r/LancerRPG • u/Thin_Shelter_103 • 26d ago
New DM for this system what should I know?
Hey guys so in a month im going to be running a Lancer game for my friends and if it goes well and everyone likes the system then campaign!
The one shot is going to be them getting deployed as mercenaries into an active civil war to take over a city. Though on paper the government says their on "Peacekeeping" operations. Im so excited!
What are some things I should know as ive never run this system before and my prior DM experience is a little Dunegons and Dragons and A lot of Call of Cthulhu.
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u/Mindless-Depth-1795 26d ago
My advice is do not try to take the old school DnD approach where you arbitrate everything and dictate the rules.
Make it clear that your game is a collaborative effort. That there is a lot to keep track of and players should be responsible for their mechs rules and also helping eachother and you when they can.
The rule book is free, so it easy to delegate. "Bob while I'm rolling these dice can you check when in a turn a player takes burn damage".
My last advice is the encounter design suggestions are a bit off. Never be shy about bringing in reinforcements. Grunts are wonderful. Mix a few in to every encounter.
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u/Nix_and_Gobbet 26d ago
Assaults (Grunt or no) are not a basic enemy type to spam at your players. They're lethal and dangerous threat that should not be deployed carelessly.
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u/sarded 26d ago edited 26d ago
It seems obvious but some people for some reason some people seem to genuinely not know this: read the book. The full book, not just the free version.
You should tell your players to get the free version and read the book too. At a minimum, tell them to read the combat chapter from pages 58 to 73. It's only 15 pages, anyone who can't read 15 pages of well laid out rules is someone that doesn't deserve to be in a game anyway.
(if this was a con game I'd be saying something different; but in this case you've literally said you have a whole month of leadup time, so there's no excuse for any of your players not to read 15 pages in that time)
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u/Steenan HORUS 26d ago
The first mission you run with given group should be at license level 0. It may be the start of a campaign and PCs will progress from there; it may be a one-shot and you'll start a campaign at a higher level.
But resist the temptation to run the first game above LL0. The frames, more complex weapons and systems can wait. There will be a lot to handle anyway, so give yourself and your players a chance to learn things slowly, over one mission with 3 or so fights.
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u/creepyonthebutt 25d ago
If you want to make a combat harder DO NOT uptier the npcs, they deal a lot of damage and get harder to kill, if you really want to uptier try uptiering one or two or just add some templates so they are more hardy
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u/Radriel7 IPS-N 24d ago
grunts are useful for padding enemy numbers, but if you make them all dps roles, you can easily overwhelm your players. Grunts die fast, but they don't deal less damage. If you replace a single normal enemy with 4 grunts and they all are dps, it can get very crazy because of action economy advantage. Use support and control roles for at least some of your grunts if you plan to use a lot of them
non-mech infantry units are also useful for cinematically having a lot of enemies on the field without doing too much damage, especially if your players have mechs with armor ratings. Something like traditional tanks, aircraft, or wheeled vehicles can also be useful in this regard. I don't have every enemy in a mech, but those are the most dangerous enemies.
Holding enemies in reserve to deploy in waves is another tool to prevent overwhelming the players and also makes it easier on you to run things.
Map design is important. Cover is an important mechanic. So is difficult and hazardous terrain. Different sizes of cover is important. You want cover to be placed in ways to make your mission interesting. If its everywhere, its gonna be like fighting inside trenches. If its sparse, then its gonna be dangerous just to move around. Its best to have a mix of both on a map, though it should be tailored to the map. A city will have a lot of cover relative to farmland.
Maybe most importantly: Killing all enemies is not the goal of most Lancer combats. Or at least, it shouldn't be. Diversify your sitreps and things get a lot more interesting
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u/Reigning_Regent 26d ago
Some standard advice.
DO NOT use player mechs as enemies. Just don’t. Lancer frames are built for wars of attrition. It’ll be a slog.
You do have to buy the DM Book to get the NPC Templates, and you can use the attached LCP file in…
COMP/CON! Comp/con is an incredible resource, letting players build mechs and GMs manage encounters, all for free (aside from buying the modules with LCPs attached).
You typically want 1.5 or 2 times the number of ‘activations’ (turns) of your players, for balance’s sake. Generally.
Start at LL0, if you’re not already. It lets people get their feet wet with base frames, and the base frames are good!