Heroes of Lite

Heroes Of Lite is a Fire Emblem fan TTRPG. Possibly even THE Fire Emblem TTRPG. It's good.

The PDF is 72 pages, cleanly organized, with a lot of custom art. It's easy to read, there are tables and icons, and the overall vibe is consistent from page to page. The art varies a little in style, but it's all super charming.

Contents-wise, Heroes Of Lite runs on recognizable d20 mechanics, but this is a fully fleshed Fire Emblem conversion. It says it's simplified, but it still has you doing formulas, so not a lot of fidelity is lost. In fact, if you're specifically a fan of FE's mechanics, you're going to have an exceptional time here. If you just like strategy TTRPGs, there's still plenty of meat to dig into.

In terms of the Fire Emblems that Lite covers, it's a pretty wide range. You get ranged daggers from the later games. Beast transformations from the Radiances. Super moves, barriers, and breakbars from the gatcha title. And the weapon triangle + movement types that the series as a whole is known for.

Character creation in Lite is crunchy and detailed. It never feels like it devolves into excess minutia, but you definitely do math. Outside of the math, though, your choices are meaningful. Picking a movement type fundamentally changes how you experience battle maps. The game's Skill lists are wide and deep.

Progression in Lite is also satisfying. Levels are milestone, with combats and and quests both awarding them, and this means you get a pretty steady flow of stat points to allocate. You also get a new Skill every few levels, and new equipment at a modest pace. There's even customization paths for weapons. It's neat.

Some things that aren't modeled by Lite include class changes, weapon degradation, and Thracia/Genealogy's baffling abduction system. Triangle advantages exist, but are limited in strength. Supports exist, and you can swap out which one you're receiving a bonus from between maps. Characters are KO'd instead of killed by default, and can be resurrected with an action, forcing enemies to be a little more relentless or maps to use win timers to get a squad wipe. Lite also has a very rules-light out of combat mode that gives the characters and story a little more space to breathe, plus an optional dice manipulation system called Divine Dice that's one of the more inventive ways I've seen of letting players adjust dice.

For GMs, there's a full GM section and bestiary, with everything from advice on how to tell a Fire Emblem story to specific directions on customizing assets for your campaign. There isn't a sample adventure or sample maps, which might be a barrier to play, but if you've got a GM that already likes strategic map design, you're in good hands.

Overall, this is an incredible project. As a fan game, it's definitely among the best. And if you have zero familiarity with Fire Emblem but want to play something tactical, you'll still have tons of fun. It does take some work from the GM to set up, but a GM who's already used to 5e or FE will find Lite extremely easy to learn. There should be way more eyes on this game. I strongly recommend it.

Minor Issues:

-Page 22, "Each unit may Moving and Act" Move

-page 22, "which may be effected by Terrain" affected

-page 30, "replace the results of any roll--player of GM" maybe a semicolon here, I had to read it several times to understand it was an em dash.