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One of my new players wants to play a Combat Cyborg made in the likeness of the Goddess of Destruction Kali who was originally from India.

Only I don't know anything at all about Rifts India. A little help? Where can I find info on it?

I looked in the store but I cant see a book that might have anything on it.

I don't understand the problem? Kali is in Pantheons of the Megaverse, you don't need to know about India to know about her.
If you want the character to come from India as the reason why he looks like her, you will have to make up the area yourself. Although I don't think whatever humanity survives in India will have access to Bionics...
Also, you don't have to be from India to know of Kali and consequently to create a Borg in her image.

Giant2005 wrote:I don't understand the problem? Kali is in Pantheons of the Megaverse, you don't need to know about India to know about her.
If you want the character to come from India as the reason why he looks like her, you will have to make up the area yourself. Although I don't think whatever humanity survives in India will have access to Bionics...
Also, you don't have to be from India to know of Kali and consequently to create a Borg in her image.

Okay you made me do this:

The character is an Indian Grandmother (who underwent Full Bionic Conversion) and served her time in the military several years ago. According to the Bionics Source Book Bionics was a world wide phenomena and everywhere had its own bionics -- thats right there were unique Tasmanian bionics.

Because the character was a full conversion Cyborg she never had grandchildren of her own and now she is traveling the world before she powers down (shes an OLD borg apparently) and has chosen to adopt the other PC's as her grand kids. Great isnit it?

Anyway, I just wanted to know if there was anything about the culture on Rifts Earth anywhere or anything I could buy to give the player to read so that they know a little about their characters background. Does Pantheons (my mate has it at the moment) have info on what Kali is doing in the modern day or Indian culture at all?

She doesn't have anything to do with humanity right now. She working with the Splugorth and the Raksasha to try and kill the other Indian Gods.
It does say she used to have "bloody cults that worshiped her" and she could have realistically set up a new one which your PC could be a member of but their alignment wouldn't be very positive if they worship such an evil being...
About India, we don't know much of anything really. Evidence suggests that it is dominated by Demons much the same as China and I would personally be very disappointed if they released an India Book with Geofront Mark II within it's boarders. IF China is dominated by demons, I don't think any Bionic facilities would survive.
You could change things up though - India could be dominated by Kali and she kept the entire human population alive to serve as her cult. The technology could be preserved in that case. Otherwise, just have the PC be an Indian who is a member of a Kali cult that was established outside of India.

Giant2005 wrote:She doesn't have anything to do with humanity right now. She working with the Splugorth and the Raksasha to try and kill the other Indian Gods.
It does say she used to have "bloody cults that worshiped her" and she could have realistically set up a new one which your PC could be a member of but their alignment wouldn't be very positive if they worship such an evil being...
About India, we don't know much of anything really. Evidence suggests that it is dominated by Demons much the same as China and I would personally be very disappointed if they released an India Book with Geofront Mark II within it's boarders. IF China is dominated by demons, I don't think any Bionic facilities would survive.
You could change things up though - India could be dominated by Kali and she kept the entire human population alive to serve as her cult. The technology could be preserved in that case. Otherwise, just have the PC be an Indian who is a member of a Kali cult that was established outside of India.

Thank you for your suggestions (I will ask but I was under the impression that the players rationality was that they just use Kaili's chassis for all their Combat Cyborgs for the same reason the Coalition use the Deathhead). I know for a fact Bionics survived because it said it did in the BSB... I just dont know anything about what it is like over there on any official medium. If it is dominated by demons, where did you read that?

Hopefully someone else will know a little more on it, fingers crossed!

I misspoke when I said demons (was working off memory) anyway this is the passage that made me refer to that:
"India is a jungle with little human life and even less technology. It is rumored to be inhabited by savage, cannibalistic D-Bees." (Those are the words of Erin Tarn, so it is up to you to decide how accurate they are).
After that as far as I know, India wasn't updated until Aftermath, which had this to say:
"India of Rifts Earth is another place of mystery with which the rest of the planet has lost touch. The Horune Pirates are said to have secret pirate coves hidden along its coast and even a great city somewhere on the edge of the jungle. Ancient gods and spirits are also said to have returned, and the old gods sometimes return to hunt, play and wage war against each other. Trith is, no one knows."
It was again updated in RUE:
"India, I have hear, is the domain of warring gods and the forces of good and evil, and we mortals are pawns and soldiers in their battles." (Again the words of Tarn).

The bottom line is we have no concrete knowledge of India - do with it as you please. I assume that something very powerful is there though, otherwise the demons of China would have spread over the border.
.

RMB *1990*
"India is a jungle with little human life and even less technology. It is rumored to be inhabited by savage, cannibalistic D-Bees."

Aftermath *2000*
"India of Rifts Earth is another place of mystery with which the rest of the planet has lost touch. The Horune Pirates are said to have secret pirate coves hidden along its coast and even a great city somewhere on the edge of the jungle. Ancient gods and spirits are also said to have returned, and the old gods sometimes return to hunt, play and wage war against each other. Truth is, no one knows."

RUE *2005*
"India, I have hear, is the domain of warring gods and the forces of good and evil, and we mortals are pawns and soldiers in their battles."

Also Check out : PANTHEONS OF THE MEGAVERSE pgs 112-146
Kali is on pgs 132-134. And Appears to be part Bionic herself.

Look in Minderwerkz for the ANGEL of DEATH for a possible Cyborg made in her Image. You just need to add more arms.

Since Kali is working for the Sploogies now, she would have access to High Technologies. She could have Humans raised to be Anti-Demon Cyborg Warriors in her image. Teaching them all Assassination HtH or another martial art such as Ti-Kickboxing for the Deathblow Maneuver at level 1-14, and a special critical Deathblow at lvl 15, and the shin kick manuever also does HP damages like a deathblow.

It does meantion ONE Great City on the edge of the Jungle. I would make the Where Technology exists.

As for your friends background...
Cyborgs can live for Hundreds of years once they undergo Cyberation into Full Cyborgs. The whole "Before she powers down" is lame, cause she can always get a new power supply anytime. With the Background given I'm expecting a level 15 Borg, not a 1st level borg.

As for OCC/Skills for Cyborg from India. I would use WoR-SHOCKTROOPER for skills. They get a better selection of skills than the Combat Cyborg OCC, and with a KALI-like Cyborg Body, I'm hearing SHOCKTROOPER model instead of generic cyborg.

My brother in law is working on an India world book right now. I have an exhaustive list of every mention of India in Rifts books if you need it.

The Galactus Kid wrote:My brother in law is working on an India world book right now. I have an exhaustive list of every mention of India in Rifts books if you need it.

Awesome!
Are you willing to divulge any subtle spoilers for us?
At the very least, please confirm that we won't be seeing Geofront Mark 2 .

Giant2005 wrote:

The Galactus Kid wrote:My brother in law is working on an India world book right now. I have an exhaustive list of every mention of India in Rifts books if you need it.

Awesome!
Are you willing to divulge any subtle spoilers for us?
At the very least, please confirm that we won't be seeing Geofront Mark 2 .

More Selfish Question:
Can you ask him to include somewhere that creates Combat Cyborgs in the likeness of Kali to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies and have them not automatically be super-evil bastards?

And yes, I would like it please.

You could work with Kali and be good. She fights demons and deevls all the time. I would expect a Kali-borg to be Anti-Demon Cyborgs, designed to fight demons and win.

TechnoGothic wrote:You could work with Kali and be Evil. She fights demons and deevls all the time. I would expect a Kali-borg to be Anti-Demon Cyborgs, designed to fight demons and win.

Oh, I like the rationality behind that and it goes along well with the borgs through history part of the BSB.

TechnoGothic wrote:You could work with Kali and be Evil. She fights demons and deevls all the time. I would expect a Kali-borg to be Anti-Demon Cyborgs, designed to fight demons and win.

I would use the Demon-Cyborg from the Geofront, call it Indian and be done.

I would make a Cyborg with 6 to 8 paires of Arms for a KALI model. Heightened Reflexes for a +1 Attack. So in Total it would have +6 to +8 Attacks. Which would be awesome for a Cyborg Shocktrooper styled model to be focused on. Give it a 360 degree wait, so it can become a whirwind of swords, and energy blasts while it fights.

TechnoGothic wrote:I would make a Cyborg with 6 to 8 paires of Arms for a KALI model. Heightened Reflexes for a +1 Attack. So in Total it would have +6 to +8 Attacks. Which would be awesome for a Cyborg Shocktrooper styled model to be focused on. Give it a 360 degree wait, so it can become a whirwind of swords, and energy blasts while it fights.

I never really understood how a Cyborg could have multiple arms and actually use them.
My human brain sucks at multi-tasking to the extent that I have trouble using two arms simultaneously - if I stuck a few more on there they'd probably be more of a hinderance than a help.
Maybe the people of Rifts Earth have brains a little more evolved than mine.

or computer gifted reflexes to enhance being Ambidexterious not just with two arms/hands, but with as many arms/hands you build into the body. That and cyborgs spend months relearning how to walk and move with their new cyborg body. So helps to practice using them.

Give the head a 360 neck and eyes/sensors in the back of the head to help sense things.
Give the legs knees which go both direction, and hips which do to. Their feet designed to useful in any direction. Which would allow you to reverse direction in an instant.

The Galactus Kid wrote:My brother in law is working on an India world book right now. I have an exhaustive list of every mention of India in Rifts books if you need it.

Any idea how close to completian of his manuscript he's at ? I know once it get's to Kev's desk...nobody knows if or when it will be published & in what form. But I'd buy a RIFTS: India book or RIFTERS with a series of meaty articles on India.

Given that some of the wars between gods depicted in Hindu myth read like nuclear warfare(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythological_wars), any return of fighting gods to India to use it as their battleground is going to be potentially ugly, unless they agree to some ground rules(like 'no nuking the planet unless you really want to get the other pantheons mad at us').

I'm thinking that if you max out(and beyond) on arms for a cyborg, you're going to be seriously taxing the human ability to multitask with all those limbs. It wouldn't be unfair IMHO to give the chance of an insanity or two for the strain(like maybe having a Kali complex!), or else devise a powerful 'secondary brain' in the spinal column that would handle 'reflexive' tasks like hand to hand fighting(the secondary brain being assigned a task like 'chop anything not identifiable as friendly getting inside melee weapons range', and having access to a set of secondary sensor systems to use)...the result being something that looks like a reaping machine going berserk. Fortunately, unless you're wading into a haive of Xiticix or other swarmers, most of the time all those extra limbs are going to be used for is as equipment holders. while the character uses only 1-4 limbs at a time(which is still fairly impressive...the character may be right or left handed, but now has the further issue of 'favors WHICH right or left hand? Upper, lower, middle?).

The Galactus Kid wrote:My brother in law is working on an India world book right now. I have an exhaustive list of every mention of India in Rifts books if you need it.

I would kill to see that. and i have just doomed it to an eternity of never being produced. tell your brother in law i'm sorry.

No book i want is ever published.

I'll try not to want yours.

The Galactus Kid wrote:My brother in law is working on an India world book right now. I have an exhaustive list of every mention of India in Rifts books if you need it.

If you still have it lying around, I'd love a fwd too.

Sorry about this. I need to dig it up again. It may be in my brother in laws possession right now, and if it is, then I need to at least get it typed up and sent out again.

Instead of using a standard Combat Cyborg we Retooled the Anti-Monster by changing their specialization against Vampires to specializing against Devils (Indian/Chinese Demons). Otherwise mechanically they are identical but in my game they are all modeled off Kali the Goddess of Death and are utilized by the surviving Indian military to combat mystic demons and gods that would attempt to destroy or oppress humanity. My player insisted that they are always women or girls (because of the patriarchal nature of Hindi society) who had mystic potential prior to the transformation just as their Columbian counterparts. She is originally from Calcutta.

I would guess rifts china 1 and 2 and pantheon of the megaverse

Akashic Soldier wrote:Instead of using a standard Combat Cyborg we Retooled the Anti-Monster by changing their specialization against Vampires to specializing against Devils (Indian/Chinese Demons). Otherwise mechanically they are identical but in my game they are all modeled off Kali the Goddess of Death and are utilized by the surviving Indian military to combat mystic demons and gods that would attempt to destroy or oppress humanity. My player insisted that they are always women or girls (because of the patriarchal nature of Hindi society) who had mystic potential prior to the transformation just as their Columbian counterparts. She is originally from Calcutta.

Good use of player feedback to create dynamic story.