Lancer: The Beautiful Machine

[n0ble]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.a6pc1ZZNlhoZKcFPEnLBBQHaFE?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain

Hi Playgrounders! Recently theres been some buzz (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?663332-Lancer-a-seemingly-fun-mech-rpg) for a game of Lancer on-forum so I've decided to field one. The advent of the Lancer Map Maker has made setting things up for combat considerably easier than it used to be. The elevator pitch so to speak is that you are all laborers/prisoners on the planet Shortora, initially starting your rebellion against an underhouse of the House of Stone underground in the the mining complex/penal colony of Golgotha. Initially, touchstone wise its going to be drawing on things like the novel Red Rising, movies/tv like Spartacus and, of course, anime like Gurren Lagan, but I fully expect things to embrace other touchstones as we go on :smallsmile: I've included a bit about the planet and the prison below, would be happy to answer any questions and also people come up with how you got your print code for your mech .

We're going to be starting at LL0. All first part content in allowed-stuff thats currently undergoing playtesting is valid as well, would actually love to be able to bring feedback back to the creators on the new frames (go Lycan!)-as are the 4 alt-frames from the Interpoint Station supplement Enhanced Combat. I'm going to be keeping recruitment open for a minimum of two weeks, more if people need time to field a complete entry and/or allowing for forum issues. Finally, I'm going to try and pick 5 players with an eye towards filling each of the given roles (striker, support, defender, artillery, controller) but a good backstory is important too :smallsmile:


Shotora is a planet found far in the 10th Ring of known Union Space (the Karakoram Line). A blink gate is approximately 8 months out from the planet. Initially colonized by the SSC corpo-State in its early days as a hail-mary sort of investment when things looked dire following initial disappointments with the perfection of ontological bridging tech, today the planet is host-legally and in actuality-to a colony governed by House Canamos of the House of Stone from the capital, Klataua. This ascendency followed a series of conflicts between Karrakin and SSC elements that was only resovled with the arrival of a Loyal Wing of Albatross, the nomadic peace keeping nation-state. Following the declaration of the Alabatross for Karrakin forces under the command of the current Governess' Grandmother and a combined victory over SSC, a schism occurred in the Albatross. Some defected from the Wing to join the Governess in her moment of victory. Those that didnt escape the following purge were either killed or sent to Golgotha.

It is a pangeal planet, its sole landmass capped by twin secondary continents of frozen freshwater, the northern of which are stained grey for how moutains barge into them, while the south's rust-ochre deserts are carved through with melted veinules of glacier. Klataua itself not only faces the (saltwater) eastern sea, but is itself partially built into the massive ocean trench and cliff it is perched upon. West of the capital lies a fertile bad of riverland that gives way to a massive, primordial forest that spans the rest of the westside of the continent, a fact known only for satellite imaging and not because of any (successful) exploration. Below is a bit more detail on the various biomes. As a note, barring the Eastern Interior the odd expedition, the majority of people in the North, South and West are descended from the the initial First Wave of SSC colonials. I also plan to fill out the biomes with various NPCs if people want to connect their backstories with them.


Going north from Klataua the verdant fields of waste-high grass begin to wilt. Give way. Shrink. Becoming first sallow marshlands, then sparse taiga cut through with rivers and studded with rock, the only visible plantlife too stubborn mosses and grass not knowing its dead. Further still north one comes to the mountains and the glacial masses of ice grown over.

It is at the highest peaks of these ziggurauts that one might find their inhabitants, the so-called Stormcallers. All but abandoned SSC command elements pushed far north in the sanctioned Karrakis claiming of the planet, the Stormcallers are a hardbitten bunch, forced to make do with living from the various fungi and mountain fauna they've cultivated within the shelters they've carved from and into the mountain chains. Meteorologists amongst the faction have noted a marked increase in the yearly thaw, no doubt brought about by Karrakin research team elements or some other interloper sent to set a flood upon them.

To this end, the Stormcallers have been preparing. Rumours abound from the north that they're working on some sort of great flying superweapon/contraption that is to be turned upon the capital. While this is almost assuredly media histrionics filtered through a carefully managed propaganda lenses, the fact remains that they are working on something. Something big. It doesnt help that the Stormcallers use some of the most manoeuvrable mechs on Shotora, hosting several escapees from the Loyal Wing of albatross that Canamos' grandmother betrayed.


Far and away the most developed region of the planet, the east enjoys the benefits of a dual legacy. Initally the site of unsuccessful SSC attempts at altering the planet, all House Canamos had to do was nudge the out of date efforts in the right direction to get what they wanted. Little did they know that these efforts would disrupts the equilibrium of the other SSC personnel reluctant to let go of their hard earned ways of life. Generally speaking, the one goes further away from Klataua, the less developed things get. Golgotha remains an exception insofar as it represents an actual commitment of resources by the capital to extract something in kind from the planet. Otherwise, the progression is one from a modern Karrakis standard found in the Capital to things like steel-plate domed roofs on the houses of farmers that similarly border the woods.


A vast arborcology that has been the subject of many a field expedition legal or otherwise, the west has always been defined by a pair of traits: its common border with traditional Karrakin borders and the relative unknown that comes with what is truly inside. While satellite imaging can track the extent of the forest, the density and the heat put out by the flora has made it difficult to actually pinpoint individuals once they enter the forest proper.

It is also these two traits that have made it ideal for the most pressing concern facing Governor Canamos at the moment: the Woodsmen. Once a bad bed time story told to children, the Woodsmen are made up of the veteran SSC security personnel defeated in a decisive battle by the Governor's grandmother. In the years since, at least enough of them have put swords to ploughshares within the forest to sustain themselves a society that can launch raids on Karrakin frontier elements.

While initially founded on the principals of mobility and elegance associated with all SSC frames, subsequent raids on Karrakin and Albatross elements have led to a renvisioning of typical tactics. Now, these retrofitted frames that were once spoils of a long war not over serve as the anvil, deployed initially in raids so as to draw attention for the passing familiarity of their hulls before the more strangely styled SSC holdovers strike when the enemy is not looking.



The bounty of the other biomes gives way to ash and cinder the further one goes south. Huge heaps of sand dunes clot the landscape, flanking scant rives that hold luscious bounties of durable vegetation that has found succession amidst such harsh climates. Few are the people that come to the wastes willingly, though there is something to be said for the richness of what little soil persists.

The few who do come here to stay often do so because they have no where else to go. So called Cinderlords are madmen and outcasts from all walks of life and almost all universally Lancers or frame pilots of some kind, they chassis as much bunkers against the environs as any permanent shelter they possess.

Subsequently, elements found here that are hostile to Karrakis are almost always also hostile to everyone else. The south is that kind of place. The mechs to be found are an eclectic bunch, as varied and from different walks of life as the people who pilot them. Still, some constants persist by way of design. Anyone who survives down south long does so with an eye towards resisting the heat, to say nothing of utilizing it as a potential armament for energy based weaponry.




In spite of the impositions the prison brings to the Shortoran ecology, Golgotha is a fully functioning ecosystem all its own, possessed of a functioning on-site lab/med-bay, a garrison house (complete with an armory) and a mag lev rail system that directly connects to the capital of House Canamos colony. Further below ground one finds the massive apparatus designed to haul mining equipment and penal laborers up-Prison to hack away at the various flora above-ground.

And again, far below that lies the prison-ghetto, a hub of "wrongly" convicted, wrongly convicted and, until recently, principles that have turned the prison-economy towards more lofty designs that the fullfillment of prison quotas. Rising up. The ghetto itself is built in three tiers into the side of a vast crevasse, extensively mined through via workers perilously strung or lashed to the cliffside where paths havent been carved for the deployment of large scale mining frames. A long rumoured jamming device mitigates what can truly be printed by the prisoners, but as Lancers and prospective heroes-to-be you've managed to cicrumvent that. It'll definitley have to go first if your to make any substantial progress to above-ground.

Below are some of the major figures found in Golgotha, allies and notable enemies:

Commander Emil Karst, Father of the Revolution: Karst is ex-Albatross, and it’s the remnant of forces still loyal to him that form the hardened core of your burgeoning revolution. Emil is an old man in his late fifties, always clad in some sort of military apparel that typically favors black as a color. It has been a long, long time since he’s been in the cockpit of his Nelson-the Last Call-but if the scraped together pilot simulators found underneath Golgotha’s surface are any indication time apart has done nothing to dull the betrayed Commander’s skills as a pilot.

While the Commander personally divulges little regarding his imprisonment, its still relatively easy to piece together what happened to the former Albatross member. Karst’s wing arrived to Shortora in answer to an alleged distress signal. What followed were a gradual series of concession-betrayals which culminated in the Commander’s imprisonment and the ascension of Commander Gorth’s father to the head of the “Loyal” Wing remnants that would go on to form a nominal Baronic Free Company under Governor Cannamos’ purview. Many wonder what will happen when Emil meets his former friend’s son in battle.

Karst’s role in the revolution is twofold: while Kareftis might have a mind for politics and Liz for engineering, it is the Old Man alone who knows how to command a war. The second feature is that, aside from the aforementioned Albatross veterans he brings with him, Karst has been able to scuttle, import and steal a sizable amount of munitions and armaments for you and the revolution to use, all the more impressive for how he did so from the bowels of Golgotha. He’s seen a great deal many weapons on a greatsame many worlds in his time as a cosmopolitan, which has made the unforeseen betrayal of his former comrades sting all the more. Worse than any warpike’s bite.

Lady Irimloza Kareftis: The lady Kareftis is far from home. Raised on the icy sepulcher of Begum, Irimloza was provided with an education classical to the House of Remembrance: a mix of genetic education and the sort of cutthroat political acumen sorely missing from the revolution. Its these two pillars that the exiles and former noble members of Klataua have subsequently flocked to, deferring to the noblewoman for her her superior ranking amongst them as much as for her scientific acumen in the field of biology.

It was this very same skill that saw Irimloza to Shortora, ostensibly on a survey mission investigating remnants of genetic diversity in the Long Rim. What she discovered was a truth known to some but not all: Karrakis was late to arriving on Shotora first. Naturally, Governor Cannamos could not let such an idea propagate amongst the lower rungs of Klatauan society. Public censure did little to curtail Lady Kareftis’ research into prior colonial elements and, undisuadid by threat or promise of reward, the Lady kept looking. Too high within her the House of Moments to risk the fallout of a death abroad, Governor Cannamos instead opted to “reassign” Irimloza to the depths of Golgotha.

Now amongst the lowborn (and a few sympathetic nobles), Kareftis acts as the informal head of the Revolutions intelligentsia, having accrued intellectuals and thinkers the way a sponge sops up water. While Karst might have a mind for war and Liz for machines, it is the Lady and her thinkers that are concerned not only with maintaining the haleness of the prison’s population (as she’s keen to remind other Karrakin nobles technically it is Doctor Kareftis) but with their education in the political as well. Irimloza, like Karst has seen what the rest of Union space contains in terms of its peoples and their myriad outlooks. Time will tell if her work yields something entirely new in terms of thought or if it is the genesis of Shotorans thinking like a more established entity.

Liz & SLATE: The laborers of Golgotha are an informal bunch, much more inclined to their work then they are to socialize with the prior to factions of the Revolution. Publically, their representatives are a wizard of an engineer and her hulking guardian of an NHP. The dyad of woman and artifice (Throne only knows where and how she cycles it below ground) have been instrumental in ensuring not only that Golgotha’s quotas are met via the repair of essential mining tools, but that the bare minimum of provided habitation technology that allows for work underground is maintained so as to preserve the prison-community’s “ecosystem”.

Much more cagey than Kareftis in the origins of her incarceration, it’s a matter of hotbutton conjecture the prison over just what Liz did to land themselves in Golgotha, to say nothing of how it’s a topic of frequent good-natured debate between the Revolution’s Laborers and Intelligentsia. There's even a small betting pool going on. There's an unspoken expectation that the reveal and conclusion of the betting will be timed to coincide with the “Big Push” as Karst puts it, no doubt blared out via whatever speakers Liz’s NHP has been able to suborn.

While not an active combatant, Liz and SLATE bring the full technical expertise of the laborers and their engineers to the revolution’s cause. This is displayed is a strange knack for improvisation, a talent which plays no small part in their ability to maintain the many work machines the laborers use for mining Shotora’s flesh. It was only natural that this technical acumen could be further applied to the mech frames that made the revolution a feasible option for Liz and her NHP. Rumors abound that the young Shotoran native is working on converting SLATE’s chassis into a mech-frame of their own





Warden Rhosyane-Ludra: a governor writ-small against the backdrop of the would-be kingdom that is Golgotha, the warden is a brutal individual. She sees the prisoners under her thumb as little more than economic units, numbers that run up and down alongside other tallies. It is an earned cynicism, accumulated like so many layers of sediment after a long and storied career abroad in the House of Stone’s Paragon Company. The brutality of this outfit-and the commanding position she held within it-made her well suited to controlling mining interests far away from the Capital.

This totalitarian haigography is all fueled by a common, well known origin in the Long-Rim putting down pirates on various satellite planetoids in defense of the House of Stone’s economic holdings abroad. It was during this service to the House that Rhosane-Ludra was injured against a paracausal entity. The wound has since permeated her body, leaving the austere woman unable to leave the confines of her mecha, The Gavel.

Something of a careerist, its never personal with the Warden. Its just business. Well. Sort of. When the Warden came to Golgotha they came with family. A son, the result of some sort of dalliance on an off-planet colony during her time in service. Bashir-her progeny-is the only person in all the prison who does not call her Warden.

Security Chief Harkon: A big bull of a man on an extended leave from the Capital, Harkon is the much more public facing middleman between the Warden and Golgotha’s prisoners. Where the Warden is a careerist who sees herself as the head cog in the prison machine, Harkon has something arguably more dangerous than duty: ambition. Not for some petty position lording over the condemned but a return to the sunshine and leisure of the capital.

in keeping with his role as the Warden’s presence, Harkon’s reasons for exile from the capital are unknown, though whatever nobility might have been involved in the Security Chief’s departure has long since be eroded away by the confines of his current environment. Now he acts as a bully first and head of security second, readily abusing his authority in a manner that’s seen Golgotha take a remarkable turn towards corruption under the Warden’s current tenure.

In this sense, Harkon fills a vital niche in the prison’s economy: he’s the go to person for acquiring things not readily available from the surface. Karst has had to take great pains to circumvent Harkon’s parasitic stranglehold on Golgotha’s prison economy. This has played a large part in the decision to excise the Security Chief as a part of the Revolution, to say nothing of the fact that Golgotha boasts a readily available complement of security personnel, many of them hand-chosen from the Warden’s former unit. It galls the Security Chief all the more that these veterans recognize that he’s never served and so afford him the requisite amount of respect.

The OVERSEER: While the Warden secures Golgotha’s place in the greater planetary ecosystem and Harkon sees to order at the end of a gun barrel, the actual administration of the prison has been given over to an NHP given the simple designation of the OVERSEER. The being is responsible for ensuring that the quotas stripped from Shotora’s flesh are processed and melted down into something more suitable for transport to the capital.

Much like the Warden, the OVERSEER is a dispassionate worker, largely framing itself as an ally when the reality of its cognition is that it is incapable of feeling things like cruelty, joy or contempt for those around it. This dissmemination has a flaw insofar as the OVERSEER has a prime unit it typically occupies close to the upper levels of the prison, but many more of its RPVs and subalterns can be found in the prison's depths proper.

Typically, the OVERSEER occupies a number of RPV chassis, haunting the various work crews and prisoner mining outfits with a ghoulish sort of indifference. Beyond the filling of quotas that is. Thus, the OVERSEER stands as a sort of mocking reminder: Golgotha could be wholly capable of mechanizing its production and focusing on the reform of its prisoner elements. But it hasn’t.

[Dusk Raven]

A friend of mine really likes Lancer and wants to run someday, and I've been intrigued by it, myself. I could make an entry for this.

I'll take a bit of time for me to learn the rules, of course.

[Llyarden]

Sorry if I missed it, but what level are we going to be starting at?

[CateranEnforcer]

Very nice! Will definitely get something up and going

[n0ble]

Sorry if I missed it, but what level are we going to be starting at?

You definitley didnt, thats totally my bad for not putting up there-we're going to be starting at LL0 to begin with. All three starting frames are allowed. :smallsmile:

[Bitter]

It will be no surprise from all my posting in the other thread, but I’m very much up for applying to this.

Two quick questions to help finish my character’s history:

- Is it assumed we’re already active in the resistance?
- How far along and discreet is the resistance; are we still imprisoned and just plotting behind the scenes at game start and do the powers that be know there is an organised resistance in place?

[n0ble]

It will be no surprise from all my posting in the other thread, but I’m very much up for applying to this.

Two quick questions to help finish my character’s history:

- Is it assumed we’re already active in the resistance?
- How far along and discreet is the resistance; are we still imprisoned and just plotting behind the scenes at game start and do the powers that be know there is an organised resistance in place?

Thanks for expressing interest here too! :smallsmile: I think its pretty easy to assume your active or at least tangentially involved with the resistance/have a reason for wanting to be a part of it. As for where things are resistance wise right now I'd say its in the early stages of full blow armed revolt-the powers that be at Golgotha would generally assume something is at foot at any given time. The current spark that ignites so to speak is going to be destroying the jammer that prevents you from accessing print codes beyond GMS and allows for mass production print counts. Once that goes down its a big of enough edge for your revolution to ride to some sort of success and a big enough security breach that it can be assumed that an appropriately proportional response is forthcoming from Golgotha staff. :smallsmile:

[Bitter]

Hello everyone, looking forward to playing.

Reposting my character below.



» Lupo Teutonborg // DUST «
LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Assault (+2), Charm (+2),
Hack or Fix (+2), Stay Cool (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Heavy Hardsuit, Medium Signature,
Medium A/C, Omnihook,
Prosocollar, Thermite Charge
***
[ TALENTS ]
Hacker 1, Leader 1,
Stormbringer 1
[ MECH ]
« CALIBURN »
GMS Chomolungma
H:0 A:0 S:2 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4/4 HP:12/12 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4/4 HEAT:0/6 REPAIR:4/4
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:3 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:12 SENS:15 SAVE:11
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Rocket-Propelled Grenade / Missile Rack
FLEX MOUNT: Assault Rifle
[ SYSTEMS ]
Personalizations, Pattern-A Jericho Deployable Cover,
Custom Paint Job, Type-3 Projected Shield,
Armament Redundancy, Manipulators

Lupo is an avowed knight of the Tabernacle of the Transcendant Eumetazoan, colloquially known as Eumats. This part religion, part philosophy and part boundary pushing scientific research group was founded in the idea of creating a superior strain of humanity that was able to perfectly balance the philo-divine characteristics of the Sapien, the Primate and the Other.

Like most of the experimental subjects who became knights Lupo was an orphan and raised with care, love and dedication by Eumat nuns until he reached the age of 21 and was asked if he would like to join the knighthood. As can be imagined, the amount of people willing to turn down a request from the organisation responsible for raising them their entire life is typically very low. Lupo said yes and the two years of gene modification, implants, brain surgery, nerve regrafting, engram enforcement, parasigilistic metavorey and more were carried out until he said his vows as part of the 35th clade of Eumat knights. Though his generation, like all 34 clades that came before him, were put into the field, assessed and designated a technical failure as they didn’t represent a true step beyond humanity according to the Eumat’s religio-philosophy; this was almost expected at this point and he and his comrades continued to undertake their knightly duties to support the best in humanity and take up arms to defeat the worst. It was a time of greatness when he first learned to pilot a mechanised chassis and took part in campaigns that are still legendary on their respective worlds.

This continued for years until the Eumat schism of 4876u, when clade turned against clade and the great design to uplift humanity turned into an inward facing religious war. Ordered to assault the heterodox chapel-ship Saint Yusuf-Stevens, Lupo took no part and took the opportunity of the chaos to set out to the Long Rim.

Since then Lupo’s life has been a mixture of trying to lie as low as possible while sticking to his knightly vows, a contradictory approach doomed to failure. For anyone who cares, his name semi-regularly shows up in reports from war zones across the rim; a minor footnote of a dated Eumat knight armed with an mechanised chassais attaching himself to rebellions and quixotic causes. Those footnotes, which were broken up by decades of cryogenically frozen sub-light travel, have ceased for the past 3 years since an attempt to bring down a particularly brutal House of Stone Underbaron lead to Lupo’s imprisonment in Golgotha.

As a prisoner in Golgotha he is known to most as a hardworking but silent presence, some even think him brain damaged or suffering some kind of mental disorder. The truth that only a few know is that in the face of a torturous life designed to grind away at prisoners, he spends most of the days with his sapience artificially dialled down by his cognitive modules until he is little more than a fleshy automaton. In this manner he survives though an oppressive existence with it barely registering on the fully functioning version of himself that comes alive in the small hours of the night when the plotting begins.



Share code: 38HNDT

[Darkstorm]

Interested (as the one who opened the other thread).

Will build up something!!

[Mousedigits]

Expressing interest here as well! I'm excited for this game.

EDIT: What kind of starting equipment should we have? Any restrictions on systems/weapons? Also, how long has Golgotha been in operation?

[CateranEnforcer]

Derek is perhaps one of the 'wrongly' accused types down in the prisons, depending on your perspective. Second son of a noble and once a soldier for the Governor's forces, he now finds that his usefulness has worn out. In fact, his own relationship with his noble father was to remain a secret, he suspects for reasons of infidelity even if his father never admitted to it. Hidden in childhood and enlisted, he found a new broken home inside a cockpit.

Though he is a former demolitionist and combat engineer by title, Derek was actually more of a loose cannon and lover of pyrotechnics. Brutally effective during the Ascendency, but having someone with his disregard for collateral damage lauded as a hero and role model would be an embarrassment to the current regime and his family. He was reassigned down below, working a mining frame and dynamite as the need arose....with strict limitations.

But Derek has been biding his time down here, working backwards to reverse engineer and modify his industrial Frame's schematic into something more combat ready should be get a chance. When the time is right, he plans to ally with the revolution or anyone who will take him and get himself out of here. Maybe his new family will help him settle the score with his old one.
» Derek // THANATOS «
Soldier, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Act Unseen or Unheard (+2), Blow Something Up (+2),
Invent or Create (+2), Word on the Street (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Assault Hardsuit, Heavy Signature,
Light Signature, Frag Grenades,
Thermite Charge, Camo Cloth
***
[ TALENTS ]
Grease Monkey 1, Siege Specialist 1,
Demolitionist 1
[ MECH ]
« GREY »
GMS Sagarmatha
H:0 A:0 S:0 E:2 SIZE:2
STRUCTURE:4 HP:10 ARMOR:1
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:4
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:1
SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Assault Rifle
FLEX MOUNT: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Machine Gun
[ SYSTEMS ]
Pattern-B HEX Charges, Pattern-A Smoke Charges,
Personalizations, Custom Paint Job


Looking into EXPLOSIVES. Drake or Iskander planned for the future but LL0 just mainly a shooty mech.

Share Code: GGZ6WL

[Zelphas]

I've wanted to try out Lancer for a bit, and I like prison break/uprising stories, so I'll give it a try! Here's what I have:

» Levi Royston // ECHO «
LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Act Unseen and Unheard (+2), Patch (+2),
Spot (+2), Take Someone Out (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Stealth Hardsuit, Medium Signature,
Light A/C, Patch x2,
Sleeping Bag
***
[ TALENTS ]
Brutal 1, Crack Shot 1, Infiltrator 1
[ MECH ]
« DULL ROAR »
GMS Everest
H:0 A:2 S:0 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4/4 HP:12/12 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4/4 HEAT:0/6 REPAIR:5/5
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Thermal Rifle
HEAVY MOUNT: Anti-Materiel Rifle
FLEX MOUNT: Nexus (Light) / Segment Knife
[ SYSTEMS ]
Personalizations, Rapid Burst Jump Jets System,
Pattern-A Smoke Charges, Custom Paint Job


Leo Royston is on his third name.

Originally born as Daud Sliney to parents who had more children than they cared to care for, he was “encouraged” to seek his fortune off-world as soon as it was feasible. Daud barely needed the push; he shipped off from his family the instant it became available, taking the first shady offer for escape that he was given.

This shady offer off-world did not end as poorly as it could have; Daud was robbed, forced into what amounted to enslavement to the crew during the voyage, and left for dead at the next stop, rather than anything worse. Daud spent a few years scraping together what he could of a life from those inauspicious beginnings, doing whatever he had to in order to make it to the next day. He discovered that he had a gift for moving quietly, a keen eye, and steady hands; skills that he honed into a modest talent at assassination.

By the time he took his first true contract, he had shed his old name; Daud Sliney was now Ephraim Spang, an identity he had stolen from a few different sources to cobble together into his own. As Ephraim, he traveled the stars, taking whatever jobs he could find, whatever they looked like. He made a small name for himself that way, though he was far from the best in any of his fields. He even learned to pilot a mech in this time.

Ephraim never intended to remain in Shotora for long. A seemingly simple job had turned out to be much larger and more complicated than he had thought, and it had gone sideways at the second-worst moment; he wasn’t killed in the aftermath, but his name reached the ears of powerful people looking for vengeance. Shotora was a small, quick stopover towards even more remote locations. Unfortunately, manna and transport out of Shotora were two things Ephraim didn’t have, and so he went looking for work once again, using the alibi “Levi Royston” to keep his whereabouts from reaching unfriendly ears.

You know the old, old saying “fool me twice, shame on me”? Well, Levi is certainly the fool, then. Once again, a simple job—assassinating a low-ranking government official—spun rapidly out of control, and before he knew it, Levi Royston was in Golgatha, a known rebel sympathizer. Essentially forced to hitch his star to the rebellion if he has any hope of leaving this rock, Levi is perhaps not the most fervent of their supporters, but his support is genuine; once he is out of the prison camp, he can start thinking about his other problems, and where to go from there.

It seems like he’s been living one day at a time for as long as he can remember, unsure if he’ll make it to the next. This mess is practically par for the course.

I'm aiming for the Artillery role, with a possible secondary position of Support, but I freely admit that I don't know exactly what I'm doing. Any advice/feedback/comments/questions are always appreciated!

[Bitter]

Just to repeat some advice from the other thread, but I highly recommend using https://compcon.app/#/ to create characters. It’s a community tool, the mech data from all the released add ins is available and it makes creating a character super easy.



I'm aiming for the Artillery role, with a possible secondary position of Support, but I freely admit that I don't know exactly what I'm doing. Any advice/feedback/comments/questions are always appreciated!

Personally I want to know more about the Rapid Burst Jump Jest System and exactly how many jokes per minute that thing can fire out :)

[Zelphas]

Personally I want to know more about the Rapid Burst Jump Jest System and exactly how many jokes per minute that thing can fire out :)

You see, this is why Levi shouldn't buy his mech systems from back-alley theatre troupes...

The typo should be fixed now.

[Volthawk]

Forgot to declare interest last night, so doing it now. Don't have a sheet yet, didn't make one in advance and figured I'd leave that for after the thread proper, but my gut is going towards the heavy melee kinda vein (mainly because I still haven't tried out that superheavy GMS sword and it looks kinda fun) - but I haven't checked out the Winter Scar and Enhanced Combat stuff yet so there's a chance one of those grabs my attention and I built towards that. LL0 is early enough that I'm not too worried about that yet, though.

In the previous thread, you threw out a potential explanations for mechs, and the main one that took my focus was something along the lines of working on the surface, finding a gutted ancient mech, and smuggling parts down from it. Looks like with the concept being more refined that's shifted into us just using subverted printers (having gotten hold of codes in a background-appropriate way and plot happening to disengage the locks on the printers), which works for me but just to check is that setting detail of the remains of old pre-Karrakis mechs existing on Shortora still a thing? Might work that into the backstory, maybe something like...a wastelander who found one, worked on it a while, figured they'd take their chances outside of the wastes now they had that edge...and then got caught and thrown into Golgotha after it turned out that edge wasn't enough. Something like that, anyway, still thinking.

[Narbaculus]

All three starting frames are allowed. :smallsmile:
1) Everest, 2) Sagarmatha, 3) ?

[BelGareth]

1) Everest, 2) Sagarmatha, 3) ?

chomolungma

Also, very interested in the game.

Edit: thinking of swallowtail/support…or I dunno, sooo many options!

[Volthawk]

Took a look at the new frames and such, and the Lycan does look pretty damn cool. I'm always trying to make good defenders, but having that option to enter face-tearing mode when that's needed more than defence is really cool, and Manticore's one of those licenses I've always found interesting but never been sure what to do with it, so...yeah I guess I do have a license/role I want to go for now. Should be able to pull together a sheet soon.

[BelGareth]

Share code: 9XZEUX


» William St Aloycius III // BIFF «
Exiled Noble, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Act Unseen or Unheard (+2), Read a Situation (+2),
Survive (+2), Take someone out (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Assault Hardsuit, Medium Signature,
Archaic Melee, Flexsuit,
Stims, Mag-Clamps
***
[ TALENTS ]
Infiltrator 1, Skirmisher 1,
Spotter 1
[ MECH ]
« REGISTERED OFFENSE »
GMS Everest
H:0 A:2 S:0 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4 HP:12 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:5
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Assault Rifle
FLEX MOUNT: Tactical Melee Weapon
HEAVY MOUNT: Missile Rack
[ SYSTEMS ]
EVA Module, Personalizations,
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Custom Paint Job,
Manipulators

[ FLUFF ]
William St Aloycius III was his former lifes name, he no longer goes by. He answers to Biff currently, mostly as he doesn't remember much from his former life as an Albatross. He was apart of the initial group, and came in with the Commander Emil Karst.

Not much is known about him, as his memory was wiped, except his former association, and that everything was ripped from him in a horrible betrayal, much like most of the other Albatross'.

Biff is somewhat of a spy, capable of getting in and out without being noticed, surviving in the least hospitable locals, he thrives on expectation, and duty.

Biff is an older looking man, his salt and pepper hair showing itself upon his face with his signature handlebar mustache, he wears a leather bomber jacket, which he seems to keep stealing back from the guards, not matter how many times they take it from him.


EDIT: changed mech to more rounded, as there are so many melee builds already.

[CateranEnforcer]

Yeah, at this stage, it's pretty flexible to completely change your idea. The respec rules allow you to change a bit here and there as you gain levels and your plan could totally change from the start. One game I planned on going Saladin super tank with a smart rifle to be a bit of a marksman. But then we looted a really good Superheavy rifle and I ended up going into full on rifles and big shot artillery with an Everest. So I wouldn't worry about getting long term plans locked in, just make a cool pilot and a mech with lots of guns. Everest for a bit more movement, Sagarmatha for a bit more bulk, Chomolungma for a bit more tech.

[Mousedigits]

I am leaning towards a grapple style melee build I think, turning towards something of a support-lite (less tech, more defense) thing as we gain LLs. I'm mostly mechanically done, but not sure on backstory/lore yet.



» Aakvoe Sa // VO «
Golgothan Native, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Show Off (+2), Take Someone Out (+2),
Threaten (+2), Word on the Street (+2)
[ GEAR ]
***
[ TALENTS ]
Brawler 1, Hunter 1,
Technophile 1
[ MECH ]
« SOLACE »
GMS Sagarmatha
H:1 A:1 S:0 E:0 SIZE:2
STRUCTURE:4 HP:10 ARMOR:1
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:4
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:4 EVA:9 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Segment Knife
FLEX MOUNT: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Melee Weapon
[ SYSTEMS ]
Armament Redundancy, Type-I Flight System,
Turret Drones

[Bitter]

I am leaning towards a grapple style melee build I think, turning towards something of a support-lite (less tech, more defense) thing as we gain LLs. I'm mostly mechanically done, but not sure on backstory/lore yet.


Just to flag that your main mount is underequipped as it only has an aux weapon. As I imagine you want an Aux weapon for Hunter so don’t want to do a straight upgrade to a Charged Blade, if you swap your RPG so it’s in your main slot and your segment knife is in your Flex slot then the flex slot will let you mount 2 Aux weapons rather than just one so you can have:

MAIN MOUNT: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
FLEX MOUNT: Segment Knife / Whatever extra Aux weapon you want
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Melee Weapon

[Simsimillia]

Hi, I'd be interested in this and am itching for some Lancer.

I don't have a concrete build in mind, but a rough idea of a child that was born in prison and inherited her parents sentence. Though I'm not entirely sure that works timeline wise, as I'm not sure how long Golgotha's been around, how long it's been since the current regime was established, etc.

[Thunder999]

Interested, going for classic Striker/Controller, delivering shotguns to faces. Plan would be Tortuga, probably grab H0R_OS 1 from goblin at 3. Vanguard Heavy gunner action.

» Eljas Vigue // SCIMITAR «
Penal Colonist (of course), LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Assault (+2), Get Somewhere Quickly (+2),
Get a Hold of Something (+2), Read a Situation (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Heavy Hardsuit, Medium Signature (Assault Rifle),
Light A/C (Bayonet), Frag Grenades,
Flexsuit, Smart Scope
***
[ TALENTS ]
Vanguard 1, Heavy Gunner 1,
Exemplar 1
[ MECH ]
« FORMAL COMPLAINT »
GMS Everest
H:2 A:0 S:0 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4 HP:16 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:6
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Shotgun
FLEX MOUNT: Assault Rifle
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Charged Blade
[ SYSTEMS ]
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Turret Drones,
Armament Redundancy, Personalizations


Eljas was a soldier once, but a little bar fight where some noble's son got a few of their precious bones broken saw him cast down to Golgotha. At least he won the fight, though that's cold comfort down below.
When the word of revolution reached his ears he was quick to sign up, he knows a thing or two about fighting, he even had some basic training on piloting mechs, though no field experience, as such it wasn't hard to get his name on the list for the few bits of military hardware karst could find.

[Archemist]

I've been hoping something would materialize around Lancer! I'm thinking an Artillery/drone build, but I'll solidify something this evening, I think. Exciting!

[ProgressPaladin]

Expressing interest. I generally use a school device that has Comp/Con restrictions, but I can replicate the character sheet setup from what I’ve seen. Will probably go for a spy for the resistance, but was caught and put on gotholga Mechanically will be building a Dusk Wing.

[Mousedigits]

Just to flag that your main mount is underequipped as it only has an aux weapon. As I imagine you want an Aux weapon for Hunter so don’t want to do a straight upgrade to a Charged Blade, if you swap your RPG so it’s in your main slot and your segment knife is in your Flex slot then the flex slot will let you mount 2 Aux weapons rather than just one so you can have:

MAIN MOUNT: Rocket-Propelled Grenade
FLEX MOUNT: Segment Knife / Whatever extra Aux weapon you want
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Melee Weapon

Ooh you're right, thank you for catching that! I'll make that change.

[ProgressPaladin]

Callum Holden
» Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST«
Spy, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Act Unseen or Unheard (+2), Hack or Fix (+2),
Spot (+2), Stay Cool (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Stealth Hardsuit, Medium Signature, Medium A/C, Omnihook, SSC Sylph Undersuit, Smart Scope, Stims
***
-- GMS Everest @ LL0 –
« GHOST »
[ LICENSES ]
N/A
[ CORE BONUSES ]
N/A
[ TALENTS ]
Infiltrator 1, Hacker 1, Skirmisher 1
[ STATS ]
H:0 A:1 S:1 E:0
STRUCTURE:4 HP:12 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:6 REPAIR:5
TECH ATK:+1 LIMITED:+0
SPD:5 EVA:9 EDEF:9 SENSE:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Thermal Rifle
FLEX MOUNT: Pistol, Pistol
HEAVY MOUNT: Anti-Materiel Rifle
[ SYSTEMS ]
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Pattern-A Smoke Charges, Personalizations, Custom Paint Job



As a former SSC pilot on Shotora, Callum Holden takes partial credit for the existence of Gotholga itself. Which made it all the more ironic when he was thrown in once the Karrakin forces took over. He was observing the operations of some Karrakin forces when the Albatross forces arrived on the planet. He was there for the subsequent massacre, but when the front lines were overan, he ran. He escaped from the battle but was captured trying to join the resistance. Now Callum is closer than ever to them, and has established a few contacts within. One of the only things holding him back is his distrust towards the members of Albatross, which has led him to many fights with resistance members.

As time has gone on, Callum has adapted to prison life as best as he can, doing work and mostly behaving well. He has gotten in a few fights, but nothing too serious. But, one day he was passed a piece of paper by another ex SSC pilot with printer codes and instructions. He is to get into the resistance and destroy Gotholga prison from the inside.

[Simsimillia]

Having a small issue with CompCon right now so no proper sheet yet, but here's my character.

Should this idea not work, because the coup wasn't ~18 years ago let me know and I can adapt or come up with a different character idea (I always have more character ideas xD)


Name: Kara Ashford
Callsign: PEBBLE
Mech: SHORT FUSE
Combat Role: Controller/Striker

Kara has never known sky nor freedom. She is a Skyless, children born and living in Golgotha. Her mother was Kamera Ashford a Loyal Albatross who was imprisoned alongside Emil Karst, but died due to complications shortly after her birth. Neither Kara nor anyone else seems to know who her father is, but she was raised by Emil and other surviving Albatross and naturally grew into the Rebellion. She has a hand for explosives and loves art. Her graffitis can be found throughout Golgotha, in large murals on walls and decorating the machines and work hats of her inmates. The signs and symbols of the growing resistance movement.

Skill Triggers:
- Blow Something Up
- Act Unseen or Unheard
- Hack or Fix
- Create Art (custom)

Talents:
- Infiltrator
- Demolitionist
- Grease Monkey

Mech: Chomolungma "SHORT FUSE"
SHORT FUSE was a mining survey mech equipped with impressive computing capabilities to survey mining opportunities, planning and oversight. The resistance turned it into an effective warmachine by hacking it's software and installing a black market intrusion packet as well as equipping it with basic weaponry. After removing safety limiters it's mining drill can be used as an effective anti-armor weapon in close combat and it's mining explosives software helps deliver explosive charges with optimal efficiency.

Rough Build:
Continuing to develop use of limited and grenade systems. Either going for new Gilgamesh Frame, either Kobold variants or even just sticking with the Chomolungma.

[n0ble]

Just wanted to open this series of response by thanking everyone for the applications so far-theres a lot of them and its frankly amazing to see so much interest in what is a comparativley new rpg :smallsmile: I'm going to take some time in the coming days to review applications so far but right now the majority of my responses are going to be confined to answering outstanding questions.


Expressing interest here as well! I'm excited for this game.

EDIT: What kind of starting equipment should we have? Any restrictions on systems/weapons? Also, how long has Golgotha been in operation?

You can assume access to all of the LL 0 systems and equipment right now (pilot & GMS)-think I mentioned in a previously reply that the first mission is probably going to be securing some sort of unfiltered access to higher LL of print codes for other frames and the like. :smallsmile: Exotic or campaign unique gear is fine to take as non-unique stuff if people want to just flavor them as something differant fiction-wise. In terms of Golgotha's inception I was thinking something around 35-50 years since its establishment but thats tentative and pending a more thorough review of Karrakis as a whole/Shotora's timeline & how it fits into the bigger picture on my part :smallsmile:




In the previous thread, you threw out a potential explanations for mechs, and the main one that took my focus was something along the lines of working on the surface, finding a gutted ancient mech, and smuggling parts down from it. Looks like with the concept being more refined that's shifted into us just using subverted printers (having gotten hold of codes in a background-appropriate way and plot happening to disengage the locks on the printers), which works for me but just to check is that setting detail of the remains of old pre-Karrakis mechs existing on Shortora still a thing? Might work that into the backstory, maybe something like...a wastelander who found one, worked on it a while, figured they'd take their chances outside of the wastes now they had that edge...and then got caught and thrown into Golgotha after it turned out that edge wasn't enough. Something like that, anyway, still thinking.

It 100% still is a thing/viable option for how you got your chassis frame-were you thinking somewhere along the Southern Wastes for where they from originally? Any of the non-Karrakin centric biomes could easily have parts that qualify as wastes :smallsmile: For example besides the eponymous south theres large expanses of tundra beyond the northern mountains that are suitably barren as to qualify and the Western forests almost certainly has an expanse of putrescent quagmire somewhere amidst its trees. Heck, you could have found it at the bottom of a coast-shallow while pirating Karrakin elements in the eastern interiors sea-facing side :smallbiggrin:


Hi, I'd be interested in this and am itching for some Lancer.

I don't have a concrete build in mind, but a rough idea of a child that was born in prison and inherited her parents sentence. Though I'm not entirely sure that works timeline wise, as I'm not sure how long Golgotha's been around, how long it's been since the current regime was established, etc.

I think it should work- in my mind the prisons been around for 35-50 years with the Betrayal of the Loyal Wing happening around 20 or so years prior to where we're starting, so the age you have shouldnt be an issue! Side note: really digging Kara so far too :smallsmile:

I apologize if I've missed anyone else's questions, please feel free to reiterate them or let me know if I have. Similarly, equally happy to help clarify or collaborate on things like Shotora's timeline if it helps to accomodate backstories people have in mind :smallsmile: (Paracausality f*ckery is always a thing if the timing of stuff isnt quite congruous :smallwink:)

[Simsimillia]

[...]

I think it should work- in my mind the prisons been around for 35-50 years with the Betrayal of the Loyal Wing happening around 20 or so years prior to where we're starting, so the age you have shouldnt be an issue! Side note: really digging Kara so far too :smallsmile:

[...]


I kinda got that rough vibe, so it works out perfectly.

I just wanted to confirm the allowed material too.
- Core
- The Long Rim
- Dustgrave
- Karrakin Trade Baronies
- No Room for a Wallflower
- Sirens Song, Mountains Remorse
- Operation Solstice Rain
- Enhanced Combat Alt Frames
- Operation Winterscar

[n0ble]

I kinda got that rough vibe, so it works out perfectly.

I just wanted to confirm the allowed material too.
- Core
- The Long Rim
- Dustgrave
- Karrakin Trade Baronies
- No Room for a Wallflower
- Sirens Song, Mountains Remorse
- Operation Solstice Rain
- Enhanced Combat Alt Frames
- Operation Winterscar

Awesome glad it does!

And yup! Thats the allowed material.

[Volthawk]

It 100% still is a thing/viable option for how you got your chassis frame-were you thinking somewhere along the Southern Wastes for where they from originally? Any of the non-Karrakin centric biomes could easily have parts that qualify as wastes :smallsmile: For example besides the eponymous south theres large expanses of tundra beyond the northern mountains that are suitably barren as to qualify and the Western forests almost certainly has an expanse of putrescent quagmire somewhere amidst its trees. Heck, you could have found it at the bottom of a coast-shallow while pirating Karrakin elements in the eastern interiors sea-facing side :smallbiggrin:

Those other details are interesting, but yeah I had the Southern Wastes in mind. As far as the mech goes, I think it makes the most sense if the old one he found and rigged up got taken out up top when he got arrested, so now he's down there he's gonna need to print a new one like the rest - albeit likely in a way that mimics the old one, and if we need a justification for access to GMS codes, perhaps the ones he'll be using were stored on that one and memorised as he fixed it up. Explanation's only really needed for the GMS ones anyway, since once we get LLs I'll be going HORUS for the Lycan and HORUS codes rarely have an issue finding their way to their intended users.

Anyway, got a sheet together for mechanics. Backstory is currently in that "more or less got it figured out, just need to get it all down" stage, so won't take long.


Share Code: YVDZM4
» Ognen Goreski // CRUNCH «
Outlaw, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Apply Fists to Faces (+2), Get Somewhere Quickly (+2),
Survive (+2), Threaten (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Heavy Hardsuit, Heavy Signature,
Heavy A/C, Tertiary Arm,
Frag Grenades, Thermite Charge
***
[ TALENTS ]
Combined Arms 1, Exemplar 1,
House Guard 1
[ MECH ]
« LINGERING CINDERS »
GMS Sagarmatha
H:2 A:0 S:0 E:0 SIZE:2
STRUCTURE:4 HP:14 ARMOR:1
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:5
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING
FLEX MOUNT: Pistol / Pistol
HEAVY MOUNT: Tempest Charged Blade
[ SYSTEMS ]
Armament Redundancy, Personalizations,
Pattern-A Smoke Charges, Type-3 Projected Shield

[FriendlyLich]

Hello, I would like to sign up and put to use some of my many, many lancer ideas.
I'm happy enough to fill, although we seem to have a reasonable balance thus far, I might lean towards going for a defender role...
Perhaps Efreet if that is allowable.

[Dusk Raven]

Just wanted to post and renew interest before recruitment closes, and also ask if there's a deadline. It should be a simple matter to make a character once I read through the rules (and ideally, this thread)... and knowing the deadline will let me know how much I can afford to procrastinate. XP

[BelGareth]

Heres a table, if i got something wrong I apologize, feel free to quote me and edit the table as needed (but leave the table out of quotes for others)





Player
Character
Mech
Call Sign
Share Code
Fluff


Bitter
Lupo Teutonborg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973806&postcount=8)
Chomolungma
Caliban
38HNDT
yes


CateranEnforcer
Derek // THANATOS (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973872&postcount=11)
Sagarmatha
Grey
?
yes


Zelphas
Levi Royston (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973889&postcount=12)
Everest
Dull Roar
?
yes


BelGareth
William St Aloycius III // BIFF (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974158&postcount=19)
Everest
Registered Offense
9XZEUX
yes


Mousedigits
Aakvoe Sa // VO (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974175&postcount=21)
Sagarmatha
Solace
DKDO4L
?


Thunder999
Eljas Vigue // SCIMITAR (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974726&postcount=24)
Everest
Mech
?
yes


ProgressPaladin
Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974995&postcount=28)
Everest
Ghost
?
yes


Simsimillia
Kara Ashford (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975878&postcount=29)
Chomolungma
Short Fuse
?
yes


Volthawk
Ognen Goreski // CRUNCH (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25977531&postcount=33)
Sagarmatha
Lingering Cinders
YVDZM4
?

[Bitter]

Heres a table, if i got something wrong I apologize, feel free to quote me and edit the table as needed (but leave the table out of quotes for others)





Player
Character
Mech
Call Sign
Share Code
Fluff


Bitter
Lupo Teutonborg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973806&postcount=8)
Chomolungma
Caliban
38HNDT
yes


CateranEnforcer
Derek // THANATOS (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973872&postcount=11)
Sagarmatha
Grey
?
yes


Zelphas
Levi Royston (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973889&postcount=12)
Everest
Dull Roar
?
yes


BelGareth
William St Aloycius III // BIFF (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974158&postcount=19)
Everest
Registered Offense
9XZEUX
yes


Mousedigits
Aakvoe Sa // VO (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974175&postcount=21)
Sagarmatha
Solace
DKDO4L
?


Thunder999
Eljas Vigue // SCIMITAR (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974726&postcount=24)
Everest
Mech
?
yes


ProgressPaladin
Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974995&postcount=28)
Everest
Ghost
?
yes


Simsimillia
Kara Ashford (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975878&postcount=29)
Chomolungma
Short Fuse
?
yes


Volthawk
Ognen Goreski // CRUNCH (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25977531&postcount=33)
Sagarmatha
Lingering Cinders
YVDZM4
?






Thank you for putting this together, though just a note that Lupo’s callsign is Caliburn (old alternate name for Excalibur) not Caliban.

[Thunder999]

Adding my sharecode and correcting the name of my mech.





Player
Character
Mech
Call Sign
Share Code
Fluff


Bitter
Lupo Teutonborg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973806&postcount=8)
Chomolungma
Caliban
38HNDT
yes


CateranEnforcer
Derek // THANATOS (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973872&postcount=11)
Sagarmatha
Grey
?
yes


Zelphas
Levi Royston (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973889&postcount=12)
Everest
Dull Roar
?
yes


BelGareth
William St Aloycius III // BIFF (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974158&postcount=19)
Everest
Registered Offense
9XZEUX
yes


Mousedigits
Aakvoe Sa // VO (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974175&postcount=21)
Sagarmatha
Solace
DKDO4L
?


Thunder999
Eljas Vigue // SCIMITAR (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974726&postcount=24)
Everest
Formal Complaint
NXAZSO
yes


ProgressPaladin
Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974995&postcount=28)
Everest
Ghost
?
yes


Simsimillia
Kara Ashford (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975878&postcount=29)
Chomolungma
Short Fuse
?
yes


Volthawk
Ognen Goreski // CRUNCH (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25977531&postcount=33)
Sagarmatha
Lingering Cinders
YVDZM4
?

[Zelphas]

Heres a table, if i got something wrong I apologize, feel free to quote me and edit the table as needed (but leave the table out of quotes for others)





Player
Character
Mech
Call Sign
Share Code
Fluff


Bitter
Lupo Teutonborg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973806&postcount=8)
Chomolungma
Caliban
38HNDT
yes


CateranEnforcer
Derek // THANATOS (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973872&postcount=11)
Sagarmatha
Grey
?
yes


Zelphas
Levi Royston // ECHO (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973889&postcount=12)
Everest
Dull Roar
97AW2B
yes


BelGareth
William St Aloycius III // BIFF (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974158&postcount=19)
Everest
Registered Offense
9XZEUX
yes


Mousedigits
Aakvoe Sa // VO (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974175&postcount=21)
Sagarmatha
Solace
DKDO4L
?


Thunder999
Eljas Vigue // SCIMITAR (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974726&postcount=24)
Everest
Mech
?
yes


ProgressPaladin
Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974995&postcount=28)
Everest
Ghost
?
yes


Simsimillia
Kara Ashford (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975878&postcount=29)
Chomolungma
Short Fuse
?
yes


Volthawk
Ognen Goreski // CRUNCH (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25977531&postcount=33)
Sagarmatha
Lingering Cinders
YVDZM4
?






Added on my share code and the callsign for Levi ("ECHO").

[Simsimillia]

Added Sharecode and updated Name for Kara. Though I guess her Callsign is Pebble, the name of her mech is Short Fuse.





Player
Character
Mech
Call Sign
Share Code
Fluff


Bitter
Lupo Teutonborg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973806&postcount=8)
Chomolungma
Caliban
38HNDT
yes


CateranEnforcer
Derek // THANATOS (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973872&postcount=11)
Sagarmatha
Grey
?
yes


Zelphas
Levi Royston (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973889&postcount=12)
Everest
Dull Roar
?
yes


BelGareth
William St Aloycius III // BIFF (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974158&postcount=19)
Everest
Registered Offense
9XZEUX
yes


Mousedigits
Aakvoe Sa // VO (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974175&postcount=21)
Sagarmatha
Solace
DKDO4L
?


Thunder999
Eljas Vigue // SCIMITAR (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974726&postcount=24)
Everest
Formal Complaint
NXAZSO
yes


ProgressPaladin
Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974995&postcount=28)
Everest
Ghost
?
yes


Simsimillia
Kara Ashford // PEBBLE (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975878&postcount=29)
Chomolungma
Short Fuse
W8LBX8
yes


Volthawk
Ognen Goreski // CRUNCH (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25977531&postcount=33)
Sagarmatha
Lingering Cinders
YVDZM4
?

[CateranEnforcer]

Okay then code added!

GGZ6WL

Mech: Grey
Callsign: Thanatos

[n0ble]

Hello, I would like to sign up and put to use some of my many, many lancer ideas.
I'm happy enough to fill, although we seem to have a reasonable balance thus far, I might lean towards going for a defender role...
Perhaps Efreet if that is allowable.

This would be the Efreet from Field Guide to Suldan? Unfortunately I'm not going to be allowing 3rd party content beyond the frames in Enhanced Combat-dont consider myself an experienced enough GM to account for all of the stuff people have produced besides extant Masiff Content :smallbiggrin:


Just wanted to post and renew interest before recruitment closes, and also ask if there's a deadline. It should be a simple matter to make a character once I read through the rules (and ideally, this thread)... and knowing the deadline will let me know how much I can afford to procrastinate. XP

I think my tentative plan is to close recruitment a week or so from today just to make sure any last few applicants get a word in. From there I'll take a week again to select applicants and let people smooth out backstories in accordance with what I add in terms of NPC & biome lore-IRL I'm pretty busy in the leadup to the 25th but have a comparatively light schedule afterwards :smallsmile:

[Bitter]

I think my tentative plan is to close recruitment a week or so from today just to make sure any last few applicants get a word in. From there I'll take a week again to select applicants and let people smooth out backstories in accordance with what I add in terms of NPC & biome lore-IRL I'm pretty busy in the leadup to the 25th but have a comparatively light schedule afterwards :smallsmile:

Just a couple of weeks to hold out against the siren song of scrapping my current build to work towards being a stupid bouncy ninja with no heat management or e-defence…

[CateranEnforcer]

I wouldn't fret too much about builds this early! A lot can change from now till your first new frame, and the mechs are really modular and respec rules are pretty generous. At LL0, just about everyone is a generalist.

[Simsimillia]

I wouldn't fret too much about builds this early! A lot can change from now till your first new frame, and the mechs are really modular and respec rules are pretty generous. At LL0, just about everyone is a generalist.

Agreed and even then. It's not decided who all is going to play. Like my general idea is that Pebble will be a primary Controller, probably with some decent damaging capabilities from Grenades and am certainly eyeing the Kobold (especially since it's very setting appropriate), but staying in the Chomolungma or picking a Mech that provides more Defender or Striker qualities is certainly an option I keep open depending on how things develop.

[Bitter]

I’ve already got my build up to LL6 planned including a respect after LL3 due to part of my build not really working well until I hit LL4.

The issue is more my inevitable tendency, given enough time, to decide that I really want to play an Atlas. On a long enough timeframe I will inevitably always decide that I want to be Raiden from Metal Gear Revengeance. I’ve got an addiction, I need help!

[n0ble]

I’ve already got my build up to LL6 planned including a respect after LL3 due to part of my build not really working well until I hit LL4.

The issue is more my inevitable tendency, given enough time, to decide that I really want to play an Atlas. On a long enough timeframe I will inevitably always decide that I want to be Raiden from Metal Gear Revengeance. I’ve got an addiction, I need help!

Note to self: pick the other player running planning on running nuthin but nano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhMsboqMMzs) :smallbiggrin: That or every enemy is just a Lurker now :smallwink:

[YuweaCurtis]

Tempting.... Been wanting to play Lancer.

[Ishikar]

Definitely interested, just happened across the setting from YouTube and I've been reading the core rules with an eye to run for my local game group as something different so the chance to play is certainly welcome.

I'll try to have something up in the next day or so once I can do some brainstorming but I also wanted to clarify what method we would be using to play. I'm assuming the forums but if there is another method I'd need to make sure it fit my availability.

Share Code: OJHNKV

» Halsten Willmore // WOODCHUCK «
Soldier, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Get Somewhere Quickly (+2), Patch (+2),
Spot (+2), Survive (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Stealth Hardsuit, Medium A/C,
Light Signature, Wilderness Survival Kit,
Infoskin, Smart Scope
***
[ TALENTS ]
Gunslinger 1, Combined Arms 1,
Duelist 1
[ MECH ]
« TAKEMIKAZUCHI »
GMS Everest
H:0 A:2 S:0 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4 HP:10 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:5
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Tactical Melee Weapon
FLEX MOUNT: Pistol / Missile Rack
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Charged Blade
[ SYSTEMS ]
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Manipulators,
Expanded Compartment, COMP/CON-Class Assistant Unit





Halsten "Woodchuck" Willmore is a third generation woodsman, his grandfather Peter Halford being a survivor of the battle that broke SSC's grasp who has since retired to train recruits and his mother Sarah Willmore who fights as an artillery specialist. His father Tyler Willmore was often busy tending the fields and livestock so Halsten was often watched by woodsmen who used him as a gofer and to help with odd jobs which eventually grew to the nickname that would become his callsign, Woodchuck, a gopher like animal that shared the first letter of his last name.

Halsten is a gregarious young man who is quick to make friends with those around him and tends towards puns and bad jokes to set those around him at ease which is often at odds with his survivalist training that had him scouting ahead of raids to confirm targets and occasionally sabotage security. It was during one of these missions that Halsten's luck ran out and Karrakin security got the drop on him. After arriving in Golgotha it took a while for him to realize that Emil and those under his command were his best chance at escaping, getting home, and hopefully getting a bit of revenge along the way.

[n0ble]

Definitely interested, just happened across the setting from YouTube and I've been reading the core rules with an eye to run for my local game group as something different so the chance to play is certainly welcome.

I'll try to have something up in the next day or so once I can do some brainstorming but I also wanted to clarify what method we would be using to play. I'm assuming the forums but if there is another method I'd need to make sure it fit my availability.

Share Code: OJHNKV

» Halsten Willmore // WOODCHUCK «
Soldier, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Get Somewhere Quickly (+2), Patch (+2),
Spot (+2), Survive (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Stealth Hardsuit, Medium A/C,
Light Signature, Wilderness Survival Kit,
Infoskin, Smart Scope
***
[ TALENTS ]
Gunslinger 1, Combined Arms 1,
Duelist 1
[ MECH ]
« TAKEMIKAZUCHI »
GMS Everest
H:0 A:2 S:0 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4 HP:10 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:5
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Tactical Melee Weapon
FLEX MOUNT: Pistol / Missile Rack
HEAVY MOUNT: Heavy Charged Blade
[ SYSTEMS ]
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Manipulators,
Expanded Compartment, COMP/CON-Class Assistant Unit





Halsten "Woodchuck" Willmore is a third generation woodsman, his grandfather Peter Halford being a survivor of the battle that broke SSC's grasp who has since retired to train recruits and his mother Sarah Willmore who fights as an artillery specialist. His father Tyler Willmore was often busy tending the fields and livestock so Halsten was often watched by woodsmen who used him as a gofer and to help with odd jobs which eventually grew to the nickname that would become his callsign, Woodchuck, a gopher like animal that shared the first letter of his last name.

Halsten is a gregarious young man who is quick to make friends with those around him and tends towards puns and bad jokes to set those around him at ease which is often at odds with his survivalist training that had him scouting ahead of raids to confirm targets and occasionally sabotage security. It was during one of these missions that Halsten's luck ran out and Karrakin security got the drop on him. After arriving in Golgotha it took a while for him to realize that Emil and those under his command were his best chance at escaping, getting home, and hopefully getting a bit of revenge along the way.

Thank you for the interest! In terms of where we're playing OOC & IC we'll be doing things here, I'll have a combat map on roll20. I'm going to be posting the combat map here too for peoples reference during turns and I'll try and put a grid up on the map so people can reference where/how they're moving for the purposes of reactions and effects :smallsmile:

[Bowerbird]

Heck with it, I've been lurking for a bit and I figure I'll throw a character in as well. I'm pretty much a complete newbie to Lancer but I keep thinking it looks neat (if complicated). Been tinkering on COMP/CON with a Hacker build, started to write a summary here and wound up doing a whole backstory so here it is:


Born in Klataua, Marin's mother served in the Albatross Wing, and was one of the few who sided with the Governess in the end. Despite this, she always felt regret at having turned against her purpose and a lingering bitterness for the government. Her father did mostly clerical work in the historical archives, and was a quiet but curious man, sharing his love of knowledge with his daughter.

In her early teens her father uncovered some particularly heinous information about the government's activities in the war, and when he spoke out about it he was sent to Golgotha. His arrest sent her mother into a deep spiral of depression as she lost a great deal of standing, as well as the man she'd loved. When he died in a 'mining accident' a few months later it got even worse.

Always a technical whiz-kid, Marin started hacking systems for fun, mostly to see if she could do it at first. Working her way up the ladder of system encryptions before finally uncovering her father's arrest report. Incensed at what she saw there, she decided to start mining similar systems for damning info and dumping it in public access nodes under the alias V00D00-CH17D.

The authorities caught up with 'Voodoo-Child' when she seemed to have finally gotten overconfident enough to leave a trail. Her mother was once again spared arrest due to her 'services to the Government,' but Marin Bonheur aka Voodoo-Child was sentenced to life in Golgotha prison. Unbeknownst to anyone but the hacker herself, this was all part of a plan. The prison's archives operate on a closed system, the only way to plunder them would be from within the prison itself. Records of her father's 'accident' should still be in there somewhere.

Since being imprisoned, Voodoo has mostly been associating with Liz & SLATE, complimenting their physical engineering with her own software skills.


The actual mechanics are something I'm still trying to wrap my head around, but the idea of a Controller/Support focus seems interesting.

[YuweaCurtis]

I'm not sure if I want to go Striker (Atlas), Artillery (Pegasus), or Support (Kidd). That's ignoring if I see something else I want in the newer books, but I'll worry about that later.

For now I'll just take what seems cool on the starter model without worrying too much about a role.

[Bowerbird]

After tinkering with COMP/CON a bit, I have this:


» Marin Bonheur // V00D00 «
Hacker, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Hack or Fix (+2), Invent or Create (+2),
Investigate (+2), Stay Cool (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Mobility Hardsuit, Light A/C,
Subjectivity-Enhancement Suite,
Dataplating, Sound System
***
[ TALENTS ]
Hacker 1, Spotter 1,
Infiltrator 1
[ MECH ]
« ZUL »
GMS Chomolungma
H:0 A:0 S:2 E:0 SIZE:1
STRUCTURE:4 HP:10 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:4
ATK BONUS:0 TECH ATK:3 LTD BONUS:0
SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:12 SENS:15 SAVE:11
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Nexus (Hunter-Killer) / Nexus (Light)
FLEX MOUNT: Thermal Rifle
[ SYSTEMS ]
Pattern-A Smoke Charges, Manipulators,
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Type-3 Projected Shield,
Custom Paint Job




Born in Klataua, Marin's mother served in the Albatross Wing, and was one of the few who sided with the Governess in the end. Despite this, she always felt regret at having turned against her purpose and a lingering bitterness for the government. Her father did mostly clerical work in the historical archives, and was a quiet but curious man, sharing his love of knowledge with his daughter.

In her early teens her father uncovered some particularly heinous information about the government's activities in the war, and when he spoke out about it he was sent to Golgotha. His arrest sent her mother into a deep spiral of depression as she lost a great deal of standing, as well as the man she'd loved. When he died in a 'mining accident' a few months later it got even worse.

Always a technical whiz-kid, Marin started hacking systems for fun, mostly to see if she could do it at first. Working her way up the ladder of system encryptions before finally uncovering her father's arrest report. Incensed at what she saw there, she decided to start mining similar systems for damning info and dumping it in public access nodes under the alias V00D00-CH17D.

The authorities caught up with 'Voodoo-Child' when she seemed to have finally gotten overconfident enough to leave a trail. Her mother was once again spared arrest due to her 'services to the Government,' but Marin Bonheur aka Voodoo-Child was sentenced to life in Golgotha prison. Unbeknownst to anyone but the hacker herself, this was all part of a plan. The prison's archives operate on a closed system, the only way to plunder them would be from within the prison itself. Records of her father's 'accident' should still be in there somewhere.

Since being imprisoned, Voodoo has mostly been associating with Liz & SLATE, complimenting their physical engineering with her own software skills.


I'm thinking of leaning towards Controller(Goblin) eventually, at least to start with. This is my first time actually looking into the system and COMP/CON, so hopefully I'm doing it right.

[Bitter]

I'm not sure if I want to go Striker (Atlas), Artillery (Pegasus), or Support (Kidd). That's ignoring if I see something else I want in the newer books, but I'll worry about that later.

For now I'll just take what seems cool on the starter model without worrying too much about a role.

I love Atlas but IMO if you’re a new Lancer player (I don’t know if you are but quite a few people applying have mentioned they’re new) I’d say to avoid it. It’s very specialist and has poor hull, e-defence and heat. Now this is absolutely traded off with great evasion and some fantastic traits and it’s not a bad frame by any means (I don’t think any frame is bad as Lancer is well balanced), but if you end up in a bad position it’s very easy for things to go poorly for you fast.

[YuweaCurtis]

That's RIP. Atlas seems really fun. But hey, school of hard knocks.

You could always give me some tips on building, especially Talents.

[Bitter]

That's RIP. Atlas seems really fun. But hey, school of hard knocks.

You could always give me some tips on building, especially Talents.


I’m phone posting atm so I won’t go too in depth and you can check https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOnXWQrYlGSAgita8M5UU5oexBAh2C99L&si=KweUAV6XVyXMb8VO for videos of builds for each mech type.

Generally speaking your first 2-3 levels are just going to be in the license you want a frame for. Each frame has tools which work well together built around a common theme so you’ll generally want to get all 3 LLs or at least the first 2 for whichever frame you want to concentrate on. After that you can start worrying about what to add on and you’ll have some experience under your belt at that point.

Your Atlas build if you do go for it is probably going to be melee based to take advantage of finishing blow so take Duellist or Executioner depending on which size of melee weapon you want to use. I’d also suggest infiltrator as it provides a way to mitigate the build’s downsides and drop some debuffs on enemies at the higher levels.

Kidd wants Grease Monkey 1 and 3 especially and alternate levels in whichever deployable you like the most, I like the Drake’s bunker so that on every mission the team can have a fortified hard point to fight from.

Pegasus you probably shouldn’t do a meme “all weapon talents” mimic gun build but I would absolutely be tempted to. There’s a lot of different builds for a Pegasus. You’ll see unraveller from Lich recommended a lot but that benefits from having more system knowledge so you know when to use it.

[YuweaCurtis]

Thanks a bunch!

Also I pretty much decided on Atlas, but I'll keep the others in mind. Lol, forgot to mention that. Was fixated when you started talking about it lol.

[n0ble]

That's RIP. Atlas seems really fun. But hey, school of hard knocks.

You could always give me some tips on building, especially Talents.

So one of the big frame traits with the Atlas is Giantkiller, which lets you ram and grapple against size 1 targets and also move . One of the big things that comes with 3 LL of the Atlas is the Terashima Blade-essentially 3 weapons in one for how it can change stances which add different effects to how its wielded. Its also a main weapon, which means that it has a lot of synergy with the Duelist Talent. Rank Three of that talent also has a lot of synergy Giantkiller insofar as you can swing with the Terashima blade and gain blademaster dice to use with Giantkiller & Finishing Blow.

Another frame trait the Atlas has is Jaëger Dodge. This helps offset the fact that it has below average HP as a frame-6 instead the Everest's 8-while also giving you some maneuverability. Combined with the second part of giantkiller that lets you ignore engagement from larger characters and you have a really manoeuvrable frame. Talents like the Hunter 1 and Skirmisher 2 work really well to kick that nascent speed into overdrive :smallsmile:

Also recruitment is now closed! Thank you to everyone who's applied! I'll be looking over everyone's applications over the coming week :smallsmile:

[YuweaCurtis]

Ah, did I not make it because I didn't post a sheet?

[n0ble]

Ah, did I not make it because I didn't post a sheet?

Nah your good-the week of reading over everyones sheets is to give people who have applied so far a chance to iron things out character wise/get an application together :smallsmile:

[YuweaCurtis]

Okay just making sure. I thought I was good, but there was doubt. Should have my character up within three days.

[Bitter]

Thanks a bunch!

Also I pretty much decided on Atlas, but I'll keep the others in mind. Lol, forgot to mention that. Was fixated when you started talking about it lol.

Okay, so got a bit more time to post and can focus on the Atlas.

So firstly, how to use your strengths. You have great evasion and you have fantastic mobility, both from your high speed and systems which allow additional movement like Jager Kunst I. This should make you very difficult to hit with normal attacks as you should often be able to get soft or hard cover or even block LOS entirely if you want to. Realistically as giant cover grants soft cover when you share a space with an enemy, you should never be ending your turn without at least soft cover. If you use auxiliary weapons for your flex mount then also consider Hunter for the additional mobility.

This ability to move and be in cover is also why I think Infiltrator works very well with Atlas, as well as the whole ninja style shenanigans just working well thematically.

Jager dodge is a great trait that helps give additional endurance to your fairly squishy mech if you do take damage. Have a think when you get hit about whether you’re likely to be hit again this turn and if so if it will be harder than what you’re suffering now. Notably this applies to damage, not any specific form of attack. This means that you can Jäger dodge the heat damage from tech attacks so keep that in mind.

Finishing blow lets you hit people for extra damage when prone. As Atlas has a great weapon (Terashima blade) that is a main, it’s common to go Duellist 3 so you can trigger a free ram with your attack. This can also be combined with synthetic muscle netting and siege ram from the Blackbeard and Tortuga for extra raminess. You don’t have to do that though and like half of the weapons/systems Atlas gets can knock people prone.

Giant killer lets you ignore engagement from other characters, get soft cover from them and still ram and grapple most of them freely.

In terms of mitigating weaknesses, the main thing is that aside from your speed, evasion and mounts your stat line is trash.

You have terrible tech attack and abysmal sensors so just don’t bother to hack, it’s not what you do.

You have terrible heat and weak e-defence so you need to try not to get hit by tech attacks. Partially this can be done tactically (Using infiltrator to hide, then jumping out and assassinating the techiest NPC mech) but you also have options like the Iceout Drone from black witch 2 that provides immunity to tech attacks (but only within a small area).

For a striker mech you also have low HP and no armour. Your evasion won’t always work; sometimes enemies will roll well and some enemies have reliable so they’ll do a few damage even if they miss, which is the kind of thing a Blackbeard with 12 base HP and 1 armour can shrug off but you can’t. You will want to invest a few HASE points in Hull as a priority and if you go down the ISP-N route for LL4-6 for add-ons then consider reinforced frame as a LL6 core bonus. Taking that plus a couple of points in HASE suddenly makes your Atlas twice as durable.

The last Atlas I built but never played was a Jager Kunst 2 focused one, using Spaceborn 3 talent and Kai Bioplating bonus to give me a 2d6 advantage on the contested roll for JK2.

Edit: Oh yeah and another weakness that Iceout drones etc won’t help you with is enemies like Hives with smart attacks. These aren’t tech attacks (so Iceout drone etc won’t work) but they target your e-defence which is terrible rather than your evasion which is great. Another reason why I recommend Infiltrator on Atlas!

[ICN]

Had a busy few weeks, ended up losing track of the time. Good luck with the game everyone!

[Zelphas]

As a new player as well, I think I'm leaning towards Pegasus as my goal mech; Death's Head is tempting for seeming to be ridiculously straightforward, but Pegasus has that lovely flavor of strange eldritch weirdness that seems very tempting.

...But then there's another part of me that, when trying to look for recommended Artillery builds and looking through the rulebook, saw that the Barbarossa was repeatedly called "newbie bait", which perversely makes me want to try and make one of those work. I don't think I'm set up for that at all (to be fair, I'm not sure that I'm really set up for anything, at the moment), but it's in the back of my mind.

[Bitter]

...But then there's another part of me that, when trying to look for recommended Artillery builds and looking through the rulebook, saw that the Barbarossa was repeatedly called "newbie bait", which perversely makes me want to try and make one of those work. I don't think I'm set up for that at all (to be fair, I'm not sure that I'm really set up for anything, at the moment), but it's in the back of my mind.

So for me the newbie trap aspect of Barbarossa are that it’s a big solid mech that does one thing really well, stand there and shoot things with big guns. Seems easy and newbie friendly, right?

The trap aspect of it imo is that in Lancer it’s assumed that many/most/all combats won’t be simple “kill all enemy” combats. You’ll be given some other objective for the combat like escorting an NPC across the map, holding certain points, etc. Barbarossa is very slow to begin with and is the biggest mech so it has trouble manoeuvring around terrain and will be even slower in practice. This makes it a bit of a pain for any combats where “stand still and shoot things” doesn’t really mesh with the objective.

[YuweaCurtis]

Okay, so got a bit more time to post and can focus on the Atlas.

So firstly, how to use your strengths. You have great evasion and you have fantastic mobility, both from your high speed and systems which allow additional movement like Jager Kunst I. This should make you very difficult to hit with normal attacks as you should often be able to get soft or hard cover or even block LOS entirely if you want to. Realistically as giant cover grants soft cover when you share a space with an enemy, you should never be ending your turn without at least soft cover. If you use auxiliary weapons for your flex mount then also consider Hunter for the additional mobility.

This ability to move and be in cover is also why I think Infiltrator works very well with Atlas, as well as the whole ninja style shenanigans just working well thematically.

Jager dodge is a great trait that helps give additional endurance to your fairly squishy mech if you do take damage. Have a think when you get hit about whether you’re likely to be hit again this turn and if so if it will be harder than what you’re suffering now. Notably this applies to damage, not any specific form of attack. This means that you can Jäger dodge the heat damage from tech attacks so keep that in mind.

Finishing blow lets you hit people for extra damage when prone. As Atlas has a great weapon (Terashima blade) that is a main, it’s common to go Duellist 3 so you can trigger a free ram with your attack. This can also be combined with synthetic muscle netting and siege ram from the Blackbeard and Tortuga for extra raminess. You don’t have to do that though and like half of the weapons/systems Atlas gets can knock people prone.

Giant killer lets you ignore engagement from other characters, get soft cover from them and still ram and grapple most of them freely.

In terms of mitigating weaknesses, the main thing is that aside from your speed, evasion and mounts your stat line is trash.

You have terrible tech attack and abysmal sensors so just don’t bother to hack, it’s not what you do.

You have terrible heat and weak e-defence so you need to try not to get hit by tech attacks. Partially this can be done tactically (Using infiltrator to hide, then jumping out and assassinating the techiest NPC mech) but you also have options like the Iceout Drone from black witch 2 that provides immunity to tech attacks (but only within a small area).

For a striker mech you also have low HP and no armour. Your evasion won’t always work; sometimes enemies will roll well and some enemies have reliable so they’ll do a few damage even if they miss, which is the kind of thing a Blackbeard with 12 base HP and 1 armour can shrug off but you can’t. You will want to invest a few HASE points in Hull as a priority and if you go down the ISP-N route for LL4-6 for add-ons then consider reinforced frame as a LL6 core bonus. Taking that plus a couple of points in HASE suddenly makes your Atlas twice as durable.

The last Atlas I built but never played was a Jager Kunst 2 focused one, using Spaceborn 3 talent and Kai Bioplating bonus to give me a 2d6 advantage on the contested roll for JK2.

Edit: Oh yeah and another weakness that Iceout drones etc won’t help you with is enemies like Hives with smart attacks. These aren’t tech attacks (so Iceout drone etc won’t work) but they target your e-defence which is terrible rather than your evasion which is great. Another reason why I recommend Infiltrator on Atlas!

What's HASE?

[ProgressPaladin]

Hull Agility Systems Engineering

[Zelphas]

So for me the newbie trap aspect of Barbarossa are that it’s a big solid mech that does one thing really well, stand there and shoot things with big guns. Seems easy and newbie friendly, right?

The trap aspect of it imo is that in Lancer it’s assumed that many/most/all combats won’t be simple “kill all enemy” combats. You’ll be given some other objective for the combat like escorting an NPC across the map, holding certain points, etc. Barbarossa is very slow to begin with and is the biggest mech so it has trouble manoeuvring around terrain and will be even slower in practice. This makes it a bit of a pain for any combats where “stand still and shoot things” doesn’t really mesh with the objective.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense! It's easy to fall into thinking of the mechs like they're strictly for the "Combat" part of the game, when the actual missions have more nuance than "if you're the last one standing, you win". So, if you use the Barbarossa, you have to either find a workaround for it's low maneuverability, or accept that you aren't going to be directly useful for missions that aren't straightforward fights. Thanks, that clears up the idea somewhat in my mind.

[n0ble]

Ah, that makes a lot of sense! It's easy to fall into thinking of the mechs like they're strictly for the "Combat" part of the game, when the actual missions have more nuance than "if you're the last one standing, you win". So, if you use the Barbarossa, you have to either find a workaround for it's low maneuverability, or accept that you aren't going to be directly useful for missions that aren't straightforward fights. Thanks, that clears up the idea somewhat in my mind.

There are zone-based missions that the Barb could definitely excel in due to its large size precluding it getting pushed around but generally Bitter has the right of it with how most scenarios involve a fair amount of constant movement towards something rather than just take and hold. To give you an idea of map dimensions we're playing with, the most experienced GM I know of (Ralf of Interpoint Station (https://www.youtube.com/@interpointstation7677)) typically recommends map sizes of 30-35x20 hexes/squares in terms of length by width.

That being said, workarounds definitley exist. The Barbarossa has 8 Heat-which is fantastic for a frame-2 armor & 10/above average HP, resistance to explosive damage (which to be fair is the least common between kinetic, energy & explosive but helps mitigate enemy artillery firing back at you) and is from a mech company where 3LL in that company can get you Superior by Design, a core bonus that increases your mech's heat capacity by (sparing you having to spend 2 points on Engineering to get your heat capacity up with HASE). 2 LL in Barbarossa (for the frame) and 1 into Sunzi (from the Long Rim Supplement-also from Harrison Armory) gets you that Core bonus and the Accelerate system which can really, really make you and a team zip all over the battlefield. Similarly, if you wanted to plan for 3 LL in IPSN mechs they have a core bonus that just gives your mech 5 extra HP straight up or 2.5 points in Hull (Reinforced Frame) and one that gives another point of armour, which is generally better the more you have (Sloped plating). Either of those three core bonuses can definitely offset any points you want to invest into Agility for speed increases. Plus theres always the Personalization system available to everyone as base GMS gear that gives you +2 HP for one system point :smallsmile:

Of course, this is also Lancer. Mechs are fully modular once you unlock the parts. You can 100% slap the Siege Cannon onto something else or use the Barbarossa's systems with another mech if speed is a huge concern too. Heck, combine it with the Pegagsus for MAX DAKKA (Pegasus did bring Zeus's thunder to other in the mythologies afterall :smallbiggrin:)

[ProgressPaladin]

Okay, so got a bit more time to post and can focus on the Atlas.

So firstly, how to use your strengths. You have great evasion and you have fantastic mobility, both from your high speed and systems which allow additional movement like Jager Kunst I. This should make you very difficult to hit with normal attacks as you should often be able to get soft or hard cover or even block LOS entirely if you want to. Realistically as giant cover grants soft cover when you share a space with an enemy, you should never be ending your turn without at least soft cover. If you use auxiliary weapons for your flex mount then also consider Hunter for the additional mobility.

This ability to move and be in cover is also why I think Infiltrator works very well with Atlas, as well as the whole ninja style shenanigans just working well thematically.

Jager dodge is a great trait that helps give additional endurance to your fairly squishy mech if you do take damage. Have a think when you get hit about whether you’re likely to be hit again this turn and if so if it will be harder than what you’re suffering now. Notably this applies to damage, not any specific form of attack. This means that you can Jäger dodge the heat damage from tech attacks so keep that in mind.

Finishing blow lets you hit people for extra damage when prone. As Atlas has a great weapon (Terashima blade) that is a main, it’s common to go Duellist 3 so you can trigger a free ram with your attack. This can also be combined with synthetic muscle netting and siege ram from the Blackbeard and Tortuga for extra raminess. You don’t have to do that though and like half of the weapons/systems Atlas gets can knock people prone.

Giant killer lets you ignore engagement from other characters, get soft cover from them and still ram and grapple most of them freely.

In terms of mitigating weaknesses, the main thing is that aside from your speed, evasion and mounts your stat line is trash.

You have terrible tech attack and abysmal sensors so just don’t bother to hack, it’s not what you do.

You have terrible heat and weak e-defence so you need to try not to get hit by tech attacks. Partially this can be done tactically (Using infiltrator to hide, then jumping out and assassinating the techiest NPC mech) but you also have options like the Iceout Drone from black witch 2 that provides immunity to tech attacks (but only within a small area).

For a striker mech you also have low HP and no armour. Your evasion won’t always work; sometimes enemies will roll well and some enemies have reliable so they’ll do a few damage even if they miss, which is the kind of thing a Blackbeard with 12 base HP and 1 armour can shrug off but you can’t. You will want to invest a few HASE points in Hull as a priority and if you go down the ISP-N route for LL4-6 for add-ons then consider reinforced frame as a LL6 core bonus. Taking that plus a couple of points in HASE suddenly makes your Atlas twice as durable.

The last Atlas I built but never played was a Jager Kunst 2 focused one, using Spaceborn 3 talent and Kai Bioplating bonus to give me a 2d6 advantage on the contested roll for JK2.

Edit: Oh yeah and another weakness that Iceout drones etc won’t help you with is enemies like Hives with smart attacks. These aren’t tech attacks (so Iceout drone etc won’t work) but they target your e-defence which is terrible rather than your evasion which is great. Another reason why I recommend Infiltrator on Atlas!

Might I have some tips like this for Dusk Wing?

[n0ble]

Might I have some tips like this for Dusk Wing?

I'm sure Bitter can do a much more thorough rundown of relevant things than I can but the immediate synergy that stands out to me is things like Flickerfield Projector and OASIS Wall + the Integrated Nerveweave Core Bonus from the same company as the Duskwing that lets you boost an additional two spaces when taking the Boost action. Means you can absoutley fly (literally and figuratively) around with a speed of 8 while boosting. Between that and a normal move you could clear 14 spaces in a turn, 22 if you overcharge. Combined with the fact that a Duskwing is invisible during your turn, you can really get in pop something like the Stuncrown in the thick of an enemy formation and have a pretty reliable chance of getting out unscathed :smallsmile:

In terms of talents, at LL 2 it has a launcher type weapon that debuffs on a crit (any role thats 20+ total after modifiers) that synergizes really well with the first two levels of the Stormbringer talent tree (people typically regard Stormbringer 3 as a trap because it requires so much comitment to get value from). It also has the Veil rilfle at LL 1. The Dusk Wings two mounts are also Aux/Aux & Flex so you could potentially field a full suit of Aux weapons if something like the Gunslinger talent tree sounds appealing-in the Mourning Cloak & Swallotail from the same company you have a LL1 Launcher (Vijaya Rockets) & a rilfe (Oracle LMG) at LL2 respectively. Finally, another talent to note is Tactician for Solar Backdrop at rank 2-the Duskwing can hover so it can easily get higher than most other mechs and shoot down at them. :smallsmile:

[Bitter]

Noble has pretty much covered it. Some minor bits I’d add:

- No really, do listen to him about getting Tactician 2. Duskwing benefits from it like no other frame.

- Due to your manoeuvrability, you can make better use of Line and Cone type weapons than anyone else. The reason the veil rifle comes with the Dusk Wing license is because you’re better suited to getting in the perfect spot to catch 4 people in that line with a single attack.

- A lot of what I said about the Atlas having good evasion but poor HP, heat, etc applies here too. You’re not as vulnerable to tech attacks as the Dusk Wing’s E-Defence is better, but you still have to worry about tech attacks overheating you as your heat cap is so low and you e-def is still only average, you still have to worry about reliable damage structuring you in a few shots even when those shots miss, you have to worry about smart weapons that ignore evasion and you have to worry about the lucky powerful shot that gets you despite your high evasion. Your best bet is to stay out of range of NPCs which are dangerous to you, always have cover, where you can block LOS and have some hull investment so a lucky shot doesn’t structure you.

- Your extra vulnerability is grappling. You’ll usually not be built for melee, you’re small and if you can’t move you can’t benefit from flicker field projector (which IMO is a must take on Dusk Wing). The easiest way to protect against this is to keep your distance, the funniest way to protect against it is to say screw it go for a melee Dusk Wing build, get synthetic muscle netting from Blackbeard so you don’t care about being tiny and then isolate enemies by grappling them, dragging them into a distant corner and beating them up 1vs1.

[YuweaCurtis]

Hmm gonna take a point in Hull, unsure if my other point should go in Systems or Engineering. Then I'll switch between the two as I level and/or throw in Agility to keep it up.

[Bitter]

Hmm gonna take a point in Hull, unsure if my other point should go in Systems or Engineering. Then I'll switch between the two as I level and/or throw in Agility to keep it up.

Just a reminder that you get bigger bonuses on even points e.g your 1st, 3rd and 5th point in hull give you 2hp but your 2nd, 4th and 6th give you 2hp AND raise your repair cap.

You don’t have to but I always allocate my points in groups of two because that second level is more valuable.

2 Hull is generally thought to be a good starting investment by the Lancer community. I haven’t taken it in my build but that’s because I’m focusing on long range fighting which should keep me out of the line of fire a bit and with a hacker build the extra tech attack is nice to get ahead of the curve.

[ProgressPaladin]

I will change my build, with the tips in mind.

» Rowen Holden // POLTERGEIST«
Spy, LL0
[ SKILL TRIGGERS ]
Act Unseen or Unheard (+2), Hack or Fix (+2),
Spot (+2), Stay Cool (+2)
[ GEAR ]
Stealth Hardsuit, Medium Signature, Medium A/C, Omnihook, SSC Sylph Undersuit, Smart Scope, Stims
***
-- GMS Everest @ LL0 –
« GHOST »
[ LICENSES ]
N/A
[ CORE BONUSES ]
N/A
[ TALENTS ]
Infiltrator 1, Tactician 1, Skirmisher 1
[ STATS ]
H:0 A:2 S:0 E:0
STRUCTURE:4 HP:12 ARMOR:0
STRESS:4 HEATCAP:6 REPAIR:5
TECH ATK:+1 LIMITED:+0
SPD:6 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENSE:10 SAVE:10
[ WEAPONS ]
MAIN MOUNT: Thermal Rifle
FLEX MOUNT: Pistol, Pistol
HEAVY MOUNT: Anti-Materiel Rifle
[ SYSTEMS ]
Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Pattern-A Smoke Charges, Personalizations, Custom Paint Job

[ProgressPaladin]

I haven’t heard almost anything about IPS-N Zheng. Is there a reason for this?

[Thunder999]

I haven’t heard almost anything about IPS-N Zheng. Is there a reason for this?

Not particularly, nothing wrong with the Zheng, all the stuff in the license is solid, it's a durable mech that's more mobile than 3 speed implies thanks to solid frame traits/core systems, makes it's own cover and it's really hard to go wrong 2x Main Mounts and a Heavy.
Zip around meleeing things, blowing up terrain and generating your own cover to hide behind, which you can blow up later.
I guess it's got quite a few moving parts for someone new?

Only frames I regularly see criticised are Nelson (having to burn an action boosting for your 1d6 bonus damage kind of sucks compared to all the other ways to get it) and Barbarossa (very slow, allies can't help you fix it thanks to Heavy Frame and the Core Power requires you to waste time then sit perfectly still, this would be managable if not for the fact that many sitreps require you to be moving to objective zones)

[Bitter]

I haven’t heard almost anything about IPS-N Zheng. Is there a reason for this?

There’s a lot of mechs and that one isn’t in the core book! I think most of the Long Rim mechs haven’t been mentioned, can’t recall anyone brining up the Lich, Kobold, etc.

The worst thing I’d say about it is that when I have the urge to play a tough close-combat mech that likes grappling and has a giant super-heavy punchfist it’s second on my list after Empakaai, the Blackbeard alt frame from Siren’s Song.

[Dusk Raven]

Finally got a character concept. Unfortunately, I've procrastinated on actually learning the system... well, it's an eventual goal anyway, might as well start even if I can't get a character finished.

[CateranEnforcer]

It's really not that hard to learn. All these frames and such everyone is taking about realistically won't become a reality until months down the line most likely. LL0 is fairly straightforward. Combat is move and shoot or move and use tech.

[Bowerbird]

Yeah character creation seemed pretty straight-forward, most of this seems to be preparing builds for higher LLs. I didn't even need to dig up the rulebooks for chargen, COMP/CON was really easy to use, the only difficulty I had was enabling the non-core content but it wasn't too hard. My (limited) understanding of the Goblin Frame so far is that I want to be fast, sneaky, and just not get hit by anything. I'd probably then head towards licences that offer stealth and speed on top of being able to hack other people's mechs.

[Bitter]

IMO it’s a bit more complicated move and action because even as an Everest you have to remember your frame traits, you have the option to overcharge, there are different systems and different actions beyond simple attacks (like ram, grapple, etc) and then you have to make sure you remember to apply all your talents and tags on your weapons.

That said it’s still relatively simple and if you’re used to D&D then it should be a breeze to pick up, both because it’s comparatively simple and because it’s d20 based.

I can’t vouch for it as I haven’t used it myself but there’s a combat cheat sheet available for free here: https://heliospectral.itch.io/lancer-action-reference-sheet

And yeah, you’ve nailed it. Goblin’s role is to stay back and throw out hacks.

[ProgressPaladin]

Would the Ace talent work with a hovering speed?

[Bitter]

Would the Ace talent work with a hovering speed?

Yes, hovering counts as flight so Ace is good with Dusk Wing.

[Simsimillia]

I haven’t heard almost anything about IPS-N Zheng. Is there a reason for this?

The Zheng is one of my favorite frames and my favorite IPS-N frame. I just love the background of it and the rugged design.

Some notes:
- The D/D-288 like almost all Superheavy Melee's is a bit of a meme weapon and a little hard to use because it's a true 2 turn commitment that slows you, turning off your fun Frame Trait that gives you an extra 3 spaces of movement each turn. You're usually better served sticking a simple Heavy Weapon into that slot. I once ran a Zheng and stuck a Heavy Machine gun into the Heavy mount using Grappling, Ramming, etc. when up close and personal.

- The Zheng and Kobold Core Powers interact in hilarious ways. The Kobold can go before the Zheng in initiative and activate Core Power, funniest if you use them to encircle a tough Elite or something and then the Zheng can activate their Core and blow up the terrain the Kobold just made. for a lot of potential damage. Even outside of that specific, very funny interaction the Kobold and Zheng can support each other well with their terrain creation however. Giving the Kobold more Mimic Carapace spots to hide out in and in return dropping more Minecraft blocks for the Zheng to smash into.

Some nice systems from other frames to potentially consider for Zheng:
- Iceout Drone from Black Witch 2, because your Mech runs Windows 95. Though ideally the drone is provided by an ally for you. Blackwitch 2 also has the Perimeter Command Plate, which doesn't rely on sensors and gives you some nice battlefield control. It also gives you an immobilize option to land those DD-288 hits.
- Blackbeard has very good Melee/Grappler upgrades in Synthetic Muscle Netting, Chain Axe, Nanocarbon Sword and Reinforced Cabling is also kinda nice as it actually upgrades your base movement by 2 in most situations.
- Javelin Rockets from Monarch 1 can be nice, because Zheng actually has a number of Knockback systems to knock them into the Rockets...or just drag them through them while grappling.
- Pinning Spire or Ferrofluid Lance from White Witch 1 can be nice with a little Agility if you want to utilize the DD-288. As you can charge the DD, Immobilize someone so they can't run. To escape they have to hit you. Which is harder because you have Soft Cover now.

[BelGareth]

I just wanna play at this point.

as my eldest would say LETS GOOOOOO!

[Dusk Raven]

Hmm... trying to think of what frame I would want. Originally, back when a friend of mine was talking about the merits of Lancer, I'd decided on the Hydra, but I don't think I really want that for this character. I wanted something less... esoteric, more down-to-Earth, with a simpler purpose. Leaning towards a long-range sniper/artillery type, or failing that, support. Seems in line with my character's personality. Tentatively looking at the Swallowtail. In the long run, of course. I like the focus on stealth, but I could probably switch things out based on feedback or party needs.

I will say, though, the aesthetics of a lot of the mechs, at least in the core book, are... I hesitate to use the term "anime" because I haven't actually seen an anime with this aesthetic, but I feel like it would not be out-of-place in some anime. Normally this isn't a problem for me, as my own settings draw inspiration from anime on a regular basis. Hell, my own PC is based on a certain character from a mecha anime. However, as far as mecha go, I was effectively "raised" on Battletech and Armored Core, and while those series don't always place function over form, they do look much more down-to-Earth and... mechanical. And tend to look like things someone would actually put on a battlefield.

And yet, I think I actually like HORUS mechs the most aesthetically, since they reinforce the designers' shtick of bizzare, almost alien technology.

Anyway, just finished the mechanics of my character, but I won't post the full details until I've actually got backstory.

Edit: Backstory for Jay Dreizehn has been made. Open to expanding it, of course.


Name: Jay Dreizehn
Callsign: Rook
Mech: Primus
Combat Role: Sniper
"Dreizehn" means "thirteen" and so Jay's full name could be interpreted as simply J13 - an impersonal designation. But a fitting one for a person who tends to be very impersonal. It's unclear what he did to end up in Golgatha - perhaps he was even born here to condemned parents. He's certainly been here for most of his young life. He did, however, have a slightly better position than others for two reasons - one, he's quite good with machines, and two, he never made a fuss of any sort, or oppose what the prison administration wanted of him. If they wanted him to fix something, he wouldn't ask questions - not even where the device in question was or what was wrong with it. He could figure those out himself. He likely escaped suspicion of being a collaborator by the other inmates due to his tendency to blend into the background. Either he was unseen, or others simply didn't think there was anything to see in him. He was simply there, whether anyone noticed or not.

It was probably a surprise to everyone who knew him when he joined the revolution, his apparent ambivalence replaced with steady determination. In reality, his cold persona was never the result of emotionlessness or sociopathic indifference, but self-discipline - and an instinct to keep his emotions hidden at all times, to show no sign that he wants something until the time has come to take it. Good traits to have in prison - not being prone to agonize over what you want but can't have, and the ability to wait until the perfect moment to act. He is genuinely withdrawn emotionally, however - if he weren't in prison he would have been diagnosed with some form of autism. And prison has taught him nothing about how interpersonal relationships normally work. He's not too old to start learning, however - and perhaps his fellow rebels can help with that.

Skill Triggers:
- Act Unseen or Unheard
- Hack or Fix
- Investigate
- Stay Cool

Talents:
- Crack Shot I
- Grease Monkey I
- Infiltrator I

Mech: Everest - "Primus"

Skills: Agility 2
System Points: 6

Structure: 4
HP: 10
Armor: 0
Stress: 4
Heat Capacity: 6
Repair Capacity: 5
Attack Bonus: +0
Tech Attack: +0
Limited System Bonus: +0
Speed: 5
Evasion: 10
E-Defense: 8
Sensor Range: 10
Save Target: 10

Frame Traits:
Initiative (Encounter)
1/scene the Everest may take any quick action as a free action.

Replaceable Parts
While resting, the Everest can be repaired at a rate of 1 Repair per 1 structure damage, instead of 2 Repairs.

Core System:
Hyperspec Fuel Injector
ACTIVE - Power Up
PROTOCOL
For the rest of this scene, you gain +1 Accuracy on all attacks, checks, and saves; additionally, 1/turn, you can Boost as a free action.

Equipment Loadout:
Main Mount: Thermal Rifle
Flex Mount: Segment Knife x2
Heavy Mount: Anti-Material Rifle

Systems: Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Pattern-A Jericho Deployable Cover, Pattern-A Smoke Charges

Note: For the sake of speed, I just took the basic "Sniper" package in the character creator on COMP/CON, with no modifications.

[Bitter]

Yeah, each corporation has its own aesthetic that is very unique to them. SSC is the most anime and tends to go sleek and lightweight, Horus weird and semi-organic seeming, ISP-N was built in a garage by some dude down the road who wants it to look cool (like a cowboy) and HA are corporate “We are building a mech, here is our 70 page corporate style guide, no unnecessary anthropomorphic feature like faces please” style mechs.

[CateranEnforcer]

I definitely feel you, I gravitate towards IPSN and HA because of Battletech since they look and feel more like machines. Big stompy robots. A lot of the SSC mechs remind om me of Zone of the Enders style frames or Gundams or, in the case of Atlas, Metal Gear Revengence. Horus gave of a more Evangelion vibe of weird barely understood technology.

[Ishikar]

SCC mechs are certainly interesting and I appreciate the aesthetics. Wanted to avoid any Horus wackiness for my first character though but once I get the systems understood it may make for an interesting experience in another game.

[Bowerbird]

Actually, operating your Horus Mech with a subjectivity-enhancement suite is perfectly safe! Absolutely no side effects! Here, try it!

[Ishikar]

Actually, operating your Horus Mech with a subjectivity-enhancement suite is perfectly safe! Absolutely no side effects! Here, try it!

Hey this is ni…- all glory to Ra!

Yeah I’m vaguely aware of the general lore of the setting from YouTube but NHPs and eldritch math are certainly interesting. My random brain is exhausted from Con rush so I just imagined a goblin hacking and trolling people while flooding comms with Carameldansen.

Yeah, I’m definitely running in less than optimal amounts of sleep.

[Bowerbird]

Hey this is ni…- all glory to Ra!

Yeah I’m vaguely aware of the general lore of the setting from YouTube but NHPs and eldritch math are certainly interesting. My random brain is exhausted from Con rush so I just imagined a goblin hacking and trolling people while flooding comms with Carameldansen.

Yeah, I’m definitely running in less than optimal amounts of sleep.

"Why is my sound system playing Walk Like an Egyptian on repeat? Oh no, there's a Goblin out there..."

[Bitter]

Though none of them are super hard or anything, I’ve always thought that HA has the hardest mechs to utilise just because their high heat caps and heat related bonuses are basically asking for nuclear cavalier overcharge loop type shenanigans which are hard to balance.

[Volthawk]

Ah bugger, lost track of things here for a while, busy couple of weeks recently. Better get a backstory together for Ognen.

On the mech/frame plans topic, this is my first time actually planning on going for a HORUS frame - always found them pretty cool, but then I've always ended up going with something bulky and IPS-N. Guess that's part of why the Lycan appealed, it has that initial bulky defender thing going on but with that bit of HORUS wildness going on under the hood (and the fact that it's a Manticore variant means it's in that subsection of HORUS licenses that goes "okay you're mainly gonna kill people with weapons but here's some fun hacking options to do the thing better"). In general Manticore's always been something I've found cool but not been sure what to do with, so seeing the Lycan having more of a baked-in game plan was kinda appealing.

[Zelphas]

As someone who hasn't played Lancer myself, the more I look into it, the more it seems like there is to figure out. I'm aiming Artillery, probably Death's Head and/or Pegasus, but I don't know if Levi's built in a way to make that work or if there's a build that I'm missing that would utilize him/his skills better. Should I get into the game, I'll turn to the more experienced people for advice on the frames/licenses that would work for a stealthy sniper without explicit tech skills, and I'll see how things develop in-game as well. But that's getting ahead of things.

[Bitter]

It might just be a case of picking up the terminology, but just to clarify your skill triggers don’t impact mech combat and are used for the narrative play. The key things which will define your build are the licenses you pick, the talents you pick and the Hull/Agility/Systems/Engineering points you assign.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it as the most important aspects are licenses and talents and you have respec options for those after each mission. As you’ll generally want to get at least two licenses in the same frame as your first two level ups, it also lets you build up experience before you branch out.

Also FYI just checked your sheet and your main and heavy should be two seperate mounts, there isn’t a Main/Heavy mount in the same
Manner as the Main/Aux mounts or Aux/Aux mounts.

[Zelphas]

Also FYI just checked your sheet and your main and heavy should be two seperate mounts, there isn’t a Main/Heavy mount in the same Manner as the Main/Aux mounts or Aux/Aux mounts.

Welp, that's what I get for copy-pasting a sheet without paying full attention. The mounts should be fixed to read properly now. Thanks!

[ProgressPaladin]

I bought the long rim recently, and am debating between a different mech. I have so many characters flashing through my head and not enough outlets!

[Thunder999]

Hmm... trying to think of what frame I would want. Originally, back when a friend of mine was talking about the merits of Lancer, I'd decided on the Hydra, but I don't think I really want that for this character. I wanted something less... esoteric, more down-to-Earth, with a simpler purpose. Leaning towards a long-range sniper/artillery type, or failing that, support. Seems in line with my character's personality. Tentatively looking at the Swallowtail. In the long run, of course. I like the focus on stealth, but I could probably switch things out based on feedback or party needs.

I will say, though, the aesthetics of a lot of the mechs, at least in the core book, are... I hesitate to use the term "anime" because I haven't actually seen an anime with this aesthetic, but I feel like it would not be out-of-place in some anime. Normally this isn't a problem for me, as my own settings draw inspiration from anime on a regular basis. Hell, my own PC is based on a certain character from a mecha anime. However, as far as mecha go, I was effectively "raised" on Battletech and Armored Core, and while those series don't always place function over form, they do look much more down-to-Earth and... mechanical. And tend to look like things someone would actually put on a battlefield.

And yet, I think I actually like HORUS mechs the most aesthetically, since they reinforce the designers' shtick of bizzare, almost alien technology.

If you like Horus then Pegasus is a great sniper, the Ushabti's 15 range is plenty, it's got great mounts, the average damage thing is actually a damage boost for odd numbers of dice, Smargun is a very reliable weapon, Hunter Lock is more damage, Autogun means you can genuinely fire 3 mounts every round and the Eye of Horus is a great counter to some annoying enemies.

[CateranEnforcer]

As someone who hasn't played Lancer myself, the more I look into it, the more it seems like there is to figure out. I'm aiming Artillery, probably Death's Head and/or Pegasus, but I don't know if Levi's built in a way to make that work or if there's a build that I'm missing that would utilize him/his skills better. Should I get into the game, I'll turn to the more experienced people for advice on the frames/licenses that would work for a stealthy sniper without explicit tech skills, and I'll see how things develop in-game as well. But that's getting ahead of things.

The good news is that every level you get the chance to alter your talents and licenses and every full repair you can adjust your mechs components. I actually have had success with just the Everest as a sniper as well using Barbarosa for Auto Loader Drone and a GMS Cyclone Pulse Rifle.

[Ishikar]

I'm looking to move into the metalmark as my frame of choice and just pushing evasion as high as I can as a skirmisher using the combined arms talents and then rolling into Ace when the ATMS core bonus opens up. After that first core bonus I'm not sure if I want to use the ghostweave option to lean into invis or the FSS to stack evade or even drift to a few of the other options. The blitzkrieg ninja pinball mech just feels like something fun to play.

[ProgressPaladin]

and just pushing evasion as high as I can as a skirmisher
Hey! No, that’s MY job. MY job!

[Thunder999]

A awrning for going all in on evasions: there's quite a few things that just don't care about evasion, Reliable damage, targeting E-defense (not just hackers, but the Smart tag), forcing a save instead of rolling to hit and even a few abilities that just don't involve any rolling. About half the NPCs in the game can do at least one of those.

[Ishikar]

A awrning for going all in on evasions: there's quite a few things that just don't care about evasion, Reliable damage, targeting E-defense (not just hackers, but the Smart tag), forcing a save instead of rolling to hit and even a few abilities that just don't involve any rolling. About half the NPCs in the game can do at least one of those.

That's a fair point which is part of why I was looking at leaning a bit into the Invisibility that the Metalmark tends to play to as well as bumping Hull and Heat when I got a few more skill ups. Probably put 2 more points in Agility to beef up the evade/speed so I can make best use of my hybrid ranged/melee talents and then boost 2-4 points into Hull followed by a similar number into heat because invis systems like to boost that up as well and having to back off to vent every couple of turns could become an issue.

I think the only attack that fully gets around invis is the pegasus with his "Gun".

[n0ble]

Apologies for the delay in selections everyone, working back to back nights after a HUGE (passed) test IRL. I also just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who applied-its really quite something to see so much interest in Lancer here on the Forum and with so many strong entries too!:smallsmile: Choosing was difficult but the five players Ive picked are:

Bitter as Lupo "CALIBURN" Teutonborg (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973806&postcount=8)
Cateran Enforcer as Derek/THANATOS (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975878&postcount=29)
Zelphas as Levi "ECHO" Royston (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25973889&postcount=12)
ProgressPaladin as Rowan "POLTERGEIST" Holden (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974995&postcount=28)
Belgareth as William St. Aloycius III/BIFF (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25974158&postcount=19)

I will be getting an OOC link up here later today in the afternoon-thanks again for applying everyone! :smallsmile:

[Bitter]

Well done on passing the test and looking forward to playing with everyone else who was picked!

There’s definitely a lot of Lancer interest and people who didn’t get in, so if someone wants to run another game I’m sure they’d get players (and then I can apply for that one too!)

[ProgressPaladin]

Well done on that test! And thank you for picking me. I look forward to this campaign.

[Ishikar]

Congratulations to everyone who got in and to n0ble on passing his test. Good luck with the campaign.

[YuweaCurtis]

Have fun everyone. Got distracted so oops.

[Dusk Raven]

There’s definitely a lot of Lancer interest and people who didn’t get in, so if someone wants to run another game I’m sure they’d get players (and then I can apply for that one too!)

Funny enough, I recently got an idea for a Lancer campaign, though I don't know if running it now is a good idea considering how new to the system I am. That, and my current workload.

[Bowerbird]

Congrats on the test, and congrats to everyone who made it in, have a fun game everyone!

[Zelphas]

Congrats on passing the test! Now to brush up on the rules again so I know at least a bit of what I'm doing...

[Ishikar]

Funny enough, I recently got an idea for a Lancer campaign, though I don't know if running it now is a good idea considering how new to the system I am. That, and my current workload.

I fully understand the workload issue but I'd definitely be interested. I think several of us are new to the system but thankfully it seems easy enough to work with so we could all learn together.

[n0ble]

Thanks all, huge relief having it done! And yeah I'm with everyone else where if somebody wants to run a game I will gladly throw my hat into the ring with an application.

Here is the OOC (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?666065-Lancer-The-Beautiful-Machine-OOC&p=25986926#post25986926)thread for players

[Dusk Raven]

I fully understand the workload issue but I'd definitely be interested. I think several of us are new to the system but thankfully it seems easy enough to work with so we could all learn together.

Well... I will say, with pretty much every game I run I'm compelled to make my own setting. I was mulling over what I would have it be for Lancer. Didn't have any ideas, but I figured I'd develop some as I played and learned the rules... then I got a wild idea. A Lancer game, in the setting of Armored Core V/Verdict Day. With the frames effectively replacing the Armored Cores themselves, of course. But while the tech would be different, the world would essentially be the same. As a bonus... something I'd wanted in a custom Lancer setting was to have each of the four company lines be from a different fueding faction, and there are four such factions I can use in Verdict Day. And I know exactly who makes the HORUS frames...

But, I'll have to read the rules further, and also take a look through whatever DMG/MM analogue Lancer has.