"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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[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!