[Savage Worlds] Final Fantasy VII Materia

[Sparx MacGyver]

So I get a kick out of Savage Worlds. I like the toolbox feel it has, in that with just a few tweaks you can get most any setting with little issue. Normally, I don't have too much trouble figuring these things out, but lately I've been in a bit of a funk trying to get this one down. Probably doesn't help that I work long hours with little time to sleep or do much else these days.

Two of my favorite Final Fantasy games are VI and VII. I think I played those the most before I hit that early teenage 'meh' stage where you hate everything. Anyway, I wanted to do a similar magic stem like those games. Briefly:

FFVI:

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This game uses Espers, essentially creatures that you can summon. Each one comes with various spells, and after so much exp, you learn that spell permanently. Pretty sure you get the Espers as permanent as well, but it has been awhile...

FFVII:

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They did a similar magic system in this game. Here we have Materia, palm sized marbles of various colors, and each has different spells and the like. Summons and spells are separated, and as before you can earn exp to learn the spells and summons permanently. This one also gives you various bonuses with them equipped, if I remember right. Something like fir resistance if you equip a fire materia.

In both games, spells come in levels, I-III, usually something like Fire I, Fire II, Fire III, or Fire, Fira, Firaga. something along those lines.

I know they made a similar system for Diablo I & II, and that was ported to D&D at one point. I have that book. I even have the knock off version, in the form of the Magic Item Compendium. OK, it's not a knock off and it's got some other cool stuff in there too.

Is there a feasibly easy and simple way to do it? I figure there has to be a way to get a functional and nice FFVII style magic system working for SW. If you have an idea, I'd surely appreciate the help.

[SiuiS]

Materia don't impart anything permanently. Leveling up a single materia orb is how you unlock higher leveled versions; someone would have to wear Fire materia for a while and imbue it with their memories and experiences before it allows them to use the more powerful and more draining Fira spell.

Some unlock new things entirely, with the Attack- All materia getting a death blow or somesuch, the multiattack materia letting you hit multiple times, etc. Summons were also limited; each level in those allowed you to use the summon an additional time, with mastery of that materia allowing anyone using it to use that summon as long as they had the power to do so.


How deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go? Materia at the surface is just "slotless" items that allow you to use spell slots (everyone has spell slots) as a sorcerer to cast the spell in it. Like a 3.5 Runestaff. The value of materia was in the subsystem; all gear had slots for it. Attached slots allowed combos. Detached slots did not, but either had more slots in general or higher XP multipliers for materia. Player choice was not strictly passive as far as abilities went either; there was a choice between spells and aummons, yes, but Attack abilities like sneak attack and power Attack and flurry were materia, and attribute boosts were materia. Balancing stats, abilities, and Spells in a limited slot system along with support like no drain, counter attack, absorb, double and contingency was interesting.

If that sounds like a lot of work, skip materia. Stick with Espers. I don't know the system, but they would work like gestalting a (very weak) class that you can unlock permament abilities for. Or maybe like item familiars with pre-planned imbuements. Much cleaner, and really, it's a better system for RPGs in general. Materia only works in video games because half the fun is book keeping and munchkinry.

[Sparx MacGyver]

Huh, indeed you are right. As I said, been awhile since I've played them couple with my long shifts and little sleep. But if I had to choose? I still like the Materia way of doing it. Slot an item in, use some spells. They both do that, actually. But they differ after the idea of equipping them.

Really what I want is an item that's equitable and lets the users gain magic. Magicite will do this. Magicite is the term used for FFVI, and the summons are Espers. So we get permanent spells, and can summon allies as needed. In the game the Summons are powerful, but can only be used once per battle if you have enough MP. Once you've learned a spell, you can use it when ever if you have the MP.

I would love to do a slotted system, I think it would be a neat add-on. My players and I both love equipment lists, so we'd get a kick out of that. Might have to mull it over and try writing up a base version of this just to play with it at some point. Maybe...


You're probably right about it being easier. Savage Worlds doesn't use classes at all and it doesn't use levels in the sense that D&D and others use them. There are advancements, but it's not level 1-20, and you only need 5xp to get to the next level. The book says to give maybe 3 xp per session at most, but I've seen some GM's give only 1 xp per session and I've even seen some that do the bit where they just tell you when to level up - I think that lat one is kind of universal to most systems.