Fire Emblem, but with drug addiction

[AnonymousSpeed]

We've all heard jokes about snorting spirit dust before, but what if that were actually true?

Basically, I had this idea where statboosters were a performance enhancing drug in-universe. Taking them would have to have some negative affect on the units, perhaps decreasing how much Thracia-styled fatigue they could accumulate before needing to rest or how quickly they could recover from fatigue. In this way you create a weird dynamic where the more powerful you make a unit, the less you can use them.

Due to this flavor, some units would simply refuse to take statboosters at all. Units which you gave enough statboosters would potentially become addicted to them, requiring them to be given statboosters before battle. They simply can't fight without their meth because the withdrawal symptoms are too bad.

The main protagonist probably wouldn't suffer from fatigue, just like Lief. I think this deserves an explanation, such as them being so 'roided out that they simply can't sleep anymore. You could probably have an interesting motivation for why the protagonist has taken so many statboosters in the past.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

And as for the Seraph Robe and Boots, those units become addicted to fashion. And there's no support group for that. 

Substance abuse is probably going too far in a game that's aiming for the T rating. But I do remember those one-battle-only tonics in Fates, so that can be a gameplay model for the idea. Having items like that in Fire Emblem, but in universe being something that's exploitative among most armies of the world can be an interesting exploration of the idea. Knowing Fire Emblem though, they'd probably gloss over the "addiction" aspect and say that the dark dragon god is using the substance to subtly mind control all the armies and eventually send them out against the heroes that really know what's going on and have the lone means to counteract the mind control (ie the 'Fire Emblem').

[Acacia Sgt]

This sounds more like it could be a status ailment, rather than something more far-reaching.

I mean, if you can use magic to purge something like poison out of someone's body (Restore Staffs curing poison), what stops it from also working in flushing out other noxious substances within the body? Magic drugs?

[AnonymousSpeed]

22 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

And as for the Seraph Robe and Boots, those units become addicted to fashion. And there's no support group for that.

Using the power of alchemy, one pair of boots can be extracted into 15 doses of bootsamphetamine.

24 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Substance abuse is probably going too far in a game that's aiming for the T rating. But I do remember those one-battle-only tonics in Fates, so that can be a gameplay model for the idea. Having items like that in Fire Emblem, but in universe being something that's exploitative among most armies of the world can be an interesting exploration of the idea.

Danke!

24 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Knowing Fire Emblem though, they'd probably gloss over the "addiction" aspect and say that the dark dragon god is using the substance to subtly mind control all the armies and eventually send them out against the heroes that really know what's going on and have the lone means to counteract the mind control (ie the 'Fire Emblem').

Yeah, probably. And to be honest, that's one of many reasons the mechanic probably shouldn't be at the forefront of the plot. I remember reading this twitter thread about all the negatives of drug use, and the conclusion to it was something like this: "If there was a referendum on legalization tomorrow, I probably wouldn't vote in it. That's not really the point I was making here, and I think that question would distract from it." I'd probably want to take something of a similar approach.

20 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I mean, if you can use magic to purge something like poison out of someone's body (Restore Staffs curing poison), what stops it from also working in flushing out other noxious substances within the body? Magic drugs?

I mean, I guess? It's my idea and I can make up whatever rules for it I want! But yeah, magic drugs makes sense. I figure these statboosters would be magical in some form- my first idea for their form was that they'd all be potions derived from Crest-bearing/Holy Blood.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Hm... maybe introduce a hidden "Seizure" rate. This would start at 0 for all units, and increase by 1 to 5 (exact number varying by unit, a la Echoes' fatigue tolerance) for each stat booster used. Every turn, each unit will have a "Seizure"% chance of... well, having a sudden seizure, and losing out on their turn. This gets rerolled every new turn.

Ergo, there's a risk associated with using stat boosters. And as more are applied, the likelihood of drawbacks only increases. At the same time, the immediate boosts provided by permanent stat boosters may make such a risk worth it.

For the record, I wanna state that I recognize seizures, and drug addiction, as serious medical conditions, and definitely don't wish to trivialize either one. Were this kind of mechanic introduced into a real game, I'm sure they'd have the sense to name them something more appropriate for the intended mood.

22 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

44 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

 

I mean, I guess? It's my idea and I can make up whatever rules for it I want! But yeah, magic drugs makes sense. I figure these statboosters would be magical in some form- my first idea for their form was that they'd all be potions derived from Crest-bearing/Holy Blood.

I like that backstory idea. For all that Cresty blood comes up in 3H (i.e. capturing Flayn for her blood, transfusion shenanigans), we never actually witness this blood, nor the direct product of its usage.

26 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Using the power of alchemy, one pair of boots can be extracted into 15 doses of bootsamphetamine.

Well, I won't be one to turn down a 0.1333 increase to my unit's movement stat!

[Eltosian Kadath]

My first though is tonics, but with withdrawal symptoms after long term use, first a small penalty to the stat they give that get overwritten by the tonic boost, growing with the more chapters they use it (adding an addiction like mechanic), but soon they are getting penalties to other stats, which don't simply go away with more tonic use, having to suffer through the penalties, or go cold turkey as they go away one point at a time per map...

[AnonymousSpeed]

53 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Hm... maybe introduce a hidden "Seizure" rate. This would start at 0 for all units, and increase by 1 to 5 (exact number varying by unit, a la Echoes' fatigue tolerance) for each stat booster used. Every turn, each unit will have a "Seizure"% chance of... well, having a sudden seizure, and losing out on their turn. This gets rerolled every new turn.

Spoiler

 

 

53 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

For the record, I wanna state that I recognize seizures, and drug addiction, as serious medical conditions, and definitely don't wish to trivialize either one. Were this kind of mechanic introduced into a real game, I'm sure they'd have the sense to name them something more appropriate for the intended mood.

Yeah, I don't mean to dismiss the issue anymore than I do the seriousness of war. That said, calling them "seizures" would be a bit, uh...funky, even if "positive mood" isn't exactly what the mechanic should go for either.

The suggestion itself leaves me a little conflicted. I really like the character-specific tolerances and obviously symptoms should get worse as more are used, and it's sort of interesting to have reverse movement stars. However, I generally prefers things without percent activation rates, which isn't to say losing turns is a bad idea for the penalty.

I definitely think there should be some in-game penalty to unit performance, but I'd also be interested to see whether players would be willing to load up a unit on statboosters and gradually change their ending to "died shortly after the war from heart failure" without being mechanically told not to do so. A sort of morality test in a way.

53 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I like that backstory idea. For all that Cresty blood comes up in 3H (i.e. capturing Flayn for her blood, transfusion shenanigans), we never actually witness this blood, nor the direct product of its usage.

Well, I won't be one to turn down a 0.1333 increase to my unit's movement stat!

Gotta cure that ludonarrative dissonance, right?

It rounds up.

18 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

My first though is tonics, but with withdrawal symptoms after long term use, first a small penalty to the stat they give that get overwritten by the tonic boost, growing with the more chapters they use it (adding an addiction like mechanic), but soon they are getting penalties to other stats, which don't simply go away with more tonic use, having to suffer through the penalties, or go cold turkey as they go away one point at a time per map...

That would be a pretty brilliant implementation of the idea for tonics, although recovery might be capped somewhat. Always a chance to quit, but some damages are permanent. I'm not sure how exactly to transfer the ideas to permanent statboosters, but they'd definitely be worth looking into.

[Samz707]

They could do the fallout method where you get withdrawal symptoms. (Kinda similar to what Eltosian suggest.)

Though now I can't help but imagine 3H with drug mechanics, I'm sure the Church would approve of Byleth forcing his class to take Drugs.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Samz707

[X-Naut]

It would explain Palla's Speed stat if she was grinding up Speedwings and snorting them like cocaine on the side.

[Shoblongoo]

As far as I'm concerned its thinly-veiled, barely-censored canon that on Rhea's instruction you're giving your students marijuana in the 3 Houses "herbal remedies" quest.

Teaching Bernadetta she can overcome her anxiety by smoking weed.
Teaching Ignatz he can overcome his self-esteem issues by smoking weed.
Teaching Marianne she can overcome her depression by smoking weed.

Teaching Ashe he can process the trauma of what happened to Lord Lonato by smoking weed. 
Teaching Anette she can calm down by smoking weed.

Teaching Lindhart to expand his abstract thinking and pursue unconventional thoughts by smoking weed.
---

Corollary Head-canon: what we can thereafter infer about Rhea and Sothis.

"the little ones are distressed. what would mother do in this situation?"

*rolls blunt* I'm going to hit this and go to sleep for a couple of centuries. Bye.

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Shoblongoo

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 8/31/2021 at 11:17 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

My first though is tonics, but with withdrawal symptoms after long term use, first a small penalty to the stat they give that get overwritten by the tonic boost, growing with the more chapters they use it (adding an addiction like mechanic), but soon they are getting penalties to other stats, which don't simply go away with more tonic use, having to suffer through the penalties, or go cold turkey as they go away one point at a time per map...

On 9/1/2021 at 7:04 PM, Samz707 said:

They could do the fallout method where you get withdrawal symptoms. (Kinda similar to what Eltosian suggest.)

To be honest, this idea works so well I can't help but feel it would work well even with no permanent statboosters in the game at all. I think it'd be a good idea to have the tonics be much more potent than normal, let's say +5 to a stat instead of +2. This has the added benefit of making tonic use much more tempting, especially if stats in general are lower than normal. However, as a character uses the tonics more, this bonus will eventually decrease to the normal +2, perhaps even just +1 if you really want to hammer home how the effect dulls over time. The maximum penalty which can accumulate is -5, but if you go a while without using any tonics then the bonus will eventually shrink to -2 or -1 or something.

On 9/1/2021 at 7:04 PM, Samz707 said:

Though now I can't help but imagine 3H with drug mechanics, I'm sure the Church would approve of Byleth forcing his class to take Drugs.

On 9/2/2021 at 11:48 AM, Shoblongoo said:

As far as I'm concerned its thinly-veiled, barely-censored canon that on Rhea's instruction you're giving your students marijuana in the 3 Houses "herbal remedies" quest

That must be why they all have green hair. You are what you smoke.

[Jotari]

Ah so this thread isn't about Conquest's story somehow becoming good if you're high as balls while playing it.

[kradeelav]

On 9/2/2021 at 11:48 AM, Shoblongoo said:

As far as I'm concerned its thinly-veiled, barely-censored canon that on Rhea's instruction you're giving your students marijuana in the 3 Houses "herbal remedies" quest.

This is my favorite thread on this site, and this post is especially golden.  Bwahaha, never not going to unsee it, now.

It'd be cool to mess around with statboosters and various status effects they can give - I'm thinking something also like the effect the Beserk staff gave.

 

[Samz707]

4 hours ago, kradeelav said:

This is my favorite thread on this site, and this post is especially golden.  Bwahaha, never not going to unsee it, now.

It'd be cool to mess around with statboosters and various status effects they can give - I'm thinking something also like the effect the Beserk staff gave.

 

Have a super combat drug that massively boosts attack/defense but puts the user in a Berserk state.

"Hey Caspar, I need you to march right into the middle of the enemy and snort this."

Then have Byleth snort ground up dragonbones for extra Divine Pulses.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Samz707

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 9/7/2021 at 11:29 PM, kradeelav said:

This is my favorite thread on this site, and this post is especially golden.  Bwahaha, never not going to unsee it, now.

I'm flattered you like the thread, but that's a lot of negatives. Maybe you like this drug-themed thread a little too much.

On 9/8/2021 at 4:02 AM, Samz707 said:

Then have Byleth snort ground up dragonbones for extra Divine Pulses.

Is that...cannibalism? Cannabisism?

Not sure what I think about having an item which straight up gives you the berserk status, I think you should have to take a certain amount of meth before you go berserk. That said, I would be interested to see the berserk status back. When was the last time we saw that? FE8?

Edited September 10, 2021 by AnonymousSpeed

[Samz707]

51 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

 

Is that...cannibalism? Cannabisism?

I dunno, would

Spoiler

 snorting up old ground up Sothis bones

be considered cannibalism?

[Acacia Sgt]

12 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Not sure what I think about having an item which straight up gives you the berserk status, I think you should have to take a certain amount of meth before you go berserk. That said, I would be interested to see the berserk status back. When was the last time we saw that? FE8?

Sacred Stones, yeah. The condition was meant to show up in PoR, but it got scrapped. The Berserk Staff remains in the data, but the condition itself was either removed or never implemented, so the staff does nothing if you hacked it in.

Not mechanically but Feral Laguz were basically eternally Berserked. Combined it as a result of a drug... then see Bertram. RD did this in spirit.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Acacia Sgt