oh god now I can't un-see it.
GEAR:
* The key organization here is "Bandito Arms", which is apparently an arm of... the Black Market. Yes, Kevin S & crew treat the Market like it's an actual, physical organization that refers to itself as such, not a conceptual term for "all criminal sales".
Why are their so many pages about gunnnnnsssssssssssssssss?
GUNS & STUFF: The guns in
New West are actually pretty low-yield, maxing out around Blast 10. The Shotgun-type weapons are single-shot and have great knockdown power (you have to roll equal to the shooter's roll to hit, -6). There's 9,000 boring Breaux-designed triangular Wilk's guns, too. However, they also design what players REALLY wanted to use- MDC versions of what we imagine to be "Wild West" guns, and then adds TECHNO-WIZARD versions of that same stuff! Though seriously, I don't think we needed fifteen pages of this stuff.
ARMOR:
"The Bandito": +8 Toughness.
-The simplest gear ever- only 38 MDC.
"The Branaghan": +9 Toughness.
-The most "Western"-themed gear, with metal armor and an MDC overcoat, which is dumb and amazing. Named for an outlaw who had the first suit custom-made, even though he died in it.
"Old-Style Dead Boy Armor": +9 Toughness.
-Bandito Arms was notorious for selling knock-offs of the CS troopers' Dead Boy armor, only in grey matte finishes.
Maverick, Vaqueros, Range Rider, Buffalo.
"NG Maverick Riding Armor": +8 Toughness.
-Simple armor designed for horsemanship.
"MI Vaqueros": +9 Toughness.
-Outlaw-looking armor with the lower face covered.
"NG Range Rider Riding Armor": +8 Toughness.
-Female-themed armor with a more leathery lower part.
"NG Buffalo Riding Armor": +8 Toughness.
-The simplest gear ever- only 38 MDC.
"Cavalry Armor (Barding)": +8 Toughness.
-MDC armor for horses, given how many of them are in this part of the setting.
"Sidewinder Power Armor" (Flaws: Removable) [78]
Enhanced Strength 5 (10)
Protection 9 (Extras: Impervious 11) (20) (Total Toughness +11)
Immunity 7 (Hot, Cold, Radiation, Pressure, Vacuum, Suffocation 2) (7)
Senses 9 (Infravision, UV Vision, Low-Light Vision, Extended Vision 2, Extended Hearing, "Radar"- Ranged Radius Radio Sense) (9)
Leaping 1 (15 feet) (1)
Flight 7 (250 mph) (14) -- (15)
"Rocket Launcher" Blast 10 (Feats: Reach 3) (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (33)
Immunity 4 (Visual & Audio Dazzles) (4)
Stealth -4 (-2)
-- (97 points)
-This suit is actually near-identical to the Coalition SAMAS suit! As has been mentioned in other books, the Coalition's SAMAS units actually derive from old American Empire suits from the Pre-Rifts era. Most were unaware of any alternative origin to the suits, but The Black Market (sigh...) discovered a bunch of them in Area 51, and spent years building them backwards and uncovering how to design their own copies.
"Wild Weasel SAMAS" (Flaws: Removable) [81]
Enhanced Strength 5 (10)
Protection 10 (Extras: Impervious 11) (20) (Total Toughness +12)
Immunity 7 (Hot, Cold, Radiation, Pressure, Vacuum, Suffocation 2) (7)
Senses 9 (Infravision, UV Vision, Low-Light Vision, Extended Vision 2, Extended Hearing, "Radar"- Ranged Radius Radio Sense) (9)
Leaping 1 (15 feet) (1)
Flight 7 (250 mph) (14) -- (15)
"Short-Range Plasma Ejectors" Blast 13 (26)
Immunity 4 (Visual & Audio Dazzles) (4)
Stealth -4 (-2)
"Radar Jamming" Concealment 1 (Electronic Senses) (Extras: Area- 2000ft. Burst +7, Attack) (10)
-- (101 points)
-The Wild Weasel is slightly slower, but more durable, and designed to jam radar with the most advanced powers in the Rifts universe!
"The Tarantula ATV": +12 Toughness, Speed 6, Rail Gun (Blast 14), Mini-Missiles, Damage 9
-"Killer Robot Spider" seems like an obvious slam-dunk, but Wayne Breaux seems to just trace a photo of a tarantula and makes it very bland and static.
"Robot Horses": +11-13 Toughness, Speed 6, Damage 9, Assorted Weapons Added
-Because of the setting, Robot Horses are an obvious choice, and they're given a bit of space. There's a LOT of variable gear, which is nice to see- the more "Riftsy" thing to do would have been to post six kinds of Robot Horses one after the other, all repeating the same information boxes... and then I read on, and sure enough, there are FOUR KINDS OF ROBOT HORSES listed, just with the options to use that same gear. They are identical save in toughness and 5-10 extra feet of Leaping here and there, making them suuuuuuuuuuper boring.
Ugh Perez should have stuck around for longer.
-There's also a "Glitterhorse" Techno-Wizard creation, which has limited spellcasting powers and Regeneration. This one's actually given Perez art, so it looks cool and has a very distinctive head.
"Bandit K-9 Robot Companion": +9 Toughness, Canine Senses, Speed 4
VEHICLES:
-A very, VERY short set, featuring a Toughness +9 "Bronco Scooter" (a horse-like scooter), and a War Wagon (+12 Toughness). There's also the crazy-ass +16 Toughness Techno-Wizard "Iron Horse"- a TW train empowered by three raging demons, which is that kind of balls-to-the-wall craziness that makes
Rifts stupidly awesome sometimes.