A mech’s REPAIR CAP is determined by its FRAME, with a bonus from HULL. It represents the mechs’ resilience and ability to continue functioning while damaged, as well as its supplies of parts and tools.
REPAIR CAP also indicates the maximum number of REPAIRS a pilot has available to spend on their mech – in or out of combat – before returning to base and
performing a FULL REPAIR.
Mechs can be repaired in combat with STABILIZE – regaining all HP at the cost of 1 REPAIR – and certain systems. Outside of combat, they can be repaired when their pilot rests. To rest, pilots require at least an hour of uninterrupted downtime or light activity (e.g., making camp or performing routine maintenance). After resting, characters may:
- clear all heat;
- clear any statuses and conditions affecting their mech;
- restore half of their pilot’s HP and clear DOWN AND OUT.
They may also spend REPAIRS at the following costs: - 1 REPAIR: Restore full HP, or repair a destroyed weapon or system.
- 2 REPAIRS: Restore 1 STRUCTURE or 1 STRESS.
- 4 REPAIRS: Repair a destroyed mech.
REPAIRS are a kind of currency that you can use to heal and repair your mech. If your mech runs out of REPAIRS, you can no longer regain HP or fix damaged systems in the field.
Destroyed mechs become wreckage – objects on the battlefield that can be moved and dragged around, and which provide hard cover. Any spaces occupied by wreckage are difficult terrain.
If the wreckage of a destroyed mech can be obtained(i.e., it didn’t melt in a reactor explosion), the mech can be restored to working order while resting with 4 REPAIRS. Anyone can contribute REPAIRS to do this, meaning that it a wrecked mech can be restored even if it has insufficient REPAIRS remaining. Repairing a destroyed mech is the only time pilots can share REPAIRS like this.
Once repaired, the mech returns to 1 STRUCTURE, 1 STRESS, and full HP, no matter how much it had before. Any destroyed weapons or systems remain unusable unless the damaged mech spends REPAIRS to fix them as normal.
When a character spends at least 10 hours relatively uninterrupted in a secure location, they can perform a FULL REPAIR. A FULL REPAIR allows them to:
- restore all pilot HP and clear DOWN AND OUT.
- restore a mech to full HP, STRESS, and STRUCTURE, as long as it’s intact or the wreckage is accessible.
- clear all statuses and conditions.
- repair any destroyed weapons or systems.
- recover CP, if used.
- regain all REPAIRS and uses of LIMITED weapons.
- print a new mech and equipment, with the proper facilities.
If a pilot has access to the proper facilities, they can also use a FULL REPAIR to rebuild a mech – or build an entirely new one. Mechs can be printed from scratch using Union’s enormous printing facilities, which are ubiquitous on most occupied worlds. A printer and assembler can perfectly recreate any mech or gear for which a pilot is licensed. Of course, pilots are only licensed to print one mech at a time. If they print a new one, any others immediately cease to function.
To rest, pilots require at least an hour of uninterrupted downtime or light activity (e.g., making camp or performing routine maintenance). After resting, characters may:
- clear all heat.
- clear any statuses and conditions affecting their mech.
- restore half of their pilot’s HP and clear DOWN AND OUT.
They may also spend REPAIRS at the following costs:
- 1 REPAIR: Restore full HP, or repair a destroyed weapon or system.
- 2 REPAIRS: Restore 1 STRUCTURE or 1 STRESS.
- 4 REPAIRS: Repair a destroyed mech.
The destruction of a mech doesn’t always mean the death of its pilot. Pilots are hardy and cunning – as long as they survive, they can and will escape or eject from mechs that have been shut down, disabled, or even destroyed entirely. Mechs can always be rebuilt; pilots are one of kind - sometimes.
Exceptional pilots – especially lancers – represent tremendous investments in hardware and training; as such, they tend to have powerful, well-connected patrons with an interest in maintaining their investments. It’s no surprise, then, that technologies exist to replace deceased pilots with subjective facsimiles or– if time doesn't permit – to create imperfect, flash-grown genetic clones.
Unique-subjectivity, natural-life “facsimile” clones are their own people – legally, culturally, and cognitively – and are common throughout the galaxy (in terrestrial world colonization, for example, first- and second-generation cloning is the norm). Flash clones are far less common, as the practice is broadly unlawful.
Subjectivity override of either a flash or facsimile clone is exceedingly rare.
Growing a body is easy; it is a very different thing – and much more fraught – to override a clone’s natural subjectivity with the cobbled-together cognitive profile of the deceased. Facsimile subjectivity cloning is incredibly expensive, subject to intense scrutiny, and restricted to approved entities; Unless a pilot is lucky enough to work for an organization with Union’s express sanction to run one of these rare and arguably unethical cloning programs, any cloning that does take place is probably unlawful.
While facsimile clones suffer fewer physical complications than flash clones, subjectivity override – whether applied to a facsimile or flash clone – is an experimental process that always creates complications, personal and social.
Unless the other members of a character’s team know that subjectivity override is possible, it’s going to be a hell of a surprise to see their comrade back from the dead. As for the revivified pilot themselves, they might have to wrestle with the “gap” in their memory. This “gap” necessarily means they don’t remember any events or interactions after the beginning of the session in which they died, although they keep all LL advancement.
It is up to the player whether they want to bring a slain character back as a subjectivity-override clone, or if they simply want to make a new character. It’s important to remember that even if a clone has had a subjectivity override, this does not mean that they are the same person as the character who died: they look the same and share an imprint of the deceased’s memories, drawing from them to act in novel situations; the original pilot who was killed is dead, their consciousness ended, forever.
By default, the following conditions apply to both facsimile- and flash-cloned characters, but they can be tweaked by the GM as needed:
- Cloned characters can’t join a mission in progress.
- Flash-cloned characters always come back with a quirk.
- Additional cloning and subjectivity imprinting adds further quirks.
Quirks can be physical or mental in nature, but they’re always complicating. Whatever they are, they should offer story hooks or create interesting narrative situations – they don’t have significant gameplay effects. Optionally, quirks might also be given to characters who go DOWN AND OUT – representing the lingering trauma of such a close encounter with death – or to characters who have died and been brought back to life by the GM’s discretion or a twist in the narrative. If you want to roll for a random quirk, you can roll 1d20:LaLancerD20: or choose from the below chart. You can use these as examples for designing quirks of your own if you want to decide on a custom quirk with your GM.
ROLL 1d20:LaLancerD20:
| 1 | Part (or all) of your body was too damaged to be cloned perfectly and a significant percentage of your clone body has been replaced with cybernetics. These high-quality prostheses aren’t obviously synthetic to casual observers. You don’t know the extent of the damage.|
| --- | ----- |
| 2 | Your clone has been fitted with a necessary but visible cybernetic augmentation – an arm, leg, eyes, or similar.It is a conspicuous prosthetic.|
| 3 | By accident or malign intent, your cognitive profile has been loaded into someone else’s body. It might be a clone of a notorious or famous individual, with both enemies and allies who thought they were dead; or, you might run into the “original” person the clone was based on.|
| 4 | Your clone has a unique appearance that clearly marks you as vat-grown.|
| 5 | Thanks to a series of administrative mishaps, the appearance of your new body is drastically different to that of your old body.|
| 6 | An additional, withered limb grows out of your clone’s chest shortly after your cognitive profile has been loaded. It sometimes moves on its own.|
| 7 | There’s a conspicuous barcode printed on your clone body. The barcode means something specific to at least one powerful organization, but you aren’t privy to its meaning – at least not yet.|
| 8 | In certain light conditions, it’s possible to read a script or inscription printed just under your skin. The script is all over your body and contains information contested by powerful organizations or entities – scientific formulae, maps, or something else entirely.|
| 9 | Your clone body is unusually susceptible to solar radiation, viruses, bacteria, or some other common environmental phenomenon. You must wear an environmental suit to operate outside certain safe environments, which include your mech’s cockpit and your personal quarters. You can use downtime actions to make other rooms safe.|
| 10 | Genetic material from a non-human source was used in the creation of your clone body. Whoever revived youwon’t tell you the exact details or what long-term effects it will have, and they treat you like a scienceexperiment. The new genetic material has caused a cosmetic change that is useful and visible, although able to be hidden.|
| 11 | Whenever you try to sleep or rest, you’re stricken with vivid and persistent dreams, visions, and images of your death. You know they’re real but can’t reconcile the existential gulf between the experiences of the old and new versions of yourself.|
| 12 | In addition to your cognitive profile, your clone body has been loaded with a digital homunculus of someone else: a basic digital reconstruction of a personality that is more like a piece of software than a person. While not technically sapient, it is very smart, and carries a message or secret with it.|
| 13 | You’re plagued by the constant understanding or belief that the “real” you is actually dead, and you’re merely a facsimile of a dead person, implanted with someone else’s memories. You can’t establish the difference between the “you” that died and the “you” that exists now.|
| 14 | In addition to your cognitive profile, your flash clone is woven through with a subdermal data-lattice: this storage device contains very dangerous and potentially unwanted information that is contested or sought by powerful entities.|
| 15 | The flash-cloning process went awry, and you have been revived tabula rasa. In desperation, the technicians dump a stock personality construct into your clone body. Choose a new background and triggers.|
| 16 | There are complications while growing your clone body: it has a dramatically reduced life expectancy.|
| 17 | Something changed you – you now have persistent and intrusive mental contact with an entity or entities,human or otherwise.|
| 18 | You keep having searing headaches during which you see brief flashes of what you’re pretty sure is the future.Sometimes these visions come to pass, sometimes they don’t.|
| 19 | Knowingly or unknowingly, your clone body has been implanted with a mental trigger that places you in a receptive state when heard or activated, causing you to either follow a pre-programmed course of action or to follow instructions given by the person who activated you. These commands must be simple (e.g., kill, lie, etc.),and the GM determines who (PC or NPC) gave them. You might be able to overcome this effect in time. |
| 20 | You come back with total amnesia regarding the time before your death, meaning you must be retrained and prepared from scratch. You lose all previous triggers and assign new ones up to your current level.Additionally, you may rewrite some incidental facts of your backstory.|
^quirkstable