Hovercraft and travel

[darthauthor]

Reading the stats on hovercraft and skycycles.

They hover over the ground making terrain and the lack of roads meaningless. Although lakes and oceans will sink them if the water depth is greater than 5 feet deep.

My question is, is it not possible for adventurers to ride skycycles from Tolkeen to the West coast in under 2 days?
They need only fly around lakes, jump rivers, while going around fog and storms.

If they can't, why not?

And if they do, what if anything should they encounter as a problem?

They are flying at over 100 miles per hour.
Intend no hostility.
No one should know they are coming or what path they are taking (including the adventurers themselves).
Any one or thing who sees them coming will see them wisk by and have to fly faster to catch up to them.
It's only an issue if they want to engage the players while they are flying skycycles at optimal control speed.

So what, if anything, should I roll or make up that is fair and reasonable for the players to encounter as trouble?

Unless their is no logical reason for them to "encounter" any trouble so long as they steer clear of any natural disasters or monsters and such.

[Grazzik]

Not all hover vehicles have the same stats or abilities. Some cross water, some don't. Some cross shallow water, some deep, some go underwater.

I see the speed of travel as being a game device to move PCs quickly to where there is adventure.

You can try to steer clear, but only if you have forewarning. However, depending on where you are and type of vehicle, trouble abounds...

* Mechanical failure hundreds of miles from the nearest garage... with tons of wilting produce in the cargo bay
* Run out of fuel
* Bandits on fast/faster hovercycles
* CS border patrols - SAMAS / sky cycles... S&D squads if beyond CS borders
* D-shifting / LL storms / normal weather creating atmospheric problems or reduced visibility
* Depending on vehicle altitude limits, thick vegetation or mountains
* Ancient pre-rifts Surface to Air defense systems or SAMs fired by ground based bandits
* Volcanic ash from a nearby unexpected eruption
* Power Leech stowaway
* Demon locust swarm or other fast flying beasties
* Mechanoids
* Crew or passenger illness - turbulence or the onboard fish dinner
* A call for help / smoke on the horizon
* Nowhere to land, it's been ... flooded / covered in molten lava / under attack or bombardment / etc.

[darthauthor]

ALL good adventure ideas.

I was thinking more about canon realism.

What would happen if a party of 5 on skycycles set out west to see the pacific?

Using a compass and what maps and a guide they could find in Lazlo would they (pulling no stunts, avoiding fights and dangerous looking areas) travel without incident to the Pacific coast?

For me, it is about what are they likely to encounter?

They are not trying to sneak into Chi Town or Lone Star or the Xiticix hivelands.
They are not looking for trouble.
Move fast.
NOT expected by enemies.
No one knows they are traveling so there is know way (short of precog, etc) of knowing where they will be and when they will be "there."

As far as I know, there are no "powers" or empires west of Lazlo that would kill travelers on sight.

It leaves only random encounters one would normal expect. Some of which you mention such as: mechanical failure, run out of fuel, bad weather, or unforeseen hazard such as ley lines storm or way ward monster(s).

The wilderness is vast and two parties are not likely to cross paths unless there is an area they must stop at by necessity.

Example, an oasis one must stop to gather water. Perfect place for bandits/slavers to lay a trap. Not so in North America.

[glitterboy2098]

on the subject of maps, there are not going to be any good maps either, or good navigation aids.
we're used to having good maps, but our maps are so good because of a very meticulous process of surveying and recording, which in the last half century has been heavily supplemented by orbital sattelite mapping. rifts earth does not have this. some of the more developed nations like the NGR might have decent maps of the land within their own borders, but outside those borders the maps are going to be basically a best guess, only a little better than late medieval maps, which were pretty bad. in north america, the maps of anything outside the 'domain of man' is going to be lousy. and in terms of navigation tools, you are going to be limited to compass (and that only when it works, as dimensional stuff tends to screw with those), and the combination of clock and sextant to find your co-ordinates. these are methods that require you to stop and spend a fair bit of time calculating your location. otherwise you are limited to dead reckoning (or inertial tracking.. prettym uc hthe same thing)

there is no GPS system, and no canon indications thus far that any of the powers of rifts earth make use of radio positioning systems using fixed radio beacons. and even those aren't all that accurate.. and would only work within a few scores of miles from the beacons, which would by nature be located within the settled regions, that is the 'domain of man'. so they'd be pretty useless for trying to get to say, the west coast. and once the sun sets, and it gets dark, navigation would get even harder since you'd not be able to see much. navigating during night flying is pretty tricky IRL today, and we've got GPS and airtraffic controllers and lots of city lights everywhere.

so you'd find yourself having to trace natural features and landmarks (rivers, mountain ranges, etc) and heading in roughly the right direction based on the position of the sun, and hope you can find your way. this would get pretty tricky when you hit terrain not well suited to aircraft, like the rocky mountains. which not only are larger and practically all new in terms of composition, but are said to be home to very nasy winds and such. given how bad those are IRL, i suspect the rifts rockies, which are said to be even harder to cross than the current ones, would be pretty nasty to planes. and going around means you'd have to either go pretty far north.. or a very long way south. the latter of which requiring you to pass through the heart of vampire territory.

when you combine that with the technical issues mentioned (difficulty of repairs away from civilization, logistical concerns, the possibility of encountering hostiles (on the ground while you rest, if nothing else), etc) and it becomes a pretty tricky situation.

[darthauthor]

Even with a poor compass , during daylight one should be able to determine West. They may not go in a straight line but they will go in a westerly direction even if its sideways (North or South) sometimes.

There could be mechanical problems but, "How likely are repairs going to be need to a good NG or CS precured skycycle?"

Fuel/range is 20 years but as long as they don't run into anything and stay within cruising speed (80 to 150 mph) they should not have a problem

[Grazzik]

Okay, let's say a civilian crew sets out on dead reckoning from New Chillicothe with a compass towards the setting sun. They have an old pre-rifts map or simply have heard of an ocean to the west. They are on decent near-new Magnum-Turbo hoverbikes (for their ability to carry heavy loads of supplies, loot, sea shells, etc.) with SOx or Nuke engines travelling ~100 mph. Refitted CS sky cycles would likely either be targeted for the first 5-6 hours by anti-CS forces (Tolkeenites, JAL, Lyn-Srial, Pecos Empire, BM, etc.) or deemed by CS troops or 1st Cavalry as stolen military property. Even with permits allowing ownership of Sky Cycles, it is likely they will still be ordered to pull over for inspection by CS patrols slowing thing down and having to deal with local authorities. Best would be some civilian Sky Kings to get altitude when needed and the added speed, as at top speed they could make the whole trip in 3-4 hours easy. But let's go with the hovercycles. A straight line will take them to the coast in ~16 hours of hard riding. This is theoretically well within the realm of two days travel.

Dead west is the Colorado Baronies. Lots of adventure possible there, but likely won't be bothered by anyone except any bandits from Charity. However, they have to cross the mountains that bisect Colorado, something that hovercycles might have a problem with and slow travel to a crawl. Navigating the passes might turn into a maze. If they turn to the north, they can pass through the Casper Preserve in Wyoming and on to Salt Lake City. Further north is the Barrier Wall and the Demon Kingdom of Calgary, best avoided. Once past the Preserve, the land to SLC is probably nothing but rocky ash waste from the Yellowstone eruption, even after 300 years. There may have been further eruptions since, we don't know. The dust and ash containing volcanic glass that is kicked up by the hovercycles' jets is going to cause serious damage to the hoverbikes requiring either specialized filters or constant cleaning out. Mechanical failure even on new bikes without proper precautions is a practical given. Let's assume the riders are wearing EBA, otherwise simple gas masks may get shredded by glass particulates.

If they turn south instead, they need to pass through New Mexico, skirt the northern borders of the Fort Apache Preserve, an isolationist but modern equipped nation that could easily detect and destroy any high speed interlopers, and up to New Durango where the Great Trade Road starts. They can follow this trail part way until it turns south towards Arzno and instead go on west towards Las Vegas - possibly to be taken out by Bandito Arms who might want to keep their operation hidden from trespassers.

Let's say they are in what remains of SLC, they still have minimum 7 hours of riding through the Shoshone Mountain Preserve and the Valley Preserve to get to the coast. There's not much detail on these two nations, so opportunities for surprise. First the Nevada desert of the Great Basin - lots of dust and sand to ruin a good hoverbike. Then the terrain shifts west of Reno to the Sierra Nevada, which is heavily forested, particularly with California Redwoods that can get up to 380ft - too tall for most hover bikes, particularly the Magnum-Turbo. So this means picking paths through the mountains, slowing things down substantially and probably adding days, maybe weeks, to the travel time. Worse still if the mountainous region is ablaze with wildfires. That would mean detouring to the south.

Alternatively, from Las Vegas assuming Bandito Arms let the travelers pass, the crew must cross the Mojave Desert (more dust and sand) to get to the Sierra Nevada or head southwest along the Colorado river into southern California or NW Mexico. This area is not well described in the books and open for GM fun. My guess, lots of wild vampires and other nasties, but the big threat for the crew would come from swarms of winged beasties that probably live in the Sierra. Depending on whether they get close, there is also Craterville in that general area which is a big question mark for me, as the radiation of even the largest series of nuclear explosions should have dissipated to background levels within a few decades. So for it to still be radioactive hundreds of years later means there is something special there... perhaps something that could reach out and grab a hoverbike or two with giant tentacles.

Either way, a 16 hour ride can easily become a week-long trek or longer depending on the crew's luck. Depending on the time of year, either route via SLC or LV, will have the crew suffer from extreme daytime heat during the summer. This will play havoc with their EBA and with their engines, requiring frequent stops to cool down and possibly burnout their EBA cooling units. In the winter, quickly forming severe storms (snow, dust, or rain) will likely force them to take shelter. As Glitterboy mentioned, traveling in unknown lands at night is a BAD idea.

This is all in addition to whatever unknown human or non-human communities remain in California when the crew gets to the coast, as some may be equipped with missiles (traded or stolen from the New Navy) capable of blasting our intrepid explorers to smithereens before they even see any hint of West Coast beach.

[green.nova343]

Reading the stats on hovercraft and skycycles.

They hover over the ground making terrain and the lack of roads meaningless. Although lakes and oceans will sink them if the water depth is greater than 5 feet deep.

My question is, is it not possible for adventurers to ride skycycles from Tolkeen to the West coast in under 2 days? They need only fly around lakes, jump rivers, while going around fog and storms.

If they can't, why not?

And if they do, what if anything should they encounter as a problem? I mean they are flying at over 100 miles per hour. Intend no hostility. No one should know they are coming or what path they are taking (encluding the adventurers themselves). Any one or thing who sees them coming will see them wisk by and have to fly to faster to catch up to them. And that's only an issue if they want to engage the players.

So what, if anything, should I roll or make up that is fair and reasonable for the players to encounter as "trouble." Unless their is no logical reason for them to "encounter" any trouble so long as they steer clear of any natural disasters or monsters and such.

Meaningless...no, not really. A lot will depend on how high the hover vehicle is flying. It won't have to worry about road friction...but if it's flying 3-5 feet above the ground, it's still going to be affected by elevation changes, curves, & how narrow a passage is. Going through forested areas is going to be like Endor on RotJ: keep an eye out or you become a greasy stain on a tree trunk. And then, since nearly every Rifts hover vehicle uses air-breathing hover jets (no anti-grav systems here, except maybe some Naruni or other alien equipment), you have to worry about FOD (Foreign Object Damage) to your air intakes as well as the compressor blades. Not to mention possible bird strikes (especially if on an open-cockpit hover cycle).

Flying higher? Well, then you have the risk of running afoul of a CS Army SAM unit (if you're a CS enemy), or even just some neo-barb hillbilly D-Bee with a rocket launcher. Flying higher lets you go faster but exposes you more. Sure, the howls of a hovercraft's engines aren't exactly quiet, but it's a lot easier to track by sound a hover vehicle 500 feet up in the air than one that's following the dirt road through a patch of woods.

And as pointed out, navigation is a major issue. Maps themselves aren't the problem -- you might even be able to find some preserved pre-Chaos Earth Rand McNally atlases, passed down generation to generation. But accurate maps are going to be a problem. Hence why the Navigation skills usually have rolls as to how often you need to roll to make sure you're still on course. If they're sticking to the ground, or are using a hover vehicle with a top speed under 200MPH, I'd stick with treating it like ground travel for how far off course they are. The biggest thing, though, is...why are you going from Point A to Point B? How do you even know there's anything at Point B? Are you even aware of what's in the countryside between A & B? Are you relying on a potentially updated map, or maybe a string of "waypoints" -- traveler-friendly waystations set up by charitable people that provide travelers with food & shelter overnight (for a few credits, of course), as long as you don't give the mercs/guards protecting the waypoint a hard time.

As for encounters...that could be just about anything. Random village, Black Market operators, CS patrols, Splugorth slavers, Naruni salesmen, random mercs, etc. It all depends on what section of the country you're traveling through, & whether you're trying to avoid population centers or not. Especially around Coalition cities, if you don't want "Imperial entanglements", you probably are looking at either going much slower/cautiously through town, or detouring out of the way (increasing your travel time).

[darthauthor]

I see now, my reaction reveals my ignorance.

I don't have a good idea of how people react to someone flying a sky cycle or going West.
I was thinking like a kid enthusiastic adventurer. I'm excited. Let's go fly over there and see what we see.

Who am I?

I'm a juicer or a crazy or a psi-stalker or an arrogant mind melter / shifter / magic user.

I don't feel like hiding from mere mortals, only dragons and gods.

In universe realism, I cast sustain (don't need to drink or eat; only 2 hours sleep) on myself and party. I didn't figure on anything I couldn't fly over except deep water.

Fly until I can't see because its too dark or cloudy or whatever, so I park. We take turns sleeping as the rest of the party stands guard.
Do maintenance.
Do the astronomy navigation thing.

I Don't know the political players or terriory of the West.

Assumed I just avoided people and towns to avoid "trouble."

Never considered a crazy fool with a rocket launcher or 24 hour a day 7 day a week bandit with missles would happen to look up or could hear me coming from miles away while I was hundreds of feet up in the air.
That this person out of fear or power trip would willy-nilly take pot shots with a rocket launcher at anyone who came by (I'm no danger 6th sense wise; just passing thru) without warning.

So I'd have to make some dodge rolls when my 6th sense kicks in.
Assuming they are not afraid of the party's size or being attacked back.

Are there choke points like the Battle of Thermopylae where one can't go West without passing thru?

No signs. No warnings. No flying over. Come this way and we will kill you. Guarded 24-7?

I will acknowledge it possible to get lost and not know where we are on the map. West is west thou.

I guess my ignorance is over, the likelihood, of humans or monsters reacting to anyone coming near or thru their terriority super fast and their being ready hostile and able to unleash destruction on those who pass by.

Not saying it can't be done. Just what are the odds?

Do they have dedicated guards and radar stations?

[Grazzik]

So just how likely is it that a superpowered tourist not paying attention will be fired upon by a Yahoo in lands west of Colorado at least once over the course of a few days?

Based on the very scanty info in the books about the West Coast region, I'd say odds are fair of at least one unprovoked attack.

First, availability of weapons. There is the major manufacturer in Nevada - Bandito Arms - with a distribution center / market town in Henderson (BM pg 23). You also have trading caravans of Ixion Centaurs going back and forth to Colorado, full of valuable goods like bionic implants and other tech traded for TW and other magical items (WB30 pg 51). Admittedly, not a trigger happy people, but mistakes can be made. Then you have the New Navy (see Merovingian Tank, WB07 pg 120) and Tritonia (see Merbot PA, WB07 pg 101) that trade on a very limited basis with west coast communities. Also, there is inter-Preserve trade, including the trade in advanced weapons. Any of these groups (most likely Bandito Arms) could have sold arms to local kingdoms only to see those arms resold to / stolen by mercs or bandits.

Next, you need someone willing to pull the trigger. WB07 talks of the New Navy selling a limited selection of items to kingdoms on the West Coast, so communities exist that feel they need to defend themselves. It also mentions slavers such as the Naut'ylls and Horune who, like vikings of old, may wander up coastal rivers to raid further inland. As mentioned previously, you have Bandito Arms that has listening posts on the watch for uninvited guests around Henderson and 11000 people at their heavily defended main plant at Area 51 (WB14 pg 23). Also, WB15 outlines the various Preserves in the region, who's defense forces may or may not be welcoming of a UFO zipping across their radar. The west is also known to be full of Simvan, some of whom may like to take potshots at passersby, especially if it means lunch afterwards. And then there are the crazy treasure hunters looking through the ruins of the Golden Age who may not want others spreading word about their finds. Finally, many of the fighters in Tolkeen were scattered into the wilds of the West, including at least a couple hundred missile totting Brodkil.

As to no go zones mentioned in the books, Area 51 and the ruins of Las Vegas are no go zones defended by Bandito Arms. They maintain dedicated hidden outposts.

[darthauthor]

So the general odds of getting an unprovoked attack are 50 / 50.

Only matter is who does the firing and where it occurs.

100% response if in Las Vegas or Bandito Arms area.

Wonder, the players will either step on the gas and keep right on going or pursue their attackers
(Flight / Fight response).

When NOT in Vegas or Bandito Arms, How many attackers and of what make up are they?

Rule of thumb is balance of power for the player character's party.

Still have to workout what they are packing fire-power wise.

If taken alive and interrogated who they are?

What they know about their people and the territory? Warnings of where NOT to go. Safe route. Adventurers stap them to the hood of the car Mad Max style and use them as human shields. OR let them go.

Likelihood of the rocket luanching yahoos people finding out the fight occured and going after the players? Size and power of the hunter squad?

What about "Good" vibes like one of the players is a Cyberknight? Nature Priest? Psi-Druid?

OR

The other way around and they are a HORROR factor crowd: Baby Dragon, Giant Robot/Power Armor, Platoon of marching Dead Boy Zombies led by a Necromancer, Shifter sporting an entourage devils/demons, Earth Warlock with Golems