Ruins of Khazan - A Rumbles RPG - Sign Up/System Test

[Nik Hasta]

My takeaway from this is that Jane is going to be the DPS character in the group, for sure. O_O

Jane's real strength is attacking multiple times per turn at range and having a bunch of AoEs but as she mostly favours Honed Techniques and range/AoE so she doesn't actually hit that hard really overall. It's like quantity over quality.

If Siriel keeps Van and if Miburo ever finishes Maximo, they will be doing some much chunkier damage.

[Nik Hasta]

Ah, I also fucked up with Jane in the playtest because I forgot to apply the range modifiers to her normal attacks.

I literally have a button that does that for me and I forgot to press it -____-

Even having built the system, I have not mastered it yet lol. When we're playing live, I'm going to have to really check everything before I post.

[Sharpandpointies]

Jane's real strength is attacking multiple times per turn at range and having a bunch of AoEs but as she mostly favours Honed Techniques and range/AoE so she doesn't actually hit that hard really overall. It's like quantity over quality.

If Siriel keeps Van and if Miburo ever finishes Maximo, they will be doing some much chunkier damage.

No disagreement. I feel this is still a pretty good thing for DPS. Her area attacks will help level groups of lower-powered enemies and force them to consume energy, and it seems she would be pretty good at simply eating up higher-end enemies RAC points and continuously damaging them. Quantity can be...impressive.

I would also include KoR's Aryx in that group of 'hits really hard'.

Kind of amusing that Krys' basic attacks are doing 0 damage here. I hadn't thought it would be quite that bad, but clearly it is. Ah, well. Further traits will be aimed toward increasing PRE, so there's that.

[Nik Hasta]

Began second playtest and my Mind Status effect impact formula threw up something really wild which means there's a fault in the formulae somewhere. Pausing the playtest until I diagnose the problem.

I also think I need to expand my battle simulator so Mobs have their own area, I don't think they should get the advantages of damage reduction which is currently calced and added automatically because the Battle Engine was designed with named NPCs, who do get reduction, in mind.

Kind of amusing that Krys' basic attacks are doing 0 damage here. I hadn't thought it would be quite that bad, but clearly it is. Ah, well. Further traits will be aimed toward increasing PRE, so there's that.

This actually factors into why I need to extract Mobs from having damage resistance by default. The Generic Mobs Krys was fighting had a natural DUR of 28 so, with Stack, 38 DUR versus 40 Stacked PRE on Krys' side.

So that should be 2 DMG. But with the 13.64% Spirit Damage Reduction they got a reduction of ~5 points so they switched into positive numbers on the DUR check for 0 DMG.

Stuff like this is why I'm disentangling it. I'm also a little on the fence about whether random mobs should even have Stack because that makes them a little more dynamic than perhaps they should be.

No stack, no damage reduction, Krys with Stack would hit for... 12 DMG per regular ATK which is much more serviceable.

[Sharpandpointies]

Began second playtest and my Mind Status effect impact formula threw up something really wild which means there's a fault in the formulae somewhere. Pausing the playtest until I diagnose the problem.

I also think I need to expand my battle simulator so Mobs have their own area, I don't think they should get the advantages of damage reduction which is currently calced and added automatically because the Battle Engine was designed with named NPCs, who do get reduction, in mind.



This actually factors into why I need to extract Mobs from having damage resistance by default. The Generic Mobs Krys was fighting had a natural DUR of 28 so, with Stack, 38 DUR versus 40 Stacked PRE on Krys' side.

So that should be 2 DMG. But with the 13.64% Spirit Damage Reduction they got a reduction of ~5 points so they switched into positive numbers on the DUR check for 0 DMG.

Stuff like this is why I'm disentangling it. I'm also a little on the fence about whether random mobs should even have Stack because that makes them a little more dynamic than perhaps they should be.

No stack, no damage reduction, Krys with Stack would hit for... 12 DMG per regular ATK which is much more serviceable.

Poke poke, Krys do damage.

Well, it certainly goes to show that average enemies are tougher than normal humans.

Here's a different thought - don't give them stacks. I'm cool with them having damage resistance, unless we're going the route of 'Mobs are nothing but fodder, they actually have different rules than PC's and named NPC's' (not to dunk on that idea, a whole lot of systems depend on that kind of setup). But if you remove their capacity to Stack, it means they still have some damage resistance but don't have full control of their energies and such, and can't modify their own stats.

Yes, that does mean Krys does piddly damage with basic attacks, but I expected that. She just woke up in a broken body, after all.

[Nik Hasta]

Began second playtest and my Mind Status effect impact formula threw up something really wild which means there's a fault in the formulae somewhere. Pausing the playtest until I diagnose the problem.

Found the issue, I had partially written a new formula to calculate debuffs from CHR attacks and had forgotten to make it account for negative numbers correctly. This meant Krys got hit with a debuff attack of 52 CHR and the formulae said they should be debuffed by -90 SKI which didn't make sense.

Have now amended and will press on.

Well, it certainly goes to show that average enemies are tougher than normal humans.

I'll be clear, these mobs are somewhat beyond human. If we have human enemies, the cast broadly would absolutely murder them. Off the top of my head there's a least one pure human NPC but he's non-hostile from the off so I don't anticipate him wanting to fight.

Here's a different thought - don't give them stacks. I'm cool with them having damage resistance, unless we're going the route of 'Mobs are nothing but fodder, they actually have different rules than PC's and named NPC's' (not to dunk on that idea, a whole lot of systems depend on that kind of setup). But if you remove their capacity to Stack, it means they still have some damage resistance but don't have full control of their energies and such, and can't modify their own stats.

Yes, that does mean Krys does piddly damage with basic attacks, but I expected that. She just woke up in a broken body, after all.

They ain't built for massive damage. At least, not yet.

[Sharpandpointies]

Found the issue, I had partially written a new formula to calculate debuffs from CHR attacks and had forgotten to make it account for negative numbers correctly. This meant Krys got hit with a debuff attack of 52 CHR and the formulae said they should be debuffed by -90 SKI which didn't make sense.

Gaaaah...

They ain't built for massive damage. At least, not yet.

All things in time, since we're in time now.

I'm still liking the 'no stacks' idea over the 'no damage resistance', though either has merits. Which way are you leaning?

[Postmania]

Interesting results with the playtest. Combat is hard to grasp in a system until you see it I suppose. I actually felt Jane could use more damage lol, since it'll be going down when range modifiers are applied as Nik mentioned hmm. I think this does tell me a bit of where points might want to go on a level up.

Also interesting new Blindness effect. This might make the idea of spirit sight/nonconventional detection system, which I was thinking of for Jane at some point. more useful than it was before since vision would more established as a thing now, but also means she could be almost entirely nullified if she doesn't in fact take that trait.

On a related note Sandman's character also looks interesting. I've been looking at the system for long enough that I've been kind of locked into a certain stat based or trying to mirror currently-existing effects type approach, but Sandman doesn't have that in forming ideas for character.

[Nik Hasta]

Gaaaah...



All things in time, since we're in time now.

I'm still liking the 'no stacks' idea over the 'no damage resistance', though either has merits. Which way are you leaning?

Damage Resistance is a bit of a funny one because it scales a bit more sharply the more DUR or RES you have because it's based on a percentage of the stat. So it can be a bit more volatile, albeit within certain parameters and a lot harder to predict. At least with Stack, I know it's just a +10 going somewhere.

I think Mobs, as a concept, are still being refined a little more. I am very interested in how this play test is going to work out because it's dealing with a lot more archetypes at play.

The other side of this is that having RES percentages means actually having to math two NPCs RES at once to check how buffs work. I guess I'd have to do this for named NPCs as well so I'm going to have to build more system architecture either way.

Le sigh more work lol. >_<

[MrSandman]

Hmm...its possible I may need to do some stat shuffling to balance out the techniques properly, but lets design them first and then worry about stats once I have something to adjust them for.

This... hmmm... you could either bodge this with Disinterest but if the aim is to blind people so they can't see anything, it might just be simpler for me to codify Blindness under Mind Effects.

Let me come back to this one once I've codified Blindness as an effect under Mind.

Codified Blindness under Mind Effects:

BLINDNESS
Effects the target's hit stats, movement and ability to perform certain kinds of Techniques.

Mundane: Blurring - Target's HIT stat is reduced by 25% for the duration of this effect. Mind and all AoE attacks are not effected.

Honed: Field Reduction - Target's HIT stat is reduced by 50% and single-target ranged attacks can no longer hit for the duration of this effect. Mind and all AoE attacks are not effected.

Epic: Total Darkness - Target's HIT stat is reduced by 75%, single-target ranged attacks can no longer hit and all Body-based Chain Technique Effects are no longer possible to execute with the exception of Thunderclap and Crater. Mind and all AoE attacks are not effected.

So yeah, Sandy, you'd be looking at an AoE Mind Technique for your blinding flash.

So in this case, If I wanted to make this an epic mind technique...I'd need to burn about 4 mundane tech slots?

Lets assume I got to the logial extreme then....the tech would look something like this.

Epic Mind Technique - Flash Emitter
+60 CHR
Emits a focused blast of light to bind targets. Target's HIT stat is reduced by 75%, single-target ranged attacks can no longer hit and all Body-based Chain Technique Effects are no longer possible to execute with the exception of Thunderclap and Crater. Mind and all AoE attacks are not effected.

With that said, I imagine there are limitations the more targets she tries to hit? Diminished in a full blast but Full power on a single target?

.....also now I'm just picturing her flashing a laser pen in someones eye.

Guidance pertaining to healing and restoration techniques from the Technique Guide is as follows:

HEALING AND ENERGY RESTORATION
Healing and Energy Restoration techniques can be created and will operate on the following logic. They must be derived from the PRE stat.

HP and Latent ENR
HP and Latent ENR will be restored on the basis of 1/2 the stat boost provided to the Technique.

Example: Base PRE stat: 40 + 40 (Honed Technique) = 40 HP restored.

Mastered ENR
Mastered ENR will be restored with the full strength of the Technique. If restoring your own Mastered ENR, then you will still have to pay the associated ENR costs for the Technique which will be subtracted from your net recovery:

Example, cast on an ally: Base PRE stat: 40 + 40 (Honed Technique) = 80 Mastered ENR restored.

Example, case on self: Base PRE stat: 40 + 40 (Honed Technique)/2 - 25 ENR to cast = 55 Mastered ENR restored.

A Persistent Healing Technique... hmm... as in you can take healing actions on your turn. So that would work on the logic of converting your Basic ATK Action into a healing "attack," so you would be able to "attack" your allies and heal their HP for your (PRE DMG + Tech Modifier)/2.

Sound reasonable?

Hmm.....yeah that sounds about right.
Is the above example operating with a single target in mind or would an aoe effect be allowed? and if so would penalties would that pertain.
Also, as a persistent tech...can it be used one turn and maintained for the next while Enna takes another action?

Kind of depends on what kind of stuff you want to make, this is a very broad Technique. Off the cuff, it would mostly be covered by PRE and checks would be made on that basis.

Aiming for a Honed Status for it, so would object of your average weapon size or smaller be ok? (Like, your average sword or any object smaller in size).

This would be a DUR Technique. I'm actually thinking that, because the wall is separate from Enna and not actively amping her defences, and she's not actively maintaining or repairing it; she can just spit it out and it can on the field without the need for it to be a Persistent Technique. Limits of the dimensions she can create would need to be defined, which would depend on what level of Technique you would apply to this (Mundane, Honed, Epic).

As far as the wall's staying power. We would work it that the wall has a DUR score of (Enna's DUR + Technique Modifier) and any DMG from attacks made against it will subtract from that DUR score until it reaches zero and crumbles.

This works out fine, and the walls DUR score is pretty much what I imagined it.

....may move some points in the same block in fact to give it a bit more staying power lol.

CHR self buff, I'm afraid it would need to be Persistent if you want to maintain the disguise for a long period and that might be necessary because otherwise you would be trying to contest opponents' Insight with your base level 10 CHR which would be... y'know... extremely hard to win at.

Or you could reallocate stats to make her have better CHR.

Hilariously this is kinda how I expect it to go In Character, Enna disguises require inattention to work effectively because she can only mimic it visually. If she copies a person she can't speak, if she only has a limited view attempt to she'll extrapolate the rest which could give it away to the observant eye and if closely inspected(especially in a dark room) anyone would notice the slight illumination her projection gives off. It basically banks on either blending in when noone is paying attention or used in conjunction with someone else.

(example, Enna loads a vase template, turns herself into one and keeps her core inside. Party uses her as a trojan horse is sneak inside a house as a gift.)

ok I suck at examples but you get the idea.

In a worse case I suppose I can adjust stats a little to compensate.

[Postmania]

Just realized since Counter Techniques can use status effects my Dodge Tech should as well. Added Regenerate to Deadly Withdrawal bc of that. Should give slightly more chance of surviving if it’s gotten to that range too.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

New job, and medical has been kicking my ass, sorry. Pretty unfortunate timing.

That said, understand you're wanting to get started so... Ima just dump these here, they're the (five) epic/honed I have. I dunno what iteration of patch we're on but I guarantee I won't understand it, so these are pretty simple and hopefully convey the idea.

I'm not going to bother with the 8 mundane right now if that's cool. I'll fuse them into something to do with sharpandpointies (teeth and claws, tee hee) when I'm not trying to aggressively turn my brain off.

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+Trait 2

Jörmungandr's Eitr - "Þórr berr banaorð af Miðgarðsormi ok stígr þaðan braut níu fet. Þá fellr hann dauðr til jarðar fyrir eitri því, er ormrinn blæss á hann." - Arx can choose one target to apply a 'venom' to, on contact, which eats away at their ENR at a rate of -15 ENR (additional) per turn. She can only apply this effect to one target, per engagement.

Body

Fimbulvetr (Honed) - "Fjölð ek fór, fjölð ek freistaðak, fjölð ek of reynda regin: Hvat lifir manna, þá er inn mæra líðr fimbulvetr með firum?" - Through concerted effort, and focus Arx begins to draw the ambient temperature in a small area into herself. Slowing an opponent or opponents, for a turn or turns. This in turn, empowers her for...

Ragnarök (Epic) - "Skelfr Yggdrasils askr standandi, ymr it aldna tré, en jötunn losnar; hræðask allir á helvegum áðr Surtar þann sefi of gleypir." - the accumulated energy is focused and expelled violently from her mouth (think Shin Godzilla).

Gleipnir (Honed) - "Þá sendi Alföðr þann, er Skírnir er nefndr, sendimaðr Freys, ofan í Svartálfaheim til dverga nökkurra ok lét gera fjötur þann, er Gleipnir heitir." - For a brief period of time, when Arx begins a grapple, she is unable to be detached her grappled target.

Mind

Fight or Flight (Honed) - "I don't like it when they run... but sometimes that's all they can do." - Arx forces a skill check to determine whether or not an opponent flees, or fights her. In the event they 'succeed' the check, their focus is solely on her until the end of their next attacking turn. If they 'fail' the check, they will attempt to leave the battle until the end of their next turn.

A Dragon Has No Equal (Epic) - "... and who are you, mm? My next meal, nothing more." - Arx briefly boosts her mental defenses, allowing her to resist, or (in the event she is already under an effect) potentially break the hold over her. She is incapable of performing other techniques while using this. She can however move, and 'basic' attack.

[Nik Hasta]

New job, and medical has been kicking my ass, sorry. Pretty unfortunate timing.

That said, understand you're wanting to get started so... Ima just dump these here, they're the (five) epic/honed I have. I dunno what iteration of patch we're on but I guarantee I won't understand it, so these are pretty simple and hopefully convey the idea.

I'm not going to bother with the 8 mundane right now if that's cool. I'll fuse them into something to do with sharpandpointies (teeth and claws, tee hee) when I'm not trying to aggressively turn my brain off.

Alright, let's see if I can finish these up.

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+Trait 2

Jörmungandr's Eitr - "Þórr berr banaorð af Miðgarðsormi ok stígr þaðan braut níu fet. Þá fellr hann dauðr til jarðar fyrir eitri því, er ormrinn blæss á hann." - Arx can choose one target to apply a 'venom' to, on contact, which eats away at their ENR at a rate of -15 ENR (additional) per turn. She can only apply this effect to one target, per engagement.

As discussed, this is fine. For the Techniques, I'll make amendments and apply stats, costs and effects for your approval.

Body

Fimbulvetr (Honed) - "Fjölð ek fór, fjölð ek freistaðak, fjölð ek of reynda regin: Hvat lifir manna, þá er inn mæra líðr fimbulvetr með firum?" - Through concerted effort, and focus Arx begins to draw the ambient temperature in a small area into herself. Slowing an opponent or opponents, for a turn or turns. This in turn, empowers her for...

Right, so it's an AoE Slow Effect which wouldn't actually work for Body as an Affinity since those Techniques can't really do that. You would have to use Mind for a Debuff. Lowering AGI or SPD would effect movement values but AGI obviously effects Dodge Chance and, if you're wanting to use this as prelude to a larger attack, AGI might make more sense. A decision for you to make. The powering herself up gimmick to make her next Technique Attack more powerful is possible if you spend an Epic Spirit Slot on it to get Total Focus.

So, on the face of it that would be as follows:

Fimbulvetr - Honed AoE Mind Technique +20 CHR (40 - 20 for AoE targeting) Debuffs on AGI - 25 ENR to fire.

Ragnarök (Epic) - "Skelfr Yggdrasils askr standandi, ymr it aldna tré, en jötunn losnar; hræðask allir á helvegum áðr Surtar þann sefi of gleypir." - the accumulated energy is focused and expelled violently from her mouth (think Shin Godzilla).

So this is a single target beam I assume. You also can get Effects on Body Techs so perhaps something like:

Ragnarök - Epic Ranged Body Technique +45 STR (60 -15 for Ranged Targeting) Has chance to inflict Debilitating Strike and reduce Target's total Mastered ENR capacity by 75 ENR, removing this amount from the target's current resources until the effect is cured. - 75 ENR to fire.

That Debilitating Strike effect is random, other options are available for it. You could also have a 3 step Chain Sequence on it like Fling -> Crater -> Thunderclap instead of debilitating strike if you want. There's a fair amount of options in there.

Gleipnir (Honed) - "Þá sendi Alföðr þann, er Skírnir er nefndr, sendimaðr Freys, ofan í Svartálfaheim til dverga nökkurra ok lét gera fjötur þann, er Gleipnir heitir." - For a brief period of time, when Arx begins a grapple, she is unable to be detached her grappled target.

The wording of this reads more like a Trait than a Technique to be honest. You could Trait for like something akin to "Successful Grapples are unbreakable for 1 turn" but you already have all your Traits locked in to my knowledge.

So, that aside, this would be like a chain Technique of Grapple into something else. So, decision to make there about what you want Arx to do with this.

Mind

Fight or Flight (Honed) - "I don't like it when they run... but sometimes that's all they can do." - Arx forces a skill check to determine whether or not an opponent flees, or fights her. In the event they 'succeed' the check, their focus is solely on her until the end of their next attacking turn. If they 'fail' the check, they will attempt to leave the battle until the end of their next turn.

Wording doesn't quite match up with how Honed levels of Fear operate but this is simple enough to rectify.

Fight or Flight - Honed Mind Technique +40 CHR Inflicts Fear: Frighten on the target for 2 or 4 turns depending on their RES check. Effect details: Target becomes frightened by the attacker. They will cease attacking entirely and will only perform defensive or supportive techniques to its own allies and will actively distance themselves from the attacker. - 25 ENR to fire.

A Dragon Has No Equal (Epic) - "... and who are you, mm? My next meal, nothing more." - Arx briefly boosts her mental defenses, allowing her to resist, or (in the event she is already under an effect) potentially break the hold over her. She is incapable of performing other techniques while using this. She can however move, and 'basic' attack.

Wording feels a little unclear but, from my interpretation, it's an RES boost, perhaps Persistent from the wording on it? So that would resolve as:

A Dragon Has No Equal - Epic Persistent Mind Technique +50 CHR [Buffs RES] - Costs 40 ENR to activate and 10 ENR per turn maintenance at the start of each turn the Technique is active.

Cool, so hopefully that vibes with what you're aiming for. Let me know if you'd like to discuss anything.

[Nik Hasta]

So in this case, If I wanted to make this an epic mind technique...I'd need to burn about 4 mundane tech slots?

Lets assume I got to the logial extreme then....the tech would look something like this.

Epic Mind Technique - Flash Emitter
+60 CHR
Emits a focused blast of light to bind targets. Target's HIT stat is reduced by 75%, single-target ranged attacks can no longer hit and all Body-based Chain Technique Effects are no longer possible to execute with the exception of Thunderclap and Crater. Mind and all AoE attacks are not effected.

With that said, I imagine there are limitations the more targets she tries to hit? Diminished in a full blast but Full power on a single target?

To make it AoE and therefore target everyone in an area, you would lower the CHR boost by 15 points.

Hmm.....yeah that sounds about right.
Is the above example operating with a single target in mind or would an aoe effect be allowed? and if so would penalties would that pertain.
Also, as a persistent tech...can it be used one turn and maintained for the next while Enna takes another action?

Persistent Techniques can't be AoE, so you could either have a single heal ability that targets multiple people or you could have the Persistent Technique which gives Enna the option to use a healing ability on a single person (in touching range) with the associated stat boost using a Basic ATK Action on her turn.

Aiming for a Honed Status for it, so would object of your average weapon size or smaller be ok? (Like, your average sword or any object smaller in size).

The thing with this is how persistent you want these objects to be. If you want like "Enna creates a sword and bonks someone with it and it only exists for that attack action," or "Enna makes a key to try and open a locked door so it only exists for that lock attempt," then that's just a Honed PRE Technique there and then. If you want the objects to last longer and be things you could maintain, then it would be a Persistent Technique again.

You could also have a Defensive or Offensive Spirit Effect as well because that's parcelled in with the Technique.

Hilariously this is kinda how I expect it to go In Character, Enna disguises require inattention to work effectively because she can only mimic it visually. If she copies a person she can't speak, if she only has a limited view attempt to she'll extrapolate the rest which could give it away to the observant eye and if closely inspected(especially in a dark room) anyone would notice the slight illumination her projection gives off. It basically banks on either blending in when noone is paying attention or used in conjunction with someone else.

(example, Enna loads a vase template, turns herself into one and keeps her core inside. Party uses her as a trojan horse is sneak inside a house as a gift.)

ok I suck at examples but you get the idea.

In a worse case I suppose I can adjust stats a little to compensate.

If you want to play unoptimally, that's totally fine by me haha.

So you can either have it be Persistent and it will be a better disguise or you can have it be a single use Technique to change form with the initial check getting the boost and any subsequent checks being made with her default CHR score.

Your choice.

[Sharpandpointies]

'A dragon has no equal' could also be an effect that uses the 'negates status effect' thing that one of the other kinds of techniques gets. I think it's body. Which locks in well with RES.