You'll notice his striking fashion sense. Kind of a space opera meets Hot Topic meets Sharper Image meets The Houston Area Gun Show thing. Skulls, body armor, spikes and guns. Oh, and black. Lots of black, usually glossy, always mega damage.
This is the standard issue outfit for a Coalition soldier. Impressive, stylish and murderously functional. And completely identical to the thousands of other grunts that make up the frontline forces of the Coalition war machine. Speaking of, we should probably cover the whole Coalition thing.
The Coalition is the largest human kingdom/empire/etc in North America, likely in the world. Their territory extends from the Great Lakes, with satellite states in Canada, to Texas, and this territory is constantly expanding. It includes most of what used to be the midwest, and is home to millions of humans living in everything from small hamlets to huge fortress cities like Chi-Town, which is built outside the ruins of old Chicago.
Built with old world technology, its a haven for humans. Only humans. And only certain humans, like those lucky enough to be born without significant psionics. Everyone not on the list (human psychics, magic users, D-bees, creatures of magic, rogue academics, etc) is dealt with swiftly and harshly. The Coalition has a zero tolerance policy when dealing with the supernatural, magic or anyone that chooses to associate with either.
What's more, citizens are basically forbidden from academic pursuits unless they are specifically state mandated. The literacy rate in the general population of the Coalition is under 10%, and that's the way the leadership likes it. An educated populace is difficult to control, and if there's one thing the CS (Coalition States) isn't going to risk, it's an out of control populace. Population centers are run as police states, with citizens constantly under surveillance, security checkpoints every few blocks, mandatory chipping and tattooed barcodes for "dissidents" and "undesirables", a list that includes any kid that exhibits even minor psychic abilities.
Hmm. Expansionist military empire bent on racial purity and the subjugation of subgroups of it's own population. I know I've heard this somewhere before. Can you guess where?
Here, I'll give you a hint;
Ok, so they're Nazis. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that space was completely inaccessible from Rifts Earth they would be the quintessential Space Nazis. This makes them pretty much the perfect enemy for virtually any Rifts campaign. They are obviously and outwardly evil, they come at you in waves and they control huge swaths of the campaign world.
But wait.
These guys, the ones with the horrible oppression, genocide of innocent non-humans and prediliction for spikes and leather are keeping millions of humans alive. Alive in a world where virtually everything that is not human is practically custom designed to slaughter humans. That is no mean feat. Are they evil? Quite possibly, I mean there's a lot of evidence that points directly to "yes" on this. But would humanity still be around without them? Who knows. But there would probably be millions less of us. Does that make it all worth it? That's one of the great questions raised in the fluff for this setting.
And this guy is the architect of it all;
The one in the throne, specifically. The one standing is his son, and the general of his armies.
Joseph Prosek, the Emperor of the last great human Empire on this continent. The man with the plan that has saved our species from the violent, turbulent world outside. The man who decided that unity is more important than education, that safety is more valuable than freedom. Cuts quite a figure, doesn't he?
Remember earlier when I said that one of the really compelling things that Rifts does is explore the inhumanity of man in a hostile environment? Here's exhibit 2. This terrible, warmongering, oppressive, genocidal empire is a direct response to the terrible, dangerous, unpredictable and likely extinction-causing outside world. Huge numbers of people have banded together to trade freedom for security, and by all accounts it's working. Whether or not it's a net good is definitely debatable, but this is a choice that got made and we're seeing the consequences. This is bionic reconstruction on a grand scale; trading humanity for survival.
For their part, the various O.C.C.s associated with the Coalition are among the most "normal" in the book. They are basically just regular humans in military roles, as you would imagine from a group as xenophobic as the Coalition. There are no magic users here, no augmented humans (though there is the possibility with Military Specialists), and unlike every other class in the book there is no built in psychic ability to any of them (with the exception of the Coalition Psy-Stalker, but we'll cover that later). These are just men and women with some degree of weapons training and orders to follow.
And sweet helmets;
There are 4 Coalition classes outlined in this section;
Coalition Grunt
Coalition Military Specialist
Coalition RPA Elite or "Sam"
Coalition Technical Officer
Grunts are the disposable, mass produced storm troopers. The Military specialist is the field ops commander or special operative. This is one of 4 classes in the game that can get bionics. The RPA (Robots and Power Armor) Elite is the pilot class, nicknamed "Sam" after their (in)famous SAMAS power armor. The technical officer is basically what it sounds like, and it's one of the few classes in the book that has reasonable access to scientific skills. None of these classes actually have "Class Abilities" akin to the Juicer or Crazy (which we'll be covering next time). They get skills and equipment, and that's it. Just normals, with major military backing.
And what backing it is. The Coalition has, hands down, the best toys in the game.
Which got a mixed reception from the fanbase. If you find the whole Coalition thing interesting, I would definitely suggest picking up the Coalition War Campaign world book. It has a huge amount of background material on the CS and their holdings. Other places to grab big chunks of info are Lone Star, Free Quebec and the Coalition Wars series.
I'd disagree with the necessary, if only because Warhammer 40K's average Inquisitor would go "Hey, man. That's a bit excessively fascistic!".
So would Judge Dredd.
I think an argument could be made that neither of those examples are facing odds quite as long as humans on Rifts Earth.
Yes, 40k has existential horror and huge swaths of space that they don't control, but they also have planets that are entirely human dominated for their squishier members to live in safety on. And I would argue that their religious oppression is worse than some of the things the Coalition does, since as far as I know the CS doesn't have a state religion, and Karl Prosek isn't setting himself up as a god.
For Dredd, there aren't really any supernatural threats. Yes, humanity is isolated, desperate and increasingly barbaric, but he's not fighting off dragons, demons and brain parasites.
I think that the CS is evil and oppressive, at least at its highest levels, but it just might have to be to succeed.
I'd disagree with the necessary, if only because Warhammer 40K's average Inquisitor would go "Hey, man. That's a bit excessively fascistic!".
So would Judge Dredd.
I think an argument could be made that neither of those examples are facing odds quite as long as humans on Rifts Earth.
Yes, 40k has existential horror and huge swaths of space that they don't control, but they also have planets that are entirely human dominated for their squishier members to live in safety on. And I would argue that their religious oppression is worse than some of the things the Coalition does, since as far as I know the CS doesn't have a state religion, and Karl Prosek isn't setting himself up as a god.
For Dredd, there aren't really any supernatural threats. Yes, humanity is isolated, desperate and increasingly barbaric, but he's not fighting off dragons, demons and brain parasites.
I think that the CS is evil and oppressive, at least at its highest levels, but it just might have to be to succeed.
Warhammer has the Warp. You think too liberally, you say the wrong thing, you slack, and your brain is invaded by demons. The best defense is, well, religious fanaticism. Which, as far as I can tell, is a token prayer in the Emperor's general direction every once in a shile on most worlds, ancient Rome style. Not good at all, but not as bad as it could be.
And Dredd totally faces the supernatural. Remember the Dark Judges? Alternate universe forces of immortal murder. He's also dealt with Xenomorphs, Predators, zombies, plagues threatening to wipe out the last remnants of humanity, Batman, all that. He's pretty damn fascist, mind, but less fascist than the CS.
And as for the overall thing?
Call me a crazy idealist, but there seems to be an idea common to humanity that if something is cruel, if something is vile, if something is reprehensible, it's better at getting the job done, and that just doesn't match the facts.
Sure, a hard world requires harder choices, obviously. At some juncture it's kill or be killed, etc.
But all I've seen and read seems to indicate that some level of not being a fascist asshole is good and useful. The ideal soldier training doesn't kill half the troops, it's inefficient. Best diplomacy actually gives half a shit about the other guy. Japanese internment being relaxed ever so slightly to let some of them fight and die for the country they loved?
Turned out to get good and dedicated soldiers.
What I'm saying is, all fascism that seems unlikely to last three generations. Like Machiavelli said, better to be feared than loved, but above all never be hated.
I don't think anyone is going to argue that the Coalition's methods aren't over the top. They're obviously not the heroes of this piece.
I guess I just see the approach as a logical outgrowth of the situation they find themselves in. Logical in the "I can totally see how this happened, and why they would do it" sense rather than the "this was obviously the best way to approach things" sense.
Danger and turmoil make people more tribalistic. We see this all through history. There's a perceived threat from outside, members of the tribe band together and xenophobia ramps up. We've also got example after example of historical leaders using that xenophobia to further their own political aims, which is something we see in the Proseks.
To me, the formation of the Coalition is one of the more realistic extrapolations to be found in the whole of the Rifts franchise. I could totally see this happening, under the circumstances.
I don't think anyone is going to argue that the Coalition's methods aren't over the top. They're obviously not the heroes of this piece.
I guess I just see the approach as a logical outgrowth of the situation they find themselves in. Logical in the "I can totally see how this happened, and why they would do it" sense rather than the "this was obviously the best way to approach things" sense.
Danger and turmoil make people more tribalistic. We see this all through history. There's a perceived threat from outside, members of the tribe band together and xenophobia ramps up. We've also got example after example of historical leaders using that xenophobia to further their own political aims, which is something we see in the Proseks.
To me, the formation of the Coalition is one of the more realistic extrapolations to be found in the whole of the Rifts franchise. I could totally see this happening, under the circumstances.
Oh, I totally agree on that count. So, good.
Well, not good, since it's the formation of an ultra-fascist dictatorship, but you get what I mean.
I don't think anyone is going to argue that the Coalition's methods aren't over the top. They're obviously not the heroes of this piece.
I guess I just see the approach as a logical outgrowth of the situation they find themselves in. Logical in the "I can totally see how this happened, and why they would do it" sense rather than the "this was obviously the best way to approach things" sense.
Danger and turmoil make people more tribalistic. We see this all through history. There's a perceived threat from outside, members of the tribe band together and xenophobia ramps up. We've also got example after example of historical leaders using that xenophobia to further their own political aims, which is something we see in the Proseks.
To me, the formation of the Coalition is one of the more realistic extrapolations to be found in the whole of the Rifts franchise. I could totally see this happening, under the circumstances.
Really?
Bearing in mind that I haven't read any of the Chaos Earth materials, what I've seen in Rifts is basically Disney Edition fascism. It's not what we've seen historically at all; there's never been some incredibly intelligent / talented dictator stringing the public along like Siembieda portrays Prosek as doing (far from the 'master chess player' he claims Hitler to have been, the Nazi Fuhrer was insane, terminally syphilitic & likely based most of his decisions around his rapidly deteriorating health). The closest would perhaps be Joseph Stalin or the Kim dynasty, but even in those cases the cults of personality developed around them are established far more through terrorizing the citizenry than doing anything very cleverly.
Rifts just doesn't manage to capture the essence of fascism (Paranoia, on the other hand, absolutely nails it - albeit with a humorous tone) - the total insanity of a police state is more or less glossed-over in favor of mustache twirling SatAM villains and high tech toys that no state in the Coalition's position could possibly hope to develop & manufacture (where do they get the materials? Where do they perform the construction? Who does all of the construction? The maintenance? How does the CS manage to feed the labor & military force necessary to operate such an enormous army & policing force?).
As far as how 'realistic' it is to assume that we'd become tribalistic and that a totalitarian empire would spring-up overnight, I think there would be only one realistic outcome for human beings given the scale of the cataclysm presented in Rifts (nearly every major city & all infrastructure destroyed, millions of super predators suddenly dumped into an environment with nothing to compete against them, etc): extinction.
I don't think anyone is going to argue that the Coalition's methods aren't over the top. They're obviously not the heroes of this piece.
I guess I just see the approach as a logical outgrowth of the situation they find themselves in. Logical in the "I can totally see how this happened, and why they would do it" sense rather than the "this was obviously the best way to approach things" sense.
Danger and turmoil make people more tribalistic. We see this all through history. There's a perceived threat from outside, members of the tribe band together and xenophobia ramps up. We've also got example after example of historical leaders using that xenophobia to further their own political aims, which is something we see in the Proseks.
To me, the formation of the Coalition is one of the more realistic extrapolations to be found in the whole of the Rifts franchise. I could totally see this happening, under the circumstances.
Really?
Bearing in mind that I haven't read any of the Chaos Earth materials, what I've seen in Rifts is basically Disney Edition fascism. It's not what we've seen historically at all; there's never been some incredibly intelligent / talented dictator stringing the public along like Siembieda portrays Prosek as doing (far from the 'master chess player' he claims Hitler to have been, the Nazi Fuhrer was insane, terminally syphilitic & likely based most of his decisions around his rapidly deteriorating health). The closest would perhaps be Joseph Stalin or the Kim dynasty, but even in those cases the cults of personality developed around them are established far more through terrorizing the citizenry than doing anything very cleverly.
Rifts just doesn't manage to capture the essence of fascism (Paranoia, on the other hand, absolutely nails it - albeit with a humorous tone) - the total insanity of a police state is more or less glossed-over in favor of mustache twirling SatAM villains and high tech toys that no state in the Coalition's position could possibly hope to develop & manufacture (where do they get the materials? Where do they perform the construction? Who does all of the construction? The maintenance? How does the CS manage to feed the labor & military force necessary to operate such an enormous army & policing force?).
As far as how 'realistic' it is to assume that we'd become tribalistic and that a totalitarian empire would spring-up overnight, I think there would be only one realistic outcome for human beings given the scale of the cataclysm presented in Rifts (nearly every major city & all infrastructure destroyed, millions of super predators suddenly dumped into an environment with nothing to compete against them, etc): extinction.
In the Ultimate Edition (I think), there's a section where Erin Tarn chronicles the rise of the Coalition, and what they've become. In the original books, I'd agree that it is a pretty tame version of fascism, but between the Juicer Uprising, Free Quebec, Coalition War Campaign and the Ultimate Edition, there's a very deep and dark view of the Coalition painted, and Prosek follows a very similar course to his hero, Hitler.
They expel or imprison any citizens that show psionic potential, they experiment on their own citizenry, they restrict the ability to read to the privileged upper classes, their police force is authorized to use lethal force on the least of offenses, etc. This isn't disney fascism.
This thread wins. Still have so many unused NPC's and major villains sitting around, just begging to be used. Still remember writing about thirteen or so (MSWord) pages of additional rules to flesh out combat and other things I felt were unwieldy--then right as I was putting the finishing touches on it, my laptop got stolen. It was a dark day, indeed. Never did go back, though I always toy with the idea.
Also, Rifts Underseas is the bomb, if only for the Cthulhu-esque Lord of the Deep that sits down in the Challenger Deep regions of the Marianas. It has, I think, eight massive tentacles that reach to either coast and a bit beyond--so if you're anywhere near the Pacific, you're fair game. Add to that they're bigger around than any sea-going vessel and each of those can also sprout thousands of regular-sized tentacles for people-snaring (with those unfortunate souls being magically kept alive all the way back down to the "mouth" of this horror) and you have yourself some grade-A, nightmare material.
Also, I was totally a munckin-gamer, so the power creep never really bothered me. I was all, "COOL! Bigger, better, more damaging weapons! Me wants!" At least until I hit the age of fourteen or fifteen, but by then, Rifts was something that I always tried to come back to with middling results. Still... such good times.
In the Ultimate Edition (I think), there's a section where Erin Tarn chronicles the rise of the Coalition, and what they've become. In the original books, I'd agree that it is a pretty tame version of fascism, but between the Juicer Uprising, Free Quebec, Coalition War Campaign and the Ultimate Edition, there's a very deep and dark view of the Coalition painted, and Prosek follows a very similar course to his hero, Hitler.
They expel or imprison any citizens that show psionic potential, they experiment on their own citizenry, they restrict the ability to read to the privileged upper classes, their police force is authorized to use lethal force on the least of offenses, etc. This isn't disney fascism.
I should clarify - by saying 'Disney fascism', I mean the type of stereotypical plot devices often trotted out (political imprisonment, heavy censorship, propaganda, campaigns of genocide, etc) to make a blunt comparison with a fictional dictatorship and the Nazis, while entirely missing or glossing over the utter dysfunction of the state (to pick on a specific component of the attempt to draw parallels between Prosek & Hitler : Siembieda claims that Prosek is a fan of the long gone German Fuhrer - which I'd find dubious anyway, given how far into the future Rifts is set, but that's a bit besides the point - but in the same breath also says that Prosek is a rational actor and acknowledges that Hitler was delusional. That just doesn't fly with me; if Prosek was portrayed as someone totally insane and superstitious, fine, but no rational person could look back at the Nazi campaign and think, "Gee whiz, what a great idea." Because of the ridiculous academic censorship in Germany, she was churning out a whole generation of children who could do little other than recite the oath swearing allegiance to their leader - the entire country would've disintegrated probably well under a decade, even if they'd succeeded in claiming a large swath of the Soviet Union & settled some arrangement with Britain).
As far as fictional entities of that sort go, it's fine - it grates on me a bit, but it also gives me a greater appreciation for works that dive into the nuance of totalitarianism; the stuff that goes beyond the labor camps and the big lie.
In the Ultimate Edition (I think), there's a section where Erin Tarn chronicles the rise of the Coalition, and what they've become. In the original books, I'd agree that it is a pretty tame version of fascism, but between the Juicer Uprising, Free Quebec, Coalition War Campaign and the Ultimate Edition, there's a very deep and dark view of the Coalition painted, and Prosek follows a very similar course to his hero, Hitler.
They expel or imprison any citizens that show psionic potential, they experiment on their own citizenry, they restrict the ability to read to the privileged upper classes, their police force is authorized to use lethal force on the least of offenses, etc. This isn't disney fascism.
I should clarify - by saying 'Disney fascism', I mean the type of stereotypical plot devices often trotted out (political imprisonment, heavy censorship, propaganda, campaigns of genocide, etc) to make a blunt comparison with a fictional dictatorship and the Nazis, while entirely missing or glossing over the utter dysfunction of the state (to pick on a specific component of the attempt to draw parallels between Prosek & Hitler : Siembieda claims that Prosek is a fan of the long gone German Fuhrer - which I'd find dubious anyway, given how far into the future Rifts is set, but that's a bit besides the point - but in the same breath also says that Prosek is a rational actor and acknowledges that Hitler was delusional. That just doesn't fly with me; if Prosek was portrayed as someone totally insane and superstitious, fine, but no rational person could look back at the Nazi campaign and think, "Gee whiz, what a great idea." Because of the ridiculous academic censorship in Germany, she was churning out a whole generation of children who could do little other than recite the oath swearing allegiance to their leader - the entire country would've disintegrated probably well under a decade, even if they'd succeeded in claiming a large swath of the Soviet Union & settled some arrangement with Britain).
As far as fictional entities of that sort go, it's fine - it grates on me a bit, but it also gives me a greater appreciation for works that dive into the nuance of totalitarianism; the stuff that goes beyond the labor camps and the big lie.
That's a valid criticism. Still, I don't think the CS really exists as a nuanced critique of fascism so much. It's more a nation of Space Nazis that is designed to be the obvious antagonist for any party that contains a decent number of psychics, magic users, d-bees, etc (which is to say, virtually every party).
I don't know that Rifts is really the place I would go to get detailed geopolitical extrapolation.
I think a reversion to totalitarianism in the wake of catastrophe is a realistic thing. But like so much else with this setting it kind of becomes its own thing after that point.
@Xenogear: I think we've all been there. I have entire notebooks full of NPCs that I put together back in Jr High, each more awesome than the last.
It would also be possible to play them in a more realistic fashion, In the books the decent directly into fascism is actually a recent experience, though they were very bigoted before. A game of rogue scholars unearthing mysteries, teaching D-Bees and the uneducated and circling underground newspapers, or spies infiltrating the CS and learning all their secrets might not be fun for some people but could explore the human side of the Coalition in a more realistic and less 'Space Nazi' way.
Building a real revolution and resistance probably isn't as fun as blowing up and stealing cool CS vehicles though, nor is it accounted for in any way by the game system.
Also if you really don't like the CS there are other human kingdoms which have done fine, for their own reasons, for you to play in that are introduced in the world books. None of them are as large as the coalition but they survive through forms of human augmentation or magic and many are more morally gray in their approaches compared to the 'Grr I am evil' CS portrayal.
Void Slayer on
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
Y'know what always miffed me? There's no book dealing with Lazlo.
I mean, that place is hero central! It's the one place that is unambiguously for the good guys, and the only material for it is a couple of sad little pages in the Canada world book.
In Rifts, there are literally dozens of ways to go from zero to superhuman in one quick O.C.C. selection. They range from the relatively tame (Power Armor Pilot) to the extreme (Cyborg) to the doomed (Juicer). Sitting somewhere outside that spectrum, giggling and twitching while doing cartwheels and wearing a pink tutu, is the Crazy.
Crazies are a product of the Mind Over Matter (M.O.M.) system of augmentation. In essence, they have a series of chips put in their brains that make them faster, stronger, tougher and, well, crazy. Like so many of the bizarre forms of human augmentation available in Rifts, the M.O.M. implants started as a golden-age medical procedure that got co-opted for the construction of super soldiers.
Oh, and what soldiers they are. Crazies are the only class in the main book that come stock with Hand to Hand: Martial Arts. They also have, in their mandatory starting skills, Acrobatics, Climb, Prowl and Escape Artist (the latter three being the classic Rifts "goddamn it why didn't I train X" skills), as well as 5 weapon proficiencies. This is on top of their big bonuses to attributes: +1d6 to Physical Endurance, +2d4 to Physical Strength (minimum 19, professional football players average around 17), +1d6 to Physical Prowess (minimum 17), tons of ambient combat bonuses and a comparatively huge pool of S.D.C. (though not Juicer level) round out the package. Crazies are basically programmed to be the perfect combatant.
On top of all this, they have heightened healing abilities and even a few psionic powers. Even more amazingly, they are one of only a few classes in the game with full access to Espionage skills, which combined with their O.C.C bonuses make them better thieves, spies and assassins than anyone else in the game (at least until Rifts: Mercenaries introduced the Thief, Spy and Assassin classes, and Japan gave us a half-dozen distinct Ninja classes, including the Crazy Ninja).
Everything's better with Ninjas.
You'll notice that the only way you can tell that the above is a Crazy Ninja instead of just a regular Ninja is the bulky protrusions from the Crazy Ninja's head. Here's a better shot;
Those metal cylinders sticking out of the Crazy's head are kind of their signature. Those are their calling card. If the guy you're up against has giant rods sticking out of his scalp, you're up against a crazy. If he doesn't, you're not. It's pretty much that simple.
Except they're not actually functional. The M.O.M. implants themselves are tiny, most smaller than a pea, the biggest maxing out at around the size of a dime. Also; entirely internal. There's no need for big towers around implants, none whatsoever. They are entirely unnecessary, and yet they are ubiquitous, the universal symbol of the crazy. Why? Because they are crazy. They want to be seen as the augmented supersoldier they are, and regular hair is just boring. So they get cybernetic attachments to make themselves more fearsome, because blending in is boring.
The downside to Crazy-dom, aside from the whole head implants thing, is the insanity. While it's kind of a running joke that level up in Rifts really has no point (minor skill increases, a few fairly random combat bonuses that accrue, that's about it) outside of a few classes, Crazies get it worse than most. Because although they get the usual bonuses for leveling up, they also actively lose sanity as they gain levels.
Crazies, somewhat ironically, start 100% sane. No phobias, no multiple personality disorder, no ingrained assumptions that their combat abilities are twinky-related, none of that. Stone. Cold. Sane. At intervals based on level, though, they get crazier and crazier. Behold;
At level two, the Crazy gets a few more S.D.C., maybe an extra use of his psionic power(s), and is terrified of one of these things;
At level 3 he gets a few more S.D.C, a new weapon proficiency and a couple of skills, plus one of these;
Level 4 is when the crazy really ramps up. The roll on "The Crazy Hero" table is going to determine the defining insanity for your character. The options are;
Frenzy: Fly into an uncontrolled rage under certain stimuli.
Power by Association: Lose your abilities at night, or if you run out of twinkies.
Multiple Personalities: Spend part of your day as a school girl or Jack the Ripper.
Crazy Man: Think Errol Flynn's Robin Hood on meth. No attention span, prone to acrobatic stunts that will likely end in death.
One Crazy I have personally seen in play had a Phobia of computers, an Obsession with danger, believed his "super powers" were acquired via the ingestion of twinkies and suffered from hysterical blindness. He was all but an NPC.
Later books would add M.O.M. implants that programmed skills directly into the brain, gave the implantee the ability to control fire or fly telekinetically, and some that even turned the user into a mega damage creature. Like virtually everything in Rifts, the Crazy got more and more awesome as the setting expanded.
It remained virtually unplayable after level 4, however.
Oh CJ Carella, there is no power level you would not decide to creep over immediately.
I, perhaps naively, assumed that Atlantis was their third book or so off the line to establish the power CEILING, and every other book was going to work under it.
Oh CJ Carella, there is no power level you would not decide to creep over immediately.
I, perhaps naively, assumed that Atlantis was their third book or so off the line to establish the power CEILING, and every other book was going to work under it.
That notion didn't last long at all.
Well, you were close in a way: after the Splynn world book (#21), the power level more or less finally dropped off. China was bland, Xiticix was surprisingly boring and Free Quebec was cool without really exceeding anything seen in Splynn.
Re: Crazies - I never saw the appeal of MOM augmentation. Juicers get better bonuses without the drawback of accumulating crippling insanities and, essentially, perform the same task as Crazies do. I'm also reasonably sure that a Bio-Borg is a better option than either of those two, and if you can get the right kit, you can probably get a regular old 'Borg to around the same level of performance.
Re: Crazies - I never saw the appeal of MOM augmentation. Juicers get better bonuses without the drawback of accumulating crippling insanities and, essentially, perform the same task as Crazies do. I'm also reasonably sure that a Bio-Borg is a better option than either of those two, and if you can get the right kit, you can probably get a regular old 'Borg to around the same level of performance.
I don't have much experience with Bio Borgs, but Borgs just can't put out the same level of performance that you get from a Juicer or a Crazy. Juicer being the better of those two, obviously. But those bonus attacks are just straight better than almost anything available to the borg, and you can get them without losing psionics, which is a pretty big hit in most cases. Juicers are just on another level compared to everything else in the game, at least from a combat perspective. +2 attacks, crazy P.P. and autododge is just way too much for other classes to come back from. Especially when Juicers still have access to every suit of power armor in the game, just like anybody else.
This thread brings back great memories. OptimusZed is the rightest-evah about the potential for great gaming that the Coalition enables. In one campaign my group all played a squad of CS soldiers that defended a county including 4 villages and a town over about a year. It included one of the most moving role playing sessions I have ever participated in.
In one of the villages which our Urban assault robot pilot was from a young boy was identified as having magical potential and we had to collect him for processing. Nobody liked this by the by, but if we don't its our butts and if we convince the county to secede then a lot of critical supplies will just dry up even if we don't get made a example of. So we go to pick up the boy and I swear the van ride when he just wants to know where he is going is just pure role-playing gold. Then the shoe drops his dad who is also magically active and we had chased out of the county early in the campaign had assembled a "average PC hero group" to rescue his son. The ensuing firefight happened in the town in which we barely drove them off.
In the battle several buildings were destroyed including the house of the Urban Assault Mechs favorite uncle, and part of the local church which killed another 3 NPCs of note including the local party secretary who our commander was in a relationship with. But the real kicker was after all that loss for the boys right to live the hero group had failed and we still had to take the kid for processing after assessing the villages damage. Totally amazing brutally bleak session and eveyone was in character the whole time even that guy who never is you know the one. So yeah thank you Coalition and thank you Rifts.
I can imagine 'ol Carella trying to break into today's market, where power creep and collectible accessories are colliding.
He just walks into the Palladium office, eyes wide, and starts knocking shit off of people's desks. "Guys! Guys! I've done it! I'VE FUCKING DONE! IT! Stop everything you're doing!"
He then starts pulling terrible polyhedral abberations from his pockets.
"Fucking collectible dice, men! Roll up the new OCCs that do dR damage with their fists, where 'R' can be any one of our new Rifts (TM) collectible dice! Want more power? Go buy dice boosters until you can find an Ultra Rare D10,000,000,000, or the D8 where every face is a multiplier!"
Kevin Siembieda is then so gripped by the incredible genius of the plan that he takes a d6 worth of Mega Damage and is atomized, while the junior staff see the madness of such business practice for what it is and reach for their sliding rules. They receive a bonus attack for the first melee of combat to represent their cementing convictions; the line needs to be drawn here.
Also this thread is dangerous. I can already feel the urge to call up my Sunday group and say "Soooooo anyone want to take a break and give this old game I know called Rifts a try." They would kill me I suspect, and then realize that they just gave up the opportunity to play mech pilots for Zanatos Inc. vs evil Goliath and his gargoyle hordes in Germany.
I don't have much experience with Bio Borgs, but Borgs just can't put out the same level of performance that you get from a Juicer or a Crazy. Juicer being the better of those two, obviously. But those bonus attacks are just straight better than almost anything available to the borg, and you can get them without losing psionics, which is a pretty big hit in most cases. Juicers are just on another level compared to everything else in the game, at least from a combat perspective. +2 attacks, crazy P.P. and autododge is just way too much for other classes to come back from. Especially when Juicers still have access to every suit of power armor in the game, just like anybody else.
Well, extra attacks on a 'Borg are easy to get; just add extra limbs. I don't think there's any way to get auto-dodge or auto-parry, so that's a minus.
Bio-Borgs are nutty. Again, extra attacks is just a matter of adding extra limbs, and while you can't grab auto-dodge or auto-parry, you don't need either. You grab an Elom and a Life Node instead and laugh at the notion of 'damage' - this thing that apparently other characters have to worry about. You can grab a Chest Amalgamate if you want to add yet another attack per melee and some trivial combat bonuses, and a Titanizer if you want to suddenly Hulk out on people and bio-regenerate (not that you should ever need to).
I don't have much experience with Bio Borgs, but Borgs just can't put out the same level of performance that you get from a Juicer or a Crazy. Juicer being the better of those two, obviously. But those bonus attacks are just straight better than almost anything available to the borg, and you can get them without losing psionics, which is a pretty big hit in most cases. Juicers are just on another level compared to everything else in the game, at least from a combat perspective. +2 attacks, crazy P.P. and autododge is just way too much for other classes to come back from. Especially when Juicers still have access to every suit of power armor in the game, just like anybody else.
Well, extra attacks on a 'Borg are easy to get; just add extra limbs. I don't think there's any way to get auto-dodge or auto-parry, so that's a minus.
Bio-Borgs are nutty. Again, extra attacks is just a matter of adding extra limbs, and while you can't grab auto-dodge or auto-parry, you don't need either. You grab an Elom and a Life Node instead and laugh at the notion of 'damage' - this thing that apparently other characters have to worry about. You can grab a Chest Amalgamate if you want to add yet another attack per melee and some trivial combat bonuses, and a Titanizer if you want to suddenly Hulk out on people and bio-regenerate (not that you should ever need to).
Well, everybody gets auto-parry. As long as they're not attacking with two weapons, at least.
Borg extra attacks are limited to the limbs themselves though, aren't they? So if I wanted to use my new tentacles to get their extra attack, I'd need to find some way to attack with them. I doubt they're up to holding a second rail gun.
Also this thread is dangerous. I can already feel the urge to call up my Sunday group and say "Soooooo anyone want to take a break and give this old game I know called Rifts a try." They would kill me I suspect, and then realize that they just gave up the opportunity to play mech pilots for Zanatos Inc. vs evil Goliath and his gargoyle hordes in Germany.
Why is this not happening already?
Matev on
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Yeah, so that's why you buy extra sets of bionic arms instead of tentacles. :P
Sure, but those arms have P.S. that tops out at 20, making them unsuitable for a second heavy weapon. And you lose the benefits of them in heavy armor, unless you can push your GM through some pretty ridiculous mental hoops.
Crazies and Juicers just have those attacks, period.
I bought a whole bunch of boosters for that at a discount, and considering how fast the game faded I could've probably gotten a whole bunch more for pennies if I'd been interested, but I wasn't all that impressed with the game itself.
I vaguely recall that it was one of those games where the deck itself also represented your life total (though I may be mistaking this for the Battletech CCG, which I also snagged some of back in the day), which I was a bit annoyed by. Also, only one of my friends picked up any cards, and we never really got together to play, so it just ended up sitting packed away for years. Funny thing, I just pulled them out of storage and tossed some of the rares I'd snagged into the backs of other card holders for when I play a varient of Magic called Elder Dragon Highlander, along with a bunch of other old promo cards and random CCGs I've snagged bits of over the years.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Nooooooo hoping this thread isn't running out of steam just yet. If so, I may contribute with a LR: Rifts Atlantis or something.
My computer went kaput. In a pretty major way.
So until I figure out what I'm doing with that, updates will be.... sporadic. Unfortunately.
But if you (or anyone else) wants to jump in to explore a world book or something in the meantime, I'll do my best to get you linked up into the main post quickly.
So until I figure out what I'm doing with that, updates will be.... sporadic. Unfortunately.
But if you (or anyone else) wants to jump in to explore a world book or something in the meantime, I'll do my best to get you linked up into the main post quickly.
Can we begin fleshing out the classes as well or do you have specific plans for the delicious O.C.C.s? If so I would love to do the write up for the magic people, or at least Ley Line Walkers.
Anyone ever translate the text on the Lay Line Walkers belt sash? As I recall it says "Evil Eye"
I spent a constructive afternoon once re-creating the font based on several samples in the book.
RaveBomb on
I'm off to pirate more music, steal software, and knock down little old ladies, then later I'm going to cover my self in Yak's blood, and lay in a pentagram, while reading some Marxist literature and praying to a heathen god.
You know, since we're on the topic of crazy, we might want to discuss the...
Rifts(TM) World Books
As published, these are an already ambitious product line - 24 thick supplemental books on 8.5" x 11" pages, adding hundreds of new character classes, races, vehicles, bionic parts, super powers, weapons, ordnance, and even optional rules sets. They were all chock full of illustrations, including a gorgeous full color cover.
As planned? These supplements would've dwarfed any other fictional literary body known to man. Siembieda wanted one book for every country on the planet, one for each of the many space colonies in orbit, a few for the colonies on the moon and at least one special book dealing with every special location on Rifts Earth (Chi-Town, Lazlo, Tolkeen, etc).
As the scope of the original plan became obviously too unwieldy, various books & locales were merged together and some were forgotten and/or dropped. I'm still unsure whether this was something to be disappointed at or not.
The World Books are notorious in the RPG community for one thing above all else - power creep. Everything in the main book has a superior alternative in at least one of the World Books somewhere, and often there are entire rules sets you can find that will confer an advantage to you over using the basic rules. The power creep finally plateau'd when World Book 21 (Splynn Dimensional Market) was released - a magical super mall for demons & other supernatural terrors to buy & sell, well... whatever. Self-aware runic weapons that can kill people with their glint alone, radical mutations that allow characters to transform their bodies into living battle tanks, gatling death rays, etc. After you've hit up Splynn, it's basically, "GG".
On that same token, however, these are also some of the best supplements ever released for any RPG in terms of bang for your buck. There isn't even one single World Book that you could point to and say, "I'm disappointed about the lack of content," - they are just jam-packed with stuff to be used, and even the fluff usually has some kind of in-game mechanical purpose.
To be fair, I believe all Rune Weapons (lesser and greater) were sentient and that your alignment had to mesh in order to use it. So as far as uses for alignment, that's one. But yeah, the Soul Drinker stands out, as all it had to do was taste your opponents blood for him to die instantly. I believe those struck got a saving throw. If they failed? Boom--insta-death. Oh, it also did from 1d6x10 MD per strike, so pretty formidable in its own right.
IIRC, there was a magic katana or somesuch in the Rifts:Japan worldbook that straight up went through armor and power armor dealing damage directly to the wearer. Yeah.
The only person I've ever seen with my own eyes GM a Rifts game that wasn't me decided that psi-swords ignored physical armor because they were basically Psylocke's psiblade.
Cue the party cyber-knight killing 4 SAMAS in one round.
I can't even imagine how that looked good on paper, let alone in practice. O.O
This said as someone who had a character that used to walk around in advanced prototype power armour with psychic implants and wielding weapons that could knock an object into orbit.
But that was Rifts. A power level limited only by what your GM permitted.
We once had a DM PC Godling. Another was allowed to play a Raksasha Demon with something like 6,000 MDC. I believe that's more than the mobile military base in Triax & the NGR!
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Posts
Bow-chicka-neigh-neigh.
As promised, today we're talking about this guy;
You'll notice his striking fashion sense. Kind of a space opera meets Hot Topic meets Sharper Image meets The Houston Area Gun Show thing. Skulls, body armor, spikes and guns. Oh, and black. Lots of black, usually glossy, always mega damage.
This is the standard issue outfit for a Coalition soldier. Impressive, stylish and murderously functional. And completely identical to the thousands of other grunts that make up the frontline forces of the Coalition war machine. Speaking of, we should probably cover the whole Coalition thing.
The Coalition is the largest human kingdom/empire/etc in North America, likely in the world. Their territory extends from the Great Lakes, with satellite states in Canada, to Texas, and this territory is constantly expanding. It includes most of what used to be the midwest, and is home to millions of humans living in everything from small hamlets to huge fortress cities like Chi-Town, which is built outside the ruins of old Chicago.
Built with old world technology, its a haven for humans. Only humans. And only certain humans, like those lucky enough to be born without significant psionics. Everyone not on the list (human psychics, magic users, D-bees, creatures of magic, rogue academics, etc) is dealt with swiftly and harshly. The Coalition has a zero tolerance policy when dealing with the supernatural, magic or anyone that chooses to associate with either.
What's more, citizens are basically forbidden from academic pursuits unless they are specifically state mandated. The literacy rate in the general population of the Coalition is under 10%, and that's the way the leadership likes it. An educated populace is difficult to control, and if there's one thing the CS (Coalition States) isn't going to risk, it's an out of control populace. Population centers are run as police states, with citizens constantly under surveillance, security checkpoints every few blocks, mandatory chipping and tattooed barcodes for "dissidents" and "undesirables", a list that includes any kid that exhibits even minor psychic abilities.
Hmm. Expansionist military empire bent on racial purity and the subjugation of subgroups of it's own population. I know I've heard this somewhere before. Can you guess where?
Here, I'll give you a hint;
Ok, so they're Nazis. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that space was completely inaccessible from Rifts Earth they would be the quintessential Space Nazis. This makes them pretty much the perfect enemy for virtually any Rifts campaign. They are obviously and outwardly evil, they come at you in waves and they control huge swaths of the campaign world.
But wait.
These guys, the ones with the horrible oppression, genocide of innocent non-humans and prediliction for spikes and leather are keeping millions of humans alive. Alive in a world where virtually everything that is not human is practically custom designed to slaughter humans. That is no mean feat. Are they evil? Quite possibly, I mean there's a lot of evidence that points directly to "yes" on this. But would humanity still be around without them? Who knows. But there would probably be millions less of us. Does that make it all worth it? That's one of the great questions raised in the fluff for this setting.
And this guy is the architect of it all;
The one in the throne, specifically. The one standing is his son, and the general of his armies.
Joseph Prosek, the Emperor of the last great human Empire on this continent. The man with the plan that has saved our species from the violent, turbulent world outside. The man who decided that unity is more important than education, that safety is more valuable than freedom. Cuts quite a figure, doesn't he?
Remember earlier when I said that one of the really compelling things that Rifts does is explore the inhumanity of man in a hostile environment? Here's exhibit 2. This terrible, warmongering, oppressive, genocidal empire is a direct response to the terrible, dangerous, unpredictable and likely extinction-causing outside world. Huge numbers of people have banded together to trade freedom for security, and by all accounts it's working. Whether or not it's a net good is definitely debatable, but this is a choice that got made and we're seeing the consequences. This is bionic reconstruction on a grand scale; trading humanity for survival.
For their part, the various O.C.C.s associated with the Coalition are among the most "normal" in the book. They are basically just regular humans in military roles, as you would imagine from a group as xenophobic as the Coalition. There are no magic users here, no augmented humans (though there is the possibility with Military Specialists), and unlike every other class in the book there is no built in psychic ability to any of them (with the exception of the Coalition Psy-Stalker, but we'll cover that later). These are just men and women with some degree of weapons training and orders to follow.
And sweet helmets;
There are 4 Coalition classes outlined in this section;
Coalition Grunt
Coalition Military Specialist
Coalition RPA Elite or "Sam"
Coalition Technical Officer
Grunts are the disposable, mass produced storm troopers. The Military specialist is the field ops commander or special operative. This is one of 4 classes in the game that can get bionics. The RPA (Robots and Power Armor) Elite is the pilot class, nicknamed "Sam" after their (in)famous SAMAS power armor. The technical officer is basically what it sounds like, and it's one of the few classes in the book that has reasonable access to scientific skills. None of these classes actually have "Class Abilities" akin to the Juicer or Crazy (which we'll be covering next time). They get skills and equipment, and that's it. Just normals, with major military backing.
And what backing it is. The Coalition has, hands down, the best toys in the game.
They've got Skycycles,
SAMAS Power Armor,
Urban Assault Robots,
and Giant Robot Spider Skull Vehicles.
And that's just the stuff in this book. There is an entire 224 page book devoted to fleshing out the Coalition Military. Including an armor makeover;
Which got a mixed reception from the fanbase. If you find the whole Coalition thing interesting, I would definitely suggest picking up the Coalition War Campaign world book. It has a huge amount of background material on the CS and their holdings. Other places to grab big chunks of info are Lone Star, Free Quebec and the Coalition Wars series.
Next Time, this guy;
and exactly what is wrong with him.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
So would Judge Dredd.
Why I fear the ocean.
Yes, 40k has existential horror and huge swaths of space that they don't control, but they also have planets that are entirely human dominated for their squishier members to live in safety on. And I would argue that their religious oppression is worse than some of the things the Coalition does, since as far as I know the CS doesn't have a state religion, and Karl Prosek isn't setting himself up as a god.
For Dredd, there aren't really any supernatural threats. Yes, humanity is isolated, desperate and increasingly barbaric, but he's not fighting off dragons, demons and brain parasites.
I think that the CS is evil and oppressive, at least at its highest levels, but it just might have to be to succeed.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Warhammer has the Warp. You think too liberally, you say the wrong thing, you slack, and your brain is invaded by demons. The best defense is, well, religious fanaticism. Which, as far as I can tell, is a token prayer in the Emperor's general direction every once in a shile on most worlds, ancient Rome style. Not good at all, but not as bad as it could be.
And Dredd totally faces the supernatural. Remember the Dark Judges? Alternate universe forces of immortal murder. He's also dealt with Xenomorphs, Predators, zombies, plagues threatening to wipe out the last remnants of humanity, Batman, all that. He's pretty damn fascist, mind, but less fascist than the CS.
And as for the overall thing?
Call me a crazy idealist, but there seems to be an idea common to humanity that if something is cruel, if something is vile, if something is reprehensible, it's better at getting the job done, and that just doesn't match the facts.
Sure, a hard world requires harder choices, obviously. At some juncture it's kill or be killed, etc.
But all I've seen and read seems to indicate that some level of not being a fascist asshole is good and useful. The ideal soldier training doesn't kill half the troops, it's inefficient. Best diplomacy actually gives half a shit about the other guy. Japanese internment being relaxed ever so slightly to let some of them fight and die for the country they loved?
Turned out to get good and dedicated soldiers.
What I'm saying is, all fascism that seems unlikely to last three generations. Like Machiavelli said, better to be feared than loved, but above all never be hated.
Why I fear the ocean.
I guess I just see the approach as a logical outgrowth of the situation they find themselves in. Logical in the "I can totally see how this happened, and why they would do it" sense rather than the "this was obviously the best way to approach things" sense.
Danger and turmoil make people more tribalistic. We see this all through history. There's a perceived threat from outside, members of the tribe band together and xenophobia ramps up. We've also got example after example of historical leaders using that xenophobia to further their own political aims, which is something we see in the Proseks.
To me, the formation of the Coalition is one of the more realistic extrapolations to be found in the whole of the Rifts franchise. I could totally see this happening, under the circumstances.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Oh, I totally agree on that count. So, good.
Well, not good, since it's the formation of an ultra-fascist dictatorship, but you get what I mean.
Why I fear the ocean.
Really?
Bearing in mind that I haven't read any of the Chaos Earth materials, what I've seen in Rifts is basically Disney Edition fascism. It's not what we've seen historically at all; there's never been some incredibly intelligent / talented dictator stringing the public along like Siembieda portrays Prosek as doing (far from the 'master chess player' he claims Hitler to have been, the Nazi Fuhrer was insane, terminally syphilitic & likely based most of his decisions around his rapidly deteriorating health). The closest would perhaps be Joseph Stalin or the Kim dynasty, but even in those cases the cults of personality developed around them are established far more through terrorizing the citizenry than doing anything very cleverly.
Rifts just doesn't manage to capture the essence of fascism (Paranoia, on the other hand, absolutely nails it - albeit with a humorous tone) - the total insanity of a police state is more or less glossed-over in favor of mustache twirling SatAM villains and high tech toys that no state in the Coalition's position could possibly hope to develop & manufacture (where do they get the materials? Where do they perform the construction? Who does all of the construction? The maintenance? How does the CS manage to feed the labor & military force necessary to operate such an enormous army & policing force?).
As far as how 'realistic' it is to assume that we'd become tribalistic and that a totalitarian empire would spring-up overnight, I think there would be only one realistic outcome for human beings given the scale of the cataclysm presented in Rifts (nearly every major city & all infrastructure destroyed, millions of super predators suddenly dumped into an environment with nothing to compete against them, etc): extinction.
They expel or imprison any citizens that show psionic potential, they experiment on their own citizenry, they restrict the ability to read to the privileged upper classes, their police force is authorized to use lethal force on the least of offenses, etc. This isn't disney fascism.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Also, Rifts Underseas is the bomb, if only for the Cthulhu-esque Lord of the Deep that sits down in the Challenger Deep regions of the Marianas. It has, I think, eight massive tentacles that reach to either coast and a bit beyond--so if you're anywhere near the Pacific, you're fair game. Add to that they're bigger around than any sea-going vessel and each of those can also sprout thousands of regular-sized tentacles for people-snaring (with those unfortunate souls being magically kept alive all the way back down to the "mouth" of this horror) and you have yourself some grade-A, nightmare material.
Also, I was totally a munckin-gamer, so the power creep never really bothered me. I was all, "COOL! Bigger, better, more damaging weapons! Me wants!" At least until I hit the age of fourteen or fifteen, but by then, Rifts was something that I always tried to come back to with middling results. Still... such good times.
I should clarify - by saying 'Disney fascism', I mean the type of stereotypical plot devices often trotted out (political imprisonment, heavy censorship, propaganda, campaigns of genocide, etc) to make a blunt comparison with a fictional dictatorship and the Nazis, while entirely missing or glossing over the utter dysfunction of the state (to pick on a specific component of the attempt to draw parallels between Prosek & Hitler : Siembieda claims that Prosek is a fan of the long gone German Fuhrer - which I'd find dubious anyway, given how far into the future Rifts is set, but that's a bit besides the point - but in the same breath also says that Prosek is a rational actor and acknowledges that Hitler was delusional. That just doesn't fly with me; if Prosek was portrayed as someone totally insane and superstitious, fine, but no rational person could look back at the Nazi campaign and think, "Gee whiz, what a great idea." Because of the ridiculous academic censorship in Germany, she was churning out a whole generation of children who could do little other than recite the oath swearing allegiance to their leader - the entire country would've disintegrated probably well under a decade, even if they'd succeeded in claiming a large swath of the Soviet Union & settled some arrangement with Britain).
As far as fictional entities of that sort go, it's fine - it grates on me a bit, but it also gives me a greater appreciation for works that dive into the nuance of totalitarianism; the stuff that goes beyond the labor camps and the big lie.
I don't know that Rifts is really the place I would go to get detailed geopolitical extrapolation.
I think a reversion to totalitarianism in the wake of catastrophe is a realistic thing. But like so much else with this setting it kind of becomes its own thing after that point.
@Xenogear: I think we've all been there. I have entire notebooks full of NPCs that I put together back in Jr High, each more awesome than the last.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Building a real revolution and resistance probably isn't as fun as blowing up and stealing cool CS vehicles though, nor is it accounted for in any way by the game system.
Also if you really don't like the CS there are other human kingdoms which have done fine, for their own reasons, for you to play in that are introduced in the world books. None of them are as large as the coalition but they survive through forms of human augmentation or magic and many are more morally gray in their approaches compared to the 'Grr I am evil' CS portrayal.
I mean, that place is hero central! It's the one place that is unambiguously for the good guys, and the only material for it is a couple of sad little pages in the Canada world book.
In Rifts, there are literally dozens of ways to go from zero to superhuman in one quick O.C.C. selection. They range from the relatively tame (Power Armor Pilot) to the extreme (Cyborg) to the doomed (Juicer). Sitting somewhere outside that spectrum, giggling and twitching while doing cartwheels and wearing a pink tutu, is the Crazy.
Crazies are a product of the Mind Over Matter (M.O.M.) system of augmentation. In essence, they have a series of chips put in their brains that make them faster, stronger, tougher and, well, crazy. Like so many of the bizarre forms of human augmentation available in Rifts, the M.O.M. implants started as a golden-age medical procedure that got co-opted for the construction of super soldiers.
Oh, and what soldiers they are. Crazies are the only class in the main book that come stock with Hand to Hand: Martial Arts. They also have, in their mandatory starting skills, Acrobatics, Climb, Prowl and Escape Artist (the latter three being the classic Rifts "goddamn it why didn't I train X" skills), as well as 5 weapon proficiencies. This is on top of their big bonuses to attributes: +1d6 to Physical Endurance, +2d4 to Physical Strength (minimum 19, professional football players average around 17), +1d6 to Physical Prowess (minimum 17), tons of ambient combat bonuses and a comparatively huge pool of S.D.C. (though not Juicer level) round out the package. Crazies are basically programmed to be the perfect combatant.
On top of all this, they have heightened healing abilities and even a few psionic powers. Even more amazingly, they are one of only a few classes in the game with full access to Espionage skills, which combined with their O.C.C bonuses make them better thieves, spies and assassins than anyone else in the game (at least until Rifts: Mercenaries introduced the Thief, Spy and Assassin classes, and Japan gave us a half-dozen distinct Ninja classes, including the Crazy Ninja).
Everything's better with Ninjas.
You'll notice that the only way you can tell that the above is a Crazy Ninja instead of just a regular Ninja is the bulky protrusions from the Crazy Ninja's head. Here's a better shot;
Those metal cylinders sticking out of the Crazy's head are kind of their signature. Those are their calling card. If the guy you're up against has giant rods sticking out of his scalp, you're up against a crazy. If he doesn't, you're not. It's pretty much that simple.
Except they're not actually functional. The M.O.M. implants themselves are tiny, most smaller than a pea, the biggest maxing out at around the size of a dime. Also; entirely internal. There's no need for big towers around implants, none whatsoever. They are entirely unnecessary, and yet they are ubiquitous, the universal symbol of the crazy. Why? Because they are crazy. They want to be seen as the augmented supersoldier they are, and regular hair is just boring. So they get cybernetic attachments to make themselves more fearsome, because blending in is boring.
The downside to Crazy-dom, aside from the whole head implants thing, is the insanity. While it's kind of a running joke that level up in Rifts really has no point (minor skill increases, a few fairly random combat bonuses that accrue, that's about it) outside of a few classes, Crazies get it worse than most. Because although they get the usual bonuses for leveling up, they also actively lose sanity as they gain levels.
Crazies, somewhat ironically, start 100% sane. No phobias, no multiple personality disorder, no ingrained assumptions that their combat abilities are twinky-related, none of that. Stone. Cold. Sane. At intervals based on level, though, they get crazier and crazier. Behold;
At level two, the Crazy gets a few more S.D.C., maybe an extra use of his psionic power(s), and is terrified of one of these things;
At level 3 he gets a few more S.D.C, a new weapon proficiency and a couple of skills, plus one of these;
Level 4 is when the crazy really ramps up. The roll on "The Crazy Hero" table is going to determine the defining insanity for your character. The options are;
Frenzy: Fly into an uncontrolled rage under certain stimuli.
Power by Association: Lose your abilities at night, or if you run out of twinkies.
Multiple Personalities: Spend part of your day as a school girl or Jack the Ripper.
Crazy Man: Think Errol Flynn's Robin Hood on meth. No attention span, prone to acrobatic stunts that will likely end in death.
One Crazy I have personally seen in play had a Phobia of computers, an Obsession with danger, believed his "super powers" were acquired via the ingestion of twinkies and suffered from hysterical blindness. He was all but an NPC.
Later books would add M.O.M. implants that programmed skills directly into the brain, gave the implantee the ability to control fire or fly telekinetically, and some that even turned the user into a mega damage creature. Like virtually everything in Rifts, the Crazy got more and more awesome as the setting expanded.
It remained virtually unplayable after level 4, however.
Next Time:
This guy;
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I, perhaps naively, assumed that Atlantis was their third book or so off the line to establish the power CEILING, and every other book was going to work under it.
That notion didn't last long at all.
Well, you were close in a way: after the Splynn world book (#21), the power level more or less finally dropped off. China was bland, Xiticix was surprisingly boring and Free Quebec was cool without really exceeding anything seen in Splynn.
Re: Crazies - I never saw the appeal of MOM augmentation. Juicers get better bonuses without the drawback of accumulating crippling insanities and, essentially, perform the same task as Crazies do. I'm also reasonably sure that a Bio-Borg is a better option than either of those two, and if you can get the right kit, you can probably get a regular old 'Borg to around the same level of performance.
I don't have much experience with Bio Borgs, but Borgs just can't put out the same level of performance that you get from a Juicer or a Crazy. Juicer being the better of those two, obviously. But those bonus attacks are just straight better than almost anything available to the borg, and you can get them without losing psionics, which is a pretty big hit in most cases. Juicers are just on another level compared to everything else in the game, at least from a combat perspective. +2 attacks, crazy P.P. and autododge is just way too much for other classes to come back from. Especially when Juicers still have access to every suit of power armor in the game, just like anybody else.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
In one of the villages which our Urban assault robot pilot was from a young boy was identified as having magical potential and we had to collect him for processing. Nobody liked this by the by, but if we don't its our butts and if we convince the county to secede then a lot of critical supplies will just dry up even if we don't get made a example of. So we go to pick up the boy and I swear the van ride when he just wants to know where he is going is just pure role-playing gold. Then the shoe drops his dad who is also magically active and we had chased out of the county early in the campaign had assembled a "average PC hero group" to rescue his son. The ensuing firefight happened in the town in which we barely drove them off.
In the battle several buildings were destroyed including the house of the Urban Assault Mechs favorite uncle, and part of the local church which killed another 3 NPCs of note including the local party secretary who our commander was in a relationship with. But the real kicker was after all that loss for the boys right to live the hero group had failed and we still had to take the kid for processing after assessing the villages damage. Totally amazing brutally bleak session and eveyone was in character the whole time even that guy who never is you know the one. So yeah thank you Coalition and thank you Rifts.
He just walks into the Palladium office, eyes wide, and starts knocking shit off of people's desks. "Guys! Guys! I've done it! I'VE FUCKING DONE! IT! Stop everything you're doing!"
He then starts pulling terrible polyhedral abberations from his pockets.
"Fucking collectible dice, men! Roll up the new OCCs that do dR damage with their fists, where 'R' can be any one of our new Rifts (TM) collectible dice! Want more power? Go buy dice boosters until you can find an Ultra Rare D10,000,000,000, or the D8 where every face is a multiplier!"
Kevin Siembieda is then so gripped by the incredible genius of the plan that he takes a d6 worth of Mega Damage and is atomized, while the junior staff see the madness of such business practice for what it is and reach for their sliding rules. They receive a bonus attack for the first melee of combat to represent their cementing convictions; the line needs to be drawn here.
Roll for InitiaOhGodwhatishapppeningtome????
There has been a Rifts movie in pre-production for about the last decade. As licensed by Disney. Being handled by Jerry Bruckheimer.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Well, extra attacks on a 'Borg are easy to get; just add extra limbs. I don't think there's any way to get auto-dodge or auto-parry, so that's a minus.
Bio-Borgs are nutty. Again, extra attacks is just a matter of adding extra limbs, and while you can't grab auto-dodge or auto-parry, you don't need either. You grab an Elom and a Life Node instead and laugh at the notion of 'damage' - this thing that apparently other characters have to worry about. You can grab a Chest Amalgamate if you want to add yet another attack per melee and some trivial combat bonuses, and a Titanizer if you want to suddenly Hulk out on people and bio-regenerate (not that you should ever need to).
Borg extra attacks are limited to the limbs themselves though, aren't they? So if I wanted to use my new tentacles to get their extra attack, I'd need to find some way to attack with them. I doubt they're up to holding a second rail gun.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Why is this not happening already?
Crazies and Juicers just have those attacks, period.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I bought a whole bunch of boosters for that at a discount, and considering how fast the game faded I could've probably gotten a whole bunch more for pennies if I'd been interested, but I wasn't all that impressed with the game itself.
I vaguely recall that it was one of those games where the deck itself also represented your life total (though I may be mistaking this for the Battletech CCG, which I also snagged some of back in the day), which I was a bit annoyed by. Also, only one of my friends picked up any cards, and we never really got together to play, so it just ended up sitting packed away for years. Funny thing, I just pulled them out of storage and tossed some of the rares I'd snagged into the backs of other card holders for when I play a varient of Magic called Elder Dragon Highlander, along with a bunch of other old promo cards and random CCGs I've snagged bits of over the years.
So until I figure out what I'm doing with that, updates will be.... sporadic. Unfortunately.
But if you (or anyone else) wants to jump in to explore a world book or something in the meantime, I'll do my best to get you linked up into the main post quickly.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
If you want to do a big, general "Magic in Rifts" section or something, feel free.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I spent a constructive afternoon once re-creating the font based on several samples in the book.
tata
As published, these are an already ambitious product line - 24 thick supplemental books on 8.5" x 11" pages, adding hundreds of new character classes, races, vehicles, bionic parts, super powers, weapons, ordnance, and even optional rules sets. They were all chock full of illustrations, including a gorgeous full color cover.
As planned? These supplements would've dwarfed any other fictional literary body known to man. Siembieda wanted one book for every country on the planet, one for each of the many space colonies in orbit, a few for the colonies on the moon and at least one special book dealing with every special location on Rifts Earth (Chi-Town, Lazlo, Tolkeen, etc).
As the scope of the original plan became obviously too unwieldy, various books & locales were merged together and some were forgotten and/or dropped. I'm still unsure whether this was something to be disappointed at or not.
The World Books are notorious in the RPG community for one thing above all else - power creep. Everything in the main book has a superior alternative in at least one of the World Books somewhere, and often there are entire rules sets you can find that will confer an advantage to you over using the basic rules. The power creep finally plateau'd when World Book 21 (Splynn Dimensional Market) was released - a magical super mall for demons & other supernatural terrors to buy & sell, well... whatever. Self-aware runic weapons that can kill people with their glint alone, radical mutations that allow characters to transform their bodies into living battle tanks, gatling death rays, etc. After you've hit up Splynn, it's basically, "GG".
On that same token, however, these are also some of the best supplements ever released for any RPG in terms of bang for your buck. There isn't even one single World Book that you could point to and say, "I'm disappointed about the lack of content," - they are just jam-packed with stuff to be used, and even the fluff usually has some kind of in-game mechanical purpose.
IIRC, there was a magic katana or somesuch in the Rifts:Japan worldbook that straight up went through armor and power armor dealing damage directly to the wearer. Yeah.
Cue the party cyber-knight killing 4 SAMAS in one round.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
This said as someone who had a character that used to walk around in advanced prototype power armour with psychic implants and wielding weapons that could knock an object into orbit.
But that was Rifts. A power level limited only by what your GM permitted.
We once had a DM PC Godling. Another was allowed to play a Raksasha Demon with something like 6,000 MDC. I believe that's more than the mobile military base in Triax & the NGR!