Final Fantasy Infinite

[Sasaisen]

OVERVIEW

Final Fantasy Infinite is a rules-medium original system, designed to be mechanically robust, easy to prepare, and quick to run, all while maintaining the feel of classic Final Fantasy. Highlights of the system include simple math (single- and low-double-digit addition, with minor subtraction and halving/doubling), mix-and-match character creation and progression, and a tactical combat minigame with abstracted positioning.

Special credit goes to ThreadOfFate, my sounding board and partner in crime, as well as to Dust, author of Final Fantasy d6. This project was originally a revamping of her system before ThreadOfFate and I diverged massively into crazytown, and her work still serves as an inspiration.

Spoiler: The Basics

Show

WHAT IS

Final Fantasy Infinite is a roleplaying game for at least two people, ideally three to seven, and potentially as many players as can fit in a room. In it, players assume the roles of characters on various sides of a grandiose tale, and the story and fate of a fictional world hinge on their actions. Generally, most players will take on the role of heroes, major characters directly in the thick of events who are tasked with doing the impossible. One player (or possibly more) will take on the mantle of the Game Moderator, or GM, and play as various monsters - allies, opposition, and other characters who will weave in and out of the narrative. As the players add their own directions and spin to their shared tale, the GM keeps everything interesting and everyone on the same page, and serves as a tiebreaker when players can't reach a consensus.

WHAT NEED

Final Fantasy Infinite makes uses six-sided dice (the kind commonly found with board games) to resolve matters of chance. While, strictly speaking, only a single die (which can be rolled again and again in a time-consuming fashion) is needed, the more dice can be obtained, the better. Most checks involve three to five dice, but occasionally up to eight will be required, and things are much smoother if everyone has their own set to roll. Besides that, all that's needed is pencils and paper (or other handy record-keeping implements) and a healthy imagination.

HOW DO

Whenever your character attempts an action, you will typically be asked to make a check. You roll three six-sided dice, add the results together, and add the indicated attribute to the total, as well as any additional modifiers depending on the action or situation. This is compared to the difficulty for the action; if the result is equal or greater than the number associated with the difficulty, the check is a success. For some actions, if you also beat higher difficulties, you can produce greater or additional effects; for others, the harder you fail, the worse off you become.

When a character is attempting to do something to someone, this usually calls for something slightly different - an opposed check. Instead of one of the standard difficulties, the difficulty is based on one of the opponent's attributes, usually the same one the character is adding to their check unless otherwise specified. In all other respects, this functions as a standard check; notably and unlike other games, only the acting character actually rolls.

Finally, some checks may have no associated difficulty. These are typically used to set the difficulty for other, future checks in a situation, or to determine how long particular tasks take.

If the difficulty is…	…your total must at least be…
Trivial	6
Easy	10
Moderate	13
Hard	16
eXtreme	20
Fantastic	23
Ludicrous	26
Impossible	30
For an opposed check...	...you must roll higher than…
Simple	6 + opponent's attribute
eVen	10 + opponent's attribute
Challenging	13 + opponent's attribute

BREAKS AND COMPLICATIONS

Even when totally outclassed, a character can sometimes stumble on and succeed through sheer luck. If at any time you roll three 6s on a check, you benefit from a break. Generally, this means you may roll an extra die and add that roll, minus 1, to your check (effectively, a bonus from +0 to +5). Alternatively, if you so choose or would already succeed at the check, your action results in an additional beneficial effect or fortunate circumstance, as determined by your group.

Similarly, bad luck can strike even the most competent of characters. If you roll three "1"s on a check, you suffer a complication. Not only does the check automatically fail (even if it would have otherwise succeeded), but now there's another negative circumstance or problem for you and your allies to deal with. This may be either a direct consequence of your failure, or an external event that "caused" you to fail.

EDGES AND FAULTS

A character's training, helpful circumstances, and outside assistance can give them an edge in a situation. Conversely, injuries, conditions, and other adverse circumstances can cause a character to suffer a fault. When an edge or fault applies to a check you're making, you roll an additional die, and add together either the three highest (for an edge) or lowest (for a fault) rolls for your result. Multiple edges and faults can stack, to a maximum of five extra dice (for a total of eight dice rolled), and each edge negates one fault when both apply to the same check. Breaks and complications are determined by the three dice you keep.

ASSISTANCE AND TEAMWORK

From time to time, everyone can use a little help to see a task through. Nearly any task that requires a check can benefit from assistance. When this is the case, each assisting character first makes a check. This is generally the same check required for the task at hand, with the difficulty reduced by one step, but a different check that could plausibly render assistance may be substituted (at its normal difficulty) at your group's discretion. Each success adds an edge to the leading character's check, while a failure adds a fault.

Many situations are better handled as considering one character to be "leading" and the rest "assisting", rather than everyone's actions being evaluated on their own. This is referred to as a teamwork check, and is recommended when characters are combining efforts towards a single specific goal, or when individual efforts are important but one lucky or unlucky roll shouldn't dictate success or failure for the entire activity. When making a teamwork check, the leading character is the one whose role is pivotal to the scenario or ties the others' actions together; if this isn't obvious, then treat the character with the highest modifier as the leading character. Common situations where teamwork checks are appropriate include negotiations, infiltrating a location as a group, and executing a heist.

DEFAULT AND ROUTINE CHECKS

In many cases, a character will attempt a task that isn't worth rolling for success or failure. Perhaps there is no penalty for failure (barring a complication), so success is a question of "when" rather than "if", or maybe the consequences simply aren't that interesting. To save time, there are two shortcuts to quickly establish whether success occurs.

If the check is not opposed, or opposed but made against an object, it can be performed as a default check. Instead of rolling, the character simply acts as if they rolled a 5, and thus automatically succeeds if 5 + their attribute meets the difficulty; essentially, this is a task well within their ability, and thus with little chance of failure under most circumstances.

If the check is not opposed, or opposed but made against an object, and additionally has no faults after edges are applied, it can be performed as a routine check. This is similar to a default check, except the character is treated as if they rolled a 10, and represents an "average" effort on their behalf, with no adverse conditions (or enough training to counteract them).

MEASUREMENTS

To make things more manageable at the table, this game uses abstract values for quantities such as distance or time. While real units still apply whenever the situation may call for it, for gameplay purposes it usually doesn't matter exactly (for instance) how far apart two characters are, only their rough separation.

Range is the most straightforward, and measures the approximate distance between two points. Each Range increment represents a spread of values as indicated on the table below, and is approximately twice as large as the previous increment. Area (the two-dimensional extent of a location) and Size (of characters and objects) use the same scale, and are both generally measured along the longest dimension. Places, characters, or objects with an unusual shape may have an adjusted Area or Size.

Range/Area/Size	Actual Length
0	Less than 1m
1	1m to 2.5m
2	2.5m to 5m
3	5m to 10m
4	10m to 25m
5	25m to 50m
6	50m to 100m
7	100m to 250m
8	250m to 500m
9	500m to 1km
10	1km to 2.5km
11	2.5km to 5km
12	5km to 10km

Time (at least on a fine scale) is tracked in rounds, each roughly fifteen to twenty seconds in length, during which characters have one or more chances to move and take action. This is described in more detail in Chapter 4.

Spoiler: Defining a Hero

Show

Heroes are the vehicles through which players explore the world of Final Fantasy. They may run the gamut of appearances, personalities, and archetypes, but at their core they are represented by a common set of abilities and numerical "stats". These are the foundation for how the character interacts with the world, and how they likely they are to succeed at their endeavors.

CORE ASPECTS

Level and Tier are separate but related measures of a character's overall capabilities. Level is an abstract value and not usually recognizable by characters; it ranges from 1 to 15 and determines the minimum and maximum attributes and quantity of abilities a character can possess. Tier, on the other hand, is readily observable, whether through appearance, lore, reputation, or simply the "aura" they radiate (i.e. "I have a bad feeling about him…"), and determines which jobs, spells, and equipment they are qualified to access or use. Each Tier corresponds to a spread of Levels, and can be identified either numerically (for clarity) or descriptively (through titles or epithets); a very high-Level character thus might actually be known as a Legendary Soldier or a Black Sage.

Levels	Tier	Example Titles
1-3	1	Acolyte, Adept, Novice
4-6	2	Expert, Magus
7-9	3	Master, Theurge
10-12	4	Champion, Paragon, Wizard
13-15	5	Legend, Sage

This chapter assumes a hero starts at Level (and Tier) 1 - while they may have a mundane career or minor heroic antics behind them, their legend is just beginning. Heroes who have adventures and experience behind them, or are joining in the middle of a story, may be higher in Level at the group's discretion; this is discussed in Chapter 2.

Type is the biological and physical classification of a character, and with few exceptions is obvious to the world. There are ten types: Aerial, Arcane, Aquatic, Beast, Construct, Dragon, Fiend, Humanoid, Insect, and Plant. Of these, a hero is assumed to be Humanoid by default; this gives them a weakness to elemental Shadow, a resistance to elemental Light, and an extra background. Characters of a special race or with a less-than-human biology can be represented by certain backgrounds (such as Strange Heritage), or can be another type outright at the group's discretion; backgrounds are located in Chapter 2, while non-Humanoid types are discussed in detail in Chapter 8.

Attributes represent, in general terms. how well a character interacts with the world. Any time a character makes a check, they will add one of these attributes based on the task in question. All characters have four attributes:

• Might affects how much physical damage a character inflicts and takes, and determines their ability to exert force, carry loads, jump, overcome obstacles, and endure in the face of hardship.
• Quickness affects how often a character strikes with and avoids physical attacks, and determines their ability to keep their footing, react quickly, avoid attracting undue attention, and finagle their way into where they shouldn’t be.
• Presence affects how much magical damage a character inflicts and takes, and determines their ability to resist social or mental pressure, influence others, and take notice of the world around them.
• Insight affects how often a character strikes with and avoids magical attacks, and determines their ability to think quickly on their feet, solve puzzles or conundrums, analyze an object/person/situation, and engineer solutions to tough problems.

A hero begins with six points of attributes, divided in any fashion, but no attribute can be less than 0 or more than 3. On top of this, a bonus is added to their attributes based on their current job and level.

BACKGROUNDS AND DESTINY

Backgrounds are perks that help to represent their upbringing, heritage, accomplishments, defining moments, and driving influences. These support a character's history by providing tangible benefits (and occasionally drawbacks or obligations) but are not all-encompassing - not every twist or detail needs to have a background attached to it.

Destiny on the other hand, indicates a character's future - their importance, their untapped potential, and the great (or terrible) deeds they may yet perform. While every character possesses a background or two, only notable or "named" characters have Destiny. Watch Commander Robert Stein, Dead Hand Jack, and the Terror in the Night are destined characters; the faceless palace guard, unnamed bandit #3, and randomly-encountered pack of wolves are standard characters with no Destiny. Simply having Destiny helps to prevent an untimely demise, and it can be either temporarily spent or semi-permanently "burned" to represent the universe working (or cheating) in one's favor.

Of course, a character isn't simply destined, they are destined to do things. Those things are called fates, and can include personal goals or aspirations, roles the character will play in future events, critical decisions they must make, or an impending doom they must struggle to avoid. A character confronting their fate (whether they meet it or "avert" it) allows them to grow, not just in power but in influence.

Heroes are always Destined characters, and a Humanoid hero begins with either three backgrounds and a Destiny of 1; two backgrounds and a Destiny of 2; or one background and a Destiny of 3. Heroes of other types have one fewer background. Backgrounds, Destiny, and fates are elaborated upon in Chapter 2.

JOBS AND ABILITIES

In the world of Final Fantasy, a character's profession is a vital part of their identity. While there are thousands of possible professions one could have, only some of these provide the skills necessary for adventuring; these are collectively referred to as jobs. Jobs are grouped together by Tiers; Tier 1 jobs (basic jobs), are easily accessible and provide a well-rounded and foundational set of job abilities; while higher-Tier jobs (advanced jobs) represent more specialized, tangential, or difficult-to-master paths.

A fledgling hero may be of any of the basic jobs, granting them the appropriate core ability, attribute bonuses, equipment proficiencies, and magic affinities. They possess two job abilities, one from their current job and the other from any basic job. The job system, as well as the various jobs and abilities, are detailed in Chapter 3.

EQUIPMENT AND SPELLS

A character's talents and abilities can carry them far, but they'll also need the proper tools get the job done. A character's equipment includes the trusty weapon at their side, the armor or clothing keeping them safe from the world, and all the various accessories and knicknacks they acquire over their travels. For the more mystically-inclined, there are also spells, individual effects that are each the magical equivalent of weapon or tool at their disposal.

A typical hero begins with 500 Gil, which they may spend or have spent on Tier 1 items equipment and spells. Their backgrounds and job abilities may modify the amount of funds they begin with, or grant certain equipment or spells for free. Chapter 6 describes equipment and how to obtain it, while Chapter 7 explains how magic works.

MISCELLANEOUS

Hit Points (HP) - Every character has 20 of these, which are lost whenever they fail to resist damage and regained when they rest or are healed. Tougher characters have higher resistance attributes, defense ratings, or are larger, but still have the same amount of HP.

Magic Points (MP) - Every character also has 20 of these, which are spent to use magical job abilities or spells and recovered via resting or items.

Size - A rough estimation of how large a character is. Most Humanoid characters are Size 1, unless something states otherwise.

Speed - How far a character can move in a combat round. A character's Speed is equal to 1/2 of their Might (ignoring their level bonus), rounded up, plus the greater of their Size or Tier.

[ThreadOfFate]

Removed pending massive future update.

[Soultastic]

I've been meaning to post here for some time, but never took the time to actually do it. So here I am, posting now.

I'm excited to see how your system comes out, since I'm a fan of Dust's system. I am like most everyone else, I imagine, waiting for an update that we were promised over six months ago, and since then, have remainded in the dark as Dust has stopped posting.

Your system seems well thought out for a different change of pace without insulting the system we've come to love, so I look forward to playing around with this. Keep up the work. I just had to post to let you know your thread isn't going unignored. People are watching it.

[Larkas]

Have you tried Marc's system? It's not only actively maintained, but the creator is always after input from people who play it!

Now, that's not to discourage you from making your own system, I just thought it could be interesting to bring attention to a nice, well-thought out system that might actually help you out

[Sasaisen]

Status update, since apparently there's a tad of an audience: this is not dead. Over the past few weeks, I've been hashing out rules for basic adventuring tasks because a lot of what is in mind for the thief (and a good bit for the soldier) hinged on it - I can't make rules for a sneaky class without a solid foundation for sneaking. You can see some of this in the "Adventuring" section, which wasn't around when I last replied. Once that's done, I will technically have a playable system, and will add in the thief abilities (all of which are conceptualized, but not implemented).

I've been meaning to post here for some time, but never took the time to actually do it. So here I am, posting now.

I'm excited to see how your system comes out, since I'm a fan of Dust's system. I am like most everyone else, I imagine, waiting for an update that we were promised over six months ago, and since then, have remainded in the dark as Dust has stopped posting.

Your system seems well thought out for a different change of pace without insulting the system we've come to love, so I look forward to playing around with this. Keep up the work. I just had to post to let you know your thread isn't going unignored. People are watching it.

It's nice to know someone cares. :D If you have any comments on material I've posted, or questions about why I do X/how I plan to do Y, please post away.

Have you tried Marc's system? It's not only actively maintained, but the creator is always after input from people who play it!

Now, that's not to discourage you from making your own system, I just thought it could be interesting to bring attention to a nice, well-thought out system that might actually help you out

While I'm have nothing against d20 (like I mentioned, the game was run with such a system at the start), I'm deliberately shying away from it here. I know the system well, and it's too tight when I don't need it to be (e.g. positioning) and not tight enough when I do (e.g. skills). I do appreciate the link, though; I will shamelessly crib whatever I find useful. ;)

[Larkas]

I do appreciate the link, though; I will shamelessly crib whatever I find useful. ;)

That's the idea! Don't forget to give Marc some feedback, though, the guy has put some serious effort into that system.

[Soultastic]

The only thing I can suggest is to be very careful about how you hit mobs and how avoidance works. In Dust's system we had to constantly tinker with avoidance since it seemed a little one sided to have people getting hit all the time. I'm not smart enough personally to tell if you've worked that out or not, personally. I'm no great number cruncher. :)

[Sasaisen]

The answer to that is to keep the numbers on a tight range, which is what we're doing here. With the current setup, if two characters (and monsters follow the same rules as characters) have the same level, the largest possible difference in stats is 6. This takes you from a 62.5% hit chance (when your stats are equal) to either a 99.5% chance (if your stat is 6 higher) or a 4.6% chance (if your stat is 6 lower). A big difference, yes, but that's is the full extent of your stat range. Barring status ailments (which I'm okay with) and size differences (which need work, but are usually in your favor when hitting things anyway), even if you deliberately dump both your to-hit stats and your opponent has maximized both of theirs, your hit chance is still the equivalent of rolling a natural 20.

[Larkas]

Hmmmmmmm... Crazy idea here, but have you thought of dumping size differences completely? FF characters don't seem to have much of a problem hitting anything from a tiny fly to a huge Weapon, nor grappling or throwing them. I mean, it might not be realistic, but it is in line with FF, is it not?

[ThreadOfFate]

Hmmmmmmm... Crazy idea here, but have you thought of dumping size differences completely? FF characters don't seem to have much of a problem hitting anything from a tiny fly to a huge Weapon, nor grappling or throwing them. I mean, it might not be realistic, but it is in line with FF, is it not?

We've made a couple of conscious decisions with this game to emulate the Final Fantasy flavor as much as possible without sacrificing good gameplay mechanics. At a certain point, you have to say "this is cool, but doing this thing would throw balance out the window", so we've had to do a couple of losses of flavor and feel to make sure that the game is solid. This isn't a better approach than saying, for instance, flavor trumps all and mechanics be damned, but it is the approach that we're taking.

Also note that your to-hit not succeeding doesn't mean that you didn't hit it - it could also mean that you simply did not affect it with your attack, as it may have been deflected by armor or something similar.

[Reiver Party]

Is it possible to put the basic jobs in seperate spoilers nested within the main "basic jobs" spoiler?

It would making reading and comparing the individual jobs easier.

[Prim]

The only thing I can suggest is to be very careful about how you hit mobs and how avoidance works. In Dust's system we had to constantly tinker with avoidance since it seemed a little one sided to have people getting hit all the time. I'm not smart enough personally to tell if you've worked that out or not, personally. I'm no great number cruncher. :)

Assuming we're using the 2d6 system, this reference sheet will give you a basic outline of the expected hit percentage. Adding bonuses will change the success rate and minimum score.

[Sparx MacGyver]

Thanks @Sasaisen for posting a link to this. I couldn't find it again for awhile. Will be keeping an eye on this.

[Sasaisen]

Nooo, not a bump, I wasn't ready! Anyway, I'm confirming that this is still alive, though the thread is silent and progress is slow (although quicker as of late). For anyone who's interested, I'm currently in the middle of a significant update on combat, and this will get a bump when that's done.

[steelsmiter]

Nooo, not a bump, I wasn't ready! Anyway, I'm confirming that this is still alive, though the thread is silent and progress is slow (although quicker as of late). For anyone who's interested, I'm currently in the middle of a significant update on combat, and this will get a bump when that's done.

Yeah, you can count me among the interested. I'd like to see less "Stuff" and more actual stuff myself :D
But I suspect you probably are aware of that. Out of curiosity, was it Tactics that got you interested in doing the class system the way you are?

[Sasaisen]

Yeah, you can count me among the interested. I'd like to see less "Stuff" and more actual stuff myself :D

You and me both, sir or mam.

Out of curiosity, was it Tactics that got you interested in doing the class system the way you are?

While I'm ashamed that I have not played the original Tactics, TA and TA2 are definitely among my most worthwhile purchases. I'm a huge fan of the job system in general, with all of its crazy mix-and-match glory. It's one of the better and more iconic elements of classic Final Fantasy, and it makes me sad that the series has almost entirely abandoned it.

[steelsmiter]

I like sphere grids and/or license boards myself. I'm fond of systems that aren't really multi-class per se, but where personal evolution is fluid. Like (as I understand it) FFT?? Job System. In some games, when you multi-class, you may lose some abilities, or take some sort of arbitrarily included penalty. I like GURPS, where character creation and subsequent point expenditures are relatively fluid. Evolutionary if you will.

[Held]

Black Mage's core ability does nothing? :(

Looked nice until so far! I really like Final Fantasy but found the existing systems too, uh, expansive.

[ThreadOfFate]

Hey guys. Just letting everyone know this is still active! Sasaisen has been doing a lot of work over the past few months with some help from me. We're still plugging away at it and are hoping to get the major update out to y'all soon.

Stay tuned! You know. Ish. Ideally subscribe and just check in every now and then.

[Bruno Carvalho]

So, Sassaisen, ThreadofFate, hows this project going? I saw some edits in this thread these days, are there any playtest document ready? Something we can get a better grasp of the system to help?

[Sasaisen]

I was actually going to bump this after I had combat done, but despite the sparseness of the thread it's been moving. I've been taking a hatchet to everything the past couple of months, and have the core mechanic done, with a fork stuck in it. Right now I'm working on combat, which should actually be done soon. After that, my to-do list is (in order):

• Adventuring/non-combat rules - basically, filling out the "Might", "Quickness", "Insight", "Presence", "Destiny" spoilers. Mostly done from previous iterations, I just have to adjust and format it in accordance with the new mechanics.
• Basic jobs (Black Mage, Soldier, Thief, White Mage) and first Tier of advanced jobs (Archer, Fencer, Gambler, Green Mage, Monk, Red Mage). The magical ones are effectively done; the less-magical ones need adventuring rules to interact with.
• Backgrounds, same as less-magical jobs.
• The first Tier or two of equipment and spells.
• Environmental rules, so we're not adventuring around on featureless plains.

At which point, I will have the minimum that I can comfortably call a functional game, spanning the first few levels (1-3 or 1-6), to be released in an Alpha PDF. Following that will be (in rough priority):

• Monster backgrounds and classes.
• Higher-tier jobs, equipment, and spells.
• Pre-built opposition.
• Setting writeups and adventure hooks, for the main series games as well as notable spin-offs (Crystal Chronicles, Type-0, Bravely 'X').

So that's the plan.