Making an Academy

Credit to Avery Alder's Simple World rule construction hack of Apocalypse World for the mechanics, especially the Traits/Attributes. (See buriedwithoutceremony.com for references; originally authored by AA as "Joe Mcdaldno".)

To Make an Academy, you need to:

• Describe its genre, background, and setting
• Describe the nature of the unusual talents nurtured there
• Name it.
• Name and Describe your Academy's 4 or 5 rival Houses and their specialties (if you have them).

Fill in some springboards for stories by answering questions like this:

• Will the rival houses compete for the betterment of all, or will petty disputes spoil the school's harmony?
• Are the professors to be trusted, or will their vanity, pique, and forbidden drives lead to danger and downfall?
• What dangers threaten the students, or the academy itself?
• How do students come to the academy?
• What's important in regular student life?
• What challenges do students face?
• What happens when they graduate?

Now write its rules:

• Choose the 4 or 5 Traits or Attributes which describe each character's strong and weak points. Describe what kinds of challenges each Trait/Attribute covers. Match up each Trait to a House (if you have Houses).
• Sketch in rules for basic Moves important to your setting and story which call on the Traits/Attributes, which all characters can attempt.
• Sketch in Moves for your unusual talent which call on the Traits/Attributes. Some might be Basic Moves available to all, or maybe all are Character Moves to be chosen specifically.
• Sketch in options for character advancement (spend +5 XP per advancement)

Write any ground rules for types of scene, or limitations on types of sexual content to be depicted above Chyoa's basic rules (18+ participants, no real animals, limits on ).

The presumed age of the students is "college age", or 18-21, but perhaps runs older for students whose special talent is discovered later in life.

Once you have an academy, start out with one or more characters' storylines to show how it goes.

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Sample Genres

Pick or describe one that fits your academy. Here are some ideas:

• Anime-style Magical Girl / Magical Boy Academy. Loves and rivalries as all of them train to face a looming threat. They transform into their alternate magical warrior form to do battle. Do some of them have a Dark Past?
• Rival Elementalists. The academy's students represent the most promising young workers with affinity to magical elements, perhaps Earth, Air, Fire, Water, or Wood, Water, Metal, Earth, Fire. Simmering rivalries among the elemental tribes, or intrigues about lost or forbidden knowledge, may drive the plot. What is the circumstance that draws them together? Does something threaten their whole realm?
• Rowling-style Witchcraft and Wizardry academy. Draws on British Public School stories and rivalries between Houses.
• Academy for Young Psychics. The power of mental concentration can reach across the world ... or into your crush's dormitory. Don't let your rivals make you lose your mind.
• Martial Arts Academy. The different Houses follow different Martial Arts styles and contend for supremacy -- and secretly, for sexual satisfaction.
• Wet Dream University. The students are junior incubi and succubi learning how to invade humans' dreams to harvest their erotic energy.
• X-Men-style School for Young Mutants. Each of them has idiosyncratic powers which gain strength and finesse as they learn them. Maybe this one doesn't have a House system since everyone's powers are different.
• Lovecraft-style Miskatonic University Secret agents of dark powers abound, and students will have to guard their sanity as they learn Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know. Beware summoning what you can't put down, and have your Elder Sign ready!

Rival Houses

Hogwarts' Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff inspired Boarbristle's Draconis, Leontes, Minerval, and Beavertail respectively, and their respective styles determined the Traits for the Boarbristle Academy rules.

Design 4 or 5 academic Houses, each proud of its special skills, knowledge, and traditions, and jealous of its prerogatives. Note whether they have particular relationships with others. Perhaps a House will have better relationships with some Houses than others, or will stand aloof, or will be friendly to all. A House's special flavor can help color in special rules and Moves, or highlight its emphasis on a particular talent that everyone possesses.

You might not have Houses. You can note any other sources of rivalry and competition, maybe other Academies, or maybe professors have special favorites who get away with things that others don't.

Traits/Attributes

Pick 4 or 5 personal talents and strengths important to facing the challenges of student life at your academy and using its special abilities. If you have Houses, map each to a House. Give each stat a name and description, and what sorts of challenges it helps with.

If you don't have Houses, you could start with suggestions from Avery Alder's Simple World:
Create a stat that reflects each of these tendencies:

• Reflexive/Graceful
• Persuasive/Assertive
• Aggressive/Forceful
• Calculating/Methodical
• Inquisitive/Exploratory

If one of these tendencies doesn't matter for your Academy, remove or replace it.

Sample (Boarbristle Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry):
Traits

• Ambition. Useful for success in social and personal tests, making friends or manipulating people.
• Bravery. Useful for success in tests of physical strength and courage, like facing your faults.
• Cunning. Useful for success in creative and magical endeavors, or perceiving subtleties. Casting spells.
• Diligence. Useful for success in methodical tasks, or doing things perfectly in every detail.

In "Simple World", terms, Boarbristle's Ambition is Persuasive/Assertive, Bravery is Aggressive/Forceful, Cunning is Inquisitive/Exploratory, and Diligence is Calculating/Methodical, leaving Reflexive/Graceful aside. I didn't actually design them following Simple World -- they emerged from the preferred style of the Houses that I took from Rowling's example. I did nudge the Traits a little to make them ABCD, though.

Choosing Traits/Attributes and what they apply to gives you a very basic rule set. You could wing it by meeting every challenge with a Custom Move and declaring which Trait applies to the Move when you make it.

But to structure the flavor of your game, you may want to add rules for specific Moves, when they apply, and what results follow from Success with Style (10+), Complicated Success (7-9), or a Miss (6-), plus when you should modify a roll.

Basic Moves

Basic Moves are game actions which any player character can make in the appropriate circumstance. They provide structure for the kinds of interactions you expect to have. Maybe you'll have friends and enemies, favors, spellcasting, magical duels, and suffer from the consequences of magical exhaustion, backlash, or just too much homework? Maybe in your academy's world, having a successful sex encounter with someone makes them your friend, or helps you face the day more effectively? Write in rules for that.

Generally, a Basic Move represents a player character meeting a challenge with their personal resources, modified by their physical and mental condition if appropriate, and any other circumstances that apply. The results move the story forward, and may change the character's running statistics according to specific game mechanics, but the general pattern of Success with Style / Success with Complications / Failure should apply to the results.

If there are rules for applying the superhuman skills in your academy that any student could attempt, these count as Basic Moves. Any student at Boarbristle can Cast a Spell or have a Magical Duel.

If you're making a Move against an adversary, it's only the player character making rolls and taking moves. When describing the effects of a Move, you can narrate your adversary taking actions that would correspond to making a Move, but there are no special mechanics. You can choose that failing a Magical Duel versus Perseus the Petrifier causes your character to be turned to stone if you think that's a compelling story point, but you don't roll for Perseus to cast Turn to Stone on you.

House Moves

An Academic House may grant special abilities to its students following the Character Moves rules.

All House members start with the same Basic House Moves.

There might be Advanced House Moves learned by spending XP similar to acquiring Character Moves.

Character Moves

Character Moves are special abilities not available to everyone, that can be chosen at the start (typically two choices), or acquired with experience (every +5 XP, gain a Character Move or similar bonus).

A Character Move may grant a new action described in a similar way to a Basic Move, listing the consequences of success, partial success, and failure.

A Character Move may instead modify how a Basic Move is done, perhaps applying a bonus to the roll in certain circumstances, or adding to the effects of success. ("And if you HAVE SEX with them [a Basic Move], on a success, you can also steal a magical spell from their mind [once per partner], or learn one of their secrets.")

Advancement

Gaining XP

In some cases, rolling a success on a Move can grant +1 XP according to the rules for each Move. See Boarbristle Academy for an example.

As a shortcut, you could say that one option for a 10+ roll is: succeed, and gain +1 XP.

Spending XP

Each +5 XP gained and spent should grant a character advantage, or maybe something fun that doesn't correspond to a game mechanic.

Some Options:

• Learn a Character Move
• Learn a Special Spell or Forbidden Spell (Boarbristle)
• Gain a +1 to a Trait/Attribute (+3 max)
• Change Houses and gain the Basic House Move (designer's option on whether they give up their old House Move(s))
• Advance the plot to protect your Academy by learning one of your enemies' secrets (Narrate how this happens)

Storytelling and Ground Rules for Contributors

Note any references for your genre, if applicable.

Provide links for inspirational reading or viewing.

Write any ground rules for types of scene, or limitations on types of sexual content to be depicted above Chyoa's basic rules (18+ participants, no real animals, limits on ).

Get It Rolling

Write Sample Characters and Storylines

Make it Here or Make it Yours

You can start an Academy story here or start a story as editor.