Deucalion
Firebringer
Okay, so who here reads Paranatural? For those that don't: Paranatural is a humor/action webcomic by the extremely talented Zack Morrison, it has a fairly small but extremely devoted fanbase and I would personally say that it's one of the best things I've read in a very long time. Along with a great artistic style, Paranatural offers a varied cast, great characterization, some painfully good humor that tends to focus on winking pokes at various shounen tropes and some honestly emotionally gripping narrative. So you should probably read it if you don't already. But aside from that, Paranatural also features a very compelling setting with some familiar, yet oddly refreshing ideas that give a lot of possibilities and open tons of opportunities for creativity. What I'm saying is, the Paranatural world would make a great roleplaying setting.
The gist of it is this: The setting focuses on a certain kind of people, so-called "Spectrals", that in one way or another have the ability to see the world of the dead, in a way. They can see ghosts, the souls of the dead still in our world and they can see spirits, very odd and mysterious creatures that exist solely on this second plane of existence. These Spectrals soon begin to develop and learn how to manipulate Spectral Energy, a "tinted vapor" as the comic describes it, a form of colored energy that can be turned solid, used for energy attacks and shaped in all manners of ways if the Spectral can concentrate hard enough. All Spectrals also have an unique color for their Spectral Energy that goes in a complete spectrum, with black, gray and white thrown into the mix. Spirits and ghosts, being spectral entities themselves, also have Spectral Energy, which is a noteworthy detail since, when spirits are mortally wounded, they don't die right away, but instead turn into small weak "wisp" forms. As a desperate measure to stay alive, these spirits can possess objects or people, anchoring themselves to the world until they gather enough Spectral Energy to resume their normal form again. Objects possessed this way are known as "Tools". If a Spectral finds a Tool of a spirit with a Spectral Energy color close to their own, they can tie themselves to that Tool, forming a form of symbiotic relationship. The spirit gains Spectral Energy from the Spectral to regain power, while the Spectral gets to use the spirit's unique powers through the Tool for the duration of this cooperation. More rarely, spirits possess people to create "Mediums", Spectrals that can use spirit powers with their own bodies, but are bound to their spirit until it wills itself out. Spectral and bound spirit can also communicate with one another through a phenomena known as HSP, or "Heightened State of Perception".
With all of this baggage, Spectrals form and break relationships, deal with all manners of supernatural or paranormal (paranatural, if you will) activity and generally get into all sorts of trouble. Maybe even pacifying some evil spirits along the way if you're lucky. You can read up in more detail on the wiki.
So with that massive rant out of the way, I would really like to try and roleplay in this setting! The idea I'm balling with right now is a separate town from Mayview (the central town of the comic) with plots partially made among the players as we go and partially directed by yours truly for a bigger overarching story. So, read the comic! If you already have, is there anyone that would be interested in this?
