Megaman battle network:searching for users

[that man]

Yeah, I'm not sure what presence is really. But I do agree that the primary should be on the Net-Navis. Though you may want to include in that CS their basic weapons, maybe type, and personality.

Another name for the stat known as Charisma. I saw it used in SWTOR, it generally helped make your allies fight better.


So, I take it this did lift off as an idea? If there's a game for it, I'd be interested in potentially joining.

If you want to, you can.

[Gingoguy]

First, I'd just like to tell Riptide that, two Navis one? Steller idea man! Actually, all the character sheets so far have been fun to read. I can't wait to adventure with this group!

And, in regards to what Kuragari said,...yeah, presence really is the same as the charisma stat isn't it? I don't know if I would want it clarified or changed or left alone or whatnot; I'm just saying I agree with his observation.

[napsii]

Oh. Too bad I don't know anything about Battle Network (I've never actually played a Megaman game but I know some about the series in general) else I would maybe join.

Addendum: Which is to say I don't know how the system works. I used my Google powers to learn about the basics of the setting and plot (it's fairly standard stuff, it seems) and I'm the kind of person who channels my inexperience with a setting into my characters (i.e. I make a character just as inexperienced as myself) but wow this battle system, etc. looks morbidly arcane.

[that man]

Oh. Too bad I don't know anything about Battle Network (I've never actually played a Megaman game but I know some about the series in general) else I would maybe join.

Addendum: Which is to say I don't know how the system works. I used my Google powers to learn about the basics of the setting and plot (it's fairly standard stuff, it seems) and I'm the kind of person who channels my inexperience with a setting into my characters (i.e. I make a character just as inexperienced as myself) but wow this battle system, etc. looks morbidly arcane.

We were going to simplify the mechanics of combat down, if you are still interested.

[Gingoguy]

We were going to simplify the mechanics of combat down, if you are still interested.

She'd still have to familiarize herself with battle chips, which, prove me wrong but, did we ever formalize how those would work here?

[that man]

...no we did not...
...well...
Huh. How did I forget that?

[napsii]

Having read the debate so far, it seems like most of you are unclear on what decisions were made vis-a-vis mechanics. It would help to summarize everything that you've decided upon in the OP, otherwise it seems more like an inconclusive discussion than a final product ready for prospective roleplayers.

Also, a word of advice: When you're making an open roleplay of this kind, it's best to provide as much tutorial as you can up front for the sake of the uninitiated, else you'll only appeal to people already familiar with the series -- which seems to have been the case here. It only snagged my interest when I looked it up of my own initiative after a few weeks.

[that man]

Having read the debate so far, it seems like most of you are unclear on what decisions were made vis-a-vis mechanics. It would help to summarize everything that you've decided upon in the OP, otherwise it seems more like an inconclusive discussion than a final product ready for prospective roleplayers.

Also, a word of advice: When you're making an open roleplay of this kind, it's best to provide as much tutorial as you can up front for the sake of the uninitiated, else you'll only appeal to people already familiar with the series -- which seems to have been the case here. It only snagged my interest when I looked it up of my own initiative after a few weeks.

Ok, I'm not exactly sure what to put into the tutorial, but I can try something. Also, how would this work for the chips?

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Switching out a chip requires a full turn to do, and the effects do not occur until the next turn.
Switching also requires a dice roll, as it has to be done quickly under combat situations, and failing the roll means the net-navi will have to try again next turn.
However, if the Net-navi has an operator, than the chips will go off auto matically no matter what.
Aside from that, stat bonuses will be 1/10 it's original bonus, as otherwise, even the lowest of them would probably be higher than the person's stats.

So...does that work?

[Gingoguy]

Having read the debate so far, it seems like most of you are unclear on what decisions were made vis-a-vis mechanics. It would help to summarize everything that you've decided upon in the OP, otherwise it seems more like an inconclusive discussion than a final product ready for prospective roleplayers.

Also, a word of advice: When you're making an open roleplay of this kind, it's best to provide as much tutorial as you can up front for the sake of the uninitiated, else you'll only appeal to people already familiar with the series -- which seems to have been the case here. It only snagged my interest when I looked it up of my own initiative after a few weeks.

I kinda know what you mean. I didn't know anything about the series starting out either, so I played the first game for reference.

Also, yeah...this really isn't complete enough for mass consumption yet; I agree with you on that. Unfortunately, since we are somewhat inconclusive, I don't see a 'beginners tutorial' being possible to make now.

[Gingoguy]

Also, how would this work for the chips?

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Switching out a chip requires a full turn to do, and the effects do not occur until the next turn.
Switching also requires a dice roll, as it has to be done quickly under combat situations, and failing the roll means the net-navi will have to try again next turn.
However, if the Net-navi has an operator, than the chips will go off auto matically no matter what.
Aside from that, stat bonuses will be 1/10 it's original bonus, as otherwise, even the lowest of them would probably be higher than the person's stats.

So...does that work?

Ngh...Ah...it's okay...but...I dunno...here are some possible revisions:
1) Give operatorless NetNavis a benifit as well. Maybe say they don't need to go on the die roll, but they need a turn for thier chip to take effect.
2) Wait...sorry, what do you mean by stat bonuses?
3) Should we, or should we not stack chips?
4) I realize, what about the chips that damage to area?! Can we allow those, pleeease?

[napsii]

It seems like the gun has been thoroughly jumped, because I'm lost, but the way I understand it is this: Battlechips are single-use (per battle) items which let you perform special attacks by installing them into a NetNavi. Dead simple, and what I think I'd do is keep it that way instead of trying to directly apply the mechanics from the video games since it is, after all, a roleplay and in my experience it's worth considering that many stories function more smoothly without arbitrary mechanics. Even designers of pen-and-paper games like D&D take this into account.

The system for weapons is simple enough: Attack is the damage bonus added onto your roll, Rapid is how many rolls you can make, Charge confers an additional damage bonus if you wait rather than immediately fire and an Element does what you'd expect it to do. Of course, this means that Weapon stats would be arguably more important than NetNavi statistics in battle, so I propose that besides NetNavi statistics provide a bonus where apropos:

Strength could provide a bonus when using melee attacks and Sword Battlechips, as well as when, say, trying to pry open a door. Sense allows you to mitigate sneak attacks and find hidden objects, etc. Intelligence allows you to hack, etc. Agility could possibly determine the accuracy of ranged attacks. I'd either have people make D20 rolls, assign any action a Difficulty Class and have the roll need to meet or exceed it. I dunno.

Re: The role of Operators, I agree with Gingo's suggestion. Operators could allow NetNavis to instantly use Battlechips in the same turn and other crap. But I dislike involving dice rolls in the deployment of Battlechips regardless; if a roll's to be made, it should be to how effectively you use the chip -- not whether you can use it.

If it was up to me, I wouldn't have even involved Ops to begin with since the game really seems to be about the Navis.

[Gingoguy]

It seems like the gun has been thoroughly jumped, because I'm lost, but the way I understand it is this: Battlechips are single-use (per battle) items which let you perform special attacks by installing them into a NetNavi. Dead simple, and what I think I'd do is keep it that way instead of trying to directly apply the mechanics from the video games since it is, after all, a roleplay and in my experience it's worth considering that many stories function more smoothly without arbitrary mechanics. Even designers of pen-and-paper games like D&D take this into account.

Okay, so no using extraneous mechanics like stacking, gotya! However, I'm still in favor of using Battlechips that can affect terrain. I believe this reasonable freedom would allow for some interesting outcomes.

The system for weapons is simple enough: Attack is the damage bonus added onto your roll, Rapid is how many rolls you can make, Charge confers an additional damage bonus if you wait rather than immediately fire and an Element does what you'd expect it to do. Of course, this means that Weapon stats would be arguably more important than NetNavi statistics in battle, so I propose that besides NetNavi statistics provide a bonus where apropos:

Ya, uh...That's not the weapons system. In the games, players would have a sort of standard weapon which was in the form of Megaman's blaster (hence the charge statistic). So, Attack doesn't represent a damage bonus, rather the damage that is done if hit; although, an accuracy roll might be needed. Oh, and Element allows for a Rock-Paper-Scissors type strategy, just to clarify.

Strength could provide a bonus when using melee attacks and Sword Battlechips, as well as when, say, trying to pry open a door. Sense allows you to mitigate sneak attacks and find hidden objects, etc. Intelligence allows you to hack, etc. Agility could possibly determine the accuracy of ranged attacks. I'd either have people make D20 rolls, assign any action a Difficulty Class and have the roll need to meet or exceed it. I dunno.

I mostly agree except for a few points: move accuracy over to the sense stat, remove the strength realation from the Sword Battlechip and just have it for melee attacks, and leave Agility to determine action over treterous, puzzling areas.

Re: The role of Operators, I agree with Gingo's suggestion. Operators could allow NetNavis to instantly use Battlechips in the same turn and other crap. But I dislike involving dice rolls in the deployment of Battlechips regardless; if a roll's to be made, it should be to how effectively you use the chip -- not whether you can use it.

If it was up to me, I wouldn't have even involved Ops to begin with since the game really seems to be about the Navis.

First, I did not come up with the idea of Operators allowing their NetNavis instantaneous action, that was the work of thatman over there; I suggested lone NetNavis need not a roll to activate Battlechips. On the topic of the roll, I agree with you in removing it.

Also, we already discussed the issue of Opaerators. We agreed they shouldn't affect much. But players should still be allowed to write one as part of their character if they choose, since some people have ideas with them.

[napsii]

I didn't say that was the weapons system in the games. I'm talking about the roleplay.

Otherwise: I don't have much of an opinion on the specifics, perhaps because I'm miserably tired right now. I will say this, though: impromptu game mechanics so frequently run into this issue where they balloon into being unnecessarily complex or/and trip over themselves and implode later on (typically by creating confusion, disagreement and then hostility between the players) because they aren't thorough enough (a usual side effect of adopting only portions of an existing game system, like D20.) This is usually the point where I suggest not having mechanics at all and leaving the roleplay to the mercy of artistic freedom, like most stories. Sufficient GMing and having reasonable players solves most problems that mechanics would have otherwise accounted for, and changing things now would only demand mild modifications (which is to say mostly removing items and not replacing) to every CS.

Addendum: To clarify, I would keep Battlechips as a minor system they're rather simple when stripped down to their basics. Some simple narrative constraints (for example, a recharge time) can be placed on their use and they'll be a non-issue. Acquiring more and better of them would also be a constant goal to integrate into the story.

[Gingoguy]

Oooooh, that is a veeeeeeeeery big proposition, napsil. It would require significant trust and skill from every player and GM here to be rid of game mechanics altogether.

Nevertheless, I suppose I'd be willing to trust everyone participating that we could make engaging play without the need for complex mechanics. But, everyone would have to be on board with it as well, or it just won't work. If you want a system of mechanics in place for the rp, I still believe that is completely reasonable.

[napsii]

It's not a dramatic proposition at all. Most roleplays on most sites are run without mechanics. Roleplaying is inherently an activity which requires the good faith of other people, anyway; mechanical systems can still be bent and mediocre roleplayers can still disrupt and drag down a story. Ask anyone who has ever played a pen & paper game. And if you wanted to talk how having or not having mechanics affects a narrative... well, try telling me that A Farewell To Arms should have been decided by dice roll.

Really all you have to do as either a player or GM is to put in effort and be a reasonable person. If suggesting even that draws ooohs and aaahs of reluctance from people then I should really just throw myself in front of a speeding 18-wheeler already.

[Dracoslicer]

This is pretty interesting, are you still accepting more players? If so I'll start working on a charactor.