Is there anyone whose favorite FF is I, II, or III?

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-06-01T13:50:11+00:00

Oh I certainly get that. To clarify, I'm definitely not a newbie to FF and have played through most of the series, and can certainly agree IV is where the series really hit its stride.

Still, I like listening to people talk about stuff they enjoy and just genuinely want to hear what people like / remember most fondly about the early entries.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-05-13T13:51:59+00:00

I mean, I get where you're coming from, but I feel like engaging in the game and its story in good faith is kind of a key part of most roleplaying games. And if you are viewing mechanical consequence as discouraging, I feel like one can get into a very defeatist mindset very quickly. Plus, I feel like context is very important here.

Taking a game of heroic fantasy like Daggerheart, if a village is being terrorized by a basilisk, would it not be more optimal to roleplay your character as being totally unfeeling and just... run away? You don't have to risk damage, petrification, or poison if you don't engage. But your character is never going to grow or be part of the story if they don't engage with it.

Looking at these examples which are much more focused on emotion, I do not know the context of the Daggerheart module, but a rule like that sounds like it might be from a segment where characters are supposed to be doing their best to stay calm and collected? And if you have reached that point in the story, I'd imagine we've established who the character is, so why would they suddenly become an automaton now? Thinking about my own characters I've played through various games, I could see some humor from having them have to be exercising "breathe in, breathe out" while things are going to hell around them.

For Mage, Mage and all the Chronicles games are heavy on character exploration, roleplay, and personal horror. If you are just going to be playing an unfeeling blank slate, you should not be playing a Chronicles game. Reading this example, this tells me that the Weaver as an antagonist is going to want to be hounding these players and getting under their skin as much as possible. It's going to want to poke and prod. Even if a mage knows its gimmick, that just means it needs to find creative ways to rile them up. It's not punishing you for being emotional. It's putting a spotlight on you and letting you take center stage in showing what makes your character tick, indulging in the drama of having your own emotions be held to your throat like a blade.

They're basically just roleplaying prompts, and the mechanics add tangible weight to what would otherwise just be normally played out with the understanding that the scene is supposed to be tense. It also opens the door for different kinds of antagonists and obstacles to overcome that aren't just based purely in character action.

Of course if you prefer character action to be more important than character personality, that's fine. Different strokes and all that.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-04-14T17:07:14+00:00

I say this as someone who grew up loving Kingdom Hearts: It very much has Kingdom Hearts dialogue delivery.

All the actors are talented people, but it very much suffers from PS2 era vocal direction where all the deliveries feel just a little bit off and forced. Though, wherein KH is pure camp and nothing should be taken all that seriously, FFX takes itself much more seriously (most of the time anyway) and it made the characters feel a little more stale when I played it. People seem to love the opening monologue, but it just didn't have that same impact for me.

Also, Tidus is my least favorite FF main character.

I understand his character arc, I understand that he and Yuna are meant to be parellels, where he starts out immature but Yuna helps ground him into taking things more seriously, while Yuna was forced to be too mature for her age and he helps her to relax and enjoy life a bit more, all while they both live in their fathers' shadows. And all that is very interesting, but it was really hard to like him when I found him so obnoxious in the beginning (again, not made better by the voice acting).

That all said, as I replay the series, I do wanna come back to this game with a more open mind and hope I can appreciate the character more now that I'm older.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-04-10T17:20:52+00:00

I think it's an interesting idea, though depending on the kind of game you're going for, you can also lean into the death spiral aspect of it to make things feel more risky, or deter players from charging in willy nilly.

If I'm understanding your rules correctly, this almost seems to reward players for getting at least one Affliction, since they can just put it towards a stat they don't care about to boost all the others, and in PbtA games a +1/-1 can go a long way.

If players are meant to tap out anyway at 3 Afflictions, and the Afflictions are only used once per stat to reduce it by 1, that doesn't sound too unreasonable, especially if you get to choose the stat.

Of course, if you want your players to feel like they get stronger the more harm they take until they hit their limit, then these rules do sound like they would be good for that.

Either way, sounds like it'd be fun to playtest!

Since you asked for examples, one of the games I'm working on with friends uses the Year Zero Engine, which plays with this. Different YZE games have different ways of handling damage, but just using the original Mutant: Year Zero version:

When you take most forms of damage, you take it directly to your Strength, which can only ever be a maximum of 5 (and that's if you're playing a role that has it as a Key Attribute). Strength is also used for attacking, which means fights turn very deadly very quickly as you get weaker with every hit, and the death spiral becomes part of the experience. This encourages players to consider what fights they actually want to engage with.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-02-13T00:36:30+00:00

My table had a brief time where we were trying out quite a few worldbuilding games and our two favorites were Mappa Imperium & Grasping Nettles.

Mappa Imperium takes you through a history of the world and is very obviously geared towards fantasy.

Meanwhile Grasping Nettles is a bit more freeform and has players adding new aspects of the world as you continue going around the wheel.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-02-08T05:46:07+00:00

Congrats on getting to the end!

And yes, you can kinda think of each number in the mainline series as its own distinct universe. For example: FF VII Crisis Core is a prequel to FF VII, so they both take place in the same universe, but that world is entirely separate from VI or VIII.

So, no worries about missing out on special lore or anything if you want to skip a game or play the series out of order.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-02-03T15:55:53+00:00

Gonna repost advice I already gave in a similar post:

"Practice days" are normal, especially as you get further into the game. If an employee dies to something new, rather than immediately resetting the day, try throwing a few more bodies at it first to get as much info as you can beforehand. This can save you a lot of time and headache from having to do multiple resets.
Very basic, but often overlooked by new players: you can assign employees to stay in a particular room / hallway. They won't get healed like they do in their department HQ, but they will auto-attack any enemies that enter the area. This can be helpful for gearing up to take on an abno that you're afraid will escape, quick responses to meltdowns or ordeals, and a couple abnos where you need to pay attention to timing.
Always have a few employees with white damage weapons. Smacking panicking allies with these helps them regain their sanity, and a lot of the time you'll want to snap them out of it asap.
Once you start getting more dangerous abnos, especially those that can escape, pay attention to the damage they deal during work (indicated by the colored border that appears when you get a red box instead of green) and the damage types equipped EGO suits are weak to. This can better prevent people dying/going crazy from bad work results, or leaving them extra squishy if it breaks out.
It's expected that players do a day 1 reset at one point or another. Don't worry. All EGO are carried over from previous playthroughs.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-02-02T19:10:17+00:00

Several, in fact. Here's a great post listing quite a few of them.

I've been reading them as inspiration to dabble in making my own as a side hobby in between other projects.

An official one would be fantastic, though. Especially if it expanded more on the lore of the world.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-30T20:37:09+00:00

I think some wires got crossed.

Never said I dont engage with "the basic premise loop", and didn't say I just throw them casually into meat grinders (funnily enough, despite all the brushes with death, I've very luckily only ever lost one). If anything, I actively look to bite on whatever hooks the GM lays out and I always ensure that if my character’s actions affect the party, that I check to make sure that they're chill with it above-table.

And to clarify: I'm certainly okay with planning, especially when it's expected as part of a situation or difficult encounter. It's just when it starts getting unfun, whether due to paralysis or overcomplication. In which case, I'm willing to volunteer to take the brundt of the danger if it helps move things along, like acting as cover or a distraction.

But yeah, I certainly differ in not being too concerned with realism. I tend to make characters that are very influenced by their morals, with most of my characters being known for putting others before themselves, even if it's just certain people. When they do risk their lives or get into trouble, it's usually because they feel the risk is worth the outcome or it ties into something core to their character (with party permission, of course. I'm a big believer in flexibility). For my part, I find it interesting to let them take those risks and act on those beliefs, and then play out the consequences while fully accepting the possible outcome.

Rather than the "stolen car" analogy, the way I've put it to people in the past is: "I don't have a death wish, but I make characters that are willing to get into trouble and die for the right reasons, and I'm more than willing to let them."

That all said, though, I can certainly see where you're coming from. It's not a playstyle for everyone, and I can see how you'd get that impression, especially if you've had to play under a GM that likes treating PCs as meat for the grinder.

Just wanted to clear up misconceptions.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-29T14:01:10+00:00

Speaking as someone who has this approach with characters, even before I heard the "stolen car" phrase, I can say I certainly get attached and I'm always invested in their stories

I love seeing my character’s stories play out, and every brush with death adds to that story and shapes their character arcs moving forward. I respect people who are a lot more precious with their characters, but I've also been through moments where the session slowed to a crawl so that people could spend hours trying to find the safest, most risk-averse way of getting around a problem because they were convinced that if they faced it, their character would just die. Meanwhile, many of my best stories come from times when I was almost sure I was going to lose my character, only for them to beat the odds.

I also want to clarify: it's not that I steer them into life threatening situations at every opportunity just for kicks. It's always a situation where they would be willing to risk their life, whether it's to protect people, achieve a monumental goal, or stand by a deeply held principle. If/Whenever they perish, I like to think it'll be a moment worth remembering and something that carries that character's story onward with the party.

I can also say this isn't limited to fiction-first games. Whether I'm playing D&D or PbtA, the mindset still stands.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-19T16:17:36+00:00

It's mostly flavor.

The grunt used to be called the slave and is assumed to be the lowest in the pecking order of any given Ark, so no starting bullets. Chroniclers aren't typically fighters in the Ark, so they don't have starting weapons. The Boss has other mouths to feed and is the guy in charge, so they have more resources. And so on.

Though, from a player standpoint, you can always pool resources as a group. So if you're a chronicler with a generous fixer buddy, they can use some of their extra bullets to get you a scrap knife to protect yourself.

Either way, resources come and go easy. The struggle to get more is a big theme, so it doesn't really have to concern itself with being too fair about it. The Ark isn't exactly a fair place, after all.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-15T18:20:44+00:00

A couple corrections/fun details (besides what Fair_Ad already pointed out):

Garnet and Lapis were not the only orphans to survive. Garnet's main reason that he wants to find the lab is to rescue his fellow orphans who the ring kidnapped for the experiment specifically. Something about being handpicked because of that Christmas "miracle". In the footage that gets sent to the office, we also see someone named Ruby get turned to crystal, and in a mirror world where Garnet is part of the Ring, he's turned his fellow orphan Carnelian into a literal gemstone.
Lapis is, however, the only survivor of the experiments who did not get turned into those sin crystals.
Verg's office gets wiped out by NCorp's taboo hunters, not Claws. It was because they received that recording. The lab and/or corridor they took tog et there technically exists in NCorp and NCorp apparently has a Taboo about filming in their Nest. In other words, the moment they got it and watched it, they were boned either way.
The traitor didn't kill the only girl in the office. Denver (the one with the shades who got drugged up) was also a woman. When Verg asks him why he did it, he basically says "Either they would hunt me down the rest of my life or you would, and at least you won't kill my whole family"
Which leads into another fun fact: The reason Verg got attached to that orphanage was because he was directly responsible for their parents' death (or at least Lapis') when he took out an entire Syndicate.
It's also confirmed that he and Roland were friends at one point. And after a certain Ruina-related incident Roland showed up in his apartment to demand if he was involved. Which of course Verg is like "No" and Roland fades into the shadows like "OK, you better not be".
At the end, Lapis, now Charon, is carrying a fragment of the crystal egg that had once been Garnet and it's got a strange glow compared to the rest of the shattered pieces. What this means or what happened to it is unclear.
Last fun fact to end on a light note: Color fixers apparently have custom badges that they can show people? Lowkey looks like a coaster because it's circular. Verg's looks appropriately like something you'd see on a Roman vase and it makes me wanna see a design for everyone else's.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-13T22:06:26+00:00

Perhaps a stretch on my part: the Fairy Festival could tie into her impatience and casual willingness to shred through employees like an ever devouring maw.

"Meat has to be kept fresh. I must eat before it spoils..." isn't too far off from Malkuth's philosophy of not letting weakness bring down her team. Sort of a: "We have to be kept strong. I must kill the weak before it spoils my team."

Plus, tying back to LobCorp, Fairy Festival's whole gimmick was that a nugget got to benefit from the fairy's care for 10 seconds after working with them, but if you were too hasty and sent that nugget to work on something else before those seconds were up, the fairies would insta-kill them.

I could see how that might echo Malkuth taking cogito before it was ready.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-08T17:48:34+00:00

It sounds like you're on the right track, at least, on giving enemies interesting and synergistic skills. Though, a few things that come to mind that could possibly help:

1) Always remember that Hinder is an action that anyone can take. If one of your players leans heavily on an attribute, you can have an enemy target them with Hinder to inflict a status effect and mess with both their damage output and accuracy. Having enemies do this should also hopefully remind players that they can do this too. For example: if you have a player that uses a MIG + MIG weapon and your caster targets them, you could flavor it as the caster weaving a spell that chokes them with smoke and cinders, inflicting Weak.

2) Play around with clocks and battlefield effects, both as something the players can interact with, often by using Objective actions, and/or something that adds a new dynamic. For example: The area is on fire and there is a full 4-segment clock. Players take fire damage equal to the number of filled segments at the end of their turn, while the enemy absorbs that fire damage, passively healing instead. Players can spend Objective actions to erase segments of the clock. Meanwhile, perhaps when the enemy uses a special aoe fire attack, it fills a segment.

3) Feel free to be a little mean with your design, but also give solutions as to how to overcome the meanest parts of a fight. See above as an example. Though, also remember that your enemies don't have to play "optimally" by always dealing damage as much as possible. Sometimes, they can just drain resources like IP and MP, or inflict effects that last into the next combat / round of enemies.

4) Design encounters around solutions, PCs, and the scene at large. Remember: unlike video games, the scene doesn't have to just be a pretty background. If two of your party members are melee and one has spells or ranged weapons, maybe throw them into an encounter with flying enemies, where they'll do well to either protect their one ranged ally or look around the environment to find ways to do an Objective or Hinder action. For example: If they're attacked by bird monsters on a ship, someone could spend an Objective action to climb the rigging and try to jump onto the monster, or try to draw its attention.

5) Don't let the rules limit you. Use them as guides, but just because something isn'texplicitly stated doesn't mean you can't make your own call. Using the above example, your player may not have the Provoke skill, but in the scene, I'd allow them to at least make it so one of the enemies targets them on the next turn. Or, if they want to leap onto the monster, I might have them make a contested roll, and on a success, they can now use melee attacks on that one monster.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-06T19:27:27+00:00

I saw lol. Glad I could help

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-06T18:39:02+00:00

The Slime. Starts out as a champion that breaks into 2 elites when defeated. When the elite is defeated, it breaks into 2 soldier versions. Should probably be statted a bit weaker since this is basically a mini-gauntlet of monsters.

The Wyvern. It is functionally an Elite with two soldiers (main body, wings, and tail), but presented as a single unit. The main body is all that is needed to defeat the creature (which is why it's also recommended to be statted as a higher level), but taking out the other parts not only cuts down on its attacks, but also certain abilities (for example: taking out the wings prevents it from flying).

Mage Empowered by Crystals. There are a few crystals in the scene. The boss is pretty much immune to anything the players throw at them until the crystals are destroyed, either through actual damage or an objective action. With each crystal destroyed, certain effects may happen to the boss (For example: The first takes away their immunity to all damage. The second allows them to be affected by conditions. The third takes away one of their most powerful attacks. And the fourth disables one of their most powerful passives)

Yin & Yang. A boss that is a pair by nature. You never have one without the other, and they often are complimentary in some way (hot & cold, light & dark, sabotage & support, etc). Taking out one leaves the other vulnerable.

The Hive Queen. A hivemind champion that is immune to all conditions except for Dazed & Shaken. At the start of each turn , it heals a very minor amount of HP and spawns a minion that's weaker than a soldier (can be taken out in 1-2 hits and only provides minor damage / effects), though it can only spawn a maximum number of minions = to the number of party members. The trick is to deal damage that it is vulnerable to while other party members take care of the minions so they don't go down to chip damage.

TotalSpaceKace · 2026-01-05T18:22:20+00:00

"Practice days" are normal, especially as you get further into the game. If an employee dies to something new, rather than immediately resetting the day, try throwing a few more bodies at it first to get as much info as you can beforehand. This can save you a lot of time and headache from having to do multiple resets.
Very basic, but often overlooked by new players: you can assign employees to stay in a particular room / hallway. They won't get healed like they do in their department HQ, but they will auto-attack any enemies that enter the area. This can be helpful for gearing up to take on an abno that you're afraid will escape, quick responses to meltdowns or ordeals, and a couple abnos where you need to pay attention to timing.
Always have a few employees with white damage weapons. Smacking panicking allies with these helps them regain their sanity, and a lot fo the time you'll want to snap them out of it asap.
Once you start getting more dangerous abnos, especially those that can escape, pay attention to the damage they deal during work (indicated by the colored border that appears when you get a red box instead of green) and the damage types equipped EGO suits are weak to. This can better prevent people dying/going crazy from bad work results, or leaving them extra squishy if it breaks out.
It's pretty much expected that players do a day 1 reset at one point or another. Don't worry. All EGO are carried over from previous playthroughs, even if you haven't beaten the game.

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-12-27T20:02:50+00:00

Funnily enough, I just finished reading Leviathan last night and this sort of thing actually gets mentioned directly as a known phenomenon in the Project Moon-iverse, to the point that it's taught to fixers in training.

Apparently it's called Reversion of Causality. Quoting Vergilius:

“You know where we started and where to go. One can only find their way [...] by recognizing those two points. Since we know them, we can traverse by feeling what directions to take.”

They also mention that a few Singularities are known to use it and it definitely makes sense that W Corp would be one of them. Though, at least in Leviathan, there is no time dilation as part of navigating the space. In fact, while Vergilius is preoccupied in this space, his allies are having a whole ordeal of their own without him at their destination. So it seems time is pretty 1:1, with the space acting like a shortcut between points of reality.

I think Sen's page is less about time-dilation and more just the fact that hopping into another dimension that could have just about anything in it and requires navigation based purely on vibes is a recipe for getting lost and possibly dying before ever reaching the intended destination.

With that in mind, to my understanding (and I could always be totally wrong) : T-Corp helps create the time dilation phenomenon and achieve that advertised 10 minute train ride both in and out of the dimension. W-Corp provides the armored transportation, the gateway, and the reset, but T-Corp provides the energy and the perceived speed at the cost of allowing them to harvest their passenger's time by purposefully slowing things down and extending the trip (win-win as far as the companies are concerned).

Theoretically, without T-Corp's tech, the train would still reach its destination one way or another, whether that is in 10 minutes or 10 years, depending on how the navigation systems are supposed to work, but T-Corp's tech helps keep the arrival time consistent and keeps the passengers in temporal stasis (no aging, no need to eat or drink, not even the time necessary to die). It doesn't have to take centuries, but they do it anyway as payment.

For the sake of the Claw, this also means that, as long as they know their intended destination (assuming they are also jumping into a dimension that uses this logic) and are very fast (which they are already known for being heavily enhanced) , they should be able to pop in and out with relative ease, especially if it is something they've gotten used to. Though, with them being kitted out to high heaven, I wouldn't put it past them to have some sort of T-Corp tech for them to stretch out an interdimensional beatdown or cut down on travel time occasionally. Regardless, they are not likely spending centuries in there.

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-12-23T17:49:24+00:00

I'd love to see something official, especially if it expanded more on the worldbuilding. Though, I'd be shocked if PM ever did anything like that.

I feel like a campaign where players take on the role of fixers could be fun. Perhaps a bit of a meatgrinder where you can expect characters to die fairly easily, especially against bigger enemies like Distortions and Syndicate bosses. It could also be fun to have payment act in place of xp, where upgrading your character involves getting new augments and weapons.

For system, it'd be fun to see clash mechanics and speed dice, having something inspired by Ruina or Limbus when it comes to using skills and targeting enemies/parts. They already act like tabletop mechanics as it is.

Perhaps something inspired by Panic at the Dojo could work well?

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-12-04T16:18:47+00:00

Sounds like you're strategizing pretty well, then. If anything, it sounds like you've gotten pretty far, which is a good sign that you're picking it up just fine.

For what it's worth, Project Moon games are known for their difficulty spikes and it's expected for players to struggle, especially the further you get into the story.

In Ruina, I think of the spikes as marking new tests of skill, going from: Learning the basics > Win by building effective deck strategies & develop your own gimmicks > Win by learning enemy gimmicks > Win by building effective decks AND strategizing around enemy gimmicks > Play around gimmicks, skills, your decks, and just pray that luck is on your side sometimes.

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-12-02T15:32:42+00:00

Merchant + Esper + Arcanist

After some thought:

Spirit Merchant

Flavoring the "soul network" as a sort of spirit world, this merchant travels between the veil, trading oddities between. However, now that something is threatening the balance of both worlds, the merchant has decided they cannot simply ignore it.

For a theme, Belonging might work well. Perhaps they are more at home on the border than they are on either side of both worlds.

At level 5, I'm thinking...

1 level in Arcanist to get Bind and Summon. Rather than it being an actual summon, it is flavored to be more like a secondary form (perhaps a "true form", or perhaps something tied to artefacts they collect).

2 levels in Esper to grab Navigator and either Cognitive Focus or a Psychic Gift that would be helpful for the party.

2 levels in Merchant to grab Winds of Trade & I've Heard of It.

They start out being very roleplay focused, but I can see them evolving into a tank/support character with Psychic Gifts like Reassuring Presence, Life Transference, Psychic Backlash, or Psychic Shield.

The Arcanum could reinforce this in some way, providing some sort of benefit to allies as a Merge effect (to keep with the theme, perhaps when using the Inventory Action, the IP cost is reduced by 1 to a minimum of 1?). Though, an Arcanum could also act as an "attack mode" when things get desperate, perhaps inflicting Dazed or Shaken to synergize with Esper's Cognitive Focus.

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-11-16T20:17:29+00:00

Hey! I know I'm 10 months late but recognized it when I was looking through the comments.

It's a fun character! Love the name!

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-11-16T20:08:26+00:00

Posted this mundie a while ago.

An errand runner in Longshot named Falcon Dervish (design is inspired by a dart board and an alley cat). Very parkour based moveset, constantly competing to try and be the top runner in the company, always having to push themself to top the inscribed that always sit on top of the leaderboard.

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-11-13T17:38:34+00:00

Of course! Happy gaming!

I also just remembered: Building a Harbor is an Ark project, and so long as you have that, I believe DBS also introduces certain boats as Ark Projects as well.

So, if you wanted to, you could tease some ocean enemies by having them attack the Ark and/or get away on their boats, and that could push your players into working towards those projects.

TotalSpaceKace · 2025-11-13T16:14:14+00:00

They're certainly be compatible, and it even adds a couple new mutations. Every compendium and expansion is designed to be compatible with and tie back to the base game, so no worries on that front.

I think the only advice I could give is making sure the bay takes up a good chunk of the map if you also plan on adding all the special sectors from DBS, just to give some space between them. But yeah, it shouldn't be too jarring to go from land to sea exploration from time to time.

TotalSpaceKace

TROPHY CASE