The Enigma of Combination is an expansion sourcebook for the Transformers Roleplaying Game. The book contains rules for players to create Combiner characters and a multitude of new character influences, origins, and role focuses, as well as new potential allies and threats to pit against players.
The book opens with a transcribed lecture from Termagax, the iconoclastic founder of the Decepticon movement from IDW's rebooted Transformers comic. The text notes that she's giving this lecture at Autobot City; like in the IDW comics, she's evidently on civil terms with Optimus Prime and the Autobots. She mentions mentoring the original six Constructicons many millennia ago, in reference to the "Constructicons Rising" arc of Transformers: Galaxies.
While discussing Headmasters, Termagax notes that they are sometimes referred to as "Titanmasters", and that the binary bond symbiosis can unlock all kinds of unusual superpowers, as was the case in the 2016 Titans Return franchise.
Termagax explains that Targetmasters are more powerful than ordinary guns because they directly harness the spark energy of their larger partner, an idea that originated in the Beast Wars: Uprising story "Trigger Warnings".
Termagax alludes to an old rival who pushed the idea of "efficiency through self-sufficiency". This was the bio quote given to Sideways's Robots in Disguise toy; Termagax mentions that he's since become a Headmaster, alluding to the more famous Sideways from Armada.
Excerpts lifted from Bombshell's personal files feature mention of Needler, Bombshell's Action Master partner. In these files, Bombshell ponders on the origins of combination technology; he notes that while some attribute its development to the Knights of Iacon or the Thirteen, he believes that the first gestalt must have predated the universe itself, a "truly monstrous devil". His musings are evocative of Devil Z, big bad of the Super-God Masterforce anime, who sought to create the perfect fusion between humans and Transformers.
An article written by Brainstorm is noted to have been published in "Alt2day", a reference to the in-universe "ALTernity Today" newspaper from the AllSpark Almanac duology, which had an unofficial online edition hosted at Alt2Day.com. In it, Brainstorm investigates the existence of "ancient partnerships" analogous to the modern Headmaster process, and highlights the Battle of Aegiax as one such example: in IDW's Robots in Disguise comic, this was where Galvatron battled ancient Headmasters like Myskrion. The article also flags up "anomalies" in "G Nebula 88", in a seeming reference to the combining heroes and villains of Masterforce... (but see "Errors" for more on that).
A profile written from Vorath's point of view namedrops Murk and Chasm; while these were originally robotic Titan Masters from the Titans Return line, they've been reimagined as organic Nebulans who work for the Hive.
Vorath's narration connects the Enigma of Combination to Nexus Prime, as is common for most interpretations of the relic. He notes, however, that some texts refer to him as "Nexus Maximus", his working name before it was changed for legal reasons.
In his journal, Vorath contemplates the existence of various potential combiners; he is excited at the prospect of Mindwipe merging into a combiner called "Galvatronus", as was the case in the 2005 IDW continuity; on the other hand, he worries that a Dinobot combiner could be an uncontrollable beast, or what might happen if the Autobots pooled their best and brightest into an unstoppable "Optimus Maximus" configuration.
Narration from Onslaught's point of view notes that he was locked away in a photonic containment vessel during Devastator's first-ever deployment, evoking the epsode "Starscream's Brigade". He gloats that the Autobots were forced to rely on their Titans to hold the line—in addition to the well-known Omega Supreme, he also namedrops Rails, another character who originated in the aborted first draft of The Movie. Other combiner teams alluded to include Build King and the Dinoforce.
This is the first Transformers Roleplaying Game sourcebook to have writing by Jim Sorenson, which goes some way to explaining the sheer density of deep-cut lore drops in the first chapter—particularly those referencing the first draft of The Transformers: The Movie, which Sorenson had a hand in uncovering.
Errors
Vorath's journal alludes to anomalies in "G-Nebula 88". Assuming that this is meant to be a Masterforce reference, that should be "G-Nebula 89".
In the Roles section of the book, a picture of Breacher is misidentified as Pyra Magna, while on the previous page, a picture of Pyra Magna is misidentified as “Breecher”.
Like the others in the series, this book is chock full of grammatical and spelling errors, but perhaps the most egregious is Aimless’s name being spelled as “Aimldeess” in the table of stat blocks sorted by Threat Level.
This manuscript still needs work.
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