I'm stumped on how to model the power of song in Macross using BRP.
As
I am focused on following the fleet of Megaroad-01, I could simply
ignore it as Lynn Minmei is on board and that allows me to place it in
the background and wholly GM fiat territory. This is not satisfactory
because then noone can start out as a wannabee pop idol who eventually
has a massive impact on the relations between the fleet and soon to be
former existential threat.
This leaves me wanting something
mechanical. I could simply leave it in the realm of the mundane
Perform/Sing skill, as is shown in SDF/DYRL?, and thereby ignoring the
Song Energy shenanigans of 7 with Basra and Fire Bomber/Sound Force, and
I can easily ignore the specifics of Frontier as it's based on a
bacterial infection. If I do leave it as a mundane skill then power song
would by implication only affect uncultured Zentradi, which leaves for a
boring and already done threat. I'm still not even sure how the Sharon
Apple Incident happend, was it just mass hypnosis? But even then that
still falls into mundane, and only affecting humans and Zentradi. Zero
was simply a specific blood-line and a specific song being a key, so I'm
inclined to partially ignore that.
But the fact that Zero had a
specific song being a key, and DYRL? ending Space War 1 with a
translated Protoculture pop song does open up the possibility as mundane
song and music as a method of communication with aliens that are also
derived/created by the Protoculture, or their artifacts. This changes
the focus from music being used as a weapon like the bulk of the
franchise.
I could model the power of song as a power. The most
likely candidate is one or more psychic powers, specifically a
modification of Emotion Control, if I were to favor the Basara Song
Energy view of music as a power. The downside is the lack of mass
influence that is shown with Minmei and Ranka/Sheryl. Using Song Energy
as a psychic power works with the one or a very small number of enemies,
such as the individual protodevlin that Sound Force fought, and it
might also work alongside the more mundane mass culture shock style
influence shown on Zentradi and mind-controlled Varuta.
I don't
think mutations or super powers would be suitable for modeling the power
of song. The sample magic and sorcery in the BGB also don't look right.
I might be able to do something with Spirit Magic from The Magic Book,
which by the way gave some ideas for a potential alien species to run
into.