Dev Diary - Entry 10, 19th Mar. 2018
CAUTION: Spoilers will abound in this dev diary regarding Final Fantasy XX/Final Fantasy 20XX. If you believe yourself to be involved in playing this game, please exercise due caution. And remember - when in doubt, try hitting it with your sword! It always works for me!
Good day/evening, one and all! This week, we have some important matters - something I'm actually pretty chuffed about having done over the week. I've deconstructed the skill system and given a rough eyeball to difficulty levels. If you want to see, have a look here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/final-fantasy-20xx---vaste-year-1162-Kaiser6012/a/skills-and-thresholds-article?preview=1
Now, I'm going to be 100% honest here (and apologies to Bruno on this one - this is all meant to be with love and respect for the work you've done here, and this wouldn't be a thing at all without the effort and heart you've put into the system already), this entry was spurred on by discussing the system with one of my prospective players and what they would be interested in and what they find difficult. And his big comment was that the skill system was difficult to wrap his head around, due to the lack of well-defined skill thresholds and general difficulty in teasing out key details of the progression system. Which, unfortunately, I have to agree with - at least in part. It took me a few readthroughs to fully grasp that it's the number of skill points in all aspected skills and not just the number in a single skill that's the main limit.
The best laid out section of the book is, by far, the class system and everything around the combat side of the game - and all of that side of things has my players rather excited. I do, however, have a small issue with a bit of opacity with the HP/MP multiplier mechanic. Namely, that it doesn't specify whether changes to the multiplier are retroactive anywhere in the book. I believe it is and whenever the multiplier changes, you gain a whole chunk of HP/MP all at once, but that required a fair bit of cross-referencing of the two examples of play given in the book.
Another reference point that wouldn't go astray is a summary table of what references the Stat value, and what references the Stat Level. It can be very difficult to pick apart which one is referred to in any given situation, especially on the fly. A reference table somewhere would go a long way to clarifying what is referenced in what situation.
Anyways - this wasn't supposed to be a gripe session. I'm sorry for bringing these up, but I've promised to bring up my experiences with the system, and this week I've run into a few roadblocks. I hope the suggestions I've put forward help to make the whole experience better for everyone.
Anyways - skills!
At it's core, the skill system provides an interesting dilemma for players in the fact that you have to take the last rolled total - it isn't about geting a high roll, it's about picking a roll that will serve the goal you're setting out to achieve. As such, I feel confident in knocking a few digits off of Difficulties, since it's entirely possible for the PCs to roll reasonably, then roll worse due to believing they can do better.
There's also leeway in the system for the old "Yes, but..." or the ever-popular "No, but instead...". Skills represent a chance at failure, and it's imperative that critical information is not locked behind a skill check. I repeat, and I'm gonna bold this for emphasis, but if there is only limited means to advance the plot, they should not be locked behind skill checks. Skill checks represent a single point of pass/failure, and it's not terribly fun to have a plot point solved by a single die roll. Instead, a method that has worked well in my group is to simply establish that information is out there, and that a certain quality of roll will point towards said information, no matter what's being rolled (within reason, of course).
Also, failure of the roll doesn't necessarily mean that the PCs are up the proverbial billabong sans propulsion. Two alternate results that have gotten excellent results in my time are the "success with a cost" method and the "you know you can't" response. The first is ultimately preferable in critical situations - you succeed, but something goes a little pear-shaped and you have to deal with that. You can vault the wall, but you catch your foot on a stone at the very top and you fall awkwardly. Now, not only do you have to catch yourself, but someone would have heard the stones hitting the floor.
The second option is much more restrictive, but it means a failed jump over a chasm doesn't lead to a Wile E. Coyote situation where the PC has to learn quickly how to fly. Instead of them trying and dropping, instead the "you know you can't" result simply results in you telling the PC in question that, no, this chasm is, like, twenty foot wide. You'd need a tailwind several hundred knots to make a jump like that.
As a final note, I've noticed something that I would consider as an optional rule somewhere down the line for skills available to the PCs - material gathering skills and crafting skills. It's a long shot, but if you wanted to implement a Bazaar style system a la 12 or a synthesis shop like in 9, you might be able to give each element it's own way of crafting goods and/or finding raw materials to make into goods. As an idea right off the top of my head: Air might have Tailoring as a crafting skill and Butchery (or Carving, or Monster Harvesting) as a gathering skill, representing the delicate care with which a character may be able to remove glands, feathers or whole bones without damaging the material in question. Earth could have Smithing as a craft, and Mining as a gathering skill. Fire would work well with Artifice as a crafting skill and Channeling as a gathering skill, enabling the redirecting of latent magical energy into usable trinkets. Water, I'm having a little trouble with, but Enchantment as a crafting skill (where Artifice is making innately magical items like staves or scrolls, enchanting takes a well-made iron sword and turns it into an Enhancer, for example) and... perhaps Haggling? Finding a way of not necessarily getting the items first-hand, but getting them for a cost? I don't quite know right now, and I'm not sure I'll be implementing them in the game to come. Just spitballing an idea I had.
Anyways, that's it for this week. I'm hoping to get another character up and ready for next week, as well as some worldbuilding done with my players so as to not design an entire world without their input. Until then, stay safe and be well. I'll see you next time!
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