#Iphigenia at Midnight

1 messages · Page 3 of 1

wheat ferry
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post-revolution, I see there as being a large externalizing drive where the worst excesses that once would have been directly administrated by the state get shunted out to proxies and deniable actors (since that's also, for the KTB, post-sanjak)

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HA, shrugging: not us, we weren't involved, we just liberated them and told them to pay taxes

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general atmosphere of "well that's terrible, we'll fix it" to varying degrees of sincerity through the political sphere and Union proper trying to pin down these things to prevent them happening again

woven wharf
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in pursuit of their objectives to expand their reach and strengthen their ties, the things they prioritize most are supporting their allies and smoothing over any bumps after the fact, with i think some amount of thoughtfulness driven almost entirely by political optics and careful regulatory management,

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and centcomm, ofc

pastel vigil
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I personally like shining the light on HA's more flattering endeavors and grounded qualities mainly to give background for "why would people even enjoy or volunteer living under the Purview to begin with", which then means you get to flick back to Lyceum and Open Hand and go ah

(that and i feel everyone else does a good enough job showing where factions like HA are flawed and I don't see reason to reinvent the wheel there)

wheat ferry
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definitely, albeit that is complicated by lancer not giving a ton of canonical backing for where those endeavors do exist and succeed (since there's no room to deploy mechs there)

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my #1 dream massif project is a field guide to core worlds tbh

woven wharf
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well, technically the KTB book has 9.5 of them

wheat ferry
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pfftha, true.

pastel vigil
woven wharf
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i'd imagine it would be hard to do such a thing, evne if you limited yourself to only "mono-planet states part of union that aren't part of any other meta-governments like the ktb"

wheat ferry
woven wharf
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but largely i imagine that HA's appeal is that it feels like it does what people want Union to do, and it makes lots of shit people want

pastel vigil
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its how i ended up with stuff like the Dumas or Kickback tone/descriptions highlighting "what are things out on like, the periphery of the purview. what people exist, what do they think, how do they celebrate the armory", etc etc

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its very much make do but has its own shade of expression

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either way: i really do need to get IaM one of these days

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like Proper

wheat ferry
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this is true, everybody should read my book

pastel vigil
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i've read the draft more than once thats for sure

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will i run it? fuck knows! probably not for a long while!
will i like having it? yes, definitely

cedar kestrel
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I'll be honest gang, having a hard time choosing a pilot to appear in this book.
Its either my [at the time] solo punk pilot who somehow ends up in the middle of all this and knows they have to pitch in [and is an iteration of my first oc]
or an interstellar solidarity brigade captain whose small if notable legend still peeks through even in this day in age [and who would have definitely piloted a Spectre]

wheat ferry
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true, the decision paralysis really do hit hard

cedar kestrel
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Tis done

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Hope you enjoy the hopefully short description

wheat ferry
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🙏 much appreciated

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It's going to be an interesting challenge trying to fit people's names in appropriate places

granite crane
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I've actually been running the module using the rebakes

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Im not sure how much my feedback will be of use given my inexperience with GMing but im happy to give feedback on how i adapted the NPC setups

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Im also super curious to see how the premade maps shake out in the final version because i think some of the draft versions felt a little odd in places

wheat ferry
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Oh, don't worry, there's a reason I wanted to get a real map designer onboard (it's because I'm not very good at designing maps lmao)

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But yes, I'd be very interested to hear how using the rebake went for you with the default setup!

timid sapphire
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Oh you’re getting a map designer?

wheat ferry
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pfft

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(also yeah if you had trouble with any of the draft/placeholder maps, let me know so I can highlight those when I'm sitting down with Eld)

sweet blaze
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Is there any recruiting going on for a Iphigenia at Midnight campaign?

wheat ferry
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Not that I personally know of that's open, unfortunately, but there are plenty of folks who've expressed interest in running in the future as well.

vast mortar
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hey sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but i am having issues with the maps given with this module

wheat ferry
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Nah, this is the right place, what's up

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(if it's the Scene 1-2 maps: yeah, those are messed up, it's mentioned in the README and I didn't know how to fix them at the time)

vast mortar
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ah i didnt see the read me let me check it out

wheat ferry
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Ayup, README in the .zip should explain how to scale the standard-size ones for Roll20, in this thread someone also posted their Foundry scalings (iirc)

granite crane
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again, grain of salt, i was very much learning on the job tinygiggle

wheat ferry
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Oh, of course, but data from someone who played the narrative as it exists now with rebake NPCs is a good thing to have on hand anyway

granite crane
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okay so i've jotted down my setup for 1-1, i'm working on the others as i go but i'm happy to discuss as i go

wheat ferry
granite crane
cedar kestrel
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don't mind me just relistening to Death is a Girl
scream

wheat ferry
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real...

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it just works way too well even though it's a TLT fan-song

granite crane
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Hats off again to your license design btw

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I've been endlessly fascinated over the possibilities

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I have no head for balance but they all have such fun designs and flavour

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Recently been tinkering with a Haber and a Steichen build

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The Haber i've turned into a cqc bruiser with Genghis 1 and i've discovered an uncannily well fitting license in Suldan's Overlord 1 for the Steichen

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For the haber as much as i adore the Mortar the superheavy tag means a depressingly infrequent use of the other nifty parts of the license, and given its surprisingly nippy and sturdy for an ostensibly artillery frame i thought hey why not, flamethrower flavoured as a chem sprayer

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Can't wait to terrorise whatever poor GM im going to drop that on

wheat ferry
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Krakatoa/Wonderland Haber with Vanguard 3 is a real fun time

granite crane
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It looks incredibly fun to play

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Though i did actually end up dropping vanguard 3 in favour of going all-in on Heavy Gunner

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I felt like the lack of the customary 3 threat limited vanguard 3 a little

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Steichen felt like the perfect platform to make use of talents i rarely see my tables use like Orator

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I tried to make field analyst work but just couldn't justify not doing Prioritise Target or Orator things

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I'll still keep the level 1 dip though, its a fun reaction to keep in the pocket

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And the Mithra nhp felt like a match made in heaven

Screenshot_20251027-135727.png Screenshot_20251027-135732.png
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Both gameplay and flavour wise

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Its already an Orwellian icon of a frame, why not pair it with the NHP equivalent of the hl2 Combine Dispatch lady

wheat ferry
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Hell yeah, that's a cool interaction

granite crane
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Right??

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Ah jeez i have my players going into 2-1 tomorrow

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Gotta do my homework tonight, get all the flavour text i wanna act out organised, and familiarise myself well with the opfor's abilities

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The rebake strider was especially difficult to decide how to set up, i'll have thoughts about that

wheat ferry
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boppin Makes sense, I recall Striders having gotten some fairly significant changes

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Good luck and have fun!

granite crane
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And listening to that im like 'yeah this kinda fits if you think about it a bit but im not sure its that fitting'

granite crane
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oh that was such a fun Scene

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we're about halfway done now, i'm genuinely shocked we made that much progress in 2.5 hours

wheat ferry
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fun fact: the faction the most backer characters are from so far is MSMC

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galaxy's garbagemen putting in work in the choral system...

cedar kestrel
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People just like to be goofballs

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[Affectionate]

solid jewel
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My personal take is that a good MSMC campaign should, in some respect, resemble Battlefield: Bad Company

wheat ferry
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honestly, you could go back in time with the 383rd's involvement in-system and absolutely give them a Bad Company moment

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the Lighthouse Keepers stopped definitely-not-HA-backed pirates from stealing an entire shipment of combat chassis off of Coroneia during that conflict

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chasing pirates across a dyson receiver and riding dropships on liftoff and boarding subline cutters in orbit can get some classic FPS setpiece moments

granite crane
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I'll have to keep that in the back pocket if i ever roll a PC for iphigenia

main ferry
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a precursor game to IaM

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just slowly get the MSMC PC players comfortable and then

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Iphigenia would like to know your location

wheat ferry
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the best part would be to do it for a group who knows nothing about IaM

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set up the plot hooks at the start of IaM - are the pirates HA-backed? Union's here now, will they help? What are we going to do when the contract's over?

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and then Iphigenia has arrived

main ferry
cedar kestrel
sweet blaze
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Is there a story behind Iphigenia's mech frame, or is it just a unique thing?

wheat ferry
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You can think of it like an ace custom from Gundam - the way the Sazabi was specifically built for Char to use, for example

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That's her chassis, a single-run one-off

dense meteor
# main ferry honestly that sounds like a great lil homebrew campaign to run as like

Hi, I'm late to this conversation, but I had this list of pirate/insurgents/irregulars faction list for that one spin-off homebrew campaign from IaM I thought about a while back (where the PCs just play a bunch of mercs/ragtag band of soldiers going around to fight a bunch of pirates in the system in a series of one-shots). This never really led to much else, but just in case it's useful.
#904578869535838219 message

lyric estuary
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https://youtu.be/RW1368si540?si=UNZQpORrztjTZSn2 Intro to Iphigenia at Midnight is out now!

YouTube
11dragonkid
Intro to Iphigenia at Midnight, a Lancer HOMEBREW Supplement!

Iphigenia at Midnight, by Ash & Gold, is a Lancer third party supplement that features a 3 missions campaign intended for license level 6 to 8 on the Choral Worlds, where like many others during the revolution, rebelled against the SECCOM and it sent a reprisal fleet to fell the world, but it came 500 years late.

Find out why, as a part of Unio...

▶ Play video
terse arrow
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no WAY

wheat ferry
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mentioned this on bsky, but: holy shit

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again, really glad you enjoyed reading through the narrative, and thank you for the opening look!

solemn rapids
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sick

plucky dune
celest dune
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oh man i just remembered i still need to make an exotic for this 😅 totally open for suggestions, a lot has happened between then and now so it slipped by me

wheat ferry
celest dune
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oops

granite crane
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2-1 down!

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my players were rolling insane today

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they got to take out four rounds of frustration caused by the Bastion out in two quick turns

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poor dude ate a gunslinger 3 and a daisy cutter one-two punch with the perfect damage rolls to take him from full health to 0 in one round

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villeneuve FINALLY managed to hit his Captive Spike (after three turns in a row of trying lmao) and kidnapped the poor tortuga, before he unceremoniously lost the coin toss and was obliterated by a Legion Nexus

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sad i didn't get to induce friendly fire but alas tinygiggle

wheat ferry
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god bless

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Sounds like a bunch of fun!

granite crane
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As in like, every scene has a very strong flavour to them that has me excited to run it and makes them feel super distinct

west trench
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thinking about giving this a run soon! how's it gone for anyone else running it

granite crane
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Pretty good! This week we just finished off scene 2-1

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A few hiccups early on from some things in the pdf that snuck past editing but nothing a quick ping to a&g couldn't fix

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I'm running with the Rebake npcs so your mileage may vary but i found my PCs have been making very smooth progress even with the optional difficulty increases

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So i might have to fuckin murder them in 2-2

granite crane
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I might make reinforcements for the reinforcements

west trench
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So if I understand the premise right, Patrae has already fallen by the start of the campaign

wheat ferry
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Ayup

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The Burning of Patrae was some days ago, after which Lebaea has been desperately trying to process refugees and fleeing troops while getting ready to mount its own defense; the Dead Fleet is burning in-system towards their targets.

west trench
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I see! I'm considering possibly doing a prologue that takes place when the Dead Fleet first arrives. Actually having them escape/witness Patrae in its final moments I think will set the tone really well for my group

wheat ferry
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Sounds like fun! People have suggested that for the narrative or done that themselves; I definitely think it's a good shout if that fits your playgroup's character concepts.

By and large the Burning was accomplished by deorbiting the installations in orbit the vast majority of people lived on (since it's a gas giant) and then using ionization weapons to set mass fires in-atmosphere, scouring any regions that could support life and leaving the planet functionally barren. Some survivors report TBK chassis boarding outlying habitation complexes or defense installations which would take too long to fall to crush depth from orbit and flushing them out with chemical and nanite weapons.

west trench
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Oh

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Thats mortifying

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Yeah that'll work

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Very homeworld

granite crane
granite crane
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@wheat ferry would 2-2 be an Enclosed Environment sitrep?

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setting up the encounter and am musing about how i would position my minions

wheat ferry
granite crane
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righto

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i suppose i was visualising that while the torpedo tubes are vast, the height 3 blocks of cover would be like

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support struts stretching between the floor and ceiling

wheat ferry
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Ah, I got you. Honestly? Maybe in the final version! 2-2 is slated as being one of the maps I'm looking to seriously rework.

granite crane
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basically i was asking in order to determine if i could pop the sniper on top of the height 3 cover lol

wheat ferry
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At the moment, I have those envisioned as maintenance equipment, transformers and electrical boxes - yeah that's where he should be

granite crane
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and if my artillery player is able to shoot over the cover or not

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cool! makes sense

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and the soft cover is probably more fragile equipment

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maybe a scissor lift lmao

granite crane
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any reason why?

wheat ferry
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I'm a little dissatisfied with how the map and sitrep interact with the mechanics at the moment, so I'm planning to head back in the lab and see what I can do to refine what I want out of that combat. We shall see.

granite crane
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fair enough!

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oh also, was just checking the module again

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because i was trying to figure out where i would use the Hangar Bay map

wheat ferry
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That's a spare for random encounters on the Gallipoli!

granite crane
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and found this possible inconsistency?

SPOILER_image.png SPOILER_image.png
granite crane
wheat ferry
granite crane
wheat ferry
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(also, the idea of ||launching yourself out of an escape pod like a bullet|| seemed really cool when I came up with it)

granite crane
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LMAO

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In fairness it absolutely is

granite crane
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||Im also trying to wrap my head around where the players are when they land during 2-1 ||

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||they're pushing toward the ventral torpedo tubes which would be on the underside of the Diana, but where did they land?||

wheat ferry
# granite crane You might want to adjust 2-1's intro flavour as well as it ||talks about you bei...

Nah, that is correct as written - ||you're using the momentum to get to where you need to be before slowing down, which is important if you're doing coordinated waves of attacks from various squads scattered all across the battlespace. There'll be RV points for those squads to meet up and then launch their attack, so they don't just get picked off by flak or shot down piecemeal by the defenders on the way in.||

wheat ferry
granite crane
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I was having a bit of trouble visualising that

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I ended up ||espousing that the team waited within the escape pod tubes until given the signal to launch||

wheat ferry
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boppin

Fair enough, I can take a look to see if I can make that clearer

wheat ferry
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alright, tossed in a short sentence to the front of that readaloud

granite crane
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Cheers!

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Alas a player was sick, no lancer yesterday :(

granite crane
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@wheat ferry one fairly major question and apologies if i simply missed this in the module, (major story spoilers) ||but can i ask for clarification, are the Crowsworn also partitions of Iphigenia, or did they all survive the murder-suicide?||

wheat ferry
granite crane
wheat ferry
# granite crane ||are they then aware of the partitioning? the fact that so many of their comrad...

||When it comes to the Crowsworn, at least - yes, but they too are enmeshed in the delusion for their own reasons. Ajax is the most concerned over it, but his loyalty lies to anthrochauvinism and to his liege-lady, and how can he contravene the orders he is given? Achilles doesn't care - he has only ever been loosely bound to the cause and aloof from his fellows. Teucer is enmeshed in silence and duty, and Diomedes knows that a fate he cannot bear awaits him if he lays down arms. They're all complicit in their own ways with the overall project, and so they play their parts in the grand delusion.||

granite crane
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goes hard, thank you

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this'll be really useful for how i play these characters

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i've got that feeling you get after a really nice restaurant dinner im just savouring that vibe

wheat ferry
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Thank you! Yeah, this is building off of the notes of what aspect of complicity each character represents - ||to someone who's fully aware in the Dead Fleet without sharing the blinders Iphigenia has, the entire thing's like living through a grisly marionette show watching people who no longer exist carry on their lives, but what else can one do? Surrender? Stop? Try to persuade her to back down? What fate would await you then? Would the people you tried so hard to kill care? How much does it matter that you're surrounded by ghosts if you're so unmoored from time and space you might as well play your part and die well in the doing anyway?||

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||"Someone else might question Her first, but not me." And no one ever does.||

granite crane
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😔

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its just so pitiful

wheat ferry
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yep

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||Even for characters like Achilles, I tried to write in a sense of tragedy to their circumstances - he could have been different if he was born to a different time, to people who didn't exploit him and shape him, if he wasn't treated as a weapon instead of someone who needed help, but he wasn't! And what the players see now, this great beast, is what remains. There's a sense in which freeing the Dead Fleet from all this is a gift, but how bitter a thing that is.||

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and that's one of the themes that keeps getting referenced in the margins, incl. in the text from Iphigenia to the players

sleek jungle
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The Dead Fleet is pretty much the perfect antagonist faction. They're a huge threat that absolutely needs to be stopped at all costs, but it's weirdly tragic for a gang of thugs and murderers to be fighting a war they've already lost. Sunk costs fallacy with WMDs

wheat ferry
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Indeed. The death-drive pushing forward to the inevitable point when they kill everybody else or fail doing it.

solid jewel
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that forever war stuff'll get you killed

granite crane
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||its the tragedy knowing that the point where anything could have been done has long passed||

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i think i'm struggling to parse what's being said here (Harrison Armory side mission)

SPOILER_image.png
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is it that ||the rotted corpse was a thirdcomm/rebel technician who managed to restore life support after the murder-suicide attempt by seccomm loyalists?||

wheat ferry
granite crane
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ahhhh that was it, thank you

wheat ferry
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu8nx1qUwEU

XKCD actually did a video about (at a much more extreme level) what the actual burning part of the Burning of Patrae was, cool look

YouTube
xkcd's What If?
What if ALL the sun’s power was focused in one place?

Get a copy of What If? 2 and Randall’s other books at: https://xkcd.com/books
More serious answers to absurd questions at: https://what-if.xkcd.com/

This question comes from Max, who asks: What if all of the sun's output of visible light were bundled up into a laser-like beam that had a diameter of around one meter once it reached Earth?

Cr...

▶ Play video
granite crane
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Finally the stars and schedule aligned for us to start into 2-2

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Personal highlight being that my Witch managed to fire off the tortuga's daisy cutter into two of their friends hyperxd

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The Lurkers are extremely fun to play with! Having a lot of fun covering the tiny sitrep with no-no zones and teleporting the little buggers around

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I also thoroughly enjoyed the pre-combat RP ||with Iphigenia paying them a visit, really got to rattle the PCs by having her reveal how much she knows about their backstories from her brute force intrusion||

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Nobody's been clonked by a torpedo yet alas, my poor Hive exploded in an insane alpha strike from the Gilgamesh before he could get many shoves going, and the spectre player has been doing a bang-up job preventing me from ramming players off the side or dragging too many people into the swarms to be ripped apart

wheat ferry
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I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the Lurkers, those were very fun to play with in the sitrep

granite crane
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They're causing some serious mayhem its great

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It was terrifying when the tortuga vanished the shroud both of them were hiding in and then proceeding to grapple both in the same turn

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But thank god a clutch hull check got them both out

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I very deliberately took pains to always keep my NPCs out of blast 2 range of eachother this time D2S_E_WHEEZE

scenic nova
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Hi everyone just found this channel, backed the KS and love what I'm reading. Are there any map files ready? Or just vibing it right now?

wheat ferry
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Hi! There are early playtest maps available for Missions 1-2, but those are going to be replaced with much cooler maps going into release.

scenic nova
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Sweet! Are they available for viewing? In a KS backer at the 'getting maps' level. Im running it soon for a group and was hoping to not have to make my own in a hurry

wheat ferry
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DM'd you a copy! Yeah, unfortunately the separation between KS and itch.io has some things fall through the cracks, but I'm happy to send people a version. Keep in mind these are the rough sketches I used when plotting out the module and not reflective of the final version beyond the abstract.

ancient heath
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Just out of curiosity, how does the Dolorosa-Class NHP's protocol interact with Spectre's Only I (and other attack-retargeting abilities, like Glitch Time and Camus' Razor)? I've been nosing around for an answer and can't seem to find one, sorry if this has already been asked

stuck bison
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I'm not the designer so take my words with a grain of salt, but you're just forcing attacks on yourself which would cause you to gain an extra stack for dolorosa's bonus damage

wheat ferry
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Dolorosa RAW triggers off of declared attacks, which I can see some confusion over, so I'll clarify RAI that what matters is you being targeted - so yes, Camus's razor, Spectre trait, etc would all work.

wheat ferry
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November's backer update just dropped on Kickstarter, including three art previews and a snippet of one of the new Exotic Gear choices coming in the final book!

fluid salmon
hearty mica
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God they look so sick

surreal ibex
sleek jungle
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I recognize 3/4. Where is the scorpion mech from?

surreal ibex
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Field Guide to Liminal Space

ashen pine
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Just picked up Iphigenia at Midnight there!

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Gonna be doing a duet play with a friend where they control 2 mechs, with 2 npc tagalongs

wheat ferry
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Sounds like fun!

wheat ferry
# surreal ibex

The four elements lived in harmony, until one day, the CAS attacked...

ashen pine
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the tagline was very persuasive

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You are outnumbered, outgunned, and without reinforcements or time -

But you are not outmatched.

wheat ferry
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🙏 I'm glad to hear it, that's definitely one of the punchiest lines I've written for the module

plucky dune
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By the way, at some point do you plan for the Steichen to have its own Art?

wheat ferry
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I do! The campaign hit the stretch goal for that to happen, and that art's nearly finished as we speak.

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A preview of it'll likely be in next month's update.

ashen pine
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I know the adventure is styled to be very difficult. How are peoples' experiences with it, challenge-wise?

granite crane
granite crane
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i think they ended up having a fairly untroubled time making their way through mission 1, which is fair given that the additional difficulty options (which i'm going full speed ahead with) start to really kick in during mission 2

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the challenge will vary depending on your experience with the game and its systems

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which is just how it is with difficulty, you might have a build that absolutely slaps a particular sitrep's NPC composition or is fatally countered by it, you might have a good handle on how to corral a witch before it pulls off shenanigans, you might end up being melted into a puddle of slag by it

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its up to the GM to adjust how they play the NPCs to adapt to their players are performing

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what i will say instead is that A&G has done a fantastic job making very distinct and memorable encounters with objective design & NPC compositions

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i can very distinctly remember each of the combats so far because of it

west trench
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is there like a player's guide or something I can give my players so that they can read up on the setting but not be spoiled for the module?

wheat ferry
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broadly, from The Choral Worlds up through the start of Who Stands Behind You (which has NPC motivations/history/etc and thus becomes GM-side content)

sweet blaze
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Regarding hardsuit combat and Size 1/2 chassis, what would be the overlap in allowability in the hardsuit combat sections?

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I know the module says something about tight corridors necessitating dismounting even size 1/2 chassis, but would that apply to something like the SSC Atlas, which I don't see as being terribly larger than even a medium hardsuit?

wheat ferry
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It's mostly to ensure that everyone's on the same playing field, and hardsuit combat is by and large uninterested in (as a system) accounting for size-half chassis in the mechanical rules (as they'd be superior in every respect to any other form of equipment). If GMs want to homebrew rules for size-half chassis, they're welcome to, but mechanically I don't have any plans on rules for them regardless of whether they might fit narratively.

scenic nova
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Hi @wheat ferry I just finished my first read through and love it! I'm going to start a campaign this sunday as my group just finished winter scar.

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I noticed a few areas that read weird, should I share them? or are you and your team moving past that?

wheat ferry
scenic nova
wheat ferry
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Much appreciated!

granite crane
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double elite rebake lurkers are not okay

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send tweet

wheat ferry
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Ten Million Years Player Death

solid jewel
granite crane
# solid jewel I would like to know more

specifically the players were having a lot of trouble with Empower Shroud being base kit making the removal of the shrouds really difficult when they were able to pop out new shrouds four times a round and be very likely to recharge it at least once a round

solid jewel
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Well, Empower Shroud isn't base kit

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for starters

granite crane
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i may be stupid

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i blame it on the fever

solid jewel
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I can see that Elite Lurkers with Empower Shroud could get like that, but yeah, it's an optional feature. DEFENSIVE Shroud has been made baseline, but that's not on a recharge and doesn't make shrouds harder to clear

granite crane
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thats what i mixed up yeah

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i think i ended up going with that due to Ripper Claws and Defensive Shroud (the first Lurker's loadout) either being removed or being made base kit, so i thought 'eh, put empower shroud on both, makes it easier to keep track of anyway'

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big mistake

granite crane
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honestly a good change of pace from them slapping my shit lol

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though in fairness they ended up getting really unlucky on the last lurker and he ended up living far past his expiration date

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i don't know how they managed to fail the invis check five times in a row and miss the tech attack on the shroud a good 4-5 times in the same duration

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the double lurkers did end up being very fun and dynamic though

#

i enjoyed how much space control i was able to affect

#

felt like it sold the vibe of panicked CQC against an unseen enemy

#

sadly their supports ended up being pasted very quickly so the encounter became me just zooping from shroud to shroud biting their ankles

solid jewel
granite crane
#

i ended up taking pity and having his teleporter system malfunction from damage and shunt him directly into the path of an oncoming torpedo

wheat ferry
granite crane
#

Bro still managed to pass his agility check funnily enough

#

Not enough to save him though

wheat ferry
#

Rest in peace to Iphigenia's strongest Special Nanite Warfare Chassis

granite crane
#

Luck couldn't keep him going forever

granite crane
#

@wheat ferry do you have a picture in your head of what the Morozko would tend to look like?

#

Trying to decide on a sprite

wheat ferry
granite crane
#

Like a tardigrade tank...

#

Humm thats a good starting point thank u

hearty mica
#

if i ever get to run this module, the drakengard main theme's are going in the boss fight playlist. the lyrics are oddly fitting

# 
    (In the crimson night, the bird sleeps)
    The color of the dawning dream projects a blue sky
    (unleashed to the sky from the window of dreams)
    Thinking of the child's singing, I speak towards its opening
    (a lullaby wafts from its lips)
    The scent of blood keeps me from wandering towards its green pastures
    (Instinctively it flies to barren grasslands)
    My prayers are branded with the reds of death
    (My prayers always center on your face)
    When I meet with the ancient voice, everything will end
    (Paint away my soul to carry my feelings away)

    I give birth to these wings to run away from love
    (Within the cycle of reincarnation, blind to love)
    The angel's price is paid, I burn atop a bizarre plate
    (I became an angel, your light is a dancing memory)
    Burn to nothingness
    (Burn to nothingness, burn away)```
wheat ferry
#

Drakengard is an excellent pick, damn

#

my prayers are branded with the reds of death
Yeah

hearty mica
#

sonically torturing my players with the normal version of growing wings during the fight then hitting them with the drakengard 2 version in the last phase

tacit magnetBOT
#

What's the tank license from ? Never seen it before

Sväään ↩️

[(click to see attachment)](#1345259960539545680 message)

plucky dune
#

I think it was from Ilean Modern Industrial

plucky dune
west trench
#

do you think IAM is compatible with the Lancer NPC Rebake that Kai Tave did

wheat ferry
#

Not out of the box - I've been idly tinkering away behind the scenes at a potential rework, but that's actually ended up being a lot more work than I was expecting (I don't use a ton of grunts and the new NPCs are mostly compatible, but the reworked kits and the subtle changes in synergy mean that a fair bit's changed from my original design, never mind the bosses!) I know Snarferman's been running a version of IaM with Rebake NPCs.

solid jewel
#

Yeah, I think that the NPCs in an individual white room mostly transfer over extremely simply...a big goal for the rebake was to not be a massive, sweeping, radically transformative overhaul on an NPC by NPC basis but for each individual NPC to cleave as close as possible to their core rulebook identity and playstyle...but IN AGGREGATE you have a broad swathe of replaced/adjusted features, optionals, etc that probably result in some significant differences when all taken together in terms of OPFOR creation

#

My guess is you could probably brute force convert any module to using the rebakes and it would work Okay at worst, but you might lose out on some stuff, particularly things based around certain elements that have been changed or altered, like Moving Target Snipers, Rainmaker self-combos with Javelin Rockets, a scary multi-attack scaling boss as a big DPS threat, etc

wheat ferry
#

Indeed (of your list there's two of those things in there!), and there's also things like "well, the rebake has a bunch of added Synergy and Things What Activate Other Things, so I'd want to build opfors to take advantage of those as well". Wallflower NPCs also crop up some and those got poked at in a way that means I'd be mostly redoing the optionals for those at least (or considering whether to swap out the NPC entirely for the Strider miniboss).

#

I think it's 100% possible to futz around with IaM's opfors to make them using Rebake NPCs, but I can't say that's been playtested or that I've poked at it as much as with the stuff I've written before the Rebake came out, is what I think it comes down to.

granite crane
#

Yeah i've been running the whole thing with rebake NPCs and it did require some futzing,

#

It definitely works well, but like Kai said, the encounters are balanced expecting the capabilites of CRB npcs

#

I think a big standout is the loss of damage overall, both from things like multiattacks being stripped out and things like Deadly not being an option for your veterans

granite crane
#

Achilles fight tonight, extremely nervouscited

gentle flax
#

Stealing that word immediately, thanks !

fluid salmon
#

Hell yeah I hate that guy good luck bongoralts

cunning dust
#

beat his ass. as we beat his ass before you.

granite crane
#

gang i'm the GM 😭

#

and he got his ass beat Wheezeleander

#

@wheat ferry perhaps unnecessary, as i'm only one data point of course, but i'm honestly wondering if Achillean Resistance is a little too easy to disable?

#

like maybe it was truely a perfect storm but my poor guy suffered environmental burn only twice and absolutely ate shit in 2 rounds flat

#

ah i think i've spotted a problem with using rebake here lmao

#

the second part of Achillean Resistance that would soften the blow

#

rebake ronins don't have multiattacks

#

didn't consider that

wheat ferry
granite crane
#

no opportunity to recover bonus HP

wheat ferry
#

yeah, it's designed so that if he pops off with multiattack / instinct mode he can get a lot of HP back off lifesteal

#

malenia-y

granite crane
#

well whoops

wheat ferry
#

Don't worry about it lmao

granite crane
#

yeahhhh its always just a bit of a bummer when the epic bossfight you were hoping to challenge your players with ends up falling a little flat from inexperience

#

can only live and learn

wheat ferry
#

hey, from what I've seen it looks like they had a great time anyway

granite crane
#

yeah absolutely!

#

and im super glad about that tinygiggle

#

but i want my toy time too pout /lh

#

the players really liked the Morozko concept too btw!

#

looking forward to attempting to challenge them with it now that Achilles is fuckin toast lol

#

Heat manipulation is an avenue of attack i rarely see used

wheat ferry
#

It's designed to be kind of a mirror to the Spite in that way

#

the first playtest party had an OC-looping displacer creature and he hated it (good)

granite crane
#

i ended up going with Saurusss's Spec Ops tokens for the majority of the sitreps in mission 2

#

the dark blue colour palette and slim, boxy designs i felt fit Seccomm sensibilities

#

obviously they don't have a Morozko token so i thought the Morningstar was a good fit

Morningstar-SpecOp.png
#

squat lil insulated bug dude

wheat ferry
#

la creatura...

#

Definitely a good pull

granite crane
#

he freaked the players out by launching a CHIMNEYSTACK in the midst of them (before Reactor Linking) and i can only describe their reaction as being like when you place a cucumber behind a cat

#

no clue what this thing is but RUN, KILL IT

wheat ferry
#

my proudest moments as a GM or a designer are when I goad a PC into actually using Scan

granite crane
#

so they can't keep using the same one and schoolyard bullying him into it?

wheat ferry
#

Yep, that's an avenue I've considered

#

ofc it's a map design thing, so that's going to be in conversation with my map designer if I have time before final text deadline

granite crane
#

for what its worth i definitely feel the Bulkhead Door mechanic has been a tad underused

#

i really enjoyed its inclusion in 1-2 and 1-4,

#

with the air control tower and the twisting corridors of the gun deck

wheat ferry
#

Yup, it was something I ended up doing more of on the Gallipoli and then a lot of the time on the Diana you're fighting in these big open spaces since it's just so huge a warship

#

there'll probably be Places To Put 'Em, but as outbuildings or side rooms

granite crane
#

makes sense

solid jewel
#

maybe it's already in there idk, but particularly if people are going to be wanting to hack or otherwise mess with encounters, it might be worth signposting specific considerations like "this person lives or dies based on multi-attacks"

wheat ferry
#

ayup, I'm definitely considering it now that actually having a full set of rebake opfors is probably out of scope and a lot of people have shown interest in running IaM with rebake

solid jewel
#

In general, I have become very designer notes-pilled as of late

wheat ferry
#

pointing out "hey if this guy loses multiattack the lifesteal will be less potent" is something I could explicitly put in the tactics section; when it was originally written, that was just not even a consideration

granite crane
#

the designer notes have been hugely appreciated

#

as well as the Tactics

#

having even a rough guideline for how a particular opfor would approach a fight is so nice

solid jewel
#

It doesn't even necessarily need to be "rebake specific" but simply going "this guy is heavily reliant upon making multiple attacks to keep their lifesteal going" would, in theory, signpost it to anyone who thinks about tamping that down whether it's my stuff or someone else's or they downscale the fight to a lower tier, etc

#

like what happens if someone decides to run IaM but they're doing it at Tier 1 when nobody gets multiple attacks based on tier-scaling?

#

same sort of thing could occur

#

That could even be part of a broader overview in the introductory pages of the module, outlining the decision to establish the NPCs and combats at the level they are, which accounts for things like multiple attacks from certain NPCs, and how this is factored into the encounter difficulty

granite crane
#

it might have been ambitious for me to try and adjust the module to use the rebake and achieve the same level of challenge as my first time running a campaign tie

wheat ferry
#

nah, people running IaM with less experience has been hugely valuable to me for data

#

people are coming in asking questions about this, that, or the other that I just know™ from system experience, and it makes me snap my fingers and go "hey, I should say that explicitly"

granite crane
#

true enough

solid jewel
#

It's especially pertinent because most published modules aren't playing in that end of the pool, so (somewhat cynically) a section that goes "yes, I'm doing this stuff on purpose, here's how and why" might be useful to make people aware of that

wheat ferry
#

yup, I've noticed in my playtesting feedback that people really feel the jump from 1p material to the LL6+ pool

#

player builds are a lot more powerful and punish GM mistakes quite harshly

granite crane
#

haha yeah

#

when the hacktuga rolls to attempt Puppet Systems three times in one turn

#

to that end, now that Achilles is dead, do i just, end the sitrep lmao

#

i guess that was the objective

#

but i expected the other NPCS to at least be shot at once pup

solid jewel
#

"what do I do if this guy just dies" sounds like ANOTHER set of useful notes

granite crane
#

in fairness this is pretty explicit

image.png
#

but still it feels abrupt lmao

solid jewel
#

this is always sort of the potential drawback of a "kill a guy" sitrep

#

the final fight of solstice rain is more explicitly "you gotta kill the whole squad" to try and make things a bit less of that, but nonetheless it can lead to some abrupt scene terminations

granite crane
#

i flavoured the improv'd scene preamble as 'clear the Bow Armory to secure the TBK cache and prevent Iphigenia from being able to destroy Lebaea if the Coalition allows even a single munition through'

#

and thus killing Achilles was an essential part of that

#

otherwise why are we going out of our way to kill him specifically if he's just gonna chill in the bow armory

wheat ferry
#

yep, pretty much the situation

#

generally speaking no one else there is going to be able to stop you from fucking up the place, they're mostly supports and weapons engineers

#

you can end the sitrep as the personnel there retreat, you can decide not to and have them die to the last, it's up to you but realistically it's a Boss Fight™ and he's the main damage

#

added a bit on that to the PC Victory first paragraph, plus a sentence in Tactics calling out the multiattacks/self-healing synergy explicitly

granite crane
#

trying to find a good token for ||Iphigenia|| well ahead of time

#

as well as brainstorming ||how i want to visualise the Eidolon||

wheat ferry
#

boppin
||Eidolon fights|| are rough sprite-wise; for ||Iphi base,|| chop shop should have your back, at least

granite crane
#

i have some juicy vague ideas but am dreading trying to implement them lol

#

yeah i'm picking likely subjects from chop shop as i go

#

given i'm using foundry i'm actually considering ||making a seperate scene entirely for each layer||

#

||choosing a different background image and sprites as it goes||

wheat ferry
#

That's how I did it, albeit Roll20 made it a pain to implement; ||cover and such stayed constant as an overlay for each background image, but you'd have a vast sheet of glass, a desert field, so on||

granite crane
#

ooh

#

springing this on them when the ||containment breaks||

#

should be fun deciding what to write :3

wheat ferry
#

Hell yeah, excited to see how the plan comes together

granite crane
#

there's plenty of good quotes from the book to use

#

especially in the systems She has

granite crane
#

oh thats a pretty good candidate

SPOILER_Chop_Shop-Imperatrix-HER_BROKEN_SMILE.png
#

by Imperatrix, i'll shortlist that one

#

shortlist for Teucer rooHmm

SPOILER_image.png
wheat ferry
#

Oh, funnily enough, I actually do have the CS token I used for ||Teucer|| on hand

SPOILER_Chop_Shop-Unexpected-In_Your_Final_Moments.png
granite crane
#

ooh i like that a lot

#

but i really like the evocative language ||of his whole arm being replaced by a gun || so i've been saving sprites with that feature

#

got a good one for ||diomedes?||

wheat ferry
#

unfortunately not LMAO, lurkers are hard to find good sprites for so I just winged it with a basic one (iirc)

granite crane
#

these are the current favourites i have so far

SPOILER_Chop_Shop-HA-Zen-Sunlight_Sonata.png SPOILER_Chop_Shop-Lesbat-ONCE_MORE_UNTO_PERDITION.png SPOILER_Chop_Shop-Imperatrix-Imaginary_Fire_Re-Ignited.png
#

but it never hurts to browse while you have time

#

sadly not many people equip their mechs with just a single knife tinygiggle

granite crane
#

is ||the Sacrificial Knife's 'cannot be reduced by any means' effect only on crit?||

wheat ferry
#

||It is the idea of severing, no armor can stall its cut||

granite crane
#

Okay cool

#

I think it might be worth ||shuffling that text to before the On Crit keyword to make that a little clearer||

SPOILER_Screenshot_20251204-063634.png
wheat ferry
#

on crit/hit effects are generally first in the block, but I can throw in a blank line to make it clearer.

solid jewel
#

Layout precedent is the CRB Ronin's sword

wheat ferry
#

boppin

Yup, I went in and did it like that

granite crane
scenic nova
#

hi everyone I made a quick background for map 1-2 that uses interpoint and should work in foundry

1-2.11.png
wheat ferry
#

Hell yeah! Thank you for fixing the jank there, that'll be a great pickup for folks running before the new maps come out

sweet blaze
#

On a purely incidental note, the plot of Iphigenia could map amazingly to a similar W40k After Story-esque plot, with a Battle Barge and escorts sent to put down a rebellion showing up after standard Warp Drive fuckery gets them to [Choral Worlds stand-in] twenty thousand years late in the year 60000, when the galaxy has resolved its problems and is at peace.

scenic nova
ashen pine
sweet blaze
#

(/s)

#

also Cawlfuckery is NOT CANON

#

gtfo out of here with this improving on the GEmperor's work bs+blatant cashgrab

granite crane
#

reading into the NPC setups for 3-1

#

Ash&Gold i just have to ask

#

||why is this Goliath so goddamn stacked Wheezeleander||

#

||i get why but why||

#

||i know its a Holdout so they're not actually expected to kill it but jesus||

ashen pine
#

I just looked at it as well, what the hell

wheat ferry
#

it's a funny little guy

#

primary goal: DO NOT LET HIM GET ADJACENT TO YOU

timid sapphire
#

the work has started btw

#

😎

fluid salmon
#

👁️ bongoralts

timid sapphire
#

the hex version of map 1 is "finished" for its first version and I think it "looks good" on top of being a good map

#

but the good map part hopefully we'll have some feedback on if that's the case or not

granite crane
#

finally set up ||all the eidolon layers||

#

my brain is melting out of my ears

#

Foundry is great but making your own NPCs in-system can be a pain

#

rewarded myself by ||coming up with thematic names for each layer||

#

could i get some feedback on them actually? i'd love a second opinion

#

||5: LADY IPHIGENIA, THE QUEEN OF CROWS, WAR INCARNATE (already perfect for this layer tbh, couldn't think of something that would improve on it)||
|| 4: LADY IPHIGENIA, UNREACHABLE EXPECTATION||
|| 3: LADY IPHIGENIA, THE WEIGHT OF THE DEAD||
|| 2:LADY IPHIGENIA, POTENTIAL LOST TO PURPOSE||
|| 1: LADY IPHIGENIA, ALL LAID UPON THE ALTAR||
|| 0: Iphigenia, the sacrifice and the knife||

fluid salmon
#

Been in the build tinkering mines for an upcoming non-IaM game, might have created something stupid

[ LICENSES ]
  SSC SWORDGRASS 3, SSC White Witch 2, IPS-N Blackbeard 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Improved Armament, Full Subjectivity Sync
[ TALENTS ]
  Vanguard 3, Duelist 3, House Guard 3
[ STATS ]
  HULL:4 AGI:4 SYS:0 ENGI:0
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:21 ARMOR:0
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:6 REPAIR:6
  TECH ATK:-2 LIMITED:+0
  SPD:8 EVA:16 EDEF:8 SENSE:1 SAVE:13
[ WEAPONS ]
  FLEX MOUNT: Shotgun
  FLEX MOUNT: Ferrofluid Lance
  MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Nanowire Saber / Parrying Buckler
[ SYSTEMS ]
  DOLOROSA-Class NHP x3, Synthetic Muscle Netting, Camus’s Razor```
wheat ferry
scenic nova
#

hi everyone, would anyone know how to quickly apply the 2nd com color scheme to tokens? I'm bad at art

scenic nova
#

I think on page 36 for the Ultra Commander AvengerI think superior melee should be supreme melee?

wheat ferry
#

Correct, thanks for the catch! Fixed

scenic nova
#

is non-biological a feature with a blurb? or just letting everyone know they are robots?

wheat ferry
#

Just letting everyone know they're robots, yup

#

They're very obviously subalterns when the players are perceiving them

scenic nova
#

lol cool

#

what would be a recommended heat cap? or leave it at 0?

wheat ferry
#

Yep, just leave it as 0 (Heat becomes AP Energy damage)

scenic nova
#

that will make my hacker player so happy

#

where should GMs get access to the npc lcp files?

wheat ferry
#

Ah, hell, I forgot to drop it in the original Kickstarter backer update that included the draft.

scenic nova
#

oh noo!

#

that makes me feel alot less crazy

wheat ferry
#

Yep, it's available on itch.io but jumping between that and Kickstarter has always involved a bit of fumbling

#

I'll DM it to you for now, and anyone who's currently running a campaign and doesn't have access can ask for a copy as well

#

probably better than making an update post just for a copy of the LCP, ha

scenic nova
#

From reading winter scar and sol rain there are specific moments for a short rest and reapair called beats. For this book do you want to give short rests after each scene?

wheat ferry
#

You get a short rest after each combat unless specifically mentioned otherwise, yep.

scenic nova
#

tokens I made for the 1-1 ships!

Gallipoli_H-5.png Retrograde-Minis-Combined-Arms-STRIX-CLASS-OMNIFIGHTER.png Gallipoli_H-1.png Gallipoli_H-2.png Gallipoli_H-3.png Gallipoli_H-4.png
granite crane
#

Ooh i quite like those

#

The third one has me really pondering

#

Because there's the surface-to-orbit fighters described as part of Lebaea's defences that i've seen variations of in other media

#

Because the idea of an in-atmo fighter that can convert to space combat as needed is just really cool and fills a tactical niche

#

But has anyone considered the same idea but with giant helicopters

granite crane
#

Im realising that my poor Habermaxxing player is going to ||encounter Iphigenia and be very very sad||

#

||i need to think of some way to hint to them that they should diversify from relying on burn damage||

#

She does have ||a tokugawa Annihilator but 1d3+3 is not... Great...||

wheat ferry
#

I am considering adding stage hazards for that kind of situation, but ||assuming they killed AJAX and so he doesn't show up again in the previous scene, Iphi will have adds for the Burn player to kill (which is mostly why they're there)||

granite crane
#

||true true!||

granite crane
#

If there's any other GMs here who've run this module before, would you be willing to share the maps you made for Mission 3 as a reference?

#

Running a campaign is one thing but map design is a step up for me im afraid

scenic nova
plucky dune
#

Do you know when you'll reveal the design of the Steichen? @wheat ferry

wheat ferry
#

Should be in the lcp and pdf - has been for a fair bit.

plucky dune
wheat ferry
#

You'll need to download the latest lcp, yes. The comp/con files do not automatically update.

plucky dune
wheat ferry
#

Odd. I'm not sure what the problem is in that case.

plucky dune
wheat ferry
#

Oh - no, sorry, my mind must've totally missed the word when I first replied last night, I was quite tired.

The Steichen's art is finished and it'll be previewed in this month's Kickstarter backer update, but in general I'm not updating the itch.io drafts/lcp/etc until release, which is currently planned in March of next year.

#

(I thought you were talking about the base Mitscher license)

plucky dune
wheat ferry
#

Yes, I apologize for the misunderstanding.

bright halo
#

So, I'm playing this module, with the Spectre frame, a few encounters deep. Overall, I think the Spectre is a very cool concept, and I'm having fun with it. My previous frame I was playing was a Lich, so I'm very much into the Horus-y vibe of gameplay.

I have a few pre-thoughts, but I'll probably save everything until I'm at a long rest and given everything a firm chance.

#

LL5 Specter 3/Gorgon 1/Hydra 1

wheat ferry
#

I will say that our final text deadline before we send this out for layout is this coming week, so I'd appreciate thoughts by then (with a couple days' leeway in case I want to make changes as a result)

This does also go for everyone looking, for the record - if you have feedback, put it here or DM it to me as a gdoc (depending on length/detail) sometime this week if you want me to take a look at it before the book's done™.

bright halo
#

Sure, I can put something together, It'll be probably a little bit less polished because I've had less experience with the frame, and not had chances to find scenarios where certain abilities shine

wheat ferry
#

Understandable! And I 100% appreciate the desire to get some more experience with it, I'm just mentioning that for changes we're coming up on our deadline. I'd also be happy to hear any thoughts you have in the future, I'm just not sure how actionable they'd be.

bright halo
#

I'll put together my thoughts now.

stuck bison
#

hello @wheat ferry i am poking at a spectre build and i am currently wondering if stasis barrier's 4+ effect would trigger lesson of the fallen mask

Generate a line 4 barrier 4 spaces high in free spaces with at least one space adjacent to you. It counts as an obstruction and provides soft cover, but doesn’t block line of sight.
When an attack is made against a character that benefits from this barrier’s soft cover, roll 1d6: on 4+, the attack is consumed by the barrier and has no effect whatsoever. The barrier lasts for the rest of the scene, or until you deactivate it as a quick action. This effect does not stack with Invisible.```
wheat ferry
stuck bison
#

great, just wanted to clarify

#

appreciatedddd

#

may be putting fia in a spectre

wheat ferry
#

fia revolutionary arc real

#

my general blanket advice for lesson/swansong is that if it triggers hg3 it triggers those

stuck bison
#

inchresting.......

#

noted

#

so to clarify, is the intent that the impaired from heavy gunner causing an attack to miss would trigger lesson and swansong losing inaccurate?

wheat ferry
#

that's tough to do and most tables run difficulty/cover/etc as not procing HG as a result

granite crane
#

'lesson of the fallen mask' is such a raw ass name for a system honestly

#

I keep thinking of the ||Deserter's|| lines in Disco Elysium

#

Conceptually its just a really cool license that i think Horus was really missing from its thematic lineup

#

You had the Kobold of course, that sort of scrappy technical vibe of asymmetrical warfare, but the Revolutionary vibe deserved its own fair shake

#

Im still really impressed how well each of the new licenses fit into the themes of the module tbh

#

Now im pondering a whole new campaign based on those themes goddamn it

#

I've got an idea for an NPC translation of the Mitscher stuck in my head and i know it won't let go until i make a whole thing of it

#

Setpieces of ducking through oppressive urban streets, avoiding the droning hum of the gunship's engines the sweep of it's searchlights

granite crane
#

Im wondering about the Haber, does it's frame trait still trigger if the weapon it's firing doesn't deal burn natively?

wheat ferry
#

Yep.

haughty anvil
#

I think the rapid cycling missile rack needs a little extra spice to justify being a worse gandiva missile

#

I would say blast 1 or 2 would go nicely

wheat ferry
#

it's a Main instead of a Heavy

plucky dune
granite crane
#

Thats 2-3 fully finished now, and we'll be going on break for Christmas

wheat ferry
#

🎉

granite crane
#

Had a real skin of their teeth finish there lmao

wheat ferry
#

Enjoy the holiday! My Christmas present to folks is going to be another backer update shortly beforehand, and I'm thinking I'm probably going to drop at least a few playtest versions of the new maps so they can get tested while the book's in layout.

granite crane
#

Hell yeah

#

I'm fully intending to run this module again in the future so im excited for that

wheat ferry
#

High praise - I'm real happy you've been enjoying it that much.

granite crane
#

Its been a lot of fun! It hasn't been entirely smooth sailing of course but that hasn't stopped it from being the highlight of my week

#

Im especially excited to see the Decksweepers update

#

Taking bets on how long the map will be lmao

wheat ferry
#

I have performed arcane science to get the exact mathematical average of what all my playtest feedback said it should be, pleasing everyone Somewhat

granite crane
wheat ferry
#

How does movement work with 52.81 grid squares? Well,

granite crane
#

We'll call up an Efreet player to see

#

Oh my god just saying that has brain blasted me

#

Obviously no special consideration should be made in map design for a third party mech but the mental image of the Efreet (credit to Kai Tave) taking one look at that hellish sniper sightline and saying 'nah' is giving me a giggle fit

Screenshot_20251217-092917.png
wheat ferry
#

dude this fucking sucks. I waited this whole time to ambush the first guys to try breaching the flight deck and [redacted] [expletive] noclips through the wall behind me

granite crane
#

SecComm personnel deserve to be t-posed on

#

But yeah the improvised 2-3 finish played out fairly fun and close!

#

Since Achilles was the first to die i rationalised that the TBK engineer was unlikely to simply abandon his post and would, upon seeing the designated guardian for this space die unfathomably quickly, send a desperate ping for backup

#

But given it was unexpected, the reinforcements would take a full three rounds to appear, if my players could take down the remaining NPCs they'd be able to slam the blast doors closed and prevent the reinforcements

#

It ended up becoming a really fun little mini boss encounter with ol Father Frost and his funky crew

#

One of the pilots had suffered an unfortunate unplanned disassembly of his mech but the quick intervention of the Spectre player prevented his squishy body from melting

#

And he ended up being vital to the last NPC dying on the very last turn of the last round before reinforcements showed up

wheat ferry
#

the pilot, upon ejecting about twenty meters max away from the Fire That Melts And Dissolves You: haha, i'm in danger.

granite crane
#

God he did not give a fuck lmfao

#

Scrunkly little Saul Goodman type playing fast and loose using unexploded TBK munitions for cover

#

Only two lucky Invis procs from his stealth hardsuit stopped him from becoming meat

#

The real highlight was my Haber player getting an insane five hit Special Payload Mortar shot on the remaining clumped up NPCs

#

She then proceeded to proc the Bonus Burn trait on every one of those shots

#

While she was linked to the Morozko

#

And while she was stood next to a Chimneystack

wheat ferry
#

pros: I don't gain heat
cons:

granite crane
#

YUP

#

It was absolutely wild

#

It was only thanks to her quick reading of the Link mechanic text that pointed out the Morozko can only gain a maximum of 10 capacitor charges at tier 2

#

Otherwise the Chimneystack would have instantly gone from 2 to 17 heat

#

She also did this while the Chimneystack was sat next to the aforementioned pilot stuck in his wrecked mech

wheat ferry
#

As funny as it'd be to make The Chimneystack That One-Shots You, it is limited for good reaso - oh my god

granite crane
#

She of course got structured from this lmao

#

But in her words #worth

#

And honestly i agree it was the right play

wheat ferry
#

definitely, on the last combat of the mission

granite crane
#

Shh they didn't know that tinygiggle

#

A little player-gm quid pro quo

#

I let her obliterate 5 npcs in nearly one shot, i get to use the Truth Nuke,

#

Win win

#

The Hive ended up being the last one standing with 3 Hp Left on the very last turn

#

One of the players tossed his thermite charge pilot gear to the dismounted pilot, who then proceeded to slap it onto the Hive who was currently struggling to stand from Prone, detonating it while zipping away on a grapple line

#

He got to the door controls just in time to slam them closed as a Demolisher was reaching in to hold the door open

#

Instantly crushing its arm

#

Absolutely peak, im going to remember it for a while

wheat ferry
#

Hell yeah, that sounds awesome. I'm glad you were able to riff that well off of the NPCs left.

granite crane
#

Mm! I gave the players the option of skipping ahead or playing it out and they voted to carry on

#

So i chose to give em a good hurrah

#

The ||iphigenia monologue|| afterwards was really fun to give as well, especially since it resulted in the ostensibly Joke character giving a serious and cutting respone

#

He's a Harrison Armory legionnaire who's been in and out of cryosleep for a long ass while now, and acts quite macho man and silly, lot of cigar chomping and flattop haircuts, you know the type

#

But hearing ||Her description of herself, had him relating surprisingly hard to her self image. He described himself instead as a Grenade, something thrown with much less precision and with much less concern for collateral damage, and accuses Her of downplaying, that She eclipses him in that manner by a long mile||

#

And i know the ||text of the module has her ignoring the players and leaving, but I felt that this specific line of attack/communication is one of the few things that would have made her pause and take notice, so i had her stay and listen||

wheat ferry
#

No, no, you're real for that

#

I mostly have that sort of thing written / her finding an excuse to be elsewhere in many of these to preserve that she's busy and the players are a comparatively small concern, and to OOC prevent people getting bogged down in Arguing With The Villain, but I 100% support engaging in serious character moments

granite crane
wheat ferry
#

||I suspect the reaction here would be something like Collateral is defined by task. Your politicians define an aim, translate it to the generals, who then translate it to you - and the task is lost in the doing, and collateral is generated. Imprecise. My task has no collateral, for it welcomes all without discrimination or concern. All will be punished equally; all have been sentenced.||

#

but that's an idle late-night thought

granite crane
#

Damn, wish i'd thought of that

wheat ferry
#

opening up to the girl who obviously has some insane trauma and she listens to your whole heartfelt moment to go hey man, I appreciate that, but I don't do collateral damage because my job description actually is killing civilians.

granite crane
wheat ferry
#

levity aside: 🫵 ||fragment of iphigenia candidate||

granite crane
#

Indeed

#

Hee hoo the power of a text rp channel

SPOILER_Screenshot_20251217-101151.png
wheat ferry
granite crane
#

One of the things i especially enjoy in this module is the feeling that despite each victory, there is the strong feeling of delaying the inevitable

#

||you can disable the Gallipoli's main guns, its flight deck, its engines, but if you leave even one operational, it will still be able to rain fire on Lebaea and destroy plenty of the evacuation shuttles||

#

||if you manage all of that, the Diana is still following close behind.||

#

||destroy the TBK munitions? Well that is fantastic, if the Orbital Defences let even one of those through then the loss of life would be untenable, but she still is bristling with conventional weaponry plenty sufficient to glass the surface||

#

||its not until Iphigenia herself falls that the battle is won, so i like to play her as if each tactical loss being accounted for on a Mission Timeline||

#

||and every projection is showing delays of hours or days at most||

#

I say Enjoy, its fuckin haunting

wheat ferry
#

🙏 That was exactly my intent, so I'm quite pleased it's getting carried through like that

granite crane
#

Exceeds Expectations, four hundred years and counting. oh

SPOILER_Screenshot_20251217-104506.png
#

Love it when my players hit upon hidden character landmines

granite crane
#

Dreaming of a Morozko/Witch teamup

granite crane
#

Im buzzing holy shit

SPOILER_Screenshot_20251217-133533.png SPOILER_Screenshot_20251217-133549.png
wheat ferry
#

Backer update is out for the month! Some absolutely stunning art in this one - go take a look.

fluid salmon
#

It’s sooooooo rad bongoralts

hearty mica
#

Oh man those are amazing

sleek jungle
#

Iphigenia at Midnight is getting better and better every time I look at it.

frail rampart
#

latest update looks sick, love the art. Keep up the good work

granite crane
#

Ohhh Achilles the killer you are

drifting harbor
#

Just wrapped up playing mission 1.
Team comp was striker heavy with a Mourning Cloak, Amber Phantom, Gilgamesh, and a Kidd.

Scene 1: I had a lot of fun using all the size 4 ship template NPCs. Those always get good pop on the VTT

Scene 2: the players were able to dive the sniper and kill her on round 2 which kinda “solved” the encounter. This was a high moment for them as they felt they had won a great victory in defeating the hangar queen and shutting down the strike craft.

We did the gunnery deck encounter as scene 3. I really liked the kill team of spec ops berserkers and the operator. I didn’t get much use out of the mirage systems though. The amber phantom was struggling with attrition by this point and did have a reactor meltdown during the scene. This encounter did end up being costly for party resources

We ran the hard suit encounter and used that as a time to progress some of the side quests. I ended up shaving the clocks down 1-2 segments to move the game back to mech fighting a bit faster. I didn’t explicitly ask for feedback from my players but my sense was that there was a large range in player enjoyment during this scene. Some loved it, while others just kinda rode it out until they could get back into mechs.

The boss fight with Ajax was quite satisfying though because I don’t own NRFW I ran Ajax as an Ultra Breacher instead. Ajax got slammed around the map, shattered the security glass, fought back a bit more before finally being gunned down on round 4 if I recall. With his death the map was basically won and I conceded the command bridge to the PCs at the end of round 5.

The players expected that they would be recalled to Labea to refit and downtime and were surprised when I said there’s no time. You can make use of the seccom mech bay and map for a couple hours before HQ is sending you against the Diana.

They seem excited about figuring out how to best use the galipoli to assist their infiltration of the Diana

wheat ferry
#

Hell yeah, sounds great! Glad your party had a good time.

Hardsuit combat can definitely be a bit divisive, I've found - either you're into the RP and can go through the narrative, or it's a distraction from the mech combat. S'why it's optional; nevertheless, I'm happy some of your party liked it regardless.

granite crane
#

Back to it after the Holidays, next session is tonight, i sorely missed Lancering

#

We'll be doing 2-4, our first grappling with Hardsuit combat

#

Im a bit frazzled trying to get all the details nailed down lol

#

The Shipboard QRF Strength, does its condition of 'four rounds of 'going loud'' mean four separate rounds or would it start counting down from the first round they went loud until 4 rounds pass?

#

And would filling the clock a particular Strength is associated with disable that strength?

#

And would 'going loud' on other clocks besides the train trigger that Strength?

granite crane
#

@wheat ferry sorry for ping lol

wheat ferry
#

Pfft, don't apologize.

wheat ferry
granite crane
#

Alright sweet, that makes sense to me

#

The second question is only really relevant if the third is correct

#

Though having clocks directly affect eachother like that sounds like it would get complicated fast lmao

wheat ferry
#

indeed so

granite crane
#

mission complete with a resounding success!

#

players seemed to really vibe with the format which im glad about, i was trepidatious going in

#

but it really feels like a system that is what you make of it

#

i have a table that's willing to vibe with their characters and banter ideas back and forth fairly well so it ended up being a good basis for the combat scenarios even if it's essentially just rolling d20s at eachother

#

and our poor CDF team member finally managed to progress her side mission after three rounds spent attempting the check lmfao

wheat ferry
#

it turns out that there are NO maps anywhere on the ship

#

I'm glad they enjoyed it!

granite crane
#

she just couldn't work these terminals

#

grandma never learned computer literacy

#

now i just gotta start making maps sweat

#

got two weeks for that at least phew

wheat ferry
#

Session break before making maps is the savior of the GM

granite crane
#

downtime session 😌

#

not sure how long to make the train map tbh

wheat ferry
#

generally "long enough that ||the Goliath|| needs a real run-up to get at the players, which also means ||the MBT|| has some protection from getting rushed down"

#

vibes-based engineering, but with speeds and ranges to hand to govern the vibes

#

||since the MBT is on the field first, people who go to rush it down in melee or with short-ranged weapons are in the Kill Zone for the Goliath when the MBT is destroyed and it shows up, which means they have to start backpedaling right quick||

granite crane
#

Also thinking about how relatively wide to make the train cars

#

I wanna make it narrow enough that throwing enemies off the side with forced movement is applicable but isnt too easy

wheat ferry
#

my version of the map was just straight-up 1/3rd of the map was Car and the other thirds were Ground

#

that may be too narrow, 0.25-0.5-0.25 may work better for you

#

(and of course we'll have our Final Version later when we get to the M3 maps)

granite crane
scenic nova
#

scene 2-2 map made in interpoint map maker!

I.A.M.2-2.png
west trench
#

so, how exactly did the dead fleet survive the trip?

wheat ferry
#

Automated maintenance and repair protocols run by "awake" partitions of Iphigenia during her long rest + comp/con units, as well as the effectively limitless endurance of coldcore reactors at this scale.

#

They didn't fight their way here, they just drifted. (and not particularly accurately given how long it's taken)

west trench
#

i see

#

how many humans are really even alive at this point on board those ships

wheat ferry
#

Zero.

west trench
#

oh

#

jesus

wheat ferry
#

It's all corpses, illusions, and stage-play steps all the way down.

west trench
#

oh so ||achilles and ajax aren't even real guys????||

wheat ferry
#

||They are, but they're in on it, as it were||

#

one sec

wheat ferry
west trench
#

okay now i understand. Man my players are in for a trip with this

wheat ferry
#

Iphigenia doesn't want to, can't admit to herself what happened - that it's all her talking to herself about herself, as it were. That last self-imposed blinder only falls deep into cascade as everything else about herself is unravelling.

#

In theory, there are "people" in those chassis and hardsuits still, but they're poor homunculi reconstructed from records and neural implant/armor-connection history: they talk, they speak as they might have in life, they can act with initiative a comp/con or the like can't, but they're not alive, and they're certainly not the people who were

west trench
#

oh my god

#

so then i'm still reading ahead so i can try and understand, what exactly did happen to cause this

#

I'm not sure i understand the full picture just yet

wheat ferry
#

||During the Revolution, the gap-fill units of more dubious ideological reliability in the reconstructed 628th - as well as units formerly thought loyal as the revelation it was a one-way trip spread down the ranks + the spreading Revolution's successes itself - mutinied, attempting to seize control from the SecComm loyalists onboard.

The loyalists, losing badly, responded with murder-suicide: putting Iphigenia to sleep and using her command authority to turn off life support fleet-wide.||

#

The HA side mission resolution read-aloud is the preserved tableau of one of those battles, and there's also foreshadowing for it in places like the Gallipoli narrative encounter table

west trench
wheat ferry
#

The shutdown was an incomplete rush-job, so over the course of five centuries, little pieces of awareness manifested little pieces of the sleeping Her, and one ends up with, bit by bit, this situation

#

||of course, everyone's only really awake-awake now because HA tried to bring the Diana back online and woke Iphigenia up||

west trench
#

that is

#

so brutal holy shit

wheat ferry
#

There are few tragedies crueler than what the Dead Fleet did to itself; the majority of that rarefied category, they are attempting to inflict upon you.

west trench
#

god and there's not even really anyone left that can take responsibility for this

#

this is gonna hit so hard with my group because we just did a prologue where they were on Patrae in the hours before it burned

wheat ferry
#

I remember you talking about planning that! I hope it went well (and I'm glad to hear the oh no is doing its job)

west trench
#

we had some delays so session one was today and it went super well!

#

they were onboard a facility in the clouds of Patrae that was like city sized and things got real

#

we left off with them fighting to escape while the atmosphere is beginning to burn

#

they also had to deal with themselves and a ton of civilians nearly suffocating after the station got damaged and was losing oxygen

wheat ferry
#

hell yeah, good luck to them getting out.

granite crane
#

Next session for my players

#

Its mission two downtime time nyehehehehehehe

#

(tuesday can't come fast enough)

west trench
#

hell yeah

#

also had a funny moment where a player scanned one of the enemies and I said there wasn't a person inside and went "oh its an rpv!" (note: it was not an rpv)

wheat ferry
#

how can there be no one inside if it's not remotely piloted

:)

granite crane
#

I suppose it doesn't matter too much but i wonder which order the Downtime Missions would hit hardest

#

I feel like having the freelancer mission come last feels right to me

wheat ferry
#

Falling, falling, falling.

west trench
#

My group escaped Patrae and watched it burn from orbit today

#

Next week we jump into the actusl beginning of the module

wheat ferry
#

🎉
Good luck!

quartz cipher
#

So, quick question. I'm reading through the module before starting to run it and... am I missing something, or does Patrae being razed never seem to come up in the description of the back material?

Or is it on-screen and I'm just not there yet?

wheat ferry
quartz cipher
#

That's just it.

I don't see it anywhere in the description of what's happened in Choral or the different factions in charge. The faction descriptions each reference it, but unless it's this:

"The process only began tilting notably pro-Purview in the past ten years due to a spate of violent pirate and terrorist attacks in the local region, which Armory Colonial Legion forces and contracted mercenaries worked with the Choral Defense Forces in order to put down."

I don't see it being brought up anywhere through the major NPC descriptions. I could have an old draft, I suppose.

wheat ferry
#

Oh. That's because it happened less than a week ago - it's not really included in background setting description, which mostly stops about a month before the plot at most recent, because it is module plot (though it comes up a bit in talking about the attitudes of the Legionnaires)

#

Do you mean that you'd be interested in more context on the major NPCs' reaction to it specifically...? We're past final text and into layout at this point, but if people are interested in extra content on that sort of thing I can at least answer questions.

quartz cipher
#

Ah, okay - that's the sort of thing I'm working on sorting out. I'm just trying to work out what's happened when I bring the players in, since otherwise reading the events leading up to that talk about the outcomes of the attack, but never mention the attack ever happening. It looked like HA and the Union were in a standoff at the start, then I start reading about the effects on different groups of the attack.

wheat ferry
# quartz cipher Ah, okay - that's the sort of thing I'm working on sorting out. I'm just trying ...

Oh, understood! Yes, the timeline is effectively that HA and Union were in a standoff over the administrative oversight of the referendum votes and to prevent voter intimidation, then Iphigenia's fleet drifted in-system, a HA detachment was sent to check it out because they were the closest and best-armed for the task of the forces there, then Iphigenia woke up, the Dead Fleet mobilized onto a war footing, and the Burning of Patrae happened

quartz cipher
#

Okay. So having the news suddenly hitting the Omninet after the current mission as a "developing situation" type of thing is suitable.

What region is Choral supposed to be in? Digging through the Wiki, but as long as you're here there's no harm in asking. 🙂

wheat ferry
#

Altai line!

quartz cipher
#

So a good distance from the RML, but not the ass-end of nowhere that they couldn't reach in a timely manner, cool. Thanks!

granite crane
#

@wheat ferry Downtime 2 down

#

I am so tired

#

But so so worth it

#

My brain has that same sort of lead-filled feeling that my limbs have after hard work

#

The Players smashed their downtime rolls out of the park lmao

Screenshot_20260121-104232.png
#

So i gleefully got to show off every bit of prose that was on offer

#

And its crazy how well suited each mission ended up being for each player

#

The grizzled crazy soldier ||witnessed the aftermath of the civil war, and came away with the artillery shell, befitting his self-assigned moniker of a hand grenade||

#

The tech-savvy lawyer ||had his initial theory of homonculi more than confirmed in person, and came away with the Imprint of Oversight||

#

The tired old guardswoman ||witnessed the doomed desperate last stand of ignorant soldiers, and discovered the first moments of an old veteran's despair as she is forced back into service for a dead empire, and bore the shattered shield of a fallen soldier into the fight to come, honouring his loss by letting his equipment serve a while longer||

#

And the guilt stricken chemist, inheritor of a horrifying legacy, ||learned of the devastation her family's work carried out on dozens of worlds during the Diana's long absence, unable to undo what happened but taking solace in being the one to let the fallen return home. Being provided with tools by the UHB designed to counteract the vile agents so similar to the ones she had a hand in making||

#

Im just so glad i was finally able to tell these stories and so so glad that they landed so well

#

They've been percolating in my brain for nearly half a year now

#

During the Harrison Armory mission i ||genuinely struggled to keep it together, like, all my emotions were bubbling over and combined with my tired throat i think i put on a pretty good performance 😅 ||

#

||when the passage finished i deadass had to mute my mic for a few minutes and recollect myself||

granite crane
#

And the players are having a great time trying to put the timeline together

#

If i may though i think i have some questions/suggestions where the Side Missions might need to be made clearer

wheat ferry
#

I'm really happy things went over that well, for you and the players! Always puts a smile on my face.

Shoot with the questions, though.

granite crane
#

Augh discord notifications my betrayer

#

So, with the Union side mission, ||the players had some trouble understanding what the implications were of the amount of fuel taken and the handwritten message ||

#

||as well as the wording about party commissars ||

#

||is the intended implication of the prose that the 628th were undermanned in terms of the people in charge of maintaining loyalty to SecComm, and that combined with needing to combine remnants from a few different surviving fleets to make up the 628th lead to them not realising how many of the crew were sympathetic to the revolution?||

#

||and also that they weren't able to get enough fuel, and thus resigned themselves to the expedition being a one way trip?||

#

Then for the HA side mission, ||i think i myself got confused about this earlier on, it wasn't super clear to my players that Life Support had been turned off at that console||

#

||there was also the part about how TBK control was ripped away from Iphigenia's direct oversight, limited to autonomic processes||

#

||what happened there? Given that she's clearly still capable of using them, looking at Patrae||

wheat ferry
wheat ferry
granite crane
#

||what was the purpose of doing that?||

wheat ferry
granite crane
#

Riiiiight

#

So ||the fighting raged throughout the ship, but presumably concentrated in this TBK munition storage facility as its a key thing to fight for control over, the fighting looked hopeless so a Loyalist secures a terminal, blocks Iphigenia's awareness so she can't intervene, shuts her down and disables life support||

wheat ferry
# granite crane So ||the fighting raged throughout the ship, but presumably concentrated in this...

||Localized in two areas: her CIC and the TBK munitions storage, which the revolutionaries were trying to get into to assert control over the central magazines and the ship itself through Iphigenia. The loyalists used Iphigenia's authority from their control of her systems and casket - it's not from her, but it's using her system-level codes - to first cut areas out of her awareness of the ship so that she couldn't intervene while the process was being prepared, then sent the order to disable life support, counter-signed it at a separate high-priority console between the locations like a two-key system, and put her to sleep||

#

hopefully this makes any sense, it's both looking back at old writing and doing it while sick

granite crane
#

OOF

#

Get well soon hoss bcaCry1

wheat ferry
#

I expect I shall, it's just really goddamn annoying to keep getting sick at the worst possible times lmao

Thank you for the well-wishes!

granite crane
#

Yeahhh i feel you there

granite crane
#

I might be missing information that will be revealed later in mission 3 to provide context

#

I have read it i just have awful memory lmao

#

Im in that awful state as a storyteller where i want to let them figure it out organically but fighting the urge to fully spell it out tinygiggle

wheat ferry
#

nah, after checking myself in the draft I think that was a bit of a throwaway line I just Put In There because even I was like hm, what /did/ I mean by this when I wrote it

#

again, sick, but still

#

don't worry about it

granite crane
#

Am i forgetting somewhere else where the whole ||'glorious sacrifice' event is spelled out?||

wheat ferry
#

Nope, it's deliberately left as a background event - that was a specific decision

#

either you piece it together or you don't, simple as

granite crane
#

AkiSalute sound

#

The other thing i wanted to ask about was ||how best to let my players know about the Presenting Arguments to Iphigenia mechanic exists||

#

Because i've been pondering over that for a while ever since i read it and it was brought back to the forefront of my mind when one of my players ||asked if he could do a downtime action to see if he could discern any vulnerabilities that Iphigenia had||

#

I wanna make it ||not outright me telling them it exists, but i've no clue how to gently hint at the possibility||

wheat ferry
#

I think what I went with was something like much of what animates a warrior is their will to fight and go on - blade and bullet may not be your most powerful weapons against someone greater than either, but the players I've run for consistently have either not needed to skip parts of the fight in the first place or were just organically roleplaying, and then when I resolved the mechanic for the first time went "oh wait"

granite crane
#

That sounds perfect

#

Thank you again corrinslep

#

Next week is 3-1, and i still haven't made the map Pain

#

Im gonna have a busy weekend

wheat ferry
#

I may have a secret gift that'll come out before next week, since I did promise potentially playtesting maps in the spring. 🙂

granite crane
#

Looking forward to it!

scenic nova
#

in particular I'm wondering how wide the train should be for 3-1, as I have a Frundsburg and steichen playing

scenic nova
#

like is this what you imagined?

I.A.M.3-1.png
wheat ferry
#

Pretty much, albeit a bit narrower

smoky stream
#

So just gonna drop by and say I have a player that is using the haber and they are loving it. especially cause i threw a self replicating bio-swarm at them.

wheat ferry
#

Hell yeah, good to hear.

granite crane
#

Im only now realising that like, despite how grim and heartless the Mitcher already is

#

It has a disturbing amount of synergy with the Haber license pup

#

Whats worse than a walking biohazardous warcrime? A flying biohazardous warcrime

#

Seek/devour canister shot works really well mounted on the incendiary grenade launcher, halving 1 explosive and 2 burn is no cost at all

Screenshot_20260123-074526.png
#

And the perhaps clunky neurochemical cannon works far better combined with a frame that already has a heavy loading weapon in the license as well as a core power that boosts the effectiveness

Screenshot_20260123-074543.png
wheat ferry
#

They're cross-compatible for good reason! All part of the same logistics chain back in the day.

#

(the general idea with the Wonderland on the Haber is that you're running it with a heavy weapon like a HMG or such in the heavy slot (or the Krakatoa later) and are just dropping debuffs on people as a side goal)

granite crane
#

Makes sense!

#

Yeah when i say Clunky I don't mean that as disagreeing with its design

#

Its a very powerful effect if built into

bitter field
#

Hello! What's people's experience with the Spectre in playtests been?

I have a player who's thinking about taking it. As a GM, I don't see anything that concerns me in the sense of being OP, but a non-efficient core that relies on losing structure seems like it might not be that impactful?

wheat ferry
#

Hey! As the creator, I'll stay hands-off with this, but I'll put forward some of the private playtest feedback I've had with it: players find that it's one of the less impactful parts of the mech, but that the 1/Scene frame trait fills in to add power to the frame otherwise; as well, it's most powerful when in objective-based sitreps where the Spectre can sit on a point and pop core, especially in concert with abilities like Unsigned Instrument, to lock down the area (especially from low-HP enemies).

bitter field
#

yeah it seem like it might be a bit like the gilgamesh in that respect, where the actual core isn't the most amazing but it also basically gets a efficient core on top of that.

The 1/scene and 1/round look very solid, kind of remind me of a more defensively oriented Lich/Balor hybrid, esp with Fallen Mask too

wheat ferry
#

Indeed - when brainstorming it I wanted to ask what it took to make an active tank role in Lancer's design schema, one that actually did show up and take aggro and hits from its allies (as it were) instead of being more of a damage threat than the "DPS" (as many other "tanks" tend to be, as they're literally "pulling aggro" from another person at the table that then wants to kill them more than the squishier guys). The Spectre came out of that design philosophy.

granite crane
#

I have a player in my party who's piloting one for this run of IaM, i can confirm it's very good and impactful without being oppressive

#

The 1/round limit helps a lot with that

wheat ferry
wheat ferry
#

This month's Kickstarter backer update and art previews are up! As well, Eld's been on the map grindset, and I'm happy to say we have some absolutely superb Mission 3 maps for you all to playtest before release.

These'll be available until release (where final map access will be restricted to the appropriate paid tiers), but until then we're very interested in getting as much data to be able to refine these maps over the next months as we can.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zZFVwckyexyPW3sDQxegTMYfqg5E8oKe?usp=drive_link

solid jewel
#

That's my jestie

granite crane
#

Yesss lets gooo

#

I'll happily give these a whirl over the next few weeks and report back, im so hyped for this

timid sapphire
#

hell yeah

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just saw this

#

enjoy my maps

idle copper
#

Very confused by the effect on Mitscher's Cluster Bomblet Dispenser
"When attacking with this weapon, draw the Line 5 template from any point within this weapon’s Range. After the attack is resolved, the area under this template becomes Difficult Terrain until the end of your next turn."
I drew up a quick graphic to display part of my confusion. Black circle me, red circle enemy, black line line of sight for attack, red line the Line 5
Does the Line 5 have to entirely lie on the attack's "line", or can it veer off in another direction?
And does this Line 5 only create difficult terrain or do I also get to perform attacks on targets in that area?
Do I have to place the difficult terrain or can I choose not to?

image.png
#

Or does it basically work like this, where the actual attacks are based on the Line 5 area not really the range itself?
If so this weapon is actually sick as hell

image.png
#

wrong image

#

If it works like the last drawings does this pattern allow me to ignore cover basically?

image.png
wheat ferry
# idle copper Very confused by the effect on Mitscher's Cluster Bomblet Dispenser "When attack...

Some Line, Cone, Burst, and Blast attacks list a Range. In these cases, the attack's origin point can be drawn from a point within the range specified and line of sight. For example, an attack with Blast 2 and Range 10 would affect a Blast 2 area centered on any point within Range 10. (Lancer CRB, pg. 64)
The text of the Dispenser is kind of restating this for clarity - you draw the Line from any point in Range, and after the attack is resolved (including damage allocation, etc) the area which was under the template then becomes Difficult Terrain.

#

You do have to place the Difficult Terrain (it just happens, it's not a "may").

idle copper
#

awesome sauce, my opinion of the weapon is much higher now
excited to run a Mitscher for a few skirmishes soon

wheat ferry
#

Excellent, glad to hear it!

solid jewel
#

Line/cone weapons with ranges is one of those things that don't typically exist in first-party lancer, and what examples there are tend to very specifically state that directions of templates can't be changed (like throughbolt rounds if you use them on a cone weapon for example), but otherwise if something like that DID exist then by default it would work like what ash and gold is describing

idle copper
#

coolio
im actually so excited to run a mitscher
unfortunately the near-future thing will be like 95%+ combat
but in a campaign i can imagine so much cinematic stuff with an RPV size 3 gunship

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cinema

drifting harbor
wheat ferry
#

Very Large

scenic nova
#

thank you so much for the maps!

#

For those intersted in founry the maps work with:
Hex rows odd
background image scale 1
grid size 75
background offset x -37 y12

viral swift
#

I bought the module off itch a couple hours ago when I was looking through modules I wanted to run for my group after they go from tier 1 to tier 2. Ended up finding this, and I'm so fucking glad I did. This fucks. Now I'm at an impasse where I need to consider if I'd rather run this as the GM or pleadcake to one of my friends so they'd run it for me instead, lmao.

#

But, something I'd wanna bring to attention's the fact that if you bought the module off itch.io and end up paying the 18 bucks and decide later on that you'd want to give a little extra for when the map pack comes out properly, you'd have to pay $23 again on top of the $18, instead of being given the option to just pay 5 dollars more.

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I don't suppose there's someplace else I can pay for just the maps separate from the rest of the system?

wheat ferry
#

Ah, christ, I didn't realize itch would price it like that. I apologize.

viral swift
#

I didn't even realize that's how tiered purchases on itch worked. I doubt they're clear about it over on creators' end either.

wheat ferry
#

Not at all - after quickly glancing through the itch forums, it seems like this has been a known issue for awhile they don't have an alternative for or intend to fix.

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I can try, when they come out, also putting up another project for $5 that's just the map pack? That's probably the cleanest way to handle it, albeit even that's messy.

viral swift
#

It's not as elegant as it could be, but yeah, that works!

wheat ferry
#

So be it. I'll probably have that up either on release day or shortly after.

#

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

granite crane
#

What is the Dangerous Terrain (en) on 3-1, flavour wise

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Im picturing it as derelict chassis leaking fuel and sparking

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That was actually part of the design i was tinkering with, having the cover be made up of deactivated and derelict chassis and materiel

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Taking cover behind a hulking mech that suddenly roars to life and starts swinging

wheat ferry
#

Yup, that makes sense - volatile materials like transported fuel and ammo also sounds right

granite crane
idle copper
#

Who's the artist for Mitscher?

wheat ferry
idle copper
#

danke schon

timid sapphire
#

sorry, not used to this

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y'all didn't get to see it during testing for like, first party modules

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but it was a headache

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(i did test these on my end before posting them tho :P)

idle copper
#

haha i've heard about it lol

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I've gotten to making my maps inside Foundry itself

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using the drawing tool to draw haz/diff terrain, height changes, cover, ingress/deploy zones

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it's really pretty satisfying

fluid salmon
#

Goddddd yes I know this pain well @.@

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Glad ur work is paying off 🫡

granite crane
#

Uhmming and ahhing over how to arrange the initial opfor for 3-1

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My haber pilot no longer has the special payload mortar so im less paranoid about spacing lmao

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But im going back and forth about whether i split them evenly or slam them all together on one side

#

Currently i have them arranged like:
Left side:
||MBT, medic squad, witch||
Right side:
||Clademaster, pyro, AT squad||

#

The thinking being that the ||MBT and Witch can synergise well, the Witch hiding in cover behind the tank, while Chaining aggressive players that try to rush and flank the tank|| and ||the Clademaster stays well back (conspicuously close to the edge of the train heehoo) with approach discouraged by the slow Pyro and the tarpit AT squad||

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My worry is that if i split them like this, there'll be a defeat-in-detail far too quickly

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Exacerbated by if i split them less evenly

wheat ferry
#

Go with what speaks to your soul, I don't see any big issue with either deployment method

granite crane
#

Thank you for the vote of confidence 🙏 im really just spitballing while i impatiently wait for next tuesday to roll around lmao

timid sapphire
#

If you want to be mean you can also use a trick with the map by having the npcs ||use the movement from going off the train as a way to speed along the left side of the map to get to the center more quickly||

wheat ferry
#

||Trainboosting is a secret technique not to be applied lightly, use with caution||

granite crane
#

I did consider that lol

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What happens if the NPCs fully hit the left side of the map Thonk

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Maybe they come back in as reinforcements a round later lmao

wheat ferry
#

Huh, I could've sworn I had something in there for that, but I don't! I must've removed it for being jank.

granite crane
#

The Crusher gets em

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I was honestly expecting more NPCs with forced movement abilities

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I kind of like that there isn't though, bit of variation compared to 2-2 where that felt like a planned ambush site

wheat ferry
#

First thought off the top of my head is "make a structure check when you hit the back end of the map at the start of the NPC's turn after the first time it takes its turn off the train (so you don't get got immediately by getting knocked off the train on the left), keep doing it until you die or stop bashing into the map border"
but even that's janky so I can see why I removed anything explicit el mao

wheat ferry
granite crane
#

Thank god

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There's a bit of play with ||the MBT, the cataphract, and the Clademaster sorta||

wheat ferry
#

when in doubt: Ram

granite crane
#

True, though i'd be hard pressed to against this comp sadCat

#

Damn size 2maxxers

fluid salmon
#

Not necessarily less janky, mind, but might be a possible approach

wheat ferry
#

indeed, I think that was also part of the draft material for 3-1 that then got disappeared in concepting as well

we're in final text so I can't actually add any of this stuff, but so it goes

granite crane
#

yo @wheat ferry would this Squad still be ||biological for the purposes of Tech immunity?||

SPOILER_image.png
wheat ferry
#

Yup

#

everything that's marked explicitly non-Biological is subalterns, everything without Was People

granite crane
#

oh ough

granite crane
#

They're biological so balance control lockout/puppet systems etc don't work, Strength in Numbers makes them immune to ram, grapple, and knockback

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Ahhh, non tech save based forced movement like ferrous lash and PCP

wheat ferry
#

Yup

quartz cipher
#

I see the listing for the playtest maps for Mission 3, did I miss playtestr maps for 1/2?

wheat ferry
#

Those should already be available through itch.io for people who've purchased those; since we're currently in the process of making much better maps than my early module-playtest sketches, I haven't put them up elsewhere since they'll be replaced in a month or two.

quartz cipher
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Gotcha. I have the ones from Itch.io, was just checking to see if I was missing anything more finalized.

Didn't want to throw these into Inkarnate if I didn't have to. ^^()

#

Starting at LL8 instead of 6, would it be recommended that I jump about half the mechs (particularly Vets or Ultras) to Tier 3? My original plan had been to hold off until LL10-12, so everything would just be one tier ahead, but the story went elsewhere and I neede the Dead Fleet sooner. Want to keep the "we are so f'ing screwed" feel early on without actually making it a TPK.

Of course, my players do have a way of turning even the biggest mechs into one-shot-per-structure targets. Maybe throwing them in a couple LLs early will get the feeling right.

wheat ferry
#

Yeah, that seems about right (since they're going to be at LL9/T3 after Mission 1 anyway). Careful around multiattackers, otherwise everything's set.

#

You may want to give Iphi an extra Structure/Stress when you get to her, but you'll know if you have to when you get there.

quartz cipher
#

Yeah, I think Iphi having an activation for each of them will at least give her more of a shot at things. Usually what ends up happening is that they fastball special the Tokugawa into melee, and between an exposed Toku and a superheavy sniper it's kind of like dropping a target into a blender even with 3 activations, unless I go and string them together all at once. Going up to Iphi with Exposed is also known as an excellent way to die quickly with that reliable Burn.

wheat ferry
#

Indeed so - it's rough to balance Solo Boss but I'm hopeful it'll work out well.

quartz cipher
#

I'm just grateful that you didn't balance solo boss by introducing a dozen different field effects and special rules that need to change every Structure. ^^()

gentle flax
quartz cipher
#

However, I believe the AP damage the burn does would be.

gentle flax
#

Burn doesn't do ap damage. It's just burn, that's what it deals.

hearty mica
#

one of my players has respecced into a Spectre in my SotW campaign

#

very excited to see it in action

quartz cipher
#

Well, didn't. About the Exposed ultimately, at least not yet. When they first saw her, the Solomon/Ramesses threw up his hardlight barrier so they had time to figure out what to do.

Then the Sherman stepped outside the barrier to put his Ordnance weapons to use the next activation.

Unfortunately, that meant he was the only exposed target for 4/5 activations, and the first thing that happened was Iphigenia forcing him to fire his solidcore at the rest of the team. They were protected by the hardlight, but it was pretty much a masterclass in not sending your troops up one by one to get squished. He's currently praying the Solomon's overshields hold while he sits at 1 HP, and the Tokugawa just went into irreversible meltdown thanks to the near-vent.

Now, in their defense, this is me giving them the chance to play as the breach team that first encounters the Dead Fleet. But that also meant they got a front row seat to Patrae being wiped out, which I think had the appropriate impact on them. So I'm getting the effect I wanted (and a team that is INCREDIBLY annoyed by the sheer amount of burn immunity SecComm fields.)

wheat ferry
#

Oh hey, you did an early intro of "This Is How Fucked Up It's Gonna Get" for them to actually fight her way later. That's cool (and I'm glad it went well)

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... also yeah, Tokugawa is less unhappy about getting owned by burn damage than it is about the Worldkiller Horde™ going what's a Burn

granite crane
#

'fight fire with fire' isn't meant to be practical advice tinygiggle

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Bringing CBRN weaponry to fight The CBRN faction sadly doesn't work out too well

quartz cipher
# wheat ferry ... also yeah, Tokugawa is less unhappy about getting owned by burn damage than ...

That was basically the idea, yeah. I'm moving from A Wake Writ in Void, which is a relatively low-stakes incident with a space whale being attacked by some zealots, into Iphigenia. I've hinted at Iphigenia's existence previously, by having references come up when they've been dealing with paracausal stuff, but I wanted to make sure that I gave the Lancers a bit of a "okay, kiddos, playtime's over" moment that drove things home a little better than just telling them "this fleet can kill planets, and have tech that even Harrison doesn't use any more available to them." Having "Iphigenia" issue the launch orders from her "mech" and the team getting to watch on the viewscreen as the atmosphere is poisoned and fires visible from space are set on the planet's core - on a gas giant, where you can't see the core of the planet from space normally - kind of communicated what they were looking at for destructive potential.

And sending in a breach team with a Genghis and a Tokugawa against a defense squad of pyros, clademasters, and morozkos was, in retrospect, possibly a little more cruel than I intended, but iso far they actually did manage to deal a structure on Iphigenia, so they're certainly putting up a valiant fight on their way out. It's kind of funny watching the Genghis and Iphigenia trading AoE blasts and barely scratching each other, but she's got a backup plan. And, if all else fails, their prize for "winning" will just be that I take one of the frigates off the battlefield later as it getsd self-destructed to prevent capture. That's the annoying part about everybody on board being a bot except you, it's really not a moral quandary to consider with "do we blow up the ship with all our men on it?"

west trench
#

what have y'all been using for npc tokens?

granite crane
#

Using that for all the ground based npcs

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Then i used battlegroup tokens for the Ships in sitreps like 1-1 and 2-1

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If you have a nosy through this channel you'll see some custom tokens people have made for the Crowsworn,

scenic nova
#

Hi everyone made a quick jpg of the 3-3 encounter mechanics. I'm going to use it as a tile in my foundry game to mark which one is currently active.

SPOILER_I.a.M.3-3.encounter_mechanics.png
bitter field
#

@wheat ferry specifically regarding Only I's interaction with templated attacks: does that mean that the individual target moves (but not the template) or that templated attacks can't be retargeted at all? thanks!

wheat ferry
stuck bison
#

@wheat ferry yo does lesson of the fallen mask consider redirecting an attack via Only I as a canceled attack

wheat ferry
stuck bison
#

oh! i also forgot. here's my PC's spectre she's graduated into. named Seek Equilibrium

fiaspectre.png
bitter field
#

Only you is so fucking funny dude

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an operator just crit itself for 7 burn and 6 energy

wheat ferry
#

YOU SHOULD EXPLODE /NOW/

stuck bison
#

i love the spectre i love making guys do this

zenith jungle
#

It's time to run this shit!

wheat ferry
#

Hell yeah, good luck

granite crane
#

Got 3-1 started last Tuesday!! Things are going well!

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The Gilgamesh started combat by saying 'nah i dont think i'll be doing as much damage this go around' and then fired his battle rifle three times in a round into the MBT and promptly structured it, then stabbed it over and over with a superthermal blade and did the campaign's first NPC Stress check

#

I continue to be vexed by Asura pup

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The Spectre said 'fuck you' to the multi-tonne tank attempting to ram it over and just stasis locked, completely refusing to move

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And the poor pyro got yeeted off the side of the train, tanked the 'falling' damage with its three armor, and promptly ended up back on the train thanks to those sticky out bits on the test map

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3/6 rounds down

#

I think i might start piling on the reinforcements >:3

wheat ferry
#

It's hammer time.

granite crane
#

i think i'll have that dude arriving round 5 at the latest

west trench
#

Running this campaign over text has been a joy

quartz cipher
granite crane
#

So, a&g, my players want to know who wronged you so to inspire you to make Firewalker 2-1

#

My poor artillery player hit a 6d6+6 shot on him first round and it got deathcountered

#

You put the fear of god into them

wheat ferry
#

Players should scan bosses. 🙂

granite crane
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In her defence, half the team has a scanner range of 5

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Which is also technically because of you as you designed the frames they're using pup

wheat ferry
#

pfft

granite crane
#

Now i just need to work on tokens for ||Diomedes and Teucer||

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I think perhaps some feedback for the 3-1 map, Firewalker 2-1 had no trouble getting into range to start doing shenanigans even without the Hornet to get it schmooving

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And also, the 'push idiots off the train' gimmick sadly didn't come up too often because every opportunity my players had to do so was stymied by the NPCs instantly getting back on the train because of the sticky out bits of terrain

wheat ferry
#

📝 Excellent, thank you for the insight!

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Would you say it was too easy to get it into contact with the PCs or did it still work alright? If so, how many spaces do you think'd be fair?

granite crane
#

I think if he'd entered the fight any sooner than round 5 it'd be a problem

#

6 spaces in a turn is really fast, and he can do that twice a round

#

But if you expand the map length any further it might start to get a bit wacky

#

I think before i saw the testing maps i initially pictured it to be structured like an inversion of 1-2, the flight deck sitrep

#

Where the tank would sit at a fairly decent range lobbing shells at the PCs in cover

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Then if the players closed the distance to mess with it, exploiting the Ordinance tag, then they'd be extended super far forward, a perfect situation to deploy Firewalker 2-1

#

Then there'd be a scary dynamic as those extended players would scramble away as the big scary dude clomps towards them, smashing anyone too slow and seperating individuals from the pack with Mag Gauntlet

#

But there's not a lot of impetus to leave the holdout zone aside from to maybe harass the clademaster

#

This is my amateur perspective on map design though, from only one time running the sitrep

#

It may play vastly different with a squad of more mobile close range strikers

wheat ferry
#

No, any feedback is good feedback! Thank you for taking the time to write it out

idle copper
quartz cipher
#

In case anybody's interested - the Breach Team managed to beat the "commander" when she got in close enough for the Attilla to deloiver a mass payload of reality mines after her efforts to sweep the mines didn't go fast enough.

They then got a little speech congratulating them for capturing the ship, exalting SecComm's strength in its unity of purpose and drive, and telling them that they wouldn't gbet the chance to witnexs the fleet's power a second time. then the ship blew up.

I'm going to give the team an advantage going forward for having done so well against this in that the Sakharov will already be off the table at the start of Mission 1.But after three weeks of back-and-forth, it seemed like a good time to get to the main mission with the LL9 squad.

wheat ferry
#

Sounds good (and a good way to have a narrative reward without a mechanical one that could skew things, ha)

quartz cipher
#

Well, it is a mechanical award too, in that they don't have to think on their own of "oh, we should put the Gallipoli on course to smash the Sakharov" in order to minimize casualties. It takes the mixed end out of the... mix.

#

I think of that as a mechanical award, at least.

#

But glad to have authorial approval. 🙂

#

When the team does end up dealing more with Iphigenia, it's going to be interesting. Their first mission involved finding an NHP that had gone rogue and set itself up as a god before being "killed" by SecComm (but had a backup casket). That NHP is still with the team. It's going to be interesting to see how having a literal rebel NHP on one of the frames impacts Iphigenia when they first try using her ability to take over a mech.

quartz cipher
#

Also, does anybody know the offsets/hex sizes to line up the draft maps on Foundry? Just checking if anybody else has done the work before I put it in.

granite crane
#

The values are different for mission 3's maps but this should sort you

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If it gives you trouble make sure it isn't automatically re-linking height and width