MechaVsKaiju

I grew up watching old science fiction movies, and my favorite was always the mighty Godzilla! In 1985 my geek dreams came true when a new Godzilla movie came to theatres. Over the next 15 years a new generation of films brought the kaiju into the modern age.

Meanwhile my daily cartoon intake had always involved Japanese anime. The simplistic adventures of Speed Racer progressed to the more mature plot and characters of Star Blazers. But it was the military mecha of Macross and Gundam that captivated my attention. I started watching for the giant robot action, but was quickly moved by the drama of these soldiers and their lives. Japanese cartoons did not talk down to me the way American animation often did; anime was a respected art form there, and watching imports made me feel like a connoisseur.

It was this love of the genre that inspired me to begin work on the “Mecha vs. Kaiju” role playing game. I wanted to create a setting that would capture all the things I loved about Japanese popular culture. In 2008 I published the first edition of "Mecha vs. Kaiju" for the True 20 Role Playing Game. At that time giant robots fighting giant monsters was a niche market. Today we stand at the dawn of a kaiju renaissance, from angry trolls in Norway to extra-dimensional monsters at the bottom of the Pacific, to the upcoming relaunch of the king of monsters himself next year, now is the time for the return of Mecha vs. Kaiju!