Robotech RPG 1E Files

This section consists of things that I created either for my game, or for the old mailing lists for Robotech and/or Palladium, back in the 1990s. As a result, they will require some work on behalf of someone to convert to the 2E RPG (which for the most part, is awful - for every 1 thing they "fixed" they broke 3 more.) 

Note that Harmony Gold made a new timeline after ASKING myself and others for advice - then deliberately ignored our telling them that their new ideas were 100% incompatible with the animation and dialogue despite giving them actual references. I think the only thing we talked them out of was having Rick, Minmei & Kyle's flight back to the ship last 6-8 weeks, as they were having the episode where they took off end in month X, then the next episode (which was pretty much a 1-2 day period) take place in month X+2.  This didn't help the RPG any. So date references are based on the original Robotech timeline, pre-Yune/Bateman (whose timeline was partially based on the RRG's timeline, which ITSELF was a fanfic timeline where they had some pretty odd interpretations, long before they started trying to stat out their stuff, then HG got lazy, asked to use their stuff rather than do their own research, then cast the RRG aside - but that's another argument. Hell, some of the RRG were in the group telling them "You got this FATALLY wrong. Your way, the series would END with everyone dead at this point" - repeatedly.)

Of course, it will take a bit more work for someone to convert the items to Savage Worlds or SMG. Based on what I saw of the SMG alpha playtest, I can't see how it could have even be considered an RPG, unless they threw out 90% of what was in the alpha and started from scratch. The game mechanics looked like a combination of some of the worst elements of board games, miniature games and card games, with an emphasis on replaying episodes rather than going forward from there (1/3 the alpha document was actually guidelines for playing each episode's combat of the Macross era, and NOTHING on creating your own!). More power to SMG, but I don't think I'd like playing their game (I'd rather play Space Opera, because even though that 40 year old game's rules are a hot mess, the difficulty is in character creation, with a sandbox setting after. SMG Robotech screamed "railroad" and "balance for the sake of balance, in a setting that is inherently UNbalanced by design"). Something that also an issue with Savage Worlds (though less of one).

Review of the KidsLogic Robotech Minis Line

I'd had high hopes for these, and while they are excellent minis for the most part (with some REALLY bad design ideas, like the jet mode head lasers and Scout Regult antennae), what they've decided to call a "Miniatures game" deserves a "Gibbs slap" from a Macross Spartan.

Rifts RPG Files

Files Suitable for all Palladium RPGs

More realistic weapons and 20th/21st Century vehicle stats

For some reason, Kevin Siembieda thinks that modern vehicles are fragile as glass. Some of his armored vehicles have less S.D.C. than CIVILIAN CARS (truthfully, tanks and some armored vehicles other than tanks have been M.D.C. since the 1960s, at least - it's just that the armor weighs 10s or 100s of pounds per point of M.D.C., not ounces per point). 

He also seems to think that handheld weapons are scary powerful, but military weapons are weak. For example, in the current RUE/BTS2/Shadow Chronicles era ruleset, he thinks all magazine-fed pistols are fully automatic (there's been maybe a half-dozen, in history, NONE of them for civilian ownership after the 1930s (if even then), and those would all fall under WP Submachinegun, not Pistol, when fired faster than semi-automatic), that semi-auto AR-15s are both fully auto AND more powerful than any hunting rifle in existence, and other things that even had other people who've written for him go "WTF?" when I showed them the changes made between the pre-1994 RPGs and the later ones - AT a Palladium Open House.

The following writeups are an attempt to bring some sanity into the weapons systems.

1. A system for converting heavy weapons and armored vehicles from the GDW house system of the 1990s (Twilight: 2000 Version 2.0/2.2, 2300 AD, and Traveller: The New Era (the latter having a book "Fire, Fusion & Steel" that allows creating ANY item for the system)). GDW's writers were heavy into both science AND accurate depictions of military equipment (though some of their guesses on where tanks would go by 2000 were a bit off, hence the need to fix the M1A2 to be more accurate for T2000v2.2). So, their stats more accurately reflect damage - what they don't do, is translate easily into Palladium. I managed to work out a system to convert them reasonably accurately. So, for example, an M1A1 tank COULD easily blow a hole through a Regult Battle Pod - it's just that the Pod would about have to be standing still for it to be hit (not even the Abrams' incredible fire control system could track one hopping around or flying, other than guess where it was going to land and pray the round gets there the same time). Similarly, A Pod might need 2-3 shots to kill a T-72 Russian-built tank - but there's a decent chance that the armor will get pierced by the energy weapons and "pop the weasel" on the first shot.

2. Some notes on the modern weapons from Palladium as it stands currently, and what is wrong with it (will be updated). This placeholder version is the original, which was specifically a critique of the  LAUGHABLY BAD weapons write-ups from the pre-release "raw preview" version of a Rifts Chaos Earth book that's been in development for several years. Personally, I still use the Robotech 1E/RMB version, not the RSC/RUE version, in my games (there's ZERO reason to complicate the game even further by having the same bullet get bonuses at different skill levels, depending on what type of weapon it's fired out of).

3. Projectile Heavy Weapons from Twilight: 2000, already ran through the conversion system.

4. Missile Heavy Weapons, similarly converted.

P.S. I tested the conversion systems by taking all the weapons in both Robotech 1E and Twilight: 2000, and tweaking the conversion system until the converted Twilight weapon came out with the Robotech stats. I confirmed the process by then using Fire, Fusion & Steel to create the 55mm gun of the GU-11, and converting it (and getting the same results). 

Note that most of the armor & weapon changes to the Macross-era mecha in the 2E Robotech RPG were utterly stupid and uncalled for, as it suddenly made a .50 caliber machinegun (like the ones on the Tomahawk/Excalibur) more powerful than a 25mm autocannon in real life (for example). It's one of the reasons I don't like any of the 2E books other than the Masters book (and even it has more stuff wrong than right - but at least the Battloids are as tough as they are supposed to be, in it).

Revising files 2-4 are part of my plans for further expansion of the page.

Civilian Martial Artist O.C.C. 

(Ninjas & Superspies, with an optional skill layout like that of later games)

This would be the next step down from a Worldly Martial Artist - someone who was raised in a martial arts school or dojo. For example, this would fit any number of anime characters (disregarding their more fantastic sides). A not exactly 100% example I've used, would be comparing someone like the Tendo sisters or Tatawake Kuno from Ranma 1/2 (who were completely normal, though not 100% sane in Kuno's case, before the cursed ones entered their life with their high weirdness), as opposed to the title character,  the other shapechangers and gimmick characters like Ukyo & Kodachi. Though, this O.C.C. assumes the characters are already out of high school.

Game Master's Toolbox

This includes some Critical chart improvements I made during the 1990s, some character sheets from the same era, and some ideas on how to speed up combat in any Palladium game. The criticals and combat advice may get edited in the near future, but I already had these old PDFs, so I figured I might as well put them up.

Organized list of After the Bomb / TMNT Mutant Animal "races"

This takes all the books currently out (except for any articles in The Rifter) and lists all the mutants detailed in the AtB games, with their page locations. It's far more comprehensive than the original GM screen lists, and substitutes the After the Bomb stand-alone RPG entries whenever possible for each type. In some cases, the original TMNT/AtB entries are more specific than the AtB2E entries, so those are given instead.