[Game] Bakuhatsu High

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Whipstitch
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Post by Whipstitch »

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to nerf domination to the point of uselessness or anything, but I think it's important to keep in mind that any PC with just level 4 psi-dom and no sub-powers can still spymaster/thiefcatcher like whoa thanks to innate people/lies/intent detection* and (with some prep) can throw around their likely impressive Language Arts grade around over perfectly secure channels over any distance. So as long as there's Republicans weak minded people around in the first place I'm not too worried about that sort of change crippling their plausibility as social engineers.

Anyway, as far as Enhanced Speed goes here's some quick concerns:

Double-Team: It's a pain in the ass and I feel nit-picky bringing it up, but defining non-combat action more closely would be nice--for example, I'm guessing that drawing items and the like is non-combat, but I could see someone asking about movement and weapon conjuring.

Double-Accel, Clockstopper and charging up Hyper Attack: Need to be super clear about how free actions interact with Hyper Attack lest you end up with people getting pissy that the Principal won't let them chain together hilarious Army of Me'd Mining Beams for great justice.

Healing rates and the like would be nice, although I'd imagine the School Nurse probably knows acupuncture and Healing Jab anyway so ultimately nobody will ever care.
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Post by Koumei »

Whipstitch wrote:Domination...
I fixed that, and I specified that only the willing communication can be done at any range. Also did a blanket ruling on Action types, and fixed that difficulty.
Double-Team
Clarified.
Double-Accel, Clockstopper and charging up Hyper Attack: Need to be super clear about how free actions interact with Hyper Attack lest you end up with people getting pissy that the Principal won't let them chain together hilarious Army of Me'd Mining Beams for great justice.
Put stricter limits on Double-Accel (it now can't actually be used to charge up Hyper Attack due to movement requirements), specified that Clockstopper can be used to charge up Hyper Attack (but that it doesn't work with Double-Accel), and also put in a thing so that AoE effects benefit from Army of Me (but you can't layer all of them on the one dude).
Healing rates and the like would be nice, although I'd imagine the School Nurse probably knows acupuncture and Healing Jab anyway so ultimately nobody will ever care.
True, and they have special regeneration machines so that even comatose torso-boy can be fully regenerated if brought to them in time. That said, I'll put in a thing on healing rates.
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Post by Koumei »

So basically, all I need to do now, pending playtesting/eyeballing stuff, is to write up the stuff on Abominations, and then I guess do a bunch of NPCs. Then I can look at them and see how a combat would probably play out.

When I end up doing the pdf then yes, I'll make a nicely laid out character sheet for people to use. Yes, the first page will look like a report card. Until then, if people want to make test characters to put up, you can do whatever format you like.
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Post by Korwin »

For those like me who dont know the scources:
Freezing: http://imanga.us/manga/freezing/1/
Kämpfer: http://imanga.us/manga/kampfer/1/
Death Note: http://imanga.us/manga/death_note/1/
Guilty Gear: http://imanga.us/manga/guilty_gear_xtra/1/

Not shure about the last one.
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Post by Koumei »

There's only one real Guilty Gear influence* and that's the Ghost Summoner. Most of my knowledge comes from Guilty Gear XX#Reload

Basically, Guilty Gear is the most fucking amazing series of fighting games - in a world that includes DoA: Nudepatch. Beautiful sprites (to the point that mugen can't do them justice so you need to actually play the actual game to enjoy them properly) and fucking oddball characters.

Now one of these characters is Zappa. He sometimes blacks out and can't remember what happened - he just wakes up and everyone around him is dead. He is possessed by a bunch of ghosts. In combat, he is out cold and being dangled around by the ghosts like a puppet, and the ghosts jump out and attack.

Also, his Instant Death move has him fall over while a ghostly pale girl with long black hair covering her face (name: S-ko) touches the enemy. Then you just get a weird image of a tree, and the screen goes to static and the enemy dies. "Original character, do not steal" indeed.

*Granted, you could also involve other GG stuff in it:
[*]Testament has his awesome scythe, but is a weird sorcerer who also summons eerie creatures
[*]There are a few characters with artefact weapons that could be Heartblade just fine.
[*]One guy, Zato-1, is dead and possessed by a shadow demon called Eddie. That would work just fine as a monstrosity, to be honest.
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Post by Maxus »

BlazBlue is apparently an alternate-universe Guilty Gear. Where something diverged.

So yeah. You have The World's Creepiest Catgirl, the Thing That Should Not Be (that mask doesn't cover his face. The mask is just something he grabbed so people have something to look at when they talk to him), the Shy Girl, and the Kid genius with the robot.

Always mean to give GG a shot
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Koumei wrote:*Granted, you could also involve other GG stuff in it:
[*]Testament has his awesome scythe, but is a weird sorcerer who also summons eerie creatures
[*]There are a few characters with artefact weapons that could be Heartblade just fine.
[*]One guy, Zato-1, is dead and possessed by a shadow demon called Eddie. That would work just fine as a monstrosity, to be honest.
[/unlurk]

No Bridget?

[lurk]
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Post by Koumei »

The most notable thing about Bridget isn't actually his attacks and weapons and powers, though. That's not actually why people know about Bridget. For the record, he'd vaguely be Heartblade, using the bladed teddy bear, I guess.

The reason people know about Bridget is I said "he" and his picture is this.
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Post by Darth Rabbitt »

Fair enough.

/resumes lurking
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Post by Whipstitch »

There are a few characters with artefact weapons that could be Heartblade just fine.
Yeah, I-No was actually one of the characters I was thinking of when I mentioned the sonic guitar thing. Hell, with Enhanced Speed 2 and Jet Thruster you can already air dash into people just fine.
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Post by Koumei »

Well, Plot Hooks and Abominations are complete. Basically, the game system is there - people totally could do something with it as is.

Obviously the pdf will have some notes on "If you wanted to make this into British Magic School for Wizards and Copyright Infringement...", "If you wanted to make this about students with swords/guns/magic in Red vs Blue Armbands", "If you wanted to make this martial arts recreation of the Three Kingdoms", "If you wanted the power... TO BRING THE WORLD REVOLUTION" and "If you wanted weird weapon duelling and tits-out combat". Basic conversion notes, in other words.
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Post by Koumei »

Okay, so let's take a look at what a gang might consist of, and where it goes from there:

Mitsuki
Lotus Fist
Gym B+ -> A+ Health B History D Language Studies C
Philosophy and Ethics B- Science C- Drama A Piloting A+
Hit Points: 11
Club Membership: Swimming
Traits:
-Pervert
--Tsundere
+Stubborn
++Graceful
Powers and Abilities:
-Battle Aura Control (0-2)
-Aura Sight
-Energy Wave (Aura at 2+: Solar Flare)
-Grade Boost (Gym)
-Aura at 1+: Enhanced Strength I (Concussive Strikes, Collateral Damage, Herculean Throwing)
-For looking pretty: Health is A
-Underwater combat training

BFF: Clive
Sempaaaai: Student Council Vice President
Rival: Hikaru
Soot (getting a dirty look from the Principal)
Ghost Sight
Gym C Health A -> S History B- Language Studies B -> B+
Philosophy and Ethics A Science D -> F Art C Hunting B+
Hit Points: 15
Club Membership: Book Club
Traits:
-----Abysmal (Science)
+++++Supergenius (Health)
Powers and Abilities:
-Spirit Sight
-Spirit Bonding (Lesser Entity)
-Spirit Summoning
-Spirit Taming (Enhanced Speed I)
-Grade Boost to all rolls related to talking with animals
-Partial Grade Boost to Language Studies
-Magic Spells

Companion: Electric Rat
Gym B Health B History C Language Studies D Philosophy and Ethics B Science C
Hit Points: 12
Elemental Blast: Lightning
*Enhanced Speed I
+Cheerful
+Stubborn
--Annoying

BFF: Francois
Idol: Lance, the fourth-year Ghost Sight dude
Rival: Gary, another Ghost Sight
Clive
Maiden Knight
Gym C+ (B+) Health B (A) History D- Language Studies A-
Philosophy and Ethics A Science C+ Computing B Forensics B
Hit Points: 10 (15)
Club Membership: Cheerleading
Traits:
+Laugh Inducer
+++Fearless
--Unlucky
--Phobia: vermin
Powers and Abilities:
-TEAMWORK RA-RA!
-Extraordinary Movement (Leaps and Bounds)
-Grade Boost specifically for running (Gym becomes B+/A+) and for knowledge of astrology (Science becomes B+)
-Transformation (Enhanced Speed I (Blink Step), Grade Boost to Gym and Health, Elemental Blast: Ice)
-Heightened Senses

BFF: Mitsuki
Beloved: Jane
Rival: Soot (and his damn electric rat)
Hikaru
Heartblade
Gym A -> A+ Health B+ History C Language Studies D
Philosophy and Ethics B Science C Hunting B Music A-
Hit Points: 11
Club Membership: Kendo Club
Traits:
-Forgetful
-Bullied 1
++Looking Out For You
Powers and Abilities:
-Evasive Acrobatics
-Conjure Weapon (Katana)
-Shredding Attack
-Fast Healing
-Enhanced Speed (Speeding Bullet)

BFF: Francois
Sempaaaai: her older sister, who leads the Kendo Club
Rival: Mitsuki
Francois
Noble
Gym B Health D History B Language Studies A
Philosophy and Ethics C Science B- Hunting C+ Home Ec A
Hit Points: 6
Club Membership: Chess Club
Traits:
+Stubborn
+++Relentless
--Blind Without 'Em
--Allergy (pollen)
Powers and Abilities:
-Just According to Keikaku
-Psionic Dominance I (Foggy Mind, Agreement)
-Aura Sight
-Automatic Access (Service Club)

BFF: Soot
Beloved: the School Nurse
Rival: Clive
Jane
Monstrosity
Gym B Health B -> B+ History A Language Studies D
Philosophy and Ethics C Science C -> B Tech A Piloting B
Hit Points: 14
Club Membership: Cosplay Club
Traits:
-Forgetful
--Clumsy
+++Fearless
Powers and Abilities:
-Enhanced Durability I (Sturdy, Relentless)
-Body Shaping I
-Living Weapon (Gore)
-Heightened Senses
-Grade Boost (Science)

BFF: Clive
Beloved: Francois
Enemy: Rupert, a Noble from the Cosplay Club
Last edited by Koumei on Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:58 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Post by Koumei »

So in this hypothetical episode, the gang is told to go to the old half-collapsed "ruins" - it's no longer dangerous, it just used to be some old storage shed but got wrecked by something. They just need to clean it up and make the place usable again.

The very first thing they decide to do is not just trust their teacher and instead try to get more info. Soot hits the library, Clive decides to look online for old news reports about the area, and between them they discover that it was being used to experiment on mutant sponges, to try to make super-regeneration to use on humans. But then there was some kind of explosion, which shouldn't have happened.

So, aware of the possibility of a grey ooze scenario, they head out there, but not before asking the Nurse for something to stop the sponge growth if that is actually happening. She gives them some syringes of anti-invasive serum, so if the stuff there tries to infect them parasitically, they can be safe.

Finding the doors sealed shut, they talk about blasting them open or using awesome strength, but then just walk around the facility until they find a place that has caved in/been exploded out. Entering, they're immediately on the look-out.

Every now and then, they encounter THE SPONGEFOLK, in groups. Sometimes they run, sometimes they fight. THE SPONGEFOLK have the following profile:
Gym C Health A Language Studies B Philosophy and Ethics B
Hit Points: 15
-Regeneration
-Living Weapon (Tendrils)
-Toxic
Fortunately, these things are pretty crap, despite being good at surviving*. Still, as the party head from one place to another, avoiding a couple of fresh cave-ins, and realising they're sealed off from their original entry point, they start to grow desperate. Or hungry.

Eventually, they come across the main research material, along with supplies of ethanol. Coming up with a GRAND PLAN, they decide to flood the place and then ignite it when they climb out.

Unfortunately, some bad rolling means it takes them a while to find an escape - they first find a legion of SPONGEFOLK.

But finally they clamber out, THE SPONGEFOLK on their tails, and they ignite it even as some of them come clambering after them. As the ground rumbles, they realise the fire is causing explosions and the place might collapse any moment. So they run to safety, a little worse for wear, but successful - and with the research notes burning with the creatures (they don't want this project revived).

Following that is the usual wind-down stuff, like getting checked for spores even though it wasn't a fungus. They go eat, maybe they hear the rumours about what they actually discovered down there (something appropriately over the top), and all that. Things wind down to a close, and already ME are ready for new terrible experiments.

*I did a quick playtest, and basically the party can take out 1 of them on turn 1, then 1 with spare damage on following turns. In groups of 3, the creatures are lucky to do a single point of damage.
Last edited by Koumei on Sun Dec 23, 2012 4:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Koumei »

So, let's take a look at those first years as fourth-years, and see how they've grown:

Mitsuki
Lotus Fist
Gym A+ Health B History D Language Studies C
Philosophy and Ethics B- Science C- Drama A Piloting A+
Hit Points: 23
Club Membership: Swimming
Traits:
-Pervert
--Tsundere
+Stubborn
++Graceful
Powers and Abilities:
-Battle Aura Control (0-7)
-Aura Sight
-Evasive Athletics
-Empty Heart
-Chi Breaking
-Pressure Point Attack
-Energy Wave (Aura at 2+: Solar Flare)
-Grade Boost (Gym)
-Aura at 1+: Enhanced Strength I (Concussive Strikes, Collateral Damage, Herculean Throwing)
-Aura at 2+: Explosive Strike, Enhanced Strength II (Atlas' Shoulders, Unstoppable, Pinball Strikes)
-Aura at 3+: Fire Aura, Enhanced Strength III (Shockwaves, Mighty Leaping, Pulverising Blows)
-Aura at 4+: Enhanced Strength IV (Earthquake Stomp, Tempest Roar, Dinosaur Wrestler)
-Aura at 6+: Hyper Attack (Ultimate Strike)
-Chained Attacks (requires Aura == number of attacks chained)
-For looking pretty: Health is A
-Underwater combat training

Unarmed Damage: 5 (Aura 1: 6, Aura 2: 7, Aura 3: 8, Aura 4+: 9)

BFF: Clive
Sempaaaai: Student Council Vice President
Rival: Hikaru
Soot
Ghost Sight
Gym C Health S History B- Language Studies B+
Philosophy and Ethics A Science F Hunting B+ Art C
Hit Points: 26
Club Membership: Book Club
Traits:
-----Abysmal (Science)
+++++Supergenius (Health)
Powers and Abilities:
-Spirit Sight
-Spirit Bonding (Lesser Entity, Moderate Entity, Major Entity, S-Class Entity)
-Multiple Bonds (20)
-Spirit Summoning
-Spirit Taming (Enhanced Speed IV)
-Spirit Taming (Elemental Blast+)
-Spirit Taming (Evasive Acrobatics)
-Spirit Taming (Hyper Attack)
-Words Beyond the Void
-Spirit Stasis
-Friendship Punch!
-Spirit Fusion
-Grade Boost to all rolls related to talking with animals
-Partial Grade Boost to Language Studies
-Magic Spells

Primary Companion: S-Class Electric Rat
Gym A Health A History B Language Studies B Philosophy and Ethics A Science S Tech B
Hit Points: 32
Elemental Blast: Lightning (Linked; Science-based, 7 damage)
Evasive Acrobatics
Hyper Attack (Electric Apocalypse Beam)
*Enhanced Durability III (Anvilfall, Sturdy, Relentless, Weather the Storm, Sturdy Mind)
*Living Weapon: Bite
*Regeneration
*Flight
*Enhanced Speed IV
+Cheerful
+Stubborn
--Annoying

BFF: Francois
Idol: Lance, the fourth-year Ghost Sight dude
Rival: Gary, another Ghost Sight
Clive
Maiden Knight
Gym C+ (B+) Health B (A) History D- Language Studies A-
Philosophy and Ethics A Science C+ Computing B Forensics B
Hit Points: 21 (32)
Club Membership: Cheerleading
Traits:
+Laugh Inducer
+++Fearless
--Unlucky
--Phobia: vermin
Powers and Abilities:
-Resist Ice (Boosted when Transformed)
-TEAMWORK RA-RA!
-Extraordinary Movement (Leaps and Bounds)
-Grade Boost specifically for running (Gym becomes B+/A+) and for knowledge of astrology (Science becomes B+)
-Evasive Acrobatics
-Lasting Transformation
-Relentless
-Transformation (Enhanced Speed IV (Blink Step, Eye of the Storm, Illusion Combatants, Army of Me), Grade Boost to Gym and Health, Elemental Blast: Ice (Prism Blast, Linked Effect, Wide Blast), Elemental Control (Ice), Emotional Blast (Suggestive Beam), Furious Pressure Aura)
-Double Transformation (Graceful Flight, Hyper Attack (Gamma Ray), Genius (Gym)
-Heightened Senses

BFF: Mitsuki
Beloved: Jane
Rival: Soot (and his damn electric rat)
Hikaru
Heartblade
Gym A+ Health B+ History C Language Studies D
Philosophy and Ethics B Science C Hunting B Music A-
Hit Points: 23
Club Membership: Kendo Club
Traits:
-Forgetful
-Bullied 1
++Looking Out For You
Powers and Abilities:
-Evasive Acrobatics
-Conjure Weapon (Katana)
-Shredding Attack
-Fast Healing
-Enhanced Speed IV (Speeding Bullet, Blink-Step, Double-Team, Eye of the Storm, Jet Thruster, Sonic Boom, Faster Than Physics, Illusion Combatants, Double-Accel, Clock-Stopper, Army of Me, Teleporter)
-Weapon Empowerment (Unexpected, Fire Wreath, Burst Attack)
-Defensive Weapon Conjuring
-Armour Conjuring
-Athletic Assault
-Regeneration
-Monstrous Regeneration (Mental weakness)
-Empty Heart
-Ultimate Attack (Excavation Beam with Katana)

BFF: Francois
Sempaaaai: her older sister, who leads the Kendo Club
Rival: Mitsuki
Francois
Noble
Gym B Health D History B Language Studies S
Philosophy and Ethics C Science B- Hunting C+ Home Ec A
Hit Points: 18
Club Membership: Chess Club
Traits:
+Stubborn
+++Relentless
--Blind Without 'Em
--Allergy (pollen)
Powers and Abilities:
-Just According to Keikaku
-Psionic Dominance IV (Foggy Mind, Agreement, Mind Link, Mind Blast, Domination, Kneel Before Me!, Mental Journey, World of Illusion)
-Aura Sight
-Automatic Status (Faux Nobility)
-Automatic Access (Service Club, Socialising Club Events)
-Psionic Defence
-Automatic Authority (boss first and second year students around)
-Genius (Language Studies)

BFF: Soot
Beloved: the School Nurse
Rival: Clive
Jane
Monstrosity
Gym A Health A+ (S) History A Language Studies D
Philosophy and Ethics C Science B Tech A Piloting B
Hit Points: 45 (56 in Ultimate form)
Club Membership: Cosplay Club
Traits:
-Forgetful
--Clumsy
+++Fearless
Powers and Abilities:
-Enhanced Durability IV (Sturdy, Relentless, Weather the Storm, Poisonproof, Ironskin, Recoil, Immortality, Awesome Cover)
-Enhanced Strength II (Herculean Throwing, Shockwaves)
-Body Shaping III
-Living Weapon (Gore, Spines)
-Extraordinary Movement (Wall-Crawling)
-Heightened Senses
-Grade Boost (Science, Gym)
-Regeneration
-Monstrous Regeneration (Electric Weakness)
-Toxins
-Ultimate Monstrous Form

BFF: Clive
Beloved: Francois
Enemy: Rupert, a Noble from the Cosplay Club
Notes already: damage output and Hit Points/damage reduction do not scale up in any remotely equal way, but those who don't get increases to the above tend to have "you lose your turn(s), I win" powers. Will need testing to see if it's acceptable. I mean, there are attacks that some people will be immune to that will still OHKO Francois, and it takes so much to put Jane down that it's kind of funny. Likewise, many but not all have decent OHKO attacks against many foes, even more serious enemies. And others don't. If Soot gets caught without Pikachu, he gets taken down easily (so basically, if he's mobbed and it can't defend him), but until that point he's totally fine and swinging away. Some of them take several turns to get their awesome going, but can survive it and thus it pays off...

But Francois cannot survive waiting all those turns for the full Mitsuki Power Up (although defending with an S grade helps), so will seriously just take enemies out of the fight (or turn them into allies/shields) instantly. Given psionic power isn't as awesome as D&D casting, this is not just a given.

I think Hit Points might need some re-jiggering. If people are flat-out given more (like a "Main Character Bonus", a small bonus for everyone per year level, and maybe House-based bonuses or small bonuses for joining certain Clubs or taking certain electives?) then this could help avoid that while still meaning combat isn't too long - just long enough for high-level people to do a bunch of different things, smash the area up and build their mojo up. And to give back-up enough time to arrive (what with one round being 10 seconds).

Also, Monster Tamer needs some fixing up in places.
Last edited by Koumei on Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:57 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Koumei »

Okay, I tweaked some things, cleaned Monster Tamers up a bit, and now there are a bunch of sources of Bonus HP. This looks good. It isn't a massive boost, but it's just that little bit that helps characters be a little less fragile - and the boosts given to powerhouses don't matter so much (but are still totally appreciated).

Would people say it's about time to put it into a pdf with art and everything?
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Post by Orion »

Thoughts on the Houses
  • Being a first year Monstrosity looks a little on the boring side. They essentially get no house abilities at all that can actively be used to do stuff. Their progression ramps up very nicely in higher years though.
  • It's a little strange on first read-through that Heartblade doesn't get a grade boost to anything. Then again, they have by far the best on-demand speed and strength, so that may give them all the utility they need.
  • Speaking of which, Battle Aura is a little weird. Strength and Speed have all kinds of functions like carrying shit, getting from place to place, and so on that they may want outside of combat. You could just roll with it and say a martial artist needs someone to make him angry before he can run a race, or teleport to the moon, or lift something out of a ditch. It's a slightly nonstandard flavor for monastics though.
Thoughts on Subjects
  • Home Ec seems like it wants a little something extra. Maybe borrow something from Cooking Club, which has a bajillion abilities. Maybe give one or the other a healing or buffing ability? I mean, if Forensices lets you ENHANCE! than home ec had better let you make some pretty fantastic food and/or vast riches.
  • Hunting looks maybe a little out of line. +3 HP, use it for Spot checks and attack rolls, plus some (admittedly not inspiring) utility? Expect the CharOps board to insist on rolling Hunting on every single Psychic and Trainer.

    Thoughts on the Student Council
    You give a list of the positions on the council, then in the list of committees you mention that the leaders are "true members" of the council. Does that mean that the Treasurer, Secretary, and so on are also the Committee heads? Or that you just left half of the Council positions off the list of Council positions? Also: who are the non-leadership committee members and what is their relationship to the Council?

    Thoughts on Traits
    I personally feel that the 3-point version of Inept should be called Inept 3, and not Inept 2. Because it's worth 3.

    Thoughts on Meta-power Powers
    • Freshman year is really hard on Magical Girls. Burning a round to transform, then getting 6 rounds of juice, is a pretty serious handicap in any situation where they can't completely control when the action starts. The First-year super-form isn't even that exciting compared to the always-on stuff others get, so I worry that this is too harsh. That said, I don't want to see the limitations nerfed into irrelevance, so I'm not sure what to do here.
    • Double Transformation probably shouldn't synergize with Instant Transformation that way. Not only does it strongly suggest that you should get Instant, but once you have both you can go directly to stage II in all cases, making your first costume never relevant again. Either make the second transformation always take an action, or maybe require that it can't be done during the same round as the first one. Maybe even make it require battle aura so it can't easily be pre-buffed? Finally, you have language about taking an action to downshift from form II to form I but no reason to do so.
    Thoughts on Enhanced Attributes
    • The +1 defense in Enhanced Speed one is easy to overlook. It also appears not to scale up; is that intended? Finally, it is +1 point or +1 degree, I.E Normal to Hard?
    • Blink Step: As far as I can tell this doesn't do anything. Is this intended to let you move as "not-an-action". Because if so that should be more explicit, and it has some weird rules interactions.
    • Double-Team. Maybe you could clean it up with something like "may assist your main action, or take a second action which affects unattended objects or willing others, but not you, enemies, or their stuff."
    • Clock Stopper has language that sort of implies you can't use it to make attacks, but it doesn't say you can't.
    Thoughts on Energy Blast
    • Second Element is essentially worthless without Linked Effect.
    • Negation Beam should be clarified. I assume it means you have access to both a fire beam and a negation beam, which are separate actions to use?
    • I demand that the description of "wide blast" begin with the phrase "you have huge balls.
    Thoughts on Emotional Blast
    • I don't even know what's going on here. It doesn't specify a skill. It looks like maybe it's a targeted ranged attack that uses Gym/Hunting as appropriate. Science, potentially? Also the effects are weird as hell.
    • Are Happiness beams meant to be repeated for credit? I know healing is meant to be quick and easy, but if this is spammable it rather devalues the school nurse.
    • Anger should define its interaction with Battle Auras.
    • The "Mind Control" clause of Love doesn't do anything. The victim can choose to act as confused, and confused people can choose to do nothing, ergo you can never control anyone's actions. Also it's a little weird that confusing beams of love (or LOVE) come in under energies and emotions with similar but not identical mechanics.
    Thoughts on Flight
    • Fast Flight is virtually worthless.
    Thoughts on Energy Aura
    • If someone walks into your fear aura and passes the test, and then you Focus it while they're inside, what happens? What if you "pulse" it every other round? Or even every round? Does it matter if they walk out and back in?
    Thoughts on Weapon Empowerment
    • What can you do while defending with a Barrier weapon?
    Thoughts on Martial Arts: TBA Thoughts on Spirits: TBA
Last edited by Orion on Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Koumei »

Thanks. Let me go through these...
Orion wrote:
  • Being a first year Monstrosity looks a little on the boring side. They essentially get no house abilities at all that can actively be used to do stuff. Their progression ramps up very nicely in higher years though.
  • It's a little strange on first read-through that Heartblade doesn't get a grade boost to anything. Then again, they have by far the best on-demand speed and strength, so that may give them all the utility they need.
  • Speaking of which, Battle Aura is a little weird. Strength and Speed have all kinds of functions like carrying shit, getting from place to place, and so on that they may want outside of combat. You could just roll with it and say a martial artist needs someone to make him angry before he can run a race, or teleport to the moon, or lift something out of a ditch. It's a slightly nonstandard flavor for monastics though.
1. Hmm, I'll go put some more interesting things in their First Year.
2. I'm not sure it's that big a deal, really.
3. Think less monastics, more Ranma 1/2. Akane normally isn't a very good fighter until Ranma insults her cooking, at which point she can hospitalise him in one strike.
[*]Home Ec seems like it wants a little something extra. Maybe borrow something from Cooking Club, which has a bajillion abilities. Maybe give one or the other a healing or buffing ability? I mean, if Forensices lets you ENHANCE! than home ec had better let you make some pretty fantastic food and/or vast riches.[*]Hunting looks maybe a little out of line. +3 HP, use it for Spot checks and attack rolls, plus some (admittedly not inspiring) utility? Expect the CharOps board to insist on rolling Hunting on every single Psychic and Trainer.
1. Sure, I can move stuff from Cooking Club to Home Ec, and you're right, cooking meals of awesome should certainly allow healing and status removal.
2. I'll lower the HP boost, maybe have the attacks thing specifically be for ranged attacks?
You give a list of the positions on the council, then in the list of committees you mention that the leaders are "true members" of the council. Does that mean that the Treasurer, Secretary, and so on are also the Committee heads? Or that you just left half of the Council positions off the list of Council positions?
Basically, you have the overall Student Council, and any member of that is an actual member of the Student Council. Then you have sub-committees, which are under the Student Council, but only a few people in those sub-committees are actually proper members of the Student Council.

All other members of the committees just exist to get their job done as they're told. It's still a risky business to actually pick a fight with them, though, what with their connections.
I personally feel that the 3-point version of Inept should be called Inept 3, and not Inept 2. Because it's worth 3.
Sure.
[*]Freshman year is really hard on Magical Girls. Burning a round to transform, then getting 6 rounds of juice, is a pretty serious handicap in any situation where they can't completely control when the action starts. The First-year super-form isn't even that exciting compared to the always-on stuff others get, so I worry that this is too harsh. That said, I don't want to see the limitations nerfed into irrelevance, so I'm not sure what to do here.[*]Double Transformation probably shouldn't synergize with Instant Transformation that way. Not only does it strongly suggest that you should get Instant, but once you have both you can go directly to stage II in all cases, making your first costume never relevant again. Either make the second transformation always take an action, or maybe require that it can't be done during the same round as the first one. Maybe even make it require battle aura so it can't easily be pre-buffed? Finally, you have language about taking an action to downshift from form II to form I but no reason to do so.
1. Yeah, I'm not too sure how to fix that one either. I could give them their Instant/Dazzling choice at First Year I suppose?
2. Fair enough, I'll make it so double-transformation always takes the action. The bit about downshifting is there on the off chance anyone decides they want to, not that there is an actual reason to do so.
[*]The +1 defense in Enhanced Speed one is easy to overlook. It also appears not to scale up; is that intended? Finally, it is +1 point or +1 degree, I.E Normal to Hard?
Just one point... I think. To tell the truth, I'm tempted to just remove that bit.
Blink Step: As far as I can tell this doesn't do anything. Is this intended to let you move as "not-an-action". Because if so that should be more explicit, and it has some weird rules interactions.
Yeah, it was supposed to be "Don't ever spend your Minor Action moving like a chump, you can just move places as Not An Action". I'll clarify that. Note that you still actually have to use a Minor Action to move for some of those "Must have been moving last turn" powers, and that's intentional.
Double-Team. Maybe you could clean it up with something like "may assist your main action, or take a second action which affects unattended objects or willing others, but not you, enemies, or their stuff."
That's basically what I was after, thanks.
Clock Stopper has language that sort of implies you can't use it to make attacks, but it doesn't say you can't.
I'll change it to specify that you totally can.
Second Element is essentially worthless without Linked Effect.
This doesn't bother me too much - the assumption is that people will take Linked Effect and then take Second Element if they want. I mean, if you find yourselves fighting lots of creatures with various Resistances it has a reason but w/e.
Negation Beam should be clarified. I assume it means you have access to both a fire beam and a negation beam, which are separate actions to use?
That's correct. I'll fix that.
I demand that the description of "wide blast" begin with the phrase "you have huge balls.
Denied.
I don't even know what's going on here. It doesn't specify a skill.
As it's an attack, you use "your attack stat", but I'll specify that, and that, as a beam attack, you can use Science.
Are Happiness beams meant to be repeated for credit?
That was the intent. Should it just remove annoying conditions instead? Or maybe have Healing + reduces Battle Aura, meaning for 5/6 people it's free healing, but the other 1/6 actually have an annoying trade-off?
Anger should define its interaction with Battle Auras.
Good point.
The "Mind Control" clause of Love doesn't do anything. The victim can choose to act as confused, and confused people can choose to do nothing, ergo you can never control anyone's actions. Also it's a little weird that confusing beams of love (or LOVE) come in under energies and emotions with similar but not identical mechanics.
Oh snap! I'll remove the bit about still choosing to be confused. And yeah, I'll remove LOVE as an Elemental Blast type.
Fast Flight is virtually worthless.
I'll make it so you're harder to hit when flying fast.
If someone walks into your fear aura and passes the test, and then you Focus it while they're inside, what happens? What if you "pulse" it every other round? Or even every round? Does it matter if they walk out and back in?
They passed the test, so you can Focus as much as you like. If they walk out and back in, they need to attempt the test again. If you pulse an aura on and off each round, then you can force tests. I guess I should make that cost an action.
What can you do while defending with a Barrier weapon?
Anything you can normally do except attack with it. I mean, you can attack with it, but as soon as you do, you stop using it as a Barrier until your next turn. I'll clarify that.
Last edited by Koumei on Fri Jan 04, 2013 3:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Orion »

Fix your tags.

Having Happiness beams be free unlimited healing isn't really a problem. Actually you have a few other infinite healing powers lying around. So if that's the paradigm you're using, I say just run with it. I definitely wouldn't make it infinite free healing that arbitrarily hoses one character.
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Post by Whipstitch »

Kinetic Wall could use a one-at-a-time caveat at the minimum and likely a duration as well depending on whether you see it mostly as a combat/emergency stopgap or as an on-demand barricade builder.
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Post by Orion »

Having thought about it a little more, I think the real problem with Magical Girl is that Energy Blast needs to have a much faster progression. It's fine for transforming to be a bit of a pain if it gets you something worth writing home about. But right now what it gives you is the same physical enhancement everyone else gets, plus an Energy Blast equivalent to a free handgun. Since a weaponmaster can summon an on-demand rifle, it's difficult to exaggerate how unexciting this is. Energy Blasts need to start with sub-powers, or with 2 or 3 damage, or both.
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Post by Whipstitch »

I dunno about a flat boost to elemental attacks, but yeah, magical girls have weird progression in general and could use a smoother curve. As it stands now 1st & 2nd year is pretty meh but 3rd years totally rock your face--Lasting Transformation will often get your initial weakness handwaved in many cases and meanwhile you get armor, Heightened Senses, Enhanced Speed, Evasive Acrobatics and your base Emo Blast & Ele Beam damage is now high enough that your sheer attack type coverage really starts going from cute trick to nasty. And with 4th year you can add Flight, Mighty Barrier/Furious Pressure to your suite of zoning/defense tools while Hyper Attack or Void offer yet more coverage. So while an early buff would be nice, I'd also consider removing the Genius perk from standard Noble and Magical Girl progression--I'm really not a big fan of "Eventually has S" and "Can make attacks an opposed roll" combos being built into a class, particularly if you've already doing OK in the armor and mobility sweepstakes. Actually, I'm not really a big fan of S's or the Genius trait in general given that Gym governs so much and taking it along with the Genius trait is such a logical soft counter to the aforementioned S-rank defense tactics.

Anyway, so far most Houses look strong enough that I think Lotus Fist could really use a buff since they're getting boned super hard in the synergy department right now--they can't quickly nova because they're on a Rage Meter but they're also rather flimsy. So stuff with better access to Enhanced Speed or Camouflage along with decent debuffs or high damage attacks can pants Lotus Fists in HtH combat in distressingly deterministic ways--Heartblades in particular are pretty much just better in a duel right now. So I'd strongly consider turning the tables: give Lotus Fists earlier access to Evasive Acrobatics as well as Enhanced Speed equal to year level then let their powers and Enhanced Strength run on Battle Aura. That way it becomes much harder to get free shots on superhuman Dim Mak masters and after 4 turns of combat and trademarked Manly Tears your Kenshiro wannabe can put his fists through people and perform Pressure Point Attacks on Gamerah. That admittedly makes them pretty scary one on one, but keep in mind that in terms of damage mitigation and regeneration effects you'd still be just a dude.
Last edited by Whipstitch on Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Koumei »

For the record, any changes made are being made to the document I'm typing up, to turn into a pdf, rather than going back and editing the posts again and again, which is very slow.

I'll just let Happiness Beams heal people. The School Nurse has the task of healing stuff that can't be healed normally, like having your arms and legs chopped off.

Yes, Kinetic Wall will have limitations so it's an emergency barrier thing.

I'll give Magical Girls a Sub-Power for Energy Blast from the word go, and make the "Focus to add 1 damage" a standard thing for the power. They can still deal with their 1-round transformation at the early stages.

Fair enough on removing Genius. I'll keep it in as the thing you can spend five Trait Points on, because it's important that people be able to be super-special-the-bestest at stuff, scoring more than 100% and all that. But people won't be getting it as an advancement option.

The boost I'm giving Year 1 Monstrosity is the ability to alter their size at will. This will let them become small (stealthy, Extreme difficulty to hit them, they only ever do 1 damage with weapon attacks and take extra damage from all hits) or massive (Hard difficulty to hit others, take less damage, harder to reach vitals, they do more damage and innately shove people about) at will. Obviously this combos really well with their later abilities.

That sounds fair, giving Lotus Fist automatic Speed (no Subs), and then Aura-based Strength (with Subs).

Also, because the list of X by year takes up a bit more than one page if I want to space it out nicely, I'm splitting it into 2 pages and adding a tiny section on Graduates. This is relevant for any teachers that are ex-students but is mostly there to mean there's less white space.
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Post by Koumei »

Soon, I'll have finished putting all the rules stuff into the type-up document. Then there'll just be the various extra chapters (The Benefits of Seniority, Life at Bakuhatsu High, Other Campuses, The Outside World, Crime and Punishment and the Lack Thereof, Smash the World's Shell: the Student Council, Ex-Students in the World, NPCs, Blank Character Sheet).

Once that's done, I'll put it up as version 0.01, so people can find things to change while I'm working on the art.
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Post by Koumei »

OKAY BITCHES!

Download it and tell me what you think so I can fix errors and generally get it in good shape.
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Post by Chamomile »

There must be a better way to phrase the way Magical Girls get to upgrade either strength or speed by one step every year. On a similar note: The exact phrasing of the Magical Girls' fourth year progression rules out taking, say, Enhanced Speed at level I if earlier all your upgrades went into Enhanced Strength. Is this intentional, or an artifact of the clumsy phrasing? On a similar note, are the Spirit Binders intentionally unable to get both ESt and ESp?
These classes will include playing different sports for a few weeks at a time (like it works in Australia, as opposed to specifically getting football coaches in America)
Cross-cultural note: This is not how it works in American high school (or at least, not in my part of America). We also do the playing different sports for a few weeks at a time thing. We also incidentally have football teams as an extracurricular thing, but that's not part of gym class.

After finishing the clubs section I found myself unable to continue reading, because of Mediafire problems. I should probably just download it.

Looks pretty good to me so far, though. If someone ran a game of this, I'd probably play it (depending on who else was in the group, of course).

EDIT: The character sheet needs more circles.
Last edited by Chamomile on Sun Jan 13, 2013 8:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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