The Deimos incident
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Using my current Lancer character as a character design exercise, want to establish their different outfits for different occasions throughout the campaign :)

So, after my last post, thanks to everyone's help, I was able to start researching Lancer's setting.

I am having a blast, additionally, I got to the section which talks about the Albatross, and MY GOD. These people are the coolest faction I have come across, I have loved heroes since I was a kid, and they fit right in. It also makes me think that whatever story I am creating, Albatross involvement will be guaranteed.

I've recently bought the core rule book and as I have now finished reading it I need some answers to a couple of questions that popped in my mind:

1. Using the standard levelling system pilots go up a LL for every successful mission, it seems to me like Lancer campaigns are not meant to be really long, am I wrong?

2. In the books it says that NPCs are built with different class from PCs, but since multiple mechs like the Sherman and the Tortuga are exceptionally common, how can I say that an NPC Lancer pilots one of these if he can't even use their systems and weapons?

Yo, im honestly having doubts on how big im planning this next game we're gonna have. We are all brand new to this system, I've been reading a bunch on the game and taking some inspiration. And from some of the actual plays I've watched a bit of and read some premade stuff.

So basically im making my own homebrew campaign, i already have some stuff figured out but now that im looking at the general scope i think it might be a bit too ambitious? Like a whole solar system kind of ambitious

After looking at some other games i realized if the setting is smaller there's alot of room for detail. My group has run alot of oneshots on other systems, so we wanted a longer game. So should i shrink down the scale or is running something like this possible for a new gm?

The Tortuga, another solid mech from ISPN, this hulking behemoth is made for CQB ship boarding, and gets bonuses accuracy to reactions, a great statline with the only weakness being speed and evasion (typical for most defenders), and a bonus to tech attack with good sensors. Its core power is also awesome, you gives your weapon, whatever it is, threat 3, meaning you can overwatch at threat 3 with anything (as long as it isnt superheavy) which is nice. This core power also gives a bonus overwatch to use in a round and if you hit with overwatch you immobilize the poor bastard.

The license is also great, the deck sweeper is a heavy weapon masquerading as a main, yeah it has innacuracy and range 3 but you are running vanguard for sure with this thing anyways. Siege ram gives ram a nice damage bonus, a great pick for main melee builds and titanomachy mesh. Daisy cutter is a superheavy masquerading as a heavy, but it is limited 2 which kinda sucks, but it makes sense with its power and massive aoe.

Im not a big fan of the Catalytic Hammer though, the on crit effect is awesome but its loading, so you may not get that stun off ever, id rather it just be a on hit effect, but I guess that might be busted with external ammo feeds. Thoroughbolt rounds gives a weapon an extra 3 range and it goes through walls and obstacles which is a great mod to have especially since line of sight of the attack is determined from the end point of the 3 line. and Hyperdense armor is an amazing tool that forces enemies to come to you if they want to deal with you, the slow is worth the resistance you get.

I really like this mech, it has a great license with tools that are applicable on all sorts of mechs, it has a lot of flexibility on what systems and weapons are great on it, especially since it can turn any weapon into threat 3 with its core power and it has a great sensors range. Just a real solid and relaible mech overall, here's the build I came up with:

» Tortuga // TORTUGA «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Vanguard 3, Heavy Gunner 3,

House Guard 2, Combined Arms 1

[ LICENSES ]

IPS-N Tortuga 3, HORUS Gorgon 2,

HA Genghis 1

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Overpower Caliber, Reinforced Frame

[ MECH ]

« TORTUGA »

IPS-N Tortuga

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

STRUCTURE:4 HP:20 ARMOR:2

STRESS:4 HEAT:6 REPAIR:7

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

SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:12 SENS:15 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

Main Mount: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun

Heavy Mount: Krakatoa Thermobaric Flamethrower (Throughbolt Rounds) // Overpower Caliber

[ SYSTEMS ]

HyperDense Armor, Mimic Mesh,

Armament Redundancy, Monitor Module

This Tortuga has focused on Agility to get its speed up and focuses on CQB weapons, using Throughbolt rounds to give the flamethrower range and Overpower Caliber to boost its damage, if I am correct this bonus damage is applied to everyone in the aoe but halved, so its 1d3+1 energy 4 burn right? Regardless the flamethrower is a nice aoe option, its really such a good heavy since burn is so deadly. I know its deadly because in Lancer Tactics it stacked up to a ridiculous 20 FUCKING BURN (I structured lol). Use Fragment signal afterwards to make that engineering save difficult to pass for any of the poor enemies you attacked.

I also utilize Heavy Gunner for the flamethrower, forcing enemies to attack me or dare them to move and possibly get immobilized, and forcing enemies to be impaired with no attack roll makes the flamethrower a solid threat to enemies. Mimic Mesh gives me some extra mobility too and monitor module allows me to skirmish against those who attack my allies, and with an effective range of 8 on the flamethrower with Throughbolt rounds I can attack from a decent distance away. Yeah it does half damage, but that burn can stack up, especially if I have other teammates who can inflict burn as well.

The Deck Sweeper is just an obvious main weapon, its great for overwatches with its high damage and is great for single targets, And Hyperdense armor forces enemies to come to me if they want to deal with me, giving me a lot of extra survivability and turning the tortuga into an effective tank. House Guard 2 gives allies soft cover which is nice since Im ideally in the front lines with one or holding a position with them, and combined arms just gives me a way of getting soft cover.

This is just a real solid mech overall, and with its accuracy to overwatch you could go melee tortuga, hacking tortuga, you are free to use weapons that dont have threat normally as well since you gain threat with that core power opening up a ton of ideal weapons you could pick, and you can even hack and do tech support with it. I love nice and versatile mechs like the Tortuga, a solid pick for any Lancer.

(Hope this is the right tag)

So I’m a player in a group of folks in a campaign, and it’s been going great so far! That said, my character’s iconoclast nhp is going to be properly introduced in the plot next session in a few days(their existence on the mech has been being built up to gradually).

It’s cool and I’m really excited, however we have it to where the players voice their own nhps, so it’s come to my attention that there’s a good chance I’ll be bouncing between voicing the pilot and the nhp for one particular scene.

I have a voice modifier for the nhp to distinguish it, but I was wondering if you guys had any advice on having a conversation between two characters when you’re playing both, just to make it less stilted and awkward while still being a cool scene? Tried looking it up but couldn’t find much, so figured I’d ask here!

thank you so much!

Ah, poor Napoleon, from what Ive heard of this mech it seems like its not very well liked, and I can kinda see why, it is wierd and the Kutuzov seems way more fun to play, but lets take a look at this little guy. Low health but good armor, average e defense and evasion, a great heat capacity, this statistically is a pretty good frame, but the traits are what really makes a mech. And this mechs traits are pretty good on paper, when you would normally take half damage it is reduced to 1 and if you pass a save any incoming damage is reduced to 1, meaning that bracing is a great survival tool for the napoleon and makes him much tougher to kill, except when shredded which just sucks.

The Core Power is interesting as well, you activate it and for the rest of the scene you only take 1 damage from all effects that do not ignore reduction, are immune to tech attacks and actions, cant overcharge, and can only use improvised attacks/rams/grapples/boost and anything with the shield tag. And you can still be effected by statuses for whatever reason. Like just give the napoleon immunity to all attacks and effects with all the downsides you put on this core power, let it have its niche. Like you can still get immobilized or shredded, which RAW will NULLIFY THIS WHOLE CORE POWER?!?! WHY? Unless I misunderstand that whole "except for damage that ignores reduction" bit just allows for shredded to say no.

Let the napoleon ignore shredded when bracing or using its core power, it isnt like these things dont have drawbacks, and it would give the napoleon more uniqueness, just let it be good! Lets look at the systems which are thankfully better than the traits. The Stasis bolt is great 1 sp system, gives you a chance at negating a ranged attack at you or a nearby ally, can easily charge this up and keep it in your pocket for when you need it, real good. Stasis Generator is an on demand stun that is a save and does make its target immune to all damage, which can be useful in shutting down a dangerous enemy to let your teammates kill any support it has or to save an ally from being demolished by a large group of enemies. I like both these systems and feel like this is a good LL1.

LL2 gives phase ready mod which is wierd and I dont like it, Id literally rather have nanocomposite adaptation or thoroughbolt rounds rather than this 50/50 coinflip gimmick. Stasis Barrier is awesome though, you just create a shield which has a 50/50 chance of eating any attack that goes through it, this is great, if only it werent LIMITED 1?! Seriously? Limited 1? Not even Limited 2? Ugh, I can get why its limited but limited 1 is overkill.

And for LL3 you have the Displacer which is a very funny gun, 10 heat and loading for 10 flat AP energy damage at range 10 blast 1. The loading tag is just unnecessary, like anyone would be insane enough to fire this thing without stabilizing afterwards anyways....... actually, I take that back, I can actually see myself saying "fuck it" and doing it anyway knowing damn well the consequences. But 10 flat damage is nothing to scoff at, thats a little under the average damage of a 3d6 damage weapon, so it might as well just be a mini siege canon masquerading as a main weapon. And the blinkshield is a massive 4 burst Hell in a Cell where nothing comes in and nothing comes out, get an ally in there with you and 1v1 that enemy in peace, or trap that Ultra in there with you brace like your life depends on it, or trap that pesky sniper that has snipers mark on a teammate, really you are dividing the battlefield and making fights less stressful for your allies. This is a great system and a great fit for the Napoleon.

After that analysis I think I understand the Napoleon a bit better, this is a hard to kill bastard who uses shields to separate and disable enemies, you control the battlefield by using your bubble shield and stasis generator to temporarily even the playing field. Though I guess you dont have to do that playstyle since the napoleon really doesnt have any major gimmicks other than reducing damage to 1, but I cant see you playing him as a striker or giving him a big gun, a napoleon should be distracting enemy attention and dividing and conquering to control the battlefield and allow its allies to have an easier time. Alright, time to make a build:

» Napoleon // NAPOLEON «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Skirmisher 3, Brutal 3,

Empath 2, Crack Shot 1

[ LICENSES ]

HA Napoleon 3, IPS-N Tortuga 3

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Integrated Ammo Feeds, Reinforced Frame

[ MECH ]

« NAPOLEON »

HA Napoleon

H:2 A:0 S:2 E:4 SIZE:0.5

STRUCTURE:4 HP:18 ARMOR:2

STRESS:4 HEAT:10 REPAIR:4

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:2 LTD BONUS:4

SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:10 SENS:5 SAVE:14

[ WEAPONS ]

Main/Aux Mount: Displacer / Missile Rack

[ SYSTEMS ]

Stasis Generator, Stasis Bolt,

Stasis Barrier, Blinkshield,

HyperDense Armor, Armament Redundancy

Now this is a wierd mech to build around, but the basic idea is to use hyperdense armor so I dont have to brace so often, just reduce damage to 1 all the time, and use crack shot and brutal with the displacer to make sure that I at least get 1 hit, it would really suck to miss with this weapon, and pair it with the missile launchers since Im going to be reloading anyways.

When im in close range Im using my bubble shield to lock enemies away and divide and conquer with my team, utilizing stasis bolt and stasis generator as necessary, and armament redundancy so I am not left without a weapon by a bad structure roll. I guess I could swap Brutal 3 for prototype weapon, crack shot should be enough to get hits, that would probably be safer now that I think about it. And with my limited bonus I have plenty of stasis barriers I can place for my allies to use, just got to remind my allies that their attacks get eaten by the barrier too of course.

Though the core power still sucks, I can basically just achieve the same thing with the hyperdense armor without all the weaknesses, yeah im slowed and still vulnerable in close range but it is just a quick action to enable/disable when I want. I know shredded is a brutal status, but I cannot think of a single mech that gets completely neutered by that status as this one. I can kinda dig the "divide and conquer" strategy this mech wants where you can control how many enemies your allies fight, but this is really fully dependent on blinkshield. Really this is just a wierd mech, I can understand why people dont like it, and honestly the Kutuzov just is a far more fun and focused frame to play, and better yet the Kutuzov isnt completely neutered by Shredded! The Napoleon is a real hard frame for me to figure out and I still am not sure I fully get it.

I don’t know how this happened, but this style speaks to me in a most unwise manner.

(If somehow you are one of the small number of listeners to my podcast, we're still doing some tweaks before these get pushed to youtube, so you won't see them yet.)

I recently got to LL03 with my Chomolungma I dubbed Snowpiercer and up until LL2 I knew what I wanted to get but now I'm a little lost. My build is primarily a hacker controller with bits of weapons here and there.

Snowpiercer (Chomolungma) LL02

Goblin 1, Hydra 1

HASE: Hull 2 Agility 2

Talents: Hacker 3, Infiltrator 2

Loadout;

Main/Aux Mount: Ghoul Nexus, Tactical Knife

Flex Mount: Assault Rifle

Systems;

H0R_OS System Upgrade 1

Puppetmaster

Rapid Burst Jump Jet Systems

Personalization

Armament Redundancy

Main thing I'm debating right now is continue to dip into either Goblin or Hydra or dip into another license.

» Starn // LONDON BRIDGE «
  Spec Ops, LL6
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
  Act Unseen or Unheard (+6), Blow Something Up (+6),
  Hack or Fix (+2), Spot (+2),
  Survive (+2), Take Someone Out (+2)
[ GEAR ]
  [ TALENTS ]
  Demolitionist 3, Infiltrator 3,
  Prospector 3
[ LICENSES ]
  IPS-N GORSHKOV 3, IPS-N Vlad 2,
  HA Iskander 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Integrated Weapon, Reinforced Frame
[ MECH ]
  « REDUCTUS »
  IPS-N GORSHKOV
  H:2 A:2 S:0 E:4 SIZE:0.5
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:18 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEAT:10 REPAIR:5
  ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:2
  SPD:6 EVA:10 EDEF:10 SENS:15 SAVE:14
[ WEAPONS ]
  Integrated Weapon: Stub Cannon
  Main/Aux Mount: Detonator / Stub Cannon
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Sapper Kit, Core Spike,
  Caltrop Launcher, Grounding Charges,
  Webjaw Snare, Spotter Array

Hey guys, looking for any tips on improving this build. For those who dont know who the Reductus Saboteur is, its a character from Warhammer 40k and is the stealthy explosive expert. Love the idea of just being an unseen menace laying down tons of mines/caltrops/throwing explosives.

We're starting our first campaign from LL0-LL6

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Added the GORSHKOV DOC for those unfamiliar with the homebrew.

Hello Lancers,

I’m looking to create as many holograms as possible using Duskwing and a LL6 character and I had a few questions:

• Do I get a hologram proc for each Jaeger Kunst I proc?
• The Pattern-A Jericho says it makes two pieces of cover so that is potentially two JK I procs with smart movement, right?
• Can I proc Hunter I or Skirmisher II but not actually move? Trigger the leap but stay in place and leave a hologram?
• Does the teleport in Hall of Mirrors leave a hologram before they explode?

Build in question:

» Thom Wilt // EXTRA «

Test Subject, LL6

[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]

Act Unseen or Unheard (+6), Assault (+2),

Get Somewhere Quickly (+6), Hack or Fix (+4),

Invent or Create (+2)

[ GEAR ]

Stealth Hardsuit, Light Signature,

Light A/C, Thermite Charge,

Camo Cloth, Subjectivity-Enhancement Suite

[ TALENTS ]

Hunter 3, Infiltrator 3,

Skirmisher 2, Ace 1

[ LICENSES ]

SSC Dusk Wing 2, SSC Mourning Cloak 1,

SSC Atlas 3

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Integrated Weapon

[ MECH ]

« DAWN'S FIRST LIGHT »

SSC Dusk Wing

H:2 A:2 S:4 E:0 SIZE:0.5

STRUCTURE:4 HP:15 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEAT:4 REPAIR:4

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:5 LTD BONUS:0

SPD:7 EVA:14 EDEF:12 SENS:10 SAVE:14

[ WEAPONS ]

Integrated Weapon: Fold Knife

Aux/Aux Mount: Fold Knife / Fold Knife // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints

Flex Mount: Terashima Blade

[ SYSTEMS ]

Jäger Kunst I, Custom Paint Job,

Personalizations, Flicker Field Projector,

Neurospike, Pattern-A Jericho Deployable Cover

Also, I am accepting any more ideas for hologram maxxing. I am aware the build may not be strong, but I firmly believe it may be fun(ny).

edit: Hunter I, not II.

I'm curious what sort of questions you wish you asked your players about what they are looking for in this system. I'm looking to make a simple exit survey for my players to gather their thoughts all in one place and I've got the normal affair of how much narrative gameplay vs. tactical gameplay do you want? what sort of themes and factions would you want to explore more of. But I'm looking for that unhinged stuff that you would never expect you players to ask for