Final Fantasy IV iOS

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Final Fantasy IV (originally released as FF II in the west) just recently became available (iTunes store link) for iOS. It’s on sale right now at $8 for I’m not sure how long (which is 50% off, I think). The sequel Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is also coming to iOS sometime this november, which means I don’t have to pick up a PS Vita at some point to play it. Final Fantasy IV was #5 in my Appendix NES list.

This is a remake with new graphics, not just a port, which has both upsides and downsides. I haven’t played that much of it yet, but the controls are excellent. The old sprites left more to the imagination than the new 3D character models, which detract from the mood somewhat, but that is just a minor complaint.

This is probably my second favorite Final Fantasy game (VI being the best), and IV might have an even more inspirational setting for tabletop RPGs. Something about the setting of VI seems more appropriate for the telling of an epic story, whereas I can more easily see adventurers exploring the lands of IV. Also, IV has underworld tank dwarves (Google image search pointed me to Papers & Pencils, hah).

VI will also supposedly be coming as an iOS remake (finally!), if the IV games do well.

Final Fantasy IV iOS remake (personal iPad screen captures):

Original SNES presentation, for comparison:

SNES Final Fantasy IV (source)

A method of preparation

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Part 1 of a threefold “approach to play” series. Part 2 was already published (A Method of Play).

The random stocking table included below replicates the chances from Moldvay, but only requires a second die roll one third of the time. The idea to improve the stocking table by reducing the number of die rolls came from this post. The result labels have also be rephrased in more general terms.

Before a campaign begins, do these things.

Draw a campaign map. This sounds grand, but need not be. It should usually include a place of safety (such as a town) and 3 to 6 dangerous locations that also promise great reward. Create at least one hook per location so that players can find adventure. Example hooks include rumors, available missions, or the premonitions of seers. Hidden locations may also be created later, but are not needed before the campaign begins. Less constrained situations, such as a river spirit that has been driven insane by the refuse being generated by a new mill, may also be used instead of a physical location. It is worth creating both dangerous places and abstract situations, so that players can pursue either kind of adventure.

Sites to be explored should probably have maps, because predetermined spatial relationships make exploration more engaging and easier to run impartially. Draw these maps (or repurpose maps acquired from elsewhere). Note any important NPCs, adding no more than one or two words of description and one or two special abilities if relevant. Then decide what is in every room or zone, either using dice as a guide or based on the necessity of the area and its relationships.

Finally, and most importantly, for each site create a list of complications that might occur. This is most important because, other than interacting with the site itself, these complications are what will end up constituting play. Complications can be as simple or complex as desired. A list of monsters that might be encountered wandering around the area is often sufficient.

Determining Occupants & Contents Randomly
Mundane contents Mundane contents (2 in 6 chance hidden treasure) Monster or occupant Monster or occupant with treasure Hazard or trap (2 in 6 chance hidden treasure) Strange phenomenon or incomprehensible object

Weapons Quick Reference

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Here is a weapons quick reference PDF (see downloads page). Some properties are also keyed to training and mastery (as described in the recently posted warrior class). When I used these rules in person, I found it invaluable to have everything on a single, easy to reference piece of paper.

For ease of reference, I have also included the rules contained in the PDF below.

The properties here are simplified from my previous effort.

Weapons

Weapon	Properties	Trained	Mastered
Club	bludgeon		stun
Dagger		throwable	auto-hit after grapple
Spear	reach	throwable	interposing
Staff	two-handed, bludgeon	+1 AC	parry (melee)

Weapon	Properties	Mastered
Short sword		+2 attack in formation
Short bow		+2 attack with aim
Sling	unencumbering, versatile ammo	N/A

Weapon	Properties	Mastered
Axe	minimum damage 2	hits destroy an item
Mace, war hammer	bludgeon, +2 vs. armor	+4 vs. heavy armor
Long sword		riposte
Pole arm	two-handed, reach, 2DTH	interposing
Two-handed sword	two-handed, 2DTH	riposte
Long bow		volley

All weapons deal one die of damage. Attack rolls are penalized by four with untrained weapons. Mastered weapons deal an extra point of damage. Some weapon options only become available with training or mastery.

Weapon Properties

2DTH

Roll two dice for damage and take the highest result (2DTH stands for “2 Dice, Take Highest”).

Interposing

Opponents must make a saving throw to get past the weapon and make an attack. If this saving throw is failed, a die of damage is sustained.

Riposte

Enemies that miss the wielder with a melee strike and roll a natural five or less on the attack roll take a die of damage.

Stun

A successful hit requires the enemy to make a saving throw in addition to the standard damage inflicted. If that saving throw is failed, the enemy may not take an action during the next turn. Stuns are only effective against enemies of the same size or smaller than the weapon wielder.

Volley

Up to six shots (roll a die) may be taken in a single round, though the targets are determined randomly.

Crossbows

There are no penalties for using a crossbow without training. There are also no benefits gained from training or mastery. Given this ease of use, the crossbow is a weapon for the masses, and is renowned for its value against heavily armored troops. As such, crossbows are often controlled munitions, and will usually be forbidden to all other than those in official uniforms.

Weapon	Properties
Crossbow	+2 vs. armor, +4 vs. heavy armor, requires a round to reload

Ryuutama

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Ryuutama is a Japanese tabletop RPG that is being translated into english. It looks somewhat like what you might get if the Miyazaki of My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away created a fantasy RPG.

The full-color Japanese PDF can already be downloaded for free (this is legit; the author made it available). Check out that PDF for a sense of the scope and aesthetic. I have also included some art that I extracted via screen shots from this PDF at the bottom of this post that I think showcases the style.

This is being Kickstarted by Andy Kitkowski, who ran the Tenra Bansho Zero translation project and Kickstater. He has a good record delivering on his promises and creating quality products. I also have personal experience with his integrity. Though I was not aware of the TBZ Kickstarter when it was active, I later bought a copy of the hardcover TBZ set. It arrived damaged, but Andy sent me another copy without any hassles and free of charge, despite the fact that this is not a cheap set of books and sending a replacement required sending another package to Canada.

Spell dice

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A magic resource and resolution system:

Magic-users get 2 + level six-sided spell dice.
Any number of spell dice may be used to cast a spell.
Casting a spell successfully requires rolling 7 + spell level or higher.
Any die that comes up 1 or 2 is removed from the pool.
All spell dice are recovered following a restful night of sleep.

This method is separate from the approach used for deciding which spells are available for casting and could be used with any spell preparation scheme, including the traditional complicated collection of level-based slots, or something simpler.

For example, a third level magic-user has 2 + 3 = 5 total spell dice. This magic user attempts to cast a second level spell, which has target number 7 + 2 = 9. Three spell dice are committed and rolled, yielding 2, 4, and 5, with a total result of 2 + 4 + 5 = 11, which is enough to cast the spell. One of the dice came up 2, however, and so is removed from the pool, leaving the magic-user with only four dice for future spells.

This would work with level-agnostic spells. Just treat every spell as level 1 (meaning the target number is a flat 8).

The scarcity of magic can easily be adjusted by changing the number range which removes dice from the pool (specified above as die results of 1 or 2).

Any number of other bonuses could be factored into the spell roll, but any math beyond the calculation of the initial target number (7 + spell level) will make the procedure for casting spells feel more cumbersome in terms of game mechanics.

The above rules are the minimum required to make the basic system work, but there are several other details which would add to the system.

Catastrophe & Empowerment

If the spell fails with a result that includes snake eyes (two or more 1s), the outcome is a magical catastrophe (with effect appropriate to the spell in question). If the spell succeeds with a result that includes boxcars (two or more 6s), the spell is cast with greater effect than normal (increased range, more enemies affected, extra damage, or something similar).

As the number of dice recruited rises, so does the chance of rolling either snake eyes or boxcars. This is thematically appropriate, given the idea of drawing on more unstable power at once. The chance of either extreme result is 1 in 36 (approximately 2.7%) for two dice, 16 in 216 (approximately 7.4%) for three dice, 171 in 1296 (approximately 13%) for four dice, and chances continue to increase. ★

Using Life Energy

When spell dice resources are depleted, magic-users can also draw on their own life essence to fuel spells. Life energy dice may be used, but they deal damage to the magic-user whether or not the spell is successful. The number of life energy dice usable at one time may not exceed the magic-user level. Care should be taken with this option based on the availability of healing, as any effect that can restore HP can also be used to power spells, and healers may become spell batteries. Life energy dice are always expended when used.

Encumbrance

It would be reasonable to apply armor penalties to any spell roll total if armor is not restricted by class. Similarly with encumbrance penalties if encumbrance is tracked.

This is a mutation of a system described by Courtney. The major changes are that there is no fivefold results table (allowing the system to be used without any lookups) and here higher spell level makes spells harder to cast successfully whereas Courtney’s system makes casting high level spells more likely to exhaust dice. I have also been informed that Courtney has simplified the results from fivefold to threefold:

1-5: spell goes off at the end of the round, lose the spell.
6-8: spell goes off at the end of the round.
9-12: spell goes off instantly.

It is also an example of concentric game design (the first five points are necessary while everything else is supplementary).

★ This is a binomial distribution. Probabilities can be found in the rightmost column of this spreadsheet. Thanks to Joshua M. for assistance.

2013-11-02 Edit

Corrected paragraph comparing this to Courtney’s system, as I misread how he applied modifiers, and added info about how he changed the results table after seeing it in play.

Based on discussion here and here, I am concerned that an unlucky first-level magic-user might not be able to get off any spells successfully before exhausting all the dice (this would happen about 15% of the time, assuming that life energy is not used, according to Ian B.’s numbers, if any die that comes up 1 or 2 is always removed from the pool). That’s no good. This could be somewhat mitigated by starting off beginning magic-users with more than 2d6 base spell dice. However, I think a better solution would be to only exhaust dice on either successfully casting a spell or failing with a catastrophe. That way, any given spell casting would not be guaranteed, but magic-users would not expend dice without also producing some sort of effect (either good or bad).

Various Magic Systems

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Roerich – Spell-words (source)

Earlier this month, Paul V. from Dungeon Skull Mountain started a topic on Google Plus asking if there were any Olde Style D&D type games that ditch the standard “Vancian” casting and/or the classic list of spells. Ian B. left a very thorough comment summarizing the approach to magic taken by many different systems that I though might be useful in general, and deserved search engine exposure beyond the Google Plus walled garden. With permission, I reproduce it below (think of this as a Necropraxis guest post). Everything following the separator is Ian’s work.

Mana Point systems have been around for a loooong time (since 1974 at least) and vary in nature, from the simple (each spell costs a number of MP to cast equal to it’s level) to the exponential (each spell costs [level +1]^2 MP to cast) to the incredibly complex (if the moon is in Virago), to the explicit MP cost for each spell. The Arduin Grimoire used a mana point system with casting cost and ongoing cost.

I’ve seen “skill” based systems where the number of spells you get per level is your chance of casting a spell. The dice may be static or increase. One nice system stole from Barony in that if you rolled an 8 on the d8 the magic got out of your control and there was the chance that the Zaire (the greatest wizards of the land) came along, fixed the problem, and removed you from the universe (so that you caused them no more problems).

Speaking of which, Chainmail used roll to cast spells. Which means Five Ancient Kingdoms does as well.

Arrows of Indra doesn’t have spells, instead giving magicians random powers that they can use.

Beyond the Wall has a very nice magic system. Highly recommended.

DCC RPG also has an excellent system for Old School spell casting. Just remember that beginning spellcasters are expected to spellburn in order to get anything done – that’s the limit on casting spells.

Spell Law (the magic system in what was to become Rolemaster) was originally written for D&D, although I’ve forgotten the exact mechanisms (or rather, overwritten them with the Rolemaster descendant). Mana Point and spell list knowledge,

Thieves Guild had some magic stuff in it, although you’d have to dig hard to find it. I think the highly excellent Thieves Guild VI had the most, as well as an excellent set of naval rules and seabourne encounter tables. It was very simulationist though.

And of course the original 1E Chivalry & Sorcery magic system is perfectly extractable and usable in D&D.

Most published variant systems were built for 3E style play. This is mainly because people were trying to recreate the old games they adored in their youth.

I do like Call of Cthlhu d20 which had spells fuelled by the characteristics of the sorceror as the limit for casting magic.

True Sorcery has a complicated system that can be used to determine the DC of spells by assembling effects and limitations . To cast them, simply make the roll on 1d20 + modifiers. Most of the 3E D&D spells are replicated to show you how to do it, but the whole system is a bit too finicky for my tastes. Still it has interesting ideas how to go about thinking of designing new spells.

Blue Rose had a whole different magic system which basically emulated psychic abilities (give or take).

Elements of Magic breaks spells into category effects by level, and was interesting. again, it’s a method of assembling spells. I quite liked it, especially when you start thinking about a spell design system.

GOO’s old Advanced D20 Magic combined a DC system and mana points to try to replicate D&D spells with BESM style abilities. Agian it was to construct a system for constructing spells. Many of the 3E spells translated to this system. Again a bit finicky, but it actually provided lots of ideas for the system I currently use.

I’ll mention PIG’s Atomik Magic and Atomic Grimoire here as well, although it’s not a D20 or D&D system, but contains some interesting ideas on creating a skill and magic point system for it.

And there are many more I can’t remember – all people that had ideas of how to solve the “problem” of D&D magic. Such as Everquest, for example.

And this precis ignores hacks of other systems. I’ve seen both Ars Magica and The Fantasy Trip hacked to fit a D&D game, among others.

If you mean variant magic systems that capture the Old School feel but aren’t applicable to the rest of OSR D&D you’ve got far too many to list. I particularly enjoy the magic of Carcosa.

Warrior class

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Like the rogue and sorcerer classes, this warrior class is designed around the trichotomy of untrained, trained, and mastered. For warriors, these concepts are applied to weapons, armor, and shields. Similar to the other two classes in this line of development, the warrior uses the high rationalized hit dice progression and hit dice dice as attack bonus.

One improvement option is chosen each time a character gains a level. A character must have training in something before mastery.

This post completes a three-fold division of adventuring types. As discussed previously, the structural difference between the main classes is combat/renewable resource (fighter), combat/consumable resource (magic-user), utility/renewable resource (thief), and utility/consumable resource (magic-user). This scheme implements that structure by making warriors the only class that gets better at using weapons (renewable combat resources), rogues the only class that gets better at using skills (renewable utility resources), and sorcerers the only class that gets better at using spells (consumable combat & utility resources). It is also worth noting that the split is not complete, as all classes increase to some degree in hit dice, which gives sorcerers and rogues some minimal development in renewable combat resources, though much less than the warrior.

As you might suspect, I have thought about how classes might gain cross-class training. For example, how do you handle a sorcerer wishing to gain training in a sword or a warrior wishing to gain training in a spell? The approach I favor is simple, but must wait for a future post.

Warrior

Initial training:

Four weapons from any weapons list.
Light armor, heavy armor, and shields.

Improvement options: weapon training, weapon mastery, heavy armor mastery, shield mastery.

Weapons

Simple: dagger, staff, spear, club
Light: short sword, bow, sling
Heavy: long sword, mace, axe, pole-arm, longbow, 2H sword

Untrained Weapons

Attack rolls are penalized by four with untrained weapons.

Trained Weapons

Attack rolls are not penalized when wielding trained weapons. Training also often unlocks weapon-specific options (for example, daggers may only be thrown by characters with dagger training).

Mastered Weapons

Mastered weapons deal an extra point of damage. Mastery also optionally allows special weapon properties to be used (such as the long bow’s volley attack).

Crossbows

Are considered as trained for all characters, have a further bonus against armored targets, require a round to reload, may not be mastered, and are controlled munitions (any character not in a lord’s uniform carrying one will have it confiscated at the very least, and likely expelled from town or thrown into prison).

Armor & Shields

Light armor: leather (AC +2)
Heavy armor: chain (AC +4), plate (AC +6)

Armor Penalties

Wearing armor imposes two kinds of penalties on characters, a general physical penalty and a skill penalty. The general physical penalty applies to attack rolls, physical saving throws, and physical ability checks. This penalty depends on armor type (leather = -1, chain = -2, plate = -3), and is cumulative with any penalty from encumbrance.

Skills that require general agility (climb, stealth, and steal) are penalized by 1 if wearing chain armor and 2 if wearing plate armor. Skills are not penalized by leather armor.

Armor Training

There are two kinds of armor training, light and heavy. Light armor training applies to leather and similar armors, while heavy armor training applies to chain and plate armors. Having training in armor removes the physical penalty but does not remove the skill penalty. A character must be trained in light armor before being trained in heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Mastery

Characters with heavy armor mastery gain +1 AC when using exceptional armor, and decreases the skill penalty by 1. Exceptional heavy armor must be purchased at great expense (exact cost should vary based on available materials and labor, but ten times normal cost would be a reasonable baseline). Further, rare materials may be required for the crafting.

No benefit is gained from mastering light armor.

Untrained Shield Use

Untrained shield users gain +1 AC, but only when they focus on using the shield to the exclusion of all else.

Shield Training

Characters with shield training gain +1 AC when using a shield in combat.

Shield Mastery

Characters with shield mastery gain +2 AC when using a shield in combat.

Contest update

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NIN Closer video frame

I have decided to extend the contest deadline to november 10th so that it doesn’t step on Santicore’s toes. See link in previous sentence for contest details. Really, just do something cool that has relevance to DIY D&D and is related somehow to the idea of change, metamorphosis, or becoming.

I haven’t gotten very many submissions, so if you make something you don’t get have lots of competition.

OD&D FLAILSNAILS

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Recently I have been thinking that it might be fun to try running some FLAILSNAILS games using my interpretation of 3 LBB OD&D as a base. Were any players interested in such adventuring, here is how I might run it.

Ability scores do not provide bonuses, other than +1 to missile attacks from dexterity scores of 13 or higher and +1 HP per hit die for constitution scores of 15 or higher.
Magic weapons do not add modifiers to attack or damage, though some monsters can only be damaged by enchanted weapons.
The best AC is 2. It should be obvious whether a given visitor counts as unarmored (AC 9), lightly armored (AC 7), moderately armored (AC 5), or heavily armored (AC 3). Shields grant another further bonus of one.
A per-session HP total using OD&D hit dice should be rolled. OD&D hit dice only use six-sided dice, with bonuses for partial steps (for example, a second level magic-user gets 1d6+1 HP).
Death & dying is handled as a saving throw at zero HP, with success indicating unconsciousness and failure indicating death (there are no negative HP).

Other than the HP totals, none of these considerations should require any real work. For example, an AD&D paladin in full plate with a magic sword and shield would be AC 2, deal 1d6 “magic” damage with the sword, and use the fighter’s attack matrix values.

Enemy numbers follow the same rules (limited range of ACs, hit dice using six-sided dice, etc). Even dragons have no better AC than 2.

I generally have PCs re-roll HP per session to represent recovery, so rolling hit dice is something everyone does at the beginning of the session.

Some magic items may function slightly differently. For example, in my interpretation, continual light enchantments cannot be placed on objects. These would need to be handled on an ad hoc basis.

A summary of OD&D ability scores can be found here.

Pahvelorn initiative

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Back in June, I discussed potential rules for what happens when magic-users wear armor. I ended up settling on a d6-based individual initiative system, which makes armor increase the chances of spells being disturbed by penalizing initiative. I have been using this for the past three or four months now, and it has worked out well, though we still sometimes forget to enforce the declare spells step. From here on out though: if the initiative die has been thrown, but no spell has been declared, no spell will be cast! This is, of course, true for NPCs as well.

The procedure is as follows.

Declare any spells
Each player rolls 1d6 (including the referee)
Subtract 1 for a dexterity of 13+
Add armor penalty (see below)
Referee counts up (so lower is better), and players act in turn

Armor category: heavy (plate) = 3, medium (chain) = 2, light (leather) = 1
Armor skill: fighter = 3, cleric = 2, thief = 1, magic-user = 0
Armor penalty = armor category – armor skill, minimum 0

That is a complicated way of saying that if you are wearing more armor than your class uses normally, you take an initiative penalty equal to the difference.

Magic-users or clerics casting a spell must chant and gesture, and are thus natural targets. If the character is disturbed before the spell resolves, the spell is interrupted, and a saving throw must be made or the spell is lost.

All retainers (or NPCs being controlled by a player) act on that player’s initiative number, and most of the time all hostiles act on the referee’s initiative number (though occasionally the referee may use multiple initiative dice for different groups of NPCs).

Armor penalty also applies to physical ability checks, physical saving throws, thief abilities, and other similar rolls. For example, even outside of combat, a magic-user wearing heavy armor will take a -3 penalty to attack rolls, strength checks, saving throws versus dragon breath, and so forth.

If a thief “wins initiative” (that is, acts before all hostiles), the option to hide in shadows while in melee is available (requiring the standard thief skill check). This allows thieves to then either retreat without chance of pursuit or take actions in future rounds with surprise (including backstabs). Thieves may always attempt to hide in shadows when not in melee.

Any character that has not yet taken a turn and is not casting a spell may attempt to intercept an attack directed at another character, as long as the action makes sense in terms of fictional positioning. Fighters may attempt one intercept per round without sacrificing their standard action. Retainers that have been directed to defend may need to pass a morale check before they will attempt an intercept, depending on the situation. Succeeding in an intercept attempt requires making an attack roll and hitting a better AC than the attacker (this is essentially a contested attack roll).

The formal hide in shadows rule is new. The intercept rule has been active for a while, but is one that we tend to forget about. It is worth remembering though, because it makes fighters and hired bodyguards more useful.