For out of character chat and questions.

Hi folks!  Happy to be taking part in a Lancer game.  I'm playing Werner Steinn, my call sign is Fossil.  Scientist background (Geology to be specific!) and  I plan on bringing the lasers, fire, and explosions to the team once we get some License Levels.

Heya. I'm similarly excited to have a Lancer game as I think it's been the best part of four years since my last on here.

Alis is one of a handful of surviving flash-clones from an extralegal supersoldier project shut down by the New Division, so naturally she's quite a bit less 'super' than her creators desired. She goes by the call sign Ivory owed to her distinctive pale skin, that being one of the more benign side-effects of her origin.

I'm not totally sure about long term plans right now but I think I'm probably leaning towards something in the melee and/or CQB space.

Hey there all

Rolling Thunder here with the heavy armor/suppression-fire side of things (leaning towards the Drake when we start getting us some LLs, to give you an idea). Mechanical/repair/sabotage sub skills

He has burned-out facial nerves as well from some unspecified event, making his face a permanently neutral mask of flesh... And yet he lives - and feels - underneath...


Hey GM, do we know each other at the start of this? Are we an existing unit? Mercs maybe? Freelance or corporate?

Yes, you most likely would know each other. You guys are a Lancer unit attached to the Union ship Rio Grande, as your first assignment after your training was completed. You could have met on the ship, met while training, or some other point in relation to that.

Sunder is a bit of an odd one, she wasn't in training with the others she came to the ship by some other path but doesn't talk about herself much.  Indeed she doesn't interact with other people physically, her only presence on the ship is that of an AR projection or the occasional remote drone.

Her role is that of a hacker so that doesn't impact her mission profile in any negative way, and in some ways she had more control over the ship's systems than the crew.

What an interesting set of misfits we make.  I think I'm finished designing Fossil and his starter Everest, but I was wondering just how much of our character mechanics we should share.

Mostly to keep down unintended overlap in skills and roles.

In reply to Werner Steinn (msg # 7):

You can share as much or as little as you are comfortable with. I don’t want to intrude too much on how you all establish your character’s dynamics in game.

It's better to have a team of specialists who know what each squaddie brings, I think.  So I'll reveal what I have for Fossil's build this far.

Skill Triggers are Blow Something Up, Invent or Create, Get a Hold of Something, and Investigate.  Talents are Walking Armory, Grease Monkey, and Nuclear Cavalier.  Mech Skills are currently rank 2 Hull, and Engineering will be the focus as LL increases.

My starter Everest is equipped with a Mortar, Assault Rifle, and Heavy Melee; though I will move away from melee as LL increases.  I'm bringing deployable cover, smoke grenades, and personalizations because it is important that my mech, Unsupported Hypothesis, look like an Allosaurus.

Hi (again) everyone. Some backstage talk led me to deciding to take a different approach, so it's out with the Varn and in with the Vost.

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Maya “Sardine” Vost is a former space pirate who accidentally downloaded a SecCom-era piloting manual directly into her brain while exploring a long-forgotten facility on a dead world. Some sustained misfortune later she's found herself saved not-inconsiderable incarceration by virtue of that latent piloting talent, and she's fighting to retain that limited freedom more than for any ideal or cause. Helps that it's actually pretty fun work.

Still going with the same general archetype, only this time I've got far stronger sense of how and why this character leans into CQB and melee weapons. Very high chance of going with one of Blackbeard, Tortuga or Caliban early on.

And to follow up on Werner's post:

• Maya's triggers are Assault, Show Off, Take Someone Out, and Word on the Street.
• Her talents are Combined Arms, Duelist and Vanguard, also starting with 2 Hull for the not-die factor.
• Her Everest, Skeleton Key, is armed with a Shotgun, Assault Rifle and Heavy Charged Blade. It has a Custom Paint Job and Personalisations, Jump Jets and a Projected Shield.

I am still working out some of the details, but what seems to be staying true is a bit of a tech/Ewar focus

Triggers: Hack or Fix, Investigate, Take Control, Take Someone Out
Talents: Drone Commander, Hacker, Spotter

I am new to this particular system and could probably switch out the Stay Cool, or Engineer for something if anyone has any good suggestions that stack or fill gaps in the party somewhere.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Wed 04 Oct 2023.

Something to keep in mind if you're new to the system is that each time you level up you're allowed to reallocate all points from one of your Talents to any other Talent, so if you pick something and find it doesn't work for you then it's very straightforward to swap it out for something else before too long. Or you can pick something at low levels that's useful when you're getting started and drop it once you're able to specialise later on.

I can't speak to what weapons you're considering, but in terms of broadly useful stuff:

• Stable, Steady from Crack Shot is an easy to-hit bonus if you're taking an Assault Rifle.
• Covering Fire from Heavy Gunner is nice for limiting/punishing movement if you want an HMG or Thermal Lance.
• Field Commander from Leader is super useful. It's a great way to make sure the rest of the party loves you, especially once you hit Leader 2 and 3 down the line.
• Integrated Chaff Launchers from Skirmisher is a nice bit of extra defense while you reposition or take non-aggressive action.
• Particularlize from Spotter is very useful if you're going to be hanging out in the backlines with a long range buddy.

I'd probably advise against taking Engineer at LL0 as the Everest frame already has three mounts (so an extra integrated mount has a lot less value) and you haven't got any of the Talents or fancy tools to really take advantage of your prototype's flexible profile. It's by no means bad, but you're essentially spending a talent on a +2 damage weapon rather than some kind of unique utility.

Fair enough, I really was thinking the higher level engineering things would be handy, but even those it seems like I can only use them on myself so it isn't as good as I had thought.

Consider me a spotter now.

Hey all,

It looks like everyone has more or less got their characters ready to go, so I will post the adventure intro in the Operation: SOLSTICE RAIN thread.

If you feel that you still need to tweak your characters a bit, please don't worry about posting right away - you can finish up, then introduce your character once you are done.

I am really excited to start playing with you all, and I really hope that everyone enjoys the game!

For me it's :

Hack or Fix, Blow Something Up, Stay Cool and Charm
Siege Specialist, Heavy Gunner and Combined Arms for Talents

Resigned Optimism has Hull 1, Systems 1
and is armed with Heavy machine gun (Underhand handle like the Drake. Folds back on an articulated back-gimble),
Twin Missile launchers (one above each shoulder)
and Charged blade (a plasma panabas in a leather back sheath (similar to Tortuga's shotgun back sheath))

Stable structure
Jump jets
Deployable cover (Heavy shield plates on his left arm and shoulder when undeployed, similar to plates on Tortuga; Used as shields when Engaged, explaining his soft cover melee bonus from Combined Arms)

For on the ground: Heavy hardsuit, shotgun, heavy A/C (from portable welder and punch/crush from 3rd arm). Mag-clamps,  3rd arm, portable printer


Not married to Blow Something Up. If that's one of Werner's main things, I can go with Apply Fist to Face instead?

In fact, let's do that

Oh damn, I’m so sorry, I completely skipped over your character in this. I apologize, I was going off of character sheets and completely blanked on the team comp conversation here.

Stray thought, GM: Do you think it'd make sense to set all the PCs to either their real names or call signs? Right now we've got a mix of both.

I've been under the assumption that Sunder doesn't have another name, myself.  You're playing an NHP, right?

In reply to GM (msg # 16):

Null perspiration chummer (Oops, wrong system :))

Still getting my character together

EDIT: Stray thought: do we want two portable covers on the same team? (I mean we might)
This message was last edited by the player at 11:59, Thu 05 Oct 2023.

I could swap out my portable cover for something more offensive, since you're taking a more defensive design.  Maybe frag grenades or turrets.

I swapped out my deployable cover for Hex Charges.  Just a little bit more boom for the squad.

In reply to Maya Vost (msg # 17):

I'll leave it for you guys to decide - I don't have a preference either way.

I picked an Omnihook as part of my pilot gear, but we're getting one as part of the mission.  Don't think we'll need multiple, so I'm swapping it out.  I'll bring a Corrective and instead, in case a VIP gets shot.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Just 'cause I feel like explaining, Maya's call sign is Sardine because "tin can" is one of the many derogatory nicknames for the single-use transports/boarding torpedoes commonly used by small-time pirates in raids on other ships. She's essentially a knock-off marine with a history of being crammed into an ugly metal box and slammed straight into the hull of a target vessel.