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Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 3:51 am
by ColeArkenach
If I ran a game of OVA and based it on the SMT games, how should I handle summoning demons? I'm thinking of either:

A) Each individual "attack" is one of their summoned demon's attack. The demons can all count as being summoned, but as the commander they expend their action to command a demon to make an attack.

or

B) Each demon is an individual (albeit minor) controlled character. This would warrant a more Pathfinder/D&D-type summoning feel, so to limit this I'll make it that they can only have a number of Demons active equal to their COMP Ability (the ability that lets them summon to begin with, and while it's at +0 the one creature summoned is even weaker)

Thoughts, guys?

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 7:38 am
by Malancthon
ColeArkenach wrote:If I ran a game of OVA and based it on the SMT games, how should I handle summoning demons?
Companions and Minions would do it. Use Focus for the personal computer. Minions would actually be the best choice (2 Extras with base 10 Health and Energy and up to +1 difference in Abilities/Weaknesses, or 1 Secondary with base 20 Health and Energy and up to +2 difference in Abilities/Weaknesses, per level); Companion could be for more unique creatures/Special Fusions, such as Lilith. I'm sure it's a bit of a tired record, but My Monstrous abilities (see signature) could also be applicable.

Let Me know how this works, I do like some SMT.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 11:19 am
by GrayKnight
please post more about this subject. I love smt, I can't believe I didn't think to make an smt or persona OVA game. I would really like to know how you're doing this and what the game and party itself is like.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 5:55 pm
by ColeArkenach
Thanks for the replies, guys! I'm not sure when I'll be doing this SMT game, but I've got the campaign and players in mind and it'll basically just be a matter of when. So I'm using this outlet as a means for planning.

As for demon summoning, I'm still discussing it with my friends between the two options I listed and the one Malancthon listed, trying to decide which will be the best. I'll get back on what we decide.

As for further aspects of the game that I'm planning, here's what I didn't put down prior due to time constraints (these are all works in progress):

- Everyone receives an 'alignment' free which starts at a Neutral +0. Depending on choices the individual players act upon, this could change (Neutral can be brought up to +3, then turns into Law +0, and brought down from Neutral +0 to Chaos +0.)

- Not sure how I'll do it, but Demon Fusion will take place. We're going to use the SMT IV fusion chart, and go from there.

- Ideally we'll have between 5-6 players (with at least 2 in each alignment, or 1 in one alignment if we only have 5)

More to be added as time goes on, but these are some more things.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 3:28 pm
by Clay
With the recent release of Persona 5, I'm sure there's more than a few people interested to see how this turns out!

...unfortunately I'm still way back on Persona 1, and the only SMT game I actually completed was Revelations for the GBC. If only my nature didn't require playing them in order!

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 7:33 am
by Malancthon
I'm finishing up SMT4A, and I have a couple ideas brewing. I'll post some of them soon.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 11:58 pm
by ColeArkenach
Clay wrote:With the recent release of Persona 5, I'm sure there's more than a few people interested to see how this turns out!

...unfortunately I'm still way back on Persona 1, and the only SMT game I actually completed was Revelations for the GBC. If only my nature didn't require playing them in order!
Malancthon wrote:I'm finishing up SMT4A, and I have a couple ideas brewing. I'll post some of them soon.
While I haven't started this idea (still), I've been in the process of playing SMT4A and working on finishing the games I'm doing right now (one on Sunday I'm streaming, and the other on Monday that's private). I have the game for SMT III set up (it's the third because I've ran three of them, the past two used Pathfinder), and I have an idea of who will be playing.

If I do end up streaming this game, I'll be sure to let you guys know. The story is likely to be set in a similar universe to the Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers game in which it was a normal city that had demons within it rather than post-apocalypse.

I might do some ruling posts that I'll be introducing into my game once it gets to be time to run it. I'm likely work out a different way to do alignment rather than keeping it as a Unique Ability in that time.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 6:29 am
by Malancthon
Here's some of My ideas for OVA SMT.

The big idea is to use the demons as is from the game. Looking at level 1 Flynn and Nanashi, they have 68 HP and 49 MP, and 65 HP and 40 MP respectively. That's easily translated as Tough +3 and Vigorous +1 for Flynn and Tough +2 and Vigorous +0 for Nanashi. So, in theory, the ingame base stats of low level demons should not be overwhelming. So keep the HP, MP, and elemental weaknesses and resistences. If the demons are too challenging, possibly use their summoned stats instead.

Since HP and MP in SMT generally do not run above 999 for the MC and his summoned demons, this range can be replicateed using Monstrous Drive/Durability +2 (where Health can range from 100 to 1000 max). I'd probably divide the rp into three arcs, the first arc being MD+0, the second as MD+1, and the final as MD+2. Godslayers like Nanashi might be considered MD+3. Although I think it's a fascinating mechanic, I'd probably seperate Health and Endurance as two unique pools instead of drawing one from another like how OVA does. Maybe even rename Health and Endurance as HP and MP.

While players will still have Attack and the other combat Abilities, now they only have two 'free' attacks, melee and ranged. Attack now mostly bolsters Demon Skills.

Demon Skills would be a new Ability. Every level allows the player to select 2 Demon Skills (ingame, this means Flynn and Nanashi has a max of Demon Skill +4, for a total of 8 Skills). I'm still debating on the best way to limit the powers available. It could be arbitrarily set by the GM, or the skills available are limited by the level of the Ability, and the Ability's level is set by the GM based on the current arc of the game.

I haven't fully broken down the Skills yet, but My idea is that they give a bonus to DX based on their level: Weak skills, tentatively available at Demon Skills +1, has a DX+0 ('all' attack skills have a limit of being able to attack up to 4 enemies with one attack). Moderate skills, at Demon Skills +1, provide DX+1; Strong, at Demon Skills +3, provide DX+2; and Severe, at Demon Skills +4, provide DX+3. Healing skills work the same as attack skills, and the 'damage' rolled is the health restored (health skills that fully heal don't require an attack roll, they still fully heal).

Minions are used to determine the number of demons a player can summon. The Digital Devil Summoning Program is Focus -1 to Minions for a cellphone or personal computer. Since using the ingame stats, the rules for creating Minions are ignored and only the number of minions based on the level of the Ability counts.

Alignment I would not use as an Ability. Instead I'd provide three or four questions, maybe per arc, with the answers being towards law/chaos, to determine where the story goes, as other than the ending, there is no mechanical benefit to being chaos/order/neutral.

I think that's everything I have at the moment. Now I have an idea for a variation of the story, a Henshin Megami Tensai; combining SMT with the transforming monsters of Kamen Rider and the like...

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 9:13 pm
by ColeArkenach
Malancthon wrote:Here's some of My ideas for OVA SMT.

The big idea is to use the demons as is from the game. Looking at level 1 Flynn and Nanashi, they have 68 HP and 49 MP, and 65 HP and 40 MP respectively. That's easily translated as Tough +3 and Vigorous +1 for Flynn and Tough +2 and Vigorous +0 for Nanashi. So, in theory, the ingame base stats of low level demons should not be overwhelming. So keep the HP, MP, and elemental weaknesses and resistences. If the demons are too challenging, possibly use their summoned stats instead.

Since HP and MP in SMT generally do not run above 999 for the MC and his summoned demons, this range can be replicateed using Monstrous Drive/Durability +2 (where Health can range from 100 to 1000 max). I'd probably divide the rp into three arcs, the first arc being MD+0, the second as MD+1, and the final as MD+2. Godslayers like Nanashi might be considered MD+3. Although I think it's a fascinating mechanic, I'd probably seperate Health and Endurance as two unique pools instead of drawing one from another like how OVA does. Maybe even rename Health and Endurance as HP and MP.

While players will still have Attack and the other combat Abilities, now they only have two 'free' attacks, melee and ranged. Attack now mostly bolsters Demon Skills.

Demon Skills would be a new Ability. Every level allows the player to select 2 Demon Skills (ingame, this means Flynn and Nanashi has a max of Demon Skill +4, for a total of 8 Skills). I'm still debating on the best way to limit the powers available. It could be arbitrarily set by the GM, or the skills available are limited by the level of the Ability, and the Ability's level is set by the GM based on the current arc of the game.

I haven't fully broken down the Skills yet, but My idea is that they give a bonus to DX based on their level: Weak skills, tentatively available at Demon Skills +1, has a DX+0 ('all' attack skills have a limit of being able to attack up to 4 enemies with one attack). Moderate skills, at Demon Skills +1, provide DX+1; Strong, at Demon Skills +3, provide DX+2; and Severe, at Demon Skills +4, provide DX+3. Healing skills work the same as attack skills, and the 'damage' rolled is the health restored (health skills that fully heal don't require an attack roll, they still fully heal).

Minions are used to determine the number of demons a player can summon. The Digital Devil Summoning Program is Focus -1 to Minions for a cellphone or personal computer. Since using the ingame stats, the rules for creating Minions are ignored and only the number of minions based on the level of the Ability counts.

Alignment I would not use as an Ability. Instead I'd provide three or four questions, maybe per arc, with the answers being towards law/chaos, to determine where the story goes, as other than the ending, there is no mechanical benefit to being chaos/order/neutral.

I think that's everything I have at the moment. Now I have an idea for a variation of the story, a Henshin Megami Tensai; combining SMT with the transforming monsters of Kamen Rider and the like...
With different RPGs like SMT it's best not to do 1 to 1 translations like this. Especially regarding how damage scales in SMT, making each fight have a risk factor (even the standard minions could kill you). While this presents a different challenge in a tabletop environment, 4 and 4:A involve ways to revive the player characters postmortem and continue fighting. While calculating Macca wouldn't be too fun, I could do something like (per character there are 3 revives) or something of that sort, allowing them to return after combat. Or, death only takes part after a TPK.

Though the Monstrous Damage rules are interesting and allow for higher amounts of damage to be dealt, I think I'll be sticking with the Core of OVA to start. A lot of demons in the series do have absurdly high HP, and giving them absurdly high HP for OVA's standards would be fine for bosses but still. A lot of the boss fights (and fights in general) have a focus on abusing the enemies' weaknesses in order to win the day, (in the games) giving you more actions. Fights in OVA would be no different with combat against a King Frost for example being a largely fire-based fight.

Because of the way attacks are in SMT with a single spell being available, I think "Commonly Known Attacks" would be best (using the in-game stats with a higher DX changing it to the higher damage version), and limiting people to just 5 attacks. Abilities themselves will have their own limit.

I like the idea of asking questions at the end of Arcs better than an alignment as an ability, though I think manipulating the core aspects of OVA would be best to do first before proposing to change aspects to fit SMT. After all, it doesn't need to be exact, so long as the setting is there.

Re: Shin Megami Tensei: OVA Edition

Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 7:11 am
by Malancthon
This is just some of My musings on how to approach a SMT game, and I am sure there are nuances in the two engines that I am missing or glossing over with My ideas here. I'm pretty confident you can do a succesful run of the game just using core OVA and Companion/Minions.

I've always slightly been bothered at the idea of tabletop rpgs having to be watered down to adapt video games into a tabletop game. Plus, it seems like a waste to have stats already present via the ingame bestiary but need to throw it out to rework them into a different game style. But that's just Me. One of the goals of the Monstrous abilities was to find a way to give a tabletop game that high level video game feel.

Good luck with your game if you get to do it.