Well, I've been working on the mechanics we'll be using in the RP and I'm surprised how much I've written in my attempt to be thorough. I'll post them here and you can decide whether they're fine or if you want to change/add/delete/simplify some things. [hider=Personae]Each player character represents one Arcana which will be their Main Arcana (you have access to all Personae available within your Main Arcana). Each player character will also have two Compatible Arcana (you have access to the majority of Personae within the two Arcana). Two (three maxed) player characters can have the same Compatible Arcana but this means they must share the same Compatible Arcana Compendium. The disadvantage of this is that Personae of the shared Compatible Compendium will be first-come-first-served (if one player buys a specific Persona first, the other player(s) cannot buy that Persona until the first player removes it from their party). The advantage, however, is that the players sharing the Compatible Compendium can unlock Personae faster since each time a player's Compatible Arcana rank increases, they can unlock more Personae for purchase in the Compendium. More players with the same Compatible Arcana = More Personae unlocks. If a player's Main Arcana is another player(s) Compatible Arcana, the Main Arcana player has priority over all Personae within that Arcana. As GM, I will take on the role of the MC who possesses the Wild Card ability which grants access to Personae of all Arcana as Compatible Arcana. The MC is still subjected to the shared Compatible Arcana Compendium and Main Arcana priority still applies.[/hider] [hider=Personae Part 2]Unlocking Personae of your Main Arcana is easy: you automatically rank up your Main Arcana with story events. Unlocking Personae of your Compatible Arcana is a bit more difficult. To rank up a Compatible Arcana, you must accumulate a set number of points (the points required may increase with each rank). To accumulate points, you have to spend your free time doing certain activities (look for the activity list further down in the OOC). Points gained and free time spent vary depending on the activity. When you gain points, you can choose which of your two Compatible Arcana to spend it on; you can even split the points as long as the split results in two whole numbers. Make sure you keep track of your points and ranking! Just below is the Compatible Arcana Rank and Points-Required list: [list] [*] Rank 1 (Unlocks 2 Personae; 3 Points) [*] Rank 2 (Unlocks 2 Personae; 4 Points) [*] Rank 3 (Unlocks 1 Personae; 5 Points) [*] Rank 4 (Unlocks 2 Personae; 7 Points) [*] Rank 5 (Unlocks 3 Personae; 10 Points) [*] Rank 6 (Unlocks 2 Personae; 10 Points) [*] Max Rank (Unlocks 3 Personae; 15 Points) [/list] Upon ranking up (whether Main or Compatible Arcana), you can select which Personae you wish to add to the compendium that belongs to the specific Arcana you ranked up and I will have to approve your decisions. Since there is no level system, it is important that you select Personae which you think is most appropriate for your Arcana rank for my approval. If a Persona(e) is not approved, you can select another Persona(e) for re-approval. You can base your Personae choices on this [url=http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Arcana]list[/url] but you can also choose Demons not found in the [i]Persona[/i] series and convert them to your Arcana (this second option is first-come-first-served meaning that once a Demon has been converted to a specific Arcana, they cannot be converted into a different one by any player). Along with choosing which Personae you wish to unlock, you can also choose their initial skills. Ranks 1-3 Personae start off with 3 skills, Ranks 4-5 Personae start off with 4 skills, and Ranks 6-Max Rank Personae start with 5 skills. Like Personae, skills are subject to my approval so pick the skills you think would be the most appropriate to that Arcana rank. To add more skills to a Persona, you must sacrifice another Persona of the same Arcana. Ranks 1-3 Personae will grant 1 skill, Ranks 4-6 Personae will grant 2 skills, Max Rank Personae will grant 3 skills. You can also change or improve (Agi --> Agilao --> etc.) a Persona's skills by sacrificing another Persona of the same Arcana but you can only do so after a Persona has the maximum number of 6 skills. Ranks 1-2 Personae will grant up to 2 skill changes, Ranks 3-4 Personae will grant up to 3 skill changes, Rank 5 Personae will grant a skill improvement of 1 level (Agi --> Agilao), Rank 6 Personae will grant a skill improvement of 2 levels (Agi --> Agidyne), Max Rank Personae will grant the max skill improvement/max skill change (Agi --> Ragnarok or Agi --> Maralagidyne). Compatible Arcana Personae that is unlocked by a specific player will be prioritized to that player for a two in-IC days (the day you rank up is counted as one day) before it is made available to any other player that shares the same Compatible Arcana. This rule does not affect the player who has the Arcana as their Main Arcana because they will always have priority. Once your unlock decisions have been approved by me, I will set an initial purchase price for each Persona listed which you can then purchase in the Velvet Room. After the initial purchase of a Persona, its price will be lowered for future purchases. You can also register improved versions of a Persona(e) you may have in your party which will erase the old Persona(e) data (this will increase the re-purchasing price as well depending on the level of improvement that is present on the Persona(e) you register). Another player can re-register a different version of the same Persona(e) later once it's in their party but, remember, this will erase the old data and change the price so, as a common courtesy, discuss this decision with the player who registered the previous data.[/hider] [hider=Battles & Dungeon Crawling]The two most important things to know about this RP's battle system is that each player character will have HP/SP (improved through story events) and an attack's success of hitting is calculated with [url=http://dice.virtuworld.net/?sides=20]this (make sure to have it on-hand for battles)[/url]. An attack will successfully connect if the die lands on the numbers 5-20 and will miss if it lands on the numbers 1-4. This means you have a 1-in-5 chance of missing an attack (the same rules apply to the enemy and if you battle an NPC(s) you control, you must roll for both your character and the enemy NPC(s)). Of course hit rate can be changed with certain skills (Sukukaja, Sukunda, etc.). I ask that you use this hit rate system honestly. The amount of damage dealt by an attack is a fixed number decided along with the weapon/skill. For example: a Persona that has Agi that hits for 10 HP damage when it successfully connects. If an enemy is weak to a specific type of attack, the damage number of the attack is doubled and the enemy is knocked down (this also grants the player a "1 More" action). Downed enemies hit with the type of attack they are weak to will be subjected to a damage number multiplied by 2.5 (these rules apply for enemies as well). As you know, knocking down all enemies will give the opportunity for an "All-Out Attack" if you have at least 2 players participating in the battle (all players in the battle must agree to do this attack). The damage number of an "All-Out Attack" is the combined damage numbers of all participating players' strongest attacks. Like hit rate, damage number can be changed with Prayer/Mind Skills. When a player character runs out of HP in battle, they "lose" the battle and will then have two choices. First choice is to escape which takes the player character out of the battle and is "revived" with 1 HP. In a battle with multiple players, the losing player can either sit out of a battle until it's over (another player can revive them if they have the appropriate item or Persona skill) or they can randomly sacrifice one of their Personae (if they have more than one Personae) to continue the battle. Whoever is leading the dungeon party and/or moderating the dungeon will get to randomly decide which Persona to sacrifice with whatever method they like. Winning battles earn players money and items but players who escape a battle or sit a battle out will earn nothing. In the event of a group battle where a player(s) takes too long to post an action, their character(s) will be assumed to have defended until the player posts again. If that same player(s) doesn't post even after the battle is over, they will be dropped from future battles and dungeon crawling until they can post again. There's not much to say about dungeon crawling. Story dungeons will be moderated by me, the GM, or if another player creates a story dungeon, they will get the chance to moderated it. Later on, mini-dungeons will be introduced to be explored on a player's own time alone or with other players. If you ever have an idea for a dungeon, story or otherwise, let me know and we'll hash out the details.[/hider] [hider=Free Time]Free time in this RP follows a day system. A day consists of 7 hours of free time (14 hours when there is no school). You can spend your available hours during free time doing activities to earn points toward increasing Compatible Arcana Rank, working part-time jobs to earn money, vising the Velvet Room, or exploring dungeons for money and items. Each one of the aforementioned endeavors will "cost" a certain number of hours and once you've ran out of hours, you can no longer make any posts until the next day in-IC. Each one will also require you to post at least one short post to describe your character doing the activity or you can stack activities into one larger post if you choose to. There are three ways to advance to the next day. The first method is when I, the GM, decides to advance the day. The second method is when every player uses up all their available hours. The third method is based on the majority of players' decision to advance the day (meaning if most of you guys decide you want to advance the day). This third method is important especially when I'm not available to advance the day and if some players have not been posting anything for a long time. After you guys agree to advance the day, the next person who posts can go ahead and include the next day's date in their post. If you haven't been able to keep up with the advancing days and if you're afraid that your character will fall far behind in terms of your Compatible Arcana Rank, when you can post again, activities you do will earn more points than usual until you can catch up to other players.[/hider]