Robotech Returns (Sort of) with the Genesis Pits Role-Playing Game Sourcebook

2013 will see the return of several beloved horror and sci-fi titles, including Iron Man (as a sequel), Evil Dead (as a remake), and Aliens (as a video game). Yet one that I didn't expect to return was Robotech, the popular anime series from 1985 that has yet to see a successful and consistent continuation in the decades since. From I've read on various anime sites, another straight-to-video film titled Robotech: Love, Live, Alive is scheduled for release sometime this year, although its exact release date has yet to be determined. This post isn't about that. Instead, I'm focusing my attention on a role-playing game (RPG) sourcebook that was published less than a month before the end of 2012: the Robotech Genesis Pits Sourcebook.

The Robotech RPG has been around for a while and new modules of the game usually mirror what is considered to be "canon" (i.e., the animated episodes, as opposed to the comic books or novels). In contrast, the Genesis Pits Sourcebook takes some of the most interesting ideas from the Robotech saga and goes absolutely berserk with them, in a way that makes it sounds like the most promising Robotech release I've seen in years.

According to Palladium Books, the Genesis Pits Sourcebook "takes an in-depth look at the Invid Genesis Pits, their purpose, function, the mutants and monsters they unleash and the dangers they pose for non-Invid. It is jam-packed with never before seen source material, mutations, mutation tables (so you can generate your own Genesis Pit monsters and characters) and more." Here are a few of the things that are included in the sourcebook:

* Inorganics and other war machines of the Invid Regent
* Gura-Invid: Monstrous mutant Invid that do not leave when the Regess and her Invid legions depart a planet
* Evolutionary experiments gone wrong, like giant insects and extinct creatures from Earth's past
* Genesis Pits on alien worlds filled with strange monsters
* Frankenmechs: Monstrous machine hybrids created from the remains of older mecha
* The last surviving Robotech Masters and their clones
* Mutated Zentraedi
* The fate of the Alaska Grand Cannon

I don't even play RPGs outside of video games that include RPG-like scoring systems, but I might pick this book up anyway to see how it pushes Robotech into strange, freaky new directions. Armies of mecha, monsters and mutants, all in one game--what's not to love?