Mechs in Motion Real-time Dynamic Combat for Lancer RPG ‘Ashcan version A 3rd party ruleset for Lancer RPG Writing and design by Theo AH Rusmore twitter: @TheChemGM1 mrexplorerquy.itch.io © 2022 Theo AH Rusmore What you need Mechs in Motion is a rules supplement for Lancer RPG by Massif Press. In addition to the rules in this document, you will need the core rules for Lancer, twenty-sided dice (d20), six-sided dice (d6), a writing implement, and a physical or digital writing surface. The purpose of this ruleset is to promote dynamic combat decision-making and to give GMs the tools to quickly set up and run dynamic combat rounds. Rounds in Dynamic Combat Instead of breaking each round down into turns, this ruleset breaks a round down into action Beats. A beat is the amount of in-game time it takes for the fastest character in a combat to complete a single movement action. For each round, all characters (player or NPC) will declare actions ahead of time. These actions are then mapped to the Action Track. Actions for Dynamic Combat Actions are the same as those described in the Lancer core rules (described in the table below) Action @_—_ ove overeat characters Speed Discretion Sires shear mt ee Actions that require full attention (e.g. firing a barrage, performing DO carrion Hassett Free actions are special actions granted by character traits ike Ss Free Action mech systems and talents, They can also be used to take actions more than once per turn when specified.Protocol deactivated only at the start of a turn. Each Protocol can only be OQ ‘AFree Action granted by gear or systems and can be activated or taken once per turn. Reaction ‘Special actions that can be made outside of the usual tum order as responses to incoming attacks, enemy movement, and other events. Pilots can overcharge their mech, allowing them to make an @D_—_owerharge Fitna quik oton a cota at As in core Lancer, each pilot and their Mech gets Movement up to their Speed, one Full Action or two Quick Actions, and may Overcharge once per turn. Actions such as activating a Protocol (a Free Action) may be placed on the Action Track or may be invoked prior to the start of a round as a "Zero Action” or placed as the first action of a round, at the player's discretion. Setting up the Action Track 1) Deciding your Actions Each character decides what they will do during the turn, as if they were taking their turn under core Lancer combat rules. Petrichor wants to move to a downed squad-mate while providing covering fire. His mech, Typhoon, has 4 Move, and he wants to use his assault rifle against any enemy threatening this movement. Once reaching his fallen ally, he wants to use a Quick Tech action to stabilize their Mech. Shooting an enemy is definitely Skirmish, but Petrichor wants to maintain cover fire while moving, so let's use Prepare instead. The Skirmish action will now be applied to the first enemy target to enter range during his Movement. 2) Prepare your personal Action Track For this turn, Petrichor’s track will look like this: Prepare — 4 Movement — Quick Tech 3) Let your GM know what you're doing GM Action Tracks ‘The GM makes action tracks for NPCs in an encounter in the same way as the players make their action tracks. Once all the actions are decided on, you'll have something like the following:PCs Speed Petrichor 4 @SSSSS Absalom 2 @eee080 6 @eeeeeeee8 8080808 Margrave 32 @OSSO®8 NPCs Berserker 5 @eee0e80 Assault 4 @e8080808 Acut 5 @eeeeeeece Ge 3 @e8e es Priest 5 @eee08 Titania pilots an SSC Altas frame, so I've represented instances of Jager Kunst 1 movement as repeated activations of the protocol. This is probably a good way to handle similar movement and actions. Adjusting for Speed Once all actions are in order, you need to apply an adjustment for the mech’s Speed. The time for one movement action carried out by the character with the highest Speed is called a Beat. Other than Move, all actions take one Beat to resolve, including Overcharge. The combatant with the highest Speed places an action in every beat until their actions are completed. The combatants with the next highest Speed will skip one beat between each move action. 3rd highest skip 2 beats, and so on. Place actions in the hex when they will resolve. All actions that resolve in the same Beat will resolve simultaneously, except when two actions resolving on the same beat may affect each other's outcome. In these cases, the action from the character with the highest Speed resolves first Exceptions to the normal handling of Beats are as follows: Superheavy weapons fire on the second beat of the Barrage action used to fire them.Any action taken following an Overcharge action resolves on the following beat, occupying its own beat on the Action Track. Boost movement always occurs in consecutive beats and is not adjusted for the character's speed. In our example, Titania is the only pilot whose mech has a Speed of 6, so their Action Track will be occupied for every hex until they are out of planned actions, in this case taking up the first 15 Beats. 1.23 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415 16171819 20 Seeeeseeeneeeeeooooo The Berserker Grunt and Priest NPCs both have Speed 5. The Priest's Full Tech action resolves across beats 7 & 2, and the Berserker Grunt’: initial move action resolves on beat 2. cm OSOSOCSOCSSSOOOCO00N0NNN Pet =@SSOSOSOS8OS800000N00N0 Petrichor has a Speed of 4, and Prepare is marked when itis activated during Beat 1 Pencror SOORBOOSOOSOOSBO0000N0 The Assault and Assault Elite NPCs also have Speed 4. The Assault NPC‘: initial Move Action resolves on Beat 3, while the Assault Elites Skirmish action resolves on beat 1 before beginning movement on beat 2. asat OOCOOBOOSOOSBSB000000 me =SOOSCOSOCOSSSSOCS8COSO- The second activation of the Assault Elite is marked with a yellow hex. Absalom, Margreave, and Goliath all have Speed 3, so their movement actions take 4 beats to resolve. arson OOO COO OS SSSSOO0000NN nme OOOSCSSSBOOO00C00N0N0NN colts SOOOKBOOOSOOOSBON00DN Running Combat from the Action Track Once all characters in combat have their action tracks set up, the round begins (round is defined in the same manner as core Lancer-the amount of time for all characters involved in a combat to take all actions that they choose or are allowed to them.) ‘The Action Track is read from left to right, with all actions that fall on a beat resolving before moving to the next beat. If two characters have actions that impact each other resolving on the same beat (say, each is attacking the other), the character with the higher Speed resolves theiraction first. If you arrange your Action Track as shown in the example, this means that actions resolve from top to bottom of the Action Track. In this example of play, Beat 1 consists of Titania activating their Jager Kunst 1 Protocol, Petrichor taking the Prepare Action, the Priest NPC beginning their Full Tech action-activating Investiture, the Assault Elite firing its Assault Rifle at Titania (this ruleset does not alter the mechanics of Evasion or damage), and the Goliath NPC firing its Drum Shotgun as a Skirmish action. Once these are resolved, move on to Beat 2. In Beat 2, Titania will move one hex on the map, the Berserker Grunt will finish the one hex of movement initiated on Beat 1, and the Priest NPCs second action from Full Tech activation (Dispersal Shield) completes. No other actions resolve on Beat 2, so we can move on. During Beat 3, Titania again completes a Move action, running into a large rack on the field, activating Jager Kunst 1. Movement from this Protocol will begin during the next Beat. The Assault NPC completes their first Move. No other actions resolve on Beat 3. Beat 4 sees the initiation of Titania's 2 spaces of movement from Jager Kunst 7, the resolution of the Berserker Grunt’s second space of movement, and the resolution of the first space of movement for the Priest NPC, Petrichor, the Assault Elite, Absalom, and Margreave. The resolved ‘Move actions bring the Berserker Grunt into range of Petrichor’s assault rifle, activating the Prepared Skirmish action. On hit, this activates the Berserker Grunt’s Aggression, causing it to lash out at the adjacent Priest NPC. Beat 5 has another space of Jager Kunst 1 movement for Titania, the resolution of the Goliath NPCs first space of movement, and the first beat of Margreave’s Barrage action. Once a character has exhausted their action track, their turn is over. As in core Lancer, these characters may still take Reactions throughout the rest of the round as other characters continue with their actions. In this play example, Titania will continue making an action every beat through Beat 15. After this, there are chances for empty beats to occur. If no actions resolve on a beat, move on to the next beat. The first empty beat in this example is Beat 17. The Assault Elite has actions occurring after Beat 20, indicated in the example by the ‘-~' symbol. Once all characters have completed their actions for the round, the Action Track is cleared for the next round, with all actions again beginning at Beat 1. Choosing to Move Faster or Slower Characters may choose to temporarily alter their speed for one round, as follows: Characters may increase their effective speed (reducing the gap between their Move actions by exchange for 1 Difficulty on their next non-movement action. This Difficulty may be removed by Waiting one beat for each difficulty gained in this manner.Handling Reactions in Dynamic Combat Reactions are handled slightly differently due to the removal of turn order. Instead of “happening outside of turn order in response to certain triggers” reactions may be activated whenever the triggers for that reaction are met. If a reaction can be activated more than once per round (2/round or more), you may only take another instance of that reaction after the next Beat in which one of your actions resolves. Further, Brace changes as follows: Brace Reaction, 1/round Trigger: You are hit by an attack and damage has been rolled. Effect: You count as having RESISTANCE to all damage, burn, and heat from the triggering attack, and until Brace is cleared, all other attacks against you are made at +1 Difficulty. Due to the stress of bracing, your Action Track becomes empty and you cannot take any further actions of reactions until Brace is cleared. Overwatch behaves as normal and is triggered by the initiation of any movement (including Boost) within the threat range of one of your weapons. Continued movement (happening across multiple Beats by a character with different Speed, even if itis tracked as multiple discrete actions) does not trigger Overwatch, Responding to a Dynamic Battlefield Not everything will go to plan, and that’s ok. The action track is a mechanism for interpreting simultaneous actions, and does not lock characters into the actions they've planned. If a change on the battlefield-such as the destruction of an enemy or an ally suddenly needing assistance-makes your planned actions undesirable, you can adjust on the fly! Redo your action track, and feel free to make further changes as the situation develops. Another option is to Wait. If you have something you want to carry out, but the situation hasn't lined up for it quite yet (maybe you used Hide at the end of the previous turn and want to ambush an enemy, or you are coordinating your actions with a slower ally), you can choose to not take an action on a Beat when your action would otherwise resolve. Mark Wait on the Action Track as a Free Action. Engagement in Dynamic Combat Dynamic combat and use of the Mechs in Motion ruleset do not change the Engagement mechanic from core Lancer. In the case of movement bringing a character adjacent to a hostile character, both characters gain the Engaged tag, and if the adjacent character is of equal or greater size, the character moving into the space loses all remaining movement. As with coreLancer, if a mech or pilot has a specific rule that contravenes the Engagement rule, the more specific rule takes priority. Specific changes to mechanics Boost: Movement resulting from a Boost action will always occur in consecutive Beats, regardless of the character's speed. Brace: When the Brace reaction is triggered, the character taking the Brace reaction forfeits all remaining Actions and Movement until Brace is cleared. Brace is cleared after the character forfeits one Quick Action and movement equal to the character's maximum Speed, or the round ends, whichever comes second. — PSWERED BY — _1_Fu_slt Fusri_ri LHNLENR Mechs in Motion is not an official Lancer product; it is a third party work, and is not affiliated with Massif Press. Mechs in Motion is published via the Lancer Third Party License. Lancer is copyright Massif Press. With thanks to Massif Press for writing the mud-and-lasers ttrpg | always dreamed of. Feedback: https://forms.gle/806v7JXibC7LKPeSA (qr code and link go to the same place)