D-Bees of North America - Questions/Comments..

[GT]

How come there are no Lost Ones?

[Giant2005]

How come there are no Lost Ones?

The Lost Ones aren't D-Bees, they are Supernatural (And I think they have been on Earth all along). The start of the book goes into detail about only including D-Bees and that the Demon Dragonmage skirts the line of Supernatural pretty thoroughly.
Something like that at least.

[Jason Richards]

If a D-Bee in this book says they can become a Cyber-Knight but the max their species can roll for ME is under 11, are there ways besides first being a Sea Inquisitor or a mutant with Extraordinary ME (Heroes Unlimited) to raise their ME to the required amount to fulfill that attribute requirement?

Just don't worry about it.
OR, even better, let them be a CK with limitations on their psi-sword and psionic abilities.

[SolCannibal]

And am particularly thankful for the background clarifications done on the Altara Blind Warrior Women, and Mind Bleeders (the confirmation that Mind Bleeders are mutant humans and NOT D-bees is appreciated, even if I secretly wanted them to be D-bees).

They could be seen as either or both if a mutant human strain originally from an alternate Earth...

Just sayin'

[Svartalf]

Excellent book. Definetly one of my favourite Rifts books

I have some questions:

First about how much a Malvoren can mix and match his meldings:

1) If a Malvoren used "Meld with War machine" to meld himself into a robot vehicle, can he use "Meld with Weapons" on each of the individual weapons of that robot to "fire link" them ?

2) If a Malvoren gave himself 2 extra cyborg arms (so he now has 4 arms), if he was holding a hand gun in each hand could he use "Meld with Weapons" on each of the guns to be able to "fire link" then to shoot all 4 guns as a single melee action?

3) I also have a question about the Yhabbayar bubble maker:
It sais one magic bubble can be blown per melee action. Does this apply to very high level spells that would normally take a human 3 melee actions to cast ?

4) In order to blow bubbles, a Yhabbayar has to sit cross legged, close his eyes, enter a trance, levitate 1-3 feet etc. Does this take time or is it assumed to be done in the first action of combat along with him blowing his first bubble ?
For example if the party suddenly meets some enemies and initiative is rolled. Can the Yhabbayar blow his first bubble on his first melee action ?

1) I would say no.
2) I would say yes.
3) Yes
4) Action one - enter trance. Action two - levitate, Action three - blow first bubble. Your GM May allow you to combine actions one and two

1) Wouldn't he use the "meld with weapon systems " ability instead anyway, if melded with a war machine?

[Svartalf]

My opinion is that if he were to rewrite this book or create another similar book that he divide the d-bees into those that are suggested as player races and those that are suggested for use as enemies.

I couldn't disagree with this more. There are not "good guy" races and "bad guy" races, either in real life, or in any legitimate world of fantasy. If you cut the world into white hats and black hats, you're robbing yourself of 50% of the awesome gaming opportunities that are out there.

Still, the Lanotaur is pretty unsuitable for a PC, unless you're actually doing a demigod campaign...

[SolCannibal]

My opinion is that if he were to rewrite this book or create another similar book that he divide the d-bees into those that are suggested as player races and those that are suggested for use as enemies.

I couldn't disagree with this more. There are not "good guy" races and "bad guy" races, either in real life, or in any legitimate world of fantasy. If you cut the world into white hats and black hats, you're robbing yourself of 50% of the awesome gaming opportunities that are out there.

Still, the Lanotaur is pretty unsuitable for a PC, unless you're actually doing a demigod campaign...

Now that is a matter of scale/balance and a whole different animal, though ways around it are far from impossible.

[Richardson]

Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere already, but my search-fu is apparently quite weak on this forum. I am making a Simvan and they appear in several books, but the D-bees of NA seems to be the most recent and therefore takes precedence. However while the Simvan in Europe start with 4 languages and secondary skills the newly printed ones start with zero of each??? Can someone point me to a section in whatever book listing what language(s) RCCs get when none are listed?

[SolCannibal]

Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere already, but my search-fu is apparently quite weak on this forum. I am making a Simvan and they appear in several books, but the D-bees of NA seems to be the most recent and therefore takes precedence. However while the Simvan in Europe start with 4 languages and secondary skills the newly printed ones start with zero of each??? Can someone point me to a section in whatever book listing what language(s) RCCs get when none are listed?

RUE maybe?

[SolCannibal]

In a different subject but still related to the topic, has someone tinkered with those random monster or alien race generating tables in RMB or Phaseworld?
Having some expanded tool for creature brewing could be fun.

[MrDisturbed]

Larmac.. With that giant maw of theirs... What kind of biting abilities do they have? Would their bites deal MD? But other than that they are my favorite "tough guy" d-bee. I also enjoyed the slurmph.

[Kagashi]

Larmac.. With that giant maw of theirs... What kind of biting abilities do they have? Would their bites deal MD? But other than that they are my favorite "tough guy" d-bee. I also enjoyed the slurmph.

Hmm, apparently their giant maws are not designed for anything other than drinking psi-cola. Grackle Tooth's dont have a bite damage listed either, although they certainly look like they should. Likely just overlooked, but as currently written, their physiology does not account for biting mega damage things. Perhaps both species had to naturally prepare foods for their jaws to be able to consume food and that food naturally was not MD in nature.

[MrDisturbed]

I think I'm going to have to adjust that in my copy I have an obsession with biting things..and people.

[gaby]

So Are the Races from Splynn Dimensional market in it?

[Kagashi]

So Are the Races from Splynn Dimensional market in it?

No. But it does reference Atlantis and Splynn D-Market as additional races which might be in North America.

[SolCannibal]

So Are the Races from Splynn Dimensional market in it?

No. But it does reference Atlantis and Splynn D-Market as additional races which might be in North America.

Or anywhere in the two sides of the Atlantic, when one stops to think of it.

[Borast]

I want more variety, I want blobs, I want tentacled nightmares, spideroids or floating bloated gas bags. I guess I will/need to make up a few of my own.

The Rifts slang term D-Bee refers specifically to humanoid aliens from the Rifts - that's why the book was primarily humanoid races.

~ Josh

? I thought (according to the book[s]), D-Bee (or DB) was Dimensional Being, which was any being from another dimension? (i.e.: Sentient Being, regardless of body morphology, from another dimension.)

[Svartalf]

DBees of NA includes enough creatures that are only remotely humanoid (spider creatures, plant creatures, reptilians, energy beings...) that the definition of DBee as humanoid does not really hold.

[SolCannibal]

DBees of NA includes enough creatures that are only remotely humanoid (spider creatures, plant creatures, reptilians, energy beings...) that the definition of DBee as humanoid does not really hold.

Well, "humanoid" as a term has more to do with body plan than actual lifeform classes or orders - so the definition is vague/arbitrary enough to hold a lot of different beings, like most of the groups just mentioned.

[Tor]

A probably good distinction is between something that's literally a(n other) Dimensional Being, and something native to Rifts Earth's dimension which would be called a D-Bee by someone who assumes they came from elsewhere.

I expect that a Coalition Dead Boy would be more likely to call a Sea Titan a D-Bee than they would call a Wormwood Human one. Sure, both are MDC, but the Wormwood guy is otherwise normal while the Sea Titan is all super-regen and super-strong and stuff. Yet the Sea Titans are native to Earth and the Wormwood Humans were born there.

Of course... it's kinda fuzzy because even if your elf parents are from PF you might be born on Earth, so it's more like 'your species is native to another dimension'.

In which case... do we even know if humans are native to Rifts Earth? What if humans were made on Palladium World and ported to the various Earths by Thoth?

Is 'humans evolved on earth' even canon in any of the games?

[SolCannibal]

A probably good distinction is between something that's literally a(n other) Dimensional Being, and something native to Rifts Earth's dimension which would be called a D-Bee by someone who assumes they came from elsewhere.

I expect that a Coalition Dead Boy would be more likely to call a Sea Titan a D-Bee than they would call a Wormwood Human one. Sure, both are MDC, but the Wormwood guy is otherwise normal while the Sea Titan is all super-regen and super-strong and stuff. Yet the Sea Titans are native to Earth and the Wormwood Humans were born there.

Of course... it's kinda fuzzy because even if your elf parents are from PF you might be born on Earth, so it's more like 'your species is native to another dimension'.

In which case... do we even know if humans are native to Rifts Earth? What if humans were made on Palladium World and ported to the various Earths by Thoth?

Is 'humans evolved on earth' even canon in any of the games?

Great questions these, specially the last one - the main factor in favor of humans being native to Earth in the Megaverse seems to be the signs of several primitive stages of development combined with the lack of evidence of occupation by some ancient transdimensional power from elsewhere. Atlantis comes closest to being that, but is apparently native and based on fluff uninterested in most of the planet outside the continent, making the idea of Atlantis being a transdimensional power that colonized the continent and them seeded humanity in the rest of the planet unlikely.

At least as far as canon sources go, earth, in its many parallel iterations, seems to be the source homeworld of humans and ogres (that are implied to be neanderthals, cro-magnons or some other late hominid i can't remember right now).

[h.s.Panda]

not seem if it's entirely the right spot but I have a question, in the various conversion books and d-bees of N/A it mentions how some beings have different stat rolls/bonuses then humans.
given that if humans roll a 16,17,or 18 they roll another d6, and if they get a 6 they roll yet another d6. how does this apple to slightly less humanoid beings. like for example, the wearbear, it has an IQ of 2d6+2, what happens if it gets a 12, 13, or 14? does it reroll another d6?

[Kagashi]

not seem if it's entirely the right spot but I have a question, in the various conversion books and d-bees of N/A it mentions how some beings have different stat rolls/bonuses then humans.
given that if humans roll a 16,17,or 18 they roll another d6, and if they get a 6 they roll yet another d6. how does this apple to slightly less humanoid beings. like for example, the wearbear, it has an IQ of 2d6+2, what happens if it gets a 12, 13, or 14? does it reroll another d6?

Only humans receive the exceptional roll. Its their racial "perk". Cant remember where I read that, but it seemed official.

Personally, I dont like exceptional rolls anyway. Having a 16, 17, or 18 should be perk enough seeing anything 15 or lower doesnt provide any bonuses what so ever. Then with the extra die roll, having a natural 16 is impossible, which isnt realistic. If you eliminate exceptional rolls all together, your brain does not hurt when you roll a 24 for that Ogres strength.

[Borast]

Only humans receive the exceptional roll. Its their racial "perk". Cant remember where I read that, but it seemed official.

? I've never seen that in any of the books that I can remember.
That being said, exceptional rolls, from what I remember, are for 1D6, 2D6, and 3D6 rolls only (6/11-12/16-18).
It is vague for dice with bonuses, since I've seen some books claiming no, and some not weighing in at all.

Personally, I dont like exceptional rolls anyway. Having a 16, 17, or 18 should be perk enough seeing anything 15 or lower doesnt provide any bonuses what so ever. Then with the extra die roll, having a natural 16 is impossible, which isnt realistic. If you eliminate exceptional rolls all together, your brain does not hurt when you roll a 24 for that Ogres strength.

I use 'em, because there is always the chance of being a sport. Some people are scary smart/strong/etc.

[Kagashi]

Personally, I dont like exceptional rolls anyway. Having a 16, 17, or 18 should be perk enough seeing anything 15 or lower doesnt provide any bonuses what so ever. Then with the extra die roll, having a natural 16 is impossible, which isnt realistic. If you eliminate exceptional rolls all together, your brain does not hurt when you roll a 24 for that Ogres strength.

I use 'em, because there is always the chance of being a sport. Some people are scary smart/strong/etc.

That's what skills are for IMHO. Want to be stronger? Take Weight Lifting.

This means you would have to use Rifter Mental Skills too, so your mental attributes can get boosts.

[SolCannibal]

Personally, I dont like exceptional rolls anyway. Having a 16, 17, or 18 should be perk enough seeing anything 15 or lower doesnt provide any bonuses what so ever. Then with the extra die roll, having a natural 16 is impossible, which isnt realistic. If you eliminate exceptional rolls all together, your brain does not hurt when you roll a 24 for that Ogres strength.

I use 'em, because there is always the chance of being a sport. Some people are scary smart/strong/etc.

That's what skills are for IMHO. Want to be stronger? Take Weight Lifting.

How does that apply or not to creatures with supernatural STR & etc?

[Kagashi]

Personally, I dont like exceptional rolls anyway. Having a 16, 17, or 18 should be perk enough seeing anything 15 or lower doesnt provide any bonuses what so ever. Then with the extra die roll, having a natural 16 is impossible, which isnt realistic. If you eliminate exceptional rolls all together, your brain does not hurt when you roll a 24 for that Ogres strength.

I use 'em, because there is always the chance of being a sport. Some people are scary smart/strong/etc.

That's what skills are for IMHO. Want to be stronger? Take Weight Lifting.

How does that apply or not to creatures with supernatural STR & etc?

Their Strength attribute goes up +2, just like a human would.

[Borast]

Personally, I dont like exceptional rolls anyway. Having a 16, 17, or 18 should be perk enough seeing anything 15 or lower doesnt provide any bonuses what so ever. Then with the extra die roll, having a natural 16 is impossible, which isnt realistic. If you eliminate exceptional rolls all together, your brain does not hurt when you roll a 24 for that Ogres strength.

I use 'em, because there is always the chance of being a sport. Some people are scary smart/strong/etc.

That's what skills are for IMHO. Want to be stronger? Take Weight Lifting.

This means you would have to use Rifter Mental Skills too, so your mental attributes can get boosts.

That doesn't account for people whom are naturally freakishly strong, smart, beautiful, fast, etc. In other words, they lucked out in the genetic lottery. Used to know a kid in Jr. High and High School. Pipecleaner build. He could bench his own weight, and never bulked-up.

Rifter whats?

[gaby]

What are the Rifts books did they take the old D-Bees from?

[The Galactus Kid]

What are the Rifts books did they take the old D-Bees from?

Every book touching North America up to the point of WB:30 development.

[SolCannibal]

Personally i'm tempted to get those critter creation rules from RMB and Phaseworld and trying to tinker something like an expanded version or such. Though truth be told the already existing tables can be plenty useful.

[gaby]

What races in the New D-Bees you think are lame?

[SolCannibal]

What races in the New D-Bees you think are lame?

Honestly, i have not much of an opinion on them either way, serious and silly can each have their place depending on game style and being something of a homebrewing bastard, will make campaign-specific races just as frequently, if not more so, as i use those in the book.

[MDC]

What races in the New D-Bees you think are lame?

No such thing, really. One's man meat is another man's poison. I like Jaxxon from the old Marvel Star Wars comic, Beta Ray Bill, and "Spock's Brain," and have been called lots of things for saying it out loud. It's all subjective, and a good GM has the ability to make most anything interesting.

[Uber_Geek]

Love this book, but I have a couple of questions. In the RCC skills section of the Sasquatch, it says "Land Navigation (24%)". Shouldn't there be a plus sign in there since the rest of the skills have them?

Second, and this may have been covered elsewhere, a number of races can take OOCs from the Spirit West WB. Now, in that book, it says that characters who are not devoted Traditionalists or Pure Ones do not receive any fetishes, but a number of the OOC have fetishes as part of their abilities. So are they allowed them or not?

[Axelmania]

That doesn't account for people whom are naturally freakishly strong, smart, beautiful, fast, etc. In other words, they lucked out in the genetic lottery. Used to know a kid in Jr. High and High School. Pipecleaner build. He could bench his own weight, and never bulked-up.

For how many reps though? A lot of powerlifters can remain lithe by lifting heavy but keeping to short sets under 5 reps, I usually read more reps like 10ish causes greater hypertrophy by targeting sarcoplasm instead of myofibril.

[eliakon]

Love this book, but I have a couple of questions. In the RCC skills section of the Sasquatch, it says "Land Navigation (24%)". Shouldn't there be a plus sign in there since the rest of the skills have them?

Second, and this may have been covered elsewhere, a number of races can take OOCs from the Spirit West WB. Now, in that book, it says that characters who are not devoted Traditionalists or Pure Ones do not receive any fetishes, but a number of the OOC have fetishes as part of their abilities. So are they allowed them or not?

I would assume that anyone that starts with Fetishes can use them as long as they follow the same guidelines that are expected of a Traditionalist (i.e. no or minimal tech etc.) as it makes no sense for someone to start with something that they can't actually use.

[PloarBearMan]

I know I'm late to the discussion... and I'm okay with that.

I was just reading through D-Bees, and I came upon something that left me scratching my head - namely, the listed speed for the Drizzit.

Am I the only one who caught the "6D6*10+36 running upright, double when hopping?" That would mean a Speed stat somewhere between 96 and 396 while running... and up to 792 when hopping. According to the old-school handbook, a character's Speed "times 20 is the number of yards or meters that the
character can run in one minute."

That means that a Drizzit can run at 7,920 meters a minute... or 4.92 miles... or 295.2 miles per hour (or 590.4 mph while jumping).

Thoughts?

[SirSpamHammer]

Not sure if I should ask this here, but I Googled for special weapons used by the Lyn-Srial race and I found my self here. They don't appear to have any of their own weapons for such a exotic race. It's just that I have created a Lyn-Srial Sky Knight and I need to pick a Energy weapon and a ancient weapon to be skilled in. I already got W.P. Blunt and and W.P. Archery.

The New West Book don't really have any selection I'm looking for .

Any suggestions, what books, what pages to look through....

[SirSpamHammer]

Not sure if I should ask this here, but I Googled for special weapons used by the Lyn-Srial race and I found my self here. They don't appear to have any of their own weapons for such a exotic race. It's just that I have created a Lyn-Srial Sky Knight and I need to pick a Energy weapon and a ancient weapon to be skilled in. I already got W.P. Blunt and and W.P. Archery.

The New West Book don't really have any selection I'm looking for .

Any suggestions, what books, what pages to look through....

I found something on pages 143-144 of the Merc Ops Book. It's called the DemonBane Halberd. I wonder if the game master will let me have one.

[Borast]

That doesn't account for people whom are naturally freakishly strong, smart, beautiful, fast, etc. In other words, they lucked out in the genetic lottery. Used to know a kid in Jr. High and High School. Pipecleaner build. He could bench his own weight, and never bulked-up.

For how many reps though? A lot of powerlifters can remain lithe by lifting heavy but keeping to short sets under 5 reps, I usually read more reps like 10ish causes greater hypertrophy by targeting sarcoplasm instead of myofibril.

That's just it...he didn't lift. He was just freakishly strong.

[SolCannibal]

Can anyone indicate a D-bee group in the book that might sort of fit under the "blob race" description?
Or any shapeshifters, full or limited (preferably the later)?

[Fenris2020]

The only thing Id like to see retconned would be MDC dinos. Elephants, Hippos, and other large animals are not MDC...why should a non-magical, non-supernatural animal turn MDC? If there is a reason for their MDC transformation...put it in this book. Just give us a reason! Not really dinos? Really aliens? Really demons? Atlantian creations that are supernatural in nature? Something!

The best explanation would be a surplus of Temporal Energy from time-traveling this far into the future, as detailed in Trandimensional TMNT.

But I'd much rather just have SDC dinosaurs.

In my games, very few dinos have the high MDC.
Most are low MDC or SDC.

[SolCannibal]

The only thing Id like to see retconned would be MDC dinos. Elephants, Hippos, and other large animals are not MDC...why should a non-magical, non-supernatural animal turn MDC? If there is a reason for their MDC transformation...put it in this book. Just give us a reason! Not really dinos? Really aliens? Really demons? Atlantian creations that are supernatural in nature? Something!

The best explanation would be a surplus of Temporal Energy from time-traveling this far into the future, as detailed in Trandimensional TMNT.

But I'd much rather just have SDC dinosaurs.

In my games, very few dinos have the high MDC.
Most are low MDC or SDC.

Well, i guess it depends on one's definition of high MDC, but i don't remember any dinos being on the dragon hatchling tier or higher, quite the contrary in fact.

[Fenris2020]

The only thing Id like to see retconned would be MDC dinos. Elephants, Hippos, and other large animals are not MDC...why should a non-magical, non-supernatural animal turn MDC? If there is a reason for their MDC transformation...put it in this book. Just give us a reason! Not really dinos? Really aliens? Really demons? Atlantian creations that are supernatural in nature? Something!

The best explanation would be a surplus of Temporal Energy from time-traveling this far into the future, as detailed in Trandimensional TMNT.

But I'd much rather just have SDC dinosaurs.

In my games, very few dinos have the high MDC.
Most are low MDC or SDC.

Well, i guess it depends on one's definition of high MDC, but i don't remember any dinos being on the dragon hatchling tier or higher, quite the contrary in fact.

The dinosaurs in New West and Dinosaur Swamp have a LOT of MDC.
A T-Rex has more than a Great Horned Dragon hatchling, certainly.

[ShadowLogan]

Can anyone indicate a D-bee group in the book that might sort of fit under the "blob race" description?
Or any shapeshifters, full or limited (preferably the later)?

Amorph RCC (WB12/WB30)- likely the closest to what you are asking for
Auto-G-shape shifter, it needs DNA to work (WB30 and a few other places)
Ecto-man (WB30, Dirari RCC) might also work (they generate an ectoplasm body)
Phlebus (WB30, limited)
Shapers (WB30)
Dragons (via metamorphosis)
Octoman (WB21, or Giant Octopus/Squid in WB7 or find them in TMNT/HU/AtB mutant animal tables or work them out using both sets of sources, IIRC one of the Rifters has this), they aren't in WB30 but are pretty "blob-ish".
Faire Bot (WB30/WB20, in WB30 they are Technowizards who use a TW vehicle, so TW up the vehicle to be "blob-like")

Just a blob-ish (Slurmph in WB30 pg190), though maybe not like the above (more of an impression)

Rifter (#2 Primorder Dimensional Setting pg90-9), while not WB30 this also has some examples.

[SolCannibal]

Can anyone indicate a D-bee group in the book that might sort of fit under the "blob race" description?
Or any shapeshifters, full or limited (preferably the later)?

Amorph RCC (WB12/WB30)- likely the closest to what you are asking for
Auto-G-shape shifter, it needs DNA to work (WB30 and a few other places)
Ecto-man (WB30, Dirari RCC) might also work (they generate an ectoplasm body)
Phlebus (WB30, limited)
Shapers (WB30)
Dragons (via metamorphosis)
Octoman (WB21, or Giant Octopus/Squid in WB7 or find them in TMNT/HU/AtB mutant animal tables or work them out using both sets of sources, IIRC one of the Rifters has this), they aren't in WB30 but are pretty "blob-ish".
Faire Bot (WB30/WB20, in WB30 they are Technowizards who use a TW vehicle, so TW up the vehicle to be "blob-like")

Just a blob-ish (Slurmph in WB30 pg190), though maybe not like the above (more of an impression)

Rifter (#2 Primorder Dimensional Setting pg90-9), while not WB30 this also has some examples.

The Amorph is the platonic ideal and then some physically, but are a little too supernatural for what i have in mind.
The Dirari "Ecto-Men", could definitely work too, their usual portrayal is nastier than what i'm doing, but that's a pretty minor quibble i'll admit. Specially considering the text itself seem to imply those in Rifts Earth tend to be the miscreants, rogues & criminals of their society.
The Phlebus are in a kind of curious extreme, in that while having a base form being too humanoid for my interests, their culture/psychology is spot-on for companions/spokesperson for my "Colossian" giants.

(On an unrelated note, reading the Pogtal really tempted me to just use them in place of my homebrewed Colossians for Phaseworld. Almost. Probably going to add Pogtals anyway somehow)

The Shapers are very much not what i have in mind, but on a curious aside, make me think of slightly smarter and friendly midget Boschala. I'm kind of tempted to make both races related - or Shapers the fruit of failed "Boschala upgrade" experiments of Modus, an alien intelligence from my own games.

Yeah, think i'm going to riff on the Ecto-Men, though the Three Galaxies being what it is, people don't react to their cousins, the Irarid "Aquarians", like the superstitious natives of Rifts Earth. Much to the chagrin of the occasional lone Irarid that ends up as some unscrupulous scientist/mystic test subject...