first wow wordy overly wordy in my opinion. and uber power creep
ok seriously i like the reskin of the cs a POV from inside how they see it. been enjoying the last few cs books because of that... 1.) psi-ops i'm all for it makes sense and i like it. problems the emperor has to know about the vanguard. loyal to cs but magic users.
lets discus mystics i see mystics as problem for the cs as they are born not taught. and most psychic are held in hi regards i can see the higher ups seeing them as still suspect and not to be fully trusted but not automatically a threat, I can see loyal mystics being lumped into a gray zone of hiddenly tolerated. like previous books suggest but there is NO way that. psi-ops is unaware of them....
since the vanguard are mostly mystics who are psychics as well as spell casters. but who are all devoted to the cs i see the emperor and his son both turning a blind eye to their activities but watching them closely...
I also see its unlikely the psi-ops are unaware of the disavowed. but personally I can only see karl pleased at his sons ambition and inventiveness. basically taking a hands off policy until and unless they become a threat.
2.) open third eye psi power. i can see the cs using this on a lot of specially selected non psi students combined with a training program designed to turn the newly awakened into full blow psychics i can see psi division running this as a experiment right along side of the nuro stimulator program. if it works it would increase the number of psychics radically. with the minion war etc looming. i can't see them missing this.
3.) unless playing a cs campaign only the new psionics i see being used. everything else is deep background and Npcs.
Yet another "completely secret unknown group ultimately and personally handled by the Emperor" was LITERALLY not needed nor warranted.
Such an organization wouldn't ever be THAT vast in scope and NOT be known to SOMEONE or MANY someone's outside said organization.
Add in what is basically cs "trained" already existing psychic classes, a page filling comic that was rather blase, reprinted info on dogboys that is quite contradictory to previous material, a Corgi variant that specializes in anti-magic (seriously, a Corgi? w-t-f?), and a variety of simple missteps in regards to in world information that any author worth their salt should have even briefly researched before putting it in this book and what end up with is this:
Most of the last year spent on this book and THIS is what we ended up with.
Only the 2nd book, after Heroes of the Megaverse (still the WORST book Kevin has ever done, despite it supposedly being awesome according to his EMPLOYEES, imo), that I actually and totally regret buying.
Also a book that for some reason leapfrogged not only Arsenal (a book that was literally split off from Heroes of Humanity YEARS ago and was supposedly almost done THEN) but the Disavowed book...the OTHER "ultra secret unknown organization run by a Prosek".
While I am sure the ultra-hardcore Kevin fans (and I mean Kevin fans not just Palladium fans) are all wet over this but come on for **** sakes, do ******* better. This is not 198-*******-5 anymore. People expect better. People deserve better... ESPECIALLY after keeping this company barely afloat damn near the last 20 years.
I am very opinionated. Yes I rub people the wrong way but at the end of the day I just enjoy good hard discussion and will gladly walk away agreeing to not agree
I really was very disappointed in this book to be honest. For example while I was always expecting more OCC's or whatever, the whole take that was done with the Manhunter's was just garbage I thought.
I put Manhunters in the same barrel as Heroes of Humanity. It has some cool information and I see where they wanted to go, it just didn't get there.
My biggest problem with Rifts, and this now goes quadruple for the CS, is OCC bloat. There are too many and they all seem to do the same thing. I think these books would have done a lot better to go a similar route that the TAG (Target Acquisition Group) did in the Rifter. Give a few skills and special bonuses that can be applied to all or certain CS OCCs. Put in some new, or better yet modified versions of old, equipment and vehicles and it should be enough. Then the world information comes and boom you have a book. Manhunter seems to have some modifications to existing OCCs but it was really confusing in my first read through so not sure how I would use it in a game.
The CS has enough military OCCs, we need world info. How about putting this work into a series of world books on the CS states. Population, economy, a rough order of battle.
The psionic powers are interesting, but I hate all of the new powers that are specific to just one OCC. Like everyone in the universe that has that power is that OCC only.
“If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell”
...I will buy a copy soon. I wrote the "tome of Psionics" originally for the Pathfinder 2e game. (*over 300,000 copies stolen online and less than 900$ made! trying to advertise on REDDIT backfired, and I faced my first "Cancel culture" cancelation! which boiled down to idiots posting false claims about me and my book). Seeing the posts in this thread makes me think that I should rewrite my book for RIFTS instead.
The role-playing game "Technology" has evolved to include a modular outlook (I'll show it with Pathfinder 2e). the Races (incorrect word use, species actually) now called "Ancestries" refers to biology-based attributes. Heritage refers to Hybrids (half-elves, etc.), life experiences, or the culture you grew up in. Background refers to your education and last profession. Class is your current adventuring focus.
All players have a set number of "slots" with which to purchase feats, feats are broken down to prevent making inferior characters. Feats break down into: Ancestry feats, Class feats, General feats, Skill feats, archetypes,
Ancestry feats are special traits/abilities that are limited to an ancestry. Heritages modify ancestries, without calling things "Sub-races". (*for example, An elf raised in caverns deep below the surface could have dark vision.) Backgrounds, give you a "lore" (*knowledge of x) skill. A task-oriented skill such as "Nature", and a "Skill or general feat" that reflects your background. Skill proficiency is measured in "Ranks"; untrained (never), Trained (some experience), Expert (you are a professional in this skill) Mastery (you are an elite professional) and legendary (You may be world renown as one of the absolute best in this skill). If you raise your skill proficiency rank in a skill, you can begin to take more powerful specialized "Skill feats" for performing a unique trick/feat with that skill. Classes are specialized roles with unique abilities, that are usually not duplicated by other classes. (thief "sneak attack", wizard "prepared spellcasting", so forth) and classes have themed categories that define "Different kinds of (this class)". Examples; a barbarian with berserker rage, as opposed to a barbarian that spins like a dervish, or a barbarian who idolizes a totem animal and the creature's "idealized" traits (like, a fox as a "clever trickster" spirit). Archetypes are not classes, but a player can purchase archetype feats to simulate a new themed category for his class. For example; a "Fighter" whose themed category might be "Shining knight", could also stop purchasing class feats that belong to the higher level "shining knight", and start purchasing "battlefield medic" archetype feats. This "modular" system makes ways for the traditional classes to blend in another "avenue of growth".
For example in Rifts: you have the basic coalition soldier, then you can have the class theme modifier: psychic, tech, medic, pilot, investigator, spy, and then maybe modify that by the purchase of an "archetype" feat. All this is done to eliminate "System bloat". In the case of rifts, so you wouldn't have to write; CS woodsman, CS bounty hunter, CS battlefield medic, CS psi-stalker, CS technician, CS robot pilot, CS skycycle pilot, CS pilot, CS computer guy, CS spy, CS ect. ad infinitum.
I am not advocating "yet another conversion", NO. All I did here was discuss how "System bloat" and "Dead end" O.C.C. or "only found in book XYZ class" can be greatly reduced. that's RPG technology, advances in "Game mechanics" and "Game theory".
The above concepts change games from; Finite- you win on completing an objective within borders, to infinite- You win by playing with the borders themselves...
...No way do independent field operatives report directly to the Emperor. No way Karl Prosek has time to talk to let alone have hours worth of briefings with these guys. IMO, the operatives would report to someone, who would report to someone, who would report to someone else, and THAT person would give a quick overview to a General who would advise the Emperor. It's like writers have no concept of military workings and tactics.
The OCCs and Powers were a bit wordy. I like detail, but you should not have a two or three PAGE description on ONE psychic power.
It wasn't bad, and I liked the fleshing out of some of the Psychic Operatives in the CS Army. I also liked the focus on Psychic sensitives rather than ANOTHER psychic with a Psi-Sword or something OP.
i would interpret "report directly to the emperor" to mean "their chain of command and operational authority does not intersect with any other organizational entity below that of the Emperor." so they have their own layers of command, reporting, etc. it just is completely detached from any civilian or military part of the CS other than the emperor.
phrasing of that sort is common in scifi for ultra secret agencies with no external oversight. (look at "The Strategic Homeland Division" in the games "The Division" and "The Division 2". a secret organization with no congressional oversight or ties to any other federal agency or the military, drawing their authority entirely from the position of the President of the USA by way of an executive order establishing their existence.) such situations are rife with potential for abuse of power and violations of civil rights. which in settings where such things exist makes them morally and ethically dubious. in a place like the CS where such things aren't rated very high to begin with, the potential for abuse is even higher.
Author of Rifts: Deep Frontier (Rifter 70) Author of Rifts:Scandinavia (current project) * All fantasy should have a solid base in reality. * Good sense about trivialities is better than nonsense about things that matter. -Max Beerbohm Visit my Website
glitterboy2098 wrote:i would interpret "report directly to the emperor" to mean "their chain of command and operational authority does not intersect with any other organizational entity below that of the Emperor." so they have their own layers of command, reporting, etc. it just is completely detached from any civilian or military part of the CS other than the emperor.
phrasing of that sort is common in sci-fi for ultra secret agencies with no external oversight. (look at "The Strategic Homeland Division" in the games "The Division" and "The Division 2". a secret organization with no congressional oversight or ties to any other federal agency or the military, drawing their authority entirely from the position of the President of the USA by way of an executive order establishing their existence.) such situations are rife with potential for abuse of power and violations of civil rights. which in settings where such things exist makes them morally and ethically dubious. in a place like the CS where such things aren't rated very high to begin with, the potential for abuse is even higher.
glitterboy2098 you play the "The Division" and "The Division 2"?
let your YES be YES and your NO be NO but plz no maybe
Honestly unless they are finally giving us a map of chi town I have no interest in more books on the CS. Maybe if it was the CS gen III base gear I might change my mind but really their is so much more you can do in rifts.
I think the reports directly to, is the head of the department/organization only reports to. It does not mean field operatives do.
The Clones are coming you shall all be replaced, but who is to say you have not been replaced already.
Master of Type-O and the obvios.
Soon my army oc clones and winged-monkies will rule the world but first, must .......
I may debate canon and RAW, but the games I run are highly house ruled. So I am not debating for how I play but about how the system works as written.
I've done my own chitown thing if you're interested...
I am very opinionated. Yes I rub people the wrong way but at the end of the day I just enjoy good hard discussion and will gladly walk away agreeing to not agree
Blue_Lion wrote:Honestly unless they are finally giving us a map of chi town I have no interest in more books on the CS. Maybe if it was the CS gen III base gear I might change my mind but really their is so much more you can do in rifts.
I think the reports directly to, is the head of the department/organization only reports to. It does not mean field operatives do.
I don't mind the books IMHO but adding CS gen III base gear would be I don't mind to a good book that my two cents ARE missing
let your YES be YES and your NO be NO but plz no maybe
My personal Opinion here, but I wish I had come here and read these before wasting the money on this book. It was made to sound like there were going to be all these nice new shiny toys for Psionics and such, but not many, and worse, a lot of the "Revised" Stuff was not as good as before (nerfed ranged, increased costs, etc etc). Worse still was how they made it sound like the CS specials were more powerful due to their better control and range over their powers, but the Zapper (especially the damn Zapper) actually took several semi hefty nerfs, all in order to get one power that is only able to be used AFTER getting hit by not one, but two lighting hits in 5 minutes from a Storm of some type.... which requires burning actions to do since it requires the use of another power. Oh, and of course how to use that one power (IF you managed to charge up) takes an entire Melee Round's worth of attacks. Their other abilities though, the ones that are pretty much the same as the Zapper in Psyscape... yeah, weaker and watered down, or more expensive and weaker.
Not going to lie.. I really, really wish I could just return the PDF and get my money back, because... beyond an amusing read for the general story stuff and a few new Powers, the rest was wasted money spent and a serious letdown. Come on Kevin. you are killing us. You continue to put other books that have been sitting in limbo for over a decade or more, one of which actually Occupies a numbered spot and still has not seen the light of day, Dimension Book 9 (or have been talked about and had the Preview put out Years ago) for this book and this is what we got? I am very saddened.. I had high hopes that Psionics would actually get some of the MUCH needed love it really should have gotten many years ago, instead of getting pushed into a weaker state than it was.
I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but not a book I would recommend either. I am one of those people who buys more or less anything PB puts out, but this is one of those books I get almost zero out of. Basically what we get is a CS version of Psyscape with few actual upgrades, or expansions to psychics. That would be bad enough, but as presented these classes belong to a tiny number of people who are "better" trained then those from Psyscape, or someplace like the Noro from PW?
Even if we are going for extremely rare psychic classes I would have preferred something like a CS "cyberknight" focused on combatting demons or the super natural instead of technology, or something like a Templar from NB.
Even the setting information isn't really that useful to me.
Overall I feel it's okay. I wish I had purchased the PDF rather than the physical book. It just has too much power creep. I do like how they tried to push the magic vs psychic as the CS solution to magic and KS did a great job of using the psychics for detection etc but then it rapidly jumps into ridiculously strong combat OCCs (and skills) that just take away from the over all feel. I also enjoy that he finally tied Savage RIFTS and RIFTS together. I honestly expected it to take longer but it's nice that it was put into place.
