CaptainManbeard

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

So, I'm still getting together stuff about the school, so the intro post won't have the Keeper arrive just yet to get them, but rather set the scene with the students arriving at Port Zone S-9. That will give everyone a chance to finish getting their characters ready and have some back and forth between them in the waiting area while they are waiting. I'm hoping that intro and my characters will be up tomorrow, but I'm not sure. Our visiting family is here till Tuesday, so how much time I can spend at my computer until then will still be limited. For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving, how was it? Any cool stories to share?

When I was working on food stuff in the kitchen, Mr. Butters (one of the cats) jumped up on the counter when I wasn't looking and tried to run off with the raw turkey neck, and then after I threw it and other unneeded parts away, Cleocatra (another cat) climbed into the trash to drag out the raw turkey tail, LOL. I was like "thanks guys, you made me have to scrub everything down two extra times!" XD. I still gave them some of the turkey once it was done cooking, though. I always make it super juicy, saturate it in melted butter and broth, cover it in foil, baste it with the juices every 45 minutes or so, and then leave it uncovered for the final half hour to let the skin brown.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

Oh, and I realize I never finished my post about how the RP starts - so we are all arriving at Hub City from whatever planes we are coming from, and we've been told to gather at Port Zone S-9, which is reserved only for Qrowdell Academy students and faculty. There is an airport-like building with a large seating area, and all the freshmen are gathering there in early August 2023 to go to Orientation at the Academy. The school's Creature Keeper - who happens to be the Headmaster's son - is the one arriving to escort the freshmen to Feywood Valley via Pegasus-drawn carriages that hold 12 people each. Different types of portals are used by different methods, but there is a specific way people get to Feywood Valley.

The Pegasuses are trained to navigate wormhole-like tunnel portals, similar to transport in TERA but without the circular structure. In this case, the Keeper will fling out a tiny energy wisp that then grows into a giant glowing circular portal, which the Pegasuses then fly through, pulling the carriages along behind them like Santa's sleigh. To give you an idea of that visually if you've never seen or played TERA, here's a clip. As said, just imagine there is no metal structure, the portal just opens in mid air.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

<Snipped quote by Blizz>

I might put together an actual list of what characters to make

Might put this on it

@Blizz

At this point, it seems like you've had ideas for like eight wildly different characters XD.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

Oh, and to give everyone an idea of where we will be at when the story begins, our characters will all be gathering at Hub City, named so because it is the largest hub for interplanar travel. It's a floating city (I'm using Cloud City from Star Wars for visual references) that sits in a void between planes, encased in a bubble that gives it an artificial atmosphere and simulated a day and night cycle. Usually, people will first depart from their original plane, arrive at Hub City, and then depart to their destination plane. The Hub City Transportation Authority monitors interplanar travel to avoid collisions between various people jumping back and forth. Basically, the Authority has thousands of Seers who can sense incoming and outgoing travelers and can pinpoint exact locations for magical portals to open to avoid collisions, and then use their minds to move portals to those locations. So, because of that, Arcane runes or incantations used to open the portals when going through Hub City don't specify an exact location, only one of the many Port Zones, and then let the Seers guide their incoming portals to an exact location within the specified Zone. The same is done when exiting Hub City, using a small, predefined geographical radius if no participating Port Zones are at the destination area.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

It's been difficult to find options to sneak away to write (family stuff), I leave all my stuff open on my computer and try to sneak away to work on stuff when I can, lol. Anyway, got most of the stuff figured out, right now it's just a matter of getting the time to edit everything together and get the images ready and the formatting and everything.

As I'm thinking about my characters, I decided to make the Dark Acolyte not actually related to anyone in the Cult of Tiamat, but rather an orphan who was saved from the streets by a high-ranking member and became her apprentice, similar to a Sith arrangement. I want to have the option of him encountering a long-lost sibling at some point who may be able to pull him back some from the darkness, but I'm not gonna decide whether or not that happens until later.

Also, I should note that when the ultimate climax of Volume I comes to an end, any of the student villains who publicly participated will probably get expelled from Qrowdell, but prior to the three year time jump, we can say they just began training with the Cult full time. And I'm sure there will be ample opportunity throughout for student who began regretting their dark path to reverse course, but I imagine anyone who plays a Dark Acolyte character intends on reveling in their evildoer ways XD XD XD.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

One aspect I will probably implement is user-controlled combat NPCs. Since there will be wildly inconsistent power levels and god-tier abilities, player vs player or gm vs player duels will be a nightmare to manage, so instead, each co-writer will also be controlling any NPCs/monsters they fight with so that they can write out the battle scenes as if doing it for a novel. Basically, what that means, is that at the beginning of any combat situation, I will throw enemies at any participating characters, give a little info card at the bottom of the post saying what the enemies are capable of and how difficult the fight should be, and then the co-writers will take over that fight their characters are engaged in.

So, if it's a group combat, I will just throw out a bunch of enemies and then co-writers can claim targets in OOC like, "Okay, I'm going to have John focus on the ogre," or "Jack and I discussed via PM that we are gonna double team the troll."

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

So I’m just going to plonk these here for brainstorming possible Arcane Conduits.

Wand

Features rotating rune keys for easy spell casting.
Breach loading wand core for added modularity.

Vambrace

Draws runes in the air to cast spells.

@Sanity43217

Now that gives me an idea for a Conduit similar to the Spin Swords from Power Rangers Samurai/Super Samurai. Basically, discs with Arcane Tongue spells engraved into them that slide onto a sword to power up different attacks.

As for magic duels, yeah, they'll be just as flashy as anime battles, or similar to these:

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

Also, I do want to clarify a few things for everyone, just in case it wasn't apparent in the intro post or the subsequent posts - while different planes may have different cultures and technologies, on Earth, it is modern day, let's say August of 2023 when they first go to Orientation. As stated in the intro post, the time of day at the Academy within it's sub-planar realm is synced with GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) at the Royal Observatory in London.

@CaptainManbeard

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

An inquiry about Anti-Magic was made to me via PM, so I am now including that as one of the types. I am also changing Chaos Magic to say it's not extinct. Any power or effect you can possibly imagine that doesn't fall under Natural Magic, Psionic Magic, or Anti-Magic now falls under Chaos Magic, and all characters can use any of the four types to their heart's content. Basically, what that means is that, whatever ideas you have for your character, no matter what they are, get an automatic green light. There is no need for any further requests to me to keep defining what effects are acceptable and how far the envelope can be pushed on various types of magic. Everything is okay, no need to ask me any longer.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

To clarify further on my last post, since everything is now combined into two types of magic that will be available to the characters at first, you can now have whatever abilities for your characters that you want, and you can use both types of magic freely. The only difference is whether the magic effects something that is already present in the world or if you create something new, but don't worry about specifying which is which, just write your abilities however you want and we won't worry about which type of magic you are casting since they are both open to everyone.

As for the classes at the school, I am only going to list like four main required courses, and I'll allow you all to invent your own electives for other classes.