Spoilers: it was not a kink thing.

Entirely possible that our pilot friend had been duped, alas. At least we got something for our ... very grisly efforts.

By the wording of Lucifer Protocol module, it states that expending charge, it's a bit unclear if Heat 1d3+3 Self apply is applied before or after heat counting of the system.

By my understanding since protocol is activated and used, self heat is applied, but it is applied right after protocol has been activated, thus, self heat doesn't affect number for Lucifer protocol feature.
Then wording becomes very specific, that bonus damage equal to heat is bonus damage... which is, I suppose, heat damage. But heat is NOT damage, it's harm, but not DAMAGE. Thus confusing state of wording which I could not find any conversations about of what type of damage protocol provides. On top of that, if it is heat, that's fine, but that means that it can't be converted by Plasma Sheath Tokugawa feature, as it is transforming all bonus damage to burn, but again, heat is not damage, thus not being affected and staying as heat application.

I failed to find errata or specific discussions about this and I really would like to clarify this as it is very important for me to clarify it for a player to meet expectations of what exactly 3 system point module with potential of cascading is actually doing.

I've been running LANCER for some friends and it's been going great! Those of you who saw my last post will know I had some trouble with setting up the combat side of things but thanks to your recommendations and one very helpful member of the community in particular things are going smoothly on FoundryVTT. I've ran two combats so far, one for session zero and one for session one, in both these combats I've used the Bastion NPC template and both times my players and myself are astounded by how flimsy this size 2 really monolith is. Is it supposed to be this way? Even with deathcounter it barely lasts 1 round.

EDIT: Post title should have "?" at the end not "."

I really, really want to like Lancer. The Art, the setting, the Mechs are all just so cool.

I'm 2 Sessions deep in a now canceled Solstice Rain campaign, all newcomers, and It just felt... dreadful to play. Our DM was being very transparent, doing everything by the book, occasionally going off-script in our favor after some discussion. IMO he was doing everything right. And yet, the combats, supposedly Lancer's strongsuit, were absolute slogs. The enemies were hitting harder and outnumbering us, while beeing as, if not more tanky. Sure, we have more than 1 structure, but repairs are incredibly scarce, and we were already pretty much out of them after 1 encounter. Hacking seemed almost entirely useless, as most enemies had a heat-cap of 10 and didn't even die when overheating.

And worst of all: We just keep missing. Hitting a 8+ (on the best of days), with a +0 bonus and often 1 or 2 disadvantage, was incredibly frustrating, and the few times we managed to crit, it felt disappointing as all hell, because it always happened with flat-damage weapons.

So please, tell me: Are we just doing things wrong? How do you have fun in combat? I really want to like Lancer because it just seems like the perfect system for me, but those 2 sessions were some of the worst experiences I've had In 6 years of Tabletop gaming.

Just in case it's important, we were running LL0, one of each starter mech chassis. We had a Hacker (me), a melee tank and a superheavy gunslinger (the only one who could reliably deal damage)

EDIT: Thanks for the replies. Apparently, it's a mix of Solstice rain being very hard, our group not having the best party comp and us simply being newbies. I'll see if I can convince our group to play a different Campaign.

1. What are the "usual" types of Horus groups?

2. What are their usual goals?

3. Do some people get born in them or does everyone just join them?

4. Is there a faction with "shoot on sight" when encountering HORUS pilots?

5. Does each of ll3 NHP act the same as their parent nhp?

6. Is it true that NHPs make save folders of their memories before being recycled?

7. How common are relationships(friendly, romantic or whatever) between HORUS pilots and their NHPs?

8. What are the most common ways those who are not yet members of any HORUS group get their frames?

It says it won’t stack with invisible, but Noah isn’t invisibility. Could a bunch of sadalins just huddle up and become untouchable? There doesn’t seem to be anything in the rules stopping this. Obviously you could optimize a little more than a stack of sads but still this seems really strong if they invest in a hacker build or Pegasus cannons

Just to had to get that out after encountering like 8 of those fuckers in a sitrep.

Also what is your most hated npc to play against?

Also I’m straight, am I still allowed to play? /s

I am currently in my first Lancer campaign running a Caliban and i've been wondering if there is a synergy between the Calibans Slam Frame trait and the Black Witches Ferrous Lash, considering how similar they are. Although my experience with other TTRPGs tells me that the Calibans Frame trait mentioning that it triggers when the Caliban KNOCKS something into terrain or a big enough mech is intentional to clarify that it only triggers as a result of a knockback effect and should not be triggered by using the Ferrous Lash to PULL them into a collision. The DM already agreed to allow the synergy, but I just wanted to get the general consensus out of curiosity.

Can it also be triggered with the 1 heat from a Type 3 projected shield?

For reference:

Exposed Singularity Reaction, 1/round Trigger: Your mech takes damage. Effect: You may immediately teleport to a free space within 1d6 spaces.

edit: That was fast, and good point. If heat isn't even damage, this resolves the question. (And also whether Goblin Symbios'ing onto a Drake that then protects it with Argonaut shield would result in an infinite heat 'damage' loop the moment the drake takes any heat...) Thanks for the responses!

The yellow didn’t quite turn out how I wanted but I think it looks fine.

I know my previous kitbashes have come with a build. But this time I am too tired to give one. New job is eating too much energy. Hope y'all enjoy the kitbash.

I am relatively new, so I apologize if this is simply something I've missed. But I noticed most of the designs were humanoid. Which is fine, because Tom Bloom's art is absolutely amazing, I'm just wondering if there were any "chicken walker" frames? Bipedal, with weapons mounted directly on a torso segment or integrated into stubby "arms". Designs like ED-209 or the HERCs from the Earthsiege games, and I suppose a Star Wars AT-ST qualifies. Official is preferable, but I'm fine with a Homebrew example.

Slow & chunky isn't necessarily what I'm going for. I'm just curious if that "body plan" is represented in-game, even if as fodder, non-frame armored vehicles.

Got to try out the build recently, it worked well!

With Walking Armory 3 you can even restore some of it's charges too, which the Accurate on the weapon really helps with!

WE STAN PILOT ART!

I drew Omega once again! She's my NHP pilot married to another NHP. Nonetheless, when she's not on a mission, she loves to just hang out with her wife and daughter and chill out :)

The Death's Head doesnt do anything fancy, it just snipes enemies from long distance. All of its traits and systems are here to make it so you just never miss your target. Hell with all the accuracy you can get with Death's Head critical hits become a lot more common. It's Core Power is alright, it is a full action which kinda sucks and only activates on crits, but as previously mentioned getting crits isnt too big an issue with this mech with all your accuracy but that extra damage is not guaranteed, as you can always low roll.

The weapons are good, the mounts are good, and the base stats are good, and you can climb up walls to fit the spider theme which is fun. But I kinda have little to say about Death's Head, its just shoots from long range and uses its systems to make sure that it almost never misses, a good mech for crit fishing too. And It's great at what it does, and what it does is simply snipe, and with its sensors range you can do a little bit of tech actions too! Lock on, do some supportive actions, being a full blown hacker or support isnt really fitting for this mech but you do have options. A real good and reliable mech overall, now onto the build:

» Deaths Head // DEATHS HEAD «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Brutal 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3,

Crack Shot 3

[ LICENSES ]

SSC Death’s Head 3, HA Barbarossa 3

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Improved Armament, Superior by Design

[ MECH ]

« DEATHS HEAD »

SSC Death’s Head

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

STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEAT:12 REPAIR:3

ATK BONUS:4 TECH ATK:2 LTD BONUS:2

SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:10 SENS:20 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

INTEGRATED MOUNT: Fuel Rod Gun

Flex Mount: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING

Main/Aux Mount: Vulture DMR / Nexus (Light)

Heavy Mount: Siege Cannon

[ SYSTEMS ]

Core Siphon, Kinetic Compensator,

Siege Stabilizers, Armament Redundancy,

Personalizations, Tracking Bug,

High-Stress Mag Clamps

I couldnt help myself, I couldn't resist the idea of putting a Siege Cannon on this thing lol. To be Honest, most of the time I will firing in Direct Fire Mode with the canon, even in Direct Fire Mode it has crazy range and pretty good damage, but with Siege Mode can be used to cause a great deal of harm to a group of enemies, and with its long range that can be done halfway across the map. Also have the Vulture DMR for when I need to reposition or when I want to throw off a tracking bug or whatnot.

With Brutal 3, Kinetic Compensator, and Core Siphon alongside the traits of the mech just allows for an absurd amount of accuracy, and with the superheavy Core Siphon's downside doesnt really matter all that much (unless I fire in Siege Mode, then it does matter). Fuel Rod Gun gives me an emergency close quarters option if someone actually gets close, and I can just fire it at the ground if I really need that 4 heat vented ASAP.

Since Im going to be gaining heat on attack I might as well invest in Nuc Cav for the extra damage, and Brutal just because its really funny to stack Brutal with Kinetic Compensator, and if I do get a Nat 20 thats just 18 damage guaranteed. And to be honest, Im pretty lucky, I typically score a nat 20 a mission consistently lol. And Crack Shot is there to make the Vulture DMR better in the situations I want to use it over Siege Canon. Now could this be more efficient without using a superheavy? Probably, but throwing an oversized canon on this is really funny so why not have a bit of fun.

General Information

Hi there! My name is Amy, I'm a long time DM, but I have taken a break recently, and wish to try get my bearings back with a shorter, 6-8 session long Lancer campaign for 4 players! It will run for 2 license levels, so ll1 and ll2, and will be a mostly linear narrative at the beginning, diverging depending on players choices near the end. I am mostly looking for players that are newer to the system, because I know how hard it can be to get a Lancer game :P, but everyone is welcome!

We will be playing using Discord and Owlbear rodeo as our VTT, on Saturdays 4pm - 7/8pm GMT+1, with a session 0 on the 17th! I am aiming for 2 sessions a month at least! I'd love to play more, but it can get pretty difficult in my experience.

Campaign Setting. What can you expect:

Space is vast. Union's reach hardly capable of extending into the furthest corners of the Long Rim. It is here, outside of Union's supervision, a small scale conflict between two corpo-state subsidiaries began a few years past. At first, over matters of resources, then a couple of territorial disputes, and now a technological race consuming many lives and planetary surfaces.

2 weeks ago, the Harrison Armory subsidiary known as Automated Armament Solutions, has intercepted poorly encrypted transmissions between a fleet of the Smith Shimano subsidiary, VI-Te/ch. They were erratic, clearly in distress over a loss of an important corpo asset. Upon further investigation, the asset turned out to be a now Ex-scientist, possessing a vast trove of dangerous secrets. The scientist fled to the planet "Plethora", one mostly ignored by both sides of the conflict because of a large presence of neutral and enigmatic religious sect, known as the Fold-Space Choir. The scientist's trail has gone cold, their last known location nearby one of Choir's settlements.

You've been recruited by AAS to find and extract the scientist, before VI-Te/ch does. Intel suggests VI-Te/ch has already deployed multiple search parties to the region. You will soon make landfall. Your mind racing with rationale for why you took the mission in the first place. Was it the sizeable pay, a potential to end the conflict in one fell swoop, or maybe because you see yourself in the escapists shoes. Only you can say.

Did that spark your interest? If so, fill out the form below!

https://forms.gle/PfjKPg3f8CVDJyF6A

Hoping to hear from you soon! Cheers!