Mekton Zeta Anime

Review: RPG

Reviewed by Jane St. Claire

R. Talsorian Games
$19.95/154 pages
Written by Macdonald, Pondsmith, and Wright Back in 1989 a friend of mine who was into Japanese "anime" asked me to help him write up a campaign for this new game he had just picked up called Mecton 2. I'd never even seen Mekton 1! 1 told him I'd be happy to help him out, and he invited me over to his house to spend the aftemoon watching his videos before we actually sat down and worked out the mechanics. That was the first time I ever saw anime, and it was also the first time I read Mekton 2.1 was blown away at just how precisely the game managed to grab hold of the genre by the throat and milked it for everything it had. Mekton character creation was a joyous experience. I created a character with a full melodramatic past, including his martyred parents, screwy love affair and dashing arch-rival. It was a game of high romance, adventure and excitement. We constructed the campaign with four guys and four girls in mind and came away with one year worth of gaming stories that still get my heart beating to this day.

Needless to say, Mekton Zeta, the next generation of the Mekton line, is even better than its parent. Looking at Mekton 2 and 2eta (which I'm doing right now) shows me just how far the gaming industry has gone in learning how to use layout and graphics. Zeta is a joy to read and a marvel to look at. The graphics really capture the feel of the game and the art gives you a good impression of what this whole super-intense genre is about.

Anime was inspired by many sources, and so it seems rather mercurial at times. Here's my best attempt at telling you what a Mekton game can be like: It's galaxy-spanning warfare berween ancient Empires. There's giant robot armor suits and swarms of missiles with swirling smoke rrails and invading armies of aliens on huge world ships. The story is always bigger than life, and so you have to have heroes that are just as big. Nothing they do is small. Their skills are unmatched, their courage and athletic abilitia are inhuman... and their love affairs are pure Shakespeare. Nobody has a happy love affair unless one of the two are going to die tragically and heroically.

The game system is one that many in the RPG community should be familiar with. It's the old R. Talsorian system that involves eight attributes and d10's and a simple difficulty number system that's fast and deadly. However, it isn't the system that's the charm of Mclaon, it's the way that the game really lets you feel like you're playing in an anime.

The book begins with 8 full color pages that read just like a movie ad, complete with producer, director and screenplay credits. The emphasis here is on making the game cinermatic. That's a very different style from most role-playing games.

"Mekton Z is designed to simulate animation, not reality," says the beginning of the Cinernaric Roleplaying section. Giant robot armor is just not practical in reality, but in animation, do look cool! And that's the whole point in Mekton Z. We're talking about a world where a hero can leap 30' in the air, dodge incoming laser blasts and micro-missiles, draw a katana and slice an enemy's weapon in half all in the matter of a few seconds, and he does it in succession! When players and game masters get the idea in their heads that style is more important than reality, that's when Mekron Z gets to be a whole lot of fun.

All those years ago, when my friend Kevin asked me to help him write up a campaign for Mekton 2,1 really didn't know what I was getting into. I got introduced to a genre that I never had any interest in, and I helped write a year's worth of great storia. By the end of the campaign, we fought against impossible odds, and saved the Earth from alien invaders, learned "the Way" (an ancient and mystical philosophy that we stole right out from under Mr. Lucas' nose) and had found and lost true love. It was one of the most incredible role-playing experiences I've ever had, and I owe it all to R. Talsorian games. Now I can do it all over again with Mekton Z and introduce a new circle of friends to a brand new world; a world of action, adventure, drama, and romance -- the world of Mekron.

More Reviews

Back to Shadis #25 Table of Contents
Back to Shadis List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines
© Copyright 1996 by Alderac Entertainment Group

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com