[quote=@fer1323] [@JBRam2002] what is the character development going to be like? [/quote] That's a rather vague question. Are you talking about how one will RP characters together and develop stories, or are you talking about how one will create a character for use in the RP? For the former, that's mostly up to the RPers. I encourage development, and will try to throw story hooks along the way. I also am hoping for each character to have something important happen that will trigger their Eidolon, etc. As for the latter, that's a MUCH more complicated answer. Have some hiders~ :D [hider=Combat]When I create an RP based off an existing game, I try to keep as much of the gameplay intact as possible. That said, FF13’s Active Time Battle system is fairly difficult to recreate in a forum setting. I have done what I can to keep the spirit of the game intact while making a combat system that is hopefully fun for you and simple enough for the DMs to run without going crazy every combat. When indicating interest, please list your favorite character from the FFXIII trilogy, or put None if you haven’t played. As a side note, I would love to have a Co-DM sign up to help me out. [b]Standard Combat in FF13.[/b] Combat in the game revolves around the concept of roles and paradigms. Each character has a set of roles that they can use to deal damage and drive up the Chain Gauge. The Commando role deals high damage (usually non-elemental) and stabilizes the Chain Gauge, but does little to increase it. The Ravager role deals lower damage (usually elemental), but increases the Chain Gauge significantly. The Sentinel role draws attacks in and has a lot of damage resistance. The Saboteur role deals a little bit of damage and can stabilize the Chain Gauge, but their primary function is to inflict powerful debuffs. The Synergist role buffs the party. The Medic role heals the party. Each role has several abilities that are unique to that role and cannot be used while a character is performing a different role. Changing the roles of the party members is called a Paradigm Shift. [b]Roles and Paradigms.[/b] Each character will have three primary roles and three secondary roles, just like in the game. The secondary roles will not be unlocked until later, and we will play a few levels with just two primary roles to get the hang of things before expanding. In the game, the leader calls for a Paradigm Shift, and the characters change their roles to match. There are only 6 Paradigms available in any given battle to choose from. This is far too restrictive and difficult to coordinate in a forum RP. Instead, I will allow any character to shift their Role at the start of their turn, at the cost of 1 ATB segment. This adds a lot more versatility into the combat system and might make some fights less challenging than intended, so I may change the cost at a later date if needed. [b]ATB Gauge.[/b] ATB stands for Active Time Battle. During each turn, you have to wait for your ATB gauge to fill before you can act. In the game, normally you have multiple people acting at the same time, and you are able to cancel some segments to attack earlier if you need to. In the RP, both of those are difficult to do while maintaining structure and consistency. Instead, each character will perform their full turn before the next can act. You can choose to cancel any number of ATB segments in order to act sooner next round. Your ATB Gauge charges at a rate dependent on the number of ATB segments you have. We will start with three ATB segments that charge at a rate of about 1.4 seconds per segment (4.2 for all three). Every action you take will then have a certain duration between actions based on your weapon type (weapons based on casting magic generally have shorter casting time but take longer to swing, while weapons based on physical attacks are the opposite). Each round then will have a 0.5 second delay at the end of your actions before your ATB begins to charge. This is to make it less desireable to cancel ATBs in order to game the system (such as keeping an enemy launched indefinitely) and approximates the animation time in the game of the character rushing up to an enemy and backing away afterwards. [b]Chain Gauge.[/b] In the game, the main strategy in battle is to build the Chain Gauge on each enemy until it hits its Stagger Point, and then unleash a barrage of attacks to take out their insanely high HP. The Chain Gauge increases the damage dealt by whatever percentage is shown on the gauge. Stagger points vary by enemy, but once an enemy hits Stagger, the Gauge immediately increases by 100% and begins to deplete. At this point, COM does not extend the Chain Gauge anymore, but it deals a massive amount of damage, and RAV generally gets more bonuses to increase the Gauge. In addition, many enemies have weaknesses that can be exploited when staggered, and several can be Launched, putting them out of commission until they land (usually several rounds later). While Staggered, enemies can be interrupted much easier as well. [b]Actions.[/b] Role Actions are active abilities granted to you by your Role, and may include Attacking (COM), casting a spell (RAV), guarding (SEN), debuffing (SAB), buffing (SYN), or healing (MED). Every Role Action you take has an ATB cost. You cannot use a Role Action if you do not have enough free ATB segments. In addition to Role Actions, you can also use Items or Techniques. Both of these take your turn (including the 0.5 second delay after), but do not use any ATB segments, so you can join in the battle nearly immediately after using an item. In keeping with the battle system of FFXIII, you can only target one individual per round (AoEs hit multiple people, but all have an initial target). If you need to target someone else, you must first cancel your remaining ATB segments, then wait for your ATB Gauge to refill. You also may only use abilities from a single Role during a round, but may change your Active Role at the start of your turn (as noted above). Unless you are a Sentinel and have the ability unlocked, there is no “Guard” or “Defend” ability, although you can simply wait and do nothing for a while. [b]Techniques.[/b] Techniques are skills that do not take any ATB segments to use. These include Libra, Quake, Renew, Erase (called Dispelga in FFXIII, but there’s a SAB ability with the same name), Stopga, and Summon. With the exception of Summon, all Techniques are unlocked in your primary Roles’ Crystariums. Techniques typically take as long to cast as a standard magic spell would, with the exception of Summons. Techniques cost a resource called TP to use. Each character will have their own TP bar that has three segments. TP refills over time, and along with ATB segments, is the only non-item resource to not be fully restored at the start of battle. The TP segments are not all the same value. Regaining your first TP segment takes far less time than regaining your final TP segment. [b]Summons.[/b] I will likely cover this in more detail as we get to Summons, but each character will have the option of acquiring an Eidolon during this RP. Once acquired (through story progression), you may summon your Eidolon by using all three segments of your TP bar. Eidolons will be treated differently than in game, and will essentially take the place of your full-ATB Abilities (like Army of One). They take two seconds to cast, but will have devastating impacts on their target. In the game, there are three types of full-ATB abilities: COM, RAV, and SAB. The COM ability dealt a massive amount of damage and reset the Chain Gauge to zero. The RAV ability dealt a series of hits and boosted the Chain Gauge, with more bonuses after the enemy is staggered. The SAB ability was Vanille’s Death, which had a low chance to instantly KO an enemy and dealt a fair amount of damage. In addition to the above, I will also have a SYN option which will grant all allies several offensive buffs (similar to using an Aegisol) and heal them slightly, a SEN option which will nullify all damaging actions from the enemy’s next turn, and a MED option which will heal all allies to full and grant several defensive buffs (similar to using a Fortisol). I will also expand the SAB option to put a series of debuffs on an enemy (similar to Anathema from Sacrifices) and deal a fair amount of damage. [b]Items.[/b] I intend to use Items from both FF13 and FF13-2. I will not be using Shrouds (Aegisol, Fortisol, Deceptisol, Ethersol), but you can get some of their effects from Summons. There will also be multiple weapons and accessories. I am currently planning on a simplified upgrade system where you pay a certain amount to upgrade your weapons (no need for components). I may even have quests to find catalysts to further enhance weapons. I do not plan to have upgrades for accessories. You will be able to upgrade and buy items, weapons, and accessories at specific times (usually any time you are in contact with your organization). [b]Parties.[/b] The RP will be split into parties of 2-3 people. Some parties might join each other on missions (or everyone might go together), but for the sake of combat, you will be in small parties. I am hoping for a minimum of 6 participants to start. That way, if we lose or add a participant, I can restructure parties fairly simply. If you are placed in Group A, that doesn’t mean you’ll never interact with Group B. There might even be points where Parties might get switched around mid-mission (although this should be fairly rare unless there’s a problem with set-up). [b]Crystarium.[/b] This isn’t particularly Combat-oriented, but it fits here. When you complete a battle, you will gain CP (Crystarium Points, which in any other game would be called EXP). You may distribute your CP in any way you choose, as long as you have unlocked that Stage of your Crystarium. At the end of each Stage is a Role Level node that increases the passive bonuses your Role grants you and allies. I have condensed the Crystarium somewhat to give bonuses to every stat on each node, whether you gain an ability or not. Generally, you gain an ability every 2-4 nodes, depending on the Role. This ability might be a Technique, a Role Ability, or something else like an extra Accessory slot or ATB segment. For each of your Primary Roles, you will start with 1-2 abilities for free when the role is unlocked. For each of your Secondary Roles, you will need to purchase several nodes in order to unlock your first ability, at which point you can use that Role in battle. Primary Roles have 4 Stages and 5 Role Levels, while Secondary Roles have only 2 Stages and 5 Role Levels (two Role Levels per Stage). As you acquire more and more nodes in a Role, they get more and more expensive: by the end of the first stage, your Role Level node costs as much as 20 of your first nodes. However, you gain more CP per fight as time goes on. There might be a point where you gain CP, but have nothing to spend it in. That’s fine: you can stockpile CP as long as you need. Once we get to the next unlock, you’ll have plenty of immediate upgrades to spend the points on. The next Stage will likely soon be unlocked after we defeat a (hopefully challenging) boss.[/hider] [hider=Character Creation]I will post an updated Character Sheet in the OOC once we have enough interest. In the meantime, here are a few things to consider. [b]Name.[/b] No, your name does not have to be a weather phenomenon. If your character is from Cocoon, you will have a first name and last name, as per normal western naming convention. If your character is from Pulse, your name is structured differently. The first word is the town you are from, the second is the name of your tribe (basically our last names), and the third word is the name people call you. For example, Paddra Nsu Yeul would be called Yeul by her friends, is from the area of Paddra, and her tribe is the Nsu tribe. [b]Age.[/b] Anything within reason. For reference, the youngest playable character in FFXIII is Hope at age 14, and the oldest is Sazh at age 40. I would like to avoid going younger than Hope, but older than 40 is a possibility. [b]Gender.[/b] Self-explanatory. [b]Place of birth.[/b] This is fairly important for story aspects. Your character will be either from Pulse or Cocoon. Those who are from the other World will likely treat you more harshly, and those who share your world will likely be more understanding. In addition, you might want to provide a hometown. [b]Description.[/b] Pictures are also welcome, but please also give a brief description of the character. Any race that’s present on Earth can be used as well. [b]Backstory/Personality.[/b] What motivates your character? Why are they part of a covert operation of peace? Why aren’t they running from the enemy forces? Who did they leave behind? Did they lose someone in the initial attack? Personally, I like most of these to remain hidden until explained IC, but everyone should have an answer to the above questions, and everyone should have at least a paragraph or two of public information here. [b]Mechanics.[/b] There are three important things I will have you set up for your character: 1. Assign a value of 1-6 to each of the primary stats: HP, STR, MAG. 1 is weakest, 6 is strongest. The sum of your values must equal 12. A completely balanced character will have 4 in each stat. The astute among you will notice there are no defensive stats. That’s correct. FF13 only has HP, STR, and MAG as stats. The numbers you associate will govern how much you get for each stat every time you level up your Crystarium. 2. Pick three primary roles from the list of COM, RAV, SEN, SAB, SYN, MED. Rate them 1, 2, 3 with 1 as most used and 3 as least used. The third primary role will be locked for the first several levels. The other three roles you don’t use will be locked until mid-game, and will generally be weaker than your primary roles. Keep in mind that if everyone chooses COM RAV MED, this will be a very boring RP in terms of combat. Try to think about your character’s personality when you choose your roles. Each set of two or three roles has a particular name to it. For example, COM SAB SYN is called Bully, while COM RAV SAB is called Ruthless. Some of these names can work really well in describing a character’s way of thinking (which is called a paradigm, by the way). On the other hand, if you choose SEN SYN MED (Protection), you will probably not deal any damage until you unlock your secondary roles. I suggest everyone pick at least one of COM or RAV, or things might get a bit boring for you. Some hidden information that you might have noticed if you played FFXIII-2 (or were really paying attention in FFXIII): Every role will give different bonuses to different stats based on what they are typically used for. For example, Commando gives more bonuses to HP and STR, and less to MAG. Ravager gives major bonuses to MAG, but less to HP. Medic boosts HP and MAG, but gives much less to STR. Every role gives varying amounts of bonuses, but unless something messed up in my calcs, you should always gain at least 1 in every stat with every node. 3. Pick your weapon type. This choice is surprisingly one of the most complex. Each weapon type carries with it a handful of properties and modifiers for the stats you gain. I would like you to pick a generic type, such as “axes” or “wands.” From there, I will create a series of weapon options that you can upgrade and use at your leisure. Some weapons enhance magical properties, and some enhance physical properties, and the ones with lower stats often have strong passive abilities. There are four major things to consider when picking your weapon type: Reaction Speed, AMP%, Rand%, and Attack Speed. Bulky weapons tend to have a slow reaction speed, while light weapons give you a faster reaction speed. A slow speed means you are far less likely to dodge an attack, but you will take a bit less damage from being hit. A faster reaction speed means you are more likely to dodge, but you will be unable to reduce damage from attacks. AMP% is a measure of the strength of your weapon. AMP stands for Antimatter Manipulation Principle, and is the main technology behind all weapon enhancements. Those who employ high AMP% weapons do so to make up for their innate lack of natural ability. If you want to avoid upgrading weapons and focus solely on your own strength, try a weapon with low AMP%. Rand% is pretty easy to explain. In every damage formula, there’s a random number associated with the final output. Weapons with a low Rand% tend to have consistent damage output. Weapons with a high Rand% are less consistent, but can deal significantly more (or less) damage depending on your luck. The speed of your attacks depends on the type of weapon as well. Every weapon has a base physical attack speed and magical attack speed. Some weapons enhance physical speed at the cost of magical speed, and vice versa. Although the bonus is only 0.1 seconds, it adds up over time. If you intend to specialize in one area or another, I suggest finding a weapon that complements the type of attacking you’ll do most. FFXIII had a variety of weapon types, many of which were unique to that game in the series. I am willing to consider pretty much any weapon type you have in mind. Just let me know what you’re planning, and I’ll try to work with you. [/hider] I will be putting the above info into the OOC when it's posted, don't worry.