Fallout Equetria PNP

[Kashin]

Mine is still missing 95 % of the magic system xD

As I have found myself with a free day I had not planed on would you like some help on that front? I can draft out a few magic trees fairly quickly.

[Kattlarv]

@Ripped: My system will have a "bonding" thing. (Cha will likely make up the limit for it) But basically, you get more bonus the closer bonded you are with a character if you try to ex: help said character. And the more friends you have, the higher is your friendship score.

@Kashin: That would be appreciated. However, after spending 2 days awake, then passing out on the floor. My RP group concluded up a possible basic start for the system. Having a few schools and the like, and also elements in them. (Ex "Bolt" for battle spells, and then you can add an element, such as "fire, lighting ice" etc and create the desired effect. And each school and "effect" would have a counterpart said character would not go well with. Ex: If someone has necrotic energy as their "element" of magic, and destruction spells as their school. A simple "heal" spell for that would cost say: 6 mana to cost for a unicorn with rejuvenation/conjuration/divine as their school, would cost x2 (12) first for being opposite school, and then x3 (18) for being the opposite element as well. As well as instead of costing ~10 points to learn, it'd cost 30-50 points. (trying to bring out both the point that any unicorn can learn any spell apart from their "inherent/talent" ones as Twi points out "with enough study", but it will be bugger all harder to do. To emphasise the "it was to hard for Velvet to easily learn from a school that differs from her own. And ofc "branching schools" would be easier to learn, but cost a bit more. (Original concept is cost reduction for primary school and element. Normal cost for primary school, ~50 % more for branching schools and 300-500 % more for the directly opposed ones) Not sure if my rambling made any sense, but I hope it does. So far you cast with your "caster stat" (will likely have to be revised however). Lets say you got 10 int and that is your attribute. And a spells "cast difficulty" is x5+20. That would result in your having your Intx5 (50) then +20 for it being a simpler spell. thus you roll against 70. (unless further specialized, such as +5 from cutie mark etc) A harder spell might just have ex: simply x3. Thus leaving you at 30 (or 35). Erh, anyhow. Gotta stop before trailing off again haha.

[Kashin]

However, after spending 2 days awake, then passing out on the floor.

Are you all right buddy?

Ex: If someone has necrotic energy as their "element" of magic, and destruction spells as their school. A simple "heal" spell for that would cost say: 6 mana to cost for a unicorn with rejuvenation/conjuration/divine as their school, would cost x2 (12) first for being opposite school, and then x3 (18) for being the opposite element as well. As well as instead of costing ~10 points to learn, it'd cost 30-50 points. (trying to bring out both the point that any unicorn can learn any spell apart from their "inherent/talent" ones as Twi points out "with enough study", but it will be bugger all harder to do.

harder nothing, I doubt that they would be able to learn it at all. while we have seen folk use tangentially related spells one that is the antithesis of their talent should probably be impossible. remember the only reason Twi and Trixie could use such a wide range was due to their magic cutie marks.

To emphasise the "it was to hard for Velvet to easily learn from a school that differs from her own. And ofc "branching schools" would be easier to learn, but cost a bit more. (Original concept is cost reduction for primary school and element. Normal cost for primary school, ~50 % more for branching schools and 300-500 % more for the directly opposed ones) Not sure if my rambling made any sense, but I hope it does. So far you cast with your "caster stat" (will likely have to be revised however). Lets say you got 10 int and that is your attribute. And a spells "cast difficulty" is x5+20. That would result in your having your Intx5 (50) then +20 for it being a simpler spell. thus you roll against 70. (unless further specialized, such as +5 from cutie mark etc) A harder spell might just have ex: simply x3. Thus leaving you at 30 (or 35). Erh, anyhow. Gotta stop before trailing off again haha.

First of all, let me preface with this is your RPG and your call, I'm just throwing in my two bits. I would personally set up magic spells into domains (healing, fire, force, animals, plants, protection and so on). Upon character creation a unicorn would select one domain as their primary and one or two other tangential ones as secondaries with TK being available to everypony, but not upgradable without the force domain (EX. Lets go with Goldlight here for a moment, her talent is observation and organization [essentially being the chess master archetype is her talent]. At character creation she would get divination as her primary school and enchantment [mind control] as her secondary. As a pony focused on order and observation the domains of stealth and discord would be completely banned for her). The Unicorn would have full access to their primary school and limited access to the secondary ones (ex. Velvet has performance as her primary and could learn highly complex spells from it. her secondaries would be healing and defense allowing her to learn the shield spell and anesthetic spell with some difficulty, but she would be unable to learn the higher tier spells such as temporary invulnerability or limb regeneration.). Unicorns would be able to gain additional secondary schools with perks within reason (related to their talent or interests and not opposing a school they already know) sort of like an extra tag skill. Magic talent unicorns would be the exception to this rule as their magic isn't meant to supplement a preexisting talent. Magic talent unicorns would still have one primary school, but have all secondary ones and be able to upgrade a secondary to a primary with the traits other unicorns use to gain new secondaries.

One more thing I may want to suggest is a system for Overglows signaler to the overlapping AP rule. I see FO:E spells working like D&D 3.5 psionics; each spell has a base cost and then can be augmented by additional power being pumped into them (increased power, range, duration and the like). A unicorn can only invest a set amount of magic in a round so if they want to cast multiple or powerful spells they will need to risk burnout with overglows. each round after the second of investment would come at the risk of burnout, forcing the unicorn to make an increasingly difficult will save every round they charge and one when they set off the spell, failure resulting in their pool of magic being reduced to 0 and gaining the exhausted condition (if the casting save failed the spell is still successful before the drain); taking damage while charging would also force a save. A fumble could even result in illness (LittlePip after her first burn out), horn damage, blow back or a dreaded overload (the horn gos up like a magical energy grenade releasing all the stored energy and probably blowing up the unicorns head... or a city block depending on the unicorn's power).

[Fallen_Kaisar]

Keeping up with this discussion is rather difficult since I seem to be without internet until Thursday. Perhaps I misspoke in my last post, easy was not the correct word. I did not intend simply to give Earth Pony's a cyberpony track. While that is certainly a track to give them, I would also have a track that followed a weapon mastery progression as well as one that dealt with hard tech rather than arcane science, and perhaps even one dedicated to just being stronger and tougher than everypony else.

I see Red Eye less as a cyberpony and more like Father Elijah, he's able to grasp the use of equipment readily and knows what to do to make it work. Applebloom was one of the founders of Stable-tech and designed Terminals and Pip-bucks. The Earth Pony Way is less about the tech itself and more about the creativity and innovation that allows earth ponies to maximize their use.

Examples:

Years of Applebuckin': You could probably kick over a tree or stop a out of control carriage with those hooves. You ignore an additional 5 DR with unarmed attacks.

Born in the Saddle: Your long reliance on battle saddles has given you a mastery few others can match, allowing you to bear the heaviest of weapons with ease. The strength requirements of all saddle-mounted weapons are reduced by 2.

How Do You Like THEM Apples!: Proper care and maintenance is all part of a days work. You have personally broken down and rebuilt or meticulously maintain all of you equipment, and can thus get that little extra edge of performance out of it. You do +2 Damage with all weapons.

Buck of Restoration (or perhaps TLC): (Requires Repair 100) You know you way around machines inside and out, and can tell at a glance what needs some Tender Loving Care and what is a Totally Lost Cause. Sometimes, things aren't as broken as they seem, and a good thump is all it needs. You have a 50% chance to repair broken locks or locked terminals.

The Earth Pony Way: You don't have the advantages that Unicorns or Pegasi enjoy, but they're just cheaters anyway. You have an intuitive understanding of most Pre-War tech, but this does not extend to unicorn Arcane Science or Pegasus could-tech. You gain +25% damage against mechanical or robotic opponents and can usually guess at the purpose and controls of esoteric Pre-War technology. Have you thought about joining the Steel Rangers?

[Sunrise]

Version 1.2 is now out! Featuring expanded Griffin and Earth Pony perks, added healing magic (Admittedly, I had completely overlooked that one!) added some more potions to the Zebra alchemy list, tweaked a few perks in the 'general pool', added a few more rule explanations including Crippling/Crippled Limbs.

a quick explanation on what each SPECIAL stat does

By themselves? Nothing, actually. They're just there as additional modifiers for skills. With the exception of Luck and Endurance of course, but that's covered.

Second, character interaction, IE: the "RP" of "RPG".

How do you think that should work out? If one of us decides to save each session and make a story out of this (which could be fun, actually) how should character interaction take place? Should we have "support bonds", similar to fire emblem's system? I'm curious how that could work.

First of all writing stories based of your characters experiences in the game (and afterwards!) would be infinitely awesome, I wholeheartedly support this As for the roleplay itself... What I've written up on googledocs is quite literally the mechanics of combat and character construction. I suppose it's pretty ironic that, for what I've worked on it, the stats and the mechanics are only a third of the game itself. The game would be largely narrative driven with your characters experiencing the world around them and of course their own interactions within it. Character interaction would be direct, you would type out what lines your character speaks and describe how your character interacts via the '/me' command on IRC, really simple and straight forward. Player characters can speak to each other freely, even in combat they can yell to take cover or silently signal to one-another. On the other hoof! The character sheets are not independent entirely from the narrative. For example a character with the Gun Nut perk, I would expect the character to actually act on that perk and be interested in firearms or a character with the Mare-Do-Ill perk would act like a charlatan or dashing rogue. Were I to attempt to make mechanics or designs to simulate the roleplaying experience itself then I kind of feel like a) I'd cheapening the whole experience b) adding too much bloat to the system and c) I feel I'd be detracting from the roleplay itself.

Keeping up with this discussion is rather difficult since I seem to be without internet until Thursday.

Dont' worry, you're not going to get left behind anywhere :3

can usually guess at the purpose and controls of esoteric Pre-War technology.

I found this really really awesome. Lot's of potential for roleplay or even a whole character concept there.

[Kattlarv]

@Kashin: 1: Yeah, I'm so-so. I only overdid my endurance limit those days.
2: Yeah, it is either the path of "impossible to learn" or "really freaking hard to learn". Meaning they kept studying despite the difficulties they faced. Since after all, otherwise all unicorns would have a very limited, close to none learning capacity going by the "general cutie mark". But my grand proof of this is 1: Twi mentioning in the show that "only a few unicorns have had the dedication to learn this spell". And Rarity in FoE learning new spells frequently with Twi, or well,discussing spells. She learnt how to teleport. And that is far from gems, illusion or "fashion" in relevancy. And Pip's blood magery can be questioned as "evil tome" exception, or being very loose on the "Tk" factor, since even if it could be lifted by Tk, it wouldn't be made sharp or coagulate.

3: I'm all open for suggestions, as long as they are good or at least carry some validity to them
And that seems like a rather solid method, will have to see what my RPG group comes up with. Mind control seems like an iffy school however. Seeing how not even x amount of effing psudo-alicorns failed to mind control pip, I don't see it being a big chance to succeed for a normal unicorn. Maybe 15% chance at most or sumit. But I like the primary and secondary/nearest branches part. 3,5: I actually have a test overglow system atm. Each turn you can spend 3/4 points to make an overglow, causing the effect to increase by 50 % of your caster attribute (+5 if you have 10) and each glow after the second, you make a roll against caster attribute x5 + End x3 (would be 80 if you have 10 in both) and each round after that, you loose x1 on your End multiplier, this can max be done 4 times without talent. and in this case would progress to 80>70>60>50 if you fail, and depending how much, you could: Loose all the mana built up, take half of the effect yourself, drain all remaining mana and cast it anyhow, take full effect yourself etc.

@Fallen: You have to keep in mind every race should be able to play every "class", apart from the "exclusive" ones, such as battle-mage. If you'd go after a archetype on each race, they would be made into classes. I know it will be hard to find a good balance, but it has to be at least possible to play something controversy without being worthless as it. Ex: In D&D, you can play a hafl-orc paladin, you just suffer a bit to charisma, but you could still do it, instead having a bit of an edge on other areas instead of just being overall worse in everything in that class.

[Kashin]

Yeah, I'm so-so. I only overdid my endurance limit those days.

Just don't push yourself to hard. If you need any help let me know.

2: Yeah, it is either the path of "impossible to learn" or "really freaking hard to learn". Meaning they kept studying despite the difficulties they faced. Since after all, otherwise all unicorns would have a very limited, close to none learning capacity going by the "general cutie mark". But my grand proof of this is 1: Twi mentioning in the show that "only a few unicorns have had the dedication to learn this spell". And Rarity in FoE learning new spells frequently with Twi, or well,discussing spells. She learnt how to teleport. And that is far from gems, illusion or "fashion" in relevancy. And Pip's blood magery can be questioned as "evil tome" exception, or being very loose on the "Tk" factor, since even if it could be lifted by Tk, it wouldn't be made sharp or coagulate.

I'm running off this quote from Spike in Boast Busters.
"I thought unicorns were only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talent."

And that seems like a rather solid method, will have to see what my RPG group comes up with.

I apriciate the consideration.

Mind control seems like an iffy school however. Seeing how not even x amount of effing psudo-alicorns failed to mind control pip, I don't see it being a big chance to succeed for a normal unicorn. Maybe 15% chance at most or sumit.

Sorry, I over simplified the enchantment school. I meant it to provide bonuses to speech and other social actions by just nudging ponies in the right direction, sort of like a weak jedi mind trick.
"You will trust me." Waves hoof.
"You seem trustworthy"
"Wonderful, now to use Goldenblood style, painfully transparent manipulation" (this is my head cannon on why anypony trusts him)

But I like the primary and secondary/nearest branches part. 3,5: I actually have a test overglow system atm. Each turn you can spend 3/4 points to make an overglow, causing the effect to increase by 50 % of your caster attribute (+5 if you have 10) and each glow after the second, you make a roll against caster attribute x5 + End x3 (would be 80 if you have 10 in both) and each round after that, you loose x1 on your End multiplier, this can max be done 4 times without talent. and in this case would progress to 80>70>60>50 if you fail, and depending how much, you could: Loose all the mana built up, take half of the effect yourself, drain all remaining mana and cast it anyhow, take full effect yourself etc.

Any opinion on the overload idea for truly epic fails or intentional pony bombs? It would also discourage folk from going for the horn of a charging unicorn when they are near by.

As I haven't seen one might I suggest a parry system where a pony armed with a reasonable weapon (you can't use a turret or a nerf bat to block) or sufficiently high unarmed score can deflect incoming melee attacks and slow moving projectiles (knifes, bloatfly stingers ect) by using their AP for the next round to essentially attack their opponents attack (beating your to hit requirement by an equal or greater number than the attacker negates the attack, or at least lessens its impact). As your weapon would be taking the hit for you this would speed weapon decay or strait up break the weapon (rifles were not built to block sledgehammers).

Might I bring up a few Talent trees I thing you might like:
Jousting- A unicorn martial art (in rare cases buffalo could learn it as well with magitech assistance) that focuses on combining combat spells and gore attacks. It functions as a very high offense, low defense style with its signature technique being almost universally fatal.
(As I am not 100% familiar with your system I will only give the basics of each technique.)
1. Mighty lance: Your horn gains enhanced AP and damage on a charge.
2. Magic knight: You train your telekinesis to enhance your horns and hooves, they can now attack and block as if they were magical melee weapons (they still run off unarmed)
3. Overrun: By using your telekinesis to make your opponent considerably lighter a moment before impact, by expending a small amount of magic your unarmed attacks can have a knockdown/knockback effect based on both your magic and strength scores.
4. Spell and sword: It becomes easier to use spells and martial arts simultaneously
5. Cavalry Charge: The signature technique for jousting. You must declare your intent to make this attack at the start of your round. You charge at your foe head first, charging your horn. A split second after you connect the combat spell is set off inside the opponent's body maximizing the spells damage (having a flamethrower, chainsaw or grenade set of inside one's ribcage is rarely survivable). If the attach misses the spell is still set off into thin air and the unicorn looses all agility based defense until their next turn as the attack is draining.

Dervish- A close combat style that seeks to turn the entire body into a weapon (sort of what Rampage and Echo do)
1. Duel wielder: The AP cost for using two weapons is reduced.
2. More Chopa: As long as you are capable of any form movement you can make minor attacks (such as when grappled, swallowed or quadriplegic)
3. Multi wielder: Your AP penalty reduces again and you may now use half your agility (rounded up, minimum 3) in weapons at the same time.
4. Living weapon: You have coated yourself with so many sharp objects that any opponent attacking you in melee must make a ref save or take damage as they shred themselves on your armor.
5. Blade storm: The AP penalty is reduced even further and you may wield a number of weapons equil to your Agi score.

[Kattlarv]

1: I would if I did, trust me. Currently none my problems can be helped through online assistance. I just have to mare up and do it myself.
2: Ah yeah, true. But doesn't Twi say something about study afterwards... or was it more along the lines that "yes, normally..." or "yes, but since my talent IS magic..." I just found another argument however: So far story wise, a few "lore breaking" unicorns have popped up. I know there's been at least 2 mentions in FoE, and 1 in PH. The one in PH is that every single security mare learnt "security spells", so unless it's a "neutral" magic school. Every single of the other mares had that as their "secondary school", despite their talent. Only BJ lacked the skill to obtain it. So either she has the complete solar opposite of the school required, or she just lacks the stat to learn it.
3: Hey, it's not like I could come up with all the rules on my own... well, I guess I technically could. But I'd need to generally just be better to do that.

4: Ah, I see. And well, that would work I think. Would need a "dim horn glow" spell as well however, since it'd be quite obvious otherwise.
5: It's a possibility, I think I'll have a mishap table for unicorns overglow. And like, a "increase effect by ~500 % on a fumble", possibly "roll 3 times as well" or something. Also, people should want to aim for the horn, since you do NOT want to have that spell go off on you instead of in your face if it can be prevented.
6: I will make a blocking/parry system. Since I plan to implement shields as well. For unarmed I might use mutants system: Succeed a roll (likely ~50-70 % of the skill or something) and reduce the damage taken by 10 % of unarmed+1d6.

7: New talents are both welcome and dreaded haha. Just keep in mind for each racial specific tree, I need to give the other 2 one. Since otherwise I'd be having around 12 unicorn tree's and like, 1 pegasus one. It'd just be unfair. So far I've tried to keep it balanced. But it's hard to figure out what exactly EP's could do that the others can't. I've pondered a bit on a "stand firm" (think "dwarf combat tactic") possibly.
I'll consider these talents, but I gotta finish the rest first heh.

[Kashin]

7: New talents are both welcome and dreaded haha. Just keep in mind for each racial specific tree, I need to give the other 2 one. Since otherwise I'd be having around 12 unicorn tree's and like, 1 pegasus one. It'd just be unfair. So far I've tried to keep it balanced. But it's hard to figure out what exactly EP's could do that the others can't. I've pondered a bit on a "stand firm" (think "dwarf combat tactic") possibly.
I'll consider these talents, but I gotta finish the rest first heh.

An stationary charier tree would be good, a few more EP ones and two pegasus ones that might work:

Beast Lord (basically what the Ant Agonizer from FO3 and Fluttershy had): Earth pony only (other races can only take it if animals are their special talent). You gain an ever larger following of animal companions. Lost followers slowly replenish themselves; the rate and type depends on your environment. (ex. in a stable you would only get a swarm of radroaches)

Natural Bond (as of 'may the best pet win' the entire main cast has at least one rank in this, Doombunny Angel would be a rank 5): as above except you only get one companion who becomes considerably more powerful as you progress down the tree. If your bonded companion falls you can get another one but it shouldn't be easy or quick.

The Flesh is Weak/Iron pony: EP only (baring GM exception). a pony slowly replaces parts of their own body with machinery from rank one (Red Eye) to rank five (Deus) the downside is that while you are more resistant to conventional and chemical attacks you become more vulnerable to pulse weapons (counting as a full machine by rank 5). Oh, and magnets can seriously FUBAR a high rank Iron pony to the point that a strong electromagnet could literally rip the cybernetics out of a pony (this would be fatal past rank 3).

Earth Pony ingenuity: EP only, no exceptions. you are Maregiever with non-magical technology (Pinkie's 30 second invention of the gyrocoptor would be a rank 5 example)

Green Hoof: EP only, (other races can only take it if farming is their special talent). this is a noncombat tree, it essentially make an EP a better farmer, where they could grow in the Maripony crater at rank 5

Cloud crafter: Pegasus only, no exceptions. Gain the ability to produce more and more complex devices out of clouds (something simple like a chair or box for rank one, something like RD's house at rank 3 and a cruse missile or a practically weightless blade that can effect solid objects at rank 5)

Tempest: Pegasus only, no exceptions. Gain unparalleled control of the weather. (Rank one can make it rain, windy and the like. Rank five could just sit on the ground and call down lighting strikes or turn into an F3 tornado [F5 only at the GMs discretion as they can level real towns in a matter of minuets])

[Kattlarv]

I actually like the beast lord one quiet a bit. It hadn't crossed my mind much. And I gotta say I like the "unless it's your special talent" tree's. However, for the cyberpony being EP only I wouldn't agree. Maybe that they could have additional bonuses for it. That's also something I've considered. Tree's that can be taken by the other races, but preferred by one of them. (say, an EP would get +4 in it, while the other would get +3, etc) Also, I want the talent tree's to be good, but not haywire. Since a character will be able to start with 5 ranks in one. And being able to create a tornado that could destroy a town would just be herp de derp for a newly created character xD But I like the concept. Will have to fiddle with them.