#The Siren Must Sing

37 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

ripe garden
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What happens when a core world fails?

The planet of Colboro was once one of the many shining jewels of Union, a world upon the cusp of utopia without need or want for any of its citizens. However after a devastating bombardment during the rebellion against the Second Committee, the surface of Colboro was rendered inhabitable. The survivors never gave up on the planet though and an incredible rebuilding effort was mounted, terraformers swarmed across the land and a new mega structure sized city was built to house the people waiting for the planet's rebirth.

But Colboro’s second chance never came as a terrible and strange plague broke out on the planet, and fearing its spread the whole world was placed under quarantine. Now the people live in a dystopian nightmare, with only the trappings of their promised utopia. Life has become hard, unfair and without hope for the brighter future that was promised. How will you survive in this wasteland of dreams? And can you discover the truth lurking beneath the shadows of the planet?

The Siren Must Sing is an in-development cyberpunk style campaign for the Lancer RPG system. The aim of this project is to explore a unique angle on the setting, a taste of life with the wondrous technologies of the future, tensions of trust with governance, and the twisted conspiracy that keeps everyone locked in their birdcage.

So far just the Players Guide to the setting and campaign is complete, with some additional city art to be added.
I am aiming for a 2027 release for the campaign book.

Itch: https://jim-gamemaster.itch.io/the-siren-must-sing

Title_Prototype.png
itch.io
The Siren Must Sing by Jim_Gamemaster

A campaign for the Lancer RPG system

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The Players Guide includes:

  • Four backgrounds for the campaign. The Returner, a lost soul trying to return to their roots. An Undercover Union agent trying to get to the bottom of this mess. A member of Administration over the planet, trying to survive away from their pampered home, or as an NHP left to rot after the failure of the rebirth.
  • Outlines of the optional starts and campaign styles which will be included in the main book. This is to help you and your players run the kind of game you want. Be a true down and out cyberpunk, a wastelander out in the world, or pivot and become a Mech Idol Star.
  • A description of the city of New Veros, its districts and the NHP’s that run each of them.
  • Three alt frames, the SSC Empress, the HORUS Mummy and the IPS-N Báthory.
  • An optional reserve ruleset for applying cybernetic or bio-organic augments to your pilot.

Plans for the main Campaign book include:

  • Mix and match missions, allowing you to tailor the setting and story to your designs.
  • 3D top down maps for each of the Sit-Reps.
  • New NPC templates, the Dragoon Squad, the Prismatic and the Tyrant.

In addition, with thanks to https://www.retrogrademinis.com, I’ll be kitbashing all the NPC tokens for the campaign and animating them.

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FAQ

**Will there be a playtest? ** Yes, as I run the game and work on the campaign I'm planning to release playtest packets to get feedback on balance/design etc.

celest cove
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oh cool

pearl mason
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@ripe garden Question on this, did you intend for this to be licensed under creative commons?

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I ask because I see it used my Lancer RPG Template, and it's kinda common for folks to accidentally license their own stuff under creative commons in the copyright section when they do so

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If it isn't intended I'd suggest removing that on future versions?

ripe garden
pearl mason
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otherwise, hell yeah

celest cove
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Love the alt frames btw
Bathory is an inspired name pick for a Vlad alt

ripe garden
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The Báthory went through the most changes during it's design, but I'm very happy with where it's landed now.

brisk onyx
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I just finishd up the Demo, and it's an incredibly cool setting. A blockaded cyberpunk world full of whacky NHPs is great. I'm really looking forward to the final project.

ripe garden
manic sonnet
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hey, a couple questions:

1 - do you want feedback on like... typos in the available document?

2 - will there be more GM-side info on the Vanishing because that is clearly some paracausal weirdness and I'm deeply curious

ripe garden
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As I start posting up the playtests though if GM's are desperate to know you can just ask me, lol.

manic sonnet
ripe garden
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Ah yes, I see how I missed that, lol

manic sonnet
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I'm guessing it's because it's All Fancy and thus something that was done in a layout/design/image editing software, rather than in something with a spellcheck

...I have had that exact thing happen to me. Multiple times.

ripe garden
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Correct, it's part of the logo image so I have to change the logo

manic sonnet
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page 15, the section on "Quarantine Home / Q-House, the first instance of Quarantine in that body paragraph is misspelled

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this isn't really a spelling thing, very much a personal opinion that can 100% be ignored:

On that same page 15, under resurgence is says that the "most bizzarre" part is the resurgence of the plague that makes body parts vanish.

Personally, I think the most bizzare bit is the vanishing in the first place. Compared to that, recurrence is kind of normal :p

ripe garden
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lol

manic sonnet
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also, in the symptoms, is it supposed to be "blocks" as in cubes, or "blotches" as in.... blotchy shapes?

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I'm like 90% sure you meant blocks as in cubes, but wanted to make sure

ripe garden
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Yes, it is blocks - part of why it's easy to identify you have it. At some point I want to get a commission what it looks like so it's clearer.

manic sonnet
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I am imagining a biological version of the Source Default Texture

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except green, obviously

ripe garden
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Kinda, yeah

manic sonnet
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I must say, the concept of the Vanishing as a way to enforce cyberpunk genre conceits is amazing

ripe garden
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Thanks, the setting started as just the quarantine, then I work shopped the aspects to bring it all together. In Lancer everyone has technically access to any kind of augment they'd like, but I wanted there to be a motivating factor why people on the planet embraced augments so much

manic sonnet
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I mentioned the concept to my equally lancer-brained housemate and he went "Ah, clearly you must go on a mission to the Meat Dimension to get everybody's arms back"

ripe garden
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LOL

manic sonnet
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New, very different, use for the term Hecatoncheires

ripe garden
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On updates, my artist friend is hard at work on doing what the city districts look like. Here's the look for the factory district:

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manic sonnet
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makes me think of the isometric shadowrun games (I say this as a positive association)

manic sonnet
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Beckon the Sacred Ground - "Additionally" is mis-spelled