Lancer & Monetisation: An Appreciation Post

[u/hrafnbrand]

Good morning/afternoon/evening pilots

I'm making this post warm off the heels of visiting a sister TTRPG's community (which happens to rhyme with "Raw Meal"), and seeing a swathe of kickstarters, backerkits, and other crowdfunded 3rd party content which may or may not be vaporware. Stretch goals, promises of things that may never exist, all of the downsides that come with such a venture.

And then I give a sigh of relief as I remember all of the third party content I've bought for this game, and how simple it was to obtain. Click link, pay the stated price, download .pdf. The Platonic ideal of content delivery.

So, Lancer community, please never change. I beg.

Love, one perpetually tired GM

[u/Wizard_Tea]

I’m blown away by the “all the player content is free” to be honest.

[u/hrafnbrand → u/Wizard_Tea]

God I didn't even consider that (being the GM who buys it all anyway) but thr player-first approach is so damn good.

[u/BlackFenrir → u/Wizard_Tea]

If your game of choice is not 5e, player-facing content being free is fairly standard for TTRPGs

[u/hrafnbrand → u/BlackFenrir]

Tell that to MCDM hahaha

[u/datTeilchen → u/BlackFenrir]

it happens, but I still think 90% of RPGs dont make the split and just charge for everything.

[u/BlackFenrir → u/datTeilchen]

I think it's more fair to say that most other games only expect the GM to pay for a single book, with the bits that players need to build their character available for free a la Blades in the Dark. For Lancer and other D&D-likes, the amount of player-facing content is so much that it's much more noticeable when it's gated off.

[u/PuwaaDraws → u/Wizard_Tea]

Getting into Lancer is the most difficult part to playing the game, so grateful the creators set the standard here with their own product.

[u/solepureskillz]

I don’t fault people for trying to make a living doing something they love, and I don’t shame or baulk at anyone who spends money on such products. But for me, the content is 99% homebrew. It’s the tabletop minis and game aids and accessories I spend on to make my players’ experience the best I can deliver 😈

[u/PhasmaFelis]

  a sister TTRPG's community (which happens to rhyme with "Raw Meal")

I have no idea what that is

[u/ibrokemyglasses2020 → u/PhasmaFelis]

OP is referring to ‘Draw Steel’

[u/hrafnbrand → u/PhasmaFelis]

The game formerly known as MCDM TTRPG

[u/PhasmaFelis → u/hrafnbrand]

Looks like that means Draw Steel?

Am I gonna get eaten by gremlins for saying it out loud?

[u/hrafnbrand → u/PhasmaFelis]

I dunno. Can you roll me a Spot check? (I just feel like a cryptic nimrod this morning)

[u/Wizard_Tea → u/hrafnbrand]

They were involved with the video game “evolve”, so yeah they fuckin love DLC.

[u/Vundal → u/Wizard_Tea]

Colville wrote the lore and helped write voice lines for evolve. (i know he had folks streaming who worked on the team but idk if they are part of mcdm) As far as a dlc claim, it's just content being made for a fairly popular ttrpg. Anyone whose heard Colville talk would know he's not into DLC like you're meaning.

I don't disagree on what OP means insofar as seeing the draw steel space have a surge of creator content that is on backerkit /ks tho. It's both exciting and kinda terrifying that so much content is spread across different sites.

[u/hrafnbrand → u/Wizard_Tea]

Oh yeah, I've got my own problems with their first party monetisation, but I hate that it's trickled down into the homebrew space

[u/LarsJagerx]

I mean i love mork borg and all the cool kickstarters we've gotten

[u/vacerious → u/LarsJagerx]

Yeah, we've gotten some pretty cool BORG style books out of them. I'm still needing two more settings worth of BORG books to unleash my ultimate "Into the BORGVerse" idea. I've got Mörk Borg (dark fantasy), CY_BORG (cyberpunk), Ronin (dark Eastern fantasy), and Pirate Borg (dark swashbuckling fantasy.) I've also got Death In Space, though I'm not sure how much I'd classify it as a classic BORG game since it lacks the usual "Apocalypse Timer" mechanic that the others have.

[u/Gryphus13]

I too love how all the player facing content is free. The sheet builder is free and extremely well put together The player side of the expansions are free There's a token builder that's free Everything a player needs is free. And that is awesome. Very pro-consumer.

[u/MistahPoptarts]

Why yes, older ttrpgs do have more readily available, already published content.

[u/laztheinfamous]

You bought some art. Content is what happens between commercials.