Wise Turtle Publishing

Hiya, I'm back with more questions and random stuff to quiz Clay on ^_^

First off, Invention. What prevents you from making more than one? Besides, of course, how much one can carry, there is no real restriction on how many times it can be used.

I was thinking that a simple -1 to all inventions after the first. This gives a practical limit on how many inventions one could have, and represent either a reduction in available parts, supplies, and/or ingenuity (not everone is as smart as McGuyver). Otherwise, I was pondering having a limit on the total amount of boni (that's the plural of bonus, right??) one could have based on their lvl of Invention. Or, thridly, we could just ignore my rantings, and use what's in the book ^_^

Next topic: Arsenal (note that I left off the "human" part, because any race can have an arsenal, not just a human ^_^)

Why have it restricted to the lower of Arsenal or the original Ability? Since it's "every specimen of it," wouldn't it stand to reason that each level would just be another item that you could have, limited by the linked Ability? Just a thought.

TBP

I thought the fact that you can only carry so many inventions was enough of a limitation in itself. After all, Washu never had any problem procuring the invention she wanted to have around. As the Ability states, too, resources are a real problem. Unless the player has also taken Filthy Rich, bastardizing previous experiments for parts becomes a very neccessary part of the process. In the end, it's supposed to reflect anime, not game balance.

As for Human Arsenal, without this link limitation, there is no reason to buy any Ability BESIDES Arsenal. Why buy Weapon when you can buy Human Arsenal and have every weapon?

I suppose you could make Arsenal refer to how many extra items you can have, but anime rarely has such an arbitrary cap (instead, it tends to limit the power, not the number), and I wanted it to have this alternative use: A character can have, say, Weapon at +4 and Human Arsenal at +2. In this way, the character can have one uber weapon and an arsenal of weaker weapons.

Of course, you can tool OVA however you want. Simplifying Arsenal is appealing...but I just don't think this idea works for what I was trying to do. I'll have to think about it.

Clay wrote:I thought the fact that you can only carry so many inventions was enough of a limitation in itself. After all, Washu never had any problem procuring the invention she wanted to have around. As the Ability states, too, resources are a real problem. Unless the player has also taken Filthy Rich, bastardizing previous experiments for parts becomes a very neccessary part of the process. In the end, it's supposed to reflect anime, not game balance.

As for Human Arsenal, without this link limitation, there is no reason to buy any Ability BESIDES Arsenal. Why buy Weapon when you can buy Human Arsenal and have every weapon?

I suppose you could make Arsenal refer to how many extra items you can have, but anime rarely has such an arbitrary cap (instead, it tends to limit the power, not the number), and I wanted it to have this alternative use: A character can have, say, Weapon at +4 and Human Arsenal at +2. In this way, the character can have one uber weapon and an arsenal of weaker weapons.

Of course, you can tool OVA however you want. Simplifying Arsenal is appealing...but I just don't think this idea works for what I was trying to do. I'll have to think about it.

Y'know what, Clay? I hate you. Every time I think I thought up a good idea, you come back at me with logic that I just can't refute. Jeeze, it's like you made the game or something ~_^

On a more serious note, everything you said makes good sense--I wouldn't say perfect sense, because nothing in this world is perfect--but good sense non-the-less.

Once again, you prove why you, not me, are a published RPG writer ^_^

TBP

Hah, I don't know about that...I think I've just thought about the rules for a long time. ^_^ In the end, anyone with a solid idea and a good helping of gumption can put out their very own RPG.

Besides that, I always like to hear about alternative ways of doing things. OVA very much was a homebrew game that I created alone on my computer. I had it playtested by a handful of friends and family, but it's not the kind of game that has been exhaustively tested like many other RPGs on the market. I'm well aware there's probably going to be some big hitches somewhere that I'm missing...

(Case in point, those of you with Distribution copies of the game will notice a change in how Drama Dice work. Originally, Drama Dice were, as written in the rules, theoretically infinite. As long as you weren't in combat or other high-tension situation, you could almost automatically succeed at any task by burning all of your Endurance and instantly gaining it back. Now the rules state that Endurance spent for Drama Dice is not automatically rejuvenated, thus fixing this quite glaring hole in the mechanics.)