ROBOTECH RPG - its back, and its new
- Thread starter TheLe
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Aaron L
Hero
Deset Gled said:
Actually, Battletech takes place circa 1000 years in the future (bout 3072 currently) at which time humanity has colonized a chunk of space (called the Inner Sphere) several thousand light years around Earth (called Terra by then), which is ruled by 5 noble houses. Each of these Houses had united under a 6th house that ruled Terra and formed the Star League, but a few hundred years ago the League fell apart due to treachery from a minor noble, and he remaining Houses quickly began to fight over the rest of the Inner Sphere in what were called the Succession Wars.
Terra itself became the headquarters of an Asimovian Foundation-style technology cult (ComStar) that reclaimed the Star League's FTL communication system and provided interstellar communication for the various Houses and acted to protect the accumulated knowledge of humanity, which was being destroyed in the rest of the Inner Sphere by of intentional burning of enemy universities and assassinations of enemy scientists and the like, all the while amassing power and wealth for itself. The whole setting is kind of an analogue of the fall of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages, with humanity blasting itself to bits in endless wars and losing hundreds of years of technology and learning.
Then the Clans show up, being a rough analogue of the Mongols, but that's a whole 'noher ball of wax, and if you're interested you can start here: BattleTech
Oh yeah, another big part of Battletech is that there are no intelligent aliens. IIRC, humanity hasn't even gotten outside of the spiral arm of the Milky Way where Earth is, and hasn't gotten far enough to encounter any aliens, if there even are any currently near us.
There are dozens of Battletech novels, and several videogames (which I'm sure most of us have either heard of or played. Mechwarrior 1, 2, 3, or 4?) It is very political sci-fi military space opera stuff.
Oh, and, of course, the fighting is done mainly in giant robots called BattleMechs. The pilots are called MechWarriors and are essentially the knights of the era. The background technology and history of the setting is highly detailed, with dozens and dozens of sourcebooks.
Now, the thing with the duplicated mecha; the people at FASA (Jordan Weisman and all) were fans of the original Japanese anime series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada, and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, the anime that were combined to form Robotech for American audiences, and were fans of the mecha genre in general, so when they first released their game they talked to some people in Japan about licensing the images of many of the mecha from these various series (as well as a few other series.)
Apparently, however, they either didn't talk to the right people, or the licensing details were tied up among several different companies, and so the license they got was contestable. And so, when Harmony Gold assembled Robotech from 3 unrelated anime so they would have enough episodes to sell into syndication (because, apparently, individually none of the three series had enough episodes for a valid full season by American standards, so they rewrote enough of the storylines of each show that they tied together and released it all as one show), contest it they did. They fought for several years until FASA, a small company without much money, gave up and phased out all of the images (and even stopped mentioning the names of the original 'Mechs) just to stay alive.
As you may be able to tell, I'm an old Battletech die-hard who doesn't much care for Harmony Gold after all the crap they put FASA through. I respect Robotech as a big influence in getting American audiences interested in anime, though. Heck, I even have the whole series on DVD, and even a copy of the Sentinels. But for my RPG Mecha action, I'll sick to using either Mecha Crusade for D20 or Big Eyes, Small Mouth for anime flavored games.
But I wish Palladium well for the sake of the people who like their Robotech RPG. As long as someone out there likes it, I wish them all the joy they can get from it's existence.
[EDIT] D'oH, Rykion beat me to the punch. I guess that's what I get for writing novels as my posts. [/EDIT]
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Calico_Jack73
First Post
hexgrid said:
Pretty realistic... Palladium just does a "Copy/Paste" method for the rules section of their books. Take a look at the Palladium Fantasy RPG and you'll see what I mean. The skills section is filled with modern skills that have no place in a fantasy game. KS copied the section from Rifts and dropped it right into the PFRPG book. I assume he'll do the same with Robotech.
On the good side of things, this means that more time can be dedicated to the fluff part of the game instead of rewriting the rules.
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cignus_pfaccari
First Post
Aaron L said:
My understanding is that it was a bit more complicated...that while FASA did think they had a valid license for the images, they sued over the toys using the Robotech images that came out as part of the Exo-Squad toy line, since they were under the impression they had the licenses, and those toys were going to compete with an upcoming Battletech line.
Unfortunately, it turned out that they didn't, and the lawsuit came back to bite them on the rear end. Which is a real pity, as until 3.0 hit, I owned more FASA stuff than any other manufacturer's games.
Brad
Ranger REG
Explorer
Really? To me, it's one of those "goodnews-badnews" bit.Scribble said:
Good news: Tobey Maquire to produce live-action Robotech (yay!)
Bad News: Palladium to resume publishing Robotech RPG (boo! hiss!)
HellHound
ENnies winner and NOT Scrappy Doo
TheLe said:
It's not so bad anymore.
A lot of gamers have 'pocket edition' games now (like Savage Worlds, Mongoose's Player Guides, etc), which are close to this size.
Plus a vast majority of the wave of self-styled "Indie" RPGs are being released in a similar size these days.
And Palladium isn't targeting the D&D crowd with these releases. So a niche product with a niche design might work well.
jonathan swift
First Post
HellHound said:
Count me as someone who hates the 8.5x11 size books. Give me something that I can carry with me places and pull out and read in public without taking up a whole table to read.
As for Robotech, I love the universe. Never played a Palladium game however. And I prefer Battletech anyway. So oh well.
HellHound
ENnies winner and NOT Scrappy Doo
hexgrid said:
I read the announcement originally long before GenCon, so I expect that they've announced the license officially now that they've already completed the book.
I wish I could get the rpg.net search feature to work - I *know* I read about the upcoming license there much earlier this year.
direrodent
First Post
TheLe said:
To me, the mega damage rules actually worked well in Robotech. The somewhat limited (compared to RIFTS) proliferation of variant mecha, and the presumed presence of military organizations to better regulate access to the powerful gear just allowed me to regulate things better than in RIFTS.
I'd prefer the new material be as compatible with the old as possible.
It worked for Traveller back in the day, but I'd prefer to have the books line up nicely on the shelf with my older Robotech stuff.
Well, Palladium, like some other smaller publishers, knows its role as a niche publisher. The continued popularity of Anime and the presumed compatibility with RIFTS and other Palladium games should allow it to have moderate success. It won't compete with D&D, but really, what does?
These days though, to be honest, I'd be tempted to buy the book and convert it to Heavy Gear to actually play it.
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Battletech:
Takes place in a alternate galaxy/universe/whatever that has nothing to do with earth. There are 5 main houses that are always fighting. They fight primarily with Mechs. Major plotlines typically center around bloodlines or mercenaries fighting between the houses.
There are three main types of mechs: small (the Locust), medium (Pheonix Hawk), and large (Maurader). Mechs are humanoid, but only loosly so in some cases. Small and medium mechs sometimes have "jump jets", but the mechs are otherwise ground based. Weapons follow the same small/medium/large pattern as the mechs. Heat is always an issue when piloting a mech, and damage to parts of the mech (arms, legs, head, torso) is a common theme.[/QUOTE]
A few corrections regarding Battletech:
The 'Inner Sphere' does include Earth (it is in the center, marked as Terra) and the timeline is 'based' on our own history, the 4th Succession War occurs in the year 3028. Mechs are grouped by 4 categories - Light (Wasp), Medium (Phoenix Hawk), Heavy (Warhammer), Assault (Atlas). The Wasp Land-Air Mech (LAM), the Phoenix Hawk LAM, the Rifleman, and the Warhammer were all IP properties related to Robotech. FASA did produce and showcase them for several years (the Warhammer being the most famous of these) and after a string of lawsuits did terminate their use of the IP in the late nineties.
Aliens are a major theme of Robotech, they are not part of Battletech. The 'menace' in the Battletech universe are the Clans which are the human descendants of a splinter military faction which fled the Inner Sphere 300 years prior to the 4th Succession War.
Sorry, just had to get my Battletech Geek hat on.
Takes place in a alternate galaxy/universe/whatever that has nothing to do with earth. There are 5 main houses that are always fighting. They fight primarily with Mechs. Major plotlines typically center around bloodlines or mercenaries fighting between the houses.
There are three main types of mechs: small (the Locust), medium (Pheonix Hawk), and large (Maurader). Mechs are humanoid, but only loosly so in some cases. Small and medium mechs sometimes have "jump jets", but the mechs are otherwise ground based. Weapons follow the same small/medium/large pattern as the mechs. Heat is always an issue when piloting a mech, and damage to parts of the mech (arms, legs, head, torso) is a common theme.[/QUOTE]
A few corrections regarding Battletech:
The 'Inner Sphere' does include Earth (it is in the center, marked as Terra) and the timeline is 'based' on our own history, the 4th Succession War occurs in the year 3028. Mechs are grouped by 4 categories - Light (Wasp), Medium (Phoenix Hawk), Heavy (Warhammer), Assault (Atlas). The Wasp Land-Air Mech (LAM), the Phoenix Hawk LAM, the Rifleman, and the Warhammer were all IP properties related to Robotech. FASA did produce and showcase them for several years (the Warhammer being the most famous of these) and after a string of lawsuits did terminate their use of the IP in the late nineties.
Aliens are a major theme of Robotech, they are not part of Battletech. The 'menace' in the Battletech universe are the Clans which are the human descendants of a splinter military faction which fled the Inner Sphere 300 years prior to the 4th Succession War.
Sorry, just had to get my Battletech Geek hat on.
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Ranger REG
Explorer
Been wondering why we're talking about BT in a RT thread.Atreides said:Sorry, just had to get my Battletech Geek hat on.
The only connection they have between them, metagame-wise, are the images of the mecha. FASA thought they could get away using Robotech/Macross images (with some alterations).
Other than that, they're two entirely different universes, two entirely different franchises.
Having said that, I miss the LAMs.
Relique du Madde
Adventurer
Here's to hoping that the new Robotech license doesn't drive an other nail into Palladium's coffin. Although I liked the earlier Robotech books, it is extremely unlikely that I will buy the new books since I have no interest in using Palladium's rule set, nor do I have any interest in an other rpg product that recycles art from a) an anime's Artbook, b) an anime's footage, C) an anime's production stills, or d) 20 years worth of Palladium books.
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TheLe said:
Well this is good news. I've been wanting to let my inner Robotech geek out. The only thing I don't like is that the first books is based on The Shadow Chronicles.
TheLe said:
A 192-page manga-sized trade paperback? This seems more like a gimmick to me. I can't stand small books. My eyes are not as good as they were about 20 years ago when the first Robotech RPG Books were released.
TheLe said:
Some of the artwork was good for it being black and white and in the 1980's, and now that I go back and look at some of it I really liked the drawings of the Destroids and Veritechs, but it just seemed so random and put in for no reason in some parts.
I would like to throw my hat in to see the larger format, and maybe a hardcover please.
TheLe said:
Does this mean we will see things like cutting the MDC to 10% of standard, and leaving the weapon damage the same? This gives the more realistic combat where one shot will basically kill you.
Why is there going to be considerable attention paid to the Southern Cross segment of the storyline? I
TheLe said:
What about the Robtech II The Sentinels? Will we see a book for that one, or will that be integrated in to the New Generation book? I only really liked Macross and the Sentinels.
TheLe said:
Robotech Live Action? When did this come about and is it going to be true to the original?
I cut my gaming teeth on Robotech and really want to see this succeed, but I'm not going to be picking it up because I have the originals and unless there are major changes to the game I'll just play with those. I'll just wait.
Ranger REG
Explorer
Of course it is. Though I don't know if Borders are going to stock the RTCR manga edition in the Manga section of their stores. They might if their employees are clueless (like so many Borders employees I know in my area).Mr. Beef said:
Upgrade your glasses with reading specs.Mr. Beef said:
Tobey Maguire have expressed interest in producing the anime into live-action film(s) for his production company. So far, no deal has been set nor are there any pre-production work going on.Mr. Beef said:
Wik
First Post
You know, the Robotech Rules were one of the few Palladium games that actually *worked* - the MDC rules were more or less in scale, unlike say in Rifts (I really don't like how the MDC armours seem to follow different scales of damage...).
Really, the fwe times we played it, we had a fair amount of fun blowing stuff up and adventuring in a loose game. Truth be told, though, we had more fun playing BATTLETECH and MECHWARRIOR.
Really, the fwe times we played it, we had a fair amount of fun blowing stuff up and adventuring in a loose game. Truth be told, though, we had more fun playing BATTLETECH and MECHWARRIOR.
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