Another way to entertain players who haven’t done much is to run a solo Episode for them much in the style of an intro-duction Episode. This is different from a Character Centric Episode in that this special interlude doesn’t have to include other PCs – though other players certainly can participate.
There won’t be any Operations - or at least they’re not recommended. The session can take place during a timeskip between Arcs so as to not interfere with the main storyline, it can play as a flashback, or even a dream sequence.
The point is to help to flesh out a character that hasn’t seen much development yet. Of course nothing stops you from making this Mini Episode critical to the plot but players that weren’t present may resent it if the big bad is killed and the fate of the world is decided when they weren’t present.
Sometimes though you have a wealth of content awaiting to be used that just won’t involve the entire party. If a character would like to get revenge for their dead family and pursue the enemy leader of the Space Empire, but everyone else would rather continue fighting the invading Dinoroids you can just make the character who wants to go on their own do so later, without stopping the action for everyone else.
You should encourage players to pursue things they want to do, and Genre Points make a great incentive, be-cause these are characters. They’re not just there to beat up other dudes and dudettes with robots, but to tell compelling stories about themselves. If everyone can get involved in each other’s story, all the better, but if someone just has to break off temporarily to get something done a Mini Episode is a good way to make said things happen.
If you want to give that specific PC a power boost, then a Mini Episode is a great chance to do so – simply give them a possibility to roleplay their Themes and they will come out of it with one or two Genre Points for it. String it together into the next proper Episode and the character will be stronger than usual.
Inspiration
So, you actually want to make a wholly pregenerated world on your own and then dump the players on top. This is quite hard, but it does have the benefit of making it much easier to pull surprises on the rest of your group and sometimes it even helps make a more immersive experience. Previous lists with sources of inspiration tried to stick to shows legally available in English, but this list will make use of media beyond animated mediums and some of it will not be easy to ob-tain for the average consumer, much less with an official translation – additionally, not all of it might be suitable for minors.
The list on the left is made with general worldbuilding in mind, while the list on the right is meant to inspire general epi-sodic, sandboxy content.
Aim for the Top! Gunbuster and Diebuster
If there is one thing Gainax has always been constant with, it is their attention to detail... That, and being gigantic nerds. Gunbuster has the better amount of effort placed on the science while still being a super robot show, while Diebuster sports a story that is more complex yet remains whimsical in tone.
The Macross franchise
It is easy to forget, in between all the saving the world with song, that Macross has a surprising amount of thought going into it. It is possibly one of the grittiest Mecha fran-chises out there once you look closer, without getting lost in the detail.
MuvLuv, MuvLuv Alternative, and the rest of the Muv-Luv franchise
There are many things MuvLuv is famous for, but the one we want here is the in-depth worldbuilding and the im-mersive experience it offers with its alternate-reality semi-realistic giant robots against terrifying aliens.
Xenogears and Xenosaga (I to III)
Flawed as they may be, both games have rich and detailed worlds. In addition, they are solid examples of how one
Mobile Police Patlabor
Probably the closest to realism that Mecha shows will ever get, Patlabor makes a good case example on how not every Episode needs to make use of Mecha, and that they might be used for things other than beating up other robots or giant monsters.
Terrestrial Defense Corp. Dai-Guard
The main characters are everyday salarymen whose job description includes piloting a giant robot and protecting the peace. This should be all you need to know.
Full Metal Panic
Despite having plenty of novels full of hot Mecha-on-Mecha action, the animated adaptation of Full Metal Panic has a good number of episodes with nothing but character interaction, and a whole interlude Season between impor-tant arcs devoted to its slice of life elements.
Genesis of Aquarion and Aquarion Evol
Aquarion has enough gimmick episodes for multiple Arcs' worth of Intermissions, subverting common clichés going from “The Soccer Episode” to having an entire Episode centered around being poorly animated. It is overflowing in its abundance of ideas, both silly and serious, for all your