Howdy folks!
I've been dreaming of a campaign focused on the world of Final Fantasy VIII. While I'm sure there are some Final Fantasy Pathfinder homebrew rules out there, I'm thinking of leaving this pretty close to "vanilla" Pathfinder. The short version: you are the SeeDs that are not Squall Leonheart, Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, Quistis, Trepe, or Irvine Kinneas.
Basically, if you've ever wondered "What are all those folks that graduated before Squall doing this whole time?", this is the campaign for you!
The story will begin shortly before FFVIII's story starts, and (at least at the beginning) focus on missions given to you by your Garden. Your PCs are SeeD members-- most likely, you have some experience under your belt! I'm hoping to keep this a fairly RP-heavy campaign, so feel free to explore the setting!
Naturally, it helps if you have some experience with FFVIII.
For those who need a quick primer:
SeeD are students who grew up in one of three "Garden" facilities: basically prestige boarding schools that optionally teach combat skills, with the possibility of employment as a SeeD following a written exam, a field test, and a trial mission. SeeD are deployed all over the world to fund the school, and are legendarily strong due to equipping (or "junctioning"0 Guardian Forces.
There's some studies that suggest utilizing the power of Guardian Forces in this way may cause memory loss... but that's probably just anti-SeeD propoganda.
Your PCs will start somewhere between level 2 and 4 (TBD!). After all, it wouldn't do to have you grapple with Level 1 50/50 miss chances ;)
Since SeeD are highly-trained mercenaries who elevate themselves upon the trained armies of rival militaries through use of GFs, however, a few unique rules will be in place. These are subject to change, but:
-Feat tax rules will be in place.
-All PCs will be able to summon under specific circumstances.
-Crit range will be doubled if you're under 1/3 max HP (stacks with everything!).
-We can work together to make a fancy weapon that you're proficient with! (Large nunchaku? Crossbow that shoots returning chakrams and/or dogs? A gunblade???) Note that other PCs probably won't be proficient with your weapon.
-Maybe we should avoid sorcerers? Or maybe your character is a sorcerer, and it's, like, a Whole Thing?
-I'm open to discussing! Happy to make this more weird, less weird, etc. Do some of you want to be lower level than the rest of the group? Awesome, love it. Do we want to convert gold to gil? Can do! Do we want to figure out a draw system and maybe junctioning? Hell, if everyone else is down, let's make it happen! (But probably not.)
I'm going to have a Discord server for this. I expect most of you to be able to join it-- not because it's necessary to play, but when it comes to coordination, keeping people in touch with each other helps keep groups going a LOT.
As for maps, I'm going with Google Slides. Always a winner!
If I get a few people who are interested, I'm happy to work together on character concepts and fleshing out the crunch rules!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
My docket is a bit full right now but this might be of interest to you.
It's a pretty thorough and playtested retrofit of Pathfinder to play and feel like Final Fantasy stuff
Dotting
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Dotting. Happy to see the forums aren't a complete desolate wasteland during the holidays.
It's a pretty thorough and playtested retrofit of Pathfinder to play and feel like Final Fantasy stuff
I’ve skimmed this before and there’s some neat stuff in there, I’m not gonna lie! That said, I’d probably be only taking bits and pieces, and I’m not sure which ones yet!
If anyone has favorites, though, let me know!
Oh man, good question. All right, so, taking a few things into account here:
-The Gunblade is seen as a rare weapon to use—Cid mentions that not only has he been lacking in Gunblade specialists, but he’s excited to have one. That makes the Gunblade an exotic weapon in my book! Squall has EWP (Gunblade).
-Without GFs, Squall’s strategy (Limit Breaks included) comes down to: hit it hard, many times, crit often if not always. We’re definitely looking at a martial class, or at most, a mixed class with a heavy martial bent (such as the Magus).
-With GFs junctioned, he (and all PCs) are top variable, so I’m going to limit it to Stuff He Definitely Does By Canon.
-The stuff Squall does on his first day (wakes up in the infirmary, attends class, fights and defeats a GF with aid from an instructor and possibly a GF, gets on a sub, helps oust professional Galbadian soldiers en masse, several monsters, two Galbadian officers, aNOTHER monster, successfully holds his own against the Spider Mech whether he retreats or destroys it, and reaches the evacuation point within the time limit) is not remarked upon as being beyond SeeD standards; we have to assume this is normal, if promising.
If we assume a Galbadian Soldier is a Level 1 Warrior, and Squall goes through groups of them like butter with, at most, a 3-person party, I’d say Squall is probably about Level 3—just at the point where martial classes start getting properly Fancy, hitting more often than not, etc. (especially with his 255% accuracy!)
So I’d have to think about his actual class a bit, but he’s definitely a 2H wielder with high STR. He’s no slouch in any of his stats, to be completely honest (except CHA—being honest, I think it’s his dump stat).
But a PC is more than their weapon, class, and Attributes. There’s also Skills to consider!
Squall shows himself to be generally knowledgeable (Knowledge Arcana or Planes for sure, probably Local and Geography), acrobatic enough to make significant leaps, and probably has some other skills that one would expect of a soldier (Survival, Stealth, Spellcraft, Sense Motive, and Perception). Having all this by level 3 with decent INT is actually still pretty attainable for even a Fighter. After Dollet, he picks up Profession (SeeD) as well!
TL:DR version: probably a Level 3 Fighter or Magus, 2Handed Exotic Weapon, generally high attributes for everything but CHA. You could probably justify a higher level, but 3 is around where he’s feasible.
Oh, I should also note: probably going for a pretty small party here (3-4). After all, who ever heard of a Final Fantasy party with more than that? ;)
One of the questions I've been rolling around in my head is:
Divine classes????
FFVIII doesn't seem to have much mentioned in the way of deities; nobody seems to worship the Guardian Forces, and we don't even get a single overarching deity to contend with (not even as a final boss! Ultimecia is, despite being very powerful, a mortal human like everyone else).
We could go the "deity-less domain" route for Clerics and the like, or if someone specifically wants to play, say, a Warpriest of Bahamut, we could probably work out how that works. (That might end up lifted wholesale from FFd20, or at least inspired by it.)
Happy to be flexible!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You could refluff some of the divine casters as using medical tech, maybe?
Also, interested.
I’ve been suspiciously quiet on that front, mostly because I hate that the answer might be “human only”! And yet...
FF8 doesn’t have a lot of races! There’s humans, and Shumi, and..........
............?????
If anyone has any ideas that are canon-friendly, lay ‘em on me!
Moomba would probably qualify as a separate race, since they're so different.
Sorceresses might work better as Aasimar or the like than simply being a spellcasting class? Not sure on that.
And then, of course, there is the Super Intelligent Chocobo Overlords.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You have handy timing as I've just started replaying FF8! Definately interested.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm a huge fan of Final Fantasy 8! It is probably the most underappreciated of the modern Final Fantasy games and was, to me, one of the better ones in the series.
Since FFd20 was more or less based on Pathfinder- with many classes being identical except for one or two features and the addition of Limit Breaks- can we use FFd20 classes? I can drum something up using Pathfinder classes if not.
I’ll have to look over them! Was there a particular class you were looking at?
I'd personally be interested in the Engineer, as it works well for my idea of a Galbadian exchange student with a mechanical bent.
Not too late at all! Hopefully the campaign will go on long enough for a malboro to be likely...
I have like 6 different ideas for how junctioning would work, depending on how we want to do it!
I think now that we’ve hit the new year and we’ve got enough interested parties, I’ll start hearing character concepts and narrowing down our field of applicants (which is always the worst part!).
On a related note, if you can provide the following for me:
1. How long has your PC been a SeeD?
2. 3 rumors other students may have heard about them. (You can tell me privately which ones are true later!)
3. What you as a player are hoping for in this campaign!
I was looking back over the thread and seeing a lack of different race ideas. You could work something out that instead of races you have different nationalities or something. Someone from Esthar could have a bonus to int and some other racial bonuses. Granted, having someone from Esthar would be a rarity as they are hidden away but it works as an example.
I never like to go into the “different races of humans have different ability modifiers” thing; starts getting a little... problematic pretty quickly.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think you've forgotten the most important set of rules - how we gettin' our Triple Triad on, yo!? Maybe Here while Flash lives?
1) This character has probably been a SeeD for two or three years - they would have been a student for a couple of years at Galbadia, transferred over to Balamb for the SeeD exam (apparently it's the only Garden that does that, which is odd) and then remained wherever the game is set.
2)
A - That the character was asked to leave Galbadia for crimes against science.
B - That one of the character's leg is a prophetic, hence their interest in technology.
C- That there Triple Triad deck was once thrown off a boat by an angry cheater.
3) I'm pretty much hoping for a brief respite from the soul-crushing ennui that is existence.
...also, a fun romp through the Final Fantasy VIII universe. I think there are a lot of fascinating stories that could be told before and during the games. Defending Balamb during the Battle of the Gardens would be a great late-game adventure, for example.
I think you've forgotten the most important set of rules - how we gettin' our Triple Triad on, yo!? Maybe Here while Flash lives?
This is indeed the most important question! I've never seen the Triple Triad Online thing, but... I mean, if everyone's down to go that route, I'm happy to do so.
Defending Balamb during the Battle of the Gardens would be a great late-game adventure, for example.
Literally this is what sold me on the idea when I was pitching it to myself.
Well, that and the question of "aside from Nida and Xu, how come you never meet, like, any other SeeDs aside from in passing? How does the new guy get put in charge when there are other SeeD who have been active for years?"
...because Plot? But it is valid, and it would be nice to go and be doing some of the things they really must be doing.
Would phantom blade spiritualists be allowed? If so me and my wife might be interested.
I’m not aware of any particular reason to disallow it, although you’ll want to make sure you flavor it appropriately to the setting!
'My loved one is dead and also my sword' does seem very Final Fantasy.
The implications of looking at a magazine to improve your weapon when your weapon category is “spouse” is a fun one to think over, for sure :P
Hush Vixie, Paizo's server will start melting if we get into the raunchy stuff.
...
...to discord?
1. How long has your PC been a SeeD?
Im thinking of someone having been a SeeD for 5 to 6 years. Most of that time being spent as an instructor.
2. 3 rumors other students may have heard about them. (You can tell me privately which ones are true later!)
A) He's got connections to Galbaldian leadership.
B) He once lost a student due to his overconfidence in their abilities.
C) He always attends the graduation ball to flirt with the new SeeD graduates.
3. What you as a player are hoping for in this campaign!
I want to explore the world of FF8. Each continent has maybe two towns each, maybe three? The games are (rightly) focused only on plot locations and there can be so much more.
I'm interested. Dotting. I'll work something up here tonight.
1. How long has your PC been a SeeD? My PC has been a SeeD since the age of 14. Typical graduation being 15, she was ahead of her class in martial ability and schoolwork. She began work right away. She is now 19, so she has been an active member for 5 years.
2. Three rumors other students may have heard about my character.
It's rumored that her dead family shared ancestry with the Elvaan race.
People have rumored that she is so uptight about her studies that she likely is all brain and can't handle herself in a fight; despite what her rank is.
It's rumored that she once was assaulted by a Flan beast. After defeating it, supposedly it had within it a potion bottle that she's kept on her belt.
3. What you as a player are hoping for in this campaign! As a playing in this campaign, I would hope for a dependable posting rated adventure that takes us on a roleplaying experience first, and an adventure/module second. To play in a game world, I could always just play on my console. I therefore want to experience what I can't on my console. Character depth. Exploration of Pip and the other players is most important to me. I myself am a dependable person and can post often multiple times a day depending on the day, but at a minimum 1. I would hope that others could do this and not be too committed with other things as well.
Here is my character
I appreciate the enthusiasm, but please keep in mind that you may need to make significant changes to Pip as we decide on rules and whatnot!
Anyone else that's still interested, please answer the three questions about your PC:
1. How long has your PC been a SeeD?
2. 3 rumors other students may have heard about them. (You can tell me privately which ones are true later!)
3. What you as a player are hoping for in this campaign!
Absolutely. It’s just a skeleton of kind of where I’d want to go with the character regarding ability and such. Changes can easily be adopted or even a whole re-creation can be done.
I do have some input on rules. I enjoy Pathfinder 1e. I feel it can make any kind of character you want; be it a superhero or a FFVIII character. I think we could have a loose descriptive system of goods. So instead of buying a Mithral Shirt as I did on my C-Sheet, it is only a Mithral Shirt in stats, but cosmetically it is something else. Then you could have crazy armors with huge plates, or a massive sword that splits into 20 pieces, but functionally it works the same as a regular armor or sword. A bow mechanically works as normal, but cosmetically can be a gun firing many bullets. This will give players the ability to stick to the PF1 system and yet still manipulate their character's to do crazy things.
I love the Gil idea. We could put our money into a decimal system for our credits, so: 4000 gold pieces, 2 silver pieces, and 8 copper pieces now becomes 4000.28 gil. It could be like a credit card system. That way we could carry our money wherever we go, and when we get to a city and report our deeds for the Garden, they can pay us through the card without physical funds to carry.
As for level, I think (like you said) 3rd is typical for a fighter starting to get good. If Squall likely was 3rd and just graduated at the beginning of the console game, then it is likely that if we are not still cadets, we too should be somewhere between 3-4th level. I understand Squall probably got some special attention due to his destiny, but each person who graduated with him had to pass the same tests measuring the same ability. We could therefore all be around level 3 and have it make perfect sense with our jobs as mercenaries.
If you wish, also our rank as SeeD could be double our level. So at 15th level, we would be a rank 30. Pay per mission could be based on this system. So starting out, we'd be 3rd level, so Rank 6. Our profession/craft/magic item creation can add to this total as per a standard roll.
I am no expert on Pathfinder races and what would match best to these FF races, so I've provided the links to all the races I could find in all final fantasy games. Then you can decide yourself what you'd allow.
Aegyl (Tengu? syrinx? gathlain?)
Al Bhed (Bedohis Race) (Non-magical Humanoids)
Au Ra (Tiefling?)
Bangaa (Kolbolds?)
Black Mages (Androids? wyrwood?)
Burmecians (Ratfolk?)
Cetra (Long living humainoids, extinct? Maybe not?)
Clavat (Human-like race)
Cleyran (Ratfolk alternate?)
Dark Elves (drow?)
Dwarves (Dwarves of course!)
Elezen (half-elves/elves?)
Elves (half-elves/elves?)
Elvaan (half-elves/elves?)
Fairies (any pixie/fairy)
Galka (bear-like humanoids)
Garif (mandalorian-type vanara?)
Gnomes (gnomes!)
Gria (wyvaran?)
Guado (ghoran?)
Helgas (tiefling/Munavri/lashunta?)
Hume (humans!)
Hypello (grippli?)
Hyur (humans)
Kuluu (extinct? humans who turned into Tonberrys)
L'Cie (these freed beings could be any elemental-humanoid race?)
Lalafell (gnomes?)
Lilty (halflings?)
Lilikin (skinwalkers?)
Lufenian (sylph?)
Lunarians (humans? Fetchlings? Lashunta?
Mermaids (Merfolk!)
Miqo'te (kitsune? Catfolk?)
Mithra (Kitsune? Catfolk?)
Moogles (Monkey-goblin?)
Nu Mou (kitsune?)
Padjal (Tieflings?)
Qu (Grippli?)
Roegadyn (half-orc?)
Red XIII's Species (maybe kitsune with foxshape?)
Rev (Catfolk?)
Ronso (more catfolk?)
Seeq (dwarves?)
Selkie (tribal humans)
Shumi (oreads?)
Sorceresses (Maenad) (usually villains. Maybe human race? aasimar?)
Summoners (magical based humanoids)
Tarutaru (halflings? gnomes?)
Viera (no idea)
Werewolves (werewolf? please nooooo)
Yeti (Yes, yeti is a race, and they can talk too. Maybe an orang-pendak or vanara?)
Yukes (magic tribal humanoids)
Zilart (first race ever, human?)
I appreciate it, but the more I think on it, the more likely it's going to be a human-only campaign to fit with the setting. (As such, you may need to switch that first rumor, Smooshie. Elvaan are never mentioned in FF8 and most likely don't exist within the setting.)
SeeD rank being double your level + Craft/Profession/etc. is a good idea!
Although I'd probably argue that the only available Profession would be (SeeD)... but it would make sense that taking ranks in that would boost your pay for, y'know, being a SeeD.
Great then. That makes things easy. I'll make those changes right away.
Rumor 1: It is rumored that her family and her actually game from the icy continent of Trabia. That is why she always is wearing shorts, because she never gets cold down near Balamb
Hey guys! I've gotten a couple messages asking if I'm still doing this. The answer is mostly "yes"! But I'm trying to finish out some PFS scenarios and real-world obligations first.
That being said, I haven't heard anyone mention anything since Smooshie here brought some activity back to the thread.
please make sure to say so! I only need 3 responses, but if I get more than 4, I'll need to unfortunately reject a few applicants.
Im still here with my garden instructor idea.