Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game vs Lancer
Compare Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game and Lancer side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game | Lancer | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi | Scifi |
| Play Style | Space Opera, Licensed IP, Ship-Based, Sandbox, Skill-Based, Classless, Tactical, Cinematic, Random Tables, GM-Friendly, Exploration | Tactical, Mecha, Grid-Based, Character Building, Combat-Heavy, Heroic, Crunchy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a d10 and add your Skill bonus (one-tenth of your skill score, rounded down) — equal or exceed the GM's difficulty number to succeed. A natural 1 always fails and a natural 10 always succeeds, within reason. The same roll plus a weapon's Accuracy bonus drives combat at all three scales (personal, vehicle, and spaceship) against a target's Defence score. | 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 | d10 | d20 + d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Community | Low | Medium |
| License | Proprietary (Frontier Developments licensed IP) | Lancer Third Party License |
| Cost | $$ | Free (PDF) / $$ |
| Publisher | Spidermind Games / Modiphius Entertainment | Massif Press |
| Year | 2017 | 2019 |
| Best For | Groups who want to play freelance starship commanders trading, exploring, and dogfighting their way across the 34th-century Milky Way. Particularly suited to fans of the Elite: Dangerous video game who want to expand the experience with crewed ground missions and off-ship intrigue. | 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 | Three integrated combat scales (personal, vehicle, and spaceship) share the same d10 resolution but each has scale-specific actions and damage rules. Spaceship combat uses a two-zone abstract flight system with zone-restricted actions — joust, dogfight, broadsides, ram, and others — so manoeuvre matters without a grid. Sixteen ships from the video game (Sidewinder through Anaconda) are statted with full component, weapon mount, and modification rules. The Random Generation System provides d10 tables for generating star systems, missions, encounters, and military objectives between or during sessions. | Free core PDF, extensive mech customization with 30+ frames, clean split between rules-light narrative and crunchy tactical combat, Comp/Con companion app is well-integrated, active community |
| Considerations | Spaceship combat has more moving parts than personal-scale checks: shield recharge, equipment actions, floating bonuses, component criticals, and ammo all need tracking each round. The conversational prose style is approachable to read but slow to navigate when looking up a specific rule mid-session. Single-pilot ships are the default; running larger crewed vessels with multiple PCs at the same console takes GM adjustment. The setting is locked to the video game's 34th-century three-superpower politics, which constrains departures from established lore. | 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 |