edspear - Tumblr blog

[edspear]

Definitely adding these to my "Philosophical Musings Characters Smarter than Me Would Soliloquy" notes for my Lancer game.

why is it that we only have like two licenses from any mech producer that’s a good guy? For a game where like there are clear good and bad guys (even if who you play isn’t necessarily linked to that) it seems strange to me that the only loot and XP you get is… more benefits from the bad guys

I can tell you the answer, but to do so, we're gonna have to talk about a completely different TTRPG.

If you've read @makapatag's truly excellent Filipino martial arts TTRPG Gubat Banwa (and if you haven't, here it is), you may notice that every single character class description (with one notable exception) ends with one of these babies:

I am not Makapatag, and I cannot write with quite as much grace and eloquence as he can, but I will try:

If you choose to become a Lancer, ask yourself why you mock the name of peace with these weapons of war. You call yourself a saviour, but your steed was forged from the murder of a world. You stride across the sky in a colossus built in your own image, so why are you too cowardly to give it your face? Why do you believe these machines of death can preserve life?

It is important to note that the admonitions in Gubat Banwa are not just there to make you feel bad; they are there as legitimate questions. The Sword Isles have seen so much blood, death and tragedy. Wars are not glorious and killing is not a game. So, knowing all of that, why have you taken up this discipline - no matter how noble and virtuous it might claim to be - to shed more blood, to bring more death, to write more tragedy? What could possibly drive you to this? What need is so great that you must kill?

The thing with Gubat Banwa is that there are legitimate answers to these questions! There are bad people doing bad things, and some of them will not be stopped with words or kindness. Sometimes, as sorrowful as it is, killing is the correct choice to prevent greater suffering and deeper tragedy - but adding less misery and death to the world is still adding some amount of it. Even the most necessary wars will drench the ground in the blood of the innocent.

A sword is a tool meant to kill humans; while it can be used for other things, it is not well-suited to anything other than this. A mech is, in its most basic essence, just a very complicated sword: it's usually used on things larger than a person, but it's still a tool built to kill.

So why have you taken up this path? Humanity was saved from the brink of extinction and has created wondrous technologies like printers, cold fusion and mind-machine interface, and yet you use them to play soldier in a giant metal man. Why do you choose to take up this machine of death, built by the greedy and pitiless? Why do you think these machines can ever make things right?

Because sometimes, despite everything, they can.

Warhammer 40K shows an awful world full of monsters and monstrosity, and in the darkest moments of its history, Lancer's world looked just as bleak, but Lancer's world differs in one crucial way. Warhammer's world has long given up trying to be better, but Lancer's world never did. Lancer's world kept insisting a better world is possible, and it used what tools it had to make it so.

Sometimes the correct choice, no matter how bitter it may seem, is to kill someone. When you need to do this, a sword is a perfectly good choice for the job.

If you find yourself discomforted by the fact that all the people you can buy mechs from are corrupt and immoral - good! You have correctly engaged with the text. You have understood that the sort of people who would make giant walking death machines and sell them for profit are not good people. But you still have a job to do, and you need the correct tools, and those people have them.

Lancer is not a game about a perfect world - it is a game about a deeply flawed and imperfect one that does not let its imperfection stop it from trying. You have to try to make a better world, even with imperfect tools made by unpleasant people.

[edspear]

A small warlock for your troubles

[edspear]

Like the seal on the flag or coat of arms of a fantasy nation.

A scene from mythology.

Powerful.

speechless. the pose. the expression. this should be a painting.

[edspear]

Here they are all together! 💍✨ I have also officialy decided to make an artbook (or two) with all the characters! Hopefully it'll be printed and ready in summer!

Big thank you to all of you who reserved some of the originals. I'll send you the info and ship the drawings during next two weeks 💖

If there is someone still interested in getting some of the original drawings please let me know. These characters are left - Goldberry, Warg, Bard, Thorin, Ghan-burin-Ghan, Beorn, Roäc, Wormtongue.

The prices are from 50 to 80USD (shipping included). All the earnings will be sent to charities.

Thank you! 🌿

[edspear]

Such cool portraits done in a cool style. Browsing through old blogs I follow has been a bit of a trip.

Some stuff for a quest on /tg/.

[edspear]

This is so cool. I used to do this sort of thing all the time as a kid... albeit with little spaceships... all done in colored pencil. All these things are super cool.

I built a little paper craft Mecha. It was incredibly fun to build this little guy piece by piece. I am about to make a thousand more.

Original Sketch:

Drawing the pieces in Photoshop:

Glamour shots of my special little guy:

Look at my son.

[edspear]

Companion piece to Anime!Decima... Just going to town and eviscerating a baddie.

[edspear]

Cambrian critters are actually spaceships, their battles where epic.

Here an Anomalocaris cruiser is attacked by the hit and run tactics of an Opabinia.

[edspear]

Behold, 90's Animecima! Just a fun experiment in replicating a retro look. Leaned on Slayers for the hair. Maybe I'll do a full pose later.

[edspear]

design comm for a dental mage with seraphic elements

[edspear]

Decima face/emote. because I managed to take a picture of my weird cat make a weird face. (and someone else cropped it into good "reaction face" shape.

[edspear]

National Panasonic, R-72, Handgelenkradio “Toot-a-loop”, Japan, 1968. This radio was designed to be wrapped around the wrist. It also came with stickers to customize the product.

[edspear]

Amazing! Thank you so much! I love every visceral detail! Its always just such a delight to see Decima drawn, and you've also done just such a great job!

Decima for @edspear !! I love the idea of a Phyrexian Disney princess. She seems like such a sweetheart, albeit one with a few hidden blades.

[edspear]

Books & Treasures

A backlog of trinkets, united by half being books, and the other half being ... various et cetera!

The Utter Cretin's Guide to Phyrexian - Found in Scabetha's lab, and possibly part of her conversion process.

Tiara of Language Comprehension - Makes the previous item completely redundant.

Flower of Chivalry - Used to heal and knight a ghostly flameskull into being a good boy again.

Daughters of Graz'zt - Creepy demonlord's book of creepitude.

Sri Raji Saree - A cool outfit Decima got in Mastika, that she might need to keep on hand just incase of another berserker rage outfit destruction.

Tome of Martial Prowess - Really cool item Decima hasn't used yet. Could be used to gain feat, or some cool fighter things.

Thayan Tourbook - Is what it is, but it was fun to throw in.

Pit Scorpion Venom - Fun magic fact! Pit Scorpion was one of the first cards to deal in Poison Counters.

[edspear]

Ixiltix by @memento--moray /@Memento_Moray on discord.

Its quite the expressive little character design.

[edspear]

Bloomburrow is a ways off, but it was a fun excuse to animal-ify Decima. Granted I've done it before but that was Decima disguising herself as a harengon.

Mice feature pretty prominently in a certain princess story, so I figured it would be appropriate. Also Mice can also carry a highly infectious plague.

The alternative was maybe Frog, pretty to look at, but poisonous.

[edspear]

Trinkets of the Furnace

Another grouping of trinkets from the Witchlight campaign.

Furnace Dollbomb, has been hanging around for a while, just waiting to use her on something worthwhile.

Decima has finally regained her moral compass, and rather than it being the solution to her uncertainty, she now knows how bad of a phyrexian she's being when she doesn't compleat people and cull the weak. She also knows she doesn't feel too bad about being bad at being a phyrexian.... That feels worse.

The compass was found within the Obsidian Steed, a phyrexianized nightmare warhorse that was no help in a fight with a lady named Fistiana, at least until Decima got really mad at it/Urabrask/Argyle and took that anger out on the aforementioned Fistiana.

The Twicewrit Missive has been something Decima has had in her back pocket for a while... She's worried about sending it. And what sort of answer it will bring, with "No response" being her worst case scenario.