#Solstice Rain Remixed

1 messages · Page 4 of 1

waxen nacelle
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Using the roster created for the remix what forces would you guys suggest for winter scars fights. Particularly the first one, ||high speed, low drag||. I've hidden the name incase for spoilers

limpid pawn
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I've been cooking a revamped opfor for ows

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Having run it vanilla, it's pretty good though

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My notes are as follows

C2: Berserker, Sentinel, Barricade, Archer, Support
C3: MBT, Sentinel, Hornet, Priest, Breacher/Scourer (Not sure which)
C4: Engineer, Support, Assassin, Sentinel, Hive
C5: Operator, Squad, Bastion, Pyro, Archer
C6: Catapharact, Scourer, Hive, Aegis, Sentinel grunts```
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Trying to use the same faction roster mindset from Valk's build, plus some splashes of new stuff

waxen nacelle
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I see. Thank you for answering. For c1 I might do bombard, ageis, archer and goliath as the opening

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Then probably a sentinel backed up by 2x Scourer and a support

near pebble
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Hey folks,
DMing Solstice Rain and making plenty of edits as I go. Was mulling over something with regards to Beat One/Combat Two.
One of the things I'm thinking of is having the combat be the result of failing the extended skill challenge. But I'm trying to think of how to up the difficulty of the challenge. I feel it leans in the players favour statistically at the moment and I'd like it to lean the other way. As in less likely but still possible.
Currently as written it's best two of three group tests. Has anyone toyed with ways to add a bit more challenge here?
My initial thinking was best of five but that's just longer. Or adding difficulty to one or more of the tests. But neither of those seem satisfying.

nocturne basin
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Then for the checks themselves: make them Risky by default so even on 10-19 some sort of consequence occurs. This is mostly to drive the action forward by presenting a new complication

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If your players are higher than LL0, consider making them Difficult by default too, but reward players with accuracy for leveraging clever plans and uses of resources/backgrounds

near pebble
nocturne basin
near pebble
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That sounds cool, I might go with something like it. 📝

limpid pawn
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Tl;dr- 3 clocks running in tandem, with one being a fail state (LSA Nerves) and one allowing for interactions with the VSAF/Furies to foreshadow their existence

near pebble
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That's pretty neat. For my fail state I'm running combat, and if they fail combat the bus gets destroyed. The bit in the book about the bus driving down an alley and the players not being able to follow feels unsatisfying to me and I can see it causing my players to riot.
For the Furies teasing, I'm doing with intel drops if the players opt for the second choice on a scan. I've got a couple of pages of intel snippets I'm handing out on scans and my players have been opting for them over NPC stats more often than not, so that's working pretty well.

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I rewrote the opening so the Nemesis shot them down personally while they were on a routine trip to the city, so they've already glimpsed that unit.

upper orchid
limpid pawn
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My failstate is the LSA getting skittish and telling union to hold the perimeter while they get the civilians "anywhere but here" as they deem the bus a lost cause

near pebble
quaint goblet
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Would adding ally infantry to combat 2 and 3 and maybe 4 effect the balance?

limpid pawn
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I've had an ally squad for combat 3 every time I've run it and it's been fine.

subtle bronze
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Sorry if this has been stated somewhere, I just can't find it, but what ideology Vestan Sovereignty feed to their soldiers to keep fighting? What are their hopes and dreams and such?

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I get that the regime is very aligned with seccomm and that is the reason it rejects the annexation of cressidium into ThirdComm's Union

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But I'm curious on what the people that the Lancers will actually encounter believe

nocturne basin
subtle bronze
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I was thinking of going on the route of "joining union will make us worse" but I haven't been able to think of some good rationalizations of this fear

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"they will divide us like they divided themselves" or even "this whole utopian talk is either a lie or this new union really is based on a fairy tale"

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Sound like the type of thing a real patriot would say, I guess, but I don't know if they would be convincing enough to immerse my players in the fact that some are really willing to die for the cause

nocturne basin
crude terrace
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Their more proximate causes probably also have to do with the cold war on Cressidium itself. They see the LSA's accession to Union as both a yielding of their own sovereignty and willingness to be wielded as a tool for hegemony over Cressidium. I can see Vestan rhetoric accusing the LSA of selling out themselves and the planet

unborn forge
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Yeah I see it as “They’re going to take over and our country will have no power anymore” and coming from a nationalist state that is threatening

quaint goblet
nocturne basin
uneven roost
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@nocturne basin I'm setting up to run your remix and as part of that I modified the point crawl map's .xcf so the nodes/paths were all on individual layers to make it easy to show/hide stuff based off how the players explore. Was wondering if you'd be interested in me throwing that file your way/posting it here.

nocturne basin
uneven roost
nova geyser
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Currently running this remix and wanted to say thanks, really fits the vibe of my group.

Have done half of it without changes, the first big change i did is to post Harbor district.

I added a 4-clock / skill challenge to rescue the Captain with the stakes of either the previous combat failing or this skill challenge resulting in the sub diving, to the sea floor in the Bay of Nov to await Kiros' orders.

This allows the players to choose to persue the sub and have an underwater fight using the extraction sitrep with some veteran assassins since they can actually swim along with some of the more mobile NPCs

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I also added tokens to represent the LSA and VSAF forces position in Nov Elysium with the intent of VSAF deploying from harbor district and the river to attempt a cauldron formation around FOB while establishing the AA position at the Train Depot.

The offensive has two objectives to try and get multiple points of bombard placements to begin artillery strikes against the FOB and secondary of securing Farris and Bannerjee as they have vital information with regard to the Rio-Grande and the Warp Gate.

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Also curious if anyone created a vehicle stat block to represent the stealth sub carrier the VSAF uses. Described in Beat 3 and involved in Combat 5

nocturne basin
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Damn this all sounds like fun modifications to my remix! Tough choices at the harbor are great, and seeing the battle of Nov Elysia unfold on the map sounds great (if there’s a way to justify that intel at least, the comms are jammed after all 😅 )

nova geyser
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Thank you! it really is a great remix for telling a mecha war story from flashpoint to resolution extending it out when possible rather than doing the as written time jumps. Your remix was also my first exposure to point crawl and i like it a lot as i always bounced off hexcrawls

sour sparrow
sour sparrow
nova geyser
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I ended up making the sub size 4 and yea you are right the scale is pretty off, i didn't end up using that prep as the players were able to win that battle (barely) and succeeded in the skill challenge to rescue the captain off the sub before it dived

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the lore is different because me and the playgroup used microscope to establish Cressidium's lore and part of that included the existance of a blink-gate that was heavily mined in addition to severing the omninet relay

sour sparrow
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Ah interesting!

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How was Microscope with the existence of pre-established Lore?

nova geyser
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really great, i used my turns in the system to establish Lancer/OSR cannon lore. I had my lens first and established 75% of what was written in OSR and during my later turns reinforced that. During the pallete phase i did include lancer staples like NHPs, Printing Technology, Blink-Gates

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The biggest change imo is that Republic of Okasnia doesn't exist and the third main faction on the planet is the Army of the Seven Winds that inhabits a vast section of Cressidium overrun by genetically engineered super-Kudzu and dinosaurs that were designed to eat it ... lol

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so i guess be aware that someone could suggest something really out-there

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but ill be using the monstrosity and xenomorph templates to let the players fight dinosaurs and mechs designed for said dinosaurs

sour sparrow
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Oh wow sounds super awesome!

nova geyser
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OSR remix train deport combat in a couple days, excited for it.

The players split in deployment between A and B so going to have the the Sentinel (Punisher Ammo & Imapler) + Assassin (Spin Kick) engage one group and the Rainmaker, Support, and Hive (Seeker Cloud) against the other group

unborn forge
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The hive can be useful to lock down people who are flanking with the drone barrage, or move your own allies around with involuntary movement

nova geyser
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100% planning on using that + the javelins to try and area deny while the defender is engaged with the other group

summer sundial
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For anyone who'd like to have animated hostiles when running this and Winter Scar, you can find my animated NPC pack here: #1212311539105931295 message

steel bane
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oh these rule!

nova geyser
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I changed some of the combat rewards:

Kirmani Plaza gives access to the City Map as well as the option to communicate with rio - requires a successful narrative check with a 2 difficulty.

Downtown gives access to VSAF battalion information / location as well as 1 battalion of LSA forces and 1 battalion of Union forces that can be moved between nodes to establish safe zones (no military encounters)

Train depot gives access to a second full repair and the ability to get Farris/Bannerjee back to the Rio-Grande

Residential gives access to city-wide communications, allowing you to communicate with rio without a check or to send commands to FOB sabre

Docks gives access to Farris' intel that gives an advantage on all rolls connected to Kiros, combined with Train Depot VSAF cannot use Stabilize

Hall of Consuls causes a retreat among all VSAF forces reduce all other node's reinforcements by 1 NPC

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I used clocks two 8 clocks one for "Battle of Nov Elysia, VSAF victory" "Battle of Nov Elysia, LSA/Union Victory" Every 5 hours I did opposing rolls if there was a VSAF and Union/LSA near each other on the map if the players or Sgt. Garcia was near I would either let the players choose a trigger to roll or give +2 Accuracy to the Union/LSA. I would then adjust the amount of battalion tokens accordingly

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tokens I used to represent battalions

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There were 10 initial VSAF deployment 6 lances (one for each combat) and 4 squads

There were 4 initial LSA deployments, two Lances A(Sniper, Barricade, Support) and B(Bastion, Specter, Scout) and two Squads surviving

There were 3 initial RO deployments, all Squads that have dispersed and retreated from the city on polar boats.

There are 2 Union deployments in addition to the lancer team, Squads.

There is a LSA and Union Squads in Downtown Nov Elysium with the LSA B Lance.

The LSA A Lance is in Kirmani Plaza

There is a Union and LSA Squad at FOB Sabre

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I changed Nov Elysia to be an independent city-state that is the closest city to the equatorial space elevator with shared military presence from each faction on Cressidium.

The Agolis Islands mentioned in OWS is between Nov Elysia and the space elevator

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I used this for the North Hemisphere, Army of the Seven Winds is Republic of Okasnia

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i really wanted to dig into the military campaign aspect, hence the battalion tokens / world map. I also thought it might be interesting if the players decide to try and recruit help from the RoO

nocturne basin
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Hell yeah this looks so cool

nova geyser
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Thanks! Used Argentina as inspiration for Vesten, per the remix they use alot of lasers and thought a mining oriented society would develop that. Indonesia/Malaysia as inspiration for Leandric States, and Ukraine/Romania/Slovakia for Okasina

sour sparrow
sour sparrow
sour sparrow
nova geyser
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Squads as the NPC class yes, flat rolls without NPC presence but they were so invested that i didnt deal with a roll without them there

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It was more so do the forces help shore up the NPCs I gave appropriate reseves, like sniper team

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the rolls were in favor of the players, for each successful combat i added one to the Lsa/Union victory and removed from VSAF victory

steel bane
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Made some OSR/OWS maps after ages of futzing in Azgaar's Map Generator and a lot of wikipediaing about the Dardanelles 🤣

Cressidium_6.png Cressidium_5.png Cressidium_4.png
sour sparrow
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The maps themselves look very cool though

steel bane
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Thankyou!

I guess I was thinking that Okasnia's got a big hold on shipping into the inland seas when the topography panned out the way it did: my other idea was having Okasnia be over in one of the chunks of "unaligned regions" in the West

winged bluff
chilly silo
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Purely based off the Nov elysia map provided by Valk in the Solstice Rain remix, it would actually fit super nice right here towards the southern coast of the lsa territory on this map, even has similar river placement as the remix map

Cressidium_6.png
steel bane
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That seems like a good spot!

I was thinking of putting Nov Elysia somewhere around here, but I think yours makes more sense for it being a unexpected mega-submarine-carrier-based attack cuz it's further away from Vestan territory

Screenshot_20250312-083113.png
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Honestly no idea for Grevka: can't really remember what's said about it in OWS, but I'll reread before I place it!

steel bane
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looks like (OWS spoiler) ||the first mission is happening on the "southern coast" of the Vestan Sovereignty, while the Grevka (described as a "Vestan stronghold-city of Grevka") offensive is being used to cover for the players' insertion|| so I spose Grevka would be somewhere not on the south coast of...uh...Vesta?

nova geyser
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finished OSR remixed tonight, was really great overall.

Loved how it opened up player choice, in fact they never cleared the residential sector so I'm having that + arriving at the Hall of Consuls right at 18:00 day 2 + the Furies sacrificing himself to buy as much time as possible for the VSAF to extract with Bannerjee.

The players went Kirmani plaza -> Downtown Nov Elysia -> FOB Sabre (Full repair) -> Harbor District -> Train Depot -> FOB Sabre (2nd Full Repair) -> Hall of Consuls

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Using the rebaked Operator + Ultra + Veteran on the Furies was a really great boss battle, had an Elite Hive, Veteran Bastion, and Scourer with him. The players rolled really well and obltierated the Hive, Bastion, and Scourer in the first 2 rounds but not without them getting some licks in but it bought enough turns for the Furies to get off 2 SCL attacks and a single Volley with the Raptor Plasma

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Think i ended up taking 4 structure and forcing the players into a tough choice between resting and immediately pursuing Bannerjee

nova geyser
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Forgot to add that i used the rebaked veteran operator "Spec-Ops" put a stealth hardsuit and a heavy signature weapon (a small scale energy beam) on Kiros. After self-erasure he ejected and tried to use the stealth hardsuit to get away but the Swallowtail's lotus projector put a stop to that. The player mechs surrounded him and used hold action that if he moved they would unload on him with one giving a surrender ultimatum. Kiros looked at them "I'd rather die than surrender to spacer scum" and stepped backwards triggering all their held skirmishes.

I then opened up the world map to the players, i think i posted it above. I had the Rio-Grande mention a resource scarcity with regard to lancer full repairs and they have 4 total full repairs left (1 for each of them) They can ask Farris to send the Rio-Grande to a nearby asteroid to mine and process for more materials to have for full repairs, takes 1 week for 1d3 full repairs, but with the consequence of not having dropship support.

So they have the following options after they were hurt a decent amount by the Furies coming off a full repair:

Press on towards the Vesten Foward Operating base to try and either recover Bannerjee or find out where the VSAF might take them, Spend time scavenging in Nov Elysia (4-clock for an hour of time yielding 1 full repair), or attack a VSAF artillery battery (beacon recon to find the battery, then smash & grab) with 1:1 supplies:full repairs on the smash & grab

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Think ill come up with a random encounter table for travelling on cressidium between cities to take the point-crawl to the OWS plot-line, with the Vesten FOB having info about the TARTAROUS research base, the cold-war bunkers, and Bannerjee's location.

Then letting them choose between helping with the LSA+Union counter attack on Grevka, clearing out some bunkers, or rescuing Bannerjee

quaint goblet
steel bane
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Slightly weird question, but has anyone run an SR team who are roleplaying as anyone other than Union Navy pilots?

I'm kind of trying to get my head around whether it would work giving players the option of being an LSA, or even an Okasnian or (non-coup-supporting) VSAF pilot who's visiting the Rio Grande in a show of good faith by Union: a kind of thing to hook them to the planet a bit more. Obviously you're still sort of working for Union, but just something that sprung to my for my players who are first-timers to make it seem a bit less restrictive

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I guess there's still the restriction of "you are a military mech pilot" lol

unborn forge
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Winter scar goes deeper into non-union pilots, LSA, Vestan resistance pilots, and so on. I’ve run with LSA pilots, it’s fun!

steel bane
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nice! I'm thinking of maybe a little Union Administrative Department survey form....might share it if it ends up being any good

steel bane
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It's about half direct lifts from SR + WS and half my writing: I think the questions are maybe a bit wordy, but I could edit for 100 more years and still not be happy, hopefully it gives some others some ideas!

image.png image.png image.png image.png
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also some LSA and Okasnian flags/badges I worked on

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steel bane
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Dreadful layout I've posted this in in Discord but this is a sort of presentation I'm gonna try and use to play out the It's Not the Fall That Kills You beat

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I'm also thinking of having a character from OWS be the dropship pilot who takes the team down (having them survive the crash obvs)

chilly silo
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Also these fuck and my greatest regret is we just finished osr so I just missed my window to use these 😅

steel bane
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I had the exact same idea but wasn't sure whether a pic from Winter Scar would be considerd a spoiler haha

limpid pawn
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Simply run it again for another party

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Naia exists in a single sentence during downtime. It's probably fine.

steel bane
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Yeah, that's very true

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In that case might as well cross-post this here!

Did some edits of Juan Gee Tan's character art for Naia Reyanud: this sort of overlaps with Solstice Rain cuz I'm doing some shuffling around and using Reyanud as the dropship pilot in the first OSR mission.

Instead of having them first show up in Winter Scar, I'm thinking they'll lose their arm in the OSR crash and give the players a bit of an opportunity to do some roleplay, maybe get the players a single-use rocket launcher attack as a reserve for combat 1 if they do some medical treatment on Reynaud and get them their Null-C cigs lol

Not super happy with the arm for the crash scene (spoilered for blood, not actually gory but just incase anyone doesn't wanna see iy) but I was just doing some mucking around in Gimp with just my mouse with these, I'll give it another once over with my tablet probs, any ideas for how to make it look more like they've lost an arm without being too explicit is appreciated 😰 And I'm quite proud of my edit with the first one with the bio arm tbh!

Naia_Reynaud_-_Bio_Arm_-_Smoking.png Naia_Reynaud_-_Bio_Arm_-_Talking.png SPOILER_Naia_Reynaud_-_Crash_-_Smoking.png SPOILER_Naia_Reynaud_-_Crash_-_Talking.png Naia_Reynaud_-_FOB_Saber_-_Smoking.png Naia_Reynaud_-_FOB_Saber_-_Talking.png
steel bane
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Also, does anyone know if there's an OSR/OWS google drive for player-made GM resources, tokens, narrative maps, etc. like there is for Wallflower? I'm guessing the Wallflower one mostly came up out of necessity for the maps, but could be a kinda cool thing to do if anyone's interested in contributing!

steel bane
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Working on a Garcia too:

image.png image.png image.png
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also I'm gonna do Bannerjee next but this one's just for fun...Nilan Genesis Ebannjelion...

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steel bane
chilly silo
steel bane
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i feel like codec filter is just right for lancer ngl

chilly silo
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Fr fr but I'm a huge 80s-90s mecha dork and I've got burnt orange filters too to help with the whole Evangelion feel haha

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But we ended up using the green ones for generic visibility since the players liked those ones more, just kept the session playlists to gunbuster and eva

steel bane
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cctv green filters you say....

image.png
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looks like we have ourselves a great minds situation....

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also, a happy Garcia: think I might do a fishing hat for him for FOB saber

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unborn forge
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this will all be very useful when the solstice rain visual novel is created...

limpid pawn
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Porting Solstice Rain to Lancer Tactics

steel bane
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i just realized it's actually me porting Solstice Rain to Ace Attorney rip

chilly silo
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The group just finished osr and is moving to the inbetween mission before ows, where they're tasked with storming an off shore decommissioned oil rig that the Leviathan, the stealth sub in osr, stopped at before the invasion

subtle bronze
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So, 3 of my players are going HORUS, and I'm stumped trying to think why a horus cell would be so invested in this conflict

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I'm accepting suggestions, please

nocturne basin
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Basically a cell made it to Cressidium before the fall of SecComm and festered in Okasnia, and Okasnia formed a symbiotic relationship with it

subtle bronze
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Interesting

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Not much is said about Okasnia in the books right?

nocturne basin
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I know that’s just passing the buck to Okasnia but yeah

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My take was Okasnia wanted the Cold War to stay cold while they gathered power and puppetmastered

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Now it’s hot, could you Lancers please stop that, thanks

steel bane
copper mesa
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@nocturne basin Valk, it's me, I return... I got a quick question that I'd love to hear your opinion: I'm working on a interlude (mission) that bridges between Solstice Rain and Winter Scar. (I'm thinking of maybe snazzing it up for release too)

One question since you're the more experienced fella... How does one go about getting a third-party thing published, and how do I even go about it?

nocturne basin
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oh boy okay well

copper mesa
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no need to be super extensive now if you can't

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I'm still thinking about it

nocturne basin
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which stage you want, just publishing or the whole creation process

copper mesa
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just a big sum up of the creation process, pitfalls, or what should i do so i can get over my self-conscious thoughts of "Wait this is probably really bad in comparison to what's out there"

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'cause, I am literally making a fanon gap-filler mission between two really fun first-party modules

nocturne basin
# copper mesa no need to be super extensive now if you can't

publishing is fairly straightforward

  1. Get your itch account setup, including tax info if you're taking money for your work
  2. (Optional) do the same for DriveThruRPG to widen reach (don't do Exclusive digital sales if so)
  3. Set up your itch page, this helps: https://hedgiespresso.itch.io/itch-page-image-templates
  4. Upload your files
  5. Release when ready
  6. (Optional but recommended) ask a PNet mod for a news shoutout, plus do other "marketing" where appropriate
itch.io
Itch Game Page Image Guide and Templates by Star West

A guide and templates for making your Itch pages look awesome.

copper mesa
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I have no clue if I'd ask for money for something that could be my first release lololol

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I do put a lot of money into my homebrew stuff, and right now I intend to do the same for this interlude

nocturne basin
# copper mesa just a big sum up of the creation process, pitfalls, or what should i do so i ca...

okay big summation

First big thing: Make what you wanna make, audience be damned. You gotta make something, and it's best to make it for yourself

Now for steps, shit breaks down like this:

  1. Brainstorm ideas: Get like, 10 ideas written down. Pick the one that speaks to you most, save the rest for later. Don't settle on the first one that comes to mind
  2. Start fleshing out the idea: What's your conflict, scenario, villains, themes, adventure structures, etc. What do you wanna explore in this thing
  3. Outline: List out everything in super basic terms for a 40k foot view. Figure out what all you gotta do
  4. Start writing the draft: This is the hardest step and will likely take the longest. It always takes me longest. But you gotta do it. Break down your outline into digestible chunks, and keep writing. If you're lost, go back to the outline and flesh it out more, then come back
  5. Keep writing that draft
  6. You guessed it, finish the draft
  7. Simultaneously: Start some Edits and also call for a playtest. Pesto's guide to testing is very good: https://pestopublications.itch.io/pestos-guide-to-testing
  8. Layout: Once editing is done, get some layout work done while playtests are happening
  9. Shape the whole thing up and finalize
  10. Publish the thing
itch.io
Pesto's Guide to Testing by Pesto Publications

A free, comprehensive, system-agnostic guide to TTRPG testing

nocturne basin
copper mesa
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What did you do

nocturne basin
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Guess

copper mesa
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Money.

nocturne basin
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you guessed right

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charge for your work

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you're worth it

copper mesa
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I think I'm cut out for playtesting because this will be my players going thru it first time

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Call me ambitious. But this interlude I'm making will feature some real snazzy recordings of mine

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I'm still very surprised my solstice rain playthroigh has... hundreds of views, no, thousands

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Thank you for the remix and all the help

nocturne basin
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Happy to assist!

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but yeah: my first release was the Lancer RPG Template, and I charged (and still charge) for it

My first adventure released was Pierce the Heavens, and I charge for that too

copper mesa
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I'm venturing into homebrew picking up where I left off. Got a snazzy idea where ||week(s) timeskip, stealth and spec ops initial steps as a way to build-up the eventual offcialized squadron in winter scar||

I understand. I have to make my money back somehow after how much effort I put into my campaigns lolololol (commissioning artists is my way of living)

nocturne basin
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Oh, somewhere in that step by step process above, I squeezed in the maps. Probably should happen at least after the outline

copper mesa
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Ooh thanks. I do make my maps isometric but it should be fine leaving a hex grid for players to know the layout

nocturne basin
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Now, for the steps above, I'll admit that I honestly did Draft Writing and Layout at the same time by typing draft directly into my layout template. It may not be the best for getting draft done but it helped me visualize what my shit would look like and feel like I was making meaningful progress

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it's a personal thing and may not work well for you; I just hate purely writing draft, and having the layout, while distracting, helped me make progress

copper mesa
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I just tend to write a big outline in simple.three act paragraphs

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And then go from there what's coolest

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My first homebrew campaign, fire with Fire, started from the end

"How do I use this awesome song and lead up to this awesome twist?"

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Sometimes you just wanna make a really awesome fight but then realize the awesome fights are the ones that.build up the best

nocturne basin
# copper mesa And then go from there what's coolest

Trying to think about how my other adventures went

  1. Pierce the Heavens: Mostly as the above. Maps came last-ish. Typed draft directly into layout. Took 2 months, about 9K words + 2 maps
  2. Technophobia: Fuck this one ugh. Followed the steps, got to outline, stalled on draft for over a year. Made most of the maps at least? But kept needing to figure out my special rules and room layouts and how I was gonna write the damn thing. Mothership's Gradient Descent and Another Bug Hunt guided me hard
  3. Kill the Noise: Smoothest fucking one yet. Pulled an idea from old brainstorming, knew I was going to make a 6-panel trifold pamphlet and thus structured my outline to fit those 6 panels. Proceeded to go to town. Most time consuming parts (at least in my head) were finding art and making the map(s). Learned how to use Affinity Publisher 2, was thankfully quick to pick up. Just a 1-shot but I'm hella proud of it.
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Outline is the strongest thing you can do, IMHO

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good outline will recenter you and guide your draft writing

copper mesa
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Thx valk

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Might come back around here as I develop my interlude to make it interesting

nocturne basin
steel bane
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The injured Cpt. and Ambassador are for when they're encountered after being captured was the idea

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Oh, forgot these RIOs

RIO_-_Happy_-_HACK_010101.png RIO_-_Serious_-_HACK_010101.png RIO_-_Serious_Talk_-_HACK_010101.png
chilly silo
#

Yeesh is this Rio's "game face" as mentioned in the books or is she cascading in your game lol

winged bluff
#

These are awesome totally gonna use them for some of my winter scar narrative scenes set in-between mission one and two

steel bane
#

also, if anyone wants the .xcf files, lemme know

steel bane
#

Some baseline Lt. Kims...

Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Smile.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Talk.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Wink.png
#

And a couple of TACSIM ship piloting Kims as well...

Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Eyebrow_-_Shadow_-_TACSIM.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Shadow_-_TACSIM.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Smile_-_Shadow_-_TACSIM.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_TACSIM.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Talk_-_Shadow_-_TACSIM.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Talk_-_TACSIM.png Lt_Alex_Kim_-_Wink_-_TACSIM.png
#

All of the originals of these are by Juan Gee Tan btw! Great stuff, also really cool that you can see how their style has evolved between doing the OSR and the OWS stuff!

upper orchid
#

him smiling look uncanny lol

#

I do not think of him as the kind of person to smile a lot

#

but these are SUPER AWESOME

steel bane
#

yeah, I tried to make the smile kinda awkward 😭 (thankyou!)

upper orchid
#

IT LOOOK SO NICEEEEE

steel bane
#

↓this is Oshlet's original↓:
#the-gallery message

steel bane
#

^Oshlet's original "Xerxes" above^
Thought I'd collect my edits of some of one of Oshlet's mech pics, which I've done some edits of to represent...uh...another one of Oshlet's mech pics in OSR lol

Alt_Vestan_Operator_-_Blue.png Alt_Vestan_Operator.png EX-101_Operator.png
steel bane
#

sorry to be constantly posting in here, but: did another (actually reasonably heavy this time!) Oshlet edit, retooled their VSAF Kerberos (Assault) to be an Archer npc

KERBEROS_EDIT.png
#

Oshlet's original VSAF mech pack:
#gm-corner message

copper mesa
#

do you all have any ideas on how the rest of cressidium could be? or rather, suggestions on a city name idea and layout for vestan territory?

#

and another quick question, @nocturne basin what did you use to generate that city for nov elysia? would love to use the same tool so i could make a new map layout design

nocturne basin
copper mesa
#

lemme seeee

nocturne basin
copper mesa
#

yep thats the one, thank ya

#

i also noticed it lets me download as 3d! perfect, i might make use of it for a very lovely splash screen

#

anyway, there's no actual map for cressidium at all, right? no hints or ideas on how vestan cities could be named?

#

or details on how their archtiecture could be?

nocturne basin
copper mesa
#

hmm

nocturne basin
#

I imagined something with older Greek or Roman columns

copper mesa
#

haha, i had that on my notes actually

#

considering their roman nomenclature (if i spelled that right) for units

nocturne basin
#

I think you did but they’re Greek nomenclature

copper mesa
#

dat

#

I'll probably make my mission be focused entirely around a very "small" are around an industrial sector of Vestan territory to justify the locations for train-grabbing combats

steel bane
#

Yeah, like there's no mention of what Cressidian culture is like other than politically and like a broad sentence about history of SecComm officials coming there, but almost every Cressidian name mentioned has either a Greek or Persian origin

steel bane
#

The origins of names of the couple of Vestans mentioned in OSR and OWS have a few hints as to what you could do with Vestan cultural influences (without any spoilers for OWS, just discussing the etymology of the names):

SORVAN KIROS
(alternate transliteration of Persian "Sarvan"/Servan" + alt. translit. of the way you say Cyrus in Greek [Kyros, Kyrios], from the Persian "Kurus"...like Cyrus the Great, big historical Persian Empire guy)

BATEA REZMIRA
(alt. translit. of "Bateia", daughter of King Teucer OR a nymph mentioned in one of Plato's dialogues + "Rezmira", which seems to be a combination of two names, Rez could be a Persian name, means "red-haired", Mira is a name in a heap of languages including Arabic)

VASIL GEROU
(Cognate of Vasily, Basil, Basileus, etc. all from the Greek word for king + Gerou is a French name, cognate of Giroux, but it could also be a shortening of the name of the Spartan senate, Gerousia)

And sort of related, the only named LSA...ian? I can remember is:

ADON PETRAS which is super Greek.

#

sorry, I love etymologies: point of all that is, both Greek and Persian/Iranian stuff could be a fun influence for architecture, culture, food, etc. cuz both come up pretty frequently in the names on Cressidium, and they're cultures that have been linked in many ways for a long time, so a lot of crossover/links.

Also as a note, most of the references in the names are to both Ancient Greece and Persia, which were at war pretty frequently, Battle of Thermopylae etc

steel bane
#

also all the named VSAF mechs have Greek names: though I did just think that maybe you could spin those as the identifications that the LSA uses for VSAF mechs, like NATO reporting names of Soviet jets and helicopters being completely different to what the Soviets called em

copper mesa
#

i think it was said at some point by kai that the names assigned to the mechs are vestan's own?

#

not entirely sure right now

#

i've spent my time writing the flow for multiple narrative beats to introduce all the new characters. its some of my returning players but new ones, and the returning players are opting to use new PCs, so it's a mix of Union pilots aboard Rio Grande that weren't part of the crash landing, and now mercenaries that LSA brought along for the upcoming mission

#

those two groups will later become the going for Winter Scar. I just hope the beats I've been setting a rough base on are sufficient for character roleplay and pilot skill usage

fickle quiver
#

I'm only now making the connection that the planet in Scavenger's Reign (peak) is also named Vesta - wildly different planet from SRWS though lol

steel bane
#

Oshlet's original VSAF mech pack:
#gm-corner message

steel bane
#

the bullets look a bit bright now i'm looking at it but what can you do 🤷‍♂️

copper mesa
#

I like it

steel bane
#

ok, finally finished the Cataphract in my couple of Oshlet VSAF mech edits: we've got:
-Archer
-Cataphract
-Sniper
so far

VSAF_ARCHER_C-55_Arash.png VSAF_CATAPHRACT_C-65_Savaran_0.1.png VSAF_SNIPER_C-65LR_Toxotes_EDIT.png
upper orchid
#

chonktaphract

steel bane
#

those bad boys are grappling all the time! they're building up synthmuscle!

steel bane
#

Made a VSOU33 patch for my players to find and be able to investigate...

VSOU33_2.png
steel bane
#

Has anyone used any clocks running OSR btw?

I was thinking of trying to maybe add a few so that players have something to latch onto during downtime, but the only thing I can really think of is "Investigate the goals of the Vestan force."

chilly silo
# steel bane Has anyone used any clocks running OSR btw? I was thinking of trying to maybe a...

Our party ended up doing some on foot recon with Garcia and the marines to uncover node 4 in person. Get out there, neutralize some overwatch guards, and by tapping into their comms, overheard a little more details about Tartarus (they were there to round up specifically named individuals in the city after setting up the jammers with Kiros headed in the direction of the Orbital Institute)

So not a clock, but definitely gives the party something to chew on as far as narrative exposition is concerned, and getting to learn a little bit more about the invasion at large.

#

Not sure how much mileage this'll get with anyone else, but during our solstice rain debriefing it was revealed the captain has glasses, so here's another alt with her hair tied up and the readers on.

FarrisIRL.png
upper orchid
#

She look like a librarian lol

chilly silo
upper orchid
#

So real for that

steel bane
#

Made a little Nov Elysia patch...(the Persian text is a google translation of "New Elysia", not sure how accurate it is)

LSA_Nov_Elysia_Patch.png
#

Also an alt. of the VSOU33 badge

VSOU33_1.png
copper mesa
#

I swear I remember seein an official LSA patch too somewhere

#

I think it's there in the emblem of the Winter Scar squadron

limpid pawn
#

Did I ever mention that for the sake of not confusing my players as much, I renamed the LSAF?

#

The factions are now the LAP and the VSAF

steel bane
steel bane
#

made a little Bad Reception RIO as a gif test!

Comms_RIO.gif
steel bane
#

needed some LSA mechs so did some more edits of Oshlet's VSAF Assault

LSA_Mech_1.png LSA_Mech.png
#

i think the little SMG guy turned out pretty fun

steel bane
#

workin on a Witch (an edit of the Bombard!)

VSAF_BOMBARD_S-48WF_Medea.png
limpid pawn
#

Lil fella!

winged bluff
exotic igloo
steel bane
#

oh shit, I didn't even realise!

vivid fiber
#

I'm using these recommendations for my Solstice campaign and it's pretty fun

#

Before Combat 1 I sent them to a ruined LSA space station that has a suspiciously Kiros' Big-Ass Laser shaped hole in it thisfucks

bronze knot
steel bane
#

ooh, uh lemme have a look: it's on Figma!

bronze knot
#

Oh I see, I'll give Figma a shout. Been bumbling about with GIMP

steel bane
#

the font appears to be Sofia Sans Condensed!

bronze knot
#

you're a legend!

steel bane
#

and honestly, I mostly used Figma cuz I already had access to it with a student account/was doing some animations on it: it's pretty expensive to use generally and more of a UI prototyping deal

#

I still use GIMP for a lot of stuff tbh! No raster editing stuff on Figma

hearty summit
#

@spare wave

#

@spare wave This one

still haven
#

I really liked the look of the map that Szkin made so I modified it slightly to fit the Nov Elysia point crawl for my game (a couple of connections don't make sense travel time wise, but I think it'll be fine)
#the-gallery message

image.png Nov_Elysia.png
steel bane
#

damn this rules!

copper mesa
#

I feel like I asked this before, but does anyone have pics of LSA soldiers? Need them for references

#

And while I'm at it, VSAF soldiers too

#

I'm assuming these are LSA folks, right?

image.png
still haven
copper mesa
#

hey, that's actually pretty good and a neat design

#

I was intending on getting portraits done for generic NPCs, so getting a masked portrait done for soldiers seems rather straightforward

still haven
#

Thanks! My Vestan are all cyberpunk style villains so it sorta fits in

copper mesa
#

any ideas on more LSA design takes?

#

or guess i should just go with what the cover art of solstice rain has

still haven
#

I personally would go for something with more face visible and lower tech on the LSA side. My reasoning:

  • Help sell more of a connection to them as humans
  • Play into this being an surprise attack with soldier being under equipped and in a civilian area
  • Follow the fiction of the players accomplishing the major goals of module, because these guys can't on their own
#

If I end up finding an image I like I'll share!

smoky wedge
copper mesa
#

it feels too different from the later pic though

smoky wedge
#

Could be LSA vs VSAF

copper mesa
#

yeah, that's what i'm thinking

smoky wedge
still haven
still haven
copper mesa
still haven
#

Also Fluffypaws if you do one of your boss fight intro for the Furies I beg that your share 🙏

still haven
#

A very light photoshop to include bambino's emblem:
#resource-hub-archive message

LSA_Soldier.png
copper mesa
#

I was thinking of an Okasnia Horus boss actually

#

and i'll be doing a different style for both my bosses and combat start/ends

#

they will come true... soon

#

but the boring part (writing) is important before i dive into foundry and assets

#

but my idea of involving okasnia is entirely for some horus mercenary stuff, and possibly a really "spooky" boss intro cinematic

copper mesa
quaint goblet
#

I was considering the union Marines, to take more of a page out of the Royal Marines.

They’re in between special forces and ordinary soldiers. They’re more trained since they’re always going to be outnumbered compared to local planetary forces. Also, they don’t know if they’re going to be fighting on planet or in ships or stations.

#

Also useing the terms
“light infantry” for the UNSC/halo style soldiers.

“Heavy infantry” for the troops and the hard suit/power armor

#

I plan to use this for Union Heavy Infantry

nova geyser
#

that's really cool

copper mesa
#

Very cool

copper mesa
#

This definitely might feel too far-fetched, but do you guys think Cressidium would have, i dunno, simulators and stuff for army training? VR headsets, AR stuff, or just about training cockpits? I ask because the concept of a mech being around is chill, but simulations and stuff is something that I have to get a second opinion if it'd be around considering that mech printers aren't a thing in Cressidium

unborn forge
#

That sort of stuff seemss like ancient technology in lancer

full wagon
#

I think simulation stuff definitely would exist given we already have similar things IRL

quaint goblet
#

I do find it strange they don’t have printers, but have a NHPs.

I’m going with the lost the ability to build union big tech, near light engines, printers, NHP, Omni-net.

Some of that would be the “SecCom” official that ran to the planet “burning the ship” after they arrived.

That could start some of the starts of the local conflict. The original colonies go “what the heck”

unborn forge
#

They began with printers, but over the years they stopped being able to repair them

quaint goblet
#

“ GMS makes some very sturdy and reliable equipment. Even their engineering is tax after a few hundred years with poor maintenance.”

copper mesa
#

yeaaah, i had a feeling

#

thanks fellas

chilly silo
#

I know some folks have mentioned trying to introduce Rezmira into OSR in order to bridge the two modules a little better narratively, so if you are, I made a portrait for her for our own campaign, here's her comm pic and standard portrait in case anyone wants to use it for their own games!

Bateabg.webp Bateacrit.webp
steel bane
#

This rules

warm glacier
chilly silo
warm glacier
#

Nice, thanks a ton!

nocturne smelt
#

It's been a while since I ran this module, but all this art and worldbuilding is so inspiring to see. It almost makes me wish for a cooperative multiple video game adaptation.

chilly silo
#

Edited a map I had saved from Battlemap's Hub thread (og map is by the talented @potent cove) to be a good fit for if the party stumbles upon Wake The Furies earlier on the clock (but after their full repair, so sometime at night), or if you wanted them to fight Kiros and the gang actually at the Hall instead of some shipping yard somewhere!

image.png
nova geyser
#

super cool edit, my group was really close to that outcome when we played through

chilly silo
#

My party did two combats, took their full rest, and beelined straight for the Consulate and have proceeded to grapple Kiros straight into the proverbial dumpster, this shit is hard to watch

kiros.png
#

Had a player immediately burn 3 turret drones just to set up an Invigorate chain and they nuked the hornet in one barrage with a heavy machinegun/assault cannon burst, the Furies are toast fr

sturdy dagger
#

Heeeey, so I wanna take a crack at running the remix.

#

Anyone got a link to where I should start?

nocturne basin
sturdy dagger
#

danke

summer lily
#

hey all

#

look this may sound odd but me and the other game runner for our group are planning a solstice rain into winter scar game and noticed Union Marines show up sometimes but never any mention of vestian army at all nor images

#

same with any LSA ground forces/mechs

#

any idea what to do there

chilly silo
#

Or like, tokens to represent infantry in the actual turn-to-turn battle of Vestan/LSA troops?

summer lily
#

both really

#

one of my players found a 1/2 gms frame

#

so we are allowing him to play it

#

sorry i was unclear it has been a long day

chilly silo
#

Per the book, a Squad is never really used as an enemy unit, but here's a token for VSAF troops

VSAF_Infantry.png
summer lily
#

thanks

#

why have squad stats if they never should be used?

chilly silo
#

Lsa troops

LSA_Stingray_Squad.png
uneven roost
#

Is what Levi meant, I assume

#

rather than "never use these"

chilly silo
uneven roost
#

cause squads slap

summer lily
#

ahh

chilly silo
#

the LSA Sniper reserve

LSASniper.png
uneven roost
summer lily
#

i see

#

i was thinking of peppering in a few squads since there will be a 1/2 since i always figured they were like fallout PA size

chilly silo
# summer lily any idea what to do there

As far as narratively, (regarding OWS) most of the LSA forces are locked up in the ground war at Grevka, the book mentions your squad is deep behind enemy lines, so it makes sense you don't see LSA infantry in action.

Vestan infantry makes a lot more sense narratively to see in opfors, especially for fights where the enemy doesn't see Indigo/Union coming, like the first combat on the beach, or the second combat with the bunker

#

In Solstice Rain, it almost makes sense to see neither, as the entire attack is basically special forces/commando mech units coming in by sea for the vestans, and nothing but local security/police/maaaaaybe national guard/military security for ambassadors in Nov Elysia, so it checks out there aren't any mobilized infantry units for either side.

#

That said, I had a vestan squad in Combat 2, "Look Both Ways" since the opfor has set up a blockade in the street and it felt right to have one there for my bigger group.

summer lily
#

i was thinking a milsec vs vestian infantry encounter for solstice

chilly silo
#

if it's just infantry v infantry might be worth just relegating it to a random encounter the party would stumble upon between nodes

#

indigo helps the milsec turn the tide against the vestan infantry at the firefight

summer lily
#

could work

#

the players are a mixed bag of styles and the 1/2 guy is playing the hero type

#

it also could help set up the players learning of Kiros early

#

i don't like how he feels kinda there

chilly silo
#

to address kiros, both parties i've run through this learned of him at the end of combat 1- when the party succeeds, narratively those vestans have to go somewhere, and realistically your party isn't killing them faster than they can spawn, so the vestans definitely have the pressure to win in a battle of attrition. I had them call out to one another that "Kiros needs them at the Hall", and so they break away from Indigo at the crash site to go assist.

#

For the first party, I had Kiros show up in person 1 turn after they killed the Rainmaker in Combat 3, shooting down an LSA helo that came to assist, and taunt/talk to the party about his motivations. Cue fight, where Kiros leaves after losing 1 structure to assist the furies in rounding up further vips, or he just structures everybody in the party, which he almost did (demeched 4 out of 6 players, the last two simply ran away)

#

Outside of that, per Valk's suggestions in the remix layout, it definitely helps to have a civilian or two mention Kiros directly in the bus indigo is meant to escort, a man who's notorious for these explosive military operations that are almost needlessly excessive

summer lily
#

i forget wasn't there a few police or union marines guiding the bus?

uneven roost
#

Joint force of LSA soldiers and a group of union marines whose dropship got shot down iirc

summer lily
#

or am i thinking of something else

#

ahh

#

ok

#

and is his the only one of his mech? my read on it is that they are not in full use yet

chilly silo
#

to my knowledge you don't see another operator throughout ows either

uneven roost
chilly silo
uneven roost
#

ran it last tuesday, which is why I had that off the top of my head

chilly silo
#

I put one in combat 1 of ows but narratively it was more to showcase that Kiros had a very expensive custom prototype, these other operators are more mass-market ready

summer lily
#

i probably will make a pilot for the second one then

uneven roost
#

that's it

#

as compared to Kiros' pile of bullshit

chilly silo
uneven roost
#

Godspeed dude

#

Hope you enjoy the ||MBT||

summer lily
#

i am currently setting up for these to be the first missions for all the players

chilly silo
uneven roost
summer lily
#

how do you guys think a basically full melee team will do?

chilly silo
#

kiros will eat their lunch

uneven roost
#

Depends on how willing they are to get shot

chilly silo
#

Unless they grapple him

uneven roost
#

Also yeah kiros is gonna be a nightmare if they can't pin him down

summer lily
#

one made a pseudo caliban

chilly silo
#

are they starting at ll2 then

#

that does change things in their favor

#

oh nvm you mentioned a gms frame

summer lily
#

yeah

#

they just kitted it like a caliban

uneven roost
#

oops all CQBs?

summer lily
#

yeah

#

most saw a melee frame and said

#

"ah...my calling"

chilly silo
#

yeah what thatone said some of these combats are going to be very bulletstorm for the party. Combat 3 is a veteran rainmaker with some serious knockback and a sentinel that will just about clear any lane of approach, that'll suck

summer lily
#

so now they want to start with gms kitted for what they want later

uneven roost
#

I look forward to seeing how their plans change come FOB Saber and their LL1 rebuilds.

uneven roost
#

shit was diabolical

chilly silo
#

and even if they save Kiros for the last combat, they'd still have to deal with the mirage-demolisher combo in combat 4, the sniper in 5, and then Kiros and that pissant hornet in 6

summer lily
#

one of them is in a sargamatha

chilly silo
chilly silo
summer lily
#

he asked if it was wise to go in all melee

#

is more what i mean

#

i told him outright "look man it's your funeral"

uneven roost
chilly silo
chilly silo
#

The gms saber is AP and does 1d6+2 i think, it's no slouch

summer lily
#

sadly while he may not be content with it i know one will do so

#

he wants to go H0RUS

uneven roost
chilly silo
#

So the pcs better come ready to cut them down quick and miss as few attacks as possible

uneven roost
#

you ever get BCL'd out of a grapple and then, rather than stand up, difficult-terrain-move-while-prone army crawl so you have the actions to reestablish that grapple and ram the guy prone with you

#

sentinel was doing fucking BJJ in the woods with the Storte

chilly silo
#

i mean, it's clever, and if it works, it don't need fixin

#

they want that truck lmao

#

the mirage just sent the hornet to the truck that was being led by the hilariously crippled amber phantom and then we had the worst two rounds of slapfighting as neither of them could hit each other

#

and the rest of the party was too busy holding everyone else at their spawns

uneven roost
#

my players have had mirages as kill on sight ever since that one time I metafold shoved them into an atlas missile, so I'm lucky if my mirages live to see round 2

chilly silo
#

infinite big brain pain, you love to see it

uneven roost
#

oh no, I blew up one of my 4 turrets

#

a tragedy

chilly silo
#

i often tell my party that opfors are never really "fair" and more "pick whether you like the rock or the hard place more"

#

engi turrets are straight dogwater and they deserve it

uneven roost
#

that's a good way of putting it, I think

#

unfortunately for me, my players have elected to choose "dynamite" and blow up both the rock and the hard place

#

monarch's scary yo

#

as are storte, ll3 chomolungma, and TCB drake

chilly silo
#

at least yours learn, we have a monarch who's pretty adept too but damn six strikers with zero tech between any of them they just smash into every opfor hoping and praying to ra that all their attacks hit it's horrifying, it can happen to you

#

They haven't scanned an enemy in seven sessions

#

the amber phantom player thought he was being singled OUT last session and I had to tell him "bro its an archer and a sentinel they ALWAYS have reliable"

#

they simply do not RETAIN information

uneven roost
chilly silo
uneven roost
#

oh no you misunderstand

#

its aggro drake

chilly silo
#

OH TCB

uneven roost
#

that man has a TCB, Pankrati, and a Kraul Rifle

chilly silo
#

LMAO

uneven roost
#

and he is making it my fucking problem

summer lily
#

my players by the end of this set will be all the factions minus one

#

one wants an ISPN(caliban),one a H0RUS(lycan), one HA(FRUNDSBERG)and one sticking to GMS with the sargamatha

sturdy dagger
#

The way I like to introduce Kiros is simple; he teleports onto the drop ship the party is on, calls them slurs ('mongrels', 'colonizers', 'commies', no racial stuff) as part of a small speech, then short cycle lances the ship, causing it to crash.

#

From there it's a matter of having him in his mech watching them from afar now and then, and actively taking pot shots during other sitreps.

#

in my three times running the module, him being an omni-present boogeyman worked the best.

#

That, and having the PCs have a chance to argue with him is fun.

limpid pawn
#

My go to is calling them "offworlders"

#

I don't immediately reveal the operator. Instead, Kiros shows up in session 2 during the escort alongside the hive. They do something messed up, talk shit with the players (mostly the hive's pilot) and leave.

nova geyser
#

"spacers" for me, and I mentioned the energy signature of the SCL when they did the post-battle 1 beat as well as detected later on accompanied by massive damage in the environment

#

one player wanted to gather information during the FOB downtime so he was able to make the connection between Kiros and the energy signature

full wagon
#

I've been running the OSR Remix as my first foray into GMing Lancer and I wanted to say that both the original module and the remix have helped me massively. We're about to get started on my personal take on OWS using a lot of the lessons I've learned from this remix and so far my players are loving it. Just wanted to let people who've contributed to this thread and authors know y'all are awesome!

nova geyser
#

Would love to read about some of the changes / lessons!

alpine nimbus
#

Me too! I’ve run OSR a couple times now and would love to hear about it o7

full wagon
#

All my players were brand new to the system (but not ttrpgs) so the big Lancer focused lesson was in Faction Rosters. We've found that having only 10 or so enemy types instead of 30+ was a lot easier to learn for both myself and the players. It also helped identify the enemies as "the guys who follow tactics A" as opposed to the allied forces who operate very differently mechanically and be distinct.

From an overall ttrpg perspective the point crawl node map was an idea I hadn't come across before and we all loved it. It gave the players a lot more agency and it felt like they were strategizing about their resource expenditure a lot better than they have in previous (DnD) games I've run. I'm considering doing a similar point crawl map for OWS cause of how great it worked for OSR but haven't had time to figure out how to do it yet (work leaves me with very little free time).

#

From a narrative perspective on OSR specifically the big thing that stood out to me from the remix advice was introducing knowledge of Kiros early and setting him up as the BBEG. I also ended up adding a few extra named characters to the various combats and scenes for some more narrative stuff for the players to sink their teeth into. They ended up despising Kiros before they ever met him and hate him even more now after he escaped the first combat with them on 5HP

chilly silo
full wagon
#

DMs are welcome but I'm sure plenty of other people would find it interesting in the #1271639713559871558 channel

nova geyser
#

I'm in the same boat, we are actually about to head into the final couple of battles on the typhon. I used Typhon Unchained from this discord for it, and so far has been great!

weak skiff
chilly silo
#

Thanks, consider the post updated!

hexed valve
#

I just ran combat 3 of OSR today, it was really great to see how much my players have learned since combat 1! (We are playing a node crawl, so this is actually their 2nd combat. Big thanks to Valk for your writeups on this, they've helped a lot!)

However, as I spent the last week staring at the map, the scale really bothered me... those train cars were way too massive for my liking. Last night I let my brain worms carry me away, and I whipped up my own version of the map. Thought I'd share in case anyone else would find it useful. 😉

OSR20320-20Downpour.png
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Foundry 12 scene settings:

  • Hex rows even
  • Grid size 150 px
  • Scene dimensions 4500 x 4500
  • padding 0.25
  • offset background: 1 horizontal 1 vertical
#

I can easily export it with a hex grid as well, if anyone wants it.

nocturne basin
earnest atlas
#

is there a blank version of the nov elysia city map?

uneven roost
# earnest atlas is there a blank version of the nov elysia city map?

If you've got gimp (or have some other way to use .xcf files), I put this together a while back: #1107842047689379960 message

It's valks map, but edited so everything (paths, nodes, the legend, locations in the legend, etc) is on individual layers, so I could easily update the map as my party explored. Should work for whatever you need.

earnest atlas
#

have people tested valks revisited fights with 5 players?

#

btw, thanks ThatOne, that's exactly what I was looking for

chilly silo
earnest atlas
#

oof good to know

#

my players pretty much have a singular dnd oneshot under their belt for ttrpg experience, so I'm glad Lancer's fail states aren't just instant losses

chilly silo
#

Bombard will ruin players on combat 1, it's a hard lesson to learn but an important one all the same

uneven roost
#

Bombard is hilarious because unlike basically every other NPC its threat scales with player count

nocturne basin
#

Yeah, my big rec for Lancer combat is to lay the stakes of success and failure out ahead of time

uneven roost
#

Most stuff gets less scary as you have more people, bombard just sees more targets to stack cluster munitions off

nocturne basin
#

“If you fail, you lose time and your dropship pilot” is good for combat 1

chilly silo
#

Whoooops

uneven roost
gaunt arch
#

My players got some real good rolls and destroyed the Bombard within one round. It was a real, "Well there goes that," moment for me.

chilly silo
#

Genuinely insane luck given that thing has resistance outside range 3, most everests won't even have Los or range to touch it when it spawns

gaunt arch
#

To be honest, probably a fair/moderate amount of GM error on playing it.

earnest atlas
#

how long do you guys make the day night cycle of cressidium?

nocturne basin
#

I make it Earth Standard 24 hours

uneven roost
#

yeah

earnest atlas
#

Ok that’s reasonable

#

Might shift it by like 2 hours or so to make it not an earth clone

#

Side note, how many sessions would you guys expect it to take to finish the base version of the point crawl?

chilly silo
#

I have another group rn that's on session 6 and they're on node 5 right now, they play roughly three hours a sesh.

earnest atlas
#

for that second group did you have a session that ended in the middle of a combat then?

hexed valve
#

My group has been getting through about 1 node every 2 sessions, with 2.5-3hr sessions. Roughly 1 session combat, 1 session narrative/RP.

earnest atlas
#

For combat 1 do you guys reinforce with the suggested two mechs every round? Or do you space it out to every other round or dynamically depending on how many enemies remain on the field?

nocturne basin
uneven roost
#

Yeah, just try and maintain activation budget

earnest atlas
#

Which for 4 players caps out at around 7 right?

full wagon
earnest atlas
#

If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of non combat scenes did you use?

nocturne basin
earnest atlas
#

thanks, I'm just surprised that people are able to extend OSR to beyond 6-8 sessions with non combat scenes. I would've thought that people would've basically gone through one node a session

#

side note, last night my players successfully saved their pilot in combat 1, and one of them has the expanded compartment

#

thoughts on having this translate to a small combat bonus like a once per scene +1 accuracy since Glamdring is presumably skilled military personnel

nocturne basin
nova rampart
#

Ooh! This'd have been useful to know before I whipped up my own for the mission briefing and all that. A lot of great ideas however. Definitely gonna be chewing on all this great thought.

image.png
summer lily
#

how did you go about making that?

nova rampart
#

The map?

summer lily
#

yeah that looks great

nova rampart
#

Oh, I just used Clip Studio Paint and some light brushwork over probabletrain's City-Generator, then I exported the same city to Blender via STL and did some shader work to get the wireframe of the same area on the map as where I said the Hall was and marked that up.

The rest is just image templates with TokenMagic applied and an overlay from Kinemancer for the monitor-like look

If I had the time I'd probably go full Ace Combat because I love that style of briefing.

summer lily
#

i tend for ace combat style briefs myself

#

odd to use kerberos for LSA SF i will say however

nova rampart
#

Oh? I wouldn't know if there's an implication/etc setting-wise, this'll be my first time running

summer lily
#

Kerberos is the Name of the Vestian Mainline Mech

nova rampart
#

Hah!

summer lily
#

yeah "round heads" is what alot of people say instead

nova rampart
#

nod I'll probably remix the name some knowing that. Want to make sure that at least the set-dressing's worth the price of admission on this game even if me and my group are all learning it at the same time.

summer lily
#

true that

#

everything your doing looks great

nova rampart
#

I am loving the process though. Wouldn't mind making a bunch more assets for lancer products as I work my way through what's out there pre-prepared

image.png
summer lily
#

that is some killer fire

nova rampart
#

Thanks! Wish I could say it's mine but that's from JB2a. I'm coming from Pathfinder 2E so I'm taking my bag of tricks, what I can at least, from hosting those tables

e: Lancer's teaching me some new ones, too, with me learning how Sequencer works

summer lily
#

fair by the way since it caught me at first unions base colour is a bluish teal

#

GMS is red and white

#

if you ever need to make anything in the colour scheme

nova rampart
#

[nod] much appreciated

summer lily
#

yeah i was making union dropships and marines for late ron when i was told the difference

#

so i just said ah...punk meets WWII issue for the rio squads i guess

earnest atlas
#

are tehre any population estimates for the Rio Grande?

chilly silo
earnest atlas
#

woah thought thered be way more people

#

how are they even able to staff FOB Saber

chilly silo
#

At least, that's how I interpreted it, not a lot of Union military presence around by the time the players squad touches down

#

In regards to Lancer lore, the Rio Grande is a cruiser, and could probably hold well into 400+ people comfortably

#

Just find for our group the comparatively smaller crew makes the ship feel more like a home with familiar faces and less like a small town

earnest atlas
#

that puts OSR and OWR into greater perspective. No wonder Union is unable to exert greater military force on Cressidium

#

not including support staff they must have like at most 100 deployable troops

iron storm
#

#lore-and-worldbuilding message

earnest atlas
#

by that read there are probably 2500 - 3000 personnel on the Rio Grande with around 8-900 of them being combat personnel with roughly 5-600 of them safely able to be deployed to the surface without compromising onboard security

summer lily
#

we cut off two pilots for the start of solrain too

#

since we begin with a pair of kias

earnest atlas
#

If you guys don’t mind, I’d like some feedback and advice on a narrative scene. In combat 1, a pair of mechs fled the combat immediately after arriving to the scene as reinforcements, so I’m planning for the players to come across one of their corpses/wrecks where Kiros or one of his lieutenants summarily executed them for cowardice, and the other pilot may return in a future combat to try to redeem his honor. I like the concept, but I’m concerned it’s not interactive enough roleplay wise for the players

stable thicket
#

^ some advice on how to think about this event in order to punch it up

earnest atlas
#

thats some solid advice

#

I'll return to the drawing board

stable thicket
#

Thought: the pilot is somehow still alive and wants revenge on kiros

earnest atlas
#

might throw in some civilian spectators as well

stable thicket
#

That works too. Or a radio on the pilot

#

Having someone or something to interact with is useful. Some sort of agent/actor on the scene that has a desire

earnest atlas
#

I think I'll make it a bit of combo of our ideas, the pilot's still alive and an angry crowd is beginning to form, interested in mob justice

stable thicket
#

Maybe Kiros blew a hole in the pilot's mech assuming it killed them, but instead they are stuck inside badly injured

earnest atlas
#

that works!

nocturne basin
#

IMO, strong random narrative encounters are usually best when they actively engage the PCs so having the surviving pilot barely holding onto life while approaching the PCs would be my vote

earnest atlas
#

as in the mech is still operable and he's just kind of stumbling around?

nocturne basin
#

as in the pilot themself is in dire straights and is throwing themself at the mercy of the PCs rather than face Kiros again

#

it's comparatively easy to walk away from a lynch mob executing someone else a ways off, but harder when the victim is begging at the PCs' feet while the mob is descending upon them all

earnest atlas
#

I see the vision now

#

Definitely not something they can just ignore

quaint goblet
chilly silo
#

You're right, my bad, I got it confused with the ||Typhon|| which is categorized as an overtuned/overgunned cruiser

quaint goblet
#

all good, mistake happen

another detail it also is a space carrier, and most of its fighters are capable only. I would assume the few onbord to escort the shuttles but not enought to effect the battle on the planet.

warm merlin
#

So question for look both ways, I'm about to run it, how do you handle it if the PCs want to handle the bus as a skill challenge? Cause there's very little to guide any of that in the books, just "Repair, Scout escort"

#

Also, if they opt for a combat, how is it justified that the bus somehow is able to move again if you choose to fight?

nocturne basin
# warm merlin So question for look both ways, I'm about to run it, how do you handle it if the...

So the basics of a Lancer Skill Challenge is on p. 47 of the Lancer Core Book

What SR is proposing is to run 3 separate skill challenges with the topics of

  1. Repair the Bus
  2. Scout ahead for the bus
  3. Escort the bus

So the skills the PCs choose to use should correspond to one of those 3 stages.

I'd recommend thinking about the local area and what could be nearby in terms of stuff to interact with or stuff to avoid, at the very least

#

If they opt for a combat, then that's honestly easy: the PCs are literally dragging the bus along

#

If the defeat condition is what you're worried about, then instead of the bus veering off down a bad exit, have everyone evacuate the bus in a panic

earnest atlas
#

My players have finished combat 1 and 3, and some of the feedback I've gotten is that having the node options makes it feel less urgent, do you guys have any advice on adding some urgency back in?

nocturne basin
#

My advice is to keep the clock ticking

#

There’s only so much time in the operation and full repair eats over a quarter of it

earnest atlas
#

I do have time tracked but the thing is that since they don't know how long they have, they don't actually feel the weight of the clock all that much

#

I guess I can add in some radio chatter about the Vestans wanting to evac by next morningg?

nocturne basin
#

I mean, definitely put the remaining time up somewhere visible

#

My intent was that was visible and included in the briefing

#

“If we can’t secure the VIPs in 36 hours, they’re likely captured and we’ll need to regroup”

#

If you need justification you can say previous “Kiros Incidents” tended to last no more than 36 hours

earnest atlas
#

oh that makes a lot more sense

wind hazel
#

*yuri hunter ran away

summer sundial
#

I'm just about to start my second run through of Solstice Rain using the amazing advice and guidance here, and I've finished my little introductory briefing/credits segment. What do you all think?

alpine nimbus
#

THAT DROPSHOT AT THE END ughhhh love this.

summer sundial
#

Yeah really proud of that little title drop. Wish I could do more with the in-between segment but session's tomorrow morning so I had a deadline.

alpine nimbus
#

Good luck on the run.

chilly silo
quaint goblet
#

project wingman music 🙂

nova rampart
#

I didn't find any sprites for the Mirage in Solstice Rain's "False Idols" constructs, so I made one. Feel free to use in your game. Based it off of the palette from Retrograde so it hopefully blends in decently nice.

ForgottenWorkshop_LRPG_False_Idol.png
#

Recommended token values if you do and are using isometrics:

image.png
full wagon
tiny horizon
#

also, has anyone run the train lightning remix for OSR? it seems lots of fun and im gonna try it out with my new group

summer sundial
#

Nah I wish XD. Im using Elevenlabs for the voices.

tiny horizon
#

oh ok

nocturne basin
#

But yeah I tried to keep it approachable even for new groups, since I designed it with my less tactical dnd tables in mind

uneven roost
tiny horizon
#

anyone got a good token for the fuckin bus

uneven roost
#

yeah hang on

#

Could not fucking tell you where I got it from, I think somebody shared it in #lancer-vtt at some point?

Bus.png
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@tiny horizon

tiny horizon
#

bless you!!!!

tiny horizon
#

also does anyone have a good party token to track the party's movement around nov elysia

chilly silo
chilly silo
tiny horizon
#

oh good idea lol

chilly silo
#

Map with tactical imaging overlay too!

#

Er, it's Valk's remix map, so if you're using that this is just a little more dressed up and modern looking

tiny horizon
#

shittttt this is sick

#

does the stuff on there mean anything or does it just look cool

chilly silo
#

it's actually a grid overlay for mothership maps on itch.io haha so it's just flavor and looks cool, helps give the map a more diagetic feel, like the pilots are checking their opsats for sattelite navigation from the Rio Grande

full wagon
#

Should be a transparent .webp but let me know if my phone buggered it up

#

I've been thinking about compiling all the assets and stuff I've found and made into one thing for future OSR GMs cause I'm sure it'd save a lot of time for people. And like, it's all stuff I've either made myself or found free on the internet but I don't remember where most of it came from so can't credit things properly

#

Which is kinda my main hangup

tiny horizon
#

oh thats nifty thank you

weary pagoda
uneven roost
#

Oh word

chilly silo
#

getting ready for my third lap of solstice rain and wanted an even more diagetic map for characters, meant to look like one of the panels they'd have in their cockpit

image.png
weary pagoda
#

Hot.

tiny horizon
#

hot

white pecan
#

@chilly silo anyway you have just the base image without the location/PC markers?

full wagon
chilly silo
#

It's just a slightly colored version of the map Valk posted with on their blog, I know Szkin has a cool map here somewhere but I'm not at my pc

#

It's blue like mine but they hand drew it

silver rose
signal timber
silver rose
north niche
#

My players are heading into the final encounter of OSR's remix tonight. They went and dealt with Kiros already, but due to maniacal reasons (and also to add some pressure on them for the finalé) I've put both the ambassador and the captain aboard the sub. Does anyone have ideas on good NPCs to help beef up security around the sub? 6 players, so dont hold back. Currently using Valk's 5-player setup from TrainLightning

chilly silo
# north niche My players are heading into the final encounter of OSR's remix tonight. They wen...

So actually same thing, had a 6-man group run the sub encounter last after Kiros and used Valks encounter, but added a Scourer & Bombard to the reinforcements list. The Scourer gives the opfor a little more ranged pressure (instead of just berserkers and the Goliath) and the bombard caps that off in spades, giving the party a real reason to haul ass or split their focus, as an unattended bombard left to shellack the objective the players are supposed to be holding is going to structure people quick. three of my six players structured and demeched out of that fight, made for a great finale (they did win, tho)

#

Just personally found that without the Sniper there wasn't enough ranged pressure for my liking, you could probably replace the Scourer with a generic assault for the trademarked roundhead idiot making one last appearance, I just used a socurer to put my Monarch nuccav player in a bit of a hard spot

north niche
chilly silo
#

OH the faction roster. Well shoot, yeah youre probably right, I used the combat lineup outlined in the first like, blog post about it, NOT the later-introduced faction roster which greatly limits the scope of the npc classes the party interacts with. Personally I like osr more when the variety is there so newer players kind of learn what each npc is capable of in a moment (for better or for worse)

north niche
#

So I prefer the faction roster for that pattern recognition. Lord knows the party learned to respect the Hive

chilly silo
#

Absolutely understand the practice of it, osr definitely can cut both ways and be effective in either avenue. Welp the blog says Scourer is still listed in Combat 5, so I'd say personally field a Scourer and an Archer for reliable, consistent pressure that's gonna quickly address any leftover structure or stress

nocturne basin
north niche
#

Good call

frozen imp
#

hi all, I'm planning to run OSR remix for my group, who are all new to lancer. Having GMed them in D&D, I know they have a tendency to break and run the moment things look difficult. I'm worried with the remix being a point crawl, they'll see the direct route to FOB Saber then run straight there, avoiding all encounters and abandoning the civilians to the VSAF. After they hit FOB Saber I'm pretty confident they will go to the next fight then immediately attempt retreat to Saber for a "Long Rest" . This is clearly against the spirit of the game but they are genuinely the types to break and run like this (in fact many of their TPKs are caused by half the party running and abandoning their friends, or other simple lack of coordination like focusing on the enemy before them while leaving their backline support characters to be mauled by flankers).

So my question: given their nature, I expect them to try to keep spamming the "Long Rest" button, any advice on natural consequences to doing this?

nocturne basin
#

Long rest takes 10 hours; they may be able to squeeze 2 in, if lucky, but make it clear they’re sacrificing valuable time that they could be spending finding their VIPs

frozen imp
#

Hi Valk. the way you wrote up the remix it feels like none of the sitreps is 'necessary'?

nocturne basin
#

Yes that’s the goal

frozen imp
#

Like they could start > FOB > do both VIPS > finish

nocturne basin
#

You can go to different places, fail fights, etc, and still manage to eke out a win

#

Sure, if they can find the VIPs

#

Iirc I set it up so that reports of the VIPs don’t come through until overnight

frozen imp
#

Then they can skip Mission 1 more or less?

nocturne basin
#

I didn’t say that

#

They can, if they try to, but they’ll be burning up a huge amount of the clock if they aren’t searching for the VIPs

frozen imp
#

ah okay, then hide the nodes until they have intel so if they beeline for FOB Saber they have to scramble to get the rst done

nocturne basin
#

If you’re worried about the beeline though: cut out the path directly to fob

frozen imp
#

knowing my group they'll go back to shuttle and attempt to repair ro get back to orbit or leave the city and go around

nocturne basin
#

And make it clear what the benefits will be for helping civilians/fighting fights

#

It sounds like you have a table almost utterly disinterested in engaging with the module

#

Which imo is the bigger issue here

frozen imp
#

Well I've tried asking "what does your PC want" got a "money, I guess" response uniformly. "oh and magic items"

#

It's just hard to keep them on track (without offering them a bounty)

nocturne basin
#

So, if they ditch the mission they can get court martialed

frozen imp
nocturne basin
#

Yeah so I’d press hard on them to explain why their ideals for them to join the military instead

#

Because it’s post scarcity in Union, money is not really an issue

#

That said

frozen imp
#

yes I will, I'll offer them a choice: OSR (remix) or just random merc missions if that is their preference

nocturne basin
#

If they reeeeeeaaaaally can’t imagine post scarcity and are trying to be mercenary, withhold their payment if they go AWOL

frozen imp
#

they don't get paid anyway, it's post scarcity

nocturne basin
#

Aight, then court martialed and/or blacklisted it is I suppose

nocturne basin
#

All that said, #1359607476001050634 may be helpful in merc land

frozen imp
#

thank you for that and the suggestion to just drop lines from the point crawl so players have to engage with the mission. I'll also run a visible clock with VSAF progress on any success/failed sitreps so its clear they are affecting the war.

chilly silo
# frozen imp thank you for that and the suggestion to just drop lines from the point crawl s...

I had a party ignore the AA setup at the rail yard, prioritizing the VIP rescue and opting to skip that encounter AND the radar jammer entirely.

In response, the Vestans locked down the city completely. Extraction by air was now off the table as Vestan air support could move in uncontested and close off all corridors, and no one in the city could effectively communicate to mount a counteroffensive.

If your players decide to just beeline right to the VIP rescue based on where they last were, let em go whole hog I say, and make the city crumble around them that much more obvious as they ignore the fact that the enemy is encroaching on all sides while they focus on saving their own.

nocturne basin
#

Yeah, can’t get off the ground with AA around, and if you flee the city then you’re likely not gonna find a shuttle anywhere else on the planet

terse furnace
#

didn;t relaise this exists

#

got a few maps i did for solstice rain that i mix up

#

This is the leviathan battle run as a breach and clear. the roof is for the building section

Leviathan.png Leviathan_roof.png
#

this is the clear the air battle, using both glitchy version and not so glitchy version

Clear_The_Air_Glitch.png Clear_The_Air.png
#

this one is the fall map

The_Fall.png
#

and this is the downpour map. has a lot of assets since the trains are removable, and the fight is supposed to have trains coming in as obstacles, dealing 10 AP and prone to anyone in the way

📎 Downpour.rar
hexed valve
# frozen imp thank you for that and the suggestion to just drop lines from the point crawl s...

To add to the military chain of command points you and Valk talked about - if they keep running back to FOB saber for repair, you have a few more options that come to mind:

  • Their CO (Lt. Kim, unless you introduce someone else) reams them out for wasting time.
  • You could also easily tell them they can't get repairs there a 2nd time. Especially if they haven't done any of the nodes that make things easier for friendly forces. "Sorry, we just don't have the capacity to run you through the repair bays. We've got a dozen other mechs that are half-scrapped, no relief from orbit because those AA missiles are still firing. All my techs are already running double and triple shifts and can't keep up."
hexed valve
# nocturne basin It sounds like you have a table almost utterly disinterested in engaging with th...

And also, to build on this - IMHO a point crawl works best for players that want to have the freedom to explore and do their own prioritization. If that does not describe your players, I don't think there's anything wrong with running OSR in the linear fashion that it's presented in the book. You can still absolutely draw a bunch of inspiration from Valk's remix for tweaking different encounters - the skill challenges at various nodes are great, for example, and really don't rely on it being framed as a point crawl.

quaint goblet
quaint goblet
#

proably explane to your players theres are Mechs.

in WW2 they use to say, you dont stop fireing at a tank until it burns or changes shape. becuase of they dont, they can be repaired. some minor things can make a tank stop moveing. but can easly be replaces later. like replaceing wheels, treads, patching hold ext. or evem something stupid as , radio broke, go back and get another one.

#

I would explan alot of the CP repaires as minor repairs and overrides to get the mech working.

like a weapon gets knock out, the weapon is not blown off, it still there but hit. the pilot runs dignostics, find the few part they need to replace, (print them from a hand printer, or get repairs), tell the Comp/com to override they parts they cant. and now it works. but there is still holes on the armor were the weapon got hit

sturdy dagger
#

gonna be running solstice rain for a 4th time, because I wanna run a group all the way from it to the end of winter scar.

uneven roost
#

osr+ows is a solid time

sturdy dagger
#

My biggest targets for alteration would be:

  • inserting the captain and ambassador into the proceedings more and making them a more active set of participants in solstice rain
  • connect SR to WS as best I can (likely through having VS reoccuring NPCs, likely with razmira being the head of an enemy unit in SRs 4th combat mission)
  • insert some additional NPCs into things to give the module a bit more life to it (just some additionals, besides the pilot WS introduces, I've got plans for this)
  • pin down how to make the VS a memorable enemy force (My plan is to make it a military junta took over and the people in charge are deluded fascists who are afraid of being relegated to a footnote in history and of being colonized)
  • spice up the base combat encounters a lil bit.
#

Any suggestions on top of these?

#

Right now I intend to run these fairly straight laced, but I definitely wanna add a lil pizzazz onto this

#

I'm also hard debating on what to do for the opening session; the past few times, I run it pretty much as is. The group gets a brief bit of chill time, then gets fired down to the planet, and the pace has really led to some good moments, but this time I'm thinking about a lil downtime before the game gets under way, so they can meet with some NPCs like kiros and such

unborn forge
#

I like to have characters from combat 3, the first 'boss fight' reappear in winter scar

#

Sometimes I start the game with them in Nov Elysia without mechs and they need to navigate their way over to them (and combat 1) while avoiding enemy squads and mechs, or trying to take down a mech as a team

quaint goblet
sturdy dagger
# quaint goblet any advice for a first time lancer DM planing to run Solistice Rain+Winter Scar

~ Familiarize yourself with the VTT you are using, and set up all combat encounters and maps on it in advance. Lancer lives and dies by how well you run combat, and knowing the VTT helps a lot to smooth this out. I personally use foundry, but roll 20 and others work to.
~ Embrace the pacing of it; both modules can be ran really quickly with how they are paced out, and rather than try to slow them down, it's better to go with the flow and use small moments provided by the pauses between missions to really dig deep into characters and so on
~ Be fucking bloodthirsty in combat. The modules combat encounters don't work unless you are being as mean as possible and punishing every mistake while using all optionals, which the modules themselves do a good job of teaching you how to use them.
~ Omari Garcia and Rio are NPCs you really wanna think about the most when it comes to friendly NPCs; they're gonna spend the most time talking to them and interacting with them out of the roster, so it's good to figure out how to make the most of them.
~ Try to introduce NPCs from winter scar, during the events of solstice rain, for a smoother transition. This'll help flesh out the experience more.

Lastly, the big one: Flesh out the VS

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The VS can be spun any number of ways, but you want to figure out what their ideology is, and why they are so against joining Union, despite putting themselves at such a huge risk by conducting military operations against them and the LSA.

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Then, once you got that nailed down, think about the NPCs within the LSA and flesh them out to.

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I went for a fairly simple angle that ended up working really well in all my SR and WS campaigns; They're nostalgic nationalists who believe that they'll manifest destiny all over the galaxy and take up the torch SecCom dropped 500 years ago...who are also deathly afraid of being relegated to a footnote in history if they quietly intergrate into Union, and the cultural/racial alterations that will happen as a result of its open borders policies with other member states...well, except for the majority of the citizens.

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Most VS civilians want that, but, the government got overthrown by a small military junta who took over and makes life miserable for everyone.

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Which occurs during SR.

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To sum up how they think, a quote from kiros during one of my SR campaigns.

"....in other words, get off of our planet, colonizer" he said to a bunch of Union mech pilots who just got done freeing tortured POWs inside a spec ops submarine they raided.

quaint goblet
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I’ll take the VTT advice to heart, also teaching my self foundry as I get this set up.

sturdy dagger
# quaint goblet I’ll take the VTT advice to heart, also teaching my self foundry as I get this s...

Good choice; if you wanna host it online, rather than your own machine (which can be a good choice, depending on how good your wi-fi is, among other things), you can subscribe to a service like Molten, or one of the others. It's very cheap, and helps cut down on connectivity issues.

Also, foundry has modules you can install that improve its usability. There are some good ones out there, but, I don't wanna overwhelm.

quaint goblet
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I used to think foundry was very buggy, but it was just the DM was constantly adding new modules which never got used

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Still figuring out details on the VS.
I was thinking to make it a little more advert that the LSA spun out from the SecCom colonists and the VS spun out from the original colonist. But I’m thinking about keeping it vag

500 years is a long time that the 1500s for us.

I was also going to go with the effects of SR was apart of a hardliner take over.
Have a few month time skip between SR and WS.

And maybe a few days in between the launch and the typhoon and the player boarding action because the VS have been bombarding everyone until they surrender.

sturdy dagger
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shouldn't that be the other way around? LSA from original, VS from the deserters of seccom?

quaint goblet
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I was thinking maybe the VS hardliner are being shortsighted idiots.

They start concocting a plan to conquer the rest of the planet. They lose out to the moderates, hide the plans and keep it going in the background.

Union appearing in the prospect of re-contact starts to change the three country dynamics. They see there plans crumbling more and decide to go forward with them.

Maybe naïvely thinking they can build up enough space assets to hold off union, or have a unified the control they’ll be accepted as the default government.

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Still figure out the VS.

sturdy dagger
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Honestly the VS hardliners being idiots is a good angle tbh.

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Could also lean into the 'soverignty' aspect and have some literal nobility in there.

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Granted, that touches on the KtB a bit much, but, that could be wielded well as a way to analyse monarchic power on a micro-scale within the setting, especially if someone else is playing as a KtB noble.

quaint goblet
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only descendants of the original colonist can run for higher office?

sturdy dagger
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Build up a clear dividing line that's arbitrary and then think of justifications as to why they'd argue it should stay.

quaint goblet
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There’s a saying from the Soviet Union. “ everyone is equal just some people are more equal than others”

unborn forge
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I think there should be at leastttt one person in the VS who entirely knows what they're doing - playing the fascists for their own gain. Maybe they're into weapons manufacturing -> sets up for winter scar too, they probably had a hand in supplies for ||the typhon||

sturdy dagger
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You do mission one, watch the typhon launch, you do mission 2 and both kill its creator and get access to blueprints of it, and mission 3? boom.

full wagon
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Agree on all the "flesh out the VS" stuff. I've personally taken it to be a bunch of hardline nationalist taking seccomm ideals to the extreme and enacting a military coup with Kiros as the figurehead

hexed valve
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Man, I love when the players hand you extra drama. 😄

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They just finished node 4, clearing the jammers. "Can we trace the jammer network to see where else they had jammers set up? I'm wondering if they had a guy on the inside..."

Yes! Sure, that's cool! 😆

chilly silo
uneven roost
hexed valve
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Maybe I can spin this into a short mission between OSR and WS. 🤔 I was planning on one, but wasn't sure what it would be about yet.

sturdy dagger
# hexed valve Maybe I can spin this into a short mission between OSR and WS. 🤔 I was plannin...

to fill the 6 month gap? Could make it about VS defectors. The mission is basically the squad going out to help people of import flee the country, likely with information, military tactical knowledge, etc.

Sets up VS defectors being in indigo squad
explains how the tartarus project was learned about
adds extra NPCs the players can bounce off of
and gives you a chance to delve into what the VS are like personality wise.

Could make it 3 sitreps long, each one being focused on the above; save some defectors while all hell breaks loose (control mission to protect the soldiers in 4 bunkers on the map), then a gauntlet map to push further into the research base and rescue some nerds, all the while building on the freakshit experiments and weapons the VS have been making, cultminating in them spitting out another experimental mech like what kiros had, except this time you fight it with NPC allies.

sturdy dagger
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So, that sentinel in sitrep M1 S3?
the Elite commander sentinel?

I've decided to just...mess with the encounter budget of all the fights prior so I can fit him into every fight as a part of the reinforcements.
I've also made them Vasil Garou :3

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Plan is to have it so that his 3 structure ass is gonna come into fights late enough that trying to kill him isn't worth the effort until that final one, so a rivalry can be built up along the way, and after this, I'm gonna have him vanish from the module until I boot up winter scar.

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Big "Oh that fucker" moment.

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(And it'll be a better twist than last time I ran WS were one of the PCs thought he was really hard on for her, but, no, turns out he just thought she looked exactly like his dead child and it hurt to look at her, or see her act out.)

tame maple
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Just ran session 1 of SR and now looking forward to digging through this thread a bit. I was thinking about the same things around establishing connections with Faris and Bannerjee to the players so they at least care about their rescue a bit. Lots of other good ideas in here to give the setting a bit more umph

chilly silo
quaint goblet
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Trying to think of interaction with the captan (Farris)

For Bannerjee I was thinking he plays some poker with the pilots as “practice” since the best swordsmen fear the worst swordsmen

acoustic cipher
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The way I did it in my game is I had the ship crew do a bake off with the major NPCs as judges. It was a lot of fun for everyone but obviously wouldn't work for every group. Did serve as a neat introduction for Skill Triggers though.

chilly silo
shell pasture
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Heya guys! Does anybody have Vestan soldier art? I don't found anything really interesting in the net and ODST I used for LSA guys

nocturne basin
shell pasture
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Soldiers!

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Cuz I have retrograde minis already

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I just love to use this module on foundry and was hoping somebody already made artwork for VSAF soldiers.

image.png
weak skiff
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I used a regular UNSC Marine recolored deep red for VS infantry. I like the idea of the Vestans relying on conscripts/economically exploitative recruiting and by extension kitting them out with less sophisticated gear in comparison to Union or the LSA.

tame maple
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Is winter scar the solstice rain follow up? Can someone give me a TLDR of what happens there? I have some ideas for a continuation for play players from SR and I want to make sure it jives with it.

limpid pawn
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It is the sequel. It reveals what Tartarus is and the pilots destroy it.

neat blaze
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beginning the prep for a runthrough of Solstice Rain Remixed for a bunch of Lancer newbies

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the players and number of them are still a little up in the air, but I'm assuming 3-5, which should work fine

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I'm gonna do the Re-Remix fights, but I worry about a pointcrawl being overwhelming for people who've only played a linear D&D introductory campaign before being introduced to a new system

nocturne basin
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“Where do you go next?”
(They pick)
“Okay here’s the situation, what do you do?”

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Roll for the random encounters here and there to add some texture

neat blaze
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I think I have to remind myself that it's not exactly a sandbox and more like a maze in structure

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just making turns at intersections

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we have three people with only 3 levels of D&D under their belt that are for sure returning, a 4th who has never touched ttrpgs before, and maybe a 5th player we'll see

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I figured I'd do the Remix because I wanted to introduce them to a Union campaign, but Solstice Rain is somewhat infamous for difficulty from what I've heard, especially for people this new

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They're all very enthusiastic to try LANCER though

stable thicket
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I like to think of it less as a maze and more as simply an impactful decision

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In my experience, players find it very empowering when they are given the steering wheel, even (or perhaps especially) when they are not used to having that steering wheel

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I love running adventures where I don't know what is going to happen

copper mesa
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@neat blazeI've done remixed for 4 first timers, and 1 returning, and the first timers for ttrpg loved how the pointcrawl was setup and engaged tons with IC discussions on where to go next

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Your guys should do fine

neat blaze
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That's reassuring.

chilly silo
neat blaze
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@nocturne basin is there any plans to do a Winter Scar Remixed at some point in the future?

nocturne basin
neat blaze
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fair enough

chilly silo
full wagon
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I've done the same, happy to share as well

neat blaze
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I might not even do Winter Scar, but I'm not sure how I'd point crawl two pretty linear missions

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and then I've have to scale down the combats to Remix levels

nocturne basin
copper mesa
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It's kind of tough to do a point crawl in winter scar unless you create a brand new mission, imo, the beats and missions executed in winter scar are very linear

nocturne basin
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If you were inclined to do so you could probably strip some context around the pieces of the missions (usually getting rid of whatever contrivances require putting one scene after another) but like, I haven’t read WS extensively so I don’t really have specific and actionable thoughts on it

copper mesa
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What I'm doing is just a custom mission that's kind of an interlude between the campaigns, and it's a point crawl very inspried

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I will post my basic concept later once I'm finished and actually playing it, aiming for february sessions

nocturne basin
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I think someone changed the ||typhon|| segments in mission 2 into a dungeon crawl sort of thing?

copper mesa
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The module is intended to be completed in a single night, potentially with multiple groups!

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woo mama

nocturne basin
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Knowing the barest of details I know about WS I’d probably like, move where and when the ||typhon launch|| occurs. Maybe give the players more ways to prevent it or something I don’t know

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But I’m not a red herring fan, so that’s just me

fossil dew
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anyone got a good bus token for if my players fail the skill checks in look both ways

nova rampart
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There was no need for this, but I've decided to give the enemies encrypted radio chatter in Solstice Rain so if the group manages to decrypt their protocol during the operation and don't reveal they've done so they'll be able to listen in. Made me wonder about making a macro that does it, since its just a XOR cipher with an encryption key

image.png
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(Also 'MASHED-EGGS' because the random name generate I used to generate the VSOU-33's hierarchy of pilots gave them the name Maddie Eddes and I couldn't not use that)

nova rampart
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Wanted to do some interactive briefing stuffs for Solstice Rain; feel free to use these cards if you'd like to in yours!

brf_captain_alt.png brf_garcia.png brf_kerberos.png brf_bannerjee_alt.png
alpine nimbus
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These are fantastic!

nova rampart
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Oh and one for the furies in case you want to represent them in your briefing as well

brf_furies.png
lucid plover
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Hey yall. I’m thinking of running 1st party content in this order. So that Rio is the NHP that goes missing.

Overall, any suggestions?

And, how do you scale up dustgrave and sirens song for LL4 players? Although this might be the wrong thread for that 🤠

**CAMPAIGN 1:**
Solstice Rain LL0-2
Winter Scar LL2-4
Dustgrave LL2-4
Sirens song LL2

**CAMPAIGN 2:**
Shadow of the wolf  LL0-2
Wallflower LL0-5
lucid plover
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Okay thanks!

lucid plover
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is there physical evidence that Cressidium at one point had Omninet access?

lucid plover
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found it! republic of Okasnia has an unlisted node.

next question lol.

Has anyone found a good map to use for the inside of the Rio Grande?

stoic estuary
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Thinking about running a combat sim onboard the Rio Grande and having players level up to LL1 before the drop. Are there any pitfalls to changing the module in this way? Yes they'll be stronger but I've heard the drop is pretty punishing for new lancers at LL0

warm glacier
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I ran it this way and didnt find it too much different

unborn forge
chilly silo
# stoic estuary Thinking about running a combat sim onboard the Rio Grande and having players le...

I've run this adventure several times now and for my groups if they're brand new I also run them through a little on-board training sim before they drop, but it doesn't give them an LL and it's just so they can get their bearings with the system. The Everests are strong capable frames, if the players are on the up-and-up about what they can do, they're not gonna have any terrible issues with combat 1.

nova rampart
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Aaah. It's nice to have finally gotten all the customizations in, even if it took a second runthrough of the narrative to get the time to do it.

image.png
boreal anchor
warm glacier
neat blaze
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Those are the Reconus tokens, they're around here somewhere I think

warm glacier
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Wooo!

marble dagger
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{ive heard theres an unofficial map for cressidium in here, is that true?}

nocturne basin
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Can also search for “Media” in this channel for more stuff

mortal tiger
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Not fully sure this is the right thread for this, apologies if not, but through a slighty convoluted series of events I'm having a sixth player join my standard OSR game, just after we finished the 1st combat in the first session. Does anyone have any advice as to how I could tweak the combats just a little to balance them for that sixth player?

One specific desire I have is not to extend the time it takes to get through a round. Everyone except me is completely new to the system, meaning that turns are taking a while because people are still getting to grips with the system, and the sixth player isn't a big TTRPG guy. They've played D&D with us previously and decided they weren't super into it, specifically citing how long they were sat idly between their turns as an issue. Honestly, I think they're mostly joining just to hang out with us, cause we're all close friends but work means we can struggle to find time to hang out. So, yeah, wanting to maximise the chances they enjoy playing while also keeping the game at least somewhat balanced, lol.

Any ideas are much appreciated, and if there's a better place for this, do let me know:)

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Wait, I'm stupid

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I can just create a new post

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I know how to use computers 😌

shell pasture
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You can add some Elites too, it will add enemies more activations without adding more characters.

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And remember that LANCER balanced in about 3-5 players, with 4 being the most balanced setup. If you will add extra people it will definitely add more time to the rounds, no matter what you will do. But you can optimize your time of the game, making cheat sheets for yourself about what NPC can do in their turn in really basic language.

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And don't overoptimize your turns as GM. Yes it can make your fights more challenging but it'll definitely slow down your game.

neat blaze
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Paint3D mockup draft of what is gonna be my briefing scene on Foundry for my Solstice Rain Remixed campaign, I'm thinking of commissioning an artistically-inclined friend of mine to make it actually look good

SolsticeRainBriefingMockup.png
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LSA emblem is a scribbled impression of a design I saw on one of Reconus's tokens and decided worked as a symbol for the LSA as a whole

novel pelican
neat blaze
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oh neat, I didn't catch that

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design telephone

neat blaze
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foundry modules my beloved, I'm doing aspect ratio changing title cards for every combat and splash screen. Right now I have "IT'S NOT THE FALL THAT KILLS YOU - 10km above Nov Elysia and descending rapidly - 5:58" and "ANOTHER HAPPY LANDING - Kirmani Plaza, Paladine Avenue, Nov Elysia - 6:00" for getting shot out of the sky and Combat 1, respectively

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gonna have one for the other 5 combats, FOB Saber, and my "Extraction from Nov Elysia" splash screen

mortal tiger
mortal tiger
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I have realised that we would all prefer a physical map to using Owlbear Rodeo too. Staring at a screen for too long makes us all tired. I’m gonna be making loads of resources for the new players too, like character sheet where you can slot in cards with weapons on them into the mounts, to try and make it more tactile and intuitive (plus I just like the idea, lol). I’ll share those resources in the server once I’ve made them:)

mortal tiger
mortal tiger
neat blaze
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it looks great

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Got the okay from the fabulous @plush trail , this is my blank slide for the briefing that I got as a commission, exactly as I wanted it to look. I'm gonna put the art of the Rio Grande crew along the top row, and the art the PCs find for their characters and retrograde sprites along the bottom row once we do character creation. I also have to put in some text in the middle bits, but that's not to say I'm anything less than totally thrilled with this. It's gonna be great for my party of LANCER newbies.

lancersquaduibase.png
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I'll post the finished product after my group does character creation, but I'm very pleased with how this looks

merry wind
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What's the deal with some Winter Scar maps not having Enemy Deployment Zones?

nocturne basin
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What does the pdf say about deployment zones?

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I know combat 3 of SR says “put the NPCs wherever”

merry wind
nocturne basin
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And then the editing didn’t catch it

merry wind
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So the Ingress zones are also the EDZs and its just not labeled right?

nocturne basin
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Yeah that’s my guess

merry wind
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Okay, I'll keep an eye out for more cases like that.

stoic estuary
neat blaze
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those are Reconus's tokens

stoic estuary
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Thank you!!

lucid plover
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Hey hey. When heading to Cressidium, would the Rio grande depart from Rào Cỏ Station? Or another station?

iron storm
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It's mentioned that Cressidium is in the Cascade Line while Rao Co is in the Annamite, so probably not

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Means you can just pick any of the Cascade stations

lucid plover
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Gotcha!

neat blaze
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I personally put Cressidium somewhere out near Canopus

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on Janeunderscore's non-canonical map which I really like, that's in the Cascade Line but equidistant from both Aunic space and the DLS, 8ish LY from the Rainier blinkgate

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galactic middle of nowhere

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the core book mentions three stations in the Cascade: Rainier, Adams, and Hood

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I need to do more research on Union tours of duty, but my plan was that the Rio Grande departed Rainier 5.5 (or something around that figure, that puts them halfway to Canopus at .995c by the aforementioned unofficial map) objective years ago. The crew - aside from NHP Rio - has spent like 95-99% of that time in stasis, arriving 2-3 months before the action kicks off.

exotic igloo
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Not sure about the efficacy keeping most of the crew of a mititary vessel in stasis for long periods of time. Would probably be a big security risk.

Also it is probably not necessary due to time diliation. While an 8 LY journey would take about 8 realtime years to complete at .995c, to the crew the journey would have only felt like 9-10 months.

neat blaze
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i forgot about the time dilation

lucid plover
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i read somewhere that Cressidium is about 3 LY away from the nearest blink station. so about 30-36 months including time dilation.

i like Janeunderscore's maps too. im trying to place it on one of those maps

neat blaze
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Rainier is where I'd put it

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the other two options are Dawnline Shore adjacent or Boundary Garden adjacent on the Janeunderscore v3 map, which are major flashpoints that Union probably wouldn't send just one light carrier to

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actually no wait

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Adams is close to Boundary Garden, but Hood isn't

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I chose Rainier because it's in a nebula which might contribute to Cressidium's isolation

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Assuming 3LY from Rainier, you could place it basically along the 250 degree radian line directly from Cradle in the Melotte Reaches

lucid plover
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thats a cool idea. i like it. and it would makes sense to put it there from a fleeing 2comm standpoint. since its a straight shot from HA.

neat blaze
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assuming my math is right, that's a 109ish day trip at .995c from Rainier Blinkgate. If a military ship crew is awake for 1/3rd of the time for their shift and spends the rest in stasis, it would feel like a month and six days transit from Rainier to Cressidium orbit for any given crew member

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so call it a month and change with acceleration and deceleration, and then 2, maybe 2 and a half months of uptime in orbit out of stasis while negotiations happen below

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and then Solstice Rain kicks off

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could put a nice bow on it and say that Solstice Rain happens almost exactly 4 (subjective) months into deployment

lucid plover
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love it. anyone running narrative play on the Rio Grande at all? how do you do it? theater of the mind? map of the ship interior?

neat blaze
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I would assume Union Navy deploy from a blinkgate, so any travel time between where they spend their time in between deployments and Rainier is probably negligible

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I was going to maybe do a VR training sim combat to introduce my players to LANCER combat (they're total newbies) that takes place during the 2 and a half months in Cressidium orbit preceding OSR, but I haven't thought up any narrative play

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Spending 2 months off-ice in orbit on a carrier basically doing nothing would probably be pretty boring

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and it's not like you can sneak off-base and go carouse or something

lucid plover
summer lily
lucid plover
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Yaaaaaaass. That’s what I’m talking about! Thank you for sharing ^^

summer lily
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It actually helps one event that can happen at The FOB to do so considering ||you can have them meet a pilot who lost her arm when her squad was chewed up getting there|| i tend to have her playing card games or pool when met on ship, letting the others talk and gamble a bit before mission

exotic igloo
summer lily
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Someone made quite a few arts for her actually both with and without her arm in one of the channels here, that can be very handy...no i will not apologize

unborn forge
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I kinda want to put Kiros in combat 1 somehow... starting at LL1, maybe I just have them as an elite and then they piss off after a structure or something

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Probably replacing the bombard

nocturne basin
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sounds worthwhile yeah

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taking potshots

unborn forge
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also because i'm starting with 6 PCs... I want to ramp it up just a bit

nocturne basin
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Imagining Kiros positioned in the foreground of the scene like (Hades 2 spoiler) ||Prometheus when jumps out of the arena and he sends fire at you||

unborn forge
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lol

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yea I guess I could just make him a map/battle effect rather than putting him as a character

nocturne basin
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Any of those works tbh I just thought the foreground effect was a neat one

unborn forge
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mhm

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So far I've put...

2x bastions
2x assault
Elite hive
support
2x grunt berserkers

One team starting top right, one bottom right. My hope is that the berserkers get deleted before they can do too much damage and the striker amount balances itself out

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maybe I should make the grunts ronins instead, or just rebaked melee striker grunts

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Then on like round 2 I might bring in the pyro (vet?) and priest, and round 3-4 kiros and the ronin come in + grunts if I need more activations

lethal jay
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Got a question that I was hoping to get some recommendations or input on

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I'm planning on running OSR for a group of friends (both brand new to Lancers and TTRPGs as a whole. One of them has played a oneshot and another has played D&D. But for the rest this will be their first ever TTRPG game). And for myself I've been playing TTRPGs for like 6 years now, but this will be my first time GMing a campaign.

I'm planning on running an extended intro section on the Rio Grande. Introduce and let the players interact with important NPCs, have a tutorial combat (so they can learn how to play in a 0 stakes environment). And also help set the mood of "falling into a routine" before the ship alarm goes off and shit hits the fan/mission 1 properly starts

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For that intro section I got most of the scenes I want to run figured out already. But there's one that I'm a bit stuck on. (and thats where hoping to get some input on)

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I was planning on having the PCs run into the captain and Bannerjee having a conversation about the ambassador requesting the Captain to join them to the next diplmatic session to give a speech or two.

Goal here is to give the players some exposition on how the diplomatic mission has been progressing so far, as well as set the stage for the first mission briefing where it mentions these two NPCs have been down on the planet for several days now.

A secondary goal though is I was also wanting to give the players an opportunity to flesh out what their characters thoughts/opinions are on this whole diplomatic mission they've been assigned to. And I'm just wondering how best to frame that.

I was thinking I could have Bannerjee interrupt the convo they're having with the captain as they pass by the PCs to ask them some questions. Maybe like asking what their thoughts or opinions of the LSA and Sovereignty are. But Im not 100% sure if that would be "too hard" of a question to be blasting the players with in a session 0.5 sorta situation (and cause players who are brand new to RP and still trying to find their feet)

An exaggeration here but (for the bit) feels to me like I'd sorta be going
"Hey 6 year old Timmy, whats your opinions on the communist manifesto?"
If I took that route lol

So yea, thoughts or recommendations on how I could best frame this scene to meet those two goals I mentioned?

unborn forge
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Maybe the Captain and the Ambassador are discussing this while they're watching a news story on the TV or something, give the players something really specific but devisive to talk about rather than just "What do u think about this conflict that's been going on for decades?"

lethal jay
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Ah yea thats a good idea. For the specific but divisive topic, do you have some ideas on what that could be?

unborn forge
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There are a lot of real world conflicts happening right now, maybe one of them could inspire u intensifeyes

lethal jay
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haha fair enough

lucid plover
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I like this. Another option is to have Bannerjee ask if the players themselves have any questions…

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That would put more pressure on you to field their questions, but i think it could accomplish both goals in a very simple way.

boreal anchor
# lethal jay --- I was planning on having the PCs run into the captain and Bannerjee having a...

You could have a pre-mission briefing about the planet they're orbiting.

Ambassador Bannerjee presents a powerpoint about the two major factions, outlines very briefly the history of the conflict and opens up for questions. Follow the players' interest, expanding on the topics they broach while asking about their opinion on it ("What do you think is Union's responsibility in all this? What would you do if you were captain?")

stoic estuary
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How do you handle exotic gear rewards when the players reach fob saber? If they won combat three within 5 rounds it says Alex Kim gives them an extra exotic gear piece. So do you randomly decide which player gets the freebie, and then each player can attempt to get one of the exotic gear rewards with a downttime action roll? Sorry brand new GM here

iron storm
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there was some text that accidentally got cut in the final release. but kai has clarified it here

stoic estuary
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Thanks!

stoic estuary
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Ran rounds 1 and 2 of downpour tonight. The group of 5 players are getting absolutely wrecked. Is it supposed to be this hard? 3 everests, 1 chomo, 1 Sagarmatha. One of them who is a sniper build deployed in the single spot on the side from winning combat 2. He got a shot off at the rainmaker, but the specter quickly closed and has been hitting him for 10 damage each time with the, monowire plus rainmaker damage. He's down to 1 structure and 2 hp. The others are around 2-3 structure. 3/5 have used their core powers. I have been rolling well but dang the sentinel elite commander having 3 structure is brutal, same with the elite veteran rainmaker. They are all brand new to lancer.

lethal jay
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So I've yet to run the combat myself. But for your sniper player they are playing right into the strengths of the Specter

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They excel at picking off lone targets. Which since your sniper player is off on their lonesome without any backup/support

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Thats the main thing artillery players gotta watch out for from their DM. (Im playing a mid to long range arty tokugawa build in one of my current games. So I'm always mindful of when fast melee units start charging me down and make sure to pull back to my allies so they can help peel those threats off of me)

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As for some tips for your players. Make sure they dont forget about the computer in the center that rotates that central platform. Depending on how they time it (with how many activations the Rainmaker has left) theyll be able to catch it off guard and get some dmg in before its able to react and reposition back into cover.

ornate dock
ornate dock
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I am working on setting up a OSR game I'll probably have more questions later or seek to bounce ideas around.

ornate dock
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I started running OSR before and this time I have a better idea of how to run the first two combats. Along with a plan on how to meet with characters to show up in winter scar and later in Solstice rain.

ornate dock
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I was considering adding in a few narrative challenges and skill checks in mission 1 where there is room. Like a forked decision in beat two whether to help evacuate a local college's theoretical physics or Aerodynamics lab.

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Tying in the hints of the colonel and unit 33 into the two missions. Along with ties to TARTARUS.

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1 or two of the soldiers from unit 33 are leading the groups the PCs interact with, they will be the more aggressive and dedicated. Like the Pyro and hive in beat 1. Rainmaker and sentinel in beat 3.

lethal jay
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Made these up just now for myself. Figured id share them here in case anyone else would like to use them.

VSAF Seeder Mines

Explosive - Orange
Sealant - Green
Stun - Blue
Shock - Yellow

vestanMine-explosive.png vestanMine-sealent.png vestanMine-stun.png vestanMine-shock.png