Greetings patrons! I’ve talked about Robotech before on this patreon, but the short version is this: I played a lot of it, I love the franchise overall, and I’ve thought about it quite a bit.

When I was a high school student, the Palladium Robotech RPG was a big part of my gaming scene. We played several campaigns and I was absolutely hooked by the novel series, so I had it on my mind a lot… and there was something similar going on at the same time: Top Gun.

Top Gun mingled with Robotech like chocolate and peanut butter. Top Gun’s featured jet was the F-16 Tomcat, and the Veritechs/Valkyries of Macross/Robotech transformed from F-16 Tomcat-like fighters into giant robots.

Top Gun was not just an exciting film — it had a KICKASS soundtrack, courtesy of Kenny Loggins and some other talented musicians. I listened to that soundtrack over and over again… usually while making characters, NPCs, or plotlines for the Robotech RPG. Pretty soon, I was listening to that soundtrack while mowing lawns for money and imagining how I could sync up a Robotech campaign to the songs of the album.

Yeah. I was THAT guy.

So, the question I’ve decided to dive into here in this article is, “What was that campaign like?”

The answer is both easy and complicated. The easy part is that each segment of the campaign was themed to one of the songs in the soundtrack. The complicated part is that I never actually RAN this campaign, nor have I ever documented it until now — so we’re working off some very old memories here.

Stay with me patrons, as we take this journey into an old cartoon/rpg/soundtrack set. The following concepts are presented as part of an ongoing storyline told across multiple game sessions. However, feel free to take any individual piece of this you like and apply it to your own Robotech game if it inspires you!

Danger Zone

A classic banger, Danger Zone always gives me visions of fighter jets battling in the skies.

Campaign Info: In the beginning of the campaign, all the player characters are introduced as being part of the same pilot squadron aboard a starship (in my head, it’s either the SDF-1 in an alternate dimension or a similar style of vessel launched by the RDF/REF to perform a sweep of the solar system).

Of course, there is a rival group of pilots — fellow humans, but arrogant or cruel or some other approach that makes them antagonists with the player characters. Ideally there should be a “head rival” pilot that can be used as the face of this group.

The players should all have a chance to roleplay with one another before they’re introduced to their commanding officer and given a mission to perform CAP (combat air patrol) around the ship during its takeoff and move into orbit.

Naturally, the CAP is in place just in time for an all-out alien surprise attack. Seemingly endless waves of enemies approach the ship and the player characters have to fight them off as best they can. If you want to introduce an alien ace or alien leader that makes for a good villain, this would be the best time for them to introduce themselves to the player characters.

At the end of the session, select one of the player characters (ideally one that is interested in romance tropes). That character begins to have vivid dreams of an alien female, beautiful and alone, asking for his help.

Mighty Wings

Here’s where I’d put my adventure regarding the prototype veritech and the idol singer from an earlier post.

If you don’t want to use that adventure (or if it simply doesn’t fit the campaign you have in mind), then let’s instead focus on the prototype veritech and the idol singer as seperate issues. First, one of the player characters has been chosen to be the test pilot for the prototype. The other player characters act as wingmen/wingwomen to protect them as they put the prototype through its paces.

At the same time, an idol singer is becoming very popular on the ship. So popular, in fact, she’s made a request to accompany the player characters on their test flight! The player characters will have to negotiate how they can keep the idol singer safe and whether or not she can sing her new song from the cockpit. The idol singer threatens to go with the rival pilot squad instead if the player characters turn her down!

The idol singer can become romantically involved with one of the player characters. If it is good for your group, she can even become romantically interested in the same PC who is dreaming of the female alien, thus setting up a love triangle. This is a good time to remind everyone reading this that Robotech has always had strong romance themes and tropes, in every incarnation and in every series.

Naturally, there should be a strong alien attack so that the prototype fighter gets a bit of a workout. It’s also a great time to bring back any alien aces or commanders introduced in the first session to keep them in the player characters’ minds.

Playing With the Boys

As the ship transitions to deep orbit and then sets course for Mars, the commander of the ship takes a moment to check in with the pilots, including the player characters. The commander makes a note that the rival pilots are interested in a wager; a contest of piloting and fighting skills.

The player characters get plenty of chances to explore the inside of the ship (which is either the SDF-1 and thus has Macross city inside of it, or instead has extensive off-duty decks to give the pilots things to see and do; shopping, drinks, dancing, arcades, etc.

The player characters and their rivals complete their tests to see who’s better — with the rivals (and especially the rival leader) buying drinks and cheering on the player characters when they win. (Obviously, the reverse is also possible)

The goal here is to build familiarity with the ship and with the other pilots in the rival squadron. If you want to keep the romantic tension high, the head rival of the rival squadron could also be interested in or dating the Idol Singer from the previous adventure.

Lead Me On

The ship is suffering from a lack of a precious resource; maybe some kind of fuel or coolant or some similar resource that was damaged or destroyed by previous alien attacks. The player characters are ordered to scout a hazardous region of space (a highly-radioactive asteroid field) to locate more of this resource that the ship needs.

This is a great pretext for an exploration-style adventure, with the player characters making several piloting rolls to avoid hazards, scanning rolls to locate the resource they need, and maybe running into some fun random encounters along the way. If the GM wants to involve the rival squad of pilots, perhaps they’ve also been assigned this task and are challenging to the player characters to see who can find the resource the fastest.

Of course the player characters soon encounter a large alien force defending a strange jump-gate like device. The gate is big enough to send the player character’s home starship to somewhere else, someplace else, very far away in interstellar terms.

After the battle, the player characters discover a floating pod–an escape craft from one of the alien vessels. Inside, in cryo-sleep, is a female alien pilot. The same alien pilot that one of the player characters has been dreaming about…!

Once they recover the pod, the player characters can journey back to their ship with this news. The commander who gives the player characters missions notes that this jump-gate must be how the aliens are receiving their supplies and reinforcements, making it a priority target. As for the female alien, she soon awakens… and wants to learn more about humans and human culture, ESPECIALLY from the player character who has been dreaming about her from the start.

Take my Breath Away/Hot Summer Nights/Heaven in Your Eyes

This is where all the romantic storylines start coming to a head. The Idol Singer and the Alien Female are now very important NPCs and the rival pilot leader returns to become a pain the player characters’ butts. Feel free to skip this section if you don’t want to involve romance tropes in your campaign!

Here are some of the biggest tropes I would want to hit in the romance scenes:

• Meet Cute: Make sure to have a fun interaction where the Alien Female meets one of your player characters — ideally awkward and heartwarming at the same time.

• First Date: Maybe with the Idol Singer or with the Alien Female, just ensure there’s dancing, mutual attraction, and maybe a confrontation with some admirers of the idol singer or xenophobic bigots who want the alien female to leave.

• Growing Bonds: You don’t need an explicit confession of love unless it feels right for the circumstances, but you should invest some time and effort into a genuine-feeling bond between the NPC and the player character.

• Montage: One way to get through this sequence is to call it a montage, and simply present small vignettes of different situations that take place over the course of a month or a few weeks to let the NPC/Player Character romances play out a bit and feel earned.

Through the Fire

This section begins with the commander informing the player characters that the prototype fighter they tested earlier is now approved for use. Thus, all the player characters get an upgrade for their mecha and arsenals. The player characters should have a bit of time to celebrate and get used to their upgrades before the alarm sounds…

The aliens launch a truly massive attack against the ship, inflicting heavy damage. This should be an exceptionally difficult battle for the player characters, having to confront numerous highly-skilled alien aces or some very large and powerful alien mecha. The alien ace or commander that the player characters hate most should be the one leading this attack.

There should be a heavy price paid during this battle. I’d recommend that, at a bare minimum, the rival pilot squadron (or at least the main rival pilot) die in combat. If the alien female or the idol singer are placed in danger, the consequences should be significant, ranging from severe wounds to death as well. It doesn’t pay to make this sequence excessively bleak, but it’s good to have a downbeat moment or two here in this part of the campaign so that the danger feels real and the stakes feel high.

To add one last downbeat at the very end, the commander of the ship addresses the player characters, stating that they won’t survive another assault like that. Thus, the commander orders the ship to head towards the previously-discovered jump gate at full speed…

Destination Unknown

The player characters have a few hours to prepare themselves for one last flight. This is a good time to pay off any friendships they’ve built (maybe with the rival squadron), romantic subplots, anything they want to say to the commander of the ship, etc.

The voyage itself could be played as a chase scene rather than a battle, and likely should be seen in that light. Indeed, there should be a feeling of desperation for this session, with the alien fleet coming in to attack in full strength. Pieces of debris should be blasted off of the player characters’ ship. Their prototype fighters are strong, but not strong enough. Plenty of NPC pilots and bridge crew should die or get wounded during this scene.

At the end, the ship passes through the jump gate as the last-ditch effort from the alien fleet ultimately fails…

If you want, you can use this scene to set up anything you want for where the jump gate leads. Does it go into the past or future? Does it lead to a familiar location, or somewhere entirely new?

Top Gun Anthem/Memories/You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling

These songs all reflect a kind of epilogue for the campaign. There should be some time as the ship goes through the jump gate (this could take hours, days, or even weeks spent in “jump space”). In any event, this is the time for every player to stop and take stock of how far their characters have come since the beginning. Any arcs of personal growth they may have gone through. Any unfinished business they now can address.

Here are a few elements I would want to make sure and include:

• A sober acknowledgement of what the player characters have lost… and gained.

• Medals, awards, and promotions for the survivors.

• A chance to memorialize and/or visit the grave of someone they love or deeply respected.

End of the Line

So those are my thoughts on what a Robotech campaign might look like, based entirely on (and inspired from) the Top Gun soundtrack. What about you? Have you ever had a particular music speak to you strongly for adventures or entire stories in RPGs? Let me know!