Sleeping Above a Stolen Crown (Inactive)

Game Master CrusaderWolf

The subject line says it all, I recently discovered Lancer and immediately fell in love with it. I am considering running a game and hopefully also getting to play it sooner than later. This is just a check to see if there are others interested in playing a smaller game like this.

Hi GM! Sorry - what is "Lancer"? :$

I’d be interested.

@Lapyd - Lancer is a tabletop role playing game centered on shared narratives, customizable Mechs, and the pilots who crew the Mechs.

Hello there!

Some stuff:

1) Yes, I am interested. =)

2) GM RoboGeisha ran a Lancer game a while ago. (About a year or so, give or take). It...didn't go very well.

I talked to her about it and I took away two things main points:

3) Would you like the link to that game to try and mine it for players?

Here is the free version of the core rulebook.
Here is the FREE fanmade/official play aid app, which includes a character generator among other things. It's seriously the most robust one of these I've ever seen (maybe dnd beyond is on par?).

Lancer is awesome. I love it so much. I'd be very down to join up.

Atlas brings up a good point when you recruit you will need to make clear what you are looking for. Someone said their are two types of Lancer players and you should make sure you are on the same page. The two types are:

1. Those who are Mech focused and view the RPG element as padding to the mech battles.
2. Those who see the mech missions as mere interludes to character stories.

O cool, I'd be in for it

1) The game tries to do an old school Battletech type of initiative, where one PC goes, then an NPC villain, then a PC, then another villian. This does -not- work in PbP. Stick to standard group initiative, where the PCs go, then the monsters, then the PCs. Let the cards fall where they may, but don't do it as originally stated.

2) The game "can" get political. It's sprinkled throughout, and it can be easy to step into it. It's also easy to leave it where it is and walk around it completely. This is best. Most just wanna do stuff in space and fight with giant fighting robots. Leave the politics to the politicians.

A couple of points I'd like to bring up to further elaborate on Atlas's takeaways, having played in a couple of failed Lancer PBP games myself and generally kept abreast of the game's development and creators.

1) Initiative: This game uses alternating initiative, allowing a PC to go and then an enemy and letting the party choose which PC takes their turn in what order. As such, I HIGHLY recommend a smaller party (3-4 max) and setting up a Discord for the OOC chatter as that goes a long way to keeping the players engaged in what is happening in combat and not just on their turn.

2) The game is political and wears its politics on its sleeve. While it would be relatively easy to ignore that aspect of the game's setting, if you do not agree with left-wing politics I suggest using your own setting as you'd be running in contradiction to the game's core assumptions when it comes to worldbuilding. (Personally, it's the only TTRPG setting I've actually ended up invested in as it is the only one I've seen that can seamlessly switch from mediations on power dynamics to GIANT ROBOT FIGHTS to examinations of cycles of inter-generational trauma)

I'd be Hella down to play! Got my copy of Lancer ages ago and have been wanting to play with somebody!

Sounds cool. Mechs are cool.

I've been in a game of lancer that went under, partially due to the alternating initiative system not translating super well to PbP.

As Master Han Del mentioned, a discord server for at least OOC talk and strategizing and possibly even for the game as a whole could be a good option.

I've got a character already built and ready to go if you do decide to go forward with it, GM.

I would love to play. I too have been in a Lancer game that crashed, more to DM burnout than anything else, but the game is a lot of fun.

I'm in

I'm surprised and very happy about all the responses. I hadn't considered the initiative aspect but that's a good point. One of the pathfinder PBP games I'm in also has an OOC Discord and it's an excellent idea I'll be carrying over to my other games for sure.

As far as the politics of Lancer go, that's a huge part of the draw for me. I won't be shying away from those parts of the setting or game, and I'm not really looking for a heavy focus on mech fighting at the expense of character stories & RP--I'd be leaning more towards something like Battletech in that case.

My initial concept is to run a mission at LL0 so I can get a handle on running it, and if we enjoy the game and group I have some concepts for a borderline sandbox/investigation along the Long Rim.

@Atlas I would like to take a look at the previous game, to see what worked and what didn't.

I believe this is it. It didn't last on the boards very long, though it looks like it may have just moved to Discord instead of fizzling out.

I believe this is it. It didn't last on the boards very long, though it looks like it may have just moved to Discord instead of fizzling out.

That it is. It did unfortunately fizzle out rather than moving to Discord, though we had a discord for OOC chat. It started somewhat slow and we just couldn't quite get the hang of the initiative system before losing steam.

I played Baywulf Fjell-Skalva, callsign "Thunder Walker" who I'll be putting forward for Crusaderwolf's game.

This has art done by the creator of the Kill Six Billion Demons webcomic, right?

This has art done by the creator of the Kill Six Billion Demons webcomic, right?

Art and game design primarily by him. His co creator wrote most of the lore.

@Atlas I would like to take a look at the previous game, to see what worked and what didn't.

Correct, that is the game in question.

GM CrusaderWolf, I'll send the After-Action Report in a PM.

I'd be down to try and play some Lancer.

GM CrusaderWolf, I was the GM in that particular game. I'd be happy to discuss the pitfalls I encountered outside of the usual PbP things.

I'll PM you, R0B0GEISHA.

It will probably be a few weeks before I get any Lancer game up and running, I want to make sure I can afford to commit to another PBP on the GMing side of things, especially since it's a system I'm new to.

Hey all, I wanted to update you on the status of the possible Lancer campaign!

I have a small group of IRL players I've been attempting to try a practice mission with, on the theory that it would be faster to familiarize myself with the rules that way. Unfortunately, the God of Scheduling has not smiled upon us and for one reason or another all those sessions have been been postponed. We're currently looking at maybe June 26 for our next meetup.

So I've been practicing using the Comp/Con tool--you should 110% do the same if you're interesting in Lancer, by the way. It's very well designed and you can build a roster of pilots there to try out various build concepts--and looking into online tools for play. There is Lancer support for Foundry VTT even, which might be a better option after all given irl scheduling issue

That brings me to my current gaming load--I am GMing one IRL game and playing in another, and on PBP I'm GMing one game and playing in six(!). I'm hoping a few of those wind down soon-ish, but at PBP pacing that could be months from now. I don't think I have the time to take on GMing another game in a system and I'm new to, so for now I'm going to put a pin this idea.

That being said, if/when I get some of that bandwidth back I may re-up this thread, but I don't know when that might be. In the meantime, happy gaming!

Hello again! I hope folks are still checking this thread.

I recently acquired a short Lancer adventure titled Sleeping Above a Stolen Crown by Laurie O'Connel. It's an adventure explicitly intended to onboard newer players, comes with a few full-color maps, and goes from LL0 through LL2. It takes place on the icy world of Sparr, a vaguely Norse-flavored planet where massive kaiju-esque nonsapient aliens occasionally emerge onto the surface from tunnel networks deep beneath the snow.

Welcome to Sparr.

What will you do, Lancers?

I still have reservations about how Lancer will play in PBP, however I would like to try. Foundry VTT has Lancer support tools, so I will be using that for maps if possible.

Reservations aside, would there be 3-4 players interested in suiting up and adventuring in the soft science-fantasy world of LANCER?

Shore =)

You bet!

yaya

Sweet. Let's go ahead and make this an official recruitment thread, you're all three invited!

Since the adventure starts at LL0 you all get the redoubtable Everest frame--but let's talk about your pilots, what they're doing on Sparr, and what your mech's role in a fight is.

I would be interested as well.

This is Losonti's character, Mallory "Cascade" Marolda. I took a crack at inventing a profile, using the stat block exporter from Compcon.

Cascade has the Spec Ops background, so is probably part of a unit being sent to Sparr, or maybe striking it out on her own, picking what causes she fights for instead of having them chosen for her. She has the Brutal, Crack Shot, and Tactician talents, which give her a lot of opportunities to grant herself Accuracy on attacks with Rifles or in melee if she has allies to gang up on someone with.

Her frame "Hostile Witness" is equipped with an assault rifle on its main mount, two segment knives on the flex mount, and an anti-material rifle on the heavy. This offers some reliable damage and combat flexibility, along with a huge, armor-piercing cannon for when something absolutely needs to be blown away right now.

Not only am I interested, I've got a Sparri character already built!

Baywulf "Thunder Walker" Fjell-Skalva is a native of Sparr, and a initiate to the mysteries of the techno-shamanic warrior class of the Sparri.

He's got a mixture of combat and tech skills, along with the NHP Specialist background. His NHP is a fragment of his clan's god named Leita the Seeker, and is held within his mech, God-Bearer. God-Bearer is built for melee combat with a spear but can also hold it's own at range or in a skirmish with an assault rifle and a pistol/tactical knife.

His background will take a little retooling, but it's mostly good to go.

CW reminded me that there actually is some lore about Sparr in the CRB on page 412, for anyone else looking for a bit more info on the planet and its people.

=)

Alright, so I don't know anything about this game, but I used the site Kubular linked and this is what I came up with. He's a SWAT team leader on special assignment to Sparr. I normally play melee characters so I built around those two things. Lead/Stay cool cuz he's a leader. Brawler/Duelist/Vanguard seem to be good melee options. Corrective/Patch to fix up his teammates. I see the Comp/Con-Class Assistant Unit thing as a law enforcement aid AI called Overwatch, handles dispatch, paperwork, updates, communication etc.

Alex is a lawful good, by the book, make-sure-you-fill-out-all-your-paperwork type, but not a boring stick in the mud. I have a pretty good image of him in my head, but I'm certainly open to advice on the mechanical side. Anyways, I'll read up on the stuff on Sparr and make up a character history an stuff.

Good concept, Crisischild, but one quick note: Your melee weapon is Heavy, and Duelist only applies to Main melee weapons. This is a common tradeoff you'll run into with Lancer, as the talents are often specific about what type of weapons their bonuses apply to.

You can put a Main melee weapon in that Heavy slot, or if you'd rather keep the Heavy Charge Blade a talent like Executioner or Exemplar could be useful.

Oh, Exemplar looks really cool. Free rerolls for my friends.

Are you still looking for one more?

Yes to @trscroggs and @Malinor, feel free to make a character! That's 5 players who've expressed interest so far, which I'm fine with but will required a few modifications to encounters. If we get more than 5 overall I'll back to max 4 players and not everyone will make the cut.

Unfortunately I've read that Lancer, like other ttrpgs, kind of breaks down with too many players.

GM CW, the Lancer community has written guides about building encounters and using the NPC enemies. I'd be happy to send them to you.

I appreciate the gesture, but between the corebook guidelines and the PilotNet discord community I think I'm good to go. Thank you though!

So here is my build. I am going to go with the Callsign Sobok. Its a first stab at it so I am not sure I got everything correct.

Welcome, Sobok! Be aware I fully expect Sgt. Johnson speeches to honor the legacy.

Also, at LL0 you would have have 2 mech skills, currently you have 4 listed.

I misread that as And instead of Or for the skills.

I will take Hull +1 and Engineering +1

It look like we need a Support, as we seem to have a tech person, two shooters, and a melee striker.

So this character is going to be aimed at becoming a Lancaster pilot, possibly a Emperor if the frame is allowed.

For our DM approval (particularly my use of Empathy from No Need For a Wallflower) I submit:

Melodee Makekau aka Wrench Witch. She is a Spar native, training to be a technoshaman. She did not expect to be selected to pilot one of the great Frames, but after one of the warriors of her tribe fell in personal battle, the clan leaders chose her to inherit 'Onward' the tribe's Everest Frame.

Lancaster or Emperor would be fine, the adventure does get to LL2 so you may be able to finish out with a non-Everest frame.

I'll keep the recruitment open until Friday in case R0B0Geisha or anyone else wants to make a submission. I'll use that time to continue working on Foundry and reviewing the adventure.

Last call for character submissions, I'll close recruitment tomorrow at 4pm CST. It's been a busy week so while I don't have the Foundry stuff set up just yet I'm hoping to have that done by Friday evening

Sorry about the wait, it's been a week. Here's Garuda, my pilot:

She's built to be a field commander with fire support. In combat, she'll hang towards the back with any other sniper characters, providing Spotter assistance and deployable cover. She can throw Leadership dice and turret drones to give additional support, as well as lock down any shifty enemies with covering fire from her Heavy Machine Gun.

Narratively, she's an old solider, with all the experience and ghosts that brings. She's professional, jaded, and sad. She believe's she's seen just about everything, and is almost correct.

A woman in her late 50s, Garuda is trim and fit, with steel-grey hair almost always tied into a tight bun. She's handsome, but worn down. A large scar on her right cheek makes her look the part, but it's actually from a childhood accident.

I love it! In combat, at least, Garuda and Cascade should get on like a house on fire.

I haven't finished the profile to my preference yet, but I have created the profile for my character.

So it looks like you have more then 4 interested people. I think I am going to bow out. Have a great game everyone!

@Malinor/Sobok, you can stick around if you like. I'm okay with running a group of 5 but it's my upper limit; what I was saying before is that if there were six or more applicants I would revert back to choosing a party of 4 to go with. I probably didn't phrase it well but that was the intent.

If you would still like to play, you're welcome to, but if you'd rather not that's okay too.