Coalition equipment

[An Madadh]

Hello,

Been a long time Rifts player but I'm new to the forum. I did do a few searches to get the answer to my question (which I imagine has been asked before) but was unable to find a solution.

The question is i suppose 2 questions.

1) Is there any existing lore that mitigates non-coalition agents from taking and using coalition equipment?

2) How do you, as game masters, handle it when the party overcomes a coalition threat and loots vehicles and equipment.

I'm not really concerned about balance, but rather verisimilitude. Are there any existing, or do you ever employ anything to dissuade the party from just grabbing a MK V APC (if they are able to take it without destroying it)?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[guardiandashi]

Hello,

Been a long time Rifts player but I'm new to the forum. I did do a few searches to get the answer to my question (which I imagine has been asked before) but was unable to find a solution.

The question is i suppose 2 questions.

1) Is there any existing lore that mitigates non-coalition agents from taking and using coalition equipment?

2) How do you, as game masters, handle it when the party overcomes a coalition threat and loots vehicles and equipment.

I'm not really concerned about balance, but rather verisimilitude. Are there any existing, or do you ever employ anything to dissuade the party from just grabbing a MK V APC (if they are able to take it without destroying it)?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

my view on it is if you are the GM you need to start by deciding how you want to handle it.

my understanding is officially the coalition Does NOT sell equipment, they are a military I will then qualify that and say that they do NOT sell frontline (new) gear, but second tier (older gear) they may be more flexible on. With that said, there is the black market that arranges for equipment to "fall off the back of a truck" and various other explanations, there are counterfit, pieces of gear, and people who cosmetically modify stuff "no that is not heavy deadboy armor, its reinforced bushman.... " and similar.

with that in mind, in a campaign I played in some of the characters were very proficient at treating the coalition as "loot Piñatas' " IE ambush a coalition patrol kill them off, and loot the gear and vanish before retribution greater than they could handle showed up. and then either use or sell the gear. the main reason they didn't have explicit bounties is the coalition never connected them to their activities

I will also point out that the coalition does expect a certain level of losses on standard patrols and as long as you don't create enough of an outlier for excessive losses they may not react too badly, and if you don't make it obvious you are using stolen restricted tech (and you have "believable" receipts and such, they might look the other way.

if on the other hand you are blatantly using new/prototype gear around the time it is first deployed they likely would tend to confiscate it at gun point or execute you and take it back,

[taalismn]

Agreed. The older/weaker the stuff is, the less likely it is to raise eyebrows, especially if you're obviously using it to fight d-bees and other threats to the CS, and not flaunting it around CS communities and bases.

Newer gear? You better (quickly) show something ID'ing you as an approved agent or private contractor to the CS with some high-rank references, or you'll be lucky not to be shot on the spot.

[Mlp7029]

My group sells everything but ammo. Please note the prices listed for the Coalition energy weapons are noted as Black Market Cost. Things listed with a Blck Market Cost would seem to me to be available on the Black Market and should be sellable to to them as well..

[Library Ogre]

I'd also note the other side of using Coalition equipment... if you're using anything new or terribly signature, people are going to assume you're with the Coalition, at least at first. Are you flying the SAMAS you stole? Still have it Death's Head Black? People are going to assume you're with the Coalition, for good or ill. Coalition forces will have ways of telling you're not with them, but everyone else will probably be a bit more cautious (which can translate into "Well, let's shoot that SAMAS out of the sky, since we can and **** the Coalition.")

[Hawk258]

There are times in adventures source books that a coalition unit "drops" a crate of equipment. Thought it is advisable that the characters use discretion while using them.

Long trenchcoat armor, paint, and other modifications would help.

You can also take a page from archie 3 and put a human in place to be the spokesman, and have a communication jammer going. Claim to be a merc group on a special mission into (highly dangerous area) as the CS has no issue sending d-bees and others to their deaths for CS goals.

But roll accordingly

In fact if you look Coalition and are fighting one of their "enemies" they will likely send cameras with to be used for propaganda of how "brave" the soldiers are and/or how bad the bad guys are. (It still looks good if "the CS" loses. As they can say "these are not our friends and will kill you"

[dreicunan]

There are times in adventures source books that a coalition unit "drops" a crate of equipment. Thought it is advisable that the characters use discretion while using them.

Long trenchcoat armor, paint, and other modifications would help.

You can also take a page from archie 3 and put a human in place to be the spokesman, and have a communication jammer going. Claim to be a merc group on a special mission into (highly dangerous area) as the CS has no issue sending d-bees and others to their deaths for CS goals.

But roll accordingly

In fact if you look Coalition and are fighting one of their "enemies" they will likely send cameras with to be used for propaganda of how "brave" the soldiers are and/or how bad the bad guys are. (It still looks good if "the CS" loses. As they can say "these are not our friends and will kill you"

How exactly are these cameras following people around and getting footage for propoganda? Are you suggesting that the Coalition is likely to embed someone in a camera with a group of non-Coalition troops on the off-chance that they might get some footage for propoganda? That the Coalition will see people using their gear and then give them cameras to record their exploits just in case they get good footage for propoganda?

[Hawk258]

There are times in adventures source books that a coalition unit "drops" a crate of equipment. Thought it is advisable that the characters use discretion while using them.

Long trenchcoat armor, paint, and other modifications would help.

You can also take a page from archie 3 and put a human in place to be the spokesman, and have a communication jammer going. Claim to be a merc group on a special mission into (highly dangerous area) as the CS has no issue sending d-bees and others to their deaths for CS goals.

But roll accordingly

In fact if you look Coalition and are fighting one of their "enemies" they will likely send cameras with to be used for propaganda of how "brave" the soldiers are and/or how bad the bad guys are. (It still looks good if "the CS" loses. As they can say "these are not our friends and will kill you"

How exactly are these cameras following people around and getting footage for propoganda? Are you suggesting that the Coalition is likely to embed someone in a camera with a group of non-Coalition troops on the off-chance that they might get some footage for propoganda? That the Coalition will see people using their gear and then give them cameras to record their exploits just in case they get good footage for propoganda?

Well there are many ways it could be handled. But yes, since the CS government controls the media and what have you anything can be used to further their agenda

You have camera drones and other equipment that the CS has access to that can follow along.

The CS can manipulate the video to fit their goals.

But if the characters don't want to blow their cover, they might play along.

There are many times the CS will use mercs to do jobs for them, but may want to make it look good and give the mercs the "implied" authority to do the job.

If the groups mission happens to benefit the CS without them Getting their own hands dirty they wouldn't hesitate to play it.

What is a few suits of armor, weapons compared to not committing their own troops and possibly getting video to spoon feed the public "the CS is working for you"

But there is the "uncertainty principle": how did they get it? Are they powerful enough to take out a group of troops? Did they steal it, buy it?

Which on the CS side Caution is the better part of valor. And that does mean that a CS leader isn't going to ignore it, but will exploit it to his fullest.

[dreicunan]

There are times in adventures source books that a coalition unit "drops" a crate of equipment. Thought it is advisable that the characters use discretion while using them.

Long trenchcoat armor, paint, and other modifications would help.

You can also take a page from archie 3 and put a human in place to be the spokesman, and have a communication jammer going. Claim to be a merc group on a special mission into (highly dangerous area) as the CS has no issue sending d-bees and others to their deaths for CS goals.

But roll accordingly

In fact if you look Coalition and are fighting one of their "enemies" they will likely send cameras with to be used for propaganda of how "brave" the soldiers are and/or how bad the bad guys are. (It still looks good if "the CS" loses. As they can say "these are not our friends and will kill you"

How exactly are these cameras following people around and getting footage for propoganda? Are you suggesting that the Coalition is likely to embed someone in a camera with a group of non-Coalition troops on the off-chance that they might get some footage for propoganda? That the Coalition will see people using their gear and then give them cameras to record their exploits just in case they get good footage for propoganda?

Well there are many ways it could be handled. But yes, since the CS government controls the media and what have you anything can be used to further their agenda

You have camera drones and other equipment that the CS has access to that can follow along.

The CS can manipulate the video to fit their goals.

But if the characters don't want to blow their cover, they might play along.

There are many times the CS will use mercs to do jobs for them, but may want to make it look good and give the mercs the "implied" authority to do the job.

If the groups mission happens to benefit the CS without them Getting their own hands dirty they wouldn't hesitate to play it.

What is a few suits of armor, weapons compared to not committing their own troops and possibly getting video to spoon feed the public "the CS is working for you"

But there is the "uncertainty principle": how did they get it? Are they powerful enough to take out a group of troops? Did they steal it, buy it?

Which on the CS side Caution is the better part of valor. And that does mean that a CS leader isn't going to ignore it, but will exploit it to his fullest.

Well, I think that what you are suggesting is ludicrous, not least because it would be an absolute waste of time and resources on the part of the CS. They already have a top-notch propaganda department. If they need to film troops in action against enemies of the CS, they have hundreds of thousands of troopers to film. The war against Tolkeen alone would have provided them with more opportunities to get footage than they could use in Joseph Prosek II's lifetime, and then along came the minion war. The CS wouldn't do what you suggest because they have absolutely no need for it.