Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

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Michael Barakofsky
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Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by Michael Barakofsky »

"Living through the Great Cataclysm One Day at a Time" and its supplemental material on the state of New Mexico and some of her communities, written by Daniel Frederick, has been an interesting read so far. I must confess that I am still working on reading my way through everything but I have read the info on most of the cities and towns mentioned and have finished the main article with its NPC perspective introduction. And I have a few things, well 2 main things, I feel need to be pointed out.
1st and actually the least of an issue is that there is no river that runs through Hobbs. How do I know? Because I have lived in and around the Hobbs NM area for 30+ years. The only bodies of water in this area are man made. The river he mentions is found over in Carlsbad about 90 miles away. Like I said minor issue just thought people might like to know.

2nd and I feel the more important issue is that New Mexico like Wyoming is home to a super volcano, the Valles Caldera. While this volcano is not as active, to my knowledge, as Yellowstone is the cataclysm which caused all of the volcanos on the planet to erupt even ones thought dead would also cause Valles to blow. His article sending everyone that has survived to the state capital of Santa Fe is sending them to their deaths, death by volcano. Sending them south to Hobbs or Carlsbad would be a little wiser as pretty much the northern 2/3 of the state would be decimated by the volcano. Ash fall would be carried into Texas for the most part by prevailing winds out of the Rocky Mountains so those in the lower portion of the state while still affected by the erruption would have a better chance of surviving it.

That having been said I am enjoying reading the article and find it a pleasant fiction.
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by eliakon »

Michael Barakofsky wrote:"Living through the Great Cataclysm One Day at a Time" and its supplemental material on the state of New Mexico and some of her communities, written by Daniel Frederick, has been an interesting read so far. I must confess that I am still working on reading my way through everything but I have read the info on most of the cities and towns mentioned and have finished the main article with its NPC perspective introduction. And I have a few things, well 2 main things, I feel need to be pointed out.
1st and actually the least of an issue is that there is no river that runs through Hobbs. How do I know? Because I have lived in and around the Hobbs NM area for 30+ years. The only bodies of water in this area are man made. The river he mentions is found over in Carlsbad about 90 miles away. Like I said minor issue just thought people might like to know.

2nd and I feel the more important issue is that New Mexico like Wyoming is home to a super volcano, the Valles Caldera. While this volcano is not as active, to my knowledge, as Yellowstone is the cataclysm which caused all of the volcanos on the planet to erupt even ones thought dead would also cause Valles to blow. His article sending everyone that has survived to the state capital of Santa Fe is sending them to their deaths, death by volcano. Sending them south to Hobbs or Carlsbad would be a little wiser as pretty much the northern 2/3 of the state would be decimated by the volcano. Ash fall would be carried into Texas for the most part by prevailing winds out of the Rocky Mountains so those in the lower portion of the state while still affected by the erruption would have a better chance of surviving it.

That having been said I am enjoying reading the article and find it a pleasant fiction.

AFAIK The New Mexico super volcano is the same one as in Wyoming. Or more precisely they are both surface points for the same lava plume. Continental Drift has moved the North American Plate over the plum so it has surfaced at multiple locations
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by Fell »

In response to the River in Hobbs, NM:

One, I ask you good sir, can you even prove you live in Hobbs?

I am totally kidding :)

Actually the fact of it is:

1.) In 2088 the KLS Corporation was investigating the possibility of terra forming Mars. The KLS Corporation already had a space station in orbit, the Freedom Station. KLS Corporation board members were vying for a greener Mars, under their control. In order to get their corporate hands on the planet of Mars they needed to present a solution to the Northern American Alliance (NAA) in regard to improving living conditions on Mars. This meant being the ones who could terra form the planet. After securing permission from the NAA, who in part were responsible for jump starting the global economy and bring about scientific advancement as a whole, the KLS utilized their position as the creators of the Glitter Boy Power Armor to gain the necessary permission to start research into terra forming in New Mexico. Much like Las Vegas and Dubai, which were once desert areas, and terra-formed by man, Hobbs NM was selected both for the challenges it presented as an arid desert like territory and for the reason that the KLS Corporation owned much of the land near Hobbs. The KLS had a remote testing facility (for testing new variants of the Glitter Boy) located between Loving, New Mexico and Hobbs, New Mexico. After securing permission from the NAA to alter the landscape in New Mexico near Hobbs the Hobbs-Mars Terra Project was initiated to experiment with terra forming in 2089. Part of this project included directing a portion of the Pecos River north-east towards Hobbs from the Loving area. After two years in 2091 the river was snaked into the Hobbs area. This allowed the KLS to utilize the river water to both initiate making Hobbs greener, and it was used to cool the small nuclear reactor the KLS was utilizing to build their terra forming machinery. (Note: This did result in several riots and protests by people in the area who did not trust the KLS who even then had a Aberrant disposition. Having a small reactor in the area of Hobbs caused many people to protest at the dangers it presented in addition to the altering of the landscape). Science won, progress must be made, and money was made both by the KLS and those employed by the corporation, and after three short years the KLS had a significantly greener terra formed 6 mile by 4 mile environment just outside of Hobbs, including a portion of the Pecos River flowing though the area. In 2095, the small community of Hobbs had an estimated 88% of its population employed by the KLS. The project took some turn for the worse and never did end up being used on Mars before the Coming of the Rifts.

2.) Either that or it might have just been that with the rise of the ocean levels from the arrival of Atlantis the Pecos River did end up bleeding over some towards Hobbs.

3.) But MOST LIKELY it is just that I, the author, did my best to research the area which I have never been to and I had the Pecos River slightly off its normal path.

In regard to the Super Volcano in New Mexico:

It is my opinion that if even just the Yellowstone Super Volcano erupted at 9:45 PM on December 23, 2098 (and no others did anywhere else in America) the devastation which would have resulted due to this Super Volcano would have been absolutely more destructive than it is presented to be in the Chaos Earth book. I think that it comes down to a matter of degrees. How massive did it explode, others did erupt too but to what degree? If the super volcano in NM did erupted were the winds that day/week blowing in a northern direction thus allowing the ashen lands near Santa Fe to still be survived within? I tried to express that ash rained down and the environment was hellish due to eruption on the NA cotenant. Shrug, I just can't say for sure until it really happens.

So...

The article was the first thing I have ever written or submitted (other than game master notes for my own games) and I do hope that over all it was interesting or fun to read. I had a good time writing it. So much so, that I already submitted another submission of the New Mexico area in the time of RIFTS (roughly the same size as the Chaos Earth one).

I am writing both Rifts Cascadia (working title) and Rifts California and New Baja (again working title) right now, 35,000 words along at this time. Months away from submitting these. I actually live here on the Pacific West Coast so hopefully I won't over look anything heh.

I was super excited to see a review of the submission I did for the Rifter #69, and after I read your review I was glad to see some one took the time to post a review. Thank you. Valid points you had and I was glad to see them.

Dan Frederick
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Michael Barakofsky
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by Michael Barakofsky »

Fell wrote:In response to the River in Hobbs, NM:

One, I ask you good sir, can you even prove you live in Hobbs?

I am totally kidding :)


;) In truth I was born in Hobbs, lived in Monument NM just a little ways outside of Hobbs until I was 23 then lived in Tahlequah OK for 4 years before moving back to NM living in Lovington about 30 some odd miles north of Hobbs for a couple of years before moving to Hobbs in 2006 or 2007 and have lived here ever since. So that gives me 33 years having lived & worked in and around the Hobbs area.

Fell wrote:Actually the fact of it is:

1.) In 2088 the KLS Corporation was investigating the possibility of terra forming Mars. The KLS Corporation already had a space station in orbit, the Freedom Station. KLS Corporation board members were vying for a greener Mars, under their control. In order to get their corporate hands on the planet of Mars they needed to present a solution to the Northern American Alliance (NAA) in regard to improving living conditions on Mars. This meant being the ones who could terra form the planet. After securing permission from the NAA, who in part were responsible for jump starting the global economy and bring about scientific advancement as a whole, the KLS utilized their position as the creators of the Glitter Boy Power Armor to gain the necessary permission to start research into terra forming in New Mexico. Much like Las Vegas and Dubai, which were once desert areas, and terra-formed by man, Hobbs NM was selected both for the challenges it presented as an arid desert like territory and for the reason that the KLS Corporation owned much of the land near Hobbs. The KLS had a remote testing facility (for testing new variants of the Glitter Boy) located between Loving, New Mexico and Hobbs, New Mexico. After securing permission from the NAA to alter the landscape in New Mexico near Hobbs the Hobbs-Mars Terra Project was initiated to experiment with terra forming in 2089. Part of this project included directing a portion of the Pecos River north-east towards Hobbs from the Loving area. After two years in 2091 the river was snaked into the Hobbs area. This allowed the KLS to utilize the river water to both initiate making Hobbs greener, and it was used to cool the small nuclear reactor the KLS was utilizing to build their terra forming machinery. (Note: This did result in several riots and protests by people in the area who did not trust the KLS who even then had a Aberrant disposition. Having a small reactor in the area of Hobbs caused many people to protest at the dangers it presented in addition to the altering of the landscape). Science won, progress must be made, and money was made both by the KLS and those employed by the corporation, and after three short years the KLS had a significantly greener terra formed 6 mile by 4 mile environment just outside of Hobbs, including a portion of the Pecos River flowing though the area. In 2095, the small community of Hobbs had an estimated 88% of its population employed by the KLS. The project took some turn for the worse and never did end up being used on Mars before the Coming of the Rifts.

2.) Either that or it might have just been that with the rise of the ocean levels from the arrival of Atlantis the Pecos River did end up bleeding over some towards Hobbs.

3.) But MOST LIKELY it is just that I, the author, did my best to research the area which I have never been to and I had the Pecos River slightly off its normal path.


Interesting concept/back story, as for having never been to Hobbs, good for you there isn't much here except its the black hole of the universe. It seems there is a curse on the area if you end up staying here for more then a simple vacation to visit family in the area (about a week or so) you end up getting sucked back into the area. I have known people that were well off and were simply passing through, their car broke down they had to spend a night or 2 and within a year they were living here. There are several jokes surrounding this, my favorite is "Welcome to Hobbs NM, the Land of Entrapment, come on vacation, leave on probation, return on violation." Yeah its almost that bad.

Fell wrote:In regard to the Super Volcano in New Mexico:

It is my opinion that if even just the Yellowstone Super Volcano erupted at 9:45 PM on December 23, 2098 (and no others did anywhere else in America) the devastation which would have resulted due to this Super Volcano would have been absolutely more destructive than it is presented to be in the Chaos Earth book. I think that it comes down to a matter of degrees. How massive did it explode, others did erupt too but to what degree? If the super volcano in NM did erupted were the winds that day/week blowing in a northern direction thus allowing the ashen lands near Santa Fe to still be survived within? I tried to express that ash rained down and the environment was hellish due to eruption on the NA cotenant. Shrug, I just can't say for sure until it really happens.


Well a friend of mine has a movie/Docu-Drama put out by the BBC called "Supervolcano" which is about the Yellowstone volcano errupting and how it might play out. It is actually a pretty good movie and we used it to give our player group an idea of what the cataclysm was like.

As to what I said about the Hobbs and other southern areas being fairly safe, I can't say that for certain but usually it seems the winds try to blow everything away from our area, rain, shade, snow, heck the only thing that never seems to run out is dust and sand, lol.

Fell wrote:So...

The article was the first thing I have ever written or submitted (other than game master notes for my own games) and I do hope that over all it was interesting or fun to read. I had a good time writing it. So much so, that I already submitted another submission of the New Mexico area in the time of RIFTS (roughly the same size as the Chaos Earth one).

I am writing both Rifts Cascadia (working title) and Rifts California and New Baja (again working title) right now, 35,000 words along at this time. Months away from submitting these. I actually live here on the Pacific West Coast so hopefully I won't over look anything heh.

I was super excited to see a review of the submission I did for the Rifter #69, and after I read your review I was glad to see some one took the time to post a review. Thank you. Valid points you had and I was glad to see them.

Dan Frederick


I did enjoy reading it and seeing someone elses take on this little corner of the world I call home in regards to how it turned out in the Rifts setting. I might even use some of your ideas in my games for other areas in NM.

For a first work I have to say it was a good read. Though I must confess that two of my players said "What is this guy smoking" when I read off about Hobbs to them, and I did agree with them at first but as I read more of the back story I found myself thinking it might make for an interesting alternate reality setting for our Rifts characters to get sent to for a visit.

I am looking forward to seeing what you have in mind for the NM area in the Rifts time frame. Writing reviews is not something I normally do, but since your little article actually included my hometown I felt like I had to say a few words on the matter. Glad you liked my review and if there is anything that I might could help you with or any questions you might have about the local area for future writings send me a PM and I will do my best to assist you. Have a good day.
"If ya pardon me plain speaking gentlemen: Are yall STARK RAVING TOTALLY BLINKING DAFT!?!?!" - Captain Silver, Treasure Planet
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by Michael Barakofsky »

eliakon wrote:
Michael Barakofsky wrote:"Living through the Great Cataclysm One Day at a Time" and its supplemental material on the state of New Mexico and some of her communities, written by Daniel Frederick, has been an interesting read so far. I must confess that I am still working on reading my way through everything but I have read the info on most of the cities and towns mentioned and have finished the main article with its NPC perspective introduction. And I have a few things, well 2 main things, I feel need to be pointed out.
1st and actually the least of an issue is that there is no river that runs through Hobbs. How do I know? Because I have lived in and around the Hobbs NM area for 30+ years. The only bodies of water in this area are man made. The river he mentions is found over in Carlsbad about 90 miles away. Like I said minor issue just thought people might like to know.

2nd and I feel the more important issue is that New Mexico like Wyoming is home to a super volcano, the Valles Caldera. While this volcano is not as active, to my knowledge, as Yellowstone is the cataclysm which caused all of the volcanos on the planet to erupt even ones thought dead would also cause Valles to blow. His article sending everyone that has survived to the state capital of Santa Fe is sending them to their deaths, death by volcano. Sending them south to Hobbs or Carlsbad would be a little wiser as pretty much the northern 2/3 of the state would be decimated by the volcano. Ash fall would be carried into Texas for the most part by prevailing winds out of the Rocky Mountains so those in the lower portion of the state while still affected by the erruption would have a better chance of surviving it.

That having been said I am enjoying reading the article and find it a pleasant fiction.

AFAIK The New Mexico super volcano is the same one as in Wyoming. Or more precisely they are both surface points for the same lava plume. Continental Drift has moved the North American Plate over the plum so it has surfaced at multiple locations


From what little I have studied on the matter, which is more then the average person since a friend of mine who is also one of my players for Rifts, spent almost 2 years looking up information about super volcanos. Its because of him that I even knew about Valles being one of 3 super volcanos in the USA. From the various videos that he found and we all watched together Yellowstone and Valles appear to be two seperate magma chambers. However if you really want to get down and dirty about it all active volcanos are linked with each other in so far as the magma comes from the Earth's core. So in that respect the all share the same point of origin.
"If ya pardon me plain speaking gentlemen: Are yall STARK RAVING TOTALLY BLINKING DAFT!?!?!" - Captain Silver, Treasure Planet
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by cawest »

I was a little let down in Rifter 69. the blue lakes of Santa Rosa would have been a interesting idea to run with. also with the number of military base in NM they could have had one new peace of military equipment or info on how the cops had modified one of there vehicles to fight the new threat to broaden out the equipment list. also the Rio Grande valley is listed as a Rift Valley in USGS :)
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by Fell »

cawest wrote:I was a little let down in Rifter 69. the blue lakes of Santa Rosa would have been a interesting idea to run with. also with the number of military base in NM they could have had one new peace of military equipment or info on how the cops had modified one of there vehicles to fight the new threat to broaden out the equipment list. also the Rio Grande valley is listed as a Rift Valley in USGS :)



Just so you know. The article was cut down in size. I wrote much more than got published :)

Could have written a whole book on the area but that wouldn't have made it into a Rifter. As it was not all made it in.

I think a list of equipment would have been cool too but I tailored it mostly to story - locations - and adventure ideas (all got toned down and a lot was chopped - I assume for space restrictions).

Hope you liked what there was though.

Add to it in your game (game on) :)
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by cawest »

Fell wrote:
cawest wrote:I was a little let down in Rifter 69. the blue lakes of Santa Rosa would have been a interesting idea to run with. also with the number of military base in NM they could have had one new peace of military equipment or info on how the cops had modified one of there vehicles to fight the new threat to broaden out the equipment list. also the Rio Grande valley is listed as a Rift Valley in USGS :)



Just so you know. The article was cut down in size. I wrote much more than got published :)

Could have written a whole book on the area but that wouldn't have made it into a Rifter. As it was not all made it in.

I think a list of equipment would have been cool too but I tailored it mostly to story - locations - and adventure ideas (all got toned down and a lot was chopped - I assume for space restrictions).

Hope you liked what there was though.



Yes I did like it. like they way white sands went up. do you think they might put a more complete version of your work on line?

Add to it in your game (game on) :)
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Re: Rifter #69 and New Mexico of Chaos Earth minor review

Unread post by Fell »

cawest wrote:
Fell wrote:
cawest wrote:I was a little let down in Rifter 69. the blue lakes of Santa Rosa would have been a interesting idea to run with. also with the number of military base in NM they could have had one new peace of military equipment or info on how the cops had modified one of there vehicles to fight the new threat to broaden out the equipment list. also the Rio Grande valley is listed as a Rift Valley in USGS :)



Just so you know. The article was cut down in size. I wrote much more than got published :)

Could have written a whole book on the area but that wouldn't have made it into a Rifter. As it was not all made it in.

I think a list of equipment would have been cool too but I tailored it mostly to story - locations - and adventure ideas (all got toned down and a lot was chopped - I assume for space restrictions).

Hope you liked what there was though.



Yes I did like it. like they way white sands went up. do you think they might put a more complete version of your work on line?

Add to it in your game (game on) :)



To answer your question: I don't know if Palladium would put anything up on line. I recently bought a web site with the intention of putting a bunch of my stuff up on line. I submitted a Part Two about New Mexico in the time of Rifts (110 PA). I was waiting to see if that made it into a Rifter. If not I was going to put it up on line.

The up coming Chaos Earth First Responders book by Jason Richards will have a bunch of equipment in it. Or so it seams.
Dan Frederick
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