A little terminology

In ZURPG 2.0, it is highly likely I'm going to implement the following suggestion anyways. I'm simply putting it up here to see if you all want it in the game now or just wait till 2.0, because it would require an update on probably half the items/abilities in the game.

---

There's been a bit of ambiguity about whether something does physical damage or magic damage, or if armor blocks one type or another, etc. The following suggestion adds a bit of terminology to the game, something I've partially avoided so players don't go "what the heck does this mean". However, this terminology is going to very simple and mostly self explanatory.


Currently, this is what a White Sword looks like:

White Sword

• Requires at least 6 Maximum Hearts
  
• An enchanted blade painted seamlessly in white. It can Slice or Stab a target, or use Air Blade.
  • Slice:
    • Roll your Courage +3 dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 1
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage +1 dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 3
      
    • If the attack is unsuccessful, target automatically gets to counterattack you.
  • Air Blade:
    • Fires a blade of air at a target from afar. You must be at maximum Hearts to use this ability.
      • Roll your Courage +5 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
        
      • Target can only counterattack you by ranged.

Sword hits are generally accepted as physical damage, but what about Air Blade? Is it physical or magic? Well, according to the FAQ and Special Rulings thread, under Damage Types, it would describe Air Blast as physical.

With an update, however, that can be changed, as I've heard multiple players wanting that to be considered magic damage:

White Sword

• Requires at least 6 Maximum Hearts
  
• An enchanted blade painted seamlessly in white. It can Slice or Stab a target, or use Air Blade.
  • Slice - Physical Damage:
    • Roll your Courage +3 dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 1
  • Stab - Physical Damage:
    • Roll your Courage +1 dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 3
      
    • If the attack is unsuccessful, target automatically gets to counterattack you.
  • Air Blade - Magic Damage:
    • Fires a blade of air at a target from afar. You must be at maximum Hearts to use this ability.
      • Roll your Courage +5 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
        
      • Target can only counterattack you by ranged.

---

Honestly, I don't know how it should actually look for weapons, format-wise. For armor though...

Dragonhide Tunic

• Woven and developed from the hide of a dragon, this tunic provides good protection and increases your Courage slightly.
  • Damage taken is reduced by 2
    
  • Your Courage is increased by 2

Turns into...

Dragonhide Tunic

• Woven and developed from the hide of a dragon, this tunic provides good protection and increases your Courage slightly.
  • Physical Armor: 2
    
  • Magic Armor: 2
    
  • Your Courage is increased by 2

Essentially, each damage reduction is listed more as a stat. 2.0 is going to make it so everything does minimum/maximum damage while still accounting for the difference in successes. I'm not going to be making that change here unless everyone wants it, because that's not just a clarification or a format update - that's a game changer.

---

So, place your votes on this, and any other "vague things" you'd like to see fixed by an update like this, post here and let's see what we can do.

In interest of reducing complexity, I think simple cases can be left in a reduced form. For example, listing out physical armor: 2 and magic armor: 2 should be equivalent to 'damage taken is reduced by 2', because it still does apply to all damage. Similarly, White Sword is a regular sword. It deals physical damage by implication; the only exceptional part that should be labeled explicitly is the one attack that deals magic damage. The other two can be left unlabeled.

I've tinkered with the formatting a bit. Below, I've listed two versions of the same item. The first version is the current formatting. The second version is the new formatting.

EDIT: Posted up some more examples.

Sword with effect

Sword with effect

• A sword with two effects on hit. It can Slice or Stab a target.
  • Slice:
    • Roll your Courage +5 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      
    • If the attack is successful, recover 3 Magic, and cause a stack of the Bleeding Affliction on the target.
      • At the start of each round, target takes 1 bleed damage (neutral).
        
      • This stacks infinitely.
        
      • Bleeding lasts for the remainder of the battle.
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 5
      
    • If the attack is successful, siphon 3 Magic, and cause two stacks of the Bleeding Affliction on the target.
      
    • If the attack is unsuccessful, target automatically gets to counterattack you.

Sword with effect

A sword with two effects on hit. It can Slice or Stab a target.

• Slice:
  • Roll your Courage +5 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
    • Physical Damage: +0
      
    • EFFECT 1: Recover 3 Magic.
      
    • EFFECT 2: Cause Bleeding Affliction.
      • At the start of each round, target takes 1 bleed damage (neutral).
        
      • This stacks infinitely.
        
      • Bleeding lasts for the remainder of the battle.
• Stab:
  • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
    • Physical Damage: +5
      
    • EFFECT 1: Siphon 3 Magic.
      
    • EFFECT 2: Cause Bleeding Affliction * 2.
      
    • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to counterattack you.

Bombs

Bombs

• Amount: 1
  
• It's just a bomb... GET DOWN, IT'S A BOMB! Can be thrown at one target or at a group of enemies.
  • Target
    • Roll your Power dice vs. targets' Power dice / Deals 4 + $1d4 damage
      
    • If the attack is unsuccessful, the bomb explodes and hits everyone, dealing 2 damage.
      • Explosions use original successes of the attack. Targets roll Power to defend.
  • Group
    • This attack, while it hits all enemies, does not count as targeting them, as the bomb explodes over them.
      • Roll your Power dice vs. targets' Power dice / Deals 3 damage

Bombs

Amount: 1
It's just a bomb... GET DOWN, IT'S A BOMB! Can be thrown at one target or at a group of enemies.

• Target
  • Roll your Power dice vs. targets' Power dice
    • Physical Damage: 4 + $1d4
      
    • IF FAIL: The bomb explodes and hits everyone.
      • Explosions use original successes of the attack. Targets roll Power to defend.
        
      • Physical Damage: 2
• Group
  • This attack, while it hits all enemies, does not count as targeting them, as the bomb explodes over them.
    
  • Roll your Power dice vs. targets' Power dice
    • Physical Damage: 3

Phase Blade

Phase Blade

• Level 10
  
• The blade phases through physical beings, ignoring damage reduction, though the cut is still felt. Can Slice or Stab a target.
  • Slice:
    • Costs 1 Magic
      
    • Roll your Courage +2 dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 1
      
    • This is considered as magic damage.
  • Stab:
    • Costs 2 Magic
      
    • Roll your Courage -2 dice vs. targets' Courage dice / Damage increased by 3
      
    • This is considered as magic damage.
      
    • If the attack is successful, target's physical damage reduction drops to 0.
      • This lasts until the end of your turn one round later.
    • If the attack is unsuccessful, target automatically gets to counterattack you.

Phase Blade

Level 10
The blade phases through physical beings, though the cut is still felt. Can Slice or Stab a target.

• Slice:
  • Costs 1 Magic
    
  • Roll your Courage +2 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
    • Physical Damage: +1
      
    • EFFECT: Ignores Physical Armor.
• Stab:
  • Costs 2 Magic
    
  • Roll your Courage -2 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
    • Physical Damage: +3
      
    • EFFECT: Target's physical damage reduction drops to 0.
      • This lasts until the end of your turn one round later.
    • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to counterattack you.

Alucard Mail

Alucard Mail

• Level 20
  
• A sturdy set of hardened iron platemail passed down through his mother's side of his family for generations.
  • Damage taken is reduced by 2
    
  • Additionally, damage taken from Fire, Water, and Nature attacks is reduced by 3.

Alucard Mail

Level 20
A sturdy set of hardened iron platemail passed down through his mother's side of his family for generations.

• General Armor: 2
  
• Fire Armor: 3
  
• Water Armor: 3
  
• Nature Armor: 3

---

Differences:

• The first 'list' which follows directly after 'box=Sword with effect' is now gone. This drops the last list too.
  
• A new 'list' was added directly after the dice roll line.
  
• Damage modifiers are listed on a separate line from the dice roll line. It also notes the type of damage.
  
• Instead of "If the attack is successful", it just says "EFFECT" and stuff. Unsuccessful now translates to "IF FAIL".
  
• The duration of a Status Effect is now listed as a sub-bullet of the Status Effect itself. This should forever prevent double 'list'-ing, which kinda looks odd.
  
• The number of lines increased from 11 to 15. Personally, I'd say it looks improved by a longshot.
  
• If a dice roll line directly follows the description line, the description line will no longer have a 'list'. Essentially, it's been moved to be after the dice roll line.
  
• Anything along the lines of "Ignores damage reduction" is now considered an effect and will be listed as such.
  
• Phase Blade is changed to Physical Damage and now "Ignores Physical Armor" only. If this update occurs, this is not the only item/ability that'll get a change like this.
  • It also seems the current Phase Blade doesn't even follow the current formatting very well. Interesting how that works.
• General Armor = Physical Armor and Magic Armor. I'd like a different name for that, cause General Armor sounds like cheap store armor.

---

I'll post up some more examples here later. Please comment on the new WIP format. I'm always looking for improvements. So far, it actually looks simpler. It's pretty surprising how much something can be improved by updating its organization.

New Formatting, Sephiroth Edition

Alucard Mail

Alucard Mail

• Level 20
• A sturdy set of hardened iron platemail passed down through his mother's side of his family for generations.
  • Damage taken is reduced by 2
  • Additionally, damage taken from Fire, Water, and Nature attacks is reduced by 3.

Alucard Mail

Level 20A sturdy set of hardened iron platemail passed down through his mother's side of his family for generations.

• General Armor: 2
• Fire Armor: 3
• Water Armor: 3
• Nature Armor: 3

Experimenting with where to put the amount, requirements, and cost lines.

---

Rot

Sparks of flame and poison mix together, causing a sickening burning smell. As it applies to living beings, the smell becomes intoxicating, affecting others.

• Level 30, Nature (Level: 2), Shadow (Level: 2), and/or Fire (Level: 2)
  • You only need two of the listed affinities to use this spell.
• Costs 8 Magic

Cause a target's flesh to rot and burn.

• Roll your Wisdom +8 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
  • Burn Damage: +0
    
  • EFFECT: Target gets the Rotting Flesh Affliction:
    • Target takes 6 poison damage (neutral) at the start of each round.
      
    • Target's allies are affected by the smell from Rotting Flesh, and they lose 4 successes on attacking and defending.
      • When the target dies, the corpse decomposes entirely and cannot be revived.
  • Rotting Flesh lasts for the remainder of the battle.

Inversion Channel

Your powers cause energy to transform into an unstable, negative energy.

• Level 20 and Light (Level: 4)
  
• Costs 6 Magic

Fire a channeled beam of negative energy at a target.

• Roll your Wisdom +5 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
  • If the attack is successful, the beam stays stable, and the target's Physical Armor is multiplied by -1.
    • If you attack or defend while the beam is channeling, the beam is cancelled.

Poe's Nose x4

"So that's where it went..."

An eyeball is on one end of this invisible ward, which constantly looks around the room.

• Roll Wisdom and place this invisible ward down.
  • Anyone (except you and your allies) that passes within 30 feet of the ward is affected by the ward.
    
  • If the successes of your Wisdom roll is higher than the target's Wisdom stat, then the ward reports the target's Wisdom stat back to you.
    
  • If the successes of your Wisdom roll is lower than the target's Wisdom stat, the ward becomes overwhelmed and shuts itself, immediately killing itself.
• Poe's Nose lasts until three targets pass through it, at which point it will automatically self-destruct.

---

How's that one look? FYI, Sephiroth, for your formatting, I've intentionally added a space after the flavor text, so that it'll appear a little differently, but not train wrecked at least.

Poe's Nose x6

"So that's where it went..." An eyeball is on one end of this invisible ward, which constantly looks around the room.

• Roll Wisdom and place this invisible ward down.
  • Anyone (except you and your allies) that passes within 30 feet of the ward is affected by the ward.
    
  • If the successes of your Wisdom roll is higher than the target's Wisdom stat, then the ward reports the target's Wisdom stat back to you.
    
  • If the successes of your Wisdom roll is lower than the target's Wisdom stat, the ward becomes overwhelmed and shuts itself, immediately killing itself.
• Poe's Nose lasts until three targets pass through it, at which point it will automatically self-destruct.

---

Thoughts?

I'm really not too fond of having my formatting look differently than everyone else, which is why I liked having everything inside of the lists.

Honestly, with this new format (still WIP/experimental), I'm not sure I like the flavor text anymore. I mean, it's a good bit of fun, but now it looks out of place. Either gonna merge it into the description line anyways or throw it out the window.

Courtesies of Fireblast124, I modified his idea a bit. Also included Darte's suggestion of "obvious things might as well not bother listing the obvious", like swords doing physical damage. Pretty implied there.

---

Rot

• REQUIREMENTS: Level 30, and two of either Nature (Level: 2), Shadow (Level: 2), or Fire (Level: 2)
  
• COST: 8 Magic
  
• DESCRIPTION: Sparks of flame and poison mix together, causing a sickening burning smell. As it applies to living beings, the smell becomes intoxicating, affecting others. Select a target, and cause his flesh to rot and burn.
  • Roll your Wisdom +8 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
    • Burn Damage: +0
      
    • EFFECT: Target gets the Rotting Flesh Affliction:
      • Target takes 6 poison damage (neutral) at the start of each round.
        
      • Target's allies are affected by the smell from Rotting Flesh, and they lose 4 successes on attacking and defending.
        • When the target dies, the corpse decomposes entirely and cannot be revived.
    • Rotting Flesh lasts for the remainder of the battle.

Sword with effect

• DESCRIPTION: A sword with two effects on hit. It can Slice or Stab a target.
  • Slice:
    • Roll your Courage +5 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +0
        
      • EFFECT 1: Recover 3 Magic.
        
      • EFFECT 2: Cause Bleeding Affliction.
        • At the start of each round, target takes 1 bleed damage (neutral).
          
        • This stacks infinitely.
          
        • Bleeding lasts for the remainder of the battle.
  • Stab:
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +5
        
      • EFFECT 1: Siphon 3 Magic.
        
      • EFFECT 2: Cause Bleeding Affliction * 2.
        
      • IF FAIL: Target automatically gets to counterattack you.

Poe's Nose x4

"So that's where it went..."

• DESCRIPTION: An eyeball is on one end of this invisible ward, which constantly looks around the room.
  • Roll Wisdom and place this invisible ward down.
    • Anyone (except you and your allies) that passes within 30 feet of the ward is affected by the ward.
      
    • If the successes of your Wisdom roll is higher than the target's Wisdom stat, then the ward reports the target's Wisdom stat back to you.
      
    • If the successes of your Wisdom roll is lower than the target's Wisdom stat, the ward becomes overwhelmed and shuts itself, immediately killing itself.
  • Poe's Nose lasts until three targets pass through it, at which point it will automatically self-destruct.

Dual Scythe

• REQUIREMENTS: Level 20
  
• DESCRIPTION: A Two-Handed pole with the blade of a scythe on each end, pointing in opposite directions. It can use Double Slice on a target, Whirlwind, or Dispersal Wave.
  • Double Slice:
    • DESCRIPTION: Attack a target twice using both sides of the scythe.
      
    • Roll your Courage +3 dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: +3
    • Roll your Courage dice vs. targets' Courage dice
      • Damage: Half
        
      • EFFECT 1: If one attack is successful, target gets three stacks of the Bleeding Affliction:
        • Target takes 1 bleed damage (neutral) at the start of each round.
          
        • Bleeding stacks infinitely.
        • Bleeding lasts for the remainder of the battle.
      • EFFECT 2: If both attacks are successful, target gets five stacks of the Bleeding Affliction.
  • Whirlwind:
    • DESCRIPTION: When you are being attacked by a spell, you can spin the Dual Scythe rapidly to stave off the attack.
      • Your successes when defending are increased by 5.
        
      • EFFECT: The spell disperses into your Dual Scythe, allowing you to store it and use it once at a later time.
        • You can store up to one spell into your Dual Scythe. If you try to store another, it will overwrite the previous one.
  • Dispersal Wave:
    • COST: 5 Magic
      
    • DESCRIPTION: Select one Affliction you have (and all stacks of it) and completely transfer it into a magical wave of energy, hitting all enemies.
      • Roll your Wisdom +5 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
        • Damage: None
          
        • EFFECT 1: Caster loses that Affliction (and all stacks of it).
          
        • EFFECT 2: Target(s) hit receive that Affliction (and all stacks of it).
          • The duration of the Affliction is reset.

---

Added the 'list' at the beginning back, which fixes the Sephiroth issue. How does it look? I'll post up more examples once this session passes.

Dual Scythe: Dispersal Wave; Does this ability clear the selected Affliction from the user?

Yes it does. Clarification added here, as well as in the original (in changelog shop and announcement thread).