Mechans of Rhodan, a silly RCC

[drazool]

So I had this idea for a dbee race, and I think it would be hilarious.

The various races of the planet Rhodan lived in a fairly harmonious setting. A race of high-technology and magic, they had little need for their fleet of Giant Mecha. These engines of destruction, left over from long forgotten wars, were left behind in bunkers and museums, a reminder of a bloody time.

Unknown to the Rhodanians, their world was fair near to Rifts Earth, dimensionally speaking. When the great cataclysm occured on earth, terrifying giants began to invade their world! These horrifying creatures were as tall as skyscrapers! Only by rearming their Mecha and by slinging terrible magics were the Rhodanians able to repel these invaders.

As the smoke cleared, the World Council of Rhodan decided to send an expeditionary force to this newly discovered world - the world of Rifts Earth! Around 100 of their best pilots, mages, and psychics agreed to pilot several of their mecha through the portals, but they were totally unprepared for what they would find.

This was a world filled with Giants! Even the most diminutive of this planet's inhabitants were dozens of times larger than the largest Rhodanian. Worse yet, the rift that had brought them to this world collapsed behind them, stranding them in this world!

The tallest Rhodanians stand but two inches tall. Knowing that they were hopelessly mismatched against the giants, they infiltrated the crawspaces, attics, and sewers of this world, and worked diligently to build their awesome, extremely high-tech walking arcologies. Now, they walk amongst the giants, no one suspecting that inside of the apparent full conversion borg, is actually a small clan of aliens, operating the body.

Now, colonies of Rhodanians live in most high-tech human cities, occasionally completing a new colossus, and sending it out in the world.


So basically build as full-conversion borg, but rather than having a human brain inside, there's actually 1d4 * 10 teeny tiny dbees inside, who collectively maintain and operate the body. These 'borg are, in many cases, virtually identical a similar borg chassis, as the Mechans have learned to cleverly disguise their machines.

Variant:
Mechan Infiltration Team:
These are full or partial reconstruction borg chassis designed for an infiltration role. They are covered with human-like synthetic tissue.

Just a silly idea I had. I'll probably throw a few of these in to my upcoming game, because I find the idea to be endlessly amusing. Especially as a full-conversion borg in a group that otherwise doesn't know, it would provide for some super funny scenarios.

Like.. the caster uses reduce self, trying to infiltrate some building, and finds an entire community of tiny humanoids who are none too happy about a giant, even a 6" one, invading their little community.

You could also have little bands of them stow away in black market cybernetics or bionics. Or, haha, they could be the equivalent of an STD for 'borgs. Cue the party's borg complaining of an "itchy cyberjack port" after spending the night with a "Borg of the Evening".

hahaha, I'm cracking myself up over here.

[Nightmartree]

I like it, amusing idea, but be careful, your essentially playing a colony of people

also man scouting was never so intense, you send a 2 inch tall scout out, but you have to be careful, after all its a big world out there and if the mecha isn't careful people may begin to question why he refuses to leave with all this lead raining down on you

the answer is they're waiting for their away team to return, and praying for the security team, they knew they shouldn't have made their uniforms red!

[drazool]

I like it, amusing idea, but be careful, your essentially playing a colony of people

also man scouting was never so intense, you send a 2 inch tall scout out, but you have to be careful, after all its a big world out there and if the mecha isn't careful people may begin to question why he refuses to leave with all this lead raining down on you

the answer is they're waiting for their away team to return, and praying for the security team, they knew they shouldn't have made their uniforms red!

I figure at any given time, they player is actually playing the "Captain". Alignment shifts are explained by civil wars happening inside. Character starts doing a bunch of evil stuff? Captain got sick, and a lieutenant was in command. Character stays evil? The crew decided they liked it.

[Nightmartree]

I like it, amusing idea, but be careful, your essentially playing a colony of people

also man scouting was never so intense, you send a 2 inch tall scout out, but you have to be careful, after all its a big world out there and if the mecha isn't careful people may begin to question why he refuses to leave with all this lead raining down on you

the answer is they're waiting for their away team to return, and praying for the security team, they knew they shouldn't have made their uniforms red!

I figure at any given time, they player is actually playing the "Captain". Alignment shifts are explained by civil wars happening inside. Character starts doing a bunch of evil stuff? Captain got sick, and a lieutenant was in command. Character stays evil? The crew decided they liked it.

democracy at its finest, here is a kicker, run a campaign of rhondals but don't TELL your characters they're in rifts, tell them they live in a colossi that protects them from the giants outside and then run a campaign INSIDE the machine, political intrigue, civil war, gangs, the colossi is attached by man sized bugs, a battle is happening vs a giant and the captain has lost critical control over one of the limbs, you are the only ones close enough to fix it, as the machine you live inside leaps, dodges and moves at a speed that is dazzling to you, you must work your way to the broken components (maybe past a flood of oil, holes to the outside and "lighting" from the broken wires all to conduct an emergency repair...right as you meet a few of the bugs that escaped termination)

see if anyone figures it out

[drazool]

I like it, amusing idea, but be careful, your essentially playing a colony of people

also man scouting was never so intense, you send a 2 inch tall scout out, but you have to be careful, after all its a big world out there and if the mecha isn't careful people may begin to question why he refuses to leave with all this lead raining down on you

the answer is they're waiting for their away team to return, and praying for the security team, they knew they shouldn't have made their uniforms red!

I figure at any given time, they player is actually playing the "Captain". Alignment shifts are explained by civil wars happening inside. Character starts doing a bunch of evil stuff? Captain got sick, and a lieutenant was in command. Character stays evil? The crew decided they liked it.

democracy at its finest, here is a kicker, run a campaign of rhondals but don't TELL your characters they're in rifts, tell them they live in a colossi that protects them from the giants outside and then run a campaign INSIDE the machine, political intrigue, civil war, gangs, the colossi is attached by man sized bugs, a battle is happening vs a giant and the captain has lost critical control over one of the limbs, you are the only ones close enough to fix it, as the machine you live inside leaps, dodges and moves at a speed that is dazzling to you, you must work your way to the broken components (maybe past a flood of oil, holes to the outside and "lighting" from the broken wires all to conduct an emergency repair...right as you meet a few of the bugs that escaped termination)

see if anyone figures it out

That would be such an epic campaign.

[Nightmartree]

That would be such an epic campaign.

I also think there are a few fey that are close to the height of these guys, within 4 inches at least, would make for a good case of "giants" and getting a look inside the small world of the fey...from an even smaller perspective

[taalismn]

Mmm..fun idea there. Yeah, perspective's a ####er, especially when you discover that the drone camera's not up close...it's actually a kilometer away...the image target is just THAT large.

[Willy Elektrix]

This idea is pretty imaginative. I wish Rifts had more RCCs like this, and less boring human-like D-bees. Good work!

It would be fun to play intelligent slime molds, bodiless beings of pure energy, giant amoebas, etc.

[taalismn]

This idea is pretty imaginative. I wish Rifts had more RCCs like this, and less boring human-like D-bees. Good work!

It would be fun to play intelligent slime molds, bodiless beings of pure energy, giant amoebas, etc.

The problem with the wholly nonhuman-physiology character is, of course, that it's a HUMAN trying to play it.
Like my college philosophy professor put it; 'try as you might, you'll never truly understand what it is to be a bat".
Would a gestaltic being compromised of thousands of sub-units be more accepting of attritional losses of its sub-units, or MORE cautious and more miserly, less prone to risk individual components? Would an intelligent bacterium burn through hosts like a playboy through fast cars. or would it take care of its host and even give the resident intelligence a say in the day-to-day activities? Would an energy being regard a raging wildfire like we would a rabid animal?

[Nightmartree]

This idea is pretty imaginative. I wish Rifts had more RCCs like this, and less boring human-like D-bees. Good work!

It would be fun to play intelligent slime molds, bodiless beings of pure energy, giant amoebas, etc.

hehe rework a certain alien intelligence from England, do some shifting to a aps from heroes and an alien, and a bit more shifting for an amoeba...easy enough

want some stats with those dreams my fellow?

[Nightmartree]

This idea is pretty imaginative. I wish Rifts had more RCCs like this, and less boring human-like D-bees. Good work!

It would be fun to play intelligent slime molds, bodiless beings of pure energy, giant amoebas, etc.

The problem with the wholly nonhuman-physiology character is, of course, that it's a HUMAN trying to play it.
Like my college philosophy professor put it; 'try as you might, you'll never truly understand what it is to be a bat".
Would a gestaltic being compromised of thousands of sub-units be more accepting of attritional losses of its sub-units, or MORE cautious and more miserly, less prone to risk individual components? Would an intelligent bacterium burn through hosts like a playboy through fast cars. or would it take care of its host and even give the resident intelligence a say in the day-to-day activities? Would an energy being regard a raging wildfire like we would a rabid animal?

This is why backstory and playing in character are a thing, but they require there to actually be a written backstory, i mean...the rifts books can only be so big, when i have to write a backstory up for a random generated alien for a heroes game i'm already at 2 pages and i've barely touched the surface of their culture, anatomy, reasons for development and government/military/religion/philosophies/relations/ect./ect/ect....

[taalismn]

This idea is pretty imaginative. I wish Rifts had more RCCs like this, and less boring human-like D-bees. Good work!

It would be fun to play intelligent slime molds, bodiless beings of pure energy, giant amoebas, etc.

The problem with the wholly nonhuman-physiology character is, of course, that it's a HUMAN trying to play it.
Like my college philosophy professor put it; 'try as you might, you'll never truly understand what it is to be a bat".
Would a gestaltic being compromised of thousands of sub-units be more accepting of attritional losses of its sub-units, or MORE cautious and more miserly, less prone to risk individual components? Would an intelligent bacterium burn through hosts like a playboy through fast cars. or would it take care of its host and even give the resident intelligence a say in the day-to-day activities? Would an energy being regard a raging wildfire like we would a rabid animal?

This is why backstory and playing in character are a thing, but they require there to actually be a written backstory, i mean...the rifts books can only be so big, when i have to write a backstory up for a random generated alien for a heroes game i'm already at 2 pages and i've barely touched the surface of their culture, anatomy, reasons for development and government/military/religion/philosophies/relations/ect./ect/ect....

Hence why http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=68194 represents a LOT of work for some of the posts...

[Nightmartree]

Hence why http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=68194 represents a LOT of work for some of the posts...

Oh god...I really wanna find my Sun Chicken race now...and I have some cat people I recently had to make up for a game...

and this is reminding me about my Psi Crystals I was working on ( grrrrrr I deleted/lost the like 4 page long list of add ons i'd made)

and okay I had to do a double take when I was reading the species index and saw one posted by unknown nobody, my first though was "hey that's mean to write" and then I realized...

[taalismn]

Hence why http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=68194 represents a LOT of work for some of the posts...

Oh god...I really wanna find my Sun Chicken race now...and I have some cat people I recently had to make up for a game...

and this is reminding me about my Psi Crystals I was working on ( grrrrrr I deleted/lost the like 4 page long list of add ons i'd made)

and okay I had to do a double take when I was reading the species index and saw one posted by unknown nobody, my first though was "hey that's mean to write" and then I realized...

I look forward to seeing your future contributions to the thread.

Psi-Crystals?
I've had an idea for psychically-active Brain Corals for a while....

[Nightmartree]

I look forward to seeing your future contributions to the thread.

Psi-Crystals?
I've had an idea for psychically-active Brain Corals for a while....

I believe you've posted in my thread about them, Quantum Psi Crystals?
and Brain Corals hmmm...I could see it totally

and though It hasn't been posted yet there was some information on the crystals I wrote up potentially being able to house psychic minds (creating essentially Psychic Intelligences with ISP based on their crystals...big crystals or the mines could even house multiples, maybe even the psyches of the races ancestors...you thought messing with a alien intelligence was bad? how about a few hundred psychic masters with more ISP than gods)

[taalismn]

I look forward to seeing your future contributions to the thread.

Psi-Crystals?
I've had an idea for psychically-active Brain Corals for a while....

I believe you've posted in my thread about them, Quantum Psi Crystals?)

Entirely possible....so much has passed through my head over time(commonsense only briefly took up temporary residence there) that I'll have to look over the stuff again to refresh my memory.

[Nightmartree]

Entirely possible....so much has passed through my head over time(commonsense only briefly took up temporary residence there) that I'll have to look over the stuff again to refresh my memory.

well you may not have long to wait on that homebrewed race...though no idea how they hold up

[Willy Elektrix]

This idea is pretty imaginative. I wish Rifts had more RCCs like this, and less boring human-like D-bees. Good work!

It would be fun to play intelligent slime molds, bodiless beings of pure energy, giant amoebas, etc.

The problem with the wholly nonhuman-physiology character is, of course, that it's a HUMAN trying to play it.
Like my college philosophy professor put it; 'try as you might, you'll never truly understand what it is to be a bat".
Would a gestaltic being compromised of thousands of sub-units be more accepting of attritional losses of its sub-units, or MORE cautious and more miserly, less prone to risk individual components? Would an intelligent bacterium burn through hosts like a playboy through fast cars. or would it take care of its host and even give the resident intelligence a say in the day-to-day activities? Would an energy being regard a raging wildfire like we would a rabid animal?

You're totally right. Playing non-humanoids is pretty hard, but I want to try anyway!

[taalismn]

Entirely possible....so much has passed through my head over time(commonsense only briefly took up temporary residence there) that I'll have to look over the stuff again to refresh my memory.

well you may not have long to wait on that homebrewed race...though no idea how they hold up

Think of it as evolution in action. Not all species are created equal, and there's no such thing as a level playing field in the greater megaversal ecology. A weak race finding itself being driven to extinction by contact with a stronger species might have to consider some radical things in order to survive, or it might discover that its particular 'niche' provides it with unexpected strengths(like an immunity to certain radiations that play hob with the cytoplasm of the Big Bad Warrior Bricks). That's where storytelling comes into play, or perhaps a campaign to determine an entire species' survival.