CREDITS

Designed & Written by Peter Rudin-Burgess

Mech Rider is not an official Lancer product; it is a third

party work, and is not affiliated with Massif Press. Mech
Rider is published via the Lancer Third Party License.

Lancer is copyright Massif Press.

Thanks and acknowledgment to Massif Press for use of

the Lancer setting and system.

Mech Rider is copyright 2022 Parts Per Million,

International House, 12 Constance Street, London E16
2DQ.

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CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................ 3

Questions.................................................................................... 6

Closed Questions .................................................................. 7

I. Formulating your question ............................................ 7

II. Imagine What Both Positive and negative answers

look like. .............................................................................. 8

III. Decide how likely the answer is to be yes or no..... 8

IV. Roll the Dice ................................................................. 9

V. Interpret THE Result .................................................... 9

NPCs ..................................................................................11

Plot Twists ........................................................................11

Open Questions ...................................................................13

Mashing Prompts ............................................................16

Downtime .................................................................................19

Mech Missions.........................................................................20

Deployment ..........................................................................20

General Solo Advice ................................................................22

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INTRODUCTION
So this is a solo roleplaying supplement for Lancer. Solo
roleplaying is, to many people, a strange niche within our
hobby. I see people deride it as just writing a story or
daydreaming. It is, of course, neither.

Solo roleplaying predates what we recognize as tabletop

roleplaying games by at least a decade. Solo rules are a
commonplace part of tabletop wargames and always have
been. When solo wargames hung on the actions of a single
unit, the solo wargamer would often write a set of
dispatches from the point of view of the officer in charge.
Today we would call this a journaling solo game.

Wargaming often works on the cycle of writing orders and

then executing those orders. The solo wargamer could add
an amount of uncertainty into battles by imagining what
happened to their dispatch riders or aide de camp. It was
quite common to use a deck of cards. Number cards
signified how many turns the orders would take to arrive,
and specific outcomes were attached to picture cards. For
example, the Ace of Spades would often leave your
dispatch rider dead in a ditch, and the Queen of Hearts
would have them seduced into sharing the orders with the
enemy.

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In this kind of setup, the dispatch riders cease to be just
units on the map if they are represented at all but become
individuals with their own adventures.

When the granddaddy of all roleplaying games came along,

that had already taken heroic figures from tabletop battles
and made them individuals, but it also introduced the idea
of rolling a dice to decide what the next room in a dungeon
would be. This moved us away from a fixed map and
random events to random events on a random map.

Another solo wargaming technique was to roll a dice to

decide the aggression of the opposing general or officer.
For example, a 1 would have an officer that would decline
battle and try and flee to safety. A 6 would be an aggressive
officer throwing their troops into the fight. The dice were
rolled when the unit was first engaged and not before.

Another method was to place all the enemy units in

matchboxes and then jumble them up. You then lay out the
enemy forces by placing the closed matchboxes on the
map. You only open the matchbox when you have a spotter
set eyes on the unit.

When you first mention solo wargaming and running

battles, people often think you are looking at a table and
playing both generals, much like playing both sides of a
game of chess. But with everything I have just described,
the solo wargamer had no idea what would happen. So they
literally played to find out what happened. That has
remained the central tenet of solo roleplaying ever since.

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All of those examples involved using dice or cards to
introduce random elements. This isn’t different from rolling
to find your character’s background or rolling for a mission
goal. Or rolling for the adventure hook.

Lancer was built with many of the traditional elements of a

solo wargame already in place. This rule supplement adds
a few more tools to complete a basic toolbox for solo
playing and tips and advice on getting started.

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QUESTIONS
Questions are one of the cornerstones of solo play. The
fourth GM Principle in the GM’s Toolkit reads:

IV. SAY YES

As the GM, try to say “no” as little as possible.

So, of course, I am going to break that principle. In a

regular group game, the GM will know the situation during
the briefing and where you are starting when boots hit the
ground. In a solo game, this doesn’t have to be the case at
all. We can use a question and answer tool to define
features. If you are still in narrative play, asking if there is
a back exit from the restaurant where you are meeting
your Yakusa contact is a perfectly valid question. You
could assume yes, but it can be more fun if sometimes
there is no easy escape.

There are two types of questions. The most common is

the closed question. These are typically answered with a
yes or no answer. The example of the back exit is a closed
question. The backdoor either exists, or it doesn’t.

An open question cannot be answered with a simple yes

or no, such as where does the back exit lead?

We will deal with the closed questions first.

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CLOSED QUESTIONS
This is the process of asking a closed question.

I. Formulate your question so that it can be answered

with a yes-no answer.
II. Imagine what both a positive and negative answer
could look like.
III. Decide how likely the answer is to be yes or no.
IV. Roll the dice.
V. Interpret the result

I. FORMULATING YOUR QUESTION

Not everything you can ask is a valid solo question. If the

question is better resolved using a skill test, use a skill test.
Can I knock the guards unconscious is a good example of
this. You should use your Apply Fist to Face or similar
Trigger and a skill test. If you are successful, the guards will
be lying at your feet.

Some questions are not direct skill tests but do interact

with skills. For example, are there any tracks in the sand?
This is dependent on two things. Firstly, are there any
tracks to be found, and secondly, can you find them?

In this situation, you use your skill test and applicable

Triggers first. If you fail the skill, it doesn’t matter if there
are any tracks as you didn’t find them.

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If the skill was successful, now you can ask the question,
“Are there any tracks?”

The answer, in this case, is creating the reality for your pilot
on the ground.

II. IMAGINE WHAT BOTH POSITIVE

AND NEGATIVE ANSWERS LOOK LIKE.

The logic behind this is twofold. First, if you cannot imagine

both possibilities, this is not a valid question. The answer
you can see is the only possible outcome. So skip the rest
of the process and just carry on playing.

The second is that if you already know what the outcomes

could be, and you are simply choosing between them, it
speeds your game along. When the dice stop rolling, you
can check the result and carry straight along. If you have to
stop and consider what that result means, it can bog your
game down.

III. DECIDE HOW LIKELY THE ANSWER

IS TO BE YES OR NO.

Not all questions are a simple coin flip. Sure, most

restaurants have a fire exit, but what if this one was bricked
over to stop flaky clients from running out on their Yakusa
benefactors?

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If you have no preconception about the outcome, you will
roll a single d20. But for each factor that makes a positive
outcome more likely, you add one accuracy die .

For each factor that makes the positive oucome less likely
you add a difficulty die .

When you consider every factor, you cancel out the dice
until you either have no added dice or just positive or
negative ones.

IV. ROLL THE DICE

By this stage you will have either a d20 or a d20 with one
or more accuracy or difficulty dice attached. You roll the
dice and compare the result to this table.

Roll Result

1-9 Unfortunately

10-19 Fortunately

20+ Exceptional

V. INTERPRET THE RESULT

You may have noticed that yes and no answers do not

appear on the results table. This is because flat yes-no
answers can be a block to our imagination.

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UNFORTUNATELY

This is the negative answer, the equivalent of your no. In

our example, unfortunately, there isn’t a back exit, would
be a valid answer.

Unfortunately, it could almost be written with a ellipsis

immediately after it, unfortunately… as it just begs to have
the reason attached and draws more out of your
imagination.

FORTUNATELY

This is the yes answer. Just like the negative above, it is intended
to draw more out of your imagination. Fortunately… there is a fire
escape that opens onto a back alley.

EXCEPTIONAL

The exceptional answer is the best possible answer to that

question. In improvisational theatre, we often talk about
yes, and… where you accept an idea and build upon it.

Not only is there a fire escape, but it opens onto a busy

street where it would be easy to lose yourself in the throng
of people.

These three answers can cope with much of your narrative

play. The formula is set up to work just like a Downtime
challenge. You do not get to apply Triggers. If Triggers
apply, you should probably use a skill test rather than a
question.

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NPCS

These questions can be used to control NPCs. When you

are interacting with someone, you will have an expectation
of how you would want them to react. For example, if you
order your wingman to cover your flank, the expected
response is an affirmation and your wingman to move their
mech to cover your flank. But, you could ask, “Do they do
as ordered?” If you have a good relationship and have led
them to success in the past, they should follow orders.
There is a very good chance that they will move into
position.

But what if you have nearly gotten them killed the last three
times? Now you are stacking up the negative/Difficulty
dice. They may hang back, but not because they are
covering your flank!

If you turn up to that meeting with the Yakusa, are they

pleased to see you? Roll the dice. Unfortunately… they look
most displeased. What do you think they have heard on the
street?

Using questions with NPCs’ behavior can emphasize the

roleplaying is solo roleplaying.

PLOT TWISTS

Lancer is played in scenes. At the start of each scene, you

can ask a question such as “Is everything as I expected?”.

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You need to make a subjective call. Is your character ahead
of the curve? Are they moving faster than the bad news of
your attack? Is the enemy on the back foot? If any of these
apply, you can give yourself an .

If, on the other hand, you are being reactive, you are on the
back foot, and the bad guys have the upper hand, give
yourself a .

Now ask the question before the next scene starts, “Is
everything as I expected?” and apply your positive or
negative dice.

Unfortunate answers could have you walking into an

ambush or discovering your basecamp has been hit by an
airstrike. Maybe the leader of the evacuees you have been
sent to rescue has been killed, and their replacement
blames you?

Getting an unfortunate result on a scene question should

cause you a complication that it will require you to solve.

Fortunate answers mean you get what you expect, which

may mean that you are prepared for the next scene.

Exceptional answers mean that you gain some kind of boon

from the scene. Maybe you arrive before the enemy has
organized their ambush? Do you get a heads up about an
incoming airstrike and can prepare air defenses? Not only
are they evacuees ready, but they have found some spares
that add to your reserves.

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OPEN QUESTIONS
Open Questions are harder to answer in so much as no dice
roll can know your exact situation or cover every possible
answer.

The way to address this is to use generic answers, You

need to take into account everything that has gone before,
the current scene and the question. Then apply that context
to the answer.

These tables require you to roll 2d20. One to chose the

column and the other to choose the row. There are two
tables. Each is derived from common interpretations of
Tarot Cards. The first table is for the card in its correct
orientation and the second is when the card in inverted.

Roll once on each table and select the two words. This is
your basic imagination prompt.

For example, the context is that my pilot is talking to the

new leader of the evacuees. They are refusing to leave
under my protection. I want to know why they will not go. I
roll 19/4 and 8/11. These give me Union + Smugness. The
new leader has forged the evacuees into a coherent body,
and they know I am under orders to get them out. The
leader refuses to leave until they get assurances about
where they will be taken, how they will be treated, and the
conditions for setting them up for building new lives.

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D20 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20

1 Fulfillment Reflection Success Illusions

2 Hope Broken Materialism Patience

3 Change Sacrifice Truth Change

4 Search Bravery Control Union

5 Tradition Authority Nature Unconscious

6 Creation Innocence Defensive Community

7 Inspiration Burden Resilience Movement

8 Success Conflict Expansion Leaving

9 Excitement Determination Overcoming Action

10 Compassion Comfort Idealist Surprise

11 Dreams Satisfaction Disillusionment Choices

12 Healing Loss Contemplation Friendship

13 Partnership Spirituality Discipline Action

14 Complexity Curiosity Failure Trauma

15 Entrapment Deception Leaving Ambition

16 Suffering Restoration Indecision Clarity

17 Security Comforts Efficiency Desire

18 Legacy Rewards Passion Diligence

19 Sharing Poverty Security Building

20 Decisions Prosperity Enlarge Revolution

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D20 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20

1 Incompletion Doubt Sadness Confusion

2 Insecurity Suffering Freedom Excess

3 Decay Stalling Dishonesty Control

4 Isolation Weakness Aggression Disharmony

5 Rebellion Tyranny Emptiness Repressed

6 Trickery Recklessness Destroyed Conflicts

7 Boredom Inability Fatigue Panic

8 Punishment Differences Obstacles Fear

9 Procrastination Jealousy Impulsive Anger

10 Coldness Insecurity Disappointment Insecurity

11 Domestic Smugness Avoidance Confusion

12 Independence Acceptance Awareness Isolation

13 Tension Emptiness Cruel Disregard

14 Bitterness Inevitable Deception Despair

15 Acceptance Clean Transition Resentment

16 Forgiveness Stress Lesser Brutality

17 Greed Jealousy Reward Laziness

18 Success Reckless Uninspired Distractions

19 Domination Recovery Greediness Disorganized

20 Overwhelmed Chance Shrink Revolt

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It can take some practice to get used to interpreting these
prompts. Once you get the hang of it, these tables can be
used for any situation.

MASHING PROMPTS

There are two other techniques that are useful in Lancer.

The first is for creating goals. The second is for creating
unique hooks.

GOALS

The Lancer core rules provide 20 example goals. Roll twice

on this table and note down both goals. For example, I roll
13/2 and get:

13. Be the first on the ground on a world hostile to human life;

create a beachhead.

2. Respond to an SOS from an unknown source with a location

noted in the message.

What you can now do is mash these two prompts up to

create a single new prompt. Such as:

Be the first to respond to an SOS from a world hostile to human

life. The SOS gives the location.

This kind of mashup is easier to use when creating new

Briefings, compared to just using the prompt words above.

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The second method uses the Hooks from the GM’s Toolkit.
Roll once on the table. This will point you to a paragraph
expanding on the prompt. Take the first sentence of that
prompt. Then move on to the next prompt and take the
second sentence from the next, the third sentence from the
next, and so on. If you reach Dungeon, the last hook, wrap-
around, and carry on from Long Ride Down (the first
prompt. Carry on until you reach the last sentence of a
hook.

For example, I rolled 18 Masks. I take the first sentence

from masks, the second sentence from Holy War, the third
sentence from Dungeon, fourth sentence from Long Ride
Down.

The parliamentary delegation from a capital world is in transit to a

watershed interstellar conference, the culmination of a
generations-long diplomatic process that will – at long last – create
peace in a cluster of previously warring systems. But this all
changed when a strange silver ship arrived from beyond the pale
blue sky, streaming lines of vapor behind. Your wingmates are
secure in the lander on your flanks. You’ve transited a few times
before – your families live down the ‘lift – but this time is different:
something terrible caused those storms, and you’re heading right
into the thick of it...

Now you have the hook, make any changes needed to make
it coherent.

These mixed-up goals and hooks can form the core of your
briefing. You can solo play this scene. An officer or

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politician explains the situation. You can ask questions and
use the question tools to get answers. When you can
imagine what the boots on the ground scene will be, end
your briefing and move to the first scene.

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DOWNTIME
Downtime is perfectly suited to being solo played. Decide
what you want to achieve, and play, using the question
tools to fix the scenes, up to the crucial moment. The point
at which things could go either way.

That is the moment you roll for the Downtime Action. Once
you know the result, then you play out the rest of the scene.

The Downtime Actions have their own 0-9/10-19/20+

tables. By playing the scenes that lead up to the roll you
will know much more than the core rules surmise and you
can build out the action roll into a tense scene.

Many Downtime Actions can be daisy-chained together.

The complication from a 0-9 roll on one action becomes the
cause of the next.

For example, a ‘failed’ Get a Damned Drink can lead to a

lost valuable item. Attempting to get that back can feed into
a Get Connected. The information you get from that points
you to a Scrounge And Barter. Eventually, you get your
prized possession back, and in the process, you will have
explored much more of the world you are stationed on.

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MECH MISSIONS
At some point, you will want to run a mech combat. The
SITREPs in the core rules will give you simple templates to
set up your combat scenes.

Much of this will seem familiar if you read the introduction

to this booklet.

DEPLOYMENT
It is worth spending some time creating stock mechs to use
as villains. You can number or code these stock mechs.
When you set up the battle, write the code for each kind of
mech on a slip of paper, and fold them over so you cannot
see what is written on each slip. Now you can put these
slips of paper on the map. You do not reveal what is written
on the slip until you can see or detect the mech. This will
force you to operate under incomplete information. This
can change your tactical choices.

You can also use a d6 to set the aggression of the mech

pilot. You can use this value when choosing what the
opposing pilots will do. For example, if you ask, “Do they
attack?” or “Do they charge?” give the most aggressive
pilots on the question roll. When asked if they will flee,
the same mech pilot may well get on the roll.

When you roll the d6 check this table.

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 D6 Aggressive Action Defensive Action

Another option is to introduce other variables. For example,

you could give each enemy mech a d6 value for
Recklessness. A foe with a very low recklessness but high
aggression could be a stone-cold killer. Remember that
positive and negative dice cancel out if more than one
applies.

The goal is to emulate enough influences to your choices

that the enemy is not just cardboard cutouts waiting for you
to knock them down.

In the questions chapter, I talked about NPCs and

questions. Do they do as ordered or as expected? Using this
in combat will add another level of fog of war into your
battles. Apply it to your own side and the foes.

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GENERAL SOLO ADVICE
What follows is a collection of solo playing tips that will
make getting started with Lancer a little easier.

GOOD ENOUGH

During your game, you may not remember every rule or

every stat for every mech. If you are into the flow of your
game, just make a ruling and check the rules afterward.
Good enough really is good enough. No rules lawyer is
going to pick you up on an error.

START SMALL

Starting in solo can be daunting. There is often no one to

ask if you are doing it right. But, if you are having fun, then
you are definitely doing it right. Starting with small missions
lets you go through the processes and learn the rules of
Lancer and how the solo tools work. Running through small
adventures or missions is much less daunting than a linked
mission campaign. As a side benefit, you will gain LLs
faster playing small missions.

DRILLING FOR DETAILS

Sometimes you can be tempted to try and ask many

questions on the same topic. Each answer will eliminate
some options but may not zero in on a precise answer. Then
you are tempted to ask a second question to zero a bit

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further, and so on. The game can turn into a game of 20
questions. That is not the intention. I suggest visualizing
what answers look like before rolling to avoid this situation.

DONE HOARD REWARDS

Lancer is not a game where assets are limited. Reserves

are there to be used if you need them. If a special piece of
gear comes your way through a Downtime Action or from
narrative play during a mission. There is no need to hoard
them. You are also the GM. You can control the ebb and
flow of asses and rewards.

EXTREMES

When you imagine possible answers to questions,

sometimes the more extreme the answer, the more wild
and whacky your game can get. This has its time and place.

FILL IN THE BLANKS

Try and imagine each scene without asking any questions.

Only after you have a mental picture fill in any blanks with
questions.

SKIP THE BORING BITS

What is boring is your decision. But, there is no need to play

through stages of the game that you don’t enjoy. Lancer is
built with this in mind, which is why you typically jump from
Briefing to Boots on the Ground. It is a common solo play
mantra, it is your game, play it your way.

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