(pre)Rifts Space, the moon, Mars, venus, etc.

[Thom001]

What space faring do you think there was in earths solar system and maybe beyond? Do you think anyone survived? If so, what changes to these explorers do you think has occurred physically, mentally, socially?

EDIT: I didn't realize mutants in Orbit had specifically rifts stuff. Because of this I guess I will expand to also what things have you guys thought of, used, or toyed with being in the solar system(s) around rifts earth.

[Shark_Force]

the book mutants in orbit covers this, somewhat (it is also a shared book between rifts and after the bomb, so be advised that if you're only going to use the rifts portion you're pretty much only getting half a book).

most of the other planets are uninhabited. mars had a colony, but unfortunately some loon decided to create mutant giant insects that ate everyone, and as an unsurprising side effect there is no longer a colony on mars.

a number of asteroids have at least temporary mining communities. there are a few space stations and a moon base, and they have made quite a bit of use of sapient mutant animals, which have further mutated to have a number of unusual abilities.

there is an alien base somewhere in the system (possibly on one of mars' moons, i can't recall or be bothered to look it up), part of the invasion fleet that landed in south america and attacked the Nazca empire (the aliens are arkhons, if i remember the spelling correctly). for the stats on them, you'll pretty much need rifts south america 2.

more or less the only thing the various different communities (each headed up by either one of the space stations or the lunar base) can agree on is that whatever is on earth they don't want it coming to visit, so they all work together to make it as close to impossible to get into orbit from earth as they can (note: they have basically nothing to prevent people from just using teleportation or rifts to bypass those defenses).

[Thom001]

I didn't know that book had rifts conversions. Is there any kind of tables for humans adapting/mutating for space/ other planets or adventure ideas for colonies?

[glitterboy2098]

Mutants in Orbit has a whole section dedicated to "rifts space" (which is basically, 'ATB space but with mdc and slightly fewer mutant animals')
WB9 added the Arkhon's, an alien invasion with some pretty potent, near phase world level tech. some of them crash landed on earth in south america, but about 2/3rds of them got ripped up by earth's orbital defense system and the orbitals (who at the time were gearing up to fight a major war between themselves, so had the big guns ready), with the survivors of that fleet retreating to mars. we don't have any stats for the ships though.

Seige on Tolkeen Aftermath reiterates the MiO space station descriptions as well as the arkhon stuff as well. so even if you toss out the specific details from MiO (which really you should because those spaceship rules suck and the population info is wonky) all the stations and the general setting is still going to be valid.


while i have no plans ot do a Rifts Space campgin any time soon, my own take junks MiO, and builds off the Aftermath material, building it into a setting a bit more like The Expanse, with a lot more colonies and outposts on asteroids (including belters) and outer planet moons.. mostly as a way to explain where the orbital station's are getting all their resources, and to give players more places to visit, for the stations to fight over, etc. (i also apply constant thrust drives so ships can get around the solar system in reasonable timeframes.. which would require a total rewrite of the spaceship construction and rules so yeah, not planning that anytime soon.) ironically i wrote most of those notes long before the Expanse series of novels was even written. but those elements have been in a lot of space science fiction, to the point many are basically Tropes.

[jaymz]

I am slowly working on a whole "Rifts: Space" netbook/page(s) at the moment.

[Thom001]

So is this netbook going to become a drifter submission one day?

[jaymz]

Hahaha no

[Thom001]

Hahaha no

So when you do finish it where would I go to find this?

[Daniel Stoker]

Jaymz has a whole wiki page if I'm not mistaken dedicated to his conversions and the like.


Daniel Stoker

[jaymz]

Hahaha no

So when you do finish it where would I go to find this?

I Pm'd you the direct link to where I will be putting stuff up. Just click the top where it says world of jaymz if you want to go through the whole wiki.

I have almopst 1300 articles up the vast majority of which is palladium related, not much space yet but some lazlo and a whole lot of other stuff.....

[Library Ogre]

Consider: It may be the orbitals are the only thing keeping the Xiticix on Earth.

[Thom001]

Hahaha no

So when you do finish it where would I go to find this?

I Pm'd you the direct link to where I will be putting stuff up. Just click the top where it says world of jaymz if you want to go through the whole wiki.

I have almopst 1300 articles up the vast majority of which is palladium related, not much space yet but some lazlo and a whole lot of other stuff.....

I just looked at it. That's pretty cool. I'm going to be looking through for a bit.

[jaymz]

Feel free to PM me or contact me vie the ways in my sig if you have questions or anything....

[taalismn]

Consider: It may be the orbitals are the only thing keeping the Xiticix on Earth.

WOULD be if it's population pressure(and the utter elimination of all real non-fit competition in their environment) that initiates spaceflight for the Xit. Right now, I don't think there's much incentive for them to try popping into orbit just yet. Their numbers are on the rise, they have plentiful PPE-rich food to feed their nits, and there's enough room for any rival hives to move apart from each other.

I also relied on an upper layer of dimensional turbulence to keep folks trapped on Earth. The higher they got, the better the chances of running into clear-air rifts or disruptive energy fields(this also contributed to increased optical distortions and static preventing clear observation and communication with the Orbitals from Earth(though I'm obliged to retcon that to have ARCHIE-3 using more advanced Mechanoid communications technology to talk with his communications relay satellite). Now, significantly advanced technology and magic CAN breach the barrier, but it's like the Van Allen Belt, or the bands of radiation around Jupiter; lesser equipment takes a beating.

[Hotrod]

I abhor MiO as a sourcebook for Rifts. My suggestion: watch The Expanse and use that as a baseline for making up your own setting. Whatever you come up with will likely be better than the canon Rifts Space setting.

Seriously, The Expanse is freaking awesome. I got into it after our last forum debate about MiO's deficiencies. It's the best sci-fi show I've seen since B5. Possibly better. Just don't watch it with young kids. Space is not a nice place in The Expanse.

[Riftmaker]

Rifter 56 has mutants in orbit info. It updates things to the year of 109 PA I think.