There hasn't been enough Freeform in my life as of late. Why I haven't posted on the thread before is beyond me.
Maybe because it's a really old thread for a silly game that died a long time ago (even though I still always want to start it up again).
This reminds me of another idea: Learnable item abilities. They were in FF... uh, the one with the monkey tail guy.
Anyway, the point is you get an item, let's say a sword. And on this sword is the Critical Strike Passive, or the Wind Slash Active, or whatever. While this item is equipped, you gain access to said ability.
But while said item is equipped/whenever you use said ability, you gain experience in it. Eventually this means you master the ability and can use it without needing the item any more.
The obvious problems are that it can be kind of gamey (I know I'd equip items based solely on whether I could learn an ability from them and not whether they or their taught abilities were in any way useful) and that it's moving away from the simplicity I assume you were going for. Still, I like the notion of learning things permanently like that.
I adore that system, too, but the main fear is that it's far too much book-keeping to do it in an EXP way. Instead, I would probably do it the way Weirdsound does it in his ISG: "survive a number of combat encounters to have this item level up!" Here's an example character (you'll be seeing her a lot here) with this system in place + flat:
Name: Miranda X-2
Image: Bio: Miranda X-2 is an augmented Human sent into FFS for a trial run of Project "UNNAMED."
Equipment: Normal Clothes,
Electric Hand CannonActive Abilities: Thunderbolt
Passive Abilities:
Statistics:
Health Part 7
Magick Part 4
Aggresssion 3
Fortitude 4
Awareness 5
Nimble 5
Brilliance 1
Spirit 3
Allure 4
Companionship 3 This is about as simple as I could make this system, and it brings up the issue of all characters being functionally identical outside of stats. If I was going to do this, I would definitely restrict item types by class. Like so!
Name: Miranda X-2
Image: Class: QuickshotBio: Miranda X-2 is an augmented Human sent into FFS for a trial run of Project "UNNAMED."
Equipment: Normal Clothes,
Electric Hand CannonActive Abilities: Thunderbolt
Passive Abilities: Run and Gun
Statistics:
Health Part 7
Magick Part 4
Aggresssion 3
Fortitude 4
Awareness 5
Nimble 5
Brilliance 1
Spirit 3
Allure 4
Companionship 3 After a good night's sleep, I've decided not to compact Active Abilities into "this is your sword" or even use Ability Slots. The whole idea just left a bad taste in my mouth for some reason. Gameplay's more fun when you have options!
This is How I Find Loot Idea: Oh, oh God. Okay, here's my idea for this. Each character's loot-finding ability is linked to a specific type of puzzle component. Maybe it's pushing really heavy boulders or creating wind storms. Either way, every shard would have multiple puzzles that could only be solved using certain combinations of these abilities. Basically, when you choose this, you choose what type of video game puzzle you're good at solving
I'd say "Oh, oh God" sums up my reaction to this fairly well.
Also what happens if we get five block pushers in one party? :x
Oh god those block puzzles that need to be done quickly because they reset after a certain number of moves/time. DAMN IT, answered my own question.
Five block pushers likely wouldn't be a problem with the whole switching parties on- and off-base thing. In the scenario it did happen, those block pushers are going to have usefulness outside pushing blocks. But I will say you answered your own question pretty well
Here's what the character sheet might like like with Puzzle Abilities on it:
Name: Miranda X-2
Image: Class: QuickshotBio: Miranda X-2 is an augmented Human sent into FFS for a trial run of Project "UNNAMED."
Equipment: Normal Clothes,
Electric Hand CannonActive Abilities: Thunderbolt
Passive Abilities: Run and Gun
Puzzle Ability: Take Aim
Statistics:
Health Part 7
Magick Part 4
Aggresssion 3
Fortitude 4
Awareness 5
Nimble 5
Brilliance 1
Spirit 3
Allure 4
Companionship 3 Yes. YES. I can feel it starting to come together.
Combat is done by directly comparing Power scores + modifiers. Power is accrued by braiding flowers in your hair (or hair-equivalent.) Modifiers are determined by the color and species of the flowers in your hair. Color provides flat bonuses if certain preconditions are met (rainy weather activates Blue, speaking in a British accent activates Off-White, etc) Species of flowers involves an Elemental Rock Paper Scissors mechanic where favorable matchups add dice to your Power score (so Power + modifiers + d6 or whatever.) After all is said and done the flowers explode at one another until somebody's hair has no more flowers in it and they DIE. Then the winner recovers any usable flowers and moves on to the next victim.
...you DID say horseshit, and there's very nearly a system in there!
Now, here's an interesting alternate class system idea. Instead of having weapons or class changes or experience points, EACH character/class has a specific item type that grants them abilities. Variations on these Class Items would be ridiculously hard to craft/come by, but the players would seek them out anyway.
Name: Miranda X-2
Image: Class Item: Power Core
Bio: Miranda X-2 is an augmented Human sent into FFS for a trial run of Project "UNNAMED."
Equipment: Standard-issue Core,
Frozen CoreActive Abilities: Pew Pew,
Ice ShotPassive Abilities: Charge ShotPuzzle Ability Take Aim,
FreezeStatistics:Health Part 7
Magick Part 4
Aggresssion 3
Fortitude 4
Awareness 5
Nimble 5
Brilliance 1
Spirit 3
Allure 4
Companionship 3
I'm not particularly enthralled with this, but it does resemble Monk's idea a little. The game is really starting to shape up to something playable.