With Valkyria Chronicles 4 coming out in the US soon, I had a thought to revisit an old fanfic plot I'd been kicking around in my head for some time. Just wanted to see if there was any other interest in it...

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The Imperial invasion of Gallia has begun. Not even 72 hours have passed since the first scouts crossed the border, but the Gallian Army is standing ready while the militia mobilizes. While clashes overtake the central plains, the people of the fortress city of Habenstopp have so far seen little in the way of combat, sheltered by the modern fortress on the city's east side. The streets are filled with people going on about their business, and only the Darcsen enclave has shown some anxiety.

You'd be hard pressed to know a war is even going on. Until tonight.

In the shadow of darkness, cannons begin pounding the fortress from beyond the range of its guns, shells detonating with the force of small earthquakes and rendering the fortification to nothing but slag and rubble. An entire armored division is massing to overrun whatever remains come the dawn; it is headed by General Markus "The Jackal" Gudroon, a man with the fervor of a bloodhound, eager to show the Imperial Court his skill and potential. The order comes in from high command: All military units must evacuate to the west, via the old coast road. In one week's time the small Gallian navy will leave its port with the survivors and transport them to Randgriz to continue the fight. You have seven days to travel the Royal Road on foot (or by tread), a journey that would normally take nine days.

The old Royal Road along the coast is a dangerous path in peacetime. Ruinous, lined with cliffs and forests. A region rife with criminals, smugglers and Darcsen rebels. Now with the war on, Imperial ambushes will be added to that list.

Fail, and you'll have the honor of dying for your country. Succeed, and the war will continue for you.

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I have some interest. How canon are you keeping this? Would you, for example, be open to hand-to-hand or bayonet combat? How about alternate vehicle options like half-tracks and amphibious APCs?

I planned to keep it Canon to the first game. But yes, the presence of some vehicles would make sense. The problem is one of supply. The vehicles might have enough Ragnite to make it to the evacuation point... if the road wasn't clogged with people and the crews weren't harried.

So this is going to turn into a long running infantry battle. How are you handling ragnaid?

Not necessarily one long combat RP. There will be stops for interaction, more roleplay sections like talking to newcomers the column meets on the road.

Ragnite I'd treat as a finite resource. Every player has 2 units of Ragnite. It could be used in certain circumstances for non-aid things like fueling up a vehicle.

So it is a thing that can be looted and comes in standardized packs? Disabled enemy vehicles and defeated enemies might be good sources of Ragnite then. How many vehicles did you have in mind for the column starting out?

Vehicles, I'd envision one, maybe two armored vehicles with a slightly larger number of trucks.

I think the salvage'd be something useful to consider. But not sure there's more interest in this RP at this time.

I am aware of the lack of interest. I've actually found the fan base for the Valkyria Chronicles as a roleplay setting to be... extremely limited and we never seem to find each other. But, the more refined and strengthened an idea becomes, the odds of it attracting attention go up too.

I actually had an idea inspired by Valkyria Chronicles that I've been working on lately. I won't try to derail your concept, it's solid as it is. But, I was thinking of incorporating tropical and arctic conditions with a large atoll and an associated archipelago as the terrain in mine. My concept involved a little bit of a time skip and some balance changes too, including an early propeller plane air force. But, I digress.

For practical purposes, unless you want to set it up as a tragic story of a failed evacuation, limited resources require a source of replenishment. Though, that tragedy angle might be something to look into. There's a large fan base for tragic and heavily dramatic storylines. If you took the core elements and moved them out of the fandom niche you might find a bigger audience.