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Count Chocula posted:Wait, the nWoD didn't have a government agency doing unethical psychic research on kids before? Or would you just use Cheiron Group or Project Valkyrie? It seems like something you'd need in the setting- see Mind's Eye (new low budget horror flick), Scanners, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Stranger Things, Firestarter, MK Ultra, etc. I don't know if there was unethical research being conducted on kids, specifically, but I do recall the Wintergreen process that VASCU uses came about as the continuation of MK-ULTRA, and the entire edifice surrounding it was shady as hell.
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 Update 4 (Pestilence and Death) Before we continue with the goings-on in America, I want to hit up some stuff that the rest of the world has been going through in the last decade, starting with a major ecological event. In March-May of 2001, a wave of serious contamination hits Europe. All of the eastern provinces (Länder) of Germany have to be evacuated due to groundwater contamination from leaking landfills, and the Baltic and North seas turn into a toxic soup. Hundreds of thousands have to be relocated as the land turns poisonous while the government scrambles to try and address the crisis. A year later, the Bündnis 2000 party is brought to power in the German federal elections on their ecological platform but it’s too little too late. On November 19th, 2003 the worst flash flood in recorded history strikes the North Sea coast of Germany. People die in the thousands, drowned in chemical sludge or poisoned by the toxic waters all around them. To prevent catastrophic meltdown, German nuclear plants are ordered to be shut down, limiting electrical power and worsening the situation. Ultimately, even this safeguard is futile, the Biblis Nuclear plant coming perilously close to meltdown and releasing radioactive gas into the air. 400 miles away in Kent England, the Dungeness nuclear reactor suffers a partial meltdown of its own, releasing a wave of fallout that kills six thousand people in the New Romney and Camber Sands area.  This guy is basically a summary of this entire section of the review. Germany manages to totter on for four more years, before eventually collapsing under the strain of the series of disasters. With the lack of a functioning government, social instability increases and leads to violence in the streets. It remains functionally headless until on March 4th, 2009, at 3:58 in the morning, the Cattenom nuclear plant in France suffers a total failure of both primary and secondary cooling systems. The core has reached meltdown in fifteen hours, with core breach at in a half hour, and the explosion of the power plant block 2 a mere five minutes later. More than 30,000 die instantly, with the total death toll reaching 135,728 over the next 35 years. The French disaster site becomes known as Saar-Lorraine-Luxembourg Special Administrative Zone, or ‘SOX’. With the chaos of of the disaster spreading in ripples throughout Europe, and Germany functionally leaderless, the nation is in dire need of any sort of centralized government. The Bundeswehr, Germany’s military, declares all parliaments and governments dissolved, to be replaced by a military council headed by General Horst Stockter. Their primary resistance in Bavaria is crushed less than a week later. While Germany is consolidating under a military junta, England is struck by another tragedy. The Sizewell B nuclear reactor in Suffolk suffers a critical meltdown. 7,800 die in the first month, with 80,000 dead of various cancers over the next 30 years. The same year, a nuclear plant in Dounreay Scotland suffers a meltdown of it’s own, creating an enormous radioactive wasteland that leaves the northern part of the country mostly uninhabitable .  A shadowrun character living anywhere in Europe. On the other side of Eurasia, in 2010, a new virus is discovered in india. Known locally as Kali’s Harvest and as Virally-Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome (VITAS) to everyone else, it induces severe allergic reactions in the victim that eventually cause fatal asphyxiation. The disease spreads across the globe, claiming 450 million lives, including that of Pope John Paul III. The plague, compounded with the nuclear disaster a few years before, finally breaks the back of France’s economy and ends their resistance to corporate culture. Just to piss on them while they’re down, the Auvergne volcano also erupts, probably handily convincing every Frenchman that the world is ending. Speaking of, Quebec secedes from Canada, forming their own independent nation. One year later, a massive hurricane-strength storm pushed the still-toxic waters of the North Sea inland, breaking levees and dams and flooding Germany again. This time, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark and Norway are all effected, with thousands dead and millions displaced, half a million eventually dead from the toxic storm. Next time, we cover WAR, the other horseman. (Famine couldn’t make it)
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Feb 16, 2017 02:55
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Palladium will be flailing for a great mecha artist for ages after Long leaves (sorry, Breaux). Ramon Perez does really cool and exaggerated machines, but isn't until Chuck Walton that they'll have a definitive mecha artist that feels like a Kevin Long successor. Guy is a machine on the recent equipment books, it's just too bad the actual I would put VulnePro up there as well, but I'm not sure if he ever did a Rifts book. Walton is definitely something, surprising that someone still works in pencil still.
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Feb 16, 2017 03:01
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don't nearly do his art justice.
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Crasical posted:
So was there some wizard poo poo going down to make all these things happen in comparatively rapid succession? Or do the authors just hate nuclear energy?
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Feb 16, 2017 03:47
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Midjack posted:So was there some wizard poo poo going down to make all these things happen in comparatively rapid succession? Or do the authors just hate nuclear energy? Shadowrun was published in 1989 Chernobyl was 1986.
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Feb 16, 2017 04:10
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thatbastardken posted:(some shade) I'd argue but I'm in the middle of reading New West.  Young Freud posted:I would put VulnePro up there as well, but I'm not sure if he ever did a Rifts book. Walton is definitely something, surprising that someone still works in pencil still. Looks like he did some work for later Phase World books and more recent Robotech, which explains why I'm not as familiar with him. The latter I feel embarrassed about given a goon did a lot of work on them, it's just seeing Robotech in the Palladium system always makes me unreasonably frustrated. If I did a F&F of the original eighties Robotech RPG it would probably include the word "gently caress" as at least 20-25% of the word count.
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Feb 16, 2017 04:12
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8one6 posted:Shadowrun was published in 1989 Quick google shows about 100 nuclear reactors in the USA, or do the Shadowrun devs also not want to write anything for Europe?
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Feb 16, 2017 04:27
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Snatcher did it better https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfltRGG_yQo&t=35s
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Feb 16, 2017 04:51
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 Rifts World Book 8: Japan Part 17: “The mechanical behemoth was inspired by Armatech's dragon-borgs, but always trying to out do their old rivals, Ichto developed a giant robot vehicle that looks like an oriental dragon sheathed in armor!” Robots Well, "robot vehicles", actually, aka mecha.  Vulnerable to mecha-bees. AT-1053 Ka-Kuma "Metal Bear" Ooof. "Kuma" does mean bear, but "ka"? "Kakura" would be a water cooler. "Ka" on its own can mean a number of things... Fire bear? Beautiful bear? Mosquito bear? Nothing to do with metal. Not that just jamming together Japanese words willy-nilly works since the language relies so much on context, but those are closer definitions than Rifts provides. Unsurprisingly, this is a bear-styled robot used largely as artillery and anti-aircraft, and is pretty tough, with surprisingly powerful artillery cannons that actually can do more damage than a glitter boy, but are limited to four shots per round regardless of the gunner's number of attacks (two per cannon), and can't fire at man-sized targets closer than 1000' because... they can't, shut up. It also as mini-and short-ranged missiles, and a positively decent rail gun and particle beams... but an ignorable laser turret and flamethrowers. Still, it's interesting to see them have a weapon system with genuinely different effect in limitations... even if there's no rules for spotting or aiming a weapon out at 7 miles. Just wing it! Occamsnailfile: “Ka” is a rarely-used alternate reading for 金 which means ‘metal’ in the element sense (fire, water, etc) but is most commonly read “kin” for all occasions and also means “gold.” So:  Alien Rope Burn: I sit corrected!  Samurai Something Cat. AT-1063 Hi-Tora "Fire Tiger" This is supposed to be incendiary vehicle because "Many supernatural and magical creatures are vulnerable to fire..." So let's check, of the monsters introduced in this book:
Also it has vibro-blades because in Japan, everything has vibro-blades. Even the vibro-blades have vibro-blades.   Tragically pincerless. IR-2015 Kani "Crab Walker" "Kani"... does mean crab. Bravo, Rifts, maybe you're getting ahold of this language thing! But probably not. This is a car-sized crab that's used for underwater work, but is surprisingly fragile, only having about as much M.D.C. as the Tazu-Tengu. It has short-range and mini torpedoes, a blue-green laser that may as well be a pistol aimed out the window, a laser torch, and a plasma torch. In case one torch cannot perform its duties, another will be ready to stand in its place. Maybe it could face the crab mecha from Triax & the NGR for the battle for ultimate crab. What crab will win? What crab will win?  Shake hands with danger. IR-2020 Wrecker A non-combat robot, this is designed for construction and demolition, so obviously we need a detailed description and combat stats. Well, it has a combat variant to justify that, I guess. It's fairly tuff for something that doesn't fight, with special climbing and... tunneling abilities? It has buzzsaws, plasma cutter, laser torch, and comes with fusion blocks for demolition. Out of nowhere, we get random rules for trying to throw fusion blocks, likely trying to discourage their use as grenades given their high level damage. Throwing them is -4 to hit, and a human trying to throw one has a 1 in 6 chance of blowing in your face, and only about a 20% chance of detonating as planned on impact. gently caress you, players, for your clever tricks! You'll plant your charges and set a timer like Thoth intended. You can add lasers or missile launchers if you gotta, but why bother? Get a real mech, you pleb.   ”No longer do we have to hang a soldier off the mecha’s chest just to have tiny arms.” IR-2040 Destroyer This generically-named samurai bot is built for mountain and urban combat, because the two are very much alike. Think about it. Think harder. You might think I'm wrong, but you'll see the truth. You all will. Okay, we all know this is just a generic ground-pounding samurai gundam with mini-missiles, rail gun, lasers, laser torch, grenades (seriously, it carries tiny man-sized grenades to be thrown by its tiny arms, which is terrible at the scale it’s supposed to fight at), and tiny arms to carry tiny weapons that do dinky damage on its scale but it looks cool and being useful is overrated. Very, very cookie cutter at this point, it’s only gimmick isn’t terribly practical.  ”You can’t come to the party!” IR-2050 Apocalypse So, this is supposed to be the exclusive Ichto creation that you can only get if you're their double-plus exclusive bestie, a 30' oni-bot with wings that are actually a detachable drone robot that wants to be a folk singer and god help me my brain is just melting into references to try and save itself. Being a 30' robot in a game where size and durability are only vaguely related, it's nearly as tough as a glitter boy. It makes sense to someone, I’m sure. It as medium-range, short-range, and mini-missiles. There are lasers, rail guns, plasma guns, and vibro-blades. It's a bunch of weapon stats barfed across two pages. The drone can fly for 50 miles before radio becomes too weak to use, even though we've been told before that radio signals are more limited than that because rifts n' magic. It mostly serves as a spybot but can fire missiles and has tiny weapon hands than fire... huh. It doesn't say what they fire. They just fire generic damage.1 There's a bit about the Republic of Japan being up in arms that Ichto has developed this and won't sell them one and it's causing friction. But given the Republic has glitter boys and SAMAS... es and aren't exactly sharing, they need to drink a hot glass of shut the gently caress up, horrendous babies.  ”It looks like a tengu, so we call it…” “... the banshee!” “What the hell is a banshee?” IR-2060 Banshee So, this is largely designed as part of the campaign to reclaim The Zone from monsters and the supernatural, though it looks like a rejected Coalition design with its skull face and bulky Spess Mehren-styled design. It's supposed to be be the giant-sized version of the tengu power armors, and there's apparently tension between Ichto and the Republic of Japan over Ichto selling this on the open market, which Ichto responded to by lowering the price from 31 million to 28 million. Quite the bargain? So it's got about average toughness, flies around at 260 MPH, has a special sonic cannon that does modest damage that's boosted underwater... wait, what? Wouldn't you use that tech on the Mizu Mi, which actually is designed to go underwater? Well, like the Republic of Japan, Ichto doesn't really utilize their new weapon technology. Mini-missiles, lasers, and swords round this out, which really feels more like an up-sized SAMAS (in hit points, if not in firepower) rather than anything particularly new. Also, why is it named after the Banshee? Well, I suppose they can name things after Western monsters if they want, cultural appropriators that they are.   When it looks like that, no wonder it turns invisible. IR-2070 Gemini Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:The robot is called the Gemini because it has two faces, the visible visage of a combat bot and an invisible blur! That's... not how... that has no relation to Gemini and the related mythology... I mean, why not the "ghost" or "spectre" or "invisibot"? Well, misunderstandings aside, apparently its cloaking device is related as to why it's so generic-looking, as it has no flair or protruding elements to interfere with it. This is still experimental and ther are only a few dozen. We get some percentages of how it's easy to spot - which is all "proprietary", none of these rules are used for anything else, or relate to skills like Detect Concealment. Despite being a stealth unit, it's pretty tough. It can fire when cloked, but it reduces the damage of its laser by half- not a big deal, since the laser is hardly its main weapon. After all, it has mini-missiles and a vibro-sword that do more damage, and optionally carries a heavy rail gun. It makes me wonder why they bothered putting the laser on, though the rail gun apparently has a quirk where it deactivates the robot's cloaking mechanism for 2 seconds and reveals its position, and it hints that "Other problems may also appear with this experimental, giant rail gun." for GMs that want carte blanche to punish PC Gemini pilots who "abuse" the stealth mechanism.  Requisite kaiju monster robot box: checked. IR-4000 Tatsu "Dragon" Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:The Tatsu (meaning "dragon")... "Tatsu" was obviously taken from the Japanese name for dragon in reference to the fifth sign of the zodiac, but it's not a general term for a dragon. It's like saying "taurus" means "bull"; technically, yeah, but I'll never talk about running away from a taurus, or talk about taurus being loose in a china shop. The term should have been "ryuu", most likely. Fumbles with Japanese aside, this is the toughest bot in the book, even tougher than the glitter boy - but at 50' long, it really should be. It has a flamethrower and a plasma cannon in the mouth (of course), and- Rifts World Book 8: Japan posted:Each nostril of the robot is actually a mini-missile launcher! You know, I joke about Siembieda taking any possible exhaust port or circular protrusion and making it into a weapon (and if he wants to add a weapon that isn't in the art, he just calls it concealed), but Kevin. Kevin. We have to talk, pal. You need to cut it out, because this is just silly. The moment a GM describes a dragon firing snot missiles the table is going to lose it. And, yes, I'm sure some poster is readying their post about how this is unironically awesome, but I don't think just being farcical is your intent here, Kevin. It can bite and claw and horn, has palm lasers (not in the art), tail lasers (not in the art), long-range shoulder mini-missiles (not in the art), and a prehensile tail (... which I guess is in the art). The missiles are the only thing with any punch - this thing has a lot of armor but not many ways to dish out damage otherwise. It probably can't compete with actual dragons, not because dragons can deal out a lot of damage, but just because they generally will have three times the damage capacity this thing has. Next: It’s no longer cosplay if all the armor looks like samurai armor.
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Feb 16, 2017 05:23
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Midjack posted:So was there some wizard poo poo going down to make all these things happen in comparatively rapid succession? Or do the authors just hate nuclear energy? Yes. Cassa posted:Quick google shows about 100 nuclear reactors in the USA, or do the Shadowrun devs also not want to write anything for Europe? ...What?
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Feb 16, 2017 05:49
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In the sense of they wanted Chernobyls, why not do one in the USA?
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Feb 16, 2017 06:02
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The US does have some meltdowns, but they're later on in the timeline. If you count the attempted nuclear terrorism Terrafirst! did, then we're about on track for expected nuclear disasters compared to the rest of the world.
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Feb 16, 2017 06:47
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Heck, there's a section of Seattle called "Glow City" for reasons that should be obvious.
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Feb 16, 2017 07:41
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Alien Rope Burn posted:
The thing that gets me about the tiny arms is that it's probably Long (and later Breaux using Long's designs as inspiration) taking from Masamune Shirow's landmates and other mecha but not realizing that those chest arms are part of the master-slave feedback system that controls the larger set of arms. Space is at a premium so the arm controllers are armored and hang out on most landmates. Anything humanoid larger than 7-8" would not need them. Young Freud fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Feb 16, 2017 08:56
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I decided that masochism is my thing, and agreed to play in a RIFTS game, and... I know its all bathroom readers for 14 year olds of the 80's, but how are you even meant to find poo poo in these without a nerd hivemind memorizing it all?? Like, I've had to rely on that. Its like if Pathfinder blew up the SRD poo poo and randomly changed half the rules, but didn't bother taking notes.
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Feb 16, 2017 10:06
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Did RIFTS ever release art books? Because 75% of the art is awesome.
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Feb 16, 2017 10:15
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So do they get fusion power or solar satellites or something in Shadowrun or are they just casting mighty magicks to stave off global climate change and/or Manbearpig? Really you could probably use magic spells to generate electricity.
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Feb 16, 2017 11:16
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Nessus posted:Really you could probably use magic spells to generate electricity. You totally can, but you need a Mage and they're valuable.
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Feb 16, 2017 11:19
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Nessus posted:So do they get fusion power or solar satellites or something in Shadowrun or are they just casting mighty magicks to stave off global climate change and/or Manbearpig? Shadowrun has also had multiple plagues that wiped out huge chunks of the world population. It's not discussed much in polite company, but genocide is the best solution to global warming.
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Feb 16, 2017 12:14
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no offense but given your custom title i'm not going to take your advice re: genocide without a pinch of salt
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Feb 16, 2017 12:54
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In Shadowrun's case, its more omnicide I think. I remember ahead of a game I ran some really crude population growth numbers based on what the books had said the death rate was for the various plagues. IIRC, even assuming a repopulation boom that made the post WW2 birth rate look tiny, the world was still only creeping back to its pre-plague numbers by 2050. Though how that would shift around global warming may not be one to one. The whole VITAS and pals thing is one of those setting elements that always felt like it should have a lot more knock on effects to how the world works in Shadowrun. I get that population demographics aren't as interesting of a "what if" as magic and cyberware, but they'd have a pretty profound effect on a lot of society in a pretty heavy way.
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Feb 16, 2017 13:13
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thatbastardken posted:no offense but given your custom title i'm not going to take your advice re: genocide without a pinch of salt The Native American genocide is the canonical example of the effect of genocide on global warming. It (along with the Black Plagues) was probably a significant factor in the Little Ice Age. Edit: Desiden posted:In Shadowrun's case, its more omnicide I think. I remember ahead of a game I ran some really crude population growth numbers based on what the books had said the death rate was for the various plagues. IIRC, even assuming a repopulation boom that made the post WW2 birth rate look tiny, the world was still only creeping back to its pre-plague numbers by 2050. Gobbeldygook fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Feb 16, 2017 |
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Feb 16, 2017 13:16
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I assume that the whole VITAS & Friends thing was purely to depopulate the setting somewhat. Kind of like what RIFTs did with all their calamities. Even if there it was to introduce more of Wild Earth feeling. Even if the Awakening in SR did something similar considering all the paracritters kicking around.
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Feb 16, 2017 13:31
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thatbastardken posted:no offense but given your custom title i'm not going to take your advice re: genocide without a pinch of salt otoh, D&D-earned red titles are usually the most lovely hyperbole even when you'd probably laugh at the political position of whoever got one.
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Feb 16, 2017 13:45
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sorry, i didn't actually want an explanation or defence, i was just making a 'post/avatar combo' joke. didn't mean to start a genocidal pipeline over it.
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Feb 16, 2017 14:01
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thatbastardken posted:sorry, i didn't actually want an explanation or defence, i was just making a 'post/avatar combo' joke. didn't mean to start a genocidal pipeline over it. I'm not defending it since I don't know exactly what he said (lol at defending DAPL though), but I don't think it counts as a genocidal pipeline until everyone starts getting "kill urself" red texts
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Feb 16, 2017 14:06
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we can but live in hope.
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Feb 16, 2017 14:09
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Alien Rope Burn posted:You know, I joke about Siembieda taking any possible exhaust port or circular protrusion and making it into a weapon (and if he wants to add a weapon that isn't in the art, he just calls it concealed), but Kevin. Kevin. We have to talk, pal. You need to cut it out, because this is just silly. The moment a GM describes a dragon firing snot missiles the table is going to lose it. And, yes, I'm sure some poster is readying their post about how this is unironically awesome, but I don't think just being farcical is your intent here, Kevin. It can bite and claw and horn, has palm lasers (not in the art), tail lasers (not in the art), long-range shoulder mini-missiles (not in the art), and a prehensile tail (... which I guess is in the art). The missiles are the only thing with any punch - this thing has a lot of armor but not many ways to dish out damage otherwise. It probably can't compete with actual dragons, not because dragons can deal out a lot of damage, but just because they generally will have three times the damage capacity this thing has. Hey now, Impact makes nose bullets work.
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Feb 16, 2017 14:52
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Cooked Auto posted:I assume that the whole VITAS & Friends thing was purely to depopulate the setting somewhat. Kind of like what RIFTs did with all their calamities. Even if there it was to introduce more of Wild Earth feeling. The Awakening basically fixed global warming, too. There was a lot of "old growth" forests that suddenly and inexplicably popped up in 2012. I believe it's mentioned in Cyberpirates that the Philippines was basically one of these areas that just exploded in trees, which is why Japan invaded it. Madagascar as well, which took over the cities and disappeared a lot of the indigenous population.
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Feb 16, 2017 14:58
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The storm has a name... - Let's Read TORG Part 18a: Tharkold  A horrifying beast, half-demon and half-machine, tears apart the leader of one of L.A.'s most vicious gangs with its bare hands. Slowly, the gang members bend knee to the technodemon and accept it as their new leader. A squad of soldiers prepares an attack against a technodemon outpost. They're well trained, heavily armed, and have decades of military experience between them. None of them will survive, but they willingly lay down their lives for the greater good. Their sacrifice will accomplish nothing. Two technodemons engage in a running battle through downtown L.A. to determine dominance over the other. The winner will control the cabals of both of them, the loser will be killed. The battle destroys five city blocks and everyone therein. A three-thousand year old war has come to Core Earth, and has transformed Los Angeles into a nightmare of blood and metal. This is Tharkold, where only the strong survive, and the lucky ones are already dead. A World of War and Techno-Horror The world and cosm now known as Tharkold had another name once, but it's been lost in the mists of a three-thousand year old war. Tharkold is another cosm that (originally) had strong similarities to Core Earth. But the fact of the matter is that now, nobody remembers what the world was like before The War. Tharkold is home to two different species, each one convinced that the other is the invader. One one side are the humans. Ages ago there were multiple enthicities and cultures, but after millennia of war (and forced breeding in slave pens) all differences have been bred out, and now humanity refers to itself as The Race. Now organized into the Free Nations, the Race fights a desperate battle for survival.  Typical Race soldiers. On the other side are the demonic entities that call themselves Tharkoldu. The Tharkoldu are experts in both technology and magic, and their society is based on the concept of hierarchical dominance: the strong rule those weaker than themselves, and the weak are meant only to serve.  There are no "typical" Tharkoldu. The Race and Tharkoldu have battled for supremacy for three thousand years, but despite the length of The War, everyone knows why it started and why it continues: survival. Humanity and Tharkoldu simply cannot coexist. The Tharkoldu see the Race as slaves at best, and as a pest to be wiped out at worst. The pendulum of battle has swung back and forth for generations, neither side able to maintain superiority over the other. Unending battle has led to incredible advances in both science and sorcery. Cybertechnology exists, but is treated as a tool rather than a stylistic choice. Race corpses are animated through the use of technomagic to fight for the demons. Monstosities beyond description are summoned and let loose on the battlefield. It is a war that has enveloped the world, a war with no chance of ending. And now, that war has spilled over to Earth. The Fall and Rise of a High Lord The Gaunt Man, as we all know, had a plan. In order to take control of Earth and drain it of its unusually high reserves of Possibility energy, the Gaunt Man needed to bring in other High Lords to split Core Earth's natural resistance to an invasion across multiple fronts. His theory was that Core Earth's reality couldn't handle a simultaneous attack from seven invading realities at once, and would thus be ripped apart. He could then use that energy to become Torg. One of the invading realities was known as Tharkold, a world where humanity had been fighting for thousands of years against strange demonic beings that called themselves Tharkoldu, but that humans called techno-demons. The High Lord of this realm was the techno-demon Kranod, who had been serving the Gaunt Man for centuries. Kranod was to drop a maelstrom bridge in northern Russia, and his failure here would end up turning the invasion into the stalemate we have today. Because while Kranod was an accomplished military leader and High Lord, he let his greed get the better of him. Shortly before he was to invade Russia, he learned of the transhuman cosm called Kadandra and launched an attack on it. Unfortunately for him, while Tharkold and Kadandra were about equal in terms of technology, Kadandra's strength lay in its people being able to work as a unified whole. The invasion was repelled, severely weakening Kranod's forces before the main invasion. What's more, the Kadandrans had managed to instill hope and the idea of rebellion in the human slaves, an act which began to turn the eternal war more towards the drat monkeys. But it's unknown if that failure would have had any effect on his invasion of Core Earth, because his invasion would be thwarted by the machinations of fellow High Lord 3327. As part of 3327's early excursions into Core Earth, the Kanawa Corporation invested in an abandoned Soviet psychic research project. The psychics managed to predict the location where Kranod would drop his bridge, and as a result a military detachment was able to destroy one of Tharkold's stelae just as the bridge was falling through the sky. With the stelae boundary broken at just the right time, Earth's reality fought back and destroyed the bridge. In fact, the counter-attack was so powerful it swept up the connection back to Tharkold itself, wiping out all of Kranod's assembled forces in a flash of light. For the Darkness Device known as Malgest, this was the last straw. Kranod clearly couldn't control his world anymore. Malgest needed to find a new High Lord to support. And as fate would have it, one appeared shortly after Kranod's defeat. As Kranod was attempting to decide what to do after his defeat by the Core Earthers, a human slave known as Jezrael chose that moment to attack her former master. Kranod wasn't concerned with this monkey slave's attack...until he felt the Possibility energy granted him by Malgest being drained away. The ancient Darkness Device had finally had enough of Kranod's failures in defeating the Race and invading other realities, and severed the link to the now former High Lord. Shorn of his Possibility energy, the technodemon was quickly dispatched by Jezrael, the echos of his own failure the last thoughts in his mind. Malgest had found a new High Lord. One who hated the Tharkold who raised her as a slave, who hated the Race that were unable to save her, who despised her entire world. One who, in reality, hated existence as much as Malgest itself. And less than a year after the beginning of the invasion, the "forgotten" cosm of Tharkold dropped a maelstrom bridge into the center of Los Angeles, heralding a new phase of the Possibility Wars.  Jezreal, the new High Lord of Tharkold Jezrael has wasted no time establishing herself as High Lord. Her list of goals is short, but require all of her skill and power to pull off. Her primary goal is to achieve and maintain domination over the Tharkoldu. The demons are incredibly hierarchical creatures: there are 65 Demon Princes, each of whom maintains dominance over several hundred Demon Lords, each of whom held dominance over thousands of followers, and so on and so forth. As High Lord, Kranod maintained dominance and control over all 65 Demon Princes, and by extension the entire Tharkoldu race. Now that she's High Lord, Jezrael needs to earn dominance over the Demon Princes. This would normally be much easier said than done, because despite the fact that she killed Kranod none of the Tharkoldu would be willing to bend knee to a lowly human. Jezrael isn't going to take "gently caress off, monkey" as an answer, and shortly after rising to power she defeated the Demon Prince Krezlakh in single combat while her followers assassinated his inner circle. The Tharkoldu are learning the hard way that Jezrael may be better at their own game than they are. quote:It is enlightening that she never appeared to consider challenging the Demons' supremacy on Tharkold and allying herself with the free humans of the Race. The slave girl G-5473,having risen to rule the world, seems to consider herself a demon in all but the biological sense. She intends to dominate the demons. She intends to dominate the Free Nations. Her second priority is to invade Core Earth. Between the failed invasions of Kandara and Core Earth, Malgest expended a pretty significant amount of Possibility energy with nothing to show for it. And without a fresh source of Possibilities to refuel itself, Malgest's hold on Tharkold will start to weaken. So Jezrael has inserted herself into the Possibility Wars, claiming a small territory on the west coast of the United States. Her realm is almost minuscule by invasion standards: a single stelae zone 100 miles to a side, wedged between Kaah's territory and the Kanawa Corporations holdings. She chose this location for a few reason: the high population density gives her a better return on her investment when it comes to draining Ords, it's easier to get her power base solidified in a smaller territory, and she's in very close proximity to 3327's territory. That last point ties to her third goal: revenge on 3327. Malgest is well aware that it was the Kanawa Corporation's financial backing of the Soviet psychic project that directly led to the destruction of the maelstrom bridge. Kranod had dismissed the suggestion that 3327's machinations would affect the invasion plans, and now that he's paid the price the Demon Princes are howling for Kanawa's head on a spike. Jezrael doesn't give a poo poo about 3327 right now, but she knows that part of getting control of the Princes means getting revenge on him. It should be pointed out that Jezrael doesn't know about the legend of the Torg yet. Malgest hasn't passed that information along, because it wants to see how well Jezrael does establishing herself as High Lord first.  The rules of War are "whatever you can get away with". World Laws and Axioms As is the norm, let's finish up with a quick run down of the realm's vital statistics. Magic axiom: 12 The magic axiom level has actually fluxuated over the centuries, starting at 9 during the beginning of the War and slowly rising and falling since then due Kranod adjusting the axioms. It stabalized at 12 about 80 years ago, and for some reason Kranod was never able to raise it any higher. Magic is more the domain of the Tharkoldu than the Race, due to the Race seeing magic as a tool of the demons. Magic knowledge isn't common, and any new spells that are developed are kept as secret weapons rather than disseminated to the populace. A unique aspect of Tharkold is the existence of technomagic, the binding of magical energies into weapons or cybernetics. Right now Tharkold is about equivalent to the Nile Empire in terms of magic: it's there, but it needs to be highly ritualized. Social axiom: 20 While the social axiom of Tharkold is high (due to the Race coming together and uniting under a common cause) and only one point less than Core Earth's, Tharkoldu culture itself is rather primitive. The cyberdemons barely have anything approaching what we'd think of as art or literature; what they tend to have instead are epic poems or litanies of personal genealogies. Even among the Race, there's not really much of a culture outside of the needs of a military livelihood. Everyone is expected to fight, and even the most "liberal" of the Race nations is still a military oligarchy. It's worth pointing out that due to one of the cosm's World Laws, the social axiom is limited to 12 for non-violent social interaction. Spiritual axiom: 17 The Race and the Tharkoldu each have their own religions, and unsurprisingly they're diametrically opposed to each other. The religion of the Tharkoldu is actually very integrated with the demons' use of technology for survival, leading to some very...unique miracles. The religion of the Tharkoldu is called the Cult of the Dominant, and any differing religions the Race may have had at one point have all ended up homogenized together into The Way of the Race. Like pretty much everything else on Tharkold, the War has pared down peoples' needs to the bare essentials. Technological axiom: 26 The tech axiom of Tharkold is the same as the Cyberpapacy's, and as a result they have a very similar level of technological progress. There's a global computer network ("The Grid") that is accessed via direct neural interface, cybernetics exist, and weapon technology has advanced in leaps and bounds. What's different about the two worlds is their attitude towards their technologies. For example, in the Cyberpapacy cybernetics are treated as gifts from God and are designed as much for aesthetics as usability. On Tharkold, cybernetics are a tool, with form being a distant second to functionality; no chrome, just steel. For the Race, cybernetics are really more for veterans who've suffered massive damage but are too valuable to just let die than something you just go to a chop-shop and get. For the Tharkoldu, cybernetics are a method of expression: the demons love using implants to twist themselves into even more horrific appearances. The constant drain of both side's resources has led to the development of AutoCAD technologies. The best analogy would be industrial-level 3D printing; factories will operate under computer control and manufacture goods from raw materials with minimal operator input. The operator selects a blueprint from a control computer, and the automatic systems do the rest. Note that "raw materials" here generally means "any scrap or wreckage you can get your hands on", as most of Tharkold's natural resources have long since dried up.  This is about as quiet as it gets. There are three World Laws in Tharkold, and they're all pretty terrible. First up is The Law of Ferocity, which rewards violent behavior for any reason. The basic effect is that characters always get a +3 to their intimidation and taunt results. Also, when dealing with people not of your nation (if Race) or pride (if Demon), you get +3 Willpower or Mind to resist the effects of the charm and persuasion skills. In combat, when someone makes an all-out attack, they ignore any K or O results dealt against them until their next action. In addition, they cannot be taken by complete surprise. A side-effect of the Law of Ferocity is the limiting of Tharkold's social axiom in non-violent interactions. While the general social axiom for the realm is 20 (pluralism, the birth of bureaucracies), in non-violent interactions the social axiom is limited to 12: quote:Social organization sufficiently robust as to assimilate conquered cultures rather than simply rule them. Societies may trade "cultural ideas" as well as hard goods. Credit and money lending established. Property is rented. Religions may institute a ritual bureaucracy or church, allowing religion to influence far greater numbers of people than before. Postal and news services are possible. Related to the Law of Ferocity is The Law of Pain. Pain, as they say, is a great motivator; on Tharkold it's pretty good for the inflictor too. When someone inflicts pain on an enemy, they get to "bank" a free roll-again-and-add as if they'd spent a Possibility on the roll, including the "rolls less than 10 count as 10" benefit. This roll again result must be used within half an hour, and can't be used on the same target that the pain was originally inflicted on; you've got to spread the "love". Also, if your original attack kills the victim, you don't get the roll again. Here's the thing, though: if the victim lives, then they get to bank a roll again result 24 hours later. This roll again can only be used against the one who inflicted the original pain, and has no expiration date. You can hold on to it for years if you want. As long as you have it banked, the person who inflicted harm on you can't invoke this Law against you again. Of course, once you use your roll again against your original tormentor, the roles reverse and he gets to bank a roll again against you. I think you can see where this is going. There is only one situation where the Law of Pain won't kick in, and it involves the final world law, which is also the law that drives Tharkoldu culture: The Law of Domination. quote:"You may only serve one master. Its master is not yours, until it proves its worth as a dominant. Never bow before two. It's important to note that "submitting" works different depending on the species. Between members of the Race, submission takes the form of a formal vow, but it's not very common. For Tharkoldu, submitting to another demon either involves a ritualistic statement and act of submission (basically a verbal statement of submission, followed by a lot of kowtowing), or by accepting a role in the breeding cycle as initiated by the dominant. Oh, did I not mention that Tharkoldu are hermaphrodites, and breed through the use of domination/submission? Because they do. In fact, Jezrael has already impregnated one of the Demon Princes as one of her first acts as High Lord. It's important to note that when a Tharkoldu defeats a human in combat and takes them alive, the human automatically becomes a submissive to the demon, but if a Race member does the same to a Tharkoldu then the Law doesn't come into effect. This is due to Kranod and Malgest adjusting the Law over several decades to favor the demons and make it that much easier to keep humans as slaves. So what does all this mean when you put it together? Tharkold is, when you get right down to it, nothing but a battlefield. War has all but erased human culture, and what little is left is dedicated to the battle. The world itself enforces a constant back-and-forth between both sides of the War, both sides suffering so many victories and losses the words become almost meaningless. The only reason the Race has even survived to this point is because Kranod enjoyed their suffering too much to just wipe them out with Malgest's power. There's no chance for peace, for understanding, for anything but battle. All there is is the War, and the War is all that matters. And above it all, still grooming its new High Lord, Malgest watches both sides of the chessboard tear each other apart over and over again, and feasts on their suffering. But the events that led to the downfall of Kranod have had a revitalizing effect on the Race. The slave pens grow restless. The humans fight back with renewed vigor. And for the first time, the Race can get help in the War from another outside force. So pick up that rifle and get out there. This war isn't going to win itself. And remember: when you die, you die to ensure the survival of our whole species. And yes: it's not "if". It's "when". You got a problem with that, soldier? NEXT TIME: War. War never changes.
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Feb 16, 2017 17:42
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Young Freud posted:The thing that gets me about the tiny arms is that it's probably Long (and later Breaux using Long's designs as inspiration) taking from Masamune Shirow's landmates and other mecha but not realizing that those chest arms are part of the master-slave feedback system that controls the larger set of arms. Space is at a premium so the arm controllers are armored and hang out on most landmates. Anything humanoid larger than 7-8" would not need them. I thought of Landmates / GUGES from Appleseed too, but they were different enough that I didn't feel certain they were direct rips. For the Wrecker, it makes some sense to have little humanoid limbs for fine work, but the Destroyer's extra limbs don't make much sense. It's like attaching a pistol to a tank. Karatela posted:I decided that masochism is my thing, and agreed to play in a RIFTS game, and... I know its all bathroom readers for 14 year olds of the 80's, but how are you even meant to find poo poo in these without a nerd hivemind memorizing it all?? Rifts Ultimate Edition helps... some, if you don't have it already. The thing to remember about Rifts is that Palladium has never worked seriously on having a definitive ruleset like you see in most modern games. Siembieda, from all accounts, plays very fast and loose with the rules, and the books are loaded with rulings... wherever he feels a ruling is needed. Sometimes that's in the middle of descriptive text, or in the middle of a robot description like with the Wrecker above. I mean, in my review of Dead Reign I realized the system still doesn't have a clear initiative / combat order! And that was in 2008! A lot of playing Palladium as it is currently written is A) deciding what optional rules and setting material you're going to be using from the outset and B) not caring too much about exact rulings. If you're going to play it, it's a lot of "GM asks for a roll" without much further examination. Make rulings and write them down if you want things to be consistent, but if you're used to d20, it just is never ever going to be nearly as tight. It's more of an organic mess. If you want specific advice you can hit up the Palladium Gigathread, I can answer questions as best I can and mention house rules I've used. I don't run Palladium seriously too much anymore (I ran a gag game a few years back) but I can offer some further advice on it if you want. Count Chocula posted:Did RIFTS ever release art books? Because 75% of the art is awesome. A few, actually. There's Rifts® and the Megaverse - The Art of John Zeleznik and Future Visions - The Artistry of Charles Walton. Zeleznik has done a lot of covers for them (including Japan), and Chuck Walton has done a lot of robot and monster design for them in more recent books (far beyond the horizon of what my reviews cover). If you're interested in that sort of thing, I'd also really recommend Rifts: Machinations of Doom, which is a graphic novel done by Ramon Perez, definitely one of my favorite Rifts artists. The plot is forgettable but I love the art so much.
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Feb 16, 2017 18:42
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I Savage Rifts also came out recently and while it's not perfect, it beats Palladium as a system any day of the week. Currently in a campaign of it under a newbie DM and it's going pretty well. Recently read that graphic novel (it came in a Palladium grab bag I got the DM of that game as a gag Christmas gift) and yeah, the art is great.
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Feb 16, 2017 19:04
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Tharkold is a cool premise. Like plenty of other stuff in Torg, it's an example of Torg shooting itself in the foot. First, I don't give a poo poo about Tharkold's history before it invaded Earth. "A human slave deposed the boss demon right before they invaded." That's pretty much all we need to know. The Race, as far as we know so far, have no culture or diversity, which they need if they're the default PC type. I see opportunities for PCs to be cyberpriests, Barkeresque cultists and part-demon mutants, and other stuff, but so far it looks like they're all just John Connors raised in military camps   And of course, the World Laws are interesting but mechanically fiddly.
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Feb 16, 2017 19:10
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I think when I did a Tharkold rewrite I just sort of replaced it wholesale with the Architects from Feng Shui, complete with "Demonic cybernetics that slowly turn you into a demon if you implant too much"
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Feb 16, 2017 19:16
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gourdcaptain posted:Savage Rifts also came out recently and while it's not perfect, it beats Palladium as a system any day of the week. Currently in a campaign of it under a newbie DM and it's going pretty well. Recently read that graphic novel (it came in a Palladium grab bag I got the DM of that game as a gag Christmas gift) and yeah, the art is great. Savage Rifts is perfectly competent, it's true. I have some issues with it but overall it's much, much more serviceable than the Palladium system. I've been running a PbP game of it on the forums and it functions pretty well. The weird thing for me is that Ramon Perez did the layout for the statblocks in Machinations of Doom and so you can get a glimpse of what a Palladium book would look like when laid out by somebody who's competent at making font and layout choices. Though the statblocks are still a mess it's weird to see a Palladium book with actual effort put into how the interior looks.
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Feb 16, 2017 19:28
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Halloween Jack posted:First, I don't give a poo poo about Tharkold's history before it invaded Earth. "A human slave deposed the boss demon right before they invaded." That's pretty much all we need to know. quote:The Race, as far as we know so far, have no culture or diversity, which they need if they're the default PC type. I see opportunities for PCs to be cyberpriests, Barkeresque cultists and part-demon mutants, and other stuff, but so far it looks like they're all just John Connors raised in military camps That said: yes, your Race character options basically boil down to "Race soldier" or "freed slave/rebel leader", and the cultures are barely different. quote:And of course, the World Laws are interesting but mechanically fiddly.  -y as gently caress.unseenlibrarian posted:I think when I did a Tharkold rewrite I just sort of replaced it wholesale with the Architects from Feng Shui, complete with "Demonic cybernetics that slowly turn you into a demon if you implant too much"
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Feb 16, 2017 19:34
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Savage Rifts is perfectly competent, it's true. I have some issues with it but overall it's much, much more serviceable than the Palladium system. I've been running a PbP game of it on the forums and it functions pretty well. Well, competent other than the bit where one character starts on the same page as another's ends with no title and a barely existent dividing line. Relevant to this thread, my current character's concept is kind of a Rifts Japan joke, in that they're a Ninja Cyborg Cowboy by way of Kamen Rider from Texas. His family has some kind of heroic legacy, it's just between rampant illiteracy, old movies blending into legends, and the apocalypse they're not quite working off actual records. When I brought this up in character (claiming to come from a line of Ninja Cowboys) the party Burster laughed, thought this was completely ridiculous, and is half convinced my character is a poorly programmed infiltrator robot. 
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Feb 16, 2017 19:44
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The Lone Badger posted:You totally can, but you need a Mage and they're valuable. Reminds me of a Shadowrun game I was in, where my character accidentally ended up with a lot of sway over party decisions because they knew that as a mage he could replace them far more easily than they could replace him.
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Feb 16, 2017 19:56
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The Lone Badger posted:You totally can, but you need a Mage and they're valuable.
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Feb 16, 2017 20:02
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gourdcaptain posted:Relevant to this thread, my current character's concept is kind of a Rifts Japan joke, in that they're a Ninja Cyborg Cowboy by way of Kamen Rider from Texas. His family has some kind of heroic legacy, it's just between rampant illiteracy, old movies blending into legends, and the apocalypse they're not quite working off actual records. When I brought this up in character (claiming to come from a line of Ninja Cowboys) the party Burster laughed, thought this was completely ridiculous, and is half convinced my character is a poorly programmed infiltrator robot. Ha ha, sounds fun. I'm in the middle of working ahead on the western books and probably one of my favorite bits is the Sundance Kid rifting to the current future, but people don't believe that he's the real Sundance Kid because he says he has never heard of the Lone Ranger or Clint Eastwood. If he was really from the old west he'd have heard of them, obviously. A lot of Lone Star is terrible garbage (anything to do with the Coalition generally is) but that's a cute idea.
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Feb 16, 2017 20:02
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