"Refining"? My queries are more on the "defining" side.
I know that not many people are interested in it, but...for the record, if we went with GURPS, all these numbers would be both defined and refined.
Well, I do want to avoid cases of this, so I'd rather roll for combat checks than have it a set value.
First, is that
really the best video you could find?
Second, GURPS does involve rolling, it's just that the difficulty of various rolls is already determined and the numbers adjusted accordingly. As another bonus, it lets us figure out abilities that much more easily.
A circle like that would be drawn over an entire city or country. Plus it only works during a solar eclipse.
Does it need to be total? If not, what part of the circle needs to be eclipsed? Total solar eclipses aren't very wide...
Okay, back on topic, how will lore be handled? I have summaries of some of it below:
-snip-
You left out demons.
First off, the lore I made for demons, like most of the lore I made oh-so-long ago, has been trampled on by others because they didn't like it. So some people might disagree. I've tried to incorporate their things, though.
Hell is the afterlife. Anyone who won't make a good enough cog in the machine of the Overgods and who isn't rescued by some other god (which annoys the demons, so they don't do it much) gets sent to Hell, under the control of a demon. The exact demon varies on a number of factors, largely the vices they enjoyed but also other factors. Originally, there were only a couple dozen demons or so, each taking a fairly simple selection of souls, but over time, demons traded soul rights around and sold them and as of the modern day it's Byzantine. Demons sometimes go to Earth to try and coax mortals in various directions to try and make them end up in some demon's control or another so they can collect a fraction of the soul's value.
As for the souls, there are in general two categories: Slaves and trophies. The former category is the most common; most souls get put to work maintaining their owner's domain, whatever it might be, serving as soldiers, or some other menial task. This tends to drain the soul of identity, if they can't find ways to express it. The latter is much rarer; a sufficiently special individual will be kept away from work so that the owner can boast about owning some great conqueror, artist, hero, or somesuch. Souls can also be sold; they're a little like stocks, if I had to make a comparison to mortal economics.
As for the demons themselves...it's complicated. Familiar with Hobbes? His philosophy is more or less correct. Demons are inherently selfish. They're willing to work together if they think it furthers their aims, whether because it does or because they're tricked into thinking so. The most common method of working-together involves a stronger demon forcing a weaker demon to do as he says. They're real nice people. Most demons live in Hell, either exclusively or most of the time, but some go to the mortal world for extended periods of time, whether because they were banished for some crime or another or because of some job they need to do. Regardless, they like Hell much better. Demons can shapeshift, but when in the mortal realm they are limited by conservation of mass. They also have other magic, typically involving some kind of specialty. There are no true subtypes of demons (e.g, incubi, ifrit, etc); the closest thing demons have are basically their professions. Demons reproduce asexually.
Imps are similar to demons, being made in the same way, but they have been stripped of their individuality. Rather than try to do what's best for themselves, they try to do what's best for their creator. Imps aren't unheard of, but they're not terribly common either; it's not easy to make one, and they're generally considered valuable. Also, they're weaker than typical demons.
Demons service not only the souls of mankind but those of all sentient races. Demons and Hell are a mixture of Creation and Void, and hence are technically Twilight beings. Don't ask if they sparkle, though.
I'd also like to note that a fair portion of the cast seems to be bisexual, rather than merely homosexual.
Equipment being an innuendo for a mans genitals and enchanted... being magically imbued somethings.
...
Seriously? You felt the need to read innuendo into that?
Looks fine to me, though I wonder if magic has a void counterpart.
Depends on how you define "magic". It could easily be its own Void counterpart.
Not sure what a pure superpower would be. Probably not possible.
Considering that the universe superpowers are from is based on comic books...there's probably someone wielding pure superpower.
Optional rule: Depending on which stat on a character is the highest, he gains a perk based on that stat.
How about just generalized perks? That allows us to differentiate between characters even better. Or we could incorporate perks into powers.
This could be a good place to slip in a bit of GURPS hybrid. Use this system for most things, but use GURPS advantages (with some tweaking to fit the system, or only selecting ones that don't need it) for the perks and powers.
Mana:
...A regen phase is about 6 hours without using mana, and regens your Mana by as many points as the stat is high...
Possible perks: regen of mana during combat 1 point every 3 rounds...
Seems like a pretty dang impressive perk...especially compared to its Health equivalent.
Speed:
When you are dodging multiple enemies in succession, you gain a penalty of -1 on each successive dodge. This penalty resets between hits.
Why? I'd have it reset between turns--ie, once you've had a turn, you don't take more penalties on dodge rolls.
Skill:
How good you are at aiming, timing your attacks or going for blindspots. This is also the skill that is used to roll on for mundane skills, like crafting and whatever else, if the GM feels it is appropriate.
...Seems like a pretty darn generic mishmash. Master smiths also have to be sharpshooters?
Strength:
How good you are at dealing physical damage. Yes, I know, being super buff should not affect your damage if you use a gun, BUT we are looking for unified system, with clear rules. So you better be lifting son.
Also problematic.
Wether or not Personas use the same stat or are so radicaly different, I barely care. Only one person uses them, and in fact, does not use them for anything other than the healing spell, and instead has technology skills that definetly classify as a superpower. I will leave this for others to figure out.
For the record, I don't really care if we ditch Personas altogether. They don't really mesh with anything else...and they were introduced by Richard, aka "person from another universe".
Should someones health fall to 0, that character is unconscious, probably heavily bleeding. His allies now have [health] turns time to perform any sort of CPR or live saving measures on him. This takes no roll, however while doing so, you are an easy target, and prone to interruption. Maybe you wanna kill the demon first and CPR then? Maybe someone should cover you? Should health fall below 0, you have that much less turns to save the wounded allies live. Wether he was saved or not, that character is out of combat.
And what about after combat?
Magic is split into categories, starting from negliable, small, medium, big, enormous, epic. To be able to cast medium spells, one needs to have a mag of at least 6, 9 fof big, 12 for enormous, 15 for gigantic, higher categories may exist.
Negliable skills cost no mana, and are mostly flavour. This also covers a basic magic attack, that does nothing besides rolling on mag for damage. They require no roll to be succesfully cast, except skill if it need to be aimed.
Small skills cost 1 mana. That's either attacks that deal more damage (mag*2 is rolled here), or add side effects, like setting the enemy on fire to do damage over time, or adding a small AoE etc.
Medium skills cost 2 mana, and you either need to beat a TN of 3 on mag, or the spell could come at a minor drawback.
Big skills cost 3 mana, and you need to beat a TN of 6 on mag to pull them of, or a TN of 3 alongside a minor drawback, or no TN, but two drawbacks.
etc etc. A charsheet should provide ample amount of examples what theirt abilities would do in each category, and the GM needs to look those over carefully.
Examples of drawbacks: Deal a d3 of damage to the caster, cost 1 more point of mana, is immobile while casting. A turn to charge the attack counts as two consecutive immobilisations, so that's two drawbacks. You can always come up with more, customise your character.
I'm noticing that there's basically no mention of where anything but attacks would fit in. Since the non-combat magic was the most problematic...shouldn't we bother to do something about that?
Insert point that GURPS would provide a balanced, complete system for this here.
On that note...well...it would be kinda tough to fit into your proposed Magic system, but if we just used GURPS for the abilities, we would have access to a wider array of potential powers. Passive powers, for instance, are impossible. Having multiple weaker types of magic? Difficult if not impossible to balance. Noncombat magic? Fiat time. Perks? Better hope you can get a stat one that fits your fancy. These problems are solved with a GURPS hybrid system. The biggest problem would be converting damage values, but that's not such a problem.
True. Then can we integrate defense into other skills? Less stats is always good.
Oh, I disagree. Less stats is only good if there are too many stats. Splitting up the Ruling Stats (stats that are far, far more important than any other, like Dexterity in v2 of this game, Agility in Looter's Delight, Speed in Call of Cthulhu...huh, I'm noticing a trend) is always a good thing.
