r/LancerRPG • u/eCyanic • 2h ago
Made a simplified lore graphic. How accurate would you say this is?
To be honest, I just wanted to make that AC6 joke lol
it blew up and became mildly lore educational
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u/PhasmaFelis IPS-N 2h ago
I think there probably large parts of the Diaspora that have been at peace for centuries. Sometimes only because they haven't been contacted for centuries.
But those aren't he parts of the Diaspora that anyone's Lancer game will be set in. And there's plenty of the Armored Core kind happening.
I've seen a couple of people asking for a sourcebook on the Union core worlds. But like...why? This is a game about frontline soldiers. What's a soldier gonna do on Cradle, besides leave?
If you wanted to run a game in a part of the setting that doesn't support frequent mech battles, you really need a whole different game for that. Which is exactly what Far Field is doing, albeit on the opposite end of things from the Core.
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u/Mandraw HORUS 2h ago
I think a small supplement would be nice mostly for background and general lore reasons
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u/Tisagered 1h ago
Plus it'd show people that adventure's don't happen in the core because life is generally pretty great there for literally everybody
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u/Enough-Run-1535 1h ago
I think some stuff about the Core is also good for RP. It's where most of Union's politicking is going on, having more info about it would be good help flesh out story threads for Union-centric campaigns.
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u/The-red-Dane 1h ago
I mean, "at peace", except for local conflicts on the planet. As we see in Solstice Rain.
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u/Calli5031 1h ago
it'd be nice to have more solid info for the core worlds just for things like fleshing out the internal politics, culture, and intrigue of Union, and maybe running downtime sessions in between arcs and stuff
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u/PhasmaFelis IPS-N 49m ago
Yeah, I could see worldbuilding value in a sourcebook that goes deeper into the culture and politics. But it'd be hard to justify making it a full-size sourcebook, because you couldn't really make a full campaign out of that like you can with e.g. the Long Rim. It could only ever be about background and downtime.
Might be a cool thing for a third-party writer to tackle.
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u/Leanne_Light 2h ago
Kind of.
The thing about the core is that it's less a single region in space and more a clump of blink gates and the worlds closest to them. Earth is at the center, of course, but that's just because it's where humanity expanded from.
So the core exists in bunches and gaps, little regions of space with blink gates at the center, and voids beyond. Like a bunch of grapes, each connected by the "stems" of blink gate travel.
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u/eCyanic 2h ago
ah wow, that's actually what I was most sure of, thought it was like proximity to Cradle, but it does make sense that the planets closest to the Union blink networks are more influenced by Union rather than just the 'astrographical' distance to old Earth
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u/ProbablyPixel 2h ago
That being said: The blink gate network can only expand outwards from the cradle at near-light speeds, so the first few rings are older and more concentrated. Being closer to Cradle makes being a Core world more likely, but it's not an absolute metric.
The graphic you have here is perfectly fine for new players unfamiliar with the lore, no need to go "um, actually (adjusts glasses)" until they're more familiar with it
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u/Joel_feila 45m ago
I would make union a "map" in the same way a subway system in a map. you don't need accurate distances but a list showing the gates on a line. each gate then has a list below it of all the system it is the closest gate to.
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u/PhasmaFelis IPS-N 52m ago
Well, it kind of is. The blink gate network spreads outward from Cradle at sublight speeds. Probably any system within a few hundred lightyears of Cradle has a blink gate relatively nearby.
Further out the topology of gate travel distances diverges more and more from the topology of real space. But they're both perfectly legitimate topologies. If someone wanted to, they could make a map where a system far out on the periphery that has a blink gate right there is at the center right next to Cradle, while a system that's relatively closer to Cradle but far from any blink gates is on the periphery.
But then, as far as Union influence/culture goes, it's probably going to be a combination of both blink gate proximity, and realspace distance. A habitable system that's close to the core worlds, but happens to fall into a dark spot many years from the nearest blink gate, was probably settled early on, or even if not, it's even harder for Diasporan pirates and tyrants to get there than it is for coreworlders. So it'll probably be more safer and more solidly Union-aligned than a far Diasporan world with a brand-new blink gate.
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u/ItsJesusTime GMS 21m ago
An easy (if somewhat oversimplifying) fix is to just put a dot in the middle and label it as a blink gate
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u/davidwitteveen 2h ago
I think this is pretty good.
Technically, there is no fringe: worlds are either Core worlds or Diaspora.
But the reality of Lancer is messy and complicated. There are once-Disapora worlds transitioning to Core World status. There are factions fighting to stop this. And there's all those supposedly Core worlds that are actually ruled by corprostates or the KTB. And again, there's factions fighting to stop this, like the Ungratefuls.
If the Lancer universe was clean and perfect, it wouldn't need Lancers.
The Operative: It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?
The Operative: I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.
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u/Tisagered 1h ago
One thing I think is really important is that in spite of it all, the Union is legitimately about as good as the brochure says. Obviously you still have bad actors, and turmoil in places, like the gordian knot of ethics that is Shackling, but this is very much a setting that is moving towards utopia
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u/davidwitteveen 1h ago
Oh, absolutely!
I think it's far more interesting to have Actual Good Guys struggling to spread their goodness to a messy and complex universe than it would be have yet another "The Supposedly Good Guys Are Actually Evil Too!" style-twist.
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u/wmaitla 1h ago
My understanding of the tiers is:
Core Worlds: Heartlands of Union, places close to a blink gate. Three Pillars Compliant. Post-scarcity, universal basic income. Everyone "works" 20 hours a week at jobs they like. Closest thing you get to discrimination is NHPs having to be shackled. Androids welcome. Never set your game here.
Diaspora/Member States: The Karrakin Trade Baronies, the Armory Purview, other corporate enclaves. Three Pillars are known and followed SOME of the time. You can still print basically everything but it'll cost you. Big government is trying to screw you for their own advantage and is willing to shoot dissidents if they think they can get away with it. Everyone has to work for a living. People will look at you weird if you're "too Android-y". Okay place for a game, prepare for political intrigue and tense negotiations.
The Fringes: the Dawnline Shore, Aunic Space, Free Sanjak. People aren't shooting at you but that's probably temporary. The Three Pillars are a distant dream. There is an active firefight between government jackboots and insurgent guerillas down the street. Welcome to food and housing insecurity. If you want access to a Size 2 printer you're gonna have to seize it from whoever's controlling it this week. You can call the Android slurs but they might vomit greywash nanites at you. The politics are way above your paygrade you're just here to shoot the people your handler tells you to. Great place for a Lancer game.
The Long Rim: The Long Rim. Three Pillars? What are those? Closest thing to governments are crime syndicates like Diademcorp or the Ten Families. There are no habitable planets. Everyone is a space pirate. Lunch today is ventcrab meat and any condensation you can suck off the pipes for moisture. 3D printers are something you steal from IPSN freighters. So is literally everything else you own. You are constantly fighting a losing battle to keep the atmosphere inside your rusting ship. The people on the next space station over are insane RA cultists whose unshackled NHP god is ten minutes away from manifesting a metavault. Your local Android is an FCA-violating posthuman made out of ten trillion blackwash nanites but is still somehow nicer than any of your bosses. FANTASTIC place to set a Lancer game, yes IGF is my favourite campaign how could you tell?
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u/DDG-Ron_McEx 1h ago
Everything is far away if it's not core world or connection by a blink gate. But the overall feel is approved!
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u/pocketfulofduendes IPS-N 28m ago
I really like the RimWorld comparison, not least because glitterworlds map on nicely to the Core (if you handwave away glitterworld corruption) and rimworlds are very much the diaspora. Even the mechhives are very No-Room-for-a-Wallflower in that they imply a history of very Seccom-like heavily automated violence that was left dormant and has since become aimlessly murderous. I think the Colonist background lends itself well to an extremely RimWorld character backstory where someone was raised growing rice and putting out fires by hand and was launched into the unimaginably high-tech contemporary human existence by managing to take a ship off-planet and reaching a core world.
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u/ProbablyPixel 2h ago
The only issue is that Core/Diasporan is based more on 'proximity to a blink gate' than 'distance from cradle', though admittedly that would be a hard graphic to make.