Note: While some might question reviewing such an old line as the Robotech RPG, I felt it was an unfilled gap in Rpg.net’s review database. Also I believe that now was a good time to pay tribute to the game that convinced me RPGs were more than the stereotype of Dungeons and Dragons fantasy and actually got me into gaming, seeing that after 14 years Palladium has decided to not renew the RT license.
Genesis Climber Mospeada was the Robotech odd man out in Japan, not related to Macross and Southern Cross apart from having similar transformable mecha. The Robotech version, the New Generation, is almost as popular as Macross Saga and makes up the third and final section of the original Robotech series.
While the Armies of the Southern Cross defeated the Robotech Masters, they also accidentally revealed Earth's location to the Invid. The Invid vaporized the weakened SC troops and captured Earth within days. On the other side of the galaxy the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF) learns of this and sends a large combat force to recapture their home world, only to have all but a few units destroyed while trying to enter Earth's atmosphere. Players take the role of freedom fighters (either new characters or existing characters from earlier eras of RT) trying to make their way to the Invid's main hive Reflex Point with the aim of destroying it and the Invid Queen, the Regiss.
The Invid ruled Earth is one of guerrilla warfare, enemy sympathizers and vast numbers of Invid mecha, though the powerful new REF mecha like the transformable Cyclone motorcycles, the Alpha and Beta fighters provide some help. The result is your basic post-apocalyptic setting with mecha, with players either choosing to overthrow the Invid overlords or to use their mecha to carve out their own kingdoms.
Players can use existing Robotech OCCs now a couple of decades older in this setting, or new OCCs covering the returning REF forces, freedom fighters and civilians included in this book. Once again to save on page flipping, the newly updated skill and combat sections are reprinted in full, wasting space that could quite as easily be avoid by printing just the new skills on their own.
There are a couple of things for complaint though. Most Robotech sources have the Invid Invasion only going for maybe 2 to 5 years at most. In an effort to provide a way for the RPG setting to continue, Siembieda has the Invid leave for a year only to return, going against the final episode of Robotech which made it very clear the Invid had left for good. Once again through faulty translation and efforts to 'balance' the game, the mecha's weaponry as seen on the screen bears little resemblance to the stats in the book. Some models of Cyclones gain chest missiles while in the series they had none, a 4 second error in the size of an existing design becomes a totally new mecha, and all but two of the Beta Fighter's weapon systems is strangely absent. At the front of the book Kevin Siembieda proudly proclaims to have reproduced the complete story of Invid Invasion.
In an effort to simulate the small missiles that are the primary weaponry carried by the Cyclones, Palladium introduced the mini-missile, with range and damage equal to existing SRMs while being strictly direct fire. It's rather sad to note that Cyclone missiles they were inspired by in the series curve and generally act like guided missiles. Invid Invasion also suffers from power creep compared to earlier RT books, partly understandable as Robotech sources paint the REF mecha as more advanced, but probably not to the degree Palladium seems to think possible. The CVR-3 combat armor is a human scale armor, yet it has a total MDC level that is equal to the main body of the 50ft tall Zentraedi Tactical Battle Pod. The main mecha the players will have access to is the transformable motorcycle called the Cyclone, which has a main body MDC armor level that is superior to the SC Logan and almost equal to the classic 40ft tall VF-1 Veritech.
While the REF mecha can be overpowering at times, (especially when compared to those from the earlier generations of Robotech) the setting has much promise to those looking for anime mecha action in the wastelands of a ruined past. Even so, those who are looking for a faithful translation of the New Generation era of Robotech would probably do better to convert it themselves.
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