I wanted to know if I was the only one who tends to de-emphaisize that part of it, or at least give it equal time with some of the more interesting setting details and potential roleplaying scenarios of the same.
Shit, I wanted to know if I'm the only one who thinks that there's more to it than just "big mecha battles".
RPGPundit
Following the robotech storyline there are lots of things people can do in it, like discovering the secret of the robotech masters if you're playing the macross setting, or trying to find a way to bring peace between the invid and everyone else, finding out what Zor had done, finding a new world for humanity to live on in case earth was attacked again, etc.
Really, a lot of robotech was more about trying to end the wars in some way that didn't involve extermination than fighting them.
For me, a lot of Robotech is questions about what you hold on to, and how far you are willing to go, in the face of extinction.
Its a really particular kind of post-apocalyptic setting, because everything that was gets wiped to shreds in the Rain of Death, and after that the survivors find that none of the rules are the same. So do you try to promote pacifism and democracy and get eaten alive, or do you make deals with xenophobes and open fascists with obvious lust for power, or do you try to find some line in the middle, and what is that line?
A lot of it is also exploration; getting to see a fairly "realistic" look at the world, our world (remember, the timeline of Robotech STARTS in 1999, and most of the action of the first series takes place in 2009), and how it ends up utterly changed but still with some familiar remnants. The only other setting that I can think of that does this just as well is Shadowrun.
And yes, in the Sentinels its all about playing "Star Trek"; Southern Cross is really all about living in a fascist regime, and Invid Invasion is like trying to survive in Nazi occupied europe as a jewish partisan.
RPGPundit
We explored an asteroid, discovered, fought, and studied xenomorphs. One of them grew in the chest of a psychic and was born with sentience and powers. Pretty crazy.
We did the Invid Invasion (I suspect because the cartoons were playing and those were the books that someone had). We started off as your standard mecha bash but ended with an awesome infiltration "find the traitor" thriller.
Have to say finding out that the traitor was a Stage 5 Invid should have been fairly obvious in retrospect, but it was done well enough that all the players were caught out by the twist.
I've done a shitload of "Mission: Impossible" or "A-team" themed campaigns either using Sentinels or post-Invid Invasion.
All pretty awesome, for sure. But did anyone play up the political or social slants of the setting?
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;393186All pretty awesome, for sure. But did anyone play up the political or social slants of the setting?
RPGPundit
Only in "post-Macross, pre-Master's" campaigns.
The conflict between RDF, Southern Cross, and EBSIS (via Merchant Kingdom) in South America, made for some filler. But generally all of us were on the same side (RDF, in this case). It was less a case of "conflicting loyaties in the group" so much as "who could we screw, to get the RDF ahead".
Post-Invid doesn't really have much of a political game left, unless you make it up. Nationalism is pretty much dead, the REF/UEEF are the only military to return home (no Southern Cross, for all intents), and Tirolians, Humans, and Zentraedi pretty freely co-mingle.
It's a freakin' hippy commune by the end. A military-driven hippy commune. That should scare anyone sane.
Quote from: Novastar;393802Only in "post-Macross, pre-Master's" campaigns.
The conflict between RDF, Southern Cross, and EBSIS (via Merchant Kingdom) in South America, made for some filler. But generally all of us were on the same side (RDF, in this case). It was less a case of "conflicting loyaties in the group" so much as "who could we screw, to get the RDF ahead".
That's why the next game I run will be an SC game in that period. You start out a true believer in the cause, but what happens when you start to figure out that the "fledgling Southern Cross" is full of xenophobes and fascists, and they're YOUR side; and they might STILL have a point?
QuotePost-Invid doesn't really have much of a political game left, unless you make it up. Nationalism is pretty much dead, the REF/UEEF are the only military to return home (no Southern Cross, for all intents), and Tirolians, Humans, and Zentraedi pretty freely co-mingle.
It's a freakin' hippy commune by the end. A military-driven hippy commune. That should scare anyone sane.
I think that's a pretty rosy picture you've got in your head there, but I don't see where that connects to the Robotech world. Yes, the REF ends up being the only big game in town; but what you have on earth are thousands of little fiefdoms, bandit kingdoms, towns and cities that survived because they collaborated with the Invid, and thousands of groups of freedom fighters who might feel like it was they, and not the REF who saved humanity. And then there's the little question of whether word ever gets out to the general earth population that the REF, which abandoned them to go play "star trek" back in '22, who didn't show up in time to save them when the Masters came along (wasn't that what they left to try to PREVENT, the Masters bringing another war to Earth? What the fuck where they doing up there all this time?!), didn't show up in time to save them from the Invid either (so you were fighting to save a bunch of aliens from the Invid but couldn't be bothered to come save YOUR OWN FUCKING PLANET?), fucked up three separate liberation attempts, and finally almost fired neutron-S missiles that would have wiped out all life on Earth because THEY decided it'd be better for millions of humans and our home world to be wiped out rather than than continue in Invid hands. I think that if that comes to light, you'd have a general clusterfuck against the REF high command. Even if there wasn't, the native earthers have a great deal of reasons to not just bend over and accept REF rule (all those I mentioned above).
Finally, remember that the REF fleet was mostly wiped out by the Invid leaving, and the SDF-3 never showed up. I think that the earth wouldn't be "taken over" quite as quickly as you think.
I think instead, post-Invid earth looks a little bit like RIFTS but without the monsters and magic. A bunch of guys fighting over ruins. The REF might even decide to say "fuck it" and leave earth to its own devices and go live on Tirol or something.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;393186All pretty awesome, for sure. But did anyone play up the political or social slants of the setting?
RPGPundit
Well, as to a social slant and to create a new enemy, maybe one could postulate a "human supremacist" movement that is based on the idea that the human race must dominate the universe and god wants humans to destroy all non human beings since most religions say god created man in his image.
Given the number of people who lost family in the zentraedi attack and other alien incursions it's not hard to see such a movement making some headway, and would give you a chance to stage battles that don't involve mecha or artillery.
We did a civilian law enforcement game set during Southern Cross.
Those Bioroids just wouldn't sign their damn speeding tickets. :D
Quote from: Cylonophile;393825Well, as to a social slant and to create a new enemy, maybe one could postulate a "human supremacist" movement that is based on the idea that the human race must dominate the universe and god wants humans to destroy all non human beings since most religions say god created man in his image.
Given the number of people who lost family in the zentraedi attack and other alien incursions it's not hard to see such a movement making some headway, and would give you a chance to stage battles that don't involve mecha or artillery.
There's already the semi-canonical Church of the Recurrent Tragedy, who believe that humanity is destined to suffer near-extinction by God over and over again until it changes its wicked ways and is purified; it wouldn't be hard to imagine some of those guys seeking to immanetize the eschaton.
On the other hand, they're not religious, but the Southern Cross are basically human-supremacist, some areas of it moreso than others.
In fact, later on in the SC period you'd be more likely to be playing SC forces who have to deal with "Zentraedi lovers" hippies/radical anarchists/etc. trying to free the remaining imprisoned malcontents or committing acts of terrorism in the name of "Zentraedi rights".
RPGPundit
I think that both the Robotech property as well as its constituent parts (Macross, Southern Cross, Mosepeda, Megazone 23) possess the potential for addressing questions of social and political importance, but the players must be willing to do so in an honest manner.
One of the unremarked strengths of the setting is that, prior to the point of divergence, it is our world for all intents and purposes. For those inclined to do so, one can easily and believably cross over other properties in ways that don't involve trans-dimensional travel or bait-and-switch setting premises. Examples include using Mobile Suit Gundam as a source of unique Malcontent mecha because anti-Unification forces included a cadre of engineers who find copies of old Gundam shows or comics and use those designs (or, more likely, a subset thereof) for purposes both practical (the RDF won't be so quick to figure out how they work) and political (as certain designs have cultural resonances that work to their ends) and Space Cruiser Yamato as a premise for post-Invid rearmament of Earth's spacy (need baseline hulls fast; tech exists to get hulks off the bottom in enough condition to base a new ship around)- again born of the actual series' media existing in the setting.