Who the heck would want to use the External Ammo Feed system with such high system point and heat costs? And unlike other options, it only reloads a SINGLE weapon? Please share with me some positive and practical use cases for it.

So I'm "new" to reddit (I'm technically the other dev of Portraits of a Burning World with u/EgassemSdrawkcab so I've seen some of y'all's support and feedback on that project ☺️) but figured the community in r/LancerRPG would be interested in seeing this! I've been making models in Bricklink Studio 2.0 of all the player frames in the game currently! Took a few months but it's finally done! You can download the renders for free and the models for $5 here https://citrusuprising.itch.io/brickbuilt-lancer-default-mech-tokens

Problem is as the title says: I got a group of 7 dumbass friends (usually 5~ make it each week), and the numbskulls can't work as a team.

The melee will leave the back line exposed to flankers, to run headfirst into the meat grinder, the back line are more likely to catch the melee guys in their artillery AOE than the enemy, and no one wants to "waste a turn" to lock on, scan, bolster a friend, or do anything with tech.

I'm a first time GM, and none of the tutorials online have any guides for un-stupiding your friend group.

It's all in good fun, and everyone's been having a blast so far, but I'm worried it'll turn into fighting if someone loses a character because of their teammate.

I come to you, reddit, as a last resort. Does anyone have any advice on how to trick them to work together?

Just had session 1 and I realized we never discussed in session 0 about how combat would go bc i assumed that they understood how crunchy it is but we're doing theater of the mind and we're too far in to the session to fix it im in hell
think im gonna bring in my own hex map at this point.

Update: Talked it out, dm is bringing his hex sheet next session and Im bullying thr group into using comp/con. Also gonna start drilling combat rules into everyone's head lol

I'm building a hydra right now and while drone commander seems like a given, I'm not sure what my other talent(s) should be. I've been able to narrow it down a little:

1. The GM is only allowing core rulebook content
2. My primary weapon is either going to be a cannon or launcher

That still leaves a monstrous number of options to choose from, and it's possible I may be able to take up to 3 of them. Are there any interesting interactions or synergies I should know about?

My Lancaster pilot has one job, and sometimes that job is begging for more parts to do his job.

This is something I've been putting together for a campaign involving a group of mercenaries that go to a barely habitable mining colony that discovered a potentially MONIST like entity. Just wanted to share it because I've really enjoyed cooking it up.

Timeline of events at Uruska IV

200 years ago

The Uruska IV colony is established to mine rare Earth minerals with terraforming taking place in limited capacity. Terraforming efforts have a hard time due to both the volcanic ash and the slightly corrosive atmosphere. ISP-N contracts the running of the colony to Banson Mining Enterprises, one of their main mining company subsidiaries. 

150 years ago

A 2nd dig site, the Baldaia Mines, was established in a southern region, a couple days south by travel from the Bagnold Mines. 

The colony languishes in relative obscurity. Just valuable enough to be kept intact by ISP-N to supply building materials for their ships and printers. 

6 Years ago

Jacob Banson took over as the leader of Uruska IV as a punishment for making his family look bad. He’s been looking for a way to get himself out and back into the good graces of his family. 

2 years ago

The Baldaia Mines uncovered a massive, crystal lattice superstructure deep underground with shaped metals built into it, showing signs of being crafted by intelligent, non-human hands. The center of this lattice superstructure gives off high heat and energy readings. Various pieces of technology amounting to the equivalent of crystalline computer terminals have been found and are being researched. 

A consciousness inside the crystalline structure awakens. Calling herself Hathor, the being reaches out and probes the minds of Empaths and the psychically gifted, calling out to be freed.

The colony has a sizable congregation of the Church of the All Mother, an organization that worships a paracausal being known as the All-Mother.The group is a neopagan solarpunk religious organization that’s obsessed with spreading new life, especially via participation in terraforming projects. 

Sister Sarah, the Stone Seeder (Highest ranked terraformer of her order), communes with the entity. She believes that Hathor is either the All-Mother or an aspect of her. Those that can also hear the entity start flocking to her, seeing her as their spiritual leader and prophet of Hathor. 

As more research is conducted on the crystalline structure, it’s discovered the crystals give off a healing aura that causes soil to become more inimical to life and causes rapid growth in plant life. It also makes the atmosphere more airable in enclosed laboratory tests. 

Banson sees these discoveries as a miracle that could put him and BME on top of the world with this unique technology, especially if it can be replicated. His treacherous second in command, Hoyt, sees this as an opportunity to take over leadership and claim this new wonder technology for himself. 

1 year ago

The colony slipped farther behind on their mining quota as this new mineral is secretly harvested and examined instead. Geologists and specialists work extensively with the materials. 

ISP-N  aggressively questions why quotas are low when according to the geological data, the veins haven’t been tapped dry yet and workers are working harder, if not even harder than before. 

In an effort to keep their discovery secret, Hoyt and Banson extended mining contracts, denied leave off planet, curtailed Omni-Net use, and worked miners harder to keep making quota. 

Hoyt made secret deals with both the BlackCoats, an unpopular PMC company that acts as BME’s elite security, and the Steel Dogs, a pirate organization. The pirates raid the regular ISP-N food and medical supplies, ratcheting up tensions with the already overworked miners. 

Briarson, the mining colony Hoyt manages, deals with open rebellion and strikes from workers that he severely punishes with the use of the Black Coats. Morale in Briarson was at an all-time low as the Black Coats found excuses to punish those they deem as dissidents. 

6 months ago

Hoyt hoped to foment an open rebellion that would be easily crushed once the miners armed themselves and tried to fight security forces. The final straw was broken when he tried to make an example of his harshest critique, Sister Sarah. The Black Coats sent a team into her conclave, killed several unarmed members and took her alive in a show of force.

What he didn’t count on was that Sister Sarah had banded together and raised a large political block in Briarson around herself. Both a band of Hedge Knights (militant lancers from the Church of the All-Mother) and a neo pagan Horus cell with ties to the Church had taken notice of the colony due to the rumors an alien NHP-like goddess was communing with the citizens trying to free herself from bondage. The Knights and Horus cell formed an organization called the Skyward Eye and had been producing weapons and mechs in secret, training more militant members of the church and arming miners. 

The Battle of Frierson took place when Horus hackers in the Skyward Eye used their hacking protocols to cause a power shortage for the main holding detentions and most of the colony’s lights. They used the momentary distraction to spring tightly organized ambushes and wiped out or captured most of the BME security forces. Hoyt barely made it out, escaping in a dropship with his hand picked Black Coat bodyguards. 

Present

The Skyward Eye have been setting traps and planting mines, turning the area between the two settlements into a no man’s land. Omni Net connections have been spotty at best. Both sides are currently making plans to capture the other’s main headquarters, but the ion storms and pirate activity has made both of them wary. BME still has a superior military force and better training, but the Skyward Eye have turned it into a guerilla war where they bleed out precious resources and troops through traps, ambushes, and lighting quick hit and run tactics obfuscating by hacking. 

BME wants to quickly crush the rebellion and spin their own narrative of what happened to ISP-N and Union after the Skyward Eye is put down. They want to keep Hathor sealed for fear of what she’s capable of and study her so they can create their own bleeding edge terraforming technology that will allow ISP-N and Union as a whole to much more quickly and efficiently seed new planets when needed in a controlled manner.

Skyward Eye wants to force BME off the planet and sue for ownership of the colony from ISP-N due to BME breaching contracts and using PMCs like thugs. They want to free Hathor and make her the ruler of the planet while using her abilities to quickly make the planet more habitable and inimical to life. They then want to turn Uruska IV into a holy land and a seat of their Goddess’ power, let her spread new life across nearby planets and create their own resources until they are powerful enough to break away from Union and become their own governance under their mother-goddess.

The player characters are mercenaries that have landed on Uruska-IV  under the contract of a Bureau of Colonial Affairs inspector. They can figure out what’s going on and act as a third party that brings both factions to heel for Union, join BME and become a rising star in ISP-N by being part of the faction that led to the use of such ground breaking terraforming technology, or allow the Church of the All-Mother to release a new MONIST entity into the galaxy.

The Worldkiller, The Genghis' more fun brother, where the Genghis is all about having an absurd heatcap and not having to worry about stress, the Worldkiller is all about setting itself on fire. The Worldkiller also has a far greater focus on inflicting burn, since all burn damage it inflicts bypasses resistance, which still does nothing on immune enemies like Pyros but you let your teammates worry about those. The Worldkillers main gimmick is the Furiosa, which sets yourself on fire and gives you soft cover and disables reactions for anyone other than you. This is great if your close range but if you want to be a long range Worldkiller you can also make good use of this talent for the soft cover, you can even hide in it!

And the Core Power just makes the Furiosa better, and it gives you a real cool risky option to use, which is when you take stress you violently explode and immoblize anyone within your now burst 2 radius furiosa. It is a hull save unfortunately, but you make that burst 2 area difficult terrain for the rest of the scene which you completley ignore as you will already have you core power active. Purposely taking stress to cause harm to a burst 2 area is an awesome idea, I love it. Now onto the build:

» Worldkiller // WORLDKILLER «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Vanguard 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3,

Combined Arms 2, Field Analyst 1

[ LICENSES ]

HA Genghis 3, HA Tokugawa 3

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Stasis Shielding, Adaptive Reactor

[ MECH ]

« WORLDKILLER »

HA “Worldkiller” Genghis Mk I

H:4 A:2 S:0 E:2 SIZE:2

STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:3

STRESS:4 HEAT:10 REPAIR:6

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:-2 LTD BONUS:1

SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENS:5 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

INTEGRATED MOUNT: Fuel Rod Gun

Main Mount: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING

Main Mount: Annihilator

Heavy Mount: Plasma Thrower

[ SYSTEMS ]

Explosive Vents, Plasma Gauntlet,

Deep Well Heat Sink

This Build is made to get me into the danger zone and to incinerate as much as possible, burn every enemy (other than pyros obviously) to the ground. Deep Well Heat Sink allows this mech to not need to stabilize as often and stay in the danger zone, explosive vents to burn anyone around me when I stabilize, and Plasma Gauntlet because who doesnt love socking an enemy in the face so hard that they explode alongside your entire arm?

With my Core Powers I gain resistance to stress and can repair my stress for when I play too recklessly. And my traits are pretty standard, combined arms since I want to be up close and personal, so no difficulty, Vanguard to make close range attacks with my CQB's more effective, and Nuc Cav for more damage and a tool for slightly reducing my heat. I really only took Field Analyst for a decent reaction, why not? +1 to an ally's attack roll is a nice little thing I can do, could also go empath or something similar if I wanted to. Of course for weaponry I had to go the plasma caster, and why not use the annihilator? Fuck it, we ball, if enemies are clumped up I can get some bonus free attacks and I want to be gaining heat.

This is another variant frame that I really like, taking the safety of the Genghis and instead making it a very reckless pyromaniac was a great idea, this is just a really cool frame, I love it.

To the locals, she's a fierce freedom fighter. To the Karrakin Barons, she's a vicious terrorist. To Union representatives, she's a massive headache.
Paiti Hae-Jin (callsign "Orca") is, in reality, a pirate. Not a space pirate, mind you, but an old-fashioned, saltwater-sailing pirate.

She's never even left her home planet: an ocean world scattered with thousands of islands of every shape and size, none large enough to qualify as continental landmass. To the wealthy, it's a paradise of sunny beaches and crystal waters, a premier holiday destination for nobles and high-ranking corporate officials seeking a little rest and relaxation.

To Orca and the crew of the Deep Shadow, a 232-meter-long stealth submarine, it's a hunting ground. From the depths of the ocean, Orca preys on luxury yachts and privileged tourist.

Of course, a pirate needs more than a good ship and a willing crew. She needs somewhere to hide, and there's no better refuge than a population that considers you a hero. Orca has cultivated her reputation as a champion of the downtrodden, taking from the wealthy and occasionally redistributing enough of the proceeds to keep the locals in her corner.

Her mech is nautical variant of the SSC Monarch. May look different but works exactly the same, aside from missiles sometimes being called torpedoes.

The Hecatoncheires is probably one of my favorite variant frames of the bunch, it has such a different style and role as the balor and has multiple different build paths to go down. Unlike the Balor who is slow hard to kill monster, the Hecatoncheires is a Predator who wants to strike from the shadows an remain unseen. With a +2 difficulty inside softcover and being given a free invincible hive drone that does burn damage (at the small cost of being a burst 1 instead of burst 2) means that you are essentially always under the effects of hard cover and can always hide. Speaking of Always Hiding, the Hecatonch can hide Regardless of Engagement!

If you really wanted to you could grab Blackbeard 1 for SMN, grapple an enemy and move them inside your razor swarm then Hiding. The enemy cant target you unless they have aoe because you are hidden and I dont see anything in the rules that states that hidden breaks grapple and grapple breaks hidden, normally the ENGAGED status would do so but Hecatonch doesnt care about that. But the enemy could always just win the Hull Check and drag you out into the open so its not the most solid strategy, but you could do it lol.

And for the final trait of the Hecatoch is that it's Smart weapons ignore invisibility so if the team is struggling with invisible enemies or if you know they will be some in the sitrep, just slap on the nanocomp mod if you arent using it to make invisible enemies cry.

And the Core power is very good, It is Efficient and lets you deal 4 Burn to every enemy in an area created by your drones, and this works with all drones, so drones that have a burst radius like the Sentinel Drone, Utility Drone, and of Course the Hive Drone, are all very useful tools to be able to apply large scale burn.

Overall the Hecatoncheires is a very good frame, able to control the battlefield or provide support with its drones, hack with its decent sensors and tech attack, Make excellent use of infiltrator to disable enemies, it can grapple and perform melee, its just a super versatile mech. Its more into the "Guerilla Warfare" and "Stealthy" vibe than big and tanky vibes, so you dont want to get hit in this mech. Now onto the Build:

» Hecatoncheires // HECATONCHEIRES «

LL6

[ TALENTS ]

Drone Commander 3, Infiltrator 3,

Nuclear Cavalier 3

[ LICENSES ]

HORUS Balor 2, HA Sherman 1,

HORUS Hydra 1, HA Genghis 2

[ CORE BONUSES ]

Universal Compatibility, Heatfall Coolant System

[ MECH ]

« HECATONCHEIRES »

HORUS Hecatoncheires

H:3 A:0 S:2 E:3 SIZE:0.5

STRUCTURE:4 HP:15 ARMOR:0

STRESS:4 HEAT:8 REPAIR:4

ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:3 LTD BONUS:1

SPD:5 EVA:10 EDEF:12 SENS:10 SAVE:13

[ WEAPONS ]

INTEGRATED MOUNT: Fuel Rod Gun

Main Mount: SOL-Pattern Laser Rifle

Heavy Mount: Krakatoa Thermobaric Flamethrower (Nanocomposite Adaptation)

[ SYSTEMS ]

Hive Drone, Hive Drone,

PUPPETMASTER, Auto-Cooler

Now with this Build makes use of Superior By Design and Autocooler to give it the actions necessary to deploy and move 3 drones at a time. While I wont be overcharging every turn having the overcharge option always available to get that action when I need it is really nice. And since I can almost always hide I can activate autocooler, move some drones around, lock on, bolster, invade with fragment signal, etc. and then hide. With the +2 difficulty on top of hiding Im willing to risk letting autocooler do its job rather than stabilizing.

Even better when I come out of hide by attacking I can flashbang and send enemies reeling on hit, to just cause further impairment and suffering. Flamethrower is for even more burn damage and the SOL rifle is for some longer range, I could go for the classic GMS assault rifle but I feel like the SOL is more thematically fitting, after all what is a Predator without a Plasma Caster? Nanocomp goes on flamehrower because its cool and thematically fitting to shoot a swarm of nanites at a mech instead of using traditional fire or plasma, and it allows me to make use of Panoptes Targeting.

2 Hive Drones gives plenty of soft cover to my allies and gives me more than enough room with my Razor Swarm to maximize my Core Power's damage, that's 43 total spaces of potential burn. And of course Puppermaster lets me control and get the drones in position much easier, and I can also move enemy drones which is always sweet.

For the Talents it was easy, drone commander for drone HP and control, and I can give my drones and allies 4 overshield and deal some damage if I line things up. Infiltrator for moving while hidden and debilitating enemies, walk adjacent, attack and send reeling, then flashbomb to blind and move away. And Nuc Cav to do more damage, might as well make use of my heatcap for more damage, give me more of a reason to overcharge!

Now I know the 3 split of HULL and ENGINEERING is Hideous, but consider this: There is No Way in Hell Im having an Odd Heatcap. Having an Odd Heatcap bothers me and I will always try to avoid it, Yeah I lose out on +2HP and +1 Repair Cap, but Im just not having an odd heatcap, plus 8 is safer than 7 if I happen to roll a 6 on the Overcharge. But its mostly the odd heatcap thing, especially if im using Nuc Cav or Deep Well Heat Sinks or anything else that makes use of the danger zone. I could sacrifice the AGILITY but I like having 10 Evasion and the extra movement speed, its nice to have some better movement and being harder to hit as a guerilla warfare mech.

Despite being the big reason to get ll3 zheng the fact that it gives you slowed when charged means you can't use tenacity. I feel like almost any other melee frame with a heavy slot is a better pick to run the DD288 than the zheng is. Blackbeard can grapple to an enemy and charge, metalmark has 5 speed and turns the soft cover into +2 difficulty and the vlad can immobilize enemies easily (redundant to take on the vlad imo given it already gets the drill but whatever) am I missing something or is it just an incentive for pilots of other frames to invest into the license?

It prevents all actions that are unspecified, and stabilize isn’t on that list(or in any errata). Wouldn’t you just be slowly stressing out unable to clear heat? And do non tech action buffs/debuffs still affect you like utility drone?

Title. I was thinking on this because, like, to my mind, it's pretty obvious that deploying a turret drone and a sentinel drone on the same turn is kosher under standard action restrictions, but I'm not sure about deploying a sentinel drone and then another sentinel drone. If they're two separate systems, does each deploy count as a distinct action, or is it viewed as doing the same thing twice?

I'm about to run a series of missions set during a heavily homebrewed version of the Karrakin Trade Barony Company Games. It will take place during the events of the first Games where the House of Promise (HoP) have been allowed to send a team -- the players.

As such, I've had to do some good old fashioned world-building around the HoP and it's home world, San Simeon. I came up with a pretty stong set of House Words based on their rising sun symbology, "After Night, Always Dawn." But I needed somewhere from them to come from diegetically.

Then I thought about the name of HoP's home world. San is Spanish for saint or holy. In our real world, cities like San Francisco, San Diego and San Antonio are literally named after respective saints. There's even a Saint Simeon!

Unfortunately, Saint Simeon is pretty much known for being a hermit -- which does kinda line up with the distance San Simeon is from the rest of Karrakin space. But I felt and still feel that its quite strange for a planet thousands of years in the future and hundreds of lightyears away to be named after a niche, largely unknown Chrisitan saint. It'd be like if we named a new country today after a Babylonian king.

So I made my own Saint Simeon. One who represents HoP's fighting spirit and republican temperament. And wrote his story into an anthem/poem, one which neatly includes what would become the HoP's House words; "After Night, Always Dawn."

I could have gotten closer to the design shown by using different arms and legs but I wanted to make a Jegan

And have it be fair, Obviously. Frankly, I think using the system for mecha outside of the Lancer setting would be cool.

Personally the two big ones I would want to play are the Geno Breaker and Gojulas, but also in general.

Who doesn't love an extra free weapon shot per round? Sure it's at 2 Difficulty but that can be mitigated via Reliable or other methods. So I ask, what's your favorite Weapon or Build the utilized Uncle?