Great answers, too! In regards to elements again - I know it's not finalised - but you mentioned that the maids are assigned to teams or squads for their education - parties, if you will. Does each member of a 'party' have to have a unique element? If so, what if two players both want a particular element? How would you resolve that issue?
I won't mandate that each maid on the team wield a different primary element, but hopefully the options I come up with for all of you will be attractive enough that each of you wants to try something different. Mixing and matching primary and secondaries will also allow you some variation even if two maids pick the one of the same elements. Just remember that if you all pick the same type of element, it becomes very easy for someone to take advantage of your imbalance...
What does an average week look like for a student at a Lyceum, or even a day?
Maids are expected to start the day pretty early. Most maid students will wake up around 6 and begin their morning rituals. Proper presentation dictates a certain amount of attention paid each day to grooming, personal hygiene, attire, etc. Usually by 7, the maids have all reported to the kitchens where they fix their own breakfast. Cooking breakfast, setting up the dining hall, and breaking it down/cleaning doubles as a lesson in domesticity; usually the recipes they attempt are healthy, energy rich, and delicious as to be expected; the plus side (or downside depending on their cooking ability) is that they get to eat the result, only incentivizing improvement. The same goes for lunch and dinner.
AM hours are usually devoted to lectures regarding the theory of Adalstier manipulation, history, philosophy, etc. The Lyceum wants its students to not only be good soldiers, but educated and well rounded in general. Lectures are given by a number of senior faculty, not all of which are maids themselves. Males, although they cannot be maids (or butlers as it were) themselves, are at no great disadvantage when it comes to being scholars regarding the nature of Adalstier and its manipulation and application.
After lunch, students undergo practical trials and training, these largely supervised by veteran maids. Most maids look forward to this part of the day the most as they learn to wield their Adalstier Engines and weapons of choice in tandem. Physical injuries do invariably occur, but the veteran maids are always on hand and alert to protect the well being of the students from the exercise and from each other.
After dinner, students are free to use their remaining evening to study, pursue extra training with their mentors, attend to their personal quarters, go out to explore the city, or even just loaf around. There's a fairly soft "curfew" at midnight, but in all honesty, nobody is going to send a maid for disciplinary action if they stay out later. The rigors of the next day are usually more than enough to remind students that taking care of themselves is the only way they can be strong enough to take care of their duties.
Like our calendar, there are 5 weekdays and 2 weekends. Maid students are encouraged to use one weekend day to better themselves through independent study/tutoring and catch up, albeit at a more relaxed pace than during the week. The other day they are encouraged to rest and pursue leisures as they will. Again, the whole idea is to encourage maids to take care of themselves so as to have the ability to take care of others.
Can we expect conspiracies from without or within to bring down the Barrier City from the start, or will this be a little more mundane? Or even more like a slow build-up to a thrilling conclusion? I've no preference, but I thought it'd be nice to get an idea of where you're aiming on the 'epic' scale.
You won't be dropped into the action right away. Things are quite optimistic and stable at the get go. Although events beyond your control are operating in the background, you'll have no way of knowing that and from the perspective of your characters, it's business as usual. Of course, that would be totally boring to just keep going on with, so yes, it's a safe bet that within a few of the early sessions, historical and world changing events will begin to unfold and your maids will be caught right in the middle of it. I can only hope the ending is "thrilling." That would be nice~
Some of the traits you can have in Maid RPG are quite out there, like catgirls, soul reapers, and vampires. No mechanical effect or anything, but are these things that exist in your world?
CATGIRLS!?! Uh... yeah... Well, as disappointing as it is, I think we'll probably work with just baseline humans unless that's a huge problem for everyone. I'm not adverse to having other "races" of peoples necessarily. After all, it's sort of a lazy cop out if the catgirls and what not have the same culture/society as everyone else. Then again it's equally lazy to just bar them. OK fine, catgirls
maybe. Other types of... peoples, negotiable. You suggest, I'll think about it seriously, although I make no promises at the present (Bracing for a mountain of demanding PMs...)
Tell us more about the airships!
Still working on a fun name for them. For now, the leading candidate is "Zephyrs". Zephyrs come in all shapes and sizes, although there are elements of commonality between all of them, namely having a relatively large Adalstier core to keep them afloat and supply power to the ship like a reactor. Zephyrs also have large, scintillating wings (the number of pairs depends on the size of the craft) that ripple with color as they fly. Some Zephyrs are large, ponderous constructs, almost like massive blimps. These usually carry cargo and heavy equipment and it can take them days to weeks to reach other Barrier Cities depending on how far away they are. There are smaller passenger craft too for those who wish to travel between Barrier Cities on business or otherwise. More or less similar to international flights in our modern day, these Zephyrs take hours to days to reach their destination, although passage aboard them is relatively expensive and the flight, less than comfortable unless you've really got cash.
Lastly, there are military Zephyrs. These also range from giant troop/cargo transports to small, nimble craft. Military Zephyrs are easy to spot due to their sharp, angular and polyhedral frames that are more reminiscent of attack helicopters in our universe versus the smooth, bulbous frames that most civilian craft adopt. Maids would be most familiar with the tiny types of Zephyrs which most closely resemble VTOL aircraft. These custom built Zephyrs are immediately recognizable as maid transports and have oversized Adalstier cores that allow incredibly fast insertion and extraction. Maids trained to fly such craft actually use their powers while flying in order to achieve aeronautical feats that no conventional pilot would be capable of. Theoretically, they could attempt to pilot any Zephyr like so, but few would be able to withstand the stress without the VTOL's specially built frames.
Uhm... I might be losing something - but what, in practical terms, makes a maid superior than a normal trained soldier? Reflexes? Strength? You say they're able to manipulate elements, though I assume that, in order to be useful in a military context, these abilities are really impressive on their scale. I assume you mean "traditional" elements (Earth, Water and whatnot)...?
I'm very glad you asked this Jynx, because in truth, maids are fundamentally human. They get tired like everyone else. They bleed like everyone else. And they can die like everyone else. Without Adalstier, they'd be just the same as anyone else. With the appropriate combat and martial training of course. The trick is that they're able to manipulate fundamental constants of nature and physics to give themselves an edge, sometimes a quite overwhelming one, over anyone who can't. I'll give you a small sneak peek (and this is subject to change, mind you).
Eli's elemental alignment is to Distortion. She's able to manipulate the fabric of space-time around herself or other objects that may be nearby. As an example of an application of her ability, she can enter a small personal bubble of distorted space-time in which her personal time is far faster than anyone else's. To an outside observer, she'd be capable of very impressive feats of speed and reaction. Obviously, this would be bad news for any baddies that have decided to piss her off. Having said that, many of the creatures and automaton maids are called upon to deal with are still incredibly dangerous despite their abilities; although it sounds overpowered, overconfidence in their own abilities has been the death knell of many a maid team out in the badlands.
Is there a proper way to counter a maid, without recurring to other maids? I assume there're at least some studies on their particular biology and attempts to replicate it, or instruments to disable their powers. If there weren't, the maids themselves could easily overthrow any civil government and run the cities for themselves (assuming they don't already do that...).
Also a great question. It sort of gets back at the answer to your first question too. Remember that the maids are human. Poison, a knife in the back, a bullet to the head; there are plenty of ways they can be killed. Also remember that for each maid, there are hundreds if not thousands of conventional soldiers, police, etc. Saying the maids could overthrow the civil government would be like saying the special forces of any given country could stage a coup; sure they might neutralize the head of the government, but how are they going to hold their ground against the entire military? It's also worth reminding everyone that government is pretty stable on Antiope. People are happy, the future is looking bright. Maids aren't a disenfranchised, disgruntled, and repressed aspect of society; they're heroines and public servants. Don't worry, I'm sure everything's totally fine~
There have been studies on maid biology, although every attempt to replicate it has failed miserably. There's enough known that it's not inconceivable certain countermeasures have been developed against maid opponents~ How effective they are and what's the nature of these countermeasures is, of course, secret.
Also... It might sound quite stupid, but... Is this gift only for girls and is there a particular reason for that, other than "it's maids"?
Not stupid at all. Unless someone strongly objects, we'll be running with the idea that the Gift is only found in the fairer sex, for whatever reason. So basically "it's maids." Now if someone is going to make a huge stink about it, I would roll my eyes, sigh heavily, and let them make a butler. But come on... it's Maid RPG. Sort of.
On Barrier Cities: Different Barrier Cities have distinctly different cultural values and ambitions, often stemming from the nature of the craft they sprung up around and whose crews the inhabitants mostly descend from. One Barrier City that formed around the ruins of a First juggernaut war vessel, for example, has a more spartan, militant culture with compulsory military service and the like. They also undertake far more eradication campaigns against hostile life/errant machinery in the areas surrounding their city in comparison to other cities which may focus more on defense. Contrast this with a Barrier City that rose from a supply ship. These folks like making money and live far more comfortably and richly than most others thanks to the stockpiles their ancestors crashed with and used to build their city. They probably devote a lot of their efforts to becoming the largest economic and manufacturing hub in the area. These cultural distinctions do flavor the different Lyceums around the world as their administration may have different priorities/paradigms behind their training and use of maids, although the major points about maids we discussed earlier remain in common for all Lyceums.
Although conflict would seem to be inevitable, again, there's very little motivation to actually engage in warfare or direct confrontation, economically or otherwise. Also, note that the Lyceums, although duty bound to be supportive of the civil government, are technically neutrally aligned with their own internal directors and the like. It's safe to say that even if some crazy dictator took the reins of a Barrier City's civil government and declared war that the Lyceum in his/her own Barrier City would probably put him or her down for the good of the people. Likewise, a Lyceum couldn't simply stage a coup for all the reasons above. Checks and balances; and it's worked great so far, both parties knowing they have far more to gain with each other than against one another. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, it's probable a single Barrier City moving against another would immediately result in the rest of the world and all their associated Lyceums joining together to neutralize the aggressor. Yup. Peace in our time~
