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indie-ttrpg-of-the-week · 7 months

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Game Garage: Lancer

Hello! Welcome to what I hope to be the first instance of a series about Game design and clever usages thereof in Tabletop games! We'll be talking about lancer, it was the first post on this blog so I felt it was fitting, we'll be going through standard character creations from License Level 0 til License Level 3, and showing how our mech, and pilot, grows during that time while playing out a theoretical game. Is this just like the example of plays in the actual books? Yes! But I wish to go for some more mechanical depths than those often do, and try to theorize around certain decisions made in a specific game.

I'll be using Comp/Con as a visual for this guide, I'm aware there's other ways to do mech building but basically everyone agrees you should just use Compcon for it, also while I'll avoid using expansions too much, I'll still assume you at minimum have KTB as it adds some pilot-side customization

LL0: Beginnings

You are immediately prompted to give a portrait, name, Callsign, and a background to your character, already just giving your character a callsign adds that little bit of personality to them! Lancer is primarily focused on the tactics side, rather than the roleplay side, but these little things do really help in fleshing out a character's personality, as that's still a factor.

I'll also give a quick shout out to Comp/Con for having the sickest UI of any webapp for a ttrpg i've seen, intuitive and strangely immersive, I really like it

Thracia was a project by a shadowy, now defunct, corporation to create a spokesperson for their gene editing services, the company went defunct before she turned 3, so she was just thrown away into some bin somewhere. She was eventually picked up by a gang of mercs who brought her back to base where she was effectively communally raised before joining the corps proper at age 20.

Now that we've filled out some simple flavor, lets move on to proper stat creation

We're brought to a stat creation screen, these don't matter too much in combat, but outside of them they're what your character specializes in, their role outside of the mechs. Don't sweat these too much, you can respect at any level up in lancer, and this won't matter too much outside of on the floor missions, which barely happen

For now, Thracia's good at fighting, investigating, and leading and inspiring, its what she was built for after all!

Now we get to talents, these are vaguely intimidating at first glance, but don't worry, you can respec at any time RAW, and they're pretty easy to decode once you get the hang of the system. For now, just think of what your role within the party will be, I want Thracia to be an artillery Pilot with a side of support, so we'll be taking Crack shot (which lets me give up my movement to become better at aiming each turn) , Leadership (which lets me add leadership dice dice to allied rolls as long as my fellow party member is within range) and Technophile (which gives me a Servant-Class NHP, a form of AI that controls my mech if I'm away, not too useful right now, but gets better benefits later on)

Now we get to the part I don't like, Mech Skills. Mech Skills are... theoretically really fun, but practically speaking you always want at least one level in Hull, and the other level in whatever your main stat is, in this case we'll be taking Engineering, you'll see why later.

Now we have our full pilot card! but there's still a little bit left to do before we Level Up for our first time.

First lets pick out our equipment, this is basically purely flavor so just pick what you think your character would logically have

NOW! we finally get to the fun part: Building your Mech... kinda

see right now, you're stuck with default configurations, you're not licensed for anything more complex than GMS mechs, the Great Value store brand of Lancer. So we carry on with an Everest, a basic if not a bit underwhelming mech, its reliable, customizable, and handy, if not a bit underwhelming and a lot less flashy and optimized than later mechs you get, I'd still keep an everest in your backpocket though, never know when you might need it

Someone playing with all official products would have a choice of 3 different GMS mechs, but I still recommend just picking the Everest, its the handiest option. though for reference: the Chomolungma is a Hacking frame, and the Sagamartha is a tank

You're prompted to name your mech, Thracia's gonna name it A farewell to Arms, after an ancient book she read once

Booting into your mech screen, it may feel a bit overwhelming at first but don't worry, these all aren't too complex to understand Traits are just that, what your mech has that makes it special from other mechs, its just that genesequouis that makes them cooler than other mechs.

Attributes are derivative stats that take your skills, Grit, and base mech stats into account, in our case the Everest is pretty middling in everything, but has a decent heat capacity due to our investment into Engineering.

and now for the fun bits, Core System and Mounts

Core Systems contain two things: your ultimate move, your signature play, that special power that you use once per duel and spare only for the most dire moments! the other thing is your Core System itself, Everest doesn't have any, but for future reference these are what your build is entirely based around, your core gimmick

Mounts are what you put your weapons into, and Systems are non directly attacking abilities that you use to gain advantage during battles, we once again only have GMS tools to go with for now. Something clever about the mount system is that it adds an inherent balance to mechs, a mech could have incredibly powerful abilities, but lack specific mounts that could make it overbearing, as an example the Gorgon lacks a heavy weapon mount, and Heavy weapon mounts are in general sparsely distributed, as giving them to the wrong mech could break the balance, this is a problem I see a lot of lancer GMs and homebrewers run into, underestimating the power of a heavy slot, even some who were contracted by Massif themselves!

For now, we'll give ourselves a shotgun, to dispatch enemies at close range, a Mortar, to deal with large clusters of enemies, and an Anti-Materiel Rifle to be our primary weapon.

Now for the systems, you have a budget of SP to use on buying systems for your mech from the ones you've unlocked, the GMS systems, outside of some standouts like the Flight System are... underwhelming mostly, you'll usually dumpster these pretty quick, but we might as well pick them because hey, its just free advantage, right?

We'll be mounting our free NHP we got from our talents of course, as well as a shield, a turret drone as we're not doing much with our reactions right now and they allow you to expend a reaction to deal some extra damage, Personalizations and a Custom Paintjob, these are basically just flavor but they both have to do with adding some extra bulk to your mech, in our case the Personalization is a built-in winch, adding a +1 to relevant Hull skill checks, and the Paintjob is a tasteful pin-up of an older looking woman, a fling from a past mission.

And that's it for LL0! It might feel like a lot, but I promise its a breeze in actual play. Now onto: LL1: Your First Taste of TRUE power

Thracia Schrader Came back to home base, sweaty and tired after a long mission, nothing big, just dispatching some pirates, but it was her first truly serious one, only to receive a ping on her terminal: she'd gotten a promotion, she'd be given budget to buy new parts for her mech, a raised paycheck, and some free time to work on new skills, she was over the moon, finally she'd be getting recognized!

Now onto LL1, so far your mech has had decently high customization, but from here on out? the world's your oyster honey, pull it open and devour its flesh, show the world that it's gotta be scared of you!... I think I lost my train of thought there, sorry about that.

Anyways, when leveling up you'll be given the down-low on what you're getting, an improvement to your skill triggers, more talents, more skills, more grit, your first license unlock, extra sauce on your eggs, and a complementary chocolate bar... OK those last two aren't there, but I'm sure most merc companies add them in

Skills don't matter too much so we'll skip over that, but for reference I took a boost in Leadership

You get an improvement in one talent, in my case I'll take the second tier of Technophile, which lets me reroll one roll per scene, very useful. You can also take a 4th talent at this point, but I recommend holding out a bit before doing that, your build is too weak to really afford big moves like that right now. You could also actually delevel one of your talents and level another to level 3, if you have a talent that you don't really need or want, but again, not recommended unless you know what you're doing

Now onto mech skills, you just get a flat +1 to any skill, right now I'd advise taking whatever you picked as your second skill after Hull, but if you wanna boost hull even further because you don't wanna get hurt too bad, I don't blame you, but we'll be getting that engineering boost for now

NOW to the fun part, the part we're all looking forward to (I think), getting more mech parts! now, people familiar with the system knows that the Engineering boosts and Artillery focus probably means we'll be taking a Harrison license, the 4 licenses in the game correspond roughly to the 4 mech skills in how they're built, they do end up mattering for something called Core Bonuses, but that's for much later, for now just treat them like a way to split playstyles. IPS-N likes Hull, Smith-Shimano Corp likes Agility, HORUS likes Systems, and Harrison Armory likes Engineering, choose accordingly.

We'll be unlocking the Sherman first, its a cool mech that I think often gets overlooked in this game's cluster fucks of eldritch mecha nightmares and othersuch things. You don't get the mech itself until LL2, so for now just slap on the parts you got into an Everest

The first level up is always kinda underwhelming in lancer, but trust me it'll get better from here! for now, we'll just replace our shotgun with a Sol-Pattern Laser Rifle, and our Personalizations and Custom Paint Job with a Reactor Stabilizer, a useful tool for keeping us nice and healthy when melting down

That's about it for LL1, yeah as I said its kinda boring, but it only gets better with LL2: You know what they say: Find what your niche is, that leads to riches!

Thracia Schrader comes back home, tattered, bruised and beaten, the promotion obviously meant more dangerous missions, this she knew, but she didn't expect to deal with enemies of that caliber just yet, turns out the pirates were more equipped than she thought at first, they seem too organized to be pirates actually... Well, she's being paid to dispatch rabblerousers, not think, she goes back to sleep in her cot, while browsing mech licenses for sale, she got a big bonus, she can splurge a little bit

While you get the same benefits as from LL1, this is where the fun really begins because if you take a second level from your frame you obtain:

A frame! You can finally get out of that dinky everest and get into something COOL! Frames in lancer essentially serve as your classes, they're what you mount your other obtained abilities into to create your unique playstyle, but overall they're probably the most important aspect of your character. Frames can have different sizes, HP thresholds, armor, and so on. the Frame system leads to your creativity being effectively limitless, while I'm doing a fairly basic artillery build, I'm sure a melee Sherman build could be fully possible! anyways, if you're using this as a build guide for some reason, I took Crack shot and an extra point in Hull alongside the Sherman frame

Now lets build our new puppy shall we? Our new mech will be called... how about Mr. Blue Sky? its Thracia's favorite childhood song

Now you'll have to rebuild your mech, but with a few considerations in mind 1: Your mounts are all different now, you can't rely on the weapons you did previously most of the time, Sherman's actually an exception to this, it has largely the same mounts as an everest, with the main difference being a built-in laser gun which charges while stabilizing, hm, maybe taking some stabilization talents could be worth the time... 2: Your new mech has new traits! the traits in the everest were pretty simple, just some bonus actions once per scene, "More of what's good" is the unofficial GMS Motto

The sherman's a bit more complex, it can keep you in the danger zone (which benefits not just the sherman but most Harrison Armory mechs really), give you soft cover by throwing steam at your enemy's face, and makes it better at engineering (handy, since you'll be trying your best to not take too much unintended heat)

For equipment, we'll be using some old tools and the new ones we just got

Sherman just got the incredibly powerful Andromeda-Pattern heavy laser rifle, but don't worry kids, this isn't the peak of laser power, oh no no, that comes a bit later. We're also using our handy shotgun, she needs to defend herself from nearby enemies somehow.

For systems, we're dumping the reactor stabilizer, its served its purpose but we can manage our heat better now, and we're picking up a deployable cover, useful for long drawn out gun fights, personalizations (a huge library of ancient and modern texts, useful for SYSTEMS checks), and turret drones, we're still not doing much with that reaction and our sensor range's pretty dang strong. Now a word of advice, at LL2 is where your build will branch most, you're comitting to an entirely new mech after all! but always remember: you can respec at any time

LL3: True Power!

Thracia comes back home and brews herself a cup of tea, so it turns out that the pirates she was dispatching were just locals defending themselves against the corporate agency paying her, she was offered a contract by them, lower price, but less price on the conscience, she urged her boss to take it, and she did take it in the end, she thanked Christ the Buddha she didn't need to betray the closest thing she had to a family. Tomorrow, Thracia would dispatch a corporate HQ, the locals were calling the Union for aid, and they promised aid would come in the form of supplies, but they'd need to fend for themselves, and supplies did come, she took some of the mech weapon supplies for herself, she was fighting for them now, might as well right?

LL3 is where your chosen frame's power peaks, many people actually skip the third level of a license, the items given are usually fairly niche, we won't be doing that, this is a pretty standard build so i don't think its worth it

you know the drill for skills

Talents, I'll actually do something a bit weird here, if anything to demonstrate one of the more interesting RAW decisions of Lancer, I'll take away crackshot. Most of the laser rifles of the sherman are AOEs, and Crackshot assumes one target. Instead we'll be taking two levels of Grease Monkey, they make our stabilizations stronger, and give us some nice bonuses during rests, and we'll also be capping off Technophile, you'll see why soon.

We'll be leveling up Engineering for this level and taking the final level of sherman, but more on that later because now, we have the first sight of our Core Bonuses

the 5 companies of lancer like to reward brand loyalty, so if you stick with one company for 3 levels, you unlock their "Core Bonuses". what are these? these are powerful abilities that you only get every 3 levels, and you need to have 3 levels in a company to unlock their respective core powers, GMS powers are unlocked by default of course. We'll be taking Superior by Design, the premiere Harrison Armory ability

the boost to heat cap is what we're looking for, anything that makes us less punished for taking too much heat is a good thing. the Impaired immunity is a good bonus

Now at this point, your mech should have unlocked their most powerful weapon and system, these are often "Super Heavy" weapons, which means they take up two slots to mount, but sometimes they just may be a powerful control ability, for example the Kidd unlocks their ability to build misc structures at that level.

We'll be installing our brand new and shiny Tachyon Lance, a massive motherfucker of a weapon that just emits a line of destruction and a cone of destruction behind you

we'll also keep the shotgun, its a handy weapon

for systems, we'll be equipping our brand new Asura-Class NHP, what does it do?

well, once per scene, it just lets you take another turn! No caveats, and the only real cost is a bit of heat on your end, but other than that? you just have two turns that turn, incredibly valuable in a build that often wants to stabilize, wasting precious actions

Oh, as for the third level of technophile? I can't have 2 NHPs in a mech at once unless I take that level, its just not possible, NHPs are incredibly powerful resources so I understand wanting to limit them like that.

That's about it for LL3, its your peak of power... for now, but soon enough your mech might be having some... foreign intrusions

LL4: The Crossover nobody wanted

Thracia was broken. She wished she'd never signed up for this mission in the first place. Children and women running from corporate mechs way better equipped than them, farms being abandoned by people who lived there for generations, good people sacrificing themselves to keep their loved ones safe. Terrakis had gone from a quick buck by dispatching pirates, to a nightmare. She was always told it was a dirty business, making money from blood, but she never expected it to be this bad. Looking to calm down, she calls up a friend, a warehouse worker from IPS-N, and wonders if she could maybe hook her up with something

You know the drill by now, the only thing of note is I'm going to dump Leader to take 2 levels in Siege Specialist (lets me take down structures more easily and lets me knock down adjacent enemies), we're picking up another level of Hull, and now, for the interesting bit: your 4th license

At this point, you've found your niche and made your mech plenty strong... but it could always be better, right?

Thracia picks up a level of the Drake, giving her the powerful Assault Cannon, a handy, if not low ranged, weapon that can grow in strength by spinning its barrels before launching, as a bonus its also a cannon allowing for our Siege Specialist to trigger. She throws away her nostalgic shotgun for this weapon

Thracia had also been feeling protective of her fellow backliner, a clumsy goblin pilot named Lika whom she borderline had a crush on, while Thracia's mech isn't bulky by any means, its bulkier than xer goblin, so she gives up her redundant systems to pick up the Argonaut Shield, a tool that lets her take half the damage her fellow pilot would take instead.

Conclusion: You got your tools now! Thracia was tired of seeing people dying, she was tired of the war, of the bastards in suits puppeteering it, she wanted it done and she wanted it done now. Talking to the leaders of the locals they decide on a final plan of attack: destroying the HQ of the corporate settlers

SimpleCorp must fall

Terrakis must be free

From here on out, you have your own tools to make your own builds, remember to focus on your roles, pick up abilities that complement your allies' playstyles and positionings, and most of all: have fun! a bad build in lancer isn't a huge deal, you can always try and try again until you get it right.

Oh, you wanna know how Thracia's story ended? Alright then, here you go

Mr. Blue Sky stood atop the ruins of SimpleCo's elite pilot: Fear, Thracia was no longer afraid, she was no longer broken, she was now only filled with pride, and joy. Terrakis was free, and she had been a part of its liberation. She hoped this would send a message to any bastard trying to take it over, she looks upon the pictures hanging inside her cockpit, complimentary drawings given to her by small children, of her mech as a hero of legend, of SimpleCo goons being burnt by her Tachyon Lance. That day, Thracia knew she had for once in her life done the right thing. After all of this, she decided to stay, War was not her business, and the locals of Terrakis wished for her to stay to help with any future intrusions.

She and Lika lived a peaceful life together, no one wanted to fuck with Terrakis after SimpleCo's downfall

Too cheesy? well, sometimes that's just how careers end, in the duty of a lancer, you either leave before you die, or you die before you leave. Go play your own stories! I'm sure there's some GM out there struggling to find new players who'd love to have you in their group

oh fuck i completely forgot to talk about bond-

#ttrpg #ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #misc indie #ttrpg design #lancer rpg

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randomnameless · 10 hours

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I seriously hilarious how after a year people are still treating Engage like it burned their spouses and fucked their crops. If they love "moral grayness writing" that much, they have tons of other rpgs with similar themes to play, 8 seasons of Game of Thrones to watch and lots of grimdark fantasy books to read.

Seriously, there's only 3 times (if we want to count 3h that badly) where this franchise has tried to explote more nuanced and complex plots, and those games were the Tellius duology and the Jugdral games. The rest have milquetoast fantasy rpg plots. Why they sticking with FE when it's clearly not the franchise for these kinds remains an enigna.

Mmh,

I wouldn't say GOT's seasons are grim d4rk, imo they're trash in the same vein as the Kadarshians TV show, you're watching it to see how ruined things will be

(c'est quoi l'équivalent US/UK de l'émission "les marseillais"? )

I feel like Martin's books were more in the lines of "deconstruction then reconstruction" of the "traditional" fantasy tropes, with his own choice of depicting very grim and dark things that participate in the "deconstruction" side of his works... even if at times it borders on misery porn and, tbh, misogyny.

Fantasy settings, in general, always have some sort of monarchy and morale of "the good/rightful king returns home and everything is better!" - you can add some twists here and there, but in general, and especially FE, it's that kind of frame. We're not in game where Bob and John feel like Hector charges them too much for the sewer tax, and file a claim to his court to be discharged from paying said tax.

I'm not saying you can't add twists and add some sort of depth to the game, hell the Tales of franchise often tries to add some greater theme to their general "hero with a sword whacks people and is ultimately involved in a greater quest to save the world while eating appel gels", Symphonia tries to tackle racism and how being a victim or racism doesn't give you a pass to create concentration camps to turn people you see as "inferior beings" as fuels/devices to upgrade you and your chosen ones (even if that plot point utterly vanished when the MC goes "i wish we could have been friends" which is, uh, I guess where i found Kishimoto's inspiration for Obito I guess), Abyss tackles the existential crisis of clones/people created to be spares, do they have the right to exist beyond the purpose of their original creation or not? - etc etc.

Funny how you mention Tellius, because IMO, Tellius is even more shaky/wonky than Fodlan (or at least it's a serious competition) with its general message of "racism BaD but miscegenation BaD too" which is, uh... well.

That leaves Jugdral with all of the stuff it wanted to convey - and managed to do while being a SNES duology (I think?) - and yet Jugdral is, at its core, a story of "rightful heir returns to his throne" with some emphasis, especially in FE5, on what "rightful" means but the premise is the same, it's not Dalshin who's going to become the Lord of New Thracia, it's Leif because Leif is Quan'n'Ethlyn's son : his journey in FE5 is all about learning to become a good leader/king.

Back to your post, if people want a game where you "smash the patriarchy" and bring "the revolution"... well, the FE series is not (or wasn't, who knows how it will turn out to be in the near future) for you.

#anon #replies #at this point it feels more like insecurity than anything else #like my fwend said Engage has good gameplay #and while we can discuss about the writing and its execution with time and especially after Nopes #people start to peel off the rose tainted glasses and notice that Fodlan's plot is held together by Hresvelg teabags and forks #don't get me wrong I still like Rhea and the nabs #but at that point I like them outside of what the games offers me or what the games' Fodlan is aka a verse where Claude is praised to be #smart and where people forget about Flamey's existence to instead wonder if Church BaD for sheltering orphans #I'm a pile of salt when it comes to Mithos' writing and uwufication in ToS and ToS2 #Martin's books have their own share of defaults and can/should be criticised #but comparing them to the nonsense that was the TV show is an insult lol #fandom woes #FE series #sort of?

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amitieos · 23 days

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toa anniversary munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Nic

Pronouns: they/them

Birthday (no year): 14th July

Where are you from? What is your time zone? UK, GMT (or BST but don't get me started on daylight savings I'll explode)

How long is your roleplay experience? Does playing A Bug's Life on the playground when I was 5 count? If not, I started with rping HP characters with my friends when I was like 11-12 over MSN after school and whilst there have been breaks it's something I've always found myself coming back to.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? As above, I made a couple of friends on (unrelated) forums and we all just thought it'd be fun.

How were you introduced to TOA? I thought I missed rp and looked for an FE based rp.

Do you have any pets? Yes, all hail Catcat the Great.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) Summer. I hate the heat and humiditiy but once there's no daylight the seasonal affective disorder bass boosts my chronic mental health issues and it's just a bad time really.

What is your IRL occupation? I've gone back to uni to study Law :)

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I love reading, I'm fascinated by linguistics and astrophysics, enjoy DnD and playing video games in my spare time. I'm a particular sucker for the Sims franchise.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Recently I've been playing BG3, Stardew Valley, The Sims & Fields of Mistria but I'm a big fan of the Persona series and really, really excited about Dragon Age The Veilguard

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I don't really play Pokemon much anymore but I'll just say Sylveon I guess

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! I met the fourth Doctor when I was 11 and he complemented my vocabulary lmao. I once got published in a poetry anthology with a poem about Shadow the Hedgehog and my parents we so proud of me.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I think I saw a review on TV

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I've attempted to play every game except 1/2/3/5/11, although I've really wanted to play Thracia I just *need* some QoL updates and controls. I haven't finished every single one because of lost/deleted saves and stuff but I've watched playthroughs and read up on scripts on everything I haven't actually played myself.

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: My first was Fates but Jugdral, Magvel and 3 Houses are my favourite

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Elincia, Mercedes, Franz, Myrrh and ughhhh I can't choose between Chole/Yunaka/Sylvain so I'm cheating

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! I saw Ryoma in all that red armour and it grabbed my attention.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Miss Mercedes if you're free Thursday night

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom, originally be accident but now on purpose :D - Fates: My first was Takumi and I didn't know what an S support was and was very confused. Nowadays usually Kaze or Laslow if playing F!Corrin and Orochi, Nyx or Charlotte if playing M!Corrin. Niles for either. - Three Houses: Mercedes. She's still my go to ofc but I'm also fond of Dorothea, Dimitri and Sylvain. If I'm playing M!Byleth Yuri or Ingrid - Engage: Yunaka was my first and now it's either Yunaka, Diamant or Chloe. Or Mauvier maybe hahfsdgfsd

Favorite Fire Emblem class? I love Pegasus Knights!!!!!!!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Probably a reluctant recruit who accidentally gets involved. Weirdly magic based armoured character.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) Either unaffiliated civilian or Blue Lions probably

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Lance, Reason, Heavy Armour Banes: Bow, Faith Budding Talent: idk Axes or Flying?

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) No idea! Probably Elusia or Firene. The Solm heat would literally kill me.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) TOA ;) (like Noah)

Current TOA muses: Elincia & Mercedes

Past TOA muses? A lot but most memorable to me are Sylvain and Julia, though I'm so excited to see Sylvain in good hands <3

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Elincia and I still have her.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? White magic girlies though I'm trying to change things up.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Hm, I wish I felt I could write more of the male characters I enjoy effectively. In most other fandoms I've written in most of my muses have been men but it's just not so in FE. I'd also love to write a villain okay I once genuinely considered Hilda FE4 lmao

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) I like writing dialogue and characters bonding but I'm starting to like more action oriented scenes too.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? For Mercedes in particular I get excited to write her steel and strength, especially when it's combined with her gentleness rather than opposed to it.

Favorite TOA-related memories? Every thread I've writen with Elincia and Rua's Byleth <3

Present or past tense? I tend to default to present in TOA but usually past tense. I'm flexible though and will try and match my partner.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? I actually find small text easier to focus in on and read (I can find normal a bit too cluttered and it can send my eyes wandering lmao) but I'm perfectly happy to use normal text, it just takes me a bit longer to comb through.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 I can't see a shake up happening soon but... Zephia or Chloe are probably forerunners. I've thought about Palla and Astrid too but I'm not sure if I can see the longevity. Also Neimi, Myrrh and Rodrigue have sparked.... ideas. For muses I've written before, Julia is the most likely but I think she's having a nice break right now :)

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sacred-pebbles · 9 months

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For real though play thracia 776. For some reason it's been spread throughout the FE community that it's the hardest game in the series, which is just not true

Thracia is a bit difficult but most of the difficulty isn't pure bullshit like in other games in the series (ex: 3h maddening reinforcements). In fact you yourself can get a lot of stuff to make your units bullshit (not even counting emulating and using savestates)

If you understand the capture mechanic you'll be fine really. Yeah your units can get captured too but you only really have to worry about healers and anyone without a usable weapon getting captured. And even then there are gaiden chapters that let you recover your captured units.

Sure! Fog of war maps are bullshit! But you have a lot of chances to get torches and you should have some units w high def/mag (magic = res in thracia) to help you get through them otherwise.

Yeah you'll need theives and a bunch of door keys but like. You get 3 thieves throughout the game (assuming you recruit everyone) and keys are sold in a lot of shops so if you don't have any that's really on you tbh.

Plus thracia has fun stuff! Tina's theif staff is an example. You can literally just get free shit that way really. "But staves can miss!" Only if your unit's skill is >10 and even then, the staves don't lose durability and you still get exp so

And bad growths? Scrolls! Missed a hit on a enemy? Movement stars can help with that! Feel like your units aren't getting enough exp? Paragon/Elite mode exists to give you 4 times as much exp! (Use the code -> <- -> <- -> <- -> -> in the new game menu) Also you can edit the colors on the menus to be whatever you want etc etc

Play thracia pls

#i suggest the lil manster patch. it has QoL stuff which people may not like but that stuff is p optional #overall the difficulty in thracia is difficulty where if you mess up you go 'okay that's fair.' sometimes some stuff feels unfair but that's #not super common in the game tbh #also shoutout to eda fire emblem for being a hard carry for me #fe5 #fe thracia 776 #thracia 776 #fire emblem #fire emblem thracia 776 #fire emblem 5 #ramblings

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silent-partner-412 · 1 year

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sometimes i’m reminded that the kaga saga games exist and goddamn i’m glad i chose not to add those to the scope of “fire emblem” games to get to during my marathon of them bc that would’ve been way too overwhelming

#fire emblem #i actually own vesteria saga on steam #so i could play it whenever i want #but with love i will not #at least not for a while #all i know about these games is that tear ring saga is so close to fe that it got kaga in a lot of trouble w nintendo #berwick saga is cited as the quote unquote best fire emblem game of all time by certain circles #despite it being like totally different in most ways #and then i want to say ppl call vestaria saga a true follow up to thracia #but i could be making that up #either way #i will play them one day #but not today and probably not this year

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laslow · 23 days

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Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Sam

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): 5/28! Cyan and I share a birthday with: Liam O'Brien, Laura Bailey, Ian Fleming, and Siegbert :)

Where are you from? What is your time zone? California, USA! PST (west coast best coast)

How long is your roleplay experience? 10+ years? Is it closer to 15 now? If you listen you can hear my joints creaking

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? None other than Wajas.com. Middle school, what a time you were

How were you introduced to TOA? iirc a FE blog I was following reblogged a ToA post and I thought "hm, that's pretty cool! I'll look into it!" and then I blinked and 5 years passed.

Do you have any pets? No :sob:

What is your favorite time of year and why?(Season, holiday, general period) Winter! The weather is actually livable

What is your IRL occupation? Office Assistant though I ask for good vibes I have some new opportunities coming up to leave my current place

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? Writing, reading, cross stitching, karate, journaling, language learning

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Legend of Zelda, Persona, Stardew Valley, occasionally I dip my toes back into Honkai Star Rail

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Vaporeon and Water Type!

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! Dunno if I've mentioned this in the past but I have crooked pinkies due to a recessive gene in my family! My dad has crooked pinkies as well :)

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Five/six year old Sam watched my brother play Path of Radiance on the family Gamecube and I never looked back

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, Awakening, Fates Conquest route, 3 Houses, Engage. I have read the scripts for Genealogy and Thracia. Halfway through Blazing Blade!

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First was Path of Radiance! Awakening is still my fave all these years later

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Inigo, Ilyana, Dimitri, Xander, Haar

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Ilyana! I honestly can't remember why anymore I just thought she was super cool something about the thunder magic spoke to 5 year old me's imagination

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Laslow AND Dimitri that has not changed

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom, still Chrom - Fates: Silas, still Silas OR perhaps Laslow if I'm feeling Spicy- Three Houses: Dimitri, still Dimitri - Engage: Diamant, still Diamant

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Assassin or Swordmaster!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? A very mid Myrmidon who can get some good stats if you have good rng luck

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue Lions pride baby!!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? -Boon: Sword, Bow -Bane: Heavy Armor, Axe -Budding Talent: Authority

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Brodia!

How do you pronounce TOA? Tee-Oh-Ae

Current TOA muses: Laslow, Leo, Nephenee!

Past TOA muses? Ilyana, Vanessa, Azelle!

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Inilow is here to stay I can't make this man leave my head if I tried.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I love my flirts, and I also enjoy more serious characters who have a relaxed side if you know them well enough. Also youngest siblings.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Villains! As interesting and multifaceted as they can be, I struggle staying within that mindset for a long period of time.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) I do still enjoy combat--nothing like getting your adrenaline pumping!--but recently I've found I enjoy some of the more emotional things, too. Relationships, grief, etc.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? Not really; I've been extremely lucky over the years to have written pretty much every scenario I can think of. I would love to continue exploring both Lazzy's and Leo's arcs as fathers.

Favorite TOA-related memories? Oh goodness....way too many to count! Most recently, I still find myself laughing over Leo (muse) dying for Jan 2024's event plot. Iconic

Present or past tense? Present!

Normal size text, small text, no preference? No preference! I try to use small text on Leo solely for that #aesthetic, but that's it

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 Not at the moment! I'm happy with my lineup! (But if you twist my arm.....a certain knight from SacStones still lives in my head. And there's this wyvern rider from Tellius who occasionally whispers.)

#and a one. a two! [ooc]#YEAR FIVE!!! EVERYONE GIVE IT UP FOR YEAR FIVE!!!#not a lot of my answers changed!!#i am a very consistent person in terms of what i like/dislike/etc #happy anniversary toa. here's to many more <3

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