Flashback Friday: Algol

Mekton from R. Talsorian Games has always had a default setting called Algol. The setting is essentially a showcase for all kinds of 70s and 80s anime concepts. It's an Earthlike world but with oddities ala Super Dimensional Century Orguss or Super Dimensional Century Southern Cross. There  is Gundam-like mecha, psionics, reptilian alien bad guys, lost technology, wandering mecha nomads, technopriests and of course big, brightly-color anime hair. The game has gone through several editions, but Algol has remained as the stock setting for every one of them.

Algol was settled by refugees from an intergalactic war against an alien race called the Aggendi. The Aggendi  wiped out the colony and left, thinking the job was done. The survivors, blasted back practically to the Stone Age, eventually rebuilt and spread across the planet. As the centuries passed, two large nations evolved, one on the northern continent and one on the southern - the Elarans and the Kargans. The archipelago of islands across the equator held a number of smaller nations, mecha nomads called the Etarrans, and the sub-continent of Muria. The egalitarian Elarans were descended from the relatively peaceful descendants of the original civilian scientists, doctors, teachers, etc. The totalitarian Kargans were descended from the colony ship's crew and military contingent.

Algol

Eventually, two things were discovered: the secrets of technology locked away in the remains of the original colony ship and that Algol was undergoing an ice age. The two nations began to jockey for land in the warmer archipelago, and a series of wars broke out between them - either directly or through proxies in the Archipelago. Once the secrets of the Mektons that were once used to defend the colony were unlocked, it was totally on between the two nations.

There's a whole lot of awesome in the setting. The inhabitants live in arcologies, connected to one another by fortified elevated roadways, for protection from weather extremes, the local wildlife, and enemy attacks. The Murians fill the role of mysterious technopriests - almost like Atlanteans - with their high technology, psionics and all encompassing force field that keeps everyone out. The appendix in the original Mekton book included all kinds of neat descriptions of various arcologies, personalities, and creatures.

It shouldn't need to be said that the biggest piece of awesome in Algol are the mecha. The Mekton Techbook expanded on the original build system for Mekton II and made it in a fantastic, flexible system and at the same provided a Jane's Fighting Mecha of Algolian Mektons. In a clever move, the listed mecha start with basic models (the biplanes of Mektons) and move forward in time as technology improves. Even better, the descriptions of each Mekton provide vignettes into Algol's history by mentioning battles, personalities and other events. The drawings of the mecha were done by Jason and John Waltrip, who have also done art for Car Wars and Robotech: the Sentinels and other comics.

It takes a lot of intakes to get a Deathstalker in the air

The setting even got the anime-series treatment in the form of the Operation Rimfire campaign. I still regard Operation Rimfire as one of the best campaigns I have ever run. Basically, you played the crew of a spaceship constructed solely for traveling to Algol's outer system to investigate an anomaly. The book itself was gorgeous, with great art and full color glossy pages giving character backgrounds, maps, etc. Unfortunately it was soft-bound, so the pages eventually started to fall out. As can be expected from a pre-published adventure there are rail-roady parts and pacing issues, but it had a good mix of character development and action, a few twists, and a suitably dramatic big-boss ending.

Mekton Zeta, the last edition of Mekton, expanded upon the setting by using the end of Operation Rimfire as a launching point. It described the rest of Algol's star system and the new bad guys - the returning Aggendi, which it retconned from saurians into a kind of insectoid species. The technology base for the mecha was also advancted. Unfortunately, a lot of the accumulated material from previous editions was either paraphrased or left out, so the Algol presented in Mekton Zeta seemed a little bland. The example mecha designs for the Algolians weren't quite as interesting, either.

I have extolled Mike Pondsmith's virtues before, and the Algol setting is further proof he's a master game designer and story teller. Pondsmith manages to meld many disparate influences together seamlessly and organically, polishing them into a really fun setting with a lot of gaming potential.

Mike Pondsmith and Me

I first came into R. Talsorian Games' products in the mid-Eighties. There was a comic book store called Funny Business in Pomona, CA run by a gentleman named Joey. Joey was very big into anime - his store screened anime on Sundays (no subtitles, no dubbing, often a copy of a copy of a copy sent from Japan). He also stocked some roleplaying games, and one day he showed me this game called Mekton. I loved the first edition of the game, and scooped up Mekton II when it came out. When I found out Mike Pondsmith was going to be at one of the Strategicon conventions, I saved up every cent so I could go.

The demo he ran at the convention featured new systems and rules from the upcoming Mekton Technical System. The scenario was an Elaran unit trying to defend an installation in the middle of the map from Kargans. If the Kargans got into the installation, they won. If we held them off for x amount of time, we won. By virtue of my knowing the system very well, I was chosen as the Elaran leader. Mr. Pondsmith ran the demo with one other person, and it was a complete blast. His presence, style of running the game, and encouraging the other players added a lot to the experience.

For anyone wondering, the demo ended with my side losing even though only one Kargan unit remained. He was close to the installation but nearly finished (if I remember right, both of his mech's arms had been blown off). He announced he was going to self-destruct (a very Kargan thing to do, "Death before dishonor" and all) , so I ordered a full withdrawal for my remaining units (a very Elaran thing to do). The turn before the powerplant would have blown, the Kargan player miraculously made the TECH roll needed to stop the countdown. My units were already either off the map or too far away to do anything, so his unit limped into the facility and they won.

After the demo, Mike Pondsmith congratulated both of us. He commended my decision to withdraw, saying it was exactly what he would have done as a goody-two-shoes Elaran commander. Afterward, he stuck around and I talked with him for at least an hour about anime, mecha, gamemastering, movies and books. That talk stuck with me. He was so animated and such a compelling speaker, plus an all around great guy. I felt he genuinely wanted to talk to me - I don't recall him ever looking around desperately for an excuse to get away from me. I was very honored he took the time to talk to me.

When it was released, Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads! became my bible for running more games than Cyberpunk 2020. I saw a lot of the general advice he had given me at the convention in the book, and "When in doubt, roll and shout!" became my motto. I played hundreds of hours of Cyberpunk 2020 and various editions of Mekton, probably more than any other RPG prior to my discovering them. I bought nearly every Cyberpunk 2020 supplement sight unseen, even from third parties like Atlas Games or Ianus Publications/Dream Pod 9, as well as Dream Park and Cybergeneration. I liked Ianus Publications' Cyberpunk 2020 supplements and Jovian Chronicles for Mekton II so much, I started keeping tabs on their products as well. That lead me to Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles and one of my favorite RPGs of all time, Tribe 8.

Mike Pondsmith, and R. Talsorian Games, have left a very deep mark on the games I play and how they play them and are responsible for some of my best gaming experiences (whether playing one of their games or someone else's). I'm very excited to experience Cyberpunk 2077 when it's released,  and for Mike Pondsmith who will get to see his creation come to life in a new medium.