Future Century Gundam
"I'm a guy who's ill at ease, and knows only how to fight. That's why it's been hard for me to say this. Honestly. I.. I.. I love you! I WANT TO BE WITH YOU! RAIN!"
The first Gundam series not set in the Universal Century, Future Century Gundam looks at a world where the Earth's environment has deteriorated to a point of desperation, and the attempted cure for this deterioration may well be worse than the disease. Eschewing the traditional military fiction elements, Future Century Gundam borrows heavily from martial arts movies, professional wrestling, and wuxia.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Mobile Fighter G Gundam follows Domon Kasshu, the Gundam Fighter for Neo Japan, as he attempts to secure victory for his nation in the Gundam Fight (a sort of fighting election) while also seeking answers about his brother Kyoji, his teacher Master Asia, and the Devil Gundam environmental remediation project.
Integration Notes
The following covers changes, adjustments, and notable elements of the integration of Future Century Gundam on SRTMOO. As there are a lot of elements to unpack here, there are subheads.
General
- The events of Mobile Fighter G Gundam have, in their substance, already happened. The 13th Gundam Fight (well, 4th -- more on that in a bit) has come and gone. Domon Kasshu secured victory for Neo Japan. The Shuffle Alliance has fully passed on its crests to the next generation of heroes. The Devil Gundam Incident has been resolved. This was done for a few reasons:
- We do not want to have the Gundam Fight as a huge focus of IC play. While the Survival Eleven are underway (possibly mostly complete) as of game start, we are not hugely interested in running a Gundam Fight Finals. The Gundam Fight will happen but we do not intend to run it as a tournament a PC can win. (That's not to say PCs can't be current Gundam Fighters, but.)
- The Devil Gundam Incident syncs up very well with content like Universal Century Gundam's Axis Shock.
- The post-show pitches for many of the characters given in Super Robot Wars T were really interesting and added complexity to the characters.
- Master Asia is honestly a completely nonsense character and many of the feats attributed to him get difficult to have as a PC running around the grid.
- SRTMUSH (2008) ran the G Gundam plot to essential completion and we want to focus on, for the most part, telling a different story that primarily uses content that sat uneasily on SRTMUSH.
- The Gundam Fight is a shorter-lived institution on SRTMOO than in G Gundam. The one covered in Mobile Fighter G Gundam was the 4th, not the 13th. The one currently operating at game start is the 5th. Model numbers have been adjusted from GF13 to GF04 accordingly.
Technology
- Gundams have only been around since 0079. This really only matters for one interstitial episode of Sai Saici content so it's fine.
- Mobile Fighters are somewhat Earth-use-slanted in their terrain adaptations in a way they usually aren't in SRW video games, similar to After Colony Gundam's Gundams and for broadly similar reasons.
- The Devil Gundam doesn't magically get more powerful if it eats a woman. DG Cells do not operate on biotruths logic!
- Given the portable psycommu device Rain uses mid-series, we're actually more inclined to say that Rain is some flavor of quantum brainwave user, and that that's why she makes a radically better core for the Devil Gundam than any of its previous inhabitants. The specific nature of this would be up to a Rain apper; Newtype is a very easy ask, though.
Political
- The Neo Colonies of G Gundam are Earthnoid-identitarian Orbital Ring holdings rather than far Earth Sphere colonies. Many more themes require an Earth elite than a space elite. Earth is still trashed, though, and the Neo Colonies are still low-key ecofascist, as they are in G Gundam.
- There's some geopolitical complexity surrounding two Neo Colonies that correspond to nations that don't exist on SRTMOO: Neo America and Neo Turkey. Due to this complexity, both have Library entries beyond the basics of the Neo Colonies. They're fun reads if you like alternate political histories!
- The Shuffle Alliance has a broader support network than in the show; in-character, this is waved off as the previous Shuffle Alliance not getting a chance to tell the new blood what they were getting into.
Future Century Gundam Jargon
Development Trivia
The following is some fun notes about development of SRTMOO and specifically Future Century Gundam's integration.
- Neo America was a real headscratcher, but I think we landed in a very compelling place with it.
- A prospective player asked us about Neo Turkey and it was a really fun thought exercise!