The Culture: Fantasy Mecha Has Always Been In The Game

(Following from yesterday's post.)

In the annals of mecha anime, the one that created mecha anime as we know it--piloted robots and all--is Go Nagai's Mazinger Z.

Behind the original villain Dr. Hell (no, not a goof; that is his name) was the Mycenae Empire lead by the Emperor of Darkness. In Mazinger Z they developed automata technology, and the first combat application was the Talos.

Does that look familiar to you? It should. Besides resembling the Collosus of Rhodes, it looks like this:

That, folks, is an Iron Golem.

Let's open up the Monster Manual and take a look at its salient characteristics.

• Size: 12 feet (3.7 meters)
• Construction: 18th level Magic-User with a Manual of Iron Golem Construction, 1K GP per HP (80K) for materials, and three months in Time Jail building it.
• Operation: By voice, able to comprehend simple commands and routines.

Comparable is the Stone Golem.

• Size: 9 feet, 6 inches (almost 3 meters exactly)
• Construction: 16th level Magic-User with a Manual of Stone Golem Construction, 1K GP per HP (60K) in materials, and two months in Time Jail building it.
• Operation: By voice, able to comprehend simple commands and routines.

Which makes them simpler, (much) smaller version of the sort of giant robot that dominated before Mazinger Z such as Tetsujin 28 and Giant Robo.

I point this out to show the recepits proving that fantasy mecha is hardly alien to any edition of Dungeons & Dragons and thus to RPGs generally. You need not reach for Mekton Zeta or HERO to make this work. All that needs to be done is to make the step from "Robot controlled externally by owner or designated agent" to "Robot controlled by the operator internally."

Go back to yesterday's post. Most of them are piloted like contemporary aerospace fighters. The (Guy)melfs of Escaflowne are more like powered armor; they are worn and wielded as extentions of the wearer. This repeats in a lot of fantasy mecha stories.

Therefore we can conclude that making fantasy mecha playable in a D&D game can go one of two ways: it is driven, or it is worn.

Tomorrow I will go over the latter option. On Thursday I will go over the former. On Friday I will discuss integrating fantasy mecha into a campaign.

Oh, and for those who go "But that's not possible!" I remind you: WHITE WOLF GAME STUDIO DID IT OVER 20 YEARS AGO! They did it, and they are hardly paragons of competent RPG design; Exalted 1st Edition was their peak, and the suck only got worse since. If they could figure it out, you can- and you can do it better.

How do I know? I DID IT!