Coalition 12 PA campaign ideas

[Greg_Merrick]

Hello everyone, I've been wanting to do a Rifts campaign following the Coalition in 12 P.A. specifically when the federation of magic invades. This is while they still were exploring the possibility of allowing practioners of magic and the coalition fought the war against the Federation of Magic with the aid of their own mages.
I believe I remember that the deaths head motif hasn't been adopted yet. I know Karl Prosek has not been born, it's still 8 years before Joseph Prosek has even been elected the Chairman of Chi-Town. The fledgling Coalition is a bastion of hope for Humanity, and while they feel they need to reclaim Earth for Humanity they've not become as intolerant as they will become under Karl's rule.
Some questions I have though are, what technology do they have available to them at this time? Obviously the tech from Rifts World Book 11 is much too new. What kind of tech might they find while protecting expeditions into the ruins of Old Chicago, and other major ruins of civilization lost.
Any suggestions and insight are appreciated.

[SolCannibal]

Good question indeed. AFAIK there are no clear state examples of CS hardware at the time of Joseph's the Campaign of Blood, so my suggesttion is to use a bunch of "generic RMB gear" like Urban Warrior, Plastic Man & Bushman armor, some knock-offss/precursors of NG or Wilks guns and maybe a Samson with Jetpack or Flying Titan to represent "grandad versions" of the Samas.

Nothing too fancy, but the fact the Coalition forces has lots of troops and the gear to equip, though a farcry of their resources in 100+PA, should make them impressive enough in the period. Also, no dog boys, so Psi-stalkers might make units of their own, or be allied tribes acting in a way like auxilia specialist units in the roman legions, though the CS forces having a few spellcasters of their own might complicate that a bit. Since we are talking of a different time and set-ups, you could introduce little bits of "early installment weirdness" like Burster or Mind Melter combat groups as foreign packs/specialized troops of their own.

Also, big hover vehicles to act as either artillery or troop transports - i would say those are even more important to give a "Coalition/we are the real army of the wasteland" vibe to the whole thing than armors in black armor with skulls or whatever.

Just my rough, sketchy thoughts on the subject, hope it helps a little.

[Orin J.]

most of the coalition stuff in the rifts book is just pre-magic gear, right? i think vibro blades, the spider skill walkers, and a few other things came later, but the armor and the guns are good to go. maybe make them limited in stock so part of their forces are stuck using lower-quality gear and the "Death's head" imaging isn't there yet, but most of it is fine to use. i'd think the biggest question is how much they were able to build war machines yet. it's entirely possible they were clinging to an infantry-heavy force with minimal support from their SAMAS troops out of necessity rather than their current "overwhelm everyone, every time" tactical approach.

i'd expect their early approach trying to fit magic into their ToE would probably focus more on techno-wizardry gear and ley line walkers than shifters and anything working with "alien powers" if only out of what they were comfortable approaching.

[SolCannibal]

most of the coalition stuff in the rifts book is just pre-magic gear, right? i think vibro blades, the spider skill walkers, and a few other things came later, but the armor and the guns are good to go. maybe make them limited in stock so part of their forces are stuck using lower-quality gear and the "Death's head" imaging isn't there yet, but most of it is fine to use. i'd think the biggest question is how much they were able to build war machines yet. it's entirely possible they were clinging to an infantry-heavy force with minimal support from their SAMAS troops out of necessity rather than their current "overwhelm everyone, every time" tactical approach.

i'd expect their early approach trying to fit magic into their ToE would probably focus more on techno-wizardry gear and ley line walkers than shifters and anything working with "alien powers" if only out of what they were comfortable approaching.

I don't know about TW, i have the impression it is a somewhat recent phenomena, specially cconsidering Stormspire has a big presence in that pie and is definitely a power that arrived in the years Nostrous' fall and Alistair's ascension. Not to mention the direct descendants of the CS military casters, the Vanguard, have no TW whatsoever, afaik.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Chi-Town had a dedicated Magic Corp at the time, fully intergrated into the army with a focus on combined arms actions. One of the reasons they won was using the strengths of one to compliment each-other and address weakness's.

I can confirm however, that the CS did not have access to most of the eairly weapons. no SAMAS, none of it's trademark energy weapons. The plans for making those were discovered in the Lone Star Complex, which the Lone Star books said was discovered in 68 PA. Meaning the entire federation war was decades old before the first SAMAS flew for the CS.

They did have 48 Glitter Boys as Chi-Town was found to have a Cache of them, in addition to any Free Qubec would feild. One presumes that by 101 PA Chi-Town has lost the last of it's cache of them to attrition.

There was however mentioned to be technology in the Chi-Town Library for making better weapons and armor. So Coalition gear would likely be modified, improved versions of most generic Northern Gun gear.

[Orin J.]

most of the coalition stuff in the rifts book is just pre-magic gear, right? i think vibro blades, the spider skill walkers, and a few other things came later, but the armor and the guns are good to go. maybe make them limited in stock so part of their forces are stuck using lower-quality gear and the "Death's head" imaging isn't there yet, but most of it is fine to use. i'd think the biggest question is how much they were able to build war machines yet. it's entirely possible they were clinging to an infantry-heavy force with minimal support from their SAMAS troops out of necessity rather than their current "overwhelm everyone, every time" tactical approach.

i'd expect their early approach trying to fit magic into their ToE would probably focus more on techno-wizardry gear and ley line walkers than shifters and anything working with "alien powers" if only out of what they were comfortable approaching.

I don't know about TW, i have the impression it is a somewhat recent phenomena, specially cconsidering Stormspire has a big presence in that pie and is definitely a power that arrived in the years Nostrous' fall and Alistair's ascension. Not to mention the direct descendants of the CS military casters, the Vanguard, have no TW whatsoever, afaik.

technowizards are for building tech. given the vanguard's situation, any form of equipment that can be traced to them as an organization is a liability and i'd assume they just buy what they need or place an order as a private individual. the coalition would itself proably have leaned more to "in-house" construction if possible....

[Braden Campbell]

Yeeeaaars ago, I started to flesh out this time period under a project called "Fathers of the Nation." It was basically American Civil War... with lasers. \PM your email, and I will see if I can send you the ancient notes

[Greg_Merrick]

I own and have read Takes of the Chi-Town Burbs, and the story of the retired soldier from the bloody campaign gave me a lot of inspection for this campaign. Adventure Source Book 3: The Black Vault, and Adventure Source Book 4: The Vanguard have been helpful too in some ways, I have Secrets of the Coalition States pre-ordered and eagerly awaited.

[RockJock]

I would love to see Braden's transitional ideas.

That being said, I see two options. One, slightly weaker versions of old main book CS gear(-1d6 damage, less shots, lighter MDC) or two, a hodge podge of troops with much less of a standardized military. For the second think of Chitown troops having standard CS gear, or the notch down, but others attached units being equipped totally differently. A Psi-Stalker tribe with a few magic melee weapons, vibro blades and a handful of lower end NG guns, and silver bullet firing SDC rifles. Another squad/group with a GB supported by a mix of Plastic Man and non EBA scrap armor and whatever guns they can find.

Note, I know the CS didn't use Glitter Boys, but my point was you can have allied towns sending troops that did.

[Orin J.]

I would love to see Braden's transitional ideas.

That being said, I see two options. One, slightly weaker versions of old main book CS gear(-1d6 damage, less shots, lighter MDC) or two, a hodge podge of troops with much less of a standardized military. For the second think of Chitown troops having standard CS gear, or the notch down, but others attacked units being equipped totally differently. A Psi-Stalker tribe with a few magic melee weapons, vibro blades and a handful of lower end NG guns, and silver bullet firing SDC rifles. Another squad/group with a GB supported by a mix of Plastic Man and non EBA scrap armor and whatever guns they can find.

Note, I know the CS didn't use Glitter Boys, but my point was you can have allied towns sending troops that did.

i don't see why we can't have both. low-end coalition troops with the old C-10s serving as the "elite" parts of the early army and the majority in like logo'd urban warrior and carrying NG and a smattering of black market rifles.

i wonder if they'd have enforcers yet......

[Axelmania]

the direct descendants of the CS military casters, the Vanguard, have no TW whatsoever, afaik.

TW was one of the original allowable OCCs for them when there were first introduced in the SoT series, though the Burbs supplement seems to have forgotten that.

I can confirm however, that the CS did not have access to most of the eairly weapons. no SAMAS, none of it's trademark energy weapons. The plans for making those were discovered in the Lone Star Complex, which the Lone Star books said was discovered in 68 PA. Meaning the entire federation war was decades old before the first SAMAS flew for the CS.

Which would also mean no psi-hounds, meaning more reliable on psi-stalkers, who I'm guessing weren't as plentiful or incorporated into the CS at the time. Pretty sure they had less psychics too, this was before Joseph pushed Carol's baby.

Maybe Chi-Town relied on normal puppies and kittens to sniff out the demons before they had the Dog Boys to help out, since there'd be a shortage of Psi-Stalkers you'd probably want exploring the outer perimeters anyway.

Actually, even present-day CS, owning a dog or a cat might even be a mandatory policy... or at least government sponsored in some way.

[Greg_Merrick]

Branden's written some great stuff! (Though he pointed out his stuff was pre Chaos Earth books but I don't quite consider Chaos Earth as Rifts as I believe it was stated by Palladium they intended it as it's own branch of the megaverses.) As for weapons C-10 rifles are the best they have as an infantry type weapon and even those are limited. The weapons have been found and salvaged and therefore can't be built as of yet. They don't use the standard E-Clip of 106 P.A. the clips are more along the lines of battery packs for rifles they contain 12 rounds and can't recharge as they don't have the tech to recharge them. Vibro blade bayonets are very common and EVERYBODY in the military carries a Vibro Sword. The main side arm is the Cold .45 which is very "more than enough" for most non magic using humanoids seeing as M.D.C. armor isn't common yet. I enjoyed the way that Branden Campbell put it "Put a shot through a man’s gasmask, he won’t be getting back up again." They have Railguns similar to the NG-202 it requires a three man team to use and is ismilar to a WW1 water cooled machine gun. Instead of bots they use a lot of artillery. They have an unguided rocket launcher that's similar to the CR-1 the rockets have a much shorter range. Grenades of all kinds are common.
Armor is a non environmental armor similar to the Bushman body armor however with less M.D.C.

In short the people of that time were made of some pretty tough stuff to survive with technology that is nothing compared to what Rifts Earth has in the 106 - 109 P.A. theaters that are common place among gamers.

They also used pidgins to supliment hand radios (which were rare) and Cats which got uneasy around magic users. The Psi-Stalkers are only Wild Psi-Stalkers at the moment, but alliances with them historically happen shortly after the Federations attack on Chi-Town.

As for TW it is a very new form of magic that hasn't caught on yet... A member of The Federation of Magic has only just begun to explore it.

[DD The Shmey]

Yeah it seems like Brandon had some good stuff. Everything you mentioned sounds golden.

Also the description for the UAR-1 says

The development of this mechanized behemoth grew out of the conflict with the federation of magic in the ruins of Old Chicago, in the year 12 PA. The enemy forces were firmly entrenched in the old ruins and were difficult to extract and coast the lives of thousands of Chi-Town's soldiers. A few years later saw the appearance of the UAR-1 Enforcer's predecessor. The current model has been used for over 20 years now.

So the UAR-1 wasn't there at the beginning of the war, but they were probably developing it. You could reasonably have they deploy some early prototypes of similar robots.

I'm sure your going to give them some SDC assault rifles, like the M16A1.
You might want to look at the M-20 Assault Rifle from Rifts underseas. It's another pre-rifts design that says it was one of the last non-energy weapons still in service during the cataclysm. It doesn't say that the M-20 was restricted to naval forces or the marines.

[Greg_Merrick]

Good stuff there! That could be pretty fun scenario trying to rout the Federation of Magic from the ruins of Old Chicago and discovering a large robot that unknown to the player characters it will one day become the UAR-1 Enforcer obviously no skull face on the robot but the body shape could be the same. The robot would be much too valuable to use in combat as Chi-Town's R&D would want it to reverse engineer. Is it saffer to leave it in the ruins or conduct a mid conflict excavation that needs to be protected. If there is enough of them that Chi-Town decides one or two can be spared for the battle they could be very buggy and hard to control from centuries of sitting unused. Then the fact that NOBODY has used a robot before... Figuring out how to use it and the huge penalties put upon the pilot power armor and robots base skill... They would be falling over a lot battling rusted joints, perhaps rodent gnawed electronics that cause problems. That could make for some really fun (all be it in a frustrating way) role-play!!!

[dreicunan]

A good choice for a laser weapon around PA-12 would be the venerable L-20 Pulse Rifle.

[dreicunan]

Also, early Chi-Town is stated to have Glitter Boys by Erin Tarn (presented as a known fact) in WB 22 (p. 21). They do give up on them due to not having the tech to make more towards the end of the Dark Ages, and there stockpile dwindled over time, but they may well have still been using them in the 12 PA era.

[glitterboy2098]

my suggestion for gear would be to look at the GAW armor and weapons from Mercops.. these were pre-rifts "national guard" level gear (light MD armor, an M16/laser combo rifle, etc) that was from the early days of MD technology, and would thus make sense as the type of gear the CS would have been able to mass produce at the time.
you could add some of the more potent energy weapons in as specialist/support weapons.. the L-20 ought to be around at the time for example, and might count as a marksman's battlerifle in deployment. you could also use the occasional NEMA weapon for the elite units, especially the heavier energy weapons, which would be relic weapons found in old NEMA caches and stored away for wartime use.

similarly for PA and robots you might toss a few old NEMA units held by "descendend" pilots or found in caches. such units would probably have a certain amount of permanent MDC loss or other such flaws due to the reduced skills and materials available to maintain them. i would suggest that no silver eagles appear (to preserve the lack of recognition in NA of the SAMAS later), but most of the rest would be fair game i think. odds are that they'd have a clan of GB pilots native to the region if not the city that would have any chrome guardsmen though.

[H.P. Hovercraft]

Another potential "nugget" of pre-rifts armor and weapons which I've found useful can be found on p92 of the Rifts Index Vol. Two.......

....it has stats for gear that was being shipped to national guard units just before the cataclysm ("Manufacturer: Old American Empire")

Quote, "These were not front-line weapons, but those used by military police and troops which were occupying captured areas."

These weapons and armor have solid stats as well as variable SDC and MDC firing selections, which could be used as a decent "base line" for what the early Coalition might have been using around 12PA.

[Emerald MoonSilver]

I would suggest using the old nema armors, such as the Bulldog and the smaller Mastiff armors from the chaos earth book. You could also use the nema combat bikes, hover bike, and atv from that suppliment. Fro small power armor the gunbuster armor would be perfect.

[RockJock]

I would think that the NEMA stuff is going to be rare and uncommon by this point.

[kaid]

I am pretty sure they had glitterboys at some level I believe that was mentioned at some point and that they were phased out of everywhere but free quebec as their on manufacturing capability and armor lines became good enough. I would expect a lot of the main book CS weapons are probably pretty similar to the infantry stuff they were using. Its mostly slightly modified lesser quality versions of old nema gear.

I think for robot vehicles it is probably the URA1 it is always described as a really old design and probably the oldest of their original designs. I am not sure when the discovery of the plans for the SAMAs happened so they may or may not have had them. I suspect a smattering of NEMA units probably were available too for the same reason glitterboys show up random old armories/bunkers/manufacturies get uncovered and old units get refurbished and powered back up. We have canon demonstrations of this happening a number of times and places with glitterboys so it stands to reason it happened with other nema armor/vehicles as well. Most of which would like the glitterboys get phased out once their own manufacturing process made them unnecessary.