Dice Press Start! OOC [Fabula Ultima]

[Nellancholy]

Idk how much damage can be sustained even with me being able to half physical damage. So unless Fury's 5 point heal is enough to sustain throughout the game irdk? Sell me on Weaponmaster's Counter? ERode

If you look at the GM section of the core book,a typical party is expected to endure three easy fights,two equal fights,or one hard one before resting and resupplying. Each individual battle is a noticeable tax on resources.

Also note that independent of a character's abilities,every character can spend 3 IP to produce a potion that heals 50 HP or MP in an emergency,which is a good chunk of healing even at higher levels.

 

[StardustTroubadour]

Hmm...

 

[StardustTroubadour]

I see your point, Nell. On top of that, there is also the added factor of Crisis which makes it seem beneficial to always be playing around with health bars. Very risk/reward advantage.

 

[StardustTroubadour]

6 points maybe enough to just play it out with Orator heals later on.

 

[ERode]

You are a Guardian. Specifically, a dual-shield Guardian. That already gives you hella high Defenses. You're very rarely going to be taking damage, and even if you do, your HP is going to be pretty high anyways. As well, you can pick the Guard action to further increase your stats and defenses, while Fury's Provoke will ensure that you're still doing your job as a tank even when you selfishly Guard.

The Weaponmaster's Counterattack just allows you to occasionally do damage every time you properly defend against an attack (which, as explained, you'd be doing fairly often). It isn't that complicated in the end.

 

[StardustTroubadour]

Okay. I'll take your word for it then.

 

[Nellancholy]

Remember that when you guard you can also choose to extend the defensive benefits to one other party member,which means you can keep us alive even before healing is needed

 

[StardustTroubadour]

I read that, yeah. I guess I'm just worried about a conversion of the resistance stats and how that equals AC from normal D&D is all. It's probably just me overthinking about gimmicks versus my own personal damage. Aura/Barrier stacked on to that already substantial guard shield for lack of a better term.

 

[Nellancholy]

So Zufaix and everyone else,I would say that things are probably trending towards original characters and an original campaign.

Got any prospective ideas of what kind of setting and story premise we'll build? Since that's kind of the first step.

 

[Zufaix]

I would say that's a safe assessment to make. With that said, there's a few things we can work on to help with the world building. On pgs 149-151 there's a flowchart as well as some tables to look at if anyone is struggling with ideas.

First, in the google drive, I'll layout one of the two world sheets we can choose from. Then I want to hone in on what sort of technology level we could be looking at. Something mideval in typical JRPG fashion? It could also take place during an industrial revolution of sorts. We're already using the High-fantasy Atlas for classes, we can certainly do something adjacent to that. Maybe magic and technology have begun to intertwine, leading to a boom in magitech usage?

On the topic of Magic: Maybe magic is something the gods gifted to mortals? Or it's something inherited through bloodline? Magic could be outlawed in favor of technology which is seen as more stable.

Obviously there's more to world building than just this, but this feels like a good jumping off point. Feel free to give any ideas you might have, or something specific you want to get out of this campaign.

 

[Nellancholy]

Yeah,it's best to have input as a group,but at the same time we gotta start off somewhere.

We're not locked in fully on character concepts yet,but it might be a good idea to establish the main conflict and that'll help us nail down our characterization.

Maybe a wartime story with the typical empire aiming to swallow up the world,or something more morally grey.

Maybe a fairly standard quest to gather sacred treasures and save the world.

Or the party being a band of bandits/mercenaries/pirates/treasure hunters who get swept up into a bigger conflict.

 

[StardustTroubadour]

What if we did political intrigue? To advance on two points previously made by the both of you. Magitech is over taking and oppressing what we'd call Nat or Natural Magic which would be the God gifted or inherited kind.

Maybe another nation is advancing on ours to over take our royalty for a war time plot? What if we intercept a kidnapping of the princess for leverage? They could just brand us criminals and we'd be on the run from that point.

Maybe Magitech is something far more sinister bordering on demonic if you wanted to use the God angle? Like literal engines of destruction.

 

[StardustTroubadour]

Good morning, btw.

 

[ERode]

All JRPGs need to have a violent and crazy inciting incident, after all.

I'd say something like...

There's Natural Magic out there (relies on individual talent and effort), but recently, there were discoveries that uncovered special crystals that can be used to power Magitech (ending with magical tools that can be used by anyone). Around the world, such crystals are rare. But in a particular small nation, it was discovered that there was a large ore vein of that special crystal, which immediately made the nation itself of great interest to all the greater powers nearby. You've got a merchant republic wanting to mine and sell that shit, you've got the knightly kingdom that wants to 'safeguard' it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, you've got the religious peeps who say that it's sacred and thus should fall under the purview of the church, etc.

Then the King of that nation is assassinated, leading to a messing war of succession between royal siblings, who are all sponsored by different foreign forces, and our characters end up getting caught in the middle of this, as a mercenary force or just civilians found in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Nellancholy]

That sounds like a good setup.

A lot of room for us to go around the table (so to speak) and fill out the details.

I would say that it would probably be an interesting plot point for one of the party to be part of the magic crystal kingdom's military or government, leading them to be targeted by their allies once they fall under suspicion.

Or at least,they work closely with the military/government or have a high-ranking friend.

Maybe another party member is from one of the rival countries,but that is less necessary to be the case.

 

[StardustTroubadour]

That works.

 

[Zufaix]

Sorry 'bout the late reply, I also think this is a great idea! It hit's a lot of notes we can expand upon, and it already gives us some ideas into how the kingdom's might interact with each other. Having a central area of conflict works well for actually designing the map as well, since all the major points of interest can spiral outwards from it.

Lost Martian Even if you're not finished reading the the book yet, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this?

 

[Nellancholy]

ERode to clarify on your statement: everyone who uses magic in this world,whether player or NPC,receives it either through bloodline (or maybe divine gift) or by using magitech items,right?

I think it may be a bit early to lock in on whether any gods are real or capable of influencing the world just yet.

 

[ERode]

Will have to figure out what Arcana are if gods and spirits and idk, lifestream hijinks aren’t confirmed real though.

 

[Lost Martian]

Zufaix
Sorry about not posting sooner, I somehow completely missed this thread. I like the idea of magic being gifted from the gods, perhaps we could be the chosen champions of various gods, if we do want to go the whole chosen one route. Maybe the rise of magitech and the abandoning of the old ways is what spurs the gods to send out their champions to prevent a potential world war between the strong magitech nation and it’s neighbors?

Also I like the idea that ERode had about crystals, as all JRPGS could use some crystals. I’m not sure what I want the crystals to do. Anyways I might have some more ideas once I finish reading the books. I’ve just been extra busy this weekend, but I hope to finish up soon and come up with some kind of character concept.

 

[Zufaix]

Will have to figure out what Arcana are if gods and spirits and idk, lifestream hijinks aren’t confirmed real though.

If we do go the gods route with this, Arcana could be deities or at least entities blessed with their power directly. Maybe they're the catalysts that allow humans to use "natural magic"? Or we could just say screw it and have the arcana themselves be elemental/conceptual beings to avoid the whole gods ordeal (though that's also kind of the same thing at the end of the day).

 

[ERode]

Guess the question would be like…why avoid the whole Gods thing? Could just be that we have lotsa very present minor gods (Arcana) and then we have a few major gods (think the ones that actually get inter/national religions worshipping them) that, due to being something like a giant in an ant colony, don’t get personally involved.

Could even do it like Star Rail Aeons huhuhu, where the Gods have universal reach so they only occasionally glance in the direction of a particular world.

 

[Zufaix]

I mean, I have no problem with there being gods. So long as we know where the magic comes from, I don't think its super important. I do like the idea of having minor gods who are directly trying to influence the world though, and making them Arcana gives them a use in gameplay too.

Could even do it like Star Rail Aeons huhuhu, where the Gods have universal reach so they only occasionally glance in the direction of a particular world.

Don't tempt me now, I might lose it if i get to have one of the villains be glanced at lol

 

[Nellancholy]

I think that's an interesting concept,there are some big entities like "order" and "chaos" and "sun" and "life" that have will but not a lot of tangible form, and they have emanations and aspects like "healing" or "beasts" or "priesthood" that serve as the Arcana in gameplay terms, lesser gods/spirits that can appear before/intervene with mortals and grant them power.

And it's these (fairly diffuse) bloodlines of the blessed that are believed to give people magic (whether or not that's true). It's possible that these lesser gods,openly or subtly, influenced our characters into the situation surrounding the kidnapping of the magic crystal kingdom's royal.

I don't mind following ERode scale of divinity though,where the minor gods/Arcana are prominently present.

Let me be the first to propose a name: why don't we call the magic crystal kingdom Seam? Like an ore seam.

 

[Zufaix]

Seam sounds good to me! Also kind of works as a sewing metaphor, as the king being alive was the seam that held everything together and when he was assassinated that seam broke, causing the succession war.

Based on ERode 's suggestions we've also still got a knightly kingdom, a religious sect/group, and a republic of merchants. I also had a thought that some sort of fallen empire sees this ore as a way to return to their former glory, if ya'll are interested in that.