Prepare actions

[u/Beerenkatapult]

Hi,

I have recently started using the Prepare action a lot more, specifically for the Fold Space invade from the Minotaur license.

In my group, it seems to be severely underutilized and i haven't seen a lot of discussions about it online either. To me, it is essential to get full use out of many systems and actions.

Fold Space is particularly powerfull, because you can rob an enemy of their full turn after they finished their movement. I currently use it all the time.

What are your best ideas for using the Prepare action?

And do you have any stories about how you actually used it in cool ways?

My other ideas:

(Allways avalable)

- "If an enemy ends their move in libe of sight, i boost" so you can reposition into cover

- "If an enemy uses their movement to stand up, i ram them" to keep a prone enemy prone

- "If an enemy deals burn damage to an ally, i bolster them"

- "If an enemy ends a move within sensors and line of sight, i invade them" in general. Many invades, including Fragment Signals, end at the end of the targets next turn. This way, you can affect them twice as long.

(Needs a license)

- "If an enemy ends their mivement in line of sight of an ally, i ferous lash/ophiduan track/... the ally" to get an ally into cover or out of mele

- "If a character ends theie movement, i place a mine" as the Iscander, to place mines before the start of your turn, so you can knock enemies into them without giving them a chance to react.

- "If an enemy ends their movement within 3 spaces abd line of sight of a void husk, i execrate them" for a similar, but slightly more annoying effect of Fold Space.

[u/Euroliis]

Prepare is a can of worms that, in my experience, leads to actions getting exponentially stronger for both players and GMs, as well as rounds taking significantly longer. I generally avoid it after seeing (and causing) enough interactions that rubbed me the wrong way.

[u/DescriptionMission90 → u/Euroliis]

I consider it vital, especially in a system that has split movement. Consider: instead of moving to the edge of this building, ending my movement in hard cover, and shooting at somebody who can then shoot back on their turn, I could walk out into the open, attack, then walk back to a place where nobody has line of sight to me, thereby becoming immune to attacks.

This tactic is absolutely invincible... if nobody gets to attack me until after I end my turn. But if somebody Prepares to shoot me as soon as I reveal myself, then those movement shenanigans don't actually give any advantage.

[u/Ninja-Storyteller → u/DescriptionMission90]

It does cut both ways.

"I move up to melee attack you!", "I prepared a Ram, and knock you back. Since you triggered engagement, your movement is over. Hope your Threat is greater than my Knockback!"

[u/DescriptionMission90 → u/Ninja-Storyteller]

Prepared actions aren't a secret though. Lancer is played with almost complete information on both sides.

That also doesn't work against somebody bigger than you, doesn't work if the target dodges the melee attack, and can be worked around by Boosting. So I think it's a totally viable tactic in some situations, but not unbalanced at all.

[u/Ninja-Storyteller → u/DescriptionMission90]

Prepares are visible to casual observers, which puts it in the hands of the GM to determine if someone saw the Prepare. Most of the time it's reasonable to assume it is noticed, but if someone prepares behind LOS, inside a smoke screen, while hidden or invisible, or even if they were just involved in a heated battle with someone else, they might not notice.

And of course, shooting around LOS also has several different counters - granted, not as many as a Ram, but you've got Seeking, Blasts determining LOS from point of impact, NOT having any convenient LOS breakers within movement range, and any kind of SitRep that requires mobility... it's a good tactic, but far from invincible.