#Blood Money: How to Run a Mercenary Campaign

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gilded ridge
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But doing so, it can be frustrating in some cases, like missing a few mannas to buy a Reserve, etc.

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I guess it's up to the feeling with the players .. ?

unreal coral
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my players very commonly spend small quantities of manna of their own volition

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its important to note that, per canon, 1 manna is like... 100 dollars or something lolol

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but they dont care

slow tundra
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you could split the difference, call out manna quantities in scenes to keep them real, but don't expect people to track it that finely

rare solar
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Really depends on how granular your table wants to be. This sort of minutia my players would hate xD

unreal coral
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but yeah its not uncommon for a player to be like "i slip him 5 manna" and im like yeah whatever

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its not something i ask for or advertise, i just let em have it

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if your players are into that kind of thing they will do it whether you say so or not

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if they arent into that kind of thing, you need not worry

gilded ridge
unreal coral
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yep!

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using manna to buy reserves and base upgrades makes sense in that schema because like

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naturally adding a facility to your state of the art military base will indeed cost millions of dollars

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but as you get into smaller scale stuff its fine to hand wave

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and to reiterate its equally fine to let players spend 5 manna here and there and just allow everyone to indulge in the cognitive dissonance

slow tundra
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if we assume $10/beer (.1 manna), that's like 50 beers. in a fancy bar with a lot of patrons that's almost realistic

unreal coral
gilded ridge
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I find it cool ^^ It does put things in perspective

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If you tell your player "the 2 mannas you just spent is buying a whole round and everyone around cheers you", that could indeed make them reflect on the real value of the big weapons and ammo they're buying, in the eyes of regular people

digital grail
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I was in a campaign that used the standard progression system but let us use manna for extra stuff (spaceship upgrades eventually).
During a gunfight that was quickly turning into urban warfare my character used his smartphone equivalent to hire a courier to deliver his anti-materiel rifle into the firefight. He watched this poor kid dawdle on the edge of the danger zone, then started aggressively pressing the "increase tip" arrow button until it reached at least 10 manna. With that motivation, the boy somehow arrived via vent with the rifle, within like three more minutes.
Point being, explicit funds for less concrete mechanical stuff can be very fun.

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We had more than a few attempts to determine how much a manna was worth, including if the "cup of coffee" metric in Long Rim is like drip coffee at home or a Starbucks drink.

naive forum
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Because this was quite literally a mechanic in that game, paying for on-the-spot gear delivery

digital grail
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Extensively. I beat the game with all three characters just for the bonus dialogue that each gets.

naive forum
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yeah that game fuckin owned

digital grail
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It did, but I don't recommend the above.

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That was where I learned what a bunker buster was

naive forum
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the sequel was whatever, but that first game was genuinely a lot of dumb fun, if distinctly tinged with a clear "this was made post 9/11" patina

stable hill
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It's also how it works in mgsv now that I think about it

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With that game's whole weird premise of 'heres an entire military industrial complex built to support this one guy '

naive forum
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"NATO invades North Korea after a charismatic dictator threatens to launch weapons of mass destruction, and you have to use the Deck of 52 from the Iraq War days to find all the bad guys and stop them by the power of the free market, because NATO is too bogged down in bureaucracy, and also the perfidious Chinese are there"

digital grail
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Yeah...

naive forum
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me looking back at that with the benefit of 20 years of hindsight: huh,

digital grail
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Also the Mafia is there to run guns. Not much else.

naive forum
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yeah that's who your delivery guys are, so basically you use your PDA to contact the russian mafia who then airdrops you a tank

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overall, I'm a big fan of "we need to get something shipped to us ASAP, just throw some money at the problem" for this sort of game

digital grail
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I actually forgot that they were your main merchant. I remember in a similar vein that the merchant in Just Cause 2 was just your boss using a shitty accent as a "disguise". Very similar mechanic except he won't let you order cluster munition strikes.

digital grail
naive forum
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Yeah the politics were basically very much Of The Day

ivory pasture
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Man since reading through this, my mind has been filled with nothing but thoughts on how a good baseline might look for structuring a conflict and it's factions. Realised the Armored Core series might be a good start.

I wish deeply that one of the other's in the group hadn't played Armored Core VI because mapping that game's plot to this supplement has had me dreaming big 😌🙏

odd star
ivory pasture
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Oh this sounds perfect, thanks for pointing me that way! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

unreal coral
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the campaign that inspired this book was something i started planning pretty much the second i finished AC6

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a game i was obsessed with for a while

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im glad that bleeds through to inspire others!

slow tundra
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even without having played AC6 (yet) it felt like a clear inspiration 😂

unreal coral
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a game so good it made me fire my therapist

ivory pasture
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My red pseudo-hivemind tulpa waifu is the only therapist I need

sharp tide
unreal coral
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lolol

zinc bolt
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Theres some onion article mentioning even a pacifist admits that the barret 50 is in fact a cool gun

unreal coral
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its been a long time,,,...

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i know i make this joke a lot but it really is like seeing an old girlfriend like your post

nocturne hare
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ooohh?

marsh drum
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lmao

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i hope you enjoy your 10bux.

unreal coral
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I'm sitting on it like smaug

unreal coral
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My very cool wife surprised me with a printed copy of my book!

PXL_20250801_211412382.jpg PXL_20250801_211421489.jpg PXL_20250801_211453595.jpg
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"good guys, you're up" being the thing that i say the most when i play, according to her perspective on the couch

remote python
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Nice!!

unreal coral
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Right behind "nevermind you actually can do that, sorry"

remote python
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lol

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Where did she get it printed?

unreal coral
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She got it printed at lulu dot com

remote python
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Ok cool

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I was looking at getting my book printed at lulu but I've been waiting for Typst to add bleed support

unreal coral
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It came out really well fwiw

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I have no complaints

remote python
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Did you set your doc up with bleed? Or is that a vanilla 8.5x11 page size?

nocturne hare
nocturne hare
digital grail
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In Rank 2 Reserves the Coolant Rig has a "1/scene" tag but the text starts with "Each time", is this a typo or does it activate only the first time each scene that the trigger is met?

unreal coral
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It should last until the next full rest and happen every time you get heat

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Thanks for catching that!

digital grail
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Thank you!

unreal coral
remote python
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Gotcha, that's great

untold peak
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im reading through the reserves for the shop in the book and I like them having limited tags that's neat but do they benefit from a characters Engineering HASE Stat?

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I finished the OWS game i was running recently and we've decided that blood money is the next thing we're going to play >:)

slow tundra
untold peak
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ah, thank

unreal coral
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yeah basically my intent was that the limited tags on these reserves exist separate from engineering

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but if you wanted it to count i dont think it would really break the game

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though if it does, please let me know lmao

untold peak
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there are reserves that have 1/round and limited 1 which is odd if that was the intent

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I think I will give it a shot honestly, if its horribly unbalanced I'll just say we're not doing that anymore at the next full repair

unreal coral
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i put the 1/round clause on those instances as a kind of.... emergency backup clause just in case

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im a big believer in PAAC and in letting players get extended use out of reserves beyond their stated time limit

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because thats something i often do in my game

untold peak
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PAAC?

unreal coral
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cant tell you how many times a player liked a reserve so much they asked to keep it permanently

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so the 1/round - limited 1 tags are in case anyone plays like me

unreal coral
untold peak
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ahhh got it

untold peak
unreal coral
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yep exactly

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basically i like to keep it flexible

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that said there are already a number of reserve tags that are flat out incorrect, a couple have been reported to me lol

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so if any of those seem odd to you please dont hesitate to reach out

untold peak
unreal coral
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i have a v1.0.3 typo fix draft in the works that ill probably release on the itch page soon and id like to have as many inconsistencies checked as possible

untold peak
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noted, the only two that ive seen it on so far are Molecular Whetstone and Living Particulate Nexus

unreal coral
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gotcha, yeah those are intentional

rare solar
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it might be better to write x/job over limited x?

unreal coral
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molecular whetstone quite literally being one of my in campaign examples of someone wanted more uses out of lol

unreal coral
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i might at least add a dev update on the itch page that goes over my thoughts on the matter of "limited" reserves

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cause i really do think itd be fine if ENG was taken into account

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im not too worried but its a fair question

untold peak
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x/job feels off. Jobs seem the most variable in terms of length

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compared to like 1/mission where they have a general length you can normally count on

unreal coral
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what i would do if i really wanted to enforce a hard cap would be to just make my own tag and explain what the tag means

untold peak
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fair

rare solar
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i made my bed, i gotta lie in it

unreal coral
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but dont overthink it if it does

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reserves can be broken, as a treat

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what you do is when the player asks if they can buy it again, simply increase the price lmao

slow tundra
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I guess one question is if any of them break things if you're seriously maxing your limited charges. IAF 6 Engi Gilgamesh, etc.

unreal coral
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yeah for sure

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the good news is that they go away at full rest anyway

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so you still have a ticking clock

signal cairn
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downloads lcp to check how much more pilot gear I get NeutralBlob

sees 50 fromg

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Oh man this is perfect

digital grail
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I originally found this specifically due to seeking out more pilot gear, then before giving up I saw pigsriot posting drafts of the pilot gear in the general third-party channel.

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It also satisfies my addiction to Reserves

unreal coral
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The pilot gear was my favorite stuff to make

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Very fun, i could have made another hundred

rare solar
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brainstorming a landing page

image.png
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it's not gonna look like this. This is just the logical containers i wanna make with Monk's Enhanced Journals

unreal coral
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this fucks!!

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i see the vision clearly

sturdy kelp
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So a question about the book, how did you make the strategic maps in the book?

unreal coral
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what i did was troll google earth for a couple interesting looking land masses

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smush em together

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then trace over em with photoshop

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i just kinda freestyled from there

sturdy kelp
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Alright, thank ya

unreal coral
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yw!

sturdy kelp
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Also I'm enjoying the book so far, getting a lot of ideas for my upcoming campaign.

unreal coral
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awesome, thank you!

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im happy youre enjoying it

ivory pasture
rare solar
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I'm hoping for 10-40 players xD

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im organizing a westmarch

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but this is to start imagining the logical containers for journals and stuff that i need to use to keep track of everything

stable hill
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Oh, I didn't even think of that, but yeah this is perfect for westmarches

odd star
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Hell yeah! Trad west march or open table?

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I forgot which

ivory pasture
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Absolutely peak idea, right there with Disinteger in missing how well this fits ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

On the note of running a westmarch, does anyone know of a solid read, video or guide of any kind that goes into how to do such a thing? Any attempts at searching the web have left me with the dregs of advice being passed around 🤔

odd star
ivory pasture
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Much appreciated! :D Not sure why I never found this ._.

odd star
rare solar
# odd star Hell yeah! Trad west march or open table?

Idk the name of things but the idea is rotating roster of GMs and players sorta just popping in and out as available. There's a slow moving narrative going on in the background, but the "main character" is the merc company itself

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then there's also the micro narratives of pilots and GMs as board members or directors or handlers or whatever

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honestly a lot of the framework im gonna do is applicable to a single regular lancer party just the same.

remote python
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A "West Marches" is a specific implementation of an open table campaign that's extremely player-drive (in terms of setting goals and scheduling sessions). I'd say what you're describing is a more standard open table

rare solar
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hmmmm i see it. the only player-driven thing here is the job board

odd star
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I only ask out of anticipation of one day seeing a traditional West March in Lancer haha

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It’s not always feasible though and what you have planned sounds excellent

ivory pasture
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Read through blog last night, this west marching thing sounds awesome. Like you say, imagining how a Lancer westmarches would look is a little difficult. Given the nature of Lancer as facilitating tales of human conflict, it doesn't immediately lend well to the idea of player driven objectives, especially not in any kind of wilderness 🧐

odd star
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Eh it can be done

stable hill
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doesn't interpoint run a westmarch style? idk if it's 'true' westmarch though

odd star
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It’s an open table, not true west march

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As long as the GM is scheduling and setting goals, it cannot be a True West March. Which is fine, it’s not lesser for it, it’s just that West March is a more specific categorization than many folks realize

remote python
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I don't necessarily think there is some virtue to running a"true West Marches" table over a regular open table. A regular open table just means that adventures and sessions are structured such that there doesn't need to be a consistent set of players present every week, so people can drop in and drop out at will and not feel like they're missing out, while the consistent players can get some value over following a long-term story and seeing how their actions and decisions affect the world

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I think the real appeal of an open table is the rotating band of players. West Marches puts a layer of between-session player-direction on top of that, which is great, but IMO is not necessary to get value out of an open table game, especially the kind that are part of regular public meetups

light helm
remote python
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Sure, I'm not disagreeing

stable hill
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this is perhaps the limitation of my own imagination, but getting a team of total strangers with no rapport to coordinate long-term objectives doesn't seem like it would go well

remote python
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It requires a community space

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I think it's my pet peeve when people conflate West Marches and more generalized open table games, which I think happens because that West Marches blog is many people's first introduction to the concept of an open table game, and the term "West Marches" feels memorable from a branding perspective

light helm
remote python
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The point is, you can have an open table game that isn't a True West Marches but still get many of the same benefits

remote python
stable hill
light helm
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Whether that was 1 person or 7. Usually a more reasonable number. The advantage of having a lot of PCs was that a bunch of them would flake out or not be able to make it on any given day but because there were a lot of them they usually had enough people

remote python
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Typically you either hand wave the return home, or do some sort of "return home" roll to see how well or poorly you were able to make it back

light helm
remote python
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An open table is just a series of one shots in a persistent world

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It doesn't even have to be exploring a wilderness hex map

light helm
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It was a single party travelling through the jungle and visiting locations. Session ends and we called it there. Next session had some of the same people. PCs who were present the previous session and not this one swapped out for baggage train guard duty

stable hill
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oh yeah that's pretty simple to do actually

light helm
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So e.g.
Session 1:
PCs on camera: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
PCs off camera doing guard duty: 6, 7
Session 2
PCs on camera: 2, 3, 6, 7
PCs off camera doing guard duty: 1, 4, 5

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They'd all coordinate on Slack where they wanted to go next and what they wanted to do, but it was a single party with majority rule

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Running around on this map

image.png image.png
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(first is the full map with political borders at the start of the campaign, second map is how much they had explored by episode 46)

unreal coral
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god damn i would absolutely love to run something like this

remote python
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I've had some ideas for open table campaigns that I would love to run for my local public meetup sometime

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Probably using Shadowdark

light helm
# unreal coral god damn i would absolutely love to run something like this

It was super fun! Aside from a few fixed elements like the coastline and bigger rivers the map was procedurally generated, and then while they were exploring there was a whole random procedural system for uncovering new things so as they explored they kept adding new adventure locations, fabled perfect campsites, etc.

And then there was a whole faction turn thing being run in the background using Stars without Number's rules. The fey in the north basically got devoured by the slivers before the PCs ever got to them. So when they did finally head north they were exploring ruined fey palaces filled with slivers instead of dealing diplomatically with the fey.

light helm
unreal coral
rare solar
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so for my open table thingy, im imagining 3 layers of story and interactions between them:

  • The meta-narrative conflict at large. The War™. Where are the factions are duking it out.
  • The board of directors of the merc company. This is the GMs as characters. They have more influence over the relationship with factions than most, being in the middle of everything. GMs can roleplay with or against each other outside of sessions! (Im wondering if the grand strategy game is a good idea here.. it's slows it down to like 1-2 move per week)
  • The Pilots. This is where traditional lancer storytelling takes place. Pilots interact with their handlers/directors and with the rest of the war on the battlefield
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Im hoping this pops up organically as players become involved

unreal coral
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i think this sounds incredibly dope

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i am in love with the idea of

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for lack of better terms

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"mech team coach simulator" campaigns, where players fill logistical roles

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thats the good shit

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or in this case the GMs

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i think it adds such a fun texture, especially to an open table like this

slow tundra
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faction games are always fascinating. but

"mech team coach simulator" campaigns, where players fill logistical roles
this makes me think of Band of Blades (Forged in the Dark where players take high-level roles like Commander and Quartermaster in downtime and zoom into individual grunts and specialists during "regular" play)

rare solar
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im finally reading the westmarch blog and there's definitely a massive focus on map exploration. Definitely not what im going for so yeah, it's an open-table campaign 💛

rare solar
slow tundra
# rare solar im finally reading the westmarch blog and there's definitely a massive focus on ...

maybe getting into roguelike vs roguelite style discourse, but I think that style of map exploration is more of an offshoot of a particular vein of OSR play (edit: as opposed to being a strict requirement of westmarch play, i.e. Westmarches exist on a continuum of open tables defined by player-instigated games). map crawls are good for a particular style of prep because you can both seed fixed, high-prep landmarks (e.g. dungeons) and low-prep random encounters.

rare solar
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im seeing it

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So.. given that the base-building and faction clocks are shared amongst the whole company, im gonna call it westmarch-lite-lite

stable hill
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but i could see something like 'opposing GMs add negative modifiers to your mission' or something like that being interesting

rare solar
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GMs sabotaging each other's ops because they personally dont like a faction xD

light helm
stable hill
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a player of mine has taken a xenopet and we've ended up with a giant, bioluminescent bird-of-paradise that can perfectly emulate the sounds of mech combat, exclusively does so at the most inopportune times, can hang off of vertical surfaces, and loves stealing shit

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so i just wanted to express my approval of that gear item lol

signal cairn
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Oh oh I had a player take Xenopet and it was a tiny rabbit named Monsit-BUN that could mimic words/sounds like a Lyrebird

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Really cute

unreal coral
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Both of those are amazing lmao

digital grail
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Has anyone so far seen a need to expand the shop's stock for extra players? Like if a standard party is 4 PCs should a couple more items be tossed in for a 5 PC party?

unreal coral
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that said i see 0 harm in increasing the size of your shop JIC. an extra rank 1 and rank 2 reserve is perfect fine, or even 2. only issue there is that players will spend even more of their money and come begging for harder jobs later!

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my only real hard suggestion is to keep your rank 3 exotic locked into just 1 per refresh

slow tundra
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simply have a mission reward to expand the size of the shop

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"Thanks for opening up that supply line, Lancer. I've got some new wares for you...now, whuddyoobuyin'?"

unreal coral
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Oh that's a great fuckin idea

slow tundra
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(if you want to just fully rip off video games, you could also give out shop rerolls, increase chance of ✨ high rarity ✨ items, etc. etc.)

digital grail
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I've been trying to figure out mechanics that would represent the players having at least some of the backing of a "proper" military force. I'm considering using the manna stipends method in this book to instead represent how much resources the party can request (they do explicitly get less support than grunts because they clearly need less).

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Something like "you each get this many points per Mission, sometimes I'll tell you that you can get more points or purchase opportunities during a Mission"

rare solar
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a faction-specific shop might be interesting

digital grail
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I had played around with the different bosses of the player faction giving different exotics (or exoticized versions of License gear) loosely tied to the Big Four before I realized the complexity and balance wonkiness that that led to.

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Faction-specific shop is more of my current idea

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Maybe instead of more ticks on a "Faction Representative Favor" leading to more exotics, the more measured approach would be to use the shop rules and give either more stipends or an expanded stock list for favor.

dim rose
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Just gotten the lcp its really well done pig love the comic style character you used

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Also that reminded me i never told you about the campaign setting i am running if you want to hear it i can gladly explain

stray sand
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Just dropping in here to say that the cover art is an amazing choice and that just is enough for me to like the book (i am on the second page)
one of my favorite older paintings 😄

unreal coral
unreal coral
unreal coral
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i knew the second i saw it that it was the right choice

rare solar
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i casually mentioned my open-table concept to some friends and now i have 2 new writers, 3 GMs and 6 new players.... I... I'm not even done designing the journal system

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I fear the day this snowballs out of control xD

unreal coral
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gratz!!

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lancer commune

dim rose
# unreal coral please do share, im very busy this week so i may not see it right away but feel ...

Sorry for the late reply got distracted but to a long story the basic concept is you are a merc group assigned to watch a section of the outer rim/frontier to make sure that the money spent in that section development isn't wasted from either the union, corporations or baronies of course your group is in the Grey area you are allowed to stop union, corporations or baronies from destroying said section until a proper core world is set up along with security

unreal coral
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sounds dope!

slow tundra
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That sounds a little like you'd end up as mercenary-auditors, and that's unironically a fresh and fun idea

upbeat knoll
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Wait why's Union included in the list of factions wasting money and destroying the section if the goal is making a core world

slow tundra
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could have a corrupt Union official siphoning funds, seccom remnants trying to rebuild, general incompetence...

light helm
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So Union's goal is to make a core world. Unfortunately, the person Union sent to execute that goal has other plans. And then you've got corprostates (which are part of Union) et al. involved as well complicating matters still further

dim rose
dim rose
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Of course not just the big wigs the group also has to stop there may be out of control experiments, rouge nhps, bandits/pirates, revolutionary or rioters, mafia gangs and finally any hostile wildlife it may sound like a lot but again its the wild west in space anything can go wrong

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Btw anyone is allowed to use our concept(its called frontier and fortune)for any of your campaign it was designed to be free formed so you can mix and match how ever you like so I can't wait to hear the crazy adventures of the good,the bad and the ugly of the frontier

twilit charm
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Speaking of things going wrong; we had a barony house (The Gilded Feather) whose been funding an criminal organisation called the Golden Marauders only to be raided by collective of mercs and strike teams from a different barony (The Jade Dragon) trying to apprehend them but then they got orbital bombarded by said organisation once our forces made their way in. It was the Golden Marauders’ way of cutting off loses and dead weight whilst dealing with us at the same time

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We also added a another barony who are the mysterious arbiters of barony law called the “Constellation of Judges” that enforce the laws made to allow baronies to prosper without doing questionable or illegal activities against others. One of main reasons they do is to stop conflicts arising and most certainly to prevent escalation to full on barony wars, the mere mention of their involvement will scare a higher position barony member since they know the implications of a Judge coming to visit their region of space

rare solar
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I'm having a lot of fun with an IPS-N faction speaking entirely in project manager voices where their vibe is rancid: recontact planet where these pesky locals getting annoyed at us mining their moons is getting really annoying

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"This whole war thing is really hampering with our team velocity"

"How many story points do you think it will take to clear out the mines of its.. current occupants"

slow tundra
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"we're looking for a tiger team of motivated problem solvers to help us acquire our competitor and acheive full vertical integration of our supply line"

rare solar
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"We got an SRQ only titled 'Moon's Haunted.' Do you think you can reach out the client to get some clear SMART goals?"

naive forum
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a lot of them are delivered in various flavors of corporat-ese

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not really buzzword-laden per se, but they're a great source for "a middle manager is telling you to go break a strike by killing everyone"

rare solar
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"I don't understand what's the hold up. We gave you enough bullets right?"

slow tundra
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on the plus side, I bet IPSN throws great pizza parties

rare solar
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"We need help!"

IPS-N: "Do we have a backlog ticket for that? We'll discuss it in the next sprint planning. This would mess up with our metrics."

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I hate them already

twilit charm
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Really makes version of them being basically Space Amazon fit perfectly together

twilit charm
unreal coral
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field team: FOX ACTUAL, WE'RE GETTING HEAVY FIRE FROM COORDINATES ECHO-SIX-NINER! WE NEED IMMEDIATE EVAC! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WE'RE GETTING ANNIHILATED

IPS-N support: [long pause as they review script] ...... uhuh, I understand. I'm sorry to hear about the inconvenience. Were you able to get the last four digits of your designation?

sturdy kelp
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"We cannot authorize a retreat at this time, valued associates. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause but hope you have a pleasant day. IPS-N wishes you safe travels."

unreal coral
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announcing for posterity that i just uploaded another typo fix, hopefully the last for a while. lot of reports from people here and elsewhere that was a huge help, most especially @light helm who went above and beyond to find a ton of inconsistencies. extremely grateful

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im sure i missed a few becausae they breed like insects but i will probably let them live forever in v1.0.3, imperfect little cracks of gold in my porcelain bowl

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wait that makes it sound like my toilet

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i was trying to sound cool i SWEAR i wasnt talking about my toilet

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oh god oh god discord how do i delete message, discord help

light helm
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I'm still planning on going through the rest now that I'm done travelling!

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Ah wait, you're planning on letting them be. Also good!

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But very happy to help 🙂

unreal coral
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I'm of course happy to get any further typo reports, i just might not be able to get to them for a while. Already got a fully booked autumn 😩

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The work never ends

languid basin
#

okay question at first glancing

#

im early in the reading so maybe this is gone over

#

has anyone found core powers easier to use, more consistent, more often, stronger, using the blood money rules?

languid basin
# languid basin has anyone found core powers easier to use, more consistent, more often, stronge...

to explain my thought process and why im asking

In base lancer it goes

Beat 1:

(Narrative <> Combat <> Rest <> Narrative <> Combat <> Rest <> Narrative <> Combat <> Rest)

The rests in the middle usually does not have the time to be a full rest to do a full repair where you get your core power back
this means that full strength core powers need to allocate when they use it during the full Beat, but efficient core powers are weaker but can be used every combat

But in Blood Money it goes

Operation

Job 1 ( Narrative <> Combat <> Rest)
Job 2 (Narrative <> Combat <> Rest)
Job 3 (Narrative <> Combat <> Rest)
it being seperate jobs seems to imply that there would be time to rest between those jobs, meaning core bonuses could come back between them, making core bonuses stronger and efficient core bonuses weaker

odd star
#

Nope

#

CP comes back on full repair

languid basin
#

yeah, thats correct

#

im not seeing anything that says it wouldnt be a full repair between jobs

odd star
#

It’s not

languid basin
#

am i missing that 😭 LMAO

odd star
#

The intent is do 3-4 jobs and then you get your LL and full repair

rare solar
#

the full repair comes every time you fill your Operation clock

languid basin
#

AH lol this is what i get for reading during a fatigue episode lmao

#

ty ty

#

appreciate it guys 💚

unreal coral
#

eleanor explained it perfectly but yeah just to reiterate, it helps if you replace the word "mission" in your head with "operation"

#

when the operation clock is filled, you get all the same stuff that happens at the end of a mission

languid basin
#

Yeah I was reading that pretty late at night during a chronic fatigue flare up

ivory pasture
#

So a friend of mine is going to be having his first shot at gming and will be using this supplement - in his premise, he had the genius to write the following:


Your own ship, your own ragtag first mission.```
#

I can't believe the word play was staring me in the face this whole time

rare solar
#

that's where the word comes from, actually

languid quarry
#

When the Lancers are free and Freelancing it in Union space

covert breach
#

@unreal coral before I do something not cool: are you okay with the creation of a Perchance page for the Job Forge?

unreal coral
#

whats perchance

covert breach
#

It's a site where you put a lot of lists and output random results based on those lists

unreal coral
#

oh yeah that sounds like itd be helpful

#

sure, go nuts

covert breach
#

There's a perchance for KTB factions and Longrim stations, but I don't use them because I'm pretty sure that they break copyright. But since we can communicate, I can get a better answer

unreal coral
#

i give you my blessing, legally and spiritually

#

just dont use it to commit evil

#

id also be curious to see the end result

covert breach
unreal coral
#

ahahaha sick!

#

love this

covert breach
#

I had everything ready put on the site, but I stopped for a moment considering the legality

unreal coral
#

appreciate it, that was thoughtful of you

#

this is very cool and i encourage its use

covert breach
#

Currently running a mercenary campaign

unreal coral
#

oh, just one note

covert breach
#

Using your book and ktb

unreal coral
#

not sure how possible this is in this program, but for locale you get two results, not just one

#

if you cant do it nbd, just thought id mention it

unreal coral
#

they pair well together

covert breach
unreal coral
#

in fact my entire blood money "playtest" such as it is is also largely dependent on the faction game in KTB

covert breach
#

Two locations are now being generated

unreal coral
#

awesome! great work

drowsy grotto
#

@unreal coral can I ask how do you envision the greater number of sitrep's effect on limited systems

unreal coral
#

Like for higher rank jobs?

drowsy grotto
#

yeah as in do you think limited systems are less effective because we might have more sitreps between full repairs

#

since an extreme example would be we can go up to 9 sitreps within an LL

#

and if we opt for the replenish limited system reserve, it means sacrificing long term progress in obtaining an exotic or other tactical advantages that a non-limited mech could conceivably obtain instead

rare solar
#

part of the gameplan is to have players obtains tons of reserves to prep for 3x rank 3 jobs

drowsy grotto
#

I see! My GM made a really cool mech I wanna try but that mech is an 'oops all limited' so I'm looking for guidance on how should I approach this

unreal coral
#

Yeah that's just a big risk with taking rank 2 or 3 jobs

#

The paycheck is good but the difficulty is high, and you could drain all your attrition if you get cocky

#

You need to plan ahead and make sure you don't bite off more than you can chew

drowsy grotto
#

but so far you haven't noticed any resource disparity between limited-bound mechs and normal mechs, I reckon?

unreal coral
#

Not particularly no, in my campaign the kidd player was big on limited systems and he did okay

#

He was good at scrounging up limited stuff when he needed to

drowsy grotto
#

That's a relief to hear, thank you

ivory pasture
#

wait so "Lancers" are named as such coming from "freelancers"? I was so convinced it was in the vein of the whole mechanised cavalry thing 🫠

rare solar
digital grail
languid basin
#

So I've been working on my concept for a blood money campaign that is a little atypical because it doesn't take place in a war zone

And doesn't just have two factions

Working name is "lancer-con"

languid basin
languid basin
# languid basin

I need to work on the ideas and polish them up a little bit more but here's the current working set

Screenshot_20251001_195738_Docs.jpg Screenshot_20251001_195810_Docs.jpg Screenshot_20251001_195818_Docs.jpg Screenshot_20251001_200010_Docs.jpg
unreal coral
stable hill
#

finally putting some stuff together for my Sanjak game, gotta figure out how to handle faction relations when it's 3 to one clock lol

Copy_of_ATTACK_ON_EVERGREEN_2.png
digital grail
#

I get that that's the point, but man I bet these folks love each other.

stable hill
#

what if instead of the mercenary fantasy you had the

leftist_infighting.png
drowsy grotto
#

I just noticed there are 3 types of prosthetic eyes

#

And 3 slots for pilot gears

#

Its morphing time

upbeat knoll
#

where does the third one go

unreal coral
#

if you want a third eye to open on your forehead and manifest the rinnegan then you are free to do so, i wont stand in your way

unreal coral
digital grail
upbeat knoll
#

Least socially progressive Lancer campaign

digital grail
#

A little, yeah, I didn't solidify the ideology of the baddies very well, since I didn't want to just put 20th century CE Fascism into the ~161th century CE. Things to work on next time.

somber sun
#

I was reading my copy and man I just want my main game to end cause then I could pair this with the TBD west marches like state of the system for some real good job boards

unreal coral
#

Hell yeah!

nimble parcel
#

found a minor bug with pilot suit stat calculation in comp/con, the evasion/speed are being added to the pilot's base instead of replacing

unreal coral
#

yes i know about that one

#

its something id like to fix but unfortunately any further blood money developments are far on the backburner for me, at least for a while

#

hopefully its not too intrusive!

somber sun
#

Im going to implement blood money for the interim between acts of Wallflower, should be fun

unreal coral
#

sick!

#

do let me know how it goes

nimble parcel
untold peak
#

@unreal coral I've got a question about how the prep stage for jobs works. so the book says its time to tweak their builds for the coming job.
I've interpretted that as they can change their systems, weapons, talents but not licenses. Buuuuut I have no idea how this works in relation to limited stuff. what does "tweaking their builds" actually mean?

unreal coral
#

Your first guess was right. They can move their build around using any gear they're already unlocked. GMS, licensed stuff, etc

#

It's when they can also take stored reserves out of storage

#

Basically if the brief you give them has any important information irt the kind of challenges they'd face then you can give them a chance to try to prepare accordingly

#

i don't think I'd allow someone to respec entirely unless they really really convinced me

stable hill
#

remind me, do you limit the number of reserves players can bring along on a mission? or is it just 'take whatever you want along, but if it isn't used it's lost'

zinc bolt
unreal coral
#

Mmmm Fair point. That did come up a few times and we usually had an amicabl negotiation for limited item stuff. Like if they swapped off hex grenade having only used half its charges onto asura, the asura gets no charges. We didnt have any solid process but it was kind of a "you know it when you see it" sort of deal. Broken weapons/systems i didnt let them swap out until they were repaired, the idea being that they were slagged

unreal coral
zinc bolt
unreal coral
#

Mhm exactly

languid basin
unreal coral
#

This is awesome! Can't wait to see it develop

#

Really cool format

untold peak
#

the Hud Im working on, I've seperated out the shop items and jobs to be separate peices so I can turn them into tiles on foundry and move them about. (Ill post the full thing together later).
Still a WIP I want to:

  • finish the contacts board (bottom left of the main HUD)
  • add a base (ship in this case) panel for upgrades and buildings
  • add an operation map
    The so called "low prep" way of running lancer VS my hubris
image.png image.png image.png
#

The assets are mostly taken from here :

#

I can share a link to the figma board im working on but I just gotta figure out how to make it viewer only 😅

stable hill
untold peak
#

noted

unreal coral
#

it makes me very happy seeing so many people employing dope ass job boards

unreal coral
#

woah!!!

#

blood money finally passed 500 sales last night

#

over 500 BMs. man. sounds like my usual saturday night MascHeckYeah

#

hahaha made myself laugh

#

folks thats what its all about

sharp tide
#

Hell yeah congrats

remote python
#

That's sick!

unreal coral
#

tyty

languid basin
unreal coral
#

sick!!

naive forum
#

That would put you at a DTRPG Gold tier seller

unreal coral
#

tyty

upbeat knoll
#

congrats!

Now I need to figure out how I want to make my job board.

Maybe I should use Canva...

stable hill
#

i find canva a lot easier to use than figma in general, yeah

unreal coral
#

im honestly so jealous of all these cool job boards

#

i gotta up my game!!!

ivory pasture
#

I've been taking the minimalist route and using a link to a Trello board - it's reasonably easy to upkeep with the tags and the link sits pinned for players to view as they see fit :> Also TLDraw; for more custom boardy stuff

rare solar
#

Making the company part of the merc company too realistic by making a Jira organization

#

ngl, mentioning trello just changed my perspective towards using the billions of work management tools that already exist

#

Amber Corps Q1 Quarterly Planning

upbeat knoll
#

MSMC Detachment 925 Kanban Board pain

#

how many story points is assassinating Baron Hugo von Blem worth

odd star
untold peak
#

Graphics for the base modules (individuals can be found in the figma link I posted prev)

image.png
untold peak
ivory pasture
#

I do all I can to avoid prepping for more than a couple hours at risk of getting bored of my own game @u@

ivory pasture
untold peak
#

:))))))

#

thank

#

I cant claim too much credit, most of the styling was done by Akira Yamamoto on figma im just mimicking the style on to different bits and peices to fill out my own needs

unreal coral
#

do let me know how your players build their base

#

the base options are far from balanced lmao like theres some obviously Correct© choices and then Goofy© choices

#

but i still wagered that many tables would opt more for goofy than correct

#

who can resist the bar

untold peak
#

Will do. From looking through them some of them feel incredible (salvage corps for example) and some of them feel very narrative dependent (legal department) but I don't think this is a bad thing at all.

#

I tagged a small thing onto the bar of "it will contain a jukebox that characters can submit songs to" to allow players to affect the background music while they're at the base :)

#

Thought it was neat but added the caveat of songs must have either no lyrics on non-english lyrics to not be too distracting

#

All in all I'm having wayyy to much of a good time designing this hud

unreal coral
#

thats such a great idea hahaha

zinc bolt
#

I'm in her game

#

I want to buy a medbay for narrative reasons

#

But also despite being pretty damn good

#

I do not want to get a green squad

#

Fuck that

#

I'm not having that rest on my conscience

#

In fact I despise blood money and especially pigsriot on a personal level for giving players that choice

#

/J

unreal coral
#

lmao

#

think of all the money youll earn

#

poor green squad

zinc bolt
#

Accountants can earn more reliable cash with much less casualties

#

I hope

zinc bolt
#

Wait, I kinda wanna do the maths on the green squad

zinc bolt
#

I just did the maths on the green squad module

#

Assuming you get 10000 Manna per Job tier, and ignoring reserves and reputation reward, here is the amount of time before the green squads payoff

image.png
#

I dunno the maths for how long it takes for how many operations it takes to repay, because IDK the maths for it so I just seperated Revolving door

#

I think it's safe to assume, if you have the green squad upgrade, you're doing it for the chance of reputation increases and reserves, not for the money... That and you have a lack of morals

unreal coral
#

lmfao this fucking RULES

#

if your table does end up getting the accountant upgrade, please have the accountants do a scene where they explain this to everyone

#

"its just not cost effective"

zinc bolt
#

@untold peak

#

I'm a humble player

unreal coral
#

the accountants all smoking cigarettes, sleeves rolled up, hair in disarray. "they bought WHAT?!?!"

zinc bolt
#

"It would cost us less to STOP the green squad hiring program and install a workshop!"

#

"That and the chief engineer will stop complaining about all the new everests they keep printing!"

atomic topaz
#

"We have these spreadsheets for a reason dammit!"

zinc bolt
#

There's a big excel doc printed with all of the cost benefits of all the potential upgrades for the coming quarter

unreal coral
#

utterly in love with the idea of accountants trying to rein in the average lancer party's spending habits

zinc bolt
#

All of the ship modules with Expected profit gain, with like the bar going into negatives but commennts about positive Morale , the workshop and salvage corps in the green talking about expected reduced number of shop purchases

atomic topaz
zinc bolt
#

The green squad module has a red highligghter crossing off the whole segmennt with a large

DON'T

in the costs to benefits section

unreal coral
#

"you need to demolish the bar and purchase the legal department module immediately."

"haha what? why?"

"listen to me. you need to demolish the bar and purchase the legal department module immmediately"

zinc bolt
#

I love the legal department, defence center and cloaking

#

Like, 80% of the campaign you will never need them (Apart from legal department)

#

But there's a chance you will REALLY need one of them

#

XCOM base defence style

unreal coral
#

having raided my players' base, when they saw those upgrades they were like "wow that sure woulda been nice"

zinc bolt
#

They're gonna be constantly in the back of my mind

unreal coral
#

i whooped their asses up and down those corridors, theyre lucky they had tear throat

zinc bolt
#

Giving me ideas... Have the XCOM 2 avenger defence mission as an actual sitrep... Not a job, your base is under attack and there's an object on the map that needs destroying like a big AA gun or ship jammer (our base is a ship), if you have the defence module get like, two allied immobile RPV archers

#

Or just... screw the RPV part

#

"Pick two NPC types, it can be ANY NPC class. In your deployment zone there will be that NPC type under your control with RPV without the impaired, and immune to ALL movement (including their own)"

#

The beserker turret

unreal coral
#

yeah!!!

#

the cloaking/base defense upgrades are big time "shoot the monk" kinda things. it wont be relevant until players actually have the discussion

#

the second they go "wait is that a threat?" thats when the GM starts planning

zinc bolt
#

My GM pointed it out to me that those modules exist

#

She already knows

#

we just need to pick up when it should be worth it

unreal coral
zinc bolt
#

Ideally, never

unreal coral
#

just keep your reputations up

zinc bolt
#

:>

unreal coral
#

im sure nobody will take your work personally

zinc bolt
#

I won't

#

That's the motto innit

#

"Damn, we're desperate for cash..."
"Yeah, fuck the corp job... Let's work for the Union against the Union busters"

unreal coral
#

what tipped it over for my players is they kept taking jobs against a certain faction and treating their liaison with disrespect

#

fast forward and they became the BBEG lmao

#

it uh escalated

zinc bolt
#

Cousins?

unreal coral
#

mhm

#

they kinda thought gg_uncle was a comic relief character and pushed his lieutenants around

zinc bolt
#

From what my GM has presented I won't be surprised if that happens with one faction in our game immediately crylaughing

unreal coral
#

they werent laughing when i kidnapped their company captain and shot their dropship pilot

#

cloaking measures? always a sound investment

#

suffice to say

zinc bolt
#

Just hope you got no rats

#

Simple as

unreal coral
#

oooooooooh thats an idea

zinc bolt
#

Like, It says it cannnot be founnd outside of being leaked. My mind goes to depending on what resources the faction has, if it has like sway... Spies and such, Or kidnapping staff/loved ones with a ransom of the base location is the only things that can leak it in my mind

#

Or... Minnd control esque shit if that's in your ggame

#

Quite powerful, but leaves you with your pants down if you gget caught

unreal coral
#

thats the thing about mercs

#

they can always be bought

zinc bolt
#

Oh the other choice

#

That

#

I'll give you a raise if you work for us

#

"deal"

unreal coral
#

especially if the merc outfit for the campaign in question is more grassroots than large org like mirrorsmoke

#

why work for this rinky dink outfit when i got a fat paycheck waiting for me on the other side? and all i have to do is give them coordinates?

#

easy choice.

untold peak
untold peak
#

I am genuinely so excited for my players to start constructing modules i have so many ideas for NPCs :))))

#

-# please get green squadren please get green squadren please get green squadren please get green squadren please get green squadren please get green squadren

zinc bolt
#

no

untold peak
#

it's fine I can convice the other players

zinc bolt
#

so can I

unreal coral
#

Let me be the first to welcome green squad and wish them a long and fruitful career 🫡

untold peak
#

Green squadren is dead, long live the green squadren

untold peak
#

base UI >:)
Im really happy with how this turned out

image.png
#

similarly with the operation map

image.png
zinc bolt
untold peak
#

?

odd star
#

North of Mark’s Graveyard is a place with Name

atomic topaz
# untold peak ?

One of the points (directly up from the Mark's Graveyard label, near the border) is just called "name"

untold peak
#

got it fixed

atomic topaz
#

This setup absolutely rips by the way

#

It's sick as fuck

odd star
#

It’s a nice change of pace, usually these places are “Place with No Name” or “horse with no name” or something

unreal coral
#

this is gorgeous!!!

#

your base layout is so cooooooooooooooool

#

the cowbwebs/ashtray fluff lmao

#

man i hope you guys make so much money

#

but i do wonder.....

#

no maybe its too hard

#

maybe your party isnt up to it

#

but maybe.....

#

if you guys manage to satisfy three Rank 3 jobs in a row, you will have beaten what my table calls "The Integra Challenge"

#

my own party has made the attempt and is on the cusp of satisfying it in their final operation, though it got a little messy in the end

#

since the final job has been uhhh 6 combats now?

#

but it follows batshit rules so who knows if it really counts

zinc bolt
#

The finale job has as many stars as the GM decrees

untold peak
untold peak
unreal coral
upbeat knoll
trail gate
#

I believe Snistle was referring to the Green Squad Barracks upgrade

teal kindle
#

Finally copped this, love it a lot. I would die for Bartholomew

unreal coral
#

awesome, thank you!!!

#

you dont have to die for bartholomew because he will be cowering safely behind cover at every violent engagement

zinc bolt
#

I had a devious idea for a campaign,, inspired by essentially being a blood money hack...

#

I had a thought of "what if Lancer but arc raiders" (after only playing arc raiders in the playtest). And I thought... Have it so there's a hex crawl where you need to actively go to the jobs locations. But more importantly, make the "more repairs, limited systems and core power" reserves in the shop are cheaper... And just REMOVE full repairs

unreal coral
#

would you believe me if i said i had a ton of notes on lancer as an extraction shooter lmao

odd star
rare solar
#

A really quick adaptation from Blood money i managed to incorporate into my games is having a Standard Reserve Budget for each mission and then letting players create opportunities, a la heist filler episode, to get additional resources.

My budget is 1 of each rank 1, 2, and 3 reserves per pilot

#

It's sort of a simulation of having money and averaging Jobs and stuff

unreal coral
#

thats dope!

unreal coral
# odd star Yeah there we go, pair it with some granular repairs/rests too

what i envision is much like Al described: you have a hex map where encounters are loosely pinned to areas, probably with the potential that they can move around as the game goes on. there would be fog of war, so players would have to scout as they traverse the terrain. id also mix in elements of the roguelike features me and my buddy have worked on in the past, so youd be scrounging around for "crates" of loot

sharp tide
unreal coral
#

thered be multiple competing teams split into two categories: chumps and rivals

#

chumps are guys you can fight, ambush, negotiate with, or team up with in strictly narrative scenes. engaging with them offers light rewards

#

rivals are tac combats and are much more serious threats

rare solar
#

Lancer but it's Civ

unreal coral
#

yeah honestly lol

#

one of the roadblocks i ran into was just how the "ai" of the chumps and rivals would operate vis a vis how they moved around on the map

#

i had a couple ideas but nothing with staying power

#

everything from having them be hidden tokens that the GM manipulated to 100% abstracted as random encounters

#

nothing quite had that je ne sais quoi

sharp tide
#

you could try taking a look at #1058448539522449449. there are some complex rules for a massive "tourney" where the players compete with npc teams to complete objectives on a map

unreal coral
#

oh sick

teal kindle
#

Hex flowers could be an interesting decision engine for that kind of thing. Random but behaviorally-tuned behavior

sharp tide
teal kindle
#

Also the people in here musing about using blood money for open tables is giving me dangerous thoughts

unreal coral
#

blood money's rules were made to be ripped out and used in dangeous ways

#

i flatly insist

zinc bolt
#

I think one thingg that can be really interesting in a Lancer extraction shooter which Lancer kkind of struggles to do but I also like that it struggles... Make retreatingg an option

#

A TPK won't be as bad as a DND TPK since you're still alive... but if you lose your mech... RIP back in the everest with you... Or something

unreal coral
#

it also makes defeat a lot easier to handle since the momentum of the story isnt quite so linear

zinc bolt
unreal coral
#

youre defeated, okay; you lose some loot and are forced to retreat, but maybe next time you fight that team you can get that loot back

odd star
#

Lancer would do well with some retreat rules in general yeah, those are part and parcel with picking fights

sharp tide
rare solar
odd star
#

“Uh oh this fucker’s out of our league, time to scoot”

rare solar
#

Trello boards are great

unreal coral
#

what thrills me about the idea of a lancer extraction shooter is seeing how player v rival relationships evolve

odd star
#

“Up for grabs”
“Claimed”
“Completed”
“Expired”

unreal coral
#

with several rival teams on the map, i want to see which ones stick and develop into true hatred

#

or mutual respect, or anything! thats the fun shit right there for me

#

its why getting rival "ai" nailed down is so important

#

its gotta feel right but also a little weighted to make sure you get a good story out of it

#

hex flowers is definitely interesting......

odd star
unreal coral
#

oh i dont envision this as pvp at all lol

#

itd be the player squad vs a bunch of NPCs roleplayed by moi

odd star
#

Got it, was thinking there might’ve been a setup with multiple player-made merc bands

unreal coral
#

i didnt have that in mind but that is a very intriguing idea

odd star
#

I think it’s deffo healthier to have 1 big merc band instead though

unreal coral
#

i see i think i might have misunderstood the core premise

#

all my notes are under the assumption of a closed table

#

all the same!

#

hex crawling, fog of war, random loot, theres juice here

odd star
#

Yeah that’s valid

zinc bolt
#

A map where you can setup new extraction/drop in locations

marsh drum
light helm
#

My regular game got cancelled last minute yesterday so I ran You Wouldn't Download A Boat and used the Job Forge to create their job.

The players had to steal the last known copy of some NSFW Project Management software from the ancient ruins of old New York. But twist, the area was an active warzone a la The Forever Winter with players trying to not get killed by hostile soldiers, mechs, and AI defence systems in the central library basement

#

Job Forge is a very versatile tool it turns out

stable hill
untold peak
#

yeah course one sec. Ill also throw my updates in there

untold peak
#

feel free to poke about. I have everything off of the main board as I turn them all into tiles in foundry so I can move stuff around on the fly

ivory pasture
light helm
ivory pasture
#

tysm!! 😅

unreal coral
ivory pasture
#

Have been experimenting with it to great success - the "pick two locations" column has been absolutely lovely ❤️‍🔥

rare solar
#

between blood money and blades in the dark, i feel so educated

unreal coral
#

Hahaha very cool

teal kindle
#

Out of curiosity did they hit you up about this or did you learn about it with the rest of us

unreal coral
#

Just found out today myself, my buddy is subbed to the patreon

gentle token
#

Does the mass battle system work outside of a mercenary context? I've been trying with a system for some time with the main focus being assigning allies to different objectives, but was never quite satisfied with it, so I'm hungry for a good, proper system

unreal coral
#

ofc, its not really tied to mercenaries in any way that matters

gentle token
#

Nice. I'll try to pick this up next paycheck then, it's been on the list and that bumps it up

unreal coral
#

sick!! thank you!

livid agate
#

Hello good people of Lancer, my husband made me do this

upbeat knoll
#

(first available job board for our campaign. SkillsFuture is a government upskilling scheme where we're from)

remote kernel
#

is the one job per operation phase mentioned in the book a hard limit for balance’s sake?

gentle token
rare solar
#

3 Jobs per Operation
1-3 combats per Job
is what that book suggests

gentle token
#

Blood Money has me wanting to run my Merc campaign again, trying to figure out how I'd adapt the first leg of the campaign

#

The gist was the players were a group of freelance mercs and after the intro mission, they were left to their own devices to take three outstanding jobs (which themselves had a "good bad and ugly" theme) in any order they chose

#

Introducing them to people for later; after the last one, there was a big HORUS attack and they were drafted to help evacuate the station, and were able to inherit a ship from someone that died to take the campaign elsewhere

#

And realizing now that the blurb I wrote works better with Blood Money, lol

#

#lancer-game-recruiting message

#

Also, two questions about how things are supposed to be done regarding the base system:

#

One, the brig allows for taking prisoners, but this is not elaborated on elsewhere. Are these supposed to be NPCs that stand down and surrender, or is something more specific supposed to be done?

#

Two, the omnimarket (I think) allows you to sell data anonymously, but besides how it might affect the approval of different factions, it doesn't say how one is supposed to do that.

#

A lot of minor base improvements are narratively open, but that one implies that something is being earned.

remote kernel
remote kernel
remote kernel
remote kernel
#

then you get to sell military secrets to other corporations like real big dick contractors do

gentle token
#

We know that the standard of side manna is accounting at 200m per job, so it would have to be more than that

remote kernel
#

sorry is that 200 million? idk where you’re getting that figure from

gentle token
#

My first instinct was that it was something like paydata in the Shadowrun Returns

remote kernel
#

seems to me that it ranges from 1k to 10k manna based on difficulty

gentle token
#

Lowercase m is manna

remote kernel
#

ohhhhhh

gentle token
#

Just like the book has it

remote kernel
#

i’d probably give 1-500 per scan depending on how dangerous the enemy is

#

one time only as well, maybe give another bonus for killing them and taking their black box

untold peak
#

My bastard players (affectionate) immediately bought the +1 available job offer upgrade. Which is great because I get to throw more cool jobs at them

#

But now I need to fix my Beautiful Ui

#

I could just make the jobs smaller ig but that's the cowards solution

livid agate
#

You made a whole UI??? Please let me see

#

All i did was slap some images onto canva

stable hill
livid agate
#

oh my stars

livid agate
ivory pasture
#

made a thing for tha mercs to use between sessions

image-27.jpg image-15.jpg
untold peak
#

Ooooooooouuughh

#

This fucks so severely

untold peak
ivory pasture
#

website yah, I fill things in then boot it up c:

#

glad you like it tho!

odd star
#

Nice and stately

stable hill
#

oh, wait it's the actual human earth date lmao

ivory pasture
ivory pasture
odd star
#

“Tomorrow, in your back yard” /joke

sharp tide
ivory pasture
#

One of my players has a particular type of humour 😎

#

will post repo when I'm home tho

#

taking suggestions

unreal coral
#

Very cool to see so many awesome UIs for job boards

ivory pasture
#

taking suggestions ofc bc is fun

stable hill
#

i have to admit, i'm glad i put off making my own ui elements for so long because there's a real embarrassment of riches i can steal from more talented people haha

upbeat knoll
#

this is neat, I'm stealing it

#

time to learn how to use javascript

#

can your players actually view it through port forwarding or whatever actually

ivory pasture
#

Lmk if there are any instructions that'd be useful to include

#

And please, steal and hack away - tis a community resource now ❤️‍🔥

ivory pasture
#

Added some images to the repo so it's a little more obvious what people are actually looking at ~u~

untold peak
#

!!!

#

You are wonderful! Thank you!

ivory pasture
#

Btw with this supplement using manna a lot more, anyone know if there exists an icon for manna as there does for dollars or pound sterling? (eg $ or £)

#

In case not, one of our players threw this together and I thought it was elegant enough to share

image.png
unreal coral
#

thats snazzy

#

i always use M

#

so an M with a strike through it

#

afiak theres nothing official, but i didnt look

naive forum
#

The M stands for Money

upbeat knoll
#

I'm adopting this

upbeat knoll
#

Has anyone had experience with players attempting Rank 3 jobs? I'm wondering how that looks like since taking a single one kinda makes it such that you have to do 5 combats in one Operation, minimum (though they can buy resource topups with their savings)

unreal coral
#

yeah my players made a play for the Integra Challenge in the last op of our campaign

#

ie doing three 3 star missions in a row

#

it was.... long.

#

but they understood the commitment and were okay with it

#

being level with players about how long it takes is paramount

#

"you arent going to gain LL for a few months"

upbeat knoll
#

Damn, how much reserves did they save for this one

unreal coral
#

they spent literally all their money on repairs/limited items, but it was the last op so it was a "smoke em if you got em" kinda thing

upbeat knoll
#

Yeah 9 combat operation is "yup we're done with our builds"

#

Or "yup, final boss up ahead"

unreal coral
#

one of them was the sugar daddy, he didnt spend any money the entire campaign

#

so he more or less bankrolled the entire op

upbeat knoll
#

HOLY MOLY

unreal coral
#

they won the challenge though

#

so they thought it was worth it

upbeat knoll
#

which Integra is this

unreal coral
#

ie they beat me in a way that was deeper than simply winning a combat

#

they beat my mind and spirit

upbeat knoll
#

If you've been saving the whole campaign for this, you deserve the win as a treat

unreal coral
#

agreed

livid agate
unreal coral
#

integra was an NPC in my campaign, she was the ace pilot of their merc company and shes the one who presented the challenge to them

#

she rolled in 3 star jobs and teased them about it a little so they were like "oh its on"

upbeat knoll
#

I don't think the Richard Dwight "Shrimp" Ford challenge has the same cachet

unreal coral
#

they werent interested in 3 star jobs until they hit LL7

#

at which point leveling up lost some of its excitement

livid agate
upbeat knoll
livid agate
#

TO BUILD CHARACTER

upbeat knoll
#

Yeah I can kinda see it, especially if you don't feel like actually playing T3 encounters

#

might as well stall out LL7 and LL8 while the mooks are still the same power

unreal coral
#

good play

#

but yeah

#

understanding the time investment and having enough money to bankroll your attrition are the two key aspects of doing 3 star jobs

#

therein lies the trick of blood money: baiting players with lucrative contracts that pay a ton of money

#

but which drain whatever money they already have just to survive

#

if you dont have that cushion in your bank account already? tsk tsk

upbeat knoll
#

I have a feeling that at LL2-3 the Level 3 jobs are gonna be window dressing

#

I really don't think my players are gonna trade "one whole LL" for "money and a pretty nice exotic"

#

Do you always pay out around 9000-10000 per Tier 3 job? Do you add any extras on that?

unreal coral
#

i always dangle an exotic at the end of a 3 star job, most of the bennies are narrative though

upbeat knoll
#

Ah, that's probably a good idea -- I should think of some wackadoodle stuff to toss into the T3s

unreal coral
#

to be perfectly transparent though

#

the main incentive my players had to take on 3 star jobs was bragging rights, and to rub my nose in it

#

we had a competitive relationship and that informed a lot of their decisions

upbeat knoll
#

That is fair. I'm expecting low take up on big long jobs till LL6+ when the gang has their builds together

unreal coral
#

that adds up, the vast majority of jobs my players took were 1 star

upbeat knoll
#

I think I might not want to run so many 2 star jobs on my board till later on then

unreal coral
#

thinking back on it, i probably didnt go hot and heavy with 3 star jobs until tier 2

#

for most of their time in tier 1, the average op would be three 1-star jobs, one 2-star job

#

or half and half of that

#

once they hit LL5 i had a steady flow of two 1-star, one 2-star, and one 3-star

#

then at their request a shit load of 3-stars at the end

#

i kept an open dialogue with them about what they were ready for and what they wanted, which is how the "integra challenge" came into being

upbeat knoll
#

I see, I think I'll keep the job roster stocked with mostly 1 stars with 1-2 2 stars and 1 3 star for the first couple of LLs

#

I know my players are pretty keen on getting their builds together before getting weird exotics

#

I better prepare for a swansong at LL4 before the tier jump though, they've definitely thought about that.

#

I don't think they'd be loaded enough for the Integra Challenge of course

rare solar
#

To counterpoint a bit, at LL0-LL1 where everyone has GMS frames, repcap and reserves economy is in their favor. It's waay cheaper to do rank 3 jobs then

unreal coral
#

lmao no joke

#

its no surprise my everest player was keenest on high star jobs

upbeat knoll
#

whoops, I'm only unleashing them on the playground after an LL1 linear mission rip

gentle token
#

Linear LL0 mission to start with, then piecemeal Merc system for a few LLs until they get full access after a plot thing might be how I adapt my mercenary campaign

#

I think the only part of the core rules I wish could be integrated into the Blood Money system is the Get Organized rules; it feels like several of the base modules could be represented with it

#

And the Get Organized groups are really fun IMO

zinc bolt
#

My number of TTRPGs per week has dropped to 1 and now I desperately want to run more games... I could run more lancer but I also had an idea...

#

I realised blood money is a good foundation and probably works quite well if implanted into other systems 🤔

unreal coral
#

hell yeah

odd star
zinc bolt
#

I desperately want to play pathfinder

#

But I could give mother ship a shout...

odd star
#

It’s dirt simple to run and easy to use job boards for

unreal coral
#

lmao it really is

#

you can run mothership in your sleep

#

i ALSO kinda been wanting to play pathfinder lately

rare solar
unreal coral
#

oh yeah?

#

this is not the first time ive seen war stories recommended

#

i gotta check it out

rare solar
#

it makes lancer feel (a tad overwhelming) with the amount of options and agency players have

#

truly, it feels like players are running the show

unreal coral
#

music to my ears

halcyon plaza
#

Man this stuff looks so cool damn shame I don't have the money to properly get it

slow tundra
#

if you play with friends you could hint hint it'd be a fun crimbus gift

ivory pasture
#

Or if they're interested, chip in together and it'll cost less than a mcdonalds :D

gentle token
#

I mean, depending on where you are, it’s already less than the cost of a McDonald’s

upbeat knoll
#

I think it was comparable to a Big Mac meal where I was

stable hill
#

i've had an interesting wrinkle that's probably made my job quite a bit easier

#

my original plan was for the players to be terrestrially based and part of an insurgent squadron basically, but one of my players said she wants to start a free company, which is kind of the perfect setup for the game. so it probably makes more sense to just stick them on a ship and run it more 'conventionally' now

stable hill
#

oh yeah, it's all coming together

Theater_overview.png
gilded ridge
#

Niiiice

#

Will you allow players to choose their theaters between these 4 ?

nimble barn
#

That looks so cool

stable hill
ivory pasture
#

Quick Q on Faction reputation - do people run these transparently to the players? My gut says that particularly low reputation is the kind of thing that should be inferred through in universe context clues and oddly lower pay.

#

Granted the reputation mechanics themselves ought to be known to players

rare solar
#

lancer is an open info game. plus, the party should know the effect completing or failing to complete a job will do to their rep

odd star
#

“Oh yeah the Redjacks are mad at you for stealing their customers on your last job, which is reflected in their relationship clock here”

#

“The customers you helped though, the Bluebelts, want to give you more jobs with better pay now, since you’re now this favored with them on their clock”

#

Though tbf you could also do away with clocks and instead be a sort of binary/trinary state of “hate you/indifferent/like you” informed by the current state of affairs

#

I.E. does the faction have a reason to (dis)trust you or not

ivory pasture
#

This all makes sense, ty for breakdown :D The actual movement of attitudes being made transparent is the key bit I needed I think

odd star
#

Like, I don’t know if you have to make a full-on set of visible clocks, but IMO changes in faction disposition should be reported along with the rest of a job’s consequences, and it should be relatively easy to report a current disposition when it comes up (e.g., when a player asks about it or does something where disposition matters and it should be disclosed)

#

Example:

  • player: “I’m gonna go to Fishie’s bar for my downtime action!”
  • GM: “Okay but that’s a Redjack joint, and they hate your guts after your last job. It’ll be Risky doing stuff in there. Still want to go there?”
stable hill
#

i think relationship clocks get a bit screwy where one of the parties has underhanded objectives in mind; this came up in the context of a personal rather than a faction relationship clock in sotw, but there was a situation where a 'high-rep' npc was basically stringing the party along

#

but in that context, having a systematized relationship that looks trustworthy but then isn't is also fine imo

rare solar
#

absolutely, but in the context of Blood Money, it's about the company's reputation. You certainly could keep track of individuals, but then you end up with a massive adjacency/correlation matrix

unreal coral
unreal coral
#

reputation as i conceived it is strictly professional. the rating you end up with is an abstraction of Their People© talking to Our People©, negotiating this or that fine print, and otherwise sending various threats thinly veiled through legalese

#

everything important is unspoken but clear to both parties

#

so like realistically the corp whose job you just botched wont straight up say "your reputation with us is flatlining"

#

as you said its probably done more through context clues

#

to make things simple for players i would still recommend just keeping the final rating transparent because players sometimes just dont pick up on that shit

slow tundra
#

it's like Uber: you know your rating is tanking with a faction because they stop giving you the courtesy five star review on iMercenary

teal kindle
#

the in-universe form that the faction reputation takes depends on what combination of marketing team, legal offices, bar, and/or accounting department the merc base has installed

ivory pasture
#

I may have stayed in the kitchen too long (ik the base systems are just testing stand ins)

image0.png image1.png image2.png image3.png
#

Ty to Eleonor for ideas ❤️‍🔥

#

will push to main repo when later :>

nimble barn
#

This shit is so fire that I'm catching on fire.

gilded ridge
#

Damn that's niiice

unreal coral
#

Siiick

rare solar
atomic topaz
ivory pasture
stable hill
ivory pasture
#

shieeeeeettttt this is what I get for not properly mirroring the repo 🫠

#

fixing rn woops

ivory pasture
#

tyvm for the catch (´･ω･`)

stable hill
#

thank you for fixing it! This is a real lifesaver, editing everything in a simple database sounds a lot more pleasant than dicking around in figma for 50 years

nimble barn
ivory pasture
nimble barn
#

They aren't actually. Aside from the login page, the others lead to 404 error pages

stable hill
#

specifically it's some of the screenshots on the github that seem to be broken

image.png
ivory pasture
#

Ohhhhhhhh

#

I think I might know why

#

Ty for the heads up 😅

ivory pasture
#

Fixed the images on the readme I think, ty again :>

#

Sorry for hijacking the thread to troubleshoot this btw, lmk if should delete anything to cleanup o7

nimble barn
#

Yeye is coolio

pale pumice
#

So is this job board able to be shared to players or is it local to my pc only?

#

As in the data and such

nimble parcel
#

You can run a nodejs command through git to host it, and then if you have an open port your players can connect

pale pumice
#

Thats something I'm not terribly familiar with, hopefully it wouldn't scare off players.

nimble parcel
#

It's easy on their end

#

Same process as connecting to foundry

#

Just a link to click

rare solar
#

there's an an unlimited and increasingly complicated ways to expose a website you're running locally. what are you using to expose foundry?

pale pumice
#

I use Forge

nimble parcel
#

There's a guide on the foundry website for port forwarding, if you follow it and edit the variable in one of the job board files to that port you open you can allow your players to click it when you're hosting through the method I mentioned earlier

#

Unfortunately I'm not at my pc and can't provide better instructions but it's not terribly difficult, just fiddly

pale pumice
#

Ok, I'll see what I can do later. Thanks for the help!

stable hill
#

i just ngrok'd mine and can confirm that works btw

ivory pasture
#

For myself, I exposed the port 3000 on 8080 on my router, then players connect using my local IP :>

nimble parcel
nimble parcel
stable hill
#

reverse proxy app that exposes your local server basically

zinc bolt
#

Question about the Holvenstot Kinetic shield pilot gear

#

WOuld it be out of the plausibility to easily turn it on or off easily... Like if you're in a fight and see a couple laser weapons firing do you just have to go "Oh shit" and hide for the scene or can you spend some time just turning it off???

#

End of the day it seems to be up to the GM I assume

unreal coral
#

yeah up to the GM is fair but fwiw, i see it as having an easy on/off switch

#

its lit just the shield from dune so take that as you will

zinc bolt
#

Yeah I was like

#

"This is the Dune shield"

unreal coral
#

the dune shield is called a Holtzman shield

#

and Holvenstot is a guy i went to high school with

#

it was a private little joke to myself

zinc bolt
#

Lmao

unreal coral
#

if memory serves, he was the one who introduced me to the strokes

#

it was 2003. i was a sophmore. reptilla had just come out and life would never be the same

#

note to self: more strokes references in next project

zinc bolt
#

True

#

Song names work wonders for everything

ivory pasture
#

So after spending the whole of yesterday and today working on it, I can now present my take on a

Unofficial Blood Money Companion

Featuring:

  • Operation, Pilot, Job and Faction tracking.
  • Base management.
  • Manna transaction history.
  • Job history, viewable from both Pilot and Faction perspective.
  • Live pages that update for all users when changed.
  • An "open-table" mode, allowing you to track individual pilot's Operation clocks.
  • ✨Colour schemes✨

Clone and use as you please here :>

image.png image.png image.png image.png image.png image.png image.png
sharp tide
#

Holy shit

ivory pasture
#

hyperfocus is one hell of a high

unreal coral
#

Holy shit!

#

This is so fuckin cooooool

atomic topaz
#

Oh man I can use this for all kinds of shit

#

This is sick

unreal coral
#

@ivory pasture do i have your permission to put this on the itch page? If so how would you like me to credit you

gilded ridge
#

Ooooh, I was just using it, writing some jobs :3
Time to update now, wouldn't miss the Pilots list !

ivory pasture
unreal coral
#

Cool, I'll add an update as soon as I'm at a computer

rare solar
#

stunning work dude

unreal coral
#

Seriously cool work, thanks for putting out such a useful tool

ivory pasture
#

was literally my pleasure, had a great time making this - very much still taking suggestions - another shoutout to @rare solar for proof reading my requirements doc and suggesting all the features to begin with :>

gentle token
#

It is a significant reason I have run three Lancer campaigns on roll20 over multiple years of my life and am just now getting into using Foundry despite owning a license the whole time

rare solar
#

using reverse proxy services like playit.gg and zrok definitely help a ton

#

I have it my future projects to actually expose my home server to the internet in the full enterprise way or whatever

stable hill
ivory pasture
#

f u c k

i forgot the shop

#

thank you for that, that'll be next update （゜ー゜）

#

On the note of available base upgrades and stuff, how does @unreal coral feel about me including stuff like reserves and base upgrades in the app? I felt iffy about it (and lazy) and just left the reserves and base upgrades as fully editable text fields for the GM to copy and paste stuff as the players select it.

gentle token
#

For the shop, I can already think that some sort of copy function so, if you typically have options always available, you don't need to recreate it every time

stable hill
#

oh, even if you just add it as lorem ipsum it should be fine, the hard part is getting the data structure set up

#

as for the upgrades, i specifically mean the sub-module upgrades that each of them can get

image.png
#

i guess you can just write them out in the description but it would look snazzier if it were properly supported tbh

ivory pasture
#

sounds good, ty for the exploration - will add to list :D

ivory pasture
gentle token
#

So, in Comp/Con, each encounter is a discrete entry filled with NPCs that you have already made; I make an NPC, I can put however many of those NPCs in an encounter, I can add different stuff to differentiate it, but I can also just quickly copy the encounter itself

#

That might be a good model for a store; creating entries based on rank, possibly pulling from existing reserves, but at least having them as discrete entries that can be used over and over again

ivory pasture
#

Ohhh I see, yeah will probably opt for shop items to be storable - something like a searchable grid of previously entered shop items couldn't hurt

gilded ridge
nimble barn
#

Another straight fire creation that sets me ablaze.

#

You have outdone yourself stebb

pale pumice
gentle token
rare solar
#

i know zrok would definitely work, but it requires a bit more setup

pale pumice
#

Any tips? I don’t know how to port forward and more importantly I don’t pay for the internet so I don’t want to expose my ip address.

rare solar
#

uhh, I dont but it's because im not good at teaching this stuff. the docs for zrok io are a lil too technical at times, but it will work for this, no port-forwarding required

#

after setup, i imagine you could do something like

zrok share public <local app port>

and it should spit out a url you can share

rigid hill
rare solar
#

ye, and stebbs board runs on 3000 by default iirc

#

so 30k for foundry, and 3k for job board. that's two separate tunnels

rigid hill
#

now i havent tried run two tunnels contemporaneously on it yet but i assume it's fairly doable

rare solar
#

ye ye, it's just two separate processes (or a single agent managing both)

#

playit also lets you do this. i used to run a skyrim coop server and foundry on the same machine

upbeat knoll
#

i should look up how to do this, I'm still an old fuddy duddy using zerotier

rare solar
#

if it works, it works

stable hill
#

idk about zrok but ngrok was pretty easy for me to figure out as a non-technical person

rigid hill
#

ngrok was cool until they limited their free tier more

#

ultimately what made me switch to zrok

stable hill
rigid hill
#

iirc the usage limit per month was lowered

#

to a number that was really unsustainable for foundry

stable hill
#

yeah i can definitely see it being a problem for something more multimedia-heavy

ivory pasture
#

I'll concede this is the first I'm learning of play.gg and zrok, I was going to suggest good ol' Hamachi 👀

#

(Hamachi is likely not particularly good)

rare solar
#

that too xD

past trellis
#

I recently bought blood money on itch and I have some questions/suggestions about .lcp functionality and balance, is pigsriot still looking or any input or no?

unreal coral
#

I'm not very interested in lcp functionality atm, but thank you for offering

unreal coral
#

Posted an update on the BM itch page, great work on the awesome content

gentle token
#

Is the lcp not at parity with the released pdf?

autumn prism
#

page 88

#

ranger station

#

theres a spelling error

#

on the enemy side it says "/drounday"

unreal coral
#

Lmao good catch

#

That typo will unfortunately live there forever, I'm probably not doing any more editing passes

#

There are others and some are worse but this project isn't something i wanna fiddle with anymore

autumn prism
#

fair

slow tundra
#

Drounday is the most fearsome enemy there is. They're notorious

autumn prism
#

Agreed

past trellis
unreal coral
#

sure, if you give me a list it might be something i look into later down the line for like an errata document

past trellis
#

#4 ORYX 990 Sir Field Revolver: range 5 damage 2 are the stats of a medium signature, I don't think it should have those stats AND the sidearm tag

#17 Crystal Lattice Sword: does 1 more damage than other melee weapons with the same tags like stun stick or medium A/C

#28 Combat knife: 2 damage is typical of a medium A/C, it should probably get one less damage or lose the sidearm tag

#29 Ganymede RDS009 Dual laser pistols: similar to the revolver and combat knife, stats of a medium signature, but with the sidearm tag

#31 Euanthe HDC11 Plasma Cannon: lacks ordinance, making it almost just an upgrade of the rhino SFP77 assault platform, not sure which one should change though

sage comet
#

Hello Thread -
I´ve made a Notion template to track a Blood Money campaign. Loosely inspired by other RPG campaign management templates, but Blood Money is unique / different enough that it could use a custom structure.

https://www.notion.so/Lancer-Blood-Money-Template-2dc293e104388066b3edd4cea0bbef01

Feedback appreciated 🙂

also - I did it as I was reading the book, so I re-used some of the examples to populate the databases with sample data (black moon and green flags, etc) as a convenient way to focus entirely on the data structure and not the content at all. If that´s a problem I can change the text and content.

Personal on Notion
Lancer Blood Money Template | Notion

Guide

unreal coral
unreal coral
#

Damn y'all are making some insanely cool shit

nimble barn
#

Really solidifies my opinion about Lancer having some of the best tools a GM could use to run their games.

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🙏

gilded ridge
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Definitely

gentle token
nimble barn
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Full Action. Expend all charges and make that amount of attacks with +1 Difficulty.

ivory pasture
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Just a note that I've changed transactions to be tied to pilots now - means you can now pay pilots individually, this is prep for sorting out a store later o7

unreal coral
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sick!

autumn prism
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is there any exchange rate from long rim manna and MB Manna

unreal coral
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there is not! i thought about it but decided to just keep the two cleanly separate

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BM and long rim dont intersect in any way

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but if youre clever i think itd be easy enough to fudge the numbers to make it work

gentle token
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I think someone on Reddit said that it's fairly easy by taking away or adding a digit

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While I really like the Long Rim manna system and ran a campaign that used it, Blood Money's system works well enough for a Merc game and giving incentives

autumn prism
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ill just cook up something

unreal coral
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do share your results!