Get Out of the Robot… A One-Page RPG About The Families of Child Soldiers in an Intergalactic War
The Game:
My son just turned fifteen. His older sister d… Died. When she was his age. Three years ago, now. And it’s really hard to not compare them. He has her laugh. Her mannerisms. He looks so much like his mother just like she did. And he’s starting to drift away from me the same way she did. And like, I get it. That’s supposed to happen, right? They’re supposed to get their own friends and start to assert their independence, all of that. So I’m trying really hard to let him have the space he needs for that, but every time he’s out late, I start to run through the scenarios, sizing up his friends, looking for signs he’s going down the same path his sister did. And then… Then last night I found it. Just sitting on his dresser drawer out in the open, as if it isn’t the exact thing that… That KILLED his mother and his sister. And I just… I can’t even look at him. I can’t be near him. I’ve… I’ve never hurt my kids, but in that moment I wanted to just… I wanted to HIT him. To hit ANYTHING so that I can get some of the… the pain. The pain out of my chest and into something else. So I just get in my car and drive for a while. And before I even know where I’m going, I’m at her school. Or what’s left of it. And I know. I’m staring at that thing that attacked us, the graveyard for so many of our children, and I know it’s going to end the same way. The only way it ever ends. He’s going to die in this stupid, endless war…
Get Out of the Robot isn’t a game about child soldiers recruited to fight an intergalactic war in giant robots. It’s a game about the people who love them.
What I Like About This One:
Somewhat similar mechanics to yesterday’s game insofar as the selection of a friend and a rival. Mechanically I love the idea of playing with real-life time limits. Part of me wanted to find a way to smash this into 22 minute episodes, but for a role-playing game that’s a SUPER tight deadline and it would need to be streamlined as hell to play.
There’s something about the idea of a half-way-point where all hell breaks loose that’s so fun to me. You can play two completely different scenarios, but if you can tie them together through a theme or through characters, it has a lot of potential to become something beautiful.
I grew up secretly loving the Power Rangers. I wasn’t allowed to watch the show because it was so violent, which makes a lot of sense because my best friend and I used to pretend to kick the crap out of each-other with hockey sticks while pretending to be Rangers and I knew nothing about the show. But I always wondered what it was like to be the people on the sidelines, trying to survive weekly kaiju attacks and dealing with the fact that your kid might die in a robot fight.
What I’d Do Differently Next Time:
Probably make it about robot fights actually? I also have this killer idea for a larger thing where the Power Rangers are a villainous organization, but that’s gonna need a lot more than one page to get out.