I've got a couple of hobbies. Longtime followers of this blog (always wanted to say that, especially ironically) will know that I play Dungeons and Dragons, and longtime followers of me know that my favorite TV show is the anime One Piece.
Zoro's player does similarly, but he builds a character with high Wisdom (he splashes Monk to get his Wisdom added to his AC), so his Charisma starts out lower, and he doesn't take True Empathy. He also makes the mistake of surrounding himself with less trauma than Nami or Sanji. Still, by not spending feats on a devil fruit or unarmed combat or anything, he gets to focus on weapon aptitude and gets really good with his swords. His big strength is that he spends nearly every waking moment training (and he's convinced the DM that he meditates while asleep).
Finally, Luffy's player sits down at the table. He reads the houserules and grins. He takes the whole suite of Will to Live, Force of Will, and True Empathy, as well as a few others. He rolls up a character heavily focused on Charisma and physical abilities, with Wisdom as his dump stat, followed by Intelligence.
Then, he starts his backstory. "My friends, Shanks' pirate crew, are attacked by mountain bandits. Because of True Empathy, that counts as a traumatic event for me; I make a Will save and gain a point of Charisma. I eat a devil fruit and lose my ability to swim. Will save, gain a Charisma. I attack the mountain bandits. They kidnap me and threaten me with death. Will save, Charisma. Shanks' crewmember blows somebody's brains out in front of me. Empathy, Will Save, Charisma. I am kidnapped by the bandit leader. Will, Charisma. He's attacked and killed by a Sea King. Empathy, Will, Charisma." "Hang on, how can you keep making such high will saves?" "My Will save is based on my Charisma thanks to Force Of Will, and my Charisma keeps going up. The Sea King attacks me. Will, Charisma. Shanks saves me, but the Sea King bites off his arm. Will, Charisma. In the intervening time, I train my strength, dexterity, and constitution every day until I am fatigued, to try to be like Shanks. I gain *will save will save will save will save will save fail* 5 points of Strength on day one."
Because of these two facts and because I am a nerd, I wanted to put together a ruleset of D&D that would work for this anime. Sort of the precursor to a Darths and Droids or DM of the Rings treatment (which I will never do, but anybody who does needs to send me a link).
Fair warning: if neither D&D nor One Piece interest you, this might not be your post. It's not gonna be quite as... accessible as the Batman one. Also, not as many pictures.
But here's a duck!
Alright:
So what is it that can't be represented by regular D&D, or only very light modification?
Devil Fruit powers and elite swordplay can be represented by feat chains or classes, Fishman is an easy enough race to generate (though it's got a heck of a level adjustment), most everything can be handled in a single splatbook. What really strikes me is the power level: Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji are ridiculously overpowered, but Nami and Usopp are quite weak. So it's not just a high power game, there has to be some rules abuse that the three power players are taking advantage of.
Hopefully not this one.
The specifics are initially murky, but the most obvious aspect of their brokenness is the ability to take a rib-shattering, heart-stopping amount of punishment and then stand back up, typically after remembering how important it is that they do whatever they're doing. That suggests some sort of "will save to remain conscious" rule. I also notice that these characters have really shitty lives, like just awful backstories; suggests there's something dealing with that.
With that in mind, I've concocted this story of how the decisions might have been made:
There's a couple of rules, probably found in books somewhere or
houseruled in cause they make sense, that would form the backbone of the
builds in Pirates & Plunder. Probably fairly innocuous on their own, sorta common sense, but really dangerous once they get together.
Overall, the DM feels like ability scores are too low, and too set in stone. They're set randomly at the start and nothing you can do increases them, unless you gain four levels, at which point they go up on their own, independent of what you've been doing. Okaaaay, that sure makes sense, not. So the first thing the DM did was do away with the increase every four levels. That one isn't necessary, just makes it a little more realistic.
He also thinks that backstories are kind of lame, they don't really do anything. Consequently, he allows players to play their backstories as sort of one-on-one sessions where they can actually do things that affect their characters later in life. The players effectively "direct" what happens, and the DM just serves as a moderator and referee. Kind of a neat idea.
First among his true houserules, the DM decided there should be rules to train ability scores. After all, you get stronger if you work out, right? So he made a rule that said you could spend a certain amount of time and effort to permanently increase your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. There were a couple of penalties, though:
First, every time a score goes up, you have to make a fortitude save, which increases based on how high the score is. If you fail, you're fatigued. Maybe he even made it so you have to make the fort save first, before you even get anything. Second, if you're fatigued (from failing the fort save, for example), you cannot train. That means it's possible to throw away an entire day of training on a bad roll, and that you can eventually just get your scores so high you can't increase them any more. Great.
Next, the DM wanted a way to increase mental scores, as well. Intelligence and Wisdom work like physical training; you study or meditate, make a will save, and your score might go up. Charisma is more difficult: since it essentially represents character and force of personality, it isn't really trainable. Instead, if you survive an event of great trauma, your Charisma score goes up automatically.
So that's ability scores. A fairly balanced system, if potentially abusable given enough time ("we take a year off and I train my strength score until it is literally impossible for me to succeed on a fortitude save, then I do the same for my dex and con").
Next, the DM changed the "death and dying" system. He liked how 4th Edition handled the "three saves until you die" system and adopted it, somewhat modified. Under his rules, if you fall below 0 HP, you make a fortitude save every round to remain conscious (increasing based on how far below 0 you are). If you succeed, you remain conscious and take 1 damage. If you fail, you pass out. Then you make another fortitude save the next round to stabilize or die.
Next, he added some feats. There are a number of feats and class features like "devil fruit" and "three sword style," but two feats really stand out, as well as one flaw.
The first is called Will To Live. It allows you to make Will saves in place of Fortitude saves at a -5 penalty. Idea is that if you have enough willpower, you can keep carrying on even when your body is giving out.
The flaw is True Empathy. It says that when you observe something awful happening to the people around you, you must make a will save or break down into tears and be stunned for 1d4 rounds.
The last feat, and the cornerstone of the brokenness that is Luffy, is called Force Of Will. It's simple: instead of your Wisdom, you add your Charisma modifier to your Will saves. No danger at all.
Overall, the DM feels like ability scores are too low, and too set in stone. They're set randomly at the start and nothing you can do increases them, unless you gain four levels, at which point they go up on their own, independent of what you've been doing. Okaaaay, that sure makes sense, not. So the first thing the DM did was do away with the increase every four levels. That one isn't necessary, just makes it a little more realistic.
He also thinks that backstories are kind of lame, they don't really do anything. Consequently, he allows players to play their backstories as sort of one-on-one sessions where they can actually do things that affect their characters later in life. The players effectively "direct" what happens, and the DM just serves as a moderator and referee. Kind of a neat idea.
First among his true houserules, the DM decided there should be rules to train ability scores. After all, you get stronger if you work out, right? So he made a rule that said you could spend a certain amount of time and effort to permanently increase your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. There were a couple of penalties, though:
First, every time a score goes up, you have to make a fortitude save, which increases based on how high the score is. If you fail, you're fatigued. Maybe he even made it so you have to make the fort save first, before you even get anything. Second, if you're fatigued (from failing the fort save, for example), you cannot train. That means it's possible to throw away an entire day of training on a bad roll, and that you can eventually just get your scores so high you can't increase them any more. Great.
Next, the DM wanted a way to increase mental scores, as well. Intelligence and Wisdom work like physical training; you study or meditate, make a will save, and your score might go up. Charisma is more difficult: since it essentially represents character and force of personality, it isn't really trainable. Instead, if you survive an event of great trauma, your Charisma score goes up automatically.
So that's ability scores. A fairly balanced system, if potentially abusable given enough time ("we take a year off and I train my strength score until it is literally impossible for me to succeed on a fortitude save, then I do the same for my dex and con").
Next, the DM changed the "death and dying" system. He liked how 4th Edition handled the "three saves until you die" system and adopted it, somewhat modified. Under his rules, if you fall below 0 HP, you make a fortitude save every round to remain conscious (increasing based on how far below 0 you are). If you succeed, you remain conscious and take 1 damage. If you fail, you pass out. Then you make another fortitude save the next round to stabilize or die.
Next, he added some feats. There are a number of feats and class features like "devil fruit" and "three sword style," but two feats really stand out, as well as one flaw.
The first is called Will To Live. It allows you to make Will saves in place of Fortitude saves at a -5 penalty. Idea is that if you have enough willpower, you can keep carrying on even when your body is giving out.
The flaw is True Empathy. It says that when you observe something awful happening to the people around you, you must make a will save or break down into tears and be stunned for 1d4 rounds.
The last feat, and the cornerstone of the brokenness that is Luffy, is called Force Of Will. It's simple: instead of your Wisdom, you add your Charisma modifier to your Will saves. No danger at all.
With that, he was ready to show his players his modifications, tell them the backstory of the world, and let them roll up their characters.
With some supplemental rules books.
Usopp was up first, and unfortunately didn't see the broken combo until afterwards. He took Force of Will and Will
To Live and made a high Charisma bluff-based ranged rogue. He took the
flaws Coward and Compulsive Liar, but not True Empathy. His big mistake
was not devoting enough time to his backstory, which included only one
traumatic event. He also didn't abuse the training rules. Those two
together made him fall way, way behind Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji in terms
of power.
He has no idea what's coming.
Nami figured out Force of Will and True Empathy
and loaded up her backstory with not only trauma, but also studying, so
she's got really high Charisma and Intelligence both. Her big flaw is
that she didn't notice Will To Live, and
consequently could never abuse the training rules. So she's got lots of
skill points and a super high bluff check, but her physical scores are
basically unmodified.
But that's okay, it's not like this is gonna be a high-combat game, right guys?
...Right? Guys?
Sanji comes next, and he knows what's up: high Charisma (preparing to be a womanizer), Force of Will,
True Empathy. His backstory starts out with lots of trauma (he swings
it so every day of starvation counts as "trauma"). He has a cunning plan
to open a restaurant and make lots of money based on years and years of
income; however, the DM calls him out on it and says that Zeff gets
most of the money, and anyway they don't make that much because the
Fighting Cooks keep breaking tables.
It's alright, I'll hold back and keep from showing you guys up.
Zoro's player does similarly, but he builds a character with high Wisdom (he splashes Monk to get his Wisdom added to his AC), so his Charisma starts out lower, and he doesn't take True Empathy. He also makes the mistake of surrounding himself with less trauma than Nami or Sanji. Still, by not spending feats on a devil fruit or unarmed combat or anything, he gets to focus on weapon aptitude and gets really good with his swords. His big strength is that he spends nearly every waking moment training (and he's convinced the DM that he meditates while asleep).
I ain't here to play games.
Finally, Luffy's player sits down at the table. He reads the houserules and grins. He takes the whole suite of Will to Live, Force of Will, and True Empathy, as well as a few others. He rolls up a character heavily focused on Charisma and physical abilities, with Wisdom as his dump stat, followed by Intelligence.
Then, he starts his backstory. "My friends, Shanks' pirate crew, are attacked by mountain bandits. Because of True Empathy, that counts as a traumatic event for me; I make a Will save and gain a point of Charisma. I eat a devil fruit and lose my ability to swim. Will save, gain a Charisma. I attack the mountain bandits. They kidnap me and threaten me with death. Will save, Charisma. Shanks' crewmember blows somebody's brains out in front of me. Empathy, Will Save, Charisma. I am kidnapped by the bandit leader. Will, Charisma. He's attacked and killed by a Sea King. Empathy, Will, Charisma." "Hang on, how can you keep making such high will saves?" "My Will save is based on my Charisma thanks to Force Of Will, and my Charisma keeps going up. The Sea King attacks me. Will, Charisma. Shanks saves me, but the Sea King bites off his arm. Will, Charisma. In the intervening time, I train my strength, dexterity, and constitution every day until I am fatigued, to try to be like Shanks. I gain *will save will save will save will save will save fail* 5 points of Strength on day one."
The other players, and especially the DM, stare at him. "And... How long do you train?" "Weeeeell, I was seven before, and now I'm seventeen, so that makes about, let's see, 3500 days. You want me to roll them all? OH, forgot to mention, a seven-year-old kid working himself that hard is really damaging on the psyche. You might even call it... Traumatic."
And that's why he gets his face on the flag.
-Charlie
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