Quote from: Venka on April 17, 2025, 04:11:35 PMLancer is famously political, with devs that push for both identity politics and actual economic leftism.  They also run around on social media making their position very clear.  It's certainly enough that I'd never consider touching their game- it can't be good enough to be worth all that baggage.

Basically getting banned from their discord is a minor badge of honor at least.

I was looking for a space opera game, and something crunchier than my regular style of game. There are some good sci-fi tropes in there, the background story is more fluffy than just pure leftist propaganda. So I thought I could make my own soup of the game and see passed its political agenda which is hard to avoid as it is kind of in your face the way it is written. Now I feel i have invested hours in reading and prepping for my game sessions I feel stupid not to give it a go. Is there a sain way one can play a leftist game and dissociate from the stain attached to it? What would be a good alternative game do you think? Traveller? Coriolis?

Wow OP, guess you shoulda seen the signs:

Quotethe end of the Anthropocene as a consequence of unrestrained consumption and poor stewardship.

With a survival imperative motivated by this cultural history, humanity's organizing body, Union, seeks to manage the galaxy to ensure we'll never again be faced with extinction.

Quote from: Spooky on April 17, 2025, 11:59:03 PMWow OP, guess you shoulda seen the signs:

Quotethe end of the Anthropocene as a consequence of unrestrained consumption and poor stewardship.

With a survival imperative motivated by this cultural history, humanity's organizing body, Union, seeks to manage the galaxy to ensure we'll never again be faced with extinction.

I thought that I can adapt this Union thing as a version of the Empire in Star Wars... That's what I thought initially people would understand it is, I thought Union it is obviously the bad guys of the setting... but no! All the kids on the PilotNET discord think Union is actually something great! A lot of the written content of the books are also obviously aimed at discrediting culture and identiy, it's all about merging of classes and tradition in a big cosmic soup... Fuck! I feel robed of my enthousiasm for a new game. I am a very everything or nothing kind of guy, and like a possessed, I spent the last three weeks digging deep into that setting trying to figure out a way to make it work for me,... I guess it didn't work, I tried, I can see I don't have the psychological means to dissociate from the message a game wants to sell... an interesting position I find myself into, kind of a painful realisation... I would have to cut off parts of myself or put blinders on to allow myself to enjoy or master/redirect the setting in a personal way... too much wasted energy I guess, when I could simply start from a more generic setting and topple it my way. But what setting? Traveller? Coriolis? What sci-fi game would you recommend?

Quote from: Adrien Sourdot on April 18, 2025, 12:22:42 AMI thought that I can adapt this Union thing as a version of the Empire in Star Wars... That's what I thought initially people would understand it is, I thought Union it is obviously the bad guys of the setting... but no! All the kids on the PilotNET discord think Union is actually something great!

WOW. Do you even know what a union in real life is or what side of politics its advocates are on?? It makes it pretty clear from the most general discripton of the universe I could quickly find they are supposed to be the good guys and saviours.

QuoteA lot of the written content of the books are also obviously aimed at discrediting culture and identiy, it's all about merging of classes and tradition in a big cosmic soup... Fuck!

No shit. Doesn't surprise me at all. It shouldn't have surprised you after you read (?) the basic outline of the world.

QuoteWhat sci-fi game would you recommend?

I wouldn't recommend a game so much as a show.

I'm currently watching Zeta Gundam for the first time. It's a party.

The Gundam UC setting is pretty plausible (except for the mecha.

My all time favourite Sci Fi set up is Macross. But I would play any gritty '80s Jap real robot show. Go for L-Gaim for heroic down to Gundam and Layzner in the middle to Dougram or Votoms at the realistic gritty end. Start with the setup of the show and then branch off from the official storyine depending on what your PCs do.

If you want a game to match these worlds I would NOT recommend the Palladium Robotech RPG (Even though my 12 year old self would). I'd use Mekton or GURPS Mecha. But, especially for the latter you're gonna have to do A LOT of statting out..come to think of it, I bet someone out there has done stats for Zeta Gundam mecha in Mekton? - the game aesthetic is basically based on that show.

I don't know what Coreolis is (that part of a tit around the nipple?) and I've never played Traveller, but I don't think Traveller has mecha? I think Lancer is a mecha game??

Quote from: Adrien Sourdot on April 17, 2025, 11:58:46 PM

Quote from: Venka on April 17, 2025, 04:11:35 PMLancer is famously political, with devs that push for both identity politics and actual economic leftism.  They also run around on social media making their position very clear.  It's certainly enough that I'd never consider touching their game- it can't be good enough to be worth all that baggage.

Basically getting banned from their discord is a minor badge of honor at least.

I was looking for a space opera game, and something crunchier than my regular style of game. There are some good sci-fi tropes in there, the background story is more fluffy than just pure leftist propaganda. So I thought I could make my own soup of the game and see passed its political agenda which is hard to avoid as it is kind of in your face the way it is written. Now I feel i have invested hours in reading and prepping for my game sessions I feel stupid not to give it a go. Is there a sain way one can play a leftist game and dissociate from the stain attached to it? What would be a good alternative game do you think? Traveller? Coriolis?

Traveller (either Classic or Mongoose 2e), Cepheus Engine, Mekton (II or Zeta, if you want mecha) would be good. Cyberpunk 2020 with the Near Orbit/Deep Space supplements. For added fun, you can combine Mekton and Cyberpunk using the conversion rules in Roadstriker II since they are all made by R Talsorian Games and use very compatible systems.

There's simply no reason to play a system or a game from a community mired in the swamp of leftism.  Not these days, where there are so many options.  I love Terran Trade Authority, but the RPG injected enough garbage politics and anti-religious allegory for me to reject it.  I'm not missing much.  It uses the omni system anyway.

The only problem I see is this is one of the few 'RPGs' that all but requires external toolsets to play, which are potentially gatekept by an ideologically mob. Quotes because the RPG aspects are at best cutscenes to the primary gameplay mode which is tactical miniatures, and running a single objective will often take up the entire session leaving no room for the former.

The setting itself has a ridiculously liberal license however, effectively permitting anyone to use and add to it in any media they chose, which has resulted in numerous well designed but unlicensed supplementary materials. So potentially you could roll your own. Question is would such be worth it, and would the holders change the license in response?

Quote from: Adrien Sourdot on April 17, 2025, 11:58:46 PMIs there a sain way one can play a leftist game and dissociate from the stain attached to it? What would be a good alternative game do you think? Traveller? Coriolis?

There's a bunch of fully automated luxury gay space communism stuff in the background material but none of it really matters much in actual play.  You are generally out on the borderlands where none of that stuff really applies.  The background stuff barely even matters.

Quote from: Spooky on April 16, 2025, 08:00:25 PMI don't allow women in my games and advertise as so.

It's called freedom of association.

Keeping the gaming atmosphere simple?

Quote from: Venka on April 17, 2025, 04:11:35 PMLancer is famously political, with devs that push for both identity politics and actual economic leftism.  They also run around on social media making their position very clear.  It's certainly enough that I'd never consider touching their game- it can't be good enough to be worth all that baggage.

Basically getting banned from their discord is a minor badge of honor at least.

I have been hearing nothing good about Lancer so far and have spotted them even spam shilling it on various forums where it is not relevant. Usually not a good sign right there.

Speaking of mecha RPGs based on amime.

Check out the Armored Trooper Votoms TPG by R. Talsorian. uses the old FUSION system as its base.
Its based on a rather gritty anime where the mecha are effectively a bridge between power armor and actual mecha.

Personally I wish someone had done a Fang of the Sun Dougram RPG as its still hands down one of the better tactical mecha anime out there. Though you could play it with the Mechwarrior RPG as Battletech uses several mecha from Dougram. The classic Shadowhawk from BT is the Doughram.

Though I'll always have a soft spot for the original Robotech RPG.

Quote from: Omega on April 18, 2025, 04:30:20 PMSpeaking of mecha RPGs based on amime.

Check out the Armored Trooper Votoms TPG by R. Talsorian. uses the old FUSION system as its base.
Its based on a rather gritty anime where the mecha are effectively a bridge between power armor and actual mecha.

Personally I wish someone had done a Fang of the Sun Dougram RPG as its still hands down one of the better tactical mecha anime out there. Though you could play it with the Mechwarrior RPG as Battletech uses several mecha from Dougram. The classic Shadowhawk from BT is the Doughram.

Though I'll always have a soft spot for the original Robotech RPG.

Oh they did a Votoms game? Cool. There's your answer OP. No statting up required if you go for that universe.

Some say Votoms is an extension of Dougram if not a direct sequel. Same guy, Takahashi. I got through all 3 boxes of Dougram last year. It was worth it, great show. At first it seems like a Gundam clone (revolting colony) but it has some cool original sci fi concepts and a very different storyline. There are very good tactical setups almost every episode. I didn't like the characters much though. I plan to wargame it with the 1/72 kits I have. I'm going to flip the script and make the Dougram the objective. The good guys are the Earthlings.