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Leraika posted:All of the Old Gods stuff feels like a massive tonal shift, and not in a good way. I don't mind them, but the Blood Crystals feel stupid from the name on.
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Sep 5, 2018 15:41
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7th Sea in general feels a lot like "We started writing a setting and never ever stopped"
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Sep 5, 2018 15:56
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Tome of Salvation God is the dream of good government. At his best, Sigmar is a God of cooperation and governance, mirroring the life of the historical Sigmar. The cult of Sigmar is the most powerful religious cult in all of the Empire, though unlike Myrmidia Sigmar has almost no worshipers anywhere else in the world outside of Imperial expats. This is because Sigmar is more tightly bound to the Empire's secular government than any other God. A cynic would say that Sigmar's acceptance as a God and the early nobility's enthusiastic promotion of Sigmar worship had more to do with Johan Helstrum adding 'And also it's holy to do everything the very rich and powerful people of the Empire demand you do, and their wealth and power flows directly from God' than anything else. A cynic would probably be right. One of the interesting things in the Sigmarite write-up is to ask what Sigmar actually stands for, rather than against; he likes dwarfs, I guess, and would generally prefer the Empire be secure and a powerful hegemon. The single most important distinction between Sigmarism and all of the other cults is the extent to which Sigmarite religion has the enthusiastic and total support of the Empire's government. The Empire's government has, from day 1, really liked the idea of a religion that says 'The Emperor and the Electors are sacred positions and should be obeyed without question, their power flows directly from the first Emperor who is now a God and they have eternal divine legitimacy'. That same support has given Sigmarism more temporal power than any other cult; Sigmarites keep and help to write much of the Empire's legal code, Sigmarites have 3 of the 15 votes to pick a new Emperor since Magnus gave them 2 more, Sigmarites form a portion of the officer corps and leadership of the army through the Warrior Priests, Sigmarites have more influence on the Witch Hunters than any other cult, and in general if you can name a position in Imperial government, the Sigmarites have a say in it. The Temple of Sigmar is usually the focal point of an Imperial village or town, forming a social center where people can catch up with their community at Throng every week and take a break from their work. The local priest is usually an important official, taking charge of whatever doesn't have a secular official; in some towns, an old Warrior Priest is both the parish's Sigmarite father and the leader of the local watch or militia, while in others they might serve as a judge or mayor. Whatever the case, because Sigmar is so heavily associated with government, priests tend to consider the secular governance of the Empire part of their cult's domain. Sigmarites also train the youths of their community to wear black shirts and suss out 'heresy' and ensure respect for Sigmarism as a sort of sanctioned cult militia, the Hammer Bearers. If that sounds a little uncomfortable to you, it should. You see, one of the issues of Sigmarism is that it trends towards tyranny. The strictures of Sigmar specifically say 'Preserve the unity of the Empire at cost of individual liberty' and 'Obey your orders from your betters'. The idea of strict hierarchy and the idea that those who have power deserve it by virtue of having it are baked into the structure of the modern cult and have been since Helstrum first put that bit in there (probably to appeal to skeptical Electors). It's impossible to discuss the modern cult of Sigmar without getting into this. It's an organizational flaw that has caused Sigmarism and the Empire endless trouble, and probably destroyed the Empire at least once (depending on if you think the Empire that came out the other end of the Time of Three Emperors is the same Empire that went into it, which I'd argue it really isn't). There's a reason that of all the Imperial religions, Sigmarism has the most trouble with 'one true god-ism' so to speak; every generation you find another bunch of extremists claiming Sigmar is actually the only God and the others are all tricks by Chaos. This is another flaw of Sigmarism: They loving love accusing everything they disagree with at all of being Chaos. We're going to see that when we get to banned Gods. I can't help but wonder to what extent the Sigmarite urge to associate all divergent thought and political heterodoxy with Chaos has strengthened the hand of Chaos cults throughout the Empire. The Order of the Torch is the main Sigmarite order and provides most of the priests who work the Empire's temples and parishes. These are the community leaders and organizers who advise nobles and politicians, preach the word of Sigmar to the masses, and generally handle most of the religious heavy lifting for the cult. The Grand Theoganist is head of this order. The Order of the Silver Hammer is the Warrior Priests, the classic Warhammer staple of bald men and women in plate armor with giant warhammers leading bands of State Troops and acting as adjuncts to Imperial generals. They are beloved by the common people, not only because the Silver Hammers are visibly out there fighting evil but because the wandering warriors also handle the ministry of remote communities with no settled temple, since they can safely travel on their own. The Order of the Anvil is a monastic order of legal scholars who advise on both cult and Imperial law. They advise both secular and cult authorities on the minutiae of Sigmar's word. The Order of the Flame are the cult's own secret police, with the power to ask assistance of any other cult member in their investigations. They are often Witch Hunters, but are not technically 'the' Witch Hunters. Sigmarites tend to be insular, suspicious, and superstitious, which they think of as a reasonable reaction to a corrupt world where evil is all around them at all times. One of the main beliefs of Sigmarite religion is that paranoia is completely justified, and that the dwarfs are right to be suspicious and to keep long books of grudges. They enforce a siege mentality as much as possible, thinking it a wise response to a dangerous world. They also like 'strength' and 'strong leadership'. These are the only things in their 'beliefs' section. I think that says an awful lot about the state of the cult of Sigmar. Look at all the other Gods so far. Almost all of them stand for something besides 'The world is a bad place, you can do or get done'. It can be easy to get the impression that modern Sigmarism is more about the perpetuation of its own influence than anything else. Much of Sigmarite initiation is designed to instill a proper respect for authority while teaching the initiate dwarf lore, khazalid (hopefully: Many priests barely know dwarfish and tend to make all kinds of ridiculous mistakes in it), the life of Sigmar, and Imperial law. An Initiate is eventually tested according to their temple's traditions, either being asked to recite many pages of prayers perfectly from memory, being asked to go out and kill an Orc for Sigmar, or being put through painful hazing rituals in the monasteries and flagellant orders. After that, they become a Priest. Note that Sigmar accepts men and women as priests equally. Sigmar is so widespread that it is impossible to assign a general uniform or lifestyle to his priests. The classic bald warrior in heavy armor with a huge hammer is really only characteristic of the Order of the Silver Hammer. The colors, hairstyle, and lifestyle of a priest will change drastically depending on where they live, which order or minor order they belong to, and what they do, though all of them favor high collars to simulate the gorgets and armor worn by the popular Warrior Priests. They also really like griffon and hammer iconography, hammers for reasons obvious and griffons because catbirds are rad as hell (actually it's because Magnus the Pious loved catbirds, but that's really just another point in his favor). Sigmarites like to wear holy books chained to their bodies as a sign of their religious burden and a symbol of being subservient to Emperor Sigmar. Sigmar's faith has a strict structure full of dozens of titled officers, from the Grand Theoganist who rules the Order of the Torch and through it the rest of the Sigmarite Faith, to the Arch Lectors who help him ensure that any Imperial candidate will be acceptable to the cult, to the 16 other lectors who serve as a college of cardinals or the many, many other theoganists, capitulars, high capitulars, and keepers that form the teeming mass of worthies of the Sigmarite cult. Sigmarism has recently faced several significant crises that may shake up the cult. For one, Volkmar the Grim, the previous (and now, again, current) Grand Theoganist was (is) a well respected reformer who has done a great deal to contribute to the professionalization and effectiveness of the Witch Hunters. He immediately took an army up to confront Archaon and was killed in a duel with the so called Lord of the End Times, leading Arch Lector Johan Esmer to succeed him as Theoganist. Esmer came up in Realm of Sorcery; he's a cunning, intelligent man who knows the orthodoxy and authoritarian impulses of Sigmarism like the back of his hand, and who constantly schemes to use them to gain more personal power. Unfortunately for Esmer, Volkmar was then encountered chained to the banner of a demon prince during the war. Volkmar then broke out of his chains and fought his way back to Imperial lines, presumably while shirtless and wielding a chisel and his own broken chains as weapons. This is because in addition to being a respected theologian and reformer, Volkmar was totally goddamn metal. Esmer was told to step aside, Volkmar became Theoganist again, but people are starting to notice Volkmar is different than he used to be. More drawn and distant, darker and colder. Esmer has begun to spread the rumor that Volkmar was indeed killed, then raised or possessed by the forces of Chaos, which is absolutely a real possibility and presents a really good campaign hook; Esmer is a terrible guy maneuvering for personal power, and even if he's right about Volkmar he's a huge dick who deserves a party of PCs after him. Ascetics are a major Sigmarite splinter that believes the relationship with Sigmar should be personal, rather than communal. They hate singing, religious ornamentation, and communal prayer. I'm not entirely sure where they get this belief out of worshiping 'Conan the Barbarian but if he was really excited about roads and laws', but you do you, monks. They're mostly important because they also argue that the state should have no say over the cult's affairs, while the cult should have total say over the state's affairs, which is very popular within the cult (and not very popular within the state). Malleuns are crazy heretics who think the hammer is a God, not Sigmar. They think Ghal Maraz chooses agents of divinity and they center around a crazy Warrior Priest named Artur Malleus who thought that Karl Franz was a fraud who didn't really have Ghal Maraz. He claimed he got visions from a 'TRUE HAMMER' (yes, a hammer) telling him it would be wielded by a mortal man to begin the end of days. His followers naturally thought the boy Valten (you'll remember him as the odd lad who the Emperor gave the hammer to and appointed Champion, who then got knocked out by Archie and then ganked by Skaven while healing in Middenheim's Shallyan temple) was obviously the second coming of Sigmar who would lead them to the real hammer. They're very confused by his apparent death and many suspect Karl Franz murdered Valten. The Unifiers are the elephant in the room of Sigmarism: They believe that Sigmar is Emperor of the Gods, and all other Gods are beneath him. No other cult should be granted worship, only Sigmar. Sigmar, as Emperor, handles all aspects of divinity and is the only true God. This heresy shows up every generation and is hardly unique to 2522 or even really all that novel. It seems to be a normal impulse of the extremes of Sigmarite faith. What's dangerous here is that Johan Esmer is a member, and may well be on path to becoming Grand Theoganist again. The Lesser Orders of Sigmar aren't especially interesting, except for the Templars of Sigmar, who are the actual Witch Hunters (along with some of the Order of the Silver Hammer). They actually hate the Order of the Flame, as they feel it is too unbeholden to Imperial law and far too secretive. Most interestingly, all these Orders get variant talents and skills if you play a Priest from them, and the Templars specifically get Gun. If you want to play a gun-wielding Witch Hunter of Sigmar, this is an entire order of Solomon Kanes. So, there you have it. Sigmar's cult are kind of dicks. Unique in how little they stand for and often the aggressors in the weird religious strife the Empire ends up in due to a weird vein of monotheism that runs through their religion. They're an interesting bunch, and the schisms and crises of the cult provide ample opportunity for your PCs to have adventures and maybe help reform the religion into something that wouldn't piss off Sigmar The Guy Who Likes Roads And Law Codes. Next Time: Taal and Rhya
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Sep 5, 2018 16:34
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I wonder if GW took a closer look at Tome of Salvation as they developed the writing for AoS2nd because a lot of the themes that are brought up here show in the newly updated lore but turned to 11 and embodied in Sigmar.
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Sep 5, 2018 17:16
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I think the Ascetic Sigmarites are meant to be old-school German Calvinists back when that movement first started. That description sure sounds like Calvin and his followers.
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Sep 5, 2018 17:36
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"Sigmarite prosecution turned me into a Chaos worshipper" is the "the let calling me a nazi turned me into a nazi" of WHFRPG   On the other hand, Volkmar being a little Grim doesn't need to be Chaos corruption: I mean, he did get killed and imprisoned by Chaos.
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Sep 5, 2018 19:51
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Yeah, that's kind of the point. Who knows if it's safe to come back from that? For all they know, he's a possessed puppet that the enemy let loose.
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Sep 5, 2018 19:57
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Does the Tome have anything to say on how Dwarves view the cult of Sigmar? I've always gotten the impression that veneration of Sigmar seems in some ways closer to Dwarven ancestor worship than the rest of the pantheon, and I'm curious to know if they did anything with that.
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Sep 5, 2018 21:48
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Jo Joestar posted:Does the Tome have anything to say on how Dwarves view the cult of Sigmar? I've always gotten the impression that veneration of Sigmar seems in some ways closer to Dwarven ancestor worship than the rest of the pantheon, and I'm curious to know if they did anything with that. Dwarves in general tend to find human worship really weird, and Sigmar specifically is just 'okay, now you're doing it to a guy we liked. ...good??'
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Sep 5, 2018 21:49
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Jo Joestar posted:Does the Tome have anything to say on how Dwarves view the cult of Sigmar? I've always gotten the impression that veneration of Sigmar seems in some ways closer to Dwarven ancestor worship than the rest of the pantheon, and I'm curious to know if they did anything with that. We'll get to dwarf religion in the chapters on foreign gods, but yes, I've always thought Sigmarite worship was a little closer to dwarven ancestor gods. They don't have anything specific on how they view Sigmarism.
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Sep 5, 2018 21:53
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 The Rifter Rifts Round-Up Special '98, Part 3: "In most cases, the initial manuscript is completed and awaiting editing, rewrites and final production (art, etc.)." And on to "unofficial" Rifts articles from the next two issues!  The Rifter #3
There are a few new skills to make up for the fact that Rifts Dimension Book 4: Coalition Navy gives some classes skills that didn't exist, but here they are! And if you're excited to finally see Naval Tactics, Naval History, or Basic Cybernetics, you're one odd duck. We get some more news on the Rifts Miniatures & Miniatures Combat Game that was slated for 1998 (and cancelled). Apparently it went as far as having "greens" - that is, sculpts to base miniatures. In addition, there's an additional Rifts book for 1999 that would never see the light of day: Rifts® Zulu Nation. I'm sure it would have been... great?   The Rifter #4
We get some solicited authors for various Rifts books that will be almost universally inaccurate:
 Advertised is a Happy Holidays from the Coalition™! t-shirt. I see they've got a War on Christmas going on. Next: To Cedarville and back again.
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Sep 5, 2018 22:43
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Aw, they're going to execute ol' Saint Nick for magic use and smuggling of contraband! God bless us every one!
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Sep 5, 2018 23:33
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Cooked Auto posted:I wonder if GW took a closer look at Tome of Salvation as they developed the writing for AoS2nd because a lot of the themes that are brought up here show in the newly updated lore but turned to 11 and embodied in Sigmar. Yeah the Sigmarite entry really reminded me of this side section in the AoS Core book. AoS Core Book posted:Crime and Punishment
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Sep 5, 2018 23:44
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What's interesting is the degree to which it is impossible to tell how much of this is just the cult vs. the will of the God, given that Old World Gods aren't especially direct and communicative (aside from sometimes Morr). There is wide, wide latitude in interpreting the will of the Gods. What I found so weird compared to what I thought going into this book vs. reading it is how little the Sigmarites actually believe; it can all boil down to 'band together, the world is trying to kill you at all times, do whatever it takes to stay together'.
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Sep 6, 2018 00:08
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MonsterEnvy posted:Yeah the Sigmarite entry really reminded me of this side section in the AoS Core book. Our heroes!
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Sep 6, 2018 00:19
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Night10194 posted:What's interesting is the degree to which it is impossible to tell how much of this is just the cult vs. the will of the God, given that Old World Gods aren't especially direct and communicative (aside from sometimes Morr). There is wide, wide latitude in interpreting the will of the Gods. What I found so weird compared to what I thought going into this book vs. reading it is how little the Sigmarites actually believe; it can all boil down to 'band together, the world is trying to kill you at all times, do whatever it takes to stay together'. Well, part of it is that the difference between 'Imperial law and practice' and 'Sigmarite doctrine' is kind of slippery.
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Sep 6, 2018 00:25
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Mors Rattus posted:Well, part of it is that the difference between 'Imperial law and practice' and 'Sigmarite doctrine' is kind of slippery. Yes, I mention it but it's really, really critical the extent to which Sigmarites back the Imperial power structure and in return the Imperial power structure backs them, which is why schismatics like Huss would be a great plot point since they threaten to make that less true (or to make the Empire even more theocratic) while you have guys like Esmer who have quickly realized that rising in the cult of Sigmar is an easier route to ruling the Empire de-facto than bothering to try to become Emperor. No other cult or nation is this direct. Not even the Lady in Bretonnia or Myrmidia in the south. Dazh may be a God of noble and governmental practice in Kislev, Myrmidian cultic practice might inform everything in Estalia and Tilea, and the Lady may have set down the behavior of the nobility of Bretonnia, but nowhere besides the Empire has a single cult that is so thoroughly enmeshed in its secular law and practice.
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Sep 6, 2018 00:38
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I think part of it also comes down to Sigmar genuinely not offering much to believe in or hold as doctrine except "law and order" and "dwarves are cool." That's a dangerously morphable doctrine to give to your followers, and personally I wonder if the shallow, limited portfolio comes down to Sigmar's human origins - or that half the problem is that no one can even agree on what Sigmar stands for beyond those two points so his divine warp resonance hasn't coalesced around anything else.
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Sep 6, 2018 00:57
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MonsterEnvy posted:Yeah the Sigmarite entry really reminded me of this side section in the AoS Core book. Eeyup, that's the one I was thinking of as well in this case.
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Sep 6, 2018 01:08
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Cythereal posted:I think part of it also comes down to Sigmar genuinely not offering much to believe in or hold as doctrine except "law and order" and "dwarves are cool." That's a dangerously morphable doctrine to give to your followers, and personally I wonder if the shallow, limited portfolio comes down to Sigmar's human origins - or that half the problem is that no one can even agree on what Sigmar stands for beyond those two points so his divine warp resonance hasn't coalesced around anything else. I'd put it more down to the fact that I don't think Sigmar himself had much design on divinity and it feels like Helstrum made up most of the religion. Like, it's not like the guy left behind extensive moral teachings or religious dogma, he left behind the legal code of his new Empire. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Sep 6, 2018 01:09
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He did not even leave an heir or a system to declare his successor.
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Sep 6, 2018 01:50
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To take another tack, it feels kind of like that the original fluff was exactly as simple as it is on the surface out of lack of thought, and then later editions of the roleplaying game and other fluff outlets sat down and went "so how would that actually work, though?" and started weaving together a downright fascinating clusterfuck. And yeah, Sigmar, if you read the history of the dude and not the Canon of the God, was just a guy who cracked skulls to get in power, forcibly imposed some infrastructure on the region, spent most of his time herding cats, and then wandered off into bumfuck nowhere for extremely vague reasons that scream of "we don't know or want to talk about what actually happened."
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Sep 6, 2018 03:12
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SirPhoebos posted:Our heroes! ...except that killing anyone that bears the Mark of Chaos is the 100% right way to go about things. The part about those with hatred in their hearts, however... Night10194 posted:how little the Sigmarites actually believe; it can all boil down to 'band together, the world is trying to kill you at all times, do whatever it takes to stay together'. On the other hand, the Warrior Priests seem to believe a lot.
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Sep 6, 2018 08:17
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MonsterEnvy posted:Yeah the Sigmarite entry really reminded me of this side section in the AoS Core book. this is some 40k poo poo
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Sep 6, 2018 12:39
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The Rifter Rifts Round-Up Special '98, Part 4: "His female employees become faint and practically melt in his presence." And here's the main reason I had to follow up with The Rifter, for this official metaplot chunk from The Rifter #4: A.R.C.H.I.E. Three vs. The World™ Offical Source Material by Mark Sumimoto This is an official and direct follow-up to the events of Rifts Sourcebook 2: The Mechanoids. Surprisingly, Siembieda allows a relatively new writer to handle it, Mark Sumimoto, who will have a brief turn in the World Book series with Rifts World Book 21: Splynn Dimensional Market. It deals with Archie, the mad pre-rifts AI from Rifts Sourcebook, and his right-hand psychic, Hagan Lonovich. This follows the presumably foiled invasion of the Mechanoids - mad alien robots from another dimension that seek the destruction of humanoid life. The twist is that, with the defeat of the Mechanoids, Archie gains access to some of their technology, having falsely worked alongside them. He can, now, effectively replicate Mechanoid designs. Moreover, he began to try and see if he could contact surviving pre-rifts satellites - and ironically has located a post-rifts communications satellite created by the Cyberworks corporation. Though Cyberworks was destroyed on Earth, they survived in orbit (as revealed in the Rifts Space portion of Mutants in Orbit, previously reviewed). He has the proper access codes and so is blithely allowed to use it by the (non-sentient) Cyberworks AI on the moon, who opts not to interfere as not to reveal its presence due to its "don't interact with Earth" protocol. This means Archie's robots have a means of communication over a far greater distance than would be expected or known to most Earthly powers. Mind, is orbital communication is even possible with the previous limits on radio communication established in the setting? Well, that's either handwaved or forgotten. In general, Archie seeks to gain further information about the world. One of his schemes is through his front company, Titan Robotics (as detailed in Rifts Sourcebook). All Titan designs contain a recording device, and Titan Robotics offers free maintenance and repairs to entice customers to return. During the repairs, the recording device is removed and replaced with a fresh one. It's noted some companies like Northern Gun find the free repair service suspicious for obvious reasons, but presume it's a short-term marketing scheme that will eventually be ended. Another plan is just by having his robots range further out, and he's occasionally using Mechanoid designs as camouflage- but wouldn't those draw more attention? Well, most wouldn't know what they were anyway, I suppose. But if anyone did, that'd be a problem. He has a scheme to try and distract or sabotage Atlantis by creating a false-flag Mechanoid attack, since that will likely throw the Kittani (technological brainiape citizens of Atlantis) into a panic. After all, the Kittani's home planet was destroyed by the Mechanoids. Given Archie wants revenge on the Splugorth for killing or enslaving his human followers in this past (incidentally, they don't even know about Archie), this seems likely to come up sooner or later. The Titan Robotics Complex Located in "the small city-state of New Cedarville in the Manistique Imperium", the Titan Robotics Complex is their main retail outlet and public face of Titan Robotics. Dwarfing the town it's located next to, Titan robots and fake Juicers and Borgs (actually robots) maintain security. They mainly deal in credits, but will take barter for rare technology and magic - though they tend not to give much for magic goods. If parts or weapons from Archie's robots are brought for barter, they're refused and then Archie sends robots to kill the would-be customer(s). Wouldn't it be easier to get them off the market by buying them, then murder the customer? Well, Archie has always been clever mainly when the plot needs him to be. We get a lot of details on the building and their sales pitch, but it's what you'd expect from paranoid robot conspirators. New Cedarville is becoming a boomtown based on Titan being represent, and is struggling to deal with accommodating wealthy or professional visitors, along with an accompanying rise in crime. Key Personnel and Management  "So this character looks like DeCaprio-" "I drew Leno, is that close enough?" "- what? God drat it-" There are two NPCs listed here. The first is Argent Goodson, a sentient android created by Archie to be the public face of Titan Robotics. His name is deliberately unsubtle (Archie's Agent, and a Good Son, also Argent = silver). The Rifter #4 posted:If Hagan was not aware of Archie's lack of imagination before the name hunting began, he is well aware of it now. Archie hired outside teachers to give him insight on the world, and after years and reflecting on the seemingly chaotic state of the world and the fractious nature of humanity, he slew his human teachers with a plasma rifle before declaring his loyalty to Archie. Has really high stats and ridiculously high skills, but doesn't have much in the way of special internal functions like sensors or weapons - he's designed to simulate a human and not deviate from that. Apparently he was designed to look like "some pre-Rifts actor best known for a disaster film of the late 20th century which he performed in during his youth" - which narrows it down to Leonardo DiCaprio, given "The name is lost among Archie's vast files, but he believes it was Italian."  Roundhouse Eyebrow Raise inflicts 1d4 S.D.C. Formerly having taken on the form of a woman named Raven McCoy, Desmond Masters is a changeling "mind melter" who betrayed Hagan Lonovich (Archie's right-hand human partner) in the past. Hagan has apparently hoped to gain revenge on her for years, but never knew she was a changeling. How having taken on a male form, he lost all of his worldly possessions in a game of poker with a mysterious but seemingly magical opponent, as well as his ability to gamble. When he found he then would magically lose at any gamble he put his hand to, he sought to find work with nearby Titan Robotics by happenstance. Running into Argent Goodson, he got a psychic feeling of familiarity, and Argent also sensed something odd. Argent hired him on the spot, and ever since then, Desmond has been trying to find out more about his employer. If he finds out about Hagan or Archie, he's likely to try and find a way to cut in on Hagan's action- though it could ultimately result in his death.  "Huh? It's a navel gun, not a penis gun... I think..." The Titan Series of Robots The commerical Titan robots created by Archie (originally appearing in the core rules and in Rifts Sourcebook_ get an expanded product line here, of course. It notes that the commerical robots he sells use a lower level of technology and quality than he's capable of as to not arouse suspicion or have his more useful technology leak out.
 Dear Marvel: please do not sue. Next: Robots in disguise.
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Sep 6, 2018 14:26
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What got me even as a teenager was how Archie, who I believe is in Maryland, got a robot producing company up and running all the way through the Coalition States and the Magic Zone. Like, I'll even handwave him having the designs or whatnot, but actual manufacturing and logistics. Where was the start-up capital? Just random questions.
Dawgstar fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Sep 6, 2018 |
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Sep 6, 2018 15:01
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Sure, stick the railgun in the lamest possible position short of dick. All the cool robots have railguns in the middle of the torso.
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Sep 6, 2018 15:18
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Dawgstar posted:What got me even as a teenager was how Archie, who I believe is in Maryland, got a robot producing company up and running all the way through the Coalition States and the Magic Zone. Like, I'll even handwave him having the designs or whatnot, but actual manufacturing and logistics. Where was the start-up capital? Just random questions. Well, it's what I was talking about before, just doesn't really think about logistics or infrastructure, you just plop down a factory and robots come out one end. And, of course, since there are no logistics or infrastructure to think of, keeping it all secret is a snap. I think it'd be an interesting hook for the PCs to run across some curious mining or shipping operation and find out it's all robos, that'd definitely be something to puzzle out. JcDent posted:Sure, stick the railgun in the lamest possible position short of dick. All the cool robots have railguns in the middle of the torso. I'm not sure why Rifts robot designers keep doing this, maybe they think it's a good place for antipersonnel weapons? It's just about the silliest place short of butt machineguns, though.
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Sep 6, 2018 15:46
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Well, it's what I was talking about before, just doesn't really think about logistics or infrastructure, you just plop down a factory and robots come out one end. And, of course, since there are no logistics or infrastructure to think of, keeping it all secret is a snap. I think we have long ago determined that best position for robot/cyborg railgun is the shoulder mount. Chest can work for those MICRO MISSILES that Sambieda loves.
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Sep 6, 2018 15:55
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I'm not sure why Rifts robot designers keep doing this, maybe they think it's a good place for antipersonnel weapons? It's just about the silliest place short of butt machineguns, though. I can't speak for the Rifts designers, but a torso mounted machinegun makes some amount of sense as an antipersonnel weapon once you've accepted having a humanoid robot. The main arms are used for aiming and mounting the big guns, of course, so where should you put a weapon meant to fire at things low to the ground and requiring relatively little force to destroy? With that in mind, a downward-angled machinegun on the torso actually makes some sense. You don't care much about aiming, this is more of a "keep people with explosives away from the expensive robot" thing and so a flexible area denial tool is fine, and you don't need much in the way of a power source or storage space. However, the key is to keep its exact angle flexible (to allow for tracking human sized targets with at least some success) and to be generally pointed downward (where the human sized targets are). The gun in the middle of that robot looks like a fixed mount pointed straight ahead. That is the worst possible spot for a weapon. It can't be an anti-personnel weapon since it's pointing forward rather than down. If it's an anti-mecha weapon, it's eating into valuable space for other systems (unlike an arm mount, which can use external storage like that missile pod) and it appears completely inflexible meaning that in order to aim or adjust the weapon you have to move the entire mech (which is both slow and much more energy expensive).
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Sep 6, 2018 16:16
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You probably want it behind the mech, too, since it has the front covered anyways.
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Sep 6, 2018 16:20
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Giant robots don't make a lot of sense anyway, you might as well get silly in the way you think is coolest. Warhammer 40k for all its faults understands this. (funnily enough, the Tau apparently build their own giant robots specifically to fight the giant robots their enemies insisted on fielding, they used to rely on orbital support to take out Titans but once their ships started being too tied up engaging enemy ships they needed dedicated anti-Titan weapons)
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Sep 6, 2018 16:23
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The Tau solution to titans ends up being lots and lots of bombers with lots and lots of cruise missiles. They just saturate the void shields from standoff range.
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Sep 6, 2018 16:25
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Well, it's what I was talking about before, just doesn't really think about logistics or infrastructure, you just plop down a factory and robots come out one end. And, of course, since there are no logistics or infrastructure to think of, keeping it all secret is a snap. Now that you mention that, they also handwave just how all the data recorded gets back to Archie, don't they? And Titan is pretty popular so that's a lot of bandwidth featuring a Fury Beetle stampeding towards you and similar.
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Sep 6, 2018 16:26
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Mors Rattus posted:7th Sea 2e: The New World - Evil Gods Welp, it's official. I can never let my players read this book, otherwise it's just going to be jokes about alien mantis people kidnapping the old gods.
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Sep 6, 2018 16:57
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Dawgstar posted:Now that you mention that, they also handwave just how all the data recorded gets back to Archie, don't they? And Titan is pretty popular so that's a lot of bandwidth featuring a Fury Beetle stampeding towards you and similar. They mentioned free maintenance during which the recorders are collected and replaced.
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Sep 6, 2018 18:25
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True, although that's still a lot of transportation over hostile territory. It reminds me as ARB said, ARCHIE-3 is a genius only when the plot demands it.
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Sep 6, 2018 19:06
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Kinda more in the land of the blind, the one eye man is king. Archie is one of the few that has half baked ideas (such as the wizard of oz fake brain) that sorta work, he shows how much lack of thought is in everything else.
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Sep 6, 2018 19:16
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Dawgstar posted:True, although that's still a lot of transportation over hostile territory. To be fair, they have the satellite uplink at Titan's corporate HQ. So they're probably not doing any transport further from Northern Gun > Manistque Imperium (if they have to at all, they may have uplinks at other repair shops), which is a relatively settled area. Archie to me at least works the best of the Rifts' villains because he's ironically more human. Yes, he's a megalomaniac like every other villain in the Rifts lineup, but it's basically a shell covering up massive insecurities tied to a heavy codependency complex. In other words, he has characterization beyond powermongering, and he's one of the few it feels like you could actually communicate with once you got over his paranoia. Characters like Emperor Prosek or Splynncryth don't feel like people you could interact with more than once, but Archie at least feels like a character that would really work for repeated adventures (as shown by his repeated appearances in the line).
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Sep 6, 2018 21:12
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The Rifter Rifts Round-Up Special '98: "To the public, the name is a selling gimmick made to imply power and size."  "We take shoplifting very seriously." Cyberworks Secret Security Bots Because Archie is driven to make his robots "superior" to humans, he ran into a condundrum when making security forces disguised as humans. His solution is to disguise them as juicers and cyborgs, so that they can run around leaping over buildings and lifting cars without attracting unusual. Because he's a bit face-blind, he relied on Hagan to provide designs for human faces. And so some look like people Hagan has encountered; it does have a cute note that if he's encountered the player characters, one of them might run into a familiar looking faux-juicer at the Titan facility. The Juicer Bot (295 M.D.C). is really tough and stupid fast, to the point it gets an automatic dodge, but it runs into the fact that it uses traditional juicer weapons - i.e. the juicer rifle and vibro-blades - and both are really crap. It has a self-destruct mechanism that just fuses the interior and makes it useless, as well as activating a radio beacon for other Archie robots to do pickup. The Borg Bot (700 M.D.C.), on the other hand, is crazy tough. While this matches the existing overblown M.D.C. of cyborgs, it also raises the question - why doesn't Archie make his other robots this tough? It has a variety of dinky weapons, the only one it really needs to use is a powerful particle beam blaster in its forearm. Like the juicer, it's also designed to self-destruct to foil its technology being examined. New Cyberworks Weapons  The '90s, now in gun form! We also get a new stack of weapons used by Archie's robots (though not the Titan robots) using Mechanoid technology. They use a proprietary e-clip technology that would need work to duplicate, so those looted by player characters in theory only have shots until they run out. The Arch-25 Particle Beam Cannon and Arch-26 Plasma Rifle both do pretty good damage, while the Arch-27 Ion Pistol does middling damage, but it's better than usual for a pistol. New Weapons From Other Manufacturers For no readily apparent reason, this article regarding Archie, Cyberworks, and Titan Robotics switches to a listing of new Northern Gun (corebook), Triax (Rifts Sourcebook and Rifts World Book 5: Triax & the NGR), and Chipwell (Rifts Mercenaries) weapons with no preamble.  Best Gun. For Northern Gun, we get the NG-SL20 Sniper Laser Rifle, which does bad damage when firing either is laser or ion blast functions. Why do sniper rifles do crap damage in this game, anyway? There's a NG-R5 Mini Rail Gun, which is the "smallest rail gun on the market" but still has a minimum strength requirement. Also, it does awful damage too. Conversely, the NG-E15 Pulse Plasma Ejector completely justifies its strength requirement, being able to do plasma bursts more powerful than most rail guns and immediately standing out as one of the best hand-held weapons in the game. The NG-G10 Grenade Launcher is decent, which is weird given that grenades are usually hilariously low damage, able to fire grenades on par with a rail gun or mini-missile.  I'm sure from the front it looks like a tire with a gun sticking out of it. Triax also gets an awful sniper rifle, the TX-SL12 Sharpshooter Laser Rifle. They also have the TX-75 Grenade Launcher, which is practically identical to the Northern Gun one above.  Hot steppin'. Chipwell Armaments gets two new power armor suits. The CAI-50V Vampire Combat Armor (120 M.D.C.) is a low-quality, weak power armor on its own, but its ability to fire water and its wooden claws make it actually a pretty decent answer to your average vampire. Presumably it has a cross based on the art, and the text says it has "small searchlights" but neither the art or the statblock show them. The CAI-75 Sky Flyer (140 M.D.C.) is "a crash site waiting to happen", and is mainly intended as air support against troops with small arms. It's apparently found a secondary market with couriers, though, who appreciate the low price for a flight-capable suit. Conclusion Whew! That's that. I don't have any deep insights this time - I think Sumimoto's writing is a bit of a step up, and wish he got to stick around longer on the line. It at least follows pretty well from previous material and gives an relatively logical update to the status quo. I'm not sure this all gets remembered - I could have sworn it gets reprinted in some book, but I couldn't find any such thing as of the time of this printing. Of course, it has some issue, but this is Palladium. A curve has been established. For the most part, The Rifter won't have too much of an impact on the core line - it's always weird to have a company essentially disown what it publishes, but that's true for most of what's going on here. There's stuff I wish I had the time to cover more, like the Techno-Wizard stuff (a decent addition with fantastic art), but we just don't have the time. World Books await. And that's a wrap. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Sep 7, 2018 |
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Sep 7, 2018 06:57
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