Alright let's get at it. I'll start session specific then move on to overall thoughts.
It was time to stop the Horrors. The party and five other squads deployed around to the base to attack it at once, taking out whatever Horrors they could find. 2 Horrors per fight, well... "2"
Single fight. Initial round of combat had me deploying
- 4 Tier 1 Pawns (Maximum Threat) - defender class that gives armor to adjacent allies and can boost when someone next to them moves.
- 4 Tier 3 Assault Grunts, paired with the pawns. Assaults would start appearing every turn after Round 2 in spread out groups of 4.
- 2 Tier 3 Specialists (Maximum Threat, Saboteur loadouts)
- 1 Tier 3 Sniper Horror, converted merc
- 1 Tier 3 Hornet Horror
First things first, Tier 1 does not threaten LL9 at all. Which is expected. But Jesus I thought the pawns would be able to do more, but a speed of 2 hurt real real bad.
Party was comprised of Endiku, Tortuga, and a Barbarossa.
The Barbarossa factored heavily into the decision.
End of Turn 1 is when the boss made his appearance. Titan Ultra Horror, Size 4, 40 HP, 4 Structure, 4 Stress, 4 Armor. Several range 20+ weapons. Including one range 30 attack, recharge 6+, that deals a structure damage on a failed save, and drops them to 1 HP on a successful one.
Combat lasted about 9 rounds. The Titan was not pushable, but the Tortuga had Synthetic Muscle Netting, which felt like a more specific rule than the NPC rule, so I ruled it could push the big guy.
This culminated in 11 Burn on the target as he got pushed into the zone, failed a check, got hit by the Endiku's Torch. It was Very Funny.
The fight went well, boss died at 1/4 Structure because lol Structure Checks. He rolled the same result on 3d6 twice, so the Ultra ability of rolling twice didn't matter.
The next step was perfunctory. Everyone placed a Decimation charge. I let everyone roll 6d6 damage. The thought of doing Big Damage was appealing to me and letting EVERYONE roll big damage felt like a good way to cap it off. Everyone rolled between 24-26 lmao.
Then we wrapped up with a few week time skip. The planet's destruction was called off as the source of the problem was solved. Dynamis, it's military power drastically reduced, and it's country unity fractured (partially by Holy Man's religion hitting 6/6 for Influence/Efficiency in the country), they agreed to lesser terms on the treaty. Secured some rights for their people in other countries, and left any of it's claims to other territories on the table. The other two nations have an agreement in place: resources for protection.
I wanted to know what the party was going to do next. The Union military was leaving, and everyone was taking off. I wanted to know what they were going to do.
- Harper wanted to keep focusing on AI creation, to see if it was possible to create a true AI that was more human.
- Mirage opted to stay on planet and build a new life for themselves. She felt like her fighting was out of her system. She got a measure of revenge on Red Sun and was happy to have protected the planet. She felt at peace.
- Holy Man left planetside and the Union military. Discretely backed by Harrison Armory, he started a pro bono mercenary company designed to settle conflicts. After he killed the priest in the temple on that military base, he felt as if he had to atone, so he personally handled the most dangerous missions.
Overall, I'm decently happy with how it ended. Felt like a weight was lifted because there's just nothing else I need to think about with it. I thought they would finish this week, but I was also prepared for it to extend to the last possible week. Finishing a week early though is nice.
Biggest issues
- I didn't write any real prep. Prep existed in my head only so there were some inconsistencies, especially when something didn't come up for awhile. This hurt A) characterization of NPCs and B) Enabling myself to make the players care more.
- Playing a third party stuck between a war was a good idea, but poorly executed. I never really had a real establishing of both warring factions, especially when I took 2 of the 8 missions before taken up with them hunting Pirates.
- The game got better when the focus narrowed down, but the lack of having shit written down to reference was not helpful.
- Enemy party composition for some fights was shoddy.
Players seemed to have fun, which is a win. I don't think they'd have fun if it was a narrative game. I think the tools and toys of tactical combat carried me. This system did so much of the heavy lifting, and nobody really felt like they were left in the lurch sometimes like in Shadowrun.
I recommend LANCER. I want to run or play it later with the Bonds reworking of non-combat sections from the Karrakin Trade Baronies supplement. I need a break from running a game for now. I'm sure the urge to put something together again will bubble up in a month or two though. Maybe I'll subject people to Numenera, and then ruin my love of the game by being dogshit at running it.