Shemarrians Problems and solutions.

The Artist Formerly · Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:59 pm

So one of the biggest problems facing the Shemarrians/Archie is that his robo-amazons show up clearly as not alive. Big tip off to psychics and magic users alike. And that makes them vulnerable. Sooner or later someone is going to put it together. And once a significant power takes note of the total lack of biology in the Shemarrians, they will start asking questions about what the point is. Fearing another UTI type plot, this discovery could spar motive to go investigate whatever it is the Monster Riding clans are up to in Maryland.

Solution.

Add some real people to the mix. Archie's forces are always picking off Sploogie slave raiders and patrols. By simply taking all of the girls under the age of X years old, and then indoctrinating them into the Shemarrian's 'culture'. Perhaps even leading the very youngest to belive that they are natural born Shemarrians. It would take some time to get going, but it would solve Archie's detection issues nicely. Better still, he could retread another of his old plans, and present some idol as the Shemarrian's war god, along with a utlra-tech super bad ass robot/avatar of said god for when supream ass kickings are need to be handed out (our god rides into battle with us). Better still, the Shemarrians could construct a city or some such to cover the reason for holding that area, but do it away from Archie's actual base/body/home-thingy. That would provide Archie with a strong point from which to stage from, while directing attacks away from himself.

J. Lionheart · Unread post by **J. Lionheart** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:07 pm

As a lot of folks know, I'm not a RIFTS player, so if I'm missing something here, ignore me :-P

Just a guess, but wouldn't there be no unindoctrinated blind warrior women on the patrols? I know they reproduce via some sort of wierd cloning thing, but I don't think Splyncrith is foolish enough to send the equivalent of children out slave hunting, is he? The other idea sound good, but I'm just guessing there would be some problem with capturing the raiders (the blind warrior women being who I assume you mean by "the girls").

Shaved Monkey · Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:10 pm

So, what is the difference between being paranoid about a bunch of hi-tech wielding foxy aliens who ride monsters and being paranoid about a bunch of hi-tech wielding foxy robots who ride monsters?

I don't think it would make a difference either way, since they are an unknown factor in the region. Also there are beings who do not register the basic things such as having an aura, PPE or even their presence through magic or psionics detection, which for people who are familiar with them, then the act of being alive may persuade them to assuming that this is a similiar being. The first examples of these being are human Psi-Nullifiers and Nega-Psychics, who are understood and used by the CS.

Mack · Unread post by **Mack** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:35 pm

I don't see their "non-living" status as much of an issue. I think if anyone notices they'll be happy just to live and tell the tale. It would probably be explained away by their alien nature.

Solution:
ARCHIE should put squirrels in the girls' chest. That why there would be a little bit of aura (maybe small like a Borg's ??) and should one of the gals be destroyed, it would really freak people out.

Tinker Dragoon · Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:57 pm

How is a mage or psychic going to tell the difference between a robot and a full conversion cyborg?

Jefffar · Unread post by **Jefffar** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:57 pm

I think by "girls" it was meant young slaves recently captured by the splugorth but rescued by Archie's shemarrians.

I have a slight problem with this concept, the Shemarian railgun is to heavy for a non-augumented human to lift.

Also, won't the kids figure out the regular shemarrians and monst-rex are not alive and start to ask where they come from?

Daniel Stoker · Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:19 pm

Doesn't a mind block keep you from reading someone's aura? And would the NGR psychic scrambler implat makes it so you have a bonus to save? People could assume they have some sort of advanced cybernetic Mind block going on.

Daniel Stoker

Daniel Stoker · Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:10 pm

DarkWarriorKarg wrote:
Daniel Stoker wrote:Doesn't a mind block keep you from reading someone's aura? And would the NGR psychic scrambler implat makes it so you have a bonus to save? People could assume they have some sort of advanced cybernetic Mind block going on.

Daniel Stoker

Mind block doesn't do that... and NGR tech is not exactly common... heck not even alter aura would have this effect...

My mistake, it would just hide the presence of Psychic abilities. And who cares if NGR tech is comman, these are super cyborgs!

Daniel Stoker

Daniel Stoker · Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:36 pm

TechnoMancer wrote:I believe the first book they were in explained it that many people thought they were either robots, or so alien as not to register. Of course the first person who touches one with Tele-mechanics or control machine is going to get himself a foxy little toy to take home.

Nope, they're AI's and wouldn't be taken over by Telemechanics.

Daniel Stoker

Daniel Stoker · Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:14 am

TechnoMancer wrote:Are they AI? Or just highly programmed robots? Are Skelebots AI? What about my computer? Not trying to be overly arguementive, but video games now adays claim "AI" even though all they are are a really advanced form of if then else loops.

If anything with an IF THEN ELSE loop qualifies for AI status.. well.. then even cars with theft detection qualify. If Key lacks sensor then don't start else start.

I'm pretty sure it's considered the more 'advanced' Neural Intelligence not something as simple as that.

Daniel Stoker

The Artist Formerly · Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:34 am

Tinker Dragoon wrote:How is a mage or psychic going to tell the difference between a robot and a full conversion cyborg?

Read aura.

The Artist Formerly · Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:45 am

Jefffar wrote:I think by "girls" it was meant young slaves recently captured by the splugorth but rescued by Archie's shemarrians.

Girls who are too young to remember the time before they were not in the Shemarrian's care.

I have a slight problem with this concept, the Shemarian railgun is to heavy for a non-augumented human to lift.

The idea being, that as the girls reach matureity, they get advanced bionic upgrades so they can pack the big guns. Remember James T was a pretty potent borg, even after having his body ripped up. Just think of what Archie can do now that he's disected a few Mechaniods...

Also, won't the kids figure out the regular shemarrians and monst-rex are not alive and start to ask where they come from?

Why? These are their battle sisters. Who would question such. They regulars are just covered by called full conversion borgs. It's not a perfect cover, but it should hold out.

The Artist Formerly · Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:03 am

In aftermath, it speaks on how the FOM aren't fooled by Archie's bots. Not the spies and not the Shemarrians. How embarsing would it be to have your world domination plans tripped up by that greasy haired idiot in Brass or losing important recon assets to the Dweomer Donkey Puncher squads. Similarly, I doubt that the Kittanni of Canada are going to be caught off guard. I'm sure they've seen this routine before. And the last thing Archie wants is a conversation in Chi-Town between Carol Black and Joesph Prosek about how her psychics on the patrol teams have noticed these strange Monster rider babes aren't coming up with an aura. Perhaps an investigation is warrented...

The Shemarrians are having a larger impact on their enviroment, and mingling with bigger players. Some explanation, a beliveable one, needs to be offered or any number of these players could start digging for facts in places Archie doesn't want them to. He's not stupid.

Borast · Unread post by **Borast** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 10:24 am

ARCHIE can always take a page from the Terminator movies and sheath them in some living flesh.

If that is not an option, he can always clone some living organs and place them into the torso. As long as he/they can keep the organs alive, there will be an aura of sorts.

A final option I can come up with on the spur of the moment is to install some psi-static generators that "blind" a read aura psi, and possibly magic spell.

The Artist Formerly · Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:06 am

Angryjack wrote:Archie if I recall is already building a Shemarian Republic as of aftermath --- mostly in the wilderness. There are plenty of easy solutions , and I think bionic and psionic agents are them. As for the Magic Zone problems... That is because there aren't any Dbees helping out archie against this sort of problem. I think say, if a colony of Danaus or Mantaz Aliens came along, and helped archie, His problem with the magic zone would be over because These 2 Alien races know how to Mix magic and Technology.

I don't know If there has been proper accounting of hat Archie has access to, but even in aftermath the CS has not caught on to Archie's spies in NG. And I still think there are still some ABM Mechanoids in Archie's employ.

I'm not seeing that (the underlined part) in Aftermath, can you hook me up with a page number? The part that I read, and got this thread rolling around in my head was the bit about how the Shemarrians numbers were increasing and that they had declared certain areas as theirs.

The Artist Formerly · Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:16 am

MattBaby wrote:There are species in the Megaverse that don't possess an aura. While improbable, it's certainly not inconcievable. Seljuk have no mystic potential, etc etc. They could be a race of minor Nega-Psychics.

Alister, we've found out that those bad ass Cyber-chics are a race of nega-psychics. Also, none of them will date you.

What my point is, is that the thought that the truth would be the last thing anyone would suspect. I also don't think they would want to construct something so egregious as a city. There's only a couple hundred of them so ARCHIE can keep tabs on everything in his territory. They need to rely on being able to melt away and hide in the wilderness when serious investigations show up, so nobody would realize the truth about them.

It doesn't have to be the truth to cause Archie a problem. It just has to draw attention. "Hey, you think these funny rail guns would fetch a good price at the Market in Splynn?" Also, we aren't talking about a few hundred, we're talking about 6000 Shemarrrians and another 6k in Monster Rexes (aftermath, page 78 for the at home players), and counting.

Svartalf · Unread post by **Svartalf** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:11 pm

Tinker Dragoon wrote:How is a mage or psychic going to tell the difference between a robot and a full conversion cyborg?

aura reading .

Nekira Sudacne · Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:14 pm

svartalf wrote:
Tinker Dragoon wrote:How is a mage or psychic going to tell the difference between a robot and a full conversion cyborg?

aura reading .

not really, nither have an aura. it says quite plainly under the 'borg OCC that they don't have an aura, and non-living robots naturally don't have one either.

glitterboy2098 · Wed Jul 21, 2004 1:56 pm

one more vote for him just adding organic skin and perhaps a few organs.

after the mechanoids, ARCHIE ended up with advanced CLONING technology.

combine that with his knowledge of advanced cybernetics (part original knowledge, part mechanoid upgrade), and he could create a robot thats half human (perhaps even an AI computer brain thats mostly organic. processes a fraction of a second slower, but the human brain is just an organic computer. add some brain implants [can easily be mistaken for MOM ] and volia)

on that note, he could easily duplicate the T-101 from terminator as well.

Svartalf · Unread post by **Svartalf** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:08 pm

Nekira Sudacne wrote:
svartalf wrote:
Tinker Dragoon wrote:How is a mage or psychic going to tell the difference between a robot and a full conversion cyborg?

aura reading .

not really, nither have an aura. it says quite plainly under the 'borg OCC that they don't have an aura, and non-living robots naturally don't have one either.

errr... it says that borgs don't have an aura??? I'm willing to believe you, but I must admit I don't remember just where... especially since under aura reading it says that even inorganic things have an aura.

So you could always tell the difference between a borg and a bot : a borg has extremely low PPE, while a robot has none at all

Vrykolas2k · Unread post by **Vrykolas2k** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:17 pm

svartalf wrote:
Nekira Sudacne wrote:
svartalf wrote:
Tinker Dragoon wrote:How is a mage or psychic going to tell the difference between a robot and a full conversion cyborg?

aura reading .

not really, nither have an aura. it says quite plainly under the 'borg OCC that they don't have an aura, and non-living robots naturally don't have one either.

errr... it says that borgs don't have an aura??? I'm willing to believe you, but I must admit I don't remember just where... especially since under aura reading it says that even inorganic things have an aura.

So you could always tell the difference between a borg and a bot : a borg has extremely low PPE, while a robot has none at all

Rifts main book, 'borgs are immune to See Aura and Bio-manipulation...

Svartalf · Unread post by **Svartalf** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:30 pm

Yeah ... I just managed to find the spot (on 3rd try) ... so a borg indeed has about the same aura as a robot... considering the mention in see aura that even the inorganic has one and that an aura reader has some sense of his target's PPE ... well another marvel of PB editing I suppose ... :nh:

Borast · Unread post by **Borast** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:08 am

svartalf wrote:So you could always tell the difference between a borg and a bot : a borg has extremely low PPE, while a robot has none at all

Nah...just have Hagan contract with a Techno Wizard to produce X number of PPE batteries for 10-20 PPE each...next, install same into the Shemarrian and/or Mons-Rex!

Problem Solved!

Svartalf · Unread post by **Svartalf** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:27 am

I agree... even with the addition of a PPE battery (like the clip for those Stormspire TW weapons) there's no way the PPE stored in there will register like the PPE of a living creature. A best, it would be completely undetectable, at worst, the presence of PPE *would* register... as a distinct and separate source of PPE attached to the robotic being