Lancer 1.7.5
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! LANCER ! CORE RULEBOOK By Miguel Lopez and Tom Parkinson Morgan 1.7.5 Beta Please do not reproduce without permission !1 To readers and players: Thanks very much for reading and testing our most recent playtest version of LANCER! This game is born out of our mutual love for speculative fiction, mythic sci-fi, and the kind of collaborative storytelling that tabletop roleplaying can provide. We’ve had numerous influences in creating this game, but particular credit must be given to Schwalb Entertainment’s fantastic RPG Shadow of the Demon Lord for the Accuracy/Difficulty dice system, and to the BattleTech series of games for inspiration for the heat system. We’ve put a lot of hard work into polishing and refining this version of the game over the last year. The game as it stands right now is fully playable, but has some minor tweaks to make here and there before we consider it truly finished. While we’ve done some limited group testing, the next thing to do is to get large-scale feedback. We plan to release this game as a fully illustrated, paid product, and want to refine it the best we can before that point. The test version of the game will always be free, and we will likely include a free version of the game on final release. To that end, we highly encourage you to please read through these rules, create characters, and use this system to run a game. If you do so, please have feedback in mind. Our primary concern is that the game is fun to play. Feedback can be sent by e-mail to Tom Parkinson-Morgan at [email protected] (twitter: @orbitaldropkick) or Miguel Lopez at [email protected] (twitter: @The_One_Lopez) or directed towards Lancer’s twitter account, @LancerRPG. Thanks for playing, and enjoy your foray into the world of LANCER! Tom Parkinson-Morgan & Miguel Lopez PS: Special thanks to Sam Chabot (@Mr_Grimace) for Lancer’s character sheets. !2 Release Notes Version 1.7.5 8/29/2018 Hello! Welcome to the balance update for 1.7. I’ve joked that this might as well be 1.8, but I don’t feel like it’s fundamentally too much different. This is purely a mechanics update. I mainly wanted to get the game tweaked a little bit for ease of play, to tune the NPCs which didn’t receive much love last update, and take out a lot of uninteresting or flat talents or gear options in favor of more interesting or active choices. Thanks a ton for all the fantastic feedback and especially the folks over at the official LANCER discord who have been extremely active with their input. General changes from 1.7: - Changed the action economy (mostly nomenclature but a few other things) - Tweaked NPCs to be more durable out the box but scale less. The NPCs in 1.7 were somewhat based on old math (when core mounts still existed) and should now scale better - Lowered SP costs across the board and increased base SP on all mechs by 1 - Tweaks to many talents and the addition of two new talents - A rework to lock on - Moved pilot story actions to pilot section - now a core game component instead of sitting in GM section - Added section on pilots while piloting a mech being targetable or not (they are not unless the mech is destroyed). - Reduced license level cap to 12. In general, most feedback indicated that builds were finished around then and after experimenting this feels like a good number, with both targeting and GRIT maxing out there. Action economy changes: - 1 and 2 actions have been replaced by ‘quick’ and ‘full’ actions. You get two quick or one full action a turn. Overcharging now gives you a quick action for free. - Got rid of the interaction concept (it’s rolled into movement) - End of round actions are gone, replaced with free actions (at start or end of turn) HP, critical, and repair - Added the ability to repair a destroyed mech during a rest - Reworked the critical and overheating charts to be simpler. You are more likely to lose weapons/systems to damage now but can choose which. You can no longer be destroyed on your first point of stress, but the chance gets higher the more you have (similar rework for the overheating chart). This should make mechs more durable and get rid of the unlucky ‘roll a 1 on my first structure damage’ effect - I don’t think this was a good feeling Combat - Slight rework to hide, quick action now - Got rid of the interaction concept (it’s rolled into movement) - End of round actions are gone, replaced with free actions (at start or end of turn) - Reworked prepare action to be more explicit, only works with quick actions !3 - Shut Down now a simpler status, causes stun - Improvised attack is now a full action - Stabilize systems is now just named Stabilize - Added burn clear to Stabilize - Stabilize can be used to clear conditions from adjacent allies but clears only 1 condition - Renamed hunker down to disengage - Added Boot Up full action to remove shut down - Removed auto hit on stun, etc from grapple and ram - Tech has been renamed to ‘quick tech’ and there are now ‘quick’ and ‘full’ tech actions - the latter allowing you to take 2 quick tech actions. - Lock On now reworked - it’s now like a mark that can be consumed for +1 Accuracy to any attack roll. Many talents now benefit from it - Bolster tech action now grants +1 accuracy to any skill check (instead of attack roll) - Removed purge tech option - You can no longer unshackle an AI by default. An AI now has a 5% chance to become unshackled when you make a critical check or overheating check - Overwatch is a skirmish action (so super heavies cannot overwatch) - Crippled reduced to 2 speed max - Reduced damage for failing to teleport - Brace lets you take a quick action on the following turn but you don’t get your move (just 1 quick action, nothing else) NPC Changes - Drastically increased Tier 1 mech HP for NPCs, and lowered gains/level. Accounted for armor/evasion a little more in HP calculation - Changes to the ultra/grunt/elite templates - NPCs now shut down when they reach full heat if they only have 1 stress (all npc by default), so you don’t need to make overheating checks for them - Heat capacity for NPCs increased - Damage now scales slightly different, about 150% at tier 2 and 200% at tier III (mirroring player HP gain) Talents: - Bonded I now only gives bonuses to skill checks, Bonded II requires a target to actually damage your bondmate. In general I feel like this talent was pretty un-interactive and based off feedback felt ‘mandatory’ - Moved ranks of Brutal around, buffed Relentless but moved to rank III - Some parts of duelist rank II now require a hit - Drone commander has a new rank III, rank I works with lock on - Juggernaut rank I to 3 spaces - Removed damage to grapple/ram on brawler III but added small knock back - Rework to skirmisher - Removed uncanny reflexes. I think this talent tree has been supplanted by Brace - Added new Spotter tree to work with Lock On - Added Stormbringer tree to work with Launchers - Hacker rank I now benefits from Lock On !4 - Siege Specialist now only benefits cannons, has a new rank II which allows you to drill your way through buildings. Reduced cone area (bonus and flat for rank I) - Gunslinger damage knocked down to +2d6, it was easier to proc than I initially calculated - Leader now works with itself in a more limited fashion. If you have any die left in your pool, you can’t benefit from leadership dice. If you’re out of dice though, someone can still give you commands. If you dip in this tree it should be easier to get commands from other people, mirroring an actual chain of command since you will spend your dice faster (they have authority over you). Gear Changes - Lowered SP costs across the board, also lowered limited (x) uses to compensate on many systems - CALABOLG MC gives increased HP now but down to 2 armor - Almost all CQB weapons now have threat 3 - Ordnance weapons can no longer be used for overwatch or in engagement - Throwing a weapon is now a ranged attack - New Grenade and Deployable tags - Burn now goes through armor - Added caveat that you can only have 1 printed mech at a time, you little monsters - Heat damage tuned down a little - Sensor ranges were not adjusted for the range squish and have been reduced - GMS battle rifle removed, replaced with Missile Pod (for a generic missile launcher) - Most systems that lasted for 3 rounds now last until the end of the user’s next turn, but have been reduced in SP. CORE bonuses - GMS improved armament now gives you a flex mount, not any mount - Full subjectivity sync down to +1 evasion - Lesson of the Open Door down to +1 e defense - Titanomachy mesh now gives a free ram or grapple when you hit a ram or grapple and only +1 to knock back (there’s more sources of knock back now, so it’s easier to proc) - Lesson of the Held Image now only activates at the start of another player’s turn 1/round - Superior by design only gives +1 heat capacity Mechs: In general, many mechs have received a stat and SP balance, especially those with higher armor.