Lancer vs Railgun XXVI
Compare Lancer and Railgun XXVI side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Lancer | Railgun XXVI | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Scifi | Scifi |
| Play Style | Tactical, Mecha, Character Building, Heroic, Crunchy | Tactical, Player-Only Rolls, Deadly, Gritty, Mission-Based, Random Character Creation, Beginner-Friendly |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll d20 and add one of four stats (STR, CRD, AGI, or MND) against a standard difficulty of 12. Every roll is player-facing: players roll to attack and also roll to dodge incoming attacks, so the GM never needs to roll dice. Rolling a natural 20 banks an adrenaline point, which buys an extra action on top of the two each character gets per turn. |
| Dice | d20 + d6 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | Lancer Third Party License | MÖRK BORG Third Party License |
| Cost | Free (PDF) / $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Massif Press | Nathan Freeman |
| Year | 2019 | 2026 |
| Best For | 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. | Groups who want short, lethal firefights on a grid and a GM who narrates enemies rather than rolling for them. Suits a few-session campaign or a drop-in mission night more than a long character-driven arc. |
| Highlights | 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 | Every roll is player-facing, including dodges against incoming attacks, so the GM runs enemies without touching the dice. Dropping to 0 HP forces a critical injury roll that permanently reduces a stat, so downed characters degrade instead of bouncing back up. Several weapons chain into a free attack when they drop an enemy, making target order a tactical decision rather than a formality. |
| Considerations | 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 | Social scenes have no dedicated stat or subsystem, so persuasion is settled by player argument rather than mechanics. Play assumes a gridded map with movement and line of sight measured in squares, leaving theater-of-the-mind groups to convert those rules themselves. Out-of-combat scenes lean on ad hoc GM rulings and a single falling-forward technique rather than a dedicated exploration or investigation subsystem. |