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[WillowLuman]

I'd prefer roll20 with pms. Due to the variety of Stand powers, using a combat map (rather than sitting still, trading blows) is necessary to not favor one particular kind of Stand over the others. And players need to be able to keep things secret from each other, even during encounters (someone might attack from hiding, or be in disguise).

[WillowLuman]

Did a systems test yesterday with some friends. Here's what we've worked out so far:

(derived from d20 systems)
* A user may bring out or recall their Stand as a bonus action
* Stands and their users share the same HP pool, but can have different stats and have separate action pools (movement, action, bonus action)
* Regardless of a Stand's movement speed, it cannot exceed the maximum distance from its user. So, as far as testing thus far, a user will pull their Stand towards them if they move outside its maximum range, regardless of how much movement the Stand has left that turn. Unless the Stand is restrained, in which case the User will be unable to move further away than the max range. This needs more work and may be subject to change.
* A restrained Stand cannot be withdrawn
* If one Stand has the ability to do an Attack Rush, and attempts so on another Stand which can also Attack Rush, there will be a contest.
* We may need to incorporate debilitating injury status effects somehow

We also ran into some problems deciding how to arbitrate creative use of Stands. For example, a player using Crazy Diamond attempted to trap someone by breaking both their legs an the ground beneath, then fusing them together. Most likely we will not be using any Stands taken directly from Jojo in the actual game, coming up with new ones instead. This is to prevent meta from people familiar with the series.

[Tiruin]

Please clarify ALL those jargon and terms you use by the way, HugoLuman Do remember that the theme you're referencing isn't known to everyone (or...just me :v). So yeah.

[WillowLuman]

Help me out here and point out which ones you don't know/might not be known by others. Though I did define Stands in the OP

[Tawa]

To be blunt, that entire paragraph is too specific.

- You don't clarify what movement, action, and bonus actions are for
  - On that note, you mention bonus actions before even defining what bonus actions are
- You don't bring up how large HP or action pools are. Does your average guy get 10 HP or 100? Can I take one action in a round or 5?
  - Speaking of which, stats are also totally undefined. Are Strength and Constitution separate or are they lumped together Cataclysm DDA-style? Are they a scale of 3d6 or 2d50?
- It's not immediately clear what "restrained Stand" means
- What's an "attack rush"?

Also, you might want to actually talk about what JoJo's Bizarre Adventure actually is in the OP. Right now it only describes what Stands are. In fact, now that I look at it, somebody who'd never heard of JoJo might read it and think that Stands are something entirely original that you came up with.

[WillowLuman]

Also, you might want to actually talk about what JoJo's Bizarre Adventure actually is in the OP. Right now it only describes what Stands are. In fact, now that I look at it, somebody who'd never heard of JoJo might read it and think that Stands are something entirely original that you came up with.

I dunno, it explains them under the heading "For those unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure." As for JJBA itself, I don't think people really need to understand anything other than the concept of stands, since I won't be using the plot or characters of JoJo. Of course, I could probably explain Stands better.

- You don't clarify what movement, action, and bonus actions are for
  - On that note, you mention bonus actions before even defining what bonus actions are
- You don't bring up how large HP or action pools are. Does your average guy get 10 HP or 100? Can I take one action in a round or 5?
  - Speaking of which, stats are also totally undefined. Are Strength and Constitution separate or are they lumped together Cataclysm DDA-style? Are they a scale of 3d6 or 2d50?
- It's not immediately clear what "restrained Stand" means
- What's an "attack rush"?

Well, first of all, I'm using the d20 system as the base, and several of these are d20 terms that are probably explained here better than I could: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm

Spoiler: Though I'll try anyways (click to show/hide)

In the d20 system, at the basic level, everyone has their movement, action, and bonus action. This is what is called their "action pool"
The "action cost" of different actions are usually defined in terms of whether they can use the bonus action, or whether they need a full action. Usually, one standard attack costs your action.
Movement speed is measured in feet, the total distance your character can run/walk/whatever in one round. Some rules allow for "split move and fire," where you can continue using the rest of your movement if you've moved, acted, and still have some movement left.

Also, stats are 3d6

Though it's possible, by the time I'm done making the mechanics, we'll be using a different set of stats.

As for the rest

-We used 30 HP for the first test game, but players are likely to be more variable, and more testing is needed to determine if 30 is a good "average"
-"restrained Stand" is just that, a Stand which has been restrained. Since only Stands can hurt each other, this requires either using some kind of Stand ability or for someone to literally grapple someone elses' Stand with their own.
-An attack rush is a serious of rapid, consecutive attacks. They seem pretty common in anime, but Jojo is particularly known for them once the Stands become involved in the show/manga. And in an iconic scene, two people Stands trying to punch through each others' attack rushes. Hence, the rule about a contest: http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/045/252/670.gif

[pisskop]

hey neat


i played a game themed around this offsite. i was a girl who was a target for myrder.id play

[Tiruin]

Also, you might want to actually talk about what JoJo's Bizarre Adventure actually is in the OP. Right now it only describes what Stands are. In fact, now that I look at it, somebody who'd never heard of JoJo might read it and think that Stands are something entirely original that you came up with.

I dunno, it explains them under the heading "For those unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure." As for JJBA itself, I don't think people really need to understand anything other than the concept of stands, since I won't be using the plot or characters of JoJo. Of course, I could probably explain Stands better.

Actually yes, yes we do. There's the power of implicit knowledge and metaknowledge--unless it is well translated to HOW one's actions and abilities work.
As someone with 0 idea on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, it all sounds like you're speaking a ton of jargon which may refer to a concept I've little idea about. So...maybe a bit of translation there--think about if it you haven't been presented the idea of what everything you're saying, is. Then imagine it in a way to describe it.

I'd love to play as a tester though. But given the norm roles of Mafia (ie We don't use values, but concrete abilities that have hard-written effects rather than dice), you may do well in giving a general idea in this thread. Despite the last post being around a month old.

As a GM, you've to be clear or people will make subtle-yet-important mistakes :v or at least, people like ME will.
Like, what is a 'strand' in Mafia-terms? How is it thought about? An ability that has a dice roll/chance to affect others? Is it a concrete action? (ie Cop has Inspect; always is sane unless implied otherwise)

[WillowLuman]

(Important note: d20 is the system used by D&D, if that helps explain things)

Well, a Stand should have hard-written effects. However, for the purposes of combat encounters, it becomes necessary to codify when they can apply those effects in a dice-based scenario. In other words, people have hard-written abilities as their in-character "superpowers," rather than as a function of their game role. So, the antagonist no longer has "kill" as an automatic game ability, but rather must accomplish killing using their defined abilities within a statted scenario.

Let's take a Stand from the series as an example:
Crazy Diamond is a Stand that can repair anything it touches, including living things. However, it cannot heal its user, and it cannot revive someone from the dead, even if it restores their corpse to pristine condition. These are all hard-written abilities, and follow only those written limitations outside of a combat scenario.
However, within combat, where timing is important, we need to clarify several things within the rolling system. For example, how long does it take for Crazy Diamond to reach out and touch something? How long does the repair process take? For the purpose of the test game, we decided that the repair ability would cost a bonus action, and could be applied to any one thing aside from the user within its own tile or an adjacent tile.

As far as the relevance of the wider background of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, well, Jojo consists of a series of only tangentially connected stories. This game need not involve any characters, locations, or events in common with those of the series. Therefore, the important thing for all players to understand are the rules about the setting's powers.

Please do help point out unexplained jargon, though. You know how it is: once you're in deep enough, it's hard to see it. I tried to give a basic definition of Stands and their rules in the OP, but I don't know how well it explains it.

[Tiruin]

Please do help point out unexplained jargon, though. You know how it is: once you're in deep enough, it's hard to see it. I tried to give a basic definition of Stands and their rules in the OP, but I don't know how well it explains it.

Oooh, I know that feeling ._. but am not that well in mentioning where or what. I'll try to get back to this tomorrow
Somehow this game has me reminded in feelings of notable conventional games with a theme, and another nice one that used maps, although I've never played a Mafia game where dice rolls are used.
...Wow do I feel old already. Those feel just minted off the memory block and yet are 2+ years ago!

Although I've to ask in the spirit of Mafia if there's a Mafia party rather than one prime antagonist around. ...Was this asked or answered already?

[WillowLuman]

Nope. Just one player killer, as per the OP. Though there might or might not be NPC enemies to distract/provide clues, as per suggestions from _DivideByZero_

[WillowLuman]

After talking with Tiruin a bit, I'm wondering again if this is mafia enough for here, what with combat systems and tests and whatnot. Is there a precedent for mafias that use combat systems, rather than successful killing being an innate ability of a role?

[Tiruin]

After talking with Tiruin a bit, I'm wondering again if this is mafia enough for here, what with combat systems and tests and whatnot. Is there a precedent for mafias that use combat systems, rather than successful killing being an innate ability of a role?

Like I mentioned before--as long as the abilities and such are balanced out; while you do use dice, which is different from the 'concrete ability results' in regular Mafia games, there is the balance of ONE antagonist vs MANY, so specific metaknowledge ideas like 'lying' are more concrete to rely on. And such.

I didn't understand part of the mechanics you mentioned or have a concrete idea of how you'll run it though, so I may be misunderstanding bits there. Just test it out here So you can get more ideas from the other Mafia board folks.