Overview

MAGICAL BURST-1 is a setting based on the tabletop by Ewen Cluney; a 'dark magical girl' setting inspired heavily by Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The on-MUSH setting itself concerns Natsuto City, a coastal near-future metropolis where a thousand-year secret war is being waged.

Only just recently Blossomed, Natsuto (and the world around it) is just barely becoming aware of the larger universe(s) outside, but remains quite blissfully oblivious to the secret lurking in its own midst. Monsters roam the night, strange nightmares called "Youma" that lay down boundaries to claim a space for themselves, twisting it into a magic-addled landscape where they can dwell in safety and prey on those who wander in. The mysterious creatures called 'Guardians' are all that stands between these mad magical spiders and their depredations - or rather, the magical girls they create are.

They call themselves many things - 'magical girls', 'heroines', 'witches', 'senshi', the list goes on. What's important is that they are girls who can call on a transformation that takes its form from what's in their heart, and grants them the power of magic. The might to land fierce blows no mortal could throw, the toughness to survive terrible assaults an ordinary person would not. A magical element or ability they can call on, a weapon to wield against the Youma. Their gift responds to the call of their Heart, to the fire of their Fury, or to the sheer willpower to reach out and command their Magic directly. And every girl is told at the start - "If you gather twelve Oblivion Crystals from twelve felled youma, you can yield up your power in exchange for any one wish, if you so choose."

But it is a fickle magic, and no power comes without price. As magical girls fight on, they begin to notice things are... odd. Strange swings in mood, peculiar effects on the world around them. And reaching too deep, pushing too hard, can have... consequences. It's not the kind of 'gift' that lends itself to a normal life. Is the granting of one wish worth the price? Is the power to protect people?

Moreover, there are so many unanswered questions. Just what are the Youma? Where do they come from? If the Guardians know, they're not telling. They're also rather tight-lipped about the mysterious "Executioners", unknown magical girls of great might and great bloodthirst. And for that matter, what are the Guardians themselves?

But the most important question may be, "Where are all the magical girls?" For the city of Natsuto finds itself bereft of nearly all its protectors. Only a couple beleaguered girls defend the city, and they're new transfers; no one remains to explain that large crater in the park, save for the enigmatic Guardian of Natsuto, Vulpes ex Machina. And he, of course, isn't talking.

And now they've been linked to the World Tree. Now the citizens of Natsuto are forced to confront a myriad of other worlds filled with strange things. A people so used to the mundane will be exceptionally slow to trust outsiders, and while there's little they can do about people just wandering in, it will be some time before they're willing to open formal relations with another world. Meanwhile, a small fringe of internet users claiming strange goings-on in Natsuto itself will find they suddenly have much more traction. Under the counsel of Vulpes ex Machina, the two remaining senshi in the city will be acting far more cautiously, for the sake of both stalling their own world's discovery of their existence, and avoiding deeper outside scrutiny. But they might just not have a choice.

And of course, there's nothing stopping the Guardians from creating or bringing in more...

Youma

A youma is a creature which was once human, but has had their magical energy driven out of control, warping them into a predatory beast that often defies common sense. This is less like a 'disease' or a 'corruption', and more like a magical 'cancer', their own magical energy twisting them into a monster that twists its surroundings in turn. They are creatures that act largely on instinct and hunger.

When a Youma selects a hunting ground, it layers its magical 'Web' over the surrounding terrain, creating a second layer of reality. Most people will not enter the Web proper, but rather pass through it in normal space, their life force slowly being drained through the filter of their emotions. People who spend more than a short time in a Youma's Web area will find themselves growing more and more emotionally unstable or stunted. Every now and then, a Youma will grow hungry enough to draw a person in entirely; even if they don't, reality often doesn't quite seem to behave right within the boundaries of a Web, making it possible for people to wind up injured or disappear entirely... all of which would just serve to feed the youma.

Executioners

No magical girl is quite sure who the Executioners are, or where they come from, but everyone has stories. Stories of a mysterious girl with the strength and magic of several regular senshi, half-mad and exceptionally dangerous. Of a 'newcomer' who appeared to deal with a particularly troublesome Youma, only to turn around and try her hardest to take the other magical girls out as well. Of an unstoppable force of a witch, tracking down and killing some poor girl who was on a Guardian's watch list for empowering.

It is this last behavior in particular that has earned them the moniker of 'Executioners'; it's not at all uncommon for the Guardian of a particular region to assign a magical girl to guard a "potential", just in case the Executioners are aware of her and coming for her. They seem to be acting on someone's orders, but certainly feel no need to explain themselves.

Magical Girls

Every magical girl within this theme has a few common traits.

First, all of them have a TRANSFORMATION. These can vary widely, but will always be something fancy and stand-out, and usually thematic with their powers to some extent. Transforming boosts all physical attributes into the superhuman range; even the slowest magical girl can outrun an Olympic sprinter, and even the weakest magical girl could make a weightlifter jealous. Transforming happens instantly, unless the user wishes otherwise, and typically involves some expression of the girl's element. It is tied to some form of trinket or pendant, but attempting to steal it is pretty much useless - it'll just return to its user.

Second, every senshi has a WEAPON. A mage's staff, a pair of massive smashing gauntlets, a gunblade; every girl has some armament they can call forth. It's always one suited to them, one that they can learn to use intuitively and quickly, since it doesn't come with free training or instinctive skill. It's almost always a weapon that synergizes with the girl's element or her special power as well, though there are rare exceptions.

Third, all magical girls have an ELEMENT. Be it one of the classical elements such as 'fire' or 'lightning' or 'darkness', or something a little more odd, like 'ribbons' or 'bats', every magical girl has some emblematic thing which they can conjure and manipulate in battle. The extent of their manipulation and the range at which they can do so will depend on the specific girl, but everyone has something they can use as part of their core fighting style.

Fourth, every girl has a POWER. Some special ability unique to the girl, some 'trick' or superpower that sets them apart. Imbuing objects with their element, phasing through walls, echolocation, the number of possible tricks are many and varied, making it dangerous to enter a fight with a senshi until one knows what she can do.

Finally, all of them can SENSE REALITY-WARPING MAGIC. Youma warp reality by their very nature; in order to hunt them, every magical girl of this world can sense when magic alters the laws or shape of reality. Creating pocket dimensions, rewriting the physical laws in an area, shrinking effective distances, anything which warps existence itself will trip this. Simply 'conjuring fire' isn't enough, but magic which 'lowers the ignition point of objects' or 'makes everything flammable' might set it off. This sense is directional, can pick up relative intensity, and can even locate entrances or 'seams' in pocket dimensions. This specifically only functions with magic, not technology or psychic powers, and comes across as a feeling of something 'twisted' or 'wrong' to most girls.

One final note - a senshi's magic is an expression of her soul and her personality, something which 'feels right' for her. Everything about her powers should suit her as a person in some way, even if she doesn't feel it does.

Overcharge

Every power has a price. Senshi of MB-1 use magic that is powered and controlled by their emotions. Unforunately, this magic is inherently a bit... unstable. It may surge unpredictably, or a girl may deliberately push it past its normal limits; doing so leaves a residue on the senshi's soul, called OVERCHARGE, influenced by precisely how they control their powers.

There are a few simple rules for how a girl gains Overcharge:
- When you spend a point of Edge to fight at a higher tier for a scene, or to otherwise use your powers 'past their limits' during the scene (such as spending Edge on an Objective), take a point of Overcharge.
- When you use a great big cinematic magical girl finisher of some sort, take a point of Overcharge.
- When you spend a significant time fighting hard (not necessarily 'breaking limits', but constant fighting at full strength), or otherwise using your powers at high output or Doing A Cool Thing(tm), flip a coin. On tails, take a point of Overcharge.

Overcharge caps out at 6 points. At the start of any scene where you have overcharge, roll 1d6. If the roll is equal or below your total Overcharge (i.e. if your Overcharge is at 2, and you roll a 1 or 2), you experience Fallout at some point during that scene. The severity depends on how much Overcharge you have; one point of Fallout might last only a couple rounds and be relatively light, while six might last more than one scene and be particularly intense.

Experiencing Fallout automatically reduces your Overcharge back to 0, but this doesn't prevent you from incurring more Overcharge while experiencing it.

So how do you remove Overcharge without experiencing Fallout? It's simple - 'do a social scene with someone your character considers a friend'. This reduces your Overcharge by 1 at the end of the scene (though you do still need to make a Fallout check at the start of the scene). Overcharge and Fallout are intended to foster RP, so get out there and be sociable. Friends are a magical girl's most important resource!

Note that, while you have Overcharge, your character may 'feel' it to some extent, as a form of unease in the back of their mind, or a 'tension of the soul', or something along those lines. It won't disrupt their daily life, but they will know something is up.

Fallout

The nature of Fallout depends on how you've been using your magic recently:
- Girls who power their magic with positive or supportive emotions (such as love, protectiveness, mirth, or happiness) experience HEART fallout, a surge of positive emotions of some sort. Examples include suddenly feeling aghast and weeping at the possibility of hurting someone, laughing so hard you can't do anything else, falling madly in love with someone; anything derived from positive or supportive emotion.
- Girls who run on negative or aggressive emotions (like anger, competitiveness, pride, or sadness) experience FURY fallout. They may suddenly collapse into a dejected wreck, feel utter loathing for themselves or their allies, act with absolute recklessness; if it stems from a negative or aggressive emotion, it's on the table.
- There are some girls who brush aside their emotions and control their magic directly via willpower. They will experience MAGIC fallout, a direct warping of the world around them in some way, creating some sort of strange, problematic phenomenon. Their shoes might turn to liquid and flow off their feet. Electronic objects might stop working in their hands. A cat may start talking in their vicinity. Their personal gravity might switch off at an inopportune moment. They may suddenly phase through the floor to a room below. Their skin might turn green. This is never permanent, but always inconvenient and never helpful.

Whatever the Fallout is, it comes and goes like flipping a light switch, and the magical girl will know afterwards that those emotions or events were very much not normal. This is probably pretty disconcerting afterwards!

Fallout should always be something that causes difficulty for the senshi, and often something that makes them difficult to be around. However, always be considerate of the scene you're at and the people attending it; make sure you work with everyone to do something that's interesting, not frustrating!

The World of Magical Burst-1