Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Axelmania
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Axelmania »

all this talk about bastions makes me recall that Bast/Simba in the South America sourcebook are originally African gods

as such they might decide to establish some cat colonies back on the home continent

Simba in particular I could see settling southern Africa with Bast as his consort, since she can't exactly get much of a foothold in Egypt just yet
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Axelmania wrote:all this talk about bastions makes me recall that Bast/Simba in the South America sourcebook are originally African gods

as such they might decide to establish some cat colonies back on the home continent

Simba in particular I could see settling southern Africa with Bast as his consort, since she can't exactly get much of a foothold in Egypt just yet


I'd say the fact they established themselves in South America instead of Africa - from the onset of the Rifts, might be said - is a pretty good indicator that neither expansion nor reacquainting themselves/competing with either faction of egyptian gods is exactly very high in their list of priorities, but that's me trying to align NPC motivations and available setting data in a way where a bunch of pieces fit together like a puzzle.

(Not to mention Simba's supposed past presence in Africa is, afaik, madeup nonsense writen as a slight nod to the name's origin in the swahili word for lion, if not something else)

Fun world-building (at least to me) but far from essential i'll be the first to concede, specially when it comes to gods who can be quite nostalgic, petty and vain anyway. Onaguans making missionary expeditions or crusades to "recover the lost lands of the gods" is a completely fair and legit storyline to throw in a game too.

As an aside, i ask myself how the trio feel about Rakshasas or other "felinoid deities" like Tezcatlipoca or Anhur...

edit: only now noticed the kingdom has a small Rakshasa populace (super small, even humans & jungle elves are more populous) already, my bad.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Rifts Africa was a Big let down,stuff thing in to just one book was a Mistake,I say make 3 Books,One:Mystic Africa,will be only be about Magic using powers in Africa and Gods of Africa too,Book2 is on Tech Powers and Book3 is on The Four Horsemen,The Phoenix Empire and Other Evil Powers in Africa.
Ever if Housemen are Stoped The Fight Free Africa from Evil will be a vary long one.
That How I would set things Up.

Any chance HotRod you tell Us about the D-Beens of Africa?
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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gaby wrote:Rifts Africa was a Big let down, stuff thing in to just one book was a Mistake,I say make 3 Books,One:Mystic Africa,will be only be about Magic using powers in Africa,Book2 is on Tech Powers and Book3 is on The Four Horsemen,The Phoenix Empire and Other Evil Powers in Africa.


Slightly in the authors' defense, Africa came early in the line, even before the Triax book or South America, the one that inaugurated the idea of covering large regional blocks in multiples books that we would see further developed in the China and Russia. In fact, it might be said this form came to be out of learning with the mistakes made in WB4, so we owe it that at least.

In retrospect, WB4 as is might have panned out much better if it was called "Phoenix Empire/Maghreb/Sahara" and had just added some immediate neighbors for tension to go with the Gathering of Heroes plotline, leaving the continent as a whole for other books. Way it stood they had two different agendas in too little space to attend to and it tells.

gaby wrote:Ever if Housemen are Stoped The Fight Free Africa from Evil will be a vary long one.
That How I would set things Up.


Well, currently playing a game set in the "Apocalypse War" and we are working with a rough 103-105PA timespan of conflict for reference (with some wiggle room to stretch thing up to 106PA), due to connections to Juicer Uprising and stuff done by the same PCs in other games involving the Tolkeen War & its aftermath, no WWII but still plenty. Still that's our specific to our table and even background-wise the characters are supposed to leave a bunch of matters hanging, so lots of room for sequels, subplots and other issues...


gaby wrote:Any chance HotRod you about the D-Beens of Africa?


Or anyone else maybe? :wink:

In our campaign we are, as previously stated, first "retooling" many of the OCCs and RCCs in WB4, beside adding critters that previous books mentioned as present in the continent (like the Death Weaver Spider Demons, from VK & CB1) with our own spin, but you can bet we are going to bring some wholy made up stuff along the way, such as the Kongamato as actual bat people (instead of confused vampire sightings), Ammit-worshipping werelions, crocodiles & hippopotami (since Ammit is supposed to be the symbol of lycanthropy and werebeasts, having races based on its component parts seemed natural), a version of the Mokele-mbembe and possibly a Sowki-led cultist horde nobody knows about somewhere in the Sahara.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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But back on the OCCs in WB4, i'd like to throw in some alternate names we adopted for the OCCs out of convenience.

"African Witch" - Nightwalker, Nightstalker (both related to the nocturnal character & limitation of a number of the OCC abilities); Dark Changeling, Beastfolk (touching on the "transform in variety of animals" angle). We felt a serious need to rename this one, not only for rid ourselves of "African" as a descriptor, but because Witch ends being quite a misnomer in Palladium terms, as, for extra confusion, while unclear on their actual origins (beside some vague comparisons to lycanthropes, to boot), the text gives no indication of their being a pact witch variant in any way or form. So that name really had to go. :lol:


"African Priest" - Ancestor Priest, because we wanted emphasize how the OCC seems to more about observing and upholding societal mores & traditions, preserving wisdom of the past & speaking with "ancestors spirits" than the "agent of a deity" priests we usually get from medieval fantasy settings. We also have played with giving it something of a mystic-style treatment, at least fluff-wise, with the ancestor spirits having an actual existence in the "House of the Everliving Memories", a Psyscape-esque place amidst the Astral Realms. Also brings an interesting contrast to the Necromancer's relation with death and the dead.


"African Rain Maker" - Storm Caller, Wind Waker (Zelda rules, nuff' said). Not that Rain Maker is bad on itself, but having more names to play with for possible regional variety is good and the names bring a more action-oriented vibe to mind (at least my group hoped so).

As an aside, we have been somewhat tempted to conflate one or more of those occupations into "builds" or "templates" of one core OCC (that would lean a little on the Mystic, and mess with blurring the lines between magic & psionics), in a way not unlike the multiple variants of Headhunter.


And before i forget, New Freetown and its Juicer variants:
- Lengau [Hyperion] Juicer (from one of the regional names for the Cheetah).
- Eneke [Phaeton] Juicer (from a saying "Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching").
- Impundulu [Mega] Juicer (in reference to the seductive bird/spirit of fire and lightning & this juicer variant's explosive last call).
- Demon Bleeder (uses the blood of greater demons/deevils and lords instead of dragon hatchlings or adults, but exactly like a Dragon Juicer in all other aspects - a joint work of Cyprian and his "tecnodruids" with Freetown scientists' in re-creating elite troops from his campaign against the Gargoyle Empire).
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Update: I've edited the original post and future history of Africa to emphasize the role of offshore arcologies that I developed in subsequent posts. In the Golden Age, they were unifying symbols and centers of commerce and learning that bound Africans together and enabled favorable trade with other countries. After the Rifts came, they all toppled, and their broken pieces served to isolate Africa from the rest of the world, partly as dangerous shoals for ships, partly as sources of toxins that made fishing untenable along Africa's coasts, and partly as nests for entities, ghosts, and other nasty supernatural creatures.

Given the fact that Africa seems to have little effect on the rest of the setting, and vice-versa, I think it's appropriate for Africa to have some extra factors that tend to limit movement in and out of the continent, and these seemed like a logical basis to do so.

I may try expanding the idea of arcology ruins as a kind of horror/exploration/treasure hunt primer for an adventure.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by !REAPER! »

Thank you for continuing to work on this and posting updates.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Update: I've done a lot more with the Kilimanjaro region; it's now too big to post in the placeholder. Highlights:
+Portable workshop tools enabling the production of high-tech materials and technology with the appropriate skills and software ("formula codes" for each high-tech M.D.C. material and/or item)

+An armor crafting system that allows characters to invest skills and create/repair their own armor, from low-quality homemade equivalents to custom-tailored expert-crafted suits.
+An O.C.C. that takes armor crafting to a higher level with options for better protection and hidden weapons/tools/sensors. Rather akin to a Rogue Scientist, it's a "lots of options" class with very few skill restrictions. These guys try to find tech buried in the volcanic soil and profit from it.

+A power armor originally designed for salvage in space and on other planets, repurposed to be a close-quarter combat beast, with a single-shot turbo mode (super speed/extra attacks for a brief burst), along with a noble O.C.C. that pilots it and a bunch of weapon options.
+A jet bike made to go with the aforementioned power armor that enables the pilot to do spear/lance charges.

+A jet-trooper scout/sniper O.C.C. with a class-specific jet pack combat skill
+A few unique laser weapons to go with this O.C.C.: a dedicated sniper rifle with features for scouting, intel, and communication, a short-range pistol that packs a punch, and a rifle.

+I've developed the two city-states a bit more, I've added paragraphs on 6 towns, each with its own tech-specialty.
+I've also added a few mobile caravan groups and a secretive organization dedicated to finding or re-creating a library of formula codes to preserve human knowledge/technology.

Planning to do:
-The Harbinger of War N.P.C. (High priest/witch of the War horseman/main antagonist for this region before War arrives and important lieutenant in War's army once the horseman arrives)
-The Harbinger of War's plan for the Kilimanjaro region.
-Adventure ideas for the early Horsemen campaign in the Kilimanjaro region and how their outcomes can shape the campaign moving forward.
-Develop the secretive organization and work them into the adventures/campaigns.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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If you need new Dbees for your Africa Revision and Expansion hopefully I could help. I have three rough ideas:

-A humanoid species with translucent skin showing their eyes, teeth and gums a stark violet color inside their own heads. Physically share some similarities with the invaders from They Live of 1988. An immunity to radiation helps them in finding the nuclear material needed to keep them alive. Handy with machines, they can be found anywhere their is high technology and form incursions into the sunken arcologies for salvage. Inspiration also comes from those Assassin Creed Unity head glitches.

-Bulky bodied magic adepts that have an affinity with Hippopotamus.

-The Abada, the Aferican iteration of a Unicorn, maybe more of an NPC.

Please let me know if you are interested.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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89er wrote:If you need new Dbees for your Africa Revision and Expansion hopefully I could help. I have three rough ideas:

-A humanoid species with translucent skin showing their eyes, teeth and gums a stark violet color inside their own heads. Physically share some similarities with the invaders from They Live of 1988. An immunity to radiation helps them in finding the nuclear material needed to keep them alive. Handy with machines, they can be found anywhere their is high technology and form incursions into the sunken arcologies for salvage. Inspiration also comes from those Assassin Creed Unity head glitches.

-Bulky bodied magic adepts that have an affinity with Hippopotamus.

-The Abada, the Aferican iteration of a Unicorn, maybe more of an NPC.

Please let me know if you are interested.

I haven't really thought much about debees yet; most of what I've done here is focused on African futurism and human-centric society other than the Phoenix Empire. That said, it's a good idea to give it some thought. I've put some Simvan into the Kilimanjaro region; it has a lot of big monsters, so they seem like a natural fit. In general, I only intend to put specific debees in where it makes sense for them to live and thrive.

My intent about the sunken arcologies was to make them something that further isolates Africa from the rest of the world. I hadn't considered having any debees living there, but I like the idea, and your specific traits are interesting; I'm not familiar with They Live, and I have only a passing familiarity with the Assassin Creed games, but that seems like a fun idea that could work well with what I'm trying to develop here. In some ways, having a debee species with an affinity for the offshore arcology ruins could serve to further isolate Africa.

The magic adepts who are friendly with hippos seem a bit random, which given that this is Rifts is fine; I'd be curious about how they would fit in.

I'm generally steering clear of African mythology with this particular effort, but I'm happy to read your ideas about it, and other people wanting to run an African campaign might be keen on it.

If you're interested in developing your ideas further, I'm interested to read them.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Blackwater Sniper »

I expected to read a reworking of (and possibly more buff version of the already powerful) the Four Horsemen.

I was pleased to see a thought-out Continent.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Blackwater Sniper wrote:I expected to read a reworking of (and possibly more buff version of the already powerful) the Four Horsemen.

I was pleased to see a thought-out Continent.


Because the setting matters as much if not more than the characters - and WB4 suffered from a deep paucity on that subject a number of players and GMs have attempted to adress each with their own spin.

As an aside, just came across [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arzhTBqTd7I"]this[/url] on Namibia, a place that we have little to nothing about in fact - but based on the first enviromental bits given, might be just as unwelcoming in Post-Apocalyptic times (if not the resting place of something very ancient and noxious).
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Blackwater Sniper wrote:I expected to read a reworking of (and possibly more buff version of the already powerful) the Four Horsemen.

I was pleased to see a thought-out Continent.


Thanks for the feedback! The Horsemen themselves seem plenty powerful as they are. If I were to do anything with them, I'd likely focus on how they recruit and empower followers, how they undermine their enemies before they even join battle, the tactics they prefer to use with their armies/minions, and preferred approaches/weapons/attacks when in combat.

The power level of top-tier enemies in Rifts can make combat take a long time. Villains with ~10,000 M.D.C. can take something like 100 shots with a Boom Gun to take down, or 1,000 shots with a basic laser rifle (and this ignores the impressive bio-regeneration of all four horsemen). It's difficult for parties to bring or coordinate that kind of firepower to a straight-up slugfest, and rolling out the combat moves involved with that much damage gets tedious.

That said, what I've found most grating in the big fights I've played through in Rifts is that they seem to degrade into slugfests of attrition with repetitive tactics, where both sides tend to use and re-use the same attack over and over. When a villain knows "All _____ psionics" and "All magic spells levels 1-XX," there are so many options that it's sometimes hard as a GM to wrap your head around all the tricks available. Having some preferred tricks can be quite helpful. In the case of the Horsemen, they have some unique powers that they presumably lean on a lot, but that doesn't say a lot about how each approaches things.

The description of Death is actually quite good in this regard; it spells out that he prefers to stay back, doing more strategy and tactical direction than actual fighting, and will only kill when attacked first. However, Death also knows all spell magic, necromancy magic, and a *lot* of psionics. That's a lot of options.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Fenris2020 »

The Horsemen really don't bother with followers, since they want to kill all life. Except for Death, who creates the super-zombies.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Fenris2020 wrote:The Horsemen really don't bother with followers, since they want to kill all life. Except for Death, who creates the super-zombies.


And you utterly ignore War's capacity to merge with, possess and any piece of machinery and eletronics with a vaguely military function - give him access to a convenient hardware pool and he can go full-on Skynet on steroids across the land of its preference. Damn, he can even power and restore broken weapons, vehicles and robots if given the chance.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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SolCannibal wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:The Horsemen really don't bother with followers, since they want to kill all life. Except for Death, who creates the super-zombies.


And you utterly ignore War's capacity to merge with, possess and any piece of machinery and eletronics with a vaguely military function - give him access to a convenient hardware pool and he can go full-on Skynet on steroids across the land of its preference. Damn, he can even power and restore broken weapons, vehicles and robots if given the chance.


Good points.

@Fenris2020 I find the topic of the horsemen and followers to be a bit nuanced. It is completely reasonable and consistent with canon to play them as not bothering with followers, and for GMs who want to play through that campaign as a series of boss fights, that's a viable approach. Since I'm looking to enhance the campaign, I want to develop it into more than a "hunt down and kill 3-4 monsters" scenario, so I'm introducing some new elements: the battles at the Millennium Trees in Uganda and followers. The battles for the trees aren't based in the canon description at all (though I find it interesting that the Horsemen are both especially vulnerable to and effective in damaging Millennium Trees); I just wanted to set the stage for some climactic, pitched battles.

Regarding the followers issue, I would see the Horsemen seeing their followers the same way Pestilence sees the bugs that make up his body: "Pestilence, like all of the Apocalypse demons, is obsessed with the destruction of all lifeforms , including the insects which he commands" (Rifts: Africa, p23). Sure, they want to end all life, including those of their followers, but they're happy to use the living as tools to meet that end. One thing I've been thinking is that, once the demons kill the third tree in Uganda and have no further need for massive assaults, the horsemen might set their surviving forces against each other. Each Horsemen would say something to their army like, "Now prove yourselves the most worthy by killing the other Horsemen armies, and you shall surely join us in the fortune and glory to come." Then the Horsemen laugh at the utter waste that was Uganda and their minion hordes before turning their netherbeasts north toward Rama and the place of their final unification.

But I digress. I think it's also consistent with canon to play the Horsemen as cultivating followers and even an army. In the "Alliances & Allies" block for all four Horsemen, they start with no allies, but all four will recognize worshipers of death and gladly count them among their minions. This indicates two things to me:
1. Recruiting and using minions is something they do.
2. These minions aren't restricted to worshipers of death.

Additional indications:
+Each Horseman's rune weapon can be lent to allies and pawns.
+Death can remain after his brothers are defeated and banished *if* he gains enough worshipers to be a proper death cult, which suggests that he might do so.
+The Armageddon Monster's amplified powers include War and Death's ability to "send an army of thousands of robots, fanatic soldiers, and animated dead to crush attackers"(Rifts Africa, p35).
+War has an M.A. of 26 and excels at agitating and manipulating people to violence.


@SolCannibal That's fair, and I don't mean to poo-poo the unique abilities of any individual Horseman. Having War show up in the "high-tech" region definitely sets up the possibility for War to make like a villain in a Power Rangers episode. I've started mapping out some adventures for the Kilimanjaro region to start off the campaign, and I know that I want to build up to a decisive, confrontational moment with three main possible outcomes:
1. War wins, forces everyone in the region to join him or die, and marches on Uganda to meet up with his bros/attack the trees
2. War loses, but survives and escapes to Uganda to meet up with his bros/attack the trees
3. War loses and is defeated/banished to his home dimension.

What happens in between there is what interests me now, though yeah, I kind of love the idea of setting up a big showdown moment.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.


True. Dealing with the migratory chaos resulting from the multiple refugee crises, finding somewhat safer places to live for noncombatants, coopting whoever we can for support in dealing with the growing threat and so on has been a major part of the "Apocalypse War" campaign i've been playing with friends, with such "administrative issues" taking priority over straight out fighting the Horsemen a number of times.


And then there are insane, over-the-top bonus headaches, like our eventual discovery of their interest on something buried in the Namib Desert, that apparently has been an arid coastal wasteland where all kinds of large sea beasts and ships frequently met their doom since possibly before the extinction the dinossaurs.

If there's a real place on Earth that seems to almost scream "resting place of a cosmic horror" it's the Namib (and maybe the Atacama).

We still have no idea whatsoever of why we have been fighting the Horsemen there, but all signs point to nothing good at all coming from letting them run freely and mess around with the place.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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SolCannibal wrote:
Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.


True. Dealing with the migratory chaos resulting from the multiple refugee crises, finding somewhat safer places to live for noncombatants, coopting whoever we can for support in dealing with the growing threat and so on has been a major part of the "Apocalypse War" campaign i've been playing with friends, with such "administrative issues" taking priority over straight out fighting the Horsemen a number of times.


And then there are insane, over-the-top bonus headaches, like our eventual discovery of their interest on something buried in the Namib Desert, that apparently has been an arid coastal wasteland where all kinds of large sea beasts and ships frequently met their doom since possibly before the extinction the dinossaurs.

If there's a real place on Earth that seems to almost scream "resting place of a cosmic horror" it's the Namib (and maybe the Atacama).

We still have no idea whatsoever of why we have been fighting the Horsemen there, but all signs point to nothing good at all coming from letting them run freely and mess around with the place.



@Mack: Yep, I'm trying to capture that in a way that starts subtle and then builds. The first adventure is an escort mission where the party and client encounter a hunting group and a Simvan group in conflict with each other. They help rescue a kidnapped Simvan kid from the hunters, and return it to the Simvan. When they finish the mission (which is important for other reasons), they found out that the Simvan group thought that the client's village was responsible, and had already killed almost everyone inside it, including the client's family. Tragic case of mistaken identity and people being a bit too quick to violence and too thorough in applying that violence. By itself, this incident might not mean much, but people being too quick to violence and using excessive force will be a recurring theme that will escalate as a Harbinger of War (basically a bonded Witch) appears and starts recruiting.

I also want to try to portray how some people might want to join the Army of War, from the Harbinger of War to the soldier. I have a tentative plan for the Harbinger: have him start as a friend and client in the first adventure, a generally good guy who sees his family dead and blames himself and his own weakness. In his grief and rage, War reaches out to him in a vision and offers him strength and power to avenge himself and protect the few survivors of his community.

It could be neat to see refugees play a central role in a few adventures, too, especially as the Harbinger of War (or War himself) gets to recruiting soldiers. "Don't run! Join us and fight back! We can make you stronger than they are! Do you want to be a victim, or do you want to join us and turn your enemies into victims? Do you want to beg from those undeserving, hoarding bastards, or do you want to take what's rightfully yours?"

@SolCannibal Your approach is intriguing, and in the long run, I'd love to throw in some inter-regional "dealing with the fallout" diplomacy where the party might play a role in bringing different regions' resources to aid the others. Namibia is a freaking wasteland today and in my version of Rifts Africa, but it's got some hidden wealth in real life, too: some natural gas reserves and diamonds, both of which were discovered fairly recently. I hadn't considered doing much with it, but it could be interesting to play with in the setting.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Fenris2020 »

Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.



Most of the people will just have SDC capability. So when they start acting crazy, shoot a few with MDC weapons until they either calm down or leave.
Crisis over.
You are a truly worthy foe! I shall howl a dirge in your honour and eat your heart with pride!
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

Fenris2020 wrote:
Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.



Most of the people will just have SDC capability. So when they start acting crazy, shoot a few with MDC weapons until they either calm down or leave.
Crisis over.


Crisis redirected. They panic and stampede away, trampling some elderly people and young children in the process. Then the people who weren't in front earnestly spread the word that you're shooting innocent refugees (not having seen what the folks in front were doing), and since they see and interact with more people than the village you defended, that version of the story is the one that spreads. Other heroes refuse to work with you or might even hunt you down, you murderer, you.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Fenris2020 »

Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:
Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.



Most of the people will just have SDC capability. So when they start acting crazy, shoot a few with MDC weapons until they either calm down or leave.
Crisis over.


Crisis redirected. They panic and stampede away, trampling some elderly people and young children in the process. Then the people who weren't in front earnestly spread the word that you're shooting innocent refugees (not having seen what the folks in front were doing), and since they see and interact with more people than the village you defended, that version of the story is the one that spreads. Other heroes refuse to work with you or might even hunt you down, you murderer, you.


Good point. Wipe them out.
All of them.
You are a truly worthy foe! I shall howl a dirge in your honour and eat your heart with pride!
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

Fenris2020 wrote:
Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:
Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.



Most of the people will just have SDC capability. So when they start acting crazy, shoot a few with MDC weapons until they either calm down or leave.
Crisis over.


Crisis redirected. They panic and stampede away, trampling some elderly people and young children in the process. Then the people who weren't in front earnestly spread the word that you're shooting innocent refugees (not having seen what the folks in front were doing), and since they see and interact with more people than the village you defended, that version of the story is the one that spreads. Other heroes refuse to work with you or might even hunt you down, you murderer, you.


Good point. Wipe them out.
All of them.


Looks like we found a good candidate for Harbinger!
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by SolCannibal »

Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:
Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:
Mack wrote:One way to complicate the entire adventure is to think about the horrific humanitarian crises that each Horseman can create. Think about villages & towns in panic and fleeing from the devastation, and from rumors that it's coming their way. Fleeing populations will have conflicts with one another over limited resources, with small wars breaking out. Now drop the players in the middle of it all. It would be easy for a team a players to get swept up and prevented from getting to a Horseman, or losing half their accumulated force to dealing with the crises. They could have to make some hard choices about abandoning refugees versus going after a Horseman.



Most of the people will just have SDC capability. So when they start acting crazy, shoot a few with MDC weapons until they either calm down or leave.
Crisis over.


Crisis redirected. They panic and stampede away, trampling some elderly people and young children in the process. Then the people who weren't in front earnestly spread the word that you're shooting innocent refugees (not having seen what the folks in front were doing), and since they see and interact with more people than the village you defended, that version of the story is the one that spreads. Other heroes refuse to work with you or might even hunt you down, you murderer, you.


Good point. Wipe them out.
All of them.


Looks like we found a good candidate for Harbinger!


Definitely helping the demonic world-devastating threat more than anyone.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Hello Hotrod, I made more Dbee concepts for your approval.

GlassyGuts- Translucent skin humanoids, immune to radiation and need nuclear minerals to survive. They are handy with machines and form incursions into ruined coasts for salvage and nuclear material.

Cob Butchers or Cob Carvers- Dbees that look like living corn stalks with bronze ropy bodies and frills of dexterous tendrils for hands. Have a history of domesticating, butchering and using every part of MDC creatures from their original planet. They are still irked that the MDC creatures they know now are sapient and very arrogant, regardless they are stilled butchered and no scrap goes to waste.

Polkaderms- Heavyset rotund humanoids with physical features of elephants, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus with polka dot hides. Well versed in magical plant life, they have a tradition of urinating on those who follow the Millennium Trees to show respect and hydration, much to the chagrin of Millennium Druids.

Arboroid- Hoop headed biomancy automatons. Have turbine hearts and were part of a biomancy colonization probe. Created and launched log ago by an advanced biomancy civilization, the Arboroids now balance their hardwired directives with the pressures of survival.

Blub Hubs- Thumb headed taurics with crustacean ancestry. Have seven fingered hands with wrist pincers that shoot MD bubbles. The have settlements along the ruined coast with the largest rumored to be capable of sending and receiving ships from the wider ocean.

Droolers: Stalk eyed goblinoids with canine features. They are hunted for their disinfecting saliva by the powerful without medical infrastructure. On their home would, they had a imperial mindset that is starting to break with facing exploitation and extinction.

Akolo Ara- Canned Thunderbolt in Yoruba. Serpentine energetic lifeforms whose flotilla was scattered across the continent and are working on reuniting their people out of petrification/statis. Their tech is cassette future and wear bulky EVA suits that look more like blocky snakes when interacting outside of their habitats.

Look them over and deliver your input.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

89er wrote:Hello Hotrod, I made more Dbee concepts for your approval.

GlassyGuts- Translucent skin humanoids, immune to radiation and need nuclear minerals to survive. They are handy with machines and form incursions into ruined coasts for salvage and nuclear material.

Cob Butchers or Cob Carvers- Dbees that look like living corn stalks with bronze ropy bodies and frills of dexterous tendrils for hands. Have a history of domesticating, butchering and using every part of MDC creatures from their original planet. They are still irked that the MDC creatures they know now are sapient and very arrogant, regardless they are stilled butchered and no scrap goes to waste.

Polkaderms- Heavyset rotund humanoids with physical features of elephants, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus with polka dot hides. Well versed in magical plant life, they have a tradition of urinating on those who follow the Millennium Trees to show respect and hydration, much to the chagrin of Millennium Druids.

Arboroid- Hoop headed biomancy automatons. Have turbine hearts and were part of a biomancy colonization probe. Created and launched log ago by an advanced biomancy civilization, the Arboroids now balance their hardwired directives with the pressures of survival.

Blub Hubs- Thumb headed taurics with crustacean ancestry. Have seven fingered hands with wrist pincers that shoot MD bubbles. The have settlements along the ruined coast with the largest rumored to be capable of sending and receiving ships from the wider ocean.

Droolers: Stalk eyed goblinoids with canine features. They are hunted for their disinfecting saliva by the powerful without medical infrastructure. On their home would, they had a imperial mindset that is starting to break with facing exploitation and extinction.

Akolo Ara- Canned Thunderbolt in Yoruba. Serpentine energetic lifeforms whose flotilla was scattered across the continent and are working on reuniting their people out of petrification/statis. Their tech is cassette future and wear bulky EVA suits that look more like blocky snakes when interacting outside of their habitats.

Look them over and deliver your input.


Those are quite creative ideas that sound right out of Farscape (a show I really enjoyed), and I like how you tied the GlassyGuts into the coastal description. I also liked the little backgrounds you wrote for each, which give me an idea of how one might develop a character of that species. For me, the key challenge is contextualizing each debee race to be an organic part of the setting. Sure, Rifts has lots of gonzo species roaming around in it, and it's fun to play the out-of place alien.

Thus far, the only debees I've done much with have been some Simvan in the Kilimanjaro area. I should probably try consider that aspect of the setting more.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by taalismn »

Blood Diamond Demon
“People will kill for pretty baubles. Sometimes the baubles do the killing directly.”

Blood Diamond Demons are believed to be the result of an ancient curse empowered by the Coming of the Rifts. Blood Diamond Demons originate mainly in African Gold Coast diamond mines in areas fought over by various guerilla groups during the pre-Rifts era. These small operations were often co-opted by radical groups, and extracted diamonds sold on the international black market to finance the warring factions, promoting hostilities and ramping up the casualties, especially among the civilians caught in the crossfire.
At some point, a mine or several were cursed by a frustrated old believer, something to the effect that those who profited from the mines would reap only misery. The curse was ineffectual at the time, but its imposition lingered, maintained most likely by the death-energies of those who died in the area of the mine(s).
Now, with the Coming of the Rifts, the products of the cursed mines are finally receiving the energy to empower the curse fully.
At the heart and origin of a Blood Diamond Demon is a seemingly ordinary diamond of five carats or more, with a streak of red shot through it.
Channeling 10 or PPE into the diamond, or dripping fresh blood on it will activate the cursed diamond, causing the diamond to grow into a 7 ft tall crystalline humanoid of white gemstone diamond shot through with blood streaks. The Blood Diamond Demon is essentially an assassin golem set loose to kill mercilessly until dispelled or destroyed. It attacks with its razor-sharp body edges, claws, and spikes.
The great and growing danger is that few people outside Africa recognize the danger of the red-streaked diamonds. Technowizards in particular may attempt to use the gemstones in their work, and in doing so inadvertently unleash a monster in their midst, one that may be further empowered by whatever spells the TWizard was attempting to bring out of the diamond. Stonemasters, too, may accidentally trigger the formation of a Blood Diamond Demon in trying to draw power from the gemstone, though they also, if they take the time to appraise the diamond beforehand, will be able to discern the mystic ‘taint’ of the curse. Typically, though, in Africa, where knowledge of the cursed diamonds is more openly known, the cursed gems are sought after by those with vengeance in mind. An empowered or bloodstained blood diamond is thrown into the midst of a target by the awakener(who presumably has taken measures to escape the ensuing slaughter). Others wear the cursed gems close to their bodies as a ‘deadman’ device’, their shed lifeblood at death activating the blood diamond and setting the crystal monster on their killers. These practices may have unleashed dozens of wandering crystalline killers across the continent.

Alignments: Soulless killing machine. Effectively evil.
Size: Roughly 7 ft tall. Weight 700 lbs
Gender: None
Physical Attributes:
IQ: -
PS: 30 (Supernatural)
PP: 21
SPD: 45 MPH
(PPE): 4d6

MDC: 150 +10 MDC per additional carat over 5 of the ‘seed’ diamond.
Depleting the demon-construct’s MDC to zero forces the curse back into its ‘seed’ diamond form. Taking the BDD to down to -25% of its transformed MDC destroys the diamond and the demon permanently.
Horror Factor: 12
Natural Abilities:
*Lasers do HALF damage to the Blood Diamond Demon.
*Regenerates at 2d6 MDC per 24 hours
*Unaffected by psionics, mind control, poisons, gases, and other factors that affect living beings.
* Molecularly Sharp Edges----Blood Diamond Demon limbs are exceptionally sharp-edged, adding +1d6 MD to the supernatural strength damage they normally do.
Vulnerabilities:
*Dispel Magic spells temporarily slow the Blood Diamond Demon: HALF speed, damage, attacks per melee, and combat bonuses for 1d4 melees.
*Exorcism spells and rituals, if successful, can dispel the demon and destroy the diamond in the process.
*Banishment spells merely drive the demond away temporarily.

Psionics: None
Magic:
If activated by a TechnoWizard attempting to use the diamond as a component, the Blood Diamond Demon can incorporate whichever of the spells inherent to diamonds that the TWizard was attempting to bring out and can unleash one use of the power/spell per day.

Combat: 9 attacks per melee
Strike+3
Parry +3
Dodge +3
Damage:
Claw 4d6 MD
Power Strike(2 attacks) 7d6 MD
Kick 4d6 MD
Body Block/Tackle 2d4 MD
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"

--------Rudyard Kipling
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by SolCannibal »

taalismn wrote:Blood Diamond Demon
“People will kill for pretty baubles. Sometimes the baubles do the killing directly.”

Blood Diamond Demons are believed to be the result of an ancient curse empowered by the Coming of the Rifts. Blood Diamond Demons originate mainly in African Gold Coast diamond mines in areas fought over by various guerilla groups during the pre-Rifts era. These small operations were often co-opted by radical groups, and extracted diamonds sold on the international black market to finance the warring factions, promoting hostilities and ramping up the casualties, especially among the civilians caught in the crossfire.
At some point, a mine or several were cursed by a frustrated old believer, something to the effect that those who profited from the mines would reap only misery. The curse was ineffectual at the time, but its imposition lingered, maintained most likely by the death-energies of those who died in the area of the mine(s).
Now, with the Coming of the Rifts, the products of the cursed mines are finally receiving the energy to empower the curse fully.


Great idea indeed and i dread to think of what powers like the Phoenix Empire, worshippers of the Horsemen or the Splugorth from Atlantis might experiment or think of if the mines where such cursed gems are available were brought to their attention.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

Update: This slow-burn project continues. I've been focusing heavily on the Kilimanjaro region, trying to turn it into a complete manuscript, a "vertical slice" of the overall concept for Africa.

Faction-wise, there are 2 large city-states, 6 towns, and 9 unique groups/factions, each with their own cultures, motives, technologies, and methods. The two city-states get the most attention/page count.

It now has three new unique O.C.C.'s:
+Ash Nomads; the people who wander the area and try to dig up, reverse engineer, and repurpose pre-Rifts space exploration technology. They also craft their own customized body armor, and have a skill-based system for doing so. I've also created an Ash Nomad NPC Generator.
+Amboseli Nobles: The ruling elite of their city-state, they pilot the Amboseli Warsuit, a pre-Rifts space salvage suit design reworked into a close combat power armor. Warsuits have a unique capability that allows them some hefty bonuses and incredible mobility for up to two 15-second bursts.
+Kingori Augers: scouts and snipers for their city-state's militia, they use drones and stealth when they can, and jet packs when they can't. They have a unique jet pack combat skill that makes them especially effective fighting from the air.

Toy-wise, there are several new weapons, but I've tried to give them some unique traits and capabilities that make them more than just another ray gun. Nothing I've written is super high-powered, but these weapons have some interesting situational uses, like a laser rifle that's also a light-based long-range communications system, where you flash a message at a cloud. The really neat new technologies with this manuscript are the portable workshop tools, which were designed for high-efficiency boutique production of high tech in space, and which can allow their users to create and repair a high tech from raw ingredients with the proper formula codes. Formula codes are the great treasure of the region, and every Ash Nomad hopes to find new formula codes and strike it rich (this is important for understanding how these societies work; they're also important to the plot of the regional campaign).

I've also written up a short campaign of 4-7 adventures to take players through the build-up to the arrival of the War apocalypse demon, culminating in a climactic battle atop Mount Kilimanjaro that will decide the fate of the region and possibly War. In terms of supporting material, this includes:
+4 fully fleshed-out N.P.C.'s, one of whom could be an optional pre-made player character (useful for accommodating a guest player).
+3 disposable NPC generators (2 adapted from earlier ones I've made, 1 totally new for Ash Nomads)

Still to do:
-Need to create NPC generators for Amboseli Nobles and Augers.
-I need to create two more key N.P.C.'s, either of whom could also be a player character for a guest or a helper/hero N.P.C.
-I need to create a regional map for Kilimanjaro and a tactical/battle map for the climactic fight at the end.

Once I finish these, I'll have a complete draft of the Kilimanjaro section. Right now, the manuscript for this project is about 93 pages long, and with these final additions, it'll probably get to a little over 100 pages, which might work as a short sourcebook if Kevin decides to pick this up and publish it.


On an unrelated note, I've been reviewing what I wrote up for the Nigeria section, and I don't particularly care for what I wrote up here. I'm thinking of creating a new vision for that region.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by The_Livewire »

Because of my own biases, if Africa was revisited, I'd love to see a "New Axum" in the Ethiopia area fighting the Phoenix empire.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

The_Livewire wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:31 am Because of my own biases, if Africa was revisited, I'd love to see a "New Axum" in the Ethiopia area fighting the Phoenix empire.
I haven't done anything in that area; I believe that Ethiopia is inside the Phoenix Empire's borders, so portraying it as a rebellious province or secret/hidden city might be viable.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by The_Livewire »

Hotrod wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:19 pm
The_Livewire wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:31 am Because of my own biases, if Africa was revisited, I'd love to see a "New Axum" in the Ethiopia area fighting the Phoenix empire.
I haven't done anything in that area; I believe that Ethiopia is inside the Phoenix Empire's borders, so portraying it as a rebellious province or secret/hidden city might be viable.
That would be cool. I first discovered Axum thanks to the Drake/Flint Belisarius novels and then became fascinated with them. So much potential for fiction and a revitalization.

Or a New Axum as a floating sea power, like the New Navy in the Atlantic.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

The_Livewire wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 10:24 am
Hotrod wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:19 pm
The_Livewire wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:31 am Because of my own biases, if Africa was revisited, I'd love to see a "New Axum" in the Ethiopia area fighting the Phoenix empire.
I haven't done anything in that area; I believe that Ethiopia is inside the Phoenix Empire's borders, so portraying it as a rebellious province or secret/hidden city might be viable.
That would be cool. I first discovered Axum thanks to the Drake/Flint Belisarius novels and then became fascinated with them. So much potential for fiction and a revitalization.

Or a New Axum as a floating sea power, like the New Navy in the Atlantic.
In Duty's Edge, I described the enslaved human communities in the Phoenix Empire with some sweeping generalizations (not as dangerous as it is for humans in demon-dominated cities like Rama, but just as miserable). Having an openly upstart human community within his territory would be intolerable to Rama-Set, but something like a secret society/resistance/underground railroad might be compelling and awesome.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

pretty sure ethoipia isn't in their borders.. it had its own entry in the description of the continent. (yet more "nothing there" type stuff.)

checking WB4.. yep. pg 129-120. wilderness, low population, yadda-yadda.supposedly the low population is due to all the supernatural critters there.

though interestingly there are were-panthers there, as well as Dragons. which i suspect you could do something interesting with. especially the werepanthers.
the stone cut churches of Lalibela are, for some reason, now home to dimensional portals "in catacombs below". one of which leads to wormwood.. though from the description, the other end lies inside the unholy's terrtiory, and the those demons like to use it to raid the locals. to be honest i don't know if those churches even have catacombs, but i'm sure some story could be developed to explain how the portals created some. from a quick googling, the area around the churches seem to have a lot of passages and rooms carved into the stone that might work for such.


so you could have werepanthers and magical and psionically gifted humans fighting against a Demon kingdom of the Unholy, which might make for a fun local conflict. just make sure you do plenty of research into the local cultures.

and going by the map on pg 132, Ethiopia is not in the Pheonix empire.. but it is right next door to it's south east corner. given the region is very mountainous i can see the empire not wanting to occupy it. too difficult to pacify such a region. but i have no doubt they raid it from time to time. i doubt the Unholy have enough presence to hold off the empire (assuming they would want to, and aren't an ally of it).. but i could see the local humans and werepanthers perhaps making Empire raids into the region costly.
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Hotrod
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by Hotrod »

glitterboy2098 wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 3:57 am pretty sure ethoipia isn't in their borders.. it had its own entry in the description of the continent. (yet more "nothing there" type stuff.)

checking WB4.. yep. pg 129-120. wilderness, low population, yadda-yadda.supposedly the low population is due to all the supernatural critters there.

though interestingly there are were-panthers there, as well as Dragons. which i suspect you could do something interesting with. especially the werepanthers.
the stone cut churches of Lalibela are, for some reason, now home to dimensional portals "in catacombs below". one of which leads to wormwood.. though from the description, the other end lies inside the unholy's terrtiory, and the those demons like to use it to raid the locals. to be honest i don't know if those churches even have catacombs, but i'm sure some story could be developed to explain how the portals created some. from a quick googling, the area around the churches seem to have a lot of passages and rooms carved into the stone that might work for such.


so you could have werepanthers and magical and psionically gifted humans fighting against a Demon kingdom of the Unholy, which might make for a fun local conflict. just make sure you do plenty of research into the local cultures.

and going by the map on pg 132, Ethiopia is not in the Pheonix empire.. but it is right next door to it's south east corner. given the region is very mountainous i can see the empire not wanting to occupy it. too difficult to pacify such a region. but i have no doubt they raid it from time to time. i doubt the Unholy have enough presence to hold off the empire (assuming they would want to, and aren't an ally of it).. but i could see the local humans and werepanthers perhaps making Empire raids into the region costly.
Kudos! Yep, you got me, it looks like Ethiopia lies right on, but outside the Phoenix Empire's borders.

I do like the idea of developing regions, but I want to keep this project focused on areas that I include for specific reasons. Right now, I've got the following on my to-do list:

Almost finished: Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania/Kenya border area) [War goes here]
Rough draft: Uganda (across Lake Victoria from the Mount Kilimanjaro region) [Big battles happen here]
Expanded Outline: South Africa (really South Africa and Lesotho, somewhat shrunken) [Death goes here]
Expanded Outline: The Congo [Pestilence goes here]
Unsatisfactory Expanded Outline: Nigeria [Famine goes here]
Outline: The Phoenix Empire [final showdown if Uganda falls]

Of those six regions, I'm nearly done detailing one, with the other five being summaries or outlines that I've expanded somewhat.

How might I fit Ethiopia into the setting and campaign? I like the notion of doing something with Ethiopia, and I'm tempted to move Famine there, as I'm not satisfied with what I wrote up for Nigeria. However, I'm a bit more inclined to make the horsemen appear far away from the Phoenix Empire. Having a horseman show up on the border of the Phoenix Empire would make supporting that horseman a bit too easy for Rama-Set.

tl;dr I like the idea of writing up another region like Ethiopia, but my to-do list with this project needs more items in the "done" category or fewer in the "to do" category before I add another big section.
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SolCannibal
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Hotrod wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:19 pm
The_Livewire wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:31 am Because of my own biases, if Africa was revisited, I'd love to see a "New Axum" in the Ethiopia area fighting the Phoenix empire.
I haven't done anything in that area; I believe that Ethiopia is inside the Phoenix Empire's borders, so portraying it as a rebellious province or secret/hidden city might be viable.
Well, as Glitterboy2098 pointed out, ethiopia isn't in their borders and had its own entry, that can be summed up in "stone churches of Lalibela became a demon city (not really described) connected to Wormwood and not much else".

In our own Gathering of Heroes-inspired campaign, the Kingdom of Yang-Xenarthra, a nation ruled by ogre necromancer-queens that owe no fealty whatsoever to Pharaoh Rama-Set & his empire, stands locked in a century-long dispute for domination of the ethiopian highlands with the "demon-infested" city-state of Labilela (and the forces of the Unholy in Worwood that it serves), alternating between cycles of trade & diplomacy and outright mutual sabotage through local rebels on each side or open raiding & warfare.
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Hotrod
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Yep; Ethiopia is just outside their borders; my goof on that. I don't currently have any plans for that region, but there's definitely plenty of potential to develop it.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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SolCannibal wrote: Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:27 am
Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:
Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:

Most of the people will just have SDC capability. So when they start acting crazy, shoot a few with MDC weapons until they either calm down or leave.
Crisis over.
Crisis redirected. They panic and stampede away, trampling some elderly people and young children in the process. Then the people who weren't in front earnestly spread the word that you're shooting innocent refugees (not having seen what the folks in front were doing), and since they see and interact with more people than the village you defended, that version of the story is the one that spreads. Other heroes refuse to work with you or might even hunt you down, you murderer, you.
Good point. Wipe them out.
All of them.
Looks like we found a good candidate for Harbinger!
Definitely helping the demonic world-devastating threat more than anyone.
Can't have it both ways.
You can either defend your village or whatever, and deal with trouble-makers in a permanent fashion that sets an example, or you can nancy around at it and lose everything you're trying to keep safe.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Fenris2020 wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:52 pm
SolCannibal wrote: Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:27 am
Hotrod wrote:
Fenris2020 wrote:
Hotrod wrote:
Crisis redirected. They panic and stampede away, trampling some elderly people and young children in the process. Then the people who weren't in front earnestly spread the word that you're shooting innocent refugees (not having seen what the folks in front were doing), and since they see and interact with more people than the village you defended, that version of the story is the one that spreads. Other heroes refuse to work with you or might even hunt you down, you murderer, you.
Good point. Wipe them out.
All of them.
Looks like we found a good candidate for Harbinger!
Definitely helping the demonic world-devastating threat more than anyone.
Can't have it both ways.
You can either defend your village or whatever, and deal with trouble-makers in a permanent fashion that sets an example, or you can nancy around at it and lose everything you're trying to keep safe.
A central ethical dilemma can be a great way to frame an adventure. Mustering all the fighting men in a region to concentrate and defeat a Horseman and/or his harbinger and army leaves their homes with far less protection. That's been fodder for some great stories in both fiction *and* real life.
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glitterboy2098
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

some interesting stuff in this video for Ethiopia. church forests, some details about what the landscaped looked like before modern agriculture, some neat cultural details.


i suspect that in rifts most of that old forest has returned (perhaps with a few additions from other dimensions).
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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glitterboy2098 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 10:11 pm some interesting stuff in this video for Ethiopia. church forests, some details about what the landscaped looked like before modern agriculture, some neat cultural details.
Can definitely see something akin to the millenium druid communities forming around those old churches, with or without millenium trees of their own.
glitterboy2098 wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 10:11 pmi suspect that in rifts most of that old forest has returned (perhaps with a few additions from other dimensions).
Quite possible, though some areas of the african continent were harsh all on their own due to peculiar enviromental and weather conditions - though the coming of the Rifts and Atlantis presence in the Atlantic Ocean could have caused some major changes in that aspect too.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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The coming of Atlantis raised sea levels. Raised sea levels means more rain. More rain means fewer/ smaller areas of desert.
Of course, quite a few areas all over the world would be under water, due to the rise in sea levels.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Fenris2020 wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 7:42 pm The coming of Atlantis raised sea levels. Raised sea levels means more rain. More rain means fewer/ smaller areas of desert.
Of course, quite a few areas all over the world would be under water, due to the rise in sea levels.
The matter of rise of sea levels with the coming of Rifts and Atlantis is one the writers have danced considerably around through the years, leaving it uncertain if it was a permanent or temporary thing - because explaining why Madhaven exists as a place to explore or inhabit instead of being underwater would be complicated otherwise.

So there's definite room for GMs to fudge with things and then some in their own tables.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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i just figuered that the region would be forested again since the population is a lot smaller, so less agricultural clearance happening, and it has had 300 years for the forests to regrow. given that you can see a lot of regrowth in only a few decades (re: Mt St helens aftermath, studies of new volcanic islands, etc) it would probably have a lot of the trees back within a century, by 300 years the forests should be in pretty good condition ecologically.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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glitterboy2098 wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2023 3:31 pm i just figuered that the region would be forested again since the population is a lot smaller, so less agricultural clearance happening, and it has had 300 years for the forests to regrow. given that you can see a lot of regrowth in only a few decades (re: Mt St helens aftermath, studies of new volcanic islands, etc) it would probably have a lot of the trees back within a century, by 300 years the forests should be in pretty good condition ecologically.
Yeah, that definitely works for the Ethiopian highlands fine with no major shenanigans involved.
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Re: Enhancing Africa and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

another inspirational video dropped for Rifts Africa expanders:
History Summarized: Timbuktu

i feel like this city, or a successor city, would exists in rifts. though iirc it is near the borders of the phoenix empire so it might be a little endangered.
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