Fandom Persona?

[Red Rider]

Just a modest interest check to see if anybody is interested in an RP based around Persona. It'd be Casual probably. I may also rig up a very, VERY simple dice system to resolve combat as a built-in defense against godmodding, but I'm not sure on that yet, so I'm posting this in general interest checks. Characters would be Persona users (with a die roll determining whether or not they're Wild Card or some other arcana--not just anyone can pile into the Velvet Room, after all!) and there'd be a nice mystery or two to investigate, shadows to fight, etc. as well as ample opportunity for the social elements that help make the games so fun.


As for my own involvement, I'd be taking the position of referee or game master, controlling the environment, shadows, and NPCs rather than an active member of the team (aside from maybe a support character). I'd try to post at least twice a week, maybe three when I can.


Sound good?

 

[DJ Elfin]

This looks awesome!


PERSONA! \(^o^)/

 

[Aura Of Twilight]

Admittedly, I haven't ever played Persona, but I've researched a bit up on it. I'm interested.

 

[utdfan22]

Sounds like it could be a fun game. I'd be interested.

 

[DJ Elfin]

[QUOTE="Aura Of Twilight]Admittedly, I haven't ever played Persona, but I've researched a bit up on it. I'm interested.

[/QUOTE]
Honestly, I've never played it either! I've watched play-throughs though and we have a copy of Persona 4, just not the system to play it on. xD

 

[utdfan22]

How close do you want us to conform to the Arcana standards in the game? Magicians tend to be very similar characters across the Persona series for example, especially in 3 & 4.

 

[Red Rider]

How close do you want us to conform to the Arcana standards in the game? Magicians tend to be very similar characters across the Persona series for example, especially in 3 & 4.

I think that most of the characters we might want to play could fall into one of the Arcana naturally. You don't have to be a cookie-cutter version of your Arcana's archetype, but you should at least try to conform to your character's arcana in some way. So the short answer is "your Magician wouldn't have to be a direct Yosuke clone, but I'd expect them to act like a Magician character would act." Character depth is accepted and appreciated, and it's expected that your character has some emotional baggage--this is Persona, after all--but having a Magician character who's all "WHOA MY TRAGIC PAST" all the time, not so big on that.


As for what arcana are allowed: The only ones I'd call "off limits" are Fool (which will be subject to random selection) and "special" Arcana that aren't really featured (or at least rare) in every game, like Aeon or World.


 


[QUOTE="Aura Of Twilight]Admittedly, I haven't ever played Persona, but I've researched a bit up on it. I'm interested.

[/QUOTE]
That's fine. If you're willing to familiarize yourself with the basic tone and setting. You're more than welcome.

 

[Servant]

Sounds cool, I am interested.

 

[Red Rider]

Alrighty. I'll get working on seeing if I can come up with a simple system. Then I'll post it here and if you guys like the way it looks I'll make a thread in the appropriate board. Stay tuned!


 
Okay gang, I've got it all worked out, I think. I'll be explaining things and also using hypothetical examples. I warn you: there's middle school level math involved in making a dude. This post may seem to run a bit long, but the whole thing isn't terribly complex, I promise. I tried to come up with a blend of authenticity to source material and ease of use when used as a system for forum roleplaying.


You start off with one (1) Persona that you get to design; there are a few rules that govern your designing, but I don't think they're too hard or unfair to follow.


First thing's first: Let's find out what Arcana we are. There's a 10% chance that your character is Fool arcana and can fuse personas/access the Velvet Room. Roll a 10-sided die (d10) and if it's a 10, you are Fool Arcana. If you are not a Fool, you may choose whichever Arcana you think would be most appropriate for your character. At appropriate character levels (determined by the referee), if your character has come a long way in terms of character development, I may ask if you'd like to swap your Persona out for a newer, better one.


Find or create a Persona that you'll be happy with, that fits your character and is the appropriate arcana. There's a wiki chock full of personas, provided at the end of this post, or you could make up your own. If you use the wiki, ignore the stats and abilities that the wiki lists your Persona as having; we will be assigning different stats and abilities for this game. The only limits for your Persona are that you make sure to draw from mythology and/or mythological fantasy to concoct a Persona that you like that still fits the tone of the game.


Example: So let's say I'm making a character and I didn't get a 10 on my d10. Well, to figure out my Arcana I need to think about my character; let's say her name is September, just for simplicity. I'll need to examine her personality and do a little legwork to figure out something that ties into Tarot decks. September wants friends, but feels like she's trapped a lot of the time in social situations--this is because deep down she's scared of getting attached to people. I'd probably pick an Arcana appropriate to that character, like Hanged Man. So I look at the list of Hanged Man personas for Persona 3 and 4 and see if I like one of these guys looks before I go through the trouble of making up a whole new dude (your mileage may vary here, obviously). Hmm... I like Berith, so I'll read his article to see if he could be my character's Persona. Skimming through his entry, I see that Berith used to be worshipped as a god but was later seen as a demon during the spread of Christianity through Canaan. He also lies a lot, even though when asked questions he's honest, and he despises those without manners. It's likely that he became harsh and cruel because of the way he was misunderstood and mistreated by people in the past, so I think September and Berith would really get along. It's a match!


So I've got my hypothetical Persona. Before I can do anything else, though, I'll need to get his stats in order.


Once you've got your Persona's appearance, story, etc. in mind, it's time to assign some numbers. These are part of fighting anybody, to keep things fair and hopefully cut down on arguments.


Every Persona has the following stats:


Strength (ST)


Magic (MA)


Endurance (EN)


Agility (AG)


Luck (LU)


"What do these all mean?" you're probably asking. The stats are all tied to parts of the combat system.


Strength is a number applied to all physical damage rolls. You also combine it with Luck when seeing if a physical attack hits.


Magic functions identically to Strength, except it helps you determine the success and damage of Magic attacks, instead.


Endurance is subtracted from all damage you take after it is rolled, and occasionally to see if your character is capable of resisting something.


Agility is added to rolls to determine turn order, as well as occasionally to see if your character is capable of dodging something.


Luck is added to all rolls, except for damage rolls and Priority.


You start out with 14 points, to split up and allocate into all of these stats as you see fit.


Example: This is the boring bit, so I'll just quickly think about what I want my Persona to do. Berith seems like he would be mostly physical, with a little bit of dark and fire magic thrown in. I'll put 3 points into strength, 2 points into magic, 3 points into Endurance, 4 in Agility (dat horse), and 2 in Luck. 3 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 2 = 14. Well, that was quick and relatively painless. Next step!


I'm taking a freeform approach when it comes to Spirit, which normally controls magic; I expect interesting descriptions of your fight scenes, so I'm not going to bother you all with TOO much book-keeping. There is, however, a Life stat, which you quickly calculate after you've made your Persona's stats. It's your Strength, plus your Endurance, plus your Luck, times three. If your Life stat reaches zero, your character loses consciousness.


Example: Ugh, the last little piece of the boring math bit. I put 3 into Strength, 3 into Endurance, and 2 into luck. That totals out to eight. Multiply that by three, and I start with 24 Life. Neato!


Moving on, a short and relatively easy step: Choose something your Persona is weak to and something they're resistant to, in terms of elemental weaknesses and resistances. Half the fun of Persona's combat is the odd, elemental rock-paper-scissors elements to the combat. Being hit by a weakness deals double damage to the target, and gives the attacker an extra action during their next turn. Using something the enemy is strong against causes you to lose your remaining actions and that enemy immediately gets to counterattack. I've elected to use a setup more similar to Press Turn from Nocturne because I think it would work better for play-by-post forum games. I don't think it'd be too terribly fun to type out multiple posts about getting knocked down and having to waste your turn recovering, but having a longer post of actions interrupted because you accidentally used something an enemy was resistant to might be interesting. Over time, I'll probably allow personas to update their "Resist" to block, gain a new resistance or two, etc. played mostly by ear.


Example: Berith's a demon prince, and I want him to be good at Dark skills, so it'd be a bit silly if Dark spells worked on him and September. I choose Dark as my Resistance, and Light as my Weakness. Seems fair to me. Later on in the game, once the kind, benevolent, and handsome GM gives me the go-ahead to change Berith so that he blocks Darkness completely, I'll ask about a resistance to Fire, since that's Berith's other big thing he does.


Now, we don't have much left to do. The last part of making your Persona is coming up with its abilities. To me this and actually creating the persona's appearance, personality, etc. is like "the fun part" of the whole ordeal. You can come up with your own, or you can use ones that are existing and established in-universe if this ain't your cup of tea. Obviously, your persona's powers need to be appropriate for someone who's just awakened to a new power; no Megadolaon as a starting power or anything like that. Simple stuff like Bash attacks, Agi, Bufu, etc. and you should have three of them. No more, no less. Three is the number of abilities thou shalt start with, and the number of the starting shall be three. Thou shalt not choose only two, nor shalt thou chooseth four. Five is right out. Choose three. [/grail]


I realize this step might be hard, but it allows you to be very creative, so I think it's fun. Once I make the sign-up thread proper, if you PM me the abilities your Persona uses, I'll tell you how they'd work in terms of rules.


Example: Well, normally this is where I'd take some creative license, since there aren't any costs to use my attacks, but this is just a sample character so we'll keep things simple. I'll say that Berith is very proficient with his spear (which obviously deals Piercing damage), and is a sorceror, using ordinary low-level Fire powers against single foes (Agi), and is also capable of conjuring up a Dark power, being a duke of Hell, so I pick Mudo, which has a chance to banish enemies, basically killing them. So my skills are Spear, Agi, and Mudo. I'll get in touch with that sexy, wonderful, amazing GM to see what I need to know about my powers and how they work.


So there we have it. My completed Persona! Here's what the character sheet might look like


Name: September Rose McLastname


Persona Name: Berith


Age: 17


Appearance: Damn bbygurl u str8, 11/10. Not putting much effort into an example character.


Bio: I'm not typing out a whole bio for an example character either but this is where such a thing would go; try not to reveal everything they've got going on, that should come up naturally in play. Nice, basic info on appearance, history, externally observable personality, etc. is appreciated, from there what you put into it is up to you really. There might be more for characters than this stuff but I prefer to let us show our characters more in play rather than write a detailed biography for a fictional person. YMMV.


Life: 24


Defense: (this is determined by what you're wearing; it's what an enemy needs to roll above to hit you)


ST 3, MA 2, EN 3, AG 4, LU 2


Skills:


Spear (ST+LU to hit, deals d8+ST damage, Pierce)


Agi (MA+LU to hit, deals d6+MA damage, Fire)


Mudo (MA+LU chance to hit; on successful hit, 20% random chance to instakill--odds doubled if creatures are weak to Dark)


And that's making a Persona. Didn't take me too terribly long, but I realize that you guys might think of these things much differently.


I'm going to say this here and then again at the end of this post: If you're confused about something, anything at all, please please please let me know so that we can try to get things settled. I'm not always as clear about things as I should be.


Now, on to how combat actually works:


Combat is what happens when two characters (or a character and a Shadow, or whatever) decide that words aren't enough and they try to resolve a conflict through violence. Combat will work like this:


At the start, everyone rolls a 100-sided die and adds their AG to it. This determines everyone's Priority, or the order that they act in a turn. The only exception to this are if you get the drop on an enemy or they get a drop on you; when this happened, everyone on the "supriser" side gets a free shot off before the other party can act, then Priority is still rolled normally after that.


Everyone posts what they'd like their characters to do this turn, then you make all appropriate rolls (if you ever aren't sure what to roll, just ask me), and once you've all given input, I look at the Priority order and describe how enemies react to your attacks in turn, and also describe any successful attacks made by enemies against you guys. This should hopefully let us get all our fights resolved quickly and cleanly.


Rolls to see if you hit someone are usually a 100-sided die (d100), with your Luck and either ST or MA added to this afterwards to get a final result. If your roll (plus your two stats) is higher than your target's Defense, you hit and roll damage as per the ability. Characters just wearing ordinary clothes have Defense equal to 10 + EN + AG.


Fights are won when one side either surrenders, runs away, or is defeated.


Combat is just that simple.


Again, if you have any questions about any of this, let me know either in a PM or in this thread. If you guys like the way this all looks, let me know and I'll make the sign-up thread.


Resources:


Personas:


http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Persona_3_FES_Personas


http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Persona_4_Personas


Tarot stuff for deciding your character's Arcana:


http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Tarot_Card

 

[Red Rider]

Triple post triple threat: ~*The Official Thread*~ is here!


https://www.rpnation.com/threads/persona-shut-up-and-jam-gaiden.87553/


GO GO GO

 

[yoikes]

*furiously waving my hands up in the air*

 

[Red Rider]

[QUOTE="too much idea]*furiously waving my hands up in the air*

[/QUOTE]
*furiously engages you with interpretive dance*

 

[Orikanyo]

May i join in this? Or do yea have enough people already?

 

[Red Rider]

You may absolutely join. We're still open for business at the moment.

 

[Orikanyo]

*manly arm pumping intensifies* Glorious, I shall get right on in then.

 

[Rise]

Can I join in on this fun? owo

 

[Red Rider]

Sure!

 

[yoikes]

[QUOTE="Red Rider]*furiously engages you with interpretive dance*

[/QUOTE]
Reserve a spot to play as a Villain/baddie for me

 

[IVIasterJay]

I would like to join in as well. I'm a bit uncertain about the stats though. If luck is applied to all rolls, is there any reason for one not to simply pump every stat point into luck and have luck act as all of their other stats?

 

[utdfan22]

I've actually had some thoughts about Luck as well. I' was thinking maybe a lot of the rolls should switch Luck to applying only partially, say regular attack becomes Str+Luck/2. Well, just a thought. Otherwise Luck does get a bit OP.

 

[Zataku]

This sounds amazing! Now my obsession over the series that has made a complete shut in to the rest of society will finally pay off! Did I say that out loud?

 

[Darkma8]

This sounds pretty fun.

 

[Red Rider]

I admit it's a problem. I was trying to keep the rules on the light side and I think I kinda shot myself in the foot with how Luck works. It doesn't COMPLETELY outshine the other stats, thankfully, since Luck isn't added to Priority or Damage rolls--I'll edit the rules post to make this clearer, since I think I erroneously wrote that Luck is added to "all rolls, period" when there are a couple of very important rolls it isn't added to at all. These rolls are actually the reasons that the other stats exist at all lol.


ST and MA, as they are now, are more to help you specialize in a certain type of attack--Luck isn't added to damage bonuses, as I mentioned, so even if you had 99 Luck you wouldn't add a single point to your skill's d8 of damage after hitting. As the events of the story progress, the types of enemies you guys face will surely grow stronger. There will come a time when dealing 1-8 points of damage will become woefully underwhelming compared to people who DID put points into ST and MA.


Similarly, you don't add Luck to Priority rolls, so your ability to always hit your target might not do you much good when you always act last in a turn.


Finally, reposting the thread here. We are accepting sign-ups: https://www.rpnation.com/threads/persona-shut-up-and-jam-gaiden.87554/

 

[IVIasterJay]

Would character-unique persona evolution be a thing, and if so, would it happen once or twice?

 

[Red Rider]

Would character-unique persona evolution be a thing, and if so, would it happen once or twice?

It's definitely a thing that'll happen if we get that far. Haven't made any concrete rules up for it, it'd mostly just be like "wow you really dealt with something serious, your Persona changes as a result of your growth as a person" and give them some nice plusses for their trouble ex post facto.