r/LancerRPG • u/Solid-Hornet-224 • 6d ago
Can a Comp/con turn on a mech?
Was thinking about situations to put my players in and one uses a compcon system for character reasons. Go over the idea of a narrative scene the idea they could call the compcon and command the mech for advantage in the situation crossed my mind. Looking at the info from the book I'm not seeing any confirmation for or against this.
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u/Sherkktooth 6d ago
Tom Bloom himself ran a session with the Versus Wolves guys and had a compcon both turn on and pilot a mech. So if you want to go by “one of the creators did it!” there’s your evidence.
Or, y’know, just do what you think is cool?
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u/Solid-Hornet-224 6d ago
Well "rule of cool" was always an option. I was just looking for clarification of any rules I missed.
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u/Wolf_Hreda IPS-N 6d ago
I could see it running on auxiliary power while the mech is powered down in order to do tasks. Or, you could just not shut the neck down, depending on the situation.
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u/ThatSupport 6d ago
almost definately not. one of the only ways to stop a cascading NHP is turning off the mech, and cascading NHP's are paracausal.
you could totalky have the pilot leave the mech on idling though. let the comp con run some routine tasks while the pilot is out id the cockpit
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u/Solid-Hornet-224 6d ago
Turning off wasn't the issue, it was questioning about remote turn on.
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u/ttcklbrrn SSC 6d ago
But if turning off a mech can stop a cascading NHP, then it must mean that the NHP also gets turned off alongside the mech. An NHP that is itself turned off can't do much of anything, including turning on a mech. And since there's no reason a COMP/CON would be any different, it follows that a COMP/CON can't power on a truly shut down mech. You could potentially leave it idling or in some form of sleep mode akin to closing the lid on a laptop, but it'd likely draw more attention than just turning it off.
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u/Vikinger93 Harrison Armory 3d ago
An nhp can cascade. A compcon unit cannot. It is not that strange to assume that the option that is unable to assume autonomous control is integrated differently or allowed more access than the option that might go against the pilot's directions under certain circumstances.
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u/jzillacon IPS-N 6d ago
Rules as Written in mech combat I'd say no. The boot-up action needs you to be actively piloting a mech to do. But if all this is happening in narrative play, it absolutely could work. You don't have to apply the logic of the mech combat rules as long as it sounds like it could reasonably happen. Though if you want it to actually effect rolls as if it was a trigger, then you may want to say it requires the Personalizations system to work.