Played a session of Lancer playtest a while back, after getting really into the idea of building mecha and fighting in space and so on and so on. It was cool, but not quite to my taste. My group and I still wanted to play a mecha game though, so over a couple sessions of kludged-together S&W Whitebox and a bossa nova / acid jazz soundtrack, and a Very Anime session of Microscope, we ended up with these rules.
Major thanks to Alex, Jackson, and Andrew for the ideas and playtesting.
A quick overview of the setting:
- The Twelve Noble Houses, led by their Space Generals, have rallied around the Galactic Empress in the wake of her defeating the APOCRYPHAL ENTITY that hounded humanity for so many centuries–despite the loss of the heir of House Bontemps and the Leaguelong Moonblade.
- Cha Cha Feruz, duplicitous captain of the Judascariot, has been stirring up trouble as she looks for work for her motley mercenary gang (i.e. the players).
- The miners of ultravaluable mineral Azoth rebel against their corporate overlords on the Remote Planet Hinterkrist, drawing in the vicious mercenary group Blackwood Corps.
- MASTABA HOUSE, Habitation of the Dead, a moon-sized mechanism of unknown provenance, has appeared, along with a spacial and temporal anomaly, in orbit around the Gladiatorial Planet Einzkreiger.
- PROTOZOAN ENTITIES: GEPETTO STRAIN, HILDEGAARD STRAIN, and ISAMBARD STRAIN pursue evolutionary agendas, deploy phagocytic weapons, coil and pulse in the darkness of space and the hidden ruins of the dead Golden Empire
- Oriel, the ancient inventor-automaton, has begun unsealing their vaults to retrieve anti-FRAME weaponry in violation of a millennia-old treaty.
- The esoteric melodies of MOON ORPHAN, mythic weapon and hated child of the Golden Empire, have been heard in the crackle of cosmic radiation, in the fluctuations of gravity wells of auspicious planets, in the static of the radio waves and the singing of children at their games.
Checks
When you attempt something difficult or risky that is not an attack, roll a die and try to get a 4 or higher. The base die size is d4.
- For every unique and compelling reason to succeed, increase your die size by one, up to d20.
- For every unique and compelling reason to fail, decrease your die size by 1. If your cumulative die size is less than d4, roll an additional d4, and take the lower result.
Tags
A tag is an easy way to describe a creature, object or situation. A relevant tag counts as a reason to succeed or a reason to fail. For example, a FRAME with the [tricky] tag can count it as a reason to succeed when hacking an enemy, while a pilot with the [shaken] tag would have to count it as a reason to fail when trying to steady their aim and make a difficult shot.
While any tag can be used as a reason to succeed or fail as long as there’s a strong case for it, some are going to have a largely negative effect on the person or object they belong to. These tags are called conditions and are indicated with a minus sign (e.g. [-on fire], [-broken limb])
Not all tags are equally important. Minor tags and conditions can only be used as a reason to succeed once per scene, and are indicated by lower case letters, like [-rattled] or [-bruised]. Major tags and conditions can be used any number of times per scene and are indicated by capital letters, such as [-TERRIFIED] or [INVISIBLE].
Some tags are ambiguous, and can be used as both a reason to succeed and a reason to fail. A FRAME with the [berserk] tag might use it as a reason to succeed feats of violence and strength, while face it as a reason to fail when shielding allies or searching rubble for survivors.
Reasons to succeed and reasons to fail still count even if they are not described by a tag — tags are a shorthand, but they’re not necessarily a perfect description of all fictionally and mechanically significant factors in a situation. A player or Referee can make use of any relevant tag — a player could use an enemy’s [haywire] tag as a reason to succeed when attacking them, or a field’s [misty] tag as a reason to succeed when hiding.
Combat Rolls
When you attack something or someone else, roll 1d20 plus your weapon’s attack bonus. If you have more reasons to succeed than to fail, you have advantage. If you have more reasons to fail than to succeed, you have disadvantage.
- 1: Enemy makes a move
- 2-9: No effect
- 10-15: deal 1 Harm
- 16-18: deal 1 Harm, inflict a [-minor condition]
- 19-20: deal 1 Harm, inflict a [-MAJOR CONDITION]
Major thanks to Brendan S of Necropraxis for this mechanic.
Critical Conditions
Whenever a FRAME takes Harm, it takes a special critical condition, representing its ability to function. If all critical conditions have been taken, and a FRAME suffers Harm, it is destroyed..
- [-SCRATCHED UP]
- [-DAMAGED]
- [-DISABLED]
If a FRAME has Armor, it can absorb Harm, point-for-point, before taking critical conditions. Armor is restored at the beginning of each scene; conditions only go away by action taken by the player or changing circumstances — critical conditions require time and attention from a mechanic.
Character Creation
Pick a starting FRAME
Each FRAME starts with a beneficial major tag, as well as some gear already built in, which does not encumber.
| FRAME Class | Specialty | Built-in Gear |
| Jackal-class | [FAST] | 3 System Cores |
| Bastion-class | [STRONG] | 3 enc of weapons |
| Strega-class | [TRICKY] | 1 GRIMOIRE |
| Seraph-class | [TOUGH] | PLATE Field |
Also pick a size: [SMALL], medium, or [LARGE]
Starting Gear
Pick 5 enc of gear. You can keep in storage, where it won’t encumber you and it’s safe, or in your loadout, where it encumbers you, but you can use it.
Melee Weapons
| Weapon Type | ENC. | Attack Roll Bonus |
| Misericorde | 1 | +2 |
| Gladius | 2 | +3 |
| Brutale | 3 | +4 |
| DOZER | 2 | +4, requires a running start |
Ranged Weapons
| Weapon Type | ENC. | Attack Roll Bonus |
| Procne | 1 | +1 |
| Apollonian | 2 | +2 |
| Balor | 3 | +3 |
| DAEDALUS | 2 | +3, inflicts [-locked on] instead of Harm |
Armor
| Armor Type | ENC. | Protection |
| HIDE Field | 1 | 1 Harm |
| CHAIN Field | 2 | 2 Harm |
| PLATE Field | 3 | 3 Harm |
System Cores
All Cores are 1 enc.
| System | Effect |
| Drive Core | [swift] movement and acceleration |
| Impulse Core | [precise] handling |
| Cloak Core | [stealthy] maneuvers and effective concealment |
| AI Core | [technical] boost to hacking and comms |
| Sensor Core | [perceptive] scanning for hidden and distant targets |
| Force Core | [powerful] feats of strength and violence |
Drones
All drones require a 2 enc port / receiver on their FRAME.
- GALATEA AutoDoll: a [fast] drone with built-in Sensors and a +1 ranged weapon. Can be damaged before it is destroyed.
- ARIEL AutoDoll: a [tricky] drone with built-in Comms and a +1 ranged weapon. Can be damaged before it is destroyed.
- CALIBAN AutoDoll: a [strong] drone with a built-in Drive and a +2 melee weapon. Can be grazed and damaged before it is destroyed.
GRIMOIREs
Esoteric mechanisms. A GRIMOIRE can be invoked as a reason to succeed at a relevant task within the FRAME’s normal capabilities any number of times per scene. Once per scene, a FRAME can use a GRIMOIRE to attempt a remarkable feat outside of its normal capabilities. All GRIMOIRES are 3 enc.
| GRIMOIRE | Domain |
| Pluto | gravity |
| Jupiter | electromagnetism |
| Luna | light and darkness |
| Oranos | space |
| Venus | biological matter |
| Psyche | the mind, perception |
Encumbrance
| ENC. | Effect |
| 1-3 | no penalty |
| 4-6 | [-BURDENED] |
| 7-9 | [-BURDENED] and [-BULKY] |
| 10+ | [-BURDENED], [-BULKY], [-UNBALANCED] |
FRAME Name
It should be something cool. Past names include
- Legs For Days
- Les Fleurs du Mal
- Chevalier Groovy
- Master of Puppets
- Struggle Theory
- Amuse Bouche
- Beast of Burden
- Glory Be
- Messiah Complex
- Traje de Luces
Pilot
This one is a bit experimental, but people get out of their FRAMEs sometimes. For your pilot, pick
- a one-word major tag that describes your pilot’s physical or intellectual aptitudes, like [CLEVER], [STRONG], [HOT], or [DEVIOUS].
- a one-word major tag that describes your pilot’s personality, like [TEMPER], [PATIENT], or [EERIE]
- a one-word minor condition that describes a flaw your pilot has, like [-forgetful], [-slovenly], or [-rude].
Why Are You Doing This
The idea is players can kit out their machines and pilots and be distinct and cool while fitting everything on some scratch paper, getting blown up is in the cards without needing to sit out a bunch of time and do character calculus, fights are tense but short, and you don’t need to know complicated rules to make your mecha concept work (pick the FAST mecha if you want to be fast — you don’t need to compare how many centimeters of grid one thruster moves you versus another).
Also, FRAMEs are short on built-in bonuses. The idea is that they’re chasing advantages in their situation, environment, relationships. This isn’t really a game about the fantasy of power — it’s about having means of survival and the ability to negotiate a place in a hostile world, rather than gouging one out with overwhelming force.
Things I want from a mecha game:
- being able to kit out cool robots from session one
- room for a lot of space opera drama
- rules that support the fraught situations and hijinks of old school games.
- being able to have people who aren’t neck deep in The Genre already jump in and have a good time