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Fire Emblem: Last of the Manakete

What would readers prefer?

  • Pure narrative quest: no dice will be used, the author will have free reign to decide what happens.

    Votes: 25 59.5%

  • New dice system: the author will design a new, better dice system to add some randomness and risk.

    Votes: 17 40.5%
  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .
Reader mode
[X] You want to start trying to combat the lies and slander about manakete. This is clearly something she wants to talk about to, and together the two of you should be able to start making a dent in the misinformation. You'll also probably find out more about the rest of the "Revisionists" who can help you teach humans that manakete were not monsters.
[X] Ask for home
 
[X] You want to focus on one thing at a time. While you'll always take her test and set up your eventual trip to the Marble Hall, you want to know as much as you can. What are the people there like? What sorts of things should you expect and worry about? What is human magic like?

[X] Ask for home
 
[X] You want to start trying to combat the lies and slander about manakete. This is clearly something she wants to talk about to, and together the two of you should be able to start making a dent in the misinformation. You'll also probably find out more about the rest of the "Revisionists" who can help you teach humans that manakete were not monsters.
[X] Ask for home
 
[X] You want to focus on one thing at a time. While you'll always take her test and set up your eventual trip to the Marble Hall, you want to know as much as you can. What are the people there like? What sorts of things should you expect and worry about? What is human magic like?

[X] Ask for home

I was very tempted to do combating against lies and slander, and I don't mind if it wins.
 
[X] You want to start trying to combat the lies and slander about manakete. This is clearly something she wants to talk about to, and together the two of you should be able to start making a dent in the misinformation. You'll also probably find out more about the rest of the "Revisionists" who can help you teach humans that manakete were not monsters.

[X] Ask for home
 
[X] You want to start trying to combat the lies and slander about manakete. This is clearly something she wants to talk about to, and together the two of you should be able to start making a dent in the misinformation. You'll also probably find out more about the rest of the "Revisionists" who can help you teach humans that manakete were not monsters.
 
[X] You want to start trying to combat the lies and slander about manakete. This is clearly something she wants to talk about to, and together the two of you should be able to start making a dent in the misinformation. You'll also probably find out more about the rest of the "Revisionists" who can help you teach humans that manakete were not monsters.

[X] Ask for home
 
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Vote closed
  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by SoaringHawk218 on Nov 27, 2022 at 3:35 PM, finished with 31 posts and 29 votes.
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  • Voting
    • I love the story. There's honestly just one glaring issue with the quest, and it's only become more glaring and unbearable the further I get.

    Action economy is very poorly executed, as is progression. We're 200k words in, but we haven't even finished the first skill we tried to learn very early on - heal, and have only developed one actual ability, and there are 4 tiers of magic and many different types, plus other skills we can learn from others... Maintaining the present pace, it'll take millions of words for our MC to get literally anywhere. There simply isn't time available so we can get stronger. Usually we seem to have a choice of either meagre, slow progression, or a bunch of other critical activities like maintaining our relationships, preparation etc, so the latter naturally takes priority. We also need much more flat downtime where we can do choose a bunch of options, interact with people and just generally grow, without being constantly rushed to do xyz that seems to be constant. Fundamentally, as-is, by the end of the plot, we'll have learned one, maybe two skills maximum, which isn't acceptable for a quest. Alternatively, let there be 1 spell granted per level gained, or something.

    Perhaps seperate social and activity choices, and/or give us more actions to work with.

    Edit: It's most glaring when Ryza is supposed to be a mage, but still only has two starter spells.
     
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    Cookiesndip said:
    Fundamentally, as-is, by the end of the plot, we'll have learned one, maybe two skills maximum, which isn't acceptable for a quest.
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    I strongly disagree. It might be unacceptable in a Numbers Go Up: The Numbers!-type quest, but it's not some fundamental absolute that a character in a quest must gain X powers per words written. It's not even a requirement that a character gain any new skills, or improve any old ones.
     
    Entropy Judge said:
    I strongly disagree. It might be unacceptable in a Numbers Go Up: The Numbers!-type quest, but it's not some fundamental absolute that a character in a quest must gain X powers per words written. It's not even a requirement that a character gain any new skills, or improve any old ones.
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    Yeah, but this is Fire Emblem, so it's expected. Every single character gains large numbers of skills, spells and proficiencies over the course of the game, and being able to switch classes only makes it more glaring.

    Literally no Fire Emblem game has no progression at all.

    And it's not about x character must earn y skills over z period, it's just simple math that our MC won't have changed or developed much in 1 million words in at the present pace, maybe gaining two or three base level spells, not touching stuff like leadership or higher level spells. An entirely stagnant protagonist is a bad protagonist, and that's what we are becoming.

    Also, fighting a Fire Emblem final boss while casting the same basic shit you start with or fighting with a bronze sword, is fucking weird.
     
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    Cookiesndip said:
    Literally no Fire Emblem game has no progression at all.
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    Well it's a good thing that even you admit that's not the case for this quest, now isn't it?

    As for the rate of advancement, there's a lot of downtime in FE games that just gets ignored. People don't wander around the continent in a matter of days. Very rarely do people just hit a particular guy over the head and go, "Hey, I just realized if I twist my wrist like this ...," and learn a new skill. Although I will also point out that per the Character Sheet, Ryza can use Elthunder already, so she's capable of using Tier 2 magic already.
     
    Personally I'm a fan of how the speed of skill progression is being handled, it's very grounded. I've never been a fan of character sheets loaded with like 50+ skills that are apparently all mastered and maintained and not going rusty because somehow the character has infinite time.

    It incentivizes thinking about what we want Ryza to be good at and having an actual time cost to it.
     
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    Axel Fones said:
    Personally I'm a fan of how the speed of skill progression is being handled, it's very grounded. I've never been a fan of character sheets loaded with like 50+ skills that are apparently all mastered and maintained and not going rusty because somehow the character has infinite time.

    It incentivizes thinking about what we want Ryza to be good at and having an actual time cost to it.
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    I broadly agree, but for my part I'd accept a lot more of that sort of thing from people that aren't supposed to be human.

    Too much power gaming is a bad thing, but I'm not going to nitpick about the neuroplasticity of prepubescent dragons, or how much maintenance time the magical abilities rooted in their soul require.
     
    There's a fine line to thread with progression and action economy, and quests tend to miss it almost all the time. However, since this is very much a story quest and not a tactics quest or even "make occasional rolls" quest, it isn't quite that dire here. The complaint has merit, but it's not intolerable by far.

    I kinda agree that de-coupling learning and social activities in the downtime might work, but, ultimately, 🤷‍♂️.
     
    Also worth mentioning that most FE mages specialize in only two elements at most anyway. Being able to cast thunder spells at above average strength and sort of heal practically makes us an advanced class already, but we can also fly. And that's without the dragon transformation. Even looking at it from the perspective of if it were a game there's not much to complain about Ryza's value as a unit.
     
    Cookiesndip said:
    I love the story. There's honestly just one glaring issue with the quest, and it's only become more glaring and unbearable the further I get.

    Action economy is very poorly executed, as is progression. We're 200k words in, but we haven't even finished the first skill we tried to learn very early on - heal, and have only developed one actual ability, and there are 4 tiers of magic and many different types, plus other skills we can learn from others... Maintaining the present pace, it'll take millions of words for our MC to get literally anywhere. There simply isn't time available so we can get stronger. Usually we seem to have a choice of either meagre, slow progression, or a bunch of other critical activities like maintaining our relationships, preparation etc, so the latter naturally takes priority. We also need much more flat downtime where we can do choose a bunch of options, interact with people and just generally grow, without being constantly rushed to do xyz that seems to be constant. Fundamentally, as-is, by the end of the plot, we'll have learned one, maybe two skills maximum, which isn't acceptable for a quest. Alternatively, let there be 1 spell granted per level gained, or something.

    Perhaps seperate social and activity choices, and/or give us more actions to work with.

    Edit: It's most glaring when Ryza is supposed to be a mage, but still only has two starter spells.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Thank you for your feedback, and I mean that genuinely. This is my first quest, so I'm still working out some of the details myself. In future, I'll probably give players both some learning and some social things during downtime to balance things.

    You're right that Ryza's mostly a mage, but she's also a manakete, and one of the choices made has given her a big boost to her dragon-form: the ability to snap out of it if things go wrong, and she'll get other abilities as she continues down the Path as well, so she's learned several things this downtime.

    Also, she has learned Heal, I just forgot to go back and add it to her character sheet.
     
    Speaking of the sheet, @SoaringHawk218, I probably should have mentioned this before, but the Former Party section of the Dramatis Personae post is inside the spoiler for Kelton's sheet. I'm pretty sure that's not where it's supposed to be, or where Artemis, Axton and Lancel are supposed to be.
     
    Personally, I think power progression would be more interesting if it advances the plot and develops the characters and their dynamics at the same time.

    For example, learning the more advanced forms of healing might stretch into spells that are currently unknown/unused by humans, leading to her having more scenes and developing stronger attachments to Clara. Improving her ability to heal might result in Ryza revisiting old debates about fighting, and she might be more recalcitrant to use force instead of diplomancing or just accepting failure.

    On the other hand, Ryza learning lightning magic beyond current human skill might stir up rumors and ill will in the empire (who knows what that wyrmling will get up to if we let her find her footing?), and strain or cut relations with the people she meets at the mage college. And her focus on combat magic might mean that Ryza accepts violence as a part of her life from now on, as the price of living in a world that is hostile to her very existence and unlikely to change anytime soon.

    If the same words serve many purposes, you can have your power progression and advance your story too.
     
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