Illevar Core Mechanics - Equipment

 Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! Getting back to writing down mechanics and core rules for Illevar. Slowly getting towards a working prototype here and that is really exciting. Anyway, on to the blog!

Equipment in Illevar:

Equipment/Gear are fundamental elements of any good adventure game. In Illevar, there are 3 main types of equipment: Armor, Weapon, Accessory. These were hinted at in an earlier blog-post, but today we will go a bit more in depth on the subject. 

Equipment may also have special abilities that fall into 2 categories: Passive and Active. 

A Passive ability might include: resistance to specific elemental damage, a buff to a passive skill, or maybe even a negative ability, such as a curse. 

Active abilities, on the other hand, refer to abilities that require ability points to use. These could include special attacks or effects. 

Armor:

Armor in Illevar will give the players damage resistance, protection from effects, and/or special abilities. Players can gather several types of armor in their adventures, but can only take one set of armor out into the field with them. Armors will have a type listed on them (Heavy, Light, Magical) as well as the damage buff they give the wearer. 

If the armor gives the player a damage buff of 2, for example, then the player will receive 2 less damage per attack on them. While these numbers may seem small, you have to remember that the damage is determined by dice rolls, with a lot of the weapons only using d4s-d8s. 

Weapons:

Weapons in Illevar function similarly to Armor. Having several styles to choose, abilities, and types (Melee, Ranged, Magical). Weapons will have an assigned damage dice to them, much like other TRPGs. 

Weapons will also have Active abilities, requiring Ability Points to use, along with standard damage. Some will also be Elemental allowing for specific types of damage to be dealt (water, ice, electric, fire, earth, etc.).

Unlike Armor, Players are able to take 2 weapons with them into the field. This is to give players more options when fighting monsters. 

One difference in Illevar as opposed to other TRPGs is that combat plays out more like Final Fantasy and other older RPGs. Players take turns doing actions and the distance between enemies isn’t factored in. 

Compiled from data from D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e

Accessories:

Accessories are the most flexible type of Equipment. Since they aren’t focused on protection or attacking, they can fill a variety of roles and effects. They can have Passive or Active effects much like Armor. 

The types of Accessories are: Headgear, Bracelet, Necklace, Ring, Footwear, Special/Unique.

Players are allowed to have 3 accessories equipped at the same time. They cannot have more than one Headgear, Necklace, or Footwear equipped at the same time. The other items can be equipped up to 2 at a time. Example: 1 Headgear & 2 Rings. Or 1 Headgear, 1 Footwear, 1 Necklace. 

FF9 is best FF.

Test Cards/Mock-Ups

Lastly, I wanted to share a few quick test/mock-ups for equipment cards. Getting down to the end of initial concepts and soon it'll be time to do some testing and that is super exciting to me!

Accessory

Weapon

Armor

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