So, a long time back, Kevin Siembieda: lord god almighty of Palladiumbooks, declared that Palladiumbooks would not pursue the Macross Plus license under any circumstance.  The reason?  Well, it seems there wasn't enough material in Macross Plus to build a RPG around.  (Now, it's more likely that it was because of the licensing snarl around the property, but we'll go with what KS said instead.)

OK, that might be fair enough.  You have an interstellar human empire with colony worlds fighting against barbarian zentraedi invaders.  You have two military contractors possibly waging industrial espionage against each other.  The two main fighters of the OAV themselves are being produced to perform surgical strikes against colonies.  But, you have to infer all that, so maybe it isn't a good template for a RPG.

More recently, the prophet has declared that Palladiumbooks will be bringing back Robotech, because of the new Shadow Chronicles movie.  I have severely mixed feelings about this.  I'd like to see a new Robotech RPG, but let's look at the rest of the picture.

It's hard to say this without being spoilery, so I'll try to be careful.  If you've seen the end of Invid Invasion, you know the Invid are gone.  They left.  Bye!  The new enemies presented in Shadow Chronicles are otherwise very vague.  Their motives are completely opaque.  The movie doesn't give many implications to work with as to the nature of the REF or the new threat.  So, from that point of view, Shadow Chronicles doesn't give much of a template for adventure.  It's even worse than Macross Plus in that respect.

On the other hand, there are the mecha.  The REF Alphas, Betas, and Cyclones can all be reprinted.  Invid Armored Scouts (with boosters) and clamships can be reprinted.  Ikazukis and Garfish can be reprinted.  Notice a pattern here?

So the question is, what's new?  The new bad guys have a fightercraft I call a "Switchblade."  They also have a four legged walkermech with guns on it's knees.  There are some starships as well.

The good guys get some new, neat things.  There's a new weapon module for Alphas.  There are also Super Shadow Alphas and Betas, and a new model of Cyclone.  The missing link in the fleet between the Garfish destroyers and the Ikazuki carriers has been filled by a cruiser type exemplefied by a ship named the Ikarus.

I wonder if Palladium will continue to ignore the existence of the SDF-4?  It actually makes even less of an appearrance in Shadow Chronicles than it does in Dark Finale and Symphony of Light.

Notice a pattern here?  Most of this stuff is reprint fodder.  The rest of it is stuff which is easily tweaked from existing stats.  Here, I'll give you the stats for a Switchblade fighter right now:

Switchblade
alien attack craft
Attacks 4
strike + 5
dodge + 6
MDC Main Body = 50
Pulse laser= 1d4 * 10 per burst

Now, you could maybe give the wings some MDC, and define it as having a different mode based on whether the wings are folded or not, but you get the idea.

When a friend and I talked about it, we both simultaneously came up with what we think the new Robotech RPG will be.  The main book will probably be mostly a reprint of Sentinels with new art and a lot of filler.  In recent Palladiumbooks fashion, the new enemy will be left out for Robotech Sourcebook 1, which won't come out until 4 years from now and probably slapped together as haphazardly as my example above.

Hmmm.  Definitely not the kind of presentation I think Robotech deserves.

And yet it will keep Palladium afloat.

Quote from: joewolzAnd yet it will keep Palladium afloat.

Licenses are expensive so it's not a done deal that a new Robotech rpg will keep them afloat.

Plus I am not sure that Robotech is as popular as it used to be, so a new Robotech RPG isn't an automatic "License to print money".

Ironically, back around 1999/2000 Maryann liked to troll the Robotech section of the Palladium boards and generally belittle the fans.  Now Robotech is Palladium's bright new hope!

It also strikes me as funny how Palladium can apparrently afford the Robotech license when they're in such dire financial straits, yet every other group of people who have attempted to get the license have said that Harmony Gold basically wants the moon for the license.

As for keeping Palladium afloat, even I, one of the biggest Robotech fans there is, am certain that it won't be the big blockbuster KS seems to expect it will be in his press releases.  

One big problem with a Shadow Chronicles RPG is that we have no idea what it should be about.  This is a complete 180 from the original Robotech where there was a complete series and set of novels to pull from about what was going on and use as a template for adventure.  In the original, the enemies goals were defined.  And even with the incomplete Sentinels, there was enough material to flesh out a Robotech univese.  The inherent problem with Shadow Chronicles is that it gives us a new premise and that premise is "Everything you know is wrong."  We won't find out more until more movies or a series are produced.

Now, given Palladium's speedy and prompt release schedule (and since KS has to sweep the office, because his lackeys can't even do that right), it may be 2 or 3 years before the book comes out.  Maybe by then, the show will have explained to us what is going on.  As for right now, we don't and that lack of knowing kind of puts a damper on everything.

It makes me wonder what the RPG book is going to be padded out with.  Lots of pointless conjecture?  Hot Invid Chick With Big Boobs R.C.C.?

Did Big Kev ever touch on the UN/Anti-UN war (I think it's called the Civil War in the novels?)  There's a wealth of stuff to mine there, right down to the first use of Valkyries in air combat (if you can believe Macross Zero, that is.)

Robotech was an absolute passion of mine.  The first two long campaigns I ran were D&D and Robotech.

But there's no chance in hell Robotech will make any kind of significant impact today. Its 80s nostalgia. It won't be a huge comeback with the kids today, at least not with the production values you see in "shadow chronicles". Its junk.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditRobotech was an absolute passion of mine.  The first two long campaigns I ran were D&D and Robotech.

But there's no chance in hell Robotech will make any kind of significant impact today. Its 80s nostalgia. It won't be a huge comeback with the kids today, at least not with the production values you see in "shadow chronicles". Its junk.

Well, not to venture too far off the topic of Robotech RPGing...

The week before I saw Shadow Chronicles, I saw The Invincible Iron Man animated feature.  I definitely found the production quality on Shadow Chronicles to be far superior to Iron Man, and Iron Man probably had 5 to 10 times the budget.  Is Shadow Chronicles perfect?  Hell fucking no.  But it's pretty good for what it is.

And, once again, I don't think a new Robotech will be a blockbuster breakaway title for Palladium, but I don't think that has anything to do with a lack of nostalgia in the RPG biz.  Tying into your remark, I think it will be because of production quality.  Obviously, you feel Robotech deserves more quality and more effort than what the Shadow Chronicles movie presented.  Now ask yourself, will Palladiumbooks put forth even a tiny fraction of the kind of effort spent on that film towards the RPG book?

Incidentally, what era did you run?

Quote from: fonkaygarryDid Big Kev ever touch on the UN/Anti-UN war (I think it's called the Civil War in the novels?)  There's a wealth of stuff to mine there, right down to the first use of Valkyries in air combat (if you can believe Macross Zero, that is.)

Nah.

The series presents the idea that the Global Civil War raging in 1999 when the SDF-1 crashes is the UN/Anti-UN war.  Kev kind of ignored that and has something in one of the books about it being WW3 triggered by the USA having active portions of a Star Wars satellite defense system.

According to the series, the SDF-1 crashing caused the war to stop and there was global peace for the next 10 years.  All it took was the proof of someone bigger and meaner in the cosmos to convince the human race to play nice with one another.

I ran three Robotech campaigns in my career as a GM, the SHORTEST of these went for about a year of weekly play.

So, obviously, I covered all three eras.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditRobotech was an absolute passion of mine.  The first two long campaigns I ran were D&D and Robotech.

I played it for awhile myself and did so until the system drove me away.  The Palladium system did a horriable job at emulating the genre.

Quote from: RPGPunditBut there's no chance in hell Robotech will make any kind of significant impact today. Its 80s nostalgia. It won't be a huge comeback with the kids today, at least not with the production values you see in "shadow chronicles". Its junk.

RPGPundit

While I dont know much about the Shadow Chronicles your point about Robotech being 80's nostalgia I think is dead on and exactly what I was saying.

Quote from: GabrielAnd, once again, I don't think a new Robotech will be a blockbuster breakaway title for Palladium, but I don't think that has anything to do with a lack of nostalgia in the RPG biz.  Tying into your remark, I think it will be because of production quality.  Obviously, you feel Robotech deserves more quality and more effort than what the Shadow Chronicles movie presented.  Now ask yourself, will Palladiumbooks put forth even a tiny fraction of the kind of effort spent on that film towards the RPG book?

Well, considering that Palladium's overall quality and layout is piss poor I am not expecting much from them.

Why couldnt a more capable game company get the rights! :confused:

Quote from: GabrielAccording to the series, the SDF-1 crashing caused the war to stop and there was global peace for the next 10 years.  All it took was the proof of someone bigger and meaner in the cosmos to convince the human race to play nice with one another.

Indeed. Macross Zero doesn't really fit with the Robotech timeline (and wasn't intended to): in that universe, the  arrival of the SDF-1 basically started the wars.

More to the point, last I heard, M0 and all associated gadgetry belong to Bandai and Big West, and they aren't getting along very well with Harmony Gold.

On the other hand there are a few things that could be mined from the original Macross series--mainly the Dragon II & Karyovin fighters shown in a flashback episode, and the FL-200 interceptor which is briefly shown in the first episode.

That Shoji Kawamori could design him some planes.

It was always interesting to me that the best put together books in the Robotech series were the ones for Macross II that they let Dream Pod 9 do.

The Robotech RPG books had to be the biggest incoherent mess I've ever seen in the hobby.  And I don't mean incoherent in forge-y speak, I mean as in they were rambling mess even more poorly organized and arranged that Palladium's books usually are.  

A mish mash of random essays, stat blocks, and whatever else they could think of to fill  out the page count.  

And thing is, Palladium really hasn't changed one goddamn bit in the 10 years I've been rolepalying, so I doubt it'll be any better.  In fact, given the preponderance of great writers who've fled the Palladium banner over the years because they were fed up with Kevin and Maryann, I would go so far as to suggest that Shadow Chronicles is likely to be even worse.

It seems my collection of Palladium Robotech RPG books isn't complete after all!  I didn't know they printed these during the 90s:

* Robotech RPG Adventures: Zentraedi Breakout
* Robotech RPG Book 7: New World Order
* Robotech RPG Book 8: Strike Force

I thought they took the franchise out in a blaze of glory with Lancer's Rockers.

We had a long-running Robotech campaign that started with the RDF Accelerated Training Program (did anyone else run thislike an anime version of the Police Academy movies?  ), knock about on earth and rub shoulders with the early Armies of the Southern Cross, and eventually moved on to have the characters join the REF and deal with all the material covered by The Sentinels.  

The plan was to eventually have the characters return to earth and do the Invid Invasion thing... but we put the campaign on hold while we tried some other games, and never got back to it.