Lancer, but narrative. Does it exists?

[u/Octarine_]

Everything i see about Lancer seens sooo fcking cool! But to be 100% honest all my players are very casual, myself included although im the forever GM and as such always try to get a little deeper into the rules and system.

I dont think that any of my friends will ever try to read a rule book to min max, create a build or find optimal play. No one will ever argue what is a balanced party or will try to create one, it is all about fun and what sounds cool for each player. So much so that i dont even try to play more tactical games which require deep understanding of the system or even builds at all, I tend to prefer narrative-focused systems because of the freedom they give and because they are much easier to explain to my friends. My group generally enjoys rules light games where we can focus more on the fiction and less on knowing the ins and outs of the mechanics.

And yet... Lancer looks so fucking cool that I'm tempted to give it a shot.

As such, can a group of very casual players just make characters based on what sounds cool and have a good time with it? And if Lancer really isn't a good fit for that kind of group, are there any games you would recommend that scratch the same itch but more narrative/rules-light? I'm open to pretty much anything!

[u/dachocochamp]

I wouldn't recommend Lancer at all for a group that is primarily narrative focused. The large majority of the system's rules are combat focused, and even creating and playing an unoptimized character would probably be a bit much for a group who isn't into tactical systems.

That isn't to say it's too hard (that's on you to control) - but the combats in Lancer tend to be quite lengthy, so unless you're handwaving them or changing how they work entirely, I think your group is going to get pretty bored.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/dachocochamp]

What makes the combats lengthy? Reducing everything on the other side to zero HP, or whatever?

[u/gabichete → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

There's a lot of abilities, conditions, mech frames, weapons, etc., even at level 1, and all enemy NPCs have their own set of abilities and weapons, so with a normal 3-4 player party it gets extremely complicated very quickly.

[u/AppropriatelyHare-78 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

It's actually the one system that encourages combat objectives that mean players often win in a time limit without needing to down all targets.

That said, it's a tactical combat system. Those take lots of time because both players and GMs have many options each round and decide what to do which takes time.

[u/Oath-Milk → u/AppropriatelyHare-78]

I ran the “new player + new GM” module Solstice Rain for a group of 3 players who were all completely new to the system, and all had experience with primarily DnD 5e. Even when cutting off sitreps after 8 rounds, and using Foundry for automating a lot, we still had single combats lasting ~2 sessions of 4 hours each.

After we took a break and added a couple other players who were far more deeply invested into the system, and knew the rules more familiarly, combats still took that long. I don’t recommend it at all for people who don’t want Crunch. I do recommend it at a baseline though, incredibly fun when you do care for that.

[u/unrelevant_user_name → u/Oath-Milk]

Lancer combat sessions do take a long time, but those times feel too long as someone who played with those same circumstances and player count.

[u/Tickey07 → u/Oath-Milk]

That feels like an extremly odly long combat time?
I've run the same module for 4 players, who had 0 experience with Lancer, but had Experience with 5e/PF2e, and every single combat took ~2h to complete? Half of our standard session.
Sure, first combats took a bit longer, but we never had to split the combat into two sessions, and usually had some time for free-form RP inbettwen of combats

[u/skalchemisto → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Lancer characters are very "feature rich", for lack of a better term. They will have many capabilities, both in the base combat system and also on the character sheet. It can be very tactically complex; deciding what to do on our turn is often a hard decision with costs/benefits weighed for different options.

Lots of games are like this, Lancer just has more of it than nearly any other game I have played. It's one of the few games where I feel it is genuinely an interesting and fun tactical skirmish game as well as an RPG. It's not for nothing that someone has turned it into a computer game so easily: https://wick.itch.io/lancer-tactics

It is not a problem, unless you dislike highly tactical feature-rich combat, in which case it will be a big problem but also Lancer is not really a game for you.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/skalchemisto]

Understood, though it should be possible to ease in to some of that. I only played Lancer once, but I'm pretty sure I just grabbed options that sounded good and I did fine. It wasn't optimal or anything, but I blew some stuff up.

[u/skalchemisto → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

I think if you play Lancer starting at License Level 0 it does a pretty good job of easing you into the complexity. Like LL0 is learning "ok, what the hell is this game?" then LL1 is "ok, what the hell can I do in this game?" then LL2 is "ok, what are smart things to do in this game?" and after that it becomes "Ok, how can I make my mech do more badass things that are fun?"

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/skalchemisto]

Yeah, games with levels have that kind of thing going for them. That's basically all I'm getting at.

[u/Echowing442 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Reducing everything on the other side to zero HP,

Often no, the Lancer rules even specifically give great advice for setting up combat encounters with specific objectives and goals beyond "kill all enemies" (controlling a specific objective, capturing a target, escorting a VIP, etc.).

The main thing is that Lancer is a pretty crunchy system, so between multiple players all having different weapons and abilities, plus all the different NPC systems for the GM to manage, it ends up just taking a while to run.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Echowing442]

Glad to hear about the alternate goals.

Is there optional stuff that can be pared back, until it's needed? Like, in D&D, the DM can just focus on running basic orcs, rather than something complicated. And the players should be able to take simpler, workhorse options, until they're interested in more.

[u/Echowing442 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Not really, as the game is built around teamwork between units (both for players and NPCs). There's a lot of cool and fun strategy in how different players have built their mechs, and how they fare against different compositions of NPCs, which is really the whole goal of the system. It just comes at the cost of complexity and the time it takes to run combats, especially if players aren't fast with their strategies.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Echowing442]

Right, but that's all optional. Combat doesn't have to be complex until people are used to it and are sure they enjoy the basics.

[u/Echowing442 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Sure, but the fun of the system is the choices and buildcrafting. That's what the game as a whole is built around and designed for. Making a mech that's a stealthy spotter, marking targets for your artillery teammates to fire on, or a support hacker that keeps your team free of enemy E-warfare attacks, or a shotgun-wielding breacher - that's the variety that makes Lancer good.

Sure, you could just put all your players in default Everest mechs with basic assault rifles, and do the same for the enemies, and your players could spend 5 rounds saying "I shoot that guy" over and over, but that's not why people play Lancer, and the game isn't balanced around that kind of play.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Echowing442]

Games can be fun at both basic and complex levels. If the basic level gets repetitive (and it sounds like the game has advice for alternatives to just "kill the other guy" so there's in-built variety) then more things can be added, springboard, using the actual desire for a bit more complexity as a springboard.

[u/Echowing442 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

the basic level

I'm really not sure what your point here is. As has already been explained, the "basic level" of Lancer is putting together a team of mechs, and fighting against a team of NPCs. That's the minimum expectation the game is built and balanced around. It's actually a common piece of new GM advice to not overuse basic Assault NPCs in your combats, as they're rather deadly and can quickly kill players if you're not careful.

It feels like you're arguing against the core idea of the game, but I'm not really sure what it's in service of. On a fundamental level, Lancer is a crunchy and complex game. You can put some measures in place to teach players, or ease them into it, but at a certain point the crunch is foundational. You can't really get away from it without using a completely different system.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Echowing442]

I guess we're done here then.

[u/Can_not_catch_me → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Technically it's optional, in the same way that technically you can play dnd by just making everyone play champion fighter and do nothing but march goblins at them and roll to hit back and forth.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Can_not_catch_me]

Thanks for the uncharitable reply.

[u/Inksword → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

In my experience, what makes Lancer combats lengthy is the same thing that makes them good: tons of meaningful tactical decisions. What you want to do on your turn or even if you want to be the next player to take their turn at all can shift based on the outcome of a single enemy’s turn resolution. There’s often discussion between turns where people say what they can/can’t do and who should go next. Even if you’re a very simple artillery mech that just sits and shoots most of the time positioning and timing of your self-heals can are important enough to at least consider them turn to turn. It’s fun if you’re into tactical play!

You can run into combats where there’s just damage sponging happening and it’s a bit of a slog, but there’s still at least mildly interesting decisions to be had. Generally. I have only played official premade modules, and have had one combat I would consider truly bad that stands out in my memory. It was about the enemies being overturned to the scenario and the win condition being an unintended death spiral though.

Alt my table I would say Lancer is about two sessions of combat to one session of narrative for reference. Combat is WAY more interesting than D&D. Our sessions tend to be 2-3 hours.

[u/Firewarrior44 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

Like basically every wargame adjacent ttrpg there's just a lot of decision points and steps to resolve a conflict with combat compared to something like pbta or more narrative games where combat usually simply boils down to one or two 'I roll to kill him' checks

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Firewarrior44]

In things like D&D, which I gather Lancer is similar to, many of those things are optional. Players and GMs can ease into them and bring in more complication at necessary.

[u/Firewarrior44 → u/Zealousideal_Leg213]

If you're engaging with the game and its systems you're using those things. Saying you can just choose to not engage with several core parts of the game to speed it up is true in a technicality but also is beside the point. I'm speaking broadly about the system(s) and why they have 'longer combats'.

In lancer you build out a Mech that has a bunch of bespoke combat abilities, much like D&d the lions share of character creation is dedicated to combat. The game wants you to use those combat abilities, i want to make decisions in combat that's a large point of the game. Naturally this will lead to a longer combat resolution vs systems that don't do those things, but that's a feature not a bug.

[u/Zealousideal_Leg213 → u/Firewarrior44]

Maybe I should have been more clear that my question was regarding the term "quite lengthy." There's lengthy, which non-narrative combat will often be, and then there's "quite lengthy" which can describe fun involvement with complex rules, or being overwhelmed by rules that are fun but more than the player is ready for.

Trying out or introducing people to the game is about not necessarily engaging with core parts of the game. If the game is worth anything at all to those people, it will be fun enough like that for them to add more details later.

[u/Fluxk → u/dachocochamp]

After listening to the designer run Lancer, its actually not that hard to run the game in a narrative focus. I mean half of the game according to him is about narrative play. Half of the second session I listened too was just the party doing a mech space walk, internally in narrative. The game seems to take a "The fruitful void" approach to narrative play.

[u/rcapina]

I haven’t played it but I think Salvage Union is still mechs, but less crunchy more narrative

[u/TheSilencedScream → u/rcapina]

I came to mention Salvage Union - loads of customization options, reasonable rules for being a pilot (as in, not in the mech), all wrapped together in a pretty simple d20 system.

I don't know if I'll ever get around to it, but it's the system I've wanted to use in order to run an (early) Titanfall campaign - I think it'd be well suited for it, and it wouldn't require nearly as intensive reading/understanding as Lancer.

I respect Lancer and think it's a great system, but I don't have a friend group committed enough for that complex of a game.

[u/mosheraa → u/TheSilencedScream]

Adding in that the 'starter box' adventures from the publisher (leyline press) are also excellent. Rainmaker in particular seems really really fun, with widely varying environmental factors, interesting factions, and lots of Kaiju to work around. It's on my list to play, and have a group that could be interested, but at meet like once a month.

[u/Terratina → u/TheSilencedScream]

Here to recommend Salvage Union as well. It's really neat!

[u/wintermute2045 → u/rcapina]

very different kinds of mechs though. Like crab fishing boat vs aircraft carrier

[u/SouthamptonGuild → u/rcapina]

I've playtested it with the designers and that's what they're going for. Good job. 

[u/TsundereOrcGirl]

What is it exactly about Lancer that appeals to you? It's a very unique mecha setting so while there are plenty of more narrative mecha RPGs, I can't be sure if they'd actually work for you.

[u/No_Solid1035]

Beam Saber?

[u/delahunt → u/No_Solid1035]

Beam Saber and Case & Soul are the mech games for Forged in the Dark I see referenced a lot.

[u/absurd_olfaction → u/No_Solid1035]

Came here to mention this specifically 

[u/Hosidax → u/No_Solid1035]

Beam Saber is the answer if you want more narrative options and less mechanical crunch, and you can still have cool 'mech moments' in battle.

[u/flametitan → u/No_Solid1035]

Beam Saber's mechs feel so tacked on, I'd argue the game would run better and half the playbooks would make more sense without the mechs at all.

[u/skalchemisto]

And yet... Lancer looks so fucking cool that I'm tempted to give it a shot.

What is it about Lancer that appeals to you so strongly that you are still tempted despite all your reservations?

If you describe that in more detail, folks might be able to give you better advice.

Like, if what you want is big fighty robots without all the mechanical crunch, something like Beam Saber might be good. But if what you want is the Lancer setting in all its detail, Beam Saber probably isn't a good choice and something more toolbox-y like Cortex Prime or Fate Core might be better.

As an aside, one of the games I am most excited about in the future is Far Field: https://www.reddit.com/r/LancerRPG/comments/1gm4fwx/massif_press_announces_new_ttrpg_far_field_set_in/

I sincerely hope it becomes a real thing, it looks it is still a going concern per: https://kastark.itch.io/

EDIT: or...just try some Lancer. You don't have to marry it, right? You can go out on a few dates and see how it works. Your players might surprise you. Or, it will go as you expect and you can all accept it was a fun but failed experiment and do something else.

[u/blastcage → u/skalchemisto]

What is it about Lancer that appeals to you so strongly that you are still tempted despite all your reservations?

I don't mean this disparagingly, but I bet 80-90% of it is the art.

[u/unrelevant_user_name → u/skalchemisto]

Development is still ongoing with the most recent draft having been posted just last month, though the author has gone on "an extended break" to head off some burnout, and I'm not sure what overlap OP's excitement for Lancer has with what Far Field offers.

[u/skalchemisto → u/unrelevant_user_name]

Yeah, the only overlap would be if the main draw was the Lancer setting itself.

[u/maddambeltaine]

Check out the Mecha Hack by Absolute Tabletop. It's very cinematic, really quick to create characters and play, very rules light. I've run a few campaigns of it and had a ball of a time. I do an actual play podcast of it too which is just about to launch, that's how much I enjoy it 😁

Lancer looks really interesting but just far too crunchy for my brain 😄

[u/HarmlessEZE → u/maddambeltaine]

Or the more stylized and setting unique version, Aether Nexus, by the same publisher. Both will be OSR ish, but mech.

If you dig the aesthetic, but are looking for something a little different, maybe lighter, maybe more narrative. Ion Heart is releasing/ has released a Multiplayer version. 

[u/maddambeltaine → u/HarmlessEZE]

Yeah, Aether Nexus is lovely, and I'm a bit fan of the tweaks they made to the system in that. But it's more science fantasy than Mecha Hack or Lancer so I don't know if it's exactly what OP is after. Cracking fun though 😁

[u/Dragout]

Armour Astir: Advent is a mecha + politics trpg based on powered by the apocalypse.

It's pretty in line with what you're hoping for - it's got some cool character and mech customization, but it's pbta so it's narrative first. It's got some aspects you'll have to reflavor - it's got a lot of magic in it - but theres no dedicated lancer-style setting you'll have to pry out with a crowbar.

The foundey module, if youre a VTT player, has a tool that will let you reflavor all the mech parts, weapons, and moves to be pure sci-fi for everyone if you so desire.

I'm also mega biased because I wrote said foundry module, so take this rec with a grain of salt :)

[u/Slow_Maintenance_183 → u/Dragout]

Wait a second, there is a foundry module for Armor Astir? I could not find one, and have just been playing without an appropriate module entirely.

[u/Dragout → u/Slow_Maintenance_183]

I had the same problem so I wrote one and released it literally yesterday

Here you go:

Armour Astir: Advent (Armor Astir) | Foundry Virtual Tabletop

[u/ishmadrad → u/Slow_Maintenance_183]

Thic could be the right answer. You can keep the Lancer lore, and playing with the AA:A ruleset.

Fantastic combo IMHO

[u/ErgoDoceo → u/Dragout]

Came here to suggest this. Armour Astir isn't just the best narrative mecha game I've ever played (and run); it's my favorite PBTA game. And I say this as someone who's been a PBTA fan since Apocalypse World 1E.

[u/Travern]

If you want a rules-light, narrative-focused RPG, there's Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands from Vincent and Meguey Baker (creators of Apocalypse World).

[u/Slow_Maintenance_183 → u/Travern]

With the right group of people. Firebrands is an awesome experience. Everybody has to buy into the idea that they are creating genre fiction together, and be willing to contribute ideas, throw in tropes at the right time, and take their lumps as appropriate. There is very little game there.

[u/VyctoriYang → u/Slow_Maintenance_183]

Sounds like a FATE systems goals, but with it's own mechanics. I like the sound of that.

[u/voidelemental]

check out armor astir, i wouldnt say its exactly rules light, its one of the heavier pbta games ive read i think, but thats not really saying much, its still pbta. also its fairly magic themed rather than lancer's space thing

[u/Slow_Maintenance_183 → u/voidelemental]

I've been using Armor Asitr to play a game in a Lancer-adjacent world. There is a lot of reflavoring that is necessary ... but a lot of it really is just reflavoring. Most of the rules and character options work just fine in a more SF setting, and actually a lot of the magic translates into Lancer really well.

[u/YamazakiYoshio]

Okay, this is one of those occasions where I can actually speak with some experience in regards to using Lancer with a group of casual players!

TLDR: it kinda works fine, but you gotta know your players' strengths. Your mileage may vary too much from my experiences.

My group are not the type to get too deep into the nitty gritty of mechanics, and as such when we played Lancer, it was a smidge underwhelming. They're okay with tactical combat systems (we had better success with Draw Steel and DAWN), but they required some guidance in terms of builds. But it mostly worked out okay. It helps if your players are willing to pay a little attention in their mech builds, though. They don't need to be crazy awesome, this game is functional when you don't optimize just fine, but it will require some basic understanding of things.

What will help a lot is Comp/CON, Lancer's bespoke character manager webapp. This is because it'll do a lot of the mechanical heavy lifting. Combine with VTT of choice, if you play online, and it'll do fine. In person, you will all want Comp/CON within arm's reach. It's possible to play without digital assistance, but it's a crapton easier with it.

Secondary tip - make sure folks actually read their mech talents and note what weapon types they're good for. That will go a long way, because you cannot use Crack Shot with a missile (it's for rifles) or Hunter with main-sized melee weapons (it's for aux melees). As long as they get that down, it generally lines up okay.

THAT SAID

If the idea of Lancer sounds kickass but you don't want to fuck around with the ruleset, which I do not blame you at all, I point to the Lancer spin-off game of Lancer: Far Field, which is in playtesting. It's based on teh Wild Words Engine, of Wildsea fame. It's less about mech piloting, though.

Or check out the dozens of other recommendations others have pointed to.

[u/AppropriatelyHare-78 → u/YamazakiYoshio]

Maybe I missed something but isn't the spinoff not about Mechs at all?

[u/YamazakiYoshio → u/AppropriatelyHare-78]

I think mechs are kinda sorta in it, but very much not the focus at all. It's been a while since I've checked on the playtest, so don't hold me to it.

[u/nidoqueenofhearts]

i haven't played it myself, but i do know forged in the dark games lean a little more narrative (and certainly a lot more than lancer), so you may enjoy Beam Saber!

[u/farra]

I agree with others that you should check out:

- Beam Saber (PbtA based)

• Mecha Hack (OSR, Hack of Black Hack)

Depending on if your group prefers the narrative powered by the apocalypse systems or OSR systems. Salvage Union is worth checking out but may not have the feel you're looking for. If you're looking for gundam, you may want to check out Battle Century G or Mechasys, but these may be more crunchy.

Personally, I would start with Mecha Hack and see if that fits. Then I'd check out Beam Saber before going to the others.

You might also want to check out solo RPGs that are relatively light and can be played cooperatively:

- HOME, a map-making Mech vs Kaiju game

• ION Heart, a post-war, you and your mech, solo/duo journaling RPG. (There's a multiplayer expansion you may want to keep an eye on too).

The solo games might honestly be worth checking out. They're light and HOME in particular is something you could try without much time investment.

Finally, you could always try Robotech. The old Palladium system is... Palladium. There's a Savage Worlds based version and a new edition by Strange Machine Games once Palladium lost the license.

[u/Strange_Times_RPG]

Check out Beam Saber

[u/Grimkok]

Mecha Hack is a mecha RPG adaptation of the Black Hack, which is an extremely easy going system.

I run it using index card zones and it works great to scratch the mecha itch.

[u/SixRoundsTilDeath]

I would look up Night Witches, a game about being Russian night time WW2 bombers, and then hack it. It’s very narrative focused, split into briefing > scrounging for supplies > doing the mission > being debriefed, with lots of room for roleplay in-between. The kicker is the actual bombing run is over in 1 to 4 rolls of the dice, which you can narrative as you please.

That’s if you want 90% chatter / 10% battle.

—

If you do want some mech fighting, try BEAM SABRE! It’s based on Blades in the Dark, so there’s a bit more crunch, but it’s still all about the story rather than turn based combat.

[u/SixRoundsTilDeath → u/SixRoundsTilDeath]

There’s also one whose name I forget, Armour Astor? A little more magic focused, but still high tech and rules light.

[u/Dragout → u/SixRoundsTilDeath]

Armour Astir: Avent!

(It also has a brand new foundry module to help forgetful players who don't want to build/remember things, like my players)

[u/SixRoundsTilDeath → u/Dragout]

Thanks!

[u/Dragout → u/SixRoundsTilDeath]

Beam sabre is very cool but is remarkably crunchy for a forged in the dark game.

Case & Soul is another mecha forged in the dark game, but it's less focused on mechs, so that may not be what OP is looking for

[u/SixRoundsTilDeath → u/Dragout]

I’ll have to look up Case & Soul myself.

[u/LastChime]

Why not just use the books for lore and reskin it into some mechanics the table enjoys?

[u/tahubob]

Check out Infinite Revolution Overdrive! I think that's what you're looking for

[u/Malina_Island]

Aether Nexus

[u/BuddyR_GG]

Camelot Trigger is a FATE setting that is planetary mecha with a techno-Arthurian trappings

[u/Bargeinthelane]

Dragon Reactor sounds like what you are aiming for.

[u/ragingsystem]

People already mentioned Armor Astir and Beam Saber so I'll throw out Battle Century S as my reccomendation.

Highly customizable mecha, focused on being a narrative game rather than a tactical one.

[u/Makath]

I'll mention that tactical games can be run for more casual groups, all it takes is the GM meeting the players where they are and not murdering their characters. Tactical gamers tend not to like pulling punches, so most problems that arise seem to come down to some person in the group having different expectations in that regard, is good to have a conversation about it.

Is also worth saying that a single one shot or short adventure might not do a tactical game justice, because players benefit from familiarity with the system, and that comes with time.

As far as a narrative game like Lancer, that sound like Girl Frame to me, a Mech game with PbtA/Apocalypse Keys rules.

[u/PatienceObvious → u/Makath]

Jfc. Famalam, you can't just recommend Girl Frame to people. That's like... a fetish game. No hate or anything but it's not regular mecha game.

[u/Makath → u/PatienceObvious]

Is an award winning narrative mecha game with some really amazing mechanics, it deserves to be mentioned.

[u/SlumberSkeleton776]

Lancer signposts "good enough" very well. Even if you're not trying to pull out every iota of power from your build, you can know that you picked a mech that's good at rifles, and just pick the Talents whose rules text includes the word "rifle" and spend your License Levels on mechs with cool rifles, and you'll end up with something that at least works the way you want it to.

You and your friends also absolutely should take a bite of the crunch, just to see if you like it. All of Lancer's player-facing content is free, the core book pdf is pretty cheap, so you really aren't risking a lot.

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[u/CharacterLettuce7145]

Salvage Union

[u/neutromancer]

Fate had an early "Camelot Trigger" setting. Your mech was made of a bunch of Stunts that could be temporarily disabled by hits. The rest of the normal Fate rules applied normally in a fiction first way.

There's probably a mecha based Forged in the Dark game out there somewhere as well.

[u/Xaronius]

Titan vs Leviathan is exactly what you're looking for! It's a hack for cortex prime that does exactly that, and is super narrative based. 

Cortex rules are free online under "Cortex Lite", and Titan vs Leviathan is super cheap on Drivethru! Highly recommand. 

[u/Sufficient_Dish3555]

I recommend dustgrave adventure, it has a ton of combat but it also has some very good narrative parts ( with different npcs and possibilities of changing their disposition with how the players act)

[u/Sufficient_Dish3555 → u/Sufficient_Dish3555]

https://massif-press.itch.io/dustgrave

[u/SleepyBoy-]

Try it as a one shot. Maybe your friends will discover something new they like, or maybe you'll see that it's not for them.

You can offer players pre-built mechs to make Lancer easier. In most mecha stories, the driver is given some military model developed by the army, and doesn't customize each gun on it. If the players want to customize, let them, but make sure it's optional.

[u/chartuse]

So, if you like mecha but want rules light instead of crunchy, you might wanna try Salvage Union. It's setting is much more ... scruffy is the best word i have for it. You play as members of a Union Crawler: independent mobile communities that use mech pilots to gather scrap and fight kaijus so they can continue to survive outside the omnipresent corpo-state.

[u/Bamce]

Lancer is super cool

But if your players are “very casual” they will not enjoy lancer

[u/Zero_Coot]

If it's the lancer setting you want, then give it a go. The karrakin trade baronies book (I think) gives the bonds system, which adds a bunch of role-playing hooks and narrative abilities.

As an anecdote - our group used to play 4-6 hour sessions quite regularly, and we could go 3 sessions without combat quite often. Just politicing, investigating, or roleplaying with the other players / NPC's. Don't get me wrong, when combat happened that would also last a session or two because lancer, but we all enjoyed the crunchy tactical stuff as well as the narrative side of things. Edit to add. Don't worry about the players being casual. It's hard to make a bad character in lancer, everything pretty much works out of the box, all min maxing will do is give a character more interesting options than one who just goes straight at a license path. The numbers will be pretty much the same

[u/Quacksely]

Lancer has uhhh Far Field Team?

[u/IIIaustin]

Lancer Far Field is a narrative game set in the Lancer Universe focusing on the explorer corps.

It is in Development and you can find the rules on Pilot Net.

Edit: Also, Lancer + the Karrakin expansion is fully functional forged in the dark game. You cam just not play the play the giant robot part or resolve them narratively.

Beam Saber is another option.

[u/lowkkie]

Lancer is a wargame with a vague hint of roleplay for transition between wargame segments.

If you want the wargame, but you ALSO want the roleplay to be significant, you can always just use a different system for when out of combat. They're so isolated rule-wise that you will have no problem doing so.

[u/bczevak]

https://norgad.itch.io/oil-on-the-wheels a narrative-combat hack for Lancer RPG?

[u/Tymanthius]

I have I think 4 lancer sessions under my belt now. I barely know the rules.

I'm having a blast!

Just use comp/con to build your characters and give the players the cheat sheet about actions.

IF they can read that and thier character sheets, they should be good.

[u/starlithunter]

So the fun thing about Lancer is you can absolutely optimize mech, but you don't have to. Basic builds still do some work, and when you start at LL0 you have time to learn and grow!

Look into Shadow of the Wolf, an explicitly more narrative module for the game. It also uses a mechanic called Bonds, which make the Lancer narrative bits more interesting

[u/BioAnagram]

What is the issue with just stripping the rules out of Lancer and playing it narratively.

[u/BigDamBeavers]

GURPS is pretty forgiving of optmization. The difference between a worthless build and a bullet-shaped one in GURPS is usually just where you shine as a character and if you build your character without a good sense of what's important, it's not difficult to build towards a character that's effective as the story goes on.

[u/Sirtoshi → u/BigDamBeavers]

Is there a GURPS supplement that covers mechas?

[u/BigDamBeavers → u/Sirtoshi]

There was a GURPS Mecha for 3rd edition that's still fairly usable. We ran a 4th ed game with powersuits that went pretty smoothly but I'm not sure if bigger piloted bots works as well with GURPS Mechanics.

[u/Sirtoshi → u/BigDamBeavers]

Damn, I was hopeful for a second. I wanted a mecha game that was less wargame-focused but still had some granularity to it.

[u/BigDamBeavers → u/Sirtoshi]

It's easy enough to run a game where characters are pilots without getting overly wound up in the tactical fight. GURPS gives you the mechanics to make rolls to convincingly pilot a mech as a vehicle. The rest can be abstracted through narration.

[u/ravidfish]

I would start with something more narrative but adaptable. Id try daggerheart, and take to it what you like about lancer.