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Would you be interested in Playing a Tabletop Skirmish miniatures game set in the Robotech Universe during the First Robotech War?..
The game is in development and I need feedback and playtesting...

Do you actually have the rights to use the Robotech intellectual property?

I am in the process of acquiring the rights. I'm looking to increase interest and develop the game further before I go back and Approach Harmony Gold for a license. There are lots of hoops that I need to jump through before I can market the game.

very cool !
is there miniatures for the game or models that look like them.

If things go right there will be miniatures /models for the game just like the anime. There is still decisions to make on scale ..1:200 vs 1:144 scale

I wish you luck with wrangling the rights to Macross, thats a nightmare I wouldn't wish on anyone.

I have downloaded the latest version and will post feedback once we have had a chance to play a few games.

Inspired me to break out my collection of Robotech rpg books that were published by palladium many moons ago.

wilyC

As far as I know Palladium still has/got back the RPG rights.

Depending on their license it may interfere with the rights for other table top games (though you could always add a map and call it a board game).

Miniature rights might also be hard depending on how the toy rights are tied up these days.

Just saying you might either want to look at the rights before going further with the game, even just go to Harmony Gold and make sure they're not tied up, or carefully write your rules in a generic way so it can easily become the United World Mecha Force vs the Zenn Empire.

Via Harmony Gold I was directed to Palladium Books and I will be looking to discuss Licensing soon.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:As far as I know Palladium still has/got back the RPG rights.

Yes they do, the even revamped the line. Now the books are trade back size.

Also The new Generation RPG has just been reissued by Palladium and yes they have the rights for a LONG time as I was told by Harmony Gold.

To everyone that reads this. First off Thank You for your interest but could you let me know if you download the rules and try the game out.. let me know how I can make the game better.. There are many releases planned for the future including better mechs, A definate release of Scenarios that will correspond with the Robotech episodes, Super Valkyries, Possibly large scale combat rules. Also theer are two other wars to deal with and lots of Zentraedi uprisings to work with after the first war. Consider this the tip of the iceburg.
Tom

If you can get it all sorted out, and get cool minis/models Id be interested. Double so if you got into the Invid.

lol this has been tried in the past and FASA sued Harmony Gold long ago in the late 80's, stopping the figures to be made. Just because mst of the figures resembled Battletech figures, good luck as I was a play tester back then as the law suit went into effect.

lol this has been tried in the past and FASA sued Harmony Gold long ago in the late 80's, stopping the figures to be made. Just because mst of the figures resembled Battletech figures, good luck as I was a play tester back then as the law suit went into effect.

I think you have this wrong, It was the other way around.. Robotech predates Battletech..
http://www.terrania.us/journal/2009/09/harmony-gold-vs-battletech-second.html
and
http://robotech.livejournal.com/9102.html
Harmony Gold Sued Battletech.. As for being tried before there was only one other US tabletop miniature game attempt that dealt with a Heroclix type game.. It didn't move forward. There have been several japanese board games created for Macross.

There are a few hurdles that will need to be jumped as the game progresses.. Currently I feel that Harmony Gold will not hinder any progress on the game, but there are other licenses that are needed to be researched. If I can get people interested in the game and playing the game.. It will be a great push forward to obtaining the correct Licenses. For the futute of the game, there are three wars and lots of battles that can be explored and recreated. The first skirmish rule set is just the tip of the iceburg.. The Zentraedi Uprisings, Masters and New Generation Story Arcs have so much content that I would like to see on the Tabletop. Give me the support and I will do my best to see the Robotech Name grow on the Table.
Everyone wants to see models and minis. I have plans to get a full line of miiatures to market. but in order to do that, the preliminary hoops , such as advertising and license agreements must be completed. I can't move forward without playtesting and feedback from the fans of Robotech or Mecha fans. I can get prototypes of all the mecha I need currently but I cannot move forward without support. There has never been a full Mecha line for Macross/Robotech in the same scale. I would like to change that.
-Tom

Also listen for the D6Generation podcast episode 94 for additional info.

The legal issues are ugly and, to be honest, not that interesting...

I've seen some people doing Robotech games with 1/144 minis over on theminiaturespage.

Balance wrote:The legal issues are ugly and, to be honest, not that interesting...

I've seen some people doing Robotech games with 1/144 minis over on theminiaturespage.

Yeah, I want to say they were using Macross trade figures from a few years back. Bandai released the same sort of thing for Gundam (But in 1/400).

I admit to being skeptical of the viability as Harmony Gold, etc is a pretty hard nut to crack. Still, as someone with an interest in Mech Games in general (though not much knowledge about robotech) I'd be happy to look over the rules and give you some feedback.

I can't guarantee a playtest, but I'll try and get a club member to give it a go. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

You give me 20mm or 28mm cyclones and invid and I will give you one of my kidneys.


I know this is WAY WAY down the line, but I would also love to see your take on the different Southeren Cross armies armours. There where all shown in robotech for at most 5 seconds but they are still there in the animation so you should be able to use them. Super Dimension Calvery Southeren Cross was supposted to be a grand epic show set on Gerion and was supposed to be like 48 episodes, unfortently Studio Nue was loosing money so they had to cut it down to what we have now. Alot of stuff ended up on the cutting room floor which is a shame imho.

Is your rule set 'Robotech battles v1'? if so I have read it and rather liked it. I don't have any time to help playtest though as moving sucks donkey cave.

If you are looking for a time period to set it in I would suggest 'The Malcontent Uprisings' which is set after Macross but before Souther Cross. It's got so much scope and variety that you will never run out of idea's. You still have all the named charactors ( except for Folker, den dixion, capt glovel) and you could also use the fledgling Army of the Southeren cross if you wanted mecha other then RDF and Zentradi stuff.

However this turns out I will be watching and waiting. Good luck with dealing the hornets nest that is Robotech =o]

Also be prepaired to fhe 'Macross crowd' to shoot you down and say robotech is the suxorz Macross rox!!' kind of garbage. It's a shame that people don't understand what Carl Macek had to do to get those shows on network television. He wanted to bring over just Macross origionally, but they wouldn't give him a syndication package for such a small run. I beleive he said he needed atleast 60+ episodes to get it run on network TV in north america. So he spliced SDF Macross, Southeren Cross and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA together and created robotech a over arching space opera of epic proportions. Yonger folks these days don't know what it was like without the internet at your finger tips and how hard it was to find good japanimation in north america. If you where lucky you could find some sub titled VHS cassetts or even some bootleg dub's. But the picking's where slim most of the time. You really had to hunt for them in out of the way places like comic shops, night markets, car boot sales etc etc etc.

Is there a linky? I would love to help with this as well.

Well Things are a bit slow going as of late.. The game is currently in Version 1.4 that can be downloaded at my blog (see link in my signature).
I plan to do the Macross Saga, Malcontent uprising, Southern Cross-Masters, and the Invid Invasion timelines. This is the first of many projects depending on the Licenses aquisitions.. which as so far been out of reach.. not unnatainable just out of reach..
Current progress goes along with the Scenarios that will be created along the episodes of the Macross series up to a force of arms.. second wave rules will most likely include additional mecha and enemies and rules for the Super Veritechs..

All help is welcome, but if your willing to help I could use feedback on the rules and some actual games played..
All you need is available for download..
Elevationas in game can be approximated using dice to denote elevation height and Zentraedi can shoot into combat if necessary.. these are itens that need to be clarified further in the rules.

I'm looking for playtestors, graphic artists, and graphic designors to help flesh out the rules and the additional diagrams needed to make the rulebook presentable and easier to play.
Thanks
-Tom

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:
You give me 20mm or 28mm cyclones and invid and I will give you one of my kidneys.

Ill do the same for Invid mecha, either 15mm or 28mm. Especially the SHock Trooper and Pincer.

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:

You give me 20mm or 28mm cyclones and invid and I will give you one of my kidneys.

Ill do the same for Invid mecha, either 15mm or 28mm. Especially the SHock Trooper and Pincer.

Kidneys are not necessary... but they are appreciated.. How about this, Keep your Kidneys, Help me get the word out about this game and I see about getting the Third Robotech War started quicker.. I want to see Cyclones and Invid on the table also!

Also good news.. 2 scenarios for different types of game play have been added to my forums.. You can play out the first two episodes of the First Robotech War. These episodes were Boobytrap (an Aerial Battle) and Countdown (a City fight).

So please follow my blog and start posting in the Robotech Battles Forums ASAFP!!
Thank You
Tom Roache
http://robotechbattles.blogspot.com/

Have you secured the rights yet? From the sound/look of things.. you haven't. You really should get things legal before progressing too far and being shut down.

Cyporiean wrote:I wish you luck with wrangling the rights to Macross, thats a nightmare I wouldn't wish on anyone.

That logically only applies to Battletech. a Robotech game would be using the Unseen for its original purpose.

To keep sweet with Harmony Gold you might be wise to scale your game to be incompatible for Battletech, or all you would be seen as doing is fuelling the Unseen. They might get pissy over that (though it would be EXCELLENT business on your part if you got away with it) if you can make your miniatures to the same scale and base them differently. May I suggest square bases, Battletech players will buy your stuff in droves and rebase, it will be a dead sure early market sale as Battltech accepts Unseen miniatures for games, just not printed content.
Handled well you could use the Unseen issue to quickly build up a large block of sales on initial release to see you over until you build a customer base of your own. Handled well Battletech could be a springboard for your game to make money for you.

Good luck.


If you havent a clue about what I am talking about go here:
Unseen

Battltetech will always be a bigger game than yours, and this issue is bitter and ongoing. Not understanding it will NOT be an option. Most likely you already do.

Orlanth wrote:

Cyporiean wrote:I wish you luck with wrangling the rights to Macross, thats a nightmare I wouldn't wish on anyone.

That logically only applies to Battletech. a Robotech game would be using the Unseen for its original purpose.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-04-16/harmony-gold-bars-macross-imports
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-03-05/harmony-gold-on-macross-rights
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-02-26/macross-lawsuit
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-04-17/more-on-macross
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2002-06-08/macross-toys-license

Macross and Harmony Gold have far more legal issues then Battletech.

And if he is or will be approaching Harmony Gold for the license what is the issue?

if he isn't and won't the entire project is stillborn and the thread pointless.

Status:
I'm still working to acquire rights.. and they are still at the moment attainable. Upon discussion with Harmony Gold, they said that I could come back to discussions when I had a game further along with prototypes of figs and a full fleshed out game.. Also that I would need to discuss rights with Palladium. Which I can't go into further detail over. Things are moving slowly.. but moving.
To the next step I need to get funding, prototypes but more importantly, artworks and some graphic design done to the current rules.. For the limited playtesting done so far the game plays remarkably well with gray areas being how missiles initially travel through terrain and manuvere and some close combat. Please check out the rules and let me know what you feel about the close combat rules and what can be done to make combat run smoother and come about to resolution better.

I need help from the community on this because I am one person creating the rules and a more input from outside sources can really make this game play better. I have set up a forum to discuss the game rules and the now newly created scenarios. (1 and 2 are available to use), http://z13.invisionfree.com/RobotechBattlesForum/index.php

The project is not doomed to failure like some people will think. I'm determined to progress the game as far as I can through the first Robotech War, and the following Robotech timelines as well.. I have plans and guidelines in place for when the project continues. If things get stoppped, The game will adapt.

Additional link to the game and the rules can be found in my Signature.
Thanks
-Tom

OK The game is coming, but first THERE WILL BE MINIATURES..eventually all the Robotech Eras will be represented.. More info to come.. And there will be a very big and qualified manufacturer that will be handing the production. Please contact me if you are interested in playtesting for the game rules.

http://robotechbattles.blogspot.com/