The basic rules for an RNG-free Forum Emblem-esque game.
- No RNG. Every action is deterministic.
- Since there's no miss or crit chance, Skl, Spd, and Lck need to be reworked.
- Skl and Spd now influence the effectiveness of counterattacks.
- To make them still remain useful for characters that don't expect to be counterattacked or that don't attack in the first place, they also have secondary benefits.
- Skl increases Cap (capacity to learn skills).
- Spd increases Move (movement speed).
- Lck now influences incoming effects. A high Lck makes heals count for more and detrimental conditions be less punishing.
- Since debuffing attacks now always apply, some effective defense was needed.
- Since every attack hits, effective damage is higher, so HP uses a better formula.
- Vit replaces MHP as a primary stat. Max HP is now derived from Vit.
- This lets all 8 primary stats work the same way and be expected to grow at around the same rates.
- It also lets other stats be derived from Vit now.
- I plan to add in as much as I can from my
Freeform Fire Emblem Rules. In some ways, I'm building for that from the ground up, rather than adapting and expanding an existing system (Fire Emblem) to fit my needs.
Primary Stats:
- Primary stats form the core of a character's capabilities.
- Primary stats automatically increase with a character's level.
- If a primary stat would ever be less than 0, it counts as 0.
Vit: Vitality.
- Increases a character's maximum HP.
- Increases Con
- Increases Wgt.
Str: Strength.
- Increases damage dealt with physical and enchanted attacks.
- Improves effects of outgoing physical and enchanted effects.
- Increases Con
Mag: Magic.
- Increases damage dealt with magical and kinetic attacks.
- Improves effects of outgoing magical and kinetic effects.
Skl: Skill.
- Decreases damage received from counterattacks.
- Increases Cap.
Spd: Speed.
- Increases damage dealt with counterattacks.
- Increases Mov.
Lck: Luck.
- Increases effects of incoming beneficial effects.
- Decreases effects of incoming detrimental effects.
Def: Defense.
- Reduces damage taken from physical and kinetic attacks.
- Reduces effects of incoming detrimental physical and kinetic effects.
- Increases Wgt.
Res: Resistance.
- Reduces damage taken from magical and enchanted attacks.
- Reduces effects of incoming detrimental magical and enchanted effects.
Secondary Stats:
- Secondary stats are usually derived from other statistics.
- Secondary stats do not directly change from a character's level, but are usually influenced by statistics that do.
HP: Hit Points.
- When a character's HP drops to 0 or lower, it is defeated.
- A character's maximum HP is equal to 15 + Vit * 2.5, rounded down. If maximum HP would ever be less than 1, it counts as 1.
- If a character would ever have more than its maximum HP, its HP instead becomes equal to its maximum HP.
- Increases to maximum HP also increase current HP.
- Decreases to maximum HP do not directly decrease current HP. Current HP may still decrease if it is above the new maximum HP, as described above.
- Damage taken reduces HP.
- Healing received increases HP.
Mov: Movement.
- How far, in spaces, a character can move in an action.
- A character's Mov is equal to 4 + Spd * 0.1, rounded down. If Mov would ever be less than 1, it counts as 1.
- Some spaces require more than 1 point of Mov to move into.
Con: Constitution.
- Increases the maximum Wgt a character can carry or shove.
- Increases the maximum Wgt weapon a character can optimally use and reduces the penalties for overweight weapons.
- A character's Con is equal to (Vit + Str) * 0.5, rounded down.
Wgt: Weight.
- Increases the required Con to be carried or shoved.
- A character's Wgt is equal to (Vit + Def) * 0.5, rounded down.
Cap: Capacity.
- Allows a character to learn special abilities.
- A character cannot learn abilities with a total Cap value in excess of Cap.
- If Cap decreases below the total value of learned, enabled abilities, the character chooses one or more of them to disable until the remaining abilities' total value is less than or equal to Cap. Passive detrimental effects of disabled abilities still apply, but otherwise disabled abilities cannot be used and have no effect as though they were not learned. Disabled abilities become enabled again if Cap rises sufficiently.
- A character's Cap is equal to 10 + Skl. If Cap would ever be less than 0, it counts as 0.
Attacks:
- When a character makes an attack, it deals damage to the defender.
- The base damage of an attack depends on how the attack is performed. An attack with a weapon uses the weapon's Mgt.
- Physical attacks add the attacker's Str to damage and subtract the defender's Def.
- Magical attacks add the attacker's Mag to damage and subtract the defender's Res.
- Enchanted attacks add the attacker's Str to damage and subtract the defender's Res.
- Kinetic attacks add the attacker's Mag to damage and subtract the defender's Def.
- Attack damage formula is (base damage + attacker's Str or Mag - defender's Def or Res) * product of damage multipliers, rounded down.
Counterattacks:
- When a character engages in combat, if it is in the counterattacker's range, it will counterattack the aggressor after resolving the aggressor's attack.
- A counterattack is a single normal attack with the counterattacker's equipped weapon
- Each point of the aggressor's Skl decreases the counterattack damage by an additive 10%, while each point of the counterattacker's Spd increases it by an additive 10%.
- The final damage multiplier is capped between 0% and 200%.
- Counterattack damage multiplier is (1.0 + (counterattacker's Spd * 0.1 - aggressor's Skl * 0.1)), maximum 2.0, minimum 0.0.
Turn Structure and Actions:
- During each turn, each faction gets a phase. The order of faction phases is fixed.
- During a faction's phase, each a member of that faction can act. The order in which members act is not fixed; they can each act in any order, and the order can change from round to round. All members must act during a phase (you can't "skip" a member's action), although characters can usually pass (do nothing) for their action.
- During a character's action, it can do one of the following:
- Pass. The character does nothing and its action ends.
- Total action. The character does something that consumes the entirety of its action. The character cannot do anything else during its action.
- Normal action. The character can move, then perform any number of minor actions, then perform a regular action, in that order.
- Move: The character can move up to its Mov. It may choose not to move, instead remaining in its original space.
- Minor: The character can perform any number of minor activities, such as switching equipment or trading items with adjacent allies.
- Regular: The character can perform a regular action, such as initiating combat with an enemy, pushing another character, or rescuing or dropping an ally.
- Non-characters (traps, magical features, etc.) use special rules specific to the actor when they act.
Durations and Timing:
- Effects with durations measured in turns track the phase in which they were applied. They count down at the start of that phase during each subsequent turn.
Detrimental Effects:
- Has three levels of effect; strong, normal, and weak.
- Effect's potency level depends on effect's base power, user's Str (physical or enchanted) or Mag (magical or kinetic), recipient's Lck, and recipient's Def (physical or kinetic) or Res (magical or enchanted).
- Weak: Reduced effect if source's Pwr + user's Str/Mag is less than (recipient's Lck + recipient's Def/Res) * 0.75.
- Normal: Standard effect if source's Pwr + user's Str/Mag is within +/-25% of recipient's Lck + recipient's Def/Res.
- Strong: Greater effect if source's Pwr + user's Str/Mag is greater than (recipient's Lck + recipient's Def/Res) * 1.25.
Weapons:
- Rnk: Weapon Rank. Required minimum rank in the weapon category to use the weapon.
- Rng: Range. The minimum and maximum range, in spaces, for attacks with the weapon. A star (*) indicates no limit.
- Mgt: Might. The base damage of any attack with the weapon.
- Dur: Durability. How many times the weapon can be used before breaking.
- Adv: Advantage Type. What category the weapon counts as when determining weapon advantage and disadvantage. Advantage or disadvantage may apply when one character attacks another.
- Damage * 1.25 if attacking with advantage. Advantage applies if the attacker's weapon's Adv has advantage over the defender's equipped weapon's Adv.
- Damage * 0.75 if attacking with disadvantage. Disadvantage applies if the defender's equipped weapon's Adv has advantage over the attacker's weapon's Adv.
Other thoughts about changes...
- Repeated counterattacks deal reduced damage. For each previous counterattack the defender has already made during the current turn (even ones that dealt no damage), the counterattack deals half damage. This resets at the start of the phase in which the defender acts.
- Counterattack damage multiplier is (1.0 + (defender's Spd * 0.1 - attacker's Skl * 0.1)) * (0.5 ^ defender's previous counterattacks this turn), maximum 2.0, minimum 0.0.
- This lets a high Spd character be a menace to attack, but allows multiple aggressors to wear it down with appropriate tactics, baiting out early, high-damage counterattacks with high Skl or tanky characters.
- I like the idea I saw in someone's FE forum game of shared experience. Instead of tracking XP and levels individually be character, the group as a whole accumulates XP and levels up together.