The Puddlestomper's Guide to the Tri-Mother System

The Puddlestompers Guide to the Tri-Mother system is a large scale homebrew project both for and set in the world of LANCER, a tabletop RPG by Tom Bloom and Miguel Lopez.

If you want to skip the primer and mechanics just scroll down to download and have a good day!

Set in a Long Rim system containing three central stars, the Tri-Mother system is a crucible of many peoples, made nomadic by the 850 year cycle of planets moving between the triplet stars to be sundered and reformed, then allowed to rest before being cultivated once again by the inhabitants of the system eager to utilize the unique bio-systems created by such a dramatic process.

Said unique systems have also finally caught the attention of smaller corporate players within the Long Rim, eager to avoid the ire of Union or the competition of the Big 3, as most have avoided the tumultuous system due to an intense propaganda machine the Tri-Mother system maintains, painting it as ruinous and utterly destroyed as a space, hoping to not draw attention to its bounties, which has recently been breaking down as exports slowly increase.

But that is enough of a primer, the actual content so far that has been created for Comp/CON is 20 frames, 4 of which are alt frames, 1 GMS, and the final 15 split across licenses numbering 6 and 8 (one license has two frames) between the 2 new manufacturers, Safety Obstruction Solutions (SOS) and the Sage Wisemann Munitions Grant (SW//MG).

Alongside the frames there are (as of v1.5.5, I hope to add more) 12 core bonuses and 8 talents, alongside plans for exotic equipment, pilot gear, and bonds.

Those 20 frames, 12 core bonuses, and 8 talents are all mechanically complete, though play testing is still underway (feedback is very much appreciated should you take a look at this project).

Let's actually get into those mechanics now:

GMS

Ang: A size 1/2 Support mech built around Deployables, Drones, and Saves, with a team wide support Core power and GMS quality, your LL0-1 experience should be a little more fleshed out with the Ang.

IPS-N

Guadalquivir: A Drake Alt, focusing on the licenses many deployables and coming with an integrated Drone to create a network of safe shores and lifelines for any wayward ally.

Paixhans: A Caliban Alt, essentially a small in-field targeting matrix to compliment the small in-field death machine that is the Caliban. With its own personal low atmosphere gunboat and the ability to let its allies practically see through walls, the Paixhans makes sure the thunder never stops raining.

SSC

Calyptra: An Atlas Alt, focused on allowing you to face tank instead of dodge tanking, taking double damage from attacks you choose and then immediately swinging back at full force, healing on critical hits, and being built like a armored wolverine, the Calyptra is quite literally never out of the fight, it needs it to survive.

HORUS

Koschei (pictured second): A Lich Alt, the Koschei is sort of a nightmare to describe in this format, I will leave it at this. You have 1 Structure, 1 Stress, 2 HP, and an even more of a stubborn attitude than its licenses name holder. Have fun, and try not to cause any paradoxes.

HA

Okay HA doesn't have any alts yet as I haven't had many great ideas as most HA licenses are pretty focused in what they want to do and/or already have official alts. But there is most likely one in the cards for it, I just need to figure out how to make the Barbarossa license not such a meme.

The new manufacturers will have quicker explanations since Comp/CON will always explain them better.

SOS

SOS was originally the major civilians manufacturers in the system, as GMS equipment wasn't commonly acquired due to the soft-embargo on trade to keep Tri-M out of the limelight, but with rising tensions as well as increasing pirate activities SOS has made a major pivot to weapons manufacturing, pulling from their roots in mining equipment and folding in a few deserters from IPS-N who had abandoned their interests in the system years ago due to the gravitational instabilities making long distance jumps a nightmare to navigate for such a small and out of the way system.

Nobel: Size 3 behemoth built around Knock back stacking and loading melees.

Richard: Somebody put the mind of a Tortuga into an untrained Bulldog and then handed it a Gatling Rail Cannon and several SMGs.

Nightingale: Eat wrecks to gain repairs and Overshield, spend repairs to give HP and Overshield to allies.

Manhattan: The Heat mech of this expansion. Flame on.

Curie: SOS's dedicated Invade mech, enjoys the Danger Zone but isn't as self destructive as the Manhattan.

Niepce: A size 3 Controller/Defender built around sight lines, proper positioning, and making enemies scared of looking around corners.

SW//MG

The Sage Wisemann Munitions Grant is a smaller 10-50 man (they break up and get back together a lot) HORUS sect that split off once they decided to stop fooling around with data brokering and vault salvages and Union evasion and on and on... They instead decided to become the largest mercenary contractors/bounty hunters in their sector, with a side business of essentially stealing all of their marks hardware after pulverizing them and "Frankestein-ing" them together to create their frames. Ultimately realizing they had founded a new side business being a combination of  Repo-men and hardware manufacturers, though they swear they aren't like the big 3, they at least are honest about stealing peoples crap and reselling it.

They have a specialty for licenses the push boundaries on what a frame should be able to do, as do I regarding game mechanics for them.

Solomon: You have 6 mounts on a striker, they all have recharge, your weapons all cost SP, and your GM has a headache. Have fun, go nuts, and yell at your dice.

Stumpp: Control 2 mechs in one, not at once, but in one, swapping between the controller Stumpp and Defender Hund as you use their powerful integrated tools. Plus you can go nuts with systems as you have two builds of SP to work with. I swear I have made it as seamless a concept as possible.

Merlin: Swap between four flavors of support, from positioning, to tanking, to pushing, to getting yourself the hell out of there. There is a lot of charm(s) to this one.

Morgana (pictured first): The Morgana is a Controller that upon first reading will come across as so strong as to be busted, this is true, but it comes with a angry NHP buffing enemies specifically against you and sending them to take your lunch money, balance it well and benefit greatly.

Silenus: The goblin is a nerd and a coward, 3 sensors is all you need to overload reactors, and who wants to latch onto allies when you can burrow into enemies?

Huang (pictured third): A size 3 defender who just loves eating conditions, yummy conditions, it will even take them from allies and share them with enemies. Like any good defender, it just wants to give you a hug, a goopy mess of a hug.

BaBa: Stab gits, get crits, eat bits. A size 1 that is utterly convinced it is size 3.

Seimei: A support? that you should really leave be, yes it is a powerful support, but it is far more dangerous if you actively take its head out of the clouds and back into a war zone.

While I will not go through core bonuses of talents here, I will say a word of warning regarding two, the talents Auto-con and Agapeangenetic are both serious tests of Lancer game design limits and even if your GM signs off on you using Puddlestompers be sure to notify them if you take either of those talents to let them assess either one.

phew. With all of that out of the way I do have some closing words.

This is part 1 of 3 for the Tri-Mother project, part 2 is going to be the lore supplement (this will also include the bonds and pilot gear I mentioned, with new narrative mechanics included as well), this will be produced in tandem with a close friend who excels in writing words the good. Part 3 is what I am most excited about, as it will be a full Campaign module, complete with some unique mechanics such as collecting data mid fight through scanning and similar mechanics to purchase exotic gear unique to each mission, branching mission paths (not story lines, but you will be a part of a larger organization so you will have a couple of missions to pick from and other squads will handle the ones you don't do.) and a full story set within the Tri-M system, spanning a full scale conflict between multiple factions with your humble resistance smack dab in the center, just hoping you can make it out of this with your little oasis in the universe not completely razed.

Currently Part 1 is underway. Play testing still needs to happen on a majority of the stuff, as well as I, Logez, need to finish up all of the art for the .lcp at the minimum, which as of writing this is about halfway done, so I expect to be finished with that portion sometime in August.

Thank you very much if you do choose to check out or even play with the Puddlestompers guide, I truly do hope you enjoy it. Lancer really revitalized my love of tabletop games back in 2022 and I am dedicated to give back to such a great work and community.