Last week, I was chatting to my friend Victor. He informed me that Palladium had published “Robotech: Shadow Chronicles®, The Role Playing Game.” Well, while we were chatting I went online to the Palladium Books website to order the RPG. I was excited to even know that the RPG was out or even that Palladium was publishing it. I soon realized that when I was at the Robotech® panel at Anime on Display (AOD), I did remember Jonny Yune talking about the RPG. He even presented some new drawings which I went over at the end of the panel. Anyway, I ordered it on the spot, as should any Robotech® fan.

Just the other day I received the package via UPS. Upon first glancing on the manga-sized role playing game book, it was unlike its predecessors. This was the first book since the original Robotech® RPG that used the real logo. Each of next RPGs used generic logos.

While flipping through the pages and reading a lot of the material inside, I realized that the book design was like the original books. Being a graphic designer, one might think that after some twenty years later, Palladium would have put a little more effort into the design of the RPG. The RPG uses the Times Roman typeface exclusively. Even though they used the typeface how it traditionally is used, basic graphic design standards should have been implemented. A contrasting typeface like even Helvetica could have been used to give some more visual appeal. Sure it was like that in the Invid section, but it could’ve been used more throughout the book. Additional simple graphic design elements such as dingbats or key-lined boxes to separate dice roll information could have also been used.

Another bad design in the book is the use of raster images (black and white images with shading). The image styles should have been kept constant. Throughout the book, line drawings are used. The raster images should have been redrawn as line drawings to give the book continuity. On the other hand, if redrawing the art is impossible, the book should have been printed at a much higher line screen. Based on the quality of the raster art, I assume that the book was printed in 72 line screen. At that resolution, the images appear dark. With the book also being manga-sized, the images also lost a lot of detail because of the size reduction. The book should have been printed at either 133, 150 or even 300 line screen. At these resolutions, the raster art would have retained a lot of the art and give it a smoother, almost photo, look. Through a print cost point of view, it would’ve cost almost the same if the book was printed at the higher line screen.

Other than the technical and graphic design aspects, the material stayed true to the original Robotech® RPG that came out 20 years ago and the Sentinels RPG four years later. A lot of the material was from the Invid Invasion RPG, as well as material from the Sentinels RPG. Other than the original material, a mountain of new material from the Shadow Chronicles was introduced.

In the opening of the Shadow Chronicles timeline, the major enemy is the Invid. The stage is set for the Battle at Reflex Point (at the end of the New Generation). The book opens with the background information of the Invid. New types in Invid mecha are also included: Soldier, Commander and the Overlord. The Invid Overlord is the most advanced combat mecha in the Invid arsenal. It’s the only Invid that’s transformable (three modes just like the Veritechs) and most formidable opponent.

The Haydonites are the new alien race in the Shadow Chronicles. According to the timeline, the Haydonites helped the Expeditionary Force develop new technology to help combat the Invid. But in the end, they betrayed the Expeditionary Force and are bent of destroying all humanity. The only two Haydonite mecha presented in this book are the Wraith and the Infiltrator.

The next section deals with the history United Earth Expeditioary Force as well as a timeline of main events leading up to the Shadow Chronicles storyline.

A new optional character creation method is introduced. If a player cannot make up his mind on what type of character he wants to be, just roll the percentile dice. This new method makes the decision of making character quicker. There’s also a lot more Occupational Character Classes (OCCs) that are added to the long list of OCCs in the Robotech® RPG. And since the RPG deals heavily with being a part of the military, a plethora of new Military Occupational Skills (MOSs) are also included. Also are new mecha such as the Bioroid Interceptor, the Condor and the “Silverback.” All the standard mecha are also in book such as the Alphas and the Betas. The one thing I was “erked” about back in the original Sentinels RPG is the look of the Shadow Fighter. For such an awesome fighter with all it’s additional abilities, the design is just plan gay! It’s synonymous to designing the Stealth fighter to make look like the F-4 Phantom. Remember those! The standard issue Alpha FIghter looks a lot better. Seriously! Also, the picture to indicate the Shadow Fighter is the picture of the Vindicator (Veritech/Alpha hybrid) that appeared the Sentinels RPG. At least show the right gay-looking picture of the Shadow Fighter. Kevin Long...what happened!?

The rest of the book deals with the game mechanics, the guts of the game. By reading a lot of passages of this section, it’s basically the same as in the Sentinels RPG. There are some new skills to reflect the setting as well as today’s world. At the end of the book are a list of main characters and their backgrounds that play major roles in the Shadow Chronicles.

As a final note, the layout of the book is somewhat confusing...to someone new to pen and paper RPGs. The book starts out with the Invid, the Haydonites, UEF, OCCs, Veritech Fighters, game mechanics, adventures and the main characters list. The way I would have laid it out would be the background of the Expeditionary Force (background, characters and mecha). The player would most likely be playing as a member of the UEF, so why not put all that information in the beginning? Next would be the Invid (background and mecha) and the Haydonites. After you know yourself, know your enemy. With all the background aside, the game mechanics will be next. It’s only logical to have the OCCs right after the initial character creation. And the Skills List and descriptions after that. The book does it backwards. And finally, the book should end with sample role-playing, non-player characters and adventure scenarios. All in all, aside from the lack of design effort put into the book as compared to other RPGs in the market today, the material contained within the pages are priceless. It’s a “must buy” for any Robotech® fan, whether or not you’re a gamer. Not so much as the artwork, but for the material. I hope they address these short comings in the version of the RPG. I can’t wait until I get my hands on the hard bound version of the Robotech® Shadow Chronicles RPG when it’s released soon. I pre-ordered.

A couple months ago, we decided that we are going to Anime Expo 2008. Not that we have to, but to make up for Adrian and Tim not going to Fanime 2008 next week. So why not go to AX08?

I wasn’t even planning to go this year just because I’m worn out from it all. I tend to like the smaller conventions than the larger ones. So out of curiosity, I was looking for nearby hotels to say in. I knew for a fact that the nearest hotel to the LA Convention Center, the Holiday Inn, is fully booked. So looked for the next best thing. The next closest hotels were the Figueroa and Ritz Milner. They were cheap and within decent walking distance, but lacking in accommodations...like parking. And besides, walking in downtown LA at night is dangerous, which I know from growing up in the area and from first-hand experience. I hate to be the cosplayer walking the streets at night. Luckily we found out that AX offers free shuttle service to the assigned hotels. AX finally added more hotels to their line-up, one being the Bonaventure. That’s the ticket. It’s been decided that we’ll be staying at the Bonaventure.

Learning from my mistake from the Anime On Display trip, we decided to go on a scouting mission to LA AX in advance. We needed to know what to do, were to go and how to get there. It’s also been decided that we will NOT drive to AX. With the cost of gas, parking, driving to and fro from the convention to the hotel, hotel parking and LA traffic, we’re taking the train! The Metrorail from Riverside to LA Union Station to be exact.

After watching Speed Racer last Friday, the next morning we took the Metrorail to LA. Tim, Lawrence and I left about 5:30 AM for the Riverside Station. When we got there, we were like lost puppies, not knowing what to do. We looked and asked around for the ticket vending machines. Yay! We finally found it. It was hella-lot easier to use than the BART machines up North for the first time user. A roundtrip ticket cost $14.50. That’s about 3.5 gallon worth of gas at about $4 per gallon. A trip to LA from Riverside is some 70 miles. That’s about 4.5 gallons worth of gas when you do the math with a SUV at about 15 MPG. So we saved about $18 is gas.

The ride from Riverside to Union Station was cool. First, we stopped at San Bernardino to pick up some passengers and waited for 20 minutes before the train started moving again. There were a lot sights along the tracks. Sure for the first time rider, it’s interesting. But probably for the regular commuter, it get’s old. The train travelled along tracks north of the 10 Freeway. So we tried to spot areas we were familiar with. We saw the Pomona Fairgrounds and the California Speedway. We also were looking for Frank & Sons (a somewhat local collectors market), but that’s also when we realized that the train travelled north of the 10. It was a somewhat scenic trip, stopping at each of the stations along the way. We compared all the different stations coming to the conclusion that the Fontana Station was the best looking one. We finally got to Union Station.

When we walked through Union Station, it was like travelling back in time. The stations art deco decor what interesting. If it weren’t for the all the people there, we would’ve though we did travel back in time to the 20s or 30s. When we exited from the station, we got a taxi to the Bonaventure. The cab driver told us that they were filming at Union Station and that were was also construction work around the area. But, damn, he was a crazy driver and a character. The cab fare was about $17, but at least we got there safely. I forgot how crazy you need to be to drive downtown streets.

At the Bonaventure, the doorman opened the cab door for us and welcomed us to the hotel. When we walked inside, we were at awe of the place. I’ve been there before a few times. One was my high school prom and the next was to visit my cousin saying there when he came to visit from overseas. We were getting hungry because we got up early and left without eating breakfast. The lobby of the Bonaventure was spectacular. It has a stylish futuristic decor. We went to the restaurant and ate the breakfast buffet. Only in the Bonaventure would you eat sashimi salmon for breakfast! I met this cool waiter there, Rehan. While eating this wonderful breakfast, we were talking business about real estate, graphic design and so on. It’s just to show you that you could meet important business contacts in the “darndest” places. Even while looking at the skylights above the restaurant, you can’t help but wonder that the hotel could be spaceport while the outdoor elevators go up and down.

After that fulfilling breakfast, it was off to the Los Angeles Convention Center to determine the distance from the hotel. We walked down along Flower Street checking out the sights. We came across the Ritz Milner, our first choice because it was cheaper. One look at it and we all agreed that we’re staying at the Bonaventure. We continued down the street and came across a building that had a huge ad for GTA4. We took some pics. We also came by the “then” fully booked Holiday Inn. Tim took a little break there while Lawrence and I waited outside for him.

As we continued our adventure in downtown LA, we finally reached Chick Hern Drive...the Stapes Center and the Nokia Theater. We then walked along the drive on the Nokia side watching the crowd of people across at Staples. It looks like some kind of school field trip because there were school buses everywhere. Finally past Staples was the the LA Convention Center. We were at the west side. I assumed that this is the part of the convention that AX will take place at, West Hall, because according the AX website, all concerts and events will be held at the Nokia. That said, if a majority of AX was being held at South Hall, it’ll be quite a walk to the Nokia. We walked up the convention steps to the main staging area and took more pictures and continued to walk to “front” of the convention center. The so-called front of the convention center is what most people think of...or South Hall, when they think of the LA Convention Center. This is where Electronic Entertainment Expo is held, except for last year when they made the stupid decision to move it Santa Monica. After taking a few more snapshots, we headed for Little Tokyo.

On the way to Little Tokyo, we decided to take the LA Dash, a local shuttle that goes around the city with a cheap fare of 25 cents. That’s right...25 cents! We waited at the stop across Staples. There was crazy ass dude at Staples yelling at people walking by. We went to the next stop to avoid him. There was a map at the stop showing the routes for that line of the LA Dash. We were at the wrong stop. We walked up Figueroa Street in search of the right stop. Along the way, we found this convenience store which was hella synonymous to the convenience stores in Japan...really! We went inside to find an eating area, ready-made sandwiches, a lot of drinks, stationary, snacks, household items and so on. I bought a drink and Pocky because all that walking was getting tiresome and I was already getting irritable. There came point when we needed to relieve ourselves. We entered the Macy’s shopping but the restrooms were only for hotel guests. After that leaving Macy’s, we found another stop with the right Dash route. Soon we discovered that Route A is on weekdays only. Damn!

We walked back to were we started, the Bonaventure. Along the way there, we discovered an underground mall. Almost all the stores were closed. But we weren’t there for the shops, instead we’re looking for the bathrooms. When we found one, it cost a quarter to use it. We passed. But because of the emergency, we found another one and paid the quarter. After that, we finally left that underground mall. We shortly arrived at the Bonaventure, to the same area we arrived at that morning. Instead of going there to ask for directions like we originally planned, we found a taxi and took it to Little Tokyo.



This taxi driver this time was pretty bland. No character at all, much less any conversation. I make it a point to converse with people I meet, not because out of common manners, but to know other people, not matter who they are. We finally made it there. And of course, the first place we headed to as if by instinct...Anime Jungle. We looked around Anime Jungle at all the anime wares they had. They expanded. There was a lot more figures in the store than when we last visited the store last year. The displays were filled with all sorts of figures. Mind you that their prices are about retail price, but there could be some deals if you look closely. There was a lot to choose from, from old 1960s anime to today’s figures. I found an out of production figure of Talho Yuki from Eureka Seven and bought it after much consideration.

The rest of Little Toyko was good. Last year when we came, it was a cloudy and rainy days so there was almost nobody walking around. This time around, there was a lot more people around. At the fountain in the center of Little Tokyo, was a guy playing a traditional Japanese shamisen, a kind of string instrument similar to a Western guitar. On top of it, it was an American guy dressed in a summer kimono. He was playing Japanese music and a rendering of “Iron Man” from Ozzy Osbourne. There was also a lot of hot chicks also. Just our luck that we saw this one who...I’ll leave it that. Anyway, we rested for a bit. The marine layer was already giving way to sunny skies. But while we rested, we were scoping her out. Dang!

Anyway, we walked some more. At Anime Jungle, we were told that there was another store, Anime Jungle #2. We found it and went it. All of the other merchandise that was there were cosplay accessories, videos, books and manga. We were already low on travel funds to we just browsed the goods and left. One more round of Little Tokyo and we were off. On the way out of Little Tokyo, we stopped by a video store. They sold mostly original videos and CDs. I found a few CDs that I liked to buy but I held back. What I found was a Tokimeki Memorial PS2 game instead for $15. I bought it. It’s so rare to find something like that, so why not. That’s it. I went for broke. We left for Union Station.

On the way back to Union Station, we stopped a bit to watch a Taiwanese show at the Olvera Street Plaza across the street from Union Station. At the station, we weren’t sure what time our return train to Riverside was. There was a display with the departure times. Ours was 3:30 PM. We had a couple hours to kill so we walked around looking for information on how to get to Beverly Center. It was for Tim. After that, we also found out that it was also Nation Train Day and there was a celebration at the station. Actor-singer Drake Bell was one of the many performers at Union Station in Los Angeles who made NTD an event to remember, but we missed it. We went back across the street to Taiwan Fest LA. All we could do is walk around and kill time. We were all broke. But we did have enough to buy water. Luckily I had some left over Pocky from than morning. We just hanged around watched some shows and scoped out more hot chicks everywhere. That’s pretty much it. We finally got on our train for our 2-hour long trip back to Riverside. We we all but tired from the scouting mission. Mission successful.