YA Literature RPG

So is the gameplay kind of like Fiasco, with scene-establishment and "ratings" based on those scenes?

Never played Fiasco; can you give a summary of this crunch?

There's barely any. It's a freeform game with a token mechanic for randomly coming up with weird situations to play in.

If possible, whoever is looking for designing this game should look Fiasco, Monsterhearts and Maid RPG.

Noted.

I'm adding HeartQuest to the recommended reading list. It's significantly crunchier than the above, but it's FUDGE based so it's not exactly Rolemaster.

Please do, because I sure as hell don't know where to go with it.

Something like that. The idea was that players of characters not currently present in the scene or not currently introduced function as a kind of pseudo-GM, but maybe given the heroic fiction theme a more traditional setup would be more appropriate.

"this account doesn't use the Kekistani flag with SHADILAY written over the top, either"

Weirdly, I actually find the more serious setting concepts here more appealing...

>Untitled, direct expy of the Harry Potter books
>The Enforcerate Trilogy: a sort of generic parody of the "conformist dystopia" YA subgenre

Why not combine these two into something completely ridiculous?

In a dystopian future, there's a secret school/camp for witches and wizards that's training them to fight in an uprising against the evil megacorporation that rules the world

Doesn't that take away from both?

That said, I am in favor of having at least one, completely ridiculous setting which would totally combine elements of all the YA lit the others are imitating. Add vampires and angels into the mix, too!

This first one is golden.

Haven't read the second one yet.

Well, the third one is out

Can't say I'm surprised with the ending

Couldn’t believe she ended up with Dictat Smoothname. Totally out of left field.

I was literally crying when Passive died

So I saw a post on that Twitter that irked me, the whole “it’s offensive to compare a non-white person’s skin color to a similarly colored food”.
If not, then what do you compare it to? What positively brown things exist that aren’t food?

Wood maybe? That's usually thought of positively. There's leather too. There's dirt, which is usually positive in an agricultural context at least.

>skin the color of...elm?
Kinda weird
>skin the color of dirt
I can’t see this going over well

Also I would never use leather as a color descriptor for skin, because it gives the implication of agedness when I may not need jt

>skin the color of...elm?
Ebony is often used to describe dark skin.

It's not offensive, it's overdone. The point of that tweet was that calling every non-white some variation of "caramel" or "mocha" is sort of like how GRRM includes the phrase "Sunset found X" or "Sunrise found Y" in every book he writes. It's bad writing because it's falling into a rut.

It’s also used by black people to describe themselves (usually women) even if they’re lighter than copy paper

Only because it's very generic for [artsier way of saying black]

I'm gonna make a mockup shipping chart later, but if you or someone else wants to make one, please do.

There should be some kind of bonus to supporting someone’s “main character moment” like being a rival, or the comic relief sidekick

I like the idea of a rival/wingman bonus. The emoji rating itself seems like a catalyst to cause the PCs to want to split up, since you can only get anywhere if someone not in the scene is voting you up.

I'll start on the chart now.

Alright, I think this is what user had in mind.

I like that it seems everything will use The Enforcerate Trilogy for examples.

It'll help me get in the mood to write the book

It's almost as if the Enforcerate Trilogy is deliberately written to hit every YA dystopia trope right on the mark.

Do it. Don't even change any names. If Stephinson can do it so can you

It’s mostly because the guy making it seems to be the most serious here. You’re free to develop the other sample settings if you like them better.

How about the intimacy based relationships system I suggested last thread?

This project isn’t yet at the stage where there’s a concentrated effort to do anything. Work on whatever you like.

Do we know anything about the Harry Potter expy other than what the houses are?

...

Huh, those house concepts are actually kind of neat.

However, that still doesn't answer the question. House concepts alone are a good stepping stone, since it gives us something for the theoretical teengirls to have quizzes about, but they still won't accomplish a setting. We need to think about how wizard society works in that setting, how the wizarding school looks, where it's built, whether they play quidditch, etc. As well as a more general history, who is the Voldemort equivalent, whether the rest of the wizarding world is the same (do goblins run the banks? Are werewolves discriminated against? etc.)

I also think houses Goldfirth and Wynblun could use a bit of tuning to give them more character.

oh sorry, I guess I didn't answer the question, that's all the info so far.

When in doubt, employ expies. The banks are controlled by [dwarfs]. [vampires] are discriminated against. A game named [nonsensical funny word] is played from atop [flying carpets], etc.

Although with the flying carpet there is the slight issue that it isn't AS evocative of European witchcraft traditions as of more exotic ones. Might want to look into a broom alternative that is still European. My first instinct was to point out Baba Yaga's pestle, but that's more of a Russian thing. Western Europe had myths about flying chariots, but those weren't associated with witches.

>Might want to look into a broom alternative that is still European.
Or, the school is Middle-Eastern.

I'm going off the House ideas suggested in , which are EXTREMELY Celtic. I think the names are all literally in Welsh, for once.

Plus, you know that making this a Middle Eastern setting is going to trigger people across the board. We got something really good going on here with these threads, let's not attract /pol/ and /tumblr/ into and ruin it.

I guess you're right, that was just off the cuff.

I mean, it could be like a game imported to Britain through a Middle Eastern colony during the Imperial period, no? Hint at the existence of foreign wizarding cultures?
Or would that lose the charm that Quidditch has as an ancient British tradition/a parody of cricket?

That, and it would be exactly as volatile as just placing the school in Baghdad. Let's not even go there.

Celtic mythology mentions the Wheel of Mug Ruith, a kind of flying chariot used by the eponymous druid which is pretty much described as a spaceship. It's made of rowan, electron, and silver and "blinds those who see it, deafens those who hear it, kills those who touch it."

Or is that kind of extreme?

That could be used for a kind of race but probably not for a ball game.

What other games are extremely British and of interest to both kids and adults in the British education system? Maybe we can base our imaginary game on one of those. Obviously, there's soccer but it's hard to imagine a magical variation of soccer that wouldn't just end up as Quidditch anyway, leaving us with the same problem of what flying device would be used to play it.

Shinty-hurling?

Celtic mythology is very big on shapeshifting. If you're okay with significantly changing the flavor of the setting (since IIRC shapeshifting is kind of a big deal in Harry Potter, not something anyone can just do on a whim), how about a some kind of bizarre ball game with extremely arcane rules played on a field with various mirrored terrains where advantages are attained by the participants rapidly switching between various animal forms? Like I said, the only problem is that this WILL make the setting significantly different from Harry Potter's, as you'll need to account for the fact that it's now given shapeshifting is so easy and widespread any kid wizard could do it, and have any number of forms (which also means one less quiz for the girls, tsk tsk)

How about a "traditionally Scottish" wizarding sport, "invented by selkies", which takes place underwater (maybe in a huge aquarium, or maybe the stands are somehow lowered beneath the surface of the sea/lake and use magic to provide clear view?) and in which everyone employs magical sealskins to play in seal form?

If it's Welsh and not British, bring in dragons. The Welsh like their dragons.
For kids, it's a game much like Quidditch would be if it was halfway based around darts (which is, given, not a kids' game, but it is recognizable and can be used for a lot) played either on some kind of magical construct or young magical beasts (because dragons are dangerous and a bit too sentient), where you have a large pitch with different targets that teams have to hit with multiple different balls in different orders by different players - setting up the right sequences results in high point scores, while you can "drop" or even lose points by hitting wrong. It has plenty of material for sudden twists and huge victories, as well as having rules that are so stupidly fucking complex you can always bust out something new.
And then there's the "adult" version which is literally played on dragon-back in semi-legal leagues, with injuries and even deaths being common. Like Harry Potter and its myriad taboo adult wizarding games and pastimes, it gives something dangerous for more heedless characters to aspire to, which the main character either warns their friends about and saves them from later, or goes headlong into and almost gets killed only to be saved and turn it into a miraculous victory with some sort of sudden talent.

This. Knock yourself out user.

The Quidditch in the books is used to provide Harry with his broom/broom skills, though, which are utilized extensively in his adventures throughout them. For the expy to be complete, that would have to mean the main characters need regular access to riding dragons, and that's a pretty radical departure from HP...

What I was getting at was that it used to be dragons, but was changed because of safety and dragon civil rights (both kinds of concerns show up a lot in Harry Potter).
You can use brooms, magical carpets or whatever else - but a big part of HP is also that there are things out there (usually dragons, too) that kids aren't allowed to touch but do anyway because "this time they need it".
And then they're symbolically scolded by the Headmaster but also complimented backhandedly, and the incident is only brought up in a flattering light after that.

Baby dragons?

You could do that, if you want to put the lessons about treating pets and animals well in there.
Thinking about it, those pop up a lot in YA books, where the bullies and designated villains treat sentient magical creatures cruelly for little other reason than making the reader feel good about their own completely natural decision to not torture shit for fun.
And it could lead into a neat lesson when the dragon grows old enough to have fangs and fire breath.
If you want to tie familiars/mascots into it, you could have dragons age at the same pace as their "bound" master and reflect aspects of their personality, and now we're diving into Eragon.
It also gives a "wand" system in which your tools and pets reflect who you are and might choose you instead of the other way around, adding a new entry to the quiz.

Aren't the wizard pets already owls, cats and toads?

Those are familiars for babies. Grown ups like me (age 13) need an adult's familiar.

If you're sticking that close to the source material, is there any point in making anything at all?
An expy isn't the same as a point-by-point knockoff, and anyway, something like dragons is a lot more attractive to a YA audience (while still letting people who're too cool for that choose something else).
HP was just written before the YA boom really took off, which means that not all parts of it are by-the-book clichés.

Plus, it allows you to create a caveat by which only a select few wizards are able to play, since baby dragons will only respond to/bond with a select few wizards. Which, naturally, the main character is. YA lit is full of that stuff.

Idea for Harry Potter setting: variant rules for magical girl/ shonen type societies for more weeby flavor.

Relationship mechanics focus more on power of friendship and contribute to ability scores. Would be a more combat intensive setting, which might be nice

Feel free to come up with ideas for it.

That was a nice way to tell him to get lost.

I said it earlier but I'll say it again: Bubblegumshoe

Isn't it too focused on investigation?

I think it was mostly the relation mechanics we were supposed to check out. I still haven't gotten around to it, even though I'm pretty sure I have a copy on my home computer.

or everyone is limited to one form and its considered a rite of passage to unlock it.
then teams are based on how well everyone forms synergies with each other

That’s a good option.

Sounds like Eragon.

In Lasers and Feelings, Katniss Everdeen is very good at Lasers and very bad at Feelings.

Anyway I would go with Masks: A New Generation over Monsterhearts, as far as PbtA games go, as that game is about you leveling into the kind of adult you are going to be stuck as. Like, people are in flux as teenagers and then once you are an adult you are as you are always going to be.

Those kind of themes are what struck me with Hunger Games as well. In those books, the thing that makes District 12's tributes different is that in every other District kids are put to work at that District's industry learning combat-applicable skills, like axe-handling in the timbering district. But in the mining district of 12, you don't go into the mines until you turn 18, so Tributes from there don't know how to swing a pick or use dynamite. Until you come of age you are left to go to school and starve and be poor and miserable with your shitty poor family.

They were the only true teenagers, everyone else had been pushed into early adulthood or were still children.

Eragon has a lot of the conventions of YA lit.

There had better be one of those human-choosing ceremonies like they do on Pern.

Nah, the dragon would choose the human out of the blue, allowing for the protagonist to shock and impress everyone they meet.
Also, it would gain a jealous antagonistic figure, that makes it their life goal to prove it's somehow a fake bond in revenge for stealing their spotlight.

What would be the Dumbledore equivalent like?

I was about to suggest basing him off the classics of the genre, but as I typed the post it became very obvious that trying to write Dr Thomas Arnold without the religiousity somewhat central to his character (but perhaps a little taboo for YA) basically yields Dumbledore.
At least you have an excuse for the school not teaching science: Arnold believed that it should either be central to the curriculum or not taught at all and this is a school of magic.

Maybe go for the stern disciplinarian, seen by the students at assemblies but mostly as the man who administers the canings for misbehaviour - on that note, a magical trinket that induces pain similar to the one seen in Dune's trial of humanity would make a decent device for him while sidestepping the issues of caning itself.

Obviously gay while attempting to be subtly gay.
This is really the core of YA: trying to show strength of writing through subtlety, but instead managing to display weakness and obviousness.
>djkhaled.webm

Dumbledore was gay?

Welcome to post HP Rowling.
AKA the earthly avatar of Death of the Author.

One Ibn-Suleiman, rumored to be over 400 years old at the least, fat like an elephant and fond of sugared apricots. His jeweled turban is large enough to hide a student, his beard perfumed with rosewater is large enough to hide two. A jolly, red cheeked fellow with an uproarious laughter and a taste for the extravagant. Nobody quite remembers when or how he arrived in Britain, but his golden wand seems to contain an infinite supply of terrifically powerful djinns and marids which he lords around like a pack of baboons, and it is said that the last person who checked too deeply is now a silk pillow in his office, so few people ask.

>Dumbledore was gay?
Not until after the books.

That one was bad, but her revelation about magical ancestry was the nail in the coffin.
According to Rowling, magic really is hereditary, as every witch and wizard has a magical ancestor somewhere. That means the Muggleborns aren’t magic because it just popped up, but because it’s an extremely recessive trait, capable of being suppressed even in the offspring of magically-active parents (squibs, who aren’t just unlucky kids but REALLY unlucky kids).
This means that Hermione really might be related to a potioneer names Granger, as Slughorn proposed.
It also means that Pureblood supremacy is based in fact, and the obsession with keeping lines free of muggle taint is well-founded, so as not to produce a Squib. After all, magical humans are a minority population - if they aren’t careful, they’ll disappear into the majority like the rest of China did into the Han.
This means that it really does matter what family you come from. If you have no magical ancestors at all, you won’t be magic, and if you don’t marry magic, neither will your offspring.
Also, a question: how many beings can interbreed with humans? Hagrid is half-giant, and the Delacours have Veela blood from their grandmother.

>A young girl comes up to you and steals your sweet roll. What do you do?

>G: Punch her in the gut and give the sweet roll to a house elf
>R: Explore the philosophical meaning of having your sweet roll stolen; catalogue your thoughts and emotions so you can analyze the data later
>S: Call your father to come beat up this mudblood for you. It's not that she's inferior to you and you want to keep her blood off your shoes, it's that you're spoiled and stupid and you're frightened of her initiative
>H: Go home and post on 4wands about how you totally got laid today. Bask in their hatred.

>According to Rowling, magic really is hereditary, as every witch and wizard has a magical ancestor somewhere. That means the Muggleborns aren’t magic because it just popped up, but because it’s an extremely recessive trait, capable of being suppressed even in the offspring of magically-active parents
What the fuck.
Have you got a link to that one? I knew Rowling is an idiot that spews dumb shit without thinking, but that's a whole new level of full retard.
That's like Tolkien later having the Hobbits start the industrial revolution.

Never been into the HP series (too old when the first book came out) but it's usually a terrible idea for an author to use their blog to retcon chunks of their work as the mood strikes them.

Prof. Flitwick was said by Rowling to have some goblin blood, which would imply that's also a thing.

Since actual resolution mechanics haven't been talked about much, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring in favor of Otherkind dice.

lumpley.com/archive/148.html

Essentially, you establish what it is you want to accomplish and the group decides on two potential dangers. You roll 3d6, and assign one die each to either accomplishing the thing you want or preventing one of the dangers.

The only example I can think of, because it's a series I've been getting into recently, is the broom-riding scene from Little Witch Academia. For those who haven't seen the film, the context is that the main character is a new student at a girl's magical academy and is singled out socially due to being the only one from a mundane lineage. I imagine that conversation would've gone something like:

"Okay, so it finally comes around to your turn, and the professor just hands you a broom expectantly and kind of scoots you towards the ledge."
"Well, I have zero idea how to fly a broom, so...roll to fly broom?"
"Sure. Let's say, your objective is to successfully command the broom. Dangers are, I guess, you fall. What else?"
"If she screws up, she's gonna look silly in front of all the other girls, also."
"Right, okay. So, the dangers are, you might fall and hurt yourself, and you might embarrass yourself. Cool?"
"Cool. Rolling it."
>rolls 4, 1, 2
"Ugh...well, it matters more to me that I can show I can do things, I do manage to sort of clumsily zip around on the broom, but I eventually end up just falling off and it's clear to everyone else I've never ridden one before."

The other alternatives available to Akko's player would have been:

1. Admit to the teacher that she has no idea what she's doing, thus embarrassing herself and not riding the broom (but also not getting hurt from falling).

2. Ride the broom kind of badly and fall (but it's okay since the broom turned out out to be defective anyways, so no-one is the wiser that she's actually just magically retarded.)

He's a total pervert old man. He has three secretaries, all of which are young, pretty women, and all of whom always appear harried and overworked.

They say that Headmaster Ozbottom used to be a great and powerful wizard, and some even claim he was the one who split the British Isles from the mainland, to keep the vampires plaguing Germany at the time at bay, but of course that would make him even older than he appears. And when he's asked about it, he just chuckles and mutters something nobody has yet been able to make out.

But nowadays the Headmaster is just an old lech who lives in a dungeon under the castle, with three secretaries (which are both unnecessary for his position and always clad in short skirts), his pet... Bird, thing... And a mysterious tendency to appear out of nowhere when students are acting up and scare the bejeezus out of them. He never actually issues punishment, but when the students get too cocky talking to him, they have a tendency to find he's accompanied by Professor Ghoul, who most certainly /does/ administer punishment.

Enforcerate trilogy does sound good to me, but I think the god thing could work fantastic if it were clumsily shoehorned in. Back when I was in a book club in secondary I had to read some shitty novel about a girl who was sent back in time in some time agency shit and had to do something or other, and then, about two-thirds of the way through the book, out of nowhere, ALIENS! It was jarring as shit and I think mechanics around being blessed by the gods could be great. Of course upon discovering the gods you'd have to go to the harry potter school to learn their magics. And it can all be done with unambiguous MMO terminology if we want to mix some light novel in here.

Not entirely. The Investigation Skills could easily be replaced with plot relevant Mary Sue aspects, like "Captivating Beauty" or "Growing Up in Hardship" or "Prodigy Robot Pilot". The system is already solid enough and does enough to capture its flavor that it would be easy to turn it into a more action-oriented game.

>lumpley.com/archive/148.html
This is pretty neat, might be useful.

Has the "the love interest who the main character falls for always has some kind of fucked up abusive undertone treated like a minor thing or somehow endearing, that all the girls pretend makes them a sexy bad boy instead of a psychopath" aspect been addressed yet?

Cause if not that should probably be some kind of skill for character generation people can pick up- just a list of things that aren't socially okay except for this delusional narrative.

My favorite is "Inappropriate Touching".