Okay, now while many of you are experienced veterans of IRC RPGs, Project Apocalypse introduces a lot of new concepts into the IRC RPG mix, specifically in the area of battles and magic. The whole point of this guide is to explain those differences to you so you know what the heck the GMs are doing. In this guide you will notice some strange notation that I came up with mostly to deal with my own record-keeping. However, as you'll be seeing this notation in your stat sheets, you deserve to know what it means.
Project Apocalypse's battle and magic system based on the Hahnian system that has become the staple of nearly all IRC GMs that I know of. However, there are a few changes I made to the system. Part of them were to make it a bit more balanced (and avoid the problem of the character that is invincible unless you use attacks that would utterly decimate the entire party), and the rest were to make things more interesting. If you got a PA character generation sheet (and you should if you're reading this page for reasons other than curiosity), you already know about the changes to your base stats that I made. Anyway, here are the additions and deletions I made.
"Combos" will not be in PA, basically because they are just a pain in the butt for me to calculate. It takes a least twice as long for me to calculate a combo as it does for me to calculate an individual attack. Not only that, but combos being discovered in the midst of battle could lead to unwelcome results from my standpoint (like the 2-round boss phenomenon).
I don't think there is a standard system for determining how much damage spells do. Sure, there is a basic equation for elemental magic, but beyond that each GM creates his own. I have tried several equations in ASF, and I either have the problem of too little damage or too much damage. Given the choice, I would rather go with abnormally high damage counts should that happen as I once again tweak the equations for PA. In short, don't be surprised if you're fighting a boss and taking off 6,000 HP a hit. This will be compensated for by giving said boss 6 billion HP or something like that. Have fun. :)
Ahh yes, those wonderful Mana Eggs. Inspired by the ones in Grandia, my version of Mana Eggs work a little differently. Mana Eggs were/are created by mages in order to let those unable to use magic have some access to the art of sorcery. Modern mages produce base elemental Mana Eggs for profit, but the great mages of long ago, from the time of the Founders, have hidden various legendary magics in these eggs and it's up to you to find them! Mana Eggs not only contain invidual spells with in them, but they may allow you to summon beings to your side, whether they are powerful creatures or allies/enemies of the Founders. Now that you know where Mana Eggs come from, here's how they work. Unlike in Grandia, you can purchase Mana Eggs at magic shops. (In fact, Mana Eggs are the principal export of Savanti). However, as hinted to earlier, you'd only get basic elemental eggs there -- for anything fancier (like the Mana Egg of the Sacred Carrot of All Power), you'll need to find them while wandering around. If you're not sure what element a Mana Egg is, its color should be a hint. Also, unlike Grandia, Mana Eggs don't gain levels as you use them. In fact, they don't gain levels at all (with one exception) -- if you want a more powerful Fire Mana, for example, you need to buy one at a shop. This also makes them different from FF7's Materia (to which they also bear a superficial resemblance), although PA's Mana Eggs can be equipped on weapons and combined with each other (depending on the eggs) to give new effects to both the weapons and the spells. Now, how do you know what level spell you're getting with a Mana Egg? You'll find that out in the "After the Fight" section below.
One problem with the limits I placed on base stats for your characters is that it may not differentiate player classes well enough. You could have a swordsman whose magic is just as powerful as a wizards, albeit he has fewer spells. That's where the PS4-esque special skills come in. These skills don't use SP (Skill Points), and they allow for differentiation. For example, a true wizard's Special Skills, if they are magic-based (and what kind of wizard would have advanced weapon skills?), would be more powerful than said swordsman's special skills. You can level these up using MXP, and they can only be restored by something along the lines of spending a night in an inn.
Throughout the earlier stages of the game, you'll find various Founders' Crests. The Founders lived on the world of Mirzha in an age long since past. Some of them were exceptional humans from a lost civilization that vanished ages ago. Others were mythical beings that existed before any civilzations were on the planet. Whoever they were, they were dedicated to protecting all life on Teranova from any threats it may face. Even though they are now gone, nine of the most powerful of the Founders left behind crests that can be used to summon their spirits from the realm of the dead and assist the defenders of the planet. Each of these Founders had a particular element that their attacks were attuned to. The nine elements of the Founders' Crests are: Darkness, Fire, Wind, Thunder, Light, Plant, Water/Ice, Earth, and Holy. However, while these are the elements of the Founders' Crests, you may find that there are non-crest summon spells for the other elements (Gravity, Mecha, Unholy). However, you may find many of these spells in the hands of your enemies... You can only summon a Founder a limited number of times, and this number only resets after spending the night at an inn or regaining strength in a similar fashion (yes, if you blew all your summonings in one battle, you'll have no more summonings until you hit an inn), unless you've "mastered" the crests or a special event occurs to allow you to summon again. Founder Crests can be levelled up by being equipped during battle. SXP, or Summon eXperience Points, and the actual levelling process will be explained later.
Battles are battles. You wait your turn in each round. You get bapped. You cast a spell, use a skill, attack, or summon. You live or die. Case closed.
Okay, you won a fight and got a ton of Cira (that's our unit of money), XP, MXP, and SXP. What are you going to do now? (If you say "Go to Disneyworld," may you be mistaken for a barf bag by a bulemic camel). XP and money are straight forward. You gain levels and buy stuff. However, money, as well as MXP and SXP, can be used to power up your magic.
This is pretty straight forward. You have a wimpy Fire Mana, you want a hotter one. What do you do? Sell the old one and buy a new one. Now, how do you tell what you're paying for. Well, next to each Mana Egg you'll find a level number. Here's the format:
Fire Mana - LV 1.1 - *Enables Fire Dart
What does that "1.1" mean? It means "Spell Group 1, Level 1," which in this case is Fire Dart, the first Fire spell. By this system, LV 1.3 would be Fire Soul, the most powerful single-enemy Fire spell, and LV 4.1 would be Fire Shield (formerly known in other RPGs as Fire Soul). Hopefully this is all clear to you. Anyway, at any good magic shop you should be able to find several varieties of Mana at several levels for you to choose from. Oh, and you can sell your old Mana Eggs too.
These are easy to figure out. Pump MXP into your skill group, and if you have enough, you'll get either an extra cast or a new skill (up to 3 casts per skill and 5 skills total until mastery), depending on your choice. It's fairly similar to how you level up regular magic. Finally, if you have all 5 skills and 3 casts per group, you've mastered that skill type and you can go back and selectively pick and choose groups you'd like to add casts too. 'Nuff said.
This is the trickiest and most complicated thing to figure out how to level in the game. Basically, Summon Crests use a "pyramid-based" level scheme where they gain levels as they gain SXP. Here's my best attempt and showing it "graphically":
1.0 -> 1.1 =>
2.0 -> 2.1 -> 2.2 =>
3.0 -> 3.1 -> 3.2 -> 3.3 =>
4.0 -> 4.1 -> 4.2 -> 4.3 -> 4.4 =>
5.0 -> 5.1 -> 5.2 -> 5.3 -> 5.4 -> 5.5 =>
MASTERY
Clear as cyrstal, right? I didn't think so, probably because of the notation. Basically, the number before the decimal point is the number of the spell the Founder is going to cast. Each Founder has 5 spells which increase in power and scope from 1 to 5. The number after the decimal point determines how much further you have to go for the Founder to use his/her next spell. When the numbers are equal, that means you only need one more level for the Founder to move on to the next spell. It also is a shorthand way of saying "Add 1 to the number before the decimal point for the total number of summons you may use." (Don't worry though as your stat sheets will have a deciated tally of summons). Is this clear to you? If not, well, it was meant to be a way for me to easily figure out how to level up the summon crests. You don't need to fully understand it, but I put this here so that you'll know what "Fire Summon level 4.3" on your stat sheet means.
I essentially use the 8 basic Hahnian elements in PA, however it's been expanded to include 4 "extended" elements. Not only that, but Ice is treated as a special case of Water instead of being equivilent to water.
Here you go, in tabular form! Enjoy!
| Thunder | Critically strong against Water/Ice and Mecha (short circuits machines). Critically weak against Plant (I have no idea why). |
| Water | Critically strong against Fire. Useless against Ice. Immune to Ice. Critically weak against Thunder. |
| Fire | Critically strong against Air. Critically weak against Water. Critically strong attacking Ice (melts it), weak defening Ice (extinguishes it like Water). |
| Air | Critically strong against Earth. Critically weak against Fire. |
| Earth | Critically strong against Light. Critically weak against Air. |
| Light | Critically strong against Darkness. Critically weak against Earth. |
| Darkness | Critically strong against Plant. Critically weak against Light. |
| Plant | Critically strong against Thunder. Critically weak against Darkness. |
| Ice | Critically strong attacking Fire. Critically weak against Thunder (always). Critically weak defending Fire. |
As you can see, Ice is a special case of Water. However, if you're just tossing up Ice spells and aren't concerned with using Ice defenses, you can treat it just like Water.
Okay, now that we've seen the basic elements, I now present my
extended elements. These elements don't follow the same rules of
balance as the basic ones, hence they are classified separately. Also,
you can't use any of these elements (with the exception of Gravity) as
any of your main spell groups - you'll have to find Mana Eggs or
Founder Crests to use them. Still, you should know what you're dealing
with and how to cope with it whether or not it follows the rules:
| Holy | Critically strong against Unholy. No weaknesses, but may be expensive to cast. |
| Unholy | Critically weak against Holy. Fairly inexpensive to cast (compared to Holy), but the caster has to be prepared to accept the consequences of dealing with the Unholy. |
| Gravity | Critically strong against Mecha (machines are heavy). Neutral against everything else and does not provide any elemental shielding. |
| Mecha | Mecha-aligned beings are critically weak against Thunder and Gravity, although some forms of Mecha skills are able to shield. Can generally only be cast by machines and mechanical beings. Can also by cast via mechanical devices such as those employed by Technomages. |
The last thing in this guide is a list of all the possible status effects you may suffer, and the items you need to cure them. Also included are the HP and TP restoring items. Other accessories are not listed - you'll have to find them on your own.
| Poison | Slow drain of HP, increasing every round. Can be cured by appropriate magic, Poison Balm, or Medicine. |
| Daze | Attack random target with random action, including usage of magic. Can be cured by being hit, Smelling Salts, Medicine, or appropriate magic. |
| Dead | Duh. Can be restored via appropriate magic or by Life Essence. If char is an android, can only be restored via Repair Kit. |
| Sleep | Unable to perform any actions and take double damage on hits. Can be cured by being hit, Smelling Salts, appropriate magic, or Medicine. |
| Mute | Cannot use any SP-requiring skills (including summons), but can still use special skills. Can be cured by appropriate magic, Lozenges, or Medicine. |
| Blind | Hit% and Dod% are reduced in half. Can be cured by Eye Drops, Medicine, or appropriate magic. |
| Stone | Character is turned to stone. Similar to being dead, however it can be cured in more ways. Can be cured by appropriate magic, Medicine, or Gargoyle Powder. |
| Paralyze | Character is unable to act. Can be cured by appropriate magic, Medicine, or Sacred Incense. |
| Chicken | Character is turned into a chicken. All stats reduced to base w/o equipped items. Can be cured by Tamago, Medicine, or appropriate magic. |
| Enraged | Doubles damage at the cost of 1/2 Hit%. Can be cured by Calm Herb, Medicine, or appropriate magic. |
| Depressed | Halves damage but increases Def by 25%. Can be cured by Joyous Fruit, Medicine, or appropriate magic. |
| Psycho | Character keeps on attacking enemy w/o control. Can be cured by Medicine, appropriate magic, or Sanity Nut. |
| Drained | Character's SP is slowly drained away ala HP w/ Poison. Can be cured by appropriate magic, Medicine, or Vigor Seed. |
| Possessed | Character is controlled by enemy. Can be cured by appropriate magic, Medicine, or Holy Water. |
-Poison Balm - 1A: Cures POISON
-Smelling Salts - 1A: Cures SLEEP and DAZE
-Life Essence - 1A: Cures DEAD for non-androids
-Repair Kit - 1A: Cures DEAD for androids and restores max HP
-Lozenge - 1A: Cures MUTE
-Eye Drops - 1A: Cures BLIND
-Gargoyle Powder - 1A: Cures STONE
-Sacred Incense - 1A: Cures PARALYZE
-Tamago - 1A: Cures CHICKEN
-Calm Herb - 1A: Cures ENRAGED
-Joyous Fruit - 1A: Cures DEPRESSED
-Sanity Nut - 1A: Cures PSYCHO
-Vigor Seed - 1A: Cures DRAINED
-Holy Water - 1A: Cures POSSESSED
-Medicine - 1A: Cures all status effects except for DEAD
-Lunar Mist - 1A: Restores 30 SP
-Solar Mist - 1A: Restores full SP
-Stellar Mist - AA: Restores full SP
-Mountain Dew - 1A: Restores 50 HP
-Lunar Dew - 1A: Restores full HP
-Solar Dew - AA: Restores 50 HP
-Stellar Dew - AA: Restores full HP
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