6. ESFUERZOS SOBRE EL CHASIS
6.2. ESFUERZOS SOBRE LA MOTOCICLETA
Epic
Epic Settings are where the impossible is common hap-penstance: perhaps technology has advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic, or science is rendered irrel-evant by some greater force.Epic stories often put the entirety of the world, the galaxy or reality itself at risk with only the PCs to protect it. In an Epic game of Battle Century G, you will generally see weapons adapted to more outlandish interpretations: a rocket punch can reach all the way to the moon, and a beam weapon instead creates miniature black holes.
Gritty
Gritty Settings try not to suspend disbelief beyond the minimum necessary and technology is usually down to earth, including moderate justification for the existence of gi-ant robots. Stories are usually about small conflicts such as playing antiterrorist response teams or trying to survive the front lines during a war against the enemy faction.
Playing a Gritty game might see many character options restricted for the sake of integrity, such as forbidding biologi-cal or animal themed mecha along with flavor limitations to make upgrades and weapons sound more realistic.
Fantastic
Fantastic Settings are the majority and placed somewhere in between the previous two. They have a semblance of realism to them but maintain elements that we are far away from seeing in our own lives. Mecha are either rare and unique or the main characters and their antagonists are the only ones with new-generation Mecha technology.
Conventions of both genres are present, and plots range from giant robot world wars where the PCs are a special unit, to private organizations investigating strange events and using their Mecha to solve them. The default setting of Battle Century G is an example of a fantastic setting.
Inspiration
So you 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 enhances the joy of discovering things entirely on their own. 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 obtain 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 to help you with general worldbuilding, while the list on the right will help you come up with episodic, sandboxy content.
Aim for the Top! Gunbuster
If there is one thing Gainax has always been constant with, it is their attention to detail. Gunbuster has a very thorough effort placed on its science fiction components while still being a super robot show about blowing up aliens with the power of hard work and guts.
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. It also only gets more detailed with each addition to the franchise, for good or ill.
MuvLuv Alternative
There are many things which make MuvLuv famous, but the one we want here is the in-depth worldbuilding. It offers an alternate-reality semi-realistic setting pitting giant robots against terrifying aliens, with a lot of quality science fiction and politics thrown in the mix for good measure.
Xenogears and Xenosaga (I to III)
Flawed as they may be, both games have rich and detailed worlds. You could run dozens of games set in their univers-es and you would never have to approach any of the lunivers-ess liked aspects of their settings. They are also solid examples of how one may mix up Pilot and Mecha action scenes.
Super Robot Wars
Hours, days and weeks can be spent detailing the minutiae of a setting to craft the most deep and meaningful game experience your group will ever enjoy. Or you can just tell them: “You are the good guys and have these robots, these are the bad guys and have their own robots,” and have some fun. Don't forget that this, in the end, is just a game.
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 gi-ant monsters.
Terrestrial Defense Corp. Dai-Guard
The main characters are everyday white-collar workers whose job description includes piloting a giant robot and protecting the peace. This should be all you need to know.
Full Metal Panic!
In between fighting terrorism with giant robots and a lot of tactical espionage action there’s entire episodes devoted to the characters carrying the show by interacting with each other. The animated adaptation of Full Metal Panic even has a whole season devoted to its slice of life elements.
Genesis of Aquarion and Aquarion Evol
Either version of Aquarion has enough gimmick episodes for multiple arcs' worth of Intermissions, subverting common clichés going from “The Soccer Episode” to having an entire Episode’s plot centered around being poorly animated. It is overflowing in its abundance of ideas, both silly and serious, for all your episodic needs.
Galactic Strike Force Majestic Prince
Genetically engineered soldiers with eccentric personalities and terrible teamwork fight off an alien invasion. The plot of Majestic Prince is nothing to write home about, but the characters are funny and endear themselves to you. It has very good action scenes and by the end you’ll want more, because it is just that enjoyable.
The Caesar reassembled itself out of its scattered component pieces once again, refusing to be defeated. Once more the giant knight lunges
with its sword at Blade's Gear, cutting off one of the Black General's arms. It will not go down without having taken Blade with it.
Everyone was battered, but they knew they had one advantage over their singleminded foe, and Blade was going to capitalize on it "Both of you
continue into the center of the ship, I'll keep it distracted." "What?" It didn't take long for Jeff and Maria to protest "But you can't stand up
to it on your own, less now that you've lost an arm."
Blade snickered, "It can't be helped, I wouldn't make it back with Black General in this state anyway... Listen, it senses I am the strongest
warri-or here, if I make an opening, it'll let you through. It might be an alien, but it is still a proud fighter, and I can understand it as such."
Jeff kept radio silence, but Maria seemed much more interested in keep-ing her subordinate from killkeep-ing himself. "Don't be stupid, we said we'd all come back, and no one in my squad is a liar. Eject and I'll retrieve
you, we can still beat this guy."
The Outsider adopted a charging stance. "Heh. That's a good joke. Jeff, you understand don't you?" Blade did not move the Black General, not
even when the sword went straight for him. There was an explosion.
General Z was in between the both of them, its chest still red from hav-ing just used its own body to halt the incomhav-ing enemy. "Are you done
playing the cool hero yet?"
Blade was not amused. "I'm not kidding around-" but Jeff remained con-fident. "We still have an ace in the hole, Professor Tetsuryuu's Trump
card and the final result of all the years of work put into Project General, Projectile G and... Formation GGG!"
Indeed, the off-voice of our friendly narrator elaborates "The Projec-tile G can amplify and channel Maria's psychic energy into telekinetic force that helps the combination program reorder and reassemble the component pieces of each Gear individually, creating the world's
mighti-est Super Robot, the Grand Glorious General!"
There was a long pause.
“Since when do we have a narrator?” Raymond asked, which received a prompt response from Ingham “Since I needed to explain this sudden
powerup to you.” “Only to me?” “The others already knew about it.”
“And you kept quiet about it because...” Ray let that trail off, inviting Maya and Ryu to elaborate with a gesture. “...We were busy.” “With things.” they
looked at him like it could have just happened, or maybe they planned this all along. It was difficult to tell with these two.