Pierce the Heavens

[idle prism]

RALLY THE WORKERS FOR REVOLT.
SEIZE THE MEANS OF DESTRUCTION.
ASCEND, AND BECOME LANCERS.

Pierce the Heavens is a third party module for the Lancer RPG system, inspired by Gurren Lagann and intended for a party of three to five LL0 characters. This 8-12 hour module centers the player characters (PCs) as orchestrators of a miners’ revolt, liberating workers from a deep underground mine while evading the clutches of a despot and her cronies.

Pierce the Heavens plays like a mech-scale prison break: PCs start with no mech, pilot armor, or pilot weapons, and only one piece of pilot gear of their choice. The PCs must acquire their mechs, reserves, and other pilot gear through exploring the mining community of Kestrel's Bounty. Only then will they be ready to take the fight to their oppressors!

Pierce the Heavens can be found on itch.io and DriveThruRPG:

Itch.io: https://valkyrion.itch.io/pierce-the-heavens

DTRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/407690/Pierce-the-Heavens?affiliate_id=2436726

RPGWW Bundle: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/424526/RPG-Writer-Workshop-Misc-Fall-2022-BUNDLE?affiliate_id=2436726

The previous archived thread for this module can be found at #1000435581769240619 .

What this Thread is For
On my end, I will post to this thread when Pierce the Heavens is on sale or in a bundle. If you have questions about the module (e.g. how to run a certain section, recommendations on fitting it into your campaign setting, or clarification of authorial intent), feel free to ask them here! If you have any feedback for the module, whether it be typos, suggested edits, or long-form playtest feedback, please post it in this thread so I can keep a record of it!

[frank crescent]

(Hey yall, its pretty good, yall should take a look)

[tacit gorge]

^ what they said. PtH is a great intro adventure to Lancer.

and the maps. oh lord the maps. chef's kiss ||i'm a map horn dog||

[ashen temple]

Valk is also just a great human being in general, you should support him and his stuff

[idle prism]

shucks folks, I'm blushing lol

I will say that Pierce the Heavens (and my other Lancer materials) are currently on sale for the itch.io Winter Sale, so if you needed more incentive to pick them up... 😄 https://itch.io/s/85250/valks-lancer-winter-sale

[ashen temple]

Oh yeah, I need to pick up your template thingy!

[frank crescent]

valk out here giving folk the professional flare of a well crafted and on-brand template

[sharp quarry]

Oh wow what a cool new module! I'm sure the people who playtested it must be very handsome.

Jokes aside, it's genuinely a great module and highly recommended :).

[idle prism]

they were all very handsome, and more importantly, incredibly helpful hahaha

[sharp quarry]

Just glad I could help :). Trying to help Ender out too with his module, but have had some rotten luck so far due to factors outside of my and the players' control. Eventually though!

[ashen temple]

Might wanna join the forum thread friend! Not to detract from Valk's work obvi

[idle prism]

it's all good fam

[sharp quarry]

Ah probably, just came to mind but again Pierce is an easy recommendation to new folk :).

[ashen temple]

Absolutely

Solid combat encounters, rich narrative play, a theme that's true to the system...

[wary widget]

Hey folks, I'm starting to plan a campaign for my gaming club. I want to use PtH as a starting point and develop it into an Ungratefuls liberation story campaign. I'm just not quite sure how exactly it would happen...
-First, regarding PCs: do you guys think I should try and be a bit more restrictive concerning backgrounds? For example if we follow Valk's example background of an UIB agent, well first the PC doesn't necessarily have a reason to stick with the rest. And if they do they can easily call up the Actual Hegemony for Infinite Resources. Or am I being paranoïd?
-The mission success conclusion is good for a one-shot or an isolated module but feels maybe a bit too much if I want to make it a campaign. I was thinking maybe have the PCs and escapees on the run until at least the next mission which would be to either escape Kestrel's Bounty or take over the place to establish a solid foundation. Thoughs on that? I'm not quite sure about it yet, but tbh I'm still not clear on where I want this to go.
-If the campaign turns out to have a good part of resource management (which would make sense, since the players and their allies liberate themselves from practically nothing) do you guys think using the Manna system for progression from the long rim could be interesting? It looks like an interesting system but I never see it used anywhere

[idle prism]

1. My tendency is to say “you’re all in this together, this is your group patron, figure out where you stand with each other” and have them all be UIB/Karrakin Noble/Ungratefuls. That said if you want them to be a mix of hooks, I don’t think it’s out of line for the UIB to say “we gotta keep a low profile, you’re on your own for the most part” because ultimately UIB isn’t supposed to exist and they don’t want to draw too much attention to themselves

2. I think you can make those changes as appropriate. Simply escaping doesn’t mean that pursuit won’t be on the way, but it may be a good chance to introduce new factions who want to help. Do what you think will help you build out a larger campaign (or better yet, what the players themselves want to do with the settlement and people) and go from there

3. Manna may be interesting for a Mech LL perspective, but I’d probably suggest using regular Clocks for measuring progress instead of Manna. So like, you have a clock for “financial solvency” , “political support”, etc. If you wanna try adapting the manna system though, be my guest, it just maybe won’t feel quite right outside of a Long Rim mercenary context? Your call

Ultimately I’d love to see what you do to build out such a campaign! I think that there’s plenty of scenarios to grow from the seed of Pierce the Heavens (though I’m obviously biased)

[wary widget]

The creator of the module????? Biased????????? impossible

But thanks, good advice all around

You may be right about the clocks. Also thinking about it some more Manna may be a bit of a clunky mechanic if I have new players on board

Hell, I'm not even sure if I want to use Bonds despite it being a mechanic I really want to try out

[idle prism]

I’d suggest just using the stress rules as a baseline, to see where they go?

You could feasibly use them in PtH too, if you so choose to accommodate them

[wary widget]

I think for PtH itself I'll run it as close as base as possible. I still have to ease myself back into GMing

[wary widget]

(also god Kestrel's bounty is so hard to translate in french lol)

[idle prism]

There has to be a neat bird of prey name in French, paired with some synonym for wealth, right?

[ashen temple]

...this made me realize that there is probably a universe where the workers call it Kestrel's Booty

A pun on the pirate term for treasure and the fact that it generally sucks ass there.

[wary widget]

My current approximation backtranslates to "Falcon's gift/donation".... not sure I will keep that

"Don du faucon" does have a nice ring to it though

[ashen temple]

I dig it

...

Goddammit I made a pun unintentionally

[tough hedge]

I'm considering running PtH and have been reading through the module today — I love the idea of starting from zero and kitting up slowly. But I feel like I'm missing something obvious; where do the players actually obtain their mechs + gms weapons and such for the start of beat 3? Capturing patrols' mechs? I saw the printer room, but I couldn't find where it described printing full mechs.

[idle prism]

Oh whoops, I should’ve made that clearer in the v1.2 version. Basically, if they complete the clock for Worker Mobilization, they automatically acquire their mechs

Whether by accumulation of mech parts or goodwill with the workers who help them out

[tough hedge]

Ah I see, thanks! I might replace/supplement some of the reserve awards with mech parts so it's a more gradual acquisition.

[idle prism]

Yup, that’s fine. I think that’s what I advise for filling up the clock in the intro to Beat 2?

[tough hedge]

Ah I missed that too! 😖 Thank you

[ashen temple]

Ran through Grit Those Teeth today! Man, remembering that Opfor reduction is HELLA important-

Only had 3 players, and we kinda expedited the narrative a bit at their request

[idle prism]

I admit I haven’t tested PtH for 3 players; do you feel the opfor was reasonable or should it be adjusted? And did you run with the Demolisher (older than v1.2) or the Goliath (v1.2 and up)?

[ashen temple]

I ran with the goliath

I think it was a good call to do that

However the Grunt Cataphracts due to their numbers alone really proved a challenge for 3 players, even if they were cannon fodder

Especially considering they were fairly Artillery based

Well actually that's a lie

[idle prism]

Surprised they didn’t pack some Assault Rifles

[ashen temple]

They had 1 arty, one hacker with a CPR, and 1 stealth melee

Oh they actually did!

The thing was the Cataphracts had such high mobility that they were able to cross the map in one turn

So having four of them against 3 players, plus Grosso, the Priest, and the Hive, I really did not see those guys winning (and again I also forgot to remove the opfor)

Thing is I forgot to deploy the reinforcements at the beginning of the second round so I had to wait till round 3

I think I'd have to do more testing before I make a call ngl

[idle prism]

Reinforcements can be deployed at your leisure tbh

Sounds like it was necessary to hold off anyway 😅

[ashen temple]

Funnily enough they did not take note of the fact that an invade Insta-killed the Cataphracy

So even though they didn't know about the Grunt template you'd think they'd try that again...

[ashen temple]

True, if the action economy wasn't so low the Hive would have fucked up one of the players pretty hard

[idle prism]

So just to be clear, you used the initial opfor intended for 4 players, and reinforcements for 3?

And deployed all reinforcements?

[ashen temple]

No I used the Initial opfor and reinforcements for 3

And yes I deployed all reinforcements

[idle prism]

Oh, I understand, you didn’t remove opfor for the players stealing mechs

[ashen temple]

Yes

Which was my bad

Didn't think it would affect combat too much

[idle prism]

Can always reward them with spare parts in that case

In case the damage was too much to them

[ashen temple]

It wasn't so much the damage it was the objective

They did not structure or stress a single time that fight

[idle prism]

Ah okok

[ashen temple]

Yeah I'd probably try and do it again but actually factor in the opfor removal at the start

[idle prism]

All good; please let me know how Beat 4 goes!

[ashen temple]

Because we did kind of expedite the narrative, so they didn't actually go through the process of filling up the whole clock

I really wanted to get to the mech combat on the second session as well

I also didn't do a lot of the character intro stuff in session zero? Which is probably my bad

I made a lot of goofs running this one

[idle prism]

It’s ok; tbh I set up beat 1 to do a lot of “session 0” legwork

[ashen temple]

Honestly should have run through Beat 1 in session 0 lmao

Would have saved a lot of time

Oh well

We learn from it

[idle prism]

Are the players enjoying themselves?

[ashen temple]

I think so

[idle prism]

And are you enjoying yourself?

[ashen temple]

They're telling me they had a lot of fun

Yeah!

[idle prism]

Then that’s all that matters, end of the day

[ashen temple]

True

I just tend to

Fixate on mistakes

A lot

[idle prism]

Believe me when I say I empathize. GMing is one of those things that is gonna be messy at times, but 99% of the time it isn’t game ending or relationship ruining

It’s just something we can be better about the next time

GMing is all about the journey haha

[ashen temple]

Trye

[idle prism]

In game and out!

[ashen temple]

I might see if I can run a few more instances of GTT with only 3 players, with and without opfor reduction

[idle prism]

You have no obligation to do that other than if that will bring you joy

[ashen temple]

Fair lol

[idle prism]

I’ll happily take your feedback if you run it again, though!

Wonderful thing about the digital age is that Patch Notes are a thing lol

[ashen temple]

Indeed!

Would be a bitch if Lancer didn't have the ability to be instantly updated

For now, I'd say maybe split up the reinforcements for 3-4 players? Like have the Hive in 3 players and the extra 2 grunt cataphracts in 4?

And then at that point I don't think the opfor reductions would be as necessary

Obviously that feedback is subject to a fair bit more testing

[idle prism]

I’ve always viewed the reinforcements to be “as needed” so maybe I’ll clarify that too. Initial deployment is a little heavy on activations for 3 players though, maybe I’ll move a Cataphract grunt from initial to reinforcements if I get enough feedback in that direction

[ashen temple]

That could work as well

Initial deployment already has 5 activations

With one of them basically having resistance to most long range damage

[sharp quarry]

Yeah, trying to predict how well every group will do is always going to be a fool's errand, so clarifying that it is as needed should help.

[tough hedge]

We just finished our session 0 in Dmitri's clinic. The Kestrel's Bounty section with all the questions for how the PCs relate to the npcs was super useful! It really effectively set up the injustice of the situation and how the players are situated in it. I also finally saw all those notes about obtaining mechs and parts down in Appendix A.

[idle prism]

As a heads up, Pierce the Heavens is on sale on DTRPG, if anyone’s friends missed the itch.io Winter Sale: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/407690/Pierce-the-Heavens?affiliate_id=2436726

[wary widget]

Doing session 0 in an hour. One of the players already told me he wants to play a house of stone betrayed noble, this is going to be fun

[wary widget]

Session 0 went great! I also mentally crashed when a player went for Technophile lol

[ashen temple]

Got around to running Eyes Up, Rise up!

OpFor had a bit of a blunder in not playing the objective until the end, but overall a very fun engagement! Kestrel lost her wings (literally) near the end, so she had to run to get to stuff

[idle prism]

Lol that happened to my Kestrel too

Except she basically got one shot

[ashen temple]

Yeah it's funny when literally the only system she has is her literal flight system

[idle prism]

Hit on round 6 by an HMG, instantly structured -> system trauma destroy flight system -> fall damage to destroy her only weapon system

[ashen temple]

OUCH

[idle prism]

Then an initiative shot just finished her

[ashen temple]

I called it by Round 5, was pretty sure they were gonna get the objective there next round and two guys had to go

[idle prism]

Glad that the players definitely finished it by Round 5

[idle prism]

Oh shit Dragonkid released a video on Pierce the Heavens last night https://youtu.be/8X0Km1nb0os

[frank crescent]

yoo

that means its gonna reach a lot more people

the "community at large" if you will

[idle prism]

Helllllll yeah

[vestal vortex]

That's sick!!

[ashen temple]

Eyyyy based

[strong pasture]

Glad it is getting attention. My game on rpgnet had some downtime because the end of 2022 dropped a lot of grim crap on me, but we have resumed with enthusiasm now. I added in specific relationship clocks with the Facsimile faction (flash-cloned strikebreakers with a deadly secret) and the Dark Man. The Facks are a good source of anything chemical, from stims to plastique.

[idle prism]

I think those sound fantastic for fleshing out the settlement a lot more; I wanted to have more on facsimile clones, but I was staring down a bloated wordcount as it was. Glad you’re finding evocative ways to make the module your own!

[strong pasture]

Absolutely. The good thing about the module is it gives you plenty of structure to hang your own stuff in. I am also using Bonds from the KTB book

[wary widget]

Any ideas as to what house Korolyova would belong to? I have a PC that is a disgraced House of Stone noble, so I want to flesh that part out a bit more. I haven't fully read the FG to the KTB yet... I am a bit late on my prep 😬

[wary widget]

(unrelatedly, I'm currently printing this to give to my players during the briefing:

[idle prism]

I would've said House of Stone, but maybe some Dawnline faction instead? I don't know the factions well, so I'd say any that are trying to beat up Ungratefuls

there could also potentially be infighting too, idk

[wary widget]

because of another player's backstory, we have already established ourselves far from the DS. I was starting to think that having her also be house of stone would work well indeed

oh print just finished

I love my printer :)

you know what yeah I'll go house of stone

[wary widget]

Just ran session 1 with beat 1 and 2!
Went great, even when I had to fumble my way to a ventilation system because one of the players wanted to have the vents as a hidden navigation system.
They also frustrated Normani into helping their cause, not sure I played them quite right but oh well, it worked. The players also took over the tower with a political pamphlet, and proceeded to wreck the patrols in the Commons. That was fun

[idle prism]

that's frankly great to hear about Normani lol, I wanted negotiation to be a valid tactic

[tough hedge]

Got partway through beat 1 tonight. Notes:

• set fire to the commons as a distraction 😬
• came up with a plan to turn the heavy metals they were mining into a gas weapon by sending it to dimitri for processing
• we stopped play and had an out-of-character discussion about if we wanted murder of asuka's helpless sleeping guard was within the safety limits we'd established during sesh 0.
• the npc name roll table: very useful!!

It looks like they might have a showdown with grosso next session. I'm still deciding whether I want to run it as combat with HP and stuff (to make the hardsuits matter) or just abstract it into skill rolls.

I'm worried that running it as combat will end up being a just bunch of dice rolling and watching numbers go down bc pilot combat has fewer choices to make. Any advice on which way to do it?

[idle prism]

I’m afraid to ask what prompted setting fire to a residential area but I hope everyone is getting out okay. I certainly didn’t anticipate that or the gas weapon when writing the module lol (which is good, frankly). I’m surprised at how quickly folks are willing to resort to murdering that guard; happened in my playtest too 😰. Glad the NPC name table is doing work!

[idle prism]

I would say to run this as a narrative scene, using ad hoc clocks if necessary. The clock you could make is “Subdue Grosso’s Patrol” and then players will need to reach success before having their HP (or Stress, if you’re using that) exhausted

The looser format will let players use the surrounding environment and advantages they’ve acquired rather than just looking at their character sheets for the guns they have

[tough hedge]

Oh, clocks, of course! Thank you.
Re commons fire, it was as a distraction so they could rescue a prisoner. They got 20+ so I let it be without any serious collateral damage; like setting a car on fire during a riot.

[void acorn]

Damn thsi looks pretty cool

[idle prism]

Thank you! 😄

[frank crescent]

it IS pretty cool 😌

[wary widget]

just noticed a minor typo, page 17, exploding barrels paragraph: "Bright red barrels [...] and the large generator may__ __targeted" instead of "may be targeted"

[idle prism]

added this to my errata document for a potential v1.3 update

[strong pasture]

My son drew and coloured a captain of the Kestrel's goons

[wary widget]

Grit Those Teeth has been brutal lol. 2 brawlers and 2 artillery shooters, Grosso destroyed both brawlers (snake eyes on the second structure in both cases, they have terrible luck and I didn't miss once against one of them) before finally being taken down by a CPR shot bruteforcing through his Resistance. Great fight overall, we had a lot of fun with it!

[idle prism]

Oh god, did they win the sitrep?? Also holy moly 2 snake eyes in one fight, and I thought the damn Demolisher was bad

[wary widget]

oh yeah they won. In part because I slighlty played up Grosso's agressivity, but they had taken out some cataphracts before the fight so I had little options to take them off the control points, and the artillers could pretty much keep shooting while holding

[idle prism]

Okay, phew

Losing after double snake eyes would suck

[wary widget]

to be fair that one wasn't because of the encounter design lol. One of my players is our usual GM for Wallflower, and I'm lucky with dice, he is not at all

They still hurt the enemy hell of a lot

[idle prism]

Thank goodness they’re in Everests

Or GMS mechs at least

[wary widget]

yeah, at some point a player did the ol' 4 quick actions in a single turn and yeah, everest moment

(all everests here)

[idle prism]

What did the players with destroyed mechs do in the meantime?

[wary widget]

the lack of health/tankiness did hurt them quite bad though

[idle prism]

I’m always curious what players with downed mechs do

[wary widget]

the destroyed mechs were toward the end of the fight, like round 4

the first downed decided that "hmmm, maybe trying to face a goliath with a pickaxe isn't the smartest move" and decided to stay put. One round later, the second downed mech, and this one the PC is a proud fallen noble so of course he got out, but that was when the CPR finally took out grosso

but!

if you remember yesterday in gm-corner I was discussing options for help from the resistance. I ended up going with a quick action to call a 1d6, half on agi check, burst 1 explosion once per round, and the downed players still could call that in on their turns

(they didn't end up doing it tho :( )

[idle prism]

I’m glad it was still an option for them!!

That was a clever brew of a reserve, so nice work

[wary widget]

thanks :)

first time brewing reserve, I was a bit scared with it

[idle prism]

So, I originally wrote Pierce the Heavens for the Summer 2022 Write Your First Adventure course hosted by the RPG Writer’s Workshop. Since I released it after the summer deadline, the module is now included in the Fall 2022 General Path bundle! Check it out here for discounts on other system-agnostic or miscellaneous system titles: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/424526/RPG-Writer-Workshop-Misc-Fall-2022-BUNDLE?affiliate_id=2436726

[vestal vortex]

Neat!

Is Train Lightning your publishing LLC

[idle prism]

It’s not registered, just my publisher name on DTRPG

[vestal vortex]

Fair

[tough hedge]

I don't know why I feel compelled to post reports here after our sessions, but here we are :p

My players used the information from Asuka to ambush Grosso's patrol as they were coming up a ramp along the rim of the pit (I let them describe their ideal scene and said it existed). Using clocks for the fight worked great. I went with two three-part clocks; one risky one for the enforcers, and one heroic + difficult one for Grosso. Having the option to trade invoked accuracy to reduce heroic down to risky was clutch, but I noticed my players were reluctant to reduce risky to normal because they were excited about getting stress and consequences.

They blew out the ramp to separate the enforcers, took them out by expending a bunch of resources, and then got 2/3 of the way through Grosso's clock before I used a failed roll to give an "opportunity lost" consequence and gave Grosso an opening to escape on foot with a hostage. They took my bargain of getting the hostage back unharmed but letting him get away.

I'm planning on ticking up the reinforcements clock by three as he reunites with the second patrol, but that'll be balanced by the three ticks from freeing asuka and three more for reprogramming grosso's mech.

[idle prism]

Oh hell yes, that’s fantastic haha

I deeply appreciate you sharing these highlights! It’s a joy to see how other tables run the adventure

[frank crescent]

i feel like your map is modern art

its very aesthetic

[tough hedge]

It's my first time using owlbear and I was planning on just using it for this overall map, but as the fight started it became apparent we needed a shared visualization so I panicked and just started sketching off to the side.

I also learned once again that adding cranes to encounters is always a good idea. You can climb 'em, swing from 'em, knock 'em over, hack and animate 'em...

[frank crescent]

I fully and wholeheartedly second this

just having elements of the map that have multiple interactions goes miles to 1. make the map feel alive and 2. help players problem solves (especially if they run into build oriented problems)

[vestal vortex]

Curious how your experience with Owlbear has been so far

At the risk of going off topic

[idle prism]

I’d be happy to see how the combat maps perform on Owlbear hahaha

But feel free to move elsewhere, I’ll likely see it anyways 😛

[frank crescent]

valk is always watching. valk knows

[idle prism]

Unrelated: Regarding the DTRPG bundle, it’s nice that there’s a banner for it (and other bundles from the workshop) on the main page of the site for more traffic!

Of course, that means that you’re more likely to get a random tirade in your comments from someone lamenting that “designers seem to have forgotten the evils of communism”, made after reading 2 lines of the marketing blurb at 1AM ET

[idle prism]

More like I’m approaching “terminally online” lol

[idle prism]

In any case I ignored them and reported the comment as it didn’t have much to do with the actual adventure

[frank crescent]

I wouldn't know anything about that

[sharp quarry]

Lol, though the book didn't provide you with a map already or? I'll admit, I haven't checked in with Valk about that one in ages.

[idle prism]

Oh I added it but I like Olive’s approach here

Easier to visualize what’s all where

[sharp quarry]

I remember my work of art back then haha.

The doctor and digsite switched places eventually, but it was fun :).

[sharp quarry]

Ok, was wondering :).

[idle prism]

It’s basic af and doesn’t have the info that Olive added, so it’s easy to just redraw and add relevant info while doing so

Wondering if I included the settlement map as a handout….

Okay I did, phew

[sharp quarry]

I'd have been surprised considering we talked about it a bit. Very helpful to have to visualise things with

[idle prism]

Yeah I know I purposefully included it in the appendix, I just forgot if I included it in the maps + handouts zip file

After seeing that though, I’m deffo adding a note to the appendix that players should be encouraged to write/draw on the settlement map to organize their thoughts and points of interest

[wary widget]

Finally ran Eyes Up, Rise Up, it went really great IMO. By the end of turn 2, Kestrel had been overheated and of course I rolled a 1 - thus triggering a reactor meltdown, that I couldn't get rid off in time. Despite that, the fight was still tough on the players. All the NPCs filled their role really well. At the end, the convoy was extracted in part thanks to a rule oversight: I had forgotten that enemies can block the movement of the objective. The PC that capped had already been destroyed in the previous fight and expended all his repairs and then some, and by the end of the fight he was down to 1 struct, 5 HP. When he capped, the rest of the PCs were spread across the map so I had Kestrel (surviving thanks to a mobility hardsuit) order the NPCs up, and handled the rest narratively. I then realized I had misread the reinforcements and only sent one support instead of two (oh, well).
Overall the players think the module was really well balanced, perhaps a bit tough on the end. But besides the Kestrel Meltdown, I also had some insanely good rolls again and my first miss against one of the players was round 4... Legit started considering fudging at some point.
The narrative portion also went great. Now, after discussing their strategy with the players, I'm trying to think of what's to come next.

Also, because Kestrel exploded I didn't give them the flight system. In retrospect I am not so sure about that decision.

[idle prism]

Your call on the flight system tbh. Good to know how your table handled the second combat; glad they wiped out Kestrel first thing haha. Especially glad about the narrative portion going well overall

Thanks for your feedback!

[idle prism]

Pierce the Heavens is on sale on DTRPG for GM's Day! Feel free to share it with someone who might want it on a small discount: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/407690/Pierce-the-Heavens?affiliate_id=2436726

[tacit gorge]

https://twitter.com/stationukuwa/status/1631892151528472576?s=46&t=gdgUqN4VcrGaigfuSvloNw

Ukuwa_Station (@StationUkuwa)

Yo go get this 3rd party beginner Lancer mission. It’s guuud- channels big Guren Lagan vibes

“Pierce the Heavens is on sale on DTRPG for GM's Day! Feel free to share it with someone who might want it on a small discount:” https://t.co/p5vfLyd1Ob

#LancerRPG

▶ Play video

Twitter · Mar 4, 2023, 5:39 AM

[idle prism]

Shaka you're the best lol

[idle prism]

So this may be on the tail of the DTRPG sale, but the Itch.io Creator Day sale is running now! That means that itch.io doesn't take a cut of revenue for today. I've put my own stuff on sale in a bundle, but consider checking out other itch.io creators today too, like Shaka's #1057772205037060166 , #1058480010207449258 , and #"Night Watch on Al-Sorah" (#1057878934701748294 message) .

My sale can be found here: https://itch.io/s/89940/valks-march-2023-creator-day-sale

[frank crescent]

oh i need to pick up the template, i may very well use it for the deadspace mission should i ever get off my ass to write it up

[idle prism]

Just sent off an email to itch.io buyers with recs for other Lancer 3rd party content haha

[frank crescent]

purch-ased

gottem

[tough hedge]

I saw the email and liked it! I don't actually know how to send messages like that on itch lol

[idle prism]

It’s on the “interact” tab of your project’s dashboard

Section for email n such

[tough hedge]

Oh whoaaaaa

[idle prism]

I don’t know how it works for F2P stuff but I know I use it for buyers and those I gave keys to

[tough hedge]

Yeah it looks like it's not available for LT but is for some of my older games.

Thanks!

Also, I've been meaning to post it here, but we got through the first PtH fight!

Since boss grosso escaped, I ended up having him requisition one of the other mechs and represented him as an elite gladiator from Suldan. The NPCs did well for the first half by sitting on the two north points and having grosso contest one of the PC points. But like I see in most Control sitreps, eventually all the NPCs die & I run out of reinforcements so the players have turns 5-6 being able to just sit on all four points. Is that a common pattern for Control?

[idle prism]

Yeah that’s pretty common. Control starts difficult (especially since NPCs usually outnumber) but gets easier as NPCs are picked off

If you find reason to call it early, then go for it. Alternatively, bring in some extra reinforcements if you want the fight to go to maximum rounds and keep the pressure up

As is, it sounds like the fight played as I expected though. Exciting to hear about the Gladiator swap though, dunno what it does compared to a Goliath but it probably fit the KTB-type feel

[frank crescent]

valk if i imprison my players I want you to know that I fully intend to do a LOT of hotswapping of NPCs, at T3. But I also want you to know that I'll update you on how it goes for your own data

[idle prism]

I would appreciate that! And being UIB plants also works, if they don’t wanna be imprisoned against their will n such

[frank crescent]

I see what you're doing there valk and I appreciate it

[idle prism]

@cursive yoke following up from a notification earlier, wanted to let you know to feel free to ping me if you have questions about Pierce the Heavens! It has a free full PDF preview on both Itch.io and DriveThruRPG if you want to take a look at how I put things together

[cursive yoke]

ill be downloading that and taking a look at that. This is, funnily enough, exactly what came to me when I was talking about the narrative.
Gurren Lagaan is the exact sorta thing thats hard to replicate in RAW lancer

[idle prism]

Absolutely, Gurren Lagann is mecha turned all the way to 11 and the antithesis of “grounded”

I took more of its “ideas” and less of its “stylization” when writing, for sure

Like i view PtH’s trope analogue of TTGL’s “core drill” to actually be the mech printcodes, and not the actual drill

[cursive yoke]

I like that

[idle prism]

The actual paracausal drill is cool but mostly a one-time, setpiece macguffin. The mechs are the actual lasting tool, and would stay relevant even if there was no drill

[cursive yoke]

Yeah. Its not really a core part for most of the anime, just a representation of the themeing.

So i get the vibe

This is the sorta thing i wish was there. I think if i wanted to replicate the stuff that made me so interested in mecha, Id need other systems to make it happen. Or develope with a massive investment of time a full utilization of the tools provided by lancer

not to mention playtesting and so on

[idle prism]

I frankly agree

The extra guidance I provide in the Narrative section was me mostly trying to recall FATE Accelerated

[cursive yoke]

Like Ghost in the shell or TTGL or even Gundam WfM

[idle prism]

There’s deffo a need to build out bespoke structures for Lancer at times

[cursive yoke]

What I would like to find is a system that lets you build out orgs in more detail. Like lets take the scrapyard mech teens idea.
If they drive out the evil corp and start to make a city, i want more than just clocks to track the building, and more than just reserves to cover how well the city can stay alive

/resist the big corpo

[idle prism]

Oh absolutely, that sort of structure just ain’t there yet for Lancer

[cursive yoke]

Is there even any system that could do that?

[idle prism]

Beam Saber may have some of that org stuff?

Because it’s Forged in the Dark and those systems usually have a “crew” or organization the players belong to

It would likely be abstract at a “settlement-building” level though I’d guess

Oooo wait. @cursive yoke have you heard of Salvage Union? It’s literally the scrapyard folks scrounging up their mechs to stick it to the corpros

[cursive yoke]

I have not but i have started seeing parts of it on twitter

[idle prism]

Or at the very least explore a post-apoc land with cool mechs

[cursive yoke]

If it does what I think it does, then i could easily hack it into the systems im looking for

Beamsaber could also be hacked

Ill just have to wait until I have money to do it

Like

The thing thats the hardest is I don't have the words for what im looking for when it comes to rulesets

but what im looking for has to exist somewhere?

but no one I ask can tell me because idk what to call it even

[idle prism]

I think what may help is to ask “what does a piece of mecha media need to have to fit your tastes?” Like there’s ways to break it down for sure. Like here’s an example for when I was breaking down “what makes for an Albatross campaign”:

Goal here is to provide a structure that:
    • Creates a setting with numerous locales to which players can travel (setting generator).
    • Generates crises or hooks severe enough to require player intervention (hook generator).
    • Encourages rapid movement from crisis to crisis without dwelling in a particular location (think tickdown clocks that expire after so many "jumps").
        ○ Conversely, the ship becomes the most "familiar" spot, and needs downtime considerations.
    • Delivers players to a broad range of episodic, modular scenarios discovered through travelling through a star system (random encounters, varied encounters).
    • Supports mech combat scenarios that feel meaningful and just.
Rewards players for taking direct action to help people in need (through XP Clocks, Manna, Reserves, or Exotic Gear?).

Granted this is for a campaign structure instead of designing at a session play level but some of the ideas are the same

[cursive yoke]

Thats actualy really super helpful.

[idle prism]

Okay good hahaha

I don’t have a perfect answer for all the items yet (eg I don’t know how I can make the “meaningful and just” part be prominent)

But at that point it’s a question of “how much of this is simply the setting’s tone delivered by the GM and how much is stuff that needs a mechanic to drive gameplay”

The line’s fuckin blurry sometimes, and I’m no pro game designer, I’m just a hobbyist haha

[cursive yoke]

    • Lancer is the Combat, Narrative is what the fighting is for
    • Lets players start from nothing
    • Allows them to do missions to expand what they can do for themselves and others
    • a path from living in the dirt to running a station/city that they fight for when they enter the battlefield
    • Lets players build their crew and settlement in ways that give both narrative and mechanical value, which drives them to make choices about missions.
    • Provides players with narrative complexity that differentiates and challenges them. 
    • Allows them to grow their narrative capabilities over time in ways that feel earned.```

[cursive yoke]

This is also something that makes the finding out hard. People tend to reply with "Sounds like you should tell a better story as a gm" and i dont know mechanical pedagogy enough to point out the importance of mechanics I think there is

[idle prism]

Yeah no “be a better GM” only goes so far

Because GMing is a broad and varied profession

And often involves game design!

[cursive yoke]

Sometimes the importance of a mechanic is just saying "Hey they cant do that." and letting the dm not have to know why players cant

[idle prism]

I will say that the “starting from nothing” and “picking your crew” makes me think about the Traveller RPG

[cursive yoke]

Exactly. Im trying to hobby run some games, not design a game with mechanics that dont suck just cause I want a campaign that feels a certain way

ooo

[idle prism]

I haven’t played it but from what I’ve seen it may have some of that vibe and mechanics available

[cursive yoke]

I think, more so than anything, I want my players to build a civilisation/settlement like end stage gurren legan through mech combats.

I want them to have a path from living in the dirt to running a station/city that they fight for when they enter the battlefield

The ability to look at two missions they are chooseing between and be like "Well clean water is more important than power." "yeah but without power its harder to cook."

I want Lancer to be my gameplay loop and the narrative to be what the fighting is for

[idle prism]

Gotcha gotcha

[cursive yoke]

Sorry this is approaching 90% me figureing out what im on about

this has been massively helpful

[idle prism]

No need to apologize! Happy to talk it out

I think that your search is 100% valid

My personal game design philosophy is that players are drawn to Game Structures, so having certain game structures will shape the game in an according way

If you give players rules for prospecting and make prospecting campaign-relevant, they’ll be more willing to try prospecting

And so on

[cursive yoke]

I think I just had an epiphany

Like with what you do here, at the beginning start out with: You cannot repair your mech until you capture the printer.

Or even more restrictive. You can replenish repair packs but cant full repair

and then build up to getting the printer

And so on from there

[idle prism]

Sure I get you

(I thought I introduced an alternative to the printer in my most recent revision but maybe my sample is out of date )

But yeah, that opens up narrative for “what happens when your mech no longer runs?”

Naturally, you’re still a person and can do person things

You’ll naturally be limited to doing things that don’t require a mech, but those things can still be interesting and dramatic

So the interesting part is what options the GM provides the players to repeat the Lancer Combat Loop, preferably in a place that’s narratively meaningful so the players get the most bang for their buck

[cursive yoke]

So not just "go raid for supplies" but mission choices like "The town is being attacked tomorrow and you know your mechs are hurt, how do you get repair packs?"

[idle prism]

Yea that sort of thing

[cursive yoke]

I took what i learned from our convo and discussed it with one of my players and I think I actualy know how to approach what I wanted to make.
Thank you again for your help, this is a massive breakthrough!

[idle prism]

Excellent! If you eventually put together a write up for it I’d love to see what you put together

[vestal vortex]

The upcoming Cities Without Number has a nice system for this

[cursive yoke]

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ I will absolutely be looking into this thank you so much

[vestal vortex]

Well, sort of. It introduces the idea of "schemes" which are large-scale goals for each faction with a progress bar, basically, but with different waypoints within each progress bar. They are pretty directly used for mission generation

[frozen star]

Hi all, I have a very basic newb question. It says in the sitrep for the first combat to add the Veteran template to Boss Grosso if you have 5 players. Is that intended to replace the Elite template, or is it in addition to the Elite template?

[idle prism]

It is intended to be additive. Replacing Elite with Veteran would actually make the fight much easier

[frozen star]

Ok great, thank you

[frozen star]

I ran the first combat of this scenario for my first session of lancer ever yesterday and it went really well! Thanks for the great scenario. We'll be doing the final combat next week.

I had one small piece of feedback. We found with the lighting on the dig site map, it was sometimes pretty hard to see the hex grid lines. I think something like a lighter grey colour could have stood out more and made it easier to use.

But that's a very minor point, everyone enjoyed the adventure and we're excited for part 2.

[idle prism]

Fantastic! Glad it went well. I’ll make note of the hex grid lines for future revisions.

[wary widget]

Oh I forgot to tell you, last sunday I wrapped up the short campaign I ran based on PtH. We had a ton of fun, thanks for making such a great starting point!

[idle prism]

Woohoo! Happy to hear you all enjoyed it!

[tough hedge]

Just finished the final fight! It was probably the closest game I'm ever going to play.

The whole fight had awful PC rolls, they burnt a lot of overcharges and initiatives getting through the first two sentinels. Kestrel kept healing from the support drones which was a great way to keep her in the fight and prevent chip damage. We discovered halfway through that our least experienced player had also equipped a flight system, so he got a surprise attack by leaping off the wall and engaging Kestrel in melee, structuring her twice and taking out her missile launchers, leaving her only strafing for the rest of the game. That player landed back on the wall but then was promptly destroyed on a bad structure roll. The bad luck continued (3 damage on Kestrel from a crit'd AMR) and Kestrel finished off two more exposed PC mechs with two strafes on round 7.

This left a weaponless Korolyova being the only mech on the field in range to contest the transport — the last sentinel and support were tied up fighting the last PC mech. She had 10 HP; one of the pilots shot her with a pilot weapon to bring her down to 8, then another pilot attempted to jockey her. She got a nat 1 on her Hull to resist it, so went down to 4 hp at the end of the round.

On round 8, her viper's speed let her go first so she simply flew out from the wall and attempted to throw the pilot off to their death. The pilot rolled a nat 1... and then she did as well, for a total of -1.

The pilot took their turn to automatically deal the last four damage via the jockey. This caused both the pilot and Kestrel to both plummet to their deaths and allowed the transport to escape, leaving the last surviving player mech behind to be finished off/captured as he held off the last of her forces. I'm still stunned that it came down to three on-foot pilots against the boss who had lost her only weapon at the finish line, and a string of nat 1s telling the perfect story of a final sacrifice enabled by the fact that the whole thing was on the side of a wall.

Thank you for making this module, again! It was a blast to play.

[idle prism]

holy moly, glad you all had such an intense fight haha

I'm practically speechless, just literally the emoji lol

[tough hedge]

It felt like a well-balanced encounter! It really was just truly awful PC rolls that made it such a nail-biter. I also didn't pull my punches when a PC got exposed; these were supposed to be experienced troops. The only time I skipped going for killshots was when Kestrel had a mech snack from a support to keep her alive to go and get instead. It seemed like she'd prioritize that over winning the overall mission.

[idle prism]

yeah no that sounds right. Her losing 2 structure and then losing a major weapon/system also sounds familiar haha (for me it was "don't get hit until like round 5, then eat a single crit from an HMG, lose flight systems, take 9 AP falling damage, take another structure and lose her only weapon, then get Overcharge-shot again and die)

[raw saddle]

Sounds like going out in a blaze of glory, lol.

[idle prism]

I know originally having a Demolisher in the 1st fight was my usual "haha, that was a little much" moment, but there are times where I worry I should take another look at the team comp in combat 2 lol

I'm glad that your table squeaked out a win

[tough hedge]

I liked the synergy of having so many supports putting down snacks allowing Kestrel to barrel roll into them, turning a hit into healing up to full.

[idle prism]

see, my playtest table had someone one-shot both supports with a Cyclone Pulse Rifle, which explains why I didn't see that synergy happen as much

love to see how the combat rolled out for other tables, it's always exciting and nailbiting haha

[raw saddle]

As I alluded elsewhere, I should be running this soon, too. Potentially for two groups, with the way scheduling is looking! I'm looking forward to it, aside from a few nerves about not having run a live game in years, haha.

I'll report back how it goes. 😉

[idle prism]

please do! feedback is welcome

right now I'm wondering which is gonna come first: Technophobia v1 or a Pierce the Heavens v1.3 lol (it's probably the latter 😓 )

[wary widget]

Well that's not very nice of him

[idle prism]

it was not, and I loved it hahaha

(Context for others: Sixela was the artillery that blew the Supports up in my playtest)

[wary widget]

I had some insane rolls on this fight for some reason

[tough hedge]

Paracausal aftershocks from the drill

[sand nacelle]

Hey would this be the right place to ask if the VTT settings aren't working for me? The grid isn't even close to lining up when I use the settings provided in the text doc and I don't know what I've done wrong.

[raw saddle]

Either here or #lancer-vtt are good. Which VTT are you using?

[sand nacelle]

Oh, my bad. Foundry. Should've said that.

[raw saddle]

V10?

And i assume hexes? I forget if the recommended settings are for v9 or v10.

[sand nacelle]

Uh, V10 probably? I just got it a few hours ago and I'm trying to get everything set up. And yes, hexes.

[raw saddle]

Pinged you in #lancer-vtt , there's a guide there to help align hex maps.

[idle prism]

I probably need to update the map config! I wrote it for Foundry v9. Eranziel’s guide should help

[sand nacelle]

Ah, so a foundry update messed it up. Well, here's what ended up working for me.

Dig Site:

• Grid Type: Hexagonal Columns - Even
• Grid Size: 100
• Image Dimensions: 2801 x 3001
• Padding Percentage: 0.25
• Offset Background:
  • Horizontal: 0
  • Vertical: 0

Drill Shaft:

• Grid Type: Hexagonal Columns - Even
• Grid Size: 100
• Image Dimensions: 2201 x 3001
• Padding Percentage: 0.25
• Offset Background:
  • Horizontal: 0
  • Vertical: 0

[idle prism]

Thank you! I’ll take note of it for my next update.

[raw saddle]

Making an isometric attempt at combat 1, hopefully we'll get to give it a spin this week. 😉

Your map is lovely, Valk, but I have tasted the forbidden isometric fruit and I'm afraid I can't go back.

[idle prism]

Hell yeah, looking good to me

[raw saddle]

I'm sad I don't have an isometric crane, though.

[idle prism]

them isometrics are a helluva drug lol. And yeah, such is life

[raw saddle]

Also the elevated bits are a bit of a PITA to build

[idle prism]

It looks like you got a working solution at least haha

[raw saddle]

Yeah, it should work. I'm really interested to see how this group takes to it, most of them are not used to tactical games.

We had a session 0 two weeks ago, including a couple rounds of demo combat for practice, and one guy commented that he'd never played an RPG with this much attention to movement and positioning before, haha.

Same guy also did a bit of a "wow, Ok, things are different here" when a Bastion used its rotary grenade launcher. To quote - "I'm used to like, I shoot my crossbow. And then this guy rolls up with his rotary grenade launcher." 😆

[idle prism]

"look out, we've got a badass over here" energy hahaha

[raw saddle]

hahaha

[ashen temple]

hold on there's a meme for this I'm sure

[idle prism]

No timeline for a v1.3 yet, but I have started to incorporate some feedback into my living doc:

[tough hedge]

Ha we narratively did something similar to explain how the prospector talent they picked up afterwards worked.

[idle prism]

Ah, that makes a ton of sense haha

[wary widget]

I'm curious, how does that happen? taking over the elevator?

[idle prism]

Nah the drill doesn’t disappear after using it, just becomes inert

I don’t make that clear tho lol

[wary widget]

oh ok. I roleplayed it as disapearing, and later softly shut down the players when they wanted to use it again. in hindsight, propably not the coolest way to go about it...

[frank crescent]

I wouldn't worry too much, might not have been the most elegant way but it was effective and a decision made in the moment

[raw saddle]

Oh, interesting. I definitely read it as a McGuffin which was consumed on use. I, too, would have shut them down if they asked to use it again. Unless I had an idea to make it a significant element of the next mission. 😉

[frank crescent]

having not played it or read it recently, but having read it in the past, I absolutely would have had it burn out or destroy necessary internal components through use. It is cobbled together after all; while not totally wrecked, it would need replacement parts and technology to function again imo

though... I wouldn't wholly be against awarding an exotic Vlad drill without the licenses as a post-mission reward if the players wanted to convert it into something

something something purpose built, purpose used, was not initially intended for repeat use

[sharp quarry]

Getting a combat drill out of this module feels very fitting

[raw saddle]

Finally ran session 1, it went great! The players really enjoyed it, and I only had about 2 awkward pauses while I went to read something. 😆

There was one point of confusion on how to fill the Worker Mobilization clock, but going back and re-reading the briefing I think the wording is fine. They were interpreting this section as saying "these things all tick up the clock, and maybe give you other benefits", as opposed to "you can get benefits from doing these things, one of those benefits is ticking up the clock."

They kept asking things like "oh, we've explored the supply depot this turn, does that add to Worker Mobilization?" 😉

But they also optimized the heck out of the clock, lol. Filled it to 12 by the time Reinforcements Arrive reached 5. That's what I get for running a game for a bunch of programmers. 😛

[idle prism]

Hahaha nice. Yeah I think the original release was a lot less forgiving than the current one, too. I added a lot of bonus segments for doing “big stuff” to the latest release

[raw saddle]

Yeah, they raided the storage shed first, then freed Asuka, then got access to the printer and used Asuka's distraction to just fully man the printer for two hours, lol.

[idle prism]

Lol excellent

I might reword that section of the handout too, by the way. Changing an “And” to an “Or” can make a world of difference haha

[raw saddle]

Aah, yeah. That might be what confused them. Programmers, after all. 😆

[idle prism]

As a heads up, Pierce the Heavens (and the rest of my Lancer projects) are on sale for the itch.io summer sale! https://itch.io/s/95474/valks-2023-summer-sale

I also expect them to go on sale on DriveThruRPG for their Christmas in July sale

But if you’re interested in any of my other work or want to share it around, now’s the time haha

[inland talon]

Just wanted to say this module whips, actually coming back to it for LL4 since the Kestrel became a reoccurring villain after we started with Pierce The Heavens. They're crashing a metavault with the Kestrel trapped in the center and having to traverse weird mirror images of their LL0 mission. For the first combat of LL4, turned the Recon into a game of "Hunt down the things hiding inside the OpFor" using the CZ as places to rule out which enemies weren't hiding their objectives inside them.

[idle prism]

In case anyone missed the Itch.io summer sale, Pierce the Heavens is on a slight discount for the DriveThruRPG Christmas in July sale! Hard to believe it’s almost been a year since I released this adventure haha 😄 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/407690/Pierce-the-Heavens?affiliate_id=2436726

[tall cargo]

I'm trying to create the fights in COMP/CON. What do the notes in brackets by NPCs mean? Like (Power Knuckles) for Boss Grosso.

[idle prism]

Those are the optional features I recommend adding

[tall cargo]

Ahhh. I see. Add them at the bottom. Got it. Thank you.

[tall cargo]

hoping to run it in the next few weeks. i'lllet y'all know how it goes when i finish

[tall cargo]

Has anyone collected all the token ina printable fornat anywhere?

[idle prism]

It's itch.io Black Friday Creator Day, so I have a bundle of all my works on sale! Feel free to share around: https://itch.io/s/108082/valks-black-friday-creator-day-2023

If you prefer to purchase through DTRPG, they're also running an Black Friday sale for Pierce the Heavens: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/407690/Pierce-the-Heavens?affiliate_id=2436726

[tall cargo]

I'm in the middle of running this. Did the narrative section two weeks ago and starting combat this week. I love it. Was our first time with the system and my first time behind the screen. The clocks really helped with the flow of things.

[idle prism]

Fantastic! Happy to hear the narrative ran smoothly

[final ruin]

Thinking about running this for 4 LL1s who just ran Aldrin as MSMC contractors. So their mechs would be the units recovered later in the adventure. I would likely have them be undercover agitators, hired through MSMC. Any thoughts on tweaking this for LL1 so they can complete this module and move to LL2?

[idle prism]

Honestly I probably wouldn’t change a thing for LL1. People have run it at LL2 as-is without issue, too. That said, if you think your table could use more or less of a challenge, feel free to adjust appropriately!

[final ruin]

purchased!

[idle prism]

Just as a heads up to everyone, my Lancer works are on sale (and in a bundle!) as part of the itch.io Winter Sale! If you missed the Black Friday sale, this one will still be up for the next 8 days: https://itch.io/s/111871/valks-winter-sale-2023

[brisk sequoia]

valk, sure hope you don't mind me bumping this, but do you per chance know if anybody did retrograde sprites for the kestrel peeps?

or any art assets for the matter for the characters

i only read through the demo, mind you

[idle prism]

I don’t mind at all, please bump it! As for sprites I think I some personal sprites but I don’t have them on hand

[brisk sequoia]

all good!

[idle prism]

Their colors were copper and azure I think

[brisk sequoia]

ooh, thanks

i was gonna ask

haha

i may just take it up to myself to make them sprites then

is there any style in specific for their chassis?

[idle prism]

I used a chop shop sprite for Grosso, and not really? If anything I’d say they’re kinda cheaply made except for Kestrel’s maybe

[brisk sequoia]

much appreciated

i'm gonna see if i can get to working on this in a month or two

currently dealing with my own campaign as my players are going thru a whole lotta stuff

thanks for the quick responses though!

[idle prism]

Of course! My main rec is that Kestrel’s should be Extra AF

[brisk sequoia]

i may opt to making the maps isometric too as well

[idle prism]

Not like, bristling with guns but just Very Extra for a tier 1 boss

[brisk sequoia]

yeah i figured as such, that's the plan i had in mind

always make the bosses extra fancy

i think i'll also end up making cinematics for combat starts and stuff

kinda like my project wingman intros

but i will.. anime-fy them

to fit the spirit of the inspiration anime

https://youtu.be/NoNY4c049es?t=6

ideas ideas...

haha i swear im probs gonna end up commissioning a logo for pierce the heavens or something just so i can use it in my cutscenes

I HOPE TO POST ALL THE WORK HERE WHEN I CAN!!!

[idle prism]

lol haha well have fun with it and I look forward to whatever you make!

[brisk sequoia]

[brisk sequoia]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1183051809363857448/1226543268565749852/Pierce_The_Heavans.png?ex=6625266f&is=6612b16f&hm=2e68572cfd63077a21d00ab37287234d8a12197c512a1394f33f218a910dc03b&

drafty draft

[idle prism]

Hellllll yeah

[brisk sequoia]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1183051809363857448/1226551065722486804/Pierce_The_Heavens_1st_draft.png?ex=66252db2&is=6612b8b2&hm=74133c425d81d6ff6f5fc11bba9c47b2773a9295e23e4bded49d7b09115c3d9e&

here it is tidied up @idle prism waddaya think?

[idle prism]

I’m digging it mighty fierce haha

[brisk sequoia]

heck yeah

that should be it then

i'll be using these for start of combat cinematics so

now i can get started on a nice intro document for my players

so they can get to their char making

[brisk sequoia]

gonna see if i can write this one up to finish this week, and maybe post it here too if anybody needs a nice intro to lancer + module? i guess

[brisk sequoia]

https://fxtwitter.com/emblem_trove/status/1777234224334201085?t=4-_JNPLxePzku0iTrZP4ig&s=19

[gloomy sluice]

What does the Cyrillic text mean, if you don't mind me asking?

The logo looks rad.

[brisk sequoia]

SEIZE THE MEANS OF DESTRUCTION

Just some random Cyrillic to.go with the overall tone of the campaign

At least from what I've read haha

Still need to read it fully once over, been a while, but I'm writing the document now so I fully intend on reading it fully

[idle prism]

It works! I actually did a mix of Russian and Japanese naming schemes for the project (so you have folks named like Dmitri Nakai and Asuka Lagunova)

[brisk sequoia]

Yeahhh, one of my main inspirations for going with Cyrillic on the subtitle

[gloomy sluice]

There's a bit of Italian in there as well, I believe.

[brisk sequoia]

Especially the settung

Mine and all that

[idle prism]

A little with the antagonists, they’re meant to be out of place though

[brisk sequoia]

Kinda inspired by that black ops escapade from the mining facility

[idle prism]

Grossos first name is still Alexei iirc. I forget where I got Pandano Normani from though lol

[brisk sequoia]

Nodnod

I think I already got ideas for what music to use for the two combats, so I'll definitely try and make the combat intros for fun

Later though haha

[raw saddle]

When I ran it I had an Italian player, and he was very amused that the goliath was named Grosso. 😉

[vestal vortex]

the math checks out

[granite umbra]

I am starting a group out on this (yet again) and they are having the most cursed time of things.

The players were super well set up to try and break out Asuka from the Dig Site during the narrative portion of the game, and one player rolled with +3 Accuracy and got a like, 8; Immediately captured and jailed with Asuka.

[idle prism]

Oh jeez

I hope the two of them can figure out a cool plan to escape, or have buddies who can help spring them

Remind them they can power at a cost

[granite umbra]

We've mostly narrated past that point, but it .. didn't get terribly much better.

I told them Asuka had a plan to rile up Boss Grosso, and that it would be a Heroic role risking death if they want to aggravate Grosso into releasing someone and then fight against the odds to free one another.

I told them they got to make the choice if the risk was worth it or if they should sit tight for another plan (One of the other players was bringing a captured Patrol Mech to the dig site to make a scene and get them out), and they decided to risk it.

It did not end well

Although good reminder about Power at a cost, I have not introduced them to that, not exactly. They did try to make signal jamming devices to prevent the Kestral's forces from communicating as they took smaller segments of the colony back, but I didn't call it power at a cost I just told them there were requirements they could fulfill (basically power at a cost).

[idle prism]

#gm-corner message

Sick af narrative map of Kestrel’s Bounty

[distant breach]

Completed Pierce the Heavens
The players enjoyed themselves immensely

I'm afraid my English isn't good enough to tell you all the fun things that happened in the game, but what happened in the last battle was so unexpected I had to share it with you.

One of the PCs is Darya's uncle, an advocate of reform, who was exiled to Kestrel's Bounty after losing a political battle.

In the battle of Eyes up, Rise up, Darya and her uncle engage in a verbal exchange of taunts and fire (with both sides missing one after another).
Perhaps a little riled up, Darya overlooked the threat of her opponent's melee weapon and accidentally ran into range of the storm charged blade.
She was defeated by her uncle at the end of the second round.

I was going to let the rest of Darya's soldiers continue with their original mission, but then the uncle made an amazing proposal:
He wanted to dismount, climb up the wreckage of Darya's mech, pry open the cockpit, capture Darya as a hostage, and demand that the other soldiers retreat.

So I decided that Darya's soldiers would try to rescue Darya, and that if there were any enemy mechs next to the wreckage of Darya's mech, Uncle could not try to pry open the cockpit and the enemy mechs could rescue Darya in one full action.

At the start of the third round, Uncle (in Sagarmatha) manages to move next to Darya, OC pop core, full action dismount (carrying the old tattered flag he used to start the Reformation), and then he runs out of available actions and has to wait until the next round to pry open the cockpit.

For the rest of the round, the objective becomes to prevent any enemy mechs from approaching Darya.

Throughout the round, Darya's soldiers attempted to get to Darya, but were constantly hampered by the roadblocks and difficult terrain that they had set up in the previous rounds, or were pushed away by the ChumuLangma, meaning that none of the mechs were able to make it to Darya.

Even though a few mechs tried to fire directly at Uncle , Uncle was down to his last HP by the end of the third round, thanks to the power of Sagarmatha's core system.

Thus, at the beginning of the fourth round, even though he was covered in blood, he still held his flag high and stood proudly over the wreckage of the enemy leader's mech.

He then managed to pry open the cockpit and proclaimed to Darya, ‘Times have changed, and now we will go forward with our people!’

He succeeded in capture Darya, and the remaining enemy forces retreated, mission accomplished.

[idle prism]

Yooooo that’s fantastic

Love that creative approach to completing the fight, it feels dramatically appropriate and super compelling

Also it’s amazing to see the maps I made printed out haha, impressive in-person set up!

I especially like the character sheet pamphlets

[gloomy sluice]

Oh, I love those little standees for the mechs/pilots!

[distant breach]

Thanks for creating Pierce the Heavens!

I'll probably run this module again soon at a local trpg promotion, so I'll come back and share any noteworthy anecdotes!

[idle prism]

Looking forward to hearing them! Happy it could bring some joy to your tables 😄

[wary widget]

Bad news, I think. It seems Foundry v12 broke the map dimensions you provided

Here are the new settings I found for hex dig site:

• Grid Type: Hexagonal Columns - Even
• Grid Size: 100
• Image Dimensions: 2797x 2996
• Padding Percentage: 0.25
• Offset Background:
  • Horizontal: 0
  • Vertical: -2

[idle prism]

nope, still work for me

v10 settings still work on v12

[wary widget]

ah?

[idle prism]

Just checked Dig Site and Drill Shaft v10 dimensions and they still look good

[wary widget]

what on earth am I doing then

[idle prism]

ah hell hang on

[idle prism]

nevermind you're right the notes are wrong

but good news: the square dimensions are correct

I have the correct notes on my PC but those don't match the upload

[wary widget]

so. Running Grit Those Teeth tomorow, and in this instance, the PCs took down Grosso (maybe a bit too easily in retrospective, but oh well). I'm a little worried about balance because of that. Has anyone experienced running it without Grosso? (4 players, 3 newbies btw)

(I may be worried because I haven't ran Lancer in like. 6 months at least)

[idle prism]

So I haven’t seen this happen properly, but if it did, I would heartily endorse just removing Grosso outright

Players took the risk, they get the reward

[wary widget]

...yeah ok fair enough

I'm too worried about "balance"

[idle prism]

Balance is a lie

[wary widget]

also tired because I have been wrangling foundry v12 for like. 3 hours straight now

and I still don't even have the NPCs ready

[idle prism]

Save yourself the time configuring Grosso then lol

It’s a win-win!

[wary widget]

The default NPCs in the new foundry compendium are a godsend tho

[granite umbra]

My players (most recently) hijacked a Cataphract during narrative and freed Asuka. She subsequently piloted the Cataphract in the escort and moved the civs when they were busy doing other things.

Go players lol.

Which is grossly absurd, btw, since a Cataphract has 8 movement to a standard GMS mech of around 4 lol.

[idle prism]

hell yeah, they earned it

[raw saddle]

I love cataphracts and their absurd movement, haha

[idle prism]

I'll be real, I didn't even realize that I was handing players a super objective shmoover like that, but I'll commit to it now that I know haha

[raw saddle]

And so did my H0rOS_1 player...

[gloomy sluice]

I'm sure others have made their own before, but I figured I'd share my take on the Kestrel's mech in case anyone wants a token for her.

[idle prism]

Dunno when this happened, but Pierce the Heavens is a Copper bestseller now on DriveThruRPG!

I think that means… I may have sold over 500 copies overall? Combination of Itch direct purchases + Itch Bundle purchases + Drivethru purchases

[raw saddle]

Nice, congrats!

[idle prism]

Thank you! Still technically second to Lancer RPG Template (I’m amazed at the longevity of its tail at this point) but still very pleased with this

[raw saddle]

It's a great module, well deserved.

[tough hedge]

I'm running this again in about a month (on stream!) and am doing some prep — does anyone know where to get the fancy map (as seen in [this photo](#1057789306040754244 message) )? I remember seeing it posted somewhere but can't find it again.

[idle prism]

@raw saddle @distant breach any clues to this? I’ve seen it somewhere too but can’t recall where

[raw saddle]

Hm. That silhouette of the blueprinty looking one looks familiar, I actually wonder if it's a modification of the narrative map I made? Let me see...

Nope, not mine. I think I might've been riffing off of that one, haha.

https://assets.forge-vtt.com/633081c820788613fdf952ea/worlds/pierce-the-heavens/maps/pierce the heavens - settlement map.webp My map of Kestrel's Bounty if it's of use to anyone. 😉

[idle prism]

#gm-corner message

Artifacter did hella good work

[distant breach]

I'm still trying to figure out where I posted this picture before.

[raw saddle]

There it is! It really is a great map

[idle prism]

I linked it above, it was in GM corner

[tough hedge]

Amazing, thank you! 🙏

[idle prism]

v1.3 Update!

mostly rewording some stuff here and there to account for flexibility of player choice.

Also: Combat Drill

[tough hedge]

🤩 exciting! I scanned through it and couldn't find any of the tweaks for PC flexibility. Any particular highlights?

[idle prism]

they were mostly subtle, but it was a matter of:

1. changing the "Elevator, Going Up" sidebar to accept a wider range of "escape routes" with varying consequences/tradeoffs
2. Changing the defeat outcome for Grit Those Teeth to allow players to choose to push through for structure damage or fall back and regroup

just generally trying to acknowledge that players may not follow the "expected path" without rewriting huge swaths of the module

[tough hedge]

Just realized I never posted this here -- we've been streaming our campaign of PtH & collecting them in this playlist, if anyone wants to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoywLvxBewjH4fs5rKt2Jiu1TfpeODmgu

[idle prism]

Hell yeah!! Thanks for sharing!

[valid schooner]

I can't believe that my players talked me into making the game even more Gurren Lagann

but here we are

Win or lose this is going to be a banger

[idle prism]

jesus christ haha

[valid schooner]

For the other two players

So now, after securing the Dig site

the plan is to rig the elevator to blow, taking out as many of her forces as possible (fireworks)

the final confrontation is one where Kestrel throws the entire kitchen sink at the players and the transport

Doctor Dmitri's objection to the blowing up of the elevator (But what happens if we fail in our escape? There's no way to resupply, we're going to starve down here in our retreat, and Kestrel is probably spiteful enough to let us all suffer as a lesson in rebellion)

Was 'convinced' by the Everest with CPR's pilot giving a big damn speech

[idle prism]

there we go then, nice

glad you presented the tradeoffs like you did, now the players can own up to their consequences

[valid schooner]

"Your final fight goes up in difficulty, but so do your mechs."

"Prepare to face even more extreme odds."

Since the players are LL1/LL2

We have a Raleigh, a Monarch, and a CPR Everest

I'm probably going to bring some 3pt stuff, but the changes are basically that Asuka is upgraded to being an Industrial Crusader

Kestrel has way more troops

and Kestrel's forceComp is upgraded

But it's going to be hilarious because an Everest with a transformation where the drill merges with it's frame as they spend the turn shouting Gurren Lagann stuff

[valid schooner]

I don't know if this is appropriate.

But-

I gave Kestrel a reason for what she was doing

per the plot of Gurren Lagann.

TLDR:

This is basically an AntiSpiral moment

Except instead of the Antispiral it's the result of a band of pirates having made a deal long ago to avoid being wiped out

[idle prism]

Well this is definitely a direction I wouldn’t have planned, nice

[valid schooner]

lancer is at it's best when the only choices are

"Fuck"

and

"Oh Fuck"

The best part is

i get to legally call the players out on what they have said

[dim narwhal]

Just putting a note here for others coming into this awesome module. I'm using the Scrap Wolves Faction pack from Retrograde, it's got a great industrial look and I think only having the big boss have the nice mech above really matches her feel. Hope that helps other GMs with prep!

[cerulean sphinx]

I will say I have been brainstorming a campaign inspired by Pierce the Heavens module

[idle prism]

Hell yeah

[cerulean sphinx]

One thing I was thinking of introducing if something like it wasn’t in the module area; Low Ceiling

[idle prism]

Sure, don’t see why not

I assume the cavern is big enough but ceilings are good

[cerulean sphinx]

Yes, idea was that they act as a reward/incentive to use smaller mechs to more easily access flanking routes or tight spaces

Figured it could be fun to help bring out more claustrophobic battles and mech mech size an important factor in the builds

*Low Ceiling - Environmental ‘Hazard’

Crawl spaces, maintenance shafts, places with little headroom that most large creatures and machines cannot easily access.

Areas with Low Ceiling will have different levels of impact depending on the character’s Size.
Size ½: Unaffected by Low Ceilings and can traverse through without issue.
Size 1: Are SLOWED, representing the need to crouch down and be mindful of their movement to avoid scraping or impacts.
Size 2: Must drop PRONE as a free action to crawl through the passage. Standing up from PRONE once through still requires movement.
Size 3: Cannot pass through.

Low Ceiling areas should be used sparingly; often as a flanking route or alternative passage.*

[cerulean sphinx]

Something like that

[cerulean sphinx]

I will say, aside from Gurren Lagan, any other shows or series I can watch for inspiration?

[idle prism]

That’s a good question, one I wish I had an answer for

Probably other prison break media

Escape from Alcatraz for example

Heist movies too

[cerulean sphinx]

Much appreciated

I will say for the overseer/head of the operation, I personally headcanon them behaving like V.II Snail in AC6

[idle prism]

Chevalier Koralyova definitely has Snail energy in her character yeah

[silent knoll]

Just wanted to pop in and say thank you Valk for the suggestion a couple of years back to start with Pierce The Heavens as a tutorial module for No Room For A Wallflower! I finally got a group together and finished all my prep for the module we start tomorrow:D
We're so excited to play Lancer for the first time! Thank you again, Valk!

[idle prism]

Wonderful! Wishing you and your table the best, enjoy!