At Role, we believe in the power of independent creators & publishers in the RPG community. More games, more worlds, and more voices mean better stories for everyone. To that end, we’re excited to highlight a few of the creators we’re working with as we gear up to launch the Role platform later this year. Each of these creators is also part of our Kickstarter campaign, which is LIVE NOW! You can support our campaign here!
In this spotlight, we’re talking to Massif Press, creators of the popular Lancer RPG! We love their focus on blending rich narrative play with complex tactical mechanics. Their newest supplement, Lancer: Battlegroup is coming exclusively to Role!
For those who are new to Massif Press, can you give us an overview of your work? What is Lancer all about?
Miguel: Sure! Massif Press is a new narrative and tactical games publisher, founded in 2019 by me, Miguel, and Tom, the creator of Kill Six Billion Demons, to produce our roleplaying game, Lancer.
Lancer is about many things. On the aesthetic level, it seeks to blend the aesthetics of hard science fiction with high science fantasy — that’s our “mud and lasers” selling point, which I think we practice pretty well.
On the thematic level, Lancer is about institutions, the wielding of power, and struggle — it imagines a future approaching the utopian, but not there yet, and under threat from states and entities that push against collective grace in favor of individual accumulation. Players in Lancer are stuck right on the front lines of this friction, where we think there are plenty of opportunities for compelling narratives that engage their characters — in some small way — in the shaping of the galaxy and course of human history.
Tom: Lancer’s a mech role playing game with a huge focus on deep customization. It’s rich with flavor and character in every part of the game and there’s a split between narrative and downtime play and tactical combat, so you can focus equally on both and tell a compelling story the way that you enjoy.
What got you started as game creators?
Miguel: A desire to see a system that Lancer would grow to fill: deep customization, smooth tactical play, and a rich science fiction setting to interact with.
Tom: I think all the time about game design. I’ve always enjoyed role-playing games and video games and I’m fascinated by unraveling what makes a good game successful, so I have always at certain parts in my life been designing for board games, role-playing games, etc as a hobby. I draw comics most of the week and so games became the work I do to get away from work, so to speak. Successfully adapting a cool idea or concept to a level where it can be executed as a game, where it can be played and people enjoy it,l is deeply satisfying to me.
How long have you been working on Lancer? What inspired you to create this project?
Miguel: Since summer 2017, when Lancer began as a side project during our D&D campaign.
Tom: On a car ride together we discussed trying to find a mech RPG to play that wasn’t proprietary and couldn’t think of one. Like Miguel said, for us I think Lancer fills a niche that we desired to see filled. I’ve been doing game design for personal projects for a long time and Miguel has a degree in writing (and we’ve known each other for close to 16 years) so it was an easy project to start.
What’s your favorite thing about being an RPG creator? What are some of the best things you’ve seen come from your work?
Miguel: Being lucky enough to have the time and money to develop a setting and system that people find joy in interacting with, and being able to write a setting that asks players, critics, etc, to play, read, and write in conversation with.
Tom: The community around this game is absolutely incredible. We’ve seen the game take off in popularity to a point that its popularity is largely self-sustaining which is really, really cool.
What are some of the most interesting and unexpected things you’ve seen the Lancer community do with your work? How has that changed the way you create?
Miguel: Every fan setting, pixel art, online mech customization tools, fan art — the scope and scale of fan work is humbling, as a creator, and one of the highest compliments one can pay. In the beginning Lancer was a hobby for me — fan reaction to it was the thing that made me realize how much responsibility I had as a writer in crafting and continuing to craft a narrative space that people could trust, enjoy, and make their own.
Tom: People really love that the mechs have toes, for some reason. On a more serious note, the absolute volume of work put into homebrew projects is incredible. We have an official app, Comp/Con, which is probably the best RPG character creator tool out there (not exaggerating this) which started as a fan project.
What makes role playing special to you?
Miguel: That it can be a meaningful generative space for narrative and a space for play.
Tom: I did a lot of theatre growing up and I love the improv and collaborative storytelling aspects of role playing. There’s a sense of participation and verisimilitude in role-playing you cannot get from other sorts of games. It’s also deeply social which I love.
Where is Massif Press going next? What’s on the horizon for you and Lancer?
Miguel: Lancer is our main project for a while. Both Tom and I love the setting and the system, and we’re intent on growing it. Along the way, we’ve got side projects and properties in mind that will interact thematically with Lancer, if not directly in the setting or medium.
Tom: We have a bunch of great content coming out this year and next to support the core book. In the future we’ll continue to publish campaigns, expansions, etc for Lancer but both of us have other (thankfully much smaller scope) role-playing projects in the works that we may put out along the way.
Massif Press is bringing Lancer: Battlegroup to life as part of the Role Kickstarter campaign, which is LIVENOW!
