Bit of Analysis: Rifts

[Ahriman238]

Also, the Kittani did make one rather cool thing. The Dragon Dreadnought. Spynncryth forbid them from making more than 10, and keeps 4 tucked away against another apocalypse.



Can do 50 mph (80 kph) on the ground, and Mach 5.5 in the air. Sealed up and capable of both underwater and space missions. 50 feet (15 m) tall by 120 (36 m) long, 7 man crew.

3 heads bite and fire plasma bolts. The cyclopean stand-out has an overpowered laser cannon, for when you need to snipe armored targets from 3 miles (5 km) away. 4 forward facing, 90 degree arc laser pulse turrets. 8 particle beam guns for anti-fighter and missile point defense. The tail has a double-barreled high-powered laser in it that can be pointed in any direction. The dreadnought further carries 32 missiles of varying range and payload.


They also have a hover-cycle that transforms into a small mecha.

[Ahriman238]

Bio-wizardry

Don't really feel like going into detail on all the symbiotes and parasites the Splugorth cultivate and grow to implant in people, even if they weren't scattered across more than 4 books. Consider this a 'best of' reel. Remember that all bio-wizardry exists to control and/or weaponize life.

Powerlords can have 1 or 2 symbiotes, High Lords up to 4. Minions of the Splugorth never take parasites, which in this contact means critters with serious drawbacks or debilitating side effects such as eventual death. Other than that, it's safe to assume any being with these critters is either a slave of the Splugorth, an escapee, or a fool that actually purchased an implant creature.

Well, you can always have an Orb of Eylor implanted and bond with it, granting you their great powers of vision. One of the brain-dead zembahk can also be grafted on, giving your choice of 80 PPE or 92 ISP and the powers of any of the zembahk staves, or your choice of 7 powers/low level spells. But there's so much more potential out there.

There's a leech-thing that grants the ability to sense magic and ley lines with no particular drawbacks except needing to bring it one occasionally. An absurr life-node latches onto your neck and gives you great strength and resilience, but then becomes your Achilles heel. An Elom will deliver a heft electric shock to any nearby threats, and surround you with an electric forcefield at the drop of a hat. There's a kidney-thing grown in batches of 8, and all who receive an implant from that batch are linked and able to communicate telepathically over vast distances. Muscle boots help you jump higher and father, but can be asleep when you really need them. With a Storm Breather in your throat you can breath lightning, a mini-blizzard, and the fingers/gust of wind spells, but cannot speak except by magic.

Heaven's Wings lets you fly magically and releases an addictive euphoric, it dies in a few months leaving you to crawl to the Splugorth to get your wings back. Oplos maggots give you a hawk's vision and perfect nightvision, but cause nightmares and hallucinations. Lobee-Optos brain-borers make you a major psychic whatever your prior abilities, but gives you pounding headaches and halves your endurance.

Some creatures are kept purely to control others. Zombitrons look like fuzzy tennis balls, and when they latch onto a host to drain it dry they induce a zombie-like trance during which the poor sucker will obey all simple commands. There's a custom made disease that disables a dragon's teleport, shapeshfting and breath weapon while severely weakening it. Locators are frequently implanted in slaves. Mystic Leeches disable spellcasting, and there are half a dozen more creatures to serve as restraints and controls.



Rune Weapons

The most secret art of the Splugorth, learned from the Great Old Ones when they walked the cosmos and jealously guarded ever since. The dwarves learned this secret art once, but declared it anathema and destroyed all record of it. And I suppose some samurai in Japan can now make Rune Weapons too. The supply of Rune Weapons is usually carefully controlled by the Splugorth.

To make a Rune Weapon you must sacrifice a living being, with magic (just the energy, spellcasting ability not required) and bind his or her soul to a weapon. This much is common to all Rune Weapons, they are completely indestructible, they have an independent mind, the mind of the sacrificial victim, and cannot be wielded by beings of opposite alignment. They form a link with their wielder inside 6 months, and each can sense the location of the other within a 4 mile radius. They are made of black, dark grey, blue-grey or dark red metal inscribed all over with runes, ideally they are one piece of metal. They do impressive damage and can deflect energy blasts if you're fast or lucky.

Greater Rune Weapons, those forged with considerable time and care and the sacrifice of a supernatural being or a high-level mage/psychic, will have all psionic sensitive and physical powers plus three super powers. They can learn and cast 4 spells, once a day each from a particular elemental affinity the weapon has, i.e. a firesword can't cast fingers of wind. Each spell can be cast once a day, PPE doesn't enter into it and never will, the weapons do not have a PPE pool. Finally they can heal 6 times a day, and cast restoration, remove curse, turn or animate & control dead 4x a day each.

Greater Rune Weapons with the Soul Drinker template insta-kill anything that fails it's save in one strike, and does massive damage even if one has the rare strength of character or purpose to hold onto their soul.

Somehow, somewhere long ago, Holy Weapons were created with all the powers of Greater Rune Weapons, save that the blade has no native intelligence, doesn't link to it's owner and so on. The craft is believed to be lost, but who knows when you don't even know where they came from in the first place? Holy Weapons have further boosted healing powers, constant sense evil, provide limited protection from fear and magic, and do double damage against all monsters and fiends. You can also create a protection circle by sticking it in the ground in suitably dramatic fashion. Foremost is the Sword of Life, equal to even the Greatest Rune Weapons.


The Greatest Rune Weapons are made from the souls of Demon Lords, Godlings, and Major Elementals. Many are Soul Drinkers. All possess all or nearly all of the abilities of lesser Rune Weapons. But this is where Rune Weapons really become customization as they'll take 2 or 3 powers from the following list on top of what they have. A few can be done twice.

Spellcasting- 6 spells from levels 6-11 can each be cast 3 times a day
Inflict curses- luck, phobia, compulsion 3/day each
Dimension Travel
Dragon head- fire fire, lightning or force blasts. Double damage to vamps and supernatural intelligences
Wings- weapon can fly up to 1000 feet through air, return to wielder

There's a few examples of Greatest Weapons the Splugorth use. Let's see, all standard Greater Rune Weapon powers plus...

Crystal Fire Rod, a crystal mace from Fire Elemental. 10-14 fire spells, fires laser beams. generates heat and light.
Dragon Rod, rune gun, fires fireball, lightning, energy bolt, magic net, carpet of adhesion, & wind rush.
Impaler, massive damage, soul-drinker. Fingers near hilt can be shot at foes, or let the sword scurry. Prize for finding vampire nest in haunted valley.
Enslaver, spiky bug-thing. Weapon. Gauntlet, maybe? Lots of nasty illusion and control spells/powers, 18 by my count.

And finally we come to the big 3, the ones all the minions want.

Necrostaff- soul-drinker, lots of damage, twice as much for undead. 9 spells, mostly necromancy/general evil related (minor curse, spoil) and fireball because that's always fun. Summon 1-4 shadowbeasts every 3 days. Horned skull atop staff can bite, breathe fire, breathe toxic gas, and create a large shroud of darkness.

Call Staff- magic pigeon, commune with spirits, calling, compulsion, control and enslave entities, turn dead, repel animals, oh yeah, and EVERY summoning spell in the book! Plus respectable damage and a pointy spear-head that can shoot off with great force and always returns.



The Sword of Atlantis- at once celestial and demonic, weapon of the greatest heroes and villains, destroyed and re-created a hundred times since time began. Respectable damage, double to undead and supernatural intelligences, ditto for the fire, lightning AND force blasts it can fire. Soul-drinker. Can be thrown 1000 feet and return, or fly around and fight on it's own. Casts turn dead, globe of daylight, heal wounds, fear, mystic portal, close rift, superior invisibility and superior protection each 3/day.


And with that, I am done with Atlantis. Thoughts, comments, questions, concerns? Will be too busy to update in the next few days. My plan for now is to work my way east til I come back to the Americas.

[Ahriman238]

Temporal Magic

Is magic involving the warping of time and space. Aren't you glad I'm here to tell you these things? In the normal run of things, these spells are only available to particular classes, the Temporal Wizard, Temporal Warrior and Temporal Raider. Some Supernatural beings, Intelligences, Gods, Godlings and Demon Lords can cast Temporal Magic. High level casters can sometimes learn a couple of Temporal spells, but nothing really high level. The Splugorth have limited access to a parasite that lets you use temporal magic, but eventually pulls you into the timestream forever.

Temporal Magic is high level stuff and so starts at 7th level, running up to the usual 15th.

Level VII

D-Phase- walk through walls and solid objects
D-Shift Phantom- become intangible and immune to attack, but immobile.
D-Shift Two Dimensions-turn into 2 dimensional being able to slip through cracks and hide easily.
Suspended Animation- stasis, up to 150 years.
T-Dep- screw with someone's sense of time, usually making them think they're late somewhere else.
Time Warp: Send- send an inanimate object several hours or days into the future.

Level VIII

Attune Object- bind item to owner so it will only work for him.
Retro-Viewing- like Read Object, but for a place.
See Dimensional Anomaly
Sense Dimensional Anomaly
Time Capsule-perfectly preserve food and things for up to 50 years/level. No living things.
Wink Out- step outside time for a minute (15 seconds subjective) to rest, heal, reload. take 2 passengers if you like.

Dimensional Anomaly in the sense/see spells refers not just to rifts, but to Dimensional pockets/envelopes and Time capsules/warps.


Level IX

Remote Viewing
S-Dep- sensory deprivation, also shuts down psychics.
Time Warp: Age- rapidly age a person.
Time Warp: Slow-Mo- create a zone where everyone else is moving in slow-mo.

Level X

Dimensional Pockets- they're bigger on the inside.
Temporary Time Hole- everything within 50 ft becomes an island in time for up to 2 min.
Time Maelstrom- whip up a time storm to disrupt and randomize another time-traveler's movements
Time Warp: Fast Forward- skip forward in time

Level XI

Time Barrier- creates zone where time cannot be warped, and time mages can't enter or escape via their powers.

Level XII

Dimensional Envelope- create a walk-in closet sized space outside time that can only be found or accessed by experts in time/dimension magic. Shifters count.

Level XIII

Id Self- summon your counterpart from a parallel universe. Can be good or evil, more skilled than you or less.

Level XIV

Fourth Dimension Transformation- turn into a 4th Dimension super-being, able to teleport and phase at will, with vast psionic powers and effectively omniscient. Downside is it wears off with debilitating temporary side effects. Frequently some psychological changes, including a few that border on insanity.

Level XV

Time & Space Warp- teleport through time and space. Stretch out the trip some if you need to prepare for your destination.


As you can see, most of Temporal Magic seems to involve hiding things (especially yourself!) in plain sight. Or finding them. Or screwing with other time mages.


Temporal Raiders

Are evil energy beings that usually inhabit vaguely demonic-looking metal bodies about 8 feet tall. They are the originators of Temporal Magic, and it's masters. They're also highly familiar with Shifter-type magic and will know a reasonable chunk of the Wizard (standard) spell list. Minor psionics, nothing to write home about. Impervious to heat, poison, gas and drowning (no need to breathe!) highly resistant to all forms of energy attack and magic (half damage) and PPE vampires that drain supernatural creatures to survive, much like Psi-Stalkers. They can teleport along ley lines and fire energy blasts from their hands/eyes/mouth.

By nature treacherous and cowardly, the only consistent features of Temporal Raider behavior is a.) their truly limitless greed which is the only thing that inspires them to take risks, and b.) their inevitable betrayal once they've gotten what they want from you. They have a long and sorted, mostly antagonistic, relationship with the Splugorth. On the one hand, their powers are fantastically useful for the sort of things the Splugorth do, on the other hand the inevitable betrayal bit gets old. Temporal Raiders are almost constantly sneaking into Atlantis to pinch stuff and a lot of Minion man-hours go into constant patrols, which seem to be the only security that's mostly effective. Being mostly thieves by trade, any particular Temporal Raider will acquire a very interesting collection of enemies in no time. Temporal Raiders are usually solitary, seeing as they have no qualms about robbing each other blind.

Sometimes Temporal Raiders take outsiders as disciples in Temporal Magic, which is where the Temporal Wizard/Warrior classes come into the game. Said apprentices must swear a binding oath to serve the Raider for 6 years. They'll learn the magic in the last year or two and spend the first few years "proving themselves" by following their master around the Megaverse getting into trouble and serving as whatever the Raider needs for his jobs, lookout, muscle, distraction and more. After proving an accomplished thief, devious and unscrupulous, the apprentice is taught Temporal Magic and usually agrees to a 4 year contract as the Raider's partner, and sometimes a second after that as they advance rapidly while working alongside their master. After the 2nd contract (14 years all told) at the latest, the two split and become rivals. Well, they usually try to avoid fighting each other, and the once-student will always respect his master's power and skill too much to cross him lightly, plus they each know too many secrets of the others to relish conflict.



Temporal Wizards

Are primary casters who apprentice themselves to a Temporal Raider. By the end of their schooling, they are skilled thieves. Usually incredibly greedy, self-centered pricks. Have a strong bent for spells of stealth, illusion and time/dimension warping (teleport is really wonderful for quitting a busted job.) Can teleport along ley lines and sense Rifts like a Ley Line Walker, can sense the forming of dimension/time pockets within half a mile.


Temporal Warrior

A minor caster more focused on combat skills who also chose to become a Temporal Raider's student. Can use Temporal Magic and some basic spells (no more than 4th level) besides, more focused on military/assassination skills. A favorite is to carry hidden arsenals via dimensional pockets, or pull a target into a temporary time hole. Can sense Rifts, none of the other Wizard powers.

[Ahriman238]

Children of the Earth and Stars

In England and Tibet there are psychic nomads with an amazing power of transformation found nowhere else in the Megaverse. All attempts to duplicate their powers, through experiments, training or adopting their philosophy have failed, though they have occasionally raised outside children even D-Bees to be one of them, in all cases the child was already a major psychic and adopted in infancy.

Children of the Earth and Stars believe strongly in the sanctity of life and in showing compassion to all people. But in their worldview, no one who behaves dishonorably or exploits others counts as a person. They usually travel in small groups, but can be induced to join good-natured adventuring parties.

Children of the Earth have 8 powers, all physical, and can turn into a 12 foot (3.5) tall man of stone. In this form they are very strong and tough, impervious to many common attacks and completely immune to the magic of fairies. They can sense the location of water on or under the ground in this form, and attract or repel animals, though they must sincerely wish the animal no harm to bring it in. They have a special ability, Strength of the Earth that lets them keep on growing, increasing their mass by 20% every 5 seconds, but they temporarily get a fair bit dumber. Eventually this can reach a critical mass where they go berserk stone giant and try to flatten everything in sight for 15 minutes before passing out.

Earth Children believe they draw their power directly from the spirit of the Earth and learn from a young age to revere the Earth as a source of strength, purity and life.

Children of the Stars have 8 powers, sensitive and healing, and when they activate their transformation they glow with enough light to make looking directly at them hard. In this form, Star Children can see all forms and spectra of light and radiation, and are totally immune to any damage from lasers, rads, and blinding lights. Heat and fire do half damage. They do become tougher and stronger, though not nearly as much as Earth Children. They can always tell their precise location and the time by looking at the sun and stars. They can generate heat and light, offensively, but they also have mild healing powers that can double the rate of a friend's recovery. When transformed they float through the air, no higher than 150 feet (for elders) and no quicker than a brisk jog. Like the Earth Children, they have a risky power. They can turn into a "shooting star" and fly anywhere at the speed of light. However, their sense of time and distance is incredibly warped by the experience, and when starting out they have only a 3% chance of making their destination in the first jump, and can easily be lost for days. Even the older, more experienced ones only raise the odds of a successful jump to almost 50/50.

Children of the Stars are raised to believe their powers, transformation and psionics, come from the sun, moon and stars.

Neither Children can keep their supernatural forms indefinitely. There are an estimated 2,000 Children of the Earth and Stars in England, and an unknown number in Tibet. They are available as player characters.

[Ahriman238]

I can't wait to read your summary of the Mechanoids...

Ask and ye shall receive, hmm... but I'll really need to properly explain Archie and Hagan first. A project for the near future when I have just a bit more free time.

For now, consider this a brief (and entirely canon!) teaser.

A couple years before the Coalition War, a decade before the Ultimate Edition's in-universe date, every psychic in the world started having recurring nightmares about the end of the world, for real this time. They saw the four great, nigh-unstoppable threats. First, the swarm of the Great Devourer come to destroy them all. I swear that's what it actually says, and it has nothing to do with the Tyranids. Second, 4 mighty devils atop powerful steeds that, if left to their devices will open a portal and unleash the true Apocalypse on the world. Third, the liar and schemer, an extradimensional evil that wraps itself in a benign appearance and builds a noble kingdom to deliver the world unto him. Fourth, the bringers of chaos, who arrive hidden by chaos and ignored in favor of greater-seeming threats until it is much too late.

These four menaces inspire even bitter enemies to join hands. Plato, a dragon of some political importance in Lazlo, has exchanged correspondence with Emperor Karl Prosek on the matter, and CS squads encountering a suspected member of the 4 threats will decide they have bigger problems than killing mages and D-Bees. The Splugorth of Atlantis know enough about all of these forces to know they're not interested in direct conflict with them. For the most part.

[Ahriman238]

A quick word on standard versus mega damage. I've tried to keep game mechanics relatively out of this, except as a sort of crude guide as to capability. Partly this is because I don't want to turn this completely into my reading and posting material from the books, partly because I want this thread to serve as a reference for versus debates involving RIFTS, and I'd rather outline capabilities like mobility then have a discussion about how frequently broken the hitpoints system in RIFTS is, lest it detract from that.

I make no apologies, but looking back over the thread I feel that I've detracted clarity by not addressing this sooner. So here goes. In RIFTS as originally conceived, there is a distinction between the structural damage capacity (SDC) of squishy human beings and those of giant mecha and monsters (MDC) so where your basic hitpoints are in SDC, many monsters have an MDC instead, 1 point of MDC by the book equals 100 SDC. I know a number of gamers adjust this ration downwards to 50, even 20 to 1. To me, mega damage is that which will, no fooling, kill a human being if it hits him center of mass. Not just kill, but reduce him to a red smear or a small heap of smoking cinders. That's just always what the difference has been to me. To wit, a 7.62 NATO round in the game does 1D6 SD, while an HE mini-missile (RPG) does 1D6 MD. I attribute the difference in rolls to where the shot lands, in the missiles case if there's any cover or other factors to mitigate the explosion.

The boys at Palladium Games are sort of infamous for not doing their research in favor of "This is a cool idea! Let's run with it!" and I can easily point to a dozen places where the system breaks down, particularly as we have standards for real things. A favorite is the grenade that allegedly has as much power as a 9 gun salute from a battleship, all contained in a 6-foot blast radius. That must be some freaking exotic explosive. Of course, if you're not Mega Damage, you're not trying (or a mage, most armor wreaking havoc with magic.) MDC armor and MD weapons are insanely easy to come by, unless a campaign is planned specifically to exclude them.

In universe, there are explanations. One of the great innovations of Golden Age (pre-Cataclysm) materials science was the development of MDC materials, advanced metallurgy many times tougher than any previously known alloy, and reasonably lightweight. Similarly, weapons evolve to penetrate that armor and 'misting' (the practice of turning a body into a red smear) is the only level of firepower that's acceptable against many regenerating creatures. That special transformation I mentioned of the Psi-Stalker is a momentary jump to a Mega Damage creature.

Finally as references for the higher and lower ends of the spectrum. A Coalition Dead Boy has 80 MDC armor and a laser rifle that does 3D6 (3-18) MD, with a 3-round burst. A Glitter Boy has 770 MDC, and his boom gun does 3D6x10 (30-180) MD.



Okay, moving on. I mentioned much of this in the general world overview, but a quick refresher can't hurt. Europe has changed quite a bit. The north half of France is now a desert, and home to a rather temperamental dragon. Much of the remainder is now home to a Gargoyle empire that besieges the NGR.

Germany has a government joined at the hip to weapons manufacturer Triax Industries, it is high-tech, probably the most high tech of human groups and far more accepting than the Coalition. They don't persecute mages or psychics, but they don't like D-Bees. That said, if D-Bees aren't in their territory or looking like they're building for an offensive, the NGR will leave them alone. Another departure from how the CS operates. Triax is one of the world's premier makers of power armor and mecha, so expect to see lots of love in that area.

Italy is mostly underwater. I seem to recall a throwaway line about Dwarves settling the Alps, but haven't been able to find it since I've started this.

No word on Scandinavia AFAIK.

East Europe belongs to the Brodkil, a thoroughly unpleasant group of minor demons. They're big and muscular, and can turn invisible. After a few harsh debates with the NGR on the merits of magic versus technology, which left many Brodkil dead, they've taken up this technology thing. A few exceptions are (were) Wroclaw and the Kingdom of Tarnow. The kings of Tarnow have a magic crystal (creatively called the Tarnow Crystal) which can turn base metals into gold, or MDC materials. This lets Tarnow mass produce power armor and mecha in half the time at a quarter the cost of other powers. True, they lack much of the sophistication of Triax, but quantity has a quality of it's own. Sadly, the crystal is a demon's prison and is right up there with the One Ring in terms of corrupting and eventually destroying it's wielder. The latest king has proven extraordinarily resistant to the crystal's corruption, but has recently taken to carrying it everywhere and just staring at it for hours. This is probably a bad sign. Still, lots of cool submersible armor designs.

Mindwerks, originators of the MOM conversion that creates Crazies is still there and still tinkering trying to build a better Crazy. They also do horrific experiments into psionics and may be planning on global domination.

England is largely overrun by orcs, goblins, dabugghs and *shudder* druids. These aren't the badass 'wrath of nature' DnD druids, these are smug pretentious jerks with a couple of magic tricks, mostly involving making magic items. There are three major kingdoms, Camelot, the Eternal City, and the one no one cares about. Camelot is restored with knights, some of whom have power armor and most have plasma lances under a noble psionic King Arthur and an evil Merlin, we covered this earlier. The Eternal City is built around the magic springs at Bath. Minions of Splugorth have set up a city at Splynn's London, to serve as a trading post with European monsters, and a base for their own slaving raids. Scotland is overrun with Formosans, and 3 returned celtic gods.

Ireland is now the world headquarters for Faeries, deal with it. Humans live free of fear only in Dublin. Watch out for the leprechauns, they look cute but they're conniving ruthless bastards who'll do anything for gold, and a lot tougher than they look. Actually, that seems to describe everyone living on RIFTS Earth.

One plus side to living in Europe, it has Millenium Trees.

Coming up, England: land of mother!^@%ing druids and Triax: I didn't know there were Tau in this game.

[hermitbob]

Don't forget the Naruni.


And don't forget to make your payments to the Naruni.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Oh god, Naruni. The 'Armsdealers who foreclose on Warlords', I loved those guys. Like how for some reason they kept trying to infiltrate Northern Gun, but never really said why.

[Ahriman238]

Sorry for the delay, become busy in real life and seem close to cracking my picture issues with Terralthra's generous help. In a similar vein, I likely won't be able to post in the next few days. To whet your appetite, my brief look at Millenium items, specifically wands and staves.

In RIFTS, sticks from the Millenium Trees serve as magic wands and staves. They're tough enough that you don't really have to worry about breaking them by accident. They have a constantly regenerating pool of PPE you can tap (10-40 for a wand, 20-80 for a staff) a single passive power that is either always active or you can use as long as you're touching it, and spells. A wand "knows" a certain number of spells and can perform a certain number a day, regardless of whether you've used up its PPE or not. So if I had a wand that could cast 10 spells a day, and it knows 5, I could cast each twice, one of them 10 times, or any combination thereof. This doesn't have to be set up in advance, you decide what spell to use when you use it.

Most wands have a caster level of 7 for determining level dependent effects. Staves are level 10.

Right, so:

Wand of the Animal
Passive skill is climb. 5 spells/day. Eyes of the wolf, superior swim as fish, superhuman strength and metamorphosis: animal.

Wand of Deception
Passive skill is at-will chameleon. 5 spells/day. Death trance, fool's gold, multiple images, mask of deceit, turn invisible.

Wand of Divination
None of the usual qualities. Can answer any (serious) question with a yes, no, probably, unknown and 'nevermind that you idiots, the realm is in danger!'

Wand of Dowsing
Passive ability is sensing direction and time with perfect accuracy. No spells, but can point you in the direction of coal, water, home, loved ones and the nearest Millenium Tree.

Wand of Knowledge
Passive ability is tongues. 5 spells/day. Eyes of Thoth, words of truth, memory bank, commune with spirits.

Wand of Life
Passive is superior healing, resistance to poison and disease. Has 2-8 buds, that is the number of spells and healing per day. Negate poison, cure minor disorder, cure illness, purify food and water, water into wine. Erin Tarn has a 5-budded example of this wand.

Wand of Power
Passive ability is limited invulnerability. 5 spells/day. Energy disruption, call lightning, armor of Ithan, superhuman strength, negate magic.

Wand of Seeing
Passive is see invisible. 5 spells/day. Globe of daylight, see aura, detect concealment, eyes of Thoth, eyes of the wolf.

Staff of Earth
Passive is the ability to sense magic and ley lines, like a Walker. 10 spells/day. Chameleon, ignite fire, purify food/water, superhuman strength, repel animals, stone to flesh, turn dead, exorcism, simple protection circle.

Staff of the Hunter
Passive is tracking, land navigation and wilderness survival. 8 spells/day. Ignite fire, climb, swim as fish, escape, befuddle, magic net.

Staff of Life
Passive is superior healing, resistance to poison and disease. Staff has 8-14 buds, the number being how many spells and uses of healing a day. Globe of daylight, negate poison, breathe without air, cure minor disorder, cure illness, purify food/water, water to wine. Special, can cast restoration, but must permanently sacrifice 4 buds. When the buds are all gone, the staff vanishes.

Staff of Prosperity
Passive is identify plants, including telling which are edible or have medicinal qualities. No spells. Special, plant staff in the ground to recreate a Millenium Tree's power to enrich soil. 20,000 sq. ft now yield twice as much food, the land is protected from disease and pests. This zone will grow by 2,000 sq ft a year for 20 years before becoming stable. Removing the staff from the ground removes the benefit.

Staff of Purity
Passive is a great boost to swimming, it is literally impossible to drown while holding the staff, purify water and if the staff is used as a fishing pole there is a 90% chance of getting a bite. If the staff is dropped in a well or buried in a riverbed the water becomes perpetually cool and clear. It cannot become stagnant, fouled, poisoned or drugged, nor will it ever carry disease. Just as water that flows near the roots of a Millenium Tree. Momus the (false) Atlantean wields one of these as a weapon, to enhance his image as an Atlantean.

Staff of the Serpent
Passive is see invisible and immunity to posion, gas, snake venom, and all dragon's breath weapons. Does double damage to all snakes, serpents and dragons. No spells. Special, when cast to the ground and commanded, staff can turn into a powerful serpent that fights alongside it's master.

Staff of the Wind
Passive is float on air and sense wind direction. 10 spells/day. Levitation, fuel flame, fly as eagle, fingers of wind, call lightning, wind rush, summon fog, calm storm.



It's also possible to make a javelin that can be thrown 700 ft, always returns to its owner, and does special damage to vampires. Our party Undead Slayer had one, justifying it as "it makes sense to a vampire hunter."

Like I mentioned before when covering Millenium Trees, their leaves can be used to make blankets that accelerate healing, or worn poncho-style as MDC armor as tough as a Dead Boys that doesn't interfere with spellcasting.

[Ahriman238]

Ah! Thanks to Terralthra's generosity in hosting, we can do this. Imagine for a moment you become lost in the Black Forest. You hear about a nearby Millenium Tree and hasten in the indicated direction expecting this...



A place of rest and respite, with healing and mystic protection while you listen to some bearded guy blather on a bit before giving you a quest. You hurry along, you think the Gargoyles are getting closer. You come up over a hill and...



Boom! Tree of Darkness, bitches!

Seriously, that thing belongs on a metal album somewhere.

[Ahriman238]

Continuing the theme of pictures I'd have like to put up a lot sooner, here's a map of the vampire kingdoms.



Here's a Vampire intelligence's demonic familiar, the giant bat that recruits the first master then just serves as a conduit allowing the Intelligence to move around and kill things without leaving the safety of its lair.



And here's a Mexican Empire secondary vamp, just to show how they take pains not to seem monstrous to the masses there.

[Ahriman238]

Birth of a Republic

Like everywhere else in the world, Germany was hit hard by the Cataclysm. But where 90% of the human population on Earth expired, only 55% of the Germans died, having few major nexus points in their lands. For similar reasons, it was decades before they had to deal with vast swarms of monsters. Didn't stop the collapse of society into feudal kingdoms and warlords for a time.

When the world went to hell, Triax was the 3rd largest arms dealer. Large numbers of employees took their families and shut themselves in Triax vaults for years, saving themselves and ~85% of their technical knowledge. When they emerged and sort of organized, they attracted all the remaining intellectuals, until the company had become something very much like a government. More and more people came looking for security and fair laws, until the Triax community effectively was the government of Germany, and the people organized a ruling body for the NGR, several years before the Coalition was founded.

For a while, life was relatively sweet in the NGR. Every once in a while there'd be a raid on a village somewhere, but they'd never had a serious attack until 3 PA, with a Gargoyle invasion that was fairly easily crushed. But it inspired the Bloody Campaign, where large numbers of NGR soldiers and robots set out to drive the Gargoyles into the Alps in a show of force that would send the monsters cowering into their holes for decades to come. And it worked. For 30 years, the only disturbance of the peace was a major vampire incursion from Romania.

In 38 PA, the Gargoyles, now organized into an empire with powerful allies and wielding advanced technology attacked once more to avenge their fallen. The attack was a total surprise to the NGR, who had dismissed reports of the Gargoyles organizing in vast numbers, and pretty much destroyed all other surviving human civilization in central Europe, including most of Poland (except Wroclaw, Poznan and Tarnow) Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, and Austria. Millions of refugees flooded into the NGR which, goaded by human supremacists within and trapped by the crisis without, elected to revoke the citizenship of all D-Bees and expel them to allow space and supplies for all humans. Today, there are maybe 200,000 D-Bees living and working in the NGR under something like greencards. They have no rights, privileges or immunities.

Now, more than 60 years later the war continues in a sort of fluid stalemate. Territory is taken and lost and taken again like something from the Great War. The NGR made first contact with the CS in 60 PA, and has been trying to build stronger diplomatic ties ever since. They haven't forgotten the Nazis, but they desperately need allies, while the Coalition distrusts the NGR's motives and is hesitant to commit itself to a war overseas.

The NGR has seriously stepped up their human supremacy propaganda, preparing itself for a more massive repeat of the Bloody Campaign. Every immigrant to the NGR must pledge to 8 years military service. Service in the military or a Triax plant is compulsory for all able-bodied young men and women for 5 years. Still, it's not all bad. 90% of the NGR has the equivalent to a high school education. 65% of people have one or more cybernetic implants, the only real restriction being you can't have a weapon implant without a concealed carry permit. 15% of the NGR army is made up of full-conversion borgs.

Juicer conversion is not illegal in the NGR, though not exactly encouraged. The government spends a lot of advertising to ensure everyone knows what they're getting into. The MOM process, however, is strictly verboten, carrying a 12 year sentence for a first time offense. The NGR sees no benefit to creating insane supermen, and it's kind of hard to argue with them on that point. Crazies are only allowed in with special permits. Triax does have an exception, they are pursuing MOM-related telepresence robots and even they are uncomfortable.

The NGR has zero problem with psychics and mages. Especially if they're willing to make themselves useful.

The New German Republic is a warm and fuzzy place compared to the Coalition, and 98% of the world. Still, it has some downsides.

[Ahriman238]

Triax labeling system: personal armor, including power armor is T series. Mecha are X. Autonomous robots are DV, cyborgs are VX. Military vehicles: other are XM. Most weapons are TX. Any questions?


T-10 (and 11) Cyclops

The standard NGR grunt wears T-10 armor. It's effectively the same as the new Coalition Dead Boy armor in every way, except it trades in peripheral vision for a really cool HUD with all the neat things you expect from videogames, crosshairs, ammo counts, light-amp and zoom (5x.) Plus they can share the view with their squad mates or commanding officers via live stream. NGR grunts have more options than their CS counterparts for weaponry, most common is a variable frequency laser pulse rifle, a 'pump gun' that fires exploding bullets, an ion rifle, (really) light railgun, or a sniper rifle. The armor can hook up to the T-100 jetpack, which can go 200 mph (320 kph) for 3 hours before needing to land and cool off.



Variants include the T-11 enhanced armor, which has 25% more armor and a powered exoskeleton underneath, but isn't considered "true" power armor. The T-12 and T-13 are lighter variants for field medics and mechanics, respectively, they have more room for carrying tools, the T-12 has helmet spotlights while the T-13 has a laser torch (for welding) in a glove. They all have the same basic look though.



T-21 Gelaendehuepfender (Terrain Hopper)

Light power armor with a jetpack. More heavily armored than the T-11, less so than a SAMAS. Strength enhancement lets users lift half a ton. Running speed of 40 mph (64 kph) able to jump 15 feet high/across with a running start. No integral weapons (in this version) the main reason to get excited is the jetpack. Yes, actual flight is less impressive than a SAMAS, 100 mph (160 k) and a flight ceiling of 200 feet. The secret is not to fly. Instead, the user runs a dozen yards/meters or so, then makes a rocket-assisted 300 foot leap, hit the ground running and repeat. In this way, the user can maintain a pace of roughly 170 mph (272 kph) all day long if need be. One of Triax's best sellers to the America market.



A more militarized variant, the T-C20 Combat Hopper has slightly (~15%) heavier armor, lasers in the gauntlets and a backpack mini-missile launcher with 6 missiles. Users also typically carry a heavy weapon. This version is not presently sold outside the NGR military.



T-31 "Can-Opener" Super Trooper

The NGR's finest anti-tank/mech forces are the Super Trooper squads. The suits possess a powerful missile that sticks a large fusion block, an emplaced charge of considerable power, to cripple the target. Since that isn't always an option, the Troopers use mobility to find blind spots where possible, and charge the enemy, again using speed and agility to prevent being hit. When they get within 100 feet (33 m) they either make a powerful rocket-assisted leap or deploy a grappling hook and latch onto the enemy tank/mech using Triax's patented Spider-Man bootsoles. They then disassemble the enemy armor with shaped charges, vibro-blades and laser torches. If the squad encounters a lone tank they will be very... thorough in this. If the enemy is part of a unit they will disable the weapons, sensors and/or drive and move on.



Okay, 8 feet tell, weighs 450 lbs. Enhanced strength can lift 1500 lbs. Armor equal to a SAMAS. Runs at 40 mph (64 k) and can jump 12 ft high/long unaided, 60 ft high and 100 long with rocket assist. Can't do the rocket march of a terrain hopper.

For weaponry we have the 4 fusion-block missiles in the 2 shoulder launchers, an additional 14 mini-missiles in the legs, vibro-sword in the left gauntlet, grappling hook in the right, and laser torches in each palm. The boots can cling to anything, a technology so classified it has it's own self destruct system independent of the armor's own self-destruct. The three chest circles are detachable, and contain 15 lbs (7 kg) of fusion block shpaed charge that be pulled off and slapped anywhere in the heat of battle. The circles are as heavily armored as the rest of the suit.

This suit is not for sale outside the NGR military, having proprietary tech. Also, fusion blocks are a bit more temperamental than most explosives in common use, still far safer than say, a WWII artillery battery, but accidents do happen sometimes.



T-550 Triax Glitter Boy

Okay, before the whole Quebec independence thing went down, there was a rough patch where the Coalition ordered Quebec to disband it's Glitter Boy Legion, something the Quebecois saw as a weakening of their defenses, maybe a prelude to invasion. They nearly broke into war then and there, until a compromise was reached where Quebec kept the Glitter Boys but promised not to produce any more. A few years later, Quebec sold GB schematics to Triax in exchange for a few cybernetics tricks, and 200 GBs built by Triax. They kept the letter of their agreement with Chi-Town, but some people are never happy. So this is Triax's first Glitter Boy.



Well the helmet looks like their Cyclops armor. But the only substantial differences with the traditional model is that the bright boys at Triax didn't like having the whole thing be a platform for a single, slow-firing weapon. They wanted GBs to have some options for defending themselves when the Boom Gun, powerful as it is, couldn't help. So they added a small laser turret to the left shoulder, a retractable vibro-sword to the right wrist, and a dozen mini-missiles to the knees. Why always the legs? Anyway, other than that, it's your standard Glitter Boy.



Tarantula Glitter Boy

Another thing that bothered Triax designers about the Glitter Boy was how it needed to root itself to the ground in order to fire, effectively forcing it to choose between moving and shooting, with it taking nearly 5 seconds to properly plant and extricate itself. They worked and they worked and they finally produced a GB-variant with many air-catching fins and a more robust rocket anti-recoil system. Now a trained operator could fire without planting pitons and do a sort of semi-controlled stumble back a few paces when firing.



Hey, at least it doesn't look like Gork.

But there was another concept being tested with the Tarantula. Many had their Boom Guns swapped for an experimental weapon called the Shaker Cannon. The Shaker is a combined laser/plasma cannon with a railgun maybe a third as powerful as the Boom Gun, with the operator getting to choose whether to fire the laser, plasma or railgun. All other platforms they tried it on were weakened and destroyed by the tremendous vibrations and heat of the weapon, but a GB is already designed to handle ungodly recoil, and heat they can deal with. So many Tarantulas use the Shaker, the only viable platform (so far) for the gun.

Tarantulas are also armed with an ion blaster and 6 mini-missiles in the right gauntlet. Some have a helmet variant with 2 laser pistols added.



X-10 Raubtier (Predator)

The Triax version of a SAMAS. The flight profile is slightly less impressive, 290 mph (464 k) with a 150 mph (250 k) cruising speed and a 500 ft flight ceiling, but that's just because they armored the living hell out of it. The Predator is half again as armored as the old and Smiling Jack SAMAS. Further, it can run it's jets for 24 hours straight, and at the end will require only a 15 minute cooling. The suits strength will allow the operator to lift a single ton. Like the SAMAS, 8 feet tall.



The right arm has a pulse laser cannon, the default setting is 4 shot bursts. This weapon is easily comparable to the SAMAS railgun. It has 2 mini-missiles in shoulder launchers and can carry and use additional weapons if they can be fired single-handedly.

Overseas sales have been respectable. The early versions had a serious overheating problem with the jets that has been corrected in the military models, but not in the sale ones.



X-500 Furagierer (Forager)

The workhorse of the NGR mechs for 50 years, the Forager is now being phased out in favor of the Jaeger. Foreign and independent sales are still strong though. They've even been selling construction and mining variants. The main area where the Forager shows it's age is armor, it actually enjoys less protection than a Predator, and this from a mech with a two-man crew! It is 29.5 feet (9 m) tall by 15 wide and weighs 28 tons. Like the Predator, it can lift a full ton. Running speed is 60 mph, running does not tire the operators at all, they don't stick their limbs into the mechanical ones and move them. It can jump 10 feet (3 m) high/across from a standing jump, 20 ft high and 30 across with a running start. The Forager was meant for long patrols into heavily forested and mountainous terrain and has a good reputation as the mech that can climb a mountain, operate underwater, and doesn't get stuck in the mud.



Main armament is the 16 medium range (40 mi or 64 km) missiles in 2 launchers. They are tied to the suit's radar and can carry a variety of payloads, armor-piercing HE and plasma are most common, but frag rockets and cluster bombs aren't unheard of and there are even more exotic payloads. It also has a double-barreled ion gun ball turret in it's belly. The whole torso can rotate 360 degrees to bring the guns to bear. The suit has a pilot and a gunner. The head contains powerful searchlights.



X-535 Jaeger (Hunter)

The Forager's replacement in service 12 years, the Jaeger has a single pilot and is most assuredly not for sale. Meant as a flexible unit for long patrols and deployment, like the Forager before it, the smaller Jaeger is 12x5x5 feet and weighs 3 tons. It is suitable for all terrains, can scale sheer cliff faces and even climb and rope or chain that can support it's weight.



Jaegers can run at 140 mph (224 kph) and leap 30 feet high/long from a standing jump, and 40 feet high, 60 long with a running start. I assume this exceptional performance is due to the curious leg design. The Jaeger can lift a ton.

The Jaeger's integral armament consists of 6 mini-missiles, 3 to a gauntlet, and 2 machine guns in the helmet. The machine guns are for pests like Gargoylites you wouldn't want to waste heavy ammo on, and carry 2,000 rounds. For riot control purposes they can be loaded with rubber bullets. Jaegers get issued a TX-250 railgun, an unusual weapon in that it allows the user to select between single shot, 15 and 30 round bursts. The gun can use a 300 round clip or a 3,000 round drum belt-feed. Some veterans like to carry two, special permission is needed for this.



The other really cool thing about a Jaeger is it can be fitted with a variety of heavy weapons depending on the mission. Each of these cut it's land speed by half. Still it can mount on those shoulder a really powerful particle beam (for giant mechs and monsters) an ion cannon and 12 medium-range missiles (flexibility) an AA flak gun (for when the sky turns dark with Gargoyles) and a rotary missile launcher with 96 missiles, any short range (20 mi) and it's own independent radar.



X-545 UberJaeger (Super Hunter)

Jaeger's big brother, 6 years in the service. 60% more armored than the Jaeger, the UberJaeger is 18x9x6 feet and wieghs 8 tons. The UberJaeger can run at 70 mph (113 k) and jump 20 feet high/across standing, 30 high or 40 long with a running start. It can operate underwater and in all terrains, but unlike the Jaeger cannot scale sheer cliffs. It can still hustle up a cable though.

UberJaegers are the same basic shape as the Jaeger and those two odd chest protuberances on the Uber are ion cannon. It still has the head guns, and is issued the same railgun. It has 38 mini-missiles in the shoulders, gauntlets and knees. It also has a 6-foot vibro-sword in each arm and a flamethrower in each leg, with a 360 degree rotating nozzle on the inside calf. The UberJaeger is not compatible with any of the heavy weapon add-ons of the original, and to my knowledge (Triax 1) no similar weapons are being made for it.

[Ahriman238]

le sigh. I had a picture of the Forager I decided not to include because it would be too large and make the text clumsy. Which the regular Forager picture did. Oh well, no reason not to include it now.

[Ahriman238]

X-1000 Ulti-Max

There is some debate in-universe on where the line gets drawn between power armor and mecha. Some say it's a question of size and weight. Some say it's crew, that a one man mech is always power armor. Some say the distinction is whether the pilot moves his limbs to move the machine or works a lever in his cockpit. Some say the ability to lift one ton with robot strength makes a mech. The Ulti-max fills on of those grey areas, small for a mech with a single pilot, yet there is no interaction between the natural limbs of the pilot and the mechanical ones of the rig.

Some say the Ulti-max is a poor man's Glitter Boy, I don't really see the basis for comparison, but judge for yourself.

The Ulti-max is 16x9x7 ft, weighs 2.5 tons and can lift one ton. It can run at up to 44 mph (70 kph) and cannot jump or fly, it has an impressive rocket array, but that's purely to help it balance even during earthquakes, shelling, firing of main weapon, and mechs or monsters trying to knock it over.



Armament-wise, the Ulti-max carries a large railgun designed specifically for it. It fires 40 round bursts, has an (accurate) range of a bit over a mile, and one burst does 1/3 the damage of a boom gun. Which is pretty impressive, and it doesn't have to root itself to the ground. The gun also has a laser targeter and a laser gun, twice the power of a basic rifle, built it. As a secondary weapon, the Ulti-max boasts 30 mini-missiles in concealed letterbox launchers.

It also has a forcefield, the world's first mech to do so. The field adds enough resilience to almost match a GB. It can regenerate minor damage in 8 hours, and restore from nothing in 24.

The Coalition has purchased 36 Ulti-max set-ups for testing and trials, see if they may be interested in more Triax products.



X-2000 Verwuestungschoepfer (havoc-maker) Dyna-Max

Okay this one is 18 feet tall (discounting missile launchers) by 12 feet wide by 6 feet long. It has a 2-man crew, pilot and gunner and can lift a 2.5 tons if need be. Like the Forager and Jaeger, the suit can handle virtually any terrain including underwater. It still can't scale sheer cliff faces, that seems to be the province of the Jaeger alone. It can run at 70 mph (113 kph) and jump 20 feet high/long standing, 30 high or 40 long with a running start.



The mech has 12 missiles, 8 in the tower launchers that fold down over the back. These missiles are armed with special warheads, concussive bombs called "slammers," designed to make all forms of Gargoyle, Giant and Mecha fall down on their rears. The mech also has a laser cannon and 5 foot vibro-sword in each arm, 2 mini-arms with railguns that fire 15 round bursts and carry 300 rounds apiece, 28 mini-missiles (always at the knee) and a flamethrower turret on each inner calf.



X-2500 Schwartzritter (Black Knight)

The Black Knight is probably the second or third largest and most powerful mech operated by the NGR, so it's on the frontlines a lot. The Knight is 35x23x9 feet and weighs in at 30 tons. Has 2 crew, and can carry up to 4 passengers if they don't mind being cramped. It can lift and carry 2.5 tons. It has the same running and jumping numbers as the Dyna-Max above.

The Knight has a very large and powerful ion cannon in the left shoulder, exactly 1/3 of a boom gun in damage. The off-hand has a laser cannon and vibro-sword just like the Dyna-Max. The primary weapon though, is an electro-mace larger than a man with completely replaces the forearm whichever side it winds up on. The mace can be charged with a great deal of electricity to jolt opponents, or it can fire powerful bolts of lightning. Very good against monsters vulnerable to such things. The mace has it's own poer supply, in fact much of the arm attachment is insulation to keep the mace from messing with the mech's systems. The mech is further armed with 56 AA mini-missiles in the knee (where else?) and 32 grenades in launchers about the ankles.



EIC

Triax and the NGR have built a number of robots and full-conversion Cyborgs to infiltrate the Gargoyle Empire, to learn information, sabotage their supplies, even assassinate key personnel. These are known as EICs, and have led to round after round of Gargoyles developing elaborate security that Triax finds a way around. First it was cutting their palms to show they bled, then the EICs started coming out with blood stored in the palm just for that. One EIC 'borg was even admitted into the presence of the Gargoyle Empire, though he failed to assassinate the monster and died in the attempt.

[Ahriman238]

One reason for all the slugthrowers, particularly the Jaeger and UberJaeger is a funny discovery Triax made about the Gargoyles, Brodkil and many other supernatural beings. In addition to the depleted uranium Triax continues to use, they also carry and fire radioactive uranium. It seems that the regeneration of many beings is inhibited by having bits of radioactive metal lodged in their flesh, perhaps because it is dealing with constant radiation damage. This doesn't stop magical or psychic healing, one reason the Gargoyles are buying up healer-slaves from the Splugorth as soon as they become available, or the more powerful self-regeneration of creatures like vampires or the Splugorth. Of course, producing and handling hot U-rounds has exciting risks of its own.



X-2700 Drachenfluegel (Dragonwing)

Just what the world needed, a 28 ton flying mech. Actually, it's probably less like a mech and more like an aircraft that sometimes deigns to drop legs from it's fuselage and walk along the ground. The Dragonwing was designed to provide air superiority against aerial enemies like Gargoyles and Dragons mostly by sticking some armor and craploads of firepower onto the most mobile platform Triax could build, it's role has been generalized a lot simply because of how good it is at it's job.

Okay, the Dragonwing is 30x16x27 feet and as I said weighs 28 tons. It can lift one ton and has a two man crew, pilot and gunner. On the ground, the bot can run at 40 mph (64 k) and jump 10 feet high/long, 100 with rocket assist without going full aerial. In the air, the Dragonwing can do Mach 2, and accelerate up to it in 8 seconds, with a flight ceiling of 45,000 feet (above the troposphere.) The craft has full VTOL capabilities and skill pilots can skim the treetops easily. The record though, has to be doing Mach 1, 5 feet off the ground. The Dragonwing is rated for exoatmosphere (space) operations though it can't get all the way there on it's own. It can also operate underwater to a depth of 600 ft (180 m) but is restricted to a speed of about 45 knots.

Dragonwings are nearly the only stealth planes in a world where every mech, power armored suit and pickup truck has radar. That alone goes a long way to making them kings of the skies.

Dragonwings have 4 arms, 2 that end in hands and 2 that end with a laser and an ion cannon. All four guns can be locked onto a single target with great precision and set to fire automatically at optimum range, which greatly simplifies attack runs. The Dragonwing is infamous for buzzing a target at supersonic speeds, dropping some serious hurt, and disappearing completely to come again from another angle. It has two machine guns and 6,000 rounds for them, usually DU or U-rounds. It also has 12 medium range (40 mi or 64 km) and 2 tail lasers. It can be outfitted with one or two electro-maces like the Black Knight for it's hand-arms, or carry up to 20 bombs, usually slammer bombs like the Dyna-Max missiles.

A recent and very rare variant, the Glitterwing, exists only as a custom job. It trades in the stealth material for the laser-resistant chromium hull of a Glitter Boy, which is usually considered a poor tradeoff. The bot is now far more resistant to lasers, but is about a thousand times more vulnerable to missiles.

Like all of Triax's best work, the Dragonwing is not for general sale.



X-5000 Devastator

Triax's biggest and meanest to date (Triax 1) Devastators are more like large bipedal artillery companies then traditional giant robots. The Devastator is 50 feet tall (70 with guns elevated) by 30 wide and 25 long, weighing 150 tons. It can walk at 40 mph (64 k) can cannot run, jump or fly. It can operate underwater. 2 man crew, plus it carries 4 suits of power armor into battle, usually Predators, Super Troopers or Jaegers.

The Devastator is armed with a super laser, super ion cannon, 32 long-range (1,000+ mi) missiles, 16 medium-range missiles, 60 mini-missiles and an ion cannon ball turret in the belly, like the Forager only twice as powerful. The main weakness of the Devastator is getting swarmed at short range by many targets, which is what the mini-missiles, belly turret and parasite power armor is for.

[Ahriman238]

Figures, after the edit window is long since closed I find a picture once I'm not looking for it anymore.

Oh well, the Devastator. Sorry if it's small. The smaller figure is a 12-foot Jaeger for scale.

[Ahriman238]

D-Bees of Europe, because I haven't given any love to the ETs yet.


Simvan Monster Riders

Nomads with psychic powers. The male hunters have all sensitive powers, the females have all healing powers. The greatest skill of the Simvan is the empathic power that lets them tame any animal, turning even the most dangerous monsters into mounts, guard dogs and beasts of burden.



Simvans are nomads and warriors and they make no apologies for that. They are also... hmm, cannibals doesn't work, they don't eat their own kind, humanitarian? Well, they have no aversions to eating anything but them, including humans.


Cernun Mystics

The horned serpent men have reputedly visited Earth since the fall of Atlantis. Each and every Cernun is a mystic, the class of caster/psychics. They have pretty good regeneration, and can regrow a limb in a week. They have the ability to psychically communicate with and control Gigantes, a specific sub-type of giant.



Cernun tend to be extremely self-serving, and frequently cowardly. Though there are several exceptions. They are one of the species welcomed in Atlantis.


Chiang-Ku

A six-limbed Chinese-looking dragon. The Chiang-ku are the only dragons to form a coherent society, and were ancient allies of the Atlanteans, having taught them the secrets of tattoo magic. The Chiang-ku civilization was destroyed recently by a race of supernatural intelligences, less than a hundred survive, and a quarter of them have come to Earth. The Chiang ku have no breath weapon and cannot fly, but they are the only dragons that hold a shapeshift indefinitely, and remain powerful casters and psychics. Every Chiang-ku has the Marks of Heritage, in their case a flaming sword at the arm and eye of knowledge on their forehead.


Gargoyles

Gargoyles are one of the most minor forms of demon. Despite looking reptilian they're really more like birds. Gargoyles have fine eyes, pretty good nightvision (much better than humanity) and can regenerate over time. All Gargoyles are psychics with resist hunger/thirst/fatigue, sense magic/presence, meditation, telepathy and mind block. Gargoyles tend to live in large flocks, which they are fanatically loyal to, frequently roosting in the ruins of Pre-Cataclysm cities such as Paris. Gargoyles usually live to be 3-500, but have sometimes lived to a thousand. Recently a group of Gargoyles has formed an independent technology-using empire under the reign of Emperor Zerstrum.

Gargoyles come in many types. The smallest are Gargoylites about 3 feet tall and imp-like. Then come Gurgoyles, flightless and 8-12 feet tall, they often guards the nests of the flock and are the Empire's biggest users of power armor. Gargoyles can fly, and are around 15 feet tall. Gargoyle Lords make up 1% of the population, they are 20 feet tall, weigh 2 tons and have the power to turn invisible, breathe fire and turn to stone, gaining great strength and toughness in exchange for becoming slow and clumsy and temporarily unable to fly. They can do that 3 times a day.



One in 20,000 Gargoyles is a Gargoyle Mage, who adds sense evil, detect psionics, healing touch, and exorcism to their psychic powers while having all the abilities of a 4th level Earth Warlock. They can also take any other magic class.

Flocks of hundreds of Gargoyles can be found all other the world, sometimes ruled by a Gargoyle Lord or Mage, sometimes by a dragon or a demon lord or someone powerful enough to enforce his will on them. The Empire of Zerstrum controls much that remains of France, some of Austria and all of Italy. They'll gladly employ technology, techno-wizardry, bio-wizardry, whatever gets the job done, and have hired many mercenaries to fill out the ranks and teach them human combat doctrine. They are actually moving from a race of minions to a power to be reckoned with.


Phoenixi

Dimension wandering explorers, the Phoenixi also come to Earth to observe. Not to help out or anything, as a magically powerful race aware of dimension travel, they've long kept to the Prime Directive philosophy. Still, sometimes there are renegades who involve themselves for good or ill. The Phoenixi are bird-men 10-14 feet tall with the eyes of a hawk/owl and see invisible, they are immune to heat and flame, highly resistant to drug and disease and can heal 10x faster than humans. They can burst into flames to burn their enemies and restore themselves to full health once every 12 hours. They have all healing and physical powers, plus telepathy and pyrokinesis. They know all fire magic, plus mystic portal, dimensional portal and close rift.


Brodkil

Nobody seems to like these guys. They're pretty much orcs, like the Gargoyles they're the least of demons and in the normal scheme of things are the much abused minions of Greater Demons. But like the Gargoyles they have found a whole new world of opportunity on Earth. After some nasty brushes with Triax, the Brodkil have learned the value of technology and have surprisingly taken very well to bionics. True, all they lose is their native ability to turn invisible, which along with their regeneration and size are the only real difference between them and orcs. The Brodkil have carved out an empire consisting of all eastern Europe and a decent bite of old Russia. They are enemies to the NGR and Soviets, and tentative allies with the Gargoyles.

[gigabytelord]

Brodkil

They are enemies to the NGR and Soviets, and tentative allies with the Gargoyles.

Were allies with the Gargoyles, not so much anymore.

[Ahriman238]

Oh, and the Triax Book introduces us to 4 new RCCs, the Gypsies. We have the Gypsy Thief, the Gypsy Sorcerer-Thief, Gypsy Fortune Teller and Gypsy Gifted (psychic healer.) And an enlightening 3 pages explaining how the Gypsies who aren't straight thieves are master con artists, and sometimes they steal children. Stay classy, Palladium.


Oh, I almost forgot the Japes.

Euro-Juicers are those who undergo the JAEP process to become a really poor man's idea of a Juicer. Basically it's a half-assed Juicer process where you only get one of the following (most of) a Juicer's physical enhancement, some of the speed and most of the toughness, strength and endurance. A Juicer's speed. 2x healing, resistance to disease and drugs. And finally the stimulants. By taking only these specialized performance enhancers, and only one at a time, 2 are fatal, the Jape gets to duck out of Last Call. He won't even get addicted as long as he sticks to the recommended schedule of 3 months taking, then 3 months clean. Then he get on the same stuff or one of the other JAEP drugs. Even if you do get addicted, you have to worry about dying by age 50 as opposed to dying in 5 years, and for the first decade you have a better than even chance of cleaning up if you get into rehab.

Japes are usually the privileged rich of Europe. Even more common among the rich, young and stupid, but that's another discussion. In the NGR, as previously mentioned, JAEP and even full Juicer Conversion are not illegal, though the government spends a pretty penny on advertising warning people off the drugs.

[Ahriman238]

Okay, so Triax has been looking into robotics for some time to provide a soldier that is ultimately disposable. They've had some good successes with man-sized and larger 'bots, but the things are still slow and unimaginative enough to require a human commander in the field to direct them, which sort of defeats the purpose of keeping humans out of the line of fire. They've had a bit of luck with telepresence robots, but the operators have to undergo a limited MOM conversion.

Triax makes 'pods' egg-shaped hover vehicles that do 60 mph and can fly over water. Mostly these are used by medics and mechanics to get their heavy gear where it's needed in a hurry, and in the case of the medics to air-evac patients. Occasionally used by covert operatives. Their finest hover-bike, the Shark, can do 280 mph (448 k.)

Triax's MBT design is the XM-330 Phantom hover-tank 9x20x35 feet and weighing 52 tons. It can float up to 6 feet over the Earth at up to 80 mph (128 k) or 15 mph (24 k) over water. Main gun is a double-barreled setup, particle beam for the upper larger barrel, laser for the lower. There's a coaxial ion cannon and 2 railgun turrets at the front, and a small laser turret just high enough to fire over the crew hatch. The tank also has 12 mini-missiles for anti-air, and 3 shots of smokescreen. The tank gets the name Phantom for being nearly silent, which makes it the stealthiest MBT in the setting.


The NGR also fields a mini 'Terror' tank. This tank is 8x6x14 feet, weighs a bit over 3 tons, and unlike the above gets around on 10 wheels with puncture-resistant tires. Top speed is 95 mph (152 k) and the tank is also amphibious doing 10 mph (16 k) on water. The terror tank has a high-power ion cannon (seriously, a lot of firepower for a midget tank) 2 railgun turrets at the front, 20 mini-missiles in box launchers towards the rear and 2 flamethrowers on the back end. The tank is meant for ubran warfare, recon, and heavy assault alongside infantry.


The NGR prides itself on the technological edge provided by Triax. The NGR army is built around mechanized infantry, so here is the standard NGR mechanized platoon:

28 infantry (4 squads of 7)
2 platoon medics
2 platoon field mechanics
4 light armor/mechs (Predators, Jaegers, Uberjaegers too now)
4 medium (Super Troopers, Glitter Boys)
2 heavies (Dyna-max, Ulti-max)
1 Medic or Mechanic's Pod
1 Terror Tank
1 Leopard V (big-ass APC that can carry the whole platoon, gear and mechs included. Except the Terror Tank which has a tow-slot or rides along.)

Makes me wonder how they look at the company and regiment levels.

The NGR also has these hover-barges used as mobile repair facilities and hospitals. The medic version is heavily armored and armed, since no one but humanity respects hospitals, has a lab, Quarantine chamber, 8 surgical stations, 4 pods, 24 medical personnel and beds for 48 patients. They can squeeze 72 in if they're really desperate. The repair version is less armed and armored, but still can fend off attacks alright. It's job is to get busted tanks and mechs back into service. Both types are always escorted by 2 mechs, Dragonwings are preferred.

Triax makes 3 different types of fighter jets for the NGR. Aside from MDC armor and the high-tech weapons they don't really seem any better than present day fighter jets. Triax makes an aerial transport that looks a bit like an SR-71 Blackbird, can do Mach 4.5 and could make it into space if not for the pesky satellite weapons.

Another key to the NGR's defensive strategy is the Dragonfly air transport, which can take up to 5 light mechs, like the Forager or the Jaegers and drop them behind enemy lines or out on long patrol. The mechs work their way back home, killing any monsters of gargoyles that cross their paths.

[Me2005]

What is the fascination with these mechs being able to lift one ton? Is it that they can *only* lift one ton, or that they can lift *at least* one ton, since a 28-ton flying behemoth carrying *one* ton seems pretty unimpressive if you ask me, an outdated F-15 can carry 8 tons, and I can get a 6-ton bottle jack for $25. Is there a game mechanic involving one ton lifting capacity or something? Or is it a gaff on the part of the editors, since the other capacities of those mechs imply much higher lifting capacities?

[Ahriman238]

What is the fascination with these mechs being able to lift one ton? Is it that they can *only* lift one ton, or that they can lift *at least* one ton, since a 28-ton flying behemoth carrying *one* ton seems pretty unimpressive if you ask me, an outdated F-15 can carry 8 tons, and I can get a 6-ton bottle jack for $25. Is there a game mechanic involving one ton lifting capacity or something? Or is it a gaff on the part of the editors, since the other capacities of those mechs imply much higher lifting capacities?

Mmm. It's a game mechanic. The way the strength stat (PS-physical strength) works in Rifts is you multiply your stat number by 10, and that's the amount of weight you can lift in pounds. If your strength is 17 or higher you are presumed to be a really strong man and multiply by 20 instead. So PS 10 means 100 lbs. lifting capacity, PS 18 is 360 lbs. Now, you can also have supernatural or robotic strength, if you're a vampire, dragon, cyborg, in a mech etc. In that case you have the same 10 pound scale up to 17, and from there on multiply by 50 for the number of pounds you can lift. You DO need supernatural/robot strength to deal out mega damage blows.

Most of the above have robot strength 40 (x50 is 2,000 lbs.=1 ton) I believe one or two go as high as 50 (2,500 lbs.) I originally started including this because it struck me as odd that, hey, the Jaeger is the Forager's replacement, considerably less than half it's size, but has the same strength. Did Triax get better at miniaturization? Stronger alloys in the build perhaps? Before I realized that all of them have pretty much the same strength. Siembienda and the boys at Palladium don't often go for conservative numbers, but when they do they really produce a WTF? reaction.

Wait til we get to the space cruisers with weapons that range 12 miles or less.

So is it a gaffe or a mistake or a serious misunderstanding? I don't know. But it's fun to talk about occasionally.

[Me2005]

Mmm. It's a game mechanic.... Siembienda and the boys at Palladium don't often go for conservative numbers, but when they do they really produce a WTF? reaction.

Wait til we get to the space cruisers with weapons that range 12 miles or less.

So is it a gaffe or a mistake or a serious misunderstanding? I don't know. But it's fun to talk about occasionally.

Ah, game mechanic; capping it out makes more sense then. It does seem like a low number for them to choose for their setting though; 5-20 ton capacities wouldn't have made me wonder on those larger vehicles.

I'll reserve judgment on the 12-mile-range space cruisers for when you explain them.

[Ahriman238]

Oh, and thanks again to Terralthra I have a picture of some armored Gurgoyles and a Gargoyle mech.



On with the show!


Mindwerks

Once upon a time, there was a megacorp called Mindwerks based mostly in Poland. Sure, they dipped into the well of cybernetics and robotics, but their raison d'etre was exploring the potential of the human brain. Their patented MOM process created something special, almost as fast and strong as a Juicer without the whole "certain death" angle. It was a golden age for a while, but within 5 years all the initial subjects started going a bit wrong in the head, a quarter of them becoming homicidal maniacs and all of them developing severe mental/emotional problems. Lawsuits flew thick and fast, but before any of them could be resolved the bombs went down and the world as we know it ended.

There was an unfinished, entirely underground automated plant near the Polish/Czech border, and the plant supervisor, one Angel Herrenisel, managed to get 450 people to safety inside while the world was coming apart. There they huddled for decades, like many villain backstories in this setting (seriously, the resemblance to ARCHIE is disturbing) until Angel yielded to pressures to send up remote-operated robot explorers. They found a world of primitive humans, magic, and monsters freely roaming the countryside. There was debate for years what their course should be. By now Angel Herrenisel was pushing 70, but had implanted her own MOM device, the Eternal Brain, which kept her faculties from being affected by her age. They formed an alliance with a friendly kingdom, giving the locals the power of technology and hoping to build a base to rebuild human civilization from. But a neighboring kingdom grew fearful of their power, and launched a sneak attack that razed the friendly city to the ground and killed half of Mindwerks. Angel herself nearly perished leading a group of children from a burning orphanage. A Mindwerks full-conversion cyborg saved her and one child, but both were so badly burned they had to undergo cyborg conversion to live.

From then on, Angel Herrenisel was a changed woman. There was no more talk of rebuilding the world, only of revenge. Her political rivals and dissenters within Mindwerks all died under mysterious circumstances and she stopped showing affection except to the girl she'd tried to save, Bridget, whom she adopted as her daughter and raised to be a psychopath like herself.

Angel's life was now devoted to two goals, revenge against anyone who ever wronged her (or their heirs, or anyone casually related) and proving that Mindwerks had always been right and only small-minded fools kept them from greatness. Somewhere along the way, she decided she was no longer a part of humanity but a superior being, and as far as she is concerned she IS Mindwerks. This obsession mainly takes 3 forms, revenge against the world that mocked Mindwerks, building a better Crazy to show how far they could have and would have gotten, and destroying Mindwerks' old corporate rival, Triax Industries.

For several years Mindwerks abducted hapless peasants and passing D-Bees for experimentation. The real coup, however, came when a Brodkil Chieftan sought them out and offered to pledge his eternal servitude in exchange for the magic that let one man fight as ten. When Angel pointed out his warriors would go mad, he said it was a price well worth paying. So Angel shrugged and welcomed her new minions, setting them on the kingdom that had attacked and nearly killed her with orders that not even the dogs should escape. This began the long association between Angel Herrenisel, now called the Angel of Death, and the Brodkil Empire built by her clan. Which is why today there are so many damn Brodkil Crazies.



Of course, the Brodkil, like the hundred or so Mindwerks researchers still in residence, will never be more than pawns to Angel.