Games - Robotech

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	Games - Robotech

A line of Robotech pen-and-paper role-playing games based on the Robotech and Sentinels series were published by Palladium Books from 1986 to 2001.

RPG books

The line consisted of the following:

Core books

Robotech RPG Book One: Macross
Robotech RPG Book Two: RDF Manual
Robotech RPG Book Three: Zentraedi
Robotech RPG Book Four: Southern Cross
Robotech RPG Book Five: Invid Invasion
Robotech II RPG: The Sentinels
Robotech II RPG: REF Field Guide
Robotech RPG Book Six: Return of the Masters
Robotech RPG Book Seven: New World Order
Robotech RPG Book Eight: Strike Force

Adventure/scenario books

Robotech RPG Adventures: Lancer's Rockers
Robotech RPG Adventures: Zentraedi Breakout
Robotech RPG Adventures: Ghost Ship
Robotech RPG Adventures: RDF Accelerated Training Program

Core books one through five covered the three segments of Robotech as aired; Robotech II covered the Sentinels pilot movie and the source material that never ended up being developed. Book six and Lancer's Rockers took place after the series ended, and books seven, eight, and the rest of the adventure books took place during or shortly after the Macross segment.

The books were written partly by Kevin Siembieda and other Palladium regulars, and partly by freelancers (especially the later books and sourcebooks). Illustrations consisted partly of line art taken from original Japanese source material (particularly in the core books), and partly of new black and white line art done by Palladium and freelance artists such as Kevin Long.

Palladium also published a separate RPG based on the Macross II anime, but this was entirely unrelated to the Robotech continuity.

Storyline

The Robotech RPG by and large followed the TV series storyline, attempting in its own way to fill in gaps just as the Jack McKinney Robotech novelizations did. Several of the sourcebooks covered different parts of the world during or shortly after the Macross era, where there was the most room for expansion. However, the RPG diverged from the McKinney stories after the events covered in the Robotech series ended. Where McKinney followed Scott Bernard and the others in their search for Admiral Rick Hunter, leaving behind a peaceful planet earth, Palladium posited the Invid returning to earth a few months after they were driven away. Some fans are dissatisfied with the Invid return, feeling it contradicts the character development that took place in the Robotech series's final episodes.

The books Return of the Masters and Lancer's Rockers were set during this second Invid invasion, and introduced concepts and events not suggested by the original material. Return of the Masters, set in Asia, features a system of gladiatorial mecha martial arts combat called mecha su-dai; Lancer's Rockers concerns a network of travelling performers following in the footsteps of New Generation rock star Lancer/Yellow Dancer, carrying protoculture-powered musical instruments that double as powerful weapons (reminiscent of, but unrelated to, similar developments in the Macross sequel Macross 7). Some fans found these new ideas exciting and original. However, others rejected them as running counter to the spirit of Robotech and being more suited to Palladium's RIFTS setting.

The Sentinels RPG also diverged in some respects from the story covered in the Sentinels novels and comic books, having been developed independently based on the same incomplete source material provided by Harmony Gold.

Game system

The Robotech RPG used a modified version of the rule system used in the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game introduced several years earlier. Clearly patterned after Dungeons & Dragons
, the Palladium FRPG used a very similar rule system, based around physical and mental statistics generated by rolling 3D6 (three six-sided dice), and the use of a D20 (20-sided die) in combat. Percentile dice (two ten-sided dice, one read as a tens column and the other as a ones column) are used for skill resolution. On top of this already complex system, the Robotech RPG introduced the concept of "mega-damage"—"super" hit-points that are equivalent to 100 ordinary-person hit points—to simulate the toughness of the heavily-armored mecha.

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