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.
The big success of Robotech took US creators/anime manglers Harmony Gold by surprise, and they made plans to develop a sequel. They traveled to Japan to come up with something for everyone, using existing characters and a continuation of the story threads of the original series, while moving the Robotech story into a new era. However when the Toy Company Matchbox, who were funding half the production, pulled out and the yen took an upswing against the dollar, cutting the remaining funds that Harmony Gold had put up in half yet again, the series was already in dire straits. With only three episodes anywhere near complete the project was wound up. Despite coming to a halt in an animated format, the Sentinels refused to die. A series of novels and a comic series of the unfinished cartoon were released, as well as Palladium Books producing an RPG adaptation.
The Sentinels was designed to take some of the un-answered threads of the original series and wind them together with things new. The result fits neatly into a gap between the Macross Saga and the New Generation and runs concurrently to the Robotech Masters era. After the horrors of the First Robotech War, the Robotech Expeditionary Force was formed with the task of traveling to the home world of the Robotech Masters in the hopes of seeking a peaceful settlement or fighting them away from the crippled Earth. Unfortunately when they arrive they find the Masters already on their way to Earth and the REF is thrown into savage combat against Invid. They find allies in the former slave races in the Robotech Master’s collapsing empire, the Sentinels.
The Sentinels RPG uses the standard Palladium system, a near mirror image of the one used in the original Robotech RPG except for the addition of some new features including various races that use psychics and magic. In many ways the Sentinels RPG resembles a junior version of Rifts, though psychics and magic play extremely small roles compared to the stars of the game, the Robotech mecha. Character creation is built around rolling three D6’s with bonuses for high rolls to determine each of the nine attributes and a selection from 7 Human REF and 6 Race based Occupational Character Classes to define skills and equipment. The players are in a military combat setting (no civvies) and every OCC including the humble Communications Engineer and Field Scientist are recommended to have some basic mecha piloting skills.
Task resolution is simple, a percentage roll against that skill. Combat is much the same with attacker rolling a 20-sided to strike, defender rolling D20 to defend. Place in combat is decided not by better combat skills or a higher speed stat, but random initiative roll. Also losing SDC and HP means nothing at all until their depleted, no pain or ill-effect. Combat can take ages to resolve at times, compounded by the addition of Mega-Damage.
Over 70% of the book’s pages are taken up with stats of the mecha. First up are the REF’s versions of the Destroids and REF versions of the Zentraedi mecha for loyal Zentraedi troops, followed by the main human REF mecha (re-printed from the Invid Invasion and Southern Cross books). Next up are the mecha of the Invid (also reprinted from the Invid Invasion book) with a few extra models and the mindless robot drone called Inorganics. Finally we have deck plans for the various spacecraft in use by the REF, the Horizont shuttle, Garfish cruiser, Ikazuchi carrier (all taken from New Gen) and the flagship SDF-3. But apart from rather brief mentions during the descriptions of the Sentinels races and NPC stats for some of the main series characters, there is absolutely NO setting info at all in this book. Prospective GMs will once again have to be well versed in Robotech lore from other sources.
Like many Palladium Book products (including their flagship title Rifts) this book suffers heavily from generic cut and paste from previously produced titles. While some things can be (partially) excused like the fact that Invid Invasion and the Sentinels share much the same mecha on both sides, others can not especially when they are unchanged and conflict with the setting. Why include the Nomad Scout from Invid Invasion in the experience table list when the Nomad Scout doesn’t appear as an OCC or any other OCC use the same table in the Sentinels? Why tell us the Skill list has been updated when this is a main book? The infantry weapons are straight lifts from both Invid Invasion and Southern Cross, right down to telling us their place in the Invid controlled ruins of Earth, still a decade or so in the future from the events of the Sentinels setting.
The Sentinels provides a cheap way to get into the Robotech RPG, with the thickest amount of RT RPG available in a single volume along with the rules system. Existing players will be confronted with a parade of re-printed info that makes it less worthwhile however. Those looking to convert the unfinished sequel to other systems are probably better off avoiding this book altogether and reading up on the Sentinels novels and comics.
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