The Saint Hilary-Horovitz High
School
The Saint Hilary-Horovitz High School Of Greater Tokyo is a private academy set on a hill overlooking Tokyo Bay. Where in Tokyo it actually is is up to you -- you don't have to be specific if you don't want to be. If your players insist, tell them they live in the Chibi District (Chibi=Superdeformed). It's on a hill, and it's not too far from where your characters live. It's also an exclusive private school that caters only to the best students, or at least that's what your parents were led to believe. Because of this it has a disproportionate number of foreign students, both non-Japanese humans and non-human aliens. A few students recieve scholarships, so that not everyone in the school is rich.
Students are required to wear uniforms that consist of black pants and shoes, a white shirt, a black tie and coat for boys, and for the girls, a white blouse with sailor-styled collar, black skirt, kerchief, a short black coat, white tights and black pumps.
The school is still nominally Catholic. The mascot is the Black Adder, and their rivals in all major sports are the St. Lidwina Demon Skaters (a school named after the patron Saint of skaters, but that's another story).
History Of Saint Hilary-Horovitz High
As the story goes, in the late 19th century there was a missionary in Tokyo named Ralph Villa-Lobos who claimed to be a Portuguese Priest. He was often seen in the company of his friend, Rabbi Levi Horovitz, reputed to be the first (and possibly only) Hassidic Jewish Missionary in Japan. It happened that one day the two friends were hiking up a hill and discussing religion, when a snake lept up and bit the Rabbi on the leg. The Rabbi hardly felt the bite, and it was not a poisonous snake, but Padre Villa-Lobos fainted dead away. The next thing the Rabbi knew, his friend was rolling head over heels down the hillside.
The Padre crashed to a halt against a large rock and lay still. Rabbi Horovitz climbed carefully down to his friend. Just as Horovitz reached him, the Padre sat up straight. "I've had a vision from God!" he exclaimed. "I must build a school on this very site!"
Which he did, despite everyone's objections. He named it after Saint Hilary, the patron Saint of Snake Bite Victims, in honor of his Jewish friend. The Rabbi did not take kindly to this honor, as he was neither Catholic nor much of a victim. It's rumored that his ghost haunts the hallways of the school, complaining about the fact that his name still appears in large type on the sign out front and on all school documents.
The Catholic Church has no record of any priest named Father Ralph Villa-Lobos. They assume that he was a fraud. In any event, the school has passed through several hands, and is currently owned and run by a small group of wealthy Tokyo businessmen, known only as the mysterious Board Of Directors. None of the students know who these people are, nor do they know the true history of the school (until they tell the gamemaster they're researching the school's history).
The School Building
School Offices
The Gym and Playfields
The Stage and Prop Storage
The Boiler Room and Maintinence Closets
There are supplies closets all over the school, and the janitor, Jackie Chueng, is fond of leaping from the nearest one in times of emergency. There will be a nock on the door from -inside- a nearby closet. One of the villians will invariably answer, whereupon Jackie yells "Suplise!" and proceeds to attack. This, of course, can be deemed worthy of a bonk in and of itself.
The Classrooms
Hallways and lockers
The Vending Machines
Little Boys & Girls rooms
The restrooms are large, tiled and clean, each with several stalls, several sinks, a window (not clear) to the outside that can be used as an emergency entrance or exit, and full-length mirrors for no apparent reason.
Library & Copy Center
Computer Labs
Science Labs
Home Economics Room
The Steam Tunnels Below The School
Beneath the school are miles and miles of steampipe tunnels, with entrances and exits all over the school grounds and various places within the city. It is possible for the students to wander forever in the steam tunnels without finding their way out, but inevitably all paths lead to the boiler room. The janitor (Jackie or Al) is the only person who can unerringly find his way through the maze of tunnels without getting lost.
If your players are wandering through the steam tunnels, you might use this random encounter chart to determine what they find or run into:
1) Seven dwarves. They carry pickaxes and lanterns and walk along whistling a familiar tune about whistling. Their names are Dumpy, Slappy, Stumpy, Drippy, Dorky, Bob and Vengeful, and they work for a paltry wage in the service of their foreman, Zno White. If followed they will come to a mining elevator and head down, far, far below, to begin their mining.
2) Janitor Al or Jackie.
3) Zeke the star quarterback. He's been lost since halftime of the championship game in 1956, which the school lost, largely because they were without their star quarterback.
4) A gnome.
5) A dragon.
6) A shambling casserole monster.
7) A lost French Foreign Legion Patrol with no sense of direction.
8) Bones of dead students.
9) Old textbooks, test scores, etc.
10) Genie lamp.
11) Dragon's treasure in an old supplies closet.
12) Old supplies closet.
13) A yearbook from the future.
14) The furnace room.
15) Science Experiment gone horribly wrong. (A misshapen monster).
16) Biology Experiment gone horribly wrong. (A mutant frog).
17) Chemistry Experiment gone horribly wrong. (An altered creature who was once human).
18) Woodshop Experiment gone horribly wrong. (Creature made of wood nailed together).
19) Math Experiment gone horribly wrong. (What?).
20) English Literature Experiment gone horribly wrong. (Creature dissects poetry for your listening pleasure).
21) A Live action RPG club in the middle of a big battle.
22) Superfly. (My friend Sky thought this would be funny, don't ask me why!).
23) Any other suggestions?
School Clubs
The School Ninja Club does not officially exist. The class is not officially on the schedule, and you can't officially sign up for it.
The Teachers
The teachers of St. Hilary-Horovitz High are now listed here. It's just easier that way.
It's about time I get some NPC characters up here for you to use! I'm still working on the description for my campaign setting (the school and surrounding area) but just to give you a little info, it's an old formerly Catholic private school in a near-future Neo-Tokyo. Tokyo has been destroyed and rebuilt, which gives me a lot of lattitude in deciding what the city is really like. It's about 30 years in the future, earth has made contact with the rest of the galaxy, and our private high school has not only native Japanese students but quite a few foreigners and aliens attending. Some of the faculty are still part of the Catholic clergy, but not all, and in general it's a typical private high school.
I hope my making this a "semi" Catholic school doesn't offend anyone. I just wanted a private school that had some significant western influences, and this is where I went. An entire write-up of the school will be uploaded soon; maybe it will make more sense then. I also have more teachers coming (including a few aliens), some of the students, and places of interest from the surrounding neighborhood. For now, here are some of the teachers that I already have worked up:
Emoto Chairo
Age: 55
Height: 5 foot 11 inches
Weight/Build: Thin/160 lbs
Sex: Male
Hair: White, uncombed
Eyes: brown, expressive
Nationality: Japanese
Position: Science Teacher
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (Certified Genius!) 6
Bod: (Old Science Geek) 1
Relationship With Others: (Respected Weirdo) 3
Luck: (Very) 5
Drive: (Mr. Magoo) 1
Looks: (Research Scientist) 2
Cool: (Perpetually confused look) 3
Bonk: (Easy target) 2
Powers: None
Knacks: Run Like Heck, Lucky Break
Traits: Weird Science +6, Know Science Stuff +4
Chairo Sensei is a brilliant and absent-minded scientist who, for reasons no one can quite fathom, is teaching Science in an obscure private high school. He's blind as a bat without his thick glasses, and with them he's still very nearsighted. His hair is pure white and never combed, giving him a perpetual just-stuck-his-finger-in-a-light-socket look. His clothes are likewise always disheveled, his socks never match, and he always smells faintly of formaldehyde. In short, he's a classic absent-minded professor with a bit of mad scientist thrown in, a sort of Japanese Doc Brown (from Back To The Future).
It's rumored that Chairo Sensei has a huge basement filled with strange, experimental equipment. It's said that some students have visited his place and were never heard from again.
Chairo Sensei is prone to carrying odd scientific gizmos in his pockets, like a body-swapping gun or an ecto (ghost) detector. He always wears a white lab coat over very rumpled clothing. He usually doesn't even know what's in his pockets.
Sister Hanako Yamaguchi
Age: 29
Height: 5 foot 1 inch
Weight: 110 lbs.
Sex: Female
Hair: Dyed blonde
Eyes: brown, but uses blue contact lenses
Nationality: Japanese
Position: Homeroom/Language and Grammar Teacher
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (vapid - too many drug trips) 2
Bod: (weak) 2
Relationship With Others: (Always friendly) 4
Luck: (Lucky to be alive) 3
Drive: (A Deadhead Van) 3
Looks: (She still has it) 4
Cool: (Permenantly laid back) 6
Bonk: (Delayed reaction) 4
Powers: None
Knacks: Know about the sixties +3, Quote Walt Witman and Alan Ginsberg +2, March holding protest sign +2
Traits: Really laid back, always upbeat and cheerful
Sister Yamaguchi is a child of the sixties, never mind that she's too young to have experienced them and lives on the wrong side of the world. She manages to look and act as much like a blonde-haired flower child as possible. Although a nun, her clothing and accessories often involve peace symbols and psychodelic tye-dying, and she drives a classic flower-decorated Dead Head VW bus. Although she is neither a good example of a nun nor a completely coherent student, she has the ability to weather almost any chaotic situation with a remarkable degree of calm. Clearly, if drugs have not ravaged her brain, then she was born so mellow that rather than crying she just told the doctor, "Hey, peace, man. It's cool."
Sister Yamaguchi is the homeroom teacher of the player characters.
Brother Hayao Tanaka
Age: 55
Height: 5 foot 8 inches
Weight: 138 lbs
Sex: Male
Hair: black, balding
Eyes: brown, tired
Nationality: Japanese
Position: Hall Monitor/Truant Officer
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (delusional) 3
Bod: (slow and weak) 2
Relationship With Others: (Ignorable) 3
Luck: (not very) 2
Drive: (passable) 3
Looks: (older than he is) 3
Cool: (looses it immediately) 1
Bonk: (swoons easily) 1
Powers: None
Knacks: Talk Forever Without Doing Anything +5, Notice Stuff +6, Harangue +4
Traits: Whiney, Complainative, Talkative, Delusional
Brother Tanaka lives in a world where he is a lethal killing machine with a hair trigger. He will explain this to you at length ("I could have killed him, I'm telling you -- it's a reflex, something I can't control. I picked it up in Nam. I tell my wife, honey, when you wake me up just prod my leg and then get back quick. I wouldn't want to hurt you.") However, in practice he is almost useless in any situation. He is slow (he walks with a cane) and panics in any confrontation, only afterwards explaining how he was "this close" to killing the other person.
As a Hall Monitor and a Truant Officer Brother Tanaka is both very good at and completely inadequate for the job. He has eagle-eyes that can spot students skipping class, school, or causing mischief from a half-mile away. He can smell trouble brewing, and always limps onto the scene just in time to threaten to break things up. He is good at haranguing the students too, telling them in no uncertain terms exactly what they should and shouldn't be doing, and exactly what he's going to do if they don't stop immediately.
Students ignore him, of course. He's harmless, incapable of doing anything to stop them, and because of is constant whining and complaining, even the vice principal doesn't really listen to anything he has to say, so you're not likely to get into trouble.
Brother Tanaka is good friends with Sister Jagielski, simply because he really was in a war (as a Japanese war corrispondent for half a year in Viet Nam). Although Sister Jagielski despises Tanaka, he is the only one at the school who is always happy to trade war stories with her. She helps him out occasionally in his role as truancy officer, and when she's along, the things he says are going to happen to you if you don't behave actually do happen to you.
Sister Mashoko Mado
Age: 24
Height: 5 foot even
Weight: 105 lbs
Sex: Female
Hair: long and black
Eyes: silver-blue
Nationality: Japanese
Position: Home Economics Teacher, Witch
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (Not dumb) 4
Bod: (Average) 3
Relationship With Others: (Irresistably Friendly) 6
Luck: (Good) 4
Drive: (A broom) 3
Looks: (Stunningly Cute) 6
Cool: (Not easily spooked) 4
Bonk: (Average) 3
Powers: Loose it completely, Incredibly Cute, Magical Girl (TFOS definition)
Knacks: Do Magic +5, Cook +3, Act Sweet and Innocent +4
Traits: Friendly, Cheerful, Helpful
Sister Mado is a bit like a grown-up Belldandy (Oh! My Goddess) or Samantha from the show Bewitched, or Kiki's mother in Kiki's Delivery Service. In other words, she is not only a nun but a "good" witch who makes potions and cast spells that are meant to help people. Whether they actually do or not is a bit beside the point.
Sister Mado has a twin sister who is also a witch but not a nun, and who is not at all nice. Her name is Mahooko Mado, and she's always showing up causing trouble.
Jack Lee (Jackie) Chung
Age: 45
Height: 5 foot 9 inches
Weight: 145 lbs
Sex: Male
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
Nationality: Chinese
Position: Janitor
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (not very) 3
Bod: (dangerously powerful) 6
Relationship With Others: (Friendly) 5
Luck: (Generally bad) 2
Drive: (Like a maniac) 2
Looks: (Boyishly cute) 4
Cool: (Looses it quickly) 2
Bonk: (Incredibly tough) 6
Powers: Fake Out, Run Like Heck, Toughness
Knacks: Master of Broom Fu +5, Master of Combat With Found Objects +5, Fight Like A Demon When drunk +6, Clown Around +4, Climb Anything Quickly +3, Survive +3
Traits: Cheerful, Upbeat, Always Sticks Up For The Little Guy
Age: 33
Height: 5 foot 9 inches
Weight: 138 lbs.
Sex: Female
Hair: Long, purple
Eyes: Violet
Nationality: Japanese
Position: School Nurse
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (Near genius) 5
Bod: 4
Relationship With Others: (Abrasive but beautiful) 3
Luck: (Passable) 3
Drive: (Passable) 3
Looks: (Angelic) 6
Cool: (Scientific curiosity wins out) 5
Bonk: 4
Powers: Fake Out, Loose It Completely
Knacks: Weird Science +5, Sound Professional +3, Chiropractic Stuff +3, Know Secret Martial Arts Stuff +4, Accupuncture +2, Martial Arts +1
Traits: Abrasive, Impersonal (in a scientific manner)
Hasegawa Sensei is a doctor schooled in both western and eastern medical disciplines. As with Tofu-Sensei of Ranma 1/2, she can pop joints back into place, patch you up, and knows a great deal about pressure points and other martial arts lore. Unlike Tofu-Sensei, Hasegawa Sensei is not a kindly, friendly person. She has an abrasive, clinical manner about her and enjoys the little tortures of prodding and poking people during an exam. More importantly, Hasegawa Sensei experiments on her students (and other teachers) without their knowledge or consent. She is constantly trying out new medicines that have strange effects, takes notes like a good scientist, and is more interested in seeing what happens than in helping the poor students get back to normal.
Hasegawa Sensei considers herself a genius. She has a secret lab far beneath the school (accessible via elevators from her nurse's office and from the closet of her bedroom in her apartment, several blocks away). In her lab she performs experiments using samples taken from the students of the school. One of her pet projects is to clone the perfect student.
Sister Krista Jagielski
Age: 30
Height: 6 foot 5 inches
Weight: 200 lbs
Sex: Female
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Nationality: Polish/Russian
Position: Gymnastic/P.E. Teacher
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts: (Jock) 2
Bod: (Hulk Hogan) 5
Relationship With Others: (Militaristic) 3
Luck: (Average) 3
Drive: (Very good) 5
Looks: (Like a man -- an ugly one) 1
Cool: (Unshakable) 5
Bonk: (Marine Sergeant Tough) 6
Powers: Toughness
Knacks: Scream Like A Drill Sergeant +3, Military Strategist +2, Martial Arts +2, Be Good At Sports +2
Traits: Gruff, Abrubt, Always in a foul mood
Sister Jageilski is a former Marine Sergeant with the attitude to match. She is in charge of P.E. at the school (both girls and boys) and doesn't tolerate cowards, pansies and panty-waistes. Her P.E. classes are always something akin to the battle at Iwo Jima, especially since she is very partial to competetive sports. She always carries a clipboard, a stopwatch, and a whistle, and even when in her habit manages to convey the sense of a gym teacher in grey sweat pants and sweatshirt.
Sister Jageilski is the coach of all serious sports at the school. She lives near the campus and doesn't seem to have a life beyond working out and coaching others. Often accompanies Brother Tanaka when in his role as a truancy officer.
Name
Age: 35
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Position: Librarian
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Kumiko
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Position: School Counselor
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Position: Vice Principal
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Position: Mathematics Teacher
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Position: English Teacher
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Position: Literature Teacher
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Position: History Teacher
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Position: The Principal.
TFOS Conversion:
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Position: The School Secretary.
TFOS Conversion:
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Position: The English Teacher.
TFOS Conversion:
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Position: Coach.
TFOS Conversion:
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Position: The Shop Teacher
TFOS Conversion:
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The Lunch Room
Jaques LaBaugette
Height: 4'10"
Build: Wide & Powerful
Sex: Male
Race: Human (French)
Age:
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Position: Cook.
TFOS Conversion:
Smarts:
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Luck:
Drive:
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Cool:
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Jaques is the school's cook. He was hired by the school board as a French Chef, but in fact he is a French cook -- he learned his culinary skills in the foreign legion. Jaques does not server "fine French food" -- his fare is the sort you might usually find in a school lunchroom or an army mess hall. However, he always has fresh French bread and brie (a soft French cheese), and also has excellent French wine in the kitchen pantry which he is (of course) not allowed to serve to the students, but which the teachers will often trade him favors for.
Not only does Jaques have a military background, but he is an expert in several French fighting styles, including escrima and his own highly developed "baugette-fu", or the art of beating someone senseless with a long, thin loaf of bread. Jaques is a lower-class Frenchman, lacking many of the finer sensibilities that are so often attributed to his countrymen. He has an earthy sort of humor and an appetite for mayhem. If possible, he should be played with a coarse French accent, something along the lines of Monty Python or Warner Brothers characters.
Jaques is short, stocky, and very powerful. He is not someone that should be crossed lightly, as he is quick to anger and meticulous in his revenge. Most minor incidents can be laughed off as just a squabble between good buddies -- Jaques is very much the sort of buddy-buddy man who greets people with fierce bearhugs and loves to go out drinking with his friends -- but anything that goes beyond that will not be forgotten. Jaques always has his revenge.
Jaques does not believe in unapproved condiments. The students and faculty are provided salt and pepper, and that (except in special cases where the menu calls for other condiments) is it. People caught sneaking in ketchup, hot sauce, wasabi, or any other unapproved condiments will have to face Jaques's wrath, whether they are students or the principal himself.
Jaques is not especially beautiful, but he does exude some of the legendary French charm, in a rough and callous manner. He seems to have no problems finding women to date, but he is dead-set against settling down.
© 1998 Akane89@yahoo.com
Akane images and character copyright © 1998 Rumiko Takahashi. Other characters also copyrighted, naturally.
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