Universal FX discussion

[malladin]

I'm just starting this in the hope that some of you may have read Universal FX (our D20M product) and want to discuss some of the ideas within.

It's a largely experimental product (hence its free) so I'd be very interested to here your ideas and thoughts.

Let me know what you think...

Cheerio,

Ben, Malladin's Gate Press
www.malladinsgate.com

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Well, not yet, but I do so now.

What else is planned? Modern Magic only, or other, more general d20 M Products? (I really like Ultramodern Firearms d20 from Green Ronin, and I wished someone put up a compilation of Vehicles, like all kinds of every-day cars, to big airplanes to millitary ships, to millitary aircrafts and helicopters and all that.)

 

[Kefka_Rowantha]

Thoughts...

Well I think the first thing I'd like to say is I really enjoy the idea of having a Universal FX system, this way characters don't NEED to become mages to cast FX abilities, a neat little side jaunt though it would obviously be costly in feats...

As for the system it's fairly technical but I could see it working in the long run. I like the use of Power Skills and how they contrast modern day arts & practices (like the WIS power of Chi Arts).

However I would take a bit to think about the practicality of such a system and perhaps throw in some general examples at the bottom. Aside from that it looks pretty fine, and I might even steal some peices of it for my campaign!

 

[malladin]

KaeYoss:
We're not, I'm affraid to say, planning any books like the ones you suggested. Although, if someone else did I would probably be first in the queue to buy them. We're quite a small publishers, so we can't really manage a project like the ones you suggest - the sheer amount of research I'd need to do to do something like that properly is mind blowing!

We are planning to release a series of class books for the basic classes and generic setting books. We're actually working quite heavily on our first full release: Martial Avengers at the moment and I'm very excited about whats going to be in it (Probably something like 50 new talents, 20-30 new advanced and prestige classes, expanded magic powers using the UniversalFX model and more...)

Kefka_Rowantha:
It was an important design consideration that the characters were able to 'get their hands on' the powers from first level if they wanted. The fact that it's going to cost you not only your feats, but your skill points too will mean that overall characters are roughly balanced with non-magic using characters.

I agree that Universal FX may come across as a little on the technical side. I've tried to throw in as many differnent mechanisms for how powers can work within the basic framework that it might be a little daunting at first. However, the example powers are there as a guide OR as a ready-to-use (if small) magic system. We're going to be expanding out the powers on offer through our D20M product lines, so we will be building on these ideas oursleves if you want to pick up more powers. Martial Avengers, for example, includes about 15 new power paths based on the Chi Arts system in Universal FX, giving you potentially hundreds of ways to stylise yourself a magically enhanced martial artist.

 

[Ranger REG]

Let me know what you think...

Well...

Right off the bat, I'm not fond of feats that offer character access to a group of selected cross-class skills, what with the cost of those skills being expensive already.

Either you give us access to them as class skills or not. Then and only then can we decide how much to allocate the limited skill point we are alloted to each level.

 

[Pbartender]

Re: Re: Universal FX discussion

Well...

Right off the bat, I'm not fond of feats that offer character access to a group of selected cross-class skills, what with the cost of those skills being expensive already.

Either you give us access to them as class skills or not. Then and only then can we decide how much to allocate the limited skill point we are alloted to each level.

I'd tend to agree... Star Wars Force feats (Alter, Control, Sense) give all the related skills as Class skills. It's something they changed for the Revised Rules.

It's an easy enough problem to house rule/fix, anyway.

Or, at least, there should be one feat to give a large range of cross-class skills, and then a few feats to make selections of them class skills. Let me take a closer look at the pdf (I've only just skimmed it), and I'll say more then.

 

[malladin]

Whether the feats give you access to the power skills as cross-class skills or class skills is a matter of balance.

If you, as we have, make the skills count as cross class skills it fistly says that these skills require more investment to develop and secondly that they are going to be restricted to smaller overall totals as your character progresses. It's not to say that this is necessarily better than having the skills as class skills, just different, and an important consideration in the overall balance of the powers.

Personally I think that the powers presented here are 'better' than mundane skills and therefore costing the character twice as much to develop them is okay in this case. Other powers may be more sited to class-skill development if they do not provide access to as high level powers or abilities. Its an either/or situation and I don't see that either has any particular ascendency over the other.

One design point involved in this project was to allow characters access to powers as early asfirst level if they desired. As such they needed to be separated from any individual character class. However, that's not to say that an advanced or prestige class cannot do the powers better than a 'part-timer'. The difference between the skills being cross-class for basic characters and class skills for other specific advanced classes allows us to explore another dimension to how this general system of powers can work.

Ben

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, I'm just telling you straight from the hip. Not many players are going to want something for cross-class skills, even though you perceived it to be balanced or not. I think you can find a balanced solution and yet offer them as class skills when they acquire the appropriate feats.

Anyhoo, it is best that I should balance my quick review with adding a praise:

I like the use of skill rank to provide added benefit of these exclusive skills (e.g., Mentalis skill). It's an innovative (albeit not new) way to gain new powers (extras?) or new use of a skill without having to spend feats.

So that's a good mark.

Sorry if I'm rambling too much. Someone else can have the soapbox.

 

[malladin]

Quote...
I think you can find a balanced solution and yet offer them as class skills when they acquire the appropriate feats.

I agree. I think that having them as class or cross class skills are equally valid ways of using this system. We probably should have had a mixture of both in the document, but they were more designed to provide you with a limited set of example powers, and the interaction with the classes means that there probably isn't enough there to do experiment in that direction, unfortunately. As we expand out the system in forthcoming supplements you will certainly see options along these lines.

glad you liked the rank-step system, this is my preferred way of doing things.

cheerio,

Ben