Macross II (Palladium) and Mental Stats

[Terracotta]

Recently picked up a copy of Macross II the Role Playing Game and have been enjoying what I've read. However, there's a small question I have regarding mental attributes. Most of the OCCs in Macross require an IQ minimum, and the first character I rolled up was too far below that to make pilot.

This is actually a really good roleplaying opportunity, a ground-pounder who didn't quite manage to test into Veritech flight school. However, I'd like them to eventually realize their dream and it doesn't seem like there are any skills in the book that let you increase your mental stats and there aren't any provisions in the rules-as-written to use EXP to increase attributes either. Is there anyone with a better knowledge of Palladium who can give me some pointers? A sourcebook or a piece of errata or something similar.

[Terracotta]

Welp, I say that and then I find Rifter 19 after one google search.

It introduces skills that increase IQ, ME, and a few other stats. Silly me!

[LibraryOgre]

While you've found an answer, Palladium handles multiple OCCs very poorly; everything is front-loaded, and not well designed for switching between them.

If I were to house-rule some stuff, I'd base it on some of the "secondary skill" physical skills... stuff like running, athletics, and body building. I'd say +2 to a single attribute, or +1 to two attributes, and some other bonus... a +1 to a save or the like. So, you might have someone with "Horror Movie Aficionado" secondary skill, which doesn't really have an associated skill, but it gives a +2 to ME and a +1 v. HF.

It's kludgey, but that's the Palladium way.

[Lord Torath]

On a somewhat-related note, how do you handle missiles that are generally slower than the aircraft they launch from? The fastest missile on page 39 is 2010 mph, with many of them topping out at 1000 mph or less. The VF-2JA has a cruising speed of 1340 mph, and a top speed of 2680 mph. Most of the enemy mecha are just as fast, if not faster.

So how does this work?

[Mutazoia]

On a somewhat-related note, how do you handle missiles that are generally slower than the aircraft they launch from? The fastest missile on page 39 is 2010 mph, with many of them topping out at 1000 mph or less. The VF-2JA has a cruising speed of 1340 mph, and a top speed of 2680 mph. Most of the enemy mecha are just as fast, if not faster.

So how does this work?

Top speed is generally "full afterburner"...you're not going to be able to keep that up for very long, nor are you going to be able to maneuver (at all) at top speed. The only time the missiles are going to have a hard time keeping up with their targets is if the target is running flat out trying to get away. Speed in combat situations are going to be at or below cruising speed. (I can't remember if Robotech lists turn speeds for the aircraft, but I doubt it. (FYI "turn speed" is the maximum speed an aircraft can make a turn with out having to reduce speed or risk losing control.)) Generally speaking, an aircraft's turn speed is going to be approximately equal to it's cruising speed for wide turns...the sharper the turn, the slower the craft has to move.



Long story short, assume all crafts in combat are moving well below cruising speed. The missiles will have little trouble catching up. (Watch any battle scene in the Anime...you'll notice the craft are maneuvering heavily, so they will not be traveling anywhere near cruising speed.)

[Terracotta]

While you've found an answer, Palladium handles multiple OCCs very poorly; everything is front-loaded, and not well designed for switching between them.

If I were to house-rule some stuff, I'd base it on some of the "secondary skill" physical skills... stuff like running, athletics, and body building. I'd say +2 to a single attribute, or +1 to two attributes, and some other bonus... a +1 to a save or the like. So, you might have someone with "Horror Movie Aficionado" secondary skill, which doesn't really have an associated skill, but it gives a +2 to ME and a +1 v. HF.

It's kludgey, but that's the Palladium way.



Yeah, Rifter 19 had an article that does exactly that. A lot of the older skills were edited to give mental stat increases, and a bunch of new* ones were introduced that did the same thing. Advanced Mathematics gives you +1 IQ, Meditation gives you +1 ME, Public Speaking gives you +1 MA.

One of the new ones that might be interesting in a fantasy setting was the new "Memorization/Study Skills" skill, since that gives a 25% spell memorization and research time reduction in addition to the IQ boost.

The article also adds an optional "Diminishing Returns" rule for people getting a lot of attribute-boosting skills. Basically, the first five increases (Say from an original score of 12, eventually buffed to 17) are free, but after that the boost value is halved, and then quartered after another five, and then reduced to one-eighth after 15. (SPD has increments of ten instead of five.) Honestly, I wasn't aware that you could get that many bonuses from skills, but then again, Robotech is the first Palladium game I've looked at, so I haven't been exposed to the madness of kitchen-sink Rifts.

In regards to the character scenario I mentioned up above: Now that I think about it, having a character want to switch OCCs after a being generated with a bad roll is really the sort of thing to fix up with your GM. If I were GMing a player who had that character I would just say, "take one of those IQ boosting skills and put yourself over the limit if you really want to be a veritech pilot with minimum intelligence," or let them stay a ground-pounder if they're committed to the roleplaying premise.

~~~

As for the question about missile top speed, I'd be interested to see how people handled that when fighting in a vacuum. Do you add the missile's top speed to that of the Veritech's current movement? Do you let people accelerate into oblivion? I tend to abstract things like that, mostly because I usually run games over skype and it's hard to keep recordkeeping info in everyone's view.

~~

*Rifter 19 came out in 2002 so it's not really new...

[Lord Torath]

Top speed is generally "full afterburner"...you're not going to be able to keep that up for very long, nor are you going to be able to maneuver (at all) at top speed. The only time the missiles are going to have a hard time keeping up with their targets is if the target is running flat out trying to get away. Speed in combat situations are going to be at or below cruising speed. (I can't remember if Robotech lists turn speeds for the aircraft, but I doubt it. (FYI "turn speed" is the maximum speed an aircraft can make a turn with out having to reduce speed or risk losing control.)) Generally speaking, an aircraft's turn speed is going to be approximately equal to it's cruising speed for wide turns...the sharper the turn, the slower the craft has to move.

Long story short, assume all crafts in combat are moving well below cruising speed. The missiles will have little trouble catching up. (Watch any battle scene in the Anime...you'll notice the craft are maneuvering heavily, so they will not be traveling anywhere near cruising speed.)That might work once you're dogfighting, but the initial volleys are going to be launched while both sides are racing toward each other at top speed. But Cruising Speed for several of the Marduk mecha is still well above 2010 mph (the fastest missile speed). The fastest medium range missile (range of 50-80 miles) has a top speed of 1600 mph, and most of them are around 1200 mph. The standard VF-2SS space valkyrie has a top speed of 5690 mph, with a cruising speed of 2680 mph.

In protoculture-powered Robotech, yes, you can keep on afterburner as long as you want. The engines have enough fuel for 12 years of regular use. In Macross, the power is nuclear, but still typically lasts for 12 years between refueling. Maneuvering can still be an issue, though.

I've attempted to address this by adding 1000 mph to all missile speeds, which helps a good bit. I was just curious how other Palladium players and designers (cough cough Mark Hall cough) addressed this issue.

[Tanarii]

but the initial volleys are going to be launched while both sides are racing toward each other at top speed.Just assume that in a space dogfight, the actual missile speed = current mecha relative closing speed + base missile speed.

So if you got two vehicles that have a speed of 5500 mph and 4500 mph, and a missile with a top speed of 1600 mph:
Head to Head = 5500 + 4500 + 1600 = 10600 mph
Faster chasing = 5500 - 4500 + 1600 = 2600 mph
Slower chasing = 4500 - 5500 + 1600 = 600 mph

(Note that if the slower is chasing, he must be no less than missile speed slower to actually hit the enemy at all.)

You can also figure out the way this effects total range by multiplying range by the ratio of actual speed over base speed. So for a base range 80 mile range missile, the actual max range at time of launch:
H2H range = (10600/1600) * 80 = 530 miles
Faster chase = (2600/1600) * 80 = 130 miles
Slower chase = (600/1600) * 80 = 30 miles

(Note that if the slower is chasing, this range is the last possible missile salvo he can fire, because afterwards the target will have left range. For a faster chasing and head to head, it's the distance at which the first possible salvo can occur.)

Edit: Note that the total time in all cases to impact is 3 minutes at max range. Even at 10600 mph, travelling over five hundred miles takes time.