Shot In The Dark

Shot In The Dark is a 3rd party Lancer supplement; the final version is an entire campaign book complete with 30+ base scenarios, each with several different versions that their GM can choose or randomize, and which escalate in improbability as timelines are abandoned and new ones leapt to. 

Currently this is simply the NPC Classes and Templates, as well as 3 Lancer Frames (2 alternates, 1 that requires no license). The full book will be somewhere over 300 pages, though we will see what the final value is once I go through and do art (and ideally, can scrape together some funding to not feel bad about the amount of time I've invested and to hire some community artists for some images, but we will see how things shake out).

“Welcome to the HearthForge Stellar Lighthouse T301 shipyard, Lancer! Having accepted selection for this long-term contract operation at the behest of the Union Science Bureau, you have been granted security access to much of the shipyard, as well as access to dossiers on several important factions and operatives on-board. You have been granted access to the HearthForge Research and Technology gear and equipment catalogue, as well as full control and use of Construction Bay A for the duration of the operation...”

A signal received on the rim of blink-connected space has lead to the reconnection of the Dororon System to Union and the rest of humanity. The histories and records of their original arrival to the system have been long destroyed, rewritten, or forgotten; their technologies and knowledge atrophied. Now, several planetary civilizations remain locked in a system-wide cold war, each with apocalyptic weaponry ready to retaliate against those who dare challenge their hegemony. Union offered to give them a bridge to the rest of the universe in exchange for the negotiation of peace treaties that ensure stability in their system. All involved factions agreed to begin talks, and ambassadors have traveled into Union space to begin to understand what they are all dealing with. Union’s end of the bargain is to lead the construction of a Blinkgate in Dororon, which is to be upheld by delivering a massive shipyard to act as a neutral ground and uplift all in the system, providing all of the technology and tools needed to reach the distant stars.

You have been sent to protect the shipyard and its passengers from any who would prevent the shipyards transit, harm those on board, or who would interrupt the final negotions that will take place aboard and en route. Tieke Alvei, the Union DOJ/HR agent in charge of the mission, has prepared for every eventuality, using the NHPs with whom she communes to protect the legionspace of the shipyard. For the rest, it will be up to your Lance to be the vanguard protecting all aboard. An escort fleet accompanies the shipyard a distance away, with guards from Union and the major powers of Dororon, and a force of Union Navy marines aboard the shipyard to protect Union interests, like the Lancers.

Each Location in the shipyard has different functions and resources available to it. It is up to the Lancers to decide where they will focus their efforts. Navigation of the shipyard will take time; Encounters will increase that time, make travel dangerous, or otherwise block progress until they are dealt with. Unknown Entities have their own schemes; targets they want to grab or destroy, or more arcane motivations, which will have notable consequences. As time progresses, parts of the shipyard can be damaged and even destroyed by events and other expeditions. Using your Construction Bay and the other machinery on board, you can create what you need to repair the structure and even replace entire tow ships, provided you have enough Resource Units and time to do so.

Alone But Not

The isolation of distance puts the shipyard far away from most; however, there are many technologies and means of interaction, from simple omninet messaging to local-space teleportation to path prediction and interception. The shipyard is vulnerable, on limited schedules of resources, and is a massive socio-political tool that could attract the ire of any number of individuals interested in the future of the Dororon System. They may have reinforcements. We likely do not - you are the reinforcements, the cavalry, prepared in advance by the 3rd commission of Union to resolve what comes; so make sure you bring along who and what you need.

Persistence Brings Progress

Even if all seems lost, Tieke and their several NHP allies have a powerful tool on which they will be focusing for the duration of the mission; integrated with the systems of the shipyard in the Probability Forge, they are able to activate a powerful ‘temporal reload’ that restarts the shipyard’s timeline at the beginning of your shift. This resets the entire nature of the shipyard’s situation by leaping to a nearby possible reality, presenting a new situation. Each time a pilot is reset by this ‘Reality Shift’, they gain ‘Reality Decoherence’, which results in the realities that they shift to becoming increasingly unlikely and strange - all while retaining the knowledge, licenses, and experiences from other timelines.

Shot In The Dark is not an official Lancer product; it is a third party work, and is not affiliated with Massif Press. Shot in the Dark is published via the Lancer Third Party License. Lancer is copyright Massif Press.