Despair is Fun, or How to Make a Madoka RP?

[rustytengo]

So first off there will be spoilers so if you haven't watched Madoka Magica and intend to do go any further. If you don't care then well then have fun.

So today i was having fun and thinking about how to make a a Madoka RP(and messing with this generator http://magicalburst.sagittaluminis.net/ for a Tabletop RPG called Magical Burst), and well i had a few thoughts and i wanted to see what y'all thoughts as well.

So what i came up (keep in mind this are definitely not going to be that well organized)

1. Split up the RP into sections(inspired by Lexi's The Tenth God RP) hich would be something like School, After/Hunting for Witches, and the Witches Labyrinth.

2. There should be an impartial judge involved in order to keep track of the tainting of the Soul Gem.

3. If a characters Soul Gem becomes to tainted or they fall into despair an event happens that replaces the current section happening, unless its the Witches Labyrinth which both would have to be resolved. yes this could lead to a TPK or a big chain reaction of characters turning into Witches.

4. Players would not have to work together unless they wanted to. They are competing for Grief Seeds which there is only one per Witch. Which they could fight for if they where inclined.

5. The RP would work better if it was treated with a episodic approach. Where there really isn't a over arcing plot with a big villain to fight at the end instead its just the characters surviving to one vent to the other or whatnot. With this treatment the person running it could also change between "episodes".

well that's most of what i came up with(the other stuff i came up with is related to character creation and that's no where thought through enough for me to post).

So what do you guys think? How would you make one?

[Chevaleresse]

i would definitely participate and/or help run something like this. I think emphasis on mechanics would help keep the risk of death (or worse) would actually contribute to the RP, since freeform tends to "soften" combat. There's a system on another forum that we could adapt to this that I have in mind.

[rustytengo]

i would definitely participate and/or help run something like this. I think emphasis on mechanics would help keep the risk of death (or worse) would actually contribute to the RP, since freeform tends to "soften" combat. There's a system on another forum that we could adapt to this that I have in mind.

i definitely agree with that. a proper Madoka RP need that threat to be around and mechanics are usually the best for that. post a link to what your thinking or send it to me in a PM.

[Code: PIRULUK]

i would definitely participate and/or help run something like this. I think emphasis on mechanics would help keep the risk of death (or worse) would actually contribute to the RP, since freeform tends to "soften" combat. There's a system on another forum that we could adapt to this that I have in mind.

*unsubtly points at ARTS*

Well, one issue I see here is plot. Do you have a plot in mind or is it mainly a character-focused RP? Because clearly, the latter does not do well on this forum.

[rustytengo]

*unsubtly points at ARTS*

Well, one issue I see here is plot. Do you have a plot in mind or is it mainly a character-focused RP? Because clearly, the latter does not do well on this forum.

right...should read that again.

honestly i haven't thought of any plot and i am well aware that character driven ones don't so well at all here. Madoka is tricky since Madoka never really has a big bad villain at the end to fight so that makes the traditional RP plots hard. the best way i figured was to have like i said episodes were it would be like the 90's Sailor Moon where they fight "a monster of the day", and since corruption of a Soul Gem can happen from over using magic even without character development the threat of turning into a Witch(or just getting killed) is still around. that way it should move the RP along faster since it's smaller parts and from my experience in D&D if people make it to the end of something with a character and there's a reward then they get more invested into the character which leads to character development.

I'm not sure how well that would work or not but that's the best balancing act i can find for it.

[Chevaleresse]

Here's the sheet for the system I had in mind by the way, should be self-explanatory. It's from this game. Obviously it'd be modified a bit to fit this, but I like the system.

Name: (Should be self-evident.)

Age: (Should also be self-evident.)
Gender: (What do you consider yourself? Not the same as your biological sex.)
Race: (No, not skin colour. Are you human? Vulcan? Generic Mary Sue half-breed hybrid?)
Sex: (What are you biologically? Not the same as your gender.)
Appearance: (What do you look like? If you have alternate forms, their appearance should go here. Weapons and stuff are optional.)
Personality: (What are you like?)

Level: (What level are you? Currently, one should be level 6 for a newcomer.)
EXP: (How much experience do you have? Currently, one should have 500 XP.)

HP: 30+(CON+Level) [Each level adds CON+Level HP]
Init: DEX+1d20 at the start of each combat.

Stats: 38/38 points to spend (Stat cap of 4+Level. +4 stat points every level.)
Constitution: (Health Stat. Grants you more HP per level up.)
Dexterity- (How stealthy and speedy you are. This governs ranged damage..)
Intelligence- (Governs crafting and other such tasks.)
Resistance- (How tanky you are.)
Strength- (How strong you hit for.)
Synergy- (Governs magic in all forms, ranging from summons, transformations, mana, Ki and so forth. This governs non-melee/ranged damage that does not explicitly use supernatural sources.)

Perks: (Special attributes defining the character’s skills, abilities and general nature.)

Equipment: (Your starting equipment; what you wear, fight with and so forth.)

Actions: (Your attacks and abilities. these can be Magical, Melee, or Ranged and use the relevant stat. (Synergy for Magic, Strength for Melee, Dexterity for Ranged).
Basic Attack
Basic Defense:

Inventory: (Where your earned loot and other items go. Anything not equipped or worn goes here.)

Summons: (The beings you summon to aid you in battle. These go in a separate sheet.)

EDIT: Also, the game's rulebook.

General:

-This system uses a series of different generic rolls for various situations:
-DAMAGE: [Weapon Damage + [Damage Stat + Bonuses] - [Enemy RES + Bonuses]]
-SKILL ROLLS: [3d6 + [Applicable Stat + Bonuses]
-NEGOTIATION: [iNT / Primary Attack Stat + 3d6 + Bonuses]
-However, certain Actions have their own die to roll. For them, simply use the Damage Roll and substitute Weapon Damage for the die to be rolled.

Combat:
-Accuracy will not be rolled for unless called for. All attacks will be assumed to have hit bar inherent Perks or Skills affecting the accuracy of attacks.
-Critical Hits are rolled by a d20, with critical hit boosters boosting the roll by a percentage. If the roll is a 20, the attack is critical and does double damage.
-One enters Critical status either under 25% of maximum health or under 10 HP, whichever comes first. If one is then reduced to 0 HP, one is Unconscious, and must be stabilised or risk death in three turns. If one is stabilised, they remain at 0 HP and stay out of combat, except via rare abilities or items.

Actions and Leveling Up:
-One starts with five Action slots and two Basic Actions, a Basic Attack and Defense. Basic Actions are always accessible even when the player’s other actions are restricted; for instance, through action locks.
-100 XP is required to level up. Two Action Points are acquired per level up. You require one Action Point to level up an Action, and two to gain a new Action.
-One starts with three Perks at Level 1. Perks are received every five levels.

Summons and Transformations:
-Transformations are permitted in the game, but they are entirely subject to GM veto.
-A transformation is defined as a character changing form (using an action and a Perk), potentially gaining different stats in the process without changing the stats entirely.
-Summons are also permitted within the game. They use the same sheet as PCs:
-There are two types of summons: Minion and Companion type.
-All summoners require a Perk to actually summon.
-Companion-type summons are restricted to one per character. Although nearly as strong as PCs, their total stat points are capped at [summoner’s Total Stat Points - 8]. Similarly, they always have 4 less Action Points than their summoners.
-Minion-type summons have no limit. However, their total stats are capped at [summoner’s Total Stat Points - 12], with an extra 2 points removed per additional Summon summoned by the Skill they are summoned with. Their Action Points are capped at 8 less than their summoner’s, with 2 extra points removed per summon added to the cap of their skill.
-Summons cannot have Perks regardless of type.
-This can be negotiated with GMs. However, unless absolutely necessary and considered balanced, the rules will still generally apply.

Equipment:
-Players start with Equipment. Equipment begins with two slots to add bonuses to the equipment. More can be negotiated with the GMs.
-Players may elect to make their equipment level up, increasing their equipment’s bonuses per level; however, without a Perk or external modification, the equipment cannot gain new bonuses that were not already on the equipment.

[rustytengo]

Hmm...interesting the system pretty good though one thing to take out is any rolling since we don't have a way to track that here. the combat system and damage calculation is quite nice and simple. The stats would need to be changed since Madoka actually as them but that's a good base.

Would need to add something for the tainting of Soul Gems. Best i can come up with on that is to give a base value for the Soul Gem and a cost for each ability used which gets subtracted from the Soul Gems value when used. and instead of levels you get points to either reduce the cost of something or raise the value of the Soul Gem, and maybe for stats too.

[Chevaleresse]

We could tie mana and health together since that's how the show seens to work. Using abilities would take small amounts of health/soul limit compared to taking hits, but you'd still have to be careful.

[rustytengo]

Yeah that works it be like Grief Syndrome which makes things easy. though how much is used for everything would be dependent on the power of each character(Sayaka could heal better do to her wish verses the other girls as an example)

The stats that Madoka uses or at least Tart Magica (but its the same anyway) are Speed,Initial magic usability, defensive power, magical stamina, Additional learned powers, and Offensive power.

[Chevaleresse]

There's no innate die rolling function on the forum I took the format from. The only immediate change I can see is merging Synergy and Constitution, as well as possibly doing away with Intelligence as a stat, though that could be changed to govern the number of action points a character gains per level, or perhaps making it the generic "support" stat that governs stuff like heals, nets, etc. Basically stuff that doesn't do damage.

[rustytengo]

sorry i was away for a bit got home late last night and was busy today.

the rolling thing is more of a trust thing if anything since there wouldn't be anyway to prove the roll isn't just a number made up. then again the rolling they had for this system didn't really effect anything major so i would be fine with people doing it.

so the down side i see by combining health and mana and have that cover the tainting of soul gems is that you could spam healing abilities(not that i really remember those to much in Madoka) and not have to worry about it.

though a good counter to that would be say if you would heal full you don't since you can't heal ability use "damage" with abilities. only either time or a grief seed can. Or have a limited heal in some way.

I agree there isn't really much need changed in stats after reading and thinking a bit on the stats i put down from Tart Magica I could relate them to the stats from the system. intelligence could also be used for the limiting of additional magic abilities (aka the stuff like how Mami learned how to make guns out of her ribbons)

though with the hitting in combat always hitting that could be a problem since destroying a magical girl's soul gem kills her. though i guess that would defiantly be an very hard accuracy roll or something.

[Skullkin]

wot is a majorka?

[rustytengo]

i assume you mean Madoka(or your making fun of a mistype that i can't find) its a magical girl anime which full name is Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Madoka for short. its quite good you should watch it.

[Chevaleresse]

Yeah, an aimed attack like that wouldn't be autohit. In Trespassers the PMMM characters' soul gems are mechanically untargetable until the girl is incapacitated, though I'd imagine we'd want a bit more risk than that.

As for health, we could track physical health, and then damage to that would only heal with magic usage (again, like Grief Syndrome.)

[rustytengo]

yeah definitely want that risk(after all Mami did one shot Kyoko at one point).

that works it still seems a bit off somehow but that's me probably over thinking the health and damage on my part.

so another thought i had was for the phases that i mentioned was for each of them to function differently. So the school phase would be more of the free from RP with a time limit. the After phase each character has X amount of actions and to do something like traveling to a different part of the city, searching of a witches labyrinth,(asking Kyunnbi questions and not getting straight answers) and what not. And the Labyrinth phase would be similar to a dungeon crawl in D&D. though that might over complicate things to do that for the phases.

[K_H]

Well, If I join in, you can trust me to play fairly. I've got actual Dice that I can use.