Warlock High: Society

war·lock
–noun
1. An ill-bred mage, esp. one who uses magic in a dishonorable or irresponsible way.
2. (archaic) One of a former group of black arts practitioners that attempted to assassinate the Sutran Kings.
3. (slang) A person who behaves in an aggressive and rebellious manner.

It started with the idea that alot of the faculty members were ex-military.

It completely fit the school, after all. Warlock High's supposed to be a highly dangerous environment, but I also wanted it to be a place with its own culture rather than simply being dysfunctional- to have people tell newcomers "This is Warlock High" as a way of saying Things Work Differently Here. Making the teachers ridiculously hardcore (even if they seem like pushovers at first) is right in line with that.

There could even be a good reason for it. I remembered how John McCain, during the '08 presidential debates, had proposed letting soldiers acquire teacher's licenses without having to pass many of the exams that'd normally be required. If seasoned faculty members at Warlock High became teachers through a program like that, it would imply that the country was involved in military engagements back in the mid-to-late 80s. Say, what if. . .

And just like that, I knew what kind of society the players lived in. Things would generally be the same as if they were living in America, with wizardly trappings mixed in (such as how the school has both a parking lot and a broomstick rack). But from a big-picture, geopolitical standpoint. . .they're living in a post-soviet republic. Except that instead of a communist USSR, the propaganda-happy ruling body was an elitist magocracy.

I don't have a detailed timeline in mind, nor a clear alternate history for this world as a whole. This is not a story that's going to involve any detailed exposition on the subject of geopolitics; after talking it out with the players, we'll likely just have it be so that most of the world's the same and their nation of Unspecifiedavia is located somewhere in/around eastern europe. What does matter about this Cliff's Notes background is that it mean their society isn't exactly the most stable one around.

To the players, things like cable TV and a democratic government are normal. They've been around for as long as our heroes have been alive- but not much longer than that. Older generations have known a time before these western cultural imports; one where the schools and state-controlled media warned the people about the sinister foreign capitalists whose "modern technology" would steal your soul as you labored endlessly in one of Henry Ford's assembly lines. This era ended with an upheaval that lasted for the better part of a decade; there was no open revolution or clash of armies, but the struggles and violence escalated well beyond the point that could be described as simply riots and protests.

Today, social tensions are still evident. One possible example of this that's relevant to our heroes would be the rivalry between Warlock High and the nearby Cowfreckle Academy. (If anyone's still wondering why I'd use a name like Cowfreckle, it's because the school's initial concept is/was a Captain Ersatz of a certain other prestigious magical institution) Even today, anyone who's somebody in this country's high society either went to Cowfreckle or one of several similar schools (you know, like Goatmole or Chickenpimple or okay I'll stop now). Whereas the people at Warlock High, a generation ago, would have been the filthiest of peasants- acting disrespectfully towards a cowfreckle student was unthinkable twice over, once because of social status and once because they'd be lucky to even know basic magic. But now, thanks to public education and a legal system where all citizens are supposed to be equal. . .ye olde paradigm hath shifted.

At least, that's an academic analysis of the social forces at work. If you wanted the outlooks/attitudes of the people involved. . .well, a picture's worth a thousand words.

(6:08:12 PM) Dagda: This would be a perfect example of Warlock vs Cowfreckle personified, I think.
(6:09:20 PM) Othar: >First panel
Okay I get it, casual vs. badass retro-futuristic, cool, I think I get i-
>Second panel
Oh goddamnit hahahaha
(6:09:58 PM) Dagda: Yeah, more panel 2.
(6:10:35 PM) Othar: I figured the second I got to the second panel.
(6:10:51 PM) Othar: Holy hell it's like the Sneetches met the Grinch for the first time.

In the end, the biggest reason for me to base Warlock High's setting on post-soviet republics is simple. "Is it the duty of the people to support their society, or the duty of the society to support its people?" In nations like Ukraine, there now for the first time exists a youngest generation that is more likely to agree with the latter option. The themes of the school fighting genre- as seen in their punk/delinquent/social outcast protagonists- take on a very interesting significance when they're set in a society like this.

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Warlock High returns!

My last attempt to run a playtest game of Trigger Discipline with this Harry-Potter-meets-Rival-Schools premise quickly fell flat, in large part because we wound up not having enough players. This time, I don't expect that to be an issue- since I had 10 people applying for the 4 slots available.

I handled the selection process by running with an idea I'd put forward when I first announced the game- that the image above (taken from a panel showing various background characters in the Air Gear manga) was the class the protagonists were in. Everyone would be picking one of the characters in that picture as the person they would play as.

So for tryouts, I had everyone submit a short pitch (about two paragraphs) for a potential character- one that included notes on their fighting style (in a genre like this, a good half of a person's characterization consists of how they kick ass), personality (Trigger Discipline PCs lose chances to earn GAR Charge if they can't produce entertaining character interactions on a regular basis), and motivations (I didn't want too many mild-mannered types who'd always be trying to stay out of fights, since that'd mean I'd have to constantly come up with ways force them to participate in the gameplay).

I made it clear that people didn't have to worry about overlapping with other pitches; I wasn't selecting characters here, I was selecting players based on the quality of their concepts. Limiting the final pitch to a relatively short length let me see who could distill their character concept down to the key elements and communicate those elements effectively. Even then, deciding between these applications wasn't easy. Here are the pitches I received...

Makua
Character: 3 (where the character on the far left is #1 and the girl on the far right is #14)

Makua is a young, impressionable kid who's been picked on his whole life. He someday dreams of becomeing a badass hero like in his videogames and cartoons but understands that such a lofty goal is impossible for him to attain... or is it? Akuma, Makua's alternate ego, is a rash, headstrong and terrifying demon who represents all that Makua desires to become. Makua wishes some day to be the badass, Akuma IS the badasa. Makua has no idea that he has this innate power within him. But Akuma is keenly aware of Makua's shortcomings and wishes to make his prescense known to people so that he may properly put them in their place.

Makua's main hobbies include playing games and hanging out by himself. He's recently shown interest in learning how to fight. But Akuma is the real power behind Makua and when the demon makes his presense known he's only interested in one thing: bringing down everyone in his path. Akuma's fighting style is a fluid mix between hand to hand brawling and improvising various items on hand into various weapons. Because of Makua's love of games it's uncommon to see Akuma battling opponents with billiard balls or marbles.

Luis Castaneda
Character: 6

Luis has always had a mistrust of authority; The Man has always been up to some kind of shennagins in the back of his fertile imagination. This attitude solidifed one evening when Luis and Romero, his father, had an argument over sneakers, of all thing, before Romero went out on his evening beat. Luis has never forgiven himself for his last words to his father being so stupid, and while he does not wear this pain on his sleeve, the guilt and shame have guided his life since. Overall Luis is not nearly as misanthropic and bitter as he acts, but prefers to keep his compassionate side as buried as possible.

Luis works for the school paper; he thinks that everything is a story, and everyone has a hidden angle that he can discover, and Luis pursues them passionately, not being above using his natural knack for sensory magic and gift for 'talking' information out of inanimate objects to fill in the blanks on a story. His fighting style reflects this attitude, as Luis prefers to evade and confuse opponents until he is certain he has detected a weakness, and then use his mastery of the terrain to strike with back alley brutality. While Luis doesn't have the heart to really cripple or brutalize someone, he does believe in fighting smart rather than fighting fair, and isn't above an eye gouge, hair pull, or whatever else will finish the fight-after all, you never know who might be crazy enough to pull a knife on a prospective doctor of journalism.

Leon Hargrave
Character: 9

The poor kid who never has anything going for him. He tends to be clumsy, socially awkward, and overall not very impressive. Everyone pretty much takes the piss out of him. The fates deemed him unable to be happy. In fact, he’s not even supposed to be here. A paperwork mixup sent him here by mistake, and there’s no way to correct it. He tries to remain upbeat about it, though. This may be less optimism and more denial. He’s a bit of a wisecracker, and he has an unhealthy obsession with his weapon of choice. An aluminum bat that he’s dubbed “The Baseball Bat of Justice”. He talks to it.

In essence, Leon is a bright kid. He’s more the tactician than heavy bruiser. He has the power of “cut-and-paste” and “drag-and-drop”. Much like the MSPaint feature, he can trace an outline around an object and effectively remove it from the universe. He can then later “paste” the object back into the universe at any given time. He can also telekinetically move those objects around, which he does to create platforms for his acrobatics. He’s a springy bastard, he tends to hop around, smash your face in with his Baseball Bat of Justice, and then get out of range of your attack.

Angus Wicque
Character: 13

Angus is, despite his physique hinting to a football or rugby player, is a theatre actor, and a bit of a ham. He tends to be friendly to EVERYONE, even when it's a little inappropriate for the situation. He often likes to flaunt his "wordly knowledge," which may or may not be real or even applicable to the situation. He does have his moments of insight, but it's not like he's stupid when he isn't, it's more of an exuberant, theatrical need to break silence. He gets in fights fairly often, more for the HONOR OF A COMRADE or FOR GLORY AND SOME GOOD OLD FASHIONED VIOLENT SPORT than for a motivating cause.

His way of fighting is fairly straight fisticuffs, but since he dances a lot, he gives it a pretty entertaining flair (Pirouette, kick, turn, FIST IN YOUR GUT, and jazz haaaaands). He's just as amiable in fights as he is out of them, and he likes to talk about the weather with whoever he's fighting. Since talking isn't always a free action, though, he does need to incapacitate or hinder his opponent to allow him to catch his breath. He does this via his Sense magic: He tends to dull his senses slightly so that he can't be easily blinded or overwhelmed by sound or smell, and overloads his opponents by exponentially increasing their own senses. While they're seeing in over a hundred different colors at once and flailing at every single movement in the nearest 50 yards, he tends to either end it quickly or try and think up some improv to continue the fight with while catching his breath. Despite this fairly foul play sort of style, he upholds his own sense of honor, never hitting them below the belt or physically attacking their eyes or ears.

Fujimoto Kuniumi
Character: 12

Fuji is the second generation son of a local convenience store owner and his wife. He's a guy who couldn't care less about things like "responsibility" and "honor" or all the other bullshit his parents yammer on about. Instead, he's taken up partying, and when that isn't enough, picking a fight with whoever happens to piss him off at this very moment. He will probably not take the fight very seriously, as he's just funnin' around. Fighting someone is like knitting or baking a pie. Some people may suggest to him that he does this because of the empty hole in his soul. That person will then probably be blasted.

When Fuji fights, he will brawl and use his bokken. While brawling, he uses his Mind magic to do things such as slow down the opponent, or simply fill their mind with so much junk that they will stop fighting, leaving an opening that Fuji will gladly take. When that doesn't work, he uses Force magic, using the bokken as a focus, to blast pure energy at the opponent.

Chloe Walken
Character: 8

Chloe Walken, 14, is the second born daughter of her lawyer father and, near predictably, the black sheep of the family. With an older sister who’s an Honors Student at the prestigious Cowfreckle Academy, Chloe’s gone a more decidedly violent route. In middle school, two weeks before the end of the eighth grade, Chloe decided to finally usurp the school’s “Queen Bitch,” Miranda Solheim, apparently for the hell of it. She is every snide, smartass popular girl you ever hated in high school, except she’s telekinetic and wickedly ambitious. She’s got her greedy eyes set on taking over the whole school and it will take an act of God to shut the girl down.

Her preferred type of magics are force and matter. She is a “full body” spell caster, meaning she tends to be very kinetic in battle. She will gesture, spin, and generally bound about while transmuting plastic lunch tables to solid metal to be properly thrown about. When she’s not tearing apart the floor or throwing someone halfway across a room, she’s wailing on anyone who will sit still with some wooden sword she stole from the gym. Her hobbies include making fun of Leon’s cap, waiting for someone to start shit with her, and watching old 80’s movies.

Spencer
Character: 11

Spencer's got something most other kids don't: rhythm. Rarely seen without a pair of headphones on, he's off in his own little world, carefree and easy-going. Quiet and collected, Spence is the type to analyze a situation and pick it apart precisely; his actions speak louder than words. Not quite a mute, he's personable and by some standards, even nice - just don't fuck with his groove.

While other students might focus on more subtle ways of solving their problems, Spencer's straight to the point. When things come to blows his rhythm comes into play; Spencer's a boxer, plain and simple. Footwork, speed and a mean inside right get the job done. His magical affinity tends to give him the label of a "tank." Straight and simple, with a touch of flair. Body movin', body body movin'.

Sarah Van Allen
Character: 14

Sarah doesn't look like your average Warlock High student. Rather, she looks like the sort of person who people get transferred to Warlock High for bullying. And up to a point, this is correct: she is timid, shy, and easily pushed around. That is, until other people need her help.

While a lifetime as a bullying victim has made her virtually incapable of standing up for herself, for whatever reason, the same does not apply when other people are the victims, or otherwise in need of help. She will, in those cases, transform from her usual, timid self, into a determined figure dead-set on protecting others.

She is not terribly physically imposing by nature, and so does not favor direct combat if she can avoid it. Instead, she uses Matter magic to reshape the walls and floors into weapons, creatures, platforms, or whatever she needs to lay a hurt down.

Kyle Kairen
Character: 1

Personality wise: Intelligence but antisocial. Particularly pissed off at authority figures. All in all, just has a rather large chip on his shoulder.

Combat: The words on that large ass jacket are each tied to spells. Think of them like advanced rune spells that come off and activate when they leave the fabric. About half of them are odds and ends he picks up from other people but they aren't usually as effective as if someone else just cast the spell. The other half are summoning spells he makes for himself. Pretty much all of them turn into stuff like baseball bats and brass knuckles and the like for whatever situation he might need them for. Doesn't do well with weapons with moving parts though.

Spends a lot of time sewing the words onto his jacket, and is quite adept at needlework, but gets more than a little pissed off if anyone mentions it.

So who'd I select? I stuck with what I'd said going in, and chose 4 players- the ones who'd come up with the pitches for Luis, Angus, Chloe and Fujimoto. I gave the first two places on the waiting list to the players behind Spencer and Leon, and asked them to stick around- my plan is to quickly determine whether the format and new version of the system can support a 5 or 6-person group without getting weighed down.

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Warlock High: 10 Magical Fighting Styles

As an challenge to myself, I came up with a variety of different potential magic-based fighting styles for the Warlock High game, each based on a combination of two different schools of magic. These were partly intended to be examples/suggestions for my players, as well as a reserve of ideas for my own characters. Each school of magic gets used twice.

Void+Entropy: Strategic Demonic Suppression
As mentioned in the previous post, "Demons" in this setting amount to a sort of superpowered evil side; any permanently demonic character is just a Mr. Hyde who managed to beat Dr. Jekyll into submission. So say there was a character who was a natural prodigy in the realm of demonology, meaning they could turn into a very powerful Mr. Hyde. Naturally, such a child's parents wouldn't be to keen on their little darling risking their 'life', so an arrangement was found that would still let them realize their potential: The child could become an expert at Void magic. Rather than trying to reign in their natural talents, they'd just keep their effects suppressed by using antimagic on themselves.
The side benefit to this is that they have can unleash their demonic form to a limited degree; for example, letting one or both arms transform and using that limb to throw or block a punch.
Force+Matter: Augmented Projectiles
The mage uses Matter magic to enhance objects in a variety of ways- hardening them, shaping them, sharpening them, and so on- and then uses Force magic to propel them towards her target in various highly dangerous ways.

Mind+Sense: Fake Familiar
The mage has a powerful construct, which they command with expert skill; say, an electric elemental, able to get around the vast majority of defenses and hit you with painful jolts that leave you barely able to move.

Except that the construct doesn't exist. It's an illusion that the character constantly projects, and its "attacks" are meant to make the enemies more susceptible to the mage's mind blasts; since they believe a physical source is wreaking havoc on their nervous system, they aren't trying to instinctively guard against a mental one.

Space+Fire: Unpredictable Beamspam
This one's fairly simple. Fire magic is great for attacking with blasts of energy or heating/cooling objects with a touch. But throw in the ability to create small close-range portals at the snap of a finger, and your attacks become much, much harder to anticipate. You can simultaneously look your enemy in the eye and shoot them in the back, and they know it.

Growth+Machine: Cyborg
The human body is an extraordinary machine, honed by untold ages of evolution to survive in its given environment. But modern society is a different sort of jungle; one with power outlets everywhere you look. It would be a shame to let this resource go to waste.

This mage's talents with constructs let them craft artificial enhancements; their knack for growth magic gives them the necessary capacity for biological manipulation, meaning they can surgically insert these mechanisms into their body and have them work in tandem with the existing system. Having to keep an eye on their battery levels is a small price to pay.

Space+Mind: Bullet Time
Time is relative, and advanced-level Space magicians can work with that fact in several ways, accelerating or decelerating themself or others. This mage, however, manages to take things a step further by enhancing themselves with Mind magic. Their thoughts flow at an advanced rate, and they accelerate their body to make sure that it can keep up- making it so that for them, the rest of the world really is moving in slow motion. It's a powerful combination; just don't let the enemy mess with your concentration. In this case a partial disruption of your spellcasting can throw you off worse than a total one.

Entropy+Sense: Chaos Theorist
Entropy magicians' power is labeled by the layman as "corruption", but the truth is more complex and subtle. At a fundamental, their magic deals in the forces and natural dynamics that disrupt and degrade functional systems- be they mechanical, biological, social, or otherwise.

As such, there's a natural synergy between this and sense magic. The more you can perceive and understand a given system, the better your ability to gum up the works; you have to see the lines of power in an enchantment or a person before you can strike at them. This mage can seem weak; but appearances can be very, very deceiving.


Growth+Force: Living Weapon
While most associate Force magic with telekinesis, it has another application: Enhancing or reducing exiting kinetic energy. Stop a sword blow or break a door down with a casual wave of your bare hand. Here, it's Growth magic that has a natural synergy with your efforts. If you enhance your physical power (and more to the point, durability), and simultaneously augment the kinetic energy your actions carry, you get exponential improvements to your results.

Machine+Void: Automated Assistance
The thing abut void magic is that in duels its applications are entirely defensive and reactive. You can't do anything to an enemy that doesn't use magic. As such, Void users traditionally work best when supporting one or more partners in combat. However, a Machine magic-user can make their own partner, who goes into combat while the magician sits back and negates any magic that would come their way. In fact, they can also use their magic to negate more temporary magic effects without interfering with the ingrained type of magic which allows their construct to function, a more advanced form of Void Magic that requires a greater level of skill but less raw power.


Fire+Matter: Magma Blade
This mage's approach is wonderfully straightforward. You take a weapon, and use your magic to heat it up to amazing levels- maybe even the point where it would normally be reduced to a puddle of molten metal burning a hole in the floor. But then you use your Matter magic to reinforce the weapon, letting it retain its integrity and sharpness while conveying heat even better than ordinary metal would. Voila; you have the hot knife, and the world is butter.


As mentioned before, these kind of concepts have no direct mechanical significance in Trigger Discipline. And yet, they're still vital; the key to crunch advantage in TD is the rewards given to those who manage to do cool/interesting things, and if anything will help you there it's having a cool and interesting character with cool and interesting abilities. Being "strong" is a secondary priority at best.

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Warlock High: Schools of Magic

Magic in the game is divided into ten types. A normal freshman student with good grades should be able to reliably cast a few basic spells in all ten areas, be proficient with a large variety in at least two, and know how to pull off a handful of advanced magical effects (the kinds listed after the categories in italic). But then, the players in this game probably aren't normal freshman students- in fact, some probably won't be students but teachers or janitors instead.

The nature of Trigger Discipline's mechanics means that schools of magic have no direct mechanical effect on character creation and gameplay. This means that their role is instead to provide a guide to players regarding what magic is capable of in-game (and perhaps more importantly, how magic can be used to a given result). My aim is a setting where magic's basic effects are more raw and elemental nature, and that careful effort and control are necessary to produce any manner of sophisticated effect.

* Mind (Telepathic communication, heal mental fatigue, read surface thoughts); Manipulation (Charm, confuse, put to sleep) and Mentalism (Mind Blast, read memories, plant false memories or commands)
* Growth (Heal physical fatigue, accelerate healing rate, enhance physical ability); Healing (Heal wounds, cure disease, regenerate limbs) and Shapeshifting (Change features, grow wings, change size)
* Force (Move object, kinetic blast, arrest motion); Forceshaping (Magic Missile, wall of force, grasping hand) and Telekinesis (Wield weapon, levitate, fly)
* Matter (Mold object, shatter, alter composition); Transmuting (Reinforce or weaken object, enhance item, craft object) and Shaping (Conjure and control material, duplicate object)
* Sense (Fool sense, augment sense); Illusion (Conjure illusion, baffle sense) and Perception (True sight, detect)
* Fire (Conjure and control fire); Flameshaping (Fireball, wall of fire, conjure fire elemental) and Heat Control (Heat or chill target, endure elements, absorb heat)
* Space (Remote viewing, locate target, fate manipulation); Timetwisting (predict future, slow/hasten target) and Teleportation (Call item, group teleport, create portal).
* Machine (Animate, control or dismantle device); Energy (Drain, store and provide power, lightning bolt) and Technomancy (Baffle sensors, read or erase data, control or disrupt golem)
* Entropy (Disrupt life, accelerate decay); Necromancy (Create and control undead) and Demonology (Conjure demon, extract spirit) Note: Demons in this setting are more of a superpowered evil side that can get switched on permanently. Mr. Hyde with red skin and a tail.
* Void (Dispel magic, suppress spellcasting); Voidshaping (Antimagic field, antispell shield) and Banishment (Disrupt undead, dispel conjuration, smite)

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Welcome to Warlock High!

Warlock High is the setting for the game of Trigger Discipline I'm currently running; it was one of the 5 ideas originally brainstormed in an earlier blog post. The core idea is to take the school fighting genre and set it in a magic academy- if Hogwarts was an underfunded public school in a bad part of town, rather than an elite private institution.

In-game, "Warlock High" is a semi-derogatory nickname for the school officially known as the Penbury Academy. It's the worst-behaved school in the city to begin with, so the district has started using it as a sacrificial lamb by sending all its worst students here (since it doesn't have the resources to deal with them). The location is a poorer suburban neighborhood. In general, imagine the setting as the poor side of the wizarding world that Harry never paid a visit, with people being much more in-touch with modern tech largely because they'll take whatever they can afford from either world- a used broomstick gets you to school same as a used motorbike, at about the same average speed (secondhand magic items tend to be really sluggish, whatever their function).

The school has a festering rivalry with the nearby Cowfreckle Academy. This prestigious private institution was founded over a century ago, back when "academy" meant something and the surrounding area was a pristine wood rather than lower-middle-class suburbs (a flood of urban expansion surrounded the school's property thirty years prior).

The majority of the student's time at the academy is set aside for the study of magic- which is a good thing, because casting a spell is hard. It isn't just the raw exertion of willpower; casting a spell means training your brain to jump through a complex series of mental hoops. Hand gestures and speech are involved not because they're inherently magical, but as mnemonic systems which enhance your brain's capacity to correctly perform these mental gymnastics. Traditionally, one learns to cast a spell while chanting for about 5 seconds and making gestures with both hands, and then naturally becomes less reliant on the chanting and gestures over time; one could adopt extra gestures and incantations to help pull off an advanced spell they can't quite get through otherwise, or spend time deliberately practicing with a certain spell until they can cast it with little or no preamble.

Warlock High's Cast of Characters: (Descriptions are my own)
-Mr. Borden: Slacker teacher who uses illusions to screw with people and get out of having to actually come up with a lesson plan.
-Quinn King: Typical delinquent student body member, except that she's better at it than most. Reinforces objects, then hurls them about with telekinesis.
-Drake: Withdrawn transfer student with a knack for analysis and fire magic.
-SVEN GORBACHOV: Wrestling enthusiast, missing link between humanity and its bear ancestors.
To sum this up: Onizuka with illusions, Damsel with animated chains, Shikimaru with fireballs, and Zangief as voiced by TF2's heavy.

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