The Academy for Aspiring Heroes

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Most Recent Update

Update 11/13/2020: Fixed a few typos with Brisan’s pronouns and the electives, plus fixed an error in the stat menu.

You have finally gotten into your dream school, the Academy for Aspiring Heroes! Specialize in magic, combat, or a combination of both. Find love, learn new skills, or focus on your studies!

You were overjoyed when you received the letter telling you that your application to the Academy had been accepted. Now the day has finally arrived for you to head off to the school for your first year of classes.

Not everything is as it seems, however, and the past you thought you’d left behind isn’t as far away as you thought. Can you face your fears and the Old World at the same time? And what if the one person you never thought you’d see again has been with you the whole time?

So, I’ve been working on this for a bit. I finally finished Chapter 1! Now I have a demo and I’m ready to share! I bring you… The Academy for Aspiring Heroes! (Working title, but for now I like it.)

You can expect sporadic updates. Very. Sporadic. Chapters may change a lot, heck, the plot may completely switch directions… I have no outline and a very vague plot… heh. I don’t really plan, per se, I just write. I’m looking forward to sharing this with the world, though!

Bring me any and all feedback and suggestions! Typos, bugs, consistency errors, things I didn’t do well, things you’d like to see—if you’d like to see it or think I should do it differently, let me know. Character and plot suggestions are fine too if you have any. Like I said, I kinda just make it up as I go.

With that out of the way, have some details! Keep in mind I was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, so it’s kind of based on that.

Setting/World

It takes place in a fantasy world that is a combination of medieval and modern. For example, you might see someone wearing jeans and a hoodie, but the gun hasn’t been invented, so swords and bows are the most common weapons. For the most part, it’s the modern world in terms of culture, and medieval in terms of important technology (e.g. guns). Humans are the most common species by far, but other, rarer races like dwarves, elves, and halflings do exist.

The main setting is the Academy for Aspiring Heroes, or AAH: A boarding school that isn’t quite elite, but only lets in maybe 400-500 students a year. The application forms are released each summer. Anyone can apply, free of charge, and the forms are generally available at the local post office, readily available. You can choose to study Combat, Magic, or Magical Combat (think Bard, Ranger, or Paladin from D&D), and can specialize from there. Students learn “normal” subjects such as math and literature along with practicing their chosen Area of Study.

The AAH is a college, so the average student will go there from ages 18-22. However, they also offer a post-graduate program for extra training that lasts 2 years. You must have attended the normal program to attend this one, so most students just do it directly after graduation, so ages 22-24. A few students will attend afterwards, but this is rare.

Features
  • Play as female, male, or non-binary and pick your pronouns
  • Pick your Area of Study and electives
  • A variety of stats which define everything from your skills to your personality to your combat abilities
  • Find love and friendship with a variety of characters
Characters

I plan to have the majority of characters (those who are around your age, at least) be romanceable. You don’t determine your sexuality, just romance who you want. Romance will be extra on the side. I hope to have a diverse cast of ROs, of all genders (INCLUDING NON-BINARY) and races. Right now, there are only three characters.

Brisan Verdeschi
Gender variable, same as MC. Human. 18. Studying Magical Combat at the AAH.
Brisan is hotheaded, brash, very outgoing, and bold. They love socializing. They enjoy meeting new people and hanging out with friends. They are Cy’s childhood BFF and neighbor.

Cybeth “Cy” Bristo
Trans male. Human. 18. Studying Magic at the AAH.
Cy is quiet and shy, but his true self comes out when Brisan (or the MC, if they get to know him well enough) is around. He loves reading and is very intelligent. He also enjoys telling stories. He is Brisan’s childhood BFF and neighbor.

Ror’vann Nakamora
Female. Dwarf. 20. Studying Combat at the AAH.
Ror’vann is loud and proud. She’s very excitable and outgoing, loves people, and is the very definition of ADHD. She has a corgi named Nebar whom she loves to death. She doesn’t really have a brain-to-mouth “filter” and may be brutally honest or naive sometimes.

The demo can be found here.

Currently Done

Prologue
Chapter 1: The Academy

Update Log

11/12/2020. First released, with the Prologue and Chapter 1.
11/13/2020. Fixed a few typos with Brisan’s pronouns and the electives, plus fixed an error in the stat menu.

112 Likes
2

I have CCH meets Fantasy vibes

1 Like
3

Dang, I really like it!

Found one little mistake tho
(Can’t post photo)
"He rolls her eyes, smiling. "

1 Like
4

Looks pretty dang good. The only thing is the characters mentioning what they go by as far as pronouns, which is a bit jarring. Otherwise, I really enjoy where this is going.

5 Likes
5

This story has a lot of promise and I love the number of options we are presented with! I did have a few questions about the demo. Are you planning to give the readers a description of what magic in your game entails? Is it solely elemental or does it focus on aiding other characters? When romancing characters is the experience the same for different genders?
Something I noticed was that for the Public Speaking 101 the primary and secondary stats are charm and insight. When shown the confirmation page it said that the primary and secondary stats for Public Speaking 101 was agility and vitality. The stats are not matching up properly from the description page and confirmation page.

1 Like
6

The main thing that doesn’t seem to have worked exactly as you intended were Brisan’s pronouns, but other than that it all looks great! The premise, the customization, and the character interactions available so far are really good. Looking forward to more as, and when you post it. :grin:

1 Like
7

There is an error on line 170, it says no selectable options.

EDIT: Oh yeah, in the stats guide, the Athletics descriptions and vitality does have the same line. Is it an error or it’s just have the same meanings?
Both of them have "running for a long period of time."

1 Like
8

I wanna flog Brisan, tell me to be bloody nice for not liking Cy’s story much

5 Likes
9

You can go from necromancy? Cool. I like necromancy.

1 Like
10

There’s now a hotfix out!

For all of you mentioning the typos in Brisan’s pronouns and the Public Speaking 101 elective, yeah, that’s totally my fault. When making the giant elective list and the pronoun code (which is directly tied to choosing your gender identity), it was easier to copy paste the code from the first option and then edit the values. Looks like I missed a couple spots! Should be all good now.

Oopsies! When you’re in the prologue and go to the stat guide, there are no characters available to read about, so that error appeared. Now it’ll tell you there’s nobody to read about.

This is intentional. If you run a lot (Athletics), you can run far and fast; if you have really good endurance (Vitality), you can run longer. Sorry if it was a little confusing!

Thank you all for giving me feedback :heart: I’m so glad people are enjoying this little start of my game!

4 Likes
11

It’s really incredible I hate cliffhangers but I can’t wait to read more :grin:

1 Like
12

I really liked this so far! Tho I must say

you just haaad to do a cliffhanger didnt u :joy: now I want more to read!

1 Like
13

Like the story, but the forcing of pronoun, well it a bit forced. Just like a vegan that the second thing they say after their name is that is a vegan. To be a good story it has to blend in it.

14

What do you mean by the forcing of pronouns? Do you mean how you pick your pronouns? I personally thought that filling out the application to the Academy was a good way to set up your character and stats, but feedback is always great.

15

I believe it’s more referenced to the characters mentioning their pronouns after introducing themselves, that’s just not something that happens in a typical conversation and feels jarring.

16

Ah! This isn’t completely out of nowhere. With more and more people coming out as trans or non-binary, it’s becoming more common to introduce yourself with your pronouns. You won’t see this kind of thing everywhere, but it’s definitely real. That way nobody will assume. I wanted to include it in my story to add to the image of an accepting world.

8 Likes
17

An accepting world does not need to accentuate on the pronouns. This happen in our world becouse all new genders are still a new thing. In your world multiple genders are accepted, soo people should not explain all the pronouns of the their gender.

18

That’s actually a widespread misconception, and also highly off topic. Further discussion on this is best had in threads made for the purpose of discussing it. :slightly_smiling_face:

Much as I’d like to agree with your second point, Cy’s story highlighted how his parents didn’t believe him at first, so it is likely that their world isn’t any more advanced than ours in terms of a more accepting society. Or so it seemed to me. :thinking:

A better world for acceptance, perhaps, but still at the questioning stage in some ways.

3 Likes
19

Well Pinmat123 said the world is accepting, a single or more family does not dictate the world. I loved Cy story and I haven’t said anything against it. My was a tip for a better story building.

20

I think it could be more natural if someone used their pronouns while talking about/to them then for the MC to use them without the character in question having to tell the MC as part of their introduction, and if no one is around to do it the character would tell their pronouns if they think it mattered (a mysterious cloaked figure might say their pronouns, but a student might). It also wouldn’t be unnatural for some people to just let you assume their gender.

but, y’know, I’m no social science fella or whatever, so idk