The Fullmetal Alchemist d6 RPG

[names_are_useless]

Hello there, I would like to say hello to everyone on the Forge forums

I am a rookie RPG maker that is looking for help and support for my in-development Fullmetal Alchemist RPG, which uses West End Game's d6 rules.  If you've heard of this manga/anime and you'd like to roleplay in an environment, then you're in the right thread!  This RPG will cover both the anime and the manga.

My biggest problems that are arising is dealing with Alchemy.  I'm not quite sure how I want it modelled.  Right now I have it broken up into Destruction, Recreation, and Manipulation.  I have also thought about breaking it up into elements (Fire, Water, Earth, and Air) or into this (Artificial, Biological, and Elemental).

I'm probably jumping the gun with a lot of this, so some suggestions on how I should go about creating this in steps would be awfully helpful! 

Anyways, here is what I have planned so far:

Races
- Human
- Chimera: Humans mixed with animals.  Special Instinct rules will be made for specific animal crossings.
- Homunculus: Failed Transmutated Humans (Anime) or Artificial Humans created through Alchemy (Manga).  Special rules on Homunculi powers and death.
- Soul Sealed: Those who's souls, through Alchemy, have been sealed to a human-shaped object.  This RPG will cover rules for Soul Sealed Armor, Statues, and Dolls.

Worlds
- Alchemy World: Amestris and its surrounding countries
- Earth (Anime Only)
- The Gate
- Gluttony's Gate World (Manga Only)

Alchemy (Can only be performed in the Alchemy World)
- Destruction: Alchemy that destroys objects
- Recreation: After Destruction (or if already destroyed), Recreation brings back that objects
- Manipulation: After Destruction (or if already destroyed), combining/changing of object properties/elements
- Soul: Specialty Alchemy that deals with soul transmutations, Gate travel, etc.

Weapons, Vehicles, & Gear
- Melee Weapons: Swords, Spears, Knives, etc.
- Firearms: Pistols, Rifles, Heavy Weapons, and Vehicle Weapons
- Vehicles & Aircraft: Automobiles, Motorcycles, Tanks, Balloons, and Planes
- Red Stones, Red Water, Pocket Watches, etc.

Attributes
Strength (S): Represents a character's physical strength and health
Dexterity (D): Represents a character's accuracy and balance.
Knowledge (K): Represents what a character knows, either from study or experience.
Mechanical (M): Represents how well a character can duse/construct/repair man-made machines
Instincts (I): Represents the character's survival, perception, and primal skills
Charisma (C): Represents how well a character is with conversation and interaction

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Skills:

- Brawling (S)
- Climbing (S)
- Endurance (S)
- Jumping (S)
- Lifting (S)
- Resistance (S)
- Swimming (S)

- Balance (D)
- Dodge (D)
- Firearms (D)
__- Pistols
__- Rifles
__- Heavy Weapons
__- Vehicle Weapons
- Martial Arts (D)
- Missile Weapons (D)
- Melee Combat (D)
- Ride Animal (D)
- Running (D)
- Throwing (D)

- Alchemy* (K)
__- Destruction*
__- Recreation*
__- Manipulation*
__- Soul**
- Bureaucracy (K)
- Business (K)
- Cultures (K)
- Education (K)
- First Aid (K)
- Language (Special) (K)
__- Amestrian
__- English (Anime Earth Only)
__- German (Anime Earth Only)
__- Ishbalan
__- Xingese
- Law (K)
- Medicine (K)
- Military (K)
- Multitasking (K)
- Navigation (K)
- Religion (K)
__- Christianity
__- Ishballan
__- Letoism
__- Valdoran (Anime Only)
- Scrounge (K)
- Security (K)
- Sensors (K)
- Streetwise (K)
- Tactics (K)
- Value (K)

- Automail / Prosthetics (M)
- Demolitions (M)
- Drive (M)
__- Automobiles
__- Motorcycles
__- Tanks*
- Electronics (M)
- Jury Rig (M)
- Mechanics (M)
- Pilot (M)
__- Balloons
__- Planes (Earth Only)
__- Rockets (Earth Only)
- Repair (M)
- Weapons Technology (M)

- Animal (I) (Chimera Only!)
- Gambling (I)
- Profile (I)
- Search (I)
- Stealth (I)
- Survival (I)
- Tracking (I)
- Willpower (I)

- Bargain (Ch)
- Command (Ch)
- Con (Ch)
- Handle Animal (Ch)
- Gambling (Ch)
- Hide (Ch)
- Investigation (Ch)
- Perform (Ch)
- Persuasion (Ch)

* = Difficult Skill (requires greater cost of skills points to recieve than normal skills)
** = Special Skill (can ONLY be learned through special means)

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Mock-up Website Images:

Home Page:
http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/7605/homeip0.jpg

General Information:
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5765/informationcb7.jpg

Attributes & Skills:
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6001/skills1oa5.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6625/skills2zt7.jpg
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/2519/skills3yr0.jpg


So this is basically where I'm at so far.  For references, I have mostly used the Star Wars d6 RPG by West End Games.  Comments and criticisms are welcome!

[Callan S.]

Hi, welcome to the forge!

Full metal alchemy seems to be big at the mo, but I've seen nothing of it. What do they actually do in the show? Could you recap a scene and then perhaps we could talk about mechanics which would A: make a scene like that happen, but B: make the scene have the capacity to be different because of player choices, so they really are engaging the world by meshing their own contributions with it.

[Filip Luszczyk]

Welcome to the Forge, names_are_useless. So, what is your name?

I doubt the lists of skills, races and all are really important here, as the key in thing is obviously alchemy - and whether to base the system on or around it.

Consider this:

In the show, alchemy was meaningful to the story due to all the moral/ethical stuff feeding the drama. Its function certainly didn't boil down to funky special effects.

In RPG this could be approached in many ways. E.g. I tried running FMA riff once, and I used the system from Mage for it, focusing on cool effects and completely ditching philosophical stuff.

I think that the first question that you should ask yourself, before deciding on the dice type or writing skill lists, is "What function do I want the alchemy to have in my game?". Then, formulate design goals on the basis of it.

But, it's possible you have already answered this question and formulated the design goals. If so, share.

Also, FMA is one of those shows in which the setting revolves around one main story line and the actions of a number of protagonists. There are some licensed RPGs based on such source material, e.g. Star Wars or LotR. What they do is usually providing players with tools to play some person living in the world, but I think they do nothing when it comes to creating something in the lines of original story (mostly because everything interesting that could have been done in the setting was already done in the story). How do you want to approach this problem? Is this a "world simulation" game, a game that will produce similar stories, or maybe a game tailored to playing out the story from the show itself?

[names_are_useless]

Hello Callan and Filip

Why did I choose the d6?  Well, the only two RPing systems I know is West End Game's d6 and the All-so-famous D&D d20.  I'm the kind of guy who has mostly been doing forum roleplaying all his life, and so I like a system thats not too heavy in the rules.  While it took me weeks and weeks to learn the Star Wars d20, the d6 took me about a couple days.  That, plus the "no classes" aspect of it made it feel right for the FMA world.

Why not continue forum roleplaying?  Because pen-and-paper RPGs give one thing that the forum ones don't: Random outcomes.  This can make an adventure where the players CAN fail, and where powergaming (at least not PnP games I've GMed) is not as big an issue (none of that "I killed all the 20 bad guys cause I said so!").

I know that many see that the anime/manga is mostly about the alchemy, but there is a lot more in it then just that.  You got the dictatorial military, theres been the horrid Ishbalan Massacre, Automail, and other stuff as well.  I didn't want to make an RPG that just covered the Alchemy aspect the anime/manga, it wouldn't give it the respect it deserves!

Yes, alchemy has moral/ethical meanings to it in the anime/manga, but the State Alchemists would be used as essentially "living weapons" (the equivalent to an atomic bomb when it came to the destruction of Ishbal), no moral strings attached.  The military was interested in alchemy as a war weapon, while others would be interested in its scientific purposes only (as would be the case with Shou Tucker), and others as something else (to the Xingians in the manga, it was used for healing purposes only).

And no, most alchemists are not all that powerful.  What we got to see in the anime/manga was the world's most powerful of alchemists (mostly State Alchemists and those Alchemists who saw the Gate).  I would say that barely any alchemists could follow as a Mage class.  Most basic alchemists would probably only know alchemy that dealt with simple things like making a block of wood into a doll (if even that much!).  If you remember, a lot of the people in the FMA world saw alchemy as a sort of magic as opposed to a science, and that included people of the State.

And no, I highly disagree about the "single revolved story." Star Wars has a HUGE backstory, with all kinds of different eras, planets, and species, its not just about Luke!  The Lord of the Rings is not the only books that takes place in Middle Earth (what about The Hobbit, The Silmarrion, and all the Unfinished Tales and other stories by Tolkien!?).  In my opinion, there were much greater heroes in The Silmarrion then Frodo and the Fellowship were!  Fullmetal Alchemist, though without the huge backstories and such as SW or LOTR, it is not soley about the Elric Brothers!  Why did the anime/manga expand on Roy Mustang and his soldiers?  What was the point of all the prehistory about the Massacre in Ishbal?  What about some anime episodes where Ed and Al would take no to very little part in (the Fossil Disease and the Flame Alchemist episodes come to mind).

Even if it was a single revolved story, it is up to the GM to make the story.  What if, in the anime, Dante was only a servant to someone more powerful?  What if there were another group of Homunculi besides the 7 we know in the anime/manga?  What about a RPing group that played a group of characters in the nearly unknown regions like in Creta, Aerugo, or Drachma?  Everything "interesting" as you'd call it Filip is your opinion.  I say there is a lot of untold stories in the FMA world that would be highly interesting.

[Callan S.]

And no, I highly disagree about the "single revolved story." Star Wars has a HUGE backstory, with all kinds of different eras, planets, and species, its not just about Luke!  The Lord of the Rings is not the only books that takes place in Middle Earth (what about The Hobbit, The Silmarrion, and all the Unfinished Tales and other stories by Tolkien!?).  In my opinion, there were much greater heroes in The Silmarrion then Frodo and the Fellowship were!  Fullmetal Alchemist, though without the huge backstories and such as SW or LOTR, it is not soley about the Elric Brothers!  Why did the anime/manga expand on Roy Mustang and his soldiers?  What was the point of all the prehistory about the Massacre in Ishbal?  What about some anime episodes where Ed and Al would take no to very little part in (the Fossil Disease and the Flame Alchemist episodes come to mind).

Would you say that even if its not a headline act, these parts should equally deserve to be continued and refered to and basically reinforced for the inherant value they hold?

Awkward sentence I know, am I way off? That's fun play if that's what you mean.

Could you give an example of the sort of scenes you'd like to see happen, like I talked about above?

[David C]

Well, first of all, are you planning on selling this? If you are, you need to license the property or you'll be infringing on the copyright. (This is NOT legal advice, nor am I a lawyer.) Secondly, I suggest reducing your skill list length. Next, you should have something about circles. In the show, circles/runes/writings play a huge part of alchemy.  Perhaps you could do something similar to Mage where you add together your alchemy skill and your circle knowledge to find out the power of your effect. For example, if you have 2 Destruction, 1 Manipulation and 3 Circle, you'd have 5 (2+ 3) "power" when breaking a wall, but only 4 (1 +3) "power" if you tried to turn the wall into air.   Alternatively, you could have circles be like spells in D&D, where you learn a circle and it lets you do an effect (Minor transmutation: you can change an object into a similar object.)
Another interesting element might be a morality meter, perhaps you get access to certain things depending on your morality. For example, you could become like the crimson alchemist if you're extremely unmoral, or you might be able to heal with alchemy if you're moral... Hope this helps.

[jeremycoatney]

I've never read the Manga of FMA, but I did see a large portion of the TV series when it was running on cartoon network. I do like the overall idea you're working with and I believe that d6 captures the world very well. However there are a few points that I'd like to bring up.

Firstly, while I don't know about the manga, in the anime alchemy cannot actually create anything or destroy anything, it just changes things. Nothing new is ever created and the only extra that is ever brought into play is the energy needed to change or move something. Alchemy is only a force of change and alteration, the ability to create something is based off of the creativity and knowledge of the alchemist, or off of the preconstructed runic commands written into a transmutation circle. The main thing is not how you change things, but more what you change them into or what you move.

The effect isn't scientific, so the alchemist can create and alter things so long as they know the approximate mental "shape" of what they are attempting to acheive, but the more knowledge they have the more likely they are to succeed.

The most important note here is that whatever you are changing doesn't matter to what you're changing it into unless you are altering something into something that's alive. However it does matter when you are trying to MOVE something what it is that is moving and how far, which is the principle problem with human creation in alchemy. You don't need to make a human soul, as many seem to believe in the series, you have to MOVE it from where it went back into the appropriate body and undo any changes that have occured in it since the soul last inhabited the body.

While the reason is not mentioned to the best of my knowledge, I personally believe this might be because you are trying to recreate the person who was, and because your mind is the only thing that guides major details of the transformation that is being undergone your own memory of that person is what the transmutation attempts to create.

Secondly, humonculi in the show are still artificial humans created by alchemy, they are simply what results when you try to create a human with alchemy. Not that this is more than a nit-picky thing, but I felt it was sort of an important detail if someone in the game tried a human transmutation on a homunculus, which of course wouldn't work because they aren't humans. You can still use a construct or soul transmutation on one though, because they are artificial constructs and could have a soul bound into them or their bodies altered by alchemy. Of course people could also use a homunculus transmutation on a homunculus if they discovered the symbol to use, or have seen The Gate.

Thirdly, mentioning The Gate I don't know about the manga, but in the anime the only place you can obtain the knowledge of a circless transmutation is if you've seen it, and other knowledges exist there as well, so you might want to include a mechanic for what happens if you see the gate. Theoretically you might be able to gain any knowledge you want from it, but the information granted by the gate is twisted and distorted somewhat from the reality of the universe, and often you lose something whenever you view the gate in a way that allows knowledge to be gained.

Well, hopefully this is more helpful than annoying or something. Just something to think about.

[names_are_useless]

Sorry I haven't been on (haven't gotten much work done either), but I am here to answer questions!

Callan S.: I don't understand the question you asked in your last post ... at all.  Alright, let me give you an example of a situation in a d6 FMA game session:

Turn 1: Four Amestrian Military Soldiers, one being a State Alchemist, are on their way to the next checkpoint.  From there, they'll continue in the Battles in the North with the heinous Drachma troops.  On their way however, they are ambushed by a number of bandits!  Major Callaway, the Stone Alchemist, orders his men to cover him, and she starts to draw a transmutation circle.  Private Erving equips a shotgun while Sergeant Darmouth draws out his assault rifle.  Warrant Officer Sigmund unsheaths his blade, using the Running skill.  Two brigands with knives swipe at Sigmund immediately, and both miss.  Sigmund unleashes his blade, and with a single slash brings down one of his enemies.  Other thieves, hidden in the bushes and trees, shoot at the two gun wielding officers, and Erving is hit twice!

Turn 2: At last, Callaway completes her transmutation circle, and a violent earthquake errupts in the trees.  Four bandits fall from out of the trees and are easily exposed, two of them dieing from the heavy impact.  Erving and Darmouth kill the other two of the newly exposed with their guns.  Sigmund, seeing that the group is still very outnumbered, takes to the defense against his next melee opponent with his Martial Arts.  He blocks the swipes from his opponent and then knocks him to the ground.  He, as well as Erving again, are shot by the renegades.

Turn 3: Callaway sees that there is no more time to be drawing circles, and grabs out her pistol.  She hopes that her gunshot with distract a few of the enemies (and she misses).  Erving is Critically wounded.  Darmouth, using his Strength, tries to drag Erving out of the combat.  Sigmund grabs out one of his knives and uses his Throwing skills to throw it at an enemy soldier, falling over hurt.

Turn 4: Just then, a loud honking is heard in the distance.  Amestrian reinforcements have arrived in a buggy to help!  This distraction gives the four soldiers a chance to get out of there and continue with the message they were assigned to give to the Lieutenant of the upcoming checkpoint!

Yeah, kinda cruddy example, but I hope it helps somewhat of an idea in an encounter example (as well as a scenario).  Other scenes in that same scenario could include an espionage mission on the Drachma forces, a Military Briefing, a big battle (ala WWI-style with trench warfare), etc.


David C: Nope, not planning on selling it at all.  Why do I work on it?  Because I love the world of FMA and I want to be able to give something to the FMA fans on the Internet.  The skills list is long, any ideas on how I could broaden a lot of these?  And yes, there will be plenty of stuff about circles in the Alchemy section.  If you look closely at circles in the show, you can see that certain shapes can be seen for certain elements, or a certain symbol for a certain type of circle (like the Salamander on Roy's Gloves).

Oh, I would honestly like to mention that I've never played D&D in my life, so that Mage example doesn't really help me.  However, as I have planned for setting up, you have to gain a certain amount of Knowledge points in Alchemy in order to actually starting learning to transmute stuff.  Afterall, even Cornello and a number of people KNOW about alchemy, but they could never really use it (unless they have a red stone in their possession of course).  I really need someone with a lot of RPG-making (or even game-playing) experience to help me with the Alchemy rules though.

And no, as much philosophical themes that alchemy carries, its still a science that anyone can learn (as long as their willing to take the long studying and practice it takes), no matter how sane or crazy one is.


jeremycoatney: Glad you agree about the d6! ^.^

Let me show you an important quote from the manga.  Ed says: "If you break [alchemy] up, the three major parts of transmutation are knowledge, destruction, and recreation." - Edward Elric, Manga Chapter 7.  The alchemy in the manga is pretty much exactly like it is in the anime (the circles have a bit of a different style, but thats about it).  Plus, alchemy can be broken up well this way I think.  Scar's alchemy could be simply considered Destruction alchemy in the purest form, while making a spear with alchemy requires that an alchemist destroys a part of a metal foor and then recreates whats been destroyed into a spear.  Oh, and if you remember what Dante says, Equivalent Exchange isn't always true, and that applies to Alchemy as well as Life.

As for creating or altering, I believe an alchemist must practice drawing a certain circle/technique awhile before trully being able to use it properly and not just having the knowledge of it.  Of course, those that have seen the Gate are a bit special when it comes to this, as so much information is given to them by the Gate.

And yes, I believe transmuting living and non-living things are very different.  However, you can make artifical moving things without a soul.  Dante and Hohenhiem are able to make a number of non-living bodies move and attack all on their own without any soul transmuting required (well, they could require some of their soul to go into them, I'm not really sure).

And yes, I know how Homunculi are created.  Do realize though that homunculi need to be fed (in the anime at least) red stones in order to grow and to be of any real threat.  As for trying to bring a homunculus back to "life" (errr, undeath may better describe it), well idunno how one would go about doing it.  The anime nor the manga describes it really well (I could be mistaken however).

Don't worry, I plan on things like circless alchemy only happening if an alchemist sees the Gate, that has been planned all along.  As for other non-alchemists seeing the Gate, well ... Idunno how I should go about doing that.  Perhaps the Gate tells them the Truth to whatever one wants to know the most about (or learn more of).


I hope I answered everyone's questions, I've been a bit tired and out of it at the moment.  I'll try and work some more on the RPG tomorrow and post what I've done

[jeremycoatney]

Well if Ed describes the parts of alchemy in the Manga I agree that you ought to go with what is said there. As for "equivalent exchange" I do remember that towards the end of the anime Dante talks about equivalent exchange not always holding true, however, she seems to not really consider all of the angles, or the full picture. Also, typically the difference in what is given and what is gained is usually small. While someone might "destroy" a quantity of mass and then convert it into more mass of a different type the alchemist themselves tend to think the exchange is equal.

I think that you are correct that alchemy requires more than simple knowledge of the process that you are attempting to achieve. This is obvious from the first episode or so from what I remember now that you mention it. I specifically am thinking of the difference between Ed and Al's results trying to recreate their mother versus the results others seem to have had in that department. While noone managed to create or retrieve a living soul they did a LOT better at generating a living body.

As for making things move and act without a soul, I believe this is an example of "extended transmutation." While never talked about in the show it seems more than possible to create an alchemical reaction that can be guided over a period of time, instead of being immediately ended, with nothing more than a portion of their attention. No soul is required, they are little more than the equivalent of a remote controlled device. Your choice on this though because to the best of my knowledge they just leave it to the "well that's neat" factor.

True, Homunculi need to be fed a red stone in order to gain their power, otherwise their abilities have nothing to fuel them and their minds stay more or less human form what I understand. On the other hand I didn't really mean bringing Homunculi to life when I talked about transmuting one, I meant changing it, either physically or mentally, with the power of alchemy. As for grafting a soul to one, depending on how you did it this might just bring the soul control of the homunculi's body, but as you say, it is unclear because the exact nature of the pseudo soul that homonculi possess is never discussed very well. It seems to be one of the beings that lurk near the gate, but they appear to naturally need additional energy in order to exhert their will over any kind of energy reaction because their bodies are basically just objects with no real life to them.

I call the base energy of the Homunculi a pseudo soul because it is definitely something soul-like, it has almost every property of one and in order to "kill" a Homunculus you disperse this energy from its body, draining it away. Presumably you could reverse the process, but noone in the show seems to know exactly how to do this or has any real reason to try.

[Sane]

Well, first of all, are you planning on selling this? If you are, you need to license the property or you'll be infringing on the copyright. (This is NOT legal advice, nor am I a lawyer.)

It doesn't matter whether it's being sold or not, if it is distributed on a wide scale then it is still a breach of copyright. Nothing in copyright law says that a product that isn't making money is exempt. This is largely due to demarkation. Imagine of the guys who made Full Metal Alchemist suddenly decided to make their own RPG of it. They could argue that they would lose sales to the free and unofficial version of the game, thus losing money. They could also claim that the free RPG misrepresents their product in some way.

Now this is a worst-case scenario. In Japan, nobody seems to care much about copyright and you get rip-offs appearing all over the place. I once saw an imported knock-off novel from Japan (or was it China?) entitled "Harry Potter and the Chihuahua". Pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be satire as well, although that's what it ended up as it was so bad. And if the copyright holder isn't interested in making an RPG based on their baby then they might not do anything and just treat it as free advertising. Also it's often more trouble than it's worth to prosecute eveyone who breaches copyright, which is why fan fiction isn't often the subject of legal battles. However, under both US and European copyright law, making even a free RPG based on FMA is a breach of copyright and if they wanted to do something about it, then legally they could.

Natch if you're just going to play it with your friends and not make it available to the public, i.e. over the internet, then you've got no worries. It's only when a product of this nature becomes publically available that it becomes a problem.

Ash

[Callan S.]

Hi again Names,

Thanks for the example, it's well written! Here's a question that'll help you out - which part of the example is the most exciting part for you? Like the most exciting and the most fun?

I've asked this question in the past with other people and some didn't understand the question, which seems a bit odd to me as really why play if its not fun and if it is fun, you should be able to vaguely point out where it is fun.

[names_are_useless]

To Callan S:

To me, the most exciting parts to the example are ...

- The Alchemy that Callaway uses
- The whole WWI soldier theme it takes
- The espionage mission that would have gone to take place
- Just for the fact of roleplaying in the best anime universe ever!

Hope that answers your question.

Sorry I haven't been on in a long time guys.  Haven't gotten really anything done since I last posted, mainly cause I tried working some on the alchemy and had to erase nearly all of it when I realized it was a really bad system.  Man, I really need to find some experts with the WEG d6 to help

[Eric J.]

Heh.  I actually created a system heavilly inspired by FMA and I'm semi-actively working on it.  I was practically done with it and then I found out how much it sucked so I'm going back to make it better.  If you're interested in what I have (I have probably 200 notebook pages of crap) you can PM me.

It's called Living Alchemy and I've playtested it and it went fairly well.  I'm pretty proud of the mechanic (if only that).  It works exeedingly well for Alchemy and stuff like that.

By coincidence I also have pretty extensive experience with WEG's D6 system (and varients).

May the wind be always at your back,
-Eric

[Callan S.]

To Callan S:

To me, the most exciting parts to the example are ...

- The Alchemy that Callaway uses
- The whole WWI soldier theme it takes
- The espionage mission that would have gone to take place
- Just for the fact of roleplaying in the best anime universe ever!

Hope that answers your question.

Great! Now, hope you don't mind me focusing on one bit at a time (makes it easier for me) - with the alchemy, is part of the excitement not being sure of its full power when activating it? Kind of like lighting up a new type of firework in real life, you have no idea of what sort of bang will happen, or how big!