I'm working on my character's bio right now, and I'm particularly having a bit of trouble with the magic portion. I wanted to give her a background in some kind of nature magic (if I can find the right kind of spells to suit my character, otherwise I may choose a different sort), perhaps druid or elemental, but although I've already looked over the threads that have already been posted up about the subject, I'm still a little stumped.

I have a couple of role-playing books, "The Players Handbook" and "The Book of Erotic Fantasy", but although they have given me a few ideas here and there, the whole stat system and d20d (or whatever) is kinda throwing me off a bit, and I'm having a bit of difficulty adapting/modifying the D&D dice-rolling style (with all the 'intelligence checks', 'saving throws', +34d damage over 12d period of time' and all that other stuff) to work in what I guess the Shokushu boards might be referred to as a 'free-form' style of role-playing.

I'm not thinking of anything particularly...'spectacular' like fireballs or lightning bolts (at least to start with), just something that reflects the mischievous (though ultimately harmless), practical joker side of her personality.

Any thoughts?

Hmmm..

Nature magic- Plants seems to like her, if she puts a potted plant in her room it grows to large size in a few days. Creepers or roses grow to surround her window like they want to come inside.
Maybe plants respond to her sexuality. If she feels great pleasure outdoors, flowers starts blooming all around her. Or she could feel stronger and more sensitive when surrounded by nature.
Mischievous- Some sort of poltergeist fenomena manifests itself when she is feeling playfull, playing minor tricks (wardrobe malfunctions, displacing small items), sometimes without her control or knowledge.

That was all I could think of right now (rushing to work, really )

Thanks, Pia, it's certainly a good start.

Well I know there a few plant life character on the board that may be drawn to you unique personality heh. "The Book of Erotic Fantasy" where did you find that book I have heard of that book but could never find that one and have 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th edition AD&D but that one book has always been rumored to be around but i could never find it, Man your lucky.

I got it at Borders a while back (can't recall now exactly how long ago it was). Until a recent thread I got started with my new roomies (First Impressions over in the Dorms), I haven't had much chance to use it.

I also have the the "Hero Builder's Handbook", but that one's not quite as fun to look through.

Just remember this isn't D&D or anything like it please. Magic is very minimal and not a central part of playing a student by any means.

I know that. It's just the only source of information on the subject that I've been able to get my hands on so far.

Any advice that you can give me?

Try and remember that students are human from a period no more than about 30 years or so in the future. Their grandmother wasn't a mighty magician who passed on her knowledge and she didn't grow up as part of a secret cult who trained her in an ability to deliver psychic blasts of energy equivalent to a nuclear bomb. Nor did she have training in an obscure martial art that enabled her to leap tall buildings at a single bound.

The alien influence is believed to have caused some inadvertent leakage which affected some humans and resulted in their children gaining minor magical and/or mental powers. Those powers are further curtailed by the island itself to make her no more than 10% more powerful than a normal human present-day girl.

I realize that, and I never intended her powers to be all that dramatic. The kind of magic I was planing on giving her would be more creative than destructive. She would have nothing that would even come close to giving her an edge over any monsters that she may encounter, nor would I be having her using magic to destroy buildings or wreak havoc upon her fellow classmates.

The biggest issue I've had thus far was trying to fit the magic into her background...how she acquired her abilities, whether or not it's a genetic thing, how she came to be aware of her 'gift', and so on.

I guess I picked up the wrong impression then

Well there are a few choices that are not too over the top (or hopefully not) when deciding how the character has what she has. There is the born with it or self taught which would lead to Fiona maybe making several mistakes with her spells which could be of some amusement when trying to escape a monster's claws. That is generally what most of the current magic dabblers have for a background. Aurora's is a bit different being from a secluded tribe of priestesses so she actually has an entire family to learn her unique abilities from. But with how the rules have been changing, you may find your tribe being hit by the Death Star or something.

Those are kinda the only routes I see that would work with what we have so far, stumbled upon it / self taught or taught by another. Though if you want to make Stormy happy, you can always try to go a more sci fi route and say a radioactive spider bit her and now she can shoot sticky vines from her wrists XP. Or perhaps some sort of strange alien presence gave her mutant powers. (sorry Stormy, physics homework has left me bitter about science at the moment ^^).

As always, as long as your character is still being caught and raped in the end it should be fine.

Hmm...I was surfing the net today and came upon something that might work. What if I went the pagan route?

Now, before I get some heat about choosing a religious background when it had been discussed before that it would cause some problems here, here's an excerpt from a website I found that might help things a little:

Pagan Word Meaning
Pagan comes from the Latin word paganus and means villager, rustic, or belonging to the country.[...]

Nature Worship
Above all else, Pagans are in awe of nature. They love the raw energy of the Earth, the strengthening heat of the sun, and the mysterious coolness of the moon. Some Pagans choose not to worship any specific deities, and focus, instead, on nature’s energies.

Magic
The world is a magical place, however not all Pagans practice magic. There are Pagans that view their path as a spiritual one. Their time on Earth is spent observing and learning to work in harmony with nature. The world is already full of natural magic and they feel no need to meddle with what nature intends.

Some Pagans, such as myself, do practice magic. We recognize that the world is a magical place and we join in, adding our own individual touches to our personal landscape.[...]

Pagans Are United
While Pagans share many beliefs, a common thread unites them: nature. Each Pagan will readily admit that she or he does not have all the answers and that her or his path is not the only path to follow. They celebrate diversity as well as welcome all people, without discrimination, to join them in their reverence of nature.

I'm always happy Kanoe. But sometimes I just have to hide it and pretend to be a bad tempered dictator

OK, pagan is not a religion and shouldn't cause any problems here. Pagan is a collective term for a whole raft of non-aligned belief structures based around the natural world. Wicca, on the other hand, is a recognised religion.

Great! Thank you, Stormy, and thank you everyone for giving me a hand with this here. I'll see what I can do to work it into my student bio.

OK, One or two areas still need to be expanded/improved upon for my bio...but here it is in its current form:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6891&p=117481#p117481