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I've been prepping for a test campaign of the upcoming RPG Lancer, from Mastiff Press, as I'm always on the lookout for mecha punching goodness.

And boy, this seems like a doozy, both as an RPG on its own and as a mecha minis game, as it has a very clear division between narrative/downtime play and combat, reminiscent of Blades in the Dark.

The mecha combat game in itself is, IMHO, a hidden gem. It supports heavy, really heavy customization, and allows all sorts of shenanigans from the get go, like hacking enemy mechs to slow them down or impair them, heat management, energy fields, teleporting, invisibility, nano swarms, manipulate fething time... you name it, the game probably has it. Also, you can download it from here:

https://massif-press.itch.io/

Plus, it's being made by the guys who make the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons, and the designs are... striking:

Don't forget that the rules are entirely free on their website!

I got the hardcopy and PDF pledge of the kickstarter, and I'm looking forward to trying the game. Since the combat is apparently reminiscent of D&D 4e's combat (awesome), what I'm really looking forward to is someone doing 3D printable mech minis.

 infinite_array wrote:
Don't forget that the rules are entirely free on their website!

I got the hardcopy and PDF pledge of the kickstarter, and I'm looking forward to trying the game. Since the combat is apparently reminiscent of D&D 4e's combat (awesome), what I'm really looking forward to is someone doing 3D printable mech minis.

I'm at the same level, and I hear we might be getting the finalised pdf next month, which would be great. Also, I just posted the very same 3d printed minis question this morning ^^.

I am a huge D&D 4E fan myself, an I love me some tactically interesting RPG combat, but it also has the added advantage of making the combat system a very viable miniature game in itself.

So we tested the combat system yesterday with a simple scenario: two LL0 lancers against a patrol made up of two Assault vehicles, a Scout and a Rainmaker going down a road. The two Lancers were piloting Everests (of course) and we don't really know what we can do with systems and the like, so the loadouts were kinda weird: the first one carried two combat knifes in the flex mount, plus a mortar for longer range engagements and a thermal lance to feth gak up, combined with turret drones, a shield generator and jump jets. The second had a thermal pistol, assault rifle and anti material rifle, plus flight mode and some embellishments.

...of course, we used whatever we had at hand to represent it ^^



The scenario went very well, past the first turn of "I can do HOW MANY things in the first turn?", which was kind of surprising (man, those Everests start doing stuff!), and the PCs and opposition's abilities make for an interesting tactical puzzle. All in all, we had a lot of fun, but it also made clear that this game will be for very tactically-minded people.

Also, Lancers are quite a bit more fragile than it looks like at first, and heat is nasty.

Necro-ing this thread to say that my buddy, who's an ENnies judge this year, just introduced me to Lancer! And holy hell is it impressive, love the world, the mechs and the source material they've gathered together for inspiration. He's talking about one-shotting it, I'll check back in if/when we get further into it.

Have you played more at this point, Albertorius?

At a glance, I like the 90's anime look. Love the "Bubblegum Crisis" vibe I get from the art.

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Necro-ing this thread to say that my buddy, who's an ENnies judge this year, just introduced me to Lancer! And holy hell is it impressive, love the world, the mechs and the source material they've gathered together for inspiration. He's talking about one-shotting it, I'll check back in if/when we get further into it.

Have you played more at this point, Albertorius?

I'm mostly in the process of reading No Room for a Wallflower (which is going to be their first supplement/campaign) with plans for starting a demo/test campaign and I'm quite impressed with it too. Life intruded for a bit, but I hope I'll have more time in the near future.

They've also just released the newest version of their COMP/CON chargen/GM helper app (https://compcon.app/) and holy hell it is a treat!


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 Elbows wrote:
At a glance, I like the 90's anime look. Love the "Bubblegum Crisis" vibe I get from the art.

I call it "what Battletech might have looked like if designed nowadays", but in truth it has more similarities with Heavy Gear, both in the scale of the units and of the.. I wanna say design paradygms, of it. I also like how the current Union is basically "Inverse 40k Imperium" in the values it promotes and the way it goes about things.

On the character side, the mech customization is insanely deep, and you can really go down the rabit hole chasing your very own perfect gameplay, but encounter creation is really fun on the GM side, too, as you're encouraged to build tactical puzzles with the terrain and your opposition selection for the players to despair or find clever solutions.

So, until the game gets properly printed and all, I've printed it off myself a working copy:








I do very much need to find some stl files in styles similar to those...

Looks interesting! I'll have to check it out!

Ooooo nice printout! I may have a copy printed and spiral bound, but that soft bind is really solid.

Also yea, dig the app. Surprised I couldn't find a phone version of it? Just a really rough browser experience.

I like the Drake. Do you custom build the mechs from the ground up or customize existing frameworks?

Boss Salvage wrote:Ooooo nice printout! I may have a copy printed and spiral bound, but that soft bind is really solid.

Also yea, dig the app. Surprised I couldn't find a phone version of it? Just a really rough browser experience.

They're on it right now, actually. IIRC, mobile adaptation was next.

warboss wrote:I like the Drake. Do you custom build the mechs from the ground up or customize existing frameworks?

Yes. Well, not. Both ^^.

The core conceit of the game regarding mech customization hangs around the idea of licenses and being able to print/build the stuff those licenses get you access to.

At the very start of the game (you character starts at "License Level" 0, meaning you don't have any special licenses) you only have access to the stuff and core frame from one of the "big five" corpro states, namely GMS (General Massive Systems), which Union's galactic-standard supplier for just about everything.

Whenever you successfully tackle missions you'll be awarded with additional licenses (along with skill and talent advances and that stuff), which allow you to add systems, weapons and frames to your stock of customization options. Each frame (mech) has three related licenses for their systems, and you get access to the actual frame when you get the second license of that particular frame. Also, some of the stats of all a pilot's mechs are tied with the pilot's mech skills (Hull, Systems, Agility and Engineering).

For example, let's say we wanna make a new character and its accompanying mech:

EXAMPLE CHARACTER: TARO ODA

To begin with, Oda’s player grabs a piece of paper and jots down Oda’s name and license level - LL0, for now.

The next step is for his player to choose a background and four triggers. Oda’s player decides that Oda grew up in the colonies, so she writes down Colonist as his background. Oda is also pretty astute and good at gunplay, so his player chooses the triggers Read a Situation, Spot, Take Someone Out, and Survive, each at +2.

In play, Oda’s player can invoke his background to get additional Accuracy on a skill check, and the GM can invoke Oda’s background to increase the Difficulty of a roll.

Next, Oda’s player writes down some gear that Oda always brings with him on missions. Looking at the list of available pilot gear, she chooses a Medium Signature Weapon (Oda’s hunting rifle), a Light Hardsuit for maneuverability, and Extra Rations.

She gets to distribute two points in mech skills, so she puts them both in Hull.

Lastly, Oda’s player gets to choose three talents at rank I. She takes Crack Shot, Infiltrator, and Leader.

Here’s what our example pilot looks like on paper so far:



BUILDING THE MECH: RAIJIN
At LL0, Oda, like all other pilots, only has access to GMS licenses. Oda’s starting Frame is the GMS Standard Pattern I Everest, the only Frame available to LL0 pilots (which actually doesn't mean is a bad frame, like, at all, it is quite good. It just kind of lacks specialization other than going fast). Oda’s player decides to call his mech Raijin.

Oda’s player looks through the GMS weapon list and chooses the Heavy Anti-Materiel Rifle for the Everest’s heavy mount, an Assault Rifle, a Main weapon, for his main mount, and two Tactical Knives for his auxiliary mount.

From Oda’s Hull, Raijin gets +4 HP and +1 Repair Cap. She also gets six SP (Systems Points), and chooses the following customizations:

• Pattern-B HEX Charges (2 SP)
• Rapid Burst Jump Jet System (2 SP)
• Type-3 Projected Shield (2 SP)

Here’s what the Raijin might look like on paper:



LEVELING UP: ODA AND RAIJIN AT LL3
Now let’s take a glance at what Oda and Raijin might look like at LL3.

After completing three missions and leveling from LL0–LL3, Oda gets three talent ranks, three license ranks, three increases to his triggers, three mech skill points, and a core bonus.

If this seems a little overwhelming, remember that Oda’s player didn’t need to choose everything at once – she picks them one at a time!

Since Oda has a rank III license (IPS-N Raleigh), he has access to the Raleigh Frame (rank II). Oda’s player also gets to choose a core bonus from the IPS-N list, since he now has three license ranks from that manufacturer. She takes Reinforced Frame, which gives Raijin an extra +5 HP. Oda’s player now has full access to all of the systems and weapons in the IPS-N Raleigh license now.



And what does Raijin look like at LL3?

Instead of building Raijin with the Everest Frame, Oda uses the Raleigh. Oda’s player decides to mount two Hand Cannons – weapons from the IPS-N Raleigh license – instead of knives.

Oda’s player has 7 SP to use (five from the Raleigh Frame and two from Oda’s Grit) and chooses the following upgrades:

• Pattern-B HEX Charges (2 SP, GMS)
• Type-3 Shield (2 SP, GMS)
• Personalizations (1 SP, GMS)
• Rapid Burst Jump Jet System (2 SP, GMS)




Automatically Appended Next Post:
By the ay, for anyone interested, Masif Press has a free version available here:

https://massif-press.itch.io/corebook-pdf-free

Thanks! (for the link and the in depth answer) That's more than I was expecting and I'll take a look. It's more of a pipe dream in my area as no one does anything mech beyond CBT and alpha strike but a gamer can dream!

Something I'm also liking about the game is that out of your mech it has both a simple and straightforward system of tags and backgrounds that act the part of skills and aspects but also a more defined set of "moves" very reminiscent of BotD stuff for things you'll be doing between missions that might need a more mechanical approach. Like, for example, getting a damn drink:

GET A DAMN DRINK
You can only make this action where there’s a drink to actually get (in town, a station, a city, or some other populated area). It doesn’t have to be an actual drink, but you blow off some steam, carouse, and generally get into trouble. You could be doing this to make connections, collect gossip, forge a reputation, or maybe just to forget what happened on the last mission. There’s usually trouble.

State your intention and roll a d20 and add any relevant skill trigger bonuses, modifiers or accuracy:

On 9 or less, decide whether you had good time or not; either way, you wake up in a gutter somewhere with only one remaining:

• Your dignity.
• All of your possessions.
• Your memory.

On 10–19, gain one as Reserves and lose one:

• A good reputation.
• A friend or connection.
• A useful item or piece of information.
• A convenient opportunity.

On 20+, gain two from the 10–19 list as Reserves and don’t lose anything.

Quite hyped by this game.

Is a GM mandatory or are there some kind of AI rules ?

Well, it's a tactical RPG so yeah, a GM is kind of mandatory. You could modify the game for a Descent-like experience, though.

I've been ogling this game for a while. As the author of a tactical mech combat game, obviously I'm always jealous of my tenuous slice of the market, but I can't help loving big metal machine games. It helps that I'm huge KSBD fan and adore the aesthetic.

This thread has persuaded me that Lancer also has the kind of fast and loose RPG mechanics that I love (don't play D&D with me if you're a rules person - I'll just make you cry). That "get a drink" action both made me laugh and sparked my imagination in just the kind of way I enjoy.

Not a big one for PDF rules, though. Can you still buy the hard copy?

Here's the link to the backerkit, but I think preorders may have ended pretty recently: https://lancer.backerkit.com/

Books ship some time between April to June, sounds like the original March date was pushed back for an errata.

 precinctomega wrote:
I've been ogling this game for a while. As the author of a tactical mech combat game, obviously I'm always jealous of my tenuous slice of the market, but I can't help loving big metal machine games. It helps that I'm huge KSBD fan and adore the aesthetic.

This thread has persuaded me that Lancer also has the kind of fast and loose RPG mechanics that I love (don't play D&D with me if you're a rules person - I'll just make you cry). That "get a drink" action both made me laugh and sparked my imagination in just the kind of way I enjoy.

Not a big one for PDF rules, though. Can you still buy the hard copy?

Not anymore for the preorders, I think, but it will be sold in stores too.

By the way: Apply fists to faces is the best skill name ever.

So has anyone tried this out regularly/long term? I frankly forgot about this after the recommendations above but this video review by a fellow dakkite refreshed my memory banks.




It's already posted above but I'll reiterate that's it's a free legal download from the creator (sans art and fluff) at the link below.

https://massif-press.itch.io/corebook-pdf-free

I'm actually in the process of translating it (kind of for the hell of it, so far), and I want to start an online game, let's see how it goes.

I got the core book and it is gorgeous.

 Albertorius wrote:
I'm actually in the process of translating it (kind of for the hell of it, so far), and I want to start an online game, let's see how it goes.

I got the core book and it is gorgeous.

Good to hear! I'm curious about it and will be hopefully digitally leafing through the rules (this time for real!) this weekend.

So is this a system to play Heavy Gear with?

 Paint it Pink wrote:
So is this a system to play Heavy Gear with?

Well, it certainly might, if you so wanted. It does allow much more, though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually, you know what? it could be fun to try and do a "port" of Heavy Gear stuff to Lancer.

Lancer's implementation of mecha for PCs rely heavily on licenses: each time you "get a level" you add one License Level that you spent on getting access to limited licenses from manufacturers.

HG's manufacturers would be..

Northern:
Northco (duh), maybe northern equivalent to Lancer's GMS
Abaline Research (NNets, computer technologies)
Elementech (Construction equipment and the like)
Hyperion Werks (EW equipment)
Keimuri Gear (Ferrets!)
Shaian Mechanics (Cheetahs, mainly ^^)

Southern:
Territorial Arms (Same as Northco for the South)
TA Skunk Works (special stuff)
Mandeers Heavy Industries (Python, Boa, Anaconda)
Nemmelworth's Gear and Merchandise (Refurbishings)
Obelisk Electronics (...electronics, NNets)
Skavara Heavy Industries (Old gears?)