Thursday, March 7, 2013

Macross-Robotech Re-Image RPG Campaign: Style



Decisions:
So as I go about and make my version of Robotech as I mesh the current Macross concepts into Robotech I am picking and choosing which parts of both universes will make it into my take on a modern day version of Robotech. Do I call it Robotech or do I call it Macross? Zentradi or Zentraedi and Inbit or Invid? It is my choice since it is my game right? Will my players enjoy the game based on my choices?

The Image:
While I work on what makes it into the game universe I also am thinking of the visual look. Right off the bat I will state that in 1985 I got to see Macross Do You Remember Love and fell in love with the change in the art work. In the cannon on the Macross universe this 1984 movie was actually an in-universe movie depicting the events of Space War I but back then that was not the case. Robotech was all the rage in America (Before Akira and Ghost in the Shell overdose) at the time. Macross Plus was years out still and Macross was a TV show in Japan and the first part of Robotech.


The look of Macross DYRL changed slightly. From the first moments on screen we are shown the Zentradi and they look radically different. More organic and at first I do not think I cared for it, but next was the look of the SDF-1 Macross. Gone were the two ships the Prometheus and Daedalus and were replaced by those space ships we saw in the first episode of Macross, the ARMD Space Platforms.

The flight uniforms, the HUD of the Valkyrie, the missile launchers on the wings of the fighters. All the Valkyries had FAST PACKS as a common attachment! Everything looked similar but different and new. The hands of the Battroid went from the rounded TV version to more of an angular mechanical look. Some subtle and some radical like the technology of the Zentradi.

In my game this is the look that sets the Macross portion of my version of this universe. So the Zentradi will look like the DYRL versions, they continue that look in the Macross 7 and Frontier portions of the series so I will stick with that. I like it and just seems cooler. Plus I like that the Males and Females have different technology and ships.



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Macross-Robotech Update: Game Systems and Vehicle Sheets

Game System Chosen!

My Macross/Robotech moves along while I come up with ideas [see my previous post] going into this I knew what game system I was going to use and it was more because it is something I familiar with as much as it was suggested by one of my players. While I am using the cover for Mekton II the actual system being used will be Mekton Zeta. [I love the cover art, Ben Dunn is a great artist]

Sheet as a Work in Progress

Specifically I am using the combat system that was contained in the Mekton Zeta GM screen to give a Theater of the Mind combat system as opposed to hex combat. It is quick and fast and used it in the past when I ran my Jovian Chronicles games YEARS ago.

Update: I completed the sheet for it to be functional for me.

Completed Sheet
 I will make some changes I am sure but for right now it looks nice when it prints and will give me everything I will need to run a decent campaign. I decided that the art from the movie, Macross: Do You Remember Love?



Sunday, March 3, 2013

Macross or Robotech: Deculture and Protoculture

 deculture or protoculture

So my friends love Macross or as they know it Robotech, oh they know the history and they know that there are new Macross shows like Macross 7, Plus, Frontier and Zero. They just know Robotech more and that sort of drives me crazy.

Now my next RPG I will probably run is a blending of the two series. This might seem like blasphemy for some, even for myself at some point in the past, honestly I think I can make it work and here is how 

Key Themes for this. While I develop this aspects of these notes will change in order to make sense. I will maintain this sheet with strikeouts for personal reasons. I want to see where I started and where I ended up.


·         Zor, a scientist for the Protoculture Masters is on the harvest world of Optera and has fallen in love with the Queen of the Invid.
o   The Flower of Life is able to transform the Invid at the cellular level and has also been known to give off a Hyperspace Fold Signature. Something the Protoculture finds fascinating.
§  The Invid are able to do this using an indigenous plant native to their homeworld called the Flower of Life, itself another lifeform that lives in symbioses with the Invid.
o   It is in the end days of the Protoculture's Star Republic that Zor has worked with the Invid Queen in developing the means to ending their suffering.  
o   Zor uses a captured Supervision Army Gun Boat as his personal research facility. (Using this ship as a research vessel is echoed unbeknownst to the UN Government during the Colonial Expansion of the Human/Zentradi alliance decades later using an updated version of this vessel)
·         The Protoculture is obsessed with this species and its ability to alter its evolution to suit its environment.
o   At one time the Protoculture were explorers and scientists and explored the galaxy. One of their early experiments was looking at the Flower of Life and seeing it could have applications with their own genetic experiments they were conducting, long before they discovered that the Invid could evolve using the Flower of Life.
o   Discouraged in not being able to cultivate the flower and transplant it onto other worlds all was not lost in that it did help them advanced their genetic engineering skills and lead to the development of the Zentradi.
o   initially to the Protoculture the Invid were nothing more than slugs. Unintelligent and not worthy of a second glance.
·         The Invid first encountered the Protoculture Eon's ago when they first visited their planet.
o   This encounter would doom the Invid in the future with their own obsession in seeking the perfect form. The Invid were simple lifeforms that lived with the flower of life. At this time the Invid were a collective conscience no desires for individuals no need for a king or queen all was about the flower. They were subservient to it. The Protoculture would change that.
o   Coming into contact with the Protoculture would unlock a few individuals to develop a sense of individuality.  These beings appeared angelic to them, the ultimate perfection, yet in their current state they could not retain what it was about them that made them think this.
·         The Zentradi were the results of the Protoculture's genetic engineering, There were hostile species in the galaxy and the Protoculture were not warriors.
o   They created them with limited skill sets, made them dependant on the technology their masters created for them to help them defend the Republic and to fight the wars that the Protoculture deemed necessary.
o   Culture was denied them. Combat was the life of Zentradi, to reinforce this Males and Females were separated into two divisions. Rivalry was common and encouraged by the handlers of the fleets.
·         Protoculture is the first humanoid species in the galaxy.
o   The Protoculture did not just create the Zentradi they experimented elsewhere as well. Humans were one result.
o   The certain technologies of the Protoculture were inspired from various sources of the galaxy.
§  Genetics from the Invid
§  Fold Engines, Super Dimensional Weaponry and transformable machinery inspired by the Varja
o   The inheritors of the Protoculture would be the Masters.
o   Eventually various factors lead to the downfall of the Protoculture.
§  Civil War - The Supervision Army (Masters?)
§  The Zentradi
§  The Invid
·         SDF-1 Super Dimensional Fortress One (Supervision Army Gunboat)
o   Built by the Supervision Army
o   Rebuilt by the Micronians (Humans of Earth)
o   Crashes on Earth 1999
o   The reason the United Nations forges ahead to form a world government.
·         Earth
o   Visited by the Protoculture early in their explorations. Listed as having potential but insignificant for their goals. They make some changes to genetic codes of several species but move on.
o   During the war with the Supervision Army and the devastating numbers the Protoculture loses they begin the Seeding Project.
o   Earth is seeded by
·         The Robotech Masters
o   Protoculture who were altered by the Flower of Life.
o   They used the Flower pollen as a narcotic originally
o   The Masters learn to harness the life force of the flower to extend their lives.
o   The life force is part of the cloning process, necessary to extend their lives. The original clones were flawed. The power of three (The Triumvirate) becomes the missing catalyst.

About Me

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I was Regional Coordinator for the Great Lakes Region for D&D Adventurers League. I work for Best Buy as a Merchandising Specialist were I set merchandising standards for the store I work for. I enjoys playing games (PC, Console, Board Games, RPGs and Miniature Skirmish Games), reading, watching movies and listening to music.