The title says it all.
Pic related. Ever since I've gotten into Veeky Forums shit I've thought that Trails' classic elemental quartz (spell) system would translate into tabletop perfectly.
Factions in-universe also give a lot of leeway to a potential campaign. Bracers are basically armed Boy Scouts/adventurers that do nothing but quest and occasionally fight ancient evils while (spoilers) Ouroboros would be a great basis for an evil campaign of some kind.
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I tried opening a thread last night about some of my ideas for making an RPG for this, but it didn't go very far. I figure I'll work a bit more on the system itself before trying again at making it collaborative with the rest of Veeky Forums. Bugs are great.
This is also fantastic. I think I still have a few of the 5e homebrew that we got in those Endless Legend threads a while back.
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Something that I liked with Trails that so few tabletop RPGS (As opposed to video ones) do is 'Everyone knows magic'. Even the people who were not generally great blasters had a few types of magic they were really good at (Or in estelle's case were a great generalist). No one was useless at fighting, no one was useless at magic, they were just good at different things there.
Someone explain this spell system to me. What makes it so interesting?
Alright, this is not going to be perfect (Been a while since I played) but it should give you an overview.
The skill to use magic is tied to you, personally, but you can't innately use it. In order to do so, you need machinery to channel that power into something functional. The machines used in the series for it are called Orbments(Pic Related). Orbments channel the power through gems in each of the slots (And the exact shape/links of the slots are custom done to work with you and no one else, since it's channelling your own power).
Different gems can change up which spells you can do, with combinations of several of the same sort in a row giving bigger spells (But how well those spells work is entirely up to you. That single target fireball isn't much less damaging than the huge AOE fire tornado if the users are equally skilled at magic). Each gem also has a passive effect (Like earth-aspected gems are generally defensive, while fire aspected ones are generally offensive etc)
Each person has the same number of gems but the different arrays and personal limits (Most people have some slots that only work with a specific element) means that the exact spells you have access to are quite different. Someone limited heavily towards earth (Pic related) is very tough and has a lot of spells to enhance being tough, while someone with a straight line of 7, most of them water aspected (Yeah, one character has a straight line. It gives her access to spells just as big as it sounds) can cast massive AOE spells easily but lacks versatility since she can't make lines of any other element without breaking her line of water.
The combination of passive and active effects meant that every single character was both warrior and mage without them getting samey and characters could be very different from each other purely based on the way you link the orbment lines together.
I've yet to encounter a setting more deliciously retarded than EYE
>SMG
>primary mode : full-auto
>secondary mode : full-autoer
>Pistol
>official decription states "could even kill several aligned bears in a single shot"
>Sawn-off shotgun
>has a dedicated martial art
nd then there's the psy powers that teleport you inside people, making them explode in the process, and the crazy story.
I'm going to steal this for a setting I'm working on.
This war is mine maybe
>Ouroboros would be a great basis for an evil campaign of some kind.
What makes you so certain that Ouroboros is evil?
Anyone who builds a gigantic red airship and installs a room solely dedicated to playing a fuck-huge organ in a sinister way is evil in my book.
keep in mind that this system was only in the first Trails subseries. Later entries ironically enough use something that resembles actual D&D more.
The new way of doing things is that everyone has a big, central gem (a Master Quartz, as they're called), which gives you:
>several predefined spells
>several predefined stat buffs
>up to 3 special effects
which upgrade themselves as you level up the Master Quartz.
Then the other gems that you normally slot into open spaces have been reworked into any one of:
>just gives you a single spell (or multiple ones, if it's a rare quartz)
>stat buffs
>single spells that also give you stat buffs
>quartz that give you special effects or, alternatively, debuffs in exchange for several other boons (for example, there's a quartz that makes enemies notice you more but gives you three really strong spells)
whoops didn't mean to reply to meant for
>Anyone who builds a gigantic red airship and installs a room solely dedicated to playing a fuck-huge organ in a sinister way is evil in my book.
That sounds like class to me.
PPic related
FF: Crystal Chronicles is one of my favourite games of all time and one of my favourite settings too. I'd love a game focused heavily on the actual journey itself with each dungeon crawl being relatively quick but adapting on every revisit and all that.
A caravan of friends traveling the world and experiencing the trip of their lifetime together, having fun, making friends, having comfy campsites and travels and fighting hand-in-hand when push comes to shove against odd creatures in mysterious, fascinating and beautiful dungeons would be amazing. Would need to implement the risk of Miasma, family interactions, interactions with other caravans and the general character customization properly somehow but I'm sure it can be done.
Ryuutama seems to already have many of the foundations for a good Crystal Chronicles homebrew but is still not quite there yet I feel, since it doesn't lend itself too well to the repetitiveness of visiting the same dungeons every few 'years'.
Hmmm... This gives me an idea for an adventure module to make. Sadly it'll probably go into my 'to do' pile and sit for too long, but the idea of 'dungeons' that are meant to be revisited over time seems like a fun concept.
Pic related.
I think most RTS games as a general rule can translate pretty well into tabletop.
Hell, even StarCraft would work if you tweaked the lore a bit.
I shamelessly rip off games for my plots, does that count?
Going to run an XCOM inspired game once I get off my ass and finish my 'brew for it, to say nothing about ripping off MGR wholesale.
>MGR
Metal Gear Rising?
That would make one hell of a tabletop setting.
Yes, Metal Gear Rising. Complete with using the soundtrack.
Being into niche games in eastern EU gives me the opportunity to be blatant as shit and not get called out on it.
I'd build dungeons in a way that effectively reduces combat to getting through the dungeon in general with one fight and the boss with another. Use a simple arena combat map like Ryuutama does to use for positioning and to implement having to stay around the safe area around the chalice.
Besides combat, include random events occuring before the first fight and before the boss to potentially reward items, gold and/or random encounters with other caravand that are in the "dungeon" at the same time.
Changing these encounters dynamically between a pool of random (and possibly some set) events that expand and change with every visit alongside with updating loot and obviously harder fights could make for a decent replaybility. Having a d12 or d20 of options for each dungeon visit, with a handful of common events, some dungeon specific ones and some dungeon and year specific ones should actually not be too hard to prepare and give plenty of variation.
How did the system work? That sounds really bizarre to play, frankly, since the source material is so crazy and fast-paced.