How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

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Nonplayableyoshi
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How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

Post by Nonplayableyoshi »

I don't know if this has been asked before but I wanted to know how to make disposable items in OVA. To clarify what I mean I want to add a one time use item (like a grenade or potion) that damages the enemy or heals you. I would also like the damage/healing to be a set amount (but is doesn't need to be) and for healing not to require complete concentration (Like the healer ability does) however I have no idea how to balance that.

I also would need a way to set a limit on how many of the disposable items they can carry at any time. I assume it would be an ability (Lets call it "Carry limit") where the more points you have equals the more you can hold.
Malancthon
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Re: How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

Post by Malancthon »

Items in general are considered more like 'fluff' to describe the character and their abilities. The Gear ability is useful as a way to separate abilities from the character itself- Flight by itself could be wings or Superman's powers, Flight with Gear could be rocketpacks or magic ring.

A character who carries a variety of different abilities as items would want the Walking Arsenal with Gear. This would allow a character to basically draw out any Ability as an Item at will. The downside is that if there is a situation that the character can't access their items, then they can't pull out the random Ability.

Limitations are really just common sense. As a GM, if it doesn't make sense for a character to be able to use an ability... then they can't.

If you wanted to give a character a specific single use item, you can just provide the character with the Ability. Since it can only be used once, it's not really necessary to make an point cost for that Ability.
Nonplayableyoshi
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Re: How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

Post by Nonplayableyoshi »

Okay, thank you. Unrelated to the previous question I have one more thing I've been unable to find out. If I want a weapon to only stun do I take stunning perk and no damage flaw or only the stunning perk?

I ask because the rules say when using stunning that you may forgo dealing Damage and Stun automatically and I'm not sure if the two can be added together because of that.
Malancthon
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Re: How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

Post by Malancthon »

No problem.

Short answer is, you should be able to combine the perk and the flaw. Without No Damage, you may be able to do damage. So yes, you want No Damage if you do not want to be able to do damage.

Sure you could not select No Damage and choose to keep thing automatic stun all the time unless you need a trick to do some damage. But it makes sense to add No Damage if you don't want that option at all

Of course, attacks can be made up on the fly, so one could tweak an attack to not use the No Damage flaw.
Clay
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Re: How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

Post by Clay »

You can always use Ammunition x3 to represent a one-off item that you intend the character to have once every adventure or so.

If you LITERALLY want an item that is used once and never seen again without the player going through the effort of procuring another one, I would stat it up completely separate from the character—kind of a mini-character if you will.

As for No Damage, yes you can combine it with the various Complication Perks. You’ll see Fukiko and a few other characters do so. It’s still a disadvantage because you no longer have the option to damage with that technique.
Nonplayableyoshi
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Re: At this point just a collection of questions

Post by Nonplayableyoshi »

Thanks for the replys. I actually have a few more questions if you don't mind.

I don't think I was clear enough when I asked about disposable items. I do think it would be best to use Walking Arsenal with Gear if it was one character however I wanted everybody in the party to buy items they wanted/need whenever (with some kind of limit). Would it still be best to just give everybody Walking Arsenal and Gear?

The healer ability doesn't work well in combat, what would you recommend for a perk or ability that heals in combat for an action without a risk of failing?

As for my last (and unrelated) question I wanted to know the best way to make a perk or ability to boost one specific ability of somebody for a set number of turns. (I know about Magic, Arcane however I want it to use up the endurance rather then take away the endurance till you undo the spell)
sniffycrab
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Re: How to make (and balance) disposable items in OVA?

Post by sniffycrab »

The healer ability is not supposed to work in combat. People must lose all health AND endurance to lose. They got like double life bars. If you must have a healing item like a potion for mid combat, list it as an attack with the ammunition flaw and it heals a flat 10 health with a standard action.
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Re: At this point just a collection of questions

Post by Clay »

Nonplayableyoshi wrote:Thanks for the replys. I actually have a few more questions if you don't mind.

I don't think I was clear enough when I asked about disposable items. I do think it would be best to use Walking Arsenal with Gear if it was one character however I wanted everybody in the party to buy items they wanted/need whenever (with some kind of limit). Would it still be best to just give everybody Walking Arsenal and Gear?
As I hinted at above, you’re probably best off making items completely separate from characters. Just make these items as their own character sheet (eg. that sword you bought at the blacksmith has Attack +2) and pass them around your party as seems logical. Any abilities the weapon/armor/item has will always stack with that of the character attempting to use it.

You can probably apply some kind of logic to the cost, where every point of Ability makes it cost 100 GP, or some such.
The healer ability doesn't work well in combat, what would you recommend for a perk or ability that heals in combat for an action without a risk of failing?
The Healer Ability is modeled more closely after how these things tend to work in anime. Characters don’t quaff healing potions or cast “Cure 2” repeatedly during combat, despite what RPGs would have you think.

Basically, Healer has a built-in Concentration Ability Flaw. If you want things to behave more like Final Fantasy than Lodoss War, you can buy that Flaw off with either an Endurance cost (20, if you follow the game’s rationale) or with other Flaws (20 Endurance points worth of them.) If we’re making a potion, you can get 15 points back right away by taking Ammunition three times, reducing it to a one-time use item. I’m sure you can get creative with covering the other 5 Endurance!
As for my last (and unrelated) question I wanted to know the best way to make a perk or ability to boost one specific ability of somebody for a set number of turns. (I know about Magic, Arcane however I want it to use up the endurance rather then take away the endurance till you undo the spell)
You could use Suppressed Power, perhaps. Transformation is another option. The simplest option is just create a new Ability (call it Boost or something) and determine what is a fair Endurance cost for it.
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