Heartquest was FUDGE before FUDGE was cool (shoutout to all the FATE 3.0 folks out there). An introduction to a type of adventure/romance that I had not been exposed to before, it helped bring relationship issues and struggles to the forefront of the story, while using the stereotypes and shorthands developed over time in the source material to get the game off the ground quickly. Steel Roses is one of the supplements for Heartquest, and one of the most detailed and thorough campaign settings for the game.

It focuses on mecha, specifically as plot contrivances in shoujo manga. I know about as much about shoujo manga as a Napoleonic-era carrier pigeon with a severe concussion, so a well-developed sourcebook was a big aid to me. The first and last sections were most valuable to me, as they detailed what mecha were in relation to the characters and gave an example of what a typical setup might be: a 17 year old girl is the only one that can pilot the giant robot that can save the town; her crush, a dreamy 16 year old young man, is secretly part of the resistance against the authorities she is sworn to fight!

The middle portion of the book is a solid, simple, straightforward FUDGE mecha system, with minor tweaks for scale and a few skills and gift/flaws related to mecha. As with most good FUDGE systems, this portion uses the generalized and rules-light nature of FUDGE to make quick and easy generation of player character mechs and enemies fun.

The book references the core Heartquest book quite a lot, so it won't help a standalone FUDGE or mecha game that much. But you should probably buy the core Heartquest book too, so don't complain, just go buy it first.

If you saw Battletech and said "I don't get it, why don't they have green hair and cry about their girlfriends", as so many did, this is the supplement for you.

Steel Roses and Mecha Aces for Fudge are very similar in their approach to the animie mecha system. Both are excellent. I have both and use them both. One has more adventures and more settings, one has more information on playing robot characters (artificial intelligence) or to have robots as NPCs barely under control of the players. Amazing stuff, this.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is a very good sourcebook for HeartQuest. The genre details are filled out expertly and completely. If you own HeartQuest this is a must have. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: There is a definate feel and style that is captured excellently. The book is a joy and interesting to read.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The graphics were simple but still seemed to add to the bulk of the file. The pdf is a large file that prints slow.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I got this product to have a look at how someone else had adapted Fudge for use with big mecha. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed. It's not that it's a poor product, but it's just not very useful in terms of information it supplies. But maybe it is just too dependent on HeartQuest (which I don't have). My advice is if you don't have HQ, you might want to consider carefully whether you want to buy some very average ideas of implementation. If you have HQ, then you need to consider if you need help in implementing Big Mecha genre stuff or now.

An excellent resource for someone wishing to add Mecha to their Fudge games, whether using the HeartQuest ruleset or not. Surprisingly, they managed to work Mecha (which usually takes the crunchiest of rulesets to work out) and do them in something as simple and rules lite as Fudge. Don't let the shojo elements trip you up either, they can easily be ignored or moved out of the front for those who wish to run other sorts of Anime Mecha games.

I wouldn't mind a more generic Anime game with the Fudge rules, something that would give BESM a run for its money.

I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the HeartQuest line, and Steel Roses is no exception to that.

When I think of Mecha in Shoujo Manga, I tend to think of Evangelion even though it's the wrong Genre. Then I looked again at Magic Knight Rayearth and Shadow Lady. Who'se to say other Genres can't be done Shoujo style? Steel Roses allows you to do all of this with a highly flexible system that allows for role-play and Mecha design. The sample adventure Asuka Dangerous! (that seems to have overtones of Evangelion) shows how this seamlessly integrates with Heartquest. I recommend this to all Shoujo and Mecha fans.