Pierce the Heavens
A downloadable Lancer module
Fight the Power!
Pierce the Heavens is a third party module for the Lancer RPG system, inspired by Gurren Lagann and intended for a party of three to five LL0 characters. This 8-12 hour module centers the player characters (PCs) as orchestrators of a miners’ revolt, liberating workers from a deep underground mine while evading the clutches of a despot and her cronies.
Pierce the Heavens plays like a mech-scale prison break: PCs start with no mech, pilot armor, or pilot weapons, and only one piece of pilot gear of their choice. The PCs must acquire their mechs, reserves, and other pilot gear through exploring the mining community of Kestrel's Bounty. Only then will they be ready to take the fight to their oppressors!
In this module, you will find:
- One full-length Lancer mission featuring both narrative and combat beats.
- Details on Kestrel's Bounty, an underground mining settlement composed of three major locales.
- Supporting rules for narrative play while exploring the setting.
- Combat encounters presented with tactical advice and interactive environments.
- Two full-color battlemaps with square, hex, and gridless variants.
- A stylized pdf created with my Lancer RPG Template and an accessible, simplified pdf for screen readers.
RALLY THE WORKERS FOR REVOLT.
SEIZE THE MEANS OF DESTRUCTION.
ASCEND, AND BECOME LANCERS.
Content Warning
This module deals with topics of worker suppression through police and state violence. This is depicted through mistreatment of workers, unjust incarceration, kidnapping, propaganda, and veiled physical abuse. In addition, this module includes scenes with mild claustrophobic imagery, as well as a brief depiction of starving people.
Licensing & Additional Information
Pierce the Heavens was written as part of the Summer 2022 "Write Your First Adventure" course, hosted by Storytelling Collective's RPG Writer Workshop.
This module references NPCs and sitreps from the full, paid version of the Lancer Core Book. It additionally draws upon lore and information from the Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies, though the supplement is not required to run the module.
The battle maps were made in Dungeondraft using:
- Scifi Basic Asset Pack, Red Desert Planet Asset Pack, and Starfinder Asset Pack by Captain Tom's Asset Emporium, used under CAL-BY-NCR.
- Hex Grid Patterns by EightBitz, used under CAL-NR.
Pierce the Heavens is not an official Lancer product; it is a third party work, and is not affiliated with Massif Press. Pierce the Heavens is published via the Lancer Third Party License.
Lancer is copyright Massif Press.
Purchase
In order to download this Lancer module you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Intro to Pierce the Heavens, by Dragonkid11!Jan 17, 2023
- v1.2 Update!Dec 27, 2022
- Pierce the Heavens featured on Win With Dice!Sep 28, 2022
- v1.1 Update!Sep 23, 2022
Comments
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Hey, was planning to run this adventure but I was wondering, is the lcp file only supposed to contain one system or is it supposed to have NPC data too?
Hello! The LCP only contains a single piece of custom exotic gear, correct. This module does not include any new NPC data; it simply references NPC material from the paid version of the Lancer Core Book. I intentionally do not include any prebuilt NPCs to avoid running afoul of the Lancer Third Party License. If CompCon changes how it stores its exported NPC data in the future, it may then be possible to safely include prebuilt NPC encounters. For now, this module will require a prospective GM to build the NPCs and encounters themselves. Thank you for understanding!
Ok, thanks for responding, I just didn't know if a link was broken or something!
Thanks for the adventure, love the layout and the vibes, has fantastic production.
I do have a few questions, if you don't mind though: When the players get their mechs at the beginning, there isn't really a guidance for what that looks like. Are they designing their own LL0 mechs as normal (Access to all normal options) or is it intended to be limited in some way due to being in this mining camp? I had assumed the players might need to be using the Printer in the Supply Depot to make "reserves" in the form of weapons for the mechs they'll be piloting, but that might be wrong?
The second question is more of a suggestion related to the Reserves, in the section of the adventure where it mentioned gaining reserves, I feel like it would have been nice to give a curated list of suggested gains, rather than just the open concept of Reserves (pg 51). I am going to work out more specifics as to what they might be getting by earning reserves, because I don't think players will be making too much use of an Orbital Drop, or CORE Battery.
Hello, glad the adventure resonates with you! To answer your questions:
For acquiring mechs, the intent is that the players design their mechs ahead of time as part of character creation. Then, when they print their mechs in-fiction, they’re simply the same mechs as the players designed. Whether this is because the characters customized the mechs themselves or because the UIB print codes are just perfectly tailored for them is up to the table.
A curated list of reserves could be useful! When I ran a playtest of the adventure, I cherry-picked reserves from the Lancer Core Book that seemed to fit the moment of the narrative. So, I simply didn’t pick reserves that didn’t make much sense in-fiction (like Orbital Drop as-written, though it could maybe be refluffed). I’ll keep a suggested list in mind for a future revision; for the time being, my best recommendation is to pick what feels right in the moment.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, and I hope you and your table enjoy the adventure!
There's a bit of an issue -- in the intro, the doctor will let any PC take the drill, but then the combat "Grit Those Teeth" relies on the drill being in the enemy's custody and not safe in one of the mech cockpits.
Knowing PCs, if they have the drill on hand, they're going to ask why they can't just leave the doctor to his fate and deploy it in another location. Surely the doctor should hold onto it "for safekeeping" while the PCs are out doing all this dangerous could-be-captured-or-killed stuff.
Thank you for the feedback! I mostly didn’t want to have to press the issue if the PCs wanted to hold onto the drill. The primary in-universe reasoning I had was that the dig site would be the safest place to deploy the drill. Dmitri’s capture is primarily intended to motivate the PCs to fight in the dig site, but if the PCs want to deploy the drill elsewhere, I see no reason to stop them other than “this is the map and combat I prepared”. Combat 2 should likely happen regardless, for the reasons outlined in the sidebar “Elevator, Going Up”.
I may make adjustments to this in a future version, to make it clear to a GM that they can allow alternative deployment locations or simply solidifying an in-universe reason for why the drill needs deployed in the dig site (or even just explicitly have Dmitri hold onto it for the reasons you stated). Thank you again for the feedback; I’ll take note of it for future revisions!
Purchased! Awesome definitely going to run this.
Thank you! I hope you and your table enjoy it!
This is a fantastic idea and i'm immediately buying this when I have money again.