Pen&Paper RPG: General Discussion

[Brainpiercing]

That's but a slight hindrance....

[Starlore]

Ugh, here we go again. Ok, now will everyone start hitting on her because she's the lone female forum zombie? (no offence intended to YOU, Starlore, err... the other guys can take it)

In fact in an online RPing context you'll probably find more women than men right now, it's just quite unusual to find someone on a message board about berserk.

But let's not forget this is ALSO the mindwerks forum....

Are there really more female RPers now? Its about damn time, if so!! When I GM'd, there were only 2 others (supposedly), the rest ended up fucking up their own cover & accidentally revealing they were really males (pretending to be females both IC & OOC...LOL)

I'm a bit of a 'Forum Relic'...been haunting forums for entirely too long. So yeah, I have experienced that "its a chick! hit on her!!" shit, before...hell I've had fucking fan clubs!? *gags at the retardation of some onliners* but when all is said & done, I'm not in it for attention or any of that jazz, so no worries boys lol...

My reasons for being here are simple...A)I love Berserk B)I'm a game/anime/manga fanatic. C)Too many of the other Berserk related forums I've been to, were full of shit poor company & even worse discussions (except Arctic Nightfall...they're good stuff )...not that I'm being a hater...just damn picky, lol!

[Starnum]

Yeah, I can concur with those reasons. So, how big are your tits? *Laughs* Sorry, just kidding.

Okay, so, RP talk see...Any of you guys like to role fight?

If so, you should check out my guild.

http://www.gaiaonline.com/

You'll need to register, if you haven't all ready. Then check out The Esper Guild. It's in the guild section, under the Battle category. My nick is Ksi, by the way *wink*.

[Brainpiercing]

I used to play an online game called "Alleria" about two years ago, and there were tons of women there, and the entire range from 15 year old girls to 40 year old bored housewifes (of which there are a remarkable numbers both in the depths of evercrackism and in online freeform games.) I've also seen a statistic that claims that 40% of all online roleplayers are women, and the majority over 30.

Now I too have a pseudo-female char in my Sci-fi freeform game, but I don't really get the female aspect yet. At least I don't think anyone in their right mind could mistake her for a real woman, but she conveniently has a very good explanation for her lack of femininity. But even there there is a select number of real women playing, I'd even say about 50% are women.

What's this "role fight" think you mentioned, Starnum?

[Starnum]

Um, it's like a free form style of role-playing. However, it mainly just consists of combat. Surely you've seen it online before. Now days they refer to it as T1 and T2, but I'm from the old school. I guess the way we do it is closest to T1. Basically, one declares an attack. Then the other person explains how they deal with the attack, such as whether it hits them or not, and why. Then they make their own attack. It's based on honor and respect. It's also a way to hone and exhibit one's writing prowess. The better your writing and descriptive ability, the more respect you deserve. It's also important to be consistent and creative. However, the most important thing is to just have fun, of course.

[Arresty]

That sounds kinda intersting. Assume it gets annoying when someone signs up and is just like you miss you miss you miss. But for most good people who focus alot on storytelling I coudl see it has being pretty cool.

[Starnum]

Yes, it is pretty cool. As for the “you miss” over and over situation, that’s called God Moding. It’s an RF (Role Fighting) taboo. If I encounter these kinds of people, which are referred to as munchkins, I just tell them to get lost, and stop playing with them. See, in my guild, we have firm rules about stuff like that. Part of the reason I formed the guild, was to help others improve their game, and writing. It takes place on a message board, so my users tend to make about one post a day. So then I post back to each of their fights. As the guild leader, or GM, I reserve the right to use red text. This is a stipulation that is found only in my guild. Basically, if I red text something, that means it is definite. I’m sure you're familiar with the concept of the GM declaring something definitely. Anyway, it’s just so that I can teach them, and help them improve. It also helps to break any kind of bad munchkin habits. Thankfully my crew is pretty good, and I don’t have to red text them very often. I’m always accepting new recruits though. Of course, there is an entrance exam that has to be taken. I like to fight you a bit before I decide whether to accept you or not. Another exclusive trait you’ll find in my Esper Guild is the grade scale. I designed the guild to be partly RP as well, so there’s kind of a leveling system. The scale goes from E rank, up to X+ rank. Basically it shows where the players stand in power. For example, a rank D wouldn’t stand a chance against a rank A. One thing I really enjoy about my guild, is that since I’m technically fighting everyone, I use different characters. Since it is important that I have an entire plethora of character for the players to fight, I pit them against my favorite anime and manga characters. Of course, I carefully pick the fights, to make sure they’ll be fighting against a character of equal rank. Oh, and another thing that you’ll only find in the Esper Guild, as opposed to normal RF situations, is the hit counter. I integrated this idea, just to make sure the fights don’t drag on to long. Besides, I was afraid that players initially unfamiliar with the system might not know when to concede the fight. So basically, there is a hit counter, which starts off set at ten. The first player to score ten successful attacks wins. Of course, normally in RF, one of the people just concedes the fight. Yes, I’ve been running this guild for over a year now, and I really enjoy it.

However, my passion is still my tabletop RPG, Ksi. The Esper guild is actually loosely based off of this game. “Ksi” is my dream. I intend to turn the plot into a graphic novel. I just need to find a really good artist who’s willing to work with me on the project. Hm, perhaps I can tell you guys about how the “Ksi” game works later. That is, if you’re interested.

[Brainpiercing]

I'm more interested in your system right now. A fast combat system that doesn't sacrifice atmosphere too much would be nice for instance. On monday we had an entire session dragging on about one single fight again, which really isn't the point. Sure it was an epic battle against a daemon of five horns (the number of horns being the general power counter for demons in that system), a good number of hostile humans and two evil mages, but still. It takes ages, and apart from the bit of excitement from throwing the dice for attack and defence rolls it's really no better than just somehow coming to an outcome in a quicker way.

Do you have any suggestions in that area?

[Starnum]

Well, I'm sorry your fights are taking to long. However, my system really only works well with my game. Plus, I don't think it's something I could teach you online. I'll tell you more about it later anyway though. As for suggestions, you might try increasing the amount of damage being dealt. Tweaking a system is a lot like firing mortar rounds. You've just got to keep adjusting until you hit your target. Perhaps find a way for the players to add multipliers. That way they can avoid annihilating weaker enemies, but still having the option to unload on the enemy if it's a foe that can handle it. You can also bring down the amount of life the enemies have. A GM’s discretion is important too. If the find is dragging on, then wrap it up. The GM’s good judgment is always more valuable than the dice, and even the bylaws. It really just depends on what kind of system you're running. Like I said though, just keep making minor changes until you find something that works. If a battle goes over thirty minutes then it's probably taking to long. What's really important is whether or not you're having fun. If you feel the fights are taking to long, then that means they are, so something needs to be done. Good luck. I hope that helps a bit. If you have any other questions, let me know. Like I said, I'll tell you about my system a bit more later. I've got to go get some sleep. By the way, it's called the Harmonic System. Perhaps that'll give you something to look forward too, heh.

Oh, and if you’re not the one GM’ing the game, then these are just things you need to discuss with your GM. A good GM will only want the best for his game, and will have an open mind.

[Brainpiercing]

A half-hour for a fight? You're joking, right?

I'll tell you how fights go with us:

Throw initiative, someone needs to note that down for everyone. Then everyone gets two actions, one attack, one defence, he can choose to transform his defence, etc. etc. cast a spell, reload a ranged weapon, etc. So 6 players each do their turn, with enemies coming in between. While this is going on there's discussions as to who is where on the battlefield, how far you can move, whether this or that action is possible (and unfortunately often enough: whether it's allowed). Now every time someone needs to cast a spell usually people have to look at the rules, especially the GM, because there are hundreds of spells, each with modifications, target mods, resistances, etc. Every time someone wants to shoot an arrow somewhere, you have to calculate the target modifiers. There are distance classes for weapons, so you need to move to the right distance. Then of course with all this going on it's impossible to stay focused on the game all the time, so peope will joke around, discuss what they could do next, go get another beer, whatever.

All in all, any fight which involves multiple enemies which don't die quickly will take two hours or more. On monday that big fight went on from 7 pm to 12 pm, with interuptions for eating, and encompassed only around 10-20 combat turns. To me that's just ridiculous.

Now I'm not GMing this round, which is unfortunate, so the possibilities are limited, but for other circles I do want any advice I can get.

So my problem is this: If you give players the possibility to cut through multiple enemies quickly, it takes away the challenge of the fight. If you just raise the general lethality of the fight, then players will die, or stay wounded and inactive for prolonged periods of time. Any balance in between takes long, especially with the amount of detail which is put into the fight by the present rules we're playing with.

Now while in a tactical system like Shadowrun I like my fights, as a bit of a strategy game, in an adventure game system I want fights to be part of the atmosphere, not much more.

I'd be very obliged for any help in that direction.

[Arresty]

I actually haven't gotten a chance to sit down and play a tabletop RPG is like 3 years. Been busy and my don't live near hte people I used to play with, so I got out the good book and rereading the rules.

Well one thing I do alot is eliminate some of the rolling. For example only do initiative every so many turns. Just have the same guy go first for maybe 3 or 4 turns or something. I generally didn't even roll on small fights just people with the highest initiative rating woudl go first on down. Roll if there was a difference between the two. That eliminates alot of time. And then I am assuming the game as both an attack phase and a resolution(damage phase) well here I often just did the attack one and the extra poits over would be the damgage, or something along those lines. Eliminating another stage of rolling. This one is something I normally kept in on boss fights though, cause they actually matter, or used them when I felt it was appropriate. I willl get to small random encounters later.

Now the looking up stuff shoudl not happen. Theoretically the GM shoudl know the rulles inside out. In reality most peopls can't. I know I can't. What I used to do is just memorize what my players had available to them and memorize what I need for the enemies I created as well. Fights are supposed to fast paced. You shouldn't have time to get a beer. You need to get to where you can just flow through the dicisions. Also have each player memorize what he or she can do with there characters(its not just the GMs fault people). I don't mean know if word for word, but a general idea would speed it up alot. Generally you will not do more than a few differnet attacks.

Also have lots of dice. Enough where both attacking and defending have a set. Maybe more.

I am assuming that you and the GM and everyone is new to this game, in which case you take more time until you get to learn the system. Trust me it speeds up alot. Unless the GM is a stickler for the rules then he will start to cut corners as well. You will see what seems improtant and what doesn't after playing for a while.

Now smaller random encounter type battles I just generally only go in order of initiative and don't even roll most times. You know what Starnum was describing earlier with his Esper Guild, just do that with the battles. Do what seems fair. THat is honestly one of the hardest parts to get good at. Cause too easy its boring, to hard people complain. Got to find the nice mellow middle. Generally it doens't matter on these fights. Allow for some amazing manouvers on both parts sometimes as if one guy botched his roll and the other guy did amazing. But that can greatly reduce fight time.

Another thing 6 people can be alot, especially for a new gm or a new game. I generally did 4-6 those are good numbers, but my first game I gmed I only had 4 players and two of them knew the rules better than me so I had alot of help. But one way to speed up a batttle is to seperate your party into 2 groups. Maybe have one go one way in a dungeon adn one go another. Just have one come in one day and the other the next. Or one first and one later, or if htey want to just sit and watch you cna let them do that, unless of course that stuff the other people don't need to know about. That can be good too. Some members keep a secret from others.

But there are seriously a million things to do to speed up fights. These are all just suggestions. Run the ones you like by your GM. Its a hard thing to GM. I am sure I am leaving out some good ideas, especially since I have not played in a while.

[psi29a]

DM, GM, Holmesiters... in a pen & paper rpg, the key is fun. One of the main thing that bores me is when people 'red-mage' and suck the enjoyment out of the room. While your thief is up in the tree away from the crocodile, the red-mage is on the ground trying to figure out which ring to use. "should i use the ring of magic missle or ring of invisibility?" It got to the point where the DM started rolling dice, RM didn't notice it was initiative and kept looking at his character sheet while the DM was dutifully going through the combat. End result, 10 minutes of boredom followed by a dead RM because the croc ate 'em.

The bright side is that RM was able to create a new character, and so he was knee deep player's handbook to care about the rest of the story. At least he was happy.

Bad news, I'm not happy unless I'm DMing because there is a complete and utter lack of capable DM/GM/HMs that know how to make the games engaging and fun. Sometimes the mechanics of the game just plane suck, it is the DM's job to bend it and make the rules work around the fun factor. Before you say it, NO... making the players and NPCs super human is not fun.

So far, I think the most fun my players (5) had was as 0 level AD&D 2nd Ed characters escaping from city under seige. They aren't warriors, they aren't wizards... just plane people with unique backgrounds stuck together trying to escape with their lives. Ask Mr. Hippe and Southpaw for details...

[Brainpiercing]

Arresty we are very much not new to the system, and the circle has been going on for two years all in a single campaign. Yes, we intentionally took it slowly, because sometimes we get by a single session with only doing one bar scene and a bit of travel, but that's ok, that's roleplaying. I'm also against banning all ooc stuff, because it's supposed to be fun, and I don't want to surpress jokes that come to mind while I'm playing.

The problem is the system itself, which is really too detailed. It's impossible to memorise every option. And I also don't want to do that, really. Sure it's my hobby, but it's hard enough on the serious part of life to just steal three evenings a week for rping, and I don't want to spend the days memorising rules, too.

[Starnum]

Brainpiercing: Like I said, it really just depends on the system you’re working with. Mine is highly tuned to be efficient. Plus, as I’ve already said, it’s kind of hard to explain things through online text like this. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with the system you’re using. So, I can’t really tell you what’s best for you. Like I said though, it’s just something that you’ve got to continually adjust yourself, until you reach the desired result.

Now, one thing I would like to say is that I completely concur with the fact that making your PC's super powered is no fun. That’s just more munchkin bullshit. The most fun fights are the ones that the players have to work at. It’s that edge of your seat, do or die atmosphere that makes it thrilling. Just because I’ve managed to make my fights kind of fast, although some boss fights can take up to an hour or a little more, doesn’t mean I’m allowing the characters to simply cut through hordes. You’d just have to understand how my system works in order to get it. I think the sense of accomplishment is something that makes the players keep coming back for more. The way the fights go in Ksi, it’s kind of like life and death situations every time. As it should be, don’t you think? It really only takes a couple of lethal blows, before you have to really start sweating it, just like in real life. None of this toe stabbing crap, or simply blowing the foe away. When the enemy cleaves open your chest, you might want to show him one of your best attacks, and hope it hits.

Psi: I know how you feel about the lack of good GM’s. To bad we can’t play together though. I think you would enjoy playing in my game. Trust me, I’ve been a GM for a long time, and I’ve played under many a different GM. I’ve also listened to the feedback of many an experienced players. Not to brag, but I’m very good at what I do. I have a feeling you are too. That’s why I wish we could RP together. I’m kind of like you, I prefer to GM too, because then I can get what I want from a game. For example, in my group we have approximately five GM’s, out of at least twelve people. I think I’m the second best one, which I’ve ever met, that is. The only person that I’ve met that I concede too is my best friend. He’s like a real genius though, so he deserves major props. Finally, I agree with you about the most important factor in RP’ing, and I think I’ve already mentioned this earlier, it’s all about having fun. As a GM, it’s out job to ensure that that’s what happens, right?

[Arresty]

My biggest suggestions was cutting out some of the stages of combat. Cut out some phases of rolling, stuff like that. Modify the system. The GM can do what he wants, think of the rulebook as a suggestion book.

And I didn't realize there was that much stuff to memorize. But like I was thinking there was alot total but you woudl only have access to so much at any given time, in which case it is much smaller. And I was more just have an idea before you go to battle what you will be doing and just know those spells, more what I was meaning I guess.

Also don't want to cut down on OOC, was just saying if pace is faster it naturally cuts down some(if it keeps coming around to htem then they have less time to talk). But OOC is good stuff. Some funny coments come from there. And if you eliminated it then the players get annoyed. It is something you got to keep under control, been to games where we ended up accomplishing nothin all day cause we basically goofed off. That is annoying, but oh well. But under normal use its good.

[psi29a]

Arresty: It is very hard to force people to be in character and to enjoy what you think is fun. You just have to roll with what you have. Before any gaming session I usually ask if the players want to have fun and or if they want be serious as in no OOC. Dont get me wrong, both types are fun. Some people just can't get serious enough to truly enjoy the game and see it as a way to waste time before the next scheduled showing of anime or something else.

I like to reward the people who are serious more than the ones that have fun in some way, e.g. Experience. Leading by example usually gets peoples attention, this goes double for the Red-Mages in the group.

Starnum: Yup, DM/GM/HMs sole requirement is to make sure the group has fun, should recongnize the the people he/she has to work with and make sure everyone understands what is expected of them. Yes you are allowed to skip phases in combat, but only if it fits the game and you notice your players attention is wondering off.

Perhaps we should list the Rules of DM/GM/HMing, and the bill of rights for players...

[Arresty]

Perhaps we should list the Rules of DM/GM/HMing, and the bill of rights for players...

That woudl be cool. I wouldn't mind seeing it myself. I mostly GMed because I played mostly with people with less experience than me, and for the most part didn't think any of them coudl do a good job. It is hard to do well. I haven't played with to many experienced people to be that good at it yet. I just mainly try to focus on story and keeping it fast paced. Short combat and such. Though from the sounds of it the exaulted system is just like the WoD system, in which case combat can be tedius. But I genearlly skip steps, making it faster, nice thing though is alteast in WoD you only have 7 HP so it doesn't take much to kill you or your enemy, so that speeds things up a bit. Though they can generally soak some of the damage, which makes it harder. And not as much stuff you need to know. Alot of stuff is availalbe but you really only use a small portion of it at any given time, which is nice for me since I have a crappy memory. I would just know what i woudl need to know for that day, still looked stuff up, but just not as much. But I woudl like to see that rules and bill of rights.

[Starnum]

Arresty: Yeah, I hear you on the goofing off. You can develop some awesome running gags from the tangents that can develop while gaming. However, if you don’t watch your players, they’ll completely kill the game and start doing comedy acts. It just depends on the mood and goal though, sometimes that may be better, but usually not. One thing I’ll warn you about though, is to be very discreet when skipping combat phases. If you slack on it too much, then your PC will loose there since of achievement. It kind of starts to feel like you’re cheating a little. It can also make the PC not take things as serious as they should be. For example, if they’re fighting a major boss, they should be feeling many emotions. You don’t want them to be too relaxed, thinking that they know they’re going to win, just so that you can hurry the game along. Story and combat needs to be a well balanced 50/50 combination, in my opinion.

Psi: Yeah, I tend to prefer the serious gaming sessions more myself too. I get rather annoyed with people who can’t ever be serious. A good role player should also be a good actor. That goes double for the GM, because he has to play the part of the whole world. Although, like I said, it can be fun to goof off a little here and they’re too, heh. However, I don’t skip phases in combat, It was Arresty who mentioned that. I’m usually by the book, you know how compulsive I am, but that’s until things start to get ridiculous. In dire situations, I think the GM should start to control the situation and set things right. Usually we don’t have to worry about that, but it can occur. As for the rules and bill of rights, feel free to start it off, and I’ll add anything that comes to mind.

Okay, I’ll start to tell you a little about the Ksi system I run. I’ll just give the info a bit at a time. First of all, I use hit points, but I call it Life. The HP stays moderately low in my game. A couple hundred points is considered doing well, however some of my players currently have as much as five hundred Life. The newer players are impressed by that, heh. Due to the way the plot works, all players are known as Espers, which is basically a Holy Warrior. They have super powers and the game is set in present day. The mood is kind of like the anime X, as the plot revolves around the war between Heaven and Hell. Now that you have that in mind, all of the players have spiritual power, which is called Ether. They use this ether in order to cast spells, or fortify certain natural abilities. This stat is also gauged in points, with different casting costs for certain things. I also have an AC stat, which I call Endurance. Basically the number on the stat is how much damage one can take before it does life force damage. Okay, so that covers the first three stats, Life, Ether, and Endurance. I’ll speak more on the game later. Feel free to ask questions if you like.

[Shade]

I used to be an old rm95 user.
rm2k was a vast improvement and rm2k3 made it possible to easily make a Final Fantasy 6 game (With better graphics of course)...
Before then it was all pen and paper, but then that evolved into filling a book with the game story and pictures and then that evolved into me becoming and active anime drawer. Now I own 25 "How to Draw Manga" books from http://www.howtodrawmanga.com and I feel i'm pretty good. (though i've really been slacking off)

Funny how one thing leads to another like that huh.
I still have my first main character aswell n_n

[Starnum]

Yeah, Starnum was my first character. Hey, did you know I'm looking for a manga artist? I'm a writer see. Send me some of your art if you're interested at all. Either way, I'd like to see some of your work, if you want to show me, that is.

[Brainpiercing]

Sounds interesting overall, Starnum. I'll be interested to hear more about Ksi.

I've recently been thinking about a fast combat resolution feature, which I would call "Group resolution". Instead of rolling every single attack and defence roll you should roll some group roll with a certain number of dice, which depend on the power of each side, the spells cast, etc, and then one side loses, and withdraws from combat or dies, and the other wins, but still gets some minor damage. So far I haven't decided on the details, not even really for which kind of system to use it, but it could speed up fights against larger numbers of weak enemies, which should occur often in games like Exalted or your Ksi.
Of course it would be the GMs duty to maintain the game atmosphere during a quick resolution, so it would need to be fleshed with narrative or individual recounts of actions by the players.

[Shade]

Yeah, Starnum was my first character. Hey, did you know I'm looking for a manga artist? I'm a writer see. Send me some of your art if you're interested at all. Either way, I'd like to see some of your work, if you want to show me, that is.

My scanner is busted >.<
I intend to get one in the next 6 months though, lol
I developed my own style, but cowboy bebop, dbz and naruto are fairly easy to draw. I haven't tried to tackle berserk again after my attempt at "berserker armor wearing gatts"... I kinda screwed up a bit there and haven't touched it since. also tose are pretty annoying to draw... but fingers aren't really a problem anymore.if i can be bothered i'll set up my drawing tablet and mess around and and see what I got. If I like it at all i'll post it up

and staying on topic...
My character whose complete story I haven't completely worked out properly yet (even after 7 years >.<) but it turns out in he end that he is evil and stuff, lol

[Arresty]

Well for the most part on skipping phases of combat are for smaller battles, bigger ones are the ones you want to be harder and I generally didn't skip phases. I woudl sometimes skip the initiative phase, mainly cause it took time and all it determined was the order of attack, so I genrally just based it off of stats who when i what order or did one roll for the whole battle. Smaller combat I would skip more. The WoD system and the one in exalted seems very similar does lead to long combat. Lot of phases, causes it to be more realisitic but time consuming. But I generally did what the players wanted. It is for them to enjoy anyway. The part of GMing I realy like is creating a story for them to follow. So I was fine either way on the combat stuff. I like the story element, and thankfully most of the people I played with did too, so I focused more on that. The pain is making it good and having alot of twists and what not, but at the same time not forcing them to go one direction. Want them to do what they want. Can be tricky.

Starnum: Sounds cool so far. Want to here the rest of the system.

[Starnum]

Brainpiercing: Hm, I don’t know about that one. It might work, but it seems to leave out all of the possible variables. You might do that to close the battle quickly, if it’s been dragging on, but I’m not too sure about the idea otherwise. It’s totally up to you though.

Shade: Ah, I see. Well, good luck.

Arresty: Well, I guess it’s okay for some small fight *shrugs*. As for initiative, I only do it at the beginning of the fight, so I can relate to that. I agree that making your players happy is important, but I don’t like to skimp on the fights. Thankfully my system keeps the fights from dragging on too much, so I generally don’t have to worry about that. Like I said, I think the game should be well balanced between story and battles, but that’s me. Yeah, it can definitely be tricky to leave your players the option to do whatever they want, but that’s good that you’re concerned about it. My story is generally is pretty linear, so I if they go off on a tangent, they won’t get much plot. However, if they just want to go do some random thing, I won’t stop them.

Okay, next I’ll discuss the next three stats. I got the idea for these from BESM, but they work pretty differently in Ksi. The first is Body. It’s pretty self-explanatory actually. This stat deals with all things concern with your physical body, including physical damage. Also, if you want to do something like, pick up a car and throw it at someone, you may have to do a stat check. However, if the stat is above a certain level, you might just be strong enough to do it without the check. This also concerns such things as speed, and pretty much anything falling in the body category.

Next is Mind. Espers have all manner of psionic abilities. Thanks to the proficiency system, you can specialize in certain fields of the category, by simply doing some things more than others. Coupled with this proficiency system, the mind stat gauges how powerful and effective your psionic abilities are. Another big thing, which I like to think is a Ksi innovation, at least slightly, is the use of Reality Manipulation. I know it’s not completely original, but it’s one of the main focuses of the game. According to the story, what we know of the real world is just an illusion. The only thing that truly exists is the soul. This was an idea that I got from a philosophy called existentialism. Basically life is like a dream, and when you die, it’s like waking up into a more realistic existence. Much like a dream, one can bend the laws of reality to their will. However, only Espers can do this. Normal people are called Hidrens. The only real thing that differentiates an Esper from a Hidren is strong spiritual power, and open mindedness. It’s sad that only 8% of the world’s population is Esper. That’s my personal belief too. Anyway, the mind stat also affects Reality Manipulation. Basically it means you can almost do anything, as long as it’s within your capacity and imagination. Ksi starts out low to mid range in power, and then becomes super powered later on.

The last stat is soul. The main purpose of this stat is to act as a multiplier for spells. It’s like the other three stats, but you don’t check off of it as often. It just gauges how powerful your spiritual power is.

Okay, that should be enough for now. Like I said, feel free to ask questions. Oh, and do me a favor, not that I think anyone would, but just in case there are some silent lurkers out there…please don’t rip off my ideas. Like I said, this is my dream, and I hope to go public with it some day. Write my name in the stars like the greats if you will, such as Miura and Oda-san.

Heh, sorry for the ubber post.

[Arresty]

It does sound kinda like an anime storyline. And I really like your interpration of how magic and the reality is. I like when games explain the stuff to make is seem more realistic in its own fantasy/scifi way. Just something fantasy that I have explained in a way that makes sense makes a movie or game or somethign feel better to me. Don't like when people can just do stuff and there is no explanation. Seems like copout on the creators part. So far thats what I like about yours. For somereason I like my falserealities to be as real as possible.

Now on a side note could you play just a Hidren in your game if you wanted too? Sometimes I like to make weaker characters that just have some important tie in to the story. So they get tangled in the mess. When I say weaker, I don't mean he is wimp and can't fight or is not useful in some other way, just no supernartural abilities. Sometimes they are really strong. Got make up for that somewhere and genrally while other people are maxing there supernatural abilities with XP, you are just maxing out your physical and social(depending on what you characters personality woudl be working on) ablities. So in nomral combat or social situations you can surpass them. Like having a character that for some reason the other people are protecting him, or they need him to complete the task at hand.