Character Creation

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Read the Lore journals:

- The Handmaidens (Magical Girls)
- The Tea Spirits
- The Parasites
- HF Academy
- The Honors System
- Locations

Read the Stats and the Battle System journal; it will help you with deciding on powers, weapons, and so on, as well as how the fighting system works.
Please also read the Rules journal and How to Join journal, to make sure you understand what joining the group entails!
When you feel like you're ready, reserve your tea on the Tea Reservation journal and fill out the Application!

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You are allowed to have:

Characters from other groups! All we ask is that they aren't characters currently being used in a different group. And if you're from mahou-fiori, you get a handy-dandy extra five stat points to start out with - just send us a link to your MF app along with your join request. You don't necessarily have to use the same character.

Transgender female Handmaidens. As long as a character is female identifying and presenting, they are allowed. Unfortunately we do not allow non-binary characters due to the complications it presents with our lore on Handmaidens. This may change in the future, but for now it is not allowed.

Strange eye colors. This does not mean your character can have cat eyes. They must maintain human eyes, but the irises may be colors such as pink, gold, red, etc. Heterochromia (eyes with a different color for each eye or multiple colors in a single eye) is not allowed. If your character has a singular color contact to fake heterochromia, please just don't in the first place.  However if your character has colored contacts to change both eye colors, please note that in your description.

Strange hair colors, like purple, pink, white, etc. This sort of thing is pretty common in the shoujo and magical girl genres, after all! However, try to keep it reasonable; your character cannot have naturally multi-colored hair, and rainbow hair and eye-searingly neon hair  are not allowed. Your character also can't change hair colors when transforming into her magical outfit.  If your character's hair is dyed, please note that in the description.

Minimal piercings. Multiple Ear piercings, single nose piercings/lip piercings are allowed. But, your character cannot be completely decked out in piercings. These are teenage girls attending a prestigious boarding school and there are dress code rules for this.

Disabled characters. However, please make sure they will be able to function in fights in some way.

Twins. One twin may be an NPC or played by another player.

Have morally ambiguous or mean characters. While we don't encourage evil characters in our setting, we realize bad/flawed people exist and we will not restrict people from choosing to play an antagonistic type of character. Please note your character will be "punished" IC for bad behavior if it takes place on the academy's campus or in the proximity of the campus. Moderators reserve the right reject your character or ask for revisions if they are too extreme for our setting.


You are not allowed to have:

A Handmaiden who knows about Parasites, Handmaidens, or the true nature of the Academy before they became a magical girl. This creates complications with joining the school and our plot.

A Handmaiden with an Female relative who has graduated from the academy and continues to know about magic. If you truly wish to include this in your background, please ask us first.

A Handmaiden who does not identify as female. The academy is a female-only school and only girls may become a Handmaiden as of right now.

Anthropomorphic, object, animal, or alien characters. All characters must be humans.

A ridiculously tragic or disturbing background for your character. Some tragedy is allowed but do not go overboard. No rape, extreme abuse, etc. should be included in your character's background. Keep it as PG as possible.

A mentally disturbed character. Please keep your character relatively sane. No murderers or sociopaths, please.

Tattoos or excessive piercings on your character. They are of high school age and would not be allowed to have such things at the school.

Inappropriate magical forms. We do not want 14 year olds running around in lingerie magical girl outfits. Some exposure is allowed, but please nothing too extreme. These are teenagers.

Characters who are not between the ages of 14 and 18, they must be of age to attend the academy like any student would have to be to attend highschool.

Characters under 4'9" or over 6'2". Be realistic, these are high school girls!

Characters who are currently in one or more other active groups. It's fine if they're from a group that has since closed down, but they may not be from a group that is still running.

No student is allowed to have any excessive distracting accessories, small hair clips and hair ties with maybe flowers on them are fine.  However, if your character wears something like animal ear headbands, like cat ear headbands, or over the top feathered boas constantly to class, expect the teachers to confiscate those. 

Other notes:

On the subject of weapons: Handmaiden weapons can be just about anything you like (anything inanimate, anyway - no magic birds as weapons, please)! Anything from "traditional" weapons like spears and bows to more out-of-box things like musical instruments or umbrellas are fine! See the 'Weapon Information' section below for a bit more information on what different kinds of weapons can do your character.

Something to consider when deciding on a weapon might be your character's stat focuses. A character you plan to make a heavy physical damager might need a more heavy-duty weapon that can easily cause physical harm to Parasites. If your character is going to be mostly a healer or magic user, something that doesn't actually cause damage would be appropriate. If you can find a way to make your weapon work with the actions you're taking in battle, go for it!

 Your weapon should be a single entity, in such you can not have two weapons that are different from each other, such as a Flail and Sword, a Bow and Spear.  You can have only one of those weapons, however you can have dual wielding such as Double swords, Double guns, Double axes.  Your weapon itself could be a set, such as a set of floating shards, a set of plates your character uses to throw at people, multiple throwing knifes. You are also not allowed to have crazy combination weapons, such as a Chainsaw Gun, a Gun Sword, a Scythe Bow. 

Please make sure the art on your app is full-body and not a chibi or half-body! It's difficult to see from a chibi how your character's body and outfit are meant to be proportioned.

NPC characters are welcome, and can be anyone - students, citizens of Hill Valley, and so on. They can be used for shipping, plot reasons, or just for fun; however, there is a limit of 2 NPCs per member, and they cannot be used in RP events or battles. NPC students should have a tea reserved for them in the Tea Reservations journal, but designing a magical outfit for them is optional and they do not need to be given stats.

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         Ranged Vs. Melee Weapons

Every weapon has a Ranged (long-distance) or Melee (short-distance) classification. From a technical standpoint most weapons could be both (you can, after all, throw a sword or smack someone in the face with a gun) but most are more effective as one or the other. If you’re not sure which one your weapon qualifies as, make sure to ask us!

Ranged: A weapon that can do damage from a distance, without the need to get close to the opponent. Note that certain moves will be considered Ranged even with a Melee weapon.
Examples: Darts, Guns, Bow+Arrows, Throwing Weapons, Whips

Melee: A weapon that requires close proximity to the opponent in order to do damage. Some moves are considered Melee even with a Ranged weapon.
Examples: Swords, Gauntlets, Spears/Polearms, Hammers



         Stat Granting

While normally a Handmaiden's physical, magical, and defensive capabilities (i.e. stats - please see the 'Stats and the Battle System journal!) are cut when she is not transformed, summoning her weapon (which she can do even un-transformed) will boost her ability in at least one area, usually related to the type of weapon, since the weapons themselves help to provide that ability. For example, while a Handmaidens' Fortitude/Defense stat is normally zero when not transformed, a Handmaiden with a shield weapon could bring her Fortitude up to its normal value without needing to transform by summoning her shield.
Generally a weapon will only assist in one stat; please ask if you're unsure which stat your weapon would apply to!

Attack
Your weapon has your Strength or Magic stat for attacking, which means if you summon it without transforming you get the same benefit to that stat as you would when transformed.
Examples: Swords, Spears, Gloves, Ranged Weaponry

Defense
Your weapon has your Fortitude stat, which means if you summon it without transforming you get the same benefit to that stat as you would when transformed.
Examples: Shields

Oddity
Due to the uniqueness of this weapon type, it tends to lean towards your specialty, which means if you summon it without transforming you get the benefit of the stat you favor most. Generally these are the "non-weapon" weapons that look like everyday objects.
Examples: Hair Straighteners, Lemon Squeezers, Mirrors



        Weapon-Specific Abilities

Sometimes a certain aspect of a weapon will allow the wielder to use in a functional capacity beyond the basic spell-casting, enemy-smacking goodness that every weapon can provide.
Generally a single weapon will only grant one or two of these, and some don't grant them at all - but keep in mind that weapons that don't grant any of these aren't any less effective, so don't let that limit you!

Float
If your weapon makes you float or levitate. You have the free movement over certain terrain, immunity to certain specific types of moves (i.e. earthquake moves), and can reach difficult locations more easily.
Examples: Hoverboards, some Magical Weaponry (ask if unsure!)

Multi-Hit
If your weapon looks like it can hit multiple targets; generally this applies to double weapons. You can only Multi-Hit with normal/flat-strength attacks (see the Stats and the Battle System journal!!), and each target, assuming there are two, would take only half damage. A triple weapon could hit three targets, but would only do a third of the damage to each, et cetera.
Examples: Double guns, double swords

Support
Having a weapon you can use for Support essentially means you could give someone else your stats (which stat depends on the weapon - see Stat Granting); but you will no longer be able to utilize the weapon as you normally would yourself, generally for attacking. The most commonly used, since anyone can hand someone else their weapon if they want.
Example: Handing your shield weapon to someone with a sword for more fortitude, giving someone a lift with a floating weapon

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