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Thread: Sword Art Online RPG?
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2019-03-16, 11:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
Sword Art Online RPG?
After watching the Sword Art Online anime, it has got me interested in finding a rpg that has an VR/MMO feel to it, or maybe even manipulating a current rpg to get satisfactory results. The players would be in vr world and in real world in the game, not sure how to approach that issue, the players would be in the vr world most of the time and thats where i want to focus, maybe just use diceless roleplaying for the real world? Anywho, im here to get some ideas and suggestions on any current rpg's that might fit this type of game or ideas on how to go about manipulating a current rpg to fit this and which one in particular. Thank You in advance!
Last edited by Omnitiger; 2019-03-17 at 12:56 AM.
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2019-03-17, 06:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
The first question to answer is why the VRMMO stuff? Does it have any meaning beyond flavour, or is it just going to be like a portal fantasy story? In the latter case I'd probably throw in summer question to which world is 'real' (are the 'real world' characters playing a fantasy MMO, or are the 'fantasy world' characters dreaming of a modern world?).
Note that the first fifteen episodes of SAO are just a portal fantasy story, a few hundred people get trapped in a fantasy world and have to embark on a quest to get back home. The fact that it's a VRMMO is mostly flavour (theres I think about two or three episodes where it matters to the plot).
As for systems, it really doesn't matter. If the PCs funny spend any screen time in the 'real world' just pick a system that matches your VRMMO.
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2019-03-17, 11:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
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- Pittsburgh, PA
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Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Hmm... the closest thing I can think of to that exact scenario would be a mecha rpg of some sort, one with solid rules for both giant robot fights and pilots having arguments in the hallways. Fate has some potential, with your skills and stunts representing your avatar and your aspects your RL self.
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2019-03-18, 12:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
SAO (season 1 anyway) has very little magic, and what little exists is usually in the form of items like teleportation crystals, healing potions and the like. Whatever system you go with, I'd make sure your players are on board with that.
If you want a trapped-in-an-MMO-anime along a similar vein that does have a magic system and actual spellcasting, I'd recommend checking out Log Horizon. (Actually I'd recommend it above SAO in any event, as it's better by several miles. SAO has... rather serious problems that I won't go into here.)Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2019-03-18, 01:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Technically very little magic, although it has skills that are effectively magical in ability. Case in point, our hero stands there at one point letting multiple characters just whale on him, and calmly comments that his regeneration is so high they will never take off more HP in a round than he recovers. So a lot of "not magic" magic.
"That's a horrible idea! What time?"
T-Shirt given to me by a good friend.. "in fairness, I was unsupervised at the time".
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2019-03-18, 02:14 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2006
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Gender
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Hill Giant Games
I make indie gaming books for you!Spoiler
STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.
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2019-03-18, 02:47 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2016
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Interface Zero 2.0 for Savage Worlds has some VR mechanics (rules for a Virtual Avatar, etc)
That gives you a character that you can throw Superpowers or abilities on that don't carry between games while determining which ones do.
What you would have to add is an artificial "level" mechanic to better mimic some scenes in SAO (you could have level be a flat mod to damage and toughness where you are immune to anything 10 levels below you).
The generic nature of Savage Worlds and it's plug-n-play approach to crunch would allow you to dice into various VR Worlds while still using the same core rule set and the IZ0 stuff gives you a way for those games to share the meatbag's stats that plays all these games.
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2019-03-18, 08:28 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
I saw that one, and that was less due to magic and more due to his level being so much higher than theirs, combined with a does of abstraction as far as what HP actually mean in SAO. In WoW terms they would all be grey to him; you could recreate that scene in plenty of RPGs with no magic at all.
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2019-03-18, 08:37 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2017
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
I'll second Interface Zero and Savage Worlds in general, that was actually one of my ideas for the game when playing that cyberpunk, with the generic ruleset that Savage Worlds is, it is easy enough to plug another setting and genre within it, and still use the same characters or at least not having to learn a new ruleset.
We went from standard real life cyberpunk, to VR westerns, weird westerns, waterworld, post apocalyptic fantasy and scifi. It was a lot of fun. Especially when I allowed the hacker to bring in items that didn't fit... All of a sudden a bazooka was whipped out against fantasy orcs... They didn't have a good day.
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2019-03-18, 09:52 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2011
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- 30.2672° N, 97.7431° W
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Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Personally, I would go with Iron Heroes. It's a D20 system with no magic, and with feats/skills that mimic the feel of the SAO special skills quite nicely.
"Sleeping late might not be a virtue, but it sure aint no vice. The old saw about the early bird and the worm just goes to show that the worm should have stayed in bed."
- L. Long
I think, therefore I get really, really annoyed at people who won't.
"A plucky band of renegade short-order cooks fighting the Empire with the power of cheap, delicious food and a side order of whup-ass."
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2019-03-18, 10:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2009
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
"That's a horrible idea! What time?"
T-Shirt given to me by a good friend.. "in fairness, I was unsupervised at the time".
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2019-03-18, 10:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2010
- Gender
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
I still say it depends on how you define HP but I'll leave that aside for now. My point still stands, SAO has no
magicspellcasting so that will need to be made clear to the players.Plague Doctor by Crimmy
Ext. Sig (Handbooks/Creations)
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2019-03-18, 11:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2015
- Gender
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
I'd say you should try Fate on for size, and ignore anyone who suggests a D&D-adjacent game. It's been a while since I've watched Sword Art Online, but what I do remember tells me that if you want your game to resemble what Sword Art Online actually is, in the watching, then you want something that can handle an anime plotline without all that much actual fighting in it, and no, Dungeons and Dragons and its imitators aren't what you want for that. Another game that might get brought up is Anima Prime, which is great for doing shonen anime with big, bombastic fight scenes, but I recommend against it here because SAO isn't a shonen anime, and you'd still end up working against the game to do what you want, which is either playing the game wrong, or playing the wrong game, and either way you're probably going to be feeling frustrated.
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2019-03-29, 09:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2019
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Thanks everyone for your suggestions, I'll be looking into all what has been suggested and see which one calls out to me.
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2019-03-30, 08:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2016
- Location
- The Lakes
Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
It is one thing to suspend your disbelief. It is another thing entirely to hang it by the neck until dead.
Verisimilitude -- n, the appearance or semblance of truth, likelihood, or probability.
The concern is not realism in speculative fiction, but rather the sense that a setting or story could be real, fostered by internal consistency and coherence.
The Worldbuilding Forum -- where realities are born.
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2019-03-30, 10:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2011
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- 30.2672° N, 97.7431° W
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Re: Sword Art Online RPG?
Not really. Every MMO has a health recovery mechanic that is not magic. The higher your level, the more HP is recovered over time. At that point, his base health recovery was more than their DPS, but there was no magic involved. They just never leveled, instead choosing to rob/kill other PC's, whereas Kirito leveled like crazy, even before they all became trapped.
"Sleeping late might not be a virtue, but it sure aint no vice. The old saw about the early bird and the worm just goes to show that the worm should have stayed in bed."
- L. Long
I think, therefore I get really, really annoyed at people who won't.
"A plucky band of renegade short-order cooks fighting the Empire with the power of cheap, delicious food and a side order of whup-ass."