Manhunter Universe

[Josh MacCabe]

I know most people didn't like the book or how inconsistent it was, but my friends and i have managed to work out the bugs. Anyways, i have a campaign going which has three rifted coalition military bases appear on a planet just inside ATPDS space. Some of the pcs are coalition and so far things have beem going great. I was just wondering if there was anyway to get more books on Manhunter space, have any been published by Myrmidon?

[dakota]

nope. Big legal prob. It's in the FAQs somewheres

I alway liked the Manhunter book and i use them in my other campaigns just to add some variety that players wouldn't expect

[maasenstodt]

I've thought since I first read it that the Manhunter universe is loaded with potential. With the arguably the best spaceship construction rules to be found in a Palladium product (TMNT Guide to the Universe is close and includes the essential TMF rules), its great for sci-fi games. Since I think FTL travel is a near impossibility, my personal preference is for settings that remain within a single system like Jovian Chronicles, Buck Rogers XXVc, or, if I had to look at a Palladium setting, Mutants in Orbit. But if you want a FTL setting, Manhunter isn't bad.

As noted, Myrmidon had a falling out with Palladium and didn't produce any further Manhunter products for Palladium. If you're looking for more source material, you can find their own non-Palladium Manhunter book (there may be a couple of them, in fact) on ebay if you look persistently for a month or so. I don't have that, so I can't comment, but I do have copies of the two books from their Cosmic Enforcers line.

Cosmic Enforcers is a different setting - think Heroes Unlimited / Skraypers / AU: Galaxy Guide / Manhunter - and you may start to get an idea. I found that it seemed heavily influenced by Palladium, despite its distinctly different (better?) ruleset. The fact that C.J. and Kevin Long were contributors would go a long way towards explaining that. Were it not for a mass of typos, I would rate it quite highly. In any case, I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Myrmidon and sci-fi / superheroic games.

[Marcethus]

The only thing i have a problem with in Manhunter is the way the list all the space ship speeds I don't really understand how they are using the AU as a measurement of speed if anyone has figured this out i would like to know,

[kamikazzijoe]

But why is it called "manhunters"? They only occupy the first 20 pages if that. It would be like calling psi-scape "sould harvest."

[Marcethus]

Because the Manhunters are the underlying threat to everything,

[Carl Gleba]

Loved the book. It has tons of potential and I've used it as a dimension book many times. As for the A.U. as a speed factor, I pretty much ignore it and assigned speeds as I needed them. Basically Mach XX.

Carl

[BookWyrm]

I agree with Carl. Rifts: Manhunter is an excellent worldbook on it's own. The starship creation rules are nice, and the threat that the Manhunters pose is a nice undercurrent to to overall storyline.

[Marcethus]

Manhunter Rocks I love all the races and classes in the book they add to the flavor of the megaverse and can be used in their own by a creative GM that can take it in any direction they want since nothing more is going to come out for it.

[maasenstodt]

After not one but two cases of thread necromancy, I suppose that I'll add something else that I like about Manhunter: the weapons and armor provided are well balanced (harkening back to the early days of Rifts) and there are about as many SDC weapons as MD, none of which are just M-16's or other hold-overs from the 80's that miraculously still abound centuries later.

New and interesting SDC weapons are something that is rarely seen in abundance nowadays, and a book that gets into them deserves some merit.

[ARMD454]

Stupid question: what in blazes in Rifts: Manhunter? I understand that it's a dimensional book for Rifts written by the fine people at Myrmidion, but beyond that...could anybody give me the jist of it?

[Marcethus]

Manhunter basic premise: Alternate universe. Terrans (humans) met an alien race fight ensued. Alien race thought Humans were barbarians sought to contain the threat created a race of learning Robots that could think for themselves and gave all the traits the alien race thought Humanity was.
War ensued. Manhunter robots did better then the aliens thought and were alot more brutal as well. Manhunters recalled not all showed up but the few thousand that did were dismantled. the Manhunters realized that Humans weren't contained and they decided to disobey the stand down order. They came to the alien homeworld and demands. No was the answer so they struck alien race not being the best in the arts of war quickly surrendered and did as asked. but put a virus in the data that held the Manhunter plans. plans destroyed Alien sent an team to earth (thought it was a suicide mission) but the found out that humans weren't all that bad. Alliance formed Manhunters pushed into inner area of the galaxy. All was quite for 20 yrs. Manhunters are returning but using terrorist tactics and they have changed.
One of the main changes is that they are stronger all manhunters have SN PS

[Avenger]

Not only that, but you have over a dozen alien races who all have very well thought out and interesting backgrounds. Also a lot of galactic corporations and organizations. Very cool OCCs, like a battle mage, a karmic powered like bounty hunter, superhuman rangers. All in all a fun book and setting.

[ZEN]

For the earlier question on AU as a speed indicator.. AU stands for Astronomical Unit, it is the distance between the Sun and Earth.
1 AU = 149,597,870.691 kilometers, so if that is a measure of speed travelled per hour.. it is a pretty speedy ship, even if it is going below superluminal speeds.

[DhAkael]

Manhunter was great, though it realy needed a better editor (way to scattershot in its layout).
I've 'tweaked' a couple of the races in there.
The Gorushan's are now a bit more fearsome (though still SDC) after I got a hold of 'Aliens Unlimited', the bonuses from high radiation worlders are a nice touch. I've also made them an underlying threat to the orbital community in Rifts Terra; they're camped out at the free-standing gravity-well near Saturn (yes, taking that factoid from AU:GG) and prey upon any free-booters silly enough to go into the asteroid belt. Plus it is infered they work for a 'shadowy' power...hmm...supernatural intelligence anyone?
The Kirn, of course are members of the UWW (high psionic and / or magic potential), and are like more boisterous and frentic elves...with tails!

Too bad R.K. Post didn't stay on past Rifts Japan & the Nightbane books, his art was kick a$$...and he did some really great pieces in Manhunter (the Dechahedron foundation pic was NICE!).

If you can find it in the remainder pile, or second hand, I highly recomend this book, if for no other reason it has some great concepts that just need a little GM love

[Killer Cyborg]

But why is it called "manhunters"? They only occupy the first 20 pages if that. It would be like calling psi-scape "sould harvest."

Which would still be more appropriate than calling it "Psyscape."

[taalismn]

Liked the idea of Manhunter and felt it had great potential...IF ONLY somebody had proofread the darn thing before release...we got introduced to so many interesting races and classes, as well as a nice array of hardware and tech, but whoever did the translating from the original Manhunter/Cosmic Enforcers texts left out huge honking chunks of material, while other bits of gear were woefully underpowered for their fluff text descriptions:

Example:
*Forceshield Projectors---a lot of the OCCs and hardware designs get these as standard, but nowhere do we see a more thorough description of them(I've had to substitute with Naruni designs)...It's the only thing saving the MacKenzie Medium Battlesuit (with its big cannon that does less damage than an NG particle pistol!) from being a styrofoam coffin...

*LOre: Robot---Important skill in the Manhunter universe...but no description

*Depression Gun---We see the stats for the TRASHman's special missile launcher, but the customized ion pistol Depression Gun? Nil, zilch...it vanishes

Sad that Myrmidon will NOT be ever correcting these errors(among others), and that even fan attempts to fill in the blanks on any official forum(such as this one) will face censure...Otherwise Manhunter could have been great, and not simply 'fair'...

[NMI]

actually a comic book shop i went to in the town of loves park ill (near rockford) had a whole slew of books from myrimiddon press. Eventually I am gonna head back there and buy them.