Attempt for a hybrid board based play by post, and IRC channel game.
System: Returners, FFRPG 3rd Edition, available here
Beginning level one for characters, assuming base classes, but discussion available.
A wiki for information and character profiles will be coming. The last time I ran this system, I swamped players and myself in the verbose writing I did, so the wiki will keep all the general and relevant information player's come across to help us all keep it organized.
This will be a role play heavy, so having fun with developing a character background and integrating into the world is strongly encouraged. IRC day and time will be determined based on players and availability. If people like forum play, then to keep from cluttering the Fuku boards, a separate board might be developed for multiple topic threads or the like, we'll see.
For write now, be as generic as you like, and we'll weave character backgrounds into the world's lore as it develops. Feel free to be as dynamic as you like.
Breaking with the medieval style norm of Final Fantasy, this will be a a more technology/futuristic style, depending on how the plot unfolds.
Campaign premise:
No one would ever think the little city of Delight, an ironic attempt to put a good spin on a poor and dying mining town, would ever garner much interest by anyone not thinking he might chance upon the next great, proverbial gold rush. Once, the town was one of several set in the Haulik Towers mountain chain, when a deep, long vein of exceptionally pure shisanka. A material both incredibly rare and important in the manufacture of technology for centuries. Once revered and surrounded by superstition, as a conduit for the magical energies of the gods. Now, far more understood to make it easier to bend the various energies of the universe. The marvelous technological growth of the past three or four centuries has progressed rapidly thanks to the properties of the odd, crystalline substance, which is still not fully understood today.
Thus, decades ago, towns like Delight enjoyed great prosperity as shisanka flowed from their mines. The production was not particularly great in Delight, but such was the purity that quotas need not be high to generate wealth. The mine has, like so many others, long since dried up and the profits much lesser than in the great, wild days of the past. And the decline has been gradual but continuing.
That is, until a deep survey team came across most unexpected readings while using deep penetrating sensors to locate potential veins of shisanka or other minerals. An odd ping, which resolved itself into a pocket of refined adamant. Not raw ore, but processed and apparently forged. Much excavation and blasting later, the source has been discovered and the news spread like wildfire.
An ancient temple to an as yet undetermined deity, or pantheon there of. Buried under massive tons of earth, several hundred feet beneath the surface, massive fifteen foot high doors, composed of a composite adamant alloy scientists are still trying to unravel. No ancient civilization in recorded history is known to have such advanced prowess to be able to forge an alloy which has proven resistant to all but the most powerful and determined blasting, or cutting techniques.
A curiosity indeed. Archaeologists, historians, scientists, treasure hunters, and a massive collection of others have come to the small city for the chance to assist in one of the most profound discoveries of all time. Yet, a potentially dangerous one. As one of the early exploration teams discovered when, upon finally breaching the great outer doors, they unwittingly triggered a release of noxious, almost fatally toxic gases into the chamber just beyond the entry way.
Exploration has been halted for the time being while a team is assembled. To probe the depths, disarm or work around potential hazards, and find a way to help gain access to potential treasures, ancient lore, and gods only know what else of interest.
Come you to seek knowledge? Test your mettle against ancient and unknown dangers? Earn fame? Plunder your fortune? All this and more will draw men and women of skill ... what lies beyond?
Edit: Go ahead and assume full HP and MP for your character, no need to roll. Traits are allowed.