Page 11 of 252

Wilderness Scout

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:07 am
by Jabroniville
Image
Image

WILDERNESS SCOUT O.C.C.
Role:
Futuristic Ranger
PL 8 (115)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 10 (+12)
Expertise (Survival) 9 (+13)
Expertise (Animal Handling) 6 (+8)
Intimidation 2 (+4)
Investigation 2 (+6)
Perception 5 (+9)
Stealth 4 (+8)
Technology 6 (+8)
Vehicles 2 (+7)

Advantages:
Equipment 12 (Gear), Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Aim, Minion 4 (Pack Animal), Ranged Attack 3, Tracking

Equipment:
"Body Armor"
Protection 5 (Impervious 5) (11)
Immunity 6 (Radiation, Vacuum, Hot, Cold, Suffocation 2) (6)
Mini-Computer (2)
Tinted Visor, Loudspeaker, etc. (3)

"Laser Rifle" Blast 8 (Extras: Multiattack, Penetrating 3) (27)
"Laser Pistol" Blast 6 (12)
"Assorted Gear" Gas Masks, Radios, etc. (4)
Knife +1 (Feats: Improved Critical) (2)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Vibro-Blade +8 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
NG Rifle +8 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +8 (DC 18), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +3 (+8 Armor), Fortitude +5, Will +7

Complications:
Motivation (Adventure)

Total: Abilities: 60 / Skills: 46--23 / Advantages: 23 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 9 (115)

-The closest thing Rifts has to a "Ranger", the Wilderness Scout is in there with the Scholars & Scientists rather than the Men At Arms, though he's got some pretty good gear. Seemingly unimpressive, I actually think this guy must have to be the most courageous, bad-ass guy in the entire book! I mean, reading ANY of the fluff about Rifts Earth and you realize that all humanity has banded together in nervous, paranoid mini-kingdoms because THERE IS INSANE STUFF OUT THERE. It's a world of Dragons, evil D-Bees, Demons, Mercenary Armies, etc. And this guy goes OUTSIDE into that? And he's no Juicer, Glitter Boy or Borg- he's just a guy with a gun! It's never mentioned how they manage to climb over mountains with those gigantic, swinging balls of theirs.

-Wilderness Scouts are said to be likely illiterate, but good storytellers, as if they're doing all this for the ADVENTURE of it.

-Personally, I think they way under-wrote this O.C.C., and could have gone a LOT of interesting places with it. They're said to have Pack Animals- why not do "Ranger Stuff" like Animal Companions, wrangling D-Bee Monsters and using them as allies? Or concepts like "Monster Hunter" or something? As it stands, these guys have one of the shortest bios in the game for their class- you have to get into "Vagabond Unskilled" territory to find someone with less info.

-Naturally, the tons of skills Wilderness Scouts get in the game are easily cut down to "Survival" in M&M. They're better in combat than the other Scholars, but worse than say, a Headhunter or Coalition Soldier.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Skelebots, Psi-Stalkers, Dog Boys, Giant Robots)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:18 am
by Batgirl III
Rifts® World Book 26: Dinosaur Swamp™ is basically the “Wilderness Scout Book,” as it deals almost exclusively with scouting the wilderness. It’s O.C.C. all play with the basic Wilderness Scout frame, emphasizing some areas and downplaying others.

It’s probably the most “survival is its own challenge” book in all of Rifts, and I mean survival-survival, not don’t-get-killed-by-the-deathbot-survival. Just finding food, medicines, and other resources is covered in enough detail that it actually makes it sound really interesting just playing a group of more or less normal people trying to keep their village fed.

Most of the new armor, weapons, and other gear are S..D.C., which sounds insane until you see that the majority of dinosaurs are actually S.D.C. creatures too!

Dinosaur Swamp doesn’t “mix” very well with the rest of the Rifts product line, but it works very well as a “standalone” sub-setting.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Skelebots, Psi-Stalkers, Dog Boys, Giant Robots)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:23 am
by Ares
Batgirl III wrote: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:18 am Rifts® World Book 26: Dinosaur Swamp™ is basically the “Wilderness Scout Book,” as it deals almost exclusively with scouting the wilderness. It’s O.C.C. all play with the basic Wilderness Scout frame, emphasizing some areas and downplaying others.

It’s probably the most “survival is its own challenge” book in all of Rifts, and I mean survival-survival, not don’t-get-killed-by-the-deathbot-survival. Just finding food, medicines, and other resources is covered in enough detail that it actually makes it sound really interesting just playing a group of more or less normal people trying to keep their village fed.

Most of the new armor, weapons, and other gear are S..D.C., which sounds insane until you see that the majority of dinosaurs are actually S.D.C. creatures too!

Dinosaur Swamp doesn’t “mix” very well with the rest of the Rifts product line, but it works very well as a “standalone” sub-setting.
Which is a shame, since, well, it's DINOSAUR SWAMP. Of course in a world like Rifts you have an area populated with dinosaurs. That's just frickin AWESOME.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:25 am
by Jabroniville
Yeah, I was always curious about that one. It came out a bit too late in my Rifts Fandom for me to read much of it, and my random flashes of "I suddenly want to read Rifts books" as an adult were largely spent buying the books I'd wanted to own as a teen (Rifts Japan, Juicer Uprising, etc.).

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:38 am
by Batgirl III
If Dinosaur Swamp has been World Book 1, 2, or 3, instead of 26(!) I think the whole history of the gameline would have been different. It’s a remarkably “down to earth” book, all things considered. It really eschews the standard mix of power creep of big guns, bigger armors, and even bigger monsters.

If you ever find a copy in the bargain bin of your FLGS (which is where I got mine) it’s a fun book to mine ideas from.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:27 pm
by catsi563
See I had fun I took Dinosaur swamp and I ported the basic premise of it to After the Bomb, and set the characters as starting in Gatorland.

Basically part fo a runaway attempt at Jurassic park in the Orlando area went awry as part of the collapse and the bomb and after a hundred plus years the Dinos proliferated with the mutant animals.

So now most of the south south east America is dinosaur Ninja country :mrgreen:

Headhunter

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:33 pm
by Jabroniville
Image

I like how the top image for every Rifts thing on DA is a Chuck Walton pic.

HEADHUNTER O.C.C.
Role:
Bounty Hunter, Mercenary, The Baseline Warrior
PL 9 (135)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6)
Expertise (Mercenary) 8 (+10)
Insight 3 (+6)
Intimidation 4 (+6)
Investigation 4 (+7)
Perception 5 (+8)
Technology 4 (+6)
Vehicles 2 (+7)

Advantages:
Diehard, Equipment 13 (Gear), Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Laser Rifle), Ranged Attack 3, Tracking

Powers:
"Makeshift Cybernetics"
Senses 1 (Infravision) [1]
"Radio Jack" Communication 2 (Radio) [8]

"Bioinic Arm"
Strength-Damage +3 [3]
"Fingerjack & E-Clip" Features 2: Plugs Into Machines, Extra E-Clip for Guns [2]
"Finger Blaster" Blast 6 (Feats: Subtle) (13) -- [14]
  • AE: "Vibro-Blades" Strength-Damage +4 (Extras: Penetrating 6) (10)

Equipment:
"Body Armor"
Protection 6 (Impervious 5) (12)
Immunity 6 (Radiation, Vacuum, Hot, Cold, Suffocation 2) (6)
Mini-Computer (2)
Tinted Visor, Loudspeaker, etc. (3)

"NG-L5 Northern Gun Rifle" Blast 10 (Extras: Multiattack, Penetrating 5) (35)
"Laser Pistol" Blast 6 (12)
"Assorted Gear" Gas Masks, Radios, etc. (4)
Knife +1 (Feats: Improved Critical) (2)

Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Bionic Arm +8 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Vibro-Blade +8 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
Laser Pistol/Finger Blaster +8 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
NG Rifle +8 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Initiative +4

Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +3 (+9 Armor), Fortitude +5, Will +6

Complications:
Motivation (Greed)

Total: Abilities: 58 / Skills: 34--17 / Advantages: 22 / Powers: 28 / Defenses: 10 (135)

-The "Headhunter" O.C.C. really seems to me like the most generic, "Guy With Gun" Class they could come up with in the Main Rulebook, but I think it fits. In a world of constant chaos, evil empires, demons, dragons & D-Bees, the "Generic Mercenary" is probably gonna be as close to a Standard-Issue Guy as you're gonna get- most anyone who isn't a really specific thing (Wizard, Psionic, Juicer, etc.), a hobo (City Rat, Vagabond) or scholar (the others) is probably going to fit this. Pretty much any man of war is like this guy (later books add TONS of variations, of course), or a member of the Coalition. He's just... a guy. With gear. And some skills. Maybe some Cybernetics. But nothing REALLY specific. When you think about it, every other class has specific KINDS of gear attached to them- the Headhunter can pretty much take his pick, making them more versatile and less cookie-cutter than others. Rifts Mercenaries adds a military-themed guy who's effectively a CS Military Specialist O.C.C. with the serial numbers filed off, who fits "Pro Soldier" types a little better, but in the Main Rulebook, this is your Generic Warrior.

-The Headhunter reminds me of a legendary "Munchkin" player in my friend Paul's campaign world- he'd somehow, through a combination of hands-off GMing and accumulation of stuff, turned himself into an MDC Being with MD Claws and all sorts of nonsense. A remind of how out of control Rifts can be, especially in the hands of an inexperienced GM (the players were reportedly sick of his Power-Gaming and actually had him killed off via a hooker with an exploding head, which made the player angry).

-The generic Headhunter actually comes to a balanced PL 9 (135) build, largely thanks to his Cybernetics- a very big part of Rifts is replacing parts of your body with other stuff- Coalition, Juicers & Dragons typically forgo this, but a lot of the "grittier" classes are expected to have "1D4" Cybernetics, and even replaced limbs! This gives them some redundancies, with built-in weaponry as well as regular guns. Some of the game's Cybernetics options include HUGELY powerful guns that can match the power of a Rail Gun (!!), albeit with an accuracy penalty and some drawbacks while fighting with that arm.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:34 pm
by Jabroniville
Batgirl III wrote: Sun Jun 03, 2018 5:38 am If Dinosaur Swamp has been World Book 1, 2, or 3, instead of 26(!) I think the whole history of the gameline would have been different. It’s a remarkably “down to earth” book, all things considered. It really eschews the standard mix of power creep of big guns, bigger armors, and even bigger monsters.

If you ever find a copy in the bargain bin of your FLGS (which is where I got mine) it’s a fun book to mine ideas from.
The idea of it being SDC-related is crazy to me, given how the game basically gave up on that by the second World Book. It's part of why I always find it funny that the rulebooks give scads of information about all of the SDC boosts you get from certain O.C.C.s, when 100 SDC is something you could wipe out with a single stroke of a Vibro-Blade.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:48 pm
by Jabroniville
FUNNY RIFTS THINGS:
* Just how much bias against certain things I had because of crappy art, or how much I loved things with good art. I hated Dog Boys, and most of the R.C.C.s in the early World Books. Glitter Boys, SAMAS suits and others were FRIGGIN' AWESOME. Everything Vince Martin drew made me want to play that exact class. Anything drawn by Wayne Breaux or (god forbig) Kevin Siembieda made me go "UGH- who'd wanna play THAT?". I was very, very, "Good Art-Focused" as a teen. Hell, even today I have to fight to see things like the Operator interesting.

* The unfairness of the random dice rolls. I guess this was almost always part of RPGs, but the idea that you could be so utterly hosed at the CHARACTER CREATION LEVEL seems absurd. Okay, you can make up for sub-optimal Stats (though it's funny how every NPC in the books rolled higher than "10" for EVERYTHING), but imagine being the Dragon Hatchling who rolled "1" for his 1D4x100 MDC to start. He is ONE QUARTER the toughness of the guy who rolled the "4"! Imagine how much of a difference 300 MDC makes (that's a whole SAMAS!). There's a good bit of "x10" and "x100" stuff at the character-creation level. Very absurd.

* Kevin Siembieda's clear annoyance at nobody wanting to play Magic O.C.C.s, made obvious by a three-page diatribe in The Federation of Magic about how he had to deal with fans cracking jokes about "wimpy" mages at Cons (you can tell he was annoyed, because he made sure to describe the exact body language of the fanboys- "the third guy slapped his chest as he explained--" kind of stuff), and how Mages WEREN'T WIMPS... at which point he explained their versatility, NOT their combat-effectiveness. And then of course that same book added TONS of Combat-Happy Wizards, which basically proves that Kevin's entire point was wrong and that there WAS something "off" with the old Wizards.

* Wow, CJ Carella wrote a LOT of the books in the mid-'90s. His stuff is all OVER the place. He was arguably the biggest architect of the setting aside from the main man himself. And of course he was gone by the end of the decade- Bill Coffin, famous for his anti-Kevin/Palladium tirades, has suggested he was one of the guys drummed out by Kevin's control-freak tendencies and his methods of "I am SO DISAPPOINTED by what you've done..." nonsense.

Carella's own website doesn't even mention Rifts stuff on the main page: http://www.cjcarella.com/. He has announced why he left gaming in general, though: https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?43 ... ound/page4

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:19 am
by Batgirl III
C.J. Carella was probably the best thing Palladium had going for them during his time with them, which was roughly 1995-2000, I beleive. His Palladium stuff is not his best work, but it is some of the best stuff the company put out in the Nineties:
  • Japan
  • Juicer Uprising
  • Nightbane
  • Phase World
  • South America 1 & 2
  • Underseas
For me, C.J. Carella will always have a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf because of the Buffy: The Vampire Slayers game he wrote for Eden Studios. BtVS is one of my all time favorite shows and the role-playing game Carella wrote for it captured the tone of the series perfectly. His other big Eden Studio's games were All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Witchcraft. AFMBE is good fun and predates the whole zombie fad by nearly a decade. Witchcraft sadly flew underneath my radar in the Nineties, as without bothering to read it I dismissed it as being a "rip off" of the White Wolf World of Darkness games... Man, am I kicking myself for that one now.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:22 am
by Jabroniville
From one of those RPGnet threads:
For me, the kicker was when, in the GM Guide, he basically said "The power spiral of Rifts weaponry is CJ Carella's fault." OK, it was more like, "The South America books are way unbalanced, and it's CJ Carella's fault." But, there was implication that it threw the whole line off track.

Dude. You're the editor. And the line developer. It's your job to check these things when they come in. It's your job to make sure the writer knows the guidelines when he starts. Yeah, maybe CJ was out of line with his stuff. But, it's your job to catch it before it goes to press.

To blame CJ in the first place was bad form. But, to do it in a rulebook was extremely bad form.

Oh, and I hold him responsible for the travesty of the Rifts novels. They could have been decent, if bland, books. If they'd only had a single pass through a proofreader, instead of just shipping the rough draft off to the printers.

But, yeah, I like the Bush comparison. He makes so many blatant, glaring, unprofessional mistakes, that you know you could do a better job than him. But, he won't admit to any mistake. Ever. It just grates.
Given how Siembieda is the "Role Player" of the games, and seems to hate Power Creep, it's a bit absurd that he let his game fall so far into the "Power Creep" mode. Especially since HE'S THE EDITOR AND CAN CHANGE ANYTHING HE WANTS.

But again, this goes back to Bill Coffin's takedown of Kevin's work processes.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:54 am
by Davies
Jabroniville wrote: Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:48 pm Carella's own website doesn't even mention Rifts stuff on the main page: http://www.cjcarella.com/. He has announced why he left gaming in general, though: https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?43 ... ound/page4
That was nine years ago, long before Kickstarter and Patreon changed how a lot of these things worked. I think that his name on a project might attract a lot of favorable Kickstarter attention, but I don't know whether he's paying attention anymore. C'est la vie.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 2:24 am
by Jabroniville
Siembieda's such an odd duck. Not only does he have a bizarre take on copywrite law and a reputation for suing people that's given his company one of the worst names on the RPG market, but he openly seems to deride "Power Geeking" in his games. He confesses that "Rifts DOES make it easy to power-game", he indicates many, MANY times that this is the "wrong" way to play the game. The Federation of Magic, as I've said, contains a long diatribe at gamer attitudes that Magic was under-powered, poking fun at those who say so, and points out the advantages of Magic. While sharing space with a book that's all about "Making Magic More Powerful", complete with crunchy spells and powerful Spellcaster Classes. One Heroes Unlimited book apparently featured top-tier heroes (finally allowing you to play the Hulk, Superman or Silver Surfer types), but a huge diatribe from Kevin about how basically "Okay, I FINALLY made this because you stupid, spoiled dickheads forced us to do it with your whining, but this is the WRONG WAY TO PLAY- I hope you enjoy this stupid category".

I've read from more than one source that he threw CJ Carella under the bus for the power-creep of guns in Rifts- CJ's defense was apparently that he noticed how high the MDC was on armor & robots, and figured guns needed a "boost", hence his South America books shifting the games to a higher tier of power. HOWEVER, others have indicated that a) Carella did NOT work on Triax and the NGR, nor Atlantis, both of which were just as bad (or worse) in terms of Power Creep, showing us the "Most Powerful" regions in the setting; and b) Siembieda IS THE EDITOR, and could have simply shaved off a "D6" here or there.

And, of course, people point out the FREAKING GLITTER BOY, which is the absolute top-tier thing in the Main Rulebook, and point out that almost none of the supposed "Power Creep" books feature anything on its level. "The Glitter Boy is the ultimate powerful thing, and the rest of the game is just catching up", one guy noted on another forum.

Another thing I noticed is that people comment about how weak Giant Robots and Tanks are in the game. And if you notice, it's quite clear that despite their huge MDC counts... they don't do any more damage than most Piloted Armors. 1D6x10 is the usual "Rail Gun" damage maximum on these things. A THIRD of what a Glitter Boy can do. It seems like they just didn't want people strapping into tanks and steamrolling everything, or wanted more "heroic", man-to-man combat. But it's weird that the truly GIGANTIC robots in the setting aren't as tough as they'd seem.

Another thing from the RPGnet discussions (are you even allowed to throw around insults to people in the RPG industry on those forums anymore?):
The Kevin-hate is mostly an Internet phenomenon, and it traces it roots back to the early days of online roleplaying fandom, in which Kevin - apparently not very quick on the uptake - decided that fansites were a deadly threat to his intellectual property, and proceeded to employ legal harrassment to shut down every Rifts/Palladium fansite on the 'net. And back then, the mainstream Internet was still small enough for him to succeed in doing so.

A lot of folks still haven't gotten over it.
I mean, they were famous for that FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, and people are still bitter.

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Giant Robots, Scholars, Wilderness Scouts)

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:31 am
by Jabroniville
Flipping through the "Carella Era", I can see the Power Creep in the guns, and a bit of the Armors as well. The "Pictures of Guns" sections were always the things I skipped 100% of the time, owing to... well, being pictures of the same-looking weapons doing the same-seeming damage. In the Main Rulebook, top of the line guns were 2D6 MD to 4D6 MD- Blast 9-11 in my stats. SAMAS units had a 1D4x10 Rail Gun, while Enforcers had 1D6x10. Glitter Boys were top-tier at 3D6x10. Rail Guns and top-tier Laser Rifles can match the SAMAS only.

In the "Carella" books, you can see the number of guns doing "Rail Gun" damage jumping fairly high. As these guns are much lighter than Rail Guns (typically only wielded by Borgs & Power Armors units), this might be the issue. A few things jump up to the level of an ENFORCER Robot! This seems to jibe with Carella's notes that armor outstripped guns by too much- now, you can kill a Coalition Goon in a single round with many of these guns.

He also boosts up the armor considerably. Rifts Underseas, as it encompasses much of the world's governments, includes a HORDE of stuff that make a SAMAS look puny. Several "City-Ships" sporting THOUSANDS of MDC, and even numerous MDC alien races. The other books have similar things- it really appears that "Power Creep" took a significant jump as of the 1994-1996 offerings. This is really the peak of it, however, and the line stabilizes shortly afterwards- the modern-day Power Creep is only slightly better than this. And, as snarkers note, the Glitter Boy still beats all of this stuff, hands-down. It took a friggin' SUPER-SUBMARINE in RU to surpass the power of the Boom Gun (doing 4D6x10 with its Wave Cannon thingies)!

Borg

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:52 am
by Jabroniville
Image

BORG O.C.C.
Role:
Cyborg Warrior
PL 10 (164)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA -- AGILITY 2
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Expertise (Mercenary/Soldier) 8 (+9)
Insight 3 (+4)
Intimidation 7 (+7)
Perception 6 (+7)
Technology 4 (+5)
Vehicles 4 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment 9 (Assorted Adventurer Gear, "Rail Gun" Blast 12- Ranged 2, Penetrating 8), Extraordinary Effort, Ranged Attack 6, Startle

Powers:
"Full Bionic Conversion"
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Effects) [30]
Protection 12 (Extras: Impervious 11) [23]
Speed 6 (120 mph) [6]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Senses 6 (Infravision, Extended Hearing & Vision, Ultra-Hearing, Time Sense, Compass) [6]
Features 4: Finger Camera, Hidden E-Clip Port, Increased Mass 2 [4]

"Weapon Systems"
"Forearm Blaster" Blast 11 (Feats: Ranged 2) (Extras: Penetrating 6) (30) -- [31]
  • AE: "Vibro-Blades" Strength-Damage +2 (Extras: Penetrating 6) (8)
Offense:
Unarmed +8 (+7 Damage, DC 22)
Vibro-Blades +8 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
Blasters +8 (+11-12 Ranged Damage, DC 26-27)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +12 (+6 Impervious), Fortitude --, Will +5

Complications:
Power Loss (Extra Stuff)- Borgs diminish their Psychic potential greatly, and cannot cast Magic, nor use Techno-Wizard items.

Total: Abilities: 22 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 17 / Powers: 101 / Defenses: 8 (164)

-Another major aspect of Rifts is the use of Cybernetics, both on small scale (most combat classes are allowed some degree of bionic enhancements), and large, such as the "Borg", which has been almost completely changed into a machine. Borgs are a feature even in the human-loving Coalition (since they usually are still people-shaped), and show up in a bit of art. It's another sign of the setting's darkness that someone would give up their humanity for sheer power- it's said that many saw no other way to survive, want to provide a better life for their families (Borgs are ideal for combat or dangerous manual labor). Others were enslaved and forced into it. The setting actually lacks a lot of Borg NPCs, though some of the early art indicates this is a regular thing with Borg Mercenaries and stuff (Rifts Mercenaries shows one on the cover). It's honestly implied over much of the setting that most people go for lower-grade cybernetics, however.

-This guy has some bitching art, though. Kevin Long could be REALLY good at drawing cyborgs. It has a skull-like face, but with inhuman teeth, making it almost look more friendly than "Uncanny Valley".

-The "Borg" O.C.C. is assumed to be a Combat Class, though there's the option for what consists of slave & labor Borgs. They actually stat out to be rather powerful, sporting the heaviest MDC of any human not in a suit of Power Armor, and weapons easily equivalent to a SAMAS. Short of a Glitter Boy or Dragon that rolled well, this is the most powerful thing you can be out of the Main Rulebook- it's strong, tough and sports high-tier weaponry (the big thing keeping most people from carrying around Rail Guns is the weight of the things- Borgs can easily heft that).

-Borgs are thus PL 10 beings- heavy-duty powerhouses who hit hard, carry around massive hardware, and sport +12 Toughness. Later books don't actually add too much to the concept, though you'll see modifications in Rifts Japan, with more powerful creatures.