i should probably back up my blog after this

A really weird thing that I feel privileged to have gotten the chance to explore in In Golden Flame is the idea of "characters are worse at their jobs when players aren't animating them."

For reference, Ipswich "Switch" DeLacey, this guy...

... is my former player character. In Golden Flame, explicitly, is a retelling of a campaign that I was a player in.

Switch is a mech pilot and lifestyle livestreamer, and in the original campaign they were part of the Hell's Gate strategic response team that saved Calliope and livestreamed almost the whole thing. They were kind of an impulsive jackass sometimes, but hey had a team to temper their behaviour and keep them on track. They resolved a long-running plotline with their abusive scientist father by having a mech fight with him (that's how you resolve most problems in Lancer, to be honest) and saved the system (and perhaps the universe) from an existential crisis.

They still exist as part of In Golden Flame as an NPC, but in all the timelines where IGF is played as a campaign, Switch isn't a player character, so they can't act outside their own impulses and behaviour. Their behaviour isn't tempered by an outside force that has a more holistic perspective on events. They don't have the same set of friends to keep them grounded.

In the written campaign, Switch's plotline with their father still happens, but without player intervention, it shakes out far worse than it did when Switch was a player character. Throughout Act 2, Switch asks the player characters for help dealing with the increasing threat of their father, and if the players help soon enough, they're able to resolve the situation without it spiralling into catastrophe. But if they don't help Switch soon enough, Switch loses patience and heads off to deal with it themselves.

But because Switch doesn't have a team of trusted friends behind them to help mediate their issues, things rapidly spiral out of control and during a fight with their father, they end up causing the time rift he was experimenting on to crack open violently, putting the system in even more danger than it was before.

This was inspired by the way Pathologic handles its player characters. Basically, Pathologic has three possible player characters. You choose one for an entire playthrough, but the other two still exist in the world and go through the same rough storylines that they would if you were playing them, but the crucial thing is that without you at the wheel, they're much worse at their job. They fuck up quests that you would have completed easily. When you talk to them, they always seem to speak with the most extreme possible dialogue choices you would have available if you were playing them.

I just like the idea that in different timelines, fictional characters may or may not be animated by the spirit of a player, and that in timelines where they aren't, they might just be worse at their job.

City of RUIN - Districts Sketch. Download the map and the alternate variants here! - https://www.patreon.com/posts/103351418

The Triptych of the Dark Revelation, the truth few Lancer fans are strong enough to accept

There are only two degrees of separation

My Lancer character! I’m very excited for this game!

Even more space npcs for future stuff, along with some pirates sprinkled in. May have gone overboard with template spam here, but I really wanted a rocket sled a la Planetes in there.

lancer rpg??

First, here is a link to the free PDF core manual for Lancer. Again, it is free to download. I’ve read a lot of it, it’s got some lore but it’s more about core gameplay and standard mechanics.

Second, Each Deserter’s Lich matches their aesthetic. Laudna’s frame is stained with dark ooze which drips unnatural shadows, Ashton’s is covered in shattered crystals and leaves a trail of colorful dust, Orym’s wears a mossy cloak and always emanates a light fog cloud.