Robomeck RPG Sample Adventure: Geezer’s Revenge The Raid

Robomeck RPG Index

Scene 4: The Lab

(Award 2 XP for taking out the Lab.  Getting the Delta is the main objective, but . . . it’s complicated.)

The Mesa

The Lab is built on a small mesa shelf.  Behind the Lab is a ravine and surrounded by harder to scale mountains.  The mesa is easy to climb with a couple of rds of effort and can even be driven up on a bike or truck.  The group will have completely unopposed and unobserved movement at the bottom of the hill.  At the bottom of the mesa though are a pile of bodies and body parts.  Ooh, nasty.  Talk about a “Keep Out” sign.  Even an untrained observation can tell they were experimented on. 

Just over the lip of the hill is the grounds’ main defense.  1 Buried Hive Drone is keeping an eye on anything coming over the lip.  It’s not well-hidden (DC 12 to Detect from up close, DC 18 to Detect from a distance with binoculars).  If someone sneaks a peek over the lip (not in Typhoon armor or with a powered-on Proto-fuel device, which will cause the check to fail immediately), they can try a Detection roll without risking being seen.  (Why do I write things like this?  Players would never do something like that.)  

Trying to sneak up onto the mesa is a DC 12 Stealth check (again, not in Typhoon armor or using a Proto-fuel device).  However, if detected, the Drone doesn’t attack, but rather it alerts the 2 Urban Regulators in the Well House to come investigate.  I don’t want to try to figure out every contingency, but any invasion or attack inside the compound with Proto-fueled weapons will cause the Drone to attack. 

  

Well House

2 Urban Regulators reside in the Well House.  (What a crummy job.)  Occasionally, they patrol the grounds, but if there are any Hive not controlled by Menus in the area, they duck back inside.  Since a patrol did go by recently (the one the Characters ran into), they’re hiding.  There is a window on the Well House that Characters could look into to see the guards. 

They’ll want to try and take captives if just one or two trespassers come on to the mesa.  However, if Proto-fueled weapons are used or the Drone is triggered, they will use lethal force and attempt to flank the attackers.  Aren’t you Players glad that Geezer is watching your back now?  He’ll give the group a heads-up on where anything on the mesa is moving. 

It’s possible that Characters could sneak up to the building and blow it up before the Regulators come out.  If the Characters try this successfully, it will collapse the building on them and destroy them.  (Give them a round of applause and 1 XP, too.  Always feel free to hand out XP for good play.)  Setting a mine on the other buildings in the compound will just blow a hole in the wall, perhaps killing or damaging those inside (depending on how long the game session is going).  It will require 3 Stealth checks: one to get there, one to plant the mine, another to get away.    

Greenhouse

There are windows all the way around this building.  You can peek inside to see what’s there.  In this case, the greenhouse is filled with Proto-flowers.  There is 1 Regulator overseer and 4 human slaves tending to the flowers.  One of the slaves is a little girl, Jade.   

Entering the greenhouse without a helmet on will require a DC 12 Fort save.  The building is filled with dangerously psychotropic Proto-flower spores.  Those failing to make the save are stunned for 1 rd and will be last in initiative in any fight inside.  The effects go away as soon as the person steps back outside.  The Regulator here will engage any intruder inside the greenhouse, but won’t abandon his post to go outside until the Drone and the 2 Urban Regulators are incapacitated or if otherwise summoned. 

All of the slaves are zonked out of their minds.  This is why the Hive have to keep bringing in new slaves for their plantations.  There’s a terrible attrition of workers.  Inside this building, it’s even worse.  They’re going to require some medical treatment in town, but will be okay.  The problem is that they’re going to have to be led outside and away from the Lab as they won’t respond to orders.  On any firefights inside, there’s a possibility of the slaves getting in the way (unintentionally), requiring shooting into a crowd.    

Lab House

This isn’t a formal lab.  It is a farmhouse converted into one.  From the outside, it looks very pedestrian.  There’s only 1 entry and 1 window.  The view through the window shows the lab inside and a Regulator moving around working on an experiment.  Either the front door or the window can be forced open with basically any damage, but that will alert everyone inside.  Either can be quietly opened with a DC 12 Lockpicking check.  Any Character smart enough to try will be able to get in and have 1 rd to attack or hide before being noticed.  (DC 12 Stealth check each rd inside.)

There are 3 Regulators inside.  1 is in the isolation bay, 1 is by the trough/specimen jars, and 1 is by the computer bank.  The entry is deserted.  Once any shooting starts inside the Lab, 2 Regulators inside will attack.  The third Regulator will start trying to wreck the Specimen Room jars, blow up the computers, and then destroy the Isolation Bay.  This will take 5 rds (2 rds to destroy the specimen jars, 1 rd to destroy the computers, 1 rd to go through the airlock, and 1 rd to destroy the Iso Bay).  Obviously, the Characters will not be able to recover anything from these rooms if they are destroyed.  Not to mention, any of the other Regulators left in the other buildings will come in 2 rds.  The Hive Drone will wait outside, but the Attack Drone will not leave the barn, unless all the other troops are killed.        

Entry: This room is empty, but has an unlocked door to the Specimen Room and a picture window to the Isolation Bay.  The Regulator in the Iso Bay is unlikely to notice intruders unless they’ve forced their way in.    

Specimen Room: The Hive in their mecka suits have no sense of smell, which would be essential to working in this house.  There is a foul miasma of Proto-fuel and dissected body parts.  No need to roll anything, it’s not that strong, just a fragrant ambiance. 

There is a trough of Proto-fuel filled with body parts.  There are specimen jars of embryos with odd Human/Hive hybrid creatures, not alive.  In the corner, there’s a sniper rifle with a scope.  Next to it is a box of 12 anesthetic trank darts (DC 18 Fort Sv or knocked out for 1 hr).  The rifle is of human-make.  A Hive Regulator couldn’t even use it.

Computer Room: There’s a bank of Hive and human computers slapped together here.  There are power and data cables snaking out from this room to various points in the other rooms.  In the top left corner is a four-pack of Proto-fuel cells powering the computers.  (This is either the nearly drained cells of the nearby Delta fighter or a brand new set of cells depending on how you want to play this.)  It can be easily disconnected. 

Right next to the cells is a data drive hooked up to a jar of Proto-fuel containing a small sliver of white organic matter.  These two items are easy to identify and disconnect.  You’re running this adventure wrong if you allow the Characters to attempt to hack the computer while they’re here.  This needs to be a smash-and-grab and figure it out later caper.  Sam the barkeep could hack the security on the drive pretty quick (with the right motivation and a Social Interaction roll).  For anybody else it’s going to be a DC 18 Hack.  The cryptic, very technical data on the drive has detailed biological information on humans, Hive, cloning, and psychic powers.*  Unless you’re a scientist, it’s just going to give the reader a vague idea that this facility is here to experiment on human/Hive hybrids.  There is one concrete piece of data here: the name Dr. Dmitri.  His name is all over this, though not Menus’. 

The white piece of organic matter is a sliver of a Mound Proto-Brain.  This could provide all sorts of information and even intelligence on the Hive.  However, it can only be accessed by someone with psychic abilities or has physical links to the Hive (a hybrid or some other artificial means of faking being Hive).  This thing can also potentially give away their position if it is connected to a power source or dipped in Proto-fuel.  For now though, the Characters probably aren’t going to know what it is or at least not know what to do with it, other than the Ref mentioned it, so it must be important somehow.     

  

‘*’ Menus doesn’t just want human/Hive hybrid; he wants an ubermensch, who can use psychic powers.  Psionic powers plus Proto-fuel might equal an Akira-level organic weapon of mass destruction.  This is beyond these rules and this current adventure.  You can check here for some of my ideas on psychic abilities rules.

Isolation Bay: This room is oddly clean and sterile room compared to the rest of the lab.  There is a full medical supplies cabinet at the north end of the room.  The contents are labeled with warnings.  It contains a box of Ability Stims (2 each of Str, Con, Dex, Int, gives +4 to the stat for 1 turn, can only take 1 per day or will go into toxic shock), a box of Anti-toxins (4, heals any poisoning like toxic shock, can only take 1 per day or die), and a box of 8 Heal Sprays (heals all hp damage immediately, can only take 1 per day or will go into toxic shock).  There’s a pack of little blue pills too.  (Not sure what those are for.)  There’s babbling (but written in English) technical manuals on the shelves and other scientific items present on the other bookcases, but they won’t be useful to the Characters.   

There is an airlock with easy to use controls.  Next to it is an observation room with a window on the Iso Bay.  Inside is a set of four large tubes filled with clear fluid.  There is an adult human body in each, 2 male and 2 female.  They’re all wearing something like a skimpy wet suits (because we’re being modest here) with air hoses and various cables hooked into them.   

The Characters aren’t going to be able to figure out how to delicately disengage these people from the tubes (between technical human labels and some Hive labeling, it will be unintelligible), but they can be easily broken open.  Whether the Players want to do so or not is entirely up to them.  (Do not force anything here.)  Three of the bodies come out of the tubes already dead (they’re stone cold).  They are also bleeding red (they’ll get nicked by the glass).  One of the bodies comes out warm and breathing and also bleeding red.  (Choose the gender yourself to your tastes.)  This person will be unconscious and have to be carried out of the Lab.      

Who is this person?  That’s up to you.  This person could be a human.  It could also be a hybrid.  Hybrids bleed clear (from the Proto-flower fluid in their veins), but there’s going to be a lot of blood sloshing around from the other bodies, who were human.  Some of that blood could have gotten on the recovered person. 

Here’s a really wild idea: the recovered person is actually Menus.  You’ll have to definitely choose a gender for the Character.  Perhaps he/she needs regular high-level treatment or was running an experiment to enhance his/her abilities.  In any case, Menus will have amnesia for a while from the improper disengagement from the machinery.  Maybe a certain trigger or just time will allow Menus to recover his/her memory.  Who knows what happens then?   

Tin Barn

The barn has a pair of double doors with no locking mechanism.  There are no windows on this structure.  It’s an obvious trap.  There is a Hive Attack Drone inside.  (And you thought the Well House guys had a poor job.)  His job is to destroy the complex if it is discovered by the Queen.  This isn’t to say he won’t try to capture anybody who opens the doors or kill those wielding Proto-fueled weapons.  (Drones can make a non-lethal slap for capture purposes.)  If the Drone is activated, the Well House guards will come to investigate as well, perhaps even the buried Drone.  The takeoff of a nearby Delta fighter will also activate the Drones.     

If all of the Hive at this facility are incapacitated, the Attack Drone’s main function will be to start strafing the buildings.  It will start with the Lab and then the Greenhouse.  Assume two runs on the Lab will blow it up.  Anyone inside on the first run will be okay, but if they’re inside for that second run, they blow up with the building.  Same for the Greenhouse.  If it completes this function, it will fly away.

The Delta

Carefully landed in hover mode in a small wooded ravine behind the Lab Complex, sits a violet-colored Delta fighter.  (It takes 2 rds running from the complex to get there.  You can’t miss it with that color scheme.)  It is not in good shape, to the tune of only having 10 MHP.  The pilot must have been pretty good to have landed this damaged craft so carefully here.  A quick inspection shows the pilot also just about expended the whole magazine, as the Delta only has 4 missiles and 2 bursts left in the gun pod (no extra clip).  The inboard Typhoon is also gone, along with any supplies.

     

How’s the adventure going at this point?  I can’t predict Player decisions or the likely outcome of dice rolls in combat.  I’ll give you a couple of scenarios.  It’ll be up to you to make them dramatic. 

If the Characters are having trouble, they should lose contact with Geezer.  Suddenly, the Delta rears up.  “Thanks, boys!  You made a great distraction for me to get the fighter!”  He’ll fight it out with the Drones, take damage (5 MHP), but take them out (depletes all the weapons).  Geezer then crashlands nearby.  The old man has taken mortal damage.  He lasts long enough to give the group a clue to find the Rebel base up in the mountains before dying.  (That’s close to the original adventure’s ending.)

Otherwise, let’s make this interesting.  The Characters find the Delta and are doing okay, but the Delta’s Proto-fuel cells are missing.  If they’ve searched the Lab, they’ve found them, but they’re pretty depleted.  (I’d give them about 3 flights before they’re drained.)  Add to this, a flight of 3 Attack Drones (these are the reinforcements mentioned from earlier) comes to the Lab because of the fighting with the intention of wiping everybody out.  The group will either hear them coming or Geezer will alert them (2 rd warning).  He will try to distract them by firing rockets at them (roll damage on each Drone), but he’ll be strafed and taken out.  (Again, he’ll last long enough for a death speech.)  If a single Drone is left, it will attempt to escape (and bring more reinforcements, a good cue to make an escape). 

Afterward

Unlike a normal Hive facility, the destruction of this one does not bring immediate wraith upon the surrounding towns.  If nothing else, that should be a clue that this wasn’t a normal Hive outpost.  So, the group can go back to town and perhaps make some friends, like that mechanic Keileigh, by returning her child, so she can fix up their Delta.  You’ll have to take her to it and hide it somewhere safe.  Charlotte might be able to help with a hiding place.  (She’ll somehow know about the raid.) 

Caster the Doctor will be needed to treat the abductees and the person recovered from the tube (if that happened).  He’ll have some respect for the group if they can bring them back, but won’t want to join them.  Sam the Barkeep will be worried about the group and what they’ve done.  He could crack any information the group brings back from the Lab, but here’s where you’ll need to make a Social Interaction roll to get him to do it.  (Keep in mind, if the NPC has a reason to work with Characters, there’s no real need to roll for it.) 

When Sheriff Andy eventually finds out about the raid, he will be more forceful about the group leaving and never coming back, perhaps even betraying them.  However, the installation the group blew up wasn’t a Hive lab that their leadership knew of.  The Hive Mound near Mountain Town is led by a Hive Scientist, Quam, who delights in biological research.  He might want more information about that, rather than having the Characters’ heads.  Perhaps someone joins the group as a mole? 

Menus will obviously want to find out who did it, but doesn’t have the Queen’s resources.  A disguised Doctor Dmitri may be used in town as a spy.  Intelligence gathered could result in a raid on the town by Menus.  It won’t be overwhelming though.  If the Delta can be rearmed, maybe everyone together could fend them off (once, then the real Hive shows up).  Some NPC motivations may change, for better or worse, as the NPC’s listed in town could maybe be more recruitable as Support Characters for the group. 

There is a rebel base in the mountains (here’s a possible layout.  Is it active?  Is it destroyed or evacuated?  Its condition is up to you, but the Characters should at least be able to rearm there.  Geezer’s cave home has more weapons, and he had more than one weapons stash.  Charlotte or Keileigh might be able to guide the group to them.  Who’s the person from the tube (if that’s an issue)?  Where’s that Delta pilot?  The group should have some time to explore possibilities before things come to a head in town.  Their bigger objectives may be taking out that nearby Hive mound and finding out about Menus and tracking him/her/it down.  This should be enough to get your own campaign started. 

Robomeck RPG Sample Adventure: Geezer’s Revenge Setup

Robomeck RPG Index

Intro

Though this set of rules haven’t been playtested, this adventure has actually been run twice with different Players.  The rules were actually a homebrew adaptation of Paranoia if you can believe it.  Both times, strangely, the adventure finished in the same dramatic way, so I’m pronouncing it successful.  The hitch here is that I actually don’t have the original adventure anymore, just the map, so I’m going with memory here.  While this is a very basic beginning scenario in the most obvious of settings, it should be a good start to bigger things. 

I posted my original maps for this RPG setting a couple of years ago here.  There’s an internal layout of a certain giant earth defense ship, an airbase, and a rebel base.  I might make up a little intro adventure for the other settings (Space War I, Reconstruction, and Space War II), if I can come up with a good idea for each.    

Adventure Setting: Hive occupied earth.  The Characters are a group of rebels fighting them.  This adventure is written with four Characters in mind.  Foes can be fairly easily increased or decreased.  (This adventure isn’t meant to be hugely challenging.)

Mission Objective (2 XP): A Delta Fighter was recently observed crashing near a small Hive research station.  Find out the status of the craft and recover it if possible. 

Locations: A small town, Moriah, is nearby.  The Hive lab is located in the foothills outside of town.

Character Background: I don’t want to wedge anybody in here.  This might be an independent group of rebels or a cell of a larger movement.  Your call.  Their individual Character backgrounds are completely up to the Players, as well as how they came together.  It would probably be a good idea that at least one of the Characters be a military pilot at the start.  Should the group have any Support Characters?  That’s up to you too.  This adventure may be where they meet and recruit them.  Of course, you can just blow off any Character background stuff and just jump right into playing.  If you like the game, then maybe do the backstories, if you want. 

For this starting adventure, each of the Characters should have Typhoons (their choice of type with full armaments for each) and a G3 gun with a rifle stock.  They should also have an appropriate kit to go with their type of Character and any personal gear the Players choose.  They can be EEF or a Rebel.  They could even be older ANS or EMDF who have somehow survived to this day.  They could pick having a regular motorcycle, a hovercyle, or a light truck as their special gear.  Having a non-Proto-fueled vehicle could useful.

Player Knowledge/Character Knowledge: As distasteful as this might be to the Ref, the Characters for this adventure should start off knowing the following: Eye shots can kill Hive Drones and the Hive can sense Proto-fueled weapons and vehicles at short range.  This knowledge will move events and combat along a little better.

Adventure Background: This is top secret/Ref only/sneaky Players butt-out material.  Actually, this is the seed for future adventures.  It’s a mystery that won’t payoff in this adventure, but down the road.  The Hive Queen is experimenting with Hive evolution and playing with human form hybrids.  One of her early prototypes is Menus.  What the Queen hasn’t figured out yet is that these Hive/Humans might be loyal to the Hive, but very much have minds of their own. 

Menus is running a little shadow operation within the Hive.  He/She (your call, could even be hermaphroditic, or lacking gender altogether being a prototype) is continuing hybrid experiments with a captured human scientist, Doctor Yan Dmitri.  These two NPC’s motivations are up to you, but at the least, they should be very internally conflicted individuals.  This lab is one of Menus’ project sites.  The Hive troops present have been mind controlled by Menus and are only loyal to him/her/it.  Neither Menus nor Dmitri is present here (maybe?) during the adventure, but clues to their existence can be found.

 

Adventure Start: The group starts near the town of Moriah, heading towards a rumored rebel base in the mountains.  They are looking for a contact named, “Geezer,” who has a lead on a possibly salvageable Delta fighter.  Unfortunately, they don’t know him or exactly where he is, since he lives in the hills, but he does routinely come into Moriah for supplies.

All of this does imply that the Characters are a dedicated group of freedom fighters and have sources of information in the resistance.  I could see having a pre-adventure with no combat (or only non-lethal personal combat) where the Characters meet each other in the larger neighboring city of Mountain Town, and form a group.  (This is a devastated city, of course.  Feel free to change the name and place it wherever you want.)  They could meet a contact, who gives them the rumor about the Delta, and perhaps have a run-in with a Hive sympathizer gang.  You can make up your own adventure for that, based on the Characters’ backgrounds.  You should award 1 XP for such an introductory adventure.     

Scene 1: Moriah

(Award 1 XP for getting a meeting set up with Geezer and not getting into a shootout with the locals.  Here the Characters will have some opportunity to use those Social Interaction skills to influence them.  Award 1 XP for some productive role-playing if merited.) 

Yeah, it’s your stereotypical one-horse Old West Hive-Era town.  (In other words, it’s a complete oxymoron for a sci-fi show, but you know how the show was.)  There’s a dusty main street with some shops and a few private homes in the area.  Maybe it’s an old movie set that got turned into an actual town after the Hive invasion (I’m just kidding).    

Depending how the group is dressed, nobody should notice them.  Even someone in an EEF uniform isn’t going to attract attention, unless they’re armored up.  Yeah, that’s going to be a no-no.  Unless you’re entering a completely lawless gang town, if the group comes in brandishing arms, the populace is going to assume you’re a bunch of bandits about to pillage them.  You will be met with armed resistance immediately in most places with any civility left.

The only thing worse than being identified as bandits, would be rebels.  One problem the Character group is going to have constantly is that of Hive Sympathizers.  Mass resistance to the Hive is over.  Many in the populace would rather turnover or turn away rebels than let them in.  Moriah has some small amount of autonomy because the Hive mostly just terrorizes the more populous Mountain Town.  There are regular Hive patrols over Moriah and they raid the town for a small number of slaves once a year, but otherwise leave the town alone.    

Thus, the group will be confronted by the town Sheriff upon entry.  His name is Andy (Police Officer Support class, Expert level).  Now, he seems really down home and laidback, but depending on how the group looks and acts, he may inform them that they are in the sights of four snipers.  (If the group looks around, they only see two, but there are four.  They’re first level Thugs with AK-47’s.)  Let this be a little primer for the group on the people they’re fighting to liberate. 

Sheriff Andy has accepted that he can do nothing about the Hive, but he can at least keep his citizens safe from predatory humans.  Perhaps his mind could be changed about fighting the Hive if he could see them defeated in a battle.  Or, maybe he’ll actively sabotage anybody trying to fight them.  These are things to keep in mind if the Characters have more interaction with him after this adventure.  

If the group can either look and/or act harmless enough (Social Interaction, ahem), the Sheriff will relate that some citizens have recently disappeared from town and that the people are a bit on edge.  The possibility of Hive involvement has ended his investigation.  He’ll tip his hat and motion them to the bar if they’re thirsty and maybe looking for a job.  Hopefully, the party is polite and doesn’t get into a firefight before making it to the bar.  Andy will be keeping an eye on the group while they’re in town. 

        

Welcome to the Last Gulp Saloon (unless the party has a better idea of what they want to check out).  Sam the Barkeep is your source of information in town, as long as you’re paying for drinks.  (Just assume everyone has some pocket change.)  He’s got an ANS-inspired tat on his left arm.  He was a radar tech during Space War II (Tech Support class, Beginner level).  Now he tends bar with a surly attitude and a bad limp (“The only thing I got from the war.”)  Is Sam burning for a chance at revenge on the Hive or will he cravenly sellout anybody fighting them to stay safe? 

He knows Geezer, but points the group to Keileigh the Mechanic down the street, as someone who knows him better.  If asked about the people who have disappeared, he mentions that scavengers have often disappeared in the hills, but lately people around town have disappeared too.  The Hive normally just come down Main Street and grab people, so it doesn’t seem like them.  These four people just disappeared all at once. 

Also present in this overly stereotypical Western bar, is, of course, the town Madame, Charlotte (Rebel Sympathizer/Connection, Expert level).  I’m not going to assume your tastes, so design her as you will.  In any case, she will personally offer herself to whoever seems to be the leader of the group.  She’ll get fairly insistent and will finally lean close and whisper this person’s name to get them to come upstairs with her.  If the party doesn’t want to be split (like good D&D players), she’ll tell them they can come up and watch, for an extra fee.

In Charlotte’s boudoir, she motions them to be quiet and turns on a recording of . . . some vigorous activity.  With that, Charlotte speaks quietly in the leader’s ear, “I was told to expect your group by   She can tell them that Geezer lives up in the hills and that he claims to have seen a Delta fighter crashland near one of his observation posts.  The issue is that there’s a Hive Lab there.  There’s something odd about it though.  It’s keeping a very low profile to the point of being nearly undefended, which is why this recovery operation is being attempted.        

Charlotte suggests meeting with Keileigh to arrange a meeting with Geezer, as he isn’t partial to strangers.  And with that, your time is up.  She will want some payment (for appearances, of course).  She’ll leave the group with a couple of bucks.  Charlotte is indeed working with the rebellion, but is really working for herself.  She could certainly be useful to a rebel group, but would always be questionably trustworthy. 

Being a one-horse town, finding the town garage and mechanic isn’t too difficult.  Keileigh the Mechanic (Mechanic Support class, Expert level) is an adorable, plucky, upbeat individual.  She can give the group directions to a rendezvous point with Geezer.  She’ll contact him to let him know that they’re coming.

   

Keileigh would like to join the rebellion, but is obligated to stay in town and work to take care of her little sister, Jade.  Her sentiments might make her a target for Hive sympathizers, but she’s the only person in town who can keep the machinery going, so she’s actually pretty safe.  Right now, she’s kind of upset because Jade was one of the people abducted yesterday.  Geezer thinks the people taken went to the Hive Lab, but he’s not sure.  Obviously, she’d like the group to check it out.  Time is of the essence.      

A stern middle-aged man hails the group after they meet with Keileigh.  He’s Caster (Medic Support class, Beginner level), the town doctor, who’s standing outside his shingled office.  He’ll ask the group what they’re doing here in town, but will answer for them, “I think you’re here to cause trouble.”  He’ll warn them to keep a low profile, not to involve the people here in whatever they’re involved with, and then to move along.  Caster has a family and cares about the community more than any fool uprising. 

Caster doesn’t want any part of a rebellion, which he guesses they’re part of given who they were talking to.  Of course, that opinion could change, if something happens to change his mind.  If properly politely chatted with (more Social Interaction), Caster will open up a bit.  He is worried about the abductees though and will ask if they know anything.  He’ll mention there was a fifth person that was nearly taken.  He treated the woman.  A Hive Regulator had been seen with an unidentified accomplice, but they were scared off by a passerby (not at all Hive behavior).  The woman had been hit by a tranquiller dart of human-make, not Hive. 

(Note: Obviously, don’t force all of these encounters.  You can suggest them or skip some to move things along.  Charlotte, Caster, or Sam can also set the meeting with Geezer indirectly.  You know your playing group better than I do.  Maybe you want to add some more townspeople.)   

Scene 2: Hive Patrol in the Hills

(Award 1 XP for getting past this patrol, the easy way or the hard way.)

If the Players weren’t sure who was in charge here, the purpose of this encounter is to educate them.  The group will be travelling in the foothills outside town towards a shelf mesa.  Travelling down a ravine, they will hear the familiar whine of a Hive patrol coming towards them.  There’ll be 2 rds before the Hive and the group see each other.  The Players know that the Hive can detect their Proto-fueled powered mecka and weapons if they’re turned on.  There’s plenty of scrub brush in the area.

The patrol is 3 Scout Drones.  If the group chooses to hide (the smart option), roll a Stealth check for the group (DC 12).  If necessary, someone might need to use an FP to succeed.  If they blow the Stealth check, they’ll have to spend the first rd of combat, turning on their mecka.  If the group chooses to fight, they may be in trouble right out of the gate and everybody may be using FP.  If they’re really having some bad luck, suddenly a rocket attack from behind them hits one of the Drones.  They will be stunned and attempt to find the attacker.  Next rd, they’re attacked from another flank.  Unable to find a target, they’ll retreat (for reinforcements).         

Either way, the group will then be hailed by an old man waving a rocket launcher.  “I figured you guys might be attracting some trouble!”  He’ll wave them over to a dilapidated shack overlooking the shelf mesa.

Scene 3: Geezer’s Shack

(No XP, but the group will be given some armaments.  I don’t know why I thought “Geezer” was a good name back in the 80’s.  We’re stuck with it.)

The old man introduces himself as “Geezer.”  He’s spirited old codger to put it mildly.  (Feel free to play up him as being crazy.)  The small, ramshackle wooden shack has weapons haphazardly piled in a corner.  He describes this as one of his “Observation posts.”  (He actually lives in a cave in the area with an arsenal.)  From this perspective, the group can get a good look at the Hive Lab sitting on the shelf mesa.  (Let them see the map.)

Geezer has had this complex under observation for about a month.  A small force of Hive showed up and took the squatters there into custody.  They then quickly converted the farm house.  “They been doin’ some weird sh*t in there.  Unnatural sh*t.  I’ve seen ‘em tossin’ bodies out like trash.”  Last night, he observed four captives being taken inside.

It gets weirder though.  “There were humans with ‘em.  Workin’ with ‘em.  Bastards!”  He’s seen two of them specifically: a guy in a lab coat and somebody else wearing shinny, weird armor.  The guy in the lab coat took off this morning with some Hive Drones.  He’s not sure whether the other one left or not.  Even more strange, the Hive there don’t patrol.  There are guards, but when a Hive patrol like the one the group just faced comes by, they hide. 

In any case, the group can make some plans here.  (Every PC plan of assault: “Let’s charge uphill, guns blazing!”)  Given that the Hive can see the same in the light or the dark, there’s no reason to wait for sundown.  Geezer has seen a couple of Urban Regulators that hang out in the Well House.  There are some Regulators in the house.  There’s two Drones around somewhere, but he’s not sure where at the moment. 

The Delta is behind the Lab complex in a ravine.  That fighter tried to stop the Hive from taking the farm and was shot down.  Geezer watched the fight.  He was able to sneak into the ravine later.  The pilot and the Typhoon were gone, but the fighter landed there, so it’s probably okay, just mostly out of ammo.  There’s no way to move it without getting into a fight, though, and without missiles or guns it’s just going to be a target.         

Geezer supplies the group with some explosives to help.  (Gee, how unexpected that this guy likes to play with explosives.)  He gives them:

2 Cobalt mines (these mines can be set and remote detonated or set to go off if stepped on)

2 Cobalt grenades

4 Rocket launchers

How the group uses them is up to them.  (There’s no accounting for what kind of hair-brained schemes a bunch of Players will come up with.  They’ll probably blow themselves up.  Have replacement Characters ready.)  Geezer, himself, will be “supervising” the operation.  He’ll be observing the complex and giving the Characters a heads up on things moving around there.  Obviously, we want the Characters doing the action.  Also, this gives us an option to cheat later.  (Which is what I did both times I played out this scenario.  Actually, I had Geezer fake his own death before the attack.  Don’t do that.  After the Lab raid, the group will find 2 Rocket launchers, 1 Cobalt grenade, and 1 Cobalt mine in the shack if they go back and look.)

Robomeck RPG Adventure Settings Ideas: Invid Invasion and Beyond

Robomeck RPG Index

Invid Invasion Era

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.  

Robomeck RPG Adventure Settings Ideas: Macross and Southern Cross

Robomeck RPG Index

Intro
These are some ideas for adventuring in a Robotech setting.  You could use these ideas with the old Palladium rules (why?), the new Strange Machines’ version (whenever it comes out), or some cheesy fan-produced version (like mine).  Long ago, I did post a setting of sorts and some maps (including Macross city aboard the SDF-1). 

The setting was after the war with the Invid.  The Palladium game books postulated that earth would be invaded a second time by the Invid (why not?).  I worked in some Zentraedi and the SDF-1 wreck.  If I’d thought about it a little more at the time, I probably would have put in some Bioroids led by a hidden enclave of the Robotech Elders, likely in orbit.  Obviously, an all-inclusive setting is the ultimate goal of any Robotech RPG player. 

After all the time I spent writing semi-canonical background stuff for the mecha, this document is mostly going to explore alternate ideas on the setting.  To be very honest, Robotech doesn’t lend itself well as an RPG environment if you’re planning on playing out the series.  You’re setting up situations where the Characters have no control over the outcome of events or, worse, change them drastically, forcing a total rewrite or a complete hand-wave of anything they do.

The original Palladium rules were no real help.  Everything was set as a combat scenario.  They only recommended only using Macross in a Reconstruction setting.  There was virtually no setting help for the Masters.  The Invid Invasion did do a fairly good decent job with the setting, albeit using tables borrowed from a post-apocalyptic game.  The Sentinels book just had a few WWII-ish scenario ideas.  They wanted you to buy their sourcebooks and adventure modules (which I didn’t get), but I’m doubting they expanded the canvas much beyond combat theaters.   

D&D and Traveller can give you open-ended play and allow you to enhance your Character.  This setting can’t give you that without complete alteration, which would nearly negate its purpose.  To get a real Robotech feel, you’re going to have to room for personal Character development and relationships.  Game play here can’t just be mission objectives to achieve and foes to overcome every game session.  Combat for the Characters needs to be personal and poignant experiences for them for this setting to be meaningful.  More than treasure or XP, there should be emotional stakes in Robotech combat.  Why are you fighting?  Is a question that should be asked all the time.

With that in mind, my suggestions here will be oriented towards giving the Players space to develop their Characters in a dramatic environment.   

Macross Era

Replaying Macross is a bit of a stretch.  I wrote elsewhere that the original series was conceived as a parody and it still shows in the final product.  That’s going to make a coherent RPG setting a challenge if you’re trying to recreate it.  You were warned.    It’s not unthinkable to recast the Characters as the main characters in a derivative of the original series.  Events could follow along in the same fashion, with twists and changes of course, but this will require a high-level of Player buy-in for the concept. 

The Palladium gamebooks focused on the Reconstruction Era.  The RDF was fighting rebellious Zentraedi stranded on earth.  That’s fine for a combat-oriented campaign and would be more logical and less silly than the series.  But if you really want to capture a Macross feel to your game, what happens outside the cockpit is going to have to be more important than what happens in it.  That should be your focus.  The Characters will need plenty of relationships, definitely strong ones outside of the military.  Combat becomes far more poignant with NPC’s waiting at home for your Character.  There should be a homebase, either a ship or city with civilians, for the Characters to fully interact with. 

The Zentraedi themselves are a problematical villain.  They’re huge, but can be shrunk down.  (“I want you to make me bigger, then shrink me down, but leave my wiener the same size.”  If you get that reference, please tell me the context of the joke.  I truly don’t know.)  They have absurdly large fleets, which were completely impotent against the SDF-1.  (“Heh, heh, impotent, heh, heh.”  See, Macross was a joke.)  They’re mighty warriors, who can be felled by a kiss or a song.  Changing their personalities, motivations, or scaling down their forces could be a useful in making them serious.       

The setting could be changed in a more fundamental manner.  What if the SDF-1 jumps from earth during the initial invasion and ends up much further away than Pluto.  They could be lost in deep space trying to get back home, or looking for the Zentraedi homeworld to stop the war.  They could find another world to colonize with refugees aboard their ship or even find and take over a Zentraedi factory satellite.  (That whole jumping-an-island-with-people-on-it-into-space is a bit of a plot hole.  Perhaps get them onboard the ship before the fold.)

In the Do You Remember Love? movie, the earth was devastated while the SDF-1 was trying to get back home.  That would be an interesting twist if you’re recreating the series.  It seemed like the city was actually integrated into the movie ship’s design.  Perhaps, you could recast the SDF-1 as a colony ship about to head out into space when the Zentraedi show up. 

Southern Cross Era

This feels like a very limited setting.  Canonically, the conflict with the Masters was only a year-long war (as per the Shadow Chronicles art book).  The Masters were desperate and running out of Protoculture.  The Southern Cross was unprepared and badly overmatched.  The apprehension of the Masters and the determination of the troops of the Southern Cross were the only reasons the war lasted as long as it did.  As arrogant as the Masters were, you could usually count on them running away from a stiff fight.  The war nearly reduces itself to both sides making probing attacks on each other with some specific objective.  This might be a good guideline for adventures.

There were really only two theaters of action: the Monument City area and earth orbit.  These are very different environments.  The premier mecha unit of the ASC is a land-based tank, which the Players will want to use, but will obviously not thrive in space combat.  This creates a challenge in setting up the Player Character group.  As said in the Character Creation section, Players could have dual-skilled Characters, who can use tanks and planes, or perhaps have two Characters and use whichever is appropriate for the situation.  What’s probably not going to work is a mixed group.  You’re going to end up splitting the party too often.   

The other challenge is that this is probably the least liked part of the series.  This seemed mainly due to the Characters.  (Worse than “Mint?”  Really?)  An RPG campaign can at least correct this, as the Players can create main Characters more to their liking.  This section of the show was also pretty badly disjointed in story and setting.  The producers had to jump through a lot of hoops to make this part of the story work with the other two.  There were enough questionable issues with the original material without grafting another storyline on top of them.  The original show got cut short on episodes.  That downer, winsome ending actually worked out better for its incorporation into the Robotech series.

While Macross was borderline parody, it looked mostly good and had a strong emotional element.  The Invid Invasion was very straight-forward in story (somewhat simplistic) with the cool-looking Alpha Fighters and fearsome Invid.  The Masters segment started with near comedy and somewhat nonsensical battles.  Only about halfway through, when the ASC was able to take the fight into space, did the show finally start clicking and make sense, but then the ending became a somewhat confused, melodramatic mess.  (Though I did like Zor giving Dana a good romantic kiss before sending her off.)

To work with this setting, you need to rehabilitate it to make it coherent.  It’s worth the effort, because that home base in Monument City could be quite interesting for Character development.  What wasn’t really fully touched on in the series was that large civilian population.  There’s no reason why most of the Characters’ relationships have to be with their comrades.  Not to mention, while the Zentraedi had big ships, those Masters’ motherships actually had a city on board with even more interaction opportunities.

 

Also, politics were alluded to, but certainly could have been more prominent in an earthbound setting.  One of the Robotech novels actually had an internal conflict (not an actual battle) between the RDF on earth and the Southern Cross before the war.  The RDF lost a lot of prestige with the departure of the REF.  The Southern Cross seemed more earth-centric in their defensive posture.  This resulted in the ASC being put in charge by the UEG and the RDF becoming the Global Military Police (GMP) to watchdog them.  If you accept this possibility, you could see where these two groups would be sniping at each other constantly.  This could be a definite inter-service rivalry for the Characters to deal with.       

On a larger scale, the United Earth Government was just a name, as the world had collapsed into petty squabbling nation states seven years after the Pioneer mission and the SDF-3 were launched.  Without an immediate threat of invasion and the end of the galvanizing purpose that had created the Expeditionary Fleet, the domestic situation fell apart quickly.  A united planetary defense was about all they agreed on, but even then the Southern Cross was subjected to severe budgetary constraints.  Everyone wanted to survive the Masters’ attack, but there could be some jockeying factions looking towards supremacy after the war.  The Characters’ loyalties may be divided and tested by agents of various powers. 

Again in the novels, there was palatable rivalry between the REF and ASC.  The Expeditionary Force planned to return to earth to put their people back in charge as they disapproved of the Southern Cross’ leadership.  On the other side, certainly the UEG couldn’t have been happy with the results of the REF’s actions.  They failed to find the Masters, they started a war with the Invid, and drained earth’s resources, leaving them vulnerable when the Masters did come.  If the second war hadn’t ended with government leadership being devastated, relations between earth and REF might have gotten real testy.  (Feel free to explore that possibility in play.)

Look at the Love Song episode for some inspiration on Character interaction.  The group is at a classy swank party in a mansion.  Maybe the Characters have to find a way to get invited or crash the party.  Maybe a Character wants to meet a certain debutante at the ball to make a play at her.  Maybe some Characters want to schmooze some important people there or collect some political intelligence.  Maybe some political figures want to recruit some hero Characters to their cause.  Oh, there could be heartbreak at the ball too and some drunk and disorderly action that has to be cleaned up before it embarrasses the squad.

We should also look at the opposing forces.  Reducing the Masters’ fleet to one mothership and some escort ships might make more sense.  It only seemed like one ship was ever doing anything anyway.  Alternately, perhaps the other motherships were so low on Protoculture, they couldn’t do much.  While the matrix’s location was always known to the Masters and was their main objective, they might have been forced to divide up their fleet around the earth, trying to recover Protoculture reserves from crashed Zentraedi ships and other ASC installations to keep their war effort from grinding to a halt.  Stopping those incursions would be a major effort.

Then there’s the earth forces.  This series always seemed strategically backward.  While I postulated that the Southern Cross’ fleet was in mothballs for lack of funding, their ships should have been in orbit fighting the Masters right at the start.  And I do say that they already had a fleet.  It’s hard to imagine that the ASC built a whole fleet on the ground within a few months before the end of the war.  I’d say they were getting their existing ships ready to go back into space. 

The Factory Satellite was gone, perhaps sent to aid the REF as it was likely too costly to maintain in orbit by the UEG.  If you decide it was present for the war with the Masters, it would be one of the major battlegrounds and would have a significant civilian population.  The Masters would be hell-bent on jamming its communications with the REF, whom they were aware of, and shutting down its production facilities.  The Southern Cross would be desperate to hold it for the same reasons and to have a base to strike at the Masters from in space.  (ALUCE station served the same purpose in the series and was also a rallying point for reinforcements arriving from outside of the solar system.)

From there, the Masters either eventually shatter the earth forces in space or their mothership is brought down on earth.  Either way, a land campaign begins.  The Masters are trying to eliminate all resistance before recovering the Protoculture matrix.  It was portrayed as a delicate operation with the mothership and the matrix both exposed, so there couldn’t be any fighting going on around them.  The Southern Cross, while not really understanding what the Masters are after, can figure out where they’re centering their attacks and thus move to check them.  Not to mention, if the Masters are after something in the SDF-1 ruins, there must be something valuable in there worth protecting.  (The ASC really should have been investigating those ruins more after discerning that.)     

The Characters in this setting were left behind.  The first graduating class of the Robotech Military Academy were too young to join the REF for their glamorous adventure in deep space.  They want to prove themselves.  Older members of the Southern Cross couldn’t or didn’t want to leave earth.  The civilians preferred their war-torn target of a planet to going to the uncertainties of a new colony world.  This group of humans has a chip on their shoulder.  All of the Player Characters and human NPC’s should have a reason why they are on earth, which may be one of the main motivators for their Characters.                  

The little-seen Robotech theatrical movie featured a story set before the second war.  The Robotech Masters attempted to infiltrate the Southern Cross.  It might make sense that the Masters would try to gain intelligence on earth forces well before showing up in orbit.  It’s not even hard to imagine that if the Masters knew exactly where the Protoculture Matrix was, they might try to figure out a way of smuggling it out, rather than showing up in force.  If that plot is foiled and the Southern Cross starts protecting the SDF-1 ruins, then the Masters have to (carefully) use force.

Then there’s that one-year inter-war period before the Invid invaded.  Leadership on both sides of the second war was functionally decapitated.  The troops themselves would have nothing to fight over.  There’d be a large number of refugees and perhaps potentially salvageable high-technology from the Masters.  With the Flower of Life taking root and the Invid known to be coming, maybe the humans and Tirolians might try working together for mutual defense?  I remember one of the Robotech novels had this time period as a setting.  It was sort of a cyberpunk story with Jonathan Wolfe arriving and Dana’s Fifteenth Squadron then escaping earth. 

(I keep referencing the Robotech novels, which I no longer own.  I didn’t think much of them.  While they made every effort to reconcile inconsistencies in the show, they inserted a lot of questionable material and went to absurd lengths to keep an internal continuity, even at the expense of any logic.)