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Just go to http://www.jasonrichards.net and check the nav bar under "Downloads." I'll be happy to answer questions about it here, plus take any suggestions for additional information.

If nothing else, let me know what you think. I'm still gauging what sort of material y'all will use from the website, so your feedback helps.



Peace,

Jason

Good stuff. The tech breakdown from Rifts is useful. I will be rereading Underseas and see if I pluck some CE ideas out of there. My only suggestion is showing how you would convert / modify the Systems Failure OCCs to reflect their existence pre-catacylsm.

One of the problems I see with CE setting is that the books do not give us an informed look at life in the Golden Age. In Systems Failure and Dead Reign, we know what we lost because its the here and now. In Mechanoids Invasion, we envision losing Standard SciFi Life from so many films and TV shows. However, not so with the Golden Age. What was daily life for people like in 2098? Why was it both a utopia and a time when you needed giant robots with MDC weapons? Why would an enlightened future society need NEMA running around with weapons that could blow up buildings inside the US?

BTW, any word on when First Responders is coming?

I'll have the FR manuscript in to Kevin by Gen Con. It will have a little more insight on the daily life of the average person in the Golden Age.

I'm going to wait to get into exactly how to convert the SF O.C.C.s, because that goes a little beyond what I should probably do on my personal website. I have some plans for them, though, either as canon material or as a Rifter article after FR is published.

One of the first things that came to mind is having an adventure based on one of those super carriers.

I cant recall right now, how many of them were made, but you could always have a second one that was tied up in port when the end came..

Gosh, ...I need to start jotting this down in my book.

Looks very nice Jason! Thank you for sharing this with us. The preliminary look at it shows a lot of promise. Looking forward to seeing more Jason!

I didn't include some things because they are not likely to be commonly encountered. A lot of stuff in Underseas is like this, plus lots of foreign stuff.

you have to remeber two things.

first, the reason it is considered utopian is because we have only heard anything about it from the post-rifts population. which tend to focus on the fact people generally had medical care, enough food, and access to the mazing technologies of computers, the internet, television, microwaves, refigerators, automobiles. in nearly every household. that pre-rifts society had rivers of concrete and asphalt in which to use those fleets of cars, had instant communications with the entire globe, and routinely was able to send people into space...
which considering the near medieval level of society in most of RIFTS earth, and even the state of the tech-centers in RIFTS, makes pre-rifts society look pretty darn good.

it's nostalgia that makes it utopia, not fact. post-rifts people look back at the good things. longer lives. quality food. technology developed for comfort and to simplify lives. and they don't think about the fact poverty would still exist. that some parts of the world did not have sufficent medical care or food. that those "life enhancing technologies" usually just made a populace so dependant on machines they could not easily survive without them, or so decadent that they di not contribute to society as a whole.



second, you have ot remember that our knowledge of "golden age technology" so far has been in terms of warfare related devices from just before the cataclysm. by 2098 the world had not been in the 'golden age of peace' for almost 20+ years. it was the second cold war. nations were busy making fearsome weapons of war, making up for lost time. remember that the Guada marta incident involved USA-G10 Chrome Guardsmen suits, and that was ten years before the cataclysm. and something as powerful and developed as the Glitterboy is going to be the result of several generations of military powered armor, subject to years of development.


NEMA is most definately a product of this second cold war period. it is a national security force, a mix of FEMA, CIA, FBI, DEA, ATF, Secret Service, and National Guard. before the rifts it's operations are probably best looked at from the perspective of "public security" from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and it's sequals. a force who's goal is to deal with the internal threats of terrorism (physical and cyber), stem the proliferation of military grade weapons, armor, and cybernetics, to react to disasters (both natural and man made) and to serve as a final line of defense should the army, navy, marines, and airforce fail to stop an invader. for this they need military grade weaponry, they need paramilitary training, they need intellegence divisions and rescue personell. they are essentually a fifth branch of the military, one dedicated to civil service duties.


so we do not know what the "golden age of peace" was like. i suspect it was not very peaceful, but that there was just no war. instead what conflicts there were were primarily low intensity and essentually civil. with most governments enjoying the economic boons made possible by the advancing technologies, there is little need to fight, and thus little need to maintain powerful militaries. thus they suffer budget cuts andtheir capabilities suffer, until something happens to upset the situation...

Those are some interesting ideas GB.

And after those governments saw that the world was heading into the can, they would begin to escalate their military budgets. They might reach into the trillions per year for the large nations.

Jason,
Have you considered adding references from Rifts: Japan? Seems that many of the items that were d-shifted forward in time would be great examples of other tech available. I do understand however, that you're trying to keep the focus on NA.

jva

I did consider it (as well as some South American and Underseas tech), but decided that the equipment references should all be items that survivors of the Cataclysm are relatively more likely to have available. Since CE is a game more about survival than dominating the odds, I kept the references only to items known to be in North America due to direct canonical sources. That's why, you'll notice, that there are no C.S. weapons and devices listed, because they are not exactly what can be found in NEMA and the militaries of the NAA. Also notably absent are Juicer weapons of German design.

Cool. I can go with that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

jva

well damn your web site is cool liked your bio, lol you discovered writing early lol i had to find out at 35 sigh run strong young buck.

Thanks. I'm working on a new site that I'll put together after Gen Con.

Thank you for the update. We're looking forward to the new site, hopefully with some teasers on it.

Updated for the new website.

Cool! Thank you for the info Jason!

I like the new updates for CE but I think the damage for the mastiff rifle is too low, 1d4x10 is barely enough to adequately damage most mecha or body armor or light PA, I understand game balance butthe damage ( my opinion only) should be more like 2d6x10, that way it represents a more serious threat to opponents.

I agree. As a rule, I would at least double the damage of every crewed or robot-mounted weapon, and even further increase damages for weapons used by giant robots, tanks, etc. That's just not how the balance of the game is set up, though. I've always assumed that lots of people played with a multiplier on a lot of the weapon damages.

Another recent and good reference I've gotten a lot of use out of is the Dead Reign books. The survivor OCC's are really good fits for the CE setting and make for compelling characters.

The site is updated, as is the precise address of the Chaos Earth references. Check out the new site (still tweaking it) and update your links.

FYI, I'll be making updates regarding Dead Reign soon. I'll post again once that is done.