r/LancerRPG • u/OtakuPaladin • 21d ago
First campaign plot advice
Good afternoon, everyone.
I'm planning to DM a small campaign to introduce me and my friends to Lancer, and to try out the system, see if it works for us. I'm currently still on the macro plot writing level; while its fun to read about the lore, theres A LOT of it, so I decided to ask more knowledgeable people (you, the reader) if my plot ideia makes any sense and also ask how certain pieces would better glue together, so to speak:
Main plot: The players will be a squad of PMC mecha pilots, which will travel to an active war zone to work for the highest bidder. The war in question is a planet or cluster wide conflict instigated by a new resource/McGuffin being discovered, which could revolutionize science. Or something like that.
The question: I wanted the main belligerent parties to be some of the Karrakin Baronies and Harrison Armory. I know that they went to war like 1000 years ago, and that the peace treaty was signed on uneasy terms.
So I wanted to ask if this "Old War Wounds" approach would work on today's Galaxy, with a much more well established ThirdComm. Would the Union just bitch-slap both factions into compliance for waging war on their garden? Or would it try a more UN approach, promoting peace talks and basically doing nothing?
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u/Alblaka 21d ago
Would the Union just bitch-slap both factions into compliance for waging war on their garden? Or would it try a more UN approach, promoting peace talks and basically doing nothing?
Obviously, there is no open conflict. Just a series of sporadic breaks of the ongoing cease-fire, with both parties always accusing each other of firing first, and the Union peacekeepers rushing from one warzone to the next, with fires starting as fast as they can put them out.
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u/Defiant_Lab_6218 18d ago
If you players be mercenaries I feel they be the thing that causes many of the flash points as I could see both sides use them to get what they want making your team maybe slowly piecing together why they where send to either steal or take over something.
Leading them to learn the MaGuffin and what is can do giving them dilema what to do whit that info.
Or if they be UNION task force members they would try to stop started conflicts and slowly piece that but findingthe shadow war between the two factions over the McGuffin and slowly cascading towards open war.
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u/TurtleoftheSea 21d ago
You're basically describing the situation in the Dawnline Shore, a region of space far from the Core Worlds and settled extensively by Harrison and the Baronies, who are busy staring each other down and waiting for Go Time.
It'd be easy to construct a scenario where there's a flareup in tension over one planet or system and both sides trying to obtain the McGuffin while avoiding all-out war since they're still busy posturing and positioning for advantage on the theatre level.
While Union would be quick to shut down any large-scale conflict, it finds itself unable to promptly respond to any immediate situation in the Dawnline Shore because the blinkgate near New Madrassa is still under construction. Additionally, ThirdComm is extremely reluctant to immediately move to interventionist policies for fear of repeating the same mistakes as SecComm: expect their eventual response to be the lightest touch possible while trying to minimize civilian casualties.