Scott's Design Journal
From Full Metal Alchemist d20
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Growing as a Community
16 Feb 2006
It's a sign of how regular work on the game has become that it's no longer worth journalling about every change I make; the Special:Recentchanges page does that amply. So now I get to talk about the bigger picture. In the last few days the bigger picture has been the community. We've gotten a few more regular contributors (hello, user:IceAlchemist and user:thecomicman!), and the whole thing is coming together enough that I'm starting to think about shopping it out to publishers and looking into licensing.
- I've locked the wiki down so that page edits are restricted to logged-in users. "Talk" pages are still open. This might be more proactive than necessary, but if we publicize this even once it'll start to be worth it. You can block and ban registered users more easily than you can block IP addresses. We're still allowing free logins, so a griefer could keep switching to new accounts, but that's much more of a process than just switching IPs.
- I've made a Project:Copyrights page and put a request on the Project:Community Portal page to read it. New users will hopefully understand that this may eventually be published and who knows what will happen to authorship rights then. I need to check this with someone who knows IP law.
- I'm really pleased to see the different growth in the wiki now that it's not just a couple of united minds. A mistake I made was caught out-- I intended the homunculus abilities to be restricted to the Red Stone Prestige Class, but had already started to put them under the Homunculus race. I'm still not sure how to resolve that, but it was caught! Excellent!
Crunching the Numbers
04 Feb 2006
It's been a while since I've updated this journal, which might make it seem like I'm not doing much. Not so! This journal is good for thinking things through, and when something is clear I don't have much to write about. These are some questions that have come up that I need to have other people check, though.
- default time for drawing a transmutation circle: full action or standard action? I think a full-round action is best, but that makes 'circle-free alchemy' extremely powerful, because it essentially turns a full-round action into a free action. But this will help keep d20 magic and alchemy closer.
- Should circle-free alchemy tire or tax the character that uses it? Perhaps that's one way to limit its scope, to use a fortitude save against some DC based on the transmutation or take temporary constitution damage. The idea is that since the character is using their body as the transmutation circle, it taxes their body.
Googling FMA RPG
03 Feb 2006
I googled FMA RPG and some other phrases today to see first of all whether other people are pre-empting me on this, and secondly whether there are any good ideas out there. The answers are "no" and "yes." I found:
- FMA WarCry (http://fma.warcry.com/) - part of a network usually focused around MMORPGs, but with a decent FMA site.
- MSN Groups RPG (http://groups.msn.com/FullMetalAlchemistRPG) - a forum-based RPG I can't get into with Safari
- Full metal Alchemist the RPG (http://p201.ezboard.com/bfullmetalalchemisttherpg) - terrible site design, but it looks like a really good forum-based RPG with moderators who know what they're talking about (http://p201.ezboard.com/ffullmetalalchemisttherpgfrm9.showMessage?topicID=2.topic).
Reading The Forge
20 Nov 2005
I've started reading through The Forge (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/) and taking notes. I'm mostly new to game design, and that site has a lot of experience. Some things I especially want to go back and look at:
- Write a narrative first (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=1896.0)
- Articles on Game Design (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/)
- WotC articles on Game Design (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/main.asp?x=dnd/features,3)
Meeting with Eric & Ruby
14 Nov 2005
Bringing It Together
07 Nov 2005
It's been a while since I've done much content-work on this project. I've been setting up the wiki, going through the anime and the manga to take notes, and corresponding with people, but not much for the actual project. I think the next step is to hash out the basics of the mechanics with the others who may have some input, and then to pursue that plan. Here goes.
I want d20 to form the underpinnings of the system. It's a blend of fantasy and modern, and then there's a completely new magic system laid on top of it.
Character Creation: Somewhere between d20 Modern and OGL Steampunk. I like the flexibility of Classes that align to basic stats followed by Vocations which specify what D&D 3rd Ed. calls 'class progression'. I think that's the quickest and most flexible way to set up a range of professions which map neatly onto neither D&D's fantasy-bound cleric-mage-fighter-rogue set nor onto Ars Magica's mage-page-grunt division. Brainstorming on vocations: alchemist, state alchemist (as prestige vocation/class? how does that work?), doctor, automail engineer (better name?), soldier, intelligence officer, priest... this is the weakest section, in my mind... I don't have any real experience with d20 Modern, so it could be crap for all I know.
Feats: I like the way that Feats work in D&D 3rd Ed. as 'exceptions to the rules'. They serve as one-off exemptions to basic limitations (ambidexterity exempts you from the penalties for offhand weapons) and as gateways to further abilities (craft x feats which let you make magic items). In D&D what sets the PCs apart from the rabble (er, NPC classes) are by-and-large their feats. Similarly, what sets FMA's main characters apart from the bit characters are the things that make them exeptional-- the ability to perform alchemy without a circle, the ability to craft automail, tattoos that infer unusual powers.
Skills: I think that this is where Ars Magica comes in and helps set up alchemy. There are skills for the parts of the alchemical process (decomposition, transfiguration, composition) and skills for types of materials. Various feats (need another term there) of alchemy have different difficulty classes (DC), and the combined scores in the appropriate skills determine how well the character accomplishes the goal. This is not a binary system, though-- the GM should be encouraged to scale the success to the roll, and the way that d20 pits a roll against a built-up DC is perfect for this. The flexibility is also key-- this system can allow for pre-calculated (and bonus-ridden) alchemical rituals, but also facilitates the ad-libbing "ahn, give me a roll" that will make in-combat spontaneous alchemy possible.
Technology: There should be a healthy section dedicated to the time period. FMA borders on steampunk... it's early 20th cent. technology, with trains, basic guns, and telephones; but we don't see any flying machines, and notably none of the more ridiculous steampunk flying machines you get in Miyazaki, et. al. At the same time, it's implied that people have or are leaning on alchemy a little at the cost of science. The military employs alchemists rather than mad scientists to create their super-soldiers, and the libraries are full of alchemical tomes rather than research toward nerve gas and more powerful explosives.
Equipment: Per the technology section, we'll need rules for guns, trains, and medicine as well as swords, polearms, armor, and the rest. d20 Modern or OGL Steampunk may be assets for this. There will also need to be a substantial section on automail.
Magic: Obviously, this will be the section where we flesh out alchemy. I don't figure that much of anything will be brought over from D&D. This might better be set up in the form Ars Magica follows: basically a descriptive and abstract section followed by extremely substantial skill descriptions and then rules for combining them and examples.
Creatures: Think templates. I don't know, once the rest is together, this will fall into place I think.
Okay, that's all I have time for and I think it covers the bases. What do you think about this?
Nouns
11 Mar 2005
Oh, we talked about nouns tonight, Pete and I, but were only left with more questions. What are the nouns in FMA alchemy? What are the base materials?
In Ars Magica, the base categories which one may have facility with are based on the classical elements-- earth, air, fire, water, plus three 'life' categories for plant, animal and human, a category for mind and a category for raw magic. The world of FMA, however, has moved well beyond that to a conception of more modern elements. Ed talks about the human body being composed of nitrogen, carbon, etc. But we're not going to have ranks in Ytterbium, or Helium! Goodness!
I think the answer lies in taking AM's approach rather than content. FMA uses roughly 1930s-level technology: simple cars, trains, radios. And the errant refrigeration truck, but excusing that, it's 1930s-era. So what was the conception of the fundamental units of matter in the 1930s? Mendeleev had laid out the periodic table by 1870, and by 1904 Marie Curie had even added Radium to the table. Yet FMA is not our world, and in practical terms the characters seem to specialize in groups of materials-- flame (gasses), metals, stone, living bodies. I'm not sure whether electricity is in there or not. So it looks like there are other categories, but what sort of system do they fall into? It's beyond me for the moment.
Verbs
11 Mar 2005
In the journal entry before last, I spent some time thinking about how to adapt the Ars Magica forms and techniques to FMA, and concluded that the fit isn't great. FMA is disinterested in the human mind beyond the spirit; true creation and destruction are impossible; the hermetic elements don't map onto 1930s-era pseudo-science.
Nevertheless, the AM system appeals because of its spontaneous flexibility, its basis in alchemy, and its accomodation for 'material specialization'. So what are the verbs and nouns in alchemy?
One possibility is to divide the verbs up into the steps of the alchemical process: decomposition, recombination, and composition. Laid on top of the d20 skill system, though, I wonder why anyone would ever assign different ranks to the three steps. To do successful alchemy, you need all three.
There are characters in FMA who specialize in different steps of the process. Scar's tatoo facilitates decomposition alone. Most of the sins would seem to specialize in one or another, depending on whether you see their transformations as incorporating any (de)composition. Gluttony presumably decomposes; Greed recombines himself to isolate metals; Sloth recombines herself into a liquid; wrath and lust are facile with recombining portions of their surfaces. Pride is a bit more difficult, as his eye is the one case of perception-magic in the entire story.
What does it mean to have a high score in some of the steps but not in others? A high decomposition score would seem to translate into greater quantity of decomposed material-- remember the impressive scale of the student's transmutation in the State Alchemist exam. Then again, perhaps a high score makes for the ability to decompose more complex objects. That works better on the composition end-- it takes more skill to compose a radio than a small metal statue of a horse.
And, then, what does a high recombination score get you? Ah-- that works well as a place to put the issue of complexity. Composition and decomposition apply to scale or speed; complexity is determined by your skill at manipulating the raw elements between the other steps.
That allows for more of what the show presents. An alchemist might be poor at decomposition and composition, only able to manipulate masses much smaller than that of a person's body-- but their skill with recombination allows them to arrange the trace elements in a human to produce a precisely timed explosive reaction. Or an alchemist has little talent for decomposing or recombining, but can take the relatively homogenous desert sand and sculpt a massive hill or wall out of it.
Getting Religion
20 Feb 2005
Listening to the soundtrack, I just heard the theme that plays when all the Leto stuff is going on. Time to toss in placeholders for the two religions from the anime, the sun worship of Leto and the more Christianity-like Ishbala.
Arts
3 Feb 2005
I can picture two ways of working the Forms + Techniques magic system. The first is to cull the Ars Magica arts according to the FMA setting. That would mean:
Techniques
- Creo, I create - On the one hand, this is explicitly impossible in FMA due to the principle of equivalent trade. On the other hand, this is most like the "composition" step of the alchemical process. It also includes healing and other mending such as we see in the series.
- Intellego, I perceive - There is no mention of scrying or illusion in FMA beyond the varied appearances of the homunculi, and that is implied to be a physical change rather than illusory. Done.
- Muto, I transform - This seems like the second and third steps of alchemy, or more generally, alchemy itself.
- Perdo, I destroy - This is much like the decomposition step of alchemy. Though in Ars Magica this has a broader scope to it (all things pass, perdo merely hastens the natural process), that metaphysical aspect is missing in FMA.
- Rego, I control - I'm not sure about this one. We don't see mental or physical compulsion in FMA.
Forms
- Animal, animal - This translates fairly well... how else would you create a chimaera?
- Aquam, water - Auram, air - Ignem, fire - Terram, earth - FMA works with the modern notion of elements, so these don't entirely apply. One controls the process of elemental assembly, not the expression of these primal four elements.
- Corpus, body - Ah, the life-sewing alchemist had a high score here, didn't you Shou Tucker?
- Herbam, plant - There are so few plants in FMA that you might imagine that the artists didn't like drawing them. Do Ed and Al ever manipulate plants?
- Imaginem, image - completely absent from FMA.
- Mentem , mind - No compulsion in FMA.
- Vim, power - I think that this maps moderately well onto the workings of tehpower of alchemy, of the power of the red water and red stones and the Philosopher's Stone. There are variations, but it's not far off.
That doesn't map too well, honestly. Based on that quick survey, I thought of another way to do it: have scores in composition, transmutation, and composition (or combine the latter two). Then have the abbreviated list of materials that one can be better or worse at manipulating: gas, liquid, solid (auram, aquam, terram) as well as animal, corpus, and the forbidden vim. Separating out the steps of alchemy would be more complex than necessary much of the time, but would allow for things like Scar's tattoo, which enables decomposition but not composition. It might be better to set that up as a feat or exception, however.
That's enough for tonight.
A Word About Adaptation
2 Feb 2005 Yes, it is the night before my D&D game and I should be planning it out or sleeping. But I don't feel well and can't sleep and have this on my mind.
This can't be a loyal adaptation of Ars Magica. For one thing, Ars Magica contains kinds of magic that would unbalance FMA. This is taking me some time to get used to: one reason to throw D&D magic out the window and start over is because something as simple as a Summon Monster I spell would utterly destroy the FMA setting. The obstacles that the characters face are, like in any good story or game, things that they can't (yet) do. The struggles define the characters and hence the narrative. The most explicit example is that the impetus behind Ed and Al's journey and education is to circumvent the law that one cannot perform magic that resurrects the dead. If they had a mage down the road that they could sell themselves to in return for a Resurrection or even Speak with Dead spell, the story would have ended in the prologue.
So that means that we'll probably need to chop out about half of the Ars Magica Arts at the very least, and we might have to go as far as to adapt little more than the mechanic Technique + Form + Casting Mode and totally revise the forms and techniques themselves.
Though it could be a completely loyal adaptation of FMA, it shouldn't be that either. Role-playing games are about crafting your own stories, and if you stick only to canon you won't have much creative room for the DM or the players. I feel this need most clearly in the desire to write this supplement: the FMA begs the reader to fill in the gaps not only in the narrative events, but in the setting. What is the rest of East City like? How does an average Joe get to be Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist? How is the suppression of the Ishbalan faith like or unlike events in our history? (Or, less pretentiously, how does it feel to be Ishbalan?)
I twitch at mucking with canon because it's messing with the building blocks of a structure I find really appealing. To keep this adaptation from being the extension with vinyl siding on the gothic cathedral of FMA, the trick will be to find ways to encourage extension in keeping with canon. The trick will be to step back and figure out not only what's cool, like Roy's snappy flame throwing, but why it's cool, and to make the mechanics encourage that sort of thinking. So rather than say "here are the powers a homunculus can have" or, conversely, "and then give the homunculus a cool power that violates a couple of basic rules on a personal level", say "Homunculi derive their power from their exceptional status; they do things that are inhuman because they are not quite human. Each homunculus has developed a power like those below that violates human limits on a personal level. For most homunculi that power is related to the event that formed them, and they use it because it connects them to the human piece of themselves."
Brainstorming Chapters
Then I brainstormed a bunch of things that ought to be sections of the setting guide/site/whathaveyou:
- Spoiler Warning
- Setting time -- world-shaking revelations are afoot in the anime and manga. The GM should choos on which side of the series (or manga) the game takes place. Things that change, drastically, over the course of the series include the corruption of the military, the overthrow of the fuhrer, whether the Elric brothers are present and prominent, invasion of the cities and the downfall of Scar's people (name, name). It would be good to include a
- Timeline.
- Maps
- NPCs -- adapted from the site and made into d20 characters
- Classes -- first thoughts: soldier, 'bush' alchemist, state alchemist as prestige class, automail mechanic
- Magic -- alchemy, especially transmutation (muto spells)
- Equipment -- subset of d20 fantasy and modern, plus automail
- Seeds -- adventure/campaign seeds. We'll need to playtest this... include a playtesting adventure as a module?
- Spirit of the game -- 3rd Edition D&D is a computer game. It is optimized for unambiguous, rapid play with great flexibility, compatibility, and modularity. There are phrasings, mechanics, and choices that almost scream "optimized for relational databasing with accessible UI". Ars Magica, on the other hand, seems designed to replicated folklore and legend, to make possible all the magic we hear of in stories. It was an early story-based game, and was perhaps (substantiate this?) created in response to D&D's dungeon-crawl style. The appeals of FMA (to me or others as well?) is that it is story-based, it is action within sleuthing and narrative struggle.
- Why this project? -- perhaps a part of the 'spirit of the game'. The goal is to role play in the FMA setting. It's a liminal world of magic and 'simple' technology, of moral ambiguity and the epic within the mundane. A driving force in the narrative is the Faustian struggle between science, religion, and morality (three sides, not two!) that has enthralled anime and manga culture along with many of us today. I like story-based D&D, but D&D has some limits for that kind of game. However, it's easily picked up, fast-paced, clear, good at combat and action. I'm also familiar with it. I also like the d20 modularity. I've had a hard time with how it determines magic. I find the FMA 'alchemy' interesting. So let's combine them to put story-facilitating, flexible magic into the action-oriented d20 system and give it a narrative-rich setting full of moral ambiguity.
Brainstorming Creatures
Ali and I spent a subway ride to Cambridge last night thinking about a few more aspects of FMA and how to adapt them. We started on races, and then realized that we were really talking about creatures, some of which would have the option of being PC races-- humans, homunculus, chimaera (template), immortal (template) for the likes of the Hohenheim and Dante, and spirit-bound armor.
Then, feats. Feats in D&D are those things that are exceptions to the rules. It seems like there might be a "tree" of feats based on knowledge learned from an experience with the Black Gate, but they're not necessarily pre-reqs because characters still learn these things without the gate. So feats might be: Gate Experience -- extra alchemy skill in some form; Circle-free Alchemy (per Ed); Spirit Transfer (per the Immortals); Spirit Binding (per Al); and the ability to perform the transmutation that creates the stones, Stone Transmutation.
There ought to be a discussion of alchemy vs. human alchemy vs. soul alchemy. Alchemy is on inanimate matter; human or life alchemy is what Shou Tucker did, alchemy on animate bodies; soul alchemy is close to life alchemy, but attempts manipulation of the immortal soul and results in a homunculus in its failure.
Religion, then, is another heading, and brings mention of Ishbala and Leto.
In the maps we ought to include several maps of the country before and after the Ishbal rebellion and other events. Ali says there's a land called Lin or something in the manga, too.
Brainstorming Elements
2 Feb 2005
Today on the bus I jotted down things that I think ought to be in the setting. I broke in my moleskine notebook for this!
Elements to adapt from Full Metal Alchemist:
- Red water
- Philosopher's Stone
- cities and towns, in d20 format
- tattoos (like Scar's)
- planes - their world (Prime Material), the spirit world, and 'our' world
- alchemical law
- characters, from the site
- state alchemist test
- s.a. pocketwatch
- red water projector
- r.w. stone (priest's ring)
- transmutation circle
- guns/gunpowder
- trains and cars
So It Begins
2 Feb 2005
I took the first step on Saturday, when I got a copy of the Fourth Edition of Ars Magica at Pandemonium Books (http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/). It's not the edition that I first read back in high school, but the system is still the same.
I took the second step this morning, reading the book on the bus out to work, and now I'm committed-- the more I delve into Ars Magica, the more I think that it's appropriate for adapting FMA. The focus is on systematic, semi-scientific hermetic magic-- just as FMA describes an alchemical system that works on scientific bases for magic. Though the series by its narrative nature features spontaneous magic, it implies that alchemy outside of the battlefield applications of the story is usually a planned, studied, rigorous activity. This parallels Ars Magica, where magi spend seasons in study and get many results from formulaic magic, but who cast spontaneously while on the road. I think that the hermetic lore, rich in theories, arcane diagrams, and studies of the elements and their systems was one of the inspirations for the post-medieval pre-modern setting of FMA, as well.
None of which says that the mechanics will be compatible with d20. But we'll see. That's the job I'm undertaking. And with some time into it now, my excitement is building. I want to go through with it.
