Fate/Crimson Festival
Special thanks to Usandru, who came up with this delightful concept as a fork of Fate/Heaven's Gate - original thread here
IRC (on IRC Highway): #FateHG
The Fifth Holy Grail War begins in but two more weeks. Whether through fate, heritage, luck or mere happenstance, you have discovered this fact, and now a choice: to participate or run, to summon or hide, to take advantage of the chaos or use it to become glorious. Yet, the War is but one of your concerns - the world shifts, reality bends, and in your mind stir strange thoughts and powers.
A subtle, seductive influence touches you.
Things are not as they should be - but it matters not.
War is upon you.
Heed the Briefing of the Ruler, and fight well.
PREMISE
[spoiler]In this game, you play as a character thrust into the turmoil and danger of the Fifth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki. The year is 2004, and for whatever reason, you have felt something change or stir. Perhaps you have suddenly developed strange powers, come to see strange visions. Or perhaps you were already deeply entwined with the Moonlit World and have merely come to see distorted portents of a future that is not to be, and a past you should not know.
Whatever the cause or reasons, you face the deadly battle for the sake of a mighty wish. You have six weeks to shape your fate.
What path will you walk?
CHARACTERS
There are two character categories. The first is canon characters, modified somewhat to suit the game and be reasonably playable. The second is original characters. If a player prefers, they can make their own character. Finally, both categories are faced with a sprite, a ghost, a numinous entity which has made its home in their soul and whispers truths into their dreams, and which influences them even when awake.
The list of permissible canon characters includes, but is not necessarily limited to the following:
Rin Tohsaka [The Magus]
[ ] {Jewel Mage}
[ ] {Curse Witch}
[ ] {Martial Artist}
Shinji Matou [The Worm]
[ ] {The Unbroken}
[ ] {The Savage}
[ ] {The Fettered}
Issei Ryuudou [The Monk]
[ ] {Servant of the People}
[ ] {Servant of the Gods}
[ ] {Servant only to Himself}
Ayako Mitsuzuri [The Warrior]
[ ] {Champion}
[ ] {Captain}
[ ] {King}
Luvia Edelfelt [The Noble]
[ ] {Red Baroness}
[ ] {Queen}
[ ] {Saint}
Yukika Saegusa [The Pure]
[ ] {Innocent}
[ ] {Forgiving}
[ ] {Saintly}
Hisui Tohno [The Lost]
[ ] {Widowed}
[ ] {Besieged}
[ ] {Crushed}
Azaka Kokutou [The Blaze]
[ ] {Crime}
[ ] {Adrift}
[ ] {Justice}
Each canonical main character has three variants. The first variant is invariably one based on the typical canonical version of that character - adjusted as necessary given other changes, and with some flexibility to avoid the issue of faulty player and GM memory - while the following two distort and change the past of that character to some extent.
You will not come to know the details of any variants until after all players are decided on, as they are usually interdependent with the other characters, and thus the details do not as yet exist.
Original characters are instead generated through the character creation system detailed below.
CHARACTER CREATION
At the core of any original character is a reason for being involved. This motive or circumstance is required, and a character without enough connection to the fundamental plot will not be accepted. Once an acceptable concept exists, original characters are assigned abilities by the following method.
First determine Specialties, Resources and Supernatural Powers. This is done by allocating ten points to various items which then determines skill level, extent of resources or innate power and talent.
As an example, a typical Magus might have:
(Specialty) Research 1
(Specialty) Magecraft 1
(Resources) Magus Crest 1
(Resources) Wealth and Magecraft components 2
(Supernatural Power) Circuits 1
(Supernatural Power) Wind Magic 1
And three points of miscellaneous tricks and specialties
Here, a rating of 1 corresponds to being professional in a field, having unusual amounts of resources, or being capable of meaningful effects with supernatural powers.
A rating of 2 corresponds to being a leader in a field, having extensive and powerful resources and having supernatural powers that demand respect from even other supernatural beings - a Magus with a rating of 2 would be noteworthy to even the younger Dead Apostles.
A rating of 3 is normally considered the limit of human achievement, and borders transcendental mastery or influence, except in the case of resources where it is merely ridiculous. Having a rating of 3 is the lowest point at which Dead Apostle Ancestors, Alaya, Zelretch or others would normally become interested in someone. In terms of resources this level normally leaves merely scope, and begins to concern itself with rarity and potency. Possessing a powerful artefact means rating 3.
A rating of 4 is normally only seen in special families, and even then only rarely. The notable but lesser known skills and capabilities of Heroic Spirits would normally correspond to rating 4.
A rating of 5 is for all abilities prior to that stage where actual ranking becomes blurry, and contextual factors wholly supercede which power or skill has primacy. Satsuki Yumizuka, who became a Dead Apostle nearly instantly, had Circuits 5, as did Ciel. Ratings of 5 are incredibly rare and very potent.
As another example, Kiritsugu Emiya is rated to roughly have:
Combat Experience 2
Terrorist 2
Stealth 2
Magecraft 1
Einzberg Support 1
Black Market Contacts 1
Origin Bullets 1
Circuits 1
Time Magic 2
These may be insufficient to capture certain rare skills or abilities, thus characters may have a one Unique Skill. This may include things as Reality Marbles, being a Dead Apostle, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and others.
Any original character may choose to have a Unique Skill, at the cost of between three and five of their Specialty points. Unique Skills must also be approved on a case by case basis.
MOTIVATION
Those who discover the War are invariably driven. Something hangs above them, pushes them, leads them, guides them. Mayhaps it is a wish, or prayer. Mayhaps it is a curse or some blasphemous thought. It is something. All original characters must have at least one motivation, and may have two. The first motivation must link to the Holy Grail War in some manner. Whereas the second may be anything that incites that character to action.
The wishes carried in the heart determine much of what the Grail and the War means to you, and in touching the paths of others, what you seek in your heart will inevitably colour that meeting.
Wishes may be changed, but the ones carried deeply change reluctantly and often painfully.
INNOCENCE
Innocence, once lost, is rarely regained.
It is purity of heart, wholeness of soul, lack of scars on your existence.
All original characters begin with five points of Innocence. These may be exchanged one for one to Specialty, Resource or Supernatural Power points - but at what cost?
Still, why hesitate? Purity of heart shall not save one who joins the War, and what use is wholeness when power is within your ready?
Stain your heart with sin that you may become glorious.
Drink deep of the mud of the underworld, for is the poison of the cup of corruption not sweet?
COMPLICATIONS
The grand have enemies aplenty, varied and multifaceted. Declare your foes, and mayhaps you shall find yourself rewarded.
If you wish for your original character to be more powerful, suggest a thorn in their side that shall haunt them even into the War, and mayhaps you shall earn more power in exchange.
Be it your rivals, or your very blood that burns with inhuman hunger, that which seeks to destroy you may empower you.
There is no template for this. The world is too large for it.
BOONS
If there is no other truth said this night, remember this: the Grail War is dangerous, even to those who thrive in the chaos of the Moonlit world. The might of even the weakest Servants is enough to make any but the strongest tremble in fear.
Yet fear not, for your prayers may be answered.
All characters may wish for boons to be granted them. Advantages they wish they had, things that they believe will tip the precarious balance of victory and defeat in their favour.
These boons will be granted, but at a price.
Having chosen a character, you may make as many requests as you wish, be it one at a time or many at once. Be warned though, that each request carries a cost, whether overt or hidden, and that each time you make requests may also incur penalties.
In general, a Boon should be one of Skill, Resources, Talent, Knowledge or Truth.
A Boon of Skill is usually another point or more in Specialties. It is important to note that this Skill is supernatural in origin - it is something from outside the character itself - and that for some purposes this can be important.
A Boon of Resources is a contortion in the world that changes the path of time such that you have Resources that you should not. They are statted much like Resources normally are, but do not forget that their existence is a crime against the World. For certainly, the World may not.
A Boon of Talent is is one of supernatural power. A soul bereft of circuits may be given them, eyes may be granted mystic power. Again this is handled much like Supernatural Power, but also Unique Skills can be granted as Boons. But they are not of you, not wholly.
A Boon of Knowledge is to know a secret. To be granted awareness of some thing or being. Hidden artefacts, hidden lands, whatever you wish to know, you can. This is the gentlest Boon, for it is just whispers in your soul, and the curses are rarely great, though grand secrets also carry grand curses. There were some things which man was not meant to know...
A Boon of Truth is a declaration. It is an imposition of What Has Happened upon the history of the World. A Truth is absolute - inviolate - in itself. However if it conflicts with another Truth, there may be a tear, and where history is torn… who knows what may come when it is unravelled? To declare Truth is the heaviest of burdens. The cost to make your mark upon the World in such a fashion is heavy. However if you can bear the curses, then… wishes may be granted.
CURSES
The cost of boons is fundamentally accumulated curses. Each curse may manifest in a different way, and as they add up, they may pile together and bring about a terrible fate. Some will be obvious, a Geas, a demand, a Quest to undertake. Some will be insidious, haunting echoes, enemies, hidden disadvantages
You may declare things you wish your Curses to manifest as, and thereby have them absorbed by those manifestations. This can only be done at character generation, and you will not know how many Curses are thus absorbed, or how many Curses are left.
If the number of Curses absorbed exceeds the number of Curses you have, then you will accumulate something else. What exactly this is you do not know.
If the burden of your Curses grows too onerous, then you may always cast them aside. Reject them. However to tear off that which has become entwined with you is to tear off parts of yourself. To shed your burdens in this way equally strips you of an aspect of yourself. And if there are no more Boons to throw away for the sake of this then… your soul itself shall have to make payment.
SPIRIT
A spirit haunts you. It clings to your being - your soul - and whispers secrets to you. It grants you power. All that is not native to your character, belongs in truth to this sprite, this ephemeral spiritual parasite. By its power you are made great, grand, glorious. But it is not yours, this power.
At least, not yet.
The spirit haunts you and is foreign to you, but as the days pass, it sinks deeper into your soul. Slowly, they intermingle, slowly, the differences blur. In the end, you become a single being.
TRUTHS
Your spirit, no matter how weak or how powerful, whispers Truths to you. You are granted three Truths (each with the power to change the world in a single way). The world, you see, is that of the canonical 5th War - should you wish to change things in your favor, or to make them interesting (altering even the mechanics of the world, who has lived and died, who was a heroic spirit), make a wish...
Just be careful what you wish for...
ORIGINAL CHARACTER SHEET
GENERAL NOTES
PLAYERS: I have not set a player-limit. I will arbitrarily decide on however many players I feel like. This is not first come, first serve. Responding to character concepts requires a decent bit of effort, so don't be surprised if I start by just rejecting ones I don't find interesting out of hand. I'm vastly more likely to consider characters I find to be interesting in the context of the game.
SERVANTS: It is rather plausible that not everyone will get Servants. This could change. There's no guarantee, but I consider it perfectly likely that some set of the player characters will be denied Servants. Plan your concepts based on this.
EFFORT: To be brutally honest, this is not my top priority, since I am running TBaM and Heaven's Gate concurrently, along with my PhD work. This means potentially long breaks, even month long breaks with no warning. And if it does not prove interesting, well, I reserve the right to end it.
CANON: The game is intentionally set up to be a massive AU. The history, mechanics, metaphysics, thematics... all of them are liable to be significantly different, and I consider this to be the biggest feature. The players contribute to this, by adding their own spin to events.
SCOPE: This game will last for six in-game weeks, plus or minus one week. The first two weeks are the preparatory phase, and will likely be truncated heavily. The middle two weeks are the War proper, and will likely be the meat of the game. The final two weeks are the aftermath and exists to wrap up loose ends. My goal is to ensure that the story ends. I will generally attempt to adjust things to match this. Likewise, design your characters to have things to do during the Grail War, not after the Grail War, because those things won't likely matter much at all.
LETHALITY: I generally give people the benefit of the doubt, but stupidity is a cause for termination. As I have in previous RPs, I will note if an action is strongly, strongly discouraged - I will give you a chance to turn away from a course of folly. Should you continue - well, that is your choice, not mine.
GOOD END: It will likely not happen. The base thematics of the game and the setting say that you will win, but winning hurts. You get some of what you want, but there is always a price to be paid. Remember this.
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Originally Posted by Mcjon01
