In a nutshell, L:A’s game system is based on the Zodiac RPG rules. While it may seem sacrilegious to use a Final Fantasy-inspired game system for a LUNAR game, the fact is that most console RPGs have similar mechanics at their core. Therefore, modifying an FF-based system for a LUNAR game is far easier than coming up with an entirely new system from scratch, as those of us who have used/played the Middleground system (MGS) can attest. However, since the system isn’t designed for LUNAR campaigns, I will in effect make a Zodiac/Middleground hybrid (with well over 90% of the rules coming from Zodiac) in order to reflect the different nature of the games.
Character creation is already documented elsewhere, but the main difference is that there will be no blue magic, no use of combat skills, and various spells/status effects/etc. that don’t exist in LUNAR or MGS will not appear here. In addition, instead of having player-generated spells and weapons, they will be GM-generated based on the Middleground spell book and LUNAR lore.
Combat will be where the biggest difference will be in L:A vs. prior MGS games. Whereas MGS used a classic “Everyone gives the GM their actions at the beginning of the round” turn-based system, L:A will use the Zodiac “active-time” system with a few minor tweaks. This eliminates what I felt was one of the most annoying issues with MGS from both a player and GM standpoint: having to wait for a ridiculously long period of time at the beginning of every round for people to get their actions to the GM. Instead, the GM will prod players for their actions during combat as their turns come up. For example:
<GMLou> === BOSS COMBAT! LONG-HAIRED BISHIE! ===
<GMLou> {Hiro's turn...}
<GMLou> <<ooc: waiting for Hiro's action...>>
<GMLou> Hiro casts Poe Sword on Long-Haired Bishie!
<Hiro> Dodge this!
<GMLou> Long-Haired Bishie suffers 523 damage!
<GMLou> Long-Haired Bishie attacks Dominic!
<GMLou> Dominic is hit for 15 damage.
<GMLou> {Mysteal's turn...}
<GMLou> <<ooc: waiting for Mysteal's action...>>
<GMLou> Mysteal attacks Long-Haired Bishie!
<Mysteal> You need a spanking!
<GMLou> Long-Haired Bishie suffers 127 damage!
<GMLou> {Dominic's turn...}
<GMLou> <<ooc: waiting for Dominic's action...>>
<GMLou> Dominic casts Pulse Ray on Long-Haired Bishie!
<Dominic> Every RPG can be beaten by finding the right long-haired
bishie and beating the snot out of him! So here's my
contribution: PULSE RAY!
<GMLou> Long-Haired Bishie suffers 497 damage!
<GMLou> {Mysteal's turn...}
As you can see, “rounds” as they existed in MGS do not appear here (though the system does have the concept of a “round”). This means that players will need to stay alert in order to not miss their turns, but then again, players sometimes fell asleep or flipped to another window or IRC channel while waiting at the beginning of rounds due to boredom. The new system used here should hopefully make combat smoother. It also allows for players to do things such as cast healing spells when they really need them as opposed to waiting for the next round and hoping that the player needing healing isn’t finished off before they can be healed.
Zodiac’s combat rules had a few issues that I felt like needed to be corrected. These issues are addressed here.
Combat actions are done in terms of ticks instead of rounds, and “tick” is a time period within a battle where every player who can act has acted. Depending on the relative speed values of the combat participants, this may result in ticks where only a single fighter gets to act. This is a problem with tick-based status effects, like Poison, where it would be possible for the poison victim to be dealt poison damage multiple times while only having acted once during the time period. This seemed horribly broken, so status effects that are tick-based in Zodiac shall be action-based in L:A. For example, a poisoned fighter will take poison damage immediately after his/her/its action. Slower characters will then be affected by poison more slowly than fast characters, but I feel this adds a touch of realism as generally moving quickly is a great way to speed up the process of real life poisons spreading throughout your body.
The next is an issue of personal taste, but I’m adding a touch more randomness to the various combat calculations. This is because your general purpose attack spells will always end in the same digit and healing spells will always heal exactly the same amount, depending on the character’s magic stats and the spell’s level. My slight modification makes it feel more like a “real” console RPG by randomly adding or subtracting up to 10 points from the final calculation using a process that, on average, will result in the same value as if the randomness did not exist. If you’re interested in what this process is, feel free to ask me on IRC or IM (it’s really quite simple, but does not need to be here).
Anyway, that should cover the major differences in game mechanics between L:A and previous MGS-based games. However, this page may be updated if other issues crop up as characters are created and game-time decisions are made to reflects broken-things that I did not foresee.