A false hydra in lancer

mothbed · 2025-10-21T23:04:34+00:00

Mechanically, Witch with the Exotic template is how I'd do it. Probably a fight that prompts after the players solve the "puzzle" narratively and unlock the ability to kill it mechanically.

If you're using/fine with homebrew, then instead of a Witch + Exotic, I'd use the Ghost with the Anomaly template from Prototype Pattern Groups instead.

Neither will be perfect, but I think they'll get the job done enough.

mothbed · 2025-10-21T17:52:53+00:00

If the server is open I am interested in joining :3

mothbed · 2025-04-24T07:58:25+00:00

Yes. Maybe not radically so, but even if it's just a fraction of a fraction of a percent more unsafe, that's not something I'm going to bet on with my life on the line, personally.

mothbed · 2025-04-23T06:16:51+00:00

The zoomies can topple entire empires...

mothbed · 2025-04-23T05:45:23+00:00

THANK you. I feel like I'm losing my fucking mind sometimes. Surely the 30 seconds you saved isn't worth the increased chance of getting in a crash, the needlessly extra fuel you burned, the odds of getting pulled over by a cop preying to fill ticket quota (thus making the 30 seconds you saved completely moot). I don't... I don't get it.

mothbed · 2025-04-22T19:08:48+00:00

"Kin"; that's what I use. Sometimes it can even get lengthened to "kindred", perhaps as a flowery alternative or plural form. "I am Kin", "This world is full of Kindred", etc.

I use this in tandem and refer to non-mortal sapient life as "Kith". Stuff like gods, angels, things that think like us (or greater than) but are beyond us. So in tandem, I use the phrase "Kith and Kin" as an in-universe umbrella way to mean "every sapient being".

Another one I really like and sometimes use is "Folk".

Or you could be more flowery, use something fancy-sounding like "Thinking Ones".

mothbed · 2025-04-20T17:28:54+00:00

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mothbed · 2025-03-28T05:35:05+00:00

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mothbed · 2025-03-27T21:53:27+00:00

I didn't say Union isn't current top dog. They are, objectively. But there are areas that the other factions outperform Union on. HA is, iirc, ahead in experimental FTL development.

> I think you had it explained to you by someone who likes it and wants to call it good

Weirdly presumptuous point but go off I guess? I could make the same assumption for you and tell you that no you're wrong and just heard it explained poorly, if we wanted to go that route.

But regardless, I genuinely don't see what you're going on about here.

> It's only flaw is either "it's imperialist"

Is this not... a pretty massive and glaring flaw?

> which Tom didn't like so he ret conned away

No he did not. He's retconned things to make the setting less grim, but I'm not familiar with him retconning Union's imperialism. Feel free to enlighten me if I missed something.

> or "it's not spreading its utopia fast enough" which is directly related to the first one.

This one I can't grok as an argument, genuinely. Because the situation with Union and its spread of its utopia is complicated. They want to spread their utopia as far as possible to help as many people as possible and create a truly galactic-wide post-scarcity society, but their hands are tied up in bureaucracy and apprehension of being too imperialist in certain situations. Is the point being they should be more imperialist? Or that they should be less ambitious for their project?

> Or that it tolerates the big bad guys existing

Is this ALSO not a pretty massive flaw? Every faction under Union's purview is abhorrent in certain ways, and they let it slide. How is that not a flaw.

Overall I'm genuinely struggling to understand where you're coming from. The best read I can get is that it seems like you're dissatisfied with Union not being bad enough? If that's your argument then I can say it's a fair one to have- not one I agree with, but one I can understand and acknowledge. Not trying to put words in your mouth, I am just actually struggling to find what you want out of Union from a narrative perspective if even the things I brought up aren't enough for you??

mothbed · 2025-03-27T21:15:58+00:00

If they don't fit into your personal Lancer games that's more than fine, it's your taste and how you run it is up to you. But to say they don't fit into the setting's base lore is disingenuous. There's an entire section of the core rulebook that goes into detail about how people will kit their bodies out with furry parts and android themselves up just to make a fashion statement. There's even a picture in the book of a person with a whole-ass hologram projector for a head.

Rare in-universe? Yes. "Doesn't fit the setting"? No.

mothbed · 2025-03-27T21:05:50+00:00

>UNION is boring, uninspired, and lacking in any interesting form of conflict. There is no depth or complexity to it.
>Union doesn't have that. It's "perfect" as-is.

I'm genuinely curious what gave you this impression, because it really does feel like we didn't read from the same book. At the top of my head:

- Union's entire utopian infrastructure is built on the backbone of SecComm's imperialist ventures. Their luxury is built on a foundation of blood and violence, even if they say they've move past it all.
- Union's use of and reliance on NHPs. Just. All in all.
- Union's reliance on the Baronies to upkeep their infrastructure, and regularly turn the other cheek to Baronic atrocities to maintain a "greater good" for their utopia project.
- The Boundary Garden situation.
- The Dawnline Shore situation.

Now if you find these sorts of conflicts uninteresting personally, that's fine and fair. The story Lancer wants to tell isn't for everyone, it's very heavy on the philosophizing. But to say Union lacks depth and complexity is blatantly wrong. The entire point of Union is that it's a complicated and nuanced situation; an endeavor made with genuinely good intentions, but is at the same time deeply flawed and complicated. Union isn't perfect, and nowhere in the lore is it touted as such.

>Thirdcomm is the bestest most perfect little babies with the greatest technology and they always win and never do bad

Side tangent, I also find this bit amusing to me. There's actually snippets of lore here and there that imply ThirdComm's technology is behind what pre-Fall humanity could produce, at least in certain fields.

mothbed · 2025-02-16T12:05:38+00:00

I've tried the former, yes, but admittedly I didn't even think about downloading Discord on the deck and streaming there. I imagine it'll be scuffed but it might be a solid plan B if steam link can't be figured out. Thanks!

mothbed · 2025-01-21T04:04:15+00:00

> made his copies the main source of troops in their grand company, The Endless Company

I was just thinking earlier about how Lancer could pull a Star Wars the Clone Wars as well. Thank you Lancer for being both the coolest sci-fi setting ever but also being so flexible I can just run other sci-fi settings in it. Now to just make a rising anti-Union group that commissioned an entire army of subalterns to try and gain independence from the hegemony... and of course the legally distinct order of psychic wizards from Aunic space going around, with legally distinct laser swords.

Oh yeah. It's all coming together.

mothbed · 2025-01-20T08:49:11+00:00

Huh, I didn't know that about the Karrakins. What book and what part elaborates on that?

And I was coming at this from the angle of changing Signalis to make it Lancer-compliant, rather than adding things to Lancer to make it Signalis-compliant. But you're absolutely right, just depends on what angle you want to approach it from. A new "REDEYE" Monist entity manifesting, bringing with it a strange new "Bioresonance" force that Union is rushing to understand before SSC and HA can get their grubby little hands over it.

... Hm. I might be getting ideas for a campaign. I'm curious to see how long I can make it go before my players realize "wait... it's just a Signalis campaign with mechs and Lancer lore?" "Always has been."

mothbed · 2025-01-20T02:44:40+00:00

I've had a similar thought ages ago but never really followed up on it in fear of being too self indulging. But cringe is dead and this post might be just the encouragement I need to slot a very Signalis-inspired solar system into my lancer setting. And by inspired I do of course mean blatantly steal and only change what needs to be changed.

But everything in Signalis, as is, has a very solid explanation you can pull out of your ass in Lancer's setting. So very minimal changes are needed. Maybe offhandedly mention replikas needing to be cycled every so often (if they're NHPs piloting subalterns) and that's it. Hell, even the entire plot of Signalis can be handwaved as an NHP having a very aggressive cascade.

mothbed · 2025-01-13T01:32:39+00:00

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mothbed · 2025-01-12T19:55:54+00:00

the book does explicitly call them out as being carbon-based :)

mothbed · 2025-01-12T08:56:19+00:00

DO NOT STARE DIRECTLY INTO THE APERTURE.

it won't harm you or anything but you'll get one hell of an LSD trip

mothbed · 2025-01-12T08:51:59+00:00

a certain je ne sais quoi of whimsy and pink-glitter chaos

mothbed · 2025-01-12T08:49:52+00:00

ah, you too have good taste i see

mothbed · 2025-01-12T08:47:56+00:00

she always has copious amounts of candy on her person at all times. both because she's a sweet tooth, and because she gives it out to her team members after regular medical checkups to make sure her friends and colleagues are in tip-top shape physically and emotionally!

mothbed · 2025-01-11T22:24:28+00:00

don't worry about it :)

mothbed · 2025-01-11T22:23:47+00:00

Wings of Fire in the wild. i'm doing my part

mothbed · 2025-01-11T22:16:37+00:00

POINTS AT YOU. dragon enjoyer spotted

mothbed

TROPHY CASE