Rifts: Alaska Suggestion, perhaps Pacific Northwest

[Library Ogre]

If you want to write it, do it. I think an article on Rifts Alaska or Rifts Northwest North America would be fantastic.

If you're wanting someone else to write it... well, putting this out here will get some interest.

[Prince Artemis]

Alaska isn't as great a spot to go as it may seem. Even without knowing details about the place itself, there are four obsticals. Xiticix and the demon lands of calgary, the xion in BC, the dangerous creatures in the pacific ocean, and the god knows what in the north west territories. Not to say it can't be done as the Tundra Rangers have a way, but for most laymen and the huddled masses, that's not really a good way to go. Most would head towards the rockies if anything.

[Aramanthus]

I personally think it has great potential. The tribes there could add a depth that other books have. The legendary creatures you could add in would be quite bit of depth to the overall Rifts world! And as you pointed out elsewhere it's resource rich!

[zor_prime1]

Rifts Alaska would definately be a big order. Personally, I've been researching it for a while and trying to get the hook I need to get some good material and a good angle for Rifts and Chaos Earth. I've even overlayed a Rifts map on top of the regular map to see the difference in the coast lines and geological features. Alaska is a big region with tons of terrain that can be very harsh. It's a big challenge. But, having never lived or visited there (and I envy you because I'd love to visit ), I think you've got a huge advantage over me.

It sounds like you have some good ideas that you're willing to tackle. I've been researching and gathering material for the Bering Strait on both continents mostly. The rest of Alaska is huge. If you can give us some insight, that would be awsome. Heck, maybe the frontier style is because Alaska is so difficult to get to as Prince Artemis pointed out.

So far I've placed a group of people called the Kezel up there in Alaska for Rifts (the article was universal for all magical settings). The article is in Rifter 42 and is called Supernatural Leatherworking article. But that's about the only mention of Alaska in there. This article was inspired by the frontier days and the trapping trade combined with the tribe way of life. It just incorporated the new supernatural materials to capture and use.

If you'd like to co-op an article or coordinate between our individual articles, I'd be glad to do that. Even if we don't, could I ask you questions about Alaska anyway? But it's up to you what you want to do. My Bering Strait article is still in the infant design state.

[Dustin Fireblade]

Just remember that there are Native American Preserves in Alaska and another in Washington (Water Point Preserve). Plus as mentioned there is also the Cyber-Centaur city of Ixion as well.

It seems quite a few folks will begin talking about the Pacific Northwest and not realize that there are already established canon groups in the area.

Still, Alaska is a big place and there could be room for more than one group placed there.

[glitterboy2098]

actually thats a neat idea, but just to play devils advocate, and thus help point out the biggest hurdles you'll need to address...

A: most of the Tolkeenite refugees are currently in Lyn-Syrrl Skycastles, and show no desire to leave, being city-dwellers first and formost.

B: Alaska and the pacific northwest is a long way away from the great plains, where the Skycastles currently are. it is also a much different enviroment than Minnesota, which may put off those willing to homestead, and at the very least make it that much harder to survive.

C: in order to get to the pacific northwest and alaska, you have to pass over/through three of the most dangerous areas in north america: The Rockie mountains, the Calgary Monster Kingdom, or Mexico.


that said, there are a few points in favor of the idea:

1: the skycastles are temporary. they will only last a couple years. the lyn-syrrl know this, the tolkeenites don't care. eventually they will have to settle somewhere.

2: the skycastles are mobile. you could in theory navigate them across the mountains and drop off the entire cityload of refugees. presumably plenty of supplies and gear would be collected before such an undertaking, routed through places like arzno or the colorado baronies to prevent the CS from finding out.

3: the pacific coast, being far away from the coalition, would be a semi-safe place for a "new tolkeen" to be built, although itm ight have it's own troubles.*





*i actually have a list for a currently on-hiatus write up of a west coast worldbook. including one rifter article i sent in for a nation in oregon...

[Aramanthus]

People could always work together and produce a product that brings together many ideas. You just need to figure out who needs to work on it. Right now there are at least two on this thread Deacon. You and Zor_Prime1. I'm not sure if GB2098 is too busy. Youi'd have to ask him. But you two could start bouncing your ideas off each other and use the other ideas people have suggested. And you could assemble a great Rifter article, if not a worldbook.

[Dustin Fireblade]

At one time there was quite a few of us working on a West Coast project to be hosted as a netbook. That's been a few years ago now.

[Zenvis]

I agree that you could combine effort but without communication and a central figure to turn in the work it would be just another open source D20 book that really doesn't flow. Who would be that editor?

[glitterboy2098]

At one time there was quite a few of us working on a West Coast project to be hosted as a netbook. That's been a few years ago now.

yeah. i think my Oregon protectorate was the only bit of that that actually got sent in. and oddly, i had that before we started TFNP. although you guys were a big help in pointing out all the bugs and problems in it..

most of the list of things i have for the west coast came out of those discussions, i dropped anything that wasn't my idea, sadly. there were some neat concepts being thrown about.

but the haunted forests and prehistoric mammals/birds survived...

and as much as i'd love to rewrite some of the problem i found in my protectorate (there are some things in there i ask myself "what was i thinking?"), but i've already got a project i really should be working on, that i've procrastinated too often on already...

[Dustin Fireblade]

At one time there was quite a few of us working on a West Coast project to be hosted as a netbook. That's been a few years ago now.

yeah. i think my Oregon protectorate was the only bit of that that actually got sent in. and oddly, i had that before we started TFNP. although you guys were a big help in pointing out all the bugs and problems in it..

Yeah I never finished my write-up for Waterpoint Preserve, and as far as I know you are the only one that sent anything in from all that.

[Slag]

I'd actually pitched a PNW world book series idea a while back and got no response. Of course with the current backlog of products awaiting funding for the go-ahead we're talking years out anyway.

Had some similar ideas to what's being brought up here, plus a few entuirely different. Also thought Tolkeen refugees and a culture-clash with the rural "locals", but the Cloud City factor limits that...or at least delays implementation as some of the Tolkies wear out their welcome or get sick of living in the clouds. No reason a party might not still seek that "great horizon".

It was to include Waterpoint Preserve and Fort Alaska plus alot of other things.

The parts that stuck out for me for the area geolographically were:

a) remoteness and isolation, particularly interior Alaska/Yukon with the Yukon valley well protected behind very rugged mountain ranges

b) the temperate and resource-rich nature of the coastal areas from Kodiak down through NoCal, but the vulnerability to ocean attack

c) the volcanic potential of the Aleutians

d) the relative proximity to Calgary, though shielded by the Rockies and the centaurs

e) the proximity to Siberia

This resulted in a strange situation that brought in potential links to Russia, Canada, Calgary, and Underseas. I'd envisioned a moderate tech confederacy of villages in the interior that lived in peaceful isolation, a beleagured coastline defended by the Native American powers, and potential nastiness that threatened the peaceful isolation from nasties in the Ocean (LotD, Horune, etc.), nasties from Calgary, nasties from the far north threatening Fort Alaska (I considered having them retreat south since the fort can theoretically move), and nasties from the west via a particularly nasty exiled Russian Warlord (I'd originally envisioned a "Necro-Vampire Gestapo" kingdom that ruled the long nights of the winter, but frackin' 30 Days of Night beat me to it! ).

I'd also envisioned a great Warlock & Elemental haven in the Aleutians that could be a total wild card.

Of course I never got a response, so I went on to other things. Happy to asist if others care to take up the torch. If anyone is serious about doing it and wants advice (or even collabaration) drop me a PM or email.

[glitterboy2098]

2. Rifts Russia
Beautiful material on cold-weather survival and adaptations of weapons and armor for same, plus it shows how paramilitary groups can survive and even to an extent prosper even under worse conditions than Alaska. (I don't picture Alaska having suffered the same unending Winter Russia did.)

actually, it probably did. the russian long winter was basically a volcanically induced ice age. all the ash and suplhides in the atmosphere creating a global cooling effect, which tipped the scales into a little ice age. the entire planet would suffer it. russia, scandinavia, alaska, and canada would merely feel the brunt of it, as decreased temps combine with the natural weather patterns to create years with cold winters, cool summers, and fairly high precipitation. while the massive ice sheets of the last major ice age probably didn't show up, the effects are likely to be similar, if not greater, than the effects of the little ice age, a period of colder weather that started after the Medieval maximum and that the earth only exited in the mid 1800's, roughly a century and a half ago.



on another note, i keep seeing two discussions here. while this debate started with Alaska, it seems to have expanded to include The Pacific North west. now it seems ot me that this is a [b]huge[/i] area to cover. and that it might be served better to be broken into two regions of focus.

first, Alaska, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories. perhaps as a kind of "Rifts Canada II", as Rifts Canada focused mostly on the eastern part of canada. (i apologise to all the alaskans here on the boards for lumping you in with the canadians, but from an orginizational approach it simlifies things. no offense intended to all the canadians on the boards for lumping you in with us silly americans either.. )


the second regional focus would be Washington, Oregon, California, and the Baja Region. a "RIFTS: Pacific Coast", that covers the american far west, that isolated area behind the barrier mountains (rockies).


'canada II' would have Fort Alaska and the City of Ixion to cover in addition to the Tundra Rangers and anything new, while Pacific coast would have to deal with Water Point Preserve and Valley Preserve, not to mention the simvan and psi-stalker war as well as anything new in it.

the two have different climates, and thus ecosystems, with the areas of Washington/ southern B.C. being a sort of "blending" area where stufff from both show up. while canada II would cover a greater land area, it's an area with lower population density even today, and thus would likely have a more thinly spread out population, so the two would actualyl cover about the same amount of material...

both are a good location for frontier elements, but each would have a regional flair not seen in the other.

[glitterboy2098]

on the gripping hand, Canada and the United States were part of one big alliance, so any military bases in both will by NAA or it's disaster response group NEMA. the 'us military' and 'canadian military' only existed as a sub-catagory of the overall military command, and NEMA was a new unified command. thus the bases of both alaska and canada would have the same equipment and weapons, and be operating together.

second, the mass die off due to the cataclysm's enviromental upheavals and the societal collapse, followed by the century of ice age ensure that both alaska and north/western canada are "Vacancy: Occupants wanted" until reletively late in the 2nd dark ages. any society that remains is going to be either A) native american or B) the descendants the few survivors or from immigrants. thus any culture up there will be new, with perhaps a touch of what came before. the cultural differances we have today don't apply.

third, if alaskans are as survival minded as you claim (can't say myself, never been up there), it is very likely that the repopulation on north/western canada will be by alaskan survivors, as currently (and probably for the next century), north western canada is still a reletively sparely populated area.

[glitterboy2098]

well, it might, but a quick look at the map shows most of the big Alaskan communities are coastal, which means they tidal wave chow. and the rest are going to have major supplies issues with the collapse of society, being so far from the center of modern society. not just food, but spare parts, medicines, ect. and Alaska isn't exactly an industrial powerhouse, although it does have a decent amount of raw materials (albiet often untapped or inefficent to access). so unless there are some major restructuring of the global economy, it is unlikely alaska will have great factories to fall back on (like Germany did) or arcologies (like Chi-town).

in fact, it is likely that survivors will head to military bases, much liek the tundra rangers did, and that those facilities will become the centers for alaskan or canadian post-cataclysm civilization. at least until the spare parts run out....or the demons get them...

heck, perhaps it's the alaskan communities that keep the Tundra rangers going. the TR's trading manufactured goods from their super-fort factory to the alaskans in exchange for food and raw materials...

[glitterboy2098]

well, in regards to the LotD, the squid-o-doom himself is three thousand plus miles away in the south pacific (challenger deep), and probably doesn't leave tht area much. his reacher's can get to alaska, but other than grabbing some whales, i doubt they show up often.

cults of the deep might be a problem, but probably not as big of one as say, washignton, oregon, or california region. frankly, i doubt alaska is populated enough to be able to support much CotD activity. though it's always an option.

[glitterboy2098]

except the LotD has what, 8 tentacles? to cover how many millions of cubic miles of ocean?

is there some particular reason the reachers would menace alaskan waters more often than say, the coasts of japan, coasts of texas, coasts of england, coasts of germany, or the coasts of austrialia...where there are substantially more people in boats?

[Library Ogre]

except the LotD has what, 8 tentacles? to cover how many millions of cubic miles of ocean?

is there some particular reason the reachers would menace alaskan waters more often than say, the coasts of japan, coasts of texas, coasts of england, coasts of germany, or the coasts of austrialia...where there are substantially more people in boats?

Because from Challenger Deep he can't reach Texas, England, or Germany?

[gaby]

You could rifted in a alien/Fantasy city on the coast.

[glitterboy2098]

except the LotD has what, 8 tentacles? to cover how many millions of cubic miles of ocean?

is there some particular reason the reachers would menace alaskan waters more often than say, the coasts of japan, coasts of texas, coasts of england, coasts of germany, or the coasts of austrialia...where there are substantially more people in boats?

Because from Challenger Deep he can't reach Texas, England, or Germany?

except for the fact that WB7 says the reachers can get ot any part of the oceans...seriously, check the little "can be found in" map thing under the entry. nearly the entire ocean is blacked out.


Deacon, i think your absolutely correct, but i would give some advice.
too much of a "welcome, we're all friends here" attitude makes for a rather dull setting, as there is little reason for conflict.

what i would suggest is that if you go with the "westward migration" of peoples from the domain of man, that those newcomers carrry with them the paranoia and militant attitude that let them survive in the east.

likewise i'd have the xenophobia and aggression of the locals be 'underground'. secret societies and such where people who dislike "those aliens" and such can come together and vent their frustrations, perhaps even become havens for people who would fit right in in the CS. (not exactly KKK type here, i'm thinking more along the lines of the baldnobber's.)

[Aramanthus]

WOW. You get busy with RL for a few weeks and come back! All I can say is WOW! You guys have a lot of ideas on the table!

[Slag]

And remember: as per D-Bees of NA Kraks are common to Alaska.

[Aramanthus]

I have to reread that book someday. Thank you for the reminder.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

All I can say is I'd love to see this as a Rifter article series that could later be collected & expanded into a worldbook.I'd buy the issues that had it as well as the ones dealing w/ the PNW.

After I get a copy of WoR I plan on writing up a Kingdom (I've mentioned in other related threads) to be the base of a future RIFTS campaign I want to run.So any meaty articles dealing w/ Alaska & the PNW would be very welcomed.

[Aramanthus]

You are quite correct it does have a lot of potential that could start off as a Rifter article and expand later into a full blown Worldbook. I'd also love to run and or play in a campaign in this setting.

[Slag]

Just remember that there are Native American Preserves in Alaska

actually there are no native american preserves in alaska. the eskimo people own their land, out right.

He means "Preserves" ala Rifts Spirit West. Specifically he means Fort Alaska Preserve which IIRC is Inuit run and on a "floating fortress" locked in the arctic ice (I've assumed in the north off of Barrow or Dead Horse or so).

Could the floating fortress perhaps be...this?

[glitterboy2098]

i saw it as something related ot that. This. or some variation on it.

which in turn is a grander version of this current concept.

some pics of various proposed styles

IIRC, the eskimo base thing from WB15 was a mobile, submersible, base.......oh krutz. maybe they have an uncomplete Ticonderoga class.....

[Slag]

Good find, GB!

Actually, they could expand it rather easily with Pykrete, "a mixture of sea water and woodpulp which frozen together [is] tougher than steel and [will] neither melt nor sink".

See Project Habakkuk from WWII.

Ironically, Habakkuk sounds like an inuit word! It's actually a biblical reference (see link).

[Aramanthus]

It would be pretty neat to expand on that. Whee is the frozen fortress mentioned in the Spirit West?

[zor_prime1]

Fort Alaska is mentioned on page 208 of Spirit West. As far as I know, it's the best description of the fort.

Deacon, I'll send you a PM or an email to get back in touch with you on this. I'm sorry. I've been busy so I haven't been able to coordinate with you beyond what I've sent so far.

[Danger]

Don't forget, there's also a FedEx hub in Anchorage.

Mega-Damage Delivery Service, when it absolutely has to be there overnight.

I'm just sayin'...

[Aramanthus]

Maybe after civilazation is reestablished. That is unless someone found their facilities fairly undamaged and able to get them up and running with minimum effort.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Don't forget that via canon sources, the rockies have changed and are by all accounts a different mountain range than they were before the coming of Rifts. Not just shifting due to tectonic shift, but compleatly new mountains, much larger and wilder than the ones we have currently.

That and supposedly "Noone knows what's on the other side" Of them.

It's been purposefully put 'off limits' for so long one wonders if there's not purposeful plans for them (( A world book)) that just hasn't seen the light of day.

[Aramanthus]

It's not that old Josh. It was a legitimate resurrection. I finally made it back to it. Life had been most interesting.

[SirTenzan]

Hello,

I've actually got quite a few ideas for the Pacific North West, specifically Vancouver Island (An Island Republic of relative small size with LARGE ambitions.), Water Point Preserve (Mostly dealing with the Modern Indian city located on the coast.), and the Queen Charlotte Islands (Strictly traditionalist Haida - and their Viking-like culture.) I intend for a World Book followed by a Sourcebook dealing with this area in great detail.

I haven't really given much thought towards Alaska though, but I believe it is the site of a New Navy Naval Base, some of the Inuit Preserves I *THINK* are located there too - but I'm not positive. I'm a little rusty, and don't ever recall our characters ever venturing that far to the North and West.

Regards,

Edward A. May

[Aramanthus]

I've been to your website SirTenzen! Of course I like your article in Rifter # 33 too.

[YupikInuit]

I would like two add my two cr to the discussion. I'm Yupik Inuit from Alaska, and visited Anchorage last summer. I would love to see a Rifter article or World Book on Alaska. I have a few thoughts and observations that may add to the discussion:

1. The history of Alaska taught in US schools is the non-Native version of the history. In the 1800s Russia tried to establish military bases in Alaska as a prelude to settlement and resource extraction. All three times they built a wooden fortress. Then the ships sailed back to Russia in the fall, and when they returned in the spring there was no trace of the bases. The Alaska Natives recognized that letting outsiders build a military base was a bad idea. That part gets left out of most history books, but gets mentioned in a 1985 Federal report on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that gives an overview of the history of Alaska.

2. As mentioned earlier in the thread, folks who live in Alaska are very independent and very frontierish. If there are wild anmals in a city in the lower 48, you can call Animal Control or another city or state governent agency to take care of it. In a town in Alaska, if there are wolves on the outskirts of town folks will grab their rifles and shoot at the wolves. Wolves are smart, they'll run at the sound of a gunshot. Folks in Alaska would be well-suited to adapt to a civilization-ending catastrophe.

3. Along those lines, the state government mostly only cares about Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks. The salmon industry basically takes care of itself without a lot of help from the government, the tourism industry basically takes care of itself without a lot of help from the government. The oil industry gets a bit of help and oversight from the state government, but not a lot. There is a saying "that government is best which governs least." Alaska's state government must be in the running for governing least, and the government could survive a catastrophe without changing much. When you map out what happened after Chaos Earth began just after the cataclysm, Alaska might fare pretty well.

4. Alaska is very remote, as mentioned before in this thread. You get a fair number of folks leaving their previous lives behind when they move to Alaska, and that includes folks who are not in trouble. Some folks are running from trouble in their past, some folks want a new start with less taxes and less government oversight. And a fair number of corporate executives and politicans own cabins to go hunting and fishing in the Bristol Bay/Cook Inlet part of Alaska. A Rifts verison of Alaska would include descendents of business executives along with descendents of Alaska Natives and descendents of the frontierish loners most people think of when they think of Alaska.

[YupikInuit]

I looked up the Rifter submission guidelines, it looks like they have not been updated lately. Where can I find submission guidelines for electronic submissions? The guidelines I found said you had to submit a disc copy and a physical paper copy, hopefully they have submission guidelines for submitting a pdf.

[Captain_Nibbz]

I looked up the Rifter submission guidelines, it looks like they have not been updated lately. Where can I find submission guidelines for electronic submissions? The guidelines I found said you had to submit a disc copy and a physical paper copy, hopefully they have submission guidelines for submitting a pdf.

The Rifter is on a semi-permanent hiatus, so I wouldn't waste your time at the moment. Sorry to break the news to you

[Zer0 Kay]

And I dont see a point in finishing my submission for a world book since Greg D's two books shown at POH 2018 haven't even seen mention as a coming soon.

It just takes too long between submission and print.

[gaby]

I love to see some a Ideas for Alaska like a Pre-Rifts,s City get riftered to then P.A and a Fantasy city from another world gets rifted in.

[taalismn]

That was done already with Rifts South America 2 with Patagonia...an arcology and a fantasy city as part of a cluster of rifted communities. .

[Zer0 Kay]

Don't forget Japan did that Taal with an area rifted from the past
Lets see for mine I've got

• AK destroyed by an Elemental Apoc that holds back the Apoc that the rest of the world suffers.

• A barrier surrounds AK that inflicts the mutated elements of the Elemental Lords

• a non-PPE, non-ISP, on the fly, spell creation, magic system

• 4 Elemental Kaiju

• Nanite Lathes

• Pack Tectonic Entities in a Glitterboy Factory

• Geolocked aerial ley lines

• Four sister ships of the Ticonderoga and their mobile drydock

• Transformable transatmospheric subfighter with modular mission packs

• GA DOD equipment and prototypes

• The DOD class. Enlisted and Officer. All five branches (NO CG is still not DOD)

• A new timeline

• Prototype Fortress City (planned as replacement for military bases)

• Most of AK devoid of human life only 1% of .5 million remain plus those in cryo in fortress

• Pipeline no longer functioning is a manmade leyline from all the years of pumping the Earth's blood/dead dinos through it

• Elementally modified animals

• Another GA Alliance revealed

• Anchorage is devoid of human life, all buildings contain a shin high level of mist and eggs from unknown creature.

• Fort Alaska is and isn't what was depicted in the back of one of the "west" books. Some people may have no idea what this means because in SOME prints they are missing the pages.

• Alien elemental (from another plane) Bears on Kodiak archipelago.

• Alien (from another dimension) cannibal species that gains traits from their meal.

• Alien (from another planet) species seen as multiple "monsters" but actually just one species in different points of its existence.

• Class that changes into animals

• Class that uses animal spirits as weapons

• Class that is similar to the one that changes into animals but is actually a person downloaded into a nanite swarm

• NPC villain the previous class if they lose their sanity in downloading

• The return of Ceratus Dominus the Star Dragon (not the one planned by KS)

• Introduction of Elemental Lords

• What happens to dragons that die of natural causes and why there are no "dragon graveyards"

• A new secret CS division

• New CS prototype/one off tech

A total of:

• 3 RCCs

• 4 OCCs

• 3 Transformable Fighters

• 6 airframes

• 3 Giant Robots

• 2 Power Armor

• 1 EBA

• a smattering of small arms and equipment

• 1 giant mobile drydock

• 3 species from elsewhere

and I know I'm forgetting some stuff... I just need help fleshing it out, statting some out or rather balancing it and fluffing it because right now it is only like 190 or so pages. PM me if your interested in helping.

[Grazzik]

Tons of great ideas there.

• Pipeline no longer functioning is a manmade leyline from all the years of pumping the Earth's blood/dead dinos through it

This one is interesting... similar to the idea of GA equipment, like Glitterboys, being imbued with magical energies over hundreds of years. Or perhaps it could be described as more akin to the magical properties of natural gemstones.

Anyways, the implications of this idea are interesting as it could make oil fields and tar sands some wacky areas to navigate. I could imagine ghostly dino herds crossing the muskeg at night... the herds might be used by prospectors to find the next place to do some wildcat drilling for oil or gas.

[Zer0 Kay]

I ha e the ley line described as a herd of dinosaurs.