Final Fantasy Zero: Design Diary continued

[I'm A Banana]

About the initiative system, why don't you simply have it so that the person with the highest initiative acts and have initiative penalties for each action (like you have but without the inclusion of rounds) and then make characters wait if they have negative initiative. It might work if wait let X other characters go before your initiative was counted.

Not sure I can wrap my head around what you're saying. Not to have rounds, just to have whoever at the moment has the highest Init go next? Could work, but rounds are useful for more than tracking Init, too. Things like durations of spells and effects.

Though to be honest, the real wall to that development is more how hard it is to explain the new Initiative system by itself. If I toy with the d20 standard too much, I risk addiing complexity for no real benefit. Cyclical rounds have been with RPing since it's inception, and if it ain't broke....

 

[Mark Causey]

Yeah, it's in my sig....though you may need to bounce around a bit to see my sig, since it's set to only appear 1/page.

Heh. I looked at your sig, but the bottom was Chapter 4, and didn't think to look above it

 

[I'm A Banana]

Ha! My clever tricks were too much for you!

 

[Mark Causey]

I don't envy the work ahead of you, KM ... add any one class or tribe and you've got a cascading amount of work. Still, it's the most flavorful FF translation I've seen. Again, keep it up!

I can't remember ... is level 50 the cap on classes or also the character cap as well? If you made the cap for characters 99, you could guarantee that a dual classed character didn't get their secondary class's ultimate ability ... I don't know if that's a design concern or not, though!

 

[I'm A Banana]

I don't envy the work ahead of you, KM ... add any one class or tribe and you've got a cascading amount of work. Still, it's the most flavorful FF translation I've seen. Again, keep it up!

Aye, but it's probably worth it. To make each tribe unique, to give each job it's place....gotta give the labor of love some love.

I can't remember ... is level 50 the cap on classes or also the character cap as well? If you made the cap for characters 99, you could guarantee that a dual classed character didn't get their secondary class's ultimate ability ... I don't know if that's a design concern or not, though!

Depends kind of on how you look at it. Level 50 is going to be considered the cap for power, so you won't have anything above and beyond that. However, adding sub-job levels effectively raises the max to 75 (even though sub-jobs don't grant you much more than access to some powers). I like the sounds of a 99 level system, so I'll have to keep that in mind when pounding out the sub-job system in a bit more detail.

 

[librarius_arcana]

Kamikaze Midget asked, and now receives.

This thread is opened to discuss the ongoing creation of a variant ruleset designed to bring forth the flavor of the game series that some of us find very integral and inspirational to our roleplaying experiences, Final Fantasy.

I've only just seen Final Fantasy: Advent Children, and if this is what you are aiming for then I'm in

(I've played a few FF video games, and if that is the sole aim, I'm not that interested, you know there is a site that is already covering this right?,

http://www.returnergames.com/ )

 

[Land Outcast]

WOW

Haven't read through all of it... but.. still, WOW.

are there chapters 5,6 ? or did I miss something explaining that on my "not reading everything"?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I've only just seen Final Fantasy: Advent Children, and if this is what you are aiming for then I'm in

Well, AC has a lot of the qualities that make FF a fun genre in general, and the FFZ battle system definately represents the Advent Children combats pretty well.

(I've played a few FF video games, and if that is the sole aim, I'm not that interested, you know there is a site that is already covering this right?,

http://www.returnergames.com/ )

Yeah, I'm well aware of the Returners, even worked for them for a while. But I wanted to work off of the d20 system and keep the game focused on something simple and story-focued, making a whole system, opposed to the Returner's attempts to faithfully translate the mechanics of the games onto pen-and-paper bit by bitty bit.

FFZ is a similar beast, picks a different focus, and runs in a different direction. You'll get a different kind of experience playing FFZ than playing the Returner's system. One that, I'd hope, is closer to something cinematic and dramatic than mechanic.

Haven't read through all of it... but.. still, WOW.

Hehehe, thanks a lot.

are there chapters 5,6 ? or did I miss something explaining that on my "not reading everything"?

Chapter 5 is the Beastmaster. Chapter 6 is the Bishop. Chapter 7 is the Black Mage.

Chapters 5 - 22 are the Jobs (might have to add in a Job Overview chapter at the beginning or end). These I'm open to doing in almost any order.

Next on the list is going to be either the White Mage, the Knight, the Thief, or the Samurai. A preliminary list of spells might pop in there before too long. I'm open to suggestions and to answering questions about what I have planned now, too. I've got the system largely designed, just gotta fill in some details.

 

[Land Outcast]

Chapter 5 is the Beastmaster. Chapter 6 is the Bishop.

and those are available as independant finished chapters?... where?

 

[librarius_arcana]

Well, AC has a lot of the qualities that make FF a fun genre in general, and the FFZ battle system definately represents the Advent Children combats pretty well.

FFZ is a similar beast, picks a different focus, and runs in a different direction. You'll get a different kind of experience playing FFZ than playing the Returner's system. One that, I'd hope, is closer to something cinematic and dramatic than mechanic.

Cool