War Bad Robot Cool Let's Play LancerRPG!

Introduction:
Hello I’m Jenner of the Untitled Gaming Group (unofficial name), GM of past tabletop LPs of Ryuutama, Monsterhearts II, Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, and Blades In The Dark as well as a player in Dragon Ball Z FATE and Henshin! A Sentai RPG and I’m here again with yet another tabletop RPG LP only this time the Untitled Gaming Group (unofficial name) (comprised of @heyboots, @LoakaMossi, @Fefnir, @Breadmaster, @Lyrewulf, and myself (@Jenner)) have something special in store for you because this time we are running/playing a LancerRPG campaign set in a homebrew universe run by rotating GMs of Fefnir, Lyrewulf, and myself running very different warring factions. We’re also joined by a new player, @Scarlet, because we like her and Breadmaster is still trapped in Academia Hell (we miss you Breadmaster!)

What Is Lancer?

You can purchase LancerRPG for yourself at: https://massif-press.itch.io/corebook-pdf

The Setting:
Set in the galaxy known as Overture, which is distant and has been ignored by the Union and Cradle for hundreds of years and as such developed its own unique culture in isolation, this campaign takes place in a galaxy torn apart by three warring factions all vying for dominion over the system. You will be following the adventures of the Hex Girls, a scrappy band of mercenaries brought together by a common bond of boredom and needing to stay fed as they forge their own paths and tell their own stories in this galaxy of conflict, strife, and intrigue.

The Factions:


The Common Front Of the Holy Name (Lyrewulf’s Faction): A Religious Syndicalist faction that is basically, quote, “If the IWW and the Catholic church had a baby in space that also liked Battletech.”
Boundless (Fefnir’s Faction): A Labor Council of self-proclaimed peacekeepers who swear capitalism will work this time, folks, we just didn’t capitalism hard enough last time.
Deliverance (Jenner’s Faction) Hey friends do y’all like Stalin? I sure don’t. Deliverance is a faction comprised of what is, quote, “Basically social fascists” who I’m certain will never hire anyone to do anything bad ever.

Home Base:



The ISS-GI-FE7E AKA The GHS-Flavortown is a small, humble, research space station in stable orbit above the planet Vineyard and nestled in “neutral” space between Boundless and Common Front territory along a popular space trade route so it could be regularly restocked. It was originally intended to be a research station just large enough to support and supply small population of researchers and scientists who were studying/researching various Space Curiosities. Their main research was actually in Food Science because (and this is completely true) food tastes less flavorful when one is in high altitudes like space. The researchers and scientists of the GHS-Flavortown were simply trying to find a way to make food taste just as strong/flavorful in space but then pirates took over the space station and held them all hostage trying to extract a bounty from the corporation that funded their research. The corporation ignored the pirate’s demands and the pirates killed all the researchers and scientists and spaced them then started pirating and making a nuisance of themselves in space.

Only then did the corporation respond. They wanted the mess cleaned up anonymously, quietly, and quickly so they contacted Bryn and his Hex Girls (and 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, right? They managed to do it anonymously and quickly!) As a reward, the Hex Girls were given the GHS-Flavortown, now in extreme disrepair, to use as a home base.

The Characters and Their Players

"Commander" Bryndza Mare AKA Bryn is the leader of the Hex Girls and was once a young and upcoming starship captain in the Union Military. Bryn’s final mission as a commissioned officer ended in mutiny when the newly conscripted soldiers on the ship (who Bryndza was unaware were not willing to become Cosmopolitans) commandeered it and left him stranded in port. While he was not found directly at fault, he was scapegoated for the loss of the vessel and pushed out of service with an Other Than Honorable Discharge in exchange for not suffering any further punishment. Now, hundreds of years after his birth he turns to a new life to make his way in the universe. He’s played by @heyboots


"Lieutenant" Sylvia Reynard AKA HELLCAT is Bryndza’s official unofficial second-in-command, Sylvia was a former military test subject who got roped into allowing unethical military experimentation to happen to her because she inherited a relative’s debts. She was left permanently damaged from the experimentation which did not make her that much better of a soldier and left her with chronic pain and a permanent jack in her body that allows her to connect directly to her mech and move with slightly less delay. Sylvia turned to meching and mercing to survive and sees her mech as her real body. She’s played by @Scarlet


"Sergeant" Lyra Wulfstan AKA WOLF is a former would-be clanner who was too bloodthirsty and unstable for legitimate work and decided to just work under the table to slake her insatiable bloodlust and need to dakka. Lyra is either deeply traumatized, born to kill, or something in the middle of those two extremes but whatever the explanation is Lyra fully intends to fight, fuck, and fly her way to glory one explosion at a time. She’s played by @Lyrewulf


Quintessence Thatcher Riesling Quin Bryna Keruas AKA Diafault is a literal 16 year old girl who was formerly the daughter of former general now governor and now general again Vadim Riesling and his supermodel wife Irina Lebedev-Riesling. She was utterly sheltered, thoroughly coddled, and painfully naïve. But that’s all changed since she fell in with the Hex Girls. Gone is the girl who streamed most of her battles to her billions of Twitch subscribers and was a Celebrity esports legend who saw war as just another game that she can win (glhf.) She’s now grown into a tempered determined young woman who will do everything but die to protect and stay with the people she loves. Diafault was the living breathing embodiment of “Wow, Cool Robot!” But all she ever really wanted was to be gay and do crimes with her loved ones. She’s played by [USER=764]@Jenner[/USER]


Isadora Aloe AKA NOVA is new to the team and although she was raised to a comfortable life in Cradle, Isadora is a Cosmopolitan who lets her piloting jobs take her farther and farther from the center of the known universe. In addition to piloting, Isadora dabbles in engineering. Given her profession and her hobbies, she wound up getting licensed as a Lancer, even without having a mech of her own. However, being employed as a pilot for the Edelith, she has the option to just borrow one from the captain, Gareth Trevors. When flying or fighting, Isadora always keeps a cool head thanks to what many would call “being headstrong.” To her credit, she would phrase it as “danger apathy." Isadora joined up with the Hex Girls after running into them on a mission to subdue some rowdy pirates running amok.

Episode List:
Session 0: Meet the Cast: A chill Session 0 where we introduce ourselves, the factions, our characters, their reason for being part of the Hex Girls, and narrate the seizure of the GHS-Flavortown!

Session 1: Shaking Things Up : The Hex Girls get an urgent message from the planet they’re orbiting in the Flavortown. Pirates are running amok and the inhabitants are experiencing unusual seismic activity. Bryn leads the team in to solve the case but is this really the start of establishing themselves as a company worthy of employ or just a different way to be bored ?

Session 2: Social Loafing : The Hex Girls take some downtime after a successful mission and give each other some constructive criticism.

Session 3: Get On Top : The Hex Girls undertake their first Faction Mission in the employ of the Common Front of the Holy Name but that’s a secret. On the surface they’ve been hired by Ulysis to chase off some raiders. Can the Hex Girls get on top and reign as King of the Mountain or are they going down in smoke?

Session 4: Constructive CRITicism : The Hex Girls are once again forced to interact with each other in social ways that don’t involve fighting in mechs alongside each other. And every last one of them is so very good at social interaction so I’m sure this will go over just fine.

Session 5: Deescalation: The Hex Girls spend eleven days in transit to undertake an urgent mission in their first mission in service to Deliverance. An escort mission of all things. Everyone’s favorite. Can the Hex Girls seal the deal or is this all a foregone conclusion?

Session 6: Mere Image : Bryn discovers the father of his estranged fiance put a bounty out on him 40+ years ago. Sylvia pursues removing her spine jack and taking her body back for herself while also figuring out how to make her pain manageable. Lyra finishes the Swole Hole and puts a huge cannon on her mech. And Diafault is fine.

Session 7 Part 1: Miners and Minors : The Hex Girls are tasked with doing some tame boring mining so they can act as propaganda towards the goal of demilitarization. Unfortunately, several people had other plans.

Session 7 Part 2: Slime Time : The Hex Girls make their way into a mysterious cave they encountered after completing their last conflict and find themselves in a very slippery situation! Will they be able to break the mold or is it curtains for them?

Session 8: Laissez-faire: The Hex Girls take some much needed time off after their last mission and nobody is in love with anyone.

Session 9: Altered Beasts: The Hex Girls perform a special delivery for Deliverance (though secretly they are sabotaging that delivery) but encounter some hostiles who may just deliver them their own asses.

Session 10: Subs vs dubs : The Hex Girls finally kinda sorta start talking about their feelings and the clans are coming to restore their honor.

Session 11: Clash of Clans : Lyra’s secretly been a disgraced clanner and fleeing the consequences this whole time. But no matter how fast and long you run from your past your past always catches up to you. Lyra’s clan has come to reclaim their honor. The shortest distance between two points is not a straight line but a tick of a clock. None can outrun the march of time.

Session 12: Found Family : The Clanners from before make their way over to the Flavortown to meet the people Lyra, who has redeemed herself and been welcomed back into the Clan, calls her comrades. Family isn’t just something you’re born, it can include blood family but it is not exclusive to it, family is something you establish and create with others.

Session 13 Part 1: In Plain Sight : Slime Time 2 the Secret of the Ooze

Session 13 Part 2: The Most Dangerous Game : The Hex Girls are ambushed by a different group of bounty hunters that are after Sylvia. Is every Hex Girl just going to have a different band of bounty hunters after them before the end of this campaign?

Session 14 Part 1: Going Apeshit : Aren’t you tired of being nice?

Session 14 Part 2: Show and Tell: The Hex Girls and the Arath Lance get acquainted with each other.

Session 15: Samhain : It’s a night to pretend to be monsters… but they’ve never been pretending. (My audio is total ass in this, sorry!)

Session 16: Malware Bites : Bryn accidentally downloads a virus and overloads the Flavortown with Malware in this special Halloween episode.

Session 17 Part 1: Battle Royale : The Hex Girls go undercover to participate in a grand melee. Winner takes all.

Session 17 Part 2: Guilt Trip : The Hex Girls continue to have a fun, pleasant, family outing together.

Session 18: Daddy Issues : Sometimes a family is just five mech pilots and the unholy amount of damage they can do when they’re working in sync.

Session 19: Netfix and Thrills : The Hex Girls just kick back and relax for a few days while the galaxy tears itself apart. You love to see it.

Session 20 Part 1: Rocks and Hard Places : The Main Characters, good guy intergalactic bounty hunters, kidnap Bryn.

Session 20 Part 2: Secret Service : The Hex Girls stop assassins from assassinating Bryn’s ex-fiance and we close out Bryn’s sub plot.

Session 21: Late Stage Centrism : A wise character from a video game once said, “Power grows when spread amongst the many and perishes when hoarded by the few.” Perhaps a corny line more of us could take to heart. Quin’s still letting perfect be the enemy of good though. She’s gonna burn herself out if she doesn’t loosen up.

Session 22: Bridging the Gap : Gravity always wins.

Session 23: Awakening : Kovannin has joined the party. No, not that Kovannin.

Session 24 Part 1: Jungling : Time for a little game of red rover.

Session 24 Part 2: Stop. Drop. And roll : We fought some fucky spiders and found some fucky tech.

Session 25: Oral Tradition: Spout lore isn’t even a skill or power in this TTRPG system.

Session 26: Give A Damn : Actually I would totally download a car.

Session 27 Part 1: Deep Space Dine: Let’s go check out one of the ships of legend. One of the 10 colony ships sent from Cradle to populate the stars…

Session 27 Part 2: QuizWOEs: Welp, looks like we’re going to have to give our regards directly to corporate.

Session 28: Tanks for the Memories: Hit us with your best shot.

Session 29 Part 1: BROADcast: The Hex Girls go back to Blair to kick off a revolution.

Session 29 Part 2: War Bad Robot Cruel: …Now it’s personal.

Lancer Session 30: Faer and Loathing: Coriander’s alive!

Lancer Session 31: Digging Deep: Quin’s back!

Lancer Session 32: Planescape Torrent: NULL made a mistake… maybe? It’s complicated.

Lancer Session 33: Snakes on a Plane: IPS-N(akes)

Lancer Session 34: Hot Stuff: Isadora’s back!

Lancer Session 35: Merger: For now our best option as we see it is to exist in this way.

Lancer Session 36: Battleship: Death to the Death’s Scythe.

Lancer Session 37: Downer Time Actions : “What is grief if not love persevering?”

Lancer Session 38: Safe Space : Ignorance can’t be bliss forever.

Pilot Logs: Sometimes the players might do some bonus scenes between each other or some NPCs that we don’t put in regular sessions. We’re calling these Pilot Logs and they’ll go here
Bonus Lore: Isadora Pilot Log 01: A short scene between Isadora and Gareth.
Bonus Lore: Kovannin Pilot Log 01: Turns out reaction videos are still a thing in 9,329 NGY.
Bonus Lore: Isadora and Diafault Pilot Log 01: Isadora and Diafault talk about Horus.
Bonus Lore: Sylvia and Diafault Pilot Logs 01 and 02: Sylvia and Diafault bond and get a bit more real with each other.
Bonus Lore: Kovannin and Diafault Pilot Log 01: Kovannin and Diafault have a lengthy conversation that consists almost entirely of miscommunications. Warning: Contains Extensive Amounts of Jenner Soapboxing In-Character.
Bonus Lore: Lyra and Diafault Pilot Log 01:
Lyra and Diafault bond over gaming but not over the realities of war.
Bonus Lore: Sylvia and Diafault Pilot Log 03 Sylvia and Diafault talk about girls and communism (and armadillos.) Contains: Communism
Bonus Lore: Sylvia and Kovannin Pilot Log 01
: Sylvia and Kovannin familiarize themselves and get to know one another.
Bonus Lore: Unknown Horus Mech Pilot Log 01: Some mystery mech went on some kind of rampage? It took one of our best hackers weeks to recover and restore this.
Bonus Lore: Boundless Council Pilot Log 01: Raise your hand if you hate fascism.
Bonus Lore: Venue Report 1 Pilot Log 01: A mysterious individual receives a report from an AI assistant.
Bonus Lore: Largo West and Lionel Belmonte Pilot Log 01: Peace is more easily talked about than achieved.
Bonus Lore: Meliora Lambrecht and Kovannin Pilot Log 01 : Deliverance’s enigmatic leader, the Benevolent Shepherd Meliora Lambrecht, and Deliverance’s poster child, the Black Sheep Kovannin, reacquaint themselves.
Bonus Lore: Svava and Diafault Pilot Log 01: Diafault exchanges information with the giant rat that makes all the rules and recieves some sagely advice as well.
Bonus Lore: Cinder Albatross and Largo West Pilot Log 01: The wicked never rest.
Bonus Lore: Isadora and Zoe Lynx Pilot Log 01: Science demands slime!
Bonus Lore: Isadora and Gillian Oak Pilot Log 01: Isadora convinces Gillian to assist the Hex Girls with swapping out mechs in combat.
Bonus Lore: Non-Aggression Pact Negotiation Pilot Log 01: Stop me if you’ve heard this one, Boundless, the Common Front, and Deliverance walk into a bar…
Bonus Lore: Unknown Horus Mech Pilot Log 02: Running only means you die tired.
Bonus Lore: Paasing the Bar Pilot Log 01: Quin speaks to Svava about the small way in which she may be able to assist Svava in her goals of clearing the way for the Esshai to have a fresh start. Then she speaks to her cousin Kyra Basara to secure that fraction of help. “A small stone may only make a ripple at first but someday it will be a wave.”
Lancer Bonus Lore: Diplomatic Arrangements Pilot Log 01: Vote or die.
Bonus Lore: Quin Riesling and Irina Lebedev-Riesling Pilot Log 01: Quin promised her cousin Kyra she’d try to talk her mother out of running for an elected position on the Boundless Council. Let’s see how that works out for her. (Alternate Title: Immaculate Conception)
Lancer Bonus Lore: Palma Aftermath Pilot Log 01: I am certain the slime won’t get worse.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Proximity Pilot Log √-16: Quin and Kovannin have 21 days to spend getting to know each other. …Fall is as good a time as any for falling. The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?
Lancer Bonus Lore: Acts of Service Pilot Log 1/9: Quin has gotten the Matchmaker System to the point where she’s confident passing the patterns out to print them out to close confidants so they can begin using it to communicate in almost complete security to whatever ends they desire. So Svava and Lionel talk, and Quin and Lionel talk. Would you also do whatever it takes?
Lancer Bonus Lore: Primed Pilot Log S: S must be a subset of a closed set in order for the closure operator to be defined.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Selective Service Pilot Log 01: Isadora talks to Zoe Lynx about slime and Bleakhorrors. Marcus Steele, the head of Harrison Armory, and Meliora Lambrecht go on a date, and Lionel Belmonte gets some new roommates.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Sylvia Reynard and Nesrin Sayr Pilot Log 01: Nesrin Sayr tells Sylvia Reynard the story of Kovannin, the girl, as she Knows it… and so much more.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Confirmation Pilot Log -1/2 and 1/2: Are you truly the term with her, child? Let us discover for ourselves. Names, and words, mean things.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Recalibration Pilot Log r = a + t * cos(θ): All you can do is help them get through to themselves.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Agen and Jera on Aras Pilot Log 01: Hyuta was the name of the First Traitor but since her name became Nothing Kela is Known as the First Traitor.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Isadora Aloe and Hyral Juror Pilot Log 32°F: Damn those ladies gay, GOOD FOR THEM!!
Lancer Bonus Lore: Gravity Pilot Log lim (u+i) = 1 as i→u: Forget rearranging the alphabet to put u and i together. Let’s rearrange the universe. Permit this Lost soul to cross over to our world…
Lancer Bonus Lore: Nesrin Sayr and Quin Sayr Pilot Log 01: Wine to Fire.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Nesrin Sayr and Quin Sayr Pilot Log 02: Ignite.
Lancer Bonus Lore: The Messenger Pilot Log 02: Presented: A valuable lesson in staying true to yourself.
CW: Brutal violent death.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Fire Pilot Log 666: The Truth shall set you free.
Lancer Bonus Lore: A Fated Encounter Pilot Log ∞: Let’s fall in love with each other… and hopefully ourselves as well. Jaas dasan.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Mavericks Pilot Log 1221 km/h:
Isadora and Hyral make a valiant attempt to have something approximating an actual real date.
Lancer Bonus Lore: All with Nothing Pilot Log ∅: Friends in No Places.
Lancer Bonus Lore The Lich Pilot Log 01: We’re completing the circle.
CW: Puking of literal guts.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Unity Pilot Log 2 ≈ 1: Love can bloom on the battlefield.
Lancer Bonus Lore: Parting Shot Pilot Log -1: What and who am I now without you and how do I continue to live like this… With this absence that was you that now resides with me and within me always?
Lancer Bonus Lore: Isadora Alone Pilot Log 01: “Perhaps that is the nature of all that is Lost… to be forgotten or found.”

*Hey, I didn’t fucking edit any of these remotely because I’ve been too busy but they still needed done. So… sorry?

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Character Sheets: We use a site/app called COMP/CON to keep track of a lot of information. The site is really good and if anyone is interested all of our characters have been uploaded to COMP/CON and can be imported from the cloud and viewed via these codes:

Bryndza Mare: a6746de742e3b4c5fdec8e5de8ef0c27
Sylvia Reynard’: 77df804b2dfcbac0056e629d2853eeb3
Lyra Wulfstan: dbd3cc30102ea074d568a7f2dbd4799b
Diafault: 100f427b76684c645031751b3054fe37
Isadora Aloe: 6a65cc736431d5c64358a585fb5da37c

We’ll be updating these characters more as we figure out the game and unlock more ridiculous mech nonsense.

Additional Lore/Backstory: We all did a whole bunch of world building and character development for this campaign. So additional lore and backstory stuff will be posted here.

The Overture Timeline of Events that Fefnir worked out (may contain spoilers!)

Overture Timeline
Note: NGY (New Galaxy Years) is ahead of the Union calendar by about 4,313 years.

~ -1,687 NGY (~ -6,000u): The Ten ships are launched from Earth.

0 NGY (-4,313u): One of the Ten, the Athena, lands on a Gaia planet in what is now known as the Sierra Madre line. The planet is named for the colonists’ ship.

89 NGY (-4,224u): After a period of nomadic travel, the people of Athena settle in one spot and establish the village of Wellspring.

376 NGY (-3,937u): Several villages are established outside of Wellspring. Interconnection between villages is seen as essential.

796 NGY (-3,517u): Wellspring officially becomes a city.

2,982 NGY (-1,331u): Athena launches its first rocket, aimed to establish a small colony on one of Athena’s three moons. The initial attempts end in failure.

6,653 NGY (2,340u): Signals sent from Union ignite a desire for Athenians to travel through space to meet with their fellow humans.

6,658 NGY (2,345u): Athena successfully establishes a base on Mason, the moon they had initially tried to colonize.

6,990 NGY (2,677u): The planet Palma is discovered. Initial colonization efforts begin.

6,993 NGY (2,680u): With two planets colonized, the central government names the galaxy Overture.

7,193 NGY (2,880u): The second Committee of Union is established in Cradle.

7,443 NGY (3,130u): Blinkspace is successfully harnessed in Cradle. Union expansion begins.

7,560 NGY (3,247u): Motavia is discovered and established.

8,125 NGY (3,812u): The first colonizers from Union arrive in Overture.

8,813 NGY – 8,913 NGY (4,500u – 4,600u): Use of Mechs becomes popular; both GMS and Harrison Armory are established. The Second Committee are deposed in a coup.

9,329 NGY (5,016u): Present Day

Summary: A single deep space sleeper ship (out of 10) sent from Earth Mass Effect Andromeda style discovered Overture and its colonists colonized the first planet in the system then largely fucked around on their own without much, if any, contact from either Cradle or the Union which lead to them developing their own unique cultures in isolation. Eventually the Union masters Blinkspace and starts expanding even extending communication to and making forays into Overture but by this point Overture’s culture is so distinct from Cradle’s that there’s a lot of headbutting and miscommunications. (In fact, my headcanon is that because of the isolation the spoken and written accent and dialect of the people of Overture warped into its own unique creole that is so distinct and inscrutable that Union and Cradle representatives have a difficult time even understanding what people from Overture are saying/typing despite the fact that people from Overture and people from Cradle/The Union are technically speaking the same language.) Which really limits both the Union and Cradle’s ability to influence or impact the denizens of Overture in any appreciable way.

I’ll try to grab a Cradle and Union timeline of events (and information about their respective lores) to post as a companion to this as soon as I’m able but I hope this at least helps explain why things are so messy and distinct in Overture!

Click here to learn about Overture’s unique Civil Duel Culture!
Co-GM Alice details the limits of “Civil Culture” and introduces us to The Periphery and other cool associated lore! Give it a click!
Co-GM Alice’s follow up post, a companion to the Periphery lore post, detailing the South Periphery.
Click here to learn about Deliverance’s Secret Elite Special Forces Unit: The Martyrs and about the cultural and racial minority Jenner homebrewed up that is unique to the Overture Galaxy, The Esshai.
[Click this link ONLY AFTER HAVING WATCHED ALL THE WAY UP TO SESSION 14 PART 1 you are not ready before then. These are the Esshai terms that belong with you now.]

Fan Art Fan Art goes here

Note: Lancer’s rules specifically state that flying units cannot be knocked prone but we forgot Prone-Chan is special.

Lancer seems extremely fun so far I am really into this campaign and we’ve only played one session.

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LP Update! New Video! It’s on the longer side (almost three hours long, sorry) so it is a bit of an investment but we were still figuring out the rules and such. We should be able to keep sessions under two hours after a couple more games.

Session 1, Shaking Things Up: The Hex Girls get an urgent message from the planet they’re orbiting in the Flavortown. Pirates are running amok and the inhabitants are experiencing unusual seismic activity. Bryn leads the team in to solve the case but is this really the start of establishing themselves as a company worthy of employ or just a different way to be bored ?

Woah hey, stream time? In this space economy???

www.twitch.tv/batilisk

LP Double Update! Two new videos today! The first video is some bonus lore for Isadora. The second video is Session 2, which we managed to keep under two hours wooo.
Bonus Lore: Isadora Pilot Log 01: A short scene between Isadora and Gareth.

Session 2, Social Loafing: The Hex Girls take some downtime after a successful mission and give each other some constructive criticism.

Canon

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Jeff sent this message to the Discord back when we were organizing the ill-fated Fellowship campaign where I was being a player character for the first time and if anything this theory has been proven correct.

LP Double Update! Two new videos today! The first video is some bonus lore for… Kovannin. The second video is Session 3, which is long but fun and nobody died.

Session 3, Get On Top : The Hex Girls undertake their first Faction Mission in the employ of the Common Front of the Holy Name but that’s a secret. On the surface they’ve been hired by Ulysis to chase off some raiders. Can the Hex Girls get on top and reign as King of the Mountain or are they going down in smoke?

Bonus Lore: Kovannin Pilot Log 01 : Turns out reaction videos are still a thing in 9,329 NGY.

Sometimes things happen in the session and it falls upon the GMs (in this case me) to explain it with lore. In this case, Diafault got dangerously close to dying last session. The GMs and the players are squeamish about the cloning thing, they’re not ok with it. So we came to an understanding about how that’s avoided in our universe, Overture. Cloning is definitely still a thing that happens in-universe, by the way, it’s just rarely necessary in Overture for Lore Reasons… which I shall now detail. Introducing…

Lore Post: Overture Civil Duel Culture

The earliest settlers of Overture were all from the same sleeper ship who colonized the same planet and grew and developed together. These first arrivals really established a lot of the foundation for the overarching culture of Overture. One of which was their concept of Civil Duel Culture. In the early days of establishing a presence on Athena there was a lot of fighting and a few too many people died from it. So they invented Civil Duel Culture which is very simple: You may fight all you want but do not kill, do not permanently cripple, and leave no permanent physical damage to the best of your ability. If you were found/judged/suspected to have intentionally ignored these very simple demands you would be investigated and if found guilty Shitlisted. Someone who is Shitlisted for violating Civil Duel Culture will no longer be hired for jobs, no longer be served at businesses, no longer be granted housing, and driven from the community. If they did extensive harm they may be fined to compensate the injured or the injured’s survivors and, in only the most severe of circumstances, executed themselves. Being Shitlisted is a guaranteed Bad Time and once Civil Duel Culture was established precedent things got a lot more amenable on Athena and Civil Duel Culture became a foundational principle of overall Overture Culture. As more colonists moved in and the Athenians and the new arrivals spread across the system (and as technology advanced) Civil Duel Culture was quickly attached to Mech Culture. Under Overture Civil Duel Culture if you kill or otherwise permanently physically damage a pilot while meching you’re Shitlisted and now nobody will serve you at businesses, nobody will hire you for jobs, nobody will provide you housing, the printers that print mech parts do not work for you any more, etc. So once a mech shuts down from excessive damage, like Diafault’s did, continuing to attack that mech would have gotten any pilot who did so Shitlisted. This is why the raiders started targeting different targets and did not finish Diafault off as pretty much everyone inhabiting Overture is really squeamish about thumbing their noses at Civil Duel Culture since doing so is a guaranteed Bad Time.

Additionally considerations for Civil Duel Culture is built into mechs by the corporations. It is hard coded into all mechs to ensure they will not automatically lock on to or swing at/fire on mechs that are in critical condition and it’s virtually impossible to override or bypass those hard-coded protocols. So if a pilot desires to strike a mech in critical condition they must do so manually . No “oops my computer did it” excuses. On top of this, in the unfortunate circumstance that a mech lands a lucky critical hit that just explodes another mech outright every mech in Overture comes equipped with an ejection seat pre-installed in the mech. This seat is activated automatically the moment the mech takes enough damage that it might explode or otherwise kill the pilot. This automatic eject also cannot be easily bypassed, overridden, or removed. So only the most YOLO of pilots have bypassed their mandatory ejection seats. Targeting or otherwise injuring an ejected pilot is, of course, a violation of Civil Duel Culture.

What Do You Do If You Are Shitlisted?

If you are Shitlisted you have two options. Enter Deliverance’s Rehabilitation Program and, after seven years of intense therapy and various other rehabilitative services, you will graduate the program with a clean record. This is a one-time fix so if you breach Civil Duel Culture again you’re shit outta luck and Deliverance does not take kindly to recidivists. Your other option is to make your way over to Pillar, a planet in Common Front territory, and try and make connection with The Cool Zone. The Cool Zone are a faction of anti-corporation, pro-worker, unionized rabble rousers who will give shelter and support to raiders, pirates, and other ne’er-do-wells (including Shitlisters) so long as they are making Good Trouble and causing the corporations misery. But if you’re too murder-happy even the Cool Zoners won’t harbor you and your only option is Deliverance’s Rehabilitation Program.

In closing, it is incredibly difficult to outright die or be permanently taken out by physical injury in Overture in most cases unless you want to be. You have to either seek it out intentionally, be extremely unlucky, or have made some really nasty enemies.

Whose got two thumbs and labeled the original map incorrectly? It’s me. The galaxy map has been altered and labeled correctly now. Let’s pretend it’s always been like that together, ok?

We’re streaming tonight at the usual time! (8:30-9:00 PM EST) and it’s gonna be another roleplay heavy session so I hope to see y’all there!

Additionally for next week’s session I have one slot open for one of our fan(s) to make an LL2 OC in Comp/Con and send me their vault code. First come first serve. Your OC will be deployed in a squad of other OCs made by other fan(s) of this campaign and be blown up. :sparkles::heartpulse::sparkles:

If by some miracle your OC survives they’ll come back in a much later mission but don’t cross your fingers! So if you would like your OC to be blown up next session then please head on over to Comp/Con and make an OC then DM me your OC’s vault code. :grin:

It’s time… for robots, (which are cool) to take a short break from war, (which is bad.)

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

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LP Update! Session 4 is now up for your viewing pleasure! There was some really good roleplay this session if you’re into that kind of thing. (I know I am.)

Session 4, Constructive CRITicism : The Hex Girls are once again forced to interact with each other in social ways that don’t involve fighting in mechs alongside each other. And every last one of them is so very good at social interaction so I’m sure this will go over just fine.

Speaking of roleplay, in game there’s gonna be a whole lot more of that as the Hex Girls have a little over a week to get to their next mission (and it’s an urgent one!) That’s 11 days that they’ll be spending prepping and then travelling (and they’ll be socializing with and cohabitating with each other that whole time). And while I can’t make any promises for the other players and what they’ll do with their characters I can say that I am going to be taking Diafault out for a spin. I have a goal: To roleplay my gay little heart out with every player character I can find the real life time to roleplay with. (And I may even throw in some NPC interactions too! Maybe even with NPCs that aren’t Kovannin–It could happen, shut up!)

Here’s the thing though, that’s a lot of capital C Content and we’re simply not gonna be able to fit all that in to next session because wowzers. I like our current organization structure of running a combat oriented session then following it up with a more roleplay focused session then repeating. I don’t want to break that pacing up with back to back roleplay focused sessions (even though character development rules!) So I’ve made the choice to just record these lengthy interactions outside of scheduled game time and I’ll be uploading them as Pilot Logs before or alongside Session 5 (Ideally way before so folks have the necessary context going into Session 5.) These Pilot Logs will be chock full of super juicy roleplay and big time character development so if that’s your kinda shit (it is so my kind of shit) then I hope you’ll give them a click!

Oh how interesting, a new map has been added to the OP and several maps have been updated. See if you can spot the differences!

The Flavortown legally belongs to the Hex Girls now! It’s their property and they are allowed to alter it however they see fit to make it more of a home to them. As our campaign progresses I hope we’ll see many more additions to the Flavortown and if/when we do the maps will be updated to reflect those changes. Additionally, the three factions that dominate Overture may, at times, gain or lose territory so the galaxy map will also be updated to reflect those changes when they happen. Map updates will get dedicated posts just like this one where the most recent previous versions of the changed maps will be uploaded alongside the newest maps and the OP will be edited to depict only the most recent versions of the maps.

New Flavortown Changes: Diafault’s Gamer Space and the Swole Hole

is now

New Galaxy Changes: Deliverance expands westward.

is now

.

Putting these in the OP! Thanks, Alice! One of our wonderful co-GMs, folks, already "well actually"ing my established lore. It’s Good!

Reality sucks and if I made all the caveats I needed to cover for all the ways in which reality complicates and compromises absolutes lore posts would be like 100 thousand words long. Civil Duel Culture (CDC) is everywhere and applies to everything the way all laws and rules are everywhere and apply to everything. In that folks with enough wealth, connections, influence, etc can often get away with violating them. And certain individuals are often designated by the self-proclaimed Civilized People as Acceptable Targets and as such there is little to no consequences for “eliminating” an established nuisance. In the best case scenario the acceptable targets are actually depraved and violent (in the wrong way) raiders, pirates, criminals, Shitlisters and the like but more often than not once folks start drawing these lines some badly off people get put in that category. It is very gross and depressing. I hope folks can go into these lore posts with that kind of understanding. That nothing is absolute but in the best case scenario we’re all trying our best to make it as equitable as possible.

Overture isn’t there yet. Let’s see if we can get there.

We live again! We’re live again!

www.twitch.tv/batilisk

Hey Untitled Gaming Group (unofficial name) fans, do you like freeform roleplay? Have you enjoyed our previous Pilot Logs? Well have I got a treat for you:

LP UPDATE: ::Just pours an entire bucket of Pilot Logs into the thread::

I strongly recommend all viewers view all Pilot Logs because they always contain additional important background details into our PCs and universe but these following Pilot Logs in particular are especially recommended as I’m not sure anyone could keep on top of everything going on in the campaign without viewing these. They are posted in chronological order. Enjoy.

Bonus Lore: Isadora and Diafault Pilot Log 01: Isadora and Diafault talk about Horus.

Bonus Lore: Sylvia and Diafault Pilot Logs 01 and 02: Sylvia and Diafault bond and get a bit more real with each other.

Bonus Lore: Kovannin and Diafault Pilot Log 01: Kovannin and Diafault have a lengthy conversation that consists almost entirely of miscommunications. Warning: Contains Extensive Amounts of Jenner Soapboxing In-Character.

Bonus Lore: Lyra and Diafault Pilot Log 01: Lyra and Diafault bond over gaming but not over the realities of war.

Bonus Lore: Sylvia and Diafault Pilot Log 03 Sylvia and Diafault talk about girls and communism (and armadillos.) Contains: Communism

LP UPDATE: (d-d-d-d-double update!) Here’s last week’s session!

Session 5, Deescalation: The Hex Girls spend eleven days in transit to undertake an urgent mission in their first mission in service to Deliverance. An escort mission of all things. Everyone’s favorite. Can the Hex Girls seal the deal or is this all a foregone conclusion?

​I’m really sorry I didn’t get this up sooner because we’re playing the next session in just a few hours and I’m not sure any of you will have enough time to catch up now. I got so caught up in things and didn’t get this up when I planned to. If you fall behind or drop off I get it but I do hope you stick around.