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What do you think is missing from Thundercloud Galaxy?

What do you want see in Thundercloud Galaxy 2?

Well I like it if they give the Population of the CCW,TGE,FWC,UWW in Thundercloud galaxy.

The Population numbers,New Native races, and New Adventures like a city from Rifts earth got Rifted to a Planet in Thundercloud.

7 years later, the biggest thing that I think is missing from Thundercloud is the native perspective; the focus lies pretty heavily with the Players being some kind of "outsider" that has come to either explore, help, or exploit the locals... which is fine, but somewhat unbalanced. The opposite theme (that of the players being Thundercloud people living out their lives and doing stuff without the inclusion/help/hindrance of colonial powers) is very minor.

Basically, there's no "Thundercloud Wakanda", and that ends up doing the overall setting a disservice.

Braden Campbell wrote:
Basically, there's no "Thundercloud Wakanda", and that ends up doing the overall setting a disservice.

Ah well; not one 'canonical' but sadly, that's what we Rifts GM's are *"paid for" to rectify.
*

As I recall, in an early draft there was talk about a long-lost Wulfen colony... or some kind of fabulous, hidden society very much in the vein of Prester John. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_John)

I would like some explaination of why the Thundercloud Galaxy is being retconned into a backwater?
The original timeline had it be a main part of the network for 50,000+ years...
...so why was everyone just staying in the other two galaxies until now?
What changed?
Was there some force or group or something preventing anyone from going there previously?

I get that the book was supposed to be all 15th century colonialism. That's cool (It isn't anything that I care for at all and shamelessly rewrite...but a lot of people like and that's fine with me)...
...but why did no one notice the "new world" for the last thousand years...

I would be interested in the reason... as it might be useful for plot elements.
For example if there previously was some field then looking into the origins of the field might be a good plot. Or perhaps trying to acquire whatever McGuffin was preventing colonialization so as to use it to defend Group X from Threat Y

something like Taalisman's "random Interstellar Empires/kingdoms" tables would have helped a lot. give the GM's actual tools to populate the galaxy with local powers.

Also: the Galactic Game Hunter OCC didn't make it in...

gaby wrote:What do you think is missing from Thundercloud Galaxy?

While the UWW isn't participating in the Scramble, they could have used a little attention. In my recent UWW-based campaign I quickly realized that Warlock worlds would be booming trade centers for smaller operators, independent operations, and the like. The ability to transport modest cargos through dimensional pyramids would be huge for anyone not running large-scale operations or massive cargo loads. Plus the Shing being all magical might catch someone's attention there.

Braden Campbell wrote:Basically, there's no "Thundercloud Wakanda", and that ends up doing the overall setting a disservice.

In terms of "isolationist block far more advanced technologically than most", I think the Oni could qualify. Though they seem less invested in the Scramble, now that I think about it.

eliakon wrote:I would like some explaination of why the Thundercloud Galaxy is being retconned into a backwater?
The original timeline had it be a main part of the network for 50,000+ years...
...so why was everyone just staying in the other two galaxies until now?
What changed?
Was there some force or group or something preventing anyone from going there previously?

Double checked my copy of Phase World, the Thundercloud was always set as the least populated by the major powers. Corkscrew as the most, Anvil second. People have been founding colonies in the Thundercloud for a very long time, main difference in recent centuries is the colonization space race that has popped up between the TGE and CCW pushing both to more aggressively recruit worlds into their respective folds. Have to remember, for all but UWW, these worlds are very isolated from the rest of civilization, so getting people to make the jump from whatever sci-fi world they grew up on to become a pioneer is hard, not to mention the difficulties of setting up infrastructure from scratch.

glitterboy2098 wrote:something like Taalisman's "random Interstellar Empires/kingdoms" tables would have helped a lot. give the GM's actual tools to populate the galaxy with local powers.

Yeah, I lean on that and the tables in Anvil a lot when creating random powers here and there in the Thundercloud.

Braden Campbell wrote:Also: the Galactic Game Hunter OCC didn't make it in...

Imagine the Dinosaur Hunter would be fairly similar with tweaks to target lore/tracking skills?

Actually, Dino Hunter brings to mind an answer to:

gaby wrote:What do you want see in Thundercloud Galaxy 2?

Not so much a 2 as an Adventures in the Thundercloud, similar to the companion to Dinosaur Swamp.

it should be Thundercloud Frontier, with a bigger focus on the many smaller star-nations in the thundercloud. a condensed version of the random stellar empire system could be included, as well as a section with some ships and gear for both any new groups in that book, as well as some for the races in the 1st thundercloud book that didn't get much attention.

Armorlord wrote:

eliakon wrote:I would like some explaination of why the Thundercloud Galaxy is being retconned into a backwater?
The original timeline had it be a main part of the network for 50,000+ years...
...so why was everyone just staying in the other two galaxies until now?
What changed?
Was there some force or group or something preventing anyone from going there previously?

Double checked my copy of Phase World, the Thundercloud was always set as the least populated by the major powers. Corkscrew as the most, Anvil second. People have been founding colonies in the Thundercloud for a very long time, main difference in recent centuries is the colonization space race that has popped up between the TGE and CCW pushing both to more aggressively recruit worlds into their respective folds. Have to remember, for all but UWW, these worlds are very isolated from the rest of civilization, so getting people to make the jump from whatever sci-fi world they grew up on to become a pioneer is hard, not to mention the difficulties of setting up infrastructure from scratch.

The problem is that this doesnt fit the actual events.
The "scramble" is predicated on the majority of the galaxy being totally unexplored. All sorts of brand new races and "wow what is out here" rather than something that SHOULD have tens of thousands of years of previous records.
Yes, it is less populated....
...but that is like assuming that Australia on our earth is utterly unexplored with most of it totally terra incognita and no one having any idea what so ever there is out there...

The result was to have a guilt fest by making everyone into evil villains who are mustache twirling while deliberately replicating the worst excesses and crimes of earths age of exploration...
...which is well... absurd.
Like for some reason the CCW has decided that genocide and virtually every other crime on their core laws are fine... huh????

It just doesn't fit the rest of the books at all. High tech, well established governments, universal law enforcement... except over here where it is back to the 1600s and everyone is required to check their laws and morality at the door.

SURE you can have some elements of colonization. But the idea that up until now NO ONE has been doing anything at all? And that they are all suddenly forgetting all their laws?

True, terrible things are happening in some parts of the colonial efforts, but that is because a) these events are taking place very far away from any kind of oversight or authority and thus, people tend to descend to their baser natures... and b) the news hasn't gotten out yet (as I recall, the bloody book begins with the Consortium Prime Minister calling for a federal investigation into what exactly is going on, because no one has any clue what the TDC is doing).