#lancerrpg

[vexwerewolf]

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.

[gilgameshians]

Lancer people how do we feel about Lancaster LL1 Balor… I know people clown on Lancaster a lot for being the single most dedicated support in the game to the point it barely has mounts but I think the Cable Winch System would have a fun synergy with Balor’s whole shitwick especially for beefier targets — you are now stuck in Balor’s funny ride. forever.

[ips-northstar-official]

hey so i recently got a roommate SEKHMET and this asshole brought a bunch of Forge-2 Subalterns into our mansion, said they were friends or something, now for context; I'm an AGNI that uses a refurbished Genghis MK.1 as a body, and got employed at Karrakis as an engineer, so they built me a massive appropriately sized mansion because they found it fucking hilarious, but Steve (The SEKHMET, who uses a Blackbeard as a body) constantly complains to me, and even blames me for the fact that the Forge-2s cant reach countertops since they're human-sized and he said he's gonna install ladders and stairs and when i told him to not do that because itll ruin the entire look of the mansion and make it look like an industrial plant he threatened to kill me should i beat him to death in the kitchen when he least expects it with my bare hands or is there a way to painlessly convince this ASSHOLE that he cant just renovate MY mansion for a bunch of little freaks who might actually be illegal smugglers because i swear to god i keep seeing them stuffing something into my fridge but i never find anything out of place

I’M GONNA BE REAL WITH YOU CHIEF

WE SELL MECHS HERE

I KILL PIRATES

THERE ISN’T MUCH I CAN DO FOR YOU BUT I’M HAPPY FOR YOU

OR I’M SORRY THAT HAPPENED

IDK THIS SOUNDS LIKE A YOU THING

//[UNCLE]

[draculancer-flow]

They put lean in the Kobold's slag dispenser

[harrison-armory-incorporated]

You see i would buy the overcompensation argument if you werent also responsible for the barbarosa

Harrison II tried to type a response for this, gave up on the 5th retype and told us to send a hit squad to kill you but also to have the decency to tell you that you "Made a decent argument, unfortunately, Apocalypse Rail"

[tehepicduckeh]

thinking very much about the description for the technophile talent in lancer

like. the sheer amount of gender here is insane. i need an nhp shawty so bad

[jancer-lancer]

Remember, the most powerful status effect you can inflict is "dead".

[canonkiller]

world's most normal animals

(if you want to use my concepts in your ttrpg campaigns you should 1. ask me 2. update me on events like a little podcast 3. give me money about it. I also take commissions once my queue is cleared!)

[harleyklawz]

Transwomen driving their first IPS-Northstar mech be like

[zhjake]

Cover art for the upcoming Lancer supplement, Cyclopean Time

[vexwerewolf]

So Eris, a member of my writing team, informed me of a historical pirate custom where, when they were bored and had nothing to do, they'd hold mock trials for each other. They'd discuss their acts of piracy in lurid detail with an eye to how cool and awesome it was.

I felt that this was a perfect fit for the more lighthearted pirates in Calliope, so I threw in this little vignette:

[moiderahart]

"My take is that you can stop focusing on your issues if you empty enough ships."

My character BULLHEAD, and her IPS-N Caliban, the BAD TAKE.

[ips-northstar-official]

Hey there, I'm the pilot who called in a while back about my friend in the Enkidu with Mittens. I just wanted to thank you for setting me straight regarding that situation. I've since talked man to nhp with Mittens and turns out we both really enjoy flight sims and now when I'm not engaging in real missions with her, we're doubling up on some leisurely virtual bombing runs. As for my friend in the Enkidu, we managed to talk him into giving up the Tokugawa licenses and now he and Mittens pilot a Vlad, and while the sadism meter has only gone down a little, the vector for penetration based humor seems to have had a positive effect on both of their mental states.

Thanks again Intern! Give my best to UNCLE and thanks for being a friend in the unfriendly sea!

5/5 stars

I'm really glad that took a turn for the better! I was a little worried for Mittens and your pilot friend, but getting them out of the Enkidu was probably the right play. (And hey, contractually speaking I must applaud you on picking up a Vlad instead lmao)

Also UNCLE says hi!

--the Intern

[draculancer-flow]

I'm peakin' off these atomic edibles. She slapped my balls with a power knuckle. They can't handle how radioactive I am, makin' their Geiger counters cum. I'm the type of new kid on the block your crack dealer warned you about, and then I ate your crack dealer and fronted a brick to your grandma. This shit ain't nothing to me, man.

[harrison-armory-incorporated]

Hey, so i found this planet called Ragnarok, and they appear to be using some weird thing called a 'Hellforge' to make mechs, and one of their most popular mechs appears to be a modified Barbosa, calling it the Jötun, and they removed the apocalypse rail to allow it to have engines mounted on the back for it to charge at people. It has no ranged weapons and instead just uses a fist, and a Superheavy Axe, and they welded Depleted uranium to it, making it even slower than the Barbosa, but it can eat damage. Thoughts?

Thank you for your message; This message will be answered by the R&D department. We will be contacting the native population of this planet to offer a partnership program to market their creation as a joint effort while listing it as an official Harrison Armory mech.

[skycrimedraws]

Lancer pilot commission!

Isidora, callsign: Locust