In the far future, humanity has scattered across the stars. The Union Diplomatic Corps is bravely exploring the cosmos to re-establish contact with far-flung worlds. By the time, the UDC reaches the world of Vermeer, it is already under siege by an unknown invasion force. Each UDC ship has a squad of mecha pilots, but four pilots are no match for an entire fleet. If they can hold out long enough though, they can help ensure backup arrives.
Cast
Caleb as the GM
Ross as callsign Suez
Aaron as callsign Sky
Tom as callsign Fib
Maddy as callsign Bone
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:41:36 — 101.7MB)
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Oooh..is this a new game system, or a game in an existing system? Because I don’t think I have heard of this.
Lancer is an upcoming sci-fi mecha RPG written by the team behind the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons https://massif-press.itch.io/
Baller!
I backed this. Excited to listen to this session, but also surprised to see Caleb (I love you Caleb) running a tactical RPG?
@Cole Lane
Well, you’ll be happy to know that I do it quite poorly.
So Lancer still has Battletech-style heat tracking? I remember seeing that in the first playtest document, but I thought that had been removed.
I dunno which was better cringe comedy, Aaron trying to socially manipulate someone or Tom not being Tom.
Deeper Conversion line was money though.
As time goes on, I’ve really come to decide that nothing quite handles a big cinematic battle as well as ORE. It isn’t for every game for sure, but man does individual turns feel janky for a big cinematic combat like the end fight. The alternating turn thing works ok, but it feels like a jury-rig or a placeholder that they just never got something better in for.
I think percentile systems feel less random than d20 not because of differences in chances (you could covert your percentile to d20 by rounding to nearest 5 and dividing by 5), but because success/failure is less hidden and more on the player.
For example, to shoot someone in eclipse phase you need to roll under your skill, say 60. The enemy might get a chance to dodge, but your basic chance at success is clear. In a d20 system a 12 might be what you need to hit one specific enemy (60% chance), but a different enemy requires something higher/lower. Since you have a shifting target number it feels a lot less in your control as a player.
Also, the percentile system handles mulligans/moxie/etc much better than d20 systems, which allows systems to give players limited control back over the dice (which is really, really good for how a system feels).
The setting seems pretty funky (in a good way). Longer story arcs might be harder to construct and have them feel good, what with time dilation and shit.
Making Aaron the only person able to do social interaction is always comedy gold, as you can almost see Ross’s temple vein throbbing.
Please continue this. I’d greatly enjoy a campaign.
Of course I listen to this podcast while awake, but I also enjoy falling asleep to it, and this episode has provided some amazing dreams.
so the protagonists were kinda like the Culture’s Contact, but with mechs? the society seems pretty cool! lost me a little during the fighty parts but combat’s always hard for me to focus on
Oh please campaign! I can’t even begin to rattle off the list of various itches this scratches.
Caleb mentioned using something that “holds the roll results”. I assume he meant software? If so, could you share what that was? I’ve been looking for something like that for my own games.
When will we be getting more of this awesome setting?