Underwater Campaign

[Willy Elektrix]

I've been reading World Book 7: Underseas. I'm pretty impressed with the ideas in here. Things like the dolphin power armor are ridiculous, but fit really well with the (already absurd) Rifts setting.

Has anyone ever run a campaign on or in the water? Who were the characters and what was the plot.

What are some other Rifts resources with underwater information? Does World Book 32: Lemuria have more underwater stuff?

[kaid]

I've been reading World Book 7: Underseas. I'm pretty impressed with the ideas in here. Things like the dolphin power armor are ridiculous, but fit really well with the (already absurd) Rifts setting.

Has anyone ever run a campaign on or in the water? Who were the characters and what was the plot.

What are some other Rifts resources with underwater information? Does World Book 32: Lemuria have more underwater stuff?

The best books for underseas stuff is underseas and lemuria which compliments it well. After that the CS navy is probably the next best if you want more inland water/lake underwater adventures.

[glitterboy2098]

WB7: Undersea's is the core to an aquatic campaign.
WB32: Lemuria expands on it some, with new factions and critters to encounter, and more more details on some places.
Sourcebook 4: CS navy is also a useful book. while a lot of it is focused more on the great lakes, the CS navy operates in the gulf of mexico and Atlantic as well, and it has gear and rules that are useful all over.
WB6 South America 1 has more information on the Splugorth navy and their operations, as well as some groups and gear that might appear in an aquatic campaign.
Mercenaries has most of the IHA naval stuff, which is needed to use SB4 fully, and in the case of some of their lighter gear, might have counterparts around the world.

several other books written after WB7 have equipment suited to an aquatic campaign, but to be honest most of it is "oh yeah, this group also has a navy, here is a sample ship/aquatic power armor for you", like WB8 japan, Sourcebook3 mindwerks, etc. though WB20 canada and WB15 spirit west at least do their token aquatics in the form of new critters.

at the risk of tooting my own horn, you may want to consider getting Rifter 70 (which will be available in PDF soon), for my article "the deep frontier", which introduces undersea colonies, with new places to visit, a bunch of details on living longterm underwater, and some new gear, like non-supercavitating torpedoes and a minisub design system.


if your willing to consider adapting over stuff from outside rifts, Robotech has a submersible carrier and a submersible Landingship(tank) that would fit in as golden age or Dbee gear. as well as a bunch of conventional aircraft that would fit the rifts setting as well. those are in both the old and new robotech RPG versions. the new RPG also has the new generation sourcebook, which includes stats on two types of patrol boats seen in the show.
Splicers has a few technological and bio-tech vehicles and gear suited to use in aquatic settings, and Rifter 30 includes some new warmounts designed for aquatic use.. including a bio-tech submarine-base.

[ShadowLogan]

I've been reading World Book 7: Underseas. I'm pretty impressed with the ideas in here. Things like the dolphin power armor are ridiculous, but fit really well with the (already absurd) Rifts setting.

Has anyone ever run a campaign on or in the water? Who were the characters and what was the plot.

What are some other Rifts resources with underwater information? Does World Book 32: Lemuria have more underwater stuff?

I don't know if I'd call the Dolphin/Whale PA ridiculous I find it a cool concept. Rifts doesn't do alot of non-humanoid hardware, so it is nice to see.

Other Rifts Books that might help with Underseas & Lemuria:
-Rifts Japan (loosely, it has a few underwater units that could be encountered/utilized)
-Rifts South America 1 (possibly even 2 IINM) has equipment and creatures that could be encountered/used (IIRC, Underseas references equipment found here for Atlantis)
-CS Navy Source Book (already mentioned)
-D-Bees of North America might have some additional D-Bees to use
-Free Quebec (additional Power Armor for underwater ops)
-Mercenaries (a few patrol boats) and Merc Ops (IIRC just a suit of PA) also have hardware for water borne operations
-Atlantis, though I think the relevant parts are mostly duplicated in Underseas for encounter tables IIRC
-Mindwerks Source Book (Tarno kingdom has some underwater hardware)
-Canada has a few water borne monsters and a Sea hag/god that might be encountered/used

These books on the list (aside from CS Navy SB and Mindwerks SB) probably aren't worth it just for an underseas/ocean campaign.

[Willy Elektrix]

Other Rifts Books that might help with Underseas & Lemuria:
-Rifts Japan (loosely, it has a few underwater units that could be encountered/utilized)
-Rifts South America 1 (possibly even 2 IINM) has equipment and creatures that could be encountered/used (IIRC, Underseas references equipment found here for Atlantis)
-CS Navy Source Book (already mentioned)
-D-Bees of North America might have some additional D-Bees to use
-Free Quebec (additional Power Armor for underwater ops)
-Mercenaries (a few patrol boats) and Merc Ops (IIRC just a suit of PA) also have hardware for water borne operations
-Atlantis, though I think the relevant parts are mostly duplicated in Underseas for encounter tables IIRC
-Mindwerks Source Book (Tarno kingdom has some underwater hardware)
-Canada has a few water borne monsters and a Sea hag/god that might be encountered/used

It seems like a lot of Rifts books have underwater vehicles and gear spread throughout them. I'm not sure how useful all that is to me. The Rifts books contains so many vehicles and weapons that do not really seem that different from one another. I'm much more interested in the setting information. It seems like WB7: Underseas and WB32: Lemuria are the core of that.

The CS Navy Source Book might be a valuable resource to have a bunch of water gear in one place.

st the risk of tooting my own horn, you may want to consider getting Rifter 70 (which will be available in PDF soon), for my article "the deep frontier", which introduces undersea colonies, with new places to visit, a bunch of details on living longterm underwater, and some new gear, like non-supercavitating torpedoes and a minisub design system.

Thanks for letting me know about about this.

[Pepsi Jedi]

I had a game on the seas once. Ended up alot like Seaquest. You can usually go 'out' of the ocean if your chars are fine in it. Seldom are they 100% aquatic. More often amphibious.

[ShadowLogan]

t seems like a lot of Rifts books have underwater vehicles and gear spread throughout them. I'm not sure how useful all that is to me. The Rifts books contains so many vehicles and weapons that do not really seem that different from one another. I'm much more interested in the setting information. It seems like WB7: Underseas and WB32: Lemuria are the core of that.

I don't think that's a lot of books either for Rifts. That's 13 in total IINM, Rifts has over 50 books with more on the way (if you count Chaos Earth and/or Dimension Books the number goes up even more).

I agree that they have some hardware spread out, but some books are likely to have more value for an underseas focused campaign than others and what/where you focus on. The three best books on the list after CS Navy and US/L that could be useful are Mindwerks and South America 1 and Atlantis.

Mindwerks' Tarno kingdom has a relatively fleshed out "navy", so it provides a potential power block (depending on the region), possibly better than some of the Underseas factions. It is also a port of call that could be used. This could be a pass-on-it given its narrow regional focus.

South America 1 has hardware to expand the Splurgoth fleet options (Mothership and a smaller vessel it hosts, which is deployed globally), plus a Demonic-class vessel(part of a scenario outline) used by Pirates, and a few other vehicles. There is also the Pirate and Sailor OCC (might be different than CS Navy or US). There is a Pirate Kingdom, along with mention of a few ports of call that might be useful.

Atlantis (WB2, maybe Slyn Market) allows one to staff their ships with classes/equipment not present in the book but referenced. Potentially useful if you use the Splurgoth.

The other books on the list I made could be passed over much more reasonably since you are talking about a few pages of material basically as I recall in each. Which probably isn't worth it just for that material unless you already have them or have other uses for them.

[kaid]

I've been reading World Book 7: Underseas. I'm pretty impressed with the ideas in here. Things like the dolphin power armor are ridiculous, but fit really well with the (already absurd) Rifts setting.

Has anyone ever run a campaign on or in the water? Who were the characters and what was the plot.

What are some other Rifts resources with underwater information? Does World Book 32: Lemuria have more underwater stuff?

I don't know if I'd call the Dolphin/Whale PA ridiculous I find it a cool concept. Rifts doesn't do alot of non-humanoid hardware, so it is nice to see.

Other Rifts Books that might help with Underseas & Lemuria:
-Rifts Japan (loosely, it has a few underwater units that could be encountered/utilized)
-Rifts South America 1 (possibly even 2 IINM) has equipment and creatures that could be encountered/used (IIRC, Underseas references equipment found here for Atlantis)
-CS Navy Source Book (already mentioned)
-D-Bees of North America might have some additional D-Bees to use
-Free Quebec (additional Power Armor for underwater ops)
-Mercenaries (a few patrol boats) and Merc Ops (IIRC just a suit of PA) also have hardware for water borne operations
-Atlantis, though I think the relevant parts are mostly duplicated in Underseas for encounter tables IIRC
-Mindwerks Source Book (Tarno kingdom has some underwater hardware)
-Canada has a few water borne monsters and a Sea hag/god that might be encountered/used

These books on the list (aside from CS Navy SB and Mindwerks SB) probably aren't worth it just for an underseas/ocean campaign.

Normal dolphins are a bit hard to work with if your adventure goes inland although that is one reason why the pnuema bi forms are pretty nice. Lets you play a cetacean if you want to while giving you some better land mobility options for forays away from the water.

Also in theory lemurian bio armor changes its shape to fit its wearer so in theory if a dolphin got access to some it could use it for land access.

[Svartalf]

Even low level pneuma biforms are a problem, as their bipedal time is severely limited

[glitterboy2098]

agreed, though if the campaign is primarily aquatic it may not be as big of an issue since you won't be very far from water most of the time.

but i suspect that the dolphins, whales, and Pneuma-biforms were originally meant more as NPC allies than as player characters.

[Willy Elektrix]

South America 1 has hardware to expand the Splurgoth fleet options (Mothership and a smaller vessel it hosts, which is deployed globally), plus a Demonic-class vessel(part of a scenario outline) used by Pirates, and a few other vehicles. There is also the Pirate and Sailor OCC (might be different than CS Navy or US). There is a Pirate Kingdom, along with mention of a few ports of call that might be useful.

Atlantis (WB2, maybe Slyn Market) allows one to staff their ships with classes/equipment not present in the book but referenced. Potentially useful if you use the Splurgoth.

I already have South America 1 & 2 and Atlantis. There is some cool underseas stuff in SA1 and Atlantis. However, I really dig that South America and Atlantis can combine into one big setting. They seem to work really well together. I have read the World Book: Vampire Kingdoms, but it seems like it kind of fits in there too.

While the equipment OCCs in South America are really unbalanced, the ideas behind the setting are great. I like how it fuses sci-fi, history, and mythology. The stuff about the Incan/Nazca empire is interesting.

I had a game on the seas once. Ended up alot like Seaquest. You can usually go 'out' of the ocean if your chars are fine in it. Seldom are they 100% aquatic. More often amphibious.

Yeah. I noticed that. I think the most interesting campaign would be entirely aquatic. A post-apocalypse setting kind of like Rifts North America, but entirely underwater. Although, it might be nice to come on land to board ships and stuff.

[Blue_Lion]

Dimention book 47 The infestation of the elemental plane of water.(maybe just dimension of water for short.)