In fact, over the course of most games I’ve run, the players’ builds become defined strongly enough that the game masters’ attention is caught, responding by utilising enemies, sitreps, and terrain designed to catch them out, quickly evolving into a delightful game of cat-and-mouse, with players and GMs alike always on their toes, ready to change tack to avoid the other.
The joy of the game thus evolves to be all about plate-spinning, attempting to keep your gameplan alive through the absolutely game-warping effects that are attached to a lot of mechs. In Lancer, you’re always playing on multiple axes - hacking or physical damage, singular versus team play, eliminations and objectives. Lancer thrives on player creativity, with players encouraged to manoeuvre through various mech licences and player abilities to pull together a cohesive build, that itself can change and meld into different forms between missions. Mechanically, it’s brilliantly crunchy and intricate the whole thing is built less around class system seen in the best tabletop RPGs and is more so like a modular toolbox of abilities that expands and interlinks as players progress. Lancer, by contrast, is a tabletop RPG centred on mech combat.
