With enough time and prep, I could see it on the GM side. in the meantime I recommend and use Owlbear.rodeo since none of the players need to sign up for anything and everything is freeform and open by default.
Funny thing is, I actually run Lancer on Foundry VTT using the Lancer module, and Foundry is already really good for it. The maps, grid, combat tracking, resource management, and overall flexibility are fantastic.
But honestly, from what I’ve seen so far, Lancer Tactics might actually do some things better.
The combat system feels incredibly intuitive, especially for new players. It gives you pop-ups and reminders for abilities, helps keep track of resources, and automates a lot of the little things that normally require the player or GM to remember. That alone is HUGE.
Foundry is still better in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to running an entire campaign, maps, customization, and everything outside of combat. But for actually playing Lancer combat, Lancer Tactics is surprisingly polished and is a great system.
I’ve actually already taken a couple of players through the game. Obviously, it’s currently a single-player game, so we had to get creative. I streamed my game through Discord while they watched. For newer players, I would walk them through character creation, customization, and everything else one at a time. It took some time, but it was actually a really good way to teach them the ropes.
For players who already knew Lancer, they would usually have their character made in COMP/CON and we could just import it. That alone was HUGE and made things incredibly easy.
Then we would actually play. Both players watched my stream and told me what they wanted to do on their turns. It was surprisingly easy, and they still felt like they had control over their characters. We ended up playing four games that dayand had a ton of fun!
The only thing we all wished for was some way for the players to actually take control themselves.
That’s ultimately why I’d love to see Lancer Tactics get some kind of co-op or online mode. The game already works incredibly well from both the GM and player sides. If you could actually have multiple players controlling their own characters, I genuinely think this could become a really interesting way to run Lancer campaigns.
Once more people realize how well the game handles the actual combat system, I could see campaigns being played in Lancer Tactics rather than just using it as a single-player tactics game.