Rogue Vaults

[knotty musk]

Rogue Vaults is a third-party player-end homebrew supplement for Lancer that aims to expand on the already existing big four manufacturer portfolios with the goal of filling in the gaps.

Rogue Vaults offers 8 new licences, 2 for each manufacturer:

• IPS-N Vespucii: Stealth focused, NHP assisted suit built for battlefield backline infiltration and passive formation dissruption
• SSC Painted Lady: Fragile defender working preemptively to protect its allies through electronic warfare
• HORUS Perun: A size 3 benevolent artillery guardian angel of mass destruction
• HA Boudica: Your two way brute force ticket on the trip through the Aunic Firmament
• IPS-N Columbus: Dynamic custom smartfire payload factory
• SSC Hairstreak: A drone hive made martial artist
• HORUS Strix: Capable of spreading various status effects at any time, it forces collective responsibility among enemy ranks
• HA Maginot: Designed to withstand onslaught from all angles it holds point by helping it's allies better protects themselves by themselves

The LCP files are available at: https://kipperit.itch.io/roguevaults

• A free demo version with all licences and mechanics required for play included
• A paid version with additional compendium entries and frame illustrations, (demo contents also included)

Rogue Vaults has never been playtested in actual play. Only solo-run simulations and theory guided me through the process. Which is why the only part i put a price on with clear conscience - is my art.

Though Rogue Vaults will no doubt remain a passion project, I'll be happy to review any provided feedback and introduce balancing changes in the form of updates. English is not my native language, so feel free to let me know if anything requires correction.

[high trench]

oh wow, cool art

[quiet hemlock]

×2

look the Columbus

Look what it has a Double Main/Aux Mount and a Heavy Mount

Well, I see it doesn't have the best stats, but... Wao.

[knotty musk]

Thanks! I've been sharing my progress drawing the illustrations on the gallery channel, and i must say the reception was far better then i would have ever expected. Glad you like it too!

[knotty musk]

Yeah, as long as it's not a double heavy, right? The goal was to: make an artillery frame that doesn't just have a unique big/weird gun. To convey the class identity in some other creative way. Hence the mounts and stats proportion. Incentivises keeping a safe distance and using many weapons in rapid succession to achieve it.

[cedar gorge]

Heya! I was wondering, is there any chance the mech illustrations could be hosted somewhere other than Imgur? If you're in the UK you can't view them at all, sadly

[knotty musk]

Oh damn, i had no idea! Yeah, sure, i'll try and fix that as soon as i can. Thanks for letting me know 🙏 Do you perhaps know of any suitable alternatives?

WTH!! I just realized i'm talking to BlueNexa!! 🥹 Sorry... i'm just a huge fan of Terk Mech & Tech

[cedar gorge]

Yeah, you can make it work with Dropbox or such, it takes a couple steps so I'd ask in the homebrew channel

Also note that Imgur will kill your images eventually (ask me how I know lmao)

[cedar gorge]

Ehehehe, hi :P
It's all good, honestly the supplement reminded me of TM&T in a way lol, part of why I took a look

The frames look great, great art too ^^

(art-wise I particularly love the painted lady, that must've been a nightmare to draw lol)

[knotty musk]

Redesigned 3 times over 😒 ... i really had a hard time deciding on a theme. I wanted porcelain, but also something that at least somewhat resembled a robot and didn't just look like a dude clad in armor? Then stacked on top of that, the defender hacker vibes... yeah it was a lot. Definitely the hardest one to pull off and the last of the roster to get illustrated.
As for the floral patterns... i had a good reference and... i guess psychological understanding of how to make them look convincing? It's really not that well done 😅 but i'm glad you like it!

[cedar gorge]

Pfff x3

[knotty musk]

Alright! Rogue Vaults v 0.1.2 is ready, now using github instead of imgur for image hosting... hope this work 🤞

[cedar gorge]

Works perfectly now, thanks! ^^

[knotty musk]

Awesome! Happy to have figured this out. Enjoy!

[tulip coral]

Does the Hairstreak's drone recall capability allow it to bring victims grappled by its drones to it? My initial impulse is that it breaks grapples.

Hmm. Command grapple. If you aren't the same size or bigger than a target, rules say you can't ram or grapple the target. Same with drones. Does this mean Command Grapple is an ability that can only be used when you've already grappled someone?

-- SSC Painted Lady @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] SSC Painted Lady 2, HORUS Minotaur 1, HA Tokugawa 2, HA Sunzi 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Heatfall Coolant System, Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints [ TALENTS ] Technophile 3, House Guard 3, Black Thumb 2, Nuclear Cavalier 1 [ STATS ] HULL:2 AGI:0 SYS:2 ENGI:4 STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:3 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:9 REPAIR:4 TECH ATK:+3 LIMITED:+2 SPD:4 EVA:7 EDEF:9 SENSE:15 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] Heavy Mount: Heavy Machine Gun // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints [ SYSTEMS ] Prompt reception variable cypher, Viral Logic Suite, Deep Well Heat Sink, Armament Redundancy, Personalizations, False Calibration

This is a pure tech attacker with, God forgive me, no goblin 1.

Heatfall technothumb to spam out hacks as often as you can. Nuke Cav 1 to get extra heat out there because:
Painted Lady passive access to invade option:
Suppress Power
Effect
Until the end of their next turn, whenever the target attacks, they reduce damage and heat dealt by a number equal to their current heat.

Minotaur Banish (take 2 heat per space moved up to max of 6 heat) + Painted Lady 1 Control Input Inhibitor Bug (Target can only move their full speed in straight lines until the end of their next turn) will fuck with melee and cqc mechs severely and rack up the heat. or Joint Stabilization Offset (on their next attack, they deal -1 damage and heat for every space they moved.)

Additionally, Grid Shift is an incredibly powerful invade option because it prevents crits until the end of their next turn and functions as an Improved DnD 5e Disadvantage (on their first successful attack roll, they must roll again and choose the second number.)
now this mech DOES have a heavy mount and it does seem a bit of a shame to leave it as an afterthought..

-- SSC Painted Lady @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] SSC Painted Lady 2, HORUS Balor 2, SSC Dusk Wing 2 [ CORE BONUSES ] Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Overpower Caliber [ TALENTS ] Heavy Gunner 3, House Guard 3, Crack Shot 2, PEN TESTING 1 [ STATS ] HULL:2 AGI:0 SYS:2 ENGI:4 STRUCTURE:4 HP:17 ARMOR:3 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:9 REPAIR:4 TECH ATK:+3 LIMITED:+2 SPD:4 EVA:7 EDEF:9 SENSE:15 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] Heavy Mount: "BUSTER" ATR (Nanocomposite Adaptation) // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] Armament Redundancy, Personalizations, Neurospike, Flicker Field Projector, False Calibration, Rapid Burst Jump Jet System

You try to fire that gun once a round to completely debilitate someone's ability to do damage
then you hack them or a friend to hamper the team even more.
If you need to, you can instead heavy gunner 3 to lock people down and potentially immobilize and debuff their damage even more if they move and you hit

[tulip coral]

Hmm something like this, perhaps?
» Sentinel?? // HAIRSTREAK GRAPPLER « [ TALENTS ] Duelist 3, Spaceborn 2, Combined Arms 1, Drone Commander 1, Pankrati 1, Hunter 1 [ LICENSES ] IPS-N Blackbeard 1, SSC Hairstreak 3, IPS-N Nelson 1, HORUS Gorgon 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Overpower Caliber [ MECH ] « STANDO » SSC Hairstreak H:4 A:0 S:0 E:4 SIZE:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:21 ARMOR:2 STRESS:4 HEAT:9} REPAIR:6 ATK BONUS:3 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:2 SPD:4 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENS:10 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] Flex Mount: Tactical Knife / Tactical Knife Flex Mount: Charged Blade // Auto-Stabilizing Hardpoints, Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] Spaceborn EVA, Synthetic Muscle Netting, Contact Bridge, Hostage Shield, Sentinel Drone, Armament Redundancy

You drop Sentinel Drone near your grappled targets and let them do damage to themselves as they try to free themselves. You run up and just grapple people and stab them to death with your friends while they or their friends kill themselves trying to shoot you, hopefully, with CA1 soft cover and Hostage Shield.

Wait.

In the AI disclosure, what was AI used for in this LCP?

[knotty musk]

Your instinct is correct. Recalling drones breaks grapples

[knotty musk]

tho the rules also say that the size of characters involved in a grapple is added together among allies. And since the command grapple passive triggers all drones of your choice, you can stack them as much as you need to grapple someone. A Size 2 target for example requires 4x 1/2 size drones to surround them to grapple efficiently. They are essentially to be treated as a uniform modular size frame. Add size 1/2 enough times to achieve the "mass" you want.

But you can also use it as you've described. You could grapple someone with the frame itself, then command grapple with some drones to help you better control the target you're already grappling, maybe even let go with the frame once enough drones have been stacked

[knotty musk]

It doesn't say? It should state only text was generated with the help of AI. I used it mainly for wording the compendium entries. Sometimes they were suggested by AI and transformed by me into something more interesting (most often the technical mumbo-jumbo about how a system is supposed to work lore-wise) or the other way around: I wrote something and AI corrected my spelling mistakes or suggested alternative words or structures to use to make something read more clearly.

The ideas are fully human-generated, don't worry. Its just that i'm not a native English speaker, and wanted to make sure everything reads as i intended. As for mechanics and art, they were made entirely by hand, no AI involved there.

[tulip coral]

Ahh I see. Ty for the info.

[knotty musk]

Yes, the Painted Lady's kit is supposed to be all tech and invades. It doesn't really have that much better heat dealing capabilities tho, so it wont overheat anybody overly quickly.

The Minotaur banish combo you've described: correct. You spend 2 quick actions, hopefully inflicting both conditions to essentially sudo-immobilize someone, which can be achieved by just using a Vlad nail gun. AND its still a matter of choice. If they can take the heat, if they can afford dealing less damage... then you've still failed to prevent them from moving. But it does sound like a decent strategy, even if a little risky and inefficient to my understanding. But you do also get damage reduction on top of that + deal some substantial heat so... i guess that makes it valuable

The inhibitor bug is meant to make it happen more often that enemies will enter mines or other enviromental hazards.

[tulip coral]

Yeah I do think there are more reliable methods of doing the painted lady's thing

[knotty musk]

Now that looks nasty... I like that. The Sentinel drone is definitely worth picking up as a Hairstreak pilot

[tulip coral]

Its quite tough to find the action economy to drop 4 size 1/2 drones to add up to a size 2 enemy i think

So i think you'd want to bulk up your own mech

[knotty musk]

It's already size 2. And yes, remote grappling a size 2 mech should be costly I imagine. Early its probably better to focus on smaller targets. Then as they get eliminated and you've protected your drones well enough for them to survive, you can slowly build up your army to eventually topple even size 2 giants

[still wing]

[ LICENSES ]
  HORUS Strix 3, HA Tokugawa 2, HA Sunzi 1
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  The Lesson of the Open Door, Heatfall Coolant System
[ TALENTS ]
  Tactician 3, LEGIONNAIRE 3, Skirmisher 2, Nuclear Cavalier 1
[ STATS ]
  HULL:0 AGI:2 SYS:2 ENGI:4
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:15 ARMOR:0
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:6
  TECH ATK:+2 LIMITED:+2
  SPD:5 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENSE:10 SAVE:17
[ WEAPONS ]
  Integrated: Pathosis Motivator
  Integrated: Data Dart
  Main Mount: Assault Rifle
  Main/Aux Mount: Blight Cannon / Spore Launcher
[ SYSTEMS ]
  Deep Well Heat Sink, Access Point Quarantine, Personalizations, Armament Redundancy, Entropic Ward```

Kinda iffy on this since it's a glass cannon relatively speaking. It is essentially Conditions and Saves, the mech. It needs something to help defend it, and preferably something to lock on for it. All conditions inflicted by this mech last an additional turn.

Tactician 3 to proc data dart for fragment signal slaps, or shoot them with pathosis motivator to apply more conditions. If Pathosis Motivator hits a target that is grappled, prone, impaired somehow, and locked on, it has a really good chance of slapping it with an additional 1d6 of damage, or inflicting shredded or jammed.

Entropic Ward on a enemy will eventually stress them, or stun them. If they get stunned, then they're stunned for two turns, or three plus if you also slap them with Access Point Quarantine. Effectively taking them out of the fight.

Invested licenses, CB and SP towards DWHS and overcharging, so you can hand out more and more conditions. Blight Cannon shares conditions between the two targets. If this mech can get conditions rolling, it's quite spicy, if fragile.

Maybe swap out the 2 agi for 2 hull instead for better hp. I cannot emphasize enough that this mech needs support to do its thing, but if it can, it's debilitating almost like nothing else.

If you can't have legionnaire, then possibly swapping out for infiltrator 3 to skedaddle out of harm's way, boosting nucav, or grabbing utility from siege specialist, or walking armory. Leader and Field Analyst (1) also are evergreen options.

[knotty musk]

Yay, the Strix got some love! You're right in that it is "conditions the mech" tho it revolves more around statuses than actual conditions. The license provides some defensive options like the vaccine packet extractors. This potentially could help make it more resilient.
It is true that Strix is at its most destructive when aided by allies. Like you said, a good strategy would be to grapple + invade for an almost guaranteed +1d6 on the pathosis motivator, which isn't that hard to achieve.
But even alone, if you find a host target that doesn't have the time to clear conditions, then with the extra turn of status duration and smart initiative order planning, you could potentially infect a lot of targets later into the fight.

Lessons of the open door is a very good pick for this build. And the heat sink for blitzing as much conditions early as possible with overcharge to set up the blight cannon. Very smart

[still wing]

Yeah, paired with a grappler, who'll most certainly grapple+ram, is definitely it's friend. Would also be friends with a Calendula, Black/White Witch, Swallowtail, Emperor

[tulip coral]

Okay I had the brainworms for this idea.

Introducing the "The Doctor Will See You Shortly, Please Wait."

-- IPS-N Vlad @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] IPS-N Vlad 2, IPS-N Blackbeard 1, HORUS Goblin 3 [ CORE BONUSES ] The Lesson of the Open Door, Overpower Caliber [ TALENTS ] Duelist 3, Executioner 3, Combined Arms 1, Pankrati 1, Vanguard 1 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:4 STRUCTURE:4 HP:21 ARMOR:2 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:10 REPAIR:6 TECH ATK:-2 LIMITED:+2 SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENSE:5 SAVE:16 [ WEAPONS ] Flex Mount: Impact Lance // Overpower Caliber Main Mount: Impaler Nailgun Heavy Mount: Heavy Melee Weapon [ SYSTEMS ] Synthetic Muscle Netting, H0R_OS System Upgrade II, Rapid Burst Jump Jet System, Personalizations, Armament Redundancy

Grapple and immobilize and shred the patients.

False Idol the strix. Base save of 11 plus grit 3 plus open door means save target is 16. If the Strix is inflicting Impaired then a given target will have an even harder time actually hitting at the Strix. Meanwhile you're plenty tough to take hits. Maybe you're only average speed but you've got RBJJs so it isnt the worse thing ever.

Grappled targets suffer slowed, prone, immobilized, shredded.

3 of 6 on the Mutations table.

If tactician 3 on the strix procs thats impaired too though. 4 out of 6?

[still wing]

That sounds absolutely hellish

[tulip coral]

You cannot Vanguard 3 while grappling so i did not get it.

21 hp and 2 armor is pretty darn beefy too.

[still wing]

YTeah that's fair!

Preferably for this one you'd have a speed helper as well

[tulip coral]

If not then thats not the worse thing since you still have rbjjs and a range 5 nailgun if you really need.

You can move 4 boost 4 and then try to immobilize someone 5 hexes away

[knotty musk]

Yeah, a false idol Vlad combo would go absolutely crazy in concert with the Strix. Great concept! It's literally perfect for the job, checking all the boxes for maximizing Motivator damage

love the name too lmao

[somber flame]

I suppose that the mounts for Columbus are too OP maybe ?
have both main/aux and heavy mounts make it's barrage way too powerfull,