Rifts European Royalties

[The ineffible GM]

I'm looking for ideas or suggestions on a bit of a change I want to make in the setting for an upcoming game.

I'd like to set things in and around Tarnow over in Europe, but I'd really like to add a couple more small States around or adjacent to Tarnow to liven it up a little, politically.

After some thought, I'd like to run with them as other monarchies, small in size but like Tarnow have managed to carve out their space and hold it despite the gargoyles and brodkil in the area.

I was wondering what ideas anyone might have to make them unique and interesting.

What monarchy Nations would you like to see scattered in Europe?

[SycophantNagaraja]

Prussians or you could drop a quasi Romanian voivodeship of some kind (perhaps even guarded over by a vampire who disagrees with the Brodkill and Gargoyles) on the southern tip of Poland.

You could run with a mix of people from Polish and Turkish descent and come up with some sort of feudal dictator in there. Or they don't even have to be straight up Polish. You could come up with a displaced Russian nobleman/woman of some kind somewhere north of Tarnow gathering people from the countryside to band together and resist.

Given Poland's volatile past it would be easy to make up some branch of nobility for your game and link it to Hungary, the Turks, Germans, Russians, even Romania

[Ixal]

You cant go wrong with a King of Transylvania (even when he is not a vampire).

The question is how much do you want to repeat history and how much new ideas do you want?

[SycophantNagaraja]

One thing I just thought of was this: if you plan on making 1 or more small kingdoms they should likely have some kind of natural defense that works in their favor. Hard to find, built into a valley, remains of a military base, etc. You can of course go a step further and add on to that like a mystical castle walls or some such but it would probably work best IMO if you went with something more natural at first and developed from there. Even the remains of a military base is a bit cliché in Rifts but given the area and population density it's highly probable.

Quick and easy: small city-state formed on the remains of (insert military base name) with enough flat fertile land to grow some crops but little in the way of pre rifts artifacts. Luck would have it that the founders (led by your new royal lineage) stumbled onto a small cashe of Sovietski hardware from some long range patrol which gave them enough to survive the winter. Through a series of trades with the NGR and Tarnow they now have a small mix of weapons and gear and act as a wayward trading post (mostly for foodstuffs) and final pitstop before stepping into the hostile demon infested lands of Europe. They'd likely be a decent place for smaller end black market gear and weapons too.

[Library Ogre]

And remember the Brotherhood of Steel. While they've styled themselves a quasi-religious military order, it wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility for a similar situation (like Syco's above) to become a new lineage (possibly claiming some ancient lineage for extra legitimacy.) The Colonel of the base suddenly styles himself Duke, and "remembers" he's descended from Mindaugas II, the "rightful" king of Lithuania, and so calls himself Mindaugas III, and so do you if you know what's good for you. The base he ran happened to be a manufacturing facility for [power armor], which is now reasonably outdated but still sufficient to keep them free (especially with Tarnow nearby to absorb a lot of the heat).

[Maddux]

Could try Italy think they had something about in one of the first Rifters think it could be fun ideas to play around with.

[Dunia]

I wrote a big campaign for my players to create a advanced tec kingdom in Scandinavia it was quite fun. I should publish it as an article of Rifter or something.

[SycophantNagaraja]

Or maybe he thinks himself a descendant of Ulrich von Liechtenstein but confuses the details from A Knights Tale and the book "The Service of Ladies" and becomes a well known romantic king with access to oddly tailored clothing (supposedly authentic), an angry squire, and a very boisterous herald.

[Nightmartree]

As bad as it could be you could have the kingdom of "New America" made long ago in the dark ages by members of the ancient american empire left stranded in these lands with the coming of the rifts. Chances are the kingdom would have fallen if not for a surprising number of embassy soldiers and secret agents across europe. Forces who you can still see today (insert some form of spec ops units and rejoice at the cool "spy" options)

[glitterboy2098]

or other royalty that had been travelling.. imagine one of the british or swedish royal families that had been on vacation somewhere else in europe when the cataclysm happened, and who's descendants wound up in charge of the area.

could make for an interesting plotline, having the House of Windsor survive somewhere in Europe, and able to lay a claim to England to rival New Camelot's.



also, a good spot for a kingdom to exist would be Switzerland.. the country IRL is heavily fortified, and it wouldn't take much to believe that the population could hide in the fortifications and wait out the cataclysm. since the swiss don;t have much i nthe way of major military industry they'd never become a major power after, but they'd certainly still be around.

[dreicunan]

or other royalty that had been travelling.. imagine one of the british or swedish royal families that had been on vacation somewhere else in europe when the cataclysm happened, and who's descendants wound up in charge of the area.

could make for an interesting plotline, having the House of Windsor survive somewhere in Europe, and able to lay a claim to England to rival New Camelot's.



also, a good spot for a kingdom to exist would be Switzerland.. the country IRL is heavily fortified, and it wouldn't take much to believe that the population could hide in the fortifications and wait out the cataclysm. since the swiss don;t have much i nthe way of major military industry they'd never become a major power after, but they'd certainly still be around.

As the Golden Age was spiraling into new cold war, who's to say the Swiss didn't get heavier into MDC armor and weapons. I could easily see them turning neutrality into isolationism, surviving the Cataclysm relatively unscathed but never venturing beyond their borders and just minding their own business afterwards unless someone tries to invade (basically what they have been doing for quite a while now).

[SycophantNagaraja]

As the Golden Age was spiraling into new cold war, who's to say the Swiss didn't get heavier into MDC armor and weapons. I could easily see them turning neutrality into isolationism, surviving the Cataclysm relatively unscathed but never venturing beyond their borders and just minding their own business afterwards unless someone tries to invade (basically what they have been doing for quite a while now).

That actually would make for a fun game. Unless some kind of rift opened up inside their valley the worst thing they'd have to contend with would be the lack of outside contact (import/export loss) and the weather. From a horror perspective it would be terrifying to be a member of the first team to finally make their way over that mountain enough to see nothing but death and destruction as far as your eye could see.

But back to the kingdom idea originally posed: The displaced monarchy is a good idea too. If you went with English nobility then you'd have a tie in to Rifts: England and potentially longer term gaming there. Same could be said of Russia or even just Polish nobility. I guess it really depends on what you are wanting to do. You can make up fake patents of nobility, use real ones, or fall somewhere in between.

[Nightmartree]

As the Golden Age was spiraling into new cold war, who's to say the Swiss didn't get heavier into MDC armor and weapons. I could easily see them turning neutrality into isolationism, surviving the Cataclysm relatively unscathed but never venturing beyond their borders and just minding their own business afterwards unless someone tries to invade (basically what they have been doing for quite a while now).

That actually would make for a fun game. Unless some kind of rift opened up inside their valley the worst thing they'd have to contend with would be the lack of outside contact (import/export loss) and the weather. From a horror perspective it would be terrifying to be a member of the first team to finally make their way over that mountain enough to see nothing but death and destruction as far as your eye could see.

But back to the kingdom idea originally posed: The displaced monarchy is a good idea too. If you went with English nobility then you'd have a tie in to Rifts: England and potentially longer term gaming there. Same could be said of Russia or even just Polish nobility. I guess it really depends on what you are wanting to do. You can make up fake patents of nobility, use real ones, or fall somewhere in between.

Don't forget new nobility who have risen in the 300 years since the fall. Conflicts between the old nobility come to power anew and the new nobility who have risen to their station in the dark times could add a layer of politics. As could theyre interactions with "that silly little dukedom that was experimenting with...democracy was it? *chuckles* don't they know only a noble has the power and good breeding to protect them from the savages of this world?"...actually that line about "good breeding" brings up the idea of mutants like from heroes unlimited, your the noble because you LITERALLY have the good breeding to be "better" than the common man. Guys in tights (not super hero tights, old court wear tights) and fancy clothes doing fisticuffs with giant robots *a gentle man takes a hard right from a 20 foot tall robot* "good blow chap! now its my turn!" *gentleman proceeds to punch back*

[Ixal]

Don't forget that some of the old deposed royal bloodlines like Habsburg or Bonaparte are still around. If they survive the coming of the Rifts and rediscover the history of their family they might get it into their head that they are destined to recreate the kingdom(s) their family once ruled.

[The ineffible GM]

I'm loving a lot of these ideas.

After reading through these and having an idea or two of my own, here are my current thoughts:

- Romania needs something. There are bits about vampires trying, unsuccessfully, to establish themselves there. The Conversion book also talks about a pack of werewolves roaming the area, with rumours of having established a kingdom that preys on humans. Right now I'm leaning towards either A) A small pack of werewolves acting as a royal family of a small kingdom of people, that are not hunted by the nobles unless they are convicted criminals - then they are released into the wild to be hunted. Otherwise, the rumours make things out to be worse than they are. Or B) A pack of Were-bats acting as a royal family (mostly hiding their true nature from the populous) to a small city state, fairly benevolent but lots of rumours and even their people think they are secretly vampires.

- I may put the Were-bats over in Czechoslovakia, at the site of Houska Castle. Because a real world ancient castle that is supposedly built over a hellmouth from which half-beast creatures flew out of is too much real world myth for me not to do SOMETHING with.

- I like a fortified and isolationist Switzerland. To make it more rifts-y I may even go so far as having some kind of giant dome forcefield that has protected and isolated them for a long time.

- I like the displaced royalty idea a lot, or the revival of a bloodline like Habsburg.

- I also had the idea of a kingdom literally run by the ghosts of an ancient royal family that possess someone and rule through that body until it is used up, then find another one and then continue their rule. A whole family of them eternally continuing their rule, probably with a lot of betrayal and back stabbing between them all, usurping control from one another until a victim finds a new body.

- Another idea I had was a 'new' royal family emerging during the cataclysm or shortly afterward, as a superhero team got rifted into the area, saved a small city, got named defacto saviours and leaders, but then as the heroes established a new community and started families, passed on super powers and these powers established a set of bloodlines in the community/area that over the last hundred and fifty years became royalty. I feel like this is a good idea to intertwine with a displaced royal line, where the heroes all wound up interbreeding with members of the displaced royal family, lending legitimacy to their rule.

[SycophantNagaraja]

If you go with werewolves as a ruling body in Romania (or near it) I would suggest the Underworld series of movies, specifically the prequel Rise of the Lycans. Only instead of the vampires as the ruling body sub in the wolves. And while it doesn't have to be huge I would give yourself 2 or 3 clans of wolves to draw from and use a similar origin story that they have descended from an ancient line of Werewolf and each family is a branch of that same strain. Let them rule openly as they are, after all wouldn't a benevolent clan of werewolves be better than the rampaging hordes of Brodkill, Gargoyles, and other demonic creatures of the night?

They wouldn't have to hide their forms and infection via lycanthropy could be used as a means of promotion to the lucky and extremely loyal few. This would set up a nice political dynamic and cause obvious confusion to players used to the usual same ole same ole. This would also allow for the werewolves to not fall prey to too much inbreeding.

The werebat idea could then be used as their immediate threat to existence and help create plot hooks to involve the players.

As far as superheroes: that could be tricky. In most cases when people think of comics it usually gravitates to less dark topics than Rifts. Even the Civil War and Crisis on Infinity Earth storyarcs were more 'light' than Rifts in my opinion. One of them dealt with the destruction of planets/dimensions but they weren't protracted like Rifts is. Rifts in most parts of the world an ongoing cancer, doom and gloom, with pockets of relative shiny life left. So my advice is if you go the route of superheroes try and drawn heavily from the Age of Apocalypse and Days of Future Past from Marvel, Super Seven Part One and Two: Men of Steel DC Elseworlds, and for family/legacy dynamics check out Dynamo 5 and Noble Causes from Image Comics (these two are especially good reads).

[SolCannibal]

Well, if you're up to some nitpicking and random readings, i would really reccommend checking Conversion Books 1 & 2 and the first four Worldbooks, that were full of random juicy trivia like other regions of Rifts Earth (or the Megaverse) a certain kind of D-bee, supernatural creature of monster (like the massive werewolf pack with a kingdom where they are worshipped as gods in the mountains of Romania, Maxpary in the NGR, Hell hound being common in England & Australia, death weaver spider demons from Mexico and demonic cannibals from Rifts Africa in India & South America & other stuff) might be found at that one could spin into a bunch of ideas, when the books don't give us straight plot seeds, like the master vampire playing norse god with his minions "somewhere between Romania & Russia" in Pantheons for a blunt example.

Speaking of the romanian werewolves, if you feel like playing with the mythic/divine angle at least a little, there's some stuff in the wiki worth reading for possible ideas.

What about some remnant of Lithuania or some of the other baltic countries to play diplomatic tug-of-war with Tarnow, "the Warlords of Russia" and any other human or D-bee nations that might have formed in the intervening centuries?

As an aside, how about making some places where Euro is the official language? For the dominant idiom of the continent, there's a glaring lack of actual nations with it in the books, might be said....

On the subject of supers in apocalyptic settings, what comes to mind are the previously mentioned Age of Apocalypse & Days of Future Past but also Marvel Zombies, Earth X, Hulk: Future Imperfect (Maestro makes a great example of a super twisted by time and his circunstances), with the 2099 for nicer/better kept places closer to the NGR, Coalition, Republic of Japan or Sovietsky (the facts most of its supers had a more tech/cyberpunk-ish vibe making them very, very appropriate for this, i think).

Those are my suggestions for now. I have a bunch of other stuff in my mind - and even more in my notes - but organizing (and translating) some of them is something that would take time and (maybe) do in another time. Hope it helps.

[Nightmartree]

I still like the idea of supers descendants, not played as super heros, but as nobles defending their lands. In a land were a 20 foot tall monster can appear any day at noon having a lord who turns into a 20 foot tall iron golem would be a relief, and if he has his taxes a bit high...well that's the price of safety and equipping the knights who patrol these lands. Oh? that demonic insect horde can only be handled by fire!? quick send word to the descendants of lady firebird and beg of them for aid! (that whole aps: fire/phoenix effect from megaversal heroes). And of course the you have the creepily happy followers of Clan Undying who never die of natural causes and lead fanatical troops to beat back the evils at the kingdoms edge (immotality and divine aura)

of course there would be less powerful supers, those without the "core" powers of the noble house or minor houses with less extreme combinations but that just adds to the noble ideal of "good lineage" and potentially being kicked from the family if your children aren't at least minor supers.

If you need oomph (maybe because due to the coming of the rifts much of the tech has been lost...maybe a family of tech related heros is struggling to revive it?) a mega hero king, surrounded by a number of major noble houses with multiple major powers related to battle and then minor houses with less military oriented powers would provide layers of defense and power for the kingdom. That could give you a group capable of battle on equal footing with just about anything if they went out as an army. Of course they're only a small percentage of the kingdom, but they'd be over 90% of its power! assuming they're not packing some pre-rifts military tech.

another fun part could be, before the rifts were they this powerful? after all aren't supers super charged in rifts? if this is a result of the ambient magical energy and other effects then possibly supers were beginning to be less powerful with the arrival of mdc weapons and gear, until the rifts came and suddenly that mdc suit of armor they had trouble with just became a hinderance not a wall

[dreicunan]

Regarding: Were they this powerful before the Rifts? The logical answer would be yes. Dimension book 4 makes it clear that the Superpowers that change to MDC for Rifts also do so in other MDC settings, including Robotech. Correct me if I am wrong, but Robotech is not a high-magic setting. Thus, Supers in the Rifts Universe would have been MDC before the coming of the Rifts.

[Nightmartree]

Regarding: Were they this powerful before the Rifts? The logical answer would be yes. Dimension book 4 makes it clear that the Superpowers that change to MDC for Rifts also do so in other MDC settings, including Robotech. Correct me if I am wrong, but Robotech is not a high-magic setting. Thus, Supers in the Rifts Universe would have been MDC before the coming of the Rifts.

in that case it would still be interesting to consider the sdc to mdc shift for some supers, how did they react when their attack that used to be the equivelant of a machinegun turned into something that could blow away tanks. If they came from an sdc world that is

or how a super who used to be on even terms with him team would adapt if his powers didn't "grow" like the others (in other words he has a power that doesn't change in rifts)

(also I feel like them being mdc before rifts raises other issues, mostly along the lines of if they're mdc and the tech of the time is still sdc...which mdc tech was still a somewhat new concept in the era before rifts)

[glitterboy2098]

If you go with werewolves as a ruling body in Romania (or near it) I would suggest the Underworld series of movies, specifically the prequel Rise of the Lycans. Only instead of the vampires as the ruling body sub in the wolves. And while it doesn't have to be huge I would give yourself 2 or 3 clans of wolves to draw from and use a similar origin story that they have descended from an ancient line of Werewolf and each family is a branch of that same strain. Let them rule openly as they are, after all wouldn't a benevolent clan of werewolves be better than the rampaging hordes of Brodkill, Gargoyles, and other demonic creatures of the night?

They wouldn't have to hide their forms and infection via lycanthropy could be used as a means of promotion to the lucky and extremely loyal few. This would set up a nice political dynamic and cause obvious confusion to players used to the usual same ole same ole. This would also allow for the werewolves to not fall prey to too much inbreeding.

The werebat idea could then be used as their immediate threat to existence and help create plot hooks to involve the players.

unless you have houseruled werebeasts fairly heavily in your games that exact situation seems unlikely.. werebeasts being a seperate race, and not infectious.

and werewolves tend to be on the more feral side, and on the lower end of IQ (they only have a 2D6 there.. average IQ result of 7-8 instead of the 9-11 of humans.. and RAW for rifts, they don't have access to bonus dice)

i think a werewolf dominated territory would probably have more in common with the Huns or the Mongols.. a case of "you give us tribute, and in return we will protect you. if you do not give tribute, we'll burn your village down ourselves"

perhaps with non-werewolf allies overseeing the actual day to day affairs of the territory. (much like the Huns and Mongols would incorporate their conquests into their social structure as subordinate elements, and supplements to their military might in areas the Huns/mongols themselves were weak.)

given the area, i'd say the Huns are probably a better inspiration.. the Huns had a big presence in the romanian region, but the Mongols not so much. and the Huns were rather more settled than the mongols were (the mongols retained their nomadic ways for a long time after becoming empire builders)

[Ixal]

perhaps with non-werewolf allies overseeing the actual day to day affairs of the territory. (much like the Huns and Mongols would incorporate their conquests into their social structure as subordinate elements, and supplements to their military might in areas the Huns/mongols themselves were weak.)

Or the werewolves are officially the rulers of the territory as far as the commin people and outsiders know and are given every respect nobility deserves, but in reality they are just pampered pets and guard dogs which are let lose when there is a threat. The real piwer lies with the advisiry council. And the werewolves are too stupid to notice it (as ist most common folk)

[SolCannibal]

Ah, something i just remembered from a few years ago - once in a discussion about Wormwood, Braden Campbell mentioned Worldgate featuring one on the four permanent portals to Earth, one that links Aeon Keep to the ruin of Brasov, in central Romania.

It's in "The Wormwood Addenda", from Rifter 42.

[SycophantNagaraja]

unless you have houseruled werebeasts fairly heavily in your games that exact situation seems unlikely.. werebeasts being a seperate race, and not infectious.

I was under the impression that, when you mention making up your own kingdoms, you're already house-ruling your game. Hence my idea and sources for inspiration. I don't see any reason against giving were-beasts average range of intelligence of 3d6 or giving them the classic curse of lycanthropy. Considering some of the changes that occurred to were-creatures in other games these proposals aren't anywhere near heavy house-ruling. But this is a marketplace of ideas and hopefully ineffible GM is getting some good ideas from it!

[boring7]

unless you have houseruled werebeasts fairly heavily in your games that exact situation seems unlikely.. werebeasts being a seperate race, and not infectious.

I was under the impression that, when you mention making up your own kingdoms, you're already house-ruling your game. Hence my idea and sources for inspiration. I don't see any reason against giving were-beasts average range of intelligence of 3d6 or giving them the classic curse of lycanthropy. Considering some of the changes that occurred to were-creatures in other games these proposals aren't anywhere near heavy house-ruling. But this is a marketplace of ideas and hopefully ineffible GM is getting some good ideas from it!

Make sure the conversion process is difficult. Otherwise you have to deal with there being too many werewolves around.

Also, WHICH werewolf? I was looking into playing one and found widely-varying stats/abilities depending on the book.

[SolCannibal]

unless you have houseruled werebeasts fairly heavily in your games that exact situation seems unlikely.. werebeasts being a seperate race, and not infectious.

I was under the impression that, when you mention making up your own kingdoms, you're already house-ruling your game. Hence my idea and sources for inspiration. I don't see any reason against giving were-beasts average range of intelligence of 3d6 or giving them the classic curse of lycanthropy. Considering some of the changes that occurred to were-creatures in other games these proposals aren't anywhere near heavy house-ruling. But this is a marketplace of ideas and hopefully ineffible GM is getting some good ideas from it!

Make sure the conversion process is difficult. Otherwise you have to deal with there being too many werewolves around.

Also, WHICH werewolf? I was looking into playing one and found widely-varying stats/abilities depending on the book.

Depends on what suits a GM's fancy and story needs i guess. Coming up with new races or OCCs as a certain narrative calls for it has been part and parcel of the game for ages.

[Library Ogre]

As an aside, how about making some places where Euro is the official language? For the dominant idiom of the continent, there's a glaring lack of actual nations with it in the books, might be said....

Fun, momentary, headcanon: Euro WAS the dominant language of Europe before the Rifts.... everyone's second language, and the one you could speak from Portugal to Port Vladivostok and get by. But, after the Rifts, the resulting Balkanization resulted in local languages predominating, so the NDR speaks Deutsch, the Blood Druids speak French, etc.. Euro is more akin to Latin in the modern day... the only people who actually speak it are those who go plumbing into archives for historical records.

[SolCannibal]

As an aside, how about making some places where Euro is the official language? For the dominant idiom of the continent, there's a glaring lack of actual nations with it in the books, might be said....

Fun, momentary, headcanon: Euro WAS the dominant language of Europe before the Rifts.... everyone's second language, and the one you could speak from Portugal to Port Vladivostok and get by. But, after the Rifts, the resulting Balkanization resulted in local languages predominating, so the NDR speaks Deutsch, the Blood Druids speak French, etc.. Euro is more akin to Latin in the modern day... the only people who actually speak it are those who go plumbing into archives for historical records.

Where is that said? Because it sure ain't what i remember from my RMB....

[SycophantNagaraja]

Going out on a limb as I don't have the books handy but those comments if true likely came from the two Triax books

[SycophantNagaraja]

Make sure the conversion process is difficult. Otherwise you have to deal with there being too many werewolves around.

Also, WHICH werewolf? I was looking into playing one and found widely-varying stats/abilities depending on the book.

Wasn't their main write up in the Conversion book. Admittedly I'm only using less than half of my library right now for the game I'm running and haven't had a use (were creatures) to look the info up in a long time

[Library Ogre]

As an aside, how about making some places where Euro is the official language? For the dominant idiom of the continent, there's a glaring lack of actual nations with it in the books, might be said....

Fun, momentary, headcanon: Euro WAS the dominant language of Europe before the Rifts.... everyone's second language, and the one you could speak from Portugal to Port Vladivostok and get by. But, after the Rifts, the resulting Balkanization resulted in local languages predominating, so the NDR speaks Deutsch, the Blood Druids speak French, etc.. Euro is more akin to Latin in the modern day... the only people who actually speak it are those who go plumbing into archives for historical records.

Where is that said? Because it sure ain't what i remember from my RMB....

"Fun, momentary, headcanon:" in that statement indicates that this is something I thought of, that's not in the book.

[SolCannibal]

As an aside, how about making some places where Euro is the official language? For the dominant idiom of the continent, there's a glaring lack of actual nations with it in the books, might be said....

Fun, momentary, headcanon: Euro WAS the dominant language of Europe before the Rifts.... everyone's second language, and the one you could speak from Portugal to Port Vladivostok and get by. But, after the Rifts, the resulting Balkanization resulted in local languages predominating, so the NDR speaks Deutsch, the Blood Druids speak French, etc.. Euro is more akin to Latin in the modern day... the only people who actually speak it are those who go plumbing into archives for historical records.

Where is that said? Because it sure ain't what i remember from my RMB....

"Fun, momentary, headcanon:" in that statement indicates that this is something I thought of, that's not in the book.

Sorry, my bad. I somehow managed to miss exactly that part, though apparently i waasn't the only one.

[AzathothXy]

Make sure the conversion process is difficult. Otherwise you have to deal with there being too many werewolves around.

Also, WHICH werewolf? I was looking into playing one and found widely-varying stats/abilities depending on the book.

Wasn't their main write up in the Conversion book. Admittedly I'm only using less than half of my library right now for the game I'm running and haven't had a use (were creatures) to look the info up in a long time

If you have some of the older Rifters, the Tribes of the moon werebeasts can work.

[SolCannibal]

A little something of potential interest from the Conversion Book i found in my notes.

Jotan: In the world of Rifts only a handful of jotan are known to exist. The giants take an immediate interest in mega-damage armor and alloys. In fact, a secret jotan operation in or near the New German Republic is rumored to be manufacturing giant-size mega-damage body armor and weapons for fellow giants and gargoyles.

In fact that rumor is repeated - and possibly expanded (though curiously not confirmed or denied) through the background of Grunt, The Giant, from Mercenaries, pgs. 71-73.

[glitterboy2098]

unless you have houseruled werebeasts fairly heavily in your games that exact situation seems unlikely.. werebeasts being a seperate race, and not infectious.

I was under the impression that, when you mention making up your own kingdoms, you're already house-ruling your game. Hence my idea and sources for inspiration. I don't see any reason against giving were-beasts average range of intelligence of 3d6 or giving them the classic curse of lycanthropy. Considering some of the changes that occurred to were-creatures in other games these proposals aren't anywhere near heavy house-ruling. But this is a marketplace of ideas and hopefully ineffible GM is getting some good ideas from it!

house ruling is usually very specific.. adding new countries to your game does not automatically mean that you've rewritten werewolves. especially since any GM will have to invent towns, countries, NPC's, and so on even if they are observing every rule, stat, and *CC of the game without changes. because the gamebooks rarely provide all the fine details needed for a campaign.

[SolCannibal]

unless you have houseruled werebeasts fairly heavily in your games that exact situation seems unlikely.. werebeasts being a seperate race, and not infectious.

I was under the impression that, when you mention making up your own kingdoms, you're already house-ruling your game. Hence my idea and sources for inspiration. I don't see any reason against giving were-beasts average range of intelligence of 3d6 or giving them the classic curse of lycanthropy. Considering some of the changes that occurred to were-creatures in other games these proposals aren't anywhere near heavy house-ruling. But this is a marketplace of ideas and hopefully ineffible GM is getting some good ideas from it!

house ruling is usually very specific.. adding new countries to your game does not automatically mean that you've rewritten werewolves. especially since any GM will have to invent towns, countries, NPC's, and so on even if they are observing every rule, stat, and *CC of the game without changes. because the gamebooks rarely provide all the fine details needed for a campaign.

You do have a point that having to rewrite crunchy stuff when you're already busy making up places and details about them can be something of a chore and take even more time from an already strapped GM.

It's one of the reasons when i want to go quick-&-dirty with such stuff i simply pick an OCC or RCC of the "appropriate" worldbook for an area and make it into the backbone/basis of a certain city-state or society, certainly works for Kingsdale's juicer culture for an example.

[Boethermsbrukan]

Maddux, good afternoon!

Could try Italy think they had something about in one of the first Rifters think it could be fun ideas to play around with.

I think I've got the Rifter with said article in it; was it something about a number of Palladium Imperial Wolfen (or a parallel thus) being Rifted to Rifts-era Italy and building a small Neo-Roman duchy or 'empire' there along with the resident humans, using modern Rifts armour and tech?

-Boe.

[SycophantNagaraja]

house ruling is usually very specific.. adding new countries to your game does not automatically mean that you've rewritten werewolves. especially since any GM will have to invent towns, countries, NPC's, and so on even if they are observing every rule, stat, and *CC of the game without changes. because the gamebooks rarely provide all the fine details needed for a campaign.

Not always but it sounds like we have a different idea behind what all house ruling entails. Not a biggie. The idea was additive to ones already thrown out and tied to the genre idea of a werewolf kingdom (which Huns aren't a bad idea either but don't exactly fit with a classic kingdom idea as they were more nomadic but it really isn't important). If the idea is to become super information intensive then yes this could be problematic but then again so is everything else. And no one has to make up any new cities, kingdoms, etc. GMs can determine the workload that best suits them.

You opine that making these changes, 1d6 and the classic curse, would be heavy rewriting. I simply disagree and state it wouldn't. If you cite easily accessible references like the ones I indicated I find it's easy to get a player buy-in without having to write extra fluff or spend tons of time with anything except some concepts, NPCs, and story I'd like to tell.

But I readily admit that I tend to be good with a lot of data all at once and while I may be overlooking something, I'm just not seeing how that minor of a change would be a heavy rewrite. You'd spend more time with story than you would making an adjustment to an NPC at this level. But that is just my opinion.

Overall I think he has quite a few semi fleshed out ideas at his disposal.

Solcannibal: adding the Jotun could be fun and now that you bring it up I recall seeing that in the Merc guide.

[RockJock]

A quick note about the super powered types surviving to the PA calendar. Look at "enhanced" humans like the Earth and Star Children, or even the Amphibs in England and Underseas. A genetic/magic enhanced group/tribe/kingdom is kinda inline with that.

Another idea is bringing in gods, or their minions. A small group of Warriors of Asgard who helped to defend a city in Scandinavia 200 years back. Could still be a tech enclave, but worship Odin, and have magic based connections, sort of a Nordic Rifts Japan.

[SolCannibal]

A quick note about the super powered types surviving to the PA calendar. Look at "enhanced" humans like the Earth and Star Children, or even the Amphibs in England and Underseas. A genetic/magic enhanced group/tribe/kingdom is kinda inline with that.

Another idea is bringing in gods, or their minions. A small group of Warriors of Asgard who helped to defend a city in Scandinavia 200 years back. Could still be a tech enclave, but worship Odin, and have magic based connections, sort of a Nordic Rifts Japan.

Well, there's about 4-5 centuries of mostly untold history between the Time of Rifts and current P.A., so the potential for fitting a bunch of stuff of all kinds, just from mixing basic bits from other books, is quite considerable when one thinks about it.

[glitterboy2098]

3 centuries, actually.

[SolCannibal]

3 centuries, actually.

Around 3 centuries (depending on how precise the count of these years of interregnum is) between Time of the Rifts and the start of the "Post Armageddon" calendar, that last i checked in the books, is at 109 P.A., no? All together, summing up to a little over 4 centuries from the Time of the Rifts to "present" seems about right.

[glitterboy2098]

given how often i've had to repost this, you'd think people would remember..

as of the end of the Siege on tolkien (PA-109), it is AD 2395, 297 years after the beginning of the great cataclysm.*

* the date can be found in Worldbook 5: Triax and the NGR, pg22. WB5 is listed as being CS calender year PA-103, the german calender year 2389, exactly 291 years after the start of the cataclysm on Dec 22nd 2098. just add another 6 years to bring it up to PA 109. as the Factory-cities of Triax survived the cataclysm intact, they continued to use the proper calender uninterrupted, unlike most of the rest of the world.
in the same section, we learn the second dark age lasted roughly 188 years, although obviously some parts of the world have yet to come out of it...


so, 'around' three centuries, in that it will be three centuries exactly on dec 22nd, PA112.

[Nightmartree]

given how often i've had to repost this, you'd think people would remember..

as of the end of the Siege on tolkien (PA-109), it is AD 2395, 297 years after the beginning of the great cataclysm.*

* the date can be found in Worldbook 5: Triax and the NGR, pg22. WB5 is listed as being CS calender year PA-103, the german calender year 2389, exactly 291 years after the start of the cataclysm on Dec 22nd 2098. just add another 6 years to bring it up to PA 109. as the Factory-cities of Triax survived the cataclysm intact, they continued to use the proper calender uninterrupted, unlike most of the rest of the world.
in the same section, we learn the second dark age lasted roughly 188 years, although obviously some parts of the world have yet to come out of it...


so, 'around' three centuries, in that it will be three centuries exactly on dec 22nd, PA112.

So that's the official, if people wanna stretch it a bit...well space AND time were kinda ahhhh whats the words? perforated extensively, and if anyone feels that they need a pseudoscience explanation then the combinations of numerous tears in space and time within a limited area created a quantum fluctuation resulting in perceived time being different for different parts of earth through at least part of the cataclysm. meaning Germany may have had only 291 years of the cataclysm, but maybe another part of the world had more decades or centuries of time in it, if you look at it one way, rifts japan managed to skip a good hunk of it and have less time in the cataclysm because of space time being altered. Add on the chances of this rifts earth not being the only one (we already have examples of people from parallel timelines) and maybe the locations we know aren't even what they seem, maybe a good hunk of some of the continents were literally swapped and we don't know it because, hey how would we be able to tell if they were a parallel that was close enough? Add on the dark ages and a whole lotta freak stuff and boom, anything is plausible.

[Freemage]

Okay, I'm gonna go a bit left-field here:

Somewhere in the south of France, surrounded on all sides by various D-bee hordes, there's a small human kingdom that somehow manages to keep the monsters at bay, pretty much through pure faith alone. Their prayers are answered, consistently, laying out those monstrosities that dare to approach. The kingdom is led by the Merovingian royal line, who are descended from the blood of Christ himself, and who are destined to purge the world of the wicked demon-kind. Even a child of the kingdom of Merovingia who has learned his catechism has his prayers answered, and so the kingdom remains safe.

This, of course, is all bunk. The Kingdom was founded during the worst of the Dark Ages by a desperate man seeking to give hope to a small community by cobbling together various Golden Age fiction and conspiracy theory texts featuring the Priory of Sion legend. The first of the "Merovingian Kings" was actually just a Ley Line Walker with an impressive patter. The people, needing a savior, bought into it hook, line and sinker.

First, the new "King" taught his desperate subjects prayers (actually spells) to drive back the darkness. Then he founded a family line, so that when he died, they wouldn't lose faith and hope again. Even most of the family believes in their divine heritage. The "King's Burden" is passed along when the King names his successor (they don't use the classic eldest son formula, but rather, the King selects the heir guided by 'divine insight'--namely, picking the strongest mage among the prospective candidates).

So virtually the entire population are essentially hedge wizards, with the family and some of the affiliated nobility being full-blown LLWs (though they never call themselves such).

The Kingdom is about as anti-D-Bee as the average CS enclave, perhaps moreso. Any obvious D-Bees are driven away, often just killed on sight. They also despise 'magic' (believing that anyone who isn't using their particular brand is essentially in league with the devil, or perhaps at best a hapless dupe of the Dark Powers). So outside mages who arrive in the Kingdom face a harsh surprise if they fail to properly conceal the nature of their abilities (or suggest the truth about the 'divine grace' wielded by the populace). Psychics are called 'the Touched', and are considered both divinely blessed and natural targets for infernal temptation, and thus are placed into a sort of convent/monastery to be taught extra piety. Those with the ability to read minds, in particular, are NEVER permitted to stand in the presence of the current monarch or their designated heir (the argument is that if they learned of the secrets of the royal family, they would be able to give that information to the D-Bee hordes if they were ever captured). Since they also are taught the catechisms, many of these psychics are essentially Mystics with a skewed interpretation of their abilities (they view benevolent spirits as angels, etc).

Ley Lines run near the city-state-sized kingdom, but only extend locally into areas controlled by the Gargoyle and Brodkil hordes, preventing them from being used either by friendly visitors or by the inhabitants to go to other territories. Thus, the isolation continues.

Sometimes, the King's Burden proves more than an heir can take. Those who react poorly, or talk of revealing the truth, are usually locked up in tower cell with an anti-magic field. There they are sealed into an iron mask, with a special bar that impales and pins the tongue, making it almost impossible for them to speak. They are kept there in isolation until they die, often many years later.

Other times, the strain of keeping the secret doesn't really begin to press down until after the coronation and they are forced to rule under false pretenses. For some, this is a breaking-point; they become increasingly inclined to believe that they are beyond all moral and ethical strictures. While this has happened only a few times in the kingdom's history, those were not happy periods. Fortunately, as the King's Burden is passed in a ceremony immediately after the coronation, the Heir Designate is usually a better example (and a few successions have even been... hastened through expedient action by the Heir, who sees the need to keep things from becoming too horrible).

[SolCannibal]

This one makes me think a little of New Camelot, but should be fine and pretty usable overall, specially with some extra mash-up of myths and folklore to confuse or enrichen the broth, with maybe some new bits formed in the intervening centuries.

How about some north african folklore inspired transplanted by way of people of moroccan and/or maghrebi, a "New Carthage" formed from a mash-up of Salammbo, comic book adaptations, berber legendry and revisionist history - or for something completely unrelated, a religious commune that worships "angels of the stars" and those abducted/ascended ones touched by their astral wisdom (star children) for example? More about UFO cult than the star children per se anyway, but it's all up to one's preferences.

Who knows, there's certainly room for all of the above and more depending on how much room one wants to play with - no reason not to cut apart old nations and re-paste them in wholy new states and forms while at it. Basque and langue d'oc are just two examples of idioms that crossed between countries and technically speaking french and german among others count too. Borders change with time, conflict & politics and most certainly should with a few centuries of post-apoc mayhem.

[boring7]

Okay, I'm gonna go a bit left-field here:

Somewhere in the south of France, surrounded on all sides by various D-bee hordes, there's a small human kingdom that somehow manages to keep the monsters at bay, pretty much through pure faith alone. Their prayers are answered, consistently, laying out those monstrosities that dare to approach. The kingdom is led by the Merovingian royal line, who are descended from the blood of Christ himself, and who are destined to purge the world of the wicked demon-kind. Even a child of the kingdom of Merovingia who has learned his catechism has his prayers answered, and so the kingdom remains safe.

This, of course, is all bunk. The Kingdom was founded during the worst of the Dark Ages by a desperate man seeking to give hope to a small community by cobbling together various Golden Age fiction and conspiracy theory texts featuring the Priory of Sion legend. The first of the "Merovingian Kings" was actually just a Ley Line Walker with an impressive patter. The people, needing a savior, bought into it hook, line and sinker.

First, the new "King" taught his desperate subjects prayers (actually spells) to drive back the darkness. Then he founded a family line, so that when he died, they wouldn't lose faith and hope again. Even most of the family believes in their divine heritage. The "King's Burden" is passed along when the King names his successor (they don't use the classic eldest son formula, but rather, the King selects the heir guided by 'divine insight'--namely, picking the strongest mage among the prospective candidates).

So virtually the entire population are essentially hedge wizards, with the family and some of the affiliated nobility being full-blown LLWs (though they never call themselves such).

The Kingdom is about as anti-D-Bee as the average CS enclave, perhaps moreso. Any obvious D-Bees are driven away, often just killed on sight. They also despise 'magic' (believing that anyone who isn't using their particular brand is essentially in league with the devil, or perhaps at best a hapless dupe of the Dark Powers). So outside mages who arrive in the Kingdom face a harsh surprise if they fail to properly conceal the nature of their abilities (or suggest the truth about the 'divine grace' wielded by the populace). Psychics are called 'the Touched', and are considered both divinely blessed and natural targets for infernal temptation, and thus are placed into a sort of convent/monastery to be taught extra piety. Those with the ability to read minds, in particular, are NEVER permitted to stand in the presence of the current monarch or their designated heir (the argument is that if they learned of the secrets of the royal family, they would be able to give that information to the D-Bee hordes if they were ever captured). Since they also are taught the catechisms, many of these psychics are essentially Mystics with a skewed interpretation of their abilities (they view benevolent spirits as angels, etc).

Ley Lines run near the city-state-sized kingdom, but only extend locally into areas controlled by the Gargoyle and Brodkil hordes, preventing them from being used either by friendly visitors or by the inhabitants to go to other territories. Thus, the isolation continues.

Sometimes, the King's Burden proves more than an heir can take. Those who react poorly, or talk of revealing the truth, are usually locked up in tower cell with an anti-magic field. There they are sealed into an iron mask, with a special bar that impales and pins the tongue, making it almost impossible for them to speak. They are kept there in isolation until they die, often many years later.

Other times, the strain of keeping the secret doesn't really begin to press down until after the coronation and they are forced to rule under false pretenses. For some, this is a breaking-point; they become increasingly inclined to believe that they are beyond all moral and ethical strictures. While this has happened only a few times in the kingdom's history, those were not happy periods. Fortunately, as the King's Burden is passed in a ceremony immediately after the coronation, the Heir Designate is usually a better example (and a few successions have even been... hastened through expedient action by the Heir, who sees the need to keep things from becoming too horrible).

That's a good one. Room for modified OCCs, enchanted "holy" artifacts, history revolving around the King's Burden (and whether or not it's still correct, oral history *always* gets corrupted and if it isn't oral history, how's it written down? Perhaps magically baked into the crown?)

What's the play on technology? Magic outsiders are scary because magic, but if a shot-up air transport does an emergency landing in the kingdom do the locals freak out about demon engines or just tell the local mechanic he's got a business opportunity?

[Freemage]

That's a good one. Room for modified OCCs, enchanted "holy" artifacts, history revolving around the King's Burden (and whether or not it's still correct, oral history *always* gets corrupted and if it isn't oral history, how's it written down? Perhaps magically baked into the crown?)

What's the play on technology? Magic outsiders are scary because magic, but if a shot-up air transport does an emergency landing in the kingdom do the locals freak out about demon engines or just tell the local mechanic he's got a business opportunity?

Hm...

Tech isn't reviled as such, but after several unfortunate run-ins with Mindwerks minions, anyone with cybernetics or other prosthetic gear (M.O.M.s or Juicer rigs) is pretty much going to be lucky if they aren't on the receiving end of the power of prayer.

For the history, I think I'd magically bake it into the crown, actually, in which case it doesn't even NEED to be transmitted to the Heir before the coronation ceremony (which actually activates the spell to impart the Burden). This would further explain why every so often, an Heir goes 'bad' upon coronation. They can't reveal the truth or the people are likely to rise up, but they can't accept that they've been living a lie their entire lives, and must now do so until they die.

[Hotrod]

If I were to put some surviving royalty into Rifts Europe, I'd probably go with Spain, because it isn't as defined as the rest of Europe. Also, King Juan Carlos I of Spain is a personal hero of mine.

[Nightmartree]

That's a good one. Room for modified OCCs, enchanted "holy" artifacts, history revolving around the King's Burden (and whether or not it's still correct, oral history *always* gets corrupted and if it isn't oral history, how's it written down? Perhaps magically baked into the crown?)

What's the play on technology? Magic outsiders are scary because magic, but if a shot-up air transport does an emergency landing in the kingdom do the locals freak out about demon engines or just tell the local mechanic he's got a business opportunity?

Hm...

Tech isn't reviled as such, but after several unfortunate run-ins with Mindwerks minions, anyone with cybernetics or other prosthetic gear (M.O.M.s or Juicer rigs) is pretty much going to be lucky if they aren't on the receiving end of the power of prayer.

For the history, I think I'd magically bake it into the crown, actually, in which case it doesn't even NEED to be transmitted to the Heir before the coronation ceremony (which actually activates the spell to impart the Burden). This would further explain why every so often, an Heir goes 'bad' upon coronation. They can't reveal the truth or the people are likely to rise up, but they can't accept that they've been living a lie their entire lives, and must now do so until they die.

Hmm is the crown like a computer, a set of responses to the change of kings, combined with a history storage and a magical compulsion to keep quiet or would it have an entity or perhaps a soul like a rune weapon maintaining everything? So basically is it an automated magical item or does it potentially have intelligence and a goal?

And would it be worth considering that the original mage/king was a shifter and the "prayers" were provided by "god" aka a supernatural intelligence or actual divine being backing him? For good or Ill. It could add another dimension to the area, possibly continuing to this day or having been cast off since the founding. Course it may not be needed with the already possible intricacies of noble courts and religion already in the area.