Hey guys, I'm designing a Pathfinder conversion/campaign game based on the Mega Man X Series, so I thought I'd post some stuff here and get some feedback.
This campaign is based around the core rules of Pathfinder, but it will have some specific tweaks to the system to make it fit the Mega Man setting better, such as custom character classes and modified combat rules. The general idea is that each player will choose a character from the X Series to play as. From there, they will go on missions to take down the eight Mavericks and storm Sigma's fortress. In addition to getting Special Weapons from the Mavericks, characters will level up automatically after each mission. Because of the way this works out, the characters will be at 14th level by the time they reach Sigma. To help progression and make the game more interesting, the classes each character is based on has been condensed, so that they will have all the abilities of that class by 14th level.
Stages will typically have several parts to them and each one will have an objective that will need to be carried out. The players will get certain bonuses for completing these objectives. Additionally, players can find other items, like Heart Tanks, Sub Tanks, Light Capsules, or equippable Parts.
The biggest change to the core system of Pathfinder is something I'm borrowing from another Mega Man tabletop game I saw once, based on the Classic series. At the start of initiative, players will also roll 1d4+1 for Standard Actions. These additional actions can be used on your turn, or on someone else's turn for specific effects. The effect will hopefully give the game a quicker pace more befitting of a Mega Man game. Here are some of the other highlights and changes of this system. I have included links to more detailed breakdowns as well.
Characters - Each player will choose one of the characters from the X Series to play as. In addition to the obvious characters like X and Zero, some characters from Command Mission and the Zero series have been included to help expand the roster. While players have to choose one of these characters for gameplay purposes, they don't necessarily need to play as the characters from the games if they don't want to. If they would prefer, they can pick whichever character "class" they like the most and design their own OC around that. Each character is treated as a basic class, with their own class features. They are based on existing Pathfinder classes and archetypes, with some modifications and special abilities.
Actions: At the beginning of each combat zone, characters will roll 1d4+1 for the number of Standard Actions they will get. They will still have one Move and one Swift action as normal, in addition to their Standards. Most enemies will only have one Standard Action, but Boss Mavericks and some stronger enemies will have more. These actions can be used out of turn for specific actions, such as dodging or countering attacks. More details in the attached link.
Armor: Each character will have a base Armor bonus at start. There is no equippable armor, but Parts can be obtained that might increase this value.
Weapons: Players start with their base weapons. No new weapons can be obtained under normal circumstances. However, upgrades can be purchased at Hunter HQ to strengthen these weapons.
Equipment: Each character has two Part slots. Parts are additional equipment that can be found during missions or purchased from Hunter HQ. They give each character special abilities or attacks.
Experience: Characters automatically level up at the end of a successful mission. The experience value for enemies is instead converted to Zenny, which can then be used to buy items at Hunter HQ.
Skills: Many skills have been modified or removed to better fit the narrow setting of Mega Man X. Some of them will be more useful than others, but all of the remaining skills will have the opportunity to be used.
Mavericks & Weapons - As with any Mega Man X game, there will be 8 Maverick bosses to defeat. The players can decide which order to fight these Mavericks, with later ones being stronger than earlier ones. Each Maverick will drop a Special Weapon, which the characters can use from then on as a special power. Each weapon has its own Cost, drawing from a Weapon Energy bar used for all weapons. These are the Mavericks that will appear in this campaign.
Maverick: Blitz Angler
Level: Deep Sea Power Plant
Mission: Deactivate the power generator
Maverick: Hex Vulpin
Level: Decommissioned Reploid Storage
Mission: Free the captured Reploids
Maverick: Solar Hawk
Level: Flying Battleship
Mission: Destroy the stolen weapons
Maverick: Burst Ladybug
Level: Weapons Factory
Mission: Destroy Prototype Weapon
Maverick: Phase Tapir
Level: Dimensional Research Center
Mission: Acquire Encrypted Cyperspace Data
Maverick: Lancer Jackal
Level: Canyon Floor
Mission: Catch the Convoy
Maverick: Ironclad Turtle
Level: Weapons Testing Lab
Mission: Infiltrate the facility without harming civilians
Maverick: Chill Bullfrog
Level: Arctic Ruins
Mission: Recover the artifact
At this point, I've pretty much finished all the characters and their classes, but will likely make slight modifications as needed. With the Special Weapons gained after each Maverick stage and the condensed level up bonuses, balance will be a bit tricky. I'm currently working on stage layouts and enemies. The enemies are kinda the hardest part. I'm designing each Maverick stage with four Tiers of enemies. Which Tier is used depends on what level the party is at when they enter the stage. But that means I basically have to design creature variations for 32 stages, instead of just 8. And that isn't even taking into account the Intro Stage or the Fortress Stages...
There is much more I could go into, but this is already a long post. Let me know what you guys think!
I'd use starfinder rather than pathfinder, but seems like a cool idea
Yeah, was gonna say Starfinder has more of your core base baked in.
I haven't looked into Starfinder all that much, but I'll take a look. I've had a few "supers" style games suggested, typically ones with some sort of power buy system, but none of them really fit all that much. Hopefully this one will be better suited.
Craft might not be a bad idea. Not sure what class he would be though. Perhaps Ranger, but the favored enemies and terrains might not fit this campaign. I'll have to look into it.
Story-wise, I was actually going to have an explanation for the Guardians. Assuming a player chose one of them, before the first mission Alia would introduce the other Hunters to Ceilia, a human scientist working for the Maverick Hunters. Ceilia would introduce the Guardian players as new Hunters she had created using battle data from X and Zero along with analysis of X's past armor systems. It would be insinuated that Ceilia is Ceil's ancestor, the one who created the Mother Elf. This would place the timeline of the campaign very close to the Elf Wars. I plan to have little hints of this spread throughout the campaign.