Idea Reinhardt's Thingy of Stuffs

[White Masquerade]

@Ultraman


No, no, you can go ahead and share yours. I think it'd be better rather than waiting around. I have researched/played around with/created simple systems for both dice-filled and dice-less RPs, so I'm certain I can tell you right off the bat where hang-ups might come from. From your earlier post above, I don't agree mechanics keeps people over story, but yes, mechanics are very important. I do agree they are the first things that should be worked on and done.


For this kind of roleplay, I would suggest skipping out on a system altogether. Still work on classes and the rest, but leave dice out of it. At least for the first go-around. If the story is strong/somewhat interesting and everyone is moderated alright, then free-form should be okay, even preferred for this.

 

[JRPG]

@White Masquerade Share what? Sorry I'm a little confused on what you mean by your comment, "You can go ahead and shares yours." The only reason I suggest mechanics is that Final Fantasy contains varying elements that distinguish classes/jobs from one another. I don't mind working on mechanics first, but without a story, it's difficult to design mechanics that fit the theme of the story.


I prefer free-form too, but I enjoy seeing random outcomes.  I just feel like free-form limits the possibilities, since most roleplayers including me, may have a set way they want the story to go.

 

[White Masquerade]

@White Masquerade Share what? Sorry I'm a little confused on what you mean by your comment, "You can go ahead and shares yours." The only reason I suggest mechanics is that Final Fantasy contains varying elements that distinguish classes/jobs from one another. I don't mind working on mechanics first, but without a story, it's difficult to design mechanics that fit the theme of the story.


I prefer free-form too, but I enjoy seeing random outcomes.  I just feel like free-form limits the possibilities, since most roleplayers including me, may have a set way they want the story to go.

Gotcha. AH sorry, I thought you said mechanics > story before. I just want to see what dice system you have for this. I am interested in seeing what you have.

 

[JRPG]

@White Masquerade I don't have a dice system for this RP. I do have a dice system for the JRPG-style roleplay I'm developing, which can be converted here, if Reinhardt wants a dice system, but I doubt it.

 

[White Masquerade]

@White Masquerade I don't have a dice system for this RP. I do have a dice system for the JRPG-style roleplay I'm developing, which can be converted here, if Reinhardt wants a dice system, but I doubt it.

Understood. I will wait to see what happens then. Please let me know if you end up converting it.

 

[Reinhardt]

Well, a lot has happened here. I'll try to answer as much as I can.

For Statement 1: Do you want stats to hold a numerical value, or a descriptive value? I have a system in the works that contains all the typical stats of an FF game. The one's you listed I already have incorporated into my system, except I call Attack = Strength, Magic = Magic, Defense = Physique, and Mind = Spirit.

If possible, the best approach would be having both numerical and descriptive value. For example, a character has an attack of 10 - that character would deal 10 damage, every time they do a successful strike, as well as showing that their skills in combat are far better than an average man.

For Statement 2: When you say NPC, do you mean a GM controlled character? If characters are searching for a truth, there's a way to connect a multitude of people. Maybe a group of researchers encourages individuals to join their cause in exploring the crystals? Otherwise, I guess let's stick with splitting into groups of 2, or 3.

Not necessarily a GM-controlled character. I plan to enforce two types of NPCs, one that the players themselves can create and control for character development, and a GM-only NPC, which would be used as plot devices. For now, let's just stick with having small groups split up.

So FF 6 styled steampunk for tech? You may need to list all the required details, because levers/pulleys can fit into anything, and wires seems more cyberpunk.

Yes, pretty much. Not necessarily extremely advanced technology, but can be considered as high tech in a medieval-esque period. I'm still unsure as to how to describe them, but I'll think of a way sooner or later.

I'm assuming that unless characters have some form of political, or economical power, they're considered extremely poor.

I think it would be better to have a larger bottom class pool (middle-class to extremely poor), and a small high class pool. This way, not everyone get to be super rich, and not everyone is forced to be super poor.

Separating the rich and poor makes sense, but hopefully there's some way to connect the rich and poor. Maybe a ritual, or ceremony that requires everyone to be present?

There would be something, but I still have no idea as to what it would be all about. Gathering all sorts of people for some sort of ceremony would require it to be important, and all I have right now are trash ideas such as festivals and whatnot.

It may also be difficult to ascertain classes such as white mage, black mage, dragoon, and dark knight, etc; if there's no lore to back those occupations. How do poor people learn magic? Etc.?

For Statement 4: I guess to resolve the magic issue, we can say magic was never present until the appearance of crystals. The sudden appearance gave new magical abilities? Or maybe magic got even more powerful with the advent of crystals? Either way, there should be some lore to magic.

Pretty much. Crystals give people magic, and voila. More lore should be decided on when we get on finalizing the story part (I guess) Another way is that, as proposed earlier, each character has their own set of skills & spells. One guy gets dragoon's jump and black magic, the other gets white magic and monk skills. Of course, some characters are bound to have a number of same skills eventually, but that can be fixed.

For Statement 6: Combat mechanics don't need to be the exact FF mechanics, although the mechanics can borrow off FF jargon. The goal of a OOC combat system is to prevent players from dodging, defending, countering, healing, etc. every attack. A stress system, or a method of measuring one's fatigue after performing certain feats can be beneficial, and aid overseeing fairness. Although, I'm fine with having no system at all to decide combat. It's just I don't want combat to take 20+ posts, because everyone wants to win.

Well, we were not aiming to create an exact copy of FF mechanics, weren't we? And I do agree that some free-form players just don't know how to handle the freedom they have, causing complications that would render the RP in a difficult situation.

For Statement 8: Now that I've read that, I'll assume crystals allow people to utilize magic. Waypoints, or instant travel are necessary at least in my opinion, if you want to do a full world RP. Otherwise, I would limit RP to a City-state, or have everyone go to one location within a few posts. Timeskips can work too, but that's assuming everyone arrives at the same time.

I'll think about it. For now, let's focus on the mechanics. We're getting too ahead of ourselves here, tackling so many matters when we still haven't accomplished one.

The only mechanic I can think of is to have resource pools, so everything's easily monitored, and no fabrications can occur.

Resource pools are pretty much important, so we can't leave that out.

 

[Reinhardt]

For Statement 2: I'm waiting on Reinhardt's combat system, before sharing my own, since I don't want to polish/edit my system until I'm sure of a mechanic we're using to decide/resolve combat.

2. @Reinhardt, have you got anything you can share yet?

This is a system I made up for a previous RP. Ignore the details that won't matter here, but that's all I got for now.

For statement 1: I don't think that'll work, because a red mage knows lesser white/black magic; and a blue mage learns its skills from enemies. You can give the crystals' elements, but have them affect a spell-type such as water, fire, earth, etc. FF status conditions should be prevalent, although, they'll be temporary.

If a character used fire 1 it would come with a side effect of causing sleep. This could be explained in story as the skill exhausts them, and mechanically it could be absolute or probability based. Depending on where you go with it fire 2 would either cause the status to last longer or have a higher probability. Either way this brings a strategic side to the use of magic and keeps the in game idea that these crystals are a curse, nit a boon.

So, like FFTA Judges & Laws? Sounds interesting.

We could use the crystals to spawn in random areas and cause restrictions, such as that, that would penalize whoever violated the said restriction through various means - stat decrease, status ailments, etc.

That could work, but then we'll need a grading rubric, which may cause RP to turn into a chore.

This decided the third concept. We can't use the quality & detail of the players' posts to determine whether or not their characters do well. It takes the fun out of RP-ing. Although giving incentives to excellent posts are not entirely a bad idea, it would still light up the competition and turn it into a "who posts/writes better" instead of the RP that we're aiming for - a genuine FF-based RP.

 

[Reinhardt]

And @White Masquerade, what brings you here?  B7

 

[White Masquerade]

And @White Masquerade, what brings you here?  B7

I can't be interested in what you do? I can't be interested in your life? I want to watch you and what you do with this idea.

 

[Tedronai]

I agree that the topic has gotten ahead of itself but since the mechanics will involve magic, and magic involves the crystals I don't think you'll be able to divorce them entirely.


I think we should use your previous example as a start point. If I can add my tuppence I'd like to see a speed and or dexterity stat. Will stats be fixed by class, by level, or will the players have some freedom as to how they're distributed?


Perhaps instead of magic stats you could have one for each type of crystal. You could even add those as players 'encounter' new types of crystal, allowing the mechanics to be developed without needing to hash out the full lore ahead of time.


To simplify things you could have each colour stat responsible for magic atk and res, so if you are strong with red crystals you'll resist them too in a sort of antibody effect (furthering the idea that they do you some harm). You could then create a paper-rock-scissors type hierarchy for them. You already say skills will have prerequisites, so why not use this? i.e. the spell Fire 1 needs a red crystal level of >3 for instance.


I have other ideas too but I don't want to run too far ahead of the conversation.

 

[JRPG]

@Reinhardt Thank you for information on a numerical/descriptive stat system. However, if you add points into attack, does that make your character stronger? Like a character can carry more, or break down doors, etc.?


Oh, so NPCs are like side characters, or minor characters?


Well FFVI describes the technology, it's just if you're going to add other stuff that's not present in the FFVI world.


You may have to do a hierarchy for economic classes, or determine which jobs are appropriate for classes.


If you do come up with an idea for the rich and the poor, let me know. Although, a festival doesn't make sense for the poor, unless it's a religious/important for the city.


A mix of spells and skills can work, but do you plan to add branches of levels for spells and skills? Like only pure white mages can learn the most difficult of white magic spells, or does it not matter?


Okay, let's focus on the mechanics. Maybe get a list of the important mechanics, so we know what to discuss first?


I checked your system for the RP, and I wouldn't recommend using a percent system, as it makes number-crunching a pain, unless you plan to raise stats proportionally to the percent.


If you want to incentivize people to write better, the best way is to teach people, or offer advice/guidance through a PM.

 

[Tedronai]

If you do come up with an idea for the rich and the poor, let me know. Although, a festival doesn't make sense for the poor, unless it's a religious/important for the city.

Ok, so at the moment we have 2 cities, one where people are safe from infection (for want of a better word) and another where people who are infected are sent for study.


To my mind this suggests there will be a higher proportion of wealth/nobility in the clean city but perhaps that's not how you see the split.


Either way, for the story to happen people have to leave these cities and it could be that there is a gathering to choose to 'lucky' individuals (ah la the hunger games), a celebration prior to their leaving, or both.

A mix of spells and skills can work, but do you plan to add branches of levels for spells and skills? Like only pure white mages can learn the most difficult of white magic spells, or does it not matter?

I like that idea. As they say, jack of all trades, master of none. Perhaps as a mechanical way of implementing, if i can stick with my previous idea of stats for each crystal for the moment, If we use the idea that as the total number of these stats increase you become susceptible to status conditions, penalties, etc.


Therefore if someone tried to learn the skills from all their character would be crippled or dead long before they reached the higher levels of any single crystal skill tree.

 

[Reinhardt]

Sorry everyone, I've been reply to late. I will update the initial FF post to see what we've established so far, so we can keep track of how far we've gone and what else do we still need to do. I will also do a new post here that will have the same function, though only a shorter version.
 

I can't be interested in what you do? I can't be interested in your life? I want to watch you and what you do with this idea.

I see. Well then, welcome to my junkyard. Don't complain if you see noting but trash.

 

[White Masquerade]

Sorry everyone, I've been reply to late. I will update the initial FF post to see what we've established so far, so we can keep track of how far we've gone and what else do we still need to do. I will also do a new post here that will have the same function, though only a shorter version.
 


I see. Well then, welcome to my junkyard. Don't complain if you see noting but trash.

Don't call your stuff trash. But if you have any questions I can semi-help.

 

[Reinhardt]

I forgot that source editing has been disabled. Don't want to mess that initial post, so I guess it'll be done tomorrow. Responses will follow as well.

 

[Reinhardt]

Alright, so here's what we've got so far:

1. Characters will have their own skill set coming from various FF classes. However, a character may focus on a single skill tree and learn better skills.
   
2. Crystals will affect magic and impose various restrictions & limitations. If these are violated, there will be punishments.
   
3. Tech will follow the FFVI-form, with the usage of complex mechanisms and contraptions.
   
4. There are two separate cities holding most of the world's population.
   

What we need to tackle:

• Skill Trees/Classes - How to manage and make them standardized, yet at the same time, unique for every character. 
  
• The restrictions & limitations of crystals. How they would affect magic and the characters in their entirety.
  
• The purpose of tech besides being the world's sustaining devices.
  
• Character Stats - How to handle and implement them without turning the RP into a numbers game.
  

Feel free to add more that I may have overlooked or forgotten.

However, if you add points into attack, does that make your character stronger? Like a character can carry more, or break down doors, etc.?

Not necessarily. It would be simply combat-only. Or perhaps not. I am unsure of this matter, as I rarely play dice games.

A mix of spells and skills can work, but do you plan to add branches of levels for spells and skills? Like only pure white mages can learn the most difficult of white magic spells, or does it not matter?

Yes. Dedication to a skill tree/class-type skills would grant the character the chance to learn better spells/skills.

I checked your system for the RP, and I wouldn't recommend using a percent system, as it makes number-crunching a pain, unless you plan to raise stats proportionally to the percent.

The percentage stuff will not be included. Regen will only occur after battles, just like in regular FF games.

As they say, jack of all trades, master of none. Perhaps as a mechanical way of implementing, if i can stick with my previous idea of stats for each crystal for the moment, If we use the idea that as the total number of these stats increase you become susceptible to status conditions, penalties, etc.

So side-effects, so to speak. Good idea, but it will be hard to implement it since FF has a lot of skills and classes.

I think we should use your previous example as a start point. If I can add my tuppence I'd like to see a speed and or dexterity stat. Will stats be fixed by class, by level, or will the players have some freedom as to how they're distributed?

Still undecided. Level would mean exp must be tackled as well, and that is most certainly not an easy feat. I'm still not sure whether to have classes or not. Giving the players the ability to distribute their stats would be good, but I'm not that trusting.

Perhaps instead of magic stats you could have one for each type of crystal. You could even add those as players 'encounter' new types of crystal, allowing the mechanics to be developed without needing to hash out the full lore ahead of time.

Intriguing, could you expand more on this?

To simplify things you could have each colour stat responsible for magic atk and res, so if you are strong with red crystals you'll resist them too in a sort of antibody effect (furthering the idea that they do you some harm). You could then create a paper-rock-scissors type hierarchy for them. You already say skills will have prerequisites, so why not use this? i.e. the spell Fire 1 needs a red crystal level of >3 for instance.

Categorizing the stats through crystals sounds good, but I'm not really that convinced. Having various colors that determine a character's magical aptitude would be rather complicated, and that's not what we should want. A simple system is the goal here, but it would be detailed enough to cover a number of aspects that a regular FF game would have.

Don't call your stuff trash. But if you have any questions I can semi-help.

Alright then. You got any ideas or suggestions? I'm kinda starting to draw a blank here.

 

[White Masquerade]

Alright, so here's what we've got so far:

1. Characters will have their own skill set coming from various FF classes. However, a character may focus on a single skill tree and learn better skills.
   
2. Crystals will affect magic and impose various restrictions & limitations. If these are violated, there will be punishments.
   
3. Tech will follow the FFVI-form, with the usage of complex mechanisms and contraptions.
   
4. There are two separate cities holding most of the world's population.
   

What we need to tackle:

• Skill Trees/Classes - How to manage and make them standardized, yet at the same time, unique for every character. 
  
• The restrictions & limitations of crystals. How they would affect magic and the characters in their entirety.
  
• The purpose of tech besides being the world's sustaining devices.
  
• Character Stats - How to handle and implement them without turning the RP into a numbers game.
  

Feel free to add more that I may have overlooked or forgotten.





Not necessarily. It would be simply combat-only. Or perhaps not. I am unsure of this matter, as I rarely play dice games.



Yes. Dedication to a skill tree/class-type skills would grant the character the chance to learn better spells/skills.



The percentage stuff will not be included. Regen will only occur after battles, just like in regular FF games.



So side-effects, so to speak. Good idea, but it will be hard to implement it since FF has a lot of skills and classes.



Still undecided. Level would mean exp must be tackled as well, and that is most certainly not an easy feat. I'm still not sure whether to have classes or not. Giving the players the ability to distribute their stats would be good, but I'm not that trusting.



Intriguing, could you expand more on this?



Categorizing the stats through crystals sounds good, but I'm not really that convinced. Having various colors that determine a character's magical aptitude would be rather complicated, and that's not what we should want. A simple system is the goal here, but it would be detailed enough to cover a number of aspects that a regular FF game would have.


Alright then. You got any ideas or suggestions? I'm kinda starting to draw a blank here.

No. It's hard to say what I can suggest because I can't quite see what you all already have set down in stone.


I can't tell where to add on, what's at zero, what's finalized, etc

 

[Tedronai]

Ok, I might answer your questions out of sequence but that's because in my head this is all linked so rather than repeat myself I'll answer in the order that then makes most sense.

So side-effects, so to speak. Good idea, but it will be hard to implement it since FF has a lot of skills and classes.

I don't think something being hard to do should be reason enough to avoid doing it. Plus I don't necessarily think it will be that hard. This is how I would do it (obviously, your game so these and anything else are just suggestions. Also my experience of dice games are limited so these are open to improvement by other more experienced players).


First I'd hash out a list of set-backs/penalties/etc per crystal. For simplicity I would link one set-back/penalty to each crystal, then that crystal's stat becomes the difficulty modifier. The GM rolls and what would typically be a success, which here means the side-effect successfully afflicted the player. Therefore while the stat being higher might benefit them magically, it also increases the risk of the side-effect/penalty.


Ok, example. In a game I'm currently playing (apologies if this is teaching people to suck eggs) the standard difficulty is 11. You roll a d12 to determine success. Let us say that the white crystal (since I use it in later examples) also causes blindness. If you rolled 1-11 you would not go blind, but rolling a 12 makes your character blind. However, you deduct the relevant stat from the standard difficulty meaning you have more chance to roll a "success" (a white stat of 3: 11-3=8, so now, any roll over 8 is a success). The higher your stat the more chance of success so while your cure spell is more likely to succeed, in a double edged sword kind of relationship it also causes a greater risk of making you blind. Therefore every spell comes with a risk making using magic dangerous, and possibly doing away with the need for MP.


The side-effect could only last in combat (i.e. they have to finish the rest of the fight poisoned, asleep, petrified etc. unless healed by their allies) and then be 'cured' upon victory. The GM could also implement them at crucial plot points to add drama.

Still undecided. Level would mean exp must be tackled as well, and that is most certainly not an easy feat. I'm still not sure whether to have classes or not. Giving the players the ability to distribute their stats would be good, but I'm not that trusting.

I feel we have to trust people at some point otherwise we might as well just play with ourselves (pun bloody well intended). Perhaps rather than exp we just have points in the game where players go up a level: end of chapters, significant arcs, boss battles. Whatever we decide, at that point the people involved level up and get X number points to reallocate and must edit their CS.


This way with teams merging and splitting and even with noobs hopefully joining mid game the team(s) will end up with a mix of novice and veterans. I would limit this to physical stats. The magical stats I'll expand upon in a moment.

     On ‎07‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 5:40 PM, Tedronai said:



Perhaps instead of magic stats you could have one for each type of crystal. You could even add those as players 'encounter' new types of crystal, allowing the mechanics to be developed without needing to hash out the full lore ahead of time

Intriguing, could you expand more on this?

Ok, so as I understand the idea so far, the crystals appeared, people changed, the cities were formed to keep people save/study the effects respectively. So perhaps the lore we develop only knows of 1, maybe 2 crystals. If this were my game I would fully develop these 1/2 crystals as a sort of model for other characters to develop theirs.


Alternatively:


- you could fully flesh them out, including a complete skill tree,


- have only the early stuff known (with more "research" to be carried out in game - i.e. we make it up as we go along).


- You could theoretically have gaps in the knowledge that the players can fill in for themselves, i.e. your lore/research might have established that low exposure to white crystals gives people the ability to cure blindness (i.e. a level 1 spell, to use an arbitrary number system to hopefully make my point. See below for more info), and advanced exposure gave people the ability to cast ultima (a level 10 spell) but the exposure was so severe at that point that the subjects died before what happened in the middle (spells 6-9) could be documented.


You could ask that people submit crystals stats in much the same way as CS, to be approved before becoming canon. Once the Crystal's CS is complete, those colour crystals will then be able to be found in game.

Categorizing the stats through crystals sounds good, but I'm not really that convinced. Having various colors that determine a character's magical aptitude would be rather complicated, and that's not what we should want. A simple system is the goal here, but it would be detailed enough to cover a number of aspects that a regular FF game would have.

I don't think we can have a simple system that is detailed, I think the ideas are opposed (but I'm happy to be proved wrong). Let us say for the sake of argument that the one crystal people know of at the start of the game is white crystals and that its skill tree follows the white magic (I don't know if that would work, this is just an example). So, each time your character is exposed to a white crystal their white stat increases by 1 with the skill list as follows:


1. Blindna


2. Cure


3. Cura


4. Curaga


5. Invis, and so on until


10. Ultima


So, in story the players explore the world. They can be given magi-tech scanners which act like magical Geiger counters, and through these the GM can notify them of near-by crystals. The player(s) can then decide whether to seek it out or try to avoid it.


The GM could similarly give them choices (after combat an ally is injured/incapacitated in an area of crystals. The players can choose to save them, and expose themselves to radiation, or leave them but stay safe. If they venture in, perhaps the GM is sadistic and traps them forcing the story to be about escaping. Lot's of ideas.


The immediate problem I see is that with my crude idea, very quickly people are going to have every skill (and ailment). You can temper this by:


- having gaps between (so instead of 1, 2, 3 skills are learned at 10, 20, 30),


- limiting exposure opportunities (they only increase in response to a GM instigated choice like the one mentioned above),


- or lessening the effect (i.e. only prolonged contact increases the stat).


There are wrinkles to iron out but it could work.


Whatever way it happens, I would have a total figure that equals death (let's say 100). So in theory, a character learns the ultimate white magic spell at 99, meaning that they're OP (whatever the white equivalent of meteor is) but exposure to any crystal after that point will mean their end. Alternatively they could pick 2 crystals and get half way up the skill trees before succumbing, 4 crystals and one quarter, and so on.


My 2 cents.

 

[JRPG]

For Skill Trees/Classes, it'll be difficult since final fantasy boasts like 30+ classes, or something. In fact, when I was working on my JRPG roleplay, I gave up on classes, as it was too difficult to balance everything. Skill trees are plausible, if they branch from the same skills that everyone can learn. Although, it may make the skill tree convoluted. I feel like it will allow for diversity, and player choice in the matter, as well as solving the issue of mastery, if a roleplayer wants to specialize in healing, etc.


Crystal restrictions could be elemental. Maybe a fire crystal prevents the casting of water/ice-type spells, or something like that. Although, I'm unsure what you truly want as a limitation, since Tedronai does give a unique look on magic limitations.


For technology, you'll have to provide the basic necessities/wants for each demographic: poor, wealthy, medium, elite, etc. It'll help with determining what technology is available, or you can base it off occupations.


Regarding character stats, in my JRPG roleplay, I use stats to determine the magical/weapon effect, rather than total damage. Example: A stat in strength could make one's character less fatigued when swinging heavy weapons, or maybe they're faster while holding melee weapons, etc.


@Reinhardt

 

[Tedronai]

For Skill Trees/Classes, it'll be difficult since final fantasy boasts like 30+ classes, or something. In fact, when I was working on my JRPG roleplay, I gave up on classes, as it was too difficult to balance everything. Skill trees are plausible, if they branch from the same skills that everyone can learn. Although, it may make the skill tree convoluted. I feel like it will allow for diversity, and player choice in the matter, as well as solving the issue of mastery, if a roleplayer wants to specialize in healing, etc.

I came to much the same conclusion (but forgot to say it...oops). I certainly wouldn't attempt to recreate all classes, perhaps just the iconic ones or some kind of composite. For example the classic red made has white and black magic, so you can create an authentic feeling FF game without trying to cram them all in.


I would personally just create a bare minimum to make the game work at the start (1 or 2) and leave the rest up for players to apply for/create any additional they want. In my example the "skill tree" is formed by people mixing and matching crystals, rather than branching within each crystal. As you say, that just makes it convoluted.

Crystal restrictions could be elemental. Maybe a fire crystal prevents the casting of water/ice-type spells, or something like that. Although, I'm unsure what you truly want as a limitation, since Tedronai does give a unique look on magic limitations.

I toyed with that idea, but if crystals are elemental and the only source of magic in this world how do you incorporate the not elemental spells? I'm open to suggestions? The limitations in my idea were based on @Reinhardt 's own initial idea, where the crystals are feared as they caused degenerative effects in people. This is why the human race (the ones who survived) retreated to these protected cities. Magic was just a side-effect and although he/she hasn't shared all the info I suspect there's more to it that will mean that much isn't open to negotiation. I'm just trying to pitch ideas for game mechanics around the basic premise so feel free to suggest something better @JRPG  


The rest of your post makes it sound like you've played/created a lot of these types of games so I bow to your experience. So far I've only ever played one dice game.

 

[JRPG]

@Tedronai Skill trees relating to the crystal will be odd, unless we're just basing skills off only magical, elemental spells. I agree with you on allowing the players to create skills first, and then the GM balances everything out afterwards. Unless, of course, you all decide to make a universal skill system,


Non-elemental spells like meteor, quick, and slow will be difficult to implement, if we stick with crystals determining elemental effects for spells/skills. It's up to Reinhardt, but that's my opinion on the issue.

 

[Tedronai]

I'm curious @JRPG, why would skill trees relating to the crystals be odd?

 

[JRPG]

@Tedronai I thought the crystals influenced magical abilities, and not physical skills. That's why I thought it was odd.

 

[Tedronai]

I didn't (intentionally) link them to physical stats.


Unless you're talking about the status effects, in which case I was just spitballing ideas since they were meant to be a bad thing and negatively affect characters. (the magic skills are only a side effect, I can't help of think of it like mutations after being exposed to radiation).


If not that, what made you think they effect the physical attributes?

 

[JRPG]

@Tedronai Sorry I'm not as active responding to this thread anymore. Uh, I don't know why I thought about physical attributes anymore.


I think Reinhardt's testing out the combat system with Test of Fate, or I could be wrong. I'm unsure.