LANCER One-Shot Module Jam

[slow topaz]

Excellent.

[sweet gale]

Good luck though

[slow topaz]

Gotta work for your meals!

[weak nacelle]

So some of the random adventure hooks I chucked into my oneshot imply the existence of megafauna on the planet; With your permission, I might throw an explicit reference to your oneshot in there, once I do an editing pass, so people who wanna go with that hook have somewhere to turn if they're looking for megafauna rules

that alright with you?

[slow topaz]

The typical game jam moment of "don't write custom shit - it takes way too much time." -- writes custom shit

[sweet gale]

Go ahead. An unsaid thing in the module (it was cut) is the gas giant the moon is around is called Nika and the dwarf star is named Shiro

Things got a little muddled with some names but the system itself is Angsiyan while the station cluster S&T set up in it is called The Outer Terrace

why yes it is guild wars references all the way down

[sweet gale]

I wanted to make that NPC the instant I heard the theme. The hard part was taking the design concept and handful of abilities I had in mind and making it into something

And I'm incredibly thankful to my playtesters for their feedback, but also the info I got from just seeing them interact with it.

[slow topaz]

It's one of the cool things about jams - experimenting with the base, tweaking it, expanding it, seeing it all explode. I only realized yesterday that I basically built a custom sitrep with the setup, which was kinda unintended. But well, why only go half the way...

[honest pawn]

Seeing independent cross-jam interactions like this warms my heart

[sweet gale]

Now that I'm "done," I don't feel bad about looking at other subs too

It's cool to see how many of these are wild takes on the theme.

[slow topaz]

I reaaally hope to do that next week. Until now, I mostly skimmed entries but that alone was magnificent.

[sweet gale]

When you start getting hobbesian, leviathan is a flexible concept!

I, however, decided to go with "you're gonna fight this fish"

[slow topaz]

I went more with Hobbes (and the overall idea of a Leviathan being this unstoppable force that you probably can't kill, but maybe subdue) . Gotta say, it would've never occured to me to built sth outta the Leviathan Heavy Assault Cannon - still makes me laugh cause it's so good.

[sweet gale]

I did experiment with making the leviathan far tankier and nigh unkillable for a reflection of that theme, but it defeated the purpose of it being an NPC that could be deployed elsewhere

Originally I named it "sea serpent" and the thing you fought was The Leviathan, but NPC names have to be one word, so it just became a leviathan overall and small ones are juveniles

[slow topaz]

Ok, gotta ask: How often would players want to adopt the juvies during playtests?

[sweet gale]

In the sense that the iskander just let it latch into her arm and chomp away than try to get it off, once

Otherwise they were dissuaded from keeping them alive due to their propensity for violence

[weak nacelle]

See I couldn't decide, so I went with "kind of hobbesian, but also the battle happens in the shadow of a skull of what is maybe a dragon, and maybe a 500 ton goat

[honest pawn]

I went straight Hobbes with consent of the governed but also named my solar system/planet after the Norse world serpent

[half obsidian]

Leviathan = big gun, I will not elaborate

[slow topaz]

Pushed v.0.9; possibly added all info needed to run the mission, added NPC lcps, custom sitrep and some other stuff I forgot.
Positive to get to 1.0 tomorrow, though I'll probably have to cut a few things I would have liked to include.
https://djed-moros.itch.io/sisyphus/devlog/879985/wip-v09-upload

[nova umbra]

May I compliment your taste in music with the Alan Parsons Project reference

Really looking forward to getting into this!

[prime ivy]

I'm looking forward to that 1.0.

[night rivet]

For me Leviathan was - Hebrew + Ouroboros/World Serpent

[weak nacelle]

https://lithuasil.itch.io/nasty-brutish-and-short-a-lancer-one-shot
And version 1.1 is live, with some minor edits (I literally wrote on the train ride back from a different game jam) and the reference to @sweet gale 's work

[silent plover]

I've updated my oneshot with more detailed combat and maps. If anyone got tips or feedback for balancing combat, I'd like to hear it.
https://matiasmakesthings.itch.io/overgrown-refueling-station-lancer-1shot

[slow topaz]

Aaaaand v1.0 we're live (20 minutes to midnight 👀 )
https://djed-moros.itch.io/sisyphus

[weak nacelle]

Just at a cursory glance, while I like breakable cover as a gimmick, I personally feel like those maps are perilously light on cover

maybe that's just a personal preference, but especially with snipers in both sitreps, I'd always want to err on the side of density there

[weak nacelle]

https://tenor.com/view/final-countdown-countdown-europe-counting-music-video-gif-4789617

[half obsidian]

DMed you some thoughts as the message was a bit big and off-topic for this channel. Honestly not far off from what I would expect!

[onyx fractal]

Updated my module with exactly one typo fix

[nova umbra]

Frantically hurtling towards 1.1

[onyx fractal]

heh

Also updating my community copies available based on sales so far

If you participated in the jam then feel free to grab a community copy

(and if you didn't participate in the jam, feel free to grab a community copy anyway if the price is too much of a burden for you right now)

[sweet gale]

I should probably finish the map tonight so it's "complete" for when the jam ends

Unfortunately this jam has afflicted me with the lethal urge to design more things

And I'm plagued by Thoughts About Stuff

[onyx fractal]

Sounds like a great time to start a blog

[honest pawn]

If I had the SickoYes emote it would go right underneath this message

[onyx fractal]

i gotchu @honest pawn

[nova umbra]

Suji, is there a time cutoff for the extended deadline? We’re trying to get a few new features in our 1.1 before the announcement in the Lancer News channel

[honest pawn]

Have you already submitted? You can still push an update post-announcement, if necessary, assuming that you’ve already submitted to the jam

[nova umbra]

We have! Just hoping to be as feature complete as possible before the announcement, but not gonna rush it if not feasible

[eternal dagger]

I've spent the weeks since release telescoping my Sitrep into an entire campaign setting that starts at LL0 and goes to LL 7

And I have ideas for beyond even that but I need to nail down that core first

[left mirage]

I might actually finish this tonight. I am ecstatic

[sweet gale]

I'm not finishing my map because of IRL stuff, but it's feature complete and that's what matters

[sweet gale]

cooking other things instead

[hollow turtle]

We stan Vex style roast memes

[delicate geode]

So anyways if I release anything it's gonna be hella untested. I'm at like 50-75% of the thing, but Shit Happens and I haven't touched it in a week. Hahaha. 🥲

[sweet gale]

JK I lied and finished the map and edited the project page to have a submission-specific color scheme https://isatheengie.itch.io/against-the-current

Still gotta finish the ransom note thing but that's a problem for later today me, because this thing's ready enough for the announcement post

[honest pawn]

Do it, submit it, get playtester eyes on it!

[slow topaz]

Hacking fish is TIGHT.

[slow topaz]

Pushed minor v.1.1. update mainly for clarification & equality.
https://djed-moros.itch.io/sisyphus/devlog/881681/11-minor-update

[onyx fractal]

When should we expect the announcement to go out?

[left mirage]

FINISHED

gonna tidy up a lil but 1.0 will go live by the top of the hour

[nova umbra]

whew! 1.1 is finally ready! https://morganjanearcane.itch.io/a-wake-writ-in-void/devlog/882071/v11-out-now

[idle cedar]

hi for spoon reasons I had the server muted
I'll try to grab a mod to send up a message sometime soon, this weekend at the latest

[honest pawn]

totally valid, hoping you're doing better

[rigid grail]

oh holy shit I fucking love the yawn plush design

also the station diagram is a great idea! loose narrative maps are fun

[left mirage]

"Just a little more editing, mlord. Send this man away; he wants to take your pages, he thinks 36 is too many"

https://tenor.com/view/gríma-wormtongue-lotr-lord-of-the-rings-hes-not-welcome-gif-16020804

[slow topaz]

I'd totally get one.

[sweet gale]

Do devlog posts send a message to everyone who's downloaded your project, or do you have to use the email tool to reach out to everyone?

[honest pawn]

I think emails are most reliable?

Dev logs, usually I just see them in my feed, or if I’ve followed folks

[sweet gale]

I noticed some mistakes in the book that I'm gonna address at some point and want to make sure everyone who downloaded it knows the book has changed.

[sweet gale]

It only sends to people who've purchased or have playtest keys, which is not the majority of people who downloaded it

Oh well. They may live with the typos forever.

[honest pawn]

ah, yeah, sounds right

[hushed mason]

Is everything in now? I'm curious to check these out and don't want to miss any

[idle cedar]

yeah it's closed now

[buoyant snow]

so what now?

[half obsidian]

Read! Play! Enjoy! Give feedback maybe! The galaxy is our space oyster

[onyx fractal]

I've been waiting for the #lancer-news announcement saying it's done and inviting people to check out the submissions

[fierce sedge]

That I believe is just waiting for Suji to feel like they are in the headspace to contact the mods over.

[onyx fractal]

Yep

[idle cedar]

Lancer One-Shot Module Jam is complete! Check out all 25 entries here: https://itch.io/jam/lancer-one-shot-module-jam/entries
You can also check out the random entry by clicking this link: https://itch.io/randomizer?jam_id=394273

If you enjoyed their work, please leave a review and rate it!

Does this seem fine? I feel like I'm forgetting something but not sure what else to add here

this is the thing I'm gonna request be put up in #lancer-news

[onyx fractal]

a punch up with too many exclamation points

Lancer One-Shot Module Jam is complete! 25 brand new Lancer one-shot adventures are now available for your enjoyment!

The jam's theme was: Leviathan

All jam entries are available here: https://itch.io/jam/lancer-one-shot-module-jam/entries

Or check out a random entry here: https://itch.io/randomizer?jam_id=394273

Thanks to all the creators who participated! If you enjoyed their work, please leave a review and rate it!

[nova umbra]

Maybe make some mention of the Leviathan theme for folks who weren't following the jam closely? As a quick grammar tweak, I suggest changing "check out the random entry" to "check out a random entry"

[onyx fractal]

Ooh good call about the theme

[slow topaz]

Cool idea with the random pick.

[hollow turtle]

I really love the randomizer thing. That is a cool way to 'spin the wheel'

Very exciting

[hushed mason]

Yeah, make sure to include that it's the Leviathan jam

In my game, we also had a Leviathan arc once. It was the favourite of my players I believe.

[onyx fractal]

Added the theme to my rendition

[hushed mason]

What's the deal with Typhoon Unchained and Rising Tide?

There are no downloads and the Itch pages don't work

Please fix them or remove them from the jam page

https://itch.io/jam/lancer-one-shot-module-jam/rate/3224799

https://itch.io/jam/lancer-one-shot-module-jam/rate/3224684

[hushed mason]

This one embeds and shows me art, but if I try to open it, it says I don't have access rights

[hushed mason]

And this one is just empty

[hollow turtle]

@left mirage is Typhon Unchained

The other team is uh squints

[charred crow]

I wonder if they just didn't get a thing up

Esbion Arshadow is Maria ("Marshadow in a Trenchcoat" rn)

[hollow turtle]

Ah yeah

@tepid pecan

There appears to be something wrong with your team's one shot page! Says we don't have access

Hope its an easy fix

[honest pawn]

I was under the impression they were still WIPs tbh

[tepid pecan]

Oh sorry about that! the timing and real life kind of conspired to make things a bit difficult to accomplish so we were still finishing up some writing for it,

[hollow turtle]

Huh i swore i saw Rising Tides out whoops

You take ur time

Thought something was wrong

[tepid pecan]

figured "probably open when there's something people can use vs. just letting them look at the bare skeleton"

[hollow turtle]

nods

[left mirage]

ITS AA MEEEEEEEE

I gotta double check my upload tonight

[hollow turtle]

Neato

Well that seems to be all the 'problems' solved

[idle cedar]

cool I'm gonna request a copy of this to get sent out

thank you team

[left mirage]

LOOKY HERE FIXED AT LAST

https://ashofcreativity.itch.io/typhon-unchained

Idk when I'll have time to finish up 1.0 and 1.1, but I definitely enjoyed focusing on boarding actions and creating different modules for PCs to move through/blow up.

[delicate geode]

Well, I couldn't finish. Might as well leave the half-baked thing in a folder and move on to other things. 😕
I've been ridiculously busier the last 2-3 months to the point it's unfunny

[unborn bridge]

Oof yeah, we couldn't get ours done too, circumstances of the outside forced our hands

[honest pawn]

@unborn bridge @delicate geode I’m gonna strongly encourage you both to finish when you have the time, even if it’s just a beta! Speaking as someone who’s done a late submission before, it’s still worthwhile to get it out there in the world. Timescale just wasn’t in the cards this time!

[slow topaz]

... and you can still edit it afterwards. Post it as a work in progress und update it whenenver.

[honest pawn]

As someone who has let two projects get away from him and released them anyway, one missing a submission deadline and the other taking over 2 years, it’s still enormously rewarding to release something to the world

[onyx fractal]

Big fan of publishing unfinished things

[sweet gale]

(I wish itch's dashboard didn't have such precise analytics though)

I somewhat yearn for the days of throwing my incomprehensible digimon fanfiction onto ff.net and knowing nothing about how it's moving around the internet

[honest pawn]

lol, I’m entranced by the analytics sometimes

“Wait where did this traffic spike come from”

[nova umbra]

Thank YOU for organizing this!!

[weak nacelle]

I feel ambivalent about analytics. It's probably really useful if you have thirty different things and serious revenue, but if you're just getting started/not promoting at all it's kind of sad <.<

[sweet gale]

I mean, it's nice to see I got ||3 figure|| downloads on it

But given it's PWYW, I'm not surprised.

One of my playtesters gave me a sum for it and I was like "I literally gave you a copy and also I owe you $20 IRL dude you're just getting your own dollars back"

[red stratus]

Analytics are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's nice to see people being interested enough to look in... but on the other, it's easy to obsess over and feel like you aren't good enough. (Because the numbers are rarely going to be that big conceptually, even if "20 people liked my stuff enough to read it" is still a lot of people when you think of it socially. I don't know 20 people!)

[left mirage]

THREE CHEERS FOR SUJI

[fierce sedge]

Numbers do have a tendency to become centralising, since they come with the promise that you can now measure things.

And from that measurement divine something. Whether that something is of use, and what numbers correspond with it well, is a different question.

[left mirage]

You should consider finding someone else who hasn't finished and offer your assistance!

TTRPGS are not solo- development affairs, it's way less efficient and leads to more cruft/ phoned-in material (see my submission for an example). A lot of gamers have this weird expectation folks should be able to make everything on their own, which leads to them not seeking teams, which means we get a ton of unfinished material. Meanwhile a few top performers get to the finish line along with phoned-in content, which perpetuates the cycle.

It's just not easy to make something from soup to nuts

Like shoot, I get obsessed with the mechanics and strategy and usually fall behind on descriptions. I can give you a new strategic layer for a mission that's easy to understand as Rock Paper Scissors, but I will spend literally 10x as much time on 1/10th the word writing descriptions

[sweet gale]

It takes a team, even if you're designing things solo. Nobody should see the first version of the leviathan I made. Not even the playtesters. They did though, and as a result, much-needed changes were made

Four playtests in and I'm very happy with the result.

[left mirage]

It'll also get you used to some project management; there are good routines and habits to build around working with other people. Hell the way you pass notes can have a huge infuence on getting your project done

[left mirage]

YES!

[left mirage]

how did playtesting influence your module overall? Any favorite changes?

[sweet gale]

1. I was overusing saves because I thought "saves matter" was a compelling mechanic

2. Literal actual QA testing of a mechanic I ultimately cut because the amount of rules text I'd have to write for it to not have any ambiguity was way too damn long. They liked it, but didn't miss it.

3. Someone bringing an iskander into a playtest and me seeing the phrase "forced to land" single-handedly shrinking so many text blocks

4. Inadvertently figuring out how to write one of the endings when a 3 player test ended up with one surviving mech.

[left mirage]

Unexpected endings are yuge

Like if the player gets to a win condition (or something that feels like it should be a win condition) in a weird way, it's rewarding to have their unorthodox or highly particular choices rewarded!

I had to rewrite a bunch of endings for the Typhon because each module or mission-kill encounter added a new way the PCs could get closer to victory

Eventually I stopped describing them in terms of success or failure because it was possible for the PCs choices to actually cause more than one ending (like VS troops evacuating but turning the Typhon to slam into Nov Elysia, or turning it towards the Rio Grande's wings and blowing up the reactor themselves

[sweet gale]

My favorite playtest results were

1. "BCL can push you in any direction. Where do you want to go?" "...Up." "Up?" "UP!"

2. "I system crusher the leviathan and set it on fire???"

And my favorite.

3. "I feel like that should do more damage" (I edit the text for it to do more damage) "Yeah. That's sufficiently terrifying."

[weak nacelle]

But have you considered teams cost money, and 'me' is the only person I'm willing to make work four different job descriptions for free <.<

[sweet gale]

I mean, that's why I don't have any art or editor

Playtesters get a copy for free, which isn't much for a PWYW module, but still

[hollow turtle]

That’s what I did for all my play testers too. It’s really the thought

You went ‘I am going to actively give what I made to these people’ rather than ‘eh, they can go get it themselves’

If they need to redownload it, they can go to the itch page too, but I did go to them first and give them a copy before it ever went live

[left mirage]

Nope! Game jams like this are perfect for finding others to work alongside. If you're going to charge money for the result, you can always set an agreement aside on how to best split the $10 or so most products will make per year

IMO the most difficult thing is finding a relatively shared vision to work towards. Folks get stuck in "idea guy" mode and would rather make outlines for projects that will never see the light of day, rather than create using someone else's idea and actually ship

[left mirage]

seconding (thirding?) playtesters! Lots of folks desperate to game but can only join for a one-shot or so anyways.

[buoyant snow]

yeah the problem I have is that I get these big ideas and then its like: "Man...I have to now put it in writing and playtest all of that"

[left mirage]

One of the hardest things I ever had to hear was "until it's in writing and someone can use it, those aren't really ideas. Those are just feelings"

[honest pawn]

writing the draft is often the hardest part so I feel that

usually I can get up to the outline just fine but after that it's pfbbbbbbbbt

[hollow turtle]

My biggest problem is having BIG ideas

I like longform content and engaging in longform content

So there’s a lot of stuff to make

[onyx fractal]

how did you get access to my blog drafts folder

[hollow turtle]

For my latest project I’m not only leaning into narrative to make balance easier, but I think I might skip making enemy comps for sitreps all together

A very ‘a battle takes place here. Throw whatever you want on the map’

[buoyant snow]

i have this big idea, and I am cutting it down to a manegeable size,

[hollow turtle]

I love everything except battle balance

Because my usual way of making sitreps is ‘throw NPCs in the field til I’m happy’

And that is usually a vibe based affair which does not translate to books very well

[slow topaz]

Wanna second all of the above - just a quick addition on going solo:
I think it's legit, but you'll have to consider a lot of things a team can easily even out and simply have to accept that some things will probably not turn out that good. It comes down to ressources, in the end - how much time you got, what skills you have (and which you might wanna develop further during the timeframe) and what you actually want to achieve.
I took the jam as an opportunity to get a project done only for myself early in the year, partly because I wanted to see if it'd actually work. I knew I wouldn't have any art or any additional playtests because of skills & time, so this was not a goal I set out to achieve in the first place. Would the project be better with it? Yeah, probably (in terms of balancing/design, I'd be very surprised if not), but I'm okay with that. First time going solo for me, but I'm really glad that I did - though I'd still say, it's always better to got with a team, even if it's just for the fun.

[left mirage]

^absolutely. Making something by yourself, soup to nuts, is a really valuable experience. After one of my team projects fell through I wasn't confident I could actually finish projects anymore, so I did a zinequest RPG to test whether I still had it. Teams are going to handle things better in most cases, but there's still a lot of good you can leverage out of it!

[left mirage]

trueeeeeee

I started building a new freelancer guide for longform stuff. I'm hoping (against hope!) that I figure out the key to getting folks on for longer projects?

If a project manager sets aside smaller chunks to complete in advance, which the freelancer/teammate can fire off and abandon the project until they want a new chunk (or the project is finished), they can

[slow topaz]

For jams or in general?

[left mirage]

In general!

Jams are supposed to be speedy so these problems don't come up as often (project scope is usually still something you can handle yourself, after all), but these problems kill longer-term projects

[hollow turtle]

A lot of the problem with long term projects is time and motivation there’s a lot of factors that time into those and it can really fuck with you if you have inspo but gotta sit a desk crunching an excel sheet til your tired or your job somehow managed to conspire to fuck over all your free time

[slow topaz]

Absolutely. I improvise basically everything as GM, which can be kinda tricky for systems like Lancer, so the only way I found to work with it is thinking a lot in modules, which could in theory be completed independently. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get a single mission done. Also, it helps limiting damage and too much work if the group falls apart for some reason.

[hollow turtle]

I’ve found working on small chunks helps a lot but it definitely doesn’t solve the problem of motivation, which is the main fuel for the fire

(At least for me)

[idle cedar]

any suggestions for working as a team?

[hollow turtle]

I, personally, just cannot sit down and write in a set off time of day on one thing. I have to have my Motivation Dial set to the correct idea or else no words come out

[left mirage]

Pretty much! then any prospective teammtes jump in and see that goin on and it scares them off haha

[hollow turtle]

I think you gotta make sure you get a team that vibes on your level

[left mirage]

hmmmmm
I have different recs from project start vs during a project but they are pretty much all procedural

[hollow turtle]

Especially for something you’re doing as a fun project and not for Work ™️

People you can easily talk to and work with are top tier in any team

It won’t always be smooth, so you gotta make sure your willing to speak without ruining a friendship

But if you wanna say, do another one-shot jam with a team you gotta select who you work with with care

[slow topaz]

That was one of my main motivations of doing the jam project. I often get so bogged down with work and teaching people and motivating them that at the end of last year, I felt unsatisfied with my own stuff. Sooo ... getting shit done in January = gold for the overall track record

[hollow turtle]

Perhaps a really long time project can handle a few road bumps from a resistant element because you don’t have two weeks to complete something

I also have a bad habit of realizing that I’m not as socially awkward around confrontation on the internet too.

So if something is Wrong ™️ I’ll confront it directly for the most part

[slow topaz]

Next jam time, I just wanna sit down with a friend and bounce stupid ideas from one head to the other without any high concept stuff, cause it was so cool to see what crazy ideas were realized in all the other projects

[hollow turtle]

Some people are more anxious

And not as willing to ‘go for the throat’

So that can make group work seem daunting too

Especially if you wanna lead

[left mirage]

Suji I'll send an overview in a sec since I'm also typing it out elsewhere

[hollow turtle]

I might try next time around to do a group but every time I get anxious because I wanna be the one having my idea fleshed out with help under my direction, not like workshopping a common ground and going with the most voted XD

Which is kinda selfish

[nova umbra]

Same! Honestly it was really freeing to get to work on something creative that a) had an external rather than internal deadline and b) didn’t have any preexisting work or baggage to get caught up in

[left mirage]

Everyone does! You gotta hold on tightly let go lightly tho

[left mirage]

If you can focus on a lower-level (in terms of project scope) cool thing for the ref or players to do, then you get to pour excitement and energy into something that builds towards everyone's enjoyment along with (most importantly) your own!

[hollow turtle]

No I Must Realize My Idea

It Is The Only Way

My Brain Says So ™️

(You can tell I did not have many good group projects in school or college)

[left mirage]

During the summer, I'd like to design a spy-focused campaign I mentioned to you awhile back. Sandbaggers is required viewing, of course, but besides that what does the campaign have?

a lot of NPCs
its in the dawnline shore, so planets
baronies, IPS-N, HA, and Union, possibly other factions in play
strategic layer, lots of downtime sessions or sessions focused on crime/mysteries

The initial premise might be "spy", but that still leaves a ton of room for what can happen in game

[left mirage]

yeah honestly thats annoying to go through, especially if you were the one who had to push everything through to the end

[hollow turtle]

My current project is something I’ve been teasing round pnet and that’s my ‘narrative campaign’ The Disappearance of Ty Apose

I’ve been working on it ‘in order’ which is a very funny way to work on it

But it’s been enjoyable as a solo project

[left mirage]

exorcising this thought so I don't have to dig into it later

but how many projects could probably benefit from shared NPCs/worlds/other setting details

[left mirage]

hell yeah! what's it about?

[hollow turtle]

But tldr a Union Administrator goes missing and the players have to find them whole avoiding getting stabbed in the back

The big ‘twist’ of this entire thing is not just local stuff breaking under pressure but Union stuff does too

So Union is not, technically, all good guys in this one

Very inspired by a lot of my time spent on Reddit trying to carefully explain what Union is and why it is neither all good or all bad

[left mirage]

How does it work in terms of a narrative campaign? Making heavy use of the existing narrative structure?

Here's a really compressed version, @idle cedar

[hollow turtle]

Heavy use of clocks and required use of bond/stress. Which is an odd phrasing but if you’re a quieter more combat focused type you might be able to get away without it in some games

Not this one. And I’m going to be writing some bits on how to use mechs narratively as well

Most people tend to match pilot to mech (so like hacker mech, hacker pilot) but it’s not always a one to one

So a few checks and saves that funnel into narrative can help expand use of the mech even when not actively fighting in it

I thought about using Far field for this but without the mechs and how Lancer tends to frame narrative stuff the story doesn’t feel like it works

[left mirage]

The idea is the lead and the partner/freelancer start the new person's entry to the project by going back and forth for tasks. Then the newbie chooses a piece of the project to focus on. They're partially responsible for defining how deep the selected scope is supposed to go. Once that step is over, the lead comes in and might say the scope is too big, redefine the scope for the newbie, and then the newbie starts actually clearing tasks off the board.

All of this could be compressed to a month if a project outline was already completed or the newbie is jumping in the middle of development to fill some gap

[slow topaz]

I like that. A lot. Had sessions where the combat devolved into everyone just doing their turns (the combat was still very cool, luckily) and that's when I feel I failed as a GM cause I let the machines devolve into numbers and abilities, when they should be these very cool and personal things and I want my players to really engage with their mechs.

[hollow turtle]

I've had several moments where players have wanted to use thier mechs to do (X) but didn't have the narrative trigger and would of just rolled grit, so rather than trying to roll with a basic accuracy, I let them roll a weapon or a system check to see if it would work

I think it lets them feel like they are actually using thier mech outside of combat, both IC and meta-ly

instead of 'its just the pilot doing it'

(given how clear the dividing line between mech combat and pilot is

[hollow turtle]

!!!!

#lancer-news message

Its been posted! 😄

so small, so mighty

[onyx fractal]

Wooo

Anyone mind if I post to reddit? Or does @idle cedar want to take care of that?

[idle cedar]

I'm not posting it anywhere else officially

[night rivet]

We the Many. We the Few.
Offer up our song to you.
Ein cerddorfa / cer cyhoeddifa
Gyda dwylo wedi'u geni o gnawd

[crystal wigeon]

Is that Welsh?

[crystal wigeon]

Some people like to be directed! Save their effort for production instead of decision making. I think as long as expectations are set before hand, and everyone is happy with their responsibilities and what they're getting out of it (experience/practice of craft, working in a team to a deadline, practice coordinating remotely) it can still work without everyone being "equal".

Of course most people enjoy a little room for expression or that if they make suggestions they'll at least be considered, so if you're a micromanager that will only accept exactly your own vision down to the last word/pixel rather than acceptable outcome of outline-level direction, that can generate enough friction that it might be best to do it yourself. After all, no-one knows your vision better 😄

[night rivet]

Aye, a little cynghanedd in celebration of the jam being finished

[hollow turtle]

Oh definitely! I, personally, would never discount the input of my team, hell I legit told my artist 'we got limited time, I'm going to throw some concepts at you, and you throw whatever you think fits back at me'

I tend to get ideas stuck in my head and if I can't do them do them cuz Vote Override I get a bit sore about it 😅

But Leading a team=scary

there is no winning XD

[crystal wigeon]

Just get a big hat so everyone knows you're in charge

Everyone respects a big hat 😌

[crystal wigeon]

Listen, sometimes... I'm of the opinion democracy isn't the way to go for creative projects. I'd personally take a flawed product of a singular vision than something designed by committee. And if there's a singular vision holder, like a director, that leader's job is to make decisions so everyone is clear on a direction. Sure they take the input of people who's opinions and expertise they respect, but the final call is on them. That responsibility can weigh heavy, you're right, but if it wasn't, you wouldn't be valuing it properly, so that fear is an indication you'd be good at it 💪

It also doesn't have to be some big thing, you could try taking a lead role on a really small project and see how it feels

[left mirage]

^

[hollow turtle]

I'll save it for the next jam maybe

[slow topaz]

Never saw myself as a leader, but life chose otherwise.
Funniest thing happened when I directed my first stage production and during the opening, one of the technicians next to me asked: "Say, they're doing completely different stuff than before, right?" and I was "I have no idea what they're doing - I just enabled them to do it."
Couldn't say (and stll can't, honestly) that I really knew what I was doing, but having served under really terrible directors gave me a pretty good idea of what I didn't want to be.

[weak nacelle]

My ADHD ass would love to just work within clearly defined parameters instead of doing every job on every project but between the complete lack of contract work in the games industry rn and the mess that is my life, self-exploitation for solo projects is all I seem to manage to muster <.<

[buoyant snow]

im curious, what do you think you specialize in mostly?

[weak nacelle]

My work so far has been mostly narrative Design, straight up writing, localization and narrative consulting (as in sensitivity reading, but also 'how can we make sure this story has the ideological direction we want' or 'I need this story to get from point a to point b and c in a way that makes sense')

[buoyant snow]

I kinda want to do that professionally some day, though I also do some game design for fun. I'm writting systems and mechanics for spinoffs of Lancer games, or mechanics on how to combine Lancer and Battlegroup Campaigns together cohesively.

I also do battlemaps in inkarnate

[sweet gale]

I'm just a feral amateur designer and union employee at the bad idea factory

[honest pawn]

You misspelled “good idea factory”

[sweet gale]

It's less "this isn't good" and more "I want this to work but trying to template this into unambiguous text that makes sense within Lancer's formatting" with recent designs

[honest pawn]

"Using words is hard, because words mean things" mood

[sweet gale]

Line AoE of mechanically-determined length instead of a fixed length more like , but that's #homebrew-design territory

[onyx fractal]

Posted on the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/LancerRPG/comments/1inxicd/the_lancer_oneshot_module_jam_is_complete_25/

[sweet gale]

Somewhat related to this, I was watching a stream just now and https://www.twitch.tv/loadingreadyrun/clip/WiseRacyHorseChocolateRain-Bv1ZYyU2hG4_UG8J

"Why does that water look familiar?"

"...Waitaminute"

It's being used by the NOAA??? https://cpo.noaa.gov/tag/forced-models/

The reason I'm obsessing is because I don't want to improperly credit the source or use something freebooted

[honest pawn]

Public domain image?

[sweet gale]

It's from pixabay and is allowed for commercial use by their license. What's odd is there's a moving version

[honest pawn]

Huh, okay odd

[hollow turtle]

The picture does look like a shot from a render

[left mirage]

show em who's boss!

not joking tho, one person is almost always going to do the majority of work on a project. This is doubly true when everyone is doing similar kinds of work

You don't want creative control to lapse into preventing the others from working, but besides that it's the top performer's project

You can let people unspool a neat thread if its something you might be able to reflavor to your preferences later on. You have to check in and offer slight readjustments or it'll get away from the project's theme. The readjustments can't be too heavy handed or you'll never see the thread get unspooled. You can't continue with someone if your suggestions kill their momentum, whether it's your fault or their's (or somewhere else)

it's a partially vibes-based balancing act, which is why hammering out the specifics of your procedure is so handy

You're already dealing with a billion unknowns, get rid of the ones in your control

god that felt good to get out of my system

[sweet gale]

I've found it being used as some sorta motion graphic in a couple locations (like from that clip) but I can't track down a source

[sweet gale]

https://bsky.app/profile/orbitaldropkick.bsky.social/post/3li34yl4jq22q

evil deadman (@orbitaldropkick.bsky.social)

Checking out the lancer rpg one shot game jam, tons of cool stuff in here: itch.io/jam/lancer-o...

Bluesky · Feb 13, 2025, 4:42 PM

[onyx fractal]

notice me senpai

[nova umbra]

!!!

[honest pawn]

Let’s heckin go

[idle cedar]

yooo

[last frigate]

[buoyant snow]

I feel stupid for asking...but who is this?

[nova umbra]

Tom Bloom, one of the designers and lead artist for Lancer!

[buoyant snow]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaqqqqqqaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[sweet gale]

Don't ping him because he will hurl you into the duat

[left mirage]

That reminds me, anyone itching for other projects here, or doing something more long-term? I've been looking at the dawnline shore and getting hungry

[sweet gale]

Long term here. Working on the NPCs first

[left mirage]

hell yeah, the one you mentioned earlie?

[hollow turtle]

I'm workin on what I mentioned before, the Narrative Campaign

[nova umbra]

this jam was actually a departure from my typical projects! I'll probably switch back to some piece of fiction or another (a good deal of what I write is about my Lancer PC anyway...)

[night rivet]

Can you explain this one more? Curious

I've got a long term idea too, but am happy to chip in when I can - @left mirage Sorry for not being able to contribute, life continues to get in the way

[hollow turtle]

@night rivet heres the tldr of the set up

But its a campaign more focused on narrative rather than combat, woth heavy use of clocks and bonds

All done pretty much in RAW Lancer

I know Lancer's narrative focus isn't as heavy, and other system hacks might work 'better' but I like Lancer

And I've always had a blast setting up narrative scenes with what i got

[split flame]

Oh I'm working on something long term... || Finishing the one-shot I didn't finish for this 😭 ||

[honest pawn]

you got this

[sweet gale]

I've learned that I've got upwards of 5 people who want to play lancer when I'm getting maxxed out on games I can realistically run on a consistent schedule

But thanks to the results of this one-shot module jam, I may have the ability to introduce them to Lancer through a series of easy-to-run one-shots!

[idle cedar]

deadline is fake

you can keep working on things

(submission deadline is very real though)

[buoyant snow]

I'm working on a combined lancer/ battlegroup campaign with ground army war management and basebuilding

[delicate geode]

today i worked a bit on my one shot
seeing as how i didn't make it on time, I might rework all references to "Leviathan" into something else.

[slow topaz]

I'm cautious in terms of commitment, but feel free to ping me if you need a map or stuff

[buoyant snow]

i like making maps in inkarnate, and theorycrafting for things like worldbuilding

[honest pawn]

I’m actually trying to make a 1-pager for the Electrum Archive Jam: https://itch.io/jam/tea-jam-2025

I don’t know what’s next for me with Lancer but every day I chafe more and more under the bounds of rigid sitreps, so maybe I’ll finally write those blogposts about breaking down sitreps into pieces or something

[sweet gale]

My goal atm is making 4 NPCs for a faction from a possibly-overly-ambitious campaign that fill niches I find myself yearning for when making NPC teams

Unfortunately they are reaching levels of wordyness and design sillyness that will put wallflower NPCs to shame

how the fuck do you make a melee controller work

[honest pawn]

Look at the PF2E monk imo

Mobile, action compression, strong control gated behind landing multiple blows

Because it’s melee range (and at-will) it can afford to be more Potent in exchange for committal targeting

[buoyant snow]

Honestly, my dm never uses sitreps. The mission is "do the thing, stop those guys, don't die" there is enough flexibility to make up mission objectives on the fly

[sweet gale]

I may keep that for the Defender/Controller then since I like how weird the Striker/Controller is, even if the idea of making it a melee controller is lost

Though I suppose I could just make a pure controller

(which I do design differently)

Relevant to the jam, the leviathan is designed to fill a number of roles as some sort of hybrid between two of them at once. Each ability had had its effects classified as striker/defender/controller or hybridized, then statistically tuned around what other NPCs of that classification do

There are some interesting trends and patterns among the classifications that I didn't appreciate until I started trying to break the NPCs down individually

[slow topaz]

https://tenor.com/view/weird-al-like-a-surgeon-surgeon-al-madonna-gif-12572288035165922197

[hushed mason]

I ran a totally custom bossfight recently, nearing the end of my campaign. Boss was a songstress from the court of azathoth, big cosmic valkyrie type thing

She had a number of spears. Each is a primary attack and then gets stuck in the ground for a secondary effect applying to all other spears.

You can break them in their stuck form but that reloads them for her. She also has a big beam like that structure damage line weapon ultras can get, but it bounces between all deployed spears and breaks them all, fully reloading her arsenal

Very similar hybrid of Controller and Striker, having only one Ultra and no support meant she had to fill a lot of roles, but she did very well and my players loved it

[sweet gale]

looks between that concept and the spear-using NPC I designed earlier this week

[hushed mason]

For example, Jayantha Vel is a launcher weapon with big range and arcing. Targets 3 places, but lower accuracy so players could dodge it well.
Then the stuck spears form a triangle that makes sn enemy athena field

I had 4 other spears on her, all with primary and secondary effects, plus one weak non spear attack in case she's totally out but can't do the big rrload laser yet

[half obsidian]

I've got some homebrew ideas kicking around, and outlining a cyberpunk-themed campaign module. If you're looking for collaborators, I'd be happy to talk characters, worldbuilding, narratives, or combat design 🙂 Anything with words, I'm good for!

[left mirage]

Nothing wrong with that homie! It's kinda why I wanted to organize a long-term project, so folks could drop in and drop out

[idle shale]

A bit too busy with my own project, but uncritical support to any and all Dawnline Shore focused projects (mine is too 😌)

Ive also been mulling on trying to revive another concept I had for the one-shot that my group didnt end up using too, so its creative spirit continues to give

[buoyant snow]

huh, I wonder if this barebones army manager system could work for the Dawnline shore

[unborn bridge]

Show me the barebones army manager system pls

[weak nacelle]

10th edition 40k

[idle cedar]

warlance 5k

[buoyant snow]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PR9Tlq82lWcdNDsrKFpxr019bj0qpVrAAfLN_7w9Cn4/edit?tab=t.0

[unborn bridge]

Can't wait to play C&C lancer wargame campaign, no of players? 1!

[buoyant snow]

yeah, my goal is to simplify it and make it easier to completely ignore and run in the background if players are uninterested

[unborn bridge]

I can think of a few ways to scrap the fat

[buoyant snow]

like what??

[unborn bridge]

For combat I think you should simplify it the most. Don't use d20's and modifiers, instead use 2d6s, modifiers that add more 1d6s and minor modifiers or special rules that can greatly impact a unit's performance. And only the initiator of the attack rolls the dice, depending on the results of the dice determines the battle results

2 or lower - total defeat, lose 1 damage track
3 to 6 - stalemate, both sides lose 1 damage track
7 - 9 - Minor victory, Loser lose 1 damage track
10 - 11 - Victory, Loser lose 2 damage track, Winner gains 1 Morale
12 and above - Major Victory. Winner gains 2 Morale, Loser loses 3 Damage track and 2 Morale.

Reactions shouldn't be something that all armies should be able to do, leave reactions to a specific few like maybe airborne forces, QRF forces, entrenched infantry and Defensive structures.

This way, you'll be able to cut down the number of times you'll be rolling, and the number of times you'll roll large amounts of dice would be in siege like scenarios where the defender will also be making reactions against your forces. Slowing down the game and making it "realistic"

You can also simplify resources, instead of towns and such, the player needs military infrastructure and civilian infrastructure, civilian infrastructure provide all the necessities, manpower and resources and military infrastructure will provide weapons and industry.

Try not to implement rolls in this system, if you do want some randomness, try maybe coin flips but nothing more than that, pokemon tcg has some fun coin flip mechanism

[buoyant snow]

ok. How should I incorporate Unit types and traits? I want them to be important, but I dont want to get into a Rock Paper Scissors situation? I figured that having traits be specific to a certain unit type might help distinguish them and be able to be invoked in battle for more bonuses or Accuracy

[unborn bridge]

So here is the thing, unit types shouldn't exactly be rock paper scissor but it can feel that way if you should provide certain benefits of some unit types over others.

For example, maybe infantry are the only ones that can capture structures, or maybe they are the most defensive unit types avaliable. If you want to hold a position, infantry could have bonuses against attack rolls such as -3 to the attacker's end result when rolling.

Armor could be the most mobile of the ground elements. They could be all about movement and attacking first, they can basically be an all rounders in a fighting force. Maybe even as active forward Reconnaissance force.

Mechs could be the strike teams that give the lancers the most obvious benefit, but maybe they don't have any great modifiers like the armored or infantry units. Instead they, are great escorts and ignore terrain penalties that some unit types cannot go through (like mountains, etc)

Even with all of these, it does seem like there are a rock paper scissor dynamic but that's just because each force provides something that the other force will not be able to give. Large Infantry hold a position of importance and can counter small attack forces, Armor counters almost anything if they strike first but infantry can put up a great fight and mechs are the most flexible when it comes to their deployment and could possibly get into places that other forces might not be able to go to, possibly allowing them to get the jump on others

[buoyant snow]

I dont know if I want to deal with terrain and actual mobility that much. Putting numbers on things is generally a bad idea, and I dont know how to manage movement across mountains when things like dropships and teleportation cannonically exist in the lancer universe

[unborn bridge]

Lol, fair, but again such technology can be the centrepoint of such conflict

Teleportation? Means we got to take it out, send in the mechs!

In a theatre of mind, what comes to my mind is mainly just infantry are the most defensive orientated

Armor comes cheap and flexible in most combat situation, usually they win through first strikes

Artillery make attack rolls that will not trigger reactions except for defensive Artillery counter battery which is when an Artillery takes their turn specifically to do this.

Mechs are probably the one I will find the most trouble with, since they are very similar to armor

Sea and Air assets could have rules similar to Artillery but with different travelling rules

[buoyant snow]

Yeah, sea and air can definitely have more of a supporting role

what do you think about how the FFs "Grow" over time? Like...once you hit a certain company number threshold you get to the next size category. Is that good? Or is that too tedious?

[unborn bridge]

I think a good way to grow a FF is just with achievements and legacies, if they do "grow" it does makes sense to bring them up to the next threshold but that means that the scale must also go up

So instead of companies fighting companies, it's now Battalion against battalion

[buoyant snow]

and what about the whole idea of "Combining FFs"?

what do you think?

[unborn bridge]

Not sure where that is, but when you probably combine FF, you sort of run into the problem when you will just combine mutiple of the different forces to get the most benefit i think.

Cuz you'll just get a hodgepodge of all units in 1 FF sort of deal that can do everything

[buoyant snow]

so can I only "Attack" or "Defend" with one FF at a time?

and they are all Mono Units?

[unborn bridge]

That does sort of cut down most of the complications

Maybe instead of "Attack" and "Defend" there can also be the "Support" action

That way you can have more advantage when attacking or defending

So how i think i would do this is

Each turn, there is a Logisitic phase, Movement and Battle phase, and Resupply Phase.

On a player's turn, they may choose up to 3 FF of the many FF that they have, these FF may move and potentially fight other forces.

At the end of the turn, depending on the Unit, they can resupply, gaining back resources like morale or Supply

Some Units, like mechs and Infantry can make reactions, but Armor and Artillery (against close up units) can't

Armor have a +2 Bonus to Army attack rolls,

Infantry, when they take the defend action -3 to the army attack rolls

A larger FF than the attacking FF has +1d6 to the attack roll, keeping 2 of the highest roll.

You cam also maybe add a Support Unit, this acts as the logisitic base and a vital target for any army

[buoyant snow]

I was thinking about how to add in bases. I primarily want to have 2 types of bases.

1. A more serious military base where the actual FFs train, recruit, R&R, and equip themselves before battle while also serving as fortifications in case they get attacked.

2. A smaller mobile base for the player lancer team with more specialized roles in maintaining a small squad of elite Mech pilots with a cast of colorful NPCs for story purposes

[unborn bridge]

For the first Base is pretty easy i think. As a fort, there is a -5 attack modifier against attacking armies, an army may attack the fort instead of the garrsion to lower the modifier by 1. Rolling a 7 or higher.

Smaller mobile base could be something like a Hero FF. They can do task that other FF might not be able to do. Probably

You could also take my idea of the support unit to be the mobile base

[buoyant snow]

oh yeah, that's a good idea. Have it be support so it can only support, and their action can both be the mechanical bonus to the FF, or an excuse to run missions for the party

[honest pawn]

Legit I may recommend you make your own third party forum thread for this

[unborn bridge]

Btw most of these mechanics are shamefully stolen from Trench crusade, and Root the Wargame.

[honest pawn]

That way you can get focused feedback instead of other one shot discussion

[unborn bridge]

True

You can start here https://discord.com/channels/426286410496999425/1057768392683171840

[buoyant snow]

yeah I will do that, thanks

#1341033017291837460 message

if anyone is interested

[left mirage]

tell me more!

[left mirage]

ayyyy been building one too for my generators!

[left mirage]

That's easy, use roles! artillery, biological, controller, defender, support

[buoyant snow]

Heads up, discussion has been moved to its own thread

[idle shale]

Oh! It’s uhhhh a three-mission series I’ve been working on called Ironbound Shadows! I’ve got a forum post for it as well https://discord.com/channels/426286410496999425/1263671909887901777

(I’m super overdue a new draft release tbh, aha)

[left mirage]

Looks awesome! Love mercenaries in the Dawnline, I've been writing up spy nonsense so paying off mercs and grey legal contracts really activate the almonds

a rogue KTB faction is especially terrifying too

[idle shale]

Aww, thanks a ton! I’ve had a lot of fun with the spy nonsense, it’s such fun to write intrigue and I’ve had a blast running and refining it

I’m also very happy with my setting work in general tbh - I’m kinda hoping to vaguely work with it for an otherwise unrelated short project later on

(And, conversely, my own one-shot for this project was super helpful at sketching out the setting concept for another big project I wanna tackle someday!)

[thorny sand]

Wasn't able to get my one-shot project done in time. Had to put it down as life had unexpected plans. Looks like time might be freeing up and wanted to take a peak at what people had done. A bigger turn out than I thought. Love all the stuff people came up with

Hope to be able to actually participate if another one of these happens

[idle cedar]

another will happen
It'll probably happen around spring break time or summer break time

[thorny sand]

Sweet, can't wait. Love seeing tons of people sharing their ideas and projects

I had planned on doing a one-shot during a raid on a prototype dyson sphere

[prime ivy]

You don't really see Dyson Spheres in Lancer. Super cool premise. I'd love to see what becomes of that some day.

[thorny sand]

Thanks, and yeah was gonna be a relatively small, secret dyson sphere project around an unstable dwarf star

I'll probably finish it at some point. At least the writing. But the idea was a multi-path narrative based on the players choices and the combat was going to be on a constantly shifting environment with appearing and disapearing hazards and gravity shenanigans

[night rivet]

The first dyson sphere around a black hole to help humanity continue against the entire death of the universe and its rebirth, only for it to go horribly wrong and you have to jump from piece to falling piece around the dyson sphere to reach the ships that'll take you out of here (no this isn't stealing from Titanfall 2, definitely not)

[onyx fractal]

I spent some time doing some mild SEO to make sure my adventure shows up when people search Itch for "lancer adventure", "lancer module", and "lancer one shot", but I can't figure out how to make it show up when people just search for "lancer"

Maybe itch is only returning the top X results from search

https://itch.io/docs/creators/getting-indexed

[honest pawn]

Itch does tend to do that yeah

Like it has zero pagination in its search

[onyx fractal]

welp

[night rivet]

@crystal wigeon Print came through

[crystal wigeon]

🤩 Yooooo it looks so good!

[onyx fractal]

Oh shiiiiit

Where did you get it printed?

I wish Typst better supported formatting for print

Getting prints of my module was one of my goals that ended up on the back burner until that gets done

[night rivet]

Just an online one, Mixam. I wanted the rougher more old school paper print but they only did satin for such a small order. Still looks amazing, but doesn't have that old school papery texture

Was very quickly done though, fair credit to Mixam

[onyx fractal]

Gotcha, mixam and lulu are the main ones I know of

[split flame]

Oh hell yes

[slow topaz]

This looks really good.

[onyx fractal]

Someone is running my module for the NSR Discord camp

[idle cedar]

I don't have capacity to organize another jam for spring break period (+it is kinda last minute ish), would anyone be interested in hosting? I'd be happy to like advise and stuff

Also, if someone were to organize it, is there enough interest to join the jam?

[hollow turtle]

I’m interested in joining for sure, but leading is a bit much for me

[hushed mason]

Do you think it's a good idea to do them so quickly after each other? The Leviathan jam was just a bit ago

I've never run or participated in a jam, but if I were a contributor, I would want some rest before the next thing

[weak nacelle]

I think if anything, it might be worth alternating the nature of the thing? So instead of a one-shot, do a frame jam or something like that?

like, I do agree that doing one-shot jams back to back might be a bit much for a lot of folks

[idle cedar]

a common request was doing a full mission next time

it is pretty soon after the last one though, yeah. doing interest check for that reason!

[honest pawn]

I personally don’t have the energy for it right now (plus I wanted to get caught up on another, different jam) but I will happily encourage folks to go for it if they feel ready to do so

[onyx fractal]

I too would unlikely join a jam right now

[sweet gale]

I'd probably dissolve into the aether at the idea of a full mission jam

[onyx fractal]

I'd like to write a full mission at some point but not at this moment

[honest pawn]

I’ve done a full mission before in a “jam-like” context and it turned out fine (it was Pierce the Heavens)

(Granted it took me 2 months instead of the original expected 1, but eh)

[onyx fractal]

It's certainly a lot harder to playtest

[sweet gale]

I just have no ideas

Or ideas but no concepts on how to mechanicalize them into a mission structure

[charred crow]

Maybe just expand the scope of the jam, so one shots and missions are welcome.

[onyx fractal]

I have an idea for a mission, but I have no idea how to translate it to the page

[slow topaz]

Whole mission gives me feature creep anxiety for a jam.

[honest pawn]

Hmmm. Module that’s a collection of vignette missions loosely tied to a central conceit

I guess that’s just several oneshots in one package lol

[sweet gale]

"Welcome back to the angsiyan system, lancer. Turns out there's more weird megafauna S&T is lying about."

"And yes. You can hack them."

[onyx fractal]

sortie-based campaign

[sweet gale]

Lord help me I'm getting ideas about another hackable biological NPC on another one of Nika's wretched moons.

||It's Kudzu||

||"We thought that face of the moon was green because it was always facing Nika, which is a green gas giant! The hyperoxygenated atmosphere was just because the moon was, uh... just... like that?"||

[buoyant snow]

Well game jams need a theme. we need to decide or vote for a theme. We could also design jams around expanding the gameplay of lancer. Maybe even going wild with the theme.

[sweet gale]

Ngl if leviathan wasn't the theme for the last one, I would have been severely cooked. It was the only thing that was giving me anything

[buoyant snow]

What did you do last time?

[sweet gale]

A very literal interpretation of fighting a large fish

Plus some corporate negligence, copious GW2 references, and not-stated-in-text-but-they're-boyfriends

I'd have named the NPC "sea serpent" but I couldn't figure out how to get NPCs to have spaces in their names

[buoyant snow]

Which one was it? What was the name?

[sweet gale]

https://isatheengie.itch.io/against-the-current

[buoyant snow]

I might have to check it out. Me and my Friend made the module "Operation Kaitiakitanga"

https://itch.io/jam/lancer-one-shot-module-jam/rate/3224526

[left mirage]

If it doesn't pull together for spring break, I would be happy to host or run support for one during summer break!

Mission is a pretty clear scale-up option for a jam! are there other options for something along the same scale as a one-shot?

Was chatting with Harrison Enjoyer, one option might be a pilot-focused session

Another might be a place to crawl through! abandoned space station, a hunting session

narrative-focused session to stretch lancer's narrative tools would be fun

there's a hype train hiding somewhere

[weak nacelle]

I mean, probably a ton of organisational overhead, but how about a Field Guide Jam? As in, not make an entire one, but "contribute a part to one?"

[buoyant snow]

like...we select a random place in the galaxy and make an indepth field guide?

im down

[weak nacelle]

or make one up then populate it

like, this is probably a ton of headache to coordinate, but it might be pretty cool

[buoyant snow]

we would all have to agree on the scope and the vision. I forsee this taking multiple phases

[night rivet]

Field Guide Jam - Theme? We don't have one, we have a location/culture. A series of locations/culture will be submitted instead of a theme, we pick one of these instead of a theme.
What do you need to make in the jam? Anything that could go towards that location / culture. This would allow for the quick submissions, such as singular NPCs, to be used for the larger submissions, such as events or entire subcultures.

[buoyant snow]

Phase 1: General Narrative Theme
Phase 2: Cultural and Visual Style
Phase 3: Main Story premise and Worldbuilding
Phase 4: Factions involved and Key NPCs
Phase 5: Missions and Narrative Beats
Phase 6: GM Facing Content such as new meta rules and NPCs
Phase 7: Player Facing Content such as Licenses, Gear, Exotics, etc

[honest pawn]

Downtime Jam

• a little town, space station, ship flotilla, volcanic island, trade hub, you name it
• people in it!
• stuff to do, augments on existing downtime and altogether new downtime
• tables for random events to spark inspiration at the table
• Bigger Problems™️ that are actionable hooks/inspiration for local adventures/missions

My take is: less Karrakin Trade Baronies, more Desert Moon of Karth (or even a piece of Karth)

[sweet gale]

Something narrative focused would be neat since combat does get a lot of attention

[buoyant snow]

imma propose something dumb...an expansion that is literally just putting hard numbers of prices on basic gear items

[slow topaz]

Oh god, creative energy is rising...

[weak nacelle]

Currently writing the first combat of the long form ap I decided to make and it's on page 13 of the book and featuring all of two enemies 😛

[buoyant snow]

A session where you are defending a land aircraft carrier fighting it's way across a desert

[buoyant snow]

A festival? Lists of fun activities to do in a space station?

[left mirage]

oh hey I get to shoehorn my tutorial for mysteries using lancer narrative rules in this

[sweet gale]

Me suffering from the lethal urge to mechanicalize narrative play

[left mirage]

there are two wolves inside you

[sweet gale]

My favorite so far has been a stealth section where suspicion was a negative modifier to relevant rolls, but I didn't tell my players that.

[left mirage]

for real! there's a game hiding in the existing description but I feel like it requires a v intuitive understanding of games in general, rather than....something you can do and learn as you go

[sweet gale]

they roll a 17 with 2 suspicion
I say a 15 does it
"But I rolled a 17"
I ask another player what they're doing next without addressing that

[hollow turtle]

Amazing

I should do this to my SOS players

They'd hate me so much

[left mirage]

would difficulty produce the same effect, but not telling the players the difficulty result?

devilish either way

[split flame]

It would be cool to have a jam that defines a very active world, where all the submissions are one section of the planet, or something like that.

[sweet gale]

It's a static amount that's displayed on screen. They know how much they'll be penalized once they figure it out, which helps them figure out the risks of a roll

They just don't know what it does at first

Also once their cover is blown, it goes away entirely and their rolls are normal again, which seems to cause players to go absolutely feral

Your cover is blown! Suspicion no longer effects your rolls!

"+6 TO HACK OR FIX I'M HOTWIRING A MECH"

[weak nacelle]

Lukewarm take: Mechanizing narrative play is good actually

[buoyant snow]

Should we make a titan fall-esque module that includes combat and non mech combat? What about talent trees that work well with things like Black Thumb? Or talents that let you use your Triggers in combat?

[buoyant snow]

maybe rules that let you use some talents on non mech vehicles, like techincals, small starships, or tanks

[buoyant snow]

oh I just had an idea...a Prison break on a penal colony. You and your fellow pilots must fight up and out of a prison to a shedule 3 printer, then defend it as it prints your mechs, then bust out of the prison complex with said mechs in an explosive finale.

Encounter 1 could be a stealth section where you need to take out the guards and break out of the holding level.

Some narrative stuff in between where you have to rally fellow prisoners, gain weapons, and disable security systems. All to reach the Prison Printer

Encounter 2 is a Pilot Holdout section where you need to hold out against waves of prison guards and the odd size 1/2 or size 1 NPC mech as "Bosses"

Narrative downtime to finally prep your mechs and rally the prisoners for a riot and breakout

Encounter 3 is mech combat and freedom

Maybe there could be small squad based rules in ordering allied NPCs, and more gear and equipment options, as well as meta narrative rules for stealth sections and pilot combat

[prime ivy]

Squishy humans against 1/2 size mechs would probably feel like fighting a bunch of Terminators, but it would make for a satisfying turnaround when the newly printed mechs start taking out the trash.

[nova umbra]

Unfortunately, full-time employment means I don’t get a spring break to speak of, so I wouldn’t have the availability even if I had the bandwidth. I’d get in on one for the summer though, loving the ideas for shaking up the format

[left mirage]

@idle cedar (and any others interested in organizing), some future jam gimmicks:

• convert a video game level into a series of encounters
• pilot-only/pilot-focused missions (for styling on those who deny the Jockey action)
• narrative mission(? could just be a series of encounters)
• • downtime hub (suggested by @honest pawn )
• • "atypical" plots like mystery, romance, stuff you just don't see quite as often but still enters the genre?

Any other suggestions?

[night rivet]

Gear Jam, a single piece of exotic gear jam? Could be a more chill one but with an actual vote on who's is the coolest?

[charred crow]

Could also see an NPC jam or alt frame jam.

NPC jam + optionally include a sitrep to show off how the NPC works

[sweet gale]

That's what I did for the last one

NPC Jam feels more like a zine project though almost

People submit their NPCs and then it gets posted as one big doc

[buoyant snow]

A meta system jam? Something that you could add to your campaigns that is more complex than simple clocks or pass fail mission outcomes

Like...some narrative or mechanical consequences to downtime actions or mission performance, and a chain of missions with branching paths

[slow topaz]

I'm always wary when it comes to branching stuff 'cause of the exponential factor. It's hard to get it done well in a written structure. I'm running a sandbox Lancer campaign, but the only reason it works is that I wait for the moment the players basically dedicate themselves to actions that might result in a mission and then I built one for that specific purpose. Not saying it's not possible (I'm certain someone could find a really cool concept to make it work) but risky for a jam.

[honest pawn]

yeah no I wouldn't do branching paths. I'd sooner do something Hull Breach-lite with multiple smaller, siloed "jobs"

job board games with modular content are much more approachable and require far less "if/then" overhead

[sweet gale]

I'm currently running an established party through A Wake Writ in Void and they're having a

whale

of a time

[fossil ice]

Aww so glad! I just saw your comment on the itch page. Made me smile. Glad y'all had fun!

If you have any specific feedback, we always welcome it. Even if we don't necessarily make a new version, we can always take it for the next project we work on.

[sweet gale]

Tbh my only thought was the map could used designated zones for the NPC reinforcements to come in that are set a bit away from the objective zones

Putting them in the starting deployment zone lead to all the reinforcements getting pasted by a party member sitting in the OZ before they could even move

[left mirage]

Lancer Hull Breach would be a ton of fun (though pretty massive in scope compared to the one shot jam, might not be best for the next one )

[onyx fractal]

i'm in

[left mirage]

the final veto of Hype

[buoyant snow]

can you explain hull breach?

[honest pawn]

Hull Breach is anthology of Mothership RPG-related works from multiple creators. It covers a variety of content, including alternate rules, adventures, adventure settings, equipment, and NPCs you might meet.

For more info, check out the store page description: https://shop.anodyneprintware.com/products/hull-breach-vol-1

[nova umbra]

@slow topaz played in Operation Sisyphus at a con this weekend! I LOVED the custom sitrep, really fun stuff

[slow topaz]

Thank you so much!

[slow topaz]

I'd love to hear from your exploits.

[onyx fractal]

Someone ran my one shot and said it was a hit 🥰

[honest pawn]

hell yeah, love to hear it 😄

[buoyant snow]

im curious, are there any cons in Europe dedicated to ttrpgs?

[sweet gale]

I read that as "coins" first and thought "I think most of 'em use the euro"

[honest pawn]

Probably yeah? I know there’s some UK ones (not EU anymore, I know, but still Europe)

[slow topaz]

Yes, there are. Though in my experience, it can be hard to find games aside from the Big Old Ones like D&D - often for the simple reason that those games have been translated into the respective languages, while more indie systems have not. I usually do all the translation work for the groups I run. It's a bit sad, but that kinda limits variety at most cons.

[buoyant snow]

any from Spain?

[charred crow]

Interozio just ended I think. Presumably DAU will go again this year?

Yep last week

https://www.ifema.es/img/l/cartel-interocio-dibujo-barco-volador-mago-nina-rodeados-mantarayas-voladoras/cartel-interocio.jpg

[fossil ice]

Sisyphus was a really good time! I appreciate you filling me in on some of the details about how to run the sitrep beforehand. As ever with a lancer one shot, especially with new players, it's tough to pack it all in to one session so I had to abbreviate a bit, especially towards the end. I had set myself a hard timeline of getting the PCs boarded on the landing ship within 30 minutes of the start and then did about 15 min of narrative action before dropping them into the fight.

One of the players independently hit on the idea of using his mech's comp/con unit to fire nexus weapons into the building to provide cover while his pilot was hacking the place to infiltrate, which was awesome -- I'm glad you had a note about how the enemies could do that, it made me feel much more comfortable saying "yes" to that idea. I removed their Core Batteries, so the combat was fairly stiff for a 4-PC group that was 1/2 total newbies. Sometimes I forget how devastating Rainmakers' Javelin/Missile Pod combo can be for LL0s (I almost managed to wreck @nova umbra, she was ready to smash the eject button by the end). But they managed it once they got in the habit of focusing fire on the worst threats.

I loved the lore and sprinkled it in, but we didn't get enough session time to really dive into the backstory -- still, this would be an awesome campaign starter! I think folks really had a good time, despite the time limitations (and some tech hurdles that had nothing to do with the module). Thanks for writing it, I'd definitely run it again with another group and a slightly less restrictive timeline!

I will certainly be using the Infiltration sitrep again.

It might be worth writing it up in a way that's generic enough to apply more broadly and distribute it, it's very cool to split the combat/narrative action and keep the camera pivoting between those scenes. It would also be very interesting in any situation where PCs have mechs with NHPs, letting them fight without being present, but increasing the hazard of a potential cascade

[slow topaz]

Thank you so much, that is super valuable feedback!
I was a bit nervous about it, since it was the first time I actually condensed some of the stuff I do for my regular sessions into a form that should work for other GMs and publish it. When I was rebalancing the whole thing (the original playtest for was 3 players), I had a feeling the Rainmakers could easily topple the scales, which is why I set them up as grunts and to be the mains for the secondary objectives of the opfor. Their range and multiattack is really scary on LL0.

Honestly, I was kinda hoping that some players might be forced to eject - or even use it tactically to cover more ground etc.. Punching out is not the end and it might even be beneficial in some situations. One of my main goals for the whole sitrep was to try to provide players some opportunities to use their skills and equipment in interesting ways and I'm glad it seemed to work out in your session.

It's a good idea to rewrite the sitrep for general use. I honestly didn't really think about that.
Thanks again for reaching out to me and running the module - much appreciated!

Just out of curiosity: Did the players manage to stop the asteroid? (mine didn't, though they were so close)

[fossil ice]

Like I said, we had to cut the combat short due to time constraints, so I wound up having to handwave the last round of combat and play it out more narratively. That said, I think they were mathematically almost certainly going to accomplish it unless they really bombed their skill trigger rolls, although they were probably going to incur losses amongst themselves to do it.

since they were a bit newer i was also not pushing too hard on the risky/difficult rolls. In fact, if I were doing this at a home game where I was using the Bond mechanics, I'd definitely push hard on increasing the pilots' Stress so I could raise the stakes and force them to retreat or even get captured if they Break

If I had any critique I'd say that, of the secondary objectives (both on the PC and the NPC side), I wish there was a little more incentive to pursue them. Obviously the narrative beats are worthwhile if you have the time to explore them, and the idea of the hostages granting accuracy in the infiltration is good, but I wonder if there's more ways to add overt benefits by handling those objectives. As it was, we actually didn't engage with them a ton because the added overhead made time more of an issue, and without a clear mechanical benefit it was tough to justify when both sides were getting pulverized in the mech combat

[slow topaz]

Thanks, that's good feedback for pushing a new version. I was thinking about adding a few example tables to reduce overhead for the GM, but at some point I had to cut some stuff, cause, well ... jam and only one brain. 😆

[craggy bone]

Here in Italy we've just had the Play festival in Bologna, it's not exclusively TTRPGS but board games in general. Unfortunately i wasn't able to attend this edition, which is supposed to have changed a lot of things, but I've been going the last few years and it's always fun. There's always lots of tables for big, small and even unreleased indie rpgs being playtested by their creators

Me and my jam team had a plan to book a table there to play our oneshot with some people at the con for some fun and feedback

[weak nacelle]

(Speaking of Italy, Etna Comics also had a ttrpg floor last I went. A lot of smaller european cons will have like, all sorts of nerd stuff)

[idle cedar]

hello all
Thinking about starting another one that'll run through July to August
Giving people very early warning before posts start rolling in

[honest pawn]

Hell yeah

[idle cedar]

key complaints I remember are:

• oneshot is difficult to make, want to do a whole mission
• timeline is too tight
• hard to do stuff during holidays
• team size limit is awkward, especially with art credits

so I'm thinking of doing:

• more freeform submissions - it can be just mechanical, it can be just narrative, or mix of both in whatever proportion your team deems fit
• 2 month long timeline overlapping with summer vacation period
• no more team size limit, just a recommendation to try to keep things small

[honest pawn]

I still feel you were right to force a commitment to a one shot, or at least a single style of thing

But I get you

[idle cedar]

perhaps yeah, but I think another oneshot jam is probably excessive in any case

[honest pawn]

Maybe! Making a brief mission is definitely doable in two months though (speaking from experience)

[idle cedar]

I'm vaguely thinking of some sort of "Part 2 Jam" where the submissions should be about making a second part of something.
So you can continue building off of your original submission, or it can be a sequel to a different story, or maybe it's a bunch of alt frames and exotics.

Early musings, nothing set in stone as of now

I do want to do theme poll again though. I think that's a fun thing to do

[last frigate]

I am down regardless

[sweet gale]

I'll be finishing wallflower around then so I'll have free time

[honest pawn]

also from experience: Midsummer is a good time to get some writing done 😌

[sweet gale]

"Sorry to tell you, Lancer, but you gotta head back to Nika because S&T is up to some bullshit in The Outer Terrace Clusterfuck"

"It's not megafauna this time. It's corporate negligence."

[idle cedar]

also if i do a jam series, it's kind of funny to do each jam somehow associated with the number of jams we've had
1: oneshot jam
2: part 2 jam
3: ???

[sweet gale]

Oneshot. Sequel written almost exclusively in 2nd person with an actively unreliable narrator. Third entry from the perspective of a seemingly unrelated character surrounded by related characters.

[idle cedar]

jam 3: third wheel jam
something where there's two established things and one new thing that struggles to find its place

[buoyant snow]

wait...new Game jam?

[silent plover]

Yes, new game jam. Already had some ideas brewing, but now I've got whole new ideas brewing.

[unborn bridge]

New Game Jam

[buoyant snow]

what ideas are we talking about?

I have a random one

[buoyant snow]

Reskin. You take an established property like gundam, code gease or some other mecha work and write some hybrid rules on porting lancer to that universe

[unborn bridge]

that sounds fun

[delicate geode]

is it gonna be another one shot
cause i discovered i suck at making those

[buoyant snow]

Hey man, if you want to write a campaign setting go for ir

[delicate geode]

Not even that
The problem is that, last time I realized REALLY late
that my best written stuff was never written
it's played at the table. Situations, not scenes. Riffed. Improvised.

So trying to write a "module" for other people to run feels wrong. motivation dies fast.

[unborn bridge]

I have ideas, i just struggle to put them in the lacner format

[buoyant snow]

Like what?

[delicate geode]

what if we don't put them in the lancer format

[buoyant snow]

what do you mean the lancer format? The worlbuilding constraints? Mechanical issues?

[prime ivy]

No shade on a sequel jam, but Third Wheel sounds like a really fascinating jumping off point. Like the suspected emergence of a new MONIST entity, a war of succession between royal triplets, a proxy war between two superpowers where the small nation being used as a battleground decides to hire some Lancers to kick both major powers out of their home, etc.

[last frigate]

Lancer game jam but every submission has nothing to do with Lancer. Give me the ol switcheroo

[honest pawn]

That’s fair; I’ll say that I’m 100% for seeing outlined notes for this though. But I understand that there’s an effortful leap from “my notes for a few sessions” and “something accessible to a broader audience”

[delicate geode]

oh its totally lancer
except what if no tactical combat

[buoyant snow]

ok...but how though?

pulls out notepad and pen

[delicate geode]

thats for me to know and for you to find out

[rigid grail]

I do also think that a unique new theme feels more exciting for new entries (such as the group me and my friends are considering forming for this), without needing to tie yourself to an existing thing

[idle cedar]

#1302159260842463342 message
won't be oneshot only this time

[rigid grail]

Actually it is worth asking, would Far-Field and Battlegroup modules be valid for this?

[idle cedar]

wow that is a question i did not expect

my first instincts say fuck it we ball and let y'all do it

[rigid grail]

I personally will probably use core Lancer, but Far-Field is good for combatless lancer stories and all

[idle cedar]

but maybe there's value in making it lancer specific, i don't know? I feel like most people would make a lancer thing anyway so maybe it's fine

[idle cedar]

maybe I'm misunderstanding bc I'm just waking up
but I think part 2 jam can definitely be set in a new thing and not have to be a sequel to something. maybe interpreting as...

• Act 2: inciting incident has happened already, campaign starts in the middle of conflict
• 2 parts: something important is divided into two pieces
• 2 part: two of something is required to create something

[rigid grail]

oooh I see, so it's not bound to being part 2 of an existing thing

okay yeah that's also a very fun lil theme

immediate thought here is the PCs being a group of rogue clones with that one

[honest pawn]

2 part: paired ultra fight

[unborn bridge]

Players are fighting an AI while stationed in a garrison with a bunch of other soldier npcs, The AI is in fact an AI and not a NHP. The Players are subjected to air raids and soldier npcs might just randomly die. Depending on what they do the NPCs can "help" reduce the difficulty of the combat (mainly reduction of grunt numbers)

[idle cedar]

the initial initial thoughts from jam 1 time was that this is a good excuse to finish something you've already been working on for a while, but i think generally more flexibility is good for this

[rigid grail]

Oh so it's cool to use existing writing for this?

[idle cedar]

short answer is yes

long answer is make sure you have appropriate licenses if you're using a third party thing

[honest pawn]

Dot your i’s and cross your t’s yeah

Especially with fonts, yeesh

[buoyant snow]

I've tried writting battlegroup modules. The issue is scale and lack of ftl, making the design of a "fleet combat friendly environmnent" a bit of a worldbuilding challenge

but it can be done I think

[idle cedar]

question for the group: would it make sense to do a themed thing this time?

[buoyant snow]

game jams almost always have a theme

[idle cedar]

this is true

[buoyant snow]

Theme can both help people with no creatively, or stimulate creativity by constraining it.

[honest pawn]

Yes please

Themes are fun

[rigid grail]

I do like a theme

[rigid grail]

Oh yeah, I just meant half-finished projects from our own folders and settings/characters that are already a thing

[buoyant snow]

we vted on the theme last time

[honest pawn]

I will happily accept “jam-maker’s choice” so we can get right down to business

[buoyant snow]

ive always wanted to make a BSG themed or Homeworld inspired module

with a wandering fleet fending off determined enemies trying to get somewhere safe while gathering resources and improvising

[onyx fractal]

IMO a good module gives me the tools to present situations to my players for us to have fun together in those situations, but doesn't necessarily dictate how those scenarios play out or how scenes get resolved.

I think it's a fallacy to try to box up a strict set of experiences and ship them off in "module" form for other tables to experience the same way, so I wouldn't feel beholden to that idea of a module.

You can think of an RPG like a pong pong game. The GM presents a "world state", the players take actions that change the world state, then the GM comes back to them with that new world state, then the players take new actions to change it, back and forth

A good module is an inspirational "initial state" with good, useful meat on the bones to facilitate that ping pong

[delicate geode]

I am aware.
The problem is the translation from my notes (rambling, structured for my own understanding) to something others can use.

[honest pawn]

Yeah exactly, there is a meaningful gap to bridge

[onyx fractal]

Gotcha

I'm not sure what the best path is for that. I think what ended up helping me a lot is just reading a bunch of modules to find the things that I liked about how they presented information

I really enjoy the module review podcast Between Two Cairns for that reason, they talk a lot about module usability in their various reviews, things that modules do well and don't do well

Joseph R. Lewis has a good YouTube series on adventure-writing right now. It's more geared towards fantasy OSR/NSR module writing though

But there's probably some helpful stuff in there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-CB3Iynt8I&list=PLW3Y9p-0r_NLA-b00wVod0mHrXUgbL4tQ

He has a lot of well-regarded adventures in the space, e.g. Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow

This conversation on the RPG Cauldron might be useful https://discourse.rpgcauldron.com/t/talkin-usefulness-in-module-design/484

@delicate geode I'm curious, do any modules come to mind for you that you have read that you found did a good job giving you the information you need to run them in the way that you like to run RPGs?

[delicate geode]

There's
A wide variety of them, actually
Short and long
It's hard to pin down, tbh, but in general yeah, it's the ones that have enough room in the edges for the players to explore.

[buoyant snow]

what if the theme was movies?

Like...the genre for the game jam is Westerns. Some people might make The Good The Bad and The Ugly, others might make The Magnificent Seven

Or it could be Samurai films.

Heck...what is a Romcom lancer session inspired by hallmark moveis?

Or maybe a "Who-done-it?" mystery session. Murder on the maglev express

[idle cedar]

if I go with that, I'd probably make the theme "Adaptation" where it can be interpreted in a few different ways

[buoyant snow]

Select a movie and adapt it? Scene for Scene?

[honest pawn]

Could be an interpretation but I wouldn’t constrain folks to that

[buoyant snow]

thats why I suggested just "genre"

urban fantasy?

maybe a planet is in a state of medieval fantasy based on a cascading metavault and the peasants are begining to find "relics" of the old times in the form of mechs

[idle cedar]

I've also thought about "shadow" as the theme, where it can mean:

• literal shadow
• the less accomplished sibling
• a burgeoning colony world seeking independence
• solar/lunar eclipse
• etc

[honest pawn]

• the hedgehog

[idle cedar]

i love how you think

[slow topaz]

Yikes, another jam means I gotta speed up things on that update I promised for the last jam.

[hollow turtle]

I am very much down for another jam if i can vibe with the premise

[onyx fractal]

I might not jam but maybe I'll finish some blog posts

[hollow turtle]

Having made a one shot i can probably stream line the process to do another ngl

But if we need to do an entire mission or anything longer? That might be a bit much

Idk what else relates to lancer that i could do thats short like a one shot tho

[honest pawn]

So, to expand on what I mentioned earlier: My first published adventure was Pierce the Heavens, written as part of a workshop. I completed it over the course of 2 months. It has a 3-location freeform section, followed by 2 combats each with its own battlemap

So if you’re looking for a datapoint on what a person can accomplish in 2 summer months, mine is about “a session worth of narrative play and 2 combats”

[onyx fractal]

I think I'd want my next Lancer adventure to be a full mission

[hollow turtle]

I could do a lot in 2 months ngl

[onyx fractal]

But 1) I dunno that I want to be focusing on playing Lancer at the moment, and 2) figuring out how the fuck to take my own personal system for running on-the-fly Lancer missions and write it down in a way that is comprehensible to your average Lancer GM is a very daunting prospect

[hollow turtle]

Its just that its gonna be another thing atop the pile of 3 current campaigns and other Stuff ™️ so I'm partial to a smaller scope i could pour more love into

But looks back at the first time they ran Lancing Dawn

I did effectively write an entire LL0-LL12 campaign on a week to week basis so 🤔

I suppose long as the rules are clear on whatever is happening I can probably do it

I just need the guidelines so I can manage my expectations and lay out my needs

[honest pawn]

Yeah I’m not sure if I’m feeling this jam or making up for another jam that i missed out on haha. But we’ll see!

[hollow turtle]

That's always my biggest problem when it comes to planning

Its knowing what I'm planning for

Saying vaguely 'I can crunch my time' is vastly different from me knowing how I can slap together my various skills so the project stays standing

Maybe this time, I'll join a team!

she says, knowing they will do no such thing

Also funny that we say summer months like that shit isn't already here.

The kids mear me get out of school in a week

It practically is summer XD

[idle cedar]

you can do an entire mission or oneshot or whatever else you can think of
I haven't hashed all the details but I will definitely make it so you can do a mission or oneshot, at the very least

[hollow turtle]

Yeah I'm just a little worried about scope creep even in an event thats voluntary

We all understand the work that goes into stuff and the community is always understanding if you don't join so

[idle cedar]

yeah I can see how extended duration can also make people keep wanting to add stuff

[hollow turtle]

There's really no pressure

[idle cedar]

but what if the theme was: pressure

[onyx fractal]

I remember being very rushed to finish the one shot

I got it done but I'd rather not be that pressured again

I pressured myself, sure

And I ended up not feeling like I got to enjoy my christmas break

I hyperfixated

Nobody's fault but my own, but it does give me pause for similar jams

Knowing that I am susceptible to that

[idle cedar]

I think it was a pretty common experience

[hollow turtle]

Yeah the pressure of it isn't Suji or whoever runs it standing over you yelling at you

Its your own expectations and schedule

Internal pressure

Long as we don't have a jam thats a month long of 'write an entire 12 level campaign in a week' i think we'll be fine

[honest pawn]

Correct, I am the one who is yelling (words of encouragement and understanding and acceptance of whatever you complete, it’s enough)

[hollow turtle]

[honest pawn]

Oh dear 😅

[hollow turtle]

Actually extremely stressful don't talk to me my fragile nerves will shatter like glass

[honest pawn]

Okay my bad

[hollow turtle]

I'm jesting tho, always appreciated the vibes of last jam

It was a lot of fun and I wanna do it again!

[onyx fractal]

I don't regret it, it was good and very educational and I learned a lot and did a bunch of things I've been wanting to do for quite a while now

[honest pawn]

I (and Cornylius and maybe a few others) managed to prove that you can fit a Lancer one shot on a trifold pamphlet so that was dope

[onyx fractal]

Yeah!

Converting HA Corvette Job to a pamphlet was a lot of fun

[honest pawn]

I hope to run Dogwater Gulch for my Pathfinderheads after we wrap up Outlaws of Alkenstar

[hollow turtle]

I need to see the theme but I really wanna do something whacky

Something out there

[honest pawn]

I hear you, my oneshots have been on a mouthwashing kick

[onyx fractal]

hype!

[hollow turtle]

Okay maybe not too too whacky but I was just hit with an idea I'm not sure how to format

I'll think about it

Vibe with it

If you see me running another random one shot you know I figured it out

[last frigate]

Hmm thinking about Lancer depth crawl again

[onyx fractal]

I'm looking forward to the day I see someone running my module on startplaying.games

I'm almost out of community copies

[last frigate]

I found out someone used my one shot to run a pbp Lancer game. They remade my map using plaintext which is crazy to me lol

[onyx fractal]

Hahaha hell yeah

[hollow turtle]

I wonder if anyone has run Bleed the Heart 🤔

[last frigate]

I only found out cause my vain-ass googled my module's name lol

[last frigate]

Also here's the blog post in case anyone wants to see how they did it: https://dozensanddragons.neocities.org/66

[idle cedar]

map to json, json to text
the process itself isn't too hard to understand, but it's still very cool regardless

huge fan of codes that aren't incomprehensible horrors

[honest pawn]

Love to see it

[onyx fractal]

That's sick

[hollow turtle]

Aw man now I'm actually really hyped to do this again

[rigid grail]

I'm getting excited about working with this once we have a theme yeah

[delicate geode]

In this medium more than others, this interrupts the game loop

This person knows what they're talking about. ❤️‍🔥

[sweet gale]

I know at least one not-me person ran Against The Current but she didn't have any feedback other than Fish Scary

Which is good because that was the point. Fish was supposed to be scary.

[idle cedar]

debating whether to put my name in the jam title. Working title is Suji's LANCER RPG Jam 2: Part 2 Jam

+ makes it more clear that it isn't officially sponsored event
(of course, the Legal section still describes that this is an unofficial event)
+ makes it clearer that i'm the same person who organized the last jam
- it's a mouthful. Could probably be improved
- i'm probably not submitting anything?
- idk is this vanity?? am i overthinking???

[unborn bridge]

Lancer Jammed: Round 2

[honest pawn]

Suji’s Lancer Jam: Part 2 rolls off the tongue nicely

[idle cedar]

Part 2 is also like the theme? of the jam which makes me want to put 2 before the colon

but Suji’s Lancer Jam 2: Part 2 feels weird

might just drop the second half and describe it in details

just Suji’s Lancer Jam 2

[charred crow]

2ji's lancer jam 🤔

[unborn bridge]

thats pretty fun

[idle cedar]

Suji's lanc3r jam
Suji's l4ncer jam
5uji's lancer jam
...

[hollow turtle]

Do it

[honest pawn]

Suji’s Second Lancer Jam also rolls off the tongue

[onyx fractal]

Lancer Jam 2: Electric Jammaloo

[torn charm]

Lancer Jam 2: Jam Harder

[onyx fractal]

Lancer Jam 2: The Second Shot

Lancer Jam 2: Double Tap

[idle cedar]

double trouble

[left mirage]

👀

[slow topaz]

2nd Jameration

[slow topaz]

I'm planning to run it next week for a mixed beginner/intermediate group! Was hoping to run more of the one-shots but y'know, everyone's so busy all the time...

[sweet gale]

Godspeed

Leave no doubts that Victor and Archie are boyfriends

If it is a sequel thing, a part of me wants to formalize my Cressidium sequel, but I don't wanna, like

Irreconcilably mess with the canon of the setting Kai made

[hollow turtle]

Sequel as a theme is so interesting 🤔

If that is what its gonna be

Oh damn do I have an idea now for that

[idle cedar]

It would be kinda funny if i said sequel is the theme and someone is like "ancient SQL server is discovered in a massif vault..."

[hollow turtle]

Massif Vaults always has exactly what you need

If nobody got me, I know the Massif Vaults got me

My idea is less 'directly Sequel an existing thing' and more 'make a mission about being the follow up team'

The 'sequel' to some other Lancers business

[idle cedar]

yeah that's one of the ways i intend for the "part 2" to be interpreted

[idle cedar]

some ideas

[hollow turtle]

Yeah theres a lot of waysto do it

Like Leviathan

Wonder what other ways we could twist it

[idle cedar]

i think most people just stuck with the more literal interpretations

[hollow turtle]

Course but i like seeing cool interpretations

[sweet gale]

It's me I'm the literalist

but noncanonical Cressidium sequel would realistically be a follow-up team on principle of the story I had in mind so it's actually both ig since you're following up on task force indigo's work

[left mirage]

is the theme sequels?? v dope

[buoyant snow]

What if the Jam's theme was set in a Core World?

[weak nacelle]

is there already a page for this up or are we still workshopping? o:

[weak nacelle]

I always find the clutch move is to be literal and figurative about it, so 'Nasty, Brutish and Short' is about fighting social darwinists in the shadow a really quite concerningly large goat skull 😛

[idle cedar]

too specific setting imo
I think "core" could be flexible enough to let people create things though

[left mirage]

Is there a new theme sbmission/poll?

[idle cedar]

i haven't set it up yet. I'll probably do it today

and new post should be coming up as well

[left mirage]

hell yeaaaaaaa

[idle cedar]

I think 'second' might be a stronger theme than 'part 2' so I'm changing it to that

There are two themes for this Jam. One is chosen by me, the host! And the other is chosen by the community.
Host's Theme is: **Second**
​This can mean:
* Continuation of an existing story.
* Act 2 of an unwritten story.
* A very brief moment in time.
* A threat, once defeated, has returned.
* A motion needs the support of others.
* Ambitions of someone who hold a relatively unimportant position.
* ...
Theme suggestion box will be posted momentarily.

currently working on the post, see y'all soon~

considering adding in the rule "you must have the full theme names somewhere in your submission"
which is like, realistically not a constraint but might be fun, idk

having short ruleset is also very valuable

Also considering dropping the "must be playable without buying anything other than lancer crb" rule but idk, I feel like that one is pretty valuable too

https://itch.io/jam/sujis-lancer-jam-2

kept the rules same for now

https://discord.com/channels/426286410496999425/1378465748812566640

[buoyant snow]

Anybody want to team up?

[unborn bridge]

I don't mind

[buoyant snow]

Id like a team. I like making inkarnate maps and designing homebrew frames

[unborn bridge]

cool I am very flexible in terms of skill sets, i can write, make maps with inkarnate, making encounters and designing homebrew npcs

drawing is so so, its not something i can confidently say would commerical sell or ai artist want to steal

[buoyant snow]

What timezone are you in?

[unborn bridge]

GMT+8

[buoyant snow]

I think I am gmt + 2

[unborn bridge]

thats neat

[buoyant snow]

What time is it for us?

You*

[unborn bridge]

right now is 4.44pm

[buoyant snow]

That checks out. It's 1044 for me

[buoyant snow]

Did you participate in the last jam?

[unborn bridge]

yes

wasn't able to submit though with the team i worked with

[buoyant snow]

How come?

[unborn bridge]

scheduling conflicts, life caught up and they couldn't spare the resources to continue

[unborn bridge]

One couldn't spend time to make work on the project so our work quickly fell behind

[buoyant snow]

mind if I dm?

[unborn bridge]

sure

[buoyant snow]

so is the theme just going to be Second or is there more too it? What do we vote on?

[slow topaz]

Poll is open for community suggestions. Just throw your hat in the ring!

[buoyant snow]

so are the two themes supposed to be mixed?

[idle cedar]

that's the intent

[slow topaz]

I'm tempted to just add an 's' to the first.

[idle cedar]

that would be funny

[rigid grail]

Oh! speaking of the oneshot jam stuff, I recently ran the updated version of A Wake Writ in Void for a different party than the one I ran the testing version for and it was a fantastic time!

Also currently looking at running Bleed the Heart when scheduling hell finally gives me an opening

[slow topaz]

<-- massive FOMO when thinking about all the things I want to run before the next wave comes in...

[hollow turtle]

Tell me how it goes if you do!

[nova umbra]

Ahhh that’s awesome! Curious how it ran compared to the original

[rigid grail]

So the narrative stuff did play out a bit differently based on some player choices and stuff, but overall I think people enjoyed the expanded hooks and tables, and it was handy to have more stuff to direct people to where the plot kicked off

Having more art to share is always just a good bonus in any game, and it also probably helped that it was my second run of it

The biggest improvement was almost definitley the combat, the extra narrative/mechanical interactions were fun, having some archers on the field helped with the range issue, and a clean map was great to run with

[buoyant snow]

so when will we know when the theme is set?

cause for now we only have "Second" am I right?

[honest pawn]

I don’t know but maybe #1378465748812566640 is the place to watch?

[buoyant snow]

dammit, they moved?

[slow topaz]

@sweet gale I ran "Against the Current" yesterday and well, that soup got hot! Had 3 PCs, since one dropped out shorthand; 2 beginners and one experienced and it took us about 4-5 hours from start to finish, including some session zero stuff. Intro with the descent into the depths was very atmospheric; I went a bit further with smaller life and ocean stuff to show how bad S&Ts official assessment of the ecosystem was and the buildup to the final preparations was a lot of fun. Funnily enough, the PCs went a bit overboard with creating barriers, blocking the northern IZs and a few direct routes to the OZ - along with some deployable cover they used later, it bought them valuable reprieve from some of the NPCs, though the Leviathan (FishyMcFisherson) didn't care. The encounter itself went wild with drama. One Sagarmatha went full on sushi-chef with blades and knives on the boss and in turn got grapple-chomped, while the rest were busy keeping the drones occupied. The Tactics section in the book was very helpful to keep the enemy turns short - since the drones are not intelligent, I refrained from making optimised moves and mostly went for the nearest targets. I had a situation where the Sagarmatha pilot got basically stuck in the Grapple with the Leviathan, so when another player decided to try and save em by ramming, I handwaved the Size restriction when attacking allies.

[sweet gale]

If you played the enthralled like brainless dingos, you played 'em right

Until you hit the "move into the zone" activation, they can just sit there gormlessly and shoot, or lockon-shoot, or shoot-fragsig

I think the scout is the only one that I mentioned bothers to go for cover

[slow topaz]

Due to my Devil's Luck when GM rolling and absolutely cursed rolls by players (even more painful due to lack of reliable weapons), things got really dire around turn 4-5, with one mech down, everyone structured about 2+ times and a dug-in Scourer in the OZ, with Leviathan and mech parts raining down everywhere. It ended beautifully when the last player at the end of turn 5 decided to risk it all and went 3+ overcharge to fire her Thermal Lance one more time - eating 10 heat and 2 stress, sending her reactor into meltdown mode (but barely making the save) but kill-shotting the Leviathan. In the end, most of the outpost was halfway melted, exploded and/or covered in gore and all the mechs two steps from the scrapyard.

The most common warcry that evening was: "Sushi!"

All in all, it went really well with the info you provided in the module and balance-wise it was a really close call (which is just what I like). I did some, but not too much GM moderation in order to prevent single players from descending into downward spirals (they really rolled shit) and didn't abuse the more powerful AOE abilities of the boss (or giving hints like buildup of lightning and static before Galvanic Burst; shifting it's attention to PCs who pissed it off etc.) which I suppose helped from keeping the encounter too swingy.

What struck me a bit odd was how easy it seemed to escape any influence of the Current Environmental Effect. Since there are a lot of buildings (and even more with barricades) it seemed almost impossible to NOT be adjacent to any hard cover when it triggers (except for the rare cases where someone got knocked out of cover). Most of my players stuck to the ground to have at least some cover and most of the time I would have had to place NPCs delibaretely not next to a building for the effect to trigger. I think it's a cool feature, so maybe trigger conditions should be if there's no hard cover between characters and the chasm (would be slightly in favor of the PCs).
Thanks for making the module - it served great in terms of the goals of the jam and it's a cool and managable introduction to LANCER.

[sweet gale]

Your 3p game ended up so much like my 3p "no mercy" playtest, down to players rolling cold, me rolling hot, and players only having 1 mech at the end.

The joys of holdouts is they very well can end like that since you just need to keep bodies out of the zone more than anything else

And, yeah, the environmental effect is intentionally a bit mild. I wanted to get that idea of being pushed around, but didn't want to put players in a situation where they could get pulled out of position too easily

I cranked it up for the CM fight but I don't think anyone's done the CM fight (I haven't done the CM fight) so it might be the least of their concerns

[slow topaz]

It sounds absolutely brutal.

[sweet gale]

It's meant to break kneecaps (or for higher LL teams)

Thank you for giving it a shot and for the feedback though

I was actually curious about how it would go with new players since chomolungmas can do wacky shit like "BCL their allies out of whirlpool and knock them directly up"