Robomeck RPG Commentary Track Part 1

My high school friend's box full of Robotech figures.

Robomeck RPG Index

Intro

In my opinion, the two greatest TV shows ever are Robotech and The :20 Minute Workout.  The 80’s really were awesome.  If you don’t believe me, just watch them (Robotech, :20 Minute Workout).  Unfortunately, only one of these shows really lends itself to being adapted to a Role-Playing Game.  (Errr. . . tabletop RPG that is.  I have no trouble imagining some live-action role playing with the other show, but this isn’t that kind of blog.) 

I had some good experiences playing my own homebrew version of Robotech and the official version back in the day.  With Palladium losing the license, I thought I’d go ahead and put up my own version of Robotech the RPG.  (And I’ve been at it so long, Strange Machine Games has picked it up.  Good F-ing luck guys.  You have no idea what you’ve bitten off or how ruthless the fans of the show are going to be.)  I threatened to do this way back, so this shouldn’t be a surprise.  I’ve actually written out this intro about three different times (each time, I thought I was close to finishing the game), which explains why it’s going to run long. 

It might have easier to adapt The :20 Minute Workout into an RPG.  I’ve come to understand why transformable mecha RPG’s is such a desolate field.  I’ve thought so little of the original Palladium Robotech rules, and still do, but this is a hard genre for tabletop RPG’s.  This is going to be an adapted version of my own Fantasy Core RPG rules, which are based on the D20 rules.  The main difference is that there’s only one Character class and that combat is oriented around fighting with mecha.  Social interaction outside the cockpit is also part of the game and pays XP, so get ready to actually “role play.” 

My Robotech History

If you doubt my cred in making up a Robotech-like RPG, hopefully this post about my Alpha Fighter model will convince you.  Probably not.  (I also have this post about my personal history with anime and even a poem and some sketches.)  I used to have a few more Robotech toys.  I bought a few random figures on discount, but I only considered the Bioroid Terminator one worthwhile.  However, I had a friend who massively collected action figures.  Him and his brother and sister had boxes of Star Wars, GI Joe, and Robotech figures.  They were big fans of the show too.  This friend later gave me a Scott Bernard with a Cyclone and a transformable SDF-1 ship.  (I wish I could have figured out what to trade him for his Invid Shock Trooper, which I lusted over, or his Dana Sterling figure.)

My Robotech odyssey started innocently enough one Saturday morning in my youth when a show called Codename: Robotech came on.  It was a 90-minute combination of the episodes Blue Wind and an extended version of Gloval’s Report.  I was blown clean away by what I saw.  Not even my love of Starblazers had prepared me for this show.  Even better, the purpose of this special was to promote a daily Robotech TV show.  I would be getting more of this awesome thing that I suddenly couldn’t live without.  

Unfortunately, the show in my area was poorly scheduled in the morning about the time I had to be at school.  This turned into a happy accident.  My mom recorded the shows (on VHS tapes) for me so I could watch them later in the afternoon.  Thanks to those tapes I could later binge-watch the show for years to come (long before the term “binge-watching” was invented).  I later got DVD copies of the show. 

Randomly, I acquired a bonus disc from another version of the DVD set.  This had the original pilot episode of series when they had just adapted Macross.  Did you know that the theme song has words to it?  You don’t want to hear it.  I saw the Sentinels video a couple of times, but I don’t own it.  Lastly, I do own the Shadow Chronicles movie and loved it.  I’m sure the live-action movie is just around the corner any day now.           

Robotech also existed in other media.  I ended up with all of the Art books, which I still have.  There was a full novelization of the series, and later the Sentinels and other novels to fill in the gaps and to end the series.  I collected all of them, but later divested myself of them.  The novels had their moments, but weren’t as good as the series itself. 

I had some of the original comic book series by Comico, even the graphic novel.  Frankly, they weren’t that great and I got rid of them along with most of the rest of my comics.  I got a few random comics made by other companies later, but I didn’t have much regard for them.  I do still have a trade paperback of Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles, which at least looks good.  Germane to this RPG, I had the core Palladium books, which I was never enamored of.  I eventually traded them off at the bookstore, but not before I took some copious notes on the main mecha.  Without those notes, I’d never have thought to do my own game, so I owe them that much. 

I hope I now have some small credibility on this subject.  I know it sounds lazy to say I didn’t rewatch the show before writing this, but truly, I know the show.  When Georges Bizet was asked if he was going to Spain to research bullfighting for his new opera Carmen he replied, “No, that would only confuse me.”  This RPG is just “inspired” by the show anyway.  All the trademarked terms changed to avoid copyright issues hopefully.  Some things will be wrong, some things I’ve changed on purpose, and some things I just made up.  If some of the text and commentary of this game also happens to explain concepts in Robotech accurately (or better than accurately), so much the better. 

Game Creation

When I started this, I thought at the time that I could simply type and post my modified Palladium rules and be done with it.  No chance.  Bluntly, the Palladium rules suck and it’s not like everyone is familiar with them.  Hell, I barely used a recognizable version of them.  More to the point, I don’t actually remember how they worked in detail.  I don’t even have the books anymore.  (Given what a big Robotech fan I am, that should give you a good idea of what I thought of them.) 

Oh, but the issues didn’t stop there.  Palladium’s rules aren’t OGL, so they’re not wide open to use, even if I wanted to use them.  Further, Harmony Gold is also rather protective of their property.  There’s also the story itself, which does not entirely lend itself to an RPG telling new and original tales.  Not to mention, there are some really questionable elements to Robotech (I say this as a huge fan) that make it hard to take seriously, harmonize (ah, see what I did there, pun) between eras, and outright gaps in logic.

This then begat the issue of how to redo the rules, which was a whole new can of worms.  I decided use my own Fantasy Core and “borrow” some elements from other games.  This, along with a few brilliantly explosive original ideas of my own, formed the core of this new, exciting Robotech-like RPG.  (Yeah, “brilliantly explosive original ideas” because they’re probably going to detonate in playtesting.)  I made many poor decisions in rewriting my Fantasy Core rules to adapt them to mecha combat.  Many, many poor decisions, necessitating many, many rewrites.  I actually wrote out the mecha stats before I finished writing the rules.  You may imagine how many edits resulted from that poor decision. 

So why am I doing this?  I had to go back and remind myself a couple of times by looking at some notes of my old Robotech RPG games.  Before Palladium released their rules, I’d made up my own based on the only science fiction RPG I had, Paranoia.  Yes, really.  It was a real mismatch of settings, but it worked for my purposes as I played with friends who were also a big Robotech fans. 

I later picked up the official rule books.  Frankly, I didn’t like the Palladium system, but I did like all the mecha stats, though they were likely just as suspect.  With some other friends, we played through a few more adventures.  Regardless of the rules, we had fun.  If you’re a fan of the show, it’s irresistible to play in the setting.

Just from an RPG standpoint, the mecha in Robotech are not designed for game play.  The armaments are generally excessive to say the least, not to mention obscure and weird.  What GM would allow a Character a fighter plane with 60 missiles to fly into combat with?  Come on!  Even in a scavenging-type campaign, eventually somebody’s going go “Scott Bernard” on an Invid and empty their racks, and you’re going to have to let them re-arm at some point in the near future.  How about that Zentraedi Quadrano Armor with the laser package that can take out a whole squadron at once?  (That one wasn’t in the Palladium rules, nor is it in mine.)  Macross-era mecha have gun barrels poking out all over them.  How do you account for all those weapons systems, especially when many of them were shown in use in the series and are therefore canonical? 

If you’re making a Robotech game, you also have account for mecha and enemies from different eras.  Everything needs to be compatible, because you and your players are fanboys and you’re going to want to fight it out against everybody using everything.  This was the utter downfall of the Palladium rules.  The power creep with each successive sourcebook eventually made the REF mecha completely out of line with the mecha and foes from preceding eras.  I could see a Cyclone rider taking out an armored Zentraedi, but no way would the rider have double the hit points!  (Actually, I think it was more than double.) 

Synchronizing the various combatants was the relatively easy part.  (The REF mecha is still upgraded over the RDF mecha, but not outrageously.)  I more or less had to live with main weapons systems on the various mecha, but I dropped some of the lesser systems.  A worse issue was trying to figure out how to conduct mecha combat.  Simply, hit points make for a poor combat system for every RPG.  For any RPG other than a Medieval-base one, they’re even worse.  If the setting uses chain guns, massed missiles, and high-powered lasers, your suspension of disbelief becomes that of willful blindness.

The Palladium system, as I remember it, basically had no Armor Class for its mecha.  Hit points were the AC.  So, massive HP = high AC.  This lead to the power inflation that wrecked the game.  (DnD 4e one-upped that by inflating HP and elevating AC.  Little wonder nobody misses it.)  To sidestep whole issue, I experimented with using a more “realistic” system that focused on hit location and did away with HP and AC and calculating damage. 

However, this would have required a hit location chart for every mecha in every mode to actually work.  This meant avoiding getting hit was paramount, so the rules were skewed to that end.  At that point, all of combat likely would have devolved into combatants shooting at each other and missing, until they finally got in a lucky shot that caused massive damage and a roll on a chart.  Admittedly, I’ve played Star Fleet Battles and nothing, but nothing, is more satisfying than finally blowing a hole in somebody’s shields and then rolling up massive internal damage on your foe.  But, that’s not going to fly in Robotech, and that lucky shot could happen on the first round of combat to a Player Character.  Virtually all RPG combat systems are designed to avoid that for obvious reasons.  (Dead Characters don’t game.)   

I also considered the other aspect of Palladium’s system.  The defender rolls for their defense and tries to beat the attack roll, instead of a static defense (Armor Class).  I considered having different modes of defense against different types of attacks, but ultimately dropped the concept.  AC is a terrible way determining a combatant’s defense.  Being hard to hit and being hard to wound should be expressed as two different things.  However, AC does simplify things a lot, which became paramount as this project swung out of control. 

In my own experience, randomizing attacks and defense tends to produce very fluky results.  You might think this would make combat more exciting, unless it was your Character getting whacked because your dice didn’t show up for a couple of rounds and that’s all it takes under this kind of system.  In the Palladium system, I think the attacker at least had to roll 12 or more to hit, regardless of what the defender rolled, which did make combat a bit more steady.  Again though, you still have to inflate the hit points to compensate for the randomness.     

I finally coped out and went with my own Fantasy Core system, adapted for mecha combat.  It’s so frustrating to see the faults of standard DnD combat and being forced to fall back on them.  I’ve decreased the mecha HP and kept the AC low.  Given the damage potential of the various weapons systems, combat may go quick.  However, the Characters and important NPC’s likely have superior mecha and can “bend” the rules with the use of FP and XP to hopefully outlast their opponents.  Enemy aces also have access to FP though.  It might be a good idea to plan on having some of those ace fights be inconclusive, instead of the usual to the death.

It occurred to me that one major aspect of Robotech was missing from the Palladium game.  Interpersonal conflict really drove the Characters of show even more than combat.  Certainly you could have a campaign with plenty of relationship drama without any rules for it, but I saw this as a means of the Characters earning more XP, which would improve them in combat.  So hopefully, this makes the game more personally involving and gives the Players a good reason to interact with the NPCs.  Refs will have to up their game in creating interesting people for the Characters to interact with.

Robotech Setting

I do feel need to address the issue of the Robotech setting in general.  While I would say most RPG settings require a suspension of disbelief on some level, Robotech likely pushes that over the edge.  Transforming robots are almost the least of it.  As per Robotech Art 1, the original Macross show was conceived as something of a parody.  While it outgrew that origin and became the dramatic soapy space opera we all love, it never quite overcame it.  The story of giant warrior aliens in a gender separated society with gigantic fleets chasing one ship and being overcome by kissing and Minmei singing is absurd.  You could see the Reconstruction episodes of Macross as a more adult unsentimental look at the setting and characters.

Southern Cross again featured an overwhelming alien force, which was inexplicably held at bay by an almost ineffectual human military.  They were afraid of love and emotions too?  (The opening episodes of that show seem like a bit of a parody as well.)  The Invid Invasion had the most believable premise of the powerful aliens overwhelming and conquering the planet.  Invading human fleets were no match for the Invid, but strangely, a little ragtag group of rebels could blow up entire hives.  Well, at least it’s a good adventuring environment.

Robotech itself was a Frankenstein-level creation of science fiction, stitching together three shows that had transforming robots and some common themes, but were not related.  (I don’t use the word “Frankenstein” lightly.  The creation of this show was something of an act of genius.)  The seams were always showing on the finished product.  Fans, such as myself, have jumped through hoops trying to make timelines work between the three eras.  Elaborate explanations have to be made about questionable story logic and offhand, unexplained comments made during the show.  You might see the RDF Veritech becoming the REF Alpha as a next generation development, but SCA mecha goes off on a complete tangent.           

The wet dream of every Robotech fan has to a modern remake of the series, something along the lines of the Space Battleship Yamato series remake from a few years ago.  But this is virtually out of the question given the material and Tatsunoko’s jealous ownership of Macross.  The laughable premise of singing your way to victory is probably why the live-action movie keeps not getting made, no matter how many nostalgic fans in Hollywood the show has.  It’s amazing Robotech even got made using Macross, as it was foreign reinterpretation of an iconic Japanese anime, not at all a faithful translation. 

Further, and perhaps more to the point, J.R.R. Tolkien tried to do a more adult rewrite of The Hobbit after Lord of Rings came out and gave up in frustration.  It was a kids’ novel; changing it from that, meant changing it completely.  Those attempts may have formed the basis, or at least the excuse, for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy.  Surely that fearful thought alone would keep anyone from asking for an “improved” version of the series.  Need I bring up the “re-imagined” Battlestar Galactica?  Whatever merits the show had, it eventually lost all them in its merciless destruction of its characters, a complete cluster-foxtrot ending, and just not being as fun as the original.