Has anybody played this game? Is it any good? Would you recommend it?

As childred, my brother and I were fans of Robotech, but that was MANY years ago, and since then, I have been disconnected from it. However, I do like different genres of Anime, including Mecha.

The redacted version for preview shows that the game is a little too crunchy for my taste. However, I found a seller nearby who has this game with discount price, so maybe it is an opportunity...

I played it back when it came out.  It's fun, but not as good as the other Palladium titles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Beyond the Supernatural can both be a blast with the right group).  The system is wonky (I hate SDC/MDC with a passion) and combat rolls can take a while ("I roll to hit, he rolls to dodge, then I roll damage, then he rolls to 'roll with the punch' to reduce the damage," etc.). The books are a gold mine of info, though, and worth it for Robotech fans, even if you don't play the game.  I'd say give it a try.  If your group is willing to hang loose and are going for theme rather than mechanical elegance, it can be enjoyable.

I think I played it when it first came out. Would I recommend it? Not really. The Palladium system is not a good fit. Take Veritechs. They were supposed to the fast but lightweight mechs. But in Robotech, the things are tougher than main battle tanks if not the toughest things in the game. The thing that I liked best about Robottech was that missiles did a lot of damage compared to the previous mech game that we played which was Battletech where missiles were like confetti.

As Eirikrautha said, it is a great source for background material and ship plans. If I did it again today, I would use Mekton with some house rules. There should be conversion stats for just about everything floating out on the web.

Quote from: Eirikrautha on February 13, 2022, 11:13:12 PM
I played it back when it came out.  It's fun, but not as good as the other Palladium titles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Beyond the Supernatural can both be a blast with the right group).  The system is wonky (I hate SDC/MDC with a passion) and combat rolls can take a while ("I roll to hit, he rolls to dodge, then I roll damage, then he rolls to 'roll with the punch' to reduce the damage," etc.). The books are a gold mine of info, though, and worth it for Robotech fans, even if you don't play the game.  I'd say give it a try.  If your group is willing to hang loose and are going for theme rather than mechanical elegance, it can be enjoyable.

I don't think he's talking about the Palladium version of Robotech. There's a new game out from a new company with all new mechanics. I saw the book on the shelf at the local store, but I didn't bother to look through it because Robotech just isn't where my interest is these days.

Oh I am stunned someone released a new Robotech RPG. And it's... *looks over the PDF*  It's an RPG at least? It kind if looks rules lite, but I have a feeling you'll be page flipping due to the large number of feats. Not a lot of detail on mechs. Oh narrative systems like drama and stress... Oh let me get my vomit bag.

I believe some posters are confusing the old Palladium version with the new RPG.

https://strangemachinegames.com/robotechrpg/

My bad.  Never thought I'd see a new Robotech RPG published.

Though, after looking at the system (advantage6) and the descriptions, I'd still say play the Palladium one...

There's also an official Savage Worlds sourcebook for Robotech, although like the new RPG, it only covers Macross so far.

The new Robotech rpg does Robotech way better than Palladium's version. Like, way, way better. Much simpler system, easier to make characters, combats that don't take hours. It's a solid Robotech rpg.

Thank you for all the replies!

I do mean about the latest Robotech RPG from strange machine games.

So there are opinions on both sides... Hard to decide. I don't foresee that I would be able to play it any time soon anyway...

Having looked at both.

Palladium's version is far far superior in about every way. The new game feels more storygamey than RPG in some aspects. Its not bad. But it lacks in details that make games like these interesting. Worse. The new version does not feel like it captures the element of mecha combat. Whereas Palladium's does.

YMMV of course.

The Palladium version of Robotech was a very bad fit rules-wise. Mechanically it was pretty much the same as all those licensed adaptions that use D&D 3rd or 5th edition- they mash the setting into rules written to do something else and tell everyone that it works.

If you want mecha combat then you need a system that's dsigned around the idea. Whether you want crunchy or storygame is a personal preference. For crunchy I still hold that Mekton Zeta (with the MZ Plus expanson) is still the best mecha RPG ever published. For storygame- just google, there's plenty.

The new Robotech game is very much a drama-based system and anyone who doubts this is a good fit for the Robotech franchise obviously watched a different show to what I've seen. But I don't feel that it's a very good drama-based system.

As this very thread has demonstrated there's a sharp divide among roleplayers regarding system crunch versus drama/plot mechanics to the point that people in both camps will argue that the others aren't really roleplaying and should be called something else. Generally speaking drama-system fans like simple mechanics while Old School gamers want lots of mechanical detail to sink their teeth into.

For this reason my skimming of the latest Robotech game left me confused. It's clearly what people here define as a storygame but it's also pretty high on the crunch/complexity scale to the point that a casual skim didn't let me understand the core rules like I'd assumed would be the case with a dramatic system.

I don't know what the target market for this game is, but I'm pretty sure this is an example of someone trying to please two different groups at once and therefore not pleasing either.

Palladium did a pretty good job with the Macross portion of Robotech. People may forget, but Robotech was actually the source of MDC and the missile rules that eventually became the standard across their game lines, and used different (more restrained relative to Heroes Unlimited/TMNT/Ninjas&Superspies) values for the physical skills. It also included rules for shooting down missiles and using your mecha's arms to survive a missile barrage.

It was back in the days when Kevin was still innovating and letting systems be slightly different across the game lines.

For the Macross era it worked great. It was Southern Cross and the Invid Invasion that borked things up with first, the need for personal MD armor, and then New Generation's use of missile massacres as standard operation. Not updating the rules to reflect this is probably the biggest issue with the later material (it could really benefit from a "rocket salvo" weapon instead of the missiles for the REF mecha and something like Battletech's anti-mech attacks by infantry in lieu of MD pistols and near miss SDC damage for MD attacks on infantry in lieu of MD personal armor).

Also worth noting was this was done in the mid-80's using what in hindsight were extremely dubious translations of material from Japanese (no Google translate back then so unless you spoke/read the language you were out of luck)... so yeah, it's riddled with errors compared to later versions (particularly the Southern Cross battloids).

But the main reason I've tended to find Palladium's version better was they didn't just try to have you relive the series, their defaults were set post-Macross when there were still plenty of Zentraedi malcontents (who started kit-bashing new units with the help of captive or recruited engineers) and minor powers (the EBSIS made a lot of sense in the mid-80's when it was invented) along with early Southern Cross/REF prototypes while the leads of Macross were busy in space getting the SDF-3 ready and the Southern Cross characters too young to involved.

In short a time where "you" could be the hero.

They did the same with the Invid Invasion, having a smaller force return to keep harvesting protoculture and new rebels take up the cause.

Then they doubled down with Return of the Masters to create a setting/locale in Indochina where rogue Zentraedi and a crashed Masters mothership teamed up even as the Invid continued to harvest in the region (and a Genesis pit spawning monsters) and RDF, REF and Southern Cross equipment was available to the human rebels and crime lords with an REF command for those wanting a military campaign.

In short, they set it up so each Robotech fan could pilot their favorite mecha against their favorite opponents and not play second fiddle to the big heroes of the series.

Don't forget crap like personal MDC weapons that can fire their entire magazine in one burst and devastate even a large mecha. The Gallant (with shoulder stock) was a prime offender.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 14, 2022, 04:22:02 AM
I believe some posters are confusing the old Palladium version with the new RPG.

https://strangemachinegames.com/robotechrpg/

You are correct.  I have this one and really like it.  It is my favorite version of the Robotech RPG and I've owned them all.  I even like it better than the new Savage Worlds version of Robotech that came out at the same time as this.

The new game is not rules heavy at all.