Breezy's Freeform Combat System

MSCYOA Rules for Freeform Roleplay PvP Combat v. 2.0 (the freeform combat rules)

So here's how this works. First, each player needs their opponent's character information, including stats and examples of how the character likes to use their magical abilities. Next, make sure the scene is set. If you've been freeforming, it probably already is. If you're just doing a one-off mock battle, one of the players should write a few lines describing the surroundings and make sure the opponent agrees. Once the scene is set, determine who goes first by adding up each character's agility + luck, and whoever's sum is highest goes first. Roll to break ties.

Begin your turn by describing what, specifically, you do. If you're attacking, describe how you're attacking. Try to be detailed and vibrant in your descriptions, have fun with it. Don't worry too much about ranges or placement, all of that is impractical in freeform. This is more about getting to type out awesome scenes together, and less about whether something should be "allowed" or not.

Once you've typed all your flavor text, it's time for the OOC stuff. Make sure to spoiler it, put it in parenthesis, use >, anything to denote it as OOC. Make sure you state any special powers you're using, like Barrage for instance, and make sure it's clear whether you're using a regular attack or a mana-consuming attack. Also, roll your dice. At the end of your post, it's handy to keep a little status section. I prefer this:

(active abilities, hp/hp, mana/mana, fate/fate, if on IRC my roll and this signifies the end of my turn)

Now your opponent, player B, gets to interpret your action and roll, and then take their own turn--all with one post. They should look at your roll, determine if it's a hit or not, and then describe what it does to their character, along with how their character reacts and the action they choose to take this round. They roll their own dice, and it goes back to player A.

And that's it. Back and forth, DEFENDER ALWAYS INTERPRETING, until you determine that "combat" is over and you can go back to pure freeform. Each exchange of posts (1 post from each player) is 1 round, and can be figured at roughly 6 seconds of time.

Criticals are where it gets fun. Critical successes do double damage OR create some kind of knockdown effect that prevents the defender from attacking on their next turn. The defender chooses which happens to them, because they're interpreting your roll. Critical fails are much more ambiguous, and can be almost anything. Generally they should cost the attacker 1 full round of getting back to ready-to-fight OR cause their own attack to hit them instead somehow OR cause some other complication like hitting an innocent bystander. Have fun with them. Someone launching a crazy meteor-from-above attack and rolls a 100? You leap out of the way, and they perfectly hit the until-now unmentioned manhole cover you were standing on and plunge into the sewers. Stuff like that.

Now, onto the numbers.

All dice are d100, low is success.
By default, anything under 10 is a critical success, anything over 90 is a critical failure.
1 is always a crit success, 100 is always a crit fail.
All fractions are rounded normally. Round .5's up.

>Strength
Damage from a regular attack is str/2-armor, max 9.

>Vitality
Armor is vit/3.
Healing speed is vit/10 hp regained per hour.
Hit point max is vit/2+8.

>Agility
Regular attack hit percentage is (attackers dex/2)/defenders dex, max 90%

>Magic
Damage from an average mana-consuming attack is mag/4 and bypasses armor.
Magical attack hit percentage is (attackers mag/2)/defenders dex, max 90%.
Maximum mana pool is magic*10.
Mana recovery is mag/4 regained every round
Average abilities usable by beginning Magical Girls usually cost 10 mana/use, and 10 mana/rd to maintain.

>Luck
Your luck value is added to each of your critical boundaries. At 10 luck, crit fails are 100 only and crits are 20 or less.
1 Fate Point can be spent to guarantee an automatic success with your next roll.
2 Fate Points can be spent to prevent all damage from the next successful attack on you.
You get lck/2 Fate Points every day.

>When a girl drops below 1 hp, she falls unconscious.

>Sample Magical Abilities
(these are intended to give you ideas around which to base your character's magic, and are only examples. generally, the idea is that 10 mana gets you mag/4 damage on a single target, gives your opponent a minor debuff for 3-5 rounds, or gives them a strong debuff for the next round, or does one of the opposite for you or an ally. things can get weird here, make sure your opponent is cool with your magic and don't be an ass.)
-Fire-
Idea 1: Launch yourself with a small explosion as you leap. Jump great distances, and do 1 magic damage to everything around you when you jump.
Idea 2: Shoot an explosive, area-of-effect fireball. Do mag/4 damage to everything in the blast. Costs 20 mana.
-Ice-
Idea 1: Give someone a gorgeous, though very heavy, pair of ice shoes. Halt their movement and reduce their agility to 1 for the next round.
Idea 2: Summon a glistening sheet of ice to protect something. Prevent 3 damage from the next attack that passes through it. Lasts until it melts or is destroyed.
-Air-
Idea 1: Envelop your target in their own private dust devil that follows them around. Halve the target's agility and obscure their vision. Lasts 3 rounds.
Idea 2: Create a wall of whirling wind to deflect projectiles. All attacks through the wall suffer a -3 agi penalty to hit, and swirling dust obscures vision. Lasts 3 rounds.
-Earth-
Idea 1: Summon a ghostly spirit to attack until destroyed or dismissed. 1 magical dmg/hit, half your agi and vit. Costs 20 mana.
Idea 2: Drive out any outside controlling influences from someone. Requires three rounds of uninterrupted physical contact and concentration.
-Reinforcement-
Idea 1: Encase anything in your line of sight in a shield that negates the next attack. The shield is immobile and lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
Idea 2: Empower yourself or someone else with magical energy. The target gets 5 points to temporarily increase any of their stats with, divided how they wish. Lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
-Mental-
Idea 1: Strike panic and terror into someone. They must flee from you until they can no longer see you. They are allowed to do so intelligently, like running into a building so you can't just shoot them in the back. If they are not aware of you, or any other obvious threat, they suffer an intense, paralyzing panic attack. Costs 20 mana, lasts 3 rounds.
Idea 2: Blanket someone's mind with pure fury. They cannot do anything except advance towards their current opponent and make attacks. If they are not currently in combat, they must find some immediately or else begin breaking things around them. Lasts 3 rounds.
-Time-
Idea 1: Speed yourself up. Increase your agility by 50%, and make an extra attack each round. Costs 20 mana and lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
Idea 2: Stop time for less than a second at some point in the very near future. The next attack on you automatically misses. Lasts until discharged, up to 3 rounds.
-Lightning-
Idea 1: Launch a lightning bolt. Do mag/4+2 damage and double your accuracy for determining a hit. Costs 20 mana.
Idea 2: Charge your weapon with electrical energy. Do +1 magical damage with all your regular attacks. Lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
-Sound-
Idea 1: Attack your enemies with some kind of powerful sound. Do mag/5 damage to everything in front of you.
Idea 2: Inspire yourself and your allies with music, making everyone lighter on their feet. You and all your friends each get +3 agility. Lasts 5 rounds.
-Darkness-
Idea 1: Envelop yourself in a cloud of darkness that only you can see through. Double your agility when evading attacks. Lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
Idea 2: Curse someone with your dark magic, weakening them and clouding their mind. Halve their strength and magic, but not their mana pool. Lasts for 3 rounds. Costs 20 mana.
-Illusion-
Idea 1: Make a perfect replica image of yourself (or anything else you can think of that size or smaller) and have it do what you want it to. Costs 5 mana, lasts as long as you pay to maintain it.
Idea 2: Vanish completely from sight and be invisible. Lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it, or until your concentration is disrupted by attacking or being hit.
-Light-
Idea 1: Summon a weapon of pure burning light into your hand. Does str/2 damage and bypasses armor. Lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
Idea 2: Empower yourself with magical vision. Become immune to all magical illusions, disguises, darkness and other tomfoolery. Costs 5 mana, lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.
-Flowers-
Idea 1: Command any plant you can see to rapidly grow, and control it. The plant has Tentacle Fun with 4 strength, and stays animate for as long as you pay to maintain it. In any given round, pay an additional 10 mana to increase the plant's strength by 1 for the rest of the duration by making it even bigger.
Idea 2: Gain energy and life from sunlight, just like plants do. Gain 1 hp/rd healing and triple the recovery rate of your mana. Requires sunlight, lasts 5 rounds.
-Psychic-*
Psychic girls are very different from other magical girls. Psychic girls do not recover mana normally, instead they absorb mana from anyone in their vicinity who is experiencing a strong emotion. What emotion it is determines what the mana can be used for. When you start, assume your mana pool is full of two kinds of emotion, split 50/50. Anger can be used for attack effects, excitement for buffs, affection for healing, worry for shields, doubt for debuffs, fear for mental effects etc etc. Just keep it making sense. In combat, if you want you may stand still and concentrate to absorb strong emotion from anyone in your vicinity, regaining 10 mp/round, of whatever emotion they're expressing. In combat that'll usually be anger, but who knows.
-Water-
Idea 1: Make a puddle of water on the ground suddenly shoot upward in a spike. It does mag/4 damage and an unprepared target is considered to have 1 agility for the purposes of dodging it. Costs 20 mana.
Idea 2: Heal someone with water magic even though you're not really that great at it. They recover mag/5 hp.
-Gravity-
Idea 1: Make yourself or someone else super light so that their next jump goes for a huge distance … or maybe throw them instead.
Idea 2: Use gravity to make your weapon heavier right before it lands so it hits a lot harder. Do +2 extra physical damage with all your regular attacks. Lasts for as long as you pay to maintain it.

>Powers (as they pertain to combat)
-Killing Blow: Deal triple damage with your next attack, after which your str, agi and mag all drop to 1 until you rest. Requires 5 rounds to charge. (this is a finishing move, and needs a fancy name that you have to call out as you use it.)
-Hammer Space: Pulling something out of interdimensional space takes up your attack for a round.
-Focused Assault: For your attack this round gain +4 to your str and agi OR +6 to your magic. 2 round recharge.
-Barrage: Gain a second attack this round, and you can spread your attacks amongst multiple targets if desired. Alternately, magical attacks can create an area effect instead, dealing damage to everything near the target.
-Shadow Clones: Create copies of yourself for 40 mana/copy. They have all of your offensive powers but do not get any mana to fill their pool unless you give them some from yours when making them. They can act normally starting your next round. They have 1 vit, last for 5 rounds and are indistinguishable from you. They cannot create copies of themselves.
-Third Eye: You are immune to Fate Points being spent to hit you.
-Regeneration: Gain 1 hp/round regeneration. For every 10 mana spent, gain an additional 1 hp/rd regeneration for that round. This is a free action and does not require concentration.
-Tentacle Fun: 10 mana to activate. Does str/3-armor damage with a successful hit. Alternately, a successful hit can bind an opponent with less strength than you, eliminating their ability to move and reducing their agility to 1 for as long as you pay to maintain the effect. An additional 10 mana/round removes their ability to make physical attacks and some magical attacks. Bindings have your vit/2 and an agility of 1 when someone attempts to sever one.

>Perks (as they pertain to combat)
Interdimensional Home: Yes, technically you can warp straight out of battle. Don't be a dick.
Enhanced Sustenance: Remember breathing is optional for you.
Training: No basic combat effects. Magical Girls are already considered highly skilled combatants with their preferred weapons.
Get Out of Jail: "Imprisoned" is the key word here. Just being bound or restrained is not good enough.
Enhanced Transformation: Default transformations are 15 seconds long, say 2 rounds. This reduces it to 1 round. Don't be a dick.
Big Backpack: I don't know why you're fighting with a backpack on, but getting something out of it takes a full round.

>Conventional Firearms
(if you have low str and mag, you'll probably want one or more of these)
Handgun: 3 dmg-armor
Rifle: 4 dmg-armor
Grenade: 5 dmg-armor, area of effect weapon
RPG: 6 dmg-armor, area of effect weapon, 1 turn to reload
Anti-material Rifle: 5 dmg-armor/2, 1 turn to reload
LAW: 6 dmg-armor/2, 1 shot only, disposable

>Misc Notes
-Disarming a Magical Girl is somewhat pointless when they can summon their weapon at any time, though summoning the weapon does take up their attack for that round.
-Magical Girls can both move and attack in the same round, unless knocked down. Then they can get up and move, but may not make an attack that round. Or they can opt to remain down and attack or use a magical ability.
-Strong Magical Girls can lift and throw heavy things pretty far.
-Agile Magical Girls can keep their distance very easily and can be almost impossible to hit without spending fate.

>Group Play
Group battles aren't too terribly difficult under this system and go as you'd expect. The sides need to take turns, with everyone on one side going, then everyone on the other side going. Just remember defenders have to interpret everything, even if it is 4 Magical Girls ganging up on their poor Dridergirl.

>Some Final Notes on Balance
It's not really about builds, but I know you're going to think about it anyway, so here's my take:

This system is designed to very quickly resolve combat with relatively few posts so you can get back to the freeform. It's rather brutal and sometimes unpredictable, but all mono-stat builds should feel fairly equal. Str builds can end fights scary-quickly if they spend fate, but also tend to lack defense and speed, while Vit builds will usually make a fight drag on but often lack strong offense of their own and suffer from low accuracy. Agi builds almost require the use of conventional guns, which subjects them to weaker weapons or having to reload. While they can maintain distance easily, they usually have fewer hp and are unusually vulnerable to debuffs targeting their primary stat. Mag builds can't keep their distance from you, are easy to hit and have no armor. Plentiful tricks and accurate, damaging firepower though. I've yet to test a luck build, but a 30% crit margin with guaranteed strikes every turn from fate points might be effective. All that said, you might find that more balanced 2-3 stat builds do a little better under these rules, while mono-stat builds are ideal for team play.