Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Weirdsound]

On the 5th of May, 2012, Magia Exquisitis was born as a hybrid play by post game and maptools TTRPG on the bay12games forums. Magia was a classic high fantasy adventure set in modern times, where the players took on the role of novice mages exploreing the Southwestern United States and hobnobbing with the likes of Dragons, Elves, Vampires, and Dragonelfvampires. It's run, although not terribly long, was quite memorable to it's participants.

I am Weirdsound, co-creator and GM of the original Magia Exquisitis, and I intend to bring Magia back with improved mechanics and a well written setting so that anybody can run it for themselves and their internet friends.

Hey all!

This is an attempt to build a hybrid forum/TTRPG game with a modern high fantasy setting. The mechanics will be based heavily on the mechanics from the latest version of the TTRPG Pokemon Tabletop United. This thread will be used by me to pick the brain of the b12 hivemind when I am unsure of how on want to proceed with a mechanical or world building effort. Posts will also be made to inform you all of major updates and developments.

I may also use it to recruit help and artists should I feel overwhelmed, or reach a point of completion where I want to worry about art.

With any luck I should have Magia playable on the mechanical level sometime in early to mid June, and will use the campaigns run by myself and potentially other GMs as fodder for world building and flavor.

Some Useful Links for Those Interested:

http://magia-exquisitis.wikidot.com/ ---> The Magia Exquisitis Wiki; follow it for new updates. Everything needed to run or play the game will eventually be here.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=108872.msg3257207#msg3257207 ---> The Original Magia Exquisitis Thread. Give it a read and laugh at the terrible mechanics we came up with a year ago! Sadly the logs for the Maptools Missions were not always saved, so you will only be getting half the story, but the forum turns are still a good read.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3ez936wxnahmk3z ---> The Pokemon Tabletop United rules and mechanics. Most of the character sheet and lots of the features will be borrowed from this system. I have the Dev's permission for this.

Topics of discussion where I would like some help will be coming shortly...

[Weirdsound]

Anyway here are some things I'd like to talk about.

Issue 1: There will be an elemental Rock/Paper/Scissors element to this game, however I'm not sure what these elements should be, or how they should relate to each other.

To start with, I've taken the liberty of renaming and re-flavoring the elemental types from Pokemon. The 'Elements' I have come up with this way can be found here: http://magia-exquisitis.wikidot.com/elements

The list linked above is just a start. I don't want my elemental system to be a thinly veiled Pokemon Clone. At the very least we need to shake up what is weak and strong against what, and I wouldn't be opposed adding all new elements or removing elements entirely. I'd like to get to the point where I know for sure what the elements are going to be before I start writing up features and spells in about a week or so.

Issue 2:

Pokemon Tabletop United's character sheet is pretty solid, but the list of skills that it tracks is rather sparce. I guess this is fine for a Pokemon game where the focus in most situations is on the Pokemon, but I sort of envision Magia as being one of those systems with loads and loads of skills.

I will figure out the magical skills at a later time, likely on my own, so for now I ask the following: What skills do you think are important to keep track of in a modern fantasy setting?

[EagleV]

I'll read and give feedback on this tomorrow, if you don't mind the wait. For now, it might be helpful to have a list of pages on the front wiki page.
Oh, and I'd love to help, anything you need, but I'll be available only from early July.

[Weirdsound]

In theory I should have the game playable by early to mid June, so when you show up in early July we should have just started a campaign. At that point I will likely focus on creating a bestiary, commiting some flavor/background information to paper. We will also start to consider what will need to be changed/redone based campaign experience.

So yeah. There should be stuff stuff to do around July, thanks.

[Grek]

What skills do you think are important to keep track of in a modern fantasy setting?

At a bare minimum: Aim, Athletics, Computer, Crime, Drive, Cooking, Mechanics, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Punch and Study.

[EagleV]

More skills I could think of:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Acting
Appraise
Art: X        (Painting, Sculpting, ...)
Awareness
Craft: X     (Pottery, Mechanics, Electronics, Carpentry, Smithing, Cook, Alchemy, ...)
Diplomacy
Dodge
Empathy
Etiquette
Gambler
Health: X    (First Aid, Surgeon, Massage Therapist, ...)
Investigation
Knowledge: X (Plants, Animals, Culture, ...)
Leadership
Logic
Science: X   (Physics, Biology, Maths, Economics, ...)
Speech
Throw

I think, if you want a 'deep' variety of skills, you should work with specializations. EG, if you have Craft: Cook (3) you could buy up to 3 levels of Specialization: Bread. This would be cheaper then buying another 3 levels of Cook and would give you an effective +6 on baking bread, still only a +3 for other cooking skills.

[Dwarmin]

As for my own suggestions...

Brawling/Martial Arts/Melee Weapon
Medical/Biology
Aim/Firearms
Mechanics/Computers/Magitech
Craft/Knowledge/Research
Driving/Piloting
Crime/Sneaking/Lockpicking/sleight of hand etc
Persuasion/Negotiation/Seduction
Perception/Investigation/Interrogation
Acrobatics/Athletics

I think specialization would be a nice way to solves plenty of that without modifying the base system way too much.

[Weirdsound]

Anyway. I think I finalized the rules for stats and skills. They are based on the new PDF version of PTU, so they are not exactly what my Pokemon Players are used to. The 'Skill Tags' system was totaly my idea. I'll try to start working on a proper skill list tomorrow.

http://magia-exquisitis.wikidot.com/the-basics

[Skyrunner]

Pokemon tabletop = weirdsound

* Skyrunner sidles into the thread and vanishes from sight

[Tiruin]

* Tiruin watches this thread with enthusiasm and those links, too.

[Weirdsound]

Just a quick note to inform you all that development is still alive, it has just up until this point moved a bit slower than I would have liked.

Check out the new pages on Spells and Maneuvers (http://magia-exquisitis.wikidot.com/spells-and-manuvers), and then check out the Cantrips page for a decent list of low power sample spells (http://magia-exquisitis.wikidot.com/cantrips).

I just need to add the following things before we reach a playable pre-alpha state and I post an OOC recruitment thread on the Forum Games and Roleplaying board:

1: A brief overview of the classes and their limitations. Include some sample class spells, rituals, and features.
2: A page outlineing the steps of character creation
3: I need to add the combat stats to 'The Basics' page
4: Forum Turn rules

Hopefully I can get all that done within a week or so.

[Weirdsound]

Sorry for the double post, but in an attempt to push myself to work harder on this project, and to discover what classes people want to play, I have already posted an intrest check threat on the Forum Games board.

Here is the link: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=127364.msg4325918#msg4325918

[Weirdsound]

There seems to be alot of Development talk going on in the OOC Topic for the campaign I'm running that is linked in the above post. ^

If you are watching this thread, and not that one, you may want to check it out.

[Weirdsound]

On the off chance somebody is following this who dosn't often get on the Forum Games and Roleplaying board, another Magia campaign is about to begin.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133354.msg4770478#msg4770478