Oh man. I just came back from the last day of bigor, which is pretty much the biggest tabletop&board games convention in Israel. I only came for two of the three days - on the first day I heard a couple of, uh, seminars? I guess you could call them that, but that's not important, point is I didn't play. The second day, though, I had something to look forward to: A Persona game.

Four people showed up, though five signed up which is a pity, but whatever. The GM explained the setting and backstory a little (only one of us hasn't played at least one of the games, mind), as well as the rules (a kind of a d20 system which gives you five main stats (the ones from Persona 4) as bonuses to various checks, skills for your persona that can be used pretty much any way you want them, and items to be used however you like. Also DM chit-things given out for awesome things, good RPing, and occasionally recognizing references).

The cast:
-Myself, playing Yishai, a Jew from one of the most religious parts of Israel. Unfortunately, Yishai is quite the philosopher, and about two months ago was kicked out of his home - which caused him to sprain his ankle. Point is, he's been walking around with a walking stick or crutches. 5 (out of 5) Bravery and Expression, 4 Dilligence and Understanding, 2 Knowledge. Persona: Pilosoph (which is, to make a long story short, the Hebrew word for Elephant stapled on the beginning of the Hebrew word for Philosopher), a huge white Elephant with a huge hammer. Mostly Wind and Physical skills.

-Sveta, a girl who left a kibbutz when it pretty much fell apart. Her personality will be obvious from the stories; 5 Bravery and Understanding, 3 Knowledge, and I don't remember the exact numbers for the other stats. Persona: Saula (not actually the right pronounciation but whatever, go look it up in some Lithuanian myths), the sun's chariot, basically a kind of living chariot with the sun in the stomach. Mostly Fire and Physical skills.

-Eli (That's e-lee, not ee-lie), a tennis player who's stats were almost never used (I'm, fairly sure he had 5 Bravery though). Persona: Something with a weird name. One of the two horses who pulls the sun's chariot. In this specific case, he also had two arms (kind of like a centaur) which looked like sharoened tennis rackets. Mostly Electric and Physical skills.

-Ilan, a vegeterian guitar player who unlike the rest of the group had a 1 in bravery, and high mental stats (4's and 5's). His player was the least active, sadly enough, because he did some awesome stuff when he did act. Persona: the other horse who pulls the sun's chariot, this one more of an anthromorphic horse. Seemed to have mostly buffs and Ice skills; Didn't see much of it.

We started the game with action pretty much right from the start, dropping into Sveta's part of the dungeon (I'll skip a lot of fluff here, because I just want to write up the COOLAWESOME parts). We got through it okay, with Eli getting stuck in a wall twice (I should note at this points that the portrait looks suspiciously like both Shaggy from Scooby Doo and Yosuke, despite these things happening due to bad rolls). We go to Shadow Sveta, who spoke to us of the uselessness of Sveta's ideals, and how we should abandon all hope (it's notable that our scanner has mentioned that there were no shadows in the area - they seemed afraid).

Sveta punched her in the face.

The battle started, but it ended fairly quickly; After Shadow Sveta and Sveta hit each other once, Yishai opened up his Philosophy book, crushing a tarot card with it; Pilosoph showed up, holding rather than his hammer - a gigantic book labeled 'Pilosophy'. Yishai shouted "Everyone's afraid of that which they do not understand!", and Pilosoph crushed shadow Sveta's persona under the book. That battle ended fairly fast.

(I got two DM chits for that one)

There are a bunch of completely random things that happened too, so here's a real quick version of events:

-Sveta repeatedly calmed down anyone and everyone with her Understanding; The one time it failed, Yishai went up to the guy and slapped him out of it.
-Ilan taking out a couple of spare guitar picks, throwing them at two shadows, hitting straight into the mouth and throat causing them to choke.
-Yishai using his crutches in order to perform a jump kick with both feet on the driver of a shadow bus of sorts, hitting so hard that the driver instantly ceased to exist.
-Ilan repeatedly rolling high in Bravery checks, and the one time he rolled low - everybody who tried to talk him into coming anyway failing their rolls.
-Eli's shadow's persona, which the DM jokingly called "The priest Gaga" (as in, a priest designed by Lady Gaga); That battle ended with Yishai skewering him through both eyeballs and Eli's horseona crushing it underfoot.
-Ilan's shadow, which wasn't a battle; It was playing the guitar, so Ilan started playing as well, and rolled a natural 20 to suddenly come to a complete understanding with the shadow, which caused the shadow to disappear.
-Sveta punching quite a lot of annoying people in the face.
-Yishai's shadow, who was four separate shadows; A hobo, a drug addict, a gigolo and a good Jew. By the time the Jew showed up, Yishai was fed up - and punched it in the face. Hard.
That battle's continuation was even better; First, Yishai shoved some milk and meat together and into the Jew's face (for those unfamiliar with Judaism: You're not supposed to mix milk products and meat products, or even eat them more than a few hours apart). Then, he had Pilosoph crush it with a gigantic paper bearing three words: "God is dead". That killed the Jew, but what of the other three? Well, Sveta had to deal with the Gigolo, and after a punch to the face didn't work she summoned Saula from the skies. I should mention, at this point, that the battle takes place in a huge bus station; Saula came down upon the gigolo, a flaming chariot, and behind her was a huge, armored, flaming bus. That explosion finished off the remaining three shadows.
-The final battle was pretty cliche, but it still had some awesome moments. Yishai, having been knocked off of Pilosoph (we were flying to a building, or rather above a building), had Pilosoph shoot a burst of wind at him and performed the same two-foot kick against the big bad, hitting him straight in the face. Later, when the whole world was being uncreated (think the Neverending Story), Yishai was the only one who managed to will himself into not being erased from existence - fitting, I'd say. Eli even managed one last natural one on the last saving throw against that one, proving him forever as the butt monkey of the game.

 Man, I wish I could watch a recording of that game. It was awesome and hilarious and fun. Also, major props to the DM's assistant, who actually had a soundtrack made for the game - mostly the boss fights, of course. She won me over when she played a song from Immaterial and Missing Power.