In Golden Flame

[dense crescent]

@thorn hinge @pliant grail
Crimson Lioness and Howl tag team (or championship match) theme?
https://youtu.be/D9q7gbIfMLE

So tired from the miles I’m travelling
Getting lost somewhere that I haven't been
When all the bad shit starts happening
I ain't never throwing that towel in

There's a lion in the wardrobe and a wolf at the door
I might never get to Heaven, but I've been there before

[pliant grail]

Absolutely love that!

[round fjord]

So, I am having focus issues. I got through the worlds colonies, and stations. But, can someone who wishes to be kind describe the central tension for me? I'm only asking because I really am having a time with ye old mental health and getting through 2 pages a day is rough

[amber viper]

Central tension of the campaign? Or of the calliope system? Cause Calliope is a complex place with a fair few things pulling its people in different directions.

The campaign itself is a struggle against nihilism, and a story of hope that no matter how crap things are, it's worth fighting to make them better

[toxic stump]

I didn't even know that you could do blank tokens.

[shell bison]

Stron's right, the game is effectively you going against a series of terrible events happening but despite all of it you keep gettingback up. From nihilism, to a wanting to burning it all down. The strategic response team will fight and keep Calliope safe.

Even the book says

[round fjord]

Thank you both

[dense crescent]

yea I just, uploaded a blank png and used that

[polar glacier]

A lot of my maps I create tokens for anything big enough to provide cover, and actually put them into foundry as actors, deployables.That way they have HP, armor, and evasion for attack automation. The downside there is it becomes easy to accidentally select a rock and give it impared, or move a building across the map when you meant to grab a Cataphract. The first map (Snack run or Shoo the Vultures) I literally just had a space background and a bunch of space rock and debris tokens for cover

Some of my earlier maps, like Denial of Service, I just made a background image for and figured out terrain on the fly, but later maps have a lot more objects. That said, I'm way behind on uploading my most recent pieces...

[toxic stump]

Space background and space rocks is what I'm going for yeah. With the overlays from Interpoint for the Deployment zones and such.

For Denial of service I might start with a space background too but place some platforms, for the control zones notably.

Right now though, I'm trying to find the motivation to do a whole lot of deployable actors so I don't have to bother with that later.

[shell bison]

:)

[fast parrot]

...oh dear

[shell bison]

My Voladore Tradeswoman PC is both excited and terrfied knowing this info with her NHP daughter

[fast parrot]

lmao

[frail kayak]

I've been wanting to export my most recent map as well. Do you know another way to export terrain-tile maps from Foundry? I used DF architect before I upgraded to Foundry 10, but it doesn't work anymore

[fast parrot]

#909574961931362365 message

I wonder how one could build around the catastrophe beam...

I wanna say autocooler, heatfall but I can see this working with Sherman too

[tender seal]

I'm not sure what my player who got it has planned yet other than that they are "going to become the laserman" and that they're changing what licenses they're picking up to have a weapon mount that can fit it

I'm looking forward to finding out what they come up with, they had some weird builds in our last campaign

[fast parrot]

Somehow I feel like big laser and HA are likely but I could be proven wrong

[shell bison]

Sherman gaming

[dense urchin]

-- HA Sherman @ LL12 --
[ LICENSES ]
  HA Genghis 3, HA Sherman 3, HORUS Pegasus 3, IPS-N Caliban 2, IPS-N Tortuga 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Superior by Design, Stasis Shielding, The Lesson of Shaping, Overpower Caliber
[ TALENTS ]
  Siege Specialist 3, Brutal 3, Iconoclast 3, Nuclear Cavalier 2, Technophile 2, Grease Monkey 2
[ STATS ]
  HULL:6 AGI:0 SYS:2 ENGI:6
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:28 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:16 REPAIR:7
  TECH ATK:+1 LIMITED:+3
  SPD:3 EVA:7 EDEF:10 SENSE:10 SAVE:16
[ WEAPONS ]
  Integrated: ZF4 SOLIDCORE
  FLEX MOUNT: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun
  MAIN MOUNT: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING
  HEAVY MOUNT: Catastrophe Beam (Supermassive Mod) // Overpower Caliber
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Explosive Vents, Redundant Systems Upgrade x4, ASURA-Class NHP x4, SISYPHUS-Class NHP, Unstable NHP, Student-Class NHP, Armament Redundancy

i gave it a shot and its one of the most builds ever

[fast parrot]

Love me dsas

[dense urchin]

at one point i had paracausal mod on the beam but it was fucky and cost too many SP so i swapped to caliban and realized that DSAS would be funny

[fast parrot]

Give em:
The beam

[dense urchin]

Befuckener Beam

[thorn hinge]

Foundry has an "export scene" function, it generates a json that can be imported into a different foundry instance. I've been feeding vex maps for playtesting this way.

• right click the scene, select "Export Data"
• in the recipient foundry server, create a new empty scene, doesn't matter what name. Right click and select import data. You will probably have to upload the JSON to the foundry data folder before you can select it.
• And Here's the tricky bit: the json uses foundry data paths to all the images for tiles and backgrounds and such. You'll have to share the images and have the recipient put them in the exact same directories as the donor server. So if a tile uses an image at combatsim/objects/vehicle_forklift_sflip.400x320.png, then the recipient server will need that same image at the same spot. This is most easily done by taking care to put all your assets in a sorted folder that you can zip and send over with the json data.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I should totally do this for all the maps I've made, rather than just having the assets in a google drive and vague plans to write a guide on how I set them up...

Oh also obviously you gotta watch out for foundry version problems and makes sure any module you use that affect the scene are set up on both ends (wall height, isometric, enhanced terrain, etc)

[frail kayak]

Thank you!

[toxic stump]

Oh I have a question. Maybe it's because english's not my native language, maybe I'm just dumb. Is there a pun with Zinfandel's name?

[shell bison]

I don't think so? My players just noted their other name of Dejean and asked if their Drake was a ghastly yellow color like the mustard brand

[toxic stump]

I thought so because of the paragraph in their description
Folks out here often come up with names in a split second based on what they can see, so people tend to assume they either had a fun night in someone else’s cabin or got asked their name in a store that sold wine and trousers.

[wild flame]

zinfandel is a type of grape used for making wine

[toxic stump]

Speaking of brands, in my country Andros is mostly known as a brand of compote. So that'll probably lead to some jokes.

Oooh, I didn't know that.

[shell bison]

One of my players wants dinner with Howl.
Another is loathed by her thanks to rulling a 1 on the influncer bond power.

[toxic stump]

Why am I picturing a sitcom scenario where through a series of shenanigans player 2 has to go to the dinner pretending to be player 1?

[shell bison]

PFFFFFFFFFFFF

[shell bison]

So far highlights of the campaign I'm running have been

1. Players giving Switch pilot stress during the interview
2. The influencer bond user rolling a 1 on Everyone is a Fan on HOWL
3. NHP daughter of the party got a subaltern body (Signalis as a base)
4. The party growing a vendetta against seeders

[feral dust]

These dipshits have, respectively,

• faked the death of an imbedded UIB agent so well the group is believed at their every word by a benefactor - he will be sore when information will be released regardless, and been pivotal in training up the assorted militia with Zinfadel Dejean,
• browbeaten a Purview Sergeant so bad he thought he dealt with an actual Admiral on holiday at the Icebreaker, and who's disdain for civilian harm has become his defining trait,
• finally found herself and became the first person to topple Howl from her throne of chrome, coming out as a trans woman besides at the championship (would have happened regardless), to both their delights,
• helped save a rampant and cascading pair of NHPs from themselves, and while one of them may well be lost, they are in safe custody; also saved an accidentily decorped S1GN4L, has dreams of such themselves for entirely gay reasons.

[toxic stump]

I can't wait to do character creation and see what my players will make.

[polar glacier]

I love every single PC that gets made for IGF and I want to give every one of them a hug

[shell bison]

Sometimes those PCs want to hug back c:

[polar glacier]

And some are touch adverse and ya gotta respect that. But for the rest, hell yes hugging time.

Honestly, I'd offer a hug to any IGF GM or player I met in person at this point. This little micro community is so great. Y'all are lovely people.

[toxic stump]

Aaaah that's so swwet.

[round fjord]

i need to get through my autism hyperfocus on other things and actually finish reading IGF

[toxic stump]

You don't need to, but if you want to , know that you can take your time. :3

Do you already have a group that you plan to run the campaign with?

[shell bison]

I will send the bun mom to hug you if you request the huggin

[shell bison]

have any questions don't be afriad to ask. IGF groups tend to share a lot of our best work to make sure it enhances the experience.

[round fjord]

No but I have groups wrapping up campaigns. I'm also that kind of gm who will take scenarios, encounters, npcs and put them in homebrew campaigns

[obsidian onyx]

Super late to this but more or less all of them but if you'd recommend just ripping them from the book itself I can do that

[shell bison]

oh sure, send me a dm and I can spam some of them to you after I get back from the gym

[obsidian onyx]

Many thanks!

💙

[toxic stump]

X Files theme in the background

[toxic stump]

That could be a fun thing to do in Foundry, put a silhouette as a token in a background art and toggle it on and off from time to time.

[dusky cradle]

Yep, my group's gone man overboard with Jerry now

They eh, had embarked upon a personal quest regarding his weird selection of ties

Whether or not they'd actually WANT to leave the station to borealis had now been called into question

Oh and the Capella fight proved to be unusually... easy? Once you look past the high armor stats of his Pyro (they are spamming charged blade), the low HP inherent to Pyros made him quite easy to kill

[toxic stump]

Time to mix drinks and change lives.

[toxic stump]

That's not necessarily a bad thing though! Story spoiler: ||If you make the second fight against him difficult it will show that he learnt from his defeat and make the fight more memorable||

[simple moon]

god I fucking love IGF stories please keep them coming

[shell bison]

||My players want to find a way to get Rita and Jerry back together. Since I played it ass he broke up with her. ||

[dusky cradle]

The good ending

Meanwhile the Nelson-riding-Overcharge-addicted-ex-Albatross in my group made it explicitly clear that she's going to be Jerry's Knightress in shining armor

And she's willing to fight all contenders off just to achieve this

Her opening barrage was a ||vacuum preserved poppy flower taken from the terrarium on Tachyon||

[toxic stump]

Lancer's gameplay is composed of two phases: the mech combat phase and the dating sim phase.

[dire cloud]

Sometimes they happen simultaneously.

[shell bison]

that's so adorable

Jerry is the panic pancake of the game for me. One side you have him being this nervous wreck surviving on coffee and dreams and the other he provides orders through an authority unspoken of from a man of his build and statue. ||Almost like he used to be in a role like that.||

[toxic stump]

Also I didn't know knightress was a word. In french we don't have a feminine for knight despite our insistence on gendering everything.

[shell bison]

spanish is like that too.

[toxic stump]

Oh apparently chevaleresse exists for a female knight.

[dusky cradle]

Neither do I (had to actually look up a dictionary to differentiate between Knightress and Knightess)

[carmine isle]

I believe Knight is genderless in English actually

"Dame" exists for female knights, but is specifically the feminine form of the title, equivalent to "Sir"

"Knight" as in a personal of that occupation is unisex

[tender seal]

Is there a canon reason for the falling out between the Knights of the Dark Core and the Burning Forge? I'd swear I'd read one but I can't remember it and can't find it and was thinking maybe I saw it here. My next session is gonna be wrapping up Chapter 2 and I'm trying to get better prepped for stuff my players are likely to ask

I figure Elske and the Blacksmith are unlikely to tell them regardless of the answer, but deciding how they're gonna frame it if and when it gets brought up

[frail kayak]

I got the impression that it was something to do with the raid on the armory frigate, but I don't think it's spelled out anywhere

[dense crescent]

that was some 8 years ago, no?

[fallen geyser]

There is no canon reason

It's only revealed in-canon by a very specific interaction during Act 2, but they're on-again off-again lovers

So it could have something to do with that, but in my personal opinion it's more likely that a member of the Burning Forge broke the Code the Knights value so highly

And the Knights killed them

And the Blacksmith is very upset because - or so he claims - he would've delivered justice, but he wanted to do it his way.

[tender seal]

Ah, thanks a ton! That sounds roughly like what I was planning in lieu of a canon answer but like I said I'd sworn I'd read something somewhere about it, very likely chat here

[fallen geyser]

I do have a habit of like, putting tons of detail into my writing (possibly to excess)

But even I leave some details undisclosed

[tight pier]

we finished Spitting Distance last night

the Hive was hilarious, it stayed in hard cover and kept recharging and deploying its razor swarms every single round - it deployed five of them before finally dying

the players made a terrible tactical decision, they ended up having one single person run the Escort objective while everybody else (including their only Speed 5 mech) went a different route to engage the enemy head on

the Cataphracts ended up being incredibly oppressive for this reason, they were in an amazing position to knock people off the objective and would have singlehandedly won if the players failed even one hull save

they were able to salvage it through a great deal of luck, running the enemy through their reinforcements at the start of the sixth round - good for them

FINAL TALLY:

DOOM'S Working Girl
GMS Everest

-4 HP
-1 Structure
-1 Repair
-1x Pattern-B Hex Charge```

RIP VAN WINKLE's Journeyman
GMS Everest

-1 Structure
1 Overcharge, to 1d3
-1 Repair```

HERTZ's Never Meant To Know
GMS Chomolungma

2 Overcharges, to 1d6
-1x Turret Drone```

KATABASIS's Hand of God
GMS Denali

-2 HP
-1 Structure
2 Overcharges, to 1d6```

SOUNDWAVE's Faith in Rebellion
GMS Chomolungma

-1 Repair```

this fight gave me a new perspective on Cataphracts - players out of position get punished so bad its funny

[lunar panther]

i had to fill in for two players (hertz and doom) in alternating sessions and neatly fucked up hertz' plan 👍

[tight pier]

nah you did their plan fine its just that you were already out of position and couldnt really do much about that fact without spending 3 turns 180ing back to the rest of the group

[toxic stump]

Cataphracts are like demolishers, they don't always work, but when they do they're scary.

[toxic stump]

Oh our side, we'll be starting Pierce the Heavens next week. And then In Golden Flame! o/

[shell bison]

Wooo!

Good luck!

[carmine isle]

I have never seen a cataphract not work tbh

unless it was a grunt

[feral dust]

I'm curious how you'll string the two together, so feel free to share when you're through the intro of IGF!

[toxic stump]

It will be the same group (with maybe one addition) but not the same characters. But honestly I could see the two scenarios tie together, the crew of PTH fleeing to Hell's Gate to avoid retaliation, then spending a few years in Calliope before the beginning of IGF.

[feral dust]

Solid.

[toxic stump]

Slight PTH spoiler: ||And maybe a certain Karrakin Chevalier fled to Calliope too, preferring to be believed dead and cloned than facing disgrace.||

[wintry zephyr]

Anyone have helpful resources? Some sprites or maps?

[frail kayak]

Oh boy, do we! The two pinned messages have a google doc with links to tokens and maps, and Vex's tokens for each faction

[shell bison]

The sprites were invaluable in my campaigns battles so far

[carmine isle]

Anybody gotten use out of Gun Brother Ten?

[shell bison]

which was that one?

[carmine isle]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o4oFiWjNSiwz06KT4IiVYh-9ltk7v6WS/view?usp=sharing

custom token I made for the one Reserve that summons an NPC to help you out

it's in gm resources spreadsheet

[shell bison]

Yoink

Might use this for Hellfire leagues

[fallen geyser]

Oh holy shit that's amazing

Hey @vital kernel look what someone made inspired by that dope ass name you submitted

[vital kernel]

oh neat

[tight pier]

gun brother ten is so fun

its like that one Fallout perk

[vital kernel]

the power of just having a banger name pop into your head one day

[dense urchin]

got around to actually reading my copy and uh

[fallen geyser]

Curses

[dense crescent]

you can only see the fourth objective with two astral stigmata segments

[dense urchin]

the fourth door is personally punching steele yourself

[frail kayak]

Lol, I thought that the last bullet point was two objectives (which did seem a bit weird)

[shell bison]

whoops

well, can always release an update

[agile wraith]

[THIS OBJECTIVE REQUIRES AN IMPACT DYNAMICS GOLD™️ SUBSCRIPTION]

[fallen geyser]

Thanks I hate it

[dense urchin]

you telling me you wouldnt purchase an Impact Dynamics®️ Gold™️ subscription?

[fallen geyser]

I would not

[fast parrot]

wonder if impact dynamic has at least one weapon called "Dynamic Impact"

[carmine isle]

They better

[dense urchin]

rolls 1d20 for damage to dynamically determine what it impacts

[fast parrot]

that gives me a terrible idea for a pilot
"A retired arena champion who got sued into quitting because of their nelson "Dynamic Impact"

[carmine isle]

Impact Dynamics licenses coming to a store near you

[fast parrot]

they hadn't even heard of ID before the lawsuit

[thorn hinge]

It's only 8 manna a month and you get a cool checkmark out of it

[dense urchin]

an ID chassis is just an everest but every stat is slightly worse

[fast parrot]

it's an everest

but you can't mount a hmg

[dense urchin]

its flex is now a main and its main is now a double aux

[wild flame]

they could be giving them out free with boxes of cereal and I still wouldn't take those licenses

[carmine isle]

I don't actually know anything about Impact Dynamics, tbh, I haven't got to them in the book

They have a solid name tho

[agile wraith]

Impact Dynamic Gold™️ subscrptions ensure your Food Allotments™️ contains up to 60% less harmful chemicals

[tight pier]

8 MANNA A MONTH

[dense urchin]

would steele shill NFTs because he genuinely believes in them being useful or because he wants to scam the first kind of person

[pliant ibex]

He claims it's the latter but when he bought them it was the former

[dire cloud]

"The best part is, they're not fungible!" And he doesn't even know what "fungible" means.

[fast parrot]

unironically think it uses alien mushrooms somehow

[fallen geyser]

lmfao $40,000 a month for a bluecheck

[dense urchin]

someone on the muse asks if they can transfer their Impact Dynamics®️ Gold™️ subscription for a blue check here

[cloud reef]

Just had our first IGF combat! Five players so the RP+combat took about 4.5 hours.

||We decided to do the food run & barely eked out the negotiation with the Impact Plaza manager, finishing on a crit as our boombox teen connected with her over being a secret fan of one her rival DJs ("oh, Cerulean? Yeah I know them, they sampled some of my sigs for their last track").

I'm playing a happy-go-lucky space trucker named Noe who believes the best in everyone, so tried talking with the hellhound pirates. They wouldn't let us past without a fight, but at least we came to an agreement on following some rules of engagement where we wouldn't go for pilot kills.

We got the ship halfway across the map in the first round due to an excessive number of everests popping CP so they could leapfrog past each other + a lucky logic bomb (via the scrounger talent getting an equipment reserve) slowing almost the entire opfor out of the gate.

My build is a Chomolungma ("#10") piloted by a comp/con (going to evolve into an Orochi at LL2) while I fly around (attached to #10 via an Ahab tether line) jockying things while protected with a BT shield — so I was on top of their leader, Kanta, when she was taken down by a crit HMG. Noe was able to do some quick medical care and stabilize Kanta before she was killed from decompression. Looking forward to running into her again someday, there's some sweet story juice in having saved the life of an enemy.

(Jockeying after making that no-pilot-kills agreement may seem like taking advantage of the agreement, but they had that squad so that's basically the same thing.)

After Kanta went down, we were able to bust through the last of them with #10 peeling them off the ship over and over with the chomolungma invade. We got to the end mid-round 4. All the everests popped CPs and the opfor took 1 stress and 2 structure off of us (with two mechs at 1hp (our boombox teen's custom paint job did work), so basically 4 structure).||

[dense urchin]

CPJ never works until it works

[shell bison]

My players after this session
Session 12: It's So Unbelievably Over

[agile wraith]

followed by a torrential updraft of we're so unconceivably back, hopefully

[thorn hinge]

Sounds like you all had a blast, good to hear it! I gotta ask... Kanta. Was she the Veteran Cataphract? That NPC became a recurring character in my game and there's actually brand new plot threads attached to them that I dropped just now, in session twenty-three. Also, iirc there was someone else who did something similar with that same enemy! To quote a friend:

at this point I think the narrative concept of Calliope is pataphysically cursed

That's a lot of CP to drop in one fight, so if your team's worried about that biting them later (especially if you're running low on repairs, stress, structure), consider suggesting they ask your GM about a mid-mission Power at a Cost to get a recharge.

[cloud reef]

Oh wow! Yes, she was the cataphract. I'm playing this blind and our gm had character art for her, so I assumed that she was supposed to be a significant npc from the module. Funny that separate groups evolved her into a larger character organically. I think the "life is hard but lives are valued" optimistic culture of calliope that the book sets up makes it fertile ground for humanizing opponents.

Re: cps, thanks, I always forget that's an option. 🙂

[thorn hinge]

This campaign has a staggering number of these "canon events", odd coincidences between campaigns, things that just keep happening even though they aren't in the book. Looks like that Cataphract is another one, and the fact that your GM planned for it is somehow even better.

Also, one of my PCs also landed a Custom Paint Job roll in that same first fight. I remember Vex called bullshit because "CPS never works".

[dense urchin]

||everything is TRIPLE-POINT thinking really hard||

[thorn hinge]

While I'm here and talking about my PCs...

If anybody has used or encountered these NPCs I would love to hear about it, and how it happened, no matter how uneventful or mundane the encounter.

Calamity Havok: Major NPC, Hell's Gate, page 73
Kraken: Minor NPC, Hell's Gate, page 74
Gabriel Sparrow: Major NPC, Icebreaker Borealis, page 115
Pear "Dust" Bradford, Minor NPC, Furnace City, page 160

My players all backed the kickstarter at a tier that got them in the book as NPCs, and I want even the smallest scraps of how they've been used in other games. For GMs: ||Specifically, in chapter 4, I plan to run my players through the timelines where they're NPCs, rather than just Hell's Gate militia members. I want to play out the events of other people's games in my game. The players will experience the timelines of your games, where your players are the SRT and they're just NPCs. I would be extra appreciative if anybody decided to bring one of the NPCs into your game specifically to give me something here, lmao.||

Also, if any GMs or even players want ideas for how to use them, hit me up.

[feral dust]

For our game, Calamity Havok was key in getting most engineering post-printing done, she and the Lernea System are partners-in-crime with regards to their retooling efforts. She also got most of their Player-2 interface components going, so she was almost single-handedly responsible for the digital polycule to be as deep as it has become.
Gabriel Sparrow is well-connected to know, get in touch with sources of exotic frames: through him and some moving of funds, winnings from Aurora Ashley and Freya Croft, Freya got to learn of Ishihara Yaeko, who in turn is connected to the digital SCENE and their art pieces/chassis codes. He also got Aurora in touch with an aging Sparri warrior that saw in her a suitable successor for his Atlas.

[fallow widget]

I've been having my players write vignettes to start off the occasional session with and I was wanting to share them here!

[frail kayak]

I've probably mentioned it before, but I made the cataphract be a significant NPC from a future chapter ||It was Grandmistress Elske||

[frail kayak]

I just introudeced Gabriel and Calamity last session! However, that might not be that useful to you, because ||all they did was volunteer for the SRT in Vorsehungsmotor||. I fully intend to have them turn up in the future, so I'll keep you posted.

[fallen geyser]

Oh heck Olive I didn't realise you were playing IGF! 🤩

[cloud reef]

Yeah we just started, but I've been wanting to for forever! The premise of the comedy of errors resulting in calliope being established has been living rent-free in my head ever since I first read it.

[fallen geyser]

You have no idea how much that means to me omfg

[regal forum]

In our session 0 one of my players (who has a background as a former moonlighter) had a run in with Calamity Havok. That pc's background is a secret so while he didn't confide in Calamity, he did have some sympathy for her situation (I.E. being the subject of a lot of suspicion and surveillance). We established in that little vignette that some of the other militia members have been harassing Calamity, and her presence on the station has been a pr nightmare for Jerry, so I think we'll be seeing more of her in the near future, along with more conflicts between the pc and npc militia members.

One of my other players was conscripted in a manipulative way by some as yet unnamed militia members. All of this shady militia behavior may end up playing into the perception by some of the more anarchist groups on the station that the militia are over-funded and are in actuality a police force. It's going to be a tricky topic to grapple with but I'll have to see how the PCs a.k.a. team iCrab (It Could Really Always Be Worse) deal with the tensions.

Edit: Kraken's name has also come up bc one of the other players is a sigdiver/ headphones kid. They've mostly interacted with their rival Cerulean Enceladus but I'm sure Kraken will be making an appearance as well.

[frosty crown]

My OC is Boombox, who is similar to Kraken in many ways. The fact that we arrived at the same genre of character independently makes me imagine there's a youth subculture on Hell's Gate that thrives on sigdiving, noise, and a lil lighthearted chaos. In the session, Boombox hinted that Kraken is the underground sensation DJ Spinderella, but my headcanon is that it's more of a collective, all these kids uploading and remixing each other's music via some kind of Muse GitHub and the most upvoted version is the official Spinderella release lol

And that's the Spindergarten 😎👉👉

[shell bison]

Calamity so far does get a lot of former moon and sunlighter people to vibe with her. In my game a lot of people keep their distance but her friendship with a player PC has let her feel some kind of ease on the tension. Plus giving her so many chances to prove her worth as a potential custom frame mechinized specalist (Esentially the parties go to gal to getting exotic gear added to their mechs) has proven to ease her perception on most folk. Plus, my party ADORES giving former hell hounds a chance at a new life, much to Jerry's dismay. Jerry offers an ultimatum to all of them.

Pay your debt to society. No arms. No special treatment. Put in work. You get a bed. Food. Drink. Clothes. Everything else is up to you.

so far my PC Metzli has a little group of Calamity, A cataphract pilot named Carl, Former Demolisher named Bison, Former Engineer pilot named Print F and a really chill berzerker pilot named Advice Dog.

The group of former pirates have been dubbed, THE DOGS

[feral dust]

Good dogs.

[dense urchin]

my group might do IGF after we finish solstice rain and i plan on playing an emperor, whats the funniest way an experimental SSC chassis built out of sapient rights violations would get into calliope since i dont really have an idea myself

[feral dust]

It being operated by a horse-sized moth person.

[shell bison]

Player appreciation post. I can't.

[fast parrot]

bunzi is funzi

[shell bison]

I literally threatened them with a rival group that mirrors them and they are hyped to either slaughter them or make them allies. My players are a delight to dm for.

[thorn hinge]

I am LOVING all these stories!

Normally I've been passing stories of these characters in other games on to the players, but I'm holding back for now... I can't wait to surprise them with all of this.

[feral dust]

are you

are you using them for Vorsehungsmotor?

[thorn hinge]

Yes

[fallen geyser]

Along with what @feral dust was saying, I've seen other people talk about putting Egregorians in their IGF game

And as much as my opinion on the subject matters to other peoples' games, my only advisory on Egregorians in Calliope is "Calliopean response to the existence of sentient aliens is massively understated"

Rest of the universe: Holy shit, not only does sentient alien life exist, SecComm tried to murder it! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

Calliope: Oh, you're an alien? Cool. Can you fix this power distributor?

[dire cloud]

Yeah, "you're a giant bug" is likely to be treated the same as "you're gay" or "you're a Zoroastrian".

Most Calliopeans feel that life is too hard, and cooperation too important, to engage in bigotry.

[fallen geyser]

Also "giant sentient bugs that can do telepathy" probably isn't even the weirdest thing a Calliopean has going on

I mean just take the Hatechurch of the UnJuStroNo

A cult dedicated to hating the Unknown Junior Astronomer who accidentally labelled C4L-P313 as "/GW2"

[heady vale]

Is there a page that has a list of all content warnings and subject warnings in In Golden Flame?

[warped ibex]

there's a blurb about that on page 9 of the book!

[heady vale]

Thanks yall!

[shell bison]

Video title:

Why you should cook Vent Crabs in Calliope

[frosty crown]

Our entire party had a delicious plate of vent crab-see-ew and brought a plate back to Calamity 🤌

[shell bison]

Niiiiice

[oblique berry]

Bricky my beloved

[shell bison]

counter

[agile wraith]

mission 5 spoilers: ||everything is ready to go for tomorrow's bout against the system's least killable man||

[amber viper]

That is one big fella

[night zealot]

just a question, it's very probably too soon to ask but I'll try my luck anyway: any estimation, even a rough one, to when Golden Flame 2 Flame Harder might come out

[fallen geyser]

Uhhhhh not really

I want to get the Kickstarter out on the same timescale as the last one

But I don't know if that's going to happen realistically

[heady vale]

Honestly yea thats fair

Out of curiosity, what was the timescale for the first one :0

I feel like i blinked and suddenly it was here

[shell bison]

recent player vs gm conflict

[agile wraith]

chapter 5 progress: ||our Iskander went toe-to-toe with the elite cataphract in Silence the Guns, and lost. mech destruction on the first combat||

||in a way they did hand over the objective win though so that 8 repair wasnt blown for nothing||

[austere prism]

@fallen geyser speaking of the act 2 kickstarter, any chance of having official maps as a stretch goal?

[fallen geyser]

I'd need to find someone to make them

And as Kai Tave and Ralf can testify, that shit gets expensive

[vital kernel]

yeah maps are a money sink if you want them to be halfway attractive

I would say they probably double the art budget of the massif modules all by themselves

[rugged crow]

part of me wonders if a "blueprint-style" map wouldn't be out of place in IGF, like "this is a blueprint of the space station you're fighting in" sort of thing

like, as a strategy for low-cost maps

[vital kernel]

yeah lower "resolution" maps are an option, or something in the vein of the sitrep blocking diagrams in the corebook, but I would expect that to simply lower the cost but not necessarily mitigate it

[rugged crow]

absolutely, maps would still be made so creators would still need paid

[vital kernel]

the most cost efficient method is making them yourself which, well

I know for a fact that I could not do this in a way that people would be satisfied with

you're trading monetary costs for time, labor, and possibly having to learn several additional skills

[austere prism]

I mean I would very much like something like the block diagrams at the very least because I'm rubbish at getting an initial layout down

[regal forum]

Have you seen the pinned community resources? They're super helpful.

[austere prism]

they are

like, I am not incapable of making my own maps. I made maps (bad ones) for most of wallflower.

however, I feel like "official" maps, even rough block schematics, would help my prep immensely

[carmine isle]

I am both not an artist and not very good at map design, so at the least a general sketch of where the walls and the enemies go would be magnifique

[amber viper]

I've found vex's tips and descriptions through act 1 a good jumping off point for making my own maps, but it's been real interesting seeing how differently other GMs did their own.

[shell bison]

Session went well c:

[fast parrot]

Didja have a session before called "it's so over"

[shell bison]

Yes

[fast parrot]

lol

[lunar panther]

session 5 went well :)
gave our players a break after spitting distance and gave them each ~10 minute vignettes around the station, either with their partners, nhps, or a priest from the Faith that maaay have told one of our players something he shouldn't have

then we loaded em up onto the Tooth to introduce them to Siren, prompt them about beat 5, and sent them off on a test flight. technically it's not flight-ready yet, but since they're only a few hours away it should be fine, right? ...right?

so very excited to introduce them all to S1GN4L

[heady topaz]

Welp, I'm gonna be running In Golden Flame wish me luck!

[dense urchin]

[heady topaz]

Am hype for my group to delve into this module's insanity

[shell bison]

Let us know if you need any help in planning!

[heady topaz]

Hell yeah

I have the Session 0 planned for next week, so I got a week to plan it out

[shell bison]

Let me know if you need any cards or materials for NPC's

[heady topaz]

I will happily accept any materials yall want to send my way

[cloud reef]

rolling on tables for character scene vignettes during travel was a lot of fun, I loved that little addition

[thorn hinge]

Check the pins for a google doc where people can link assets they want to share. Mine are mostly updated. I still need to write a guide to how I set up my chapter 2 maps.

[quaint pebble]

we've been taking an extended break but I'll have more maps for it eventually

[frail kayak]

are yours made in Dungeondraft? They look really good

[quaint pebble]

Yeah, and thanks

[shell bison]

https://youtu.be/ozLHPsAkphQ?si=utVdtGOx5XepFWtv

I am so ready to drop this into the music bot once the prodigal son shows up

[quaint pebble]

she gold 'en my flame til i'm in?

[agile wraith]

She flame on my plume til I'm golden?

[dense urchin]

she plume on my golden till i flame

[feral dust]

https://tenor.com/view/agt-americas-got-talent-stop-buzzer-no-gif-4434972

[teal belfry]

she pluming on my flame til I golden

[feral dust]

https://tenor.com/view/golden-buzzer-alesha-dixon-britains-got-talent-click-press-gif-25775233

[fast parrot]

She Mislabel my world until I calliope

[agile wraith]

She Impact my Dynamics til I

[pliant ibex]

She Dragon Tooth on my Hell's Gate til I siren

[dense urchin]

perfect

[meager vine]

is there a setting primer anyone on calliope has put together that I can share with my players?

or I guess maybe a better question, what info is useful to share with them about calliope and hells gate? I don't wanna overload them with info but I wanna give enough to inform their character creation

[lunar panther]

the first few pages of the doc are good

we sent our players up to pg49

cut out a few things though! they do contain spoilers

[toxic stump]

Big spoilers? Because I might have shared it already.

[quaint pebble]

The first section of the book doesn't contain major spoilers and even has a page saying "ok players stop reading beyond this point"

it has such spoilers as "this apocalypse cult will likely clash with you because they want to destroy the universe" which is a core part of the premise I would usually mention in a setting 0 as a safety element anyway because it involves a cult

[toxic stump]

I guess the table of contents can kinda spoil.

[feral dust]

Yeah but you generally don't hand out a (full, unabridged) table or contents.

[toxic stump]

I did xD

I don't think it's a really big deal though.

[dire cloud]

If they show signs of having read ahead with the table of contents, tick up their Astral Stigmata clock.

[feral dust]

Or, you know

remix it up.

What are they gonna do, complain things are different?

[shell bison]

I did a slide show of just some thing to hook people in. Simple culture info is usually enough to get people interested. The fact the game encourages to make some that failed there was here helps make some very borderlands style characters

[feral dust]

The art makes some nice splash pages too.

[fallen geyser]

As much as I hate re-releases

One of my plans is to at some point make a Definitive Edition

(Which will be distributed for free to all people who've already purchased a copy)

Which has more art

Mission 3 is devoid of art in some places it really should have it

[heady topaz]

https://tenor.com/view/awesome-youreawesome-eyebrows-gif-8443531921667334088

[feral dust]

Christ the Buddha, that's extra.

Genuinely, thank you. But let's first get those second and third acts Kickstarted.

[amber viper]

Steele Dome Steel Dome Steele Dome

[frail kayak]

just the wastes in general are such an opportunity

like, the concept art from zhjake got me really excited for asphodel as an environment

[fallen geyser]

I can't wait to show you guys the art for the Orcus habitats

[night zealot]

gimme a full physical release for when all the acts are complete

SHIP ME A ZINE, VEX

[fallen geyser]

I do not think there will be a physical release

It is impossibly awkward to do stuff like that

[night zealot]

oh I know I'm only joking

though I think I might legit pay for a web-only fanzine of IGF

[fallen geyser]

Sorry, gotta go, think I might beh aving a panic attack

[night zealot]

take care of yourself

feel better soon

[fallen geyser]

I feel a little bit better

I think it's just the insane heat

[thorn hinge]

When I'm done with my homestuck zine obligation and at least one other project I actually intend to organize this. Something like "stories from calliope" maybe, different timelines from different gms

[night zealot]

homestuck gets us all, in the end

[feral dust]

Man, this heat really hits different this year, and I don't like it either.

[woeful beacon]

Homestuck

Well now I feel ancient.

[dire cloud]

Yeah, I am ancient.

[heady vale]

Thinking of running in Golden flame in a version of the universe where wallflower happened a little bit ago already

I plan to introduce new NPC's relating to every one of my player characters and add a mini Arc that rewards exotic gear instead of a level, in between every major arc

I really wanna give the party a chance to get even her invested into the planet while also fleshing out the events of their own life and how those reflect onto the plot

[shell bison]

Just give Calliope one ||eggy|| and just everyone is like, "Oh sick"

[shrewd sorrel]

In a version of Calliope where there is, Striga somehow still the strangest creature in the system

[frail kayak]

I mentioned this before in one of these threads, but I am doing the "Wallflower happened earlier" thing. So far, it's mostly just a thing going on in the background and hasn't had a major influence on the story, but Brava is the Hell's Gate militia's infantry captain, and
||there are some egregorians are hiding out from SSC on the station. Coincidentally, Striga is obsessed with finding a cryptid she calls Featherfoot, which is a giant insect sometimes spotted in the unused sectors|| Two of my player characters were Far Field Team members in the seccom-era and have Hercynia-related trauma, so I'm planning ||to reveal that the egregorians aren't extinct|| at some point. (if the group decides they are okay with Wallflower spoilers)

[dense crescent]

IIRC that's the "canon" thing
if an ||egregorian|| showed up in Calliope they'd just be like "cool, can you fix an air filter?"

"it's not even the tenth strangest thing a calliopean has going on"

[fast parrot]

Ngl I'm p sure they'd just give them a new odd name and see if they can actually stomach vent crab

[dense urchin]

reminds me of a character idea i had in the shower once: ||egregorian|| smuggled into one of the old maint passages cubbyers used remotely piloting a subaltern and pretending to be a deimosian assistant

[fallow widget]

Oh man, did the chapter 2 maps dissapear from the pinned post?

[fallen geyser]

Canon event

[fallow widget]

Anyone happen to save that Ferris wheel png ada had up a while ago?

[dusky cradle]

Finally, my group pushed to the first Borealis fight!

Ah, just a tiny feedback: the "Film-Noir" phase right before that are supposed to be presented in ||two sections, one section for each team, right?|| However since the incident history are all given from the get-go, my players kinda had a brainfart and mixed them together...

Still, watching them coming up with solutions to crime cases that you yourself had never intended was pretty neat

||Originally, I planned for Tarben to be simply shot by an optically-camoflaged cult assassin, and for some reason gave some pretty eldritch-horror-esque descriptions regarding being observed, monitored and studied in his diary. Turns out they were quite fascinated by the diary and had massively blown the threat out of proportion||

||They had summised that the cult was somehow able to induce horrifying hallucinations in people's minds, had already connected the dots between Taychon and the "flame-cult", then set off to find Tarben's parish-priest, naturally I let them, then gave Anthony-Callahan-the-now-retired-marine-and-priest some similarly skittish vibes, and gave an off-handed comment on how some believers install additional implants in eyes to visualize complex religious patterns and internal inspections||

||Ergo, one of the players suddenly had a revelation about cult-enforcers hacking the eye implants, co-operating with a psychologist they had met before to terrorize Tarben, using optical camo and hallucinations to disguise themselves in Tarben's eyes as Callahan then shooting him, afterwards the cult will naturally come to grab Callahan sooner or later, thus a big shootout with the now suddenly materialized assassin to grab Callahan, followed by Callahan squealing about the train-yard, then the mech fight||

It looked like they had fun, little did they know the entire narrative is crafted by themselves

Also I need to stuff Siren back into the narrative somehow, detective films ain't no place for a starship!

[fallow widget]

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkPJR0F6kbyFhOYgxoYcMESRqTlbCg?e=fzaZbi
Some fantasy themed tokens for Fairyland

Quick update: This is the Hive

[shell bison]

Oh that hive is so good

Consider these as well if you want options!

[warped ibex]

unsure if you need it still, but i have it on hand from when i ran it recently!

[fallow widget]

Thanks so much!

[agile wraith]

aaand just finished IGF act 1

loved it, players loved it, it's good

vex you've done fantastic work here

taking a break before i start pawing through the next bits

[thorn hinge]

Congrats!

[reef ore]

Does the Revert ability on the Parallel activate when targeted by Eject Power Cores? Which happens first?

[thorn hinge]

Eject Power Cores is an Invasion option. It requires a successful tech attack.

Revert triggers when the attack is made, and interrupts the effects of the attack. Eject power cores would affect the echo that's left behind, and that echo would be instantly destroyed by the heat inflicted by any invasion.

You'd still cause the 2 energy damage to characters adjacent to the parallel when you start the action (adjacent to the echo left behind), but you won't inflict Jammed on the paralell.

[heady vale]

||I was thinking of implying a small local tribe/community of them exist somewhere in calliope, but like they'd meet 1 or 2 max||

[shell bison]

||Maybe on Asphodel? ||

[polar glacier]

If there's anywhere a group of them could live in calliope, it's there. Everything needs hardened environmental gear on asphodel. And if someone sees the ||horse sized fluffybois|| you could write the suits off as a industrial mech or subaltern frame.

[dense urchin]

or the standard answer of "not even the tenth weirdest thing a calliopean has going on"

[heady vale]

||Wait i forget, Do they have a different atmosphere they breath???||

[dense urchin]

||presumably not to a significant extent, humans can breathe just fine on hercynia||

[heady vale]

||Okay yea thats what i thought||

[warped ibex]

i decided to uh. get a bit silly with the [ERROR] fight.
i'm not entirely sure if i'll use this, but i feel its worth sharing with the world anyways. essentially, [ERROR] does not take damage or Heat, but scanning it gives my players a clue to look for a specific thing out of character - in this case, i'm running with an idea i admittedly stole from this discord by @/prudentia350: there's a new user on the foundry, scanning it gives you the password.
after getting the password, the user has access to Patches sheet, and only Patches. once they notice it i'll give everyone access to Patches for the rest of the fight

ftr, Patches is a rubber duck purely because of the trend of programmers having rubber ducks they talk to when working to help them sort out errors in code

i thought it'd be cute to give my players a little rubber duck they can use to sort out the glitch in reality that is [ERROR]

[polar glacier]

that is equal parts hilarious and terrifying. I love it.

[dawn field]

Been a bit behind on games due to people going on long vacation, but my games finally running again!

[feral dust]

Can't wait to get started on the final assault in Act 1 this Sunday.

Probably gonna be a two session thing, but hell yeag.

[frail kayak]

that sounds very exciting!

[shell bison]

Man, we had some delays thanks to family obligations and myself getting sick. But this friday we send in the clowns >:)

[night zealot]

I'm sorry but you said ||horse sized fluffyboys|| and all I could think about was

[feral dust]

That's a squishy boy.

Obviously.

[shell bison]

Loki Card, made and ready for your usage in that one fight

[heady topaz]

Nice

[austere prism]

@polar glacier heyo, quick question regarding the isometric maps you posted: How does one get the grid projection to line up with the map? It currently looks like this for me, which is obviously wrong:

[thorn hinge]

First of all, that map just... doesn't quite line up in any case. Fallout uses a weird angle that's not true isometric. I just kinda... went with it and tried to not let it bother me much (It still bothers me a lot)

Second, you seem to be suffering from the same bug I just started encountering with the isometric mod recently. The grid's at a really weird angle. I just reinstalled the module and I'm still having the problem, so I'm going to go talk with Grape Juice about it. If you put tokens on the grid you'll probably see them standing sideways like I do.

[austere prism]

Yeah, I saw the same thing happening

[thorn hinge]

I just did some testing and it's an interaction with the "Lock View" module on my end. Even if it's not turned on for the scene, if the module is active this happens to iso scenes. That... sucks. Time to go poke whoever manages that mod.

[thorn hinge]

hex columns grid mode and set the iso mode to dimetric and you'll be closer to the grid than when I ran it.

[thorn hinge]

@austere prism sorry for the constant pinging.
I filed a bug report with lock view. For now, you can install the last version of the module that worked with iso (1.5.5). Uninstall lock view in foundry, and use this manifest file to install the old one: https://github.com/CDeenen/LockView/releases/download/v1.5.5/module.json

[austere prism]

Nah, it's cool, I asked for help and this is good help

I'll try that out tomorrow; gotta go be unconscious for a bit

[thorn hinge]

mood

[heady vale]

Calling my modified version "From Silver Tongues, In Golden Flames"

:3

This modified version takes place in a version of Lancer where
• the events of wallflower happened 100-200 realtime years ago, and the lore implications and ripples of that have occurred throughout the Galaxy
• an experimental form of faster than light travel being tested and used at "short-range" distances (within the same area within a ring, up to twice the distance of Sol to Alpha Centuri) that is about 1.425LS (vs. Near light's 0.95)
• new smaller arcs, NPCs, and organizations are being added, specifically to tie in to every player character (which will come with exotic equipment rewards), between each major arc

We're at the character creation process and im so excited

[night zealot]

I found BARTENDER_MOTHERFUCKER

https://twitter.com/makitagenia/status/1704823312302616978?s=20

牧田ゲニア (@makitagenia)

ドリンク・バニー
Beverage Station Mech.
#mecha

Twitter · Sep 21, 2023, 11:42 AM

[shell bison]

His face

[night zealot]

How much would it take to licence the rights to that from the artist like what Valve did with the illustrator who drew the TF2 announcer to make that her canon depiction

Cause I would throw money into that pot

[heady vale]

Is orcus a gas giant, or a absolutely volatile rock world?

[polar glacier]

There's a rock surface somewhere down there but it's so violently hazardous that it might as well be a tiny gas giant.

[heady vale]

Okay, got it

Venus kinda shit

Next question

The book mentions the rain on asphodel is acidic, but its mostly covered in water

Is it just, acidic PH water, or is it a chemical acid, that rains from its skies?

Its an important distinction

[heady vale]

Also, does anyone live on the moons of asphodel? Are they terraformed? Do they have anything on them?

[heady topaz]

Welp, one of my players for my upcoming campaign has ducks as part of his living quarters due to small livestock needs and also when he was an active Albatross he kept them aboard the ship so he wasn't just constricted to printloaf all the time. I love that my players are coming up with zany shit.

sry if I butted in just wanted to share this

[polar glacier]

The book states that Asphodel has as much water as cradle, which is pretty significant, so I'm all but certain it's acidic water. There's no information I know of for Orpheus and Euridice, which is enough to assume they're barren rock. Vex noted every place that has people on it, even if they don't all come up in Act 1. I could be wrong, of course.

[polar glacier]

that's awesome and weird, I love it. What do the ducks eat, and more importantly... who wins in a fight between the ducks and a vent crab?

[heady topaz]

The duck

Because ducks are terrifying

at least he didn't bring a Canadian Goose aboard or those vent crabs would be bloody toast

[polar glacier]

Ducks get a taste for vent crab, now the station has a duck infestation too

[heady topaz]

I mean... part of the plan is feeding them duck weed and vent crabs. Humans might not like vent crab(unless prepared right), but ducks would destroy them

I also asked my players what they all collectively did to brick the printer. The result of their shenanigans is a giant realistic dong made of onyx that looks like it telefragged a IPSN mech, also it has the autobiography of a House Of Glass knight with horrific typos due to AI writing it(the knight is one of the PCs) that is engraved in copper wiring.

God i love my party

[feral dust]

Sounds like either the best or worst frat house joke.

[heady topaz]

One of them made the dong because "hehe funny", another tried to print their mech(they got hacked by a Horus cell), the other tried priting his WIP autobio, and the last accidentally stored his "recycled" copper wiring in the feed system whilst also stripping wires on the other side of Hell's Gate, and somehow caused a power surge which glitched everything together.

My party is a merc, an Albatros, a House Of GLass Knight, and a doomsday prepper.

[warped ibex]

a doomsday prepper, huh? by any chance are they related to the Circuit?

[feral dust]

I remember asking my players "So why do you think Chief MacArthur thinks you bricked the printer?" and got, in order, that

• Liar absolutely was nowhere near the printer, but her mech was printed last,
• Admiral might have gotten faulty print codes sent her way from his old, very dead, clone progenitor,
• Overlord (at the time) trying to fix the printer,
• with Lernea, and failing, spectacularly, probably right before or during the printing of the last mech.

[heady topaz]

Surprisingly not

He's just a kooky old man who's convinced the end is coming

the only person who he composes himself around to have normal discussions with is the noodle shop lady that makes ventcrab taste good

[warped ibex]

ahh i see. still, finding out more about the Circuit will be interesting with a doomsday prepper around, i'm sure

[heady vale]

Yea, did some quick searching, and acidic water rain is usually around PH 4-5, whereas clean rain is usually PH 5.5-6

Working in a little 2d map of the system

For my own useage

When its done tho, ill take a scan/photo and add it to resources!

It'll also include all the major population hubs

[toxic stump]

It's frustrating to still be at the "Haven't done character creation yet we're just exchanging memes about femboy mech pilots" phase of In Golden Flame.

[thorn hinge]

That sounds a lot like the early stages of character creation to me

[shell bison]

Tonight's the night.
I got that loki art ready and the peak "Go White Boy Go" Energy

[night zealot]

https://youtu.be/QtTR-_Klcq8?si=xsmsN4cRtjIJiAX8

[shell bison]

wheeze

[heady topaz]

Look, Offspring may be peak "Go White Boy Go" energy, but god do I unironically love them. Probably because I grew up listening to Dad Rock bands like Billy Talent

[rugged crow]

Billy Talent is dad rock now? I’m too old

[heady topaz]

I was born in 2001, so yes it's very much Dad Rock to me

[rugged crow]

their first full length album came out 2 years after you were born though

[simple moon]

I hate to admit it but if it was on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 or 2 soundtrack, it probably qualifies as Dad Rock these days

[polar glacier]

oh god

[polar glacier]

okay but look, Dividing By Zero/Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell is eternally a perfect LANCER anthem

[heady topaz]

Oh 100% I love that song

[heady topaz]

Oh hey I grew up with those games!

I had Pro Skater 4 and American Wasteland

[simple moon]

you kids will never appreciate having to ask your friends where the K in SKATE was in real life because you couldn't find the damn thing and the alternative was buying a physical strategy guide shakes fist

[polar glacier]

taking turns at a friend's house passing the dualshock back and forth.

[fallen geyser]

SILENCE

😭

[heady topaz]

Hey I'm old enough to remember when games, like the good ol' PS1, had actual game manuals with lore and interesting tidbits of info.

I'm doing this to make you all feel OLD

[dense urchin]

hey guess what

all my pc games are digital now

[tight pier]

man

[heady topaz]

same

[tight pier]

the good old days sure were good

[shell bison]

How is Tony Hawk pro skater dad rock tho? Huuuuh?

[abstract arrow]

I can one up you: "Son, get off the computer, I need to call your mother."

[heady topaz]

That's a tad bit before my time

close tho

[polar glacier]

14.4khz modem using a parallelSCSI port to connect to my apple LC.

[abstract arrow]

👌

[feral dust]

Crazy Taxi/All I Want will probably also going to fit with more of that Offspring soundtrack.

[shell bison]

https://youtu.be/x6rwopDaXvo?si=pmfmU7cCQcXk6SCC

I got it lined up

[night zealot]

https://youtu.be/A_DScC6HQsM?si=iOIJeQ2SYo0-4f_E

[shell bison]

Session 14 went great :)

[dense urchin]

how much did the white boy go

[shell bison]

Overcharged, rolled a 6

[feral dust]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1074477301623955547/1136433809051627591/e908a6cc7140254967d8b334344890721.png

[shell bison]

wheezer one might say :)

[fast parrot]

That white boy went, and now he's gone

[oblique berry]

did flax seriously name their character kris cross

[amber viper]

It's a Canon event

[shell bison]

Yes

[austere prism]

okay, this isometric map stuff is cool

(a testing map I made for thermopylae)

[tight pier]

denial of service

[tight pier]

they're still fighting over the demo...

its round 6.... if they dont clear the point they're fucked

[thorn hinge]

So, did they make it?

[tight pier]

no

they tied

[rugged crow]

ah, then I amend my reaction to just be

[tight pier]

they got what they needed and ||kicked the pirates off of the station|| but ||signal is still alive and they cant get anything else useful out of the station||

[thorn hinge]

Oh good, that means S1GN4L is good to come back some time, which is the worst possible result >:D

||for the players||

[lunar panther]

i'm really bad at coming up with custom content

i hope i can come up with something for him

anyway I'm doing something

[tight pier]

DAMAGE TOTAL - DENIAL OF SERVICE:

Katabasis's Hand of God [GMS Denali]

-1 Stress, to 3/4
-1 Repair, to 3/5
2 Overcharges, from 1d6 to 1d6+4

Mission-Kills:
"Hazard" - Engineer
"Crayon" - Seeder

Hertz's Never Meant to Know [GMS Chomolungma]

-1 Structure, to 3/4
-6 HP, to 6/12
-1x Turret Drone, to 1 of 3

Mission-Kills:
Grunt Hornet x1

Soundwave's Faith in Rebellion [GMS Everest]

Unscathed

Mission-Kills:
Grunt Hornet x1

Result:
||Control Tie (10-10) Both sides forced to pull back S1GN4L escapes unharmed Salvage candidate discovered via listening post Listening post destroyed due to collateral damage||

[lunar panther]

here is a little webtoy for muse chatter! it can take json files with scripts and play them back as if it were a real muse conversation. there's weird CSRF stuff wrt loading files, so it's recommended to host this somewhere if you want to use this yourself. python can run a web server with python -m http.server!

demo of the big chatlog on pg 91 of act 1

@thorn hinge athena says you would be interested

i still have to make a powerpoint mode where you click through messages manually, but this does at least work

[thorn hinge]

I am! Have you shared the script anywhere?

[lunar panther]

i had the zip up, but realized i messed up the message timing, lol

i'll work on it a bit more then send it

it'll be hosted on my site too, but i hope it's understandable why i wouldn't post the link in a 30k member server >_>

[heady vale]

So I want to make sure I'm following right

It is intended that no one take "hack or fix" in In Golden Flame

Instead taking "Jury Rig", "Hack or Finesse" and/or "Repair and Mantain"

Correct?

[lunar panther]

yep! it's been split into those three

[heady vale]

Perfect!

Thought so, just wanted to give players correct info

I actually think the split and additions are all such good changes/add ons

[lunar panther]

alright, the muse chatter thing has been improved! now has sound and a very simple command line (act 1, pg 232)

and a redux of pg 91, along with the email on pg 90 for good measure

[lunar panther]

here, now I'm happy with it :)

3 examples straight from the book and a test file should get you on your way

(sorry I keep finding tiny things!!)

no powerpoint mode, but i think it's fine without it tbh.

[wild flame]

oh this is awesome

[heady vale]

question

okay, based on hells gate having a population of like, 1.5 million to 2.0 million (1.5 permanant, 500k not)

i assume its gotta have like, a lot of city ammenities

stores, shopping areas, resturants,

like yea its falling apart and isnt perfect but

theres mentions of convience stores, so i imagine living in hells gate is like living in a city in that regard, its not JUST a base

[heady topaz]

Well, here's my party's mechs so far. From left to Right: Bellerophon-1(piloted by an Albatross), FUBAR(piloted by the doomsday prepper), and Hecuba(piloted by the House Of GLass knight). The merc player still has to flesh some stuff out, but I'll post their mech once it's done.

[pliant ibex]

There's at least one restaurant and one bar featured prominently- the GMS_GENERIC_BAR and Happy Noodle irrespectively

So yeah, there's a lot of cityesque places, they're just also subject to the conditions that Hell's Gate is in, so inconsistent power, water, space is less of an issue but still kind of one, and poor prospects overall

[heady vale]

well yea, for sure

its not the slums, but it has living conditions on part with trope-al slums

[thorn hinge]

Four bars and three clubs mentioned in this blurb, along with a gravball court, shop that hosts game tournaments, and a house of worship. And these are just the ones the narrator felt worth mentioning.

[heady vale]

Hey what do vent crabs look like >:3

[thorn hinge]

Kinda like purple lobsters

[round fjord]

god, I wish we had art of a krait to go with the vent crabs

[heady vale]

Lets go

[heady vale]

Making a table for the living dorms the party is gonna have

[austere prism]

"there's a noise coming from somewhere that you can't figure out"
"there are two noises"

[heady vale]

Oh I'm taking that first one

Okay im at 3 left

Im "rewarding" the players with such neat characters, by giving them an apartment style living quarter where they share a common living space and 4 bedrooms for 6 people

And then inflicting this table on them lol

[austere prism]

"you wake up to the smell of coffee. the coffeemaker exploded over night."

"dave got drunk again and has once more confused your apartment for his"

[heady vale]

This one is so good

"Why is bedroom 4 full of junk?"

Well you see, thats where all the tech scrap and bits and nhp stuff and leftover mech parts are just sitting. In the room with the technoshaman

[heady vale]

OH WAIT

"the site wide emergency alarm is busted and wont turn off"

[feral dust]

*rolls a 1*
*rolls another result*
*rolls a 1*
*rolls another result*
*rolls a 1*
*rolls another result*

oh no

[heady vale]

Okay i got it

[heady vale]

And for those who can't read my handwriting

1. Roll twice :)
2. The lights are flickering or won't turn on right
3. A vent crab or 2 got in last night
4. Climate control is on the fritz
5. No hot water today
6. Freezer is either not running, or freezerburnt over
7. Doors keep jamming and getting stuck
8. Outlets are being wonky
9. Suddenly, the locks are busted for a bit
10. Omninet connection messed up or very slow
11. At least 2 stove burners and/or microwave are down
12. At least 2 other appliances are not responding
13. Something is leaking...
14. While going about your morning you spot/smell mildew/mold
15. The repairman/repairteam for previous issues cancelled or just didn't show up
16. Theres a noise coming from somewhere and you can't find its source
17. Someone, while drunk, stumbled into your place last night and thought it was their own quarters
18. The sitewide emergency alarm is malfunctioning and WONT TURN OFF.
19. Uh oh, what happened to the gravity specifically in your dorms? Yikes
20. Free space, no result, you're safe 

[regal forum]

I cant tell if this is about hell's gate or my old apt building.

[wild flame]

Both?

[feral dust]

Yes.

[heady topaz]

Campaign update, Session 1 went well! Half the party are on Jerry's good side, the other half are on the fireteam because Jerry wants them off the station as often as posaible, one pf them is somehow both because he's competent but also nuts.

[feral dust]

I love that energy.

[shell bison]

Yeah, that's a Jerry move

[fast parrot]

Yep, that's a calliopean

[heady vale]

Prolly both /lh

[rough bluff]

So I wasn't able to parse this reading (or at least skimming) the thread. Do we know how many acts to expect and a rough timeline? I know Vex said, "Roughly the same as the first kickstarter, but I also know it was mostly written when he finished that, so I don't know if we're looking at a year, two? I'm just ball parking. I'm looking to run it, but after my current D&D game, which has some time left in it, so I'm not in a rush. (Also I'm a professional game designer so I know how these things go and what it's like to balance these projects and life).

[tight pier]

if you start now, by the time you finish act 1 (as long as youre not Speedrunning), act 2 will probably be done(?), and by the time youre done with act 2, there'll probably be enough of act 3 done for you to fill in the blanks yourself and complete the campaign, probably, maybe

im not vex tho or affiliated with them

[polar glacier]

Three total acts.

Act 2 development is in progress, but has no set ETA. The shape of the second act has been worked out with basically all the fights planned, but right now we're playtesting them and making tweaks. Vex is writing a lot of stuff for Act 2 and sometimes that's been leading to changes to whole arcs. They've already started getting art for the act.

Act 2's draft copy is already just about as big as Act1, and there's still a lot to go. It's going to be a big book. The second act has a lot of possible routes.

As far as running goes, I'm running act 1 right now and my game is starting chapter 4 of 5 next week. I still think there's a chance act 2 will be done by the time I get there, but then again I run every other week and my players and I take a lot of time to run narrative rp scenes.

(I'm also not Vex or speaking for her, this is just my sort of vibe assessment)

[tight pier]

if you want numbers:
Act 1's first draft dropped on Nov 7th 2021 (but was probably worked on long before then)
Act 1's kickstarter dropped on Oct 18th 2022
Act 1 then fully released on May 24, 2023

youre probably gonna be waiting a few more years

[rough bluff]

So two years from first draft to release. And we don't have a first draft for act 2 yet, correct?

[polar glacier]

There have been two very early draft releases

[tight pier]

^ in #909574961931362365

[rough bluff]

Cool. I didn't know that was a thread. 🙂 That sounds like if I start when this campaign is over, I'll be fine. At the very least he'll be in drafts of Act III by the time I get to it.

[tight pier]

yeah

(they/she)

[rough bluff]

Oh, thanks.

(I'll start following their stuff on the feedback thread when I catch up on the published act 1. It will be a bit, but now I know where I'm reading. 🙂

[polar glacier]

Also for reference, I started planning my game when the second draft of Act 1 came out, which only had two chapters. And from there, at the rate my game goes, I never "fell off the map". The next chapters were released by the time we got to them, though sometimes I ended up with out of date content in my game. But that's fun too.

[rough bluff]

Yeah. My D&D game will go at least another year, maybe two, because we hand off DMs, and the other guy is about to start wallflower, so I found this as an alternative longform thing to look at since he already staked a claim on the big one.

(The first party big one, I mean)

[polar glacier]

Also Act 1 ends on a nice cliffhanger that could eaisly do with a good break before starting the next act

[tight pier]

Oh youll be fine

[rough bluff]

That's cool. Too. I glanced it last night after I lost my cat and couldn't sleep after 45 minutes of recovery, and I think I'll have fun making the maps, since I don't see any popular fan made ones yet.

[polar glacier]

we have a pinned comment in this thread for a googledocs spreadsheet where people post links to their maps and other assets. All of my isometric maps are up on there. If you make your own maps we'd love to add them to the collection, if you're cool sharing.

[rough bluff]

Nice. I'll give them to you to add as I do them Cosmographer (in a couple months, probably)

[feral dust]

I just had a wonderful thought.

Rather than destroying the killsat in Act 1 Chapter 3, it becoming subverted when/if someone is fielding a Kidd, also as a potential Power At A Cost option.

[amber viper]

Yar har fiddle dee dee, your Calendula-4 now belongs to me

[fast parrot]

spend a core power

get a cracked satalite

[thorn hinge]

looking at the "Hail Mary Pass" sidebar, that's uing Power at a Cost to spend 1 cp to disable the sattelite. I think the Kidd should be able to do that as well as the barbarossa, using it's Jolly Roger.

Hacking the satellite so you can use it should probably require a CP as well, the Kidd's sattelite still works passive without the CP spend. Either way the Enemy Awareness clock should shoot to max.

[feral dust]

I mean fair, but sometimes I wonder where the hell you're supposed to get a whole ass satellite from.

But yes otherwise, just blowing it up yourself, also a good use of the CP.

[meager vine]

what option have folks here gone for when it comes to zero g combat

I'm debating between the free eva system or just using regular zero g rules

[shell bison]

Typically, I inform my players very urgently that space combat in IGF is very often so keeping an EVA module or the Spaceborn talant is a good play to do so in campaign. It's a bit of a tax but it's still better than running an entire combat for someone slowed cause they forgot to tie their space booster shoes on.

[frail kayak]

I'm doing free EVA. I started off just making them take a flight system, but it was mostly an annoyance. I also tried a large map with "you automatically repeat your last movement at the start of your turn as a free action. you may move or boost 0" It was glorious chaos, but not worth repeating, IMO

[quaint pebble]

I've just been running every space map as if there's floor which looks like space tbqh

no special rules

[polar glacier]

I put it up to a vote with my players. They chose to stick with stock rules, but this was their first lancer experience. We're going into ch4 and I'm going to offer to let them choose again and see if we stick with it or go with the freebie

[feral dust]

Similarly, we ran stock rules, though at the time I also offered "you can operate 'normally' in zero-G and require a 1 SP system to operate 'normally' under actual gravity."

They went with "okay Spaceborn or EVA it is."

[warped ibex]

i gave my players the list of ideas in the book to vote on, and they ended up settling on free EVA

[polar glacier]

thanks for bringing it up, I meant to ask the players about this again at some point but forgot, so now I'm going for it

[feral dust]

Free EVA is valid though, there's better stuff to spend your SP on.

[tight pier]

I made a bespoke EVA module - all mechs in Calliope are assumed to have it - it's 0sp and grants the benefit of EVA module but you are Slowed only while flying in 0g. my maps tend to have a lot of ground in it even in space

[latent lintel]

I started properly reading the story following my ill-advised decision to start running a second campaign with IGF as the story. I'm absolutely loving the character(s) of the tale. A bit disturbed having ran into some of the early deeplore (Feather) and not yet sure what to think of it, but even more excited than when I first got it

[polar glacier]

Well, welcome to the party! You'll have to let us know how things go for you, and if you think you've seen the weird side of things now just wait, there's so much more >:3

[shell bison]

LEt us know if you need any support, ideas, tokens or whatever is needed to help run your game. We tend to help one another out a lot in terms of the GMing department of IGF

[latent lintel]

Sure! Thanks in advance

I am happy to make my own but I was wondering if anyone had made any maps for IGF, however simple. I've got Kaffeezombie's map pack which seems useful, but not sure if that covers all the bases.

[latent lintel]

Id also be curious to learn if anyone felt inspired to make a "nu-retro-stasiscore" playlist. I know it doesn't exist, but stuff that it made you think of perhaps

[thorn hinge]

Search for that term on this server, there was a conversation in the feedback thread about it several months ago. Ipd have a look for you but it's bedtime for me. If you haven't found it I might have a look tomorrow

[latent lintel]

Cheers

[frail kayak]

There's a pinned post in this thread that has a google sheet with links to maps and other GM resources
Another pinned post has Vex's minis

[feral dust]

I found something with regards to that music question?

#909574961931362365 message

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uaLe1ZZ97S0

[fickle zealot]

Hello folks -- my GM is a little overworked right now, and has been struggling recently with making everything that he wants to in time.

I was wondering if anyone here had any maps that you've made/put together for the In Golden Flame encounters?

We're using FoundryVTT for them, but even just the visual maps should be okay. (If there are those already in the campaign, I'm not sure -- I haven't looked, because I'm just a player, and peeking is bad form.)

But if there aren't, and y'all do have some maps, I'd love to hear about 'em, and possibly be able to pass them along to my GM.

I just know he said he was struggling to get maps prepped.

And my immediate response is to jump to action to try to help, because that's how I do. 😄

[rugged crow]

There’s a community folder for maps and such in the pins? Hopefully you’ll find something there that’ll help

[fickle zealot]

Sweet. Thank you so much, Valk.

[fickle zealot]

(And everyone who has contributed)

[heady vale]

My friend just gave me his Golden Flame character

AND THEY'RE SO GOOD

|| https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IqjBFBYZE-MoritZ4sVdxwrmhzVj5FK1lFBH3-gXjqU/edit?usp=sharing ||

Cw: huge wallflower spoilers

[heady vale]

Avi, Callsign Bugdad

This characer pitch is so good

[feral dust]

Love Bug Dad.

[abstract arrow]

Hey @fallen geyser, have you noticed a weird sales uptick today?

[fallen geyser]

Huh?

No

[rugged crow]

Some other people saw an uptick in sales due to heightened awareness from the 2nd print run announcement

[dark gorge]

I thought the uptick was being attributed to proximity to today's everyone ping in #lancer-news

e.g. more recently-announced projects were getting extra visibility in that channel today

[abstract arrow]

that somewhat tracks, but I can't actually check where people are coming from when they arrive if that makes sense

[latent lintel]

SMH we need more cookie trackers

[latent lintel]

yoo k6bd reference

I wanted to wait until making it to the end of my first full readthrough but this is quite possibly the best campaign module I've ever read. So much character, feeling, and humour dripping from the pages...

[latent lintel]

ok finished it lets go

[shell bison]

Killer sound finished, took out a player mech and did a lot of narrative fuckery with the odd scanning of player mechs. For some reason :)

[feral dust]

Scans huh

[fast parrot]

d a n g e r

[tender seal]

My players just tracked down the thief on Asphodel
||They managed to successfully fake the thief's death for the blacksmith and were patting each other on the back for their success until the thief left with "I don’t know how to repay you, but I swear on the One I’ll find a way.” almost had one of my players kill him for real then and there until another reminded him that they'd met several members of the cult that seemed to be good people with just a weird religion during their investigations on the Icebreaker||

I'm having a lot of fun running this

[feral dust]

I love all these interpretations of the Thief too.

[shell bison]

Yup, One of my players wanted a Sunzi license since it seems so good as a frame and seen me play it in the past. I flavored it as something was...."leaking" in the extra Storage container areas in Hell's gate post chapter 1. They rolled hot and got a very hazard themed portion of a drive core.

A Sunzi drive core.

Since Killer Sound involves the cult, scanning them was...a boon.

[fallen geyser]

What if I fucked around with PBTA for a while

[latent lintel]

Made a quick and dirty visualisation of the Calliope System to help myself remember where the stations are orbiting

[heady vale]

The thousand habs are technically all throughout the system, are they not?

Also seems to be missing fort Cerberus and the inner belt

I still may use this though, ty 👀

[austere prism]

CP2077 DLC has guest appearance by BARTENDER MOTHERFUCKER

[shell bison]

Where his smily face tho :c

[latent lintel]

They are

[latent lintel]

Yep that's fair

[austere prism]

i mean this is 2077 BT MF, the look changed during the intervening 10000 odd years

[shell bison]

Can't believe he survived the fall.

[austere prism]

probably got himself assigned as staff at one of the massif vaults

[frail lintel]

Cue Destiny 2 Sweeperbot during the opening stages of the Red War.

[shell bison]

He just sweeping

Doing his job.

Minding his buisness.

[heady topaz]

Gonna run Beat 5 tonight wish me luck

My party kicked ass in Beat 4, they focused down ||the ship and the Ace||.

[shell bison]

Warning to GM's

Be careful using the custom IGF enemy templates a bit early on. My players saw the deluge in the Killer Sound fight, scanned it, saw it had a nuke cav style trait, then slapped it with a heavy melee making it loose it's gun on a structure roll

[heady topaz]

Just don't let your players hit the deluge then 5head /j

[feral dust]

Honestly, players using actions to Scan is Good Shit.

[dense urchin]

i think thats precisely what scan is supposed to do

[tight pier]

ayup thats how scan works

[fallen geyser]

Players will often focus the New Shit

[shell bison]

I know, I just fund it hilarious that I had it on the board and instantly all my players had neuron activation.

The chomo and everest player just bodied him round one and turned him from a gun boi to a grapple and ram boi

Which was the goal, I'd like to use the new NPC templates a bit more cause I want to keep giving that Calliope Charm

[feral dust]

There's always putting them in Reserves and having them join the fight when everyone is otherwise engaged.

[fallen geyser]

Good news: Act 2 uses them more

And also introduces (at least) 3 new ones

[shell bison]

Let's goooo

Oh wait

Need to keep up my spanish moment

[heady topaz]

yeah I feel this. In beat 4 my players focused the Ace and the Assault Ship with hacking to prevent them from doing fuckery. The hacker player was happy when he discovered that Aces are weak to Frag Sig.

[shell bison]

** Vamanos a le Verga **

[dense urchin]

"Let's go to the dick"?

[shell bison]

Let's fucking go, but in spanish

or get the fuck out of here, depends on the mood

[dense urchin]

ah, i translated literally, havent heard of it used that way

[shell bison]

Welcome to spanish, there's a lot of slang

[willow cloak]

My completely-new-to-Lancer group just finished Denial of Service. I think they're finally getting a grip on the rhythm of combat.

[feral dust]

Hell yeag

[willow cloak]

S1GN4L is extremely dead, one of my PCs was entirely done with his Mirage bullshit and exploded him

In fairness I also played him as even more annoying and self-absorbed than the book indicates

I think I'm going to give them a downtime beat before heading off to the Tachyon, both to give them time/incentive to explore Hell's Gate and to better establish Capella as a Bad Dude

Did anyone else here struggle with that? I'm worried that I won't be able to sell him enough ||to give his death significance.||

[feral dust]

Not at all. He's vicious. There's survivors and victims of his actions most everywhere, even on Hell's Gate. You can delight in him focussing down one player because he would.

And he'll only get more vicious ||when he just won't die.||

[willow cloak]

Yeah, that's about what I had in mind. Have the PC's run in to some people who had experienced the man firsthand, and play him as a bastard in combat.
You're probably right, I'll report back in a few weeks with results.

[fallen geyser]

Remember, this dude pilots a Genghis because he thinks it's cool that it was used to do war crimes

He is exactly the worst kind of person

[quaint pebble]

I made sure to describe them remembering both his face and flamethrower mech from footage of strikebreaking action

[thorn hinge]

Also if your players have any NPCs they're attached to yet, they can tell their own stories of him. Losing friends, narrowly escaping themselves... Calamity Havok in particular is a great vector for hearing about how awful he is, since she's a former hell hound. And if they haven't met her yet, I can give all sorts of potential hooks for her. I'm heavily biased towards her and Kraken, since they're PCs in my game.

[amber viper]

I had him maim one of my PCs father prior to campaign start.
Her intro scene was at his hospital bedside, really helped set the Capella stakes.

[thorn hinge]

Calamity in my game obviously had some history, but we've also run some nightmares with her dealing with trauma from her time with the Hounds, and processing that he's "really gone" ||oh. oh no.||

[shell bison]

Capella wrecked two pilots and gloated as they took discretion as the better part of valor. He hoisted the two frames up and mocked them saying,

"Run away and prove me right! You're all just cowards pretending this matters. Or prove me wrong and stay and fight."

They all agreed he's a madman and just bolted out.

[fallen geyser]

Calamity Havok is also a great example of how Andros Capella has no sense of loyalty

Because she was a great pilot and extremely on board with his whole deal but he felt threatened by her prowess and had her bumped off (or at least, tried to)

[latent lintel]

Starting tonight with my first session 💪

[feral dust]

Keep us posted, first sessions really are good tone setters.

[latent lintel]

let me know if anyone has any tips

Most of it will be Session 0, but we'll probably start with the narrative part of the first chapter

[toxic stump]

For us the session 0 is set for Friday night!

[feral dust]

For us, session 0 was just ground rules and talking character concepts and getting lost in "how do we know each other if at all", but session the first was opening with one vignette of their characters starting their usual day, and meeting with one other to have a shared scene before they all meet up and get called to Jerry's office. They brought a veggie and mushroom pizza along, late breakfast.

There was good vibes and the early budding of "team dad" and "dipshit gremlin" and "gremlin dipshit" and "depressed himbo."

[shrewd sorrel]

you mean your party is not just all "dipshit gremlin"?
smh what are your players even doin'?!

[feral dust]

I mean they're all dipshits.

[shell bison]

I told my players that the game has a lot of Borderlands influences and they made
An outcast Voladore fail tradeswoman and her NHP daughter
An unabashed and unapologetic sunlighter pirate
A former Union detective that got so messed up by some anomaly they failed into Calliope
A former HA Spec Ops soldier handled by Odin until a mission was blatantly a set up and nearly got him killed.

They understood the assignment

[heady topaz]

they did indeed pass the vibe check

[toxic stump]

Definitely sounds like a fun bunch!

[shell bison]

They did, especially when the spec op soldier took the path of influencer and has an omnifans and became a catboy

They have never rolled above a 10 on the "everyone is a fan" bond power

[heady topaz]

oh yeah, I also have a campaign update. We set up the board for beat 5, but most of the session was just vignettes.
The Albatross member is looking into getting frozen pig embryos and was accosted by Striga for possibly being connected to the 'pig cult'(my players established that Calliope did have pigs, till a cult killed them all for a ritual).
The House Of Glass noble was spouting stories of his greatness at the noodlebar when Ipswich showed up and not-so-subtly roasted him on livestream about his involvement in the printer getting bricked.
The merc is teaching the noble's "squires"(read: street kids he hired to polish his mech) how to gamble and cheat instead of doing their "job".
The doomsday prepper used some salvaged missles he got from the Ace they killed in beat 4 to do some... repairs. There was an elevator that was stuck in its shaft, so he took the payload out of the missles and used them to boost the elevator to the top of the shaft. Good news, the elevator is no longer stuck and people can now do repairs to the shaft and elevator. Bad new, he did this without permission, and rocketing the elevator through a borked shaft with no way of slowing the missles resulted in an even more fragged shaft and a pancaked elevetor. Jerry started crying whilst Mcarthur and Shelly reamed out the prepper for being insane.

[shell bison]

Please give Jerry a hug. He deserves it.

[heady topaz]

The prepper did get him some whiskey, which he unfrotunately can't drink because if that man so much as touches a downer with all the stims he's on, he'd chicken-Mcfricken die. Thankfully the Albatross bro is giving Shelly some duck eggs and duck meat for when Jerry is in dire need.

[polar glacier]

For session zero you obviously have all the standard ttrpg topics like scheduling, break time, absentee policy, and safety tools.

If they haven't played Lancer before, it might be good to explain the way Lancer separates Narrative and Tactical play

For IGF it's good to cover the content warnings of this campaign (there's a list in the book that didn't exist when I made my own during playtesting, I've attached mine), the expectations for player characters, and to get a vibe of the sort of feel your players are looking for. IGF is a borderlands-esqe scifi action comedy sort of thing, but you can still decide on things like how often NPCs die when their mechs are destroyed. My game has an established table rule that PCs cannot die unless the player agrees to it. Captured, nearly dead, facing a long recovery, sure, but they only die if the situation convinces the player it's good for their story (and even then all the usual LANCER caveats like cloning are still on the table) I also covered the way that operations in this setting are mostly failable. You could conceivably fail every fight in IGF except the last one and still proceed to act 2... though it's going to be a mess.

I also included my own safety tool I call the "spice level". A general measure of how much a player might enjoy putting their character through horrible experiences, especially using their backstories against them. Calamity for instance, has been absolutely tortured at various points with her history, had trauma nightmares of Andros Capella, and is currently skirting the edges of a panic attack after learning unfortunate things about the girl she left behind when she was exiled to Calliope a decade ago. (Siren's giving her a subaltern hug and talking her down)

In general if you have any questions about the campaign, feel free to ask, we love to help each other here.

[latent lintel]

Thanks!

I've never played Borderlands I've seen multiple mentions of Borderlands influence and it means nothing to me haha

[heady topaz]

Borderlands is pretty good, highly reccomend 2 it's a solid game

Gaige is my main, I love Anarchy trait it's so dumb

[latent lintel]

But I've got my own way of selling the tone, it's similar to how I used to run my D&D campaign, comedy with dark & serious moments

[polar glacier]

Sounds like you got it then!

All the stuff in the inspiration section of the book is at the very least "pretty good" lol, and it can all help with landing the vibes. For borderlands, I'd recommend at least checking out a handsome jack montage, it'll help with Roderike Steel (even though I described him as Handsome Jack with no charisma)

[heady topaz]

He's Handsome Jack, but swap a lifetime of horrible shit for Andrew Tate-isms

[latent lintel]

The only part of the inspirations page I had seen/played/listened to is the Matrix haha

[willow cloak]

It's a pretty good list

[fast parrot]

WAIT THAT WAS KRISKROSS?

[shell bison]

:)

[fast parrot]

god how does odin feel about his soldier doing omnifans

[shell bison]

He don't know.

He assumes he's dead.

[fast parrot]

|| ...when odin finds switch and kriss are doing omni , they are gonna be so dissapointed ||

[shell bison]

lol, lmao

[latent lintel]

Session 0/1 went great!

Players spent a good 30 minutes coming up with callsigns for each other and a team name, following a group introduction. They're the Vent Crabs now, probably not the first team to land on that name but still a good one. They crawl and get under your skin but they're mostly harmless, that is, to the rest of the station. Some characters brainstormed crab racing as a rival to the Hellfire League following the revelation that they'd lost money betting against Howl for some reason, one went to meet Striga, one went to fangirl over Calamity (an ex-pirate herself) and the other tried to deny allegations of having caused the printer malfunction despite clearly having caused it. Meeting with Jerry ended the session, they brought him a potted plastic plant that they found to decorate his office.

We've got Patchwork, an ex-salvage worker; Bluescreen, alleged printer breaker; Tourist, Union Navy pilot attached to militia; Nail, a doctor with a betting problem; and Timebomb, who builds mechs from scrap

[willow cloak]

Sounds awesome!

[toxic stump]

I've actually played Borderlands and started Borderlands 2 as a way to fuel the hype for this campaign. (Although I was still a bit familiar with the licence through Tales from the Borderlands).

[meager vine]

Anyone have PCs play as ex-union? I have a player who wants to do so and I'm struggling to figure out how to help them make it work

[amber viper]

There's an NPC in the campaign who's ex union, have you considered intertwining their backstories with that character?

[meager vine]

It crossed my mind

[amber viper]

The nestor intervention is pretty heavily relevant as the campaign goes on

[meager vine]

Yeah I'm thinking the easiest way to tie them in would be to tie them to the nestor intervention

my impression was that NPC's status as ex union is meant to be a secret, I'm hesitant to tie them together too closely

[amber viper]

Well that's the thing, that NPC changed their identity, their union service IS a secret

One that's poorly kept, but the specifics of which ARE pretty secret.

[polar glacier]

Ex-Union in what capacity? And why did they leave that to come to Calliope of all places?

Also, secret from whom? Something the PC doesn't want others to know, or are they running from Union too?
Does Union know about them and keep tabs on them? Did Kileyna get a security brief when they came to the system? Even some random Economic Bureau pencil pusher with an honorable discharge might end up a line item on a list of of known actors spotted heading into the area, but a former DoJ liberator might be tracked as a potential asset.

[latent lintel]

I have a PC who's a liaison from the carrier, so actively Union

[meager vine]

The secret I was referring to was ||Jerry's secret past as a union liberator||, I don't think this player intends to play a character whose ex union status is a secret

[polar glacier]

...haven't had my tea yet lol. Reading comprehension is compromised.

[meager vine]

right now their pitch is that they were a union auxiliary in the dawnline shore which was attacked by pirates, and the ship did a nearlight bolt to get away from danger, and the PC happened to be off the ship at that time.

the ship had a loved one aboard and they learned about the union presence in calliope, so once they managed to scrounge together the means to do so they came to calliope, and they spoke with the union folks in calliope to learn that the ship was reported MIA

so after that they kinda threw up their hands and have been in calliope ever since

I think it works fine but the player felt it was a little bit clunky lore wise, hard to come up with a good reason for why they were out in the dawnline shore a few years before shit has actually started to hit the fan there

[dense urchin]

mediator for the KTB-HA disputes, former AMT who turned coat, informant for the ungratefuls who switched to union to get official backing?

[polar glacier]

So one thing about Calliope is that any amount of coincidence is allowed. Things keep just happening here. The whole original colonization is a giant coincidence pile up. Many plot elements are just... bad luck that all this is happening in the same place.

What I'm getting at is that the pirates that hit their ship could easily be headed to Calliope. And the MIA ship? Well, those pirates would be the only ones to know it's nearlight bolt trajectory... and they came to Calliope in pursuit.

[polar glacier]

If you go with this, Gabriel Sparrow is a major NPC in ch2 on the Icebreaker who runs a cell of the ungratefuls in calliope.

[meager vine]

Good point. I suppose remarkable coincidences are very much in theme for IGF

[meager vine]

what does AMT stand for?

[dense urchin]

Acquisition and Management Team, a Harrison Armory department that helps integrate planets into the Purview

they support pro-HA factions, combat insurgents, supply materiel, etc

[latent lintel]

Where can I find lore about Act 2?

[dense urchin]

pinned in the drafts in the feedback thread in #gm-corner

one sec and ill grab a direct link

#909574961931362365 message @latent lintel

[latent lintel]

Cheers

[dense urchin]

np

[meager vine]

Thanks for the advice btw @amber viper @dense urchin @polar glacier

[polar glacier]

Always! I love spitballing ideas for people, especially for this campaign

[amber viper]

Ditto, have fun with it!

[polar glacier]

My biggest piece of advice: Take the time to build connections between your players and the NPCs. Especially the ones most important to the story. Siren is a member of the team. Jerry is behind them the whole time. Loki and Switch are a big part of the plot. But also pay attention to the NPCs your players seem to like more, and want to be attached to. I have a PC dating Rat. NPCs that don't have any story significance can be given that by association with the PCs, and you can create new plots around them down the line.

But also look what you can get from all that:

[night zealot]

I keep thinking about this guy

how do I make him canon

[wild flame]

Put him in your game

[night zealot]

no you see

I'm fucking crazy

but I'm already supporting one Lancer art project without needlessly intruding into another uninvited

just saying if anyone what makes The Decisions for IGF wants to buy the commercial rights to that piece in order to put into act 2 as the official BARTENDER_MOTHERFUCKER, hit me up for the moolah

[amber viper]

We've already got some MOTHERFUCKER art on a hells gate interior shot!

He's a very happy lad

[regal forum]

Hey ya'll, I have a question about uploading maps to the community resources doc. I've been making my own maps but I usually start with a background that I don't have commercial rights for (something from patreon/tumblr/etc). I'm not sure if this counts since the module is a commercial product. Occasionally I can make a custom one on inkarnate but the sci fi pack isn't out yet and I don't always have time. Is it Kosher/legal to upload maps with backgrounds I don't own? Some of them have watermarks that credit the original artist and for the ones that don't I could provide the credit but idk how this stuff works and def don't want to screw over the artists.

[toxic stump]

Okay, we have our crew:

• An ex moonlighter who worked for Impact Dynamics a few times and want to leave that behind.. and secret.
• A scientist fascinated by NHP from the Baronnies, who got exiled as a way to avoid a diplomatic incident (as she was part of a program that was basically trying to get around the New Prosperity Agreement).
• An NHP just out of a traumatic cycle after a near-cascade and who tries to build a new life far from her toxic relationship with her ex-copilot.

[dusky cradle]

Wait, would you call it a NHP Co-Pilot in this case, or would that be a Pilot Co-NHP?

[tight pier]

human co-pilot?

[toxic stump]

Yeah she was the copilot of a SHP (Shitty Human Person).

[lilac tartan]

i see u👀TBH My first instinct was to retort but I have to admit that in fact I AM addicted to overcharge
In addition Jerry made some hand-made cookies for my Albatross girl for return.Great thank to Superduck because that is so adorable
BTW She is still an Albatross Wing now
||Feather:So u picked my poppy just for opening barrage hey wtf||

[shell bison]

Jerry deserves a little good in his life

As a treat

[toxic stump]

I promise, if we get to the end of the campaign, Jerry will get an holiday and we'll do a beach episode.

[fallen geyser]

Gonna name one of the ships in Act 2 "Ebony Way"

(Dark'ness Dementia Raven would not fit)

[shell bison]

Just go to the icebreaker and rent out a holodeck to emulate the beach episode.

[tight pier]

finally reread bash.org and this post seems very Calliope:
<erno> hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in my apartment it is.

[latent lintel]

Tarot came up somewhere and now my players have started crafting a Calliope-specific tarot deck/system

[lilac tartan]

At the first encounter to our group in Act I Mission 2 because of some mistakes in my operation, I used tarot cards to divinate in the middle of the battle, and the result was that the battle was going to be badly lost:(
(It was a reversed Wand VII)
Then our GM insists that it's a very,very successful divination>:(
Now I have persuaded GM to add some divination elements to the campaign

We are going to continue to the encounter today so I just can wish our team good luck:(

It feels like see a 危 in Sekiro

[polar glacier]

When my party encountered the ||weather witches|| in ch3, one of them pulled out a tarot deck and offered to read for them. ||After the crone it had to be made clear that this was just someone's fun hobby, but by that point their whole act was more or less revealed and the party was enjoying the vibes||. As GM though, I could interpret the cards according to the things I knew were coming and the plans I was making for some of the PCs, and it went pretty well.

It was literally a spontaneous thing in the middle of the scene though, I happened to have a deck next to my desk and was suddenly inspired to add it to the scene.

[latent lintel]

My players know a lot more about tarot than I do

I have no idea how people properly use and read tarot cards 😛

Which doesn't matter if the players have no idea either haha

[polar glacier]

When I did it, for brevity I just pulled one card per PC and considered it's meaning in the context of the game's plot and my own plans. It went okay, given the fact my own plans are a constantly shifting mess. Like, at that point they were close to finishing ch3, and I knew what ch4 would bring, so drawing something like Ten of Cups (harmony, alignment, good relationships, family, domestic bliss) and spin it to something like "You'll face many challenges in the coming darkness. Trust in your team, your bonds will carry you through to the light."

IRL reading tarot is more of a dialogue with the querent? You use the meanings of the cards to ask them questions, and try and contextualize what they think of their future with the cards as a sort of tool to examine things in new ways. In a tabletop game you already know the future to some degree, so you might as well use it.

[latent lintel]

Thanks! And as GM, you can always change the future 😉
I loved giving players access to divination in D&D for that reason

[regal forum]

Reiterating my earlier question in case it was missed by someone who might know the answer: Is it ok to upload maps to the community resources if they were created using backgrounds from Patreon/tumblr/etc.?

[polar glacier]

There's no easy answer to that question. It's a matter of how much the content was manipulated and transformed, what the source artist's licenses say, and how it's being shared. My maps are on the resources page, and they're pretty much all made using commercial game engines that were never intended for this use. This discord has rules about sharing copywritten art, especially indie produced content without any attribution, so maybe use that as a guideline.

Like, ultimately you can share whatever you want, it's on you to host the stuff and just provide a link. And I'm not in any way in charge of anything here, I just happened to have made the list before anybody else. There's no authority involved. But I think the Pilot NET rules are good to keep in mind.

[regal forum]

I'll check out the discord rules and go from there thanks.

[regal forum]

The source artists license says its fine to use, just not for commercial use. That's where I'm confused since this module is for sale but the community resources are free.

[polar glacier]

if you're not profiting off of the assets you post, I think is the point.

[regal forum]

That makes sense, thanks for the replies.

[frail kayak]

Right, I should get around to asking RALF if I can post modified versions of his older hex tiles, as I can't share one of the CH4 maps without them

[shell bison]

Not that crazy in the editing, but got the sunbird fight soon.

[thorn hinge]

the text goes great with the art

[shell bison]

Pfff, it's a very simple edit, but the art speaks very much for itself.

Oh, if you need the font

https://www.dafont.com/quantum-4.font

Love me font sites. Simple as

[fallen geyser]

Okay, I came up with a nice little line for Johan

"My destiny was a lie, but that doesn't mean my heroism has to be."

[feral dust]

Oh that def fucks.

[shell bison]

👌

[meager vine]

since the strategic response team has been together for a few years by the time the campaign begins, has anyone experimented with using something like dungeon world's bonds to establish a dynamic between players?

for those unfamiliar, in dungeon world each class has a set of prompts which establish something about the relationship between that PC and another PC. for example for a druid "[PC] has fought in defence of my lands before and has my respect"

i'd imagine for IGF it might not need to be as dramatic, but something to prompt the players into thinking about the dynamic of their group for the years prior to the start of the campaign

[amber viper]

The SRT featuring the players is actually flung together pretty soon before the start of the campaign last I checked?

[meager vine]

hmm lemme double check, I thought it was like 2 years or so?

[amber viper]

They've lived in the station long enough to be recruited

Jerry doesn't necessarily want to grab the first person off the boat and shove them into an active combat role.

[meager vine]

right yeah

[amber viper]

Back to your idea of the dungeon world bonds, they've lived on the same station as each other for at least a few months, so entirely likely they've crossed paths before.

[meager vine]

unless I'm missing something I'm not finding exactly how long prior it was, pg61 says "one day not long ago", pg 224 in ch4 says "a few months ago" but i'm not sure how much time has passed between the start and ch4, a few weeks at least

[amber viper]

I had it be a few months

The campaign starts with a players first frame print going haywire, so I imagine they're pretty new to the team

[meager vine]

yeah honestly I think you're right

[meager vine]

Iirc the PCs were all recruited from the station's militia, so yeah def opportunity to interact prior to the formation of the SRT

[amber viper]

Mine weren't, but yours can be!

[warped ibex]

so one of my parties is making a playlist for themes for characters and moments, and i have taken the opportunity to do the funniest possible thing

everflame being the theme of andros capella

[thorn hinge]

So I used the opening note from this song when Capella appeared, in the middle of my narration, before swapping to Everflame and a general bossfight mix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVSAV7GVFyI

I plan to ||bring it back in chapter 5, taking the song from 0:26 on, timing it with the "In all his terribly glory" narration so 2:10 hits just on "You have no idea how much trouble you’re in."||

[dense urchin]

page 140, Getting Railroaded, i assume RAI is that this is limited to 1/round because RAW you can do it infinitely and immediately destroy whatever youre grappling

[shell bison]

The party won the sunbird fight. A pyrrhic victory. Two downed frame. One cascaded NHP daughter that blew out her Subaltern body going all out and a lot of wounded pride. However, a victory was had on this day.

[tender seal]

iirc you can only take any particular action once per turn unless you overcharge

I've been GMing for a few months now and I still feel like my grasp on the rules is shaky at times, haha

[feral dust]

Sunbird-1 tends to be an humbling experience.

[toxic stump]

First session was yesterday and we already have some memes

[dense urchin]

free actions dont obey duplicate action limits

[dense crescent]

to quote icon

it's probably not intended to deal infinite damage

[vocal relic]

also in lancer rules, free actions can't be repeated, i'm sure

o

it was already mentioned

nah for real im pretty sure you just do it just once

[warped ibex]

this isn't a lancer rules channel so i'm gonna keep it brief, but, no, you can definitely dupe free actions: "Free actions can always be made to duplicate actions", quoth page 73 of the core rulebook; this is why they have to state you can only take a specific Protocol once each turn

that being said, design intent was almost surely 1/round

[vocal relic]

fair enough you got me beat here

[thorn hinge]

If a player asked me if they can do infinite d6 damage with that free action, I'd just say "I'll allow it if you want, but the NPCs can do it too." and let them consider the consequences.

[maiden ferry]

I'm having a hard time getting discord to search this channel specifically, but I can't find anything pinned that has resources for chapter 5, specifically ||minis for CAUSTIC and the various glass/shape metavault enemies|| do they exist?

[thorn hinge]

I think you mean chapter 4, but yeah. My game is starting ch4 this week, and I just finished all my tokens for that this morning! I put them on my share folder a few hours ago but this reminded me to update the description on the spreadsheet. Check out the ||ada_boltzmann_mine|| folder in my tokens at the url in that spreadsheet.

I'm not done making maps yet though. Not even sure where to begin for that last fight of that chapter...

[maiden ferry]

oh whoops yes thank you

and yeah I have no clue with that last fight, I just have triangles of varying pale colors everywhere

[maiden ferry]

I'm actually not running golden flame as golden flame, but chapter 4 is theoretically a really fun lead-in to dustgrave: ||Triple-Point didn't see the Ganymede incident and now sees Monist-1 destroying the planet if the pcs fuck up in the final fight. Its also a fun way to give one of my players their dose of HORUS mech - CAUSTIC is piloting a pegasus instead of a gorgon, and this player is nuts enough to try and use it.|| I'm running it tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it goes!

[agile wraith]

any chance of getting a generic template for that ||lobber and parallel?||

[agile wraith]

||#909574961931362365 message i made this for CAUSTIC||

if you scroll down a tad after there's a different version of the ||echo||

[thorn hinge]

My ||parallel|| was just made with Retrograde's GMS SP-1. Not even any kitbashing. The ||echo outline version|| was made by just taking the original token, copying just the black pixels, and giving them a color. I made it before I started running, a little over a year ago. My token bashing skills have improved quite a bit since then.

...I say that, but the ||lobber|| is also just a GMS SP-1, with some careful color editing. I can get you a ||clean rock-free|| version if that's what you're looking for?

[vocal relic]

Sniff

The more I see in Golden flame

The more I wish I had more time for tabletop

Grrahhh

[maiden ferry]

Woah… that’s trippy. I love it!

[amber viper]

My go to for the grenade boys is the newish DFG Avarice sprite. It's a bit wilder looking than iskander, gets the energy going real good.

[frosty storm]

I made a lobber sprite if you're interested? Might work with what you're doing?

[polar glacier]

I mean, absolutely share away, I always like to see other people's takes on it

[agile wraith]

yes

i made a base deluge but its not too good i think

[heady topaz]

Ran the S1GN4L fight tonight. My players OTKd him anc chipped away and the stragglers. By round three they had the numbers advantage so I rolled a bottle test and they last two units forfeited.

[wild flame]

What's a bottle test? Not familiar with the term.

[heady topaz]

Tldr it's a morale test, typically in things like Warhammer, Necromunda, etc. In Lancer I just roll a D20 and if they roll 11+ they stay, anything less and the opfor bails

[toxic stump]

So apparently in our group we have a headcanon that one time Shelly tried to cook something to Jerry to cheer him up and it led to something like this:

[feral dust]

Christ the Buddha.

[thorn hinge]

Amazing

[wild flame]

Christ the Buddha had no hand in the creation of that abhorrence

[thorn hinge]

I collect cursed food abominations, this is giving me horrid ideas

[dire cloud]

That's not cursed, it's just eggs. The yolks aren't even overcooked.

[thorn hinge]

Alright. You asked for it.

[heady topaz]

Am i the only one who's running Shelly as a competent cook?

Also that mac is cursed as fuck

[pliant ibex]

I mean you don't have to be a bad cook to create unpalatable food combinations

[shrewd sorrel]

Ran Killer Sound today, it went well and really came down to the wire. a very clutch fragsig to keep the ronin from contesting the zone on round 6 got them the win, but not before they blew up Queens Empakaai (double 1's on structure).

They had a bad experience with the engi from the signal fight so when they saw another just chillin, they were absolutely not having it. Went full aggro on my poor boi turn 1, it was very funny. I think i scarred them.

[feral dust]

My sibling in Christ they were solid chunks.

[willow cloak]

That is some proper Solidcore gaming, RIP that Engi

[austere prism]

One of my players is playing with the Influencer bond. We found out that Sgt Hemmingsen is one of his biggest fans.

[heady topaz]

This is true

[heady topaz]

Jesus christ that Engineer went from a solid to a plasma in one shot

[frosty storm]

oh god, this was two days ago, here you go:

i'm sorry, i've been so brainfried lately I forgot that it still wasn't a few days ago

[polar glacier]

nice

[frosty storm]

thank you!

[latent lintel]

I made a thematic playlist for In Golden Flame. Not necessarily appropriate for during play, but sort of my best fit interpretation of nu-retro-stasiscore from my own musical knowledge https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1oixpuRGj08XbKKhRCBaGX?si=f4eb15cd50164aa1

[willow cloak]

I introduced Siren to my players last session and on-the-spot came up with her hologram t-posing for 1 frame when she appeared

The holoprojectors on Hell's Gate just aren't the best

[thorn hinge]

establishing Siren superiority right off the bat, respect

[willow cloak]

I played her a bit like Kamina but gung-ho about naval procedure, the PCs love her.

[shell bison]

PFFF T posing Siren

[heady topaz]

Amazing

[feral dust]

You say not the best

and then have her asserting immediate dominance.

[fallen geyser]

This is very common in IGF games. Players will learn to hate one particular NPC class in particular. For the original campaign which @pearl cedar ran, we would alpha-strike Archers with an absolutely murderous fervor

[quaint pebble]

my players have yet to identify a nemesis but they kind of breezed through the first mission

[tight pier]

yeah, our group is probably gonna start sending demolishers to hell after the incident on denial of service

[maiden ferry]

I was re-reading feather’s backstory, and it occurred to me that ||blinkspace vanishing in the future could theoretically be caused by ra “dying” which is dr Odin’s stated goal||

Dunno if that discussion has already been had here

[warped ibex]

||yep! in fact, that comes up as a plotpoint in act 2, i believe! one of odin's experiments is occuring and the players have the chance to side with odin or against him, and one of switch's arguments against odin is "what if this is the experiment that causes feather's future"
and vex has previously stated that odin doesn't believe that blinkspace being deleted like that makes sense at all, but even still remains cautious about the possibility||

[maiden ferry]

Woah, ||where can I find the stuff for act 2? That sounds awesome||

[warped ibex]

one of the released drafts is pinned in the gm corner thread! and vex posts little excerpts of what they're currently working on in there from time to time, either just to show or to solicit feedback

[maiden ferry]

This is some gourmet shit, I’m so happy I get a resolution to the cliffhanger

[polar glacier]

This thread we're in here was created for the release of Act 1, but the thread in gm-corner existed before this, used for playtesting groups to give feedback. Right now that thread is mostly Act 2 and Act 3 discussion and developments, so it's openly spoiler filled. https://discord.com/channels/426286410496999425/909574961931362365

This thread here in third-part-forum seems to be more careful about spoilers, since we sometimes even get players in here; it's more focused on act 1 content, campaign reports, and such. There's no explicit rules or standards though so there's a lot of crossover. If you're running IGF, I strongly recommend keeping an eye on both threads, and maybe even taking the time to read back through them from the beginning. If nothing else, there's a bunch of memes and jokes hidden in the past there.

[shrewd sorrel]

Archers deserve death 😤

the engi hate will never not be funny to me. I know there's an engi in Thermopylae as well and I'm considering giving him limitless, just so it can make even more friends. I know they'll be fine, but it'll make em sweat

[heady topaz]

My players have a raging hate boner for anythinv with Invisibility so they focused S1gn4l hard, hence the previously mentioned OTK. Also Witches because in a previous game I used an Elite Veteran Witch with Hacker trait.

[shrewd sorrel]

I made this as a fun extra for my players; they'll get it after mission 2 as a gift from Mikaela for helping her run some errands for SSC. They "Fell off the back of the truck" Plus i want an excuse to put all my players in matching catgirl hardsuits

i might tweak it a lil, this is my first foray into making custom LCPs

[warped ibex]

my players have decreed that the One and the Leviathan are in the spade quadrant

they have also decreed that the One and the Leviathan are yuri

[pliant ibex]

A pair of apocalyptic antitheses who vow to oppose each other forever
Did you mean:
Toxic codependent yuri?

[thorn hinge]

...what have you all done

[shrewd sorrel]

[feral dust]

Sure, I'll make it canon.

[lilac tartan]

lmao

[oblique berry]

"Why is my sister named Rose?"
"Because your mom loved roses."
"Thanks Dad."
"You're welcome, In Golden Flame Act 1"

[fallen geyser]

Fuck's sake this joke is funny on so many levels

[willow cloak]

...I'm only seeing two levels and one's just 'cause my brain was slow-marinated in Homestuck juice

[fallen geyser]

Okay like, Rose is the name of @thorn hinge's character in the game of IGF we're both players in

Naming a child In Golden Flame Act 1 is a perfectly valid Calliopean name

But also it would imply that IGF Act 1 exists within the world of IGF Act 1

Which is also fine ||because of the fourth-wall breaking shit I do with the Crone||

[polar glacier]

Also, the homestuck brain isn't entirety wrong; I'm playing a character named Rose, but also, @crude briar is playing a character named Jade. Despite my own terminal homestuck juice addiction, I didn't realize that Rose was a Rose until I saw what Rook named their character.

[willow cloak]

Lmao nice. Might as well accept it at that point.

[willow cloak]

After seeing the crowd art for Act 1 I had already decided that versions of the whole cast of HS are running around my iteration of Calliope. I won’t have them show up, but I know that they’re there, and that’s the important part.

[oblique berry]

That first part was a complete accident and makes this even funnier

glad you enjoyed the joke though

[shell bison]

Gun.

God damn it.

That shouldn't be funny, but it is pretty funny.

[oblique berry]

Void.

I know it shouldn't be funny.

However.

I am comedy man.

[thorn hinge]

...so ||i'm currently writing a lancer au homestuck fanfic set in calliope for a zine that's coming out later this month...||

[willow cloak]

👀
I'd love a link to that, when its available. That's exactly my kind of indulgence.

[subtle nova]

This is literally Umineko
I will not elaborate any further :)

[toxic stump]

Another headcanon from my group: Siren has a secret crush on Switch. I don't know why they think that, they won't tell me.

Also Switch interviewed one of the characters, but since she's a fugitive she asked her face to not be shown. Instead of censoring her, Switch made her appear with a vtuber avatar on stream.

[heady topaz]

[dense urchin]

"Sure do love living in Calliope, having to deal with thoughts that would melt the bones of ordinary people"
- Muse chatter

[polar glacier]

That's an... interesting paring.

In my game, it was kind of implied that Siren and Anastasia Shan had something going on at some point, which may or may not be an ongoing casual thing. She met the team at the spaceport on Asphodel to do a tune up to the Dragon's Tooth reactor, and I phrased it in a was that implied more than I initially intended, but I'm rolling with it. Later Siren had an embarrassing misunderstanding with a PC, Calamity Havok, and there might have been some suggestion of mutual interest there blocked by circumstances from either of them acting on it. Which may be blocked more by later plot, unfortunately, or might turn into something, we'll see how it goes.

In Cruye's remix game, my PC outright confirmed she has feelings for Siren, something they "do have to figure out at some point" . It's kind of extremely complicated, since I'm currently under house arrest after the whole treason and terrorism thing. And that's just the tip of the complication iceberg.

[pliant ibex]

Please do not because I am only at the end of act 5 and still need to pick it up and continue through

(Umi act ...3? 4? spoilers) ||unless you're just referring to Bern and Lambdadelta, in which case I see it||

[toxic stump]

I think it might have to me with me implying that Siren didn't use subalterns of other means of interacting physically unless necessary and spent a lot of time on the muse or playing games and they were like "Introverted nerd and extraverted nerd. They shall smooch."

[polar glacier]

My party got a custom subaltern from Zephyr in Furnace City and lemme tell ya, Siren acquiring the ability to give hugs? highly recommended. If you're going forward with switch/siren, it'll help with smooching too.

In my game, one PC is dating Rat, and recently found out that Rat's also dating Switch. The three of them had an adorable movie night in switch's cabin. Switch and that PC aren't dating, but it's not off the table either. ||Unfortunately they're going into chapter 4. Before they leave, switch is going to call him and ask to meet in private for an important conversation (per the book), and when the mission is over, Switch is missing... and we move to mission 5 and the end of the act.||

[lilac tartan]

"Why we three can't be together"

[tight pier]

DAMAGE TOTAL - A FACE TO A NAME:

Katabasis's Hand of God [GMS Denali]

Total Destruction

-2 HP (Pilot)

Mission-Kills:
"Pouncer" - Berserker

Hertz's Never Meant to Know [GMS Chomolungma]

Total Destruction

Mission-Kills:
Grunt Bastion x1```

Soundwave's Faith in Rebellion [GMS Everest]

1 Overcharge, to 1d3

Mission-Kills:
"Superconductor" - Assault```

Chariot Jackal's Taipan Fool [GMS Everest]

-7 HP, to 5/12
2 Overcharges, to 1d6
2 Repairs, to 3/5

Mission-Kills:
ANDROS CAPELLA
"Hooty Owl" - Veteran Support
Grunt Bastion x1```

[fast parrot]

Everest doing Everest things I see

[tight pier]

they were midliners, unlike the chomo and denali

so they didnt get to get fucked by the berserker, assault, and Andros

[fast parrot]

I thought chomolungma and Denali are supports?

[tight pier]

thye are :)

chomo is a melee hacker

denali is a cqb shotgunner

[lilac tartan]

What is Denali
Is it a third-party GMS variant?

[fast parrot]

TTS chomolungma and DSAS Denali?

[tight pier]

Denali had a homebrew exotic shotgun, chomo had an AR and a charged blade

[tight pier]

third-party everest alt frame, yes

from https://discord.com/channels/426286410496999425/1062222891342647366

support frame, sort of a half-Lancaster, half-Kidd/Emperor

[fast parrot]

Very spicy. Do love a nice exotic at low lls

[lilac tartan]

ty

My friend chose GM's homebrew size 1/2 and high-speed everest alt in IGF game
Then things are taking a strange turn
(blue for players,yellow for enemies,my friend's mech is that one in the red circle)

[tight pier]

here it is

[tight pier]

oooh, i think i know that fight, have fun

[dusky cradle]

Babe wake up, new meme just dropped.jpeg

Short sketch by one of my players during one very intense fight

I think the PC drew it as we were waiting for our turns or something, but anyways, her back-range hacker was just chilling out after being pulled to a corner by a stray gravity gun

PC subsequently decided to do a real hail-mary quick tech against a nearby elite hornet

Overheat! Got a MELTDOWN! Bonus points for being near dangerous terrain!

Panel 1: Genius hacker congratulating himself at the end of turn 3

Panel 2: Same hacker at the start of turn 4, hornet decided to just went in and say hi (thermal bloom from engine explosion included)