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

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Sidious
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Guardsmen! Warlock Marines! Invaders!)

Post by Sidious »

This is why I've always used the Manhunters instead of these guys. They just seem to doofy for being the big bad of a setting.

Bonus: not many people know of or have the Manhunter book.
Second Bonus: it can totally work into the Mechanoids.
slade the sniper
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Guardsmen! Warlock Marines! Invaders!)

Post by slade the sniper »

Sidious wrote: Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:46 pm This is why I've always used the Manhunters instead of these guys. They just seem to doofy for being the big bad of a setting.

Bonus: not many people know of or have the Manhunter book.
Second Bonus: it can totally work into the Mechanoids.
Exactly! Having the manhunters be like the angrier, edgier Mechanoids works :)

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Ares
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Guardsmen! Warlock Marines! Invaders!)

Post by Ares »

The Invaders is a great concept, but I agree the actual aliens themselves look more than a little ridiculous. They really do resemble Muppet designs that Jim Henson just tossed away because they were too silly for what he was working on (let that sink in).

I do like the "hard light" space ships and the fact that the energy doesn't trigger the Cosmo-Knight's energy absorption, and the general mystery behind them.

I'd likely go with two options:

1) The reason the Invaders have been after the Transgalactic Empire more than other space organizations is because the Invaders hunt Alien Intelligences, and they somehow know the TE is run by a Lovecraftian monster. But the Invaders have a hard time differentiating alien species, or they can feel the presence of similar creatures hiding in the other galactic groups, so they're just attacking everyone.

2) The Invaders ARE the Mechanoids, who have upgraded themselves to the pinnacle of technology. In essence, instead of the metal containers and robot bodies they use to use, they're now all inside these hovering spheres with a revolutionary new power source, and said sphere can project a force field body around the sphere that the Mechanoid can shape into whatever it wants. Some kind of combat body? Some kind of fast moving vehicle? And if several spheres link up, they can form larger and more effective constructs, up to and including space ships.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Guardsmen! Warlock Marines! Invaders!)

Post by Curbludgeon »

The Invaders' niche of hard-light tech not understood by major factions is something worth having in a setting. A possible approach to dealing with the pilots looking goofy is to make them the proxies of one of the groups given sparse detail in the DB5 Anvil Galaxy book. Only described in terms of rumors, there is the Xodian Collective (possibly collective organisms composed of billions of individually intelligent entities contained within a carapace, or a hive mind of trillions of humanoids with gestalt energy manipulation abilities) and the K!ozn Continuum (beings who were stopped from ascending past biological forms by the relatively recent trans-galactic hullabaloo, and are willing to leverage their dependent soldier races to let them get back to business).

While there are more than a few silly looking things in palladium books (DB14 Thundercloud Galaxy and WB30 D-Bees of North America probably being the worst offenders), most of them can see some sort of use if put in a useful context, and I think making the Invaders into mooks helps with that.
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The Mind Creature

Post by Jabroniville »

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WHICH EDITOR LOOKED AT THIS and was like "yeah, that'll do for our big threat"?

INTRUDER TYPE TWO- THE MIND CREATURE R.C.C.: ST -1, STA +6, INT +3, AWA +3, PRE +1, Regeneration 2, Darkvision, See the Invisible, Infravision, Mental Communication 4 (Limited to Beasts), "Psionics" (All Sensitive Powers, Mind Block Auto-Defense, Empathic Transmission, Group Mind-Block) [45 + Psionics]

-These ridiculous-looking living potatoes have huge heads, a big central eye, and teeth that make them look like alien nerds with enormous overbites. They are fewer in number than the Beasts, and one invasion incident saw the Beasts kill a Mind Creature when the vessel had been breached, with some guessing this meant the Mind Creatures were hated masters of their fellows. They are less often seen as pilots, and more often are commanders- their skills are more broad and give them more options. Their armor is Toughness +10 and Regenerates, as well as giving them Blast 14.
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Phase World Sourcebook Gear

Post by Jabroniville »

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PHASE WORLD SOURCEBOOK GEAR:
* This book comprised of a shocking *50%* gear! To me, that kind of makes it no-go territory as an overall book, but it does at least offer a single option at each level for most of the various Three Galaxies super-powers- lesser writers tend to just offer "gear bloat" all over the place, with numerous superfluous options. There's a minimum of guns and a lot of suits. Though since this is Carella, accidentally leaving some of this on Rifts Earth could prove disastrous- the Avenger Power Armor makes Glitter Boys look soft and wimpy.

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GUNS & STUFF:
-We start off with Naruni gear, as Carella invented them. Naturally, it's exceptionally high-level gear, as he was notorious for mega-guns and this is the SPACE setting, which is even bigger. It starts at Blast 12 and just moves up- a "Shoulder Cannon" hits 2D4x10+20 Mega-Damage, which is like Blast 15 or so. The Vince Martin designs are his patented softer-edged weapons, but there's a lot more straight lines than his usual. Kreeghor stuff, drawn by Wayne Breaux, is blockier like you'd expect, hitting around Blast 11 all over.

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VEHICLES:
FIGHTER JETS:
-First we have the single-pilot Fighter Jets, all of which are massively tough, rendering Carella's powerful guns pretty moot. The CCW have a +17 Toughness single-pilot fighter! The Bush Federation does, too. Naruni's is about +16. Most have guns going from Blast 14-16, with Missiles abound. The Warlock Marines have a +13 Toughness tank with weak flight.

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FRIGATES:
-Frigates are more powerful warships with numerous troops within. Kreeghor Hunters are Toughness +19. Warlock Federation Arcane ships are about the same, and have a "Death Cloud Cannon" that creates a huge obstacle that does more damage the faster you're going and the heavier you are- from minor +11 damage to literally +24 or so! Most have preposterously-devastating guns, with multiple guns each doing 2D4x100 Mega-Damage- enough to blow up a Glitter Boy in a single hit! This is something like Blast 20 or so- just insane.

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SPACE CRUISERS:
-The most common "ships of the line" are the elites, making up the majority of an invasion fleet and acting as flagships. The CCW's top ship actually looks really cool (and it's by Kevin Long, meaning... he probably traced it), looking like a space battleship with 45,000 M.D.C. (jesus, +26 Toughness, maybe?). The Transgalatic Empire now has Vince Martin designing their stuff, so they look VASTLY different than their Hunter- it looks more like a small sea skimmer with little fins attached, but is actually 200+ feet long. At least +22 Toughness. Dwarven Iron Ships are Techno-Wizard things with about +26 Toughness, too.

Cannons at this scale are like 1D4x1000- Blast 22 and up. It could take ten full-damage hits from its own weapon before dying, so the toughness SHOULD be higher than the damage, but the scale is tricky.

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BATTLESHIPS, CARRIERS & DREADNOUGHTS:
-Okay, so these are even bigger, lol. The CCW Protector-Class Battleship has 250,000 M.D.C., which is way beyond anything I figured on statting- like +30 Toughness, I dunno? It looks kinda like an aircraft carrier with a random bunch of rounded "spaceship stuff" on top of it. The Wolfen equivalent is a paltry 80,000 M.D.C., like +27 Toughness. The Doombringer Dreadnought is the Transgalactic version, and is more Vince Martin nuttiness, looking very fragile and delicate with oblong bits everywhere. But even tougher than the CCW version- 350,000 M.D.C./+31 Toughness or so! The cannons at this scale? 2D6x1000!!! 12,000 M.D.C. damage in one shot! That's actually insane, but would still take a long time to bring one of these down.

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INTRUDER SHIPS:
The Intruders have two kinds of ships- the "Spinerette Interceptor" is a 31-foot diamond made of solid energy (the pilot's compartment is barely bigger than a person), hitting Toughness +14 and Blast 15, while also Regenerating. The 70-foot UFO Attack Ships about about Toughness +18, Regenerate, and have Blast 18-ish stuff.
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Phase World Sourcebook Armor

Post by Jabroniville »

ARMOR:
* The armor in this section is usually pretty good. Vince Martin designs about, so you've got enormous, rounded pauldrons, weird bits sticking out everywhere, arbitrary holes for missile-placement, etc. There's a Samurai armor at the front for the Cyberai, I think- he's not mentioned here.

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"Enforcer Power Armor": +12 Toughness, "Foam Dispensers" Snare 12, Blast 14, Missiles, 10 feet tall.
-Naruni's urban combat model with non-lethal options. Faceless suit with hip-guns and lots of missile-holes.

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This is the munchkin's wet dream, right here.

"A-1 Avenger Power Armor": +17 Toughness, ST 13, GR Gun & HI Laser- Blast 15, Helmet Lasers +13, Missiles, Camouflage (half-visibility), Radar Jammer, Flight 9, 11 feet tall.
-The backstory here is interesting- it's the best suit of its kind ever made, but the creator was a Naruni who broke away and formed his own company. Naruni, not impressed, sued his company into oblivion and he "committed suicide" (re: was probably murdered), and the secrets of making the suit were taken to his grave. Perhaps for the best- this thing is INSANE and possibly the most unbalancing thing a GM could accidentally be cajoled into allowing into his campaign. 825 M.D.C. with an extra 200 for the Force Field, and tons of hardware, a Jammer, and more. It's a huge, bulky, small-headed suit with winged boots and lots of oblong "rocket boot"-like things that are wider at the bottom.

"War Beast Combat Armor": +13 Toughness, ST +2, Regeneration 6, Blast 14, Flight 10, 12 feet tall.
-The solid-energy armor used by the Beasts of the Intruders. Not that great, but Regenerates.

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"Ovoid Combat Robot": +17 Toughness, ST 10, Machine Guns/Rail Guns +14, Lasers +12, Missiles, Flight 8, 20 feet tall.
-An egg-shaped two-pilot mini-ship. Offered by the Naruni, though it's rumored they're stolen gear from an egg-shaped race. They can grow arms and legs, but Martin just drew an organic egg full of missile-holes.

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"Imperator Assault Robot": +16 Toughness, ST 13, Gravity Auto-Cannons +14, Missiles, Energy Fang +1, Speed 5, Leaping 1, 40 feet tall.
-Transgalactic Empire gear, as you can tell by the Kreeghor body-shape. They are said to prefer body armor to these cumbersome robots (to be fair, it's HUGE- 40 feet tall!).
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Guardsmen! Warlock Marines! Invaders!)

Post by Jabroniville »

And that's it for Phase World Sourcebook, finishing another book in the line! This one is pretty good, though bloats things up with ships you may or may not need, but the Invincible Guardsmen & Warlock Marines are good world-building and use of the open-sandbox setting that is Rifts's biggest advantage. There's a ton of munchkin stuff in here, and the Invaders would need a redesign to work at all, but I can see this one being useful- it's cheaper than the other books, anyhow.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Guardsmen! Warlock Marines! Invaders!)

Post by Curbludgeon »

I love how some of the Vince Martin ship designs got rerouted to become animal power armor in Rifts Underseas. Based on how the dolphin image in those is clearly copied from somewhere else I assume it was jammed in at the last minute, but going through Martin's work in the Phase World Books, Rifts Mercenaries, and elsewhere it sure seems like he'd had the notion on the brain. I can't decide if I'd be more interested in an aquatic game that had a huge variety of suits for cybercetaceans, or incorporating some sort of space whale into the Three Galaxies, but I can't help but see flippers.
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Coalition Navy

Post by Jabroniville »

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RIFTS SOURCEBOOK FOUR: COALITION NAVY (1997):
-So after a very, VERY hot start, Rifts didn't actually release a whole lot of stuff in 1996. Near as I can tell, the only two books published in that entire year were Juicer Uprising and Coalition War Campaign, both essentially Splatbooks that give uber-powered upgrades to pre-existing stuff and set a new "standard" in their world. CJ Carella had left Palladium and his Naruni had their asses kicked off of Earth, and Kevin & Co. build up the other armies on Earth to match the powerful guns Carella made. Aaaaaaaaaand from there we go from the CWC book to Coalition Navy, a bizarre concept. I mean, was there that many people demanding a book full of SUBMARINES? They literally JUST released a book about the Coalition's sexy new gear! It's called a "companion book" to that, but let's be clear- it's "stuff we couldn't fit into the other one".

So it's time for more faps over how great the Coalition is- they mention how it's the fourth best navy on Earth, after Atlantis, the NGR & the New Navy, "but within the next five years, the CS Navy should surpass all but Atlantis". YUP. More faps. A few pages is spent on the present situation at the Great Lakes- as Palladium is centered around Chicago, this region is where most of the action is, as Lazlo, Tolkeen, Ishpeming (Northern Gun) & Manistique, the Coalition & the Xicitix are all major powers here, doing a complex bit of jostling around, trading, etc.

This book is another small Sourcebook at 120 pages, but spends ONE THIRD OF ITS TOTAL on gear and ships. Yes, page after page after page of near-identical submarines, boats, skimmers, suits, and more. Just absolute scads of bloat. There's four separate O.C.C.s for the Coalition's Navy, said forty pages of gear, and then a ton of monsters, as this becomes a "Monsters in the Habitat" book with a bunch of assorted beasts (ten in total), then a random section with four Pirate O.C.C.s right at the end. Very odd placement here.

The art is at least excellent- this is right when Ramon Perez hit the books, and so he fills page after page with good, scuffed-up CS gear, making them look menacing and less "glitzy" than other versions. All the monsters are done in a similar style, as Martin does great "armored stuff".

THE CS NAVY:
-Naturally we get a big thing on the history of the CS Navy, including a "penis measuring" bit where they crush some small port-city kingdom to establish themselves. The idea of their Navy sprang up from a few diehards Navy fans in the Army (then the only military wing of the Coalition) until the found a Splugorth ship piloted by Kittani in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Finding aliens traipsing so close to home was an eye-opener and opened up the floodgates to finally have a real naval force. However, this took some doing, as they didn't have much oceanside stuff and shipyards weren't built after the Great Cataclysm. So Nowak spends a while detailing the origins of the fleet- a Free Quebec shipyard (they were big fans of the idea of a Navy from the beginning), one in Iron Heart and a random new minor kingdom that happened to be guarding an old one that had survived the Coming of the Rifts.

A ton of ports and bases are detailed and I don't really care about any of that (I guess it's important if you're in CS territory and need to know where this stuff is.
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Merchant Marine

Post by Jabroniville »

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MERCHANT MARINE O.C.C.
Role:
Cargo Hauler, Hard-Drinker
PL 7 (69)
STRENGTH
3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 5
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 1

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+7)
Deception 2 (+3)
Expertise (Merchant Marine) 5 (+6)
Insight 2 (+3)
Intimidation 3 (+4)
Perception 4 (+5)
Technology 3 (+4)
Vehicles 3 (+8)

Advantages:
Equipment 5 (Naval Gear)

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Guns +5 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +2

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +3 (+8 Armor), Fortitude +5, Will +4

Complications:
Motivation (Adventure)

Total: Abilities: 44 / Skills: 26--13 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 7 (69)

-Merchant Marines aren't really military troops, but cargo haulers who keep the Coalition alive by transporting goods along waterways (as CS territories are often spread out with miles of wilderness between them). Other nations employ them as well- they're underpaid compared to even CS Grunts and "true" Navy personnel, but consider themselves unsung heroes. They have a lot of "Sailor" stereotypes- hard-drinking, sea-loving men who just join for a sense of adventure and love of being on the open water.

-Merchant Marines are a pretty generic "barely skilled" class (only six extras, plus TWO more with no bonuses!) that ends up with actual RULES about how much more beer they can drink that normal. They're a little stronger and tougher than normal, and have the expected vehicular skills.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Phase World Armor! Coalition Navy!)

Post by catsi563 »

The CS navy book was a great addon to the ocean book. one of the adventures that would lead to a big showdown in lone star involved the group going down the mississippi on a cargo hauler while avoiding monsters and CS naval patrols which included a biig firefight at the docks in a CS held area of mississipi state
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Phase World Armor! Coalition Navy!)

Post by Curbludgeon »

I didn't care too much about most of the Coalition Navy sourcebook when I first read it. Aircraft with jet engines in particular highlight a real problem with the setting: the notion of isolated pockets of civilization barely holds in the face of ubiquitous hovercraft, much less nuclear-powered mach speed vehicles. I ran games where I've set an effective atmosphere ceiling of ~6000 feet, above which a dimensional barrier invisible from below bombarded trespassers with the sort of gremlins only dreamt of in World War II. That basically limited most air travel to hover tech and things like technowizard biplanes, and had the nice side effect of making ground travel basically required in much of the American Southwest.

Some high points in the C. Navy book, to me, are a couple of the monsters. The Horned Whales are a nice possible player character addition in a aquatic game, and the Maelstrom-Maker is I believe the first example in Rifts of an idea that became increasingly common: beings able to empower witches that aren't themselves ludicrously strong. The Nuhn Dwarves are also cool, further detailed in D-Bees of North America as using the magical craftsman class Mystic Kuznya out of Mystic Russia to approximate the rune-etching weaponeers for the magic flintlock wielding pirates of Old Cleveland.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Phase World Armor! Coalition Navy!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Curbludgeon wrote: Wed Dec 16, 2020 9:05 am I didn't care too much about most of the Coalition Navy sourcebook when I first read it. Aircraft with jet engines in particular highlight a real problem with the setting: the notion of isolated pockets of civilization barely holds in the face of ubiquitous hovercraft, much less nuclear-powered mach speed vehicles. I ran games where I've set an effective atmosphere ceiling of ~6000 feet, above which a dimensional barrier invisible from below bombarded trespassers with the sort of gremlins only dreamt of in World War II. That basically limited most air travel to hover tech and things like technowizard biplanes, and had the nice side effect of making ground travel basically required in much of the American Southwest.

Some high points in the C. Navy book, to me, are a couple of the monsters. The Horned Whales are a nice possible player character addition in a aquatic game, and the Maelstrom-Maker is I believe the first example in Rifts of an idea that became increasingly common: beings able to empower witches that aren't themselves ludicrously strong. The Nuhn Dwarves are also cool, further detailed in D-Bees of North America as using the magical craftsman class Mystic Kuznya out of Mystic Russia to approximate the rune-etching weaponeers for the magic flintlock wielding pirates of Old Cleveland.
Yeah, just going through the book, I'm finding the military stuff a trifle dull and uninteresting, but then the monsters actually have some uniqueness to them. Some are major threats, and some have unique powers instead of just piles of M.D.C. & attacks.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Phase World Armor! Coalition Navy!)

Post by catsi563 »

Curbludgeon wrote: Wed Dec 16, 2020 9:05 am I didn't care too much about most of the Coalition Navy sourcebook when I first read it. Aircraft with jet engines in particular highlight a real problem with the setting: the notion of isolated pockets of civilization barely holds in the face of ubiquitous hovercraft, much less nuclear-powered mach speed vehicles. I ran games where I've set an effective atmosphere ceiling of ~6000 feet, above which a dimensional barrier invisible from below bombarded trespassers with the sort of gremlins only dreamt of in World War II. That basically limited most air travel to hover tech and things like technowizard biplanes, and had the nice side effect of making ground travel basically required in much of the American Southwest.

Some high points in the C. Navy book, to me, are a couple of the monsters. The Horned Whales are a nice possible player character addition in a aquatic game, and the Maelstrom-Maker is I believe the first example in Rifts of an idea that became increasingly common: beings able to empower witches that aren't themselves ludicrously strong. The Nuhn Dwarves are also cool, further detailed in D-Bees of North America as using the magical craftsman class Mystic Kuznya out of Mystic Russia to approximate the rune-etching weaponeers for the magic flintlock wielding pirates of Old Cleveland.
They actually point out while not the exact problem that thats part fo the reason why even with jets they dont travel that much the possibiliies fo rift activitiy monsters in the sky and ocean and add in that the major powers dont trust each other further then they could throw them

the CS and NGR both play at being allies but proseks too paranoid to actually be allied with a power that rivals his own and the NGR knows it, and after seeing what the CS did with Quebec only reinforced it. who wants to send a transport loaded with goods knowing it could be pirated destroyed in flight or raided by the very people you sent it to in the first place?
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