License Level 0 is supposed to be somewhat limited, and I comprehend that. It's where players should start when new to the game. Narrowing the field helps them make their first decisions, and the license system enforces a specific way to grow with the game and its systems. I’m picking up what the game is putting down.
I also want my players to have access to more cool stuff. Cool Stuff (TM)! It's rad!
The Everclimb Initiative is my sandbox for new General Massive Systems content. The primary addition as of this writing is the Khumbu, a 1/2 Size frame meant to function as the team's mobile comms network.
Let's talk about the short history that got me here and what led to the Khumbu.
Starting at the Start
I jumped right into modding/making homebrew when a friend struck up a Lancer game recently (summer 2024), my first one. I've been doing homwbrew for Dungeons & Dragons for an elf's age by now. I'm usually the DM, have been for years, and creation is something that I enjoy doing in my spare time.
The first thing that I noticed is what I imagine most people notice when coming to Lancer: there's only a few mechs available at License Level 0. Without the free player-facing files taken from itch.io for use at COMP/CON, there’s really only the Everest. And, it doesn’t have artwork to visually represent what it looks like.
In a game system as predisposed to heavy customization as Lancer is, “what it looks like" is technically a generalization at best even in the presence of the high quality artwork that Lancer uses. Still, I could not tell you what an Everest might typically look like. In fact, thanks to the digital-styled silhouette used at COMP/CON (cf. above), I keep thinking of the IPS-N Nelson.
This broad defamiliarization benefits the game by reinforcing the customization angle, but it also makes things a little tougher when trying to imagine what GMS mechs look like. Pros and cons, like with most any decision.
At any rate, I wanted to add some options for new or otherwise restricted players who were on the star-lit LL0 hill and looking upward. Players like myself and those I'm bringing onboard in a game I'm running. The Everclimb Initiative is my attempt to softly broaden the LL0 horizon.
To Boldly Go in Baby Steps
If I'm being honest, homebrew for GMS requires a stricter hand than I am used to employing. I want to preserve that narrowness in mech choices. Limiting players' choice of first mech encourages some customization in the same way that limitations generally encourage creation.
Conversely, there are plenty of weapon choices that, thanks to how plainly written they are, allows GMS to broadly outfit most mechs with most of what they need. But, there are some gaps in the offerings and other areas where weaponry can be designed and handed over to players.
All of this is a long way of saying that I plan on making material for GMS but don’t expect to have a ton of it.
Everclimbing Upward
The original name I had for this set was MountClimb, short for Mountain Climber. I chose the name because I wanted to explore the mini-frame space. If Everest (English), Sagarmatha (Nepali), and Chomolungma (Tibetan) are your base frames and all are names for the same mountain, and I wanted to make a smaller mech that stood with the greats, then it made sense to make a mountain climber. It fits thematically.
I came up with the name “Everclimb Initiative” almost immediately and used it as the background behind the new mech. It wouldn't be until a week later that I swapped the name MountClimb.lcp to Everclimb.lcp. I realized that MountClimb was A) clumsy, B) sunglasses, and C) was too specific in pointing to the mech to the exclusion of anything else GMS I'd made.
Khumbu
Every mech in Lancer needs to, at some level, compare itself to the Everest; nowhere is this more important than when designing and evaluating GMS homebrew. Everests are the baseline, after all.
My first HB mech was the Khumbu, and I took a little TIL journey while making it. I originally named it the Sherpa. I'd always thought, and I mean since I was a lil' c0din, that a “sherpa" was a job. It was one of those things I'd just never learned about. Sherpas are a people, it turns out, and a fascinating people at that. But, that's another show. Khumbu is the region of Nepal that Everest is in and it sounds rad, so I chose it as the new name after my little research jaunt.
So, the Khumbu. I wanted a half-sized frame that would fit into a slot that was vacant between the three official GMS mechs. The Everest is listed as a “balanced" frame, which is true, but its mobility gives it an edge on offense that the other two don't have. The Chomolungma is a great starter tech frame. And, the Sagarmatha is a defensive frame.
As a neophyte Lancer player, the most obvious opening to me is comms. General Massive supplies mechs all over Union space, and communications would be a crucial element of any mech squad.
Locked In
First, some stats. Versus the Everest, it has more Evasion and Speed. It also has less HP, Repair Capacity, Systems, and Tech Attack (receiving an outright malus of -1).
The central facet of the Khumbu is working with the Lock On status. Most of its traits revolve around it and its core power specifically cites and uses Lock On.
Sirdar is your core power and it's a group-wide damage buff that works off of Lock On. When an ally within Sensors consumes Lock On and hits, they deal 2 bonus kinetic damage. This encourages maintaining Lock On and is source agnostic.
Your core also gives you a reaction to place a new Lock On onto a target when you consume Lock On. The Tenzing-Jamling Guidance Routines effect is not source agnostic and will not activate if you pop your own Lock On. Khumbu players, take note: your team will have to track who made which Lock On effect in combat.
There’s two reasons to do this. The first is that this encourages the rest of the team to buy into your support mechanic and work more fluidly together. The second is limitation. I do not want a GMS mech that just makes Lock On once per enemy and keeps refreshing it. That sounds like too much to me.
Your traits also largely revolve around Lock On, and around information in general. You and your team get a small defensive buff against targets that are Locked On, Scan info is automatically shared amongst all squadmates, and the Khumbu itself gets +1 Accuracy when consuming Lock On as part of a Barrage. This makes it very accurate when going all-out on the offense.
It’s also fast, not just for GMS but in general. The mech can be mounted as a quick action and it gets bonus movement opportunities, both as a first-turn-only protocol and after a Barrage (the latter in trade for some heat).
I've intentionally designed the Khumbu as a quick response mech with strong team abilities. Strong for LL0, at least. I've been having fun with the design. I hope it's to your liking.