Tokyo: Dreams in Springtime

This is a mage game.

Basics

It's the beginning of the last year of Higashigawa High School, a perfectly normal school with perfectly average academic results and a good girl's basketball team. Set in the Ueno neighborhood in Taito Ward, an unlucky part of town near the Imperial Palace's demon gate, with many museums and homeless people.

You're just back from holiday. After you're done they'll be college, and then marriage and work until you're dead. An endless expanse of featureless time lies ahead.

Only something has changed over the summer.

Maybe the future isn't so set after all.

Chargen and rules stuff

You are all orphans, and high school age, but know you're doing something supernatural when you do magic. This can take the form of high technology, mystical books you found in your old aunt's house, whatever. However, you should have at least 3 defined foci.

Each character should have a dream a world they're striving to reach to. Each character should also have a Teather an aspect of mundane life which is preventing them from getting where they want to go. For instance, Joker the Phantom Thief has a dream (A world where heroism is supported) and a Teather (on probation).

Characters who can get along and work with one another easily are preferred. Knowing one another already is encouraged but not required.

Anime alert level is set to elevated.

crunch

Build using XP Based Chargen: Mage with 75 freebie XP rather than 105. You can buy arete up to 4 at chargen if you want.

• Dodge is subsumed under Athletics.
• You get a free -1 (3 xp) flaw for being highschool age
• Flaw limits are flexible.
• The 'Esoterica' skill is added. Define a paradigm and it packages niche occult knowledge for that paradigm, such as alchemy, numerology and the names of angels for Esoterica [Hermetic].
• Computer is a skill
• Knowledges are still half cost because w/e
• Casting with one of your foci is -1 difficulty. Casting without them or when they are hampered is +1

Inspirations

• Persona 5
• Garden of Sinners
• Durarara
• Tokyo Drift
• Boogiepop
• Terror in Resonance
• Fate/Stay Night
• Hellboy
• Ancient Magus Bride

Higashigawa High

Higashigawa High is a somewhat dilapidated 4 story structure of which three floors and the gym are in use.

Each year occupies rooms on one of the floors, with staff sharing the 3rd floor with your year.

Students are not permitted on the 4th floor, and the doors are kept locked at all times. Going out on the roof is not permitted, a source of annoyance to most of the student body.

The Gym, as well as the club rooms, are in their own separate building a little away from the main building.

As part of giving students a broader and more balanced education, all students must participate in at least one club.

Uniform colors are black and sky blue.

Higashigawa High Clubs

Staff

Principle Kobayashi

Fat

Sad

Glum

Miserable

Rumoured to be a former stockbroker who lost everything in the 1990s

Rumoured to be gay

Rumoured to be having an affair with Ms. Taira

Light touch when it comes to discipline

Ms. Taira (PE)

Slim

Muscular

Short Hair

Ex-JSDF

Rumoured to have been part of some special public safety unit and to have "killed more than 10 people."

Intense

Schools disciplinarian

Ms. Aizawa (Home Room, Japanese Language)

Fatigued

Casual

Phones it in

Actually a pretty fun teacher if she's doing stuff that motivates her, primarily Meiji era literature

"Whatever" approach to discipline

Mr. Mikisugi (Science)

Sinister

Shiny Glasses

Smiles a lot

Frequently ends lessons early when they're the last one of the day

Rumoured to deal drugs on the side "like that American show."

Everyone to scared of him to misbehave

Mr. Amakata(English)

Everyone's friend

Most of the school's favourite teacher

Frequently brings in foreign food

Handsome

Seems strange someone this handsome works in our school. Shouldn't he be a model or a movie star or something?

Often seen eating but never gets fat

Doesn't mind how you behave providing you don't bully people and get the work done.

Mr. Sakurai (School Counsellor)

Friendly

Charming

Sometimes stares off into the distance

Always seems to know how to help his patience

About a 50/50 chance that you'll find him creepy or think he's the best ever

Tries to help pupils not need discipline

Rumoured to own a pistol

Places for teenagers

The Cafechino

Run by an Italian ex-patriot, an attractive older lady who seems eternally about thirty, the Cafechino is the hangout of choice for teenagers who want to drink coffee, study or meet friends because of it's low prices, good coffee, good service and frequent discounts. The interior is wood paneled and the atmosphere relaxed. The only problem, if there is one, is that it's frequently also home to strange western tourists who recognize the Latin alphabet on the sign.

Rumors about the owner abound, with the most popular one being that she's the wife of an important mob boss who fled to Japan for her protection. Others suggest she's secretly a giant otaku who came to Japan only for the culture. No one knows the truth, and the owner's Japanese mysteriously fails her when asked.

BLUE FIELDS (All caps, English)

A Minecraft server run by a group of teens whose identities remain a closely guarded secret to prevent parental or teacher interference. The rule is that what happens on BLUE FIELDS stays on BLUE FIELDS and that you don't talk about BLUE FIELDS at least not in front of adults. Despite its elaborate ritualism, this is a generally harmless, if somewhat ill moderated minecraft server with a good set of mods, though it also has a bit of a bullying problem.

POP GIRL

The Ueno branch of a popular fashion chain, a lot of the school's girls shop here. It offers discounted prices on clothes and various magazines and accessories.

Better World Arcade

The biggest local arcade still open. The place most teenagers use as a meeting point for stuff that's a bit louder or later at night than the Cafechino. Has a great variety of cool games. Higashigawa High's Dotani Sakura is the undisputed queen of the arcade, and has defeated all rivals, especially the boys, to win a high score on almost every machine.

Local Places

Ameya-Yokochō

A large open air market that originally sold candy and bootlegged American products. Now it sells all kinds of things, but also candy. A popular place to get gifts for younger siblings and stress relief candy in times of hard studying.

The Hooded Lantern

A weird shop down at one corner of the market, sells a whole variety of strange things, especially herbal remedies, and various weird occult things and books of doubtful providence. The ship is sometimes watched by police or tattooed men in colourful suits but none take action against it. It's run by Barabara Yuuko, a surprisingly young woman who smokes a gold-tipped pipe, and apparently brought it out of university. Popular with tourists but doing a surprising amount of traffic with older local women who Barabara soothes with a variety of remedies.

Current Events

The Black strangler

A series of brutal murderers, victims both men and women, but strangled with a knotted cord, have been taken place across Tokyo. The victims seem to have little connecting them save the method of death and the dumping of the body in a very public place, usually to public to seem to escape detection.

A New Prime Minister

Even teenagers who pay no attention to politics have heard about the new Prime Minister. Only two years ago Saitou Nozomi was a minor and new LDP representative from Osaka, and her meteoric rise to prominence has shocked most commentators. She emerged from the latest round of LDP internal wrangling to becoming Japan's youngest ever and first female PM.

Even more shocking is the Prime Minister's immediate and sweeping program of reforms, which seem to have swept away internal and bureaucratic opposition. A surge of new building and spending is taking place in Tokyo, and Japan is experiencing a period of economic growth such that it has not known in decades.

Her success is marred by persistent rumors of double-dealing, shady connections, blackmail and the suicide of one of her opponents in mysterious circumstances. However success tells, and few people have been willing to speak against her because of it.

More people than we thought

The census got it wrong under the last government, or that's what the news says! Apparently, Japan's aging population isn't as bad as people thought! New government data has shown there's actually more young people in Japan than anyone thought before. This has caused many conservatives to question the need for the Prime Minister's new immigration quotas, but she remains firms: "Japan has strong blood and strong culture, and has nothing to fear from immigration."

Mysterious Crime Wave

There has been an epidemic of petty theft, assaults, robberies and other crimes have been committed, with the police unable to find any perpetrators. Many think this is just police incompetence, but some sources have noted the strange lack of security camera or other evidence of the perpetrators.

Teen Stuff

Colour Gangs

"Hey. Did you hear? Colour gangs are back in fashion. There's like, four different ones now, The Reds, the Whites the Yellows and the Blues. The police are so busy trying to pick themselves up from the mystery crimes that they don't even have time to arrest them now."

The Greens

"My Friend's Friend's Elder Brother is in a colour gang and said that there's a fifth gang, the Greens, who don't wear their colours. They're like a secret gang. They say their leader is a delinquent girl who's crazy strong!"

Urban Legends

Guardian Red

Tokyo's Masked Hero V Tuber Guardian Red is mostly a rumour except that people have watched her videos. Some people however say she's a stunt, or a setup, and is not really beating up criminals in bright red cosplay armour. Surely the police would have taken the videos down if they were real, wouldn't they?!

Notes

"Did you hear about Notes? The Secret Message Board? I met someone online who went their once! It's supposed to be a place where they talk about all the true legends of the city. It's pretty crazy to think about something like that existing isn't it?"