Suikoden Tabletop [FFG Genesys Hack]

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bismuth
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 3:16 am

Suikoden Tabletop [FFG Genesys Hack]

Post by bismuth »

Ever wanted to run a Suikoden tabletop, but struggled to translate the system to a suitable dice format?
Good, 'cause 1) same, 2) I've done some of the work for you!

I've used Fantasy Flight Games' new Genesys system (https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/n ... 7/genesys/) as a base, and developed a system that captures a lot of the feel of the Suikoden universe, while making some useful concessions to tabletop mechanics. In particular, the systems gives players more control over how their character develops.

This system is currently a Work In Progress - it's being built while I run a campaign set in the Suikoden world, and constantly being refined. I feel like it's reached a stage where there is sufficient data to start showing it to people and see what they think! Feel free to take a look, and see what's on offer (and throw any questions in this thread; I'm excited to share the possibility of a Suikoden tabletop experience with other fans!)

Current Genesys: Suikoden documents are located in the following GDrive folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10QYRd ... mBpng1fmR6

Key Elements from the games
Individual Weapons: When you create a character, the Career you choose for them will determine the options available for their weapon (and you will receive a Level 1 Weapon at this time. Weapons can be upgraded at a Blacksmith up to Level 5 (a more truncated version to match the scales of the system), with players able to choose from a list of modifiers that can be applied with each level increase.
Armour and Accessory slots: Characters have the ability to equip armour (the types they can equip are based on their Career), and up to two accessories or items. Like with the Suikoden games, you can choose to fill thse slots with accessories to boost your abilities, or items that you can use in the middle of battle.
Rune Slots: Characters have three rune slots, starting with the Right Hand slot and unlocking the others through specific advancements in their Careers -- although very few Careers gain access to the Forehead slot, most gain access to the Left Hand. Some Careers also permanently lock a Rune to a certain Rune Slot.
Weapons also have a single Rune Slot where certain runes can be attached.
Spell Points: Rune Magic still uses Spell Points - at character creation, you determine your starting Spell Points based on your Intellect characteristic, then upgrade them further with Career advancements.
Magic, Command, Effect, and Weapon Runes: All sorts of runes can be equipped to your character or their weapon, and will give players access to spell lists, special moves, special effects, or alter the weapon's potency. The Runes and Spell Lists folder has 96 Rune cards already completed, showing a wide range of effects.

New Elements for the tabletop
Tracked Inventory: Rather than a hard limit on the number of items a party can carry, the Encumbrance mechanic from Genesys is used more
Species and Star of Destiny Talents: To help make the differences between the various species of the Suikoden world more defined, each species gets a free rank in one of two skills at character creation, along with a Talent unique to that species. For example, Humans gain the ability to shift one Story Point per session from the GM's pool to the players', while Winged Horde characters gain the ability to dodge damaging effects from Earth-type runes.
Weapon Swapping: While most characters will only need the one weapon (and will benefit from upgrading it fully), many Careers offer the chance to pick up an additional weapon, letting players shift between styles of attack if it benefits them.
Armour Upgrading: Rather than forcing players to pick up and discard armour constantly, players also receive basic armour at character creation, which can be upgraded in a similar fashion to weapons. Each piece Armour can be upgraded to Level 5, and has a list of modifiers that can be applied with each level increase.
Field Spells: Attack spells are great in combat, but a good tabletop game thrives on a variety of activities that a JRPG system can't easily replicate. To that end, most Magic Runes now have two lists of spells: one for combat purposes, and one for general utility. These "Field" spells run off of a different Skill to combat casting, and tend to be quite long-lasting. The Fire Rune, for example, lets players build campfires, change the temperature, and even power a forge for a while (which is especially helpful when you have a Blacksmith in the party!)
Runic Talents: Some Magic Runes aren't suited to having complex field effects - for these runes, there are instead Runic Talents attached to them. These Talents become active once a particular skill reaches a certain rank, and can provide additional benefits in combat or in other areas. This also lets classes that don't have strong magic skills benefit from Magic Runes in other ways. For example, the Shield Rune gives its user the ability to summon a shield that gets stronger as their Resilience skill increases, eventually allowing them to make it harder for enemies to use magic against them.
Flat Counter Rates: Rather than introducing a complex stat check for Counter attacks, players now get to Counter an attack if the enemy generates three Threats on a successful attack roll - although some Career advancements and Runes can change that number.

Upcoming Info
Star of Destiny Details: I have completed a few Star of Destiny talents already, but I'm going to get up to at least 27 before I post the list for people to view
More Careers: The Careers posted up now are the ones being used in the current campaign, but I want to make more! Please feel free to suggest specific things you'd like to see.
Pale Gate Rune: The Pale Gate Rune's ability to summon creatures doesn't really work as a one-off attack in a tabletop system, so I'm designing some basic rules for how the Summoned Creatures work, how long they last, and what risks they carry. It should make for a fun addition to battles, that befits a rare and powerful Rune that only trained mages can use.
True Rune Rules: True Runes get special bonuses outside of just the usual magic attached to them - I'm finalising the details of how that works, and will put up some examples in time! This includes a special weapon card for the Star Dragon Sword.
bismuth
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 3:16 am

Re: Suikoden Tabletop [FFG Genesys Hack]

Post by bismuth »

(Wow okay it took a while to get back to this - sorry!)
Let's talk some basics of the system:

Characteristics and Skills
The dice you roll in Genesys are determined by a combination of your relevant Skill and its guiding Characteristic - these are marked on the Character Sheet in brackets next to the Skill itself. You roll a number of green "Ability" dice based on the larger of your Skill or Characteristic value, and replace green dice with yellow "Proficiency" dice based on the smaller value.

For example, if you have an Agililty Characteristic of 3, and a Coordination Skill of 2, you would roll a total of 3 dice total (because of your Agility), of which 1 would be a green Ability dice and 2 would be yellow Proficiency dice (because of your Coordination)

Difficulty is treated in a similar fashion - you add purple "Difficulty" dice based on the task (1 = Easy, 2 = Medium, 3 = Hard, 4 = Daunting, 5 = Formidable), and replace a purple dice with a red "Challenge" dice if there's an element of danger or heightened risk.

You can also add blue "Boost" dice for where a character has an advantage, and black "Setback" dice for where a character has a disadvantage (and these are not mutually exclusive)

You add up the total number of Successes from green/yellow/blue dice, and subtract Failures from purple/red/black dice - if you have at least one Success, you pass the check
You then add up the total number of Advantages from green/yellow/blue dice, and subtract Threats from purple/red/black dice - if you have at least one Advantage, something about the situation works in your favour

There are also things called Triumphs and Despairs, which are only on the yellow and red dice respectively. These can cause a lot of wild effects, and don't cancel each other out the same way -- you might Triumph-antly inflict a Critical Injury on an enemy while at the same time running out of ammo due to the Despair

(I'll be adding more information about rules as I go, but suffice to say that covers most of the basics - the use of Advantages in particular during combat is a whole topic unto itself)

Character Creation
A character is made through three key decisions at the start of the game - Species, Career, and for Suikoden, the Star of Destiny.

Your Species choice determines what your initial Characteristic scores are, what your starting Wound and Strain thresholds are, your starting XP to spend, and gives you a single rank in a Skill and a special Species-exclusive Talent. The current list of Species and their attributes is located here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uuSYV ... 5HpgUFk4B-

Your Career determines your Career Skills (which not only cost less to advance, but in this game can be advanced past Rank 1 without someone to train you), your starting Weapon and Armour proficiencies, and starting potch. A Career also gives you a tree of 25 Talents, which provide a variety of effects that enhance your character as you progress - from increasing Wound or Strain threshold or Physical or Magical Soak, giving you bonus Boost dice or removing Setback dice from specific actions, or giving you special actions and maneuvers you can take, Talents are the main source of "flavour" for each character.
Currently I have only made 4 Career trees, as they're a bit more labour-intensive than any other part, but I'll also be creating a full Talent guide that can help GMs build their own trees if they desire (plus I'll be uploading 4 new trees in the next few weeks)

Your Star of Destiny is effectively an add-on to your Species; it gives you a single rank in a Skill and a special Star-exclusive Talent. For Stars of Heaven, these tend to use up Story Points but have dramatic effect. For Stars of Earth, the plan is that they will have less extreme effects that cost less to activate. Currently I have completed the first 24 Stars of Heaven, which can be found here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mprJ5 ... BlAgJkKowt
Nyarly Thotep
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 9:17 am

Re: Suikoden Tabletop [FFG Genesys Hack]

Post by Nyarly Thotep »

This is rather interesting, I did not expect the system to be so much fun. I can't wait to see more.

I would suggest allowing the use of higher level slot for lower level spell.
I would also suggest you use Suilkoden Tactics as inspiration for weapon runes, it's great way to let warriors do something with their rune points without equipping a spell rune.

By the way, you did amazing job on the spell cards, they look very pretty.
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