Themes

Stories & Secrets

Bothwell is primarily a place of learning. Certainly, that learning is in magic, and as with all educational institutions, much of that magic and learning is stored and catalogued in books within its library and classrooms. Bothwell 7 will have an emphasis on stories, the power of words, and how history is recorded and remembered. The three Heads have varying natures and backgrounds, and as such the the game have multiple layers of focus, depending on the Head you speak to and the storylines you follow – there will likely be play focusing storytelling, secrets, folklore, puzzles, performance, memory, and consequences of past mistakes. This theme is designed to encourage roleplaying surrounding writing your own ending, collaborative storytelling, covering and revealing of secrets, and how history is recorded

Knowledge has its price and its reward

The students and staff of Bothwell are known for their intrepid and adventurous natures, and often this approach leads them into exciting and sometimes dangerous situations. This curiosity always has consequences, both positive and negative. It can be perilous to seek the truth, but also vastly rewarding. This theme is intended to remind us all that seeking knowledge can have a cost, but nothing of worth comes through inactivity.

The value of individuality & personality

Bothwell educates not only through the lessons that its staff teach, but also by allowing its students the space to understand themselves and their place in Witchard society. It is generally an institution that places value on the intrinsic nature of its people, rather than their status or place in the world. Where discrimination exists, it is frowned upon by the school authorities. This theme seeks to encourage you to focus more on stories about the personality and values of your character than their blood status or any wondrous magical powers that they might have, though these themes may be included in your character’s stories.

Feel

To support our themes, we have prepared some short phrases to try to communicate the feel that we expect the school to have for this run. Again, there will be room for other stories, but paying attention to these ideas will allow your plots and characters to fit the broader feel of the game. 

• Personal rather than epic – the stakes for the stories in this run may have a significant effect upon the people in the school, but are not going to concern the end of the world.
• Classes are important – Bothwell is a prestigious school and attending it is a privilege for most. Learning is its most important function.
• Everyday drama – relationships between friends, romances, youthful missteps, secrets, and low stakes adventures are the expected interpersonal dramas for this run.
• Victories & failures are significant but small – successes and mistakes are important to our characters, but are not likely to be grand or world shattering.
• The Library is sacred – Bothwell’s library is home to a millennia of magic recorded in the pages that line its walls; you’d be wise to remember that your own history may lie in there too…
• Witchard authorities are a long way away – Bothwell runs itself, is governed by itself and is staunchly independent. The Guardian Order and the rest of the authorities in the lore will leave it alone to get on with its job as a school for this run.
• Investigation, Revelation, and Righting Wrongs – This is NOT a comedy run, and The Twilight Shift is in full effect. However, the themes will tend towards the lighter side rather than the grimdark, and darker themes will come out exclusively at night. In the daytime: think Scooby Doo rather than Sherlock Holmes or CSI. At night be ready for the thematic material to delve into trickier subjects, like memory loss, betrayal, the rewriting of your story, and solving darker mysteries.

Expectations

To try to be clear on some of the expectations we have for the game and its characters we offer you these thoughts on them.

• Low fantasy, few magical creatures – This is a game about Witchards at a school and intended to be populated by these. We will be limiting the numbers of magical creatures among students and staff – but you will still meet them in classes!
• Witchards are innately special, not because of their family or situation – whilst we are not limiting play on bloodlines or heritage, the emphasis will be on the specialness of your character’s personality and stories, not their connections. That means that while your character’s family may fancy themselves important, if your character breaks rules at Bothwell, they won’t be bailed out by an aunt from the Guardian Order.
• Threats are at most school wide, not world wide – low stakes threats are the goal.
• Bothwell is a sanctuary of safety – death is not a thing. Please don’t write stories that culminate in the death of your character.
• Oppression where it exists is low level and personal – the school authorities encourage a welcoming environment. Bullying does happen, but is likely to be punished if seen, so be sneaky about it – or let yourself be caught!