Author Topic: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!  (Read 3386 times)

Scintillating_Void

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Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« on: February 19, 2017, 07:50:17 pm »
Ever since my recent obsession with CT I have been thinking about say, ways to bring Chrono stuff into the world of Tabletop RPGing.  I've seen people made 5e D&D homebrew stuff derived from various games like Bloodborne, Dark Souls, World of Warcraft, The Witcher, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. 

Something I think would be fun would be to homebrew an adventure based on Radical Dreamers.  It's pretty much a dungeon crawl with a lot of descriptions, exploration, monsters, and stuff already.  All one has to do is make a detailed map and layout of Viper Manor and establish all the magic artifacts, traps, items, NPCs, enemies etc. 

For D&D 5th edition-which is my current favorite so far and one of the newer and faster developing ones, I would probably set it a lower level (I am assuming you'd bring your own characters instead), and have all magic artifacts be known via an Arcana check.  Goblins would be statted more like orcs, and Lynx would be a killable last boss.  Before the game starts each player must think of a "secret" about their character, this will be hinted at by the Mirror of Whispers spirit.  At least one character has to have a motive for breaking into Viper Manor other than "loot". 

Another interesting idea is one I derived from a D&D 3rd edition book titled "Elder Evils" which is about apocalyptic enemies whose presence disturbs the natural order of the world.  What if Lavos could be statted so that you could throw Lavos into another world, like say Toril or Eberron?  What would it be like to have your lv. 20 druid come face to face against CR 40 Lavos core?

Of course it would not be limited to D&D.  There might be other systems more suitable.  For example if you wanted to sneak in a CT/CC character into a game, it would be much harder with the class system in D&D-for CT almost every character would have to be some type of battle mage(but Frog is def a paladin-he has the healing spells to come with it!) and in D&D its difficult to properly stat a character who is equally good at non-magic combat and magic even though there are many classes that do offer some combination of the two like blade-pact warlocks, eldritch knights, and bladesinger wizards.  You'd have to think about if you want say, Crono to be more a caster or more of a fighter and pick the stats accordingly. 

The magic system is not element based in D&D/Pathfinder.  If you'd want something closer to a specific character you'd have to find a point-based system instead like GURPS, Hero, or BASH! systems.  With those systems you could create almost any character as long as you can hash out what they can do in the system's mechanics. 
« Last Edit: February 19, 2017, 08:01:38 pm by Scintillating_Void »

Razig

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2017, 06:25:34 pm »
I'm a 3.5e man myself. Haven't tried 5e yet, but from everything I've seen, it's basically 3.5e Mk II, so I'd probably like it just fine. I'm fine with any edition, actually, just as long as it's not 4e. :picardno


I think the kingdom of Zeal would make a cool campaign setting. Compared to other eras where magic is nonexistent or forgotten, you wouldn't have to jump through any hoops to explain why there are so many spellcasters. The time frame (malleable as it is) could be set prior to the discovery of Lavos, when the kingdom was more concerned with general magical research and thus sending adventurers to collect MacGuffins from ancient ruins would be all the rage.

The flavor and lore would mainly come from the Chrono series, but you could fill in some of the gaps by robbing ideas from the various Forgotten Realms supplements which describe the ancient empire of Netheril (a highly magically advanced society whose decadent elite lived on floating sky-islands until a great disaster crashed them... sound familiar? :wink:).


As you mention, point-based systems would probably be a better fit than class-and-level systems for recreating the hybrid characters seen in the Chrono games. However, I think 3.5e (and maybe 5e, but I'm not sure) could work just fine with a few house rules:
  • Remove multiclassing penalties; in fact, you might want to give a minor XP bonus to multiclassed characters, to encourage multiclassing and to help offset the loss of raw power from doing so.
  • Give all classes full BAB progression.
  • Create some custom feats which evoke the flavor of techs, preferably ones which lend themselves to being used in combination with others.

On a related note, I've always thought the world of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen would make a great campaign setting. (I'm not familiar with the other games in the series.)

Scintillating_Void

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2017, 06:25:31 am »

I think the kingdom of Zeal would make a cool campaign setting. Compared to other eras where magic is nonexistent or forgotten, you wouldn't have to jump through any hoops to explain why there are so many spellcasters. The time frame (malleable as it is) could be set prior to the discovery of Lavos, when the kingdom was more concerned with general magical research and thus sending adventurers to collect MacGuffins from ancient ruins would be all the rage.

The flavor and lore would mainly come from the Chrono series, but you could fill in some of the gaps by robbing ideas from the various Forgotten Realms supplements which describe the ancient empire of Netheril (a highly magically advanced society whose decadent elite lived on floating sky-islands until a great disaster crashed them... sound familiar? :wink:).


Yeah that would be interesting.  Also events would focus on Zeal, I would allow characters that come outside of it because that would be one tiny planet if that was the only continent XD.

The different casting classes could represent different styles of magic.  For example, you may be a bookish wizard who practices through having a wide variety and a better understanding of magic, or you could be a sorcerer who specializes more in magic, has less of an idea what they are doing and uses force of will for casting; or a bard who uses magic more as an art form and draws magic from the arts.  You could also have artificers who represent more hard-nosed scientist/researcher types like Belthasar and the people of Kajar. 

It would be harder to fit in druids, clerics, and paladins.  Not sure how they would fit in, but I could see some among the Earthbound, perhaps some have discovered a type of magic that only comes from attunment to the natural world or some other force.

I like the idea of seeing Zeal through the eyes of more "common people" rather than royalty.  There are a number of interesting scenarios I can think of:

-Some of your party members are Enlightened Ones stranded somehow on the surface.  The weather and cold make it difficult to even cast spells, and your only hope back home is to band with some Earthbound Ones.  However casting aside such prejudices are not going to happen overnight.  Furthermore one or more of your Enlightened One party members has the ability to sense if someone has magic-and you find that even among the Earthbound Ones there is evidence of perhaps some...activity between the two groups-or it could be that just as some people can be born without magic on the floating islands, so too can some Earthbound Ones just have the potential for magic.

-Researchers begin to be concerned about how all the spells that make the floating islands rise and be habitable are taking a huge drain from the sunstone.  Your party members are on an expedition to search for other sources of energy-hopefully another sunstone.  Bonus if your party finds out there is no other sunstone and everyone has to come up with a solution.

-Extending the one above, Lavos is discovered, now your party members have to deal with the issue, support or think the nation is heading the wrong direction?  Your party members may be dissenters, and each goes missing one by one, and you have to rescue one another and help stop the madness that is encroaching on Zeal. 

-Mirroring Netheril, instead of the whole Lavos thing, Zeal is threatened to fall due to some jerk ass mages trying to attain godhood and take power from a god of magic-and succeed which actually ends up killing the deity and depriving the world of magic.


As you mention, point-based systems would probably be a better fit than class-and-level systems for recreating the hybrid characters seen in the Chrono games. However, I think 3.5e (and maybe 5e, but I'm not sure) could work just fine with a few house rules

Just curious, how would you class the cast of CT?  :)
« Last Edit: February 22, 2017, 06:28:04 am by Scintillating_Void »

Razig

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2017, 08:25:51 pm »
Yeah that would be interesting.  Also events would focus on Zeal, I would allow characters that come outside of it because that would be one tiny planet if that was the only continent XD.

I've always taken the maps in Chrono Trigger to be representative rather than literal. I would say that there were other sky-islands besides those seen in the game; however, they weren't visited because they simply weren't relevant to the plot.

The different casting classes could represent different styles of magic.  For example, you may be a bookish wizard who practices through having a wide variety and a better understanding of magic, or you could be a sorcerer who specializes more in magic, has less of an idea what they are doing and uses force of will for casting; or a bard who uses magic more as an art form and draws magic from the arts.  You could also have artificers who represent more hard-nosed scientist/researcher types like Belthasar and the people of Kajar. 

It would be harder to fit in druids, clerics, and paladins.  Not sure how they would fit in, but I could see some among the Earthbound, perhaps some have discovered a type of magic that only comes from attunment to the natural world or some other force.

The game only showed us the final days of Zeal. We're told that it had previously focused on elemental magic, but the discovery of Lavos caused the entire culture to shift gears. By setting the campaign prior to that, you'd presumably have a society more akin to that of the Dragonians, who revered the elements and seemed to worship the planet itself as a divinity. That could be the basis for the divine caster classes.

I like the idea of seeing Zeal through the eyes of more "common people" rather than royalty.  There are a number of interesting scenarios I can think of:

-Some of your party members are Enlightened Ones stranded somehow on the surface.  The weather and cold make it difficult to even cast spells, and your only hope back home is to band with some Earthbound Ones.  However casting aside such prejudices are not going to happen overnight.  Furthermore one or more of your Enlightened One party members has the ability to sense if someone has magic-and you find that even among the Earthbound Ones there is evidence of perhaps some...activity between the two groups-or it could be that just as some people can be born without magic on the floating islands, so too can some Earthbound Ones just have the potential for magic.

An NPC mentions that "Long ago, the Enlightened Ones and the Earthbound Ones lived as one." This could be taken to mean a time before contact with the Frozen Flame, but I prefer to interpret it as sometime after the founding of Zeal but before the present day. The campaign could be set during such a time, with a definite social stratification of magical haves and have-nots, but without the severe classism shown in the game.

Also, the dichotomy might not have been as extreme in earlier times. The genetics for magical talent may have not yet died out among the Earthbound Ones. If the ability is carried in a recessive gene, it might pop up among families who haven't produced a magician for many generations. Enlightened Ones would be spellcasters more often than not, just as Earthbound Ones would mostly be nonspellcasters, but there could be some crossover.

In any event, adventurers in most campaign settings are seen as distasteful by the upper class; a necessary evil (regardless of the adventurers' actual alignment) to accomplish unsavory tasks. For that reason, an Enlightened adventurer might be viewed as barely above an Earthbound One by those who would otherwise be his social equals.

-Researchers begin to be concerned about how all the spells that make the floating islands rise and be habitable are taking a huge drain from the sunstone.  Your party members are on an expedition to search for other sources of energy-hopefully another sunstone.  Bonus if your party finds out there is no other sunstone and everyone has to come up with a solution.

There are 65 million years unaccounted for in the canon, with 3 million of those allowing for the existence of magic. That makes for a lot of ancient ruins to delve for any number of reasons. You could rework just about any published module to fit into that context.

-Extending the one above, Lavos is discovered, now your party members have to deal with the issue, support or think the nation is heading the wrong direction?  Your party members may be dissenters, and each goes missing one by one, and you have to rescue one another and help stop the madness that is encroaching on Zeal. 

-Mirroring Netheril, instead of the whole Lavos thing, Zeal is threatened to fall due to some jerk ass mages trying to attain godhood and take power from a god of magic-and succeed which actually ends up killing the deity and depriving the world of magic.

These two pretty much describe Zeal's final days as portrayed in the game. :wink: The PCs could be followers of the Gurus, and are banished along with them.

Lavos could be seen as a god of magic, since the Frozen Flame was responsible for humans' magical aptitude. Except instead of being killed, Lavos destroys the ones attempting to steal its power. Magic doesn't die, but most of its practitioners do, which has much the same effect.

Just curious, how would you class the cast of CT?  :)

I wouldn't try to duplicate all their abilities one-for-one, as some are just too bizarre to explain; how does a nonmagical Ayla summon a giant dinosaur tail outside her own era? But with the house rules I suggested, here's how I'd do it. Where specific techs aren't mentioned, I feel they can be adequately represented by the given class's existing abilities or feats which are similar in function (Crono's Cyclone is Whirlwind Attack, for example).



Crono: Fighter with Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization in katana. (In this setting, I would consider the katana to be a martial weapon rather than exotic.) Unique feats that allow him to cast lightning bolt, chain lightning, sunburst, and raise dead (Lightning, Lightning 2, Luminaire, and Life, respectively).

Barring unique feats, I'd have him as a fighter/sorcerer and just select electricity- and light-based spells.



Marle: Cleric of a nonspecific deity, with the healing and water domains. Unique feat that allows her to cast haste.



Lucca: Wizard (evoker) specialized in fire spells. Her guns would be reflavored crossbows.

Lucca might be better represented as an artificer, but I'm not familiar with that class since I didn't really care for Eberron's mechanics (absolutely loved the geopolitical setup though).



Frog: Paladin with his smite attacks reflavored as water spells and usable against nonevil foes. Frog Squash is one of those bizarre abilities I wouldn't try to replicate.



Robo: Warforged (yeah, Eberron) fighter with Improved Unarmed Strike, and Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization in unarmed strike. Unique feats that allow him to cast mass cure light wounds, mass cure moderate wounds, chain lightning, fireball, and call lightning (Cure Beam, Heal Beam, Laser Spin, Area Bomb, and Shock, respectively).

Barring unique feats... I don't even know. A fighter/druid maybe? Robo's abilities are a real grab bag of odd stuff when translated to D&D equivalents.



Ayla: Monk with a unique feat that allows her to cast Charm Monster.



Magus: Wizard with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus in evocation, and Exotic Weapon Proficiency in scythe. (The scythe is normally a martial weapon, but doing it this way prevents the need to give him both Simple and Martial Weapon Proficiency.)
« Last Edit: February 22, 2017, 09:18:34 pm by Razig »

Scintillating_Void

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2017, 11:23:00 pm »

The game only showed us the final days of Zeal. We're told that it had previously focused on elemental magic, but the discovery of Lavos caused the entire culture to shift gears. By setting the campaign prior to that, you'd presumably have a society more akin to that of the Dragonians, who revered the elements and seemed to worship the planet itself as a divinity. That could be the basis for the divine caster classes.

Yet ironically if it weren't for Lavos there would not have been even elemental magic the way it exists in CT.  I would have it that maybe during the game there is still a developing schism between older elemental nature-revering magic and the newer magic based on Lavos if you want it to take place after Lavos's discovery.  That would be more ideal for a game that involves social tensions and outside forces effecting the characters than a typical "lets loot and kill monsters" game.

Quote
In any event, adventurers in most campaign settings are seen as distasteful by the upper class; a necessary evil (regardless of the adventurers' actual alignment) to accomplish unsavory tasks. For that reason, an Enlightened adventurer might be viewed as barely above an Earthbound One by those who would otherwise be his social equals.

That depends.  In the games I have been, there is almost always at least one noble in the party. 

However I can see that for Enlightened Ones who'd rather not get their hands dirty and leave the "dirty work" to Earthbound and creatures like golems.  An adventurer who is an Enlightened would be a social outcast in most places.  Worse if they mingle Earthbound.

Quote
These two pretty much describe Zeal's final days as portrayed in the game. :wink: The PCs could be followers of the Gurus, and are banished along with them.

Lavos could be seen as a god of magic, since the Frozen Flame was responsible for humans' magical aptitude. Except instead of being killed, Lavos destroys the ones attempting to steal its power. Magic doesn't die, but most of its practitioners do, which has much the same effect.

Well it would be like in the game, except it's an AU where no time meddling has occurred involving Crono, another interpretation of an original timeline.  I like the possibilities that could bring up.

Reminds me of a fanfic where Magus finds an alternate timeline where he died before birth, Queen Zeal died, but King Zeal is alive, and it's at the point before the fall.  They still have the sunstone but it's dying, and Lavos has been recently discovered by Belthasar.  It was interesting how the author went into a huge amount of detail of Zeal customs and culture, and how Magus this time tries not to screw it up and ends up convincing the king to lower the islands down before the sunstone runs out of energy. 

But I was thinking along those lines of not complying to original canon, but going about it AU style.

Speaking of that, how about having dragonians as a playable race?  XD

Anyway, I like those ways you classed the characters.  I am more familiar with 5e, so this is how I'd do it for 5e:

Crono- Fighter, eldritch knight archetype with outlander background-though he's not from the countryside living in harsh conditions is suits him being outside a lot practicing with a sword and getting into mischief.   It also comes with proficiency bonus to athletics and survival.

Lucca- Artificer, gunsmith archetype with guild artisan background.  Artificers are intelligence-based casters who can cast spells like a wizard and create items.  At later levels she can get wizard levels to expand her spell list.

Marle- Refluffed cleric, life domain archetype with noble background multi-classed with ranger. 

Frog- Paladin, oath of devotion archetype with soldier background.  Special feat that would give access to water spells.  He might also count as a small creature.

Robo- Warforged monk, way of tranquility archetype-it has healing class feats.  Maybe mix in a homebrew sorcerer that does radiant or necrotic damage spells.

Ayla-Barbarian berserker archetype multiclassed with a bit of ranger hunter archetype?  Or maybe.  Special feat for unarmed strike proficiency. 

Magus-Bladesinger wizard or evoker wizard with martial weapons proficiency taken from a minor multiclassing with fighter.  Another idea is to refluff the class feats from blade-pact warlock; great old one otherworldly patron.

He'd have to have this spell, when I first read the description dark matter immediately came to mind, it doesn't do the same thing but the description sounds similar:

Hunger of Hadar

You open a gateway to the dark between the stars, a region infested with unknown horrors. A 20-foot-radius sphere of blackness and bitter cold appears, centered on a point with range and lasting for the duration. This void is filled with a cacophony of soft whispers and slurping noises that can be heard up to 30 feet away. No light, magical or otherwise, can illuminate the area, and creatures fully within the area are blinded.

The void creates a warp in the fabric of space, and the area is difficult terrain. Any creature that starts its turn in the area takes 2d6 cold damage. Any creature that ends its turn in the area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 acid damage as milky, otherwordly tentacles rub against it.


 Just change the damage type to necrotic.

Though I personally don't like the idea of importing a character from something else into a game unless that character is heavily modified to fit that setting (which I have done before).  Yet if you coordinated with other players and did something like this, it would be neat.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2017, 11:25:09 pm by Scintillating_Void »

EgyLynx

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2017, 05:19:15 pm »
Are youre test Mugen... Some CT persons are here, no one CC... but Tekken it likes there are lot...  But it was really "put person different game"

-> Some times it make "not" well balanced levels.

Razig

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2017, 04:14:28 pm »
Yet ironically if it weren't for Lavos there would not have been even elemental magic the way it exists in CT.  I would have it that maybe during the game there is still a developing schism between older elemental nature-revering magic and the newer magic based on Lavos if you want it to take place after Lavos's discovery.  That would be more ideal for a game that involves social tensions and outside forces effecting the characters than a typical "lets loot and kill monsters" game.

The tension between advocates of continuing to rely on natural energy and proponents of converting to Lavos energy would be a fun thing to explore. The following is all just my personal interpretation on the matter.

I think magic existed as a natural force with or without the interference of Lavos. Azala had psionic-type powers; possibly they're a different thing altogether as they are in D&D, but maybe in this world they're the precursor to true magical ability. The Reptites were much older and more evolved than humans. Since they were given more time to continue evolving in their own dimension, they seem to have developed the ability to use magic naturally, without Lavos in the picture at all. This is probably why the Dragonians were much more responsible in their use of magic.

Given enough time, humans may have gradually become able to use magic as well—the Frozen Flame just shortcutted the process by a few aeons. Basically, humanity learned to run before it learned to walk.

Still, humans being as adaptable as they are, they managed to do a pretty remarkable job of not messing things up. Its treatment of the Earthbound Ones notwithstanding, Zeal was a shining example of what could be achieved with properly applied magic. But the discovery of Lavos energy changed everything. Magic itself is not inherently good or evil, but using Lavos as a conduit to channel it has a corrupting effect due to how it circumvents the natural order. It will eventually lead to ruin, regardless of how good one's intentions are.

In D&D terms, I would give arcane casters the ability to boost their spells somehow (maybe by applying metamagic feats without increasing the spell's level or casting time) by calling upon Lavos energy, but each use of this ability runs the risk of corrupting the caster. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm

That depends.  In the games I have been, there is almost always at least one noble in the party. 

However I can see that for Enlightened Ones who'd rather not get their hands dirty and leave the "dirty work" to Earthbound and creatures like golems.  An adventurer who is an Enlightened would be a social outcast in most places.  Worse if they mingle Earthbound.

On the other side of the coin, an Enlightened One adventuring with Earthbound for the first time might find it disagreeable, but as he fights alongside them, sharing in their victories and defeats, he learns to overcome his culture's prejudices and preconceptions. The same would be true of an Earthbound One in a party of Enlightened.

Well it would be like in the game, except it's an AU where no time meddling has occurred involving Crono, another interpretation of an original timeline.  I like the possibilities that could bring up.

Reminds me of a fanfic where Magus finds an alternate timeline where he died before birth, Queen Zeal died, but King Zeal is alive, and it's at the point before the fall.  They still have the sunstone but it's dying, and Lavos has been recently discovered by Belthasar.  It was interesting how the author went into a huge amount of detail of Zeal customs and culture, and how Magus this time tries not to screw it up and ends up convincing the king to lower the islands down before the sunstone runs out of energy. 

But I was thinking along those lines of not complying to original canon, but going about it AU style.

I don't mind ignoring canon when necessary, but prefer to stick to it when possible. Nothing against AUs, but I just find it's easier to piggyback off of existing work rather than do my own. :P

Speaking of that, how about having dragonians as a playable race?  XD

We're given so little info about them in the game, that they're pretty much a blank slate for however you'd like to describe them.

Bouldegarde

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Re: Chrono series and Tabletop RPGing!
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2017, 07:19:05 pm »
A lot of years ago, I created a system just to emulate Chrono Trigger mechanics at almost 95% of accuracy. It was a d100 systemm

If I found and digitalize it I will post it ;)

Personally it was a pure emulation of the videogames with some adds (always respecting the world essence) to give it some roleplaying elements.