What, Do You Guys Not Have Dates?
With my apologies to Wyatt Cheng
With my apologies to Wyatt Cheng
Midterms are here and mostly done and somehow you've managed to survive so far. Relaxing after the stress, that's when the posters start to go up - the Halloween Spooktacular is tomorrow! While everyone is very quick to dismiss the name, the realization sets in that the whole school is planning on going. And, while it might be all right for a younger student to go without a date, it's very clear that the older students seems to expect one another to have dates.
The days become full of desperate proposals and awkward rejections as everyone - except the few who decide to buck the social trend - try to find themselves a date. At this point, some of the fifth years are even turning to those a year younger and even the oldest students are expanding their prospect pools. But don't worry - there's plenty of fish in the sea. Surely you'll find someone for you!
... right?
... right?
... Bueller?
OOC Mechanics:
First and foremost, two players may decide together that they will go to the dance together. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that; if you go that route, please do an RP thread handling that (you can also totally role-play a rejection but man, who wants to relive that high school nightmare, am I right?). If you're feeling a little more adventurous, read on, dear student!
A note, up front - this isn't about doing really well. It's just a story. Don't feel the need to make optimal choices here. Go the path you think your character would and just have some fun along the way.
The Object of Your Desire
Ilvermorny is a large school. There are many students - and thus a very large pool to ask out. For the purpose of this event at this point, you'll be creating a new student - give them a name, some basic details, a year (fourth or above), and a Popularity skill (1 to 4). These students will be added to our roster of NPCs moving forward.
Permit Me To Introduce Myself
First impressions are important - even if you've met each other before. Roll Presence + Attract with a number of Difficulty dice equal to their Popularity. On this roll, a Threat will cancel one Success and an Advantage will cancel one Failure. Remove one success for each year above you or below you they are - it's harder to get some one-on-one with students from other years. Consult the following list:
- 5+ Successes: Set the base difficulty moving forward to Simple
- 4 Successes: Set the base difficulty moving forward to Easy
- 3 Success: Set the base difficulty moving forward to Average
- 2 Success: Set the base difficulty moving forward to Hard
- 1 Success: Set the base difficulty moving forward to Daunting
- 0 Success: Set the base difficulty moving forward to Formidable
Swallow them nerves down and ask them! Come on, what do you have to lose? Roll Presence + Attract with the Difficulty you've previously set, upgrading the Difficulty once for each point of difference between your Popularity and their Popularity (if your Popularity is higher, upgrade your Ability dice one per point of difference instead), with one Setback die (it's a little difficult to find time where they're alone, especially so close to dances).
Threats remove one Success and add one Strain; Advantages may be spent to recover one Strain. Add your total Successes and Failures to your running total. If you accumulate a total of five Successes, congratulations - you've got yourself a date! If you accumulate a total of four Failures, poor luck - they already have a date. On this roll, you may spend a Triumph to immediately accumulate five Successes. A Despair will be spent to immediately accumulate four failures - and any future rolls for this event will treat your Popularity as one lower as the rejection is cruel and public.
If at First You Don't Succeed...
At this point, you may continue to pursue the individual and attempt another roll, adding one additional Setback die each time you attempt the roll (the individual in question makes a bit of effort to avoid you in the future, though we're not going to say why - that's up to you). Keep in mind that these attempts might occur over the two day period so it's not necessary to have them all happen at once and it gives you time to decide; please make a public roleplay post which contains all your pursuits and rolls, linking it in reply here. Alternatively, you can go right back to the beginning, creating a new NPC to attempt to pursue (if you've been rejected because you've accumulated enough Failures, you need to go back there as well).
As a last ditch option, though, you can elect to go stag and go to the dance without a date. If that's your choice, let us know and we'll handle it on the next day when the dance is underway...
Half-blood