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In Rifts time line, what would you say inhabits the ruins of Knoxville, TN? I am putting a few moonshining fae folk, Willy Nelson (Minor god of mj and country music), and hopefully EVENTUALLY a small Atlantean clan. Also, banjo playing mutant opossum-armadillo-porcupine-grizzlies...after all, it's close to Oak Ridge.

There is just a brief mention of it in the main book and the same bit or info is repeated in RUE. I need a bit of advise in populating the ruins.

pblackcrow wrote:In Rifts time line, what would you say inhabits the ruins of Knoxville, TN? I am putting a few moonshining fae folk, Willy Nelson (Minor god of mj and country music), and hopefully EVENTUALLY a small Atlantean clan. Also, banjo playing mutant opossum-armadillo-porcupine-grizzlies...after all, it's close to Oak Ridge.

What kind of fae? The race or grouping of races involved can make considerable difference in interests and how good or bad news can it be for a group of adventurers to interact with these fae.

Also, are they perhaps Nelson's court/troupe? Because deities with a more devil-may-care, festive attitude like Dionysius, Soma and others seem to get along pretty well with Fae and have a number of them as partying followers & hanger-ons.

As an aside, i was thinking that, if you are not already familiar with them, the Silver John series of stories might be right up the alley of what you aiming for here.

Are those multiple mutant animal races or some sort of insane Genesplicer-brewed blend of all four animals in one package? Kind of curious.

pblackcrow wrote:There is just a brief mention of it in the main book and the same bit or info is repeated in RUE. I need a bit of advise in populating the ruins.

Well, the blurb in RMB & RUE makes me think of the area as a "Poor Man Magic Zone" with more fadetown-like settlements or towns like Magestar than city-states like Brass, Dweomer or Stormspire, with maybe some Dinossaur Swamp mixed in.

The group of old cities mentioned, being relatively close to each other could be either a cluster of allied or rival magical kingdoms in the vein of Tolkeen or the FoM, ruins infested by monstrous warlords like Calgary, hunting outpost for Atlantis or a mix of these and more according to your own preferences. Considering half a dozen cities are mentioned you might as well have one of each of these things for maximum variety in fact.


PS: Did a quick check on D-Bees of North America and found out Shale Bogles and Idie Swamp Men can be commonly found in Tennessee among other parts of North America. Darkhounds, while originating in the Magic Zone, have spread to other regions in the last two decades, Tennessee included.

pblackcrow wrote:In Rifts time line, what would you say inhabits the ruins of Knoxville, TN? I am putting a few moonshining fae folk, Willy Nelson (Minor god of mj and country music), and hopefully EVENTUALLY a small Atlantean clan. Also, banjo playing mutant opossum-armadillo-porcupine-grizzlies...after all, it's close to Oak Ridge.

There is just a brief mention of it in the main book and the same bit or info is repeated in RUE. I need a bit of advise in populating the ruins.

So, how did the region end up developing in your game? What kind of peculiar groups and places came up after all?

pblackcrow wrote:In Rifts time line, what would you say inhabits the ruins of Knoxville, TN? I am putting a few moonshining fae folk, Willy Nelson (Minor god of mj and country music), and hopefully EVENTUALLY a small Atlantean clan. Also, banjo playing mutant opossum-armadillo-porcupine-grizzlies...after all, it's close to Oak Ridge.

There is just a brief mention of it in the main book and the same bit or info is repeated in RUE. I need a bit of advise in populating the ruins.

A bunch of former prison convicts who gather in their old orange-and-white prison uniforms en masse in their massive, open air cathedral to chant "AARNGE!!! WHAAAT!!!" and "ROCKY TOP!!!" back and forth at each other as their juiced-up gladiators with little in the way of life prospects after the next few years (though everyone pretends otherwise) give and take tremendous and permanent physical punishment for no pay in ritual combat that grants the community some fleeting sense of superiority over other communities.

tl;dr UT sucks.

You know, Oak Ridge National Laboratory isn't that far away. I'd say there's a lot more potential for that community in Rifts Earth.

Hotrod wrote:

pblackcrow wrote:In Rifts time line, what would you say inhabits the ruins of Knoxville, TN? I am putting a few moonshining fae folk, Willy Nelson (Minor god of mj and country music), and hopefully EVENTUALLY a small Atlantean clan. Also, banjo playing mutant opossum-armadillo-porcupine-grizzlies...after all, it's close to Oak Ridge.

There is just a brief mention of it in the main book and the same bit or info is repeated in RUE. I need a bit of advise in populating the ruins.

A bunch of former prison convicts who gather in their old orange-and-white prison uniforms en masse in their massive, open air cathedral to chant "AARNGE!!! WHAAAT!!!" and "ROCKY TOP!!!" back and forth at each other as their juiced-up gladiators with little in the way of life prospects after the next few years (though everyone pretends otherwise) give and take tremendous and permanent physical punishment for no pay in ritual combat that grants the community some fleeting sense of superiority over other communities.

tl;dr UT sucks.

Joke flew completely over my head here, but then i'm not american anyway, clearly missing some regional references on that one....

edit: A little google searching led me to eventually realize the joke relates to the Tennessee Volunteers somehow.
Now i'm imagining the Tenesse Headhunters merc company (from Merctown) with "Titans" & "Volunteers" teams, appropriate colors and all.

Hotrod wrote:You know, Oak Ridge National Laboratory isn't that far away. I'd say there's a lot more potential for that community in Rifts Earth.

Or maybe some mysterious/strange abandoned (or is it ?) installation in the vein of Lone Star or Cyberwoks' Aberdeen underground complex.

Mutant Coon Hounds...........with Orange eyes.....

Fierce warriors, but they can be put to sleep by the Blonde Siren from the holler farther East.

RockJock wrote:Mutant Coon Hounds...........with Orange eyes.....

Fierce warriors, but they can be put to sleep by the Blonde Siren from the holler farther East.

And what do these 'coons force to climb up trees?

i always figured Knoxville would be a satellite of GAW, with a small community of Operators, techno wizards, etc. I LOVE the idea of mutant humanoid armadillos though, riding around in mega damage technical trucks like armored good ol boys.....

slade2501 wrote:i always figured Knoxville would be a satellite of GAW, with a small community of Operators, techno wizards, etc. I LOVE the idea of mutant humanoid armadillos though, riding around in mega damage technical trucks like armored good ol boys.....

Now thinking of runaways from Lion Heart Industries setting up a "franchise" in the are with maybe some support partnership on GAW's part.

Out of curiosity, why is Willie Nelson living in Knoxville? He's a Texas boy.

People like Quentin Tarantino, Homer and Jethro, or Kenny Chesney would probably be more appropriate choices. Or if you expand it to all of Tennessee, Dolly Parton and Elvis would be far better choices, especially given their reverence in both reality and folklore.

Crimson Dynamo wrote:Out of curiosity, why is Willie Nelson living in Knoxville? He's a Texas boy.

Change of climate i guess. People sometimes just move away from home for a bunch of reasons - the Texas he knew being mostly gone possibly just one among those.

Crimson Dynamo wrote:People like Quentin Tarantino, Homer and Jethro, or Kenny Chesney would probably be more appropriate choices. Or if you expand it to all of Tennessee, Dolly Parton and Elvis would be far better choices, especially given their reverence in both reality and folklore.

Maybe some of them (or talented impersonators) are still around, maybe not, up to each one's game.
Most of us here are just riffing from the OP's starting kernels of idea, random book bits and some ad libs.

SolCannibal wrote:Change of climate i guess. People sometimes just move away from home for a bunch of reasons - the Texas he knew being mostly gone possibly just one among those.

lol, as opposed to being surrounded by dinosaurs on one side and Nazis on the other? Lone Star/Texas in Rifts Earth is probably more Texas than Texas is; even the Nazis and vampires there are cowboy wannabes or Western aficionados.

Maybe some of them (or talented impersonators) are still around, maybe not, up to each one's game.

Erm, I was referring to a region-based figure that would serve as a better godling for the area compared to someone like Willie Nelson who has no real relationship with Knoxville other than "they like country music, and he was a country musician." Dolly Parton as a godling, secretly funding groups fighting back against the Coalition, while openly helping the poor and disenfranchsed not only fits better with the real person, but works great for the region. Certainly better than a pot-smoking guy who's only other claim to fame is singing and playing the guitar.

Most of us here are just riffing from the OP's starting kernels of idea, random book bits and some ad libs.

I know?