Another Shade of the World - An Urban Fantasy RP

The line between the mundane and fantastical is, to some perceptions, as large and resilient as a reinforced wall. Once on one side it's hard to ever cross into the other life. A mundane person will probably spend their whole life lightly touched by the supernatural and will never notice a thing amiss. An orderly world, where things makes sense, where the rules are made by man and Universe spins along guided by the rigid laws of physics. A being of the fantastical world? Their lives are a bit a different. They know as a child that something truly may be under their bed, that the darkness holds many things best left untouched and that there are forces toying with the life of man... the wonders of magic which shift reality with seemingly no purpose... besides that of those who can work its secrets.

The wall that divides both worlds is strong and enduring... however, sometimes things slip through its cracks. Sometimes a phenomenon with no explanation leaves the scientific community without an explanation. Sometimes a member of the fantastical is made blind to their own origins and sinks into a life of pure mundanity. And sometimes... those who live perfectly normal lives stumble upon magic they are not meant to understand.

Hello everyone and welcome to the relaunch of one of my oldest RPs. Another Shade of the World - An Urban Fantasy RP.

This is a sandbox RP, set in the city of Volwick. A medium sized city tucked somewhere in the valley of California. Geographically, it has a mountain range right to the west, gentle hills to the north and sounds with scattered pockets of woodlands and plains and fields extending as far as eye can see to the east. There is a small lake to the northwest of the city as well as a couple rivers flowing down from it, Volwick river cutting the city in half in its flow.

As medium sized city, Volwick has around three big shopping malls, some radio stations, a busy commercial center with plenty tall buildings, a big central park with its own small artificial lake as well as an expanding metro system which currently mostly helps move up or down town. It mostly exports food from the goods traded by the farms in the east side of town, some precious metals from the mountain range to the west some odds and ends. It's a pretty bad place for tourism, having little to offer beyond a museum or two which are more for the benefit of the city itself than drawing curious outsiders. It's even a bit out of the way of most roads, so it doesn't even get an influx of travelers as a rest stop. It has its own small University as well as some community colleges. It's population is pretty diverse all things said, giving way to a mix match of cultures and religions. There is a big protestant church in town, though the most fervent believers in the city tend to be the Catholic Latino population. Crime is one the low end of the scale, though it is present and a source of concern. There is even a well run crime syndicate in town, which everyone tries to stay away from.

However, all of that is merely what lies over the surface... as those who look closely will see the traces of witchcraft around town, the refuse of trolls under the bridges, a wizard's number in the phone book, faeries playing at night through the park and many other mysteries lying just under the surface.

Well, that would be our sandbox! I encourage players to try and make up their own plots and adventures if they so like and of course, I will be around providing some more. If there are questions about what may be allowed and what may be a bit too much I will be here to answer them.

As for power levels... try to be discreet about what you do. No blowing up a building with your powers unless the incendiary materials within are doing most of the work for you. And if you do that, expect for it to be repercussions if you are not careful. If you have a concept for a supernatural being or a magic user I'll try to guide you around how magic works in this setting. It's mostly just mana being an energy that can alter the laws of physics as directed by a will and purpose. Still, most players in the RP shouldn't have the juice to do too startling things by themselves without focusing power from an specific source. Supernatural beings, for their part, work on a similar principle but tend to have their otherworldly characteristics sustained by this magic... and more often than not, keep themselves disguised or shielded from the sight of mundane mortals. There is very much a masquerade, enforced by both mortal wizards as well as the big guns from the fantasy side. It's also enforced by the perception of humans as to what is normal... so, trying to cast magic in the middle of a huge crowd who don't believe in magic will actually be a lot harder than away from their prying eyes.

With that said, here is the character sheet for the RP.

• Name: What are you called? Include Aliases or fake names Hint: It may be good but completely not necessary to have a middle name.
• Age: How old age you?
• Gender: Female, male, neither, both, cursed for it to change with the phases of the moon, male sex but the soul of a long dead female shaman? Whatever it is, name it here.
• Religion: Do you have one? None? Whatever it is or may not be, share it here.
• Race: Are you human or one of those things that we can't tell humans that exist?
• Appearance: What do you look like to those who glance upon you? Both to mortals and supernaturals.
• Personality: How do you act? How do you think? What lies upon your soul?
• Bio: What interesting things have happened in your life? Can be as short as you like or as extensive as you prefer.
• Skills: What can you do? Both mundane skills as well as those that aren't. As well as anything noteworthy or special about your character.
• Possessions and Assets: What do you own? Where do you live? Do you have a bike? A car? A magical staff?

Well, that's about it. As you join, think of the things you may like to do, or accomplish within the RP and that may give motivation to your character. It can be frustrating to have nothing to do and if your character has nothing to pursue, then they are more likely to need to wait for something to interact with them instead of going out to do things.

I will be taking suggestions about plots or events that people would like their character to go through and I may run them for them. At the moment I have a single introductory plot that I have planned to run, though it will take a special kind of character for it to work.

Welcome to the New World: On a visit to the museum, something goes awry in the near deserted Japanese history exhibit... Here, a small group or ordinary humans will suddenly get introduced to the world of magic and fantasy. Basically, if you want to participate in this one plot, you need to make an ordinary or mostly ordinary human to be suddenly involved with a magical situation. After it, you will be introduced to the world of magic... and from there, you can pick how you will develop as you glance upon another shade of the world.

Character list:

• Azure - Shauna Valentine
• clawthewolf - Matthias Roland Blanc
• darksidevoid - Ashley Vesa "Ash" Greenwald
• eviipaladin - Avery Jacqueline Pierce (with Jacques Gusto and Al D'Alessio)
• Gladonost - Andromikus Pyrrhicus Slake
• goodisgood - John Daniel "Papa Moore" Moore
• Infinite Paragon - Jan Lehrer
  • Johnny Young
• KSPAM - Daniel Tú Jedynak
• Nman - Manuel Mendoza
• PBlades - Marcus Karrde
• Plumbum - Jonah Quinton Westbrook
• Raineh Daze - Ambre Arielle Augustin
  • Houraisan Kasumi
  • Rachel "Ambriel" Pasteur
  • Natsumi Shimazu
• RedSavant - Lihtu du Draig
  • Colin Robinson
• Saturn - Sylvia Dubois
• Starbound2 - Renee Fontaine
  • Aziz Miraj
  • Veronica Monroe
• Taco - Arr'kree "Edgar Harkins" Rekarrz'z
  • Vladimir von Valdzav
• The Tomato Fairy - Hilda Inoue-Cho
• tricksterson - Tuck "Rockfist" Perriman
• Troyand Hawk - Laoch "Weird" O'Connell

edited 11th Jan '14 2:26:08 PM by daltar

Question! With names, are we talking real-life names—perhaps originating from a certain region (i.e., fantasy counterpart Germany)—or the usual fantasy gibberish that sounds pretty?

Interest!

... I have vague ideas but I'm not 100% certain what I should go with...

As for the question... we are using mostly real names. The setting is in our planet Earth in 2013, even if it is in a made up city in California.

Thinking on it more I have two ideas!

... The one is a bit, um... I'm not sure if her weapon would be allowed even though it would be massively toned down from the original idea if I did use it, um, eh-heh.

Do throw a PM my way. Though do remember we are on a kind of low power kind of setting.

Well, um... okay. I do have another idea that's much more acceptable anyway, eh-heh, since the most dangerous thing she can do is fire a rifle with her feet.

Interested, might have my hand at playing an evil overlord, demon, evil god or sorceress having trouble fitting in with normal society (so basically, all the parts that Hataraku Maousama skipped)

edited 17th Nov '13 5:42:46 PM by KSPAM

Seems a bit powerful, KSPAM.

It's kind of late, so just noting this for now in case I forget... But considering playing a magical delinquent of some kind. But we shall see how that turns out.

edited 17th Nov '13 5:55:04 PM by Moerin

Hrrrmmmm... would a succubus/incubus work then? Or a bounty hunter?

Already discussing a succubus idea with Dalt. ^^;

And quite amusingly, I was talking with another prospective player and they mentioned wanting to play an Incubus as well before we spoke Raineh.

The demonic realm and its inhabitants are quite popular lately it seems!

Or we're all sex-crazed nymphomaniacs.

Or it's the rum talking. But a medusa/gorgon type thing doesn't sound like much of an improvement, so...

So, pretty firmly decided on my character, um...

Minorly magical assassin!

Hmmmm... well, we can't have two demonic sex trade workers, now can we? That just seems redundant.

... yup. sex trade was involved, too. Though not as a participant. That'd be very redundant. >_>;

Other idea is vampire PI/chef (/ meaning or, not and)

Oh yeah, I forgot about vampires. Derp.

Was planning to do both, though.

The vampire chef's repertoire consists entirely of over a hundred variations on black pudding, right? >.> <.<

Ah people, I may have not expressed well the tone of the RP.

A semi magical assassin may not work well... because that's an awfully narrow field of work. How would that character get enough work to subsist? How would she run from the authorities, magical and otherwise? This RP is a little more like Dresden Files (just read the first book, so if it gets more crazy later on do tell me) and Supernatural at the beginning. There is magic and some leeway for fighting monster and the like, but the characters are meant to be a bit more grounded than what I'm hearing.

So far the characters I have that would be on par with the average I expect of players is a young man with an enchanted wooden sword that runs around town trying to keep magical trouble at a minimum, which the experts in the field consider to be merely a rookie doing minor cleanup work and a shut in witch who knows a whole lot of theory but has little power to actually work her spells with.

Well, semi magical as in her only real ability as far as magic goes is "closing" herself so she can focus. Her assassinations are carried out with a sniper rifle and very, very long range for the most case unless she's forced into a fight. Basically she's not very outwardly magical and and could easily hide that fact if necessary, and as a good assassin probably isn't exactly well-known.

Hmmm... I was thinking of stuff along the lines of Buffy The Vampire Slayer / Angel (more on the side of early Angel, really), so hopefully that kind of thing is okay.

• Name: Vladimir von Valdzav
• Age: 357
• Gender: Male
• Religion: Previously Catholic, now atheist out of necessity.
• Race: Vampire, of the Old World persuasion.◊
• Appearance: Vladimir is unnaturally tall and thin, and moves with appropriately eerie grace. He's as pale as a corpse, and has black hair slicked back in a widow's peak. He has very high cheekbones, a pointed chin, and dark eyes. During the day he wears luxurious suits and ties, but at night he dons the full ensemble: a black cape trimmed with red and a large collar, and a much older suit with a cravat, the original costume from the Bela Lugosi film.
• Personality: Vlad is a bit... neurotic. He has a flair for the dramatic and possesses an enormous ego, thinking of humans as nothing more than prey and food. He speaks with a thick transylvanian accent, and fully endorses bluuhh, bluhh! as a valid intimidation tactic. He views other Vampires as pretentious modernists who shy away from their old ways, but thinks that this is merely an opportunity to take them under his wing and educate them in the ways of Old World vampirism. As a final goal he wishes to seize power in all the powercenters of the city—the police, the hospitals, and eventually The Mayor! Aaaahahahahahaaaa!!
• Bio: Vladimir, the patriarch of the Valdzav family of Transylvania, was a little-known lord who accomplished little in life, dying at the age of thirty to an unknown sickness—though only unknown because medical science back then was terrible. At least, that's what the history books say! While the point about dying at 30 was correct, he rose the next day as a vampire! Vladimir, like many lords back in the day, was worried over his own mortality; he had no children of his own, and essentially lived alone. Then, one day, a man who himself claimed to have been given eternal life offered Vladimir the same gift. He did "die" that day, but afterwards a thing lurked in Castle Valdzav, killing any who dared step inside and occasionally slinking out to take young maidens. Then, about 50 years ago, Vladimir awoke to the sounds of drills and explosives. His castle was being destroyed! Fallen from power, he roamed the streets of a modernized, post-soviet Transylvania—now Romania. One day, though, he heard the story of a magical land known as America, a place of opportunity and new starts! Stowing away on a plane heading there, Vladimir established his rightful place in Volwick in a subbasement of an abandoned warehouse. A far cry from the grandeur of castle Valdzav, but it would have to do. Despite it being a little beneath him, he has started working with local gangbangers and crime syndicates as a hit man and enforcer, and sometimes even a bodyguard. He copes with such a disgrace by diverting most of the money into patronage for the local museums.
• Skills:
  • As a nobleman that grew up in the 17th century, Vladimir is a couth and well-read man, skilled in the usage of a typical longsword. He is also a very capable seamsman, having mended and washed his own clothes most of his life.
  • Vladimir possesses all the typical powers of a Vampire. He can fly through the air, at around jogging speed. He can turn into a bat; all clothes on his body retract into him until he turns human. He can turn a normal human into a Vampire, but the process requires an hour of feeding and a day of sickness in the victim. He has super strength and speed, capable of running at 60 mph at a dead sprint and can at the height of his strength chuck a car. His reflexes and short-range speed is fast enough to dodge bullets, provided he's giving his undivided attention to a single person firing at him. He can regenerate from wounds, taking about 3 minutes to recover from a bullet wound and scaling up from there.
  • Weakness-wise, he is as by-the-books as they come. Holy symbols that the user believes in can physically repel him—as in, he feels forced back when someone bears a cross at him. He can't enter churches or cross running water, and garlic is as dangerous to him as Ghost Peppers are to humans. Sunlight removes all of his powers and renders him completely human. In order to survive, he must drink about a pint of blood per day. A wooden stake through the heart will permanently kill him, though he will resurrect if the stake is removed.
• Possessions and Assets: He squats in a warehouse subbasement in the southern part of town, sleeping in a plain coffin.. He has an old longsword from his days as a nobleman, and his old fancy suit. He also has a collection of modern suits, most in shades of grey and black. He also possesses a stash of bloodpacks.

edited 20th Nov '13 1:13:38 PM by Taco

OBJECTION! Classical vampires are only weakened by sunlight, not poisoned or depowered by it.