In Golden Flame

[polar glacier]

ooh, excellent touch

chapter 4 is probably my favorite chapter, but beat 17 is my favorite beat

[minor orchid]

ohhhhhh! ||another outlander pilot?! :D||

[midnight forge]

||yeah!! I felt itwould be a really good fit as I wrote my first pilot out of the story at present||

I can get her little lore bg if you wanna read :D

[minor orchid]

||As someone with and outlander pilot too... PLEASE :D||

[glossy phoenix]

Its been made real

[polar glacier]

oh my gods I need it

[polar glacier]

i do i do!

[minor orchid]

We getting blorbo story!

[balmy obsidian]

https://tenor.com/view/dungeon-meshi-marcille-so-true-so-real-real-gif-16775216717331987096

[minor orchid]

https://tenor.com/view/dungeon-meshi-marcille-so-true-so-real-real-gif-16775216717331987096

[noble ivy]

https://tenor.com/view/dungeon-meshi-marcille-so-true-so-real-real-gif-16775216717331987096

[midnight forge]

That love of the weather and its behaviour led her well in education, well enough her parents packed her up and threw her off to Furnace City to pursue a better education. It was the last time she’d seen her parents, one final act of kindness she’d never stopped paying forward. 

Lowenna excelled at her work, but as with most childhood interests it faded away as it became increasingly obvious it couldn’t turn into a full career that paid bills, put food in her belly or gave her a good brain teaser. Now, mechanics, that was where things got juicy.

Eventually, she had done well enough for herself to earn a scholarship at a renowned, well known university of sorts - *outside* of the Calliope system. It was a new, terrifying and exciting time for her, where she made friends, enemies, truly found herself and her calling. An education was earned, fought for - like she fought for everything back home - and she made sure to stick up for the name of Calliope as much as she could. That passion for her home system eventually led her friend, a newly fledged Sociology Professor by the name of Harlem… something-or-other, to make good on an old promise and head on out to learn more about her little old backwoods tooth-and-nail system.

Some time later, Lowenna earned a doctorate herself, a physicist with a specialisation in Electromagnetics - and she was proud to have shown it off. One of the few Calliopeans who’d made it this far at her university, and a damn-fine example of everything her parents taught her to be. Times changed, however, and the hunger for something new came bubbling up from the depths of her gut once again. Maybe it was time to go home…… with a few stops along the way.

Craving another new flavour to add under her belt and not wanting to visit home again *just* yet, Lowenna decided to see the rest of the system she was born in and joined up with a mercenary corps as their mechanic, fixing the ships and mechs this group piloted. They bounced from station to station, planet to planet, and over the few years she spent with this crew the more she realised they were not good people, and so she very quietly slipped away in the middle of a boarding party one day, and booked it to the first safe haven she could find - Hell’s Gate.

It was there we find her, two weeks on and trying to lay low the GMS_General_Bar, when her eyes scanning across the room met coincidentally with a face she hadn’t seen in years...```

Thankfully, ||My GM has said that none of her immediate family were amongst the dead in the Ghost Town||, but that just means more bad news for ||Impact Dynamics and Roderick Steele||

She's a scrappy, high-energy and confident Mechanical engineer. Never got used to being out of her hardsuit but didn't want to appear intimidating so she wears nice baggy clothes over it.

Has big friendly dog energy, like a labrador

[minor orchid]

omg Asphodelian Labrador!

Still love the story beats so much!|| and agree, lots of troubles for that Motherfu- hehe||

[noble ivy]

-# I love that you all spam this gif whenever storytime happens

[midnight forge]

She's piloting a third-party mech, the LSI Mossberg from Shadow of Gehenna. It's a Size 2 Defender/Controller with a Magnetic flavouring

||If she gets her hands on Roderick she's gonna crush whatever metal box he's in...||

[minor orchid]

Lucero certainly approves of this

[midnight forge]

I love how it looks

and kit-wise it's kinda stacked lol

[minor orchid]

it looks so Cool!

[west phoenix]

The mark of Juli

[midnight forge]

-# anyway pick up Gehenna there's so many cool mechs

[minor orchid]

mech does stuff, that stuff is good hehe

[minor orchid]

the problem is not picking a mech, but which mech to pick because all of them are quite badass in their own stuff-

Like all of them really cool, ack

[west phoenix]

Yeah i want to run so many builds

[minor orchid]

for me I am happy with the four I picked for my blorbo, I feel all of them fit!

[midnight forge]

I have a few OCs for different flavours and themes

My first pilot was in a Terk 🤢 mech but I wrote them out as having an NHP-induced breakdown and fleeing Hell's Gate. gonna bring them back as a one-mission boss encounter once we finish all of IGF avaialble at present

[formal gale]

Seconded!

[midnight forge]

I have an Oleander build that's min-maxxed to get the exotic weapon "CATASTROPHE BEAM" charged / fired / cooled down in a single turn

It's not a very good build but it is fun

(at least in concept)

[formal gale]

@cerulean river another outlander like Vivienne!

[midnight forge]

oh!!! On top of all this - she's Welsh

[minor orchid]

That makes her even more badass!

[minor orchid]

Wait She also has an outlander?!?!

:D

[formal gale]

Yeah perks of me running two campaigns hahaha. Outlander mechanic as well in my Sunday game, first wave colonist NHP who became a therapist on the Gate in my Friday game

[midnight forge]

oh my Sunday game character is the most awful person I can make

They're in an Iphigenia campaign, piloting the Haber

[minor orchid]

Outlander mechanics... I think it's time to unionize(?)

[formal gale]

Let me guess were you to a witness to the strike break of '04?

[formal gale]

What dis one?

[midnight forge]

It's a genghis sister-mech but flavoured entirely around poisons and chemical warfare

think... Caustic Apex Legends, Singed League/Arcane, Scarecrow etc.

[formal gale]

I absolutely had the phrase "independent variable" pop into my head upon reading that and I don't even play apex hahahaha

[noble ivy]

-# Genghis’ stinky cousin…

[midnight forge]

it'd be getting too off-topic here but I can DM you the flavour and license kit

because I LOVE the mech

[minor orchid]

Was too busy, probs on rehab due to an accident, but certainly heard about that

Another reason to hate the mf-

[formal gale]

I'm always interested in more home brew stuff if you have a link to wherever the lcp is, I'd have to look at it after work

[minor orchid]

The code is shared, the access is granted

As long as you can keep it, pilot

-# But yes, happy to always cheer for outlanders in this forum hehe

[formal gale]

(Hipo did you mean to share it with me or am I just missing a joke?)

[minor orchid]

-# ah no, it's was just the HORUS thing they have in the book... I don't have it haha

Sorry

[west phoenix]

As a player in two igf games i really liked knowing the culture and locations of Calliope. Ironically my second character has a lot less knowledge on Calliope than my first but the vibe is still there

[formal gale]

Oh you good friend! No need for sorries.

[minor orchid]

I really need to dig into more hombrew, seems like a lot of cool stuff and frames-

Though... Brain is still fixed heavily on kobold and I can't get it off my mind-

[formal gale]

Oh 100%, and honestly most of what I have seen personally trends towards the "It's actually really good / balanced"

Kobold is really cool, I think if I ever got to play lancer myself rather than dm I'd probably go some mix of vlad, Zheng and kobold

[willow needle]

does lucy have a kobold mech?

[west phoenix]

Honestly i really like being a gm for lancer, especially with the rebake. Rebake NPCs are fun and i like creating devious 'builds' for encounters and on boss enemies

[willow needle]

in which case you have to tell me how it looks...for the ref sheet

[minor orchid]

Its just that kobold makes so much sense for asphodel and fits so well

[west phoenix]

My encounter last night was devious and they still wiped the floor with me

Still, nearly 9 structures from a single fight. I wanted to wreck them

[formal gale]

As someone who actually managed to land a hit and structure someone with a demo... reading that optional where they can move a few spaces before swinging had me sprouting the evilest grin

[ancient crag]

Meow is what we would describe as evil

lol

[west phoenix]

I had a gross combo that has the berserker deal damage on grab/ram AND because it was an ultra could grab/ram once a round as a free action

I was slamming them around

[formal gale]

Oooooh spicy!

[west phoenix]

Nah dude they are crazy good, they whip my ass lmfao

[ancient crag]

lol

[formal gale]

I encourage my players to find builds that break the game in half. It let's me be evil guilt free lmao

[minor orchid]

If Lucero gets access to HORUS... He's definitely using this

[west phoenix]

Also rebake unstoppable on a berserker is funny "oh you want to BCL me? Well i deal damage to myself to trigger aggression IDIOT"

[minor orchid]

Wha-

[ancient crag]

Very reasonable

[minor orchid]

I feel like breaking the game fun but... Heck

It hard(? Uses too much brain(?)

[west phoenix]

Skill issue

[minor orchid]

Honestly yes(?)

[west phoenix]

You better learn or I'll put you in the wood chipper

[minor orchid]

The whA-

[west phoenix]

I have been in an arms race against my players lmao

We keep getting more and more powerful and devious against each other. Its almost like the threat elevates throughout the narrative 🤯

[minor orchid]

Woaaaah evolving threats

Anyway, put another berserker

[west phoenix]

Wallflower be like "16 grunt berserkers"

[minor orchid]

Lmaooo haha

[balmy obsidian]

WACP

[west phoenix]

Wet ass .. you fill in the blanks

You don't wanna know what i call BCL

[balmy obsidian]

Bitch I might

[west phoenix]

I cannot say it here

[minor orchid]

Wall flower core power?

[west phoenix]

Wide area code pulse

Chomo active AKA your worst nightmare as a GM

[minor orchid]

Ohhhh

Get hacked, idiot

[west phoenix]

Unless you're @clever cloud who missed EVERYONE

POINT AND LAUGH

[minor orchid]

Just put a better firewall

Idiot

[west phoenix]

The only character she hit was the one with the highest e defense

The dice hate her

[minor orchid]

Dice tend to be bitches

[formal gale]

True

[minor orchid]

Except for when they don't :>

[west phoenix]

Good thing they love me, the dice and the bitches

[formal gale]

https://tenor.com/view/don-don-quioxte-limbus-company-true-gif-15934197920106609892

[minor orchid]

passed three engi saves against Soda Pop remember it @hybrid salmon (?)

[silver pumice]

holy shit don quixote limbus company

[minor orchid]

Couldn't stun me once!

[formal gale]

Hong lu limbus my beloved

The reason I'm growing out my hair

[minor orchid]

Damn so pixel

[hybrid salmon]

It's weird seeing that name post-KPDH when I made it pre-KPDH haha

The Demolisher, right? I don't wanna check my foundry

[silver pumice]

TRULY A MOOD

[minor orchid]

Yeah I believe it was the demolisher

Fucking thing kept me pinned-

[silver pumice]

the dice is a fickle god

[hybrid salmon]

yeah I put a rule in the map where it had teleport gates

[silver pumice]

i think my biggest Dice Moment was in the final combat of ch4

[hybrid salmon]

so it just walked across most the map in one turn

[clever cloud]

"wow i have waited for the opportune moment to use my core power, i sure will be affecting the battlefield a
in an impactful way!"

[minor orchid]

Demolisher jumpscare

[hybrid salmon]

ehehe

[silver pumice]

where i whiffed literally ALL OF MY INVADES

[minor orchid]

Oh god invande issues

[silver pumice]

i rolled so shit

[minor orchid]

Invade*

[hybrid salmon]

that was also the fight where ||S1GN4L failed every Metafold Shove and stormed off in a huff|| (spoiler for npc in igf mission 1)

[silver pumice]

UNTIL I MADE VERY CRITICAL NARRATIVE CHECKS

[clever cloud]

i really liked that beserker fucking kidnapping me and whalopping me for 2+ structures

[minor orchid]

That's a gamer issue

:3

Get rektd

[clever cloud]

igf spoiler?

[hybrid salmon]

redditor behavior

[minor orchid]

nOOOOOOOO

[hybrid salmon]

yeah, names a specific named foe

and one of their optionals

[silver pumice]

that is, to ||ensure lynk can establish a legionspace connection to TRIPLE-POINT and survive|| (ch4)

[minor orchid]

But yes no more spoilers(?)

Only 3 combats, funniest shit that happened-

[clever cloud]

oh!, (ch1) ||my S1GN4L was a fucking menace. it landed every single invade. Everyone was almost perma-"deal half damage"||

[minor orchid]

Holy -

[hybrid salmon]

we could have done moooorrrrre...

[minor orchid]

Look, it's all good haha

[hybrid salmon]

how the timelines turn

[minor orchid]

You are the reason I am trying to DM it myself(?)

And why I am working more on Lucero

[silver pumice]

||(needless to say they indeed did so very successfully and survived. very yuriful scene)||

[noble ivy]

you heard it here first ||NHP cascades are yuri?||

[minor orchid]

There's no way

[minor orchid]

Iconoclast talent turns your NHP into lesbians
If one cascades, the other kisses to stabilize it(?)

[noble ivy]

putting the phile in technophile

[hybrid salmon]

(ch1) ||in my epilogue for that fight i had one of the random hell hound moonlighters who survived and just wanted out revenge hack into S1GN4L's stuff because... he left his terminal unlocked. A true script kiddie in my world. The best firewall HORUS can summon, turned off while gaming to reduce ping.||
||that moonlighter was White Wizard, in the Seeder. They didn't realize until S1GN4L pointed it out.||

[willow needle]

[silver pumice]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1259192476619509824/1386107116347199658/cooltext485075155081335.gif

[minor orchid]

YEEEES THEY CODE KISSING

[minor orchid]

Naana stop pls let me get money-

[minor orchid]

(I still cracked a laugh so hard at this haha)

[willow needle]

u can pay me later

[dire cloud]

(Ch4) ||Betty is gonna get so traumatized on Boltzmann.||

[minor orchid]

NAANA THAT'S NOT HOW COMMS WORK

[minor orchid]

Oh dear-

[west phoenix]

shoving you into the building while you tried to move it away and it kept ignoring it with unstoppable was peak

[willow needle]

you get that special treatment

[west phoenix]

"fight back! fight back!"

[silver pumice]

AS ONE SHOULD

[minor orchid]

... Ok all lancer pilots in the sinji pose(?)

[willow needle]

now now, dont cry baby girl

[supple carbon]

yeah

[cerulean river]

was talking with @formal gale about who my characters would even remotely romance for both Friday and Sunday IGF games. Decided my clown car of 4 NHPs would end up romancing each other and I'd be forcing him as the DM to rp them and their shenanigans

[minor orchid]

Oh god the clowncar of NHP's is gonna be a blast haha (I would even suggest as a DM to allow each player to take control of 1 NHP to make shenanigans even funnier, but both ways are good heh)

[polar glacier]

Just saying if I were the DM I'd gladly play that

[formal gale]

I'd be up for the challenge but good lord the idea of giving the rest of the party temp control of the NHPs for that sounds like PURE chaos hahaha

[polar glacier]

I do like that idea though, if nothing else I still consider it a good session when I remember to have each NHP on the team say somethign at some point >_<

[formal gale]

real

[minor orchid]

Agree

Both ways good

[polar glacier]

(not including responding to player prompting, that is)

[noble ivy]

Spin off one shot where the NHP clown car saves the station while the main PCs are asleep

[minor orchid]

Gold, this is gold

[cerulean river]

The Technophile one I can at least sort of take control of when the others are at play, because being technophile technically means the pilot built it, but mine was previously in charge of a mining lazer

[minor orchid]

Write this down

[cerulean river]

Yo like the pokemon episode spinoffs where nobody speaks a single understandable word but Pikachu goes off with Bulbasaur to save a stray Skitty or whatever

[minor orchid]

No one understands, but the message is clear

Someone F'ed up

And the NHP are here to solve it

(starring some scrimblo NPC that's awake for mysterious reasons)

[polar glacier]

A mining laser, huh

[cerulean river]

It's Jerry and Shelly

[polar glacier]

And how far are you into igf?

[minor orchid]

Of course it's them

[formal gale]

THAT campaign we just did our first fight

[cerulean river]

The other one we just started Space Vegas

[minor orchid]

Space Vegas baaaaabyyy

[noble ivy]

Spegas

[polar glacier]

Okay, followup question: Which mining laser was it? Tied to one of the calliope stations? A ship?

[minor orchid]

Oh I know where this questions are goiiiing

[formal gale]

The technophile NHP WAS in charge of the mining laser the Hellhounds stole in the Demon Winter. Went into a soft hibernation and Vivienne found him while cubbying once

[polar glacier]

Shhhh

[minor orchid]

Speeegas

[polar glacier]

okay cool

Act 2 spoilers ||hee hee||

[minor orchid]

As a DM, agree

[upbeat hemlock]

Sounds like your technophile NHP is the alt-timeline equivalent to one of my group's PCs

[formal gale]

||Yeah I was planning on perhaps having the Cult attempt to steal him from her on downtime or something at some point hehehe||

[west phoenix]

they'll thank me later

[minor orchid]

This machine

[cerulean river]

I wanna so bad

[minor orchid]

Kisses people

[cerulean river]

I wanna click

[formal gale]

DO NOT THE SPOIL

[cerulean river]

but I wannaaaa

[minor orchid]

Do not

Don't be

[noble ivy]

-# did you see what I named that file, meow?

[minor orchid]

Culo inquieto

[cerulean river]

https://tenor.com/view/reee-owo-shaking-triggered-gif-17805590

[upbeat hemlock]

One of my player made Dr. Barry PhD, a PLUTO-class NHP that was the Gate's original administrator. He asked to be put into hibernation at the end of the pyrite age because he couldn't face the economic downturn, and wanted to be woken up when things got better.

Things didn't get better, but somebody found him in a cupboard and got curious

[west phoenix]

... no

[minor orchid]

DON'T BE A CULO INQUIETO

[west phoenix]

juli what did you name it

[formal gale]

oh yeah I remember seeing you post that idea earlier I thought it was rad!

[polar glacier]

remind me again, what's archie's gender situation?

[west phoenix]

yes

[polar glacier]

excellent

fyi they are not on the list

[west phoenix]

.... good or bad list?

[clever cloud]

the god list

[west phoenix]

shut up

[noble ivy]

they're transitioning into some sort of troublesome creature

[west phoenix]

killing you with my mind

juli what did you name the file

the image

[cerulean river]

pronouns are your/problem

[noble ivy]

machinethatgivesmeowaheartattack.png

[west phoenix]

i don't get how but thanks?

or was it when i accidently posted it in the chat

[polar glacier]

The list of characters I'm not thirsty for. If that's good or bad is subjective.

[noble ivy]

-# idk i thought you'd think it was the full version for a second

[west phoenix]

lmfao

i did post the full version here for a sec

and then had a heart attack

so thats accurate

[supple carbon]

long or short list?

[west phoenix]

so you ARE thirsty for them?

[noble ivy]

so you mean the sad list

[polar glacier]

Well, I made the list of characters I'm not thirst for because the opposite list would take too long to write

[polar glacier]

HEY NOW

[west phoenix]

okay okay, fair

sorry ada, you're a little too fleshy for them

[polar glacier]

that can be addressed

[formal gale]

Wouldn't RA kill you for that

[west phoenix]

ra a straight up bitch

https://tenor.com/view/explosion-cat-gif-5858640239144030160

[formal gale]

IDK he killed one of the JCH's so thats pretty cool

[polar glacier]

Ra ain't on the list either

[west phoenix]

me .5 seconds later

[supple carbon]

i mean that's a toss up, from waht i see Ra's very wishy washy in who he explodes

[formal gale]

I to struggle with consistency I get it

[supple carbon]

corpo? exploded

normal person? maybe exploded

[formal gale]

I feel like Ra probably has some sort of way to tell if said "normal person" actually has the means/ intent to actually go through with figuring out decorp stuff but ehhh

Like the whole of HA? Yeah they could do it given time and no space rock god to blow them up. Random scientist doing a bit of extra reading? Probably safe on that one

[polar glacier]

Doing FCA violations just to get Ra's attention and ask for a date: Super Exploded

[noble ivy]

get pummeled into sub-atomic ash

[west phoenix]

worth it

[supple carbon]

no one's done it yet in canon, you might get one

[willow needle]

[noble ivy]

-# idk, John Creighton Harrison 2nd might've just been trying to slide into RA's dms...

[supple carbon]

hell, maybe he succeded

[formal gale]

Uhhhh I don't think so on that one

but one can dream

[west phoenix]

he doesn't deserve it

https://tenor.com/view/yugioh-punch-ground-punching-ground-it-shouldve-been-me-it-shouldve-been-me-not-him-gif-18069003738146878767

[noble ivy]

harrison the 2nd is just living on a farm up state

[west phoenix]

HA defenders be like:

[noble ivy]

-# i thought you didn't like all the HA defender frames?

[west phoenix]

because they think harrison the 2nd is just living on a form up state

[supple carbon]

he's dead like harrison the 1st

and just like harrison the 3rd in the future

[formal gale]

promise?

[supple carbon]

i mean, time comes for us all

[noble ivy]

be the change you want to see in this world

[supple carbon]

so yeah i promise

on my ability to eat the creatures he will croak

[formal gale]

Time comes for all yes but sometimes it just gives you a Lich instead

[willow needle]

when life gives you liches

[west phoenix]

croak... hehe...

[formal gale]

make... lichen?

[noble ivy]

MAKE BITCHES

[supple carbon]

don't call your nhp bitches

[cerulean river]

bitches /pos

/affectionate

[west phoenix]

what if they're into that?

[minor orchid]

Codename: Bitches

[supple carbon]

then do it, consent is more important than listening to me

[west phoenix]

and listening to you is important

[clever cloud]

nhp to nhp communication going at ultra mega instant speed means they could be making out at any moment

[supple carbon]

damn

[west phoenix]

thats the secret, they are ALWAYS making out

[supple carbon]

how

[clever cloud]

TCP/IP

port 42069

[supple carbon]

don't know what that means, translate please

[clever cloud]

it's an internet protocol

it's what happens underneath HTTP

[supple carbon]

ah, makes sense

[west phoenix]

they're making out underneath HTTP?

[clever cloud]

hopefully at least HTTPS

[willow needle]

Reverie update

[supple carbon]

https://tenor.com/view/eating-eat-eating-food-monster-h-reginald-gif-2362901127389079325

[west phoenix]

i will protect this moth with my life

[formal gale]

cuuuuuuuuuute

[west phoenix]

i love that she's mostly moth but you can see the egregorian crest on her head

thats a lovely touch

[noble ivy]

i just noticed the "tummy when full" note 🥺

[willow needle]

yeah she has the crest and nameplate. she looks more egregorian when she stands with 4 legs or when she opens her mouth

SSC is obsessed with her for a reason afterall

[supple carbon]

cute fat moff

[hybrid salmon]

The more I think about Makenzie, the more I wonder if she'd just be an Everest-forever pilot. (With some Nelson licenses, probably). Her "traverse the outside of Hell's Gate" thing feels more like mountain climbing the more I think about it.

because I'm pretty sure artificial gravity is outwards along the cylinder, like mountain climbing but across a ceiling

[supple carbon]

damn

[minor orchid]

Everest, Chomolungma, Sagarmatha

you are not alone

[ancient crag]

https://tenor.com/view/gun-db-shotgun-gif-21597283

[noble ivy]

Has anyone here played a forever Saggy Martha?

[supple carbon]

https://tenor.com/view/emoji-gif-24664106

[ancient crag]

a forever Saggy Martha?

[supple carbon]

i mean i don't know a martha, but if i ever see a saggy one i'll ask her

[ancient crag]

you mean picking the Saggy at the start and not changing from it?

[noble ivy]

Yeah

[ancient crag]

good question

[noble ivy]

I mean… I feel like a defender’s frame traits are more important then systems and weapons

Maybe that’s why I don’t see a ton of forever Marthas

[supple carbon]

don't say that name

[noble ivy]

Or what, Amphibian?

[ancient crag]

the Saggy is decent

[supple carbon]

Man

[noble ivy]

Man!!??

[ancient crag]

It doesnt have many flaws but it also doesnt have many outstanding aspects

so all around its good

[ancient crag]

but I wanta more armor

[ancient crag]

https://tenor.com/view/cdi-king-link-throw-out-gif-27163426

[supple carbon]

https://tenor.com/view/redmura-airshipassault-airship-assault-grenland-vaughray-gif-2083680119163889594

[ancient crag]

The Saggy being able to once a scene brace without issue is really good though

[ancient crag]

https://tenor.com/view/kirby-abyss-cliff-gif-23764542

Come back here

https://tenor.com/view/bap-cat-bap-cats-cat-funny-gif-25189756

[supple carbon]

https://tenor.com/view/emoji-gif-24664106

[ancient crag]

[willow needle]

tried to copy the egregorian pose here (?

[ancient crag]

I dont know what it originally was but this is still very good Naana

[willow needle]

The egregorian pose?

This

They pose more like a mantis ||but in my headcanon it's more to be ready to grab tools and weapons due to human adaptation||

[west phoenix]

i honestly want to

i think sag works more as a large brawler rather than just a defender

i want to play a vlad martha

[clever cloud]

vladtha

[minor orchid]

they are a couple

they hand hold while shredding and pushing smaller mechs

anyway too late here, so ya'll have a good night-

https://tenor.com/view/jerboa-roingus-gn-goo-night-the-little-tiepnsy-gif-22339134

[ancient crag]

Ahhh, then as I stated it’s quite good still!!!

[noble ivy]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-sleepy-gif-20263057

[prime terrace]

Ikr im gonna do such a good job as a gm (I have no idea how the fuck im gonna run this)

[limber fossil]

session 3 of grandma squad tomorrow

[limber fossil]

we're escorting the food back to HG

got ambushed by hell hounds

i shot a guy as he was getting ejected

he survived (unfortunately)

[upbeat hemlock]

I have more ties for Jerry

[ancient crag]

Dear gods

[willow needle]

Morning morning

Today I slept for 10 hours wtf

[ancient crag]

No longer eepy aye

[minor orchid]

the eep has been defeated

[willow needle]

damn this gave me an idea

this is something reverie would do

[shell bison]

Good Morning Calliope

[west phoenix]

[upbeat hemlock]

morning Bunzi

[midnight forge]

Jerry doing the Expression

with the ugly-ass tie

[west phoenix]

Jerry would never look this confident

[ancient crag]

Jerry with a handlebar mustache…..

[balmy obsidian]

I don't think Jerry could handle a bar

[west phoenix]

JERRY_MASTERFUCKER

[minor orchid]

look

Jerry has the surname "Master"

https://tenor.com/view/master-chief-new-year-new-me-gif-24326731

Jerry has to lock in on ACT 3

when it comes out

[shell bison]

Jerry, you mind telling me what you're doing in that armor?

"Sir, finishing this coffee."

[clever cloud]

i hate ai i hate ai i hate ai

work is annoying me greatly

[limber fossil]

It’s our canon (well, i know it. The others haven’t woken up to the truth yet) that Jerry has like monumental game

But he’s just too tired and busy and depressed to do anything with it

[clever cloud]

jerry before becoming station director was a menace

[balmy obsidian]

Is having game and not being able to handle a bar mutually exclusive?

[clever cloud]

no

[balmy obsidian]

Then I still maintain that Jerry probably couldn't handle a bar

[clever cloud]

"We need an LLM to tell the database what kind of data we want"
SQL. The Thing You're Looking For Is SQL

[limber fossil]

come to think of it i've never seen a trans man with a mustache

[balmy obsidian]

I might have but I would have no idea

[opal canyon]

This is literally me

[balmy obsidian]

You're a t-shirt?

[opal canyon]

That was actually really fucking fun

[opal canyon]

on the bright side you got to actually use yours instead of turning it into a battery for electricity

[minor orchid]

Except Bartender MF

we love bartender MF

yes I know it's utterly different but you get it

[clever cloud]

cope and seethe bella

[opal canyon]

I do, fairly regularly

I make up for it by squishing pyros

[minor orchid]

Copium sold separately

[opal canyon]

I home brew it

[minor orchid]

1 full action to use

[willow needle]

SILKSONG 4TH SEPTEMBER

[tame tide]

rly?

[willow needle]

yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XGeJwsUP9c

its finally over!

[west phoenix]

Waa waa waa

[west phoenix]

I'm with you, we're missing so many people today because our company can't hire any more right now

One is on a medical leave, one has PTO, one quit a bit ago... I'm not letting it get to me today, it's lancer day and I'm in a good mood

[last leaf]

its 2 days after my birthday, im gonna have so much fun

[west phoenix]

Happy birthday Wren!

[opal canyon]

LETS GOOOOOO LANCER DAYYYY

[west phoenix]

https://tenor.com/view/lancer-ttrpg-mech-genghis-dog-gif-13175239381890990758

[opal canyon]

LANCER TODAY
LANCER TODAY

[minor orchid]

Lancer today?!

[willow needle]

https://tenor.com/view/silksong-team-cherry-video-game-video-games-live-gif-14081579366404597546

[west phoenix]

Today lancer!

[noble ivy]

https://tenor.com/view/lancer-rpg-lancer-rpg-ttrpg-halo-gif-26368667

[west phoenix]

Omg atriox hi

[supple carbon]

Lancer

[balmy obsidian]

I barely-

[noble ivy]

[clever cloud]

What if i cancel lancer today just for kicks

[hearty whale]

Death.

[tame tide]

LANCER TODAY

[tame tide]

https://tenor.com/view/dungeon-meshi-marcille-so-true-so-real-real-gif-16775216717331987096

[balmy obsidian]

https://tenor.com/view/dungeon-meshi-marcille-so-true-so-real-real-gif-16775216717331987096

[noble ivy]

https://tenor.com/view/dungeon-meshi-marcille-so-true-so-real-real-gif-16775216717331987096

[clever cloud]

i love how many people are saying lancer today, cuz it makes me feel like im gonna have 15-20 people in my session tonight

[shell bison]

Can I join in just to watch?

[balmy obsidian]

Unfortunately no lancer today for me, I do however play lancer in two days

[noble ivy]

-# bunzi sitting in the cuck spare chair

[minor orchid]

we all sitting in the expanded compartment

[clever cloud]

you are all invited, DM me for a link /genuine

voice the opfor

[minor orchid]

what time does it start? 👀

[balmy obsidian]

<- playing abiotic factor today

..Wait it's gonna be in the middle of the night isn't it

[willow needle]

we can espectate? :o

[clever cloud]

9pm EDT is the usual time. Im asking one of my players if it's 10pm today

all euros are banned. this is at least 4am for yall

[minor orchid]

OH SHIT JUST WHEN I GET OUT OF COOKIN' CLASS

[clever cloud]

9pm EDT today

[minor orchid]

I can see your shenanigans

[clever cloud]

i forgot you were argentinian and was about to scream about the 3am cooking class

[minor orchid]

haha nono worries

I don't get THAT early

[clever cloud]

today we're mostly combat tho, so not a ton of character work y'know

(ch3, jenny welcomed) ||we're doing Guns at Noon with the intent of sparing the Thief but playing the fight out for reelz to convince the Blacksmith||

[balmy obsidian]

(ch3) ||let's goooo we did the same thing, go jdt go ||

[clever cloud]

||they gave away a comp/con reserve to remote pilot the thief's mech so they could blow it up for reelz||

[willow needle]

Like if I not awake by then hehe

[clever cloud]

||Im planning a mini-game where the thief is on foot and has to stay hidden or tick a 4-segment blacksmith attention clock||

[clever cloud]

then why not play WF from 3am to 7am xD

[balmy obsidian]

||In our group, once the combat was basically over Sam used Absolute meat to jump out of his cockpit, tear open the thief's and stab him with all the other mechs still watching. Laplace interveened to alter the footage to make it look believable. Once everyone else left we ressucitated him with a corrective that Sam had||

[willow needle]

I'm not awake by 7am

[clever cloud]

oh my fucking god

[noble ivy]

so wait... ||you guys stabbed him for real??!?||

[willow needle]

(could I be invited to especate tho pls pls pls pls in case I can't sleep)

[balmy obsidian]

oh yeah sam ||stabbed the fuck out of him there was quite a lot of blood||

he's ||a strong boy||

[clever cloud]

||im so glad serenity's an actual trauma doctor. this might be the play if the thief gets spotted||

[formal gale]

|| I have a feeling at least one of my players will try this as well, if not outright try to kill him ||

[noble ivy]

-# i mean... if there aren't too many people there I could join for a bit

[tame tide]

Too busy running my game

[clever cloud]

sent

[minor orchid]

Suddendly, 30 minutes after you start the session, a jerblorbo is in one of the expanded compartments, roll 1d4 at random to see where she landed(?) He says he's only here to watch shenanigans :>

[supple carbon]

Ohno

[clever cloud]

it'd be very funny to have you guys voice/play the NHPs at LL3 xD

[tame tide]

||Are there any Osiris class NHPs?||

[polar glacier]

Hey Calliope whattup

I have brought you something

[tame tide]

A bomb

[polar glacier]

It's for an act 2 fight but the spoilers are all behind a door so it's okay

[minor orchid]

man the isometric looks so badass-

also, gay sword™ ?!

[tame tide]

Gword

[polar glacier]

Howls player told me she had an RGB sword at one point in the original game, and I was possessed with a horrible spirit that would not leave me until I animated Pixel's token. When her player joined us and Howl became a PC in my game, it told me this was the only token it wanted.

[noble ivy]

you hear that @prime terrace? the original howl loves your token

[prime terrace]

VASFVAYJFASYTJVDFDJVGFJAsdvgyjvfyaedf

SCREAMINGS

MANY SCREM

[polar glacier]

interior shots (ACT 2 SPOILER)||Impact Dynamics Arc spoilers!||

[west phoenix]

Now I'm shy

[clever cloud]

you speak to these idiots every day

[polar glacier]

I pinged it when Pixel originally posted the token, and it came in with gushing praise... but at the time I don't think anybody mentioned that it was her original player ><

[prime terrace]

THE REALIZATION NEVER SET IN UNTIL MY BRAIN WENT "Yo that's Howl's actual player."

[west phoenix]

Not in character with my awful terrible no good annoying voice

[noble ivy]

-# Meow, I'm sorry I'm giving you stage fright...

[west phoenix]

https://tenor.com/view/shaking-cat-shaking-cat-alien-cat-gif-17719290639671130907

You get to see my bully primo despite him and i always agreeing with each other

[polar glacier]

So PC Howl is going zheng for the funny punching, and I mentioned elsewhere that the player loved pixel's token so much we were just going to count the rgb sword as the dd288. Except then that gave pixel thoughts...

[prime terrace]

metal scraping sounds

[formal gale]

Yooo that's a sick token

[willow needle]

that so cooooo

l

[prime terrace]

so now we have BB Howl and DD Howl

[ancient crag]

dear god

so this is the wolfgirl Sekhmet

[formal gale]

See now when people horny post over the mechs I get it

[noble ivy]

https://tenor.com/view/always-sunny-frank-oh-my-god-i-get-it-gif-22328165

[formal gale]

Yeah thats the one!

[ancient crag]

i dont

https://tenor.com/view/cross-arms-gif-11236317760153737162

[prime terrace]

So you're saying I dont need to pull out the Oleander, Balor or the Hydra?

[formal gale]

Eh i definitely see the vision but not exactly my thing either. Only frame I'd be for is probably the coatl tbh

Awesome tokens tho, I really should pick up Kit bashing at some point

[shell bison]

Somehow pixel is good at putting titty on mech

[prime terrace]

what makes me "good" at putting titty on mech?

[shell bison]

🤷

[formal gale]

Uhhhh...proper placement and proportions idk

[prime terrace]

lmao
makes sense

[west phoenix]

Tiddy look good

Make me awooga

Thats my criteria

[polar glacier]

see I get horny posting over mechs, I just don't get putting boobs on them

where would you even put the tiddy on a swallowtail or lancaster?

[formal gale]

Lannie I can kinda see but something like swallowtail or deaths head nah

[minor orchid]

And no tiddy(?)

[polar glacier]

no tiddy also good

[willow needle]

tiddy and no tiddy look good

[west phoenix]

A real one would fuck a mech tiddy or not

[polar glacier]

yes exactly

[ancient crag]

https://tenor.com/view/bap-cat-bap-cats-cat-funny-gif-25189756

[west phoenix]

But the drake does have massive pecs

[polar glacier]

Futch drake could ruin me tbh

[thorn hinge]

Who Said That

[formal gale]

Pffft

[ancient crag]

jesus christ

https://tenor.com/view/modern-family-spray-squirt-annoyed-irritated-gif-4445288

[west phoenix]

Ada on Ada violence

[prime terrace]

this is why Kerfus doesnt hesitate to disintegrate people

[formal gale]

See while I like the booba, if I'm gonna get horny over a mech it's more so what it does than how it looks for me

[west phoenix]

Thats based in the most hilarious way possible

Me getting horny over the kutuzov

[formal gale]

Hence why I like the coatl lmao

[polar glacier]

I can go either way with it, there's gotta be something I like and that can be shape or capabilities. The viceroy is probably the hottest mech design wise, but I think I'd thirst for the taraxacum or swallowtail more. The Blackbeard is, for me, the best of both tho.

[formal gale]

Oooh viceroy is very cool I can see it

[polar glacier]

I mean, I could be seduced by a cloud of balor nanites, an NHP with voice access only, or a toaster if it passes the harkness test I am not a great baseline for these things

[tame tide]

@prime terrace My players thought the Deluge token was sexy

[prime terrace]

Thank youuuuu <3

[west phoenix]

based alert

[formal gale]

I had not considered "not angry nanomachine cloud" as a partner. I am a fool

[polar glacier]

even better if it's angry

[thorn hinge]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-spray-not-afraid-gif-1196917860742165100

[thorn hinge]

Happens more often than you'd expect

[west phoenix]

toxic yuri

[polar glacier]

agaddebkjadlnv

anyway what's this about a sexy deluge?

[west phoenix]

dey loogie

[cerulean river]

@formal gale

[shell bison]

Ada, stop selfcesting

[west phoenix]

Ada, continue selfcesting

[noble ivy]

-# I was running my campaign and missed all the ada selfcest...

[ancient crag]

huh

[polar glacier]

This is now one of my all-time favorite responses to my bullshit

Meow, thanks and don't worry

Bunzi: Worry.

[supple carbon]

damn

[last leaf]

me too juli... Don't worry we can start the cloning rig back up any time.

[prime terrace]

hello cowboy man

[last leaf]

hewwo

[upbeat hemlock]

How many black market cloning facilities do y'all reckon there are in Calliope?

Surely the number isn't 0, but I can't imagine it being 10 either

[last leaf]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Circuit had one personally. But also the number very plausibly could be zero imo.

[upbeat hemlock]

I've been thinking about it since the first thing released for the new lancer jam was a little treatise on clones

[shell bison]

Atleast like..2?

[supple carbon]

TWO?! THAT'S MORE THAN ONE AND LESS THAN THREE

[ancient crag]

two of wat

[limber fossil]

grandma squad sesh 3 today raaaaaa

[limber fossil]

i don't think there are any but like. apparently SSC has an office here that's way bigger than what they need, so shrug

calliope is generally a shitfest anyway

setting up a full cloning facility seems like a hellish endeavour

[limber fossil]

we got our food safe and sound

all it took was 2 cores, 6 structures, 3-4 limited charges, like 2 repairs, and 2 overcharge counters

[formal gale]

this... this was the first fight?

6 structures feels rough oof! Sounds like some dice need to be banished

[limber fossil]

a combination of rebake veterans, shit rolls, new players and experienced GM

our GM was like "hmmm last time i ran this pcs kinda stomped i'll make it harder"

this was WRONG

it was WRONG

[limber fossil]

alas it's on foundry

GM promised us 3 extra repairs each as a treat tho

[formal gale]

ayyy nice

I ended up giving my group a full repair after the 2nd fight myself so that's fair

[limber fossil]

our rolls were genuinely so fucking shit tho

we rolled ONE crit and it was our sagamartha making a fucking tech attack

[formal gale]

pffft

[limber fossil]

meanwhile our GM, a fucking veteran, is out here blazing with rolls

but apparently he lost a pokemon tourney so karma ig

[formal gale]

Ahh so he traded his luck away lmao

[limber fossil]

at one point he fucking uses a cataphract to knock back a berserker and the adjacent PC

so it'd trigger aggression

[formal gale]

OOOH devious

Dang that is a vet GM I wouldn't have thought to do that

Oh let me post the funniest moment I had from that fight myself I had instant karma as a GM as well

[limber fossil]

he's scary tactical

it also didn't help that there was a FUCKING ARCHER

i want to see every archer shot down

[formal gale]

Vet Cataphract gets thrown into meltdown and runs up on two of the team planning to go out in a blaze of glory (after offerin a peaceful surrender at the start, only to change his mind to hyper aggression after the team straight up killed a few grunts that I had flavored as brothers)

Streamer man shoots the Hive, triple ones on damage, I laugh at him

Then I Nat 1 the structure check

[limber fossil]

i shot the ejecting cataphract

he survived

if he comes back i won't miss

the team straight up killed a few grunts
god forbid honest, hardworking soldiers defend the livelihoods of their home against greedy petit-bourgeoisie

[limber fossil]

god said "fuck pirates" that day

[limber fossil]

our grandma squad is a bunch of grumpy older woman with loose morals and 2 horus daughters who might not know what morals are

so as far as we are concerned, the only good pirate is a dead pirate

[formal gale]

Optimal team

[limber fossil]

all the grandmas are hilariously playing rugged junked mechs too

lanny, raleigh and gilly

our daughters (the younger women) are playing a lich and a hydra

somehow this group has 4 cis men in it

[formal gale]

The funniest part is two out of the five in that group are from my previous suldan game that I canned in favor of igf. The two grunts they killed there? Same names as the first two enemies in the suldan game that they spared and adopted as part of their mercenary group

Needless to say those two players were yelling about the timeliness being off!

[limber fossil]

lmao

if i see another archer... it's on sight

i'm going blackbeard just to deal with archers

[formal gale]

Rebake archers are definitely mean

[limber fossil]

what do they think they are, fucking ultras_?_

[formal gale]

"Your turns are my turns actually, check out this gun I found"

[vital kernel]

In fairness, CRB Archers are just as mean

Most of the super mean stuff already exists, I didn't even have to add the Reliable damage, it came like that

[formal gale]

Oh 100%! That optional with the big aoe where it shoots anyone attacking in it was very threatening to my players in particular I'll say

[vital kernel]

Yeah, of the various reaction optionals, Covering Fire is the most dramatic and often the most impactful

[limber fossil]

i don't even know if it was rebaked

if it was i couldn't tell the difference

hell all the same

[vital kernel]

yeah archers are rough

[limber fossil]

if i see that blast one more time

[upbeat hemlock]

Ironically both my group's shot up the archer before it could land a hit on anybody

They have no respect for archers

Cataphracts on the other hand...

[willow needle]

lancer in 8 days!

[silver pumice]

hell yeahhh

[last leaf]

SSC does have an unusually large presence but they also have strong reasons to be doing as much above board as possible in Calliope imo.

[upbeat hemlock]

yeah, I figure any cloning facilities in Calliope are like... single occupancy tanks run by shady individuals

[vast zealot]

I think there are different levels of difficulty when it comes to cloning. SSC is very much in the 'designer children' business, who can be genetic clones but are very much their own people. Creating a baby with specific genetic code would be relatively easy for them, its just advanced IVF.

On the other hand, cloning someone exactly is a much, much harder task. You need to create an exact genetic clone, then artificially age them up to the age of the original without otherwise damaging their genetics. And then (by far the hardest part imo) you need to overwrite their mind with a backup of the memories of the original. You need vastly more expertise and equipment to create an exact clone you can use to impersonate somebody.

[last leaf]

yeah I think it's quite plausible that SSC might have the facilities to get someone a designer baby in Calliope (it's weird but weird in the way that all of SSC's oversized presence is) but there's a big gap between that and having the facilities to do unregulated flash cloning or worse, subjectivity overrides.

[ACT 2]||There is no way in hell imo that SSC would risk having an illegal cloning project going on in Calliope. It's not like SSC could be selling those functionalities in Calliope, even under the table. If word of that ever broke it would bring Union attention to SSC's activities in Calliope and if that happens then SSC is incredibly fucked. You'd rather have a deniable illegal cloning rig set up somewhere else in the Long Rim and just bite the transport times and costs if you were SSC. Although I don't particularly see why SSC would want or need an illegal cloning in Calliope to begin with.||

[shell bison]

Good morning Calliope

[minor orchid]

it's indeed a morning... goes back to sleeping

[west phoenix]

Hiiiii

I must work but i want to sleep

[formal gale]

Saaaaamee... gotta drop the wife off for early shift... eepy

[shell bison]

Show up to work at the honey factory

[minor orchid]

Bun is kind... but bun doesn't forget when you late-

[willow needle]

morning

[west phoenix]

Man we had a whole fuckin audience with the session last night and i am so self conscious

Hiiii naana

[willow needle]

hiii

im sorry i fell asleep early last night

[west phoenix]

Its ok you didn't miss much

And thats when you should be sleeping anyways

[willow needle]

im a strong independent woman, i choose when to go to sleep

[west phoenix]

Nuh uh, get purrito'd

https://tenor.com/view/kitty-burrito-burrito-gif-27664931

[willow needle]

[minor orchid]

hehe purrito-ed

[cerulean river]

Slowly getting art of all my pilots, I got that Sunday igf WIP this morning (artist is Vitpla on discord)

Thinking I'll get her to do my protogen NHP pilot next.

[west phoenix]

Those calves go crazy good lord

[cerulean river]

I did say she was athletic 😭

[shell bison]

Ooooh, I like her mask c:

[west phoenix]

No no you misunderstood, this is a net good thing

[cerulean river]

We love a good rebreather

[cerulean river]

My own pilot could crush my head with her thighs and I'd thank her /hj

[limber fossil]

my pilot would tell you all to go outside and actually talk to a woman for once /lh

unfortunately she's a grumpy transgender milf cowgirl beefcake so i don't think y'all would actually hear anything she says

[cerulean river]

She could crush my head between her thighs and I'd thank her /srs

[shell bison]

This whole system is one attractive woman take over away from becoming ran by a warlord

[west phoenix]

Go on, I'm listening 👂

[formal gale]

That's certainly the impression I've gotten

[minor orchid]

One woman to rule them all(? /jk

https://tenor.com/view/sauron-onering-rulethemall-gif-26657227

[west phoenix]

Bunzi thats ||elske||

[cerulean river]

No no you take away that /hj you're right and you should say it

[minor orchid]

-# god damnit haha

[limber fossil]

"no wonder the fall happened, these losers are too busy thirsting over fictional woman to actually [this text was removed for violating TOS]"
-Anzora, 5016u

[west phoenix]

Its me, i should rule them. I don't fit the attractive part but the rest does

[shell bison]

Nah, she has some good, I mean like an actual warlord with a legion of simp gf henchwoman that do anything and everything for her like a cartoon villian

[limber fossil]

GM and I have joked that anzora probably has had a fanclub develop around her at some point

[minor orchid]

New Calliope Pirate Crew?

[limber fossil]

which she absolutely hates

but i guess that's our fault for the SRT being populated by milfs and manic esoteric nightmare girls

ipad kids on one end and facebook grammas on the other

[shell bison]

Honestly, the amount of SRTs we hear about range a lot more than your standard lancer crew

[formal gale]

IPad kids with access to HORUS tech is a terrible thought

[shell bison]

Yes, you do get the standard lancer crew of "the boys are back in town" tier with their gaggle of mechs

[minor orchid]

SRTs are... honestly a mess

and that's good :>

[west phoenix]

The more i hear about other SRTs the more i realize our group is normal

[shell bison]

then you get the one SRT I heard about that is all catgirls

[minor orchid]

Honestly? yeah-

[formal gale]

Using lich precognition to see my mom's credit card in every time line

[minor orchid]

But come on, if you are in Calliope, things aren't normal already so

props for that!

[minor orchid]

Don't forget NHP clowncar-

[limber fossil]

our lich has hilariously not made it to either session yet

our hydra is possessed

[minor orchid]

Yet

[formal gale]

Lost in the time sauce

[clever cloud]

it was hillarious having an audience learn about some of our inner jokes or funny misadventures

especially the condemned building bit

and BEASH: It's better than the real thing!

[limber fossil]

i should make it clear to our GM that if we meet a recurring villain i will do everything in my power to ensure they do not stay recurring

[limber fossil]

technically our hydra's a scientist

who apparently.... lived on an asteroid all by herself, somehow

[upbeat hemlock]

so, a lot of people make... DeviantArt Tier OC Blorbos for lancer.

Often I find that a little jarring with my perception of the universe.

For Calliope/The SRT, it feels like it fits in perfectly.

[limber fossil]

personally i think people should be banned from playing NHPs until they deliver a full thesis on why they can apparently live unshackled with human subjectivities without being subject to cycles or cascades

(for the record i do not really believe this i'm not your boss or your mom but i do think there's a lot of interesting stories and concepts you can explore with NHPs, and just... turning them into electronic humans kinda makes me a bit disappointed)

honestly it's one of my issues with how IGF handles it too

where it's like "yeah NHPs are just people"

which seems like a real confusing cop-out to me

[upbeat hemlock]

I think of it as "the persona created by the shackles is a person"

but then, I've always been an advocate for the stance that a sufficiently advanced Chinese Room is a person

[limber fossil]

what also annoys me is like

calling them persons and then... decidedly not treating them like it

[upbeat hemlock]

yeah, that is a weird.... dichotomy. Like, the term NHP should be a new thing, with ThirdComm. Seccom should have called them something else

[limber fossil]

to be clear, i like that as a story concept to explore

an interesting thread

but most people just.... don't

[shell bison]

I've herd a lot of the perspective on the topic from Vex and Ada, and while I can't speak for them directly, I should specify that both are in agreement that NHP's should be treated as people in the sense of they are an individual with an identity.

They have wants, desires, questions, concerns, negatives, etc. However that is still generated by the need to fufill a role as NHP's do in base lancer mech license purchase.

The way IGF does it is to say that if you like the persona of an NHP, a preapproved designed version for their NHP Class, and want to keep them as your Ai buddy then you should be able to keep them around and not just swap them out for another piece of hardware and software where it demeans the person

[west phoenix]

And how awful i am to all of the gang

I wield the F slur like Excalibur

[shell bison]

It's why IGF has personalities to certain NHP classes so you don't get "A tool to do a job" you get a Co-pilot you trust

[upbeat hemlock]

yeah

also means you can do fun stuff like "I really need a co-pilot... I guess I'll put out a wanted ad and have interviews?"

[limber fossil]

i think people should do it anyway and then be made to feel BAD and SAD about it

maybe i should stop watching all those Horizon Collective DIngDongs...

[upbeat hemlock]

(obviously, mechanically, the PC will get the NHP because that's what they get as part of the licence. But in fiction, they have to find somebody who is willing to share a cockpit with them)

[west phoenix]

I looove it when NHPs are in the narrative rather than "you buy this dude"

[limber fossil]

Come to think of it... i don't think i've ever played a PC with an AI

[west phoenix]

I have a lot of fun ideas for wallflower

[upbeat hemlock]

out of my two groups, one of them wanted to play an NHP, and he honestly wanted to do it because the concept of the knife-edge possibility of cascade was something he didn't want to miss out having the possibility of happening in the campaign

[limber fossil]

that sounds cool

[upbeat hemlock]

I always figured, at least under ThirdComm, the process is not "I buy an NHP" but legally being "I pay the company a finders fee to recruit a willing NHP.... out of the stack of NHPs that they've manufactured"

which isn't much better

[clever cloud]

this is in response to corebook lancer treating nhps exclusively like equipment and only giving lip service to the people part

[west phoenix]

It concerns me greatly

[shell bison]

When I first started reading some of the NHP lore, I was honestly a bit disgusted with the idea on how this is what Lancer did with the concept of advanced computing. It's left a constant lingering negative pallet on my tongue given the wide history of what it was trying to do, which I respect but I feel a lot of the bite that made me stew over it is kind of gone now for wider community appeal.

[west phoenix]

The vibes are off, but that may be because igf was my first lancer game

[limber fossil]

see, i think that fits, to some extent. it probably does reflect the greater views of a lot of people, even pilots

and it's like, i do think NHPs are persons.

but are they people? do we even treat them as such_?_

[west phoenix]

They better or I'll zap em

[clever cloud]

"do we even treat them as such?" is the important and sour question of lancer lore. We don't and Calliope is weird because it does

calliope has other problems with nhp maintenance and such

[west phoenix]

I love exploring the concept of NHP rights!!! It's one of my favorite topics!!!!

[clever cloud]

nhps are the epitome of "my discord friend helps me get by"

[west phoenix]

haha me and you

[clever cloud]

"im facebook friends with my copilot"

there's a disconnect of humanity that shows up throughout lancer here between those two truths. NHPs are people and they're also very much tools of war and logistics

how do you reason about this duality? how do you relate?

[shell bison]

Most people just ask them to project a feminine hologram and date them as their cope, judging by IGF

[clever cloud]

maaaaaan

[shell bison]

You know I'm right

[west phoenix]

A real one doesn't need a hologram

[clever cloud]

where's my caddleprod

[west phoenix]

Archie dislikes that people prefer seeing them as a hologram

They just wanna go drone mode

[clever cloud]

im starting to develop a clearly false thought that our group has the healthiest nhp rep

even Primoquest Ariadne was a nuanced take

[upbeat hemlock]

The Big NHP Issue that I love thinking about is: Is it ethical to make a living being that loves to do a job? Definitely not

...once you've made such a being, should you stop it doing what it loves? Probably not

[clever cloud]

We breed draft horses

and shepherd dogs

making living things that love a job is apparently very fucking human

[upbeat hemlock]

yeah

sure is

[clever cloud]

pug..

oh god what's the equivalent of an nhp pug

[upbeat hemlock]

...I don't want to think about what the NHP equivalent to a pug is

[clever cloud]

[upbeat hemlock]

okay, no, too late

..it'd be an NHP whose existence is some kind of entertainment or art

it doesn't make that, it is that

oh

[clever cloud]

I do think, however, making new NHPs really does approach unethical. You're deliberately perpetuating this awful house of cards that SecComm built

[upbeat hemlock]

it's an NHP that gets used to do things that a Comp/Conn could, but it's a status symbol

[clever cloud]

damn

[last leaf]

which one?

oh god we're doing NHP discourse again, someone put me out of my misery.

[upbeat hemlock]

sorry

[last leaf]

no worries

for the record, skimming what has been said I think I agree with you Jar but this cycle never fucking ends lmao

[upbeat hemlock]

look, instead of NHP Discource, I'll do NHP Description

...one of my players is having to deal with an NHP crime boss on the Icebreaker called Flat Tony.

[last leaf]

based

[upbeat hemlock]

he prefers to be called Mr. Anthology

all his minions call him Flat Tony out of earshot

[last leaf]

based based based

[upbeat hemlock]

he runs the Octavia Shipping (smuggling ring from The Short Rim) office on the Icebreaker

and appears as a 2-dimensional hologram.

...why he continues to do this despite hating being called Flat Tony I haven't decided

[limber fossil]

oh speaking of nicknames, I've decided i'm going to call andros by a variety of music-related names

[shell bison]

Lancer built a core theme around NHPs, it's bound to be the topic if discussion lots of times, like how New Vegas does with faction selection.

[limber fossil]

yeah but like... those aren't sapient, i think

[west phoenix]

Do you mean the JDT or what?

[upbeat hemlock]

One of our PCs, John "Longarm" Stapler, wound up in Calliope because he messed up an Octavia Shipping smuggling operation (and causes a minor environmental distaster that has also made him wanted in Union).

When Flat Tony found him, Longarm was told he had to find a way to pay back the debt.

The party later stole some cabbages. The message Flat Tony if he wants some to feed to the fish he keeps in his office as part of the crime boss decor.

They then had an hour of mixed death threats and fish-based infodumping in exchange.

[limber fossil]

that was a kindness. I'd've have them learn what it's like to go without finger joints for a day

[upbeat hemlock]

I think he would have sent an assassin but got distracted by yelling about the fish

[clever cloud]

our friend group, so both jdt and WF

[last leaf]

it doesnt help that it touches on some genuinely very unanswered philosophical questions and was deliberately created in the lore to be an unanswered question. Tom and Miguel did a very good job at that (derogatory)

[west phoenix]

It helps that I'm using wallflower to explore NHP rights and systemic issues :p

[clever cloud]

Aaaaa flat tony!! i read his snippet in the character excel and it cemented so quickly in my head

"Ah shit my moral quandry has no real life solution either" (positive)

[balmy obsidian]

My personnal opinion on the subject is that I will purposefully act coy about it and just say NHPs are friends

Because they are

[shell bison]

To be fair, a large portion of the community does literally that of never discuss the NHP question and just get the mechs to explore their character or mechanical game needs

[last leaf]

I think its excellent worldbuilding but also something that's kind of a bad idea to include as a foundational worldbuilding pillar that directly intersects with players gameplay choices. It'd be like asking, what is the ethics of abortion and then have a very common weapon type be powered by the idea of abortions.

[last leaf]

based based based

[limber fossil]

Tbh i prefer that over “MY nhp is SPECIAL and WON’T CASCADE and there are NO issues with CYCLING” or whatever

[noble ivy]

All NHPs will be friends
All NHPs must be friends

[upbeat hemlock]

"Hey, Athena, do you ever think about what you are?"
"You mean the fact that I am the mask worn by a thing I inherently cannot understand without losing myself to madness?"
"Yeah, that"
"Nah, I'm too busy saving your ass"

[limber fossil]

frankly i choose to disbelieve dustgrave’s text on cycling because it’s the coppest-out of cop-outs”

[last leaf]

what does dustgrave say on cycling?

[limber fossil]

It “resets them to their original state but doesn’t result in personality/memory loss”

[west phoenix]

One of my many NHP complaints is how different sources say that you can/can't cycle a deep cascade NHP

But also i like NHP discussion even if my takes are very niche

[limber fossil]

Also says NHPs willingly serve their human companions

[west phoenix]

Like sorry Wren that is one of Archie's defining features :p

[limber fossil]

Which like, 🙄.

Yes, a being designed to serve likes to serve.

[west phoenix]

RIGHT

[last leaf]

I'd quibble slightly with doesn't result in personality loss but I don't see why it should necessarily result in memory loss.

[west phoenix]

Its systemic

[balmy obsidian]

left

[limber fossil]

Also, isn’t it so weird that humans are the ones creating/designing/cloning NHPs*?*

[west phoenix]

GO ON

[limber fossil]

shouldn’t fucking NHPs be in charge of deciding that*?*

[west phoenix]

NOW YOU'RE GETTING IT

[shell bison]

And now we get into Siren Song

[clever cloud]

i wish siren song was better....

oh

[shell bison]

Lmao

[limber fossil]

it’s their people, to what extent they’re even considered people (which, frankly; they really aren’t)

[shell bison]

the hispanics shared a brain cell

[clever cloud]

lmao

[balmy obsidian]

hispanic attack

[shell bison]

god SSMR did so much damage to NHP discussions

[clever cloud]

siren songs touches on these, but i need that bitch to be a whole 12 chapter module about deep philosophy and ethics

[limber fossil]

I got no clue what ssr is or does

[upbeat hemlock]

yeah, Siren Song did not impress me

[shell bison]

That'swhat legionnare does, but it's not official cannon so eh

[last leaf]

gimme a sec to grab the core rulebook because it's not actually as cut and dry as that.

[west phoenix]

It is in my eyes

[clever cloud]

i dislike, stylistically, how legionnaire is written because it's pseudo-academic.

[west phoenix]

Legionnaire my beloved

[last leaf]

same here.

[balmy obsidian]

I have read none of these books

[clever cloud]

like, either have academic rigor in your writing or dont pls

[west phoenix]

That fits with how the core rulebook describes NHPs imo

[clever cloud]

Yea, which makes the NHP questions inherently unanswerable. We cant just survey the populace or conduct new tests

[west phoenix]

I've always thought it was weird they made egregorians official playable characters but never Demosians considering they've been there from the beginning

[upbeat hemlock]

I feel bad as a white guy in a western country going "I don't think the african american author handled the themes of racism and slavery with enough subtlety"

...but, yeah, I felt it could have been handled better

[west phoenix]

I'm an NHP i can speak for it

NHP (Cat)

[balmy obsidian]

pspspspsps

[west phoenix]

https://tenor.com/view/dd-creamheroes-cat-loop-fluffy-cat-gif-25043967

[clever cloud]

honestly the subtlety was the least of it. I liked that part. What upset me is again, the lack of in depth exploration of the topics. You're presenting a massive massive open-ended problem and have exactly 1 thing to say "cycling too much bad"

the rest of it is postulating an additional question of self-determination

[supple carbon]

damn

[shell bison]

SSMR even presents a doomsday scenario on when an NHP abolisionist presents a solution too far

[upbeat hemlock]

and the reason for the cycling doesn't make sense

[supple carbon]

we are philosophy posting today this is a nice change

[west phoenix]

Quick someone start throwing lesbian bricks

[upbeat hemlock]

I wish this wasn't happening at 1am my time :p

[shell bison]

Which is just, unfound the foundations of an entire galactic civilization right now with no care for consequence on how that harms the wider populace, or the people he cares about

[balmy obsidian]

No honestly I'll take the nhp discussion over lesbianing for once

[supple carbon]

we need to cycle the lesbians with a few philosophy chats so they don't ascend

[shell bison]

More like descend.

[supple carbon]

i was being nice

[clever cloud]

yea, it hinges on memory and personality loss which is both canon and non-canon!!!

[balmy obsidian]

DRINK
DEEP

[shell bison]

LEO

BAD

[west phoenix]

Lesbian juice box that makes you like girls

[balmy obsidian]

What

[last leaf]

the crb is actually weirdly unclear as to how much participation the initial NHPs had in their own shackling. But also just like... shackling is a process designed to take a mind from a non-human frame of reference to a more human one. I agree that NHPs should probably have more agency over their own shackles than they currently do, once they are shackled.

But more broadly, the entire point is to shift their initial frame of reference in a pretty ethically fraught manner, of course the mind most closely representing the intended end point (human-like) is going to be in charge of what that looks like.

[balmy obsidian]

You can't expect a horus girlie to not say "drink deep" the moment someone says "descend"

[upbeat hemlock]

if the cycling was because the NHP kept feeling bad about what it was doing to the humans then that would have made more sense

[noble ivy]

Good morning calliope
I missed all the NHP discourse and joined just in time for the bricks

[balmy obsidian]

no no it's still ongoing

[last leaf]

dont worry there's always more

[west phoenix]

Common Juli W

Also Juli it was nice to hang out with you last night :3

[shell bison]

So far, my handling of NHP cycling is that if they have a memory bank that they can upload post cycle they can remember all the people they knew and cared for prior to the cycle. If they don't, they resort to a reset approved point in their memory.

Like how you reset a computer to a data point.

[clever cloud]

god... this is it. this is the siren song remix i would run. an NHP using cycling like alcoholism

[upbeat hemlock]

ALSO siren song has the same problem that many lancer missions have in that getting the PCs into the mission involves some assumptions about how the universe work that... don't match how the universe works

[noble ivy]

Be honest
Have I taken an L here yet

[shell bison]

It still has a narrative punch and a reason as to why you would cycle and keep the base personality you made bonding and growing with your AI buddy

[balmy obsidian]

Yes

[shell bison]

3 engineer turrets

[balmy obsidian]

Here's one just to ruin your record 🫴🏼 🇱

[last leaf]

frankly I think most NHP (shackling) discourse would be a lot more productive if all participants first answered the easier (but still ultimately unanswerable) question of if you could create true AI and your method of doing so involved detailed control over what it liked and found moral, would it be ethical to make an AI?

[clever cloud]

which is, again, why igf is absolute favorite lancer module!

[west phoenix]

No imo

I've been saying that lmao

[last leaf]

this is a different question from shackling discourse but I think a lot of issues around how people judge the ethics of shackled NHPs comes down to their answer to this first.

[clever cloud]

that launches you directly into "children are just parent accessories"

[west phoenix]

I am glad NHPs exist from a narrative standpoint but i think the creation of them alone was kind of overstepping some boundaries

[upbeat hemlock]

Sirent Song, heaps of non-IGF third party books, Wallflower, they all have the set up of "A thing happened, and then the PCs got called in from somwhere else, but the somewhere else isn't in this star system"

...but in Lancer, that means that the PCs would have had to be called in at least months ago.

[supple carbon]

not really, no, but isn't the shackling done out of fear of what they could do more?

[last leaf]

not necessarily.

[supple carbon]

creating life just to make it serve you is of course diabolical

[shell bison]

That's the problem when NHP's aren't AI in the traditional Sci-Fi sense. They were created either from captured Blink anomalies, entities that wanted to be shackled to integrate for humanity, did so forcefully because they were too dangerous to be left not to be or just done so because it wanted to be.

[west phoenix]

Or rather that they were created in the manner that they were

[shell bison]

We can't ask creating a true AI question when it is a being already beyond human comprehension in a gray zone of being brought to our level

[west phoenix]

Yeah the long and short of it is this, it's how i feel about NHPs or at least where they ended up

[balmy obsidian]

The true answer is that we were never sentient to begin with so the entire question becomes moot

[clever cloud]

even ants are sentient

you mean sapient

fuck you leo

[last leaf]

oh yeah for sure. As I said there's at least a couple other questions you need to answer to get to views on NHPs but a lot of why most NHP conversations end up with people talking past each other is because they disagree primarily on these lower order questions and that influences everything else.

[balmy obsidian]

I'm not a linguist

Also no fuck you

Nerd ass fox

Go read books or whatever it is you nerds do

[upbeat hemlock]

I am

[clever cloud]

insomniac trans-bian

[noble ivy]

ha ha, Leo doesn't read

[shell bison]

I understand that. It's like how a lot of modern debate is tainted at a fundamental level with how the two parties can not agree on a definition on something which leads to an endless spiral of debating that then the issue at hand

[balmy obsidian]

Well you're a NERD and probably EDUCATED

[shell bison]

Which is why I always go to,
"Me, as the person? Nope, never allow NHP's irl.
Me, playing my character? Depends on the character."

[balmy obsidian]

How does it feel to be intelligent, idiot

[upbeat hemlock]

yeah. Bachelor of arts with a major in linguistics and a minor in ancient civilizations.

...both entirely unemployable fields, which is why I work for an insurance company

[last leaf]

fundamentally I'm just trying to crowbar some good philosophical discipline (define your damn premises the lot of you!) into these internet flame wars via the back door.

[supple carbon]

making something higher than the dimension we are in have a human view of things

[balmy obsidian]

https://tenor.com/view/gordon-freeman-gif-5409179477895956120

[last leaf]

true...

[west phoenix]

I feel like i would agree on a creation level, but once they're out there i might as well respect em and treat em like people

[balmy obsidian]

Well yeah that seems obvious

[west phoenix]

Just take your meds Jimmy and we'll get along

[balmy obsidian]

Just because someone was born under unethical conditions doesn't mean you should go up to them and tell them "You should have never been born"

Gee thanks Jessica

[last leaf]

the point of thought experiments is to cut down larger issues (like is shackling ethical) into smaller chunks that can be analysed separately and allow for more fine grain reasoning as to why people disagree on philosophical issues.

[supple carbon]

wouldn't RA do something to stop it? if it's as bad as we think?

[clever cloud]

no?

RA is extremely hands off

[noble ivy]

-# who the fuck are jimmy and jessica?

[west phoenix]

As someone who has experienced psychosis i feel like cascading isn't that different, its like an AI having a mental illness

Except all of them

[clever cloud]

fucker just shows up when like 3 separate dudes were trying to decorp

[upbeat hemlock]

...I haven't seen anything to suggest RA cares about anything other than stopping humans becoming immortal or bothering it when it doesn't want to be bothered

[shell bison]

The level of damage possible is far different tho

[supple carbon]

Ra is a dead beat, gonna keep that in mind

[clever cloud]

oh no, not all the mental illnesses 😭

[balmy obsidian]

RA is powerful and all that sure but also what's it gonna do? It most likely doesn't have nearly enough power to just impose a galaxy wide ban of NHP creation and/or shackling and/or whatever else seems to be the issue

[upbeat hemlock]

like, some HORUS people probably believe that RA is left behind the Deimosians as its chosen angels.

But for all we know the Deimosians are an accidental side effect of RA doing Blink Space Stuff

[last leaf]

I mean they absolutely do.

[balmy obsidian]

I don't think it does

But also I've only read the CRB

[limber fossil]

Did you find it

[last leaf]

what do you think the FCA is?

[balmy obsidian]

A set of laws. How heavily can it enforce those laws?