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It's not as cool as the stuff on retrograde or the many talented lancer artists out there but I made my own set of lancer NPCs and as a lurker of this thread wanted to share some of them and see what goons think of these cartoony iterations. Here's the collage: they're all on roll20 now as a token set now if you like 'em. They're the result of a lancer game I ran which I'm trying to turn into an actual adventure module but making a book is a lot harder than making a lot of lil' guys. I just have this intense need to make assets for games I run and in the end made a token for everything.
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Feb 9, 2024 22:13
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I think I hosed up. I TPK'd my players in the first mission of Solstice Rain, in the final combat. They just didn't have any coordination or the right loadout to handle Downpour.
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Feb 10, 2024 17:23
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Fivemarks posted:I think I hosed up. I TPK'd my players in the first mission of Solstice Rain, in the final combat. They just didn't have any coordination or the right loadout to handle Downpour. Sounds like they need to figure out how to coordinate!
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Feb 10, 2024 17:29
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What'd they do, not bring enough HMGs?
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Feb 10, 2024 19:11
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Fivemarks posted:I think I hosed up. I TPK'd my players in the first mission of Solstice Rain, in the final combat. They just didn't have any coordination or the right loadout to handle Downpour. Can you go into more details about it? I'm starting as a GM new to the system and we're doing Solstice Rain to start.
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Feb 10, 2024 19:44
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Does anyone have any experience on the foundry module for lancer? Getting the itch to run again but ugh roll20 was jank
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Feb 11, 2024 07:00
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Our Wallflower campaign just reached REGRET tonight. 
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Feb 11, 2024 08:21
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Kitfox88 posted:Does anyone have any experience on the foundry module for lancer? Getting the itch to run again but ugh roll20 was jank as a player, it was pretty incredible. only complaint was it had some issues with synching pilot data but that was a while ago and i know it's been updated a lot since
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Feb 11, 2024 18:26
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I AM THE MOON posted:as a player, it was pretty incredible. only complaint was it had some issues with synching pilot data but that was a while ago and i know it's been updated a lot since Thanks, I'll bug my friend for their foundry license to give it a whirl 
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Feb 11, 2024 20:50
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Well, they managed to kind of avoid ultradeath. They did get ownzoned though when one of them fired the Cyclone Pulse Rifle into a Ronin, which rolled a 6 on Rebound and then the player rolled max damage on themselves.
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Feb 12, 2024 06:59
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Ledgem posted:It's not as cool as the stuff on retrograde or the many talented lancer artists out there but I made my own set of lancer NPCs and as a lurker of this thread wanted to share some of them and see what goons think of these cartoony iterations. Here's the collage: I will most likely never have a reason to use them but I love them all 
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Feb 12, 2024 13:25
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Ledgem posted:It's not as cool as the stuff on retrograde or the many talented lancer artists out there but I made my own set of lancer NPCs and as a lurker of this thread wanted to share some of them and see what goons think of these cartoony iterations. Here's the collage: These are super cool! I think the style will fit real well for a mission briefing or the like. Kitfox88 posted:Thanks, I'll bug my friend for their foundry license to give it a whirl Keep in mind you need an older version of Foundry for the Lancer module, so make sure you install Foundry v10 instead of v11.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:06
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Comin' in hot
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Feb 15, 2024 13:37
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McKilligan posted:Comin' in hot
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Feb 15, 2024 14:38
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McKilligan posted:Comin' in hot girl dick energy posted:Someone please tell them they both can and should outline text when it's black-on-gray so people can actually read it.
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Feb 15, 2024 16:02
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girl dick energy posted:Someone please tell them they both can and should outline text when it's black-on-gray so people can actually read it. It's transparent
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Feb 15, 2024 16:27
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kaffo posted:Likewise, I jusd started reading this thread and I've seen a few of these posted. The art is cool, but I have literally no idea what the rest of the marketing means. What is +1 membership? What's legendary membership? What's the chop shop? Is it a colour coded key? I'm not sure! Sorry, I've been doing this for so like that I just assumed that everyone was already familiar. I'll explain! I think I'll revise how I handle the update images from now on and provide more of a primer at the top. RetrogradeMinis.com is the website! We're a team of 2, I do all the art, my partner handles the code. We started as a DnD pixel-art site, but these days we mostly do Lancer related content. There are a 3 membership tiers - Free, +1, and Legendary. I usually color-code the update images to show what's what - the MO&S Phoenix is Free, so it's title card is red & white. Last update's BDF Khanda is Legendary exclusive, so it's title text is purple. They're both homebrewed, third-party mechs, from the Field Guide to Liminal Space and the BDF PDF respectively. The website is linked with Patreon, and there are 3 membership tiers: Free This is most of the stuff! You can render any units you want with the Print button in the corner, which will export a PDF or a sheet to an actual printer. All Lancer content from the core books and expansions are free, as well as any community created assets. All the mechs in the core book and expansions, as well as all of the NPCs can be printed off the site as a PDF or on actual paper. As for the community content, that's the Chop Shop. Tons of players have kitbashed or just colored their own mechs and submitted them to the site, and we put all of those in the chop shop. There are literally thousands of them at this point, free for anyone to use in their game. That's what the big mess of mechs on the bottom of the update represents. There's also a shitload of fully-customized NPC Factions that can be downloaded en masse, so you can have mooks with a unified aesthetic. +1, $1/mo A few features are locked behind +1, namely direct PNG export, which just directly exports the mech with the options you've selected. There are also some visual options such as alternate heads, weapons, etc, and the full list of camo options for the NPCs. Most people get this just for the export function. Legendary, $5/mo Legendary is full access to everything on the site, as well as .ZIP export, which exports ALL of a mech's options as individual images. This is useful if you like to heavily customize your stuff. There's a bunch of mechs (and some fantasy stuff) that are Legendary exclusive. McKilligan fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 15, 2024 16:35
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McKilligan posted:Sorry, I've been doing this for so like that I just assumed that everyone was already familiar. I'll explain! I think I'll revise how I handle the update images from now on and provide more of a primer at the top. The art is great, keep up the good work!
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Feb 15, 2024 17:29
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RetrogradeMinis is fantastic by the way, our GM has a subscription and honestly it's so enjoined with Lancer in my head at this point I don't think I could play Lancer without using RGM sprites for everything.
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Feb 15, 2024 17:30
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FlocksOfMice posted:RetrogradeMinis is fantastic by the way, our GM has a subscription and honestly it's so enjoined with Lancer in my head at this point I don't think I could play Lancer without using RGM sprites for everything. Absolutely worth every penny at the Legendary tier, being able to export an entire set of NPCs in a new camo scheme in seconds has never been easier
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Feb 15, 2024 17:46
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McKilligan posted:There's also a shitload of fully-customized NPC Factions that can be downloaded en masse, so you can have mooks with a unified aesthetic. Just had one question - I downloaded some of the Operation Solstice Rain faction packs but how do I set them up for printing? The files inside look like they're primed for VTT use, but we're on a physical table. I figured I can Photoshop my around it if needed, but if there's a better way it would save a lot of time.
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Feb 15, 2024 17:53
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Amechwarrior posted:I've just started a campaign and my players loved the paper stands. I linked them to your site so they could make their own Everests for next week. Thanks for this amazing resource! Yeah, I'm afraid the faction packs are mostly optimized for VTT, so you'd need to organize them on an A4 canvas yourself if you want to print them. Don't forget to flip 'em vertically so you can have two-sided tokens.
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Feb 16, 2024 02:20
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Amechwarrior posted:I downloaded some of the Operation Solstice Rain faction packs but how do I set them up for printing? McKilligan posted:Yeah, I'm afraid the faction packs are mostly optimized for VTT, so you'd need to organize them on an A4 canvas yourself if you want to print them. Don't forget to flip 'em vertically so you can have two-sided tokens. So what I did was set my editor to a 8.5x11in canvas, took a snapshot of a normal Retrograde print of the same paper size and over laid it. I traced the 3x standard size cut boxes, then inserted the needed OSR units in normal and vertical inverted. Printed out the first combat's worth and should be able to build the rest over the next few weeks. If anyone is interested in the files, quote this post or send a PM. As for Retrograde printing output - No idea how hard of an ask this is, but I wish it could print more than 3 per page. Either putting 4 in a row and printing closer to the edges or putting one sideways along the bottom. There's a lot of wasted paper with just 3 tokens per page (8.5x11 US printed in landscape).
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Feb 17, 2024 00:48
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Amechwarrior posted:So what I did was set my editor to a 8.5x11in canvas, took a snapshot of a normal Retrograde print of the same paper size and over laid it. I traced the 3x standard size cut boxes, then inserted the needed OSR units in normal and vertical inverted. Printed out the first combat's worth and should be able to build the rest over the next few weeks. Yeah the factions are just submitted as a zip by the user that created it so no control over the formats used. And the printing started out with our original 150px fantasy tokens, but now the mechs all start at 250px and just go up from there, so it is not nearly as efficient as it used to be for printing. You could try adjusting the scale on the print page options, can fit 6 250px guys on there in that case. However, the quality may suffer.
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Feb 17, 2024 01:33
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Gildiss posted:And the printing started out with our original 150px fantasy tokens, but now the mechs all start at 250px and just go up from there, so it is not nearly as efficient as it used to be for printing. Oh, I never considered I might be printing them at the incorrect scale. I was wondering why the square felt so big on my battlemat (1 in hex flat-to-flat) and had trimmed off the whitespace along the sides of my size 1 units. It's great for size 2 as it though. I noticed size 2 fills be box pretty well so I thought that was why it was that size/scale. For Battletech maps (1.25in hexes) it's not as much of a problem. For the rest of my OSR prints, I'll just cram as many as can fit on a page.
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Feb 17, 2024 02:56
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I've been making my NPC minis using JP Coovert's method and that seems to be going real well. I have templates made up in GIMP that I just paste Retrograde mini files in, takes me maybe 1-2 minutes per. I can post my templates and some instructions when I get home if you'd like.
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Feb 19, 2024 01:38
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bbcisdabomb posted:I've been making my NPC minis using JP Coovert's method and that seems to be going real well. I have templates made up in GIMP that I just paste Retrograde mini files in, takes me maybe 1-2 minutes per. I wrote one last week to take over 700 256x256 2d texture files and turn then into foundry compatible hexagons. Otherwise it would have taken me like 20 seconds a file and I think I'd still be doing it now lol.
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Feb 19, 2024 09:00
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So our playergroup is just two PCs, but with 2 NPC non-lancer mechs for back-up for most combats right now. I'm using a Hydra, and the other pilot is in an Enkidu, and it's been a really fun/funny combo. I drop tempest drones onto enemy groups, and toss them into the Enkidu for slaughter. It's basically I'm running a bunch of flushing hounds herding the targets into the kill hound. I've had some poor luck with a target immune to forced movement and a lot (like easily half) of the hull saves against my drones rolling a 14 (exactly a 14 every time a 14 i have come to hate the number). But so far it's been pretty great, letting the Enkidu keep most of the battlefield shut down while I hunt around with my ghast nexus drone while still in safe cover. Ghast drone has been disgusting, having effectively 20 range has been really useful for shooting down targets. So far I have Hacker I to force-move targets, but I'm kind of stuck on what I want for my other LLs. I don't think I am going to get much utility out of Hydra III. I know Goblin I is somewhat redundant with Hacker I, but SNOW_CRASH is a reaction to a tech attack that consumes lock-on and Puppet System is an invade option, so I think they can stack for extra forced enemy movement? Goblin II's False Idol also seems pretty good for my current role of staying in the back and providing control/defense-through-an-exhorbitant-number-of-drones. I'd like an NHP just for flavor at some point and Goblin's seems neat? But this is my first time playing Lancer. I'm tempted to just scoop up every drone I can, instead, rather, but I worry I'm missing out by not hitting some of the LL3 gear at some point? But the expanded action economy from 100 drones has been great.
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Feb 20, 2024 04:13
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If you want control, Hacker 1 is incomparable to horOS1; the former requires two actions (somebody must Lock On) and the forced movement is entirely voluntary, whereas Puppet Systems is mandatory On Hit, triggers Overwatch, and the second option Eject Power Cores trades your one QA for most enemies' entire ability to do damage for the turn. And then next LL you can pick up horOS2 which is kinda busted. What I'll recommend though is to be mindful of your Action Economy. You typically only get two actions per turn since Overcharge is limited (particularly if you're building for SYS rather than ENGI) and already have 3 things you want to be doing every turn as a hacking Hydra between teching, shooting heavy mount, and deploying/redeploying drones, nevermind room for utility like Boosting or Stabilizing or Drone Commander 3 chain shielding. Personally, for Hydra I wouldn't run any SYS (all in on HULL and ENGI baby) and if I wanted control I'd instead focus on Saves and automatic effects. horOS1: Puppet Systems is an autohit on allies and can be used to propel your Enkidu friend. horOS2: False Idol paired with Lesson of the Open Door is a great example of something you can pop off once in the fight in a good spot and will keep on annoying enemies for multiple rounds. Beckoner: Summon from Manticore 1 can be used to force enemies to bounce off Tempest Drones for funsies. If you're being fed Lock Ons by your NPC allies, you could grab Stormbringer 1 and an Overpower Caliber Gandiva off Monarch 2 and add control to your heavy mount Skirmish plus synergy with Drone Commander 2 if you have your OROCHI running about.
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Feb 20, 2024 05:40
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I finally got to start my table's Lancer campaign. We managed to get through OSR mission 1, along with about an hour of RP at the start, all in 4h45m. Does that sound like about right or are we a bit slow? The turns picked up in pace after a few rounds when they got a better grasp of their basics. They really didn't work together for the first two turns and they realized they needed to focus down targets after seeing the wave of NPCs nearing the Holdout Zone. They managed to pull out the win after coming together to overheat+lock+HMG the Bastion with a critical hit that turned the tide of battle. Our chomolungma player also popped his core at the perfect place to hack everyone. They ended up with like 3 turret drones deployed and those served to just dog pile one target with 9 damage after whatever the triggering attack hit. I'm going to need to print more blue force turret drones. I did take it easy on them in only deploying the Bombard in Round 5 and deployed the Pyro early, but really far away. I think they'll learn they need to ration their limited use stuff as we go into fights 2 and 3 before they can full repair. I feel like that last battle is going to be running on zero repairs left at the rate they're going. But it's everyone's first time playing, even for me. Overall we had fun and they came away with a basic grasp of what is effective. Next session I'll play a little smarter with enemy activations and focus. The GM screen and status tabs I posted here were really useful. I almost ran out of "Danger Zone" after the core pop mass-hacking. We even used a Bolster tab! It failed to clear the burn though...
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Feb 20, 2024 06:00
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"i cant tell whats even happening anymore" doesnt look like anything to me
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Feb 20, 2024 07:05
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Well, a fun little idea i had got wildly out of control, and now i have this: an Operation: Winter Scar team built out in medium-sized plastic robot kitbashes. Individual pics and build notes in the gallery.
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Feb 23, 2024 06:13
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Ceebees posted:Well, a fun little idea i had got wildly out of control, and now i have this: an Operation: Winter Scar team built out in medium-sized plastic robot kitbashes. These are fantastic.
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Feb 23, 2024 07:31
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Amechwarrior posted:I finally got to start my table's Lancer campaign. We managed to get through OSR mission 1, along with about an hour of RP at the start, all in 4h45m. Does that sound like about right or are we a bit slow? The turns picked up in pace after a few rounds when they got a better grasp of their basics. It took my group 8 Weeks.
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Feb 23, 2024 15:38
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I just ran a one shot for my friends and I was impressed with Lancer! I had fun setting up the encounter (on Foundry) and it was one of the rare TTRPGs I've played where I explained the rules once and everyone understood and just got on with playing. By the end of our 4ish hour game people were taking speedy turns and were excited to be doing stuff in combat, which is exactly what I hoped for. I'm considering a short campaign, but I had some questions. In my little one shot I felt the PCs had a lot of health. Obviously in a proper mission they'd have multiple mech combat scenes and their resources (looking at your repair kits) would be split over those, but I barely got into their first bar of structure. Was I just too easy on them or is it normal to chip away at their structure/stress over the mission? Also, how many of you impose a turn/time limit on missions? I noticed a lot of sit reps give a turn limit and I'm included to do that for future missions to give more of a sense of urgency.
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Feb 24, 2024 21:18
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kaffo posted:Also, how many of you impose a turn/time limit on missions? I noticed a lot of sit reps give a turn limit and I'm included to do that for future missions to give more of a sense of urgency.
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Feb 24, 2024 22:30
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While there's other resources the party could be spending to indirectly mitigate damage, such as core powers or burning through their reactors, the ideal Lancer mission is 2-4 sitreps long and you want the PCs coming into the last one if not a little beat up at least lean on spare Repairs, so you typically are looking to knock a couple points off party structure each combat to really make a dent there. For example, if I'm coming into the last fight of the mission in my Everest with full HP, 4 structure, 3 stress, OC capped at 1d6+4, all my Systems up maybe missing one weapon that soaked a Mount Loss result, 1 or 2 charges on my Limiteds and my CP still available, plus 1 Repair left in the tank, I'd think I am in tip top fighting shape. And remember that both lore-wise and mechanically mechs are effectively disposable, so in the above example I'd be pushing my frame even harder knowing it's the last leg of the mission; I paid for the whole mech so you bet I'm using the whole damned mech. Sitreps with timers aren't mandatory but always recommended, since it places an estimate on how long combat will take to play out regardless of dice luck, encourages the PCs to pursue approaches other than optimizing for deathmatch, and allows the GM to get funky with opfor numbers or capabilities if wiping them off the board isn't the player's win condition.
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Feb 24, 2024 22:40
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Talkie Toaster posted:The game really needs turn limits and objectives. I played in a campaign where the GM kept setting “kill everything, no limit” missions and it made half our abilities pointless, as the best play was generally chipping away from long range whilst exposing yourself to as little risk as possible. This really screwed mechs like the Tortuga, as it’s slow and short ranged, but gets by because it’s designed to take and hold objectives. If you can just run away indefinitely and plink until it’s dead, *then* cap the point, well that makes more sense than running into a Vanguard 3 Decksweeper. Yeah, for my scenario I had them blow up a building rather than "kill everything". Although I think I made a mistake not introducing a round limit. Conspiratiorist posted:While there's other resources the party could be spending to indirectly mitigate damage, such as core powers or burning through their reactors, the ideal Lancer mission is 2-4 sitreps long and you want the PCs coming into the last one if not a little beat up at least lean on spare Repairs, so you typically are looking to knock a couple points off party structure each combat to really make a dent there. I honestly found the process of putting together the combat scene really relaxing, so I'd be plenty happy to put in 2 to 4 a mission assuming they don't take literally years to run
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Feb 24, 2024 23:37
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Time limits in combat are great, but defense targets or other complications work really well too. I got really attached to a local defense forces NPC who lost her entire squad in a sniper attack, so while we didn't necessarily have a time limit on the sniper hunt mission, there was a huge tension of "we have a traumatized NPC mech and enemies in hiding everywhere and I really don't want her to get killed too." In another mission, we were guarding a check-point with a huge traffic jam of trucks going through customs. Oops, they were smuggling mechs through customs and worried about getting caught they all started to go online and just tried to rush our checkpoint. With a gigantic civilian crowd around them, limiting our options unless we were willing to inflict civilian casualties ourselves. And then 1/2 sized mechs in the crowd came out and started shooting into the crowd, and then it was a rush to mitigate civilian casualties and while we won that combat with both of us losing like 2 structure each, the real loss was we were not able to stop a lot of noncombatant deaths and an ensuing panic crowd-crush. There was even a moment in the checkpoint battle where I could have dropped a tempest drone on several enemies at once, but it would have also hit a truck full of chickens, and like, I could not bring myself to risk killing hundreds of chickens as collateral so I made a less optimal combat choice. YMMV with players' willingness to hurt imaginary people and animals, of course. Our GM also likes to have staggered enemy reinforcements, so we have usually 1 or 2 rounds before even more enemies show up, and it usually happens several times, so if we lollygag around and don't take out the first threats fast, we're at risk of being completely overwhelmed. If we rush it without a plan, though, we get caught out of formation and risk getting split up and picked off individually.
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Feb 24, 2024 23:56
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| # ? May 5, 2024 17:27 |
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Well, my Wallflower group finally got to the fight with the giant Enkidu tonight. It… honestly wound up being a bit underwhelming, since our tech specialist piloting a Chomolungma wound up making the big boss go into total meltdown in just the first 2 turns. And the guy on our team who’s made a point of trying to capture every enemy pilot we can had to deal with the double whammy of being said boss’s punching bag for most of it and had to be the first one to see his corpse afterwards.
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Feb 25, 2024 07:13
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