Fire Emblem Awakening Randomizer

So, yeah, I know I just talked about Fire Emblem two days ago, but I wanted to bring it up again because I wanted to go over the - I wish it was unique, but I'm sure many people do this too xD - way that I play it now. But first, I'd like to go over the promotion aspect of Awakening, as it's important to how I do the "randomizer runs" in this game. Also, I'm going to mention Support and Marriage, which does spoil part of the plot. So if you're still wanting to learn about the game, or play it yourself, I would advise that you do not continue reading. So, now that I've given the spoiler, let's get started.

- Promotion Basics -
Almost every class can promote into one or two different classes by using a Master Seal. You can use them as early as hitting level 10 with your unit. For example, Robin, which is your unit, starts off in the Tactician class. At level 10 and up, he/she can use a Master Seal and promote to Grandmaster, the only class Tactician can become. Promotion grants you stat boosts, additional movement, and two more skills to obtain at levels 5 and 15. And normally, in most FE games, once you hit level 20 as a promoted unit, you're essentially very powerful and ready for endgame. However, this isn't necessarily the case with Awakening, considering that you can infinitely level your characters until you're done. The use of a Second Seal allows you to change classes starting at level 10, but into a new base class. Using Robin as the example again, if you use a Second Seal on Robin, he/she can change into many new base classes. The reason is because Robin is you, so you can be whichever unit you'd like to be. The only restrictions are certain character-exclusive classes, such as Villager, Dancer, and Lord, to name a few. There are also gender-exclusive classes as well, so a female Robin cannot be a Fighter or Barbarian, while a male Robin cannot be a Troubadour or a Pegasus Rider. Every other character has about 2 other base classes to change into besides their base class, however. Chrom, the main Lord of this game, can use a Second Seal to enter the Archer class or the Cavalier class, and be able to promote to the classes related to them. This is important for a very crucial aspect that follows Support: Marriage and Children.

- Marriage -
Units can have one S-Support relation with any compatible character. A unit that achieves S-Support with another will marry the other unit. Choosing different marriage partners doesn't grant any wondrous new elements, save for some small pieces of dialogue in Chapter's 11, 12, and 13 in the case of whomever Chrom marries. With the exception of Chrom, your units can support and marry whenever you please. However, Chrom is forced to marry after Chapter 11, where he will marry whichever woman he has the highest support with, or if they share similar supports, it chooses based on a predetermined list of characters, with Sumia being given the highest priority, while a female Robin has the lowest. If Chrom has zero support with any of the women, or if the women he's compatible with are married off by Chapter 11's end, he will marry a nameless woman for the sake of plot and dialogue, but she plays no purpose beyond Chapter 12.

As for everyone else, it's merely a question of who you'd like to marry together. Robin can marry any woman/man(depends on the gender of Robin) you please, and every character besides can generally support with most of the other gendered characters. There's a decently wide list. However, it's usually the women who you want to get figured out. Why? Well, I'll explain that in the next section.

- Children -
So once again, some super spoilerific stuff coming along here. Please do NOT read this part if you're trying to avoid some massive spoilers for this game!

As early as Chapter 1, you meet this mysterious character who goes by the name of Marth. Throughout the early part of the game you meet and fight Marth until Chapter 6, in which Marth is revealed to be a girl, who also carries Falchion Chrom's sword. You're told that she came from the future to attempt to rewrite history. In Chapter 13, she reveals herself to be Chrom's daughter from the future, and mentions that there were others but they were all separated. After you complete Chapter 13, depending on how many people you have married by then, you'll unlock quite a few Paralogue Chapters to find the children. All of the children are the same in every playthrough, save for the parent, certain skills, and other things. The mothers are always going to have the same children, but the Father is the variable. Let's explain.

Chrom will always be the father of Lucina, no matter what. However, her mother varies depending on who Chrom marries. And besides that, whomever Chrom marries is a mother of their child as well. Sumia mothers Cynthia; Sully mothers Kjelle; Maribelle mothers Brady; Olivia mothers Brady; and female Robin mothers male Morgan. So in almost every case, Lucina and someone else will be Chrom's children. Another case can come from Robin, if he/she marries someone who bears a child. Morgan will be the brother to Lucina if Robin marries Chrom, and Morgan will be the sister to someone else, depending on the woman that a male Robin marries. But let's get to why marriage plays a crucial part of the children, and then finally get to how and why I randomize my runs.

- Inheritance -
When you enter the child's Paralogue chapter, that is when the stats and skills of the parents come into play. The last skill for mother and father, or the one in the middle of the skill section (if they have 5 skills or more) is the skill that gets passed down. So the parents will pass down two skills to their child, who joins at level 10 of one of their base classes. This is where randomness starts playing a factor for me, as different parent matches and different skills make a different kind of child for you to use. Maybe one game you'll have an Inigo who's a Berserker, but maybe another playthrough he'll be a Great Knight. And maybe one game he'll have Lethality passed down, but maybe another time he'll have Rightful King. It's always fun to mess around with stuff like this! And now that I've covered inheritance, let me actually finally explain how I, or even you, can do this randomizer stuff.

- Randomizer Rules -
So, it generally helps to make a Wordpad document or write this down, unless you just want to choose classes as you go. If you want to be more random, then you can have zero say in it and randomize the classes you'll use. The way I go about it is the following:

{Starting Class} > {Second Seal} > {Master Seal} > {Second Seal}
- Starting class is, if course, the class that the unit starts in.
- After reaching level 20 in the first class, use a Second Seal to become whatever base class you've chosen, and then once you hit level 20 in that class, use a Master Seal to promote to whichever final class you've chosen.
- Finally, hit level 20 and Second Seal into a different final class. Hit level 20 here and your character is done!

The fun of this is mixing and matching classes and skills together to give yourself a nice strong character while almost always(like 9/10 times) maxing out all of your stats. It's heavily time consuming, I'll admit, and the grinding gets very boring after a while, but it's still rewardng for a slightly different experience. For additional randomness, you can have a randomizer pick who your characters marry, whether it's been done before or not. It's not anything spectacular but it's something different if you're not satisfied with simply picking things and levelling to a final class once like in other games.

So there you have it. If I had Fire Emblem Fates I could do a lot more with this as they removed gender-exclusive classes and it offers a lot more variety in a whole, and I can't wait to do a random run in Fates one day. If you found this fun to try, fantastic, let me know what silly classes you made your units enter, whether it's to spite them, or just have fun with it. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading, I appreciate it. And until next time, thanks a bunch! :D