Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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Chanda Just Barely Enough Effort

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This will be a high-casual RP set in the universe of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, utilizing a loose version of its jobs, skills and magic system for the purpose of character creation. Rest assured, we will not have numerical stats or any kind of EXP system; the progression of your character's abilities will be handled in-story, and our use of the established system found in the game will mostly be limited to character creation and will chiefly concern your selection of a job and your available skills/spells in that case.

It is my intent to make the character creation process convenient for everyone and manageable for people who have never played the game before while also maintaining a level of balance that will allow the combative, strategic, and mechanically deep nature of the Tactics series and the Final Fantasy series as a whole to shine in a play-by-post roleplay setting. While my primary concern is obviously to present a compelling and interesting narrative in the context of a rich and exploration-conducive environment, the fact that this roleplay will be grounded in a video game that was based around combat and questing means that there will be a necessary focus on combat, questing, and adventuring. That doesn't mean I won't have a grander overarching plot or ancillary side-plots in play; Final Fantasy has such a rich and broad collection of lore that it would be a waste of this setting to not involve effective storytelling.

Please note, these uses of the game's elements are only meant to serve as a vast reference tool to enhance your roleplaying experience, not to hinder it or overcomplicate it. I am intent on interpreting the game's mechanics very liberally and I'm more than willing to make exceptions for good reason, especially when pertaining to elements of the game that wouldn't make sense in practice. For example, in game, certain jobs are only available to certain races despite the fact that it would be perfectly reasonable in-universe to assume that some race would be able to choose that job. This leads to weird cases where Soldier and Fighter are human-exclusive races despite the fact that a Bangaa could easily obtain the skills necessary to do that job (and they often do have overlap in job abilities, armor, and weapons). Nu Mou are the most magically adept race in Ivalice and yet they cannot be Red Mages, Blue Mages, Summoners, Elementalists, or Bishops. The Judge and Law system in general is wholly irrelevant and illogical to a roleplay setitng and will be ignored almost completely.

I am also open to allowing the inclusion of jobs, abilities, spells, items, and races from other entries in the Final Fantasy series on a case-by-case basis as long as they are reasonable inclusions and will fit with the established setting. If you are not familiar with the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, don't let that discourage you from applying. The feel of the story will be classic medieval Final Fantasy sword and sorcery adventuring, with conventions and mechanics borrowed from the lore of the entire series despite it being grounded in the setting of this particular game. This just happens to be my favorite setting from the universe and it also has a robust class system that lends itself well to this format.

The plot will take place about 50 years after the events of FFT:A, in an alternate universe from the events of the game. In this continuity, Marche, Ritz, and Doned all died early on in their quest to escape Mewt's dream world, leaving Mewt free to enjoy his dream world in peace, coddling himself in his childish escapism through his reign over Ivalice. Mewt, now King, has established a reputation as a kind and generous ruler with the best interests of the Ivalician people in mind. While adventuring clans had been popular as a lucrative and exciting career option for seasoned and willing adventurers, Mewt recognized the potential threat large organizations of powerful and wealthy warriors could pose to his rule and sought to reduce their prominence. Mewt established a centralized Ivalician Army and contracted many of the larger clans as mercenaries and auxiliary forces. Mewt also opened several arcane universities and knight academies across Ivalice to provide an alternative to those seeking to become powerful warriors who would normally be apprenticing with a clan.

Small, independent clans soon fell out of fashion due to a lack of demand; why pay a clan to do what the army does for free? They just seemed unnecessary. Ivalice was now a safer, quieter place, and few resisted the change to a more peaceful and prosperous future for the kingdom, especially with King Mewt's wise and just rule in place.

This period of prosperity came to an end roughly five years ago, when a mysterious woman named Matoya arrived in Ivalice as one of several visiting dignitaries from a different continent. In his nearly forty years of ruling King Mewt had never shown any interest in finding a wife to become queen and continue the royal line. However, immediately upon meeting Matoya, Mewt fell hopelessly in love with her and married her within a month. Shortly after their marriage, Mewt gradually began to appear in public less and less, with Matoya (now queen) serving as the public face of the Ivalician Royal family. With Matoya in control, the Ivalician Army quickly went from being the righteous and law-bringing force of good in the kingdom to serving as the instrument of oppression and control by which Matoya kept the kingdom in line. The peace that Mewt had worked so hard to establish fell to pieces; monsters and brigands now roam freely in the fields of Ivalice, and the cities aren't much safer. The guards and soldiers that were resistant to Matoya's new policies were stripped of their ranks and released from service; those who stayed and pledged their loyalty were given handsome salary bonuses and promotions. Corruption, crime, and poverty have been steadily increasing since Matoya rose to power, and although the kingdom is not in a state of outright crisis, many worry for the future of Ivalice and criticism of the queen is commonplace.

As a result of a now corrupt and inefficient army, clans have recently returned to prominence. Trust in the government to effectively keep its many settlements safe is at an all time low, so the need for independent mercenaries has become more than a little apparent. My character will be attempting to start a new clan in the city of Cyril. Your characters will be applicants responding to his recruitment posting, members of other clans in Cyril, someone who lives in Cyril, or otherwise someone in Cyril for some reason. I will try my best to accommodate everyone's character as best I can, but I would recommend making a character who would believably be able to go off on an adventure and would be able to offer something to the group.

That's the extent of the set-up so far but obviously we can all assume that something's up with Matoya and she's got some sneaky shit planned that we're all gonna be worried about. You may have guessed from the title that at some point the Dragon King Bahamut will be summoned (or attempted to be summoned) and we're gonna have to get some shit done to deal with all that crazy business.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you'd be interested in this sort of thing! If so, you're the best.

- Chanda Chanda Chanda Chanda Chanda <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Galgarion
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I would be interested, but wondering if you would be allowing some of the more advanced job classes. I.E, the Dark Knight from FFT The Lion Wars, Or the Dancer/Mime (Same game) basically jobs that require you to be proficient/mastered in several other jobs.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by Rogue Colm
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You had me at FFTA

Also, that's a great plot to boot!
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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I would be interested, but wondering if you would be allowing some of the more advanced job classes. I.E, the Dark Knight from FFT The Lion Wars, Or the Dancer/Mime (Same game) basically jobs that require you to be proficient/mastered in several other jobs.


For the sake of balance I would probably shoot down a few of those off the bat. The thing about the second level job classes in Advance is that they aren't necessarily a straight up upgrade from the previous level, they're just more specialized. With similar stats and a similar level of equipment quality a level 3 Fighter is just as powerful as a level 3 Soldier despite the fact that Soldier promotes to Fighter. The difference comes down to their ability pool, which I will be much more flexible with as long as the inclusion of that ability (regardless of the source game) does not compromise the balance or the setting of the game and would make sense with your character's class. Obviously it wouldn't make sense to see non-Dragoons use the jump ability, but would a Defender be able to learn First Aid? Could a White Mage learn Aura? MOS DEF yo.

In the case where a class is a clear level above or doesn't fit with the setting at all, I would probably not allow it. The Dark Knight is out for this reason, but an upper level class like an Arcanist is just a specialized magic user, so it could still function at the level of balance I want to achieve. In all honesty I think it's more rewarding for the pacing of the story to start without any character in particular holding too much power, either in terms of combat ability or social standing/influence (for example, I wouldn't let you play as an Ivalician Knight captain but lower ranked knights or soldiers are options. I wouldn't let you start as a senior professor or headmaster at an arcane academy but I would let you be a student or a new instructor). I think that's a reasonable request. For this reason I'll probably go as far as retconning out some classes that are found in game, like the Gunner, Fusilier, or Flintlock, because it would be pretty broken to have people running around with guns when we're all still using swords and axes and shit, y'know? Also kind of clashes with the setting in general. Like I said, I'm not expecting like 20 applicants so I can handle your requests on a case-by-case basis.

Great question. I definitely could have been more specific about it in the first post but I figured I would just see if anyone was interested first before I started getting super specific about the policies. Thanks for the interest. I'm working on the character sheet and supplementary information right now, I'll let you know when it's done.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Rogue Colm
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@Chanda so, do you know what classes won't be allowed? I had been thinking assassin or ninja if either one is fine. If not, I was gonna go with elementalist
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Card Captor
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FFA2 is my favorite DS game. Count me in.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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@Chanda so, do you know what classes won't be allowed? I had been thinking assassin or ninja if either one is fine. If not, I was gonna go with elementalist


Assassins and Ninjas are fine. Making sure the abilities of the characters are balanced at character creation will be my main concern.

Character sheet and assets are nearly done. Want to see if I can get a little more interest before I bother writing up a whole OOC topic. If we get two more new peeps in here I'll start work on that.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Rogue Colm
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@Chanda Fair enough. Any way to know just yet how to keep them balanced? Also, I really hope this gets off the ground.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Herald
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Interested. I am rather partial to the dark knight / holy knight classes but understand why balance must be maintained. Perhaps they should be something to strive for later on.
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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@Chanda Fair enough. Any way to know just yet how to keep them balanced? Also, I really hope this gets off the ground.


Well, I'm of the mindset that I should be more lenient with your starting job and allow some of the level 2 jobs to be chosen from the start, inasmuch as they are not direct upgrades to a previous job but rather specializations of that job or a job with a new skillset that would not be too powerful to start out with. For this reason I would allow certain Level 2 jobs but not others. In that case it would be up to my discretion which classes I consider suitable for our balance or not. However, I am open to suggestions on how I should go about balancing the game; I think that's most fair to you guys, considering you have a vested interest in the decisions I make in regards to character creation. Consider the following two options;

1) Only the first level jobs present in the source material (across any of the Tactics games) are allowed at character creation. Jobs not found in the source material will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and will be allowed insofar as they are also "basic" classes in the game/material from which the originate. (Probably the most objectively balanced option, and it would allow the cast of characters to become more powerful and specialized as the story progresses).

2) First level jobs from the source material will be allowed, and second/third level jobs that entail a new skillset that is neither similar to nor derived from a first level job will be permitted in order to allow the most possible diversity at character creation. The extra "novel" advanced jobs that I would allow would be Blue Mages, Mog Knights, Red Mages, Elementalists, Bishops, and Green Mages (possibly more if you can make a case for it). Jobs not from the source material will be reviewed according to the same criteria as option 1.

For reference here are some articles from the Final Fantasy Wiki on jobs from Tactics Advance and its sequel.
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Fi..
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Fi..

Keep in mind a few things; your job is kind of a meta-classification for character creation and balance purposes, and it won't really be a strong or exact label in-story. It shouldn't prevent you from roleplaying the type of character you want to play. For example, a melee character with a sword could be a Soldier, Warrior, Gladiator, Fighter, or a Defender, but in game you would refer to them like "oh, look at that swordsman over there" or "he seems to be a warrior." A stealthy character with the job of Thief could wear all black and wield a katana and one would think "he must be a ninja" despite the fact that he would not actually have to be a ninja for us to recognize him as one. He may even think of himself as a ninja, despite the fact that he wouldn't be able to use any of the trademark ninja techniques like the Veils or whatever. Unless you're actively broadcasting what job you are (i.e. "look at that spellcaster wearing all white, healing his allies. he must be a White Mage" or "that heavily armored Bangaa wielding a spear and leaping all over the battlefield is probably a Dragoon") it won't be a distinction that really comes up in the storytelling. In universe, jobs will be treated like combat disciplines or martial arts styles; for example, if you're being formally trained at an arcane university, then you will most likely be aware of what kind of magic user you are (sage, elementalist, arcanist, alchemist, etc.), but if you're just a mercenary warrior type dude with a sword then your character probably won't have a formal label for themselves unless they're using a lot of distinctive skills of a certain class.

Second, I'm willing to be lenient with your ability choices and those balance decisions will certainly be made according to my best judgment. Your formal job title will not severely limit the kind of character you want to roleplay and I am willing to work with you to reach a middle ground that makes everyone happy as long as you're willing to understand why I make the decisions I make in order to maintain balance.

Let me know which policy you guys would prefer. Ready to publish the sheet, will get that out as soon as I know what route we want to take with jobs.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Galgarion
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I vote option 1
Hidden 9 yrs ago 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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I have included the character sheet with instructions below. I know it looks daunting, but it's really not that hard to fill out when you actually get down to it.



You can find a pre-formatted, blank version of the character sheet below for when you have read all of the above info and are ready to fill out the sheet.

Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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Hey guys, please do me a favor and vote for which option you'd prefer so we can move forward with applications. Looking for one more interested person before I start on the OOC.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Card Captor
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I also vote option one, on the assumption that we won't be stuck with a team full of nothing but Soldiers and White Mages
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Herald
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Option 1. Sounds like its just going to be easier.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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Well I think that about settles it. We're going with option one. I will update the character sheet and release some more assets that may help you with character creation. I have begun work on the OOC and I'm now committed to getting this off the ground. Hopefully we can pick up an extra person or two before we launch but whatever, I can handle a small group too. Looking forward to this!

Until I get the OOC up you guys won't have access to all the reference information you will eventually have, but if you have a question about the lore or setting that comes up while creating your character, please ask me and I will do my best to answer. I'll see if I can get my character sheet up soon too. If you want to make reference to particular places or people in your backstory, these wiki pages may be helpful to you.

finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Ivalice_(T..
finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Totema

Good luck you guys. Make sure to PM me with what class you're interested in so we can hash out your abilities.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by IceHeart
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Quite interested but with a job system sort of in play, makes me have to think a bit about what I actually want to do.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Chanda
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My goal for it is not to be overly restrictive. When I include elements from the source material it is always my intention to ensure that they only improve, rather than detract from the quality of your roleplaying experience. I am more than willing to work with you on creating the type of character you want to play within the framework of what we have established, provided I can make exceptions while still maintaining balance.

LET ME HELP YOU! I want everyone to be happy. THAT'S MY DREAM. MY DREAM, YOU GUYS
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Card Captor
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I think I'll wait until a few other people get their CS' up. That should give me a better idea what I want to do.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Izaka Sazaka
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Interested in this. I'll probably start working on my character sheet sometime tonight or tomorrow.
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