Mutants and Masterminds-A Puella Mage Campaign Journal (spoilers for the show)

[Dragoon]

Well next week, I am starting a campaign with some of my players, and as a few of them like the darker tone games, and none of them have seen the show, I thought that it might be interesting to do one in this world. Yes I do understand that some of the reveals are not as terrifying to gamers. And I know there could be others systems to run it in, but the only other system all the players are familiar with are 4ed D&D. And I really do want to try this with a system I am familiar with either.

My problem is how to do the whole corruption of the soul gems. I was thinking of just having it be non-lethal damage that can only be healed by using the grief seeds, though I was not sure how strong of an effect it should have or if another way would be better. Obviously I would just have the lethal damage not giving them non-lethal damage as well and that normal healing only works on the lethal injuries. So I turn to the playgrounders for help.

[Arbane]

I don't know M&M's rules that well, but how about this? Soul-gem corruption is a side effect of using magic powers - maybe a Will save, DC depending on the power? If you fail, it adds one 'tick' to a separate track. Tell the players that letting it fill up is a Bad Thing.

For added "fun", psychological trauma can ALSO add to the corruption.

[Terraoblivion]

You know, I'm now obligated to giggle maniacally at the evil of potentially making your friends play the role of Sayaka.

And once I am done with that, I think Arbane might have a good suggestion. Add some effects along the lines of dazed and similar once they get close to the end since it seems like people get rather worn out from having almost completely stained their soul black. Of course, you should also have feelings of despair add to the track, that's a major part of the show after all.

[Jm2c]

If you want something written down, I see two options. For one, look up the Warriors & Warlocks supplement. It contains the Sorcery power (basically Magic with a Side Effect that always occurs) and the Corrupting flaw, the latter of which would probably fit, on page 22.
Alternatively, Mecha & Manga has Shivan taint on page 157 as part of its Shards setting, which could easily be repurposed for Soul Gems instead of Shards. Failing either of these two, Arbane's suggestion sounds like it would work reasonably well.

[Feriority]

However you end up implementing this, I hope you'll make a campaign journal of some sort - I'd love to see how players react to those twists after what seems like a nice, lighthearted magical girl campaign.

[Dragoon]

I don't know M&M's rules that well, but how about this? Soul-gem corruption is a side effect of using magic powers - maybe a Will save, DC depending on the power? If you fail, it adds one 'tick' to a separate track. Tell the players that letting it fill up is a Bad Thing.

For added "fun", psychological trauma can ALSO add to the corruption.


You know, I'm now obligated to giggle maniacally at the evil of potentially making your friends play the role of Sayaka.

And once I am done with that, I think Arbane might have a good suggestion. Add some effects along the lines of dazed and similar once they get close to the end since it seems like people get rather worn out from having almost completely stained their soul black. Of course, you should also have feelings of despair add to the track, that's a major part of the show after all.

Actually with how my players are setting up, one of them will be ending up being Sayaka. I ended up having non-lethal damage being tracked as the taint. Also had "1" cause fort saves for another bruise, though so far haven't had anyone have anything earth shattering in their thoughts.


If you want something written down, I see two options. For one, look up the Warriors & Warlocks supplement. It contains the Sorcery power (basically Magic with a Side Effect that always occurs) and the Corrupting flaw, the latter of which would probably fit, on page 22.
Alternatively, Mecha & Manga has Shivan taint on page 157 as part of its Shards setting, which could easily be repurposed for Soul Gems instead of Shards. Failing either of these two, Arbane's suggestion sounds like it would work reasonably well.

That would have been wonderful to have known two days before you posted. Started first session about an hour before you posted.


However you end up implementing this, I hope you'll make a campaign journal of some sort - I'd love to see how players react to those twists after what seems like a nice, lighthearted magical girl campaign.

The only problem with the lighthearted magical girl campaign was I sort have to let them know it was going to be a bit dark, otherwise I doubt I could have gotten two of the players to play. Also about the log, would it just be better to start it here or post a new thread?

[Arbane]

You might as well post here - we've already got this thread, after all.

[Dragoon]

Well okay then, here we go, also just a heads up, it is a bit short because of lack of time to play.

The puppets, I mean players-

Evra- (18) A young man that wished for power. Ended up with shadow magic that comes out a backpack. Yes, he was ripped from Gaara. Likes to use his snare power, and unfortunately for the witches and their kin, when it works, it works. Also attempts to drop a shadow wall on things, it likes hitting the ground at least. Lastly, the newest at roleplaying in the group.

Brandon- (19) A young man that wished to save a friend and now said friend and him have drifted apart. He gained spirit magic, ripped from Yusuke, including the names. Well except for the two swords he has when not blasting. Also, has really high regen. And the most talkative of the group. Lastly, also thought when I said it was sort of a mage game, thought I was basing it off of Nanoha.

Ella- (18) A young woman who wished for a loving family, as her real father was horrible to her. Unfortunately for her, she still sort of misses him even though she has somewhere to go. She has fire powers, and I really have to avoiding thinking about burning fingers when she attacks from close range. Also has the ability to manipulate gravity, which she uses to fly and attempt to send stuff flying. Emphasis on attempt.

What I found humorous was the fact the players choose to have these back-stories, and all they knew was they had been contacted by something for a wish and the game was going to be darker than usual.

Actual game
Anyways, the session started out with the three happening to meet together, while kyubey met up with them. Unfortunately, I did not have a good start, and so ended up having a witch attack as unfortunately for me, only one character was anywhere close to chatty.

As they entered the witch’s barrier, they found themselves in a room with many, many puddles, including some floating on the walls and on the ceiling. A few seconds later, a slimy hand crawled out with sound effects I am unable to translate into actual letters. Even more of the hands walked out of the slimy pools as two players blew up hands. After seeing the hands were ignoring them for now, they continued on.

One of the puddles grew whips to hit the group, but unfortunately, my rolling was poor. They avoided them and one round of combat later, the watery creature found itself obliterated. In the next area, a large watery creature with eight tendrils that floated above the ‘ground’ struck out, yet like the last enemy it fell quickly after failing to land any lasting hits. The death of the familiar was followed by a loud below as Kyubey and the mages went tumbling back from the force.

A large watery creature with large teeth, piercing red eyes, and a large gray brain formed into view. It was shortly joined by a shark like creature with two large fin like hands and a hammerhead like dorsal fin. The large creature never moved, while the shark creature attempted to chomp down on Brandon. While this happened, a large, two muscular arm watery creature fell from the ceiling an attempted to smash down on the other two, it failed. (also for those at home wondering where I got the idea for the monsters, they are different mangled version of Chaos, it was quite amusing to tell my players that I was inspired by Sonic for one villain and they all though of a hedgehog)

While the large creature could not hit, neither side was able to cause anything more than an injury. Then finally, after failing to hit with gravity control, Ella hands burn red and incinerates the two armed beast, and then a spirit gun dropped the shark with a critical. The witch started off with phase two, firing two shots a round, these hit better and started to wound the players.

Unfortunately for the witch, shadow and fire proved to be too much, as it evaporated, the creepy sky shattered as the player quickly transformed back. While annoyed that Kyubey went missing, the group decided to separate and head home.

Evra finds Kyubey’s bullet ridden body, which creeps out the group as they wonder if the witches are able to use guns. As they met at a café, after discussing what happened, they get interrupted by someone spilling her drink next to them, and quietly suggesting that they stay away from Kyubey. Also ask him where witches come from.

After attempting to follow her, and as they blink, she vanishes. The group attempts to find said younger girl, but a witches barrier aborts that plan. As they enter, they find themselves inside a long hallway with mirrors, as usual with the group, someone, Brandon starts things off by shooting a mirror. After seeing no enemies appear, they continue on.

As they continue on, they start to hear voices yelling, “Don’t look at me!” Unfazed by the yelling even as I attempt to change my pitch to imply multiple voices, a few mirrors grow arms and legs and attempt to attack the group. As usual, shadows crush, fire burns, and spirit gun finishes off. I have a feeling this pattern might be settling in.

The next room, television screens joined the mirrors on the walls, this time, only a girl with blond hair appeared on all of them. The voices continued as in the room a large beast stood, with many faces, while the words, “Don’t look at me.” “LOOK AT ME.” Echoed in the room. As the creature turned towards them, Brandon flew at the creature and started to swing one of his spirit swords. The face in front of him grew arms and reached out saying in my most pitiful voice, “Kill me.”

The player who was miming out Brandon stopped midswing and pulled back. The other two stared as Brandon’s player said he instead swung above the head, leading to the blow not being effective. The face grew arms and grabbed at him, still asking to be killed. Brandon was unable to escape.

However, his horror was short-lived as his teammates were able to blow up the face grabbing on to him. (yes it is from FMA) I really wished that I had done a death scream then, might have gotten them a bit more. Oh well.

Pulling away from the beast, Brandon took aim and criticaled, oh yeah, beast rolled a 1 in response on toughness, whelp, witch two died, though now one played had four bruises, while the other two had two. The sky shattered and they returned to real world. There they found Kyubey and asked how it survived, he mentions there are many of his people on this planet.

After asking why it was still around, Kyubey mentioned looking for another possible mage. At this point, the players fail a notice check, and Kyubey is bullet ridden again. The younger girl is standing in front of them, glaring at the corpse. Another Kyubey appears and starts to eat the corpse. Also mentions the other girl has time/space magic.

Players ask why she did that, she mentions wanting to protect someone. Evra remembers about the witch question and asks. Kyubey explains that they come from mage whose gem goes black.

One of my players then passes a note saying he does not plan to use the grief seeds any more. After all, he wants power and believes he can turn into an intelligent witch. Meanwhile, Brandon starts panicking and grabs the first grief seed they received and slams it into his soul gem, rats there was no point in the will save, especially as he acted much calm once healed. Then asked why Kyubey did this.

He explains that mages create energy that is not bound by the laws of entropy and that this magical energy is preventing the death of the universe. Also that witches create much more energy at their creation, oh yeah, also the mage got a wish. The girl says she will not let him touch her friend. This is where it gets interesting.

My players step in front of Kyubey to protect him from the girl. They all more or less agree that what the Kyubey did was for the good of all, and they would not let her stop him from stopping the death of the universe.

I just about fell out of my chair, Evra comments perhaps that when becoming a witch, they could keep something of themselves. Girl mentions that it has never happened, and Kyubey agrees, though mentions he would not be surprised if it could. The girl walks away after Brandon convinces Kyubey not to go magify the girl’s friend.

However, they also threaten her if she attempts to interfere again. The three are worried about Kyubey, who plans to go looking somewhere else, about him being killed again. He mentions there are many of them, so not to worry. Besides she is protecting her friend. And the session ended with player wanting to become witch planning not to, now plans to steal soul gem of other mages, wants to steal power from them, the other two accepting of their fate, I’m still not sure.

Anyways, you can see where I was not expecting their reaction. I’m thinking next time they will be facing a mage who is trying to stop the other mages from becoming witches, forcefully. Or perhaps a mage that thinks in very black and white. And definitely a situation where a witch has controlled quite a few people into dying.

So any comments or suggestions. And the next log should be up within a week, the next game is in two days.

[Tengu_temp]

>characters aged 18-19
>male character
http://gfx.gaminator.tv/data/news/11253/12518.2.jpg

Seriously though, it looks like they have fun. And yeah, unexpected reactions there. I suggest making qb and fate screw them over more - this is Madoka, if you plan something and assume the outcome will be the best possible one, it never is.

[Terraoblivion]

God, that's a hilarious reaction. I kinda get the feeling that they might not have been terribly deeply in character to see the personal horror it costs them.

Also, why do I get the feeling that a certain baseball term is running around here. :smalltongue:

[Dragoon]

God, that's a hilarious reaction. I kinda get the feeling that they might not have been terribly deeply in character to see the personal horror it costs them.

Also, why do I get the feeling that a certain baseball term is running around here. :smalltongue:

Well one of the characters only cares about powers, as Evra is planning to attempt to steal the other two's soul gem and try to power up his own.

One of the other characters I think believes in the whole sacrificing for the greater good, and the last one, it has not hit her yet. Now when her family calls her a monster...

Also the baseball term, I'm lost.

Just checking, could I have a drain power active in response to an attack? Thinking of having another mage that is being proactive in stopping witch from being formed, while shutting down a mages ability, also increasing dark thoughts.

[Terraoblivion]

A baseball term such as homerun, used a nickname for a certain girl using guns and disliking Kyubey.

[Prime32]

Needs more emphasising that QB takes away peoples' innocence. Broken girls younger than the canon cast maybe.

An NPC who made a school-related wish and has been in an Evangeline-type situation for about a century, trapped in the school and unable to grow up. Her eyes are dead.

A girl in (insert region) becomes a PM by wishing that people would love her. An extremist group now holds her as a messenger of (insert religion), sparking a war of unprecedented scale in which she is forced to take part (since the group is associated with her, her powers cause people to love the group, causing it to grow far larger than it otherwise would). QB approves, since this will lead to more little girls in despair. Have the events mentioned in little detail at first (use a news report to spark a conversation on some other topic), and only reveal the catalyst later.

[Dragoon]

An NPC who made a school-related wish and has been in an Evangeline-type situation for about a century, trapped in the school and unable to grow up. Her eyes are dead.

I think I'll be definitely stealing this for next session. Also should have last week's sessions write-up sometime this week.

[randomhero00]

hmm, so say their goal before they die is to save so andso, after they die it is to kill soandso.

[Dragoon]

Well I said a week right...

Anyways, here's the next write up

Also, I discovered that Ella’s wish was actually her father just going away, not a new family.

The game picked up and as usual, the start was slow. Though this time they heard news that someone had blow up a large crane. As they got closer, they overheard on the television that a Mr. Ravenwood. They try to physically investigate, but the police shoo them away. So they decide to attempt to investigate at night.

As they get closer, only one of the three is caught by the two police officers. (SWAT officer stats from back) While Ella is talking her way out of looking suspicious, the other two use the fact that people are not expecting an air attack and attempt to knock them out. One of the two actually makes his toughness save, though they are able to silence him before he can call for back-up. They were unable to find anything of interest and police sirens scared them off. Of course this does put them on the radar of another mage.

The next day, Ella is decides to mope at home, the other two end up finding where she lives and checking on up on her. She is quite a bit in shock (made all but one will save so not too dark of a soul gem), they convince her to leave as they notice one of the nearby neighbors (left front door open) walking funny and nearly gets run over. They follow her and walked in to find many people in the abandoned building, all with the same strange tattoo (Witch’s Kiss) and standing like in the Two Towers movie the Uruk-hai in blowing up the wall at Helm’s Deep. The three move into action immediately, as Ella has to abandon her fire powers, as the one bucket in the room is full of propane. Thus she used her gravity powers to keep the match away from the bucket. (floated the bucket and fumes) The other two worked on disabling on the people, or at least I thought they would. Ezra ‘accidentally’ killed one of the people. (other two don’t know that, yeah for dm notes) Yep, I have an evil character for sure. Once they prevented the match from lighting, which included Ella being soaked after dropping the bucket on herself when grappled, the witch appeared. This one had thorns on the wall, (they had some nasty effect, but the group never got hit into them) and the witch itself looked like the Swamp Thing. What made it special was that its attacks would inflict incurable damage, making Brandon’s regeneration not work. Player was not exactly thrilled. Unfortunately for the witch, it was wiped out really quickly, though, when it died it exploded, catching Brandon with a very heavy blow, heavily wounding him. When the area evaporates, they get to watch as the neighbor react in horror to her boyfriend’s (Erza’s victim) death. They take off as the possessed people are trying to help the dead boy. They break off after that with tension a bit high, and Brandon’s not doing so well (he ends up making his recovery checks the next recovery period)

The next day, they run into each other after finding out that Kyubey was killed by some sort of magic bullet. At the café they meet, they see Homura and her friend. They talk to Homura alone and attempt to get her to explain why she went after the Kyubey. She is confused and eventually with her friends help separates from the group. They start to head to look for the killer of Kyubey and find themselves facing a blonde hair young woman.

She (Molly) starts to talk to them, knowing their names and after they join her in the alley, (can’t believe they actually did that) she told them that she had to kill them, to stop them from becoming witches. They had a very brutal fight, she would counterattack with a black hand that would cast drain on a power, usually used on their main attack. Brandon had a shock as one of his magic swords shattered in his hand. Combined with her having higher toughness than defense, they were having difficulty hurting her. She also knew enough about each of their wishes and that Ezra killed the person.

She knew that from Kyubey telling, will they be ticked off when they find out. As the battle progressed, they started to weaken her, and at one point she rolled a one.

Thank you villain points, though the players were happy for the hero point they got in response. Surprisingly, afterwards, she retaliated and dropped Ella to dying and Ezra wasted a turn not healing, I really should have had her take another shot at Ella the next round instead of trying to drop Ezra.

After the tenth round, Homura yelled at them to stop, the group turn and saw that she was covering her friend from being hit by one of the many blasts being deflected. Molly feeling pressured and seriously wounded, bolted. Surprisingly, none of my players tried to follow. The game paused there and they get to have fun rolling a few checks from the last fight as well as deal with their destructive battle’s after effects.

They also don’t know that Kyubey told Molly the information to either get one of them to become a witch, or force Molly into becoming a witch, which she is on the way. Especially since they tried to convince her of the futilely of her ways without giving her something to replace her thoughts. I need to figure out what the witch turns into. While just bumping her stats up a bit might be more challenging, I’m not sure.

Though my players have mentioned that I have throw too many plot points at them, so I’ll be working on finishing up Molly’s first before throwing anything else besides witches at them. Though I am surprised none of them have tried looking up the theory of entropy in game.

Also I’m thinking making the fort/will save for the darking of the soul gem at 15 to be a bit low for power level ten, though I do have each of their bruises and staggered minus one from the save.

And a week later, talking to one player, he’s starting to wonder about whether they are on the right side, siding with the Kyubey and all.

[Prime32]

One twist that could be interesting - introduce Jubey (http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Jubey). It's implied that he has emotions (making him insane by Incubator standards) and can lie, which could result in a rude shock if the PCs assume he's as honest as Kyubey. Plus, dangling a way to purify Soul Gems in front of their faces but denying it to them is great for building despair. :smalltongue:

EDIT: Random theorising - Jubey-class Incubators eventually suffer the negative effects of the corruption they have absorbed, becoming a Walpurgisnacht. (which is apparently an amalgamation of multiple witches (http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Walpurgis_Night))

[Dragoon]

Well, that would despair worthy, I think I have a different idea for the next session. Though is it possible to have an illusion power that make it so that everyone else besides the caster and a target have switch spots, like how a certain big bad in bleach did?