Robotech The Shadow Chronicles Role Playing Game

Great product and price. However, scheduled shipping time was much longer than advertised.

I have been a fan of the robotech game since the early 90's. This game is really cool. Not much has changed since the olde days. Updated mecha and occ's.

First, let me acknowledge that the other reviews here are well written and also worth reading. That said, this review is for the 2nd printing of the smaller magna sized Robotech Shadow Chronicles Role-Playing Game sourcebook. I bought this at my local comic store after flipping through the pages and thinking that in addition to being a roleplaying game book, it appeared fairly well written and organized. Never intending to actually play the roleplaying game, I found myself really enjoying the historical perspective and attention to detail in the descriptions associated with the mecha and general organization of the United Earth Expedition Force (UEEF) and Invid alike. In fact, I regret that I don't have time to gather some friends around and set up a game.In some of the other reviews a number of errors were mentioned. I doubled checked them with this 2nd printing and see that the authors of this book fixed those problems. Never having played a Palladium RPG, I found the description of the rules easy enough to follow. I'm positive that somebody familiar with RPGs in general could easily play and even run a Robotech game.On the down side, the character sheet would be rather difficult to photocopy in this smaller magna sized book. If I were to place the two pages down flat on a scanner or copier, I might break the spine of the book. On the up side, I really like the smaller magna sized book. I've had this book at my bedside for a month now and like to read a few pages each night and then jump around. Hmmm, what sort of character would I make?The bottom line is that within one week of reading this book, I liked it so much that I went back to my local comic store and bought the  The Macross Saga Sourcebook (Robotech RPG)  and  The Masters Sourcebook (Robotech RPG)  source books as well. If you or somebody you know likes Robotech, this book is an ideal gift. It is fun to read as it stirs your imagination and low priced (under $20).

I read that Kevin Siembieda predicted that this book would not only appeal to current gamers, but would also appeal to the old timers like me who dropped out of role-playing, but were once Robotech RPG players. I have to admit, at least in my case, Kevin might very well be right.I'm actually going to rate this little Palldaium book a solid 3. I see a lot here that I do like. The new size is very interesting. It is small and very portable making it a nice book to carry here and there. I'm not sure what size book shelf the previous reviewer is using, but I noticed that my copy sits very nicely with my other paperback novels. So thumbs up for the size and layout.Materials? Not too bad. Compared with modern rpgs, the background materials in the book are pretty scant, but compared to other Robotech core rulebooks this one is chalked full of nice stuff. There are several pages of adventures, background, and plenty of pages containing details about equipment and mecha. Not too bad.Character generation and rules look okay. Palladium has changed a lot of things since my last go around with them. The character generation appears to be very smooth and well laid out. They give you some easy to use templates to kick out the first quick characters (check out pages 65 and 66). Plus Palladium has really tweaked out the OCC to give you more options to tailor your character. The ability to take an MOS in each OCC gives you a lot of options to build a character. I saw this first in the old Southern Cross rulebook- it looks like Palladium has taken this idea and has really fleshed it out. The older editions of the Robotech RPG didn't offer anywhere near this flexibility for characters. In fact, the Robotech RPG had some rather pointless classes such as the three rather useless engineer classes. Nice change here.For rules, it is still the old Palladium system, but it looks like they have cleared it up a lot and have reorganized the materials to improve the presentation of the rules. Not too bad. This rule section is light years better than in the old Robotech rulebook. Combat makes a lot more sense to me after reading this rule book. Also, they have intregrated the rules for small arms, hand to hand, and mecha combat to a much better level. I'm still pieceing through this, but it does make more sense than before. Also new is that they have eliminated the old Mecha Combat skills! You still have an elite training that gives you an extra boost in combat... but you no longer have to have the mecha combat skill for that specific mecha to use it. I do wish though that Kevin spent some time writing up examples to show you how to use the combat system though!One big improvement I've seen though is that Palladium took time to explain how their skill system works! Pages 219-222 go into some detail talking about how to use skills- it even gives you modifiers to apply to the skills to account for stress, distractions, and other annoying things that can cause problems. Light years better than the old Robotech system which told you practically nothing about how to use skills in the game.There are some things that marr an otherwise decent book. First capital ships from the OVA were left out. Not a huge problem as there is a dedicated Shadow Chronicles supplement due out in the future. Second Palladium left out mecha repair rules... again! As above, this isn't a huge problem if your mecha are operating from a base and there are plenty of spare units to use or you're not nitpicking. It is a problem if you're playing in a New Generation setting and supplies are scarce and loosing MDC from a location can cause interesting issues (Lunk, there are invids on their way here now! I need that Alpha repaired!!). Third, the art work is just so-so. The drawings are a mixture of new stuff and rehashed materials from the old books. Graphics are pretty big in this day and age and Palladium went easy on the pictures. Not a deal breaker for me, but this book looks weak when compared to art heavy books from Margaret Weis and Wizards. Then again, you're only paying $16.95 for the book! If you want the art heavy books then you will fork out the $50+ for them. Finally, and a big one to me, Palladium left out the rules for aerial combat! Yikes!!! Granted, they weren't much in the old Robotech rules, but when used they added a lot of flavor to the game. Aerial vehicles take the back seat in the piloting rules! There is some detail about how to run encounters in ground vehicles, but nearly nothing for aerial combat... not good! Hopefully that oversight will be corrected in a future book.On the whole though I give kutos to Kevin and Palladium for their 'new' RPG. It wasn't what I wished for, but it is certainly a good solid effort on their part. By far, it is the best Palladium product I have ever purchased. Compared to other RPGs out there though I would only rate it average. Still though, it is a good product for the $$, especially in this day and age of the $40-50 hardbound starter book!!!! I'm definately looking forward to the future releases in this line. Who knows, I might actually play it!

Mit diesem Werk hat sich Palladium übertroffen, ein ganzes Regelwerk in Form eines Taschenbuches. Nur ein paar Papierbögen, Bleistift und Würfel und schon kann man überall los legen.Wer sich mit dem Robotech RPG anfreunden will, der sollte sich erst die alte Anime Serie ansehen.Das Regelbuch ist wie auch die anderen Regelbücher mit Rift kompatibel, nur ob man das wirklich will ist eine ander Sache.

ご存じのように本国では過去のパラディウム社の刊行物の『8.5 × 11インチ』より小型化された日本の漫画単行本サイズについて論争が起きて、後に底本（参照元となった本。或いは原本の意味）としての『8.5 × 11インチ』サイズの「豪華版ハードカバー版」が出版されています。初版本には幾つかのテーブルトークゲームシステム上の誤り、シャドウ・クロニクル時代の航空宇宙機の技術と派生型の記載が映像作品と同時に出された都合上、除かれています。これらは、以降に出版された日本では入手困難なゲーム規則集（ルールブック）、或いはパラディウム社オンライン上の『よくある質問とその回答（FAQ）』、Forums of Megaverse - メガバース・システム　公式フォーラムで補わなければなりません。これらの不備はインターネット以外の手段では近日中発売予定の・Robotech (R) RPG ニュー・ジエネレーション（新世代）：2011年第二/四半期（6月頃）発売予定 　・Robotech (R) RPG 地球統合軍遠征軍（UEEF）・海兵隊（Marines）：2011年第三/四半期（9月頃）初頭発売予定で補われるとのことですが、ゲーム本としても、シャドウクロニクル資料集としても中途半端な感じは否めません。けれども、電車の中でも立ち読み出来る携帯性や、日本での入手の容易さを、低価格と併せて割り引くならば、星三つの価値はあると思います。