Tabletop Roleplaying Game

Gamemaster’s Guide

Created by Dylan B. using the systems, mechanics, and assets from

Fire Emblem as well as personal improvements and additions

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………………...2
Putting Together a Party……………………………………………………………………………………3
House Rules………………………………………………………………………………………………...3
Setting………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
World Building……………………………………………………………………………………………..4
Planning Combat Encounters…………………………………………………………………………….5-6
Controlling the Enemy……………………………………………………………………………………..7
Planning Non-Combat Encounters…………………………………………………………………………8
Wealth………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
EXP…………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
wEXP……………………………………………………………………………………………………….9
Homebrew…………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Alternate Rules…………………………………………………………………………………………….11
GM Resources……………………………………………………………………………………………..12

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Putting Together a Party
When running a game, it is important to have a party of players that can work well together. As the Fire
Emblem RPG relies heavily on strategy, having one player that tells all the others what to do will likely
ruin the fun for them. As such, it is often a good idea to play together with friends whom you know well,
but on the other hand playing RPG’s together is a fantastic way to get to know new people!
Once a playgroup has been decided upon, it’s time to discuss with your players the setting and theme of
the world (see page 4). Have them start brainstorming ideas for their character, such as what class they
would be, what their personality would be like, and what stats would be their strengths and weaknesses.
During this process you can choose to do this as a group or individually.
Depending on your style of running the game, you may wish to steer players towards options that would
lead to a traditionally balanced party of roles, with a healer, physical fighter, ranged fighter, etc., or you
may wish to let each player decide on their own what type of role they would like to fill and reveal that
choice to everyone at the same time. There is no one right way of doing this, as long as everyone is happy
with your game you are doing it correctly.

House Rules
Before your game begins, consider discussing house rules for your game. Some common rules include no
cell phones at the table, no yelling, no swearing, and other etiquette boundaries.
House rules can also include alterations to the system, such as ignoring weapon durability, not having to
track EXP and wEXP during maps and everyone receiving a set amount afterwards, or changing values to
better suit how you think they should be. For certain maps, maybe rather than dying the PC’s are knocked
out instead, or they have the option of dealing “nonlethal” damage that will just knock out the enemy for a
slight penalty to accuracy or damage. As long as everyone is alright with those rules, as far as your game
is concerned those rules might as well be written in the rulebook.
Other house rules can be for comedic or narrative effect, perhaps if you roll a 100 on an attack you have
to eat one of those jelly beans that have a chance of being disgusting or delicious, a 00 might give a bonus
to damage or be an automatic critical, or spells can be used outside of combat for certain desired effects!
(With a check, of course) Maybe “Light” can be used as a torch, or “Fire” can be used to light campfires.

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Setting
The Fire Emblem RPG has the possibility of taking place in countless different settings, but the most
common is medieval fantasy. Within this setting, there are knights, kingdoms, bandits, what you’ve come
to expect from your typical RPG.
But this shouldn’t stop you from playing in a setting or particular theme that excites both you and your
players!
You may choose to focus on a particular class or two, and say that everyone is going to be playing
thieves, myrmidons, and the like, running a game where the party is a group of ninjas or nimble outlaws.
Another option is to say the party will be a band of assassins, each map or set of maps a different mission.
Plenty of different classes could fit into this game just fine! Or a swashbuckling adventure on the high
seas, as pirates or pirate hunters! Imagine the party going on a magical quest from a university of arcane
masters, and what mysteries they could encounter! Of course, not having a theme and just having the
party be a group of adventurers or mercenaries doing as they see fit is just as good as the others too. As
long as you can think of it, the system should be able to provide the means to carry it out.

World Building
Once you have decided on a small handful of themes you would enjoy running, pitch them to your
players. Ask which ones they are the most excited about, any changes they would recommend about the
settings, or any suggestions they might have for one of their own! After the setting has been chosen, it’s
time for world-building!
Now for some GM’s, this is the most exciting part, and for others, this is the most intimidating. For those
who are scared of this part – don’t worry, it’s not that bad once you get started. If you don’t know where
to start or what to do, here are a few steps that should help!

 Start small. You only really need to plan where the party is at the start of the game, and can do
more if you want to. Go from there afterwards. Rather than being scared by this open canvas of
an entire world, if not several, just plan out this one village or cave!
 Where is the party going to start out? Is it a city, a forest, a cave? What’s the environment and
climate like? Are other people around, and if so what are they like? How do others view them?
 Why is the party where they are?
 For making a culture/country/village/etc, here are some guidelines to making them feel more real.
o Location. What factors shaped the culture during its development? What weather hazards
are there? What’s the temperature like?
o Food. What plants grow nearby, and can they farm? Can/do they cultivate animals, and if
so what?
o Government. What kind of social structure is there? Is it run by one person or by a
council? How are their relations with other groups/nations? Trade, wars, etc.
o Resources. What do the people use for shelter? Does the region have stone/wood? What
is the clothing made out of?
o Day-to-day. What kind of jobs, education, religion, etc. are present? Are there social
subdivisions? How “advanced” is the society in terms of technology and luxuries?
 To further flesh out nations, locations, or characters, ask yourself “Why?” Why is this war going
on? Why did this character stab that guy? Why did the cave collapse? You can always keep
asking yourself why. (But after a certain point it goes a bit too far)

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Planning Combat Encounters
The first thing associated with Fire Emblem is more than likely combat. To make a great combat,
think about the following. Why are all sides fighting? What stakes do they have in the fight?
What led up to the fight? Combat is rarely as simple as “Hey there’s a bad guy, attack!” Of
course, there can be bandits that just raid villages for the fun and profit of it, but how often are
they the main antagonists and the focus of the story instead of the first enemies the heroes fight?

Actually Building an Encounter

To decide on how large the map should be, first you must decide on how large the conflict is. Is
it a small-scale fight that might be in one small village or on the deck of a ship? Is it a medium-
scale fight that might take place inside a dungeon? Or is it a large-scale fight that might take
place on an open field or inside an entire mansion?
Small-Scale Fights:
When planning small-scale fights, appropriate size ranges could be about a 10x10 to a 15x15
grid, and could look something like this.

Medium-Scale Fights:
When planning medium-scale fights, appropriate size ranges could be about a 16x16 to a 20x20
grid, and could look something like this.

Large-Scale Fights:
When planning large-scale fights, appropriate size ranges could be about a 20x20 grid or larger,
and could look something like this.

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 Planning Combat Encounters – Cont’d
Terrain and obstacles must be used to properly fit each map and make each map more than just
an open field. Through placing walls and doors for encounters taking place indoors and trees,
rivers, and other obstacles you can create landscapes that both feel natural and are suitable for
battle. If a terrain reduces movement, units cannot move unless they can fully pay the movement
tax (units with 5 movement can only move 2 spaces in terrain that reduces movement by 1).
The following are the types of terrain in the Fire Emblem RPG:
 Plain: No modifiers
 Forest: +1 Defense, +15 Avoid, every space of movement takes the equivalent of two
 Mountain: +2 Defense, +20 Avoid, every space of movement takes the equivalent of three
 Fort/Throne: +2 Defense, +30 Avoid, no movement penalty, unit gains 10% of total HP each turn
 Sea: +10 Avoid, every space of movement takes the equivalent of two
 Desert: +5 Avoid, every space of movement takes the equivalent of two, movement for armoured
and mounted units takes the equivalent of three, magic users and thief line are unaffected
 Thicket: +10 Avoid, no movement penalty
 Healhedge: +10 Avoid, no movement penalty, unit gains 10% of total HP each turn
Note: Flying units are unaffected by terrain

In outdoor maps, there will occasionally be stationary weaponry found. These are usable by any non-
mounted unit with proficiency with bows, regardless of rank. These provide Bow wEXP. The stationary
weapons which can be found are:
Weapon Name Mt Hit Crit Range Wt Uses Effect wEXP
Ballista 18 100 0 3-10 20 5 Flying, Ignores user’s STR 4
Iron Ballista 22 90 0 3-15 20 5 Flying, Ignores user’s STR 4
Killer Ballista 20 95 15 3-10 20 5 Flying, Ignores user’s STR 4
Onager 20 Always Cannot 3-10 20 5 Damages the target space and all 4
hits units in adjacent spaces, Ignores
user’s STR

When placing units, keep in mind which units are in the party, the weapon triangle, movement
ranges, skills the party has, items the party has access to, and how deadly the encounter will be.
Of course luck will play a part in fights, but placing a halberdier with a killer lance on the map is
much deadlier than a soldier with an iron lance.
Most importantly, think about the objective of the map and situation. Do they have to…
 Seize: Have a player character choose the “Seize” action on a certain space on the map
 Rout: Defeat all enemies on the map
 Defeat the Boss: Defeat a certain unit on the map, designated as the “Boss”
 Survive: Survive a certain number of turns
 Defend: Prevent enemies from ending their turn on a certain space on the map
 Escape: All players must choose the “Escape” action on a certain space on the map
 Or anything else you can think of!

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Controlling The Enemy
On the battlefield, certain groups of enemies will behave differently. In terms of movement, here
are some examples of how enemies may behave.
 Bandits, or other unorganized enemies: Will not move until an enemy (PC/Ally) is in
range
 Military, or other organized enemies: Groups will move if an enemy (PC/Ally) is close to
being in range
 Laguz, or other aggressive enemies: Some will move on their own, regardless of if an
enemy (PC/Ally) is in range
 Thief, or other enemies on set paths: Will move all on their own, following a set path
o Thief: Will move to the (closest) chest or house and take the item contained (can
be manipulated by players), if there are no chests left this unit will leave the map
o Bandit: Will move to the (closest) house and destroy it, not taking the item. A
destroyed house can be crossed with the movement penalty of every space of
movement takes the equivalent of two
o Pirate: Will move to the (closest) house and destroy it, taking the item. A
destroyed house can be crossed with the movement penalty of every space of
movement takes the equivalent of two
Other movement patterns regardless of the type of unit can be: Move from the start, don’t move
at all, move after a certain trigger, etc.
The enemies in the Fire Emblem RPG will target enemies differently according to the GM, but
will typically target those in this order:
1. Those they can kill this turn
2. Those who can’t attack back
3. Those who receive the most damage from attacks
To represent enemies on maps, consider utilizing the generic class portraits
from various games, possibly tinting the art or borders red to differentiate them
from the PC’s.

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Planning Non-Combat Encounters
While combat is a large part of the Fire Emblem RPG experience, where the true roleplaying takes place
is out of combat. Whether it’s as simple as buying a sword from a merchant or as complex as infiltrating a
high-society party to overhear sensitive information, every time an interaction takes place is an
opportunity for you to create a memorable encounter and character development.
If you are playing with the Ultra Abilities Expansion, you have a means of tracking dozens of different
abilities and from that build encounters that can stump or drive the players forward.
If not, that is fine too – you will just have to improvise a little when it comes to what the players will have
to aim for and the difficulty for each character.

 The first thing to decide is the “battlefield” of this encounter. Is it a council meeting, an
interrogation, or a stake-out? Is it a tight-rope or a pit?
 What’s the goal of the encounter? It’s not a fight, where usually you have to kill the other, so
what is everyone’s motivation? A merchant wants currency for his wares, and a diplomat… who
knows?
 What does everyone know? Make a quick list to refer to about what the NPC’s know, such as
secrets or means the PC’s can exploit to turn things in their favour.
 What is at stake in this encounter? It’s not uncommon for such encounters to lose tension, so what
can you do to make the PC’s invested? And if all else fails, things can always devolve into
combat if they go horribly wrong.
Whenever a player attempts something worthy of a check, you must decide how difficult that action is. If
you are playing without the Ultra Abilities Expansion, simply decide the likelihood of success that player
has with that action, and have that player roll percentile dice. If that player rolls equal to or over that
number, they were successful in that attempt.
Note: An optional rule is that if a player rolls a 00, it is an automatic fail regardless of any bonuses, and if
a player rolls a 100, it is an automatic success, regardless of the difficulty.
If you are playing with the Ultra Abilities Expansion, the following ability checks can be made:
Regular Ability Check: This is used most of the time. Whenever a unit wishes to do something, the player
will roll their percentile dice and add the bonus from the appropriate skill to the result. If the result is
equal to or over the target number set by the GM, the attempt was successful.
Opposed Ability Check: Certain ability checks require Opposed Ability Checks. In this case, the target
number is not set by the GM beforehand but is instead the total of the responding Ability Check. For
example, if someone (person A) was trying to lie to another (person B), the target number for person A’s
Bluff Ability Check would be person B’s Intuition Ability Check. If person B rolled higher than person A
did, they did not believe the lie.
Saving Throw Ability Check: In certain events, players may be required to perform a Saving Throw
Ability Check. This will usually occur when the players are in some sort of danger that does not involve
combat, or the players are unaware of a danger and are reacting to it.

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Wealth
In terms of wealth, there is no one correct way to do it. On the one hand, one wants their players
to be able to afford weapons and items, but on the other you don’t want the situation to become
one where the value of items is of no concern.
You can choose what level of wealth to assign your game from the following list, and regularly
supply gold to fit this ratio:
 Poor – The party has 25% of their items’ worth in gold
 Average – The party has 50% of their items’ worth in gold
 Wealthy – The party has 75% of their items’ worth in gold
Or on the other hand, you can choose to give them boosts of gold every so often through finding
gems and caches of gold in their journeys when you see fit.

EXP
Depending on how you choose to level up, you can either track EXP according to the page in the
core rulebook, or assign a certain number of EXP after each map (or non-combat encounter) that
you deem fit. Leveling up every map is probably not ideal if you are planning on playing a long-
term game, but depending on the length of the game, the starting level, and the battle fought
these can all be changed according to the game and GM.
When leveling up, several methods can be used, as mentioned in the core rulebook. The benefits
of one method may be a downside to another. It should be noted that not everyone will want to
level up using growth rates, as although it is the method utilized in the games, it can be
intimidating and confusing upon first glance. Also, for those desiring access to overspecialized
or extremely powerful characters, growth rates may not be the best method to achieve either. For
example, if points are being used to level up, this will likely result in extremely specialized
characters unless players put points into stats they are weak in, in which case they will have less
points to put into the stats they want to. If a coin is flipped, statistically these characters should
be extremely powerful and keep the ratios of their base stats more or less evenly throughout the
entire game. Rolling dice to determine the amount of points has the same benefits and downsides
as points, with increased variability. Growth rates allow players to specialize in their roles
without sacrificing all other stats, but those stats are not guaranteed to increase every time.

wEXP
As with EXP, wEXP can be increased at regular intervals post-combat or tracked each time the
appropriate weapon/item is used. For those that loathe excess bookkeeping, set boosts post-
combat will likely be the ideal solution, but for those who enjoy those aspects of RPG’s will
likely wish to track it with each use.

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Homebrew
The Fire Emblem RPG is, while quite restrictive for players, incredibly open ended for GM’s
when it comes to the possibilities for homebrewing. The ability to create any opponent is an
invaluable asset in a GM’s toolbox, but in most RPG’s this is too complicated with all the rules
and modifiers that must be applied.
With the Fire Emblem RPG, to homebrew a class, creature, or other unit, do the following in
order.
1. Have a concept. Whether it’s a tyrannical emperor or an undead creature, everything
must first begin as a concept! As long as you can give it a value for each stat, anything is
fair game!
2. Name the “class” of what you are creating.
3. *Assign base stats to the unit. Typically a unit should have a strength or a weakness
a. *If it is an enemy that will only appear once/over one level, base stats aren’t
necessary. In this case feel free to assign stats that will be used right off the bat.
4. Level up the unit with the method being used for your players, or simply increase each
stat to a desired level
5. Assign the unit any weapon proficiencies and skills desired
6. Give the unit any weapons desired
To homebrew a skill, do the following in order.
1. Have a concept of the effect. This is where most of the work comes into play when
coming up to skills. It should be strong, but still fair.
2. Assign an activation rate. How often does the skill activate? All the time? Stat%? Once
per map? Some other condition? It’s your call now.
3. Assign a restriction, if any. Can only one unit have it? Or can every unit have it?
To homebrew an item, do the following in order.
1. Have a concept of the item. Is it a weapon, a staff, or an item? What makes it special?
2. Assign an effect to the item, if any.
3. If it’s a weapon, assign Rank (if any), Mt, Hit, Crit, Range, Wt (if any), Uses (if any),
Cost (if any), and wEXP. Is it above average? Good at one or two things? Or just bad?

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Alternate Rules
The following are some alternate rules you may wish to add to your game.
Laguz as a General Race: Some players may wish to play as Laguz that use weapons or magic, and should you so
choose to allow them, this is one method of doing so.

Allow the player to select a class as normal, as well as a Laguz tribe. Using the Laguz tribe’s bases, that player may
now rearrange those bases up to three times, exchanging the placements of those bases each time. Once the bases
have been decided, that unit gains the proficiencies and skills appropriate to that class, selecting which proficiency
begins at a higher rank than the rest from among all proficiencies that unit has. When playing a Laguz as a general
race, the shift gauge fills at a reduced rate, half as quickly as normal.

Unconsciousness before Death: Death has always been extremely common in Fire Emblem, however this may not
be enjoyable in an RPG setting where each player only gets 1 unit, and a stray critical can spell doom. For those who
desire a softer death system, the following is a possible alternative.

Should a PC reach 0 HP or less, that unit is now unconscious instead of dead. Once a unit is unconscious, they can
no longer move, take any actions, or defend itself, and can still be attacked by opponents. An unconscious unit can
receive damage up to half of its total HP before dying, whereupon the unit is permanently dead. Attacks against an
unconscious unit automatically hit, and must only be rolled to see if it was a critical hit or not. Should a unit receive
healing while unconscious that would put it above 0 HP, it is no longer unconscious but cannot move or take any
actions that turn. Following that turn, the unit can act as normal. If a unit went unconscious last map, that unit can
enter the battle unhindered, even though it would normally have died without this alternate rule.

Reclassing: Not every PC will enjoy the role they chose, or maybe they would like another class/combination better.
If this is the case you can add in the option of reclassing. Should a unit reclass, look at the differences in the classes’
base stats, and add or subtract stats so that the unit would have had the base stats of the new class. Should a 2 nd tier
or higher unit reclass, instead of changing the base stats, change the promotion gains to suit that class. If a unit
reclasses and it had prior class skills, and would gain others from the new class, the unit must choose which of the
class and occult skills to use each map. As a result of this, a unit could use the Halberdier’s promotion skill Lunge as
well as the swordmaster’s occult skill Astra, or any other combination of the class-specific skills that unit has access
to. A unit can only have 1 of each type of 2 nd or 3rd tier skills active at a time. Occult skills must be learned
separately, even if the unit had the occult skill of the previous class. A unit can only reclass once, but it is up to the
GM’s discretion.

No weapon durability: If it is decided that keeping track of weapon durability is either too tedious or just a pain in
general, there is an alternate option of simply doing away with it. Most weapons in this case will not break
regardless of the amount of use, although certain weapons and staves would likely be best to keep a track of uses for.
Some examples would be the Ashera Staff, most effective weaponry, or other powerful staves like Fortify. The
Hammerne staff is also more than likely going to be useless.

Different skill activation rates: Instead of the given activation rates of certain skills, it could be decided that skills
should activate more often, so stat% instead of stat/2% would be fitting, or an activation rate that steadily grows
with the players, in which case level% would work well.

Staves that affect the wielder: Rather have the wielders of staves be unable to benefit from staves to the same extent
as their allies, a possible change would be to have certain helpful staves grant their minimum effect to the wielder at
the start of each of their turns. So for example, a restore staff would automatically restore the
wielder to normal condition, or healing staves would heal the wielder equal to the minimum
possible amount that staff can heal.

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GM Resources
For those who wish to better themselves as gamemasters, here are three
very valuable resources listed here, and countless others online.
GM Tips, by Matthew Mercer and others
Running the Game, by Matt Colville
How to be a Great GM YouTube channel

As much as these resources can help, they can only help so much. The
greatest way to improve is to actually hop behind the GM screen and run
a game yourself. It might be scary, but once you get the ball rolling it is
incredibly fun! Thank you for reading this, and good luck running your
sessions!

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