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Tengu
2007-05-13, 02:06 PM
Final Fantasy RPG Game
by Tengu
Rules in Polish: www.ffrpg.prv.pl

Table of content
I Character creation and advancement
II The rules of combat
III Abilities
IV Items

Note - this is not everything the system has, mostly due to the fact that the rest is not 100% completed yet. It's everything the players need to know, though. The additional rules for GMs might appear at some point in the future.
I assume that if you're reading this, you know the basics of RPing, so I son't have to describe what's the role of the GM or what does 3d6 mean.
This system is very light on non-combat rules.

Tengu
2007-05-13, 02:10 PM
I Character creation and advancement

These are the rules for creating a level 5 character, which is a default starting level.

Name, gender, age, description, history et cetera...
I don't think that needs any explanation. In most FF world, the dominant (if not the sole) race are humans, so players play this race at default. However, they can choose another race at GM's discretion, if it fits the style of his campaign. Mechanically, other races are similar to humans, apart from one point - humans and most other humanoids are vulnerable to poison damage, taking double damage from it. If the player's character has a very different race, s/he might be vulnerable to another element instead (lightning for something robotic, ice for a lizard-like creature, for example).
There is no alignment system in this game. If a spell/ability/item works only on good/evil creatures, it's entirely up to the GM - no such things exist in the core rules.

Stats
Each character possesses five primary stats:
Strength - each point increases the damage you deal with physical attacks by 1
Speed - each point increases your combat speed and each 5 points increase your Evade by 1
Stamina - each point increases your Defense by 1 and your HP by 5
Magic - each point increases the damage you deal and heal with magical attacks by 1 and each 5 points increase your Magic Evade by 1
Spirit - each point increases your Magic Defense by 1 and your MP by 1
Those stats might, or might not actually find representation in the character's body and mind - high Strength might as well indicate a well-built, buffed up fighter, or someone who uses experience and precision to deal devastating blows. Especially Magic does not equal to the character's intelligence - it only measures magical aptitude.
You have a pool of 65 points to assign to these stats as you wish. However, there are two rules you must obey:
-no stat can be higher than level+10 (15 if creating a level 5 character)
-no stat can be higher than double of any other stat
Apart from base stats, there are also secondary ones, which depend on them:
HP - when it's 0, the character dies or falls incapacitated, base value: (Stamina+Level)*5
MP - each spell costs a specific number of those, base value: Spirit+Level
Evade - a % chance to dodge a physical blow, base value: 5+(Speed/5)
Magical Evade: a % chance to evade a harmful spell's effects, base value: Magic/5
Defense - each point lowers the damage physical attacks do to you by 1, base value: Stamina
Magic Defense - each point lowers the damage magical attacks do to you by 1, base value: Spirit

Abilities
Each level 5 character starts with 4 abilities. The first of them must be Weapon Proficiency, with one chosen category of weapons. The other three might be chosen freely from the list, however the character must meet their prerequesites, and at most one of them may have a required level 5, since the other one was "taken" by the character at level 2.

Equipment
Level 5 characters typically start with 1500 gil (the currency), which they can spend to buy items from the list in the Items section, and save the unspent money.
(I haven't made the guidelines for starting money for other levels yet... it's up to the GM at the moment.)

Limit Breaks
Each character starts with the knowledge of one level 1 Limit Break. Its effects must be consulted with the GM, unless it possesses a default effect: a physical attack that deals triple damage. The description of this attack is up to the player.

Advancement
After each session, the characters earn experience, which has a percentary form - when it reaches 100, the character levels up. At each new level, the character gains 3 points to add to the five base stats as s/he wishes, however the rules for stats still apply:
-no stat can be higher than level+10
-no stat can be higher than double of any other stat
Also, if the new level ends with 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 or 0, the character learns a new ability and must choose one that s/he meets the prerequesites for.

Tengu
2007-05-13, 02:11 PM
II The rules of combat

Actions
When a character is able to move in combat, s/he can do one of those actions:
-attack
-use an ability that's marked as an Action
-cast a spell
-use an item, not necessarily on self
-change rows
-change the equipped weapon or accessory
-defend - a defending character receives half damage from physical attacks as long as s/he is defending
-wait - the character can make an action anytime it wishes to, but its ATB pool starts to fill only after this action
-run away - which might not always be possible and makes the character suspectable to enemy blows
-use a Limit Break
Talking does not require an action. A character can try doing other things, and whether or not they take an action is up to the GM.

Speed
At the beginning of the fight, each combatant receives 2d100 points to their ATB pool. In each "tick" of the fight (each tick usually lasts around a second and they shall be referred to as seconds later in the rules) each character gains additional 50+Speed points to the pool. When a character has 400 or more of those points, the character can make an action and the ATB pool drops to 0 for it. If more than one character reaches 400 or more points in the same second, they take their actions in order from most to least points.
(I realize this is a fairly complicated system without using an Excel sheet or something similar, therefore an optional rule of simplifying it will appear here soon.)

Attacking
Each attack requires two rolls - one to indicate did it hit and the other one for damage. A chance to hit with an attack is as follows:
(Accuracy*(100-enemy Evade)/100)%
The same is for magical attacks, though in their case the target's Evade is replaced by Magic Evade.
Unless otherwise noted, Accuracy is 100.
If on the d100 used to determine the hit 1-10 was rolled, the attack was a critical hit and deals double damage. All spells and some physical attacks cannot score critical hits, and some weapons increase the chance of a critical hit.
Each attack deals damage as follows:
(Strength+Level+Roll-enemy Defense)*Modifiers
For magical attacks, replace Strength with Magic and enemy Defense with Magic Defense.
Roll means a roll of as many d6 as Level/10, rounded up (that's one of the few cases when fractions are rounded up in this system) - d6 on levels 1-10, 2d6 on 11-20, 3d6 on 21-30, and so on.
Some attacks ignore defense, and the damage they deal is not lessened by enemy Defense or Magic Defense.
Modifiers work differently than DND - they multiply instead of adding up. For example, attacking an enemy using Power Up (*2 damage) and scoring a critical hit (*2 damage) means *4 damage in total.

Limit Breaks
A limit break is a flashy and powerful attack, which can be used by all characters in a moment of great pressure. Each characters possesses their own list of unique Limit Breaks.
Limit Breaks are divided by levels - there are four of them, with two Limit Breaks on each apart from the fourth one, which has only one. Each time an enemy (allies or the Poison status don't count!) deals damage to the character, the amount of damage is added to the character's Limit pool. In order to use a Limit Break, a character must possess a minimum amount of pools in the pool:
Level I - maximum HP
Level 2 - maximum HP*1,5
Level 3 - maximum HP*2,5
Level 4 - maximum HP*3,5
When a Limit Break is used or when the character gets incapacitated in battle, its Limit pool is resetted to 0. All characters start with one level 1 Limit Break, and they gain knowledge of the further one throughout their adventures.
If a Limit Break deals damage, it usually is dependent on Strength. Limit Breaks always hit and they are considered ranged attacks. Some Limit Breaks can deal critical hits - an attack on one enemy, though in this case the chance is always an unmodified 5%, and those that have more than one attack.
Here's a sample list of Limit Break effects, though it's of course far from complete: an attack on a single enemy, an attack with a source other than physical, group attack, many attacks (at least second level 2 Limit Break, at levels 3 and 4 it replaces the single attack), healing, positive effects on allies, negative effects on enemies, instant kill (at least second level 2 Limit Break). All effects other than a simple, single attack should be consulted with the GM.
If two or three characters can perform a Limit Break, they can combine them into an even more powerful Double Tech or Triple Tech, the effect of which does not have to be dependent on the Limit Breaks used (though the power of which is).

Groups
A group is a small (up to eight) number of creatures that stand relatively close to each other and are fighting on the same side. Some abilities can be used on a group instead of a single creature - they affect all the creatures in a group, though they cannot target creatures from two or more different groups and they must target all creatures in one group.

Rows
Each group possesses up to three rows - the front one, the middle one and the back one. If a character attacks another character that's not in an adjacent row, the attack deals only half damage - unless the attack was a ranged one. All magical attacks are considered ranged.]

Surprise Attack
If one of the sides manages to catch the other one in surprise, they start the battle with full ATB pools, being able to attack immediately. The characters that were caught in the surprise do not receive additional 100 points to their ATB pool at the start of combat.
More often then not, the side that's performing the surprise attack will be divided into two groups, one of them attacking from the back. All physical attacks dealt in the back deal double damage. A character can choose to turn each time s/he does an action, and each time s/he is attacked in the back.

Elements
Each attack possesses an element, which indicates the source of its damage. Creatures might react differently to different damage sources - if they are weak against the element, they receive double damage from it, if they are strong they receive only half damage or no damage at all, if they absorb the element than the attacks heal them instead of dealing damage. Here's the list of elements, including creatures that are usually weak against them:
Physical - usually none
Fire - undead, furry creatures
Ice - reptiles
Lightning - constructs, heavily armored creatures
Poison - humans (including the majority of players!)
Wind - flying creatures
Earth - burrowing creatures, does not work on flying creatures
Healing - always ignores defense, hurts undead instead of healing
Non-elemental - always deals full damage
Keep in mind that the element and whether an attack is physical or magical are two different aspects. When an ability refers to an attack as a physical or magical, it means the type of the attack instead of the element (for example, an attack with a Fire Weapon still is physical and therefore deals half damage to Defending characters).

Effects
In combat, characters can be under many positive and negative effects, or statuses. Some of them end after certain time or when the battle ends (because the pressure and adrenaline rush that kept them have ended), some of them have to be healed. Some creatures can be immune to some of those effects. The list of effects:
Regeneration - the character heals 10% of its maximum HP each 5 seconds, lasts 50 seconds or until combat ends (whichever comes faster).
Haste - each second the character is hasted, it gains 100+Speed (instead of 50+Speed) points to the ATB pool. Lasts until combat ends. A character cannot be hasted and slowed at the same time, using one of those effects nullifies the previous one.
Levitation - the character is not affected by Earth elemental attacks.
Berserk - the character loses control and chaotically attacks enemies with ordinary, non-special attack, though it deals 150% damage with it. The character can choose to do a Limit Break when it has an opportunity to do so. Lasts until combat ends.
Reflect - all spells cast on the character reflect randomly on the caster or its allies. A reflected spell cannot reflect a second time. Some spells cannot be reflected. Lasts 30 seconds.
Poison - the character gains damage equal to 10% of its maximum HP each 5 seconds. This damage cannot bring the character's HP below 1 and is NOT considered Poison elemental. Lasts 50 seconds.
Fissure - the character gains damage equal to 10% of its maximum HP each 5 seconds. Lasts until combat ends.
Slow - each second the character is slowed, it gains 25+Speed (instead of 50+Speed) points to the ATB pool. Lasts until combat ends. A character cannot be hasted and slowed at the same time, using one of those effects nullifies the previous one.
Stop, paralysis, freeze - all these effects work the same and stop the character from doing any actions or getting points to ATB pool for 15 seconds.
Silence - the character cannot cast spells.
Blind - the character's physical attacks have only half of their Accuracy.
Sleep - stops the character from doing any actions or getting points to ATB pool for 26 seconds, or until the character receives damage (whichever comes faster).
Confuse - the character loses control and randomly attacks its allies, lasts until it receives damage.
Tiny - the character's Strength (including weapons) drops to 0.
Frog - the character deals 1/4 damage with all physical attacks and cannot cast any spells apart from Frog on self, if it knows the spell.
Zombie - the character loses control, possesses 0 HP and randomly attacks its allies, it also is immune to all damage.
Stone - the character possesses 0 HP, stops the character from doing any actions or getting points to ATB pool, the character is immune to all damage.

Nonlethal damage
Characters can choose to deal nonlethal damage with any of the attacks they do - if the target gets reduced to 0 HP with such an attack, it falls unconscious without the risk of dying. If the enemy possesses unusual physiology or if the blow is dealt in a ruthless manner, without additional care, the GM might decide that it dealt normal damage anyway.

Huge monsters
Some of the enemies the characters face might be so huge they essentially consist of several "parts", each of them fighting as a seperate creature (a monster's body and each of his two arms, for example). In such a case destroying the main part, which usually is the toughest one, kills all of them, while destroying the other ones (for example, severing a monster's arm) renders them useless.

Reconvalescence
Apart from healing items and abilities, there are other ways of curing damage. A night's sleep removes all status effects apart from Zombie and Stone and heals 80% of maximum HP and MP, or 100% if inside a building or a tent.
If a character possesses 0 HP (apart from Zombie and Stone statuses), it's either unconscious and dying or is already dead, but is still "going towards the light". If after the battle the characters wounds are not taken care of and/or proper abilities or items are not used, the character will die for good and no ordinary means will bring it back to light. Severe damage to the body (for example decapitation) also makes spells like Life and items like Phoenix Down unusable.

Loot
Though most non-humanoid creatures do not carry money, it is possible to earn on killing them nevertheless - many shopkeepers buy body parts of fallen creatures that possess value. Most adventurers will be able to tell if a certain part of a monster has any worth or not.
Characters with the Steal ability can obtain extra loot by stealing items from the enemies, which otherwise would be unaccessable - either because it'd get destroyed in the combat otherwise, or for other reasons.

Tengu
2007-05-13, 02:15 PM
III Abilities

Each character begins with a certain number of abilities, and gains more as the game progresses. In order to take many abilities, a character must meet the prerequesites: one of two stats at a certain minimum level and sometimes other abilities.
If an ability is not marked as an action or a spell, than it has a constant effect. In combat, actions can be used only when the character can move, same with spells - those also cost in MP and cannot be case if the character is Silenced.
Unless otherwise noted, spells have an Accuracy of 0, so they always hit unless the target has more than 0 Magic Evade. Special attacks have the accuracy of the weapon used by default.

Split spells
If a spell has the descriptor of Split, it can be casted either on a single target, or on a group of targets. In the second case, the damage the spell deals or heals is reduced to 50%.

Combos
If an action has the descriptor of Combo, it can be combined with another Combo action, and the resulting attack possesses the quality of both actions (for example, a Deathblow+Power Up combo attack takes one action to power up, cannot strike critically, and has only half accuracy, but deals 4* damage). Unless the character possesses the Super Combo ability, it can only make combos with two abilities and cannot combine it with Weapon spells. Some actions cannot be combined with other actions.

The fluff of most abilities is flexible and customizable, though sometimes it might require consulting the GM. It's up to you how your character performs special attacks and how does the spell it casts look, you can choose that instead of playing Music, the character Dances, or that s/he uses Dice instead of Slots, et cetera. Sky's the limit.

Abilities - no prerequesites

Weapon Proficiency
You can use one weapon category in combat (choose: long blades, short blades, bludgeons, polearms, fist weapons, mage's weapons, ranged weapons, guns). Each character gets this ability at first level. You can choose this ability many times, each time picking a different weapon category.

Improve Stat
Choose one of your stats - it improves (after modifiers, not base!) by 2. You can choose this ability many times, each time improving either the same or another stat.

Sense
Action. Shows the level of the target, its current and maximum HP and MP, and the elements it's weak and strong against.

Jump
Action. You choose one opponent and jump many feet up to the sky, landing on him and attacking in your next action. It counts as a physical ranged attack that always hits and cannot deal critical hits. As long as you are airborne, you cannot be the target of attacks, actions, spells and items. Combo, excluding: Aim, Double Strike, Deathblow, Power Up, Jump Attack, Sneak Attack, Triple Strike, Precise Strike, X Strike.

Relentless Strike
Action. A physical attack with Strength increased by any chosen number, no greater than your Defense (or, if your base Strength is lower than base Stamina, Defense-Stamina+Strength), but until your enxt action your Defense is lowered by that amount. Combo, excluding: Exhausting Attack.

Hide
Action. You hide from enemies' sight, unable to be the target of actions of anyone but yourself until you show yourself or are detected. Doing any action means abandoning the hideout.

Aim
Action. An attack that always hits, but cannot deal a critical hit. Combo, excluding: Jump, Deathblow, Jump Attack, Precise Strike.

Double Strike
Action. You attack with two strikes, each of which can target the same or different targets, but deals half damage. Combo, excluding: Jump, Jump Attack, Sneak Attack, Cleave, Triple Strike, X Strike.

Deathblow
Action. An attack that has half accuracy and cannot score a critical hit, but deals double damage. Combo, excluding: Jump, Aim, Jump Attack, Precise Strike.

Power up
Action. You spend the round preparing the attack, and land it as a next action, doing double damage. Combo, excluding: Jump, Jump Attack, Sneak Attack.

Berserk
Action. You gain the Berserk status until battle ends. You attack immediately in the same action in which you used this ability.

Throw
Action. You throw one of the weapons you possess (apart from fist weapons) at the enemy - you don't have to be proficient with it. It's a ranged attack that always hits, cannot score critical hits and deals double damage.
You can buy special thrown weapons (like shuriken, chakrams, bombs) - they are the equivalent of any other weapon, but cost half the price, cannot be equipped and don't have stat bonuses apart from Strength.

Random Blow
Action. An attack with Strength lowered by any multiplicity of 7, but dealing additional 2d6 damage for any 7 "spent" that way. Combo.

Focus
Action. An attack that has its damage lowered by Magic Defense instead of Normal Defense. This attack costs 2 MP. It is not considered a spell - you can use it while silenced, its damage is lowered by Protect but not Shell, and such. Combo.

Cure
Spell. Heals damage with magic increased by 50. Ignores defense. Split. Cost - 4 MP.

Fire
Spell. Deals fire damage with magic increased by 40. Split. Cost - 3 MP.

Ice
Spell. Deals ice damage with magic increased by 40. Split. Cost - 3 MP.

Thunder
Spell. Deals lightning damage with magic increased by 40. Split. Cost - 3 MP.

Fire Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal fire physical damage. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 4 MP.

Ice Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal ice physical damage. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 4 MP.

Thunder Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal lightning physical damage. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 4 MP.

Regen
Spell. Causes the Regeneration status on the target. Cost - 2 MP.

Antidote
Spell. Heals the Poison status. Cost - 2 MP.

Abilities - required level 5

Cover 25%
Requires: Speed or Stamina 15
Each time one of your allies is the target of a physical attack, you have a 25% chance to be able to jump in and take the blow on yourself, making you its target. You are considered to be in the same row as the attack's initial target for the duration of the attack.

Jump Attack
Requires: Strength or Speed 15, Jump
Action. You choose one opponent and jump many feet up to the sky, landing on him and attacking in your next action. It counts as a physical ranged attack that always hits, deals double damage and cannot deal critical hits. As long as you are airborne, you cannot be the target of attacks, actions, spells and items. Combo, excluding: Jump, Aim, Double Strike, Deathblow, Power Up, Sneak Attack, Triple Strike, Precise Strike, X Strike.

Sneak Attack
Requires: Strength or Speed 15, Hide
Action. A physical attack that deals double damage. Only usable while under the effect of Hide. Combo, excluding: Jump, Double Strike, Jump Attack, Triple Strike, X Strike.

Block
Requires: Stamina or Spirit 15
Action. All physical attacks deal you 0 damage. Lasts until your next action. Cover, Counter and Parry are inactive while Blocking.

Steal
Requires: Strength or Speed 15
Action. You try to steal one of target's items - the chance of success is 75%, +1 for each difference in levels between you and your target (or -1 if it has a higher level). You can obtain items which you wouldn't be able to loot from the enemy's corpse this way.

Geomancy
Requires: Stamina or Magic 15
Action. Attacks the targetted enemy or a group of enemies with a random magical attack, dependant on the surrouding the battle takes place in. The magic might sometimes backlash and hit you instead.

Animals
Requires: Speed or Magic 15
Action. Summons a random animal that either attacks the enemies, or heals your allies. Most of the time out of combat and sometimes in combat no animal heeds the call.

Machines
Requires: Strength or Magic 15
You are able to create machines from parts you found or bought, which you can use in battle as an action. Each machine has a certain number of charges, resupplying of which requires gil. At this level you gain the access to Auto Crossbow and Bio Blaster, which cost 200 gil each, and the charges to them - 25 gil per charge.

Slots
Requires: Magic or Spirit 15
Action. You turn on a slot machine, the effect of which depends on the symbols that came out, but is always magical - though not always beneficial. Only usable in combat. Using this ability requires the user to spend 1 gil in most cases.
(Note - a player who wants this ability must explain why does his character has this ability, and how does s/he use it.)

Music
Requires: Speed or Magic 15
Action. You may, in a fight, sing one of the battle songs that are known to you. When you sing, you cannot do anything else, and the effects of the song end when you stop singing. At this level you gain access to Haste Song, Sleep Song and Lullaby.

Blue Magic
Requires: Magic or Spirit 15, Sense
You know how to learn and cast Blue Magic spells. In order to learn such a spell, the creature that possesses it must cast it on you or your allies, or on itself or its allies if it's a beneficial spell.

Demi
Requires: Magic or Spirit 15
Spell. Has a 33% chance of dealing damage equal to 1/2 of the target's current HP, and 67% of dealing damage equal to 1/4 of the target's current HP. Accuracy - 75. Cost - 4 MP.

Sleep
Requires: Magic or Spirit 15
Spell. Inflicts the Sleep effect on the target. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 4 MP.

Blind
Requires: Magic or Spirit 15
Spell. Inflicts the Blind effect on the target. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 4 MP.

Abilities - required level 10

Parry 15%
Requires: Speed or Stamina 20
You have a 15% chance of reducing the damage of each physical attack that hits you to 0.

Counter 15%
Requires: Strength or Speed 20
After being attacked physically, you have a 15% chance to counter with a single, ordinary attack.

Manipulate
Requires: Speed or Spirit 20
Action. Accuracy 75, reduced by Magic Evade. You take control over a single enemy's actions, ordering him to do whatever you wish. You cannot do anything else while using this ability. Lasts until the manipulated creature receives damage.

Summon
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
You gain the ability to summon Espers in order to attack your opponents - after summoning one, you can summon it again after your three actions have passed, and any other Esper after two actions. To gain the ability to summon new Espers, you need to somehow enter a pact with them.

Poison
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. Deals poison damage with Magic increased by 45. 75% chance to cause the Poison status on the target. Split. Cost - 6 MP.

Debarrier
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. Removes Protect and Shell spells from the target. Cannot be reflected. Cost - 8 MP.

Protect
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. The target receives half damage from physical attacks. Lasts until the end of combat. Cost - 6 MP.

Slow
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. Causes the Slow status on the target. Accuracy 80. Cost - 8 MP.

Haste
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. Causes the Haste status on the target. Cost - 8 MP.

Mini
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. Causes or heals the Tiny status on the target. Accuracy (on an unwilling target) 80. Cost - 5 MP.

Float
Requires: Magic or Spirit 20
Spell. Causes the Levitation status on the target. Cost - 6 MP.

Abilities - required level 15

Cover 50%
Requires: Speed or Stamina 25, Cover 25%
Each time one of your allies is the target of a physical attack, you have a 50% chance to be able to jump in and take the blow on yourself, making you its target. You are considered to be in the same row as the attack's initial target for the duration of the attack. Does not stack with Cover 25%.

Medicine +50%
Requires: Stamina or Spirit 25
Items you use on yourself and other people recover 50% more HP and MP.

Cleave
Requires: Strength or Speed 25
Action. You attack a group of enemies with a single blow, dealing half damage to each of them. Combo, except: Double Strike, Sneak Attack, Triple Strike, X Strike.

Triple Strike
Requires: Strength or Speed 25, Double Strike
Action. You attack with three strikes, each of which can target the same or different targets, but deals half damage. Combo, excluding: Jump, Double Strike, Jump Attack, Sneak Attack, Cleave, X Strike.

Fury
Requires: Strength or Speed 25, Berserk
When you have the Berserk status, you gain 50% more points to the Limit pool.

Quick Hands
Requires: Speed or Magic 25
You don't use an action to change the equipped weapon or accessory (though it needs to be your turn in order to do it), and you can change the equipped armor as an action.

Cure II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Cure
Spell. Heals damage with magic increased by 100. Ignores defense. Split. Cost - 10 MP.

Fire II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Fire
Spell. Deals fire damage with magic increased by 80. Split. Cost - 8 MP.

Ice II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Ice
Spell. Deals ice damage with magic increased by 80. Split. Cost - 8 MP.

Thunder II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Thunder
Spell. Deals lightning damage with magic increased by 80. Split. Cost - 8 MP.

Shell
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Protect
Spell. The target receives half damage from magical attacks. Lasts until the end of combat. Cost - 9 MP.

Life
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Regen
Spell. Raises the target with 0 HP, healing 1/4 of their maximum HP. Cost - 15 MP.

Regen 2
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25, Regen
Spell. Causes the Regen status on a group. Cost - 9 MP.

Poison Weapon
Requires: Strength or Spirit 25, Fire Weapon, Ice Weapon, Thunder Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal poison physical damage, and each blow with it has a 50% chance to make the target Poisoned. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 8 MP.

Water Weapon
Requires: Strength or Spirit 25, Fire Weapon, Ice Weapon, Thunder Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal water physical damage, and each blow with it has a 50% chance to make the target Blinded. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 8 MP.

Wind Weapon
Requires: Strength or Spirit 25, Fire Weapon, Ice Weapon, Thunder Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal wing physical damage, and each blow with it has a 50% chance to make the target Silenced. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 8 MP.

Earth Weapon
Requires: Strength or Spirit 25, Fire Weapon, Ice Weapon, Thunder Weapon
Spell. Your weapon starts to deal earth physical damage, and each blow with it has a 50% chance to make the target Slowed. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 8 MP.

Confuse
Requires: Magic or Spirit 25
Spell. Causes the Confuse status on the target. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 8 MP.

Abilities - required level 20

Parry 30%
Requires: Speed or Stamina 30, Parry 15%
You have a 30% chance of reducing the damage of each physical attack that hits you to 0. Does not stack with Parry 15%.

Counter 30%
Requires: Strength or Speed 30, Counter 15%
After being attacked physically, you have a 30% chance to counter with a single, ordinary attack. Does not stack with Counter 15%.

Magic Block
Requires: Stamina or Spirit 30, Block
Action. All magical attacks deal you 0 damage. Lasts until your next action. Cover, Counter and Parry are inactive while Blocking.

Exhausting Attack
Requires: Strength or Stamina 30, Relentless Strike
Action. A physical attack which involves losing any number of HP, no higher than your Strength, and deals damage increased by that number. Combo, except: Relentless Strike.

Improved Deathblow
Requires: Strength or Speed 30, Deathblow
Action. A physical attack that has half accuracy, but deals double damage. Combo, except: Jump, Aim, Deathblow, Jump Attack.

Caution
Requires: Speed or Spirit 30
Back attacks don't deal double damage to you. You are aware of surprise attacks and gain the ordinary 2d100 ATB points even when surprised - this benefit goes to your companions too, if you warn them about the attack.

Summon II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 30, Summon
You gain the ability to summon Espers in order to attack your opponents - after summoning one, you can summon it again after your two actions have passed, and any other Esper in the next action. To gain the ability to summon new Espers, you need to somehow enter a pact with them.

Geomancy II
Requires: Stamina or Magic 30, Geomancy
Action. Attacks the targetted enemy or a group of enemies with a random magical attack, dependant on the surrouding the battle takes place in and stronger than in Geomancy. The magic mightsometimes backlash and hit you instead.

Animals II
Requires: Speed or Magic 30, Animals
Action. Summons a random animal, stronger than in Animals, that either attacks the enemies, or heals your allies. Most of the time out of combat and sometimes in combat no animal heeds the call.

Machines II
Requires: Strength or Magic 30, Machines
You are able to create machines from parts you found or bought, which you can use in battle as an action. Each machine has a certain number of charges, resupplying of which requires gil. At this level you gain the access to Sonic Blaster, Flash and Drill, which cost 1000 gil each, and the charges to them - 50 gil per charge.

Slots II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 30, Slots
Action. You turn on a slot machine, the effect of which depends on the symbols that came out, but is stronger than in Slots and always magical - though not always beneficial. Only usable in combat. Using this ability requires the user to spend 1 gil in most cases.

Music II
Requires: Speed or Magic 30, Music
Action. You may, in a fight, sing one of the battle songs that are known to you. When you sing, you cannot do anything else, and the effects of the song end when you stop singing. At this level you gain access to Charm Song, Love Song and Requiem.

Frog
Requires: Magic or Spirit 30, Mini
Spell. Causes or heals the Frog status on the target. Accuracy (on an unwilling target) 80. Cost - 8 MP.

Demi II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 30, Demi
Spell. Deals damage equal to 1/2 of the target's current HP. Accuracy - 75. Cost - 9 MP.

Drain
Requires: Magic or Spirit 30
Spell. Deals non-elemental damage with magic increased by 60 and heals the samo amount to you. Cost - 12 MP.

Comet
Requires: Magic or Spirit 30
Spell. Deals non-elemental damage with magic increased by 1d100+40. Cannot be reflected. Cost - 12 MP.

Abilities - required level 25

Cover 75%
Requires: Speed or Stamina 35, Cover 50%
Each time one of your allies is the target of a physical attack, you have a 75% chance to be able to jump in and take the blow on yourself, making you its target. You are considered to be in the same row as the attack's initial target for the duration of the attack. Does not stack with Cover 50%.

Medicine +100%
Requires: Stamina or Spirit 35, Medicine +50%
Items you use on yourself and other people recover double the HP and MP. Does not stack with Medicine +50%.

Analysis
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Blue Magic
You do not use an action to use Sense, though it still needs to be your turn in order to do it.

Mug
Requires: Strength or Speed 35, Steal
Action. A physical attack that cannot score a critical hit combined with Steal.

Precise Strike
Requires: Strength or Speed 35, Aim
Action. A physical attack that cannot score a critical hit and ignores the target's Defense. Combo, except: Jump, Aim, Deathblow, Jump Attack.

Coin Throw
Requires: Strength or Speed 35, Throw
Action. Works like Throw, but instead of using a weapon, you spend a certain number of gil which count as a weapon with its Strength bonus equal to the number of gil used/2 (no more gil than your level*2).

Quick Item
Requires: Speed or Magic 35, Quick Hands
You can use two items in a single action. You cannot use this ability to use Machines or Throw twice.

Bio
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Poison
Spell. Deals poison damage with Magic increased by 90. 75% chance to cause the Poison status on the target. Split. Cost - 12 MP.

Slow II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Slow
Spell. Causes the Slow status on a group of targets. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 18 MP.

Haste II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Haste
Spell. Causes the Haste status on a group of targets. Cost - 18 MP.

Protect II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Protect
Spell. A group of targets receives half damage from physical attacks. Lasts until the end of combat. Cost - 16 MP.

Shell II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Shell
Spell. A group of targets receives half damage from magical attacks. Lasts until the end of combat. Cost - 16 MP.

Esuna
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Antidote
Spell. Heals all negative statuses apart from Zombie from the target. Cost - 8 MP.

Silence
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Sleep
Spell. Causes the Silence status on the target. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 12 MP.

Enrage
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Confuse
Spell. Causes the Berserk status on the target. Accuracy - 75 (on an unwilling target). Cost - 12 MP.

Asper
Requires: Magic or Spirit 35, Drain
Spell. Destroys the target's MP with Magic increased by 10 and restores the same amount of MP to you. Cost - 1 MP.


Abilities - required level 30

Parry 45%
Requires: Speed or Stamina 40, Parry 30%
You have a 45% chance of reducing the damage of each physical attack that hits you to 0. Does not stack with Parry 30%.

Counter 45%
Requires: Strength or Speed 40, Counter 30%
After being attacked physically, you have a 45% chance to counter with a single, ordinary attack.
Does not stack with Counter 30%.

Absorb Spells
Requires: Stamina or Spirit 40, Magic Block
Action. Next spell cast by any creature hits you instead, having no effect on you but restoring the amount of MP equal to the spell's cost. Lasts until absorbing one spell or until your next action.

Mime
Requires: Speed or Spirit 40, Manipulate
Action. You do exactly the same action that the ally before you did, even if you do not have the abilities needed. If it was a spell, you cast it for free.

Revive
Requires: Stamina or Spirit 40, Medicine +100%
Action. You cast Life for free on all allies with 0 HP in your group.

Summon III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Summon II
You gain the ability to summon Espers in order to attack your opponents - there are no limits on how often can you summon them. To gain the ability to summon new Espers, you need to somehow enter a pact with them.

Cure III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Cure II
Spell. Heals damage with magic increased by 200. Ignores defense. Split. Cost - 20 MP.

Fire III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Fire II
Spell. Deals fire damage with magic increased by 120. Split. Cost - 18 MP.

Ice III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Ice II
Spell. Deals ice damage with magic increased by 120. Split. Cost - 18 MP.

Thunder III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Thunder II
Spell. Deals lightning damage with magic increased by 120. Split. Cost - 18 MP.

Life II
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Life
Spell. Raises the target with 0 HP, healing all of their maximum HP. Cost - 25 MP.

Reflect
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Protect II, Shell II
Spell. Causes the Reflect status on the target. Cost - 22 MP.

Stop
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Slow II
Spell. Causes the Stop status on the target. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 18 MP.

Demi III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Demi II
Spell. Deals damage equal to 3/4 of a single target's current HP, or 1/2 of every target's current HP in a group. Accuracy - 75. Cost - 18 MP.

Dispel
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Silence
Spell. Removes all positive statuses from the target. Cannot be reflected. Cost - 15 MP.

Teleport
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Float
Spell. Teleports you and a group of willing allies to a place you are familiar with. The precision and range of this spell are low. Cost - 20 MP.

Death
Requires: Magic or Spirit 40, Asper
Spell. Kills the target. Accuracy - 80. Cost - 24 MP.


Abilities - required level 35

Initiative
Requires: Magic or Spirit 45, Caution
You start all battles with full ATB pool and are able to move immediately.

X Strike
Requires: Strength or Speed 45, Triple Strike
Action. You attack with four strikes, each of which can target the same or different targets, but deals half damage. Combo, excluding: Jump, Double Strike, Jump Attack, Sneak Attack, Cleave, Triple Strike.

Killer Blow
Requires: Strength or Speed 45, Deathblow, Precise Strike
Action. A physical attack that also has a 33% chance of instantly killing the target.

Geomancy III
Requires: Stamina or Magic 45, Geomancy II
Action. Attacks the targetted enemy or a group of enemies with a random magical attack, dependant on the surrouding the battle takes place in and stronger than in Geomancy II. The magic mightsometimes backlash and hit you instead.

Animals III
Requires: Speed or Magic 45, Animals II
Action. Summons a random animal, stronger than in Animals II, that either attacks the enemies, or heals your allies. Most of the time out of combat and sometimes in combat no animal heeds the call.

Machines III
Requires: Strength or Magic 45, Machines II
You are able to create machines from parts you found or bought, which you can use in battle as an action. Each machine has a certain number of charges, resupplying of which requires gil. At this level you gain the access to Debiliator, Air Anchor and Chainsaw, which cost 2000 gil each, and the charges to them - 100 gil per charge.

Slots III
Requires: Magic or Spirit 45, Slots II
Action. You turn on a slot machine, the effect of which depends on the symbols that came out, but is stronger than in Slots II and always magical - though not always beneficial. Only usable in combat. Using this ability requires the user to spend 1 gil in most cases.

Music III
Requires: Speed or Magic 45, Music II
Action. You may, in a fight, sing one of the battle songs that are known to you. When you sing, you cannot do anything else, and the effects of the song end when you stop singing. At this level you gain access to Power Song, Protect Song and Great Requiem.

Drain Weapon
Requires: Strength or Spirit 45, Poison Weapon, Water Weapon, Wind Weapon, Earth Weapon
Spell. Your physical attacks with your weapon heal the same amount of damage to you as the damge they caused. Lasts until combat ends or until you cast another Weapon spell. Cost - 18 MP.

Image
Requires: Magic or Spirit 45, Enrage
Spell. Creates an illusionary image of the target, causing all physical attacks on it to miss and have a 50% chance of destroying the image. Lasts until the end of combat. Cost - 18 MP.

Meteo
Requires: Magic or Spirit 45, Comet
Spell. Deals non-elemental damage with Magic increased by 1d100+20. Attacks four times, random enemies from the attacked group. Cannot be reflected. Cost - 35 MP.

Abilities - required level 40

Sever
Requires: Strength or Speed 50, Cleave
Action. You spend the round preparing the attack, and land it the next round, attacking a group of enemies with accuracy 75 - enemies that are hit with this attack die.

Super Combo
Requires: Strength or Speed 50
You can make combos out of three abilities (though each of them must be usable with the other two), or two abilities when under the effect of a Weapon spell.

Quick Spell
Requires: Speed or Magic 50, Quick Item
You can cast two spells in a single action, but their accuracy (unless it is 100) and damage they cause/heal is lowered by half.

Ultima
Requires: Magic or Spirit 50, Fire III, Ice III, Thunder III
Spell. Deals non-elemental damage to a group with magic increased by 175. Cannot be reflected. Cost - 45 MP.

Full Cure
Requires: Magic or Spirit 50, Cure III
Spell. Heals all of the target's HP. Cost - 40 MP.

Quick
Requires: Magic or Spirit 50, Haste II
Spell. You can immediately do two actions, though none of them can be the casting of this spell. Cost - 45 MP.

Warp
Requires: Magic or Spirit 50, Teleportation, Death
Spell. Warps a group of enemies into a death dimension, removing them from combat and usually killing them. Their bodies appear again where they were standing after a couple of seconds. Accuracy - 75. Cost - 50 MP.

Tengu
2007-05-13, 02:22 PM
IV Items
This is a list of commonly found items and services. It is nowhere near complete and the characters will probably find much more powerful items as their adventure progresses, the values of certain items might also differ from place to place. Many shopkeepers will buy items for half their value.

One-use Items

Antidote: heals the Poison status. Price - 50 gil.
Echo Herb: heals the Silence status. Price - 100 gil.
Elixir: restores all HP and MP. No price - a potential seller will try to get as many gil for it as possible.
Ether: restores 20 MP. Price - 500 gil.
Hi-Ether: restores 50 MP. Price - 1500 gil.
Eyedrops: heal the Blind status. Price - 50 gil.
Phoenix Down: casts the Life spell upon use. Price - 500 gil.
Maiden's Kiss: heals the Frog status. Price - 150 gil.
Potion: restores 50 HP. Price - 50 gil.
Hi-Potion: restores 250 HP. Price - 300 gil.
Remedy: casts the Esuna spell upon use. Price - 1000 gil.
Holy Water: heals the Zombie status, and restores 25% of the zombie's maximum HP. Price - 200 gil.
Golden Needle: heals the Stone status, and restores 25% of the petrified character's maximum HP. Price - 250 gil.
Lucky Hammer: heals the Tiny status. Price - 150 gil.
Smokebomb: emits thick smoke upon throwing, making escaping much easier. Price - 200 gil.
Thrown Weapons: check the description of the Throw ability for details.

Weapons
Each weapon improves some of the base stats (Strength is always among them), some of them might have an improced crit chance, different element, increased accuracy or some other abilities.
Each character is proficient with one or more categories of weapons, and in each category there are many types - each player chooses what type of weapons does his or her character use, though it should be in the general mood of the category.

Weapon list:

Long Blades
Sample types - sword and board, katana, oversized twohander.
Iron: +18 Strength, +1 Magic, price - 300 gil.
Forged: +24 Strength, +2 Magic, +1 Stamina, price - 750 gil.
Mithril: +33 Strength, +4 Magic, +1 Stamina, +1 Spirit, price - 1200 gil.

Short Blades
Sample types - dagger, ninja-to, double knives.
Iron: +17 Strength, +1 Speed, price - 200 gil.
Mithril: +23 Strength, +2 Magic, +1 Speed, +1 Spirit, price - 600 gil.
Wind: +32 Strength, +3 Magic, +2 Speed, +1 Stamina, +1 Spirit, wind elemental, price - 1000 gil.

Bludgeons
Sample types - hammer, axe, nunchucks.
Wooden: +19 Strength, price - 300 gil.
Iron: +24 Strength, +1 Magic, +1 Stamina, +1 Spirit, price - 700 gil.
Mithril: +31 Strength, +3 Magic, +3 Stamina, +1 Spirit, price - 1100 gil.

Polearms
Sample types - spear, harpoon, trident.
Wooden: +18 Strength, +1 Magic, price - 300 gil.
Iron: +23 Strength, +2 Magic, +1 Stamina, price - 750 gil.
Mithril: +32 Strength, +3 Magic, +2 Stamina, +1 Spirit, price - 1200 gil.

Fist Weapons
Sample types - brass knuckles, gauntlet, metal claws.
Fist weapons cannot be Thrown.
Leather: +18 Strength, +2% crit chance, price - 250 gil.
Iron: +24 Strength, +1 Magic, +1 Speed, +2% crit chance, price - 650 gil.
Mithril: +30 Strength, +3 Magic, +2 Speed, +2 Stamina, +2% crit chance, price - 1100 gil.

Mage's Weapons
Sample types - wand, staff, book.
Wooden: +16 Strength, +3 Magic, price - 250 gil.
Mithril: +22 Strength, +4 Magic, +1 Spirit, price - 650 gil.
Enchanted: +28 Strength, +4 Magic, +3 Stamina, +3 Spirit, price - 1000 gil.

Ranged Weapons
Sample types - bow, shuriken, whip.
Attacks with those weapons are considered ranged.
Light: +17 Strength, +1 Speed, price - 200 gil.
Heavy: +23 Strength, +2 Magic, +1 Speed, price - 600 gil.
Wind: +30 Strength, +3 Magic, +3 Speed, +1 Spirit, wind elemental, price - 1000 gil.

Guns
Sample types - machine gun, pistol, shotgun.
Attacks with those weapons are considered ranged.
Primitive: +18 Strength, +1 Magic, price - 350 gil.
Hand: +23 Strength, +2 Magic, +1 Stamina, price - 800 gil.
Mithril: +31 Strength, +4 Magic, +1 Speed, +1 Stamina, price - 1300 gil.

Armor
Armor improves secondary stats - physical and magical defense and evade. Some of them might possess special qualities, like improving other stats or giving additional protection against some elements. Each character can use all armor, though the preferred armor type varies from character to character - from full plate and chainmail, to protective amulets and bangles.

Armor list:

Bronze: +8 Defense, price - 300 gil.
Iron: +10 Defense, +2 Magic Defense, price - 500 gil.
Forged: +14 Defense, +2 Evade, +4 Magic Defense, price - 800 gil.
Mithril: +18 Defense, +3 Evade, +8 Magic Defense, price - 1100 gil.

Accessories
Though they pay a support role, sometimes they can be more useful than one'd have thought. A character can have only one accessory equipped at a time, otherwise their powers nullify each other until they are taken off.

Accessory list:

Barried Ring: casts Shell on the wearer when s/he has 1/4 or less of max HP, +1 Magic, price - 500 gil.
Fae Ring: protects from Poison and Blind statuses, price - 1500 gil.
Silver Goggles: protect from the Blind status, price - 500 gil.
Jewel Ring: protects from Blind and Stone statuses, price - 1000 gil.
Mithril Gauntlet: casts Protect on the wearer when s/he has 1/4 or less of max HP, +3 Defense, price - 700 gil.
Peace Ring: protects from Berserk and Confuse statuses, price - 1500 gil.
Dash Shoes: allow you to walk roughly twice as fast, run away faster, and add 50 to the 1d100 ATP points you receive at the beginning of combat, price - 1500 gil.
Star Pendant: protects from the Poison status, price - 1000 gil.

Common Goods
This is a short list that should give the GM and the players an idea how do the ordinary prices look like. The GM should be able to create the prices for more exotic or specific goods on his own.

Goods list:

Adventuring Gear: all the more common items needed to survive in the wilderness, price - 125 gil.
Tent: lets up to four people sleep more comfortably (more, if they don't mind the comfort part) and regain more HP and MP after resting, price - 300 gil.
Writing Set: including the tools, a lot of paper, and a proper container for it, price - 150 gil.
Thieves' Tools: lockpicks and other items needed to perform actions of questionable legality, price - 200 gil.
Rations: enough for a week, price - 100 gil.
Rope: one of the most useful items ever, price - 10 gil for a meter (3 feet).
Clothes: in four qualities - poor, ordinary, good and rich. You can specify the details on your own, price - 5/40/200/800 gil.
Accomodation - a room for a day for one person, in a poor, normal, good or excellent inn, price - 1/10/30/80 gil.
Food For One Day - same criteria as for accomodation, price - 3/10/30/150 gil.
Average Chocobo - not much faster than you are, but at least you do not tire your legs, price - 500 gil.
Good Chocobo - a great choice for long journeys, price - 1200 gil.
Fast Chocobo - a rarity to find, most of them can be found in the hands of the rich and good messengers, price - 3000 gil.
Battle Chocobo - the only one that won't run away in fear the moment a fight start, price - 7500 gil.
Race Chocobo - useless for journeys, but you can earn a lot for races it will win! Price - at least 5000 gil.

Machines
if a character possesses the Machines ability, s/he can start with those items:
Auto Crossbow: when used, attacks a group of enemies with a physical attack with a set Strength of 35 that always hits, is considered ranged and cannot deal critical hits, price - 200 gil for the machine, 25 per a charge.
Bio Blaster: when used, attacks a group of enemies with a magical, poison-elemental attack with Magic increased by 20 that has a 100% chance of causing the Poison status, price - 200 gil for the machine, 25 per a charge.

Tengu
2007-05-14, 05:07 PM
This is everything players need to know. There will probably be a GM's guide, including such things as:
-details on limit breaks
-longer lists of items, summons, blue magic
-how to reward your players with experience, items and money
-rules on creating monsters
-an Excel spreadsheet that makes the speed system faster to use
-and stuff I might've forgotten at the moment
But since the system is not 100% made yet, don't expect it anytime soon.

So, comments? I'm particularily interested in balance issues and exploits, and whether or not some rules or abilities work in an unclear way.

Perducci
2007-05-14, 06:54 PM
I'd be willing to playtest this. That is, if you would be willing to GM it. Working on creating a character now.

Yakk
2007-05-14, 09:48 PM
You lost me with your cludgy conflict resolution system and tick system.

To clean up the tick system:

At the start of combat, people start with 1d10 AP.

At the start of each round, you gain Speed/2 AP.

Players get 2 free actions per round: one at the start, and one at the end of the round.

Actions always happen in the order of current AP.

When you do an action and you have more than 10 AP, you lose 10 AP and get back in line for another action.

...

This is mechanically nearly identical to your system, but the bookkeeping is much simpler.

The numbers (starting AP, and AP lost from extra actions) can be tweaked.

...

Instead of 1-10 being a crit what if doubles where a crit? That happens on about 1 in 10 hits on average, and is visually pleasing. :)

...


Rolling under the defender's evade (magic or physical) should be a miss. This removes a math step.

...

Accuracy should start out at 50ish instead of 100. You should have some chance of missing! Have some attribute boost your Accuracy at a rate of +1 every 5 stat points.

Hmm. Split Spirit.

Morale: Every 5 points grants +1 Melee Accuracy and +1 Magic Evade. Every 1 point grants +1 Magic Defense.

Spirit: Every 5 points grants +1 Magic Accuracy. Every 1 point grants +1 MP and +5 HP.

This is a cute bit of symmetry breaking.

Boost damage dice from d6 to d10. At L 100+ roll d100 instead of 10d10. (Extra HP from Spirit are compensated with by higher damage dice).

So a L 257 character would roll 2d100 + 6d10 damage, plus Strength and/or Magic.

So, secondary stats change as follows:

MP: (Level+Spirit)
Melee Accuracy: 50 + Morale/5.
Magic Accuracy: 50 + Spirit/5.
HP: (Level+Spirit+Stamina)*5
Melee Evade: Speed/5
Magic Evade: Morale/5
Melee Defense: Stamina
Magic Defense: Morale

Accuracy beyond 100 "eats" Evade. If you roll under (Accuracy-100), you hit, even if you rolled under the other player's Evade.

(If Evade and/or Accuracy pass 100 or 200 respectively, you need more advanced rules. But that requires level 499+ characters...)

...

Status effects can break the game. I'd advise adding a Soul stat to deal with this.

Soul: (Level+Strength+Magic)*5.

Status spells damage your soul. Use standard damage rules.

After the target takes damage, roll d100. If you roll over the target's soul after you damage it, or if you roll under the Penetration of your Status spell, the status effect works.

Ie:
Warp.
75 MP cost.
25 base Accuracy.
Deals +100 soul damage.
Penetration 30.
Teleports target or targets to a death dimension.

...

How do those tweaks feel? I'm trying to keep the "big numbers and big levels" feel of the Final Fantasy series, but reduce the amount of manual math crunching you have to do on the fly.

Tengu
2007-05-15, 03:54 AM
You lost me with your cludgy conflict resolution system and tick system.

To clean up the tick system:

At the start of combat, people start with 1d10 AP.

At the start of each round, you gain Speed/2 AP.

Players get 2 free actions per round: one at the start, and one at the end of the round.

Actions always happen in the order of current AP.

When you do an action and you have more than 10 AP, you lose 10 AP and get back in line for another action.

...

This is mechanically nearly identical to your system, but the bookkeeping is much simpler.

The numbers (starting AP, and AP lost from extra actions) can be tweaked.

I must look into this. Might be much better and simpler, maybe it won't even require the help of Excel to work.



Instead of 1-10 being a crit what if doubles where a crit? That happens on about 1 in 10 hits on average, and is visually pleasing. :)

What about items that boost your crit chance though?



Rolling under the defender's evade (magic or physical) should be a miss. This removes a math step.

If a hit chance was simply accuracy-evade, the miss chance of attacks with lower accuracy would be too high in my opinion. When an attack has an accuracy of 100, the hit chance is 100-evade anyway.



Accuracy should start out at 50ish instead of 100. You should have some chance of missing! Have some attribute boost your Accuracy at a rate of +1 every 5 stat points.

High accuracy is the point. How often do you see attacks miss in Final Fantasy, apart from enemies with very high evade?



Boost damage dice from d6 to d10. At L 100+ roll d100 instead of 10d10. (Extra HP from Spirit are compensated with by higher damage dice).

I don't really like both higher damage dice, and Spirit giving HP. From my experience it's easier to roll a handful of d6 than d10.
And by the way, I was considering putting level 99 as the highest attainable (like in most FF games), but I doubt will most campaigns even go that far.



Status effects can break the game. I'd advise adding a Soul stat to deal with this.

Soul: (Level+Strength+Magic)*5.

Status spells damage your soul. Use standard damage rules.

After the target takes damage, roll d100. If you roll over the target's soul after you damage it, or if you roll under the Penetration of your Status spell, the status effect works.

Ie:
Warp.
75 MP cost.
25 base Accuracy.
Deals +100 soul damage.
Penetration 30.
Teleports target or targets to a death dimension.
I don't really see the benefits in this. Most status affecting spells already have a chance of missing and are affected by Magic Evade. Though I'm aware of one thing now - I must make some way for the victims of Warp to come back, otherwise it's too powerful (because you can simply cast Life on someone who died in another way).

Thanks for the input.

Yakk
2007-05-15, 08:20 AM
The differences of my "cleaned up" AP system and your Tick system:

My system makes speed slighly more important.

If you have 100 speed, under your system you would get exactly 3 times as many actions as someone with 0 speed.

Under my system, you would get 3.5 times as many actions, and more of your actions would be "front loaded" before the other side gets to go.

I figure those changes are sub-ideal, but well worth making the game simpler. One shouldn't design a tabletop game to require a calculator or spreadsheet. :)


If a hit chance was simply accuracy-evade, the miss chance of attacks with lower accuracy would be too high in my opinion. When an attack has an accuracy of 100, the hit chance is 100-evade anyway.

Yes, but the math is cumbersome. You would need to pull out a calculator on every single combat round.

The goal is to get the feel of the computer game, not duplicate it, and make the game play as fast as possible. That means no "fractions on the fly" multiplication, minimal subtraction, and ideally really easy math on any "discontinuous" functions like miss chance.

If you really want to do
Hit Chance = Accuracy * (100% - Evade%)
you should roll twice.

Alternatively, there is a funkey trick I know. If you roll percentile dice, the forward and backwards percents are very uncorrelated.

So, an alternate to hit:
FORWARD < accuracy
AND
BACKWARD > evade

That gives you an approximation of the math you describe in one roll. Plus it gives you a relatively unique mechanic to tweak people's interest. :)


High accuracy is the point. How often do you see attacks miss in Final Fantasy, apart from enemies with very high evade?

Ok. Then try a base of 80 accuracy for standard attacks.

That means by level 95 you can get 100 accuracy.


I don't really like both higher damage dice, and Spirit giving HP. From my experience it's easier to roll a handful of d6 than d10.
And by the way, I was considering putting level 99 as the highest attainable (like in most FF games), but I doubt will most campaigns even go that far.

*grin* -- but making mechanics scale far beyond where your game is built is a sign of robustness. D&D starts to creak before level 20, because some of their mechanics don't scale all that well.


I don't really see the benefits in this. Most status affecting spells already have a chance of missing and are affected by Magic Evade. Though I'm aware of one thing now - I must make some way for the victims of Warp to come back, otherwise it's too powerful (because you can simply cast Life on someone who died in another way).

Thanks for the input.

Save-or-lose spells sort of break most games. In FF, they just flagged any creature that you couldn't kill in 2 swings as immune to every status effect you could think of.

Which made status effect spells sort of suck. @_@

I'm trying to figure out a status-effect subgame that could make them work better: so the spells will be usable on both bosses and gimps.

Tengu
2007-05-15, 10:28 AM
The differences of my "cleaned up" AP system and your Tick system:

My system makes speed slighly more important.

If you have 100 speed, under your system you would get exactly 3 times as many actions as someone with 0 speed.

Under my system, you would get 3.5 times as many actions, and more of your actions would be "front loaded" before the other side gets to go.

I figure those changes are sub-ideal, but well worth making the game simpler. One shouldn't design a tabletop game to require a calculator or spreadsheet. :)


Mhm, that's why I have to somehow blend those two systems together in order to make Speed count roughly as much as in the original system.
Well, this game was designed with PBCH in mind, where a spreadsheet is available at a hand's reach for the GM, so this aspect is rather complicated. I'm on a good way to siplify it though.



Yes, but the math is cumbersome. You would need to pull out a calculator on every single combat round.

The goal is to get the feel of the computer game, not duplicate it, and make the game play as fast as possible. That means no "fractions on the fly" multiplication, minimal subtraction, and ideally really easy math on any "discontinuous" functions like miss chance.

If you really want to do
Hit Chance = Accuracy * (100% - Evade%)
you should roll twice.

Alternatively, there is a funkey trick I know. If you roll percentile dice, the forward and backwards percents are very uncorrelated.

Well, the majority of attacks have an accuracy of 100, so there is no point in getting a calculator. And when the accuracy is under 100, the calculations are not very hard either - they can be shown alternatively as
Hit Chance = Accuracy - Evade*(Accuracy/100)

Though I think I might really change it to two d100 rolls. Now, which one would also mean the crit chance...



Ok. Then try a base of 80 accuracy for standard attacks.

That means by level 95 you can get 100 accuracy.

I... don't like it. I just see no reason why the base accuracy cannot be 100.



*grin* -- but making mechanics scale far beyond where your game is built is a sign of robustness. D&D starts to creak before level 20, because some of their mechanics don't scale all that well.

Well, there's nothing that prohibits level 100, or even 1000 characters. I just don't see any campaign lasting for as long, and I didn't bother with abilities over level 40, since in most FF games you get all the most powerful goodies around that level anyway (and I had no idea what to put after that).



Save-or-lose spells sort of break most games. In FF, they just flagged any creature that you couldn't kill in 2 swings as immune to every status effect you could think of.

Which made status effect spells sort of suck. @_@

I'm trying to figure out a status-effect subgame that could make them work better: so the spells will be usable on both bosses and gimps.

Well, since my game is based on FF, creatures you'd consider bosses are also either immune to a lot of crowd control, or have very high Magic Evade. I am not familiar with games that handle the issue of crowd control in other ways than "immunity" or "so be it, you paralyze the BBEG".

Jensik
2007-05-16, 12:00 AM
I'd like to offer a simplified version of the "tick" method of speed calculation. For the record, I didn't come up with this. This is the system used in Final Fantasy: Tactics and I think it is definitely worth mentioning. Of course... now that I think about it, speed in that game was dictated by class. Thieves had 8, Ninja had 9, while most Mage classes had 6, and there were items in the game to increase speed.

At the beginning of combat each player had a Charge Time (CT) of 0 and at each 'tick', which was nearly imperceptible by the way, the players added their speed to their CT count. When the count hit 100 it was their turn. In the result of a tie the turn went to the higher unit number (a stat that this system doesn't use so we'll have to come up with something else)

On your turn you were allowed one movement and one action, in any order. If a character used both of these actions his CT would be dropped to 0 and the count would resume. If a character only used one action (movement or action) and not both his CT would only dropped to 20. If a character did neither and simply waited for more favorable conditions, their CT would only drop to 40.

This system however is fixed position like in the other FF games so the variable CT drops will have to be adjusted or removed entirely. Perhaps have some Abilities give a CT bonus as there are some actions that are inherently faster than others.

Now to get around some of the stat problems...

I guess you'd have to change Speed to Dexterity and make Speed into a secondary stat at the rate of one point for every 3 or 5 points of Dex.

For breaking ties you could rule whoever has the higher Dex goes first.
Also with the change in Speed You'll have to change/create magic items to fit the new stats. Not hard but time consuming.

Thoughts?

Tengu
2007-05-16, 04:05 AM
Well... if you look closely, you can see that my speed system is already based on FFT, only that you need to gather 400, not 100 points, everyone starts with 1d100 at the start of the combat instead of 0, and they gain Speed+50 points per tick instead of just Speed. And there's no moving.

Yakk
2007-05-16, 09:56 AM
If you are doing Play-By-Post, then you really need something along the lines of "action queues" of some kind. If the player has to make many many time-seperated choices per round of combat, the game will drag out. If instead the player makes choices at one time, the game won't.

So players and monsters should be forced to detail all of their actions for the "turn" at the start of the turn.

Target choices should be listed as {X: or closest if condition}, where condition is limited to "X is dead" or the like. (ie, "X has status Y"). Closest can be changed to "furthest", "whoever attacked most recently". X can be "whoever attacked me last", or "An orc" or "The orc in the front left rank".

A fine-grained tick system with PBP will make the game grind out, because you will have to stop the simulation and wait for a response whenever someone's turn comes about.

Tengu
2007-05-16, 12:41 PM
Don't worry, I'm planning to use something slightly similar in my PBP game, that should speed the combat up a lot.

Gungnir
2007-05-16, 12:44 PM
Back in the day, someone started making a supplement for Exalted that turned it into FF. They even had someone who did art for White Wolf helping and supplying pretty pictures.

The Tonberrys were awesome, and could utterly destroy anyone who didn't follow their virtues.

EvilElitest
2007-05-16, 12:50 PM
No other races, where is the fun in that?
from,
EE

Tengu
2007-05-16, 01:10 PM
Back in the day, someone started making a supplement for Exalted that turned it into FF. They even had someone who did art for White Wolf helping and supplying pretty pictures.

The Tonberrys were awesome, and could utterly destroy anyone who didn't follow their virtues.

That's interesting! Any idea where can I find more info about that?


No other races, where is the fun in that?
from,
EE

Most FF worlds have non-human races very rare.

Gungnir
2007-05-16, 01:30 PM
That's interesting! Any idea where can I find more info about that?

Unfortunately, I looked around, and I'm pretty sure it imploded. I first heard about it a couple years ago, and the site that linked to the site is now broken, but I managed to find the sneak peek .pdf (http://www.alabrax.com/exalted/PDF/FFexalted_sneakpeek.pdf) that was on it. It has stats for Moogles, cactuar, and tonberrys, but, infortunately, no credits.

EvilElitest
2007-05-16, 01:40 PM
That's interesting! Any idea where can I find more info about that?



Most FF worlds have non-human races very rare.

weird, their was a great page in wikipedia that had a complet list, but it seems to have vanished, anyone know why?
But hte point remains the racese are to differse just to leave them out, i mean human are often the most dominete species but far from the only
from,
EE

Tengu
2007-05-16, 02:31 PM
Not all FF worlds have all the races - what races you can play depends on the setting. Nothing (apart from the GM) stops you from playing a nonhuman, they just are mechanically the same as humans.

Yuki Akuma
2007-05-17, 08:59 AM
Of course, a GM could decide that specific races have different weaknesses, or that they have access to species-specific abilities.

Like, my moogle. She's weak against Fire instead of Poison. :smallwink:

Tengu
2007-09-28, 07:37 AM
Rules update - marked in such a way.