Tales from the Rocket House
While RPGs grew out of wargames in the early 1970's, many of today's gamers belong to a much more visually-oriented generation. We grew up on cartoons, comic books, and imported anime (starting on a large scale with Robotech in the 1980's). This is especially clear as I look at the Rocket House wiki (and gaming group websites across the web) and find chat "doll" avatars used to represent fantasy setting gods (especially their colors and symbols), and celebrity photos used to represent player characters.
One of the most important questions you have when writing a setting for a game is: How will the story "look?" What do the mechs, the uniforms, the living quarters, the countryside, the pilots, the civilians, the fashions, the sidearms, the furniture look like?
Even if all you can provide are some descriptive prose and rough sketches, just knowing that the Galactic Empire wears the dark colors and efficient lines reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and that the rebels wear (sometimes ill-fitted) uniforms of blue, gray, and khaki says a lot.
Visuals as storytelling elements
Should the two main sides look strikingly different to emphasize their alien natures (Robotech, especially where the Invid are concerned), or should they look very much the same to emphasize their similarities and perhaps comment on the confusion and destructiveness of war (Gundam Wing, for example)?
What do each faction's mechs say about it? Is one side struggling to cobble together a resistance, and thus is working with a mismatched army of patched mechs? Is one faction "regular military" with function-is-form olive drab and coyote tan mechs? Is one faction a royal house whose mechs bear the same level of embellishment as their sidearms and clothing? Is one faction composed of masters of psychological warfare whose crowd pacification mechs look like creatures from hell? Is one faction a police groups whose mechs look like robotic versions of "Officer Friendly?" Is one faction a Robin Hood and his Merry Men -- style group, financially supported, fun-loving freedom-fighters/criminals (with big smiley faces painted on their mechs)?
Choices in the mechs' function can say a lot about their commanders, too (old reliable weapons or cutting-edge, but unproven technologies?), but that's a topic for another column.
The visuals are your strongest indicator of style -- or they should be.
"Ninja mechs" that are as agile as their martial artist/acrobat pilots should have a striking look (sleeker, which more distinct and bold color schemes, designed more for aesthetics than anything else). They should carry martial arts-style weapons, and thrown weapons (explosive daggers, laser-edged shuriken) could replace traditional guns.
Mad Max mercenaries struggling to make a difference in a post-apocalyptic world filled with petty warlords and bandit kings might be somewhat blockier, with more drab tones, indicating rust, primer, repairs, and original military patterns. These should often have irreverent personalized insignia painted near the cockpit, much as American planes did in WW2. WW2-style tank warfare mechs and WW1 -style dogfighting mechs should be the same, but in better repair and more standardized color patterns.
Realistic post-modern power armor and mecha should have yet another look (digital camouflage or drab military tones like Olive Drab or Coyote Tan, with angles that are designed to deflect mortars coming down from above, a typically less human-looking profile designed to provide stability for weapons and the minimum possible target area).
Cyberpunk police or corporate security armor (official colors, designed not for camouflage but to convey authority, black, white, bare metal colors, with departmental or corporate designations, weapons designed less to fight other mechs and more to provide crowd control and intimidation) may lack a human shape, and will almost certainly NOT include a faceplate. Following the example of America's Transporation Security Administration's slogan: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control.", the mechs can literally represent "Faceless authority."
Living mecha (biomecha) should look like the plant or animal that it came from, in a semi-anthropomorphic form. Something like Transformers: Beast Wars is one possibility. Another is the Geiger paintings that inspired the creature in Alien. In a fantasy setting, you might have a dragon skin armor, or a magical familiar that joins with you to form a power armored warrior -- sort of D&D meets Digimon. You may even have "totem spirits" of a pseudo Native American style "becoming" armor for warriors in a funky, somewhat politically incorrect "Ghost Dance."
Medieval Mecha (powered by magic, I'd say) should look like the appropriate nation and era's armor, buffed up. Think of an 8 foot samurai striding through the battlefield, tossing boulders and cutting through men and horses with a magical katana, or a similarly-sized Renaissance knight toppling a trebuchet or hacking through a catapult with his battle ax or war sword, then stopping to fire the ballista he carries in his left hand.
Working this into Campaign Design
Assuming you aren't an artist, you have a few options. First off, if there are examples from a particular anime that look good, a google image search can help you. If not, at the very least you can provide descriptions, logos, fonts, and slogans.
Sites like www.imvu.com provide 3D avatars that can be used to represent PCs, NPCs, and so on. If you want a more in-depth digital art experience, visit www.daz3d.com for their free competitor to Poser, and go to their "freepository" forum to get information on free content.
If you don't plan to publish anything, you can comb sites like Deviant Arts and use Google's Image Search to find professional and amateur art that will fit your game. Relabeling maps from other places can also help you
For that matter, just putting the colors together and sketching out logos, heraldry, maps, and symbols can make a big difference. Okay, that's it. I'm tapped for now. See you next month!
