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Has anyone here ever tried the Final Fantasy Role Playing Game (3rd edition)? I just downloaded it (it's available as a free PDF at www.returnergames.com). It seems like a very interesting concept, and could be a very refreshing change of pace from the standard 3.5 D&D I normally play. Has anyone played it that could share some experiences?
I think it's interesting because it takes a more relaxed approach to the level of realism, which I think far too many people are fixated on. I'm also going to be using it to introduce my cousin into roleplaying, since he's played the Final Fantasy games and it will be somewhat familiar territory for him.
Sounds like something that could be fun.
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Now that I've actually gotten around to check out the Animarpg site, I've noticed something - they have a lot of flash and bang as far as site construction goes, but they don't actually have the product(s). Everything on their site is marked as coming soon, even though the copyright suggests that they have been working on it for years, whereas the Final Fantasy RPG is a free resource available now. Although I'll admit that the pictures are all very pretty on that site, that's not really why I play table-top RPGs
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yeah, I was really excited when I found the game. I discovered that there is a pretty decent collection of player-submitted monsters Here, and the guidelines for making monsters seems to be a little more in-depth than most RPGs out there. I've been reading through it more and more and I can't wait to play it (although I wish I had a hard copy to give to my players)
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Sorry, I forgot how terrible the Anima website is.
Here, try Fantasy Flight's website. They're the ones publishing it.
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That's quite the price tag they have there at Anima. I can't afford to shell out $60 for an RPG at the moment, but it might be worth investing in sometime in the future.
Something else I like about the FFRPG is that it is very familiar ground for almost all of my friends, everyone having played at least a few of the Final Fantasy games. With their mindset drifting into familiar territory, it will be that much easier to introduce the newbies to table-top gaming while giving my veteran player a new experience after playing D&D 3.5 for so long.
I looked over the rules, it looks like a good adaptation, however it also looks a bit inflexible.
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It seems pretty flexible to me; the wide selection of classes along with advantages/disadvantages/races allows for a decent amount of character customization, and the point-buy system is a little more lenient than most. It has custom crafting rules, the "intuitive magic" system allows you to create custom magical effects on the fly based solely off of what key words you have and GM discretion, and most of the monsters will be completely GM made and therefore (probably) tailored to the group.
As for flexibility as in assimilating things from other systems, yeah, nothing's really compatible, but with how much it has (minus monsters) I think it's pretty good as a stand-alone system.
It seems pretty flexible to me; the wide selection of classes along with advantages/disadvantages/races allows for a decent amount of character customization, and the point-buy system is a little more lenient than most. It has custom crafting rules, the "intuitive magic" system allows you to create custom magical effects on the fly based solely off of what key words you have and GM discretion, and most of the monsters will be completely GM made and therefore (probably) tailored to the group.
As for flexibility as in assimilating things from other systems, yeah, nothing's really compatible, but with how much it has (minus monsters) I think it's pretty good as a stand-alone system.
Not quite what I meant but I agree with what you said.
My thought was once you had picked your race, picked your class, your skills, and advantages/disadvantages, leveling means very little.
Yes some more abilities open up, and yes you get more HP/BAB/ whatever, however a level 10 Hume Black Mage is a level 10 Hume Black Mage. There is little to nothing (other than the "RP" of the player) separating two characters of the same class.
Do I think it is a bad system? No. Do I think there is a some room to make it a great system? Yes.
I would like to see a bit more of a "tactics" or "Grid" approach (like from FF X or FF 12) where you are primarily your choosen class, however you can "dip in" a little to other classes abilities.
Truthfully something like what they did for multiclassing in 4ed D&D would probably work.
Just to offer up some of the variation we saw in the characters in Final Fantasy (like Edward in FF IV who would in this FF system be a bard with a few Alchemist abilities).
I think doing this could also cut down on the "Class Clutter" too, allowing them to keep the variety of play they have, without having to "stat out" each class.
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I think there's a little too much emphasis on multi-classing in the D&D world (but this is coming from a person that has yet to actually make a multi-class character.)
But then again, in the video games I did love the Job system and loved making the best combination's I could think of. That's one of the things that kept me in the Tactics branch of the series.
I know that one of the first questions my veteran player asked me was "So how do they handle multiclassing in this system?" and all I could say was "um... they don't."
In D&D terms though (because that's what I have the most experience with), any time someone would multi-class, they would be less effective as a character until they picked up a prestige class, which would either throw them into an even tighter Niche or make them absurdly more powerful than they should have been at that level. But that was mostly due to about 50 different books intermingling with each other when they weren't really designed with each other in mind.
EDIT: and any time I say D&D, I'm referring to 3.5 E
EDIT EDIT: one of the systems I've seen that was highly customizable, but very confusing and unintuitive, used XP to "buy" almost everything about the character. Want a new spell? 200xp. Want a new feat? More HP? New Socks? That'll all cost ya. (well, everything but the last thing)
Yeah, looking at this system I look at it and go, "Yeah this is cool... I would like to have a dark knight with some black magic actually... not possible... hm... they've done it on multiple characters in the FF series, and it isn't covered."
That's why I suggested that the 4e approach might actually work for the FF system. It's not multiclassing, it's just grabbing an ability. Which is slightly different in scope, scale, and feel.
All and all it looks like it could work (though I'm a little worried looking over the math of it again... it looks like it gets all or nothing kind of quickly), I'm just concerned that the leveling aspect doesn't really seem to over much change or difference from one character to another of the same type. Two Dark Knights are going to be basically the same... I would like to see a bit of variation in it.
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well, two Dark Knights will be the same except for perhaps Race (which affects Attributes), Traits (of which there are a lot), Advantages/Disadvantages, and just plain concept.
Now, me not having been familiar with 4E, I just did a little bit of research into the multiclassing system. For one, it seems to be based off of feats, and there is a specific one for each class-to-class combination. With the lack of feats and the sheer number of classes, this would be hard to do with the system as written. 'Course, I'm also a little happy to see a system without multiclassing. After playing with a bunch of people that were multiclassing freaks, this will be a nice break from trying to understand convoluted class/template/monster-class/prestige-class combinations. I don't think it's that big of a loss, especially since many of the classes are mixes anyway, like the Red Mage, or the Black Caller. And if you want someone that can do everything, be a Mime.
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I'm trying to build a class system even tho all base classes (squire & chemist) are only 10 level and all the other ones work like prestige classes of 10 levels, I'm also using the Zodiac system for increased and decreased damage like in the game (simple mechanic really), not really sure about the advantages and disadvantages rater see them as positive traits and negative traits.
I also have some extra classes most of them 5 level ones like Arc Knight, Lune knight and such, but those are more of special classes that you would need like knight prestige class first as requirement and such.
MP system looks fine for me, just need to work with the spells and the summoning system I might use the summoner Eidolon Point buy system and have certain pre-made eidolons better than regular ones and hard to find or something.
I accept any suggestions and help, for now I'm only doing Ivalice, then I'll go for Ordalia, Romanda and Valeria (if I remember correctly were vagrant story is played).
About the brave/faith thing I would need some ideas.