Lancer: What makes this such a damned good mech RPG? 🤖 RPG Review & Mechanics

Lancer is a mech fighting TTRPG published in 2019 by Massif Press following a Kickstarter. It features a fully realized distant future setting and dozens of wildly imaginative mech designs and battlefield mechanics.

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0:00 – Cold Intro
1:21 – Introduction
1:56 – Character Creation
3:20 – Mech Creation: The Lancer Mech
4:17 – Mech Creation: Make Your Mech
5:53 – Comp/Con
6:55 – NHP
7:44 – Game Mechanics: Narrative Mode
8:58 – Game Mechanics: Mech Combat Mode
11:00 – Is this a wargame + RPG?
11:49 – NPCs
12:18 – Setting
13:31 – My Thoughts
15:21 – Conclusion

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Thanks to the @UkawaStation for use of the awesome battlemaps. Find them on Twitter!
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[PurpleYoshiEgg]

Having run Lancer for about 6 months, we just had our second session in a row without combat. While I tried to keep it to 1 combat per session, it slipped to at least 1 combat every other session. Now I am recognizing my lancers are having a lot of fun in the narrative play, so it allows me to create much more meaningful combats that help punctuate the story at points where the success or failure of the players can work to really tell a deep and complex story.

[theonethathungers]

After the dnd ogl drama, my friends and I looked to new RPGs. Lancer is so amazing in how much customization you can have, how flexible it’s rules for roleplay are, the depth of mech combat, and the flavour is amazing.

[grim]

Will say Everest is the one frame they had to nerf because it was that powerful. It still is a wonderful starter frame that lets you make mistakes and learn how to play your role. Besides that the lore is something I wish I could get more of along with just how free it is. You're a player? You can get everything for free. I also love how even the Homebrews stick to a theme like the mainline corpos do.

[danobra]

As someone who used to proudly DM D&D 4e, I guarantee you can have an intricate narrative that puts you through an amazing story and simultaneously have complex tactical combat in the same campaign

[gdhuertas]

One of my best friends is an artist on this book!

[jaedenn_]

My friends and I recently started playing Lancer, it's been lots of fun! We're all super into roleplay so it's a lot more RP-heavy than the average Lancer game might be, but we're all having a ton of fun playing around in such a Sci-Fi setting!

[andysimons]

This is a very good breakdown! You managed to succinctly describe the gist of most mechanics and even get a good, short snapshot of the setting. I’ve tried that, it’s hard.

Side note, I’d give a hard recommend of “No Room for a Wallflower” for new Lancer game masters. Even if you don’t run the module, it has very good examples for how to build combat encounters and structure narrative play elements

[taltamary]

I won't call Lancer's setting a radiant era coming to its end. It is a universe where part of it is an utopia, which its governator, Union, wants to expand. According to the rulebook, ThirdCom might end if several present problems will wildly escalate, but a war is not close.

Lancer is my favorite d20 RPG. One of the things that makes its combat so fun is that every option makes you feel so powerful and cool (shooting a gun which doesn't exist, using flaming plazma blades and more) while still keeping the game balanced. Furthermore, unlike most games, even at the lowest power rank you have battlefield control options, and at the next rank these options become much wilder. Heat adds an interesting risk and reward mechanic, and the actions system provides a vast variety of combinations.

[KamranMSHoule]

This is a great video about one of my favorite things right now, though i think you characterized narrative play as only part of downtime when its definitely possible to have narrative play outside of mech combat during missions (often it can be as tense as the mech combat with the right mechanics, clocks were introduced into the game officially with the supplement no room for a wallflower and are a very natural fit for the game). Keep up the good work, i love seeing you highlight more indie RPGs that get passed over so often!

[IWendigo]

Nothing has made me feel more powerful than shredding all layers of structure and one shotting a boss with a death's head cycling pulse cannon... so good

[lkhlkjljhkjh]

I love the artist they used, who's comic is called KILL SIX BILLION DEMONS.

[johngavin]

Fantastic! I can finally have an excuse to use my massive amounts of gunpla models.

[HandOvDoom]

I love the artwork for sure. I haven’t read the entire ruleset for Lancer, but I got a little overwhelmed by the rules. I became a little discouraged and I was really hoping for a more stylized Battletech. Ha ha. I love Battletech for its relative simplicity—but I really like the look and atmospheric feel of Lancer. I wish for a way to combine the two—easy war-game mech rules with that bizarre anime-feel world setting.

[rasleyforde]

Love you videos! The way you put the soundtrack keeps it so dynamic!

[Akatsukimember]

I know I’m 2yrs late, but I just came to say that tomorrow’s our second lancer session and I am super hyped

[brunolecompte]

Lancer is mainly a tactical battle game about mech combat.
It's an interesting one, with a really large number of options and choices for player mech and opponent creation.
mech combat system is finally similar in complexity as the D&D4th combat system, a game which has been considered as more a skirmish tabletop game than a rpg.

As a RPG, it's has a setting, and it has some OVER simplified mechanics to let people incarnate characters.
Going to the simplest rule is not a bad way to make a rpg, it's here very simple to create a character and understand the system, there's just one origin, a couple of traits and you are fine. mechanics? don't search too far it's just rolling a d20 against a base 10 difficulty.

[MalkavX]

Great review. I had been thinking on buying the book and your review convinced me

[TheBarnBards]

Whoa! Trans-dimensional mechs...count me in! Nice job, Dave...Imma gonna try this battle suit on for size

[nicholashanson]

Love this video, definitely recommending this to my players, also love the use of Ukuwa Station Battlemaps!!!

[samwalters]

Good video, I agree about wanting to play a simplified battle system for a campaign to focus in on lore and the worldbuilding. If I had a group to play with, I'd strongly consider running a campaign using Lancer's world in the Forged in the Dark mech game, Beam Saber. A small nitpick, while the setting is mostly human, there are a few aliens in RA and Metat Aun, the NHPs (which aren't really AI, they function like AI, but they exist naturally in Blinkspace), and the relatively recently extinct Hercynians who are the focus of the first official campaign which takes place on their former homeworld.