Rifts World Book 1: Vampire Kingdoms by Alien Rope Burn

I can get stuff off my chest by publishing it in my books so I'm gonna. Hah.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Just when you thought it was safe to go into FATAL & Friends: Siembieda strikes!

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 1: "I can get stuff off my chest by publishing it in my books so I'm gonna. Hah."

Okay, let's look at the cover.


_{"Hey, everybody listen to me! Hey! Hey! Over here!"}

G'damn, that's a lot of vampires! Vampires with armor on! Vampires with mullets! Vampires with mohawks!

After having pictures and mentions of vampires for two books, now, we are going to get some vampires. You are going to be so fucking sick of vampires by the time this is done. I promise you this.

On the back:



A Simvan Monster Rider (remember those guys, from the sourcebook?) in front of a ruin! There are tentacles or something coming out of the ruin, and bats! The bats may also be vampires. And no licking, thank Long.

I'm on to you, Vampire Kingdoms.

It promises: Vampires and the Vampire Kingdoms, vampire PCs, techno-wizard devices for slaying vampires, mayan gods, the mystery of the Yucatan, travelling shows, vampire hunters, Juarez City, and art!

Edit: Also there's a newer edition of this book, but it cuts out the circus construction rules, so seriously, fuck it . I'm doing the old one which has more circus .

It's a mega-sourcebook for Rifts! (It says so twice, on the cover and on the back.) But it's also a World Book? It's-

I am so in for this now.

There's a picture of some vampire hunters! One is a wizard! The other is a robot! One is a woman! Those vampires are fucked, certainly.


_{In Rifts™ , being a woman is as rare and special as being a wizard or robot.}

And then... a clown vampire! You can be a vampire and also have the clown O.C.C.? I'm calling it OP already, fuck this book.



Some thoughts by the author


Next: Vampires! Vampires! VAMPIRES!

_{You can find the actual introduction here . Which is better - the real Kevin or the Mega-Kevin? U DECIDE!}

The ultimate lord of the undead is the vampire intelligence, a monstrous, elemental being that functions like a living virus that infects other creatures.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Here they are, Forkbanger.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 2: "The ultimate lord of the undead is the vampire intelligence , a monstrous, elemental being that functions like a living virus that infects other creatures."

These aren't your everyday vampires! They won't just sum it up in a page, now, it mentions they're going to go into a lot of detail. This is true; there are twenty-nine pages of vampire data staring at us right now before we even get into the titular Vampire Kingdoms.

The game reminds us that "the so-called undead are creatures of myth and legend" and there are "new and original fictional characteristics and conclusions added". He also mentioned that "some of these creatures may be loosely based on myths and legends" but that "All are fictitious."

All this time vampires weren't real? My eyeliner is just running a bit, I'm not crying!

Undead Vampires

It notes that in Rifts, there are other blood-sucking fiends like the "dybbuk, succubus, and batlings" (Beyond the Supernatural reference, folks!), but we're talking specifically about undead vampires or true vampires. There are three types of vampire: master, secondary, and wild. Basically the masters are the smartest and the wild vampires are just dumb. Seriously. You could have been an Einstein, and if you become a wild vampire, you're back to figuring out doorknobs again.

They live (their choice of words) to basically scare and munch on other humanoids. They're sadistic and even though they feed on blood, they also feed on P.P.E., and like it to be fear-flavored. The fact they feed on P.P.E. will never be a mechanical factor.

Most appear as human or humanoid, and can be adults or children (but usually adults). They tend to be more pale, skinny, with glowy eyes when they use their powers, long canines, and "most are said to have a 'hungry look' about them, as if longing for some unnatural pleasure. Their choice of words, really.

Anyway, master vampires are your classic Draculas, smart, well-dressed, and only subtly vampiric. Secondary vampires are more pale and obvious, though they can still pass as humans. Wild vampires are more your Nosferatus, and clearly look corpsish and are animalistic. In terms of pecking order, masters are at the top and wild at are the bottom.

The Vampire Intelligence
Lord of the Undead

This is the Big Boss of the vampires, a magical, elemental Lovecraftian horror that infects people with vampirism. They are basically just plain evil and just like causing misery... because! That is why. They can exist across multiple dimensions by dividing its life force, like an amoeba, and sending it through a rift. That invisible life-force thing must bond with an evil person within 24 hours to make a master vampire, or... I guess it has to go home and just then try again? It's not clear what keeps the vampire intelligence from just hitting the continue button again and again.

Anyway, you have to willingly accept the deal for power from the intelligence, and if you do, bam, master vampire! Your humanity takes a break forever, and it's time for you to start making baby vampires. (Not literally, just other vampires.)

If a master vampire can make 2500 other vampires, then the vampire intelligence can enter a dimension to call it home. That's an arbitrary number, but as we'll learn, there are a lot of arbitrary things about vampires! Once it's in, it's in, and even if most of its vampires are killed it can still hang around. It needs a little amount of blood and a lot of P.P.E. In Earth's past, there wasn't enough P.P.E., but there totally is enough there. "The planet Earth, itself, is so rich in mystic energy that it has become a natural breeding ground for vampires and other creatures of magic!" Huh. But they like to sit down on ley line nexuses and sop up the magic flow. There are at least three or four vampire intelligences in Central America, and some others elsewhere, we don't know, even though they're writing this shit.


_{Which one of these dastardly creatures is the vampire intelligence?! Can you tell?}

A vampire intelligence is so evil that you can sense evil for a hundred miles! Usually they set up on a ley line nexus, and this drains the nexus and allows them to control when / if rifts happen by latching on it as a magic vampire blob. Often they set up in temples and stuff and have vampires guarding them and a demon familiar, whatever that is. It can also know when its vampire spawn are being fucked with, but can only communicate with the master vampire. Then we get stats!

It's diabolic evil! It also has a horror factor of 18, being the scariest thing we've seen yet, it's 100' to 200' tall, really ugly and slow but strong and smart. It's also the toughest thing we've seen so far, with an average of 3500 M.D.C., 700 P.P.E. and 250 I.S.P.! It has a bunch of psychic powers, including the ability to create psi-swords and psi-shields it holds in its tentacles, if you need an entirely cartoony mental image. They all know a bunch of high-level magic spells (generally ones that mess with magic or summon), as well as some more minor spells. They can create one master vampire for every 1000 secondary / wild vampires it creatures. It can also use its tentacles for a "slow kill" (whatever that is) to make a secondary vampire, and "of course, the intelligence can create a demon familiar". Well, of course.

Goddamn, we're not done yet... super-senses, regenerates... wow, takes no damage from most weapons. Magic can hurt it, so can wood, silver, running water (?), and holy water do damage directly to hit points! (It has an average of 700 hit points). Sunlight doesn't kill it, but seriously weakens it. Which is why it likes temples and stuff. It gets a ton of attacks and good attack bonuses, and can auto-grapple anybody with its tentacles, and it's not very skilled.

Apparently there have been outbreaks of vampires in the past in places like Transylvania and eastern Europe due to vampire intelligence skullduggery. There might be another vampire intelligence in Africa! Also there's a "Palladium RPG side note" that vampire intelligences are really just wimpy Old Ones who weren't locked into slumber because they're so wimpy, and how scary must the ones who were totally locked up be, eh, eh?

Unlike previous books, this book will fairly constantly reference Beyond the Supernatural™ , The Palladium RPG™ , Heroes Unlimited™ , and the Rifts Sourcebook™ (or, why I do these in publication order). What do you mean, you don't have copies of all those games handy? What kind of Palladium Books® fan are you?

The Demon Familiar
An extension of the Vampire Intelligence

It's a 15'-20' tall bat-man! It has complete telepathic communication with the Big Boss. It's a pretty tough melee combatant, and can also use a psi-shield and psi-sword, making it some kind of... dark... knight. Anyway. It can use all the magic the intelligence can, too, and make secondary vampires with the "slow kill" again. It has 250 hit points and like the intelligence you can only hurt it in certain ways. Also, if you kill it the vampire intelligence is weakened. It can be sent as a remote drone as far as the intelligence likes, but most keep theirs close for defense. It's really just the magic big toe of the intelligence.


_{Demon familiar can dance at 98%!}

Destroying the Intelligence

There are three ways to get rid of the vampire intelligence: wipe out all of its vampire spawn, destroy it directly, or banish it to another dimension. If you wipe out all of its vampires, it has to bail this dimension and can't return for 10 millennia. Destroying the intelligence directly means all of its vampires instantly turn to dust. Forcing a vampire intelligence to leave generally involves beating it up that it flees to another dimension, and it destroys 80% of its vampires (the rest basically hide and go into stasis), and the vampire intelligence can't return for several millennia.

Next: Actual, for real, vampires, no teasing, you can play them, Rifts™ isn't kidding, it's time to VAMP OUT, Rifts™ style!

_{I promise to get through this book without using a "suck" pun. Promise.}

...however, these third generation undead are frequently flawed, one might say, mentally retarded.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

It's not an imaginary story! Not a dream! Not an illusion! It's...

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 3: "... however, these third generation undead are frequently flawed, one might say, mentally retarded."

Vampire Minions

It's time for the main event!

The Master Vampire

As we know already, the master vampire has to agree willingly to become an inhuman Lugosifying machine. Their alignment switches to an evil one, and they reroll their attributes (they get tremendous bonuses, so this is generally to their advantage), they already know how to use their superpowers and how to feed. Often they set up their territory where they can be the boss vampire, and generally are looking as to how best to make a human farm for blood milking. They're also egotists and tend to carry grudges, like an 80s cartoon villain. Stats time!

They get awesome attributes, and... we'll get into the powers and weaknesses later, since there's a more in-depth section coming up. They can do M.D.C. bare-handed. It notes that vampires can punch and hurt each other, though their regeneration makes it hard for one to kill another. They keep any existing skills they have and basically take up the master vampire class. If you try and put cyborg parts on them their regeneration just rejects them, and they regrow any missing part. Master vampires aren't recommended as PCs since they're the vampire intelligence's willing butt puppets.



_{The first thing to go is hair care.}

The Secondary Vampire
An Optional Player Character R.C.C.

Vampires you can play! These are created by the slow kill which we still don't know what that is, but hey! They get the same powers as a master vampire but are somewhat weaker and the master vampire can boss them around.

However, they can defy the vampire intelligence sometimes, and remember the most about being human of all the vampire types. Most fall victims to the bloodthirst and domination but a tiny minority can remain goodies and remain suitable as PCs. Basically, if you want to be a Nick Knight or an Angel, this is the class.

Often they are driven to convert people close to them into being vampires, but most of those they convert (a little over half) turn into wild vampires and a significant minority become secondary vampires. It's a random roll, so be careful about who you vampirize.

Man, secondary. There's gotta be a better name than that.

Anyway, you get bonuses to almost all your attributes, plus big ones for physical attributes, but physical beauty is generally just better-than-average but rarely exceptional. They get the same powers, blah blah, if you had magic beforehand you get to keep half that magic (and it never advances, no idea what happens to psychics), and you can do M.D.C. with punches but not as much to other vampires. Vampires prefer to use their powers than technology. "those powers and instincts make them superhuman and the equal to any man-made power armor"; this is not actually true. Anyway, they always enjoy using their powers. Using superpowers is like an erogenous zone for vampires.

Wild Vampires
An Optional Player Character R.C.C.

They're savage, bestial, and weaker than other vampires, but they get the same powers. So if you want to play a crap vampire, this is the class for you! Not much to add, they go under the same rules but get smaller numbers.

They apparently range in packs of a half to five dozen, usually two dozen, and have a territory of thousands of square miles. They've infected Mexico, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Colorado, and Texes. Some secondary vampires lead packs. They mostly just have official rank like a wolf pack, and are focused on just finding new places to eat and feed. They're basically a bunch of feral children.

They can just mist form to travel into graves or caves to rest duing the day. They sometimes raid and torment a town over weeks or months, but often change up their lairs. They also like to destroy traveling caravans entirely. If a group of travelers looks too strong, they might just harass them because! That is why. They're basically out to start shit just because.

Vampires as Player Characters
A conflict of nature

It mentions the GM can entirely deny people the right to make vampires, and that there are several issues. First, bloodsucking - even if you just do it to evil people - is a terrible act "like rape". Some groups may not be comfy with this.

Other PCs may allow a vampire to feed on them for small amounts or the recently killed. (It notes vampires can't drink from other vampires. It doesn't say why.) If this can't be resolved, the group may have to kick the vampire out or kill them, and it notes the vampire player shouldn't hold this against the other players. Yep, you've just agreed to let the other players kill you. It's part of your social contract!

Nocturnal Habits

Vampires can only act at night, which is an issue unless there's only night adventures. So a vampire player might have to just sit out during sessions. Also, there's the question of where the vampire sleeps and how they're transported if necessary.

It notes a playtest it notes several solutions, like having an M.D.C. van with traps for the other characters to drive around with an M.D.C. coffin. It goes into a lot of about this and what great ideas the vampire player had. Or it notes the other characters could lug a coffin around, or just dig a hole to sleep in if they're on native soil.

Everybody Fears a Vampire

Most people will generally distrust or hate vampires, especially in Mexico and Texas. Avoid wearing a cape with a red liner.

Playing a Wild Vampire

Summed up: people playing wild vampires should be temperamental, impulsive jerks. Er, I mean, the characters should be. And the players, too.

Experience Table for Vampire R.C.C.s

There's a variety of bonuses vampires get to their powers as they level up, and they level super-slow, even much slower than dragons (!). Unlike most experience tables, they will remain 3-4 levels behind most other PCs eventually.

Yeah, you notice how we haven't even discussed vampire powers and weaknesses? They each get their own section. Hang on; it's gonna be

Next: Vampire superpowers! Why vampires are completely rad and cool! Hint: it starts with fangs.

_{People who complain about the amount of attention Glitter Boys gets in Rifts™ should reread this section, and see what it's really like when a writer wanks over a concept.}

Super Hypnotic Suggestion (a form of mind control)

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

I'm a bat!

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 4: "Super Hypnotic Suggestion (a form of mind control)"

Vampire Powers

No disciplines here, all vampires get the same superpowers from their blobby lords.

A Lust for Blood

Vampires are compelled to be evil by the vampire intelligence! Some struggle with them and some are like "sure, dude". But in any case, they have to feed, but they don't have to kill. They need two pints of blood every two nights. By the third night without blood they start getting penalties, and if they smell blood within 500 ft., the have to roll to save vs. feeding frenzy (no idea what this roll is). It can even be a tiny cut. A failed roll means they have to feed or go berserk for 1d4 hours.

Good characters who go crazy can at least direct who they choose to feed on, but still have to feed. Also, vampires in the feeding frenzy have to save against mind control with each pint taken (with no bonuses) to stop themselves from sucking somebody dry. The longer they go without blood, the harder the save to resist feeding frenzy becomes.

If a vampire is starved for three weeks, the vampire goes completely apeshit and animalistic and has to drain and kill the first person they see, but then returns to normal. A vampire that's kept from blood six months or more degenerates into a wild vampire.

The Vampire's Bite

Vampires prefer to keep from human and human-like creatures, and if they're looking to convert, prefer attractive people. Vampires are judgmental and shallow! However, if they drain somebody dry, that person doesn't become a vampire. Vampires can't drink he blood of animals, and rarely turn mutant animals into vampires, because mutant animals are "natural enemies" to vampires due to their ability to sense the supernatural. Yes, vampires and dogs: eternal foes.


_{Um... Presence 2, Dread Gaze}

Slow Kill (creating the undead)

Basically, a vampire has to bite and drain a little bit of blood for two nights, and on the third night drains the victim dry. Three days later, the victim rises as vampire.

If a PC is converted, they freeze all their O.C.C. skills at their current level and never increase them again. They lose half their secondary skills (unfortunately, there's no easy way to tell which were purchased as secondary skills and which as O.C.C. skills, so that's a pain). The vampire gets skills as they go up in level but it's not clear if those level up or are frozen too. If they have any cybernetics, they're rejected from the body. Borgs and supernatural creatures can't be turned into vampires.

The skill thing is too complicated and

Anyway, a vampire that's bit somebody for the slow kill is dazed and confused, and the vampire can also do some minor control (which, strangely, doesn't seem to have a save). A vampire can also create entranced slaves by just not doing the final bit properly, and thus Renfielding someone. A slave under a vampire's fangy can resist at tremendous penalties, but can't harm the vampire under any circumstances (!). The only way to break the mind control is to kill the vampire, or prevent the third bite.

Mind control without any saves? Yeesh. I guess the dodge is a save of sorts?

Mind Control: Vampire over Vampire

Vampires can try and mind control each other, as well, but only of an equal or lower "type" than themselves. It's harder to resist of they're of the same vampire intelligence, as well. There's a lot of on this, but that's the summary.

Psionic Powers of the Vampire

These are the powers that actually cost ISP. They get a variety of sensory, mind control, and deceptive powers, and Super Hypnotic Suggestion, which is more powerful and long-lasting than the normal Hypnotic Suggestion psionic power. It can't force the victim to break alignment, and works better if the commands match it. For some reason this works on people in power armor, but not in robot vehicles... because! That is why.

Vampires can also sense any vampire it's created within a certain distance, as well as call to them for a summon. In addition, masters can tell when their own sire has been slain.

Metamorphosis

Bat, wolf, or mist. When transforming, basic items transform with the vampire, but any body armor, heavy equipment, or heavy weapons fall away. That's why they don't like high-tech jazz, they can't take a lot of it with them.


_{Protean 4!}

Summon Vermin

Vampires can summon rats and bugs, which are only mildly damaging but inflict combat penalities when they swarm people, and have a weak Horror Factor (6 or 9).

Summon Canines

Yep, you can summon S.D.C. wolves! Woopee! Well, they're decent as watchdogs. They also have a Horror Factor of 8 for some reason, even if you're safe in your Glitter Boy.

Summon Fog

Older vampires get the power to summon a spooky fog, covering up to 1 mile, and reducing visual range to 4-10 feet!

Limited Invulnerability

Vampires aren't hurt by normal weapons at all, but they may get knocked off their feet. (There are rules later for this, and they're different from the original knockdown rules in the Sourcebook). They can't catch diseases (not even AIDS or cancer, it says... wait, you can catch cancer?), and they can't pass along diseases, either. :heybaby:

Super Regeneration

Even when vampires are damaged, they regain their hit points every round. Over hours they can recover limbs, torso, or head if necessary, if not permanently destroyed somehow. Yeah, their head turns to mist to rejoin the body. Basically vampires get to say "neener, neener!" a lot.

Eternal Life

Unshockingly, vampires are immortal, unless you permanently destroy them. (How do we do that? Next section.)


_{Um... Regrowinarium 6, or... shit, run!}

Abilities Natural to Vampires

In case you needed more powers...

• No reflection, invisible to infrared.
  
• Enhanced senses - nightvision, blood sense.
  
• Natural Prowl / sneak ability of 50%.
  
• Don't breathe, bleed, can't be knocked out.
  
• Not affected by fire, heat, cold, artificial light.
  
• Can eat regular food, but garlic and "wolfbay" will cause vomiting and damage.
  
• Recognizes other vampires automatically.
  

Well! That certainly is a lot of powers. Well, time to hang it up, vampires can't be stop- wait, what's that?

Next: Why being a vampire is terrible; vampire weaknesses, how to kill a vampire. Grab your squirt gun and a cross, yes, I said squirt gun .

_{A vampire in this setting can take a nuclear bomb. This is important to note because some PCs will have nuclear bombs.}

Many misguided souls believe a wooden stake thrust through the heart of a vampire kills the demon. They are wrong!!

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

The best weapon against a vampire? Push 'em down a waterslide.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 5: "Many misguided souls believe a wooden stake thrust through the heart of a vampire kills the demon. They are wrong!!"

To Kill a Vampire

Blah blah invulnerable blah blah immortal blah blahhhh survive a nuke blah.

Weaknesses

Stuff can hurt them, though, wood, water, silver, daylight, herbs, soil, crosses, and fire.

Yes. Water. But enough of that, time to get specific!

The Wooden Stake

Stakes just paralyze vampires and make them look corpsy. This is because vampires are elemental in nature (really?), and the stake grounds a vampire to the earth. You can also use a silver stake, if you're an upper-class twit. Even if it's on tarmac. In this stastis state, the vampire is weakened and can be harmed by normal weapons and fire. The only way to finish it for good is to chop off the head, burn the body and head seperately, and scatter the ashes. Also, wooden weapons can cause injury to a vampire, but not direct death.



Wow. Killing vampires sounds like some goddamn work . You'd think setting bodies on fire wouldn't get old but I'm sure it does. Maybe nobody's wiped out the vampires just because it gets too boring.

The Silver Bullet

Yeah, silver hurts vampires, and if you get a silver bullet in the heart, it'll paralyze them too. It works interchangeably like wood. Next!

Protection by Herbs

Hanging garlic or "wolfbay" around a door repels vampires from a location, hanging it around your neck prevents bites, and can be used to ward vampires off.

Protection by the Symbol of the Cross

The cross can frighten vampires (like Horror Factor 18) and can burn them. However, all vampires get bonuses against Horror Factor, so a master is much less likely to be affected than a wild vampire. Even the shadow of a cross can burn them, so you can set it up on a spotlight and go vampire-zapping.

Death by Water

Here's the winner.

Running water can dissolve vampires! Not just rivers - any running water! Rain! Squirt guns! Piss!

Okay, it doesn't mention piss. But it does mention that vampires are water-soluble . It can melt them permanently, like the Wicked Witch!

They also need to make a roll to try and cross water, even by flying as a bat. Holy water does more damage and can ward them away.



Also, as an aside, blood is 80% water! So drinking blood = running water = all Rifts vampires explode. I'm guessing this wasn't their intention, but what the hell. Go with it. Vampire Kingdoms explode in a puff of logic.

Death by Sunlight

Vampires take a lot of damage from sunlight, and it really slows them down. The magic spell Globe of Daylight won't hurt vampires, but it will ward them off. There's a lot of about how well this worked out for PCs in a playtest. Once again, logic tells us the moon would be bad too, but no go.

Vulnerability (sleeping) During the Day

Vampires sleep deeply during the day and are hard to wake, and are at severe penalities if they wake up. (There are no rules for what it takes to wake them up.)

The Soil of the Homeland

Apparently "Homeland" means "entire continent". Uh. So if they leave their continent, they need to carry around soil or they go insane and slaughter people and then are like HEY MR. SUN and fooomp. But if they're created in Mexico, they can bed down in Alaska just fine.

Fire

If you stake a vampire, you can burn it, but if you don't decapitate it, it has a 50% chance of recovery.

And that's all the ways there is to kill a vampire! It bears mentioning no amount of mundane damage will harm a vampire - you could drop the moon on a vampire and it wouldn't die. But you could beat it down with a stick and then throw a glass of water on it for the finisher.

Silly? Yes. Arbitrary and mighty silly.

Oh and we're not even close to done with vampires yet, ha ha.

Next: Fighting the vampires! Special combat rules! Vampires vs. Robots! Sailboats! Yeah, that's right - it's time to sail - in the world of Rifts™!

_{Vampires are special pack of goddamn snowflakes, monster-wise. Seriously, how many other creatures require so much in the way of gyrations to kill?}

A ordinary child's water balloon can become a lethal weapon to vampires...

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Vampires, everyone!

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 6: "A ordinary child's water balloon can become a lethal weapon to vampires..."

Vampire Combat Notes

More rules for vampires! I think this is even more rules than missiles get.

Damage Table
Wood, Silver, Water & Others

Here it lists the damage vampires take from various bits. It should be noted vampires don't have M.D.C. or S.D.C., but just hit points, because every source of damage they take is specially defined with a damage value just for them.

Wood and Silver Weapons

Yeah, wood weapons!

Except it doesn't say how much damage it does. Boomerang! No damage listed. Wood throwing knife! No damage listed. Throwing sticks! No damage listed. Oh, sure they have prices, but no actual rules. (And no, they're not in the core, either. I did double-check.)

Bows are covered too!... only we don't know how much a normal arrow does, or what the range of a bow is, which was similarly neglected back in the Rifts™ Sourcebook . Ooops. Problem is, those explosive arrows don't do so much good here.

Anti-Vampire Rail Guns Modified Rounds for Combating Vampires

Yep, wood bullets with a metal core so the rail gun can shoot them. You'd think they would fragment like crazy and just fly all over inaccurately, but what do I know! They have a lower range and fuck vampires up pretty seriously.

Cross Spotlight

Yeah, tape a cross to a spotlight and point it at a vampire, and the vampire burns.

Conventional Water Weapons - Squirt Guns

Yep, it's finally come down to this. Water pistols, pump guns, hoses, and water balloon launchers . Melt vampires down to blood slurry.

Techno-Wizard Anti-Vampire Weapons!

Yup, they use an exclamation point.

• Vampire Cross: It's a cross that has a crystal that glows red when there's vampires afoot!
  
• Techno-Wizard (TW) Water Blasters: They're like normal water blasters, only they make their own water using P.P.E. or I.S.P.
  
• TW Storm Flares: They fire up and create a 100' storm cloud!
  
• TW Globe of Daylight Flares: They fire up and then drop a Globe of Daylight down.
  
• TW Animal Repellent Flares: Releases a minty-magic aura that will repel vermin. (The book does describe it as "minty".)
  
• TW Modified Wood Rail Gun: This was made by a wizard at Lazlo with the help of a Palladium wizard! Armed with that knowledge, it's a magic rail gun that makes its own wooden bullets.
  
• Vampire Water Field: This sprinkler system creates a field of squirtin' fluid around the user, harming any vampire that gets close.
  

Other Techno-Wizard Devices

Not so useful at killing vampires, but useful in getting around them.

It should be noted that neither the TW vehicles here or in the core have M.D.C. or S.D.C. values. So don't let them take damage, or your entire campaign will crash irrevocably with a 401 Core Error.

• TW Underwater Ley Line Flyer: Like a regular Ley Line Flyer! But underwater only. Of course, you have to have a space where a ley line intersects a body of water, which makes it more of a sea thing, I suppose.
  
• TW Underwater Scooter: It scoots underwater. With magic.
  
• TW Water Sled: It's, uh, like a waterjet, only it uses magic!
  
• TW Sailboat: Whoooooooooooooo- Finally! A use for my sailing skill! It, uh, breaks its own wind.
  
• TW Hover Yacht: It's a yacht, it makes its own speed. Not clear if you can take it onto land.
  
• TW S.C.U.B.A.: A respirator that generates magic air, and a suit that gives faster swim speed and also lets you breathe without air (but not as well as the respirator).
  
• TW Night Goggles: See in the dark, duh, magically.
  
• TW Thieves Gloves: Lets you magically palm objects and escape from bonds. Sometimes illegal, because sinister!
  

Penalties to strike a Vampire's Heart

When firing at 20' or more, you have to make a called shot and then roll 19, 20, or higher (wait, how do you roll higher on a 20 on a d20? I guess they mean with bonuses, maybe? Unclear as usual.) With close range attacks, you just need to make a called shot. If they're immobilized or sleeping, you still miss on a roll of 1-4 (because you're nervous because vampires are scary, yo).

Vampires versus Magic

Most magic that controls minds or impairs the body has little or no effect on vampires. However, M.D.C. magic energy attacks do direct damage to the vampire, though it can't kill them. Various banishing and circles spells can drive them back. Illusions work on them. And mega-damage magic weapons hurt a vampire as well. But you still have to water them, stake and burn, or put them in the sunlight to destroy them etc.

Vampires Versus Psionics

Mind control doesn't work against vampires! But a lot of the sensory effects work well against them, and you can stab them with a psi-sword or melt them with hydrokinesis.

Vampire Avoid Technology

"Don't need it!", the book says. Vampire get all confident and megalomanical and feel they don't need tools because they're superior and

Look, what I'm going to point out is that power armor is a sealed fucking environment that protects from the sun and can march around during the day, and vampires are fucking stupid.

Vampires and Weapons

Vampires do use weapons, generally melee weapons (sometimes wood or silver to use against other vampires) and a few carry around an light energy weapon. Generally energy weapons are used when they're facing formidable opponents like power armor. They like magic weapons, too!

Vampires and Body Armor

Sometimes, smart vampires wear armor because wooden stakes don't win against armor. However, a "vampire's elemental nature prevents the creature from being sealed away from nature". Apparently, vampires find armor really uncomfy! Also, they can't change shape, but those that do sometimes use quick-release bonds to remove their armor in a hurry.

Hit and Run Tactic

Vampires often escape when they're hurt, regenerate, and come back for round two. I can only imagine how massively annoying this is for PCs to face. "They turn into mist again!"

Lasers

They don't hurt vampires, it's gotta be real sun.

Vampire versus Robot

This isn't a meme yet? What the hell?!

Anyway, vampires can't mind control robots unless they're transferred intelligences, and can't control people in robot vehicles unless the person in the robot vehicles is looking out directly through a view port or hatch. Power armor apparently doesn't use a view screen and is vulnerable. Vampires can't enter vehicles as mist unless any environmental protection they have is breached.

Vampire versus Borg

Borgs can't become vampires, but they can be mind-controlled. There's an anecdote from a playtest where a borg was torn limb from limb by vampires, but there are no rules for this. If you just have one or a few limbs or cybernetics, you can be turned into a vampire; the vampirism kicks your metal parts out.

Knock-Down

Attacks from superstrong fists, rail guns, explosives may knock the vampire down. There's an optional table giving a % chance depending on the damage it would normally inflict. (This is different from the knockdown rules given in Rifts™ Sourcebook .)

Grappling

It's noted you can try and grapple a vampire. There are no rules for this. Also, vampires can turn to mist if you don't keep them stunned.

Vampire Mist

You can't pull a vampire into a vacuum cleaner, which suuuu- stinks. Or blow it away with magic wind. It can be warded away but sunlight is the only thing that will really hurt a vampire in mist form. Also, it should be mentioned from the mist description earlier that water will hurt a vampire in mist form . Ironic, I suppose. (Of course, technically, summon fog should be problematic for these vampires as well, maybe it isn't "running" water?)

Vampire Victim Tables

Somebody traumatized can roll on a table to see if they go crazy and get a new random phobia! It's the GM's call, no rules for when to apply it, so you can totally blame your crummy GM for forcing this table on you.

Blood Loss Table for Victims of Vampire Bites

There's a lot of , but it gives details for blood lost, pint-by-pint, with associated penalties and healing rules.

It short, it is somehow more realistic and detailed than Vampire: the Masquerade . Figure that out.

Dragons

Dragons can hurt vampires, but not kill them. Dragons can't become vampires. Vampire bites do crazy damage to dragons. It also says:


What the fuck does that mean?


_{It turns out all the figures in shadow were actually werewolves! Boy, was that guy with the water pistol embarrassed!}

Psi-Stalkers & Mutant Dogs

Yep, they can sense vampires, and are harder to mind control. Also, psi-stalkers can feed on vampires, and it's good eatin'.

And that is all. That is all. That is all about vampires. No more talk about vampires. None. Done. Sick of it. So sick of it.

Next: Erin Tarn! Talking about vampires!

Days away, I can still taste the bile of the city in my mouth.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

What'd you think of Mexico, Erin?

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 7: "Days away, I can still taste the bile of the city in my mouth."

_Oh.

Exploring Central America
Letters of Erin Tarn

As you may remember, Erin Tarn had some friends that decided to go to Mexico 20 years ago and never came back! Well, now she's worked up the courage to go, so she can figure out the truth about Mexico and tell everybody. And thanks to the kingdom of Lazlo publishing Traversing Our Modern World without her permission, she's wanted by the Coalition States.

Thanks, Kingdom of Lazlo! (And Lazlo is supposed to be a community of good guys . Go figure.)

Apparently the Rio Grande is now a huge river, and they are going to New El Paso, even though it's a den of hive and villainy, to cross over. Also everybody is afraid of vampires! But apparently the river keeps them from crossing. She saw glowy eyes across the river! Blah blah weaknesses of vampires squirt guns. She guesses they like Mexico because it's dry.

Yes, she is just restating shit we just read about . This would have been way better to have before a thirty-page section about vampires, where it would tease things instead of belaboring. Skipping.

They enter Mexico and go to Juarez! It's a shithole! Erin Tarn is disgusted at what an amoral shithole it is, and totally judges these people and their dirty way of life. Supposedly Juarez is vampire-free, she says there are rumors of vampires but they may not be vampires but instead fake vampires. They are vampires.

The locals recommend she travel across the coastline or a river. Instead, she's going to go across the mainland, which is full of vampires, so they can get to Mexico City , which is said to be full of vampires. From there they're going to go to Central America, which may be full of vampires. You know. Assuming nothing bad happens, like getting attacked by vampires.

Next: ¡La sociedad de vampiros! ¡Qué cosa tan terrible es!

_{Yup. It's a cliffhanger . Everybody, try and remain in suspense.}

Wild vampires are notorious for cat-calls and insults from the darkness.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Vampiros gone wild!

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 8: "Wild vampires are notorious for cat-calls and insults from the darkness."

The Vampire Kingdoms

Well, we're not going to get into the kingdoms just yet, but that's the header we have for some reason.

Guess what? Mexico and Central America is dominated by vampires! It's not a lie! I guess the cover gave that shit away, huh? But now the truth can be told.

The Coalition

The Coalition has sent spies to Lone Star (wait, aren't they already Coalition?), El Paso, and Juarez to find out more about vampires. They've also infiltrated Reid's Rangers (some vampire hunters adverted on the back cover). Even though they've gotten information there are smart vampires, they think most vampires are dumb - numerous, but dumb.

In short, they're fucked if they try to invade, because they don't know shit about shit.

The Northern Wastelands

The Vampire's Great Deception

That should be vampires', plural, just saying.

Anyway, it's in Southern Mexico that the vampire intelligences exist and engaged in vampire on vampire war, and sometimes summon allies, and in general are ee evil. However, they do see blob-eye to blob-eye on one thing, and that is making a bunch of crappy wild vampires and banishing them to Northern Mexico. This gets rid of the wild vampires, since they're annoying, obnoxious, and not exactly house-trained. Secondly, they get a buffer zone of expendable monsters to attack travelers and invaders. Lastly, it makes most people think vampires are a bunch of stupid hicks and monsters so they don't realize that there are way smarter vampires enslaving entire towns and cities.

The Wild Vampires of Northern Mexico

Most people who live in Northern Mexico know how to fight vampires, but there are so many vampires it's impossible to hold them off forever. And most wild vampires organize into packs. Lone vampires tend to just pick on the isolated or weak. Wild vampires are generally nomadic and have lots of hidey-holes.



It's the really big groups that are dangerous, since they can just overwhelm people with numbers. In addition, they can really put their heads together in groups and utilize tactics that include their powers.

You know, like...

"Clever girl."

Other times they'll intimidate communities for food, though sometimes come into conflict with other packs for territory and food. Small packs are about a dozen, a medium pack will be 20-40, and large packs are about 50-120. Sometimes they're led by secondary vampires, wizards, dragons, demons, etc., instead of just other wild vampires.

Blah blah blah clan-oriented pecking order blah blah some order others around because they're stronger. Wild vampires like to intimidate and frighten people and basically troll the living, murder wild animals, throw them through people's windows, whatever, they just don't care. Well, they care about fucking with people. Sometimes literally.

Enough of these assholes! Let's talk about a different sort of asshole.

Next: ¡Ahora, los vampiros que tienen pantalones en! ¡Los reinos de vampiro verdaderos del sur!

_{I apologize if I am butchering español. (That does not mean I will stop.)}

...there are no vampires here. Absolutely none!

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

I, for one, welcome our new blobby overlords. None of them are Nazis, at least.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 9: "'... there are no vampires here. Absolutely none!'"

Vampire Civilization

So, the bubonic plague? It was vampires. Fuck science, fuck history, it was vampires! But humanity kicked their asses back to their hell dimension and so that was that. Also the Mayan and Aztec sacrifices may have been related to a vampire invasion. It turns out history was crazy with vampires!

The Ideal Vampire Habitat
Rifts Mexico and Central America, Circa 102 P.A.

Vampires like Mexico because it's hot, dry, and there's not much cover, there's not much in the way of weather changes, and day/night is consistent. Also, the Yucatan is annoying and wet, but it's full of magic energy for the intelligences and food for their human livestock.

It says here that the intelligences aren't vulnerable to water or sunlight, but this contradicts their actual statblock.

Vampire Societies

Mostly these are secondary vampires, with an extreme minority of wild vampires and a tiny amount of master vampires. Secondary vampires are the only ones common enough who are able to keep their shit together, basically.

Tribal Lords

This is the setup for usual small town vampire mini-kingdom - there are like a dozen vampires that lead a village, and rule over it like fangy gods, feeding on but not killing the populace. In turn, the village looks to them as protectors and heroes, even though the vampires are generally just exploitative jerks.

Vampire Towns and Cities
The Roots of Domination

Even though humans outnumber vampires by whole bunches, vampires are way more powerful than humans. In addition, vampires also recruit daytime protectors, which are generally augmented humans. In addition, even if a rebellion succeeds, there are probably vampiric neighbors willing to strike at a weakened town and take it over. In addition, the vampires keep people safe from worse monsters.



It's rare for there to be cities, but there are some! Here's one:

The Vampire Kingdom of Ixzotz

Eesh-zotz, BTW. It's where Aguascalientes used to be. You know, Aguascalientes? Of course you do.

The majority of the city is vampires, and they feed off the surrounding farms. Humans here are chained slaves and have been abused and debased for life. It's surrounded by farms run on slave labor, and every month each farm is invaded by vampires who just feed like crazy.

Anyway, it's got about 50's level of tech, and is sparsely populated save perhaps for slaves, who are likely to flee or get the sheriff.

Ixvotz City Highlights

There's a sheriff who's a brodkil borg (from Rifts™ Sourcebook ) along with several flunkies like a wizard and an ogre and a bunch of other brodkil. They also have a bunch of robots they can activate in a pinch, as well as slave warriors.

There's a hotel that's just meant to trap and ambush adventurers, a jail, an arena for fights between vampires, humans, and captive adventurers. There's also a hospital, which is mostly blood and staked vampire storage. The convention center has a vampire intelligence and about a hundred vampire protectors. It lists a mighty treasure trove. There's also a casino there Master Ocolan, the master vampire, hangs out and holds court. He also has a Kryntoc bodyguard, which is basically a 13', three-armed and beaked demon-thing.


_{Three arms! That's scary, right?}

Other Cities of the Kingdom

• There's Zacatecas, which has sheep and goat herders!
  
• San Luis Potosi, another city based on slave labor and farms.
  
• Monero, a literal concentration camp / human farm, like uncle used to make.
  
• Leon is an industrial center where the humans are treated relatively well by a skeleton crew of vampires.
  
• San Franciso del Rincon, a large town recently taken over still has a fair deal of revolution backed by Xibalba (?).
  
• Irapuato is basically a city of thugs like orcs and goblins, and they're sent on raids against the Mexico Empire.
  

And there are bunch of small communities.

Doc Reid - whoever he is - has learned about Ixvotz, and is going to start killing vampires there in the bunches soon.

The Mexico Empire

Some statistics go here.

Mexico City
Capitol of the Mexico Empire

This is the most humane of the vampire kingdoms, and though basically still lifestock, they're largely treated with respect as second-class citizens. The technology is actually fairly post-industrial, more of a well-run oligarchy than anything else. Still, vampires are jerks by their nature, and this is mostly a selfish means to keep large amounts of mortals under control



The vampires have tried to create a more human society where they are on top, and just demand regular blood donations from citizens. Those who donate blood can earn points and prizes, like some sort of vampire-centric cheevo list. Vampires that go wild and attack people are duly punished. Still, vampires occasionally push or degrade humans. Some vampires resent these policies and are more abusive than others.

The master vampire in charge of Mexico City is Regen Augustus Obregon, who's a stern taskmaster, but relatively honorable.

Tula

The Aztec ruins at Tula are a military camp, and the temple has been rebuild to house the vampire intelligence. It's got lots of human troops and robots ready to defend the place. The pyramid is particularly powerful nexus, and has portals to other locales and can warp time somewhat. The vampire intelligence has friends in the form of a neuron beast (see the Rifts™ Sourcebook ) and a Sowki (see Forkbanger's Beyond the Supernatural™ writeup). The intelligence is tied to the pyramid and there's likely to be a big magic boom if it's ever killed.

The Mexico Empire's Defenses

The empire can summon a lot of aid using the portals, but also has a dedicated military force with bionics, and high-tech war machines that've been stolen or purchased. However, Tula and Mexico city have facilities to repair and recharge weapons and robots. Most robot pilots are mind controlled. They also have a few dozen wizards. In addition, they have very good medical facilities. They've pretty much got it together.

Other Cities of Note within the Mexico Empire

Many other places they control are centered around nexuses.

• Teothiaucan is a small, modern city that houses a military installation to protect a nexus, and is famous for bullfights.
  
• Itizatlan sits on a ley line, and is a town centered around a number of farms. They call corn "maize" unironically.
  
• Malinalco is the agriculture center of the empire. It has a nexus they use to power weather and irrigation efforts.
  
• Xochicalco is a powerful nexus centered on an ancient ruin, around which is a small town.
  
• Morelos is the most southern of their towns, and is mainly the center of agriculture.
  

The Muluc Kingdom

This is brutaltania. They have mid-to-low technology, and only the cities come across as modern at all. They create mind controlled slaves and new vampires fairly often. The drones are used to keep tabs as vamp-narcs. Paranoia and despair run high. Most people are simply numb, and it's the mind controlled who come across as more gregarious as they try and weasel information out of strangers and travelers. Muluc is their capital and their largest city.

Many travellers are attacked added to the blood pool, which are a number of factories designed to basically feed people intravenously and then take out their blood as captive blood generators. Healing magic is used to keep people alive well after they should die.

However, there are too many vampires, and soon they will start running out of food. This will likely lead to military conflict, but they're not strong enough to survive a war. However, the vampire intelligence in charge is aggressive and inclined to make war as soon as possible.

The City of Eltajin is built on a ley line nexus and is ruled by Anna Dominguez, who is a master vampire wizard, and has a palace atop a magic pyramid. Mostly this is an agricultural city, but it has a major military force with power armor and robot vehicles.

The Milta Kingdom

Though still a young, rough and savage vampirocracy, Milta is trying to be more progressive and is setting up a blood donation system like the Mexico Empire. It even has set up a peace agreement with the Mexico Empire for Milta to sell oil to them.

There's Milta, which is a large but primitive city built on a nexus, and Minatitlan is a major oil refinery.

It's basically the wishy-washy Vampire Kingdom.

Overall, the Vampire Kingdoms get 16 pages out of a 176 page book. Obviously important, but you know what gets more attention?

Circuses!

Next: ¡La casa de la vida! ¡Ningunos vampiros permitieron!

_{Yep, that's mostly it for Draculas. Vampires will make some return appearances, but the book's attention is already elsewhere.}

Just knowing they are present drives the Muluc vampires crazy with frustration.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

No, there's no such thing, really, as a "short Rifts™ book'.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 10: "Just knowing they are present drives the Muluc vampires crazy with frustration."

The Strongholds of Man

Yes, not everywhere in Mexico is a Dracula-infested bunghole. It is, however, a short section.

Tampico Military Protectorate

This is based out of old Tampico, and it's an oil-drilling operation run by mercenaries. It's in the middle of the Muluc kingdom, and so gets attacked a lot, but they have a small army to fend them off, including a lot of powerful power armor suits. Muluc's considering wiping them out!... but they might not be worth the bother.

Monterrey

This is a town used by the Pecos Empire as a vacation spot in Northern Mexico, and though it struggles with vampire attacks, all the citzenry are armed against vampires. In addition, the Pecos Raiders help make sure the town remains vamp-free when they aren't boozing it up here.

New Del Rio

It's a crummy hellhole in Texas run by a corrupt family. It's a haven for bandits, infested by vampires, is supposed to be even worse than Juarez, travelers avoid it, etc.

Is there any place that's nice?

Los Alamo

Here's one! It's a nice, modern, high-tech kingdom. That's why they keep everybody else out. (Seriously, that's the extent of the detail here.)

Ciudad Victoria

This is on the Rio Bravo river, and sprawls into the river with floating platforms and houseboats, and the numerous waterways keep it mostly vampire-free, thought it's largely isolated.

Next: El Paso! Dog boys vs. cat girls! Orcs vs. nazis! Robocops! It's all there!

_{No, seriously, I'm not even exaggerating. Well, okay. Only about fifty robocops.}

In the midwestern cities, Halloway was nothing but an ornery, two-bit punk, but out in the wild west he has become a king.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Yuuuuup.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 11: "In the midwestern cities, Halloway was nothing but an ornery, two-bit punk, but out in the wild west he has become a king."

Travelling beyond the Threshold of Humankind

Communities are rare in the wilderness, blah blah small towns blah blah dammit we went over this in Rifts™ Sourcebook . Next!

El Paso

It's about 30k people and is about half humans, one-quarter d-bees, one-quarter mutant animals, and some number of other jerks. See, this book loves numbers and I've been skipping them like crazy, but El Paso gets a decent chunk of the book and you folks need to be ready for the test.

It's considered to be the last outpost of civilization in the American Southwest. To the south, vampires! To the west, the Pecos Raiders! In Canada there are insane wizards- wait what the shit is this book going on about?

Anyway, Juarez City across the border is bigger but isn't considered civilized. El Paso is a backwater compared to the Coalition States, but it's refined and effete compared to all the scumshit buttholes that surround it.

It's a major center of trade, mostly free of vampires, and even has a small Coalition States embassy.

The Police



El Paso has a competent and decent police force, mainly focused on squashing major crime - they're likely to ignore misdemeanors or the like. They also double as the local militia, and have a fair number of mutant dogs, robot pilots, psychics, wizards, and people in rad flying bikes.

Oh, and 49 robocops.

There's no mention of what laws they actually enforce, though. Well, no game is perfect.

El Paso Gang Problems

The new scourge of decent folk everywhere - rogue mutant animals! Remember, have your mutant animal spayed or neutered. But the Coalition doesn't do that, and a lot of them are busting loose out of Lone Star.

The K-9s



Renegade mutant dogs breaking the law! Humans ain't their masters no more, no sir!

You don't have to be a dog to join, but they hate cats and birds, and only dogs get to lead, because they're bunch of canine supremacists. They're mostly just petty criminals and occasional vigilantes.

The Gang Leaders include:

• Zeus, a german shepherd who deserted the Coalition and acts as a father figure to the others. Honorable but bitter as hell.
  
• Eric, a wolf! He's like a son to Zeus, and has no other discernable personality.
  
• Sigmund, a nerdy lakeland terrier whose master was shot for teaching him the secret of the doorknob and other human knowledge.
  

The Wild Cats



Well, that's a mental image for you to scrape out. This gang is mixed up d-bees and mutants, but it's led by mutant cats, including Donna the Dark Kitten . It says this is a "pun name that has stuck with her". Uh, what pun?

Here are some examples of what a pun actually is:

• Donna, Wanted Feline
  
• Donna the Cat-astrophe
  
• Donna, Puss Snatcher
  

Anyway, the Wild Cats are more serious criminals, including theft, extortion, and murder, and are the most feared gang in the city, since it's led by cats and cats just don't give a shit.

They also have some stat and skill packaages in case you want to want to make the Dog Pack R.C.C. into a Cat Pride R.C.C. (the R.C.C. has no actual name listed). The mutant cats were apparently designed as sneakier, more independent version of mutant dogs, but you know, cats do what they fucking like, shock of shocks.

The Trogs



These are mostly poor, educated, or just plain dumb D-Bees and mutants. Also ugly. They're basically and literally orcs, ogres, etc., and are a bunch of macho punks. They're basically always thuggin', literally speaking.

Their gang leader is the "Octopus", a 13' tall four-armed "Rahu-man" from the world of Palladium. Smarter than he looks, I'm guessing, but there's no picture. His second, Mister Green, is a green guy with light-based super powers.

The Hammer (humans)



They're human supremacists that aren't supported by the Coalition but ha ha where did they get those SAMAS from anyway it's ridiculous time for them to be beat up some D-Bees!

They're led by a "Captain Mark Riddley" who used to be a Coalition intelligence agent but he's totally legit now and can't possibly be a spy. The soldiers that used to work under him are totally not Coalition spies too!

Also they wear red armbands with white circles with little hammers in them. Well, I'm assuming they're red, anyway.

King Wyatt Halloway

He's a rich cattleman in Texas! Which pretty much makes him salt of the earth or an asshole, and he's both, he's a petty, vengeful ass, but he's got a private army. He's miscreant evil and an "8th level vagabond who turned to business". He also generally fucks with the Coalition because he sees them as a threat. They are!

He also has a lot of family listed, including cousins who "are babes and smart too". Both?!

You're messing with my realism, Rifts.

El Paso City Highlights

I'm going to brief this all up.

• The El Paso Magic Shop: Run by Zafeel, a wizard with cowboy stylings. Sells magic items, spells, and services. He also has "floopers" work for him, whatever those are.
  
• The Traveler's Inn House: A fancy hotel with a number of minor services, and there's a summary of cheaper or more expensive lodgings.
  
• The Open Market: You can buy a lot of crap here, often as a small discount. Not much in the way of adventurer gear, so who cares - oh, hey, silver bullets, two for 1 credit!
  
• The Halloway Armory & Outfitter: It's a huge building that carries traveler's equipment, weapons, armor and holy shit -
  

  Rifts World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms posted:

  The big item in robots is the basic bot horse

  Yep, after waiting for two books for robo-horses†, we get them here in tiny print. Blink and you miss 'em. They have other robots, too, and vehicles.
  
• Official Wilk's Laser Store: I said they were the Apple of M.D.C. guns; they even get their own store with employees that help you feel superior. There's also some new equipment in tiny print, like flashlights and other stuff that doesn't really do damage, so eh.
  
• River Side Taxi & Guide Services: ATVs and hover vehicles to tool around the local area, but won't cross the Rio. For that, there's...
  
• Daylight Ferry Service: Ferries to carry you over the river, but are only able to travel by day as per local ordinances.
  
• Speedway Boating: A smaller ferry service that only moves people, though they've been known to sneak people over at night. There's also an "Old Man Rivera" who works as a drunken local tour and is mainly an ass that'll pass out or bail at the drop of a hat. He's pretty much there to fuck the PCs over at some point.
  
• The Mystic Travel Service: Ley line walkers charge 25k credits to teleport people up to 900 miles away. A bargain!
  
• The Wild Bronco Arena: Racing, fights, carnivals, etc. - it's the main entertainment center. It also has gambling run by the Halloways.
  
• El Paso Psychic Healer Society: They provide healing at reasonable fees, at least until you get to psychic surgery or exorcism at 10k apiece, that's like, 1k per 1 ISP spent? *snort*
  
• The Halloway General Hospital: They heal stuff. Also, Halloway offers a free medical discount to citizens, like some type of goddamn pinko socialist.
  

And that's El Paso!

Next: ¡Bienvenido a Ciudad Juárez, shithole del sur!

† _{Robot Horses can be programmed to talk. And... operate computers. And pick locks. Which I imagine is just torment for a creature with hooves. Robo-Horse is sad, curses creators forever.}

The city looks like the cantina scene out of the pre-rifts movie, Star Wars, only it looks that way everywhere in the city.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

The term they kept using for Juarez in the rest of the book was "filthy". The fact that is is Mexican is probably just a coincidence.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 12: "The city looks like the cantina scene out of the pre-rifts movie, Star Wars , only it looks that way everywhere in the city."

Ciudad Juarez
Into the Mexican Frontier

Ciudad Juarez, city of assholes!

It's mostly humans and D-Bees here, with a minority of mutant animals and vampires . It's just beyond the Rio, and is the only known city in Mexico to most northerners.

It's like the cantina scene in Star Wars. There are creepy alien-like D-Bees all over and people just shooting each other every day! Also, unlike El Paso, they don't check your weapons at the gates -

Wait, the El Paso section did not mention anything about taking my gun, which they'll have to pry from my cold, dead hands, and what's more, reality check , I refuse to believe a Texas town, even in a post-apocalypse hellscape, would practice the sin of gun control.

Anyway, crims from all over come here to drink and drunk, fuck and gamble, and all sorts of forbidden shit I'm sure will be covered in some Cthulhutech adventure, but here here's not going to be any details, thank Siembieda.

The Police

The police force is as crooked as a plate of pasta, most take bribes, abuse locals, and other scummy pasttimes. Only about a fifth aren't totally corrupt, and even they tend to be pragmatic and brutal.


_{A libertarian dream world.}

Good Cops ... Where?

A tiny minority are decent cops, but they get shat on by their corrupt superiors and probably shat on literally in general. However, they tend to be well-liked by locals and often can count of local support, like superheroes with badges and shit all over them.

Police Statistical Data

Ha ha, like you care.

They actually have a lot of potent stuff like flying bikes, robots, psionics, and some magicians. Bad cops who are also wizards. Apparently they have "Fed" on their uniforms, but it doesn't seem to be short for anything.

• Juan Sanchez: The head of the psi-division and a nega-psychic from Beyond the Supernatural. It gives a cliff notes version of what a nega-psychic can do. No idea if he pretty much just fucks up his own depart by disbelieving in psi. I'm going to say he does, because comedy.
  
• Lavana: An ice dragon, heads the magic squad. Presumably a hatchling, since she's just listed as "7th level", and it's good to see they employ children.
  
• Mario Antonio: Second in command of the magic squad, and is a ley line walker. Juarez isn't near a ley line, though, so a lot of his powers = useless.
  

No, none of these people have personalities or backgrounds.

The Government of Ciudad Juarez

It says it's a democratic republic, but it's really just a political machine that supports a corrupt bureaucracy, just like America in real life .

Juarez Gangs

There are bunches of gangs, but only a few important ones. The Black Market is here, too (yeah, they use caps for it now). Anyway, on to the urban youths!

The Subs



This is the oldest gang, and it's all basically unpretty D-Bees and mutant animals, and like to fight. They basically want to destroy something beautiful. But they hate vampires a lot. They're archenemies of the Hammer gang in El Paso, and have a rivalry with the Trogs.

• The leader is Vlad the Invincible , a Dragon Slayer! Apparently these Dragon Slayers are a big deal and will be detailed later. He really hates humans and vampires and has a bunch of superpowers.
  
• The vice-leader is Gabby , who's really just fat and surly and the name is ironic. He's an "8th level thief", which we don't have rules for, but mostly just sits around and plans.
  
• The third in command is "Deader Dead Boy" , a crazy who is also a crazy killer who hunts CS troops. He has MPD and it directs the reader to look back at Rifts for his personalities, but isn't specific about what entries to consult.
  

Tangent time!

I didn't cover this from Rifts™ , but the multiple personality table is lifted whole-hog from Heroes Unlimited™ . So you get personalities like this:


And for some reason, The Normal is an "evil" personality.

Tangent over!

The Psykes



They're all psionic people! Bet you didn't see that one coming. But then, you aren't psychic. They're smart and sneaky, and they basically control the nicer North Town, and keep stuff entirely vamp-free. They have a lot of vice operations and everybody's totally afeared of them. It mentions the gang is growing to the point it might muscle in the Black Market or the Guild of the Gifted.

• The Eye: A mind melter than runs the game, is ruthless, and particularly it mentions "Any male who treats with disrespect is punished (usually psionic torture)."
  
• Steven Trenton: The second-in-command, also a mind melter, is "tough, self-reliant, a good leader and deadly". I think that's a quote from his resume.
  

The Skivers

That's "skee-vers", for the record. They are dedicated cyber-snatchers, who basically attack people to steal parts. They've been known to even raid clinics or ambulances. Most have cybernetics, where did they get those from?

• Wily Willie: A D-Bee junkie and city rat, apparently charming but a lazy addict. He kind of sucks at leadership, tho.
  
• Francisco Cruz: A mystic who isn't too bright, but has a forceful, aggressive personality that keeps the gang together.
  

The Guard



It's time for a little vigilante justice. They're more like a people's militia, going after victims of severe crimes in Juarez. They're ruthless and aggressive, and are generally allowed to make their way around down the town, though the police and government often harass them. They're not fond of outsiders or travellers, but might help them in egregious cases.

• Octavio Diaz: Their leader, a well-read elderly scholar.
  
• Clive Winston: A cyber-knight and skilled tactician.
  
• Lupe Estaves: He's a smart, compassionate city rat!
  

The Night Masters



Juarez is vampire free!... is the lie from the government. But there's a whole gang of fanged fucks, and here they are. Most vampires just organize into small packs but these guys are big. They control a city official and use his villa as a hideout. Sometimes they serve as muscle but mostly fuck with people in order to embarrass the local leaders.

• Master Night: His real name is Pedro Ortega, but "Pedro" just isn't going to scare anyone. He often gives warnings of his schemes Ridder-style.
  
• Ray Flint: He's generically charismatic and smart, and is second in command, I guess.
  
• Emanuel Rodriguez: He's a well-liked up and comer, but he's got a glass ceiling because he wasn't sired by Night.
  
• Julia the Night Mother: She's a witchling and protects the vampires during the daytime, and is a total fangirl for Master Night because he's so tricky.
  

No Vampires in Ciudad Juarez?

Officially, there are not vampires in Juare- oh, hell, it's all a lie. It's constantly trumpeted as propaganda, and even the crappy cops show up a lot faster for credible vamp reports. So mostly the vampires just prey on hobos and travelers. They know about the Night Masters, but try and write them off as a cult or terrorist group of vampire wannabes to the public.

The Guild of the Gifted



This is more of a guild than a gang, and I have stated this, making me the grand master of the obvious! The don't have much of a public profile, but are basically a conspiracy dedicated to gaining power and wealth through magical skullduggery.

They have three bases of power:

• The Sanctum: A five-story mansion that is protected by wards and supernatural servitors.
  
• The Library: A collection of pre- and post-rifts media, which is also warded, and guarded by zombies and golems.
  
• The Circles of Stone: A small nexus outside of town marked by stone pillars. Most other wizards avoid using it because the Guild is scary.
  

• Fineous Clydesworth - The Librarian: Basically a jerk who loves to mislead adventurers into getting into trouble with the Guild. Generally spooky and also a librarian.
  
• Devon Drilfraun - The Lord of the Sanctum: A damn elf, and a high-level ley line walker. Oversees a lot of the day to day humdrum and all as the second in command.
  
• Rasputin the Grey - Guild High Lord: A powerful shifter from Russia who is linked to a supernatural intelligence known as the Grey One, Lord of the Shadows. He's seen as cunning, which makes some loyal and a few envious. He's said to work with demons.
  

Ciudad Juarez Highlights


_{A Rifts™ picture of ordinary people? No, they're all metamorphed dragons.}

There are literally about a hundred and fifty entries here. I'm going with the highlights of the highlights.

Old North Town (The Guard, The Gifted, Vampires, others)

• 1. Maliki's Curio Shop: A curio and magic shop run by Maliki, an old elf and air warlock (no rules, but they give basic spells), along with assistants and air elementals (no rules for these yet.
  
• 8. The Duke's Card Parlor & Saloon: What is says, with cheap drinks. Run by Duke, who is a "Chinese Demon Dancer" wizard (there have never been rules for these, ever), with a Simvan bouncer.
  
  
• 11. North Town Slave Market: "... clean and pleasant compared to the other slavers in town." Well, it's good to know it isn't dirty . Also arranges mercenary services, for the down-and-out cyborg or juicer.
  
• 15. Floyd's Hair Salon: Run by a very dextrous ex-Juicer named Floyd. He also has an assistant named Eduardo Ramirez, a borg with special attachments for haircutting.
  
• 22. Steve's Gags & Gifts: Sells practical joke stuff and curiosities (who the hell manufactures fake vomit in the Rifts world, though...?).
  
• 25. The Sanctum of the Guild for the Gifted: They have a stone wall that's warded, but to really keep out vampires, they have a sprinkler system. Oh, Rifts™ .
  
• 33. Lydia's: Hair and nail care for me, and... prostitutes. One is a catgirl. Lydia is a psionic healer and can be paid to heal that burning in your loins. It's specific about that.
  
• 34. Punta's Magic Shope: He's a powerful wizard and he really does have that name unironically. Oh well. They sell a bunch of stuff you're referred to the Palladium RPG and Adventures on the High Seas for.
  
• 43. Gomez the Coffin Maker: He makes coffins, including special mega-damage coffins, what, no, not for vampires, that would be ridiculous. Plus, nobody's proved it.
  
• 44. Morley's Mortuary: Funerals, autopsies, and occasionally body vanishings thanks to "grave ghouls" who are not detailed.
  
• 46. The Better Body (chop-shop): A dirty chop-shop run by the drunken Dr. Vincent Lee. A good opportunity to roll on the bionic installation gone bad charts from the core.
  
• 48. The Remmington Detective Agency: It's a well-repected agency, run my Josh Remmington (an ex-vampire hunter and amateur painter) and Victorio Truman, a psionic and city rat. They have a variety of other troubleshooters as well.
  
• 54. Open Market: Variety of tools, supplies, and livestock sold by locals.
  
• 57. The Fighting Cock: An indoor area that has animal and "sports" events, run by a Pedro Delgado, a "wimp" that loves hosting the fights, and it's managed by The Night Hawk, a crazy who thinks his crazy powers only work at night.
  
  
• 60. Temple of Coalicue and the Aztec Gods of Light and Dark: A pyramid and mostly what it says, just mentioning because religion is so rarely brough up in Rifts at all.
  
• 62. Robot Horses & Canines: If you missed the robot horse rules earlier, here they are again. No rules for robot dogs, though, ha ha! Rifts teases like a scamp.
  
• 66. The Third Eye - Fortune Teller: The fortune telling by the regular employees is fake. (This seems to be a rarity, so I'm noting it.) The owner, Madame Dolores, can actually see the future, however.
  
• 67. Laser Villa (video CDs): Notes having a variety of 1" and 3" video discs, as well as music discs. Also sells recordable discs. Surprising to see them be accurate enough with the formats considering this was written pre-DVD.
  
• 78. The Beastiary: Yeah, that is how it's spelled. They sell regular animals like horses, but also some things like elephants, rhino-buffaloes, or dinosaurs sometimes. Apparently nodosaurs and their relatives are popular as beats of burden.
  
• 79. Sunshine Vampire Exterminator Agency: They're well-meaning, relatively competent hunters, but not terribly experienced. Apparently the also sell protection trinkets, and the "Vampire Almanac" and a video they made called "How to Protect Yourself from the Undead".
  
• 80. Temple of Camazotz (Mayan Deity - Ruler of Bats): It's a church of dark evil and evil darkness. It is said that Camazotz is a supernatural evil who some vampires respect, and sometimes they act as liasons between humans and vampires. Their priests are also called "H-men" for some reason.
  
• 81. The Feathered Serpent Tavern: Run by Slymac the Giant, but he's actually a troll. His son, the creatively named Trool, summons demons. Drinks are cheap and the company is super-scummy. Apparently a "Mindolar" or "Mind-Slug" has started taking over minds. It is content right now at controlling "73" people.
  
• 85. The Tlaloc Shop: Named after the Aztec god for rain, that sell water weapons and purifiers and stuff like that. Run by techno-wizards.
  
• 86. Alfredo's Leather & Whips: S&M shop. Why did I list this? Certainly of no interest to adventurers, I'm sure. Why did the book list it?
  
• 89. The Sentinel Parking Garage: 10 credits an hour, and only a 4% chance of your vehicle being stolen! I wonder what the percentage chance outside the garage is. None is listed, so I guess vehicles are only stolen from the garage.
  
• 91. The Palace Garcia: A gambling casino owned by Senor Carlos Garcia. Gets lots of detail on the games and security, but also has pit fights in the basement, including those for high rollers.
  
• 92. Palace-Side Escort Service: Not that sort of escort; bodyguards. That guard your body. Not up close in bed. You can get juicers, wizards, borgs, and even "deluxe dragon" (?!) to protect you, prices are 300-2000 credits a day.
  
• 93. The Supernatural Protection Agency: They'll protect you from the supernatural! They'll work for anyone, and are quite reliable. Rates are by protector type, and... apparently can hire succubi, sowki, or thornhead demons for protection? Odd. Run by a husband and wife pair of shifters.
  
• 95. The Blazing Saddle Dance Hall & Saloon: Well, here's your random movie reference. It's also a saloon.
  
• 107: Xilonen Restaurant: Named after the Aztec maize goddess. You know. Corn.
  
  
• 108. Dagger Inn & Souvenir Shop: Caters with food and souvenirs for those that visit the area. Also sells the Vampire Almanac, which apparently gives sunset and sunrise times for the year, locations of waterways, how to identify vampires, how to thwart vampires (illustrated), and famous vampires and vampire hunters.
  
• 121. The South Wall Theater & Freak Show: Has a variety of entertainments, but also a freak show including a caged gryphon, a three-headed goblin, and a "lobotomized Cihuacoath snakeman", whatever the hell that is.
  
  _{The... Potbellied Sitting Around Guy! The Six-Armed Pushup Guy! The... I don't even know what that is, folks...}
  
• 132. Mind Games Shelter: A psionic entertainment where you can get a variety of distractions. The owner is Cyril Lombardi, a sadistic member of the Psykes who loves to torment people. He has a partner, Anne Le Broch, a Ley Line Walker who also likes to torment people.
  

West Side (Psykes Territory)

This is mostly middle-class residential, or whatever passes for it in Juarez. Four locations are listed, none of note.

South Side: New Town

This is the ritzy, high class neighborhood. Mostly just home to well-secured government buildings and residences.

East Side: The Old Ruin Slums (Subs & Skivers Turf)

This is the old, shitty side of town. A lot of it is falling apart, and the city government just ignores it largely. There are a lot of run-of-the-mill, shady businesses.


_{In Rifts™ , pretty much all swords are on fire.}

However, there's also the Juarez Arena, which has clowns and other carnival acts, gladiatorial fights, and dinosaur races. Sometimes public executions and parades are held here as well.

Anyway, that was extra long, but I was just trying to power on through so we can get to the circuses. We're halfway through now, but the updates should cover a lot more from now on so I can cut the head off this book, burn it separately, and bury it.

Next: Vampire Hunters: threat or menace? Plus: Erin Tarn!

_{On the page count track, Juarez gets 30 pages - nearly twice that of the titular Vampire Kingdoms.}

As you will see, the people see tham as the symbol of courage and strength.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

They're just the average group of folks looking to penetrate vampires with their wood.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 13: "As you will see, the people see tham as the symbol of courage and strength."

The Vampire Hunters of Mexico

Oh no, it's...

Doc Reid and his Vampire Hunters
An excerpt from the writings of Erin Tarn ; Circa 101 P.A.

Erin Tarn tells us about Doc Reid. Dr. Kenneth Reid is a super-famous vampire hunter. Really, people say ridiculous things about him. We're not told what they are, but are assured they are "too fantastic to be believed".

He's like a vampire-killing superstar, and everybody in Mexico loves the hell out of him for destroying thousands of vampires. Supposed he pushed a lot of them back to Mexico, and now he's arrived to murder more vampires.

People can't agree on what he looks like, though. Some people say he's young or middle-aged, strong or thin, from Chi-Town or Whykin - look the point is people don't actually know a thing about the guy.

_{This is a general theme of this section.}

He also has a number of powerful followers, and their myths are as follows:

• Planktal-Nakton is a wizard who worships the gods of light and casts a mean spell.
  
• Raoul Lazarious is the captain of the Rangers and a cyber-knight; supposedly he was sent by the cyber-knight's leader, Lord Coake, to fight some vampires.
  
• Carlotta the White is the lover of Raoul and apparently so pure she's impervious to vampiric superpowers.
  
• Mii-Tar the Destroyer is a monstrous-looking D-Bee who's really just a gentle giant.
  
• Robert "Grizzly" Carter is a ancient scout and archer who accidentally drank from the fountain of youth!
  
• Vyurr Kly the Hunter is a psi-stalker who's killed a bunch of vampires and is "known for flamboyant use of twin flaming swords."
  
• Meetal the Butcher is a psi-stalker companion of Vyurr Kly who's known for chopping off heads.
  
• Pequita "The Faceless One" is a mysterious shapechanger.
  

Apparently, people exaggerate them so much Erin doubts they're real at first, but has learned from her spies in Lone Star (Ms. Tarn has spies, now?) that there really is a group called Reid's Rangers who have had conflicts with the Coalition.

According to Erin Tarn's sudden intelligence network, Dr. Reid was a small-time criminal body doc in Free Quebec. After escaping CS authorities, he apparently reappeared in the west with his vampire fightin' band. The Coalition says they're just bandits they drove out, but her secret spies say Reid's Rangers actually just whupped the Coalition over and over.

Erin Tarn also tells us about what she found on the others:

• Planktal-Nakton was a necromancer and commander for the Federation of Magic, and was responsible for the "Revenge of Blood" where he slaughtered a bunch of CS citizens for revenge. (What sort of revenge, she doesn't say.)
  
• Raoul Lazarious was a cyber-knight, but was kicked out for brutality and fanaticism.
  
• Vyurr Kly murdered a bunch of vampires at the "Battle of Eagle's Peak", where he and 1300 others stood against a horde of vampires, he was one of three survivors. Also, he's a troublemaking drunk.
  
• Grizzly Carter has had stories about him for a long time, but Erin thinks these are just old stories being attributed to a new legend.
  

Erin Tarn is looking to visit them! And find out the truth.

Reid's Rangers

Anyway, they're really famous and have killed thousands of vampires. And they have a Fort!

Fort Reid

They have thousands of troops and rangers based here, but a lot go out on missions to fight vampires.

It's a patchwork fort with stone walls, and they welcome anybody who wants to go out and die fight them some evil vampires. Everybody is pretty stoked about killing vampires here. It's like Camelot! We know this because it says so twice.

Not to be confused with the actual Camelot and Knight Arthur in Rifts World Book Three: England.

Tons of people have come on pilgrimage to fight them some vampires. In short, it's full of fanatics who don't know what they're getting into. A metric fuckton of these people die fighting vampires, but there's always more coming by the day.

Oh, and Doc Reid is a megalomaniac who thinks he's a god.

Equipment & Forces at Fort Reid

You get a bunch of basic arms and armor, vampire fighting goodies, and vehicles or robots as necessary to fight vampires.

The People Behind the Legend

It belabors the point that the original Rangers are vampire-fighting superstars, and they get a lot of questional crap excused because everybody loves them, and the Coalition and vampires fear them.

In case you haven't seen this coming - it bears restating - it turns out some of them are, in fact, total asshats.

The Original Reid's Rangers

We get a summary of these people again for the third time or so. Then, statblocks!

Doc Reid



Doc Reid is super-charismatic! He's also all about murdering vampires. He also thinks he's a god sent to rescue humanity from the undead. (Nobody's perfect.) He's also a cyborg with four arms. A former body doc from Free Quebec, he's a huge fan of Pre-Rifts action movies and modelled himself after them. But when he went into bionics, the Coalition came after him.

He escaped and made friends with Planktal-Nakton, who was bummed about the Federation of Magic being a pack of useless terrorists, and wanted something more. So they decided to fight vampires. They recruited the other rangers around the Pecos Empire and New Mexico.

Apparently Grizzly Carter got in by sneaking into their camp, and Pequita joined during a fight later.

Doc Reid of Today

Anyway, Reid's Rangers have become a powerful faction! But Doc Reid's megalomania have driven him to experiment on a bunch of vampires, and his experiments are pretty hardless and sadistic. He's learned a lot about vampires, but his experiments are "akin to those performed by the Nazis". He thinks it's super fun to dissect vampires.



It restates that he's crazy charismatic - the book gives him an M.A. of 29, an attribute he technically can't achieve by the rules. But he's mostly just a speech-giver and doesn't concern himself with actual leadership. He gives actual duties over to Planktal-Nakton, Raoul, Carlotta, or some guy we haven't heard of yet called Colonel William Wilding. The book clarifies that all of those just listed are evil and corrupt, but Doc Reid is basically an crazy idiot who'll believe whatever they say.

Planktal-Nakton the Necromancer
Advisor, Judge, and Administrator

He's a sinister guy and actually kind of bad at hiding it. Still, he's super best friends with Doc Reid, not the least because Reid gives him a bunch of power. He likes the corrupt members of the rangers and is wary about the goodies in the group. He's insanely sadistic and is obsessed with death and killing.

Oh, and he has psionic powers - coincidentally - just to hide the fact that he's a bad guy.



Anyway, he's the power behind the throne, and loves to kill vampires because he A) likes killing and B) everybody hates vampires anyway. He also likes getting normal people killed because hey, killing is killing. He super likes killing.

He apparently works in necromancy and likes doing sacrifices even if he doesn't necessarily need the power. He generally just does vampires these days but used to sacrifice just ol' anybody. He also likes vampires because killing things that aren't really alive is interesting to him.

Anybody who gets in his way tends to die, for some reason. Oh, and he has a bunch of mummies and zombies hidden in armor with M.D.C. weapons.

Sir Raoul Lazarious
General and Commander of Reid's Rangers

Basically, this guy's a bully, fights dirty, and often kicks people when they're down. He's handsome and basically looks like a superhero, but he's really just in it to get fame and power. Oh, and he's a total egotist.

It tells a story about how he wouldn't protect a village because they wouldn't let his men have their way with the village women, and watched it get slaughtered by vampires. Then he killed the vampires as a supposed act of vengeance, and apparently believes he did the right thing, because I guess he's a pretty confused idiot.

"Silver", The Robot Horse

He has a robot horse with eye lasers. Oh, and it's been programmed to be evil, just like him. "I'd like your finest robot horse. Oh, and a copy of Evil 3.1."

The Rangers of the Lazarious Platoon

He has a wide variety of soldiers, and most of them are evil or selfish.

Carlotta the White
A Captain of the Rangers and a Consort to Sir Lazarious

Her real name is K'rl-Ota, because she's secretly a dragon from Palladium! But she's totally in love with Lazarious, insanely so, and tends to murder any other woman who flirts with him.

But most folks believe she's just a human, and some folks think she has a dragon for a pet! Basically she's focused on keeping a secret idenity for some reason. She's deeply in love with him and exactly why is a mystery; the book never explains. She's also a femme fatale from time to time. She wants to make Lazarious immortal somehow (being a vampire doesn't count).

Overall, creepily codependent.

Pequita the Faceless One
One of the more notorious of Reid's Rangers

A changeling from Palladium, her real name is P'Kweet Karl. She's basically greedy and a bit psychopathic. Also, she's genuinely paranoid - basically, we've had four members in a row who are basically insane.

Anyway, she's a wizard who can shapeshift into any humanoid form of her size, though she sees herself as more female than male. She also changes her appearance a lot basically to impress people.

Vyurr Kly the Hunter
Hero of Eagle Peak

Basically a cheerful snark who likes to party and celebrate. He's the psi-stalker Wolverine of the group, and recognizes a bunch of the aforementioned ones are crazy, but is loyal to the group as he gets to do what he likes and be famous.



He's not actually crazy, shock of shocks. He doesn't think much of authority, but is a dedicated warrior. He likes to drink, party, and brawl, but others like Grizzly and Mii-Tar are inspiring him to be a better person.

Mii-Tar the Destroyer
Famous Warrior and Lieutenant in Reid's Rangers

He's a monster, but he's a gentle giant. He's a very nice guy and likes even the evilish rangers basically because he's a naive moooooroonnnnnn.

Optimistic, friendly, and honorable, he basically excuses misbehavior by the others as slander. Because, as mentioned, he is a moron. He's started to realize some of the others are crazy but generally ignores or excuses away the rumors because he doesn't want to believe them.

He's basically a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

Meetal the Butcher
Famous Hero of Eagle Peak and Lieutenant in the Rangers

She's the lone wolf the group who basically idolizes Grizzly. Passionate to a fault, she's always fighting to stay cool, but is generally a decent person. She's very focused on discipline but not actually very good at it. She hates the undead and basically chops off the head of anybody she kills to keep them from being brought back. Also, she hates the hell out of Planktal and loves Grizzly.

Also, drawing from her weapon details, we can finally get some damage for normal arrows. Sheesh.

Robert "Grizzly" Carter
Hero of Legend and a Lieutenant in Reid's Rangers

His real name is Rowbyr Kertri; he's actually an elf from the Palladium world! He's probably the best guy out of all of them, given to charity and friendship. He's wary of all the evil in the group but thinks it's alright as long as it's directed at vampires. He generally thinks the rangers can be used for good, but is willing to act against the group if that changes.

He got sent to Earth by an evil wizard, and has been adventuring around Earth for two centuries. He's basically a big damn hero and sees the rangers as a tool to do good, even if he knows it's coming down to a fight with some of the others.

Colonel William Wilding

This guy hasn't gotten mentioned much; it feels like he got tossed in at the last minute. He's an ex-Coalition solider who lost his legs, but has bionic replacements. Basically, he's entirely corrupt and works for Planktal, Lazarious, and Carlotta as their chief weasel.



Similarly to Planktal, he has psionics that keep him from seeming evil to supernatural senses. He's basically a vicious thug for the more powerful rangers. He also has some sub-thugs, who are all eeeevil:

• Rem Fields, a operator who's a sadistic bully.
  
• Mad Martin, the colonel's right-hand man and a juicer.
  
• Consuela, a ley line walker, spy, and vampire hunter.
  
• Zenaida, a burster.
  
• Vic and Cassie, a mutant dog couple.
  
• And a variety of spies, mercenaries, and power armor pilots.
  

See, the twist is, everybody thinks they're good guys, but they're actually a bunch of evil nutjobs! I bet Mr. Siembieda sure surprised you with the irony!

Next: The circus! Rifts™ loves the circus! Fuck vampires, it's time for a festival!

_{The real lesson of Rifts™ is that authority is always corrupt, misguided, or insane . If it's really successful, it's all three.}

I've been a trapper in these hills for years an' I kin say thet thing is real. An' I ain't never seen nothing like it.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

One of us. One of us.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 14: "I've been a trapper in these hills for years an' I kin say thet thing is real. An' I ain't never seen nothing like it."

Freak Shows, Circuses, and Travelling Shows

Cities in Rifts™ have a lot of entertainment venues, but small towns down, so travelling shows are a big deal.

There are several kinds:

• Freak shows are small and shady, and often rely on shock acts and oddities. Some offer strange goods or services.
  
• The circus will likely have some of the features of a freak show but will have more actual performances, like acrobats, animal acts, or pre-rifts movies.
  
• Travelling Shows and Medicine Men often have several attractions, but it's mainly just a scam to sell something, mainly drugs or cure-alls.
  

Obviously, shows vary their prices and profits depending on locale, and sometimes they take barter, etc.

A Source of Evil

Uh-oh.

Yes, sometimes travelling shows can gather information and act as spies - sometimes agents for groups like the Coalition fake being a travelling show. Other shows are actually covers for criminal activity. And, of course, there are scam artists like Medicine Men.


_{"There'll be plenty of time to plant our eggs in the humans after the show is over, son."}

Game Master's Note About Travelling Shows

It notes that shows can be used to add color to a story, and that they can show up anywhere to be villains or helpers. Also,

Creating a Travelling Show

Yes. Now there are rules. Circus Law .

Step One: The Size and Orientation

Yep, you pick a type of show, and that determines the amount of points you get to spend on various features. This ruleset is borrowed from Ninjas & Superspies™ , where it was used to design spy agencies. This, on the other hand... is for circuses. It also mention these rules can be bent, which makes me wonder as to the point, but whatever! On to Circus rules!

1. Side Show: Just oddities and a single freak, usually does a regular circuit. They get 110 points, +10 for vehicles, and +30 for acts.
   
2. Freak Show: More dedicated to shocks and freaks; any performances aren't terribly outlandish, like juggling. They get 150 points, 20 points for acts (freaks), and 10 points for equipment.
   
3. Medicine Show: This might have attractions, but they're mostly just to sell flim-flam and hogwash. They get 140 points, +10 for security and +20 for criminal activity.
   
4. Travelling Troubadours: These are largely stage entertainment shows. They get 160 points, +10 for equipment and +20 for outfits.
   
5. Small Circus or Carnival: Circuses focus on having a lot of acts, while carnivals provide more rides and games. They get 240 points, +50 for acts and +10 for reputation.
   
6. Large Circus: They're basically huge circuses. They get 300 points, +90 for acts and +20 for reputation.
   

Step 2: Travelling Show Features

Oh, yes. It's shit.

• A. Sponsorship: This varies, but only gives you points to work with, from the low end (an independent owner), to bigger backers like criminal organizations or governments. Yes, the Coalition uses circuses as secret kill squads.
  
• B. Outfits: The more points you spent, the fancier outfits you can get, at the high level basically having gadget clothing with special gear built in. I know. It's goddamn exciting.
  
• C. Equipment: Mostly referring to surveillance equipment (for those Coalition spy squad festivals) to medical equipment. Hurry, Elsie the Elephant needs a new cyber-leg, now!
  
• D. Vehicles: From trucks to construction equipment to robots, yeah. At the top end maybe you have a techno-wizard airship, or something? Can't we just assume a travelling show has some kind of moving digs and not worry about this?
  
• E. Communication: Yeah, you have to play for radios and announcement equipment. Or cameras, in case you're making a film of a travelling show that shows films and shows shows about them showing films and-
  
• F. Internal Security: Seriously, this shit is still going on? Okay, this is your security measures, in case you regularly strip-search your customers or something, guards, locks, cameras, whatever. The knocking sound you hear is me just hitting my head against the table, don't mind me.
  
  _{Blade just isn't as cool with a squirt gun.}
  
• G. Defenses / Military Power: I- the fuck? So if you want a militarized travelling show, I guess, you can have your clowns with M.D. rifles to goons in power armor or wizards or a Glitter Boy, I- seriously?
  
• H. Types of acts: Yeah, you have to buy your jugglers, clowns, magicians, barkers, showgirls, "live freaks", pony rides... I, okay, I can't just say what a show has already, do I really have to go through this?
  
  _{I have no idea what the hell this clown is doing, either.}
  
• J. Criminal Activity: Yeah, you need to buy your scammers or... prostitutes? Well, I guess that was a circus thing... special forces? Psychic enforcers? What kind of circuses are we running here, with Glitter Boys and juicer assassins?
  
• K. Travelling Show's Reputation/Credentials: The bottom is being hunted to the tops being super famous and loved, and fuck, I can't take it anymore, this section is shit! It's shit! Shit, shit, shit!
  
• L. Salary: You pay your employees and it costs more points to... pay them and... god, this is what hell in game form is like...
  

Other Information

Yeah, it says we should have a name for our show, logo, NPCs, and details... shouldn't that be the first fucking thing to do rather than worry about how many points we get to spend on monkeys?

Oh wait.

They forgot monkeys.

Example of a Circus
Mr. Drak's Travelling Circus

And here's a sample circus! It's showing how you how you might spend points, and comes to 450 points total (they get extra from their sponsor).

Let me sum up how I feel about these rules:



Next: Mr. Drak's vampire-free circus gets its own R.C.C.s because it's such a special snowflakarium.

_{It's not even meant for players to use, which might make some sense, no, it's so GMs can design NPCs groups around arbitrary limits. Yeah, I'm seeing why this got pulled in the revised edition, hopefully they filled in the space with actual Vampire Kingdoms material. I'll even take more detail on Juarez's leather fetish shops instead, please.}

An delighted Flooper will perform several cartwheels, followed my hand stands and a back flip, while shouting 'floop floop, yippee, floop floop, zowie!

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

The greatest show on Earth!

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 15: "An delighted Flooper will perform several cartwheels, followed my hand stands and a back flip, while shouting 'floop floop, yippee, floop floop, zowie!'"

You're in for a treat.

_Enjoy.

Mr. Drak's Travelling Circus
By Steve Sheiring and Kevin Siembieda

Yes, that Steve Sheiring.

Anyway, Dr. Drak's circus is one of the most famed circuses in the world. People go miles to see this thing. That's right. Miles, plural.

They also offer services like fortune-telling, healing, and... information bartering. Yeah, they act as spies. But they never sell it to bad people or information that could hurt people. Except they sell information to the Coalition, but who could that hurt? They only do it because of politics, we're told. But they're still good!

They also get hangers-on like nomads and merchant caravans, but they only let decent folk hang around them. Otherwise, they fuck with them until they go away.

Anyway, everybody loves these guys (except the Coalition higher-ups), and they're super-good and everybody would hang you if you touched one little hair on them. Nobody fucks with the Drak.

You can't try out for them. They're so special they find you , instead. If you don't suck, which you probably do compared to how awesome they are.

And they have all sorts of entertainers blah blah blah. Let's see, they play their major shows at night, with minor acts during the day. Oh, and people even cosplay as their entertainers.

Let's see, they have all sorts of side shows, their own museums, etc.

Basically they are totally awesome and totally special.

The fees for the MDTC performances are as follows:

Yeah, in case you're worried about these - ranges from 6 credits for a common grounds pass to 125 credits for an all day pass.

Access to Performers

Sometimes they have interviews or Q&A sessions, otherwise, stay away, you illiterate shits.

Their quarters are totally secure and don't even think of breaking in, this means you, PCs . Their guards are perfect and awesome and will totally stump your rump outta there.

Oh, and their quarters are just awesome, you don't even know.

The circus tours for nine months a year. When they're not touring, they go back to their secret hideout nobody knows about.

All the performers are super loyal and treated super well, too!

Yes, Drak's is so goddamn awesome and special, you would not believe, not like some dirty PCs.

Non-Player characters from Mr. Drak's Travelling Circus
_{-Unusual Performers of Note}

Mr. Drak
Owner and Manager of the Circus


_{I'm not a murderous supernatural being! I just dress like one.}

His real name is Thomas Draklinski. He also totally dresses up like Dracula, too. Which seems insensitive in a world were vampires are real, eat children, and rape villages. But hey! I guess he's just eccentric. Thankfully, I imagine not many of the bumpkins he entertains know who the hell Dracula was. So there's that.

He's a really nice guy but you better not make him angry! Also he pretends to hate kids but really just loves them anyway. He's also ridiculously rich but hides it all with magic and stuff. Anyway, he's super-good but nosy, but he's gotten to be a really good speaker and-

There's no emoticon for gagging, is there?

Jack - Mr. Drak's Robot Watchdog

He has a smart robot dog he uses to keep watch, and apparently Drak has a cyber-finger he can just plug into the dog to review everything the dog's seen. Oh, and the dog has retractable arms so it can shoot at you with a gun.

Floopers - Silly D-Bee performers




Yes, it's a race of dwarf clown dog-people. And they give rules to play one, if you want to scratch that dwarf clown dog itch. They're kind of dumb - or at least never really smart - but get a ridiculous charisma and agility. They have a variety of powers, including empathy, mind shields, sixth sense, really flexible and agile, and they can "floop". "Flooping" allows them to vanish for a period of time (15 seconds to about 4 minutes) and then reappear a short distance away.

Anyway, they're lazy thieves. (I'm not exaggerating, it uses those words.) However, they like making people laugh and showing off and blah blah. They mostly just like to play, and really, I'm not sure where they came from or how they survive. I can only imagine the evolutionary environment that birthed these fuckoffs. Well, they're M.D.C. for some reason, it's not really clear. So they can punch each other forever for no damage.

And I didn't cover this with vampires or dragons, but it's not really clear how you're supposed to roll attributes when you get 2d6 or 4d6. Do you get an extra 1d6 when rolling a 16 or better? Or is it on a 11-12 and a 21-24, respectively? Well, whatever, work it out yourself?

So, do you want to be a kender with snoopy ears? Rifts has you totally covered.

Shapers - An Intelligent D-Bee Animal



Yeah, they're 4' monkey-rat things that can shapeshift. They're barely intelligent, but you can play one anyway(average intelligence: 5.5, average human intelligence: 10.5). They're weak, but somewhat charismatic and hardy.

Anyway, they can shapeshift any part of their body into another animal part, but they can't shapeshift into just one animal. They have to shapeshift into wuzzles, basically. It's just cosmetic, though, and doesn't give they any actual abilties like claws or flight. So. Not too useful. THey have some enhanced sense. Like the Floopers, they're M.D.C. but only do S.D.C. damage, so they can good-natured brawl forever without hurting each other.

Oh, and they can literally eat shit and survive.

Basically, they're animals who are barely sentient, like children, and basically use their shapeshifting to try and scare predators or just to mess around. Like the Floopers, they're a race that loves getting laffs.

If they shapeshift too much they go into a laughing fit that lasts 3d6 minutes, which not even combat or getting hurt can interrupt. They're weak-willed and implusive and...

... ugh, moving on to the next bit.

The Amazing Doctor Gray Matter
Coalition Experimental Psi-Borg



He's a psi-borg! Get it? Psi... borg! Ha ha. Ha. But he also counts as "equal to a 15th level Scholar & Scientist." I... huh? He's a full conversion borg but gets psionic powers. Okay. He also is immune to psionic sensory powers. He also gets a variety of technical and science skills at 98%.

Apparently he's a special Coalition experiment in combining crazy tech and borg tech who can remember everything he sees, and apparently somehow escaped with a ton of information on the Coalition. It doesn't say how. Or how he escaped. Or how he joined up with Mr. Drak's cicus.

Anyway, he's amnesiac, dispassionate, and cranky. Apparently, his cold shoulder gives him Horror Factor 10! But he does a bunch of stunts involving beating people in games, doing hard math problems, involving trivia... so, basically, he does nerd stuff to entertain people? Exciting!

Oh, and he breaks a bunch of rules with his concept, from experience to the cyborg rules, but no you can't play one of these, how dare you ask . You don't get to be this special!

Captain Daring
Escape Artist Supreme



A techno-wizard escape artist. Which is to say, he's a total cheater. He's apparently flamboyant and aristocratic. He has spells and psionics and blah blah-

Oh, and he gets a bunch of unique TW items he's invented, like microtech robots to chew through bonds, a fire wand, a flash gun, magic goggles, special magic gloves and helmet with a ton of powers, and special restraints designed to unlock with magic.

Basically, he's a cheap gimmick magician that uses magic to slip out of his contrived dilemmas.

Hans and Franz
Juicer Strongmen and Acrobat Duo

Yes, they're literally based on the SNL skit; apparently they have decided to base their personas on a "pre-rifts video disc". So, you know, they can do gags while roided up as juicers and make fun of people until they die in under a half-decade from their rampant drug abuse.

Apparently Drak has tried to get them off the juice, but he still enables them by employing them in a job totally dependent on it, so fuck him.

They do various physical stunts all day, show off how tough they are, and generally date this book horribly.



Well, at least this book has some good guys. Unfortunately, they're a bunch of untouchable Mary Sues loved by everybody yes especially you .

Next: The Night Arcade & Freak Show! Secret vampire clowns will eat your village!

_{If somebody invites you to play Rifts™ , get everybody to play a party of nothing but floopers and shapers. Your GM will love you for it.}

Large crowds and carnival noises are ideal for drowning out the screams of victims.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

All history is born of the conflict between good and evil... circuses .

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 16: "Large crowds and carnival noises are ideal for drowning out the screams of victims."

The Night Arcade & Freak Show

Yep. Time for a circus that's evil! , and run by Mr. Morricco, who's a master vampire, and has a bunch of vampire carny minions, as well as evil people he's recruited. And yes, they secretly murder patrons for blood. And it's known for having its freaks go nuts, or theft, or criminal activity. But people go anyway knowing its dangerous, because, hey, circus.

It goes on about how sneaky the circus is, even though they've slaughtered entire towns... sneakily, I'm sure. Apparently they even terrorize some towns repeatedly, but somehow the towns don't figure out it's the Night Arcade.

In short, people must be awful thick.

Hey, let's do some math! They have at least 71 vampires. That means they need 142 pints of blood every 42 hours. That means if they are going to murder people, they need to murder at least 9 people a day to keep themselves going, or feed from about 36 people a day.

Yeah, somehow they keep this secret.

_{Rifts™ , bad at math.}

Mr. Esteban Morricco
Ringmaster/Owner/Villain


_{I assure you my pointy ears and fangs are natural deformities.}

He's charming and convincing! Also he's cruel and sadistic to non-vampires, and has the whole vampire superiority thing going on. (Pretty much all the vampires in this book have that attitude, really. It's like cut-and-past personalities.)

Apparently he used to be a mystics and has a few spells, and gets extra psychic powers on top of being a master vampire. We aren't given any details on his history, it mainly goes on how tight his security is - it goes on for four paragraphs - with dummy coffins, dog and power armor protectors, alarms, etc.

But it doesn't say much about his background other than A) vampire and B) evil.

Vampire Clowns

Pretty much like normal secondary vampires, only better at flips and music. "They are particularly useful at luring women and children to their doom."

Vampire Carnival Thieves

Like normal vampires with sneaky criminal skills, mainly to pick the pockets of their customers. But at 45%, no idea what happens since they get caught more than half the time.

Vampire Carnival Henchmen

Pretty much like the thieves with worse stats and the same skills. Even their description is pretty much cut-and-pasted as well. A good example of how to waste a half-page of an RPG book.

D-Bee & Human Henchmen

Thugs and workers, basically unexceptional outside of basically being sadistic as a rule. I can only imagine the job interview. "So, do you like hurting people? Hurting people is pretty important to our troupe. Name some time you've hurt somebody in the past, and how greatly you think they suffered."

Psi-Fi
Psychic, Mutant Siamese Twins .

Yes, they're psychic twins joined at the head. Apparently they're quiet and shy except when showing off for performances. There's Sylvia, the dominant mind melter, and Fiona, the more weak-willed burster.

Also they hate "intelligent life forms in general, and human in particular", due to "Years of persecution, physical and sexual abuse, and ostracism from polite society". Oh, it doesn't justhint at it. A man promised to take them to a safe haven but instead "[had] his way with them repeatedly" and then sold them to a freak show where they were abused "verbally, emotionally, and physically, on a daily basis".

Then they became psychics and murdered a ton of people, before getting recruited by Mr. Morricco. They do various psychic arts - healing, mind reading, hypnotism, fire acts - and occasionally just murder the hell out of people.

Mr. Lizzaro
Lord of the Reptiles


_{Lizard hugs!}

He's a "lyvorrk", a d-bee lizardman who can control other lizards. They have 6d6x100 S.D.C., meaning they're naturally tougher than tanks, no magic involved. They're strong-willed, very hardy, but ugly. They can control other cold-blooded reptiles automatically, including "reptilian varieties of dinosaurs (not all dinosaurs are cold-blooded or reptilian)."

Yes, even in 1991 we knew dinosaurs were warm-blooded; see Jurassic Park in 1990.

_{Rifts™ , bad at science.}

Anyway, they can survive for a long time without water and have penalities in cold environments. Oh, and they're all insane, you roll for an obsession and a phobia. And you can play one!

Mr. Lizzaro himself is cruel, vindictive, arrogant... and sadistic! You wouldn't expect another sadist. It's Rifts, people are just in on the sadism craze. Anyway, he's also a "Total fruitcake." and is insane; obsessed with reptiles and phobic of scientists. He likes to show off with his reptiles and does acts where he has lizards dance, dinosaurs have fake fights, and sometimes he just fakes losing control and has a dinosaur just kill someone.

Oh, and he paints or shaves his animals based on his mood, like new wave or punk dinosaurs. Once again, he is a "fruitcake".

Lizzaro's Menagerie

More thugs!

Benito the Bruutsaur

He's a 11' talll d-bee theropod man! And he likes to eat mammals. Bruutsaurs get natural M.D.C., are super-strong, tough, agile, fast, but ugly, dumb, and not at all charismatic. They're all just aggressive and mean and love to eat mammals. Unlike most of the M.D.C. creatures we've seen in the circuses, these ones get M.D. attacks. They're cold-blooded, but it doesn't mention if they use the same rules Lizzaro does for being cold-blooded.

Anyway, he's a bully, thug, and likes to eat people.

Speedy and Grunt
Small predatory dinosaurs

They're carnivorous theropods!... but are somehow cold-blooded. They have "animal I.Q." but "understand Spanish. Apparently they've come to enjoy eating humans! In case you were worried a natural animal couldn't be evil, here it is. They're evil. And M.D.C... because! That is why.

It doesn't say what kind of dinosaur they are, but they're only 4' tall.

Pokey
A giant turtle-like armored dinosaur

It's a panoplosaurus and a herbivore, but it can rage out like a bull, apparenly. It's got more M.D.C. than a glitter boy (820) for no clear reason, and has M.D. attacks, including rams that can knock people over. It can also pin things down to the ground! Even if they're much bigger than it, for some reason.

Other Reptiles

Lizarro has a bunch of snakes and lizards, and the book refers us to buy a copy of Monsters & Animals™ for stats, so fuck that.

Mad Melody
The Carnival's Mistress of Magic



She can have a Horror Factor of 16 when using magic! Because she's more special than you. Apparently she's linked up with the vampire intelligence that created Mr. Morricco, thanks to her shifter abilities. Anyway, she does fancy summonings rock-star style, with pyrotechnics and fancy costumes. Sometimes it's all illusion or faked, but when she does shows near a ley line or nexus point, she'll just try and open a rift and let shit come out. Apparently the fact people are seriously endangered at these events "just makes her show all the more exciting".

Oltec
Mad Melody's D-Bee Familiar

Wait, you can take d-bees as familiars? That's actually not allowed by the rules. I call shenanigans, Mad Melody. Familiars have to be of "animal intelligence" and not supernatural.

So Oltec is a "krpt" (just try and work out that pronunciation) who have human intelligence, are related to air elementals, and get to be M.D.C. They're really dumb, ugly, weak, clumsy, and not very fast or charming. But they're strong-willed and tough. Oh, and all of them are greedy and selfish, and like to serve more powerful beings.

Oltec is no exception, and basically is a loyal bat-puppy for Melody, and can be quite silly. Also, he's totally evil and... cruel. Yep. Cruel.

Oh, and you can play a krpt if you want. I'll sneer at you forever, but you can.

Bonecrusher
Freak Strongman & Dragon Slayer



Apparently he's a pogtal, who are a race of d-bee giants known as "Dragon Slayers", since they come from a world where they totally slay dragons. They get a lot of M.D.C., crazy strength, toughness, and agility, but are really ugly. They can turn invisible, see the invisible, shoot beams and negate magic. They also get a special energy aura that lets them do M.D.C. with S.D.C. weapons, as well as gives them a force field. They can unhinge their jaws to do heavy M.D. damage. They're impervious to magic fire, regenerates, gets bonuses against magic, psionics, and fear...

... yes, enterprising powergamers, they are playable. They can also make special dragon skin armor from dragons.

Anyway, Bonecrusher is a bully who hates humans because they fear him, and likes to do feats of strength and... make people fear him. Sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy, there. He also takes challenges, and you can get 50k credits if you beat him. He also does security work blah blah.

That's the end, the finale, of the circus section. It snuck in five whole new races for you to play, too. I guess that's one way to get players to read the NPC section.

Next: The Yucatan! It's a nice place where... oh, just kidding. It's totally full of demons.

_{Do you like being removed from the game forever on a bad encounter roll? This next part has that! Grogs rejoice!}

Rolling up new characters may be applicable.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

It's like Ferngully until the impalings begin.

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 17: "Rolling up new characters may be applicable."

The Mysterious Yucatan
A doorway to another dimension

Apparently, the Yucatan is no longer a part of planet earth, at least as we understand it! That... doesn't really clarify much.

Traveling to the Yucatan by air

Apparently if you fly there, it looks like the Yucatan isn't even even present, it just looks like ocean. If you're flying a foot above the water, it just looks like water.

But thanks to having a ton of ley lines, it's a ley line nexus "times twenty", a super nexus. Apparently the conflict that started the rifts was here. That means it didn't happen in Mexico as I originally thought, glitter boys murdered the hell out of Central Americans. I apologize for the mistake.

Anyway, if you land or walk on where the peninsula is, it looks like land. And if you try and fly off after landing, you could get sucked into a trans-dimensional vortex! You could get sucked 15 years or 15 centuries into the future! To escape it, you have to roll 55% or lower on percentile dice two out of four times. I'm trying to figure out how they came up with a mechanic like this, and this is what I uncovered:

Kevin: Okay, Steve, your cyber-knight flies off the Yucatan with his jet pack... and there's a VORTEX! Roll percentile to escape it, you'll have to succeed twice.

Steve: I'm not stealing from you! I mean, uh. ROLLING. Uh, I fail.

Kevin: (Uh oh, I can't let his rad cyber-knight just get sucked into another dimension!) Uh, roll again.

Steve: I succeed! Hurray!

Kevin: (Can't have him think it's too easy!) Roll again.

Steve: I fail! I don't want to get sucked into a vortex...

Kevin: What the hell, roll again.

Steve: I succeed!

Kevin: Congratulations, you escape somehow .

Steve: Hurray! I'm totally stealing from you less this week.

That example was entirely non-fictional and taken from fact. Lawyers, call me.

Oh, and there's a table as to what happens if you fail. A fourth of the time, you'll get sucked into a limbo for all eternity, roll up a new character, unless a shifter can save you. Another fourth of the time, you float around for a bit and are ejected into another dimension, roll up a new character unless the GM wants to make adventures for you there! Another fourth of the time, you go 100-600 years in the future, roll up a new character! It interrupts to point out it might be possible for a shifter to guide them back to the vortex to their home time. Or, alternately, it just sends you hours and miles off course.

Whew! Lesson is: don't try and fly off the Yucatan unless you really don't like your character. Stay railroaded on the ground. Why are we railroaded? For tuff jungle adventure fightin' demons, that is why.

Traveling The Yucatan Peninsula by land.

Apparently if you walk there you don't notice anything. It however clarifies to get sucked into a dimensional vortex you have to be flying faster than 300 MPH or higher than 600 ft.

It clarifies the land is covered in jungle and it's very slow and hot travelling. If you go too fast you can't see where you're going and might step on a hazard or get ambushed.

Travel by Water

It's preferred because there's no vampires, but it's usually not direct, and there are monsters here anyway. See below.



Yucatan Notes & Features

Yay, geographical facts!

The city of Merida is a monster-haunted ruin, and Chichen Itza is a powerful ley line nexus! There's very few people and communities are small. There are four vampire intelligences here, and vampires sometimes come here during the dry winter season. Also, there's a lot of other monsters, including the death weavers and dybbuk (statted later). There's also the boschala, malingous, adram, dragon, the worms of taut, serpents, lizard and snake people. Got all that? Hope you have both copies of Beyond the Supernatural™ and Monsters and Animals™ at the ready, because a lot of that will go over your head if you don't.

There's a pronunciation key to Mayan words. Now, on to the demons!

Next: Mayan temples and the demons that love them.

_{From the descriptions, you almost might not realize anybody lived here since the Mayans.}

Cachumaquiq must announce that he is going to kill the target of his death touch before it can be effective; something like 'Now you will feel the caress of death' or 'Now you die'.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Darkness Darkness! Fingers Fingers!

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 18: "Cachumaquiq must announce that he is going to kill the target of his death touch before it can be effective; something like 'Now you will feel the caress of death' or 'Now you die'."

Yucatan Overview

Palenque
Home of the Jaguar People

It's an ancient Mayan city and a ley line nexus! Also it's filled with werejaguars. The basically live in it like caves, since they're generally just wild primitives. They're totally harmonious with each other, and feed on animals and occasionally sentients. They really like to hunt and destroy vampires, too. Why? Because. That is why.

There's also the Children of the Jaguar, a human village that worships the werejaguars and styles themselves after them. They help defend the nexus. Also, there are a bunch of tribes around which are totally scared of monsters and the werejaguars. Also there are small families of werejaguars and werewolves around. (There are no rules for werewolves in this book.)

Oh, and there are some ti-xibalban mirror people sent to spy on them by Xibalba. Apparently monsters also occasionally camp at the ruins, even though there are a bunch of murderous werejaguars and tribesmen there.

There's the ruins of Bonampak and Seibal, but nobody lives there, so why are we talking about it? I have no idea either.

The Region of Phantoms

Xibalba = Region of Phantoms. Blah blah Mayan words about this evil spirit tealm kind of place they tried to get in touch with. Now it's connected with this region, because Xibalba is a real dimension, and it's apparently easy to teleport back and forth (it does not say how). The Xibalbans have claimed and rebuilt several cities, and each is ruled by a demon lord. Like:

• Tikal , ruled over by Cuhumaquiq, Lord of Darkness and Death .
  
• Uaxactun , ruled over by Vukub-Came, "The Phantom" .
  
• Xultan is ruled by Hun-Came, "One Death" .
  

Why, they sound like a lovely bunch of fellows!

Anyway, they like to torment humans (I know ), but can't travel beyond their little pocket dimension. Apparently some folks are fooled because the xibalbans can look human, and then totally fuck you up. Often they fool people for awhile and trick them into doing evil things. And yes, they're sadistic and murderous. Just in case you thought there was going to be some moral ambiguity. No way. This is Rifts™ , folks.

Xiabalbans - Demons

They look human expect for for red skin, pointy ears, canine teeth, and a tail that ends in a point. They're charismatic and physically mighty and fast, and get some illusion magic to fool people with, and mind-messing psionics. They can also make psi-swords and shields! They have two ways to turn invisible, leadingt to racial choice anxiety, and can change themselves to look human (as any race they choose, like that Michael Jackson video). They're M.D.C., but vulnerable to silver weapons.

Apparently the Mayan human sacrifices were all about feeding these monsters, because they like to eat humans. That's right, screw you, history teachers, history wasn't about bad people doing bad things, they all did it because of vampires and demons and vampire demons.

Ti-Xibalbans - The People of Wood
(Some become the Mirror People)

They have average attributes except for being really uncharismatic but tough. Basically, they're made of wood, and so don't have to breathe, can't be affected by alot of magic, etc. They float on water and are M.D.C., except for fire which hurts them normally. They can also punch vampires around because they're wooden, but it notes they can't sharpen parts of themselves to act as stakes.

Anyway, their big deal is that they can transform themselves into duplicates of living people, which they mainly only do for their demonic overlords. It takes several days and some cocooning, and they get all the powers and skills of their victim. They're identical except for the fact they're literal mirror opposites, never age or gain experience, and are totally evil and loyal to Xibalba.

And, for some reason they can leave Xibalba... because! That is why.

Personally, if I were a demon lord of Xibalba, I'd just have them copy a powerful supernatural being like an adult dragon or... me, and then have them go out and conquer outside of Xibalba. But apparently the demons haven't gotten that idea yet.

Cuchumaquiq, Lord of Darkness
Lord of all of Xibalba & Ruler of Tikal

Hey, it's.. well, he looks like this:


_{Demon lord... or pokemon?}

He can also look like a beautiful humanoid as well. Anyway, he's an absolute monster with a horror factor of 17, P.P.E. of 1000, and M.D.C. of 1500. He also gets an additional 200 P.P.E. a turn when at home in his demon cities. He gets a ton of spells and does massive damage in hand to hand. He can also do a death touch which hurts hit points directly and gives penalties. Three's no save against it, but robots are immune. Oh, and he's vulnerable to silver. I mean, a silver knife's just as useless as a vibro-knife (1d6 M.D.!) when the baddie has 1500 M.D.C. and can kill you with a save or die attack.

Amyway, he's sadistic... and megalomanical, loves to trick people, and generally just loves to eat people. Also, he causes disasters when he's hungry, because.

He can also project a spectral, misty shadow to leave Xibalba, and can use his psionics to attack... wait, he doesn't have any psionics listed. I'm sure if he had psionics he could use them. He can also use a reduced amount of magic. Apparently he likes to trick people and cause trouble and suffering that way in this form. Also, he still gets his death touch. However, he can be banished or exorcised, physical attacks don't hurt him by energy attacks, magic, and psionics will. He's also vulnerable to daylight in this form.

Uaxactun

They have a totally awesome pyramid and hundreds of demons. And...

Vukub-Came, "The Phantom"
Lord of Uaxactun

He's a tall grey human, about 12' in tall, looks like a ghost. He has long hair that flows in the wind even when there is no wind. We don't get art for this guy, so just use your imagination. He's totally a shoujo heartthrob in my head.

Anyway, he's mighty but not as much as the first one; he has P.P.E. 500 and M.D.C. of 800. Well, that's a little more than a glitter boy, at least. He's also vulnerable to silver. He gets some major psionics, mainly sensory powers, and a bunch of magic spells - he's mainly an illusionist and conjurer. He can also throw magic javelins at people.

He's more of a gambler and... sigh... like to torment people and is sadistic... but he likes to do it through games and stuff. Oh, and he can't leave Xibalba except by using astral projection.

Xultun

This is the smallest of the demon cities, but is the most warlike, and they love putting human skulls everywhere. They also like having snakes around. And another demon lord!

Hun-Came, "One Death"
Ruler of Xultun


_{"I SAID... 'what up?'"}

He just looks like a guy, but can grow up to 30' tall. He's less of a wizard, with only a P.P.E. of 400 (only) and a M.D.C. of 1000. Vulnerable to silver, again. He's ruthless and... loves causing pain and maiming. Anyway, he has a bunch of combat spells, and some general psionics based around being tuff. He can turn into a giant magic snake, too.

Anyway, he has a magic hammer that can heal and purify, a net made out of living serpents that bite you, a flaming sword, and a magic bow.

He generally prefers to maim and disfigure people than kill them. He doesn't have any means to go beyond Xibalba, which really pisses him off, but he recruits monsters to go do evil stuff somewhere.

He's building an army to do something in the outside world but who knows what that is? I'm not sure even he knows.

El Mirador, La Muralla and Tintal

These are other Mayan ruins in Xibabla frequented by Xiablans because of the magic nexus points.

Altun Ha

There's a major nexus here that has a fishing village nearby at Belize City which is not full of monsters, but actual humans. There's a nearby airfield which was taken by vampire hunters who learned about a vampire intelligence at Rio Bec and are trying to destroy it. They lost most of their people in trying to kill it. There's only about a score of them left, led by Lupe Madero, a former Reid's Ranger, and Sir Anthony the Mad, a cyber-knight obsessed with vampire killed. They have a bunch of power armor suits and protect the village.

They're looking to recruit more for a new attack, having forgotten how they just got decimated down from 150 people to 20 people. Perhaps they should take up cross-stitch or scrapbooking, instead.

Rio Bec

There's a vampire intelligence here that uses human cannibals to protect itself, and... uh, scary swarms of bats. The cannibals are led by Ata Caotz, a ley line walker. He also has some secondary vampires and dybbuks that protect him. They're not really of much consequence at all, despite being super evil. The evil competition's pretty fierce around here.

The Becan Cluster

Here's some more ruins and nexuses, this time run by death weavers, which are wizard spider-demons! They're a bunch of sister spiders who are working together, and drive them off. They've been gathering thugs and toys to help them protect themselves. Apparently they want to become gods, but that seems to be awfully wishful thinking for bugs with pretensions.

Etzna
Lair of the Muluc Intelligence

Yeah, the head of Muluc hides out here, and only has two dozen vampires protecting it. Remember that the Muluc intelligence is the most warlike of the Mexico vampire blobs, which makes it a total armchair general. Only without the arms or chair. Otherwise it's mostly just a bunch of fishing villages on the coast, which I'm sure make lovely blood chowder for the resident vampires.

Uxmal

Mayan ruins and a nexus point! Apparently it's so powerful that no supernatural creature has been able to take control of it, but it's often spitting out monsters like some kind of monster womb.

Merida

It was a city! Then it was blown up by the Rifts, except for the temples because Maya was so awesommme ! Mayaaaa! Whoooo! I love you, man!

Chichen Itza
The Lair of Camazotz

It's the most famousest of the Mayan ruins, and it's been taken over by Camazotz, Lord of the Bats. It's apparently super-powerful and totally owned the vampire intelligence that lived here, and has it as a slave. It has thousands of vampire slaves it uses to cause trouble and suffering, and generally tries to screw the the vampire kingdoms... because... well, it wants to take over the vampire kingdoms because they're stealing his bit .

The Healing Well of Chichen Itza

It's a magic well with waters that instantly heal! Also it can bring back people killed by supernatural evil within a week. It doesn't restore missing limbs or organs, though.

But it has a batgod and a vampire blob looking after it, and they will personally turn you inside out and upsy-daisy for trying to steal it.

Camazotz - Lord of Bats & Darkness

Yep, it's another lord of darkness . (Darkness! Darkness!) Well, he's the baddest demon in this book, with an M.D.C. of 2500 and a P.P.E. of 3000. He likes to cause chaos and misery, naturally, and to be worshiped, and wants to get the other vampire intelligences to obey him. He looks like a black orb or a pitch-black human. He knows a ton of spells, and has a variety of psionic powers, he can regenerate, and does really heavy damage in melee. In short, he's a meat grinder and your characters are the grist.

Coba

It's another Mayan ruin! It has a portal that'll take you directly to Xibalba, generally to your detriment.

Next: Not enough demons? There's more! Copy-paste material from Beyond the Supernatural™! Succubi! Dybbuks ! Mindolar!

_{You may wonder "did Rifts do Xibalba accurately?" Actually, it'd be shorter to list what they got right than what they did wrong. The names Hun-Came and Vukub-Came are correct. Hun-Came was indeed "One Death", and there was a bat god named Camazotz. Everything else is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.}

If the creature likes what he hears (chaos and carnage) it will agree to work with the one who solicited his aid.

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

What's that coming over the hill?

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 19: "If the creature likes what he hears (chaos and carnage) it will agree to work with the one who solicited his aid."

This is the last part of the book. We can see the finish line from here!

Other Monsters
Monsters common to the Yucatan, Southern Mexico & South America

The Children of Chiuacoatl


_{Funny, "serpent" wasn't what I was thinking of when I saw this.}

People think they're related to the goddess Chiuacoatl, the serpent woman. But they're really Vernulians, military invaders who are trying to see if Rifts is worth conquering (it's not, apparently). There are also rebels and refugees who fled here after taking over one of the dimensional portals.

So the Vernulian military is trying to see out and kill the rebels, as well as gain info. They are basically hair-trigger and will just eat humanoids because, you know, just about anything from a rift has to. It's rift law.

The refugees are much more nice folks, though their bad treatment makes some paranoid or vindictive.

Anyway, they're a player character R.C.C.!

Chiuacoatls/Vernulians - Optional Player character

They have a small amount of M.D.C., and some have force field generators that protect them. They're more capable than humans in just about every way except for being really ugly. It notes humanoids have trouble telling the sexes apart "without a thorough physical examination). They have high technology and can use the equivalent of Coalition military clases, only with less skulls. They're all psionic, and have weapons designed to be used by telekinesis. They also get special, very short rules for their own power armor and cyborgs.

Unlike shit like the floopers or bruutasaurs, these guys seem pretty well developed and I can actually see playing one.

Jaguar People - Werebeast

These are peopel than can turn into half-jaguars or jaguars. They're pretty feral and like the wilderness and hunting. They often mess with people by playing "cat and mouse" games. They're decent folk as far as supernatural monsters go.

The Werejaguar - Optional Player Character

Hey, like vampires, they get a special hit point value! They can only be hurt by silver, ever. Nothing else hurts them. Nothin'. Nadda. Not sticks, not guns, not nukes. And you can play one.

They're a bit dumb, but charismatic, beautiful, strong, fast, agile, tough... they can change whenever they want, fuck the moon. They also get magic to turn speak any language, heal wounds, turn into other animals, they get psionics to basically sense danger, they do... piddly M.D.C. damage, but can hurt vampires and other werebeasts magically with their claws and teeth.

Apparently there are werewolves in Europe, North America, Africa, Australia, and Japan. There are werebears in Canada, Alaska, and Russia. There are weretigers and werepanthers in India. No idea if they use the same rules, or if there are just no rules for them, or why the hell they're going on about Indian werebeasts in a book about Mexico.

Rifts™ knows how to tangent really well, in any case.

Spider Demon - The Death Weavers


_{Last seen suing the spider-skull walker for copyright infringement.}

These were apparently from a Cunto Indian legend, where they stole magic from the gods and lost most of it so humans could learn, but they're trying to gather all the magic to become gods.

Anyway, they mostly just eat or sacrifice humans, they're ruthless and insane, etc.

They're M.D.C. but not too tough, have spider-powers like wall-crawling and web-spinning. They also get a lot of protection magic and a ton of other magic besides, and a ton of P.P.E. They also can sense supernatural psionic and hypnotise people. They do decent M.D. damage and can wrap people in a web (69% chance of success).

Generic spider monster, check .

Dybbuk - The Demon Ghoul


_{This generic monster head fits over 100 makes and models of monster.}

It's a demon from Beyond the Supernatural™ ... Egypt? Apparently they were summoned by a necromancers millennia ago and ate him, and have been trouble ever since.

Anyway, they hate humanoids and love to torture them. They're smart but always work alone like crazy cops. Anyway, they're toothy apes with tiny t-rex arms to go along with their big muscular arms. Sunlight burns them, so they generally find places to hide out.

So yeah, more sadistic, murderous monsters. They're tough, agile, and ugly. They can dig tunnels, see in the dark, and can possess corpses to disguise themselves as people.

Really not a big deal as far as supernatural monsters go. Fills a niche.

Incubus & Succubus

Another Beyond the Supernatural™ refugee, they're really the Dar'ota, who are hunchbacked lizardmen who can shapechange into attractive humans and then kill people and drink their blood. Yes, they are sadistic. Yes, they are cruel. Yes, they'll work with dark wizards.

Anyway, they're minor M.D.C. creatures, and are really charming and pretty in human form, and really ugly in their normal form. They have some disguise-oriented magic. And that's pretty much it. Not sure why they're here, because they're not really mentioned save to describe what vampires aren't.

MINDOLAR - The Mind Slug

Yep, it gets all caps, yes it's from Beyond the Supernatural™ . Anyway, they're big slug-monsters that can mind control people. It'll often work with evil sorcerers wwho summon it, but they can't gind it. It's ruthless and cruel, too, and likes... chaos and carnage...

...

... okay, waking up, this book's nearly done.

Anyway, they're super-smart but not very strong or capable. They have a magic bite that can mind control, and also get really powerful mental psionics. If you fail a save against their mind control, it's permanent until the slug is murdered or banished. It can control up to 200 beings, too, for your most Claremontian of plots.

Agenor River Serpent

Anyway, they're giant serpents that eat animals and occasionally people. They're basically here to make travelling in the water kind of dangerous sometimes. They can also slither on to land for several hours before drying out.

They're tough-ish, 30'-60' long, have have solid M.D.C. defense and offence. They get their own special 60% grappling rules. It can also drag people underwater to drown but, uh, there are no rules for drowning, so figure it out yourself.

And that's all the book has. But I've got some laaast nitpicks left to make that didn't necessarily fit at any one point of the book; you'll get those in the final part next time.

Next: I get downright editorial on Rifts™.

_{In addition to the Succubus, Mindolar, and Dybuuk being reprinted from Beyond the Supernatural™ , the Succubus, Mindolar, Werejaguar, and Dybuuk all get reprinted in the very next book that was released after this, Rifts™ Conversion Book . At least they get new art...}

It's f---in' brilliant!

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

To what to you attribute Rifts™' success, Kevin?

Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Part 20: "It's f---in' brilliant!"

Okay, book's over, but some tangents here.

First, one thing I realized in looking at this book is that you have a Mexico largely populated by ignorant, stupid, subhuman vampires, kept largely in check by the now-actually-grand Rio Grande. Still, there's a constant threat of vampires sneaking over the border.

It's like a bizarre take on illegal immigration. Here, you have subhuman Mexicans who are itching to come North and literally suck the lifeblood out of America , or at least what passes for America in Rifts™ . Worse, yet... they're turn some Americans... into them. Dumb. Savage. Monstrous.

Now, I don't think the parallels are intentional, but it's a little creepy once you notice. Hell, the wild vampires are even oppressed by a richer subclass of vampire to the south that neglects and abandons them.

Add in Juarez's constant portrayal as dirty, savage, and corrupt, and well... it's hard not to think it's got a fairly twisted opinion of Mexico. Once again, I think it's largely born out of thoughtlessness.

The second part is less creepy and more just an thought of how sloppy Rifts™ is with the Mega-Damage rules. The general justification behind creatures which are Mega-Damage, like demons or dragons, is that the magic of Earth is so powerful now it super-charges them and makes them super-tough and super-strong. (Why it doesn't make them super-fast or super-smart is left as an exercise for the reader.)

But then quickly we start getting creatures which are M.D.C. with little or no justification. The rhino-buffalo and the agenor river serpent, for example. The floopers or vernulians, which are psionic but not seemingly magical. We have a ordinary, historical dinosaur which has more M.D.C. than all giant robot suits we've seen, but doesn't seem to be magical at all.

It mostly just double-underlines the issue with the system that two supplements in, they're already handing out natural M.D.C. like it's candy, save for oddities like the livorrk or the mindolar that are just given thousands of S.D.C. instead.

Anyway, I wanted to get through this book because it's a good underline of just how goofy and bad Rifts™ can be, but there are sections like the circus which felt like I was taking a mind-bullet for you folks. No matter how bad I made it seem; the actual section is much worse. It's an early supplement and very rough; the Rifts™ Sourcebook was a comparative delight because it actually served a deliberate purpose and doesn't overstay its welcome. Rifts™ World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms meanders drunkenly from El Paso to Guatemala and never focuses, instead leaving the vampire kingdoms themselves a relative footnote while lavishing attention on shit like Juarez's shopping district or travelling shows.

Thanks a lot if you've actually read my rambling summaries so far. Hopefully our words here can echo into the future to warn future RPG writers and players from the ancient horror which still crawls forth from Palladium Books® .

Next: We can all move on from our long national nightmare, this book is d-o-n-e.

_{Unlike the company I am reviewing, I make no promises on what comes next. I think Palladium Books® has taught me well as an example. You'll get something more, though! I'm pretty sure. Maybe.}