About the Author

version 1.00 (03/03/01)

My Involvement with Robotech

I began my life long involvement with Robotech when the show first aired in southern California back in 1985. After, I watched the two hour introduction episode, I was hooked. Robotech had the drama and scope that other cartoons of the period lacked. Many of my most treasured memories from  Junior High is rushing home from school to view the latest episode and then returning to school the next day to debate with my friends on predictions for the show the next day. My enthusiasm for roll playing in the Robotech universe predates the official Palladium release in 1987. In early 1986, I modified the core Battletech rules for use in the Robotech world. My RPG group continued play with our modified Battletech rules for nearly two years until Palladium released the Robotech RPG Book 5 "Invid Invasion", at which point the group decided to switch over to the "official" Robotech RPG.

Soon after purchasing the Palladium books, my brother Dave and I began to create house rules and and new mecha stats to make up for the inadequacies that we perceived in the Palladium system. The core of these rules are now found in the Robotech Perfect Collection: The rules. My interest in Robotech only gained strength in 1992 when I discovered that Robotech had a huge following online. I subscribed to the Robotech Mailing list as well as alt.tv.robotech and alt.fan.robotech. I was heavily influenced by some of the early works by Peter Walker (et al.) and the RPG designs of Dave Deitrich and Stan Bundy.

During the early 90's the core group for what would later become the Robotech Rogue Squadron began to meet on a regular basis. Myself along with Charles Wachsmuth, Daniel Heit, and my brothers David Olson and Jon Watson began to meet on a regular basis. The initial scenarios began at the end of the First Robotech War and then progressed through the Sentinels and Southern Cross. The group is currently playing missions in the 2033 timeframe.

Robotech Research was born in June of 1997. Originally, I had limited aspirations for the web page. I created the page only to place my "house" rules for the Palladium system and modifications more in line with the series for many of the mecha published in the Palladium books. This changed in late 1997, when I realized that there were few, if any, web pages that were documenting the mecha that made their appearances in the Robotech comics. I had been an avid collector of the comics since their inception with the first three series published by Comico back in 1986. Over the next four years, Robotech Research has published nearly 100 technical RPG files on mecha from the show or derived works.

In July of 2000, Robotech Research moved from its old address http://robotech.neep.wisc.edu/olsonk/robotech/robotech_home.html to its new home at http://www.robotechresearch.com. Although, publishing RPG mecha files is still of interest for me, my main focus has moved towards the creation of campaign settings for the Robotech RPG universe. With the demise of support from Palladium in June of 2001, dedicated fans will be needed to keep the necessary support for the Robotech RPG. Towards this end several campaign scenarios have been published as well as two additional computer programs to help the GM during gaming sessions.  I am currently active in the message board at www.robotech.com and can be found using the handle olsonk.  Robotech continues to be a enjoyable portion of my life and I plan on working on Robotech Research for many years to come.

Personal:

Kenneth Olson defended his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Nuclear Engineering Department in September of 1999. He developed, under the guidance of his graduate advisor Dr. Douglass Henderson, a time dependent integral transport model for potential use in inertial confinement of fusion devices. Ken has several published papers on his thesis work along with research on Xenon poisoning in the Accelerated Transmutation of Waste (ATW) that he performed while at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In addition, he spent two summers at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Argonne West analyzing the Zero Power Physics Reactor (ZPPR). His current interest includes the numerical and analytical benchmarking of neutron transport codes.

Ken is currently a staff member at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Systems and Analysis group (group 49). His current research involves defense related projects such as: the use of GPS on precision weaponry, counter battery fire against transporter erector launchers, and air vehicle survivability using towed decoys.

In addition to work and Robotech, Ken has interests in history, politics, computer technology, and role-playing. He has focused his history interests on military history and campaigns since the 1550's with particular emphasis on the American Civil War (1861-1865). He has built numerous computers for home and his research work and is currently assembling a Linux Beowulf cluster for use on his nuclear engineering research. In addition to the Robotech RPG game, Ken plays D&D 2nd and 3rd addition, Top Secret, Gamma World, Battletech, and Star Frontiers.

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