Welcome to Willow Grove Academy, where we pride ourselves on our ability to provide a safe and pleasant environment free from the harsher elements of society so that your child may learn as effectively as they can, and perhaps even find a place where they feel at home.
We at Willow Grove believe that students of all stripes and walks of life are intelligent enough to work through their own issues with no more help than they are willing to give to each other. (Footnote in fine print: Barring extreme circumstances that warrant more direct intervention from staff and faculty.) And as such we are simply here to give them a routine as a comfortable groove for our students, as well as a safe, warm studying environment.
Okay, as you might have guessed from that brief excerpt from the Willow Grove Academy welcoming pamphlet, this game is set in a school. To be more exact, a high school level semi-private academy designed from the ground up to help troubled students from various walks of life. I said “semi-private” because in some cases, students are court-mandated to come here and can’t always pay for tuition themselves… so the state gives them a grant or some charity helps them out. In any event, every student was sent here for a reason. They all have psychological issues and harrowing traumas in their past.
However, they are not hopeless cases. Most of the students here are at least somewhat functional. They may find it difficult for one reason or another to deal with “normal” society, but can more or less function in it for a short period of time. Everyone at this school knows that every student is here not only because they have a past that they don’t want to talk about for whatever reason. And the faculty/staff is NOT in the habit of disclosing that information willy-nilly.
There are some rules for students here, though for the most part they are enforced very loosely largely because there aren’t a lot of security guards here. There are five teachers at this place, and since there are so few students, the school has adopted the Japanese practice of having the students stay in one room during the school day and have the teachers come in when it is time for their class.
Note: I have marked this game as NSFW because while I am not going to encourage explicit sex scenes (we’re dealing with teenage characters here… between ages 14 and 18), there will be graphic depictions of violence, abuse, and whatever other traumas the player characters have in their pasts… which could include anything from child abuse and bullying to neglect and starvation to abandonment to being on the ugly receiving end of bigotry. I don’t want anyone pulling punches here, but at the same time, be aware that we’re very likely going to hit on some very unpleasant territory here as the characters attempt to resolve their issues.
Which means I need to clarify something here… whatever your character’s issues are, they should not be incurably insane. Their issues should be difficult, and hard to deal with (for themselves, for others, or both)… but they should not be impossible. There needs to be some hope of recovery or at least hope of eventually having a more normal life.
But since we are dealing with teenagers, that also means hormones come into play… so friendships may form and then crash and burn… relationships might form and then leave the two (or more) parties hating each other. Its a turbulent time, and everyone’s dealing with it in their own way on top of their pre-existing issues.
And there is still room for a little levity here and there so…
Genre: Psychological drama and romantic comedy.
Jokes are fine, levity is fine… but please keep the comedy to how the characters interact with each other. Their issues should be treated a bit more seriously when they are suitably problematic… your characters SHOULD NOT be jokes in of themselves.
Character Creation Notes:
Strength/Weakness/Subplot cards are up to you. I’d strongly recommend going with one of the Natures I provided. The Trope I provided for each Nature describes a core aspect of your character’s personality that defines how they approach things, as well as some guidelines on their starting dynamics with other player characters. In other words, it is the character trait that defines your character, what is immediately noticeable about them, and the one least likely to change.
Now as to the business of your actual application well… its going to resemble the kind of dossier that the principal would have on your character, but not the one that the school psychologist/therapist would. What’s the difference? Well, the Principal’s dossier is barely one page long, maybe two in some cases, and it is just a bare-bones set of facts, while the therapist’s dossier on you is much longer and goes into much greater detail.
So here’s the format:
Name:
Age:
Sex:
Gender Identity: (note that this might actually be up in the air, and this might merely represent what others assume to be the case)
Sexual Orientation: (ditto)
Preliminary Diagnosis: (here you will include a list of the psychological issues that your character might have. Functionally, this will be a short-hand that we can look up later as a general but not entirely accurate guideline of your character’s behavior)
Symptoms: (list any noticeable symptoms of mental illness here)
Possible Cause/s: (here you will give a brief, bullet-point style description of the possible causes of your psychological issues. Feel free to have some of these be less relevant than others. But don’t go into detail on your character sheet. The details of your trauma will be explored in-game. If I need clarification as a Narrator, I will ask you and in such a case, simply explain in the comments section on your sheet.)
Physical Description: (almost forgot this one, sorry. My bad. Umm… here you will describe what your character currently looks like, preferably some notes on how they have physically changed over the years… especially as a result of traumatic events in their past. Also describe how they dress and carry themselves. Never miss an opportunity for characterization!)
Reason for Admittance: (here you should describe the key incident that got you here in the first place. Again, be a little vague in a professional kind of way… just enough to make us understand why you’re at this special academy)
Comments: (this is where you write one or two sentences in your character’s voice that aptly and quickly demonstrates what kind of person they are. To help you focus, you might want to frame it as a complaint or suggestion to the school or a particular staff member.)
Note that I will also be writing up my own PC here as well. Feel free to be a duplicate of that Nature if you want. Just try to make it a little different from mine. I’m going with The Stoic, for reference.
Also, please check this forum thread out to get some additional information, and to discuss character concepts with me and other players: https://storium.com/forums#/category/lfg/thread/v8ytxq
Link for the relationship map: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CLPfYcTqGTVPcRLXB3k9owMgA0pUZl4sKITlKqgJGBQ/edit
Hosted by:
TheDoctor455
Narrated by:
Wesley S. (Welcome)
Started 06/17/15.
Scenes played: 9
License: Community License
