How would you do the Haydonites?

[WalterC]

Hello Masters of the Megaverse,

As a GM of a Shadow Chronicles campaign, how would you incorporate the Haydonites into your games? For one, we don't have actual stats for the Haydonites themselves. Buuut....we have a lot of Palladium Books material to work with. Here are some possible players:

• The Mechanoids: just pick and choose a few things and modify them a bit, or use as written

• ARCHIE's minions: we certainly have a lot of designs to work with, and you can even build your own robots from Rifts Sourcebook One. BTW, Haydon sounds a lot like Hagan...

What am I missing?

Also, how would you play the Haydonites? In the Sentinels storyline, they are portrayed as a neutral force that allies with the REF to combat the Invid. The Shadow Chronicles, however, reveal a more sinister side of the Haydonites as they sabotage the REF with their Shadow Technology and even plot the destruction of Earth to further their goal of destruction of all Protoculture.

[slade the sniper]

Running them as Aberrant Mechanoids would seem to be the easiest option, that way you can tie it right into the megaverse with no problems at all.
That is what I would do.

-STS

[thorr-kan]

I'd leave them as the 1E game did. But I'm not a fan of the Shadow Chronicles canon, either.

[Sambot]

I would use the Robot Creation Rules, in Heroes Unlimited or Rift's SB1 to make them.

[Marcethus]

Modify, tweak and retool the Manhunters from Rifts Manhunters is one idea.

[ShadowLogan]

How would I use the Haydonites?

Strictly as NPCs.

Beyond that it would depend on the timeline (old comic/1E RPG vs 2E RPG/canon vs Novels) and when in the timeline. If its pre-Betrayal (ie pre-BoRP) they likely would not see much use other than as UEEF/REF advisors as they don't seem to be widely known or numerous (in the Novel-verse there where only x2 as part of the Sentinels alliance, all the rest where back home). Post-Betrayal is a bit trickier...

I'm not really a big fan of the Shadow Chronicles OVA so I haven't given much thought to fleshing them out. Though Rifts SB1o/r Robot RCC combined with the Bionic SB (SB1 allows for bionic system equivalents) are likely good places to start. I'm not sure I'd use the Mechanoids (Abm or not), though some designs could be used (thinking the Wasp and Brute). I don't think the Manhunters work (not to mention sourcing).

Rough thinking it I want to say they are some type of Rifts Faerie Bot (autonomous in this case, not piloted and might be about the right size) that hides under the robes. At least if all the other Haydonites follow the ones seen in the OVA as opposed to the previous comics (which might or might not be better I don't recall).

[Marcethus]

Using the robot creation rules (SB1) and the Bionics Sourcebooks are good ideas.