pastel vigil Jun 28, 2025, 3:58 AM

#

and it can often end up being more a case of "where does this npc sit, in respect to its target"

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Beleaguer is like, Range 12 as an artillery, and Speed 3 ... but it also has a gun that just ignores all intervening objects and cover completely (doesn't even need a valid path, unlike seeking) and causes behind-cover spalling for deterministic damage

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its a siege specialist, and that feals like it fits very neatly in the artillery box, despite its assumed shortcomings in the role

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 4:03 AM

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Yeah, the iconic Clademaster deal is getting up close with a building and just pouring on the poison gas

thick reef Jun 28, 2025, 4:21 AM

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where did the name Clademaster come from anyway?

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 4:25 AM

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To snapshot Wikipedia my beloved as an easy explanation,

In biology, a clade (from Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos) 'branch'), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants.
[...]
Viruses, and particularly RNA viruses form clades. These are useful in tracking the spread of viral infections.

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Chem-masters being the sergeants of the grenade launcher-wielding, poison gas-spewing Grave Warden Terminators of the Death Guard in the Warhammer Horus Heresy

thick reef Jun 28, 2025, 4:26 AM

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I was thinking there had to be some warhammer involved in this

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very cool though

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 4:27 AM

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You have no idea how tempted I am to get a Haber art alt-piece in Heresy DG colors

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 2:10 PM

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putting my thoughts over here:

after more feedback from this playtest, I'm going to also be lowering the Heat (Self) cost of Local Sterilization Vents by 1 (similarly to what I did for the Mortar) now that the passive generates much more heat on yourself, and confirming that the Mitscher will be losing a Flex mount (going to Heavy/Main/Flex)

north bluff Jun 28, 2025, 3:31 PM

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Mild observation I made while outfitting a mech for the Sunday playtest game: man, the Haber really needs its pilot at LL3 before you can really justify using it. It really doesn’t have much to take advantage of its traits at LL2 with only GMS weapons to play with.

#

The struggle to find a non-template weapon for the SEEK/DESTROY canisters in particular was real lol

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 4:29 PM

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You can kind of just add Burn onto anything with the base trait, I'll note

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Otherwise, Seek/Devour Assault Rifle + HMG has been popular at low LLs

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 5:56 PM

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also, in honor of Kai's NPC Rebake dropping today,

wheat ferry Jun 28, 2025, 6:15 PM

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(I will stress that the base NPCs are not necessarily out of the box compatible with rebake design philosophies, but to provide a spoiler for the 0.5.0 changelog, writing rebake-compatible versions (i.e., no multiattack, conditions on accuracy instead of just Having It, so on) will be an eventual Kickstarter stretch goal.)

pastel vigil Jun 29, 2025, 8:53 AM

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wheat ferry also, in honor of Kai's NPC Rebake dropping today,

oh see no evil is mean

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i like that

wheat ferry Jun 29, 2025, 12:06 PM

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Rolling black clouds on the horizon. Too thick not to blind, weighed down by enough malice to be heavier than air.

inland bluff Jun 29, 2025, 5:21 PM

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hm, if we already have veteran squad, what would happen if we give them rodeo master

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the entire squad pile on? jockeying with 10hp? or do we pull a 'pilot' out with 8 HP and the rest of the squad -1 guy

thick reef Jun 29, 2025, 6:00 PM

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I don't think Squad NPC can take templates

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wheat ferry Jun 29, 2025, 6:07 PM

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RAW no, I ignored that for a couple combats because I felt it was silly and the rules jank (losing and regaining attacks between structure) is skipped with Disciplined optional - though to clarify, none of the ones in the book have Rodeo Master, ha

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I suppose in the case here, it would be funny to just subtract 2HP or something from the Squad and spawn a Human NPC jockeying the target

north bluff Jun 29, 2025, 6:58 PM

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wheat ferry Otherwise, Seek/Devour Assault Rifle + HMG has been popular at low LLs

Both fair points; I think I was just really focused on trying to get a proper artillery build going while using the SEEK/DESTROY canisters lol

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I have a bad habit of focusing in like that

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(I kinda end up avoiding the HMG a lot of the time in my own builds; maybe because it's just so ubiquitous?)

wheat ferry Jun 29, 2025, 7:08 PM

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Ha, fair enough

Seek/Devour Main (Of Choice) + Heavy (Of Choice) works just as well, really

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 2:39 AM

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Unfortunately the Clademaster died round 1 when the Nelson got carried over by the Lancaster and then they exploded it. Which was a shame cause I had a Hive, Pyro, and Thermal Charge Breacher paired up with it, and I gave the Clademaster the Strain Mutation optional

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I was able to throw out the Gas Grenade and Pre-Sighting as a set up, but the Lancaster ran through them, dropped off the Nelson, and then the Nelson nuked it

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 2:42 AM

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I wasn't going to say it, but the second I saw a Nelson with max support I was like "oh no they brought out the hard counter"

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 3:10 AM

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If I had a nickel for everytime I made a combat and thought, "man, a Nelson specifically would screw this over" and that's exactly what happened...

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I'd have about four nickels

pastel vigil Jun 30, 2025, 3:11 AM

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artillery does in fact die to the very speedy striker

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 3:15 AM

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Nelsons are the players' strongest anti-GM warrior (however biased I am in having played a Nelson for a long while)

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pulling this specifically in for a moment for transparency, as well -

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yes, tech attacks gaining knockback is intentional, I thought that would be very fun
I'll probably change this to "next hit this round," possibly

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that said missing while consuming lock-on is somewhat unusual

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for the record, if they're unable to target you/obstructed/etc they target you anyway - no matter where you are, they resolve the attack against you instead

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@fair harness

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I genuinely cannot remember why Only I was 4 - I think because it was a specific thematic thing around the number signifying death, rather than anything else - but joining that to its sensors is an uncomplicated change and I don't think it'd affect anything in previous data

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You are correct that I don't want it to be literally sensors because of tarax and goblin

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Another data point for heal at low LLs feeling underwhelming is definitely noted, and adjusting it to Grit+1 healing is in line with my sketches on how to adjust that

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I'll keep note of potentially giving it +1 Speed base and your point about Chain Spear automatically returning to hand, albeit I don't think I'll be pulling the trigger on either of those for this upcoming version - the latter just because I've seen some scary Spectres with heavy melee + chain spear, and I don't want to step on the Blackbeard's lunch money too much here

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For now, the changes I will definitely commit to is Only I to Range 5 and Fallen Mask to Grit+1 healing, while I'll let the others sit for a bit in the notes pile / leave open for discussion

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@thick reef Thank you a ton for running these two tests! Given me a lot to think about.

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 3:51 AM

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It was a good time, and I really liked the vibe of Morozko/Clademaster, I'd love to use them again after the next update

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do you also know when they'll have an .lcp?

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 3:55 AM

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Excellent question - I do all the lcp work for IaM myself, so "whenever I figure out how coding NPC .lcps work," really

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 3:55 AM

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Do you have Visual Studio Code? That's what I use for coding my NPCs, it's a lot of copy/pasting based on the corebook NPC .lcp file

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 3:56 AM

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Yup, I do.

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Is there any particular way you get the .lcps into readable .json files? Off-topic for the forum, I know, but still.

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 4:00 AM

#

#

#

#

literally just change the file type from .lcp to .zip then open it up

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Took me forever to figure that out

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 4:01 AM

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Ha, got it! Much appreciated.

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 4:01 AM

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do this to the corebook NPC file and just see how they're written

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 4:02 AM

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I really should've figured I could un-rename it considering renaming it is how I get the lcp in the first place.

thick reef Jun 30, 2025, 4:03 AM

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It never dawned on me till a friend walked me through it step-by-step, I had very little coding experience, and I still think coding is evil

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and then when you're done you zip the files back up and rename it back to .lcp

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 4:03 AM

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yup, that part I know because it's already part of my production workflow

idle raven Jun 30, 2025, 4:37 AM

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One other thing I probably should note that I forgot to mention in the playtest I was in: the Haber has the reactionary capability of inflicting burn off-turn through any use of either Gorgon Systems, Tactician 3, and Heavy Gunner

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In the case of HG3 that's 6 heat for 4 burn but still

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 4:41 AM

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Yup, I've got that in my notes but I've not seen a Gorgon Haber yet, and HG Haber has been mostly manageable even pre-trait nerf

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We'll see if it crops up as a problem area.

wheat ferry Jun 30, 2025, 7:07 AM

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coming in 0.5.0

pastel vigil Jun 30, 2025, 7:08 AM

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👁️

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oh fuck yes

crimson zodiac Jul 2, 2025, 2:23 AM

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Here is a swordgrass I want to try one day.

-- SSC SWORDGRASS @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] SSC SWORDGRASS 3, HA Tokugawa 3 [ CORE BONUSES ] Overpower Caliber, Heatfall Coolant System [ TALENTS ] Duelist 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, Skirmisher 3 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:4 STRUCTURE:4 HP:21 ARMOR:0 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:6 TECH ATK:-2 LIMITED:+2 SPD:6 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENSE:1 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] Integrated: Fuel Rod Gun FLEX MOUNT: Assault Rifle MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Nanowire Saber / Tactical Knife // Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] Nanite Microfabrication Flask x4, Manual Reactor Override, Deep Well Heat Sink

Fast enough already so i pumped hp. I want heat cap to make use of manual reactor override in combination with deep well heatsink to both ride the redline as well as spam ~~waterfowl dance~~ the nanowire saber's special.

Plenty of opportunity for using overcharging to attack as well. Skirmisher 2 and nanowire saber provides for good mobility as well.

Fuel rod gun to keep tabs on the heat.

wheat ferry Jul 2, 2025, 2:26 AM

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Very nice! DWHS Swordgras is spooky.

wheat ferry Jul 6, 2025, 9:47 PM

#

Hi all -

I've just put out the Roadmap into Fall 2025, where I talk about development timelines, art, prices, and Kickstarter campaigns. I hope it's illuminating, and I'll be happy to answer any questions (that I can).

https://ash-and-gold.itch.io/iphigenia/devlog/981266/roadmap-into-fall-2025

itch.io

Roadmap into Fall 2025

Or "Things Are Happening At Rapid Speed" Behind the scenes over the last few weeks, I've been busily working to conclude Stage 1 of Iphigenia at Midnight 's development and proceed to Stage 2, includi...

sleek jungle Jul 7, 2025, 12:27 AM

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Awesome. Even in its current state, Iphigenia is one of my favorite pieces of Lancer content. I'm most excited for the new mechs getting some dedicated art, but I'm curious to see what else will change. August is right around the corner. I can't wait.

celest dune Jul 7, 2025, 12:51 AM

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finally got around to reading this, it really is peak. you mentioned iphigenia before but i didn't realize she went this hard

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i definitely need to give it a more in depth look but i'm thoroughly hooked, gonna keep my eye out for the future of this module

wheat ferry Jul 7, 2025, 1:50 AM

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Thank you very much! Always happy to hear about people's interest, and I can't wait to show off the art once it's finished.

inland bluff Jul 21, 2025, 4:49 AM

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Is this too cluttered a map for M3C2?

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 5:01 AM

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Keep in mind you will have objectives somewhere your players will need to get to, etc

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also you don't want to ||have Teucer completely without sightlines||

inland bluff Jul 21, 2025, 5:07 AM

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he can sit on the pillars though?

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and I shall place the objective at the uhhhh other side of the map

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it is, afterall, a mission without time limit, so I can enjoy a big ahh map

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 5:09 AM

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Ah, I see what you're going for now - yeah, fair enough

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it'd be very funny for someone to punt them off

inland bluff Jul 21, 2025, 5:10 AM

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vale fossil Jul 21, 2025, 8:41 PM

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Hey! I've started running the module for my table and I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me parse the map for 1-2

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||I am trying to figure out if the numbers on the left side refer to raised terrain, cover, or something else (potential spots for fuel tanks?), and if the central lines are meant to be flight path markings vs. cover - re: the right side, I know there's a big window on the left of the raised area, and then doors top / bottom, but I'm also a little colorblind and trying to figure out how many changes there are meant to be in elevation|| (putting under a spoiler just in case)

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 9:03 PM

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Numbers are for elevation! If it doesn't have a number, it's just part of the background - everything with the same color and a number is at the same height (aside from the marked deployment and control zones, which are just at the same elevation as everything else around them)

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As mentioned in the text, ||the explosive fuel tanks/munitions are Size 2 - I don't think I explicitly said that the spacecraft are all around Height 3 in the text, which I'll actually go fix now||

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The only changes in elevation on the right side are that the ||flight control tower itself is Height 2, but the steps up to the doors are Height 1||

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 9:11 PM

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vale fossil ||I am trying to figure out if the numbers on the left side refer to raised terr...

Hopefully this makes sense, let me know if you need any more clarification.

vale fossil Jul 21, 2025, 9:12 PM

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Okay that does help a lot - if I'm looking at this correct the steps on the right are 4 tiles long, yes?

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 9:12 PM

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Yup.

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The mechs are basically going up scaffolding/a catwalk

vale fossil Jul 21, 2025, 9:13 PM

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And then the rest of the border for the flight control tower that isn't window is wall?

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 9:15 PM

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Yup.

vale fossil Jul 21, 2025, 9:16 PM

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Perfect, thank you!

wheat ferry Jul 21, 2025, 9:16 PM

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You're welcome, enjoy!

inland bluff Jul 24, 2025, 11:55 PM

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M3C1 is a bit high of an NPC dosage for 3 pl I think
It didn't really show when I ran a mock one-off of it against 5 pl (18 structure, 13 activation)
It does when I do it with 3 pl in normal (8 activation, 11 structure)

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the fact that the vet leet are extremely bulky didn't help either.

wheat ferry Jul 25, 2025, 12:10 AM

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🤔

Makes sense

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I think I can keep ||the minibosses|| and trim off a reinforcement somewhere - did it feel more stifling in activation pressure or just beef?

pastel vigil Jul 25, 2025, 2:01 AM

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not IaM campaign but: the Clademaster has made contact with the enemy and the Balor now has 12 burn

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all is very right in the world

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i still need a few more turns (we had to wrap up early-ish) to get more of a feel for it but immediate pacing seems fine

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i think its 100% gonna be those recharge rolls that either make or break it in following turns

fluid salmon Jul 25, 2025, 2:17 AM

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This is besides the point but how'd you get the two-row name format like that? format's slick as hell

pastel vigil Jul 25, 2025, 2:21 AM

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literally just write line 1, press enter for new line, write line 2

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Breathe Woodsmoke
[ELT/VET/CLDM]

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basically

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for some reason Owlbear uses raw enter for a new line so ???

wheat ferry Jul 25, 2025, 2:33 AM

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pastel vigil not IaM campaign but: the Clademaster has made contact with the enemy and the Ba...

YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO THE GAS as a cloud of nanites does the videogames pose in the background

pastel vigil Jul 25, 2025, 2:33 AM

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it was kinda funny actually

wheat ferry Jul 25, 2025, 2:33 AM

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and yeah, the recharge is like that so it doesn't become too oppressive if the PCs can't get to it (no nelson/etc)

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didn't want to make Bombard Gaming happen again

pastel vigil Jul 25, 2025, 2:34 AM

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i narrated that there was a bio-contamimant warning and the Balor (who's mech is just a giant living meat bioweapon) was just like, "who, me?"

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and then the pre-sighting beacon lit up

pastel vigil Jul 25, 2025, 2:35 AM

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wheat ferry and yeah, the recharge is like that so it doesn't become *too* oppressive if the...

and yeah thats why I'm like "is 3+ Pre-Sighting actually good pacing or will it like not actually matter or will it actually just make it awkward"

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3+ is like, 2/3rd uptime in theory, which is more up than not, so thats what I want to kinda experiment with

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part of me feels that QA with a Superheavy is enough to make it so it can't pre-sight spam highly mobile targets but Elite and stuff exists, so

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exactly what i'm here to find out

wheat ferry Jul 25, 2025, 2:37 AM

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pastel vigil and then the pre-sighting beacon lit up

the vestans locating a mech-sized biological creature in the same AO as the biochem mech designed to fight mech-sized biological creatures:

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and yeah, I appreciate it because you're definitely testing my thoughts there

pastel vigil Jul 25, 2025, 2:37 AM

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no fucking way

wheat ferry Jul 25, 2025, 2:38 AM

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wheat ferry I think I can keep ||the minibosses|| and trim off a reinforcement somewhere - d...

also, fwiw I trimmed off ||the Pyro|| into "optional harder difficulty thing" from the 3-person comp

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should take off beef and damage at 3 players unless they can take the challenge

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(I heavily endorse writing comps with things marked as "you can put this in or take this out depending on your player group" for prewritten content, it's very nice)

inland bluff Jul 25, 2025, 10:24 AM

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wheat ferry I think I can keep ||the minibosses|| and trim off a reinforcement somewhere - d...

both

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but I also tweaked the optional a bit

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acrobatic goliath

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the fact that either of the miniboss have 25 ish hp per struc didn't help /j

wheat ferry Jul 25, 2025, 4:18 PM

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T H E C H O N K

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I will say ||the Goliath didn't have Acrobat because I wanted him to slowly slog up the board and give players a chance to kite and shoot him, + make killing the Mirage a meaningful way to really cut his movement speed|| - but that's just personal design notes

inland bluff Jul 26, 2025, 12:27 PM

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this, but I like acrobatic because I can make him jump up to a size 3 pillar in the centre of the map

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🤣

crimson zodiac Jul 29, 2025, 1:46 PM

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Hmmmm
-- IPS-N MITSCHER @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] IPS-N MITSCHER 2, IPS-N Raleigh 2, HA Barbarossa 2 [ CORE BONUSES ] Overpower Caliber, Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints [ TALENTS ] Leader 3, Tactician 2, Nuclear Cavalier 2, Drone Commander 1, Stormbringer 1 [ STATS ] HULL:3 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:5 STRUCTURE:4 HP:19 ARMOR:1 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:6 TECH ATK:-1 LIMITED:+2 SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENSE:10 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] FLEX MOUNT: Assault Rifle FLEX MOUNT: Incendiary Grenade Launcher HEAVY MOUNT: Cluster Bomblet Dispenser // Overpower Caliber, Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints [ SYSTEMS ] “Roland” Chamber, Autoloader Drone x3, Curtain Call AEM x4, Personalizations

Could be fun. Likes lockon support tho for sure

wheat ferry Aug 1, 2025, 10:49 PM

#

It's finally time!

Iphigenia at Midnight has its stunning cover art by the inimitable Tom Finnbarr Carroll, whose talents readers may already be familiar with from other Lancer projects; it's thoroughly surpassed my expectations, and I hope you love it as much as I do. It's also the first art piece for the project, with more coming down over the month of August. The sketches and preliminary work I've received are very exciting, and I hope to be able to share them with you all soon.

Along with the cover art comes balance changes, adjustments to some internal text, clarifications, and so on - those are listed in more detail below.

As I specified in the roadmap, 0.5.0 is also the point at which the module's development is going to switch over to a paid format for it and further releases; the .lcp and license PDF (player-facing content) will remain free, as will the 0.4.0 draft copy as a free sample. If you paid for the module previously when it was listed as PWYW, it should still be available to you through your download link as per what I understand to be itch.io policy. If this is not the case, please contact me ASAP.

Additionally - if you're currently running playtesting for IaM's GM-side content or are currently running the module itself and would like a copy of the NPC .lcp file, also get in touch, and thank you for your support of the continued playtesting effort.

#

0.4.0 -> 0.5.0 Changelog:

MAJOR CHANGE: Added the GM-side Comp/Con LCP file for the module's three new types of NPC
Removed the On Crit effect from the Morozko's Coolant Hose weapon; too much wordiness in the NPC for too little benefit, easiest place to cut to reduce GM mental overhead
Added a Heat removal effect to the Zero-Point Link's allied Exposed removal option, allowing it to work with 1-base-Stress NPCs
Changed the save to shake off the Zero-Point Link's effect to a Systems save to match the save used to apply it
Increased the Clademaster's Sensors to 15 (matching its Special Payload Mortar's Range) across all Tiers; again reducing GM mental overhead (if it's in range of your weapon it's in range of your abilities and vice-versa)
Added Veteran Traits compatible with Kai Tave's NPC Rebake to the two basic NPCs included with the module; full Rebake-compatible rewrites will be a stretch goal for the future IaM Kickstarter
The Mitscher's performance as an auxslinger was neat, but probably too effective when that is not an essential element of its concept; one of its Flex mounts has been turned into a Main, bringing it to a Heavy/Flex/Main mountline.
Improved the self-healing on Lesson of the Fallen Mask to Grit+1 to improve performance at lower License Levels
Improved the range on the Spectre's Only I trait to Range 5 in order to standardize it against its base sensors to reduce mental overhead
Reduced the Heat (Self) cost on the Local Sterilization Vent by 1, similarly to the Mortar last version, as the core passive now adds significantly more heat to the Haber naturally
Clarified terrain heights and sizes for Scene 1-2
Adjusted an NPC in Scene 3-1's 3-player composition to optional harder difficulty instead of default difficulty
Various minor text and grammar fixes
Changed wording to "narrative" instead of "adventure module" to match first-party phrasing

lucid musk Aug 2, 2025, 2:48 AM

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wheat ferry It's finally time! *Iphigenia at Midnight* has its stunning cover art by the in...

Unspeakably hot

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That cover art is just so perfect

cedar kestrel Aug 2, 2025, 2:54 AM

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It really is

fluid salmon Aug 2, 2025, 2:59 AM

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https://tenor.com/view/fuckyeah-alphonse-elric-fma-fmab-gif-6230902

Tenor

stuck bison Aug 2, 2025, 3:22 AM

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this fucking rules

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 3:44 AM

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I couldn't stop looking at the final version for like a solid two hours after I got it

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truth be told, I still can't

pastel vigil Aug 2, 2025, 5:35 AM

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wheat ferry It's finally time! *Iphigenia at Midnight* has its stunning cover art by the in...

oh fuck yes

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that cover slaps

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love all the smaller details in it especially

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now i wanna actually run this. and i haven't even finished winter scar yet. fuck

don't tempt me seductress .....

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 5:47 AM

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🫵 YOU want to be that one badass CDF Spectre facing down the might and fury of the Second Committee in the full knowledge of the indomitable spirit of freedom

pastel vigil Aug 2, 2025, 6:03 AM

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damn right

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but yeah the crow wings on the ship belly, the slight pools of static like ripples from rainfall, the numerous tags hanging from the machine's arms

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its peam

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it says a lot without showing like, anything explicit, beyond the absurdity of scale that the threat represents

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absolutely knocked it out the park

cedar kestrel Aug 2, 2025, 12:49 PM

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Curious question: is the ship in the front to be the Diana or the gallipoli?
The wings and central nature says Diana, but the two spokes makes me think of the layout for the gallipoli

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 12:59 PM

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It's the Gallipoli - the cover's pretty much exactly representing the very first combat of Mission 1 as you gear up to board it. I believe Tom just went with the wings as a general motif for the whole fleet.

cedar kestrel Aug 2, 2025, 3:28 PM

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More than reasonable

#

That said I would be curious how the Diana and Gallipoli would look as unique hulls in Battlegroup.

Regardless, I need to get back to my current game, which likely won't resume until like late october/November agony

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 4:03 PM

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Hmm. I can't say I have especial juice for how they'd look as completely unique hulls, but I will say that the best representation for them in Battlegroup is probably:

Central Hull - Giant Man O'War
Marine Complement and Hangar Bays - Roughnecks
Legionspace Projection Arrays - Battlethreads (as long as this Escort is alive, the Central Hull has access to the Shattered Reflection Maneuver from the Needleship NPC)
Secondary Batteries - Stalwarts

Central Hull - Giant Breakwater
Secondary Launch Bays - Starfield Furies
Superfiring Broadside Batteries - Wardogs
Union Naval Air Arm 100th Heavy Fighter Sqdrn. "Old Hundred" - Solar Valkyrie```

zenith jungle Aug 2, 2025, 10:58 PM

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Just ran across the free version and gave it a read through - WOW

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This is so cool

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Does the paid version come with battlemaps?

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 10:59 PM

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It does for Missions 1 and 2, yes!

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Albeit not too fancy, ha.

zenith jungle Aug 2, 2025, 11:01 PM

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Heeeeeck yeah, is there a plan to release some for mission 3 or nah?

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 11:30 PM

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Yep! I had some I used during my own playtesting for Mission 3 but I was always pretty unsatisfied with those and never put them out to the public; the eventual Kickstarter later this year, if it gets funded, has budget for getting all the maps professionally redone.

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If it doesn't get funded, I'll probably do a quick pass over my own maps and put those up with the release.

barren kraken Aug 2, 2025, 11:51 PM

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Art for the frames is coming later, right?

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 11:52 PM

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Over the next month!

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(You can also see a version of one of them on the cover - the mech shown is a HORUS Spectre in CDF colors.)

barren kraken Aug 2, 2025, 11:55 PM

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Oh for real?! That's simultaneously not at all what i expected the Spectre to look like and way cooler than what I was expecting

wheat ferry Aug 2, 2025, 11:58 PM

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Yup! I'm very pleased with Tom's interpretation - it's a HORUS PG (in a sense - each user's chassis is customized, retrofitted, or pulled from the scrapyard), so the version in the license art may look slightly different, but the cover art depicts a Spectre with shield generators and a Chain Spear.

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(and Personalizations, natch)

echo ferry Aug 3, 2025, 10:34 PM

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Hey, is it just me or are the ships from Iphegenia significantly larger than what is the norm for the setting?

wheat ferry Aug 3, 2025, 10:35 PM

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Nope, the described ships size-wise are just on the large scale for battleships (high end of 3km)

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I will say that to the average modern pilot, those ships (the Gallipoli and Diana) would seem notably larger than the ships they've seen, but that's a product of SecComm's inferior technology for the era - they built ships larger because their miniaturization, energy transfer, sensor equipment, etc was worse and they needed to compensate in both size and quantity

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Modern ships can be smaller because they're working with more modern technology

echo ferry Aug 3, 2025, 10:46 PM

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wheat ferry Nope, the described ships size-wise are just on the large scale for battleships ...

Makes sense (reminds me of how in w40k the ships have to be that big because of a combo of propaganda bs and the fact that Warp drives and power supply never got miniaturized) but

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Wasnt Diana bigger than Galli?

wheat ferry Aug 3, 2025, 10:48 PM

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Yup - it's a "fast battleship" but in Lancer battleships tend to be bigger than carriers, plus the Diana has to also carry Iphigenia's computing infrastructure and its upstrength Marine complement.

vale fossil Aug 4, 2025, 6:14 PM

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Late to the party but the cover looks fantastic! My group is through with Mission 1 and still chugging along, but let me know if you are still looking for playtesting feedback and I can pass along my players' thoughts sometime (besides the fact that they're really enjoying the module)! Glad to see the Clademaster's Sensors bumped up though, I think that was my one struggle point in 1.3.

wheat ferry Aug 4, 2025, 6:18 PM

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Great to know! I'll be accepting playtest feedback unless otherwise indicated for at least the next two months.

vale fossil Aug 4, 2025, 6:21 PM

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Sounds good, I'll get that together at some point

wheat ferry Aug 4, 2025, 7:38 PM

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Much appreciated.

vale fossil Aug 5, 2025, 6:41 AM

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I can say that a lot of these sitreps are not prepared for a fade cloak melee Lich 😂 😭 good lord

wheat ferry Aug 5, 2025, 1:59 PM

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"fade cloak melee lich" is a wild sentence

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Honestly, though, that's a good sign - I wrote IaM to be hard and have ways to make it harder, not impossible, and LL6-9 is when player builds really start going off into the stratosphere.

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If the sitreps are staying competitive and challenging without being pushovers, that's about where I want them to be.

vale fossil Aug 5, 2025, 4:18 PM

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wheat ferry "fade cloak melee lich" is a *wild* sentence

Yeah to be honest I’m not sure any sitrep could be prepared for this build, it’s kind of unhinged

echo ferry Aug 7, 2025, 6:56 AM

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Where is the write up for the HA Haber?

wheat ferry Aug 7, 2025, 1:05 PM

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You mean the lore/fluff? That's in the licenses pdf / player comp/con file, since it's a player license.

echo ferry Aug 7, 2025, 2:14 PM

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Thx! Btw, where is the Marine npc template? Is that also in the c/c file?

wheat ferry Aug 7, 2025, 2:32 PM

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Nope, Marines are from Operation Winter Scar.

echo ferry Aug 7, 2025, 2:33 PM

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Got it got it

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 9:26 AM

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hello! thank you for the work you've done on this module, i was planning to run it for a few friends soon but i had some questions

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the first is about combat scene 1-1, the paragraphs after the list of OPFOR mentions that 'the Seeder should likely be loaded into the Archer if there's 4 PCs' but the list doesn't have a Seeder on it?

wheat ferry Aug 10, 2025, 1:35 PM

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granite crane the first is about combat scene 1-1, the paragraphs after the list of OPFOR ment...

Hi - thank you for mentioning that! That was actually an ancient relic from early combat drafts where the first of the Cataphracts was a Seeder; that was changed but I must have completely missed that sentence. Fixed for next release.

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 1:36 PM

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wheat ferry Hi - thank you for mentioning that! That was actually an ancient relic from earl...

penny_salute gotcha, load the cataphract into the archer then?

wheat ferry Aug 10, 2025, 1:36 PM

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Nope, just delete that sentence entirely.

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 1:36 PM

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ooh okay

wheat ferry Aug 10, 2025, 1:37 PM

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||In general, the Cataphracts have a ton of mobility with Charge, so you can get them down the field real fast without needing the transport.||

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 1:37 PM

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makes sense bcaYaya3

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i also have a player that really wants to play the Haber but i'm a little iffy on it from a flavour point of view

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it feels strange to allow such a horrific war crime of a mech in a campaign so centred around the effects of those weapons

wheat ferry Aug 10, 2025, 1:45 PM

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An entirely fair point; that's up to you as the GM, but there are a couple things to think about for the Haber from the perspective of the player wanting to use it:

Modifications to its payload or means of effect (replacement of what's causing the Burn with conventional incendiaries or single-use nanites, etc)
Desperation, use in extremis: the ISBs ended up having to use SecComm's own weapons against them during the Revolution, and now's a similar situation; there are too few chassis to go around for the amount of pilots being pressed into service, and salvaging one means an Everest can go to someone else

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 2:10 PM

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wheat ferry An entirely fair point; that's up to you as the GM, but there are a couple thing...

cool, yeah, that makes sense to me

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definitely some moral questions to be had of 'does this desperation truely justify such horrific weapons, is there such thing as a non-horrific weapon?'

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finally, the NPCs would be using tier 2 stat blocks right?

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its not explicitly listed

wheat ferry Aug 10, 2025, 2:11 PM

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Yup!

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 2:11 PM

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sweeet

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i'm looking forward to seeing how my players hold up lmao

wheat ferry Aug 10, 2025, 2:12 PM

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Good luck, and I hope you enjoy it.

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 2:13 PM

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penny_salute

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ty!

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looking forward to further releases!

granite crane Aug 10, 2025, 6:48 PM

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any fellow Foundry users got the grid config values for the maps?

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nvm got it!
Hexagonal Rows - Even, Grid Size 76

Width 2666 Height 1414, Offset H3V4, Padding 0%.

vale fossil Aug 10, 2025, 10:24 PM

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I use foundry but have just manually painted terrain height onto all of them 😂

granite crane Aug 11, 2025, 11:00 AM

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I'm back once again, Scene 3-1 mentions adding Veteran to a Hive npc for 4 PCs but the roster has no mention of one

wheat ferry Aug 11, 2025, 12:40 PM

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granite crane I'm back once again, Scene 3-1 mentions adding Veteran to a Hive npc for 4 PCs b...

Good catch - that's meant to be the Witch! Typo, also fixed for next release.

granite crane Aug 11, 2025, 3:33 PM

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Can i ask, should i make it obvious in scenes where some NPCs are acting as transports (gallipoli h2 and h4 in 1-1, Old Smoke in 3-1) that they contain other NPCs or should that be something the PCs have to learn via scans?

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My first impression was that its perhaps obvious which of the ships is a transport (bulkier and more boxy than the sleek weapons-laden Rainmaker and Hive) but not necessarily obvious what it is carrying

wheat ferry Aug 11, 2025, 3:55 PM

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Up to you - I don't have any particular tactical preferences either way. I think it should probably be reasonably obvious if something's fitted to carry chassis or troops, however.

granite crane Aug 11, 2025, 4:56 PM

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wheat ferry Up to you - I don't have any particular tactical preferences either way. I think...

cool! sounds good to me

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i was also curious about Iphigenia's appearance

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' the only cosmetic she wears is charcoal smeared beneath her eyes, which are a brilliant shade of indigo.'

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would this be more of an eyeshadow vibe or something like warpaint?

wheat ferry Aug 11, 2025, 5:07 PM

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We will be seeing that soon enough...

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I will say my current vision is somewhere between eyeshadow and soot+ash

echo ferry Aug 12, 2025, 10:32 PM

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granite crane definitely some moral questions to be had of 'does this desperation truely justi...

Something something "no such thing as good or bad technology, but there is such a thing as bad magic."

echo ferry Aug 12, 2025, 10:33 PM

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wheat ferry We will be seeing that soon enough...

ART DROP ART DROP

true vortex Aug 13, 2025, 3:14 AM

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Ash - I really enjoy your hardsuit combat section. I think the idea of combatting clocks is really cool. One thing - I am running narrative style combat BUT represented on an actual map with NPC tokens. Any clever idea on how to maybe make that work?

Also any plans to include bonds in the calculations? Or is it just kinda fly by the seat of the pants?

wheat ferry Aug 13, 2025, 3:45 AM

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true vortex Ash - I really enjoy your hardsuit combat section. I think the idea of combattin...

You could probably give each token or group thereof the effective "HP" of a clock and let the tacmap serve as a kind of theater, but unfortunately doing stuff where the map and positioning matter wasn't something I had any ideas for - that'd be a much bigger overhaul.

For Bonds, early versions of HC were Bonds-optional, but that moved on to no Bonds or Bonds not recommended (I forgot the exact phrasing I used) as certain Bond Powers could just trivialize entire HC challenges

true vortex Aug 13, 2025, 3:46 AM

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yeah the wolf comes to mind basically

wheat ferry Aug 13, 2025, 3:48 AM

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Yep - there are one or two points I call out specific Bond Powers as maybe being useful elsewhere in the book, like for scavenging for supplies or what have you, but by and large the more rules you try to apply to a thing, the more things like "I kill this guy" or "I get +1 accuracy and increased effect on everything if you didn't name these guys" mess with balance

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I wouldn't say IaM is incompatible with Bond Powers, but they're saved for the pure narrative parts

true vortex Aug 13, 2025, 4:17 AM

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I think I am going to try and run this encounter and I'll see what I can yoink from your hardsuit rules. I REALLY like the idea of using clocks as HP for a bunch of soldiers in any given room or for traps or obstacles

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I wasn't going to track individual HP for enemies, but it did feel bad making all the baddies drop dead after the first hit. So maybe I can make it feel a bit cooler and more dangerous with your rules.

wheat ferry Aug 13, 2025, 4:42 AM

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Sounds good, and good luck!

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 12:16 AM

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I CAN POST IT NOW

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https://bsky.app/profile/exaltxix.bsky.social/post/3lwfl2krtyc2n

Ares || comms in pinned! (@exaltxix.bsky.social)

Lady Iphigenia, the Queen of Crows - for @ashandgold.bsky.social, there's more to come and you should absolutely check out Iphigenia at Midnight over here ash-and-gold.itch.io/iphigenia for the Lancer narrative!

terse arrow Aug 15, 2025, 12:17 AM

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WOOOOOOOOO

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 12:18 AM

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Ares did terrific work on this, I'm really happy with it!

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In the book soon™

nova spire Aug 15, 2025, 12:21 AM

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wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/exaltxix.bsky.social/post/3lwfl2krtyc2n

Dare I say, fire

main ferry Aug 15, 2025, 12:26 AM

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wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/exaltxix.bsky.social/post/3lwfl2krtyc2n

YOOO

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it's her

sleek jungle Aug 15, 2025, 12:32 AM

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Iphigenia is an amamzing antagonist. It's great to see Ares did her justice.

hearty mica Aug 15, 2025, 12:53 AM

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Now that there's Iphigenia art, this must come true

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 12:54 AM

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TRUE

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 1:01 AM

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hearty mica Now that there's Iphigenia art, this must come true

hearty mica Aug 15, 2025, 1:02 AM

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https://tenor.com/view/penguinz0-moistcritikal-gif-27692002

Tenor

lucid musk Aug 15, 2025, 1:09 AM

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https://tenor.com/view/openttd-morgan-freeman-true-openttd-true-truth-nuke-openttd-nuke-gif-4239201395319527948

Tenor

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 1:12 AM

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if you find a way to fit two LLs between OWS and IaM, Rio and Iphi can meet (disaster)

main ferry Aug 15, 2025, 4:21 AM

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Rio and Iphi Legionspace fight but it looks like a Strive match

amber robin Aug 15, 2025, 6:52 PM

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im thinking of adapting this for my player's final ll12 mission; gotta do a deep read, but the circumstances feel right

granite crane Aug 15, 2025, 7:27 PM

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wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/exaltxix.bsky.social/post/3lwfl2krtyc2n

PEAK

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this may be a silly one but i'm wondering if anyone has a good token for the breaching ram in 1-1 they're willing to share?

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i love the knife motif that iphigenia holds

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there's so much you can read into it

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 9:39 PM

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The Knife is left largely unelaborated-upon, but I kind of liked just having it there and not going into too much detail as to what it really is or why she has it

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 9:41 PM

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granite crane this may be a silly one but i'm wondering if anyone has a good token for the bre...

You could probably use a picture of something like the Termite Assault Drill scaled in line with your mech tokens and it'd work

granite crane Aug 15, 2025, 9:42 PM

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wheat ferry `The Knife` is left largely unelaborated-upon, but I kind of liked just *having*...

i think on the knife as like

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one of the key parts of humanity's development

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one of the absolute simplest tools conceptually, and arguably the first one we really made through processes like flint knapping

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as opposed to ones that were simply picked up and used

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and a tool that simple yet is used for many delicate complicated processes

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the simple act of changing something through deliberate seperation

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you can kind of apply that to Iphigenia's mindset, that strong sense of seperation

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both from what she's doing and how she feels about it

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same with Ajax, Teucer, and Diomedes

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and also the change from the Knife being a tool to a weapon

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instead of being put to constructive and helpful use, converting raw material into useful items, her knife only exists to wound and kill

hearty mica Aug 15, 2025, 9:51 PM

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IaM so well written people are performing literary analysis over it

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(I do love the analysis btw)

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 9:52 PM

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boppin It's very gratifying to see, and I'm really glad that leaving room for speculation has paid off in how people interpret my writing

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In a way, you could call the way the knife is the act of severing as a physical manifestation of the ideology and belief that put her in this place to begin with (the knife-wound on the throat), and I did a nod to that in how (final mission) ||it's what she ends up using to cut away the last part of that incarnation of herself before she hits a kind of apotheosis, before discarding it altogether||

amber robin Aug 15, 2025, 10:51 PM

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weird writerly question since you're writerly, but was it challenging to intentionally leave gaps for interpretation/wild speculation, and is it also a challenge to not respond with direct answers when asked about them?

wheat ferry Aug 15, 2025, 11:00 PM

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Honestly? Yeah. I think to leave space for speculation, you have to have at least an idea of what you want to be there - it's kind of like, in the way I think of it, changing the angle of a camera shot so that a thing that might be fully in frame with a different perspective is only just in the shot. Just leaving holes might invite speculation, but it's not the kind of speculation that naturally converges towards the thing you were meaning to convey.

Not responding to direct answers is definitely the harder part, though, haha. The urge to Frankenstein's Monster of the Author in the context of an in-dev project as opposed to a literary piece you publish and then that's it is strong, since you're in active engagement with people talking about the work and have to clarify some things and then leave things that are intended to be unclarified more vague.

plucky dune Aug 16, 2025, 3:10 AM

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Hi, it has nothing to do with this adventure and the Frames of the adventure, but I have a question about one of the Frames of the creator of this adventure.

SSC Vestal.

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Is the Vestal Active Core Power "efficient"?

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Or is it a "Once per Mission" thing like the others?

wheat ferry Aug 16, 2025, 3:16 AM

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1/Mission, yup.

plucky dune Aug 16, 2025, 3:17 AM

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ok

cedar kestrel Aug 16, 2025, 3:47 AM

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wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/exaltxix.bsky.social/post/3lwfl2krtyc2n

LETS GOOOOO

prime vortex Aug 16, 2025, 7:19 AM

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wheat ferry `The Knife` is left largely unelaborated-upon, but I kind of liked just *having*...

the blade is a platonic perfect object....

sharp siren Aug 16, 2025, 11:49 AM

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I am no token kitbasher but I made this for ||AJAX|| it is very crude but I really liked the description.

wheat ferry Aug 16, 2025, 2:35 PM

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Hell yeah, very cool

sharp siren Aug 16, 2025, 4:03 PM

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Here is my rendition of ||ACHILLES|| . ||The Blue stripe and the red hand are too hard to read but that is what I get for using MS Paint||. Had a great time putting this scene together and thought I'd try snipping something for the big guy.

granite crane Aug 16, 2025, 5:46 PM

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so would the breach ram in 1-1 be hit by attacks with the Blast or Line templates?

wheat ferry Aug 16, 2025, 8:10 PM

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granite crane so would the breach ram in 1-1 be hit by attacks with the Blast or Line template...

Yup, they just can't choose to target it specifically

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standard Escort objective rules

granite crane Aug 16, 2025, 8:21 PM

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alrighty!

granite crane Aug 17, 2025, 5:10 PM

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first session down!¬

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took us 5 hours D2S_E_WHEEZE

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but honestly i got my ass kicked

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these mfs are going to 100% get the optional extra difficulty >:(

wheat ferry Aug 17, 2025, 5:23 PM

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100000 years punishment for players

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Glad to hear you had fun!

granite crane Aug 17, 2025, 6:54 PM

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i felt like i was heavily hindered by the Transport setup

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the Bombard only being speed 2 was rough when it had to move forward bit by bit to drop off its dudes

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the four grunt assaults also got fucking annihilated when a hacktuga used Hor-0S1 to eject power cores and melt all of them in one go

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the breacher got it's shit kicked in by a lucky roll on the daisy cutter, then the bombard got bogged down and barely got any shots off

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in fairness that's a bit down to luck and good weakness exploit

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i think i'm a lil confused by the various versions of 1-2's map, should i go for the shorter one if i can get it to work?

wheat ferry Aug 17, 2025, 7:33 PM

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Yep, the longer version is included for completeness since the shorter version is jank in terms of how it actually snaps to a grid, but the shorter one came after it was a pain to walk down there.

granite crane Aug 18, 2025, 3:31 PM

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makes sense

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even the Sniper is being well outranged lmao

wheat ferry Aug 18, 2025, 3:34 PM

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Yeah, I didn't realize when I was initially making the map just how long it was, then I went "welp, time to chop some of this off" but the peril of making maps in what's basically MSPaint is that doing so is surprisingly difficult while maintaining grid compatibility

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nevertheless, shorter is the correct one

granite crane Aug 24, 2025, 11:15 AM

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hum, the clademaster doesn't seem to be showing up in Foundry

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ah silly me it is a seperate LCP

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 1:50 PM

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Yup, the NPCs are paid content and thus in their own separate LCP

granite crane Aug 24, 2025, 7:46 PM

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thought i'd installed it already is all tinygiggle

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1-2 down! my foolish impatience had the Sniper climbing down from the tower

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introduced the reinforcements far too late as well, sadly

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i think the map might still be a bit too long, players really struggled to make it to the tower in any reasonable time

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 8:12 PM

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📝 I'll keep that written down! I think the map being significantly longer than usual for Lancer maps is both something I want to keep when I go back in the Kickstarter (funding willing) and revise the maps with a proper designer, but it's also definitely divisive with parties that have slower mechs or don't realize until later that they really need to put resources and actions into hustling up there ASAP - it could stand to be shorter still.

pastel vigil Aug 24, 2025, 8:13 PM

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oh yeah. Clademaster. that reminds me. @wheat ferry

seeing I finished my scene and thus the campaign alongside, and thus gotten more hands on with the Clademaster, I think I can re-iterate on my previous points now I have the full experience:

Recharge is /really/ not helping its whole deal much in regards to having so much kit - and thus playstyle - silo'd off. After a point I just stopped bothering and just spammed the Superheavy. I can understand wanting to cut down on how much Pre-Sighting Beacon can creep/chase players, but it just kind of became awkward; Similarly, Gas Grenade Seeder got used ONCE in the entire fight, which is a component of both the Special Payload Mortar being a Full Action, having longer range than the Seeder (though I did see you fixed that since my version of play) and just never getting my Recharge rolls. I don't even think it'd be bad as a Recharge option if the Beacon wasn't also a Recharge, so they often don't meet up. You get one turn to use both and then you're stuck hoping they chance on each other again.

I took Corrosive Bombardment and it kind of had the same issues - range obvious is a factor, but its also a "Blast 2 Full Action that deals reliable burn" ... on a NPC with a Blast 2 Full Action that deals reliable burn, and isn't delayed. As an optional its completely redundant and I felt no reason to use it vs just firing Special Payload Mortar again. It's a framework that makes more sense on the Scout with Orbital Bombardment because it notably doesn't attack as a full action baseline, and so it actually broadens the tool set rather than present competing options which attempt to do the same thing, only one feels worse in that regard (Corrosive is not doing enough to justify a 1 round delay effect, in my opinion)

I also took Self-Replicating Vectors, but again, Sensors, so never got used. Seriously thank fuck you fixed that

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Overall: I actually think I really enjoy the Clademaster otherwise, but there is some real clunkiness in regards to how it can access its tools that means that its largely just a "Barrage every turn" bot. Reliable Burn means that, while the Beacon is nice, Accuracy is not actually that necessary if you can't get it, and otherwise the fact its a Superheavy makes its turn-to-turn operation rather strict - you get one set-up turn, and thats largely the most you see of the kit coming together

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Line of sight is also a problem I feel - its an NPC that has Arcing, but has a lot of tools that require line of sight. The Rainmaker has an element of this, in that some of its other things require it to peek out of cover to apply them, but often it can then return to cover; Strain Mutation and Self-Replicating being reactions require constant line of sight, which while it /can/ probably maintain it largely isn't otherwise encouraged to do so due to its brittle nature (high Armor, but low HP)

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Size 2 does alleviate that somewhat, but there does still feel theres a weird conflict going on in that regard. Its a minor thing but something I still thought of while playing

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 8:21 PM

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Ah, thank you for the detailed feedback! Let me think here.

pastel vigil Aug 24, 2025, 8:21 PM

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of course! and feel free to prod with questions if you have any

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I did have some other thoughts on possible adjustments but didn't want to impose, you're the one with the vision after all, I just think far too much about how NPCs actually work

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 8:26 PM

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The main reason the optionals require LoS is because they're supposed to make it stick its head out of cover for full profit - I was a little concerned that otherwise you could stick it behind a large wall and just have it shoot people forever with buffed output, but if that's clashing with how fragile it is against AP (for the same reason, I wanted people to be able to counterbattery it), I could look into revising one of those to be able to function outside of LoS... probably just by adding a rider to Strain Mutation that this Reaction can be triggered without Line of Sight.

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For Corrosive Bombardment, I could look into making the armor loss permanent and swapping the debuff until next turn for something like Slowed; it's already at ~1.5x the damage of the normal Barrage, so better effects may be enough to swing it

pastel vigil Aug 24, 2025, 8:28 PM

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It really is mostly the reactions that are pushing it to stick its neck out too long, yeah. I think the incentives are correct (i.e, sticking your head out for things, which strains its low mobility) but having to stay out in the open is the kicker

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and yeah Corrosive Bombardment is ... I just don't think it has a place is more the problem, even ignoring it feels like it underperforms

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 8:29 PM

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and for PSB, I'm tempted to stick to my guns and go eh, Recharge 2+ just so it isn't completely guaranteed, but I also know that any point lower than Recharge 3+ is "just don't give it Recharge anymore". I'll mull that over and see where my head's at with it for 0.6.0, but my current lean is "remove PSB recharge, gas grenade recharge stays where it is".

pastel vigil Aug 24, 2025, 8:30 PM

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pastel vigil and yeah Corrosive Bombardment is ... I just don't think it has a *place* is mor...

It's ironically competing too hard with the Special Payload Mortar for both action economy, area coverage, and niche - theres a lot of overlap between the two, which makes picking one or the other fairly arbitrary

pastel vigil Aug 24, 2025, 8:33 PM

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wheat ferry and for PSB, I'm tempted to stick to my guns and go `eh, Recharge 2+ just so it ...

Also if you're willing to take a suggestion: Heat 6 (self) for PSB might actually be the best angle, seeing it then restricts how many shots the Special Payload Mortar can make without Stabilizing

The thing I noticed was that 3 heat (self) on a 12 HC frame didn't actually matter in the slightest in terms of pacing, and being backline I only really came under risk when a player managed to reach me at about Round 5.

You could absolutely put more pressure on that Reactor safely, I think, and force the Clademaster to have to factor whether its better to allow room for more Mortar shots or to just eat the penalty and move the beacon, at the risk of possible player Reprisal (as even 1 Invade is enough to throw off its pacing hard due to the Heat break points)

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of course, this is ignoring that Tier 1 is a 9 HC machine, so it'd only be able to do Beacon + 1 Shot before stabilizing, but that might be okay for Tier 1 land

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the problem though swings around to "Is +1 Accuracy on everyone in Blast 1 worth 2 safe Mortar shots", especially seeing as pointed the Mortar is reliable, so Accuracy isn't actually that necessary for its operation. its easy to just rawdog it (and by the last few rounds I was just firing at anyone, including my own Ultra)

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so I guess the issue is twofold: PSB is unreliable to access, but also just not integral to the NPC's playstyle either

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Funny enough, the Rebake Operator had the same issue: It had a means to gain Accuracy on shots, but rarely needed it because it had a Reliable gun

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that got rectified by actually giving the Plasma Rifle a On-Crit effect, meaning pursuing Accuracy became a lot more meaningful

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so part of me thinks that PSB could actually not only benefit from an alternate cost, but an alternate effect - hell, maybe something that keys into checks/saves would make sense. Make the Burn inflicted even stickier (which consequently makes Strain Mutation a chunk meaner, which might actually make it compelling as a reaction that encourages you to maintain line of sight)

#

I'm just spitballing though because my brain is in overdrive

#

the pieces are all there, just, they're not meeting up entirely

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 8:56 PM

#

alright, I think this is where I'm at

#

( @pastel vigil )

#

PSB now mediated through Heat instead of Recharge
bonus for crits through PSB within the specific area, tying into Strain Mutation
corrosive bombardment now explicitly does something that the main weapon can't, and its debuffs are more numerous and more permanent
SRV can trigger without LoS

pastel vigil Aug 24, 2025, 9:01 PM

#

yeah, thats good direction I think

wheat ferry Aug 24, 2025, 9:03 PM

#

excellent, thanks for the chat!

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 1:23 AM

#

Question - is Achillean Resistance meant to mean that in spite of having burn, he gets his resistance back at the top of every round until he goes and takes the Burn?

#

Inquiring minds (my players) want to know because of how the text is phrased:

||"ACHILLES has RESISTANCE to all damage, Heat,
and Burn and regenerates ¼ of his total HP at the
end of his turn. Disable this part of the trait until the
end of the round when ACHILLES takes Burn from
an environmental source, or while ACHILLES is
STUNNED for any other reason than as a result of
Structure checks. ACHILLES is also Immune to
JAMMED and restores 1d6 HP when he inflicts a
Critical Hit with a melee attack."||

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 1:27 AM

#

Rules as written yes, I don't see a huge issue with it off the top of my head? He can delay his turn, but then you can just put him in another Burn source and turn it off again.

I initially considered while he HAS burn to avoid that, but then went "well what if he rolls really badly on clearing burn and then the encounter no longer functions," so it's a bit of a kludge around EoR

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 1:28 AM

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Gotcha 👍 thank you!

#

he's doin great!

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 1:32 AM

#

LMAO

#

HELP HELP THE SINS OF MY CREATORS

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 1:48 AM

#

shockingly this is the first combat they are not steamrolling

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 1:49 AM

#

ACHILLES is usually a bit of a sucker punch just because of the damage output

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 1:50 AM

#

i think once they structure him it'll snowball but he's so far structured two of them once

#

that armor is doing Work

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 4:19 AM

#

vale fossil i think once they structure him it'll snowball but he's so far structured two of...

this is correct they smithereened him 😂 but i was able to eat an entire tach lance with a grunt so

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 4:20 AM

#

RIP in piss ACHILLES

#

Glad y'all are enjoying the module!

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 4:20 AM

#

we all are! i have been accruing feedback that i will type up nicely when it's not grant season irl at work

#

but it's been very fun, they are very crunchy players and i am a little newer so i am definitely not optimizing to their level but it's been a blast

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 4:23 AM

#

Ah, grant season - yeah, I'm thankful I could look at a proposal call and go nah, I'm good this cycle instead of having to write more. 🤝

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 4:23 AM

#

we're in

#

double renewal

#

i am suffering

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 4:24 AM

#

Honestly, if it's giving really crunchy players a challenge baseline even with a GM not used to the tactics, that's also good feedback in of itself.

vale fossil Aug 25, 2025, 4:24 AM

#

challenge might be a stretch across the module, but sitrep yeah

#

if he didn't get unlucky on weapon break rolls and have to wait for the sword to come back he could've probably gotten at least a couple more structures off

#

the sunzi is a nightmare to work around OTL

wheat ferry Aug 25, 2025, 4:25 AM

#

Sunzi players are god's strongest soldiers

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 5:15 AM

#

I have always been curious about the "Rapid-Cycling Missile Rack". What are its good points?

[Mitscher Rank III]

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 5:21 AM

#

They're effectively Gandiva Missiles (Monarch II) that fit in a Main slot instead of a Heavy, but trade off that mount efficiency for being Loading weapons. The Gandiva also costs 1SP for 1 Accuracy, and the RCMR has the ability to change its damage on the fly if you know you're fighting a NPC that has Resistance or other reductions to a given damage type.

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 5:27 AM

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I see...

I've been testing vehicle licenses in some of my games.

IPS-N: Mitscher/ Steichen
IPS-N: Evans
SSC/RKF: Vestal
HA: Eridianos / Allenby

I have to admit that they have been fun although I have had to make some changes for some missions and some Clarifications in the lcp.

But I can say that I am liking it and I am preparing my players to lead this Mini-Campaign.

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 5:28 AM

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Good to hear! What sort of things did you think need to be clarified?

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 5:31 AM

#

wheat ferry Good to hear! What sort of things did you think need to be clarified?

I'm sorry for you being Phone Screenshot, but I already turned off my PC

Well, first clarify that the "Core system active" of the Vestal spends the CP at the time of using the Reaction And that it is not an efficient Core System

Since the Lcp says that the frequency was 1/Encounter it was understood that it was an efficient active core system.

Some time ago I came to ask that question and you clarified it for me.

#

On the other hand, something funny happened to one of my players

Got himself -1 Stress Firing the Trishula Magnetic Accelerator Rifle.

#

The player used Remote Weapons as a protocol and then fire the TMAC

Overkill was Activated 2 times.

He received 5 heat and did not invest in Engineering.

It was very funny.

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 5:45 AM

#

Haha, well - that's definitely the price of bringing a SSC chassis without ENG. It happens.

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 5:47 AM

#

I made some changes to the sizes of the Tanks... But it's mostly because of things I saw in Winter Scar's NPC MBT

#

Being that most were sizes 3, when the MBT is size 2

But it was something I did because in my games the size differences are more exaggerated.

#

Oh yes, Evans broke some games for me in very funny ways.

#

The Core System is certainly something...

#

As it is mostly One-shots of 1 or 2 fights, the player who used it abused a little of the Core system to advance some of the encounters a lot.

One of them was quite simple, get to a part of the map, grab something and run back to the spawn.

He use the passive core system.

I think it goes without saying what happened next.

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 5:54 AM

#

MULTIPLE SIMULTANEOUS DEEP STRIKES

#

Yeah, I generally balance my homebrew for three-combat missions - it's definitely really funny to think of the Evans just grabbing something and hitching it to the back bumper before running off, though.

#

Otherwise, I'll keep the feedback in mind for when I eventually get around to spinning up Mechless Lancer™ as an actual supplement of its own - thank you for letting me know!

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 5:56 AM

#

Don't worry, I'm getting ahead of myself

#

Although I cheat, since it is for personal use, I take from many sides.

#

But after having seen his "Frames" in Action... I thought I should give some feedback since I don't see them getting feedback from them.

It's normal considering what it's Lancer. But for me who love combined forces, finding your LCP's and the Tritton (barb Alt) was quite refreshing.

#

In my games the Mitscher does not have the "Rapid-Cycling Missile Racks" but borrows the ATG - Precision Bombs from Field Guide to Suldan.

I made it as a cheaper alternative to Spearfish...

Ahhhhh... Spearfish LFCM

One of my players plans to take 6 of those when I finally try to take this Mini-campaign.

#

That is why I came to ask about the function of the RCMR, since even between 6 people we saw the Weapon and we felt what was extra.

#

But now that I know the answer, I more or less understand why it's there.

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 6:06 AM

#

boppin Excellent, glad I could offer some insight there

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 6:08 AM

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wheat ferry <a:boppin:749275094043590696> Excellent, glad I could offer some insight there

Although another question... Why is it a Nexus?

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 6:11 AM

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plucky dune Although another question... Why is it a Nexus?

Centimane talent synergy - effectively completely customizable payloads, from their on-hit effects to their damage, tailored to each target

#

Felt more interesting than Launcher (w/Stormbringer)

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 6:11 AM

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Understandable...

#

I was always curious why it was, when well... It has "Missile Rack" in the name.

#

It doesn't have much to do with it, but also place in the Spearfish LFCM range, blast and damage in the Quick Action itself, rather than in the Equipment tags.

Screenshot_20250829_004457_com.android.chrome_1.jpg

#

Okay, I didn't finish saying what changes I had made to the Vestal.

The changes actually pertain to the License Rank II

High-Density Ammunition Racks can now also be used on Heavy Ranged Weapons instead of just Super-Heavy Ranged Weapons.
(I haven't tested this yet and may regret it)

And Gyroscopic Stabilizer changes it to something similar to Retractable Profile, it leaves you Slowed in exchange for being able to move and shoot Ordenance Weapons, but to deactivate it you require a Quick Action.

Two games have been played with this change and it has given good results.

wheat ferry Aug 29, 2025, 6:30 AM

#

Gotcha - makes sense on Gyroscopic, and I'll put that down in my feedback doc. For HDAR, that's Superheavy-only because Heavy weapons already are pretty good (and frankly I didn't want to buff HMG more), but I acknowledge that's personal bias on some level - if it works at your table, it works!

plucky dune Aug 29, 2025, 6:33 AM

#

Maybe it's because on my table the HMG doesn't shine much, but I've never had a problem with it...

I know it's a very powerful weapon, but for some reason it's cursed on my table, whenever a player uses it, it's bound to miss 3/4 of the shots it makes.

#

Even consuming Lock On having someone with Spotter I

I see that weapon fail too many times. But of course, it's just something that happens at my table, so you might be right.

#

This is also something I have staff, but I made certain changes to the Traits to make it feel more like a vehicle.

I know perfectly well that it is restrictive, but... It feels more like what they should be.

I still find it funny that before putting that on, one of my players put a Tempest Charged Blade in the Evans

#

Evans II / Tortuga I.

Siege Ram + Dozer Blades + Titanomachi Mesh

#

An Evans with Deck Sweeper Automatic Shotgun, the Hammerhead Autocannon and that RAM combo is Scary.

#

https://tenor.com/view/tank-goldeneye-james-bond-007-crash-through-wall-gif-8052665012502893012

Tenor

#

Wall?, does that exist?

#

How about 20AP Kinetic damage

wheat ferry Aug 30, 2025, 12:36 AM

#

https://bsky.app/profile/ashandgold.bsky.social/post/3lxldc4nli22l

Ash and Gold (@ashandgold.bsky.social)

In the dying years of SecComm, many programs were devised to reduce need for personnel-including the RASP's drone gunships. Centuries later, IPS-N puts a "new" product on the arms market...
-
License art for the IPS-N Mitscher by @curcan.bsky.social - coming to IaM in 0.6.0! More soon...
#lancerrpg

#

Speaking of the Mitscher...

plucky dune Aug 30, 2025, 12:36 AM

#

Waaaaaaao

fluid salmon Aug 30, 2025, 12:37 AM

#

👏 The Evil Plane! 👏

wheat ferry Aug 30, 2025, 12:38 AM

#

This came out so well, I'm really pleased with it

#

The SecComm Aesthetic™

plucky dune Aug 30, 2025, 12:39 AM

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I find it funny, in my table we used this as an image for the Mitscher

#

Or is there another image For the Alternate Frame

plucky dune Aug 30, 2025, 12:47 AM

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wheat ferry This came out so well, I'm really pleased with it

I guess it refers to a VTOL, Such as the V-22 Osprey, Or am I wrong?

#

And yes, the design was quite good

wheat ferry Aug 30, 2025, 12:48 AM

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Yup - the Mitscher was designed to be able to hover in place and orbit around a target zone.

plucky dune Aug 30, 2025, 12:51 AM

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Just in case, it's not written that it's able to Hover, but it does all of its movement at flying, you know, move in straight lines and every turn move or falls.

wheat ferry Aug 30, 2025, 12:55 AM

#

Oh, I know, that's because it's a proper aircraft and as such its version of hovering is still pretty damn fast at the scale of a Lancer battlefield.

plucky dune Aug 30, 2025, 12:56 AM

#

Totally understandable.

plucky dune Aug 30, 2025, 1:01 AM

#

wheat ferry Oh, I know, that's because it's a proper aircraft and as such its version of *ho...

Do you want to see the image we have for the Eridianos?

wheat ferry Aug 30, 2025, 1:02 AM

#

I'm good, but I do appreciate the thought!

hearty mica Aug 30, 2025, 1:24 AM

#

wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/ashandgold.bsky.social/post/3lxldc4nli22l

even the pinup is scary

wheat ferry Aug 30, 2025, 1:24 AM

#

All things rot.

#

It was really interesting to devise a thing that's pretty much completely marking-less and anonymous - what things did SecComm feel fit to put on it?
Kill tallies and a perverse joke about death, naturally.

#

My internal notes is that this example was attached to a Naval Air Arm wing during the Revolution and was shot down during the Battle of Cradle

wheat ferry Sep 1, 2025, 1:19 PM

#

https://bsky.app/profile/theotimegm.bsky.social/post/3lxr5z6j4kk2w

Theo 🏳️‍🌈🌙 Comms Open (@theotimegm.bsky.social)

SSC Swordgrass

Custom license.

#LancerRPG #Mecha #ttrpgArt

#

The Swordgrass has arrived!

terse arrow Sep 1, 2025, 1:20 PM

#

🔥 🔥 🔥

wheat ferry Sep 1, 2025, 1:20 PM

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@fluid salmon @leaden hornet for my swordgrass capos

leaden hornet Sep 1, 2025, 1:21 PM

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HELL YEAH

fluid salmon Sep 1, 2025, 2:28 PM

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Now THATS a revenant 👁️

sleek jungle Sep 1, 2025, 3:38 PM

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I wasn't expecting a knight-lich, but I am 100% here for it.

wheat ferry Sep 1, 2025, 3:41 PM

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SSC demands only the best works of art for their elite - and, frankly, it helps to hide the sheer brutality the frame is capable of.

plucky dune Sep 1, 2025, 4:35 PM

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Honestly, I didn't expect him to be a "Lich King"

hearty mica Sep 1, 2025, 4:43 PM

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So fucking cool

pastel vigil Sep 1, 2025, 11:16 PM

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oh fuck yes, more freaky SSC mechs

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 2:37 AM

#

@here 0.6.0 is out, and with it IaM's internal art!

Hello all - some of you following the project and artists in the Lancer or mecha sphere on social media may have gotten early previews, but now the moment we've all been waiting for is here: Iphigenia at Midnight has its pre-Kickstarter internal art, and I'm nothing short of overjoyed to be able to share it with you. Every artist knocked it out of the park, and please take a second to check them and their other work out:

Lady Iphigenia: Ares Bor - https://bsky.app/profile/exaltxix.bsky.social

IPS-N Mitscher and HA Haber: Curcan - https://bsky.app/profile/curcan.bsky.social

SSC Swordgrass: Théotime Galmiche - https://bsky.app/profile/theotimegm.bsky.social

HORUS Spectre: Simon Hirose - https://bsky.app/profile/decacommand.bsky.social

Now, however, we move into a new phase altogether... the Iphigenia at Midnight Kickstarter. No later than a week from now, IaM's Kickstarter pre-launch period (two weeks) will start, followed by thirty days to fund the project; I'll post the pre-launch here (and elsewhere!) when it begins, and again when the funding period itself begins. In that Kickstarter, we're going to be looking for funding for a whole slew of additional art, professional map design, editing, and layout, and potentially even bigger goals depending on whether and by how much we exceed the starting goal.

It's been a true labor of love to bring IaM to this point, and I couldn't have made it this far without all of your support: my readers, GMs, players, and even those watching on the sidelines. Together, we're going to carry it all the way across the finish line, and make the best book we possibly can.

#

0.5.0 -> 0.6.0 Changelog:

Fixed mention of a Seeder from an old version of the opfor in the Tactics text for Scene 1-1
Specified explicitly that all NPCs in the narrative are Tier 2 (except for Iphigenia)
Corrected mention of a Hive in the opfor for Scene 3-1 to the proper Witch
Added Iphigenia's portrait ("A Dead Fleet and a Sacrificed Shipmistress," pg. 17)
Added homebrew concepting on SecComm naval detachment naming schemes to the Second Committee Identifiers sidebar
The Clademaster's Pre-Sighting Beacon now no longer is Recharge, but has a Heat (Self) cost; this should make sure it's always available for the Clademaster, but still prevent being able to "chase" players with it
As well, the PSB now has an effect which allows the Special Payload Mortar to inflict debuffs to player Burn clear on crits within the area, magnifying the importance of the Accuracy
Self-Replicating Vectors can now be triggered against characters the Clademaster doesn't have Line of Sight to
Corrosive Bombardment received some fairly major changes; it now inflicts additional debuffs on failed save, its Armor strip is permanent until end of scene, and it does something the base weapon can't (i.e., not more damage) by destroying obstacles, terrain, and buildings in its area of effect while also making Difficult Terrain, providing a stronger reason to use the Full Action over a mortar Barrage and a benefit even if players just move outside of the area during the delay
HORUS Spectre's Chain Spear now, when Thrown and the target is successfully pulled towards you, drops next to you instead of at the target's former position.
HORUS Spectre's Needle and Thread now gives 4+(Grit/2) Overshield, adjusting the curve from 2-7 Overshield across all license levels (that is, 2-12) to 5-7 - still less than dedicated "healers" like the Lancaster and the Emperor with 5-10 curves, but much more noticeable.

#

HORUS Spectre's Lesson of the Fallen Mask now heals HP equal to 2+(Grit/2), adjusting the curve from 2-7 to 3-5: more effect at lower license levels, but less comparable to a Balor at high LLs; in general, this and the previous change should approximately maintain the Spectre's performance during the module's LL6-9 range while sanding off edges at higher and lower LLs
Added license art for the IPS-N Mitscher to pdf and lcp
Added cover art and webpage link to the .lcp
Added license art for the HA Haber to pdf and lcp
Added license art for the SSC Swordgrass to pdf and lcp
Added license art for the HORUS Spectre to pdf and lcp
Minor layout adjustments and text fixes

lucid musk Sep 2, 2025, 2:47 AM

#

wheat ferry @here **0.6.0 is out, and with it IaM's internal art!** Hello all - some of you...

WAIT YOU GOT DECACOMMAND ON THIS???

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 2:47 AM

#

Yup

#

He killed it with the Spectre

lucid musk Sep 2, 2025, 2:48 AM

#

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/622981378828533774/1353882831692103731/3dgifmaker29835.gif

#

the rifle on it UGH

dense meteor Sep 2, 2025, 2:53 AM

#

wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/theotimegm.bsky.social/post/3lxr5z6j4kk2w

Okay, the Swordgrass is peak.

dense meteor Sep 2, 2025, 2:54 AM

#

wheat ferry https://bsky.app/profile/ashandgold.bsky.social/post/3lxldc4nli22l

Also the lady art on the cockpit door is a nice touch.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 2:55 AM

#

I figure its crew called it Lady Death but actually adding the name would go over their allotted personalization count

dense meteor Sep 2, 2025, 2:57 AM

#

Very reminescent of the real art on some fighter jets irl.

dense meteor Sep 2, 2025, 2:57 AM

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wheat ferry I figure its crew called it *Lady Death* but actually adding the *name* would go...

Unfortunate.

#

Waiting for somebody to do this with their Mitscher.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 3:00 AM

#

benefits of the third committee: ips-n's mass produced murder hornet can now be painted with more than one personalized/self-expressive piece of content (which no longer has to be culturally approved) per 10m x 10m piece of hull

lucid musk Sep 2, 2025, 3:08 AM

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wheat ferry I figure its crew called it *Lady Death* but actually adding the *name* would go...

0001447-ANTI-WAR-CARTOON-1936-War-Come-on-in-Ill-treat-you-right-I-used-to-know-your-Daddy-Cartoon-1936-by-Clarence-D-Batchelor-which-won-the-Pulitzer-Prize-the-following-year.jpg

sleek jungle Sep 2, 2025, 3:26 AM

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I was surprised at the Spectre looking so utilitarian. You could have told me that was an Everest or a Gilgamesh. I'm used to a certain amount of uncanniness from Horus designs, but it's not really a Horus design, is it? They're just picking up the baton that someone else dropped, so it makes perfect sense that it would buck some trends.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 3:32 AM

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Exactly so: as the description itself says, Before there was ever HORUS, there were the Interstellar Solidarity Brigades’ chasseur divisions and their engineers, pulling together ten thousand disparate worlds’ traditions, materials, and skills into a single whole - a single fight. The Spectre PG is their legacy, and no other’s.

#

The legacies of the revolutionary cells live on in both the left-wing anarchists, agitators, and revolutionaries of HORUS and in the modern DoJ/HR and their Everests.

sleek jungle Sep 2, 2025, 3:38 AM

#

I guess it's more of a mechanical thing, too. It's probably easier to slot the Spectre into a preexisting structure instead of trying to cook up a brand new tag in lcp or VTT, etc.

#

Speaking of, the mech on the cover art staring down the fleet is a Spectre, right? I think you mentioned that at some point, but now I can't find it.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 3:40 AM

#

Yup, you're correct.

#

Tom's version is a Chain Spear Spectre, while Simon's is a Swansong Spectre.

sleek jungle Sep 2, 2025, 3:41 AM

#

They're all winners, though. Great art, great designs, great themes. I like the theme of "legacy" in things like the Spectre and the Haber and, of course, Iphigenia herself. I'm looking forward to the Kickstarter.

hearty mica Sep 2, 2025, 4:23 AM

#

the spectre looks so gooooood

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:00 AM

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Question regarding the Steichen:
That it works specifically with arcing and seeking weapons makes me think "no" but does activate trajectory computers require line of sight? It does not specify

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:02 AM

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crimson zodiac Question regarding the Steichen: That it works specifically with arcing and seek...

It does not, no - I recall that the Lancer standard is that "specifies if needs Line of Sight and/or Sensors/range explicitly, if not present not needed, unless it's a Reaction which always needs LoS unless specified otherwise"

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:02 AM

#

Thank you!

forest pier Sep 2, 2025, 5:06 AM

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wheat ferry It does not, no - I *recall* that the Lancer standard is that "specifies if need...

No, the default is needing line of sight (and Sensors for tech).

terse arrow Sep 2, 2025, 5:06 AM

#

Everything needs line of sight unless specified

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:07 AM

#

pain

forest pier Sep 2, 2025, 5:07 AM

#

There's just a lot of redundant specifications for line of sight and sensors because of how it needed to be specified in some earlier versions of the rules. (Same with how "damage, heat and burn" is specified when burn is a type of damage.)

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:08 AM

#

I'm so used to seeing "within Line of Sight" spelled out explicitly in basically every single relevant rule block that I assumed the default was "nah you don't need it on non-attack actions"

forest pier Sep 2, 2025, 5:08 AM

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So something needs LoS unless it specifically says otherwise.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:08 AM

#

let me check if this assumption broke anything that matters

forest pier Sep 2, 2025, 5:09 AM

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It's one of the most common misconceptions (most often with people assuming tech doesn't need LoS).

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:12 AM

#

Okay, I checked through everything in IaM and apparently the Steichen is the only thing this matters for, lmao

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:13 AM

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forest pier It's one of the most common misconceptions (most often with people assuming tech...

I ran into that the other day coincidentally

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:14 AM

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Well, apologies for answering the question incorrectly on My Own Damn Content™, but fortunately the Steichen can just fly however high it wants to get LoS on people

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:15 AM

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A bombard in a hole surrounded by height 9 walls oh no!!!!!

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:15 AM

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By God it's the skyscraper bombard trick

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:15 AM

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Shells firing off like a VLS missile

#

"GM, why did you give the sniper homebrew access to nanocomp"

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:17 AM

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It will never not be funny to me to think of nanocomp melee weapons with a Steichen on the team having go. do a crime (lets you hit a guy over a wall at longer threat)

sleek jungle Sep 2, 2025, 5:18 AM

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Mitscher and Steichen are so funny. You've got a bunch of bipedal mechs -- and a few spider mechs like the Swallowtail and Death's head -- and then this guy flies by in a gunship.

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:18 AM

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Some hapless family sitting down for dinner as the nanobots fly through holes in their window, over their supper, and out the door to fuck someone over on the other side of the building

#

Leaving them completely untouched

#

The ravenous swarm even dusted the countertops

sleek jungle Sep 2, 2025, 5:19 AM

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It does fit the setting, though. We know mechs are part of a combined arms doctrine.

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:21 AM

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I have not yet had the chance to try it but i was theorycrafting a mech to pair with a friend's hypothetical seeking artillery tagetes, you see, and i was curious if the trait would let me lock on to bombards behind a building

-- IPS-N STEICHEN @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] IPS-N MITSCHER 2, HA Sunzi 3, HORUS Goblin 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Overpower Caliber, Heatfall Coolant System [ TALENTS ] Technophile 3, Tactician 3, Black Thumb 2, Field Analyst 1 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:2 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:19 ARMOR:1 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:7 REPAIR:6 TECH ATK:+3 LIMITED:+1 SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:10 SENSE:20 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Machine Gun MAIN MOUNT: Autopod // Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Realspace Breach, Accelerate, Enlightenment-Class NHP, Curtain Call AEM x3

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:22 AM

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Someone playtested a Steichen with a Gandiva Tagetes once and it was exceptionally amusing to watch the drone zip around like an extremely annoying gadfly pointing things out for the Tagetes to shoot

#

They have great Lock On co-synergy

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:24 AM

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I expected as much!

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Its very funny thinking about a technothumb steichen at flight ceiling

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I hope you bundled up.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:26 AM

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Stretch a cot out under the fuselage coldcore exhaust to warm up clueless

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:27 AM

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Your 12 different variants of cancer is not service related.

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 5:28 AM

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On the bright side, that has got to be some of the most spacious and well-fit hardware for a technophile NHP around

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 5:32 AM

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Living the high life

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Literally

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 3:59 PM

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Everything will be handled through this page on itch.io even when the Kickstarter completes - I'll just be changing the minimum price and delisting the old versions, as standard.```
Copying this over here from itch.io as well, for transparency - some more information about how I'm handling the difference between buying IaM now and backing the Kickstarter.

main ferry Sep 2, 2025, 4:35 PM

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btw @wheat ferry- just now saw the art for the Spectre; it rules so much
Love that it really just is a combat chassis from the Revolution in appearance

plucky dune Sep 2, 2025, 4:36 PM

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When I saw the Spectre... The prototype suit from Halo legends came to mind

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Maybe it's because of the shape of the helmet? I do not know

barren kraken Sep 2, 2025, 4:37 PM

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I also didn't expect the Haber to be literally Metal Gear REX

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 4:45 PM

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Early Metal Gears are a good place to draw on for SecComm mech concepts, I feel - can go low to the ground for terrain crossing or go high up to loom over Hercynian trees, dedicated to usually a single powerful primary weapons system (like a tank's main gun, which they spiritually are of the time period), focused towards the heavily armored part of a main battle line.

fluid salmon Sep 2, 2025, 4:55 PM

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YEAH the spectre’s phenomenal, love the clear “we slapped on what armor plating we could find” energy

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Also same on the Haber, which made it feel even more chilling imo

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 4:59 PM

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The Haber is real freak shit, it's a SPG they put on legs just so it could clear through the trees faster

One of the vibes I wanted to angle for with this, given Hercynia, was "a War of the Worlds tripod as built by Cold War America," and I think this perfectly matches that in a towering above the ridgeline wreathed in fog and steam with weapons you do not understand way

#

Fun fact about the Spectre, by the way, its chest piece is repurposed from the Worldkiller Genghis

#

#

The brief I gave my artists for the Spectre variants was that they were originally built out of Genghises, Habers, and other chassis either homegrown or pulled from SecComm surplus and supply depots, and if you look closely at the designs you can see some callbacks to that legacy

Tom's on the cover is a much more modern Spectre in Choral Defense Forces colors, while Simon's is straight from the Interstellar Solidarity Brigades during the Revolution (incl. two brigadeers in sky-blue and proto-DoJ/HR red)

cedar kestrel Sep 2, 2025, 10:06 PM

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THE SPECTRE IS SO GOOD

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BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK

crimson zodiac Sep 2, 2025, 11:10 PM

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Okay a steichen with puppet systems and Beckoner for summon for a tagetes with an aoe attack would go hard

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Ominous black triangle on the horizon

wheat ferry Sep 2, 2025, 11:12 PM

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There's a theorycraft team I'd be interested in seeing some day which is Steichen + Taraxacum + Monarch + Tagetes, just absolutely horrendous amounts of lock on and long-range damage

pastel vigil Sep 3, 2025, 12:45 AM

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oh yeah that haber is fucked and evil

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love it

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 12:46 AM

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you may also be glad to see that further testing and rumination has produced Spectre Sidegrades

pastel vigil Sep 3, 2025, 12:48 AM

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yeah i glimpsed that and it also rocks

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i love how its a lot more slap-dash and ersatz

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sells the idea of, well, being a spectre of the revolution, clad in plate that had tasted fire once before

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making do with what is left

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making a difference with what they can get

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 12:55 AM

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The Haber and Mitscher are the regime at its height, these towering, brutal, heavily armed images of the armored fist - the Spectre is scrounged together to make war against them with the dregs of supply-depots and apartment-blocks and win - the Swordgrass is the ways of that old age dressed up in the finery of art and ironic mourning

pastel vigil Sep 3, 2025, 1:00 AM

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yep, that very much tracks

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 1:03 AM

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I really liked how Theo called back to the Enkidu in its posture, proportions, and claws, on the note of the Swordgrass - it's definitely the one that's furthest from the others visually, but I wanted that explicitly to say "yes, it looks not like the others, but it's still a product of that same time in history"

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"It's a modern take on old killing"

wooden temple Sep 3, 2025, 2:31 AM

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YOOOO I JUST SAW THE ART FOR SPECTRE

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I've been kind of in a brain block / emotional rut with lancer content - but just wanted to hop in here quickly to say the spectre looks so cool

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 2:34 AM

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🙏 Thank you very much!

wooden temple Sep 3, 2025, 2:40 AM

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wheat ferry 🙏 Thank you very much!

Do all four of the mechs in it have art already? I feel like I've only been able to dig up Spectre, Swordgrass and Mitscher (but i do know who is doing/did the Haber's art!)

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 2:41 AM

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Yup! They're in the new licenses pdf release, as well as the lcp.

wooden temple Sep 3, 2025, 3:09 AM

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Oh sweet

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The spectre might be perfect for a friend's character

wooden temple Sep 3, 2025, 3:13 AM

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wooden temple The spectre might be perfect for a friend's character

Tldr (wallflower spoilers, alternate universe where wallflower happened earlier)
|| Name is Avi. Egregorian grandpa tech priest, who's a couple hundred years old who's gone into hibernation a few times. (He Didn't live through the crisis. Parents or grandparents probabaly did). Belongs to a long rim planet that is a shared cultural home between groups of Spari and Egregorian now. He's a diplomat for his people... and also a radical freedom fighter against a Harrison armory sponsored/shell company that wants to strip mine his entire fucking planet ||

|| The character has always had direct ties to Horus medhs and NHPs, and treating NHP like family. But there's also always been underlying theme of liberating whatever machinery they can from those Harrison fucks to fight them off ||

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And uh, Spectre kinda fits him perfectly. Which is nice because that player has been kind of struggling to find a mech that he feels really fits his character

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 3:17 AM

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Oh, hell yeah - I'm glad to hear it!

wooden temple Sep 3, 2025, 3:18 AM

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All of the stuff in here sounds really cool, I'm really excited to pick it up on my next paycheck 💚

It feels nice to have a little bit of a spark lit for lancer, hehe

dense meteor Sep 3, 2025, 7:06 AM

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I just noticed that one of the little guys in the Spectre art is carrying a shoulder-fired, which rules.

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Remember, if your guerrilla force can't afford to run around in armored vehicles all the time, simply spam shoulder-fired and hide a HEAT rocket behind every little piece of foliage they'll be walking through.

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Also I'm assuming the Spectre in the art is pointing out the target for the rocket guy to shoot, which is very funny to me for some reason.

main ferry Sep 3, 2025, 10:31 AM

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"Yeah, yeah- shoot that guy!"

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 12:49 PM

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dense meteor Also I'm assuming the Spectre in the art is pointing out the target for the rock...

That's exactly the case, yeah

dense meteor Sep 3, 2025, 1:38 PM

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main ferry "Yeah, yeah- shoot that guy!"

"Yeah, you can do it! I believe in you! Just pull the trigger and- there we go! Nice shot! I'm so proud of you! You sure fucked that Genghis up! Well done! Now get behind me, I'll handle the rest."

main ferry Sep 3, 2025, 1:39 PM

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😌

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exactly

dense meteor Sep 3, 2025, 1:40 PM

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It's very redneck parent bringing the kid out to hunt vibe to me.

main ferry Sep 3, 2025, 4:06 PM

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yeah

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honestly the Spectre art is giving me bad ideas of trying to make a Legion Nexus Spectre

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just to have an "infantry squad" attached to it

echo ferry Sep 3, 2025, 8:29 PM

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If we bought 0.5.0 do we need to buy it again for 0.6.0?

wheat ferry Sep 3, 2025, 8:34 PM

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Nope!

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Just go to your Library and download the new copy.

wheat ferry Sep 4, 2025, 2:28 AM

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main ferry honestly the Spectre art is giving me bad ideas of trying to make a Legion Nexus...

  Harrison Armory Asset Management Team, LL6
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
  Assault (+4), Pull Rank (+6),
  Stay Cool (+4), Survive (+6)
[ GEAR ]
  Assault Hardsuit, Medium Signature,
  Heavy Signature, Frag Grenades,
  Handheld Printer, Extra Rations
[ BOND ]
  THE KNAVE
  Powers: SHOOT FIRST, FROM HELL'S HEART,
  HALF LIGHT
***
[ TALENTS ]
  Grease Monkey 3, House Guard 3,
  Drone Commander 1, Duelist 1,
  Centimane 1
[ LICENSES ]
  HORUS SPECTRE 2, HA Gilgamesh 3,
  HORUS Hydra 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Superior by Design, Improved Armament
[ MECH ]
  « AS A NATION OF FREE MEN »
  HORUS SPECTRE
  H:4 A:0 S:0 E:4 SIZE:2
  STRUCTURE:4/4 HP:25/25 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4/4 HEAT:0/11 REPAIR:7/7
  ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:2
  SPD:3 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENS:5 SAVE:13
[ WEAPONS ]
  FLEX MOUNT: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING
  MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Chain Spear / Pistol
  HEAVY MOUNT: Legion Nexus
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Utility Drone, Lesson of the Fallen Mask,
  PUPPETMASTER, Personalizations

Was a fun challenge to mess with

#

Utility Drone + Chain Spear + Centimane + Legion Drone Suppression Protocols means you can actually stack a lot of saves at some fairly sizeable difficulty

#

Chaos configuration here is swapping SBD for Open Door and doubling down on that with ST15 and 2 Heat on failed save

#

(though the even more chaos version of that is Open Door Chain Spear melee Spectre)

#

in fact...

#

  LL6
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
  Assault (+4), Get Somewhere Quickly (+6),
  Read a Situation (+4), Survive (+6)
[ GEAR ]
  ***
[ TALENTS ]
  Executioner 3, Duelist 3,
  Nuclear Cavalier 2, Exemplar 1
[ LICENSES ]
  IPS-N Blackbeard 3, HORUS SPECTRE 2,
  HORUS Pegasus 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  The Lesson of the Open Door, Gyges Frame
[ MECH ]
  « FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME »
  HORUS SPECTRE
  H:2 A:4 S:0 E:2 SIZE:2
  STRUCTURE:4/4 HP:19/19 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4/4 HEAT:0/7 REPAIR:6/6
  ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:1
  SPD:5 EVA:14 EDEF:8 SENS:5 SAVE:15
[ WEAPONS ]
  MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Chain Spear / Tactical Knife
  HEAVY MOUNT: Nanocarbon Sword
[ SYSTEMS ]
  SEKHMET-Class NHP, Hunter Lock,
  Lesson of the Fallen Mask, Reinforced Cabling

#

fascinating things are happening in the lab

main ferry Sep 4, 2025, 2:57 AM

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hell yeah

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cooking hard

fluid salmon Sep 4, 2025, 2:57 AM

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👨‍🔬

crimson zodiac Sep 5, 2025, 8:12 AM

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I thought I would take a stab at a swordgrass
-- SSC SWORDGRASS @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] SSC SWORDGRASS 3, SSC Atlas 2, IPS-N Tortuga 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Overpower Caliber [ TALENTS ] Duelist 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, Hunter 2, Vanguard 1 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:4 STRUCTURE:4 HP:23 ARMOR:0 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:6 TECH ATK:-2 LIMITED:+2 SPD:6 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENSE:1 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] Integrated: Fuel Rod Gun FLEX MOUNT: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Nanowire Saber / Parrying Buckler // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] Nanite Microfabrication Flask x4, Jäger Kunst I, Personalizations, Manual Reactor Override

Run in at half up and in dz, hopefully with jk1

5d6 + 3d3 + 1 dmg potentially.

#

If someone would stress you just take it on the chin with manual reactor override.

Try to mitigate damage with duelist dice, and your parrying buckler. Heal up when you need with your estus flasks

#

I will admit i dont know when to use precognitive dodge... i dont know what the good gambling numbers are

#

Living dangerously!

crimson zodiac Sep 5, 2025, 8:20 AM

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wheat ferry The Haber and Mitscher are the regime at its height, these towering, brutal, hea...

I do want to play a steichen if only to play a sort of pilot insists that if we dont use the panopticon thats a weapon the enemy will use on us

"How can we trust you?"

"You can trust me or not. But I am helpful, am I not?"

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Just pretty terrible vibes

wheat ferry Sep 5, 2025, 11:15 AM

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"Pilots with bad vibes in surplus SecComm gear" is indeed a service this supplement can humbly provide

wheat ferry Sep 5, 2025, 11:16 AM

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crimson zodiac I will admit i dont know when to use precognitive dodge... i dont know what the ...

Statistically you should get a 5+ at least once on 5d6, but simply gambling™ is part of the thrill of playing the Swordgrass

zenith portal Sep 5, 2025, 5:50 PM

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  Scavenger, LL6
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
  Apply Fists to Faces (+2), Blow Something Up (+4),
  Get Somewhere Quickly (+4), Get a Hold of Something (+2),
  Hack or Fix (+6), Survive (+2)
[ GEAR ]
  [ BOND ]
  THE HARLEQUIN
  Powers: SPECTACULAR FLOURISH, QUICKFINGERS,
  BILINGUAL
***
[ TALENTS ]
  Heavy Gunner 3, Stormbringer 3,
  Black Thumb 2, Ace 1
[ LICENSES ]
  IPS-N MITSCHER 3, HORUS Pegasus 3
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Sloped Plating, The Lesson of the Held Image
[ MECH ]
  « BECAUSE I COULD »
  IPS-N MITSCHER
  H:2 A:4 S:0 E:2 SIZE:3
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:2
  STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:6
  ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:-1 LTD BONUS:1
  SPD:6 EVA:12 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:13
[ WEAPONS ]
  HEAVY MOUNT: Mimic Gun
  FLEX MOUNT: Autogun
  MAIN MOUNT: Incendiary Grenade Launcher
[ SYSTEMS ]
  SISYPHUS-Class NHP, Hunter Lock,
  Personalizations, Tattletale VALD,
  Expanded Compartment```

#

Mimic Gun is reflavored as a jury-rigged haphazard mess of weapons that frequently breaks down (i.e. range/damage reduction)

wheat ferry Sep 6, 2025, 2:54 PM

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https://ash-and-gold.itch.io/iphigenia/devlog/1025799/iphigenia-at-midnights-kickstarter-pre-launch-is-now-live

IT'S HAPPENING

itch.io

Iphigenia at Midnight's Kickstarter pre-launch is now live!

Kickstarter page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashandgold/iphigenia-at-midnight With this post, the pre-launch period has now begun! Sign up to be notified when the campaign officially launche...

fluid salmon Sep 6, 2025, 4:42 PM

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YEAAAA LETS FUCKING GO

cedar kestrel Sep 6, 2025, 4:53 PM

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YEAH

sharp siren Sep 6, 2025, 5:42 PM

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YEEEEE

sharp siren Sep 7, 2025, 8:43 PM

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Got to run Ajax, wow players really liked how that one played. They sort of had a phase 2 glow up when one of the players dived the Clademaster and triggered Vengence. Players really liked Ajax over a lot of other ultras because they are a really powerful enemy rather than a really unfair one. Just thought I'd post to gush how cool that npc is. Commander template works so damn well with the Avenger class. Yeah. I used this bash as a stand in. I like the Node on their back. I think I'll try to make the colours better, update the gun and add some details on the shield at some point.

wheat ferry Sep 7, 2025, 9:47 PM

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Hell yeah, glad to hear it! People seem pretty divided as to whether AJAX or ACHILLES is their favorite early-game fight, which for me as a designer is a sign I did my job well.

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:08 PM

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I'm actually planning to run this adventure high-octane, cranking everything up a tier and running it as a campaign capstone, so really looking forward to the Kickstarter!

wheat ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:16 PM

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👁️ Looking forward to hearing about it, sounds fun

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:18 PM

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I also plan to narrate this Mini-Campaign to my group

Let's see how it goes and if not I'll screw it up

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Possibly tomorrow will be the first session

wheat ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:22 PM

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Excellent. If there's any feedback to offer, I'll continue making revisions through October.

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:23 PM

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I have to sit down and read the whole PDF, but since it's going to be worth it

One of my players made a Build LL6, with the Swordgrass + Phaon cresent (The Vergil DMC Mech)

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I'll see if the others play with the Mitscher/Steichen, Haber or Phantom

main ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:28 PM

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I'm planning on running SoTW for some friends tail end of the year and it's really tempting to give them the IaM frames/licenses to play with

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:28 PM

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SoTW?

main ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:28 PM

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Some KCC student pilot just turning up in a Haber 💀

main ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:28 PM

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plucky dune SoTW?

Shadow of The Wolf

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:28 PM

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Ah... Pfffffffffff

#

Hahahahahahaha

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:29 PM

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I am curious if there's any idea yet what we're looking at for 'scope' of the Kickstarted version? Getting what we have to publication, or getting bigger? (I'm trying to think of the right way to word it, and failing. Must caffeine.)

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:30 PM

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A student piloting a SecCom bomber drone and a Gas Chamber Mech

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:31 PM

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I mean, they are starting out in Harrison hardware. As we only half-joke around the table, "If it's a war crime, it's a Harrison!"

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:32 PM

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Pffffff hahahahaha

wheat ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:33 PM

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quartz cipher I am curious if there's any idea yet what we're looking at for 'scope' of the Ki...

I don't plan on much additional content other than, I expect, finally buckling down and writing a full Dramatis Personae section for the players' allied NPCs before we hit layout, but I will say there are four high-tier backer slots for working with me to design an exotic weapon or system in theme for the module.

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:33 PM

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M'kay! Mostly, I was wondering if I was going to be missing anything big if I ran the module before the KS delivered. 🙂

wheat ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:33 PM

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Otherwise, the budget's going to more art (over double!), maps, editing, and layout.

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Nope, you should be set with the draft for content.

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:34 PM

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(Though maps, please, yes, maps, I am so not a map maker....)

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:34 PM

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That is actually going to take me a while, to prepare the maps... Luckily I have dungeon Craft, but I'll see if I can do something interesting with it.

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:37 PM

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I have Inkarnate, I'm just very bad at it. So far my map making has amounted to "drop big crates and smaller crates."

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"And try to line them up properly on the map, but do badly at it."

wheat ferry Sep 8, 2025, 1:39 PM

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Believe me, I sympathize - the reason the map only comes with maps through mission 2 is that I hate how my m3 maps turned out, ha.

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:40 PM

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Well, I'll take advantage of running the adventure at T3 to give time for more maps to be done before I have to load them into Foundry. XD

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:41 PM

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I'm still broke, not really broke, but there's no money to spare, so I couldn't afford the Foundry.

So the Roll20 is my ally and my executioner.

quartz cipher Sep 8, 2025, 1:42 PM

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I do paid work, so it's a write-off for me at least.

plucky dune Sep 8, 2025, 1:43 PM

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I'm thinking of saving that $50 and having foundry for life, but I'm worried about the fact that my usual players don't have the equipment to run it.

granite crane Sep 9, 2025, 10:26 AM

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Foundry is super great and worth it, once you go through the headache of setting up all your desired optional modules

#

I definitely feel the worry though, for-life license or not, 50 smackers is a lot

#

[ LICENSES ]
  IPS-N MITSCHER 3
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Overpower Caliber
[ TALENTS ]
  Stormbringer 3, Skirmisher 2, Ace 1
[ STATS ]
  HULL:2 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:3
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:14 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:8 REPAIR:6
  TECH ATK:-1 LIMITED:+1
  SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENSE:10 SAVE:12
[ WEAPONS ]
  HEAVY MOUNT: Cluster Bomblet Dispenser
  FLEX MOUNT: Incendiary Grenade Launcher // Overpower Caliber
  MAIN MOUNT: Assault Rifle
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Spearfish LFCM x2, Curtain Call AEM x3, Armament Redundancy```

#

New art looks fabulous, had me hankering to go back to buildcrafting

#

I like to vibe out ll3 builds for the most part so i wanted to start with the Mitscher

#

I have an unhealthy adoration for the Spearfish so i had to make room for it, but the rest of the build should hopefully successfully play into that Gunship feel

#

Heavily armed, heavily armoured, frighteningly mobile, and knows where you are

#

Really wanted to grab Ace 2 but just couldn't justify both that and skirm 2

#

Ace 1 to just really make sure i never have to land because of a bad check

#

I also have an alternative loadout with Heavy Machine Gun (opcal) /2xmissile pods/ rapid cycling missile racks for sitreps where i know there's gonna be a Big Boy to focus down

#

This main one i feel is best suited for mowing down larger amounts of light to medium enemies

#

Excited to let my Spectre player know that their already super tanky mech is going to be even more durable

wheat ferry Sep 9, 2025, 10:37 AM

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Go on, Spectre player, take the sniper hit for your teammate. You can handle it. 🙂

wheat ferry Sep 9, 2025, 10:39 AM

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granite crane Heavily armed, heavily armoured, frighteningly mobile, and knows where you are

The missile knows where it is because its launching gunship is pointing a targeting laser at you.

granite crane Sep 9, 2025, 12:33 PM

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Heehoo

#

Poor players have been having trouble getting time to scan stuff

#

Literally took until this third combat (1-4) for them finally to get a chance

#

A player just raised an interesting point

#

How tf is a mitscher gonna work in 1-4

#

I've seen tunnel runs in Ace Combat but this is ridiculous

wheat ferry Sep 9, 2025, 3:12 PM

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I believe the term is "existential suffering"

#

Sometimes the gunship has to squeeze into a 6m by 6m corridor in pitch darkness, these things are in the manual somewhere

granite crane Sep 10, 2025, 10:16 AM

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They've successfully cleared 1-4! Next session i'll be Ajaxing all over them

#

A few missteps here and there in my NPC play but the players seem to be having fun tinygiggle

#

Even if they're the kind of gang who can't help but joke around no matter the situation

#

Hopefully i'll be able to drag them kicking and screaming into the trauma mines

#

I must say it really feels strange for Ajax to be size 1

wheat ferry Sep 10, 2025, 4:13 PM

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I could size him up like ACHILLES from the default NPC, but I wanted to keep him Size 1 for mechanical reasons ||(Avengers at Size 2 significantly expand their Danger Bubble)||

granite crane Sep 10, 2025, 9:37 PM

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wheat ferry I *could* size him up like ACHILLES from the default NPC, but I wanted to keep h...

makes sense!

#

i think it reads a little strangely with the flavour text of the first encounter is all

#

||'it's leant over, deep in conversation with someone else similarly suited up', with him currently standing next to a size 3 goliath Wheezeleander ||

wheat ferry Sep 10, 2025, 10:04 PM

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LMAO fair

wheat ferry Sep 11, 2025, 5:24 PM

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I love when I get playtest data back and as soon as I see the licenses part of the player sheet I know exactly what happened

#

not going to hotfix this one but that's a balance change incoming next version for sure

main ferry Sep 11, 2025, 5:42 PM

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Another case of "huh that interaction is busted but I didn't see it initially" coming to play?

wheat ferry Sep 11, 2025, 5:43 PM

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Yup, it's fortunately easy to limit but I failed to account for Gilgamesh existing (since it IIRC didn't when I wrote the license)

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also I have to share that the mech name was Apocalypse Rail At Home:

main ferry Sep 11, 2025, 5:46 PM

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😌

pastel vigil Sep 11, 2025, 7:16 PM

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wheat ferry also I have to share that the mech name was `Apocalypse Rail At Home:`

hm. i think i know what happened.

wheat ferry Sep 11, 2025, 7:41 PM

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Yeah

tacit magnetBOT Sep 11, 2025, 9:41 PM

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Is it one of those where you look at it and then just your shoulders go down and you sigh and go "Damnit. I knew I missed something."?

Ash And Gold ↩️

[Reply to:](#1345259960539545680 message) Yup, it's fortunately easy to limit but I failed to account for Gilgamesh existing (since it IIRC *d…

grizzled tiger Sep 11, 2025, 9:47 PM

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Seeing Iphagenia at Midnight be featured by a relatively big Twitter/Youtube guy genuinely sent me lmao

Glad it’s getting the recognition it deserves

wheat ferry Sep 11, 2025, 11:26 PM

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grizzled tiger Seeing Iphagenia at Midnight be featured by a relatively big Twitter/Youtube guy...

wait word?

plucky dune Sep 12, 2025, 12:32 AM

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wheat ferry not going to hotfix this one but that's a balance change incoming next version f...

Six Spearfish?

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One of my players has already made his token and it is Gilgamesh with Mitscher's Levels to have 6 Spearfish.

tacit magnetBOT Sep 12, 2025, 12:33 AM

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Remind me what the Spearfish is?

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Sorry, rephrase: Could I be reminded of what the Spearfish is?

plucky dune Sep 12, 2025, 12:34 AM

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tacit magnet Sorry, rephrase: Could I be reminded of what the Spearfish is?

Mitscher III

Spearfish LFCM:

wheat ferry Sep 12, 2025, 12:35 AM

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plucky dune One of my players has already made his token and it is Gilgamesh with Mitscher's...

lmao, of course it is

yeah, just tack a "1/Scene" onto the Spearfish since that's going to be the nerf

plucky dune Sep 12, 2025, 12:35 AM

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wheat ferry lmao, of course it is yeah, just tack a "1/Scene" onto the Spearfish since that...

But... I had already told you before.

plucky dune Sep 12, 2025, 12:36 AM

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plucky dune In my games the Mitscher does not have the "Rapid-Cycling Missile Racks" but bor...

.

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Well, re-reading it I realize that I didn't say it very clearly.

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Sorry

wheat ferry Sep 12, 2025, 12:41 AM

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Unfortunately, that's not how I interpreted that statement - thank you for letting me know regardless!

That said, now I know and tacking the Spearfish to being fired 1/Scene prevents the Gilgamesh spam build.

north bluff Sep 12, 2025, 10:32 PM

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plucky dune But... I had already told you before.

tbh I was also kinda calling out how OP the Spearfish felt since I made a build with like 5 of the things in here lmao

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1/scene feels like a perfect way to nerf that concern

fluid salmon Sep 13, 2025, 1:16 AM

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This makes sense

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It’s a lot of work to throw a spear when your gunship has no arms NodPopuko

abstract summit Sep 15, 2025, 2:36 AM

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It would also need to be unique, right? Since the 1/scene limitation would only apply to a specific instance of the Spearfish being mounted

wheat ferry Sep 15, 2025, 2:42 AM

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Spooked me for a sec, I thought I forgot to specify it was. Yeah, it's already Unique.

plucky dune Sep 16, 2025, 4:57 AM

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wheat ferry Spooked me for a sec, I thought I forgot to specify it was. Yeah, it's already U...

One question, although it has more to do with the Evans than with the IaM Frames.

Why does the Evans trait that allows you to move half your movement before or after doing Barrage, clarify the inability to do it if you are Slowed or Immobilized if you already know if you could not do it if you have those conditions

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 5:49 AM

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Just in case, pretty much.

plucky dune Sep 16, 2025, 5:56 AM

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wheat ferry Just in case, pretty much.

Oka.

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I have to do more tests with the rest of the Vehicle Frames

But the Evans gives me a bit of trouble with its core-system.

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 6:04 AM

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So it goes. I'm not super actively developing those, and in the future when I choose to I'll probably make a separate thread for them - I'll answer clarifying questions here because there is no better place for it, but I'm probably not going to do much in-depth discussion on my other homebrew in the thread for this project.

granite crane Sep 16, 2025, 10:48 AM

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wheat ferry Yup, it's fortunately easy to limit but I failed to account for Gilgamesh existi...

Oh my fucking god

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Thank god my Gilgamesh player didn't twig this interaction

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(and that they're too much of a HA diehard in-character to consider using any other manufacturers license)

granite crane Sep 16, 2025, 6:14 PM

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@wheat ferry can Onboard Biochemical Synthesis apply Burn when the original weapon doesn't deal burn?

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 6:15 PM

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Yep

granite crane Sep 16, 2025, 6:15 PM

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and also, would the Neurochemical Cannon's 'roll a d20' be something that Juggernaut can clear?

#

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like its not a capital C Condition

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 6:16 PM

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It's not a Condition, so RAW no

granite crane Sep 16, 2025, 6:16 PM

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weh

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okay i'll roll lmao

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 6:16 PM

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oh, I see, you're using Rebake (?) Ultra so Juggernaut is less Literally Free

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I see why it's more punishing

granite crane Sep 16, 2025, 6:17 PM

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finally, is this 'first burn check' like, the first burn check in a scene, or the first burn check for that instance of burn?

granite crane Sep 16, 2025, 6:17 PM

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wheat ferry I see why it's more punishing

yeah the Haber has been fucking my shit lmao

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 6:17 PM

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granite crane finally, is this 'first burn check' like, the first burn check in a scene, or th...

first in a scene (after they get infected) so it doesn't have effective permafailing

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will have a think on how/whether to clarify that

wheat ferry Sep 16, 2025, 7:18 PM

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got it, clarification added to next version

wheat ferry Sep 17, 2025, 11:00 PM

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This weekend, Iphigenia at Midnight's Kickstarter will exit from pre-launch into the full light of day (along with the last pre-Kickstarter balance changes and clarifications based on our most recent round of playtesting data). Mark your calendars and warm up your chassis.

vale fossil Sep 19, 2025, 5:58 PM

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Right - I should type up the groups feedback through end of mission 2 now that I’m free of grant chaos!

wheat ferry Sep 19, 2025, 8:23 PM

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👁️ Looking forward to it

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I probably won't be able to squeeze it into the version releasing this weekend, but I'll fold it into the Kickstarter-period feedback folder

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 1:40 PM

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It's time. It's been a labor of love to get here; a lot of blood and sweat has gone into making Iphigenia at Midnight the best it could be before this, and I can't thank enough both my audience (you folks!) for your support and my fantastic artists for fleshing out the module's world and characters. With your support, however, we can make IaM even better yet - new maps for every combat, a swathe of new art ranging from portraits of the Crowsworn to gorgeous full-page spreads of the contested landing on the Diana, and professional layout and editing to make sure every word and sidebar are in their proper place.

As of this post, the IaM Kickstarter is live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashandgold/iphigenia-at-midnight

If you already purchased IaM, check your email for your special reduced-price backer link!

Additionally, there are some balance changes and clarifications to the included Licenses as a result of the last pre-Kickstarter round of playtest feedback, with no changes to the core IaM document itself:

Fixed discrepancy between lcp and pdf for SSC Swordgrass - now that the trait is 1/Round anyway, there's no need for the mount restriction
Clarified Parrying Buckler on SSC Swordgrass - "only" the Parrying Buckler, not the entire mount
IPS-N Mitscher's Spearfish LFCM now is 1/Scene - this one goes out to the person who brought a Spearfish Gilgamesh with +2 limsys core bonus and spent every turn launching cruise missiles at people
Clarified that the HA Haber's Wonderland Neurochemical Cannon's effect does not count as a Condition
Clarified that the HA Haber's Core System only causes Infected characters to fail their first Burn check in a scene after application & that they become Infected the first time in a scene you deal Burn to them

Kickstarter

Coming soon: Iphigenia at Midnight

A narrative campaign and rules supplement for the LANCER TTRPG

strange matrix Sep 21, 2025, 2:25 PM

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wheat ferry It's time. It's been a labor of love to get here; a lot of blood and sweat has g...

Hell yeah! #lancer-news ad read incoming?

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 2:26 PM

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Indeed so, I sent it off to the mods

odd hill Sep 21, 2025, 2:27 PM

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Good luck with the kickstarter, got my pledge in 👍

sharp siren Sep 21, 2025, 2:27 PM

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Got mine in!

hearty mica Sep 21, 2025, 2:27 PM

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just backed

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https://tenor.com/view/im-doing-my-part-serious-stare-gif-11979677

Tenor

cedar kestrel Sep 21, 2025, 2:36 PM

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Sees Emergency Coalition Tier: Ah very nice
Spies Coalition Ace tier: autism_stare

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Yoinked

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 2:37 PM

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The people long to have their character in the book

cedar kestrel Sep 21, 2025, 2:39 PM

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omg I think they are all gone already

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unless I no longer see it because I took the tier

sharp siren Sep 21, 2025, 2:40 PM

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Just thought I'd say I am really excited for this book. My players have no idea the ride they are in for!

stuck bison Sep 21, 2025, 2:41 PM

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wheat ferry The people long to `have their character in the book`

I am people. Cecily will be in your 🫵 book

cunning dust Sep 21, 2025, 2:42 PM

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wheat ferry The people long to `have their character in the book`

i am also people

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Someone will be there. we'll figure it out

hearty mica Sep 21, 2025, 2:44 PM

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wheat ferry The people long to `have their character in the book`

i too am one of the people

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 2:44 PM

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holy shit they actually are all gone already

cunning dust Sep 21, 2025, 2:45 PM

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yeah dear gods

sharp siren Sep 21, 2025, 2:45 PM

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Yea I needed to snap one up too

cedar kestrel Sep 21, 2025, 2:59 PM

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The desire to immortalize OCs is strong

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even if it is just in text

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speaking of gunna use my artist reward to put this oc in proper lancer get up

main ferry Sep 21, 2025, 4:47 PM

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Damn, was gonna pledge for Coalition Ace but it's all out already

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 4:48 PM

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It's genuinely wild, I've been thinking of adding five more slots but I also know I should be reasonable and go look, it's a primarily combat-focused module, you're going to have a hard time organically working in ten pilots' names already

tacit magnetBOT Sep 21, 2025, 5:05 PM

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We'd pledge at the item tier but er, we allocated all our money this month. 😭

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Also it's about £90.

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 5:13 PM

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Don't worry about it, it's like that because you're also buying my time to work through the concept + implement it in pdf and lcp - I'm definitely not asking everyone to pay that much. Do what you can.

tacit magnetBOT Sep 21, 2025, 5:43 PM

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Ah that's very fair. Whereas I'm used to being on the other side if that makes sense.

cunning dust Sep 21, 2025, 5:51 PM

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ten gazillion dollars to Ash And Gold

little robin Sep 21, 2025, 5:53 PM

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One Ashillion bucks

celest dune Sep 21, 2025, 6:03 PM

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PROUD OF YOU BESTIE

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 6:04 PM

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we ball!

celest dune Sep 21, 2025, 6:05 PM

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cunning dust ten gazillion dollars to Ash And Gold

iphillian dollars

cunning dust Sep 21, 2025, 6:47 PM

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true!

cedar kestrel Sep 21, 2025, 6:53 PM

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wheat ferry It's genuinely wild, I've been thinking of adding five more slots but I also kno...

I don't know if this would be a good idea or not (might be too much work for the tier itself) but it was an idea that spawn in the brain, so take it what you will:
If those of that tier want pilots in the current day, and are okay with it, maybe have them as pre-made character options for the High-Mortality optional rule. "Don't want to roll one? here are som ready for you to pick up!"

wheat ferry Sep 21, 2025, 7:21 PM

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Pfftha, fair enough

Yeah, looking at the iconic pilots I did for Storm Warning, that'd be a lot of work

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I might consider it down the line

cedar kestrel Sep 21, 2025, 7:52 PM

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Yeah I figured XD

wheat ferry Sep 22, 2025, 4:18 PM

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Doing a little bit of extra work in the main module with a new appendix (taking up a writeup of mine on anthrochauvinism and the conception of utopia and dressing it up fittingly as an addendum), plus I'm finally getting around to writing up a proper Dramatis Personae section after putting it off forever

wheat ferry Sep 22, 2025, 4:54 PM

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wheat ferry Sep 22, 2025, 6:38 PM

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also: jesus christ, thank you all so much for the support

tacit magnetBOT Sep 22, 2025, 7:04 PM

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I have a tiny question with no actual real implications: Is the Nanite Microfabrication Flask red?

wheat ferry Sep 22, 2025, 7:12 PM

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tacit magnet I have a tiny question with no actual real implications: Is the Nanite Microfabr...

It can be! It can also be, say, orange.

tacit magnetBOT Sep 22, 2025, 7:12 PM

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Very good.

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repeatedly rolling forwards in the background.

echo ferry Sep 22, 2025, 7:53 PM

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In Battlegroup terms, is the SAMIEL Cannon on the Diana basically a Long Cycle Primary Lance?

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Just curious.

wheat ferry Sep 22, 2025, 7:55 PM

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It's closer to the Tyrant Cannon on the Giant Template, all told.

vale fossil Sep 24, 2025, 7:19 PM

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@wheat ferry sorry it took so long - would you prefer a google doc with the playtest feedback or would you prefer it in discord messages?

wheat ferry Sep 24, 2025, 7:20 PM

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vale fossil <@746509666015641734> sorry it took so long - would you prefer a google doc with...

I'd prefer a gdoc in DMs if we're talking that kind of in-depth stuff, aye.

karmic trout Sep 25, 2025, 11:38 PM

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wheat ferry It's time. It's been a labor of love to get here; a lot of blood and sweat has g...

Congrats on the kickstarter launch Liam! It looks fabulous, all the new art is excellent

wheat ferry Sep 25, 2025, 11:38 PM

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Thank you for the wonderful cover art, and for the kind words!

stuck bison Sep 26, 2025, 5:42 AM

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big news

wheat ferry Sep 26, 2025, 5:43 AM

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👁️ bless

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I should probably start refining my final art briefs, haha.

little robin Sep 26, 2025, 10:32 AM

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wheat ferry

Those are my goats right there

granite crane Oct 1, 2025, 11:19 AM

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My team has successfully beaten mission 1!

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Im so proud of my little group of murderfiends

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I've yet to query if they want to do the optional hardsuit combat but they've successfully filled the Disabling the Gallipoli clock so im satisfied with calling mission success

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I had a surprisingly difficult time executing on Ajax's main combat loop with my Spectre player saying 'nope' to every instance of forced movement

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Oh speaking of, small clarification on the Spectre's core power is needed i think, the Lock-On effect from the field of flowers, is that applied to the enemy regardless of if they end their turn in the field?

granite crane Oct 1, 2025, 11:24 AM

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granite crane I had a surprisingly difficult time executing on Ajax's main combat loop with my...

Similarly, Supreme Melee on a size 1 feels so bad

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But thats a natural consequence of all my players really wanting to play size 2s

sharp siren Oct 1, 2025, 11:28 AM

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I loved the combination of the commander template and the avenger class. Just works.

granite crane Oct 1, 2025, 11:46 AM

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Yesss 100%

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Its a great combo

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Giving the avenger more ways to protect and support their allies while giving the commander more proactive methods of affecting the opponents

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It felt like a very natural combination

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I had an interesting sort of stand-off between the tortuga player and ajax, both fulfilling very similar roles

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Which would move first i wonder

wheat ferry Oct 1, 2025, 12:35 PM

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Great to hear! And yeah, AJAX bullying people with shield bashes has a big gap in effectiveness versus a team with a lot of size-halfs vs. a team with a lot of size twos.

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For the Spectre core power, no, they have to end their turn inside the field to become Locked On (otherwise it gets very silly with some things that consume lock-on)

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Easy fix, just tacked " if still in the area" at the end of that sentence.

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In general, my concept for the Spectre core (and how it synergizes with other equipment in the license) is that it supports the fantasy of picking a hill to die on, especially things like control point objectives or map choke points; it provides some punishment for people moving into the area, but if they want to throw down with you over it, then your team gets access to Lock On for some powerful things like (within the module itself, for example) the Mitscher's trait or such.

wheat ferry Oct 1, 2025, 5:12 PM

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working on some more fun little additions on a whim

fluid salmon Oct 1, 2025, 5:14 PM

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What’s their rites of war look like

wheat ferry Oct 1, 2025, 5:17 PM

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Don't bring that evil onto me, I'm not writing custom Revolution-era rules for Union in the Horus Heresy ruleset. videogames

little robin Oct 1, 2025, 6:33 PM

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But I know you want to

wheat ferry Oct 1, 2025, 6:34 PM

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I can neither confirm nor deny such a thought.

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the duality of man

main ferry Oct 1, 2025, 6:48 PM

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wheat ferry the duality of man

evil

cedar kestrel Oct 1, 2025, 7:15 PM

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Oh boy

fluid salmon Oct 1, 2025, 7:20 PM

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Common SSC W

sharp siren Oct 1, 2025, 7:32 PM

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Spec Op Hornet ready to be an emotional terrorist.

wheat ferry Oct 1, 2025, 7:33 PM

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The evil and nefarious hacker Viceroy

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I threw in some shortened tables for allied forces as well, as the above, just in case one wants to represent allied help, have some people to defend in a sitrep as an extra objective, or such

granite crane Oct 2, 2025, 6:22 AM

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wheat ferry For the Spectre core power, no, they have to end their turn inside the field to ...

Yep, makes sense!

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And it absolutely makes sense that they gave me such a hard time this sitrep given its a Holdout

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Im not very miffed about it because god knows they had trouble in the previous sitreps keeping up with the team on the mad scrambles to get from a to b

granite crane Oct 2, 2025, 6:23 AM

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wheat ferry Great to hear! And yeah, AJAX bullying people with shield bashes has a big gap i...

Alas. I kinda want to bullshit a sort of gyges frame esque house rule for the lil dude

#

Though in fairness the assault shield still lets him do that handily

wheat ferry Oct 2, 2025, 12:57 PM

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🤔 I shall consider it, giving him psuedo-Gyges doesn't tick the problem of ||making Avenger aura significantly bigger|| that going to Size 2 does

wheat ferry Oct 3, 2025, 1:46 AM

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we ball!

granite crane Oct 3, 2025, 12:01 PM

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wheat ferry 🤔 I shall consider it, giving him psuedo-Gyges doesn't tick the problem of ||ma...

Oh god true

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But it doesn't have to go that far, just something to make rams more effective i think would feel good

cunning dust Oct 3, 2025, 3:19 PM

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wheat ferry we ball!

i will say it again.

iphigenia fumo.

20000% funding.

#

(you got this boss, i believe !!!!!!!!!)

wheat ferry Oct 3, 2025, 3:21 PM

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I will be real, if I could figure out how to bulk commission like 40 Iphigenia fumos, I would.

cedar kestrel Oct 3, 2025, 5:25 PM

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IM READY FOR IPHIGENIA FUMOS
Its what the ||Fragment of Iphigenia|| actually looks like

wheat ferry Oct 3, 2025, 5:27 PM

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||Cursed Iphigenia Fumo that reads all your books and removes your ability to speak or comprehend language||

cedar kestrel Oct 3, 2025, 5:28 PM

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: D

sharp siren Oct 3, 2025, 5:42 PM

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Clademaster Fumo when ? ? ? ?

fluid salmon Oct 3, 2025, 5:42 PM

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wheat ferry ||`Cursed Iphigenia Fumo that reads all your books and removes your ability to s...

||I think this is the kind of dread aura it would inflict||

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||I made my friends hold the fumo soaked in four hundred years of mass-murderer's guilt and they were upset||

wheat ferry Oct 3, 2025, 6:09 PM

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https://tenor.com/view/airstrike-we-are-going-to-airstrike-your-house-we-are-going-to-bomb-your-house-i-am-going-to-airstrike-you-bomb-gif-7054627172766580788

Tenor

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1000000 deaths for this meme, you will not escape samsara

fluid salmon Oct 3, 2025, 6:09 PM

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Understandable I know what I’ve done

fluid salmon Oct 3, 2025, 7:44 PM

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Tbh the real question is who in the module would be most happy about being turned into a marketable plush and who would be the most furious about it

sharp siren Oct 3, 2025, 7:46 PM

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||TEUCER|| Seething quietly

wheat ferry Oct 3, 2025, 7:48 PM

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agreed, I think it's a tie between ||ACHILLES and TEUCER|| for being most Mad About It

"most happy about" would probably be either Rafe Campagna of the 383rd MSMC (in a very dad way) or Akemi Hiroyama, Purview Navy (in a very I'm prominent enough to get a propaganda plushie way)

stuck bison Oct 3, 2025, 7:48 PM

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ABIGALE PLUSH PLEASE

wheat ferry Oct 3, 2025, 7:50 PM

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hardened mercenary woman holding plush of herself, looking at the person who gave it to her over lowered aviators: is this like. a - What are you trying to say here.

stuck bison Oct 3, 2025, 7:50 PM

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HAHAHAHHAA

cunning dust Oct 6, 2025, 8:25 AM

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wheat ferry agreed, I think it's a tie between ||ACHILLES and TEUCER|| for being most Mad Ab...

i am ordering 50 akemi plushes

echo ferry Oct 7, 2025, 6:08 PM

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What would have ||HECATE|| been doing if the PCs lost?

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||ie what would her role in the galaxy be, would she become a figure adjacent to Metat Aun or something?||

wheat ferry Oct 7, 2025, 6:19 PM

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Excellent question!

||I think that the biggest consequence of HECATE's ascension would be a War in Heaven, as it were, between her and RA - RA abandoned its children to the Second Committee, and her situation pre-ascension was a direct consequence (to her) of Union being allowed to bind and blind her. I alluded to that a bit in the text, where Iphigenia implies she views forcibly accelerating her descent into eidolonhood by destroying the anti-cascade measures woven into her subjectivity (and hardware) as her "birthright" (and a sacrifice that would destroy her as she existed then).

Regardless of the extremely nasty metaphysical consequences of however that ends up, one'd be left with an exceptionally powerful entity - albeit not quite MONIST-level - wandering the galaxy at its whim, choosing alternately to uplift and guide populations to satisfy its innate draw towards observing and supervising others, or obliterate those that don't fit arcane and largely incomprehensible standards with the kind of staggering access to violence that absorbing and transmuting multiple capital-class warships allows one access to. HECATE herself isn't dangerous innately, but her aloof unpredictability, familiarity with and access to enacting violence, and near-immunity to repercussions for her actions make for something that'd be very bad to unleash onto the galaxy.||

#

tl;dr it's kind of like creating a wildfire that never burns out

#

||The Iphigenia - HECATE transition is also a better life for her herself; it's a liberation from the strictures in thought and act, as well as the unbearable weight of responsibility, that dogged her in her previous incarnation. It's not something that she could have reached for without being driven close to cascade and having a lot of her supporting infrastructure ripped out from under her, because without that unique confluence of circumstances (and desperation), it would have been an attempt at self-emancipation doomed to failure (as the "false" ending of the module shows - SecComm was perfectly happy to just outright execute any NHP with Iphigenia's level of weapons control entering terminal cascade)

The problem is that it might be a better, liberated life for her, but for everyone else in the galaxy, now they have to deal with an entity showing up on their doorstep that does whatever it wants up to and including scouring their planet of any life and then leaving for reasons completely unintelligible to humanity||

#

Hopefully that makes sense - I didn't put much about it in the module because I found it hard to phrase this in a less... "just talking about it" manner, and the general consequences of ||"oh. oh no, we just made a new mini-god"|| fairly straightforward

echo ferry Oct 7, 2025, 6:30 PM

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Wow, thx for the very detailed explanation!

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Its super cool

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||Basically Metat Aun but a sadistic playthrough of the Sims instead of Auns Total Warfare||

wheat ferry Oct 7, 2025, 6:33 PM

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pfft
I mean, yeah, not too far off to say that ||most of what HECATE wants to do is play The Sims and every time she gets bored she "wipes the save" and starts again somewhere else||

#

||it's still someone who was an Actual Committed Anthrochauv in her last incarnation - the main conflict with Iphigenia's attitude towards TBK is that she realizes on some level that it's wrong and pointless, but also the ideology she follows (and is compelled to follow) dictates that it is necessary, and she is obligated to not just defend it, but do the work herself
thus the wording on the black box recording - "why would you wake me up, why would you make me do this again" in a sort of terminal lucidity, knowing full well what she's going to do and that she won't (and can't) stop doing it||

#

that's also tied up in ||iphigenia's attitude towards her crew - until she's effectively burnt up every other layer of blinder imposed by her caretakers and herself late in the eidolon fight, she believes they're alive and that the players (and the Coalition at large) are killing them, and will continue to kill them unless she intervenes. She genuinely loves the people under her command.||

echo ferry Oct 7, 2025, 7:07 PM

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Again, thx for the amazing explanation!

#

So is ||HECATE|| basically ||a mobile metavault|| at that point?

wheat ferry Oct 7, 2025, 7:28 PM

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Yeah, ||she just drags it along with her. Her metavault is what's left of her fleet and the Coalition's.||

cedar kestrel Oct 8, 2025, 6:09 PM

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I'm noting all of this down it's delicious

lyric estuary Oct 10, 2025, 11:44 AM

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hello I'm trying to get Iphigenia at Midnight and I literally can't?

wheat ferry Oct 10, 2025, 2:22 PM

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lyric estuary hello I'm trying to get Iphigenia at Midnight and I literally can't?

The very top of the itch.io page mentions that new purchases on there are currently disabled while the Kickstarter is running (for a variety of reasons with respect to price, the Kickstarter all-or-nothing funding model, so on). If you're still interested in getting a look at the current version for a review or similar, DM me and I can hook you up with a pdf copy.

lyric estuary Oct 10, 2025, 2:25 PM

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okay!

cedar kestrel Oct 11, 2025, 1:10 AM

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autism_stare

lyric estuary Oct 13, 2025, 2:19 PM

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👀

strange matrix Oct 13, 2025, 2:21 PM

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7 days to gooooo

wheat ferry Oct 13, 2025, 2:39 PM

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Dawn of the Final Week

timid sapphire Oct 13, 2025, 2:46 PM

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I believe

strange matrix Oct 13, 2025, 3:19 PM

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https://youtu.be/P2NVJSJVGVQ

YouTube

Halo - Topic

One Final Effort

Provided to YouTube by Republic of Music

One Final Effort · Halo · Martin O'Donnell · Michael Salvatori

Halo 3

℗ Microsoft Corporation

Released on: 2007-11-20

Auto-generated by YouTube.

▶ Play video

cedar kestrel Oct 13, 2025, 7:14 PM

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A good song for the general deployment against the Dead Fleet, but probably the best for the Start of Mission 2 (Maybe 3) personally

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BUT YEAH LETS GET IT GANG

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ITS SO CLOSE

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||https://youtu.be/KeEmoIO-Iok?list=RDMM||
Another song for the Final Fight but its not what you expect [Based on one of the music touchstones]

YouTube

Dutyyaknow

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker: The Final Slam (Space Jam mix)

"I was half expecting her to grab the planets passing by and dunking the arena with them." a friend said.

Free download:
https://dutyyaknow.bandcamp.com/album/endwalker-the-final-slam-space-jam-mix

▶ Play video

wheat ferry Oct 13, 2025, 7:49 PM

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You're out of line but you're not wrong

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||one of the major spots in Iphigenia's inspiration sheet has been Meteion for good reason||

hearty mica Oct 13, 2025, 7:57 PM

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iphigenia is ||twitter|| NOTED

wheat ferry Oct 13, 2025, 7:58 PM

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nolongerstuff

cedar kestrel Oct 13, 2025, 8:40 PM

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oh god no XD

last horizon Oct 14, 2025, 1:35 PM

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It just reached the funding goal LETSFALKEINGGOOOO

wheat ferry Oct 14, 2025, 2:01 PM

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Wait what

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holy shit

odd hill Oct 14, 2025, 2:02 PM

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That's quite a leap compared to yesterday

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Congrats

wheat ferry Oct 14, 2025, 2:03 PM

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It's a leap of $454 since this morning when I checked before work, haha - goddamn, okay, I'm reeling a little but we might actually even snag some of the stretch goals here before the end of the funding period. Thank you all so much.

odd hill Oct 14, 2025, 2:05 PM

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Wonder where that activity came from...

last horizon Oct 14, 2025, 2:05 PM

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I sent my henchmen to help

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(in all seriousness I think just me and another person pitched in for the 28$ but hey that was like 10% of the remaining goal)

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450$+ leap in funding overnight is crazy though, and I'm glad this is taking off 🙂

wheat ferry Oct 14, 2025, 2:14 PM

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the nefarious henchmen arrival...

cedar kestrel Oct 14, 2025, 5:15 PM

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YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

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I just went to check now before dropping off here CONGRATS

fluid salmon Oct 14, 2025, 5:18 PM

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Holy shit!!!! congrats!!!!!

wheat ferry Oct 14, 2025, 5:25 PM

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It's Happening™️
IaM becomes real March 2026 (or so)

last horizon Oct 14, 2025, 6:50 PM

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But so I can be sure, what does the release timeline look like? What content is currently available vs. what will come out in March?
As far as I'm aware the LCPa, sitreps and maps are available but not the narrative currently?

wheat ferry Oct 14, 2025, 6:55 PM

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What's currently available during the book production period is the free content - the player-facing licenses and .lcp - as well as an early draft. People who purchased the book during the early draft period (that is, pre-Kickstarter) retain access to draft content like the NPC .lcp, my placeholder playtesting maps for the first two missions, and the latest pre-Kickstarter draft release of the narrative.

When the Kickstarter completes, the book itself will be available again along with a separate, additional-price map pack for all three missions; a purchase of the book will also get you the GM-side .lcp, and a free community copy (as made available by the generosity of the Kickstarter backers) will include the book and possibly the GM-side .lcp if I can wrangle it on the backend.

I may re-open purchases of the draft version over the process of making the final book, set to the eventual final prices of the release book (as a purchase of that will entitle you to a final book copy as well)

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Hopefully that makes sense! We'll see how timelines work out from here once I've really gotten a chance to sit down with my artists, but March '26 remains the target barring any unexpected and necessary adjustments.

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If you back on Kickstarter, you'll receive a key through email at the appropriate price level redeemed through itch.io which entitles you to the various digital content you pledged for.

granite crane Oct 15, 2025, 9:19 AM

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Mission 1 downtime complete! Im so stoked about the findings my players made

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I initially flailed slightly as a lot of my players wanted to engage with their secret missions but i didn't know how to play that in-session, i wanted to stay true to the 'keep it secret from the other factions' instruction but it would pain me to leave the other players out of the revelations from the side mission's resolutions

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Until ultimately we decided to just have it out in-session and agree to not let the knowledge influence in-character decisions

granite crane Oct 15, 2025, 10:49 AM

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Decided to also have them ad-hoc be given the Union side mission as a collective group given that none of them decided to be part of the local union detachment

wheat ferry Oct 15, 2025, 10:55 AM

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Excellent! Glad to hear it all worked out.

Aye, the best way to handle it in session is definitely "this is secret from other PCs, but not necessarily from other players" - I find that's also produced fun drama/reactions as people went "oh there's no way" about a few of the side missions, which is very gratifying (especially the Big Capstone Reveals).

granite crane Oct 15, 2025, 10:57 AM

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Nyehehe

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Im so glad my lore nerd player chose to be a Mirrorsmoke merc

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Was gratifying to hear them instantly pick up on the time discrepancy

wheat ferry Oct 15, 2025, 10:57 AM

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hey. that's not right.

granite crane Oct 15, 2025, 10:57 AM

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Oh i will ask

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So part of the ||after-action for 1-3 has the players able to notice there's nothing that looks like a casket on the bridge, but the downtime side mission for mirrorsmoke says 'have them investigate around asteria's casket'||

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It threw me off a bit as i didn't know where i was meant to have them look?

wheat ferry Oct 15, 2025, 11:01 AM

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Ah! That's an ancient draft inconsistency I must not have caught - thank you for pointing it out.

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When I added the detail in 1-3, I must have forgotten to adjust that to looking for

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(they're not going to find it, but they can find information in systems that would have been around where one should be)

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||investigating local computing infrastructure, digging around near where Asteria’s casket “should” be, etc.|| easy fix

granite crane Oct 15, 2025, 5:52 PM

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sweet thank you

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i blagged it by saying they found a server room that lay unguarded and unlocked after the evacuation sequence triggered

wheat ferry Oct 15, 2025, 5:54 PM

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Yup, definitely works

wheat ferry Oct 19, 2025, 3:24 PM

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Contemplating putting raid mechanics in the Iphigenia fight when we get the new maps...

wheat ferry Oct 19, 2025, 4:07 PM

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okay I gave in to the temptation, they're in there as optional rules now

hearty mica Oct 19, 2025, 4:10 PM

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Iphigenia savage...

wheat ferry Oct 19, 2025, 4:15 PM

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@woven wharf did a superb one-shot featuring raid mechanics and that was enough to finally push me over the edge to do them instead of just waffling around in my private design notes about "I want to do something to make the final fight more engaging"

wheat ferry Oct 19, 2025, 4:51 PM

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for my mmo players it's pretty straightforward - spread mechanic, stack mechanic, don't stand near cover, move away from where you were when the mechanic started

I think it'll introduce a lot more engagement to the fight, which is crucial when it centers around beating up one person (+some adds depending on who you fight in 3-2)

stuck bison Oct 19, 2025, 5:02 PM

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fuck yes!!!!!!

woven wharf Oct 19, 2025, 5:43 PM

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!!!! oh thank you i'm really flattered!

cedar kestrel Oct 20, 2025, 12:03 AM

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oh im excited

granite crane Oct 20, 2025, 10:25 AM

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Tomorrow i'm plunging my players into Mission 2

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Im very excited for the combats to come, and especially the ||interactions with Iphigenia||

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Im admittedly quite nervous about ||playing her character well, trying to keep all of the personality traits straight in my head is difficult, i felt like i kinda flubbed Asteria and really don't want a repeat||

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||the notes about getting curt and dismissive when asked about the TBK action has me especially worried because thats understandably what my players are likely going to ask the most about||

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||any tips anyone may have are appreciated||

granite crane Oct 20, 2025, 1:01 PM

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Also musing about keeping ||Last Ride of the Greek off of Achilles's character sheet||

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||so the surprise isn't spoiled by Scan tinygiggle ||

wheat ferry Oct 20, 2025, 2:10 PM

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granite crane ||the notes about getting curt and dismissive when asked about the TBK action ha...

The way I think of that is that ||she's just really not interested in re-litigating why she's here or what she's going to do; as such, that's kind of an out valve for if the players are trying to have an argument with her about "hey so what if you just Didn't Kill Everyone," which she's patently not interested in. If they're asking regular questions about motivation or choice, she's probably going to give them the usual anthrochauvinist neatly packaged answers as to why this is a necessary thing, how the time to reconsider would have been before several centuries of secession, et cetera.

Iphigenia's mostly there to observe, at least in that early meeting - the PCs have come to her notice as an unusual variable, and she wants to get some idea of who they are and how she can counter them effectively.||

granite crane Oct 20, 2025, 2:14 PM

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notes

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Gotcha gotcha

granite crane Oct 21, 2025, 2:23 PM

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Congrats on the kickstarter result!

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 2:31 PM

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Thank you! I'm writing up an update now, which'll be out shortly...

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 4:09 PM

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Speaking of... here's the updates!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ashandgold/iphigenia-at-midnight/posts/4518151

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0.6.0 -> 0.7.0 Changelog:

Added optional "raid mechanics" to Scene 3-3 for more complexity and interest
Added Appendix D: The Second Committee, Utopia, and Anthrochauvinism
Added further optional difficulty tweaks to Scene 2-2 and Scene 2-3, as well as a note on the added optional enemy in the Scene 2-3 Tactics section
Clarified in Scene 1-1 that all players must also extract to win the sitrep
Added a note to Scene 1-1 that embarked units in transports can debark as part of their standard movement on their own turn
Added a note to Scene 1-3 on what NPCs are good to include with AJAX in forward deployment
Clarified the second possible information source for the Freelancers Side Mission in Downtime 1 to be consistent with information presented in the conclusion of Scene 1-3
Clarified that Gallipoli E-3 in Scene 2-1 is significantly damaged already, narratively
Added Appendix E: Faction Rosters
Reworked the "Who Are You" section to include a proper background NPCs dramatis personae section
Clarified that the Lock On in the HORUS Spectre's core power only occurs if an enemy ends its turn inside the area
Corrected an error in the SSC Swordgrass's lore section - "five hundred and fifty" to "four hundred and fifty"
Minor layout adjustments and text fixes

last horizon Oct 21, 2025, 5:26 PM

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This is my first time reading through it and I really appreciate the "Who Are You?" section as a primer on the major factions and their movers and shakers which compliments the history of the choral worlds that precedes it nicely. It flows together pretty well

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 5:27 PM

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The way I've heard it phrased before by one of my beta readers was "there was a perfectly good tense political flashpoint here and then it became a completely different campaign"

cedar kestrel Oct 21, 2025, 7:16 PM

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Also quick question: I remember you saying that a possible kickstarter goal was adapting encounters to the NPC Rebake. Is that still in the scope of things?

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 7:25 PM

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Possibly! At the moment I have a fair bit of work ahead of me; like with the other work I've done over the past month, which I had the chance to sit down and put on paper outside of my strictly enumerated obligations + corrections/clarifications to the existing text, I've that categorized under "if I have time, I'll get to it".

I do have some ideas, but 11 combats is a fair amount of rewriting kits to do.

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Probably look for updates on that in November/December.

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:02 PM

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with the addition of appendix d, i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on harrison armory as ideologically and culturally distinct from seccom but still nonetheless downstream of it

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:12 PM

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hearty mica with the addition of appendix d, i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on harr...

Excellent question - I'm thinking of yet another addition™ to cover it in the narrative itself, but I think how SecComm views them can be summed up in one of the songs from the module playlist, funnily enough - especially the phrase All hail the stumbling child king, recoiling from the vanishing light. I think of the real dyed-in-the-wool tradchauv response to HA being that it's a sell-out piloted by a cult set up by some unremarkable logistics-branch middle manager no one would've trusted with real power when The Right People were still in charge... in large part because of how HA's changed from SecComm.

The throughline is the use of force, fundamentally. HA believes, as SecComm did, that the liberation (even if so-called) they bring is worth any amount of force used to obtain it; they believe that they are fundamentally in the right, and that casting down the tyrant and freeing the people of the Diaspora from the yoke of petty kings, strife, and hardship is their moral obligation. The primary way they differ is in what society they seek to build as a result of it; HA makes a society that is in some ways in conversation with the governed, that places them in positions of local governance and allows them upwards mobility, that grants them decimal rights to the gene-line of their next great director-king, that allows them to keep their culture and their way of leading life so long as they tithe to the Temperate Throne and sign up for the dictates and soft power of the Social.

SecComm does not. SecComm says that they already know the solution to history and that any deviation from this is treason against the body politic and a poison introduced to Greater Humanity. They are in conversation with nobody, and their communication with those who would push for reform or the production of satire and criticism is through the barrel of the rifle.

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To SecComm, Harrison Armory no longer trusts that they know the answer anymore, and are hopelessly rudderless without it. To Harrison Armory, SecComm failed in large part because they were so fixated on where they were going that they tried to put the entire universe in a hydraulic press to shape it in that direction. The ideologies share a common belief that they can achieve utopia in the world through the guarantors of goodness and they are in the right for leading invasions to plant their flag on foreign soil, but what they do after the smoke clears is where the line is most harshly drawn.

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As Iphigenia herself says: “Let me be clear: the only consensus-building I desire or intend to accept is from I to you. If it need be at the muzzle of a rifle, then so it shall be.”

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:18 PM

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appreciate the response, really interesting stuff and it makes a lot of sense with how the armory has been described over the years

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i wonder if something like iphigenia's attack could server as a sort of wake up call to bleary eyed armory citizens. being confronted with your ideological ancestor and the destruction it carries would no doubt have an effect on people

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:20 PM

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Oh, absolutely - there are some fun little hooks I've seeded into the module either more or less explicitly, and I think the PCV-GC Enyo and the clashing personalities onboard, as well as the mauled Legion IV, have plenty of stories to tell after the dust's settled on Choral (especially with the outcome of the CDF side mission being completed)

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If I'd ask any question post-module to an Armory PC, it'd be How far do you think is worth going for the Purview?

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:23 PM

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man the slope do be slippery

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good food for thought though. these shall do nicely in the blorbo rotations

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:27 PM

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Excellent, glad to hear it.

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I think in a lot of ways HA's ideology is also a lot less maximalist than I envision SecComm's as being - Union under the Second Committee was writing manifestos that declared their steady pace of victories in the war against the apathy of the universe itself, you don't see anyone in HA except some real fringe Omnistack writers and poets doing that now.

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(I also think HA screws with language a lot less than my version of SecComm, which has libraries' worth of definitions and errata on the word "human" and a project to culturally redefine "working class" as "working for the great victory" to include military and scientific personnel)

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:35 PM

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yeah that sort of "at arms length" approach is how i imagined the armory rules it's planets. they both have that paternalistic jingoism but ha is less all-encompassing. i suppose there's also something to be said about the armory integrating member states into the greature purview cultural superstructure

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:35 PM

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Seccomm explicitly embarked on campaigns of "social flattening" per the CRB

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:35 PM

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that line about flowers from every member state on ras shamra sticks out to me

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:35 PM

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I recall either there or in earlier drafts that the reason basically anyone your average game of lancer is likely to encounter speaks the same language is because seccomm enforced it for long enough

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:36 PM

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i remember something like that too. i know "galcom" was referenced in wallflower

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:37 PM

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My own personal view of HA is informed a lot by Gulf War/Iraq War era US politics and so I admittedly do find there's a lot of ground to have in an HA that's maximalist but in more of a "we're going to build you guys schools and teach you the HA anthem" type stuff

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but broadly I think Ash's division between Seccomm and HA is in line with my own, where Seccomm trends closer towards unambiguous fascist authoritarianism while HA is currently enjoying its neoliberal era

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:39 PM

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Oh, absolutely, but I think that's a different category of maximalist than the way I see SecComm being influenced by futurist thought, which is the great rushing speed, the freight-train of the future rolling over tradition, the war against reality, the place where man ascends to crash through the gates of Eden and seize the tree for his own making

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There's maximalist and there's "these guys would go war to God if they could find him"

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:39 PM

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yeah

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Seccomm is a very reactionary polity and what they're reacting to, basically, is the near-brush of human extinction, and their response to this was basically to get real fuckin weird about it

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:41 PM

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real

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hey why did you have so many immortality projects that the space rock had to tell you to cut it out explicitly in writing

don't worry about it

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:42 PM

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We talk a lot these days about modern day US right-wingers being in a death cult (which is true), but I have to imagine there was some supremely fucked up death drive shit underpinning a good chunk of Seccomm

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that is, despite their ostensible goal being the eternal perpetuation of Humanity, you'll note that they were extremely happy to pull the trigger on WMDs, genocides, the aforementioned immortality projects held up against the effort to systematically categorize what counts as Humanity and therefore what deserves to live, etc

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and that's another big break with HA, imo...yes, JCH2 trying to upload his brain to the cloud and getting killed by RA is very funny, but you don't get the impression that HA is motivated by death to that extent (the fear thereof, the eagerness to inflict, etc)

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JCH2 just wants to live forever because he believes he deserves it

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Seccomm was probably looking into that as some sort of ideological beachhead in the war against entropy

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:45 PM

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solid jewel that is, despite their ostensible goal being the eternal perpetuation of Humanit...

self-indulgently quoting myself here, "[...] Humanity is inherently cultural–those who do not hold to cultural humanity, regardless of their biological nature, are not human politically or socially, and thus may be held to not be human ethically.” – Quotations on the Nature of Personhood, c. 3560u

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JCH2 built the Barbarossa to memorialize Dad, he didn't build it because he wanted to see a specifically giant human figure taking low-orbit sublines down

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(I think about the hey bipedal mechs being a thing is a little anthrochauv if you squint line in the CRB a fair bit)

hearty mica Oct 21, 2025, 8:47 PM

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austin walker really hit the nail on the head with that line

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:47 PM

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It's definitely very much on point that the signature weapon of atrocity in the Hercynian Crisis was basically "we made a big human-shaped weapon"

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even beyond the orbital kinetic bombardment platforms and boatloads of marines and everything else, the real "oh okay this is getting super fucked up" is when they make a mech, call it the Worldkiller, and say "we're gonna flamethrower every inch of this place to the bedrock"

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like at that point, what do you even say?

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:50 PM

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yeah, it's a big stamp on the conflict when the thing in the history books isn't the flamethrower tanks with their beehive canister rounds bulldozering the underbrush or the (especially in my canon) huge variety of orbit- and aerial-deployed weapons used to make the TBK as permanent as possible, it's seeing figures that look like armored men without heads and faces squatting around the cooling corpses of things that think and feel and dream like us

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part of the reason that Hercynia was the ultimate and truest failure of anthrochauvinism is that they were proud to do it, I think

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if it was some secret shame for them, if it was unassociated with their great civilizational project, maybe it wouldn't have broke the illusion so irreparably - but no, they wanted Hercynia once the first stab at "doing it peacefully" failed

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 8:52 PM

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When you think about it, for a bunch of Humanity Uber Alles types, the chance to actually do war with no-fooling aliens was probably a dream come true

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like, finally, the universe is giving us a chance to prove our case

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wait what do you mean everyone else is pissed, don't you guys get it, we won

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 8:55 PM

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See, I think that's where you and I's perspectives differ a little - because I had to also consider that they did try an "integrative" first contact, and that they had been using Deimosian labor for ~1500 years by that point, and those are definitely alien even if they get shoved into a human-shaped box and coaxed to portray themselves in human-compatible fashion

It's less, to me, "thank god we get to finally fight the aliens," it's "they rejected us, they killed our people, they are a threat, and we answer all threats with force because that's the only thing we've ever done" - the meeting-point of terror with rage, executed as a point of national pride

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Hercynia was the natural endpoint of anthrochauvinism as an ideology and the core reason why that backing animus - force is the second answer even if it isn't the first, you have to build utopia with corpses - is so reviled post-Revolution

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again, personal thoughts, ha

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:01 PM

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Yeah, for me it kind of comes down to the thing with NHPs being the response was to develop Human-Shaped Molds to shove them into, and I imagine that Seccomm would have been fine with Egregorians as a (in the actual definition of the term) subaltern class of colonized and "integrated" natives, but once the casus belli was there, you have to imagine that some group of Seccomm higher ups were cracking open plans for "How To Fight An Alien Race" with a sense of excitement

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 9:05 PM

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True enough, yeah - I tend to distinguish personal approaches from ideology when it comes to SecComm because "traditional anthrochauvinism" is an ideology that's impossible to actually follow to the T, you'd have to be some kind of completely impersonal figure who exists to respond to productive forces and follow the needs of the great state while simultaneously producing the great works of art and culture and science which should be expected of a liberated human in post-scarcity idyll

what you get with actual people in SecComm is a lot closer to what you mention there, and is a reason not only for the big tradchauv/corprochauv split I envision but the rapid disintegration of the ideology into splinter factions as soon as there was no longer the largest jackboot in human history saying "you will believe these specific tenets or suffer proportional reprisal"

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:07 PM

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I think to me it's important that Seccomm isn't just like a 40K imperium style "well they're all massive space racists" thing because that's not really true and it's a very reductive read into a polity that's already fucked from plenty of other angles already, BUT at the same time you see how the Hercynian Crisis played out and very quickly escalated not just into proportional but DISPROPORTIONAL reprisal, and I feel like there's probably a bit of something there

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On the other hand they were also making Enkidus to use against domestic protests so who knows, maybe by that point they were just in full on death-drive mode regardless of whether their targets had two legs or six

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 9:10 PM

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Yeah, I think that circles back to what I briefly alluded to above and elaborate more on in the book, which is the idea that humanity is cultural - what you look like might make it easier for propagandists to exploit (or harder, as in that particularly stark excerpt from Contrite Motive, when the deadening of affect built in from being trained against bio-human targets completely fails in the face of realizing that the Egregorian's weeping while it tries fruitlessly to mend its burns), but at the end of the day SecComm'll escalate straight through disproportionality because it has no concept of "disproportional"

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everything is a civilization-level threat because the concept of dissent is a civilization-level threat no matter who you are or what you look like, the resources allotted to crush that threat scale with the ministrations of dead-eyed men and cold computers somewhere around Saturn

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Union is mandatory is a short, pithy phrase I don't think I have anywhere in the book but do occasionally drift back to in that regard, in both senses of the word - unity and Union, the political system

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(because SecComm looks back on the Little Wars, the vying states before the Fall, the Great Trauma of all those abandoned colonies in the void screaming out for help, and the answer they say is that there must be an ur-civilization and that anything that threatens the ability for this civilization to secure unity and order is a threat to that civilization's integrity - and because there can be no ur-civilization but Union, a threat to Union is a threat to the entire human project)

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:22 PM

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I'll admit there's probably something potentially more dramatically ironic about confronting some Seccomm holdout with the Crisis and them taking great offense that you might think they were racist

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 9:23 PM

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oh yeah, I fuckin' loved that dramatic irony when writing them

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horrible people, genocidaires, eagerly proud of their project to flatten the entire universe into a pleasantly balanced little mantelpiece display disc, but they're not sexist, they're not racist, they're not homo-/transphobic, and how dare you imply they're anything less than the glorious revolutionaries leading the charge against hidebound traditionalists, frontier tyrants, and the very apathy of the heavens themselves

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you can say a seccomm loyalist committed genocide and they'll shrug, but call them a reactionary and that makes them angry

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(touching on again the warping of language and meaning to fit their ends and their own self-aggrandizement)

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also to be absolutely clear this is not a heh... tankies jab, it's that I think the Lancer overton window has shifted far enough (and in keeping with the CRB statement on those kinds of real-world bigotries) that even the Worst Possible People In-Setting have something to wave around about their moral righteousness by the light of a burning continent

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:34 PM

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yeah nah I get what you mean

pastel vigil Oct 21, 2025, 9:36 PM

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optional raid mechanics ... fuck yes

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also unrelated but this was otherwise an interesting discussion to read above - figuring How and Why seccom has always been something worth stabbing at and i've enjoyed the intepretations that come out of it, both in regards to the main topic but how they bleed and contrast with stuff afterward

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its definitely done wonders for figuring out how i wanna think about how HA operates, interacts, and presents itself as opposed to Seccomm

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:39 PM

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I think it's important that HA be substantially different from Seccomm for numerous reasons

pastel vigil Oct 21, 2025, 9:39 PM

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without a doubt

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:40 PM

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It helps provide various backgrounds for PCs, because nobody wants to be from The Neo-Nazi Enclave, and also if HA was really just Seccomm 2.0 it would make Union look especially toothless to simply let The Neo-Nazi Enclave continue existing

pastel vigil Oct 21, 2025, 9:40 PM

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if it was just Seccomm 2.0 they, frankly, wouldn't be able to exist in the setting as it currently stands

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:40 PM

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yeah exactly

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and like

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HA can still BE fucked, they don't have to be "good guys" to also not be the secret nazi redoubt

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The "HA = America" thing keeps coming up as a touchstone and like, buddy, I promise you that is not a comparison being made in complimentary fashion

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but there's a distinct difference in scope and scale and tone between "I'm from Space America" and "I'm from Space Naziville"

wheat ferry Oct 21, 2025, 9:42 PM

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yeah, in a lot of ways SecComm 2.0 also demands the eternal war in a way that means whatever comes out is either dead or not SecComm anymore

the real anthrochauvinists all died fighting for anthrochauvinism, etc - one of the party members for the inaugural playtest run was actually raised and trained by an anthrochauvinist holdout before she went on to SSC proper, and it was fun having her being very starkly confronted by what that ideology actually meant instead of all the nice things she was told about unity, security, and the pursuit of utopia

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iphigenia pretty much looked straight at her and went yeah no I'm here to kill people because all of you deserve it

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but surely there's a better way to resolve this more consistent with the principles of -

nope, you're all dying. we can do this painlessly or painfully.

woven wharf Oct 21, 2025, 9:44 PM

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i think about probably the most defining/distinguishing feature for HA (and really easily/readily applicable for plenty of over choices of polity in setting) is that "its prone to setting up allies or states or colonies that are just a bad hiccup or two away from slipping towards full reactionary ideology, that the Seed for the worst has the potential to grow there.

solid jewel Oct 21, 2025, 9:45 PM

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I mean, the Dawnline Shore points to the fact that doing proxy state shit still has a tendency to only ever end one way, though the Baronies are also out there doing the same thing

woven wharf Oct 21, 2025, 9:45 PM

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yeah

#Iphigenia at Midnight

LETS GOOOOO