Chicks Dig Giant Robots: Cthulhutech

The flagship product of Wildfire LLC, Cthulhutech was released in 2008. It combines mecha and a near-future setting with the themes and dangers of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Chicks Dig Giant Robots: Armored Trooper Votoms RPG

Another of the anime licenses picked up by R. Talsorian Games in the late 90's, the Armored Trooper Votoms RPG is based on the anime of the same name from the early 80's. With a bleak setting and complex plot, ATV was one of the earliest hard-science mecha anime, and would influence much of the genre.

Chicks Dig Giant Robots: Bubblegum Crisis RPG

Bubblegum Crisis was an anime series released in the late 80s, with a heavy cyberpunk influence and extensively featuring mecha as well as Blade Runner-influenced androids. In the mid-90s, R. Talsorian Games acquired the license to produce a RPG based on the series and its spinoff shows.

Chicks Dig Giant Robots: A Time of War

Also released in 1984, Battletech, the hex-based tactical game of mech combat, is one of the most prolific mecha franchises ever, with spinoff projects ranging from comic books and novels to a TV show and VR simulator pods. Originally created by the FASA Corporation, the property has switched hands a few times over the years, and currently resides with Topps, who has licensed it out to Catalyst Game Labs. The first Battletech roleplaying game, MechWarrior, was created by FASA in 1986 and went through multiple editions before the company sold the rights tot he franchise. More recently, in 2010 Catalyst Game Labs released A Time of War as a roleplaying addition to their line of Battletech products.

Chicks Dig Giant Robots: Mekton Zeta

Mekton, published by R. Talsorian Games, is the oldest mecha RPG around. The original Mekton was a tactical game, released in 1984 as a boxed set. That year also saw the release of a softcover RPG using a custom system. Later editions switched over to the Interlock System, used by many other R. Talsorian products, and the most recent edition, Mekton Zeta, was released in 1994. Despite being almost two decades old, Mekton Zeta has maintained a dedicated fan following, and is still considered one of the best mecha RPGs available.

Chicks Dig Giant Robots: Mecha in RPGs

One of the first RPGs I ever bought was one called Jovian Chronicles, a game about an interplanetary Cold War that was being fought with 5-story piloted robots. Ever since then, I've been a huge fan of mecha, both in general and in RPGs. The idea of piloting such a fantastic piece of technology has always been fascinating to me, and judging by the number of different RPGs out there that support the idea, I'm not the only one. So I decided to take a look at all of these different systems and see how they handle mecha, and give my opinion on each one.

Games Wot Is Cool: Microscope

The simplest form of roleplaying is the kind of stuff we do as kids on the playground. We make up stories with our imaginations, forming a shared narrative out of group consensus. As we get more complex with our games, the consensus is supplanted with rules and dice and minis, but that doesn't mean the simple make-believe is no longer viable. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of groups out there doing freeform roleplaying on messageboards and in chat rooms all over the internet. Some RPGs follow that style too, like the original Amber game. Microscope, a neat little RPG I found, is also very freeform, although the span of the game is a bit... bigger.

I Aent Dead

I swear I haven't forgotten about this, honest! It's just that November was a particularly ...intensive month for video games. Arkham City, Skyrim, and Saints Row 3 all dropped within a week of each other, and those are just the ones I got. I still haven't picked up AC: Revelations. And then there was the annual Steam Thanksgiving/Christmas sale, which is dangerous for anyone with a credit card. I own games I don't even remember buying. And then Bioware had to go and make a Star Wars MMO. And talk on the interwebs got me back into RIFT. And All this hullabaloo about Guild Wars 2 is reminding me I need to work on Guild Wars so I can unlock some of the cross-game stuff. And...