I don't know how that happened, but it is what it is. Bleh. I blame being sick.

I did nothing except for being...well. Being sick.

I love how you enable me to just do my own thing creatively.

In this case, today, I crafted what would be--for me--my Perfect RPG.

Let's start with the basics.
I've never been fond of the idea of having an arbitrary limit on party number, and then having the others do nothing. Now, granted. Often the better RPGs will have justification for this. (Chrono Trigger had it be that any party greater than three would end up traveling to the end of time, as an example.)
The better RPGs will also have experience leakage: members outside the party still progress, just often not as fast as those inside the party.

Still. I've just always thought that was such a waste.

So my Perfect RPG--which I imagine having a party of 9 or 10 (if 9, the tenth as a guest party slot)--would be broken into a Primary Party and a Secondary Party. The Primary Party would be the active party...and if wiped out in battle, in comes the secondary party. In other words, instead of a Game Over for a fraction of your characters killed (seriously, why would you lose the game if three of nine people were KO'd? Those other six should still be able to do something!), they would only suffer a TPK if it is in fact a total party kill, every character you have knocked out.

...There would be an exception to this rule, however:
In some areas, the group would split into two parties, and these two parties would be doing separate tasks. Say for instance you are in a puzzle room. One party needs to do certain things to allow the other party to progress. In that instance, if one party is wiped out, then the other party wouldn't come in, because the two parties are in two physically different locations.

Whenever the parties are together as a single group, though, I would also include a 'switch parties' command in battle. This could only be done if the action bar for every party member in the active party is filled (meaning it's impossible to do with a KO'd party member), and would leave the incoming party with empty action bars.

Parties could have their members switched out during any save point. However, any time outside of battle, parties--both primary and secondary--could be organized between order and position. (Order, when all other factors are equal, determines who goes first, starting from the far right; position is forward, middle, or backward determining damage dealt/received.)

There would be three different encounter modes, and a clear indication for which type of encounter mode the current zone is: random encounters, preset encounters (you can see the enemies before engaging them) featuring some surprise encounters (the enemies are still in a preset location, just not visible), and preset encounters WITH the chance of random encounters (but no surprise-attacks that are preset).
In very rare specific instances, there would be an unofficial fourth type of encounter: infinite enemies which come to engage the group even if they stand still. (Think like Midgar Zolom from FFVII, or the infinite enemies from the tunnels if you choose to keep fighting...and fighting...and fighting.)

In battle, there would be more commands than in your typical game, but these would still be fairly self-explanatory once you got the hang of them.

-Switch Party: already explained, switches between Primary/Secondary party.

-Change positions: self-explanatory, would allow you to move forward or back one position. (To go from front to back you'd need to do this command twice.)
-Defend: halves damage taken until you take an action other than defend; during the time defending, the Counter Bar builds at double speed. (Which is, effectively, building at normal speed.) Automatically per turn provides a slight boost to the Limit Bar. (.05%/turn defending.)

-Attack: Self-explanatory.
For the next bit, I first need to explain--
Limit Gauge/Bar: (Abbreviation LG) The Limit Bar builds both as a character receives and gives damage (about double receive compared to give), but this is a very gradual process. Thankfully, this carries through battles, and does not reset at the end of them. There are three types of attacks which use the Limit Gauge, collectively called...
-LIMITS: Note that unlike in some RPGs, you can in fact use normal attacks; this is a separate command from 'Attack' and does not replace it. They are subdivided as:
*Lower Limits: (Abbreviation LL) These techniques use 25% of the Limit Bar.
*Limit Techniques: (Abbreviation LT) These techniques use 50% of the Limit Bar.
*Limit Breaks: (Abbreviation LB) These techniques use 100% of the Limit Bar.

Limits can be any combination of attacks, defenses, buffs, debuffs, area of effect, or what have you. Each character has limits unique to them. Limits are unlocked by using limits, number of kills a character has, and character level.

There are two similar things to the Limit Gauge/Bar, and both additionally have commands. These are...
Combo Gauge/Bar: (Abbreviation CG) The combo bar builds as a character deals damage. It does not carry over between battles. The command used by this?
-COMBOS/COUNTER BREAK: Combos use 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, or 80% of the Combo Gauge. They are specifically attacks (potentially with debuffs applied), often doing exactly what the name implies. When a character's  Combo Gauge reaches 100%, they can use a 'Counter Break' (which has its name replace the 'Combo' command)--a Counter Break is effectively a supercharged Combo, the ultimate non-limit attack. (The change in name is for emphasis; a counter break is meant to pierce through any enemy's counter to your offensive, by launching one fierce attack.)

Like limits, combos/counter breaks are unique to the individual character, and are unlocked by using combos, number of kills a character has, and character level.

Counter Gauge/Bar: (Abbreviation CB) The counter bar is the defensive equivalent of the combo gauge; it builds as a character takes damage. It also does not carry over between battles. The command used by this is, obviously...
-COUNTERS/COMBO BREAK: Counters also use 10%/20%/30%/40%/50%/60%/80% of the counter bar. They are specifically various forms of defensive maneuvers: buffs, healing, covering for a teammate (e.g. the Cover Materia from FFVII, the Taunt command in many a game), applying a counterattack-debuff, or even at their most aggressive providing a counter-attack wherein if the character is attacked, they launch an attack back.

The combo break is the ultimate extension of this: the perfected defense of the character. It is meant to instantly shut down any enemy attack which is pulverizing your party.

Same as combos and limits, counters are unlocked by using counters, character level, and add in number of times using the 'defense' command to replace kills.

Note that in all three cases, the more powerful the attack, the less of them there are in the character's arsenal. Each character only has 7 Limit Breaks, 3 Counter Breaks, and 3 Combo Breaks, but they all have far more Limit Techniques than that and all have far more Lower Limits than Limit Techniques and all have more Combos/Counters than that.

I'm not going to lock in exact numbers, but it'd be something like:
12 Limit Techniques, 24 Lower Limits, 5 80% combo/counters, 10 60% combo/counters, 15 50% combo/counters, 20 40% combo/counters, 25 30% combo/counters, 30 20% combo/counters, and 40 10% combo/counters.

Like I said, not exact numbers, but thereabouts.

From there, we get into six further commands.

-Hero Magic: Hero Magic is magic unique to the individual character. I use the term 'magic' here loosely, it'd be more accurate to say 'Hero Techniques', in that there are plenty which are non-magical. (Every attack will specify if it is magical, physical, or both.) They are unlocked with level, plus by unlocking/upgrading specific other hero magics for that character. You use GP (I don't quite have an exact idea what that's an abbreviation for; the P is for Points but there's a few candidates for the G) in order to unlock/upgrade hero magic.

GP, by the way, is a universal resource, shared by all characters. It is a collective pool, which you can tap as much as you want to on a specific character. Just know that if you empty it all on one character, that's all your others who can't use it now because it's all gone. (Think like Gold, which is the other universal resource.) This is more or less a system I am borrowing heavily from the likes of Epic Battle Fantasy 3/4 and World's End which I imagine both borrowed it from some other source(s).

Some are in fact passive, but most are activated abilities.

-Learned Magic: Again I use the term 'magic' here loosely. I'll save a lot of time by just saying that this is the system MARDEK RPG uses, with minor modifications. You have (Magical) Attack Reactions (applied to any attack of that kind), (Magical) Defense Reactions (applied to any defense of that kind), Active Abilities (this is the modification since MARDEK doesn't have this), and Passive Abilities. The 'Active Abilities' are the ones listed in the Learned Magic command bar. The others are automatically done.

(Magic) Attack Reactions are done on every attack of that kind, and bring up a Reaction Bar--hit it in the zone, and the (Magical) Attack Reaction is applied; miss, and the (Magical) Attack Reaction is not applied. Pretty self-explanatory.

(Magic) Defense Reactions are done on every defense of that kind, and bring up a Reaction Bar--hit it in the zone, and the (Magical) Defense Reaction is applied; miss, and the (Magical) Defense Reaction is not applied. Also pretty self-explanatory.

All things which are Learned Magic are things which any character can learn. They require specific items to be equipped to that character to learn. When the character has used them enough, they Master the 'magic' and no longer require the item to be equipped in order to use it. However, all Learned Magic requires AP--assigned points. AP is determined by a character's level. The more AP a character has, the more Learned Magic abilities a character can use in battle. They are interchangeable, in the LM menu. Just assign and unassign as desired.

Learned Magic grows in different ways. (Magical) Attack Reactions grow by having the reaction be assigned and using a (Magical) Attack which triggers the reaction and succeeding in the reaction. (The technique does not need to connect with the target.) (Magical) Defense Reactions grow by having the reaction be assigned and using a (Magical) Defense which triggers the reaction and succeeding in the reaction. Active Abilities (which only show in the Learned Magic menu if assigned and/or mastered) grow by being used. Passive Abilities grow by number of battles the passive ability has been assigned.

When growth is maxed, the ability is mastered. Pretty self-explanatory system once you get the hang of it.

-Equipped Magic: Equipped Magic I can save a lot of time by just saying it's Materia from Final Fantasy VII. No modifications. No alterations. It's just outright plagiarizing materia from FFVII and directly copies just about everything from the system, aside from a minor detail. You can potentially have up to 27 equipped magics on a character at a time (the minor detail): 9 linked in one weapon, 9 linked in a second weapon (or the second half of a two-handed weapon), 9 linked in armor.

Equipped Magic is, as the name implies, equipped, on a character's weapon(s) and armor. It evolves, in this case by earning LP. (Learning Points.) Like with Battle XP, characters who do not participate in the battle earn 80% of the battle's LP. Certain equipment can have double or half growth rate for equipped magic. Equipped Magic is the most versatile, diverse magic in the ideal RPG game.

It is through Equipped Magic that you get the other three commands: throw, steal, and summon. (Equipped Magic is itself a command.) When an Equipped Magic is maxed out, it duplicates itself, creating an identical lower-leveled version of itself.

Seriously when I said it's materia from FFVII, I meant it's materia from Final Fantasy VII.

Magic regardless of Hero/Learned/Equipped USUALLY uses MP to cast.

Then we get into the standard:
-Item: Uses an item, pretty self-explanatory.

-Flee: Run away!

...So in total, potentially 16 commands available in battle. It'd admittedly be a bit much, but this is MY Perfect RPG, I'm building a system that I'd dream of playing, and that means something notoriously complex and highly redundant because that's just who I am.

Additional note: at the end of battle, items/gold/LP/etc./battle experience is awarded, but every action a character takes rewards some small amount of combat experience as well, meaning the more you act, the more you level up. (It also allows for party switches to still allow the party switched out to earn more than just 80% of the award for the battle.)


So we've covered battle.

Outside of battle, the menu would work much as you'd expect it to. You can access Items (using/organizing them but more on that in a bit, my item system is nonstandard).

You can organize/equip equipment (more on that in a bit).

You can use any magic which can be used outside of battle (the magic menu opens up a sub-menu of the three different types of magic).

You can open up the hero magic management window (allows you to unlock/upgrade hero magic).

You can open up the learned magic management window (allows you to assign/unassign learned magic abilities along with checking how much AP they cost to equip, a description of their effect including cost, how close you are to mastering them, and what items you have equipped which allow you to learn them; is subdivided into six menus one for each type of learned magic).

You can open up the equipped magic management window (allows you to assign equipped magic to different slots).

You can check the status of your characters. (This menu has various submenus showing all sorts of different statistics about the character in question.)

You can switch the order/position of your characters.

You can set/check on limits.
You can check on combos/counters.
You can control various in-game settings.
If you are at a save point, you can access storage items.
If you are at a save point, you can switch party members between parties.
If you are at a save point, you can save the game into various different save slots.
You can quit to the menu.

I might be missing a feature or two but that seems about it.

Now to explain--the game which I consider the perfect RPG would heal members at save points (screw needing to waste an item to do that) except for on the world map (in which everywhere is a save point).

The game which I consider the perfect RPG would allow you, however, to quit with progress saved at any time...with a single "quicksave" option. Quicksave would take you to the very second you quicksaved and you could have only one quicksave file, whereas you'd have so many save slots which you can save your game in during a save point that you can essentially never run out. In short, it'd allow for you to stop any time (a feature I hate about games with save points is that you must REACH a save point in order to stop)...but it'd still make you want to reach a save point because of all the various benefits offered in one.

The game I consider the perfect RPG would, surprisingly enough, NOT feature classes. No White Mage, no Black Mage, no Martial Artist, no Fighter, no Rogue, nothing of the sort. Now! Each character would have a unique flavor to them, which gives them the aesthetic of a class. Each character would have certain stats grow more than others (more on that in a bit), and as I mentioned before, thanks to all of them having unique limits, unique combos, unique counters, and unique hero magics, between all of those factors, every one of them would be different and original enough from one another that they give the illusion of having a class.

...But there would not actually be any class. Any character could be any class. Every character would be a mage, every character would be a melee fighter, every character could fight from a distance, or if not every character then essentially every character. 

This is a decision which I came to after great thought on what most of my favorite RPGs featured. Absent from them was a predefined, preset class. Like, in Final Fantasy VII, characters might unofficially have classes. Tifa would be a Martial Artist; Cid would be a Dragoon; Cloud would be a Fighter; Aeris would loosely be a White Mage. Probably more than that if you bothered to get into it. But they are not OFFICIALLY those things. And this is what my perfect RPG would be like, where it's fine to unofficially have the aesthetic/flavor of a particular class and have stat growth particularly suited for said class...but you wouldn't actually HAVE it.

Chrono Trigger is another game that comes to mind; EVERY character was a mage and EVERY character was a physical fighter more or less, even though you can think of Aayla as a Martial Artist (especially since all her attacks are physical), Crono as a Fighter, Frog as a Red Mage, Marle as an Archer/White Mage (eventually in spite of her Ice attacks she'd be this), Lucca as a Gunslinger/Black Mage, Magus as a Mage/Black Mage, and so on. Yeah they had elemental themes to them but they didn't really have classes, not really, not officially.

Heck even the SaGa games I played didn't really have classes in the traditional sense. You had Humans/Hybrids/Monsters/Cyborgs/Robots (in 2, choosing which of the five your four characters would be; in 3, starting as human with the ability to become hybrids/monsters by eating meat and cyborgs/robots by eating metal and to revert from those by eating the inverse), each which had different mechanics behind them, but while that might kinda sorta vaguely resemble a class system, it's not really what most people think of in terms of classes.

So my perfect RPG has the flavor of classes, but no ACTUAL classes.

...That having been said, my perfect RPG has JOBS. Characters start out as Level 1 in all Jobs--and yes. It is possible (albeit incredibly time-consuming) to get every single character to be level 9 in every single job. (Of which, there are nine.)

Alchemists: The level of an alchemist effects the grade of potions (well, consumables; I use the terms interchangeably right here) crafted. (All consumables have a grade from 1-9 of how effective they are at a base rating.) Crafting is done at specific item shops, for a price. At higher levels, more advanced types of potions are unlocked for crafting. Alchemy level also effects the potency of potions, in that a level 1 alchemist using a level 1 potion might heal 100 HP, but a level 9 alchemist using a level 1 potion might heal like ten times that much. (Number not set in stone.)

When crafting, by default, the party member in the active party with the highest level alchemy skill will craft.

Enchanters/Enchantresses: All equipment has the ability to be enchanted 1-9 times, and these enchantments come from levels 1-9. Enchanter Level determines the grade of the enchantment, the type of enchantments available, and also the cost of enchanting/unenchanting equipment. Enchanting is done for preexisting, already-bought equipment.

When enchanting, by default, the party member in the active party with the highest level enchanting skill will enchant.

Smiths: It is possible to craft equipment at certain equipment shops (similar to how it is possible to craft potions at certain item shops). It is also at these same places that you can upgrade your equipment. Both of these, a smith handles. Smithing level determines the grade of the equipment smithed (be it upgrade or craft) (1-9), along with the type of equipment available to smith.

When crafting, by default, the party member in the active party with the highest level smithing skill will craft.

NOTE: In spite of these three all mentioning crafting, there is no crafting materials to meticulously hunt down because I hate doing that and this is my Perfect RPG. You just pay the gold fee and it's assumed the gold fee is you paying for the materials necessary to do the thing you are doing.

There is also no failures because screw losing millions of gold to craft the perfect item and SERIOUSLY screw the thought of entirely losing an item because you wanted to make it better and the process to make it better backfired.

Merchants: The higher level a merchant, the better deals the party will get. This is a cumulative effect. So yes, you will eventually want five level nine merchants in the party. Additionally, certain goods are locked in stores even to master alchemists/smiths. These goods are unlocked by being a sufficiently high-enough-leveled merchant. (Potential feature: whole shops available only to sufficiently high-leveled merchants. Bit iffy about this though.)

Adventurer: Determines the toughness of encounters on an adjustable bar. Each level allows for a 5% adjustment in either direction: easier OR harder. (Maxing out at 95% easier/95% harder for a level 9 adventurer setting it to extremes. Note that 95% easier is not necessarily 'easy mode', as there are benefits to facing harder enemies.) Additionally, determines the frequency of drops. (This would be on the same sliding bar: 95% makes drops 95% more likely, so double monster difficulty = double drops, essentially. However, drops cannot be less likely than 25%.)

Scout: Determines the frequency of random encounters on an adjustable bar. Each level allows for a 5% adjustment in either direction: many many MANY more encounters, or many many many FEWER encounters. Also determines chance to escape; this is a cumulative effect.

Guard: In my perfect RPG, while there would be plenty of storyline quests AND dozens upon dozens of side-quests, there would also be REPEATABLE quests. Guard level would determine the frequency of repeatable quests. The higher, the more frequently they'd be offered.

Farmer: Determines the amount of battle experience and gold earned at the end of battles; this is a cumulative effect. Yes that means five farmers earn say 500% XP/Gold. Additionally (still cumulative) determines the amount of combat experience earned while fighting.

Statistician: Determines the growth rate of everything else: higher-level statisticians influence the growth rate of Jobs (yes they make you become higher level in jobs in spite of being a job), LP, GP, and even Learned Abilities. (Instead of earning 1 point per battle, you could, saaaaaaaaaay, earn two or three with a high enough level statistician.) This is a cumulative effect.

And I'm not done yet.

There are NINE stats.
Each level, a character gains AT LEAST one point in each stat. Depending on the character, they can gain additional points in some stats. Furthermore, in my perfect RPG, you'd get 3 points/level to assign to the character as you pleased, allowing for some level of customization.

These stats would be:
VITality: Increases Total HP and CB growth rate.
SPiRit: Increases Total MP and CG growth rate.
STRength: Increases Physical Attack Damage and Limit Bar growth rate.
INTelligence: Increases Magical Attack Damage and Limit Gauge growth rate.
ENDurance: Increases Physical Defense (reduces physical damage taken)
WISdom: Increases Magical Defense (reduces magical damage taken)
DEXterity: Increases Physical Accuracy and % of Parry
KNoWledge: Increases Magical Accuracy and % of Block
SPeeD: Increases Action Bar Recovery Time (in short, makes it take less turns between attacks, making you attack more often) and % of Evade.

I wanted one stat to also increase a few other things, but I can't remember what those things were and ultimately I couldn't determine which stats would increase those things anyway.

...But wait, there's more!

Now for the ITEM system, which is where things go from "maybe potentially possibly in some extremely complex world a passable idea of an RPG" into "yeah you're just insane beyond any hope".

Each character would have their own personal inventory. This inventory's carrying capacity would be determined by the 'Backpack' item equipped to the characters' backs. A character can only use items from their own inventory, the item bank, OR storage when at a save point. To start with, this would be a single page of a 9x9 grid: 81 items.

Now, keep in mind: literally identical in every single way items will stack (up to a max of 99), but if there's so much as a single difference, they need different slots. 81's a lot of items, butstill, it may not end up being enough. As such, the backpack can be upgraded. the 9x9 grid is the Small Backpack.
Medium is a 9x9 grid...but adding a second page, doubling storage.
Large is 9x9x3, triple initial storage.
Gigantic is 9x9x4.
Compressed Backpack is a 'Bigger on the Inside' flavored item, which is 9x9x9.
Backpack of Holding ix 9x9x20.
Compressed Backpack of Holding is 9x9x99: 99 pages of 81 items each.

Keep in mind of course the whole time that there are NUMEROUS different sort functions readily available and that you can move items in bulk and so on and so forth. And that this is just for each individual character. 

Equipment is, by default, listed in item management for the purposes of moving it around/storage/etc. When equipping equipment from the equipment menu, it lists where the equipment is being equipped from, and you can set a destination for the equipment you are unequipping. (Basically, the equipment menu--through various sorting methods--lists all available equipment which can be equipped, along with where it's being equipped from and where unequipped equipment will go.)

In addition to individual character item storage, you have the item bank.
The item bank is items that any character, regardless of party, can use. Items are placed in the item bank in item management. These are usually consumables but can be equipment.

The item bank is initially a 2x2 grid. It can be expanded: 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 7x7, 9x9, 9x9x2, and 9x9x3 at maximum capacity.

Additional note: though not recommended, a character can choose to forfeit their inventory (and thus have access only to the item bank) in favor of a second back-slot for equipment, but more on that in...well. Right now.

You might notice there's a metric ton of possible potential item slots.

Why on earth would you need that much space especially when items that are literally identical stack?

Well aside from the fact that there's multiple ways items can turn from 'literally identical' to no longer being that way...

...The main reason is because--and here is where, if you were following along with my Perfect RPG and thought it was potentially passable, you'd just throw up your hands in the air and declare "I quit"--there are 62 equippable slots.
63, if you forfeit the backpack in favor of a second back equip.

You heard it right.
Sixty-two.
Many RPGs have three. Weapon, Armor, Accessory.
Many have more than that, sure, yeah. Something like "head, torso, leggings, shoes, bracers, gloves, ring1, ring2, necklace, bag, weapon hand, off-hand, backpack, cape" at a more extensive roguelike level. (I believe that's the number of slots in Castle of the Winds? Might have added one or two or not listed one or two.) Like, 14 max.

I just said 62.

Now in my Perfect RPG.

You wouldn't have all sixty-two of those visible.

But one of the things I find REALLY neat is when some of these things actually ARE reflected in characters, in that they DO have their appearance change off of equipment. When I list something as 'Visible', it can be seen; when I list something as an accessory, it cannot be seen. So the full list, approximately from toe to head, goes like this:

(NOTE: Every time I say 'potent for enchantments', what I mean is more or less: items of this type often come with a preexisting effect and/or can have them be enchanted with an effect. Some effects ONLY exist on items and cannot be added through enchantments; some effects ONLY exist in enchantments and cannot be naturally found on equipment. Below I use the two interchangeably because items which are good for enchantment are often also the type to come with a preexisting effect.)

-Accessory: Stockings. Symmetrical. (Symmetrical = you can't equip different ones on different sides.) Most provide minor defense boosts, however, their main purpose is to allow for an equipment slot to enchant. You won't find learned magic for stockings. In short, they are mostly optional, with the occasional use.

-Visible: Footwear. Symmetrical. Shoes, sandals, boots, etc. As a primary piece of gear, provides major boosts, and is a main source of learned magic.

-Accessory: Ankle x2. You can put something on the right ankle or left ankle. Ankle equipment is also wrist equipment. Anything which can be placed on the wrist can be placed on the ankle, and vice-versa. (Yes I know that isn't quite how it works in real life but for sanity's sake.) Anything which can be placed on the right side can be placed on the left side. Near-universally provide potent enchantments. Though rare, you can find learned magic on some anklewear.

-Visible: Shin. Symmetrical. Often provides defense. Provides moderate to strong enchantment boosts. Though rare, you can find learned magic on some shin equipment. Shin equipment is also forearm equipment. (Yes I know that is incredibly questionable.) Anything which can be placed on the forearms can be placed on the shins, and vice-versa.

-Accessory: Knee x2. You can put something on the right knee or the left knee. Knee equipment is also elbow equipment is also shoulder equipment. Anything which can be placed on one can be placed on the other; anything which can be placed on the right can be placed on the left. Can provide anything: defense boosts, offense boosts, potent enchantments, or learned magic.

-Accessory: Thigh x2. You can put something on the right thigh or the left thigh. Thigh equipment is also upper arm equipment. They are interchangeable. Provides minor enchantment boosts. No learned magic sources.

-Visible: Leggings. (Universal = there isn't a different side to equip.) Pants. Provide high defense and often high enchantments. VERY common source of learned magic. Required to wear at all times.

-Accessory: Briefs. Universal. Most provides minor defense boosts, however, their main purpose is to allow for an equipment slot to enchant. You won't find learned magic for briefs. In short, they are mostly optional, with the occasional use.

-Accessory: Belt1. Universal. One belt. Belts come in two basic types: item-equipping ones (basically allowing for a miniaturized second inventory, a quick-selected one of sorts where preferred items are kept) and enchantment-heavy ones. Interchangeable with Belt2. Has no learned magic.

-Accessory: Belt2. See also, Belt1, this is just a second slot for the same thing.

-Accessory: Undershirt. Universal. Most provides minor defense boosts, however, their main purpose is to allow for an equipment slot to enchant. You won't find learned magic for undershirts. In short, they are mostly optional, with the occasional use.

-Visible: Shirt. Universal. This is Armor. Equipped Magic is equipped using this equipment slot. That tells you everything you need to know; it is the most important space outside of weapon hands. Provides high defense and high enchantments and is the main source of learned magic. ​Required to wear at all times.

-Accessory: Overshirt. Universal. Most provides minor defense boosts, however, their main purpose is to allow for an equipment slot to enchant. You won't find learned magic for overshirts. In short, they are mostly optional, with the occasional use.

-Accessory: Torso Accessory1. Universal. Chest strap, pin medal, things like that. Interchangeable with Torso Accessory2. Chest buckles can carry items (see how that works in belts), but mostly these are items which are potent for enchantments. No learned magic exists for them.

-Accessory: Torso Accessory2. See Torso Accessory1.

-Accessory: Backpack. Universal. See above on inventory. Can instead be replaced with an item under the category of...

-Accessory: Back. Universal. Items which are slung over the back. Think like a quiver. These are items which have very potent effects built in, and many are incredibly potent to enchant, but it's their magical effects which make them useful; they have no learned magic.

-Accessory: Cape. Universal. Also cloaks. Items which are incredibly potent to enchant, but have zero or even negative defense values. Have no learned magic.

-Accessory: Shoulder x2. See also: Knee Equipment.

-Accessory: Upper Arm x2. See also: Thigh Equipment.

-Accessory: Elbow x2. See also: Shoulder equipment; Knee Equipment.

-Visible: Forearm. Symmetrical. I could technically say 'see also: shin', but this is important enough an item to be listed here since frankly the forearms as bracers and the like see more use than the shins. But to reiterate: Often provides defense. Provides moderate to strong enchantment boosts. Though rare, you can find learned magic on some forearm equipment.

NOTE: This is true of all equipment, but some equipment can take more than one slot. In particular, this is relevant to both shins and forearms which have the most of this aside from weapons/shields. If a piece of footwear equipment is of a certain type, it uses the shin slot in addition to the footwear slot; if a piece of handwear equipment (i.e., gauntlets) is of a certain type, it uses the forearm slot in addition to the handwear equipment slot.

-Accessory: Wrists x2. You can put something on the right wrist or left wrist. Ankle equipment is also wrist equipment. Anything which can be placed on the wrist can be placed on the ankle, and vice-versa. Anything which can be placed on the right side can be placed on the left side. Near-universally provide potent enchantments. Though rare, you can find learned magic on some wristwear.

-Visible: Handwear x2. (Just about one of the only pieces of visible equipment not universal or symmetrical.) Gloves. Can be placed on the right hand or the left hand. Items which provide reasonable defense and usually some potent offense boosts, and are relatively decently potent for enchantments. Semi-frequent source of learned magic.

-Accessory: Fingers x10. Five right, five left. Rings. One of THE most potent sources of enchantments, but utterly worthless in all other ways; no offense/defense (unless enchanted) and no learned magic.

-Visible: Hand x2. Weapon, for right hand and left hand; some weapons are two-handed and others are not. Required to wear at least one at all times. Additionally, Equipped Magic is equipped in these slots. As a result, THE most important slots. Obviously, provides the highest offense of any equipment, high enchantments, and is the secondary source of learned magic next to shirts.

-Visible: Shield x2. Note that most shields don't allow dual-shield-wielding, but because some do, they are still technically an x2. Note also that some shields take up a hand slot, but not all do. Some shields take up a forearm slot, but not all do. Some can take up both, others can take up neither. Some can only be worn on the non-weapon hand; others can be worn on either hand. Provides high defense and high enchantments; is a source of learned magic.

-Accessory: Lower Neck. Universal. Necklaces and the like. Next to rings, the highest source of enchantments, lowest source of defense/offense. However, they can have learned magic, albeit rare. Anything which can be equipped on the lower neck can be equipped on the upper neck. In an exception, vice-versa is not true.

-Accessory: Upper Neck. Universal. Necklaces as per lower neck, but also things like collars. Items which fit in this category exclusively tend to have slightly higher defense/offense values than their lower neck counterparts, at the tradeoff of slightly lower potency in enchantments.

I'm going to save myself some writing.
From this point upward, everything is an accessory because none of the characters should have their faces buried.
Furthermore, with the exception of the last item on this list, none of these items are sources of learned magic.

Chin: Universal. No purpose except as an enchantment slot.

Mouth: Universal. Can provide minor defense/offense/magic boosts, but otherwise is for enchantment.

Nose: Universal. Can provide minor defense boosts, but otherwise is for enchantment.

Lower Face: Universal. Can take all three of chin/mouth/nose slots but not inherently so. Can provide minor defense/magic defense boosts, but otherwise is for enchantment.

Eyes1: Universal. Can provide minor boosts in attack, magic attack, defense, and magic defense, but is mostly for enchantment. Interchangeable with Eyes2.

Eyes2: See Eyes1.

Ear1 x2: Can be worn on the right side or the left side. Provides strong enchantment boosts, and can provide some magic attack. Interchangeable with Ear2.

Ear2: See Ear1.

Forehead1: Universal. Can provide minor defense/magic defense boost, but is mostly for moderate enchantment boosts. Interchangeable with Forehead2.

Forehead2: Universal. See Forehead1.

Hair Accessory 1: Universal. Provides moderate enchantment boosts, but nothing else. Interchangeable with Hair Accessory 2.

Hair Accessory 2: Universal. See Hair Accessory 1. (Alternatively, I could merge Hair Accessory and just separate it into right/left, either works, but this is what I wrote, so it's what I'm going with.)

Headgear: Universal. Hats. Helmets. The like. Obviously, provides good defense, can also provide magical defense, magical attack, even some offense. Is a VERY good source of enchantment. Furthermore, is a semi-common source of learned magic.

...And there you have it.

62 equip slots on every single character.

Keep in mind, not all gear is universal. I mean. Exclusive gear I'd want to keep to a minimum (it's okay to have a character have one or two pieces of equipment unique to and thus equippable only for them, but not so much 62), but I also would think that characters with certain loose aesthetics to them would not be using equipment on the polar opposite of that aesthetic.

...Still.

Now you know about everything which would make my Perfect RPG.

Something you might notice is absent: elements, and a list of status effects.

That's not because I wouldn't want them.

It's because I wasn't sure whether they'd be requirements or not. I wasn't sure if they'd be implemented or not, and if so, how important they'd be. Well, I knew status ailments would exist it's just a question of how many/which ones. And for elements I'm ambivalent on everything there. They could be there, they could be absent, I guess you could say they're optional, something which would be really great to have but not a requirement.

Soyeah.

That's my perfect RPG.

Something which I would find so insanely good to play.

...And yet literally nobody else would.

Especially since. My god you know how many hours it'd take to get 100% completion on a game like what I'm envisioning? Even with the grinding-friendly mechanics built in...you're talking hundreds if not thousands of hours, navigating and integrating a complex system.

Keep in mind that you'd have dozens of consumables; your average RPG has at least ten if not 20-50 consumable items. And keep in mind that per equipment slot your average RPG has something like 10+ equippable items for that equipment slot. Some significantly more, going up into the dozens or even hundreds or in some cases thanks to randomly generated items, infinite numbers of potential things. (I wouldn't have infinite number of potential things; part of having a Perfect RPG is being able to say you did in fact get 100% completion and any mechanic involving an infinite amount means there's no such thing anymore as 100% completion.)

Plus even if that were something you'd come to like as a player.

My god how would you ever code a game that complex?

This not even going into how to make a storyline for a game, build an entire world. I mentioned a world map, because yeah that'd have to be a thing.

Still though.

​A girl can dream, right?

There was not a two-day gap in entries with today being a double-entry. My previous entry was made on Wednesday, just past midnight. I forgot to adjust the date on the entry to reflect that.

Anyway!

Today is Valentine's Day. It's my first one with a girlfriend, though unfortunately they have a long day today (and I had a long day yesterday meaning neither definition of the 14th is viable for us to have a date) meaning no intimate time given that I work tomorrow and thus can't stay up. I did however get free food from Denny's, because my mom and dad decided to eat out and allowed us kids to tag along.

I also on the way down developed a new power for Ruby in Red Hood Rider.

...Hey!
Don't go rolling your eyes, sighing, or just thinking "...again?" or the like.
Trust me on this! Just...bear with me for a while. What I'm saying is something that you'll actually think is something which would be too good to not have.

Basically, it's not a power specific to her--it's a universal power of all vampires.
This new power is actually a consequence of one of the very most basic aspects of vampire physiology in my setting. In my setting, while vampires can drink through the mouth (which is considered stronger than sex; on a willing participate the kiss of a vampire is better than an orgasm; on an unwilling participant the bite of a vampire is explicitly akin to rape), the primary method vampires drain blood is through their fingers.

The new power is extrapolating based off of that, by virtue of a required secondary power of sorts--it's not even much of a power. Basically, vampires can for a limited period of time breathe underwater, via sucking in the oxygen from water to go directly into the bloodstream...but this is not something which allows them to stay underwater indefinitely. Their draining is meant specifically to drain blood from people, not to drain oxygen from water.

So how long it extends their ability to remain underwater, I'm not sure exactly. Lower figure would be ten minutes, higher figure an hour or two, but it wouldn't exceed that. It also isn't exactly healthy for them to do. This can be thought of as an emergency oxygen system, to be used only when the primary oxygen system has failed. It's also something which is specific only to water. It doesn't work anywhere else.

And even given this...my use for it?

...A skit.

A gag.

An omake before the start of an episode, as a one-off joke...and even then, with the explanation being mostly in the author blurb with it only implied in the comic image proper. This is why it's not really something to groan about her having; it's not something story-significant. It's just for the sake of a single piece of humor, one which is in a setting that while fully canonical is detached from the main story altogether. Isolated and remote, with it only serving to vaguely segue into a new episode.

In this case, the skit would go something like this, with Angel Wings saying,
"Sally is calling you."
And Ruby's response?
"Please text her to tell her I can't answer her right now on account of (new panel) me slowly drowning to death." with the new panel revealing that her leg is tied to a magical chain which is attached to a big weight with her underwater.

For obvious reasons, this would be before Gary becomes the elemental rider of water (since he could fix it far faster, obv).

I'm thinking that this makes a better omake than whatever I had planned before as an introduction to one of Ruby's Rogue Gallery villains--in this particular case, you might have guessed it's the mobster. I don't remember his last name (as ashamed as I am to admit I the creator can't remember his full name) but his first and middle name are Mac Rose. Because what superhero setting is complete without a local mobster that is an antagonist of a hero.

The shackle is an anti-magic one, if you hadn't guessed, which would of course prevent Ruby from just summoning a bow to sever the chain.

Soyeah. Not a new power which serves any practical purpose.
I mean.
I could make it serve a practical purpose.
I'm sure this is a power lots of people would love to have and it is technically one extra thing.

It's just that it's one extra thing that I consider completely and entirely irrelevant to the story outside of a single gag. And honestly I don't really see much of an issue with having characters possess powers which are displayed for no other reason than Rule Of Funny, since...well. I aim to entertain. The moment has a bit of black humor involved, but I still think that if handled well it'd be a good addition to the comic.

Not only did I forget to blog, but I forgot to do my games for some strange reason. Ah well. What's done is done.

Anyway.

I've got a big day tomorrow.

Very potentially have a job. Not sure what I can or can't say to be on the safe side will say nothing, but it'd be a CAD job, albeit an incredibly temporary one.

​I did have something else to ramble about, but it can wait until tomorrow I suppose.

...So of course that means I did something.

In this case, I reminisced about a game I got the pleasure of playing as a kid. It was during a workshop day and was run by an environmental science teacher, trying to more or less teach about the cycle of life. The basic structure of the game was rock-paper-scissors meets tag:

There was, at the start, a single predator.
The rest of kids were evenly divided between 'resource' and 'prey'.

Prey had a choice between 2-4 (let's say 3) different things they would need. (As in, there were--let's say 3--possible things they could need; they would choose one as the thing they needed.)

After this, on go, resources would then choose what they were and announce it while the prey tried to dash towards a matching resource, while the predator attempted to tag the prey.

If the prey got to a matching resource, they claimed that resource and lived to be prey next round.
If the predator caught a prey, they lived and would remain a predator next round.

If a prey got tagged by a predator, then next round, they would become a predator themselves.
If prey made it to the other side but failed to claim a resource, they would die, becoming a resource themselves next round.
If a predator failed to tag prey, they would die, becoming a resource next round.

If a resource got claimed by prey, then the resource would become prey themselves next round.

In live play, this was pretty balanced, which was the whole point. When there were fewer prey, predators died out and resources were more plentiful. When there were more prey, predators had better luck and thus more predators would exist. When there were more prey yet not enough predators to thin the herd, resources got eaten up and left the prey to die next time.

Explicitly built into the game was the potential for there to be a round with zero resources, though I don't know what the countermeasures were to prevent there from being zero prey or zero predators (since a lack of predators means no game; a lack of prey also means no game).

Still, I loved the game when I played it even if I don't quite remember the specifics, and today I brainstormed how it'd be able to be converted into a forum game based environment. I managed to come up with this system and named the game.

NATURAL SELECTION:

Minimum players: 5, plus a game moderator/host. (You need at least two prey and two resources to begin, along with one predator.)
There is no maximum number of players allowed.

Each round, resources will message the game host declaring themselves to be one of three resources: Water, Food, and Shelter. (The latter two I know 100% were in the original game I played and I figured water was another one which even if not originally present made a whole lot of sense.)

Each round, prey will message the game host, declaring themselves to be seeking one of three resources: Water, Food, and Shelter.
Then, the prey will message the game host, declaring an order they will seek resource players out in.
E.g. Players A and B are resources; Player C is prey. Player C will declare "I am seeking Water, and I will seek it in the order of A-->B". They are thus prioritized in that order. (If A has the resource, C gets A; if A doesn't yet B does and C has B before any other prey, C gets B, and so on.)

Each round, predators will message the game host, selecting one prey to hunt as their primary target.
They will attempt to guess the prey's target pathway.
E.g. if Player D is the predator and is hunting Player C with Players A and B as resources, then Player D will guess:
"Player C will go to Player A".

If the predator's first guess is correct, then the predator will automatically catch the prey.
The predator is allowed ten guesses total; each guess down the line is 10% less likely to be successful.
For instance, Predator A is chasing Prey B.
There is resources C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, and O.
If Predator A selected B-->C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, then:
If Prey B went to resource C first, predator A catches B guaranteed.
If Prey B went to resource D first, predator A has a 90% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource E first, predator A has an 80% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource F first, predator A has a 70% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource G first, predator A has a 60% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource H first, predator A has a 50% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource I first, predator A has a 40% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource J first, predator A has a 30% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource K first, predator A has a 20% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resource L first, predator A has a 10% chance of catching B.
If Prey B went to resources M or O first, predator A has a default 0% chance of catching B.

There is, however, a modifier in play:
Each attempt to find a resource and failing to succeed adds a 5% chance to a prey being caught.
As in,
Prey B submits the resource D first, but fails to get it.
Prey B submits the resource E second, but fails to get it. During this second attempt, Prey B has a 5% extra chance of being caught.
Prey B submits the resource F third, but fails to get it. During this third attempt, Prey B has a 10% extra chance of being caught.
Prey B submits the resource G fourth, but fails to get it. During this fourth attempt, Prey B has a 15% extra chance of being caught.

You can think of it as this way: the predator hunts certain grounds first, expecting to find prey. The longer they look, the more chances prey has of getting away...but the longer prey are out looking for things, the more vulnerable they are to being caught.

The predator is also allowed to submit secondary prey.
These are prey targets which, if the predator fails to catch their primary prey, they will attempt to hunt. They are only allowed to name one resource player that the secondary prey will visit.
Secondary prey can only be caught if the predator correctly guesses the prey's first to-be-successful resource.
The predator is allowed to submit ten names as secondary prey, and has a chance of catching them as follows.
IF: Secondary prey visits the resource the predator guessed they would, THEN:
-The first secondary prey submitted this method is automatically caught.
-The second secondary prey submitted by this method has a 90% chance of being caught.
-The third secondary prey submitted by this method has an 80% chance of being caught.

...And so on and so forth.

IF: Secondary prey does not visit the resource the predator guessed they would, THEN:
The prey gets away.

Here's a full chart of how this may play out.

Predator is A.

Prey are players B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, and L.

Resources are players M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W.

Predator A chooses B-->M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V.

B chooses O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, M, N.
B does not get O or P, but can get Q.
Predator A has a 60% base chance of getting B.
Because B failed twice, this is increased to 70%.

In spite of the increased chance, B manages to safely reach Q. B will remain a prey, and Q will become prey.

Predator A selected secondary prey as follows:
C-->N
D-->O
E-->P
F-->Q
G-->R
H-->S
I-->T
J-->U
K-->​V
L-->W.

D, E, F, H, J, K, and L will all successfully grab the resources guessed if not caught; C, G, and I for whatever reason will not grab the guessed resources successfully (either because the resources were claimed before they could get there, they are incompatible with the resource and thus don't stay, or they claim a resource before they'd visit the resource the predator guessed).

The chances for the predator to catch the prey are as follows:
C has a 0% chance of being caught.
D has a 90% chance of being caught.
E has an 80% chance of being caught.
F has a 70% chance of being caught.
G has a 0% chance of being caught.
H has a 50% chance of being caught.
I has a 0% chance of being caught.
J has a 30% chance of being caught.

And so on and so forth.

Predators stop hunting once they've caught one prey. (Note that the game is deliberately designed such that predators have a high chance of catching prey when prey outnumber predators.)

Tiebreakers:
When there are more than one predators hunting the same prey, the first tiebreaker is obvious. Primary prey > secondary prey.
If both have the prey as primary, then accuracy is determined by which predator had the more accurate guess.
If both have the prey as secondary, then accuracy is determined by which predator had the prey higher up on their hunting list.
When ties still exist, the winner will be determined by coinflip/dice roll/whatever randomization method you use.

When there are more than one prey vying for the same resource, the tiebreaker is which player had the resource higher up on their preference list.
For instance, Prey B and Prey C are both candidates for resource H.
Prey B submitted resources C-->D-->H; Prey C submitted resources D-->H; Prey C has priority.
If both have the resource at exactly the same, the winner will be determined by coinflip/dice roll/whatever randomization method you use.

Note that the most complex part of the game is calculating the interactions between predators and prey, in that you have to check if a predator successfully catches a prey before assigning that prey to a resource, and yet you also have to check if a prey cannot use a resource because another prey got there first, because this can influence the success rate of a predator hunting.

However, if I've done my job explaining the game mechanics right, the resolutions should be simple and easy enough to understand. Predators kill off prey before they get to their resource. If prey make it through, then they have to compete with one another. If prey fail to get to their target resource immediately, they become increasingly vulnerable to being picked off by predators.

There is however one game mechanic that must be addressed.

There must ALWAYS be at least one predator and at least two prey.

If you ever drop below two prey (be it zero or one), then the necessary number is drawn from whichever has more players between resources/predators. (The players selected to be prey are randomly chosen.)

If you ever drop to zero predators, then one prey is randomly selected to become a predator.

One thing I also lack in the game is...well. It has no win condition.
The goal of prey is to not be eaten by predators and to not die from a lack of their target resource.
The goal of predators is to not die of starvation by failing to catch prey.
Resources are designed to not have much of a goal, but have a minor preference to not being destroyed via being claimed.

Yet I don't really have incentives for players to actually do those things.

I was thinking potentially the answer could be a points system:
For every round where you meet the above, you gain a point.
When you are finally converted into a different type, your score as the type you were is recorded and your total score is updated to reflect how many times you've succeeded. (For instance, a resource going three times unclaimed has a score of three, when claimed by prey that score of three is recorded and their total score is five; as prey they claim a resource but then die of starvation; their score as prey is a high of one and their total score is four; as a resource, they then remain unclaimed twice; their resource score remains a high of 3 but their total score is now six. Potentially, the game host could offer to further break it down and record total number of points scored as a specific type, but that seems like extra work.)

But I'm not sold on this, especially for a game which feels like it'd be designed such that players could come and leave as they wished.

If I did go with the points system mentioned above, I'd also need a special clause for when zero-predator/zero-prey situations arise: the player randomly converted would not have their score lost, such that the next time they become the type they were forcefully converted from, they resume from that point. (E.g. a resource with a score of three being forcefully converted into prey, then starving off in two rounds to become a resource would start from three, rather than zero.)

Soyeah.

That's more or less the outline for the game I developed.

I believe I have everything I'd need to actually run the game, it's just a matter of whether there'd be interest IN it.

Was pretty easy for the most part. It's not really more intensive and only slightly more extensive than a skill review during an aquatics in-service meeting. That's about all I did today though.

It'd be a good idea!

I'm still not quite in the mood to ramble about what I did yesterday (though it's honestly not much, just some Rubyverse martial arts stuff), but I do want to give a report.

Good news!

I got my phone back, and my shirt back.

Bad news!

In spite of the phone being plugged in, as in. The phone was IN A CHARGER. And SAID IT WAS BEING CHARGED. As in it quite literally had the charging message displaying, in multiple fashions. 

...It died.

My phone.
Which said it had over half of its battery.
Which said that it was CHARGING on that over half of its battery.
Which was well enough for me to clock in using it.

...Died.

Before I could clock out.

As in.

It was plugged in and said it was charging at over 50% battery and I used it.
And exactly three hours later it was dead.

This is something which should not have happened--the phone was plugged into an outlet which has, historically speaking, proven it's more reliable than the one at home. In other words. Charging my phone there overnight (what happened accidentally) should have been the place where it was least likely to have that happened.

...It happened anyway.

Which is something that ticks me off since if it happened there then it would have also happened at home, making literally no difference at all. I'd clock in, plug the phone in, and find it dead so I'd be unable to clock out.

I did get a new phone screen though!

Fat load of good a phone screen protector does when the phone you're protecting is dead, buthey. At least in theory it'll help protect against smears and debris like sand or other such similar things.

Which means I did in fact make stuff, but I don't quite feel like sharing it tonight, unfortunately. I'll do so tomorrow though. Speaking of, I got roped into working tomorrow in spite of not being scheduled for it...

...Which is rather convenient given I left my phone behind at work today. >_> <_<

I am an idiot.

That is a stupendous risk.

I'm not sure what I'll do if I lose my phone for good, though if it's not there waiting for me tomorrow (it should be given that it was plugged into the wall in an aquatics staff only room meaning the only people who should touch it are staff), I imagine that it'd be in the hands of someone which would allow for reasonably easy access.

Also on a lesser note, my gray Y t-shirt didn't make it inside. I'm not quite sure where in the process I lost it. Hopefully not outside, because if it's not either inside the car or in my bin (where I store my aquatics stuff), then it's gone forever in spite of being a really nice shirt I paid good money for. (Well at a $30 discount so essentially for free given it's like a $20 item butstill.)

​Why my head's been so out of it, dunno exactly. I'll manage to get it together again though.

...Which means I'd have no excuse if I failed to give you what I wrote yesterday!

Basically, at work, as is my wont, I just brainstormed things--in this instance, brainstorming for a project I should still technically actually be working on! I did multiple things for Red Hood Rider.

Starting with a basic of the Rubyverse.

Basically, in the Rubyverse, there's a few kinds of people:
-Soul-severed individuals (cursed, in a sense, with multiple downsides but among them being they are locked out of anything whatsoever positive when it comes to supernatural/magical/elemental things but are still vulnerable to negative consequences from those things).

-Immune Humans (cannot become supernatural beings for whatever reason; can be specific to one type or can be general)

-Bane Humans (actively serve as a bane to supernatural beings for whatever reason; can be specific to one type or can be general)

-Hybrid Humans (explicitly part supernatural but otherwise human)

-Dormant Humans (what a Hybrid Human's genealogy becomes when diluted enough--essentially, they still have the supernatural genes recessive within which can activate with specific triggers, but with those triggers absent, they are otherwise just normal humans)

-Magic-Numb Humans (cannot use magic of any kind)

-Anti-Magic Humans (various different ways where their very existence disrupts magic)

-Bloodline Humans (the magical equivalent of Hybrid Humans, this is humans who can use specific types of magic because their parents could use that type of magic)

-Recessive Humans (the magical equivalent of Dormant Humans; this is humans who have the recessive gene to use specific types of magic because their ancestors could use that type of magic, but they require specific triggers to activate)

-Universal Donors (humans who can use every type of magic be it elemental, magical, or supernatural in spite of them being human...but can use it only in such low doses that it is effectively worthless; these are the people who actively stockpile the...well, stockpiles of supplies that people involved in the supernatural/magical worlds have been using for hundreds of years, which I blogged about before)

-Supernatural Beings (self-explanatory)

-Magical Beings (self-explanatory; mostly humans)

-Elemental Beings (self-explanatory; mostly humans; mostly also explicitly magical)

And then, of course:
-Normal Humans. Normal Humans have no innate advantages or disadvantages.
They can become most types of supernatural beings.
They can become most types of magical beings.
They can become many types of elemental beings.

There's magical systems which exist that require nothing special other than knowledge in how to use them; a normal human can easily be trained in how to use them.
There's magical systems which require specific things to happen; humans often are sensitive to these things. Becoming a Rider is among these things.
All supernatural beings which can spread relatively easily have specific rituals involved in turning humans. (Because the only way supernatural beings gain population outside of biologically reproducing is via turning humans. Most supernatural beings capable of turning can also do biology, e.g. vampires can be born or turned and there's no real difference between the two other than potentially social standing.)

And so on and so forth.

Basically, normal humans are just the boilerplate "can have anything, good or bad, applied to them". They have no innate bias. They have no inherent advantage or disadvantage. They are the norm.

Keep in mind that normal humans make up only a fraction of the total human population, but that most kinds of human you either can't tell the difference between them and a normal human, or if you can, that they deliberately go out of their way to by and large look as if they are just normal humans.

Soul-severed individuals are born with a physical impossibility of ever knowing what they are. (They have to be told what's wrong with them, more or less.)

Immune humans only know if they either have an existing lineage (that being, the progeny of an immune human also being an immune human) or if they are actually exposed to the supernatural.

Bane humans, same as immune humans.

Dormant humans often have no way of knowing they have a gift until the gift is actually activated. (There are dormant human genealogies which track their gift, in order to better assess if/when to activate it though.)

Magic-numb humans would need to actually attempt magic to learn they cannot. (This is not something that there is existing lineages of that make a point of tracking it. Immune humans have reason to tell their children they are immune, for things like becoming a Hunter. Magic-numb humans have no such reason since most humans don't use magic anyway meaning it's not exactly a disability they'd make a point of remembering. As a result, they don't know.)

Anti-magic humans need to be exposed to magic to learn about their trait. Given that magic was scarce to the public eye until ~60 years ago in the Rubyverse and only in the modern day has begun to become more mainstream, this is something most wouldn't have known until relatively recently.

Most recessive humans know about their bloodline, but there are plenty of instances of them having for whatever reason lost this knowledge, and thus, lying dormant until an event necessitates the trigger of their powers.

Universal donors as a general rule do know (though some may not), but other than doing their extra job, they make it a point to not advertise who they are (other than using it to get immunity from being targeted for harm, because everyone both hero and villain and in-between has use for universal donors and it is a Very Bad Idea to hurt one because it screws you over; Universal Donors essentially have diplomatic immunity and are required to be neutral in conflict REGARDLESS of conflict type, but by and large they avoid making it known).

Bloodline and Hybrid humans tend to know about their powers for obvious reasons (because, well...they have powers), but while Magic and Supernatural beings in the Rubyverse haven't actually enforced a Masquerade...they HAVE kept their activities relatively low-key throughout history.

They have always existed. Some periods in time have been higher than others. (For instance, there was rather an explosion in supernatural/magical activity during the middle ages thereabouts, and beings of both kinds were fighting wars, both in the shadows secretly and out in the open flagrantly.) But until approximately the 1950s, activity was by and large not a notable thing. So to the world at large, they were just humans.

So when you put all of those together.

They pretty much mean that by and large, for all intents and purposes, unless specific criteria are met, most of the seven billion people in existence are just normal humans. This has always been the case, but I haven't really done much in the way of extrapolating all of this out into a more formal built world.

I also was just doing that as background for a fundamental part of the setting.
Beings exist as one of those three types--Supernatural, Magical, and Elemental.
Keep in mind by and large that all Elementals are either Supernatural or Magical, so are both considered a third category, and yet simultaneously, a subcategory of both the other two. (In that they are a separate entity altogether in that elemental things play by a set rulebook whereas magical and supernatural beings play by a set rulebook which is entirely different.)

And another thing to keep in mind is that these types? Not mutually exclusive. In fact, to some extent, they are almost inherently mutually inclusive.

Vampires are a go-to example. Not only are they creates of the night, they are considered the rulers of the night. Universal to them, this gives them access to Darkness-element Magic: both Elemental, and Magical, in nature. Whether it is the element or the magic or their supernatural powers which dominate depends on the individual, the method they were created, and their peers (i.e. what coven or clan if any they come from).

Riders are another. They are explicitly Magical beings, neither supernatural nor elemental...
...Except the eight elemental riders, which in the modern day, are eight of The Ruby Gang. Those eight not only have magic, but elemental abilities in addition to their magic. They are, in fact (as revealed by a time traveler from the future), the most powerful generation of elemental riders to exist in history, mostly because they exist in the glory days of superheroics. (In the past, there wasn't as much of a boon in the otherworldly; in the future, supes are less common because mostly they are born "when they need to be born" and the advancement of technology means that while most have the recessive genes of supes that few actually develop superpowers simply because technology means that 'why need a superpower when technology just serves the same function?'--in short, you can think of superpowers as a function of human pragmatism combined with laziness; no need for the powers = the powers exist less often.)

Ruby is an example of being all three, but she's not special because of it, she's not unusual because of it, her being all three is not such a rarity that it is a case of Protagonist Power. (You know, something I could also call Shonen Syndrome: the protagonist being half-everything and thus having access to every power.) I am explicitly saying, by Word Of God, that there are MANY such individuals across the world, existing all over the place.

It's seriously not that uncommon. Stating that she's suffering from Protagonist Power/Shonen Syndrome because of that trait is akin to stating that someone knowing how to repair a car has Protagonist Power/Shonen Syndrome--sure, not everyone can do that and it's a bit of a useful, pragmatic skill which not everyone has the talent for even if anyone can theoretically learn it, but it's nothing special.

That having been said, Ruby does have Protagonist Power/Shonen Syndrome. She just has it for reasons entirely unrelated to the above. (She is quite a bit of a Mary Sue, but in essence what I'm saying is she's not a Mary Sue for that reason, it's other things which make her one.)

Speaking of Ruby though, I also invented another power she of course doesn't really need given the amount of powers she already has, buthey. All the elemental riders have powers which are beyond-godly in strength, at least in theory. (I've rambled about some of the capacities for just about every element I believe. Air having access to all four fundamental forces of the universe, being the co-master of the domain of abstract thought and thus being able to materialize just about literally anything, and so on and so forth comes to mind. I could do the same for any rider's list of potential powers, not just Hannah.)

And comparatively speaking, this is actually not that strong of an ability compared to what I could be giving. It's just an ability which I felt made sense to give and which I feel would actually fit as a logical extension of her existing powers and actually serve as a way to tie them together.

Basically, Ruby's Super Mode (with a hint of Superpowered Evil Side initially, until she undergoes vampiric training  and accepts her vampiric half full-time which makes her more at ease with herself essentially), Dark Messiah, is her full-vampire female form. (She has a full-vampire male form, which requires essentially no trigger at all, but for obvious reasons, she has a distaste for it.)

In her Black Ruby state, she specializes in Darkness Magic born from her vampiric powers--and otherwise, uses various super-powered claws for both melee/ranged attacks, among other weapons in her arsenal. (A common vampire dark magic trait is being able to materialize a weapon from thin air, as long as the sun isn't out. Black Ruby can do this even with the sun being out owing to her still being a Rider powered by light.)

However, her final vampiric form DOES have access to something I invented yesterday--the Black Bow. Basically, it's a darkness-based version of her normal bow, launching supercharged versions of her normal attacks: the same basic ones, except much more powerful, at a much accelerated speed, with the additional flexibility of her darkness magic being readily mixed in freestyle.

She can't use some techniques (like her Supernova Shot/Sunburst Shot or the Arbalest Arrow), but she can use most of her powers in this form. (Similar to how Arbalest Armor can use many but not all, and Arcangel can use many but not all. Each form has upsides and downsides to it.)

Now, granted. This is pretty similar to what she can do in her Arcangel form (she launches 'arrows' in the form of feathers from her wings, and those arrows have the capability of using whatever powers she has in her normal bow for the most part), but only when at least one of the Forbidden Arts is also active in her Arcangel form.

By which, I mean, when she turns essentially Dark Angel in that she is partially vampiric when as an Angel and summons darkness elemental/magical attacks from her feather/arrows. Which is basically half-way to her using the Dark Messiah super mode anyway. 

Overall I thought that her having a bow in her vampiric final form would just be a way to tie her three super modes together. Arbalest Armor is an armor made from her bow, in that her bow is covering her whole body. (It gives great offensive capabilities, but it is still first and foremost an armor.) Arcangel is a bow made from her wings, or rather, her wings are made from her bow. So Black Ruby/Dark Messiah having a bow just felt like it should be there, and now it is.

​The third thing I wanted to go into is a bit of a loophole/exploitation in how things work. One of the reasons the Ruby Gang is as effective as they are is because they live in the modern age of communication, and eight of their members have access to the ability I am about to describe.

An inherent established trait of spirit totems is that they are telepathic to their owner. Ruby communicates to Angel Wings mostly by thought (though she can communicate out loud if she wants to); Angel Wings communicates to Ruby exclusively by thought and cannot speak out loud.

An inherent established trait of spirit totems is that they cannot communicate with each other, per se, but they have a link to one another in that they know where one another is for the most part and are capable of sensing things about the situation each other are in. (That being, a spirit totem can tell if another rider is, saaay, losing a battle they are in, thanks to the link between them.)

An inherent established trait of riders is that they are in fact human--they themselves are not telepathic, so they can't communicate directly to one another's thoughts.

HOWEVER.

In spite of these above facts.

All riders in the modern world--not just the elemental eight, but the Ruby Gang is the only group I explicitly have made to exploit this--effectively are telepathic, just in a roundabout way, because there's one final trait which is inherently established to spirit totems relevant:

Spirit totems are capable of serving as any form of communication device that's not actually written on physical paper more or less.

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable of acting as phones; you can call a rider.

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable of acting as "Facechat" (Skype, Google Hangouts, whatever you want to call it, an equivalent service thereto) so long as the other side is capable of reciprocating. (You can't facechat with a rider if you're calling from a phone booth for instance, because it being a phonebooth, no duh there's nothing for you to see and no way for the rider to see you.) The rider's spirit totem simply projects a holographic display of the other side, and similarly projects a display of the rider TO the other side.

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable essentially of faxing. Now, it doesn't actually print a hard copy out on the rider's end, but what it does allow is for someone to fax to the rider, and the spirit totem essentially converts the fax to become what'd basically be an email attachment, able to be viewed with a holographic projection.

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable of sending/receiving texts. (Because they have the functionality of a modern smartphone; anything a smartphone can do, a spirit totem can do just as well.)

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable of sending/receiving emails.

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable of storing voicemail.

Explicitly, spirit totems are capable of even sending messages on things like CB Radio or a Walkie Talkie: the rider speaks into their spirit totem, the spirit totem transmits it, and the receiving device (or spirit totem) plays the audio.

You get the idea.

They can do just about everything except for snailmail.

And a function that they have which is similar to services like Cortana, Siri, Alexa, and the like is that they can 'write down' things either spoken or even just thought (think like a voice-to-text service; those exist now, and spirit totems are capable of perfect voice-to-text and even thought-to-text; this latter part is vital), and they are capable of 'speaking' written things.

I know for a fact at least one of those above services will speak out loud the contents of messages received. And computers have had the capability to read out loud text for something like at least 20 years by now (albeit, even to this day they are a bit glitchy). Spirit totems have essentially that, except as perfect as it can get (in that they will always pronounce it correctly though given it's written word they can only guess at the intended inflections).

From this, you might be able to guess how the riders pull off their effectively essentially telepathy. (It doesn't work for the members of the Ruby Gang outside the elemental eight riders, but even outside of the elemental eight they can use half of this by sending messages to a rider or receiving messages from a rider without it being as obvious as sending/receiving messages would normally be.)

The riders simply mentally instruct their spirit totem, "Send a text/email to..." and then, in their thoughts, they outline the contents of the message. When finished, the spirit totem sends the message. On the receiving end, the spirit totem will tell their rider, "You have a new message from [rider who sent the message]. Shall I speak it?", and if given an affirmative, the spirit totem will speak the contents of the message to the rider.

Given that rider's spirit totem's communication services cannot be compromised (you can't hack into a spirit totem like you can hack into a smartphone), nor can they be tapped, nor can they be monitored, nor can the telepathy be intercepted or read by an outside party. This gives the riders an absolutely secure way of transmitting information between one another.

Now, of course.

It's not a perfect system.

The communication is very fast, but it's not quite in real time because you have to 'speak' the words to be sent, send them, allow for the transmission to be received (admittedly this is near-instantaneous as just about any modern communication is), and then have the transmission be played.

The communication can be interfered with if the rider is compromised enough. (For instance, a badly-enough-wounded rider or otherwise-incapacitated rider might want to send something to other riders, but in their state are incapable of doing so.) This is why sometimes on more solo adventures, a rider can end up in trouble and be in a position where backup would save the day yet they can't get any because they can't get through.

Said interference usually will, of course, trigger the link I mentioned above where a spirit totem can tell if another rider is in danger...but this link is something that has a limited range (too far from one another and you get no status update as it were), and even when inside of the range is something which CAN be interfered with (albeit only with difficulty; you have to go out of your way to interfere with the link and only two or three villains over the entire course of Red Hood Rider bother doing this rather than just employing a method of stopping all the riders at once from helping one another).

Soyeah, this has always been a part of the setting, but I felt like fleshing out the details a bit more explicitly by blogging about them. It is, essentially, the way I can allow both for solo adventures and yet also for team affairs, as should be the case in a setting inspired by the elements I was inspired by. (It's a superhero thing to work as both a team and an individual; it's a magical girl thing to work together but to also have focus episodes revolving around an individual member of the team; etc.)

I just find the Rubyverse to be an incredibly neat setting overall. It's just that me being me (I honestly question if even the simplest of simple settings made by me, if even the simplest of simple narratives I craft, could ever actually be made reality thanks to my natural debilitating traits weighing down my creative side), I probably will never get to actually show off all this neat stuff I have planned.