OVERVIEW:
idea scratch pad
Character Creation and Advancement
Background and Personality Traits
This is a dual-job-changing system. However, over the course of play, the jobs themselves can evolve into different, more advanced jobs. There are six base jobs, each one centered around a different stat. You can have two jobs equipped at once, and two different sets of weapons, but only one set of armor. Jobs grant access to different gear pieces and abilities, and can gain news ones as they evolve. Evolving a job never loses access to what it had preevolution. SeeD races might be back(?)
(Gain EXP in main job, and half that in secondary job). Exp is used to buy abilities within jobs. Skills can be bought in any order. Once you have all the skills, you unlock the mastery bonus. Then spend exp to unlock another job further down the job tree.
The first couple of encounters might have accelerated growth to get to the first tier of evolution faster? But in general i think you get 2/1 EXP per encounter, and skill cost 3 to learn. (so like, the first couple might give 4/2 or even 6/3, depending on long you want the Intro To System phase to last)
STRENGTH: Governs melee weapon damage.
DEXTERITY: Governs gun damage.
SPIRIT: Governs magical damage
MIND: Governs status effects
WILL: Governs defensive effects
INTELLIGENCE: Governs trap damage.
All stats start with a value of 8.
HP starts at 100.
MP/PP both start at 50.
Luck exists, but not as a normal main stat. Each character has 3 Luck, and Luck can be spent to modify AIM rolls they make or targeting them by +/-1 per luck spent after seeing the initial result.
Starting jobs
Add the Inherent Stat Increases gained from a job when it's equipped, ie only when it's your main or subjob.
Mastery Bonuses are added to your base stats, even if the job isn't equipped.
FIGHTER (Str): Uses techniques, which function like at will abilities. Some use your Primary Skill, others use your Quick Skills to modify your basic strike. Most movement abilities are techniques.
GUNNER (Dex): Uses special bullets, which function like encounter powers. Anytime you reload a gun (including the start of the fight), you can choose to replace any number of normal bullets with special bullets you haven't used yet. (Reloading a gun takes a Primary Skill)
MAGE (Spr): Uses Spells, which consume MP to use. Casting is done with a Primary Skill, though in order to cast a spell you need to begin Chanting with a Quick first. Quick actions can also be uses to sustain certain spells (particularly field effects)
PSYCHIC (Mnd): Uses Amplifiers, which cost PP to use. Similar to spells, casting an Amplifier is done with a Primary Skill, though you don't need to Chant before hand. Instead, in order for the effects to linger you need to sustain them with a Quick, which drains an additional but smaller amount of PP. how many amplifiers you can have linked and sustained at once with a single Quick increases over time
DEFENDER (Wil): Uses Maneuvers, which function like at will abilities.
TINKERER (Int): Sets Traps/Gadgets, which function like encounter powers. Generally traps are set in empty space in the enemy's combat grid, and anytime an enemy moves onto it it detonates. Setting a trap is generally a Integral Skill.
[Skill]: A general purpose Skill that can be performed regardless of equipment and generally has no cost.
[Tech]: Requires a Weapon to perform
[Firearm]: Requires a Firearm to perform, and for the Firearm to have ammo loaded.
[Spell]: Cast a Spell. Generally requires MP and Chanting to be performed, may also require an Implement.
[Amp]: Forms a Link with a target and gives an Amplification. Generally requires PP to perform.
[Mane]: Requires a Shield to perform
[Trap]/[Gadget]/[Bomb]/[Potion]: Traps are placed on the enemy grid. Gadgets on the ally grid. Bombs are immediately activated on the enemies. Potions are immediately activated on party members. Most generally need to spend a Charge to be performs.
[Limited]: The Skill may only be used once per round.
[Single]: Affects a single combatant.
[Self]: Affects only yourself.
[AoE]: Affects multiple tiles or combatants.
[Standard]: Amplifiers affect this skill normally, adding to the total damage/potency of the skill once.
[Multi-Hit]: Amplifiers only affect this skill with half potency, but apply to every single individual hit of the attack.
[Forceful]: Amplifiers are twice as effective on this skill, adding double the listed value to the total damage/potency.
(as an endgame thing, i think you can probably create a Custom Job that allows you to pick any 5 skills you want that you've learned from each tier? Probably with a limit of one non-ammo passive tho. You wouldn't be able to use a sub-job with a Custom Job as a trade off tho)
RACES
Pick a single Race during character creation, which grants you a small amount of bonus EXP in two jobs, as well as two special skills (one for combat, one for exploration).
GEAR: Each job has an associated piece of equipment that enables it to perform its basic action, or modifies its relevant skills. Given how important these can be, equipment is handled a little bit different in SeeD Modern than most other systems. Rather than weapons or what have you being directly slotted into slots based on your hands, instead PCs have a pool of Gear Slots they are considered to have easy access to in the midst of combat. While Armor and Accessories are included in this and can take up Gear Slots in additional to job equipment, PCs are limited to one each of those, unlike job equipment which have no such limits (so someone could indeed take a mace and a dagger and wouldn't have to choose if they felt it was worth while).
By default, each PC has access to 5 Gear Slots.
(advanced gear gets added to jobs as they evolve, as can basic gear for hybrids)
CONSUMABLES: Consumables work a little different from normal, in that you can't use them in battle and it's more like… MMO style food? You can pop one consumable during the preparation round (even if you use a prep skill!), and it'll give you some kind of bonus effect for that encounter. there COULD be ones for skills too, maybe…? basically it's just junk to spend money on since you probably won't be buying much in the way of gear.
HP/AP/EP
HP is Health Points, as normal.
AP is Armor Points. Armor functions as a layer on top of HP, and as long as you have <0 AP, the armor gives different passive effects. When you lose all your AP, all your Pressure is converted into HP damage as well.
EP is Evasion Points. Evasion functions as a first line of defense, absorbing any hp/ap damage you might take first before being applied. Only last for a single round, and any you had left over is removed before the start of each turn.
Pressure: functions slightly differently depending on if you have functioning armor or not. When you have Armor, Pressure builds up until it's destroyed (reduced to 0AP), after which it immediately converts into real HP damage. When you have no Armor, Pressure instead functions as soft/temporary damage, building up over time but now it triggers/converts into real damage anytime you're hit by any kind of damaging attack! Build up pressure and really make it hurt next time they're hit! Useful for getting through evasion even after the armor's gone.
'what do better weapons, like magical weapons in D&D look like??' ez, just give them +stats. Like a basic sword doesn't have anything, but powerful one looted room ancient runes might confer +1 STR while equipped. armor can have bigger numbers prob
'accessories???' probably just give minor passive effects.
+Damage / Damage Increase = Apply to all hits, probably have different rules for multi/single/forceful
Bonus Damage = only applied to the final total and not each hit, baked into either the first or final hit of the attack. doesn't scale with multi/single/forceful
COMBAT:
6 different types of skills: Preparation, Primary, Quick, Integral, Passive and Desperation. On a normal turn, you can perform either 1 Primary + 1 Quick skil, OR 1 Integral skill. Passive skills are always on effects (though they might be limited in certain ways on a skill by skill basis). Prep skills are special skills that can only be used at the start of combat. Desperation skills are special skills which can only be performed the first time you start a turn with 0 HP, allowing you to take one final turn before going down for the count.
When combat begins, all PCs can perform 1 Prep Skill before the first round. They can also use one consumable, if desired.
During each round, all enemies will take a turn first. Then, all PCs will take a turn. enemies/pcs can act in any order they prefer in order to best facility set ups. Any effects that can be sustained or lingered must be declared at the start of the turn, however, before anyone takes their full turn to avoid weirdness with someone attacking with a buff only to discover it wasn't sustained or w/e
Combat happens in two distinct 4x4 grids, one for the enemy side, and one for the PC side. Melee attacks can be made from rows 1-2 and only attack units in row 1-2, while most other can be made from anywhere. (This melee restriction can be ignored if the other side has no Units in row 1-2 however). Maneuvers are generally more effective from the front rows as well.
Attacks Mostly Just Work, except there's still rolls?? It's all PC side though, each hand gear/skill as needed has a different AIM die, with results doing different things.
Freebie Skills Everyone Knows:
Primary:
Reposition. [Skill]. Move yourself to a different tile on your side of the combat grid. While moving, move one tile at a time into adjacent spaces. You can do this as many times as you like, but any traps you move over will be detonated instantly. Tiles containing another Combatant or Gadget cannot be moved through.
Reload. [Skill]. Reload a single Firearm you have equipped - Return its current ammo count back up to it's maximum, and place any unspent Special Ammo you wish within it in place of normal ammo if you want to.
Quick:
Chant. [Skill]. Begin Chanting. This enables you to perform Spell actions (which consumes the Chanting state).
Sustain. [Skill]. Sustain a single Amplifier by paying it's upkeep PP cost. Certain jobs may allow you to sustain up to three different Amplifiers at once with a single Sustain action.
TALENTS
The out of combat skill system is, i think, probably gunna look a lot like S1's talent system? Only because i am a certified hater of Rolling Too Many Dice i think there's gunna be a small stamina system on top of it, so you'll have to kind of consider if it's really worth having an entire party all rolling against a check or not rather than just outright limiting it to 1/roll a check since that can get a little weird.
