"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

[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.