Standardizing the OCCs

[dataweaver]

First, a review of the current state of affairs:

Fleet OCCs
❖ Battloid Ace (Shadow Chronicles)
• Combat Specialist, Fighter Pilot, Sapper
❖ Enlisted Crewman/Infantry (Shadow Chronicles)
• Damage Control, Heavy Infantry/Pig Man, Infantry Point Man, Motorpool Mechanic, Radio Corpsman, Security/Military Police
❖ Military Specialist (Shadow Chronicles)
• Command Officer, EOD/Demolitions/SEAL, Gunnery/Ordnance Corpsman, Marine, Marine Commando, Ranger/Recon, Special Forces/Espionage, Undercover Ops
❖ Technical Officer (Shadow Chronicles)
• Combat Engineer, Communications Officer, Engineering Officer, Flight Crew Engineer, Helmsman/Navigator, Medical Officer, Science Officer
• Electronic Warfare Officer, Line Officer, Helicopter Pilot, Non-Variable Fighter Pilot (Macross Saga)
❖ Veritech Pilot (Shadow Chronicles)
• Veritech Alpha Fighter Pilot, Veritech Beta Fighter Pilot, Recon Veritech Pilot
• Veritech Test Pilot (Macross Saga)
❖ Exploration Specialist (Genesis Pits; Military Specialist XP)
• Astro-Navigator, Extraterrestrial Recon, Xenoculture Expert, Xenotech Reclamation

Marine OCCs
❖ Marine Infantry (Marines; Enlisted Crewman XP)
• Basic Mecha Maintenance, Close Quarters Combat Expert, Combat Camera Specialist, Combat Engineer, Combat Vehicle Crewman, EOD Technician, Heavy Infantry Weapons Specialist, Scout Sniper, STORM Team Basic Training
❖ Mechanized Infantry (Marines; Veritech Pilot XP)
• Basic Cyclone Piloting, Basic Mecha Maintenance, Combat Camera Specialist, Combat Vehicle Crewman, STORM Team Basic Training; Combat Shuttle Pilot, Destroid Pilot, VHT Pilot, Marine Close Air Support Pilot
❖ Fleet Corpsman (Marines; Military Specialist XP)
• Combat Shuttle Pilot, Search and Rescue, STORM Team Basic Training
❖ STORM Commando (Marines; Military Specialist XP)
• Basic Cyclone Piloting, Close Quarters Combat Expert, XT Environment Specialist, XT Affairs Liaison, Intelligence Specialist, Scout Sniper
❖ Marine Technical Officer (Marines; Technical Officer XP)
• (Basic Cyclone Training, Combat Camera Specialist, STORM Team Basic Training) + (Combat Engineer, Communications Officer, Electronic Warfare Officer, XT Affairs Liaison, Intelligence Specialist, Mecha Engineering, Science Officer)

ASC OCCs
❖ Tactical Air Force (Masters Saga; TAF)
• Aerospace Veritech Pilot, Aerospace Fighter Pilot, Damage Control Corpsman, Fighter Pilot, Gunnery/Ordnance, Ship Pilot; Armorer, Combat Engineer, Combat Journalist, Communications Specialist, Field Medic, First Responder/Paramedic, Fire and Rescue, Mechanic, Mecha Engineer
❖ Veritech Pilot (Masters Saga; TASC)
• Aerospace Veritech Pilot, Aerospace Fighter Pilot, Damage Control Corpsman, Fighter Pilot, Gunnery/Ordnance, Ship Pilot; Armorer, Combat Engineer, Combat Journalist, Communications Specialist, Field Medic, First Responder/Paramedic, Fire and Rescue, Mechanic, Mecha Engineer
❖ Power Armor Pilot (Masters Saga; TSC)
• Aerospace Veritech Pilot, Aerospace Fighter Pilot, Damage Control Corpsman, Fighter Pilot, Gunnery/Ordnance, Ship Pilot; Armorer, Combat Engineer, Combat Journalist, Communications Specialist, Field Medic, First Responder/Paramedic, Fire and Rescue, Mechanic, Mecha Engineer
❖ Hover Tank Pilot (Masters Saga; ATAC)
• Air Cavalry, Battloid Pilot, EOD/Demolitions, Guerilla Warfare Specialist, Heavy Weapons Specialist, Mechanized Infantry, Military Police, Scout/Recon, Survival Evasion Resistance Escape; Armorer, Combat Engineer, Combat Journalist, Communications Specialist, Field Medic, First Responder/Paramedic, Fire and Rescue, Mechanic, Mecha Engineer
❖ Tactical Corps (Masters Saga; TC)
• any ASC MOS, Special Forces: Cold Division, Desert Division, Forest Division, Marsh Division, Mountain Division, Navy Division, Recon Patrol
❖ Civil Defense Unit (Masters Saga; CDU)
• Civil Affairs Officer, Crime Scene Investigator, Detective, Police Tactical Officer/SWAT, Undercover Detective; Armorer, Combat Engineer, Combat Journalist, Communications Specialist, Field Medic, First Responder/Paramedic, Fire and Rescue, Mechanic, Mecha Engineer
❖ Civil Defense Flying Corps (Masters Saga; CDFC)
• Armorer, Combat Engineer, Combat Journalist, Communications Specialist, Field Medic, First Responder/Paramedic, Fire and Rescue, Mechanic, Mecha Engineer
❖ Global Military Police (Masters Saga; GMP)
• Deep Undercover Agent, Information Specialist, Surveillance Specialist; Civil Affairs Officer, Crime Scene Investigator, Detective, Police Tactical Officer/SWAT, Undercover Detective

Nonmilitary OCCs
❖ Civilian (Macross Saga)
• Business Owner, Communications Engineer, Computer Programmer/Systems Engineer, Computer Technician, Construction Worker/Skilled Trades, Consulting Engineer/Technician/Scientist, Espionage Agent, Entertainer, Firefighter/Fire and Rescue, Journalist/Media Reporter, Mechanic, Medical Doctor, Medicine: Paramedic, Police Officer/Beat Cop/Patrol Car Officer, Police Tactical Assault/SWAT, Stunt Pilot
❖ Freedom Fighter (New Generation)
• Cell Leader, Covert Ops, Mechanized Combat Specialist, Medic
❖ Patcher (New Generation)
• Mech-head
❖ Pathfinder (New Generation)
❖ Urchin (New Generation)
❖ Wasteland Rider (New Generation)
❖ Invid Genetics Experiment (New Generation)
❖ Invid Cybernetics Experiment (New Generation)

Zentreadi RCCs
✠ Zentreadi Overlord (Macross Saga)
✠ Zentreadi High Lord (Macross Saga)
✠ Zentreadi Warlord (Macross Saga)
✠ Zentreadi Warrior Elite (Macross Saga)
• Aerospace Combat Pilot, Guerrilla Warfare Specialist, Scout/Recon
✠ Zentreadi Auxiliary Specialist (Macross Saga)
• Archivist, Salvage/Recycling Specialist, Ship's Operations Specialist
✠ Zentreadi Warrior Infantry (Macross Saga)
• EOD/Demolitions, Heavy Weapons Specialist, Mechanized Infantry

Tirolian RCCs
✠ Tirolian High Master (Masters Saga)
✠ Tirolian Clone Master (Masters Saga)
✠ Tirolian Science Master (Masters Saga)
• Applied Scientist, Physical Scientist, Social Scientist, Life Scientist
✠ Tirolian Legionnaire (Masters Saga)
• Aerospace Pilot, Bioroid Pilot, Bioroid Terminator, Heavy Infantry, Internal Security, Special Forces
✠ Tirolian Muse (Masters Saga)
✠ Tirolian Partisan (Marines; Fleet Enlisted Crewman XP)
• Bioroid Pilot, Anti-Armor Specialist, Scout

Invid RCCs
✠ Invid Royalty (New Generation)
✠ Invid Simulagent (Genesis Pits; Invid Royalty XP)
✠ Invid Scientist (Marines)

Alien RCCs and OCCs
✠ Garudan
✠ Karbarran
❖ Karbarran Combat Laborer (Marines; Technical Officer XP)
✠ Perytonian
❖ Perytonian Energy Wizard (Marines; Veritech Pilot XP)
✠ Praxian
❖ Praxian Warrior (Marines; Military Specialist XP)
✠ Spherian

The lined-out RCCs are explicitly NPC-only.
“❖” means “OCC”
“✠” means “RCC”
A bulleted list following an OCC is the list of available MOSs or their equivalent that are available to that OCC.

[dataweaver]

Next, my analysis:
• the Fleet, Marine, and ASC OCCs could probably do with some restructuring and standardizing. The Fleet and Marine OCCs have some awkward overlaps: what's the difference, conceptually, between a Fleet Military Specialist with the Marine MOS and a Marine Infantry? Likewise, Fleet Military Specialist with the Marine Commando MOS vs. Marine STORM Commando, and Fleet Technical Officer vs. Marine Technical Officer.

Meanwhile, the ASC OCCs operate on a very different paradigm where each branch of the ASC gets one OCC, and the differences that the various Fleet and Marine OCCs use as an organizing principle are instead handled by one's choice of MOSs.

My inclination would be to go with a set of six to ten OCCs organized more or less along the design principles of the Fleet and Marine OCCs (e.g., Enlisted Personnel, Military Specialists, Technical Officers, etc.), with differences between Macross Saga, Masters Saga, New Generation, and Sentinels being reflected in which OCCs are available and what the MOSs are like. A rough draft would be: Enlisted Personnel, Military Specialist, Technical Officer, Combat Pilot, Tanker Ace, and Mobile Infantry.

The last three would feature aircraft, large ground vehicles (e.g., tanks and APCs), and small ground vehicles (e.g., ATVs and motorcycles) respectively, and each would have a Veritech MOS. The latter two would also feature minor variants that replace the vehicle operation skills with suitable mecha skills: the Battloid Ace is a Tanker Ace who has replaced the tanks and APCs with Battloids/Destroids, and the Power Armor Trooper is a Mobile Infantryman who has replaced small vehicle training with power armor training. I'd be inclined to add a fourth dealing with patrol boats, except that Robotech virtually ignores the open sea. Then again, the Macross Saga featured two warships being grafted onto the SDF-1 after its fateful first fold — they presumably had UNNavy crews — while Masters Saga’s Tactical Corps covers the wet navy as well as traditional ground forces, and even New Generation had a scenario where the team hijacked a patrol boat; so while there's a dearth of naval gear, vehicles, and mecha, they're not entirely absent.

I'm thinking that the Exploration Specialist might work better as a set of MOSs split between the Military Specialist and the Technical Officer.

Note: I could see this arrangement covering the majority of personnel in five of the eight branches of the ASC (the Aerospace Forces and Surface Forces); but not so much for the remaining three (the Civil Defense forces and the GMP). Which brings me to:

• The non-military OCCs could use some lumping and splitting: instead of a Civilian OCC and a bunch of Resistance Movement OCCs, I'd like to see:

• three or four “urban nonmilitary” OCCs suitable for Macross Saga inhabitants of Macross City or Masters Saga Monument City citizens. At the very least, separate out “action-oriented” careers such as police, firefighter, paramedic, or stunt pilot from more sedentry ones; but this would also be the right place for government agents and diplomatic types for those gamers who want to inject some political intrigue into their campaign.
• a small handful of “rural civilian” OCCs suitable for denizens of the countryside in the latter part of the Macross Saga, the whole Masters Saga, and most importantly the New Generation Saga (and also useful for natives of occupied worlds) — say, a Resistance Fighter/Mercenary OCC, a Survivor OCC (with Occupations similar to Patcher, Pathfinder, and Wasteland Rider, among others), and an Urchin OCC (well, not technically an OCC; but not quite an RCC, either).
• maybe a Spacer civilian OCC — though given Robotech's tendency to portray everything in space as militarized, I'd be hard-pressed to think of anything in the default setting that a Spacer OCC would represent.

Why so many Civilian OCCs? Because Robotech is generally at its best when there's an interplay between civilians and military, whether it be Rick/Lisa/Minmei in the Macross Saga or Scott's ragtag group in New Generation. Heck, even the Sentinels could be thought of as “civilians”, with Tirolian Partisans being handled by the Freedom Fighter/Mercenary OCC instead of an OCC that's unique to them. As well, there are some nonmilitary careers that are still governmental, and thus potentially of interest even in a campaign where everyone is “in the military” — most notably intelligence operatives (e.g., Nova Satori) and diplomats (e.g., Lisa Hunter in the Shadow Chronicles timeframe).

• The Invid Experiments shouldn't be OCCs. They should be handled like RCCs, with their skills coming from whatever walk of life they came from before the Invid got to them.

• The Zentreadi RCCs, as found in Macross Saga, have built-in OCCs; Marines strips them out in favor of giving the Zentreadi UEEF OCCs; with the notion of more generic military OCCs as I outlined above, it might be worth abandoning the former approach entirely.

I intend to elaborate on this further; but for now, I'm looking for initial thoughts and feedback.

[Alrik Vas]

There's a lot if lumping and splitting to go around, largely you end up with the same number of OCC, just more catagories.

But I applaud the work you put forward.

[Seto Kaiba]

the Fleet, Marine, and ASC OCCs could probably do with some restructuring and standardizing.

They all could, really...

When I went in to edit the books with an eye toward using them for a Macross game, I ended up consolidating the human OCCs into just a handful of OCCs. All the VF pilots became one OCC, and MOSs and MECT bonuses became mission-specific rather than tied to one aircraft (Fighter/Attacker, Bomber, Electronic Warfare/Recon). All the behind-the-lines logistical nonsense became one OCC assuming basic military fitness on the part of all troops, with a half-dozen MOS's for various support roles like mechanics, shipboard tech specialists, and the like. All the infantry stuff became one OCC with an MOS for land forces, one for space forces (to reflect 0G training), and one for all mechanized/motorized vehicle crews. Ground mecha crew became one OCC, which is also shared with the police officers who are trained to use mecha. Beyond that, I had three Zentradi RCCs (Commander, Archivist, Grunt) and four civilian OCCs (useless, heavy labor, entertainer, and law enforcement).

As I see it, there's really no need for branch-specific OCCs in the game when everyone goes through basically the same training in the same place, so I simplified accordingly.

[dataweaver]

Given that your focus was using the books in a Macross game, I'm assuming that you limited yourself to OCCs suitable for Macross Saga. Thus, no need to address Ground Veritechs or Power Armor, just to name two things that I need to consider that you didn't. Similarly, a typical Macross-based game is going to concentrate its attention concerning civilians almost exclusively to the denizens of Macross City, which is why I'm not surprised that you didn't try addressing any of the “Resistance Movement” types of non-military personnel. Even within those bounds, though, your selection of civilian OCCs strikes me as too restrictive: no stunt pilots (e.g., Hikaru in the first handful of episodes)? No doctors, paramedics, or firefighters/rescue personnel? No athletes? While I'm not interested in presenting each occupation as a separate OCC, I would at least like to get OCCs more narrowly defined than “Civilian” yet broadly enough that I can reasonably slot nearly any modern-day civilian career I can think of into one of a handful of choices.

All that said, your overall approach sounds more or less like what I'm looking for.

[Seto Kaiba]

Given that your focus was using the books in a Macross game, I'm assuming that you limited yourself to OCCs suitable for Macross Saga. Thus, no need to address Ground Veritechs or Power Armor, just to name two things that I need to consider that you didn't.

Ah, you've misunderstood me... when I said "for a Macross game", I meant Macross proper rather than Robotech's Macross Saga. Variable ground mecha and powered armor are still very much a thing in that setting[sup]1[/sup], which I included under "Ground Mecha Crew" and "Infantry" respectively when I rewrote the OCCs for my own game.

Similarly, a typical Macross-based game is going to concentrate its attention concerning civilians almost exclusively to the denizens of Macross City, which is why I'm not surprised that you didn't try addressing any of the “Resistance Movement” types of non-military personnel.

True, we don't really get "the underground" as much as we do the "suspiciously well-trained civilian militant"... those, I just have use the same OCCs as the role they'd play in the military, but with a slightly tweaked MOS.[sup]2[/sup]

Even within those bounds, though, your selection of civilian OCCs strikes me as too restrictive: no stunt pilots (e.g., Hikaru in the first handful of episodes)? No doctors, paramedics, or firefighters/rescue personnel? No athletes? While I'm not interested in presenting each occupation as a separate OCC, I would at least like to get OCCs more narrowly defined than “Civilian” yet broadly enough that I can reasonably slot nearly any modern-day civilian career I can think of into one of a handful of choices.

IMO, the Palladium system doesn't really do a fantastic job with the idea of the noncombatant... so what I basically simplified those civilians down into was the archetypal performer (singer, dancer, musician, etc.), the various civilians who can fight worth a damn and have weapons training (police, militia, gun nuts, doomsday preppers), the sort of civilian who has never been a soldier but who has some familiarity with the operation of mecha because of their day job (construction workers, miners, space-based shipwrights, the people who run Earth's nature recovery program, etc.), and the people who are generally ill-equipped to handle being in actual combat (doctors, lawyers, middle managers, politicians, scientists, and the like). For the latter, I don't even have MOSs... it's just "take a grab bag of skills appropriate to your chosen vocation and keep your head own when the bullets start flying".


1. The first variable ground mecha actually predates the First Space War in Macross, and while the military doesn't often use them the police forces love 'em and use them extensively in some emigrant fleets. Powered armor also exists, but it's a more compact, body-hugging type than the ASC powered suits in the RPG. Even more compact than the Cyclones, really. They're used by infantry and VF pilots alike in the later decades, and there are even civilian versions, so I generally don't treat them as an option that requires specialist training.

2. Most of these are either rogue Zentradi, former UN Forces soldiery, or the sort of civilian who grew up with ready access to the civilian market or secondhand military mecha... so they're not exactly the tech-regressive peasants from MOSPEADA who were down to six shooters and harsh language in the face of the Inbit/Invid.

[dataweaver]

Given that your focus was using the books in a Macross game, I'm assuming that you limited yourself to OCCs suitable for Macross Saga. Thus, no need to address Ground Veritechs or Power Armor, just to name two things that I need to consider that you didn't.

Ah, you've misunderstood me... when I said "for a Macross game", I meant Macross proper rather than Robotech's Macross Saga. Variable ground mecha and powered armor are still very much a thing in that setting[sup]1[/sup], which I included under "Ground Mecha Crew" and "Infantry" respectively when I rewrote the OCCs for my own game.

I know very well what you meant by Macross, thank you; I'm a big fan of “Macross proper”, as you put it — though my knowledge of it isn't as encyclopediac as yours. For instance, I was unaware of any Variable ground mecha; and the only power armor I'm aware of are the Macross Frontier flight suits (whatever they're called).

My reference to Macross Saga was pointing out the one part of Robotech RPG 2e that can reasonably be ported to Macross proper, as everything else in the RPG derives from anime that have nothing to do with Macross proper.

Similarly, a typical Macross-based game is going to concentrate its attention concerning civilians almost exclusively to the denizens of Macross City, which is why I'm not surprised that you didn't try addressing any of the “Resistance Movement” types of non-military personnel.

True, we don't really get "the underground" as much as we do the "suspiciously well-trained civilian militant"... those, I just have use the same OCCs as the role they'd play in the military, but with a slightly tweaked MOS.[sup]2[/sup]

Yeah; I was figuring on the same sort of thing, taking the generalized military OCCs and applying them to the UEG's rivals as well as the UEG itself. Which still says nothing about the “we're scraping by in the badlands without even an industrial base to prop it up” crowd that's most prominantly featured in New Generation but is arguably around as soon as there are survivable badlands in the post-Rain of Death part of Macross Saga.

Even within those bounds, though, your selection of civilian OCCs strikes me as too restrictive: no stunt pilots (e.g., Hikaru in the first handful of episodes)? No doctors, paramedics, or firefighters/rescue personnel? No athletes? While I'm not interested in presenting each occupation as a separate OCC, I would at least like to get OCCs more narrowly defined than “Civilian” yet broadly enough that I can reasonably slot nearly any modern-day civilian career I can think of into one of a handful of choices.

IMO, the Palladium system doesn't really do a fantastic job with the idea of the noncombatant... so what I basically simplified those civilians down into was the archetypal performer (singer, dancer, musician, etc.), the various civilians who can fight worth a damn and have weapons training (police, militia, gun nuts, doomsday preppers), the sort of civilian who has never been a soldier but who has some familiarity with the operation of mecha because of their day job (construction workers, miners, space-based shipwrights, the people who run Earth's nature recovery program, etc.), and the people who are generally ill-equipped to handle being in actual combat (doctors, lawyers, middle managers, politicians, scientists, and the like). For the latter, I don't even have MOSs... it's just "take a grab bag of skills appropriate to your chosen vocation and keep your head own when the bullets start flying".

Again: stunt pilots and athletes.

But yeah; I can see now what your organizing principle is; and for urban nonmilitary types, it's a good one. They'll need better names, and I'm not inclined to do a potpourri OCC even for what you call the “useless” civilians; but it's definitely a good starting point.

[Seto Kaiba]

I know very well what you meant by Macross, thank you; I'm a big fan of “Macross proper”, as you put it — though my knowledge of it isn't as encyclopediac as yours. For instance, I was unaware of any Variable ground mecha; and the only power armor I'm aware of are the Macross Frontier flight suits (whatever they're called).

Ah, my apologies for my misunderstanding.

Yeah, there have been a couple variable ground mecha in Macross over the years... the first ones were police-issue units that appeared in Macross 7 that were a mix of armored car and fighting robot capable of wielding gun pods and bazookas, and the Macross Zero OVA gave us a military version from the Unification Wars that was a mix of quadrupedal walker and submarine, the Octos. Powered suits don't become viable in the mainstream until ~2046 (in Macross 7 Trash, and the EX-Gear from Frontier replaced the ejection seat so I can't even stat out that era without making those standard equipment.

Yeah; I was figuring on the same sort of thing, taking the generalized military OCCs and applying them to the UEG's rivals as well as the UEG itself. Which still says nothing about the “we're scraping by in the badlands without even an industrial base to prop it up” crowd that's most prominantly featured in New Generation but is arguably around as soon as there are survivable badlands in the post-Rain of Death part of Macross Saga.

Yeah, that's one that has some weird, not entirely helpful OCCs in RT2E. My gut reaction would be to combine them into a sort of a "Survivalist OCC" which has three or four MOS's with the same skills at different levels, for basic maintenance of vehicles, weapons training, and the proficiencies necessary to hunt/fish/garden and find potable water. Some scroungers are gonna be better with the guns, some with the ancient and time-honored art of car fu, and others with the day-to-day essentials of not dying, but if they're in the wastelands semi-alone they'll need at least some of everything to plausibly survive... sort of a Survivorman-style jack of all trades.

For my purposes I can kinda handwave it, since the most likely rebels to be squatting out in the deserts of unreclaimed territory are Zentradi, whose gear doesn't need routine maintenance.

Again: stunt pilots and athletes.

Stunt pilots would probably fall under my "heavy labor" OCC, for people who have experience with aircraft or other mecha that the average civilian wouldn't. I'll probably end up drafting an Air Racer OCC before long, thanks to the Macross Frontier prequel Macross the Ride, that established a sizable presence of civilians who own customized (disarmed) VFs for air racing, which would probably encompass stunt pilots as well.

Athletes would probably either be in my "Useless OCC" or "Law Enforcement OCC" depending on whether their sport of choice was combat-applicable (like boxers, martial artists, fencers, etc.). Not sure what I'd do if someone wanted to draft a target-shooting champion...

But yeah; I can see now what your organizing principle is; and for urban nonmilitary types, it's a good one. They'll need better names, and I'm not inclined to do a potpourri OCC even for what you call the “useless” civilians; but it's definitely a good starting point.

The "Useless" one is kind of a joke on my players... any time someone has tried to roll up an Everyday Joe, they've ended up in the position of having made themselves the party's butt monkey. (There was a memorable incident where an everyday joe managed to secure his own release from prison by failing so many language, charm, and persuade rolls in a row that the guards watching him finally concluded that he was mentally ill, and therefore no threat.)

[Tiree]

I have to admit, I am going with a different approach. I am using the Masters Saga OCC's as the base, and porting over additional MOS's from the other era's.

Generalizing the Masters OCC's (TASC = VF Pilot, etc...)

[dataweaver]

The reason I'm not doing that is that I don't like the notion that everyone in the ATAC automatically drives a VHT. Veritech pilots in the Masters era may be exclusive to the TASC; but that doesn't mean that the TASC ought to be comprised solely of veritech pilots.

[Seto Kaiba]

The reason I'm not doing that is that I don't like the notion that everyone in the ATAC automatically drives a VHT. Veritech pilots in the Masters era may be exclusive to the TASC; but that doesn't mean that the TASC ought to be comprised solely of veritech pilots.

Er... well... with respect to the animation source material, that particular notion is actually completely correct.

The α Tactics Armored Corps and Tactics Armored Space Corps of the Southern Cross Army existed to administratively ring-fence the units of transformable tanks and fighters into a single group within the surface or aerospace forces. They're literally made up of just the tank squadrons or just the fighter squadrons, with their various support and administrative functions above unit level resting with other groups inside the Army (e.g. the Supply Corps, Transport Corps, etc.).

They weren't especially large formations either... the α Tactics Armored Corps consisted of just fifteen Spartas tank squadrons.

[Tiree]

I understand the lack of not wanting to use them. But they are by far the cleanest set of OCC's to build off of.


TASC - Variable Mecha Pilot
TAF - Aerospace Pilot (Space)
TSC - Power Armor Pilot (Space)
TC - Special Forces (Military Specialists?)
ATAC - Ground Mecha Pilot
CDU - Power Armor Pilot (Ground)
CDF - Aerospace Pilot (Planetary)
GMP - Military Police

The way I see it is this: TASC is your Primary VF Pilot. TAF is your ship board pilots, and TSC are your shipboard 'Thugs' aka Marines. TC would be your Military Specialist/Special Forces. ATAC would be your Destroid/Battloid Pilots, CDU would encompass your Cyclone Riders. CDF are your air superiority pilots, and the GMP your Espionage branch/Gestapo.

Since every class can in theory pilot mecha, just by having the Pilot Skill (not the Mecha Combat). It gives the players a lot more flexibility in creating their ideal character in any arc of the campaign. The common skills for Masters is better than any of the other era's. I would just import the MOS's from the era's and adapt the

[dataweaver]

"adapt the"…

[Tiree]

"adapt the"…

Sorry - must have accidentally deleted the last letter: I would just import the MOS's from the era's and adapt them.

[dataweaver]

As Seto pointed out, there are more branches of the ASC in the OSM than there are OCCs in the Masters Saga Sourcebook: the Supply Corps, the Medical Corps (both part of the Surface Forces), the Transportation Corps, the Interstellar Transport Corps (both part of the Air and Space Forces). Since the OSM featured Glorie rather than Earth, I suspect that the Interstellar Transport Corps gets replaced by the UEEF; but the existence of the others in the context of Robotech still seems reasonable.

Part of my concern is that using the branches of the ASC as an organizing principle causes you to miss things; another part of my concern is that the lines drawn among the ASC branches aren't optimal when it comes to differentiating between OCCs.

I think I'm going to stick with something closer to:

Military OCCs
• Enlisted Personnel (Soldiers, Seamen, Airmen, Marines, etc.)
• Technical Officers
• Military Specialists
• Combat Pilots, probably broken up into multiple OCCs by the broad type of combat vehicle piloted: e.g., aircraft, watercraft, large ground vehicles/Destroids, small ground vehicles/Power Armor.

I might be open to more flexible MOSs though, instead of or in addition to each OCC having a dedicated set of its own. And I could definitely see a tight bonding between MOSs and ASC branches; e.g.: all Combat Pilots belonging to the TASC and ATAC have the Veritech MOS, and nobody else does (though one or two other MOSs include limited veritech-oriented skill-sets).

[dataweaver]

Yeah, there have been a couple variable ground mecha in Macross over the years... the first ones were police-issue units that appeared in Macross 7 that were a mix of armored car and fighting robot capable of wielding gun pods and bazookas, and the Macross Zero OVA gave us a military version from the Unification Wars that was a mix of quadrupedal walker and submarine, the Octos. Powered suits don't become viable in the mainstream until ~2046 (in Macross 7 Trash, and the EX-Gear from Frontier replaced the ejection seat so I can't even stat out that era without making those standard equipment.

This is getting off topic, so I don't want to dwell on it too much; but: the Octos is no more a ground mecha than the Valkyrie is: both have modes with ground mobility as well as modes with non-ground mobility. Also: when I went to look up those police cruisers, I ran across a lot of "don't take them seriously" commentary plus a general consensus that ground mecha in general, not just variable ground mecha, tend to phase out the further along the timeline you go. I wouldn't know, myself, because all things Macross 7 are my weakest area of knowledge where Macross is concerned.

Yeah, that's one that has some weird, not entirely helpful OCCs in RT2E. My gut reaction would be to combine them into a sort of a "Survivalist OCC" which has three or four MOS's with the same skills at different levels, for basic maintenance of vehicles, weapons training, and the proficiencies necessary to hunt/fish/garden and find potable water. Some scroungers are gonna be better with the guns, some with the ancient and time-honored art of car fu, and others with the day-to-day essentials of not dying, but if they're in the wastelands semi-alone they'll need at least some of everything to plausibly survive... sort of a Survivorman-style jack of all trades.

I'll get back to you on this. My starting point on this will probably be Systems Failure; but maybe not.

Stunt pilots would probably fall under my "heavy labor" OCC, for people who have experience with aircraft or other mecha that the average civilian wouldn't. I'll probably end up drafting an Air Racer OCC before long, thanks to the Macross Frontier prequel Macross the Ride, that established a sizable presence of civilians who own customized (disarmed) VFs for air racing, which would probably encompass stunt pilots as well.

Athletes would probably either be in my "Useless OCC" or "Law Enforcement OCC" depending on whether their sport of choice was combat-applicable (like boxers, martial artists, fencers, etc.). Not sure what I'd do if someone wanted to draft a target-shooting champion...

What I'm looking at doing right now is the following:
Urban Civilian OCCs
• Professionals — jobs that are primarily mentally oriented; includes Entertainers, who should get a Muse-like MOS-based bonus.
• Workers — jobs that tend to be more physically oriented than mentally oriented. Includes sports competitors such as stunt pilots.
• Protective Services — police detectives, SWAT, patrolmen, security/prison guards, fire and rescue, paramedics, etc.
• Rogues — people who live on the fringes of respectable society: spies, thieves, conmen, thugs, vagrants, etc.

[Jefffar]

I've also thought about a clean up of the OCCs in Robotech as well.

My thoughts focus on dividing the classes by branch (Air, Land, Navy, Space) for a set of basic skills, then a division (ie Air Cavalry, Naval Infantry/Marine, etc) for some more focused skills. Then from there there would be MOSes available.

So, for example, you could wind up with a character who is Land Forces - Air Cavalry - Recon.

[Tiree]

I'm going to point you to an old topic: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=56240 It might have some interesting bits to scavenge from.

As people say: If you think you are starting a new topic, it probably already has been discussed to death before.

[Kagashi]

Robotech is not Rifts. There is no reason why you cannot play Robotech with tSC OCCs only, no matter what era you are in. Simply modify them by MOS by each era (Macross Veritech Pilot would be given VF Series skills instead of Alpha/Beta and so on)...and done. No need for wasting paper on future source books. This isnt Rifts.

I loath the ASC OCCs. I dont see how each OCC can basically have any skill...whats the point of having an OCC if you are just going to pick whatever skill you want in the first place based on the wide spectrum of MOS and the skills in them? Veritech pilots pilot veritechs. Thats it. A TAF officer has no business in a Veritech. It even says in the description of the OCC how there is this rivalry between TAF pilots and Veritech pilots, yet a TAF officer can just turn around and pilot a Logan himself.

No matter what branch of the service you are in (UEEF Navy, UEEF Marines, various branches of the ASC) the OCCs should have remained the same. So what if the Tactical Space Corps just employes Technical Officers to pilot its ships, or the Tactical Armored Space Corps just use Veritech Pilots with a Logan/AJACs MOS? Likewise, why is there a Marine OCC that pilots big ships...why not just be the Technical Officer OCC from tSC? Only certian things like, the Civilian OCC that branches out into a different aspect of culture would be needed. The Freedom Fighter OCCs would be a good example of this as they are not part of any military, yet though necessity, acquired mecha and skills to fight an alien invader.

Now Zentraedi and Tirolian OCCs should be specific to their cultures. They wouldnt use Earth based OCCs. But using the Zentraedi as an example, they have both ground forces, and naval forces, and they all use the same OCCs...You can play a Zentraedi game in any era with the same 6 Zentraedi OCCs, and even have that same Zent OCC apply to being micronized and flying with the UEEF.

Lets stop wasting paper on new OCCs and just use what we have. We still dont have the SDF-3 in print for Spaghetti Monster's sake.

[Seto Kaiba]

This is getting off topic, so I don't want to dwell on it too much; but: the Octos is no more a ground mecha than the Valkyrie is: both have modes with ground mobility as well as modes with non-ground mobility.

I lump the Octos under "ground mecha" for the purposes of my simplified OCCs and MOSs because its classification is "amphibious destroid". In principle, it's a ground mecha with a fast-travel system that isn't terribly useful for combat... much like the Spartas hovertanks from Robotech.

Also: when I went to look up those police cruisers, I ran across a lot of "don't take them seriously" commentary plus a general consensus that ground mecha in general, not just variable ground mecha, tend to phase out the further along the timeline you go.

The police mecha get dismissed a lot because they don't get much screen time, but properly armed they're shown to be quite lethal even against current-gen military hardware. (Equipped with their large-scale bazookas, they can one-shot the Varauta forces' Fz-109s, and are shown doing so on a few occasions.) As far as ground mecha phasing out... well... they're not as prevalent as they used to be, but there are signs they may be staging a comeback in the late 2050s, so I keep them supported in my OCCs and MOSs.

I'll get back to you on this. My starting point on this will probably be Systems Failure; but maybe not.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

What I'm looking at doing right now is the following:
Urban Civilian OCCs
• Professionals — jobs that are primarily mentally oriented; includes Entertainers, who should get a Muse-like MOS-based bonus.
• Workers — jobs that tend to be more physically oriented than mentally oriented. Includes sports competitors such as stunt pilots.
• Protective Services — police detectives, SWAT, patrolmen, security/prison guards, fire and rescue, paramedics, etc.
• Rogues — people who live on the fringes of respectable society: spies, thieves, conmen, thugs, vagrants, etc.

Now THAT'S one I hadn't considered... criminals.

[dataweaver]

Robotech is not Rifts. There is no reason why you cannot play Robotech with tSC OCCs only, no matter what era you are in. Simply modify them by MOS by each era (Macross Veritech Pilot would be given VF Series skills instead of Alpha/Beta and so on)...and done. No need for wasting paper on future source books. This isnt Rifts.

I agree with the general principle you're expressing here, but not on the particulars. In particular, I don't think that the tSC OCCs are up to the task of handling all human military personnel in the setting — but they could, with some minor changes. For instance, as written, VHT pilots are in an awkward space between Veritech Pilot (they don't have our need those aircraft skills) and a Battloid Ace (they can pilot hovertanks and veritechs). Likewise, tSC squeezes aircraft pilots in with Technical Officers. Thus my reformulation of the various "combat pilot" OCCs.

I loath the ASC OCCs. I dont see how each OCC can basically have any skill...whats the point of having an OCC if you are just going to pick whatever skill you want in the first place based on the wide spectrum of MOS and the skills in them? Veritech pilots pilot veritechs. Thats it. A TAF officer has no business in a Veritech. It even says in the description of the OCC how there is this rivalry between TAF pilots and Veritech pilots, yet a TAF officer can just turn around and pilot a Logan himself.

Pretty much my concern with overly-broad MOSs.

No matter what branch of the service you are in (UEEF Navy, UEEF Marines, various branches of the ASC) the OCCs should have remained the same. So what if the Tactical Space Corps just employes Technical Officers to pilot its ships, or the Tactical Armored Space Corps just use Veritech Pilots with a Logan/AJACs MOS? Likewise, why is there a Marine OCC that pilots big ships...why not just be the Technical Officer OCC from tSC?

Yep.

Only certian things like, the Civilian OCC that branches out into a different aspect of culture would be needed. The Freedom Fighter OCCs would be a good example of this as they are not part of any military, yet though necessity, acquired mecha and skills to fight an alien invader.

Agreed — though with some discipline and insight,I think we can come up with something that's to civilians as the tSC-based OCCs would be to the military. As things stand, the Macross Civilian OCC is too broad (it's literally all occupations in one OCC) and the New Generation civilian OCCs are too Rifts-like: Merc to Freedom Fighter, Operator to Patcher, Wilderness Scout to Pathfinder, even Street Rat is a close analog to the Urchin. We can do better.

Now Zentraedi and Tirolian OCCs should be specific to their cultures. They wouldnt use Earth based OCCs. But using the Zentraedi as an example, they have both ground forces, and naval forces, and they all use the same OCCs...You can play a Zentraedi game in any era with the same 6 Zentraedi OCCs, and even have that same Zent OCC apply to being micronized and flying with the UEEF.

To an extent, I agree — with one caveat: civilian OCCs should be available to all. No Tirolian Partisans; they'd be Tirolians with a Freedom Fighter OCC (or whatever replaces or subsumes it once I'm done refactoring things).

[Kagashi]

Have you guys ever entertained the idea of BTS2 Civilian MOS's for Robotech Civilian OCCs? They seem to be pretty plug and play.

[dataweaver]

I've considered it. Most of them have already been addressed by the civilian OCC, but there are still a few new ones. Oddly enough, Systems Failure has a few as well.

[Arnie100]

How would you treat the Marine MOS in the Military Specialist OCC? The guys who board and seize enemy stsrships, spacebases, etc.? I don't wanna get them confused with thr Marine OCCs...

[dataweaver]

What Marine OCCs? As things stand right now, here's what I'm looking at:

Seven Military OCCs:
• Enlisted Personnel
• Technical Officers
• Military Specialists
• Aerospace Aces
• Ground Aces
• Sea Aces
• Infantry Aces

From 2015–2030, there are five Services:
• UEEF Fleet
• UEEF Marines
• ASC Aerospace Forces
• ASC Surface Forces
• ASC Global Military Police

All seven services feature Enlisted Personnel, Technical Officers, and Military Specialists. The UEEF services both feature Aerospace Aces and Ground Aces, while the UEEF Marines also feature Infantry Aces. The ASC Aerospace Forces feature Aerospace Aces, while the ASC Surface Forces feature Ground Aces, Sea Aces, and Infantry Aces. Oh, and the ASC services also feature one of the Civilian OCCs I've been developing, which I've settled on calling Civil Defense. Any other distinctions between the services manifest in terms of what MOSs each OCC gets.

Prior to 2015, all services are UEDF; it's possible that there's only one service, but it's also possible that there are as many as seven (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Spacy, Spacy Aerospace Force, Spacy Marines). After 2030, the ASC services get decimated by the Invid, though it's possible that Dana and her fellow refugees end up reconstituting them (say, as UEEF Army and Aerospace Forces) as part of the Earth reclamation forces.

[Arnie100]

The Marine Infantry OCC? From the Marines book?

[dataweaver]

I'm seeking to replace all of that with something far more streamlined.

[Chris0013]

Did this thread a while back. Starts you off with Boot Camp / Officer's Candidate School for full basic military training. Then specific skills for an MOS.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=102487

[dataweaver]

That will come in handy when I start fleshing out the OCCs.

OK; I think I've settled on a set of eight OCCs that should cover just about everything:

Military OCCs
• Combat Ace
• Enlisted Personnel
• Military Specialist
• Technical Officer

Civilian OCCs
• Civil Defense
• Gladiator
• Professional
• Worker

Civil Defense includes paramedics, firefighters, police, and guards — people who are called to put their lives on the line to save lives and protect law and order.

The Gladiator ranges from the civilized world's sportsmen and athletes to the less civilized world's arena combatants, the criminal world's gangsters and the badlands' warriors and punks. Basically, a Gladiator is someone who fights for a living, with the caveat that “fights” tends to be more figurative than literal in modern civilization.

Professionals are civilians whose chosen careers involve extensive training and a high degree of mental prowess, but little in the way of physical labor.

Workers, by contrast, have careers that tend to be physically taxing, but don't require a lot of education.


All OCCs have sets of MOSs or Occupations that vary depending on one's Service (if Military) or Background (if Civilian).

Sample Services include:
• UEDF
• Zentreadi
• UEEF Fleet
• UEEF Marines
• ASC Surface Forces
• ASC Aerospace Forces
• ASC Global Military Police
• Robotech Masters
• Invid
• Haydonite

Note that the Zentreadi and Robotech Masters have engaged in a genetic caste system, and thus put additional restrictions on what OCC and MOS you can have based on what RCC you are. Likewise, you can't be an Invid or Haydonite without taking the respective RCC; but that's just common sense.

Sample Backgrounds include:
• City Dwellers
• Townsfolk
• Nomads
• Criminals
• ASC (Civil Defense only)
• Tirolian Partisans
• Garudans
• Karbarrans
• Perytonians
• Praxians
• Spherians

Again, any given Service or Background can limit which MOSs or Occupations are available to each OCC, and in some cases can present unique Occupations or MOSs that are only available via that Background or Service. For instance, the Karbarrans have a Worker Occupation that's unique to them.

What this doesn't cover:
• Urchins
• Perytonian Wizard Warriors