War of the Magical Girls - Brainstorm

War of the Magical Girls

So a billion years ago I started up a game called Magical Girl No Civil War, where magical girls somehow got the essence of famous military leaders and then fought each other when the country they were in devolved into civil war. It stalled while we were redoing the rules for combat and subsequently died off.

I want to kick that off again. The basic premise is similar: a school for magical girls is opened for students from across the world who utilize the memories and experiences of great warriors and warlords and focus them into their magic abilities to fight the bad guys.

I wanted to make teamwork and creative thinking a part of the game so my friend devised a tactical role-playing combat system kind of like that used in Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, or Final Fantasy Tactics, except a lot simpler. When in combat, the players would use this system and fight with the enemy in-game, while out in the discussion thread or elsewhere they would get together to plan and discuss tactics.

Anyone interested? And anyone have any plot ideas besides the one from the previous game? I'm sort of running dry here.

edited 5th May '13 3:05:46 PM by Parable

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

I'm interested.

Theodore Roosevelt in Magical Girl form.

Oh, and applying an actual combat system to an RP, that's cool too.

I'm interested, too. I'd love to at least think about what I could do with Simo Hayha, as long as we're not getting super realistic.

It's been fun.

Interest, I guess.

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground

Okay, I got it.

Some strange event happened in the far off future of 2014, and that's when girls started finding that could access the powers of the spirits of long dead warriors and warlords. Shortly afterwards though, some of them started disappearing. And those who hadn't had difficulty controlling their magical abilities or freaking out because they had memories of battles and wars they never fought.

So a group of nations founded a floating city to act as a school for magical girls with the hopes that they could be used to benefit their military once they matured.

That's where the game would start, at that school. And all the girls would be doing whatever it is girls with the spirits of famous historical figures do at school. I don't know what that is, but they'd be doing it.

The plot kicks off when some unknown military force suddenly attacks a bunch of places at once. Leading the enemy is the magical girls who disappeared earlier. Since the best way to fight a magical girl is with another one, they players get sent to hot spots around the world, fighting monsters and bad guys and dark magical girls. And when they are not, they are back at school.

Sound good so far?

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

So what about mascots? Going with Hannibal... elephants are kinda big, but since there's MAGIC I guess (s)he can have a teeny one

edited 13th Apr '13 2:15:47 PM by nman

Updated Rules

Character Elements:

These are the stats and attributes which make up your character during combat.

• Level
  • Levels are increased by gaining experience points from battle. The total points required to level up are 2x current character level.
  • Experience points are generated by defeating enemies, and are distributed equally among the participants at the end upon victory.
  • The experience points gain for defeating enemy are equal to their levels.
  • All player characters start at level 3. The maximum level is 10.

• Health
  • Character's health is equal to 2x their character level.

• Attribute
  • Attributes affects HP and movement ranges. Earth, Air and Water are the choices based on the warlord's history. These are:
    • Earth: Default element. 6 movement.
    • Air: 7 movement, ignores Terrain Movement penalties. -20% maximum health (Rounded).
    • Water: 5 movement, +3 movement on Coastal terrain. + 1 Attack roll on Water.

• Weapon Type
  • Long Range: 2-3 hex range. +1 attack roll vs Small Arms, -1 attack roll vs Melee.
  • Small Arms: 1-2 hex range. +1 attack roll vs Melee, -1 attack roll vs Long Range.
  • Melee: 1 hex range. Successful attacks will do +50% Base damage (rounded). +1 attack roll vs Long Range, -1 attack roll vs Small Arms.

• Magic Abilities
  • Magical abilities come in three types:
    • Offensive: Provides a +1 roll to attack damage under specific conditions.
    • Defensive: Applies -1 Damage roll to enemy attack under specific conditions.
    • Utility: Utility abilities provide benefits not related to increasing attack damage or reducing damage taken.
  • A character may choose one new magical ability each time she levels up, but is limited to only one ability of each type until she has chosen one of all three types, then two of all three, and finally three of all three.
  • At level 10:
    • Characters receive Super Ability. Major effect on field. Can only be used once per battle.
    • Character receives Ultimate Ability. Instant battlefield victory. Requires sacrifice of character and creation of new replacement character.

Battle Actions:

Actions are performed in phases during team-based turns. During the player turn, all player characters may act. During the enemy turn, player characters cannot act. A character's actions during a turn are divided into 2 phases.

• Phase 1 Actions
  • Move: Move across the map, up to your maximum movement range, and end the phase.
  • Rest: Recover 10% of your maximum health, rounded up, to a minimum of 1, and ends your turn.
  • Pass: Go the Phase 2.
• Phase 2 Actions
  • Attack: Deal damage to a target enemy and end your turn.
  • Defend: Reduce damage from enemy attacks by 1 until your next turn and ends your turn.
  • Ability: Use an active ability and end your turn, unless otherwise specified.
  • Use Resource Points.
  • Pass: End your turn.
• Talking Is a Free Action. Actions should be contained in spoiler text to easily differentiate them from chatter and flavor text.

• Movement
  • Different terrain conditions can increase or decrease a unit's movement.
  • Entering a hex space with a + or - movement effect from terrain alters a unit's movement for the phase by the given amount.
  • A unit cannot enter a hex with a - movement effect if the amount of the effect reduces them below the minimum movement value to enter that hex. Ex. A unit with 6 maximum movement cannot enter a Hill hex if they have already moved 5 hexes.
  • Water units can move over up to three water tiles per turn without using a movement point.
  • Movement effects from terrain are only applied upon entering the hex, not when starting the turn on the hex.

• Attack Damage
  • Attack Damage is calculated by roll. Roll results are related to your level from a base amount at level 2, and are as follows:
    • 1: Counterattack, target autorolls 3 against attacker.
    • 2: Miss
    • 3: 2 damage to target.
    • 4: 2 damage to target.
    • 5: 3 damage to target.
    • 6: 4 damage to target.
  • At each even numbered level above 2, the damage of each roll result is increased by the following amount. These additions are rounded to the nearest whole number when calculating attack damage:
    • 3: +0.25
    • 4: +0.5
    • 5: +0.75
    • 6: +1
• After Attack damage is done the target has a 50% (Rolls 1,3,5) chance to counterattack with an autoroll 3 if the attacker is in range or autoroll 2 (Rolls 2,4,6). All bonuses apply. Cannot be done if the attacker rolled 1 and was already countered.

Terrain:

Battles are played on a map made up of hexagonal spaces. Terrain is divided into four categories, each with its own subset of different conditions which may help or hinder units when occupying them or traveling across them.

• Grasslands
  • Grass
    • Clear
  • Hills
    • -2 Movement. +1 Attack roll. -1 Damage roll.
  • Woods
    • -1 Movement. -1 Damage roll.
  • Wooded Hills
    • -2 Movement. +1 Attack roll. -2 Damage roll.
  • Marsh
    • -2 Movement. Rest unavailable
  • Swamp
    • -2 Movement. -1 Damage roll. Rest unavailable

• Desert
  • Sand
    • Clear
  • Dunes
    • -1 Movement. +1 Attack roll.
  • Rocky
    • -1 Movement. Rest unavailable.
  • Brush
    • -1 Damage taken.
  • Scrub Hills
    • -2 Movement, -1 Damage roll.
  • Badlands
    • -1 Movement, -1 Damage roll. Rest unavailable.

• Snow
  • Drifts
    • -1 to movement.
  • Muddy
    • -2 to movement. Rest Unavailable. Defend Unavailable.
  • Glacial
    • -1 to Movement, -1 Damage roll. Rest unavailable.

• Coastal: Applies Water bonuses.
  • Beach
    • Clear
  • Sea
    • Only Water or Air can move.

• Other
  • Road
    • Clear
  • Obstruction
    • Only Air can move.

Terrain can be converted to Improved Terrain by the addition of structures. These are:

• Fortification: -2 to attacks rolls against, +1 to attacks roll.
• Field Hospital: 20% health every turn healed, rounded up

Resources

Some battles may include bonus objectives. Bonus objectives are not necessary to winning the battle or completing a mission, but will award Resource Points when completed. Bonus objectives include:

• Capturing structures
• Defeating certain enemies
• Assisting civilians
• Completing timed missions under the time limit.
• Etc.

Completing bonus objectives awards the team with a communal pool of Resource Points which can be used to gain tactical advantages. Points are retained between missions.

• 25 Points
  • Scout
    • The targeted hex adds +1 damage taken for 3 turns.
  • Obscure
    • The targeted hex reduces damage taken by 1 for 3 turns.

• 75 Points
  • Deploy Wall
    • Targeted hex (must be within MG's attack range) becomes Improved Terrain: Wall. Walls are impassible but can be attacked, and have 10 health.
  • Diffused Artillery Strike
    • Deal 1 damage to all units in the targeted hex and all adjacent hexes
  • Focused Artillery Strike
    • Deal 1d6 damage to the target unit
  • Resupply
    • Heal the target by 1dX, where X = the party's level

• 100 Points
  • Reinforce
    • Heal target to full
  • Combat Engineers
    • Add or remove an Improved Terrain feature.
  • Terraform
    • Change the targeted terrain hexes to a type of your choice.
  • Rally
    • Grants all units in the targeted hex and all adjacent hexes +1 to their next roll or -1 to the next roll made against them, whichever comes first.

• 150 Points
  • Revive
    • Brings the last player to be KO's back to life with full health
  • Summon Magical Girl
    • Summons an available ally Magical Girl.

edited 1st Jun '14 10:26:36 AM by Parable

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Much interest. System looks like fun.

Also interest.

"Why does everything have to loop back to YGO?" -Guy who ruined YGO

I actually wanted to ask a few suggestions and recommendations for the system.

The Magic Abilities section is in reference to the section on levelling where you mentioned "one attack, defense, and utility" earlier, correct?

Are fists an appropriate melee weapon?

Is mounted/vehicular combat going to be accounted for? Could it perhaps be an ability that Girls could have?

Are the structures mentioned earlier only able to be either deployed by Engineers and at the beginning of the map, or are there other ways?

I look forward to seeing your Character Creation rules, this looks like a great system! Kinda reminds me of The Battle For Wesnoth, actually.

Yes.

Yes.

In general, the characters fight on foot. Magical Girls who are based on naval officers or aviators (which were labeled as Water and Air above) have a few differences from everyone else, mainly concerning movement.

Air

• All terrain is treated as Clear. Movement ignores terrain penalties. +1 Movement. -2 HP.

Water

• Treats Water as Clear terrain. - 1 Movement. +2 Movement on Water and Beach. +1 to attacks from Water.

Unless the battle specifies another way, they will always be there from the start.

edited 16th Apr '13 4:40:27 PM by Parable

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Yeah, me too. HaNE - EtH!*

The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground

After giving it more thought, I'm gonna have to bow out, folks. Too busy with my own campaigns.

It's been fun.

Interested

Game will be up tomorrow.

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Sign-up is up!

edited 16th Apr '13 12:51:09 PM by Parable

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Discuss our roles in the school, eh?

Well, being 17 and one of the first wave of girls to be brought there would make Giz one of the upperclassmen. One of Alaric's main beefs with Rome was that he thought he should be it supreme military leader, so Giz is really driven to be given a leadership role, but she hasn't really done anything to deserve one. She feels she's being unfairly overlooked because she's not a perfect little barbie doll, and not because she's only a slightly above average student (which she also blames on her teachers not "getting" her).

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

I can see my char in the middle of a bellowing laugh, through I have no idea what she's laughing at, much less why.

So that's what Al will be doing at the game's start -Laugh.

"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself." Albert Camus

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet, Georgia's position as a President would make her an ideal Class President, trying to actually get stuff done and, like Giz, trying to downplay her hotness and up-play(???) her social power through avenues The Presidents of the United States of America haven't written about.

Would a military school even have class presidents? I don't suppose anyone here has actually been to one to be able to give a definitive answer.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

Yes. [1]◊

"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself." Albert Camus

As for Julia, I can see her trying to one up Giz while being very discreet about it. (She IS Julius Caesar after all.)

Uh

The fact that Giz's warlord sacked Julia's warlord's empire after he was long gone would play into that well, too. Giz would be a whole lot less subtle about the rivalry, though.

What matters in this life is much more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. - F. Rogers.

Hmm... And if Georgia becomes Student Council President, well, she already have a second in command in Hope.

What's hilarious is Giz is four years older than Julia. So you have a this barely a teenager constantly trying to one-up an upperclassman and an upperclassman treating her like a twerp.

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim