I Jabber About FoE Crossovers · 12:45am Mar 7th, 2014
So a pal of mine, G-man64, runs a FoE Crossovers group , and as a bit of fun he suggested this idea to work up a list of the top crossovers the members of the group would like to see in the FoE universe. I'm always down for a crossover of anything, and FoE is the kind of world I love the notion of crossing over with other settings, so of course I'd be up for doing a list. G-man suggested top 5, but given my penchant for crossover love I could easily double that; in fact I'm doing a top 11 list. Why top 11? Because I like to rip off the Nostalgia Critic.
So let's do this: My Top 11 FoE Crossover Concepts.
11. X-Men
Alright, this is at the bottom of my list, just barely making it. The reason for it being so low is because I've never been a particularly huge comic book fan, and a lot of my knowledge stems from the cartoons or the movies. However, I've always liked the idea behind the X-Men, both the unified origin of their powers stemming from a mutant gene, and the conflict of ideology that drives the stories; namely between Professor Xavier's notion that mutants can integrate with and benefit humanity as a whole, and Magneto's notion that mutants, in order to survive must dominate if not outright eradicate "normal" humans. I can see this working in FoE in a lot of different ways, but I like the idea of mutants existing in FoE, perhaps gaining their powers as a result of a mutation caused by either Taint or radiation instead of just normal evolution, perhaps even a byproduct of another Ministry project. You could easily have a calm mentor character like Xavier, perhaps working out of Tenpony Tower or somewhere similar, that's trying to collect the mutants and teach them to use their abilities to help the Wasteland and ponykind, whereas there would be a Magneto analogous (probably even called Magneto, because that's such a pony name to begin with) whose also collecting mutants to forge an empire a la Red Eye in Fillydelphia style. Seems to me like there's plenty of potential here, but not enough to rate a higher spot on the list.
10. Bleach
I'll flat out admit I love Bleach, even when its not at its best. Something about the anime/magna's characters and setting really appeal to me, even to a guy who loves shounen anime to begin with Bleach somehow stood out to me with its odd mystical afterlife lore and the humongous cast of oddball characters, including one of the single best antagonists I've run into in many a story. My interest in seeing this series crossed over with FoE is I like the idea of exploring how the way the afterlife works in Bleach could be incorporated into the world of FoE and how that might lead to an entire cascade of interesting conflicts and scenarios in which a beleaguered ponified Soul Society and Shinigami deal with the influx of death that exists due to the Wasteland, and how certain ponies or groups among the living might start interacting with the spirit world once they figure out it exists. It'd be an interesting way to explore characters that technically are dead already as of FoE or die over the course of the story, as in Bleach, death is really just a change of address, and the beginning of new conflicts in the spirit world.
9. Super Robot Wars
A fantastic series of tactical RPGs that take every giant robot trope and distill it to its most basic, beautiful, moonshine quality essence. I have no higher reason or purpose in wanting to see this crossed over with FoE other than I love the idea of taking the conflicts and characters of FoE, and giving them massive freakin' mechs to fight with. Actually, the SRW series does use the alien invasion trope to provide for 90% of its central antagonist forces, so one could construct a post-LittlePip story in which the vague threat from the stars actually does invade, and the NCR's only chance of fighting back is to develop mecha to counter the aliens giant robots. The thing that makes SRW work for me in FoE is that it spans the entirety of different giant robot tropes, from the "realistic" military mecha of Gundam to the ridiculous combining sword-summoning rocket punching mecha of series like Guren Lagann, which FoE fits well with due to its tendency to skirt the line between realistic to extremely cartoonish. Both series are melting pots, and I'd be curious to see what kind of stew would come out of blending the two.
8. Toho Series Godzilla
Part of it might just be I've been on a Godzilla kick lately in preparation for the upcoming film from Legendary, but that just probably puts this a little higher on the list as opposed to having it here in the first place. Always been a fan of Godzilla, and while I can't cite any deep reasons for wanting to see an FoE crossover involving the big guy, I can totally see it working. Godzilla is, after all, a creature created by radiation, so its not like an origin point for putting him in FoE would be all that difficult. Heck, not just Godzilla, but just about any of the Toho monsters could work. I could see a story of Godzilla rampaging across Fillydelphia as easily as one about Rodan marauding over the Enclave's skies.
7. Disgaea
Man oh man, would I want this crossover. FoE is a world where many a great story is written. I could fill multiple top ten lists of solid FoE stories that pull on the heart strings or challenge us with serious moral quandaries. But sometimes you really just want to take a break from all the seriousness of it all and have some antics. Sometimes FoE as a setting just takes itself too seriously. So why not give it a kick in its proverbial flank with a crossover involving a wisecracking demon Overlord, his self-obsessed vassal, a fallen angel side-kick, and their army of knife wielding penguins? Disgaea is just one of those rare rpgs that just understood how to be ridiculous in just the right way to make it work, and I'd thoroughly enjoy seeing a hefty dose of that silliness injected into the FoE world.
6. The Thing
Sub-par prequel aside, John Carpenter's "The Thing" remains one of my top favorite horror films of all time. It had just the right blend of tension and gore, with a unique and deadly creature that genuinely gave me the chills that few critters any any flick can. The concept of The Thing fits so well in FoE that I'd be honestly shocked if someone hadn't decided to do this already. Whether one wants to thoroughly play up the threat from the stars angle, or go with the creature being the result of a Ministry experiment, there would be oodles of potential to tell a story based around The Thing. Whether its a bunch of salvagers trapped in a Stable with The Thing, or an Enclave reserach base cut off in some remote artic mountain, or Steel Rangers stumbling across an old Ministry laboratory, or a secluded Wasteland settlement coming under attack, you got plenty of options to bring this cool monster into the FoE universe.
5. Resident Evil
Really check the reasons for The Thing and add in the fact that the Umbrella Corporation is the kind of organization I can totally see existed in wartime Equestria towards the end of the war and we've got another crossover that feels like it'd fit in like a missing puzzle piece. I especially like the idea that the Umbrella Corp somehow survives the end of the war, perhaps with their own giant underground facility, and far into the current FoE timeline is preparing to take over the Wasteland with its army of B.O.Ws. The S.T.A.R.S team could be part of the Steel Rangers or Enclave, or even a special forces group put together by a large Wasteland settlement. If one doesn't want to work the Umbrella angle there's also the Las Plagas parasites as a potential antagonist, with the parasites taking over settlements one after another until someone gets the idea to send in a team to investigate and deal with the problem. Resident Evil does feel like the right blend of horror, action, and freaking monsters to fit right in with FoE.
4. The Forgotten Realms
There was one series of games I was playing at about the same time I was playing Fallout, and that was Baldur's Gate. It's what got me interested in Dungeons and Dragons, and gradually pulled me into reading about the Forgotten Realms, probably the most well known DnD setting. I'm a big fan of contrasts, and when I mix something up, sometimes I love the idea of doing something off the wall as opposed to what might 'fit'. In this case I've always had a great deal of curiosity of seeing a well written character focused story that either dropped prominent FoE characters into the Forgotten Realms, or vice versa, taking prominent figures from the Forgotten Realms and dumping them into FoE. Mostly the former. We've seen so many stories that put characters into FoE, but so few that take characters out of FoE. How would LittlePip and company handle a world that isn't the Wasteland? Take them out of their comfort zone a bit. That, or actually join the two worlds together. Heck in the 4th edition of Forgotten Realms a catastrophic event called the Spellplauge merged the world of the Forgotten Realms with pieces of another world in its universe, so its possible to say that same event mixed it up with a world from a different universe. That potential stories stemming from that are endless, and I'd dig reading any of them.
3. Suikoden
I figure most people who are reading this blog are aware of my Wild Arms crossover with FoE. Well, Suikoden was the runner up idea to that, Wild Arms winning out due mainly to having more similarities to Fallout than Suikoden. Suikoden is probably tied, if not slightly higher on my list of favorite of the Japanese rpgs I've played. Its a fun, high fantasy setting, with stories that focus heavily on the themes and issues of war. Each story is framed around a single hero having to take on a mantle of leadership and gather an army, which actually isn't something I've ever seen happen in FoE. In FoE stories the crew is always small, the tiny band of fighters trying to take on something huge, but I don't recall ever seeing a story that focused on one character trying to gather an entire army to fight the antagonist. Anyway, incorporating the specific lore of Suikoden wouldn't be too hard, as the magic in Suikoden is based around the use of these unique Runes, of which there are countless derivatives of these original 27 True Runes that are tied into the creation of the world. Given the Element's of Harmony tending to show up as specific crests corresponding to their users, one could construe them being among the 27 True Runes (as not all 27 are documented in the Suikoden series anyway). I could really dig a story set around this series concepts.
2. Ruby Quest
My penultimate choice for a FoE crossover is possibly something nobody here has even heard of. Ruby Quest is an... odd duck of a story. It was basically a forum game/comic some guy made where he'd decide the story's progress based on suggestions in the forum; not unlike, say the tumblr comics of today. The story focused on a innocent bunny girl called Ruby trapped in a strange place and having to discover how to escape, along the way running into all sorts of odd characters in the process. The story starts out simple and even calm, but gradually becomes incredibly creepy, dangerous, and dark, as Ruby learns just how messed up the facility she's trapped in really is and the myriad of bizarre connections between herself and the other trapped there are. One could easily replace the anthropomorphic characters with ponies and tell a very similar story in FoE, given the way its stories tend to go and that fact that you got an entire rogues gallery of organizations to choose from in deciding where this facility came from and to put your own spin on it outside of what Ruby Quest did. Without spoiling the ending, Ruby Quest does end on such an open note that one could also do a quasi sequel story set in FoE, in which the characters discover the Wasteland after their ordeals inside the Metal Glen.
1. RIFTS
Being a pnp roleplayer for as long as I have its pretty inevitable I'd develop favorites among the various systems and settings available to such. I got a lot of them, from Legend of the Five Rings to Shadowrun, but one setting that really stood out to be above all others was the RIFTS setting. Set on Earth three hundred years after the world is hit with an apocalyptic catastrophe; interdimenstional portals called Rifts open up all over the planet, causing widespread havoc, destruction, and a complete return of magical forces to the world. Through these portals countless beings from different realities arrive, some invaders, others just refugees and travelers, but in the end humanity now shares the Earth with creatures from all across the Megaverse while struggling to survive in a world that looks nothing like the one of old. Its a world where high-tech and magic rub shoulders, mecha pilots and mages existing in the same world. Its a marvelously detailed and interesting world setting, where you can spend one adventure protecting a isolated town of crocodile people from an attack from the flying power armor and robots of the deadly Coalition States, and spend the next one hunting vampires alongside a cyber-knight in New Mexico. Just isn't any other setting like Rifts. It even has ponies in it! Not our G4 ponies, but it does have friendly psychic ponies as one of the possible races, I think its in the New West sourcebook. Theres probably no other crossover I'm more tempted to do myself than crossing this over with FoE. Heck its designed for it. Rifts to other worlds? Practically asking this to be crossed over with other series. I'd be specifically interested in writing about the Coalition States soldiers getting trapped in the FoE world. The Coalition States is the largest remaining human nation in the world, and its a strange contrast of humanity's worst traits of tyranny, ignorance, and fear of the unknown, combined with our best in regards to developing new tech and willingness to fight against high odds to protect family. Coalition State troops are both villains and heroes at the same time, or have the great potential towards both; their xenophic tendencies making them cruel towards non-humans, but at the same time still possessing a great deal of courage when willing to face down even demons from a hell-dimension to protect their own. In that way they are very much like the Enclave. In fact they're pretty much direct analogues to each other, down to the black intimidating armor (though Coalition has the skull-motif, and the Enclave the insect motif). Anyway, my love for the setting drives me to chose it as my top pick for a FoE crossover, though the possible kinds of stories that could stem from such a crossover are literally too many for me to count.
So there one has it, my top picks for series I'd like to see crossed over with FoE. Heck, even crossed over with MLP in general, though if I were to do a list like that there would be some differences on what I'd see crossed over with MLP.
Huh. Even after reading your story I've never really thought about FoE crossed over with other series, but now that I do think of it, there is plenty of things FoE would be great with. And I might have to look up some of the things you mentioned. Namely Super Robot Wars, Ruby's Quest, and RIFTS.
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Oh yeah, FoE is one of those worlds that feels ripe for crossovers, possibly because its already itself a well done crossover, to the point that it feels natural to think of Fallout and MLP together, so it leads one to see room for other things to add to the mix.
If you're looking to check out Super Robot Wars, your best bet is to look up the Original Generations games 1 and 2 on the Game Boy Advance. I think they can still be tracked down at Gamestops these days for not too much. There's also a DS game, though its less mecha focused. All the other games are in Japanese, though it shouldn't be hard to find let's plays of them.
Ruby Quest is also pretty easy to find, as a lot of people have compiled the comics at various sites, and theres at least a few youtube videos of folk reading it if you prefer a video format.
RIFTS is a lot of fun if you got a group to game with, but it doesn't have much media outside of its pnp game. There's some rare, hard to find novels (three of them I think), and one video game that was on, of all things, the N-Gage. But the rpg books are easy to find.
In all honesty all of these sound amazing.
Like you I don't have much of a comic past. In fact I just recently got into them because of the Archie Comic Mega Man series. What can I say I love Mega Man. But I know enough about X-Man to know that Night Crawler is the best (no offense Wolverine but the dudes a blue teleporting demon).
I don't know much about Bleach but from what I saw when you put a thing on the thread of the crossover group there's potential.
I don't think you'd be able to get the GBA games at Gamestop fairly certion they stopped taking GBA games years ago... Actually I know that they were all discounted when I went on my wild goose chase to get every Battlenetwork game. I've tried to get the DS one after finding out about it from Project X Zone though. Didn't work. Want it though. Really badly if there's one thing I love its mechs. But my personal favorite is, was, and always shall be Zoids (Shadow Fox FTW). All I'm saying is mechs in the wastes? YES! I could really see it working amazingly with what you said also. Threat from the stars sends a scouting mech, ponies in Equestria beat it, they reverse-engineer it and make more, then massively huge fight time. My kind of scene.
Most of what I know about Godzilla is from some friends of mine... And Monster Madness like four years ago... And when I went on a Godzilla research kick (it just happens to me sometimes)... Also the last PS2 game. Huh I guess I know more than I thought. But that would be entertaining. Hell throw in Gammra and give us the fight we've all been clammering for. (again I know about him thanks to Monster Madness)
I was introduced to Desgia because of HCBaillys LP of it. I haven't played it in a long time though. Not because it wasn't fun because I got pissed the hell off at the senate. I JUST WANTED TO BUY SOME F
CKING GLASSES! But they never let me. Eventually Project X Zone came out and I got distracted by that. Then SMT IV. Oh Celestia SMT IV. Too good of a game.
Monster Madness again. But I'm always for a bit of a spooky story, and that was real fear not like Saw or Hostile that are just gore fests. Actual suspense. I'd gladly check it out just haven't yet.
I suggested this to someone once as an RP possibility. Would probly make a better story but it was the only RPable thing I could think of. I LOVE Resident Evil. Yes I've only played 4, parts of 5 (saw ProtonJon's co-op LP with SuperJeenius though, "FOOOOTBAAAALLL,"), The Umbrella Chronicles, and the Darkside Chronicles (those two are on rails shooter remakes of 0, 1, 3, and its own story and Code Veronica, 2, and I think something else but if so I don't remember also its own story as well), also have and have read all the novels available in English (were not easy to track down but damn those are entertaining books). But YES this would just be to good. Especially when Pony Wesker. Wesker is one of my top ten villains ever.
I'd read it. Need to do more D&D (gunna start soon).
Again most of what I know is from an LP (Luchajin Suikoden II need to finish that LP) but I could see this. A hero gathering an army to change fate. That just screams FoE. Not to mention like you said such rich lore.
I'm always for fan help in with a story. Won't say anything more than that or else I'd risk blowing a project that I'm working on.
HOW THE HELL HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS?! This is my kind of thing! I love Magic and technology getting mixed (gotta get me some Shadowrun). I'm Gunna need to add this to the list of things to find.
1903501 I've only played one PnP with one of my friends but I know if I tell him about RIFTS he'll be all over it. Thanks for informing me about that.
And thank you for motherfucking Ruby's Quest!
I found that and am already at chapter 6. It's interesting and dark and bloody and mysterious. I love it 
It gives me a Dead Spacey feel almost
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAKE A CROSSOVER WITH THE RUBY QUEST CHARACTERS. seriously, that that has been like, mentioned. Once. On the entire internet (after it ended). It deserves infinitely more.