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Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.

LornMarkus posted:

Hey, theironjef, love the podcast and earlier today I had the crazy thought of sending you guys the completed rules for a fan-made Final Fantasy pen and paper that I used to play back in high school. Any chance you guys would be interested in seeing that at all? It's hilariously broken in quite a few ways but could probably provide some entertaining reading if only for seeing its attempts to reconcile ancient design philosophy with emulating Final Fantasy.

Oh man, now that just reminds me that I have a full copy of the Returners RPG flying around my hard drive, is that the one you're talking about, or is it -another- crazy Final Fantasy pen and paper?

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LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

bathroomrage posted:

Oh man, now that just reminds me that I have a full copy of the Returners RPG flying around my hard drive, is that the one you're talking about, or is it -another- crazy Final Fantasy pen and paper?

Nope, that's the one. I'd be thinking 3rd edition as that was a little cleaner and less broken than 2nd, which is what I think most goons are familiar with.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

bathroomrage posted:

Oh man, now that just reminds me that I have a full copy of the Returners RPG flying around my hard drive, is that the one you're talking about, or is it -another- crazy Final Fantasy pen and paper?

Isn't the Returners like 1400 pages long or some insane thing? (send it though for sure, systemmastery at gmail)

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.

theironjef posted:

Isn't the Returners like 1400 pages long or some insane thing?

It's huge, and most of it is tables, if I remember right. I'm a little too afraid to go check right now.

LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

theironjef posted:

Isn't the Returners like 1400 pages long or some insane thing? (send it though for sure, systemmastery at gmail)

Hell yeah, I'll dig it up as soon as I get home then.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Most of it being tables is promising. Generally the audience forgives us for not covering too much out tables of stuff since we only have an hour, so that's easy to skim. Unless the table is awesome, like the random item table in the back of Maid.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.

theironjef posted:

Most of it being tables is promising. Generally the audience forgives us for not covering too much out tables of stuff since we only have an hour, so that's easy to skim. Unless the table is awesome, like the random item table in the back of Maid.

I found it, I'll send it right over now.

Oh man, this book is a treat, how did I manage to play this when I first found it? :allears:

LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

bathroomrage posted:

I found it, I'll send it right over now.

Oh man, this book is a treat, how did I manage to play this when I first found it? :allears:

I'll go ahead and send mine too just in case we do have different versions.

LordZoric
Aug 30, 2012

Let's wish for a space whale!
Oh man the Returners RPG. I remember our group getting together to play it once back in high school. We made it through the first combat and quit right there. Turns out an RPG based on making the players do all the math that a computer does for you in the actual video games is in fact the opposite of fun.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.

LordZoric posted:

Oh man the Returners RPG. I remember our group getting together to play it once back in high school. We made it through the first combat and quit right there. Turns out an RPG based on making the players do all the math that a computer does for you in the actual video games is in fact the opposite of fun.

Yeah, when my online group played we basically had to use MapTools macros for everything because the math gets absolutely nuts at points.

Grnegsnspm
Oct 20, 2003

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarian 2: Electric Boogaloo
I can't wait to slog through 1400 pages of incomprehensible Final Fantasy garbage with random tables for just how spiky your hair is. 1-10: Spiky. 11-40: Very Spiky. 41-80: Big and Spiky. 81-100: Super Saiyan.

What I really want, though, is that WWE RPG so I can talk about my man-crush on The Rock for the entire podcast.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Grnegsnspm posted:

I can't wait to slog through 1400 pages of incomprehensible Final Fantasy garbage with random tables for just how spiky your hair is. 1-10: Spiky. 11-40: Very Spiky. 41-80: Big and Spiky. 81-100: Super Saiyan.

What I really want, though, is that WWE RPG so I can talk about my man-crush on The Rock for the entire podcast.

No man, it's pre FF7. No hair spikes. Limited angst. Just like 80 kinds of magic and then like moogles and behemoth and poo poo.

Also would like the WWE RPG though. We'll get there someday.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

LornMarkus posted:

Nope, that's the one. I'd be thinking 3rd edition as that was a little cleaner and less broken than 2nd, which is what I think most goons are familiar with.

I'm actually more familiar with 3rd edition. It might be cleaner, but there's still a lot of problematic stuff. Like how a good chunk of the monk's and ninja's abilities are like spells (aka they don't scale with your level all that much) and would require MAD to be useful. Not that you'd want to be MAD with those two as they can dual wield, with especially the ninja racking up lots of damage thanks to having access to katana blades.
There's also the inherent flaw of having a strict class system (without class change or anything) that makes it impossible to adapt a lot of characters from the games. Maybe except for Cyan, who basically is the Swordmaster class.

Oh, and there's that silly bit of making wolfmen a core player race because FF5 and 6 had that one wolf dude you saw in like one scene.

Bieeardo posted:

loving gazebos.

I wonder how much it would cost to make a Catapult of Gazebo Bane.

BatteredFeltFedora posted:

I love the idea of a character finding this spear, taking up the mission, and succeeding, never finding out the spear was mundane until the end of the campaign.

"The spear was normal all along?! I deserved at least a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls because I believed so hard in it!"

Jovian Chronicles Second Edition RPG Player's Handbook


Chapter 3: Organizations

A look at the various organizations of the Jovian Chronicles setting - aka "Hopefully more Venusian hijinks"!

Venusian Bank

The Venusian Bank is the wealthiest legal entity mankind has every created. The Bank pretty much owns Venus, and CEGA ain't that far behind. It would be even scarier if the Bank didn't suffer from in-house rivalries.

The Bank's HQ is located in a Venusian arcology called New Tokyo. Everything about their executive structure is kept so secret that nobody outside the Bank knows who or how many actually run the place. Not even their powerful chairman is known by name, yet his arms reach far. It's a bit like the capitalistic cousin of SEELE from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Or exactly like SEELE, if it turns out they want to turn everyone into jellyfish or something. Who knows.

The Bank's currently busy getting some Jovian Floaters for research and consolidating its power back on Venus after the blunder that was the Odyssey brought them some unwanted attention, with even CEGA maybe having invasion plans.

Mercurian Merchant Guild

The Hanseatic League in space. We also find out that one of the main reasons Mercurian merchants are everywhere in the solar system is because Mercury itself makes for a very poor trading point. You pretty much have to stay in Mercury's shadow if you want to get to the planet, otherwise the sun will most likely roast you. At least it makes potential attack vectors of other nations rather obvious.
The Merchant Guild is Mercury's biggest money-maker and by its nature absolutely dependent on having good relations with the other solar nations. That's why they're so keen on staying neutral.

The Guild is run by the so-called Merchant Princes. To keep their plans secret despite their public exposure, they use the Merchant's Tongue, a secret language that is frequently updated to keep others guessing.

Currently, they're vary of the Venusian Bank after the Odyssey, and have become increasingly upset over CEGA and the Jovian Confederation halting their ships for inspections.

United Space Nations

The United Nations in space. With far less solar nations than old Earth nations, things are a bit easier to overview. If something needs to be voted on, the USN tends to be split in two: The Jovians, Mercurians and the cowboy half of Mars on one and the CEGA, Venusians and German Martians one the other side. The Belters and non-CEGA Earthlings vote for whatever they want, but they are voting more and more in the Jovians' favor.

The USN is located in a neutral section of the Pyrea Orbital Station set around Earth. WIth the tension growing between CEGA and the Jovian Confederation, many fear that the USN will eventually break apart.

SolaPol

InterPol in space. The SolaPol aka the Solar Police is the USN's intelligence agency whose main mission is to ensure peace in the solar system. Not an easy task by a long shot, and not made easier by being rather unpopular among the solar nations.

Solar Cross

The Red Cross in space. No acts of violence are allowed in and around their ships. Things are currently a bit tense with CEGA since they busted open the full magnitude of the moon colony desctruction.

IGS

The Inter-settlement Geographic Society is the National Geographics Society in space. They're busy exploring the solar system and finding unique cultural quirks in the Belt. It's like a miniature version of Star Trek's Federation. Nothing beats these guys when it comes to mapping.
They're also no longer on good terms with CEGA due to their interest in that new moon crater, and IGS members stationed close to Earth are starting to become a bit paranoid.

ZONet

Zenith Orbital Network is the solar system's primary news network. Their pimped out satellite network allows broadcasting all the way to Titan. Rivals like Jovian Public Access Network and Luna's OmniNews seem to slowly turn ZONet into Fox News.

STRIKE

STRIKE is often seen as a terrorist group, but not even the various intelligence agencies know all that much about them. It consists of several independent cells that have seemingly nothing to do with each other, and that's not even going into all the other terrorist groups that like to pretend their part of the club. Those are not nearly as well equipped or organized, though.

They're main goal is freeing CEGA from Venusian influence - which may or may not mean they want to bring down CEGA as well because CEGA is bribed up the whazoo.
After the Odyssey, the various STRIKE cells seem to show more and more coordinated actions.

The chapter ends with four group shots. Two of those show Jovian and CEGA military dudes in uniforms (both pretty standard as far as anime go) - but that's not what I'm here for, so let's enjoy some funny hairstyles:



So anime.

Next Time: Character Creations - aka human sub-races and archetypes!

Doresh fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Feb 6, 2015

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Doresh posted:

I'm actually more familiar with 3rd edition. It might be cleaner, but there's still a lot of problematic stuff. Like how a good chunk of the monk's and ninja's abilities are like spells (aka they don't scale with your level all that much) and would require MAD to be useful. Not that you'd want to be MAD with those two as they can dual wield, with especially the ninja racking up lots of damage thanks to having access to katana blades.
There's also the inherent flaw of having a strict class system (without class change or anything) that makes it impossible to adapt a lot of characters from the games. Maybe except for Cyan, who basically is the Swordmaster class.

Oh, and there's that silly bit of making wolfmen a core player race because FF5 and 6 had that one wolf dude you saw in like one scene.

Dude, Lone Wolf! That's awesome, I can't wait to dig in and see what the core races actually are. I assume you've got ultra-racist dwarves, moogles, elves, wolf guys, yeti, maybe imps, little tiny people, namingways, and moon guys.

Halloween Jack
Sep 11, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

Grnegsnspm posted:

I can't wait to slog through 1400 pages of incomprehensible Final Fantasy garbage with random tables for just how spiky your hair is. 1-10: Spiky. 11-40: Very Spiky. 41-80: Big and Spiky. 81-100: Super Saiyan.

What I really want, though, is that WWE RPG so I can talk about my man-crush on The Rock for the entire podcast.
Take care, spike your hair.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.
Wait until you see how they try to rectify not being able to use your in-combat spells like Fire and Thunder out of combat. They try so hard to make it work. :allears:

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

bathroomrage posted:

Wait until you see how they try to rectify not being able to use your in-combat spells like Fire and Thunder out of combat. They try so hard to make it work. :allears:

Ooh, do they explain why you can't just save Aeris with a Phoenix Down?

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

bathroomrage posted:

Wait until you see how they try to rectify not being able to use your in-combat spells like Fire and Thunder out of combat. They try so hard to make it work. :allears:

What's this poo poo? How am I supposed to get up Mt. Ordeals with that kind of bullshit in place? I have paladin trials to get to.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Selachian posted:

Ooh, do they explain why you can't just save Aeris with a Phoenix Down?

That happens in the future, this is 6 and back. They instead don't explain why Locke can't just save Rachel with a Fenix Down.

poo poo now I'm posting too much. Too excited about old videogames at this time.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

theironjef posted:

That happens in the future, this is 6 and back. They instead don't explain why Locke can't just save Rachel with a Fenix Down.

poo poo now I'm posting too much. Too excited about old videogames at this time.

It's weird how we can't have more death scenes like in FF5 were the party threw everything they had at Galuf, but failed because the old guy just god-moded himself to death to save everyone.

Kobold eBooks
Mar 5, 2007

EVERY MORNING I WAKE UP AN OPEN PALM SLAM A CARTRIDGE IN THE SUPER FAMICOM. ITS E-ZEAO AND RIGHT THEN AND THERE I START DOING THE MOVES ALONGSIDE THE MAIN CHARACTER, CORPORAL FALCOM.
It actually goes completely the other way and, well, I don't want to spoil it because I know they'll have a field day with it. :allears:

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Doresh posted:

Jovian Chronicles Second Edition RPG Player's Handbook


Chapter 3: Organizations

I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that Earth and Venus are supposed to be the bad guys opposed by the plucky but outgunned Jovians and other out-system bodies, but maybe that's just me. :v:

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib

Cythereal posted:

I'm getting a sneaking suspicion that Earth and Venus are supposed to be the bad guys opposed by the plucky but outgunned Jovians and other out-system bodies, but maybe that's just me. :v:

Actually Jupiter isn't really "plucky and outgunned" is the thing. Jovian exo-armors are like top-of-the-line and basically better than just about everyone's except mayyyyyybe Venus, but even then I think the edge is supposed to go to Jupiter, while Earth has been struggling to catch up and while there are CEGA exo-armors they're generally not as good. CEGA is supposed to make up for it by having plenty more ships, but even there the Jovians are playing the "fewer, but better" card.

I mean that's the fluff of it anyway, I never actually played Jovian Chronicles because I had the (I guess) 1st Edition where mech combat was done on a hex map where you were required to keep track of three-dimensional positioning as well as your ongoing momentum because you're in space remember, and Jovian Chronicles was going to be a hard sci-fi game that just happened to have giant robots if it killed you.

(This also isn't getting into the Jovian political situation where the president is kind of a power hungry jerk in the making so surprise, it's Shades of Grey all around!)

LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

bathroomrage posted:

Wait until you see how they try to rectify not being able to use your in-combat spells like Fire and Thunder out of combat. They try so hard to make it work. :allears:

drat, looks like I lost my PDF at some point. Oh well, if you're bringing up Intuitive Magic then you sent them the final release of 3rd edition and that's all I wanted.


Doresh posted:

I'm actually more familiar with 3rd edition. It might be cleaner, but there's still a lot of problematic stuff. Like how a good chunk of the monk's and ninja's abilities are like spells (aka they don't scale with your level all that much) and would require MAD to be useful. Not that you'd want to be MAD with those two as they can dual wield, with especially the ninja racking up lots of damage thanks to having access to katana blades.
There's also the inherent flaw of having a strict class system (without class change or anything) that makes it impossible to adapt a lot of characters from the games. Maybe except for Cyan, who basically is the Swordmaster class.

Oh, and there's that silly bit of making wolfmen a core player race because FF5 and 6 had that one wolf dude you saw in like one scene.

Oh yeah, not trying to claim it's not a broken as hell and in several ways just bad system. Just that it's a little better than 2e and it's Weapon Masteries, among other things. Also 3rd is the one I actually played a bit, so hearing them take it to the woodshed would be way more interesting to me than the edition I never even fully read.

Young Freud
Nov 25, 2006

Kai Tave posted:

Actually Jupiter isn't really "plucky and outgunned" is the thing. Jovian exo-armors are like top-of-the-line and basically better than just about everyone's except mayyyyyybe Venus, but even then I think the edge is supposed to go to Jupiter, while Earth has been struggling to catch up and while there are CEGA exo-armors they're generally not as good. CEGA is supposed to make up for it by having plenty more ships, but even there the Jovians are playing the "fewer, but better" card.

Sounds like Gundam, except that the Zeons are the good guys and the Federation is the bad guys and don't have the Gundam.

sexpig by night
Sep 8, 2011

by Azathoth
I was really glad when I was linked a cool D6 based FF fangame that actually worked because it meant my group could literally burn our big rear end copy of the Returners with houserules and poo poo in a binder.

Kai Tave
Jul 2, 2012
Fallen Rib

Young Freud posted:

Sounds like Gundam, except that the Zeons are the good guys and the Federation is the bad guys and don't have the Gundam.

Or a romanticized version of the Cold War, which was supposed to be something that Jovian Chronicles was meant to evoke. On the one side you have the freedom loving Americans with the finest technology and brightest minds and over there you have the scary Soviets with their chunky tech but they make up for it with strength of numbers. Note that the two superpowers in question here are, at their closest, about 600 million kilometers away from each other which sort of takes some of the immediacy out of the whole "what if the Cold War...went hot?" thing.

It's kind of funny too because the book even points out that the scary One Earth Government isn't even that monolithic or all-encompassing and that there are plenty of nations who are just like "yeah okay, you do your thing and we're just gonna do ours."

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

LornMarkus posted:

Oh yeah, not trying to claim it's not a broken as hell and in several ways just bad system. Just that it's a little better than 2e and it's Weapon Masteries, among other things. Also 3rd is the one I actually played a bit, so hearing them take it to the woodshed would be way more interesting to me than the edition I never even fully read.

I think we had 2nd edition before.

I also don't think they only wanted to cover pre-FF6 games now that I think about it. I mean, the game does differentiate between Callers (oldschool Summoners) and Summoners (Yuna).

Young Freud posted:

Sounds like Gundam, except that the Zeons are the good guys and the Federation is the bad guys and don't have the Gundam.

Exactly - except the Gundam is also the Zaku because it's mass-produced. You can tell the different versions apart by how many missiles they carry.

I know this wasn't planned that way, but Jovian Chronicles is the second DP9 setting where Earth collapses (both times in part due to environmental issues), leaves its space colonies alone for a while and then comes back as an imperialistic bunch of jerks.

Doresh fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Feb 6, 2015

Rohan Kishibe
Oct 29, 2011

Frankly, I don't like you
and I never have.

LornMarkus posted:

Hey, theironjef, love the podcast and earlier today I had the crazy thought of sending you guys the completed rules for a fan-made Final Fantasy pen and paper that I used to play back in high school. Any chance you guys would be interested in seeing that at all? It's hilariously broken in quite a few ways but could probably provide some entertaining reading if only for seeing its attempts to reconcile ancient design philosophy with emulating Final Fantasy.

I've always thought that in dealing with Final Fantasy you'd have to kind of approach the mechanics at a 90 degree angle, if you want them to emulate the mechanics of the game. Like, accuracy in Final Fantasy games only really matters against certain enemies and for some status effects like blink and such, so the default assumption should be that attacks auto-hit. I've always been tempted to give it a go myself because I love Ivalice as a setting, but it's a lot of work and it was hard enough to get my friends to try playing anything that isn't called DnD. Maybe I could whip something up and call it Dark Clouds and Dissidia.

LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

Prison Warden posted:

I've always thought that in dealing with Final Fantasy you'd have to kind of approach the mechanics at a 90 degree angle, if you want them to emulate the mechanics of the game. Like, accuracy in Final Fantasy games only really matters against certain enemies and for some status effects like blink and such, so the default assumption should be that attacks auto-hit. I've always been tempted to give it a go myself because I love Ivalice as a setting, but it's a lot of work and it was hard enough to get my friends to try playing anything that isn't called DnD. Maybe I could whip something up and call it Dark Clouds and Dissidia.

Dissidia has always been really interesting for me just because of that crazy nonsense they did with Bravery and HP attacks, because it is so beautiful and so insane at the exact same time.

Libertad!
Oct 30, 2013

You can have the last word, but I'll have the last laugh!

theironjef posted:

That happens in the future, this is 6 and back. They instead don't explain why Locke can't just save Rachel with a Fenix Down.

poo poo now I'm posting too much. Too excited about old videogames at this time.

For real, tho. In Final Fantasy 6, Phoenix Downs only restore the wounded to health. 0 hit points means that your character is wounded and cannot participate in combat. Only when your entire current party is "wounded" do you get "annihilated," ostensibly because you're defenseless against the enemies.

So the only known way to restore the dead to life is via the Phoenix Esper, which lost most of its power due to its magicite prison being cracked.

But that's in the real game. Is that the explanation given in the Returners?

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!

One of the problems with an FF RPG is that the settings are kind of like Dragonlance, each setting, and its components(possibly excepting the FF:Tactics setting), are pretty much made for one story and rarely have the content needed to weave another story out of. The mechanics are, mathematically, a pain in the rear end to replicate with dice and paper, and when they're not a pain in the rear end(and sometimes when they are), they require huge suspensions of disbelief and really treating the thing like a game(see: phoenix down mechanics, abilities that only work in combat, etc.).

Frankly I always found it kind of a weird thing for anyone to make an RPG based on, most FF stuff isn't a deep vault of inspiration that begs for more stories to be told with it.

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

PurpleXVI posted:

One of the problems with an FF RPG is that the settings are kind of like Dragonlance, each setting, and its components(possibly excepting the FF:Tactics setting), are pretty much made for one story and rarely have the content needed to weave another story out of. The mechanics are, mathematically, a pain in the rear end to replicate with dice and paper, and when they're not a pain in the rear end(and sometimes when they are), they require huge suspensions of disbelief and really treating the thing like a game(see: phoenix down mechanics, abilities that only work in combat, etc.).

Frankly I always found it kind of a weird thing for anyone to make an RPG based on, most FF stuff isn't a deep vault of inspiration that begs for more stories to be told with it.

Like most licensed products, my fear is the immediate descent into a nightlong round of references. If I play this and anyone calls anyone else spoony, I'm out.

LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

PurpleXVI posted:

One of the problems with an FF RPG is that the settings are kind of like Dragonlance, each setting, and its components(possibly excepting the FF:Tactics setting), are pretty much made for one story and rarely have the content needed to weave another story out of. The mechanics are, mathematically, a pain in the rear end to replicate with dice and paper, and when they're not a pain in the rear end(and sometimes when they are), they require huge suspensions of disbelief and really treating the thing like a game(see: phoenix down mechanics, abilities that only work in combat, etc.).

Frankly I always found it kind of a weird thing for anyone to make an RPG based on, most FF stuff isn't a deep vault of inspiration that begs for more stories to be told with it.

A huge part was frankly the classes from the various games with class changing, and you can tell that from the presence of twenty or thirty some in the finished edition and ORD rules for a bunch others.

Edit: Let's see if I can remember them all for effect.

Warriors
Fighter
Swordmaster
Fencer
Samurai
Archer
Knight
Monk
Dragoon

Mages
Black Mage
White Mage
Red Mage
Time Mage
Summoner
Black Caller
White Caller
Sage

Adepts
Paladin
Dark Knight
Ninja
Blue Mage
Geomancer
Magic Knight
Rune Knight

Experts
Thief
Chemist
Bard
Dancer
Engineer
Gambler
Mediator
Mime

There you have it, all the classes in the base game, each with eight or so combat abilities spaced over 64 levels, some having huge tables to cover what an ability does. Engineer gets an entire appendix all to itself and the rules for things they craft. :eng101:

LornMarkus fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Feb 7, 2015

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

I remember playing some sort of kludged-together FF game with friends using 3.5ed DnD. We had limit breaks, materia, summons/assists, and combo moves. It was some unholy mix of Chrono Trigger and FF6/7, really.

So I'm pretty excited to read about this Returners game

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Green Intern posted:

I remember playing some sort of kludged-together FF game with friends using 3.5ed DnD. We had limit breaks, materia, summons/assists, and combo moves. It was some unholy mix of Chrono Trigger and FF6/7, really.

So I'm pretty excited to read about this Returners game

Hopefully someone does a writeup then, since my thing is podcasts.

Hyper Crab Tank
Feb 10, 2014

The 16-bit retro-future of crustacean-based transportation
The only Final Fantasy class I can recall missing from that list would be Viking (a.k.a. Pirate). Given that they dug deep enough to have Black/White Callers (which are from FF3, the Japanese one - well, actually, in that game there's one class that has both black and white versions of summons, but whatever - and if this came out before FF7, then there was no translation of that game into English yet), you'd think that would be in there.

LornMarkus
Nov 8, 2011

Hyper Crab Tank posted:

The only Final Fantasy class I can recall missing from that list would be Viking (a.k.a. Pirate). Given that they dug deep enough to have Black/White Callers (which are from FF3, the Japanese one - well, actually, in that game there's one class that has both black and white versions of summons, but whatever - and if this came out before FF7, then there was no translation of that game into English yet), you'd think that would be in there.

Actually the names are drawn from there but the big deal is the difference in use: Callers are old style summoners while the Summoner class works like Yuna from FFX, where they're completely replaced on combat by their summon rather than just it being a much more grand spell.

Summoners also made an excellent stand in for Dante from DMC.

Scrap Dragon
Oct 6, 2013

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Tatum Girlparts posted:

I was really glad when I was linked a cool D6 based FF fangame that actually worked because it meant my group could literally burn our big rear end copy of the Returners with houserules and poo poo in a binder.

Was that the one by Dust? Because I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but it certainly seems less janky...

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wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

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LornMarkus posted:

Actually the names are drawn from there but the big deal is the difference in use: Callers are old style summoners while the Summoner class works like Yuna from FFX, where they're completely replaced on combat by their summon rather than just it being a much more grand spell.

Summoners also made an excellent stand in for Dante from DMC.

That actually sounds kind of cool. I liked Yuna and how summons worked in FFX.

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