While you may have recently listened to our DEBUT episode talking about Lancer, it actually has been almost 18 months since the WTTQ crew played Lancer since recording the podcast episode and I wanted to talk more about that experience and my urge to get back in those big beautiful mechs.
More Thoughts On Running Lancer As A GM
Looking back from a GM perspective, I really wish I had more time to carve out a more thrilling campaign experience for my players. Not to say that there is anything boring about being a part of the South Dakota Mech Reserves crew, but I felt like I let myself get daunted by the Lancer world lore and how it’s presented in the book. With all the TTRPGs that we’ve recently played, I’m learning more about myself as a GM in the past 18 months, than I have in the years prior to us starting WTTQ. One major thing that I’ve learned is man, I do NOT want to have to read huge blocks of text, but that’s how Lancer presents 95% of its lore! I would open up the lore section and just immediately feel tired.
I am curious however if running the official Massif Press Lancer modules would give me a better understanding of Lancer’s lore and world? There are now eight official modules/books for Lancer, so there’s a good amount of opportunity for anyone to dive in and see if they have a more digestible lore presentation than the corebook. If you happen to be a diehard fan of big blocks of lore text, that’s totally fine, but these days for myself I just need a few bullet points and some sick artwork
The good news is that there are some incredible Lancer content creators on YouTube that talk about lore and all things lancer. The first time I ever heard of Lancer was when a friend of mine sent me Zaktact’s “Intro To Lancer” and they also have a Lancer lore setting “explained” video that runs through the history in 25 minutes. Have I seen all of that video? No. But that’s because during my GMing of Lancer I was still a pretty big homebrew GM, before I started drifting over to a more “let me just run a module” type of GM. So the good news is, you have some options for your digestion of Lancer lore if you want to become more a of a trusted source lord for you players.
But, I Wanna Be A Player!!
A constant thought I had during my time running the campaign was “AHHH I want my own mech to build and use!” and I’m happy to say it looks like we’ll be returning back to Lancer for a few sessions so that I can get that experience. Something that could’ve possibly scratched this itch for me previously would have been looking into more custom options for the mech enemies that the GM has to choose from in the core rulebook. The incredibly digital tool “COMP/CON” makes it super easy to add on “optional” features to each of your NPC’s to give them that extra spice that you’re looking for. It appears each NPC has five distinctive optional features you can add on so that should scratch the customization itch for you forever GMs out there.
More Lancer Content From WTTQ?
It is quite likely that we will return to Lancer in some form in 2026. Something we’ve noticed when looking out at the “Lancersphere”, is that there aren’t really any in-depth reviews of Lancer modules/adventures. I wonder what the reason is for that? The only argument I can think of is that since so many Lancer squads will have unique builds, maybe it has too large of an effect on the experiences for players and GMs? But then again, you could probably say that for any TTRPG adventure. So if by the time we wrap season 1 and we don’t see changes in the Lancersphere in terms of module reviews, we might just have to hop back in the mechs and take them for some more narrative adventures. We’re looking at you Shadow of The Wolf.
We Took The Quest 