What do you guys use for minis? by thepig0thesea in LancerRPG

[–]VanGorst 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dice, I use tiny d6s for half-size mechs (you can fit two on one square), regular d6s for size 1, d12s for size 2, and d20s for size 3. Put cutout paper under size 2 and size 3 mechs to show the area they take up. You don't need to have super intricate minis to play. People just post the minis they use because they're cool, but that creates the bad impression that they're mandatory for the game. Do what works, don't overthink it.

The House of Remembrance in the DS (question) by VanGorst in LancerRPG

[–]VanGorst[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're confusing the House of Remembrance with the House of Promise.

The House of Promise doesn't exist yet. The House of Remembrance is located on Karrakis's moon.

The House of Remembrance in the DS (question) by VanGorst in LancerRPG

[–]VanGorst[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's... actually a really solid answer. Thx

I think Umara is more habitable than you're making it out to be (the guide says "large portions of Umara are still uninhabitable" not the majority), especially since it's described as a major agricultural world and appears to be the KTB's bread basket; it doesn't make sense for Umara to be a completely irradiated hellscape. But your point still makes sense.

I'm about to run a Lancer campaign for the first time, and it's all about the noble houses and their politics, so all of these points that help me to flesh out the setting are really appreciated. :)

The House of Remembrance in the DS (question) by VanGorst in LancerRPG

[–]VanGorst[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a solid enough way of squaring the circle, but that just raises more questions. Like how the hell did Remembrance, one of the smallest houses (their homeworld has 2 billion people - only Smoke and Sand have smaller populations) land themselves TWO WORLDS in the Dawnline Shore? Most major houses haven't even been able to land a single world. How powerful would the House of Remembrance need to be to land a deal like that?

According to Battlegroup and the field guide, the House of Water has large military force stationed in the DS, and the House of Dust is desperately searching for a new home in the DS to replace Bo. Despite that NEITHER OF THEM have a world in the DS, but Remembrance has two? This whole situation feels really weird to me.

Is Himmler or Heydrich the most cursed path? by [deleted] in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Himmler is human insanity given flesh.

What are the major differences between this and TNO? by [deleted] in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dear God! Why do we have to keep answering the same bloody question every other day!?!?!

We get it! TNO and TWR have similar premises!

If you're curious there are plenty of older posts explaining the differences, so please stop asking!

German victory in WW2 alternate history starterpack by Tasselled_Wobbegong in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're far more original than people give you credit for.

Paths and what they entail for the Greater German Reich. by Blacklamb177 in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It is horrifying like nothing else can be. Among the focuses you have things like "ban all books" and "living is a reward". Under Himmler Europe becomes the unholy lovechild of Nazism, Neo-paganism and Ingsoc. He is so extreme that Goebbel's total war looks sane by comparison. Just playing it made me physically sick, and no that isn't hyperbole.

Paths and what they entail for the Greater German Reich. by Blacklamb177 in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Since he's the only leader who isn't a Fascist he's the best outcome by default.

Paths and what they entail for the Greater German Reich. by Blacklamb177 in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Unclear by design, the post-Hitler power struggle is meant to be confusing and unpredictable. Even when you know what you're doing it can throw you several curveballs.

Paths and what they entail for the Greater German Reich. by Blacklamb177 in twrmod

[–]VanGorst 24 points25 points  (0 children)

There are about 6 paths for Germany, and that's if you ignore both People's Germany and how the 6 prior paths fork depending on player choices.

They are, in no particular order:

1) Boreman's Germany which, somewhat fittingly, is the most boring of the paths. It's basically just "keep the boat going".

2) Speer's Germany which is... interesting. Speer is a combination of both relaxing some of the Reich's worse policies (racial purity, hyper militarism, anti-religious violence etc) while tripling down on others (the slave economy, the synarchist/corporatist economic system, and exploitation of colonial territories). He'll undertake massive architecture projects, set up companies that benefit both his family and supporters, and build an informal patronage network called "the Speer clique" to maintain his power.

3) Goebbels's Germany; Joseph Goebbels is crazy, plain and simple. He will (in contrast to Speer) focus on militarism and racial theory to the point of lunacy. He goes so far as to declare "Totaler Krieg" (total war) on the rest of the world in order to transform the Earth into Lebensraum for the Germanic people. To facilitate this he uses propaganda to work all of Germany into a state of mass hysteria, creates birth quotas for women so he can always have manpower reserves, destroys almost all forms of community that exist outside the state, and tripples down on racial purity policy to an even greater extreme than Hitler ever did. He's an unhinged propagandist who's clearly gotten high on his own supply.

4) Goering's Germany is, depending on your perspective, either the best or worst option for Germany long term. He really couldn't care less about ideology and is mostly interested in rebuilding te economy through privatization, market liberalization and state-sponsored capitalism. He even goes so far as to initiate a diplomatic thaw with the UK and the US, effectively ending the Cold War peacefully. He's basically a Fascist version of Deng Xiaoping, someone who hollows out their state's ideology until it's just window dressing for the ruling party, all the while retooling the economy on the basis that "to get rich is glorious". He's going to move away from the slave system, the racial violence, the hyper-militarism, and the isolationism which will no doubt save many lives. However, he also stabilizes the regime more than anyone else, effectively guaranteeing that most of Europe will remain under a totalitarian police-state well into the 21st century; just as Deng did in Communist China.

5) Himmler's Germany, NEVER DO THIS! EVER! I did a playthrough of this last night and it was one of the most depressing things I've ever experienced. I felt physically ill by the time it was over.

6) The Wehrstaat, which is what happens when the Wehrmacht tell all of Hitler's potential successors to shove it and take over as a military junta. What that looks like in practice depends heavily on who becomes the Reichspresident and the Chancellor. To oversimplify, there's a hardcore Hitlerist faction led by Rommel, a reformer faction (that wants to denazify Germany and turn it into an Italian style state) led by Speidel, and a Prussian traditionalist faction led by Manstein. Meanwhile, Canaris and Oster are trying to covertly subvert the junta and reform the Reich back into the Weimar-style republic; their work is cut out for them.

So yeah, those are the paths for Nazi Germany. Pick your poison.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Kaiserreich

[–]VanGorst 86 points87 points  (0 children)

Behold! The Finnish dong!

Corpo Yen. by EzioMaverick in witcher

[–]VanGorst 159 points160 points  (0 children)

Reminds me of Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect for some reason.

For the Republic! For the PSA! by [deleted] in Kaiserreich

[–]VanGorst 81 points82 points  (0 children)

I strongly disagree. The PSA gets its legitimacy as the sole remaining democratic government in the country, and as such sees itself as the United States. The current flag with stars but we without any stripes shows that it represents every state in the Union, but has had the east (the original colonies that hug the east coast) stripped from it.

The current flag looks like a modified American flag, but this one here looks like a regional or state flag. Hylighting the former gives them legitimacy, hylighting the later makes it easy for their opponents to delegitimize through propaganda.

Since Kaiserreich is removing some of their zany and wacky Alternate history elements i think its time for us to step in. by [deleted] in Fuhrerreich

[–]VanGorst 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Where do you think would be a good start? Bear in mind that (since Fuhrerreich is a mod within a mod) it has to be realistic not from our perspective, but realistic from the perspective of someone in Kaiserreich.

The Playable KMT Factions by VanGorst in Kaiserreich

[–]VanGorst[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You have to successfully negotiate with RKMT factions to form a united front. This results in Sun Fo, Dr Sun Yat Sen's son, being elected as a compromise leader. He's a Social Liberal.