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From what I recall, the Imperial Army's infighting and C&C issues were epic. The young officer core was a bunch of psychos who'd often completely ignore their orders in order to get some kills, and there were a few cases of older officers getting assassinated by their subordinates because they weren't being aggressive enough.
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Mar 6, 2017 01:00
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Fossilized Rappy posted:(GURPS has this same three-computer split, literally the same three, and it confuses me there too) It's very poorly explained, but Computer Hacking is not a "realistic" skill. It's the skill of cinematic hackers and Neuromancer-style cyberspace combat, and having "Computer Hacking" on your sheet is a way of saying that you don't follow the normal human rules of hacking. Actual hacking is done using Computer Programming and Computer Use.
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Mar 6, 2017 01:09
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The best depiction of hacking in any media ever is in the movie Sneakers. One of the characters calls up a night security guard at 1 am and begs him for help because his login isn't working and his boss in the New York office wants this done by the time he gets in (in 3 hours) and he walks the security guard through the procedure that will make him a new root account on the system he's trying to access.
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Mar 6, 2017 01:49
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The Lone Badger posted:Why would they bother inventing black powder if they're natural-MDC? The bullets would just bounce off. I honestly have no idea. M.D.C. as written works in all sorts of ways that undermine storytelling in games - characters in Wormwood being utterly unable to have a functional fist-fight being one of the most cogent examples. It's also telling that Savage Rifts largely discarded the way Rifts uses it and it doesn't impact the world in the slightest. wiegieman posted:The best depiction of hacking in any media ever is in the movie Sneakers. One of the characters calls up a night security guard at 1 am and begs him for help because his login isn't working and his boss in the New York office wants this done by the time he gets in (in 3 hours) and he walks the security guard through the procedure that will make him a new root account on the system he's trying to access. Sneakers is probably the most realistic hacking movie ever that I'm aware of - which is to say still not very realistic, but it at least uses a lot of real-life techniques of the time.
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Mar 6, 2017 02:11
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The easiest way to tell that Rifts is a bad game is by how there are two loving acronyms for HP.
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Mar 6, 2017 02:49
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Cythereal posted:notably the military history thread in A/T's perennial favorite Shattered Sword (seriously, if you're interested in WW2 in the Pacific, check it out from your local library) I second this read, it's fantastic. If you know of any in a similar vein I'd love to be pointed at them. Ratoslov posted:From what I recall, the Imperial Army's infighting and C&C issues were epic. The young officer core was a bunch of psychos who'd often completely ignore their orders in order to get some kills, and there were a few cases of older officers getting assassinated by their subordinates because they weren't being aggressive enough. I'm not as read as I'd like to be on this, but "those below rising up and deposing those above" was a thing in Japan until very recently (even in the post-war period, there's a reason why "someone murders the old boss and takes over, necessitating revenge" is a theme of Yakuza films / games). Japan went from an agrarian society to an industrial one in less than a hundred years.
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Mar 6, 2017 03:30
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PoptartsNinja posted:I second this read, it's fantastic. If you know of any in a similar vein I'd love to be pointed at them. The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (Leyte Gulf in general and Battle Off Samar in particular), Neptune's Inferno (the naval campaigns at Guadalcanal), and The Fleet at Flood Tide (the later campaigns, notably Saipan). All are by the same author, though I agree with the prevailing opinion that Flood Tide is much weaker than his first two. It's a different author than Shattered Sword, but those four are about as good as you'll get for modern scholarship on the Pacific War. If WW1 naval battles are your thing, I suggest Castles of Steel. It's a big, dense read, but it has everything you could possibly want to know about the naval wars of WW1 and what lead up to them. PoptartsNinja posted:I'm not as read as I'd like to be on this, but "those below rising up and deposing those above" was a thing in Japan until very recently (even in the post-war period, there's a reason why "someone murders the old boss and takes over, necessitating revenge" is a theme of Yakuza films / games). Japan went from an agrarian society to an industrial one in less than a hundred years. Also, what kicked off the resurgent war in China was a group of junior officers in Manchuria gambling that the Japanese Empire would rather go to war with China than admit that some junior officers hosed up and punish them to satisfy the Chinese. The junior officers were right.
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Mar 6, 2017 03:43
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The Lone Badger posted:Why would they bother inventing black powder if they're natural-MDC? The bullets would just bounce off. Mining, maybe? Didn't it say a few pages back they were peaceful until they were enslaved?
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Mar 6, 2017 04:27
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PoptartsNinja posted:I second this read, it's fantastic. If you know of any in a similar vein I'd love to be pointed at them. Just to double-check, this is Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Parshall and Tully, right? I'm looking for more history books always and I'll see if I can shake out a copy of this from the library; just making sure I have the right one. Cythereal posted:The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (Leyte Gulf in general and Battle Off Samar in particular), Neptune's Inferno (the naval campaigns at Guadalcanal), and The Fleet at Flood Tide (the later campaigns, notably Saipan). All are by the same author, though I agree with the prevailing opinion that Flood Tide is much weaker than his first two. It's a different author than Shattered Sword, but those four are about as good as you'll get for modern scholarship on the Pacific War. And these are Hornfischer (for the first three) and Massie?
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Mar 6, 2017 04:49
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JackMann posted:Mining, maybe? Didn't it say a few pages back they were peaceful until they were enslaved? Nah, the Ojahee were clearly imperialistic. It does mention their strength let them use "guns the size of small cannons" which is about as much of an explanation as we get.
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Mar 6, 2017 05:06
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I honestly have no idea. No meat-eating obviously, since you can't hunt until you invent energy weapons. Let's just hope the vegetables aren't MDC too.
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Mar 6, 2017 05:39
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PoptartsNinja posted:I'm not as read as I'd like to be on this, but "those below rising up and deposing those above" was a thing in Japan until very recently (even in the post-war period, there's a reason why "someone murders the old boss and takes over, necessitating revenge" is a theme of Yakuza films / games). Japan went from an agrarian society to an industrial one in less than a hundred years. As for the other stuff, I would not say the Japanese had strategic sense, so much as that I doubt they would immediately  some dude who reappeared back on his ship or whatever if "sometimes people just get a weird superpower" was a known quantity in the universe.
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Mar 6, 2017 05:44
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MDC made a bit of sense when it was first developed for the Robotech RPG and functioned the way "structural HP" worked in D&D - as another tier of damage to illustrate that no amount of small-arms Fire could put a dent in a Veritech fighter or other siege weapon. The problem was when RIFTS decided to carry MDC over to personal arms and armor.
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Mar 6, 2017 07:36
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Prism posted:Just to double-check, this is Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Parshall and Tully, right? I'm looking for more history books always and I'll see if I can shake out a copy of this from the library; just making sure I have the right one. Correct on all counts. Happy reading!
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Mar 6, 2017 13:51
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Simian_Prime posted:MDC made a bit of sense when it was first developed for the Robotech RPG and functioned the way "structural HP" worked in D&D - as another tier of damage to illustrate that no amount of small-arms Fire could put a dent in a Veritech fighter or other siege weapon. It actually started in the Southern Cross/Robotech Masters books, with the Southern Cross doublet armor and got really bad in Mospeda/New Generation, where you not just had Mospeda armor mixing it up with Invid mecha, but guerrillas fighting it out with Invid scouts and man-sized Enforcers literally with conventional arms, which threw off the whole "small arms can't affect M.D.C." paradigm.
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Mar 6, 2017 14:11
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Young Freud posted:It actually started in the Southern Cross/Robotech Masters books, with the Southern Cross doublet armor and got really bad in Mospeda/New Generation, where you not just had Mospeda armor mixing it up with Invid mecha, but guerrillas fighting it out with Invid scouts and man-sized Enforcers literally with conventional arms, which threw off the whole "small arms can't affect M.D.C." paradigm. Oh, I didn't know that, but that makes sense. Seems like they could have avoided it by just granting very high SDC to your mid-range armor instead of MDC, and limiting personal MD weapons to large, clunky anti-vehicular weapons, but I dunno.  You could also rule inflicting MD with small arms through called shots or a "stunt" mechanic, to reflect trick shots,or throwing a grenade in the cockpit and the like, but that kind of thinking is probably light years ahead of the traditional RIFTS mentality towards game design. Simian_Prime fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 16:51
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You know what other game has multiple overlapping tiers of hp? Polaris! It even has a third one to complicate matters further. Speaking of, my current real life-ism should be over soon and I'll resume my writeup somewhere this week. I was planning to create a character in it for the thread and I believe we settled on a hedge wizard but since polaris is one of those games that makes the players map out 20-30 years of history, I'll need some suggestions as to how our rogue magician grew up.
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Mar 6, 2017 21:43
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Many afternoons got whiled away by smoking hydroponic weed when they weren't doing stupid magic fuckery with their dirtbag friends on the bad part of the ship.
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Mar 6, 2017 22:32
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Asehujiko posted:You know what other game has multiple overlapping tiers of hp? Polaris! It even has a third one to complicate matters further. Speaking of, my current real life-ism should be over soon and I'll resume my writeup somewhere this week. Too much time spent talking to dolphins.
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Mar 7, 2017 01:07
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 Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2: Part 11: "Even Arkhon warriors feel it's no dishonor to flee from a company of these land leviathans."[ Weapons & Equipment of the Legion Well, you knew this was coming. Like the Arkhons, though, they get special technology, which I'll bullet-point below:
 A Calico M960 minus the stock or an IAR-20? Enough of all the explainins, It's time for the grand march of guns to continue!
 An ARP-1 Plasma Assault Rifle, or a M41A Pulse Rifle covered in boxes? We also have the Mark I (for humans) and Mark II (for Ojahee) Body Armors that are probably some of the best body armors in the game on their own - they're about as good as the Triax armors, but also get the I-Shield built in. The drawback is that for some reason they also assign these armors to their cyborgs, when the vanilla cyborg armor in the corebook is a lot more effective with 50% to 200% more M.D.C.  "I swear it goes faster if I flap my arms!" Counterstrike Power Armor This actually looks like a rejected Coalition design, given how the head stylings resemble future designs we'll see in Coalition War Campaign. Speaking of that head styling, though- Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2 posted:The helmet/head has a spike in the center, reminiscent of a World War I Austrian helmet. No it doesn't. Art foibles aside, this is the main power armor used by the Legion, and uses the I-Beam technology, but apparently is limited to a practical limit of 600 MPH as to not to harm the user. Not sure why this speed would hurt the user as opposed to a jet fighter, but whatever, sure. In any case, these things are pretty drat tough, with a powerful gatling gun, less powerful plasma blaster, mini-missiles, torso lasers, grenade launchers, and wrist blades. Though not as tough as a glitter boy, this is... about 2/3rds as tough? Figure in that it's got flight, and it's not a bad 'bot. Legion Vehicles A lot of these are Dakir designs meant for human use. It's kind of an interesting idea that they gave their slave armies designs that would be familiar to them faciliate their use. Hence the ojahee mostly got powerful 'borg enhancements to match their infantry tactics, and now we have U.S. army vehicles enhanced by alien technology.  Wouldn't a hover vehicle take hits like an air puck? Neo-Abrams M10A1 Main Battle Tank So, this a hovertank loosely based on the M1A1 Main Battle Tank, and is good competition for the Naruni tanks of Rifts Mercenaries. It has one of the higher-damage weapons we've seen in the game as as far as "vehicles PCs might feasibly pilot", and though it only is marginally tougher than a glitter boy, it has a slowly regenerating force field that upgrades its durability by about another 50%. It has a "120mm I-Beam Cannon" that- Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2 posted:The three main types of ammo used in the Neo-Abrams include an armor-piercing solid round, basically a metal dart traveling at 1,000 miles (1600 km) per second! This is 120mm round that travels Mach 4500+ and does 5d6 x 10 mega-damage. Compare and contrast with the Glitter Boy's Boom gun, which fires a (rough guess) 80mm round that travels Mach 2 and does 3d6 x 10 mega-damage. Now, CJ Carella has complained about how illogical the damage values are in Rifts, but this is a nice counterpoint of that. Oh, and it can fire 3d6 x 10 explosive founds, or piddly canister rounds that fire in a cone for... 1d4 x 10. Stick to the first two types of ammo. Also it has a grenade launcher that does bizarrely light damage for 10-grenade bursts, a modest plasma machinegun, mini-missiles, and medium-range missiles. In an actual awareness of the missile ranges that Siembieda doesn't have, there's a note that they often do artillery barrages with their missiles, and then quickly move in at 300 MPH to attack. Granted, there's not a vast benefit to that kind of tactic in Rifts, but it's at least an interesting acknowledgement that tactics exist. Given this is a game filled with war machines, you wouldn't expect such to be rare, but... Neo-Bradley M6 IFV Scout Vehicle So, this is a fairly tough APC with a force field, 300 MPH speed, plasma cannon, grenade launcher, and medium range missiles. It's meant to lug 10 human or 6 Ojahee troops around and there's not much to add. No art, either. Presumably it looks like a Cybertronian take on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, but it's not actually described. Neo-Apache AH-50 Attack Aerodyne Though similar in appearance to the Boeing AH-64 Apache, this is actually a contragrav vehicle, since helicopter rotors are bad in an age where mini-nukes can be man-portable. It can fly around at Mach 3, and has been used to counter the Arkhon's Spikefish fighters effectively. It's probably one of the toughest high-speed aircraft in the game with its force field, and actually one-ups the Spikefish's firepower, so forget about what I said about that. It has a plasma gun that approaches the boom gun, long-range, medium-range, and mini-missiles. It also has a machinegun that does alright damage which is used for dogfighting supposedly, but given it has inferior range, damage, and ammo compared to the plasma gun, I'm not sure why you'd bother.  And then Kevin Siembieda drew a picture of a llama. Extra Notes The Legion is an amazing bit of rah-rah-rah backpatting, with some of the toughest vehicles we've seen in the game up until this point. This is well before Call of Duty became a thing, but this is clearly riding high on the military's rep after Operation Desert Storm a few years before the writing here. Still, it's a good hook for a bunch of PCs, since you can be nearly anyone and get hired on with the Legion as long as you can make a sufficiently decent impression. Next: El Presidente For Life.
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Mar 7, 2017 01:26
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Young Freud posted:It actually started in the Southern Cross/Robotech Masters books, with the Southern Cross doublet armor and got really bad in Mospeda/New Generation, where you not just had Mospeda armor mixing it up with Invid mecha, but guerrillas fighting it out with Invid scouts and man-sized Enforcers literally with conventional arms, which threw off the whole "small arms can't affect M.D.C." paradigm. Even the original Macross corebook has a "Heavy Laser Rifle" that does 1d6 M.D.C. and can burst fire, though we're told it's for "special assignments only". But yeah, all the later Robotech settings just went ahead and normalized mega-damage pistols and armor. Sentinels even gives us the stone men, which is probably the first "natural M.D.C." playable race, and it was all downhill from there.
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Mar 7, 2017 01:37
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Hostile V posted:Many afternoons got whiled away by smoking hydroponic weed when they weren't doing stupid magic fuckery with their dirtbag friends on the bad part of the ship. Tasoth posted:Too much time spent talking to dolphins. Dirtbag dolphin friends.
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Mar 7, 2017 08:32
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Well hello mental image of a dolphin wearing a cut-off denim vest, a shark tooth necklace and a rat tail.
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Mar 7, 2017 08:49
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Hostile V posted:Well hello mental image of a dolphin wearing a cut-off denim vest, a shark tooth necklace and a rat tail. Tunnel Eels Rule!
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Mar 7, 2017 11:43
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Hostile V posted:Well hello mental image of a dolphin wearing a cut-off denim vest, a shark tooth necklace and a rat tail. My work is done here.
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Mar 7, 2017 12:02
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Hanging out with dolphins is sadly exclusive to random events(yes there are random chargen events because of course there are) and not part of the petty criminal career and neither that nor the career with the dolphins(farmer) are available to a nomadic character. So our post-post-post-apoclyptic wizard delinquent will be a farmboy(or girl) until he gets the event for a cetecean buddy, at which point they'll turn criminal Next choice, where does he/she come from? -Hegemony(rule wise, this includes both factions of the secret war as well as the resistance movement) -Red League -Polar Alliance -Coral Republic -Mediterranean Union(they haven't come up yet but are basically a country sized tech company, with some eugenics thrown in for grimdark) -Minor Powers/Independent Stations(name a theme and I'll try to find one that fits among the 12 pages of town descriptions) Finally, although the rules don't require it, we need a name.
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Mar 7, 2017 19:28
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Coral Republic, because I want this farmperson to find out they're actually a wizard.
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Mar 7, 2017 19:53
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Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2: Part 12: "Like the CS, Cordoba is a human supremacist culture, rejecting all D-Bees (called Dimensionales in Spanish)." The Silver River Republics So, the SRR (because writing "Silver River Republics" out is going to get old faster than a lickety-split) aren't really a nation or even an alliance, but is more just a regional name that comprises a number of countries, and the four largest are:
... are at war, or at least a cold conflict. Cordoba wants to "unite" the two countries and isn't hesitant in using guns as a negotiation tactic. It's really only the threat of the Arkhons and groups like the Larhold Barbarians (we'll get to them) that keep things from escalating into all out war. But who are these folks? The Republic of Cordoba Now, the first thing I'll point out is that despite though this section is extremely short, Cordoba is actually significantly larger than any nations we've seen before. It's got about five times as many people as the Incas. We get a lot of words about fishing, raching, and industry, but the highlights are that they actually have technology comparable to the Coalition, including a Glitter Boy factory, which makes them a real threat. However, they's often dealing with the Larhold Barbarians, who slip into their country for raids on a pretty regular basis. History Though the pre-rifts city of Cordoba was generically devastated, it was rebuilt by the survivors. This included an rear end in a top hat named Manuel Borges. He soon had a small army of gauchos, and thanks to time in the military, he had tactical experience that allowed him to keep the city alive. His descendants have continued on as the city prospers, though a lot of them have turned out to be dolts and villains. The current ruler is Manuel Borges III, who is a competent soldier, but otherwise leans towards a mixture of dolt and villain. He wants to make war in the interest of unifying humanity under him (by law or by gun), but he doesn't really get that the Arkhons and Larhold are just looking for a chance to pounce.  This is all the art I have for this update. All of it. This is the art. Government and Society The word "Republic" in their country's name is a sham, with it really being a monarchy with succession through the male line to the position of "President for Life", who appoints ministers. There's no representative body, but some powerful ranchers can get the president's ear. A lot of powerful people aren't thrilled with this arrangement, but nobody's been able to overthrow the Borges yet. Most folks, though, work as tenant farmers or gauchos. D-Bee communities are sometimes tolerated, but might readily be expelled at the whim of the local military. D-Bees, apparently, are called "Dimensionales" in this part of the world. Cities tend to have more educated workers in technical and industry- and it's all a bit dull. This is alright necessary world-hacking stuff and you get the idea. Armed Forces We have the Republican Army which answers directly to the Borges. It's exclusively male and volunteer-only, but pays well enough they're not lacking for recruits. It's suggested you use the Coalition classes with literacy and computer usage tacked on to represent them. The National Guard, on the other hand, is required conscription for young adults for at least two years. It assists the Army and also works as a police force. Lastly, there's the Internal Security Agency used to eliminate government opposition, criminal or otherwise. It also serves as the espionage agency against enemy nations (which I think is every nation). Foreign Relations Everybody hates Cordoba! Well. There are a few exceptions, so I'll just skip all the ones they aren't seeking to destroy or conquer, which includes Santiago, Achilles Republic, the Arkhons, the Empire of the Sun, Columbia, Maga Island, Bahia, and Lagarto. Other than that, they trade with New Babylon, but there's lingering bitterness based on Babylon being an ally of Achilles. Lastly, Cordoba has contacted the Coalition and is becoming the Mussolini to their Hitler (seriously, that's how the book puts it), with letters going between Borges and Prosek where they no doubt cordially share tips on the extermination of the lesser races. Cordoba City The creatively-named capital of Cordoba, this is also its main trade center, being located on one of the Amazon tributaries. You can buy all sorts of things here, but they restrict visiting weaponry to a "light energy pistol". Though there are D-Bees here, they live largely in the slums as third-class citizens. Oh, and this is where the Borges set up shop in a fortress on a hill marked do not attack, PCs, with a litany of powerful defenses. Republic of Santiago So, Santiago is a mostly-human nation with a population just low enough to make them the underdog against Cordoba. Though wealthy and more tolerant than Cordoba, I guess people like it better under a vicious dictator. Culturally, they've very similar to Cordoba, but more progressive... if not quite progressive enough. History This was a nation mainly formed by a merger of human survivors and D-Bees, which at first helped them, but their compassion cost them in terms of starvation and scarcity. There's actually not much in the way of details here, it's vague, originally consisting of allied fortress towns. How'd they form a government?  Government and Society So, Santiago has a legislative and executive branch - a Senate and Presidency - though only wealthy natives are allowed to vote. As such, only 20% of the population can actually vote, though the government works to try and satisfy the masses in order to avoid riots or revolt. Somehow, it isn't totally corrupt despite being a oligarchy of sorts. Bizarre, I know! The president is Yolanda Morales, who is apparently Santiago's first female president (but unlike Borges, has no art), and pushes for tolerance and acceptance of D-Bees. However, D-Bees still often suffer from prejudice and attacks, though the majority of interactions between them and humans are harmonious. Most of the D-Bees are lizard men, jungle elves, goblins, and... I guess mutant animals aren't really D-Bees, but they get lumped in with them anyway. Armed Forces The Santiago Defense Force is the country's main defense, relying largely on Glitter Boys and other forms of power armor and robots, though there is also the "Special Phalanx" below. There's also a the Citizen's Militia made up of local part-time volunteers who are activated in times of emergency, which are hardly uncommon. The Special Phalanx Aka "La Falance de los Espaciales" or "Los Especiales", this is a force made up largely of Santiagans (Santiagese?) who have magic or superhuman abilities, and superpowers seem to be their main edge against Cordoba's numbers. Foreign Relations When Cordoba tired to pressure Santiago into fighting the Achilles Republic, Santiago instead defended Achilles, leading to a presently tense stateof affairs. They may ally with New Babylon or Achilles for defense, but pro-human factions within Santiago have been wary of such efforts. The Arkhons sometimes raid them and so Santiago rightly assumes that the Arkhons plan to make war on them sooner or later. Finally, they view the Coalition with concern due to their alliance with Cordoba. Next: "... machismo is alive and well in the SRR."
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Mar 8, 2017 01:59
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Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2: Part 13: "Typically the 'cyber-gauchos', as they are called, hide their metallic forms with capes, ponchos and hats, sometimes fooling the unwary until they are within arm's length." Common O.C.C.s in Santiago and Cordoba Both countries use soldiers and Glitter Boys, though only Santiago uses magic and is starting to develop techno-wizardry.  Draw an art of a thing, regular art. Add a cyber-arm, it's now Rifts art! Gaucho O.C.C. This is akin to an Argentinan cowboy, though with more bolas and baggy pants then ten-gallons and chaps. The need to go back to cattle ranching has, of course, revived this tradition with no changes in tools or style, because Rifts means people just ape their ancestors. However, often they use high-tech weapons and vehicles, like motorcycles, cyber-horses, or robo-horses. Some take their skills and use them to become adventurers! Because the world will die if you do not know how to shoe this horse.  Goth... cho? In any case, they get a number of tiny bonuses, particularly when mounted and / or using knives. They get a variety of horse, wilderness, and weapon skills, but an almost shockingly anemic selection of other skills. Other than some basic equipment, randomly they get to select some cybernetics and/or bionics, which I guess is one way to make up for the general crappiness of this class otherwise. Oh, and strict attribute requirements mean only 14% of characters can select this class, as if it were worth walling behind random chance.  "Since I'm a cyborg, I run real fast, and... I don't know why I need the horse..." Plains 'Borg O.C.C. So, these are bionic gauchos. Well, more bionic than the other gauchos. Sometimes they get this kind of technology because of an accident or raider attack, while others are enhanced by ranch owners to act as defense. Apparently they've frequently used to defend against the Larhold Barbarians; in turn, the barbarians have a habit of torturing gauchos to death by slowly removing their cybernetic parts. Needless to say, a lot of them go for death before capture. Oh, and they ride cyber-horses or robo-horses too, or sometimes "dinosaur-like mounts". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhCPG0qqRW8&t=69s So, this is pretty much the gaucho with full bionic conversion and more skills and lower requirements. Hilarious, I know. gently caress balance, this is Rifts! A modest mental endurance requirement means about 37% of characters can play one of these.  Trimming the beards of giants can get intense. Ultra-Crazy O.C.C. a.k.a. the TW Crazy Drawing upon the obscure fact that Argentina was the home of the original inventors of the Mind Over Matter or "Crazy" implants, researchers in Santiago have revived the technology, and with the help of the techno-wizard Professor Nostradamus Cervantes (I'm calling fakename) worked to develop a Crazy that could go into hand-to-hand with supernatural monsters. It's a secret even to the Santiago government how many people died in perfecting this technology, which probably would be an issue if it were ever found out. As it is, they found out a way to supercharge the brain with magic energy, giving the subjects superhuman strength. However, they're no less crazy, and often have the "Popeye Syndrome" that Palladium books always include where you can't use your powers unless you've consumed a particular substance or have a particular condition occurring (like nighttime). In any case, they get decent but not great M.D.C., boosted physical capabilities and combat bonuses, nightvision, can see the invisible, enhanced senses, regeneration, and psionic powers. They also have the special weakness that when confronted by a phobia or not fulfilling a "power by association" (if they have one) condition, they lose their powers and half their M.D.C. unless they save vs. insanity. So that sucks. They get a number of physical and wilderness skills, and generally how good they are is really dependent on how badly the insanity tables randomly gently caress you. They aren't vastly more compelling to play than regular crazies, but there isn't much in the way of additional drawbacks, so I'd call this roughly an upgrade. However, crazies still kind of suck.  Havok always got pretty bad costumes. Blood Rider O.C.C. These are tribes of humans who bond with telepathic dinosaurs known as "blood lizards" - well, as long as they have psychic powers, which apparently most of them do. Because they have to raise bonded blood lizards from birth to ensure domestication, only they really have luck with them (except for those 'borgs earlier, because editing), and even so they occasionally have a young rider getting dino-mauled. Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2 posted:The Blood Riders can do anything from lizard-back, including eating, shooting, reloading and even sleeping! Yes, once you start riding a dinosaur, why ever stop? Mostly they live in Santiago, since Cordoba has largely driven them out, and they are generally expect to be recruited for local militias. Naturally, they fight those nasty Larhold Barbarians, whoever the gently caress they are. Not unexpectedly, they get a psychic link with a singular blood lizard, minor psionics, can also draw extra psychic power from their lizards, and get a number of generic physical conditioning boosts. They get riding, wilderness, and weapon skills, but not much in the way of skills otherwise. They get a unique "Claw" set of armor that matches their art but is otherwise thoroughly average and a blood lizard companion, of course. Some basic attribute requirements mean only 25% of characters get a crack at playing one of these. They're not too amazing, but are kinda flavorful, at least.  "I only carry this drat fool on my back because he looks even sillier walking. Master Blood Rider O.C.C. So, these are a rare 1% of blood riders which get extra powers, and since they have the exact same requirements as a blood rider, there's no reason not to just play the master version except to shout "role-play, not roll-play!" In addition to all the things blood riders get, they get powerful telekinetic and telepathic powers, the ability to telekinetically boost the speed and leaps of the lizard, and a telekinetic defense shield that starts at suck and gradually goes to alright with enough levels, and improved bonuses. They also get a random chance to get an expensive techno-wizard item (only 30%, so don't get your hopes up). In general, they're a hilariously better upgrade to the Blood Rider, which seems to be a habit with this book with Battlemaster Fallam, Plains 'Borg, and Ultra-Crazies all being straight upgrades on their original versions. Well, it's a way to fill page count, I suppose.  Generisaur. Blood Lizard R.C.C. Yes, you an play a blood lizard. It turns out they're perfectly sentient even though they can't talk normally, and despite their training being described like domestication, they work with humans willingly. Because of this, they can use weapons and shoot lasers along with their rider for double lasers. Apparently if you kill their bonded rider, they tend to crack and go on a one-dinosaur campaign of vengeance against whomever responsible. So, as a race they're passably tough M.D.C. creatures about 8'-10' long, and are a naturally strong, fast, agile, and tough, but not very smart, charismatic, or pretty. They regen slowly, see in the dark, can track by scent, get unimpressive melee attacks, solid combat bonuses, and the ability to "psychically track" anybody they've met before, but their chances of successfully doing so aren't too hot. Finally, they get some basic mind-reading powers but can't actually communicate psychically, and need a blood rider or other psychic to speak for them. Naturally, they get wilderness skills, but in general their skill selections are pretty crap, and due to an oversight don't get a hand-to-hand skill or can't select one. This seems to be an intentional hack at versimilitude, but it actually makes them lousy combatants as a result. Even though they start with good bonuses, they'll eventually be outpaced by other characters as they gain levels. As a result, they're pretty drat lousy as far as a class pick goes. Next: Furrioso.
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Mar 9, 2017 04:24
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Alien Rope Burn posted:
I would absolutely watch this movie
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Mar 9, 2017 15:14
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The Lone Badger posted:Why would they bother inventing black powder if they're natural-MDC? The bullets would just bounce off. I can only assume that a M.D.C. world could feature Mega-blackpowder.
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Mar 9, 2017 18:37
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occamsnailfile posted:I would absolutely watch this movie I feel like pitching "half John Wick, half Jurassic Park" to a studio executive wouldn't be too hard.
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Mar 9, 2017 18:38
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wdarkk posted:I feel like pitching "half John Wick, half Jurassic Park" to a studio executive wouldn't be too hard. You'd think that, but 'dinosaurs plus people' is actually a pretty hard sell for cost reasons. Dinosaurs are CG, humans aren't, and getting the two to interact heavily is only cheap if they don't have to actually touch each other.
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Mar 9, 2017 19:01
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Mors Rattus posted:You'd think that, but 'dinosaurs plus people' is actually a pretty hard sell for cost reasons. Dinosaurs are CG, humans aren't, and getting the two to interact heavily is only cheap if they don't have to actually touch each other. Just make them costumes/puppets, and we can finally have a gritty Dinosaurs reboot. Doresh fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Mar 9, 2017 |
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Mar 9, 2017 19:04
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Mors Rattus posted:You'd think that, but 'dinosaurs plus people' is actually a pretty hard sell for cost reasons. Dinosaurs are CG, humans aren't, and getting the two to interact heavily is only cheap if they don't have to actually touch each other. That's why the dinosaur uses guns, so he can be in a different part of the frame than the humans.
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Mar 9, 2017 19:28
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wdarkk posted:That's why the dinosaur uses guns, so he can be in a different part of the frame than the humans. Somewhat counterintuitively, the cybersaur was the greatest boon to genre budgets of the last decade.
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Mar 9, 2017 19:44
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Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2: Part 14: "Many of the human citizens are very apathetic (less than 50% bother to vote) because they think the government is firmly in the hands in the mutants, and that there is nothing they can do to change it." The Achilles Republic This is where CJ Carella loses his goddamn mind. It starts out normal with mutant animals, but - you'll see. You'll see. So, like Omagua, this is the result of mutant animal experimentation from before the rifts, namely a "Project Achilles" created by the Argentinean government. Yes, not only did Argentina invent the Crazy human modification process, they also gave us mutant capybaras that- - no, no. I have to wait. Be patient. We'll get to the capybaras soon enough. History So, it turns out ShaperCorp - the guys who made the Amphibs in Rifts World Book Seven: Underseas - were based out of Argentina. Remember the amphibs? Some of them look like normal people with webbed feet, some look a little froggy, some look like people with literal trout heads?
A different Argentian lab (from Rifts World Book 6: South America) specialized in cats, but this one specialized in a bunch of random crap instead. See, they found out some animals had latent psychic powers. Now, this isn't new - the corebook mentioned that animals have the psychic ability to sense the supernatural, giving a justification for the standard horror movie trope of animals freaking out when something terrible approaches. But it turns out crossing them with humans enhances animals' psychic powers... because. And so they created various Speaking out of other arbitrary background elements, it turns out that when the rifts hit, Argentina went to murder all their mutant animals, because... um. Doesn't say. But they literally had a plan written up that included: "In case of apocalypse, terminate the furries." But it turns out that Cordelia Valdez, a researcher at one site, was a bit appalled by the final solution, and opted to free a number of the mutants, and they escaped. The rifts turned the mutant animals into super-psychic mutant animals, and she also carried some embryonic superhumans she'd created with her own genes. Once they settled in and formed the town of "Cordelia" to honor her, she impregnated herself with a superhuman embryo and carried it to term, creating the first "neo-human". Well, three, because the embryo formed triplets. Sure, why not? (And presumably those triplets hosed, because there are a lot more of them now.) They started to expand and took in a human kingdom in order to protect them from Cordoba in the "Battle of the Red Storm", apparently so named because the Achilleans used their powers to ravage the Cordoban forces with a ley line storm. How did they do that? Well, capybaras. Government and Society So, the Achilles Republic is really a republic, where representatives are elected to the "Animal House"- Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2 posted:... some historians believe that the name was some sort of inside joke by the founders...  The House elects a Director, who moderates the Animal House, and also elects a Commander In Chief, who runs a Military High Command designed to run independently during emergencies. Though there's the possibility that these emergency powers could be abused, they seemingly haven't been yet. Generally anybody can vote, though there's a perception that the mutant animals are in charge, and many normal humans and d-bees don't act politically as a result. So baseline humans are a severe minority in govenement. Though discrimination against humans isn't overt, it does exist and mutant animals have an easier time getting jobs and government positions than humans. Though most humans are content to just live in a place where aliens aren't trying to blow them up or demons aren't trying to eat their face, there is growing discontent and human revolutionary groups are starting to emerge, including some supported by the Shining Path. Armed Forces A mix of mutant psychics and soldiers armed with foreign technology (most from New Babylon), the Achillean forces are somewhat backward and rely a lot on the prevalence of psychic powers, since their forces are chiefly made up of mutants. Neo-humans are rare enough that they're formed into elite squads. There's mandatory military service; four years for mutants and two years for anybody else. Due to their alliance, New Babylon often provides military advisors to assist the Achilles Republic. Foreign Relations As we know by now, Cordoba wants to wipe out mutantkind and is firmly in a state of cold war with Achilles. The Southern Federation (who?) trades with both Cordoba and Achilles, and is the only real point of peaceful contact between the two countries. It turns out that Achilles is actually aware of the Coalition and has been sending agents to Lone Star for some time to try and liberate mutant animals there as a sort of underground railroad called the "Freedom Riders", even though it's an extremely dangerous journey and many Achilleans don't make it back. It actually presents the Freedom Riders as a possible setup for adventures or even as a campaign basis. Meanwhile, the Coalition fistshakes and has offered to help wipe out the "dangerous mutants", which seems fairly unlikely given the distances and danger involved. The Arkhons have generally let Achilles be, since their main aggression is aimed at humans. And they fight the Larhold Barbarians, but we won't find out more about these guys until the end of the book. R.C.C.s & O.C.C.s of Achilles It notes that you can use mutants from other books, like dog boys or killer cats, or animals from Lone Star, a book that once again wasn't out at the time of this printing. In addition, it notes you can port over mutant animals from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, ignoring the fact that mutant animals created with that system are almost always going to be woefully underpowered compared to their Rifts counterparts. Serpentoid R.C.C. So, because the research team at Project Achilles were huge weirdos, they wondered if the human aversion to serpents was due to the fact that snakes had psychic fear powers. And, instead of turning out to be kooks, it turned out they were right. So these are largely humanoid snake-people with legs and a tail, and it turns out those who are naga-like are pretty rare (and also unstatted, to boot). And it turns out most of them are affected by the "alien mindset of a reptilian" and are basically just sociopaths who develop a code of honor to let them function in everyday society. Still, they don't have much empathy and give no shits when they hurt or murder people. Waitasec, we already had mutants with literal fish-heads that had no weird psychological hangups, but reptiles are particularly unhinged. Sure, makes sense. In any case, they're smart, willfull, charming, strong, agile, enduring- they have pretty much no drawbacks statwise. The lowest thing is their beauty, which is just equal to humans. They also get the natural psychic powers of a snake: that is, a psychic force field that gives them M.D.C. protection and superhuman strength, a hypnotic gaze, the ability to project psychic fear, and venom charged with their psychic energy that does mega-damage to mega-damage beings. Oh, and they get a smattering of other psychic powers. They start with some basic and weapon skills, and get a decent number of other skill picks. Overall, though not overwhelming, they get a broad spectrum of abilities and tend up being pretty strong as long as you don't mind being a psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est, fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better, etc.  R.O.U.S. Mutant Capybara R.C.C. Part rat, part human, part capybara, these hybrids are good swimmers, but their main power is to manipulate time and space, which implies this is a latent psychic ability of normal capybaras. Sure, Carella, sure. This makes them into a wise, patient dimensional wandering rodent jedi.  They have solid attributes overall, with mental and psychic endurance being the top, but beauty being the only subhuman trait, and they're just S.D.C. creatures. Still, they can send messages or teleport on ley lines, create psychic waves that knock objects over and stun people, sense ley lines and rifts, and warp time. The time warp is a very strong ability that allows them to speed up or slow people down, which means at mid levels they can speed up on all their buddies with one action, then slow enemies down with another action (though they get saving throwa), and create something like a 4-6 action differential at least within a single round for each combatant. So, while not busted by themselves, they are definitely a game-breaker when assisting a party of adventurers. But that's not all! At higher levels, they can create rifts back to their home dimension, close rifts, create ley line storms, or dimensionally teleport (all at very high Inner Strength Point costs). They also get a smattering of minor psionics, wilderness and healing skills, and a modest selection of other skills. Though they're fragile, their game-bending abilities really help make up for that. To me, they're one of the oddest classes in the game since they're such a non sequitur, even after flame panthers, the pyrokinetic mutant cats. Capybaras! Time manipulation! Sure! Why not? Why not go mad?!  Never give a horse a rat-tail. Equinoid R.C.C. a.k.a. the "Psi-Taur" So, there was one researcher called Leon Garcia that was obsessed with trying to create mutants that duplicated Earth myth, like mermaids or minotaurs. The book doesn't say it was his fetish or anything, but I think we can read between the lines. In any case, he got found out, and even though Project Achilles was full of the kind of people who thought snakes were psychic terrors or that capybaras would make great super-soldiers, he was somehow seen as crazy and eliminated by his higher-ups. Well, I guess he did murder people in the course of his crazy fetish experiments, but sometimes you just have to break a few eggs to make a wemic. The one successful result was psychic centaurs, or... yes... "psi-taurs". It was the '90s. They lived on and now most of them serve with the Achilles military. They're strong, tough, and don't really have any drawbacks - they're even prettier than people, which fits with my fetish theory. Psychically, they can run though the air, create a "psi-bow" that shoot "arrows of pure psychic energy" (they can just shoot bolts too, but they think bows are cooler), a force field that protects them and gives them superhuman strength, and a smattering of other psychic powers. They also get a variety of minor psionic powers, wilderness and weapon skills, and a average selection of other skills. Nothing too exciting about them, honestly, though you're at least stronger than a normal centaur or even the cyber-centaurs. So we have centaurs, cy-centaurs, and psi-centaurs. A natural progression.  Invisibird. Condoroid R.C.C. So, these are bird-people with both wings and arms, and though they can't fly through science, they can fly due to psychic. Like the condor of myth, they can create a telekinetic force field (which at this point they admit is just a common power of Achillean mutants), fly over Mach 2 on a ley line, or turn invisible. They often work as scouts and commandos for the military, but there have been rogue condoroids that use their powers to turn to a life of banditry and prey on foreigners. So, they're really one part human, one part bird, one part Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. They're generally agile and enduring, but aren't people birds (not charming, also ugly). Still, they can fly up to 500 MPH, Mach 2 on a ley line, cloud men's minds, baffle sensors (yes, they are literally radar-resistant), and a weak force field that does give them superhuman strength all the same. A psi-sword, psi-shield, some minor psionics, and some scouting and hunting skills round them out, mostly. They're pretty dece if you want to play a stealth bird, but they run into the issue of being fragile and vulnerable compared to a lot of the other mutants.  "Yes, I just have normal goggles. No, they don't fit over my eyes- they were a gift, okay?" Falconoid R.C.C. So, like a Condor... oid, but a Falcon... oid. If the Condoroid is part F-117 Nighthawk, I guess these guys are part F-15 Eagle. After all, they fly Mach 2 anywhere and can shoot psi-blasts from their eyes (crap damage, but gives a very minor stun effect). They get a more potent force field and minor psionic powers, and basically are the fighty version of the Condroid.  Glam. As. gently caress. Achilles Neo-Human R.C.C. So these are the children of Cordelia Valdez, and they look human but with "near god-like physical perfection" and a "fountain of psychic power". However, early on they became divided as to whether to... basically be good or evil, and the good ones became known as "Neo-Abels" and the bad ones became "Neo-Cains". They're near-immortal, but apparently using their powers too much causes them to age normally until they recharge, so many of them are hesitant to use their mighty powers. Apparently many mutant animals reject them for being human-looking mutants, and a number of them have left Achilles to wander the Earth like Cain from Kung-Fu, but not like the Neo-Cains, these ones are Neo-Abels. Clear? Some are apparently trying to form a society of "Young Gods" but given they're already godlike I'm not sure what the difference would be. What happened to the Neo-Cains? So, their attributes range from "impressive" to "through the roof", but they're normally just S.D.C. creatures. They can temporarily dedicate part of their psychic power to become M.D.C., if only temporarily, with a decent amount of it. They also get "Hyper-Telekinesis" (lifts more weight), flight (100 MPH), a "Mind Wave" that knocks people into a euphoric haze (glam as gently caress), or a "Touch of Health or Death" that can heal or knock people out (even M.D.C. creatures). They also get a bunch of psionic power picks, including super, and a frankly ridiculous amount of Inner Strength Points (1d4 x 100). They mainly get espionage skills, oddly enough, and not much in the way of skill picks, but who cares? This is easily the most powerful straightforward psionic class so far with powerful save-or-suck effects and great stats, ability to throw power armor around with teke, putting it easily in the top ten most powerful classes in the game so far. Though they're a bit vulnerable, being able to kayo a dragon with a lucky poke definitely changes things. Next: Stony goatees.
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Mar 9, 2017 20:01
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Sometimes Rifts seems pretty reasonable, if a little clunky and super 90s (at least, from reading these reviews), but then you get something like time-warping capybara people. What the Christ?
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Mar 9, 2017 20:43
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The lack of mutant capybaras was my biggest disappointment in South America 1. "It's South America. You need mutant capybaras." "Okay, but they need some special hook or something." "Some Secret of NIMH poo poo, maybe?"
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Mar 9, 2017 20:47
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Doresh posted:Just make them costumes/puppets, and we can finally have a gritty Dinosaurs reboot. 
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Mar 9, 2017 21:03
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