1.18.1

When I initially released Prototype Pattern Groups a little over a year and a half ago, I did not expect it to grow to what it is now. Initially, it was a simple collection of 8 NPC Classes, a tweak of Pirate, and a few cheeky optional rules. I set it as Pay What You Want since I didn’t expect to have time to playtest the material myself, and wanted to make it accessible to playtesters to accumulate feedback as I worked on other projects. It was always intended to be a temporary measure until I was ready to call the project “good enough”.

Before long, though, my “official v1 release” came and went, with more and more added to the supplement. I kept the project PWYW, as though I said it was “released” it still a lot of testing to be done. Now, this supplement contains 15 NPC Classes, with extra Veteran and Ultra traits (a la Kai Tave’s NPCs Rebaked), 4 major NPC templates (and 4 minor stat-changing ones), 5 modular sitreps built around an extensible core, and countless optional rules I can’t imagine playing Lancer without. Along the way I’ve learned countless lessons about Lancer and my personal vision for the system, which I funneled into making Prototype Pattern Groups as robust as it is today.

Thanks to the multitudes of feedback I’ve received, I have a much stronger idea of each NPC’s identity and how it functions in Lancer combats. As I write new sections on GM advice for running these NPCs, I realize that Prototype Pattern Groups is winding down, and I’m slowly preparing to close this chapter of my Lancer designs.

With that said, of course I decided to release yet another two new NPC classes hungry for playtesting and with identities still malleable. However, due to how finalized this project is becoming, I no longer feel comfortable leaving this project as PWYW. Therefore, as I enter this final stretch for PPG, I will be setting its minimum price to $4.99 to keep it accessible but reflect the value of all the content I have created thus far. When I finally feel comfortable with calling this project complete, I will be increasing the price to reflect this.

So for now, you can permanently get Prototype Pattern Groups for a discounted price as I polish this project off. If you have playtest feedback, swing by the Prototype Pattern Groups thread in the Pilot NET Discord’s Third Party Forum and let me know what you thought of my stuff! And to all who have provided playtest feedback, I deeply appreciate your contributions to this project and hope I can continue to deliver quality content for your tables.

Now, onto the changelog!

NPC Classes

Added two new NPC classes, the Boombox and the Howler! In the PDF, added new sections to all NPC classes for Suggested Usage in sitreps, Advanced Variants with a pair of optional features, and NPC Pairings.

Boombox

• New NPC class! Ostentatious Support/Controller that compels its opponents to dance, leaving them open to attack from its allies.

Hatchet

Hatchet Stats

• LCP Bugfix: Correctly set Sensors to 10.

Howler

• New NPC class! A feral Defender/Striker that lunges into the fray, issues a challenging howl, and rips apart any who disregard its challenge.

Kensei

Mach Parry

• Increase Overshield gained from 3/5/7 back to 5/7/9.
  • Received feedback that the Overshield received from Mach Parry could be more substantial, and worried that my initial nerf may have been too kneejerk. Restoring the original values for now, and awaiting further feedback.

Mortal Draw (Ultra)

• We’re full anime now. Change from Burst 2 to Cone 15, but limit targeting to characters in Line of sight and not in Hard Cover or Prone. Additionally, reduce the size of all terrain in the area after the attack as it’s cut down by the saber.

Knight

Hero’s Banner

• Clarify that only the Knight’s allies are affected by the banner.

Valor (Veteran)

• Clarify that the Knight can have only up to two duel opponents, and can use Compelled Duel while it has fewer than two opponents.

Templates

Anomaly

Entropic Corrosion

• Change to a 1/turn/target on-hit effect from on-crit, but reduce Armor lost to 1 at a time, with stacking losses.

Dense

• New minor stat tweak template. Reduces the size of the area occupied by Size 3+ characters.

Prototype

Slip Drive

• Change to be “up to” 2 spaces instead of always 2 spaces.

Modular Sitreps

Fix all sitrep Deployment rules to use “ADZ” instead of “PDZ”.

Optional Rules

Conditions & Statuses

Covered Prone

• New optional rule, intended for use with the Drop Prone action! Prone characters are treated as one Size smaller for the purposes of determining cover and line of sight.