[Actual Play] Star Knight (BESM)

[Unka Josh]

Tonight was the first (sorta) run of my new campaign--Star Knight. However, due to a player absence it was only a partial run-- I really, really can't do the first run without all players.

Star Knight begins, from the player's perspective, in a Japanese high school, with the players as students there. PCs consist of:

TACHIBANA Mikan -- Mikan is young, energetic, and enthusiastic. His major goal in life is to be a doctor, and has studied first aid extensively in line with this goal. The other reason he studies it, however, is to patch up people that he fights-- while he's small and skinny, and generally good-natured, certain things, such as bullying, bring out sudden violence in him, and he can hit very hard indeed. Needless to say, his violent outbursts have landed him in a great deal of trouble with authorities and school officials. Mikan is in the Kendo club, along with KAGEMATSU Reiji and WATANABE Toshiro. Mikan thinks of himself as Reiji's best friend, not realizing that he is, in fact, in love with Reiji. Mikan also has great difficulty in social situations, relying on sociology articles rather than experience.

WATANABE Toshiro -- Toshiro was orphaned at a young age and raised by his uncle, who introduced him to the great love of his life-- Kendo. Toshiro is a serious, dedicated student, who regards the study of Kendo as the road to self-mastery, and practices extreme self-discipline. Toshiro's "cool" attitude has won him the admiration of many women, something he doesn't really understand. It has also won him the rivalty and enmity of KAGEMATSU Reiji.

NAKAMURA Setsu -- Setsu is from a very traditional samurai family, and was raised to have a great respect for traditional Japanese arts. Her study of Kyudo (archery) is the focus of her life, although she also studies other traditional samurai pursuits, such as go. She takes her studies very seriously, but can be easily distracted by bishonen-- pretty boys, such as KAGEMATSU Reiji. Her interest in Reiji has lead to conflict with her classmate TAKATA Natsumi.

MITSUWA Asahina -- Asahina is extremely pretty, and a skilled athlete, a star of the volleyball team, which would might make her very popular. However, she has only made one close friend-- Noriko, who's shy nature makes her seem an unlikely friend to Asahina. Asahina knows full well that she's in love with Noriko, but since Noriko's a Christian, hasn't felt able to admit to this love. Asahina also has to deal with having two family members at the same school-- her older brother Akahito, a fellow student, and her older sister Megumi, who is the school nurse.

MITANI Junko -- Junko is a fairly normal student, with a fairly normal, boring life. She dreams of greater things, and draws manga to illustrate the life she wishes she had-- full of adventure and excitement.

Key NPCs, at this point in the game, include:

KAGEMATSU Reiji, bishonen Kendo star, who acts out of a love of attention rather than any higher purpose;

TATAKA Natsumi, rich popular girl who wants the spotlight desperately and who's family sends bodyguards to her every day after school;

MATSUMURA Taro, half-mad head of the Rocketry club, and a close friend of Asahina's brother Akahito;

OGATA Kojimaru, large and fearless head of the Kendo club;

HAYASHI Katsumi, brilliant and young school principal with a mysterious health condition;

HIKAGAWA Taro, popular and clever math teacher;

MITSUWA Megumi, serious and disciplined school nurse;

MITSUWA Akahito, Asahina's brainy older brother; and

HAYASHIBARA Noriko, shy and pure-hearted friend of Asahina's.

There's lots of complications here-- Noriko is actually aware of Asahina's interest, which she does not reciprocate, but doesn't want to hurt her friend. Akahito has a crush on Noriko. HAYASHI-sensei is dying of some very nasty disease that would normally kill her in the next 48 hours of game play. Natsumi's family is actually a Yakuza family, and one that's in enough conflict that they really have to assign bodyguards to her. HIKAGAWA-sensei has a crush on MITSUWA Megumi, which she is completely unaware of.

The first half-session went well, despite the absence of Junko's player, dealing with important decisions such as "what will our class do for fundraising at the upcoming school festival" and "what song will your character perform for karaoke," and establishing character relationships.

All this is, of course, of no great importance given what's going to happen to the players in the next 24 hours of game play, when the campaign really starts, which shall be revealed in the next post.

[Unka Josh]

STAR KNIGHT: WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON

There are other worlds, other realities, other planes. Let's look at a couple of them.

This grey, normal one over here is the one the PCs are in now. Let's call it Earth. It's an awful lot like our Earth, at least for most purposes.

Now let's look at this pretty, shining one over here. Let's call it Thearn. Thearn is a world of magic. Magic, in Thearn, comes from eight stars-- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, and Black. Each color has it's own magic associated with it-- Red with fire and the sun, Orange with animals and life, Yellow with light and perception, Green with plants and growth, Blue with the sky, protection, and healing, Indigo with water and emotion, Violet with stone, metal, and craft, and Black with souls, space, and time. Each color also has a race associated with it-- Red with the rare, shapechanging Dragons, Orange with the nomadic herding Gnolls, Yellow with the doll-sized flying Hotaro, Green with the forest-dwelling Elves, Blue with the religios, flying Serafin, Indigo with the ocean-dwelling, unisexual Sirens, Violet with the cave-dwelling, highly skilled Goblins, and Black with the horned, sophisticated, decadent Sorcerors.

Thearn is as much a world at peace as Earth is... Elves and Gnolls clashing at times, Serafin attempting to enforce peace, Sorcerors sometimes trying to expand their empire bloodily. It's not constantly at war, though, and, with the magic each people possess, prosperity and health are available for all, or almost all.

However, the queen of the Sorcerors, Azyria REGALIS, has listened to advisors telling her that they can get her so much more. With her magic, they can open a path to another world, one in which they have sensed great power-- power that they can use to take all of Thearn, perhaps even power than can extend their empire to other worlds. Queen Azyria agreed...

Now let's look at another world-- that dark, seething, bloated world over there. Let's call that world The Dark World, since our linguistic structures don't have any meaning there.

Now, the laws and rules of each world are different-- our world runs on laws like Thermodynamics, Quantum Physics, Gravitation, Relativity, or whatever. Thearn runs on the laws of the Eight Stars. And The Dark World has its own laws, laws that don't allow for concepts like matter, as we understand it. What's the issue, then? The Dark World's laws do allow it to do one particular thing-- it can invade, and devour, other worlds, taking their laws, their power, their space, and their time into itself, making them a part of the Darkness.

Of course, the Dark Forces must enter other worlds to do this, and that's their problem-- entities from The Dark World can't enter other worlds in their native state, since the laws of other world's won't allow it. So they must send their agents cloaked in the laws of the world they invade... it's a slow process of subversion, as their agents, disguised, attempt to conquer the target world, and steal its power, slowly making it over into a new version of The Dark World, so that it can be absorbed into Darkness forever.

And they often fail. Their agents are mighty, given powers stolen from worlds that the Darkness has claimed. However, the Dark World usually can't send more than a couple of agents to a world, and, since they must battle in line with the laws of the world that they attack, they can be defeated. In addition, they can be subverted-- the seduction of matter, of art, of freedom, of love-- when they mask themselves in the stuff of a world, agents of Darkness may forget who their masters were, and decide to betray Darkness, defecting to the world that they've been sent to. It is very likely that, should the Darkness send agents to Thearn, they would fail, destroyed by the powers of that world, or submitting to the joy of life.

However, Darkness did not send agents to sneak into Thearn. Instead, Queen Azyria opened a portal into the heart of The Dark World itself.

The Dark World immediately attacked, sending through its agents in unprecedented number, an army of over a dozen godlings. They struck quickly, stealing the power of the Stars, raising armies of beings corrupted from the Stars' power, causing the powers of Thearn to fall before them.

With the power of the Stars drained, Thearn didn't stand a chance...

Except for Queen Azyria. As she realized what had happened, she made a desperate attempt to close the gate to The Dark World. Without the Black Star's power, she couldn't seal the gate, even if she used all the power of her soul... but she could try to find another world, one with power that she could draw on, in an attempt to save Thearn. Casting her senses beyond the void, she desperately searched, and found a place in another world-- a site of ancient power, unused for centuries. She would draw on this power, and with it and with her life force, close the door to the dark world. She began her work at once...

However, it was not unnoticed. The Agents of Darkness sensed her actions, and five of them were able to reach her in time. They struck at her spell, attempting to disrupt it. The spell was too nearly complete to be stopped entirely, however-- the hooks of power Azyria had sunk into the site were using its power, and couldn't be removed. Instead, the spell changed, and rather than simply drawing the power of the site into Thearn, drew the location itself, and everything in it, into Thearn... directly on top of the Agents who had interfered. And it came bringing newly awakened magic, from a land that had not known magic for centuries.

Of course, land in Tokyo is at a premium, and when you need a new high school, well, a plot that was once a shrine really isn't important in the scheme of things, so you build a school there.

And so a number of students and faculty will be drawn into Thearn... a land all but lost to the Darkness.

But the magic has been awakened in the school.

And five students, in the right place, at the right time, will occupy the space that five Agents of Darkness did, destroying the Agents. And transferring their powers to the students.

And the magic of the school will be a beacon-- to refugees, who will feel their magic return as they set foot on the school grounds. And to the forces of Darkness, as well...

And five students will find themselves placed in the middle of a battle for an entire world.

And I'll post a lot more, after the first full run, next Wednesday.

Including where the name "Star Knight" comes from.

Stay tuned...

[alexandria2000]

Bumping in anticipation of Wednesday.

-A2K

[Unka Josh]

Aaaaaaand one first run later!

It began in school, after the end of the school day. Asahina was going to the nurse's office to speak with her older sister Megumi, the school nurse. A snapped bowstring had cut Setsu's arm, so she was visiting the nurse's office. Mikan and Toshiro were attending Kendo practice... but a match between Toshiro and his rival Reiji became a little too serious, resulting in Toshiro getting a concussion, and Reji getting the wind knocked out of him. Reiji was too proud to admit to a need for medical care, so Mikan took Toshiro to the nurse's office as well.

Junko was on classroom cleanup duty, but saw her homeroom teacher HIKAGAWA and principal HAYASHI talking in the hallway, and, curious if there was any truth to the rumors of a romance between them, attempted to listen in. However, HAYASHI-sensei suddenly collapsed in a coughing fit... coughing up blood and black bile. Junko took her to the nurse's office, while HIKAGAWA went to call an ambulance. When she arrived, the nurse quickly left to attempt to find the principal's medication...

And then IT happened.

An explosion of colorful special effects that I'm not going to attempt to recreate here, and the characters found that the world had... changed somewhat. All the power was off. The light from outside the window was red and dim. And they had changed. Setsu's hair was purple with streaks of gold, and runic designs had appeared on her body, most prominently on the palms of her hands. Toshiro's skin had turned dusky, his eyes red, and his canine teeth were noticeably longer. Mikan had grown large, fiery wings. Asahina was five inches taller, with white-blue skin and hair, and brilliant blue eyes. And Junko's hair had grown white-grey and much longer, while snakes of the same color seemed to move through her hair.

Looking out the window, they saw that the world had changed... except for school grounds. The school's lot, with all associated buildings, as well as the gates, and about ten meters in any direction of grass and sidewalks, was the same. Outside of that circle, however, the grass was dead and grey, and the sun, although high in the sky, was dim and red. There were distant mountains in one direction, forests in another. A lake was nearby, with ruins of a city on it. A stream came from the lake to the school grounds.

The PCs realized that there was a new person in the room, as well, lying on a cot, behind some curtains. This was a beautiful woman with ornate robes and jewelry, alien features, and horns. This was Queen Azyria REGALIS, who awoke, and who seemed to have some idea of what was going on. She warned them that they were in danger, but before she explained more, pointed out that an attack was imminent-- a look out the window confirmed that monsters were approaching, although the monsters appeared to be fighting some other forces. Queen Azyria told them that they would have to fight, and told them that they now had powers to do battle, which was indeed the case. Setsu could run very quickly, and could charge the power of lightning into things that she touched, such as her arrows. Asahina was incredibly strong and tough. Mikan could fly on his new wings, and could set things on fire with a thought, or envelop his body in a fiery aura. Toshiro could create darkness, and teleport himself between shadows, letting him attack from surprise with incredible force. Junko could send her snakes out to hunt down foes, to see what was happening elsewhere, or to protect areas with walls of misty snakes.

They quickly set out to protect their school, and found that they were joining a battle-- several kinds of monsters were attacking a group of refugees of some kind, and it appeared that they would quickly destroy them. The players joined battle-- Toshiro striking from darkness, Mikan burning the enemy fliers, Junko sending snakes to kill enemies and to shield the refugees, Setsu shooting arrows that struck like thunderbolts, and Asahina spiking volleyballs with almost supersonic speed. They distracted the monsters, and guided the refugees to the school grounds. As the refugees passed onto the living grass in the school grounds, a change came over them-- color seemed to return to them, and they began to fight the monsters with sudden renewed vigor. The monsters were quickly routed, and the players led the refugees to the school gym, to attempt to bind their wounds and help them.

There, they discovered that they had representatives of seven different races (which, with Queen Azyria, made all eight previously described,) who were survivors of the Dark World's attack. Of particular note were: Princess Shalara TRYVELD, a young girl suddenly become defacto queen of the elves; Lord Schalar KYLWAN, an elf-warrior of great repute who had lost his sword arm in battle; Sir Azragel, handsome and skilled head of the Serafin guard; Strasha SUNBORN, a young dragon of great power and little patience; Lady Tinatel, a Hotaro warrior eager to charge into battle and slay the enemy (bearing in mind that she's all of nine inches tall...); and Mother Zephriel, the leader of the Serafin and head of their church, who was dying from horrible wounds.

Some comments of Strasha's (including her stated desire to kill Queen Azyria) sent the group to the nurse's office looking for Azyria and some answers, and Azyria admitted that the entire situation was her fault, and told the PCs of the demonic origins of their powers. Taken a bit aback, they returned to check on the refugees, and gathered at Mother Zephriel's side. Zephriel had a prophetic vision, and told the players to take her to Azyria, which, since they hadn't told anybody of Azyria's presence, was a bit of a shock. They obeyed, and Zephirel and Azyria talked. Zephriel stated that she was dying, but that the Blue Star's Light with in her must not be lost, and asked Azyria to transfer her power, and (in effect) part of her soul to Principal HAYASHI. Azyria complied, drawing on some of Toshiro's life force with a kiss to gain the energy for the transfer. Zephriel died, but the principal's life was saved, and her hair turned blue, and she shone with the light of the Blue Star.

She insisted on being taken to the refugees, and the leaders of the various communities met to plan. The school was the safest place to be, and their magic had returned to them on the school grounds, but how long would they be safe? However, between the Goblin's strengthening runes and the Serafin's protective wards, perhaps the school could be made into a fortress, and the magic of Elves and Gnolls, Goblins and Sirens, all could provide food and shelter for both the refugees and the humans who had been in the school when it came to Thearn.

HAYASHI-Sensei (who some Serafin now regard as Zephriel and head of their church) now had Zephriel's prophetic visions, and told the players that they would have to go to the ruined city that they saw nearby to obtain a mighty magic that might be able to defeat the forces of Darkness-- the Champion Spell, a magic that would transform the user into an unstoppable warrior, drawing on the magic of their star to achieve astonishingly powerful results.

However, there were a few problems with using the Champion Spell, even if they could get it. In the first place, with the loss of magic in Thearn, no native of Thearn had enough magical power left to use the spell. The only ones who had enough were (surprise!) the PCs... but the PCs, who's power was otherworldly in origin, couldn't use the Champion spell either, since it requires mighty magic of one of the Eight Stars to activate. However, if one of the PCs, accompanied by a member of one of the Eight Races of Thearn who had very, very strong magic, activated the spell, they could merge into a single being who would have the Champion's power.

There was only one member of each race available with whom they could activate the Champion spell-- from the elves, Princess Shalara. From the Dragons, Strasha (who's also the only Dragon present, perhaps the only one alive.) From the Gnolls, a young herder named Grala. From the Hotaro, Lady Tinatel. From the Goblins, a craftswomen named Chiel. From the Sirens, a woman named Arale. From the Sorcerors, Queen Azyria. And from the Serafin... their Principal, HAYASHI Katsumi. The spell could turn all five PCs into Champions, but it would be dangerous to be near such a battle without protection, so the expedition to find the spell could only take five of the representatives, the five PCs... and nobody else.

Who will go? What will happen? And what about all those poor humans stuck in a strange world? I'll be posting a largeish NPC reaction and subplot development thread in a day or so... and the next run is next Wednesday...

[Tim Kirk]

Gaaah. I love this. Very excellant. I love the setup, I wish to play. Though I tend to be a bit "focused" in the type of PC I want to play and have a PC hanging around the Champion "spell owner" whose abilities/look/style he liked the best and fit his personality.

More please :)
I honestly think this needs to be animated *L*