Persona

Full up sorry guys :(. Anime factor high, but not extreme.

You were just a normal person, living a normal life. Then you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ended up somewhere else. A surreal dreamscape stretched about you, mineral and biological and abstract woven together into a beautiful, horrifying land.

The monsters that lived in this strange place far overpowered your frail human body. But the greatest strength of Man has always been his mind.

Persona PC Bios
Persona Bestiary
Calendar

Setting

The year is 20XX. Climate change and resource crunches have rocked the world, but contrary to various grim prognostications, the crises have brought out the best in mankind. America, China, Europe and the lesser powers have worked together on the herculean task of shifting human society away from its unsustainable course, and ensuring that those whose homes have been destroyed by the shifting times can continue to live a normal life.

Criticisms remain, of course. Many say that the 'great reformation' is being directed to ensure the perpetuation of a third-world underclass, or establish an oppressive world government, or summon the antichrist. But for the majority of people, it is a relief that apocalyptic famine, pestilence and war have been prevented.

Sunshine City

Multinational Sunshine City is a flagship 'City of the Future', bedecked with renewable power sources, rooftop gardens, electric mass transit and efficient apartment blocks. It is also the site of black markets and gang warfare among the poor environmental migrants, and offensive decadence among those rich enough to ignore the 'eden taxes'.

Set on the large, self-sufficient Nandrin Island in the Pacific Multinational Administrative Region, Sunshine is a true melting pot of environmental migrants from India, Oceania and Latin America, enterprising first-world businessmen and scientists, and people from all around the globe who want to escape the creaking, unsustainable old-model cities and move somewhere with a sense of hope.

Of late, however, incidences of mental illness have been on the rise in Sunshine. Many blame the water supply, or the stressful state of the wider world, or a minority group of their choice, but the authorities have yet to unveil an official explanation.

Jung Corporation

Even in the upheavals of the 21st century, science marches on. Among other things, psychologists and programmers are coming closer and closer to the grail of their discipline - a stable, human-equivalent AI.

At the forefront of these efforts is Jung Corporation, which produces both software and hardware for military and civilian automation. The majority of drone aircraft, trading programs and artificial pets in the world are manufactured by Jung, and the heart of this process is Sunshine's Omoikane Plaza.

Sakihito Ozawa High School

Sakihito High is a respectable school of approximately 600 students in Western Sunshine, educating students of 15 to 18 years.

Personal

Generic 1-5 system. 9 points to spend. Your character is in high school unless you get GM permission.

Athletics

When elsewhere, this is superseded by your Persona's powers. But in the real world, it's all you have to go on.

• 1: 'Feeble'. You're a dying sick girl, or obese, or just a plain old wimp.
• 2: 'Normal'. You get picked in the middle for teams.
• 3: 'Athletic'. You're on the school team.
• 4: 'Champion'. You captain the school team.
• 5: 'Olympian'. Sometimes you miss school because you're competing overseas.

Academics

Don't feel obligated to be a utter moron just because you dropped out, but a genius will be expected to pay for it.

• 1: 'Dumb'. You're probably going to be held back a year, if you're still in school at all.
• 2: 'Normal'. You get Bs and Cs.
• 3: 'Bright'. You get As and Bs.
• 4: 'Smartypants'. You're a straight-A student, or a savant in one field.
• 5: 'Philosopher'. You're doing a university degree at weekends.

Charm

Your power over people.

• 1: 'Intolerable'. You're the lead character in a harem show.
• 2: 'Normal'. Oh him? He's alright I guess.
• 3: 'Charmer'. You have quite the circle of friends and/or hangers-on.
• 4: 'Star'. Dating you is a ticket to admiration.
• 5: 'Casanova'. You're the lead character in a harem show.

Qualities

• Cripple: You're confined to a wheelchair or otherwise disabled. This doesn't give you many points because it lets you dump physical, and future wheelchairs are pretty sweet. +1
• Inhuman: You're a robot or a dog or an animate mascot suit or something. Consult the GM. May not make it to final cut. -1
• Issues: Everyone has their problems, but yours are particularly bad. You have a severe phobia or some other psychological problem. Warning: This is not a gimme. +1
• Martial Arts: You've learned in your grandfather's dojo, or perhaps from the school of hard knocks. -1
• Wealth: Your parents are rich. You get all the latest electronics and are probably driven to school. -1
• Opulence: Your parents are millionaires. You get prototype electronics from Daddy's company and travel to school in a limousine. -2
• Psychic: You are psychically sensitive. It's easier for you to find portals to elsewhere, and for the GM to give you hints. -1
• Streetwise: You have connections with uncouth types. -1

Persona

Your Persona is the externalisation of your inner self, your dreams and drives and insecurities made monstrously manifest. When elsewhere, they will boost your own physical ability and can be summoned to attack enemies.

Tentative 10 points for starting personas. Qualities cost 2.

Strength

Your Persona's power at blunt fisticuffs.

Magic

Magical attacks are more versatile and powerful, but mentally draining.

Defence

The resistance to injury you gain by virtue of your persona.

Speed

The speed, mental and physical, of your persona.

Qualities

• Almighty: Your Persona's magic is non-elemental and penetrates most defences.
• Incarnate: Your Persona absorbs attacks of its element.
• Inviolate: Your Persona has no elemental weakness.
• Gnosis: Your Persona has long-range sensing abilities.
• Savior: Your Persona can heal itself and others.

Magical Powers

Your persona can spend a number of points on powers equal to its magic rating. You can have as many as you like provided you can afford them. The more points you spend on a power, the more mentally exhausting it is. Spending everything on one big one will get you a power only usable once or twice.

• Attack: The power hurts people at a moderate range. 1 point.
• Heal: The power heals people at a moderate range. 1 point. Only available to those with Saviour.
• Alter: The power enhances or diminishes a stat of the target. 1 point.
• Enhance: The power is better at whatever it does. 1 point.
• Extend: The power has a range of several dozen metres or more. 1 point. Can only be taken once.
• Area: The power affects an area several metres across. Double cost.

Suit

Your Persona is associated with one of the suits of the Minor Arcana. Its attacks and defence are associated with that element (but it's conceptual, so feel free to be creative), and it is vulnerable to one other of your choice.

• Coins (Earth). Material things.
• Wands (Fire). Courage and drive.
• Cups (Water). Emotions and relationships.
• Swords (Air). Reason and authority.

Arcana

Your Persona is also associated with one of the Major Arcana. This may not have any effect, and what effect it does have may not be made public. Fool, Death, Judgement and World are restricted, and probably harder to get than adulthood. You don't need to worry about this yet if at all.

Social Links

Friendship is strength. Humans are defined by their relationships with others.

Social links are the power of friendship. By establishing a connection with a person or group, you can gain stat boosts and abilities. All social links provide a specific bonus as they increase in levels, save the PC party link which provides generic points that can be applied to any stat.

The party link level currently stands at 4.