Weapons Manufactuers and Locations

[dhaerow]

Ok, so NG and Manestique are both in Minnesota or Michigan or something...
Wilks is in South Dakota...
Triax is obviously Germany...
Bandito Arms/Black Market is in New Mexico or wherever Area 51 is...
But where is Titan Arms? Where is Golden Age Weaponsmiths? And are there any other major players that I'm forgetting?
But more importantly, which books can I find good information on each of these?

[Colt47]

Golden Age Weapon Smiths is located somewhere south. I think it was north of Dinosaur Swamp.

[Mack]

GAW is located in northern Alabama at what once was the Redstone Arsenal. (Look at Huntsville on a modern map.)

[Aramanthus]

Actually NG, MI are located on the Upper Penisula of MIchigan just above Wisconsin.

[Aramanthus]

Remember at the beginning the Coalition campaign WB 11 that particular company was eliminated by the CS. Although there are rumors of the scientist getting out with the plans of their equipment. They are supposedly looking for botha place to set up and backers. Who knows maybe somebody in your campaign could help them out.

[dhaerow]

Remember at the beginning the Coalition campaign WB 11 that particular company was eliminated by the CS. Although there are rumors of the scientist getting out with the plans of their equipment. They are supposedly looking for botha place to set up and backers. Who knows maybe somebody in your campaign could help them out.

hmmm... That is a good idea.
WB 11: "... factories are being retooled to produce the new Coalition tanks and armored vehicles. The civilian population has been invited to stay and work for the CS at their old salaries. Many (30%), fearing to be branded traitors and shot down loke dogs, agreed to stay on. About 20% like the Coalition to begin with and saw this as a change for the better. Another 20% saw it as being as good as any other opportunity (a job is a job). Only 20% fled the area and 9% (mostly D-Bees) were executed... ... The CS occupation force was distressed to learn that the original pre-Rifts plans for the tanks and other items are missing, which means they could resurface someplace new."

I like that idea alot. Let me bounce a loose/broad campaign idea. Party works for Wilks as a 'security team' i.e. dangerous and possible 'wet work'. After party gets established (3 or 4 sessions-ish) gets tasked to 'rescue' a certain scientist from (insert dangerous[to Wilks] people here/Kingsdale/Federation of Magic/Archie/or much more likely a CS prison or convoy) Wilk's hires said person to expand their operations secretly-ish (reminiscient of Bandito Arms/Black Market) into the actual armor and armored vehicles. With Wilks' money, equipment, experience, and expertise combined with pre-Rifts armored designs Wilks could rival NG and Manestique without ever directly opposing or confronting the CS. Possibly with a political agreement to sell certain components to the CS for a discount to prevent becoming an 'enemy of the CS'. And if you really want to make a campaign out of it, the party is then working for/with said scientist in acquiring lost/stolen/expanded designs that he was working on/studying/designing as well as finding a suitable area for a factory and 'securing' it, etc...

Oh, and what book is Archie and the Titan operations described in?

[Colt47]

Love the sound of that idea. I'd hate losing out on being able to buy those Iron Heart Tanks and vehicles, especially since they come at excellent prices compared to other things on the market like PA and Robot vehicles.

[MikelAmroni]

Oh, and what book is Archie and the Titan operations described in?

Rifter 4 (p. 64) and its updated in Aftermath.

[Jefffar]

WB 11: "The CS occupation force was distressed to learn that the original pre-Rifts plans for the tanks and other items are missing, which means they could resurface someplace new."

See Iron Heart Avengers in Sourcebook 4

[Balabanto]

I really wish that someone would make a list of where all these corporations have outposts and stores. That would be my ideal list for Rifts. Who is selling what, and where are they?

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Actually Titan is produce by Archie in his compound in maryland, he just ships everything to michigan.

Actually, most of the Titan robots are manufactured in his new facility beneath the Titan Robotics outlet in the citystate of New Cedarville.

~ Josh

[Aramanthus]

Interesting ideas. Are we going to limit this to cannon weapons manufacturers? Or are we going to add things that people have added to their own games? Like Taalismn's Paladin Steel or Rat_Bastards merc unit who is turing out their own armor or the multitude of things various other people hear have created.

[dhaerow]

Interesting ideas. Are we going to limit this to cannon weapons manufacturers? Or are we going to add things that people have added to their own games? Like Taalismn's Paladin Steel or Rat_Bastards merc unit who is turing out their own armor or the multitude of things various other people hear have created.

I could gladly spend some time and set up an actual campaign arc complete with NPC stat's, locations, hooks/sinkers, etc. Maybe even get it submitted into the Rifter. But the ideas I put out earlier, were more rough-drafty open brainstormy ideas. Although in the New West book it does mention that one of the reasons that Wilks doesn't do armor is because they didn't discover armor plans. They discovered laser plans. So this arc seems extremely feasible. Not to mention that if you are reading this 'Oh Hero of Palladium' we would LOVE a source book on the different arms manufacturers and factories in the nation. Because yeah, working for this merc company or that city-state is great and all. But I want to work for the people with the big guns! Literally!

Rifts Earth is the perfect setting for cutthrough industrial espionage, NG/IM joining with CS and sending out hit squads against Naruni, for example. When the CS starts to feel threatened by Archie and puts pressure down then what if the only other 2 major weapons manufactures in North America, Wilks and Bandito Arms/Black Market, decide that the CS is just dividing and conquering any opposition? Wilks decides to protect it's interest's by insuring that the CS doesn't have the power to just take it down at will, like it does to anyone and anything that isn't CS. Black Market will surely jump in on any major action Wilks does. Wilks is the Black Markets biggest wholesaler. Or vice versa. In an effort to starve out the Black Market, the CS launches a campaign against Wilks. Archie weighs the odds of the CS coming after him/it next and decides that the best hope for humanity is to insure the security of all humankind, not just those staring from behind a black skull visor.

And don't forget about the aliens that created UTI in Juicer Uprising. There is no reason to believe that a few more couldn't attempt a similar action. Maybe offering a cheap(ish) robot similar to the skelebot for all the 'other nations' to provide the smaller nations with a chance to defend against the CS. And when they spread to enough places and there are enough in position...

But back to my first point, is anyone interested in an actual campaign write-up? I'm a little bit of a perfectionist so it'll take me a few weeks. I usually prefer to get a basic outline and wing it for myself though.

[Aramanthus]

Sure you could write it up. But I'd like you to answer my questions too. I asked those to find out what you were actually planning on. What you said really didn't even answer my question. Please if you could answer my previous ones. I'd be more willing to help.

[dhaerow]

Interesting ideas. Are we going to limit this to cannon weapons manufacturers? Or are we going to add things that people have added to their own games? Like Taalismn's Paladin Steel or Rat_Bastards merc unit who is turing out their own armor or the multitude of things various other people hear have created.

Sorry for not directly answering earlier. I've been a player of Rifts for several years, but wasn't ever involved in the community until recently. I've ran a few small sessions, but I only had a few books. I just started really expanding my collection in the last couple of months since I found a group of like-minded people that I can game with. I don't know any community created groups so all I really have to work with is the 'Canon weapons manufacturers'. I prefer to work with material that has background in the 'main books' because it's a little more standardised and my players have a background to expect a little bit already. There is less time spent explaining and describing. The Wilks/Iron Heart connection is the one that has really seemed like an easy fit to me from what I know and have read. The Wilks section in the New West book is especially informative. I also think that Wilks, while everyone knows and uses, has very little 'adventure recognition' which is probably the way Wilks really likes it, trying to stay out of the limelight and out of the crosshairs. There is no reason why you couldn't use custom units at all. In fact as I write this I will try to be fairly general so that you can pick and choose for ideas, without being limited only to my imagination. One of the big things about this though will be that Wilks is getting ready to openly become a player in the military market with the ability to produce entirely it's own arm's, armors, and armies to define it's borders. It will ATTEMPT to become another power in North America to rival/cooexist with the CS. I think this can really reinvigorate the experience for all players with such a huge and unexpected shift in power with literally hundreds of smaller city-states now having a choice of who to ask for protection. But as we know the CS isn't going to be happy and will have a response of it's own, unless Wilks is VERY talented in the way it goes about this. Staying quiet as long as possible until someone turns around and realises that Wilks is suddenly the 500lb gorilla in the room.

But this is all long term end-campaign sort of materials. Here is a very brief idea of how to start it.

Group A, we'll call them the adventurers even if they are a merc group or some other entity, works quietly for Wilks as a paid-under-the-table 'security consultants'. While out 'securing' an area they get some sort of distress call via the Wilks radio. It seems some sort of business deal went bad and now a rival organisation has started a firefight, and they brought the big guns out. It could be Naruni if you are xenophobic, or it could be NG or even a CS trap laid against the Black Market that our guy stumbled across. Anyways, the team is the closest and will be paid generously if they can rescue the negotiation team and the crates of gear. But the negotiator is the priority, all else is secondary. Once it all dies down and the adversaries revealed/ran off/killed the negotiator introduces himself as *insert NPC name here. I'll give you the name I give him as well as a full stat bar when I officially write this up*. Turns out he is a little bit of a mechanical/electrical savant and was trying to procure some land that Wilks believes might be over an old military installation they want to excavate. Wilks then offers the party a fairly profitable deal to be the personal security detail of said NPC. *GM's note, this is the perfect excuse to have a 'GM's personal NPC' so that you can interact with the party in humorous situations without the party just hearing ghost voices spouting zingers and so that if the party gets stuck somewhere you have a good way to nudge them in the right directions.* Now the mission is to find a way to secure said land. -Cue dramatic music... Cue crane to lift camera into the sky... Cut to commercial... Come back with a 'Next time in Your Gaming Session...' Anime-style flash some cool stuff that is competely irrelevant to anything and roll credits so fast your ADD nephew who just had a mountain dew chugging contest wouldn't even be bored by the end of them.


Sound good? Recommendations before I write it up?

[Aramanthus]

Actually that makes a lot of sense. Sorry if I was dense. I think you are carrying out your campaign pretty effectively. As for helping out I'd be more than happy giving advice. Why not post what happened in your campaign right here on this thread. That way the data is all in one area and easily digested as you read it over. It'd be easier to assist you when you run into problems.

Here is a site that I find very useful. I'm not sure if you've see this website. Give it more than a glance, it's full of resources. http://www.kitsune.addr.com/palladium.htm