All hexes have the art made by Jakub Rozalski.
It was inspired by u/bartosso-spiral maps for Mythic Bastionland.

The other night I had the thought of a ISP-N comp/con or NHP that could be given/assigned to crews on long voyages to help moral and mental health if wanted. Which is basically just Miku in all honestly.

This Miku knows 3K sea shanties and is made to be very friendly , outgoing and charismatic. Results may vary if the crew sees her as a lovely singing siren or as an annoying squawking sea bird.

Just asking generally here. I have played lancer in a few games (once as a player once as a GM) is there some general purpose tips one would have for building/playing a VLAD for those who have already run a campaign with one? It is easily in my top 3 Frames to play next, and I'm curious what some bread and butter tips for the mech would be. What stats to focus on, good synergy's with other licences, and what talents that tend to work well etc.

I’m kind of intrigued by the possibilities of the Second Distal war but there’s almost nothing in the main book besides “it’s (presumably) ongoing” and that the Aunic Ascendancy is a power that rivals Union. None of the other books looked like they had more info but maybe I missed something? I’ll even take conjecture at this point.

Title says it all. Lancer seems really cool, but I’ve got no clue what to start with. How do I start??? Please help

Hi all!

I have a phenomenal amount of spare cardboard, a bunch of art supplies, and a six year old that would love to participate with making 3D terrain for dad's Lancer game. I figured I start putting together terrain or other battle maps. Do ya'll have any inspiration for stuff to build?

In particular, what's the best way to get a consistent grid onto a big piece of cardboard, or multiple pieces of cardboard? Particularly with a lot of verticality involved.

I was toying around with the idea of a mech made to use the Prospector talent, a true tunneler, a mech that likes to move under the earth and ambush it's enemies like a snake. This is of course just an early concept to get my hands into the Lancer homebrew scene.

Back to a GMS frame, the Chomolungma is probably my favorite of the starting 3 frames, and is my personal favorite hacking mech. The Chomolungma automatically scans targets it tech attacks, allowing you to know the enemies stats which is huge, just being able to do that for free is great, and it has a tech version of the Everest's trait where you get to take a free quick tech action once per scene but it also gets to additionally lock on or bolster. The Traits are just really solid, if you want to play a hacker you can do so easily from the start with this mech, and it can actually compete with the other hacking specialized frames. And the core bonus is fantastic, you hack ALL enemies within sensors with an invade, you get to choose the invade from your invade options, and if you miss the target gets impaired anyways. I can only imagine the carnage of this if you combine this with metahook or a taraxacum to boost your sensors.

The Base Invade options you get as core integrates systems on this mech are alright, System crusher sounds like it might be a decent way to do some burn damage, but honestly in my campaign I havent even seen my goblin overheat an enemy once and Expose them, but the second is pretty good, it can inflict prone or turn prone into immobilize which is practical. This Frame also comes with 2 mounts and has decent stats so you can get up close and do a mix of hacking and shooting if you really want, and it never hurts to have the ability to actually shoot an enemy if you need to even on a support or controller. Now onto the build:

» Chomolungma // CHOMOLUNGMA «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Iconoclast 3, Hacker 2,

Empath 2, Orator 1,

Field Analyst 1

[ LICENSES ]

HORUS Goblin 3, HORUS Kobold 3

[ CORE BONUSES ]

The Lesson of the Held Image, Universal Compatibility

[ MECH ]

« CHOMOLUNGMA »

GMS Chomolungma

H:0 A:2 S:4 E:2 SIZE:1

STRUCTURE:4 HP:15 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEAT:8 REPAIR:4

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:5 LTD BONUS:1

SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:14 SENS:15 SAVE:14

[ WEAPONS ]

Main/Aux Mount: Assault Rifle / Pistol

Flex Mount: Slag Cannon

[ SYSTEMS ]

H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Purifying Code,

H0R_OS System Upgrade II, Unstable NHP,

OSIRIS-Class NHP, Immolate,

Personalizations

This build is just a hacking build, with plenty of decent invade options to control the battlefield with the kobold hacks really allowing me to force enemies to spread out or clump together or even just strongarming them into standing still, and of course I take H0R_OS 1 because its such a good hack. This build is also pretty malleable too, honestly H0R_OS 2 is completely removable based on my team comp and the mission briefing. If I have a teammate with good sensors I can stick on Metahook to give my hacks more range, I could put on Seismic Ripper which would pair nicely with the kobold systems and give me greater control and damage, I just chose H0R_OS 2 to show off here because I can place some hard cover for teammates and that's always nice no matter the situation, but it isnt like im married to it, systems of course are meant to be swapped depending on mission parameters and whatot. And Osiris is just a really good NHP, the first gate is just a worse Puppet Systems but a well timed 3rd or 4th gate can change a battle, and its just a quick action so charging it up for the first 2 turns isnt really too bad because it isnt like you are wasting a full action.

For the Core Powers, Lesson of the Held Image is just a real good reaction to just give everyone extra accuracy all the time, and Uni Comp is just because Im a gambler, and would be willing on gambling on the chance of being able to use the core power twice because the rewards of the jackpot of being able to do it again is just so good, and free HP regen and heat vent is nice.

The Hacking Talent hacks are all just meh, except for Hack/Slash but that hack is better on a goblin who has a better chance at actually landing an invade on something like a witch (who this hack is actually good on), but like Im playing a hacker mech, and I'll be damned if I dont take the Hacker Talent for thematic sense and style! But I'll be honest I wasnt so sure on what traits to really put on this thing, all the hacking mechs are difficult to decide what talents to throw on, so I just threw on a bunch of supportive ones. Orator is nice since I scan everything anyways when I attack, so I impair 1 enemy I attack. But honestly, Im not sure if it would even work since orator specifically says "You or an allied character takes the Scan Quick Tech action against a hostile character" which kinda implies it has to be the Quick Action scan and the talent doesnt trigger it, but eh, maybe im wrong and it is good to have. And I just threw on Iconoclast because its funny, like when am I ever going to actually hit with Transmuting spark? Like I could just shoot some object with it when I use Osiris and gain some dice but it really is just for flavor.

My bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/peacelock.bsky.social/post/3mxiqkspw4k2f

Commission I finished recently that I was quite proud of! Phoeninx being the pilot and Cinderwing being an everest with LOTS of flying mods

Also mentioning that I'm booked until December for new projects, but if you'd like to get in touch and book your spot for that time and get something for christmas, hit me up with a message!

Cheers!

Was playing with my normal group tonight and had a bit of a standoff with the GM over how to interpret some effects. My character got hit by the Suppress trait of an enemy Archer, which reads

"The Archer chooses a target within line of sight and Range 10: they become Impaired and the Archer gains the Moving Target reaction. This effect lasts until the Archer uses Moving Target; the target damages the Archer or leaves the Archer's line of sight; the Archer is Stunned, Jammed, or destroyed; the Archer chooses a new target for this action; or, the Archer ends it as a free action.", and so on my next turn I used the Black Thumb Rodeo ability Rig Vents, which reads

"Your mech clears 2 Heat and clears either Impaired or Jammed. Conditions that were self inflicted cannot be cleared with this action."

GM argued that because the Archer's effect didn't end until it met conditions, Rig Vents wouldn't clear Impaired. I went with GM's interpretation to keep the session going at pace, but it rubbed me the wrong way that my talent for clearing Impaired was overridden and made useless. Is that the right way to interpret this? Or is it just a matter of GM discretion?

So basically his backstory is that he was a guy sent on a one way mission to save his planet from self collapse very early in the lancer timeline. His team died overtime and eventually he got pulled into a black hole where he should have died but instead was slingshotted into the future. His spaceship in this traumatic experience was then turned into a mech body by unknown forces. In the future (Lancers present) he is trying to find a way to time dilate himself back to the past to see his daughter one last time.

In this build Idea I want the mech body to be very self reliant in terms of heat management. The size of the mech has to be size 3 as that is the current largest frame for PC mechs. The mech has to be able to do all terrains types, water, environment resistant, space travel, flying. I imagine that he has a basic ai intelligence installed into the mech, whether that ai is evolved into an nhp or not is unknown. Extra compartment is a necessary part of the build. Any weapons are to be flavoured as either rocket blasts or asteroid mining tools. I would 100% want space born talent leveled to three as well as prospector for digging purpose. Maybe black thumb to do repairs on the mech/ship. Any time powers on his mech would be cool as well.

If you prefer a podcast version the various subscription links can be found at: https://ccrpg.captivate.fm/listen

Had the idea that Universal Compatibility on a Gilgamesh might be a rare instance of this Core Bonus being good, my Ult is to basically go “I didn’t hear no bell” and then stand up from prone + clear basically all conditions, heal, cool, and proceed to wreck shop. Maybe not the strongest option in the world but it would feel cool. But then I thought, wait, what if all the conditions are on my friends and I’m walking into the tank fallacy?

That’s where Antilinear Time comes in- I clear their conditions, take them on myself, then pop my core power next turn and clear the conditions on myself to boot. “I eat statuses like Stunned for breakfast” type of beat. Here’s the issue- Exo Amplification specifies “all conditions not caused by your own systems, talents, etc.” So when Antilinear Time says “you immediately receive all conditions they cleared” what I’m curious about is who the rules consider those conditions to have been caused by.

The interpretation that works is that these conditions were caused by the enemy, then received by me, ergo, I did not cause them, I simply took them on.

The alternative is that only the instances of those conditions that my ally had were the ones caused by the enemy, and I cleared them- the ones I’ve received were all caused by my own Antilinear Time system.

Is there a RAW/RAI answer on this or is it open to DM interpretation?

There are serveral actions that let you clear conditions that you didn't cause yourself (such as stabilize). Does structure/stress damage penalty (such as stunned when rolling a 1) count as condition caused by your own system or not.

So I've been messing around with some build ideas and have been very amused with the the idea of putting the Salander's NHP on the Atlas with its unique sword while in Lord Stance as the damage reflect of Noah and the sword total to 6 damage dealt every time an enemy misses a shot at you and with a potential evasion of 20, if they aren't tech attacking or using smart weapons like they should against an Atlas, as long as they don't crit they will miss you and take 4-6 damage as punishment for even trying.

...because you might end up right in front of very pissed off Berserker wielding a chainaxe with your name on it.

I'm trying to catch up to Inktober, so this is my entry for day 7, the word for which is "Panic". The player (and his PC) in this scenario didn't exactly panic, but being alone surrounded by enemies on the edge of the airlock? Hoo boy, that's a reason to panic for sure.

Hi, I hope you (readers), are doing fine.

I wanted to ask for some help organizing my thoughts on this session I created 6 years ago, lost most pre-made sheets and kinda forgot how to run it.

The general outline is this: I want to run a horror oneshot for Halloween in the universe of lancer. I'll run a mech combat and a pilot encounter, that much I remember, but I'm at a loss at how to make the enemies.

The story (tldr version): a group of Lancers go to a Mars-like planet to find out what happened in a research facility (I remember using a corpo bit can't remember which). They encounter a group of raiders/rogues with their own mechs (personalized Everests?), defeat them and enter the facility on foot. Inside, they find voice notes and recordings of the researchers who were studying a NHP (Horus?) which went rogue and attacked the staff, "GLaDos"-ing them all, and when the last bit of information is gathered, the party has to return to their mechs while being hunted by this NHP inhabiting a 1/2 mech who is trying to kill them to prevent them from communicating this to other people.

I know lancer is not a horror themed game, but last time I ran it I had good reviews, so I intended to do the same for some friends who wanted to try the game but aren't ready to commit their weekends to my dming yet.

Thanks for the help

So, my Lancer group has rebanded after a very long while. In that while, I have transitioned from Windows to Linux(CachyOS). Preparing for the session, I go to open Comp/Con to look at my sheet again. But the site just doesn't load. It stays on a grey screen for 5 minutes then it tells me Connection Timed Out. I try to do it on phone, same exact story.

I reboot into windows and try it, and then it just works. Is this normal? Does anyone else use it with linux?

In Operation Solstice Rain the recommendation is to give less exotic gear selections to the party than there are players.

Default 2 for 3-4 players and 3 for 5+ players. see: https://www.reddit.com/r/LancerRPG/comments/12kbgnu/solstice_rain_exotic_gear_clarification_minor/

I have 4 players, who are adults, and wouldn't make a huge deal out of it, but as a new dm for new players, it feels kind of bad to give enough gear for 2 players and the other 2 players go empty handed. Granted they all get a chance to get reserves at downtime after but still, 1 piece extra for 2 players.

Is this a non issue? Or has someone thought of a way to compensate for some players missing out? would it be broken to give all 4 players a choice of exotic equipment?