OVERVIEW

While the deep and tactical combat rules of Lancer

are one of its primary selling-points, some players may
want to play the game in a more free-form and narrative
fashion. This set of rules can be used to replace combat
scenes in a Lancer campaign, while retaining the setting,
attrition elements, and failure-conditions of standard play.

This ruleset is meant to completely replace the standard

combat rules of Lancer. Any time you would normally use
the combat rules, use this ruleset instead.

A common use case for this ruleset would be if you are

midway through a campaign but you find that you don’t
enjoy preparing for or playing tactical combat as much
as you thought you would, or you find it takes too long.
Instead of having to adapt your entire campaign to a new
system — or cancel the campaign altogether — you can
use these rules to continue the game and retain lancer’s
narrative ruleset.

This ruleset is also light enough to run with a pencil,

paper, and the theatre of the mind.

COMBAT SCENES

A combat scene should have conditions for success and

failure. The lancer core book has several examples of
sitreps, and most pre-written modules will have these.

To run a combat scene, set up two clocks: Success

and Failure. These clocks are abstract measures of the
general situation of the scene — how well (or badly) things
are going. By default, the Success clock should have one
and a half segments per player (rounded up), and the
Failure clock should have one segment per player. For
example, with three players the Success and Failure
clocks should have five and three segments respectively.
Adjust the number of segments in the Success clock
depending on the ‘difficulty’ of the scene.

Players take turns one after another, looping back around

to the first player until either of the two clocks are filled.

If the Success clock fills up, the players have succeeded

at the scene’s goal; they have captured the objective,
escorted the VIP, or escaped the approaching forces.
If the Failure clock fills up, the players have failed; the
enemy forces have stolen the objective, the VIP has
been abducted, the players have been captured.

Remember, failure doesn't always mean complete and

utter defeat; failing can mean a pyrrhic victory, an outcome
that is poor for both sides, or a new complication arising
OIL ON THE as collateral. Use your best judgement when describing
the final outcome, paying attention to the progress of

WHEELS both clocks, and remember to always 'fall forward'.

A narrative-combat hack for Lancer by Norgad

TURNS PUSH

Each player’s turn follows the following structure: When you Push, you attempt to pursue your goals, or
interfere with the goals of the enemy. Make a skill check
The GM describes the current situation (the state of the (adding a trigger or mech skill if relevant).
objective, what the enemy forces are doing, anything
notable going on in the environment) – On a failure (9 or less), the Failure clock fills by one
segment. You lose one structure and make a structure
The current player chooses one of the two Actions, check on the Modified Structure Table.
and their character’s narrative approach to the situation.
– On a success (10 to 19), the Success clock fills by
Once confirmed with the GM, the player makes a skill
one segment. You lose one structure, but do not
check, then applies the effects of the relevant action’s
make a structure check.
outcomes.
– On a critical success (20 or more), you may choose to
The GM and the current player work together to describe either fill one segment of the Success clock, or empty
how the situation changes. This can flow into describing one segment of the Failure clock.
the situation for the next player’s turn.
HOLD
ACTIONS
When you Hold, you attempt to stabilize the situation,
Players have a choice between two actions on their turn, steadying and preparing you and your allies against an
Push and Hold. Neither of these actions prescribe types incoming force. Make a skill check (adding a trigger or
of narrative approach; they are canvases upon which to mech skill if relevant).
paint whatever steps characters take to succeed in the
combat. Examples of narrative approaches to actions – On a failure (9 or less), the Failure clock fills by one
include (but are not limited to): segment. You may spend one repair to gain one
structure.
– Locking-onto and designating targets – On a success (10 to 19), you may spend one repair to
– Attacking enemy forces gain one structure.
– Creating a distraction – On a critical success (20 or more), you may spend
– Moving the objective closer to the goal one repair to gain one structure. Another player may
also gain one structure, without spending a repair.
– Providing covering fire for an ally
The next player gets accuracy on their turn.
– Scanning the area for helpful information
– Helping an ally in trouble ASSISTS

No matter the specific approach, players may choose After a player rolls either action, but before applying the
either of the two actions. The narrative approach also effect, a different player may choose to upgrade the result
determines which of the four mech skills (Hull, Accuracy, (change a Fail into a Success, or a Success into a Critical
Systems, Engineering) a player applies to their roll. If an Success) by spending their core power. While describing
approach is particularly novel, interesting, or clever, the the outcome, let the assisting player describe how the
GM may choose to give the player accuracy on the roll. use of their core power helped change the outcome.
A player may also choose to gain accuracy on their roll Core powers with the ‘Efficient’ tag cannot be used this
by spending one Stress (without making a stress check). way, and instead can be used by an assisting player to
give them accuracy before they roll, similar to spending
Narrative approaches should respond to the changing a stress.
situation; repeatedly taking the exact same narrative
approach won't help any further.
FIGHTING ON THE GROUND EXAMPLE OF PLAY

When your mech is destroyed you still take turns during GM: From within the print facility, an abomination
narrative rolls, but your narrative approach should shambles out. Layers and layers of drones, printed
account for the fact that your mech is downed. When on top of each other and melted together. The
taking actions, you may apply pilot triggers instead of accumulation lets out a roar and begins to crawl
mech skills, but you may not spend stress. If you take the toward the power station. You guys happen to be
Push action, another player must pay any structure costs standing directly in its path. Jane, you’re up.
on your behalf. If you take the Hold action, your mech Jane: Oh shoot, we need to stop that thing! I want to
can be repaired to one structure; on future turns you may unload on it with my Arc Projector; it chains between
now act as normal. targets so I reckon it’d be pretty effective. That's a
push, right?
If everyone’s mech is destroyed, the scene ends as if the
Failure clock has filled up. GM: If you want it to be, sure thing.

RESTING Jane: Yeah, let’s do that. I want to really melt this

thing, so I’m going to spend a stress to get accuracy.
Players can take a short rest as per the core rulebook, I’m gonna unload my whole reactor into this gun.
with the following changes:
GM: It sounds like you’re pushing your mech to the
– Players may spend one repair to regain two structure, brink, so I’ll say that you can add your engineering
two stress, or one of each. stat to this.
– Repairing a destroyed mech to one structure only Jane: Dope, let’s roll.
costs one repair, and the mech’s stress stays the
Eric: Good luck!
same as before it was destroyed.
Jane: Okay, four, plus my two in engineering, and the
Long rests are unchanged from the core rulebook, accuracy gave me an extra two; that’s… eight. This
restoring your mech to ‘like new’. isn’t looking good.
RUNNING A CAMPAIGN Eric: Can I jump in with my core power?
When planning an encounter with narrative-combat Jane: Please do.
rules, consider how many combats are expected to take Eric: Sick, I want to use my latch drone to like, siphon
place during the mission. By default, the players are excess heat off of Jane’s mech so she can push her
likely to spend one-to-two repairs-worth of resources gun even further without exploding.
each per combat, so plan the size of your success clock
accordingly. This ruleset doesn’t account for Licence GM: Sick; go for it.
Levels, so at higher levels your players will have better Jane: Okay so I’m just basically blasting this thing,
odds of rolling well. my mech glows like the sun while I’m doing it, and I’m
screaming over the comms the whole time.
If your players are struggling a bit, make sure they’re
aware they can spend stress and core powers to improve GM: You beam into this thing, melting straight into its
their odds. torso. There’s molten components sloughing off of its
chests, and it reels back, stopping in its tracks and
If you are running a pre-written module, there may be tumbling back into a cloud of thick black smoke. I’ll
sections where players can bypass certain combats as fill in a section of the success clock. Jane, mark a
a reward for certain choices or outcomes (for instance, structure, Eric, mark your core power as spent.
if they have the favour of a faction to provide armed
support). If it makes narrative sense, consider running Jane: Nice!
these combats anyway but with all player rolls having GM: Out from the acrid clouds, a severed half of the
innate accuracy — the players will appreciate the boost machine drags itself forward. The other half follows
in strength. closely behind. They’re pissed. Eric, you’re up.
Eric: Ah.
ACTION QUICK REMINDER

PUSH:
≤9 – Failure clock fills by one
– Lose one structure
– Make structure check
10–19 – Success clock fills by one
– Lose one structure
20+ – Success clock fills by one
OR
– Failure clock empties by one
HOLD:
≤9 – Failure clock fills by one
– Spend one repair to gain one structure
10–19 – Spend one repair to gain one structure
20+ – Spend one repair to gain one structure
– Another player gains one structure
– Next player gets accuracy on their turn

MODIFIED STRUCTURE TABLE

Roll 1d6 per missing structure, choose the lowest result.

6 Close call — count your blessings.

5–1 Destroy a weapon or system on your
mech, prioritizing components used in
your narrative approach.
Multiple Your mech is destroyed. Reduce its
1s structure to zero, but leave its stress at its
current number.

Oil on the Wheels, Version 1.2, by Norgad

Oil on the Wheels is not an official Lancer product;

it is a third party work, and is not affiliated with Massif
Press. Oil on the Wheels is published via the Lancer
Third Party License.

Lancer is copyright Massif Press.