Operation Solstice Rain debrief (Spoilers)

[elfin narwhal]

here's my debrief of OSR but before anything, lets give some context !

Context : We are a groupe of 6 players + 1 DM (This is, as you may already think, A LOT, I would even say, TOO MUCH For LANCER), Totally new to LANCER but Veterans of multiple TTRPG. There will, therefore, be a lot of comparison to how we perform in DnD 5e (where I am a player not DM)
Also, it was a firsty time with Foundry VTT.
We play once a week. ~3H sessions.
Homebrew : Coming from DnD 5e we had an system of "inspiration", started very poorly by giving "extra core power" (don't do that), quickly changed to "One extra quick action once on your turn" (think of it as a free overcharge), Said inspirations are given as such : End of every session, we give a “play of the game” and the initiator gets the inspiration, then we create a “meme of the play” for next session and vote for the funnier one. Funnier meme get another inspiration. (you can see why core power was ridiculous in such economy)

TL;DR / Overall conclusion : The game is fun but battles are LONG (And being 6 players + new to the game + new to Foundry didn't helped that), We are talking 2 sessions minimum per battles.

• Builds come a bit late (we allowed for the 3 GMS frames, Everest Chomolungma and Sagarmatha) starting LL0 was fairly debated, especially since we weren't sure to keep going further after OSR (I don't know about LL2 start or maybe LL0 but Allowing Frames ?)
  Approaching LL2, Sagarmatha feels like it’s not performing that good. As of player feedback, Everest is decent, Chomolungma is « best for hacking », whereas Sagarmatha seems to be a weak defender compared to other frames.
  Player suggestion regarding builds : Separating core power/trait from the frame for more « LEGO » build. Suggesting that core power could be Level 3 license components (or even Level 4). (Of course, that makes for a whole rebalancing but as a homebrew for veteran player, I believe this can be a thing)
  Overall,Frames, Licenses, Pilot traits, Stats, and mech builds were appreciated.
  -Little room for roleplaying/chatting and "on foot" stuff (or non combat Mech play)
  -Balance seemed fine from DM perspective (the module is meant for 5 players max, and for beginners, they crushed pretty much everything and I never felt like they were in great danger) However, they complained A LOT about enemies dealing "fixed max damage". I can see the frustration, but I think its fair enough considering the game is meant for repair management and enemies usually don't have multiple structure/reactor stress.
  Player point : DM split fire, if he chose to focus one guy he could have destroyed them. (fair enough, though I believe focus fire is not very fun, even if it’s tactically the best move)
  -Union/LSA/Vestan Dynamic : Felt like Union was too much invested in the conflict considering we are told "Union shouldn't engage unless being engaged first"
• “Are those soldier cold blooded machine or can they surrend when there is litteraly one guy left and we can’t lose », This would indeed make sense and could have helped make battle shorter.
• Rules are sometimes felt unclear (I want to put an emphasis on « felt » because it was a first play and I know a lot of times it was a « me not knowing the rule »), but I think the real « problem » is how some « rule as written » makes very little sense (see arcing allowing arty round in a maze)
  In LANCER defense « They didn’t had 5 editions to simplify and optimize rules »

Now for the long run !

Intro : My first mistake here, as of player feedback : give them some time on board of the RIO-Grande. let them meet the team (players and others NPC), make some bonds, slip some detail and lore through those chatting moments. Don't go briefing into Combat 1. Speaking of which.

COMBAT 1
Fairly good intro, Played it all vanilla. But here's some suggestion.
01 : The pilot survived but is stuck in the cockpit => this gives a good reason for player to stay in case they want to rush and/or they question "why should we stay here ?"
02 : Rogue LSA NPC => Isolated LSA soldier happens to be on crash site, he makes for a first contact with LSA, can become regular NPC in the long run, can be used as a bonus missions like "protect NPC and you get a reserve or exotic LSA gear". The NPC would then leave the party when rejoining the bus escort. (might even talk about said bus like they've been isolated from the convoy, etc)

BEAT 1 X COMBAT 02
This is where I went crazy and mixed skill challenge with the battle .
This was mostly due to the realization that battle were "really long" with 6 players.
What I did was 2 skills checks before the battle such as :
1 Repair the bus => on success, the bus will follow on its own, on a fail, a full action is required to "grab" the bus and push it
2 Scout ahead => on a success, The party found a safe route, enemies don't start in the usual deploy area, they get in as reinforcement. Making their blockade pretty ineffective and poor positioning that the party can exploit or choose to rush.

BEAT 2
I made the party fully escort the bus to the shelter were they could have some roleplay with overloaded soldier and emergency services, as well as some scared civilians.
Knowing the bus is now safe, they proceed forward to FOB Saber when they come across the reason of the ongoing chaos and so begins...

COMBAT 03
Played Vanilla, the crane and platform mechanics were appreciated, Even though the only mech with manipulators had said manipulator destroyed, they managed to pass the agility checks.
Invisibility on the other hand wasn't very welcomed in the beginning, however after a bit of experimentation, "Reliable" weapons and Jackhammer proved to be the answer.

FOB Saber (subtitled The Roleplaying deliverance)

This is the first time we felt that we had real room for roleplaying, place to slip some personnal character background, etc. but on the other hand, this made it too condensed.
This is also a good time to point out the « Union don’t get involved in the LSA/Vestan conflict… except they do ? » There seems to be a thin line here, that could actually be cool to explore. Like, does the Union really wants to stay out of the conflict even though helping the LSA clearly serves their cause ? Could there be a little bit of hypocrisy here or on the opposite we could have another speech of « remember we shouldn’t take part in the conflict and ONLY wants our VIP’s back », Why not slip a little « review of the PC battle records » to check if they respected the rule.
Anyway, this was a good time (a little too short to my appreciation), PC made some friends and got some reserves and exotic gear (and LL1).

COMBAT 04
Back to some personal interpretation. I remember some scouting Skill checks and trying some diversion tactics, unsuccessfuly.
I made the enemies already defending the closest positions and not being visible to the PC until within line of sight or hostile action taken. This was to keep along with the whole mirage/visual distortions. It honestly didn’t felt like the sitrep was harder sinced the player could quickly contest the closest sites and NPC were not holding the furthest ones. Juts made engagement come quicker.
I personally would even suggest to change the sitrep victory condition, Because staying back to hold a site isn’t much fun. And just « being there » doesn’t feel very engaging. My suggestion would be to have PC actually hack the antennas of each site (full action while within the area). Enemies could « dehack » the same way (so you still need to control the sites), may-be « you can hack antenna if enemies are in the site, so you don’t have a « last round rush ».
by the end of turn X, you need to have hacked 3+ antennas.
On a side notes, if you went for the « pilot survived crash» you can have said pilot be the transport guy for the party. We had a party member family member in our case because it was fun and lore relevant (There are two « Carmine », reference to gears of war Carmines, so i just slept some more in the crew)

BEAT 3
Well… this is a case of « scenario is pushing the players to rush things so we keep moving »

COMBAT 5
Went mostly vanilla with this one, just had the furries squad to be seen and get into the submarine, not fighting, straight rushing the sub and closing the door.
The fight was a bit weird. The ramps felt weird to play around with abilities that push. Water was also a bit weird, a lot of mechs were pushed into it. And I kind of made they slowly get out, climbing back on the docks. However this battle gave us one of the funniest warcrime play :
Enemy : goes reactor meltdown and eject, eject pod is « still mid air above the water »
Player : I Mortar the pod
me : You what ?
Player : POOL !

Anyway, they win, I make Captain Farris get out of the sub in a Vestan mech, explaining that she managed to use ongoing chaos to escape but that ambassador bannerjee has been evacuated and that they need to check the docks as they can’t get so far.

BEAT 4
Again, you are pressed and rushed to save the VIP, no time to anything, it’s even debattable that they have time for repair. I even thought of actually have them not going to the dock but instead having the battle take place in the sub without rest since they were performing really well. But i didn’t wanted to diverge too much from the module. (since I already had pretty much)

COMBAT 6
This one is still going on as I write this but its safe to safe the PC will win with no casualties (unless some shenanigans of Short-Cycle Lance happens), I went almost vanilla and just added a Support class NPC for the purpose of « this is were the VIP is held » As well as given a bit more challenge since, as already told, they are perfoming very well.
Finally having a named NPC, I decided to have a little chat between them and Kiros, giving him some « this will be a good fight » personnality, trying not to make him too much of a « full bad guy » vibe. But more of an « honorable opponent » HOWEVER, saying that AFTER the Short-Cycle Lance was fired seemed to have tainted the message from the player perspective.
Thankfuly, I found a way to insert some RP/Lore within the fight thanks to Foundry and Player shenanigan. long story short, one PC is a celebrity that throws ads and other cheering audios via Macros, I replaced every files with « more or less enigmatic stuff » linking the player together and initiating the future of the campaign.