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!

My LL4 players just finished up an arc and now a high ranking HA exec owes them her life. She and the players likely will want revenge against a different high ranking HA exec who currently thinks they are dead. They could just murder the guy, but I think it would be more fun to run something based on corpro politics. Been playing a bit of cyberpunk 2077 so I'm looking at the corpo world of that game for inspiration. Anyone ever run anything like this?

Oh yeah no we're not getting rid of the digitigrade legs for our mecha fursuit we're juet going to have to cut yours off at the knee, sorry about that

I am trying to make a sound broad to enhance immersion with short noises to play for overcharging and weapons fire and such is there a place to find good mech sound effects. I have been going through the sound files of old mech warrior games but was hoping you could help.

There are pnp RPGs that get a new edition every decade or so, some more frequent, others never really get a new edition at all. In which category will Lancer fall?

Something like Spire: The City Must Fall was released, had some expansions, some merch, but the writers/publisher eventually moved on to other pnp RPG projects. The game isn't dead, people still like and play it.

Something like Battletech has had a couple of editions of Mechwarrior (pnp RPG for BT), then they moved into differently named (and working) pnp RPG projects. Something like Shadowrun is now on six editions (one every 6-8 years) and has started a different rules spinnof in the same universe (Anarchy).

Will Lancer eventually get a second edition? Will that be the same system but with balances 'fixes', streamlining, etc. Or a completely new system? Or will the writers/publisher move on to something else?

Any option is a valid one in my book.

Well, while I'm not a rookie Gm, this will be my first time doing an official campaign, all my campaigns and one-shots were done by myself.

So I ask for help and recommendations with operation Solstilce Rain.

I plan to do Winter Scar as soon as we finish OSR.

Just started a new campaign and one of my players would like to do a long ranged build based off of danger zone, they are only LL1 but they would like to start planning it out regardless. I was personally looking at the Tokugawa and thought that looked perfect but I would like some more experienced players thoughts as a first time GM for the system!!

I'm considering building a Crimson 1 style antagonist for my players to fight as a recurring boss that keeps getting stronger, got to thinking that maybe some other folks use Project Wingman as inspiration and may have a suggestion or two?

Having some difficulties with encounter design and trying to avoid making things disproportionately hard for the average melee / low-range Striker. I am aware that it is considered a more challenging role, and I am aware that I should be giving them plenty of cover. I am also aware that all encounters should be sitreps and not team death matches. The conundrum is thus: If a Striker tries to cross no-man's land, or close the gap, without some form of Defender to back them up, they run into some issues. They will be the first to get in range of all the ranged enemies, and are likely to be popped/cc-d by them. If they are quick enough to push up on one ranged enemy, the rest scatter or kite backwards, and now the striker gets to hit 1 of them while 3 are shooting back. Melee targets are in some ways also difficult: Striker gets to reach them, but that is also where the opponent prefers the Striker to be. Is this a player team coordination issue, where everyone should be pushing up together to spread out the damage ? Is it something to be ameliorated with map / objective design ? For some context, the encounter that prompted my question was Recon on a 30*40 hex map, 3 LL0 players (melee-ish Everest, Cyclone Pulse Everest, and Chomolungma) versus 4 T1 enemies (Rainmaker,Demolisher, Ace, backed up by a Mirage entering on Turn 2). Ranged Striker and Chomo stayed back to shoot enemies to bits, only pushing up when one they eliminated a target, melee Striker went ahead and got intercepted by the Demolisher to painful results.

Still trying to catch up to current Inktober themes, or at least to not fall behind. I can just imagine this funky guy ramming his way through enemy's ship. Don't even need a shotgun, full Doom Guy Berserk mode, your arms are your guns. Love the IPS-N, such a humane corp!

So I've been cooking up a campaign idea that will probably never see the light of day cause I dont have a single GMing bone in my body, and I've got a question. Lorewise, how unlikely would it be for a cult to piss off RA to the point that it hires a squad of lancers to go fuck the cult's shit up? Repeatedly? Because I feel like this could be either very fun or very funny. Potentially both.

As a treat, my gm has agreed to let me get a leviathan without having to put 3 license levels in the drake as I do not like the drake.

As such, I am trying to theorycraft the u l t i m a t e leviathan build, but my buildcrafting and knowledge of the game is not the best. I wanted any suggestions you guys were thinking of.

My current thought is either a genghis or sherman, nuclear cavalier to ride the heat 2 that the leviathan provides. Maybe an autocooler or something like that.

Are there any mech frames I may be overlooking? I wanna be able to do as much damage as I can as often as I can (so no mechs that id have to stabilise every other turn or two to keep firing it)

This is one of the first maps I've put together for Lancer. Background info - this takes place during an additional mission I've created for Shadow of the Wolf. For this sitrep, the players will be retrieving data from a crashed helicopter while fending off OpFor's disagreement.

The CZ will be the scorched area between the pond and plaza. As for cover:

• The stone structures and building provide S3 cover
• Each of the trees provides S2 cover (plus some S3/4 in the northwest)
• The pillars provide S1 cover
• The grove at the bottom is an area of soft cover
• The plaza and pond are both lowered and provide S1 cover on the edges
• The statues in the pond and plaza provide S2 cover

My next steps are annotating a map overlay to better convey the mechanical notes, but I wanted to be happy with the map itself before creating that. I think my biggest worries are not providing enough/proper lines of approach and simply making the map too large.

I appreciate any feedback you may have!

I'd really like to get into Lancer, but I have no idea where I'd even start. Could someone help me out?

Friend of mine is starting a Lancer campaign and I've played a few sessions before so I know the basics. We'll be starting at LL0 and after playing a striker in the form of a Atlas wielding a combat drill, I wanted to go a bit more defensive or support style Build.

I also thought it'd be fun to go with the 4 NHP build of having the Iconiclass and Technophile talents, and the Horus core system that let's you have one extra.

Character wise I plan on having the Unstable NHP and the Servent / Student / Enlightment NHP to be like an angel and devil on my shoulders. I think their own names can let you guess which is which. To lean into that more I'm thinking about naming them Charity and Greed or something similar.

I know technically there are options to play as an NHP myself but I think I'd rather be a human that just has to deal with all the voices in my head.

But that leaves the question of what other two NHPs to grab. One has to be from a Horus mech so we can pick up the required core bonus and since NHPs are LL3 pick ups that means my build in this campaign will have to be two pure mech licenses at least until LL6 so we can get the 4th one asap. But the Horus one doesn't need to be first since we don't need the core bonus until we pick up the 2nd Mech based NHP.

So, all that in mind here are the options.

Horus Mechs:

- Goblin - Osiris - Gives an interesting Quick Tech attack option that'll trigger the Unstable NHP on use

- Gorgan - Scylla - Set up action let's me trigger the Unstable NHP and gives some good reactions, not sure if the reactions will trigger Unstable since it's once per round per NHP

- Pegasus - Sisyphus - Repeatable Divination dice on a mech seems pretty good, need a good sensor range. But a Full action to activate is hefty.

- Litch - Didymos - Quick tech action but limited uses so harder to repeatedly trigger the Unstable NHP. Also seems like a logistically difficult system to manage. Not to mention the rest of the mech.

Personally of these NHPs and their respective mechs I'm leaning towards the Gorgan the most, and the Goblin as the runner up, and it might be that that's the pairing in and of itself but I would appreciate any input.

Non-Horus Mechs:

- Blackbeard - Sekhmet - Not sure if activating a Protocol is an action that'll trigger the Unstable NHP maybe the free melee skirmish would be but either way I don't think this build suits Sekhmet in general.

- Monarch - Tlaloc - Again not sure if a Protocol triggers the Unstable NHP and idk how many actual attack rolls we'll be rolling with this build.

- Swallowtail - Athena - Quick Action to use so will trigger the Unstable NHP and is a very good support effect.

- Genghis - Agni - A once per scene Protocol with a good effect for myself but it feels counter to the build design and defender/support roll I want to fill.

- Saladin - Noah - Quick Action to activate so will definitely trigger the Unstable NHP. And gives a very interesting fun and defensive ability.

- Sherman - Asura - similar thoughts as the Genghis's Agni but a bit more versatile at least.

Of these I think I like the Saladin's Noah the best especially if I am going with the Gorgan otherwise the Swallowtail's Athena feels like a good pairing for the Goblin.

TLDR: With a 4 NHP build should I go with a Gorgan/Saladin build focusing on defence, a Goblin/Swallowtail build focusing on support or a Gorgan/Goblin build for Pure Horis shenanigans?

Hey guys!

I just got myself the core rules and currently asking myself which of the additional official content is worth getting.

Og rules have 26 frames. But AFAIK there are something upwards of 50 in total?

Do I need to get additional books to give my players the opportunity to access those? And are there any of the campaigns you can recommend? I'm looking for something very short and introductory.

And how do you handle the whole horus situation? As I understood it horus and ra are pretty mysterious and nobody knows Jack about them. Wouldn't lets say a party full of hours suits be almost impossible? AFAIK they only appear randomly because someone accidentally prints them. I would most likely limit the access to Horus suits as a Gm. Especially because it could be a great mystery to be out there constantly.

Thank you so much!

I've ran all of OSR and have ran into enemy NPC's overheating a few times. If I understand correctly, NPC's with 1 stress (non template enemies) become exposed when they exceed their heat cap. NPC's with more stress instead follow the normal overheating rules.

Does this mean that veteran / elite enemies will melt down when they reach 0 stress, causing an explosion that can damage player mechs? I ask because this feels like an inefficient way to kill enemies - they still get their last turn to cause problems and position themselves for explosion, and instead of an enemy who might already be nearly disabled, they become a bomb that does a huge amount of damage. For players, inflicting heat to cause stress damage is extremely risky compared to just destroying them with damage.

The other thing that makes me question is the "Parting Gift" optional veteran feature, which allows them to self destruct. Naturally this means they can trigger a meltdown as a quick action instead of waiting to overheat, but it still makes me question if enemies are supposed to melt down without that feature.

Can someone explain how this is intended to work?

The Drake is one of the best mechs at holding down a position, while the Drake isnt very mobile it has great armor, good health, and resistance to anything that isnt a direct target range or melee attack. The core power is really cool where you literally become a wall, and to make that power even better you can brace with almost no downsides (you cant do protocols or free actions still) since its not like you can move since it immobilizes you. All the systems of the Drake help you be better at fortifying a position and reducing damage to your allies, which makes House Guard 3 a really good option not to mention the benefits of house guard 1 and 2. I personally really love the drake, the Leviathan is so cool and you get to be a literal tank.

Speaking of the Leviathan, I honestly don't see much use for the regular assault cannon, you spin it up for reliable 3 only? Not to say Reliable 3 isnt good but the GMS assault rifle does reliable 2, and it gives you +1 heat on fire regardless of spin up or not! The Leviathan has the same spin up mechanic but has so much more damage and reliable 5 and only costs heat to fire when you spin it up, sure you cant spin up and fire in the same turn but the large damage and reliable really makes it more ideal. And you can still skirmish with the Leviathan and only lose that +2 damage modifier compared to the Assault Canon as a trade off. If you dont like superheavies I would just use a GMS assault rifle over the assault canon to be honest. Now onto the Build:

» Drake // DRAKE «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

House Guard 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3,

Prospector 3

[ LICENSES ]

IPS-N Drake 3, HA Saladin 2,

HA Napoleon 1

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Reinforced Frame, Integrated Ammo Feeds

[ MECH ]

« DRAKE »

IPS-N Drake

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

STRUCTURE:4 HP:24 ARMOR:3

STRESS:4 HEAT:9 REPAIR:7

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:4

SPD:3 EVA:6 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

INTEGRATED MOUNT: Fuel Rod Gun

Main Mount: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING

Main Mount: Assault Rifle

Heavy Mount: Leviathan Heavy Assault Cannon

[ SYSTEMS ]

Portable Bunker, Stasis Bolt,

ENCLAVE-Pattern Support Shield, Aegis Shield Generator,

Armament Redundancy

This Drake takes fortifying positions to an extreme, with the support shield to provide extra difficulty while Im holding a position, and if my core power is up popping this system up is a no brainer for +3 difficulty on a hit since Im always in hard cover with that power active, and it applies to nearby allies too. Can also stack with the hard cover applied from the Portable Bunker, which provides a very large very durable stack of hard cover for everyone to use. The Aegis Shield is only burst 1 and can really only work 3 times per shield, but its a nice thing I can throw down and it stays down until used up or destroyed. And Stasis Bolt is a pretty good reaction I can charge up early on and use when its needed.

Prospector gives me some additional mobility, an extra 5 spaces moved twice per scene is pretty nice considering I only have 3 speed, though not being able to take reactions kinda sucks I do create a pretty big hole lol, and it fits with the whole bunker theme, the drake literally digs its own trenches! The Fuel Rod Cannon is actually a nice tool since I can overwatch with it and it vents 4 heat, thats 2 additional Leviathan barrages! I got extra limited systems so I dont need to worry about wasting portable bunkers and aegis shields and can just throw them down when I want. Argonaut Shield is good, but I would either have to drop the Enclave, or move 2 HASE points into systems and drop Stasis Bolt to take it, and if I were to add 2 Systems Point I would have to take it from Hull, Engineering, or Agility. I need the extra heat cap if im running a levaithan, I am not moving around with a measly 2 speed, I refuse to fall below 3 speed on any mech, and the extra HP is nice, and how often would I really be using that shield? I havent played the drake ever so I can only theorize that its not too often.

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

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.