project-image

Lancer Pre-Order Store

Created by Massif Press

Lancer is a mud-and-lasers RPG about mechs and the pilots who crew them, featuring deep narrative play, gritty tactical combat and broad mech and pilot customization. Into this roiling galaxy you take your role as a mech pilot — from cold-blooded mercenaries to honor-bound Baronic cuirassiers, hardscrabble Union regulars to professional Constellar Midnights, Far Field teams at the uncanny edge of known space to the ever-wandering Albatross. Operating with a wealth of licenses from one of the galaxy’s great powers, you and your friends play a tight-knit squad of pilots on campaign — comrades together in a galaxy of danger and hope. Will you fight for Union, working to rectify the crimes of previous administrations? Will you run contracts for a corpro-state, working to advance private interests while lining your pockets? Will you fight to liberate your people from all masters, human or otherwise? Or will you fight only for yourself? Lancer features a mix of military science fiction and mythic science fantasy. In the setting, conscript pilots mix ranks with flying aces, mercenary guns-for-hire brawl with secretive corpro-state agents, and relativistic paladins cross thermal lances with causality-breaking entities. In Lancer, there is promise in the potential, but the hard-won gains of humanity are under serious threat. From the internal: ruthless corpro-states, bitter anthrochauvinist reactionaries, and ponderous oligarchs, to the external: MONIST 1, or RA, an anoriginary being with unfathomable power and unknowable goals; the Aunic Ascendancy, the unbroken heirs of Old Humanity; and more. Having only begun the project of recovering from its own internal political revolutions, Union now scrambles to reassert its control over a galaxy that would fall to chaos otherwise. Who will you fight for, pilot?

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Pre-print update over on itch.io!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 11:50:45 PM

Hey all!

Just a quick update, if you've downloaded the .pdf, there's an update over on our itch.io page that is the final errata pass before we send files to print. We'll let you know how the process is going with the physical production of the book as we have more updates for you. In the meantime check it out and let us know what you think!

- Massif

PDF Download Keys
almost 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 02, 2019 at 09:30:27 PM

Hi all! 

Well, lesson learned -- don't launch your game over the Thanksgiving holiday! 

To everyone who hasn't yet received their PDF download key, we hear you, and we've got good news -- you WILL receive your download key, just as soon as our storefront host (itch.io) approves the release of our email blast. Approval has been delayed for some folks on account of holiday here in the States, which covered the end of the week and the weekend; prior to sending out the download codes, there was no indication that we would face this approval delay. Now we know for next time!

Once we receive approval to send the download keys, we'll push them out ASAP and announce here, on Twitter (@Lancer_RPG) and on PilotNet. These keys are tied to itch.io, our distribution platform, and will grant you access to the living version of the Core Book PDF - any version we post with errata, revision(s), minor proof-reads, etcetera, you'll be able to access via that link. For folks waiting on download key bundles, it's the same story: as soon as we get approval from itch to send them, we'll get them to you. We expect approval to come this week. 

Thanks for your patience on all this. As first time creators, it means the world that you're sticking with us as we iron out the release process. 

Best, 

Miguel and Tom

LANCER digital release!
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 12:07:41 AM

Hey all!

We're very proud to announce that LANCER now officially has a digital release date: Friday, November 29th, 2019. The game will be distributed via our itch site with both free and paid versions available. This has been an amazing book to put together and is over 400 pages of beautiful art and super clean layout and design.

We couldn't have done it without you, our backers, and have excellent news - if you were a backer or pre-ordered on itch.io, the game is available right now. Check the e-mail associated with your backerkit account to pick it up and start playing! If you didn't get set up with backerkit, don't worry, we'll have a code for you to use to download with general release on Friday.

We'll be collecting errata over the next few weeks and have started the printing process, so we have one more thing to announce - if you weren't charged already, cards attached to backerkit will be charged on December 15th.

See you out there, and thank you for your amazing support. We have more updates to come on the Year 1 content, printing, and updates to the book going forward.

-Tom and Miguel, Massif press.

Pre-launch update #1
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Oct 10, 2019 at 01:59:47 AM

Hey all!

It's been a while since we posted a solid update here, so wanted to give everyone a heads up with where we're at. If you want to follow along development more directly, the best place would be on Massif's twitter or the LANCER discord, where we are generally super active.

Editing and layout on the core book is entering its final stages, and we expect to be releasing the premium and free .pdf of the core book in December 2019. The game is looking excellent so far, and many of the artists on our project have posted some of the game art on their social media accounts if you want a preview. Once the book is finalized, we will send it to our printer and begin the process of production, shipping, and fulfillment. Physical goods with the higher backer tiers (prints, etc) will be mailed out on the same timeline as the book.

Cards will be charged for Backerkit closer to the fulfillment deadline in order to expedite the process, so if you haven't been charged yet, don't worry - we'll notify you before we begin that process. Backerkit surveys have also been sent and many of you have filled them out. If you backed for a relevant tier and haven't filled a survey yet, time is running out to get us your info, so please check your e-mail. 

Though physical orders have been locked for now to get our printer an accurate estimate, you will still likely be able to purchase a copy of the physical book after release. For digital copies of the book, if you missed the kickstarter, you can now pre-order over at our itch.io page.

We're very excited to get the finished book out to you, and even more excited to get it in your hands down the line. Stay frosty for future updates! The best place is to catch things as they are happening is on our twitter, itch.io page, or on the fan-run Discord, but we'll make more regular updates here as well as we get closer to release.

- Massif Press

More Post-Campaign Chat (Charges, Locking In Orders, Our Calendar, etc etc)
about 5 years ago – Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 01:57:48 AM

Post-Campaign Life 

Hi all! 

It's been a little while since our last update - since then, we've seen some really incredible art from some of our art team, had some more good press come out, and have been hard at work editing and laying out the Core Book! 

We're still on track for an end-of-summer PDF release, and our pre-order store (via BackerKit) is still up and running. On some feedback from our fans over at PilotNET, we wanted to lay out a final timeline on when we'll finalize orders, when you'll see charges reflected on your cards and/or PayPal, and some general clarification on the pre-order store. 

First, I want to apologize for some miscommunication/misunderstanding on our end of how, exactly, BackerKit's creator-side architecture works; we figured we'd be able to lock in orders as they come, but after some research, we realized that's not the best way to do it. "Locking orders", as it turns out,  simply means we pin the current number of orders in order to get accurate counts - good for filing an order with our printer, but a pain for anything else. So, with that in mind, we'll lock orders when we move to close up our pre-order shop, on August 30th. 

The next step is charging orders. Now, you've already been charged via Kickstarter for your pledge, so don't worry: any charge on your card via BackerKit will only be for one of three things: 

  • Shipping (if you pledged for a physical copy of the Core Book or added one or more on).
  • Add-ons (additional copies of the Core Book beyond your pledge level, added via the survey or pre-order store "add-on" option).
  • Upgrades (if you upgraded from a tier that doesn't have a physical Core Book to one that does).

If you've finished your BackerKit surveys and paid with a credit or debit card, you'll see that transaction come across your account after August 30th when we lock orders and charge cards. Just a note (and big thanks to PilotNET for pointing this out!): if you pay with Stripe or PayPal, BackerKit collects those funds automatically at the end of the transaction. 

To sum it up: going forward, to keep everything easy so we all don't have to juggle the calendar, we'll lock all orders in and charge cards on August 30th. Until then, you can still add items on, remove items, change your shipping address, change your card, adjust your survey answers, and so on. 

"Say Again?" 

Just a clarifications here! 

  • If you've pledged at a tier that has a Premium PDF or physical Core Book attached, you do not need to add them on via BackerKit - they're already included in your pledge (Step 2 on the BK survey should reflect this)! For digital-only backers, you shouldn't need to pay any shipping, just click through your survey and mark your calendar for August 30th! For backers with physical goods, all you'll have to do is pay for shipping.
  • If you haven't yet received a survey, send us a message via Kickstarter! BackerKit sends automated reminder emails for the first thirty days after a campaign ends, so if you haven't seen one by now it's probably time for us to roll up our sleeves and start digging through databases. We'll need the email associated with your Kickstarter account; worst-case scenario, we can look up your pledge and send you a direct link to your survey. 
  • If you need to/will need to change your address for shipping, you have until August 30th to do it! After that date, we can handle it on our end. If you know you've got a move coming up, change early (but hopefully not often). 
  • Finally, any backer, regardless of backer level, will have access to any digital stretch, social, or regular reward, and will get an emailed link to download all finished materials as soon as they're done. 

Ok, hope that all lands well and helps out! Thanks for your patience with us as we go through our first Kickstarter growing pains - we'll keep in touch as summer development goes on! 

Best, 

Miguel and Tom.