TAROT (working title) stuff

[7VII7]

Color: Classic fantasy elements with a new take on it, things like magic being a daily part of life, elves being more like aliens, dwarves incased cybernetic suits, etc, for people familiar with the manga Fairy Tail, it's a bit like that though more serious.

Setting: A mystical element Eitr infuses the world, warping whatever it touches into dreams and nightmares, humanity is huddled in small villages protected from the eitr & dreams by special walls, however they have to use eitr itself to survive.

Character: The characters are daydreams, things exposed to eitr enough that they gain amazing powers but otherwise remain the same. Most people are suspicious or distrustful of them, some actively support them, while still others vocally hate them, despite that they (are sometimes forced) to rely on the characters. Each character has a specific power & theme that changes over time.

Situation: The characters are charged with protecting their home, gathering eitr for it, and clearing out dangerous monster pits around their home town to start with, after that they might go off to accomplish their own goals, become involved in the politics of the world, or even try and solve suitable world level plots like discovering the source of eitr, stopping the apocalyptic archbeasts (like the weapons from FFVII) from awaking, or collecting ancient artifacts.

System: Dice-less, things like stats would use like an MP like system, for things involving strength you'd choose how much strength points you want to devote to it, with various bonuses for equipment, powers, colorful roleplaying, etc. In addition no GM, with the players splitting up his duties, though with one person at a time being responsible for being a like a referee with it switching between people depending on the situation

Concept: My idea for the game is something like a combination of the manga Fairy Tail (for the color of the setting), X-men (for inspiration for the characters), and FF Crystal Chronicles (for the situation), with various other ideas thrown in for good measure and with lots of Tarot symbology in a type of post-apocalyptic world minus the apocalypse.

I'm still working on most of this stuff so things (especially the terminology) is still being decided.

I hope that makes sense. . .

Any coments & questions?

[markhaselb]

Hello, I have some questions for you:

magic being a daily part of life

I'd like to hear how this shows in the world. Can everyone use magic? Or is there, let's say an oven that generates heat with magic instead of burning wood? It is hard to understand what role you want to give to magic.

however they have to use eitr itself to survive

How?

Most people are suspicious or distrustful of them

Do the people know that the characters were touched by eitr? Is there any transformation on them that shows that they have been touched? From the rest of your post I assume that the characters had something like an eitr-accident, people witnessed it and now they are suspicious. Some would outright ban the characters from the town, but other people said that they are useful to the town because they are already touched and there is no harm to the town by sending the characters to gather eitr instead of untouched citizens. So the situation for the characters is: work for the town or get banned?

Each character has a specific power & theme that changes over time.

How can/does it change? I am not talking about a game mechanic, just the idea of the change.

Concerning the rest: I think the idea of the characters working for the town is a good starting point for a video-game like feel (as you mentioned Final Fantasy). So far I can't say anything about the system, but how is tarot connected to the game setting? You mentioned that you want to include tarot terminology, how does that show? Are only character stats named like that or does it have a deeper meaning within the world?

[7VII7]

more along the lines of an oven that generates heat,

Eitr is sort of like the fuel supply of magic and would work sort of like electricity in the real world, with runes or specially constructed objects running on eitr to produce the effect,

I haven't completly figured it out yet but there's some sort of feature that shows they've been eitr touched even when not activily using it, a shape shifter might have animal ears even when not transformed, for example, also at this point I'm considering having different colored eyes.

they'd slowly absorb eitr from their surroundings over their life but then need a major event to activate it, this can happen all at one time with an eitr accident,

most do work for the town but it's really up to them, the normal people really can't force them to do anything without a full on mob.

The powers would have different forms, at the begining you have only acess to one form, as you go on you gain acess to different forms which might not neccesarily be stronger but would serve a different purpose, in addition at high level you could combine forms or if something dramatic enough happens you're powers could change completly. This would be sort of like how zanpakutos work on BLEACH.

The four biggest organizations in the world corresponds to the tarot suits of pentacle, cup, rod, & sword, and most things to do with eitr are linked to one of the major arcana (The Fool, The Tower, etc,) including the characters and whichever major arcana is "in play" during the game would have a specific effect and characters, monsters, effects, etc, linked to that arcana gets stronger. (Example: If the arcana Death was in play enemies killed might rise up as zombies spontanously, characters & monsters linked to death might ignore criticals and would ignore penalties for being nearly dead, or if The Tower was in effect killing something might cause it to explode in a burst of energy and criticals by characters / monsters linked to it might explode)

[Simon C]

Hi,

This is an interesting idea.  I like the mix of inspirations you're drawing on.

Here are a few questions and comments:

What do dwarves and elves add to the situation? Why are they there? Are they a threat to humans, or a help?  Do they complicate the situation? If so, how?

What do you imagine a small instance of play looking like?  Who says what?

I'm not sure if diceless/GMless play is the right fit for the monster fighting aspects of this game.  GMless play (depending on how you do it) tends to cut down on mystery and action, since there's usually no "secret plan" that gets revealed in play, and no one person is as invested in portraying adversity.  That's not always the case though, it's just something to keep in mind as you're designing.

Diceless is more of a problem for action scenes.  Uncertainty is a big breeding ground for the excitement and suspense of action scenes.  Diceless systems often have little or no mechanical uncertainty.  The uncertainty (and excitement) comes from what characters choose to do, and how they do it,  rather than whether they'll succeed or not.  That's something else to keep in mind while you're designing.

Cheers,

Simon

[7VII7]

Well those were mostly just example however, those would be a type of sentient monster created by eitr warping something, warped such they are immune to futher effects of eitr and in most cases are more successful than humanity, some are helpful, some are harmful, most are indifferent, however they aren't human and thus don't think like humans, few humans support them, most are distrustful but willing to work with them and a few think they're the same as the mindless monsters, these are the ones that hate people like the characters (I really need a name for them. . . hmm. . .)

As for play, one player is responsible of  setting & stuff like that (this responsibility will switch when neccesary) responsibilities for NPCs are are split up between the characters, and each player is responsible for decides on the target number for things that another player does, maybe like player A is responisble for determing target numbers for the player on his left, oh, and the person doesn't get to know what the target is, the deciding player would describe it that would give them an aproximation.

As for combat, both the player characters and the NPCs have what's essentially Points for each stat, for example:
NPC 1 attacks Player A
NPC 1 spends 13 strength points.
Player A spends 15 defence points.
Player A then blocks the attack.

Again, the other people would know what actions the other PCs & NPCs  do but wouldn't know how much they spent on it until the round resolves, I'm thinking about having them write it down on a note card or something then flip it over at the resolve round.

[Adam Dray]

I've been peeking into your newer TAROT threads and went digging for this one to get the background. It'd help if you linked to this thread whenever you start a new thread for us latecomers. =)

I can't quite get a handle on what the players do in this game. I get what the characters do. Is play a lot like D&D 3.5E or 4E play (barring differences of system and color), in your mind? That is, is it focused on challenging /players/ (not just characters) with monsters, hazards, traps, and other difficult situations?

Really, I'm trying to get at Creative Agenda, but we don't need to get all jargonny.

[7VII7]

Since writting this thread TAROT has changed quite a bit, I know this gets thrown around but I want to get an almost anime/mangaish feel to it, though with a defined setting, basically yes, though, it'll be like that, however there would be a definite plot which I'm thinking about using through a type of story arc system, so they wouldn't just go out and massacre a dungeon without a reason, or something...

[Adam Dray]

Cool. I wasn't suggesting your game would be a mindless dungeon crawl or anything. D&D isn't like that, so why should your game be? =)

D&D 4E is really good for playing a certain kind of game that challenges players. I talked about how it does that over in GNS and Hierarchy, but don't get put off or distracted by GNS crap. Just note how 4E's design really redirects players to a certain kind of play in a very strong way. If you want player-challenging play like that, you could do worse than to study how 4E does it.

Really, forgetting GNS matters entirely for the moment, consider looking at every rule you write. Does each rule help the player play the game you envision? Does any rule get in the way of that?