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Good evening ladies and gentlemen



I am a hapless fan of Table Top Role Playing Games and have after many moons of pouring over the idea have, finally, started the daunting process to try to convert the ever fun and faithful world of Final Fantasy to a dice system. Yes, I know my history and am aware that Dungeons and Dragons influenced the early titles however the system of D&D is too...crunchy I guess the term would be, and I personally think it has it's place elsewhere than my living room table.

I am, also, an old fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, it being the first Final Fantasy I ever saw in action and the second I got to own and beat (preceded by Final Fantasy 8) AND in my search for a simple to follow math system, it seems to fit the bill. Despite horridly large and complicated internal equations is it boils down to HP, MP, Move, Jump, Speed, Brave, Faith, Class Bonuses and Equipment Bonuses.

Pardon my rambling



Thus far I have adopted a kind of Big Eyes Small Mouth Tri-Stat Third Edition way of looking at the math, especially since my players are hopeless "math-tards" as my friend Hikaru put it once. Thanks to the 'Final Fantasy Tactics: Battle Mechanics Guide' by Aerostar hosted on www.gamefaqs.com, much of the internal math now makes sense, though I still find myself at a lost in some respects.

Unlike the actual game, Brave and Faith are smaller numbers because of the simple math utilized to calculate the derived values. Large numbers would mean headaches later. I also know Brave and Faith do not classically modify certain things, but I thought it was kinda cute...

If anyone has any suggestions, comments, criticisms and so forth, please reply!

Quote (Character Creation)

Level: Fairly strait forward; Start at One (1), earn 100 exp, go up a level. (I already have the EXP gain figured out, see below)
Brave and Faith: Split 20 points between the two (potentially having 10 in either on average)

Hit Points[HP]: (Current Level x Job Modifier) + Brave + Equipment
Magic Points[MP]: (Current Level x Job Modifier) + Faith + Equipment

Move: 3 + Job Modifier + Equipment
Jump: 3 + Job Modifier + Equipment
Speed: 4 + Job Modifier + Equipment

Physical AT: 3 + Gender Modifier + Job Modifier + Equipment + Abilities
Magical AT: 3 + Gender Modifier + Job Modifier + Equipment + Abilities

To Hit Physically: 2d6 + Physical AT + Attack or Ability Modifier
Front Attack (Physical) Evasion: 2d6 + Job Modifier + Shield Modifier + Accessory Modifier (+ Weapon Modifier if 'Weapon Block' Ability is Active)
Side Attack  (Physical) Evasion: 2d6 + Shield Modifier + Accessory Modifier (+ Weapon Modifier if 'Weapon Block' Ability is Active)
Rear Attack  (Physical) Evasion: 2d6 + Accessory Modifier

To Hit Magically: 2d6 + Magical AT + Attack or Ability Modifier
Attack (Magical) Evasion: 2d6 + Shield Modifier + Accessory Modifier
Much like the actual Final Fantasy Tactics, one can not be 'Back Attacked' by Magic as far as I am concerned.

Gained EXP for an Action: 10 + (Receiving Character Level - Acting Character Level), minimum 1
The above means you take the level of the target of the action, be it beneficial or not, and minus the level of the character preforming the action and then plus, or minus that number from 10. This value can never be less than 1

Quote (Explanations)

Current Level: Duh
Brave: ...um...
Faith: ...yea...
Job Modifier: The multiplier that is designated by the current Job you are. As and example, the Hit Point Job Modifier for a Squire may be 5 and for a Knight it may be 15; even if both of them where level 5 one of them would have a minimum of 25 HP, the other would have 75!
Equipment: Any bonuses rendered by wearing certain Items.
Gender Modifier: Only effects AT. If male then +1 to Physical, if female then +1 to Magical.
2d6: The action of rolling two six-sided dice
Attack Modifier: The % the Attack will be successful
Ability Modifier: the % the Ability will be successful
Weapon Modifier: The Evasion % from a Weapon
Shield Modifier: The Evasion % from a Shield
Accessory Modifier The Evasion % from an Accessory

...WORK IN PROGRESS...

This post has been edited by ChibikoOni on 30th November 2009 04:49

This looks pretty good so far. The only real issue I can see is Brave and Faith. Do they increase as you level, or are they static? If so, then it makes HP and MP gain easier to manage as you level, but after a point, one's values become skewed heavily in favor of the higher stat. It just seems a little unbalanced to me. Maybe incorporate a d6 improvement to each per 3 levels? That way you have some variation and the potential to drastically alter the characters job path.

I guess it boils down to this, A wizard with a higher Brave than Faith would have more HP than MP. See what I mean now? It just doesn't seem right. I do prefer your system over a static value per level though, i.e d4 HP, d6 MP, or 4 HP, 6 mp, and what have you.

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This is a webcomic and gaming blog where I rant about nonsense. Enjoy.

I was a soldier, now I just play one in video games.

First and foremost thank you for the input!



Randomization of the growth of stats may be tricky, but will time it could be do-able...

I was hoping to find a reference to the internal growth numbers of Final Fantasy Tactics because each class has a special set of 'Magic Numbers' they calculate to add bonuses unto all the character's stats in addition to the Raw Growth Stats, but I have yet to locate it. Once I do, I can solve that little problem that Wizard is having.

Aditionaly, if you are not aware of PEMDAS (I'm not meaning to be insulting to you!...though sadly two of my players are not aware of Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally as the Order of Solving Math Equations) then you would solve the HP and MP equations like this:

Lets asume, for a Wizard, who will be level 5, that the Job Modifier for HP is 5 and the Job Modifier for MP is 15, his Brave is 15(to simulate a higher Brave Wizard) his Faith is 5. He'll have a basic robe on giving him +10 Hp and +7 Mp (all these numbers out of my pooper mind you!!!)

HP= (Level times Job Modifier) then add Brave plus Equipment
HP= (5 times 5) then add 15 plus 10
in the order of operations, you solve within parenthesis first ALWAYS before adding it to the rest of the equation
HP= (25) then add 25
HP= 25 + 25
HP= 50


MP= Level times Job Modifier then add Faith plus Equipment
MP= (5 times 15) then add 5 plus 7
again, in the order of operations, you solve within parenthesis first ALWAYS before adding it to the rest of the equation
MP= (75) then add 12
HP= 75 + 12
HP= 87 <--- That's still a lot of MP with high Brave...

As for the direct question of Brave and Faith growth I was going to make it mainly story dynamic in growth. If my players preform with great Bravery in face of adversity, gain a Brave point. If they survive an encounter with their sense of Faith in tact, gain a Faith point. I recall the in battle choices you make for Ramza that gives such same bonuses. If you can suggest a way to change my mechanics to suit this goal, please do!

Uhg... d4...evil, evil things they are... I remember one D&D game where I rolled 1 every level for the first 5 levels...and I WAS THE FREAKING FIGHTER!!!

This post has been edited by ChibikoOni on 1st December 2009 17:25

Ah, PEMDAS, I haven't heard that in about...oh...13 years or so. But yes, including the equipment the stats are not so skewed, my main concern was with the base values before equipment modifiers. The tricky GM will know to break equipment and/or render it unusable in some way, shape, or form.

As far as 'Magic Numbers' I am pretty sure that they appear somewhere in the Game Mechanics FAQ, because I know that the Degenerator trick relies on those numbers almost exclusively. I can't recall where in the FAQ that the chart was located, or if it was somewhere else entirely, but I can assure that it does indeed, exist.

As for using the D20 systems 'static' growth rate...well, lets just stick to Tri-stat for the time being, as it is much less...'crunchy'. I like my Jif smooth, thank you very much.

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This is a webcomic and gaming blog where I rant about nonsense. Enjoy.

I was a soldier, now I just play one in video games.