School Days

[Judd]

Influences: Freaks and Geeks, Battle Royale, School Daze, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?, Malcom in the Middle?, Dawson's Creek?

? = shows I'm either not sure of or haven't seen

Humanity has a plural definition:

1) Peers - Being cool, fitting in, gettin' some.

Humanity Loss:

Being publically humiliated, tattling to the guidance counselor,

Humanity Gain:

Lookin' cool, taking a detention for a friend,

2) Future - Living up to the potential adults see for you.

Humanity Loss:

Not fitting in with the role the adults see you as.

Humanity Gain:

Excelling in your role

Demons are things in your life that inspire a passionate response: a car, a girlfriend/boyfriend, drugs, your drum set, your little brother, the girl next door, a job, position as class president, a varsity letter, gang colors.

Sorcerers are kids who have some semblance of self-awareness.

When you reach Humanity 0 one of three things happens:

You become what the adults think you will become and lose all sense of identity and self.

You fail in a dramatic manner that the adults never saw coming.

You have some kind of a nervous breakdown and are taken out of game because of your suicide or hospitalization or run-away.

You have two Covers.

One represents who you sit with in the cafeteria and the other represents who you are in your diary entries.

[DannyK]

Ooh, I really like it!  One thing leaps out at me: from my development psych education, the classical adolescent development course is:

moving away from dependence on parents ->
depending on peers for self-image ->
eventually developing a sense of one's own identity; this brings you into adulthood, and lots of people never get there.  

So, as hard as it may be to operationalize, maybe the second Humanity definition should have something to do with the character's own vision of their potential, not that of the grownups around them?

Just a thought.

[Judd]

I'm just not sure how I feel about these, especially the Lore descriptors.

Descriptors

Stamina

Varsity Letter: Go team, go.

All Elbows and Knees: You are on the verge of emerging as a butterfly but until then, suck it up with the other moths.

Peaking Early: You are as good looking as you are going to get.

99 Pounds Soaking Wet: Mom says once you go through puberty, the other boys won't pick on you so much.

Dreamy: You can and do get by on your looks.

Abused: Life where you grew up has made you hard.

Will

Ivy League Bound: This will all be worth it once you get to Harvard.

Cafeteria Machiavelli: Social interaction and backstabbing your peers is where you excel.

Remedial:  In school, you don't do so good.

Bored: Due to your startling intellect, public school bores you.

Slacker:  You do the minimum necessary to get by.

Lore

Far-away Dream: You find your power in a dream that you know will never come true.  You will never be Bon Jovi's lead guitarist, the drummer for Rush nor the President...but that isn't going to stop you from trying.

Overcome with Drive:  Nothing will get in your way to your goals.  Nothing and no one.

Handed Down: Perhaps its a reputation as a hellraiser, a fine car or a drug habit, but your parents handed it to you and they never are going to stop giving.

The Mall:  There is nothing worth having that can't be found at the good ole reliable shopping plaze.  

Older Crowd:  You can look 23 if you want and have a fake i.d.  In a college town that is a license for teen sin.

[Judd]

It has occurred to me after watching My So-Called Life that the show should figure prominently among any game run with this setting's influences.