[Power of 19] 16-bit

[Evan Anhorn]

1. What is your game about?
Telling a classic, 16-bit style JRPG tale, complete with an epic, developing plot that draws the player deeper as he or she helps to progress the story.

2. What do the characters do?
Rescue the world from evil.

3. What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
The players make decisions and play out the consequences of those decisions as they attempt to choose the best path towards victory.  The GM provides the setbacks, hurdles, chaos and general friction of the ever-strengthening forces of darkness.

4. How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
The setting features striking duality (black and white, good and evil), with all the tropes one would expect from a classic JRPG (floating islands, mana lands, flying ships, evil technological empires).

5. How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
Like JRPG's, character creation is short and sweet and can be done in a matter of minutes.  The idea is that you are thrown into a very simple setting at first, where you are just playing for the fun of the game (and the foreshadowing of a rich story).  Deeper interest in the story line develops after character creation, as darkness grows and the players literally explore the world around them.

6. What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
The game rewards noble, self-less and courageous action, while "punishing" those who refuse to help the cause of good or who are self-serving.

7. How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
Good action is rewarded with light points (that allow you to do both exciting combat moves and influential turns in the story that draw your character more personally into the plot).  Evil action is "punished" with dark points, that monster bosses can use against you and the GM can use to make the story take a turn for the worse (all in the spirit of creating interesting hurdles for the players rather than roadblocks).  For instance, a self-serving action could actually promote interesting plot development, in which case it should only be "punished" with dark plot turns that enhance the game.

8. How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Major encounters fall into two types; boss battles and dialogue cut scenes.  Although role-play is done throughout the game, it is in dialogue scenes that the fast paced action comes to a stop and the players and game master share authority over the characters, narration and story line progression.  Outside of these scenes, narration and credibility are left up to the game master, per traditional role-playing games.

9. What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)
The plot and events are directly influenced by the actions of the players.  As the progress through the story, a simple mechanical system is in place to track the advancement of the forces of darkness and its effect on the entire world.  Evil powers build until the players must make difficult choices on who to help (and thereby who to neglect) and what the surest path to the source of the evil is.

10. What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
There is no "skill" system.  Instead, to resolve a task, the relevant ability is rolled (with a bonus if the GM and players deem the task to be supported by your profession).  The result is that ability determines the range of the roll, while profession determines the odds of rolling in the upper end of that range.  Combat either involves a battle line or tactical grid movement (depending on the type of encounter), with a conditional turn-based initiative system and quick "single roll" attack resolution.

11. How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
Both non-combat and combat mechanics involve a character's profession, which then helps portray their place in the world and their dynamic in the party.  Skills are downplayed, however, with professions mainly providing powerful combat moves, to retain the heroic feel of the characters.

12. Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Characters advance by character level (up to level 60) and simultaneously  by profession level (up to level 10 per profession).  New levels are gained through experience points, which are awarded for story line progress, dialogue cut scenes and defeating obstacles (like monsters).

13. How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
As characters advance, they choose the professions they wish to specialize in, creating any number of possible builds.  This helps capture the video game feel of progress which is just as important as story line progress in this genre.

14. What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
The game should be a mix of an exciting story line reminiscent of classic JRPG's (although with specifically more player involvement), a light war game involving character building and tactical combat, and the exploration of an involving 16-bit style fantasy setting.

15. What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
Party role is important to promote teamwork (and is empowered by the profession system and character building).  Task resolution mechanics imply a quick paced, heroic play style.  Play structure (with boss battles, cut scenes and the progress of darkness) create a unique and dynamic game experience, where players can share authority in the story and plot can often develop unexpectedly or spontaneously.

16. Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
I like the fast paced feel that encourages action, I like how players can really interact with narration and how their decisions drive worldwide events in the story and I like the epic scope and developing opposition.  I also like a lot of individual mechanics, including the profession system, combat, save points and, of course, the unique fantasy setting.

17. Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?
See question 19.  Otherwise, I don't know if it is meant to break down the barriers of traditional games.  Rather, it is meant to capture a play style that is unapologetically epic, where mundane life is not something the characters involve themselves with (except perhaps briefly in the first session).  It is a style that does not bother with gritty realism and indeed the story works best with the game mechanics when it is emotional and dramatic.  Every game's mechanics implies a feel and a setting.  By keeping mechanically close to the iconic 16-bit JRPG classics, this game captures the right feel for the genre that other RPGs could not.

18. What are your publishing goals for your game?
Make it, play it, hear that everyone is having fun!  I don't really care about making money, but ideally a very high polished publication would go well with the genre and it's aesthetic.

19. Who is your target audience?
People who loved classic video games like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III, Lufia, Lunar, Crono Trigger, Grandia, Skies of Arcadia and many more.  These games had a unique story telling style and setting that traditional RPGs cannot easily relate.

[Evan Anhorn]

Any problems you guys see, or is that the green light to go forward?  Does anyone have any questions, or any concepts they would like to see in this game?

[justin1083]

Any problems you guys see, or is that the green light to go forward?  Does anyone have any questions, or any concepts they would like to see in this game?

My question is, why am I not playing DnD?  I don't mean this in a snarky way, but if I got a group together to run a DnD campaign in a setting reminiscent of these classic 16-bit games, perhaps with minor house rules (Dark Points), how would it be different than the game you're proposing?

I want to hear about how plot the plot construction or scene framing or whatever in your game provide a unique play experience that makes me feel like I'm playing Secret of Mana.

[Evan Anhorn]

It's a great question.  I have to admit that I don't intend 16-bit to break down any new doors in roleplay.  It has elements that are very similar to games like D&D because those old console RPGs actually took all their ideas from D&D.  The point of a good set of rules is to invoke, in every game play mechanic, the feel of the genre, which is my ultimate goal.  There are a few differences from D&D, however, in the parts that console RPGs didn't cover with mechanics (mainly, the storytelling vehicle).

First, game play is divided into 4 strict parts; Explore, Battle, Dialogue Cutscene and Boss Battle.  Battle (a tactical grid skirmish like Final Fantasy Tactics) and Boss Battle (a traditional battle line set up like Final Fantasy VII) do have mechanics that make them feel like classic console RPGs (like the progress bar) but ultimately are not entirely different experiences.  Explore is also pretty similar to what you do in D&D when you're not fighting monsters (listen to NPCs, shop, explore the area).

Dialogue Cutscenes are part of the storytelling device, and are more divergent from mainstream RPGs.  In Dialogue Cutscenes, the GM frames the scene (say a bad guy shows up, mentions his progress and then exits stage left).  Then for the rest of the scene, narration and authority is shared equally among the players and GM.  You can "play as" any of the characters (kind of like the Troupe-style roleplay in Ars Magica), and your words can even create more plot ("pooled characters and shared-story guiding" is how its described for Ars Magica).

The other major part of the storytelling vehicle is the Forces of Darkness timeline (still working on a better name!).  Basically, whenever the party has to use a Save Point (at the start of every session, whenever they all fall in combat or whenever they want as Save Points restore HP and MP), the progress of evil is advanced one step (there are also other less common ways this is advanced).  As the timeline hits different steps, the story advances by having the pre-scripted disastrous event take place, slowly leading the players with clues about their enemy.  As the plot thickens, the pace of these events picks up so that the characters act the role of fire brigades, forcing them to choose different paths to take through the story (and figure out what is the quickest way to the heart of the enemy).

Those are the two major mechanical considerations that try to capture the JRPG story themes.  Other, lesser ones might include the Light/Dark point system.  There are also tons of little reasons why playing a system built to emulate JRPGs would be better than forcing a system like D&D or GURPs to do it, including but not limited to:  Combat and boss battles, special attacks, professions, level advancement, equipment rules, task resolution, character generation, vital stats, races, magic system, dicing mechanics and free reign to pump your fist repeatedly after every battle!

Also, I have the beginnings of a playtest document, if anyone would like a copy.

[justin1083]

that sounds really interesting, and it's that kind of stuff that would make me want to try this game.  I think since you are working with stuff that shares source material with DnD, you should try and cut back/out all of the DnD-isms that you may have included just because it was second nature--if they're in there, make sure it's deliberate.  I'd love to see a copy.

[justin1083]

Sent you a PM.

[Nathan W]

It sounds like you've got some cool ideas here. I think that pen-and-paper RPGs offer so much more to the players in versatility than computer/video game RPGs, but video games have a lot of appealing features too and I think it is a good idea to explore the notion of porting some of those ideas over to p&p RPGs. D&D 4E seems to be taking this approach to a certain degree, drawing heavily from popular MMORPG concepts. Your "Save Points" idea sounds awesome for this kind of thing. I'd be happy to hear more about this project as it progresses.