Parodying RPG Video Games

[Snarf]

I'm running a campaign that parodies video game RPGs and I'm trying to figure out the best way to simulate cliche RPG status effects such as poison and sleep.

 

Poison: This probably should be done as a NND attack with continuing damage. An antidote (dispel) could instantly cure it.

 

Life Draining: Just like poison except when life is taken from the target it's given to the user. Link self-healing to the attack?

 

Paralysis: This could be an entangle with the mental parylysis option. I can't figure out how the turned to stone or frozen solid type of parylysis would work.

 

Sleep: A massive stun damage attack? I don't really like the way that works. It should make you completely useless, physically and mentally but it's possible to snap out of it quickly.

 

And so on. Anybody tried this before or have any good ideas?

[Yamo]

Here's some joke Powers I made up for a Final Fantasy HERO thread a while back. Not sure they're entirely legal, but here go:

 

First off, nobody EVER complains when you walk into their home and start taking stuff.

 

Don't Mind Me... Mind Control 10d6, Telepathic (+1/4), Persistant (+1/2), Area of Effect (11" Radius; +1), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (162 Active Points), Always On (-1/2), Set Effect ("Ignore me while I rob you blind"; -1/2), Total Cost: 81 Points

 

It's absolutely vital for proper genre emulation that the PCs be attacked every few paces by random monsters that they can can never see beforehand.

 

Pointless Random Battles: Summon Up To 1000-Points Of Random Monsters Determined By GM, Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (500 Active Points), No Conscious Control (automatically activates every time character takes 3d6 steps; -2), Violent (-3/4), Summoned Being(s) Must Inhabit Locale (-1/2), Limited Power: Doesn't Work In Towns (-0), Total Cost: 118 Points

 

You can always tell how bad somebody is hurt in combat (or how effectively they're healed) because huge numbers fly out of their heads broadcasting this information to the world!

 

Number Cascade: Sight Group Images 1" Radius, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (15 Active Points), No Conscious Control (automatically activates whenever character's BODY/STUN increase or decrease in combat; -2), No Range (-1/2), Set Effect (only to display amount by which character's BODY/STUN increase or decrease in combat; -1), Total Cost: 3 Points

[Hitchhiker]

If you want to parody (did I conjugate this verb correctly?) video games, why don't you include level-ups?

 

Every time the characters get a certain number of experience points, you could tell them: "You suddenly feel stronger, smarter and more powerful. You have gone up a level! Now isn't that great?" Of course, they may not have to gain levels and can distribute their experience points as they like it, but still...flashbacks to "You are now on level 9" can be quite interesting.

 

And very very annoying, if I may say that.

[austenandrews]

Don't forget that if you fall in battle, you magically reappear somewhere else. If you want your stuff, you have to go back to where you fell.

 

-AA

[Snarf]

I'm not sure anyone wants to pay 3 points just to let everyone see their health levels

 

I actually am doing level ups but I'm not doing dying and going back to get your stuff yet because it's a parody of Pokemon and nobody ever dies.

 

The thing I'm most curious about is how everyone does sleep effects. Maybe some kind of mind control?

[austenandrews]

STUN Suppress is fairly cheap.

 

-AA

[Kristopher]

Parody of RPG video games...

 

http://www.rpgworldcomic.com/

[hybris]

This might be helpful, or at least amusing:

 

The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés