Cepheus Deluxe vs Lancer
Compare Cepheus Deluxe and Lancer side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Cepheus Deluxe | Lancer | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi | Scifi |
| Play Style | Space Opera, Career-Based, Skill-Based, Sandbox, Ship-Based, Exploration, Random Tables, Toolkit | Tactical, Mecha, Character Building, Heroic, Crunchy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6, add a relevant skill and characteristic modifier, and meet or beat the target number. The margin is Effect, and Advantage means rolling 3d6 and keeping the best two. | Narrative scenes use d20 roll-over (10+ succeeds), with backgrounds granting advantage and triggers adding flat bonuses. Mech combat is grid-based and tactical: no initiative, players and NPCs alternate turns. Pilots progress through License Levels (LL0–LL12), unlocking new chassis, weapons, and systems across five manufacturers with 30+ mech frames. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d20 + d6 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | High | Very High |
| License | OGL 1.0a; Cepheus Deluxe Compatibility-Statement License | Lancer Third Party License |
| Cost | Free | Free (PDF) / $$ |
| Publisher | Stellagama Publishing | Massif Press |
| Year | 2022 | 2019 |
| Best For | Groups who want a self-contained interstellar sandbox where career histories feed a shared shipboard trade loop. | Groups who want deep tactical mech combat with meaningful customization layered on top of accessible narrative play: giant robot enthusiasts seeking a modern alternative to BattleTech. |
| Highlights | Career terms turn character history into usable relationships and obligations that already point toward adventures. World profiles feed local law and trade into the crew's travel decisions, giving generated destinations mechanical consequences. Space combat assigns distinct actions across bridge and engineering roles, keeping the whole crew involved. | Free core PDF, extensive mech customization with 30+ frames, clean split between rules-light narrative and crunchy tactical combat, alternating activations remove initiative so both sides stay engaged |
| Considerations | Career creation can span several career terms before play, making a fresh crew slower to build than the basic 2d6 mechanic suggests. A ship-based campaign tracks recurring operating costs and cargo prices, making accounting part of the travel loop. The book supplies generators and adventure seeds rather than a ready-made sector or campaign, so the Referee must turn those pieces into an inhabited frontier. | Mech combat dominates: narrative half feels thin by comparison, steep learning curve from sheer volume of mech options, genre-locked to sci-fi mech fiction, requires grid/VTT for combat |