#Field Guide to Iridia

1 messages · Page 6 of 1

hexed narwhal
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You are required to listen to Old Gods while piloting this mech

vocal ridge
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Psh, like I would dictate someone's soundtrack. 😉

twilit ether
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Wait

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If you take Ward Shaper 1 with Protective Matrix, does that mean Protective Matrix works at Range 8?

vocal ridge
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No, that's not intended. It's only meant to grant it to actions and reactions, not passive effects. I'll make a note to make that more clear.

twilit ether
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Ah I see

vocal ridge
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You don't get a Burst 8 effect, sorry. 😛

twilit ether
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Actions but not passive effects does make more sense than "the range at which your Systems with the Shield tag can initially target or trigger off characters, or the area which they cover for Burst and Blast, and not the range of any of their other effects."

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I'm not exactly sure what the last sentence entails

vocal ridge
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Look, it's hard to word things to cover every aspect of an intent.

twilit ether
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That's fair

vocal ridge
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It's been one of the most frustrating things to word properly, just because of how diverse the effect is.

twilit ether
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Ah I see

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That makes sense

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Huh wait that means Imperial Eye works at range 8?

vocal ridge
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...I just said that it wouldn't affect that range.

twilit ether
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Oh whoops I read that as specifically only the range at which they start their turn and move outside, not the entire range 3 effect

vocal ridge
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Ah, gotcha. I just didn't want to copy the entire effect, so I grabbed a snippet.

twilit ether
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Hmm, yeah that seems like a pickle to word well

vocal ridge
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I'm currently working on an update, so, that's slotted in to look at.

twilit ether
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The Emergency Bulkhead gets the +1 Burst though right?

vocal ridge
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I will be very glad to get this (hopefully last) update off my shoulders. Because it's looming. 😛

twilit ether
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Yippee!

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Very excited for the new core bonuses as well

vocal ridge
twilit ether
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I definitely see it yeah

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Could turn Protective Matrix into Burst 3 though, if you want to

vocal ridge
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I could, yes. It was a thought. But I'd rather try and futureproof my wording instead, if at all possible,

twilit ether
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Makes sense makes sense

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Godspeed then 🫡

vocal ridge
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Worst case scenario, things are a little jank. 😛

twilit ether
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At least I have the creator herself for clarifications haha

vocal ridge
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But, it's fine. I need to be able to declare this project Done™️ and move onto the next one. Since that's been stalling a little bit because of this.

twilit ether
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Aye aye

vocal ridge
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Granted, the Codex continues to scope creep regardless. For instance, I may or may not be looking at adding more Weird Alien Pets (done by the same artist as last time). 😛

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"Here's a critter that's actually just a geometric prism that projects a body."

Flickerfox_White.png
twilit ether
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Wgoa

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Ghost dog

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Ghost...fox?

vocal ridge
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They have some very cool ideas, and I'm happy to let them go wild. There also might be some NPC frame art from my regular mech artist in that same vein.

twilit ether
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Oh NPC frames neat

vocal ridge
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...but, that's definitely Future Stuff™️.

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I mean, there's only two classes (both Paragon, too) - the rest are templates. So I thought it'd be fun to get some art that might not mesh with the PC frames.

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"Have some minibosses."

twilit ether
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Hell yeah

hexed narwhal
kindred comet
# vocal ridge Yes, that's intended. Which is, as you can see, why the wording is so hard.

I think it's the "trigger off" wording in Enhanced Generators that's confusing here, as that points at the triggering condition rather the triggered effect; Protective Matrix does "trigger off" a hostile character within a range. (I've dealt with "no you can't modify an effect before it's in place in order to place it" scenarios before, so I do feel your pain.)

vocal ridge
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So now those shiny new Core Bonuses people were excited about are accessible.

vocal ridge
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In Stellar Codex news, got the first of a pair of (incredibly stylish) NPC art, once again from the talented @frail mountain.

Sword_Robot.png
twilit ether
twilit ether
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Overwhelming amounts of cooking has happened

mr0wc7krfzq91.png
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Massive complements to the chef

vocal ridge
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Ever since I saw Joe's AC6 art, I really wanted some stylized lineart like that. Just didn't quite fit with the PC frames. So, NPC time it is!

twilit ether
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By the by, while we're tangentially on the topic. do happen to have the updated playtest LCP for Stellar Codex? I probably won't be able to actually, y'know, playtest it, but maybe I could find some errors while playing around

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(I just wanna play around with the WIP mechs I'm sorry 😭)

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But I might be able to find some odd combos and stuff, I'm surprisingly good at breaking things finding things that work weird

vocal ridge
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I've got a giant list of updates I need to make to it, that I've been putting off to make sure I got the Iridia stuff done. But I can toss you what I do have.

twilit ether
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Sure! I'd appreciate it!

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Thanks!

vocal ridge
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(The big mechanical one that I can think of off the top of my head is ENTITY will be turning into a reaction, in order to make it only on turn (unless you're a Gorgon) and combo less horrendously with Puppet System.)

twilit ether
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Ah I see I see, will keep it in mind

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
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And a second (very striking) NPC art from @frail mountain!

Drones.png
hexed narwhal
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I wish I had money to throw his way 😔

vocal ridge
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I will always heartily recommend anyone commissioning him! Especially since I'm no longer monopolizing his queue with 30+ frames. He's always got great suggestions, and half the reason Iridia had as much visual identity as it did was because of that.

polar lotus
frail mountain
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Thanks for all the kind words. It's been great working on this project. Big ups to DataMoth for being an excellent commissioner!

vocal ridge
polar lotus
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WOOOOOO

kindred comet
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Neato! Multi-coverage arrangements that don't encourage overlapping for focus fire are nifty...as are trenchcoats.

vocal ridge
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Unfortunately, this does mean that I need to come up with another Paragon idea. Since 8 Templates and 3 NPCs just feels like an awkward number compared to 8 and 2 or 8 and 4. 😔

wise nova
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that being, a boss that eats other enemies to become stronger?

vocal ridge
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One of the Templates has something like that as a feature. Necromutation (Trait) Whenever an allied character is destroyed within 5 spaces of the Paradox, the Paradox may select one of the ally’s Optionals to gain until the end of the Scene. (Optionals are weapons, systems and traits not gained automatically through Classes or Templates.)

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Plus, it's really hard to balance out "losing actions" to buffing a single boss.

wise nova
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i mean that it’s actively rolling over alive ones and absorbing their powers, katamari-style

vocal ridge
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Since extra actions (and the flexibility that being able to move seperately) are extremely powerful.

wise nova
vocal ridge
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Also, doesn't really interest me. For NPCs, I always need a concept that grabs me - especially for the Paragons, since they're inherently more complex - so just scattershotting ideas really isn't helpful.

left meadow
vocal ridge
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To be fair, it's not wholly novel - I did a similar concept with the Living Battlefield, but that was trying to be a bespoke Ultra-type thing.

twilit ether
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.....Huh......where did Remixed Frequences go

vocal ridge
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Huh?

twilit ether
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It's not there, and the LCP only states that it only adds 8 Core Bonuses

image.png
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This is the 1.3 LCP

vocal ridge
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Oh, drat. Must have been accidentally included when I deleted the other core bonuses.

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There we go, updated.

twilit ether
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Nice thanks

vocal ridge
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This is why I always worry whenever I have to delete something. 😔

twilit ether
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That is quite a lot of content to proofread aye

vocal ridge
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(This is also, however, why I made the strategic decision to leave a digit solely for LCP versions. 😛 )

twilit ether
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I was wondering why my Goblin build broke lmao

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Apparently Comp/Con really doesn't like it when stuff just stops existing

vocal ridge
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Yep. Or gets renamed, so it's always awkward when that happens.

twilit ether
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Ah yep that too

twilit ether
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So, what happens on the Concussion Nexus if you have other exterior forms of Knockback and they fail the Agility save

covert valve
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I have discovered Phane and need to make this mech asap

hexed narwhal
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The what?
I don't remember a mech by that name

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
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She's far and away the most popular frame in the book, from what people have said.

covert valve
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The lore drew me to her, along with Ananke and Hecate

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Silver gets a mention for just being a frame I keep looking over but never know what to do with

vocal ridge
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Hah, going for all the Weird™️ frames, excellent.

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Silver is definitely a bit of an odd one. I know in playtesting, the player who used it did a Sunzi mix.

covert valve
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Rad.

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But yeah those were the 4 standouts to my brain when I leafed through the licenses.

vocal ridge
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Always happy to hear what stands out to people!

hexed narwhal
hexed narwhal
vocal ridge
covert valve
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Lol

vocal ridge
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Look, I am not very smart, oftentimes. 😔

kindred comet
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LIEZ The Phane memory holed its own "no one else remembers me* trait; who knows what else we don't remember not remembering about it?

And its apparent popularity isn't too surprising; who doesn't love counter-countermeasure attacks like the Phane's? (Tracking Bug is jealous of Null Distortion, specifically, so that doesn't count)

vocal ridge
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I mean, I think it's mostly that people think a time-borrowing mech is cool, and that it has a unique aesthetic.

kindred comet
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Quite likely I suppose....But "hits Invisible things better" and "hits armored things harder" don't hurt; they're rather unique themselves.

covert valve
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I'm currently working on making a support / hacker ananke

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And also realized I could do something very funny. Once. (Plasma gauntlet)

twilit ether
vocal ridge
covert valve
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The kidney punch protocol

covert valve
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Oh. hm. Ananke is extremely SP hungry if it takes all its systems alone

covert valve
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so question: does Panoply of Inevitability work the way I think it does with the Goblin's Metahook?

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
covert valve
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Basically was thinking of applying the conditions and then activating metahook to buddy up with someone so they couldn't target me with them

vocal ridge
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It'd stop you from being hit by the conditions, so they wouldn't be transferred to your buddy, but if your buddy got the conditions, you would too.

covert valve
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yeah, I had a feeling it still would inflict them that way

twilit ether
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Oh, something funny I noticed

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Holy Warden allows drones to follow you

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Is that intended?

vocal ridge
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It wasn't the intent, but it's probably fine, given that you're giving up a Core Bonus to do so.

twilit ether
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Fair enough then, thanks

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Oop slight typo

image.png image.png
vocal ridge
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Ah, drat.

vocal ridge
twilit ether
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Gotta say, I really love the new version of the Unicorn, it perfectly encapsulates what I think an Armored Core/Daemon X Machina/etc. style weapon switching frame would work like

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And the core active can easily be reflavored as sensor recalibration, overall there's nothing actually paracausal or weird about the frame, it's just a good frame, just like Pegasus I guess

vocal ridge
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Well, glad it works for you. Peggy alts are annoying to make workable.

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I'm a little regretful that I wasn't able to come up with another idea, and then use the weapon swapping gimmick for a GMS frame, but it's probably more balanced this way.

twilit ether
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Oh it was gonna be a GMS frame? Or at least the gimmick anyways

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Interesting!

vocal ridge
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Not originally, but I considered moving it should I have a decent idea for another HORUS alt.

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But I think it's ultimately for the best to keep it as a ranged flexibility frame, since being versatile enough to cover all ranges is probably too much.

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Plus it plays really well into autoguns as a licensed gear.

twilit ether
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Ah gotcha gotcha

vocal ridge
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Alright, Stellar Codex stuff finally has its own home over in #1291204527369883648. No more 'waiting for a PDF', because that keeps being pushed back.

willow crane
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While discussing what to name a pilots new Enyo

Screenshot_20241022_140722_Discord.jpg
vocal ridge
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Hah.

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~~Magma just sounds cooler than lava, sorry. ~~

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Ignore that lava is probably a cooler temperature.

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(Going base Enyo or alt?)

willow crane
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Base.

vocal ridge
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Nice. Wrathborn has tended to be the favoured child mechanically among my playtesters, so it's good to see the standard one get more use. 😛

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She deserves it, after being demoted from Tallest Mech In The Corp. 😔

willow crane
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@somber jewel wanted something more reliable than explosive, after his Togo's reactor exploded, and nearly took 'em with it.

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Also a mech that didn't need action by action heat tracking

somber jewel
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Yeah, I was one turn off of going from Sushi to Fishfry

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So something less likely to detonate was kinda high on my list

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Which is why I choose the rage mech 😅

vocal ridge
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Hah! Makes complete sense. And if something ends up feeling wonky, let me know - I don't want to have to touch my Scribus document again, but I will if I need to fix things. 😛

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(Heck, if something feels like it works, I'd love to know, too.)

somber jewel
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A question:
Can the Core Bonus teleport people into the air?

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3 spaces any direction

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I'm currently away from my book and can't read teleport

polar lotus
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Nope

vocal ridge
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Only if they could normally be in the air.

polar lotus
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Not unless they can already yeah that

vocal ridge
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So, Ace or Hornet, yes. Anything else, probably not.

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(That's just a general rule for involuntary movement - they have to be able to move there normally.)

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Very much would like to know how the CB works out! Unfortunately I wasn't able to really give the new ones rigorous testing, but hopefully they feel solid.

somber jewel
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I'll happily let you know how it feels!

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I'm excited to try it, as I tend to be the face tank of our crew. I'm an ISPN pilot at heart, so the Enyo is very much up my alley

vocal ridge
wise nova
wise nova
vocal ridge
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Hah! Very nice.

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I always just like to point out "how concerning is it when an HA frame has Difficulty on Engineering?"

fast patio
vocal ridge
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It's fiiiiine, probably.

somber jewel
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Finally hit LL3 tonight with the Enyo, it's.... Gonna be a beast

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Tonight, at LL2, it worked with another melee mech to put the ultra in a corner. I rammed it, Exemplar Marked it and had my type 3 projected shield up. Followed the ram with a Compel Combat

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Prone, grappled by my ally, if it attacks me, 2 difficulty but that's it. If it attacks the person grappling it and keeping it prone, 1 difficulty and I get to smack it

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I smacked it. Alot.

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It did not learn it's lesson

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Ultra Breacher, AKA: Yes that attack has 5 Difficulty

vocal ridge
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Hahahaha!

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(I can't believe that Exemplar is being used on a frame actually meant for it. That never happened in my playtests. I just got things like Exemplar Psyche. 😛 )

somber jewel
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Right!? Honest to God, this is the first time I've seen Exemplar used like it suggests it's supposed to

vocal ridge
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...I had a player who delighted in making everything a defender except defender frames.

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How's the frame itself working out? Feeling balanced?

somber jewel
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Very, Enduring Rage always feels good to trigger, Heavy Flex Flex feels fantastic, and the HP is just enough for a Frontline bruiser

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Interposition Lock isn't something I think I'll use to much, 3 so is kinda expensive and grappling means I can't exemplar punish

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But Nuerl Loop is killer without being overpowered

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And the claws just feel good

vocal ridge
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Nice, glad to hear! It was tricky to try and slot it in balance-wise between the Everest and Pegasus without overshadowing either.

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And, yeah, Interposition Lock is very build-dependant. If you're doing a reaction-based build, it's not gonna be as relevant.

somber jewel
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Funny enough, we have a Pegasus in the crew and we rarely step in each other's toes

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He's a full artillery crit fish build, so he appreciates the prone I hand out

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Damn, not I want to put Lock on a Blackbeard....

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And that hammer...

vocal ridge
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That's good to hear. (It was more of a concern before I made the decision to limit the re-roll to a hard range 8.)

somber jewel
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.... Fuck, that's terrifying

somber jewel
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It's the perfect balance

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I intentionally triggered overwatch on the ultra to get the reroll

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Felt big brain

vocal ridge
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Peggy is just the only one who has the magic Flex/Flex/Heavy combo in the base game, which is where most of its budget goes, so I needed to be careful to not be "that but more durable."

vocal ridge
somber jewel
vocal ridge
somber jewel
vocal ridge
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(Despite only having melee weapons in-license.)

somber jewel
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I got the Bull of Heaven NHP from Legion this downtime, so Ram in burst 2 is on the menu now

vocal ridge
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Oof.

somber jewel
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Now I have an integrated knife for Lunge, but will be getting a Vlad Nail gun soon

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Because stay

somber jewel
# vocal ridge Oof.

I'm sticking with the base Enyo too, rather than Wrathborn, so it should actually get use

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And the rerolls havent felt too much so far, more a payoff for getting people to hit me

vocal ridge
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Makes sense. Ranged rams are funny, but not exactly the ideal combo with a burst ram.

somber jewel
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My plan is Seige Ram + Bull of Heaven + Grav Snare

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Over charge to pancake someone I just Bulled

vocal ridge
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(I am glad that the frames feel different enough to cause that choice, though. Wrathborn was very much the Pure Melee fantasy.)

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Very much appreciating hearing how things are going! It's always great to hear thoughts as they come during a campaign.

somber jewel
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I'll try the build on a Wrath frame at some point to give you feed back

somber jewel
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And the other melee mech is a Grapple Manticore, so people are gonna have a hard choice coming their way

vocal ridge
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The lesson learned was mostly that making a frame that gets buffs as it gets lower on structure/stress is A) difficult, and 2) more or less a bad idea.

somber jewel
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Funny enough same issue with the Kakista from Suldan

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My original choice

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It got to ignore structure checks and got more melee bonus dice the lower it was

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(Spend a repair cap to get resistance to an attack, if it still structures you, ignore the roll)

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I like the Enyo a little more for it's simplicity

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Once a fight: Nope

twilit ether
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Equip Cottus Microprinter and Gemini Reactor to make that thrice a fight

vocal ridge
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There's something to be said for a very simple "nope."

twilit ether
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I like the Enyo's simplicity yeah, "You are good at hitting people who try to hit you, and 1/scene you can just ignore a major debuff"

vocal ridge
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Wrathborn has the benefit of being better in fights that you're getting structured or stressed a lot, but for pure reliability, the base frame can't be beat.

twilit ether
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Actually, speaking of (yes Wrathborn is a different frame but close enough), what's the practical difference of Resonant Recovery vs having +3 Rep Cap?

vocal ridge
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Because you can't spend it on structure/stress.

twilit ether
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Ah, I see

vocal ridge
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It gets a ton of HP, and ways to mitigate damage, but it's a lot harder to actually recover.

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(But also is a lot less likely to be destroyed via a structure check.)

twilit ether
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Oh huh yeah, Battleforged Tenacity basically means you'll never roll doubles

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....Shit did I unconsciously copy this for a Core Bonus

vocal ridge
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Well, you can roll doubles, just not on 2 dice.

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And on 3 it's a lot more unlikely.

twilit ether
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Yeah

kindred comet
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Adrenaline Rush also feels a lot better to use when you have a dedicated resource for repairing the weapon/system with.

vocal ridge
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Yep. The point there was to be able to support that without just making the frame tankier in general.

kindred comet
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As the type who would always think "is this worth spending a Repair on...?", I feel it supports it better than a higher repair cap would. First one's three're free, and all.

vocal ridge
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Yep. If there's a resource that can only be spent on X, then it makes you a lot more likely to do X.

somber jewel
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My current Build:

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-- IRIDIA Enyo @ LL3 --
[ LICENSES ]
IRIDIA Enyo 3
[ CORE BONUSES ]
Integrated Weapon
[ TALENTS ]
Exemplar 2, Pankrati 2, Hunter 1, Devout 1
[ STATS ]
HULL:3 AGI:2 SYS:0 ENGI:0
STRUCTURE:4 HP:18 ARMOR:1
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:6 REPAIR:6
TECH ATK:+1 LIMITED:+0
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:6 SENSE:8 SAVE:13
[ WEAPONS ]
INTEGRATED WEAPON: Tactical Knife
FLEX MOUNT: Mortar
FLEX MOUNT: Energy Talons
HEAVY MOUNT: Magma Hammer
[ SYSTEMS ]
INANNA-Class NHP, Neural Loop, Cockpit-Integrated Stim Pump x2, Type-3 Projected Shield

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No personalization hurts, but I figured the Projected shield will save me more than 2 hp in the long run

vocal ridge
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Oh, nice, Devout remaining as popular as ever. Any particular fluff for that?

And Mortar's interesting - not one that I'd jump to immediately, but I can see its uses.

somber jewel
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Yeah, so.... I had to power for a price for the Enyo mid mission

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Becuse the Togo i was in (Tech n Mech) was a little too strong for my play group. It also was missing it's reactor after... things... happened

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My Pilot was half roasted alive in his cockpit from the meltdown and now has these wierd burn patterns over most of his body

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He's also been learning about the "Old Gods" and "Old Ways" and paracuasal entities

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He may have drunk Ra's tea

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Literaly

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(Magus Bond to boot, based off a Bloodeborn Hunter)

somber jewel
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And I like turnign them into red goop

vocal ridge
wise nova
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oh boy, i need to test out pairing the remixed frequencies core bonus with a minotaur

wise nova
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oooh and also the runecaster talent

vocal ridge
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Ah, yes, the free immobilize for Minotaur. It's probably fine, given it costs a CB.

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And also, glad to see talents other than Devout catch peoples' eyes. 😛

wise nova
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idea: use FORCEFUL from level one, combined with Demolitionist from OSR to yeet out a mine and immediately pull an enemy into it

vocal ridge
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Does Demolitionist allow them to arm immediately?

wise nova
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then again, lmao you can just prepare the action to go after the end of your turn

willow crane
vocal ridge
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Oh, yeah, that feels like a very Sal pick.

twilit ether
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Does Locus's Disruption Counterbattery resolve the triggering action?

vocal ridge
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I think you may be missing a word, but it's intended to immediately interrupt if they don't lose the action/reaction.

twilit ether
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Oh whoops yeah I meant to ask if it resolved before the triggering action

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So if you can attack them before they make an attack or other

vocal ridge
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Yes - the intent is to tag them and then go "lose your action or I get to hit you before you do anything."

twilit ether
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So effectively, with Skirmisher 2, if they attempt to Grapple you you can just scoot over 2 spaces then shoot them in the face before they actually can do it, and now that you're not adjacent to them they fail the Grapple?

vocal ridge
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Yes, that is how they would combine.

twilit ether
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Hell yeah

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Thanks

twilit ether
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...Wait, a Grapple isn't a System or a Trait....and neither is a weapon?? Huh

vocal ridge
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Ah, yes, whoops. That was me being brainmuddled yesterday. Grapple isn't one of those two options, so it wouldn't trigger.

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('Attack' as a category deliberately isn't included, as that ends up being too free of an Overwatch.)

twilit ether
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Fair enough I suppose

somber jewel
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Magma Hammer makes out of combat exploration fun

vocal ridge
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Smashing through walls? 😛

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After all, they're only a door that require a little more effort!

hollow shuttle
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Aaannd I got this....

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Random question: Any plans to update to Dustgrave and Siren compatibility?

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Totally get if not, just curious

balmy vigilBOT
#

Sledge. :3

DataMoth, Sapphic Mechwright ↩️

[Reply to:](#1057844754550886511 message) After all, they're only a door that require a little more effort!

somber jewel
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"Theres a bulk head"
'Bonk'

"Theres a wall"
'Bonk'

"There's a ||Several meter thick melted slug of tungsten||"

'....... B. O. N. K.'

hollow shuttle
#

If it isn't working, you're obviously not using enough bonk

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
wise nova
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the aetherlance has a really funny interaction with executioner

vocal ridge
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Yes, it is in fact a giant burst of chip damage.

wise nova
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it’s a good thing it’s superheavy so you can’t overwatch with it

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(outside of maybe terk’s THOR-class NHP)

vocal ridge
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It's also Ordnance, so even Superheavy-capable overwatches are a no.

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(Which also prevents a second attack via backswing cut, since that's no longer the first action so no double-dipping on chances.)

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Which is an opportunity cost if you're wanting to go for rank 2 - the first rank'll be a dead level.

somber jewel
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The Enyo kicked ass tonight

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I got to live the dream of breaking a huge damaging attack on 1 hp and Enduring Rage

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10 damage just.... Vanished

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Forced an Invisible check reroll with Worthy Opponent, had multiple good solid hammer hits against high armor targets, and remodeled a good chunk of the map

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And making someone who does not want to fight me have to fight me with Compel combat

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Really felt the good base hp (shrugged off being hit with a Scourers Focus Down)

vocal ridge
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Hahahaha, nice! Glad to hear it's living the dream.

somber jewel
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New Testament is about on par with our Manticore in terms of durability, vs in different ways

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They have much better armor and resistances, I care less about structuring and inflict more difficulty on attacks

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The Enyo just feels very good

fast patio
#

Oh yeah the enyo just goes hard. Had a player using one and he just planted his feet and effectively dared bandits to try and take an orphanage. The man died standing and not one of the pirates survived to get to the kids.

somber jewel
#

EXACTLY

#

It feels like the mech is just as angry as the pilots, just as determined and zealous

#

Its gonna die after every enemy is reduced to smoldering wrecks, but not one moment sooner

fast patio
#

Oh yeah no. The guy basically went out due to a combination of neural stress and over doing it on combat stims and Lycantherozine(basically werewolf drugs that give bonuses to checks) . And even then it only hit him till after he buried his hammer in the boss's cockpit. And his mech just stood there. Quiet and holding the haft of a ruined hammer buried in the chest of his enemy.

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
somber jewel
#

You did a good job with the Enyo

thorny pollen
#

ugh I'm excited to play the iris

vocal ridge
#

Oh, Iris is something I'd love to hear more on how it goes. That frame went through a couple of iterations (I ran into the eternal pitfall of trying to do a Scan-focused mech to start), so the final version of both frames didn't get quite as much playtime as I'd like.

wise nova
vocal ridge
#

Nah, Scan is just in an awkward place in general. Because "Do X when you scan" is pretty much the same as "Bespoke quick action to do X, with a bonus that's less useful the more you use it on a given target."

thorny pollen
#

will definitely lyk how iris feels when i play it! I like making combat flow charts and the like so I'll see if there's any actions that I find myself avoiding or using less

vocal ridge
#

Fortunately you don't really need to worry about "using or avoiding Scan" in the current iteration, since the Frame stuff now either procs off of tech stuff in general, or adds Scan as the freebie. The only thing that deals with scan at all is one bit of gear.

thorny pollen
#

yeye

hollow shuttle
vocal ridge
#

Sure, but scan itself doesn't really stack in a useful way.

hollow shuttle
#

True

#

Oh, abolutely love the concept of the Artemis, btw

vocal ridge
#

Mechanically, I think she's my favorite gimmick. Was absolutely a pain to word, though, in a way where it wasn't measured per attack roll for AOEs.

hollow shuttle
#

Oooh, yeah

thorny pollen
#

What would the best core bonuses for the Iris be?

thorny pollen
#

Ooh remixed frequencies…

vocal ridge
#

It really depends what role you want it in. A funny trick you can do is go into Horus for Held Image - it lets you trigger Crypsis Purge off-turn, since it's explicitly the Lock On tech action.

For Iridia Bonuses, Unity of Purpose is an easy one, since it gives you a boosted ally tech for getting Akashic Marks on allies. But really anything support-y can easily work out. Or controller-y, like Remixed frequencies.

thorny pollen
#

Makes sense makes sense

#

I’ll have to look at my teamcomp before deciding on what role I’m leaning into

#

I think one is going Ersa, dunno which

#

So leaning more support would prolly work well

vocal ridge
#

Well, always happy to hear how things go!

thorny pollen
#

Yee! It’ll probably be a bit before we do the Iridia campaign since we’re going through in golden flame first

vocal ridge
#

Completely fair!

thorny pollen
#

My beloved historian noble oc

#

Meriem Memoria

image0.jpg
vocal ridge
#

Ah, excellent. Glad to see the nobles getting some representation.

thorny pollen
#

Iirc other party members are church related so that’ll be Very fun

vocal ridge
#

The Church is definitely in an interesting place when it comes to characters - because on the one hand, the whole thing's kind of a mess right now, but on the other hand, it's also the main thing holding everything together. Gives a lot of character potential.

...I never really got to explore said potential, on account of the main Iridia game I ran doing the whole government-destabilizing goddess-killing thing in the first place, so it's nice to see others do it. 😛

thorny pollen
#

Oooh I see I see

thorny pollen
#

If I was going striker I’d go Dragon, Dragon is sick as fuck, but I wanted to run a support this time around

vocal ridge
#

Hahaha. "Okay, I'm tying a ribbon around your mech's neck so we can tell whose is whose."

#

I'm glad Dragon's been a popular one, at least in theory. It was a fun one to try and concept.

thorny pollen
#

Yee

vocal ridge
#

Behind the scenes, all of the Demonworks frames that got alts - barring the Nyx, which got the Selene just because I had a second drone frame idea - were based off of PCs or important NPCs from the original Iridia game. With the alts representing their concerning character development by the end of the game. So the Dragon was based off of a Luminary PC, who lost his faith.

...funnily enough, the Iris was, in fact, the Noble PC. So for a noble is apt.

thorny pollen
#

Ooooh

vocal ridge
#

Everything went fine with her, don't ask about the Locus.

thorny pollen
#

Yeah no if we didn’t already have two controllers I’d totally go locus

vocal ridge
#

(The Godslayer Nexus is definitely not also her fault.)

thorny pollen
#

LMAO

vocal ridge
#

Eloise Verity had a very storied career. 😛

thorny pollen
#

I feel like since the Ersa already has a defensive trait that allows them to avoid dmg I should go more offensive

#

Stick closer to the Sanctifier since their base edef is lllow

#

How I feel rn /lh

IMG_6725.png
vocal ridge
#

Makes sense as a plan. Of course, no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, but...

thorny pollen
#

True!

#

Ugh I’m gonna love making an action sheet for this thing

thorny pollen
#

If only adaptive shielding could be used on enemies for polarity reversal shenanigans

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, no, sorry. 😛

#

(Tbh, it wouldn't be that good. Full action for +1d6 damage.)

thorny pollen
#

Yeah true

#

It would be funny though

#

Runecaster 3 encouraging me to use my entire breadth of tech actions beloved

#

Hacker 2 stonks

vocal ridge
#

I felt very clever coming up with Tech!Walking Armory.

thorny pollen
#

hmmmmmmmm my teamcomp of iris ersa sanctifier and dragon

#

dragon wants to get hit but the iris's thing is making their allies avoid getting hit,

#

so that kinda feels antisynergistic

#

ive been wanting to play artilleryyy so maybe ill go that route

thorny pollen
#

what talents would be good on artemis?

vocal ridge
#

Walking armory is the go-to.

thorny pollen
#

ofc ofc

vocal ridge
#

Because it gives you any damage type on whatever weapon you want (without needing to be silly and go for triple Ghoul Nexii 😛 ).

#

There's not a lot of "must have" Talents for mechs - really, it depends on what kinds of builds you want to do.

thorny pollen
#

crack shot, maybe,

#

ooh engineer

thorny pollen
#

Does echo feedback only trigger if the target is hit?

vocal ridge
#

Nope, it's whenever you attack, not whenever you hit.

thorny pollen
#

Yeye that’s what I thought

#

Cool

vocal ridge
#

Even if you don't hit with your energy weapon, you still; get the energy effects on your next attack.

#

(That ability was the most frustrating to try and word, because lancer doesn't have a good terminology for "this encompasses the entire weapon, it doesn't re-trigger internally for every attack roll in AOEs.")

thorny pollen
#

Aah I see I see

#

Ugh I can’t wait to opcal sonic pulse

#

Or autostab for consistency hm

#

Arcing on a size 3 is lmao but I can see it being useful

#

Oh I just realized how good Ncav is for this since it always will give you the option to take the energy +5 range bonus

vocal ridge
#

Well, on the one shot it applies to.

vocal ridge
#

But just in general, it's helpful to have in a clutch.

thorny pollen
#

Ooooh I see

somber jewel
#

How it feels to play the Enyo

image0.gif
vocal ridge
#

When you have a big enough hammer...

somber jewel
#

I need a bigger reactor for my hammer

#

I took 5 heat from Overkill last week

#

In one attack

vocal ridge
#

Hahahahaha. On the plus side, it means you inflicted some heat? 😛

somber jewel
#

Yes! It actually made a big difference. Exposed the baddie before damage

vocal ridge
#

Living the dream!

somber jewel
#

Turned a hard hit into an obliterating one. 28 explosive, AP

vocal ridge
#

Hahahahaha.

#

That was always the hope, that it'd occasionally get to enable that sort of nonsense.

somber jewel
#

Oh yeah

#

Nural loop had teen tricky to use, I e threatened a few people with Isolate, but haven't been able to use it yet.
And I might suggest replacing ablative weaponry in LL1, because arment redundancy exists now

vocal ridge
#

I would, if the book wasn't specifically incompatible with Dustgrave.

#

Also I made mine first, and I don't want to have to come up with something different again.

#

(Also, with regards to Neural Loop, part of hacking control is the threat - if they don't proc the effect, then they're doing what you want them to do in order to avoid it.)

somber jewel
#

True! And legit, I swear Ive heard more people than usual talking about Dust grave recently...

somber jewel
vocal ridge
kindred comet
somber jewel
thorny pollen
#

I can’t wait to deal 3d6 burn with infinite hellfire Artemis

#

Hellfire + 1d6 unused bonus + NukeCav + OpCal next level

#

My main issue is heat generation right now

#

Ideally overkill can help there

vocal ridge
#

It very much takes advantage of Walking Armory.

thorny pollen
#

Yee

#

I’ve got a Swallowtail teammate so

#

Gaming

thorn pawn
#

hi, I'm one of the Ersa players in Dawn's group, just wanna say that I find Iridia a fascinating place and look forward to playing in it!

#

having a lot of fun designing my character and understanding the iridian mindsets

thorn pawn
#

My character is a odd one, A clone of high priestess Lyra Aurora (not a flash clone) named Kithara Aurora made as a contingency by the one of the sects of the church (we are still working out the timeline of whether it was during or after the war/her death) who had been hidden away to be raised in the southern hemisphere, until the plan goes wrong and she ends up piloting a mech

#

I've got devout 2, orator 2, and empathic, the Ersa systems (we are going to start LL2) and Jericho cover, I think it should be fun!

thorny pollen
#

LOL hi fiddle

thorn pawn
#

hi dawn :)

vocal ridge
#

Oh, nice to hear! I can honestly say that it's not a direction I would ever have thought of, but that's why I love hearing what parts of the setting that people latch onto.

#

(I know when I was writing the draft of the guide, I did not expect my players to latch onto the little tokens that Disciples pass around. Or the belief implications of the Grove of Scattered Stars.)

thorny pollen
#

Ugh I still need to read the whole pdf

vocal ridge
#

I don't blame you, it can be pretty intimidating. It sure scope crept way bigger than I intended!

hexed narwhal
vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha. Yeah, those were designed to be cute, but I wasn't expecting exactly how cute people would find them.

velvet quiver
#

Exploring the Iridia player options, and while they are insanely fun and well balanced (the Magma Hammer is slightly concerning but in a “I haven’t seen it in action so I can’t say anything for sure” kinda way), I do find it hilarious that the Endeavor and Jeanne exist to fill similar niches and fix similar issues as the Taraxacum and Kutuzov frames respectively

#

Same hat/parallel thinking

vocal ridge
#

It was very funny (if somewhat groan inducing), that right after I made those alts first-party ones in the same general direction were announced. 😛

#

Poor Jeanne. She's dear to my heart (as evidenced by my profile pic), but will forever labour under the Napoleon curse...

velvet quiver
#

Tbh I think they’re meaningfully distinct enough to still find use

#

But the Jeanne is… funnily similar to the Kutuzov

vocal ridge
#

They are, but here I was deliberately finding the least-popular support/control frames that didn't already have alts, but, nope. 😔

#

(Something something additional mock horror and dismay.)

velvet quiver
#

I can see the Endeavor seeing a lot of use even compared to the Taraxacum. Taraxacum balances the Tech Support with Flying Battle Taxi-ing, meanwhile the Endeavor goes 110% in on the battle taxi

#

Plus it keep insulated

vocal ridge
#

Also, so far I haven't heard anything concerning about the Magma Hammer, balance-wise. I've heard it's had some good use in busting down doors recently, so I assume it would have been mentioned if it ended up too game-warping.

#

(The benefit of not having a physical copy is it's... well, not trivial, but easy to update things if there are issues.)

velvet quiver
#

The only thing that raises eyebrows about it is the fact that it’s a 1-2 conversion of heat taken to heat given, and there’s no limit on the amount of times the overkill bonus can trigger

vocal ridge
velvet quiver
#

Again I haven’t actually seen it in action so for all I know the inaccurate more than makes up for it

#

But on paper it seems a little alarming

vocal ridge
velvet quiver
#

… oh that is a poor misread on my behalf

#

Then Yeah it’s a great but balanced weapon, always a fan of Threat 2 melees and fun overkill effects are fun

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha, yeeeeah, more than that would be completely bonkers.

somber jewel
#

Overkill is great (untill your dice hate you and give you 5 extra heat from it)

#

I'm not running Executioner currently, because the Frame reroll has been enough, but the threat of getting turned into Modern Art has been increadly effective at discouraging enemies

willow crane
somber jewel
#

This just in, Local Hunter bad at math, Flashbangs entire station.... Again

vocal ridge
#

Self-heat is a surprisingly effective pacer, even if it doesn't look too bad on paper.

somber jewel
#

Its an amazing pacer, because 1 heat adds up!

split drift
#

Is the Luna's active core power meant to be used once or multiple times in one scene?

vocal ridge
#

It's an Efficient Reaction - you get one use per scene.

#

Contrast the Saladin, which says you gain a reaction until the end of the scene.

split drift
#

-- SSC Luna @ LL6 --
[ LICENSES ]
SSC Luna 2, HORUS Goblin 1, HA Castilla 2, SSC Mourning Cloak 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Remixed Frequencies
[ TALENTS ]
Hunter 3, Skirmisher 3, Duelist 2, Combined Arms 1
[ STATS ]
HULL:2 AGI:2 SYS:4 ENGI:0
STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:1
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:5 REPAIR:4
TECH ATK:+5 LIMITED:+0
SPD:6 EVA:12 EDEF:14 SENSE:10 SAVE:13
[ WEAPONS ]
FLEX MOUNT: Fold Knife / Fold Knife
MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Devouring Blade / Fold Knife // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints
[ SYSTEMS ]
Shimmersight, Armament Redundancy, H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Energy Buckler, Personalizations, Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Blademaster's Dance

#

A build for luna that I ended up using, devouring blade might be a tad bit strong but the inaccuracy can be deterrent enough some time

vocal ridge
#

Main Melees have a surprising amount of bang for their buck, I've found (though it is one of the things I'm keeping an eye on). And spending both Duelist and a CB to get it to net positive accuracy is a non-trivial cost.

timber barn
#

I managed t kitbash a few frames from the field guide :3
mainly the silver and the esra! :D

image.png image.png
vocal ridge
#

Neat! The silver's a bit of a funny one, seeing as it's in-universe kitbashed from other mechs (including its gear - the Rank 1 and Rank 2 gear are all based off of specific Demonworks mechs). So it's fun to see that interpreted.

timber barn
timber barn
#

although honestly, I was thinking about making the jeanne, but it's shape is definitely too complicated for me

timber barn
vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha, I could not tell you. We don't know anything except the tiniest bit of manna economics, and I am certainly no economist.

#

There is no way I could put hard numbers to anything.

#

"As much as is narratively required for your purposes" is really the answer.

timber barn
vocal ridge
#

(Same as how "the planet is wherever people need it to be, galactic map-wise." Since that was a question I got a few times.)

vocal ridge
# timber barn Aye! Although would it be a mech that any colony could get? or would it be somet...

Again, that's entirely something that's up to you - if you need it to be accessible on a colony level (and likely just little known), that's fine. If you need it to be more of an expensive boutique mech because of its weirdness? Also okay.

There is the note that sometimes 'inventory loss' makes their way into the hands of, for instance, the Ungratefuls. Purely unintentionally, of course. That anyone can prove.

timber barn
# vocal ridge Again, that's entirely something that's up to you - if you need it to be accessi...

Oh yeah, that was the exact point! :3

More so I did have the idea that possibly Darhat could perhaps produce their own "localized variant", with the mech being quite popular in construction due to the fact that it can do what an entire construction crew would take weeks if not months to do in a matter of hours c:

And coincidentally, many of these mechs also end up within the many insurgent organizations plaguing the planet itself, with the mech being somewhat synonimous with such movements, sort of like how the hilux became the insurgents favorite vehicle! :3

vocal ridge
#

(Btw, there's no need to ping me in this thread. Believe me, I keep a very close eye on my homebrew threads. 😛 )

timber barn
vocal ridge
timber barn
vocal ridge
#

Well, this snippet from the introduction to the full guide should help. 😛

image.png
timber barn
vocal ridge
#

I like hearing about peoples' Iridia campaigns, but I also like hearing about how stuff shows up in entirely unrelated (or minimally related) contexts.

#

People are just happy to see their stuff used. 😛

timber barn
# vocal ridge I like hearing about peoples' Iridia campaigns, but I also like hearing about ho...

Honestly, that does make me think about how my planet, darhat could be considered a complete and total opposite to iridia, while Iridia was once a utopic and peaceful world before it fell into disarray, one that was tended and cared by a benevolent "god", darhat was in some ways never supposed to exist, a terraformed planet that wasn't even complete, a planet who's people are bathed and baptized in the war's ichor, a planet that had to fight tooth and claw to never surrender to outside forces which try to crush them and their culture under it's treads. A planet who's seen empires rise and fall like wheat growing in a field before being reaped by time.

vocal ridge
#

Is it really a peaceful Utopia if you don't have a choice?

timber barn
timber barn
vocal ridge
#

Ah, yeah, most of that's in the full guide. (The short version is said 'benevolent goddess' determined the best way to have a peaceful world is to use her ability to warp emotions to make sure they couldn't be violent or otherwise confrontational.)

kindred comet
#

Yeah, it's very much a parallel to "Nothing ensures peace like making sure everyone else is too dead to start a fight".

timber barn
#

ooooooooohhhhh! Oh....

vocal ridge
#

Something that only loosened when Union came to poke the planet with a stick, because people who can't do a violence aren't really capable of forcibly stopping big bad Union from saying 'hey, you're doing a bad, stop this.' 😛

timber barn
#

also, had you inspired yourself off the NHP goddess on sparr to make iridia? ;3

vocal ridge
#

Sparr was openly an inspiration (what would happen if Prudent Interval went a lot further), as well as the Holy War hook in the core book.

timber barn
#

oooooooooooohhhhhh! :o

timber barn
kindred comet
# timber barn Aye! More so I do come from an rp environment where you need to abide by the lor...

For the record, this is trivially easy to justify in Lancer since in-universe it uses the DLC model: If you have the licenses, anywhere with an adequate printer can produce the mech (that's how completely changing your mech during a Full Repair wherever you are works); knowing the license exists (read: player has the field guide) is the only serious limiting factor. And in this specific case IPS-N is the go-between for the licenses, so "know a guy who knows a guy who had a mech that did exactly what you want" is entirely plausible.

timber barn
vocal ridge
# timber barn although I do wonder, I know there was mention in some of the frame of some rogu...

Yep, those got unleashed during the conflict with Union, as Hestia's emotion control sort of... broke some of Union, which caused a couple different reactions. (One of which included, 'nobody deserves to have this happen to them, burn everything down'.) And then things got out of hand.

There's also an ambiguous purpose driving them - with several possibilities suggested in the book - but nobody knows for sure.

#

I have a lot of openly contradictory and at times extremely non-standard-canon plot hooks in the plot hook section of my book. 😛

timber barn
vocal ridge
#

She's a goddess from the pre-Hestia times. Before colonialism wiped out most of that history, so nobody knows exactly what she was the goddess of (besides being associated with the moon), or what her importance was.

#

So, more of a symbol in the present day than anything else. (Her Disciples are one of my favorite factions in the book. An excuse for something of a wildcard.)

timber barn
vocal ridge
#

Yes, they were settled back from the whole early colonizing space days. Though pretty much all that history has been lost via time and colonialism.

#

Hestia was very much a late arrival to the party (an incredibly disastrous one).

timber barn
timber barn
vocal ridge
#

An HA ship crashed, and she was on it. (So, big Prudent Interval parallels here.) Her story, though, is very deliberately not fleshed out, because the setting is not about her, or why she did what she did. (I have a whole sidebar about this in fact!)

#

She is dead, so the stories are about the people and planet that she affected. Because she built up this whole society based around her, destroying what was there, and... now what. You've got people trying to learn to be themselves, you've got a paralyzed Church, union ambassadors here, and IPS-N continuing to do some market exploitation...

#

At her core, after the original Iridia game (that was about killing her), she is a story conceit more than anything else. 😛

kindred comet
vocal ridge
#

Yeah, there's a reason I used it as a hook - it's got a lot of story potential. I just didn't want to tether every story to having it.

kindred comet
#

Makes sense; the setting's particularly well-suited for self-determination stories that would have to compete with Literally From Space if that was a constant. (Exact same reason Hestia's relegated to a background detail, now that I think about it....)

wise nova
#

like one of the ways it mentions in the table for obtaining a demonworks mech is it basically pulling a HORUS “printing the wrong mech” on a horus mech

vocal ridge
#

That is, in fact, one of the options!

#

I figured they were asking more for large-scale operations, rather than the more personalized stuff that could be more relevant for a lancer. Like taking the reflection of someone else's mech, or it coming to them in a dream. Y'know, standard stuff.

timber barn
timber barn
wise nova
#

fair

vocal ridge
#

Well... dang. Y'all've managed to collectively get me to 250 copies of Iridia sold. When I first started this project, I figured it'd be about four, at best. Because that's how many players I had at the time. 😛

#

It's staggering to me that people have shown interest in my weird little corner of fiction (especially given how much else there is in the Lancer space!), and I seriously appreciate the support.

left meadow
#

Its so cool!!!
I'm planning to finally buy it next paycheck

#

Ive mostly been looking at the mech stuff

indigo imp
#

Iridia has been a favorite of mine, honestly - the NPC stuff alone is so nice to play with, and even if only one of my current players is really building into Iridia licenses and talents, they're getting plenty out of it in terms of the sheer support shenanigans it can enable.

kindred comet
#

On top of all the cool and well-engineered mech stuff, I really appreciate the setting. Comparatively speaking I was a mild case of childhood emotion-adjusting drugs (ADHD isn't exactly crippling), but there was enough in the realm of "you can't really understand what this does to you but it'll suppress behavior you shouldn't want" that I can understand all the various faction perspectives in Iridia to varying extents (Also Hestia's, a dark mirror of Union's initial "you aren't able to understand enough to make this decision, so I have to make it for you" as she's coming from a place of selfishness instead of sympathy, and created the self-perpetuating problem she was "solving").

Not sure how much more genuine you can get then multiple "hey I didn't know I'd empathize with this before I read it"s.

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
vocal ridge
left meadow
vocal ridge
#

Oh, oof. That sucks.

hollow shuttle
#

Yeah, definitely buying, when I get a stable job

vocal ridge
#

Y'all're too kind. LesbiabHeart

thorny pollen
#

Ward Shaper 2 can't destroy a 0 charge limited system right?

vocal ridge
#

No, it's not intended to be able to. Basically, the intent is if it can't be lost via System Trauma, you can't destroy it.

thorny pollen
#

mhm mhm; just figured I would double check, thank you

vocal ridge
thorny pollen
#

wait would Ward Shaper 1 work on Imperial Eye's Disruptive Charge for if a hostile enters Range 8 of that character?

vocal ridge
#

It's intended to only work on the range you get when you spend the action.

#

You can slap it on someone further away, but no extra big reach for emp's secondary effects.

#

It's incredibly frustrating to try and word that, though.

thorny pollen
#

Right right that makes sense

hexed narwhal
chilly jewel
#

Why does the Iris II have the Rangefinder? It doesn't seem to interact with anything.

#

Wait, it's so it always has a weapon that can target someone with a Disruption mark.

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, it gives it a default long range weapon.

timber barn
#

finally got around to actually coloring that old esra! and frankly I'm quite happy with the results! :D

esra_v.png
vocal ridge
#

Ooh, very rusty and grimy. Really sells the vibe of having to fight for ages with no real proper support facilities.

timber barn
# vocal ridge Ooh, very rusty and grimy. Really sells the vibe of having to fight for ages wit...

Aye! More so I also tried to give it the idea of sort of "camo" having been spraypainted onto the mech itself to help it better camouflage itself in the desert along with the paint itself having been relentlessly chipped away by the sand! sort of like how actual insurgents do so!
(mainly spoilered it since I don't know exactly what are the rules on posting anything war related for good measure, but the image itself is an example of what I mean by camo spraypainted on technicals :3)

SPOILER_ebd70d1a64c21157048d64a60c275026.png
vocal ridge
#

Makes sense!

twilit ether
hexed narwhal
#

I just see the side of a building and an empty parking lot

vocal ridge
#

@left meadow Thanks for the Rosy Maple feedback last night! Always nice to know when something works out, instead of just hearing when things are a problem, haha. (And, yes, you interpreted the core correctly - ignoring immunity does mean it can affect biologicals with it.)

thorn pawn
#

Hi! I'd like to ask about the Butterfly of Hestia as I was wondering what the thoughts are on what that looks like, is it a simple decal of a butterfly, or is it a more prismatic design, or is it perhaps fragmented and glassy like the wings of the hera or nemesis?

vocal ridge
#

So, on the mechs, at least, it was represented as more of a filigree design, with different versions that probably have some Symbolism or something if you extended to a real life religion, but really just were to properly fill the space, haha.

image.png image.png image.png image.png
#

However! I absolutely feel like there would absolutely be other versions of it that existed, especially in less, ah, destructive conditions.

#

So if you want a stained glass butterfly, or one that sprawls across a tapestry, or something else, I would say 100% go for it.

thorn pawn
#

oooooooh!

#

I honestly never connected the dots that those were symbols of the hestian buttefly, I'm a bit dumb

vocal ridge
#

Nah, it's all good! It probably doesn't help that it only came into conception with the second mech art done (Astraea, to fill some of the blank space on its shoulder), and not the nominal priest-mech of the Psyche, haha.

#

(The epithet of butterfly was one that I had used beforehand, but it was offhand and I hadn't put any thought into using stuff as a symbol.)

#

And I don't blame you for missing a pattern in a sea of other filigree, haha. Joe's an expert at adding small details to art, often in a way that's only really there if you look for it. Say, the butterflies on the Ersa.

image.png
thorn pawn
#

eeee I missed that too yeah hahaha

#

the art for the mechs are so detailed and great

#

heck I'm going to pilot an ersa I feel like I should've realized lol

#

the reason why I was asking btw was because I'm comissioning art for the character I'm looking to play when our campaign starts up and I wanted to help give the artist a rendition of what it looks like so it can be added to her design

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
thorn pawn
#

will do!

vocal ridge
#

(Fun fact: the first concept for the Jeanne involved her having a back banner, but it just didn't really balance right in the composition.)

thorn pawn
#

ooh interesting

vocal ridge
#

So ended up going with a Knight's Favour instead, which I feel like ended up more evocative in the end. So it all worked out!

#

Anyways, sorry, I can ramble about this sort of stuff for hours, haha. But, always happy to answer worldbuilding details or other questions. Even if sometimes the answer ends up being "this is how it was in my campaign, but I deliberately left it vague in the book."

thorn pawn
#

no worries, thank you for sharing, it really is helpful for figuring out details

#

till next time!

vocal ridge
oblique blaze
#

Picked FGtI tonight, already reading over it excitedly! Aphrodite seems very potent, but the strongest mech definitely seems to be Hera

#

With the 3d6 damage, heavy mount

Or you can reduce it to 2d6 and knock a foe prone with overwatch

vocal ridge
#

It is a strong weapon, but testing didn't show it to be overly egregious - especially because the heat cost punishes the typical Heavy gameplan of multiple attacks. (Of course, there's only so much data that testing can provide, so I'm always willing to change things if it ends up causing issues in peoples' games.)

#

Save-or-Prone was definitely on the docket as a potential nerf, though.

#

Appreciate the thoughts! Always nice to see what catches peoples' eye for one reason or another (and if I need to add a tally to the 'make sure to keep an eye on this' counter for things, haha).

willow crane
#

Compare the Kinetic Hammer though.

Threat 1 2d6+2 Reliable 4 No SP or Heat costs
vs
Threat 1 3d6. 2 Heat and 1 SP.

oblique blaze
#

I suppose the main benefit is the versatility. You can lower it to 2d6 and knock the foe prone, or blind them

#

As a note of synergy, enemies who attack the Hera's allies receive Lock On, and then the Aphrodite can use that to activate its Core Power

#

You can definitely tell the Iridian mechs are intended to work together

vocal ridge
#

Yep, there's very much an intended theme of 'team support' that runs throughout much of the licenses and CBs, to varying degrees.

#

(Tried to find something along the lines of HASE scores for the manufacturer, haha.)

thorny pollen
#

For the Luna’s Quicksilver Edge, what are some of the reactions it would apply to? I’m not too familiar w enemy kits

willow crane
#

Aces's Barrel roll , like half the Archers Kit, An assaults Hunker Down, bastions Fearless defender... There's a lot

vocal ridge
#

It's not a massive amount, but for some NPCs it really messes with their day.

oblique blaze
#

Aphrodite's core power definitely makes me think of Sorry We're Closed

vocal ridge
#

Hmm?

#

I'm not aware of what that's referring to.

left meadow
# vocal ridge I'm not aware of what that's referring to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIQeitJFuzU

YouTube
Akupara Games
Sorry We're Closed | Launch Trailer

Check out Sorry We're Closed on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1796580/Sorry_Were_Closed/

Sorry We’re Closed is a nostalgic singleplayer survival horror game which combines the classic fixed camera angles and the arcade-style first person combat into a thrilling story with multiple endings!

Follow Michelle as she battles to break th...

▶ Play video
vocal ridge
#

Ahhhh, I see. The heart reveal stuff.

somber jewel
#

Hey, question on Refracted Blade exotic

Do I make one attack roll vs all targets, or resolve each target individually after selecting them all?

vocal ridge
#

It's like any other AoE/multiattack - you'll roll attack rolls seperately, but only one damage roll.

#

(Though, unlike true AoEs, it can't target hidden folks.)

somber jewel
#

nod nod

#

Thank you!

#

On to the Stoteinbeker it goes

vocal ridge
#

Just remember, haha - as per the disclaimer, can't guarantee balance with Dustgrave stuff

somber jewel
#

Mhm, thank you

#

Dustgrave has some ... Unusual balancing challenges
SH mounting comes to mind ...

#

My group was joking about a LHAC Dustwing

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, I can guarantee that no frame has been balanced with Superheavy mounting in mind - use at one's own risk! (Same with any of the templates on NPCs.)

willow crane
twilit ether
somber jewel
vocal ridge
broken spire
#

I put an OPCal Paracausal Mod Aetherlance on an Orleander. It kind of just wants to park in the middle of a map and trigger executioner all day.

vocal ridge
#

I don't know what an Orleander is.

broken spire
#

Lancer Enchanced Combat alt frame for Death's Head, it ignores ordnance.

vocal ridge
#

Ah. Well, I can guarantee the Lance is not balanced around that, haha.

broken spire
#

Fortunately all of the Orleander's other frame traits and core systems only work with heavy ranged weapons, but still broken enough to be the melee equivalent of artillery.

vocal ridge
#

Melee Ordnance is an incredible amount of budget, given how much melee gets shut down by it, so removing that is... a lot!

twilit ether
vocal ridge
#

Ah, gotcha.

earnest prism
astral wigeon
#

Hey looking for some feedback on a IPS-N Silver build, as well as clarification on how its trait "Edgewise to Reality" interacts with Accelerate from Sunzi 1. It says on your turn you ignore Difficult terrain and any obstacles so long as you don't end your turn in them, so I'd presume that Accelerate would push you right through walls and enemies.

#

-- IPS-N Silver @ LL6 --
[ LICENSES ]
IPS-N Silver 3, IPS-N Blackbeard 1, HA Sunzi 2
[ CORE BONUSES ]
Gyges Frame, Overpower Caliber
[ TALENTS ]
Duelist 3, Exemplar 3, Skirmisher 2, Pankrati 1
[ STATS ]
HULL:4 AGI:2 SYS:0 ENGI:2
STRUCTURE:4 HP:23 ARMOR:1
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:8 REPAIR:6
TECH ATK:-1 LIMITED:+1
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:6 SENSE:10 SAVE:14
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Retrieval Claws
MAIN MOUNT: Scouring Halo
FLEX MOUNT: Warp Rifle // Overpower Caliber
[ SYSTEMS ]
Reality Storm, Accelerate, Electrostatic Grasp, Synthetic Muscle Netting, Ab-T/R Emergency Bulkhead

vocal ridge
#

Yes, Accelerate could push you through stuff.

astral wigeon
#

ok, cool. I'd imagine this looks like the Silver is doing its best 'Hounds of Tindalos' impression just to grab someone on the other side of multiple walls. Given the wording of that trait

vocal ridge
#

For the build itself, it feels like a pretty reasonable melee build. I would only question a bit about the wisdom of putting Opcal on the Warp Rifle. Sure, it lets you do the teleport gimmick more, but the rest of the build feels really melee heavy, so it feels like a waste.

vocal ridge
#

So no grabbing people on the other side of walls.

astral wigeon
#

Yeah the rifle is there to get people from farther away, was also thinking maybe mag cannon. any other suggestion for a better weapon? Yeah, i meant 'grab' as in sliding through multiple wall to end up in front of some poor unfortunate soul.

vocal ridge
#

Ah, gotcha. And I'm admittedly not really a melee builder when I play, so I've not got much in the way of suggestions there.

astral wigeon
#

I guess it already has some good movement options, so maybe just a pure damage ranged option would work

#

I think the Huntress Bow from Artemis 1 might be decent. Good range, 1D6, and negate Hiding and cover benefits on a failed Hull save. Put the OpCal on the Halo. This feels slightly better

vocal ridge
#

Well, hope that works out! And if it doesn't, well, I guess you can blame me. 😛

#

(I'm always hungry for feedback on how things go in actual play, whether for good or ill. Testing only can do so much.)

left meadow
#

quick question, do the people of iridia have any colonies or people on other planets/in other systems? Would they make any ever, if they could guarentee they dont impact populations? would they move to other planets? where in the galaxy IS iridia?

vocal ridge
# left meadow quick question, do the people of iridia have any colonies or people on other pla...

In order:

  1. As of the setting presented, no. (Unless you count the option of the archaic lunar colony in one of the plot hooks, but that's not a default fixture.) They have the beginnings of a space station, enough for a small crew, but nothing off-planet beyond that.
  2. Given the option, they may expand to other planets in the system, but there likely wouldn't be any concerted effort for a colony ship. Especially since, with Union etc. there's (relatively) easy enough ways to get off-planet should someone choose.
  3. There's definitely people who would want to leave and go elsewhere, though that's very much the minority opinion. (When writing factions for my Stellar Codex, I had drafted up the concept of Disciples who basically kept hopping from spaceship to spaceship in an attempt to go to the farthest reaches of space in search of their goddess - but it ended up getting cut, since it was ultimately incredibly niche and pretty reliant on history from another of my books. Just wasn't able to get it in a state I was happy with presenting.)
  4. Wherever you want it to be. "Where is Iridia" has somehow ended up being the most common question, haha, and it was left intentionally vague. There's a guideline of "about a decade travel away from the nearest blink gate" to ensure the timeline and situation as presented in the book, but there's also some notes on how things might change if you alter that assumption.
#

Hopefully this helps some - I'm always happy to answer setting details, even if it's not something that I thought about in the book.

#

(And obviously, everything is subject to change as a GM sees fit. You want an excuse for a specific story? Be my guest - the book's a toolbox.)

vocal ridge
#

Now that I've mostly got Stellar Codex stuff done, I was able to turn my attention to the small amount of things that've accumulated to be fixed in the Iridia PDF. Only one real mechanical change, for the most part it's just typo fixes. https://missdataninja.itch.io/field-guide-to-iridia/devlog/929846/update-14

itch.io
Update 1.4

Today's update is mostly just tidying up some small things that have accumulated since the last update, with only one real mechanical change. Some typos and contradictions have been fixed in various f...

oblique blaze
#

What do you usually pair up with the Aphrodite as a second license? I imagine something to take advantage of unrequited requiem?

vocal ridge
#

I've seen Pegasus and also Goblin. As a hybrid tech/artillery, it does play pretty well with much of Horus.

oblique blaze
#

Did some playtesting today. Aphrodite feels quite fun to play. Hera is an interesting one. The mech's low defences means it takes a lot of hits, but it can body-block very easily.

One big one I found was that a surprising amount of enemies can simply alternate their damage types to avoid the Hera's adapting resistance.

vocal ridge
#

Honestly, I'm glad that's the case. I was worried that there would be a bit too much of a worry for perma-resistance, and it has too much bulk for that to be the case. Does mean multi-attacks are always going to be affected, though!

#

Appreciate the feedback! "This is fun/this works/no problems here" is surprisingly helpful when making stuff, haha.

oblique blaze
#

Sitrep: a Gauntlet, with a high fortress wall. The enemy had a Seeder, who flooded the passage leading in with mines.

Of course, the Hera's ability to destroy terrain simply allowed them to "make" a new entrance to the location.

#

Chromatic Blade is pretty potent in terms of damage, so the Hera very much felt like a mech that made itself the enemy's problem, as a way of defending.

I had a hilarious foundry bug since I'm using Holy Warden. Foundry didn't check the "no larger than size 3" limit, leading to us getting jumpscared by a Size 4 Hera

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha.

#

I imagine the existing CB limit is probably hardcoded in, then.

oblique blaze
#

I originally though the Aphrodite's scythe was going to be too low damage for an artillery, but it's been amazing to use. It gets behind their cover and does decent damage to two targets

Of course, getting to put an invade on the foe is helpful with the mod

vocal ridge
#

Also good to hear! Because, yeah, it's not really a single-target weapon.

oblique blaze
#

The enemy had their gauntlet fortress, and a Puppet Systems had the Ultra abandoning their fort, and running into the Hera.
The Hera lost a structure, as did the Aphrodite. Having a protocol means Universal Compatability is easy to use, so they avoided losing a second. The aphrodite's structure was a case of letting an ally go first to set up the horus lock on reaction, when they should've sought cover.

This was an Ultra with Ravager Turret and Limitless, so very much a stress test

vocal ridge
#

Did anything feel too overwhelming?

#

I'm constantly eyeing the Hera in particular in case I need to nerf anything, haha.

oblique blaze
#

We got some surprising damage from the Chromatic Blade, but it never broke the combat

#

It was strong, but what actually balances it imo is the threat 1

vocal ridge
#

All I can ask for, really.

oblique blaze
#

A lot of heavy weapons have a high threat

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, high-Threat Heavies combo well with the Talent and just controlling the field.

oblique blaze
#

being threat one keeps it from being OP with executioner

#

I think the speed of the Hera is the surprising part

vocal ridge
#

You can blame Kai for that, haha. I originally had it lower, but he convinced me that she could be balanced with being a faster girl.

oblique blaze
#

It pairs really well with Holy Warden, helping the frontline get there

vocal ridge
#

(Well, blame/thank as appropriate. 😛 )

oblique blaze
#

We had a lot of fun playtesting

#

Me and another player just set up sitreps and tried the mechs out in fights

vocal ridge
#

Oh, nice!

oblique blaze
#

Very nice to have the dev on hand for feedback and ideas: this ability created a rules question with the Ravager Turret, but it'll come up with any character who can attack multiple times at T2.

It's worded so cones and lines only trigger it once. What about things like the Rainmaker's attack? Would it take 3 damage for every shot?

image.png
vocal ridge
#

For AoEs, it would trigger once. For multi-attacks, it would trigger for each attack.

#

(So either you get zapped a bunch from your multi-attack, or you attack the Hera and your follow up multi attacks get resisted.)

#

(Admittedly, in my head, the Ravager Turret is just a Weird AOE, but I suppose it isn't, huh.)

oblique blaze
#

It happens with sentinel drones as well

vocal ridge
#

Sentinel drones are such a fun bit of gear I never see mentioned.

vivid granite
#

just to check, was remixed frequencies removed from the 1.4.0 lcp intentionally?

vocal ridge
#

No, no it was not, I don't even know how that- ah, nuts, yes I do. I remember I had this issue before, so I must have had a one iteration out of date lcp when transferring to the new computer. Sigh.

#

Grumble grumble stupid files. Here I thought I'd sorted you all out. :L

vocal ridge
oblique blaze
#

So, what happens when the Hera steps on a mine? Do they take the damage, or apply Titanic Stride?

vocal ridge
#

Mines are not objects, terrain, or Deployables, so are unaffected by Titanic Stride.

#

It'll go off as per normal.

oblique blaze
vocal ridge
#

Huh. Well, that very much seems counter to how Mines are treated in most of Lancer - anyways, the intent of Titanic Stride is not to provide mine immunity.

oblique blaze
#

Thanks!

grim pasture
# oblique blaze

(None of the mechanical hooks for [object] work for [mine] as a rule)

#

(This snippet is misleading regarding the mechanics, in short)

oblique blaze
#

Ah, I just realised it doesn't matter. Mines detonate when you become adjacent to them, not when you step on them.

#

So you can never step on them first, since they go off a tile away

grim pasture
#

Well, re that, the main source of mines enemy-side is the Seeder, and their mines only trigger when you step directly onto them

#

But, still, yeah

oblique blaze
#

Aphrodite and Hera have been good, it's been hard to pick out one of the others to go with, since a lot of them seem very situational. I've no idea how to make the "prevent conditions you inflict" (Ananke) mech work.

#

It actually makes me think of Kindred from lol with the Reality Pocket, since it creates a "no one can die" zone oh it's immune to environmental damage

vocal ridge
#

Ananke is a Weird Hacker, in that it's surprisingly mobile, and relies just as much on ally-affecting effects as enemy-affecting. Panoply is more of a nice bonus on top of everything else (Locking on scouts is the funny counterplay.)

wise nova
#

it’s closer to the lich than the goblin

oblique blaze
#

How does this ability work? Would Skirmish count as a barred action?

image.png
kindred comet
#

For example, the Aegis' Ring of Fire optional trait specifically affects hostile characters within its defense net; an Aegis under the effect of Reverie doesn't treat any characters as hostile, so the trait couldn't apply.

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, it relies on stuff that specifically can only affect hostile characters, as opposed to can target anyone but you'd only really use it on hostiles.

#

(It's niche - hence why only 1 SP - but very strong in that niche.)

gilded lichen
#

This shit so peak 😭 😭

vocal ridge
#

Well, that's always nice to hear. LesbiabHeart

gilded lichen
#

I'm very jealous

vocal ridge
#

Anything in particular catching your eye? Mechanical or lorewise?

vocal ridge
gilded lichen
#

The art is so good

vocal ridge
#

All the artists really conveyed the vibes, yeah. It would not have been anywhere the same without them.

gilded lichen
#

I like iridia's atheistic. Have you played hollow knight, perchance?

vocal ridge
#

I have not, I'm afraid. Are things reminiscent of that?

gilded lichen
vocal ridge
#

Ah, yeah, I can see that.

#

I really was just wanting an obviously alien forest for the cover, and Zhjake ran with that in such a fun way.

#

It's permanently my desktop background now.

gilded lichen
#

I feel like the hardest part of homebrew projects is knowing several other people who also do homebrew

vocal ridge
#

In what way?

gilded lichen
#

You've gotta get connected, doing it alone is harder

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, having people to bounce ideas off of helps. My campaign groups were helpful with that.

#

(Admittedly, Iridia as a Field Guide was itself based off of a game I ran, so...)

gilded lichen
#

However I've never done it so 🤷

vocal ridge
#

On the one had, yes, on the other hand, oh boy did a lot change since the campaign, haha.

#

But, yeah, honestly, my best suggestion if you want to find people to bounce things off of or just talk about things, since I know the homebrew channel can be rather impersonal, is run a game and get players invested in your stuff.

#

(For instance, all the rumours tables I have were collaborative efforts where we effectively tried to one-up each other, haha.)

gilded lichen
#

I run twice per week\0/

vocal ridge
#

Ah, that's a shame. I suppose I just got lucky with my gremlins.

#

Admittedly, a lot of doing work is just... making yourself do it. Getting something from a one sentence "huh, I should do a section about clothing" or whatever to actually details was just a lot of 'well, I gotta sit down and write.'

gilded lichen
vocal ridge
#

Ah. I used Scribus for my PDFs and, ahahahaha, it's very much not designed for large visual projects like that, it feels like. But, something something sunk cost fallacy.

gilded lichen
#

usually when I know what I want for a license it comes together really well

#

but it's also difficult to reach that point

vocal ridge
#

That's just homebrewing in general, honestly.

#

I'd say it gets easier, but, that's a lie, haha. It comes and goes.

pulsar zodiac
#

for runecaster 2, can I use unerring on a full tech that consists of 2 invades?

vocal ridge
#

No, the intent is to only be able to apply to one - either a single quick tech, or a single full tech that doesn't consist of two separate quick techs.

pulsar zodiac
#

ah ok thanks

oblique blaze
#

A friend and I are in the hobby of running arena combats with different mechs, so I've set myself to testing every Iridian chassis

#

I have Ananke, Aphrodite, Artemis, and Hera done so far
The Astraea spent the whole combat stunlocked, so giving it another try later

vocal ridge
#

I see you skipped rather far down the alphabet.

#

But also, sounds fun! (I will say, I think the Astraea is probably the Frame that saw the most overall use in my testing campaign. So, don't feel bad if testing comes back inconclusive. 😛 )

vivid granite
#

the silliest combo ever

image.png image.png
#

i WILL be entering your backline, actually

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha. Yep, that first one was the most common combo of stuff I saw during my playtests. It was incredibly funny, but it didn't seem overly broken, so I didn't seek to nerf the teleport to require adjacent targets only. (But it would be nice to know if it gets too out of hand.)

...the CB admittedly didn't exist back then, so I think that might tip it over the edge of too much. With being able to get effectively 8+ free movement.

vivid granite
#

it is definitely a lot of movement

#

takes 4 LLs and a core bonus at minimum investment though tbf

vocal ridge
#

It does, but I'm always leery of doing too much that devalues Agility as an investment for movement. Because there's already so much in core that does it. (Ferrous Lash, Pankrati, All of Sunzi...)

#

Don't expect a potential nerf to come soon, admittedly. Maybe if this was mentioned before I did my last update, but dear god do I not want to have to mess with that PDF again in the near future, haha.

#

I'm already having to do that with the Stellar Codex stuff.

vivid granite
vocal ridge
#

The woes of homebrewing. 😔

vivid granite
# 
-- IPS-N Silver @ LL6 --
[ LICENSES ]
  IPS-N Silver 2, IRIDIA Hemera 2, IRIDIA Astraea 2
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Subspace Tear, Himalaya Reinforcement
[ TALENTS ]
  House Guard 3, Duelist 3, Skirmisher 2, Exemplar 1
[ STATS ]
  HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:4
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:25 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:6
  TECH ATK:-1 LIMITED:+2
  SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:6 SENSE:10 SAVE:14
[ WEAPONS ]
  MAIN MOUNT: Retrieval Claws
  MAIN MOUNT: Reality Cutter (Luminary Mod)
  FLEX MOUNT: Scouring Halo
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Electrostatic Grasp, Metastatic Emitter, “Guardian” Containment Field x3, Goddess Banner x3, Personalizations```
#

i really love the silver, its probably my favorite iridia mech

vivid granite
vocal ridge
vivid granite
vocal ridge
#

The game with the Silver is to pick out what Demonworks mechs inspired what gear. And what elements of the art were taken from existing Demonworks mechs.

vocal ridge
# vivid granite in terms of it being ips-n or in general within iridia as a whole?

A little of column A, and a little of column 2. It's not a typical IPS-N mech, and it's identity is stealing a bunch of other stuff's identities in a way that doesn't give it a particularly exemplary aesthetic in the way other mechs do. (See, the Phane, who is very much the favorite - since while it's unconventional, Horus is unconventional.)

vivid granite
#

that makes sense yeah

vivid granite
#

those few being retrieval claws inspired by energy talons, reality storm inspired by reality pocket, and the head of the frame feels very enyo inspired to me

#

oh and electrostatic grasp inspired by metastatic emitter

vocal ridge
#

Yep, you've got those right. (Reality storm was the most loosely based, since I liked the visuals ahead of time.)

vivid granite
#

man i never thought to look for these before, its really cool that you tied in the lore behind the frame so nicely

vocal ridge
#

The art admittedly only has one other main frame reference (though the arms were also Enyo inspired). The rest of it is more IPS-Nish. And it specifically has the mono eye.

vivid granite
#

hm... locus legs, maybe?

vocal ridge
vivid granite
#

ohhh

#

yeah i can see it now

#

that rules

vocal ridge
#

They took it and reanimated it, but it's very much still a corpse.

#

(Much the same reason the Forsaken has the empty visor, as opposed to the glow of the base Psyche.)

#

I always love being able to share behind the scenes details like this stuff, or answer lore questions or whatever.

#

(Granted, most people are just here for the mechanics, which, fair. The most common lore question I end up answering is the one that deliberatle doesn't have an answer, haha. (What ring Iridia is in.))

vivid granite
#

yeah it tends to be that way in my experience as well

#

i think lancer as a system lends itself better to that kind of mindset

#

thankfully that sign cant stop me because i cant read

vocal ridge
#

Probably a lot of that has to do with the expectation of free players side stuff, so there's never actually a need to have the rest of the book. Which, on the one hand, yes, that's good for play health, on the other hand, I want people to read what I write. 😛

vivid granite
#

completely understandably!

vocal ridge
#

Anyways, that's my privileged tabletop writer gripes, follow me to ignore more takes like that.

#

(I'm mostly exaggerating, haha - I consider myself fortunate to have as much as I do when it comes to engagement.)

oblique blaze
#

my dumb ass spent 15 minutes designing an empakaai with silver systems

#

completely forgetting the two are exclusive lcps

willow crane
#

honestly, the closest thing to broken there is Electrostaic Grasp, but you can also put that on a Blackbeard

vocal ridge
#

A lot of SSMR is probably fine to combine (beyond knowing that some stuff like the Tempest with some Templates or an Empakaai with an Aetherlance will 100% break things), but I can't rightly say it's compatible because of those pitfalls.

earnest prism
#

you might have to watch out for some broken combos but it's an "advised against" rule not an "illegal" rule since, y'know, who's gonna stop you

polar lotus
#

the "Invisible Eye," a hidden clan of enforcers who have made it the purpose of their lives to ensure proper homebrew convention compliance

earnest prism
#

oh yea right

#

thas true

vocal ridge
earnest prism
#

indeed

#

mix at your own peril....

grim pasture
vocal ridge
#

Gasp! All this time, and I never suspected a thing. 😔

earnest prism
#

y'know we could have potentially guessed if asked to

willow crane
kindred comet
oblique blaze
#

The Aphrodite gains 4 armour while it has lock on. Does it apply this armour against an attack that consumes the lock on?

kindred comet
#

Yes. There's actually a reminder in the PDF to that effect on the Aphrodite's page; the core rules specify that the Lock On is cleared after the attack that consumes it, so it still has the armor against that attack.

vocal ridge
#

Yep, it's just a little quirk of the rules that basically never otherwise matters, haha.

willow crane
#

I mean, it matters to the Rainmaker NPC class

vocal ridge
#

That's why I said basically. 😛

#

Everyone can use lock on, but only a tiny fraction of times consuming it will have the timing be relevant.

lusty tartan
#

so if one wanted to figure out someones iridian age in cradle years would they divide the iridian number by 6?

vocal ridge
#

Yep - obviously there could be some stuff that would possibly cause off-by-1 errors, but it's an easy enough approximation.

#

It's not a very complex ratio, haha.

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

That was very much a deliberate choice, so glad to hear it has the intended effect!

lusty tartan
#

like oh thats

#

horroric to think about

#

it was already tied for my favourite frame

vocal ridge
#

The Mk IIs especially are designed to play with that.

#

(It really is always wonderful to hear peoples' thoughts on things, so I appreciate you sharing! I love knowing what catches a person's eye.)

lusty tartan
#

its like

#

whats the word

#

the like

#

contrast and tugging aginsst itself

#

that is inherent in the enyo's existance

#

is really coo

vocal ridge
#

Dissonance?

lusty tartan
#

yeah!

#

thats the word

#

plus as a harrison armory main im a big fan of wreckless damage for the bit

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha, understandable.

#

The Demonworks has something for everybody!

lusty tartan
#

its tied with the hera for my favourite frame

#

big boi go stomp is like

#

the best bit that doesnt involve taking heat or teleporting someone

#

plus the idea of a sweet little cinamon roll bean pilot, running a fucked up enyo hera build is really funny

vocal ridge
#

It's funny, the Hera wouldn't exist without a friend offhandedly making a comment that a Hera frame should have peacock symbolism, and that made me want to make a frame with a rainbow theme. It's the single frame that had the name first.

#

But I couldn't imagine the roster without my stompy Size 3 gal now. Even if the poor Enyo got overshadowed. She was the only Size 2 in the original roster.

lusty tartan
#

look the enyo has her own niche

#

incredible violence

vocal ridge
#

It is a very important niche, haha.

oblique blaze
#

The Hera was the mech to make me search up "what if players don't fit in the starting zone"

vocal ridge
#

Hahahahaha. 😅

lusty tartan
#

also how like, close to the dawnline shore is iridia or is that up to gm interpetation, my campaigns moving to the dawnline shore and im lowkey considering putting iridia somehwere on that way

kindred comet
#

To quote from [the last time this came up](#1057844754550886511 message), Iridia is

Wherever you want it to be. "Where is Iridia" has somehow ended up being the most common question, haha, and it was left intentionally vague. There's a guideline of "about a decade travel away from the nearest blink gate" to ensure the timeline and situation as presented in the book, but there's also some notes on how things might change if you alter that assumption.

lusty tartan
#

i might set it so theres a more recent blink gate because i cant reallt have my pcs travel a decade

#

unless its shorter on cosmopolitan type speeds

#

idk i gotta figure it out

lusty tartan
#

does attack roll here include tech attack rolls? one of my player asked, i assume not but wanna make sure

Screenshot_20250528_152620_Drive.png
willow crane
#

It says attack rolls, so that's melee ranged and tech attacks

earnest prism
#

tech attacks also make attack rolls

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
vocal ridge
#

Also, if you do end up setting part of your campaign there, would love to hear what you end up doing!

lusty tartan
#

the plan to get them there is to have thier ship be damaged in a combat and need to stop on iridia for repairs and maybe theyll fix a problem or two

#

one of them is also a solidier with a balor nanite arm and another is an ex streamer who was framed for murder

#

so in general

#

very intresting party

#

esp with the context of iridia

#

i suspect my nelson op will love CPT

vocal ridge
vocal ridge
chilly jewel
#

I'd be stigmatized against streamers too.

vocal ridge
#

Of course, of course.

lusty tartan
#

got bored and made an adhoc build

[ LICENSES ]
  IRIDIA Epione 3, IRIDIA Artemis 3
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Sacred Armaments, Overpower Caliber
[ TALENTS ]
  Walking Armory 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, Heavy Gunner 3, Engineer 1
[ STATS ]
  HULL:2 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:6
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:15 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:12 REPAIR:5
  TECH ATK:-1 LIMITED:+3
  SPD:3 EVA:7 EDEF:8 SENSE:15 SAVE:13
[ WEAPONS ]
  Integrated: Fuel Rod Gun
  Integrated: Prototype Weapon I
  MAIN MOUNT: Saturation Projector
  MAIN MOUNT: Huntress Bow
  HEAVY MOUNT: Stasis Blaster
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Sanctuary Drone, Feedback Shield, Recall Gate x5, Limit Override, Consecrated Temple```
lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Well, feel free to post about how it goes. Always happy to hear about (mis)adventures. 😛

vocal ridge
#

"You have how many ways to stop me from taking damage from your shots?"

lusty tartan
lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Psh, hitting your allies is just a skill issue. /s

#

(I had one of my players use the Phane's Mnemosyne on a Bombard... and dropped it on a collection of about 8 NPCs and a PC. I think she missed one Grunt... and the PC. It was extremely funny - and well played.)

#

"Well, at least I managed to not kill my boyfriend via a 30-odd damage bombard shot."

lusty tartan
#

very good way to not kill your boyfriend

vocal ridge
#

Any situation can be made better with the addition of more damage!

lusty tartan
#

-enyo player coalition

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha.

#

See also: Why a player formed Collaborative Practical Tactics.

#

(Purely coincidentally, that was also the character the Enyo was themed after.)

lusty tartan
lusty tartan
vocal ridge
vocal ridge
lusty tartan
#

the party going to iridia has gained a new memeber: a bunny girl john crieghton harrison II clone

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha.

lusty tartan
#

so THAT will be intresting

vocal ridge
#

Very.

lusty tartan
#

they arent with harrison amory anymore they escaped but still

#

cant wait to see how that goes

#

they might even pilot an iridian mech

#

we'll see

vocal ridge
#

Hey, there's a bunch of ways to get access to Demonworks mechs! The full book even has a couple tables full of 'em. 😉

lusty tartan
#

oh i have some funny plans for that

#

the way my horus ops got thier mechs were fun

vocal ridge
#

(It was very fun brainstorming those with my players. Same with the rumour and trinket tables.)

lusty tartan
#

and then the guy with a bvalor arm's mech sloughed off to reveal the balor

#

i should show off the party of my party

vocal ridge
#

Party party!

lusty tartan
#

this is juno, olympia's girlfriend/nhp, she didnt the form ont he right until recently

image.png image.png
vocal ridge
#

Nice, nice. Gotta love all the tech and digital effects.

lusty tartan
#

i love my party dearly

#

they shamble me in every combat but thats okay

vocal ridge
#

As one does.

#

I may or may not have accidentally TPK'd my party on the final boss of my first campaign, which always leads me to second guess myself, haha.

lusty tartan
#

i tend to tune my combats for difficulty but pc victory

vocal ridge
#

Yeah, that's a good sweet spot to aim for, because there's always the chance that things go Terribly Wrong™️.

lusty tartan
#

woops all nat ones

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Cool, cool.

lusty tartan
#

i wonder what life owuld be like on a space station orbiting iridia

vocal ridge
#

If you're meaning in the established timeframe... hectic, no doubt, since there's still construction work being done on it, and nobody on-planet has ever space-stationed before. So it's a... learning experience.

In the future? Probably the same as any other planetary space station. I could see a heavier emphasis on Disciple culture than found on planet, though - proportionally, at least.

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

I mean, hey, the toolbox is explicitly there to be tweaked. Change anything you want to make it work in your game. 😛

lusty tartan
#

i think an iridian being born and growing up on a space station thats still being built is

#

hilarious

#

terrible choice of place to have a baby tbh

vocal ridge
#

Hahahaha.

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Oh noooooo, haha.

#

And that's how everyone on the station ended up folded into the same family.

lusty tartan
#

something something it takes a villiage

vocal ridge
#

Exactly! Family dynamics are flexible anyways.

#

And here I am now thinking "huh, I wonder if it might become a sort of standard to have people act as a whole family to each other while on stations, given you're to varying degrees cut off from the dynamics you would have on the planet."

lusty tartan
#

that would make sense

kindred comet
#

I imagine it'd be much the same as other small communities; you end up with common cultural bonds from the shared experiences and difficulty getting outside views, which aren't as strong as family dynamics but can still bring most everyone together for events (good or otherwise). And I presume this would be even stronger if the station isn't (near) a blink gate, as people you meet periodically are going to be "out of sync" culturally due to time dilation.

lusty tartan
# 
  Spaceborn, LL6
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
  Assault (+2), Blow Something Up (+4),
  Invent or Create (+6), Stay Cool (+4),
  Survive (+4)
[ GEAR ]
  Light Hardsuit, Fluxdagger,
  Medium Signature, Luminary Bracer,
  Handheld Printer, Personal Drone
[ BOND ]
  THE FIREBRAND
  Powers: SOLIDARITY, TENACITY,
  TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG
***
[ TALENTS ]
  Duelist 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3,
  Engineer 2, PANKRATI 1
[ LICENSES ]
  IRIDIA Enyo 3, IPS-N Blackbeard 1,
  IPS-N Vlad 1, IPS-N ZHENG 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Fomorian Frame, Sacred Armaments
[ MECH ]
  « DIRECT APPLICATION OF FORCE »
  IRIDIA Enyo
  H:5 A:0 S:0 E:3 SIZE:3
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:23 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:7
  ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:1 LTD BONUS:1
  SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:6 SENS:8 SAVE:14
[ WEAPONS ]
  INTEGRATED MOUNT: Fuel Rod Gun
  INTEGRATED MOUNT: Prototype Weapon II
  FLEX MOUNT: TIGER-HUNTER COMBAT SHEATHE
  FLEX MOUNT: Energy Talons
  HEAVY MOUNT: Magma Hammer
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Gravimetric Snare, Interposition Lock,
  Neural Loop, Synthetic Muscle Netting,
  TOTAL STRENGTH SUITE I, Webjaw Snare
vocal ridge
#

Ah, a name as subtle as the mech it's for. 😛

#

Out of curiosity, any particular reason for Sacred Armaments? I don't see anything that the friendly ability would be useful for?

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Ahhhhh, gotcha.

lusty tartan
#

and i didnt wanna bother investing into systems about it

vocal ridge
#

Makes sense.

kindred comet
#

Could also be convenient if you pick one of the AoE options from Engineer 2.

lusty tartan
#

the wrathborn version of this build is extremely similair but

#

here it is anyway

# 
[ LICENSES ]
  IRIDIA Enyo 3, IPS-N Blackbeard 1, IPS-N Vlad 1, IPS-N ZHENG 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Fomorian Frame, Sacred Armaments
[ TALENTS ]
  Duelist 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, Engineer 2, PANKRATI 1
[ STATS ]
  HULL:5 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:3
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:27 ARMOR:0
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:9 REPAIR:4
  TECH ATK:+1 LIMITED:+1
  SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENSE:8 SAVE:14
[ WEAPONS ]
  Integrated: Fuel Rod Gun
  Integrated: Prototype Weapon II
  MAIN MOUNT: Energy Talons
  MAIN MOUNT: TIGER-HUNTER COMBAT SHEATHE
  HEAVY MOUNT: Magma Hammer
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Gravimetric Snare, Interposition Lock x3, Neural Loop, Synthetic Muscle Netting, Webjaw Snare x3```
#

it occured to me that wrathborn would work ebtter for the ram+grapple build

vocal ridge
#

Makes sense.

lusty tartan
#

enyo pilot moment

image.png
vocal ridge
#

Smash and/or Stab.

#

As demonstrated by the GM toolkit chapter image.

Chapter3.png
lusty tartan
#

energy talons <3

#

enyo my beloved <3

#

i would lvoe to hear more about the design process and thoughts/lore stuff behind it tbh

vocal ridge
#

...honestly, since it was one of the "six licenses in 48h," I could not tell you in detail any of the design processes for it, haha. It was just "oh, I'm representing a character who revels in violence compared to the rest of the world, let's make a line mech that revels in violence."

#

The off-hacker bit was because I didn't want it just to be a brute though - the character in question was calculating about it. (Including, as previously mentioned, founding CPT.)

#

...it's funny how many factions in the book are entirely because of player actions. Nobles and Luminaries are also only in the book because of players - people wanted theose in their backstories, and thus, so there were knights and nobles. 😛

#

As for lore - I've always seen the Enyo as the Iridian line mech. Both as the chosen mech for the people who want to do a violence, but also because it's fairly solid at any role. There's a reason I made sure the standard frame had guns as well as the hammer - it may be a melee license, but it's not just a melee frame.

#

(The wrathborn is the melee frame, haha.)

oblique blaze
#

I suppose Iridia is incompatible with Dustgrave, but I always feel weird seeing the Enyo's Ablative Weaponry system and Armanent Redundancy both in the pool

vocal ridge
#

It's annoying, because I made mine first, and then, oops, here comes a first-party thing in the middle of me finishing up writing my book. 😛

#

If that was the only thing that ended up being an compatibility issue with Dustgrave, then I probably would have sucked it up and come up with something new for the Enyo, and delayed things more to test it. But there was enough that I just ended up saying, no, I'm doing a compatibility cutoff, I know there are things that don't work, I'm getting this out.

kindred comet
#

Ablative Weaponry is superior, anyway, both in terms of flexibility and elegance; you can still soak system system trauma with it, you can repair it if you want to use it more than once per mission, and you don't need to tack on a clunky 1/mission tracker.

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

It's the kind of thing that helps feel like it adds a touch of weird to what could be a pretty bog-standard infantry mech. At least, imo.

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Design-wise, it was in part "what might something non-human think that humans would want, having looked at other mechs?"

#

But it's also why you get things like wings on the Nemesis that are just... not attached. "Obviously the wings on the Nemesis Mk 1 are there for a reason! But what do you mean it matters if they're connected to the body or not???"

#

"See, the new version still flies!"

#

(The Nemesis in general is really one of my favorite designs along those lines. The body probably couldn't actually fit a person without there being some kind of space-warping. The limbs are all geometric. Lots of parts are just floating there.)

#

The original original concept for the mechs were to evoke 'living statues', but that ended up only applying to the first mech that got art (the Psyche - which is why it has the sort of marbling if you look closely. It's also why the Psyche doesn't have the icon of the butterfly anywhere on it, despite being a pretty heavily priesthood-vibed mech, because that was only invented to fill the shoulders on the Astraea, which was the second art done).

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
#

Joe did a really good job of selling the vibes. A lot of it really came down to his mech art, haha.

lusty tartan
#

also they all have my favourite kind of mech face

#

armor over wholoe face visor

lusty tartan
vocal ridge
# lusty tartan also they all have my favourite kind of mech face

Yep, that was in the design doc - having that 'T' visor in the same way as, say, the IPS-N's mono-eye. It's one of my favorite visual aesthetics, and it felt like it really unified things. There are only a couple exceptions: 1) The Selene has no visor, both as a counterpart to the Nyx's multiple masks, but also as a narrative cue that it's dedicated to a different goddess, and 2) the Aphrodite gets actual eyes, (well, individual lenses,) because it's someone's emotional representation of a mech, as opposed to a true mech. So it gets to be closer to a person.

lusty tartan
#

very intresting!

vocal ridge
#

It's not something that's spelled out, but there's some stuff that sets them apart. (It's kind of like how the nonhumanoid mechs - Persephone and Hecate - both use some kind of external component: the Zero Point Reactor, and Whisperstone, respectively.)

glass flame
#

its absolutely wild to me that the Luna's art depicts a spectral catwolf thing, and there isnt a system that lets you have it as a drone. its super cool just a bit confusing.

vocal ridge
#

That's its damage trait. 😉

hexed narwhal
#

Ephemerals are great

vocal ridge
#

(Hence the whole digital-distortion kind of aesthetic - building off of the Legionspace avatar imagery from battlegroup.)

vocal ridge
glass flame
vocal ridge
#

To be fair, it's not entirely explicit.

glass flame
#

im just trying to absorb all the info for the mechs in the lcp, a new player is enamored with them and she wanted the all clear from me first.