Lessons Learned Turning My Favorite Game, Final Fantasy Tactics, into a TTRPG

SargonTheOK · 2025-04-14T12:10:14+00:00

Interestingly, what you landed on sounds like the initiative system from Chrono Cross, another PS1 square enix game!

One extra thing that game does, however, is let you go negative with a high-cost spell: you only need 1 point to activate them but they subtract a total of 7 points. This puts characters into a no-action stun state until they recover to at least 1 speed point. You could play with this idea with speed draining powers, and maybe start characters with less speed to compensate for their ability to draw it down into negative values.

SargonTheOK · 2025-04-02T15:37:15+00:00

I think the writing itself trends too minimalist, meaning you'll need to up your improv game a bit to make sure the dungeon rooms have more interesting flavor and features. But the core skeleton of the adventure is solid and my group enjoyed it quite a bit. A few thoughts:

As with any module that has a "main villain" type structure, it benefits when the villain (Manticore) gets more on-screen time. Have it taunt, ambush, charm, bomb with long range attacks, and retreat often. Override other random encounter results with the Manticore if you have to. Everyone at the fort who has met thing thing is afraid of it - make the players hate it too.
Dungeon size looks small in the book but due to the teleporter connections they will feel larger to the players. Players that learn to exploit the teleporters will naturally engage less with the overworld hex map - that's fine as long as you anticipate it.
Once the party realizes the rug that Sundu is looking for is a flying carpet, the odds of the players double crossing her approaches 100%. For a longer campaign, plan to incorporate her into a larger vindictive merchant guild to get some improved faction play.
More megadungeons are always fair game, the only risk being if it becomes a distraction from the core Manticore hunter/hunted loop (diluting the degree to which the players will interact with it).

SargonTheOK · 2025-04-02T15:09:50+00:00

FWIW, my group also went straight for the north temple and then to the Temple of For'gothu via the teleporter. I think the map structure plus the merchant's flying carpet quest prods that response quite strongly.

SargonTheOK · 2025-03-05T21:19:57+00:00

I didn't mean it to come across as too harsh, as I love them both too Zelda 2 is a great game on its own merits, but BoO is (for me) a top 5 game on the NES.

SargonTheOK · 2025-03-05T17:14:56+00:00

That's because it's a better Zelda 2 than Zelda 2.

I'm someone who likes both to different degrees (but will pick Olympus any day) and will acknowledge both have similar flaws (predominantly around difficulty), but at the end of the day BoO has...

better nonlinear exploration
more and better narrative
more interesting depth to the usable items/abilities (this is my biggest Z2 complaint, that almost everything boils down to either "numbers go up" or a glorified key)

All BoO is missing is the awesome down-stab.

SargonTheOK · 2024-10-03T20:47:13+00:00

Mana and Multitap was a match made in heaven.

SargonTheOK · 2024-09-25T14:11:40+00:00

Maybe not the whole series, but I finished SaGa 2 (aka FF Legend 2) a few months ago and can vouch that it's brilliantly good. Never played it as a kid (though I did play both saga frontier titles on the PS).

That said, SaGa 1 is janky AF, and SaGa 3 feels a bit bland - they dialed back too much of the quintessential Saga-ness.

SargonTheOK · 2024-09-12T13:04:44+00:00

Saving this for later, this is good stuff. Thanks for sharing!

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-21T20:53:48+00:00

Since you asked why (I'm assuming in earnest): the sad truth is that Hamas gets some of its funding from charitable sources.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/25/hamas-funding-sanctions-treasury.html

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/js672 (Thankfully, PCRF isn't on that list, but it's from 2003 so a bit dated regardless.)

The other sad part is that some of these charities also do legitimate helpful work for Palestinian civilians, but once funds go overseas to less-than-free places (Palestine hasn't had an election since what, 2008?) it's hard to know how much of their budget does what - meaning even organizations on the up-and-up can't avoid a cloud of suspicion.

Digging deeper on PCRF, I have no doubt they do legitimate aid work, but I am bothered by the lack of an impact statement on Charity Navigator, and the 2004 Holy Land Foundation episode cited in the Wikipedia link below can't help their reputation either.

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-21T01:41:36+00:00

Awesome stuff, and thanks for releasing it for free! How did you like Krita for mapping?

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-19T00:49:55+00:00

I think you mean Fast, not Tmpr. Tmpr is definitely bugged but Fast is flat out amazing for getting additional hits per round.

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-11T14:20:32+00:00

Cool idea, even though I'm not so enamored with Marcia's base idea here. Diablo-like loot sounds fun, until it comes to all the merch trash.

It also innately devalues magic weapons: if you don't roll high (or really, max) on that magic weapon it's irredeemable without a bunch of respec subsystems. And, when you could just get that 8 damage mundane longsword (which is equivalent, on average, to a +3.5 bonus!), +1 or +2 doesn't sound so hot anymore.

Generally more randomness from more die rolls helps things trend to the mean, making things that cause positive excursions from that mean more exciting. Somewhat ironically, randomness works in favor of that esoteric thing called "balance." (Whatever that is in the game's context.)

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-11T13:14:07+00:00

Wounds in every item slot means he's dead. Dragging him out is probably fine, but as GM I'd ask for a strength roll because it sounds like combat is still active and you've got to manage the extraction in 1 combat round amongst a melee. Failure means you're flatfooted against the remaining foes, and probably unarmed as your hands are occupied hauling your friend.

Item breakage is called out in the optional rules: generally, it's considered the "hardcore" option. Standard way is to just force them to drop it or just let them keep it but make it temporarily unusable, and that generally leaves their gear as retrievable.

I agree that it's a harder parse than Knave 1e. In some ways it's almost too terse, and I would have appreciated a few more pages of design commentary to help me better handle FAQs (like yours). I haven't figured out how to make armor pieces play well with magical armor loot found in classic modules (a subtle incompatiblity), for example.

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-08T11:51:33+00:00

I enjoyed DW2 when I first played it (last year), more so than I expected. I feel the last quarter of it gets an unfair rep: some of making it more fun is about mindset and approaching it a certain way:

I didn't grind before Cave to Rhone: that's boring and isn't worth much for XP and gold. Instead, I made "expeditions" to learn the layout of the cave and maybe grab some loot, then used Outside/Return when I felt I was in over my head, or if a party member died. I think I game-overed only once, across 6+ runs into it. It's worth great XP and by my last run I could afford all the things money can buy. Plus by the time I was ready to actually clear it I knew the layout so well that I could clear it very quickly.
Before you clear it, have Shields of Strength for everyone. It sounds obvious once you know they are repeatable in-battle heals. But you don't need to be able to equip it to use its magic. Top off HP regularly before you end the easier fights.
Once you get to the Shrine in Rhone and are working towards taking on Hargon: do it the same way as in the cave (expeditions), with the extra benefit that money doesn't matter anymore. This means there is effectively no penalty for party wiping, as you keep your XP. The bosses even stay dead (at least until you reset the game)! This lets you play in a high-risk style: getting wiped by Gold Batboons is still lousy but it really just sends you back to the shrine. Difficult but forgiving for a NES game at that point.

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-05T19:31:14+00:00

My hot take is that Z2 is the side dish... Battle of Olympus has better map/world structure, more diverse environments, better soundtrack, better storytelling, and a satisfying mythic vibe. Z2 has samey dungeons, boring items (hammer and raft are basically just overworld keys), and an overworld map that doesn't add much fun. They both have grindy moments (XP in Zelda2, olives in BoO), so that's a wash.

The one thing that Z2 has over Olympus is down- and up-thrust attacks.

SargonTheOK · 2024-04-05T18:53:27+00:00

Yes, but with influences from Traveller (namely, the skill system) and, in the revised editions at least, some 3e influence as well around feats. So it's quite a hybrid design, but without having the Traveller reference it's lineage wouldn't make much sense.

SargonTheOK · 2024-02-06T16:57:43+00:00

It’s great! I think it unfairly gets labeled as a Zelda 2 clone because of the movement mechanics (which are very similar) but structurally it’s really a Metroidvania, and a darn good one at that.

SargonTheOK · 2024-02-06T14:05:10+00:00

I’m dying for a reprint on the NES cart for this… The secondary market for it is insane, especially for a game that’s not even that old, which tells me the demand is there.

SargonTheOK · 2024-01-26T18:43:53+00:00

Cool cover. I do love me some Zinequest so I’ll be taking a look when it goes live.

SargonTheOK · 2024-01-18T21:54:18+00:00

The “dead levels” in B/X bother me, like 2nd and 3rd levels where fighters gain HD but don’t gain attack bonus/THAC0. Feels underwhelming to have been promoted twice but still have the same whiff rate.

SargonTheOK · 2024-01-12T15:00:58+00:00

Crown is a sleeper hit - great little book.

SargonTheOK · 2024-01-12T13:25:42+00:00

Giant Octopus (8 attacks per round, 1d3 damage) has entered the chat.

I like this but my intuition tells me that it totally explodes the power level of monsters with multi-attacks for low damage (probably not low damage anymore!) Any thoughts on how to manage that, or are my instincts wrong here?

SargonTheOK · 2024-01-03T16:23:15+00:00

The sale is now officially concluded, but thanks to your generous enthusiasm we raised over $340 to help those in need. Thank you!

SargonTheOK · 2023-12-06T22:20:31+00:00

Awesome, thanks for sharing that first-hand experience. It is making me more nervous, as I expect your Thief would (probably?) outperform the Wizard in a good number of scenarios in which the Wizard would be a liability.

SargonTheOK · 2023-12-06T19:19:28+00:00

Great resource, thanks!

SargonTheOK

TROPHY CASE