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Great Mazinger (Mecha teaser of the week)


RosenMcStern

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Absolutely not. No "point build".

I said "point total", not "point build", there is a difference. With a point build method, designers are given a certain number of points to build their mech with. You can see just such a method used in the Superpower rules in BRP. With a "point total" method, the various powers and abilities are given a point cost, but there is no restriction on how many points you can build with. The points just serve as a tool for showing how the mech would compare against others.

I am really sick of trying to hammer the square peg of staying true to the anime into the round hole of point buy systems made for games that have nothing to do with anime.

I know what you mean. It's one reason why I cringe whenever some setting gets printed for D20. By the time everything gets "converted" to D20D, it no longer looks and works like it should, and just ends up being the same as all the other D20 stuff.

I experienced this in the 80s with Battletech, and did not like it. You create the Mecha you wish to pilot, and that's all. Whether it stays true to an anime - and so Grendizer outclasses Mazinger by about a 2:1 factor - or it manages to keep things even, it is up to you. The rules just say that there is no "50 m tall" robot where the average of the other Mecha is 18m, and do not describe "end of the world" attacks like Solar Attack or Getter Shine.

Of course, if you are playing something akin to Macross, where the Mecha are actually transformable fighters, most pilots will have similar vehicles. The rules include a system to "buy" upgrades for your vehicles with a Status roll, though, so that your performance in previous missions may help you gain better performance. But it is the GM who determines which upgrades are available, and which of them can be bought permanently versus the ones which can only be assigned for the duration of one mission.

Okay. So then mecha design is entirely in the hands of the GM. THa'ts godd for setting, but is there anything for characters who are mecha engineers or designers?

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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I experienced this in the 80s with Battletech, and did not like it.

I think you will agree with me here; Battletech is neither Anime, nor even "mecha" in the true sense of the genre. It is walking tanks for westerners. :)

I think that both free-form and point-buy systems work well with Anime and Mecha genres (in general). Again this depends on the exact genre and focus of each game, as well as the style of play that the GM and group are happy with.

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The points just serve as a tool for showing how the mech would compare against others.

If BRP players can survive w/o level that can tell them how their characters compare against others, they will survive without a numeric indications of how tough their Mecha is. Grendizer is tougher than Mazinger and a RX-78 Gundam is tougher than a RX-77 Guncannon, that is enough info for them.

Okay. So then mecha design is entirely in the hands of the GM. THa'ts godd for setting, but is there anything for characters who are mecha engineers or designers?

It depends on what is applicable to each individual Mecha, which is determined by the GM according to the anime being emulated. I have tested this during the first playtest of BRP Mecha at Castle Stahleck in 2009. Each of the RX-79 units used by the player characters could be upgraded by one or more "steps" of add-ons chosen from a list. The pcs had just to persuade the chief engineer to take the time to mount the add-on onto their Mecha, with special and critcal successes resulting in extra add-ons. IIRC, Gianni rolled a critical Persuade and went with extra vernier thrusters and a very rare "learning module" that turned his lowly GM into the equivalent of a Gundam, while Philip Glass chose an improved damage for the Beam Sabre. In a game where the players are themselves engineers, this could be handled with a Repair or Engineering roll made by Engineer PCs.

I think you will agree with me here; Battletech is neither Anime, nor even "mecha" in the true sense of the genre. It is walking tanks for westerners. :)

Yes, it is a genre of its own, only vaguely inspired by anime. BRP Mecha is a totally different beast, although you can of course try and put the round peg in the square hole and use it to play Battletech.

Proud member of the Evil CompetitionTM

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Unfortunately, the giant robot series didn't get as much play in my neck of the woods as in Europe, so my exposure is primarily through secondary sources -- Robotech, Gatchaman, Ultraman, Giant Robo, Godzilla movies, Shogun Warriors toys, Gundam W -- and Americanized interpretations: Power Rangers, Might Orbots, etc. However, I did pick up a dollar DVD with the English title "Redbirds." It features a trio of pilots whose assorted aircraft combine to form a fighting robot. They work for some United Nations good guy organization headed by a kindly old professor. In the episodes I have, they're up against alien invaders, this time humanoids with one to three horns on their heads (bigger and more horns apparently grant greater status). One of the bad guys looks like a cross between Adolph Hitler and a Texas Longhorn steer. Any idea what the original Japanese TV show was?

By the way, the brief 1960s era (I'd guess) Redbirds story -- despite its comparatively primitive animation -- is much more interesting than the glossier and more recent Gundam W episodes. The latter devolves into tiresome soap opera and pointless battles among the not-so-heroic space colony rebels, who are supposed to be fighting Earth forces for their freedom. It has to, because the Gundam 'bots are so superior the the Earth mecha that they wipe out whole cybernetic armies in seconds without getting their own paint scuffed.

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I did pick up a dollar DVD with the English title "Redbirds." It features a trio of pilots whose assorted aircraft combine to form a fighting robot. They work for some United Nations good guy organization headed by a kindly old professor. In the episodes I have, they're up against alien invaders, this time humanoids with one to three horns on their heads (bigger and more horns apparently grant greater status). One of the bad guys looks like a cross between Adolph Hitler and a Texas Longhorn steer. Any idea what the original Japanese TV show was?

If he's the bad guy, the series is Getter Robot G from 1975. I'm pretty sure Getter Robot was the first transformable robot.

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Hmmm, I got the English name wrong. It was "Starbirds." Released by Eastwest DVD, whose website apparently no longer exists. The pilots look somewhat familiar (fat guy, suave guy, shy guy) but the jets and the robots are different from and cruder than the much more polished pics I pulled up in Google images. My version doesn't refer to the "Hundred Demon Empire," but the plot involves an attempt to cripple the team's launch facility with swarms of explosive bats. Not a dinosaur (or dino robot) in sight.

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If he's the bad guy, the series is Getter Robot G from 1975. I'm pretty sure Getter Robot was the first transformable robot.

Nope. Go Nagi's own Cutey Honey predated it, although she wasn't a giant robot. I think there were some other transformables that went back earily, but they did so in limited ways. I think Getter Robo was the fist combiner mecha.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Nope. Go Nagi's own Cutey Honey predated it, although she wasn't a giant robot.

I agree. ;D

I think there were some other transformables that went back earily, but they did so in limited ways. I think Getter Robo was the fist combiner mecha.

I'm not authoritative on this (or any other) matter, but I'm quite sure I read Getter was the first transformable robot. Of course there were Tezuka's and Yokoyama's robots, but I'm not aware of any transformable robots in their work.

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