OVA sample

[Chairman Aeon]

I'm guessing that one of the keys to attracting attention to a new game on RPGnet is to compare it favourably to a darling game. Of course it's hard to know what becomes a big thread there.

Iain.

[Damiar the Wolf]

Cool, I'll start up a thread on rpg.net when I get the chance...(though take aeon's advice into account).

And I've been around for some of those delays. Just never had anything to say until just now.

I'll drop you a PM if I start that thread or anything. Good luck!

[migo]

Nice, I like the apparent unified mechanics. I guess it's still combat biased with a seperate health/endurance score, right?

[Clay]

It's only combat biased in the fact that more attention is given to exciting combat rules than most other things. (There isn't an Iron Chef cooking competition section, for instance.) I suppose this is a tilt most RPGs take. In OVA's case, anime IS heavily action oriented, so it's not out of place.

But in its defense, it's perfectly easy to make a character with no major combat statistics. Braun, one of the sample characters, would be in a poor spot if forced to fight. OVA is meant to emulate whatever anime you desire, even if the fisticuffs are left behind.

[hobbit_marco]

I have some questions after seeing this demo character.

The way characters are defined looks really nice. But I hear several people talking about het health and endurance. I can't see any of those stated on her sheet?
Also, I don't see any reference to how smart she is. I can't see any kind of intelligence score. How exactly does this work if you want her to do something like calculate something (for instance).

Forgive me if my questions are stupid or stange. I hope you can answer me though ^^.

[Clay]

No worries. Most gamers are trained into thinking this way, because so many games use things like "Intelligence" as a hardcoded statistic that must be listed.

In OVA, no stat is hard-coded. Only statistics that are either above or below average are listed. In Miho's case, she is neither smarter nor dumber than the average human. She would roll the default 2 dice in such a situation.

I handled OVA this way because I felt the idea of stats were kind of broken. Why is intelligence more vital than, say, charisma? Why is "Toughness" or "Willpower" important in one game, but not in another? Why should I rate my character's Dexterity, when it's not really part of who he is? OVA gives every possible attribute equal weight, and you are not forced to come up with numbers for statistics you really don't know about.

If a statistic is not listed, your character is considered "average" in that facet.

As for Health and Endurance, these are two perishable stats that can be drained through gameplay. Abilities like Tough and Vitality and Weaknesses like Frail and Languourous affect these. Both are 40 by default.

Hope that helps! If you haven't already, you can see a demo of the OVA Role-Playing Game on our front page. It covers character creation and may alleviate some of your confusion.

[hobbit_marco]

Thanks for explaining. I get it now.

I think I'll look for OVA in the stores. I hope they'll have it here (in The Netherlands ^^). I like the idea of your system and the artwork of course.

edit:
Crap, the site says the printed version isn't out yet >_<.
When will it come out?