Jab's Rifts Builds (Rifts- A Final Summation!)

Where in all of your character write ups will go.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Batgirl III »

The Thunderstorm looks like something that should have been a Triax or NGR design...
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Jabroniville »

That’ll happen when Wayne Breaux designs all your stuff. Most of the Rifts artists struggled to differentiate their “mech drawing style” with 100 different suits to design.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Batgirl III »

I think most of them were trying to design a half dozen suits, Kevin just decided to turn every scrap of concept art they submitted into a full O.C.C. (or two).
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Jabroniville »

-And that does it for Rifts: Warlords of Russia! As books go, it's... pretty run of the mill. Almost EXACTLY what Bill Coffin described in his Kevin takedown, actually, and suspiciously close to when Bill was on-staff, to the point where I strongly suspect he was talking about this exact book when describing Kevin's creative process. "He's got about two weeks to do it in, a vision of the finished project and about three half-decent ideas to get him there"- and hey, look- a book about a group of disparate Warlords with unique Cyborgs, a focus on some Russian Knights, a Soviet enclave with super-tech... and he builds an ENTIRE BOOK AND SETTING out of just that, plopping down useless things like Cossacks (turning an actual culture into a warlike society of nomad horsemen from nowhere in particular), random beasts, a ton of superfluous survivalist classes, Mad Max guys out of nowhere running alongside regular soldiers, and more vehicles and guns than is necessary because it's a unique society that can't just share gear with other places that easily.

So overall, some of it is fine- I like a few of the unique 'Borg types and some of the Warlords are alright, and you can sorta go somewhere with the Reavers or Wandering Knights. But overall it's kinda forgettable aside from some good Perez art and I can see why nobody ever really talks about this book.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Batgirl III »

The two Russia books came out right on the heels of the super popular Rifts® World Book 13: Lone Star™ and Rifts® World Book 14: New West™ (and the slightly less popular, but still decently selling Rifts® World Book 15: Spirit West™. All of which were literally “next door” to the primary/default setting of the Coalition States. And if I recall correctly Rifts® World Book 20: Rifts® Canada™ came out very soon after the release of the Russia books...

Since Russia was even more cut-off from the North American setting than the NGR or Japan (and let’s face it, the vast majority of players are Americans) it probably wouldn’t be terribly useful... Japan and China have the fanboy-factor helping their sales (even long before anime became mainstream, there were always American nerds who were obsessed with Japanese and Chinese pop culture) and Australia... Well, heck, Australia is basically a Rifts® setting the the real world, so obviously there’s appeal there.

I think that the Russia books, like most Rifts® World Books, is a pretty decent “rough draft” and a GM who wanted to put in the work to “finish it” could make a very cool campaign out of it... But I also know that I’d much rather run a campaign in North America or the NGR.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Curbludgeon »

This has been a great set of builds.

Nice catch on the Demonfist adding PS to melee damage. In a game where that being made explicit is important it joins a pretty limited list of things where being both strong and armed matters:
Spoiler
Gargoyle/Xiticix/Madhaven Mutant Bone/Northern Gun/Kisentite/Soulmancy melee weapons, the Phase Sword from Phase World, the Atlantean Crystal Combat Gauntlet, Martial Expert Advanced Training and Hellbuster Armor from Heroes of Humanity, and a handful of bionics in the Bionics Sourcebook et al: Hydraulic Hammer Hand, Retractable Knuckle Blades, and Pneumatic Punching Jackhammer Arm. The games Nightbane and Heros Unlimited add weapon and SN strength together, so some crap from that could be argued to carry over, I suppose.
I ended up going through all the types of non-magical cyborg to see which get an edge. There are couple of takeaways.
Spoiler
Onboard weapons that deal more than 1d6x10 are rare, with the just-covered Thunderstorm being one of the only examples. One might well assume many of these borgs keep a human-sized pulse rifle handy, just so they might keep up.

Only a few characters are capable of having enough of an engineering and/or medical background such that they might engage in personal upkeep/modification. This includes the Phase World Oni Cyberai, the Megaversal Destroyer Borg from South America 2, the Sovietski Vedmak, to a limited extent the Mining Borg, and a Bionics character converted from Heroes Unlimited, with the last having both the greatest potential skill access and the burden of having to upgrade from SDC parts.

The Sourcebook Heroes of Humanity is noteworthy for a few things. The Advanced Training programs allow a character to sacrifice their future O.C.C. Related/Secondary skills in order to gain packages at 1st level. Not only can a Rifts character become even more front-loaded than they ususally are, classes created with the system in mind have to sacrifice skills they already know at higher levels, such as a CS Death Knight in their fervor likely forgetting Morse Code, or Basic Math. Three programs of note are Martial Expert, which adds Boxing, one additional attack, and minor bonuses; Black Talon Combat Pilot, which grants some RPA:Elite for flying power armor; and Steel Armor, which does the same for ground vehicles and power armor. Finally the Hellbuster armor is an over the top bonus for those Coalition States Cyborgs unable to get bonus attacks via piloting. It adds some redundant weapons to a 400 MDC frame which is worn on top of heavy armor, resulting in a Heavy Cyborg with 1040 MDC. The book also contains a series of Cyborg helmets which add sensory options which should be made standard for all cyborgs.

Gaining additional attacks is the main target of optimization, whether through boxing, piloting, additional limbs, combat computers, or additional training.
Boxing: available to every character save the Naruni Repo-bot and those Sovietski characters built using the Sovietski book instead of Warlords of Russia
Piloting: While not initially available to a Borg from the Main Book, most regional cyborgs have access to something. The Russians have their Cyberlink, while Phase World/Triax/South America natively have skill access to piloting Power Armor. The Ultimate Edition added a Flight System skill with comparable bonuses, and Heroes of Humanity Sourcebook allows most any mercenary cyborg to start with 7 or more attacks/round.
Limbs: Several varieties have extra arms/tentacles/prehensile tails. It's worth from 2-3 attacks, depending largely on if a given region's tail tech is up to snuff
Combat Computers/Heightened Reflexes: German/Triax and Québécois cyborgs all get an additional attack attributed to Heightened Reflexes. The Sovietski, using knockoffs of Triax software, have access to a combat computer which can switch between ranged/melee mode, with the ranged granting a bonus attack
Additional Training: In addition by the Martial Expert Advanced Training method Chinese Geo-Front 'borgs get this, gaining an extra 3-4 attacks as they level in lieu of Mystic Martial Art bonuses.

Here's a listing by region, focusing on MDC and noteworthy crap mostly as detailed above
RUE 280 Base 360 Armor
Cyberhumanoid 200 + Can wear conventional Human Armor

North America
Quebec
Imprimer 180 Base +360 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
Dervish 200 Base +360 Armor +2 Attack(Reflexes, Extra Arms)
Leviathan 220 Base + 380 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
New West
"The Kid" 150 Base + Conventional Armor
"Super Slinger" 190 Base + Conventional Armor +1 Attack(Extra Arms)
"Gringo" 220 Base + 200 Armor
Mining Borg 200 Base + 150 Armor

South America
Destroyer Borg 300 Base 150 Force Field +1 Attack, Inertial Shield, Stealth System, VR System, Skill Access (Boxing, PA, Engineering)
Plains Borg 280 Base +360 Armor

Japan
Ninja Borg 280 Base + Conventional Armor, Sound Suppression
Japanese Borg 180 Base + 288 Armor
Wing Blade 270 Combined +2 Attack (Extra limbs/long neck)
Tsunami 320 Combined +1 Attack (Tail)
Imperial 350 Combined +1 Attack (Tail)
Flame Cloud 320 Combined +1 Attack (Tail)

Europe
Mindwerks FC Borg: ~230 Base 270 Armor Brain Programming

Triax
EIC-100 Gurgoyle 250 Base 135 Armor +2 Attack(Reflexes, Tail)
VX-300 Striker (human-size) 180 Base 100 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-320 Cyclops (human-size) 180 Base 100 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-340 Slasher/Gold Type 180 Base 270 Armor + 1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-370 Stopper/Blue Type 200 Base 280 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-500 ManhunterlRed Type 280 Base 420 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-635 Prowler (human-size) 180 Base 135 Armor +2 Attack(Reflexes, multiple piddly weapon systems)
VX-2010 Maurader 660 Base +1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-2020 Monster 680 Base +1 Attack(Reflexes)
VX-20000 Barracuda 210 Base + 500 Armor +1 Attack(Reflexes)
Luftwaffe Cyborg Combat Pilot 150 Base +1 Attack(Reflexes), Massive bonuses in cybernetic airframes (+2 attacks, +1@3,5,7,9,15; +4 actions, auto-dodge, improved critical, bonuses to strike/initiative/etc)

Russia
Warlords:Cyberlink
Heavy Machine 270 Base + 280 Armor
Tempest 340 Base + 280 Armor +1 Attack(Tail)
Butcher 320 Base + 280 Armor
Ripper 360 Base + 280 Armor
White Tiger 300 Base + 280 Armor +1 Attack(Tentacles)
Holocaust 360 Base + 280 Armor +2 Attacks(Extra Arms/Integrated weapon systems)
Aftermath 350 Base + 280 Armor
Avenging Angel 290 Base + 180 Armor +1 Attack(because scythes are cool?)
Assassin 270 Base + 180 Armor +1 Attacks(Extra Arms)
Mantis 280 Base + 180 Armor
Demonfist 350 Base + 300 Armor

Sovietski: Cyberlink, Combat Computer, Limited access to boxing (Note: the +1 attack is essentially because Triax did it/power creep/compensation for losing boxing)
Vedmak 165 Combined, is a Cyber-doc
Heavy Machine 240 Base + 250 Armor
Firebird 240 Base + 210 Armor +1 Attack
Whirlwind 200 Base + 180 Armor +2 Attacks(Extra Arms), converts to a motorcycle
Rusalka 260 Base + 240 Armor + 3 Attacks(4 Tentacles)
Thunderfist 580 Combined +2 Attacks (+1@5,10)(Extra Arms)
Tsar "Big Ivan" 740 Combined +1 Attack
Thunderstorm 1240 Combined, high damage guns
Thunderhammer 320 Base + 300 Armor
Thunderstrike 320 Base + 360 Armor

China (Note the use of non-standard H2H, which compensates for the lack of piloting skills which grant attacks)
Demon Eater 220 Base + 340 Armor Shao-lin +1Attack@2.5.9.12
Assault Light Geo-Borg 180 Base + 140 Armor choice of H2H +1 Attack@2,6,12
Lion Geo-Borg 280 Combined Shao-lin +1Attack@3,5,8,12

Phase World
Cyberai 420 Base 480 Armor +1 Attack, Regeneration, Horror Factor, Skill Access (Boxing, PA, Engineering)
Repo-bot 600 Base 300 Force Field +1 Attack, No access to boxing
Wulfen Quatoria 350 Base + Conventional Armor +1 Attack, Regeneration, Living Shell
Last edited by Curbludgeon on Tue May 04, 2021 7:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 4:27 am Since Russia was even more cut-off from the North American setting than the NGR or Japan (and let’s face it, the vast majority of players are Americans) it probably wouldn’t be terribly useful... Japan and China have the fanboy-factor helping their sales (even long before anime became mainstream, there were always American nerds who were obsessed with Japanese and Chinese pop culture) and Australia... Well, heck, Australia is basically a Rifts® setting the the real world, so obviously there’s appeal there.

I think that the Russia books, like most Rifts® World Books, is a pretty decent “rough draft” and a GM who wanted to put in the work to “finish it” could make a very cool campaign out of it... But I also know that I’d much rather run a campaign in North America or the NGR.
Yeah, I've been keeping stock of which books were released when, because I definitely recall certain "Eras" of Rifts.

1990-1993: "We're Still Trying to Figure This Setting Out"- Main Rulebook, Vampire Kingdoms, England, Africa, Atlantis, Triax, Mechanoids, Mutants In Orbit, Wormwood, South America 1.
(some good, some crap- Africa & England are among the setting's worst books and are highly unimaginative. Atlantis is hit or miss but pretty good. SA1 is very much quite good)

1994-95: "Okay We Got It Figured Out"- Underseas, Japan, South America 2, Phase World, Mindwerks, Mercenaries, Manhunter, Pantheons of the Megaverse
(all good to very good, with lots of Vince Martin art and CJ Carella writing)

1996-97: "More Good Stuff"- Juicer Uprising, Coalition War Campaign, Psyscape, CS Navy, Lone Star, New West, Spirit West, Federation of Magic
(mostly excellent books with lots of CJ Carella until he's gone. Ramon Perez art, yay! But... lots of weak settings and bad Kevin stuff, like the Coalition rampaging over everything, his Magic rant, and the awful Spirit West)

1998-2000: "The Wheels Come Off"- Warlords & Mystic Russia, Australia, Splynn Dimensional Market, Xiticix, Canada, Skraypers, Free Quebec, Coalition Wars)
(Carella's gone, Kevin gets full sway, and the setting kind of halts innovation. Peak "Power Creep" and the Coalition Wars takes over the setting as the first and only "mega-event"... which ends in status quo for the CS)

Post-2000: "Meh" (Kevin takes a side and new blood takes over, so books are hit or miss but are largely forgotten about as soon as they come out. LOTS of books about space settings and Demons)
The two Russia books came out right on the heels of the super popular Rifts® World Book 13: Lone Star™ and Rifts® World Book 14: New West™ (and the slightly less popular, but still decently selling Rifts® World Book 15: Spirit West™. All of which were literally “next door” to the primary/default setting of the Coalition States. And if I recall correctly Rifts® World Book 20: Rifts® Canada™ came out very soon after the release of the Russia books...
That's interesting- I'm unaware of most sales figures for Rifts stuff- is this a general sentiment towards popularity or based off of how well they sold? I was very unimpressed with Lone Star, but thought New West was fine (if the WORST for Class Bloat).
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Jabroniville »

Curbludgeon wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 7:27 am This has been a great set of builds.

Nice catch on the Demonfist adding PS to melee damage. In a game where that being made explicit is important it joins a pretty limited list of things where being both strong and armed matters:
Thanks! Glad you liked it! I know nothing about the Russian setting in Rifts, so this was pretty much all new to me. I too find it weird how little stuff actually makes a difference whether or not you're strong- hell, many weapons do LESS damage than someone's unarmed strength! And yet the setting will somehow arbitrarily make a tiny handful of weapons add to it.
Only a few characters are capable of having enough of an engineering and/or medical background such that they might engage in personal upkeep/modification. This includes the Phase World Oni Cyberai, the Megaversal Destroyer Borg from South America 2, the Sovietski Vedmak, to a limited extent the Mining Borg, and a Bionics character converted from Heroes Unlimited, with the last having both the greatest potential skill access and the burden of having to upgrade from SDC parts.
I wonder if this was a deliberate thing to make sure players included an "upkeep" guy like an Operator O.C.C. into parties?
The Sourcebook Heroes of Humanity is noteworthy for a few things.
Never heard of that one? Is it a Rifts book or a generic Palladium one?

I honestly didn't even know there was a book called Rifts Sovietski, lol. That doesn't even appear in my master list! Was it any good?

In practice, which classes in Rifts were THE top dogs? Dragons are obviously powerful, but their M.D.C. is way lower than most 'Borgs & Glitter Boys. GBs are the infamous omega-tier group, but are somewhat slow. I'd imagine a 'Borg with a Rail Gun and a jetpack would be top-tier. Juicers get great attack bonuses and with a proper big gun can be devastating. Dragon Juicers are pretty good, boosting attacks AND having natural M.D.C.

And obviously there's the Cosmo-Knights.

Looking at my conversions, there's the Destroyer 'Borg, CS Hellraiser, Dragon 'Borgs, Xiticix Killer, Glitter Boy, some Warlord 'Borgs, Cosmo-Knight, Shemarrian Warrior, and Cyberai.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Thunderhammer & Thunderstrike Shocktroopers)

Post by Curbludgeon »

It's easy to rail on PB for poor editing and inconsistency, but it does seem deliberate that combat cyborgs are only capable of modest self-repair. The only cyborgs on Rifts Earth with any likelihood to be able to install or repair anything complicated are the Vedmak, whom aren't good in a fight and make several insanity rolls just because.

Heroes of Humanity
Spoiler
Rifts book from 2016. It was intended to be the first of two or three books detailing the CS response to the Minion War (between demons and "dyvals") that's come up in a few books the last few years. It's about 85 pages of setting stuff with 20-some pages on Advanced Training, 3 classes that make use of it (Combat Courier, Death Knight, Skelebot Specialist), and 30 pages of options for Coalition psychics/cyborgs/juicers. Like most Palladium stuff these days Chuck Walton's line art is the high point.
Sovietski
Spoiler
World Book 36 (Lemuria 32, Northern Gun 33&34, Megaverse in Flames 35), published in early 2018, and it shares a high point with HoH. Amusingly some of Walton's art was repuposed from a Splicers project, so some pictures with body horror-style gene manipulation got turned into bionic animals to shoehorn them in. I don't know if I can call the book "good" since the whole New Soviet shtick seems really hack. I get that the setting is X-ploitation, but geeze,

There's a fairly brief timeline and description of current foreign relations, 10 pages on the big cities, and Underground Bunker Creation Tables because random charts are good shovelware. In the next ~!5 pages on daily life are 8 more religious enclaves, a couple of which being a little interesting. The Catholic Priest from the Warlords book might be replaced with a Mystic or Cyborg whose implants aren't under conscious control in an attempt at glossokinesis or some such, as an example.

There are 4 new D-Bees. Gridgitz are a slightly tougher and less intelligent version of mostly rural human with a high incidence of healing psionics, which they often assume to be the power of prayer. Shu-Shuum are a short, leathery-skinned race of humanoids with an eye for detail and mind for middle management who handle a fair amount of paperpushing for the state while feeling really close to some sort of insensitive stereotype. The last two are depicted as RCCs, with limited skill options. Wolverine People are hairy and average 175 MDC to start, and occasionally howl. Yaganar are humanoid elemental spirits that gain levels increasingly quickly as they develope innate abilities, before disappearing into thin air, possibly returning to an elemental plane.

After 10 pages detailing the Sovietski Army and some new skills are several classes. They tend to replace OCC Related and Secondary skills with MOS-type skill packages, which limits customization. That's why apparently very few Sovietski can box.

The Cold Born is an Icy version of a Burster, and isn't very interesting. Cyborg Soldiers/Police Officers/Infantry Soldiers/Tankers are largely an excuse to take more space than needed to detail a small variety of MOS, particularly since any and all can end up having bionics. The Spetsnaz is similar, but has more skill options, and might instead be a magical or psionic intelligence agent rather than a bionic one. The Commissar and Citizen are described as Non-Combatant classes that handle public sector and other non-miltary jobs, respectively. The Vedmak is basically the Russian Cyber Doc in a Light Machine Chassis, who rolls rather a lot on a unique to them insanity table.Image

5 human cyborg models are detailed. The Firebird is a flying model similar to a SAMAS. The Whirlwind has four arms and two motocycle wheels which shift from behind the shoulders to in between the lower legs, allowing use. The latter three are designated Superheavy Machines, so as to differentiate the Sovietski from the Warlords. The Rusalka has tentacles and harpoons, and is for naval assault. The Thunderfist has four arms and is designed for close-in scrapping, with chainsaws and the like. The Tsar or "Big Ivan" is 15 feet tall and meant to blur the lines between cyborg and giant robot. After the humans are a few pages devoted to animal cyborgs, which is where a lot of the Walton art is used. Bird/Canine/Bear examples are given, followed by a few pages of miscellaneous bionics. Next are vehicles (ekranoplans, small vehicles, tanks, a few watercraft. Several varieties of rounds usable by tanks are detailed, with the Armor Piercing being noteworthy for actually penetrating in a way not otherwise in Palladium that I know of. Finally about half of the Sovietski equipment section from the Warlords book is reprinted, along with new personal-size equipment that I can't be bothered with.
As for top dogs,
Spoiler
it's pretty much the same as with comparing different cyborgs: accruing bonuses is good, but actions per melee is king. Access to a non-standard Hand to Hand style is worth around 1 action/round, Training/Class Choice/Drugs can usually add 1 in addition to boxing, bionic and/or bio-wizard limbs can add 3 or more if one really milks it, and piloting can add 1-5 with the higher numbers generally reserved for specialists. The Lemuria book provides examples of power armor which grants bonus attacks without requiring skill slots, which can help get around the latter restriction. There are also a few ways for a character to bond or meld with something they're piloting, which adds considerably to these bonuses. These include the Cyberlink, the super power Mechano-link, the Phase World species of Machine People, and the D-Bees of North America species of Malvoren.

After number of attacks is ensuring damage. Few things exceed a Boom Gun, with one example being the Multirifle for the Silverhawk PA found in the main Phase World book. There's a gun in a South America book which does 3d6x10 while draining an E-clip with every shot, which could instead be hooked up to a nuclear power supply, but that's a bit cheesy. I'd argue 1d6x10 is a good target.

Strike and dodge totals mainly matter in melee combat. Automatic dodge is nice, but almost exclusively has a pretty low bonus and so is less likely to help the character lap an opponent on actions/round.

Access to magic is good simply to allow activating technowizard items. The amount of PPE a character has is less significant in a game where Talismans/Batteries see use, but some effects (such as Impervious to Energy) are too hard to pass up. Soulmancy magic, as found in Megaverse in Flames, has two uninspiring classes attached to it, but there is a Permanency ritual available to someone willing to learn from demons. With the sacrifice of a kindergarten class or two a character could be made pretty unassailable. Psychic stuff can be good due to how quickly it can be used, but definitely has a ceiling of potential.

In a regular Rifts game the Phaeton Juicer is likely the best pilot. Magicians that can make extra attacks viable include a Battle Magus/Battle Magus Controller with their Automata, a Technowizard in custom TWPA, and a Lemurian Ley Line Walker in Barnacle Armor. Some sort of custom Splugorth/Kittani gladiator can coax out a lot of bonuses between bionics, bio-wizardry, tattoos, and psionics, but they're a freak. Robots (using Sourcebook 1) are solid.

Something a little more outlandish might involve a Rifts China character outside of China, the crazy D-Bees like Lanotaur Hunters, or a combination. An Auto-G (a doppleganger that can copy abilities) that stayed in human form long enough to be trained as a Gun Master in the Chinese Geo-Front before copying a Malvoren (sapient person-shaped pile of tentacles that melds with machines) and settles inside a power armor is extremely cheesy for only needing two books. The Cold-Blooded class (Mercenary Adventures) is for those that received a necromantic treatment to make them something like 2/3 undead, and among other effects converts HP and SDC to MDC. When used as a detox treatment for Juicers, or when applied to high SDC D-Bees, it gets silly. An Amaki (South America 2) Cold Blooded could have over 2000 MDC, as could a Titan Juicer dodging Last Call. To make it even more silly, only certain species are described as gaining height in a Titan Juicer treatment. The canine people from Palladium Fantasy (Wolfen/Coyle/Kankoren) are eligible for Juicer treatment, but aren't listed as gaining height. If they instead gain width a Kankoren former-Titan Cold Blooded, while being a 2000+MDC regenerating power armor pilot, might have a hard time finding one that fits due to being a 5' cube of fox.

In a game that pulled from other settings things don't get less wacky. Phase World has several crazy options out there, superpowers vary wildly in strength (and per the conversion book can work with the skill-focused classes), Splicer Bio-Armors take the necessity of piloting in action parity and dials it up, the Nightbane Sorceror (and Magii Athanatos from the same setting) are sturdy wizards, and with After the Bomb one can make a robot controlling Dr. Baby with her Transdimensional TMNT friend, the 1 pound australopith with a ~2000 IQ.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Warlords of Russia Complete!)

Post by Batgirl III »

That's interesting- I'm unaware of most sales figures for Rifts stuff- is this a general sentiment towards popularity or based off of how well they sold? I was very unimpressed with Lone Star, but thought New West was fine (if the WORST for Class Bloat).
Pure speculation on my part; But it’s speculation based on the books I see stuck in FLGS bargain bins for years, the books I see on my shelves and my friends’ shelves, and just sort of the general chatter about the game.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Warlords of Russia Complete!)

Post by Batgirl III »

For “top dogs,” I think the most powerful options within the actual Rifts® line are (in no particular order) the Cosmo-Knight, Blhaze, and Demi-God.

If you have a GM insane enough to allow you to pull options from other Palladium lines, then the most powerful options are the Valkyrie Pilot O.C.C. from The Robotech Role-Playing Game, any character from Heroes Unlimited that has a good roll for their random powers.

Characters from these settings (especially HU) can also bring something to Rifts Earth® that’s even more potentially disruptive to the campaign world than a hypersonic mecha with over-the-horizon missiles or superhuman invulnerability: they will have had a modern, university-level education.
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Rifts: Mystic Russia

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

RIFTS WORLD BOOK 16: MYSTIC RUSSIA (1998):

-Sooooooooooo YUP- Kevin Siembieda explained with Warlords of Russia that he trusted some poor dumb freelancer with a Rifts Russia project, he found it to "lack Russian flavor", and so instead of cancelling it, he decided that since he was hyping it (which he ALWAYS DOES), he needed to produce it himself. But since Kevin is a micromanager who tries to do everything himself, this put the entire line behind, so 1997-98 ended up being a very empty year for the once-hot gaming world of Rifts. And of course Kevin spread all his ideas out across TWO BOOKS instead of concentrating it into one, because there's nothing he likes more than Page Bloat. Like, Warlords of Russia had half the book filled with barely-different types of cyborgs, and now this one introduces dozens of magical classes, reprints a SHIT-LOAD of information from the recent past, and then fills half the book with a Monster Manual of demons. I fail to see why he couldn't have just put that all into Rifts Russia and spared everyone some time, but Kevin appears to think "More = Better".

This book? I've barely read through it, but it seems the art is fine. It lacks Ramon Perez, Vince Martin and even Wayne Breaux, so it loses that "Rifts Feel", but this almost ends up being a benefit, as the "1990s Comics"-style artist he puts on most of the art actually makes it come off as unique instead of the same old stuff. Even so, most of the demons don't look that interesting, and Magic-themed books are always DEATH in Rifts, because Kevin vastly overestimates just how useful Magic is in his setting. Plus this has the usual stink of "taking a barely-understood pagan thing and spinning several pages on it".

This is definitely one of the line's best covers, though- some vaguely-mystical seductress with cool headgear in front of obviously-Russian turnip-topped buildings and these rad eyeless Dragons flying around in the background? THAT'S a good version of "What Is Rifts?". Tragically, a huge chunk of the filler art isn't even used for R.C.C.s or monsters- it's just random images. Which is funny, as Kevin is notorious for just using filler art as entire classes.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Warlords of Russia Complete!)

Post by Batgirl III »

That's not just any onion-domed Russian building, that's Saint Basil's Cathedral, which overlooks Red Square, it is unmistakable.

Great artwork, if rather nonsensical in terms of the game's setting, since Moscow is supposed to have been blown to bits during the nuclear war(s) that caused the apocalypse that resulted in the post-apocalypse setting:
Rifts® Warlords of Russia™, page 12 wrote: The Russia of old is gone. Reduced to rubble by the Great Cataclysm or torn from the earth by the unholy creatures that came later. No trace of the once great city of Moscow is left ... vaporized. In its place is the Moskva Supercrater, kilometer after kilometer of earth blasted into hard, smooth stone. But just west is New Moscow and the heart of the sovereign nation known as the New Soviet, or Sovietski.
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Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Warlords of Russia Complete!)

Post by Jabroniville »

ahhhh yeah, I figured it was based off of that, if not the literal thing. Of course the artist probably didn't know or didn't care that it was destroyed, lol.
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Batgirl III
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Warlords of Russia Complete!)

Post by Batgirl III »

Considering that the core rulebook for Rifts®’ cover is a creature that is not only not named in the book but not even mentioned in it....
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