Ideas for a game set in the New West

[Captain_Nibbz]

Hey all,

I'm working on putting together a game that is going to be set in the Salt Lake area of Rifts Earth. I know that there isn't a ton of canon information regarding the area (other than SLC getting hit with like 12 nukes in as many minutes). That being said, I'm planning on flavoring it like a fantasy game where the high tech aspects are seen as magic by the survivors, and magitech has spread so deeply into everything that sometimes its impossible to tell the difference.

I'm looking for some help coming up with adventure ideas that can play up both the fantasy side of things, while giving it an old west gunslinger flavor, and incorporating in post-apocalyptic tech.

So far my friend and I have come up with a few settlements, like The Brig (built from the ruins of Brigham City in the north end of the valley) and Copper Falls (built at the foot of a pre-rifts dam that is slowly rusting away and turning the water a copper color). There are a few smaller settlements as well that don't really bear mentioning.

As far as adventure ideas go, I've got a few, but I was hoping to tap into the collective consciousness of the forums to see what all of you might be able to help me come up with.

Thanks in advance,
Captain Nibbz

[Warshield73]

Hey all,

I'm working on putting together a game that is going to be set in the Salt Lake area of Rifts Earth. I know that there isn't a ton of canon information regarding the area (other than SLC getting hit with like 12 nukes in as many minutes). That being said, I'm planning on flavoring it like a fantasy game where the high tech aspects are seen as magic by the survivors, and magitech has spread so deeply into everything that sometimes its impossible to tell the difference.

I'm looking for some help coming up with adventure ideas that can play up both the fantasy side of things, while giving it an old west gunslinger flavor, and incorporating in post-apocalyptic tech.

So far my friend and I have come up with a few settlements, like The Brig (built from the ruins of Brigham City in the north end of the valley) and Copper Falls (built at the foot of a pre-rifts dam that is slowly rusting away and turning the water a copper color). There are a few smaller settlements as well that don't really bear mentioning.

As far as adventure ideas go, I've got a few, but I was hoping to tap into the collective consciousness of the forums to see what all of you might be able to help me come up with.

Thanks in advance,
Captain Nibbz

Just out of curiosity when is this set? is this 101 PA or 109 or are you setting it in the dark ages or something?

[Captain_Nibbz]

Probably 109 PA, that way I don't have to worry about what is canon and what isn't canon yet.

[dreicunan]

Where are they getting the espers for the magitech?

[Daniel Stoker]

The only thing I remember official about Salt Lake City was the Keepers of the Desert from the New West book with them living there.


Daniel Stoker

[Mack]

Salt Lake is a nifty spot to base a campaign because it's wide open for your imagination. The only canon reference I know of is p130 New West as part of the Keepers of the Desert.

It's home to Hill Air Force Base which might have a few buried secrets. With the Ogden Air Logistics Complex on it, it could hold info related to pre-Rifts military technology (SAMAS data, anyone?).

If you're looking for some old west flavor, I find Simvan make a good substitute for the "marauding Indian tribe" stereotype. (Looking at the maps on p6 of Spirit West, SLC is clear of all the large Indian, Simvan, and Psi-Stalkers tribes, but you can easily put a minor tribe wherever you need one.)

[Prole]

If it matters to you, there is two arms corporations nearby in Colorado and a secret Black Market Facility around Area 51, Nevada.

Considering that you have to get around CS to get to most of the other arms companies, I think that means your options are going to be fairly limited.

Wilks is kinda in the region, but that's like South Dakota.

[Captain_Nibbz]

If it matters to you, there is two arms corporations nearby in Colorado and a secret Black Market Facility around Area 51, Nevada.

Considering that you have to get around CS to get to most of the other arms companies, I think that means your options are going to be fairly limited.

Wilks is kinda in the region, but that's like South Dakota.

Thats some great info, I don't suppose you remember what books that those are in so that I can do me some research?

[Zer0 Kay]

Could have spirit dinos around dinosaur national monument. A nexus point like indian burial grounds. Maybe a fixed rift to a world with dinosaur sapiens. Maybe more like Voth or Reptilian Xindi than Saurians or Gorn from Star Trek.

[Zer0 Kay]

Fell had wanted to write something about the area. I don't know/recall how far he got.

[Zer0 Kay]

If it matters to you, there is two arms corporations nearby in Colorado and a secret Black Market Facility around Area 51, Nevada.

Considering that you have to get around CS to get to most of the other arms companies, I think that means your options are going to be fairly limited.

Wilks is kinda in the region, but that's like South Dakota.

Pfft everyone know the current "area 51" is Whitesands, NM

[Curbludgeon]

Building off an idea in the California thread, I'd do something with Pando. If it's the sort of game where it wouldn't be in poor taste, I'd tie it in with the Mormons and add a touch of Lovecraft.

The state of New Deseret is only accessible underground, below the root structure of Pando, the Ghost who Trembles. The ancient stand of quaking aspen went perpetually astral something after the coming of the rifts, and extend this to anyone making contact with its roots. The space once occupied by the extensive root structure is part of an extradimensional space substantially larger than its apparent size would otherwise suggest. Pando-space was originally inadvertantly colonized by survivors from near Salt Lake City. The time spent intangible and underground led to these survivors suffering somewhat less dramatic changes to their bodies than the Keepers of the Desert, but still enough to be assumed as being Keepers by the unaware.

Strong in their faith, these survivors considered their safety in Pando-space a sign of divine providence, and focused efforts on manipulating Pando-space while building a stable population under a theodemocracy. Unaging while half-astral, some of the citizens were witness to the Cataclysm, coming forth only, if at all, to procreate. Those immediately involved in population expansion, such as pregnant women and those tending to their security and medical needs, however, age substantially more quickly.

It was upon coming into contact with a group of placid dimensional ghouls interested in the "smell" of New Deseret that the colony's missionary work commenced. Unaffected by the pain most experience when shifting between dimensions with the ghouls, efforts were made to seek out both new converts/breeding stock as well as a possible home not underground, and a tentative peace was reached between the groups. This has led to some theological division within the populace. While many feel their home is, if not the Celestial Kingdom, relatively adjacent insofar as it is subject to their will, others feel that their colony is a manifestation of the spirit world/spirit prison instead of the earthly world and that they are to await resurrection where they are. A smaller fraction believes the people of New Deseret have been resurrected in the Telestial Kingdom, an opinion they feel supported by the existence of magic, and among them a certain degree of licentiousness holds sway.

As an R.C.C., I'd say the people of New Deseret are a cross between a Keeper of the Desert, an Astral Lord, and a Psi-Ghost with limited personal intangibility.

[Warshield73]

If it matters to you, there is two arms corporations nearby in Colorado and a secret Black Market Facility around Area 51, Nevada.

Considering that you have to get around CS to get to most of the other arms companies, I think that means your options are going to be fairly limited.

Wilks is kinda in the region, but that's like South Dakota.

Pfft everyone know the current "area 51" is Whitesands, NM

That's just what the deep state wants you to think. They moved all the alien stuff to Fort Knox after they got rid of all the gold.

[Zer0 Kay]

If it matters to you, there is two arms corporations nearby in Colorado and a secret Black Market Facility around Area 51, Nevada.

Considering that you have to get around CS to get to most of the other arms companies, I think that means your options are going to be fairly limited.

Wilks is kinda in the region, but that's like South Dakota.

Pfft everyone know the current "area 51" is Whitesands, NM

That's just what the deep state wants you to think. They moved all the alien stuff to Fort Knox after they got rid of all the gold.

What alien stuff? I'm talking the X-37B and its ilk of "cargo spacecraft".

[Zer0 Kay]

Instead of going all old west go new west and do a planet bound Firefly with the Serenity being one of the Hover Semis by NG.

[Warshield73]

Instead of going all old west go new west and do a planet bound Firefly with the Serenity being one of the Hover Semis by NG.

Isn't there a Canton in one of the books? Could be a good place to start your campaign...you know be heroes.

[Captain_Nibbz]

Instead of going all old west go new west and do a planet bound Firefly with the Serenity being one of the Hover Semis by NG.

Oh now that is an interesting idea. I wouldn't mind intermixing some new west with the old west for some kind of freaky hybrid to be honest with you.

So far I've been working with a friend of mine to pull together some ideas for the area and we've got a list of organizations (including a group of Lycanthrope Bandits and a cult of fungus wielding worshipers of a lesser old one).

Since there isn't a TON of canon material on the area, we've decided to lean heavily on the isolation of the Salt Lake valley and the fact that it became a highly radiated wasteland. Most of the communities that have grown in the area are mostly unaware and uneducated about the time before the Rifts and I'm personally trying to play it up a bit like a lost civilization (I haven't even told the players that we're playing in the Rifts setting yet, I'm pulling a sneaky on them).

In response to Curbludgeon, I actually really like that idea. I might tweak it a bit, but I am for sure going to adapt that in one way or another. That being said, I know I've seen reference to the millennium trees quite a lot, but I've never had the chance to read into them at all. What book can I find those in for some additional research?

[Curbludgeon]

Millennium Trees are first and most extensively covered in WB3:England. WB8:Japan repeats that section nearly verbatim. They are mentioned in WB4:Africa, which includes an example of a Tree kept intentionally stunted in the Phoenix Empire. SB3:Mindwerks describes a Corrupted Tree in Germany's Black Forest.

[Captain_Nibbz]

The only thing I remember official about Salt Lake City was the Keepers of the Desert from the New West book with them living there.


Daniel Stoker

Do you have a page reference on this one by any chance? I'm trying to sift through to find these guys (but I'm at work and its not working well )

[Daniel Stoker]

It's in the New West book page 130.


Daniel Stoker

[Captain_Nibbz]

It's in the New West book page 130.


Daniel Stoker

Found it! Thanks for the point in the right direction!

[Prole]

If it matters to you, there is two arms corporations nearby in Colorado and a secret Black Market Facility around Area 51, Nevada.

Considering that you have to get around CS to get to most of the other arms companies, I think that means your options are going to be fairly limited.

Wilks is kinda in the region, but that's like South Dakota.

Thats some great info, I don't suppose you remember what books that those are in so that I can do me some research?

The Black Market facility is in the Black Market book or the New West book, it's where the Bandito line of guns is made.

The two other companies in New West, besides Wilks, were written up by two separate players. If you want to exclude them, you're likely to end up with people either buying Wilks, Bandito, or seriously marked up 'New East' weapons that had to be smuggled around CS.

[Daniel Stoker]

Found it! Thanks for the point in the right direction!

Glad to help, I never played with them much but I always thought they had potential as a group.


Daniel Stoker