INTRODUCTION
You are one person, alive in this time of tumult and thousands; a spacer who has spent too long listening
peace – a time of promise that was built on the sacri‐ to the deep whispers of the void.
fice of those who came before and is threatened still
by the heirs of old adversaries. You are one whose life Whatever led your character to the cockpit of their
is lived in the great river, where lives cross stars and mech, they are the sum of many parts: enhanced
time; where one person in the right place at the right through a combination of training, natural skill, battle‐
time can divert the course of history; where the field experience, and neural or physical
collective action of comrades can save worlds, lives, augmentation, a lancer is the equivalent of a knight of
and better define Union’s utopian dream. old, a flying ace, or another class of elite warrior.
You are a mech pilot – one of the best, a lancer – and Lancers, many proudly declare, are a cut above
yours is the story of this spinning coin at the apex of other pilots.
its toss. At this pivotal moment in history, what will
you and your comrades do when fate, foresight, and They aren’t entirely wrong. The recruitment, training,
luck – good or bad – puts you in the right place at the and maintenance of a mech pilot demand the invest‐
right time? ment of much more time and capital than your
average soldier. To operate a mech at peak efficiency,
On which side will you fall? a pilot needs extensive physical and mental training,
or advanced (and expensive) physiological and onto‐
logical augmentations. Washout and injury rates are
THE CAVALRY high thanks to the demanding training process, but a
Your character in the world of Lancer is a mechanized high bar is necessary: once a candidate attains their
cavalry pilot of particular note – a lancer. Whatever final certifications and ships out to their first posting,
the mission, whatever the terrain, whatever the they face only the most dangerous missions. Mechs
enemy, your character is the one who is called in to aren’t sent in to keep the peace – they’re sent in when
break the siege or hold the line. When the drop all other options have failed. Your character, a lancer,
klaxons sound, it’s up to them to save the day. represents the best of this exceptional corps.
Your lancer hails from a world and culture of your Remember, whatever their history, your pilot is ulti‐
choice, but is human. They might come from Earth – mately human. They’re just as flawed as the rest of
or Cradle, as it is now called – but to hail from Earth us, just as perfect. Pilots are heroes and villains;
in the age of Union is exceedingly rare. No, it is far brave souls and cowards; lovers and fighters, all.
more likely that your pilot hails from somewhere in Some of them stand strong when everyone else runs,
the vastness of the human diaspora. In Lancer, it has or are the first to face danger – our best and brightest.
been millennia since we left Earth, and most of But they, too, break under the pressure; they fail; they
humanity lives among the stars in our arm of the kill, even when they could have spared a life.
Milky Way.
Pilots and lancers are from all walks of life. Every
This humanity is familiar and strange in equal station, criminal history, and economic class is
measure. As far as we know, the only sentient, represented in their ranks.
sapient beings in our stellar neighborhood are other
humans, but don’t take this as a limitation – there are
many roads to becoming a lancer. Your character
might be the product of significant technological and
capital investment on the part of their employers; or,
they could be a born prodigy – a wunderkind who
commands a mech with innate grace and ability,
perhaps discovered by a secretive recruiter. Your
character might be a lucky conscript – a battle-proven
draftee who managed to survive their first drop,
promoted by desperate commanders looking for a
hero. They could also be the scion of an ancient,
atemporal monarchy, destined to inherit the chassis
of their polypatriarch. Your character could be a jaded
volunteer from a Union liberator team, motivated by a
closely-guarded ember of hope for a better future; or
an anointed Loyal Wing of the Albatross; or a
facsimile of a long-dead pilot, grown in batches of
SECTION 0 // Getting Started
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