#take it from an XCOM player

[tsuyoshikentsu]

d20 GMs and Not Understanding Probability

Name a more iconic duo

[rollforrandom]

I know the "Canon" is that XCOM failed in the first 1-2 months of the invasion, but does anyone else feel that's not -quite- the case? Hear me out:

The ADVENT mechs look very similar in design to the MEC trooper from EW, minus the actual person in it. This could just be standard mech design/reused assets, but it makes sense if the Elders found that humans had made something useful with MELD, they would take it for their own purposes.

The ADVENT troopers use magnetic weapons, which while not fully Canon to EU/EW (the main one was the railgun for MEC troopers), are rather prominent in Long war, a mod that helped inspire aspects of XCOM 2 and whose development worked with/for the actual game studio when XCOM2 was developed. But why would ADVENT use a weapon like that if they have plasma? Cause XCOM already designed it. It was cheaper, designed for humans, by humans, and coopted by aliens

Bradford's forces are too well organized at the start of XCOM 2. They have a WHOL ALIEN SHIP, with a launchable drops hip? That's not something that just "goes missing" without repercussions. Especially if we get stomped into the dirt with no resistance in 2 months. This feels like an opportunity was taken while the world was still in turmoil, fighting was going on, and XCOM grabbed what it could while the aliens were suppressing major dissonance across the globe. Something that according to the elder, didn't happen. And we all know we can trust them /s

This is all just theory and hypothetical. But I am really into that rn, especially other theories like "The commander/player is actually the Ethereal from the Bureau" level of theory. Tell me if you agree/disagree/want to hear more rambling.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Clearing Up Some Confusion: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is Not Powered by the Apocalypse

There has been a little confusion cropping up here and there regarding our game Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and its relationship to the Powered by the Apocalypse system, A.K.A. PbtA, which we would like to hopefully clear up in this post.

PbtA is a very popular system for indie RPGs lately, it’s safe to say most of the indie RPGs we see cross our dashboard use it, in fact, and since Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is an indie RPG that also happens to use 2D6+Modifier dice rolls, we can see where this assumption might come from. However, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is not a PbtA game, nor is it a ‘hack’ of any other game. It is an original from-the-ground-up system that uses 2D6+Modifier because 2D6+Modifier is just a very good way to roll dice. It’s very predictable, and dice results that are randomized yet still predictable are beneficial both for players playing the game and for us designing the game.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually does take inspiration from other games, even PbtA games like Monster of the Week—though in Monster of the Week’s case, that “inspiration” often took the form of doing the opposite of what Monster of the Week does, because we actually found MotW far too restrictive and limiting in its character creation and other elements for the kind of game we wanted to play—but also Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Gumshoe, Shadowrun, AD&D2e, etc, both in the “do what they do” and “do the opposite of what they do” sense. In fact, if your TTRPG doesn’t take inspiration from a good number of other TTRPGs, that’s probably a pretty bad sign.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy also takes a great deal of inspiration from non-TTRPG sources, some of which are probably pretty obvious and some of which might surprise you, such as Blood(1997) and Warhammer 40,000(the tabletop wargame specifically, not so much the lore). Other inspirations include but are not limited to: Kolchak: The Nightstalker, The X-Files, XCOM(the reboots, not so much the originals), Columbo, Hardboiled, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Scooby-doo, too many horror movies to list, etc.

That got a little off-topic, but this is supposed to be a promotional post for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy as well, after all—plus, I get excited.

Anyway, the point of this post is that the 2D6+Modifier dice system is where the similarities between Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and the PbtA system end.

To elaborate, here are some—but not all—of the biggest differences:

No “Classes” or “Playbooks”

All PCs in Eureka draw from the same list of Skills, and spread their skillpoints around them how they see fit; as well as a collection of 3 gameplay-altering Traits that can be mixed and matched in any way, rather than being a set collection of “moves” or “class features”. This does not mean that all PCs are the same, Traits can make them vary wildly in how they play mechanically.

There are what could be considered two or three “categories” of PC in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy(Mundane, Mage, and Monster), but these are not “classes” or “playbooks” in any way, they mostly determine what lists of Traits the PC gets to draw from, and due to the wildly gameplay-altering nature of these Traits, two Monster PCs in Eureka are likely to be far less similar to each other than two PCs both using The Monstrous playbook in Monster of the Week, and far less similar to each other than two Fighters in D&D.

Making Multiple Rolls per Scene

In PbtA games, it is fairly common for a single dice roll and a single “move” to dictate the outcome of an entire “scene”. In Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, this is not the case. PCs may make multiple rolls of different Skills or multiple subsequent rolls of the same Skill within a single “encounter” or “scene”.

NPCs Make Rolls Too

That brings us to our third big difference for this post, the fact that NPCs also make rolls. In most PbtA games, NPCs do not make rolls, only the PCs do, but in Eureka, that is not the case. NPC stat blocks are not as robust as PC stat blocks, but they do still make rolls in the same manner the PCs do, especially in combat, which brings us to the last point I’m going to make in this post because I’m running out of time.

Deep, Intricate Combat Rules

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is not a combat-focused game by any means, the party will probably only get into 1-2 skirmishes across an entire mystery, but when those skirmishes do happen, they will be played out using deep, tactical combat rules with multiple types of attacks and combat moves, including mechanical crunch for things like positioning and cover, multiple types of damage, environmental damage and effects, etc.

All of this should be telling you that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is not only entirely different in its core systems, but also an overall crunchier and less improvisational-ruling system than PbtA, with tons of freedom in its character creation as well as plenty of rules and guidelines to help GMs make fair and realistic resolutions on the fly. That is not to say that Eureka is a complicated TTRPG, nearly everything in the game runs off the same core 2D6 system, making it very easy to learn and memorize—the rules crunch just means that if the outcome or appropriate modifier of a roll is not immediately obvious, you can rest assured that you can find a solid answer or at least a guideline with just a quick flip through the rulebook, either during or after the session, whatever is your preference.

[factorialsotherfandoms]

And, done! Please enjoy 5 chapters of xcom au nonsense, specifically that mission I keep referencing where many people get fucked up. (Unfortunately Pac gets 2 PoVs and Roier none because... *gestures* I suck at writing Roier?). Also god I want to write Forever's PoV but its 9pm and I started this at like half 11 and shhh.

TW: blood, explosions, major injuries, near death experiences, head injuries, possession, hosptials, nausea, violence, panic, player-on-player violence, really stupid life choices, *hand waves medicine with scifi excuses*

Chapter 1 - Pac

It’s a long flight from Canada to Norway. Even with the emergency call coming through as soon as it did, Pac knows there is likely little they can do to help. Mike sits beside him in the helicopter, adjusting the settings on the Rats for the terrain. Nobody imagines there’s much to hack, but the team is a mess of people who could be scrambled that fast - himself and Mike, Roier, Missa and Philza. Philza is nominally in command, but stuff like this…

Once they get to the ground, it’s just a case of going wherever there’s civilians still alive and hope for the best.

Mike nestles in his brain, and Pac takes a breath. He unclenches his fingers from his trousers, and checks over his own kit instead.

Knife, gun, potion in place of a grenade. They hadn’t been able to scrape many together - Philza has the rest, loaded into his Crow for easier distribution - and they hope it’s enough.

Check inside your gun 

A reminder from Mike - it was jamming on the training range a few days back.

Pac nods and sends a vague acknowledgement back along the bond, pulling out his screwdrivers. A couple of the parts he oils, but otherwise everything seems fine. He’s satisfied, and so is Mike, so Pac closes his eyes and nestles himself in the back of Mike’s brain, and lets his body catch some rest.

“We don’t have a map of the camp,” Philza’s voice pulls him into the present, though he remains where he was before. “We’re unlikely to have much cover. Missa, if you want to get up on a roof as soon as we land, I’ll join you when I can.”

The sniper nods, tying back his hair despite it already being under his hood, “you’ll be okay?”

“We’ll be fine,” Philza glances around the rest. “Whatever building Missa picks - you guys take the right, Roier and I take the left?”

So long as Pac is with Mike, he doesn’t mind; he gives Mike that vague impression, and lets him speak for both of them.

“Do you want us to focus scouting or clearing?” Mike asks.

Philza looks at Roier, who shrugs.

“If you see people, focus on getting to them. Otherwise, make sure there’s nothing to sneak up on you.”

Pac stretches just enough of himself back into his own body to give a thumbs up. Then, under Mike’s nudging, he slowly drags the rest of himself back.

There’s only o much to do in the helicopter, so he reaches down and stretches out his back. With the limited space available he does his best to prepare his body, working his muscles out of the cramp from the helicopter seats. Around him the others do the same.

No but seriously what is up with those two

Huh?

Pac looks up - Mike steals his body a second to slam his face back down. Instead he shows him an image of Missa staring at Philza, doey eyes. And a return, of Philza’s attention a little too taken by the man’s shoulders while he stretches.

Pac knows the smile meets his lips.

I’m not sure he answers Mike but Fit says Phil’s wife has been trying to get them in bed together for years, so it’s nothing new.

I knew that, it’s just painful

They’ll work it out.

What, like you and Fit?

Hey!

There isn’t time for Pac to be more than indignant; no sooner as he snapped to glare at Mike than Niki’s voice comes over the intercom.

“We’re two minutes out,” she says. “There’s no clear landing zone, so you’ll have to use lines to get in. Once you’re there, you’re on your own - they’ve got MECs out, so I can’t loiter, and I can’t collect you until they’re taken out. Will park up as close as I can and I’ll be back as soon as you give me the all clear. Stay in contact, okay?”

While she’s in the pilot’s seat, there’s no good way to reply to her - Philza sends a text message of acknowledgement through on the comms.

Roier is already up and working on prepping the lines; Pac goes to help, and leaves the others to the fine print.

---

Everything is on fire.

That’s an exaggeration, but not by a whole lot. Almost everything is on fire, and Pac pulls out a mask to protect him from the smoke. He sees the others do the same, taking it in turns to cover each other.

And by the time they have masks on, filters so they can breathe the air, already the aliens are there. At the edge of his vision, Pac spots one harassing an older gentleman. Mike knows where he’s going before he does, already shooting at the stun-baton wielding Federation Guard as Pac slides into place.

He gets his knife between the baton and the gentleman, and tells him to run.

The man doesn’t need telling twice, taking the distraction to get himself out of the fight.

With a glance Pac spots Missa signalling to a building. He acknowledges, and shows Mike how to loop behind.

They don’t get very far. Pac feels the familiar headache of someone else using psionics nearby, and a sickly purple glow covers the corpse of the guard they just killed.

He backs away, finding the security of Mike, as they watch the corpse reanimate. It holds itself wrong, strangely, stumbling and lopsided and still very, very much dead.

One of the Lost - a zombie.

Across the car park they see Philza and Roier contending with more of the same, all glowing purple. Missa, already up one storey, turns and kills one of them. There’s not…

A Sectoid can raise one zombie at a time. But five? Five is not a Sectoid, that’s…

He looks at Mike, finds his eyes.

What is that?

I- I- I don’t know

Mike’s eyes are wide and wild, Pac’s sure his own are much the same.

Greetings

Another voice - not Mike’s - pierces into Pac’s brain. His fingers grabs onto Mike, latches tightly, tries to breathe and breathe and breathe as he continues firing on anything dangerous in his line of sight. Maybe he isn’t a sharpshooter, but he has a gun, and he knows how to use it.

The Elders have chosen me, and I shall not spurn their blessings. Humanity’s destiny lies only at their side, to bring their vision to this world and beyond. Come, allow yourselves to be reclaimed for the glory of the gods!

Pac thinks the voice might intend to say more; dizzy under an array of images, visions of the speaker’s view for the world, he feels Mike’s mind pull on his. Grab him, hold him, pull him back through the bond.

As soon as he makes it to Mike’s mind, mental shields are thrown around him. He’s unsteady too, breathing heavily in a way the smoke does not account for; Pac grabs his hand, and takes a moment.

One breath, two breaths, throw his own shields around himself.

“Pacy?” Mike whispers to him, in voice and bond.

“I’m here,” Pac takes a sharp breath. “Thanks.”

“Be more careful, idiot.”

Mike lets go, and leaves Pac to find himself. He does - and quickly - for there are more civilians here to save.

He eases himself back into his own mind. He feels Mike follow and check his shields, before the bond fades back into a dull presence. It’s harder to feel Mike when they’re both shielding their minds, but with something that powerful present… It’s not worth the risk of leaving the hole for each other.

Philza’s Crow circles them. Pac looks up, finds its owner’s eyes and gives a shaky thumbs up. He gets a nod back, and a gesture to be safe, before Philza jogs after Roier.

They should leave too; Missa’s already in place, and whatever the fuck that was it’s already here. There’s a few people hiding inside the building - Pac gives them directions somewhere safer, back into the area the group have already killed. Mike briefs another pair, sending them along.

Across and outside there’s some commotion. An explosion.

He watches the end of the two zombies exploding - stood next to Roier, already scratched. Roier has the presence of mind to cover his face, but it’s… The explosion is psionic, Pac feels a twinge of it against his shield. Roier takes some shrapnel, but what it’s done internally is more the worry.

Roier’s standing, though - Roier is still standing, so he’ll live.

There’s another shout - through another window he sees Philza stagger under some… Some creature they’ve never seen before ramming a gun straight into head. Roier turns back and shoots it, but it takes another shot from Philza to go down.

He gestures through the window, asking Philza if he’s okay.

Their mission commander is clearly /not/, but Roier is there, and seems to help him shake it off.

Pac looks back to Mike.

Mike looks over to Pac.

They’re careful as they make their way outside.

Outside is a gas station, a counterpart to the car park on the other side. There’s a woman hiding terrified between a surprisingly functional looking car - the fuel tank has been leaking, but that’s an easy patch job if the rest of it is as okay as it seems.

There’s also a fucking MEC leering around, just the other side of the car, seemingly looking for her - like she just ran, just escaped.

Missa is already swapping buildings for a better line of sight, abandoning his current hiding spot for the gas station roof. Lower, but better lines of sight.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Mike hisses at him.

Pac dares.

He leaves Mike cursing behind him, and hops out through an already shattered window. He sprints over, and around, getting to the woman as Mike’s Rats move towards the MEC.

“Hi,” he smiles at her. “Are you hurt? It’s going to be okay.”

She doesn’t reply.

She instead stands to her full height.

The skin peels away from her flesh, an oozing, pulsating glob of tissue and sinew pushing it’s way out of her corpse, and to its height twice as tall again.

Pac doesn’t have time to scream as she - it - raises one hand. It forms claws of metal, absorbed from else where, and brings them down.

There’s not even time to shield his face before the claws drag down. He can hear himself screaming - hear Mike screaming too. And then, an ungodly screech, as metal claws catch on the car behind him. 

As soon as it’s over he grabs at his face, putting on pressure, trying to stem the bleeding as he hears Mike scream for him, and Philza.

Right, right, Pac has a potion, he should… Probably use that - ah, fuck, there’s a lot of blood.

It’s one of the last thoughts he has; he lifts one hand to look for his potion, only to see the fuel beneath the car alight.

Metal on metal.

Sparks.

There’s no real time to do anything as it catches to the engine, catches on what ever experimental fuel this complex has been using. Pac manages to angle his flesh leg away from the oncoming explosion and pull his arms up to protect his head.

That’s it.

Fire and shrapnel hits him full force. He doesn’t even have breath to keep screaming as agony sets every nerve on fire. He reaches out mentally, scraping, searching for Mike - but Mike’s shields are still up, and he’s just clawing against a wall, begging to be let him.

He can still hear their joint screams - one of agony, one of pain.

The force of the explosion has him prone on the floor. The flesh monster is still there, looking battered but still standing.

And the MEC, standing for now, but full of fuel and explosives and some of it’s been caught by the fuel explosion and Mike’s Rats manage to run but Pac’s on the floor and he knows, he knows that this explosion is going to be bigger than the last.

Some of the explosives catch.

Pac can’t even move well enough to protect his head as, a few feet from him, a MEC full of gunpowder and explosives goes up in flames.

Somehow Pac, despite everything, is still conscious, just conscious enough for just long enough to realise that this is how he dies as he feels his body burn and the concussive force slam his very being into his skin.

It’s not a state that lasts long.

Chapter 2 - Philza

With the zombies exploding on Roier and his own head wound he’s pretending very hard is not a concussion, Philza knows this mission has already gone to hell. The addition of one of what can only be the third of the Chosen, from how it implanted messages into their minds, from how sick Pac and Mike looked, puts it all in the handbasket.

But he can see well enough to read his screen, direct the Crow, and shoot, and they don’t /have/ an escape from this mission - he’s not going to ask Niki to get herself killed, especially not when it means abandoning the civilians to die.

So, he pushes on.

He first knows something is even worse when he hears Pac and Mike /scream/. Mike’s calling for Pac, and Pac’s just screaming, so he flicks the touchscreen embedded in his gloves to showing him the team’s vitals. The suits read them, and it’s not entirely accurate, but fuck it it’s good enough. Pac’s still screaming, and he hears Mike calling now for him - for Philza - so he leaves Roier to the aliens this side and runs around the wall.

And, oh god, running is making him feel fucking ill.

A bullet whistles past him, embedding itself in the one Federation Guard who thought to follow him. He tracks the bullet’s path, looks over to the petrol station roof, and offers Missa a brief hand of thanks.

He doesn’t see if he gets an acknowledgement, because that’s when the first explosion happens.

Right next to where he /thinks/ Pac was.

He checks his screen - Pac’s still breathing, and his heart rate is only panic levels of elevated, even the suit beneath his armour is showing heavy damage to its own structure.

Philza puts the Crow into heal mode, and is about to order it to go spray a splash potion where Pac’s wounds seem worst when there’s another explosion.

How can he not look up?

This one is larger, worse, heavier - it catches the roof of the petrol station. He hears Missa shriek as the heat catches him, only for the roof to collapse and his friend go tumbling with it.

Philza joins with Mike’s screams as he scrambles through readouts and screams, trying to work out what’s going on.

Somehow - somehow - they’re both alive. The explosion hasn’t helped his headache, but he ignores it as he squints, focusing on the numbers.

Missa’s aren’t great, but they’re holding steady.

Pac’s…

Pac’s blood pressure is dropping fast, his heart picking up as it tries to compensate.

Philza runs the numbers, and, fucking shit - he directs the Crow towards Pac, and is already running himself. There’s not a /lot/ he can do for burns and blunt force injuries in a firefight, but he can at least check if the potions worked and get him a fucking shock blanket.

Or he would, and the Crow would, except that Mike gets in their way.

His eyes are glowing green - expected, they have been since the message from the third Chosen, presumably shielding his more sensitive brain from further intrusion - and panicked - not wrong, but a problem

Doubly so when he points the gun at Philza.

Fuck.

“Mike,” he tries to be calm, keeps glancing at his glove, checking the numbers, seeing if he has time left. “I need to treat Pac.”

He gains a string of angry, sobbing, terrified Portuguese. Philza recognises Pac’s name, stop, something about death, and the rest of it’s too garbled.

Mike has some medical training - everyone running the bots does - but his are designed for hacking, not healing. He doesn’t have access to the potions, or the readouts.

“He’s not dead,” Philza tries to impress upon him. “He’ll live, if you let me fucking treat him, Mike!”

And he doesn’t speak Portuguese, so he can’t even use that to try cut through Mike’s panic.

When it doesn’t work, he tries to step forwards.

Mike’s finger twitches on his trigger - Philza stops.

Philza can see the readout on his screen; Pac’s heart rate is continuing to skyrocket as his blood pressure continues to drop. He doesn’t have long, his chances are counted in seconds, seconds Mike is stealing and Philza knows it’s a panic attack he knows it isn’t on purpose but he doesn’t have fucking /time/.

“Mike!!” He yells. “If you don’t let me past right now, Pac /will/ fucking die!”

Mike still hisses as him, the gun pointed out, tears streaming down his face. Philza doubts he can even hear him at this point, cursing under his breath as he glances between the readouts of Pac’s vitals and the gun.

There’s a clatter.

Mike turns his gun to the noise - just Missa, pulling himself shakily from the rubble. Philza takes the opportunity as he can. He orders Crow past Mike, ducking around and potions already loaded. He has them dropped around Pac’s head and his torso, praying the application is enough to stabalise him.

It takes a moment, but with the sealing of the major wounds his blood pressure stops dropping. It won’t last more than a few hours - potion work never does - but he can hope it’s enough to get him home, and to Aypierre, where their resources aren’t great but they’re a damn sight better than a burning wreck of a town. They’ve dealt with severe burns before, they’ll deal with them again - even the helicopter has better resources, with access to the IV fluids and possibly blood which Pac desperately needs.

And Pac will live to get to them, if Mike just lets him past.

“Mike!” he tries again, trying to quell the anger, trying to sympathise with what has to be terrifying because oh, Christ, Missa was caught too and Philza needs to treat Pac first but /Missa/ and, yeah, maybe he /can/ sympathise a bit. “Try feeling for him - he’s not fucking dead, so god help me!”

Something seems to get through to Mike; his eyes flicker. The green glow drops for a few seconds. His breathing evens a bit and he twists to Pac, his voice softer as he calls out “Pacy…”

Philza isn’t having more of this; he sends Crow to use the last of the potions to stabalise Missa’s injuries, and hurries over to Pac’s side.

Up close, Pac looks even worse. In places the heat has burnt bits of his clothes into his skin, and said burns coat much of his exposed skin. His leg - prosthetic, thank fuck - seems to have taken the worst of the damage. It’s dented, melting in places from the extreme heat, bits of shrapnel embedded in it. The reinforcement in Pac’s hood and armour seem to have protected him from the rest of the shrapnel, but not the heat or the flames. It’s battered, and torn, and Philza would put good money on a head injury from how he fell. Dislocated shoulder, broken ribs would not surprise him. The data he gets from the suits to his screen doesn’t tell him shit like that.

Mike hesitates, Philza does not. He shifts Pac onto his side, and unpackages a foil blanket to drape over him. The fluids are on the helicopter and - fuck, they can’t just evac Pac now, it’s still unsafe for Niki to approach.

There’s one potion left in Pac’s belt.

Philza grabs it, and hands it to Mike.

“Keep him safe,” Philza instructs - and, fuck, Mike’s in no state to be doing more than that. “If his lips go blue, he starts shaking, or he gets any fainter in your head, or something fuckingshoots him, pour this on him and /scream/. Understand?”

“Can I move him?” is the first English Philza earns from him.

Philza considers it a second, looking around. Here is… Moving him anywhere other than the helicopter isn’t ideal, not with his injuries, but the other option is leaving him here. Open, in the middle of an active firefight, near more barrels of extremely flammable material. 

And that’s not going to /help/.

“That petrol station has a shop. Hide in there - make sure he stays warm and keep him on his side.”

Simple instructions, Phil, simple instructions - the man’s scared out of his mind. It’s all shit Mike should know, but reminders help.

Mike nods, blinks hard to stop his tears, and scoops Pac up. Philza covers for them as they duck inside the building, hopefully away from the glass.

And then he turns back, looking at the two remaining people. Missa is also covered in burns, and Philza would put money on his ankle being broken. Roier is still covered in claw marks from the zombies, but at least those have stopped bleeding.

Thank fuck, as they’re all out of potions.

Tubbo’s going to kill him for using all of them, if they even get out of this.

Because there’s still the fucking Chosen somewhere around here, and a good few Federation Workers left.

Philza takes a step to press on. His vision swims, and he grabs at the wall.

When he opens his eyes, Missa is there, grabbing his arm and worries. Philza smiles at him, waves him off, pulls himself back up.

“It’s just a long day,” he says, ignoring his pounding head. “Mike’s looking after Pac, let’s just… Get this over with.”

No sooner does he say that than he curses himself. There’s no enemy in sight but Missa /screams/, dropping to his knees and clutching at his head. It lasts a second before it stops.

“Missa?” Philza kneels beside him. “Are you good?”

Missa’s pistol is pressed against his forehead.

Fuck.

Missa’s face twitches up, almost glitching into a smile. His eyes - his eyes are consumed by glowing purple.

Just like the zombies. Just like…

Oh, crap.

Philza might not bring knives to gun fights any more, but he was a melee specialist long before he was a healer. He knows this, like instinct, it’s in his blood and is his reality. He shoves up with one arm, pushing Missa’s hand aside.

The pistol fires, but only hits the wall.

Fucking mind control.

Not-Missa laughs, and gets up. Philza can hear the crunch of forcing weight onto a broken bone as not-Missa steps away, pulling out the pistol and - 

And it was a civilian. A civilian who was alive and now dead, and Philza prays and prays that Missa won’t remember any of this once they break the control.

To break the control they need to kill the controller, and looking…

There’s the obviously psionic Chosen, laughing in time with not-Missa from one of the nearby rooftops.

Philza flags down Roier, and points it out, and makes a warning about not-Missa too.

Roier nods, and jumps into action, and clutches at his head in turn. Philza’s terrified for a second - terrified of having to face two possessed comrades alone while his nausea and his headache are growing steadily worse - but rather than control Roier just… slumps.

A quick check at his screen and… it looks like he’s under a sedative? But clutched at his head?

Either way if it’s psionics getting the Chosen away will break it, and if it’s an actual sedative then clearing out the last of the danger serves the same.

Philza pulls out his gun, shoots at the creature.

And then…

And then the roof the Chosen is standing on collapses beneath its feet.

Confused, Philza looks around only to see… There’s Mike, in the doorway of the petrol station shop, face stained in tears and fury in his eyes and the pin of a frag grenade in his hand.

It doesn’t free Missa, nor does it take out the Chosen, but it does free Roier.

Who staggers to his feet, and joins in the attack.

Roier pulls out his knife, and hacks at the creature while Mike stays in the doorway, and cleans up the last few guards.

The knife seems to do a lot, but not-Missa is raising the pistol again - thank fuck its his pistol not his sniper rifle to be honest - and Philza knows he doesn’t have time.

A wave of dizziness, of darkness washes over him.

Philza Minecraft swallows it down, points his gun, and fires.

Chapter 3 - Missa

The Warlock teleports away, and Missa can breathe again. Missa can breathe, and seconds later Philza also collapses. He’s closest - Missa runs for him, picks him up from the floor, and holds him in his lap.

His wounds smart, his body is in ruins and - oh, fuck, what do they do now. Where’s Mike, where’s Pac, he didn’t- What did-

“Missa,” Roier’s voice snaps him out of it.

All six of his once-friend’s eyes blink at him.

Missa takes a breath, meets the largest two, and says, “Roier, he-”

“I’ve called Niki,” Roier says. “She’ll get us out, then send someone else for the civilians. Have you got him?”

Civilians, civilians, oh God what did he-

“Missa!”

Right. Philza is not a heavy man, nor is he tall, but between wings and armour he’s still awkward to carry. Awkward to carry, and Missa’s body shakes under the weight of even his gun. He moves an arm, he tests it, and he shakes his head.

“Don’t you dare pass out too, idiot,” Roier’s words catch as he speaks. “Throw some flares for Niki. I’ll grab Pac and Mike, you watch him. We’ll work it out.”

“I’m grabbed.” Oh, and there’s Mike, really close by. “I’ll be with Pac. Yell when the helicopter’s here.”

Roier will work it out, but that’s fine. So long as somebody is.

There’s a slap against his face. “Get your shit together, man, or they’re actually going to die!”

Missa takes a deep breath and his shit is far from together, and everything hurts, but Roier is also terrified and Mike is terrified and, yeah, he can throw the flares.

He takes a deep breath, and does exactly that.

Roier seems to crumple when he sees that, sitting down on the ashy tarmac. Missa can’t blame him - even with the aid of a mask, it’s still a struggle to breathe.

They don’t say anything as Niki comes by. She seems to hesitate a bit, hovering for a moment.

Missa… Missa looks at Philza in his lap, then across at Roier, then at the shop where Pac and Mike are sheltering, and he knows they aren’t managing to climb a ladder or take the ropes up. Niki must realise it too when they make no move to stand - she lands the helicopter on the ground nearby. Missa can see her check around before pulling out her pistol, unstrapping herself, and slipping down.

In his lap, Philza stirs. Missa tries to nudge him to consciousness, and it kinda works… Ish. His eyes won’t focus and he doesn’t seem able to make sense of words, but he lies against Missa and keeps those eyes open and breathes with intent.

Niki spies Missa first. She walks over to him, and he - exhausted, shaking, burnt - gestures her over to Roier.

It doesn’t take much wrangling; she gets stretchers for Philza and Pac. Roier runs on ahead to get medical stuff set up, while Mike helps with the stretchers.

Missa… Missa lets them take Philza, and then… And then he doesn’t know how to get up.

He closes his eyes for a second.

When he opens them Roier is there, shaking his shoulder and dragging him up.

Missa puts weight on one leg, and it buckles. Pain shoots through his spine, and it’s everything not to scream.

Roier doesn’t bother waiting for another stretcher - he scoops Missa up, and carries him inside.

He’s sat down in one of the seats. Missa manages to strap himself in, only for Roier to grab his arm and stick something under his skin.

Needle - he looks up, and sees a bag of saline attached.

“Roier?” he asks.

“You’ve got burns,” he replies. “And spacing out - you’re getting fluids, idiot.”

There’s other things, important things, “is Philza alright?”

Roier pauses, “head injuries. He’s awake, but not coherent. You?”

“One of my legs is broken,” Missa replies, because that’s the other thing and it’s easier than worry, in this place where worry won’t help them. “I don’t… I think that’s it.”

There’s a tap on his head, and Roier hesitates then says, “it isn’t your fault.”

“It was my hand and my gun.”

He’s not the first of them to get mind controlled, and he doubts he’ll be the last, but still. He… He remembers the realisation on Philza’s face, the look in the civilians’ eyes as he killed them, the-

His nose is flicked.

“Dumbass,” Roier says, as the helicopter takes off. “I need to help Mike with Pac - I’ll check on you in a bit.”

Missa waves him off, puts his head in his hands, and starts crying.

---

It’s not a long trip back to the Avenger, for all it feels like it takes an eternity. Missa feels like he should be helping more - he knows he should help more - but every time he tries, Roier forces him back into his seat with a snap and a ‘just sit still’. Mike manages to gather himself enough to radio in their injuries, and both of them are monitoring the rest, and Missa…

Missa is just there.

Some missions are just shit, he knows some missions are just shit, but God he feels awful in every way possible.

When they arrive, they take Pac first, and then Philza. Mike goes with them - you could never convince Mike not to - while Roier lingers. Jaiden, just about awake, brings a wheelchair. Missa doesn’t have a choice about using it, or letting someone push it, but he feels he should have a choice about how Roier lingers by his side.

When they get there, Aypierre’s lab has been cleared. One of the research assistants and Bad are with Philza, keeping him lying down as they check over his head. There’s a few chairs left to one side. Roier is forced next to one, and Missa is parked next to it, and she goes over to one of the trays to bring antiseptic, needle and thread.

Mike is sat on the floor, off to one side, taking forcibly deep breaths as tears stream down his face.

“Can’t do much for the burns,” she apologises. “And you’ll have to wait for Aypierre. Don’t want to mess things up for him. And as for you,” she turns to Roier. “This will sting.”

That’s all the warning Roier gets before she pours antiseptic onto gauze, then shoves it against one of Roier’s many cuts. She holds it there a minute, before pulling it away and starting to sew.

There’s the sound of fast boots on the stairs outside. Missa looks up just in time to see Forever, more stressed than he thinks he’s ever seen him, and Felps enter into the room. They make a beeline for Mike, his sobs becoming audible in a hailstorm of Portuguese.

Missa looks at his hands, and finds them empty.

Philza is being treated across the room. Kristin is an ocean away. Spreen…

Spreen’s still missing.

Roier is right next to him, he’s right there, right in grasping range, but his flesh is being stitched back together and even if it weren’t…

Even if it weren’t, Missa isn’t sure he would accept his hand. It’s been ages, and it was Spreen’s fault, but Missa is also at least partially to blame.

So Missa curls over, and holds his own hands, and ignores the ice creeping up his spine.

Chapter 4 - Mike

It’s been hours since they returned. Mike’s the only one who came out of the mission unscathed, but he doesn’t feel like it was a victory. He’s sat in the common room now, clinging to Pac’s hand. It’s the only room with multiple beds, and the medical equipment is limited, so…

Well there’s now only five free beds for everyone not critically ill, and three of those involve wading through medical equipment to get to a top bunk.

Pac is all wires and bandages, smelling of antiseptic and not his proper cleaning oil. There’s monitors, and fluids, and antibiotics, oxygen and food… The sedatives from surgery are being continued, Aypierre said, to make sure his body gets a chance to heal.

It’s the same for Philza, he was told, and Missa isn’t being kept in a coma but his surgery was last and the sedatives are still wearing off.

Mike just doesn’t… He doesn’t understand what went so wrong, nor how fast.

He’s not injured, not like everyone else, but he is very much still in a state of shock.

Everyone seems to be. Mike has the chair - he’s not /allowed/ on the bed - and Pac’s hand, but Felps is also at his side, crying silently into Mike’s leg. Forever was at his other side earlier, but Bad managed to drag him away. Something about a contact who might have more medical equipment and-

And Bad should have fucking said something earlier, because they’ve been /trying/ to get an actual hospital together for weeks, and they’ve even got the space cleared for it, but where the fuck do they get the equipment? They haven’t even been able to track down some beds high enough that someone can treat a patient on them without hurting their back.

Mike is angry, Mike is furious, he���s got nowhere to send it though. It wasn’t even the stupid Chosen - Warlock, whatever. The flesh monster and the MEC both also died in the blast and there’s nothing to blame but physics and dumb luck and perhaps Pac for running off but…

But sooner or later /someone/ would have checked on that civilian, and the same shit would have gone down.

The blanket on him shifts as he leans forwards, clinging to Pac’s hand with everything he’s worth. Aypierre said it might help, because of their bond, because of the way their souls merge. So he takes it, he takes whatever excuse he can to stay with Pac, to hold him in the one place he’s allowed to touch, to reach out along their bond and cradle him.

It’s usually Pac cradling him. It’s usually Pac - older, louder, quicker - protecting him. Not exclusively - Mike protects him too, pulls him back when he runs too far, shields him when he forgets, helped him through his exams when the anxiety of the papers caused the world to crash in. It’s a balance, it’s an equilibrium, but Pac doesn’t need cradling so often as he needs someone to remind him to /breathe/.

There’s not so much of that, now. Pac’s not conscious enough for Mike to remind him, and anyway there’s a machine in place just in case he stops being able to.

The fact that’s an option?

Mike is terrified.

And Felps is doing his best, but Felps is also terrified, and it’s all Mike can do to worm his way into Pac’s head, and wrap him up. Mike can’t even go completely, lest the sedative catch him too. He has leave enough of himself behind to stay conscious, even as he curls around Pac’s soul and keeps him tethered, keeps him safe.

Sometimes he can feel Pac’s mind try to respond to him, only to be prevented by the drugs. It terrifies him, it horrifies him, even as the others theorise it’s probably a good thing.

And then there’s Felps, who reaches up to fix Mike’s blanket then carries on crying into his leg.

But there’s nothing to say and nothing to do except to hesitantly take one of his hands from where it’s clenched around Pac’s, and wrap it around Felps’ shoulders.

---

It takes ten days, every single penny and barter good belonging both to the Order and to every conscious person on the ship, and what Mike is pretty sure is the last of Forever’s sanity to complete the infirmary. They even find a doctor, via a chain of eight or nine contacts of contacts. Mike isn’t sure he trusts the woman, but he doesn’t really trust Aypierre either, so he does his best to pretend.

She’s got everyone safely under her care and proper monitors hooked up and Mike checked her working on medication dosages and it all seems to be proper, at least. Roier has mostly healed by now, which leaves her with three patients - ones she lets wake up one at a time, assessing their conditions.

Mike had been removed from the room for that - Forever was allowed to stay and translate, but Felps couldn’t either - and he’s not sure he’ll forgive her for it. Pac had reached out and latched onto him, confused and terrified and Mike couldn’t even calm him down before he was forced back to sleep.

He doesn’t think he’s going to forgive her for doing that to Pac. To him, maybe, but not to Pac.

So he stays closer, and cradles Pac harder, and while he acts on her words he does not always accept them. Pac was terrified, and scared, and a medical ward is indisputably better than their fucked up common room - it’s clean and there’s space both for equipment and access for treatment and all the supplies are on hand and if needed the surgery is just there - but Pac was scared. Pac was scared, and afraid, and the doctor would not let Mike /help him/.

It’s something about needing to assess Pac’s mental state, not Pac-and-Mike’s mental state, and Mike gets it, but doesn’t she understand Pac was /terrified/?

He can only hope his soulmate was too out of it to remember when he wakes again.

Mike and Felps are back again, now, a few days after that, one on each side of Pac’s bed while Forever shifts between holding Pac’s other hand and hovering by Philza at random. Philza’s awake, just about, but still out of it enough his object permanence is hazy. Missa is sat up on his own bed, chatting to him quietly. Roier lingers by Missa, but not quite at his bedside, too far to join the conversation, and that’s possibly even more fascinating gossip he needs to find from someone.

Pac will be able to dig it up once he wakes, he hopes.

He’s sure.

The doctor has stopped with the sedatives now, and Mike can feel it in the bond. Pac’s still suppressed by sleeping, but no longer is it under a false, oppressive haze.

Mike… Mike wraps himself around Pac, and tries to relax. He holds him, has comfort right there and ready, and presses himself deeper in.

And Pac - cautious, hesitant, scared, still half asleep and half drugged - finally, finally presses back.

Chapter 5 - Pac, again

Pac wakes, and the world is hazy, but Mike is there. There’s a memory that never quite formed, one of Mike being gone, but Mike is here, so it must surely be okay.

It hurts, it hurts so bad, but Mike is here and is calling and Pac will wake up for Mike, if it’s what Mike demands.

If he slips more of himself into Mike’s body than he usually would, an attempt to escape the pain… that’s their business and theirs alone.

Still, he does have to wake somehow. He hides in Mike and puppets his body, opening eyes, twitching fingers, searching for answers. Mike’s conscience holds him tight, praises him, cries on him and reminds him to listen to more than his soul.

Right, ears, eyes, touch…

There’s a hand on his forehead and another in his hand - both hands. His prosthetic is missing - his breath catches as he realises he can’t run, and Mike soothes him, promises he’s somewhere he won’t have to - and voices are calling his name.

Mike, Felps, Forever.

He finds Mike’s eyes first - of course he does - one blue and one green as they both cling to each other. It doesn’t feel like Mike is visiting, though - between them they must have three blue eyes.

And the next to Mike is Forever, Forever who sees the eye contact and takes it as permission for a hug, leaving no room for anyone but for Felps - on the other side - who tugs the hand he’s holding free and hugs Pac’s arm.

Pac doesn’t know what to do, but does know that it hurts - he wants the hug, but cannot stop the whine.

Forever pulls back, horrified.

“It’s okay,” Pac tries to say.

The words come from Mike’s mouth by mistake, and maybe he should pull back but he doesn’t want the pain.

“No it’s not that hurt you,” says Mike, also with his own mouth.

Felps catches onto what’s happening first, his confusion twisting to a smile.

“Hi Pac!”

Pac waves with Mike’s arm, and then Forever gets it.

Forever’s laughter sounds suspiciously desperate, but nobody says anything about it.

“Can I scold him yet?” Forever asks Mike.

Mike tries to say yes, Pac tries to say no, and the jumble of words is enough gibberish to knock Pac back to his own body.

His own body, where the painkillers might be helping but he’s now hit with the full force of pain. He chokes off the scream with a sob, the hand held by Felps weakly trying to move up and cover it.

Felps lets go, and looks heartbroken.

Pac uses what strength he can find to reach out, and grab that hand again.

Felps thumb runs over his knuckles.

Pac smiles at him, and remembers there’s more friends in the room.

He turns his eyes back to Forever, whose fingers still rest on his cheek.

“Can I help?” Forever asks.

“I thought I was going to die.”

It’s not a reply to the question, it’s not even close to one, but they’re the words that escape Pac’s lips. Tears begin to drip with them - slow, quiet tears which leave trails on his face and he can taste on his lips.

Mike freezes up and Pac… Pac prods him with a question.

The question is turned away, but Pac isn’t - he settles a little of himself in Mike’s brain, leaning against him in an attempt to comfort.

Mike wraps metaphorical arms around him; Pac closes his eyes in body and seeps into the comfort.

“You didn’t,” is what Felps says, covering for the room. “It was bad, but you didn’t, and now you’re here.”

Pac opens his mouth to ask where here is; Mike answers before he can ask.

“Medical,” Mike says. “We… Got the medical ward finished. And found a doctor.”

That bad. However bad Pac’s injuries were, they were bad enough that what should have taken at least another month was done in… less than that.

“Don’t worry,” Forever smiles at him, and the smile is twisted, in pain himself. “Just get better, and we’ll fill you in later. When you’re less fuzzy.”

It’s true, Pac is very fuzzy. He closes his eyes and settles on Forever’s hand, and clings to Felps in flesh and Mike in mind.

At times like this, Cellbit’s absence is like a gaping wound.

Pac focuses from the hands and the holds to his body and traces it over. The pain is everywhere, all over, dimmed by the same painkillers that must be clouding his mind. It’s hard to focus, but he does, searching out for something they can do, they can fix.

Throat. They could fix that.

“Drink?” he asks. “Can I…?”

“I’ll get it!” Forever leans down, kissing Pac’s cheek before letting go.

He goes to speak to an unfamiliar woman, then vanishes through a door. Pac watches him go, turns back to find Mike speaking.

He closes his eyes and mentally leans on his soulmate, letting him know he’s too tired for a single word that was said.

“... Okay,” Mike sighs. “But I am still yelling at you later, bro.”

Pac nods - of course Mike is going to. It’s just going to happen, after something like this.

Felps kisses his other cheek, and Mike his forehead.

“Do you want us to let you sleep?” Felps asks.

For a moment Pac wants to agree, and then terror seizes him again - the dark, and the pain, and fire shoots through his veins and-

And Mike, inside his mind, grabs him, pulls at him, tugs him from the smoke and the sharp, sharp pain.

In Mike’s panic Pac sees other things - sees Missa with a gun to Philza’s head, sees Philza collapse, sees Roier bleeding all over the helicopter, sees Missa covered in bones and with a break in his leg that pierces the skin.

Sees himself, mostly dead, surrounded by ash and debries and if he’s breathing it’s imperceptible.

Mike shutters that memory quickly, and gently turns Pac aside.

“They’re fine,” Mike says. “You were the last to wake up.”

Pac’s eyes still skim the hospital, and find them - find the rest of them.

They don’t look good, he’s sure he looks worse; he breathes, and squeezes Felps’ hand in a silent request to be held onto tighter.

Felps gets it.

He always did.

Even when he didn’t want him to.

“Will I…”

Pac doesn’t know how to end the question, and it turns out he doesn’t need to - Forever returns not just with a glass of water, but a tray with some soup, too.

“Doc said you should eat,” Forever places the tray on the bed. “Do you…?”

Pac doesn’t want it, but he will. On instinct he tries to lift himself up, only for both Mike and Felps to grab him.

That turns out to be a good idea; there’s no way his arms would have held.

It’s a little awkward but he gets comfortable on the cushions. Felps helps him with the cup while Mike blows on the soup, and Forever perches on the end of Pac’s bed and pats his good foot.

“You’ll be okay,” Forever promises, even as Pac has to take a break from the water when he breathes some in by mistake. “I know it’s scary, but we won’t let anything bad happen to you, okay? Just eat up, and heal.”

The something bad has already happened, but Pac sees the fear in Forever’s eyes and…

And he can’t.

So he clears his throat, and offers Forever a weak smile, and sips on the offered water some more.

“He kept me, so I’m sure you’ll be no trouble,” Felps offers, with a small grin.

Mike does actually lean over the bed and slap Felps for that comment. Seconds after, and Felps has Forever wrapped around him. Impersonating an octopus.

Pac strongly suspects he’d be the victim, if he weren’t held together with bandages and struggling with even just water and soup.

“You can’t get rid of any of us,” Mike says, and it sounds like it should be directed at Forever, but he echoes the words in their bond and looks Pac dead in the eyes.

Pac reaches out, entwines his fingers in Mike’s, and whispers only for his soulmate I don’t want any of you to go.

[raul-volp2]

Hi!! A lot of art here to talk a bit about myself, a bit of self promotion since Twitter is becoming more and more a useless hellscape.

My name is Raul, im a pixel artist, illustrator and animator from Brazil, working on digital games and tabletop rpgs mostly, some of the games I worked including:

DIgital Games:

-Walking with the Living I and II

-Stream Quest

Ttrpgs:

-Monster Care Squad and expansion Behind the Waterfall-

-Wicked Ones

-Night at the Tavern

Current Games I am working:

-HELLPIERCERS

-Gales of Nayeli

-NOVA Tactics

-SOme unnanounced

I have my own personal project, a tabletop rgp and solo strategy game called CIty Noire, where players form a group of revolucionaires to take the challenge to defeat the ruler Tyrant in a VIctorian/Gothic inspired setting with a little bit of sci fi. Game has a focus on tactical mechanics but where players use stealth instead of direct combat.

Currently while I have a lot of working projects Im looking to work on a isometric tactical digital games, being fan of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Xcom, Invisible Inc, this is one game that I still need to work with, and I think my pixel art style fits very well, it is already inspired by FFT.

Contact for work can be here or on my e-mail raul_volp@hotmail.com

Help reblogging this will be very helpful for me, I was never good at social media, and it took a hell of a time for me to build my followers on twitter, and while I don't care too much about numbers, my livehood and the livehood of a lot of artists depends of this, of their art being seeing.

Thank you! =)

[fioras-resolve]

What Is Fire Emblem About: an explainer for the uninitiated

this is gonna be a bit of a weird one. i feel like fire emblem fans are gonna get angry at me for mostly sidelining the story, so i'm just gonna say: i'm a game designer, and a very ludocentric person. this is just how i'm going to talk about things. but also, you can't talk about FE story without the contexts of what the games Are mechanically. with that out of the way...

Fire Emblem started as one of the earliest examples of a Simulation RPG (or Strategy RPG in the west, but, you know). it was trying to take a wargame framework and apply that to a fantasy rpg. so unlike most wargames, every unit has a name, personality, and unique attributes. but unlike most rpg's, you're moving across a battlefield. units are defined by wargame functions, like "ranged," "high movement," "flying," etc. and if one of your allies dies, they're gone for good. it creates an emotional heft, one found in most games with permadeath. to quote jon bois, talking about xcom,

in a way, fire emblem simulates war in a way that a lot of wargames don't. it makes you care about each of your units, not just because they're unique characters with lives, but because losing them means losing what they did for the army. you only get so many healers in fire emblem, so many thieves who can open a chest, and if you trained someone up for ages just to see them die to a random critical hit, it hurts.

"it immerses you via accountability. if your ranger dies, you are left with a feeling that ultimately, they counted on you to lead them, and that even in a game that is often decided by chance, it was all your fault"

or at least, that's how it works in theory. in reality, most players will just restart the chapter if they lose someone important. strict "ironman" rules have never been implemented in fire emblem, so while theoretically this is a game about living with your mistakes, in practice it's about constantly redoing a fight until you get the right results. modern fire emblem has even made rewinding to specific moments an actual game mechanic, a design choice i call "embracing the bastards." (i say this with affection, i am one of those bastards)

to make up for the fact that you can lose characters, you get a lot of them over the course of the game. a lot of these characters, especially in early FE, are just kind of there. like, you get so many characters of the same class who are clearly just backup if the other ones die. some of these units are great, with amazing stats or the ability to use some cool weapon, and others suck. if you talk to fans of "classic" FE, you'll find that a lot of people's favorite characters are decided by gameplay. as the series progressed, characters grew to be more fleshed out narratively and more balanced mechanically depending on who you ask, so a lot of modern fans are more into a character because of their personality or character arc.

which does lead us into talking about how the series has shifted over time. because when people think of "fire emblem" now, they're not thinking about the games from the 90s. they're probably not even thinking about the games from the 2000s. so let's talk about the changing identity of fire emblem. i like to split this into four "eras," broken up by major mechanical changes and shifts in who's leading the charge. i'm sure some fe fans will disagree on on this, but this is the framing the works the best for me. so!

The Kaga Era: This was an era of fire emblem led by a single guy, Shouzou Kaga. this is, i feel, where the essence of Simulation RPG is felt the most strongly. the games are hard to get into these days if you don't already play fire emblem, but there's a real artistic commitment here to trying to capture ideas through mechanics. aside from FE1, we also got Gaiden, which leaned way harder into the RPG angle with grinding, magic, and dragon-questy towns. we got Mystery of the Emblem, a direct sequel to the first game that put familiar characters in new contexts. we got Genealogy of the Holy War, an incredibly ambitious game that plays out a story of war on a massive scale. we got Archanea Saga, a very short game consisting of four incredibly potent one-shot chapters. And we got Thracia 776, an intensely challenging game left so up to randomness that even healing can miss. some oldheads view Thracia as the height of the series.

The Renaissance: After Kaga left due to a squabble with Nintendo (which is its own story), the dev team had to pick up the pieces without its auteur director. This period is arguably when Fire Emblem was most "itself." The Kaga era was foundational, but too experimental to have a consistent identity. The Renaissance was when the idea of what A Fire Emblem Game was solidified, to the point where if you ask most older fans what they think of when they imagine Fire Emblem, you'll probably get something from the Renaissance. Probably the biggest innovation from this era was the Support Conversation. Basically, if you put two characters next to each other for long enough, they might strike up a conversation with each other. You can usually do this two more times. This fleshed out the characters beyond their first impression, and made personality more of a sticking point. Later games would expand on this further.

You could maybe argue that this period was intensely safe, but I'd say after Kaga's departure, safe was probably necessary. Binding Blade was essentially a rehash of FE1, for better and worse. Blazing Blade, a prequel to Binding, was the first FE game to be released outside of Japan, so it has an extensive tutorial, and is generally a lot easier to accommodate. But also, it features some really solid and creative level design which makes it worth playing to this day. Sacred Stones did similar to Gaiden with its skill system, world map, and grinding. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn... I actually haven't really played those or heard much about them but a lot of people view them as the height of the series. And Shadow Dragon was a remake of FE1, that actually tried very hard to encourage you to ironman it. Like, you can reclass freely, you get replacement units if you're running low, and the prologue ends by forcing you to pick a sacrifice. Unfortunately, people didn't really get the message. It was my first FE game, and I still reset whenever someone died. Caeda, my beloved.

The Maeda Era: This starts, oddly enough, with a remake of the third game, called New Mystery of the Emblem. It adds a player avatar that you can customize, support conversations, a new plotline about assassins, and crucially, a Casual Mode. Yes, you can now start the game choosing either Classic Mode, which has permadeath, and Casual Mode, which doesn't. This fundamentally changes the experience, as you can imagine, and it's still a pretty contentious topic within the FE community. A lot of new players struggle to get into classic Fire Emblem because the forced permadeath is just too punishing for them. But it's also core to the identity of the series. It was contentious within the dev team, too, with people fighting over whether or not to include it. Ultimately, it was decided that if the FE series was going to survive, it would need to be more playable to a casual audience.

This leads us into Fire Emblem: Awakening, which was a massive success compared to anything else before then. It featured the player avatar and casual mode, it featured a world map and grinding, and it also really leaned into the support system. It even combined this with the marriage and children system of Genealogy, adding a fourth support level which got characters to marry and have a child, who would then join your party by time traveling from the future. You could even marry someone with your player avatar. This did make Awakening more dating sim than tactics game in some people's eyes, but it really helped give the game a fandom that exceeded the existing FE fandom by a longshot. This kind of design was continued with Fire Emblem Fates, a game that was actually three different games you could choose between. Birthright was basically more Awakening, but Conquest took that paradigm and made it into a focused, polished, and tightly designed tactical experience. (Arguably too tight, I don't like it that much but I get why people do.) And the Maeda era ends with FE Heroes, a mobile gacha game with as much creativity as power creep. And honestly, how else could this end?

The Modern Era: Since Maeda is mostly working on Heroes now, we're in a similar situation to the Renaissance, where the series has to pick up where its leader left off. But instead of playing it safe, the new directors have experimented with it in a way we haven't seen since Kaga. It started, of course, with a remake of Gaiden, called Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. I have a soft spot for this game, but what's important for you to know is that it introduced 1) full voice acting, 2) special moves, and 3) turn rewinds, which finally just makes resetting a deliberate game design tool.

From this point on we have Three Houses, which did a similar split-path thing to Fates, but letting you choose based on preference for characters rather than gameplay. I think its mechanics are a really nice synthesis of a lot of different games, but that's not really why people care about Three Houses. People care about Three Houses because it features a hot girlboss voiced by Tara Platt, a school setting that's easy to project onto, multiple queer characters with subtext for each other, and a morally grey set of factions that people can argue passionately about for years. It is THE fandom-ready Fire Emblem game. After that is our most recent game, Engage. Now, this is structured like a traditional Fire Emblem, but it plays pretty substantially different. Now your units can summon past FE protagonists to give massive buffs and execute super moves. My favorite is the one that lets you rush through enemies in a straight line. It's also incredibly anime, like bright colors, power of friendship, character designs a bit too outlandish. It's great if that's your shit.

so, I've been talking a lot about how these games play. and if you're a big fan of these games, especially of the modern ones, that might frustrate you. you don't play rpg's for the combat, you play them for the story, which i have avoided talking about for the most part. and first of all, that's a very reductive way of looking at rpg's, and games generally. second, these things are intertwined, you cannot disconnect story from play. but third, i'm of the mind that what a game is About is decided by what happens when you interact with it. talking solely about what happens in cutscenes and dialogue is treating a game as something to watch or read, not as something to play. and i think we owe it to ourselves, and the medium, to do better than that.

but, last few notes before i finish the post. first off, there are a few games i missed, particularly spinoffs, like the Warriors spinoffs or that weird MegaTen crossover that isn't much FE or MegaTen at all. second, the setting, characters, and lore shifts with each entry. sometimes you get games in the same universe, like Awakening's continent is just the FE1 continent but a thousand years in the future. but you don't particularly need to worry about playing the other ones if you want to get into a specific game. third, there's a fair bit of Weird Anime Shit. particularly the consistent use of the thousand-year-old loli trope which has been around since the first game. Fates lets you marry and have children with your siblings, and it's really funny how each of their S-Supports have the other character pull up a letter from their mom saying you're not actually related. Break Glass In Case Of Incest. the games are almost always about royalty finding sacred weapons to kill a problems dragon, and i'm honestly not big on stories that valorize nobility, but it's a fairy tale, so whatever. i have in the backburner a game i've been working on that does this kind of story from the perspective of civilians, so keep an eye out for that in the next few years. also for the love of fuck, if you're a fire emblem fan please play other tactics games. the fe series is good, but there's a whole slue of games out there if you want to expand your horizons. i recommend triangle strategy, xcom 2, into the breach, my own catalogue, and walk with the living.

-Angie Nyx

[falciesystemessays]

it is hard to capture pain in video games.

this is one of the things i ended up thinking about a lot in the hospital over the past few days. i had been going through a lot of stomach pain, and it turns out it wasn't overeating, that i had to get my gallbladder removed. i am finally back home laying in bed, trying desperately to find a good position that will kill neither my back nor my abdomen. it's not going great, but i'm too much of a wuss to use the opiate i was prescribed, so now i am typing this post in a kind of terrible state. the people sending their love and good vibes and best wishes are nothing to me, no amount of good energy will cure this abdominal pain, no amount of thoughts and prayers will take away my shortness of breath. i normally have better writing than this, but you don't deserve better writing from me right now. i don't owe you that.

so, look, i spent most of this time playing a shitton of fire emblem fates and some rhythm heaven megamix, i have been desperately trying to distract myself from the everything of this situation. and of course, as a game designer, i try to think of how to turn this into a teachable moment for my design work. but it's not fuckin easy, is it? it's hard to sell someone on a game that will physically hurt them without being a very real health risk, and it's hard to emotionally capture that sense of viscerality using game mechanics alone. tell me in the replies games that come close! but genuinely no amount of heartbreak or dread or panic in a game comes close to the sheer horribility of being in actual godawful pain, for days on end.

in my past, i actually worked on a game that tried to be about pain. it's a very different project now, and no longer in my hands, but i ended up getting its protagonist, Fang, in my head. fang's gimmick is Blood Aura, essentially an attunement to pain that gives her greater strength the lower her health is at. in a sense, it kinda captures the sense of letting yourself get harmed on purpose because that's when you feel the most alive. it makes you put yourself at risk so that you can lash out in spades. but it's all very calculated, and more to the point, it's not making you the player experience pain.

the thing i've realized about games, rpg's especially, is that you are not your player characters. the player character acts as a surrogate for you, essentially as an arm for your will, but you do not become the character as you play. the reason i emphasize rpg's is due to the nature of a party-based game. you don't play as marth in fire emblem shadow dragon, you do not play as tidus in final fantasy x. but you also, crucially, do not embody any of these characters individually as you control them. you play as the collective, the group, the dynamic itself. you play as a collective id, or perhaps, an unspoken sense of team play. games like into the breach and xcom compensate for this by simply making you an offscreen commander. it's a practical solution, and it carries me to my next point.

shortly after the surgery, i started asking various people - my mom, my friends, my beloved - how they personally felt seeing me go through this. i realized that while you can't easily capture my kind of visceral pain as a player character, you can capture the feeling of knowing someone going through it. perhaps a party member in an rpg could fall ill, and you as a commander would have to marinate in that reality. some were worried, some sympathized but knew it was gonna be alright, my beloved was terrified, and my mom talked about wanting desperately to know, and to do something. that's something that can all be done in a game form.

so here's my idea. at one point in a fairly long rpg, one of your characters gets sick, or needs some kind of operation, or something like that. this isn't foreshadowed, medical peril so often isn't, but you have to deal with it anyway. this character, who may have been vital to your team composition or may have been just another unit, is now completely unable to do any of the things you expect. you're told this won't be permanent, probably, but recovery will be a very slow process as they slowly, slowly drift back into normalcy. during this process, you have several opportunities to check in on them, for all the good that'll do. maybe it'll do something, maybe it won't. you don't know, and you don't know how successful or quick this recovery will be. you can choose to process this however you like.

this will of course run into some issues. something i've noticed playing fire emblem is a tendency i and others have to care less about characters of less tactical use to us. whether i let a unit die on classic mode hinges on whether i can be bothered to reset. so there is, always, a possibility that a gamer could see this thing and be like "wow, now this fucker is useless to me, so i don't give a shit." and, if they know this is coming, they might not bother to level up the character because it'd just be a waste of exp. not that i even like exp systems to begin with, and i highly encourage you to ask me my thoughts on exp systems because i am running purely on spite at this point.

maybe what games ultimately need is to be willing to actually physically punish the player. we have game-linked vibrators after all, why not shift the pleasure into pain? but trying to actually sell this game would mean it only appeals to masochists, and while i respect them deeply, they are not my target audience. i want the player i inflict pain upon to hate every moment of it, just as i hate every moment of being in this goddamn bed waiting for things to finally recover. apparently it'll take about six weeks. awesome, right? maybe i finally will go on that damn opioid. i am on three hours of sleep, and before the surgery i had barely eaten anything for two days. this past week has been nothing but pain, distractions from the pain, and eventual relief from the pain. fuck i hate this.

[unbound-lust]

I had originally been hunting for rules systems I can use that are pretty close to XCOM but I realized that honestly, I can just dig through XCOMs guts and lift all the mechanics from the game whole (well, with a bit of trimming cause XCOM has some Issues if you don't feel like doing trigonometry).

My plan as far as the tactical battles for this Quest would be at the start of a mission, players nominate one of their troopers as being the head of the operation, then when big shit happens (new enemies, heavy casualties, objective spotted, etc.) the players vote on a general strategy while any moment to moment choices carrying it out are handled by yours truly taking the head's personality into account as far as what choices they'd make in the heat of battle.

Have I mentioned that I am a huge fucking nerd?

[stuffman-main]

update!

barring any disasters, astrolancer will be done in mid-march, from what i've read it takes a few weeks for steam to get around to approving a build so it'll probably be out in april. even though i can release on itch earlier than that, that's going to represent a very small chunk of sales.

i remember a long time ago seeing a post talking about how someone wanted to get into selling handmade clothes or something and wanted to charge a very modest price and basically discovering they couldn't make ends meet, because surprise, it takes time to make shit. that has basically been my experience with game dev. although i announced early on astrolancer would go for just $3, it's going to be more like $8 now.

my target is 5k sales. if by some miracle i make that much, i bring in about $25k which will give me about 10 months to make another game. if i don't make it, i go back to work and die a wageslave. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

in the gap between astrolancer being completed and released and seeing how the sales shake out, i'll want to start working on the next game right away, but it needs to be something i can finish within the minimum timeframe. for that reason, I'm not gonna make shield game yet, because i think after ghost nun i'm not confident that a melee combat focused game is something i can make intuitively. i'll want to have a lot of time to work on that.

so what's next, wots? no, i think i have to confront the elephant in the room which is that if you make an advance wars clone people expect functional multiplayer, and I don't have the means to host or moderate a server. while it would be expedient to use the wots engine i've already developed, to manage expectations for a purely single player experience i think it would be better to make an asymmetric strategy game, i.e. a game where the enemy plays by different rules (like xcom). fortunately, this also plays into designing a game where developing the AI is not such a tremendous hurdle.

so, I have two ideas:

adapt war-o-matic into a scenario fighting a different opponent. a problem with making a strategy game where you design your own units is the difficulty in communicating what exactly enemy units are using visually; if only your units are customizable, that solves that problem, so a rework of this sort is appealing to me.

go forward with my idea to make a tactics h-game about space slime exterminators. this would probably be a lot more popular, with the caveat that it demands a lot of high-quality cg work!

i'm open for public comment!

[duckprintspress]

Meet the Contributors to Our Next Anthology!

The time has come: we're ready to share the contributor list for our forthcoming anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas's "The Three Musketeers"!

For this collection, 15 artists and 21 authors have created fanart, original art, fanfiction, and original fiction inspired by the adventures of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan. We have been hard at work on this anthology since last fall, and we're anticipating a crowdfunding launch in late spring or early summer. We'll have lots of teasers, excerpts, a cover reveal, merchandise announcements, and more to come, but first - meet the creators!

Artists

Aceriee: Hi! I’m Aceriee and I draw sometimes. I’ve been drawing all my life, but after falling into the Supernatural fandom in 2014 I’ve mostly focused on fanart. (Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter)

Cris Alborja: I’m an illustration and comic artist from Spain. I’ve got a nursing degree, but I decided to pursue my passion. I have studied Illustration at EASD Pablo Picasso in A Coruña and comics at O Garaxe Hermético in Pontevedra. I have done cover art for an anthology called Infiniteca by Retranca Editorial and comics for Altar Mutante, Nai dos Desterrados, and Abraxas en Cuarentena fanzines, as well as in Gaspariño 21 by Retranca Editorial. (Instagram)

bloomingtea: Téa is a hypothetical writer and artist, a professional procrastinator, and a merch hoarder. When they aren’t working on personal projects, they moderate zines and bake the same loaf of bread over and over again. From their pile of WIPs, they’ve managed to self-publish one book and are currently working on other manuscripts to eventually release into the world. Until then, they remain the worst gamer on Twitch and like to spend their free time ranting about books and thinking about fictional lawyer video games. (Personal Website | Twitter)

C: A massive drinker of coffee and a lover of old TV shows and movies, C is a small-time concept artist and illustrator who likes to dabble in all things literature and history. When she’s not busy drawing and nodding along to Bruce Springsteen while researching the Kentucky Cave Wars, she’s trying to save up for grad school to become to a forensic artist so she can draw some more. (Tumblr)

Amy Fincher: Amy Fincher (she/her) is a producer and artist with over a dozen years of experience in the video game and animation industries. She has contributed to various AAA and indie titles, including the Civilization, XCOM, and Skylanders series. Amy is currently working on Open Roads as Executive Producer. When the mood strikes and time allows, she teaches art classes and takes on art commissions on the side. Her hobbies include learning aerial silks, collecting aesthetically pleasing empty containers, looking at shiny rocks, and taking very long naps.

Kou Lukeman: Kou Lukeman is an artist, composer, writer, and video-game developer. His long-term goal is to someday lead a video-game company that makes video games by queer and neurodivergent people. Kou identifies as queer, neurodivergent, and is proud to be both. He is an avid Final Fantasy 14 player, a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, and video games have inspired Kou to create from a very young age. While his main creative interests tend to be in queer and neurodivergent horror, Kou also dabbles in fantasy as a genre. He is currently working on releasing his first few games and a graphic horror novel about neurodiversity and queer people in society. (Instagram)

Giulia Malagoli:

Giulia Malagoli (she/they) got into art because of generally friendly competition with a classmate in middle school, and now she has an entire Bachelor’s Degree in Concept Art to show for it. 

For about ten years, she has been hopping through fandom spaces—from video games, to comics, to movies and TV series—and has drawn inspiration from each of them for both fan and original art. The result is a passion for character design and for art that weaves a story into its visuals, with a whole lot of feelings about the role of The Narrative to boot. 

To chase this passion Giulia has moved from their home country of Italy to the United Kingdom and back again. They now work as a freelance illustrator with enthusiasm, always scraping some time at the end of the day to keep up with fandom friends. (ArtStation | Twitter)

MidnightSilver: I’m MidnightSilver (They/Them). I’m a freelance artist who specialises in fandom art, most often inspired by Supernatural the TV show, and I can usually be found illustrating stories for independent authors—my favourites are those that combine adventure/magic/horror with a boatload of feels! As a bi, non-binary, mixed-race person, I don’t believe in restrictive boundaries, and I love tales that highlight diversity and freedom of expression while at the same time incorporating the fantastical and magical elements that I fell in love with when reading stories as a child. It’s my aim to take all the many wondrous worlds and people with whom we visit when lost in book pages at 2 o’clock in the morning and to share them with you in visual form. It’s a project I never tire of pursuing. (Archive of Our Own | deviantArt)

Queen Sponge Studios: Thanks for reading my bio! My name is Sponge, and I use they/them pronouns! I am currently studying for a Game Arts degree through online courses at SNHU. Along with working at a thrift store, I enjoy working on projects with others. Based in Northern Wisconsin, I majorly entertain myself through art and media pertaining to it. On the long list of my hobbies, I enjoy staying active as well as collecting. I am an avid, crazed Sanrio fanatic with a long list of fandoms dating all the way back to when I was ten. I may be more reserved, but I love making new connections through creation! Meeting like-minded individuals working toward a common goal has been the most fulfilling experience I have had to date. As a young artist, I have dabbled in vending at conventions, game art, and selling my own merchandise online. I hope to one day fully chase after my ambitions of artistry full-time through a studio! Thank you for your support and interest in my work! (Etsy | Instagram | TikTok)

Jennifer Smith: Smith has been drawing since a young age. With a focus in traditional drawing techniques, she has recently started using digital mediums to imitate traditional styles. Her focus is in portraiture and landscapes, especially with watercolor. You can find more of her art on her Tumblr. (Tumblr)

Toby.exe: Freelance Animator and Illustrator based in the UK. He/They LGBTQ+ friendly little goblin who plays excessive amounts of DnD and loves to play Live Action Roleplay events all over the country! If I am not at home drawing, I am out and about playing a variety of fantasy characters in the woods and hitting people with silly foam swords. (Personal Website | Instagram | Patreon | Twitter)

Jupiter V: Hailing from Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia (that’s in Canada), Jupiter V is an artist, musician, and creative crackerjack with a career spanning over a decade. Cutting their teeth designing award-winning gig posters, they’ve gone on to illustrate for film, graphic fiction, children’s literature, and more. At times, they have been caught painting murals at the circus (?!) and whooping their child mercilessly in Rivals of Aether. 

Jupiter is currently toiling away at their next graphic work of fiction, Wizards 99k, as we speak. (Instagram)

Amy Alexander Weston: Alex, AKA foxymoley, (she/her) is best described as a jack of all trades, but practices digital art more than anything else. She just wants to make things and change the world for the better. (Archive of Our Own | Instagram | Tumblr)

Amalia Zeichneren: Amalia Zeichnerin (she/her) lives in Hamburg, Germany. She is a disabled queer woman with a chronic illness and lives in a polyam polycule. Amalia mostly writes original fiction (SFF, cosy Victorian mysteries, Queer Romance) in German and has also one English Star Wars fan fiction on AO3, with one of her favorite shippings, StormPilot. Amalia also likes to draw and paint, especially fantasy world maps, character portraits, and sometimes also fanart. Amalia’s hobbies include pen-and-paper RPG and LARPing; these also have inspired some of her writing and artworks. (Linktree)

Jagoda Zirebiec: Hiya! I’m Jagoda or MizuShiba. I am a game dev artist currently working on a few unannounced titles. In my spare time I love to join collaborative projects like this, or charity Zines. This is my first project with DPP and hopefully not last! 

I’m located in Poland and currently live here with my family. Aside from art, I’m interested in collecting dice and playing ttrpgs with friends. (ArtStation | Tumblr | Twitter)

Authors

Len Amin: Len Amin was brought up living between worlds in her small suburban town in the Midwest throughout the year, and summering frequently to visit her Palestinian Family living in the West Bank. Her family is larger-than-life in true Arabian fashion, including a very prissy puppy named Charles who refuses to sleep alone and chews up all of her sister’s barbie dolls. Though never quite feeling like she belonged in either world, she instead fell in love with the stories with the people that resided in these places—how the humanity can be found so effortlessly if one just delved that bit deeper into someone’s “once upon a time.” Etching down words into her flower-printed journals and shuffling a fresh spread from her star-printed tarot deck for her friends were always her way to connect to someone and to open up that channel of understanding. Len is now about to hit her mid-twenties, and has nothing to lose as she strives for her Social Work degree while also focusing on her true passion of writing her first full-length novel. You can find the updates on her writing journey, and support her endeavors on her Tumblr page. (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr | Twitter)

Aria L. Deair: Aria L. Deair is an author who has been writing and (while cursing her excessive comma usage) publishing fanfiction online for more than sixteen years. Freelance writer by day and author every other hour that she isn’t sleeping, she spends her days courting carpal tunnel and “forgetting” to wear her wrist brace.

As a proud member of more fandoms than she can count, Aria can be found blogging about some of the writing that she is avoiding doing at arialerendeair.tumblr.com.

Like a dragon with her hoard, she can be found in her New Hampshire apartment, surrounded by notebooks (most of which are empty), half-filled mugs of tea, and some of the comfiest blankets that have ever existed. Disturb her at your own risk, especially during NaNo Season. (Discord: Dragon#5555 | Tumblr | Twitter)

E. V. Dean: E. V. Dean is a writer with a decade of fanfiction writing under her belt. She’s embarking on her original fiction adventure with the angst tag kept within arm’s reach. Her favorite excuse not to write is watching Jeopardy. (Instagram | Tumblr)

Rhosyn Goodfellow: Rhosyn Goodfellow is an author of queer romance and speculative fiction living with her spouse and two dogs in the Pacific Northwest, where she is sad to report that she has not yet mysteriously disappeared or encountered any cryptids. Her hobbies include spoiling the aforementioned dogs, drinking inadvisable amounts of coffee, and running unreasonably long distances very slowly. She’s secretly just a collection of loosely-related stories dressed up in a meat suit. (Personal Website | Instagram | Mastodon | Tumblr | Twitter)

Catherine E. Green: Catherine E. Green (pronouns: xe/xem/xyr or they/them/their) is an agender person, one who’s had an on-again, off-again love affair with writing. Xe began writing when xe was a wee thing, when xyr other major pastimes were playing xyr mother’s NES and roughhousing with the boys next door. It’s only in the past few years that they have begun writing consistently and publishing their writing, fanfiction and original writing alike, leading to their first published short story titled “Of Loops and Weaves.” 

Outside of writing, xe is a collector of books and sleep debt and an avid admirer of the cosmos. Playing video games, reading a variety of fiction genres (primarily fantasy, queer romance, and manga and graphic novels of all kinds), and working on wrangling their own personal data archiving projects occupy most of their free time. Xe has also started meeting up with a local fiber arts group and is excited to be crocheting xyr first scarf.

J. D. Harlock: J.D. Harlock is a Syrian-Lebanese-Palestinian writer and editor based in Beirut. In addition to his posts at Wasifiri, as an editor-at-large, and at Solarpunk Magazine, as a poetry editor, his writing has been featured in Strange Horizons, Star*Line, and the SFWA Blog. You can always find him on Twitter and Instagram posting updates on his latest projects. (Instagram | Twitter)

A. L. Heard: A. L. Heard is an aspiring writer from Pittsburgh. She’s been writing fanworks for over a decade and self-published her first novel, Hockey Bois, in 2021. Some of her short stories have been published through the indie press Duck Prints Press, where she also contributes as an editor. Ultimately, though, she spends her free time writing about characters she adores in worlds she’d like to explore: contemporary romance, historical fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. In between writing projects, she works as a language teacher, plays hockey, tours breweries with her boyfriend, and spends her evenings playing dinosaurs with her two sons. (Instagram | Twitter)

D. A. Hernández: AKA Mitch, an author who works as a teacher, reads fanfiction compulsively, tells anyone who will listen about their weird dreams, takes long naps, and once in a while manages to write a story or two. You can find another of their stories in the Duck Prints Press anthology She Wears the Midnight Crown. 

Mitch’s playlist includes metal, pop, electronic, bluegrass, reggaeton and cumbia. (Twitter)

R. L. Houck: R. L. Houck (she/her) still has one of the first stories she ever wrote, all the way back from elementary school. It was about flightless penguins reaching the sun and was a good indication of her boundless imagination and her love of animals. The latter became a full-time veterinary career; the former keeps her occupied with fanfiction and original fiction in her downtime. 

She’s sometimes found wandering the woods around her house in Virginia with her dog. If not there, she’s sitting on the couch, catching up on a Netflix series, and smothered by her five cats. Sometimes, there’s even space for her wife. (TikTok)

Lucy K. R.: Lucy K.R. (she/her) is technically in existence. Every time she is free, she writes. Sometimes when she is not free she also writes. This has occasionally created problems. She is fortunate to be supported (read: enabled) by her enthusiastic fiancée Tomo, a loving OG family, and a lively found family as well.

Eager for a change after a decade of waitressing, Lucy K.R. took the chance in March of 2021 to make her first steps into the world of published work. Prior to the success of the largely-fabricated German translation of the short-story found in this collection, ‘die Karaoke-Königinnen’, she was best known for her work on Mageling: Rise of the Ancient Ones and in the Duck Prints Press anthologies “And Seek (Not) to Alter Me” and “She Wears the Midnight Crown”.

In her stories, Lucy K. enjoys writing evil ideas as gently as possible, portrayed through unexpected lenses. She would like to acknowledge that she has never written a biographical statement that did not turn out weird, beg your indulgence, and express her hope that you enjoy her work in this anthology. The people at Duck Prints Press have been a delight, and she is deeply grateful to be included! (Personal Website | Twitter)

Aeryn Jemariel Knox: Aeryn Jemariel Knox first identified as a writer in second grade. With both parents involved in theater and a house full of bookshelves, they grew up surrounded by stories, and as soon as they could hold a crayon, they felt the urge to tell their own. In 2001, they discovered the wide and wonderful world of fanfiction; since then, they have gone by Jemariel in fandom spaces across the internet, engaging with their favorite media and communities in the best way they know. Previous fandoms include Harry Potter, Star Trek (The Original Series), Torchwood, and BBC’s Sherlock, but their most prolific writing and strongest community ties are in the Supernatural fandom. Now, nearly a decade after their last original fiction attempt, Aeryn is eager to explore the wider writing word. 

A native of Portland, Oregon, Aeryn currently lives in the suburbs with their husband and 16-year-old cat. For a day job, they work as a tech writer and general paper-pusher for an energy drink factory. Their favorite stories, both to tell and to read, are stories about love, identity, and magic. (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr)

Annabeth Lynch: Annabeth Lynch is a genderfae (she/they), bisexual author who writes mostly queer stories, preferring to write marginalized characters finding love. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, daughter, and two very overweight cats. (Facebook | Instagram)

Sebastian Marie: Sebastian Marie (he/him) is an engineering student with a penchant for writing off-the-wall fantasy, darkly comedic prose, and sickeningly indulgent short stories. He has a lot of opinions about dragons, pirates, and sword fighting. Track him down on Ao3 and he’ll share these opinions through fanfiction for various fandoms including BBC Merlin, The Mechanisms, and Our Flag Means Death. His original works often combine fantasy and dystopia into what he calls “queer fantasy hopepunk,” something that will be explored in his future novels. He loves to write conflicting traditional and non-traditional family dynamics, especially where they intersect with queer relationships. And if he can throw werewolves and brujas into the mix? So much the better. When not writing, frantically studying dirt, or reading, he can be found singing loudly, sewing impractical coats, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and going on long rambling walks while plotting stories (and occasionally falling into rivers). 

This is his second time writing for Duck Prints Press, having previously contributed to She Wears the Midnight Crown. This brings his grand total of published works up to two! He’s looking forward to more, as soon as he gets some sleep. (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr)

Nova Mason: Nova Mason spent a significant portion of her childhood fantasizing about dragons, spaceships, and other worlds. She is now, allegedly, a grown-up, with two kids, and more varied interests. Dragons, spaceships, and other worlds are still pretty high in the list, though.

Sage Mooreland: Sage Mooreland (they/them) is a city-dwelling gremlin from Chicago. They are embarking on the adventure that is their 40s equipped with three amazing partners, one very ridiculous eighteen-year-old biological offspring, and a fleet of teenagers and twentysomethings that adopted them through work over the last several years. Sage put themselves through the torture of grad school, and now holds a Bachelor’s in English and a Master’s in English and Creative Writing – Fiction, to which they say, “Now I have expensive pieces of paper that make it seem like I know what I’m talking about.” 

Sage has been writing since they were wee small, entering their first writing contest in fifth grade/at ten years old. In high school and college, they made small offerings to school literary magazines, and have done eighteen years of National Novel Writing Month. As their writing career grows, they hope to provide stories that are entertaining, caring, inclusive of all, and full of the stuff of which dreams are made. 

D. V. Morse: D. V. Morse (she/her) is a writer of fantasy and science fiction, generally (though not always) with some romance in there somewhere. She’s been in various aspects of healthcare for a couple of decades, most recently nursing. A lifelong New Englander who has been writing for as long as she can remember, she loves to find the liminal spaces in the local landscape and find the stories lurking within. She also loves playing with fiber arts, cycling through knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, and blackwork. She has also contributed to “Stand Where You’re Afraid,” in I Am the Fire, a limited edition charity anthology by a collective of SF/F romance authors raising funds for the National Network of Abortion Funds. (Carrd | Blog | Twitter | Facebook )

MouMouSanRen: MouMouSanRen (she/her) was born and raised on unceded Matinecock territory in what is now known as Flushing, New York. She has been published in multiple non-fiction magazines including Polygon. Aim for the Heart is her fiction debut. She resides in her native Queens, practicing martial arts and taking care of her dogs. (Twitter)

J. D. Rivers: J. D. writes speculative fiction where they fall deeply and madly in love and find a dead body, not necessarily in that order.

She collects hobbies as others collect books and has an unhealthy addiction to watching competitive cooking shows.

J. D. lives close to the woods with her husband and the cutest dog in the world. (Personal Website | Twitter)

Veronica Sloane: Veronica Sloane has authored a novel, several short stories, some poetry, and twenty-two years worth of fanfic. She lives with one lovely spouse, one rambunctious clever child, and one sleepy cat. (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr)

Shea Sullivan: Shea Sullivan is a life-long writer living in upstate New York. As a late-blooming queer person, she enjoys writing about complex characters coming into themselves and finding comfort in being exactly who they are.

Shea’s day jobs in computer programming and middle management have molded her into the patient, sarcastic, big-hearted, frustrated human she is today, but it’s what she does outside the 9-5 that really excites her. When she’s not writing, she can be found painting, napping, making quilts, watching documentaries, and trying not to adopt more animals, usually with a cup of tea in hand.

Xianyu Zhou: Xianyu Zhou is a translator and aspiring garment and plushie cloning specialist hailing from a coastal city in the tropics. Despite staying a 20-minute drive away from the nearest beach, they have yet to visited one, preferring to dwell in their darkened room luminated by a table lamp and ever-shifting RGB of a CPU fan. They have the tendency to accidentally wander into new and exciting forays such as joining Duck Prints Press (and enjoying it!), learning to sew (stitching and unstitching the same part of a “coaster” for the nth time) and working on their language skills (watching shows to scruntinize take notes about how their subtitles are written). 

Xianyu’s contribution to the anthology is their first publication, and they have reportedly made a party hat for their computer to celebrate the occasion. 

We couldn't be more thrilled to have all these amazing people working with us on this collection! You're not gonna want to miss what they've written and arted!

Make sure you sign up for our monthly newsletter and/or follow us on social media to always here the latest about Aim For The Heart and our other upcoming projects! (and you can always get behind-the-scenes access on our production progress, sneak-peeks of works-in-progress, and more by backing us on Patreon!)

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint.

[videogaems]

Steam Next Fest - June 2024

Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers It feels easy to say 'Balatro Clone'. BUT if you say that about this game, you are openly admitting that you only see playing cards and have no nuance, just like everyone said. Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers (Or D&DG as I'm going to refer to it, to save my little fingies the typing) is a roguelike blackjack battler. Those words feel confusing to stitch together but just follow me.

You choose your suit (different suits have different abilities, and the game equates this to difficulty) and begin playing blackjack against an opponent. You are always able to see their cards, unlike regular blackjack, and whoever of the two players wins does damage to the other players health pool, amounting to the difference between your final hands. Going over 21 results in your hand value being reduced to zero, in which case be prepared to take 17 full points of damage to the face.

As you win against opponents, you will acquire new cards for your deck, much like Balatro. Your opponents will also be acquiring these cards, much unlike Balatro.

There is also a mechanic of some cards being manually 'Exploited' (Read as: Activated), but in order to Exploit a Card, you must have Advantage (Read as: Points). This isn't explained well in the game *at all* in my opinion, but as you can see I figured it out using my brain and eyes, much to my chagrin.

I don't think I'll be Wishlisting D&DG, but it does the thing I like: It's a weird spin on a concept you know. And it works! I'll be curious to see if this catches on with the Balatro crowd, but I will certainly recommend it to roguelike and deckbuilding fans.

Dungeon Clawler I won't lie, when I saw that this was a dungeon crawler where you play a crane game to fight people, I automatically assumed this was my shit. I will say that it's kind of my shit, but it's not as 'my shit' as I originally thought it would be. Gameplay is cool and straightforward, you get two chances per turn to drop a claw into a claw machine and pull out symbols. The symbols you pull out will have some kind of effect (swords do damage, shields block damage, etc). By winning fights, you amass coins and new symbols to add to your crain machine that have varying effects.

By and large, the game is a cool idea but I'm not wild about execution. Now, Baron Mind® that this game is still in development so the following critiques may not apply someday BUT:

The art style is that kind cel-drawn images squash and stretch to imply movement, but it ends up kind of looking chinsey. It was the first thing I noticed, but maybe that's just because of how offput I am by that artistic choice.

Second, a banger of a soundtrack, even if it is just a remix of the Type B song from Game Boy Tetris, it's pretty good. But, zero sound effects. None at all, which filled me with discontent. I'm seeing attacks, I'm getting shields, I need noise.

Again, probably not a Wishlist for me but good execution on a great idea.

Tactical Breach Wizards

This was probably the breakout hit for me this Next Fest, and I will absolutely buy this day one (And hope the demo works after the fest is over). The third in the Defenestration Trilogy by Tom Francis - Which also includes Heat Signature (maybe one of my favorite games of all time) and Gunpoint (A game that, years after it came out, I found out I have a friend whose brother did the music - small world).

In Tactical Breach Wizards, it is the modern world, but magic exists. You are a team of magic users who are also a SWAT team. And when I say SWAT, I want you to imagine all the straight-to-DVD action movies that are marketed to the people who are military nerds, but never actually joined the military - It's that. I mean, one character is effectively Gandalf in Desert Camo with an M14 that has a staff sticking out of it, another has a wand with a laser sight and a silencer. It whips ass.

Gameplay is a lot like XCom, with one cool feature being that your wizard can see one second into the future, so after finishing your turns, you can forsee how the enemy will react, and rewind your turn as far back as you like, as many times as you want in order to achieve your desired outcome.

Honestly, I could rave about this game for a while. The gameplay, the style, the writing, everything is just aces, and this immediately breached the door to my Steam wishlist and killed everyone inside. Can't wait for August.

Caravan Sandwitch

I was unsure how to feel about Caravan Sandwitch. You play a girl who is returning to her hometown after a long time away, and reuniting with friends while driving a van.

The art style? Fantastic. Really just an absolute dream to look at and play. The setting? Eh... Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of games that don't hold your hand to explain the world lore, and just kind of let you figure it out through context. Caravan Sandwitch does try to do that, but it falls short, and you end up feeling like a third wheel to these characters, rather than being in the shoes of the character you're playing.

While you explore, the game will have pillows sitting about in hard-to-reach places that effectively serve as collectible lookout points, where your character will just chill and observe the surroundings. These moments are peaceful, and personally I'd love to see more games do something like this, in an effort to make the player really observe the effort put into the environment (A thing I fail to do often)

However, other than that, Caravan Sandwitch didn't really grip me and I probably won't keep up on it.

Dustborn

Another entry in forgettable-single-name-game-titles-that-are-portmanteaus. Dustborn has you follow a group of characters in a band, traveling across the country on a tour in an effort to get to Nova Scotia, which seems to be some kind of safe haven in a military-state America.

Again, the Art style in this game is fantastic, everything is very comic book stylized, even the button prompts, but the demo jumps between moments in the first couple hours of the game without giving you a lot of info as to what is going on. I was surprised when combat was introduced, and thrilled when it included a baseball bat that you can throw and retrieve like the Leviathan Axe in God of War. Well, not quite like the Leviathan Axe... it's posited that way, but ultimately ends up being a ranged attack that just automatically returns to you. Combat was very floaty and just didn't have that je-ne-sais-quois that makes combat feel good.

The game also contained a rhythm action sequence that was reminiscent of Gitaroo Man, another fave of mine, but that wasn't enough to make me want to follow up.

BUS: Bro U Survived

I dislike this game on name alone, and playing it didn't really help much. Points to it for having customization options to let me have a handlebar mustache, but this game just kind of boils down to a co-op zombie survival game in a cartoony style where you have to drive a bus sometimes. I only clocked 26 minutes in this game, and to be fair, I was playing solo (What, I'm supposed to make friends?), but this game didn't hold me for very long. Even as I write this I'm trying to remember much about it, and it just ended up being very forgettable.

Wizard of Legend 2

Hell yeah. HELL YEAH. I forget how I even found out about the original Wizard of Legend, but it's a fun roguelike that I recommend. I was unaware that a sequel was even in the works, so this was a delight to find out about, and an even bigger delight to play.

Players will play the role of a wizard attempting to complete a legendary challenge, with the idea that each run is a new wizard's attempt, since the last one died. Choose spells of different elements, speed, and power, and try to find combinations that mesh well together. I had a lot of fun using a wind vortex to pull all enemies to me, and then hitting the lot of them with chain lightning. Even for a demo, I could see myself sinking a lot of time into this (and I'm hoping it's still playable after Next Fest). This one makes the Wishlist for sure, and I'm looking forward to the release.

Aloft

I found Aloft very disappointing. Yet another first person crafting survival game with the hook being that eventually you make a glider that you can use to zip around the world.

The demo is in Alpha, as the devs will make known quickly, and the game made known to me quickly, since I encountered a bug early on that I had to visit the steam forums to make sense of. While going through the tutorial prompts, after collecting leaves and wood and shit like that, I was prompted to craft a Glider at the Glider station. Oh boy, it's finally my time to fly! But wait, I don't have a Glider Station. What's more, I can't build a Glider Station. Where is the Glider Station? Is this 'Glider Station' in the room with us right now?

Eventually I learned that this is a bug - the game is supposed to give you more prompts to guide you up the mountain in the game, where you will learn how to make the Glider station, and THEN you are supposed to get the prompt to build your glider. To drive that point forward: The. Tutorial. Is. Bugged. The thing that teaches you how to play the game does not work correctly. I know it's Alpha, and I know I don't make games, but this seems like such an oversight.

Finally, I made my Glider, and took off. It was... fine. The camera cuts to third person when this happens, but your character is so stiff and rigid flying around. It felt cool to zip around, but it didn't feel good if that makes any sense.

Maybe I'll circle back around on Aloft when it's in Beta or 1.0, but this just wasn't it for me.

Goblin Cleanup

But this was!!! Play as a goblin henchman whose job it is to clean up and reset all the traps in the dungeon before the next group of heroes arrive! For some reason, gamified mundane shit always gets me, and this game was no exception.

Goblin cleanup is almost beat-for-beat a reproduction of Viscera Cleanup Detail. Instead of a mop, you stab a slime and poke bloodstains with it until it soaks them all up (and dies?!). Instead of washing the mop, you feed the slime to a mimic, so on and so forth. Some improvements include:

Structure. You're given a list of tasks to complete, and they are checked off as you complete them. As a person with ADHD Inattentive Type, lists are key for me, so this was a big improvement over Viscera Cleanup Details approach of 'Clean until you're done and we'll tell you if you did good'. I'm neurodivergent with a praise kink, you've gotta tell me I'm doing good while I'm doing good.

Scanning. Hitting Q at any given point will highlight on your HUD where there are still items to be cleaned up. Massive improvement over Viscera Cleanup Detail, where you just have to kind of eyeball it.

I liked this! A lot! I could see myself buying this, or even just going back and trying to finish the level proper before NextFest is over.

Pawn Planet

I'm a massive mark for shop-owning games, and even more so if the game has a mechanic for haggling. Pawn planet has both, and by and large, I enjoyed it. The premise is simple, you run a pawn shop on a remote planet. Aliens come in an buy the stuff you have, or try to sell you things. When they approach the register you are given stats on the customer, like Anger, Knowledge, and Greediness. Using this, as well as the condition of the item you are buying or selling, you haggle on a price until one of you coughs up the cash. After the day is over, you can buy supplies to repair the items to make your money back.

Some days, there will be an auction at a storage planet where you roll the bones and bid on a Storage Locker of random items, storage wars style. Not going to lie, this had me hyped until I got fleeced on a board game I paid way too much for.

Other days, you will travel through a portal and ostensibly raid an alien base in order to murder civilians and take their stuff to sell. Okay, so the game doesn't say that, but the game also doesn't explain who these people are or why you are shooting them in the face. This section was underwhelming - The shooting isn't super tight, and you just sort of strafe and click on the aliens until they blow up. Not to mention there was some confusing placement of items in the alien base; Why are you putting what is obviously a safe in this room if it is not intended that I should try to crack it open and steal the rest of whatever was left in these creature's will?

Other bugbears included the fact that when you buy an item, only that item will come to your shipping bay, and you must remove it before you can buy another item. So in a situation where I needed three separate items, I needed to leave the computer, go to the shipping bay, retrieve it, and return to the computer... three separate times. Also, when traveling to the storage planet, I had to click where I wanted to go on my computer inside, then go outside to the spaceship to leave. These are small grievances, but the question and the sometimes vowel remains: Why?

This one gets a rec from me, I didn't spend too much time with it but I did enjoy it overall. Hoping that the finished product has a bit more polish.

The Alters

From the trailers I've seen of this game, it seems cool, but I didn't get far enough in the demo to really see the meat and bones. Which is to say I didn't get far enough to see any of the titular Alters. I, instead, ran headfirst into some radiation at some point, and lost about 10 minutes worth of progress that I just didn't have the nerve to redo, so I bailed. Luckily, these NextFest demos seem to not have expired, so maybe I'll go back and give it another shot.

In the meantime, there are a lot of Death Stranding vibes, a game I loved, and a base building mechanic similar to XCOM, yet another game I like. I think this has legs, and I enjoy the idea of alternate versions of the main character helping him out, but again - I didn't get there.

I dunno... seems neat.

Demonschool

This came at the recommendation of a friend, and I simply could not wrap my head around it. I'm a real sucker for teenagers at a weird school doing paranormal stuff, but the combat system felt very obtuse. One character only buffs, and two characters only attack. You choose the actions they will take but just kind of clicking around (not actually selecting the skills, just sort of running the character into targets), and then they play out those actions once your turn has concluded. Which I sort of get why, but it's still very disorienting. I only stuck around for two combats, so I can't say this is for me, but if you're into visual novelesque storytelling with Into the Breach Combat, this may be your cup of tea.

Reka

I think I remember seeing a trailer for this game during the Wholesome Direct or Cozy Direct or whatever the hell in 2023, but it seemed cool, and it is. This is effectively a base building game, except you're a young witch training under Baba Yaga and the base is a giant chicken house that you can drive around. It's pretty tight. Your character only looks like a haunted doll, regardless of what features you choose, and the controls are very floaty but I think this has a lot of potential. My first action once getting my Bird House was to see how big I could make the platform it sits upon, and the answer is 'pretty big'. This was one of a few demos that I actually saw through to the end, so I think that says quite a bit. Hoping the full release has some meat on these Chicken House Bones.

Thank Goodness You're Here!

I'm going to file this one under Biggest Disappointment of the Fest. I typically try to give games about 15 minutes at least so I can get a feel for what they're doing. This demo was 13 minutes long. It being by the creators of Untitled Goose Game had me excited, but ultimately you just kind of run around and slap things and everyone has a funny British accent. I was very un-wowed by the game, and very wowed when the demo ended so abruptly. Oh well, I suppose.

Tiny Glade

Not so much a game as it is a toy, but oh boy is it a fun one. Intuitively whip up little castles with no problem, and then walk around with them in the first person. I was so charmed by this that I called my artist wife in to sit down and take a look at it, and I didn't need to explain anything about it before she had build herself a little castle. You build little castles! What's not to love? I'm hoping there's more to it in the full release, or at the very point that the price point reflects what it is exactly.

Tiny Bookshop

Another one I saw in a cozy direct that I had my eye on that ended up kind of falling flat for me. This game boils down to a shop simulator, which I'm a huge fan of, obviously. But then there's the whole aspect of have percentages of book genres, and how many books you have affecting your likelihood to sell... it just didn't hook me in the way I hoped. The art style, however, was very good, and it's a delight to look at. This might be another one I take a stab at when I'm in the right headspace.

Wild Bastards

I heard Void Bastards was good, but I never actually played it. Wild Bastards seems pretty neat though... you are a couple of Wild West Robots (hell yeah) who are venturing across the galaxy and resurrecting your dead team members with a magic ship. Levels consist of beaming down to a planet and taking out enemies meticulously while not being killed yourself. You can only take down two team members at a time, but you can hotswap between them which is a neat mechanical way of changing weapons. Unfortunately, once I got my third team members, I was summarily shithoused by a bunch of plants and my run was ruined. Still, I had a lot of fun and I will be keeping a close eye on this one. Maybe not a day one buy, but certainly something to pick up.

That's my NextFest, folks. Love it or hate it, I love videogames and I like that demos are coming back in vogue. Til next time.

[questfriendspodcast]

What's the ideal XCOM TTRPG?

We got a question from @mistermustachiogmc, but for some reason Tumblr deleted it

The XCOM TTRPG discussion in the recent newsletter really interested me because the tactical gameplay is one thing that I would actually want from the XCOM experience. A little magicpunk TTRPG called Zafir does exactly that, and in fact, it's pretty Damn hard to actually die in that game. I think part of the reason for that is that it's really hard to create and get attached to characters that are gonna die very quickly. Even in something like Call of Cthulu, the death of the player characters is the end of the story, a climactic moment that sells the danger of what they're up against, while in something like XCOM, you're expected to keep burgeoning on, making new characters to throw at the enemy. People are more of a resource, and the most interesting thing a character could do in a system that almost guarantees their death is just not to die immediately.

I feel like my main response is to 👀 at the TTRPG they mentioned and maybe plug Hellpiercers by Sandy Pug Games? It’s extremely XCOM vibes except you are liberating hell and also communists. It also does not exist yet but I’m going to be obsessed when it does release. -Tom

I'm not surprised tactical gameplay is something you'd want in an XCOM TTRPG - it's a big selling point of the game, and I imagine it's something most players would want in any adaptation! The reason I'd cut it from my own TTRPG adaption is two-fold:

Like you said, it's tough to deal the relentless onslaught of death in a TTRPG setting. In XCOM, the way they avoid that is by having the player character and all other major characters stay safe in the command center. Unsurprisingly, the first XCOM game (to my knowledge) that has major characters as playable units is also the first one without permadeath.

Tactical combat in TTRPGs is very tough for me personally, in large part because I enjoy tactics video games. In XCOM, I'm getting to dictate the strategy of the entire squad, but in a TTPRG, I get to make my one decision and then have to wait 30 minutes for my next turn (NOTE: my opinion here is heavily skewed by my personal experiences playing TTRPGs). This is why the one tactical TTRPG experience I really want to try is playing a 1v1 Lancer Match against Tom, where each of us controls an entire squad.

For me, the solution to both of these problems is to make "the commander" the player character. The main issues with this solution are (1) keeping the personal connection to the units, and (2) making an experience that isn't just "XCOM with paper." For me, that means taking out the tactics to focus on unit creation, attachment, and death, but I know that's heavily skewed by my personal preferences. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! -Kyle

[sapphiresonstrings]

Why Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is Still the Best

I've been playing Terra Invicta lately, which is a game that wears its influences on its sleeve (namely XCOM and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, hereafter SMAC).

Like SMAC, Terra Invicta plays voiced quotes from in-universe characters when you research technologies. The main difference is that the quotes in SMAC are better.

For a side-by-side comparison, here's a tech research quote from Terra Invicta:

"How could one so young, coddled as you are by the modern world, begin to understand what war is? I did what had to be done. Closing your eyes and wishing the monster away only makes you an easier meal." -Colonel Hanse Castillo, Humanity First Closing statement from his trial for alleged war crimes during Operation Condor Upon researching Deep Space Skywatch

Now here's one from SMAC:

"The Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the Genetic Inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we shall not allow this Council to violate faction privileges in the name of this ridiculous witch hunt!" -Fedor Petrov, Vice Provost for University Affairs Upon researching Retroviral Engineering

Both of these reveal character, which is good, but the Terra Invicta quote does it in a bland way. The character essentially turns to the camera and explains his faction's philosophy. It also takes a teensy bit too much "inspiration" from A Few Good Men.

Compare the SMAC quote, which tells an entire (funny) story. We possess no retroviral capability, this is a witch hunt, no you can't look in the Academician's private residence (The Academician is the leader of the University faction, essentially a head-of-state). After the player just researched Retroviral Engineering, so the Vice Provost is clearly lying.

The quote implies so much about the characters and the universe. First, there are international treaties forbidding research into retroviral engineering. Second, these rules are clearly insufficient to stop the University from doing just that (reveals the tone of the world and a dark side to the personality of the University faction, arguably the least evil faction). Thirdly, the Academician is paying lip service to the rules while personally researching retroviral engineering in his own home to take advantage of his faction privileges (reveals the Academician's character).

The implications of the quote take longer to explain than the quote itself. That's amazing.

By comparison, the quotes in Terra Invicta are pretty surface-level. The one I gave as an example is one of the deeper ones, in that it revealed some personality of a character. Many are just pseudo-philosophical mumbo jumbo with no deeper meaning, like this one:

"Do not seek to be the elephant. Become instead the mosquito, which pierces its mighty hide, which laces its blood with disease, and which cannot be swatted away by its feeble tail." Colonel Hanse Castillo, Humanity First As quoted in his (unpublished) biography "Five Moves Ahead."

There are way too many animal metaphors in this game.

Anyway, other than that the game is excellent. The writing just isn't up to SMAC's level.

P.S. Judith Howell is a discount Miriam Godwinson. Sometimes people forget that Miriam Godwinson wasn't just a religious nut, she was also an intellectual who wrote multiple books and made a bunch of good points.

[lustfulmechanics]

Okay now that I've gotten the pained shrieking out of my system, currently working on a potential mechanical framework for an XCOM Quest, and torn between three options

Option 1, the Vibes System. Players propose a plan, I consider the risk reward ratio, roll a d100 and higher numbers work out better, lower numbers work out worse. This is the easiest system to implement, but makes it very hard for the audience to actually predict the result of their vote cause they have very little to base their choices off of beyond Vibes.

Option 2, the Existing System. In this route, I lift a system wholesale from some skirmish game to use for mechanical resolution. Currently I'm looking at F28: War Always Changes as a base to work with, since it's reasonably flexible and can even accommodate player actions outside of normal gameplay considerations (being designed with the possibility of Game Master run Narrative play). However, some of the base math doesn't line up great with situations expected of XCOM. I won't go into the full math right now cause sleepy but the odds are off in ways that people who are used to what works in XCOM will notice, "Hey, this feels weird."

Option 3, the Modified System. I'd still use some existing system as a base because I'm not fucking insane but I'd look at overhauling the underlying random numbers to more line up with the XCOM experience. As an example, I could switch F28 from a d6 system to a d10 and replacing toughness rolls with variable damage and everyone having multiple hitpoints. This would require more initial setup on my part ripping some of the guts out of the system and stuffing new ones back in, but would also mean I could lift a bit more math straight from XCOM itself and that people more familiar with the series would be able to more readily jump right in and make educated decisions.

So yeah, a question of how much effort I want to out in and how close I want to run to source material. It's taking up a surprising amount of brain space right now, so wish me luck!

[factorialsotherfandoms]

@cubitodragon

How do the parent-child bonds work compared to canon? Are there XCOM quirks you like to apply to these relationships as well as between different characters? Which character (player or NPC) are you pleased to give more screen time to? And The most important question So important it’s getting it’s own reply Is Ramón’s moustache real?

You mean relationship wise or like actual metaphysically? Either way. Obviously without the egg event and the random assignment and stuff, as well as the more gradual (and much narratively later) introduction of the eggs, things are gonna be a bit different. Tasks are also not governmentally assigned, and the only thing actually necessary to ensure their survival is yk feed them. Other people checking in on the eggs starts much earlier, meaning they are for the most part closer to their aunts and uncles than canon. No less close to their parents, but they're all more familiar with them. Now instead of the random assignment, and the parents picking the egg, instead the eggs are picking the parents. Remember my mention of vague psychic connection between all of them? Wellllll the eggs are baby psychics who may or may not accidentally psychically imprint on adults they like. For the most part this is a few days /after/ the kid gets taken home, though if they're included Memory egg it'll be pretty instantaneous on the first adult she sees for... reasons related to what the bond is, what the eggs are, and the circumstances she's found in. But like. Usually it takes 3-4 days. Chayanne and Bobby took a bit over a week, despite being kinda clingy during that time, because at that point none of the eggs have met humans before, and they don't feel safe. For the later ones those two can reassure them, and its a bit easier. This does also shake up egg parent relationships though lol. Some do still get together because of the eggs, or never are anyway, but Phil and Missa are already skirting around each other, and Marianna and Slime are having nasty-type sex from about the moment Mariana steps onto the ship (and had been before either of them were there), Fit and Spreen are already exes by a few years (and Fit still asks Spreen for baby name advice...), Dan is already dead... I think Foolish and Vegetta are the only couple their kid actually gets together this way around?

Okay so! Because I'm playing with DLC turned on, every character has a randomised relationship value with every other character, upgrading their relationship rank by that value every mission they go on together. I am very much not using these for romantic, but did fiddle a bit in the back end to make them at least make sense. When these bonds are upgraded it allows the two units to do things like transfer actions between each other and make each other immune to mental status effects when next to each other, buuuuut also means that if one of them gets paticularly badly injured the other /will/ freak the fuck out. Like. Gets hit with a critical/killed (though save scumming avoids that)/made to bleed out/knocked out sort of badly injured. These are coming into play, though there aren't as many sets as I would have liked simply because they're fiddly and take a while. Can't remember all of them, but of those I can there are... Bagi & Tina (romantic) Phil & Etoiles Foolish & BBH Roier & Missa Baghera & IronMouse Mariana & Slime (unsure if romantic but definitely sexual) and, of course, Tazercraft (You can see I mostly tried to steer things, but when Baghera and Mouse wanted to I was like you know what fuck it you go girls) While most of these are just synching up over time and becoming slightly attached through the psychic network, Tazercraft's I'm writing as a bit more extreme. Because of course. It's not exactly wrong to call the bonds a type of soulmate, but they wouldn't consider it as such. Tazercraft are different. Their bond in game is exactly the same, but in the fiction they've had it for years, and they're capable of full, controlled telepathic communication with one another. It's the only /natural/ bond in the group, the others all being forced via combat in the first forming and intensive training for latter parts. This /does/ come with the downside of if they're ever cut off from each other their mental and physical health will both be badly effected, and spiral particularly quickly, something which doesn't happen for the rest. Because of this those two work out about the egg psychic attachments first - as they're already familiar with the vibes. For purposes of writing I may also make a couple of them three way. But we'll see if I write it.

Hmmmmm if I can get him down I'm excited for some of the stuff with Aypierre? Though more his backstory than the main plot. Main plot he's the science guy. Backstory he performed brain surgery on himself to free himself from Federation mind control via brain chip, during a brief power cut meaning he both was free enough to do it and had no lights to see by, and frankly that alone is pretty cool. Then once we add Ayrobot into the mix... Fun times! Most of the focal characters I already write more than others because I'm comfy with them and oh boy my notes are 90 pages long >.<

Ramón’s mustache is indeed real! It may or may not be made of hair, however.

[an-aussie-button-masher]

Marvel’s Midnight Suns - the superhero strategy game I never knew I needed

  I wasn’t sure I’d like playing Midnight Suns, as I’d never been interested in the whole “deck-building turn-based-strategy” schtick, but over 130 hours later I’m wishing I’d played it from day one. Developed by Firaxis Games (the team behind XCOM) and released in December 2022, Midnight Suns is the latest addition to the Marvel gaming library. An adaptation of the comics team known as the Midnight Sons, the game focuses on the lesser-seen mystical and supernatural side of Marvel. It’s also the first Marvel game that allows the player to create their own protagonist; dubbed The Hunter, this entirely original character serves as the player’s avatar throughout the game as they battle the evil demonic Lilith (who also happens to be the Hunter’s mother). As Lilith spreads her demonic influence across Earth, it’s up to the Midnight Suns, their allies in the Avengers, and the newly-resurrected Hunter to stop her at all costs.

GAMEPLAY    The game wastes no time in throwing you into the action, teaching you the basic mechanics in a quick and intuitive way. As the game progresses, the sheer amount of different tricks and mechanics you’ll need to master might seem intimidating, but you’d be surprised at how quickly it becomes like second nature. With new heroes, cards, enemies, hazards and mission types constantly being introduced over time, the game feels fresh and engaging for the entire playthrough without outpacing the player. Between missions, the player controls the Hunter as you explore the Abbey, the makeshift home base of the Midnight Suns. Exploring the Abbey grounds and hanging out with the heroes is a “love it or hate it” situation; while some might feel it drags down the action, I personally love it as it fleshes out the characters and expands the lore of the game. The game will definitely take a strong PC to run at high settings - you might run into some strange visual bugs and the odd crash here and there, plus some framerate issues in the Abbey when the two-dozen or so heroes all hang out in the same place. I’ve experienced few, if any, performance issues within the actual missions, and the occasional bugs I’ve run into do nothing to dampen my enjoyment of the game.

WRITING    The game’s writing is definitely its biggest strength. The characters are excellently written, with a good mix of humour and seriousness that fit perfectly with each characters’ distinct personality. The story campaign takes much longer than I expected but never felt like a drag, with plenty of exciting twists that caught me by surprise in the best way. While some of the voices can take a little getting used to, especially if you’re more acquainted with the film versions of the characters, the actual performances are top-notch. Every quote out of the characters’ mouths, from story cutscenes to dialogue interactions to even the random one-liners in the midst of combat are both written and voiced near-flawlessly; even generic HYDRA troopers get hilariously terrified as the heroes whittle their numbers down in battle. There’s also plenty of familiar voices in the game that long-time fans will be happy to hear again, like Yuri Lowenthal as Spider-Man and Steve Blum as Wolverine. The golden combination of top-tier voice acting, exciting writing and engaging gameplay is rare, but Midnight Suns has more than proven itself in those regards.

GRAPHICS & AUDIO    While not quite as high-grade as the game’s other aspects, the overall graphical quality is still fairly good, save for a handful of lighting and texture bugs that keep cropping up. Some of the characters’ facial models are a tad off, especially if you aren’t playing at the highest possible graphics settings. However, the animations in combat and during cutscenes are superb; every single blow landed by either the heroes or villains has loads of impact to it with perfectly-paced slow-motion that really sells the sheer superhuman strength everyone seems to have. Virtually every card you play is accompanied by a unique animation with cinematic camera angles, turning the otherwise-straightforward card game into a grand blockbuster battle straight out of a movie. The music is often overpowered by all the explosive action sound effects of combat, but taking a moment to really listen to the soundtrack reveals just how awesome it actually is. The battle music is tense and exciting, the boss fight music is heavy and foreboding, and even the main menu soundtrack will get you pumped up before you even hit Continue Game.

ENJOYMENT    Simply put, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is downright addicting. Not the “guilts the player for not logging in every day” kind of addicting, but the “game is just that fun” kind. I’m not even much for turn-based strategies or card games, having bought this game because I’m a Marvel fan and wanted to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised by how fun I found the gameplay, and the story had me hooked from the beginning. There’s nothing more satisfying than getting just the right combo of cards to clear out the entire enemy team before they’ve even had their first turn; it turns out the Hulk is really powerful. Who knew? As I mentioned earlier, I personally loved the in-between-mission moments of hanging out with the other heroes in the Abbey, exploring the lore and worldbuilding of this particular Marvel universe. I’m really looking forward to the future of this game - there’s still more DLC planned, and I’m hopeful for plenty of extra heroes and missions. Fingers crossed for a sequel!

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