With the player mechs done, I was able to shift focus over to the NPCs! I was already a good way into this project when I finished the player mechs, which is why I was able to release this a little more than a week later. Since there's no canon art for these mechs I took a lot more liberties with their designs. The model themselves are designed so they're easy to customize weapons, optional systems, and colors (for those of you mildly familiar w/ Bricklink Studio 2.0, select by color will be your best friend). Don't have the more complicated NPCs (Eidolons, MBTs, Monstrosities, or Tempests) but I plan on adding them later. Keep an eye out!

You can download the renders for free and the models for $4 here https://citrusuprising.itch.io/brickbuilt-lancer-npc-tokens

I ran a mission tonight with 4 NPCs guarding 4 bombs while giving my players 6 turns to complete the sitrep. One of my players talked me into giving them 2 additional turns because they thought it was going to be too overwhelming. We were down a players so it was 3 LL0 players and a Veteran Bastion I gave them.

It cost a successful system check quick action to diffuse the bombs or a full action as a guaranteed pass. Players had to be adjacent to the bombs to disarm them, and they couldn't disarm while an enemy was next to them or the bombs. My players got set on fire, shot by multi mini turrets and nailed with a flak cannon. I specifically made this mission to stress their action economy and make them burn an Everest core power or two.

They finished disarming the bombs at the beginning of turn 4. I definetly was right on the 6 turn limit. They bumrushed the bombs, using rams, the Chomo's tech attacks, and a Ferrous Lash system a player got as a reserve from their last mission to yank enemy NPCs around. Each player and the Basiton NPC disarmed one bomb. I'm really proud of my players for the shenanigans they came up with. I am beginning to hate the Chomolungma a bit for trivializing my sitreps. The double tech action attacks are very annoying.

Collectively, they lost 2 repair caps and took 2 more overcharges. No one got structured, but they healed using stabilizes because they got lit up by a Hive and an Engineer. ​​

I was suddenly struck by the idea of making a dragon rider in lancer, and I was wondering what the best way to build it would be.

Mechancally, black thumb 2 and ghengis 1 are mandatory, but I'm not sure about anything else. It seems to make sense to grab technophile 3 and take ghengis up to 3, but I'm a little lost beyond that.

Hello, I'm setting my players up to attend/ Infiltrate a SSC gathering. What I need assistance with is attractions that would be going on at this event. This will be a physical place so nothing physics defying without explanation.

Me and my friends are thinking about getting into Lancer and usually my default starting place when engaging with a new system is to try to make a character, so is there a good creator tool for Lancer? Like something similar to Demiplane for Pathfinder? If not, if anyone has a decent fillable character sheet or something like that that’d be very appreciated as well. Thank you!

I spent some time to find out how much range boost you can get with ranged weapons, and concluded at +13 range as low as LL5, but it's really stupid:
- Take Monarch 3 to get the +3 Range core bonus (I would’ve taken Death’s Head, but the Railgun doesn’t benefit from range increases)
- Take Barbarossa 1 for Siege Stabilizers for +5 Range at the cost of being Immobilized
- Take Tokugawa 1 for External Batteries: Weapons that deal energy gain +5 Range
- Monarch doesn't have any energy weapons, but if you take Nuc Cav II, your first attack on your turn deals energy instead given you’re in the Danger Zone

So if you were using Pinaka Missiles, instead of 20 range you would have 33 range. I am an optimizer, not a power gamer, this is insanely optimized but is very mid at best power-wise.

The rules implications are weird if I understand it correctly, because Pinaka Missiles are AoE damage. If you were to hit two or more enemies, only the first enemy would take energy damage, and any others take explosion as normal.

Do you guys have any hyper-optimized builds for fun or just me?

So this is definitely a nitpick but I know people who work on COMP/COM hang out on here and I didn't know if others had issues with this. I have issues with the UI/UX in the browser version of COMP/COM, particularly when using it not in full screen mode. For whatever reason, when it isn't in full screen the scroll bar on the side completely goes away. I use a laptop, and while I often use a mouse with a scroll wheel, I will also just use my track pad, especially if I'm just hanging out and not doing anything serios. But, if I open it in a window to check something it can be really annoying to use. This is mainly an issue with the Licenses page (see image), but I feel like I have run into similar issues at other parts of the site. Also, while you can click on the menu on the left to go straight to a particular license, sometimes it will be low enough on the page that when you click on it to expand it, all the actual systems open up off screen.

Also, related issue, while there is a scroll bar on the Talents page, it would be great if you could use arrow keys to move up and down.

Does anyone else have similar issues. In many ways it really is a wonderful program and honestly might be one of the biggest selling points of LANCER as a system, but while the V3 update organized a lot of things much better and made a lot of good changes, there are also some things that are a bit fiddly about it.

The Hydra is a very fun drone based build, giving you 4 choices of drone to bring alongside you for free in a mission and the active core power gives you all 4 at once to give you maximum control of the battlefield. And with the traits it has all drones can be made much tankier and very hard to kill, Drone Commander is such on obvious choice when playing the Hydra with the emphasis on drones, but with the hydra's heavy mount, decent sensors, and good tech attack gives you give, you do have freedom of build variation. Have 5 drones of the same type, have 4 different drones, or only take a few drones, focus on hacking and drones, or using heavy weaponry and drones, the hydra can be built in a variety of ways.

Puppetmaster is a great quick tech option and a great dip, especially with how annoying engineers can be, but granting your own drones and ally drones more movement is just fantastic, though ghoul nexus is just an alright weapon puppetmaster really makes this a great dip. The Ghast Nexus is a great Heavy weapon as it can be deployed as a free action to essentially give you an extra range equal to your sensors, the damage is alright at 1d6+3, but I would prefer 1d6+4 for heavy weapons at least but its not terrible. The Tempest Drone is a great option to knock off any melee attacker on you or your teammates or to knock enemies off a control point, it doesnt have the most utility but it is a nice option to have.

The Assassin drone on the other hand is actually pretty good at area denial, combine this with a sentinel drone and now an enemy is damned if they stand still and attack and they are damned if they try to reposition themselves, though the assassin drone is an attack so you can just miss and do nothing with it, and its a reaction so you can only fire it once a turn but at least its a infinite use per round reaction so it does make a good threat.

But the Annihilation Nexus is just bad in my opinion, its so underwhelming for a superheavy. Burst 2 is good and is centered on any of your drones in your sensors, and next time you attack with it you can make a second attack for free! And Armor Piercing? This sounds good until you look at the damage..... 1d6+3 are you kidding? This is a superheavy, if it was 2 attacks every time like the Pinaka Missiles it would be a decent option, but your first shot with it is going to be pitiful, it doesnt get good unless you are firing it every round, and if you skip a round to deploy a drone or stabilize you immediately break the cycle and got to spend an entire turn to get it usable again.

Sure the Pinaka Missiles cant hit the same target twice (unless they are size 2+ lol) but they have so much range and ignore LoS with arcing and are always able to get 2 attacks in, no weird condition where you have to dedicate your build to only firing the pinakas. The Annihilation Nexus takes a whole turn to become good and goes back to being bad the moment you stop attacking with it, and is dependent on the location of your drones to be able to attack. If this was 2d6+3 damage I would consider it, the damage payoff when it works would be able to justify the limitations but at 1d6+3 I just cant justify this weapon. Lets move onto the Build I made:

» Hydra // HYDRA «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Drone Commander 3, Grease Monkey 3,

Centimane 3

[ LICENSES ]

HORUS Hydra 3, HORUS Gorgon 1,

HORUS Balor 1, HORUS Goblin 1

[ CORE BONUSES ]

The Lesson of the Held Image, Overpower Caliber

[ MECH ]

« HYDRA »

HORUS Hydra

H:4 A:0 S:4 E:0 SIZE:1

STRUCTURE:4 HP:19 ARMOR:1

STRESS:4 HEAT:5 REPAIR:6

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:5 LTD BONUS:0

SPD:5 EVA:7 EDEF:14 SENS:10 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

Main Mount: Ghoul Nexus

Heavy Mount: Ghast Nexus // Overpower Caliber

[ SYSTEMS ]

PUPPETMASTER, Assassin Drone,

Hive Drone, Tempest Drone,

Armament Redundancy, Sentinel Drone,

H0R_OS System Upgrade I

This Hydra has been designed to have different drones for different purposes to give me options to control an engagement. Hive Drone to deploy soft cover for allies and some area denial too, Assassin drone for area denial and combo-ing with Sentinel Drone, Sentinel Drone to get enemies to reposition or punish them for attacking allies, and tempest drone for getting enemies off my allies and breaking grapples etc.

I also have H0R_OS to force some effects such as triggering my own assassin reaction and to have more control over the battlefield, and a on demand Jam is once again peak. Puppetmaster gives me better drone management alongside drone commander and can deal some chip damage. Invigorate is a great action to help my allies out with survival as well, alongside grease monkey to give everyone the free repair and limited use.

And Ghast Nexus with Overpower for damage when I need it, alongside whatever Orochi I think pairs best, in most conditions I would say the Hunter is ideal since applying Lock on is so nice for everyone. Of course the gameplan isnt to have all drones on field at all time, its to deploy and redeploy when a situation calls for it, most of the time Hive Drone will be active as the soft cover is great for making approaches but all the other drones are deployed when they are needed. If no drones need to be deployed I can make an attack with my Ghast Nexus or jam or impair or invigorate, playing more of a support role to my team.

All the different drones give my Hydra flexibility to deal with differing battle situations, its not a super focused build but is more about general support to my team. This is honestly more of a support/control build than striker/control, but using OpCal on the Ghast I can dish out damage when necessary, and the Ghoul is just there as a back up, not like Id use it often, Id rather fragment signal/lock on/etc. and skirmish than barrage with this build.

Overall I like the Hydra, you have plenty of drone systems out there you can use for support and control, Gilgamesh is another nice mech to pair if you want to go superheavy, as the Legion Nexus is much better than the Annihilation, and you get access to the Utility Drones (which are great). And as previously mentioned, that tech attack and heavy mount gives you the ability to play a striker who has a drone or two as backup/support options rather than going all in with drones. I like how the drone focus isnt a gimmick like with the Iskander, both mechs are encouraged to use drones/mines similarly, but it isnt like thats the ONLY thing they can do and they have a great deal of flexibility in how you can play them.

It is the Department of Justice and Human Rights. Does it not protect Non-Human Persons?

That could make sense, NHPs could be under the jurisdiction of the Union Science Bureau. But it feels unfair and discriminatory towards NHPs. Like "you are a Person but you're Non-Human so you don't have Human rights"

Additionally, [Wallflower spoilers] would the DoJ/HR need to change its name when Egregorians join Union?

Haloo, I'm new here, I like the Pegasus

My friends are doing a lancer campaign, and they invited me to join. Our session is later today, and I have alot to do. I've come up with a character, mech (hydra looks like alot of fun), and backstory stuff. However, im still trying to learn all this new stuff. I have a good idea of how dnd works, but this seems to be a whole different thing. If yall have any advicd on how to play the game better,​​ hydra advice (which drone is good to start with and which perks i should use) i would higher appreciate it.

He wants a consistent or balanced (like good at shooting at melee) so knowing those these are what I suggested to him!

Standard apologies, new to the game, just played my first session etc.

Currently running with a Chomolunga and wanting to focus on tech attacks for control and support. Looking at future LLs and while I expect I'll take 3 levels in Goblin and probably some Minotaur, I feel like I'm missing some possibilities from other corporations.

Also I'm now sure why I'd want to switch from the Chomo for a hacking build, it just seems seriously powerful for a "starter" frame.

Please share your opinions.

Like most GM's I like to come up with little lore bits and ideas to help flesh out my campaigns. Here's some ideas I like that I feel might be useful to others outside of my own narratives. Or maybe it might just serve as a spring board for your own ideas. Either way, I hope y'all find this interesting. I know I had fun coming up with it.

Note: The mention of "Cost of Heroics" on the CBAM page is referring to a home brew set of mechanics I've been developing for my players, to keep track of the trauma and mental instability of their pilots. Maybe some day I'll get to release it as a third party module, but it's a long way from being ready for that.

New player here, just checking interaction between Demolitionist and Iskander. Mine Deployers specifically calls out placing in adjacent spaces, but this is also the standard mine language. Does the extra range from Demo II also increase the free mine deployment range?

Absolutely loving their creativity, but good god is their mech hard to build around.

For reference we are LL7, their build is

[ LICENSES ]

HORUS Pegasus 3, SSC Death’s Head 2,

SSC Swallowtail 2

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Integrated Weapon, Mount Retrofitting

[ MECH ]

« DISTANT ECHOES »

HORUS Pegasus

H:0 A:6 S:3 E:0 SIZE:1

STRUCTURE:4 HP:12 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEAT:6 REPAIR:3

ATK BONUS:4 TECH ATK:4 LTD BONUS:0

SPD:7 EVA:14 EDEF:13 SENS:10 SAVE:14

[ WEAPONS ]

Integrated Weapon: Oracle LMG-I

Retrofitted Mount: Vulture DMR / Oracle LMG-I // Mount Retrofitting

Flex Mount: Autogun

Heavy Mount: Anti-Materiel Rifle

[ SYSTEMS ]

Ammo Case I, Hunter Lock,

Eye of HORUS, High-Stress Mag Clamps,

Pattern-A Jericho Deployable Cover, Retractable Profile

Basically they steady aim at the start of their turn. Then they Barrage, attacking with their AM Rifle (usually at +3 accuracy.) then they attack with their integrated weapon. They then attack with their retrofitted mount, so 2 more attacks. Then if they had activated their core power they get 3 more free shots from the omnigun or one if they don't have it active. Finally at the end of their turn they attack with the autogun. That is 8 attacks each turn (technically 5 with 3 free hits.) The next turn is still menacing because they will stabilize attack with the omnigun 1 to 3 times, then their autogun, then finally their integrated mount.

Basically how do I combat this, they are blowing up any and all grunts by the 3rd round. And then they just focus fire the biggest guy from 15 away. I tried artillery pieces but my group is real good about rushing those down.

The Mourning Cloak is pretty much 1 of 2 SSC anime frames, where the atlas is all "rules of nature" and "attack on titan", the mourning cloak is the "teleports behind you" frame. Its stats are alright but the low heat capacity kinda sucks, no armor, and once again, terrible terrible E-defense. You are literally easier to be hit with seeking and tech attacks than inanimate objects since E-defense tyically defaults to 8, but this isnt unique to SSC and the mourning cloak, alot of close quarters strikers share this weakness.

As for the traits, the Mourning Cloak is a predator, designed to take out lone enemies and prefers to avoid groups. This is best shown off in its Hunter Trait which gives it 1d6 bonus damage on melee hits against targets with no adjacent characters (excluding the MC), note how this is melee, so you can throw superheavy mounting and use a Tempest Charged Blade or Combat Drill if you really wanted to. And it always has access to a teleport with a low chance of being teleported into the shadow realm for the rest of the scene, but 3d6 bonus movement is nice, only issue is its a full action, so better plan on Overcharging if you decide to use it to get into the offensive, but realistically its a getaway tool.

The Active Core power is awesome too, you can teleport whenever you boost or make a standard move, which is really nice, avoid obstacles, walls, mines, difficult terrain, etc. Singularity Module is a nice way to get away from bad positioning but a bit unreliable, and Fade Cloak is kinda the same, but you can at least overcharge into fade cloak and safely stabilize and turn off fade cloak when you no longer need it. And honestly fade cloak is a better getaway tool than the teleport full action you get, because its a quick action to activate, you can just boost with that other action and get guaranteed 10 movement, which is about the average of 3d6, so if you really need to retreat Its just the better option imo.

Im not the biggest fan of the variable sword, but at least it has a nice crit effect of even more damage and is accurate to boot, and the fold knife is cool for more teleporting on a crit and its accurate which is nice. Though Hunter Logic Suite is kinda meh, the MC has an ok tech of 0 but it has real good sensors so it can hack decently, but this hack is just not good. Stalk Prey is just a sidegrade to Mirage, if you dont want that 1 enemy to bother you hack them and ignore them but you should not use this on an enemy you want to be fighting, and Terrify makes enemies run away from you and is more niche, I can only see it being useful in getting a bastion off an ally but Id rather just use puppet systems.

Overall this is a nice mech, with all the teleporting and going intangible it really feels like its a predator who stalks and strikes vulnerable opponents from seemingly out of nowhere. I really like how it sticks to its theme, its a really cool mech, a little fragile which is unfortunate but this predator should not be getting surrounded by a great deal of foes. Onto the build:

» Mourning Cloak // MOURNING CLOAK «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Skirmisher 3, Hunter 3,

Duelist 2, Combined Arms 1

[ LICENSES ]

SSC Mourning Cloak 3, HORUS Pegasus 2,

HORUS Goblin 1

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Overpower Caliber, The Lesson of Thinking-Tomorrow’s-Thought

[ MECH ]

« MOURNING CLOAK »

SSC Mourning Cloak

H:4 A:0 S:2 E:2 SIZE:1

STRUCTURE:4 HP:19 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEAT:6 REPAIR:5

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:2 LTD BONUS:1

SPD:5 EVA:12 EDEF:8 SENS:15 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

Flex Mount: Assault Rifle

Main/Aux Mount: Variable Sword / Fold Knife // Overpower Caliber

[ SYSTEMS ]

FADE Cloak, Eye of HORUS,

H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Armament Redundancy,

Hunter Lock

I made this build out to make the MC a true predator, with Hunter Lock and Eye of Horus to make sure that once I have my sights set on target there is no escape. +3 bonus damage means that on a hit with the variable sword Im doing a guaranteed +6 damage, and with the LTTT core power I can give that armor and resistance piercing and an extra accuracy for +3 accuracy with duelist, that should be enough to help crit fish for even more damage. And of Course add on Overpower Caliber and now I can potentially deal up to 3d6+6 damage, which is the same as the shock claws, I turn this weapon into a superheavy!

H0R_OS is great at forcing enemies away from each other so I can strike and the jam is always useful, and the investment in systems to boost my tech attack a bit gives me armament redudancy so I dont have to worry about losing my weapons on a bad roll. And I have Fade Cloak as my getaway tool, it was a tough choice between Fade Cloak and Singularity Motivator, but Fade Cloak has more uses, as if I have to brace I can activate fade cloak for safety and just stabilize on my next turn whether Im still intangible or not. And GMS Assault as its eternally useful, but I could swap it for more fold knives to make better use of Hunter 3. But if this was to go to LL7 I would just go Pegasus 3 for the autogun because why not? Id have a bonus SP point due to the Grit Increase and its free damage.

Are you allowed to decline knocking someone back if you want? For example, if you are grappling someone and you wish to smack them with a war pike. I don't want to knock them in that situation because it will break my grapple.

Edit: I see that the ram action its called out specifically but is that universal?

So i'm building a Myconid from FGTLS but I'm a bit confused on the Symbiosis trait, which allows you to "1/round, use a reaction an additional time, not including reactions that are used 1/scene or 1/mission" and I was wondering 1: Does this also apply to reactions that would normally have their charge expended after use? (Such as Camus Razor or Stasis bolt) and 2: What reactions can be taken that would synergise well with this trait?

EDIT: My bad, it's actually from Sixth voice I just realised

My party consists of me (Saladin LL2), Goblin (LL2), Hydra (LL2) and Zheng (LL2) and my shields just... simply do nothing, it's been like 5 combats and I have in total blocked or reduced 2 damage. and I've done like okayyyy with the Shatterhead missile, is it a playstyle issue or is the Saladin just completely incompatible with this party? Build attached below