Avatar / Korra game considerations

[Cupcake]

Poking around a bit, I've come to the conclusion that Republic City's major export is industry in general and transportation in particular; especially automobiles. There are no less than three major companies with headquarters there that produce automobiles:

Future Industries - primarily automobiles, but also with significant R&D for machines of war. (I have reason to believe Future Industries will have the means to become an independent company once more)

Stark - I mean, Varrick Global Industries - less focus on automobiles, more on war machines, weaponry, and general tech advancement.

Cabbage Corporation - Cheap automobiles.

We also see examples of factory jobs being an easy job to get in Korra.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[Kanye Qwest]

@Roz said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Coin said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Roz said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

I have a half-baked idea but it involves -- if there's gonna be sheets, and stats for bending expertise, it would also be cool if people could spend XP on the other bending styles (other than their own) as an indicator of how well they've studied those styles to counter. (I thought of this after being reminded of a scene early in S1 on TLA where Aang is chatting with the Fire Nation guards while captured and is all "Huh you guys have probably never fought an Air Bender, huh." A big part of Aang's effectiveness in the series ended up just being that people had totally lost the experience of studying the styles of air bending.)

My custom-baked Avatar system has as its core Attributes the four elements + Spirit, and each one governs something different (Fire is Power; Water is Change; Earth is Temperance; Air is Freedom ...) and when you bend you roll the appropriate Attribute, but having the others is part of everyone; everyone has a little bit of each element; Benders just channel their main one into their Bending Art. What you're suggesting would be represented by having better levels of the others to better understanding the theory behind other Bending techniques.

Mm, I guess. My line of thinking would be more about the skill end of things. Like if you have the elements as attributes, I feel like you'd want to also have skills to represent developing the actual techniques. Like how Katara had plenty of waterbending potential from the start of the show (attribute, in your example), but she had to learn how to use it (skill, in mine). What I'm talking about would specifically be about learning technique.

Yeah, the actual bending styles are pretty obviously based on different stances of kung fu/martial arts. Being able to study those even without the bending would make sense.

[Roz]

@Kanye-Qwest said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Roz said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Coin said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Roz said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

I have a half-baked idea but it involves -- if there's gonna be sheets, and stats for bending expertise, it would also be cool if people could spend XP on the other bending styles (other than their own) as an indicator of how well they've studied those styles to counter. (I thought of this after being reminded of a scene early in S1 on TLA where Aang is chatting with the Fire Nation guards while captured and is all "Huh you guys have probably never fought an Air Bender, huh." A big part of Aang's effectiveness in the series ended up just being that people had totally lost the experience of studying the styles of air bending.)

My custom-baked Avatar system has as its core Attributes the four elements + Spirit, and each one governs something different (Fire is Power; Water is Change; Earth is Temperance; Air is Freedom ...) and when you bend you roll the appropriate Attribute, but having the others is part of everyone; everyone has a little bit of each element; Benders just channel their main one into their Bending Art. What you're suggesting would be represented by having better levels of the others to better understanding the theory behind other Bending techniques.

Mm, I guess. My line of thinking would be more about the skill end of things. Like if you have the elements as attributes, I feel like you'd want to also have skills to represent developing the actual techniques. Like how Katara had plenty of waterbending potential from the start of the show (attribute, in your example), but she had to learn how to use it (skill, in mine). What I'm talking about would specifically be about learning technique.

Yeah, the actual bending styles are pretty obviously based on different stances of kung fu/martial arts. Being able to study those even without the bending would make sense.

Yeah, and Iroh -- and subsequently Zuko, as his student -- is shown as being a legendary bender in part because he has studied and adapted elements of other bending styles to his own. Plus pro benders are obviously going to have professional need to study other styles just for their sport.

[Cupcake]

Yeah, the actual bending styles are pretty obviously based on different stances of kung fu/martial arts. Being able to study those even without the bending would make sense.

I'm going to NERD ALERT myself.

Air is Ba Gua
Water is Tai chi
Earth is generally Hop Gar, with Toph's particular unique style actually being Mantis
Fire is Northern Shaolin.

[Ominous]

Would the skill is Firebending just show general ability in firebending without being tied to special abilities? Like would things like blue flames or lightning be locked behind something akin to D&D feats?

[silverfox]

Ngl, the more you guys talk the more I would want this. Post-Korra time just so that the advanced tech is more available. It would be fun to play a grunt in that world.

[fatefan]

@Ominous Good question. I'm looking into FS3 options at the moment, so skill specialties (like lightning) might be one way to make this happen.

[GreenFlashlight]

Random thought: if the game is post-Korra, there's no reason we couldn't have playable spirit characters.

ETA: apart from all the game design difficulties, I mean

[Wretched]

Thoughts about setting. I like the Korra tech vibe and the open options, but I am also a fan of 'unexplored' wilderness. Tho mebbe unexplored is the wrong word. What about a non established city, a new settlement that is in the process of a 'boom' in population and incoming technology from Republic City. (I am just starting Korra season 2 so i cant comment on spirits yet.

[fatefan]

@GreenFlashlight I think keeping the PC focus on humans will be fine.

[Wretched]

@fatefan I dunno, spirit PC's could be cool AF, many of them seemed fairly limited in power, imagine them interacting with this 'modern world' after 10,000 years separate. Make a template for 'playable spirits' of around the same power level as a bender and it could be fun.

[fatefan]

@Wretched It probably could be fun, but I am not convinced that the scope needs to be expanded beyond human PCs.

[GreenFlashlight]

@fatefan said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Wretched It probably could be fun, but I am not convinced that the scope needs to be expanded beyond human PCs.

Remember that fox in the desert library who got in trouble for telling the giant owl spirit that radios are boxes with tiny singers inside them? If you allow spirit PCs, someone (I'm not saying me but I'm also not not saying me) could play that fox who is working as a bartender now because she was cast out from the library. She would have many daily struggles like how to serve alcohol when you don't have hands, but she would also have many daily successes because when people tell her their troubles she can lay her head on the bar and let people pet her between the ears until they feel better.

This is obviously very very compelling and is therefore an excellent argument for spirit PCs.

[Wizz]

I'd totally app the Spirit Mushroom.

[Wretched]

So I'm almost done with Korra and i want to say that one thing that I enjoy muchly is that goths are essentially canon.

[insomniac7809]

@Wretched As well as hippies (nomads)

[Cadi]

Hell yes! I am so excited for this game! I don't mind if it is post Korra or pre-Aang in order to make sure we have Air Benders.

I like the idea of maybe making it a fringe city/town to allow for 'exploration' as well as 'city feel'. Maybe even a city between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation if we want some political intrigue; something like the Village Resort. Post Aang any border city of the United Republic of Nations can work.

I also like the idea of specialized bending being subclasses of their respective schools. I am not sure how you can do that in terms of dice. I like @Roz 's idea of attribute vs skill; and if they want to specialize in a subclass, they may end up sinking most of their skill points in that. This can help even out the skills so you don't have someone who is fantastic at just about everything, plus it matches with the theme of the show; sometimes raw power wins, sometimes finesse wins.

For example, I was thinking the difference between say Zuko and Azula when it came to fire bending. Zuko is obviously much more crafty and has way more nuanced technique than Azula. He is a character who spent most of his firebending points in skills so he has more techniques, tricks, and uses (including redirecting lightening, defensive fire technique, etc). Azula, on the other hand has raw power. She is the character who sinks all her points in the lightning/blue flame subclass, so while she comes out as a wrecking ball, she can't really do much more than that (perhaps a glass cannon of sorts?) Another character would be Combustionman - all his power is in one move, so he becomes a bit of a one-trick pony but really fantastic at it!

I really like the break down of all the bending (in terms of 'moves/tricks' and sub classes) found in the fandom wiki here:https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Bending_arts
Hopefully this can help when creating a skill/attribute sheet.

While I may be hated for this, I highly suggest putting a cap on how much a character can learn in terms of bending post chargen, to signal the limit of how much any person can do/learn in a life time. Keep the prodigies for the show. (...On the other hand we can just throw caution to the wind and really have fun in terms of power.)

[Wretched]

@Cadi I like post Korra (the show not her death tho mebbe that too?), because it seems like the power levels of bending were less limited to the few 'specials'. Lots of Metal benders, at least 2 lava benders. spirit benders, blood benders etc. The tech level is nice but there's still room for nature, more spirit wilds popping up around 'custom town' iss totally possible (or later plot thing dun dun!). Gives a lot of room for character options. Also PRO BENDING.

[Runescryer]

@Wretched said in Avatar / Korra game considerations:

@Cadi I like post Korra (the show not her death tho mebbe that too?), because it seems like the power levels of bending were less limited to the few 'specials'. Lots of Metal benders, at least 2 lava benders. spirit benders, blood benders etc. The tech level is nice but there's still room for nature, more spirit wilds popping up around 'custom town' iss totally possible (or later plot thing dun dun!). Gives a lot of room for character options. Also PRO BENDING.

The Boulder is very upset at your lack of recognition that (airquotes) 'Pro Bending' began in the Earth Kingdom with the EARTH RUMBLE, the greatest spectacle in bending EVER!

[Cadi]

@Wretched I am convinced! I want to app a Pro Bender in a team called "Just A Bear".