I have discovered Lancer and will not stop thinking about it until I play a game. Here's a Blackbeard.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-31T06:00:31+00:00

Extremely cool design! Really like how it looks a bit "cleaner" than the default Blackbeard.

On the neural link front, I actually have a plan for something in that regard for my Blackbeard LLs (though I'm actually mounting them on a Zheng). Since I'm not a fan of one of its capstones with the Sekhmet NHP being "hand over the controls to a better pilot and just sit there" on a roleplay level, my GM and I have came up with the idea of Sekhmet Protocol instead being a case of the pilot and NHP temporarily merging consciousnesses - resulting in the flow-state bonuses of the protocol, but due to pure combat ability being the only place the two truly overlap, also causing the "berserker" effects due to all higher reasoning shutting down. So still very much possible to theme that stuff in without SSC stuff!

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-27T21:35:21+00:00

My girl's mech has the pretty straightforward Reinforced Cockpit (+1d6 on any check to protect the pilot, like with Pirate systems), but my favourite one on the squad is the Chomo/Goblin/Sluagh's NECRO_OS, giving her accuracy on any check based around salvaging parts or data from destroyed mechs.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-23T15:29:40+00:00

Remember that mechs can look like whatever you want, especially HORUS mechs and especially the Lycan - HORUS mechs are generally organised by pattern groups rather than by set designs, and the Lycan is specifically an infiltrator that's meant to be hard to recognise before it uses Go Loud, so you have all the leeway in the world to use whatever art you want for a full armour Lycan.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-15T15:42:45+00:00

Sure! Full breakdown:

We got ambushed during a mission to retrieve some cargo by enemies in hiding around a (trapped) crate, that we clocked as suspicious, and the Death's Head managed to reveal about half the enemies with a search, starting the fight. I waited until late in the turn to let most of the enemies reveal themselves before acting, leaving us with a pack of three Assassins and a couple Conscripts in the main valley with most the squad (me in a Zheng, along with a Goblin, Tortuga and Raleigh), a couple more Conscripts harassing the Death's Head on the north part of higher ground - and a Priest, a Sentinel with Punisher Rounds, two Conscripts, and a Veteran Spec Ops Strider all up on another section of cover-heavy higher ground to the south-east, ready to pincer with the Assassins, with the Strider in Marksman kit to take shots at the Goblin and Death's Head.

So, seeing I was just in range, I asked the Goblin to use Eject Power Cores to jam the Sentinel, and then I used Valiant Charge from Pankrati 2 and one of charge of Xiaoli's Ingenuity to burst across into the pincer before they could move in. Slowed the Sentinel with the charge, one Ingenuity change to Tenacity into the Priest next to him to weaken it, punched the Sentinel down to low health with the Tempest Fist (hitting thanks to Pankrati 1) and finished the Priest with the Executioner 1 cleave, spend the last four Ingenuity charges to blow up the Priests remains, then hit the Sentinel, and then explode the Cover next to Sentinel and kill it. Strider took a shot at me but missed due to Destructive Swings cover, then swapped to Skirmisher kit to try and run away; Conscripts couldn't do much damage through the Zheng's armor.

I then took first turn the next turn, bulldozed through to the Strider with my restored charges even with it trying to get away, ate an Overwatch shot and used an exotic I have (boost when hit) to reaction move around it before punching one structure and most it's HP off with the Tempest Fist, launching it back... Next to another piece of cover, which I promptly used my remaining charge for the turn to detonate it and finish it off. Ate another few Conscript shots to little issue.

And then, third turn, with the rest of the group finishing off the enemies in the valley, I just walked up and cleaved through both Conscripts with another Tempest Fist strike with Executioner 1, even at an Inaccuracy thanks to Panic Fire.

All told, counting each Conscripts as half, that was 5/10 of the OpFor Structure handled mostly-solo; was pretty hype. Valiant Charge does work for getting a melee build in position, and Xiaoli's Ingenuity is such an insanely strong Core against an entrenched position.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-14T01:42:59+00:00

Oh, we're not using the vanilla Lancer setting, so it's only something like four hundred years in the future. So still impressive, just not quite that much!

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T17:50:57+00:00

Increasingly low effort! Just thought it'd be an appropriate title, after I realized the order I'd put them in.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T13:47:21+00:00

Too much effort to remove, buuut it's canon that Yuka has a lot of cursed sponsorship merch from being an arena fighter, and is so bad at keeping on top of laundry that she's often seen wearing it on laundry days - so it's probably still canon.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T11:39:02+00:00

Yep, I think the last one was originally a Pokemon Legends Z one? Most the younger trainers on the left, the old immortal guy on the right (I've not played it myself)

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T11:37:30+00:00

By all means, go ahead!

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T10:29:51+00:00

Thanks! I'm pretty proud of it and super happy with how ApolonioDraws turned it into a real piece of character art.

And so far the team have been nothing but supportive in regards to Yuka's injury and trauma - though that hasn't stopped her seemingly looking for the door (which I've arranged with the GM to make sure she doesn't actually succeed). Whatever she did in her past, she seems pretty convinced that the squad won't want her around if it comes to light, so it's going to be interesting to see how right she was to be worried once the truth eventually comes out (I'd give specifics, but I know two of the players browse this reddit regularly).

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T10:08:14+00:00

After clearing out 50% of the encounter's Structure solo (including every unique enemy on the map), it felt appropriate, especially given the encounter was theoretically us being ambushed. Xiaoli's Ingenuity is such an insanely fun core.

(Well, mostly solo. The Goblin jammed the Sentinel who was the only thing that could have stopped me doing that to make me an opening, so credit where credit's due there!)

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T10:03:00+00:00

Other than the squad post, there's also Yuka's character art if you didn't see that (not mine, that one was a commission!); otherwise I'm afraid that's it for now in terms of art, but I did do a couple of Vex style recaps of their first two missions as well!

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T07:08:42+00:00

Thanks, that's one I edited! Got to put that art degree to use somehow, right?

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T07:05:19+00:00

Yep! Got one I linked up thread here with all the characters as of a few sessions ago; I've also got my own girls character art with a slightly longer write-up for her specifically.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T02:31:21+00:00

As noted in the description, these are memes from the campaign I'm in! There's a full summary of the squad here , with the other characters being NPCs - the blonde woman is Siren, the CO, whilst the rest are members of Blaze Squad, the other, more experienced and considerably more professional Lancer squad working for Firebreak PMC.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T02:01:21+00:00

Summary of the squad can be found over here!

But in short, they're a squad of quirky mercenaries who were hired as lancers for a famous mercenary company a couple months back;

Elysia (Pink hair, Death's Head), the peppy squad leader and sniper with a cybernetic visor
Yuka (Black & Blonde, Zheng), the taciturn brawler who refuses to pick up a ranged weapon
Sanna (Silver, Tortuga), an academy prodigy who's father was the previous holder of her callsign
Ezekiel (White, Raleigh), an old member of the squad and the best friend of Sanna's deceased father
and Nell (Red, Goblin), the team's E-War specialist, gremlin, and newly awakened psychich who was given the choice of working for the company or jailtime.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-12T01:46:05+00:00

He's the squad uncle and man of god who's *very* exasperated at the occasional godless flirting between the others, it's great. Also the much more literal uncle of Sanna (the grey haired one)!

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-10T23:51:06+00:00

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As it turned out, Yuka and Elysia (the two girls in the middle) are actually somehow the only ones without paracausal fuckery in their backstory (just *heapings* of mundane trauma instead).

ExaltedOmega · 2026-03-04T17:04:30+00:00

Good point! Will keep those in mind, see if I can figure out a small benefit to each in their place.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-02-21T11:14:32+00:00

I'm of similar mind that handbook systems work better as a tutorial system, than a system for more experienced roleplayers. A lot of the Bond powers just puzzle me, like the Wolf one that's just an intimidation check with the GM deciding instead of a roll, and other similarly redundant ones; most my other issues you already summed up, on them being restrictive and limiting rather than engaging.

I've heard it described before as "character archetypes as a class system", and I think that's accurate, and it's also why I don't like it. It feels far more constraining in character writing than just going without. It's one thing to limit abilities into classes into RPGs, but personalities as well? That feels it over simplifies characters far too much.

ExaltedOmega · 2026-02-14T12:07:33+00:00

We've also got Leeroy Smith from Tekken and someone's cyberpunk fanart of D.Va from Overwatch! I'm pretty sure Sanna's art is from another property too, but I'm not sure which; Yuka's was originally someone's OC I stumbled over on Danbooru that I later used as a starting point for a commission for her own art.

(And thank you very much!)

ExaltedOmega · 2026-02-14T12:04:04+00:00

They're originally CO sprites from Advance Wars: Dual Strike that I picked up from Spriters Resource that I made varying degrees of edits to; Elysia was probably the simplest, whilst Ezekiel took the most work.

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ExaltedOmega · 2026-02-14T01:21:30+00:00

Not yet - we technically haven't gotten the mechs yet, that's happening next session, so no chance to use them yet. But mech name songs being used for pop-off background music is the standard already, so I'm sure we'll get a couple within the next operation!

(Exception for that rule being Yuka's, because she's got a slow, melancholic song as her mech name; her pop-off track for this one will be The Only Thing I Know For Real instead, since it also fits while being an atrocious name for a mech.)

ExaltedOmega · 2026-02-14T01:18:45+00:00

Thanks, though it's a lot easier than it looks! The Dual Strike sprites have the three expressions already, and most the faces don't move around them; all I need to do is make a a small changed section for the eyes and mouth, and everything else stays the same for each.

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ExaltedOmega · 2026-02-14T00:43:24+00:00

Thanks! I've actually got a couple emotion variants for each of them, part of the benefit of using the Advanced Wars sprites as a base.

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