My Life As A Gamer: Thoughts On "The Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy"

I received a Palladium Books X-Mas Grab Gab on Saturday. Four books on the Wish List provided were in the box. (Alas, no shirt, again.) I'll post about the others over this week, so come back later for those.

One of them is a collected reprint of one of Palladium's oldest publications: The Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy. I'll quote the store page's copy on its contents:

This is the original three Mechanoid Invasion® books published in 1981 and 1982 and first collected in one volume in 1998. The collection is back due to popular demand from YOU. It contains all the material that appeared in the original three Mechanoid Invasion® books plus some background history. This is the game and sourcebooks that launched Palladium Books.

Uncle Kevin ain't exaggerating here. This did put him, and Palladium, on the map and lead to publishing his fantasy RPG; that got him the TMNT and Robotech licenses, which got him to RIFTS, and here we are. (That's oversimplifying things, but not by that much.)

Tabletop RPGs are a lagging indicator of cultural presence. By the time someone puts together a commercial RPG product, the influences prompting its creation have already made their impact; what RPGs do is echo back what sticks and what doesn't from the larger entertainment business offerings. The Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy is no different, and it is readily apparent what went into its creation if you account for the year of its original publication: 1982.

That's just after that magical 1980 date where the zeitgeist shifted. D&D, by Kevin's own admission, already made its impression by then and Kevin was part of the first cohort to react to it and do the whole "D&D with Blackjack and hookers" routine. He's already become familiar with tabletop RPGs and their design by participating (as an artist, professionally) with what is now Classic Traveller, so he was right to think that he'd be able to make a go of it during the waning years of that initial heady rush period that was 1974-1981 or so.

In short, before D&D broke into Normieland.

This means the game very much reflects the wargame roots of the TRPG medium, and it also means that some of the problems that would become widespread are also present here. The big problem here is that this is very much a Campaign Path, akin to a contemporary Adventure Path; the results of each segment are, for all intents and purposes, predetermined and as such there is no tension and thus no reason for many gamers to bother as they cannot affect the outcome.

Yes, it's a railroad if played as-written; the only question is if specific PCs make it to the end-state or not.

The other issues that come up aren't design problems in the sense that they break the mechanics of play. The issues are that the titular antagonists make it hard for players to buy into the setting because it's an opposition that feels like a knock off of the Daleks from Doctor Who blended with elements of Fred Saberhagen's Berserker; the enemy is a species of ex-human mutants with genetic memory, psychic powers, and are nigh-omnicidal maniacs that genocide humanoids and devour their planets literally. They use hunter-killer robots to supplements their cyborg forces, and some of them are titanic in size (e.g. the Voltron-sized Spider Fortresses).

Another aesthetic issue is that, due to its time of publication, its SF sensibilities are those of the 1970s Space Opera- complete with the nihilism issues of that decade. If it were not explicitly set on a distant frontier colony world in the ass-end of the galaxy, there would be no way to sell this to more recent prospective audiences. As it is, this has value more in what not to do than the converse; you see these learned lessons in the Mechanoid book for RIFTS, which explicitly avoids all of the things that the original rightly got criticized for.

Would I buy this separately new? Not at full price. That's why I had it on the Wish List for a Grab Bag; that's a defacto 50% discount on whatever you get. Otherwise, if you can find it used in good condition, and at a good price, buy it. You learn a lot about game design, and technical writing, from analyzing the work of others- good and bad. You can also learn a lot about cultural influence by seeing how lagging indicators manifest what mattered when and where, and this book does both very well.