Lucius Cypher

Persona themed 5e game

things are getting kinda messy on my end, but I'll work towards making something of an OOC. I take it that you all will be my crew?

@Dark Cloud@Guardian Angel Haruki@Vertigo@XxFellsingxX

Persona themed 5e game

Ye. Since gameplay wise at least, whenever a persona actually "attacks" it's typically to channel spells or other unique abilities. Regular, mundane attacks are typically carried out by the characters themselves, so your Persona is reflective of that.

For example if you want to make a cleric, perhaps your Persona isn't something generic like an angel, or maybe it is an angel but it's one of them biblically accurate ones with made of wheels, with eyes everywhere and like nine wings. Mechanically they're just your typical protector aasimar, but when you cast your spells or do your channel divinity what appears isn't just some hot angel chick by this motherfucker.



It's gucci.

Persona themed 5e game

@Lucius Cypher so, can my persona be a monster? Or does it have to have playable race blocks like in Volo's guide? Cause it'd be dope to have like a minor elemental as my persona. Not like the Genasi but like an actual small elemental.

@Dark Cloud

Flavor wise they don't necessarily have to be humanoid, but for the sake of balance I would like the "race" they gain their abilities and such from to be playable races. For example if you want some sort of lava monster type persona, I don't mind if they're effectively just a reskinned Fire Genasi, but I'd rather not homebrew a race for just for a lava monster.

Persona themed 5e game

@Lucius Cypher Would the personas in this game be following a theme like above? ^^"

@Guardian Angel Haruki

But to put my word spew into less pretentious terms, I think the themes can be D&D Fantasy and/or underdogs. How exactly you all as players approach that is up to you. Using the barbarian example above, maybe your character is the type defined solely by his brute strength and has never been recognized for any other talents. Maybe later as he grows stronger, he leans into his strengths or perhaps awaken a different side of him that also allows him to shine in other ways. Going from dim-witted brute to symbol of strength and determination, that sort of thing.

Persona themed 5e game

As far as themes go, what's currently rocking in my head is "Underdogs" and "Imperfect". Very similar to Persona 5 in that all of your characters are considered undesirables for one reason or another, but that doesn't mean you can't be heroic anyways. Again, I haven't really thought about it fully and hell, I might even lean more into the D&D side of things side theme I want to explore is "Simplifying reality to suit your fantasy".

Don't want to spoil too much, but the reason this is going to be a 5e game instead of a normal pbp RP is specifically because many of your enemies are basically going to be akin to DMs, players, and other folks who try to boil down complex social issues into black-and-white fantasies that suit their own ego's, with you, the players, being the "NPC's" who are meant to do nothing but serve as a strawman to their megalomania. Natch, y'all going to have to give them a reality check. So they become traditional enemies like Dragons, Beholders, Giants, Trolls, etc as their delusions overwhelm them and turn them into caricatures.

For example, a suitable miniboss would be some agro jock type who thinks their physical ability, on top of the merits and accomplishments they've earned from others who recognize and appreciate him, allows him to bully others he considers "weaker" because he basically becomes one of those "Might make rights" type. This in turn makes him into an Orc like enemy in the fantasy world with a lot of physical strength, flexing his might, but that's really all he has. Maybe he has barbarian levels, but he invests so much into strength he's easily outsmarted and as long as you don't let him use his strength, he lacks any other means of doing any real harm.

That's just a hypothetical of course. Ideally whatever villain I do throw at you isn't quite so cookie cutter, but then again reality being both complex and nuance, while at the same time being simple and straightforward, is something of a theme for this RP as well.

Persona themed 5e game

I, oh God I want to. But at the same time I know fuck all about the persona franchise. Interest tentative.

@Dark Cloud

Ngl, the closest thing I've done to playing Persona is watch my brother play like four years ago. Though I have recently been watching a Vtuber play Persona 5 Royal, which is why I've felt like doing this in the first place.

The quick summary is that Persona as a series is a JRPG that combos turned-based strategy with a social sim. It also tends to explore mythological and psychological themes in relation to social issues and other commentary. In short, the perfect game for teenage weebs to play and feel smart.

Personas are based off tarot cards, with the MC typically being the Fool aka traditionally the first card in the deck. And tarot are hella popular for all that occult personality reading stuff. Personally I don't have that much interest in it, but I do think it's a nice little theme to work with. Porting it into 5e is just a matter of contextualizing themes and messages from Persona to 5e. how exactly I do that I dunno, but I'll probably figure something out.

Persona themed 5e game

Because I just love making poor life decisions, feel like trying to run a 5e game that's Persona themed. Each one of you is a student at a boarding school for troubled youths: you had, either proven or not, done something that has forced you to leave your old life and home behind to attend a far-off school for students with behavior or possibly criminal records. It's here that you all are originally just trying to make the most out of your life, but strange and fairly occult circumstances arise in which you must act, less you be just another lost soul caught in a wave of conspiracy.

The finer story details I haven't put too much thought in, but I have a general idea of what the story beats are. As far as the mechanical aspects, here's what you would need to know as far as Character Creation goes:

While everyone is effectively human in the real world, your Persona is your D&D character, so feel free to make them any race you want that isn't just human, since presumably that's just your persona.

Stats will be standard 27 point buy, you start at level 3, and because I'm a kind and generous DM, you all do start with a free feat at character creation.

As for what is allowed, I will allow pretty much any official materials, however not the backgrounds from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, Astral's Adventure Guide, and Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. This is mainly because those backgrounds actually give a useful background feature, be it expanded spell choices or straight up feats. I will however try my best to incorporate whatever other background you do have to be actually plot important. Failing that, you may use this custom background for the campaign.

My Hider

[i]Strange Student[/i]
[i]Skill Proficiency:[/i] Insight and one Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma skill of your choice.
[i]Tool Proficiency:[/i] One Instrument of your choice, Vehicle (Land)
[i]Equipment:[/i] An instrument, a School Uniform, a pouch containing 25 GP, and a Cellphone.

[i]Feature:[/i] Mysterious Rumors
Considered one of the school's more notable students, even if not particularly popular or well-liked, your quirks and personality is already known to most at the academy. Most students and teachers will ignore some of your stranger behaviors as long as they aren't dangerous or threatening, to an extent. Some might even respect you more if your reputation resonates with their personal beliefs. Things that student and staff might overlook is asking strange questions, being in unexpected locations that isn't off-limits, drinking or smoking outside of class, and looking weird in general.

As far as the overarching plot goes, the idea I have had rattling in my head is that as students who are part of a boarding school for troubled youths, most people look down on you and consider you "fair game" for cruelty and mistreatment. This will become a reoccurring theme as different antagonists will begin to target groups that they feel "Deserve" some form of mistreatment, and they will typically get away with it because said groups are marginalized and ignored by society as a whole. That's not to say that the people getting mistreated at just kind and misunderstood people: there are always bad among the good. But the problem is that people just default to "bad" when it comes to some groups, and paint a blanket statement over everyone.

To put it bluntly, I will be throwing instances of racism, homophobia, classism, and other such controversial instances of hate and target it at groups who themselves may have legitimate issues that attract said scorn. Things like a racist bigot going after a racial minority population because of the actual crimes of someone of that racial minority, and how the community might try to react to that and even defend the criminal precisely because everyone else has already decided that since one is guilty, everyone is guilty.

Your characters will play the rule of Judge, Jury, and Executioner in these instances. While I certainly have my own beliefs and opinions about these matters, ultimately it is you and your characters who will decide what is right and wrong through your actions and the ability to back up those beliefs. It's going to be a battle either way.

With that in mind, please try to make a character who can and wants cooperate with a group, or at least your fellow players. I don't want players who feel the need to go lone wolf and do things by themselves because they only care about what they want. Characters like that I'll be using as antagonists, and there'll be plenty of them. Additionally, I would like for your characters to be proactive as personally possible. That's not to say everyone needs to be gregarious people-persons, but if you intend to play a shy and meek character who's kinda hoping everyone else carries the plot on while you play support, I'll have a hard time actually doing anything in particular for you in lieu of characters who actively bite my plot hooks.

I'll be looking for 4 people at most. I myself will be playing a character as well, in a sorta Morgana/Teddie role who'll help as a sorta Mr. Exposition who'll tell you guys how the exact nature of the universe works with ya.

Delta End

ROKKIT MECHEAD

SHORTY GROTSKY

---

Rokkit's straight forward attack was foiled by everyone else wanting him to wait and discuss tactics. Which he felt he already did, and what they were doing now was, in the words of an ork, 'muckin about. They were trying to figure out how to get inside, either from elevator or otherwise, and Rokkit could clearly see windows they could just break through and start shooting. There was too much confusion about coordination that frankly annoyed Rokkit, especially since everyone seemed to have no idea what they were doing except him. "Ya gits don't listen do ya? We shouldn't be muckin about when I already got a plan. We ain't 'ere ta take prisoners, we got a git ta krump, and anyone dat gets in da way gets wot dey deserve."

At least someone was taking some command. Sophia more or less just said what Rokkit intends to do, minus shooting, which he thinks is pretty dumb but at least aligns towards his plan better than everyone else being scared about the unknown. Meanwhile, Shorty was using her drone to scan the building and getting the layout of the floorplans. She let everyone else argue about the approach so she has time to figure out where the enemy could be, how they might escape, and how to get the team inside. She was also trying to scan for any lifeforms inside of the building to get an idea of their numbers and more importantly, find their target. Shorty has no doubts that their target would be heavily protected and have contingencies to escape, so Shorty needed to figure out what those possibilities were before they hit the party.

"I'll stay on da roof. Once I start hearin shootin, I'm bustin in and blastin any git in my sight. And if ya take too long, I'm still gunna bust in and shoot everyone, under da assumption da rest of ya got krumped an now I need ta save yer arses."

Aesithas (D&D 5e Homebrew) - On Hiatus

Francesca Varangian

After taking shelter into the tomb, Francesca focused largely on ensuring that they weren't being pursued. While she has no doubts that the bandits did not notice them, one can never be too careful of what sort of scouts they had, or if some other unrelated entity had spotted them. Thus Francesca was the last to join the others in the antechamber with the statues. Nothing here particularly rang out to the warrior, though she was surprised at the size of this place. "Huh. Bigger than I thought. Must be some sort of catacomb, and not a just a mere burial chamber." She still wasn't very excited at the idea of robbing this place however. Not just ethically, but also due to the potential dangers. They were already on a mission that would no doubt endanger them, she felt no reason for them to put themselves at risk chasing treasure. Such greed is often the end of many a cocky adventurers.

However it doesn't seem like the rest of the group agreed. Most wanted to explore the catacombs, with Francesca the sole objector. She watched grimly as everyone investigated the area, dark thoughts seeping into her mind. Of course as the sole human here, she was more than aware that she fell very low on the power scale. She knew all too well what these others are capable of by virtue of their race alone. That should she be too open in opposing them, they could easily subdue her though vote or force, and thus Francesca would have to play her cards very carefully if she intends to have any sway here. She doubts that everyone here was helping on behalf of the Dale after all: everyone has their own agendas to fulfill, and the safety of her kingdom may not be their top priority.

Unfortunately, this also means that Francesca is likely going to have to put aside her own pride and ethics in order to stand equally to these people. The gods has given human the right to have more than others, but in order for that to even matter, Francesca must take it. So as much as she wanted to let the dead rest, she knew she would have to rob their graves for whatever trinkets or weapons they were entombed with. If nothing else, she will at least do her best not to defile anyone. Though she would not be surprised if simply being here uninvited was defilement enough. The dead weren't exactly known for their even temperament.

"If we're going to go in deeper, let's set up a marching order. This isn't a mere tomb but a catacomb, so I'm sure it belonged to someone important in the past. Someone who likely has protectors to keep grave robbers such as us from defiling their graves to pilfer treasures. I am willing to take the lead, though someone with better senses and quick reflexes should scout ahead for any traps or ambushes."

Aesithas (D&D 5e Homebrew) - On Hiatus

I'll see about posting soon!