A grittier OVA world...

[markodude]

Hello,
After a long techno-fantasy campaign, I'm currently try to tailor the Ova system, that is great if I want to roleplay, let's say for example Dragonball, but I'm aiming for a dark, cyberpunk setting.

The first idea was reducing Heath and Endurance, but another "line of though" I've heard is using Health ONLY for health and Endurance ONLY for using powers/improving dice rolls (so that it takes only 40 damage points to defeat a hero, 20 for a secondary character)

The other option is reducing the values but playing as usual: 20/20 for heroes, 10/10 for secondary and 5/5 for extras.

In your opinion, which is the best solution? Is the first unbalancing or is the second too deadly for the Pcs?

[Malancthon]

Page 109 does suggest reducing Health and Endurance by half as a good way to make OVA grittier. There was a small discussion over here that pretty much came to the same conclusion.

[markodude]

Thanks! Anyway I am dumb since I've just find a similar topic! viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12394

I wonder which of the two solution was chosen by the author since I have still to try the two options in play!

[Malancthon]

For My own 2 cents, I'd probably suggest keeping the base 40 points but separate Endurance and Health so they can't be a second 'life bar'.

OVA's rules for Health and Endurance is a great idea, and there is a lot of room to build viable characters differently without affecting the players' ability to go adventuring (for example, a physically weak, Frail -2, but spiritually strong, Vigor +3, would total 90 points, stronger than a base 40/40 character). But it doesn't really go with normal RPG logic, so many players miss that nuance. Keeping the two stats separate makes more immediate sense, and would probably go with your grittier feel.

Another reason to not go with 20/20 starting stats, I think, would be how quickly Endurance could be used up. If you got a special or magical attack that takes up 5 or 10 EN, you can do it a few times comfortably with 40 or more Endurance, but starting at 20 seems to Me like it would curtail players too much.

How was your previous game? Sounds like it was neat. Did it seem like characters go through their Health quick enough but going through Endurance dragged combat out?

I know Clay has said he planned OVA out for only one or two combat encounters per session, with the idea that a session is like a single episode of an anime. I wonder if there is a better way to calculate combat, like 1 encounter per 20 Endurance

[markodude]

For My own 2 cents, I'd probably suggest keeping the base 40 points but separate Endurance and Health so they can't be a second 'life bar'.

This was my idea for a simple reason: Endurance is useful for a lot of other things besides being a life bar: as Clay said in that topic, there are those Endurance-draining Abilities, but he seems to forgot also the use of Drama Dice that uses Endurance, so it can still be quite useful for those that do not use Abilities with Endurance cost.

I also like this idea because it mimics exactly how it works in videogames (Final Fantasy and other Jrpgs)

Another reason to not go with 20/20 starting stats, I think, would be how quickly Endurance could be used up.

I agree. It's true that for "less flashy" effects the cost won't be much but yes, it's more practical.

How was your previous game? Sounds like it was neat. Did it seem like characters go through their Health quick enough but going through Endurance dragged combat out?

Oh the game was great, still I'm doing a lot of one-shot sessions and for this reason shorter combats are better (so I can make more than one or two).
But in this specific case I was aiming for more lethality (and fear of being hit), combat lenght was not really an issue, the problem was that with 80 (40+40) hitpoints (for a character with no bonus) is very much, and 40 would be ok for a heroic character of course (and I agree, unlinking the H and E is better than the 20+20 thing even if the result is similar)