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lightwise · 17 days

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They Call Themselves The Bad Batch

Parallels between TCW S7 E1 and TBB S3 E11

Watching the latest TBB episode, I realized there are some striking parallels between the very first time we meet our boys in season 7 of the Clone Wars, and watching them be hunted down on Pabu after everything they’ve been through. I know this isn’t the last episode, but this is the countdown to wrapping up this part of their story. Let’s take a look at the first time we see them on screen vs. now:

TCW: The Bad Batch is brought in to help find an algorithm on Anaxes that has been causing the GAR to lose tons of battles by “learning our tendencies and using that data against us”. Rex was one of the army’s best tacticians and he was being defeated by his own strategies being copied.

TBB: CX-2 uses every tactic that the Batch possesses against them (tracking, data decryption, sniping, hand to hand, demolition). The Batch was the best the army had and they are defeated by CX-2 in this episode.

TCW: Cody asks his superiors (Mace and Anakin) to let him take a team and go behind enemy lines in order to try and find/defeat this algorithm.

TBB: Omega convinces Crosshair to help her give herself up to go back to Tantiss so they can finally rescue the clones still imprisoned there.

TCW: Rex looks at a picture of his “family” - Cody, Fives and Echo. Also, this is where we get Cody’s famous line “sometimes in war it’s hard to be the one that survives”—which is exactly what the entirety of TBB has been about.

TBB: Omega puts memorabilia of her family—Tech’s goggles and Lula—into the Archium for safekeeping and remembrance.

TCW: Cody and Rex have a conversation about Rex’s theory that Echo might actually be alive. Cody’s response begs him to not have “misplaced hope. I need you to be focused on this.”

TBB: Omega and Crosshair discuss their limited options as the Empire closes in on them on Pabu. “Think about the greater mission. I’m just a small part of it”.

TCW: Tech brings the Havoc Marauder brought in onto the platform with the infamous Tech turn.

TBB: CX-2 has his ship brought in by remote with a menacing turn mid-air so the ramp faces them after capturing Omega.

TCW: Wrecker’s (and any Batch members’) first line - “The Cavalry Has Arrived”

TBB: - The last episode of the series will be titled this.

TCW: Crosshair is introduced as being able to hit precise targets from 10 klicks away.

TBB: Crosshair misses the most important shot he could ever make.

TCW: One of Wrecker’s first “feats” that we see him perform is rescuing Cody from a downed gunship before it explodes. Cody is then severely injured, flat on his back, and out of commission for the mission.

TBB: Wrecker risks his life and rescues Gonky before the Marauder explodes. He is unconscious and flat on his back for the rest of the episode.

TCW: Tech tells Jesse and Kix that “maps can be wrong. Hunter never is”.

TBB: Crosshair immediately notices when Hunter’s senses go off and asks “what is it Hunter?” “Not sure, but I don’t like it.”

TCW: Rex states “We should move out before reinforcements arrive. Our position has been compromised”.

TBB: Omega tells Lyana that it’s safer if they leave, and Crosshair notes to Hunter that ships don’t blow up by themselves and therefore they’ve been compromised.

TCW: Tech is easily able to hack into the computer and give Rex a reading of the algorithm and pinpoint its location, in the process finding out that it is actually Echo on Skako Minor.

TBB: The episode opens with CX-2 hacking into Phee’s ship and decrypting her data logs and flight patterns to Pabu.

TCW and TBB: The episodes end with ships flying off into the sunset with eerie red lighting, and the Bad Batch theme music playing is a somewhat melancholy version of their theme rather than the standard one.

✨ Tag List ✨

@drafthorsemath @freesia-writes @ladyzirkonia @jedizhi @the-little-moment @sunshinesdaydream @the-bad-batch-baroness @heyclickadee @burningfieldof-clover @dreamless-daydreamer

#the bad batch #tbb #star wars #the clone wars #tcw #clone force 99 #tbb spoilers #the bad batch spoilers #they call themselves the bad batch

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terramythos · 19 days

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Anyway here's my breakdown of the ffxiv jobs, my opinions on playing each, and the tier rank of how good their story was

TANKS

WARRIOR - warrior is so fucking funny why did they make it able to solo heal itself and the entire party in 90% of the content in the game. Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting is so broken in dungeons its hilarious. And then they have like 3 additional healing skills on top of that. And they kept buffing it throughout Endwalker. So it is currently the easiest to play, does the most damage (i think...?), and has the best healing of any of the Tank jobs. 2nd fave probably.

Story Tier: C, it's ok, Curious Gorge is a good name. i have like nothing to say about it it's a generic AF story

PALADIN - I used to hate PLD but I think the partial rework they got halfway through Endwalker helped it a lot. It's much less clunky now. Probably still my least favorite Tank though Hallowed Ground is fun and it's pretty close to Gunbreaker for me.

Story Tier: F, this is the worst class storyline in the entire game. It's so stupid. The writing is so bad the writers acknowledge it makes no sense at all and I'm like. Yeah, thanks, I am experiencing this shit. Perhaps write a story that makes sense next time instead of pointing that out.

DARK KNIGHT - Unfortunately this is my favorite Tank 🫡 which is rough since it has the worst survivability out of any of them. But I love how you use MP and the silly number of OGCDs. The Blackest Night is such a fun ability and it's a crime that it's not a baseline skill you get from the start. Why do they have so many DRs that only cover magic damage. I must ask.

Story Tier: S, there's a reason it's the most popular and well regarded class storyline. It's really good, also the only questline I know of that uses the quest log text as part of the narrative. Outside maybe a few of the very late Endwalker quests. And, well... same writer lmao

GUNBREAKER: I think GNB looks cool as fuck and I like that it has 2 DPS rotations. The Gnashing Fang combo is so fun. Superbolide memes are always fun. My main issue with it is a skill issue because I am just constantly misaligning its burst windows.

Story Tier: C. It has some interesting lore but I found it pretty forgettable as a story.

HEALERS

WHITE MAGE: I hated White Mage for a while but something clicked and now I totally get it. I find it fun in dungeons cause you get to Holy spam and stun lock everything. As uh. The healer. That's fun. Once you get Afflatus heals (and then Afflatus Misery) it clicks. It's fun maximizing damage and playing chicken with the tank's HP.

Story Tier: B, you get a lot of lore around the Padjal, and I think the Stormblood story where you find a padjal living in hiding with her mother is pretty good! Also it's not technically the job storyline but there's a WHM side quest to get a unicorn mount? i guess it's technically a CNJ quest but same diff. no one else gets that shit. so that's cool

SCHOLAR: probably my least favorite of the healers... it just feels super clunky. You can tell a bunch of different design philosophies went into it over the years and none of them mesh very well. They've made it so the Fairy Gauge controls literally one spell. Why have the gauge at all? It's also a huge missed opportunity that there's no tie in or interaction with the fae in Shadowbringers. I love the idea of a battle tactician healer but I think it needs a rework.

Story Tier: B+, I liked the characters and its the main way to get backstory and lore on what happened with Nym.

ASTROLOGIAN: While I think AST has a similar issue to SCH (lots of different design philosophies over the years) I find it way more fun to play. I like the card mechanic and how it interacts with the rest of the party. AST is basically the only job that has its own like. Minigame? As part of its rotation. And I know a lot of people don't like the RNG for it but personally I find it fun. I know AST is getting a redesign in Dawntrail so hope it's good.

Story Tier: C? I think? I'll be honest I don't remember it super well but I didn't find anything objectionable about it. And I like the tarot aesthetic and lore and how it's healing based on manipulating luck.

SAGE: I think SGE is tons of fun, I'm not sure if I like it or WHM more. I love all the skills SGE has for preventing damage and the gimmick where your DPS heals someone in the party. Visually the hi-tech laser shooting healer is a lot of fun. IT HAS A GAP CLOSER. The only thing i wish was it wasn't so MP negative and that it did more damage. It's a little sad its DPS output is so low compared to the other healers (even AST when you factor in how it buffs the party). Since SGE is supposed to be a healer that heals through damage it's silly its damage kinda sucks.

Story Tier: A, I loved this storyline. Both the Endwalker job stories are very self contained and interesting. While the twist is pretty obvious it's still an interesting exploration of uh. Scientific ethics. Yeah

PHYSICAL MELEE DPS

MONK: I've probably played MNK the least of the phys melee but I like the whole adaptable combo thing. Not much else to say since I have played it so little. Might bring it back out and try again. It DID have the funniest guide in the Balance discord for a while.

Story Tier: D. I think? I remember thinking it was dumb, lmao. Sorry.

DRAGOON: MAN I wished I liked DRG more. It looks so fucking cool and I like how it interacts with the dragon lore. But I find it very punishing to play. To do good damage you have to align so many different cooldowns... and snapshot your DOT correctly... and screwing one thing up just fucks your DPS output forever. Like AST I believe this is being reworked in Dawntrail so I hope it feels better to play.

Story Tier: C+. I think it starts strong since you get to meet Estinien pre-Heavensward and it melds nicely with that story. But I found it pretty directionless post-HW which is a shame.

NINJA: I remember finding this one fun. I like that there are different combos you do that have varied finishers depending on the situation. I am just... bad at remembering which combo to use to get which finisher, lol. So I haven't played it as much. NIN gets a lot of flavor other jobs don't get with their unique run and jump animations. And you get a Bunny of Shame on your head if you fuck up a combo, which is incredible.

Story Tier: A. The Rogue story is probably the most memorable of the basic class quests. Ninja just has great characters and a fun story. What is with that one guy. Karasu? If you know you know. I also like how the Rogue characters show up later in the Ninja story. That's fun.

SAMURAI: I had a similar experience to WHM here because I initially hated it then really came around once it clicked. SAM seems very complex, it has a ton of buttons and different combos. But it is actually quite intuitive once you figure out the general pattern. And it does INSANE damage. I think it's the highest DPS output in the game? I love building the combos and then doing a huge finisher for a bajillion damage. The guaranteed crits and constant OGCD weaves make me feel unstoppable. I think this is tied with RPR for me.

Story Tier: B+. I found the exiled samurai character and his journey toward redemption very compelling. I won't spoil beyond that. However it does fall apart a little in the second half. Still fun but not as good.

REAPER: I love RPR, the teleportation is a lot of fun, and I love finally unleashing the demon form and going ham on the enemy. The weapons are the coolest looking in the game. Every scythe design hits. I probably played this the most in Endwalker. My main critique is the Death's Design mechanic. I hate having to keep a stupid debuff on the target to do damage. It's like a dot but without the optimized snapshotting. If they want to keep this idea i think it would feel better to change it into something like SGE's Kardia where you apply it to one enemy to do increased damage to it without having to worry about reapplying it. not sure how they would balance this for aoe but that's not my job. But even with that caveat I still really enjoy the job.

Story Tier: A+. While it doesn't reach the highs of DRK's story it comes close. I love the badass old lady main character. Her hunting a voidsent that possessed her grandfather would be cool enough but making her a Garlean exile in hiding who grudgingly agrees to train you just adds an extra cool factor. I really enjoyed this story. As a bonus theres a lot of incidental dialogue in the post-6.0 Endwalker story if you completed the RPR story because it ties in a lot.

PHYSICAL RANGED DPS

BARD: It's a bit clunky, its got some outdated design elements, it has one of the lowest damage outputs in the game... and i LOVE IT. this was technically the first job I ever played? totally different character like 8 years ago. and i was so so bad. I think i am actually pretty good at current BRD. the animations look cool. i like that it's a class you really need to work for and optimize to eke out that last bit of damage. and boosting everyone else's damage by existing is kinda neat.

Story Tier: B. I'll be real I barely remember this but I do remember it was gay as fuck so immediately gets an extra tier for that.

MACHINIST: MCH is really funny right now because like. It's phys ranged, right. The design behind phys ranged is you have 100% uptime cause you can freely move around and not have to worry about cast timers or melee range or anything. So the trade off is that they do less damage than other classes. Endwalker MCH did not get the memo and does insane damage anyway. My controversial opinion is that it has similar burst DPS to RPR. No i will not elaborate. I'm also bad at doing good damage on MCH which is impressive since it is easy.

Story Tier: B+. Some Ishgard noble's gay son wants to build machines instead of killing dragons the good old fashioned way and has to prove himself to get taken seriously. A tale as old as time. See I haven't done this quest in like years but I still remember it. He is a memorable character. It's just not like. knockout wowza compared to the A tier stories.

DANCER: Dancer is the second easiest DPS job in the game behind SMN. So if i am sleepy it's the one I like playing. You play simon says. you do a lot of damage when you play simon says then do almost no fucking damage otherwise. I think it's the lowest direct damage in the game? for a dps i mean. You have high stakes sexual tension with a DPS of your choice via Dance Partner. I wish other DNC players knew how Dance Partner works. YOU CAN DANCE PARTNER ANOTHER DANCER. THE BUFF STACKS. BUT YOU CANNOT DANCE PARTNER THE SAME PLAYER AS ANOTHER DANCER. THOSE BUFFS DO NOT STACK. ok i'm good. anyway

Story Tier: C. there's some shit about negative emotions and purging them? in theory i think this has some interesting implications with Endwalker lore considering Dynamis and its role in the story. Very similar mechanically to what's going on with the DNC story. but i really don't think the writers made the connection so it's like pure speculation and not the actual story. It's meh. fine i guess. i did like all the flashy dancing sequences.

MAGICAL RANGED DPS

BLACK MAGE: I am so so so so so so so bad at BLM. i pull up the guide. i read the guide. it all makes perfect sense. i go into a dungeon or trial or something. somehow i always get like Zeromus or some shit. and i drop Enochian or something and everything goes to shit and i'm yelling and i'm not even like slide casting or teleporting or anything i just run around crying. then i remember i have like 10 more buttons i haven't been pressing and oh god the dot fell off. people play this? for fun? i admire it. apparently they do a ton of damage if you can play it. could not be me.

Story Tier: B? There's some voidsent and Thirteenth lore. all the black mage characters are Lalafell because it's funny i guess. OH YEAH it has like the one named male Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te NPC in the entire game and he's fun. look at this twink:

sorry i don't have anything to say about BLM i am bad at it

SUMMONER: easiest DPS job in the entire game. they redesigned it for Endwalker so it is practically a new job. i have no idea how it played before. but it is super streamlined. maybe too streamlined? it's another one to play if you want to turn your brain off. i like that at 90 you summon The Actual Primals instead of little representations of them. and i like the way your burst phase switches between Bahamut and Phoenix. it all looks very cool. they should add Leviathan as a summon in Dawntrail.

Story Tier: C.. i don't remember a single thing about this questline except you interact with Y'shtola's half sister. i think you go to Cartenau at some point. idk

RED MAGE: RDM is one of those jobs that looks really complicated when you start then you actually play it and it is just super super easy. that being said i think it's really fun. I like balancing the white and black magic gauges. Dualcast is a great gimmick and it feels cool to lob two big spells in a row at something. Dualcast Verraising a chain of dead players is so fucking funny. it's a shame that the existence of Verraise means RDM does shit damage to compensate for its utility. It and DNC just sit at the bottom with BRD barely scratching ahead of them. i think? i don't remember LOL

Story Tier: A, I really like the story and characters. I like that you have a middle-age world weary catboy (catman) as your mentor. and i like that he canonically trained Alisaie too and you chat a little about that. it's a fun story!

BLUE MAGE: what the fuck is a blue mage

Story Tier: ???

#my posts

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3rdeyeblaque · 7 months

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On October 3rd we venerate Ancestor & Saint Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiakaka aka Black Sparrow Hawk on the 185th anniversary of his passing 🕊 [for our Hoodoos of First Nations descent]

Black Sparrow Hawk was a great Warrior military tactician, & Medicine Man of Sauk Nation, who is best known for the war that bears his name, as the last Indian-Euro war fought east of the Mississippi. It was his defeat signaled the end untimely of 200 years of armed resistance against European colonization on Turtle Island.

Black Sparrow Hawk (Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak) was born into the Thunder Clan of Sauk Nation around 1767 & was a member of the Warrior Class. He was the son of a highly respected Medicine Man and would go on to inherit his father's Medicine Bags after he was killed in battle. Though polygamous, had only 1 wife. They had 5 children. They later lost their eldest son & youngest daughter within the same year. Black Hawk mourned the deaths of his children for 2 years - in Sauk tradition.

At age 15 he wounded his first enemy in battle, which initiated him into the Warrior Class & earned him the right to paint his face and wear feathers. From then on he continued to bravery & tactitcal skills on the battlefield. During the War of 1812, Black Hawk's warriors fought alongside the Shawnee on the side of the British Army against the U.S. colonies. Despite the misnomer given by the Europeans, Black Hawk was NOT a chief, he was highly respected & influential leader of a political faction within the Sauk nation that believed in preserving the traditional ways of life before European invasion.

In 1804, five Sauk and Meskwaki chiefs were tricked into signing a treaty with the U.S gov, selling nearly 51 million acres of tribal lands in Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin in exchange for various goods & a $1,000 yearly annuity to be paid to the nations. Despite this blatantly illegal act, the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty. The treaty stipulated that the Indians could remain on the ceded lands as long as that land was not wanted for white settlement. As more colonizers invaded Saukenuk territories, tensions rose. To avoid anymore bloodshed, the Sauk and Meskwaki moved to the west side of the Mississippi. However, Black Hawk and his followers refused to give up their lands & remained in Saukenuk. When tensions peaked, the Governor of Illinois dispatched military troops to force out the remaining Sauk and Meskwaki. Black Hawk led his followers across the river out of Illinois & into Iowa during the night.

This spurred Black Hawk to wage the war so named after him, against the U.S. to reclaim their ancestral lands. He led about 1500 followers across to the eastern bank of the Mississippi. This threw the entire frontier into a panic. The Black Hawk War went in for 15 weeks, ending the Battle of Bad Axe in Wisconsin. At its end, starvation, deprivation, & exhaustion killed off 2/3 of his followers. Though he along with 5 of his closest companions, including his eldest son, escaped before the Battle, they was captured 6 weeks later & imprisoned. They were released into the custody a Sauk leader named, Keokuck - Black Hawk's arch political rival - & was directed to follow his counsel and advice. From then on, Black Hawk was no longer recognized as the political leader of the Sauk. In the end, Black Hawk lost more 1,000 folders to the War & more Sauk- Meskwaki territories were taken as war reparations.

Black Hawk would go on to dictate his autobiography to an interpreter. "The Life of Black Hawk" was published in 1833. Despite his dishonor & shame among the Sauk, Black Hawk had ironically achieved fame and great admiration among his former enemies.

After his death, Black Hawk was buried sitting upright inside a small mausoleum of logs. Soon after, his grave was desecrated by grave robbers. His remains were eventually deposited in a museum in Burlington, Iowa which burned down in 1855.

As one of the most feared, yet respected First Nations leaders in history, at the core of his legacy - despite defeat- was his hard-fought battle to preserve the ancestral homelands of his people & preserve their traditional ways of life in the growing shadow of European colonization.

“I am a Sauk…I am a Warrior.” - Black Hawk's final proclamation.

Offering suggestions: play traditional Sauk music, deer or buffalo meat with cornbread/squash/beans/berries/honey, tobacco smoke

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

#hoodoo #hoodoos #atr #atrs #the hoodoo calendar #rootwork #rootworkers #ancestor veneration #Black Sparrow Hawk #Black Hawk #Sauk #Sauk nation #First Nations

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shartstan97 · 3 months

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I am convinced Sorcadin is broken. The damage numbers are INSANE. This is likely my favourite paladin multiclass thus far for the number of spellslots and damage omg.

Currently lvl 10 playing Shadowcute origin. Split is 6 Paladin / 6 Sorc eventually.

Paladin: Oath of Vengeance (personally, Vow of Emnity and Misty Step is super goated)

Sorcerer: Draconic Bloodline, White (Armour of Agathys)

Damage numbers in the combat log below are influenced by:

- Halberd of Vigilance (1d4 force damage)

- Drakethroat Glaive (1d4 thunder damage applied)

- Perilous Stakes (Vulnerability to all damage -> 2x damage from sources)

- Phalar Aluve (1d4 thunder damage)

- Great weapon master feat (+10 to damage, -5 to attack roll, but I offset with this 20 STR which is a +5)

- Savage Attacker (Reroll all damage die)

Myrkul in Tactician got melted from 200+ HP basically :-)

^swapped out gloves so i have 1d4 fire damage in above ss.

#bg3 paladin #bg3 combat log #shadowheart #bg3 shadowheart #myrkul did not stand a chance #sorcadin is stupid strong for the number of spellslots you get #level 4 smites omfg

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imustbenuts · 7 months

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Kiran is luck itself Part 2. Brief analysis of the absent mechanics in FEH.

If you’ve read part 1, welcome back. If not, here’s a brief ramble about the Luck stat in FE and its absence in FEH anyway. Stat mechanics ramble.

Luck stat in FE outside of FEH is actually a gainable stat when characters level up, but is not present in FEH. And neither is the Dex stat, but I’ll talk about this later.

Overall, luck is… not really an important stat, but it kind of is, too. It doesn’t give a unit a tremendous consistent edge enough to fuss over it, but it does mess with 4 things significantly. These 4 things are:

Hit rate

Critical hit rate (Receiving and inflicting)

Avoid (magical evasion)

Dodge (physical evasion)

Luck also affects certain skill’s % to trigger such as Miracle and Armsthrift.

An example from FE: Three Houses

According to fandom.com, luck in most games will increase both hit and evasion by 1 point, and reduce enemy crits by 1. But if one looks closely at how the formulas work, stats like Atk/Mag/Spd are far more important in determining the ceiling of how hard a unit can hit, which thus determines how viable they can be in a playthrough. Having a high luck character with meh stats isn't great since they tend to fall behind a lot due to inconsistent RNG, or unreliability.

So overall Luck can be overall summed up as the most useless-useful stat. It's just… better to be there and not be abysmally low, basically.

Another important stat for this topic is the Dex stat. This stat affects hit rate and crits chance. This stat is named 技 (waza, Skill) in JP, which is very apt. No matter how lucky a person is, if they can’t even draw their bow they are not going to get very far.

So. That’s like 250 words to explain 2 stats which doesn’t exist in FEH. And I think I’m being Captain Obvious here, but that’s because… Having dex and luck is going to add a layer of complexity that ultimately wastes the player’s time for what amounts to a F2P predatory gacha game.

….

Oh wait that’s not it. Wrong script. (Who says that when they’re over analyzing a F2P gacha game anyway, looool)

I mean, for my analysis about Kiran’s luck, their luck here is clocking so high that things like hit rates, dodging, crits, and skill procs become consistent rather than random RNG. It's overwritten all units' luck. It’s so high that, while having proficiency and skill in the use of a weapon is ideal, it’s not critical for survival under the OoH’s banner. It’s so high that heroes can feasibly walk into a battlefield in swimsuits and floaties and yet beat the shit out of enemies and walk away with a ‘teehee’.

It’s so high that the game doesn’t even bother with logging the stats for our use. That skills which might only proc once in someone’s playthrough can now be consistently proc’d in 4 hits. Or less with skills.

But that luck still has its limits. 0 damage is still 0 damage and no luck can salvage that.

I think this is why the writing in FEH gives the braincells to Alfonse and not Kiran. Rather than the tactician going "let's go to the ancient temple for a mcguffin", it's the lord, Alfonse who does it. Kiran tags along like 3 lucky cats in a trenchcoat in stories, and seem to rarely do anything by themself, which may imply that they’re keeping their head low which helps hold back the effects of that luck. (And subsequently limit the fate breaking aspect of it all)

(There’s also a common Japanese saying of, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down”, so there’s some degree of characterization possibly going on in the main story here, but that’s not the point of this analysis.)

In my part 1, I gave a very very brief overview about their luck being present in the story, but those points aren’t the entirety of it. I left out a lot of stuff to not inflate the words. I hope people apply this theory for funsies and see how deep this could potentially go. Bc it really goes.

Anway, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

#fire emblem heroes #summoner kiran #analysis

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wardencommanderrodimiss · 5 months

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playing fe7 and I have not learned anything from the Gluing Fergus To His Horse incident. used some cheat codes and accidentally deleted legault from my army. My survival rank is still at the max so he's not dead I think? I just can't find him in my army anymore. He's blacked out in the support logs and everything. I suppose I'll see in the end cards if the game thinks he's dead or just unrecruited somehow

Mark is going through post-battle summary with the lords: "...and finally, we seem to have lost Legault."

Eliwood: "He was killed? That's--"

Mark: "Oh, no, I don't think so. I just can't find him anywhere. Nobody's talked to him since the last battle and all his stuff is gone from the barracks."

Hector: "So he ditched us."

Mark: "Well...about that..."

Lyn: "Mark, why was your book of tactics open to a page about 'teaching a thief or assassin to stealth so hard he exits the game'? What does that mean?"

Mark: "...yeah he definitely ditched us, Hector you're right. I didn't do anything."

Lyn: "Why does this same tactics book advocate for gluing your soldiers to their horses, ruining their capability to fight indoors?"

Eliwood: "Is it too late to find another tactician?"

#this is. so funny. please keep me posted.#also having played a bit of thracia since i responded to that ask about fergus:#it is not 'leif voice'. this dogshit tactics book was written by august to disseminate amongst his enemies #unfortunately leif got ahold of it anyway. and then a copy fell through a portal to elibe

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theresattrpgforthat · 8 months

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The Galaxy Squad Log (Part 1): Last Fleet

So I've started up another series of games with my play group, and this time we're doing space games! I'm also not the only one GM-ing this time around - another one of my friends will be co-GM-ing half of the space games, all taking place in the same galaxy. To kick things off, we decided on Last Fleet, which might as well be Battlestar Galactica: The Game. If you want to take a look at the digital play-kit we used, you can check out my Google Sheets spread here.

The Breakdown

We had an Aries Tactician, a Sagittarius Engineer, a Cancer Influencer, a Leo Marine, and a Gemini Investigator. In the very first session, one of the smaller ships of the fleet went dark, prompting most of the party to go and stage a rescue. The most dramatic moment involved the Gemini Investigator sneaking into the medical bay and taking out an Android infiltrator without anyone seeing. Cue the Marine entering the medical bay to see a dead body and a gun in the hand of the Investigator. Drama ensues.

One of my favourite scenes in the second session was the terse interaction between the Tactician and the Influencer, who was acting as the fleet's therapist. The Influencer happened to be in a relationship with the head of the fleet's airforce, and slipped up in mentioning the Tactician's gambling addiction to the Commander. As a result the Tactician was forced to drop his gambling habit, so he went to his therapist to tell her she needs to break up with her girlfriend if she wants to do her job correctly. He decided to Call Her Out on Her Shit, and rolled a 10+, so she only had two options - either agree to it in order to gain experience, or refuse and mark Pressure. The tension in the air was palpable.

Meanwhile, the Engineer and the Marine ended up getting a bit too drunk, and woke up the next morning in bed together. This was great for our Engineer, who was completely oblivious to most of the intrigue going on, but it was not great for the Marine, who was responsible for investigating missing parts - which was the responsibility of the Engineer. The two of them ended up being sent on a clandestine mission to a civilian ship to try and figure out what exactly was up with the black market in lieu of the Tactician, who was prohibited from investigating it himself, and had to coordinate their efforts from afar.

Our third and final session had no right going as hard as it did. We had our Investigator shut down all access to civilian ships from the military fleet after he found out that a number of refugees were being held in the navy's headquarters. Our Influencer was saddled with calming a bunch of very panicked refugees, while our Engineer tried to get in with the gambling ring and the black market while civilians were actively blocking all military personnel. Everything was tense - and then our Investigator hit his Breaking Point.

Now, the player who chose a Gemini Investigator had made his character sheet in a bit of a hurry, so he hadn't fully read every piece of it, particularly his Breaking Point options. And his play throughout the entirety of the game was always at least a little big antagonistic towards the other PCs, which made a few players suspicious, to put it mildly. Neither of us had made any plans behind the scenes - and in fact, he didn't even know that betrayal was an option - until I read out his Breaking Points. And right there, second-last on the list, was this:

Our Investigator didn't hesitate. He immediately switched sides, turning the tables by stating that another NPC who was trying to send out a communication was actually calling for help from another ship outside the fleet - and that the Investigator was trying to bring the civilian ship to our Android pursuers. There was a mad scramble to stop him, in which our Tactician and Influencer pulled out all the stops to set up a chance to turn the ship around, and our Marine sacrificed themself to give the Engineer one last chance to save the civilians and prevent an imminent Android arrival. It was dramatic and heart-wrenching, and after a series of terrible rolls (I'm talking like, snake eyes for at least three different people terrible), the Engineer rolled a 12 and brought us back from the brink. We were all on the edge of our seat, and at the end, emotions spilled out in the most satisfying way.

Thoughts

Last Fleet is a truly special game. What I loved about it was the tight mechanics: the Pressure track on each character sheet provides a resource for the players to improve their rolls, but at the cost of stressing them out and pushing them to do something that escalates the situation even further.

The GM advice is also top-notch. It guides you to create a threat that is always at the back of the players' minds, but hardly ever front-and-centre. The players cause most of the problems themselves, because they all have their own reasons for working just outside of the law - and bringing all sorts of consequences to bear for their troubles. As a GM, I didn't have to do much - just hint at NPCs being suspicious, and throw a wrench into the daily running of things, and the players took it from there.

This game was also great for the players who love instigating or participating in conflict. The moves Call Someone Out On Their Shit and Cover Up allowed them to make demands of each-other, get up to shady shenanigans, and lie to important NPCs. The characters of Last Fleet might be heroes - but they're first and foremost flawed and stressed people, put into a very demanding situation.

Lastly, relationships are key in this game. You have the ability to interfere or support other characters when they're attempting to do something, and while the base move tells you which stat to roll with, you can substitute that stat with your relationship level instead. So having a good relationship with someone makes helping or hindering them much much easier - and that really encourages players to Reach Out to each-other, in the hopes of keeping together something that they desperately need to survive.

What's Next

Next up, a friend of mine will be running Starforged, by Shawn Tomkin. This is a game about spaceborne heroes undertaking perilous quests.

To make this game line up with the timeline of Last Fleet, we had to reconcile some key facts. We knew that in Last Fleet, faster-than-light travel existed as it helped the characters keep just ahead of their robot pursuers. But in StarForged, FTL travel no longer exists. Our Starforged crew decided that something about the drives that powered the Last Fleet caused rips or holes in reality, which made room for supernatural powers and dreadful forgespawn in the Forge. Our Engineer in Last Fleet put forward that for her end-game Breaking Point, her character decided to foolishly alter a fundamental part of FTL technology such that it was impossible for the androids to follow the last of humanity to the Forge. In other words, she used her broken heart to break reality.

Of course, the tragedy that humanity fled was the android uprising, and the Starforged crew decided to continue that legacy of trauma by dictating that advanced computers are not trusted in their version of the forge. As a result, adepts called seers who use mind-altering drugs are responsible for getting ships from point A to point B, and the bio-mechanical precursors of the Forge who survived their creators' deaths are treated with heavy suspicion.

I'm really excited to see where this game goes, and I hope to keep you updated along the way!

#last fleet #pbta #mint plays games #ttrpgs #galaxy squad

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stmichaelthearchangel · 9 months

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You travel further than you expected, and the sun is starting to set. What was meant to be a short walk has had you reminiscing all day. You sit down on a fallen, mossy log, enjoying the cool weather and thinking back on old times. Back then, you were of the profession...

#retired adventurer #totally normal polls

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fore-seer · 5 months

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i’m absolutely obsessed with the decisionmaking surrounding the heron laguz because everything about them is just so incorrect to actual herons, to the point where i feel like they actually put effort into getting it wrong. why are they vegetarian? why are they living in the forest and not by a river or wetland? how on EARTH do you look at a bird with a beak optimized for spearfishing and a look in its eye that warns you it’s still a dinosaur and go “yeah i think these guys should be pacifists and eat plants.” they don’t even sing! ten thousand species of birds in the world and this is the one they picked for that role in the story, when they could’ve almost certainly found another one that actually has all those attributes? it’s HYSTERICAL to me. the rest of tellius could have the best worldbuilding of any story in the world and i still wouldn’t be able to take it completely seriously because some of the devs have already convinced me they’ve never seen a bird in real life

#it’s not even like this requires that much research like these are basic facts most people know about herons #right?? i’m not crazy right????#i feel like i’ve seen so much japanese art of a heron by a river stalking a fish or with a fish in its beak #tactician's log #tellius #i think ive talked about this before but its just eternally funny

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sugar-stories · 1 year

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Last time I drew f!Robin so now I gotta do one with m!Robin so that balance can be restored to the universe

#once again I drew this with office supplies on scrap paper at work #fire emblem shitpost #fire emblem awakening shitpost #tactician log #robin fire emblem #chrom #chrom fire emblem #lucina fire emblem #flavia fire emblem #basilio #real talk i love the khans so much #chrobin

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spadefish · 3 months

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Robin and Grima co-shared a dream last night about living in the slums with chrom somewhere (modern) and getting him framed/investigated for theft and murder...? Grima did an extremely sloppy job covering our tracks though so we ended up being nearly captured by the authorities as well. We look noticeably different depending on who's in charge and I managed to be in charge any time the authorities were around (to try and solve the entire situation) and they kept thinking that either I was chrom's kid or that he *kidnapped* me so that was annoying. Grima kept wrestling control from me and making my life difficult though

#we kept going to this HUGE labrynthian building that was part care centre part infirmary?#i think lissa and emmeryn were there?#but eventually we got caught bc we werent supposed to be there so we had to bolt #so that was exciting #dream log #tactician talks

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war-of-heirs · 1 year

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Geography in the Empire of Vorla.

Lush and fertile lands:

The lush and fertile lands of Vorla are located in the upper part of the west and the lower eastern part of the empire. These lands are characterized by their rolling hills, rich soils, and abundant water sources, including rivers and lakes. The area is home to many farms and vineyards and produces a variety of crops, including wheat, grapes, and olives.

Forested lands:

The forested lands of Vorla are located in the northern, central, and lower-west parts of the empire. These areas are covered in dense forests, which provide habitat for many types of wildlife, including deer and wolves, and many more animals. The forests also provide a source of timber and other natural resources, and many people in this area are involved in logging and woodworking.

Coastal lands:

The coastal lands of Vorla are located along the western coast of the empire. These lands are characterized by their sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, and abundant marine life. Fishing is an important industry in this area, and many people also engage in trade and shipping.

Tundra lands:

The tundra lands of Vorla are located in the far northern part of the kingdom. These lands are characterized by their cold, harsh climate and limited vegetation. Despite the challenging conditions, people have managed to make a living in this area through activities like hunting and fishing.

Rugged and mountainous lands:

The rugged and mountainous lands of Vorla are located in the central and upper-eastern parts of the empire. These areas are characterized by their steep slopes, rocky terrain, and snow-capped peaks. The mountains provide a source of minerals and other natural resources, and many people in this area are involved in mining and quarrying. The rugged terrain also makes this area an important strategic location for defense.

South of the Empire:

The Venger mountains are located in the southern part of the empire, and as you move further to the south the climate becomes more extreme and continental. In the coastal regions, the climate is milder and more pleasant, with moderate temperatures and occasional rainfall. As you move further inland, however, the climate becomes hotter

The Venger Mountains rise up as a natural barrier between the desert and the more fertile lands of Vorla. These mountains are protected by a powerful and ancient house known as House shieldwall, the shield of the south. The members of House shieldwall are fierce warriors and skilled tacticians and have long served as the defenders of the southern border of the empire. Their stronghold, Castle Venger, is perched high on a peak in the heart of the mountains and is virtually impregnable to all but the most determined attackers.

Overall, the geography of Vorla is diverse and varied, with each region presenting its own unique challenges and opportunities. The people of the empire have learned to adapt to the conditions of their environment and have developed distinct cultures and traditions based on their location within the empire.

#warofheris #interactive novel #interactive fiction #if wip

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