Blast from the Past: Robotech RPG

Jets that turn into robots, alien giants, and... Pop stars?!?

Like many a kid who grew up in the 80's and 90's, I was aware of Robotech. I didn't watch it religiously, but I caught episodes here and there in reruns. I do remember reading about it and saw art from it. I always thought it was cool, but missed out on it. I did watch Macross Plus (yeah, we'll get into the whole history of Robotech later) and loved it. So, when I stumbled across the Robotech Role Playing Game, I bought it. At the time, I was big into anime and Palladium games. A dangerous combination if there ever was one...

Before I get into the meat of this review, we do have to talk about what Robotech is. The basics are that an American company, Harmony Gold, picked up the rights to three anime series starting with The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. SDF Macross is one of the big mecha anime and one I've enjoyed, even if it is from an era long past. Harmony Gold, needing 65 episodes to meet the syndication standard in America, licensed two additional series and did some creative editing and changes to make them all connected. There's a lot of contention about this in the anime community. Personally, I don't begrudge Harmony Gold for doing what they did. On the whole, I respect how much of the original Macross content they were able to show and did a good job of keeping the characters consistent between the Japanese and American versions. I see them as parallels, not competitors, and I'm able to appreciate them for what they are. Of course, the Harmony Gold that exists now isn't something I really respect, but that's my opinion of the company and doesn't effect my thoughts on Robotech as a franchise.

Now, let's move on the the Palladium side of things. Robotech was a very good thing for Palladium, able to release a game with a built-in fan base. As part of the development, Palladium created the Mega Damage system, which I discussed in my Rifts review a while back. It makes a lot of sense that giant robots would do massive damage and normal weapons wouldn't be able to scratch them. Unlike Rifts, where I feel like it's a bit overwhelming, it seems to be a bit more balanced in Robotech.

When you create characters, you're limited military characters. There's not one non-military character class in any of the Macross era books. I think we can assume that they were focused on the giant robots and the characters that supported them in combat. I think it's a shame, but I can understand where they were coming from. Nevermind that the Macross series always involves love triangles and pop stars besides the giant transforming robots...

The problem with making a game that's centered around a military organization is that not everyone wants to play that sort of game. And you should probably have some details about how the military organization works. Which is lacking in Robotech. There's NO rank organization chart, and suggests that pilots start as privates (it doesn't work like that in the US military or most other militaries). There's no chart or mechanic for gaining promotions, citations, and demerits, no explanation for how gaming in a military environment, and the like. Clearly, a bit of a problem.

When it comes to making your military character, you can be a Veritech/Valkyrie pilot, a mecha/Destroid pilot, or one of a variety of support classes like mechanics, communication specialists, and military specialist, which is really a Special Forces type character. With all of this, the game is very much focused on piloting giant robots and blowing things up, and that's probably what most people want to play. And there's nothing wrong with that. I do feel like there's a missed opportunity here. I could see a host of fun games centered around regular jet pilots, explorers in the ruins of a blasted earth, and the like. Or even just mercenaries finding ways to make money outside the military.

Moving on to the setting. Unlike the Sailor Moon RPG, where they gave you a summary of the episodes, enemies, and monsters, so you could reply the series if you wanted, Robotech doesn't do that. The author's note (good old Kevin Siembieda) even says something along the lines of “I imagine most players will want to play in the post apocalypse Earth, so we have focused the game there.” Well, yeah, since you didn't include the stuff they would need to play during the series, they really can't. I suppose you could, but in the pre-internet world, it would be really hard to do. I've had ideas about starting a game during the series about some of the other pilots (or other military types) dealing with the big battles, and then leading up to the final battle over the Earth, and then get to the rebuilding of earth. That said, the rebuilding of Earth is very interesting from a gaming point of view and does allow for a whole lot of freedom for people, myself included. I just don't see why they couldn't just give a quick list of the episodes at least. I mean, they do spend a few pages comparing the difference between the Robotech universe and the Macross universe. Why not give a list and a summary of each episode?

Beyond that, the core book gives a few locations and then some details of the Zentradi Control Zone in South America, which I guess they expect you center all of your campaigns around. Speaking of Zentradi, they do give you the option to make Zentradi characters and enemies. And that's kind of cool. While there's much to work with it is there. As the core book is set around the “Macross Saga” part of the show, there's no other enemies for players, but I'm sure you would find the the later enemies in their books (Southern Cross and Invid Invasion).

Speaking of the core book, it's only 110 pages long, with over ten pages used for some full page mecha pictures (not a totally bad thing). To finish out the Macross stuff, you'd want to pick up the RDF Manual (Book Two) and The Zentradi (Book Three). Each of these books are 48 pages and cost almost $8 in 1990's dollars. These books also have several wasted pages, used for a character sheet for each Destroid mecha, absurdly detailed random hit tables, and other random tables. It feels like a cash grab, to be honest. They could have tossed these pages in and made a 206 core book. That would have been cool. Brief aside, I've noticed that Palladium's licensed products are usually only 110 pages or so. Odd.

Now, these two books do have some good stuff. The RDF book includes more vehicles and weapons for the RDF, and maps of the two carriers used with the Macross. There's also a timeline of events of the Robotech universe, a bunch more information for the setting, and an expanded random encounter table. If you want to run a game during the series, you'd want to pick this up, as it has more NPCs from the show. Some of which were dead by the end.

The Zentradi book is also full of maps, weapons, and some random tables. For the most part, the book is a rehash of stuff you've already seen. Again, there's character sheets with pictures of mecha on them. There are stats for some of the more important Zentradi that weren't included in the core book.

Since the Macross saga is all I'm interested in, these are the only books I've picked up. Well, that and the RDF Accelerated Training Program. This is one of the later books and gives you a ton of ideas for adventures and can let you run through the basics of the system.

If you want an episode guide, as well as some nice pictures, the first Robotech Art Book has a complete list and summary of every episode in the series. I only found this out when I stumbled across it at a local used book store. I think I've discovered the reason why they didn't include this in the rule book. To get you to spend more money, of course. Clever, clever, Harmony Gold...

Unfortunately (or is that fortunately?), Palladium has lost the license to Robotech, after releasing the Shadow Chronicles expansions (and the whooping failure of the Tactics game). While they had the license, they did quite a few books and you can pick up the ones that appeal to you. While they did skip the Macross series, there's enough there to give you something to work with. They even released a source book for the failed Robotech II: The Sentinels, which could be interesting.

Since the game is out of production, you'll have to do some hunting around on used book markets. Thankfully, the books go for quite cheap and aren't too hard to find (and none of your money goes to Harmony Gold). Since I've picked up the books, I've been thinking about running a game. My idea would be to start the game during the Defense of Earth battle, then do some dealing with the aftermath, and then, if the game would last long enough, you could start dealing with the establishment of colonies on other worlds. We'll see what happens...

Update: Shortly after I finished writing this review, I found out that Savage Worlds has the license for Robotech now. This should be interesting. If I pick it up, you'll find out soon enough.

Let's Review: GURPS

What is it?:

GURPS stands for Generic Universal Role Playing System. Which about sums it up... Okay, it's an older RPG that has a system designed to be used and adapted to any kind of game your group could ever imagine. And now you know where some of my terrible jokes come from...

The setting:

As this is a Universal System, GURPS doesn't quite have a single setting. At least, it didn't until 4^th edition. In the 4^th edition core books, there's now a dimension hopping group and... Yeah. I didn't read too much about it.

Steve Jackson Games did get the license to produce several “powered by GURPS” games including Discworld and Star Fleet Battles: Prime Directive. They've also released tons and tons of supplements for anything and everything you can imagine. Including Burrows and Bunnies. There's books for Space, Super Powers, Fantasy, High Tech, Ultra Tech, Martial Arts, Horror, and even Cyberpunk (which brought Steve Jackson Games to the attention of the FBI, look it up). If you can imagine it, there's a source book for it. There's even series of source books for WW2. So, that means you can mix and match these various books to make your own setting, as they're mostly balanced across the whole system. You could, for example, throw something together with Ultra Tech, Horror, and a World War Two book and make an alternate reality where Nazi Germany survived into the future and unleashed some horrors beyond the stars. And I just came up with that off the top of my head.

If you're interested, there's a Deadlands conversion to GURPS. There's also versions of Vampire: The Masquerade, Traveler, and a whole host of other games. If you want them, I'm sure you can find them.

There are several unique settings for GURPS, including an original fantasy setting in the 3^rd edition core book. 

The system:

The game is entirely d6 based, using no other die types. If you need to roll dice, it's always a number of d6s.

The game has four stats: Dexterity (DX), Strength (ST), Intelligence (IQ), and Health (HT). Every human starts with 10 in every stat, but you can pay points to increase the stats. This is important because all of you skills are based around what the related stat is. The higher your stat, the higher the skill at the starting level.

Character creation is point-buy, so no levels. When you make your characters, you can purchase Advantages, stat boosts, and Skills. To get more points, you can take Disadvantages, usually no more than 40 points can be taken. Most people are roughly 25 points, but most player characters are 100.

All stat and skill rolls are 3d6 and roll low, as this was before the D20 system. However, damage and other rolls are when you want to roll high. Another anomaly is that GURPS doesn't use square maps, instead using hexagons, which makes creating and drawing maps a bit of a pain in the ass. Not to mention trying to find paper with hexagons on it. While it does make sense and look cool, it doesn't work that well for buildings as they usually have straight edges.

When it comes to combat, the full system GURPS is complex and clunky. Before the D20 revolution, it was faster than old 2^nd edition D&D, which was the only other major competition for many years. There is (at least in the 3^rd edition of GURPS) a much simpler combat system that is easy to master, but might not be enough for people who like their grit. Combat uses Parry, Dodge, and Passive Defense, as well as a host of different modifiers depending on the weapon... Yeah. It gets complicated really fast. But, from what I remember it is easy once you get it down. Getting it down is the trick, however.

Is it worth it?:

This is another “Maybe.”

I have respect for GURPS for what it tries to do, create a system that can handle any setting, no matter how bizarre and weird. I mean, Burrows and Bunnies, anyone? And that is where GURPS has its major selling point, the wealth of source books. You can find one for anything you like, and since they all use the same system, you can combine them to make the most unusual of games. You could throw together stone age magicians and advanced biotechnological aliens in one setting. Or cowboys and dinosaurs. Or aliens invading during World War Two. You can use GURPS to adapt any book, movie, or comic and make a game out of it. But, there is a rather steep learning curve to the game. But, you don't have to take my word for it. If you head over the Steve Jackson Games sales website (good old Warehouse 23), you can download a free sample of the rules, so you can try before you buy.

If you want something with versatility, at the cost of complexity, GURPS is probably the best thing you can find. It may be old, it may be weird, and it might not be the best, but it does try to please everyone all at once and does a decent job of it.

For 4^th edition, they split the rules into a player's book (Characters) and a GM's guide (Campaigns) which is kind of nice, as the players only need to focus on what they need to know. The older editions has everything all in one book, which has been almost an industry standard for many years.

The Ferner Five: Meet the Posse!

Before we start talking about the adventures of the “Ferner Five” (Foreigner Five for those of you who speak proper English), I thought it might be a good idea to talk about the odd characters in the posse.

The Originals -

The founding members of the posse are as follows. Thus far, they've survived everything that's been thrown at them. The lucky bastards...

Doctor Ashleigh Penwood:

Doctor Penwood is the second son of a minor noble family in “jolly old” England. He went to college, became a doctor, and then entered Her Majesty's Service in the army. During his stint in the army, he saw many a terrible thing, and had a chance encounter with a “witch doctor” that left his cursed with a disease that wouldn't leave him for several years and required magical assistance.

After he mustered out, Doctor Penwood made his way to the Weird West, to see if was as exciting as he had been told. And to expand his family's fortunes.

Doctor Henrich Eisern Von Braunstiefel aus Wurzburg:

Born to a minor wealthy family in the Prussian empire, Henrich was always tinkering with something or another. He served briefly in the Prussian Army as an artillery officer, where he was often distracted and let his NCOs run things, but he was smart enough and brave enough to earn the loyalty of the men under his command.

After completing his service, he began to have ideas. Ideas involving the New Science. Since Austria did not have a large supply of Ghost Rock, he was forced to make his way to the American west, to find a steady supply the precious rock. Shortly after he arrived, he was able to complete one of the most important tasks for his mining device: The Laser Cannon.

Ming:

Born in China, Ming is the only member of the posse who isn't an Anglo. Lucky him.

Growing up as an orphan in China, Ming always wanted to become a Shaolin Monk, but he just didn't have the “moral fiber” to complete his training. Disheartened, he left his homeland and made his way to America to work on the railroads. He didn't last long, as he couldn't stand the conditions and being treated not much better than a slave. One night, he ended up killing a particularly evil foreman and had to flee.

While Ming had been cast out of the Shaolin temple, he had learned quite a bit and continued to practice what he knew. He even improved and developed his own style of whupass.

Deiter Todter:

Deiter was the oldest son of a minor Hungarian noble (huh, sure do have a lot nobles and rich folks in these posse). Of course his father was a miserable and mean drunk. One night, Deiter grabbed a sword and fought the old man with all he had. The fight ended with his father bloody and wounded (or dead, Deiter wasn't sure) and Deiter fleeing into the night.

Having nothing but his skills, Deiter made his way to America and started killing folks. Not because he was a murderer, but because it was something he was good at. Plus, folks in the Americas tend to be a little hot blooded compared to folks in Europe. Deiter's travels landed him in Kansas where he had a bit of a run in with some Prairie Ticks. Rather than using some castor oil, he just grabbed the sucker trying to make it's way down his throat. Because he's just that ornery. This encounter left him with horrible scars on his face, but that might have been a boon for him, given his general dislike of his fellow man.

Phil Calhoon:

What more can I say about Phil that I didn't already say in his tale?

Well, I suppose I can fill you in on some of his backstory. Phil grew up on a dirt poor farmstead in Middle Of Nowhere, Oregon (okay, that's not the real name, but it might as well be) with his parents and his “big” sister. Not being much for learning and school, he started working as a lumberjack as soon as he could and turns out he was pretty good at it. Before long, he was traveling all over the Pacific Northwest, going from job to job, and sending home a tidy sum for his folks.

Then, things went bad. He was working somewhere in the wilds of Washington State when his camp was attacked by a Wendigo. Phil was the only one who walked away that night. The Agency tracked him down, after he started telling people his story, and the company he was working for had a judge issue a warrant for theft, as they said he stole the chainsaw (they're rather expensive in the Weird West).

After that, Phil took up to traveling and exploring the Weird West he'd read so much about in the Tombstone Epitaph.

Guest Stars -

These are some characters who appeared in only one adventure because the player dropped out.

“Cashed In” Kledge:

Appearing only in the very first session of the Comin' Around The Mountain adventure, Kledge was a Harrowed British shyster.

Josephine:

A Huckster from France and a Gypsy to boot, Josephine briefly appeared during the final part of the Heart of Darkness series of adventures.

The Replacements -

Even though no one has died yet, they will eventually. And sometimes, people want to change things up.

Nona “Cookie” Calhoon:

The “big” sister of Phil, Cookie didn't earn the moniker because she's as sweet as one. Nope. It's because she's one tough cookie. She's also a very fine looking, if tiny, woman. Until she opens her mouth. Then she's as crass and brash as any man you've ever met. Probably more. If she catches your eye, just be warned that if you get too fresh with her she's likely to spit in it, gouge it out of your head, or put a bullet through it. Oogle at your own risk, partners...

When Cookie was 16, she left home to look for a better life. She traveled all through out the Weird West; working as a saloon girl, a cowgirl, and a then a Pinkerton.

During these travels, she had learned both Hoyle's Hexes, but also the Way Of The Gun. That means she was one hell of a firecracker. But, when the US Government canceled their contract with the Pinkertons, she found herself out of a job (or did she?) and went to look for her brother...

Blast From The Past: d20 Modern

It's like GURPS, but not as good... And that's being nice...

One of the more famous pictures from the book

What feels like a lifetime ago, the folks over at Wizards of the Coast put out the 3^rd (and 3.5) edition of D&D using the new “d20 System.” It was a real revolution in gaming at the time. So, to expand their market (and profits), they created a “modern” version of the d20 system. And people hated it. I understand why, but I still think it has it's uses. And there's some really good ideas, and source books, in the mess.

Let's start with classes. Unlike traditional D&D, the basic classes are based on the six basic stats. So, you have the Tough Hero class, the Charismatic Hero class, the Dedicated Hero class, etc. However, one of the things that made 3.5 so good was the easy multiclassing rules, so you could create a ton of different combinations. Fast/Smart hero, Charismatic/Strong hero, etc. These basic classes offer you a bonus feat every other level and a Talent in between. These Talents have three different “trees” for each class, which means that two characters with the same class can go in vastly different directions.

Beyond the basic classes, there were Advanced Classes and Prestige Classes. When you add in the Advanced and Prestige classes, you can make a character focused on exactly what you want them to excel at. This gives you great customization for your characters. And for the enemies the GM wants to make. The Advanced classes include things like the Martial Artist, Soldier, Hostage Negotiator, Daredevil, Personality, Gunslinger, and so on. The Prestige Classes are used by the various settings to give you “FX” (as they call them) like magic and psionics.

The game also adds in a ton of adapted monsters from D&D in a modern setting, which leads to some hilarious images. They also added in a host of new monsters, many of which are unique to a modern setting. There's also a great chart for random monster weaknesses.

The dreaded Living Dumpster, an original monster idea

In the core book, there's three different settings: Shadow chasers (a setting inspired by things like the X-Files and Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Agents of PSI (inspired by the concerns about the “next stage of human evolution”), and Urban Arcana (an Urban Fantasy setting that got its own source book that I'll cover at a later date). Each of these settings include Department 7, which is either part of the government or a private corporation, that the heroes are suppose to be a part of. The settings include their own rules, or FX, the aforementioned Prestige Classes, and so on. Each of these settings does feel unique and interesting, but there's just so much else to take in that they don't really get the space needed to flesh them out. I would have rather not had any setting and then had them release the setting books right after the core book.

Of course, you could ditch all of this and do your own thing. The settings were really just a suggestion or a starting point. You could mix and match the psionics and magic and run wild. Or exclude them entirely and run a game set in a less fantastical world.

Before I go much further, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room. If you know anything about D20 Modern, or read any other reviews, you've probably heard mention of the Wealth Bonus system. It's a real problem. It is, quite frankly, the reason why D20 Modern didn't really take off. You see, the creators of the game thought that the modern world wasn't like D&D, where you would keep track of your horde of gold. Instead, in the modern world, we have credit cards, loans, and the like, so they wanted to reflect this as a game mechanic. That's right. It's a mechanic. You make a roll against your Wealth Bonus to see if you can afford something you want. And if it has a DC of 15 or higher, you can lose one point of your wealth. Yes. Seriously. It was probably one the worst ideas they had for this game. To increase your Wealth Bonus, you had to take ranks in the Profession skill and/or burn feats. This is asinine in the d20 system, where skills and Feats are critical to character survivablity and usefulness. They talk about how you can reflect financial rewards as a one-time bonus on a Wealth Bonus roll, but it's not really thought out and there's no mechanics for it.

I know how you might be thinking that it isn't that bad, but this system is the worst. It was such a terrible, terrible idea and they kept using it in their expansions (except for one). I've heard about conversions, and even tried my hand at it, but I haven't been able to figure out how to handle it. In the Call of Cthulhu d20 conversion (which used the D&D d20 system), they just gave every character a few thousand dollars and that was it. And that's what I usually do. Or, I steal for something else. Because there's no real good way to work around it. Thankfully, there is a conversion chart in the book (originally intended to convert real money to their horrible Wealth Bonus) and you can use that.

Another famous picture from the book

Now that we're done with that, let's move on to happier topics. Like where the product line went after the core book.

After the core book, Wizards put out the Menace Manual. This gave you some quick-use NPCs, a host of new monsters to terrorize the PCs, and organizations. These organizations include real life ones (such as the FBI, CIA, and so on) as well as others that are for the various settings in the core book, as well as some that might give you ideas for your own adventures. One reason why this book becomes critical is because the various expansions make references to these groups, leaving you clueless if you don't have it. Clearly, they wanted to give you a Monster Manual but for the modern world.

The next book is the Weapons Locker. Printed in black and white, with no lore or adventure ideas, it is a massive list of modern weapons and a handful of new rules. And it is a great resource for people doing any sort of game in a modern setting, not just D20 Modern. Why? Because you can give enemies tons of different weapons that suit their setting. Plus, there's a ton of weapons you probably haven't heard of.

The next major source book is D20 Future, with a bunch of different settings and new rules. Not only are there rules for weapons, space ships, giant robots, and all that good stuff, but they also introduce the concept of Progress Levels (abbreviated to PL) which are very similar to the Tech Levels of GURPS. In fact, this book shows just how much Wizards wanted D20 Modern to become the new GURPS. And, in my opinion, had they not used the much, and rightfully, loathed Wealth Bonus system, they might have had a chance to pull it off. Since there's a lot of stuff in this book, I'm going to need to do a full review of it.

Another book that's interesting is D20 Past, which is pretty small but fun. It gives you some rules for lower Progress Levels, as well as some fun settings. There's an Age of Sail setting (but magic and dragon things), a Victorian precursor to the Shadow Chasers setting of the core book, and some good old fashioned Nazi-kiling Pulp Era fun. It also gives you rules and stats for older firearms.

The last book I want to talk about is Critical Locations. If you can find a copy of this book, and you run games in modern or future settings, BUY IT! It has maps for a lot of common places. Taverns, mansions, banks, office buildings, and other good stuff, it is a GM's godsend. Your characters want to start a fight in the neighborhood bar? You're covered. Need a map of a yacht? Boom. It's great. I cannot recommend this book enough!A quick tip: If you've ever wanted to re-create John Carpenter's The Thing, you can use the Star Doppelganger from the Menace Manual and the Arctic Research Station from Critical Locations.

I'll be honest, this is how I imagined the game before I bought it.

In the end, D20 Modern was an experiment. And it failed. Part of it was because they made one huge mistake: The Wealth Bonus. They made things better, especially for a modern setting, with adding in a cool little system of Action Points. Action Points gave you a bonus to any d20 roll that increased with your character level. And they powered some of your abilities. So, you could use them when life was on the line. But, you only got them when you leveled up, so you had to use them sparingly. So, powerful but balanced.

There were other mistakes. While multiclassing is easy, it can be confusing, especially for new players. Leaving magic and psionics as part of the FX system and only available as part of Prestige classes makes it a hard sell for people who wanted to do some Urban Fantasy. Part of that is because the magic is mostly about subtly and shadow (which I'll have to explore in my Urban Arcana review) and part of it is because there's just not enough space to give you everything you really need right out of the gate.

Thinking about it, I think the core game was spread too thin. Without a central focus, it can make things hard to get grasp. And, without knowing where the game should go, people are going to get confused. Is this an Urban Fantasy game? A dark conspiracy game (which were popular at the time)? Was it going to be the next GURPS? It really didn't know. It wanted to do everything and failed at it. If they had wanted to be GURPS, they shouldn't have put in the campaign settings, and let those be expansions to be released in time. If you ignore the stuff you don't want, fix the Wealth Bonus system, you've got a solid core of a game. I think it might be better to just use the D&D d20 system and drop the magic? I just don't know what to say. I like the game, but don't at the same time. I do think that there's a ton of good ideas here.