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Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.
Hey Evil Mastermind, do you have the Heart O' Darkness/Fortess O' Fear adventure books to hand? Do you remember if it railroaded Deadlands players into Hell on Earth the way Unity shoves them into Lost Colony?

I just remembered that being killed in the 1880s and then rising from your grave in the 2090s was Hell on Earth's suggested way to get PCs from Deadlands to HoE. In fact the whole opening fiction piece is presented as someone getting some newly-risen Harrowed up to speed. It's not an inherently dumb idea - Hell on Earth's new stuff mostly revolved around cybernetics and this would let established players keep their old characters while giving them a quick route to the new setting's shiny toys. The way it lets the precious metaplot stay intact by having Mr Wankfest kill your dude is just incidental :v:

But it would, of course, be the absolute perfect capper to the entire Deadlands Shitshow Railroad if the default ported character - a guy played the way the game's authors wanted you to, carried from game line to game line in a slavish display of cult-like devotion to the storyline - was precisely the right class to be shut down by that supernatural EMP in the adventure's first setpiece.

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occamsnailfile
Nov 4, 2007



zamtrios so lonely
Grimey Drawer
So it's been too long and completely my fault but now it is time for more Rifts! We've finally reached World Book 8: Japan! Featuring tradeoff between me and ARB, with color commentary included.

Rifts World Book 8: Japan Part 1: *gong* What do you imagine when you think about Japan?



It is time to journey westward. Far, far westward. Past San Francisco, and all the islands of the Pacific...all the way to where west wraps back around to East: Japan. Land of the Rising Sun, Origin of the Animes, Geek Fetish Kingdom 1995-Present. The name conjures up a lot of images in peoples’ minds, many of them more wildly inaccurate than average when thinking of a foreign country. First published in 1995, Rifts Japan is surely going to be a respectful and carefully researched treatment of a complex nation. :japan:


ninja...CLEAVE!

Directly after Kevin’s usual warning about how this book will not teach your children to be cyborg ninja-samurai there is a dedication:

Rifts Japan posted:

Dedicated to Maryann, who has the spirit of a warrior and the tenacity of an oni. And to Erick Wujcik and Julius Rosenstein the only samurai I have ever known.


I am assuming Maryann is his wife and I suppose that is sweet in a bumbling middle-aged midwestern sort of way, but I have not read many tales of the ancient samurai clans of Wujick and Rosenstein.

There is also a special thanks to Wujcik for “sharing his of his (sic) vast knowledge about the Japanese culture, people, traditions, myths, and history.” As we know, this is the man who wrote Ninjas and Superspies and also Mystic China. So yeah, he knows Japan. :rolleyes:

Alien Rope Burn: Maryann was indeed his wife (and Palladium employee), but they divorced awhile back. It should be noted that Patrick Nowak and CJ Carella also contribute to this book. Nowak will be an ongoing contributor to the line going forward, while CJ Carella’s contributions should be well-known to anybody following these reviews at this point.

Full disclosure here: I hate talking about this online, but I have a master’s degree in Asian Studies (“The influence of Nationalism on Sino-Japanese relations” :vomarine:), studied Japanese for several years and lived there for one year. There’s a lot of historical inaccuracy in this book and I will try to address it as briefly as possible, so my summarizing may be flippant.

I was also, at the time this book was published, an anime-obsessed teen girl who believed all the magical fairy tales (even as they conflicted) about Japan being this special mystical wonderland and yet also a superfuture arcology full of wonders.

Some things obviously changed between then and now, and I haven’t looked at this book in a really long time. I remember liking a lot of it when I was a kid, though reading Rifts statblocks with a lot of skepticism was advisable even in the teenaged years. By World Book 8 I’d seen enough trap options to be wary.

Now? I fully expect to hate it. I dislike nearly all anime and have been burned so many times by “no really this one is really good” that I will cut you for trying that, and have forgotten more about Japan than Erick Wujcik ever knew. I also just sort of suffer silently through any time western media does anything related to Japan. But I’m going to give it a real go, because part of me still loves Rifts way more than it deserves.

So: Japan!


probably cooler than anything you can make

As mentioned earlier, Americans have pretty conflicting images about Japan. On the one hand, it’s a place lost in time with mist-filled bamboo groves surrounding beautiful ancient shrines staffed by cute girls in period costume. On the other, it’s a bustling metropolis where businessmen work themselves literally to death in order to destroy American manufacturing. Also, ninjas and stuff. And geisha. All women in kimono are geisha right?

Siembieda starts off his introduction with basically that, talking about all the cool stuff about Japan that he wanted to include. He doesn’t mention anime by name, but he doesn’t need to at that point, and also people were still calling it “Japanimation” half the time. He is also really fixated on the idea of the “oni,” like way more than Japanese myth is, and certainly culture. Like, he had space oni in Phase World and of course they’re going to show up again here. Did he just really love the Ogre Magi?

The word “exotic” is used repeatedly and includes pre-rift cities “having been rifted into limbo for 300 years, experiencing only three days” before being brought back into modern Japan. That’s right, Japan iswas so mysterious right nowthen that no further modification was needed, just drop them into Rifts™! In 87 PA, which is 13-20 years ago in the main timeline, so they’ve had plenty of time to settle in, and adopt all the nonhumans and immigrants around them in the way that the Japanese are noted for.

Kevin also promises a huge tome of Japanese myth, lore, and monsters to come out in 1996, saying it would be Conversion Book sized and be titled something like “Gods & Oni of Rifts Japan.” Needless to say this never happened, or was even mentioned again IIRC.

Alien Rope Burn: The book also promises a variety of books, some of which wouldn’t be released for over 15 years. It also adverts for “The Omegan Order”, a book that’s a complete mystery that was never released, and for a Windows-based “Rifts Game Master Companion” program, which was supposed to have a character generator, campaign manager, an index to “ten Rifts books” (woefully inadequate even at this point), and a variety of other promised functions. Though there would eventually be Rifts Indexes and Rifts Game Master Guide in physical form, the program itself would never emerge.


insert coin now and receive 2 free ninja magics!

This rendition of Japan will be a little weird for not having cell phones. I mean a lot weird. This book was published in 1994 so this was slightly before the cellphone craze really got started, but it's such a fixture now that it's hard to see Japan without them. Especially since modern Japanese cities (but not Tokyo!) have made it through. The lack of satellites might inhibit development of a full network in Rifts Earth but my understanding is that a tower network doesn’t rely on those. So that will be different.

Alien Rope Burn: To be fair, Siembieda is a guy who still thinks the M48A3 Patton will still be used by the US army in 2100 AD.

It will also be weird for the reasons Rifts is weird about everything. Next: We shall begin on the islands themselves!

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

Evil Mastermind posted:

There's no AI, just the demon. That's just Hellstrome lying to get the PCs to where they need to be, probably because they wouldn't be okay with "you have to murder someone in cold blood".

In the backstory, most of Hellstrome's trips into Hell were solo test runs. The trip to Faraway was the first real passenger trip, so I guess he just had some randos nobody knew about strapped in a back room.

I know, but "It's an AI" was probably the press release version. How easy/hard it is to cover up the scale wall hellraiser murder murder murder room from passengers, mechanics and the like, anyways?

Also the stuff about Banshee reminds me of Tenra Bansho Zero. Without the fun bits. I wonder when that game's first edition was released...

I also love how this trainwreck all leads to the Reckoners becoming killable, and we don't even get an epilogue or something for when that actually happens.

And to add another brainfart for my "metaplot parody" idea: What if the PCs encountered a NPC who just wants to die, but can't because the allmighty metaplot has him in its grasp?

Kellsterik posted:

Also, it's interesting how pretty much all the women mentioned in this book full of heroic last stands instead die in gruesome and horrific ways (Dove, psyker during flashback, the NPC who presumably joins the party to be sacrificed). Can you imagine a male character being described in the same way Dove is? Torture in this genre makes male characters badass and grizzled, if it happens at all.

I love how he was apparently cool with getting stabbed, skinned, probably also dismembered, but getting burned? Now that's enough for a grudge that'll last all of eternity.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Loxbourne posted:

Hey Evil Mastermind, do you have the Heart O' Darkness/Fortess O' Fear adventure books to hand? Do you remember if it railroaded Deadlands players into Hell on Earth the way Unity shoves them into Lost Colony?
Kind of? Fortress o' Fear does open with a woman who is a "striking beauty"...

...okay, this is something I've been meaning to bring up: like 99% of the female NPCs in both Torg and Deadlands are described as being beautiful, and I'm sorry it's just creepy. None of the women in either game are ever just, you know, plain. Hell, go back and look at the picture of Jenny Quaid from the Unity review. She's lookin' pretty hot for someone living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Sorry. Anyway, Fortress o' Fear straight-up opens with a woman named Jackie Wells approaching the PCs, and...

Okay, I'm sorry again but this is her introduction:

quote:

A lone woman steps into the room. She's a striking beauty, nearly six feet tall with close-cropped blond hair. You could almost mistake her for a man if not for her obviously feminine body, which her mannish clothing (a verst, white shirt, dungarees, and boots) does little to disguise.
That's literally the opening boxed text. What the hell?

ANYWAY, she approaches the PCs, announces with very little ceremony:
  • That she is from the year 2094. That's her second spoken line, after she gives them her name.
  • That she's chasing after Stone (Stone-1879 and Stone-2094 were the focus of the previous adventure).
  • Oh, by the way, the Reckoners are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Just FYI.
Seriously, she just tosses these factoids off like they're nothing. That last one, by the way, was a HUGE goddamn setting mystery, and they're just like "oh, by the way...".

She then hands the group the notebook that's basically the Hell On Earth setting preview, which is an actual booklet that came in the boxed set that the GM is supposed to hand to the players at this point. Oh, and she actually has the line:

quote:

"It's really a Hell on Earth"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeK10F6iA8E

She continues to exposit at the PCs as they're presumably reading the book. The adventure then has the nerve to say to the GM "Man, that's all pretty shocking, huh? I bet you're really shocked!" because the GM is learning this right now too.


Get bent.

The whole point of the adventure is to get an artifact called "The Heart of Darkness" (which was also part of the previous adventure) and for Jackie to take it through the time portal inside Devil's Tower and get it to the future to [SCENE MISSING]. At which point the players actually :siren:have a choice:siren: to either stay in 1897 or follow her to 2094.

So the players are, amazingly, not railroaded into going through the portal.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

By the way, I'm actually pretty proud of the facts that a) I'm responsible for the newest thread title, and b) I seem to be becoming a go-to-guy for lovely metaplot-driven 90's RPGs.

Hostile V
May 31, 2013

Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Somewhere along the line you switched to the bad 90s metaplot cosm on a failed roll and didn't notice until now.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

occamsnailfile posted:

Alien Rope Burn: The book also promises a variety of books, some of which wouldn’t be released for over 15 years. It also adverts for “The Omegan Order”, a book that’s a complete mystery that was never released, and for a Windows-based “Rifts Game Master Companion” program, which was supposed to have a character generator, campaign manager, an index to “ten Rifts books” (woefully inadequate even at this point), and a variety of other promised functions. Though there would eventually be Rifts Indexes and Rifts Game Master Guide in physical form, the program itself would never emerge.

The Companion program was released, but only through direct mail-us-a-cheque marketing. It came as a single diskette and a spiral-bound booklet that probably came off of the office inkjet, and left much to be desired, especially given what they were asking for it. There was a character generator, but I don't know anyone who actually used the Palladium chargen systems as-written. The rest was basically an ugly frontend to a database of equipment and monsters, crippled by the fact you couldn't make your own additions or campaign-specific edits, but still allowed you to permanently delete entries quite by accident.

This was, to say the least, much less than had been promised. Blame was, of course, assigned to the third-party developers.

A few people on the Palladium mailing list chatted about the possibility of hacking the interface into something useful, or prying the databases out, because both had apparently been made with off-the-shelf development tools. Maryann put the kibosh on that with a quickness.

Chernobyl Peace Prize
May 7, 2007

Or later, later's fine.
But now would be good.

Evil Mastermind posted:

By the way, I'm actually pretty proud of the facts that a) I'm responsible for the newest thread title, and b) I seem to be becoming a go-to-guy for lovely metaplot-driven 90's RPGs.
The fact that it isn't

quote:

With that, Hellstromme quickly steps into his spaceship, seals the door, and blasts off into the night sky.

disappoints me only a tiny tiny bit.

SirPhoebos
Dec 10, 2007

WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!

In case anyone missed it :siren: GenCon registration is now open :siren:

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
With regards to Revised 2e Dark Sun, it's really a shame they hosed it up so hard, because a good few of the locations expanded on in Revised are interesting, and it gives you more world map to play with... but then it just fucks it up so hard. gently caress the metaplot characters, gently caress 'em right in the dick, and one of the worst parts is that some of the Sorcerer Kings killed off are absolutely among the most INTERESTING ones.

Also it includes killing off the actual Dragon, goddamn, that's a stupid loving move. And if anyone's going to kill a Sorcerer King, it should be the PC's, not NPC's, not stupid novel characters, but the players.

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!
There's a certain amount of poetry in a game about cowboys being ruined by railroading.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

thatbastardken posted:

There's a certain amount of poetry in a game about cowboys being ruined by railroading.
That's nothing.

In War's End for Torg, there's a point where the characters are actually railroaded into having to ride a train.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN
I hate to keep harping on the Dark Tower, but it has a literal railroading monorail that stops the plot until the characters answer annoying riddles.
And there's another evil talking train too.

Hey if China Mieville bases his books on RPGs, is one of these the genesis of Iron Council?

Saguaro PI posted:

After that Unity review, I now have a theory that 3:16 Carnage Among the Stars was half conceived when Gregor Hutton read the quick combat rules, read the adventure, tossed the book against the wall and yelled something about writing a game where that poo poo was meaningful.

That must have been what I played at the con, and it was AWESOME! Heroic sacrifices left and right, somebody getting possessed and loving everyone else up, the skeevy corporate stooge getting shanked by the space marines... everyone got into it, made all their deaths cool.

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

I'll be honest: I've never read The Dark Tower.

I do have an Audible credit, so I should probably at least give the first book a go.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.

Count Chocula posted:

I hate to keep harping on the Dark Tower, but it has a literal railroading monorail that stops the plot until the characters answer annoying riddles.
And there's another evil talking train too.

Yeah, but that was actually really good since it's a book.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


PurpleXVI posted:

With regards to Revised 2e Dark Sun, it's really a shame they hosed it up so hard, because a good few of the locations expanded on in Revised are interesting, and it gives you more world map to play with... (...)
Yeah the expanded map was one of the (the only?) better parts of the revised box, since there were all sorts of bizarre locations and implied adventure hooks. Of course all the new places that were actually elaborated on were horrible, out of theme, or both, and a big focus of the revised stuff was the staggeringly bad halfling crap, so maybe it's better a lot of it was just implied.

I really want to harp on the writing more but it's been ages since I properly read it. It just sticks out to me since I thought it was god awful even in my dumbass "buy every D&D thing" uncritical teenage nerd phase.

Count Chocula
Dec 25, 2011

WE HAVE TO CONTROL OUR ENVIRONMENT
IF YOU SEE ME POSTING OUTSIDE OF THE AUSPOL THREAD PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M MISSED AND TO START POSTING AGAIN

MonsieurChoc posted:

Yeah, but that was actually really good since it's a book.

Yeah I love it, it's just been on my mind since Duckfeed's Radio Free Midworld started up and Deadlands seems to borrow a bunch from the books.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Bieeardo posted:

The Companion program was released, but only through direct mail-us-a-cheque marketing.

Yeah, I realized after I wrote that I actually have a copy of it sitting around, I just forgot to correct that fact. I've never tried to run it given its age, and it's hard to say if it would even work anymore. Even so, as you mentioned, it's nearly useless even around the time of release. The contents are slim and didn't even cover all the books to date, and it would never be updated. It looks like it was just a Microsoft Access Database file with a absolute no-frills Visual Basic frontend from my (unreliable) knowledge. Would have been easy enough to modify if they had allowed it, but it looks locked down. In any case a good chunk of the promised functionality isn't present. About that only thing that might be interesting is seeing it as a clarification on some of the character generation steps that were completely unclear at the time, but even so I'd be shocked if Siembieda ever really took a serious look at the thing before mailing it out.

So I was wrong! But it's not like it matters terribly. I'd say I can't believe they made people pay money for something this shoddy, but, well, Palladium.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
I would have guessed Foxpro, but that's just because another lousy RPG 'aid' from the same era used it instead. Vastly more likely it was stock MS software.

I go on at length about the stupid thing because it felt like such a betrayal at the time. It's an overly dramatic word, but we were young and money was tight, so when that turd finally arrived we did our damnedest to squeeze any kind of use out of it. When we were offered no apologies and forbidden from cracking it open, it was the first blow to our faith in the company.

We only messed with the chargen systems a couple of times. The only thing I clearly remember it doing was forcing characters with 'major' psionics to give up a handful of their secondary skills, which we'd house-ruled out.

drat, I'm still disappointed by that thing. The DOS based Dungeon Master's Assistants had been really useful, and something like those would have been very handy even at that early stage of RIFTS expansion. :(

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Bieeardo posted:

I go on at length about the stupid thing because it felt like such a betrayal at the time. It's an overly dramatic word, but we were young and money was tight, so when that turd finally arrived we did our damnedest to squeeze any kind of use out of it. When we were offered no apologies and forbidden from cracking it open, it was the first blow to our faith in the company.

We only messed with the chargen systems a couple of times. The only thing I clearly remember it doing was forcing characters with 'major' psionics to give up a handful of their secondary skills, which we'd house-ruled out.

Yeah, I remember when I played GURPS there was a character generator out there that was a big boon, and I remember learning to custom-edit my own modules to add whatever new elements I wanted to use. Eating up secondary skills for psionics, though? That must have been some house rule by the designer, and also backs up the notion that Kevin never even bothered with looking at it. Looks like Maryann oversaw it instead, which explains a lot.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
Half skill bonuses, and half your 'other' skills, not Secondary Skills, my bad. It's at the very end of the 'determining psionics' section at the very front of the book, and the only reason I know it's there is because we had a :wtf: moment when the program pulled out scissors and asked which bits we'd miss least, and went to see what the coder was smoking. Turns out it was Kevin's stash.

The GURPS Character Assistant was awesome, I loved that thing to bits. Didn't have support for Esoteric skills when I was using it, which led to some funky interactions between Eidetic Memory and the Martial Arts book.

Nuns with Guns
Jul 23, 2010

It's fine.
Don't worry about it.

Count Chocula posted:

Yeah I love it, it's just been on my mind since Duckfeed's Radio Free Midworld started up and Deadlands seems to borrow a bunch from the books.

You just want to be an undead cowboy so you don't have to die, let's not kid around here

theironjef
Aug 11, 2009

The archmage of unexpected stinks.

Nephilim. It's french, it's from the early 90s, and it's basically Immortal again. Play as capricious powerful possessing ghosts that skip through history learning sorcery and straining towards enlightenment, and try to, you know, fight bad guys and stuff I guess.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
Deadlands honestly doesn't borrow much at all from the Dark Tower other than maybe "There are guys in cowboy hats with guns on the book covers" Mostly it's a big pop culture reference melange so maybe there's A Dark tower reference on one page of one book of Hell on Earth, but on the other hand 3 pages later you'll read about how the secret weapon of the evil mutant army is domesticated killer tomatoes so. It's very grounded and overdetailed but also weirdly winky about things.

Deadlands is basically the RPG Blizzard would make if it made tabletop RPGs.

Alien Rope Burn
Dec 5, 2004

I wanna be a saikyo HERO!

Bieeardo posted:

Half skill bonuses, and half your 'other' skills, not Secondary Skills, my bad. It's at the very end of the 'determining psionics' section at the very front of the book, and the only reason I know it's there is because we had a :wtf: moment when the program pulled out scissors and asked which bits we'd miss least, and went to see what the coder was smoking. Turns out it was Kevin's stash.

I either forgot about that or missed it, wow. Of course, Rifts Ultimate skips it so it's seemingly no longer a rule.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer
Oh, thank goodness. I think we conveniently forgot that rule on first sight, because forcing a trade-off in a system that rewarded high stat rolls with a shot at even bigger stats seemed absurd.

occamsnailfile
Nov 4, 2007



zamtrios so lonely
Grimey Drawer
Rifts World Book 8: Japan Part 2: The Japanese Islands and the New Empire




So, now we get our geography lesson. I can’t wait for the percentile population breakdowns by race and OCC! Most of the planet, we are reminded, is a hostile wilderness dotted by pockets of civilization. We are of course still ignoring just how far and fast nuclear-powered aircraft could travel to emphasize that Japan is all isolated and stuff. Most of Russia, China, Mongolia, India and “Asia” (listed like that) are overrun by monsters. I am sure Rifts Russia pts 1 & 2 and China 1 & 2 have some further commentary on that, but paradoxically despite having their pantheon written up, India remains inscrutable to documentation. :shrug:

Given this monster-filled wasteland atmosphere, it any surprise that the Chinese and Koreans surrounding Japan are primarily freebooters and pirates? It is not, according to Rifts Japan. Way to play to nationalistic stereotypes there buddy.

Quite a few :words: are spent on how dangerous and difficult it is to get to Japan with a subtext of “so don’t you even think about it, Eurotrash.” “Less than 30% of most airborne or ocean travelers ever reach their destination.” Really? Under thirty percent for any voyage? I mean given that the Horune pirates from Underseas should have basically populated every ocean hex with a massively OP ship I suppose that number is actually high, but all those other pirates seem to manage their sea voyages okay.

Also there’s another one of those Bermuda Triangle thingies southeast of Japan, called the Dragon’s Triangle of course.



Then we are informed that the cities rifted into the future are Hiroshima, Kure, Iwakuni and “Ichto.” Seriously, no Tokyo? I guess the ocean ate it when the coastlines changed, but if that were going to happen basically every major city in Japan would be gone, rifts or no rifts.

Now, hurray, we get a population breakdown for the New Empire: 6,800,000, 1.2 million of which live in a presumably-rebuilt Kyoto. 73% of these are Japanese humans, 8% ‘non-Japanese’. 20% Eta/D-bees. These already tell us some important things about the beliefs of the New Empire, namely that humans shall never live in peace and harmony with bumpy-headed Star Trek aliens, no how. There’s also “15% Oni & Others” who are counted among the population figures despite not being described as citizens, but “creatures that live in the more remote and mountainous areas.”


2% of this population total will be magic-users of one sort or another, 12% spiritualists/priests (that seems high for professional religious classes, though their magical utility makes it more supportable), 22% Warriors (again high), 50% farmers, laborers, etc (way, way low) and 14% Eta (butchers, tanners, laborers who do things considered ritually impure, at least as they were traditionally conceived).

Religion-wise, they’re 92% Shinto, 4% Buddhist, 4% Other (can’t even say the word “Christian” eh?), 88% Unshakable Anti-Technologists!, 7% Want a higher degree of technology but are tempered with a high regard for nature, the environment, spiritualism, bust most abide by Shinto teachings (which are what? Seriously Shinto doesn’t have much to say on tech) and 5% Like and use higher technology; mostly non-humans, eta and mercs.

Alien Rope Burn: Shinto and Buddhism are exclusive now? So much for Wujcik’s “vast knowledge”.

Obviously there’s a table heading missing there, dealing with beliefs about technology. It’s a preview of what we are to receive however: The New Empire is a bunch of agrarian village-dwellers governed by samurai, because the instant modern order is removed, everyone jumps straight back into the most stereotypical notion of the past that Siembieda can conceive of. :psyduck: They did the same thing with England with all the stupid kingdoms but it’s even worse here, as to be “spiritual” the New Imperials have to explicitly reject technology, and even though the Japanese would tell you the Heian period is the cultural ideal they’d want to revert to (I mean, sort of, it is at least the most-romanticized) this is clearly based on the Tokugawa as envisioned by someone who read a popular book on Japan written in the 80s at some point.

Also: Fewer than 50% of Japanese identify themselves as members of an organized religion, as of 2008 or so. 35% identified as Buddhist versus 3 to 4% who actively identified themselves as Shinto practitioners. This is complicated by the fact that being ‘Buddhist’ in Japan still means you can (and probably do) visit and pray at Shinto shrines and so on. It’s a lot more syncretic and flexible than we’re used to. “92% Shinto” has been true of Japan basically never. In pre-modern times the Buddhists and Shinto sects had sectarian wars and stuff and one side (or sect) might be ascendant for a time but it was never that unified--and Shinto itself is not a super-unified thing. I should also note that this is the only time I can find that Rifts has given a religious population breakdown.

It seems like there should’ve been one in Wormwood, but of course Wormwood had a large central Church about whose actual beliefs and liturgy we are given nothing. In England we had yet another Arthurian rehash that carefully elided any mention of Christianity when talking about pastiches of those most Christian knights. In Africa we had literal pygmies who loved nature or something but no formal name for their religion beyond ‘medicine’.

In Japan we are told that Shinto is powerful and centralized and universal and this is the only time a real religion is even mentioned in Rifts--and they’ve done a really lovely job with it. Just really lovely. The last time Shinto was a central state religion ah, ended badly shall we say.


practical dress for encountering the challenges of the modern rifts world

The New Empire is not very unified for an Empire, being as mentioned a bunch of agrarian weirdos who don’t want to use all the nice guns that would fend off the apparently endless stream of oni living up in them thar hills. Kyoto is the Holy City and has been rebuilt in the shade of a Millennium Tree because them trees know where the tourist dollars will be a-comin’. Many petty shogunates and such sprung up in the region after the cataclysm basically wiped the islands clean, but somehow they all just sort of peacefully merged to form the New Empire. :wtc: This, again, peaceful unification is not a thing that has happened in Japanese history. Erick Wujcik your “vast knowledge” is failing us!

In the background of this is Mount Fuji, according to the book. Here is a protip: You cannot see Fuji from Kyoto. You have to take the train. A bunch of colorful characters live there now, I’m sure we’ll hear more about that later.

Having namechecked some landmarks, we now go on to why the Japanese decided to go back to largely feudal subsistence farming. Basically, having seen the chaos of the great cataclysm and the release of enormous magical energies, people decided that technology was evil and they had lost touch with nature and that was why the “bachi” (罰) was visited upon them. “Divine Cataclysm” isn’t what that word means, it’s more like...general purpose karma but, w’ev. Priests began teaching against any technology and everyone just up and converted easily, no resistance or polarizing charismatic leaders required. This was easy because the Japanese people are ~so spiritual~ you see. :japan: Guns are bad, magic is good, but they still only have 2% magic users despite that now being their only weapon against a hostile world.

“Bushido” has been reinstated, never mind that is a social technology from the 19th century grafted with medieval roots. Eight Daimyo now have samurai again, who oversee the peasants and kick the eta around and etc. There was at least some period of civil war I see, but mostly the threat of constant invasion by demons and monsters caused unification by 1 PA, right when the Coalition was founded. “At the demand of the Emperor,” who apparently jumped fully formed out of the Millennium Tree, they formed a government they could live with. Oh, and the Emperor can be female now. It’s just mentioned. All eight daimyo have to contribute 20% of their samurai to the national army under the direct command of the shogun because again we’re not really studying Japanese history here, just sort of cosplaying it badly.

There’s also an Imperial Court but they’re mostly advisors and relatives of the Emperor and not particularly important. The Shogun “accepts the Emperor’s power and is satisfied with his position.” Pfft… :stonklol: There are eight daimyo, I’m guessing at least one is secretly evil and one is a sexy lady. The samurai are an elite class of warriors, often landowners, and “Most are noble, honorable, and heroic knights of the realm dedicated to keeping the New Empire safe.” Of course they are Kev-chan. Of course they are. Peasants are farmers and laborers who don’t touch meat or decay (roughly) and eta are the same thing but they do. Both of the latter two classes are forbidden to bear arms, and there is no social advancement short of joining a religious order or becoming a “kabuki entertainer” because that’s the only kind of theater Japan has.

Most peasants are described as reasonably happy and most administrators as reasonably good, this is explained by the Emperor’s extraordinary leadership and the actual presence of spirits and gods who punish the wicked sometimes. The eta, meanwhile, are abandoned even by the capriciously limited statblocks of MDC gods and have little protection even while they do all those nasty jobs that must be done to avoid literal poo poo and corpses piling up everywhere. 65% of the eta are D-bees of various sorts, 15% are Japanese humans and the rest-- :iiam: Being freely abused by those in power, they are most likely to turn to darkness for some payback. :doom:

Merchants were omitted from the peasant section, and in the true Tokugawa fashion, currency-handlers are disdained as being ignoble, but they are tolerated to run the samurai businesses for them. Of course, if things were going to exactly mimic historical patterns, they’d have the whole daimyo system precariously in debt by the time some external power stops by to force the equilibrium to shatter. Ninja are mentioned as...a thing, it isn’t specified if they’re illegal or what, they just exist. Doctors also exist and apparently so does pathology. Monks and priests have a poorly-defined religious space where they are defended but don’t really seem to be based anywhere much or state-supported. Wizards are unaligned as far as the caste system goes. Cyborgs seeking to get back in touch with their natures or whatever are okay, apparently 48 cyborgs (specifically) have come to reside in the New Empire for purposes of spiritual healing. :roboluv: Lastly, outright slavery is not permitted, though peasants and eta are indentured to a samurai-class landowner.

We get a very brief, very weak statblock for ‘peasant’ which gives some complete crap skill selections and notes only 15% are literate. Looking at the end of the book, they don’t even get an XP table. That’s okay, gaining levels in Palladium games doesn’t matter that much anyway.

Samurai are the military ruling class and also primary protectors of the realm. I sure hope they figured out how to do mega-damage with swords. Also, only the samurai are allowed to openly carry weapons. Punishments for crimes range from death (possessing technology) to confiscation of weapons and lashes (weapons charges), to whipping (peasant riding a horse), to more whipping and fines (theft) to a stern lecture and public humiliation (possession of technology? :shrug:) to execution or banishment for murder. Use of charms and magic to swindle or cheat people is a “serious offense.”


situated in what is roughly the ‘Kinki’ region of Japan

The New Empire doesn’t spend a lot of time on foreign relations. They tried sending expeditions to China but found the place infested with “oni.” :rolleyes: They are devoted to making the Republic of Japan, their immediate westerly neighbor, see the error of their ways. As a military society run by a warrior class they do this with peaceful protests and philosophical discussions. Surprisingly, here we have two human nations who disagree about the magic/technology thing who are not actively at war. They disagree but they don’t fight about it. “Ichto” province are apparently the bad tech people who have outlawed all that hippy-dippy talk and are mean to New Empire folk. Takamatsu kingdom seems to put the lie to the anti-tech by keeping things in harmony. Otomo Shogunate & H-Brand are corporate enemies of the Empire. And then there’s The Zone. Encompassing most of central Honshu, this seems to be a place full of demons. They have no contact with all those other lovingly detailed nations from other Rifts books, so be prepared to Perry it up if PCs from elsewhere come knocking. They don’t even know the Pacific sea nations aside from the Horune and Naut’yll raiders.

Phew, that was long. And :ughh: I knew there would be something like this but they still managed to impress me with their level of fetish for “traditional Japan” as seen through a crazy lens.

We shall continue next time with more places, starting with whatever Takamatsu is.

Simian_Prime
Nov 6, 2011

When they passed out body parts in the comics today, I got Cathy's nose and Dick Tracy's private parts.

theironjef posted:

Nephilim. It's french, it's from the early 90s, and it's basically Immortal again. Play as capricious powerful possessing ghosts that skip through history learning sorcery and straining towards enlightenment, and try to, you know, fight bad guys and stuff I guess.

Halfway through the podcast, poo poo went so bonkers I thought you had switched out the book for "Dianetics" just to throw us off. :psyduck:

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
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Isn't Nephilim the one that is what the author honestly believes is true?

ZorajitZorajit
Sep 15, 2013

No static at all...

Mors Rattus posted:

Isn't Nephilim the one that is what the author honestly believes is true?

I honestly thought that was Wraethuthu. Which really needs to get a spot on the show if it's not simultaneously too uncomfortable and too kinky.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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ZorajitZorajit posted:

I honestly thought that was Wraethuthu. Which really needs to get a spot on the show if it's not simultaneously too uncomfortable and too kinky.

Nah, that one is a novel tie-in.

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.
It's a Novel tie-in but the magic system is supposedly based on Gabriel Stranges' real honest pagan beliefs or something because of course it is.

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015

unseenlibrarian posted:

It's a Novel tie-in but the magic system is supposedly based on Gabriel Stranges' real honest pagan beliefs or something because of course it is.

I want to write an OGL heartbreaker in which I hype Vancian spellcasting as the real deal.

(I will of course refrain from including the Wish spell because I don't want my customers to destroy the world)

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

unseenlibrarian posted:

It's a Novel tie-in but the magic system is supposedly based on Gabriel Stranges' real honest pagan beliefs or something because of course it is.

Now I'm wondering if I still have my copy of Authentic Thaumaturgy laying around.

quote:

Written by professional occultist Isaac Bonewits, the only person ever to earn a degree in Magic from the University of California, this book describes how to create "realistic" magical systems for roleplaying games. It also reveals the "real magical" roots of Magic: The Gathering. This book is a lot of fun to read! It is not part of the GURPS system, or any other specific game, so any GM who likes modifying his game's magic systems will get a lot of ideas here.

If you enjoy tinkering with your game's magic system, or if you just wonder what it would be like to be a "real" magic-user in this world or another one, Authentic Thaumaturgy will bring you many hours of enjoyment...and thought.

drunkencarp
Feb 14, 2012

quote:

This book is a lot of fun to read!

LIAR!

Doresh
Jan 7, 2015
I love the use of quotes.

This "real" book about "real" magic will totally "enrich" you roleplaying "experience"!

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Doresh posted:

I love the use of quotes.

This "real" book about "real" magic will totally "enrich" you roleplaying "experience"!

Authentic Thaumaturgy will bring you "many" hours of "enjoyment"...and "thought".

Asehujiko
Apr 6, 2011

Polaris RPG(2016)
Part 10, Book 1, Chapter 1: The World of the Deep, section 1.2: Civilizations of the Deep


To break up Tessier's unrelenting tide of verbosity over consistency when it comes to fluff, I'll be splicing in me trying to make a character out of the book's 122 pages of chargen rules that are spread out over both books. I'll be taking suggestions from the thread but the system is quite restrictive so I'll see what I can do.

Because they're only mentioned tangentially in the world building, here's our race options:
Humans, which include lesser mutants
Natural-Hybrids, merfolk mutants. Exhaustive list of career options: -living outside society, -Wizard UN's merfolk peacekeeping division, -getting dissected for science
Geno-Hybrids, more merfolk. Created specifically by the Wizard UN for their merfolk peacekeeping division, which also happens to be their only career option
Techno-Hybrids, you got dragged out of your bed by the Hegemony and swam out of their black site as a cyborg merman slave soldier. Careers: -slave soldier -fugitive
Wizards, spectacular levels of bullshit in both directions. Career options: -UN Wizard, -fugitive hedge mage(read: a Human who wasted a lot of feats on toys they can't use)

Nationality is far less important, giving only the skills Native Language(itself) and Knowledge of a Nation/Organisation(also itself). For reference the two major powers who's society we haven't seen yet are the Mediterranean Union(team :science:) and the Cult of the Trident(they run the setting's designated Big City Adventures town).

For now, let's continue where we left off with the Coral Republic's territory, armed forces, personalities and major cities

Territory
All cities in the Coral republic are more beautiful than their counterparts elsewhere in the world, Azuria doubly so. Instead of a single giant dome that other cities have(actually only Keryss does that), Azuria is built partially into a field of bioluminescent Coral which is shaped into huge spires to form semi-organic high rises that reach almost to the surface and branching out to form bridges between the towers. The other half of the city is built underground and spreads out further, connecting it with the many surrounding farms, military bases and ship hangars. The Republic's other 28 major and 100 minor cities are built more conventionally and typically set into the sides of the abyssal trenches. The defining feature of it's territory is it's namesake Coral, which emits a psychic field absorbing harmful UV radiation from the surface and protecting the Republic's primarily photic/mesopelagic cities from it(The book told us that those cities were located in the abyssal zone just three sentences ago!). The Coral is concious, speaking through human empaths and also defends the Republic by jamming enemy sensor and communications(the vehicle rules still say it just psychically fries the brains of intruders). It can also grow to any depth as long as it's connected to a patch near the surface absorbing UV, proving that Tessier has no idea of what coral actually is.

Armed Forces
The Republic's fleet is mostly second hand light ships modified to have more Coral growing on them and thus be better(so where exactly are these hyper modern heavy cruisers that the Red League is buying from the Republic coming from?). Likewise their infantry is kept to the bare minimum and the Republic prefers waiting for their enemies to kill themselves against the Coral or just throw mercenaries at the problem though lately Parliament has suggested the Republic needs some more offensive punch.

Personalities
-Laelia Trenton
A mutant born without a larynx that only speaks through an interpreter and is never seen without a hood and mask. Nevertheless still managed to get to be President of the Parliament and be quite well liked at that. Trenton is 50 years old and her interpreter 31, who is also very beautiful(because all Coralians are, as the book will repeatedly remind you).

-Acinia Berrevris
Most senior Coral empath and it's advisor to the Parliament. 64 years of age, very influential.

-Elmenear Calloway
One eyed mutant and High Admiral of the Coralian fleet, Calloway is the driving force behind the upcoming reorganisation of the armed forces. 51 years old.

-Coralia Deventris
Which rear end in a top hat names their poor kid after the country they're in? The Deventris family, that's who. Little Coralia sure showed them though, at 28 years of age she is now the most strikingly good looking diplomat in Equinox(why).


Laelia Trenton, hot interpreter not included.

Stations

Arch
Population: 9 million
Depth: -255m
Fertile population: 34%
Mutant population: 32%
Arch is a mostly underground fortress city from which the Republic sends out most of it's anti pirate expeditions. Recently damaged by an earthquake.

Azuria
Population: 27 million
Depth: -200m
Fertile population: 34%
Mutant population: 41%
The best looking city in the world where all the best looking people come from. Popular tourism destination. Also note that it is half again as populous as Keryss, the "biggest city in the ocean".

Cape
Population: 834.000
Depth: -200 to -3.000m
Fertile population: 28%
Mutant population: 39%
Fortress city and trading hub. The Republic's trade routes go through here and there's constant conflict with pirates.

Corallia
Population: 12 million
Depth: -100 to -200m
Fertile population: 29%
Mutant population: 49%
Identical to Azuria but smaller(so much for Azuria being totally unique). Popular place for corporate headquarters of tourism and freight companies.

Dale
Population: 8 million
Depth: -110 to -200m
Fertile population: 43%
Mutant population: 29%
Not the prettiest Coralian city, that would be Azuria and Corallia, but still a popular tourism spot. More travel company HQ's and the first half of a wildly out of place Lord of the Rings reference.

Drech
Population: 2 million
Depth: -255m
Fertile population: 23%
Mutant population: 34%
Industrial city, under quarantine by the Fourth Coralian Armada(oh now they do have a proper fleet again) because of a new plague outbreak. May or may not have the Red League ambassador trapped inside.

Erchey
Population: 1 million
Depth: -400m
Fertile population: 23%
Mutant population: 42%
Industrial city and unique in the Republic in that it isn't surrounded by large amounts of farms. Focusses on research, raw materials processing and machine production.

Fassar
Population: 9 million
Depth: -150 to -400m
Fertile population: 27%
Mutant population: 32%
Industrial and military city. The book literally tells us that there's nothing interesting here.

Kai
Population: 240.000
Depth: -255 to 1.200m
Fertile population: 10%
Mutant population: 38%
A new fortress city under construction to serve as forward bastion against pacific pirates. Construction ran into a major problem with several families of plated sharks(large aggressive predators) settling nearby which seems to be kind of a ridiculous issue considering that the Republic has 1. torpedoes 2. brain melting polyp colonies.

Númenor
Population: 7 million
Depth: -255m
Fertile population: 34%
Mutant population: 53%
The Republic's primary mining city, managing both mines in the depth and on the surface. Naturally, constantly under attack from Burrowers. As with Dale, there's no discernible reason for why it's named after a kingdom from Tolkien's works.

Ojias
Population: 4 million
Depth: -1.000m
Fertile population: 23%
Mutant population: 49%
The Republic's easternmost city and major trade hub before the great no-man's-land full of pirates and natural hazards between 160° E, 120° W, 80° S, and 40° N. First of all the book missed an opportunity to say no man's sea here and secondly, loving coordinates, really? Three out of four corners of this area end up on land too. It's also not the republic's easternmost city, that would be Cape, nor is it anywhere near where you'd expect trade routes to Vrama to be. Nevertheless it is a major fleet base for convoy protection units for the Republic, League and the Fellowship of the Watchers(UN wizard's peacekeeping forces).

Stirling
Population: 3.445.000
Depth: -90m
Fertile population: 39%
Mutant population: 31%
A generic Republic city with lot's of farms. Not as beautiful and nice to live in as Azuria and Corallia but better than anywhere else. Why are towns like this and Fassar even in the book?

This section ends with some in universe fiction, a message sent from a Cult of the Trident representative who recently disappeared in Corallia, talking about how good looking Coralians and their cities are but being worried about being stalked about an unseen foe. Not adding this to the metaplot cliffhanger list because it's just a faceless nameless exposition dispenser.

Next time, Equinox and the Cult of the Trident(part 1 only, part 2 is located 10 pages further in for some bizarre reason)

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Asehujiko posted:

Natural-Hybrids, merfolk mutants. Exhaustive list of career options: -getting dissected for science
So, is that like...a prestige class, or...

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kaynorr
Dec 31, 2003

Mors Rattus posted:

Isn't Nephilim the one that is what the author honestly believes is true?

I don't think so, it's just written to be as true to the crazy beliefs of real-life occultists as possible.

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