MoogleEmpMog
First Post
JackGiantkiller said:
Not necessary at all. You get a similar flavor in FF8 without materia, and most of the actual trappings of the world don't require materia, anyway.
With that said, I'll reiterate my M&M suggestion.
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children:How to?
- Thread starter JackGiantkiller
- Start date
Not necessary at all. You get a similar flavor in FF8 without materia, and most of the actual trappings of the world don't require materia, anyway.
With that said, I'll reiterate my M&M suggestion.
MoogleEmpMog
First Post
Psion said:
Actually, the intelligent item rules from the Complete Book of Eldritch Might (originally in BoEM... 2, I think) might be a good place to start. Allocate XP to items to increase their powers?
Herobizkit
Adventurer
In order to sim the FF world, you have to first determine what it is that makes Final Fantasy, well, Final Fantasy.
For starters, be sure to include some FF-specific "markers", such as moogles, chocobos, and references to Ultimate beings (in whatever form) such as Ifrit, Shiva, and others.
Magic should be mana-based, like Psionics. Or, you can duplicate magic-like effects using superheroic powers like others have suggested.
Final Fantasy, to me, doesn't exactly mix fantasy and high-tech so much as having small areas of high-tech in an otherwise normal world. The further you get away from civilization, the less "tech" you see, just like in reality.
FF doesn't have a "religion" per se, although many games have had references to God and/or animism (worship of spirits). As such, the D&D cleric as is doesn't fit the bill; you'll need a much more open form of magic. You could still have White (Healing/Defense), Black (combat/elemental), Blue (duplicating monster skills), Time (Haste/Slow etc) or whatever divisions you feel like, but the arcane/divine motif no longer applies.
This goes into what "version" of FF feel you're looking for. The earlier games (pre-VII) focus on a most medieval/fantasy world with elements of super-high technology (ie airships, giant robots, and Magitek). VII and VIII are really the only two that "focus" on modern-day and beyond-type technology. X goes back and says the world used to be high-tech but wrecked itself and so you're back in fantasy-like conditions... but again with the high-tech elements sprinkled in (robots, bombs/grenades, the uber-airship etc).
IMO, D20 Modern and Urban Arcana might be the best bet for you if you want to simulate high-tech meets low-tech type stuff and want to stay loyal to the D&D mechanic. In fact, all Urban Arcana IS is D&D in modern times; it's not difficult at all to use one with the other with little to no changes at all.
Feel free to ask more questions if we're not touching on what you're looking for.
For starters, be sure to include some FF-specific "markers", such as moogles, chocobos, and references to Ultimate beings (in whatever form) such as Ifrit, Shiva, and others.
Magic should be mana-based, like Psionics. Or, you can duplicate magic-like effects using superheroic powers like others have suggested.
Final Fantasy, to me, doesn't exactly mix fantasy and high-tech so much as having small areas of high-tech in an otherwise normal world. The further you get away from civilization, the less "tech" you see, just like in reality.
FF doesn't have a "religion" per se, although many games have had references to God and/or animism (worship of spirits). As such, the D&D cleric as is doesn't fit the bill; you'll need a much more open form of magic. You could still have White (Healing/Defense), Black (combat/elemental), Blue (duplicating monster skills), Time (Haste/Slow etc) or whatever divisions you feel like, but the arcane/divine motif no longer applies.
This goes into what "version" of FF feel you're looking for. The earlier games (pre-VII) focus on a most medieval/fantasy world with elements of super-high technology (ie airships, giant robots, and Magitek). VII and VIII are really the only two that "focus" on modern-day and beyond-type technology. X goes back and says the world used to be high-tech but wrecked itself and so you're back in fantasy-like conditions... but again with the high-tech elements sprinkled in (robots, bombs/grenades, the uber-airship etc).
IMO, D20 Modern and Urban Arcana might be the best bet for you if you want to simulate high-tech meets low-tech type stuff and want to stay loyal to the D&D mechanic. In fact, all Urban Arcana IS is D&D in modern times; it's not difficult at all to use one with the other with little to no changes at all.
Feel free to ask more questions if we're not touching on what you're looking for.
Psion
Adventurer
MoogleEmpMog said:
What I am fixating on here is the fact that in the games (VI and VII anyways... the only ones worth emulating), players typically weren't expected to give up anything nor really suffered in any meaningful way from learning magic via espers/materia. Some were BETTER at it, but anyone could learn magic.
Hmmm. I think I'm leaning towards gestalt being the simplest way to do this and backing away from craft points. More next post...
Psion
Adventurer
Herobizkit said:
I really don't think that gets the job done unless you mix it up with the AE or Spirit Shaman system. Because having prepared slots just makes sense is FF VII and later magic - again, what is prepared mapping to your prepared materia or esper.
I think the key here is perhaps gestalt. It's like all players are essentially spellcasters, but they can't tap their spellcasting class without special items.
You'd have to craft a new class to do this, but I think it would be easy enough... just take something like the magister, and perhaps replace his spells per day thing with mana points, or something like the erudite. Emulating FFVII would be a bit more limiting, since you seem to be limited to whatever items you have prepared.
FFVI magic would be a bit less limiting, and feels a bit more like a traditional psion.
This might be a little off, but might I suggest Big Eyes Small Mouth d20? I think the base system needs a little work in some areas, but it emulates the over-the-top, anime-esque feel of Final Fantasy pretty well. As a matter of fact, if I look around a bit, I might be able to find the FF toolkit I wrote up/organized for BESM d20 a good year or so ago (basically it's the Anime SRD plus Final Fantasy classes, plus alternate rules for equipment, a few FF races, and basics for FF magic. It needs a lot of work, but it's almost pretty, and it might serve as a little inspiration. Let me know if you're interested).
I saw FF: AC recently. It was very pretty (though I could have done without the whole Bahamut scene... like... the whole thing), but it didn't really put me in a Final Fantasy mood. Really, it makes me want to play Exalted.
I saw FF: AC recently. It was very pretty (though I could have done without the whole Bahamut scene... like... the whole thing), but it didn't really put me in a Final Fantasy mood. Really, it makes me want to play Exalted.
MoogleEmpMog
First Post
Mutants & Masterminds seems like a much, much better choice for a Final Fantasy game than BESM d20. For instance, it actually works. 
Aside from the art.
Not that most of the FFs have art all that close to the BESM d20 'generic anime' style anyway.
Aside from the art.
Not that most of the FFs have art all that close to the BESM d20 'generic anime' style anyway.
DwelleroftheDeep
First Post
I probably shouldn't be in this topic at all since my knowledge of FF is virtually nil (I've just seen trailers and such for this one).
From what I've seen BESM d20 would work fairly well using high level characters and a new magic system (I couldn't tell how the magic actually worked so that's beyond me though pretty much any item can be made with BESM d20's items of power and special attack features).
From what I've seen BESM d20 would work fairly well using high level characters and a new magic system (I couldn't tell how the magic actually worked so that's beyond me though pretty much any item can be made with BESM d20's items of power and special attack features).
