Union Pattern Everest - G Type
Originally posted Dec 27 2022
Things are shit lately but it's almost christmas so fuck it. My #LancerRPG GMS Everest for their upcoming supplement Solstice Rain. I've always loved all manner of grunts in #mecha and don't know if @kaitave_ and @Lancer_RPG realized just how much I relished this opportunity. pic.twitter.com/zH5nE57qRR
— Peyton (@Gee0Man) December 24, 2022
My Lancer RPG GMS Everest for their upcoming supplement Solstice Rain. I've always loved all manner of grunts in mecha and don't know if they realized how much I relished the opportunity.
This is the only online platform that seems appropriate so I'll be typing out my entire treatise on grunts in mecha and how that drove my design of the Everest.
I cannot overstate how much I truly, genuinely love grunts in mecha. They're the boots on the ground, the backbone on which the grander story is set. In every mecha anime I've ever watched, I've always felt at one with these humble workhorses. Sometimes they're cannon fodder for our heroes. Elsewhere they're the protagonist's own hapless allies, often swept aside like detritus to showcase the villain's power. I've always been enamored with their struggle.
For my interpretation of the GMS Everest, I wanted to design something that felt solid, but not rugged, if that makes sense to anyone but me. To compare to other works, I thought of designs like Gundam's GM and Jegan lineages, or certain designs from the Armored Core and Front Mission franchise. Designs that felt true to the essence of the mech as a military machine.
One challenge with the Everest was designing a mech that felt quintessentially Lancer in spite of the game's tremendous diversity in visual aesthetic. Simply mashing all those styles together would have resulted in some kind of ungainly chimera that even Horus would balk at. So I did what most artists do when on a short timeline. I compromised. I felt IPS-N and Harrison Armory's aesthetics felt most in line with how I personally visualized the Everest. This also works from a lore standpoint since the original Everest originated from what eventually became Harrison Armory's capitol. It was going to feel reliable and militant. So simple even a marine can operate it and so cheap that it's not the end of the world when the damn marine walks the Everest off the side of a cliff.
Another aspect of what defines a grunt suit in mecha is its relationship to its higher powered counterparts. What sets apart a GM from the Gundam? The most obvious is the GM's visor versus the Gundam's eyes. One instantly feels less personable than the other. I think many visual traits come together to communicate that visual. There are subtler examples. The GM's lower leg is a single piece, compared to the Gundam which has a segmented shin and knee. This one visual trick alone implies that the manufacturing of the GM is simpler, idiot proof even. It's the visual indication of a simplified and standardized manufacturing process. And yet the two are indelibly linked, clearly members of the same family.
I tried my best to keep these concepts in mind while designing the Everest. It needed to feel like something that could be built and maintained on any battlefield. Simple enough to make in large quantities, merely good enough enough for any tactical situation, and average enough to fade into the background.
Of course, it couldn't be an actual background character. After all, the GMS Everest is meant to be a new player's first mech in Lancer. I had to balance the prior design tenets with a hint of greater potential. We all remember the nameless Stark Jegan pilot from Gundam Unicorn, or the Zaku who kicked a Ball into a GM at the battle of A Baoa Qu. There have always been faceless grunts who manage to stand out, whether it be for their surprising ingenuity or suicidal valor. I wanted my GMS Everest to feel like the kind of mech that under the right conditions, in the hands of the right pilot, is capable of much more than its designers ever thought possible. Perhaps defying all expectation, even come close to hurting a god.
I don't intend for my interpretation of the GMS Everest to be the "canon" depiction, nor should it invalidate the many fantastic renditions of it I've seen from Lancer's fanbase. I hope my [G] Type Everest will contribute to the fabric of Lancer as a whole though. Maybe in your next campaign, your GM describes your party arriving at the scene of a skirmish already in progress, your unit sent to reinforce a squad that's been ambushed. Maybe you've arrived just in time to watch them bravely go down in a hail of gunfire, holding out to the bitter end. I hope that maybe some of you might imagine my Everest in that moment.
#gee_art #design_notes #mecha #lancer