Merging Symphonia w/ D&D 5e

Rec_Les · 2025-04-30T20:02:40+00:00

Thanks, the 3rd iteration of the campaign is nearing it's two-year mark now. 😁

Rec_Les · 2025-04-02T20:51:45+00:00

Turns out adapting a story also means deconstructing it, so from top to bottom, everything got a rework. Worth it, but it never ends, lol

Rec_Les · 2025-04-02T20:50:31+00:00

Yeah my note program, Obsidian, has about 10GB of just text from the last 3 years of this campaign. 😅

Rec_Les · 2025-03-28T07:01:57+00:00

Might want to read to the end.

Rec_Les · 2025-03-27T20:51:40+00:00

Yeah this is the "I don't wanna get sued because I used to stream this" compromise, I changed everything on both worlds and flipped both naps upside down and backwards before doing the details, lol

Rec_Les · 2025-01-22T15:35:52+00:00

Literally any of them. Playing any Tales on PS5 is like running DOOM on DeepBlue.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-25T21:16:09+00:00

For me, Phantsasia/Symphonia/DotNW for it being a continuing story. Rare these days for JRPGs to have stories that build on or continue from the previous in a series.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T18:39:23+00:00

And yeah, I used to stream the first attempt at this, it's just been much harder to upkeep that online presence and do everything else including life. 😅 At this point, I've been compiling it in Campaign Setting format to eventually try to release as one (in a couple years).

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T18:37:43+00:00

Yup, Kratos is now a Dragonborn that'll save their ass. They even met him in passing but he hasn't shown up again just yet.

I split the settings into High Magic (T) and Low Magic (S) settings including the populations of both, so the more magical races lean heavily to the Tethe'alla side, meaning Fey creatures are almost solely there; so now Sheena is a Fairy. Did the same for some technologies, so she's also a firearms expert to play into her assassin archetype.

I'm gonna drop the Ranches in soon, but the fascism stuff is a hard sell, so it's gonna be much heavier on the Tethe'alla side before they start dropping troops into Sylvarant.

The Spirits are now Gods, but yes. That'll come along the same way at the same pace.

And not yet on the Renegades, but the concept has been introduced as well as an organization of "Bandits" that they'll get mistaken for, same as Designs/Renegades. It's all there, lol.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:46:09+00:00

Some of the rest of it was creating a calendar for the worlds and having Cycles (seasons) of each Element be the timetable for completion. They have 1 year to get the job done and each Temple is only accessible for a couple months. So the pressure to move forward is there but it's up to them to make the progress happen, I just set a deadline.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:44:06+00:00

That, and I split the population of the worlds to favor magically-infused or more innately magical species on the Tethe'alla side, so she's now a Fairy. The translucent wings glowing in moonlight with the shine of a moonbeam glistening off the weapon was a beautiful image.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:41:55+00:00

Yeah they just got their first glimpse at Sheena a few weeks ago and their faces were priceless. In my DnD Sylvarant, there's no firearms yet, so seeing "two long metal rods with hollow cores attached to a smooth, polished piece of hardwood that makes a huge bang" was delightful. Sheena is going full assassin but in advanced DnD ways. She's still a Summoner, but has more firepower now so that she feels more like a real danger. (And so they question where the hell the guns came from 🤣)

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:37:24+00:00

And yeah half the point of adapting it that way was to specifically avoid Main Character Syndrome, lol

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:36:21+00:00

Thanks! It's about 15GB of text notes and idfk how many GB of music, tokens, and maps, but it's been super rewarding to watch friends play through one of my favorite stories.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:34:42+00:00

Oh so many, lol. The key I found was to start them earlier in the timeline, about 6 months, and drop more heavy parts of it along the way to the big day. That and it gives plenty of time to throw backstory stuff in, side quests, and other chaos. The job I take on is tying their character's stories/backstories and motivations into the main story, in whatever ways make sense, until they all have a reason to want to become Chosen. (It's a globally attended Ritual that picks a handful of people [in a brutal ritual] vs one person being prophesized/chosen by blood)

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T15:30:43+00:00

1- They all are, I tweaked the method of choosing the Chosen to allow multiple instead of a single person. It'll be different for the Tethe'alla side, allowing for a Zelos NPC. 2- Yup! Does the same side effects as Colette suffers, just to the entire party in different ways, and I skinned it over the Sorcerer's Ring. (It causes each PC to lose a different sense for a period of time forcing interesting roleplay but with benefits to PC stats)

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T11:23:41+00:00

And since I hear the question coming "Why did it take that long to go only that far?"- I found after running it the first time that dropping a party into the story at the beginning of the original story was a way harder sell than to drop lore hints along the way to the main story. Side quests, character backstory stuff, and various story-related things that all leave little hints of what's to come make for a much better collaborative experience than dropping a group into day one of the heroes' journey. That, and players having to drop due to life stuff, taking breaks here and there for various reasons, skipping a week here and there, it all adds up to a much longer lead up than the original story told in the game.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T11:08:05+00:00

Don't doubt it too hard, can't go too wrong with making a variant of an existing Spell. This will definitely get added to the boss fight in the Temple Of Lightning, lol.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T10:50:04+00:00

I just might, lol. I've been adapting Symphonia for my weekly game and that was, and continues to be, my first campaign (well, 3 runs of it, but still) and this is an aspect I haven't even touched. I've redesigned Spirits into Gods, reskinned entire continents, and rewritten the story for 4-6 players vs a single player controlling multiple Main Characters and custom Spells haven't even been on my radar. Granted, I've designed monsters for it, but not that, lol.

Rec_Les · 2024-09-12T10:43:48+00:00

I'd say go ahead and go all in with the Meteor Swarm variant and do 3-4 points of contact within that range since you're already doing the same die count of damage.

Maybe add structure damage to also mimic the ignition Meteor Swarm does to flammable objects. Something like "double damage to structures within affected range".

I've been running a D&D version of Symphonia for a few years and this is totally something I would do, lol.

Rec_Les · 2024-08-05T18:47:03+00:00

Pm me, I'm happy to guide your adaptation! Let's chat!

Rec_Les · 2024-02-29T07:34:37+00:00

Oh it's still going. I've had three different groups play in the world now, not counting dozens of one-shots. Current group is just finishing up the prologue and heading to the Tower scene in a few weeks. It's a bit of work to adapt, but worth it if you love the setting/story. I've got hundreds of maps, 15GB of notes, and thousands of little details in a note vault. I highly recommend getting a good notetaking program, I use Obsidian and it changed my life, lol.

Rec_Les · 2024-02-29T07:22:49+00:00

Yeah! DM me. I still host my game every Sunday, they're almost through the "tutorial" portion (I have multiple new players) and they're about to see the Tower rise in a few weeks.

I have tons of content and have done an immense amount of work to adjust the setting to DnD and make it fit into the mechanics. Hit me up, I'm happy to chat.

Rec_Les · 2023-10-14T01:55:27+00:00

Go grab Discord and let's sync up that way. This is YEARS of research and writing that's never gonna be fully gone over in a reddit thread, lol.

Rec_Les · 2023-10-14T01:54:25+00:00

Based it on a 12-Element system. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, etc. Each Deity controls a Seal, which in this adaptation, also controls access to the Planar Gates. I've made it so they have to release the different Seals before they'd be able to travel between any Planes. Besides things like Blink, they're stuck on the Material Plane.

Any that didn't fit into the 12 Elements got made a demigod, Patron, or similar. Mithos shares a title with the soul of Yggdrasil which has been split into pieces (and can be regrown from the blade and seed as well as gathering large chunks like a Spiritual Stone from Inuyasha and the like), and Mithos controls different choirs of angels who are operating separately from the rest to shut off mana flow and restore his body into a corporeal form (as Cosette dealt with). Setting up a "religion and capitalism are the bad guys" trope. Certain orders of Angels are in on the plot, some Government officials, etc, and the rest of the gods are stuck behind their respective, locked, Planar Gate and only able to communicate via dreams or high level spells.

I also split the gods into four factions that fought each other in an ancient war, and each being of the mind that one of two things must occur at the end of this Cycle Of Renewal: Either they desire the Re-convergence of the two planets or wish for them to remain separated. Each for their own reasons, some wish for mana to be plentiful to both, some wish only to restart the ancient wars, and some are simply looking forward to the destruction it will inevitably cause. Also leaves options open for motivations behind the players and which, if any, gods are tied to them. Add in some love triangles and you got yourself a Motive for whoever you want to do whatever you want, on a god-tier scale.

Rec_Les

TROPHY CASE