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The Robotech RPG #4
Southern Cross
112 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 4, 2020
I love this book...and I hate this book! Allow me to explain.
The Southern Cross is probably my least favorite of the three (maybe four) eras that make up the Robotech universe. I find the characters, particularly Dana Sterling, Bowie Grant, et al, to be less than inspiring, if not downright annoying. They lack the charisma and interest of the Macross era gang and the desperation and camaraderie of the Invasion era group. The interplay between the Robotech Masters and/or Elders lacks the panache of that we see between Breetai and Exedore. And Supreme Commander Leonard is just the worst. Rolf Emerson's death was so unnecessary, replete with the fatalistic despair of one resigned to his fate; he remains loyal to a fault to a leader he knows to be unworthy, but stands firm, unwilling to violate his own principles to change his fate.
The Southern Cross however, remains my favorite aspect of the evolving United Earth Government, as the result seems to be an inevitability and well told. A government essentially controlled by the whims of the military finds itself supplanted by said military, holding tenuous power subject to the whims of the Supreme Commander. A Commander who reigns unchecked, and who wastes lives and resources fighting a war he doesn't even understand. This new military arm of the United Earth Government no longer serves as Earth's protectors, but as Earth's enforcers. Gone is the desire to protect Humanity, replaced by the Supreme Commander's need to directly control the planet.
I remember, as a younger me, in those pre-internet Halcyon days, this was one of the last Robotech RPG books I was able to acquire. I scoured bookshelves at every store I went hoping against hope that they had an RPG section, hoping even more that they carried Robotech, and hoping further still that this book would be nestled away on some dusty, forgotten shelf somewhere. That day did eventually happen in my mid-teens, as it sat in a spinner rack in the back of some forgotten store in a shopping mall in California, and that copy I still retain.
As a rulebook, this does require the main Robotech RPG book to play, as the rules contained herein are mostly supplemental in nature (although there are some reprints). The setting is rather sparse and needs a tremendous amount of imagination...unless one were just attempting to recreate the show itself, but the Mecha are beautiful...even the ungainly homegrown monstrosities of the EBSIS (yes, they're still around) which will always hold a special place in my heart. Spoilers: The EBSIS becomes the most powerful nation on Earth by the end of the Second Robotech War as the Armies of the Southern Cross have exhausted themselves fighting the Robotech Masters.
If I have a complaint, it is the lack of emphasis on space combat. Sure, the stats on there, but the Southern Cross fleet is almost a throwaway entry tucked up somewhere in the middle. In the cartoon, Supreme Commander Leonard throws wave after wave of starships at the Robotech Masters in a futile effort to defeat them, but that is not reflected here very well.
The Southern Cross is probably my least favorite of the three (maybe four) eras that make up the Robotech universe. I find the characters, particularly Dana Sterling, Bowie Grant, et al, to be less than inspiring, if not downright annoying. They lack the charisma and interest of the Macross era gang and the desperation and camaraderie of the Invasion era group. The interplay between the Robotech Masters and/or Elders lacks the panache of that we see between Breetai and Exedore. And Supreme Commander Leonard is just the worst. Rolf Emerson's death was so unnecessary, replete with the fatalistic despair of one resigned to his fate; he remains loyal to a fault to a leader he knows to be unworthy, but stands firm, unwilling to violate his own principles to change his fate.
The Southern Cross however, remains my favorite aspect of the evolving United Earth Government, as the result seems to be an inevitability and well told. A government essentially controlled by the whims of the military finds itself supplanted by said military, holding tenuous power subject to the whims of the Supreme Commander. A Commander who reigns unchecked, and who wastes lives and resources fighting a war he doesn't even understand. This new military arm of the United Earth Government no longer serves as Earth's protectors, but as Earth's enforcers. Gone is the desire to protect Humanity, replaced by the Supreme Commander's need to directly control the planet.
I remember, as a younger me, in those pre-internet Halcyon days, this was one of the last Robotech RPG books I was able to acquire. I scoured bookshelves at every store I went hoping against hope that they had an RPG section, hoping even more that they carried Robotech, and hoping further still that this book would be nestled away on some dusty, forgotten shelf somewhere. That day did eventually happen in my mid-teens, as it sat in a spinner rack in the back of some forgotten store in a shopping mall in California, and that copy I still retain.
As a rulebook, this does require the main Robotech RPG book to play, as the rules contained herein are mostly supplemental in nature (although there are some reprints). The setting is rather sparse and needs a tremendous amount of imagination...unless one were just attempting to recreate the show itself, but the Mecha are beautiful...even the ungainly homegrown monstrosities of the EBSIS (yes, they're still around) which will always hold a special place in my heart. Spoilers: The EBSIS becomes the most powerful nation on Earth by the end of the Second Robotech War as the Armies of the Southern Cross have exhausted themselves fighting the Robotech Masters.
If I have a complaint, it is the lack of emphasis on space combat. Sure, the stats on there, but the Southern Cross fleet is almost a throwaway entry tucked up somewhere in the middle. In the cartoon, Supreme Commander Leonard throws wave after wave of starships at the Robotech Masters in a futile effort to defeat them, but that is not reflected here very well.
May 6, 2021
If you are into Giant robots then here is a great sourcebook. Very nice art and layout. Recommended
August 2, 2026
This is a supplement to Palladium’s Robotech RPG that addresses Earth’s war with the Robotech Masters. The main game rules (character creation, combat and such) are in the main Robotech: Macross RPG book but this book includes new skills and combat rules and includes an updated skill list and descriptions (nice). It also includes O.C.C.’s for making characters from the various Southern Cross army units, pictures of the their armor, pictures and rules for the various mecha, vehicles and weapons. You also get rules for the forces and equipment of the Robotech Masters. Lastly there is a very brief section outlining the state of the world during the conflict, major areas of population and conflict and stat sheets for the main characters of the anime series.
It’s not a bad product, but I felt it could have been better. For example, while the book identifies there are Moon and Mars bases, it doesn’t provide any information on them. Perhaps this was due to not having any information on them as the author states the majority of the information in the book was based on watching the television series, referencing some books and notes on the anime from Harmony Gold, and talking with someone involved at the series. Despite this, they do say that they speculated on some of the battloids and other items and used this to make descriptions and rules for them, so I don’t know why they couldn’t have speculated on these bases.
It would have been nice to have some examples for different missions that could be ran for this game. Maybe some random encounter tables or just bullet points of different adventure ideas based on stuff from the show or maybe the books that could inspire a game master to come up with missions.
The author even addresses that they wanted to do this, but said “Unfortunately, page restrictions prevent us from including more than hints for RPG campaigns.”
I find the page restriction comment to be kind of strange because I feel like there is a lot of pages that are wasted in this book to increase its page count. For example, there are 10 pages dedicated to just character sheets. They are all the same character sheets with the exception of having a different picture in the upper left-hand corner. I can understand how when this book was published you could photocopy these sheets and have them specific to the character O.C.C. that you were playing, but then not every O.C.C. is represented and hence the last character sheet has just a blank figure that you can just draw your character’s picture on, so not every army even got its own individual sheet.
Another thing that I thought was just a lot of added filler was every O.C.C. has almost an entire page of just show the armor suits with officers or soldiers depicted. They are different sizes, some big and some small. I like that this was illustrated so people could see how their character’s armor looks like, but I don’t know why this couldn’t have been broken down into like a 2-4 page layout where you had each O.C.C. and then small figures depicting the different armor types. I’m thinking something similar to like how Games Workshop does it’s Space Marine codex where it shows the different color schemes and insignias of different Space Marine Chapters in a spreadsheet style with different chapters laid out. This would’ve been a lot more efficient use of space and probably would’ve allowed for other pages in the book to be used for mission ideas and other campaign helpful information.
Of all the original Robotech sagas (Macross, Southern Cross, Sentinels and the Invid Invasion), I found the Southern Cross to be the least interesting, and my gaming group at the time of the this book did as well, so the material in this book didn’t get a lot (if any) playtime in our group. Reading this again, I do feel intrigued to maybe give the Southern Cross anime series another watch.
It’s not a bad product, but I felt it could have been better. For example, while the book identifies there are Moon and Mars bases, it doesn’t provide any information on them. Perhaps this was due to not having any information on them as the author states the majority of the information in the book was based on watching the television series, referencing some books and notes on the anime from Harmony Gold, and talking with someone involved at the series. Despite this, they do say that they speculated on some of the battloids and other items and used this to make descriptions and rules for them, so I don’t know why they couldn’t have speculated on these bases.
It would have been nice to have some examples for different missions that could be ran for this game. Maybe some random encounter tables or just bullet points of different adventure ideas based on stuff from the show or maybe the books that could inspire a game master to come up with missions.
The author even addresses that they wanted to do this, but said “Unfortunately, page restrictions prevent us from including more than hints for RPG campaigns.”
I find the page restriction comment to be kind of strange because I feel like there is a lot of pages that are wasted in this book to increase its page count. For example, there are 10 pages dedicated to just character sheets. They are all the same character sheets with the exception of having a different picture in the upper left-hand corner. I can understand how when this book was published you could photocopy these sheets and have them specific to the character O.C.C. that you were playing, but then not every O.C.C. is represented and hence the last character sheet has just a blank figure that you can just draw your character’s picture on, so not every army even got its own individual sheet.
Another thing that I thought was just a lot of added filler was every O.C.C. has almost an entire page of just show the armor suits with officers or soldiers depicted. They are different sizes, some big and some small. I like that this was illustrated so people could see how their character’s armor looks like, but I don’t know why this couldn’t have been broken down into like a 2-4 page layout where you had each O.C.C. and then small figures depicting the different armor types. I’m thinking something similar to like how Games Workshop does it’s Space Marine codex where it shows the different color schemes and insignias of different Space Marine Chapters in a spreadsheet style with different chapters laid out. This would’ve been a lot more efficient use of space and probably would’ve allowed for other pages in the book to be used for mission ideas and other campaign helpful information.
Of all the original Robotech sagas (Macross, Southern Cross, Sentinels and the Invid Invasion), I found the Southern Cross to be the least interesting, and my gaming group at the time of the this book did as well, so the material in this book didn’t get a lot (if any) playtime in our group. Reading this again, I do feel intrigued to maybe give the Southern Cross anime series another watch.
March 20, 2012
never read this - no idea how it got on mine????
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews