Ideas thread.

[Master Goron]

A suggestion for ranged weapons

I don't think that's how damage is working anymore, but the range could possibly work...

Spell duration
Momentary:1
1-30 mins: 2
1 hour: 3
1 day: 4
1 week: 6
1 month: 7
1 year: 8

How exactly would this work on attacks? Would you have to do momentary, if we could do 1-30 min, battles would be easy because we could control the enemies. Also, I'm not sure how it'll match up with our stats. Other than that, I like it... I like it alot...

Jack, are our stats going to be alot less than in HA, or are people going to get their stats close to what they were?

Because with Jack Half's system, spells are expensive. The cheapest for mental command is 14. And that situation will almost never be used

Training=E
Deku=D
Bronze=C
Iron=B
Gilded=A
Magic=S

I think this system is awesome. I was thinking we should get 2 weapons at the E rating to begin with. Then you can spend 5 tp(over time/something) to upgrade to magic weaponry.

On that thought, how are we going to handle magic weapons... Is there still going to be one of each, or will they be readily available?

More on that thought: How are we going to handle people that leave the game? At the closing of HA all the rare quest items were useless because the owners had left.

Arthur- Magic Hammer, Book of Mub
Rugger- Magic Spear
Ronin- Bombos Medallion
Striker- L3 Heart Container...

Stuff like that. I was thinking that after an inactive month, the item could be put up for auction.

Because some of it(Bombos especially) would have been a great RP tool. I just don't want to see those items go to waste again.

Also, what role will weapons play? If DMG is decided by STR > DEF now, I don't see how they'll do anything.

[Jack Half a Prayer]

well the most obvious way to handle the problem of controlling enemies is when the GM creates them he gives them spell imunities. But our dear narrator has been so wise as to make spells no longer intant hit. There is a chance that they will miss. And there is nothing that a clever and flexible GM can't handle. Say one of your players takes over a creature, let them play it out see how it works, if it gets to powerful...
HA! suddenly the other enemies notice that their ally has betrayed them! in vegence they all turn on him raining a hail of blows on his for in the name of Ganon!

Also magic would be much slower this way, Sure you COULD take over an enemies mind, but it would take a  good long time, and the enemy will surely notice and come an smack the resident mage around hoping to break his focus.

This would make magic function... well like magic. you can take your time, preparing corectly, focusing, drawing strange symbols in the air. Or you can whip it out fast and suffer harmonics!

Also, mental comand was just an example, perhaps not one we wish to use. 5 points of its cost come from the fact that its target must DO something. If your casting a basic fireball, well than, thats five points you don't have to worry about.

(5 of clubs) Elemental burst: Caster brings the raw elemental forces of the world to their will.
Base cost: 5
Durration: Momentary 1
Range: Unaided sight 2
Elements: 1 (burst of flame)
Targets: 1
familiarity: Don't know subject 3
Total: 13

Granted the cost is similar, but this is a basic spell agianst a totaly unknown enemy. Not the cheapest it could be. If you were closer, knew them better, etc, it would be cheaper.

NOW, depending on how fast you want magic to work, you could set the average stat for Spirit at different levels. 5 would make this pretty hard, for an average mage, 10 would make it a cake walk (with use of magic points which work as un-aligned mana). That's just a mater of tweaking.

This same spell could be used many ways
Wana do a Crouching Dragon style leap? sure just try this...

Base cost: 5
Durration: 1-30 mins 2
Range: touch  1
Elements:  many complex elements 4 (Have the very air lift me, and all of my stuff gently into the air, and bring me AND all my stuff down safely when I wish)
Targets: 1
familiarity: Know the subject well (self) 1
Total: 14

Cool eh? alows for much more freedom and function.

I wish I could say that this was my own invention but this is something I lifted from Castle Falkenstein, the RPG I run here in with my freinds. It uses cards so thats where that comes from. But of course I've modified it to use Dice. I know it will need a little tweaking and I'm SURE it doesn't fit with the way magic is planned to work. But what do some other people think, particularly our dear narrator?

[Master Goron]

It uses cards so thats where that comes from.

That's what I thought, because you said:

This way a player gains a "hand" of energy with which to spend on the spell.

But you would have to roll multiple times before you got a "hand" of cards.

when the GM creates them he gives them spell imunities

That's genious! Brilliant! Bosses/strong foes get immunity, and normal enemies take a turn(or so) to take over...

[Master Goron]

What do you guys think of actions that take partial turns to execute? I think that would be a cool addition. An example of partial turns would be my Re-dead from HA. When it attacked, it latched onto someone, and attacked them 3 times in one turn. Since they initially had 30 SPD, they did DMG at 30, 20, and 10 SPD turns.

Or leadership, which i've decided we need to have multiple types of, each with different focuses and levels. That way we could have:

Magic 1/2/3
Offensive 1/2/3
Defensive 1/2/3

Say Shiva chooses Offensive. That would cost 1 tp, and it would cost 1 more per level. Then it would cost 2 per level to take Defensive, and finally 3 per level for Magic.(Because of the order chosen)

How about L1 of each effects 1 member, L2 effect the 3 members, and 3 effects all REF'ers.

We could also have negative effects versions against enemies.


Also Jack, how much do you know of willpower? It's a valuable resource and I think we should keep it.

[Jack]

Lots to respond do, let me sort this all out...

(1) I like Jack HP's "Cassandra" example. I will seriously consider implementing that.

(2) SPL/MP this time around will be based on Spirit + Level + Talent Point boosts, so the actual number will be small, but at the same time, SPL costs will be as well. Example: A L1 Zora Scholar starts with 7 SPL (3 for Racial stat bonus + 3 for base class + 1 for level). Other Scholars would start with 4 SPL. Now, to cast a very base spell (like Elemental Burst), the spell costs 1 SPL, which means the Zora Scholar can use it 4 times.

(3) Clarification on hitting an enemy with a spell/attack. With physical attacks, you calculate your chance to hit as AGI + Weapon bonuses + Talent Bonuses + d20 roll. Your AGI will also be very low. Example: a L1 Deku Vagabond will have 6 AGI (3 from Racial bonus + 3 for base class) which means that they'll have a +6 to hit. Keep in mind weapon bonuses will only come into play if you are well trained (via talents) in a particular weapon. Now, you chance to avoid DMG will be calculated DEF + AGI + Armor Class. Armor will be pretty high this time around, so as to adequately defend from attacks. Example: a L1 Human Vagabond will have 2 DEF and 3 AGI, so if they have a basic medium armor piece on with an AC of 8, their total chance to defend will be 13.

(4) That auctioning off of other player's items when they go inactive is a good idea. I'm just wary if they decide to come back and want the item back. Perhaps when a player with a unique item disappears, I'll just give someone else the chance to get a new one. I think you all will be very happy with the item system this time around. I plan to have a lot of unique items available from quests/events straight out of the Zelda games.

(5) I also like your leadership idea MG. I just need to think of cool names for the three leadership talents now...

(6) I have a .doc file I've been working on with the basic gist of the rules, talent examples, and some other details. I'll post it next time I get a chance to smuggle it home from work.

(7) What about willpower MG? Are we talking about of the D&D variety? How do you envision this working?

Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate the suggestions!

[Master Goron]

No problem, thanks for listening and working with us, I think we'll make this one of the best RP's ever!

Are we talking about of the D&D variety?

I don't know... Jack HP can answer that way better than me, but here's a description:

You have a stat(in HA we used SPL), and when you attack it's placed in one of 5 columns:

Rolling to 20...

Fumble(15 or less)- Horrible, attacks fail/hit teammates, locks become unpickable, strength fails(checks)
Failure(16-19)- Bad, Attacks miss, footing slips, locks stay locked
Partial Success(20-24)- Decent, Attacks hit, locks open forcefully, takes work, but checks succeed
Success(25-30)- Good, Attacks hit smooth, locks slide open, checks pass
Extreme Success(30+)- Excellent, Attacks cut deeply, locks are destroyed(in a good way), easily pass checks(show off/pose)

Anyway, while I don't really remember that, here's the great part. Say I need a 20 to hit, and I get 10. I'm like "Crap, I just killed Jack!(He hate's that ;))" Then I could give up 6 points of SPL and it would increase the attack up to a normal failure, so I don't kill Jack ;D. Of course since it's a stat, you can run out, like Gorjak did in Jack Half's quest. Then he didn't have any to use.

Jack Half, feel free to add anything I forgot...

That brings me to a new point, delete resting! We don't need it, it's cheap and annoying.

Also, does AGI determine turn order?

[Jack]

Ah that makes a lot of sense. We could definitely use Spirit for that, since it seems to be similar to willpower (at least in name).

Yeah AGI would have to determine order, since SPD doesn't exist as a stat anymore.

As for resting, well I think its necessary since it forces people to conserve their stats and think wisely about their actions. I'm gonna have to be inclined to keep it.  :-\

[Jack Half a Prayer]

Shiva got willpower down almost perfect only one thing he missed. The sucsess of your action was not determined by roll but by total. It worked like this.

Fumble (your total is less than half the target number)
Failure (your total is less than the target number)
Partial sucsess (your total is equal or greater than the target number)
Full sucsess (your total is greater than the target by half)
High sucsess ( your total is twice or greater the target number)

So let's say you want to jump over a chasam
Your agility+rp bonus+d20 compared to target number  (+D20?)+(what ever arbitray number the GM adds to make things a challenge) you then compare the result.

You tell your player what kind of sucsess they will have and give them the option to use willpower to make up the difference and raise their sucsess rate. Initaly I had it established so that you could only move up one level, but that could be changed.

And Shiva, not even I remember that post that well. (bad asian accent) you honor me too much...

The problem with resting is that it negates the value of this system seeing as people can regain magic when ever. Now this could be balanced by clever GM'ing, atack them in their sleep (LAUGH WITH ME! MWAHAHAHAHAHA... ok thats enough) or any myriad of options. But the best way to handle people regaining magic and health is to hand out hearts and magic vials.

When I run a game, (any game) i always shoot to make the game a challenge. Let the players feel threatened. Let them feel excited. But don't work to kill them. Allthough that isn't possible in our game. (hey theres an Idea! could we make it so that characters who have no hp can't post? that would make health and potions a real comodity!) so when I ran my quest I just gave out things when the players needed them most. This alows for a resource to manage. Do i give the heart to Cassy? What if Tommas needs it? I could trade it with Shiva for a magic vial, which I Really need...

thoughts?

And I know you have a magic system already worked up but thoughts on my magic idea? yea? ney? perhaps?

[Master Goron]

Another reason I didn't like resting was because in my quest, at the start the enemies were hard. Everyone in the party would be injured/low on magic, and all of a sudden... FILLED UP!!! Nothing, I worked to make it a challenge, but when they rested after every room, it in turn didn't mean anything since everyone got healed after eery battle. I also came up with the hearts/vials idea on that quest, but then I stopped due to everyone resting. They didn't need the heart because all they had to do was rest for full health and magic. Maybe we could keep it if it was limited to 1 per quest.

OK, here's a situation that needs to occur more often I think... in HA, we had that one quest where Hyrule Castle was attacked. That needs to be possible, no... likely. Everytime a quest occurs, the thought that something bad could happen to Hyrule needs to always be there, on our minds. That way, our forces are balanced between protection and quests. Realistically, a nation wouldn't send off all it's best warriors to battle monsters, and while we could all leave, chances are that Hyrule could get attacked. Then, someone who wasn't going, could control opposing forces and those who stayed could battle to protect Hyrule. Thoughts?  

[Jack Half a Prayer]

Scripted events like the castle being under attack would be most simple to create if the mods had a constantly running story they were planning on, and the player's actions would determine the flow of the story.

I would be all for any kind of risk in the game. There is no loss, the way we played. you couldn't die, you couldn't lose cool items, you couldn't fail. This is why me telling my story was so improtant to..er...me. It allowed me a way to estabilish some sort of conflict. some sort of threat. I once again purpose that people with no HP should be inable to post anything but private messages. This way the character is KO'd. if a charater stays ko'd for a week, they are dead. this puts the threat of death on players heads. Put in a bonus for die rolls for RP and sudenly we've got some real reason to RP, and to think carefully before charging blindly into battle.

[Marin]

Heres something. You start aas a race but dont have a class, as you level up you are given stat points to increse stats, weapon points to increase your weapon useage, and skill points for lots of skills such as thiefery, magic, music, ect.

[Jack Half a Prayer]

I don't think our narrator is keen on this idea of "custom classes" it has been purposed before (albeit, in different ways) and he has said that he really wants classes.

[weienw]

Aah, I'm getting behind in this thread. I guess I'll just pick and choose, then...

Leadership: Shiva, is this some sort of... team buff system? Basically, talent points invested in levels of "defensive" leadership would boost the entire party's DEF rating? I was hoping more for seperate buff skills that could be taken up and specialized in, not sure if this is the same thing?

Resting Controversy: I personally like the system used in Zelda games ^^. Exterminate a room full of Keese, you're bound to get a few hearts for your trouble. Find a small room with a beamos and 3-4 pots? Chances are that you'll get something for your trouble, and if your reward is two large jugs of magic potion, get ready for something sensational in the next room. The difference, like Dylan mentioned, would be the party element. Who knows? It could allow for some more of them "decisions that impact character relationships". "Mister, can I have that magic vial?" "No."

:D

thoughts on my magic idea? yea? ney? perhaps?

Hate to see something like this fall to the wayside. My thoughts touch on compromising ideas... some parts of the proposed magic idea might be a little complicated, notably the four "levels" (so I translated... not sure if that's a correct equivalent) of magic "power" (clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds). But the possibility of magic that has very high plasticity is awesome. The player says something as simple (for them, muaha) as "I cast fire burst on moblin 1", and the GM rattles off something like "well let's see, X base cost, momentary, unaided sight, one element, one target, familiarity doesn't matter here. Nice writing by the way. Let's see what happens...."

We could simulate a world where everything does matter--without driving everyone nuts with math. Long as the GM is coolheaded and fair, a system of approximations (8 SPL for your fire burst, DMG rating [mentally computed based on magic skill plus modifiers] 14) could be a possibility. Maybe a bit of a novelty.

This would make magic function... well like magic. you can take your time, preparing corectly, focusing, drawing strange symbols in the air. Or you can whip it out fast and suffer harmonics!

Maybe a system or possibly just a single command of "meditate" or "focus" to take up a turn but exponentially increase the potential of a spell (or maybe even an attack? paw the ground a bit before you charge)?

[Master Goron]

Leadership: I was thinking it could be like a free spell, usable at any time, and you could have different ones, yes. I was just throwing out the idea that we could have leadership do varying things so it would be useful at any time. Maybe ones that boost attack, some that raise AGI... anyway, once we see narrator's base rules that'll be easier to figure out.

Items: If we had the hearts and vials system too plentiful, it wouldn't balance unless we made them instant use... and I don't think they would be as good insta-use style.

"decisions that impact character relationships"

YES!!! I remember throwing this out during HA. Rivalries... Not have everyone be friends with everyone. I think that would be cool.

Also, Jack HP, how exactly would the cards work?

And Narrator, if Spirit is used as a willpower of sorts, I think we may need slightly more than what we'd currently have.

I think there should be some sort of penalty for dying too. Not just that you can't post, but something character-wise...

[Jack Half a Prayer]

I was really amazed by the fact that everyone was always buddy buddy all the time too. Dispite my best efforts. I think if players create authentic characters than there should be no problem with rivalries. Perhaps we could use the questions established for the CotT guild. I, of course, rather liked those.

Drawing cards would look like this.

Igneous, a fire mage, wants to cause the nearest moblin to burst into flame. So she says this...

Igneous reaches into her spell book and removes a rectangle of paper as long as her slender palm, it is covered with worling markings in a deep red ink. She holds it to her forehead and closes her eyes. the markings begin to smoulder and a whisp of sweet smelling smoke rises above her head. As you watch the smoke its self begins to create a wreath of runes around her Head.

OOC: elemental burst
Cost: 5c (base) Durration: Momentary 1 Range: Unaided sight 2 Elements: 1 (burst of flame) Targets: 1 familiarity: Don't know subject 3
Total: 13
Drawing

Now lets say that igneous has a spirit of 7 and an equal number of MP. The 7 is subtracted from the cost (to represent inate magic ablility) this drops the cost to... 6. Now she could just spend 6 points of MP, but that would leave her helpless when it came to willpower. So she places
Drawing at the bottom of her post. This tells the GM she wants to gather magic from around her. so he rolls a d20 and she gets a... 18, 3 of spades. But the GM thinks that was some pretty good RP; worth four points... yeah sure. he fudges the dice roll down four points and gives her the 5 of clubs instead, exactly what she needed. His next post tells her that in her "hand" of magic she now has the 5 of clubs. Her spell is aligned to clubs so on her next turn she spends the five, and one point of MP to make up the requirement for her spell. The moblin bursts into flame.

But lets say she hadn't RP'd and didn't get the 5. she got the 3 of spades(3S). so the GM tells her that her magic hand contains the 3 of spades (3S. on her next turn she draws again, gets the 5 of hearts (5H). her hand now contains two cards the three of clubs and the five or hearts (3S,5H). She says she's drawing again. (all this time the fighters are protecting her so that she doesn't get hit and lose her magic hand. While holding magic your character can preform any action, but at a -5 penalty. If you wish to "dispell" your gathered magic you can preform your action with no penalty.) Finaly she gets the 3 of Clubs (3C), the GM says her magic hand contains (3S, 5H, 3C) she decides that's enough, she'll suffer the consequences of harmonics.
Cost 6
3S out of suit: 1
5H out of suit: 1
3C in suit: 3
total magic drawn 5, leaving a one point cost to MP. The spell works but suffers two harmonics. A level 3 spirt card, and a level 5 emotional card. The GM says that the fireball works, but in the flames you can see a face! The rage of the flames combined with the spirit it has causes it to live longe than it should it leaps at the nearest target, one of the fighters. But it is short lived and only singes him (3 points of damage) before it fades away with a scream! Courage check everyone! if you fail take 2 points of damage for shock.

Understand or should I try again?

Associations for magic: when dealing with any spell, or is harmonics you can just look at its associations. anyone know of a free/good drafting program and I'll make a magic circle...

Swords (spades): decay, red, rage, valor, west , fall, left, Past, Fire, place outside
Roses (hearts): creation, green, love, desire, East, spring, Right, earth, future, Place inside
Rings (diamonds): existence, yellow, integrity, rigidity, north, summer, forward, Air, present, place between
Flames (clubs): Void, blue, sorrow, peace, south, winter, behind, water, timeless, placeless