What is the best system to play a retro jrpg?

What is the best system to play a retro jrpg?

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Retro Phaze

>it's another "what's the best system for..." thread
The answer is always GURPS, you should know this already.

How retro? FF1 retro? Because that's D&D.

niceme.me

What is the NDS remake of Trigger, complete with animated cut scenes and portability.

FF 6
The only problem i see with retro phaze is that it haves only 3 classess

I want the second answer, right now i dont have the prep time for a game like gurps, so i am looking for something rule lite but meaty(like some osr), but that doesnt meant i wont look into another games

>not 5

There are a few FF systems, if that's specifically what you're running, one or two of them are even serviceable.

FF is kind of a special case; it's not D&D because it's retro, it just happens to be both.

I really want oi play old ad&d modules on retrophaze

Could you name those games? i have no problem with 5 haha

FFd6

There was also that d20 hack, wasn't there? How much of a dumpster fire is that?

Depending on how allergic you are to crunch, Anima - Beyond Fantasy can do it pretty well.

Wouldn't know.
IIRC the Returners system is d100, so it's not that.

As an aside, if you wanted to do FFT, 4E or -I guess- Strike! work perfectly.

The answer is a system that you know well and are comfortable with.

Getting the feel of a JRPG out of a table top rpg campaign would be much more about the plot and characters and world than the mechanics, especially because so many JRPGs try to have quirky and uniques battle systems or some mechanic that makes their battle system stand out.

So really, just make a campaign that takes elements from your favorite JRPGs or those that you know your players like.

If you're using mini, print out paper minis of sprites. Probably from some obscure game nobody else in the group would know about. Or find some public domain/creative commons ones at Open Game Art. If you're doing it over a virtual table top, make your map out of an RPG tileset and have everybody use sprites to represent their characters.

GURPS is not the first choice, it has always been the last ditch effort to run something that will not work with ANYTHING else.

Right now i am a little allergic to crunch, people said the spanish version was easier to learn and i find it still as complicated

>people said the spanish version was easier to learn
That's only because it's not subjected to FFG's crap translations.

Something like chrono trigger would be hard to pull off as its technicaly real time.

D&D lacks the high fantasy elements of ff

FF1 (and only 1) is AD&D turned into a JRPG.

OSRs aren't what you want otherwise I'd suggest AD&D or 4e - honestly something like Nechronica gets that "two sides facing each other and attacking from their particular zones" thing of JRPGs rather than fucking about with physical units of measurement for distances and stuff.

For Chrono Trigger style combat you might need to increase the dimensions of Nechronica's weird battlespace, so there's the usual "zones" of tartarus to elysium, with the players starting near the middle (so they have to move to elysium to escape while being attacked, and they have to move into tartarus to go on the attack themselves - or they have to run out of ttartarus past the monsters in the middle zones to escape if they're "trapped" or ambushed) BUT there's now three horizontal areas for each zones, a central one and two side lines, and the various AOE moves now either hit everything in only one of those chunks, or hits targets in this zone in a sideline and a central area, or across an entire zone from sideline to sideline.

Maybe throw in large monsters who you can only have one of in a particular area and if they move around other entities are displaced into surrounding areas for big bosses and as ways of blocking the PCs from escaping to elysium.

is there an AD&D without the taco thing?

1e. It runs off tables instead.

What's wrong with FFRPG? Too crunchy?

it looks like brpg

Starfighter combat is fucked without houserules or the squadron rules included in a supplement.

So how is FFD6? is it fun?

Dragon Quarter

post pdf

Wait, shit, I read "FFRPG" as "FFGRPG." I am a retard.

If you're thinking like the SNES classics where everyone is a cliche and a bit of a ham, Risus is really solid. Add a couple aspects (from FATE) if you really want to go ham things up.

GURPS isn't super friendly for oldschool JRPG anyway, because oldschool JRPG tends to go with large hp pools and "good to go until 1 hp".

The oldschool dnd systems are much better for oldschool JRPG:s, because most oldschool JRPG:s built on a early dnd foundation.

Well, if there was a Final Fantasy that featured starfighter combat I'd certainly like to play it.

Pretty much. It's one of my favorite systems, but that's more-so because of sentimental reasons than any actual merits of the ruleset itself.

It's more or less just your average FF-game and all that comes with it translated into tabletop rules, the good the bad and the ugly. 90% of the system is just combat. There 30+ classes. There is a METRIC FUCKING SHITTON of math involved in almost every step. (So much that back in the day people went around and made mini-programs just to keep track of all the shit that was going on. I still have them, actually, if anyone wants them.)

If none of this bothers you, you can have a reasonably okay time with it, me and my players currently do with the campaign I'm running. But if you want something more streamlined this is not the system for you.

AD&D didn't have MP or Warmechs. Advanced classing. And elemental blasting spells at level 1.

It was influenced by Ultima and Wizardry, which were influenced by AD&D but by this point RPG vidya and RPG tabletop were beginning to diverge.

FF1 for the NES had spell slots rather than MP. Granted casting was spontaneous, but the idea was still there. Not to mention that it had beholders, illithids, and even a drow, not to mention Bahamut and Tiamat showing up as dragons rather than their respective mythological forms. Also the red mage is basically the AD&D bard sans instruments.
Still trying to find airships, they were in the D&D arcade game but I can't actually find any mention of airships in the Mystara setting. I'm probably looking in the wrong place though.

Mystara is all over those airships, be it the semi-obscure made-out-of-sunlight elven ones or the fleets of Alphatia.

Fuck, just look up the Princess Arc sometime.

The "advanced classes" are also extremely similar to what BECMI did with Fighters turning into Avengers/Paladins/Knights and Clerics into Druids and whatnot, although I don't know where Wizardry took its ones from.

As for Warmechs and similar stuff, well, I'll just have to point you to Temple of the Frog and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and various other great examples of how fantasy and science fiction were less distinct back in the day.

It's funny because, actually, the answer is never GURPS.

Nah, if you're into lethal gun combat or there just isn't any good specific system out there then GURPS is a decent enough answer.

Probably not the best fit for a retro RPG, though!

Okay didn't know that bit. I only played the remakes, the more you now I get.
I knew about barrier peaks and stuff but FF had a fully functional station iirc and monsters based off tech vs a downed ship with items the PC's can randomly kill themselves with.

SNES

What if I wanted to make my good 8bit adventure through cyberspace?

Strike!

Has a lot of viable character types with varying level of complexity (if you wanted to play FF1 you could limit classes to simple-only, for example), refluffable to fit your needs, mechanically really simple but tactically interesting.

it would be awesome if you could upload those programs, I'm really interested in running a campaign and I could use as much help as I possibly can, since most of my players don't understand english...

Have they fixed the book layout? last time i read it i became blind, my brother is writing this for me

maybe modding 5e and using spell points instead of spell slots

There were very minor updates, but I would not call it fixed, sadly.

You are probably best off if you just ignore everything before page 87-100 and use the player aids or the free demo (which is more like a rules compendium) for everything else.

Here you go, user.

mediafire.com/file/rge0jsinu1b7kum/FFRPG Utilities.rar

Let me know if you run into any issues.

I love GURPS, it often is the answer, but it really isn't in this case. JRPGs are gamey as fuck, GURPS is super simulationist.

If you want to deconstruct JRPGs and play in a similar setting but with more realism and consistency, then sure, GURPS is good.

But if you want to emulate an existing game which heavily abstracts things and involves a lot of standing around and exchanging blows, then GURPS is far from the best choice.

On that note, why would you want to play a retro JRPG? Story tends to be the only good thing about them and you'll be making your own.

>>citing discredited theforge terminology

never change

The theory behind them is basically hogwash.

But the terminology is still a useful shorthand.

There are some part i like about JRPG like the classes, art and powers

having a frog man a robot and a magus in one team is cool

>Returners
Wait, is returners the one at ffrpg.net? It looks perfectly fine to me, maybe a little unfinished at worst. But then again I've never played it. Anyone know what's wrong with it?

>MP
>No Warmechs

FF1 doesn't use MP, it uses spell charges/slots. Like... D&D.

Also, go check the Rules Cyclopedia monster chapter. Meks. There you go.