Let's talk about giant robots.
Tell me about some of your favorites. What are your preferred naming conventions? What are good reasons to have them around? How would giant robot construction help in other regions of technology? What are viable scenarios and problems for when giant robots are the best answer?
Also, what are some of /tg/'s preferred films or series revolving around giant robots?
SNRI a best.
Formula Series a best.
Anaheim Electronics a shit.
>>44408373
Meant to namefag it just for this thread's purposes.
The reason I start this thread is because I've created a character in a d20Future campaign which is meant as a projection of our own future, sitting at PL6-going-on-7. He's mostly a tech-focused Krieger knockoff with dreams of mad science running through his head, but his Profession is Heir, and for funsies I tied that to Tesla Heavy Industries, the in-game future incarnation of Tesla Motors, which has now exploded into basically the keystone of energy technologies in 2170, still headed by the cybernetic body of Elon Musk's brain in a jar.
Long story short, our session yesterday involved a brief conversation with Elon Musk (or the Science-Pope as I jokingly called him) where I remarked that I want to build giant robots. He shot it down while mockingly making me Director of Giant Robotics. Which means I'm now on the Board of Directors for Tesla Heavy Industries. I have a fancy office now. I also have to go to board meetings to inform them of my plans, progress, and why we need giant robots.
I just wanted to build Large-size stealth mecha in my lab to board enemy ships and assist in extraction and bounty hunting jobs. But now it's a thing. Fuck.
TL;DR, Director of Giant Robotics, wat do?
>>44408530
>why we need giant robots.
To battle giant aliens that are genetically compatible with humans and fascinated by this thing we have called "culture".
Just make sure the robots are also jets, and that you have aidorus singing about their boyfriends being pilots in your ad campaign.
>>44408530
And I also need to figure out a way to tie mecha robotics into creation of true anti-grav technologies because a long-term character goal is exactly that, to throw us from the end of PL6 squarely into PL7.
I'm thinking that I could try to convince them that mecha would make for great peace-keeping contracts, better stellar exploration through less machinery needed for surface missions, small ones for stealth extraction, and maybe even a cheap duraplastic line meant for televised battles for entertainment purposes. There's a lot of possibilities but I need help sorting out which avenues actually make ANY sense at all, or if it will never make sense and I'll have to resort to stomping everything in a giant rawboot just because I can. Which is plenty fun also, but I prefer having a logical in-world reason even if I am playing a mad scientist.
>>44408433
And this is from Gundam something? Forgive my ignorance, I'm honestly just deciding to make this a thing for myself and I've never watched any series involving giant mecha. Consider me a willing student.
>>44408556
Sorry, human-only campaign. The DM has made it clear that no aliens will be making contact with us even if they do exist, and we lack the necessary technology at the current PL to go looking for them ourselves.
>>44408373
>What are your preferred naming conventions?
Whatever sounds cool, really
>>44408433
>Implying anyone even comes close to Norse-Storm Battlemechs
>>44408530
Giant robots could be used as construction equipment in mountainous terrain, where tires or even treaded vehicles can't traverse. Other possible applications include firefighting (giant robot can wade into the fire and fight it from the inside out, holding more water than a dozen helicopters loaded with dump tanks.)
Furthermore, building a giant robot is a way to test novel engineering principles and materials, as the forces required to move and power one would be extreme. This may have synergistic effects with industrial advancements elsewhere.
>>44408844
Checked. Also, good fucking answer.
>>44408654
I don't know how willing your GM is to let you make shit up, but the first piloted giant robot, Mazinger Z, was built with an alloy called Super Alloy Z when the manga's creator, Go Nagai, realized that steel or titanium would be too heavy to function for a robot.
So I'd say one of the key things is to not necessarily have a reason for their existence, but to have a reason why they work. I'm assuming there's a fair amount of super-science baloney that you get a pass on, so the specifics shouldn't be worried about.
Also, this is a general observation, but I think the difference between Japanese and Western robots is that Japanese robots are made to be toys first(from a meta perspective) and a weapon second, while Western designs are made to be weapons first, and aesthetics are secondary. So when it comes to having weapons that come with it or installed on it, think of them as selling points that you'd put on a toy's packaging. If you're going for the Japanese Super Robot theme, anyway.
>>44408373
The new gundam series is pretty good. Iron-blooded orphans I think? Also, my favorite convention of giga robots is them corupting the pilot.
>>44408654
>And I also need to figure out a way to tie mecha robotics into creation of true anti-grav technologies because a long-term character goal is exactly that, to throw us from the end of PL6 squarely into PL7.
Robots require anti-grav units to properly function, you use them as effective weight reduction units that preserve the mass and durability of the robot while making it lighter and more agile.
>>44408970
We're using the full d20 Modern and Future rules with the only content being left out is magic/FX/psionics and aliens. Basically he designed it to be a space cowboy adventure in our future flavored like Cowboy Bebop or Firefly. So we have all the d20 phlebotinum available to PL6: Alumisteel, Duralloy and Vanadium. The d20Future book also has rulesets for both western and Japanese mecha, but we'll be going with the Japanese version because we prefer the rules for using the pilot's base stats with the mecha as basically a giant suit instead of an independent tank.
>>44409202
You are correct in your line of thinking but I wasn't entirely clear in my statement. I need to think of a rationalization for why creating giant robots is a means to an end result of anti-gravity tech. As >>44408844 implied, mecha would be great test subjects for anti-grav R&D, but that alone doesn't serve why to build mecha in the first place. My bad for not word good.
Games set in space offer a lot of fun for a GM more freedom in battles and of course easy switching from fuck yeah space battle to dead space kinda beats, also Seig Zeon
>>44409066
no it aint
>>44408530
>Large-size stealthy mechs
>Boarding actions and shit
Watch the first half of Gasaraki. Awesome show with reasonably-sized urban combat mecha.
The second half is about feudal Japan demon-suit (with the muscly metamaterial that makes the mechs work) samurai fighting over rice.
>>44409489
Sell them as toys for the mega rich based around ancient sci-fi, bonus points if you roleplay obtaining the image rights to produce actual gundams.
>>44408433
I would fug the F91.
>>44409613
>Seig Zeon
What's that one about? A brief sampling from Youtube makes it look like the Star Wars prequels: way more politics than the cool shit you expected should allow for.
>>44409710
If the trailer I saw is any indication, Gasaraki sounds way more in line with what I'm looking for. Also demon suit rice-feud sounds reasonably entertaining, cuz I'm a fuckin' weeb and I also like laughing at terribly silly shit
>>44409716
>Sell them as toys for the mega rich based around ancient sci-fi, bonus points if you roleplay obtaining the image rights to produce actual gundams.
>finger tenting intensifies
That would be a grand way to generate starting capital, plus create a platform for the rich to generate a group of rich enthusiasts. That opens the door for creating a televised competitive sport and sponsorship deals to fuel my ethically questionable robotics experiments while trying to generate anti-grav technology. I imagine it might be like jousts or sumo wrestling, but with unnecessarily elaborate 40' robots. Something like this must have been done elsewhere already.
>>44410023
Seig Zeon is not a series in itself but the battle cry of the Zeon group in Gundam, they are in the simplist terms Nazi's in space, who want freedom from the Earth federation.
>>44410023
Ummm we might be getting giant robot gladiator matches if these two companies follow through with it.
I hope they don't get entombed in a mountain of red tape.
>>44410149
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7u8mheM2Hrg
Oops forgot link
>>44410149
>>44410165
I have seen those and I'm looking forward to seeing the battle itself. I also hope they can easily find a way to make it happen, I can only imagine the sort of liability protection the organizers will have to provide.
>>44410297
Perhaps challenge another company to a giant robot duel, claim it is an ancient tradition dateing back over 150 years, then call them chicken. Repeatedly.
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