Gaiden - System

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Creation
3. Charsheet
4. Skills
5. Quirks
6. Weapons
7. Armor
8. Items
9. Equipment
10. Attacks
11. Spells
12. Combat
13. Vehicles
14. Appendix I: History
15. Appendix II: World Destroying Spells
16. Changelog

Introduction

This is the character system for SSQ: Orionis. SSQ Orionis is about a planet where a being named Soleil has created a new fighting stadium. This stadium is not like the original one; it is intended to be there primarily for entertainment and exploration of other worlds as well as past parts of SSQ. The Time Questers, honored guests of this world, seek to discover the meaning behind these simulations... and also to simply do something other than have to save the world every fifteen seconds.

SSQ Orionis is a 'continuation' mostly in name only, as you generally won't see the main plots of past SSQ recreated other than in simulacrum. However, the past still exists, and sometimes pieces of it that were lost (especially from late SSQ 1) come floating up, as if unearthed after many, many years...

Side note: The GM who maintains this page has not yet made a separate tab for this game, so you may be seeing this inside of Gaiden's site. That is normal, do not be alarmed.

Creating a Character

Step 1: The Charsheet

First, open a new tab in your browser and go to charsheet. NOTE: To be updated, possibly inlined into this sheet, with the proper styling of the current SSQ rather than trapped in Revolution styling. If that made no sense to you, feel free to ignore this note.

Step 2: Assigning Stats

It's rather simple. You take 300 points (or more based on what EXP you earned before, if you're a returning player), and put them into the attributes based on how you want to allocate them. Utilize the form to place the stats. All the math is done for you. Just watch the "Current EXP Usage" until it hits 300. Then you're good. Review with the GM and copy/paste the bottom part into a text editor and save it for later.

Step 3: Obtaining Weapons

Weapons are ad hoc objects the GM assigns to you. Describe your character to the GM and they'll give you one-two weapons to start. If you have a pre-existing character, you'll obtain the weapons that you already have converted to the new system. These weapons can be optionally used to boost power of Normal and Special attacks.

Step 4: Obtaining Armor

Armor is also an ad hoc object assigned to you. Describe what you are likely to have, then the GM will give you the proper stats for your armor. If you have an old character, you will get any old armor items too. Just remember everything is subject to balancing, so if a past system gave you something ridiculous... don't expect to have it here too. (It'll just be 3/4 of the way it used to be rather than overpowered.)

Step 5: Obtaining Skills

You may spend up to (Your Allocation Points) on Skills. Pick from the list below in Skills and choose as many points as you want in them.

Step 6: Obtaining Quirk(s) (OPTIONAL)

If you want a Quirk or two, ask the GM while making your sheet, and describe what you need. The GM will create something that, for each quirk, has a Pro and a Con and thus will reshape the way you play the game. Record them on your sheet. (See Quirks for details.)

Step 7: Creating Attacks

You may either create attacks on your own, or ask the GM to help you. When creating attacks, follow the instructions below in the Attacks section. Note that it's based on how much Versatility you have. Also note that it's usually best to specialize in Magic or Technology rather than try to do both, at least at first. When you have more points, it's easier to use Magitek style attacks. Finally, note that you can more easily build up Normal than you can Magic or Tech on your sheet. This is because unlike Normal, Magic and Tech have neat little powers that make them harder to build up otherwise.

Step 8: Magic (OPTIONAL)

If you have Magic, you may spend your Allocation points learning various spells. These spells will then be available to take with you on sessions and cast, using your Magic stat.

Step 9: Leveling Up

As you go in your travels, you will acquire more points. These points can then also be dumped directly into your stats. Re-calculate the resulting stat where appropriate. So if you get 10 points and place them into Agility, then you have 40 points. Multiply that by *.1, get 4. Then add 2 to it. Your new resulting agility is 6.

Charsheet

Description of Stats

The system now uses a d100 (100-sided die) for most rolls. Everyone has a series of stats that generally go 0 through 200. Points are assigned to the stat; you are given a set amount of points to start, and slowly gain more points to invest in the stats as you play. To calculate the effect of those stats you've built up, all you have to do is multiply the points in a stat by the modifier, to get the final resulting stat. How that stat is used is then going to be described after the charsheet below.

Charsheet

Durability
->Health: 0-200 -> *10 -> 0-2000
->Flux: 0-200 -> 0-200

Ability
->Agility: 0-200 -> *.1, then +2 -> 2-22
->Versatility: 0-200 -> + 100 -> 100-300

Offense
->Magic: 0-200 -> 0-200
->Tech: 0-200 -> 0-200

Defense
->Dodge: 0-200 -> *.25 -> 0-50
->React: 0-200 -> *.70 -> 0-140

Skills
->Insert Skill Name Here: 0-20 -> +(Insert Skill's related Attribute (AGI, VERS, ATK) name here) -> 0-220
->Yes you can have: 0-20 -> +(AGI, VERS, ATK) -> 0-220
->Many Skills: 0-20 -> +(AGI, VERS, ATK) -> 0-220

Weapons
->Insert Weapon Here
---->Format
---->Attributes
---->Of
---->Weapon like this

Armor
->Insert Armor Here
---->Same
---->Attribute
---->Formatting
---->Here

Attacks
->Attack Name here
-->Insert Type here (Normal or Special?)
-->0-100%ACC, 0-100% DMG
-->Weapon Name Here (If it uses a weapon)
-->Range here (Short, Mid, or Long? Remember to apply penalties for it being more than short range)
---->Resulting Accuracy (to be used in the aXX part of the aXXdXX diceroll) ACC, Resulting DMG (the final number used to subtract from the health of people who are hit by it) DMG

Equipment
->Slot 1
-->Insert Equipment Name Here (Insert quality of Equipment here, e.g. Fancy Equipment, Mundane Equipment, etc)
---->The Description of the Equipment/what it does goes here
->Slot 2
-->You can use all of these slots (Insert Quality of Equipment here)
---->So don't think you only have the one slot
->Slot 3
->Slot 4
->Slot 5

Durability

These stats control how long your character can take punishment.

• Health - How much damage you can take before you are knocked out. You can then proceed to take up to half your HP again in damage and not be killed. If you are merely knocked out, then, the passage of time is enough to revive you on its own. Granted, it will be at 10 HP, so, don't think you can just fight and win afterwards. Death is not a permanent impediment in this game, but requires specific spells and/or technology to come back from--so don't go around dying a lot if you want to stay active.
• Flux - Sometimes you just can't win. You do your best in combat, you try everything, and yet you lose. In real life, this would just happen and your loss would just be permanent. But this is a game. Flux points can just be freely spent to increase the value of your rolls. You regain them all between each session. But beware--Flux is said to often just get you INTO situations, it can't get you OUT of them, especially if you spend heavily to get somewhere you couldn't otherwise. So they say... those who live by lucky chances, die by unlucky chances.

Ability

These stats control your flexibility in reacting to situations.

• Agility - How fast can you move your body? How often and how much can you attack? This is the answer to that question. Note that it's not connected to dodging. Dodging can be done with a minimum of movement. (Or sometimes, it can be done with no movement at all.) This is purely about how fast you can attack. The faster you can attack, the more devastation you can do in a round. However, it must be considered carefully--if this is all you have, then you'll do nothing more than weakly flail around, missing everything and being counter-attacked. Balance is a theme you'll see repeated in this system, so keep it in mind.
• Versatility - Just how diverse is your skillset? This controls how much 'stuff' you can bring into battle: moves, skills, spells, even extra items and equipment potentially. You get 100 even if you don't invest in this stat. But sometimes, options outweigh everything else in usefulness. So if you want to be able to do more than a few kinds of actions or bring only a few weapons in battle, you'll want to invest in this.

Attack

These stats control your ability to damage and destroy your enemies.

• Magic - How well can you subvert reality? This stat is used to fuel spells. It's also used to gauge how well you can cast them. The higher this is, the better the spells you can cast. Since Magic is not something everybody can do, you can safely choose to ignore this stat, if your character has no ability or interest in using magical spells. Just be warned--you may find yourself pining for this ability later on if you completely ignore it.
• Tech - What's your ability to use the latest (and oldest, and everything in between) tech? This stat is used to wield machinery, weapons and other things that require you to know scientific principles. This is a science fiction RP so you will also be encountering future-tech that may be magic-like, but for our purposes anything that has some sort of logical-mechanical basis behind it will count as tech. Magitek, therefore, is magic that happens to be organized technologically. Needless to say, this stat is more valuable for 'just getting around' in most of this game's world, but there are also magic planets that don't use tech, so keep that in mind.

Defense

These stats control your ability to avoid damage.

• Dodge - Ah, who doesn't want to just avoid all attacks? Nobody, that's who. This stat lets you opt to just avoid enemy attacks. And if the roll is such that you succeed? It costs none of your agility to do. It's just free! Ah, but it has a catch... even the best dodge master can only dodge half of the time. Furthermore, various abilities allow people to potentially make undodgable attacks, or to debuff your Dodge. Trying to dodge everything has a habit of catching up even to the most experienced battler, so be ready for something to hit you, even if you focus entirely on this stat.
• React - Allows you to do an action instead of attacking. Works as follows: 1. Block - Use 1 AGI, use this stat as your defense, if you win, you take half damage. 2. Quick-Parry - Use 1 AGI and you can counterattack utilizing a move that is itself 1 AGI or a slower move with 'Parry' on it, but you use this stat as your defense. 3. Slow-Parry - use the full AGI of a move and utilize the accuracy of that move for your defense, but takes at least 2 AGI (in case the move is 1 AGI). 4. Defend Other - Throw yourself in the way of an attack, taking it for someone else - Uses 1 AGI.

Dice Rolls

All rolls are d100, aka 100-sided dice, aka percentile dice. Essentially each roll is split between the aggressor and the defender. The person attacking wants a high roll; they get the high part of the dice. The defender wants a low roll; they get the low part of the dice.

Let's say there are two characters, Attacker and Defender. Attacker has an attack with 40 accuracy, and Defender is trying to dodge and has 20 for their dodge. In that case, the attacker types a40d20, and the automatic script calculates the odds of the attack succeeding. In this case, that would be 100 - (100/((Defense/Attack)+1)) or 100 - (100/((20/40)+1)) or 100 - (100/(.5 + 1)) or 100 - (100/1.5) or 100 - 33 or ultimately 66%. Thus, the dice results go as follows:

100-33: Attacker hits Defender.
33-1: Defender dodges the attack.

Now let's do another example. The Attacker has 20 accuracy, and Defender has 40 dodge. In that case, it looks like this: 100 - (100/((40/20)+1)) or 100 - (100/(2 + 1)) or 100 - (100/3) or 100 - 33 or 66. (Rounding is obviously going on, in these cases.) Thus the rolls look like this:

100-67: Attacker hits Defender
66-1: Defender dodges the attack.

As you might expect, the higher dodge is more likely to succeed.

Now we have an interesting case. The attacker has 60 Accuracy and the Defender has 50 dodge. So what happens? 100 - (100/((50/60)+1) or 100 - (100/(.83+1)) or 100 - (100/1.83) or 100 - 55 or ultimately 45% chance of success for the attacker. 100-56: Attacker hits Defender.
55-1: Defender dodges the attack.

Now if this is all rather hard to calculate, don't worry. The GM and the GM's dice do all of the fancy percentile effects. All you have to worry about is knowing the numbers for attack and defense before each roll, so as to keep combat rolling.

That's all there is to it; every major interaction in this game works like this. The rest are explained whenever they come up.

Skills

Skills represent little niche abilities that you have as a character. You can use them to get out of certain situations faster than if you didn't have them, or approach things from a different angle than the usual 'smash it to pieces' one.

Each skill point you allocate costs 2 Allocation points. So 5 in a skill means you used up 10 Allocation points, and 10 in a skill means 20 allocation points, etc.

Skill rolls use the stat as noted in the list as the base (so if you have 50 Agility, the roll starts with 50 for your roll), then you add your skill ranks onto it. (So if you have 20 Sneak, your Sneak roll is now 70.) The things you are trying to defeat have set amounts of difficulty, which act as the 'defense' you must break.

Skills will always be lower in priority than plot continuity, so don't expect to be able to just spam a few skills to deal with every problem. They are meant to add options, not end the non-combat part of the session in 10 seconds. The final note is, you have to still supply a reasonable explanation with your usage of the skill. So don't go, "I use Acrobatics to solve the math equation" -- it will fail. With that in mind, here's the list:

• Agility
  • Sneak: Evade your foes! Evade their traps! Hide about and do whatever it is you need without people seeing you!
  • Acrobatics: Leap over, under, and to the side! Shimmy across perilous ledges and squeeze through tight spaces! Make split-second moves to evade the un-evade-able!
  • Lockpick: Pick the doors, pick the locks, pick the correct locks to lock the doors, defeat the mechanical puzzles!
• Versatility
  • Discourse: Deal with difficult discussions, push ideas that your frenemies might be interested in, and distract people while your allies take their stuff!
  • Gadgeteer: Assemble the right parts to make the right team--be it mechanical or organic, figure out the ancient magitek, or just make an incredibly cool statue, whatever strikes your fancy!
  • Computer: Break into tough machines! Read ancient crypto-computer-tech! Discombobulate the Reverse Quark Proximitor!
• Attack
  • Magitek: Combine the powers of technology and magic to create useful temporary (or permanent) equipment!
  • Spellcraft: Read the tea leaves and threads of others' spells, or perhaps craft your own.
  • Engineer: An ability seen as the domain of the Mad Men of Alsa, utilize this to technologically understand whatever you look like, reverse engineer it, and do super effective attacks at it!

Quirks

Quirks are entirely optional. There isn't anything to do here if you don't have any interest in them. But if you do, read on...

Quirks help make things different. In a normal game with entirely normal characters, you can technically tune out most of everything other than just stomping the enemies, doing the quests and otherwise aiding beneficial NPCs. Maybe you want to be a bit of a pacifist though? Well you can just roleplay that out. But the system doesn't provide a lot out of the box for that sort of character, now does it? Well, most people don't play that kind of character.

But in case that's your goal, the quirks let you do certain things. A Pacificistic Quirk, for example, would grant benefits to your Flux point recovery and also increase your EXP whenever things end in a way where loss of life is prevented. Now if that were just implemented by itself, it'd just be a flat benefit, so there has to be a 'con' to go with the 'pro'. In this case, it'd be the Pacifist having lower attack effectiveness--10% less damage and less accuracy when it comes to attacks that deal damage. So it acts as a challenge to force you to try harder to get your reward.

Every Quirk is entirely optional and if you find it too hard you can have them removed in between sessions, but when you have them, well, it can make life more interesting. If you want a Quirk, specify it during character creation or during an inactive time in the room when the GM is around. Maybe something interesting can result?

In the future, a table of some general purpose quirks shall be here, because what's the point if nobody has any guidance on how to make one?

Weapons

Weapons are an old classic. Everybody has them. Except martial arts masters. But even then, their techniques tend to make their body a weapon instead. So... what is a weapon?

It's just a collection of stats. The stats of the weapon boost your attacks. The only restriction is you have to make the attack and the weapon make sense. So if your weapon is a gun, you can't expect it to work very well with a healing technique: most people die when hit by bullets, after all. Weapons have specific stats that are assigned by the GM. In general, you don't have to think about much except for what it does.

Here is an example:

Baseball Bat
+5 accuracy
+15 damage
Special Effect: Attack rolls that hit 100-91 in accuracy deal an additional 15 damage.

Here's another example:

Sniper Rifle
+25 accuracy
+5 damage
Special Effect: Every additional agility point expended on aiming increases the damage by 5, up to +25 damage.

When you use these with an attack, they add their accuracy and their damage to your attack. The Special Effect only triggers if the condition is met.

The only other thing to consider is that when you equip a weapon, you have it on your person, ready to use. Weapons that aren't equipped can't be used, and you have to spend 1 AGI to take out a weapon you don't actively have equipped and put away the one you currently have equipped. You can have up to two weapons out at any given time.

Now let's say you've had your weapon a while, and it's not doing the job anymore. Then you use some upgrades. Upgrades are modules that make the weapon better. Each upgrade adds +1 to the weapon. So a Baseball Bat with an accuracy upgrade becomes +1 better. Here's some of the upgrades you can get:

• Accuracy: +2 to accuracy.
• Damage: +5 to damage.
• Element: Makes weapon deal elementally aligned damage.
• Range Increaser: Makes weapon able to hit things another 10 feet away than usual.
• Target Increaser: Weapon can hit one more enemy at a time, due to being made broader in some way.
• Magic Link: Weapon gains (Magic/10) damage.
• Tech Link: Weapon gains (Tech/10) accuracy.
• Theft Protector: Weapon can be called back to you using 1 AGI if it falls out of your grasp. (But isn't guaranteed to come back!)
• Transformable: Take another weapon. You can instantly switch between that weapon and this weapon, but both have slightly weakened stats (GM determined).
• Grapple: Weapon can grab onto surfaces and hold enemies, even if it couldn't do that before.

This is only the sample list. You can find more upgrades than this, even collect them; many are limited in quantity and are hard to copy. You can mix and match your upgrades, but you can only ever have up to +10 of upgrades on any single weapon. If your weapon still isn't good enough even with all of those, you should probably go about getting a new one, after all. The main important thing to know is that upgrades can be installed without paying coins or anything; you can also pry them off of enemy weapons you find on the ground. It's up to you, in the end, what you'll make your weapon capable of.

Armor

Armor is never something that gets mentioned much, unless you're Xavier. Most people have other ideas than just wearing a bunch of medieval armor to block attacks. But of course there's more than just that... but it's still limited what it can do. On the flip side, there's always some force fields you can wield... if you have enough power to power them with.

All characters have an armor slot. The armor you wear uses this slot. If the armor is heavier, it'll decrease some stats elsewhere and/or reduce AGI, depending in what way it is heavy.

Armor comes in many shapes and sizes and is generally custom to each character.

Additions are before the modifiers. So +10 block means before the .45 multiplication to get the final result for what's on your roll.

Like equipment, Armor tends to be rather freeform. Here are some examples of armor:

• Kevlar Vest: +10 block
• Medieval Knight Plate Armor Suit: +30 react, -20 dodge.
• Solarian Force Field: +300 HP, -10 dodge, -10 react. Recharges between sessions.
• Erastian Heavy Metal Armor MK 1: +50 react, -50 dodge, +150 HP. Requires manual repair to recover HP benefit.
• Rocket Booster: +20 dodge, -10 react, each hit deals +20 damage to you.
• Space Suit: -10 to dodge, -10 to react, allows full existence and limited mobility in outer space for up to 2 hours.

Keep in mind what you have will vary. These are just examples. Upgrading armor is also simple: you pay money and the +s and -s increase and decrease, respectively. You can also alter the entire purpose of the armor; such is handled in a freeform manner, but the more huge the changes, the more coins you pay.

Items

As we all know, the world of SSQ is loaded with items. What we don't know is how to use them. So how do we use these items? Well it's simple.

• Every item is single-use unless otherwise stated.
• There is no limit to the number or variety of items that exist.
• Old items from old games will continue working so if you happen to find them or have them on you, yes, they are still valid.
• There isn't anymore any 'standard' items other than some starter ones mentioned here (and you will definitely find better/cheaper ones than these).
• Effects that are the same from different items/sources don't stack, instead the highest single source of the effect takes priority.
• You can have an unlimited number of items.
• New Questers start with 3000 coins.

Equipment

An optional section. Contains the following types of Equipment: Time Devices, Crystals, and Other Important Things.

Time Devices: Contain Time Energy. Can be used a certain amount (depends on the device.) Warps people from one time/space to another. You can only have one equipped at a time.

Crystals: Come in themes, of Order, Chaos, Light, Dark, or if Erastian, even more complex ones. Stacking them up can cause energy cascades and explosions. They can also be used to warp reality and are the currency of Magitek as well as utilized by other forces than just the Solarians.

Other Important Things: Equipment that has a long legacy in SSQ. Smash Dexes, Schnelltott, Vendetta, things like that. They are well known and legendary, and have become such that sometimes, they seem to replicate or return even after being lost. Beware though, they are so well known, others may come to try and take them from you if you have them.

Attacks

There are two kinds of attacks. You get Normal attacks, which are faster-paced, normal attacks that don't require any special focus or concentration to wield. And you get Special attacks, which are the classic special moves you're more used to.

Allocating Attacks

Your Allocation Points (Versatility + 100) are what attacks cost to have. You should leave some left over for skills and other goodies. Normal attacks cost 10 Allocation Points, and Special attacks cost 20 Allocation points. You may allocate some or all of your points, and you may revisit and re-allocate your points as you choose. Just that in each session, you may only have up to your Allocation Points' maximum in allocated moves, so keep that in mind.

Normal Attacks

These attacks are simpler. There are only a few decisions to make:

1. How much focus on damage and how much focus on attack? You can allocate out of 100 between damage and accuracy.
2. Since the Normal Stat mostly consumed space, instead of it, we now use whichever is higher on your character: Tech or Magic. This stat then functions as your 'Normal' stat.
3. Once you've decided, say, for example, 20 on damage and 80 on accuracy, then to determine how much your attack deals / what the roll is, multiply that by your Normal stat, then divide by one hundred. So if you have a Normal stat of 50, then this move's damage is 20 * 50 / 100, or 2 * 5, thus 10 damage. And accuracy is 80 * 50 / 100, or 40.
4. Then you may decide whether or not to use a weapon with the normal attack. If you use a weapon, pick a weapon that will be set to be the one that works with this attack. If you don't, then you allocate +10 to damage or accuracy as it is unarmed.
5. Then you pick a range. Close range means it can only hit people adjacent to you. Mid-range means it can hit people further away but you have to subtract 5 from damage. Long-range means you must subtract an additional 10 from damage and 10 from accuracy. Note that you cannot have negative damage or accuracy, so if that results from the range you wish, adjust the allocation of accuracy/damage and try again. Also if the attack is unarmed, keep in mind that the attack will move you to the distance you've picked--and if that happens to be over a pit or blocked by something... well, tough luck. You'll always have to move that distance when using that unarmed Normal attack.
6. Finally you can pick how many targets it hits. Note that, this overrides any other concept of target, e.g. unless otherwise stated, you only can hit one target at a time, even if two foes are standing right up in your face. One target: you can keep your attack as it is. Two targets: Damage is halved between two targets when you swing at two of them. Three or more targets: Damage is split between all three targets when you swing at all of them, and you take a -5 to accuracy when you do that.
7. Then you're done. The attack uses 1 AGI no matter what you pick.

You can spam these Normal attacks continuously; so don't fret if they're relatively low on damage. On the flip side you can choose to up the damage, but then you'll have less accuracy... do you feel lucky enough to hit in those circumstances?

Special Attacks

First off, what's the same: you still allocate 100 percent between ACC and DMG. So you know, you pick things like 30% ACC and 70% DMG, or yes, even 100% ACC and 0% DMG if you wish. But what stat you use for the next calculation changes. You may also choose to make self-buffs. In that case, they use no accuracy and no damage; they only buff. Those get +1 module to play with.

These attacks require a crucial decision: do you use Magic or Tech? Each has a separate set of abilities to it. Combining both is also possible, if you wish to do the complex math of adding both your stats together, then halving them, but if that's too scary to you... it's best you don't do it. (Additionally, when combining the two, the abilities linked to each ability only use the half of your stat that applies to them--so again, rather complex.)

There's three types of modules: Normal, Tech, and Magic. Normal modules can be used by either Magic or Tech attacks. Only Magic attacks can use Magic modules. Tech Attacks can use Tech modules. Magitek attacks can use either. The minimum Special attack uses at least two modules, thus costing 2 AGI to use. You can make the AGI as high as you want, but beware: too much AGI and you need to wait multiple turns just to use the thing once.

You may stack modules as much as you want, as a result. Just that you won't have the time to do it if it gets too big.

Spells

Magic is an essential quality that many beings have in this game's universe. It allows the manipulation of time and space itself, to obtain predictable results that logic and science simply cannot. However, it has a number of limits and important implications to consider.

Magic relies on three key stats. Versatility is foremost. It determines how many spells you can have memorized. You may spend Allocation points on obtaining spells using the table placed beneath this section (keep scrolling down to see the spells.).

Not all spells are obtainable off the bat; some may require prohibitive amounts of Versatility to be spent on them. Others must be bought, or found, or require the actual possession of some sort of item.

If you run out of Allocation Points, you may use a special equipment item, often spellbook or crystal ball related, in order to store more spells. Just note there is a speed cost -- spells cast this way will often take 1 or more extra AGI to cast (depends on item).

The list of spells is chronicled below. Or if you absolutely must look at them, the World Destroying Spells are in Appendix II.

Magic uses (Magic) accuracy when utilized as an attack.

Rune Magic

Ancient Vring magic that happens to be pretty good for anybody who wants a fairly decent toolset without spending a lot of Allocation Points to collect the set.. All-round and fairly safe to just learn all of these if you're in need of a simple but useful toolset.

Alsan Magic (Cost to master this set: 21 Allocation Points)

The magic of Alsa. Full of tricky things that can be done. Best utilized by those who want to manipulate their way through everything.

Nintendus Magic

The extreme magic of Nintendus. Mostly useful for destroying everything, but there's healing in here as well. (Cost to master this set: 106 Allocation Points)

Solarian Magic

The magic of the Solarians. Useful mostly for creating things or manipulating them. Or just blowing them up. (Cost to master this set: 116 Allocation Points)

Time Cop Magic

The magic of the Time Cops. Only some of it has been deciphered by Questers, and its usefulness can be... questionable. (Cost to master this set: 75+? Allocation Points)

Combat

Obviously, the main use for this system is combat. Most of the out of combat scenarios happen in a freeform manner. So how does combat actually go down?

Stage 1: The Initiative

Both sides must roll initiative to see who goes first. Roll d(your agility stat). The highest rolls go first, the slowest ones go last. Ties are decided by who rolled first.

Stage 2: The Turn

Each person gets a turn. The first person in the initiative goes first. Their turn consists of them having as much Agility as their Agility stat says they have. So if they have 4 Agility, they get 4. Agility is used on actions.

Stage 3: The Action

Each action consumes Agility. This is determined by the kind of action performed. Each attack has a set amount of Agility use. The average attack uses 3 Agility; if you build your attack to use less Agility, though, it will use less. Charge attacks can use variable amounts of Agility. For now, the example will concentrate on the average case and so, the case of having 3 AGI for the cost of a move.

Stage 3a: The Attack Action

If you choose to use a move, then you go through a couple steps. First you check your accuracy (which ranges from 1 to 100), then you roll a(accuracy)d(enemy's defense). The GM dice script compares your accuracy to the enemy's defense of choice and then to the result on the roll. If you succeed, you hit; if the enemy succeeds, their defense action (be it dodge or react) occurs instead.

Stage 3b: The Utility action

These always take 1 agility. They involve actions like picking up dropped weapons, moving around the battlefield, pushing buttons, or extended conversations mid-battle.

Stage 4: The Defense Phase

When it's not your turn, it's the Defense Phase. You can be attacked by anything--the battlefield, enemies, even crazed/confused teammates. When you're attacked, the enemy rolls a(enemy's accuracy)d(your defense; choose to dodge, or react and use that value here). The result, as before, is explained by the script. If they hit, their effects occur to you (damage, etc); and they'll notify you. Otherwise, your defense action occurs. So if you react and choose to block, you take 50% less damage, if you react and choose to parry, your parry attack hits the enemy, and if you dodge, the enemy's attack misses you.

Stage 5: The End Phase

Once all of one side has been defeated or run away, the battle is over. Points are rewarded based on how combat went/who needs it most, and any loot is distributed, then the battle is complete and out-of-combat freeform re-commences.

Vehicles

Vehicles: The thing I never make a system for. Until NOW!

To ensure that this system for vehicles makes any sense, let's just... make it really simple for now.

Vehicles have the following attributes:
Vehicle Name
Shields (if any) (May be multiple layers): 0-1,000,000,000
Energy (If relevant to attacks/actions): 0-1,000,000,000
HP: 0-1,000,000,000
Evasion/Defense: 0-200
Will: 0-200
Weapons/Attacks:

• Insert Weapon/Attack name here: XX Attack, YY Damage, ZZ Effects, EE Energy usage (if any)

Vehicles have stats, just like characters do. Since this system is rather ad-hoc, the GM assigns the initial numbers. Upgrades can be had for certain amounts of coins, also determined by the GM. You can upgrade any stat of the ship up to three times. Ships deal 10x the damage and have 10x the HP of normal characters; depending on the ship, it may also do that much to people if in a direct attack, or not, depending on the ship. (Generally smaller ships don't; the bigger ones do, but their accuracy is divided by 10 when firing at tiny targets. The smaller ships get full accuracy, but don't get 10x damage on the non-ship targets.)

Weapons are similar, and can also be upgraded up to three times; up to three more weapon attacks/abilities can be added too.

"Will" is the ability of the pilot to deal with problems that arise on the ship and raw tactical ability. Opposed Will checks occur when the two vehicles are evenly matched, such as a dogfight; the winner's action overrides the loser's action in such a case.

Furthermore, vehicle ranges exist; close range, medium range, far range, and out range, all of these are scaled 10x compared to 'normal' ranges when on foot. Vehicles tend to be able to fight at Medium range, though, as 'close range' weapons are generally problematic unless you're piloting a mecha.

This is a rough draft and will be upgraded from time to time.

Appendix I: History

Since it's too long to ask any sane person to read, the history is replicated here:

• Erastia was a psychotic dictatorship. Its people were insane, materialistic 1980's sci-fi rejects. This dystopia's citizens lava golfed and built malls on the surface of moons--just because they could, not because it made sense.
• The government of Erastia ran many gladiator battles for fun and amusement. They forced lower class Erastians to fight eachother for their sole way of earning a living.
• Xavier originated from an upper class background. But he found it so boring, he sneaked into the lower class areas so he, too, could be in gladiator battles.
• After many grueling battles in which he lost many limbs, he was recruited to the military. But shortly after that, a mysterious organization named "The Time Cops" appeared.
• The Time Cops, an organization that controls Time Itself using their unknown Time Powers, sought to control history and prevent anyone else from getting the ability to warp through time--usually found in the form of "Time Devices".
• Erastia was secretly working on Time Devices. The insane people running the planet were hellbent on controlling all of time. The Time Cops tried to destroy the devices, but Xavier fled with one of the devices. To make matters worse, he didn't even know what he'd stolen.
• In an event that the details of have been lost to history, Autumnus used some sort of unknown being or technique to destroy Erastia. Most of Erastia's population was destroyed... but somehow the planet survived as a post-apocalyptic mess.
• Xavier fled. Shortly after, he experienced severe memory loss several times. Traces of his past actions left behind suggest he worked with resistance fighters against the Time Cops in the past. More recently, he worked with the Original Questers (which is chronicled in the 'Original SSQ' story logs) and defended a planet named Nintendus from a series of video game villains and some other not-so-video-game-ish villains.
• That ended in disaster when Xavier used his Time Device to warp reality in his favor, allowing the Late-Era Original Questers to destroy all of evil. Reality unraveled, and causality itself attacked the Late-era Original Questers. The Late-era Original Questers then had to destroy causality, causing Nintendus to be destroyed and exiling them to a planet named Alsa.
• The Questers on Alsa (chronicled in the logs of SSQ²'s era) did not have Xavier as a leader. They became free spirited and did various actions that alternatively helped and harmed the planet of Alsa. Ultimately they caused so much chaos, the people of Alsa used an epic spell to recreate Nintendus and exiled the Questers to the recreated Nintendus.
• The reformed Nintendus' citizens reacted to the realization they had been revived from death. They banned the Alsan Questers from actively doing any Quester-like activities, lest Nintendus and its people die again. Thus, the events of SSQ∞ began (also slowly being logged.) In their place, they created the Brawlers and allowed older ex-Original Questers to mentor them. This fell apart due to the machinations of Evil Wolfman, an evil version of the first leader of the Questers from another dimension.
• Evil Wolfman conquered Nintendus and was ultimately only defeated by the combined efforts of the Brawlers, a returning Xavier, a weird clone of an Original Quester named Garrick from the 40K universe, and some scattered Alsan Questers. In the process, all the Smash Energy that powered Nintendus was destroyed.
• The Questers scattered and Nintendus itself became strangely lifeless due to the lack of magical energy. A doppelganger of Xavier named Illian showed up, and realized Nintendus had been destroyed and remade by the Original Questers. He decided to seek vengeance for this, for he was the one that had provided some support to Xavier back when (and was why Xavier had the ability to warp Nintendus to help him win in the late Original Quester era.)
• Xavier, having nearly been assassinated by the clone of Garrick, became morose and drunk. He pined for the past when he worked for the Questers, thus beginning the events of the previous SSQ game known as CONFRONTATION. And then it hit him: he still had the Time Device.
• Xavier figured out a way to go back in time and retrieve some of his old friends, while Illian built a massive military as he allied with Garrick and aimed to kill Xavier.
• Xavier, now with his old friends, presented an existential contradiction to Illian's assertion that "Xavier is crazy and has fallen from the ways of the Questers." Realizing that they had been tricked by Illian, Illian's allies deserted him.
• Xavier reformed the Questers, thus reforming the Original Questers, with some new additions.
• Illian warped reality itself with a device known as "The Book"--the same causality thing from before that powered Nintendus--but Xavier and his allies reached outside of reality itself and deleted Illian, ending the events of CONFRONTATION.
• After this, Xavier created the New Questers, who were working directly with him rather than being indirectly linked to Nintendus. Together, in the previous RPG called REVELATION, they freed Erastia. The Time Cop running Erastia was a rogue one named Omnus, who had betrayed Autumnus. Autumnus allowed Xavier to defeat Omnus in order to defeat Omnus, as both Autumnus and Xavier hated Omnus.
• The Revelation of REVELATION was that the supposedly dead Erastians were, in fact, not all dead.
• There were Erastians who survived the destruction, who after the event declared Xavier their new leader.
• The New Questers gained many allies and defeated the Time Cops several times, ending the reign of Autumnus and his attempted successor Lyx.
• In time they became known as the Time Questers and most of the New Questers left. The remnants form these Time Questers, a group that now searches reality for dangerous artifacts.

Appendix II: World Destroying Spells

These are some seriously old spells, from all the way in SSQ^2. You are unlikely to EVER find them, but they must be listed as a few boss characters may have them, or in a bizarre circumstance you might get a temporary (read: Plot related) access to them. The weird formatting is to help remind one these are old spells and not a part of the current system, merely listed as conveniences in that bizarre edge case.

Summons/World-damaging Spells (All are 1 use per session only and generally only findable on Alsa and there's only one of most of them in existence in the entire universe and you now need to also dedicate some Allocation Points to figure out how to use them. Allocation Point Cost to master this set (if you've lost your mind or become Omnus): 184 )

Interpreting the Changelog

5/12/14 v.0.0.25: The left-most column is the date in mmddyy format. The version number is after v. The version number is three numbers: The first one is the overall version indicator, which indicates major variants of the system. Version 1 was REVELATION's system. When the current system is ready, it will reach version 2.

The number to the right of it is a sub-release; it's just used to track progress based on major milestones (overhauling entire chunks of the system.) The right-most number is all the changes that have been done, which helps me keep track as to when I should re-check everything for coherency, since it should never get higher than about 150ish without bumping up the number to the left of it...