Canonically, this war will end with the Battle of Reflex Point, but the conflict with the Invid on earth takes 13 years to play out (according to the Shadow Chronicles art book). The Invid may have subdued organized resistance fairly quickly, but it must have taken longer to destroy nearly all resistance by the time Scott Bernard’s Twenty-First Mars Division arrived. War hero Jonathan Wolfe had even sold out his own rebel group by then. Each REF invasion attempt had only given the people of earth a false hope.
This is the environment the Player Characters will be fighting in. This is definitely a different era from the other two, as the war on earth has already been lost. Much of the conflict here may be rebels and REF personnel fighting the hopelessness of the remaining population. The locals are NOT friendly to the cause.
The Player Characters are unlikely to have happy backgrounds. Invading troops on earth are probably cutoff from reinforcements and contact with the REF, perhaps just fortunate to be alive. Survivors are hunted down by the Invid and their human sympathizers. Rebel Characters are ostracized from their own communities as troublemakers. They could probably only trust themselves with human traitors all too willing to turn them in. What motivates the REF troops and the earthbound rebels to fight this war in the face of overwhelming opposition should be questioned in play.
On the show, the Rebel group was on a quest to get to Reflex Point. This is an easy setting for creating a group of Player Characters and adventures if you’re following the series. Unfortunately, what makes it easy, also makes it hard to develop the Character relationships with NPC’s as they’ll be constantly on the move. A lot of the civilian NPC’s the group would meet would only be around for one adventure (not necessarily one game session). Then the group will move on and meet a whole new bunch of NPC’s. That’s going to be quite a bit of work if you’re trying to create interesting NPC’s.
There could instead be the possibility of the Character group operating out of some hidden base near Reflex Point. The rebels could be a cell as part of a larger rebellion in the surrounding area. Maybe they could be the ones forming the rebellion and trying to recruit others into it. As you would imagine, such a setting would be filled with intrigue. Human collaborators, willingly or unwillingly, working with the Invid may be the group’s biggest enemy. Indifference and fear of the Invid by the subjugated populace would be the other. Fighting Invid might be the best part of a rebel’s day.
Why confine the group to earth? They could be a Shadow strike force operating out of Moon Base ALUCE. They’d be sent on covert missions to earth to damage key Invid installations and rally support for the upcoming invasion. They’d be building relationships with rebels on earth. ALUCE may be a safe haven, but there could still be rivalries with other units and political games with the brass in charge.
All the while, the Invid are experimenting with human form. While they’re loyal to the Regis and their species, some of them should be all-too human and vulnerable to emotion. There could be traitors inserted into the rebel ranks (maybe even the military). There could be runaways from the hive with lost memories trying to fit into human society. Some of these Invid humanoids may have minds and personal agendas of their own that the Regis wouldn’t approve of. The sample adventure with my game will explore this possibility. (Remember, unlike other Invid, the Regis couldn’t directly control these subjects.) Who’s to say one of the Player Characters might not actually be Invid? (Heh, heh, heh, evil Dungeon Master chuckle.)
The Sentinels and the Shadow Chronicles
These two settings are going to be beyond the scope of this game. Certainly you’re free to use these rules and make up your own stats to play out those settings. I’m sorry that the Sentinels didn’t get made, regardless of how it might have turned out. Now, it’s a blank spot in the story and unlikely to be canon as originally written. If this setting is revisited in animation, I think there will be changes to it. The Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles comic was an adaption of the last Sentinels novel, but the Shadow Chronicles movie side-stepped the Sentinels except to introduce the Haydonites as the new villains.
Certainly the Sentinels provides a large militaristic setting for gaming. While it’s the REF fighting the Invid, the challenges of fighting on their various occupied worlds and their unique environments would be an interesting tactical exercise. The inhabitants of these planets would provide some interesting interactions. Without the series being made though, it’s hard to really know the potential of the show.
The Shadow Chronicles movie was cool, but it only really added some high-powered weapons and a powerful new foe to the setting. I flat out didn’t want to try and figure out how to incorporate them into the game. The movie did conclude with an interesting new mission of trying to find Admiral Hunter and recover the new Protoculture Matrix before the REF runs out of energy. Given that they’re fighting a new war against the Haydonites, the mission is critical. The movie also formally introduces the concept of the REF having colony ships. This would imply colony worlds.
Colony Worlds and Outposts
This aspect of the Robotech universe seems alluded to, but not expanded on at all. In the series, the SDF-3 was the Pioneer mission, which seems to suggest exploration and settlement. Southern Cross had perhaps a throwaway line about reinforcements coming from colonies and deep space outposts.
I agree with the Palladium gamebooks that the REF was more than just the SDF-3, even though that disagrees with the Sentinels video and the novels. While an impressive ship, what were you be thinking going against the Masters without an armada? The Expeditionary fleet versus the Masters’ fleet would be good fight to watch, but you could perhaps synchronize these views and say that the SDF-3 went in alone first to be diplomatic. (Of course, that’s still insane.) I envision a fleet that wasn’t just confronting the Masters, but also escorting colony ships away from earth. This was part of a human Diaspora strategy. After the destruction of the first Robotech War, this would seem like a logical move to ensure the survival of the species beyond living on a single planet.
Scott Bernard flashed back at one point to his youth on board a ship. The SDF-3 would have been big enough to house families (though it would have just had a military crew at launch), but colony vessels like the Ark Angel (from the Shadow Chronicles) would be another option. Guarding a “city” in space could be another possible interesting setting for Robotech.
We can also look to some related, but not Robotech, sources. The end of the Flashback 2012 Macross movie showed Rick and Lisa taking off in a colony vessel to the stars. Macross 7, which I haven’t seen at all, had Max and Miriya in charge of a colony fleet. Macross Plus, which I wish was compatible with Robotech, showed the thriving colony world of Eden. (Though I question co-existing with giant flying chickens. That really seems like an aerial navigation hazard. Planes colliding with regular birds causes problems.) The original Southern Cross series, which I’m also not familiar with, I think took place on a colony world.
[Yes, I could fairly easily look up this stuff on the Internet and be more authoritative. I think part of me just doesn’t want to know and would prefer to leave these shows as a mystery. There are other Macross series, like Macross Zero which I saw a couple of episodes of. There are probably several other 80’s transforming robot shows from Japan that could be inspirational like Super Dimension Century Orguss. (I remember randomly seeing some toys from that show in a store in the late 80’s.)]
The Masters’ former home world of Tirol would be the home of the REF and have a colony, but it might not be the most populous. Certainly an idyllic world like Eden would attract more settlers from earth than dusty Tirol. The Zentraedi who joined human society after the first war seemed to all leave earth with the Pioneer mission. The rise of a more xenophobic Southern Cross would have made off-world immigration attractive. Some full-sized Zentraedi may have returned to Fantoma, Tirol’s giant shepherd world, to resume mining operations. Micronized ones may have joined the war effort or gone to another world to live a peaceful life. I think an exorcised scene from the original Macross series, showed Breetai and the Zentraedi taking off into space.
Though there would be encounters with other alien races (Sentinels anyone?), the REF isn’t Starfleet. Macross Plus showed Robotech forces fighting a constant war against Zentraedi incursions. (And worse, the Zentraedi have also upgraded their forces.) Eden looked like a peaceful, cosmopolitan world, but it was being kept that way by very aggressive and powerful human fleets. Earth was surrounded by battleships and automated defenses. (And giant Minmei hologram generators. I’m still trying to mentally block out having seen Macross II.)
There are also outposts in the system. In the Macross era, there were the Armor platforms in earth orbit. Later, there’d be a tremendous debris ring encircling the planet of destroyed invading vessels. There was a major base on Mars before the first war. It seemed to be alluded to that it was back in operation afterward. The Southern Cross had a major spaceport on the moon, ALUCE. You’d think it was likely established in the Macross era to some capacity and was then expanded in the Invid era. (It was a bit ambiguous about how many lunar bases there were. Perhaps another one destroyed by the Masters, a ghost facility.) I would have to think there were more outposts around the solar system.
Then there are the Zentraedi factory satellites. I think it’s been established that there was more than one officially. In Macross, one was captured after a fight with a guarding fleet. The facility itself was automated. (Perhaps as implied in Macross Plus, they could be receiving battle data and upgrading units to deal with new threats.) Space Station Liberty seems like another facility that was captured and converted. Liberty was critical in churning out and repairing the ships of the REF. Being in deep space, it would be difficult to find, unlike a planet in a star system, and would normally be a safe refuge (but not always). Certainly there could be other factories out there.
There’s some question as to what happened to the original Factory Satellite. For what it’s worth, my interpretation is that it was sent to Tirol to service the REF. As I’ve written, I think the Southern Cross was under much tighter financial constraints than either the RDF or REF. Keeping that gigantic station in operation without any imminent invasion threat would have been back-breaking. Presuming the station’s fold system was back on line and the REF still needed reinforcements from earth, the ASC might have offered it to them.
As of the Shadow Chronicles, Space Station Liberty is now a supermassive black hole, but before that it was the communications hub between earth and Tirol. It might have been a way point to other human colony worlds and exploration expeditions. It was the arsenal for the invasion of earth by the REF. Regaining disrupted communications with the station was critical for the ASC during the second war. Losing this station after the events of the Shadow Chronicles (and losing the new protoculture matrix with the SDF-3) would have isolated all the human worlds from each other. There’s a potential rescue scenario and also perhaps the need to capture another Robotech factory.
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