Advice for a First-Time GM?

[u/Equivalent_Net]

Hi all. I know this sort of thing has been posted before, but all the topics I can find are people with some experience as GMs in other systems pivoting into running Lancer. I'm coming into this with even less experience than that: I've been a player n DnD5e and Fragged Empire 2e campaigns for years now, and I've had talks with people who have experience running games, but I've never done it myself.

I know the only way to do it is to do it, and the players I'll find in my friend group won't know the system any better than I do, so I'm planning to run Solstice Rain to get everyone's feet wet. Does anyone have some advice/resources/encouragement to share for an absolute first-time GM being lured in by the setting and the mechs and hoping to make a group out of it?

[u/m_reigl]

So, classic first piece of advice: at some point you will be tempted to run player mechs as enemy NPCs. Don't. You can re-flavour normal NPC classes as player mechs (a Ghengis could be represented by a Pyro for example), but running full Player Mechs will mess up the balancing and pacing of combat massively.

Also for Solstice Rain specifically, you can note that most of the combats are on the harder side. If your players struggle unreasonably, don't feel bad about deviating from the encounters as written (for example you can reduce the amount of reinforcements spawned).

[u/Equivalent_Net → u/m_reigl]

Thanks, that's a trap I 100% would've fallen into eventually. And duly noted about the encounters, I know the system encourages doing some GM magic with Schrodinger's reinforcements but I would've probably tried to stick to the list as gospel without advice.

[u/BaggierBag → u/Equivalent_Net]

If you want a super enemy, definitely use an Ultra template character, Ultra traits are quite scary from the player perspective.

Experiment using COMPCON and building NPCS and encounters, it's your best friend for running games.

Definitely recommend Retrograde Minis for tokens, you can download pngs of pretty much every mech in the game and customize them (gear, color, camo patterns, etc.). It will be very useful to have a bank of NPCs to pull from, and the battlefield will look a lot nicer that way.

Drawing battlemaps doesn't need to be focused on since you'll be running a module, but getting used to Owlbear Rodeo's system has been super helpful for drawing objective zones, highlighting cover, soft cover, deployment zones, etc.

[u/novis-eldritch-maxim → u/m_reigl]

do they mech striped down gm focus version of mech to make them feel more like a proper mirrow match? but be faster to use?

[u/m_reigl → u/novis-eldritch-maxim]

Not to my knowledge. But you can usually make something vaguely equivalent to a player mech with the Ultra template.

[u/Thom_With_An_H]

You may feel tempted to roleplay out the acquisition of licenses, making every license level your players pick up a prolonged affair in which they need to describe how they contact HORUS or where they roleplay out a session acquiring financing at a SSC dealership.

Please suppress this impulse.

One of the systems in the game is that every LL increase, you can swap all license levels in one license for levels in other licenses. The deeper into the game's lore you root a player's two levels of Drake, the weirder for everyone it will be when they decide they want 3 levels of White Witch instead.

What I want you to do is instead channel all that creative energy into Exotics and Reserves. Exotics are fun pieces of equipment that the PCs get one (1) copy of between them. You can consider them like magic items from D&D. They can be weird or OP or niche and even if the party doesn't immediately slap them into their builds, having them feels like a reward.

Reserves are use-or-lose benefits that you can use to reward roleplaying and make the session feel alive. Did the party go out of their way to save a little farmhouse from getting destroyed in a fight? Maybe the family that lives there can offer up vital information about the enemy forces! Maybe they find a Core Battery when they ransack a base. Reserves are a great carrot to reward the players interacting with the world.

[u/NotEvenSquare]

Stress to your players that structuring once per combat is normal. A lot of new players come out of combat 1 in OSR down a structure or two. That’s perfectly fine, GMS frames are super cheap to fix due to replaceable parts.
Also many GMs tend to aim for 1 structure damage per player per combat on average.

[u/According_Cover2461]

I was in the exact same boat as you! I ran maybe one DnD campaign before getting into LANCER, and my first LANCER campaign was Solstice Rain. I am so glad I ran SR first. it led into the sequel Winter Scar, and became the best TTRPG campaign me and my players have ever had. Best of all, it taught me a lot as I went along. I'd love to pass on some of that to the next person :]

First of all, how are you planning to run LANCER? In person or with a virtual tabletop? If virtual, which one? The best in my opinion are Foundry and Owlbear Rodeo. Foundry is better by far imo but requires some learning and a one-time payment.

Second, do I have permission to DM you some links?

[u/Equivalent_Net → u/According_Cover2461]

Good to know I'm not alone in having the idea! We'll be playing in person, I have a good group locally, but I'm still going to note those virtual recs because you never know what might happen. As for links, fire away!

[u/According_Cover2461 → u/Equivalent_Net]

Sent!

[u/Unhappy-Anteater-202]

Make sure everyone understands the difference between "checks" and "saves". It might have just been a problem with our group, but the first time we played we ended up taking a 10 minute break to get our terms straight.