MACADEMY SIGNUPS

[ninjabanish]

Welcome to Midwest Magical Academy, Macademy for short, a school for students 12-18 who have the potential and ability to use magic.

The year is 202X. The school is located in a magical nook of Indiana, hidden away from prying eyes. Three years ago, a devastating earthquake rocked the area, sinking much of the school into a sinkhole, and reconstruction took time, but at last, the school has been rebuilt, and is reopening, taking a new class of first-year students. This is the fourth magic school in the U.S, due to the sheer small number of magicians.

But let’s talk about magic. What it is, how it works. Magic has been around since the dawn of human history, but how did it remain hidden, as a mystery? Magic culture preaches that magic is a tool for helping others- Magic exists for the sake of bringing happiness to people. Therefore, the idea of combat magic is… well, completely alien. Anathema. You can use magic to cut some tape, but using that same magic on a person is absolutely horrific.

Magic exists in secrecy for several reasons. First, the above. Magic is never used to hurt people. Magicians try to avoid calling attention to themselves, as this is what is preached by their culture. Second, magic is rare. There was an old legend where magic can only be used by ‘the seventh son of a seventh son’, and that’s not actually true, but it is about the right rarity- Maybe one in a million people can use magic. (However, with the growth of the population on Earth lately, many magicians are discussing the ideas of letting magic become public.)

Shortly after the school year begins, strange horrors will attack, attempting to abduct the children for reasons unknown. It is then our teachers will begin to develop the use of combat magic, for real, to fight off those horrors and protect their children. Magic exists for the sake of bringing happiness… And so for protecting children.


SO, THE RULES:

Your characters are teachers! They can be new teachers just now getting their first job, or have been teaching before the earthquake happened. Either way, the teachers are the heroes this time.
The tone is intended to be lighter. Yes, we’re dealing with eldritch horrors abducting children, but please avoid going like grimdark. Harry Potter’s first book is a good aim of the whimsy and tone. The worldbuilding may not be airtight but it doesn’t have to be.
No one knows about combat magic, much, at all! There are some wizarding sports similar to MMA, but the showboating is more important there, and there are a billion safety precautions. Generally, magic to defend yourself from a wild bear would be to make it ignore you or making a shield rather than actually harming or killing it. Thus, your characters will be starting at level 1, because they’re figuring out how to fight with magic from the ground up.
Each character will be given 4 extra SP at character creation for the purpose of taking two Proficiency or Asset skills, related to the topic your character is teaching. You won’t be an ace in combat, but at least, you’ll still definitely be an expert in your field.

SCHEDULING:

The game has two possible timeslots! Wednesdays at 5-8, and Thursdays at 4-7. Those are the only options I have, sadly. Times are PST!

SIGN UP

Reply here if you want to play! I’ll be choosing 4-5 players as players, but if you aren’t chosen, you can still be involved in plotting/contributing NPCs. The game will be run in the Valor system!

Name: Who are you?
Preferred Timeslot: See above. Wednesday or Thursday?
Character Concept: You don’t have to have your character nailed down exactly, just a basic concept will do, and you can talk to each other about concepts and work things out together.
Setting Questions: Hit me! I’m here to answer everything I can.

<b>Name</b>: Who are you? <b>Preferred Timeslot:</b> See above. Wednesday or Thursday?</b> <b>Character Concept:</b> You don’t have to have your character nailed down exactly, just a basic concept will do, and you can talk to each other about concepts and work things out together. <b>Setting Questions:</b> Hit me! I’m here to answer everything I can.

Comments

[pullsaggro]

Name: puff
Preferred Timeslot: Either work but Thursdays are a little better.
Character Concept: Teeny tiny druid/mage with a focus on healing and nature-based powers, essentially Care of Magical Creatures/Magibiology and School Nurse, about 400lbs of optimism stuffed into a 5'0'' 120lb idiot. Formerly part of the magical postal service before settling into a teaching gig?

Setting Questions: Wait, is there a magical postal service.

[ninjabanish]

there is 100000% a magical postal service, and it usually does not involve owls. magical mail more involves sort of detaching a letter or package from ontological inertia so it just sort of shows up where you want it to be.

but usually it just involves a bag of holding and a knowledge of where magic people are.

[nor_iron_bars]

Name: Echo
Preferred Timeslot: I'm fine with either.
Character Concept: Gym teacher. She's terrifyingly physically fit, kind of intense, not always the best with people. But she does care, under her gruff exterior. Will probably try punching multiple monsters before figuring out combat magic can possibly be a thing. May actually keep punching monsters even after discovering that.
Setting Questions: What do graduates of the school typically do with their magic? Just use it in everyday life, or try to help improve the world subtly, or what?

[dralchemist]

Name: Kasu
Preferred Timeslot: Thursday; I'm in FFAV on Wednesdays.
Character Concept: Technomancy researcher! A relatively young teacher who was teaching before the quake. Their senior thesis was on how to integrate magical concepts into "mundane" technology and vice versa-- enabling either the creation of magitek artifacts or "programming" spells out of different components to allow for a wide array of abilities. Probably a companion build; not sure about that.
Setting Questions: do wizards poop on the floor and magic it away What's the standard in the magical world for reliance on modern technology?

[ninjabanish]

Everyone is free to choose! Most just use it for their everyday lives, many magicians live in small communities where it is easier to be open. Some do use it to help improve the world in bigger, if subtle, ways, but most stick to using it for smaller, mundane things- Rescuing a cat stuck in a tree, for example, or just reheating their tea. Magicians who want to do professional things with their magic are generally travelers, handymen, or scholars who basically live in academia.

[pullsaggro]

I mean this seems like something someone specialized in nature magic would be good at

lily's real magic power is being a gps.

[ninjabanish]

Generally speaking, magic and technology exist in harmony! Magicians do tend to live longer than normal humans, but not unreasonably so- Perhaps to about 150 instead of to 100. So the old fogeys might not understand it or use it and shun it, KIDS THESE DAYS, but the younger generation absolutely still has their phones and games and such. Generally, magic and tech are entirely unrelated, so there's no reason someone can't use or be a fan of both!

[betrayaladorned]

Name: Amber
Preferred Timeslot: Either is fine!!
Character Concept: You know that science teacher that gets really excited about the subject? Yeah. Think that, but with magic.
Setting Questions: Speaking of which, magic and science, how do these things generally loosely relate to the other, especially in a teaching capacity?

[nerdietalk]

Name: Nerdie
Preferred Timeslot: Both should work!
Character Concept: Gilderoy Lockhart-esque motherfucker who's lying through their teeth about the power of their magical abilities. As much as they showboat and brag, they're mostly just an okay history teacher. They love the boring history shit. The stuff that makes people pass out in class. Listen, the history of magical taxes are fascinating, fuck you.
Setting Questions: Playing a magical history teacher seems like something that could play hell if I wasn't careful.

[markedfordeletion]

Name: Mark
Preferred Timeslot: Honestly either works? Leaning Thursdays.
Character Concept: I know this initial pitch sounds a little darker than the others but we discussed this so I think it fits the strike zone of the game overall? Former student of the school who went and did four years in the military, lost an arm in Afghanistan. Is now back here at the school with a sufficiently enchanted prosthetic to teach classes on integrating as a wizard or other supernatural being into society (aka how to get away with subtle magic around the mundane folks and hide it if you're not completely human) and to administer the practicum/general exam for students getting ready to graduate. Probably has the weird home room given he's a pretty nonstandard teacher himself.
Setting Questions: So what does modern wizard culture look like? We know there's more magically-inclined people than ever before and that technology isn't considered not part of the culture, so like is there secret wizard media? Hidden wizard coffee shops and music venues? Secret wizard social media? Did wizards save Vine???

[pullsaggro]

husband.

[ninjabanish]

Answered above! Magic and tech are ultimately separate. A smartphone does not cease to be a smartphone just because a wizard holds it.

Good luck teaching magical students who also have smartphones!

[ninjabanish]

Honestly in the other discord channel I pitched this in, the idea of a History of Magic teacher was banned immediately just for that playing hell. But making the dude Gilderoy Lockhart actually turns it around so it works.

[ninjabanish]

There are currently modern wizarding towns that allow open magic to be practiced, but those towns are generally tucked into small, like, pocket dimensions. But those who blend in in the main world? Yes, there are absolutely secret wizard coffee shops and such. Wizards were a huge hit on Vine, enough that there are suspicions that magicians were involved with Vine shutting down, since there were all these children performing magic on camera! (ProZD isn't a wizard, but CalebCity absolutely is.)

Some more popular social media does in fact have a special magician option. It's weird, but if you select it, it basically gives you a magicians-only feed.

[074]

Name: Aleph
Preferred Timeslot: Either works for now. We'll see.
Character Concept: Laid-back Alchemy/Elementalism teacher who is nevertheless feared by students for teaching a series of some of the most terrifyingly difficult classes in the school. And yet he still shows up to teach in a bathrobe, pajamas, and sunglasses. May have a familiar who does the testing of potions made in class when that's relevant.
Setting Questions: Regarding Wizarding MMA, well, actually the showboating makes me think it's more of a Wizarding WWF or the like. Which makes me wonder a silly thing: is there a Kayfabe setup there and the like?

[nerdietalk]

There is a not insignificant amount of me that would want to play them as them answering any plot important question about the world's history with "who gives a shit about that, did you see the 1978 Tax Code? That screwed up school grants for years."

[ninjabanish]

WIZARDING SOCIETY KIND OF IS KAYFABE

okay but serious answer: Yes, it's taken extremely seriously. We're talking full lucha levels of kayfabe.

[otomechapilot]

Name: Bliss!
Preferred Timeslot: Wednesday please. I can make alternate Thursdays but every Wednesday.
Character Concept: That one teacher specializing in transmutation. Lead into gold and back is her year one project, then they get into teacups into rats, and her honors classes involve Doing An Animorph And Not Regretting it. She is obviously extremely trans and that's why she specialized in transmutation.

She also does homebrewing on the side.

Setting Questions: sing o muse about Wizard Food. What sort of bullshit can cooks and brewers and bakers do with Literal Magic.

[sealeted]

Name: Shana
Preferred Timeslot: Both work for me. Thursday if you need a tie-breaker.
Character Concept: A chronically tired professor with a deep nerd passion for Ancient Runes.
Setting Questions: does coffee count as a health potion

[nerdorama]

"ProZD isn't a wizard"

I mean he did find all 100 pine cones, it's a similar level of power.

[nerdorama]

Name: Nerdo
Preferred Timeslot: Thursday works, Wednesday does not
Character Concept: I'm thinking a teacher of philosophy and ethics, rather than a specific kind of magic - not a usual high school subject in the US, but it sounds integral to magic and society. "This is what you use magic for" and "this is what you don't use magic for" and "here are fifty dead wizards who said why that's the case". He'll (I'm thinking a guy this time? I'm iffy though) need to do some very fast reasoning when it becomes apparent that the situation has changed away from the absolutes of "don't do a violence", but I'm envisioning the kind of guy who's secretly excited that he'll get to write papers about this when it's all over.
Setting Questions: Any hard rules or limitations on what magic can and cannot do (as opposed to social rules)? Or are we exploring that as we go?