New to OVA: A Few Questions

[The Reddest Mage]

That makes sense! Thanks again!

I think I might need to start a FAQ and name it “Frequently Reddest Mage” ;D

Actually, I already have been doing that haha. I have a Microsoft Word document I made for my own personal quick and easy reference of all the questions I've asked followed by the answers or suggestions you have given in this thread and in other ones. Again, I appreciate it!

[The Reddest Mage]

Anyway I’d just apply a DX vs. zero, with the DX based on the nature of the exposure. Being tied to a metal rooftop in the noon sun and taking a stroll on a partially cloudy day present very different DXes. Likewise someone waving a garlic bulb at you and lacing a drink with garlic powder and forcing you to drink it have different implications. Just make your best judgment and compare the DX to zero, and repeat as often as seems appropriate.

1) By the way, for environmental hazards in general, like the above example of sunlight for vampires, or more mundane things like a regular person being engulfed in fire, hit by a falling boulder, electrocuted, or other things that cause damage but aren't the result of the direct actions of another character, the Damage Multiplier may vary based on how damaging the environmental situation is so the GM should come up with a Damage Multiplier that seems appropriate, right? But since Damage is usually calculated by multiplying the Damage Multiplier with the difference between the attacker's successful Attack Roll and the defender's failed Defense Roll, if as you said above you should calculate the person being injured's Defense Roll as if it were zero, what should you then consider the "attacker's" (in this case the fire, the electricity, the boulder, etc.) Attack roll? Should you actually roll two or more dice for it like a usual attack, or just come up with a difference number to assign yourself and multiply that by the Damage Multiplier?

So for example, if a player character rushed into a burning building to rescue someone and chose to run directly through the flames, if the GM were to consider the character's Defense Roll as 0 and the Damage Multiplier for the fire as 4, what would you do for the fire's "Attack Roll" for the purpose of calculating Damage?

2) Also, on an unrelated note, about the Lucky Ability. It gives you a number of free Drama dice equal to your Level in Lucky. But what about the natural luckiness? Does that mean that good things will frequently happen to the character as an automatic thing without any dice rolling? Or does that mean that in situations that apply, the character can roll their Lucky dice to see if some good fortune comes their way? If that is the case, can Lucky be stacked with other Abilities? Is it only used in situations where random chance and luckiness rather than skill would apply?

[Clay]

1) There’s a few ways to handle this, but I would probably go by crashing damage’s example. Give a flat DN to persevere against (though never outright avoid) damage. Unless the characters is bound to an electric chair, it’s usually reasonable for a heroic character to make some kind of roll against its effects. The DX should be determined as seems fit, again similar to crashing.

If the damage is more amorphous (a dangerous flame-filled room, a chasm with a cascade of rocks and boulders from above) you can use the rules for suffocation instead. There’s no outright damage, just a slow attrition of Endurance (or Health, if you prefer.)

2) You can interpret it however you like, but I see Luck as, in general, letting more good things happen. The free Drama Dice just lets the player have concrete control of when it happens, while otherwise it relies on the GM’s discretion. I wouldn’t recommend actually rolling Lucky unless the task at hand is truly all or mostly luck (like winning at a gambling game).

[The Reddest Mage]

Thanks again for the advice Clay, it's appreciated. Have a happy holiday season.

[The Reddest Mage]

When making NPCs on the fly (as players always seem to want to befriend, seduce, rob, attack, etc. random people that I never would have expected they would want to interact with), is there a good rule of thumb for how many dice said random NPCs might be rolling for their actions depending on whether they are Extras, Secondary, Heroic, or Boss NPCs?

For example, something along the lines of: "Secondary NPCs roll X dice for actions that they are assumed to be good at; Y dice for actions that they are assumed to be average at; and Z dice for actions that they are assumed to be bad at."

[Clay]

I’d use the same guidelines as in Character Creation:

Your Level in most Abilities should be +1 (competent) or +2 (good). A Level of +3 is considered masterful, and characters should have few of these. A +4 is an incredible Level obtained only by a select few people in the world. Characters are lucky to have one Ability of this rank. A Level of +5 is extraordinarily rare, a class reserved for completely awing, supernatural abilities.

So an NPC competent at what they’re doing should get a +1. A masterful NPC should get +3. And so on.

Unless you’re going for comedy, I wouldn’t bother rolling for NPCs that are bad at what they’re doing. Just have them fail.

[The Reddest Mage]

I’d use the same guidelines as in Character Creation:

Your Level in most Abilities should be +1 (competent) or +2 (good). A Level of +3 is considered masterful, and characters should have few of these. A +4 is an incredible Level obtained only by a select few people in the world. Characters are lucky to have one Ability of this rank. A Level of +5 is extraordinarily rare, a class reserved for completely awing, supernatural abilities.

So an NPC competent at what they’re doing should get a +1. A masterful NPC should get +3. And so on.

Unless you’re going for comedy, I wouldn’t bother rolling for NPCs that are bad at what they’re doing. Just have them fail.

I was considering going that route, but I took those Character Creation guidelines as referring to what Level individual Abilities should be at based on competence. What I think I'm wondering is not just what Level the Abilities should be at, but how many relevant Abilities one should assume an NPC has?

For example, let's say an NPC is masterful at what they're doing. That would give them a +3 to the action if they had one relevant Ability, and thus five dice to roll. Should you just assume they would only have one relevant Ability though? Should you assume they would have at least two relevant Abilities, in which case they'd be rolling eight dice? Or is it just simpler to stick to the one relevant Ability idea?

Secondly, on an unrelated question, how do you personally feel about templates/archetypes in OVA? For example, racial templates/archetypes that include Abilities and/or Weaknesses that certain character types must have because that is the default that all members of their races/species/type would have? Such as all Elves, Dwarves, Vampires, etc. having a certain specific Abilities and/or Weaknesses at a certain Level. The same for certain professions if there are certain Abilities that people in certain professions should have by default, such as all exorcists in a campaign having Sixth Sense and Spirit Medium, etc.

Or, is it better in OVA to let players always have free choice in designing their characters? I was just wondering as I can't recall seeing examples of racial archetypes/templates in OVA, so I wasn't sure if that was ever a thing or not.

[Clay]

I stand by the same recommendation. NPCs that you don't have stats for are unlikely to be terribly heroic, so there's not much need to consider stacking Abilities at all. It's more important to be able to readily pull a number on the fly.

As for "racial" templates, I tend to prefer letting characters do their own thing. If you want a scholarly orc or a brutish elf, I think you should be able to without having to patch over the inclinations of the chosen race.

That said, I'm all for templates as a suggestion or starting point. "Here's a typical set of elf attributes" is useful and can speed up character creation. I just don't care for it being a required package to purchase.

(For the record, if I were to use templates, I would borrow the basic framework of Gear as a...err...template...for the...templates.)

[Sabersonic]

(For the record, if I were to use templates, I would borrow the basic framework of Gear as a...err...template...for the...templates.)

Sounds like it'll be easier for one to create a custom Ability called "Racial Features" for lack of a better term that more or less organizes all relevant abilities akin to Gear, but without the whole "it can be borrowed/stolen" thing.

Though now I can't help but think that the level of Racial Features could be used akin to famous/infamous that would be useful when interacting with other such characters. How, I haven't the foggiest.

[The Reddest Mage]

As always Clay, thanks for those tips, always appreciated.

We were talking about some Abilities this week, and two things I hadn't thought about before came up, so I'm curious to know what you think:

1) The Dimensional Pocket Ability talks about the usefulness or uselessness of produced item based on the the target Difficulty of the roll. But no mechanical information is given for what exactly makes the pulled-out item useful or useless. That is to say, of course it would be obvious in the context of the narrative. But mechanically speaking, other similar Abilities like Inventor and Walking Arsenal tell you exactly how much of a bonus such items give the character, whereas Dimensional Pocket doesn't. So, as a rule of thumb, how much of a bonus or penalty should items gained through Dimensional Pocket give the character? For example, if a character was able to pull out an "Amazingly Apropos" item, what kind of bonus would that give?

Or does Dimensional Pocket not "create" items, but only allows the character to take out items they would already own via such other Abilities as Gear, Inventor, and Walking Arsenal?

2) Since the Shape-Shifter Ability allows one to change their appearance, can that Ability be used to mimic the effects of other Abilities and Weaknesses that are based on appearance, such as Beautiful, Cute!, Ageism, Awkward Size, Bizarre Appearance, etc.? And if so, would the Level in Shape-Shifter determine the level of the other appearance-based Ability/Weakness that they can mimic, or some other method? Or would such effects just be narrative rather than mechanical?

3) Finally, following the above, can Shape-Shifter also mimic the social advantages and disadvantages that ones appearance could bring? For example, could the Shape-Shifter Ability mimic such Abilities as Connected, Famous, Position of Power, and/or Wealthy if the character was currently impersonating someone popular, famous, powerful, and/or rich? Alternatively, could Shape-Shifter allow someone to be imposed with such Abilities and/or Weaknesses as Intimidating, Infamous, Outcast, and/or Wanted if they were impersonating a well-known criminal or some other distasteful person?

[Clay]

1) The Dimensional Pocket Ability talks about the usefulness or uselessness of produced item based on the the target Difficulty of the roll. But no mechanical information is given for what exactly makes the pulled-out item useful or useless. That is to say, of course it would be obvious in the context of the narrative. But mechanically speaking, other similar Abilities like Inventor and Walking Arsenal tell you exactly how much of a bonus such items give the character, whereas Dimensional Pocket doesn't. So, as a rule of thumb, how much of a bonus or penalty should items gained through Dimensional Pocket give the character? For example, if a character was able to pull out an "Amazingly Apropos" item, what kind of bonus would that give?

Or does Dimensional Pocket not "create" items, but only allows the character to take out items they would already own via such other Abilities as Gear, Inventor, and Walking Arsenal?

You can use the same bonus suggestions from Inventor if you like. It's just Dimensional Pocket lends itself to be more off the cuff in its use, and I didn't want to encourage stopping play to actually build the item you wish to pull.

That said, you can only pull items that are common to the character. Braun can pull his inventions because he makes them, but it would be more difficult to argue a ninja with really big, useful sleeves could pull the same inventions, even if they both have the same level in Dimensional Pocket.

2) Since the Shape-Shifter Ability allows one to change their appearance, can that Ability be used to mimic the effects of other Abilities and Weaknesses that are based on appearance, such as Beautiful, Cute!, Ageism, Awkward Size, Bizarre Appearance, etc.? And if so, would the Level in Shape-Shifter determine the level of the other appearance-based Ability/Weakness that they can mimic, or some other method? Or would such effects just be narrative rather than mechanical?

Generally, the effect is more narrative than mechanical. Making yourself look like a sensational samurai does not give you the skills and abilities of one. But one could argue there's some kind of mechanical benefit of becoming a puddle of slime or the like. Just try to use your best judgment, do it quickly, and move on with the game.

3) Finally, following the above, can Shape-Shifter also mimic the social advantages and disadvantages that ones appearance could bring? For example, could the Shape-Shifter Ability mimic such Abilities as Connected, Famous, Position of Power, and/or Wealthy if the character was currently impersonating someone popular, famous, powerful, and/or rich? Alternatively, could Shape-Shifter allow someone to be imposed with such Abilities and/or Weaknesses as Intimidating, Infamous, Outcast, and/or Wanted if they were impersonating a well-known criminal or some other distasteful person?

Only if the character successfully fools others into granting the appropriate favors. While the shape-shifter wouldn't automatically have financial knowhow or access to a singer's bank accounts, they can easily curry favor by impersonation. Of course, unless the shapeshifter is also a good actor (eg., with Charismatic, Performer, or an appropriate Knowledge.), the ruse may fall through.

[The Reddest Mage]

Thank you as always Clay for your advice, thoughts, and suggestions.

So recently, I've been curious to see how some of my original characters would work out mechanically when statted up in different systems, including OVA. So upon rereading all of the Abilities, Weaknesses, Perks, and Flaws again, here are some things I was wondering:

1 A) With the Barrier Ability, it says: "Using barriers this way, brought up in a flash in the heat of battle, can certainly be effective, but when used preemptively, they are even more valuable. If you decide to maintain a barrier, you may roll double your Barrier dice. This preparedness comes at a cost, however, as you cannot perform any other actions while doing so." Just to make sure I understand how that works, so if your character has the Barrier Ability and is attacked, they can spontaneously bring up their Barrier as their Defense roll. If they decide to keep the Barrier up after that first usage, they will get to roll double their Barrier dice against future attacks. And they can keep this barrier up for as long as they want, but while it is up the character can't perform any other actions, such as attacking, healing others, etc. Is that how it works? Can the character still walk, fly, or otherwise move around while maintaining a barrier or is that considered an action thus forcing them to remain in the same spot?

1 B)Also, attaching the Area Effect to the Barrier would let someone protect both themselves and other people around them, right? Does the caster of the Barrier count as one of the targets in the limit of "up to three relatively close individuals?"

1 C)And would attaching the Ranged Perk allow the barrier caster to cast a barrier around someone other than themself who was far away from them? If that were the case, would the not being able to act limitation on a maintained barrier be on the person being protected by the barrier, or the caster who is maintaining the barrier?

1 D) And if one could indeed put the Ranged Perk onto a Barrier, would that mean the Barrier could only be used at a Range, or could it be used both in either fashion, centered around oneself or around ranged targets?

1 E) Also regarding offensive Barriers, it says: "Should anyone without the Ranged Perk fail their Attack Roll against you or otherwise enter the area protected by the barrier, they will receive Damage. In this case, Barrier is treated like an Attack Roll against zero, and Damage is calculated accordingly." Where it says that Barrier is treated like an Attack Roll, does that refer to the roll you made with your Barrier dice, or to the actual Level of the Barrier Ability?

2 A) We've already talked about how one might incorporate Night Vision into the game before in a previous question, and you gave a few examples such as having Night Vision be included with Heightened Sense (Vision), or as its own Unique Ability. But something that I'm still thinking about is, with those examples, with Heightened Sense (Vision) it assumes the character has good vision in general, and with a Unique Ability they'd also presumably get a bonus in the dark. But what about a character who doesn't necessarily have better than average vision in the light or in the dark. It's just a matter of that they can see in the dark just as well as they can see in the light. So basically, something that negates any imposed low-light or complete darkness penalties, but doesn't actually give any bonuses either. Can Unique Abilities do that? Simply prevent penalties without giving any bonuses? Would it have to be on a one for one basis (such as a +2 in the Ability negating an up to -2 penalty) or would just one point in the Ability be enough to negate more than one such penalties (such as a +1 in the Unique Night Vision Ability being enough to negate 2 or more or even all penalties that might come from darkness)?

2 B) Related to the above, when the character does indeed see better in the dark than in the light, would Heightened Sense (Vision) Ability along with the Trigger (Heightened Sense Only Works in the Dark) work as well?

2 C) And if one used the above method but with the Requirement (Heightened Sense Only Works in the Dark) Flaw, how much of an Endurance Cost reduction would that be worth?

3 A) With the Incorporeal Form Ability, it seems implied that the character's default state is physical, and that they can become incorporeal. But what about characters that are naturally and permanently incorporeal like some ghosts and spirits, and are not able to take a physical form at all? In which case, they'd have some of the advantages of being incorporeal, such as not being affected by normal physical attacks, but with the disadvantages of not being able to physically interact with the material world. Would that require a Unique Weakness or Unique Flaw to go along with Incorporeal Form? And if so, how much of a Point/Endurance Reduction would it be worth as a Weakness/Flaw?

3 B) The same questions as above go for the Invisibility Ability as well in the case of that Ability being permanently invisible.

3 C) Speaking of ghosts, spirits, robots, and other things that may not be biological, would background advantages for non-living/biological characters such as not needing to eat, drink, breathe, go to the bathroom, or sleep, as well as being immune to things like poisons, toxins, diseases, etc. fall under the Life Support Ability? If not, would that all fall into a single Unique Ability instead, or separate ones for each?

3 D) Finally regarding ghosts and spirits, the Spirit Medium Ability lets a character see and hear ghosts and spirits and such. However, what if someone could see and hear ghosts and spirits, but didn't have any such knowledge of how to summon and banish them? That is, someone who wasn't a medium, but was able to see and hear ghosts and spirits (like the little boy from the movie "The Sixth Sense"). Does the Sixth Sense Ability allow for one to see and hear ghosts and spirits? The name sounds like it should, but the description seems more like it is geared towards sensing danger like a "Spider-Sense" rather than perceiving the supernatural.

4) Do the Beautiful and Cute Abilities refer just to how the character looks, or that they use
their looks to get what they want? For example, what I mean is, what if you have a character who is quite beautiful, but she doesn't use her beauty as an advantage to get what she wants, instead using her charisma (Charismatic) or cleverness (Intuitive) to do so. So, can a character be considered more attractive than normal even if they don't have the Beautiful or Cute Abilities due to them not actually using their looks as an advantage to get their way? Or is someone without Beautiful or Cute considered just "average" in appearance?

5 A) The Awkward Size Weaknesses has always been difficult for me to gauge in normal games. I know it's because what is "average size" to which to compare whether something is of Awkward Size may vary from game to game (a human might have Awkward Size: Tiny in a game where being a huge dragon is the default), still some examples of what might normally qualify for each level would help. For example, looking at the small and tiny example player characters and NPCs in the book, Azyrus has Awkward Size -1, Daisuke's Black Bunny form has Awkward Size -2, and a Fairy has Awkward Size -3. Using these as examples, I can understand Awkward Size -3 representing tiny things like mice, pixies, bugs, etc. But for the -1 and -2 level I am not sure since Azyrus is described as being like a cat with wings, but the size of a domestic cat and a rabbit aren't that much of a difference, so I don't know why the cat thing is at the -1 level and the bunny is at the -2 level.

5 B) And what about races like dwarves, hobbits/halflings, gnomes, etc? Would they qualify for Awkward Size compared to normal humans? What level would those kinds of races be?

6) Can normal Minions be mixed with combined Minions, or should you just take separate Minion Abilities? For example, if you had Minions +3 you could have 6 Minions with +1 of Abilities, or 3 Minions with +2 Abilities, right? Could you mix it and instead have Minions +3 representing 4 normal Minions with +1 of Abilities, and 1 combined Minion with +2 Abilities?

7) Just to make sure, is the Disarming Perk (and the other similar Perks that function in a similar way) based on the victim's maximum total Health or current total Health?

8 ) Can the Vampire Perk replenish more Health than the victim lost? For example, if someone takes the Vampire Perk six times, would they be able restore 150% percent of the damage they dealt?

9) Just to make sure, can an attack with the "Range, Strength-Powered" Perk be used as both a melee and a ranged attack, such as a throwing knife? Or is it restricted to only ranged attacks?

10) Just to make sure, with the Low Penetration Flaw, each time it is taken it gives a +2 to the opponent's armor, with a maximum of +5. So for example if a character used an attack that has Low Penetration x3, that would normally give a +6 bonus to the opponents Armored Ability. But since the maximum bonus is +5, it would only give a +5 bonus, is that right? So basically, another way to phrase that Flaw is to say that it can only be taken up to three times, with +5 as the maximum bonus to the opponent's Armored Ability?

11) How would you handle a Unique Ability like "techno-kinesis," in which a character could control computers, or maybe even electronic devices in general, but perhaps only if they were either directly "plugged in" to the device, or were able to establish a connection with it via Wi-Fi or something like that?

12) I was wondering how a merit like the following from a different system might convert to OVA:

"The character's true nature is difficult to discern. They merge into society flawlessly, regardless of how bizarre or otherworldly their appearance might be. If they are somehow hideous, they will appear to be an unattractive person; likewise, if they are somehow beatific, they will appear to be an attractive person. Characters with Special Merits may be able to notice the Unfathomable character’s unusual nature; a successful roll on the Perception stat plus a Special Skill will reveal the Unfathomable character’s true nature...."

Basically, assuming a modern day world like our own, it works in the way that if someone were a pastel-colored winged pixie, other people would see that that person was indeed a pastel-colored winged pixie. But that fact would not stand out as anything special, and people would treat that person as if being a pastel-colored winged pixie was just a normal, mundane every day thing, though people with a special Ability, such as Sixth Sense, might be able to see through that mundane effect and be aware that being a pastel-colored winged pixie is strange and unusual. So would something like this be a Unique Ability (and if so, how much would it cost?), or just simply a matter of not taking the Bizarre Appearance Weakness?

13) This isn't a question, just an observation. In the description of the Assisted Flaw, it says: "This Perk may be taken multiple times." It's obvious it should say Flaw, but because it is a Flaw that has at least one advantage (letting other people contribute towards the Endurance Cost of the attack or Ability), I almost forgot that it was a Flaw rather than a Perk. This may have already been corrected though, as I haven't checked DriveThruRPG in a while to see if there have been any updates.

Anyhow, thanks as always for making such an interesting and useful game.

[Clay]

All right *cracks knuckles* Let’s get to this.

Thank you as always Clay for your advice, thoughts, and suggestions.

So recently, I've been curious to see how some of my original characters would work out mechanically when statted up in different systems, including OVA. So upon rereading all of the Abilities, Weaknesses, Perks, and Flaws again, here are some things I was wondering:

1 A) With the Barrier Ability, it says: "Using barriers this way, brought up in a flash in the heat of battle, can certainly be effective, but when used preemptively, they are even more valuable. If you decide to maintain a barrier, you may roll double your Barrier dice. This preparedness comes at a cost, however, as you cannot perform any other actions while doing so." Just to make sure I understand how that works, so if your character has the Barrier Ability and is attacked, they can spontaneously bring up their Barrier as their Defense roll. If they decide to keep the Barrier up after that first usage, they will get to roll double their Barrier dice against future attacks. And they can keep this barrier up for as long as they want, but while it is up the character can't perform any other actions, such as attacking, healing others, etc. Is that how it works? Can the character still walk, fly, or otherwise move around while maintaining a barrier or is that considered an action thus forcing them to remain in the same spot?

Unless something literally prevents a character from doing so (eg. being tied up, being hit with the Paralyzed complication, and so on), they can always take any number of free actions they desire. Generally, this includes moving around, talking, and otherwise doing things that don’t take a lot of effort or concentration. Normally, a Defense Roll is also a free action, but since Barrier specifically replaces your Defense Roll, it is not possible to do both.

1 B)Also, attaching the Area Effect to the Barrier would let someone protect both themselves and other people around them, right? Does the caster of the Barrier count as one of the targets in the limit of "up to three relatively close individuals?”

I would vote no, the caster does not count.

1 C)And would attaching the Ranged Perk allow the barrier caster to cast a barrier around someone other than themself who was far away from them? If that were the case, would the not being able to act limitation on a maintained barrier be on the person being protected by the barrier, or the caster who is maintaining the barrier?

The limitation is always applied to the caster. The only time it would work as you describe is if someone with the Magic Ability cast Barrier on someone else. This would be temporarily granting them the Ability, and they would have to be responsible for keeping it active.

1 D) And if one could indeed put the Ranged Perk onto a Barrier, would that mean the Barrier could only be used at a Range, or could it be used both in either fashion, centered around oneself or around ranged targets?

Either. However, if we’re going to be really technical about it, Ranged implies a line-of-sight being required, and that intervening terrane or obstacles can get in the way. It’s Ranged's “weakness” that makes it a +0 cost Perk. But I think requiring a character to purchase Strike-Through or Redirectable to avoid this is a bit silly in the case of Barrier. Best to keep it simple.

1 E) Also regarding offensive Barriers, it says: "Should anyone without the Ranged Perk fail their Attack Roll against you or otherwise enter the area protected by the barrier, they will receive Damage. In this case, Barrier is treated like an Attack Roll against zero, and Damage is calculated accordingly." Where it says that Barrier is treated like an Attack Roll, does that refer to the roll you made with your Barrier dice, or to the actual Level of the Barrier Ability?

This refers to the result of your Barrier roll, not your Level.

2 A) We've already talked about how one might incorporate Night Vision into the game before in a previous question, and you gave a few examples such as having Night Vision be included with Heightened Sense (Vision), or as its own Unique Ability. But something that I'm still thinking about is, with those examples, with Heightened Sense (Vision) it assumes the character has good vision in general, and with a Unique Ability they'd also presumably get a bonus in the dark. But what about a character who doesn't necessarily have better than average vision in the light or in the dark. It's just a matter of that they can see in the dark just as well as they can see in the light. So basically, something that negates any imposed low-light or complete darkness penalties, but doesn't actually give any bonuses either. Can Unique Abilities do that? Simply prevent penalties without giving any bonuses? Would it have to be on a one for one basis (such as a +2 in the Ability negating an up to -2 penalty) or would just one point in the Ability be enough to negate more than one such penalties (such as a +1 in the Unique Night Vision Ability being enough to negate 2 or more or even all penalties that might come from darkness)?

Offsetting Penalties is mentioned a few times (I can’t remember them all offhand, but at least under Incorporeal Form and under the Combat chapter heading Situational Modifiers.), and it works exactly as you describe. Incorporeal Form can help a character move with ease through a cluttered warehouse (offsetting a -1 Situational Penalty), but obviously the surplus Bonus from Incorporeal form isn’t going to actually apply. (This would mean an incorporeal character would perform better in a cluttered warehouse, which is obviously not the case. They just aren’t hindered.)

2 B) Related to the above, when the character does indeed see better in the dark than in the light, would Heightened Sense (Vision) Ability along with the Trigger (Heightened Sense Only Works in the Dark) work as well?

Sure.

2 C) And if one used the above method but with the Requirement (Heightened Sense Only Works in the Dark) Flaw, how much of an Endurance Cost reduction would that be worth?

Well, depends on the setting. If you’re playing Batman in Gotham City, pretty much everything happens at night, so getting more than a -5 Penalty wouldn’t really be justified. But as a general rule, I think -10 would be fine.

3 A) With the Incorporeal Form Ability, it seems implied that the character's default state is physical, and that they can become incorporeal. But what about characters that are naturally and permanently incorporeal like some ghosts and spirits, and are not able to take a physical form at all? In which case, they'd have some of the advantages of being incorporeal, such as not being affected by normal physical attacks, but with the disadvantages of not being able to physically interact with the material world. Would that require a Unique Weakness or Unique Flaw to go along with Incorporeal Form? And if so, how much of a Point/Endurance Reduction would it be worth as a Weakness/Flaw?

This is handled with two NPCs in OVA. One is Dr. Tomori, where it’s treated as a pure Weakness. He can’t interact with the physical world, and it cannot interact with him. He doesn’t take the Incorporeal Form Ability because he can’t be selective about it. The Ghost on the other hand, which is implied to be able to become physical even if its natural form is not, doesn’t make any special note of not being physical by default.

Basically, if its incorporeal nature is a boon, stat it up as Ability. If it is a hindrance, stat it up as a Weakness. If it’s some of both, then yes, using a Weakness or Flaw is just fine.

3 B) The same questions as above go for the Invisibility Ability as well in the case of that Ability being permanently invisible.

Same answer, though one could argue that being permanently invisible has more of a social drawback than the tangible (har har) weakness of being permanently incorporeal.

3 C) Speaking of ghosts, spirits, robots, and other things that may not be biological, would background advantages for non-living/biological characters such as not needing to eat, drink, breathe, go to the bathroom, or sleep, as well as being immune to things like poisons, toxins, diseases, etc. fall under the Life Support Ability? If not, would that all fall into a single Unique Ability instead, or separate ones for each?

Falls under Life Support, though I wouldn’t bother unless the character is treated as human otherwise. Miho gets Life Support because she’s treated like any other member of the party. The Spider Tank does not, because, well, it’s a Spider Tank. We don’t need that kind of detail.

3 D) Finally regarding ghosts and spirits, the Spirit Medium Ability lets a character see and hear ghosts and spirits and such. However, what if someone could see and hear ghosts and spirits, but didn't have any such knowledge of how to summon and banish them? That is, someone who wasn't a medium, but was able to see and hear ghosts and spirits (like the little boy from the movie "The Sixth Sense"). Does the Sixth Sense Ability allow for one to see and hear ghosts and spirits? The name sounds like it should, but the description seems more like it is geared towards sensing danger like a "Spider-Sense" rather than perceiving the supernatural.

Despite the movie title, sixth sense is more of a broad “sense that cannot be accounted for by the five physical senses.” I used it to represent a general awareness, but if you want to lump seeing and hearing from another realm, go for it. You could also just take Spirit Medium at +1, which makes you a pretty bad summoner, but would justify being able to converse ad nauseum with the dead, etc. And there’s always, Unique Ability, of course.

4) Do the Beautiful and Cute Abilities refer just to how the character looks, or that they use
their looks to get what they want? For example, what I mean is, what if you have a character who is quite beautiful, but she doesn't use her beauty as an advantage to get what she wants, instead using her charisma (Charismatic) or cleverness (Intuitive) to do so. So, can a character be considered more attractive than normal even if they don't have the Beautiful or Cute Abilities due to them not actually using their looks as an advantage to get their way? Or is someone without Beautiful or Cute considered just "average" in appearance?

This is a bit tricky in anime, since pretty much everyone is cute/beautiful. What having these Abilities mean is that this facet has a tangible effect on the world around them. People’s draws drop for Beautiful characters, people rush to hug Cute! characters, and so on. This doesn’t mean the character tries or intentionally has these facets—it’s just a part of their natural being.

Charisma implies the character is using charm and wits to get what they want, and is generally a much more active form of the same thing. But a character can have both Charisma and Beauty—or even arguably all three, I guess.

5 A) The Awkward Size Weaknesses has always been difficult for me to gauge in normal games. I know it's because what is "average size" to which to compare whether something is of Awkward Size may vary from game to game (a human might have Awkward Size: Tiny in a game where being a huge dragon is the default), still some examples of what might normally qualify for each level would help. For example, looking at the small and tiny example player characters and NPCs in the book, Azyrus has Awkward Size -1, Daisuke's Black Bunny form has Awkward Size -2, and a Fairy has Awkward Size -3. Using these as examples, I can understand Awkward Size -3 representing tiny things like mice, pixies, bugs, etc. But for the -1 and -2 level I am not sure since Azyrus is described as being like a cat with wings, but the size of a domestic cat and a rabbit aren't that much of a difference, so I don't know why the cat thing is at the -1 level and the bunny is at the -2 level.

It’s less about an actual size and more about how much of a problem you want that size to be. Azyrus is small, yes, but he can fly and as a cat is agile enough to make do with his surroundings at least moderately well. He’s also had an entire lifetime of BEING a flying cat. Daisuke, on the other hand is not naturally a rabbit, has chibi stubby legs, and is general meant to be much more perturbed by his size than Azyrus is. Being little is a big problem for Daisuke!

And a fairy—well, we all know how little fairies are, right?

5 B) And what about races like dwarves, hobbits/halflings, gnomes, etc? Would they qualify for Awkward Size compared to normal humans? What level would those kinds of races be?

Probably not. One could argue they have a shorter stride and such, but these things just don’t come up in heroic stories much. Dwarves kick butt, even if their kicks are a little stubbier.

If you really want to represent it, then -1 is okay. I definitely would not take it further than that.

6) Can normal Minions be mixed with combined Minions, or should you just take separate Minion Abilities? For example, if you had Minions +3 you could have 6 Minions with +1 of Abilities, or 3 Minions with +2 Abilities, right? Could you mix it and instead have Minions +3 representing 4 normal Minions with +1 of Abilities, and 1 combined Minion with +2 Abilities?

You could mix and match, if you wanted.

7) Just to make sure, is the Disarming Perk (and the other similar Perks that function in a similar way) based on the victim's maximum total Health or current total Health?

Right.

8 ) Can the Vampire Perk replenish more Health than the victim lost? For example, if someone takes the Vampire Perk six times, would they be able restore 150% percent of the damage they dealt?

Sure, though you cannot increase your own Health above the maximum, obviously.

9) Just to make sure, can an attack with the "Range, Strength-Powered" Perk be used as both a melee and a ranged attack, such as a throwing knife? Or is it restricted to only ranged attacks?

You could, I guess, but you really should create another attack without that Perk for melee moves. Why pay 5 Endurance for a melee attack when you don’t have to?

10) Just to make sure, with the Low Penetration Flaw, each time it is taken it gives a +2 to the opponent's armor, with a maximum of +5. So for example if a character used an attack that has Low Penetration x3, that would normally give a +6 bonus to the opponents Armored Ability. But since the maximum bonus is +5, it would only give a +5 bonus, is that right? So basically, another way to phrase that Flaw is to say that it can only be taken up to three times, with +5 as the maximum bonus to the opponent's Armored Ability?

Unless my math is wrong, only two Levels of Low Penetration have any effect. If your opponent has Armored +1, one level of Low Penetration would make this +3. Two +5, which is the maximum.

11) How would you handle a Unique Ability like "techno-kinesis," in which a character could control computers, or maybe even electronic devices in general, but perhaps only if they were either directly "plugged in" to the device, or were able to establish a connection with it via Wi-Fi or something like that?

Just make it a Unique Ability. Worth +2, maybe.

12) I was wondering how a merit like the following from a different system might convert to OVA:

"The character's true nature is difficult to discern. They merge into society flawlessly, regardless of how bizarre or otherworldly their appearance might be. If they are somehow hideous, they will appear to be an unattractive person; likewise, if they are somehow beatific, they will appear to be an attractive person. Characters with Special Merits may be able to notice the Unfathomable character’s unusual nature; a successful roll on the Perception stat plus a Special Skill will reveal the Unfathomable character’s true nature...."

Basically, assuming a modern day world like our own, it works in the way that if someone were a pastel-colored winged pixie, other people would see that that person was indeed a pastel-colored winged pixie. But that fact would not stand out as anything special, and people would treat that person as if being a pastel-colored winged pixie was just a normal, mundane every day thing, though people with a special Ability, such as Sixth Sense, might be able to see through that mundane effect and be aware that being a pastel-colored winged pixie is strange and unusual. So would something like this be a Unique Ability (and if so, how much would it cost?), or just simply a matter of not taking the Bizarre Appearance Weakness?

This sounds like a very focused version of the Illusionist Ability. I would probably use it as a basis.

13) This isn't a question, just an observation. In the description of the Assisted Flaw, it says: "This Perk may be taken multiple times." It's obvious it should say Flaw, but because it is a Flaw that has at least one advantage (letting other people contribute towards the Endurance Cost of the attack or Ability), I almost forgot that it was a Flaw rather than a Perk. This may have already been corrected though, as I haven't checked DriveThruRPG in a while to see if there have been any updates.

Anyhow, thanks as always for making such an interesting and useful game.

Yeah, that should say Flaw, though as you say, Assisted is kind of a grey area in whether it is a perk or not, with the Ability to spread Endurance costs.

In any case, you’re welcome! It sounds like you’re getting a lot of use out of it.

[The Reddest Mage]

Thanks as always Clay, much appreciated. My group had taken a break from OVA when our last OVA game ended around the end of last year. Since then we've played some other anime style TRPGs like Teenagers from Outerspace and MAID RPG, but soon we'll be going back to OVA again which is why as the GM I've been rereading the book to brush up again.

7) Just to make sure, is the Disarming Perk (and the other similar Perks that function in a similar way) based on the victim's maximum total Health or current total Health?

Right.

1) Just to be clear, was that "right" answer a yes that Disarming and other such Perks are based on maximum health, or current health?

2) I remember once before in another thread it was explained that the Smart and Intuitive Abilities don't normally stack, because when a character faces an activity where their mental abilities would apply they would normally be using either raw intelligence and learned knowledge or intuitive improvisation, but not both. Well similarly, what about having both the Beautiful and Cute! Abilities? Do those stack, or can a character only capitalize on one at a time?

3) I've seen talk around the forums about running games similar to Dungeons & Dragons, or other such fantasy games with a dungoneering theme, and how one might do leveling up in OVA and what not. But what about the finding of equipment? In such games usually finding treasure items in dungeons or taking such from defeated enemies is a big part of the game. How does that translate into OVA, where equipment is handled as Abilities? For just normal weapons it seems easily enough, as found weapons are just an easy matter of the Attack Ability and don't require any change, or at most simply adding some perks and flaws to represent the new weapon. But what of magical weapons and non-weapon equipment, things that would be built with the Gear Ability? If a player finds a magic sword that in addition to damage (Attack) also brought the wielder good luck (Lucky) and warned them of danger (Sixth Sense), would they just get the Gear Ability for free? Or should they be expected to pay for it with experience points?

[Clay]

Those are some good games to take an OVA sabbatical with! TFOS rarely gets enough credit for how ahead of its time it was. Not only its rules-light nature, but the fact it was an anime game at all.

1) Sorry, that answer wasn’t very helpful, was it? I meant to say it is always based on your MAXIMUM health, not your current health.

2) They can stack if, somehow, it makes sense. I would say generally they achieve different goals. Beautiful inspires attraction and admiration, while Cute! invokes warmth and sympathy. If for some reason both apply, sure, go for it. If it doesn’t make sense for them to, don’t.

3) I elaborate on this idea in a certain unreleased book in progress that shall not be named, but put simply, yes, give every character free access to as many Gear Abilities as they like and do not count it towards their character total. That said, starting characters should have relatively not awesome Gear (+1 or +2) to start with, leaving higher Levels for treasures gleaned from hard-won battles and adventures.