New Sovietski book

[TeeAychEeMarchHare]

[

I'm glad that more areas of the world are finally being fleshed out. There's not a whole lot left before the entire Earth has been covered, at least somewhat (more than just "it's destroyed, monsters, farmers, herp derp" I mean), is there? The middle east, India, North America west of the Rockies, islands in the Pacific, Scandinavia....what else?

Antarctica, of course. Greenland. Siberia.
Really cold places.
Africa could do with more love; it's kinda bad that the 'Golden Age' didn't benefit Africa more, leaving folks there in a better position post-apocalypse, or that there aren't more resurgent magic kingdoms similar to the Incas blossoming in Africa..

I meant places that basically haven't been covered at all, though I agree Africa could be a LOT better. MOAR Phoenix Empire Plz.

Antarctica has gotten a few mentions on here, but I have doubts that there would be much there. 200+ years is a long time to keep a 20 man research station alive. Of course, it *could* have been inhabited by a race of aliens that are adapted to an extremely cold climate.

Same thing for Greenland, though there are small communities there nowadays, IIRC.

Siberia isn't in 'Warlords of Russia'? Odd.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Earth was in the "Golden age of man" when the Rifts came. Chances are very high that there were bio domes or something down in Antarctica.. and as we've seen societies have risen from much less on rifts earth.

[kaid]

As a side note between warlords of russia and the sovietski book a lot of siberia is indeed covered. Admittedly most of it is just monster haunted steppe patrolled by various warlords/cossacks. I believe they have at least some blanket statements about most of that area until around the mongolian border areas.

[kaid]

Given the type of winter russia endured for decades where the surface was basically uninhabitable it is hard to say what if anything would have remained in areas like greenland/antartica. But given the sovietski core people were all from one giant bunker complex that was big enough and had enough supplies to see them through basically 4 decades of winter until stuff started thawing enough they could return to the surface god knows what kind of fortified archaeology/research bases were built in areas like antarctica.

[kaid]

Where?


Daniel Stoker

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_inf ... =palladium It is also linked in the weekly update on the front page from last night.

Thanks for the link.

After reading the preview available at DriveThru, I seriously doubt that I'll buy this book. It's bad enough that the CS was written basically as Galactic Empire/Nazi Germany with intelligent dogs. Bringing back the only thing yet that's been worse than nazism is not something I feel compelled to do.

But to each their own. I'm certain there are quite a few people who will like the book, and have fun playing in that setting. *IF* the game I'm working on ever gets to that area, I'll just make something up. I did it for Australia in the 90's, and now that pictures of futuristic aircraft, weapons, robots, etc, are a lot easier to find, it eliminates the biggest problem I ran into back then.

I'm glad that more areas of the world are finally being fleshed out. There's not a whole lot left before the entire Earth has been covered, at least somewhat (more than just "it's destroyed, monsters, farmers, herp derp" I mean), is there? The middle east, India, North America west of the Rockies, islands in the Pacific, Scandinavia....what else?

One interesting thing about the whole concept of the sovietski is basically it was founded on the survivors of the russian military who wound up stuck in a bunker for 4 decades reminiscing about the good old days. What came out the other side is its own flavor of weirdness. It is really authoritarian but of all the major big human tech powers it is one of the more benign. If you are a magic user who is not consorting with the darker flavors such as shifter/necromancer/witch and are willing to defend your country men you can be accepted. Psychics are similar as well it is kinda like how the CS treats their PSI users but even a bit more accepting overall. Also Dbees especially more human like ones have a reasonable level of acceptance once they prove themselves. Now there is also a lot of communist stuff but it is communism MK2 then stuck in a bunker for 40 years as its basis. And given a huge chunk of their initial population was living in a bunker for more than a generation it sort of reinforced some of the communist tendencies since everybody had to share and nobody really had any way of owning anything. It is not a kind happy place of fluffy bunnies but with the other option in the vicinity is cyborg barbarian hordes or demonic hordes it should not be to surprising people cling to the "good old days".

[kaid]

Whelp got my copy today. I am at work so I can't read through it but just flipping through it looks really good. It is a pretty big book and not just a toy box the first half or more of it is world info it seems. Lots of new cyborgs and cyborg goodies as well as an assortment of tanks and other vehicles. At a glance it looks like the raw preview stuff mostly got ported over although like the secrets of atlantis I am sure there are a number of balancing changes and edits so won't be able to tell until I get a full read through done. But it looks like if you like the warlords setting in rifts or like cyborgs/bionics/tanks looks like a really good purchase. Will post more details once I get a chance to do an actual read through on it when the boss is not giving me the side eye.

[Atroxadventurer]

Just ordered mine. Lemme know when you read about their society, and what it allows/doesn't allow, really curious how that panned out.

[kaid]

There is a pretty big section about them and how it works. They allow freedom of religion as long as you are not doing animal/human sacrifices although there is a cap on how much donations any church can get in a year. Money in excess goes to the state. They allow more free speech than the old soviet union did but getting to anti state can cause you problems if you chose to go into a field later that is more deeply involved with the state. It is a very bureaucratic form of government where you need permissions to do a lot of things like forming a church or forming a new business. The more people you know and favors you can call in the faster you can get things done.

A lot of the old soviet hardline stances got softend because when they tried to rebuild the locals they encountered had heard of the old leaders as folk stories and nobody really knew anything about that form of government at all. I get the feeling a lot of the peasants feel the sovietski are a bit high handed and weird but they take their business of protecting communities seriously so most just seem to shrug their shoulders and accept it.

[Atroxadventurer]

Interesting

[AlooWalking]

Hey Rifts fans,
I've enjoyed following the conversation here about Sovietski. I was one of the writers on the book. If you have questions, I have answers*.

* Quality of answers not guaranteed.

[Atroxadventurer]

My main question is their tolerance of dbees n magic users mainly.
Can they join their military?

[AlooWalking]

It is really authoritarian but of all the major big human tech powers it is one of the more benign. If you are a magic user who is not consorting with the darker flavors such as shifter/necromancer/witch and are willing to defend your country men you can be accepted. Psychics are similar as well it is kinda like how the CS treats their PSI users but even a bit more accepting overall. Also Dbees especially more human like ones have a reasonable level of acceptance once they prove themselves.

I don't think it can be better said then kaid did. Evil magic is right out (necromancy, Shifters). Everything else is case-by-case. Is your magic/magic-like ability useful in defending the Sovietski? Prove it. Once a person demonstrates they are willing and able to be of service to the society, they are allowed to be. That especially includes military service. Those with powers are actively recruited to the military. The Sovietski is pragmatic like that.

[Atroxadventurer]

Makes sense. Guess they're not just a CS wannabe haha

[taalismn]

[

I don't think it can be better said then kaid did. Evil magic is right out (necromancy, Shifters). Everything else is case-by-case. Is your magic/magic-like ability useful in defending the Sovietski? Prove it. Once a person demonstrates they are willing and able to be of service to the society, they are allowed to be. That especially includes military service. Those with powers are actively recruited to the military. The Sovietski is pragmatic like that.

"This time around. let's NOT annoy or do away with the old believers in the name of Glorious Scientific Communism? Let's try recruiting them TO our cause, okay?"


That's frightening.

Also, shades of Red Star. If the Sovietski has Deaths Head Transport-style craft, I'm calling Sky Furnace Juniors.

[Natasha]

Rifts Old Believers are nothing like the historical Old Believers, who almost by definition are unrecruitable. Peter the Great was Russia's epitome of meritocracy who embodied nothing is more important than duty to the state (for instance, virtually sentencing the tsarevich to death for holding a difference of opinion), and even he left them mostly alone (although that changed somewhat when the Great Northern War went a little south).

[SolCannibal]

[

I'm glad that more areas of the world are finally being fleshed out. There's not a whole lot left before the entire Earth has been covered, at least somewhat (more than just "it's destroyed, monsters, farmers, herp derp" I mean), is there? The middle east, India, North America west of the Rockies, islands in the Pacific, Scandinavia....what else?

Antarctica, of course. Greenland. Siberia.
Really cold places.
Africa could do with more love; it's kinda bad that the 'Golden Age' didn't benefit Africa more, leaving folks there in a better position post-apocalypse, or that there aren't more resurgent magic kingdoms similar to the Incas blossoming in Africa..

Part of the problem with Africa is that Gathering of Heroes should have received a separate mini-campaign/sourcebook its own in the vein of Mechanoids of Xiticix Invasion. Taking the adventure material and possibly part of the material on the Phoenix Empire and egyptians gods would have liberated considerable room for fleshing out the continent.

But then one might say the book was done the way it was because the writers didn't really have much in the way of other ideas, i guess. Who really knows....

[kaid]

Still plugging my way through this book boy its a big one. One thing I noticed on the relations with foreign powers it sounds like the minion war is flaring up in europe and some started to rally the gargoyles so after the major break through triax now is on the defensive. Also sounds like the angel of death and her brodkil and the russian archaic demons are weighing in against the combatants of the minion war. It is mostly concerns for their own turf but it can make for some really odd bedfellows. Honestly that is probably how the minion war fails out on rifts earth so many random factions of people working to defend their own turf gets the demons/devils bogged down in a fight with a thousand sides.

[SolCannibal]

Still plugging my way through this book boy its a big one. One thing I noticed on the relations with foreign powers it sounds like the minion war is flaring up in europe and some started to rally the gargoyles so after the major break through triax now is on the defensive. Also sounds like the angel of death and her brodkil and the russian archaic demons are weighing in against the combatants of the minion war. It is mostly concerns for their own turf but it can make for some really odd bedfellows. Honestly that is probably how the minion war fails out on rifts earth so many random factions of people working to defend their own turf gets the demons/devils bogged down in a fight with a thousand sides.

Good to know of this material as i once sketched out a "monster party" Minion War related game that had the sorry mess the Gargoyle Empire was turning into as starting ground of sorts.

[Nightmartree]

Part of the problem with Africa is that Gathering of Heroes should have received a separate mini-campaign/sourcebook its own in the vein of Mechanoids of Xiticix Invasion. Taking the adventure material and possibly part of the material on the Phoenix Empire and egyptians gods would have liberated considerable room for fleshing out the continent.

But then one might say the book was done the way it was because the writers didn't really have much in the way of other ideas, i guess. Who really knows....

from what i remember besides the gathering of heroes and egyptian gods......the entire continent gets summed up as basically "there are tribespeople, with witchdoctors and shamans! attacked by witches! and! and! and nothing much!" they did say some stuff about the pheonix empire but i'm pretty sure i know more about the reproductive cycle of dragons than I do this empire of evil in one of the biggest continents on earth.

We could at least fill it with a few alien kingdoms and Dbee nations alongside the indigienous humans...it was more of an adventure and intro of a pantheon than a world book

[kaid]

Part of the problem with Africa is that Gathering of Heroes should have received a separate mini-campaign/sourcebook its own in the vein of Mechanoids of Xiticix Invasion. Taking the adventure material and possibly part of the material on the Phoenix Empire and egyptians gods would have liberated considerable room for fleshing out the continent.

But then one might say the book was done the way it was because the writers didn't really have much in the way of other ideas, i guess. Who really knows....

from what i remember besides the gathering of heroes and egyptian gods......the entire continent gets summed up as basically "there are tribespeople, with witchdoctors and shamans! attacked by witches! and! and! and nothing much!" they did say some stuff about the pheonix empire but i'm pretty sure i know more about the reproductive cycle of dragons than I do this empire of evil in one of the biggest continents on earth.

We could at least fill it with a few alien kingdoms and Dbee nations alongside the indigienous humans...it was more of an adventure and intro of a pantheon than a world book

Yup some kind of africa 2 would be nice at some point to actually flesh things out a bit more. Most of it wound up being just the four horsemen some stuff about phoenix empire and a couple really broad passes at basically the rest of the continent.

[SolCannibal]

Part of the problem with Africa is that Gathering of Heroes should have received a separate mini-campaign/sourcebook its own in the vein of Mechanoids of Xiticix Invasion. Taking the adventure material and possibly part of the material on the Phoenix Empire and egyptians gods would have liberated considerable room for fleshing out the continent.

But then one might say the book was done the way it was because the writers didn't really have much in the way of other ideas, i guess. Who really knows....

from what i remember besides the gathering of heroes and egyptian gods......the entire continent gets summed up as basically "there are tribespeople, with witchdoctors and shamans! attacked by witches! and! and! and nothing much!" they did say some stuff about the pheonix empire but i'm pretty sure i know more about the reproductive cycle of dragons than I do this empire of evil in one of the biggest continents on earth.

We could at least fill it with a few alien kingdoms and Dbee nations alongside the indigienous humans...it was more of an adventure and intro of a pantheon than a world book

Too true.

In the book's half-hearted defense, Phoenix Empire does make for a decent sketch of a nation, even though its pagecount might be closer to the city-states in Juicer Uprising, Japan or South America than the Atlantis or NGR worldbooks levels one might expect with such a big place, but there's no denying it most certainly counts as a major part of Africa.

The real shame is that technically it's the only one, as in the end no other nations get any real description or even names, but i digress...

I think my point was half "if it wasn't also an adventure and intro of a pantheon the writers might have had space to make it into an actual world book" but went "well, if they really had ideas to make an actual world book out of it they probably would have done it instead of padding with an adventure, eh?" along of way.

About an Africa 2 Worldbook, i guess that all the flakk given to the "continental books" like Africa and South America through the years might have made writers a little leery of making books of so broad a reach, choosing instead to make the worldbooks more localized but also focused in its detailing. Not expecting an Africa 2 anytime soon (as it might be pretty hard to make a really satisfying one anyway) but a Worldbook for the Phoenix Empire with maybe one or two major neighbors sketched out and half a dozen minor tributaries/allies/etc sounds doable and potentially fun way to jumpstart things.

[Nightmartree]

About an Africa 2 Worldbook, i guess that all the flakk given to the "continental books" like Africa and South America through the years might have made writers a little leery of making books of so broad a reach, choosing instead to make the worldbooks more localized but also focused in its detailing. Not expecting an Africa 2 anytime soon (as it might be pretty hard to make a really satisfying one anyway) but a Worldbook for the Phoenix Empire with maybe one or two major neighbors sketched out and half a dozen minor tributaries/allies/etc sounds doable and potentially fun way to jumpstart things.

I'd be happy to get some more details, and the information in the book was good, I just don't feel like I could point at somewhere in Africa and go "here is a good spot to do something". We don't need the entire continent worked up in one go as long as their is a plan to get us places...

i'm actually thinking of running rifts but adding in that dimensions have also "bled in" to ours and in some places space has stretched or twisted so you get an explanation for why high technology can't just run around the globe. Sure they can travel from place to place, but if they don't know where they are flying who is to say that they don't fly into a new world, or maybe your only a few hours away by foot but space has stretched about a certain altitude and now your days away. Or you enter an area and on the map its only a mile wide but once you step INTO that mile suddenly your travelling through a kingdom hundreds of miles across...

We would never run out of places to explore and Rifts Earth would suddenly be a lot bigger and scarier, not that you can't run into scary stuff but a lot has been explained and the unknown or strange is what really gets your heart pumping.

[glitterboy2098]

About an Africa 2 Worldbook, i guess that all the flakk given to the "continental books" like Africa and South America through the years might have made writers a little leery of making books of so broad a reach, choosing instead to make the worldbooks more localized but also focused in its detailing. Not expecting an Africa 2 anytime soon (as it might be pretty hard to make a really satisfying one anyway) but a Worldbook for the Phoenix Empire with maybe one or two major neighbors sketched out and half a dozen minor tributaries/allies/etc sounds doable and potentially fun way to jumpstart things.

I'd be happy to get some more details, and the information in the book was good, I just don't feel like I could point at somewhere in Africa and go "here is a good spot to do something". We don't need the entire continent worked up in one go as long as their is a plan to get us places...

sure. give us Africa 2, focused on the kingdoms of West Africa., perhaps with some regional plotlines about their fights with the Phoenix Empire, and maybe ties with groups outside of africa (heck, maybe the NGR has a bit of colonialism going on? or even better.. Columbia? or both!)

then an Africa 3 focused on East Africa, and their struggle with the Phoenix Empire.

then an Africa 4 focused on southern africa which would largely have its own self contained threats.

In the book's half-hearted defense, Phoenix Empire does make for a decent sketch of a nation, even though its pagecount might be closer to the city-states in Juicer Uprising, Japan or South America than the Atlantis or NGR worldbooks levels one might expect with such a big place, but there's no denying it most certainly counts as a major part of Africa.

The real shame is that technically it's the only one, as in the end no other nations get any real description or even names, but i digress...

honestly the reason the Phoenix Empire feels like half a write up is because it basically exists in a vacuum.. it has as much on it as the CS did in the RMB, but the CS came packaged with a bunch of other places that at least got a mention and a few lines each.. Lazlo and New Lazlo. Tolkeen. Fort El Dorado. Kingsdale. etc. plus the different parts of North America were given distinct plot hooks (vampire in mexico and the south west. dinosaurs i nthe southeast. the west is a frontier, etc) and we are specifically told there are villages, towns, and other communities all over.

Africa didn't really get that. just the Phoenix Empire.. and a whole continent filled with primitive people living in huts. which is not only a grave disservice to the RPG, but rather insulting to native African cultures, since many of them had complex urban civilizations while europeans were still squatting in caves trying to figure out the concept of farming.

[SolCannibal]

Now thinking opening a new topic on the subject of the Phoenix Empire and the african continent as a whole, both to avoid derailing utterly from the Sovietski and to give Africa some due love and creative attention might be a good thing

[taalismn]

Got mine and slowly chewing through it, wondering morbidly how cynical or out of context the quotes by famous Russians like Uncle Joe are (as a 2nd generation Latvian-American, I defend the right to be skeptical of Communist speech).
Over all, color me impressed, though I'm wondering why the anti-aircraft tank with the nuclear powerplant is sporting a rear fuel tank and an obvious exhaust(I know the cheap excuse is 'it's a coolant tank and steam release', but -still-).

[glitterboy2098]

Now thinking opening a new topic on the subject of the Phoenix Empire and the african continent as a whole, both to avoid derailing utterly from the Sovietski and to give Africa some due love and creative attention might be a good thing

please do. it would be an interesting discussion.

[taalismn]

Now thinking opening a new topic on the subject of the Phoenix Empire and the african continent as a whole, both to avoid derailing utterly from the Sovietski and to give Africa some due love and creative attention might be a good thing

Totally agree with you there. For a continent so rich in possibilities, one book hardly did it justice at all.
Go for it.

[kaid]

Got mine and slowly chewing through it, wondering morbidly how cynical or out of context the quotes by famous Russians like Uncle Joe are (as a 2nd generation Latvian-American, I defend the right to be skeptical of Communist speech).
Over all, color me impressed, though I'm wondering why the anti-aircraft tank with the nuclear powerplant is sporting a rear fuel tank and an obvious exhaust(I know the cheap excuse is 'it's a coolant tank and steam release', but -still-).

Honestly some may not be that out of context it is just that what they were saying and what they actually implemented diverged sharply.

As for the art its a vodka still. If one is going to have a nuclear powered tank you may as well fully utilize it.

[glitterboy2098]

the possibility of an Africa book now has a thread of its own

[taalismn]

[

As for the art its a vodka still. If one is going to have a nuclear powered tank you may as well fully utilize it.

Ah, waste heat from good Communist reactor male fuel for soldiers' and workers' spirits!
Red Army bring guns and booze to party!

[glitterboy2098]

actually might not be too far off.. alcohol is used as a deicing agent and given the climate implied in rifts, they might need that even for ground vehicles.
this actually caused some issues with the Soviet airforce. the ground crews were known to drain the deicing fluid (usually very pure alcohol) for recreational use, esecially during winter when the booze helped offset the cold.. and the deicing systems were most important.

the exhaust stack looking thing might be a smoke generator that uses the waste heat from the nuke plant (or just an electric heater) to cook oils to generate smoke.

[taalismn]

actually might not be too far off.. alcohol is used as a deicing agent and given the climate implied in rifts, they might need that even for ground vehicles.
this actually caused some issues with the Soviet airforce. the ground crews were known to drain the deicing fluid (usually very pure alcohol) for recreational use, esecially during winter when the booze helped offset the cold.. and the deicing systems were most important.

the exhaust stack looking thing might be a smoke generator that uses the waste heat from the nuke plant (or just an electric heater) to cook oils to generate smoke.

That's my favorite story from Soviet Russia. The bomber got the nickname 'booze tanker'. 200 gallon reservoir of grain alcohol.

[glitterboy2098]

it caused more issues for the MiG-25 and MiG-31. it had both deicing tanks and a supply of alcohol in its braking system. almost half a ton of it. it got named "the flying restaurant" by soviet ground crews. since they were "on call" as interceptors, sometimes the tanks couldn't be refilled before they had to sortie.
the early MiG-21 used alcohol as a coolant for its Radar.. it also had a history of radar failure. though in its case, the high heat put out when it operated boiled the alcohol off rapidly if left on. pilots that forgot to turn it off (it had enough coolant to run for 20 minutes) often ended up with the radar catching fire. probably wasn't a big issue in Russia (though the ground crews pillaging the coolant probably was), it made the type tricky to use in warmer climates.

[taalismn]

Little bit miffed that the auxiliary plasma turrets on the Tunguska Super-Tank use lower-ranged/powered plasma cannons and not the heavier and more powerful SPC-90s off the SU-45 Earthquake. Make the turrets a little larger and I imagine the bigger guns would fit. Serious sunburn on anybody approaching the super-command tank.

[Khanibal]

Little bit miffed that the auxiliary plasma turrets on the Tunguska Super-Tank use lower-ranged/powered plasma cannons and not the heavier and more powerful SPC-90s off the SU-45 Earthquake. Make the turrets a little larger and I imagine the bigger guns would fit. Serious sunburn on anybody approaching the super-command tank.

Not to mention, if you manufacture 6 different sizes of plasma beams, you have to run 6 different lines, and stock 6 times the spare parts.

[taalismn]

Little bit miffed that the auxiliary plasma turrets on the Tunguska Super-Tank use lower-ranged/powered plasma cannons and not the heavier and more powerful SPC-90s off the SU-45 Earthquake. Make the turrets a little larger and I imagine the bigger guns would fit. Serious sunburn on anybody approaching the super-command tank.

Not to mention, if you manufacture 6 different sizes of plasma beams, you have to run 6 different lines, and stock 6 times the spare parts.

So, Big Tungie upgrade?
Big Tungie upgrade.

[Khanibal]

So, Big Tungie upgrade?
Big Tungie upgrade.

Da Tovarisch.
No more than three sizes.
Man size.
Borg/Vehicle size.
Main Turret size.

[glitterboy2098]

Little bit miffed that the auxiliary plasma turrets on the Tunguska Super-Tank use lower-ranged/powered plasma cannons and not the heavier and more powerful SPC-90s off the SU-45 Earthquake. Make the turrets a little larger and I imagine the bigger guns would fit. Serious sunburn on anybody approaching the super-command tank.

Not to mention, if you manufacture 6 different sizes of plasma beams, you have to run 6 different lines, and stock 6 times the spare parts.

So, Big Tungie upgrade?
Big Tungie upgrade.

maybe they are the same guns, and something about the Tunguska's power system results in less than ideal performance?

or it could just be good old fashioned soviet 'planned economy'.. gotta keep those factories going, even if the weapons they are building have been rendered redundant by newer factories and systems..

[Khanibal]

or it could just be good old fashioned soviet 'planned economy'.. gotta keep those factories going, even if the weapons they are building have been rendered redundant by newer factories and systems..

Woah, ease up on those big words. I had to look up redundant in the dictionary. It read, "See Redundant." How's that a help?

[taalismn]

[

Woah, ease up on those big words. I had to look up redundant in the dictionary. It read, "See Redundant." How's that a help?

Use the 'Help' function if you don't know.

[kaid]

Been still poking through this book in my "copious free time" I do like the wolverine men Dbees a lot more in the official book than the raw preview. In the raw preview they were SDC I believe and did not like wearing armor which made them pretty problematic to use in a setting with so many borgs around. The release version has innate MDC and willing to wear hodge podge armor. While not huge amounts of MDC much less likely to get squashed by accident which is nice.

[AlooWalking]

Been still poking through this book in my "copious free time" I do like the wolverine men Dbees a lot more in the official book than the raw preview. In the raw preview they were SDC I believe and did not like wearing armor which made them pretty problematic to use in a setting with so many borgs around. The release version has innate MDC and willing to wear hodge podge armor. While not huge amounts of MDC much less likely to get squashed by accident which is nice.

Nice point. I don't recall why they were SDC originally. Maybe just because so many D-Bees end up being MDC, I wanted to add something more on a human level. I created the Wolverine Men in the context of the Russian peasantry and added the military service aspect later. These changes are better for the games most people are going to play.

[AlooWalking]

Got mine and slowly chewing through it, wondering morbidly how cynical or out of context the quotes by famous Russians like Uncle Joe are (as a 2nd generation Latvian-American, I defend the right to be skeptical of Communist speech).

We tried not to take the quotes too much out of context. That is, if Zhukov was talking about superior Soviet material relative to German arms, we used the quote as a way to claim the Sovietski feels the same way about their tech relative to their enemies (pg 106).
I love that you say you reserve the right to be sceptical. Another major reason to use the real quotes was to give you that guarded feeling. Everything in the book is presented as pro-Sovietski, but we tried to make it feel a bit like they were praising themselves so much, it couldn't possibly all be true. That is also why the Soviet Citizen OCC (pg. 127) effectively has a BS detector ability.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Been still poking through this book in my "copious free time" I do like the wolverine men Dbees a lot more in the official book than the raw preview. In the raw preview they were SDC I believe and did not like wearing armor which made them pretty problematic to use in a setting with so many borgs around. The release version has innate MDC and willing to wear hodge podge armor. While not huge amounts of MDC much less likely to get squashed by accident which is nice.

Nice point. I don't recall why they were SDC originally. Maybe just because so many D-Bees end up being MDC, I wanted to add something more on a human level. I created the Wolverine Men in the context of the Russian peasantry and added the military service aspect later. These changes are better for the games most people are going to play.

I too liked the changes for the Wolverine people. I liked the sexual dimorphisim aspect too. The females end up being deadlier in the long run. Good deal.

I did 'not' like the change to the Cold born. They were totally nerfed in the release version. I will be maintaining the powers from the preview on them.

[Pepsi Jedi]

And.... in my very eclectic flipping from point to point in the book to read stuff. Checked out the weapons in the back.

*Face palms*

Ugg... Better to have NO Illustrations than those. They're not the 'worst' guns done for palladium (Drawn) but they're pretty far down there. I mean there's some in previous books that look like they were done on the back of a pizza napkin with bent barrels and such. These are a step up from those.. but fuuuugly.

Now I know I know people are going to say "They ain't meant to look pretty, they're meant to kill stuff" but this is an RPG. if it's ugly as dirt we're going to use something else unless the stats are't spectacular... and the stats are not spectacular.

Just a minor gripe.

[kaid]

The yaga Dbees look really solid they seem a bit boosted over what I remember from the raw preview but pretty nice and really strange option for people. I never really paid attention to the exp chart in the preview but it is pretty hilarious. A bit of a slog to start but then you really start rapidly accelerating level wise. Another solid option for those who like warlock spells but don't want to play a warlock. It takes a bit for them to get spells but once they do they get them in pretty big batches mid level these things are nasty and high levels they are really really scary until they go poof.

[Pepsi Jedi]

I liked the history and strangeness of the Yaga's. didn't scope them as a power level. (I'm much more about history than stats) but they were indeed new and intresting.

My only real gripe about the DBees was there was one thread of commonality among them.

All 3 or 4 were perfectly 100% content to be subjects of the humans. Perfectly in their slots, with no problems what so ever about crap jobs or dangerous jobs or being used like 2 legged weapons.

One or two... ehhh.. ok. Some alien races might be like that, but all of them were just a bit 'too' perfectly content to be used in that fashion.

[taalismn]

Gonna build myself a Tunguska(and variants thereof) with spare parts from my copypasta bin.

[kaid]

Got mine and slowly chewing through it, wondering morbidly how cynical or out of context the quotes by famous Russians like Uncle Joe are (as a 2nd generation Latvian-American, I defend the right to be skeptical of Communist speech).

We tried not to take the quotes too much out of context. That is, if Zhukov was talking about superior Soviet material relative to German arms, we used the quote as a way to claim the Sovietski feels the same way about their tech relative to their enemies (pg 106).
I love that you say you reserve the right to be sceptical. Another major reason to use the real quotes was to give you that guarded feeling. Everything in the book is presented as pro-Sovietski, but we tried to make it feel a bit like they were praising themselves so much, it couldn't possibly all be true. That is also why the Soviet Citizen OCC (pg. 127) effectively has a BS detector ability.

The changes to coldborn are kinda odd. Their powers do basically minimal damage but their shield overall is while more bulky pretty quickly becomes better than what they had. Strong utility PSI powers very easy to frost peoples helmet visors/goggles to blind them and one interesting change is they have MOS picks which they did not have in the preview. One is a commando spetznaz type option. I can't think of any other master psychic with access to HTH commando. I can see them being more of a super soldier type build than some pure erupter like bursters. With their immunity to cold and flotation ability of their armor could sneak into some really weird places navy seal style that people would not expect attacks from.

[kaid]

Been going through the OCC some really nice ones the vedmak are really good field cyberdoc options. If you like to get your hands dirty they both have extra hands with which to get dirty and all the tools you should need to field strip clean/fix up borgs and get them back into play asap.

Their military OCCs all make heavy use of MOS options to give you a lot of choices on how you would like to focus your character. I also like that they kept the cyber humanoid options that were in the raw preview for some OCC like the police/spetsnaz. Most OCC also give you an option for various levels of cybernetic enhancement. So for those who like playing borgs lots of different ways to go for that route. The spetsnaz have a ton of options from multiple types of master psychic powers or magic or cybernetic enhancements or various other different ways to go.

Was looking at the coldborn more and they almost strike me a bit more like psi druids strong psychics but more utility support type stuff. Their armor stuff is nice if they find themselves in a firefight their armor is inexpensive to use and starts ramping up fast quality wise with levels. With their MOS options they can really fill a special forces role if you want to make one a primary combatant who has master psychic levels defenses for saves.