Setting/Design Notes
So in hashing out mechanics, I realized I accidentally an explanation. So here's some bullet points. If I'm talking out of my ass here, feel free to piss in my Cheerios.
In designing a fantasy game and researching modern fantasy and folklore, it's apparent that people want two things that are almost impossible to reconcile; they want a fantasy kitchen sink with impossible craziness but also want mundane, traditional fantasy tropes. If you try to show people the variety and scope of world folklore within a TTRPG, it confuses and angers them. D&D is the trendsetter and D&D is kitchen sink, but most people understand it and play it as Tolkien and Howard-esque rustic fantasy without realizing the inherent breakdowns in advanced concepts (like spellcasting). If you sell a straight fantasy, people are going to expect the top end of character ability to be around a level 6 or 7 D&D character. This is problematic for "high fantasy" play, because you run the risk of breaking suspension of disbelief (too anime) or create a fundamental break in mechanics and flavor (4e, 3e post 11th).
However, if you add a rider to the fantasy concept, you can get away with a lot more. Exalted is a mess, but since it presents a hodgepodge of Oriental mysticism, epics in the literary sense, and general Sinophilia, people are willing to allow more from it. The basic structure of Eberron could easily be replicated by a high-level subsystem of purely magical explanations, but the trappings of modernity ease players into security with high fantasy concepts. This is also true for most Japanese RPGs. A more modern, cosmopolitan setting also seems to allow for more freedom of intermingling mythology. The Dresden Files and its Urban Fantasy brood are essentially kitchen sink settings with a veneer of humanocentric modernity; Shadowrun does the same thing but with cyberpunk and technobabble. RIFTS doesn't even bother trying to be subtle, and it's one of the most beloved objectively terrible systems. An example dear to my heart, the Touhou Project is set in a subsection of the modern (or slightly futuristic) world with the appearance of Meiji Era Japan, but fanworks can add modern trappings or even shift the entire setting into modernity without breaking verisimilitude. A modern focus also allows for greater suspension of disbelief as a baseline; games like Saints Row The Third and Crackdown, as well as movies like Crank 1 and 2, Shoot 'em Up, and almost anything that comes out of A Band Apart are balls to the walls as a general rule.
What this means is players are willing to accept more crazy if decoupled from the lay-definition of fantasy. For a kitchen sink fantasy to succeed without falling prey to the pitfalls of its brethren, it has to be urban, or at least contemporary. Certain concepts should be kept for easy connection (which is why the Job names are fantasy fare), but the setting needs to be changed or updated.
Setting Sketch
The setting is Nirvana, a city at the nexus point of reality. It exists just sideways of reality and contains the fantastic and the fantasized. It is made up of districts, named after otherworlds in myths and legends; each district claims that they were the first to reach out and connect the others into what we know as Nirvana. None of them are wrong, but none of them are right; from their inception the various otherworlds were pulled towards the nexus of reality. 77 years ago, they collided all at once.
Faced with unknown (and to some, anathema) beings, all turned against all in a bloody conflict. As this was the terminal point of existence, to end one's life here was to remove them from existence entirely. Many lives were lost, the stories and lineages of numerous fantastic creatures torn to almost nothing. After years of constant warfare, thirteen heroes came forth to end the conflict. Each carried the essence of hard work and right action, embodied the concept of dharma, one's station. They enlightened the masses and struck down the wicked, brought unity to the disharmonious otherworlds, and freed them from worldly corruption. They brought forth nirvana in one hundred and eight days.
Once the otherworlds had coalesced, society in Nirvana began to advance in tandem with the outside world. A blend of magic, technology and looser natural laws supercharged it. It is now a sprawling megalopolis, both intimately familiar to and completely unlike anything in the outside world. Each district is akin to its own city-state watched over by one of the thirteen heroes. Beings of all shapes and sizes work together in harmony within them, creating a city that has a life all its own. Their work complete, the thirteen heroes passed on their dharma to the masses, gave hard work and right action to any who wished to wield it. This became (some would say corrupted into) the Job system; a method for any being of any construction to shape the world as the thirteen heroes once did. To prevent this power from causing a greater catastrophe, they codified the Threefold Tenets; rules that all who wielded their power must follow.
[*] Our powers are to be used to achieve one's dreams or protect those of others.
[*] Our powers are to be used to change this world, not destroy it.
[*] Our powers must be used with beauty and thought above all.
The masses listened, and it was good.
For a while.
Nowadays, anyone with the will and the ambition to change something can get a Job; the Threefold Tenets keep Nirvana from collapsing but it doesn't stop anyone from trying. Job holders have been fighting, as vigilantes and villains, in back alleys and in boardrooms for decades. The lucky and the strong amass power and become Bosses, rulers of miniature fiefdoms and leaders of tiny men. To skirt the Tenets and to protect their own power, they hire the eager and the desperate, teach them the ways of the Job system and send them out into the City. Clashes between Bosses and their cat's paws are so commonplace the people have a name for them; incidents. To the common person and to the Bosses, incidents are major problems; problems that need to be solved. Job wielders, hungry for money, fame and challenge, do so. A whole system of classification and organization has sprung up around these people; half superhero, half soldier of fortune, all crazy. They call themselves Problem Solvers, you call them when you've got an incident.
Iconics:
Okay, for balance purposes and for the sake of hashing out Job stereotypes for ease of play, it'd be a good idea to make iconic characters. I can test the powers in each arbitrary division against the iconic character(s) for that division, and test the powers amongst themselves for balance purposes. I have thirteen powers each in two categories of three to test, and will be making thirteen iconics that cover all permutations of those categories. My statistics knowledge is a little shaky, so it'd be appreciated if someone could help me/correct me on this.
[*] Our Iconic Hero is going to be a Shock Trooper Forward
[*] Our Iconic Ranger is going to be a Shock Trooper Forward
[*] Our Iconic Mentalist is going to be a Shock Trooper Fullback
[*] Our Iconic Artificer is going to be a Shock Trooper Wing (can anyone think of a better name than Shock Trooper?)
[*] Our Iconic Priest is going to be a Vanguard Forward
[*] Our Iconic Bard is going to be a Vanguard Fullback
[*] Our Iconic Necromancer is going to be a Vanguard Fullback
[*] Our Iconic Mage is going to be a Vanguard Wing
[*] Our Iconic Monk is going to be a Skirmisher Forward
[*] Our Iconic Sage is going to be a Skirmisher Forward
[*] Our Iconic Witch is going to be a Skirmisher Fullback
[*] Our Iconic Sorcerer is going to be a Skirmisher Wing
[*] Our Iconic Rogue is going to be a Skirmisher Wing
What this means (I think) is that for Assault Side, I test these groups against each other:
Ranger, Hero, Artificer, and Mentalist
Priest, Bard, Necromancer, and Mage
Monk, Sage, Witch, Sorcerer, and Rogue
And for the Tactical Side:
Sage, Hero, Monk, Priest, Ranger
Bard, Witch, Necromancer, Mentalist
Artificer, Mage, Rogue, Sorcerer
And for the mix and match, I test the combination against the iconic. So, if I was making a Rake [Vanguard Rogue] Magical Girl [Fullback Sage], I'd test it against the iconic Necromancer (which would be an Undying Puppeteer). If I were making a Magitech [Shock Trooper Sage] Samurai [Forward Sage], I'd test it against the iconic Hero (Technician Knight) and the iconic Ranger (Sharpshooter Commando)
