>>97849369
Monocoques aren’t real and can’t hurt you

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>>97849369
>TQ
Internal frames 'cause they're cool.

>>97849369
Both. A modular internal frame that additional equipment can be attached to.
This simplifies modification, repair, and enhancement.

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any gun nerds here can tell me how feasible would be for a modern-day level tech world to have mechs using Caseless ammunition as their base ammo? Ignore the mech being the difficult part, I'm currently asking about their ammunition

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>>97849369
>TQ
The mechs in my setting have modular part combination building like Armored Core, but their movement and power mostly comes from their internal skeleton, which there are only a few basic types that are compatible with nearly every part by basically covering it, with the parts themselves improving or tweaking the skeleton/frame's movement in specific ways. The skeleton moves by telekinetic magic and its the only part of the mech that moves using that, everything else is normal tech.

This greatly cheapens and facilitates mech construction and its *why* they're bipedal humanoids - the skeleton frame is most efficient when imitating the pilot, so they end up being humanoid robots. Pilots can then mix and match the body parts to match their needs, with practically every part fitting the internal frame and cockpit from the get-go

I made some (shitty) drawings for the parts document, the green thing is kind of like an X-Ray scan of the skeleton frame's "influence" (though they tend to be quite form fitting), and I put the actual full models on top.

Funnily enough, there are tank threads, and the way they work is that they basically make the skeleton "pedal" inside the armor case.

>>97851217
Development of careless ammo stalled before being able to solve the problem of removing the waste heat that the cartridge case would normally carry, so they overheat much faster than cased rounds.

Lancehounds Anon, do you have a character sheet floating around somewhere?
I'm going to be running it for my group soon.

>>97852191
I do not - but as thanks for giving my game a try, check the Mega. In there is the 0.9.6 version which has a lot more stuff in it.

>>97852223
Sweet, thanks man! I've been looking forward to the next update.

>>97852241
Be warned that it's still incomplete, there's more shit I want to put in, like outright rules for building a base/fortification at some point.

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>>97849369
>TQ
I generally prefer internal frame, since that makes more engineering sense to me, but one of the PC mechs in my current campaign is actually a sentient microbot swarm that merely pretends to be a mech. So I'm fine with discrete Voltron blocks, shapeshifting T-1000 fluid, and whatever else might look cool.

>>97851291
I like that art, anon. Good work.

I finished GMing a Lancer game out to LL9 over the course of about a year, it was enjoyable but started dragging on near the end with how powerful everything got and how much you need to throw at players.
The system is fun with how tactical it is and players deciding their turn orders and strategies, but action denial is super strong and very prevalent, especially on the player end with the Goblin line, being able to control enemies with Duat without any opposing saves is pretty nuts and one of my guys just specced into overcharging/tech attacks and shit out two of those per turn every turn. On the other hand if players roll bad on their structure checks they just asplode and lose everything (or get stunned and then take another structure anyway), the equivalent of deleting like 8 repair caps just to get them back in decent condition.
Some wording on the rulebook made some things weird and inconsistent as well, like how heat isn't considered damage or harm, so unless something specifically says "Resists Heat", you take full damage even if you have abilities that say you resist all damage (and some NPC abilities obviously read like they resist everything, but specify damage instead of plus heat)
A fun time overall though despite some frustrations, I would not recommend you play the system with rules lawyers if you can help it.

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>>97853725
any pitfalls you encountered you might recommend avoiding? my lancer game is at LL3 rn but I project we'll be going to LL9 or 10 and the massive scaling on the players side concerns me in the long run. one of my players is a rules lawyer unfortunately v_v

>>97853813
For sure vary your sitreps, dont just throw straight combat encounters at your players. Lancer Combat Enhanced is a good splatbook for getting ideas, let your fast guys shine with escort/point capture missions, let your beefy guys shine with defense missions, invent random stuff for players to do, have emergencies pop up mid-mission, make some cool setpieces based on your favorite niche super robot series.
NPCs Rebaked is almost necessary imo for higher level play, it rebalances all of the base NPC classes and templates and makes them a lot easier to run and play/ fight against, it nerfs overly cheesy shit that players hate (Ace in general, Ultras getting free debuff clears) and buffs weak abilities and classes.

Why does /m/ suck now? It used to have plenty of robot and spaceship discussions. Now it's just gooners and shitposts. Nobody even discusses shows any more.

>>97849369
Any word on the ac6 fan translation yet?

>>97857000
The janis quit and a mod is doing ALL of the work while doing the barely doing anything. Also Hiro has been missing in action for months now.

>>97851217
caseless rounds are technically feasible but no one is willing to invest time and money into it when no major military is going to shell out such an incredibly expensive contract in the first place
stopgaps like telescoped rounds are seeing more interest, which are still cased but with the bullet embedded in the propellant like a caseless round
so you get a more well-rounded compromise between the benefits and weaknesses

a mech might want to use caseless rounds just so that people working near it arent crushed to death by trashbin sized shell casings, if you are talking about gundam-sized mechs (gundam even had that exact situation occur)
having to lift giant cases of ammo 5m into the air to reload might also be a reason to switch to caseless rounds, since the same number of rounds would be easier to hoist into the air

the main issue is fragility, the heat issue mentioned >>97852053 was actually solved using a heat-insensitive propellant
but the lack of a metal case means ammo seperation is possible if you whack the gun too many times, although the square-shaped rounds helped prevent this by allowing them to stack perfectly while also decreasing wasted volume

>>97857668
if an industry were to be made for it with caseless ammo as the goal from the start, with tech levels similar to ours in regards to materials, would it be a much better alternative? Fragility could indeed be the main issue if the mech is very agile and gets impacted a lot I think

There any good mecha RPGs for solo play? I can’t really garner interest for it with multiple people in earnest, but I’d like to at least experience it a bit.

Started working on a mech system, 40 pages in so far, mech customization is mostly done for now, 1440 combinations between heads, frames and legs with I think enough mechanical relevance to each, plus weapons on top of it which i have like 60 (tho, its slot based with 5 types of slots, so you cannot put any weapon on any part, they need to be compatible)

Did a silly "slottable cards" thing for the parts, like, each part can be printed as a card and the character sheet has space to cut 4 lines where the corners should be so you can slot the cards directly into the sheet, so, you can customize the mech and change parts with stored ones or your alies super fast and without having to consult the manual or having to erase and rewrite stuff (besides weapons)

Have some very simple systems for dealing with the hangar and hangar crew, think i have most of my ideas for combat written down (just need to explain them), have done some fun stuff around the character sheet like it presenting as a folded up "Pilot's personnel file and mech schematics", did some stuff around body augments for pilots, and I'm starting work on a base setting (tho, a simple one)

One thing that has me a bit nervous is that I'm my original feverdream plan for it, i had combat and non combat stuff using 2 different resolution systems that just use the same stats in different ways, the combat one being a quick 2d6 + stat as modifier, and the out of combat being a dicepool of the size of the stat which use basically use tu play farkle (it was a microsystem i had done like a year ago and never used because i couldn't fit it in a setting and tought i could recycle it here), and Im getting a bit insecure about the idea but I'll have to test it before settling or changing it

>>97849369
The torso has an endoskeleton, and the "frame part" is an exoskeleton mounted on top, to keep functionality of the arms if the frame part is heavily damaged, legs and heads are blocks (legs have a redundancy integrated)

>>97853813
>>97853725
most builds stop scaling around LL9 , i wouldn't call the late game issues 'scaling' , its more so typical epic tier bullshit. As for not playing with rules lawyers types i strongly disagree, cheese is a part of this big burrito. Ignoring hard rulings quickly gets you into playing a lancer-skinned 'lasers and feelings' i know its a bit alien to get called out by a player as a GM but GMs are prone to read half a tooltip and let their brain autofill the rest elsewise

>>97857830
if having to stop the inertia of billions of dollars already invested in a global supply chain wasnt an issue, then caseless rounds would absolutely be better on a 1:1 basis

the benefits of lighter ammo and more compact ammo would basically make every gun that used caseless rounds just that much better than an equivalent weight of standard ammo
most of the problems with it were in the process of, or already, solved in real life and it was mostly the draw down of the cold war and the associated funding that ended the G11
but in a world where people were able and willing to drop that amount of money, mass adoption would have started as soon as it could

>>97857834
I know it's /v/ and not /tg/ but modded x-com 2 can really scratch the tactical mecha itch. Modding in the shivs and mecs from 1, then building out teams of just those and sparks hits. Although I've never finished a game with that setup.

>>97859665
>not x-piratez

zephon ( 4x post apoc horror game ) scratches my itch pretty well, and it has fucking wizard math AI like lancer, uses the same font for its well written tool tips as comp//con too

>>97853725
I'm coming up on the end of my campaign. Aiming to wrap it up before summer ends.
What was your campaign about, anon? Same question for >>97853813 as well

>>97857834
I've never done solo play, but like, what kind of mecha experience are you looking for with it? Do you want the melodrama of Gundam, the angst of Evangelion, the military fiction of Battletech, the bombast of the Brave (GaoGaiGar) series?

>>97861849
First anon here, I ran my players through Wallflower and then kept going after with more player input, losely following the test document, they played a mercenary group. After the main story they went and took out a bunch of leftover robot marches, then went to assault St. Tellus, and old port town where the eastern continenet was resupplying Beggar. Landmark jumped into the system as the assault was happening and the players used a kill rod on the eastern continent's capital so Landmark couldn't hold onto it. They took St. Tellus and then went and blew up Landmark's landing ship since they were trying to re-take Evergreen (the players convinced the populace to rebel against the comapny).
The campaign ended with the ship blowing up and the players waiting for Union to come and do beuracracy to kick out Landmark for good, they didn't manage to figure out Landmark's actual plan to extract an Overmind though so Endeavor was kidnapped and extracted from the planet while they were blowing up the main ship. The eastern continent was pretty much neutered because their command center got nuked and another unshackled NHP showed up for like a minute to scream at the players and then run back.

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>>97851217
>>97852053
>>97857830
>>97858817

Most NATO 105mm and 120mm Cartridges are effectively caseless now as they only leave behind a case base and the attached igniter. So a mech using caseless ammo would be more or less natural. Don't confuse the failure for caseless ammo to be adopted in small arms with with difficulty applying it to large scale weaponry.

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>>97862667
interesting
the mechs in my game are a bit smaller, around 5-8m. My game has 4 major ammo categories that are basically
>Light ammo (20mm)
>Medium ammo (30mm)
>Large ammo (>60mm)
>Artillery (105mm and above)
and there's a treaty that forbids civilian mechs from using 60mm cartridges and above with semiautomatic/automatic weapons

I'd imagine none of these cartridges would have much of a problem being caseless, especially since in my setting mechs are a very modern invention. I'm mostly asking because cases dropping everywhere would be an environmental concern (they also use zinc/copper bullets) as the world got destroyed really hard in a war and there is a huge population deficit. The a treaty that set up a lot of the post-war general use of mech technology intended to reduce damage to the environment but also to use whatever would be most ideal from the get go and avoid industry deadlocks. So I'd imagine caseless ammo would be a good choice for mechs to use

>>97863008
>I'm mostly asking because cases dropping everywhere would be an environmental concern

Combustible cases (made of paper) with a small reusable metal case base w/ electric igniter would be viable if you don't want 20mm and 30mm brass cases being thrown around.

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>>97863170
we're going back to paper cartridges, boys.

I actually really like this and it fits really well with my setting too, thank you for your input!

>>97854188
>>97858637
This
Lancer is a wargame, not a ttrpg. You have to play it like you're playing a game of warhammer, with everyone arbitrating the rules and everything being clear and upfront, otherwise it'll invalidate a lot of what the game is built around. There's another thread up now in the catalog talking about why the narrative rules as written don't work, too.

>>97865512
i've had better luck roleplaying in the wargame mordheim than I have at any dnd table where peoples spergy expectations get in the way

>>97865525
For sure, wargame doesn't mean you can't RP, it just means you can't run Lancer like you'd run 5e

>>97865512
When I started thinking of Lancer this way, as a wargame with with visual novel segments in between skirmishes, it made a lot more sense. I really fucking hate that, but it's at least more coherent then I originally gave it credit for. I think it says a lot about the (fucking baffling) priorities of the devs that the combat works so well but it has very little backing it up.
Either way a DM worth his salt can make the narrative engaging. But then a good DM and good group could make a chess work as a ttrpg.

>>97865535
lancer has more non combat functionality than 4e launched with and 4e was serviceable outside of combat too

>>97865540
Lancer would be better with less narrative functionality imo. They try to take a hardline order-of-operations approach to freeform when less would be more.

>>97865540
I never played 4e. All my groups switched from 3 to pathfinder.

>>97865859
you missed out. i did enjoy pathfinder but mostly because of the people porting 3.5 stuff to the system IE tome of battle, psionics, incarnum . My playgroup had a blast with 4e and it was great for getting new people into the game compared to 3.5 - we had so many retarded high school peers in the 3.5 group who couldn't build a character, 4e really crushed the gap between skill floor and skill ceiling and desu the DM was tired of me using 3.5's simulationist reality engine against him . When 4e got canned that massive playgroup mostly switched to board gaming

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>>97865512
I wanted to GM a mecha campaign with my friends who only played 5e and CoC, and none of them wanted to learn a mecha-only wargamey system so I just took PF2E and reverse engineered it into armored core but you build pilots and mechs

it works and has fun things both on the pilot/RP side and the mech side of the game, but we're still on lower levels and I expect higher levels to become a shitshow because I don't have a game design degree or anything so I'm mostly building the system by feel

>>97866011
There's something special about that too because everyone knows it's homebrew and the expectation isn't that it'll be perfect. Honestly, the system doesn't matter all that much as long as your table all agrees on the kind of game you are playing and going for. It can sometimes get more challenging the longer you go, so my only advice there is start thinking about how the story progresses if the players don't intervene, and then use that as a sort of lighthouse to keep an end in sight so you don't play long enough to get to a point where you don't know what you're doing anymore. But pf2e rules are pretty solid mathematically so you have stuff to lean on that you can refluff to mecha

>>97866082
yeah fair, my players said they love it but they also said exactly what you said in that they don't mind if some things are rough or lead to funny/annoying parts. I, myself had to patch some stuff mid session sometimes.
I do have a plan for long term story/plot progression, but the table "gameloop" is super simple so it has worked fine so far. There are even intermission mechanics.

>>97865978
Honestly I might need to go back to 4e now that my brain has fully developed. I've seen a lot of comparisons between it and lancer which has slowly started to convince me. I think lancer is right on the cusp of being Good(tm) so maybe 4e fills in the gaps enough.

>>97866219
the thing that 4e has that its children dont have is breadth of content. Draw steel needs about 5 years to catch up/eclipse 4e. Lancer has deeper options for player characters ( with expanded content which pretty much only my table uses) but it lacks the massive monster manual. 4e has so many fighter builds and your weapon matters alot. 2hu's friend is working on fleshing out classes with more options too. 4e is not without flaws but no one on this website will admit what the flaws are and most people havent played it and pretends it has flaws it does not have lol

>>97866131
Sounds like a fun time. Nice work anon, and hope you guys enjoy it.

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>>97866721
I want to translate it to english so anons here can also try it out (and hopefully help me in some of the more grunt work like creating mech parts), but I have to translate a lot of stuff, finish up some remaining systems and feats and also decide if I'll remove or keep my personal anime furry/kemono monster-hunter setting that's tied to some of the mechanics

>>97867318
Anons often enjoy working on stuff, so feel free to post if you like. Even if noone gets on board, it's still good habit to get used to sharing the things you make. Also now you've got me curious, haha. As for kemono stuff, imo monstergirls are top tier. I'm not into furry things myself but I know some anons here are. As long as mecha is at the core of it, go ham if you want.

>>97867318
What's the lang, out of curiosity?
Maybe I speak it.

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>>97867402
mecha *is* the core even if I'm a shameless furfag, so I'll get on that translation
>>97867406
portuguese brazilian

>>97867472
Cute

>>97867472
Ah then I don't speak it, but I believe are a few anons here who do

>>97867472
Based furfag mechs are just 30ft tall fursuits anyway.

>>97870200
Mecha and Furries do have a root in Anthropomorphism if you think about it

>>97870311
Mecha and furries do have a root in making my dick hard when I think about them, yeah.

>>97870373
If only the tq was about alternative control mechanisms, eh?
I've always wondered why they call it the cockpit.

>>97873106
What nonsense

>>97849369
Why the gear got toes?

>>97873106
I know nothing about Lancer
Which one lets me commit the most/biggest warcrimes

>>97876810
You shouldn't be thinking about in-universe things like that, your question needs to be expressed in terms of squares and builds.

anyone read mek borg? the kickstarter says stuff about the 4 hegemonies and all of that stuff but unless im insane and illiterate the book doesnt have that in it (and also is just kinda mid otherwise lol)

>>97877945
>just kinda mid otherwise
>borg hack
What were you expecting, really?

>>97863284
one of the reasons that the T-72 was so explosive was because the combustible cartridges created a fatal domino effect when combined with the fact that there is spare shell storage outside the floor autoloader

>>97878001
judging from just the kickstarter page it looked like it could be fun but i just looked at other stuff by the guy who made it and he just pumps out 5e stuff usually so yeah definitely my bad

>>97876810
You're not allowed to talk about war crimes, Anon. That's evil and alt-right.

>>97876810
If equipment is a limitation, you're not being creative enough.

>>97878925
>>97877370
is there some kind of meme I am missing here?

>>97879815
NTA, there's a lot of political shitflinging floating around Lancer. Combination of an official setting that tries to shove Star Trek post-scarcity utopianism and Gundam grimdark hyperwar into the same setting and a dev team that's way too high on their own farts for the actual quality of product they created.

>>97879815
The "squares and builds" post was a jab at Lancer being a boardgame masquerading as an RPG, so absolutely no thought is put into what abilities can do in-universe, just what their white-room stats can do and how they fit into peoples' absurdly orchestrated builds.

>>97876810
harrison armory is for warcrimes
Smithshamano Corpo is for self crimes
horus is for crimes against reality and science
IPSN is for stopping crimes

everest is for brrrr gotta go fast

pirate mechs are for political crimes

>>97879815
LANCER is bad sci-fi

>>97881394
if the situation was hopeless the propaganda would be unnecessary

>>97883666
Good point, Satan.

I've been thinking about which mech systems to use for my and my group, i'd be dming. Looking around it seems like lancer(?) is the most popular one so i was going to run that through my boys, but i have some questions. It seems really rules light for non-mech scenarios. I know it's a mech rpg so most of it will be handled in there, but they gotta come out eventually, i'm planning some yanno 'social' stuff, let them air out their chars, as well as maybe one or 2 pilot on pilot scenes...

The question is, do you guys just run it like that, do you have custom rules, or do you use another part of some other system?

2nd question. About the customization, would any of you know about some sort of mecha designer on a website or something? I think it would just be really cool to have a custom painted mech, whether it's lancer style or not.

3rd, and last. Do any of you run the setting as is? I have so many things i want to do but i can't quite decide on what I want to settle on.

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>>97851291
>The skeleton moves by telekinetic magic

>>97857830
inconsistent chamber pressure because of how the propellant is broken up by the primer.

>>97884663
The most important question is what kind of game do you want to run. If option-heavy grid-based combat is what you want, then Lancer is a decent choice. It's light on out of cockpit rules, and most people run it as-is and tweak to the needs of the group.

Spoiler 1: One of the strengths of Lancer is its 3rd-party content. Retrogrademinis has a pixel art mech builder (with a partial paywall) that also does custom colors.
Spoiler 2: God no, most sane people don't. Pick what you like and works for your group, ignore the rest.

>>97876810
Harrison Armory is a corporate rump-state from a 40k-esque human supremacist faction. They are the best at war crimes by a big margin.

>>97879886
>Combination of an official setting that tries to shove Star Trek post-scarcity utopianism and Gundam grimdark hyperwar into the same setting
I think this is one of the biggest issues with Lancer as a ttrpg ecosystem. As written, the main faction comes across as pretty conniving and insidious, but the community treats them as some high minded, objectively good force. There's a huge disconnect there.
Lancer can 100% be fun as fuck if you just don't engage with the community and pluck what you want from 3rd party sources.

How do you write a story/plot for a LANCER campaign when the whole setting runs on a super mega post-scarcity no money needed government that has a super AI that can predict the future and basically never let anyone meaningfully oppose it or bother society too much

>>97887563
You make a different setting.

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>>97885191
I promise its not magicslop and there's a reason it only works on mechs

its just an excuse to make mechs be both reasonably non-difficult to build and also powerful enough without needing an exotic energy source. The pilots are the battery, the mech drains them to move. Everything else is conventional tech. That's it.

>>97887563
Find a list of top ten Star Trek episodes by series and rip off your favorites without mercy or hesitation.

>>97887707
>there's a reason it only works on mechs
Please consider how fucking cool a spaceship using that technology could look.

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>>97887826
I'm pretty sure that happens in Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo

anyways, there aren't even spaceships in my setting since its tech level is practically our own, and if there were, they'd use normal thrusters.

The point I wanted to make is that I wanted mechs to be an *actual practical choice* in the setting as they found this magitech technique that allows them to build efficient humanoid robots that don't need huge power sources or exotic materials. Also they tend to use them to fight monsters instead of armed forces so they don't need absurdly heavy futuristic armor either.

>>97887864
>The point I wanted to make is that I wanted mechs to be an *actual practical choice*
This is always a dangerous game to play, since any technology that would make giant robots practical would make a lot of other things practical, which is what I was trying to get at. You might want to think about the kinds of combat or locations that would make mecha practical instead of what technology would make them practical.
Also, consider an aircraft carrier with big ass arms literally throwing and catching stuff to launch them.

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>>97887940
Crazier things have happened

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Everyone say hi to the first mecha that was a proper mecha, so old your great great grandparents probably weren't even born!

>>97887991
COME ON, THUNDER CHILD

>>97888012
We all know how it went.

>>97887563
In the core rules, all that's in the core.
You are not there. It would take your character a lifetime to get there.
Instead, you are on the fringes, the outskirts, bringing the "enlightenment" to "wayward colonies" by the barrel of your paracausal gun.

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>>97887940
There are some limitations to the tech including size, most mechs are built at heights of 4-8m because anything above that decreases the efficiency of the control systems. The tech is actually great for prosthetics because it can basically replace limbs with 1:1 parity or with even better efficiency, but that's more expensive since you need something to house the computer systems that make the tech work. There are exceptions including a gigantic colossal super mech but that used a system that no one ever figured out.

And yes I do care a lot about the context of the combat. They use mechs because the monsters are relatively fast, large, attack in large groups and they fight in mostly in destroyed cities and terrain that is very difficult for other vehicles to pass through. The monsters are also intelligent enough to use basic tactics (with a few being completely sapient and capable of speech and complex strategies), and that makes it very difficult for conventional vehicles to fight them on par. The world also got practically flipped on its head during a major war which is why there's so much difficult terrain, and there are monsters around the entire planet.

The mechs are agile and acrobatic, can deal well with a variety of difficult terrain, and can reliably fight against monsters around their size and larger by using a combination of weapons the people of the world are already used to. And they're cheap enough to make that hundreds of non-military groups own and produce them.
I basically built my setting in a way that it facilitates the plausibility of mecha in a very convenient and fun manner.

The player group in my campaign is basically a monster hunter organization (of which there are thousands around the world) that take all sorts of odd jobs using their mechs to explore and fight in non-restored areas of the world.

>>97888061
Martian sympathizer!

>>97888061
They got one, that's pretty good.

>>97886318
>Retrogrademinis
And it also has armored core mixed in there. Interesting, very interesting, thanks.

>>97887563
Honestly, like that other guy said, at best it would be star trek. But i want my party to fight crazy guys later so i can't use most of the setting.

Probably off topic, but what are some good mecha books to get into? I know gundam has some, but just curious what’s actually worth getting into .

I really hate how every FUCKING NPC mech in Lancer has like 30 different things it can do compared to the PCs.

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>>97879814
Only a fool shuns the proper tools for his work

>>97889385
Closest thing I've ever read to a mecha book was Hammer's Slammers, which works if you imagine the tanks have legs.

>>97889385
It's not primarily mech, but if you're looking for non-manga stuff with mechs in it, Starship Troopers has some

>>97889385
Not a mecha specific question. But for my group's first battle I want it to basically be their training session, let them push the rules a bit, and stress test me. Would it be better to have it be an actual training function, or start them out with a life and death situation? I also plan to throw in a surprise at the very end, introducing monsters, which exist in my setting. Would this be too much for the first mission?

>>97890053
Can the pcs not get equipment and stuff to do those exact same 30 things?

>>97890053
What? Most NPCs in Lancer have a combined total of 5-6 traits/weapons/abilities. An NPC suffering system trauma can oftentimes leave them with no other weapons remaining, unlike PC mechs that have multiple hardpoints by default.

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What system do you recommend for someone who doesn't like being bogged down by options for their mechas? I like the fantasy of piloting giant robots but I don't really care about stat managing.

https://gamersguildaz.com/blogs/news/how-to-play-ember-obsidian-protocol
More info on that one mecha wargame.

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>>97896331
Also new starter box is coming out soon.

>>97851217
Caseless rounds are tough. Propellant needs to be stable enough such that barrel heat buildup doesn’t cook off rounds without pulling the trigger, but also not so brittle that it gets damaged by less than ginger handling. The bonus of cased ammunition is that some waste heat is ejected with the case, the case provides insulation against a hot chamber and so mitigates a runaway cook-off, the case expands against the chamber walls when fired thereby creating a gas seal for more efficient energy down the barrel and less fouling into the action, cased rounds are also durable. Large benefits for a little weight.

>>97896320
Mecha hack or Aether Nexus.

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>>97851217
Modern tank ammunition tends to be combustible/consumable case, the case is made of nitrocellulose and only the base is left after firing.

>>97889385
I mean, Battletech has a library of novels.
Heavy Gear had one or two, I think.
The Terran Armor series is pretty decent.

>>97893401
Live-fire training mission against training OPFOR that switches into an actual battle against your spoilered reveal.
It's a classic opener for a reason.

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>>97852191
I threw this together a while ago, its not good at all, but it sort off works. I'm also making an Excel character sheet thingy.

>>97889385
>Probably off topic, but what are some good mecha books to get into? I know gundam has some, but just curious what’s actually worth getting into .
Tankhead is pretty good

>>97897854
Heavy Gear never had full-length novels; there have been efforts but they never went anywhere because the authors kept flaking out. We’re going to try again soon though

>>97896356
>. Propellant needs to be stable enough such that barrel heat buildup doesn’t cook off rounds without pulling the trigger
they invented that stable propellant for the G11 altready

>The bonus of cased ammunition is that some waste heat is ejected with the case, the case provides insulation against a hot chamber and so mitigates a runaway cook-off
the improved heat-insensitive propellant also solved this issue

the sealing problem was supposedly solved with a new barrel design, but i have never actually seen what that barrel design was
but west germany considered solved enough to consider adopting it before the cold war ended and killed the G11

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>>97907221
Hype! Make sure it has a bunch of cool artwork (even lineart, LN style) to keep it visually enticing

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>>97907867

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>>97907869
(or by lineart, I guess I meant more B&W)

>>97907867
>>97907869
>>97907873
That would be cool, yeah. We could find a guy who can do that. If it’s one of the ones who will piss off that certain really annoying subset of old Battletech fans as free marketing then even better. Do they hate that one guy who does the chunky illustrations in Shrapnel?

>>97888152
It got three!

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>>97888012
Funnily enough I was just listening to this. And I actually named my Lancer character's mech Thunder Child in reference to this legend.

>>97901413
Troubleshooter, is that you?

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>>97911479
For line art in Shrapnel, did you mean Meltdown's stuff? Pic related.

Though, what's the story on old Battletech fans getting pissed at lineart? That's what all the old books had with only a few painted spreads.

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>game everyone tells me is fundamentally just tactical mech combat and weak at roleplaying
>the tactical mech combat is all league of legends wuxia hypercombo shit instead of Tactical Mech Combat
aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

or, as it happened to me:
>want to build a mech for fire support
>check out weapon stats, sick, HMG deals tons of damage, cool
>has less range than the standard caliber rifles
>doesn't have reliable (dealing damage regardless of whether you hit) like the standard rifles..... despite being fundamentally the gun with way more weight of fire
>count as a "cannon" meaning you're stuck with all the talents intended for derp guns /howitzers despite it being a Space M2HB
I swear they must have looked at the heavy gunner talent and gone "oh no, if the heavy machine gun suppresses people, they won't be able to move!" and had to come up with ways to nerf it. God forbid supporting fires actually do something besides "directly dealing damage" which seems to be the only thing people are capable of understanding.

>>97911618
Immensely based. What's the build?

>>97913660
They don’t get pissed at lineart. It’s just that given the fact that we’re probably going to end up getting one of the less hidebound Battletech author to do it (since they actually deliver the relevant stuff unlike the previous people we contacted who flaked on us, and 90% of Heavy Gear fans are Battletech fans who got disgruntled at it for not being enough like actual mecha anime anyway) and those guys all have personal online hatedoms from angry old grognards. Those angry old grognards are so fucking annoying that they’ve negatively polarized a bunch of people in the Battletech fandom supporting whatever they hate, so I was thinking we could take advantage of that as a marketing thing because these bozos will inevitably flip out over it and give us the attention we want which will draw people who otherwise wouldn’t have given a fuck. So I was hoping that there’s a decent artist out there who has their own mentally ill stalkers we could use to double down on that strategy.

>>97914966
...I think you're thinking too much about it. Just get a good artist.

>>97916209
Yeah probably

>>97914316
You expected anime style mechs to be anything but league of legends wuxia hypercombo shit?

>>97914316
filename betrays bad faith

>>97916267
>bad faith
God please just call him a faggot or something please stop talking like some tumblr refugee on xitter holy shit.

>>97917695
It’s a common term

>>97901413
I'm just gonna toss this in the Mega if you don't mind. If you've got something you'd like to be credited as, anon, just say so.

>>97896320
lancer

>>97914316
requisition a different gun
'HMG does does of damage' sounds like you're trying to do the thing you are complaining about, which is fun.

Kudos to that one anon that suggested reworking the Devil's Due system to integrate the Skill Biases - that is now a part of it, all three aspects. Your Liked Skill now gives you a new way to gain Debt, your Disliked Skill costs you another way to gain Debt, and your Rivalled Skill gives the Warhawk (GM term) another way to collect on your Debt.

>>97930710
If an Ultimate Weapon requires you to take a Staggered Turn, can you just declare you're taking a Staggered Turn at the start of a Round the same way you would a Fast or Slow Turn?
Or do you have to be Staggered by something else first to equip one?

>>97931458
You have to specifically declare you’re equipping an Ultimate Weapon, which then forces you to take a Staggered Turn that Round, because of their cumbersome size and having to directly connect them to your MCS’s Generator.

>>97930710
I'm really glad that suggestion ended up working out. Both of those systems seemed to be perfect for generating hype moments in and out of the cockpit, so I think sticking them together really makes both feel more robust. Especially since both the player and the gm has control over it. You don't see a lot of that kind of overlap in other mecha games, and it's REALLY important.

>>97890338
neat, it looks like that mech from the pilot of the superman cartoon

>>97933382
I'm considering also working Devil's Due into the significant amount of out-of-combat stuff I've written, being able to incur Debt to metanarratively say your employer is a bit more favorable towards you, kind of like your Hero Points from M&M. The main thing I want to strongly, strongly avoid is making it a freebie BitS-retroactive story writing mechanic. That would be as antithetical to LANCEHOUNDS' central design as it really could get.

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>>97914316
>I swear they must have looked at the heavy gunner talent and gone "oh no, if the heavy machine gun suppresses people, they won't be able to move!" and had to come up with ways to nerf it. God forbid supporting fires actually do something besides "directly dealing damage"
>God forbid supporting fires actually do something besides "directly dealing damage"
>something besides "directly dealing damage"
Are you dumb or something?

Question for my Heavy Gear dudes: Is Terra Nova a flexable enough setting to introduce some cosmic / survival horror elements into or should I start fleshing out an entirely new home brew world?

>>97938283
Botany Bay,I think, was a colony of prisoners than got a blackout.
AS lots of the different planets of the setting have a vibe (Cyberpunk/multi legs mechs, DRONES DRONES DRONES, Medieval Mechs) I ever tought botany bay would be the best to indroduce bio-mechs ala Dunbine/Guyver.
And Terra Nova has already some INsmout cultish stuff in a Humanist city state, and lots of ancient misteries with the big heads, so I could see it, its after all a big planet with fuck hugh itnerior lakes/seas.

>>97938283
>>97938402
speaking of heavy gear should I just stick to the blitz rules or is the rpg book really worth $100. how the fuck did they make it 400 plus pages long? Is there really that many rules and narrative depth to the game or it's it just bloat and okay artwork?

>>97938283
Yes, you can fit cosmic horror elements into it. Check out Innsmouth.

>>97938561
Most of that bloat is gear and vehicle profiles, we tried to include *everything* so you could run a game entirely out of the book. Ultimately it still didn’t all fit.

The 100$ physical book is basically just a collector’s thing, you can grab the PDF for like 30 bucks. I would recommend holding back on the physical book even if you do want it because we finally found a decent layout guy who’s redoing the books make it look better, and you’ll get it for free if you own the PDF. Then you can buy the new, better-looking book later

Seeing as >>97938283 brought it up, here's a good question. How do you meld horror with mecha? More specifically, how do you meld it with a mecha TTRPG beyond just having spooky implications to your mech?

>>97849369
>thread theme
icl probably the weakest garage theme in the series. verdict day and fires of rubicon's garage themes are kino.

>>97943791
>How do you meld horror with mecha?
I managed to do it during my Lancer campaign. The mercs were tasked with clearing out a derelict shipwreck, but stumbled upon wrecks of a salvage crew that got there earlier. One of the PCs managed to pull recorded footage from one of the wrecks, and all they could gather was the final moments of the front view running away from something and not looking back. Then, the view slammed to the ground, and was dragged backwards while the mech’s fingers tried to grab the deck in desperation, and the pilot began to scream. The players said they genuinely felt unnerved from my descriptions of the footage.
Of course, another OPFOR arrived and combat began, but there was that unnerving feeling that all throughout, there’s something else here, and they didn’t know if the surprise was going to occur during combat, or after.

>>97943791
I'm working on building a mercenary campaign xcom style on Terra Nova and it's really hard to make any of it make sense because there are allot of bridges to cross to get to 'wipe out the drug cartel labs in the homesteader's jungle' to 'fog zombie gears piolted by demon larve and maintained by the cultist that love them and holy shit now you are in melee with a 20 foot tall demon that just finished eating a village, also you are about to be flaked by their cultists on dirt bikes' in this setting but I think I'll be able to pull it off. I think it's all about whiplashing the players from rat blasting missions to missions where they are trapped in with forces no one has ever seen and they probably aren't making it out alive.
Sorry for the shit phone post.

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>>97907221
Need MILICIA novels

>>97945959
Agreed.
On the spooky note, I have found that deathhaunt hands and weapons fit lesser gears quite nicely. I'm tempted to fully convert one of my ASP into a spectral horror but for now, with the hands some crossbow bits, it just looks like he's creepily holding a panzer faust.

>>97945260
Sounds interesting, do tell?

Clearing out and inevitably being killed in the Mystery Flesh Pit would be a pretty scary mech level threat

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>>97946381
Clearly the mechs Anodyne developed just weren't big enough.

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It's an interesting feeling, seeing something and then later on seeing what (I assume) inspired it. I saw this and immediately thought that's the Hussar.
Anyway, tread-mechs, mechs with treads, what are your thoughts on them?

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>>97938283
The closest thing to a Survival Horror in HG would be one of the two, off the top of my head:
1. On Terra Nova: Explore an Oasis Tower that's gone silent suddenly. Biohazard causes mutations / viral shananigans.
2. On Utopia: A crack Black Talon team needs to find some kind of a mcGuffin in a Deep that's actually swarmed to death by killer drones. One of the short stories in the HG4e book has this kind of scenario.

Naturally, there can be lots of other takes on it. Maybe some kind of a remote apex predator in the McAllen caves.

>>97938561
Extreme amounts of bloat. Stick to the PDF, the physical book is unusable in and by itself.

>>97939418
That's very good news!

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Card with art for my game Divine Machine Golem. Should be on Kickstarter in about a year
Artist is https://x.com/Nafe_nasutetsu

>>97853725
>>97853813
>>97854188
>>97858637
>>97862261
This is the Mecha Monday thread, not the dnd 4e thread

>>97857521
This, there is literally one guy.

>>97946157
Unfortunately it died because Compcon kept shitting itself

>>97956893
>fell for the compcon meme
The best way to use it is as a character builder/character sheet binder and just do all your rolling somewhere else.

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Where do you guys go to get art for your tokens for players, NPCs, etc.? I've had decent luck going through Pixiv with certain tags, but there must be a better way to do this.

>>97959996
AI gen

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>>97959996
The super secret method nobody will tell you about is to lurk on /toy/ and /m/ build threads and find pictures of people's custom builds. Then just photoshop out the background and tweak the colors as much as you like. Also model box art goes hard as hell.

>>97959996
Artstation is the gold standard but you WILL have to dig through waves of samey slop. Once you find a few artists you like, stick with them.

>>97956893
Remember it for what it was, you had fun didn't you? What was it anyways, just an alien picking them off?

>>97853725
a lot of people in the lancer community reduce the level cap to LL6, i've heard that smoothes the game out a lot

i GMd it for a few months, and played in another campaign for about 9 months, i found it really enjoyable.

i think one of lancers biggest strengths as a system is that it is very similar to DnD, which means non mech enthusiasts, people who have never touched a mech game before but have only played dnd which is pretty common, will be able to pick it up very quickly. obviously that might leave some of the more seasoned mech vets wanting for more granular simulation like ammo tracking or individual component health or expense invoices, but it works really well as entry point for the laymen which is a good thing to have in the space.

>>97853813
limit your parties access to printers and repair shops. if players are able to full repair after every encounter or two, it sort of takes away any sense of consequence and also makes support repair and shielding mechs not that important. make players use their repair cap so the stat actually matters, make them feel it when their mech is 3 or 4 fights in, haggard with a missing arm and exposed wires and one guys mech blew up so now he's just hitching a ride in someone elses cargo compartment.

i also found that my group enjoyed the manna leveling rules from long rim more than the base rules, but we were playing a sort of mercenary western campaign so that fit our vibe.

one of the pitfalls of lancer is that since theres no gold, no treasure, no magic items, it can often feel as a GM like you are lacking carrots to reward players with, especially in the base game LL system which just gives players milestone levels. the manna system improved that somewhat, and you can get more inventive with the manna system too and start writing custom weapons, systems, or limited use consumables they can purchase.

How does the political officer power work in heavy gear blitz? 3rd in command of a cg means they can't be a cgl or 2ic right? I'm trying to put together a milicia and it would be very fluffy (it's supposed to be a penal unit) but Ican't seem to find a place to slot the po in

>>97970369
The politics and intrigue of heavy gear are very Vietnam French Canadian Canadian.
Let's see your force.

>>97969162
>a lot of people in the lancer community reduce the level cap to LL6, i've heard that smoothes the game out a lot
It really does. Past LL6 your choice of licenses matters a lot less, and you stop having to use the whole buffalo, as it were and just kinda go shoping for individual bits of gear. it still works, sure, but that just seems less interesting than working with what you have.
Ideal campaign range for me is 3 through to 6 with some bonus gear sprinkled in.

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>>97971209
It wasn't finished when I wrote that but I put together a working version. Like I said it's supposed to be a penal unit so I chose several suboptimal units.
I do really wish the black adder had a command variant, that would be the perfect commissar's ride

>>97857834
I'm playing a solo GURPS campaign with mecha. I stole a bunch of shit from 5 miles from borderlands and 5 parsecs from home but instead of using their (somewhat simplistic) combat system I'm using GURPS spaceships with a bunch of custom rules.
If you're not autistic enough for gurps, you could just use 5 parsecs from home and just use mech minis.
Or you can go and buy the battletech solo cards thing (more info on the battltech general).

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>>97973094
pic related

What Mobile Suit does a gyaru pilot?
A Galgoog.

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currently chipping away at making a game system.
which is to say im taking a hatchet to the 40krpg system and rearranging its guts to suit my needs.
some original parts in the works are mech components, mech power management, enemies, mission structures, downtime management, environmental conditions and a few weapon types.
i dont know if it will do what i want, which is make combat feel tactical and deliberate, but im enjoying piecing together my little mech frankensystem.
is there some aspect of mech combat thats somewhat essential or iconic that isnt covered, or covered poorly, in the 40krpg system that i should include/emphasize? or bring from somewhere else?
also, is it cool to just post mech art that i like?

>>97975076
Are there any mecha gyaru? Feels like an untapped concept