DeadlyUematsu
Explorer
I remember someone made d20 adaptations for FF7 and FF8 here: https://officialmarcwilkinson.yolasite.com/tabletop-roleplaying-games.php
JRPG style TTRPGs
- Thread starter jian
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Jahydin
Hero
Looks really cool. At $30 for the PDF, I'm thinking of I'll wait for a physical copy.
Read and summarised this now and honestly it’s got great art but is otherwise lacklustre, with workmanlike conversions of the JRPG rules at best, but mostly duplicated 5E rules and spells. I actually think the Phantasy Hack might be a better game if you’re OK with the rules mostly covering only PSO and (somewhat) PSU.
Jahydin
Hero
Thanks for popping back in and sharing. I guess the hunt for the perfect system continues for me...
At least Quest for the Lost Pixel has scratched my old PC Dungeon Crawl itch.
And there’s a new one out, Gates of Krystalia. AFAICT this is an Italian game (much like Fabula Ultima), though it is certainly chock full of great anime art which is unfortunately probably all AI generated.
The game itself uses playing cards rather than dice, and in fact your health is basically how many cards you have left in your deck of 52 cards (which refresh with a long rest). You play cards off the top of the deck for most checks but deal yourself a hand of 5 (the “Strategy Deck”) for combat so you can get bonus damage from playing a straight or full house. Though realistically, how many cards are you going to have to play and redraw to get a full house? Will combats last that long? If they do, then will you have enough cards?
Honestly, it’s the mechanics, especially pacing, that concerns me about GoK. As a GM, I probably don’t call for more than half a dozen checks outside combat per session. In combat, you could end up playing quite a few cards a round, especially if you trump or play hands like pairs or three of a kind, but honestly probably no more than 3 a round, say 10 per fight. Taking damage reduces your deck further, of course. So pacing entirely depends on how many fights you get before you rest, and that’s basically up to the GM unless you’re playing a very D&D like pattern. And maybe that’s a feature rather than a bug - even with healing, the players can soon see when they need to rest because their deck only has a dozen cards left. I guess I’m surprised there’s such an obvious hard pacing mechanism built into what I feel should be a more narrative genre.
The game itself uses playing cards rather than dice, and in fact your health is basically how many cards you have left in your deck of 52 cards (which refresh with a long rest). You play cards off the top of the deck for most checks but deal yourself a hand of 5 (the “Strategy Deck”) for combat so you can get bonus damage from playing a straight or full house. Though realistically, how many cards are you going to have to play and redraw to get a full house? Will combats last that long? If they do, then will you have enough cards?
Honestly, it’s the mechanics, especially pacing, that concerns me about GoK. As a GM, I probably don’t call for more than half a dozen checks outside combat per session. In combat, you could end up playing quite a few cards a round, especially if you trump or play hands like pairs or three of a kind, but honestly probably no more than 3 a round, say 10 per fight. Taking damage reduces your deck further, of course. So pacing entirely depends on how many fights you get before you rest, and that’s basically up to the GM unless you’re playing a very D&D like pattern. And maybe that’s a feature rather than a bug - even with healing, the players can soon see when they need to rest because their deck only has a dozen cards left. I guess I’m surprised there’s such an obvious hard pacing mechanism built into what I feel should be a more narrative genre.
Also, in case you hadn’t noticed, the Sword World Quickstart is available.
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