The Akashic Records, by Rukia
Version 1.3
If you see something wrong, please tell me so I can fix it.
White = Canon Mechanics
Red = Firequest Mechanics
Character Mechanics
Health
This is how much Damage you can take before being removed from combat, either by death or knockout.
Base Damage
This is how much damage your attacks will do
before they are affected by any modifiers.
Base Resilience
This is how much incoming damage is reduced by
before it is affected by any modifiers.
Magic Modifier
On most attacks, this functions as the 'Dice' modifier, which rolls a dice equal to the Magic Modifier and then adds that to the Combat String. It is also used in various abilities as a stand in for how much magic you have,
but, not always.
Affinity
Magical Girls usually have two of these, plus a
Growth Affinity.
Affinities are the 'Thing' that a Magical Girl is aligned to, you can think of them as describing the essence of her being with words. A girl that has 'Justice | Order' might be described as a someone who wants to bring justice to all fairly and like keeping things in her life nice and orderly, perhaps she even might have OCD. A girl with 'Justice | Vengeance' could be described as someone who wants to bring Justice, no matter the cost or disregarding any rules or laws in her way.
Growth Affinity
This basically details how quickly a Magical Girl will grow in power. There are seven levels, Story Maker, Myth Maker, Legend Maker, Story, Myth, Legend and Epic. Makers are the weakest statewise, however they usually have very powerful
Abilities to compensate for this. Non-Makers usually have much higher stat growth and less powerful abilities.
Growth Affinities also interact with
Abilities and
Super Abilities, in the case where two abilities that conflict in their function interact, such as one that nullifies damage and one that guarantees damage, the Magical Girl with the higher Growth Affinity will win, if they have the same Affinity, both
Abilities will be negated.
Super Abilities also negate
Abilities unless there is a special interaction.
There is also Divinity, their stats scale multiplicative rather than additively.
Weapon
This is the weapon your
Basic Attack will use, it's level directly correlates with your
Base Damage and
Magic Modifier.
Spells
Spells are your alternatives to your
Basic Attack, they may or may not do more damage, but they usually have some sort of esoteric effect, such as stunning the enemy or setting them on fire. A nice side effect is that they are usually ranged, giving melee characters some form of ranged ability.
Abilities
Abilities are the bread and butter of a character sheet, they are basically all Modifiers that change how combat is handled. Example, 'Ability: Juggernaut | Crush.' Juggernaut means that the weapon or spell that it is attached to will ignore 75% of the opponents Resilience, Crush means that the attacker's Total Damage will be multiplied by 3 if they are two handing a two handed weapon.
Abilities are not limited to existing on Weapons or Spells, all Character sheets will have abilities describing how the characters Health and Resilience will grow, they will also have others that effect the character is many ways.
Lost has a collection of every Non-Character sheet Ability that has been created, it is found here.
Flight
Level 20
-Cerys can fly at 190mph.
Knights Aria
Level 10
-During combat, increase Ebony Knight's Health and Base Resilience by 10% per level.
-During combat, increase Eternal Knight's Base Damage by 2.5% per level.
Magic Surge
-Sacrifice any number of actions per turn to add that many times your full magic modifier to your current defence or attack.
These are all abilities, they usually open up new avenues to use old powers, power up the character or modify their stats in some way.
Combat Mechanics
Turns
Each turn is 10 seconds, Attacks Per Turn (APT) are how many times a character may act in those ten seconds.
APT
Attacks Per Turn are the number of times a character may act in the ten second space that is one turn. Unless specified otherwise, all actions only cost one to perform.
APT usually increases at a rate of 1 per 5 levels of the weapon, though this may be changed by QM's.
If APT are not equal, add 'Speed Gap' to the faster actor's combat string. 'Speed Gap' equals 10% of Base Damage per APT or 20% of Base Resilience per APT.
Combat String
You will see this referenced a lot, but in short: A Combat String is the maths where two characters interact in combat, the various modifiers and numbers are written here. Example.
Offensive Combat String: +100 Base Damage, +5 Dice, -10 Modifier 2 = 95 Total Damage
Defensive Combat String: 50 Base Resilience, -10 Modifier 3 = 40 Total Reduction
55 Total End Damage
Defender Health: 100 - 55 = 45
Modifiers are things like 'Magic Modifier', which often appears in strings as 'Dice'. In this instance, Modifier 2 is the character being tired, lowering their Total Damage by a certain % (10% here). Modifier 3 is the defender being in a poor position to defend, lowering their Base Resilience by x% (20% here.)
Modifiers like this are either codified on the Character Sheet, or they are situational, which fall under
Soft Mechanics.
More detailed explanation by Lost can be found here.
Total, Total End and Final
Yes, the difference between these is very confusing, which is why they are listed here.
Total is placed after the first stage of a combat string, it usually denominates the total of an attack/defence without any 'character sheet' modifiers.
Total End is placed in the second stage of combat, it usually denominates the total of an attack/defence after 'character sheet' modifiers are applied and the total damage is ran against the total reduction.
If Total End Damage is higher than Total Reduction, it moves onto the Final stage. Final is
almost always placed second to last, this is the very Final attack/defence after all modifiers have been applied, very few abilities/modifiers function after this string.
After these have all been completed, the attack is applied to the defenders health, if it ever reaches that far.
Soft Mechanics
Soft Mechanics is the QM's way of making the clunky game system interact with the world they are writing. It takes '20,000 damage' and sees that it would do a lot, so while it damages the target, it also damages the surroundings.
Soft Mechanics are too numerous to be listed, but generally whenever you see the
Hard Mechanics interacting with the narrative, you can be assured that they are there. Recalling the earlier example, a character who has been fighting for a long time may grow tired, which means they will fight worse, this is
Soft Mechanics that are displayed as
Hard Mechanics, I.E, the -10% modifier.
Hard Mechanics
These are the numbers and modifiers listed interacting with each other. A character having 100 Base Attack hitting another who has 50 Base Resilience is
Hard Mechanics, the side effects or outcome of that attack, such as the defender losing their arm or eye, are
Soft Mechanics, which may effect the character as a modifier, tying them back into
Hard Mechanics.
Basic Combat
Basic Attack
This is your basic attack, the
Base Damage and
Magic Modifier listed at the top of a Character Sheet is your Basic Attack. Your Character will use this by default in combat.
Spells
Spells are different but similar to
Basic Attacks, except that they use the stats listed next to a spell rather than your weapons
Basic Damage and
Magic Modifier. Without any
Abilities, you can only cast one spell per turn.
Flight
Flight is a single ability that all flying abilities fall under, including wings, jumping on magic platforms, flight with magic, exploding yourself forwards and so on, all of these are simply described as flight. Flight levels at [Level] * 10 - 10, so if you are level 10, you will have a maximum flight speed of 90mph. Most forms of flight take time to accelerate to their top speed, if they do not, or have some other form of modification, they will be listed as
Flight (Boosted)
While a character is flying, they may only attack once per turn with Melee, however they may attack normally with ranged attacks.
High Speed Combat
This ability is directly related to
Flight, you must have a
High Speed Combat of equal or greater level to be able to track someone who can fly at speed. For instance, if a flyer can move at 110mph, then you will need
High Speed Combat (Lvl 2) to be able to track them. If a flyer is faster than your
High Speed Combat then they will start to receive bonus modifiers to their attack, and you negative modifiers to your defence. (Pending Lost to tell me exactly what those modifiers are)
High Speed Combat levels at 90mph per level, the opportunity and cost to level this up is left to the QM. If you start with Flight as a beginning ability,
High Speed Combat automatically levels up with your Flight.
Attack Negation
Attack Negation - Wherein an
Ability activates or is activated, negating the enemies action. Usually this is activated by having some variation of
Skilled, the basic level allowing you to spend 4 APT to negate 1 enemy action.
Dodging is similar to
Attack Negation, except you dodge the attack rather than negate it, which means it still exists in the environment. It scales similarly, starting at
Skilful Dodge and moving upwards.
Distance
Melee - If you are a melee fighter and your opponent is right next to you, you may act normally. However, if they are a fair distance away (10M and up) then you must spend time getting into range. If it takes 5 of the 10 seconds per turn, then you have used half of your APT.
Ranged - A ranged fighter has the opposite problem, they want to stay as far away from a melee fighter as possible, and have to balance spending time (APT) moving away from their opponent with time spent attacking them.
Awareness
Surprise Attacks - Surprise Attacks are modifiers that are attached to the Defender's combat string when you get the jump on them, The more surprised they are, the greater the reduction in defence. Generally these start at -50% defence and the more surprising it is, the higher they go.
Lore
The factions of the Local Dimension Cluster - or LDC for short - are divided into three separate Super Factions.
Light Factions
The first Faction is known a the
Unified Light, made from the Akashic Pillar, Fairy Home Realms, Elven Empire, and False Heaven.
Akashic Pillar: The United Earth Government, the collective governing body of the entire Human Race. Made up of a dozen different sub-factions spread across Earth. They are both Scientifically and Militarily the strongest of the Unified Light, though their Military strength is quickly dwindling.
Despite having only recently proven the existence of Magic, they spearhead the Unified Light in their eternal war against the Unified Darkness. Their military, known as the Counter Force, is considered to be the ultimate in unstoppable forces. While it is acknowledged that alone a single Counter Force soldier is barely above average in the war, Akasha is capable of fielding them in the millions. And their scientific technology, when backed by their growing understanding of Magic, makes their mechanized forces equal to nearly anything else in the LDC.
Fairy Home Realms: The Eldest of the Light, the Fairy people are practitioners of tremendous magical ability. Physically frail and unintimidating, Fairies eclipse any other species in sheer magical power alone. The smallest kingdom of the Unified Light, the Fairies are considered the Heart of the movement.
Elven Empire: While their position on the side of the Unified Light is sometimes in question, the Elven Empire is the second strongest of the
Unified Light. While not nearly as technologically advanced as the Akashic Pillar or as Magically overwhelming as the Fairies, individual Elves are capable of learning new skills at an astounding rate. Before the Akashic Pillar joined the
Unified Light, the Elven Empire was the leading power on it's side.
False Heaven: Originally known simply as Heaven, this group was brought into being by the sheer belief of a higher power that nearly all races believe in. A mix and match of different heavenly entities, their abilities and skills are widely varied, though they do follow a very tight command structure. Not as magically powerful as the Fairies, but more advanced than the Elves, False Heaven is the third strongest in the Unified Light.
Dark Factions
The second Faction is known as the
Unified Darkness, made up of the Thirteenth Hell, Dark Star, and the Children of Nightmares.
Thirteenth Hell: Created by the universal belief and genetic memory of an ultimate hellscape, from which all primordial life originated and will return to should they sin, the Thirteenth Hell is the leading faction of the Unified Darkness. Made up of demons ranging from merely ugly to too horrifying to behold, they are the Akashic Pillar's opposite number on the Unified Darkness side, for they lead the fight against the Unified Light.
Dark Star: Beings of pure energy that have found their goals in alignment with those of the Unified Darkness, they operate as the Fairies' opposite number. Creatures of immense magical power, they are the only thing keeping the Unified Darkness from being wiped out by the Fairies awesome magical might. And now, the only thing keeping the Akashic Pillar from simply erasing them from existence.
Children of Nightmares: Considered the Ultimate Evil, the Children are creatures that come from the places between dimensions. Empowered by nothing more than fear alone, they operate by magical laws that are completely foreign to any known system, and thus very little is known about them save for an undefined ability to predict he future to some extent.
Unaligned Front
The third and possibly strongest of the Factions is referred to as the
Unaligned Front. Made up of hundreds of smaller sub-factions that lean towards neither the Unified Light or Unified Darkness, their powers vary wildly between a new Magical Girl being capable of wiping them out to neigh unstoppable forces in their own right. It is not uncommon for group from either side to defect to the Unaligned Front.
Light Aligned
White Wolves: These guys are a bunch of nomadic
werewolf types. They move around in packs of anywhere from ten to eighty and act as traders. Their home dimension kind of... poofed and no one's been able to access it since way before the Eternal War started. They have slightly less Magical ability than Humans, but are physically stronger than your average Class 1 demons. They tend to act as traders and diplomats between different groups.
Boatmen: The
Boatmen are pranksters that have an inherent ability to transition between dimensions at will with very little apparent effort. They're rather pacifistic and prefer to avoid any kind of conflict save for mostly harmless jokes. Mostly harmless because they've yet to realize not every can survive Jupiter's gravity or equivalent environments.
Wise Ones: These beings are one of the spirits that necromancers are able to communicate with. They act as caretakers for natural sites with lots of concentrated Mana, like Leyline wellsprings, and such. Depending on the area they can be anything from benevolent critters, to
things you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. Gaia actually has a large number of the latter.
(Several Images were broken and such the links removed.)
Dark Aligned
Shadow Runners:
Spirits that have a love of scavenging recent battlefield where many people or strong individuals have died. If they can get away with it, they steal bones to create more of themselves. Mostly harmless, unless angered, they can cast instant-death spells very easily.
Hunters: Beings that hate spirits and creatures that give life. They are remnants of a Divine Beings that was killed into oblivion by Void and retained the original being's hatred of existing. The only reason they're not on the Unified Darkness side is that they just want everything dead,which is counter productive to the Unified Darkness desire to rule everything through strength.
True Neutral
The White Kingdom:
Mechanical beings that have a massive kingdom of creatures that takes up what amounts to the entire 'west' side of the LDC. They're a post-singularity society of Space Squids that made the conscious decision to abandon Magic and focus solely on Technological development. As it is, they don't care about anything else that's currently going on and mostly just spend their days worshiping Cosmos and acting like her white blood cells, hunting down growing threats to her health and putting them down before they can cause damage.
Recyclers:
Ugly creatures that operate similarly to White Wolves. They're nomadic and spend most of their days travelling between dimensions scavenging for resources and more or less minding their own business. Nothing really remarkable about them save for a hive mind and obsession with kidnapping royalty as some kind of cultural "we respect you, so we'll kidnap your kid' kind of thing that makes about as much sense as it sounds.
(Firequest Factions will not be listed here at this time, they may be added later.)
