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In Lancer, Anthrochauvinism is the unironic 'humanity, gently caress yeah' mindset. It's not just about "gently caress aliens" (because yes, as far as most of the setting is considered, sapient aliens don't exist) but also "gently caress NHPs" (the setting's equivalent of super-AIs) and also "and if your definition of humanity doesn't match ours, gently caress you too". Not just on a biological level but a cultural one too. SecComm was a top-down conquering empire; ThirdComm instead goes for the diplomatic approach and tries for the "offer you can't afford to refuse". The corebook gives an overview of what Union is in its core so that you as a GM get to make up what the fringe world(s) you're setting your campaign on is like in contrast and work out why it's not painlessly integrated yet. Examples from both official and fan material include: NRFAW: It's a new colony on a world that was abandoned during the revolution (Hm, why was such a fertile world abandoned? Well, the revolution caused a lot of pullback, it's probably nothing), it was meant to be built up to speed and would be self-sufficient if they had another century. Solstice Rain: It's SecComm holdouts who decided to bunker down and shield themselves from all comms until recently. Suldan: It was being integrated as a Core world until the rogue Union admin decided that they would try to speedrun it at the expense of human lives and dignity In Golden Flame: It is just so far and a bunch of people were stuck there as a failed two-wave colonial effort because the initial scouts fudged the reports. There are millions of people in this craphole of a system, but that doesn't compare to the billions who could theoretically be much easier to reach on worlds like Suldan or the Solstice Rain world.
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Apr 18, 2023 00:28
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| # ? May 25, 2024 00:49 |
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I am somewhat communist and I found Lancer's implicit politics to be both good and presented well, unless they're critiquing the implicit "yeah you can 3D-print most things and mech parts, stuff isn't intrinsically rare and scarce" (which I might be misremembering). Eclipse Phase on the other hand was like the Black Panther "I am Communist now" tweet whenever they talked about the actual setting poo poo.
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Apr 18, 2023 01:04
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LatwPIAT posted:"Post-leftist anarchist". I described my issues with Eclipse Phase's portrayal of anarchism to a friend and she gave me a bit of a theoretical background for why they are like that, based on my description of them. Formally it's a theoretical tendency within anarchism that rejects an alliance with the traditional political left for being just another kind of oppressive state, but more critically, they're high on abstract theory and not concerned with having to actually accomplish anything on a practical level. Which is mostly just repeating the "lifestylist" criticism, but focused more on the political dimension and less on being mad their parents tell them to clean their rooms. Hm, yeah, I suppose I know some people like that. Who're very "anything but devolving to small tribes with zero formal hierarchies, delegations of power or specializations of work might as well be fascist dictatorships, because any communist delegates will eventually order purges." Which does also, yes, tend to loop a bit back to "trying to change anything is pointless so I may as well complain and theorize." Though I'd tend to be generous and say most of them just feel very hopeless because they've seen a lot of potential change squashed or perverted, rather than their being childish. KingKalamari posted:Yeah, I think one of the two players I mentioned is fine with Eclipse Phase because it lets her play as one of the hypercapitalist straw-men, whereas there's no real equivalent faction to play as in Lancer. Though she also claims that the socialist ideology is somehow hard-coded into Lancer's mechanics so who knows what's up with that. I don't always want to play as one of the bad guys, but for games like this where everyone's a human(sort of) and there aren't any outright nazis, it kind of feels weird when there's no option to play as the sorta bad or slightly bad guys that make up a large percentage of humanity. Being told you can only play as the author's favourites usually feels a bit hamfisted even if you generally agree with them. I think I might know who your #2 player is. Tell him I'll bully him if he doesn't play a good game instead of Eclipse Phase.
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Apr 18, 2023 01:14
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i wouldn't want to play a loyalist from any of the outright corprostates in LANCER but the Aun are really loving cool as a (relatively) conservative culture with their own radically different episteme than Union's
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Apr 18, 2023 01:16
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:i wouldn't want to play any of the outright bad guys in LANCER but the Aun are really loving cool as a (relatively) conservative culture with their own radically different episteme than Union's Yeah I mean, in Eclipse Phase terms, I wouldn't want to play Exhumans collecting living brains to turn into exciting art collections, but more in the realm of "Oversight agent who disagrees with the anarchists but still works with them because it would suck if the Sun suddenly imploded and took everyone with it" or "gang of space criminal Scum who accidentally unbottled something Really Bad and now have to try and put it back in the bottle without everyone realizing they're responsible for the damage already done and looking for revenge." There should be some space for that rather than mandating that everyone must play an Anarchist.
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Apr 18, 2023 01:19
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PurpleXVI posted:Yeah I mean, in Eclipse Phase terms, I wouldn't want to play Exhumans collecting living brains to turn into exciting art collections, but more in the realm of "Oversight agent who disagrees with the anarchists but still works with them because it would suck if the Sun suddenly imploded and took everyone with it" or "gang of space criminal Scum who accidentally unbottled something Really Bad and now have to try and put it back in the bottle without everyone realizing they're responsible for the damage already done and looking for revenge." There should be some space for that rather than mandating that everyone must play an Anarchist.
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Apr 18, 2023 01:22
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There's nothing baked into Lancer saying you can't be badguys. Want to play Some Armory Legionnaires? Cool, go do it. MSMC Goons? Go right ahead. Admittedly, I do find the idea of complaining about not being able to be the bad guys pretty stupid- its like looking at Rocket Age and whining you can't play a dyed in the wool nazi. Fivemarks fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 18, 2023 02:25
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Fivemarks posted:There's nothing baked into Lancer saying you can't be badguys. There should be something baked into your heart against wanting to play a nazi
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Apr 18, 2023 03:29
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Personally I like Sparr in LANCER. I just think it's neat.
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Apr 18, 2023 04:30
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Fivemarks posted:There's nothing baked into Lancer saying you can't be badguys. It's probably in the wrong section of the book in the GM bit rather than the free player-facing version of the book, but the list of 'sample Lancers' includes, in order:
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Apr 18, 2023 06:55
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KingKalamari posted:Yeah, I think one of the two players I mentioned is fine with Eclipse Phase because it lets her play as one of the hypercapitalist straw-men, whereas there's no real equivalent faction to play as in Lancer. Though she also claims that the socialist ideology is somehow hard-coded into Lancer's mechanics so who knows what's up with that. As a Battletech player I think I might have an idea. In Lancer there is by default no money or experience points in its progression system, it's purely session* based. There exists a somewhat half-baked option but someone who might want that crunchy level of management detail probably wouldn't be satisfied by it. *E: a better word is probably mission-based, in retrospect Runa fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Apr 18, 2023 |
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Apr 18, 2023 08:23
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the most popular form of Battletech long-term campaign play by far is that of the heavily armed small business owner
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Apr 18, 2023 08:25
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Runa posted:the most popular form of Battletech long-term campaign play by far is that of the heavily armed small business owner at least traveller lets you have the small business armed bastard mid-life crisis option and an alternative where the government lets you hang onto your bush plane after you quit, as long as you pay the regular bills and maybe do a pickup or delivery occasionally
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Apr 18, 2023 09:48
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of course then the ex-scout starts insisting the government never gave them anything, posting videos from the bridge of their type-s in space mirrorshades
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Apr 18, 2023 09:50
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90s Cringe Rock posted:it really is. the weird thing about traveller, the way it tends to come out is, you'll end up with a weird fleet at chargen because the game really wants to make sure you have some kind of starting ship so everyone usually ends up rolling one in their post-chargen benefits
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Apr 18, 2023 10:10
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Okay what the hell the DnD movie was legit good. Like a solid 8 and a half
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Apr 19, 2023 20:50
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Went to see it too and was honestly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It’s a very well made popcorn movie, it doesn’t have many frills but it’s really solid at what it does.
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Apr 19, 2023 22:49
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Speaking of DnD Movie, Did everyone get treated to a stupid "you're the real heroes for going to the movies" bit before the film?
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Apr 20, 2023 05:27
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I think that was attached to the print, yes.
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Apr 20, 2023 05:31
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Not in nz
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Apr 20, 2023 06:26
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Bucnasti posted:Speaking of DnD Movie, yeah with an insanely uncomfortable Hugh Grant it rules
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Apr 20, 2023 07:07
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Bucnasti posted:Speaking of DnD Movie, I like how half the cast in that spot didn't even talk, pointed ears possibly burning with shame.
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Apr 20, 2023 12:09
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My girlfriend and I agreed that the biggest flaw of the new D&D movie was that it’s misleading to people with no D&D experience. The rules as written forbid barbarians and druids from having anywhere near that much fun.
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Apr 20, 2023 12:43
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Kaiju15 posted:My girlfriend and I agreed that the biggest flaw of the new D&D movie was that it’s misleading to people with no D&D experience. Barbarians for sure, but the movie druid felt nerfed with having no spells except shapeshifting. I liked the movie but it is notable how they nerfed all the caster party members so the whole team would be useful: the bard is jsut a rogue with no magic, the druid can only shapeshift, the sorcerer is bad at magic until he gets confident near the end.
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Apr 20, 2023 18:46
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Bucnasti posted:Speaking of DnD Movie, Not in italy
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Apr 20, 2023 18:47
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MonsieurChoc posted:Barbarians for sure, but the movie druid felt nerfed with having no spells except shapeshifting. Chris Pine should be the one using the illusion spell against the guards yeah, not sure why they put that on the wizard.
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Apr 20, 2023 19:07
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MonsieurChoc posted:Barbarians for sure, but the movie druid felt nerfed with having no spells except shapeshifting. On the other hand the druid was basically, I dunno, DC's Beast Boy with how she could Wild Shape so she still wasn't a slouch.
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Apr 20, 2023 20:02
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Honestly I'd be entirely in favor in them pivoting to making shapeshifting the Druid's main niche and de-emphasizing the spellcasting. Really I'm just in favor of the caster classes in general having a tighter, more limited mechanical focus than they currently do.
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Apr 20, 2023 20:31
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KingKalamari posted:Honestly I'd be entirely in favor in them pivoting to making shapeshifting the Druid's main niche and de-emphasizing the spellcasting. Really I'm just in favor of the caster classes in general having a tighter, more limited mechanical focus than they currently do. Or at the very least have a Druid subclass that mostly drops spellcasting and goes all-in on Wild Shape.
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Apr 20, 2023 21:29
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D&D should extremely do away with the Fighter and the Wizard in favour of more focused classes that have some kind of identity in the not-setting. I don't know anyone who's played a druid because they specifically wanted the spell list. It seems everyone is focused on the concept of having a pet and/or shapeshifting. So they should go further into that.
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Apr 20, 2023 21:33
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Halloween Jack posted:D&D should extremely do away with the Fighter and the Wizard in favour of more focused classes that have some kind of identity in the not-setting. D&D should do away with the majority of its classes in favour of a few that can be customized widely.
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Apr 20, 2023 21:59
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D&D should bring back 3.5e binder.
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Apr 20, 2023 22:01
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LazyLord or bust. 
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Apr 20, 2023 22:04
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Truenamer but in a way that works.
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Apr 20, 2023 22:05
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I haven't seen the D&D movie but the one observation/complaint I heard from a friend of mine is that any and all divine magic was conspicuously absent.
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Apr 20, 2023 22:57
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Ferrinus posted:I haven't seen the D&D movie but the one observation/complaint I heard from a friend of mine is that any and all divine magic was conspicuously absent. Either to avoid trouble with  or fundies.
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Apr 20, 2023 23:03
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Ferrinus posted:I haven't seen the D&D movie but the one observation/complaint I heard from a friend of mine is that any and all divine magic was conspicuously absent. I figured it made sense, since the main characters are mostly roguish criminal types.
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Apr 21, 2023 00:31
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PurpleXVI posted:D&D should do away with the majority of its classes in favour of a few that can be customized widely.
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Apr 21, 2023 00:32
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ActingPower posted:I figured it made sense, since the main characters are mostly roguish criminal types. Divine magic is so ubiquitous in the Forgotten Realms that its absence is more easily explained by "studios are squeamish about offending various flavors of fundies / China."
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Apr 21, 2023 01:31
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Or, like... they just didn't want to do a story about the FR gods? They're infamous plot hogs, and the writing is clearly trying to keep the film brisk and accessible to a layman audience, so maybe in that context you don't want to get bogged down in Mystra nonsense.
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Apr 21, 2023 01:37
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