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So being a native of Pittsburgh, I have always been interested in seeing something done in Rifts with this area. Though recently I have had idea for Chaos Earth, I figure NEMA would have a presence here, and I think I have a good location for a NEMA outpost, an island not far from downtown.

The question is, how likely would they be to abandon an easily defended location to take a risky track out west with thousands of refugees in tow. Assuming NEMA forces hold their ground then what? Do they attempt to build a new community. And how long could this community survive. I wonder if they would still be around by the time of the modern Rifts calender.

Very little is set in stone, still brain storming... Another GM I used to game with had some very interesting ideas for the area, mostly involving elves and dwarves... Personally I'd stick to Wolven. Point State park seems a likely location for a rift dumping who knows what into the area, including a pack of Wolven.

You see that's what got me started on the Chaos Earth New Mexico article I wrote. For one it did not seem like the people in New Mexico would make the trip all the way up to the Chicago area. Two, just because NEMA and the federal government said, come to Chigago, doesn't mean the people will. I think a lot of locals and even State employees have a distrust of the Feds.

That's why I wrote about NM State Police saying, no I am not listening to NEMA, we will organize here in our OWN state, our homes.

So the idea of ignoring NEMA and organizing in your own state seems likely.

If an apocalypse arrives, unless California is falling into the ocean, I won't be making any sort of trek east just because the Feds say so. I'll hit my offices armory and become king/mayor in my neck of the woods

Doesn't Pittsburgh have manufacturing facilities ties to A.R.C.H.I.E.-3, as per the updated Sourcebook 1? I think if you read about the Republicans there you might get a little more insight to that area during the dark ages.

Fleeing from the rapidly unstable Archie 3 seems like a good reason to had to Chicago.

I don't recall Palladium ever mentioning the are in SB 1. They have talked about the Alleghany mountains but they have largely glossed over PA mostly referring to it as trackless forest largely lumped into "the east coast". In fact I only recall Pittsburgh being mentioned in a Nightbane source book. Never read anything about ARCHIE being tied to Pittsburgh, I figured I'll scan the book again but I'm not expecting any surprises. Gotta do something with these three weeks off.

I could be mistaken but last time I read SB 1 I remember if focusing on Maryland.

When the Revised Sourcebook 1 inserted the Republicans, I believe it tied them to one of A.R.C.H.I.E.'s factories in Pennsylvania somewhere. I may very well be misremembering the city.

I don't have access to the Revised Sourcebook 1 here at work, but page 22 of the Shemarrian Nation book mentions robot factories in Pennsylvania and western Maryland. Specifically it has this to say about it:

I dunno... I can't see many NEMA officers thinking it's a good idea to track across a rapidly changing monster infested wasteland with limited ammunition, supplies, and thousands of refugees, many of whome would sick and injured, when you have a highly defensible and well stocked base at your disposal.

ARCHIE is almost a non factor, restricted as he is to the HQ-ECC during the cataclysm. The few times he went after NEMA personnel were self defense. I do not believe he would activly seek out a re-enforced NEMA outpost at this time, and assuming the base prospers, when ARCHIE finally becomes more active he would likely view the area as too defended and merely observe unless the area became and obvious threat.

I don't see Pittsburgh or the surrounding area being much interest to ARCHIE, he already has his own manufacturing capabilities, and it's not like the city has access to abundant natural resources.

Well SB 1 makes no mention of PA that I can find, seems to concentrate on Maryland and mentions Washington but that's about I could find.

As to Shemmarian nation... Well it's vague, Lykens is a small town out east, closer to Harrisburgh. Being a coal mining town I can see ARCHIE building a factory there. Leaves most of the state open to interpretation. As I said, Palladium has largely ignored Pittsburgh.

SB 1 implies that the majority of ARCHIE's factories are in house, never really gives much detail as to location though.

IIRC, didn't Gen. Sawyer move her command from texas or something up to chicago? reading that i always thought that was a bit weird, since it was also at the height of the environmental changes.. the feet of ash, the constant storms.. and made me winder what the civilians in her original area of assignment thought, given that she takes her command, the only group equipped and able to help the locals survive, on this trek halfway across the country.

during the cataclysm i can see shorter trips. people going from one part of a state to another where there is better protection and supplies. but trips of more than a hundred miles would be rare i'd think. and i suspect most of NEMA would be wary of treking away from their existing supply centers and bases.

Yea, the whole migration to Chicago never made much sense...

Now to consider the possibilities, staying put makes the most sense. A treck to Chicago seems ill-advised at best, and maybe even downright suicide.

The question is how long could the base survive... I would think with enough planning the NEMA personnel and the survivors they rescue could claim back portions of the city and build a thriving community. Though, with the resources at their disposal could they maintain their equipment and if so, how long. And if they survived long enough would they even hold onto their NEMA heritage. The new navy still considers themselves displaced Americans.

Sourcebook 1, or Sourcebook 1 Revised?

Page 75 of Aftermath has some sparse information on Pennsylvania, too, but it's not much more than was already extracted from Shemarrian Nation.

Just looked over the revised edition, I looked through the original in while... Palladium seems to glossing over the east coast for the most part.

Wonder if the coal fire under Centralia is still burning.

Sourcebook 4 talks about Queenstown Harbor, which was founded near the ruins of Cleveland. As far as the "history" of that area, all I could pull was this from Queen Lilia's background:
Her backstory also says she was born on Atlantis to the Aerihman clan, left home to wander the Megaverse for "decades," and when she returned to Rifts Earth she found the Federation of Magic to be full of bitter, old mages dreaming of the day they could take revenge on the Coalition. It was after that she found the pirates near Cleveland and took over. What I infer from this isn't ultimately as helpful as I would've liked it to be - basically, sometime between the Cataclysm and after the defeat of the Federation of Magic by the Coalition (around 12 P.A. I believe), a group of pirates created a sanctuary near the ruins of Cleveland. I'm not sure if Cleveland is close enough to Pittsburgh to care about.

Shemarrian Nation briefly mentions two "small mountain kingdoms on the Magic Zone's Eastern Fringe, Helicon and Karaksheem," who are on the other side of the Eastern Wall (like Pittsburgh is). There is no canon information on these cities though, including where they might be or their histories. I found this old forum topic discussing them briefly, but if there's been more about them since then I haven't found it.

Hmmm... Palladium has a habit of mentioning locations but never fleshing them out, or forgetting about them completely in some cases.

I'm sending my campaign to Pittsburgh. So far I set loose a set of World Slayer Demons that took out 2 of your 3 main hospitals (I left Children's Hospital alone) they haven't killed them, but they gun the bodies back to dead every time they twitch.

It's only March 2099 so NEMA is still running back and forth. there's no major NEMA outpost there as of yet, but they are trying to get some of the manufacturing plants on-line since the global economy isn't working so well at the moment.

Tags, or anyone else want to recommend interesting sites in the area? Especially anything my party would hit coming up from the south-east?

one site i suggest to people looking for interesting sites in a region is Atlas Obscura. it is a site dedicated to listing some of the more off-the-radar and intereting locations you can visit.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/

doing a quick search, these jump out as possiblities for plothooks


the worlds largest collection of religous relics - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-anthony-s-chapel
a tunnel system that might make a for a good place for survivors to set up shop - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/keeling-coal-road
cave, a cult, and the end of the world - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cave-of-kelpius
this place would still be burning - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/centralia
could well become literal - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the- ... es-of-hell
too small to be atlantean, but might have something - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rosicrucian-pyramids
another place that might end up as a survivor hideaway - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lackawanna-coal-mine
if on ley lines these might have some interesting effects - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/colu ... alith-park