# Fursona Persona (An RP idea)



## Galatur René (May 25, 2018)

So I'm thinking of working on a Persona RP with some rules based upon ORE mixed with World of Darkness with more than a few liberties taken. 
But first I have to know what the community thinks about this system.
ORE is a system where you roll a number of d10s. Your roll will be successful if you have at least 2 matching numbers in your roll. For instance if you roll: 4, 3, 3, 2, 1 then your roll was successful. If you roll 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then your roll was unsuccessful. 
Successful rolls have a "width" and a "height".  Width is determined by number of matches of a certain number, height is the number that was rolled itself. For example the 4, 3, 3, 2, 1 from before would have one success, height of 3 because that's the number that is paired, and width of 2, because there is only a two of a kind. In this system Height is going to refer to the amount of damage, healing, buff, or debuff effect whereas width will describe the duration in those abilities that have duration or number of enemies hit in abilities that can hit multiple. 

And now for the main stats of the system as I have it so far: 

Compassion: Compassion represents how kind you appear to NPCs.
It also represents your bond with and control over your Persona. 
A person with no compassion loses control of their Persona and 
becomes their Shadow Self within the Great Divide.
Doing compassionate acts can raise your compassion, whereas doing
cruel acts can prevent character growth for the post, or in some cases,
cause compassion to lower. 
If you lose all compassion, you don't lose control of your character, 
you may still act out your character's desires, but you must go to extremes
and you are filled with the uncontrollable urge to destroy all Persona 
users who still have compassion. These conditions are persistent until 
you have at least 1 point of compassion.
Compassion has 5 ranks:
1. Decent
2. Kind
3. Generous
4. Motherly
5. Saintly
For each point of Compassion, you gain 1D to your rolls with any 
action, physical or magical, so long as your Persona is active, 
however, Compassion is not used to unlock any advanced skills.
Compassion is also along with Tenacity to determine your number of hitboxes.
(Shadow characters start using a stat called "Hatred" instead.) 



Competence: Competence represents how much information you know about
the secular world outside of the Great Divide. It generally represents
how intelligent NPCs will see you as. 
This doesn't necessarily have to be scientific knowlege but can be 
any sort of preporational intelligence, including training, self-development
etc.
You have the ability to replace an amount of dice equal to your
competence with sticky die of the same value as your competence.
For example, at Competence 3, you may replace any 3 die from your die pool
with Sticky 3 die, that is, die that will always be value "3". 
Competence is also used with Charm to derive your Keen rating:
your resistence to lies, mind control, and debuffs.
Competence has 5 Ranks:
1. Aware
2. Informed
3. Expert
4. Professor
5. Sage

Wit: Wit represents your capability of thinking on your feet and handling
in the moment situations, be it an improvised pun or screaming,"Get down!"
when you see someone with a gun. 
NPCs will see you as a more perceptive person if you have more wit. 
Wit is used as a base for the die pool of magic attack rolls.
Wit and Courage together are used to derive your defense rating:
your resistence to damage.
Wit has 5 Ranks: 
1. Johnny Come Lately
2. Alert
3. Watchful
4. Vigilent
5. Psychic
Courage: Courage represents your capability of facing danger and fear.
NPCs will see you as a more fearless person if you have courage. 
Courage is used as a base for the die pool of physical attack rolls.
Wit and Courage together are used to derive your defense rating:
your resistence to damage.
Courage has 5 Ranks: 
1. Average
2. Reliable
3. Brave
4. Daring
5. Heroic

Charm: Charm represents your capability to dazzle and entertain people. 
You will be more popular to NPCs the higher your Charm is. 
Charm is used as a base for the die pool of buffs, debuffs, and heals.
Charm is also used with Competence to derive your Keen rating:
your resistence to lies, mind control, and debuffs.
Charm has 5 Ranks: 
1. Rough
2. Eloquent
3. Persuasive
4. Touching
5. Enthralling

Tenacity: Tenacity represents your capability to keep going, despite hardship
NPCs will see you as more reliable the higher your Tenacity. 
Tenacity is used along with Compassion to determine your number of hit boxes.
Also, for every rank of Tenacity your persona becomes resistent to an element.
If you are already resistent to an element and increase your rank in Tenacity,
you may choose to repel that element instead of becoming resistent to a new
element.
If you already repel an element and increase your rank in Tenacity, you may
choose to absorb that element instead of becoming resistent to a new element.



Some social actions may require a roll due to their difficulty despite
not being in a hostile situation. At such a point PM the GM about what
your die pool should be.
Examples of social actions:
Diplomacy: (Die Pool = Compassion + Wit) Diplomacy is a benign form
of persuasion that comes from a place of understanding needs. 
Any action in which you are trying to persuade someone to do something
that benefits both yourself and them in some way you can justify to the
GM.
Deception: (Die Pool = Charm + Wit) Deception is a form of persuasion
which may or may not include lying, but involves convincing someone 
to do what you want, even if it would not benefit them or may even be 
harmful to them. 
Driving a Getaway Car: (Die Pool = Courage + Wit)
Fishing: (Die Pool = Charm + Tenacity) 
Disguise: (Die Pool = Charm + Competence) 

Obviously I don't have the whole system down on paper, so I'm just trying to gauge how people think I'm doing so far, or if I should start over and try something even simpler.


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## Leo Whitepaw (May 25, 2018)

Seems Aoke, if not a bit complex


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## Blue_Jay (May 25, 2018)

I don't like the prospect of characters having to be decent people in order to control their powers. Sure, in many scenarios it's probably fine to depict bad guys as monsterous entities, but maybe attributing that quality to all antagonists is a bit one dimensional? Some people are villianous but have exceptional self control and inner strength--they're the sort of people who'd be unlikely to be consumed by their own psionic powers and such.


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## Galatur René (May 25, 2018)

Blue_Jay said:


> I don't like the prospect of characters having to be decent people in order to control their powers. Sure, in many scenarios it's probably fine to depict bad guys as monsterous entities, but maybe attributing that quality to all antagonists is a bit one dimensional? Some people are villianous but have exceptional self control and inner strength--they're the sort of people who'd be unlikely to be consumed by their own psionic powers and such.


You would still have control of your powers, but you would be unable to resist harming those who had compassion and you would have to go to the extremes. You would have, then, a hatred stat instead of a compassion stat.
Persona games have a long history of being about fighting your inner demons and about the shadows, the monsters you fight,  being the cause or the literal minds of humans who give into their dark desires.
Compassion, known as "Understanding" in previous persona games, was not always a pivotal stat, true. But for this theme, which very much echos similar to other themes in Persona games,  fighting against the shadows from within the realm of the Great Divide WILL require compassion. It's just a matter of the forces that you are fighting against.
In Persona 3, for instance, people were fighting against hopelessness, apathy, and suicidal thoughts. People had to keep that in check or they lost control of their Persona and their Persona tried to kill them.
I'm giving you /more/ control than that.
And you can be compassionate and do things that are atrocious, indeed, if you take your own compassion to seriously, it could lead to madness. I won't make gameplay mechanics for that, but it is something that could be roleplayed.


Leo Whitepaw said:


> Seems Aoke, if not a bit complex


A lot of the most parts of the complexity will be kept on my end. The more complex calculations etc, etc, I see no reason the players will need to keep up with any of that. 
And I was actually trying to go with something simple that I could conjure together in a day or two, because combat is definitely NOT the primary thing in this RP. When it occurs, combat is important. But Persona, as well as this RP, has a great deal about it that is socialization with your peers in a normal, day to day way in order to keep yourself safe from the horrors of the realm with the shadows.


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## Leo Whitepaw (May 25, 2018)

Seems good


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## Blue_Jay (May 26, 2018)

(The following is irrelevant soapbox talk. Not criticizing you or your idea.)

I think I understand. But I still don't like the idea of people who are morally compromised or who have bad intentions necessarily being _compelled_ to do evil, especially if those actions are counter intuitive to them or their goals. If their shadows are driving them to do evil then it's sounds more like a curse than a boon, leaving them at a severe disadvantage. If anything it would absolve a shadow self or a powered villian of any wrong-doing because they aren't in control of their actions or free will.

It's an entirely different prospect, however, if a person has a special power and is able to make the conscious decision to do evil without compromising themselves or their core beliefs. For instance, there are compassionate characters in the Shin Megegami Tensei series who are technically villians (from the protagonists point of view). And there are also evil characters who abstain from violence unless it is absolutely necessary. And then there are characters that are good and compassionate but are deeply flawed and vulnerable.

I dunno. I'm used to stories where the villians are typically overpowered. But your scenario seems to subvert that.

Mind you, I've no intention of playing a villain.


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## Whimsycal (May 26, 2018)

I think is a good system. I mean is pretty clear when you actually think on it is not so much different on how we use the stats of DnD. It feels like it will get easier to understand once you start the rp


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## Azrion/Zhalo (May 27, 2018)

Or since it's Persona, the 5 character stats can just be these with 5 tiers each:

Knowledge
Guts
Proficiency
Kindness
Charm

And as for dice rolls, I only see them being necessary for combat since basically everything can be done without fail with the required stat tier. Dice will just make it unnecessarily frustrating in that regard


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## Galatur René (May 27, 2018)

Azrion/Zhalo said:


> Or since it's Persona, the 5 character stats can just be these with 5 tiers each:
> 
> Knowledge
> Guts
> ...


Persona games themselves have often switched which words they used in relation to certain social stats.  I used as many as I felt captured both the theme and what the stat was going to do. 
I used some terms which are, while representative of the stats, perhaps a bit more divisive; I did this intentionally. It is more neutral, in my mind, to say that one is knowledgeable, but to say one is competent is to many to imply that others around them are not competent, creating a divide. 
It all ties into the theme, and the secret behind the true nature of this new realm of shadows, the Great Divide. 
That being said, I agree. I should take away the social rolls. If you have the required stats for the action socially, such as enough courage to drive a getaway car, I will allow it without problem. 
I want this game to be freeing, not restricting.


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## Azrion/Zhalo (May 27, 2018)

Galatur René said:


> That being said, I agree. I should take away the social rolls. If you have the required stats for the action socially, such as enough courage to drive a getaway car, I will allow it without problem.


Yeah, because it would be pretty strange, although admittedly hilarious, if someone was Erudite (Knowledge 5) but couldn't solve 2 + 2 simply because they got screwed over by a dice roll


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## HammerMasher77 (May 29, 2018)

This is pretty complicated, but also really interesting.
Granted all the players (Not to mention the GM or whatever) understand the system, it could make for a ton of fun.


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## theawakening (May 29, 2018)

what


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## Kurgarra Lilitu (Jun 2, 2018)

My sibling René is going through difficult times and a major change at the moment and has asked me to bump this for them. I've been working on the system for them in their place until René has everything sorted. 

Expect changes in the way Compassion works and a comprehensive list of the pre-built powers to come soon. It may even come with René posting their RP proper.


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## Galatur René (Jun 7, 2018)

Here's an update. So... My computer crashed with all my updated changes in the RP rules on it. 
I... hope it isn't fried. I'm using my sister's computer right now, but she and her fiance also use it so... I may have majorly ruined this project by not keeping backups on Google Docs like I usually do. 
My boyfriend is much better at computers than I am, so I will beg him to fix it for me with sad bat eyes.


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## Tyll'a (Jun 7, 2018)

If you're still doing this, I might be interested, since Tyll'a already has a Shadow version of himself (although he calls it Feral Tyll'a, not Shadow Tyll'a).


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## Galatur René (Jun 7, 2018)

PSDuckie said:


> If you're still doing this, I might be interested, since Tyll'a already has a Shadow version of himself (although he calls it Feral Tyll'a, not Shadow Tyll'a).


I'm still working on it... I'm just... having to rework a lot of the progress that I have made on the engine. I was almost finished, I only needed the powers for a few of the Arcana set up. But now I need to run the math all over again and set up what kind of die rolls which powers are going to have in the system again.
I even lost the rules on growth and change of Arcana. I made them pretty simple so I should be able to rewrite them with a little effort. The setback is just a little draining.


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