And then a planet joined the party... · 10:23pm May 9th, 2014
Okay, so, now I feel as if I have officially seen everything and rpg can possibly throw at me. Nope, I don't think it'll be possible to top this one, no matter how many games I play from here on out.
Because today I played a game, an rpg, where a planet becomes one of your party members.
A. Planet. As in one of those spherical balls of rock and gas, typically rather large, that hang out in space, and orbit things. Oh, and not just any old planet, not like some planet that spontaneously gained random sapience. No, no, no. This was a planet I visited in game, with an entire population of people living on it, very democratic in society, like to vote on every damned thing. Saved the planet from an attack by insectoid aliens, it was really all quite exciting.
Then, after saving said planet from certain doom, the party is relaxing at a bar, deciding its next move... and the planet we just saved walks through the door, miniaturized to people-size, and with its high-council happily explaining that the people of the world the party just saved wants to repay the group by... joining it... as a party member...
Let's just ignore for the moment all the likely many scientific impossibilities of a planet shrinking itself down to the size of a person and somehow maintaining its normal atmosphere and gravity. Let's just... absorb the notion that a planet is now a party member. It's going to follow along, participate in combat, have dialogue with other party members. A planet of presumably several billion residents.
I somehow doubt I will ever play another game that is quite like this one. In case anyone is wondering what this game is called, its called Arachronox. Its on Steam. Its an rpg. I would try to tell you any more of what I think of the game but my brain is still trying to process that I have a planet following me around now.
For the record, I'd cross this game over with MLP in a heartbeat if I wasn't already neck-deep in stories that need my attention already.
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2093723
That's pretty much how I reacted.
Seriously, this planet participates in combat like any other normal party member. It's weird. Every time it gets hit in combat I imagine the HP damage it takes is actually a tally of how many people on the planet's surface were killed. It uses its own planetary defense systems as... normal scaled weapons now.
What I can't figure out his how my healing items, er, "heal" the planet of its HP damage. How does that even...? Nope, can't think this too much. My brain cells deserve better, and this games story is mostly comedy based, like some bizzaro rpg of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I need to just roll with this and enjoy things without questioning too much. Otherwsie...
2093759
Well... if the planetary weapons are scaled down to personal scale, then I guess the inverse would be true as well and so you're healing abilities would have a drastically enhanced affect when used on the person sized planet.
Still, the sheer irrational logic of the planet being a person sized party member in the first place is just so insane to begin with that thinking any deeper on the subject is something best avoided.
2093836
Indeed.
Honestly, the dialogue of this game is pretty damned hilarious and makes it worth playing through despite a few... issues. Worst of said issues being this is one of those games that, in order to advance the plot, you need to talk to every bloody person and search every bloody nook and cranny of the area you're in to find the specific items and/or plot points needed to move forward. Basically a lot of tedious backtracking across any given area until you stumble upon the route to the next part of the story. Which is a good story. Without that this game would fall apart; because while the combat system is serviceable, its far too easy, and slow paced, and the "puzzles" are, as I said, just a lot of tedious backtracking.
The story, characters, and dialogue are what hold Aracrhonox together, which... sadly makes me think this game ought to have been a novel instead of a game.
Man, and having the planet around is just surreal in terms of dialogue. You see you can switch between which character is you're "lead", who talks to people or uses special actions to interact with the environment. So far every NPC has had rather... interesting things to say when confronted with a person-sized planet floating up to them to talk.
Okay, so if I had to give the game a point in one other area its in the graphics. They may be dated (this is an old game), but the details are actually quite intricate for a game from 2001. I just noticed the planet even has its little satellites and moons orbiting it.
...I had the first boss monster of a D&D game I ran once be a literal star...it used a dyson ring that surrounded it as a weapon...
2093954
I can only imagine what manner of events lead up to that particular boss fight.
That must've been an interesting session.
Just looked it up on Wikipedia... All I can say is.
That alone would have been enough but then.
Look it up, "ONLY SEVEN DOLLERS!!!" Where has this been my whole life!?
Speaking as someone whose favorite book series is Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, whose favorite genre is RPG's, and who loves stupied random awesomeness. How have I never known of this before today!?
I know what I'm doing next time I have some money.
2094415
I'll admit, for all that I'd say the game's got it's flaws, for the price it's available at on Steam you can't really go wrong with this game either. The combat, while slow paced, is kind of fun, and the story is just dang good so far. Also the world design is extremely creative. I have yet to run across a location in this game that didn't ooze personality, just as much as its characters.
My only advice, if you do play it, is that the key to advancing the plot if you seem stuck really is just talking to everyone, and poke at every corner. This game was made before the time of conveniently mini-maps and quest trackers, so you got to do a bit of scavenger hunting to figure out how to proceed. Since I have no pride as a gamer, I've resorted to FAQs to keep things moving along for my playthrough, as I really playing this for the story more than anything else.
2094048
It was a Kingdom Hearts/D&D crossover. The players were flying a lightship in the Etherium Winds, the Treasure Planet universe, and specifically they were at the Windsor system, the capital of the Etherium Empire. The star had basically just been kamikaze'd by an entire Heartless fleet, thereby turning into...Negative Sun (dun dun dunnn...)
That was a fun campaign.
2094461
Kingdom Hearts/DnD? Now I'm intrigued as to what the stats on a Keyblade would be? Probably an exotic weapon, but I'd figure wielders chosen by one would be automatically proficient with them, and that while magical, their abilities would vary depending on character level.
2094448
Most old school games are like that, part of the reason they're simultaneously loved and hated. But come on who doesn't love Chrono Trigger, or Final Fantasy 3/5? Annoying? Yes. Fun? Absolutely. (and yes I am speaking as someone who needed to look up some things for Chrono Trigger)
2094461 2094470
Just wanna say, I'd play the hell out of this, but then again I just love Kingdom Hearts.
2094470 2094531
It was actually a homebrew'd version of Star Wars Saga Edition. Basically the five classes were Adventurer, Cleric, Fighter, Mage, and Rogue, with 12 prestige classes (Arcane Archer, Barbarian, Bard, Dragoon, Keyblade Master, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Shadowdancer, Sorcerer, Spellblade, and Wizard). Multiclassing was heavily encouraged and rewarded - it was presumed that most people would end up being something like, Adventurer 3/Fighter 4/Rogue 2/Keyblade Master 7.
Destiny Points were replaced with Heart Points, which were basically the same, but everyone got them, villains included - especially the Heartless (as, ironically considering their name, Heartless are actually basically nothing but Heart; however, Nobodies, since the lack a Heart, couldn't earn Heart points). You earned Heart Points by following your Heart's true nature. Conversely, there was also Darkness, which could be earned by either rejecting your Heart's true nature; or by willingly increasing your Darkness score to gain numerous benefits; or by travelling through a Dark Corridor or being subject to certain special attacks. If your Darkness ever equaled your Charisma score, you would become a Heartless (and if your Charisma was at least 13, you also became a Nobody).
Keyblades were unique magic items that could each do some kind of special thing. They weren't exotic weapons, because anyone who earned a Keyblade was just automatically proficient with it. Also anyone who had a Keyblade could create a Keychain that contained a small portion of their Keyblade's power, which could then be imported over to another Keyblade.
It was actually really, really fun. I was only the "main" DM, but I switched off every now and then with two other players so that we all got a chance to play, though my character didn't get introduced until later. The campaign began with the players as natives of Traverse Town doing their thing, when out of nowhere Maleficent arrives along with a some new ally of hers, a young woman wielding a black, double-bladed Keyblade called Rethona, whom Pureblood Heartless swarm around and try and protect and obey her every command without the slightest effort. Rethona and Maleficent find Traverse Town's Heart, and Rethona opens it up in order to get at something inside of it - simultaneously allowing Darkness to pour into it. The players tried to stop Rethona, but...well, they were level 1, and she was level 18.
Traverse Town is consumed by Heartless and the players were set adrift in the Sea of Outer Space, ending up regaining consciousness in the Etherium Winds and kicking off the main plot, which basically entailed trying to figure out what Rethona was up to and what she was after, and why she was working for Maleficent.
2094667
Now there's a game that would've been a lot of fun to play. Consider me jealous.
Using Star Wars Saga rules was probably a very smart move, as that's one of the more balance d20 systems out there and actually does do a decent job at making multi-classing a favorable thing to do. I can see how with the right tweaking it could be made to work for settings other than Star Wars, though I'm very curious how magic was handled, like the Fira or Blizara, basically all that FF style magic Kingdom Hearts used. Did you just replace the closest kind of Force Power to tweak to be like a magic spell?
Oh, and did any Nobodies show up during the campaign, or was this purely a Heartless focused game? Much as I like the Heartless as a kind of overarching, swarm-type enemy, I always liked the Nobodies more.
2094713
The way magic worked was basically like the Force powers. You have a suite of spells and roll Arcana to see your result. However, some spells had prerequisites of you already knowing other spells, and furthermore required you to sacrifice some spells from your suite. Hang on, let me dig out one of the spells as an example...
METEOR STORM
You call a meteor shower down from the heavens to strike your foe
Prerequisites: Character level 12th The minimum character level prevented characters from getting too powerful spells too early
Usage: Casting meteor storm consumes a use of flaming bolt, gust of wind, and pull down from your spell suite. This was here to prevent spamming powerful spells, and ensuring that even high-level characters when learning new spells still take an assortment of less-powerful spells, even if for no other reason than to serve as ammo for their big guns
Time: Full-round action
Target: All targets within a 12-square radius, centered on you.
Make an Arcana check. Make a single check and compare the result to the Reflex defense of each target within the area of effect. Each target whose Reflex defense you equal or exceed takes damage as outlined below.
DC 20: 1d6 fire and 1d6 bludgeoning for 1d4+1 rounds
DC 25: 2d6 fire and 2d6 bludgeoning for 1d4+1 rounds
DC 30: 3d6 fire and 3d6 bludgeoning for 1d4+1 rounds
DC 35: 4d6 fire and 4d6 bludgeoning for 1d4+1 rounds
Meteor storm is an area effect. A target that makes its Reflex save takes only half damage per round.
Special: You may spend an action point to summon a particularly large storm. Add 1d6 fire and 1d6 bludgeoning damage. You may also spend an action point to increase meteor storm’s duration by 1d4+1 rounds.
I also, for the less magically-inclined characters, had Maneuvers. These were basically like the Lightsaber Force powers from Saga Edition, only instead of Arcana checks, you used other skills; which one depended on the maneuver. For example...
CONTENTIOUS OPPORTUNITY
You seize the moment when your opponent gives you an opening, darting in to strike.
Time: Free action (when you make an attack of opportunity).
Target: One enemy within your reach.
Make an Initiative Check. The result of the check determines the effect, if any.
DC 20: If you hit with your attack of opportunity, you deal +1 die of damage.
DC 25: As DC 20, except you deal an additional +2 die of damage.
DC 30: As DC 20, except you deal an additional +3 die of damage.
DC 35: As DC 20, except you deal an additional +4 die of damage.
Special: If you hit with the attack of opportunity, you immediately spend an action point to reduce the target’s speed by 2 squares until the end of its next turn.
It was almost entirely Heartless at first, but in fact a number of Nobodies did show up during the later parts of the campaign - for one thing, each of the PCs who were in Traverse Town when it was consumed by Heartless (so everyone by my own PC) had a Nobody created of them. They didn't really have any organization, however.
As for my own character...her name was Relena. Rearrange a few letters, add an X, and you'll have a good guess as to what happened when her Nobody showed up.
2094760
Don't suppose you guys kept the rules for this online anywhere? I'd be curious to check out more of this.
2099408
Unfortunately, no. In fact I actually lost the entire ting during a transfer from my older computer to my old computer; I had to whip up the above from memory.
2099529
That's a shame, sounded like a pretty solid system. Oh well, gotta get my Kingdom Heart's fix elsewhere until KH3 comes out, eventually. Well, haven't played Birth by Sleep yet, I suppose.