Malevolence from Beyond: A Lovecraft-influenced magical girl RP

R-9 Pilot

Edgeknight
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. One post per day
  2. 1-3 posts per week
  3. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Beginner
  2. Elementary
  3. Intermediate
  4. Adept
  5. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
  2. Futanari
  3. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
Scifi, anime, mecha, magical girl, superhero, cyberpunk, yuri
The year is 2085. Fifty years ago, the Ashcroft Foundation shocked the world by revealing that magic was real, and they had harnessed its principles in new technology. The old gods have also taken notice, and now their cults are more active than ever. Operating in secret, they threaten to destabilize society and bring about the return of the Old Ones in a new era of madness. Fighting in a shadow war against them is the Eldritch Society, an international secret society dedicated to protecting the mortal world and driving back the advances of horrible deities. Their greatest warriors are tagers, people who have survived a powerful magical ritual and been bound in symbiosis with a "higher being," gaining incredible power.

A group of young women are about to be in the right place at the wrong time. A ritual gone out of control leaves them the unwitting subjects, and they have been found worthy by the alien beings summoned forth. They will have to learn how to use their new powers, and find allies in the shadow war quickly if they want to survive in a world of monsters. Because they are tagers, holy warriors, and they are destined to fight.

Welcome to the Strange Aeon.



Information

  • Your characters will be young women who have been granted incredible power, and dragged into what would normally be the concern of adults. Until they became tagers by accident, your characters probably didn't even know there was a secret war against the Old Ones, but now they won't be able to avoid it. And they still have to go to school and maintain a normal life.

    Your characters are still exceptional people on some level. Not anyone can be judged worthy by the "divine" beings that join with them to become tagers. It requires a certain amount of willpower and conviction.

    In addition to your character, you will also get to create their form and abilities when they change into a living, power-armored monstrous warrior. This isn't a monster girl sort of thing so much as just a full-on monster. Tagers are more like the guyver or Tekkaman blade.

  • The world is essentially a cyberpunk dystopian world, if everything in the Cthulhu Mythos was real. Humanity has developed arcane technology powered by magic, and the cult of Nyarlathotep has gone corporate. Megacorporations wield as much power as the New Earth Government, and cities are replaced by ultramodern arcologies. Environmentalism and conservation efforts are going strong. So is organized crime.

    The RP will take place in the Kojiki city. An ultramodern city in Japan, Kojiki is a safe and beautiful place, on the surface. But like the rest of the world, cults, sorcerers, and monsters lurk just beneath the surface. Your characters can move around discreetly in mortal society, and will need to do so to survive.

  • This RP is something of a bizarre pastiche of both magical girl anime and Mythos fiction. While there are definitely themes of Lovecraftian horror, the horror aspect may not be front and center. You're an eldritch super hero, after all. The overall expectation is also hopeful. Rather than despair and madness at humanity's insignificance, the focus is on humanity's ability to push back the night.

    There will be violence. There will probably also be graphic descriptions of gore. There may be swearing and depictions of drugs and alcohol use. This RP won't be extremely grim and gritty all the time, but it certainly has the potential to get dark at times.

    Themes of insanity will be at a relative minimum for the genre. The focus will be less on "you saw a deep one, roll SAN" and more on things like "When you tell people the guy next door is a monster, they think you're crazy." It's not that one is insane, merely that one knows some of the hidden truths of the world. There will be opportunity for introspection and the mental effects of the characters' situation on them. How do you react to fighting monsters? How does your symbiont influence you?

    The writing style I'm aiming for is somewhere around the casual level. Be able to write a paragraph or two, although feel free to write as much or as little as you want or need to. As a writer, I tend to go for shorter posts myself. I'd prefer posts be written in the third person. Collaborations for long conversations or other opportunities are fine, but there probably won't be a large focus on needing collabs.

    I expect a posting rate of about once a week. I'm not sure exactly how to describe things between a linear plot and a sandbox, but it's probably that you will have some freedom, but there will be some plot beats you'll need to choose how to confront and NPCs with their own agendas that will play out in certain ways if the PCs don't interfere. I will try to post at least once a week to try and move things along or start a new scene. I will not, conversely, wait for everyone to post if it would risk things staying quiet for too long.


OOC Thread Link Here
Please check it out if this seems like your kind of thing.
 
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So MGs meet CthulhuTech? I'd be willing to co-GM.
 
Exactly that. The whole idea is actually based on an old CTech campaign I was in. I will admit that I'm not sure how much of the setting will survive what we'll be doing to it, but it is very much Cthulhutech.

Not sure if you want to discuss things here on in PMs, but I'm good with either, for figuring out GM planning things or whatnot.
 
Exactly that. The whole idea is actually based on an old CTech campaign I was in. I will admit that I'm not sure how much of the setting will survive what we'll be doing to it, but it is very much Cthulhutech.

Not sure if you want to discuss things here on in PMs, but I'm good with either, for figuring out GM planning things or whatnot.

"Tager" was the giveaway.

I'm fine with general planning here, and shifting to PMs if there's anything we'd prefer players to find out in-game.
 
Can I be the Queen in Yellow?
 
"Tager" was the giveaway.

I'm fine with general planning here, and shifting to PMs if there's anything we'd prefer players to find out in-game.
It is one, and I'm fine with that. open discussion until it needs to not be is probably the way to go.

I think one thing I'd like to do that departs a bit is to add crazy sorcerers like the villains in Demonbane. It's just an interesting element and gives more options for supervillains. Also, variety from just dhoanoids all the time.

Can I be the Queen in Yellow?
I don't see why not. Beyond arguments that I don't feel like they hold water as it's just stuff from the "canon" setting, and I'm already gleefully throwing that out anyway.

I'm not likely to limit one's options on their character too much beyond appearance being more monstrous than monster girl. There are some tagers direct from the CthulhuTech RPG I'm ripping off, but people won't be limited to them as options. I will likely use them as examples, however.
 
I'm not familiar with the canon, but if you're throwing that out anyway then hopefully I'm not at too much of a disadvantage.

Either way, I'd be interested in taking part if this gets started!
 
I'll do my best to explain what one would need to know, but there's definitely no need to be familair with the tabletop game I'm using for inspiration.
 
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If this is a thing still, I’m very interested. Plenty of CthulhuTech background and a guilty pleasure for magical girl stuff and Cyberpunk :P
 
If this is a thing still, I’m very interested. Plenty of CthulhuTech background and a guilty pleasure for magical girl stuff and Cyberpunk :P
It's kind of on hold until I can actually figure out some plot beats. Like, even if it's just Lovecraft reference monster of the week stuff. Once I get some actual substance to the RP, I'll probably set something up, but not going to try to GM without a plan again.
 
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Sounds good, I’ll be around and take your time! Nothing worse than a rushed response/game. Ruins the fun.
 
Ooooh, this is interesting, I want in! Anyway answering your questions.

  • What sort of plot lines would you like to see? Personal or otherwise.
Honestly I want to study character relationships. Just how they react to their situation. The more horror the better. This is like a war, a cosmic war. What are the characters' reactions to the whole thing? How are they coping? And honestly if they're fighting something eldritch...is there something underneath? Just something the current world has that is using them for? Maybe like whatever employed them to be magical girls is manipulating them for something worse? Or maybe there's no good side and the girls say "Screw it" and save humanity themselves. ...I want Madoka but not.
  • Any specific villains, monsters, or gods you want to encounter?
Specific villains, monsters, or gods...not really. If someone turns out to be villainous but doesn't seem like it in the beginning, all the better. If we can get someone who is not a villain at the start and then devolves into becoming a villain, then all the better. Honestly, gods though...heh, I want to fight the gods. They think they are all powerful and they can control? TAKE THAT MAGICAL GIRLS AHOY. But honestly no specific god. ...If there was a god of light and goodness though that's actually a hypocrite I will laugh. You think humanity isn't pure enough? NOPE GOODBYE WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU.
  • Do you like the setting as it's currently presented?
The setting is good! I'm intrigued by the cyberpunk dystopia and want to worldbuild. I want to think about how everyone lives that life, I bet it's interesting. And honestly, cults and corporations...if our magical girls have to fight it, my god that would be interesting. How many cults and corporations can they take? And how many are that bad? I'm curious, I want to see more. And honestly, I know those things are bad, but I can't help but be curious and want to learn more about them.
  • Would things be better if the characters had a different origin, like they were all gathered and contacted directly by some sort of higher being that needs people to help it get things done?
...Well, I don't think they should be the same. Just a random contract is intriguing, how did that higher being see that kind of potential in them? What do they have? And different backgrounds are great, you can see the rich and the poor coming together for a common goal. If they were all from the same general area, uh...I feel like it wouldn't make things as interesting. So yeah.
  • How much do you want to worry about things like not being seen, careful planning, and other such things?
...Dude. I want that. Just thinking about how to make things better for the rp and how the characters can plot and stuff. I want that.
  • General preference on horror versus just being eldritch horror superheroes.
I want a lot of horror. All the horror. I wanna study the psychological aspects of that horror. MY GOD PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR THAT IS SO GOOD LET ME SEE IT.

Okay I'm done.
 
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Ooooh, this is interesting, I want in! Anyway answering your questions.
Thank you. I like to discuss this sort of behind the scenes stuff with prospective players, particularly now. I'm still working on things, and some ideas on what people would want out of the game are useful. I know at the end of the day it's my prerogative to set stuff as I see fit and tell everyone so we're on the same page, but that doesn't mean i won't take input from anyone interested.

I honestly should have also asked about how silly/light-hearted people wanted things to get, too. It's not mutually-exclusive with also being dark, but you really can't have only one. And...as a GM I can hew pretty goofy at times. I also tend to envision Cthulhutech overall as more Deus Machina Demonbane, and therefore a bit less serious than it is originally intended. Though to be fair, it tends to take itself too seriously.

Anyway, that rambling aside, as far as dark themes go, I can certainly try to deliver on them, but I can also say that i am not the sort to only grind everyone down with doom and gloom and all that. I like the mythos the sort where even in the face of the unknowable forces from beyond, terrible in their power and indifference, humanity stands a chance. And we're magical girls, goddamnit. So, no matter how bad stuff get,s being able to somehow see it through toward a good ending is kind of part of the genre. In the cosmic picture, are we going to be 100% winning? Probably not, but even staving things off for a while is a legit victory for humanity and that's what matters to humanity.

The other question I should've asked would be one about "what sort of magical girl tropes or themes do you want to see?"

Anyway, not muchelse to report right now, but planning is actively happening for good or ill. Even if things end up, like, just a bunch of plot starters a few lines long that can get an "episode" started, I might be able to call it good. Better would be I have the beginning and ending figured out at least. And, you know, a middle that's not all "Mythos Monster of the Week." Which it probably won't be, what with megacorps to fight and so-on. ...note to self: replace hard-suits and boomers with eldritch horrors and Bubblegum Crisis is also good inspiration.

Ah, the creative? process.
 
@Ariel @XC
Finally getting around to things, if you are still interested. No big deal if not, though.
 
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I'm still looking for a couple more players for this.
 
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I have things labeled as "closed" at the moment, but there might be room for one more person if you're interested.
 
Thank you. Good luck to you, too.