Lancer RPG Template

[sinful solar]

This template package is designed as a simple and versatile tool for creating Lancer content under the Lancer Third Party License. It includes formats and styles echoing the aesthetic seen in the Lancer Core Book, allowing third party creators to publish polished content with a similar theme. The ZIP package provides Microsoft Word .dotx templates which contain the following:

• Table styles for quickly creating homebrew mechs, NPCs, and equipment
• Paragraph and character styles to easily follow Lancer's clean, futuristic layout
• A screen-reader friendly version of the template for accessible, print-friendly documents
• A color palette to easily reference the color scheme used in the Lancer Core Book
• A style guide for constructing missions, beats, and combat encounters
• Formatting for credits, clocks, sitreps, and more!

This package includes two templates: One optimized for Microsoft Word and another intended for Google Docs. Both of these .dotx templates are licensed under CC BY 4.0, which allows for sharing, derivative works, and commercial use with proper attribution. They are not guaranteed to work with other word processors, such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice.

This package also provides the following fonts and graphics for convenience:

• The "Arimo" font package, included under the Apache License, Version 2.0, and the "Ubuntu Mono" font package, included under the Ubuntu Font License, both free for commercial use
• Two "Powered By Lancer" graphics and the "Lancer-Icons" font, included under the Lancer Third Party License

With these resources, I hope publishing professional Lancer third party content is less daunting for those aiming to create new mechs, foes, missions, and adventure modules!

Please use this thread for questions regarding this project. Happy creating!

Itch
DriveThruRPG (affiliate link)

[brazen beacon]

God this template was so helpful for me.
Well only the sample template because I couldn’t purchase the full version at the time but unbelievably helpful nonetheless

[sinful solar]

Indeed, I like to think the demo sample is convenient as a writing and style guide. I frequently reference the Color Palette too

[brazen beacon]

It was so useful

I had it open for like, 75% of the formatting of my own guide

[odd moon]

thank you for the assistance valk@@@

[sinful solar]

happy to help! 😄

[sinful solar]

@odd moon For LibreOffice Writer, In case the shadows on the shapes are bothering you, Right Click Shape -> Area -> Shadow -> Uncheck "Use Shadow" will remove it. Dunno if there's a way to set that as a default but it'll at least help your current import

[odd moon]

i have so far yet to notice a shadow, but i'll keep that in mind!

[sinful solar]

It's faint, but most noticeable on the headers:

Same for any Lines that aren't table borders

[odd moon]

ohhhhh

i didnt even realize that wasnt in the books tbh

[sinful solar]

all good, yeah the books in general are very flat in their styling

[sinful solar]

I’ve looked over Solstice Rain for new layout ideas; I think I’m actually more comfortable with the Wallflower layout than the OSR layout. I’m not likely to make many changes to the template in light of OSR

[limber pine]

Took me a full 30 seconds to realize OSR was Operation Solstice Rain and not Old School Renaissance

[sinful solar]

Lol I low key intended that

[limber pine]

(I think Gavin Norman's layout sensibilities are some of the best in the industry)

[sinful solar]

I cannot speak on that but I’ll take your word for it

[limber pine]

He made Old School Essentials and several acclaimed adventures, including Winter's Daughter

currently working on the Dolmenwood campaign setting

[brazen beacon]

getting around to purchasing this very cool document

because i actually never have

[odd moon]

Nice!

[sinful solar]

It’s appreciated! 😄

[brazen beacon]

the small preview i used was amazingly helpful for nexus amendment

i should actually pay it forward

[sinful solar]

Lancer RPG Template is on sale on DTRPG for GM's Day! Pierce the Heavens is on sale on DTRPG for GM's Day! Feel free to share it with someone who might want it on a small discount: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/406074/Lancer-RPG-Template?affiliate_id=2436726

[odd moon]

oh nice, yeah!

I keep forgetting about dtrpg

[sinful solar]

I'm revisiting layout options for systems; I'm actually able to get the drawings to work the way I want them to if I make them inline drawings and then use Edit Points to adjust the dimensions (instead of using the standard "Resize" tool)

It's trickier, and requires the use of the MSWord gridlines tool to get the Edit Points to snap to the grid I want them to

(It's also likely much easier on dedicated layout software like Affinity Publisher or Adobe InDesign)

In any case, this is actually pretty seamless at the joins; I think the most complicated thing to do with this is gonna be the multi tech action stuff

[sinful solar]

Okay wow, MSWord actively fights against me when I'm trying to edit the points for these boxes

like, trying to turn previously-straight segments into curved segments

absolutely gross

[odd moon]

😔

[sinful solar]

I was previously considering setting something up for the next MSWord version, but if this is gonna be like this, then forget it, the existing Tables will be more accessible for people to use

[limber pine]

sounds about right

[sinful solar]

k so Word 2021 is a lot more consistent than Word 2016 for editing points and not trying to make everything a damn curve, though it still has its inconsistencies. Still don't feel comfortable enough to add this to the template, though; only scenario I'd imagine is one where I include it as an option alongside the existing tables

It's also practically incompatible with Google Docs, too, due to how Gdocs handles drawings

So, for now, I'm completely willing to say "yeah the current system/weapon card system is as much work as I'm willing to put in barring evidence of a solution"

I'll probably still be tweaking the template (especially with Dustgrave and Siren's Song introducing some potentially useful elements) but it won't be on the system/weapons cards

[civic gale]

Just wanted to say thanks for the templates. While I haven't utilized them for my fan made expansion book yet, I'm planning to and already purchased them. Having all of the formatting there while I work on the mechanics brings a lot of peace of mind. I get to focus on writing instead of tedious visual design, n I really appreciate that

[sinful solar]

Happy they’ll be put to good use!!

[cobalt lark]

Alright, so I've purchased the template and am attempting to use the GDOC version to freshen up my own document. Am I correct in thinking that I should just be able to copy the mech template page and just plop it down right into a google doc and be just fine, basically?

[sinful solar]

Yes? I believe you should be good to do that

That’s usually what I always do after all; if anything I’d recommend toggling the whitespace indicators (looks like ¶) so you can see the page breaks and section breaks between sections with different numbers of columns

Should help when copy/pasting

[cobalt lark]

hm, i'm probably missing something, it's only copying the text and not any of the images/tables from that page

whitespace indicators on gdocs?

[sinful solar]

It should be a button; I know MSWord has it and I’m pretty sure GDocs has it too

I can take a look at it in the morning, I need to get to bed for now unfortunately

But usually the solution to using it in GDocs was to click/drag to highlight as much of the page as possible and then copy/paste

Usually the selection would grab the tables and images

[cobalt lark]

okie dokie, not seeing whitespace indicators in gdocs, and to be clear i'm attempting to copy the whole page from the gdocs READ_ME pdf

[sinful solar]

Are you doing this from the PDF or the .dotx file

The PDF is just intended for reading; if you’re working on a document, use the .dotx file

It should open up the Docs word processor

Then you can copy paste from that

Please let me know if that was the case or not

[cobalt lark]

ah okay yeah that did do it, got the table there, need to do the font stuff now, sorry for the trouble!

[sinful solar]

All good! Glad to help. If you have any more questions feel free to drop them here!

[austere zephyr]

So maybe i'm struggling a bit but

i'm having trouble understanding how to use it with googledoc

oh wait I see what i'm supposed to do

my bad

[sinful solar]

All good! What was the issue if you don’t mind me asking? Just in case I can improve documentation

[austere zephyr]

wait no okay I still think i'm not managing to understand how to open up this template in google doc

do I need to import the text file into google doc and edit from there ?

[sinful solar]

You want to import the .dotx file to Google docs and then edit from there yeah

Specifically the one with GDoc in the name

The MSWord one doesn’t play nice with GDocs

[austere zephyr]

ooooh okay

so

I didn't see the "open in google doc" bit at the top

[cobalt lark]

Hey there @sinful solar , if you're around I had a question

[sinful solar]

What’s up

[cobalt lark]

this might just be my lack of google-fu, but I'm running into issues while trying to put stuff into a second column for a mech license under its license header

how put rampart buckler here?

now as a primer

[sinful solar]

So first off you wanna click the backwards P icon to show whitespace

[cobalt lark]

also sorry this is in google docs

[sinful solar]

GDocs has that too

But it’ll help visualize the formatting

This thing:

It’ll help with what comes next

[cobalt lark]

okay I think I got that, I had to do View > Show non-printing characters

[sinful solar]

What you wanna do next is to check if there’s already columns in your work. Like if the tables are currently in columns or not

[cobalt lark]

so the little backwards Ps aren't clickable but they are like, visible now

[sinful solar]

If they’re not, highlight the tables and then choose to format them into 2 columns. I think the default column spacing will be used?

Okay yeah no columns yet then

[cobalt lark]

as a note

for the line header thing

To extend the License Headers across the entire page, select the license header, then set its columns to 1. This creates a 1-column section for the header.

am I just missing how to set its columns to 1?

[sinful solar]

You would want to highlight-select it and then set columns to 1 (assuming you were starting with 2 columns)

[cobalt lark]

I don't think I'm starting with two columns then

[sinful solar]

Basically, by highlighting a specific section and setting the number of columns, you create a new “section” with a “section break” between the old and new sections

[sinful solar]

Alright then try out these steps

Format > Columns > 2 columns

[cobalt lark]

Columns is grayed out

in Format > Columns

[sinful solar]

Well that’s certainly weird

Not sure what’s preventing that from happening

I guess my next suggestion is “do you have any sections in the doc that do have 2 columns”

[cobalt lark]

fwiw i just copied the stuff from here and put it into the doc

I guess the core stats thing that I copied? even highlighting that it has Columns grayed out

[sinful solar]

Okay I see, this is because it’s only selecting the table

You need to select some whitespace around the table too

So GDocs realizes you’re not just trying to modify the table itself, you’re modifying the space around it

I have a meeting at the moment but I can help a bit later

[cobalt lark]

Okay we're getting some traction now yeah

[sinful solar]

So feel free to ask questions now and I’ll answer later

[cobalt lark]

still having some funkiness but I've got nothing but time

if hopping in a voice chat whenever you're free would work better for you I can do that as well

like in one of the hangout channels or something

[sinful solar]

I’ll let you know!

[cobalt lark]

Got another q for ya, about to do Format > Columns > 2 Columns on this, note the roughly single space between the license header and the box for Photokinetic Projector

[sinful solar]

Yup I see it, what’s up

[cobalt lark]

when i do the format to two columns, the box for Photokinetic Projector shifts downwards, but Rampart Buckler remains flush with the Section Break below the license header

Seemingly the only way to remedy that little bit of space above Photokinetic Projector is to shrink the font on that line, but that still leaves it not quite flush with the Section Break up at the top

[sinful solar]

Hm, any chance you can use the “Del” key (or Fn+backspace on mac) to delete the line before the Photokinetic Projector?

[sinful solar]

Also you can insert a Break (column break) after Photokin to avoid having to spam the Enter key and have it resize more dynamically

[cobalt lark]

I was unable to use the Del key to do that, but I think I may have gotten it using column break

[cobalt lark]

Another quick question if you don't mind, I'm wondering if there's a way for text to automatically wrap from the bottom of the Core Stats template's left column to the top of its right column?

[sinful solar]

I don’t think so, no. Mostly because it’s a table with 2 cells instead of 2 “columns”

You’ll need to do a manual wrap

[timid blade]

How do you get the assets into Microsoft Word? I’ve been having trouble doing that. I also can’t find a .dotx file.

[sinful solar]

1. Download the ZIP file off of itch.io
2. Expand the ZIP file using the software of your choice (7Zip, PeaZip, etc. on Windows, builtin on Mac)
3. Open the file underlined in the attached screenshot (Letter-Size_Lancer_RPG_Template_Word_v2.1.dotx)

This is assuming you've installed the Fonts from the "Fonts_INSTALL_ME_FIRST.zip" file and read the "READ_ME_SECOND.pdf" file to know how to set everything up

[timid blade]

All I have is this.

[sinful solar]

That's a completely different package

I think you have the Field Guide to Field Guides there, which uses LaTeX/MiKTeX specifically

I'm talking about this: https://valkyrion.itch.io/lancer-rpg-template

[timid blade]

nvm, I was looking at the wrong folder.

[sinful solar]

Released a minor update! Just some small formatting changes, and adding the "Clues Sidebar" style from Siren's Song as well as some (relatively obscure) "Example of Play" styles from the GM section of the core book:

https://valkyrion.itch.io/lancer-rpg-template/devlog/718075/template-version-22-released

[odd moon]

oh is there a guide for installing the fonts? moved to a new computer and just got around to doing work and realized the fonts were never installed on the new computer

[sinful solar]

I believe I have a guide in the zip files? But basically it depends on your operating system. Should be as easy as double clicking the font file though?

[odd moon]

oh i got it to work, that helped, thanks!

[crystal steeple]

Hi, I just purchased this. I am a total noob when it comes to Templates, Styles, etc. in Word, and have never done any sort of layout before. So, I have some super dumb questions.

To start off ... I have to ask. What do I do with this file? I installed the fonts, and then I opened the word file in word. It is very pretty. Is it just a matter of copying and pasting from that document to the appropriate sections of the document? Or is there something I am missing?

I figure I'll build a brand-new version of my document, page by page, where I copy over your formatted stuff from the template file, then copy over my text to replace your filler text. Or ... not?

Oh, and finally, any recommendation on the page size I should choose? I'm just making a PDF, and have no immediate plans to print this ... but if I can choose a page size now that would make that easier in the future, I'm happy to do so.

I'm using the Word 365 desktop app, FYI. If there is another tutorial I should look for that will help me with some basics that allow me to use this effectively, then I'm happy to do that.

[sinful solar]

So, when you open the .dotx template file, it should make a brand new .docx file from that file. You can directly work in that file as your project file.

In general, yes, you can select stuff and copy paste it as appropriate. Highly recommend using the show whitespace button (the Pilcrow or “backwards P” button) so you can see all the section and column breaks and copy/paste those accordingly.

I designed the template for Letter size (8.5”x11”). If you want to try a different size, be my guest, just know you’ll probably need to mess with column and table widths to adjust.

[crystal steeple]

okay, cool, I wasn't sure if it was supposed to add a Template or Style to the options in the Menu Bar.

I'll fiddle around with it and try to make things work. Thanks for your advice.

[sinful solar]

You can do that too!

[crystal steeple]

I tried adding it via some "Manage Content Templates" menus, but never got Lancer stuff to appear in the menu bar.

[sinful solar]

I added my template to the word doc templates folder for my Word 2016 and 2021 installations, though I don’t know how 365 does it

[crystal steeple]

Ah, manually put it into the folder? I might try that.

I wish I had an older version, but this is what I got for free from work ...

[sinful solar]

Work with what you have haha

[crystal steeple]

I've got 28,000 words staring me in the face ... it's really damn intimidating.

[sinful solar]

Totally understandable

[limber pine]

Do we know for a fact that Lancer uses the Arimo font? Or was that a best-guess?

[sinful solar]

It doesn't, it uses either Arial or Helvetica. Neither of those are free to use in an e-publication, though, so I offer Arimo as a free close-enough alternative.

[limber pine]

I see

[sinful solar]

Lancer uses Consolas for its monotype font, which is also not free to use in e-pubs

[limber pine]

I discovered Typst recently and started working on a Lancer template and quickly discovered that Typst doesn't support variable weight fonts :(

[sinful solar]

IIRC Arimo has a variable weight font and static weight fonts

I rec installing the static weight fonts and not the variable one (the variable weight one fucks up in PDF exports anyways)

Alternatively, you can try a different sans-serif font like Lato

This is all assuming you're trying to match against Lancer's layout

[limber pine]

Ok, Google Fonts only makes the variable weight available to download

[limber pine]

fair, and ultimately I plan on not matching it with stuff I make, but attempting to match it sounded like a worthwhile project to learn Typst

[sinful solar]

Montserrat is close to the new layout sans-serif font

hang on on the Arimo

[limber pine]

I found the static weight arimo fonts

[sinful solar]

ah okay

here, have the fonts anyway

[limber pine]

haha

[sinful solar]

they're free, I just include them in the package for convenience

[limber pine]

ah there is a static subfolder

Much better

Thanks!

I guess this was slightly off topic but this was my first source on font choices, apologies

[sinful solar]

no apologies necessary

happy to help!

[sinful solar]

Added the Lancer Icons font to the itch.io demo files for ease of access!

[crystal steeple]

Hey, how do you active SmallCaps? You described when to use it, but I'm an ignorant noob and don't know much of anything. That said, I've managed to get 10+ pages laid out, including some NPC Templates ... so ... progress!

[sinful solar]

It’s a font option; are you using GDocs or MsWord? MSWord has a Style template that lets you pick a variety of character styles quickly

Not sure about GDocs but if you’re in a pinch, copy-pasting an existing use of Smallcaps should let you reuse it

[crystal steeple]

I'm using Word. I could not get the Styles to work at all, so I've been manually copy-pasting everything. I'll try your copy-paste solution. Going by your guidance, I should have used that for quite a few entries in my NPC templates, so I need to go back and redo those.

Oh, and big thanks for talking about em-dash vs en-dash with clear examples. I would not have thought about that at all, on my own.

[sinful solar]

Yeah you’re welcome! Surprised the style menu wasn’t working, not sure what’s up with that. It’s worked for me on Word 2016 and 2021, at least. Hope it’s working for you still, regardless

[sinful solar]

As a heads up to folks using MSWord: check that you’re opted out of its AI stuff (if you’re using a version that now supports it): https://mstdn.ca/@ned/113477469187444731

[static mango]

Hi! I'm having a bit of trouble with the Word template. The Styles tab only has the default styles, not any of the ones specific to the template. Do you have any idea as to why this might be/how to fix it?

I figure if I needed to I could rebuild the styles from 'scratch', but I would need a reference for what exactly to recreate

[sinful solar]

Okay that’s odd. A few questions then:

• What version of Word are you using?
• Have you specifically opened up the .dotx file for MSWord and not Google Docs?

[static mango]

I'm using the 365 version, and I did open the Word .dotx

ohho nevermind, I found them! Word was just hiding them from me

[sinful solar]

Okay cool, glad they’re showing up!

[gritty rune]

So, using the google docs version: Is there any way to change the color of individual headers in the table of contents?

[sinful solar]

Yes:

1. Highlight the header
2. go to Format > Paragraph Styles > Borders and Shading
3. Change Background Color to the desired color and Apply

[gritty rune]

Perfect, thank you

[bronze heart]

I'd like advice on how to hack this template to work with Libreoffice.

[sinful mantle]

(a) You can't just "hack it". It's an entirely different language. You'd basically have to rebuild it.
(b) They've abandoned the LaTeX version, and now have one built with Typst. If you're familiar with Markdown, it'll be relatively easy to learn. https://tetragramm.itch.io/lancer-typst

[sinful solar]

I’m immensely confused here. I never made this Latex version. @bronze heart you can absolutely use my Word template with LibreOffice, I recommend scrolling up through the thread to see some discussions about it

It’ll need some modifications, as discussed in #gm-corner, but it’s not outright incompatible

[sinful mantle]

Oh, wait. I got confused with this other template. Sorry. D:

[bronze heart]

Where in specific?

[sinful solar]

Legitimately, upthread in various places. Maybe do a discord thread search for LibreOffice references? There’s several here and there in this thread and any result I hand you is gonna come from a search

[gritty rune]

I may need a spell of technical support; in copying something into the document, it broke the odd page number footer (as in the red triangle disappeared) and I have no idea how to get it back in a way that applies to the whole document instead of copying it one page at a time

[sinful solar]

Microsoft Word's page numbering system is cursed; I am likely not the best person to ask for this, and would sooner recommend checking docs online.

The first thing I'd say to do is to save, close MSWord, and reopen it, and see if that solves the problem (sometimes there's visual bugs).

also, on which side is the odd-page footer? left or right

[gritty rune]

Right (and google docs, not word)

which is why I can't just back and undo it, cause it immediately crashed afterwards

[sinful solar]

Because you may need to open a new doc and copy/paste the icon/image, then position it properly

ah hell

yeah I'd try to open the Gdocs footer, see if the footer triangle got lost somewhere, as well as if the footer number is still there or not

[gritty rune]

The number was gone too, but that I got back

[sinful solar]

I'd try to paste a copy of the footer triangle into the footer and position it according to a fresh document using the template

all else fails, I'd attempt to migrate the content to a new document without the issue

[gritty rune]

I can copy it over one at a time, it just doesn't take to the entire doc for some reason :/

[sinful solar]

I mean are you opening the footer itself when you do so?

[gritty rune]

yes

[sinful solar]

Okay then maybe check if there’s a setting for even/odd pages that’s causing issues?

Like maybe they got uncoupled or something

In any case I probably can’t help much more, as I primarily use Word and would lean heavily on external documentation for this issue

[gritty rune]

Thank you anyway