ROBOTECH RPG - its back, and its new

[TheLe]

I do find it weird that they are going manga size. Are there any manga size Robotech comics in the U.S. ? It there that much crossover between the two markets?

I think its a very bad business decision. Maybe they are trying to get a broader audience, maybe pick up more Border Books customers.

I don't know.

But RPG gamers traditionally hate that format for their game books.

`Le

 

[Falstaff]

Ouch. Yeah. I've gotta agree with the rest of the thread: You lost me at "Kevin Siembieda".

Ditto.

 

[Aaron L]

Battletech:

Takes place in a alternate galaxy/universe/whatever that has nothing to do with earth.

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]

 

[Calico_Jack73]

The first book will be out less than two months after announcing the license? How realistic is that?

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.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

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.

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

 

[Scribble]

Maybe really good news for Palladium if the proposed Toby Maguire live action Robotech gets off the ground...

 

[Ranger REG]

Maybe really good news for Palladium if the proposed Toby Maguire live action Robotech gets off the ground...

Really? To me, it's one of those "goodnews-badnews" bit.

Good news: Tobey Maquire to produce live-action Robotech (yay!)
Bad News: Palladium to resume publishing Robotech RPG (boo! hiss!)

 

[HellHound]

But RPG gamers traditionally hate that format for their game books.

`Le

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]

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.

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]

The first book will be out less than two months after announcing the license? How realistic is that?

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.