#game's not playable the stats are for fun

[sabrebash]

I realized i hadn't posted all of the cards i completed last year, especially some of my favorites like the Rods and Mokole Mbembe, and since i didn't like the format i was posting them in anyway I figured i'd make a masterpost here. Sorry for the length! I'm not selling these at present since a 17 card deck is such an awkward length, but maybe i could add to it in the future? I love rods/skyfish so much man they're so dumb.

[demi-shoggoth]

2024 Reading Log, pt 2

006. Gardening Can Be Murder by Marta McDowell. I honestly thought that this book was going to be about something else. With the subtitle “how poisonous plants, sinister shovels and grim gardens have inspired mystery writers”, I thought it was going to be about, you know, that. True crime themed to gardens, discussions of poisonous plants, that sort of thing. The book is actually about the mystery books that have gardening as a theme. And while the author’s dedication to not spoiling anything (seriously, anything, even 150 year old stories like The Moonstone or “Rappacini’s Daughter”) is admirable in its own way, this leaves the book feeling like endless buildup without any payoff. Big fans of murder mysteries might enjoy this—especially the last chapter, which interviews writers about their gardens—but I found it more boring than anything else, and finished it only because it was very short.

007. Antimony, Gold and Jupiter’s Wolf by Peter Wothers. This book is about how the elements got their names, and most of it deals with the early modern period, as alchemy transitioned to chemistry and then into the 19th century, when chemistry was a real science, but things like atomic theory were not yet understood. The book goes into fascinating detail, and has a lot of quotes from primary sources, as scientists then were just like scientists now, that is, opinionated and bickering with each other over their preferred explanations. And names! Many of the splits between elements and their symbols (like Na for sodium) are due to compromise attempts to appease two different factions with their preferred names. A book covering arcane minutia of history always has the risk of feeling like a slog, but this is a fast and fun read.

008. Doctor Dhrolin’s Dictionary of Dinosaurs by Nathan T Barling and Michael O’Sullivan, illustrations by Mark P Witton. This book is an odd concept, but one that I was immediately on board with—a D&D book written by paleontologists with the intention of bringing accurate and interesting stats for prehistoric reptiles to the game. The fact that it’s mostly illustrated by Mark Witton definitely clinched my backing that Kickstarter. And this book is a lot of fun. So much so, that I read it all in a single sitting. I don’t know how accurate the stats are (like, a Hatzegopteryx has a higher CR than titanosaurs or T. rexes), but they seem like they’d be fun in play, and the writing does a good job of combining fantasy fun with actual education. Even for someone not running a 5e game, the stuff on how to run animals as not killing machines, and the mutation tables, could be useful. There are multiple types of playable dinosaurs, all of which seem like they’d work well at the table and avoid typical stereotypes, and a lot of in-jokes and pop culture references (like the cursed staff of unspared expense, which looks like Hammond’s cane in the Jurassic Park movie).

009. Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day by Judith Tschann. I’m a sucker for books about etymology. And this one, on food etymology, is a pretty breezy read. I had fun with it, and it even busted some misconceptions that I had, etymologically speaking. Like, there’s no evidence that “bloody” as an explicative originated from “God’s blood”? Wild. Etymology books tend to be written in a sort of stream-of-consciousness style, where talking about one word may lead down a garden path to the next one. The book also has a couple of little matching quizzes, which is something I haven’t seen in a book since like the 90s.

010. The Lives of Octopuses and their Relatives by Danna Staaf. I was previously a little disappointed in The Lives of Beetles, another book in this series, but I knew I liked Staaf, who wrote the excellent book Squid Empire about cephalopod evolution and paleontology. I’m pleased to report that this book is also excellent. Staaf takes the “lives” part seriously, and the book is arranged by ecology, looking at different marine habitats, the challenges that they pose to living things, and the cephalopods that live there. Cuttlefish get slightly short shrift in this book compared to squids and octopuses, but that’s about the biggest complaint I had. I like how the species profiles cover more obscure taxa, and information about the best studied (like Pacific giant octopus and Humboldt squid) is kept to the chapters.

[lorz-ix]

Dawn of the Monsters (2022)

Ah yes, one of those flavor of the month, indie beat 'em ups. This one has a theme that I happen to enjoy a bunch, I'm sure it could be fun.

I know the phrase gets thrown around a lot, but this is a love letter to kaiju and tokusatsu media. The story and world building hit every note and they hit it right. I absolutely adored learning about the setting bit by bit, and I fell in love with the cast of characters. It's wonderfully done. You love to see the environmentalist message, very adequate for the genre, and the effort put into making the conflict feel global, with most of the key characters originating from a completely different part of the world, each adding different human perspectives.

As for the playable characters, they give off this impression of "knockoff Godzilla or Ultraman", but the fact that they're not tethered to those franchises lets them put their original spin into the formula, while also paying homage to the icons. Each of them has a ton of alternate color palettes with even more fun references to other media. In combat, they're all very distinct, which is a treat, since it brings a lot of variety between the few of them.

That combat though. It's not my favorite beat 'em up whatsoever, but it's still relatively unique. RPG vibes, with emphasis on equipped passive skills, stat boosts and status effects. Each character has at least one non-damaging ability, or at least some sort of effect that incentivizes thinking about how you use said abilities, giving you buffs and the like. I particularly enjoyed mixing and matching the equipments to come up with strong combinations or new strategies.

Overall, this is a bit of a highlight for the end of the year. I never imagined a game like this to capture me so much, and especially not when I considered the moment to moment gameplay to be good, but not top tier. If what I already said sounds enticing, then I enthusiastically suggest you play it.

[theoretical-tactician]

Hey! So, I said I might make a list of Fire Emblem modding links, so here it is! Before anything, be sure you have a hacked 3DS so you can mod your games. You can load mods directly onto a hacked 3DS OR you can use a hacked 3DS to dump your games and play them on an emulator.

If you haven't hacked your 3DS yet, follow this guide to do so! It's easy and super safe!

As for if you want to emulate, you can download the citra emulator here. Just be aware that the emulator can be demanding and not all games function great (all the Fire Emblem games are functional, though).

Now, as for game modding, here are a few of my favorite things to use as well as some interesting mods others enjoy. Feel free to share mods you enjoy and I'll add them to this list.

General Modding

Paragon - This in and of itself is not a mod. However, if you're interested in dipping your toes in trying to create your own mods, this is a good starting point! This tool provides you with a friendly user interface to mess with the code of the game and create your own custom mods (don't worry, you don't need to know how to code).

Fire Emblem Awakening

Unofficial Gay Awakening - As the name says it adds gay supports in Awakening. I can't really add anything here.

Project Thabes - This is an overhaul of Awakening, akin to a sort of remix. The idea is fixing up some issues with story, rebalancing, and remixing maps. Definitely an interesting project to check out if you want a fresh experience with the game.

Awakening HD - This is just mod to upscale textures. Really meant for people playing the game on citra, not hardware.

Twin Morgans - Y'know. If you want double the Morgan. :)

Reverse Recruitment Order - Excluding Chrom, Robin, and Lucina, all units are obtained in reverse order. Something fun to mix up your game.

Fates Stances - If you came to really love the stance system in Fates, good news! This mod implements the stance system into Awakening. Yeah, it's less broken, but way more fun.

Gender-Lock Removal - You want male pegasus knights and female barbarians? Here they are. Need I say more?

Fire Emblem Fates

Unofficial Gay Fates - It's as the name says: a mod to add gay supports to Fates. Though it's not just gay, it also generally adds additional supports between characters.

Ignis - This is a Fates randomizer that allows you to customize your own experience. This can randomize recruitment order, chest/village items, skills, classes, stats, and so on. I've been using this for years, so I can vouch for its fun and stability.

Fates HD - Just a mod to upscale textures. Meant for people playing the game on citra, not hardware.

Before Fates - This mod is currently a work in progress, but it's meant to expand the backstory in Fates. While it's incomplete, it's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Fates Retranslation+ - If you kinda hate the translation of Fates, good news! This mod retranslates the entire game to better match the original Japanese version. It also adds some minor patches, but the idea of this mod is to fix the English translation.

Princess Personals - Legendary weapons for the princesses. Because they earned it. :)

Non-Binary Corrin - For all my non-binary pals out there, someone made a mod to make all references to Corrin gender-neutral. (Note: the mod creator is remaking the mod due to some issues.)

Playable Lilith - Do you love Lilith? Sad that she's stuck being killed off in routes and is otherwise unplayable? Well, this mod adds her as a playable character. Do it for her.

Face-Lift - This mod does some edits to characters to update things like skin tones and eye colors to look more natural/better match parents (like giving Benny darker skin rather than grey skin). It has a regular version for hardware and HD version for citra users who like having the HD mod.

Fire Emblem Echoes

Route Swap - Just a funky little mod that swaps the two parties. So now Celica and crew are on Alm's journey and vice versa.

Installing Mods

3DS

Assuming your 3DS is hacked, you should be using luma to mod games. Once you have your mod files, installing them is extremely easy. Load up your SD card and go into luma > titles and create a folder with the corresponding title id to your game.

Once you have a folder for your game, drop the mod files within (remember to unzip them, and they should be a romfs folder). If done correctly, it should look something like this.

There's one final step before you run your modded game, though! Reinsert your SD card in your 3DS and then hold SELECT while powering the console on. The luma config menu should come up. Select "Enable game patching" then press START to save.

You only ever have to do this luma step once. So once you've enable game patching, you can freely switch out mods on your 3DS and they'll run automatically. If you want to disable mods, either delete them from your SD card or disable game patching.

Citra

Just like with hardware, modding games on citra is extremely easy. All you have to do is open citra, right click the game you want to mod, and click "Open Mods Location" from the menu like below.

This will create/open a mod folder for the title you selected. Just like on the 3DS, all you have to do is insert your mod folder here. It should be inside a romfs folder like below.

If you did everything correctly, then your mods should take effect when you next run your game on citra.

[skunts-own-truth]

Got myself a copy of the 1st Ed 40k Rulebook! Spent an evening going through the thing, and you know, it's goofy as hell but it really is a cool book. I really appreciate how much work they put into this thing, not only selling the concept of 40k as a setting for the very first time, but making the entire game standalone and very playable. Seriously, there are few things in the 1st ed core book that doesn't have some kind of stats.

For instance, it mentions Custodes and within a few pages it has Custodes stated out. Most of everything has at least one block of stats and some kind of rules to field them, maybe not as a competitive army as we understand today, but as something playable for the sake of narrative. You can explore so much in one book, and honestly I wish modern 40k books gave that much love to their universe.

I think it would be amazing if modern GW published a core rulebook that could be played without anything else for 40k. Human stats, aeldari stats, Necron stats, chaos, kroot, random xenos and warp entities, charts to make your own, and standard weapons profiles for everything. So you have a game, a solid game that is playable by itself with a skew towards narrative play and making one's own characters- then releasing Codices and supplements for army building, special military units and rules pertaining to what a specific xenos race looks like as a military force rather than just a random band of them.

I do think modern 40k is very fun, but man, reading through this it does make me beg for a time where fun was the focus. I hate shit like meta play, tournaments, and balancing. It just isn't my jam. The way 1st ed is set up? I want a modern take on that. Even include the concept of having a GM for a campaign of it! I loooove that shit, I love the idea of having a GM for a 1v1 tabletop war game. Oh yeah, your list rocks, but did you expect the GM to have a renegade titan wander onto the map? My goodness.

I really dig it. When Dorothy and I move in two months, I'll try and trick some of my pals into playing 1st ed. I'll let you folks know how it goes! Who knows, maybe it'll be my favorite edition of 40k yet. I've played most of them at this point. Got in at the start of 5th, went back and played 3 and 4, and have been playing every edition up till now as they come out. Haven't touched 1 and 2, but I am very excited to do so!

[smash-64]

2023 Game of the Year Countdown #1 The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Nintendo Switch, 2023

For a fourth time since 2018, a Trails game takes my #1 for the year.

Breaking from tradition, this Trails game has no sidequests. It has a very linear story, although technically there are three linear stories and you can jump from one to another for most of the game. In many respects, this is the “Trails in the Sky the 3rd” for the Cold Steel series. Not only is the story more linear, but we get redemption arcs from past villains, and we also get an absolutely disgusting amount of playable characters. Chrono Cross has 45 playable characters, and people often say that’s too many. Well…Reverie has 50. And each of them gets at least a little time in the spotlight. It’s fantastic for Trails fans, and I adored it. I put 150 hours into this game and I’m not sure I could have put less time into it.

Playing the game on Switch, there were definitely a few times the game chugged, so I can’t give the game a perfect 10. Many of the cutscenes in Crossbell City were bogged down by the sheer number of NPCs, and was noticeable to me, a person famously unconcerned with performance. I can see why people advocate for playing this on PC or PS4, but the portability of the Switch trumps all else in my mind. This is really the only downside I experienced with the game, although it did not affect my enjoyment at all.

Having three linear storylines to follow in any order you want is phenomenal. You can keep going with characters you love, and are never forced to stick with the ones you don’t for very long. And with having a linear story, the pace of the game is potentially sped up a little bit from the traditional Trails experience where sidequests can often lead to very long delays in the main story.

The story itself offers a ton. Obviously I can’t spoil a game that is the 10th in an interconnected, on-going series, but I’ll just say that once the main story is over…the postgame story is equally as interesting and gives fans a peek at some of the series-long questions and issues brought up in previous entries. 

Combat is fairly standard as far as the Cold Steel games go. I love Trails combat and this game tweaks little, as nothing was broken. It’s perhaps a little bit more difficult than CS3 or CS4, since the Break mechanic was pretty OP in those two games and it has been toned down slightly, but you can still take full advantage of it if you’re smart and plan well. I also like how some of the accessories drastically increase specific stats, so min/maxing is actually fun in this game. I was able to get Tita Russell’s attack and HP to absolutely absurd heights in this game. She is no longer baby; she wants power!

As previously stated, almost every single character gets their time in the spotlight. Some more than others, of course, but the fact that we get 50 playable characters, yet every one of them gets a chance to shine is a wonderful piece of work by the developers and writers. I’d say that perhaps Musse gets very little, but she had more than enough focus in CS3 and 4. Even Machias gets his own episode, and he is so often forgotten that even I forget about him at times.

Music is good as always when it comes to Falcom. I appreciate some of the battle tunes, like Elegant Prowess, and the game has its own unique sound that sets it apart from CS3 and 4. Maybe not to the same extent that Sky the 3rd sets itself apart from FC and SC, but the tracks unique to this game sound different enough that they are easy to pick out. There are dozens of returning tracks as well, since we revisit quite a few places from previous entries. 

My favorite character is Estelle Bright, and I was glad to see a focused effort to put her in the spotlight more often. She wasn’t in CS1-3, and played a more supporting role in 4 than anything else. Meanwhile, Lloyd and Rean ran the show. Estelle is not one of the main storylines in this game, but it’s nice to see her back with some of her famous one-liners.

Overall, I can’t really say enough about the game. It’s an amazing JRPG experience, but one that requires playing the 9 previous games in the series. Maybe that’s a daunting task to some, but the good thing about trying out a Trails game is that there is always another one to play afterward.

[sinuswar]

CLASSPECTING 101: INTRO TO RPG CLASSES

Back in the beginnings of the RPG genre, before game cartridges had the storage space for "dialogue" or "characters" or "personality," games were written entirely in shorthand. Characters were unnamed units whose entire identity revolved around their particular moveset.

This was referred to as their job or their class.

(Early Final Fantasy leaned into this especially hard, as playable characters had no names or unique designs. Their only differentiating factor was their Class.)

For a while, this worked.

RPGs on the (S)NES didn't have the storage space to write actual personalities for each of the party members, so when introducing a character, they simply say: "You are a hero. You must save the world from giant evil shadow skull. This is your class. Have fun!" Classes were designed to abstract/imply the illusion of character.

This is because writing characters (even when you aren't confined to a 1MB cartridge) usually comes down to what a character can/would do, and what a character can't/won't do. Characters are actions.

We call characters that fight monsters and save the day "good guys," and characters who burn down villages and slaughter innocents "bad guys." Characters are choices. Choices are actions.

A character that fights monsters using their giant sword feels different from a character that fights monsters by shooting fireballs. Characters are methods. Methods are actions.

Classes abstract all of these above character components by saying "every character of this type can do these things."

All Warriors are very buff, but lack magic. All Mages have magic, but are pretty scrawny. A White Mage uses magic to heal, whereas a Black Mage uses magic to harm!

The above list isn't what we'd currently consider "personalities," it's just a list of actions that characters can choose from, but it tricks the player into imagining personalities instead. They hand you a list of actions, and ask you to create a character that would do them.

If characters are actions, then Classes are "pre-built characters."

(The player characters never speak. They quite literally have no personality. Their only method of communication/individuality is their specific list of spells/skills.)

So, why does this matter?

Homestuck, at its core, is an RPG pastiche. A deconstruction of themes inherent to the genre. Analyzing RPGs can help us analyze Homestuck.

Classpecting is one of the more obvious examples of deconstruction, as Sburb Classes are very clearly derived from genre classics (Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, etc.), all recontextualized to ask the hard hitting questions:

"Isn't it kinda fucked up to be assigned a generic label that describes all the actions you've ever done/will ever do?"

Yeah, kinda! It speaks to a larger "dehumanizing" effect that Sburb tends to have on players, abstracting them into units with certain roles, functions, and responsibilities.

Wouldn't it suck to be a character in one of these RPGs, with a whole backstory, personality, and rich inner world, all to have a "higher power" reduce you down into what you can do (moveset), how good you are at it (stats), and what they'll use you for (player strategy)?

This is one of the main pillars of Homestuck: Being a video game character is an inherently degrading experience.

"Does 'what you're good at' decide your Class, or does your Class decide what you're good at?"

Homestuck is a mess of bootstrap paradoxes, so you can argue this either way and probably be right. The answer is probably a constantly looping "both."

But, now that I'm thinking about it, I personally lean toward "Class decides what you're good at."

If Skaia decides what your Class is at "inception," then it could be argued that you excel at certain things to help prepare you for the role you were (literally) designed for. Your hobbies and interests are off-screen coaching for your on-screen role.

To bring it back to RPGs, think of the (oftentimes generic) backstory you pick for a TTRPG character to justify them having the skills Talk To Animals and Explode Undead. You create what they did before the game as justification for actions they can do during the game.

Except Sburb does this on a cosmic scale, crafting your entire life up until the game to prepare you for playing it. Sucks! More on this in a future post.

"Are all characters of the same Class the same guy? Or at least the same type of guy?"

In early RPGs? Yes!

In a quite literal sense, all characters of the same class were essentially the same exact "person." Same design, same role, same methods. With no dialogue or personality to differentiate them, if you made a party of four White Mages, they'd essentially all be clones!

(This isn't entirely true, though. More on that at the bottom.)

In Homestuck? No!

This is partially because Classes are only half of Classpects, a more complex idea where your RPG Class is paired up with a "metaphysical element" known as an Aspect. With 12 Aspects, that means there's 12 versions of every Class.

Basically, you can have two Knights in the same party, but they can still be incredibly different (albeit similar!) units under this system.

(Dave and Karkat, on top of being a Certified Premium Yaoi Stock™, are a great case study for the similarities/differences between same Classes of differing Aspects.)

Yet, even if we ask this question again with Classpects instead of Class, the answer remains the same: you can have two characters with the same exact Classpect, and they'll still be noticeably different people.

How the hell does that work? Well, for starters, Homestuck is a story that does actually have character writing.

You can have two characters that perform similar actions (ex: Dirk and Equius are designed to have very similar traits, interests, and habits, even down to exact actions) and their Classpects will still be completely different (Prince of Heart vs. Heir of Void).

Likewise, you can have characters of the same exact Classpect (and identity!) perform incredibly different actions.

(Calliope and Alternate Calliope (CAL and AL, for short) are one of the best examples of completely different characters with the same Classpect. And they're even the same character, technically!)

This is where the crux of Classpecting as an artform is. Mechanically, if heavily differing characters can be the same "thing," and very similar characters can be different "things," then what is it that Classes and Aspects decide?

We're going way overtime, so I'll answer a question by rewording an earlier question:

"You have a Pokémon team made up of, let's say, six Dunsparce. Are all these Dunsparce the same exact thing? What could be different between them? What would always be the same?"

If you read this far: Sorry! Didn't mean to get this carried away! Thanks, though. Marrying two topics I care a lot about (game design and Homestuck) is a pretty good way to pass the time, it turns out.

If you think you know the answer to the above question, feel free to chime in. I'll give my two cents whenever I follow up on this topic.

[thegrayascendancy-if]

You know what, given that I once wrote like 16k words for it and, after rereading today, it contains quite a few exchanges that I am very proud of, I might just go ahead and upload the playable draft of a superhero IF (with a twist, naturally) I had in the works before. It is perhaps the one game project where I feel like I've already nailed the stats it should track, and the premise allowed for quite a range for the MC, plus the stat screen looked cool to me... Just something fun that is written anyway 🤔

[cidthesquid]

Trying A New Fashion Game: 'Fab Style'!

Took a little break from style savvy to try out something new, This is FabStyle! A Fashion shop sim/otome game! You may never have heard of this game (due to it never being release in English) but the style savvy reddit still recommended checking it out, so I tried it with the fan translation. Here are some early outfits I've made, with my first impressions on the game to follow:

'FabStyle' Was released back in 2011 for both the original DS and 3ds. (I'm playing the 3ds version upscaled 2x via citra) The game was published by koie tecmo and developed by Ruby Party (Also known for the 'Harukanaru Toki no Naka' series) And much like Style Savvy, It's a fashion shop sim, but with a heavier emphasis on the management aspects, and even a relationship/dating mechanic.

The basics of gameplay are similar to Style Savvy, with you selecting now items to buy managing stock, selling items to customers based on their criteria, and exploring a small town..

But even the store management adds a little extra, such as a timed 'handing out clothes' mini-games (I guess to simulate a busy hour), And automatated stocking options for if you don't want to have to manually buy everything. You'll also have personal stats to raise and monthly expenses:

The game is more story focused than Style Savvy, and the narrative is a little different from style savvy as well, You'll be attending classes to raise your stats, meeting other shop owners, and competing directly with them to see who can make the most sales for end of the year rewards.

I only played for about 90 mins, but think I understand the basics (steam archive here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2022471960) It seems pretty fun so far, and not simply a clone of style savvy, the only thing that holds me back from playing more, is the fact that it's a bit hard to follow if you can't read Japanese. The English patch is great, but only really covers the prologue and some menus: https://gbatemp.net/threads/wip-fabstyle-english-project.427043/ So the game is 'playable' to a degree, but having to open Google Translate, and what for your phone to read the text every time you want to help a customer is a bit of a pain. But I'm still glad I tried it, and I may jump back in from time to time, as it is a different experience from Style Savvy, not just mechanically, but also it offers a different visual style as some new fashion items as well.

Anyways, if you made it to the end, thanks for reading! If you've played FabStyle, please let me know of the game in the comments!

[beantothemax]

Bean

The time has come

The blorbo posts are moving out of tellius, who knows how long it will be until they break even the fe containment

CRAB BLORBO NR. WHATEVER I FORGOT!

ANNA!!!!!

Back to the basics, list time!!!

She is in literally every game except fe2 and it's remake fe15

I adore her little finger chin touch that she does in every game

Every iteration of her is actually a different person and they're all a big family of sisters

^this also has the implication that Anna has interdimensional travel powers (and also time travel)(this is also hinted at in engages epilogue)

I believe there's two eras of Anna, pre and post-awakening. With pre-awakening being more down to earth and existing a lot more as the menu and secret shop person, with post-awakening being more high energy, and I don't want to say one-note, but more, let's say focused on a specific gimmick, which in Annas case is being a cuttthroat buisnesswoman, and this often comes along as borderline psychopathic (/pos imo), but I don't think this was the intention. I love both versions

Post-awakening she's actually a playable character in almost all the games, including Awakening (Very fun to use, trickster class which is staves and Swords, she does especially well with Levin sword and that's always fun), Fates (haven't used her, dlc), Three Houses (kinda sucks and has no supports, also dlc and one of the other dlc characters is just better in everyway gameplay wise) and Engage (also very fun to use, uses axes at base and bows on promotion which is very nice, she also has great magic and can be very good as a mage)

Sells you drugs

So Anna huh, the most reocurring fe character by far, and I love reocurring characters. She's a shrewd buisnesswoman and always have been, but she's a pretty chill gal pre-awakening and just hangs around and gives you tips. And sells you drugs, don't forget about that. Then in awakening she returns once again, but now with a more, high-energy personality. The reason I called her borderline psychopathic is that she here begins to make a lot of quips and jokes about killing people in ways that are some kind of money puns in a very lighthearted tone, "prices aren't the only things i slash" for exampel. I personally find this kind of endearing (this holds up with my other blorbo Henry also from awakening). Then in engage she shows up as a child who has been lost from her family (her anna sisters) Here in engage she has a wonderful childlike feel when doing all her merchant things, while still having that dash of psychosis. And I find this very endearing as well.

She also has a boyfriend who is also reocurring, just not as much has her. Meet Jake! His personality and looks vary a bit.

Then there was the final dlc to awakening, bringing one final challenge to all who played the game. Apotheosis, featuring the final final boss...

Anna the merchant

This is an insane boss, probably the single strongest boss in all of fire emblem, with insane stats like 99 hp, 60 str, 50 mag, 70 skl, 70 spd, 65 lck, 55 def and 55 res. So insanely much.

But that's not even the worst part, her skills are. Counter dealing all physical damage back, Vantage+ to always attack first, Aether which is usually only a main character skill, dragonskin (????????) which halfs all damage dealt and RIGHTFUL GOD

RIGHTFUL GOD????????

rightful god gives 30% extra proc chance to all proc skills

BUT EVEN THE FACT THAT SHE HAS A SKILL CALLED RIGHTFUL GOD IS SCARY ENOUGH AND HAS SOME WEIRD IMPLICATIONS

yeah, insane boss

But overall yeah I just like her, great vibe tbh.

I think me liking her might also have something to do with that she reminds me a lot of an oc I made a loooong time ago with pie who has a special place in my heart.

Anyway finishing picture of all of anna

I find it extremely hilarious that Anna just. has time travel powers. The single constant of the fire emblem universe is the presence of silly capitalism gal

ALSO SHE’S A SUPERBOSS?????????? RIGHTFUL GOD?????????? WH?????????? WHY DOES THE FUNNY SECRET SHOP LADY HARBOR THE POWER OF THE HEAVENS

[fishflop]

Sonic R was one of my favorite games as a kid and I always hoped it would get a sequel one day. It never happened, so I decided to create a concept/pitch for what I would have wanted to see in a Sonic R 2.

I'm calling it Sonic Rerun.

I'm imagining it as an early Dreamcast release, unaffected by any classic/modern split. It uses the established characters and takes advantage of the Dreamcast's online functionality.

Most of the classic crew is playable. Similar to the original Sonic R, you start with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. The rest of the cast unlock as you play, grab collectibles, and win races. Characters like Tikal, Chaos, Big, Shadow, and Rouge would be available in future DLC updates. I don't see Charmy as a playable character, but he could be present in some sort of announcer/Lakitu capacity. Everyone has their own set of abilities. Ranking up a character allows you to unlock extra stuff.

Characters have a few alternate color choices. Skins are unlockable by progressing with each character. The original 4 would have a secret Super form skin that unlocks once you collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds with them. Super forms would be cosmetic only, no stat changes.

Each race includes a mirror lap, so characters race forward, then back, then forward again. Characters also have abilities, so this race format provides you with plenty of opportunities to interact with the other racers.

Tracks would have more variety in terms of their obstacles and platforming. The features from Sonic R would be back, too, like collectible coins, Chaos Emeralds, and gates and boosters that cost rings. 

This was a fun project to work on over the past couple of months. Thank you for checking it out and please let me know what you think! 

[cowcowwow]

HIIII COW COW <333 *HUGS YOU*

I was wondering if I could ask you about a few questions about the roleplay game you posted about a few days ago!! I think it sounds like fun, but I wanted to know more about it :D

Okay so 1: what app/program/platform will the actual gameplay happen on?

2: do you need previous roleplay or tabletop game experience to join? (which I do not have akshfa)

And 3: do you need to have your own playable character pre-made to be able to join? (which I also do not have lol)

Thank youuuu <3 hope you're havin a great day <3

HIII HI COCO!!! *HUGS YE BACK* :333

Ooo!!

1: the actual gameplay will be on Discord!! That's the only place ye need to join if ye were to spectate/play!!

2: Nope, ye do not!! Just need a passion for writing cause there'll be a lot of that fgsgfb. If ye have any questions on how it works though ye can definitely ask me!!

3: Yes, your own character needs to be pre-made, but it doesn't have to be complicated! All ye need is their personality, stats, and backstory pretty much! Also general idea/art of what they look like

There's a written template here if ye want to check it out!

Ye have all month though to come up with/write/draw yer character, and there might also be another opening after the first chapter if ye'd just want to spectate til then :]

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2023 (2)

See Part 1 for the Retrospective Infographic

2023 has been a rollercoaster of stuff, with some very high-highs, and some pretty low-lows. Things have been pretty busy this year, then got busier and weirder. I didn't manage to do things I wanted to do, ending up doing a lot of different things instead. This year was kinda the perfect storm to do all those new stuff and experimentation I've published.

It's been good, it's been bad, it's been ugly, and it's been cool. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Long post ahead - breaking here.

Goals for 2023

Last year, I made big-ass post about what I hoped to achieved during those next 12 months. The main one being: Get things off my desk and shelf it for good! The goal was to finish WIPs and remasters of "completed" projects.

And I... somewhat did that? But also... did whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Taking the list of the "plan":

Goncharov Escapes! was: re-written, re-coded, and translated (to French). The new version also now includes music!

La Petite Mort was: re-written, added content, and translated (to English) for this year's Ectocomp. It just need one more or two things tho

The demo of P-Rix - Space Trucker is now playable on mobile! (and the template based on the game is out too)

The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt didn't get just one but TWO updates last year!

A bunch of templates! 5 to be exact: 3 focused more on visuals (Sci-Fi, VN, Title), and the other 2 more on code (Setting, Charac Creator).

So... what's extra? Well... a lot. Maybe too much...

A lot of new titles under my name: DOL-OS, The Rye in the Dark City (wip), The Roads not Taken, À la Campagne, Entre-d'oeuf coquilles/An Eggcellent Preparation, Collision, Intersigne, Clarence Street 14, The Dinner, In the Blink of an Eye, Tower of Sleep, and Dévoiement. From bite-size to full large game, that makes TWELVE new thing this year! I... may have gone a bit overboard with this...

Aside from the template, I've also worked on the SugarCube Guide, a guide that covers all markup, macros, functions, methods, and APIs of the SugarCube format. From the basics to the very advanced code ~ Which will receive another update when the 2.37 comes out for real.

After the @seedcomp-if, I continued to organised more IF events: Neo-Twiny Jam, Single Choice Jam, Orifice Jam, Bring Out Your Ghost, Bare-Bones Jam, ShuffleComp... and helped out other events (the IFComp, y'all!).

I've been a tad less active on the Tumblr front lately, mainly because I've hung out more on the Forum or the @neointeractives Discord. But I've been plenty active reviewing games, especially since last May (@manonamora-if-reviews). The count is over 300 now...

I made a zine?????

So yeah... A LOT this year. (and there would have been more had I not gotten sick...)

2023 Achievements and Milestones

There were probably a bunch of itch/analytics milestones this year, but... I've tried to stay away from numbers as much as I could, because I realised it was a source of anxiety. I want to make games for fun, not worry that I haven't achieved a certain play level by a certain date. So I've even edited my itch's dashboard to hide it all. (I'm still updating the analytics sheet once in a while tho) And anyway... nothing will ever be as popular as CRWL, even when I'm trying to push other - and much better imo - games down everyone's throats.

Some other stats on itch:

22 [total] games on itch (incl. the experiments & demos) we're getting closer to my goal of 1 game/birthdays

9 free-to-use prompts

7 free-to-use templates

3 coding guides

1 zine

I also participated in 22 different jams and comps, almost always using one game for multiple jams at once (I'm crazy, but not that crazy). I ranked pretty high on multiple jams, which I am really happy about, and got some amazing reviews and lovely comments. A bunch of my games from 2022 were nominated for the IFDB Awards (and two were mentioned in the Top50 IF too)! (maybe next time I'll get a spot too !)

But the major thing coming out of it all was winning a big competition too, with DOL-OS at the start of the year. Holy shit, did that make my year. I really wasn't expecting it because so many of the games that year were incredible! This was such a confidence booster! I think that's my biggest achievement this year. (I just finished the puzzle I won too, and that was loads of fun) I am so so so proud of that game, especially after releasing the remaster.

Some non-numerical achievements I'm happy about:

I continued experimenting this year, with non-linear stories (DOL-OS), shorter and more kinetic content (Neo-Interactive jam entries), and... well... a thing. The experimentation included trying out other programs to make game too!

Speaking of the thing... I've made a monster of a Twine, creating a bad (oh so bad in convention) parser... which I still haven't finished fixing. I talked at length about here.

I've made an actual proper parser game, following the conventions of the medium... and enjoyed it a lot. From creating puzzles to solving the puzzle that was coding it. It didn't rank super high, but it got some good reactions! Making a parser strangely helped me playing them, and appreciate them more.

Has it been a lot of stuff? Yeah... it feels a bit like a lot...

Some 2023 personal things

Like last year, I've continued to struggle with feeling like I was not doing enough during the year (or the month, before doing the monthly dev logs). Not enough words written or progress made. It was a pervasive thing last year, and I've been working on myself to feel less so, especially with all I've been doing anyway this year. But it's still there.

I think I recently found one of the reasons I've been feeling this way: not working on or finishing the WIPs I started with back in 2021 and in 2022, not making substantial progress that would warrant an update... It's been especially hard when seeing other authors churn out updates left and right and I have little to nothing to show for. Maybe that's why I've been compensating with all the new little projects and jam entries throughout the year (and half-way through 2022). I mean... there hasn't been a month where I didn't publish something new, whether it was an update, or a new game, or a template/guide, or brought out a whole-ass remaster of a game.

And by working on those other little things, I think I found myself in some sort of cycle, where the time spent on those new things is not spent on the WIPs, and I start feeling bad about it. But when I open the file, with all that pressure I put myself, nothing gets written or fixed. So I distract myself with a different thing... and I end up not making any progress on the WIP. It sucks, because I want to see those WIPs done. I want to finish those stories. But it's been hard. Who'd have thunk it??? I'm a stupid human being after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I know breaking that cycle will happen... when I work on those darn WIPs. I just need to push myself to get there... But I also want to enjoy what I am writing too, because the quality of the writing really sucks when I force it... So silliness has been happening in the meantime.

Will it continue like this? In the near future, most likely. Hopefully not to the extend of the past year and a half. At best, I'd want to have 1-2 updates on a bit WIP, 1-2 new medium-sized games, and a handful small silly experiments, during a year.

Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but anons being nasty about the whole no-progress thing - essentially why @crimsonroseandwhitelily was offline for a whole while, or why I haven't answered many questions lately.

Also gonna take this moment to not address the very personal stuff that happened IRL, even with the very insisting messages I got. I was tempted to go on a whole tangent about what's been going on, but I'm a bit paranoid about my privacy on the internet (and with the anons wilding lately, I've become more careful), and I don't really want IRL to flood this space either (more than it has anyway - considered leaving a few times tbh). I like this specific corner to not be about IRL, to have it as an escape and spend some time just not having to think about it. So yea... you can ask all you want, I'm not going to answer. But it's been a time... I'm coping by being here damnit. Maybe you'll get an(other) autobio game about it one day xD

Here's to a more peaceful state of mind (and inbox) next year...

2023 is OVER officially

And what a fucking year this was. It's made me even more excited to see what 2024 has in store for me.

I want to learn more, for sure. I think I reached a bit of a plateau with SugarCube, where the only thing I feel I haven't tried yet is some sort of RPG adventure/combat system. Or diving further in JavaScript/jQuery (it's inevitable...). Or have less of a spaghetti code... Though it didn't really start as a conscious effort, I'm glad I tried different IF programs and Twine formats this year. It helped me think more about IF game structure and coding. It really pushed me to grow and appreciate the variety there is in IF outside of Tumblr. It did reinforce my love for Twine, especially SugarCube xD

I know I've complained about having done a lot but also not feeling I did enough, but strangely this year has also been pretty fulfilling. Having achieved things I didn't think I could, mess around and create unmentionable bits of code that should not have seen the light of day, learned how to handle new formats, met and talked with a bunch of cool and knowledgeable IF peeps, and just tried to do some good for the community.

I would love to be as fulfilled in this new year too!

I was shocked with all the good things I got in 2022, but I didn't imagine it would be even better this year. How much I got out of this year. How much I got done. How much I learned. How much I grew as a person and a creator. I'm glad I stuck around another year.

I'm really lucky I was able to have the year I had, to be surrounded by such lovely people, to get such positive return on stuff, to be in this community, to have the friends I have, to still be here.

So, thanks for sticking around too, and partake in my silliness :)

[skelletors]

MCYT as D&D Characters 5 - Philza

Part 5 of me turning MCYTs into playable D&D characters! Today, as you might’ve guessed, I’m taking a crack at the man, the myth, the legend, Philza Minecraft. And, of course, before we begin, the ground rules.

This will not be balanced and the builds may not be very good. This isn’t for the minmaxers (not that there's anything wrong with that), this is purely based on either stories these people have participated in or their overall persona on the internet

These characters will go up to level 20, but in no way do you have to play them to the max level to get all the mechanics that make up the character

There will be no homebrew in this build.

I will be using standard array for all of these characters (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) when determining the stats for these characters for my own ease of use.

Character Traits to Emulate:

Bird

Angel of Death

Old as hell

Anarchist

THE father figure

Race, Class, Background and Stats

Race: Protector Aasimar (There was a lot of debate on what race Phil would be, if he would be a full bird or more human, but I decided on Aasimar purely for the connection to celestials/gods in D&D canon. Plus, they live longer than the bird races and have some fun features!)

Ability Score Improvement: +2 to Charisma, +1 to Wisdom

Darkvision: You can see in the dark! Sick

Celestial Radiance: You’re resistant to necrotic and radiant damage

Healing Hands: You can heal people a number of hit points equal to your level once per long rest. Maybe use it on a particular pig to make sure he can keep standing…

Radiant Soul: Once per long rest, for a minute you gain the power of flight (a fly speed equal to your walking speed) and deal extra radiant damage on attacks.

Background: Far Traveler (I think this one fits the best with Phil and his connection to his hardcore world, where he’s generally implied to be from.)

Proficiencies: Insight, Perception, a musical instrument or game of your choice (let’s choose lute) and a language of your choice

Class: Ranger 11, Cleric 9 (This one may need some explanation, but the features Rangers get are just about getting knowledge about creatures quickly and fucking people up, which is a very Philza vibe. Cleric is for his connection to Mumza)

Stats

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 12

Intelligence: 13 

Wisdom: 15 + 1 = 16

Charisma: 8 + 2 = 10

The stat distribution is also somewhat self-explanatory, Phil isn’t really lacking in any stat but he’s definitely not the most charismatic and as a bird man, probably not the strongest. Not to worry, he definitely uses finesse weapons rather than heavy longbows.

Level 1: Ranger

Favored Enemy: You’re really good at tracking and know quite a bit about certain enemies. I’m not sure what Phil’s would be, maybe undead or something like that.

Deft Explorer: This is a more general replacement for the normal level 1 ability Natural Explorer. Natural Explorer makes you specialize in different areas but I think the more general expertise that comes with Deft Explorer makes more sense.

Expertise in one ability of your choice

Two more languages of your choice

Level 2: Ranger

Fighting Style: Dueling

You get a +2 to damage rolls with a weapon if you’re only holding that weapon

Spellcasting: You get some cool spells! Like Hunter’s Mark! To kill things better!

Level 3: Ranger

Primeval Awareness: You can expend a spell slot to become aware of the kind of creatures around you like abjurations, fiends, fey, undead, etc.

Sssssssssssssssssssssubclass time! The subclass being…

Monster Slayer! Fuck yeah, this subclass is exclusively about learning the weaknesses of your enemies and fucking shit up. It’s just better Hunter, I will not be taking criticism.

Hunter’s Sense: As an action, you can choose an enemy within 60ft of you and learn any immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities as long as they aren’t immune to divination. You can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus

Slayer’s Prey: As a bonus action, you can designate a creature within 60ft to be your victim. The first time each turn you hit the creature, you deal an extra 1d6 damage

Level 4: Ranger

ASI Time baby!

Level 5: Ranger

Extra Attack! Not much, but hey, you can hit shit more often

Level 6: Cleric

Time to finally go into those Cleric levels! Clerics are pretty fun, especially since they get their subclass at level one. That subclass, of course, being…

Death Domain!! There was a bit of debate between this and Grave Cleric, especially with how the two synergize with other members of SBI (especially a certain pig), but I chose Death Domain because it really is just a Cleric class for people who want to fuck shit up. Also, Death, Mumza, pretty obvious.

Bonus Proficiency: You get proficiency in martial weapons. Unnecessary, since Rangers already have proficiency in martial weapons, but I’m mentioning it just so I’m not skipping any features

At first level, you learn a necromancy spell from any spell list. And, when you cast a necromancy spell that targets one creature, you can target two within range and within five feet of each other

Level 7: Cleric

Channel Divinity! This is one of Clerics more fun features, and there are two options open to you. You can do this once per long or short rest.

Turn Undead! As an action, any undead within 30ft of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, it must take it’s entire action to either run away or, if it cannot run away, take the dodge action

Touch of Death. This is something exclusive to Death Domain Clerics, and it's pretty fun. Whenever you make a melee attack, you can add necrotic damage equal to 5 + double your Cleric level

Level 8: Cleric

ASI Time! This time we’re adding a +2 to his Wisdom, bringing it to 18

Level 9: Cleric

Nothing special here but you have more spells!

Level 10: Ranger

Back to ranger baby! Rangers are so cool, they are my favorite class and if I can put my favorite CCs in the ranger class, I will

Deft Explorer Improvement: Walking speed increases by 5 (that’s 45ft for those of you keeping track) and you have a climbing and swimming speed equal to your walking speed! That’s also a 45ft fly speed, so good luck to anyone trying to escape you.

Level 11: Ranger

Supernatural Defense: Whenever an enemy makes you make a saving throw or escape a grapple, add a 1d6 to the roll. Helpful, especially with the grapple. You have a +0 to Strength, you’re not escaping anything

Level 12: Cleric

Destroy Undead: Basically an improvement to Turn Undead, if the undead you’re targeting is under a certain challenge rating, they’re instantly destroyed

ASI Time! We’re going to be adding another +2 to Wisdom, bringing it to 20

Level 13: Cleric

Inescapable Destruction: Necrotic damage dealt by Cleric spells/abilities ignore resistance to necrotic damage

Level 14: Ranger

Land’s Stride: Moving through non-magical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement, as well as being able to move through non-magical plants without taking any damage from hazards. You also have advantage on magical plant spells meant to impede movement

Level 15: Ranger

Nothing special here, but you get more ranger spells!

Level 16: Cleric

ASI Time! Now, we’re taking another feat, and it’s going to be Observant! With the observant feat, you gain a +1 to Wisdom, can read lips as well as a +5 to passive perception and investigation. And if Phil is one thing, it’s perceptive. Seriously, he could tell his eggs were being played by different admins on the QSMP insanely quickly, this fits so well.

Level 17: Cleric

Divine Strike: Your weapon attacks are infused with necrotic energy. 1d8 until 14th level, so effectively 2d8. Pretty sweet, and it fits perfectly, thematically speaking!

Level 18: Cleric

Nothing special here, unfortunately

Level 19: Ranger

Nature’s Veil: Briefly, you can turn invisible until your next turn a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses with a long or short rest. Kinda redundant with invisibility, but hey, could also free up spell slots

ASI Time! We’re going for Shadow Touched. You can add a +1 to Charisma, Intelligence or Wisdom, obviously we’re going for Wisdom. You also learn invisibility and another 1st level illusion or necromancy spell, and there are some fun ones out there. Seriously, do not discount 1st level spells, some of those things are broken. Also, I think it’s fun that both Phil and Wilbur have this feat, since they’re both touched by death. Also, Phil now has a 22 in Wisdom, so a +6. Fucking christ.

Level 20: Ranger

Magic User’s Nemesis: If an enemy is casting a spell within 60ft of you, you can effectively counterspell them by making them make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. You can only use this once per short or long rest, but it’s pretty nice to be able to counterspell if your allies can’t!

And that's pretty much it! I hope you enjoyed reading and let me know any requests for future mcyts, I accept requests for pretty much everyone

[asmallorb]

PIZZA TOWER the Towers & Toppins AU: Character Creation P2

Oh my god it’s the Gustavo and Brick hour. (I love this loop so much omg).

Gustavo:

Race: Forest Gnome

I honestly don’t know for sure that Gustavo in game is a gnome and the creators have not confirmed as much (as far as I’m aware), but it is a popular headcannon simply for the fact that his first playable appearance is in the gnome forest level. Regardless of any legitimacy, in the world of fantasy adventure, he would make for a perfect little gnome based off his look, that and gnomes are perfect throwing size for a certain barbarian with the Tavern Brawler feat. He’d specifically a forest gnome to play further into fanon and his new fantastical origin. 

Class: Ranger

The woods are the perfect place to hunt and forage for pizza ingredients, and an understanding of nature would be perfect for the cultivation of herbs. Such a task requires one to become attune to the natural world. Ranger is also a nice counterweight to Peppino’s more hands on moveset, Rangers have spellcasting, a bit of healing and they have proficiency in all sorts of ranged weaponry such as long bows and crossbows. The optimal stat distribution for a ranger leans more into dexterity and wisdom, and comically, intelligence is a dump stat. Which just feels right somehow for Gustavo, like -- he’s not stupid, but I feel like he's not going to win a scholarship anytime soon either. Finally there’s a particular ranger subclass that lines up perfectly with his moveset.

Subclass: Beast Master

The beast master subclass is quite easy to picture. Your thing is that you have animal buddy, specifically a Primal Companion. The beast follows your commands and acts on your turn, and later down in levels you get even more abilities that empower your animal companion and yourself in unison. 

Brick would naturally stand in as Gus’s Primal Companion. There are stats for a giant rat but it counts as a small creature, and Brick is a medium sized creature at the very least. I think it’s more than reasonable to homebrew something more appropriate. Perhaps we can give him something along the lines of a the Giant Badger stat block, get rid of the dig speed and give him the Pack Tactics ability from the Giant rat. 

But that’s of course if you’re using the rules pre-Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, which simplifies things by supplying three generic stat blocks (land, seas or sky) for the animal, having the player pick one (land in this case) and then they can just say ‘my animal companion looks giant rat’. Also the ranger subclass is all over improved by changing it so that when you command your animal companion, it’s a bonus action instead of a full action. Good stuff. 

Now where it gets fun is that if Brick counts as medium sized, and Gustavo being a gnome would put him in the small size category, that means Gus can easily use Brick as a mount! Which is so vital to Gustavo and Brick’s dynamic. 

And that’s it! A short and sweet one. Just like Gustavo. 

[dykedragonrider]

I'm gonna bend the rules a bit and merge two of the FE questions together because I think they're more interesting hand in hand.

32 and 26: What direction do you wish the series would take, and what would your pitch be for the first title to go in that direction?

I want to see them lean harder into strategy, or at least give us reasons to not juggernaut. I ain't good at designing games yet so this'll be a fun thought exercise.

Smaller cast of units with greater distinction between units. Units are locked in their class (unless they have like, story promotion stuff idk), they have personal skills and stats that give them specific niches in their class. Maybe someone has Adept and high speed as a Mercenary but another has Pavise, so you have one that is really really good at killing shit, and another who's a tank and spank unit for an example. They feel distinct from each other, and one has the overkill combat that makes them good with priority targets while the other has the ability to handle multiple enemies well to buy time/create space. This is probably the biggest departure as we haven't really had a game that did this imo.

More challenges that aren't just about your stats. Status staves, enemy packs with reaver weapons, packs vulnerable to strong effectives, somewhat open maps, things that allow you to engage with the maps differently. Maps that aren't straight lines but have multiple options for egress and reasons to use those options based on your available tools are great!

Inventory items that give stat bonuses. These were a really good thing that allowed for flexibility to hit benchmarks that we saw in Gaiden, FE4, SOV, Houses, and sort of Engage that added legitimately meaningful depth in the kind of solutions to problems you could find. They can be "win more" things which sucks I won't deny that, but I also value their flexibility too much to really dislike them.

So, with that, I'll try my hand at a pitch.

Your lord is a staff unit. This means that designing things can be done around you *always* having a utility unit and you can be expected to use/react to enemy magic accordingly. You've got a prepromote wyvern who'll be good at combat for a while, and as their combat worsens their utility as a mobility tool is a much more relevant reason to use them. Motley cast goes forth from there, I just think those two things are legitimately interesting ideas to me I want to explore more.

As for story, I've got the least expertise here but... Let's say our main lord haaaates fighting and is optimistic about people. That's why they prefer to disable their foes, heal or protect their allies, that's why they're a staffer. Give them a personal weapon to reflect that, too. There's a background war going on that the lord doesn't get involved in for a while but you *feel* it as you're recruiting your early playable cast (maybe your lord is on some personal mission and your prepromote is their escort. Could have some knight/liege yuri there idk I like that). Townspeople talk about what they've lost along the way because of the war, some people are displaced by it and you can help them out on maps for rewards, etc. Eventually, the cast ends up fighting one of the factions in the war, the other comes to reinforce on that map, and *that's* when the story picks up, as the cast is thrown into the deep end of it. Your lord is convinced to help one faction end the war, and they reluctantly agree because they think it's the best way to stop the fighting because they can't just stay out of it. Things proceed as normal for FE, but there's a greater emphasis on the civilian cost of war along the way, because your lord *wants* to help the people that are hurting because it's their nature. And they're getting *so* tired of what they're hearing, but they keep going on, because at this point that's all they can do. Help those who are hurting, and end the war. Unsurprisingly, the war came about because of the Problem Dragon, who you learn more about the chapters before you fight them. Maybe this dragon is why your lord is on their quest, they wanted to find them? Uncertain about that plot thread especially, but either way they need to in some way be sympathetic or redeemable for one reason or another. Not just because I think that these games are at their best when there is some tragedy with the dragon, but because the lord needs *some* reason to have their faith in the goodness of people be what carries them through this conflict. Maybe they get exploited for it throughout it, maybe they didn't, idk how I'd wanna frame that but the point needs to be them *giving a damn* about people is what lets them end this (yeah I like Idunn, how did you know).

In short, small ragtag cast with a focus on the lord primarily (most other people are there just supporting them) tempering their perception of reality but not letting it get them down. It's a coming of age for them, but they keep their sense of hope for the world because the kindness they showed to others and got back in turn is what enabled them to survive. You need some genuine darkness for that light to show probably, but it needs to be a story about making a difference in other people's lives and how important that is, no matter how small.