No sooner did Square Enix announce the shipping of the FFXIV Online TTRPG starter set, then in a surprising move, posted what they call ‘free trial’ editions of the Player and Gamemaster books.

I read the Gamemaster Book last night and will be commenting on my first impressions of the major points of the game below. Overall, my impressions are very positive, but I can see trad/OSR players being very put off by many of the rules and suggestions in this game. So, in no particular order, here are my thoughts on the Gamemaster Book.

1. DO NOT ASK, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

The Gamemaster is encouraged to give players two clear choices for each decision point instead of an open-ended, what do you want to do, a concept bedded firmly into the firmament of how we play TTRPGs here in the US. The focus is on the story, and getting your players to the next point in the story in the most efficient way possible.

2. QUICKSAVE

FFXIV uses something called quicksaves, basically a temporal marker which is set down as a reset point. Players can return to their last quicksave point whenever they choose, or will automatically return to their last quicksave point in the case of a TPK.

3. LINKPEARLS

Never again will you hear that player whose character is not in a scene be told that they cannot contribute due to ‘metagaming’. Those familiar with FF XI and XIV know that linkpearls allow communication over vast distances. Can you give linkpearls to NPCs? Yup.

4. TELEPORTING

Major settlements have aetherytes, teleportation pads that allow near-instantaneous travel between distances great and small. It is assumed that PCs are seasoned adventurers who have already attuned to the major aetheryte locations.

5. MONEY, ITEMS, AND LIGHT SOURCES

Gil, items, and equipment are not tracked in this game. It is assumed you have enough money and equipment to get by. Unless specifically stated, it is assumed there is enough light to see by.

6. PASSAGE OF TIME

Each day is divided into 24 bells. An action takes up one bell, unless you are in combat; then an entire encounter is assumed to take one bell. Travel time is not counted in this game and unless you have a set encounter or scene planned, or there is a specific time restriction in the scenario being played, the GM is encouraged to handwave time.

7. EXPERIENCE POINTS

Final Fantasy XIV uses level sync, a concept introduced in Final Fantasy XI. How this plays out in the TTRPG is that players don’t have to track experience points, nor use them to level up — they can simply level up their characters to whatever is appropriate for the scenario being played, or they can simply create new characters for a particular scenario.

8. CHARACTER FAILURE

There are numerous suggestions in the Gamemaster Book on how to handle a TPK. I do like the fact that it is naturally assumed this will happen until the players figure out what synergies will work against certain enemies or boss encounters. These suggestions range from bringing in surprise NPCs, to a Pheonix Down style encounter reset, quicksaving back to just before the encounter begins, or even bypassing the encounter entirely and the GM just narrating it.

Of those options, I like the last one the least and would probably never use it … however, the fact that it’s mentioned is fantastic and this is something experienced GMs will already do in a trad RPG anyway. If I am running an extended encounter, or example, I will play through the first wave of enemies, and then abstract the rest of the battle with one or two rolls per player whilst narrating and adjudicating the results.

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND IMPRESSIONS

Most, if not all, so-called high fantasy TTRPGs are firmly rooted in the traditional trappings of yesteryear whilst trying (and often failing) to offer a curated, epic “story” experience for players. The way this is typically handled is by either ‘balancing’ out gameplay to a tedious extreme so that encounters can be carefully created to offer players a sense of fairness or by reskinning super heroes with a fantasy veneer.

In any event, characters are rarely, if ever, in any real danger of failing; too much is riding on it, and modern player expectations are basically that their PC may be injured, but will never perma-die. Final Fantasy XIV does away with this concern altogether.

Final Fantasy XIV is tied very closely to the Japanese style of table talk RPGs and some (if not all) of the ideas may strike gamers outside of Japan as being odd or railroady. It focuses purely on the narrative; combats can be incredibly difficult because there are many ways to mitigate failure. Without having to worry about balance or symmetry, quicksave means that players can expect to replay some battles multiple times before they crack the code.

If you are firmly rooted in the ‘play to find out’ camp, lots of things in this game will rub you the wrong way. However, I see this as the trend that WotC is going to embrace going forward. Final Fantasy XIV has squarely beaten WotC to the punch here (pun intended) — the question is: will there be enough interest among hard core RPG players (not just FF fans) for it to make an impact?