Final Fantasy VII D20 Roleplaying Game - Compilation Edition

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

hi everyone. i've nearly finished a d20 version of The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (all except one chapter) and what i've done with it i've saved it as a pdf file. can anyone tell me how i can upload it on this site so that i could get feedback pls, thanx

[Seerow]

You wouldn't upload it to this site. You'd upload it to some place like rapidshare or megaupload, and link it here.

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

You wouldn't upload it to this site. You'd upload it to some place like rapidshare or megaupload, and link it here.

thank you. i'll get on to it right away.

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

all right, i've just finished uploading the file and the links are as follows:


core rulebook - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=85G7WZ6J

character sheet - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4GZLLFV0

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

feedback please. i could really do with some ideas on how to improve it.

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

so, what does anyone think?

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

not trying to be hasty here but has anyone read enough to give some feedback?

[wiimanclassic]

not trying to be hasty here but has anyone read enough to give some feedback?

Stop posting. You can get in trouble for posting like this. Just wait.

And try putting them in the first post.

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

sorry, im just a bit nervous. This is my first attempt at doing something like this :-s

[Dust]

I'm reading through it now. I'll let you know in about twenty minutes, half an hour or so.

[Dust]

First Impressions
It's readable and a respectable 174 pages, so despite the lack of proofreading and editing and numerous flaws, I'm finding myself able to sit down and actually peruse this thing without getting a headache. That's a good start.
This has obviously taken some time.

Character Creation
Right away, I decide I'm going to try and build Red XIII with a focus on magic. There's only one class and very little options, even going to far as to grant me a feat 'package' right off the start. So my four-legged caster gets light armor proficiency, improved defenses, weapon proficiency (unarmed) and weapon proficiency (simple weapons).

Every 4 levels you get a new class feature. This makes me smile inwardly, because I'm a big believer in that style of progression. It's what I used, it's what I prefer, and it's always nice to see. Unfortunately, there's only six choices and they're all pretty lame for my intended character; about the only thing that fits is the power of HEART, which lets me get a +1 bonus to nearly any roll - which, mathematically speaking, is all but useless. Oh, well.
At level 6 I get Evasion, then Lucky at 9, and at 13 I can jump a little bit better or get a +2 bonus on perception checks to notice secret doors. At 17 I become a bit better at unarmed combat.

The skills and feats are all pretty standard d20 fare, with a few differences here and there. Again, I'm struggling to find options that work for my proposed character.

Next problem. Race-wise, I'm forced to either be a human or a mako-injected Shinra creation. There's no possibility of being one of the world's natural denizens. For the sake of trying to fit in with the system, I pick up the Monster template and get the following - +4 str, +6 dex, -4 con, +4 natural armor, +5 to all defenses, 5 more MP and 5 bonus MP every level (which is enormous, by the way), +2 bonus to all trained skills and can use untrained stuff as if I WAS trained in it, don't age or die of natural causes, gain 1d12 fast healing, darkvision, bonus opportunity attacks, and later on in the game, I apparently sprout wings.
Oh, and if I really wanted to, I could build in such a way that I can cast Time Stop as a SUPERNATURAL ABILITY.

Um, wow.

At this point I flip ahead to the list of completely, statted canom characters to see if I'm doing it wrong, but Red XIII and lots of the others don't make an appearance - it's just Cloud, Tifa, Rufus, Aeris, Zack, Vincent, and Sephiroth, the usual fan-wanks.

At last I come to the Materia section, which is where the book will ultimately either allow my concept or crush it into the dirt.
You use Materia by making a d20 roll, adding 5 and your INT, WIS or CHA modifier depending on what type of materia is being used, and then hoping the final number beats your opponent's magic defense stat.

On the plus side, you can equip a single piece of Materia right from level one. I had rolled the maximum number of starting gil (1d10 x 1000), so I peruse the list to see what's available to me and realize that Ultima will only cost me half of my current total. Right on.
I spent another chunk rest on armor - a WRO combat suit, in fact - even though it doesn't make any sense for the character whatsoever, it doesn't hinder spellcasting and I'd be an idiot not to take another +5 bonus to my defensive stat. I also pick up Sprint Shoes which let me start combat with haste, a JET PACK because it is utterly ridiculous, and stash the remaining 500 away.

That's another thing that gets me - the prices are so bizarre. Rolling for your starting gil will either turn you into a decked-out juggernaut or someone barely capable of affording starting gear. On top of this, the prices for services and expenses are so astounding that I just had to bring it up - a length of rope is more expensive than a cellular phone, and if you want to get from Point A to Point B, you better know how to drive! Renting a car for five days will cost you 1,000 (less than half of what a motorcycle would for the same distance), but hitching a ride with people heading there anyway will cost you 10,000. For the same price as your basic, comfortable living accommodations, you can reside in a helicopter that only ever lands to fuel up.

I am now a member of a nearly-extinct natural species from Cosmo Canyon, which was standard for the games. I am wearing special-OPs armor and a jet pack, which I use to fly around while casting Ultima from mid-air on my foes. At level 1.

Combat
So I have easily enough MP to cast Ultima once per battle, twice thanks to the bonus 5 MP from being a monster, and do 4d12 damage with the spell - not enough to even take down a CR 1 thug, let alone a CR 2 Shinra soldier with 72 health.

So my template-given, ultima-throwing caster deals an average of 24 damage per round for the first two rounds of combat, after which point they become useless. At level 20, I'll be able to have the Dualcast Materia, chain-spamming multiple max-level Ultimas every round with the Materia Boost feat, and do 84 points of damage instead - 20 of which is from the feat.
Honestly, I stopped reading here and went back and re-made my character into a fighter. Let's try this again.

My name will be Nimbus. I rolled an 18 in my dexterity and I have a +1 BAB and Sneak Attack with my Shotgun. I have the Rapid Shot (+1 damage die at the cost of -2 attack) and the Point Blank Shot feats (+1 attack and damage). I rolled poorly for money, but that's okay since I spent all the money I saved not buying magic on a Ribbon. I therefore deal 3d10+6 damage (+d6 for a sneak attack) reliably each turn for an average of 21 (remember, Ultima did 24), while being immune to all status effects. At level 20, thanks to Triple Crit, Triple Attack, Materia that increases my stats and other useful feats such as precise shot, I deal roughly 107 damage per round. Not shabby.

I decide that I'm taking the Gun-oriented limit breaks and decide that I'll be okay with a DC 25 to resist instead of DC 29, so focus on maxing out Satellite Beam with my AP instead. I deal 182d10 damage before adding attributes and half my level, so it winds up being about 925 damage on average.

Why bother with magic at all?

Misc
The fifth chapter talks about organization and mechanics for reputation, which is nice but seems clunky when you have to pick a 'reputation package.'

Throughout the pdf there's constant links to various final fantasy wiki pages where you can search for more information on given topics, which is good in theory but also demonstrates that a lot of copy-paste has been used throughout.

Being extraordinarily young or downright old destroys your attribute scores, which always bugs me in final fantasy settings. Staying setting-specific here, I hate the fact that building Zangan (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Zangan) actually penalizes every single one of my important attributes.

There's big swatches of text that are brazenly stolen from the wikis or The Returners system - and I should know, since I did that myself once a very long time ago.

The Infusion system is okay, but it's a nearly-guaranteed bonus for at least the first five levels of play after which it starts to balance out, unless you get really unlucky and constantly roll for reduced saving throws.

Limit Breaks
In order to get the ability to use Limit Breaks, you must spend your first-level feat slot on it. Since Limit Breaks are amazing, this is kind of a no-brainer unless you're a caster. We'll talk about this later. Unfortunately, they're also non-customizable.
Even worse, since my character is technically a Monster, my limit breaks force me to transform into other stuff. I didn't sign up to be a shapeshifter.

That's okay, let's look at this from another angle. You have a number of squares equal to your WIS score. Whenever you take damage you cross off 1-3 boxes. Getting hit with unarmed strikes, oddly enough, doesn't seem to increase your limit gauge - just weapons, magic and summons. Even more oddly, it looks like making your WIS stat a dump stat as a melee character is actually really wise. I see no reason every single physical character shouldn't have a WIS of 3-8 with this limit break system, oddly enough.

If you're a caster and need a high WIS score, you're better off skipping limit breaks entirely and picking up a better feat; like Toughness for 15 hp, every level, forever. There really isn't much else for us. If you're a melee fighter, drop that WIS as low as it'll go and proceed to destroy things with limit breaks which are essentially bonus damage strikes that are harder to resist.

Why do you have to be male to become Jenova-Infued?

Errors
"Each ability has a -5 to +5 modifier. Table 1-1: Ability Modifiers shows the modifier for each ability, based on its score." Page 31; Clearly false, since abilities in the 30 bracket have a +10 bonus and so on.

Mighty Swing allows you to 'spend two swift actions' which is an obscure way of wording things, and allows allows you to abuse the hell out of this feat with Haste, which reduces Swift down to free actions. If Mighty Swing stacks, we have an infinite damage loop right here.

Final Thoughts
Good in theory, but struggles in execution. I don't mean to sound overly harsh but it's obvious no playtesting has been done yet, which is definitely a good place to start. For a first attempt at a system you've got a great start here, and can only improve with a little more work!

[Mulletmanalive]

This thing has 174 pages...

That's not an easy read, especially on a computer.

I may be able to give oppinions on a small portion before bed. Small.

You need to chill.

[Mulletmanalive]

Ok, first impressions:

The class is reasonably understandable and does the game characters reasonably well. The damage they deal scales fast though: their hp aren't really up to that kind of punishment.

Charging a feat for a class feature is CHEAP. Don't do it. It's either a feature or it's not. There was no real reason to do this and you haven't said what happens if you don't take this at first level. What happens to my 2nd level ability if i take the feat at 3rd? I suggest just making it a part of the class; less confusing that way.

Checking the monsters, you realise that the average damage yield of every blow struck in this game is pushing at 40% of the average hp of everything in it, right? A beast with a full attack routine can kill a heroic character in one round.

Guns do massively more damage than swords. I know it might sound odd, but that's not FF7. Guns suck in FF7 and we don't care because the bigass swords are hillarious. Please retain this.

The magic, I'm not clear on. The casting checks aren't clear; you seem to be constructing DCs at the beginning but i'm not clear what i'm supposed to be rolling against them.

The summons say things like "1d12 per enemy" and i'm not sure what that means. Is that "1d12 damage to each enemy," "1d12 damage per enemy to one targe within range," or "1d12 damage per enemy to each viable target within range?"

You would have also been better off including something along the lines of "Bahamut deals 1d12 damage, +1d12 damage per level gained since he was acquired, to each viable target within range" rather than putting the comment at the top, as it's not clear when it counts from.

You need a disclaimer at the end and a copy of the OGL. Couldn't get my head around the limit breaks on the first speed read.

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

thank you for your thoughts on the first draft. i take any form of criticism on board as i believe it will help me improve the game.

first of all, the reason for most of the typos in the pdf, i am guessing, is because i am english and i use the english spelling and grammar as i have always done.

after reading carefully what you have written, i agree that i need to work on the materia/limit break systems a bit more. i also need to add more character stats in the Eras of Play chapter. i also need to tweak the prices of equipment as well.

as for the rest, i'll start with races. right from the get go i wanted to create a system that was faithful to the compilation of final fantasy vii, and as such it didn't feel appropriate to put the Cetra race as a playable race in the book as Aerith was the last of said race. as of the Red XIII's species, again a near extinct race was inappropriate as 1) we don't know enough about them 2) the race's name is eluded from all story canon and 3) the race is "near-extinct".

the heroic class i designed to give a lot more diversion due to lack of races. i didn't count on the fact that if a player wanted to create a character who is more spellcasting than a hands on fighting machine they would rely heavily on materia. (but isn't that what they do in the video games?) i do agree, however, that i need to put more options in with Class Features (i mean, 6 really isn't alot to choose from, is it? lol)

again, thank you for your advise and have taken everything you said on board

p.s. i put the disclaimer on p4/5

[Marc_In_Da_Room]

okay, ive made a few edits already and i've completed chapter 12. Once my computer is fixed (im using the internet on my phone) i'll upload a newer version and post the link.