Bit of Analysis: Rifts Dimensions

[Ahriman238]

And in counterpoint to the Golgans, one of their current enemies, the Altess. I've mentioned them before, the human space elves who can live forever and are generally extremely wealthy, advanced, and insufferable. The Altess control just 5 worlds, with 100 million people. Their independent again, but have an on-again, off-again relationship with the CCW, joining and leaving at least thrice. The Altess command more wealth than the majority of governments, everyone but the TGE, CCW, and UWW, plus the best intelligence apparatus in Anvil. In the normal run of things, they'd prefer to buy off an attacker or hire a vast fleet of top-shelf mercenaries to reinforce their fleet.

The Altess Armoria, their military, receives comparatively limited funds, prestige and personal for their GDP. Roughly 1% of adults serve. The thing is, the Altess do what sci-fi fans have been bitching about people not doing for years, and fight with robots supervised and maintained by human military personnel. 50% of the Armoria fleet is entirely automated, and in all but the capital ships there's a human captain, bridge crew, and a handful of mechanics/engineers. That's it. At no point is an Altess ship going to have a human crew of more than 50. They even have Naruni Enterprises fighters flown by pilot-bots, and infantry combat is even more skewed towards the war-bots.

Bad break for them, the Golgans aren't interested in money. They want self-respect. Also, the Altess have sort of a history of genocide against anyone dumb enough to attack them twice, which is going to make a negotiated settlement rather difficult. Also, they sort of lost their mothballed fleet and robot army in a freak temporal accident on the eve of war, leaving just 2500 ships.





The Altess Yannar-class Destroyer makes up 70% of the remaining Armoria fleet. 480x95x230 feet, 7500 tons. The larger human complement, 50 officers and men over seeing 170 robots, with another 120 security robots in storage, ready to be activated if the ship is boarded. Plus 2,000 tons worth of cargo space, once a year of food and munitions is loaded. The ship has 2800 MDC, with 2,000 MDC a side shields. Altess power systems utilize an artificial "strange matter" where a single quark nugget has 14x the charge of a proton. Using forcefield presses, they force and hold this matter at neutronium-like density to serve as fuel blocks for their ships, just one brick can keep a ship running for 300 years. Their engine technology is also the envy of the Three Galaxies, the Yannar can do Mach 5 in atmosphere, Mach 18 in space and their FTL drive can manage 8 LY/hour. In short, the Destroyer is much faster than most fighters.

Speaking of, the ship carries 6 NE Fire-Breather fighter-bombers. Flown, naturally, by robots.

For energy weapons, the Altess use a magnetic photon beam. It's like a high-intensity laser, but purple, with double the range and does twice as much damage to shields. The Yannar has 10 for point defense (including shooting down fighters) that do easily twice as much damage as most such weapons, and have a high bonus to hit, thanks to advanced targeting. The only other weapons are the 8 mini-missile turrets, each with 128 missiles (1024 total.) Altess missiles are very fast, granting them twice the effective range of most people's missiles, and have AI that's nearly sentient and stuffed with a library of ship profiles, weak spots, ECM tricks and the sort of desperate evasive maneuvers people try. The ship has enough spare missiles to reload every turret twice, and it takes but 4 minutes to fill an empty turret.

It's not stated, but I get the impression the Yannar is meant to chase down and murder vast swarms of fighters. It's fast, and almost all the armament seems anti-fighter. Against a ship of similar size, I think it'd be okay. Firing all the photon beams would have much the same effect as a double blast of a frigate's main guns, and the missiles are weak but make just enough of a punch to matter. So this is probably a case of the Altess being more advanced, rather than overspecializing, much as it pains me to admit.





The Zhokil Battlecruiser is the most powerful ship the Altess have. Mostly because they feel it's powerful enough they don't need a real capital ship, or didn't before they were reduced to 750 of them. Were often sent on diplomatic missions in happier times, for having quarters and accommodations larger and more luxurious than most five-star hotels. Ship is 2100x670x1870 feet and 4.3 million tons. Crew is 20 human officers overseeing 255 robots, with 2500 war-bot marines and half a million tons cargo capacity. The ship has 34,000 MDC with shields 12,000 MDC to a side. Can do Mach 5.5 in atmosphere, Mach 20 in space and 8 LY/hour of FTL.

The main weapons battery is two scaled up magnetic photon beams, forward-fixed (they're the gun-barrel looking things in the picture) each can do 2-12,000 MDC at a range of 250 miles. Point-defense and fights against smaller ships are seen to with 16 of the same photon beam turrets the Yannar has. There are 8 heavy anti-ship missile launchers, 2 forward and 3 to either side launching smart antimatter missiles, and 32 anti-fighter missile launchers with 16 missiles apiece. Naturally the ship carries many reloads.

Looks like no fighters for this one.



Impressive as the Altess ships are, the peacetime navy isn't going to be able to hold out long against the Golgans. Fortunately, their call for help reached the CAF fleet on their border. The CCW longs to have the Altess back in the fold, for real this time, and maintain a border patrol on the off chance they should ever need help. This has sort of become their equivalent to an Arctic weather station, a meaningless post to exile disgraced officers to, including the present commander, Horace Shaw. Shaw made a big stink about how the nobody in the CAF today has fought in a major war against an equivalent power, a third their hsips have never been tested in a real war and this is making the Consortium terribly vulnerable. For this, he was branded a hawk and sent off. When he gets the distress signal, he hares off with all his force (1 Protector BB, 4 Packmaster CV, 10 Warshield CA, and 30 Scythe FF) to help. This is the bait for a campaign where you help the general prop up the line, or fight a political battle to convince the rest of the Consortium to back Shaw's move.

[Ahriman238]

Splugorth Repression Fleets

As mentioned, the Splugorth (remember the Splugorth? If not review here) have not had the best luck in the Three Galaxies. Their repeated failures to capture Phase World have cost them dearly. Their artificial race of janissaries, the Kreeghor, rebelled and then conquered a roughly a third of each galaxy without them, and it must burn everyday the Splugorth see the Empire that could have been theirs. Even conquering the damn Space Elves went south when the pointy-eared aliens found allies and annihilated the kingdom and Splugorth who tried. The Splugorth have lost every major war of the last 10,000 years (9 in total) and the only reason they're still treated seriously as a threat is they've always managed to inflict ruinous casualties in the process. Well, that and the constant raids and skirmishes.

Today there are 4 independent and feuding Splugorth Kingdoms, each lead by a single Splugorth who gives the kingdom it's name. 2 of these are in Corkscrew, 1 each in Anvil and Thundercloud. Each controls roughly 2 dozen worlds and a thousand ships. There is also a fifth Splugorth Intelligence on Phase World, doing what their kind always have when outright conquest was infeasible, namely getting rich by buying and selling magic, advanced technology, slaves and Bio-Wizardry.

Points must be given to the Kittani, who have really stepped up with their space fleet to hold everything together. The Kittani have long been the source of the Splugorth's advanced tech and starships, and getting to actually command their own ships again, even with a High Lord political officer, is a rush. The Kittani have an odd attitude towards starship command. First time captains start on battleships and carriers, where they have heavy armor to cover any screw-ups or are supposed to sit out of the way of fights anyways, and have escorts covering them. Then they graduate to smaller and smaller ships, on the notion that experienced commanders benefit more from speed and maneuverability, and can make the most of a smaller ship's limited resources and firepower. Which is how you wind up with flag officers on escort ships, doing escort duties. It's not obviously wrong in any way, just really different.

Oh, and doesn't really extend to fighters and shuttles, which aren't true starships.


Don't have a picture right now, or detailed stats. But the basic Kittani fighter is fast, exceptionally maneuverable and really light on weapons and armor. It's also a transformer, folding in half and sprouting limbs to function as a light mech.




The Splugorth Raider, a feared sight in any sky. It's a drop ship that carries a company of Kittani, and a dozen Slaver barges with 5 Altess apiece. It lands, fills the pens to capacity with 800 slaves, and the hold with up to 500 tons of spoils and dusts off no more than 2 hours after landing, and often much sooner. They've been doing these raids for a long time, and they've gotten pretty efficient with them. There are lots of horror stories of mass launches from Splugorth fleets that picked isolated colony worlds clean in one trip.

The Raider is 65x65x220 feet, 5000 tons, with 3600 MDC. It can do Mach 7 in atmosphere, Mach 15 in space, fast by any measure. No FTL, deployed from larger Splugorth ships. Main Armament is 2 Neutron Beams, particle beams that fire Neutrons, which do double damage to organic tissue. The ship has 64 long range (1800 mile) light missiles, but heavy enough to worry a frigate with a large volley.

The hulls is coated in alchemical paints, which provide pretty good stealth against most sensors. 10% chance of spotting one on an unpowered ballistic trajectory, more like 50% if under power.


It seems the standard escort, and most desirable command is the now-space-capable Dragon Dreadnought. No new data on speed in space, or FTL. Or shields, heavier armor etc. Which is a pity, I think it's a cool design but it'd probably break like eggshell in the first serious fight of the Three Galaxies' standards.




Next is the Servitude cruiser, backbone of the Kittani/Splugorth fleet. The Kittani like to model their ships after living things, this was apparently based on a water-striding insect of some kind.

Ship is 1650x800x400 ft, 300,000 tons. 20,000 MDC, with shields 9,000 MDC to a side. Ship's crew is 465, with 2,300 infantry supported with 580 power armor and a thousand cells large enough to hold 20 slaves each. Atmospheric speed is Mach 1.5, in space that's Mach 10. Rifts Drive can do 6 jumps a day, 20 light years a trip.

The main weapon is 6 missile tubes launching Splinter missiles. The missiles split into 10 sub-munitions, each doing 2-600 MD by forming a momentary tiny black hole. Can't do more than 6 missiles to a volley, but the first 6 volleys come very quickly, after that they have to haul reloads from storage. At the base of each leg is a Slicer cannon, which creates blades of focused gravity planes, with an 18 mile range, 2-8,000 MD a hit. 4 fusion beams at a frigate-scale for engaging smaller targets, 16 neutron cannon for point defense.

In place of the stealthy coating of the Raider, Servitude cruisers are covered in wards that mess with targeting computers. The interference can be adjusted to, but the Splugorth almost always get in the first strike. Servitudes carry 12 Raiders.




The existence of a Splugorth carrier has been an article of faith among spacers of the Three Galaxies for centuries, though no one outside the Kreeghor have ever seen one. It's just too obvious with the vast swarms of sublight fighters and Raiders appearing out of nowhere, but the ships are either really stealthy or hang back really far, say, beyond the oort cloud. The one time the Kreeghor saw a Taskmaster carrier, it was performing C3 for a task force with 6 cruisers and 20 Dragons.

Okay, the ship is 7000x3500x1200 ft, 60 million tons with room for another 5 million tons of cargo. Obviously inspired by a bird of prey, 50,000 MDC with shields 15,000 MDC to a side. 28,000 crew, including an entire department dedicated to organizing slaving raids and managing captives, with 250 personnel and their own officer. 10,000 infantry, supported by 4500 suits of power armor. Not atmosphere-capable, but can do Mach 8 in space. Contra-Grav FTL drive, 6 LY per hour.

The main weapon of a carrier, of course, is it's fighters, but I'll get back to them. The only ship in all the Three Galaxies to carry a forbidden Mass Driver as standard. This is backed up by 8 frigate-scale fusion beam cannon, 40 neutron cannon for point defense and 4 antimatter missiles launchers, each holding 50 missiles with a thousand mile range and 400-2400 MDC a pop.

No crazy coating this time, but 25 Raiders and 480 fighters.

[Ahriman238]

Naruni Enterprises

Mentioned these guys a few times before, but never really in detail. Naruni Enterprises is a vast multi-dimensional corporation dealing in advanced technology, most particularly weapons. "Naruni Enterprises, we make war better." "Naruni Enterprises, we supply the Megaverse" and "You can dream big when you have Naruni Enterprises at your side" are just a few of the more famous slogans.

Naruni tech is usually 30-50 years ahead of the galactic average, especially plasma weapons and robotics. Their biggest sellers are small-arms, heavy support weapons, power armor and starfighters. Naruni Enterprise's expert sales staff are very understanding, whether you are desperately defending your people's freedom or looking for resources that should be yours by right, very accommodating. They have very flexible payment plans, are all too happy to extend to you a line of credit and take payment in credits, heavy metals, land, slaves whatever you have. But if you default, the Naruni Repo-bots will show up to foreclose and show you that the company keeps the best technology for their own use. One way or another, Naruni Enterprises always gets it's money, even if it has to re-possess the entire planet.

The Naruni are strictly apolitical, never selling mercenary services or promising support even for a sale. They sell to both sides, frequently. They regard war as a waste of a resources, and war profiteering as the only sensible reaction to conflict. Naruni Enterprises maintains a Social Research Division, ostensibly to keep in touch with their customer base and it's needs. In actual fact, the SRD is responsible for a small army of assassins, mercenaries and agents provocateur so they can create diplomatic incidents, civil disorder, or start small brush-wars whenever things get too quiet and profits lag. NE is aggressively expansionist, with a stated intention of creating an arms-dealing monopoly, which brings them into conflict with the Splugorth, Bushido Industries, the Hartigal Combine, and Draygon Industries.

The Naruni have heard wondrous stories about vast untapped markets on a planet called Earth, ideally located as a trading hub to a thousand dimensions. They finally got there only to find the hated Splugorth had gotten a foot in the door, seizing an entire continent as their base of operations. The Naruni tried to approach the largest and best organized of the Splugorth's apparent enemies, the Coalition States, and it didn't go well. Not know for giving up, the Naruni have set up trading posts in Arzno, Merc Town and other out-of-the-way places that draw dangerous men.

But back to the Naruni, who they are and what they want.
'


The Uteni traders make up 98% of NE sales reps, and since they rarely identify themselves beyond personal name and corporate affiliations, the bulk of the Megaverse can be forgiven for assuming they ARE the Naruni. The Uteni strongly believe in "when on Phase World, do as the Prometheans." and go to great lengths to learn local languages, wear local dress and affect the accent, body language and mannerisms of their customers. They have a limited shapeshifting ability, something I suspect is artificial. They're always blue, hairless and humanoid, but can alter their size and build from 4 foot Roswell Gray to 10 foot linebacker. They use this to assume roughly the same proportions as their clients, again to set them at ease and help the sale. Among themselves size is a matter of personal preference and convenience, usually hovering around 8 feet tall.

All Uteni are master psychics with craploads of ISP, but only 3 powers from one category (healing, physical, sensitive) which they can use more ore less continuously. Also really minor MDC creatures with 1-4 MDC points, usaully wear a light 18 MDC cloth armor and 100-200 MDC personal forcefields. The Uteni love cybernetics that aren't obvious or intrusive, will usually have 2-5 implants. Finally, around 20% of Uteni are compulsive gamblers, a weakness well-hidden from the bulk of the Three Galaxies and ruthlessly exploited by those in the know.




And now we come to the executive puppetmasters, the Naruni themselves. The Naruni sit in the boardrooms, make the decisions and rake in the money, they do not make public appearances and they do not answer questions. At least partly because their appearance freaks people out, and their nature as powerful supernatural creatures really freaks out most psychics. The mouth tentacles make most people think immediately of the Splugorth and Vampire Intelligences, and it's not impossible the Naruni are connected to either or to the Old Ones (they certainly aren't on the good side of the alignment pool) but they're also different enough that it's a bit like comparing a dragon to a skink.

Naruni are 6-8 feet tall, 300 lbs. and have 25-278 MDC. They have all sensitive psychic powers plus auto mind block, bio-manipulation and empathic transmission. Master Psychic, of course. No magic. They also have supernatural strength and endurance, vampire-like regeneration and thousand plus year lifespans. Barred from taking any class but a scholar or psychic one.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Hasn't Naruni consistently run into problems on RIFTS earth with spies, infiltrators, and saboteurs? I feel like they've got Triax and Northern Gun problems, but I can't remember specifics.

[SAMAS]

Basically, the Coalition kicked them out, but a True Naruni executive with a grudge decided to make a more subtle comeback.

[Ahriman238]

The Naruni have a 30-year expansion plan that ends with them as the sole weapons provider to North America. They consider the Coalition their greatest obstacle, hence extensive selling to D-Bees, the Pecos Empire, Federation of Magic, and Tolkeen but have underestimated Triax and Northern Gun to their regret. The implication is that the execs are a bit blinded by the possibilities of Earth and haven't yet realized how people will band together against outsiders. It probably helps that they missed 3 of the 4 Great Crises.

ARCHIE is noted as being highly suspicious of the Naruni and their motives and is investigating. Very, very carefully investigating. Having been burned once by the Mechanoids, he and Hagan are trying to make no assumptions about technologically advanced aliens.

EDIT: However, it's not like corporate skulldruggery is anything the Naruni don't face on a daily basis in the Three Galaxies. One plot hook in Fleets involves a Naruni Repo-bot hacking the artificial VR afterlife of the Oni, to dig up dirt on Bushido Industries. Instead this robot and all his fellows are infected with the code of YAMA's less satisfied residents. So now you have to save the alien samurai from the robots possessed by the vengeful dead. Only in RIFTS...

[CaptainChewbacca]

What are the 4 great crises? And isn't ARCHIE ALWAYS cautious and slow-going? I swear he never actually DOES anything.

[Ahriman238]

Originally from the Mechanoid Invasion book, referenced by others as they came up. For one week in 105 PA, every psychic had screaming nightmares about 4 nearly-unstoppable threats to the world. This prompted Plato the Dragon in Lazlo to send out a general letter to every kingdom he could reach proposing a truce and cooperation in dealing with them. The Coalition never replied, but beefed up patrols and had them leave people who seemed to be following up on a crisis alone.

The Four Great Crises are:

1.) The mechanical locust swarm (Mechanoids)

2.) The Four Horsemen

3.) The great liar (Merlin)

4.) The threat everybody dismisses until it builds into an unstoppable horde (Xiticx? Only one I'm not 100% on.)

The Horsemen in particular drew a global response, except for China still isolated from the world, and the Splugorth who preferred to turtle up and only surreptitiously aid the heroes. It seems the Coalition leadership is aware of the Crises but the common man is not.

[Ahriman238]

So let's look at the 'ol NE catalog.

Naruni Enterprises prides itself on it's small-arms, mostly plasma ejectors and particle-beams doing 10-40 MD, with high intensity pulse lasers nearly as powerful (5-30 MD.) Some with genade launcehrs attached. They have a plasma machinegun that fires 200 rounds a minute, conveniently the length of one ammo belt. They also sell an anti-material plasma sniper rifle with a mile range, absurdly advanced optics, and 40-60 MD. Though it's not advertised anywhere, the plasma beam weapons used by Repo-bots with triple the range and double the firepower of standard plasma weapons, is available to a few select clients upon request.


In recent decades, Naruni Enterprise has opened a line of K-HEX explosives. K-HEX stands for Killaryte High Explosive, where Killaryte is a dangerously unstable crystalline material found only on select worlds in the Anvil and Thundercloud galaxies. Killaryte is ten times more powerful than the next most potent conventional explosives (plasma bombs) and only Naruni Enterprises knows how to convert it to Killaryte B, which is inert in saline solution. K-HEX is sold in plastique-style blocks, grenades and missile warheads. It's also allowed the Naruni to sell grenades half the size of a shitgun shell, but just as powerful as most, and smart micro-missiles the size of a marker that can be fitted into wrist launchers. And rifle-sized micro-missile launchers with 16 rounds. The Altess use K-HEX warheads for all their starship missiles.




This fellow is an NE-010 Drone, a robotic smart missile doing 30-60 MD. Drones only have a top speed of around 400 mph/644 kph, but they're smart enough to be hard to shake. They also can be left lying somewhere up to 3 days, and will self-launch against any hostiles, a state they return to if a target evades them. In the Three Galaxies and Rifts Earth, mercenary armies often drop a dozen or so drones to cover a retreat. Also available as gun drones with laser cannon and 8 mini-missiles, and stealth drones with full sensor packages, stealth and even tiny hands to collect bits of physical evidence. Any drone can last 3 days in standby, 1 in full flight, and can recharge other drones. Stealth drones are sometimes used to carry recharges to perimeter drones.



Camouflage armor only has 80 MDC, a bit less than standard Dead Boy/Cyclops armor, but has an active camouflage system allowing it to get around visual detection. It also baffles thermal sensors, which is arguably more valuable when it comes to sneaking around.


Naruni Enterprises is also the Three Galaxies' sole purveyor of personal forcefields, available in increments of 45, 75, 110 and 160 MDC.




NE Mecha-Knight armor is a refinement of SAMAS technology, equal or superior to the old SAMAS in every way. Okay, so Smiling Jack and V-SAMAS have better flight characteristics, and Super-SAMAS has more armor and firepower. This is still cooler, purely by benefit of being a power-armored knight and coming with a lightsaber.

Anyways, the armor is 10 feet tall, with 400 MDC. The wearer can run at 44 mph/70 kph, and jump 15 feet high or long, 100 feet with jet assist. The suit can hover, and fly with a speed limit of 300 mph/480 kph and an altitude limit of 500 feet. The main weapon is a particle beam that does double the damage of a SAMAS railgun (20-80 MD) with a similar range just under a mile and unlimited ammunition by virtue of being fed from suit power. After that there's the lightsaber, and a shoulder turret with 2 standard laser rifles (3-18 MD.)



Nomad is a scout mech, one of only 2 or 3 mecha (depends how you count) sold by the Naruni. It has the same active-camouflage system used in camo-armor and stealth drones.

It's a smaller mech, just 16 feet/5 meters tall, weighing 12 tons. It has 470 MDC, can lift one ton, run at 150 mph/240 kph and jump 15 feet high or long. Being a scout, it's light on armament. There's a shoulder-turret railgun with just enough ammo for 30 bursts doing 10-60 MD each. It also has 16 mini-missiles in the chest (usually a mix of anti-vehicle and frag warheads) and a laser on the left arm.



Then we have the Ovoid, also called Death Egg. It's an aircraft, that can do duty as a space fighter, or sprout arms and legs and act as a mech. The Egg itself is 20x30x30 feet and 60 tons with a 2-man crew and 20 foot legs when they're extended. 650 MDC, with a forcefield providing another 320 MDC, tough enough to weather a nuke. On the ground, 70 mph/112 kph, in atmosphere Mach 1, in space Mach 8. Primary armament is 2 plasma machine guns and 2 railguns, positioned so one can fire at any angle of approach to the Egg, but usually only one. 2 lasers serve as backup, and the Ovoid also has 32 mini-missiles and 16 full-size missiles. It can also uproot a tree to beat you to death, and really, you'd be embarrassed to meet your end at this thing's hands.



Finally for tonight, there's the Juggernaut. Naruni Enterprises' premier super-heavy hover tank. 20x26x35 feet, over 200 tons with 900 MDC and a crew of 4. The Juggernaut can traverse any terrain, save water deeper than 5 feet, but even the thinnest bit of muddy soil is good enough to allow it's full speed of 200 mph/320 kph. The main weapon is a fantastically powerful particle beam cannon with a range of 2 miles/3.2 km and 50-300 MD of damage. The P-beam is fed by a dedicated capacitor, storing power for 60 shots. When that's gone, it will recharge at a rate of 1 shot per minute. After that, it has a proper Boom Gun on a smaller front turret, the first we see on a vehicle mount, a coaxial railgun doing 20-80 MD and a pintle/cupola (bit vague on the distinction) laser. Oh, and 48 mini-missiles for enemy vehicles, and another 48 long-range missiles for enemy towns.

One option is so common, it's more like there's a slightly cheaper Juggernaut without, is the forcefield. This adds 400 MDC to the existing armor for a total of 1300. The only real downsides are that you can't pop open the hatch for the pintle mount while the forcefield is running, and the capacitor for the P-beam doesn't charge. You can still use as many shots as you have, it just won't add more until the shield is down. A disabled shield is renewed after 24 hours, damage is repaired in 8.

The Juggernaut most recently made headlines as the tank of choice for the Golgan Argosy. Nothing like seeing a thousand of these dropped onto a planet at the head of an army of slavering xenophobes to make you want to invest in a few for your protection, right?


And there's many more products, including the OMAV (One Man Army Vehicle) Death-Knight, Carnivore and more. But I suspect you're getting the point by now.

[Bedlam]

Naruni Enterprises prides itself on it's small-arms, mostly plasma ejectors and particle-beams doing 10-40 MD, with high intensity pulse lasers nearly as powerful (5-30 MD.) Some with genade launcehrs attached. They have a plasma machinegun that fires 200 rounds a minute, conveniently the length of one ammo belt. They also sell an anti-material plasma sniper rifle with a mile range, absurdly advanced optics, and 40-60 MD.

This fellow is an NE-010 Drone, a robotic smart missile doing 30-60 MD.

Now this just sounds odd, the small arms do 50 - 66% the damage of a cruise missile analog and sniper rifle a bit more damage presumably for a much lower cost. I understand the missile has a different role but it just seems off.

[Simon_Jester]

The missile is smart, but is not a long range cruise missile for attacking strategic targets. It sounds like this is the Three Galaxies equivalent of a shoulder-fired SAM or antitank missile, with some extra bells and whistles attached.

[Ahriman238]

Simon has the right of it. 1d4x10 (10-40 MD) is the equivalent of being shot by an M1 120 mm smootbore (the main gun of an Abrams tank.) It is also the lower threshold for antitank weapons in RIFTS, as well as for damage done to/by fighters, though some can double or triple it. A Boom Gun does 30-180 MD, frigate weapons do a roll x100, cruisers and capital ships x1,000. The key lesson here is that Naruni small arms can work as antitank weapons, though not as well as ones made specifically for that purpose. Though do notice neither the sniper rifle nor the missile alone will kill someone in Dead Boy MDC armor, save on a headshot or something similar.

And Simon is also sort of wrong. A destructo-drone is smart enough it can be programmed and sent to the limits of it's range (around 2400 miles) to hit a specific target. It's more that the yield isn't enough to justify such an attack, except in mass waves of drones.



Let's talk ships, you remember the Broadsword and Fire-Eater fighters that are commercially available (incidentally, the Fire-Eater is reprinted in Fleets under the name Fire-Spitter) but as per usual, the best toys are kept for the company.





The Naruni Enterprises Auditor cruiser is the standard unit for deploying vengeful Repo-bots. Once it lands it's "troops" it usually remains on the ground as a secure bunker/command post. The ship includes the same active camouflage system as so many stealth products, combined with holographic projectors allowing it to imitate a boulder, hill office building, or copse of trees.

The ship is 20 feet high, 50 feet wide and 150 feet long, weighing 800 tons. Crew of 4, usually robots, plus storage lockers for 16 Repo-bots and 100 tons of cargo. 3,500 MDC, with shields 500 MDC to a side. Atmospheric speed is Mach 5, In space it's Mach 15, very, very fast. FTL is CG drive, 5 light-years an hour (roughly 45,000 c.)

Of course, the ship is meant as a transport for the deadliest war robots in the Three Galaxies, that's the weapon they're built to deploy. But if the guys on the ground need some support, or the locals don't feel like company, the ship has 4 plasma beam turrets doing 40-240 MD each, quite good for point defense, 4 mile range in space 1.5 miles in atmosphere. The ship also carries 6 antimatter cruise missiles for serious anti-ship work or as bunker busters, 400-2400 MD (where a 200 KT nuke does 300-1200.) Finally the ship has 16 smaller smart missiles, doing 20-120 MD, mostly for point defense.

The ship's cargo bay is frequently empty, as the existing complement is considered enough to bully many commanders or warlords into paying, and they can fill the hold with late payments. For more serious repossession work, the hold can be filled with any of the follow to aid the Repo-bots: 120 more Repo-bots, 1 Fire-Eater, 1 Ovoid, 4 hover-tanks, 16 OMAVs, or 150 drones of any type (bomb, gun and stealth.)





The Commodity cargo cruiser is the primary ship used to move Naruni Enterprises' inventory across the stars. Capable of moving a quarter million tons, it's easily the largest cargo hauler in the Three Galaxies. And since a full hold of even NE small-arms could pay for 3 state-of-the-art battleships and 5 cruisers, (and the ship itself could pay for 6 battleships) it is also the best defended cargo ship, capable of holding it;s own with most battleships. And because it's so good at moving large amounts of Naruni Enterprises hardware, it's perfect for carrying massive invasion forces to foreclose. The Naruni have only 5,000 of these ships in the Three Galaxies.

The Commodity is 100x1300x300 feet, 800,000 tons. Normal crew is 1700, can be flown by 60 in an emergency, always a True Naruni captain, sometimes a few other officers as well. 570 Repo-bots for security, even when just hauling cargo. 160,000 MDC, no mention of shields, but does it really need them with that much armor? Can do Mach 2 in atmosphere, but in space it really shines with a full Mach 20, and 8 LY/hour making it just about the fastest ship in the Three Galaxies in FTL and sublight. Well, as long as we discount Mechanoids and Dominators.

Weaponry, it has 12 heavy plasma beams, 1000-6000 MD with a 70 mile range, half of which can be brought to bear on any target. 6 secondaries do 10% the damage, with half the range. It carries 600 of the same antimatter cruise missiles the Auditor uses in 3 launchers. Each launcher can volley a dozen missiles at a time. Finally there are 60 automated railgun turrets for point defense, each does 20-60 MD on a 20-round burst, and has enough ammo for 3,500 bursts.

The ships carries as standard 44 Fire-Eater fighters, the corporate upgrade model with half again the shields and armor, improved flight control and K-HEX warheads nudging it's missiles into the nuclear range of damage. It will also have 30 upgraded Juggernauts with K-HEX missiles, true flight capability and an antimatter power plant that means the main cannon needs no recharge.

The ship's impressive cargo hold can carry: 7 million plasma ejectors with 150 million rounds, 10,000 disassembled space fighters, 9,000 hover tanks, 1,000 Juggernauts, 145,000 suits of power armor, or 525,000 sets of nonpowered MDC armor. Whether this firepower is being delivered to you or gunning for you depends on how prompt your payments are. In pure "infantry" mode, the hold has room for 100,000 Repo-bots, but any mix of bots and war machines may be used against those who brass off the Naruni.

Oh, the lower half of the ship's front folds down as ramps directly into the hold for speedy loading and unloading. While grounded, the ship uses the same active camouflage and holographic deception system as the Auditor.

[Simon_Jester]

And Simon is also sort of wrong. A destructo-drone is smart enough it can be programmed and sent to the limits of it's range (around 2400 miles) to hit a specific target. It's more that the yield isn't enough to justify such an attack, except in mass waves of drones.

Let me clarify. This missile is not like a cruise missile the way we conceive of one. It's more like, at most, the equivalent of combining a Predator drone and its Hellfire missile onto a single expendable chassis.

So it has some of the advantages of a UAV (endurance, expendability), but like real life combat UAVs, does not have massive indiscriminate firepower, and cannot be used effectively against a strategic target except in enormous numbers.

[Ahriman238]

Let me clarify. This missile is not like a cruise missile the way we conceive of one. It's more like, at most, the equivalent of combining a Predator drone and its Hellfire missile onto a single expendable chassis.

So it has some of the advantages of a UAV (endurance, expendability), but like real life combat UAVs, does not have massive indiscriminate firepower, and cannot be used effectively against a strategic target except in enormous numbers.

Yes. Exactly. In fact, that's a much better explanation than mine.

[SAMAS]

I just realized you forgot the Death Knight and Carnivore. Want me to get those?

[Ahriman238]

UWW

I've spoken about these guys before, but not really at length. First because I saw there was a UWW sourcebook, but not that it had been canceled. Later because I wanted to try doing things a bit less piecemeal than I have been.

The United Worlds of Warlock is a loose confederation of most of the magic-using species of the Three Galaxies. It is also one of the few Transgalactic powers, alongside the Consortium and Transgalactic Empire. The UWW controls roughly 20% of the Anvil Galaxy, and maybe 3% of Corkscrew, with a total population around 500 billion.

The UWW's story begins nearly a thousand years ago, when the Star Elves formed an alliance with the Warlocks (a coalition of ley line walkers, techno-wizards and actual warlocks from a dozen races, but mostly human) to resist the Splugorth. They failed, and would have been destroyed save for the intervention of the dwarven guildmasters, who pulled off a last minute save with their vast fleet of Iron Ships. The Splugorth Kingdom was destroyed, the Splugorth himself fled the Three Galaxies and hasn't been seen since, and the men, elves, and dwarves celebrated by forming a united government to resist future aggression. Well, and exchanging knowledge of technology, magic and dimensional travel.

The UWW has a Parliament of Worlds consisting of the governments of the three founders (elven noblity, dwarven guildmasters and an elected college of accomplished spellcasters) plus 2 representatives from each world. This is headed by a Consul holding most executive powers and serving a decade long term. Because there are no term limits, King Silverlight of the Elves has always been elected to the post, and is on his 102nd term. This is mostly because only the elf king has the patience and charisma to deal with all the tribalism, dueling egos and many, many agendas of the Parliament. In this, at least, the elven court has provided good training. Silverlight is also a Wizard (like a Ley Line Walker, with none of the class features) and has mastered every spell on the standard list to a level few can imagine.

Such a huge legislature is unwieldy, and seems to exist mostly to strike down laws. In fact, the entire body of "federal" law can be reduced to two articles.

1.) No foreign adventures. No invasions. No getting involved in a war with an external power that could drag the rest of the UWW in. On pain of being disavowed, and possibly having your world glassed to show we mean it.

2.) Worship of any alien intelligence, demon, deevil or other source of supernatural evil is forbidden and punishable by death. Service to any alien intelligence, demon, deevil or other source of supernatural evil is forbidden and punishable by death. Likewise for all pacts, deals, arrangements, understandings and carnal relations. Attempting to wake the Old Ones is punishable by death, and really, you'd die even if you succeeded.


Individual worlds have their own government, laws and sometimes script, though most people use the UTC for convenience's sake. There are republics, dictatorships, oligarchies, magocracies, anarchies, theocracys, democracies, meritocracies and more in the UWW. There's even a world run by a suicide cult, of which 98% of the population are members, which petitions yearly for the UWW fleet to glass their planet. Member worlds can even war with each other, and unless someone appeals to the UWW government for aid, the fleet will sit it out. About 30% of member worlds aren't primarily magic users, but technocrats. Sometimes this causes friction, but it's usually restricted to some ribbing and snide remarks.

The UWW is on friendly enough terms with the CCW, though the latter can sometimes be freaked out by the stranger aspects of magic. They have a history of skirmishes and border disputes with the Kreeghor, but no all out shooting war so far. They have a vested economic interest in the Altess, and longstanding ties to Phase World. Longer than most of the Union knows. They are great enemies to the Splugorth, and attack their vessels on sight. Minions visiting the UWW are immediately detained. The UWW is the only serious power to have a border against the Anvil Star Hive Quarantine Zone, itself created and enforced solely by the Union. The Star Hives aren't their most hated enemy the way the Splugorth are, but they're the most frequent, and the Warlock Marines have over 40 full on Bug Wars and innumerable skirmishes beneath their belt. No one has more experience with the Star Hives than the UWW.

But the UWW's greatest enemy is internal. Those who use magic for sinister ends and are kinda organized if you squint right are labeled "the Dark Covens." This includes the black market, organized crime, vampires, demon-worshippers, Splugorth spies, witches, doomsday cults, terrorists, assassins, mercenaries, magic-abusing criminals, necromancers and the odd Saturday morning cartoon cackling evil sorcerer. Silverlight has sworn to see the Dark Covens stamped out, and formed a large detached unit of Space Marines to see to it. The most wanted figure in the UWW is the Witch calling herself Azriel Darkling, who tried to overthrow the Parliament of Worlds, and still sends threatening messages occasionally.


There are many notable worlds in the UWW. A partial list.

Alfheim is the elven homeworld, capital and home to Silverlight's famed Diamond Palace. Most leyline-intensive planet in the Three Galaxies.

Tempest is sacred ground to Warlocks, a world elementals can enter and leave freely, where they play. Most every natural disaster happens on a weekly to hourly basis, and it is commonly believed only a Warlock can survive on Tempest.

The Smithy is the Forge World of the Dwarven Guildmasters, it's actually almost twice the size of the planetary surface it rests on, but the larger part is in a dimensional pocket, so no worries. This way they can move it around if it seems imperiled.

New Midgard is a sort of vacation world for the Norse Gods. After some very careful discussions between between Silverlight and Odin, the UWW annexed New Midgard, but does not claim sovereignty. Instead they keep anyone from trying to seize it or bothering the gods, and in gratitude Odin has his dwarves gift the UWW each year with 72 serpent ships, sturdily-built Rift Drive freighters, which the government usually sells for funds.

Alexandria is a world nearly like Rifts Earth, but not nearly as bad, with ley line storms and rifts forming all the time. Long ago, the planet was settled by a large clan (Clan Acherean) of True Atlanteans, who broke with their nomadic tradition because they saw a need here to get the ley line network under control, and to remain and send people who get randomly rifted to Alexandria back. This is the one stationary location of Atlanteans in the megaverse, their meeting place.

Thyrgord becomes an anarchy for a full year, every seven years. This is more workable than it sounds, since in a magic society everyone is armed all the time, and you especially need to beware of children and the elderly. Also, the locals have a strong tradition of relying on honor during these phases, and forming alliances to beat down anyone who goes too far. In fact, this is the rationale for the tradition, that every seven years the bad guys come out of their holes and beg the community to band together and massacre them. And if you don't like it, an off-world ticket is cheap. This year, the authorities are hunting a powerful Shifter, sure to summon all sorts of nastiness, trying to get him while their badges mean anything.

Rhilith is a center of high technology in the UWW. The locals haven't a drop of magic in them, but a long time they intervened when their neighbor, Yoria, staged a series of bloody pogroms against their magic-users, and evacuated many to the safety of the UWW. Seven years later, a vengeful Yoria attacked Rhilith, which appealed to the UWW for aid, received it, and became a part of the fold.

Kron Omega is the planet I mentioned earlier run by a suicide cult called the Agony and the Ecstasy (A/E) which believes magic is all about destruction, and everyone should try to go out in the biggest bang possible. For decades, the fleet has laughed off their appeals for orbital bombardment, but now the Kreeghor have supplied them with a thousand nukes...

There is a planet called Ikarus with only ten inhabitants. These are the greatest adventurers in all the Three Galaxies, in particular the dragon Ikarus, now all max level and enjoying their retirment swapping war stories. Ikarus' adventuring party includes: 3 more dragons, a sphinx, an elven archmage, a lizardman sorcerer considered the foremost expert on mystic symbology, an exiled godling, a pentinent temporal raider (every party needs a rogue) and the only known reformed Dominator. They are considered honored guests of the UWW, and each holds an honorary seat on the Parliament of Worlds.

Maul is has another Forgeworld, the Lava Forge run by the Rune Smith clan of dwarven guildmasters. The clan is the only one that work the extremely rare MDC metal Tyridium, but the process is labor intensive, so Maul serves also as a prison world for those convicted to hard labor.

The Witches Cauldron is pretty much the most dangerous nebula in the three Galxies, but it's also the only source of mystic stardust, which can be used to double the duration, activiations, MDC and maybe damage of any magic items or weapons it's incorporated in.

Asteroid Eaters are artificial dwarven planetoids that eat asteroids and small moons, strip them of useful minerals and eject the slag. Some have populations of 5 million and are recognized as sovreign worlds in their own right.

[Simon_Jester]

The reformed Dominator sounds like an interesting character.

[Ahriman238]

The reformed Dominator sounds like an interesting character.

I quite agree, pity we only get one sentence. His name is Galak, he's a reformed Dominator, and he's spent most of the last decade hunting and killing his own people.

I missed a world, rushed by events in real life.

Ghenhey is an archaeologists delight, covered in ruins from an advanced magic-using civilization dating back to the Second Age, when it was destroyed by the Dominators a hundred thousand years ago. The inhabitants, dubbed "Time People" by researchers, mastered Temporal Magic to a degree that makes Temporal Raiders look like kids playing around. So far, most of the digging has just made the secrets of Temporal Magic more widely known, but they've uncovered 3 novel spells. The downside is Ghenhey is right at the edge of the Quarantine Zone, and since the research there is so important, 3 generations of Warlock Space Marines have bled and died in their personal reenactment of Starship Troopers to hold it.




There are certain advantages to having Atlanteans for neighbors. This is a space pyramid, sometimes called a Tangent Space Station. Made from an asteroid molded and crystallized by Stone Masters, and placed at LaGrange points, every major and most minor worlds of the UWW have one, sometimes more. It has all the normal benefits of a pyramid, people don't age while inside and heal twice as fast, it's really easy to open rifts to a specific dimension and you can teleport or communicate real-time to any other pyramid in the Three Galaxies, especially the ones a short shuttle ride from any major world. The main reason to have space pyramids is they can open portals at the "base" that can instantly transport a whole ship to a different pyramid, far faster than Rift-drive.

In ancient Atlantis and on Alexandria, Pyramids serve as hospitals, schools and government centers, the heart of a city. Space Pyramids have enough space for 100,000 residents, and berthing slips for a dozen starships, not counting the detachment of Space Marines each pyramid has for security. So they act as waystations for ships, and often have world-class hospitals to exploit the healing effect. It also keeps the system informed, since it can track any ship traveling a ley line it's connected (LaGrange points are all nexus points) and a conventional ship 10 light-years out.

In the event a pyramid is attacked it's resistant to energy weapons, and warded against fear, insanity and possession attacks, as well as demons and supernatural intelligences. It has 300,000 MDC, 120 fighters, and if boarded can teleport in reinforcements from all over the pyramid network with just 5-10 minutes notice. It is further armed with 5 battleship grade lasers doing 3000-18000 MD, at a range of 200 miles, one at each point of the pyramid. Then 10 lasers that do 200-800 MD at 28 miles, and 24 techno-wizard point defense railgun/missile launchers with a thousand bursts and 32 missiles apiece.

To prevent the pyramid teleporter network from being compromised, every pyramid has a self-destruct. Only King Silverlight and his 3 most trusted courtiers know the spell to nuke a pyramid from across the galaxies.

[CaptainChewbacca]

There's even a world run by a suicide cult, of which 98% of the population are members, which petitions yearly for the UWW fleet to glass their planet.

I love those guys.

[SAMAS]

I still think the UWW has some seriously wasted potential. These guys are just short of the TSAB, or at least should be. But time and again, their tech and classes always seem extremely underwhelming for an intergalactic state that's supposed to have basically switched "Magic" and "Technology" relative to, say, Rifts' Earth.

[Simon_Jester]

What does TSAB mean?

[Ahriman238]

I still think the UWW has some seriously wasted potential. These guys are just short of the TSAB, or at least should be. But time and again, their tech and classes always seem extremely underwhelming for an intergalactic state that's supposed to have basically switched "Magic" and "Technology" relative to, say, Rifts' Earth.

I'm... also unsure what "TSAB" is a reference to. Likely I'll feel like an idiot once you explain.

As to being underpowered, these are the only guys in the Three Galaxies who list dragons as a statistically relevant percentage of the population and have regular contact with gods. Their ships have relatively equivalent technology to everyone else, their FTL is different and more limited in some ways and they have more area-effect attacks than most starships. But as I've said, when closer to home, their ships get around a lot faster than everyone else's.

They're also the source of probably my favorite spellcasting class in all RIFTS. But I'll get there.




Star Elves. Most people know they're around, they're old and magical. What few outsiders know is that in another time they were called the Eldar, and they are one of just 3 races to survive the end of the Second Age, the others being the Prometheans and a handful of Dominators. When the Dominators tried to conquer or exterminate all other life, and all the Three Galaxies united against them, the Eldar gathered as much knowledge as they could, fell back on Alfheim, and hid it with mystic ritual. They lived content in their single planet bubble kingdom for tens of millennia before taking their first trembling steps back into the universe. At first (and second. And third) blush this seems like cowardice, but they survived when so many others didn't, and there is a strong mutual respect/wariness between the surviving Elder Races.

Star Elves roll slightly higher dice than humans for all their stats but speed, but are especially advanced in every mental skill, dexterity and charisma. They stand 6-7 feet tall, have 15-154 MDC, and solid regen (4-24 MDC an hour.) They also have perfect nightvision and supernatural strength. They are ageless, but can be killed by accident or violence. Because of their long traditions with both nature and the longbow, they get very generous bonuses to archery and survival skills.

In character, they're a mixed bag. A lot of Elves really are like an idealized humanity with few of our flaws, noble and compassionate in a way other people wish they could be. Others are pretty much alliterative arrogant aloof assholes. Almost all elves are very independent, demanding a great deal of freedom and flexibility so they rarely do well in formal command structures like the military unless they get to be in charge or do a lot of detached duty. In study, they are disciplined and driven to be the best, and many of the UWW's top scientists and sorcerers are Elves.

The Star Elves are the largest single racial group in the UWW, making up 20% of the population. The Star Elves taught the other races of the UWW about Rifts and dimension travel, and their effect on the Fleet has been such that a Fleet officer's uniform is a loose set of robes in forest tones.

[Ahriman238]

Dwarven Guildmasters

The Anvil Dwarves, who built a steampunk space fleet just because someone said they couldn't. Sadly in most any other way they're typical dwarves. Which means 3-4 feet tall, prickly and stubborn. Even in the Service, one doesn't give orders to a dwarf, they make requests. They have a big weakness for ego-stroking, as long as you aren't too obvious in your flattery.

The Dwarves have similar stat rolls to humans, but way more (supernatural) strength and endurance. Good nightvision, and a knack for engineering that gives them a generous bonus on any mechanical, electrical, or programming skill check. About a third of Guildmasters know how to make Rune Weapons. Most don't on moral grounds. Aside from the Runesmith class, Anvil Dwarves can;t be spellcasters.

Most Dwarves are of two minds about cybernetics. They can definitely appreciate the engineering challenges involved, and admire implants that are well-constructed. On the other hand, it interferes with the crafting of magic items to have a bionic hand. Most Dwarves will have little problem with cybernetics if wounded, or deciding to pursue a life of mundane mechanical challenge.

The Guildmasters of course were one of the founding races, and make up 15% of the UWW's population.



Ratanoid

Ratanoids are the rogue-types of the UWW. They're rat-men with rat's heads, tails and fur, 4-5.5 feet. Very interested in magic, rarely have the discipline or self-confidence required to see it through. Good nightvision, but poor in daylight, good hearing, climb and swim. Cyborgs are relatively frequent. Ratanoids get appalling treatment outside the UWW, because of their reputation as spies and thieves.

Ratanoids make up an additional 15% of the UWW.



Space Minotaur



Speculated to be an artificially created race, the Minotaurs have an understanding with the Dwarves that predates the UWW. The Dwarves make whatever the Minotaurs need, and the Minotaurs protect the various Forges and Asteroid Eaters. This generally works out to everyone's satisfaction, Minotaurs are very physical and aggressive, but have a strong culture of community, and being protectors not aggressors. Making personal sacrifices for the "herd."

Physically, Minotaurs are 7 and a half to 9 feet tall, 500 to 800 lbs with red or bronze skin. They have 27-330 MDC, no regen. Decent nightvision, impressive sense of smell, can do any physical activity at least twice as long as a human, hot and cold resistant. With training able to lift 1500 lbs. Extremely athletic, all Minotaurs in game terms qualify as hand to hand combat experts, particularly in boxing and wrestling. Most Minotaurs can easily kill a human with a single blow, and they have a strange cultural obsessive with axes, the magic and vibro-blade kind. They're also fond of heavy armor, and one of the Naruni's biggest markets for personal forcefields.

The Minotaurs are strongly represented in the Warlock Marines. Sometimes they break type and go for a technical specialization, most are heavy weapons support or shocktroopers. Their high MDC, physical strength, and self-sacrificing mentality usually lead to a default position of squad meat-shield, and most Minotaurs are fine with that because they can take the hits.



Surprise, 15% of the UWW are Minotaurs. 15% Ratanoid. 15% Dwarf. 15% Human/Space Warlock. 20% Elf. 20% Other (including faeries, dragons, wulfen, a very small population of silhouettes, and a variety of aliens yet to be explored.)

[SAMAS]

I'm... also unsure what "TSAB" is a reference to. Likely I'll feel like an idiot once you explain.

The guys from the Lyrical Nanoha series.

As to being underpowered, these are the only guys in the Three Galaxies who list dragons as a statistically relevant percentage of the population and have regular contact with gods. Their ships have relatively equivalent technology to everyone else, their FTL is different and more limited in some ways and they have more area-effect attacks than most starships. But as I've said, when closer to home, their ships get around a lot faster than everyone else's.

They're also the source of probably my favorite spellcasting class in all RIFTS. But I'll get there.

I should probably reiterate that.

By "Power", I don't mean so much raw MDC/Damage, but rather the whole Techno-Wizardry synthesis/Sufficiently Analyzed Magic angle. As an example, I would compare the Shadow Bolt, Greataxe IFV and Warlock Power Armor to later TW gear like the War Urchin PA from Underseas, the Iron Mage Glitter Boy from the Black Market Sourcebook, or even the corrupted version of their own Warlock PA in Dimensional Outbreak. They rarely have the feel of any kind of TW power armor/vehicles.

The various factions of the UWW have been at the Magic and Techno-Wizardry game for centuries each. They should be able to make stuff like this:



I actually made a thread on the Palladium boards where I talked about it. It didn't hardly get anywhere, but I still feel the same way:

http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/v ... 8&t=133586

[Ahriman238]

Classes time.

Techno-Smithy

Basically UWW Fleet mechanics who keep the Rift Drive PPE batteries charged, the deathcloud cannons operational, and the magic-trains running on time. All know the ritual to recharge PPE batteries, pat that, a Techno-Smithy chooses one of 3 specializations.

A Talisman type learns a ritual (2 hours per spell level) to implant a single use standard spell, levels 1-6, into a piece of jewelry, so a person can activate it later. They can do 2-use, 3-use and 3 a day, but the chance of failure climbs fast. Starts with See Aura, See Invisible, Sense Magic, Amulet, Talisman and 6 spells from levels 1-6.

Some Smiths learn to forge magic weapons and armor, These are usually of superior quality and durability, and can have up to 3 spell-like abilities (levels 1-8) added, again in long rituals. These ones start with Blind Flash, Turn Dead, Impervious to Fire, Impervious to Energy, Enchant Weapon and 4 spells levels 1-4.

But the majority study Techno-Wizardry, learning to maintain and repair magic-tech, even creating new bits of Techno-Wizardry. Granted, their skill at creating new techno-wizard devices is a lot less than repairing destroyed ones. Starts with Blinding Flash, Globe of Daylight, Fuel Flame, Ignite Fire, Impervious to Energy and Telekinesis (spell) plus 4 more from levels 1-4.

Techno-Smithies don't necessarily learn spells as they level, but spells are often awarded for a job well done, so expect 4-7 spells a level, give or take. The Engineering areas of UWW Fleet ships are usually informal and organized along dwarven lines. Each section chief is considered a master craftsmen, to whom his subordinates are apprenticed and whom he must train up. When promoted or moved, each chief names his successor.



Obsidian Spell Thief

Okay, now we're talking. The OST is the Dark Coven's one unique class, a way of showing the supremacy of dark magic. These sorcerers are trained to perceive each spell as an elaborate tapestry they can pick apart. So much for your wards, magical alarms and booby traps. Likewise they can disenchant magic items. More, they can learn any spell, from any school of magic in 20 minutes tops from a book, scroll or dissecting an example. The downside is they can't cast anything above 6th level unless they've learned it through their powers recently. Mid-to-high level spells are always forgotten after 3 days, and they can't write anything down because they're all dyslexic, except when learning spells.

This is apparently a limitation built into their training by their mysterious Guildmasters, to keep any Spell Thief from becoming powerful enough to challenge them. The usual MO is to break into some sorcerer's sanctum, using their powers to get past magical security and their skills for the mundane, learn as much magic they can, then teach the spells to a client before they fade. Nobody seems to have hit on the obvious solution of filming themselves explaining the spells and reviewing the films every few days. Maybe it wouldn't work.

Point is, being able to get around the prerequisites to learn from any spell list makes an insanely flexible caster. So much so the level restriction is needed to keep them from godhood. As it is, they can have a much larger spell list than higher level casters, particularly since their whole character is about going out and stealing new magic. And if they have a lot less raw power, that's why they're a thief class. At the very least that's 75% of all Elemental Magic they can learn. Oh, they can also sense ley lines and magic use, similar to a ley line walker, with a bit less range and sensitivity.

Starting spell knowledge is Decipher Magic, See Invisible, Sense Magic, Sense Evil, See Wards, Eye of Thoth, Tongues, Concealment, Detect Concealment, Escape, Lesser Teleport, Armor of Ithan and 4-9 more spells from levels 1-6.