TheKawaiiEdition/GothicLolitas

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Origins

The Bishonen fell from their angst. Thus speak the ancient texts of the magical girls declare. With tears in their eyes the magical girls put their idols out of their misery, and out of selfless devotion took on the task of inspiring cuteness, swearing never to sink into brooding in the manner of their predecessors.

It would be cynical but accurate to say that the Bishonen did not see matters in the same light. For every Bishonen who died peacefully in the arms of a weeping Magical Girl, another had roused from their brooding to demonstrate the skill and finesse that had left them cutest and most desirable of all Creation. But one by one they were defeated by the Magical Girls and the Helping Goddesses, abandoned by their Catgirls and bound never again to walk beneath the sun and the moon.

But there are places that are not beneath the sun and the moon; and angst is not the same thing as apathy.

Most of the Bishonen never passed into the lands of the dead. Though it was the only escape from their prison, they still refused to sink to such a level. But there were those who did not, who desired revenge upon those who supplanted them and swore that if they could no more enter the world of the living, they would enter the Lands of the Dead and bring all that lived into the the darkness to serve them once more.

They are the Lords of Cute Angst, arrayed in the finery of their age - the height of the rule of the Bishonen.

Although the rule of the Underworld fell to them swiftly, the Lords of Cute Angst knew that their purpose demanded agents among the living. Thus, they would send Ghostly servants into the real world, focusing upon corners of the world as each pursued their own grand strategy. Sometimes they met their goals and sometimes they did not, but always the Magical Girls would respond, driving back the ghosts and rescuing their possessed vessels.

Clearly stronger servants were needed and the Lords of Cute Angst turned to their own. With the aid of a Devious Demoness, they struck at the crystal prison that confined the Bishonen and seized up the souls that remained within. In this they were partly successful - many souls fled the instant that they could, and re-entered the cycle of life, joining with a new generation to become the first Bishonen in a millennium. But many others were caught and divided between the Lords of Cute Angst and the master of the Devious Demonesses.

The Lords of Cute Angst desired servants, not equals, so they twisted the souls of those Bishonen they possessed and reached out into the living world to join them with those who mourned and those who would use their cuteness to spread angst and brooding through the world. Thus were created the first of the Gothic Lolitas.


Castes

Elegant Euthanizers

The world is sick; it is time to put it out of its misery, and you are just the person to do it. Killing is your business, and business is good.

Caste Abilities: Archery, Brawl, Marital Arts, Melee, Thrown

Caste Power: Taking Out the Garbage. You kill off Extras even more efficiently than other exalted; burn 5 motes to do one extra wound to every Extra you hit during the scene (IE, if you hit an extra, you always hurt him or kill him).

Priestesses of the Night

Death is a holy thing; you bring its blessing to all, conducting the living into the land of the dead. There, you judge the wicked and the good, punishing and rewarding as they deserve. And you look good in those slinky priestess outfits.

Caste Abilities: Endurance, Performance, Presence, Resistance, Survival

Caste Power: The Blessing of Death. By burning one mote, you can kill someone who voluntarily accepts death and guarantee they will become a fully sentient ghost. By burning 10 motes, you gain authority over the dead for a scene--any ghost, zombie, spectre, etc, must make a conviction check to oppose you, and they suffer a penalty equal to your Moe to act against you.

Keepers of Shadow Lore

You know all the secrets of the dead, the lore which was thought lost, the whispers of the NeverCute as they sleep. And you command the very power of death itself.

Caste Abilities: Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine, Occult

Caste Power: You can commit up to your Moe in motes; this reduces the cost of any Necromancy or Sorcery by the number of Motes committed.

Alternate Caste Power by Wings: Narrow-Eyes Scary Glance: You narrow your eyes to slits, spend 5 Moe and look at someone in a scary way. The target immediately believes that, first, something horrible is about to happen to him; and second; that you know his deepest, darkest, makes-you-wanna-puke-if-you-hear-it secret. You don’t have any divine insight into his secrets or what’s about to happen to him, but damn you look scary. This Illusion effect may be resisted by reflexively spending a Willpower point.

Dancers of Death

No matter how much destruction you wreak, you continue to look good nonetheless, maintaining your grace and poise as all around you lose their lives. You glide unseen through the world; only your results can be seen when you pass.

Caste Abilities: Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Larceny, Stealth

Caste Power: By burning ten motes, you become hard to notice; until you take violent action, those of less Moe than you will ignore you so long as you refrain from bodily contact. Those of equal Moe may pit their (Moe + Awareness) against your (Moe + Stealth) to notice you. Those of superior Moe are not affected.

Merchants of Death

Peace sells, but you can undercut it. You provide everyone with what they need to die or to cause others to die. You don't deal in souls; once people die, their souls will come to you and your masters naturally.

Caste Abilities: Bureaucracy, Linguistics. Ride, Sail. Socialize

Caste Power: As Eclipse / Moonshadows.

Alternate Caste Power by Wings: …baka: By pronouncing the Old Realm’s Ancient Word of DOOM, spending 5 Moe and looking at an individual, you ensure that his next dice roll will automatically fail. By spending 10 motes you can make his failure a botch. You can’t use this power on beings with Moe higher than you, because, well…they’re not really bakas.


IRONY

Gothic Lolitas are mean, angsty (oh God, the ANGST!) and all that, but that doesn’t change one single fact: they’re CUTE. Their sheer cuteness shakes cities and makes men go into disgusting hormonal frenzies most people would rather not hear of. Yes, they’re cute, and sometimes it’s hard, even for them, to tell when they’re being cute-angsty or just plain cute. And that’s a problem. A problem made only worse courtesy of the Not Fun at Alls. While the sight of a flustered Gothic Lolita is even more cute and nosebleed-inducing, they’re not really happy about it…just like they’re not really happy with anything else.

The irony of their cuteness used for the wrong purpose (which for a Gothic Lolita would be ‘being cute’) is the manifestation of their Limit, which in their case is called Irony. It’s a trait that goes from 1 to 10 and represents the effect of an overly kawaii world and the accidental unwanted side effects of their own cuteness. The more they screw up, the moodier they get, to the point that it becomes noticeable to others (with the black clouds and the room getting darker around them and the ghostly things that surround them and all that stuff), including other Gothic Lolitas (who can easily notice when the Nevercute are pissed off). For every point of Irony the character has above her lowest Virtue rating, she loses one die from all Social rolls (as if their social skills weren’t crappy enough). This penalty cannot reduce a character’s dice pool below her lowest Virtue (really, they at least deserve a chance!) and doesn’t affect rolls to Intimidate the living (actually, they probably get even scarier). To make things worse, the difficulty of all Virtue rolls increase by 1 for every four points of Irony a Lolita has (rounded up). It gets kind of hard to think straight while trying to control your cuteness.


Gaining Irony

Gothic Lolitas gain Irony by acting contrary to the will of the Nevercute. They’re supposed to use their cuteness to spread angst and brooding and bad, bad, things; and when they don’t, there’s a problem, because that means they’re JUST BEING CUTE. In other words, Gothic Lolitas gain Irony when acting like Bishoujos, Cat Girls, Magical Girls, etc, etc, etc………


Examples of Sins

- Karaoke. The horror. Add 1 point of Irony for every non-Goth-acceptable song interpreted by the Gothic Lolita.
- Adding cute suffixes to the end of every sentence without making people run screaming in terror. Add 1 point of Irony for every such event, to a maximum to 3 points per day.
- Being clumsy and making it look cute………without hurting others in the process. Clumsy falls without bleeding is just plain cute. Add 1 point of Irony for every such event, to a maximum to 3 points per day.
- Going starry-eyed at the sight of a hot Bishounen. Gain 2 point of Irony every day you go around following him with little hearts around you. You only gain 1 point if you simply blush at one of his heart-warming remarks.
- Singing insanity-inducing, overly moe, extremely high-pitched denpa music is one of the greatest transgressions to the Laws of the Nevercute a Gothic Lolita could perform. Add three points of Irony at the end of each song.
- The greatest sin of all: COSPLAY. No Gothic Lolita may dress up in anything other than Goth clothes without retribution. Add four points per hour of cosplaying. Add an additional point if the disguise is one of the following: miko, cat girl, dog girl, magical girl, elementary student or swimsuit. Should the Gothic Lolita wear more than one disguise in one hour (OMFG! What’s wrong with you!?), only the disguise with the highest effect applies.


Losing Irony

There are many ways for a Gothic Lolita to regain control of her cute self and channel it the proper way. Two of them are:

- Obliterating a cute boy/girl’s self-esteem. This is probably the easiest way, since Gothic Lolitas excel at making others feel like crap. Lose 1 point of Irony for each success. You cannot lose Irony this way more than 3 times a day.
- Silence is a powerful weapon when wielded by a Gothic Lolita. Lose 1 point of Irony for every day you spend in absolute silence. However, this doesn’t work if you just lock yourself in an empty room. After all, what’s the point of being Goth if you’re not going to make anyone depressed? Your silence has to be unsettling, annoying, disturbing, MADDENING.


Charms

Gothic Lolita Charms focus on three basic fundamentals:

- Making others lose their coolness.
- LOOKING COOL
- Angst, angst, ANGST!!!!

This way, the base of each Charm tree includes a set of Charms that progressively empower you, allowing you to accomplish feats of disturbing coolness, coolness that makes others brood and become angsty. Or making you angsty and making others think you’re cool, which makes them wonder about their own coolness…or angst. Confusing, isn’t it? That’s exactly what the Gothic Lolita aims for……I think.

(Substitute the appropriate Ability for (Ability) in each charm tree.)


BASIC (ABILITY) TREE

  • (Ability) Insight of the Lolita 1/1
    • Confusing Lolita (Ability) 2/2
      • Absolute Gothic Lolita (Ability) 3/3
        • Persistent Loli (Ability) Augmentation 4/4


Note: Charm Types as per charm guide on main Kawaii Edition Page. However, Gothic Lolitas do not use Re-Fun Charms. That doesn’t make any sense in the first place. Their equivalent Charms do the exact opposite, though: turning normally-fun circumstances into moments of angst and depressingly insightful monologues that lead nowhere but to a boring endless statement of what was obvious since the very beginning. These Charms are known as Re-Useless Charms.


(Ability) Insight of the Lolita

  • Cost: 1 mote / die
  • Duration: Infant
  • Type: Re-Useless
  • Minimum Ability: 1
  • Minimum Moe: 1
  • Prerequisite Charms: None

Add one die for every mote spent to any pool of this Ability, to a maximum of the Lolita’s Attribute + Ability. This can be used to build defensive pools with an appropriate combat ability, from a base of zero dice. (IE, it can be used to buy a dodge or parry as appropriate.)


Confusing Lolita (Ability)

  • Cost: 6 motes
  • Duration: One Scene
  • Type: Speech
  • Minimum Ability: 2
  • Minimum Moe: 2
  • Prerequisite Charms: (Ability) Insight of the Lolita

The Lolita adds her Moe to all dice pools of this ability for the scene, within the normal Lolita dice adder limits (Attribute + Ability).


Absolute Gothic Lolita (Ability)

  • Cost: 5 motes, 1 WP
  • Duration: Infant
  • Type: Re-Useless
  • Minimum Ability: 3
  • Minimum Moe: 3
  • Prerequisite Charms: Confusing Lolita (Ability)

The Lolita automatically succeeds at an action with the minimum necessary level of success to overcome any opposition, unless a perfect defense is used to stop her.


Persistent Loli (Ability) Augmentation

  • Cost: 2 motes / die, 1 WP
  • Duration: Infant
  • Type: Speech
  • Minimum Ability: 4
  • Minimum Moe: 4
  • Prerequisite Charms: Absolute Gothic Lolita (Ability)

The Lolita adds 1 die to all uses of a specific Attribute + Ability pool for a scene for every 2 motes spent; she can add up to her Attribute + Ability to any given pool.


Gothic Lolita charms tend to solve things in one of the following manners:

1. Giving you a bucket of dice to roll
2. Drown others with your cuteness, making them crappier (effectively reducing their dice pools)
3. Using others’ sickening cuteness against them
4. Allowing feats normally unable with the normal scope of the abilities, because, after all, you’re not just cute. You’re cute AND COOL.

So, well, here we go!


Reality Revision Charms

In the Harem Age, Reality Engines were used to stabilize portions of Oniboshi and store backup copies of the Ultimate System. The most skilled Meights could accomplish pretty much anything they wanted with a Reality Engine, from turning to a stinky swamp to a hot springs resort to making that cute Cat Girl fall hopelessly in love with him, and their skill was admired (and envied) by the Helping Goddesses.

However, that technology disappeared with the Harem Age, and only the wisest Helping Goddesses and the Lords of No Fun remember those wonders of magical technology. With the techniques to build the massive structures required to gather the world’s Moe and shape such an insane power without risk lost in the ages, the Lords of No Fun quickly resorted to a new power source: angst.

They realized angst is power. However, being a power intrinsic to human nature, it is limited by the boundaries of body, mind and spirit. Hence, angst-based reality engines wouldn’t be nearly as powerful as the Reality Engines of ages past. So, they renounced to the idea of building giant structures and chose to use the principles to create Charms that would accomplish similar but limited effects. These were called Reality Revision Charms.

Reality Revision Charms border Sorcery and Necromancy in the power of their effects and, as such, have very high Ability and Moe requirements and extreme Moe costs. Every Ability has at least one Reality Revision Charm, except for Performance, for reasons detailed below. Reality Revision Charms can never be part of a Combo.

All Reality Revision Charms have a particular affinity with the Performance Charm Saintly Girl Territory. All Reality Revision Charms, when used within the boundaries of a Saintly Girl Territory conjured by the Gothic Lolita, the Moe cost of the Charms is reduced by the Lolita’s permanent Moe. In addition, some Reality Revision Charms have additional effects when used within a Saintly Girl Territory.


Elegant Euthanizer Charms


Priestess of the Night Charms


Keeper of Shadow Lore Charms


Dancer of Death Charms


Merchant of Death Charms


  • Some Investigation Charms use the concept of Dream Combat, which is exposed here


Character Creation

  1. Pick your Caste, as this determines your Favored Abilities.
  2. Attributes are divided into three groups--Physical, Social, and Mental. Pick one set as your Primary, one as Secondary, and one as Tertiary. You gain one free pip in every attribute, and then you get to divide 8, 6, and 4 pips respectively among your Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary categories.
  3. Pick your Favored Abilities. You get 5 Caste Abilities from your Caste and can pick five non-Caste Abilities to be favored.
  4. Spend your Ability Points. You get 25 ability points; you can spend them however you like, but at least 13 must be spent on Caste or Favored Abilities
  5. You get thirteen points of Backgrounds if you are a loyal Lolita; 5 if you are a renegade; use the standard corebook versions unless otherwise stated.
  6. Gothic Lolitas begin with one free pip in each Virtue. They may distribute 5 points among their Virtues. No virtue can go above three. Bonus points can raise them above this maximum.
  7. Pick a virtue flaw linked to your highest Virtue.
  8. Willpower is the sum of the Lolita's two highest virtues.
  9. You get 10 charms; at least 5 must come from Favored or Caste Abilities.
  10. Gothic Lolitas may spend up to 15 Bonus Points to raise anything.
    1. Attribute: 4
    2. Ability: 2 (1 if Favored)
    3. Background: 1 (2 if being raised over 3)
    4. Specialty: 1 (2 dice of specialty for 1 if connected to a Favored or Caste Ability)
    5. Virtue: 3
    6. Willpower: 2
    7. Essence: 7
    8. Charms: 5 (4 if in Favored Ability)
  11. Compute Essence:
    1. Peripheral: (Essence * 7) + WP + (Sum of all Virtues)
    2. Personal: (Essence * 3) + WP


Gothic Lolita Example Characters


Backgrounds

The Spies, Underworld Manse and Whispers (more like Ramblings in their case) backgrounds are as per Exalted: The Abyssals, pp. 134-6.


Lolita Lackeys

You command some number of the dead. Each type available costs a certain number of 'units'.

  • Zombies = 1 units
  • Soldiers = 3 units
  • Ghost = 5 units.
  • Seige Engine = 300 units
  • Common Warstrider = 900 units
  1. 15 units
  2. 75 units
  3. 300 units
  4. 1,500 units
  5. 3,000 units


Sugar-Daddy

Where's a Lolita without her old man? Probably on the run. This describes the closeness of the Lolita's relationship to the Lord of Cute Angst she serves. Renegades may not buy this; the bonus points it grants can be spent on: Artifact, Followers, Influence, Lolita Lackeys, Manse, Necromancy, Resources, Underworld Manse, or Ramblings, also Caste/Favored Abilities and Charms.

  1. You hardly ever see the old man, but boy does he whine about how you never write when you do. 2 extra bonus points.
  2. About a half-dozen times a year, he drops by or you go visit him. Still whining. 4 extra bonus points.
  3. About once a month, the two of you get together; he only whines a little about you not coming around enough. 6 extra bonus points.
  4. You and the old man hang out together frequently, maybe once a week, and talk about the old times and evil yet to be done. 9 extra bonus points.
  5. It's like you never left home. Maybe you never DID leave home. He trusts you with a lot; don't mess up and get your soul eaten. 12 extra bonus points.


Comments

I'm imagining the Lords of Cute Angst as being somewhat similar to the Negaverse Generals from Sailor Moon or the Masho from Ronin Warriors. Presumably there is a darker power filling the Beryl/Metallia role.

Part of me has this image of Gaiman's Death from Sandman as the ultimate boss of the Underworld, a perky, chipper, cute Death who all the Lords of Cute Angst are 'in love with', but they NEVER LISTEN when she tries to get them to lay off the living :) Alternately, we could have the NeverCute, who are the Not Fun At Alls who got slain during the revolt of the Exalteds. -- JohnBiles

I really think the Caste Powers need a revamp, especially the Merchants of Death and Keepers of Shadow Lore (you gave them the No Moon Caste Power! How sad is that!?). I do have a few ideas, if you're interested. I'll soon be posting my take on the Gothic Lolita's version of Resonance. Please look forward to it. -- Wings

The No Moon Caste Power = Rocks on Toast. And the Catgirls aren't using it... :) That being said, I like your alternate ideas, especially the Merchants of Death one. For the Keepers of Shadow Lore--Is this 'so scared they run in fear' or what? Does it have a mechanical game effect or is it just time to RP terror? All in all, though, great work!-- JohnBiles
The No Moon Caste power is very useful...if you're a sorcerer. It's almost like forcing every No Moon to eventually become a sorcerer, and that's lame in my opinion. As for the Keepers of Shadow Lore, I didn't come up with a mechanical effect, it's sort of like the Sparks' Anima Power (Glint in the Eye), implying that the target will have to change its adjust their actions to the (false) awareness that the Lolita knows everything about them. -- Wings
Righto! Looking forward to your next big chunk o' goodness, then! -- JohnBiles

Elegant Euthanatizer charms done! They look good; you write good charms, Wings. -- JohnBiles

Keepers of Shadow Lore Charms are done! Also introduced the concepts of Dream Combat and Reality Revision Charms, as well as added Archery, Brawl, Marital Arts, Melee, Thrown, Endurance, Investigation, Lore, Medicine and Occult Reality Revision Charms. I'll be on a business trip for a week, so I won't be able to work on the rest of the Charms . Does anyone want to take Character Creation, at least? I promise I'll finish the remainign Charms as soon as I return home. --Wings
I can see about doing character creation this week, yar. --JohnBiles
I actually found a computer and an Internet access in the middle of nowhere! Corrected Keepers of Shadow Lore Charms and Reality Revision Charms as suggested. I'll return home next Tuesday, so you'll have to wait a little more for the rest of the Charms. Will Wings sleep the next week? Wings doesn't think so. And then there's Necromancy, Artifacts, and I definitely have to make some example charas......*sigh* the things I do for Lolis...... :) -- Wings

Dancer of Death Charms finished! Yay! One more Caste to go! -- Wings

I'm happy to announce that Gothic Lolitas are now COMPLETELY PLAYABLE! YAY! --Wings

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