"It is a truth universally acknolwedged that...

[subplotkudzu]

a single woman in possession of a good mecha must be in want of a husband."

I'm starting to noodle around game ideas for the next prospectus and the idea of a regency era/giant robot crossover keeps popping into my head. I know it makes no sense - the cloistered nature of women in the Regency era is what makes those romances work, and that would be kind of undone if the women also had battle suits with chain guns. But maybe not - cultural mores are wierd things, and the idea of a family mecha being as important as a knight's sword and horse (i.e. the thing that makes them valuable to their lord in their ability to fight), and the mecha all only being disigned for small people to operate might lead to... OK, it really wouldn't. But I can dream.

Mostly I want both the idea of mecha based combat, royalty and formal codes of behavior, while coming up with a solid reason for both genders to be playable as mecha-pilots. The idea of Marianne obliterating Willoughby with a plasma canon (leaving behind just a smoking boot and a pocket copy of Shakespeare's sonnets) has considerable appeal.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

(a) It would be completely artificial, but (b) you could probably handwave it by referring on one hand to women riding horseback and taking part in hunting, and on the other hand to the role of the mecha as an "equalizer" that makes superior physical strength irrelevant.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

Yes and no - I don't want the women to be 'equal' as that undoes the structure of the Regency romance, where part of the tension comes from the societal constraints on women (and, to an extent, men). Plus, while it's not clear int he itinal post, my idea was that the women were predominatly the mecha pilots - I want to leave some out if there's someone who really, really wants to play a male character, but they would have to suffer from some other, considerable social constraints.

I like the idea of juxtoposing the formal society of the Regency era with the powerful, possibly chaotic nature of combat, with the women deeply involved inthe combat. As you said, the removal of physical strength is key, hence the mecha. (plus, they are just big weapons, so there's no societal fiddling that the other common gender equalizer - magic - might bring).

The key goals of the game would of course be a) finding a marrigable man whose family will support (or provide) your mecha, b) defeating some sort of enemy with their own mecha force. The latter might be highly episodic (the family duel of the week, as it were), but the former is almost certainly serial, with the last session leading to a lot of weddings.

[ladegard.livejournal.com]

Now this doesn't really make both genders into mecha pilots, but if you want to run with that initial sentence, and make a number of rather... odd innuendo, imagine a world where mecha are considered part of the dowry because only by having a woman (perhaps even a specific woman or one from a a specific family) in the appropriate seat/cabin/whatever-depending-on-size can the giant robot be powered, but it takes another person (ostensibly a man) to pilot and direct it.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Five Star Stories, anyone?

[ladegard.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I have no conscious recollection of reading 5 Star Stories.

[ashacat.livejournal.com]

Or the society is matrilineal. All mechas and the ability to pilot/fix them is passed down through the female line. In order to marry, the men must pay a bride price which is their continued service as navigators in their wife's mecha. Moohaa hah hah ha

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, let's apply logic. You want a society with Regency-style upper-class rigid sex roles and marriage customs. You also want giant robots -- and you want women to be giant robot pilots.

How to reconcile being cloistered and tightly constrained in society with being the elite warriors?

Here's one possible solution: mecha piloting makes you damn near useless for anything else (either because training and whatnot leaves no time, or from sheer opportunity cost of wasting a mecha pilot on anything else). Mecha piloting involves an innate and hereditary component (to encourage a clannish aristocracy).

The result: you have to support the mecha pilots or you're defenseless (we will fiat that mecha are just so cool that no mundane armed force can stand against them). The pilots can't do much other than pilot mecha -- but that means during peacetime they have infinite leisure. Their interactions are almost entirely within their own incestuous community.

Assume also that warfare is very much in the pre-Napoleon style: these are not struggles of nation against nation to the last bullet, but mannered, "win some, lose some" wars of incremental advantage in an endless military-political chess game. Presumably everybody has some "ultimate weapons" so straying outside the rules means tipping over the board and everyone loses. Make it all about trade routes or something.

Cambias

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

That's kind of what I'm thinking. I had been leaning the same was as Ladegard with the idea of only women (and perhaps small men) being able to fit inside the mecha. But I do like the idea that the mecha training is so intensive (or perceived to be) that the women aren't allowed to do any other 'useful' activity. They can read, sew, dance and so on, but can't earn a living or be taught consequential things outside of mecha piloting, making them dependent on their family and their family's caste-based wealth.

I'm not as such about the innate heredetary component, but I suppose it could be there. It depends on the origins of the mecha, that I haven't yet pursued.

I will freely admit that one key aspect of this is playing up the societal constraints of the Regency era as a means to keep the players from, well, being player characters as romping off to fly in the face of all societal convention just because they know that the GM won't hose them and end the campaign. The campaign would have some semi-rigid rules for behavior that, if the players repeatedly violate (or violate once in a bad enough way) they will be cut off from their family - and subsequently their mecha - and removed from play. Societal honor matters as much as hit points do to the life of the character.

(Oh sure, such women might be able to go to the continent/colonies and find a job piloting a run down, half-functional mecha for some mercenary company, but that would still remove them from play.)

[thismustbetheplace-rjs.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

You and the giant mecha crossovers... I dunno, I don't see this one flying for the duration of a campaign.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

As you can see from the other comments, we have some people who disagree. Besdies, I only need it to fly for 6 sessions.

[mneme]

*giggle* Hee!

That sounds like fun.

[(Anonymous)]

In light of recent discussions, I think it might be simplest to not have any underlying socioeconomic reason for ladies living Austenesque lives and piloting giant robots. They just do, and anyone who asks why they don't go off and become pirate ninjas or whatever can be told in a properly sniffy voice "LADIES DON'T DO THAT."

[ctwriter.livejournal.com]

During the Regency and Victorian eras a woman author usually used a pseudonym. What if, as in a Marvel universe, the identity of a mecha pilot had to be kept secret? As in everyone knows the mecha pilots are women, but as long as a specific woman isn't outed, then all societal conventions are upheld. There is also an element of intrigue here. Perhaps there is a group dedicated to unmasking women who play this role? Meanwhile, the gossip and speculation would be spectacular!