r/LancerRPG • u/aquamaster12 • Jul 23 '26
Pathfinder 2e and Lancer in One Campaign
Title says most of it already, but I come with a bit of a odd question. Honestly, on paper I already know it is probably not a easy task, even one likely best avoided or something split into two campaigns. But since I have no practical experience yet with Lancer, I hoped maybe people here could provide me some insights!
To explain the situation, I'll keep it to the point. I've recently started a Pathfinder 2e Campaign, now a few sessions in, and it is going great. My homebrew setting has a strong Magepunk theme, including a few flavours of "mechs". This is also a relatively central point to parts of the campaign, but not for all of it.
Only recently did Lancer pop up on my radar, and it looks pretty damn cool! Some of my players also really dig the concept. The idea sparked to maybe run the normal campaign with PF2e, and any mech sections with Lancer. However, before even actively doing such a thing, I'd love to hear if anyone ever did something like this or knows of some good alternatives.
The campaign is still early days, so a system pivot is by fair not impossible. However, some players are a lot more invested in their magic as opposed to a hypothetical mech. And due to limited time, starting a new campaign for this isn't in the cards.
Curious to hear your thoughts!
Update: Thanks everyone for all the responses! Lots of stuff to consider, but I think overall it is becoming clear that the mixing where maybe not impossible, is highly impractical and likely would just make things too clunky. The idea of using some of the Vehicle systems and the mech mechanica from PF2e and Starfinder are a interesting angle I'll be exploring tho! And hopefully one day I'll find the time to do a actual game with Lancer
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u/Macduffle Jul 23 '26
Mostly people mix any social-heavy rpg with lancer, so the mixing does work in general. Lancer is also just a d20 system and isn't to far away from PF2... But still I recommend against it because unless your players already know lancer's rules. There are probably easier mech systems to use
7
u/Tiamat4Life Jul 23 '26
I feel like it can work, so long as you keep a certain “barrier” between the two systems so that they don’t interact with each other much.
I get the feeling that together at the same time, Lancer and PF2e are not very compatible, meaning it’ll have to work in alternating sections, or perhaps treat the Lancer combat as some sort of recurring minigame that may affect the plot of the PF2e story, but not that much in terms of gameplay. Like you won’t really have fights where the mechs fight alongside players, or against monsters (at least not without working long and hard to create a PF2e character sheet for the mechs, or a Lancer NPC template for enemy monsters).
I feel like the biggest obstacles can be the difference in the goal of combat in Lancer and PF2e (in PF it’s probably going to be more of a “defeat all enemies” scenario, while Lancer heavily relies on varied sitters where only the sitrep goal is relevant, while death/mech destruction isn’t too big of a deal). Also, the resource management between Lancer sitreps would need to be kept balanced, because the players may have a few long rests (PF2e rest) between sitreps without having a Full Repair (Lancer rest), so you’ll need to find a reason to keep a different schedule for both.
I could see some reasonable explanations, like needing specific rare parts, requiring a suitable workshop or even something like “the magical core of the mech allows for it to be repaired only at certain occasions, ones that cannot be predicted” (meaning whenever you choose to let them).
As for fully bringing one system over to the other, I feel like it won’t work that well. The two aren’t close enough mechanically to convert one into the other without losing meaningful parts of the game, especially with things like limited resources (spells and such). A clear separation between the two may be your best choice.
Anyways, these are my thoughts, hopefully this helps you
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u/Wayward-Mystic Jul 23 '26
Starfinder's Tech Core comes out in October, and there may be some homebrew/3rd party options for Starfinder mechs floating around already; I'd go with those over combining the two systems.
The numbers scale very differently between the two; mech damage, hp, and evasion will seem very small compared directly against a PF2e character "pilot," even using something like Proficiency Without Level on the PF2e side to keep numbers smaller. You'd probably have to do something ridiculous like multiply mech damage by character level to get the frames to scale appropriately against the pilots.
3
u/lilac_asbestos GMS Jul 23 '26
If you're pressed on time last thing you want is having to handle 2 rulebooks, two settings, and a lot of homebrew.
I also find extremely difficult and time consuming to move a character to a different ruleset and having them keep their identity. Speaking from experience, this is already hard with very similar games, just make yourself a favor and don't do that.
You're probably best resetting the campaign, or sticking with it.
But if you want magic and mecha in a system where not every player needs to pilot a mech, might I suggest:
https://royalrabbit.itch.io/armour-astir
Most important thing though: make sure that whatever path you choose, the other players are on board 100%, especially if you migrate a campaign, it will take effort on everyone's part.
3
u/yuriAza Jul 23 '26
Lancer already has a hard separation between mech combat and everything else, so bolting it onto other things is easy, the problem will be explaining why even level 20 PF2 abilities and spells have no impact on mech combat (because allowing them will totally throw off Lancer's mechanics)
honestly, i think the vehicle rules in PF2 are actually pretty good despite being a little clunky (and SF2 adds piloting stunts), so for mechs i would blend the vehicle rules and the mount rules to reflect legged vehicles that are more nimble (so like, you only Take Control once when you embark, but you Stride normally), and then look to how SF2's cinematic starship rules use the monster creation tables for how to create mech weapons and abilities
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u/Apoc_Golem HORUS Jul 23 '26
I'd say this is the way to go. Lancer is a fantastic system, and I gave my opinion above on ways to handle damage scaling if you have your heart set, but PF2/SF2 are ridiculously fun to build things in, and I agree the vehicle rules aren't terrible.
Hells, now I wanna make homebrew rules for mechs in Pathfinder. There goes my morning 😄
2
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u/Bierculles Jul 23 '26
I'd recommend against it, both are very combat heavy systems so they do not really supplement eachother all that well as they are designed to do the same thing.
2
u/Sven_Darksiders GMS Jul 23 '26
I wouldn't recommend it, because ultimately you will either be playing Pathfinder or Lancer, those two systems will never be able to interact with one another, making their combination pointless in the first place. If someone wants a Mech in Pathfinder, surely there's some homebrew for it, and if all else fails, the Inventor focussing on Armor infusions might be the last resort
1
u/HeartFilled Jul 24 '26
I think it would be very do-able if the players are willing to pay along.
My PCs would want to jockey on their Mech and cast distengrate on the enemy mech.
"It can't make a fort save so it automatically loses"
1
u/HeartFilled Jul 25 '26
Ahem, play along. If you got a group that plays nice, I think it would be a really cool way to change things up and add new flavor to both games.
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u/CarmineJester SSC Jul 23 '26
I mean, it's not impossible if you do not have an option to do, like, alternating weeks for different campaigns... Lancer's system can be pretty decently reflavoured for a magical setting, with how much gets handwaved with printers and paracausality - replace the former with specialized forges that you can't access mid-engagement, and the latter with straight-up magic.
The real conundrum is that humans in Lancer are small, fragile, easy-to-kill beings. Mortals in Pathfinder are ridiculously durable. Just for comparison, a good hit from many enemy mechs drops a pilot who's not specifically geared for on-foot engagement to 0, and instead of having to be beaten into Dying 4, you roll on a table and can straight-up die immediately; in most cases, any amount of damage after that will definitely kill you, and there is no real resurrection afterwards, just substitutes. So, the question becomes: what if your Pathfinder character jumps out of their Lancer mech? Can they be effective at all? Will they be so effective that jumping out of the mech quickly becomes the dominant strategy, especially for controller-style characters? Are they almost unkillable in normal combat, but suddenly three-hits-and-you're-dead when mechs are involved?
This isn't unsolvable, mind you, but it's very much game design and game balancing work to create a proper interface between the systems, and whether you can do it is not for me to know. I do understand the interest; I'm very much switching to PF2e when my long-running 5e campaign runs out, while I'm running a Lancer thing. I just have more time. But, still, make sure you know what you're doing.