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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 7932834" data-attributes="member: 6779310">Not a cheat, but not exactly elegant, either. In Robotech, it makes sense for the Protoculture mechs... at least if you accept the novelization's details, but it's simple-but-unrealistic for  non-protoculture vehicles. The multiple attacks per melee is also, if the rules are slavishly followed, it gets to be 4 cycles or more through the initiative sequence per melee, typically 2-4 rolls per action, and damage isn't usually telling until the second or third hit; more if using the random hit locations in Bk2...It's not the worst, but it's not really elegant. The hand to hand rules? Reasonable in Palladium Fantasy... but the extra 2-4 attacks in mechs really make things go slow, especially since so few are telling. Despite the low to strike, against similar level opponents, the parry replaces the AR, so... with the typical parry on par, 50% of shots don't hit. And if the damage is (in the GM's call) impactful, a number of those not dodged/parried will be rolled with for half damage. The Zentraedi in a battle pod ... 50 MDC for the pod main-body, 25 for the body armor, and 1000 to 2200 HP (which takes 10-22 more MDC)... and the two main weapons of the VF-1 series do 6d6 MD, for about 15 to 27 MD, typically... That's 4 solid hits to take out the Z. Battle Pod... but that's often 5 to 10 attacks, thanks to the generous dodge rules and the often generous roll-with-impact rules... plus the often low-level foes for even mid-level PCs, but in ever larger numbers... it can snowball horribly.That isn't elegance. It's a load of whiffyness. Long slogs. It is, however, simple to explain... simple isn't elegant when the knock-on effects are problematic. And by mid levels (4-6 in Robotech), PCs are still whiffy, but have a third HTH attack... and thus 5 in mecha.It's one of several reasons why I've only run Palladium Robotech as a handful of oneshots, and one badly handled campaign. And dropped out of the "all palladium mashup" I was playing in. (The others included the lack of social skills, the pretty much useless attributes, and the excessive skills list.) Yet, I kept buying ... because the world development is the one area Mr. Siembieda is really good at. But I've yet to find a system I can do justice to the setting, and its fast, low-whiff combats.I'll admit, I'm sore tempted to grab the Savage Worlds Macross book.</blockquote>

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