Robotech Memories: RPG II

After my first gaming session over at JM’s house, I immediately wanted to get my own copies of the books.

Flipping back through my high school memories, going to JM’s was not my first exposure to the Robotech RPG. He definitely introduced me to it. But I revise my memories to say I know I saw these books prior but disregarded them thinking they were too expensive and telling myself I wasn’t really an RPGer. In efforts of turning the pages back, I realized it was Greenspray Books where I first saw them.

Just a few weeks before this, not sure when, but very much hand in hand, I had stumbled upon a new bookstore in the Plains Park Shopping Center called Greenspray Books. I usually add Comics to their title as they did carry some comics and gaming supplies although they weren’t a comic shop per se. Thinking back, I would have discovered it while riding my bike home from the Blockbuster video store. It was a nice store. Simple yet clean. The front was devoted to magazines and racks of paperbacks. The back was the geek section with comics, role-playing games, supplies and T-shirts. Eventually the magazines would disappear and with a year, the store would disappear.

Greenspray Books will play additional pivots to my Robotech obsession. More to that later.

Seeing the books for the first time, I remember thinking they were incredibly cool but why get them if I don’t have a group of friends that would like to play. Yet, once I knew that there was a small group of guys that could play the game, I went directly back to Greenspray to get mine! I believe Rob did the same, as I have this feeling I had to beat him to the store incase there was only one copy. Yet, fate was on our side as there was two copies on the shelf.

I put my name on my book via a name sticker just so I would get my book confused with someone else’s.

Palladium and Kevin Siembieda produced all the books. The books covered every generation of Robotech and later the sequel The Sentinels. With The Sentinels, new manuals would include the REF Field Guide, Return of the Masters and specific adventure campaigns centered around characters or events.. Some we dare to forget like Lancer’s Rockers. I bought the core rule book and the RDF manual on the spot day one. At the counter, I bought some cool sparkly dice from the display case and raced home to start my character building. I would return later and grab the Robotech Southern Cross book and Invid Invasion supplement-which had just recently been released around that time. The books weren’t cheap for a high school freshman but I managed to drop the $9.99 and $6.95 respectively. Thus, I remember Rob and I would share the cost of the campaign books as he would buy Zentraedi Breakout and Ghost Ship while I got the RDF and REF field guides. It’s funny how I think back on these things and wonder where I was getting my money back then. I want to say it had to be allowance. I had no job. No credit card. By this time, I’m guessing I was getting 20 bucks every other week. Either way, it didn’t stop me from getting what I wanted most the time.

I would ride my bike down Pennsylvania and over 2^nd Street to get to the Roswell Public Library (3rd and Penn). They had a Xerox machine and I could make copies for a dime. I must have dropped $10 in that copier from 1988 through 1989. Making copies of the character sheets and the stat trackers and weapon guides. JM had his Mom make copies from her work. Rob did the same. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a parent with easy access to a Xerox. I did mine at the library and I have a vague memory that I may have used Roswell High’s at one point. Thinking or planning Robotech RPGs took most of my waking hours. I would race home to scribble stories. I used the school’s Word Processors to write scenarios. I drew maps on graph paper. I created my own squadron and color schemes for my VFs. I was a nerd. I bound the scenarios in report folders – had a file system for all characters sheets. And the sad thing was: we only played a dozen or so times. It just felt like when I wanted to play, the guys didn't or we'd plan on a Saturday only to have parents say we couldn't do it. Oh well, I still cherish all those memories regardless if I played the game or just prepared to....