There are a few really obvious missed opportunities in the Robotech Shadow Chronicles RPG.
The first of these is the missed opportunity to actually address the major fan complaints: weapon damage being too low and MDC values being too high. According to Kevin Siembieda, the rationale for this low damage/high hit point dynamic is to increase player character survivability. However, examination of the stats given shows that enemies were given the largest increases in MDC, and given weapon damage increases while player character damages largely remained flat.
Missile damages have increased ala the increases in Coalition War Campaign. But the MDC increases largely cancel those out. Meanwhile, the Alpha's gun pod still does 1d4x10 making it nearly impotent against the standard Haydonite attack vehicle, the Wraith, and it's 250 MDC.
Even CVR-3 and Cyclone MDCs, which nearly all fans agreed were grossly overstatted, got MDC increases. CVR-3 armor MDC almost tripled (50MDC to 120MDC). Cyclone MDC increased only slightly (from 200MDC to 225). Interestingly, the "female" cyclone armor is the ONLY thing in the book to have it's stats reduced (150MDC to 125MDC). Cyclone weapon damages were left untouched in any meaningful way.
What about the Invid? Well, the Invid Armored Scout got buffed to 125 MDC and guns which do 6d6+6 MD. This is a distinct increase over 70MDC and 4d6MD guns. The Shock Trooper moved up to 200MDC from 80MDC while it's weapon damage moved from 6d6 to 1d6x10+6. The Invid Enforcer (Pincer Command Unit) went from 200MDC to 390MDC. It's damage went from a single attack each round of 2d6x10MD to multiple attacks per round of 2d6x10 MD. Finally, the Royal Command Battloid got a mild MDC increase from 300 to 400 and a damage increase from 6d6MDC to 1d6x10+10.
In general all mecha increased MDC by about 50%. Some of the more common enemy mecha increased MDC by 100%. Damages for bad guy mecha weapons increased by about 50% minimum, therefore maintaining the same general lethality as before. Damages for good guy mecha stayed at roughly the same values, meaning their damage potential was halved.
I think it's clear that the MDC change was not meant to improve player character performance and survivability. The changes seem to be geared toward the exact opposite goal.
The second missed opportunity was a chance to improve genre emulation. The new RPG makes no attempt whatsoever to improve this in any way. It actually seems to be working against it with the MDC and damage alterations listed above.
The old game had one little genre emulation bit which worked. It was "Aiming at the Eye" of Invid Mecha. While not strictly like the show (the New Generation characters really only aimed at Invid eye sensors when fighting in Cyclones), it gave an opportunity for PCs to eliminate targets one each attack and also encouraged gun pod use. The new RPG removes this bit as a viable option. You can still aim at eye sensors, but the penalties for doing so are going to range from -6 to -11 to strike, and your final roll still has to be a total of 12 or better and beat the Invid dodge roll.
This damages not only genre emulation, but the ability of the player to feel their character is competent.
And the final major missed opportunity of the book was a complete lack of attempt to emulate a major portion of the movie it is based on. The book wastes a sizable chunk of it's page count by devoting it to very minor elements of secondary continuity and New Generation minutiae. This space could have better been spent by actually covering things from Shadow Chronicles.
Most notably, none of the starships from the movie beyond the Invid clam carrier appear in the game. This is very odd for a Shadow Chronicles RPG, because a major concept of the game is to scour the galaxy searching for clues about the location of the SDF-3 and the Haydonite plot against humanity, thus requiring a fold capable starship in a common campaign. Several of the main characters of the movie are starship utilizing characters. The Shimakaze class battle cruiser, and Garfish class cruiser were in the movie and would have made good candidates for player character controlled starships. Yet, these elements were saved for a hypothetical later supplement while secondary continuity stuff like the Bioroid Interceptor and Silverback were given major coverage.
Where are the Haydonite starships? Where are stats for the Haydonites themselves? It isn't like they didn't appear in the movie. I guess it was more important to spend 40 pages on the Invid and things like the secondary continuity stuff like the Invid Overlord mecha. The Haydonites get 7 pages, and combat bonuses for their mecha (so you could actually use them in a fight) aren't even provided.
While we're at it, it's silly that minor things from New Generation like the Condor and Conbat made it into the book while the prominently featured in the movie Super Shadow Fighters were left out.
Some people have made the excuse that the Super Shadow Fighters aren't in the book because all of them were destroyed in the battle at the end of the movie. However, by that logic, the Invid should not have appeared in the book either, as they leave for parts unknown in the first half of the film, making them just as obsolete as the Super Shadow Fighter. All of it is even more bewildering because the book mentions an upcoming New Generation sourcebook. So, all the Invid stuff the first part of the book is wasted on instead of Shadow Chronicles material is going to probably be reprinted in another book anyway.
I'm not saying that all the New Generation and secondary continuity material should have been dropped. I'm saying that what was in the movie should have had priority over secondary continuity and New Generation only material. This was not the case for the book. Over 60 pages were used for stuff like this rather than providing data from the actual source material. Even assuming an 11 page listing (the space taken for the Beta) for each missed item the book would have had enough space for the Shimakaze, the Garfish, the Super Shadow Alpha, Super Shadow Beta, and left 15 pages for other things. More space could have been gained by removing completely extraneous things like "Weight: not applicable" from mecha weapon listings and omitting things like page long listings of Supernatural strength bonuses and psionics rules which aren't used in the game.
From what's here, it's perfectly clear that no serious attempt was made to adapt the movie to the game. The theory seems to have been to merely toss in a bunch of New Generation stuff and hope everyone will wet themselves in anticipation of the supplement stream.
This is a BIG change from what made the original Robotech Book One Macross so great. Back in 1986, when that book was new, it was amazing how much STUFF was in there. Things only seen in Macross for a second were given full stat blocks. At first read through, it seemed nothing from the Macross era was missing. The old Southern Cross and Invid Invasion books shared this quality to lesser extents. So, looking at the Shadow Chronicles RPG makes me think Kevin Siembieda has completely forgotten how to make RPG books. It's not like minor things have been left out. Major things which were on screen for half the movie were left out!
Tags: Robotech Palladiumbooks
