Fandom Gundam Roleplay looking for players!

[Crosswire]

Are you a fan of Gundam, or just mecha roleplays in general? Then you should check out the roleplay I recently set up "Mobile Suit Gundam: The Uncertain Century".

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The roleplay is set 1000 years after a tremendous calamity destroyed civilization and burned away all knowledge of the past. Humans live in small scattered settlements and have slowly reinvented technology over the years. Things were peaceful until someone broke the taboo of digging too deep and discovered buried, preserved weapons known as "mobile suits".


Soon settlements and individuals alike began to rake the Earth in search of weapons, technology, and riches. As ambition, fear, and terrors of eras long since blasted out of human memory you're left with the power to change things through your actions and decisions.


What will you do? Will you fight to turn a simple town into a mighty nation? Rake the dirt for knowledge of the past and insight into the present? Or will you simply take power for yourself and use the weapons known as "Mobile Suits" to fuel your own selfish ambition?


This roleplay emphasizes a focus on story and utilizes a simple system to make excavating for lost technology mysterious and exciting!


Even if you're unfamiliar with Gundam or only know a single entry in the franchise, don't worry. This forum is friendly to those unfamiliar with the material as it's set in a world that is oblivious to the past, so you'll be learning along with your characters!

 

[GasMaskie]

Bumping for visibility.


@Zerohex


Not sure if you've seen this yet, but I remember that you were in the War in Heaven RP that died out a while back.

 

[Zerohex]

Eh, gonna pass, can't say I'm a big fan of not even being allowed to pick out MS in any way or having the GM try to be anal about things like repairs. It feels like it misses out on the actually fun aspects of Gundam, such as having fun with cool giant robots. And I can't really take anyone that goes "a Wing Gundam can be brought down by a supposedly ‘inferior’ Zaku" seriously in anything that isn't a gunpla setting. Thanks for the invite though.

 

[GasMaskie]

@Zerohex


Fair enough, although I think you completely missed the point of the Wing Gundam and Zaku II analogy. The Wing Gundam is inherently more powerful in all regards to the Zaku II and a match between them would be ridiculously mismatched. But, the Zaku II is easier to actually maintain and repair. You're more likely to find copies of its machine gun and parts than the one-off Wing Gundam. Thus, while inferior in regards to the Wing Gundam's capabilities, the Zaku II is a far better choice for skirmishes and overall general use since its not a one-off model.


Also, Char's a good example of someone who's managed to kick ass in an MP-suit. Shiro Amada from 08th MS Team managed to defeat a Zaku II. Bernie (at the cost of his life) disabled the Gundam Alex which was intended as Amuro's upgrade. Then there was the fucking Newtype monkeys in experimental OYW suits (read, they just replaced the legs with arms) overwhelming an ace pilot in an F91 during one of the Crossbone sequels.


tl;dr Too Awesome To Use vs. Boring But Practical, Gundam are still Mobile Suits with inherent flaws and not the magical murder machines that come with a medium that caters to a specific charater (barring the Turn A since it was literally designed to be the end point of the entire franchise).

 

[Zerohex]

Uh. No. The quote is "even technologically superior suits have flaws that can be abused, meaning a Wing Gundam can be brought down by a supposedly ‘inferior’ Zaku". It's a separate statement from the entire bit about ease of use and maintenance, which again I'm not terribly big on. It's a pretty bad example by virtue of being blatantly wrong, considering Wing Gundam is immune to beam weapons that aren't extremely powerful large cannons, let alone anything on the Zaku's arsenal, and it has a weapon that can destroy colonies.


Sure, it's limited to 3 shots before reloading, which doesn't mean it can't pretty much clear out a battlefield or base with it. It can also transform into a flyer that can survive atmospheric re-entry and crash landing into the ocean to no real detriment and which is never shown to make the frame particularly more fragile. It wasn't a good example and I don't really like the style this seems to be going for.


Also, you bring up Char who, you know, was consistently fought off entirely because the Gundam was so much better it carried a kid that was still reading the manual, which doesn't really help the case any. Of course Amuro then became a better pilot and still fought him off even when Char had equally powerful MS (Gelgoog, Zeong, Sazabi), but even in Zeta being stuck in a cool but unremarkable suit like the Hyaku Shiki ruined Quattro against Haman's cutting edge Qubeley.

 

[Crosswire]

One of the things people don't really realize is that, while the Gundams in Wing were intended in premise to be powerful a lot of their apparent invulnerability came from the piss poor animation budget the show had to work with. They couldn't afford to show the Wings getting damaged that much if at all so they just went with the Gundams being all but invincible. That durability is canon but it still doesn't change the fact they're mobile suits and while their armor may be able to tank anything but beam cannons the same doesn't go for their weapons, sensors, joints, and thrusters.


Also Char's a bad example period, the man is awesome but he was practically cursed to lose every important battle in his life. A better example of a superior machine being brought down by a less advanced on is the RX-78-6 Mudrock Gundam losing to a couple of Zakus. The Mudrock was better then the Zaku II's it was fighting against in mobility, armor, firepower, and just about every other aspect.


The Mudrock Gundam lost so hard it would up getting damaged beyond repair because the pilot was a fool and his opponents fought intelligently.


Now a Zaku II fighting against the Wing Gundam is a whole other story and I'll admit that may have been too extreme an example, but I still stand by it. Saying the more advanced suit will always win is like saying the man with bigger muscles will always win a fight, it's childish and arrogant because there is more to fighting then who has the newest gun.


However I didn't post up this up to argue and I'm sorry that the setup of my roleplay seems to have bothered you as much as it has. I'm happy however to see someone who knows their stuff about Gundam though.

 

[Zerohex]

Nah man, it doesn't really bother me, I'm just saying it's not what I want out of a Gundam thing. To each their own. I just enjoy Gundam minutiae, probably way too much. To wit:


It's true that the general invulnerability of Wing suits is partially due to not wanting to animate damage, which doesn't change that they're canonically well beyond the scope of what a Zaku could do to them. It's best not to start ignoring show portrayal, even if we can recognize that sometimes they were necessarily influenced by real life situations. The Mudrock is absolutely a better example. So is that one episode in the original show where a bunch of soldiers with hoverbikes and explosive charges almost put the Gundam out of comission by using their speed to plant them at key points in the inner frame.


As a fight fan and sort of MMA journalist, I'll tell you right now that size and strength play an absolutely integral role in fighting. For instance, Brock Lesnar wasn't a particularly good fighter and had little experience beyond a wrestling pedigree, but being a human cheat code meant he became UFC Heavyweight Champion 4 fights into his career of fighting other huge men. Skill overcoming power is a nice concept, but being bigger than the other guy is a critical advantage. It's the entire reason why we have weight classes and fighters dehydrate themselves to cut weight and fight in a category where they can hold a size advantage.


I absolutely agree about wanting to avoid the typical scenario where everyone just jumps for the powerwankiest mobile suits out there though. That is a good call and one more GMs should be aware of.

 

[NickRobertsneutral]

Sounds pretty cool! Count me in!