Wise Turtle Publishing

Hello everyone!

I'm Maverick, rogue in many ways. Got my hands on OVA several weeks ago and have been lurking the forum until I decided to finally register. Now I'm piping up.

I do have to say OVA is quite a welcome switch to games that have a rule for most, if not everything (I'm looking at you GURPS, long, hard, and with more than a bit of disdain). To find and RPG that has almost nothing to do with stats and gives the characters strengths and weaknesses based on their descriptive qualities is, to me, amazing.

I used to play RPGs back in the day. As time went by I naturally drifted away. Then became a dabbler in writing, then began to RP with friends. Having a game system that lets you create a character that you can say, "They're pretty good at this," and not have to find the rule for it to calculate something or derive a stat to me is incredible. "They're pretty fast on their feet." Give them +3 quick. "They're a martial badass." Give them +4 combat expert and around +3 attack. I've never liked the idea of taking a character I've created for writing and statting them out in an RPG because it seemed like it would be akin to hard capping their abilities and limiting them because that's what RPGs do. However, OVA doesn't feel like that, it feels more relaxed and easy going than any other RPG, and I still haven't played yet. There are no numbers that say "You're only good at this up to this point." and that's just wonderful.

A descriptive based RPG is something I've wanted for ages and Clay you have delivered. I don't have anyone around where I live that plays RPGs but just reading the book has made my mind bubble and bobble with ideas.

You have given me a problem I didn't know I needed. Thanks.

Maverick

I have been role-playing since I was 6 years old (Yes really) and I'm 21 now I have made my own systems and played a lot of other ones but I have to say OVA is by far the best.

Welcome to the forums.

I've also used RPG stats to sort of give characters 'limits' on what they can and can't do. Although I do find it somewhat troubling when someone gets to 'break the rules' and do something you can''t really replicate ingame. So I try to make it something available as an option. I started with Shadowrun and then Palladium's line of books. I liked D&D's 3rd ed OGL stuff but not a fan of standard fantasy stuff. Wanting something Mega Man-like, I stumbled across Big Eyes, Small Mouth d20, which I thought was a pretty neat break down of the d20 system. I loved how BESM gave you how things work but you figure out why. BESM was about to launch their 3rd edition, which took things in an interesting direction but I never liked the point increase. What was origanally a 20 point character became a 300 point character. About a year or so ago, Sabersonic was looking at a Gundam game using OVA, so I picked up the book to check it out. OVA was, to Me, like what Pathfinder is to D&D 3rd, to BESM 2nd ed. There are some very cool ideas in OVA that I like playing around with.

Maverick Arkguard wrote:They're pretty fast on their feet." Give them +3 quick. "They're a martial badass." Give them +4 combat expert and around +3 attack.

Not to be overly critical, as you've got the right idea, but I'd lower those by 1. +3 is usually the max I go with a character, and +4 or higher is for elites and masters or rare situations that call for high powers.

Malancthon wrote: Not to be overly critical, as you've got the right idea, but I'd lower those by 1. +3 is usually the max I go with a character, and +4 or higher is for elites and masters or rare situations that call for high powers.

Well the example I gave was of a badass. Raine in the character book has combat expert at +4 and his skill is supposed to be immense. Fukiko has transformation at +4 as well, but that's because she's essentially a nobody without it. A +3 is considered masterful, +4 is elite and I don't see a problem with it in that context. A player character having that? Is it a new character? They need to give me a good reason to have it. Is it an established character that's grown into that? Yeah fine. Is it a new character that's in a campaign of people who are already strong? I don't see a problem.

I see no reason a PC can't have something that high, they just need to justify it if it's a new character in a group of new characters.

Maverick Arkguard wrote:

Malancthon wrote: Not to be overly critical, as you've got the right idea, but I'd lower those by 1. +3 is usually the max I go with a character, and +4 or higher is for elites and masters or rare situations that call for high powers.

Well the example I gave was of a badass. Raine in the character book has combat expert at +4 and his skill is supposed to be immense. Fukiko has transformation at +4 as well, but that's because she's essentially a nobody without it. A +3 is considered masterful, +4 is elite and I don't see a problem with it in that context. A player character having that? Is it a new character? They need to give me a good reason to have it. Is it an established character that's grown into that? Yeah fine. Is it a new character that's in a campaign of people who are already strong? I don't see a problem.

I see no reason a PC can't have something that high, they just need to justify it if it's a new character in a group of new characters.

I think both point are good here. It all just comes down to what kind of game you are playing. The good ting about OVA is you can say whatever you want! You can a have player start with nothing but +5s or with nothing above +1 It is all up to the gamemaster an the type of game being played

Maverick Arkguard wrote:

Malancthon wrote: Not to be overly critical, as you've got the right idea, but I'd lower those by 1. +3 is usually the max I go with a character, and +4 or higher is for elites and masters or rare situations that call for high powers.

Well the example I gave was of a badass. Raine in the character book has combat expert at +4 and his skill is supposed to be immense. Fukiko has transformation at +4 as well, but that's because she's essentially a nobody without it. A +3 is considered masterful, +4 is elite and I don't see a problem with it in that context. A player character having that? Is it a new character? They need to give me a good reason to have it. Is it an established character that's grown into that? Yeah fine. Is it a new character that's in a campaign of people who are already strong? I don't see a problem.

I see no reason a PC can't have something that high, they just need to justify it if it's a new character in a group of new characters.

Sure, however having an ability at +4 or +5 limits the amount of growth in that ability you can have. If you are thinking of a short game of badasses, then it's fine. Your sample makes Me think of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star- awesome, propably way too awesome to start a game at. I also think of how to grow a character with their abilities. And you could certainly make a character grow in a different direction since they are near epitomes of that ability.

Nothing wrong at all with how you approach it, just My two cents.