting him into the Hototogisu’s employ even though he was below the legal age for employment in Japan and then sending him to the city of Beaux Rêves, where the Age of Majority was 16. There, he was to represent the Japanese Corporation’s more philanthropic side and ‘observe’ events going on in the area and how the Conspiracy/Company can benefit from it.

And yes, he’s still allowed to talk to the person he protected, his new boyfriend...
[/hider]