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John Kronus wrote:OK here's my problem... In the main book the Psi-Stalker is defined well enough and we have been playing with them that way for quite some time now... but i was just brushing thru Xiticix Invasion, where i found on pg. 111 the "Wild-Psi Stalker" I am wounder if there is any real difference beside the face that is states: "Wild Psi-Stalkers are human looking, except that they have no (natural) body hair..." It goes on to say they are human mutants... my problem here is the hair issue again... how could the natural/wild psi-stalker have now hair evolve into, for lack of a better term, a domesticated psi-stalker with hair ??

Just curious!

Black Ops wrote:So true......

But something completely different:
I have a lot of trouble considering the viability of Psi-Stkalkers as a Race.
Its that they can only exist on PPE,when the first Psi-Stalkers where born
and could only get nourishment from PPE how did they even survive their
childhood ?


Regards

Misfit KotLD wrote:

Black Ops wrote:So true......

But something completely different:
I have a lot of trouble considering the viability of Psi-Stkalkers as a Race.
Its that they can only exist on PPE,when the first Psi-Stalkers where born
and could only get nourishment from PPE how did they even survive their
childhood ?


Regards

Nursing on PPE stored by the mother. Since reproduction is vital to any species continuation, the males would hunt, bring the prey back and let the mothers and expectign mothers feed to provide for their children.

Rimmerdal wrote:

Misfit KotLD wrote:

Black Ops wrote:So true......

But something completely different:
I have a lot of trouble considering the viability of Psi-Stkalkers as a Race.
Its that they can only exist on PPE,when the first Psi-Stalkers where born
and could only get nourishment from PPE how did they even survive their
childhood ?


Regards

Nursing on PPE stored by the mother. Since reproduction is vital to any species continuation, the males would hunt, bring the prey back and let the mothers and expectign mothers feed to provide for their children.

I didn't think Psi-Stalkers could tranfer there own PPE...But I don't use them so I am a little rusty.

Janissary wrote:Psi-stalkers aren't really a seperate race per se from humans. They are a class of psychic. Bursters are considered human, so are nega-psychics. However I will be the first to admit that there is conflicting information in the books that mention psi-stalkers. Sometimes they are called human mutants that adapted to the presence of such much PPE and other times they are called their own race. A confliction in the rules/setting in Rifts...imagine that!

Since we are on the subject of psi-stalkers though, here is something that has been nagging me. What happens when a Coalition psi-stalker goes in to a coma due to injuries? I say Coalition because I assum a wild one could have friends that could devise a sort of PPE IV bag or something like that.
They have next to no need for food or water but must have PPE to survive. A crucial part of them "eating" the PPE is to hunt and then cut their prey for it. You can see how being in a coma would make that a little difficult. Now they can draw PPE from a ley-line but its says that it tastes bad, like sour milk. Two questions there spring to mind. First does that mean the effects on their body is similar? Sour milk isn't the greatest thing for one's health. Second, do they need to make a actual effort to take in the PPE? If so( as it is implied by the need to hunt and cut their prey) then putting them on a ley-line would do no good.
Let's just say for the sake of argument that they don't need to be concious to take in the PPE from a ley-line. What do the Coalition medics do then? Give the comatose psi-stalker over to the Rifts study and control group to carry around in their studies?

This is just a little issue I have been pondering, any ideas?

Janissary wrote:

cornholioprime wrote:

Janissary wrote:Psi-stalkers aren't really a seperate race per se from humans. They are a class of psychic. Bursters are considered human, so are nega-psychics. However I will be the first to admit that there is conflicting information in the books that mention psi-stalkers. Sometimes they are called human mutants that adapted to the presence of such much PPE and other times they are called their own race. A confliction in the rules/setting in Rifts...imagine that!

Since we are on the subject of psi-stalkers though, here is something that has been nagging me. What happens when a Coalition psi-stalker goes in to a coma due to injuries? I say Coalition because I assum a wild one could have friends that could devise a sort of PPE IV bag or something like that.
They have next to no need for food or water but must have PPE to survive. A crucial part of them "eating" the PPE is to hunt and then cut their prey for it. You can see how being in a coma would make that a little difficult. Now they can draw PPE from a ley-line but its says that it tastes bad, like sour milk. Two questions there spring to mind. First does that mean the effects on their body is similar? Sour milk isn't the greatest thing for one's health. Second, do they need to make a actual effort to take in the PPE? If so( as it is implied by the need to hunt and cut their prey) then putting them on a ley-line would do no good.
Let's just say for the sake of argument that they don't need to be concious to take in the PPE from a ley-line. What do the Coalition medics do then? Give the comatose psi-stalker over to the Rifts study and control group to carry around in their studies?

This is just a little issue I have been pondering, any ideas?

Simple.

It's yet another "hole" in the Game that Kevin did not see any need to fill (or, perhaps more corrrectly, NEVER thought of)....

Very possible, even likely. One can't think of everything the players can come up with. What are you thoughts on it Cornholio?

Janissary wrote:Here's another thought. Psi-stalkers need next to no water or food right? Does that mean they have less bodyily fluids, such as blood, then normal humans? Or does it simply stay "fresh" for longer periods of time then normal? What happens if they suffer major lacerations? Do they not lose much blood because there isn't much for them to lose in the first place? Or do they then need larger then normal amounts of water to replenish what they lost due to injury?

Related to that, do they sweat? As humans or at the very least mammals, they must sweat in order to regulate body tempature. The water has to come from somewhere.

One answer could be that their bodies use the PPE to somehow manufacture water in their system. Nothing like that is mentioned in the books but I suppose it could be possible.

John Kronus wrote:OK here's my problem... In the main book the Psi-Stalker is defined well enough and we have been playing with them that way for quite some time now... but i was just brushing thru Xiticix Invasion, where i found on pg. 111 the "Wild-Psi Stalker" I am wounder if there is any real difference beside the face that is states: "Wild Psi-Stalkers are human looking, except that they have no (natural) body hair..." It goes on to say they are human mutants... my problem here is the hair issue again... how could the natural/wild psi-stalker have now hair evolve into, for lack of a better term, a domesticated psi-stalker with hair ??

Just curious!

Jimmy Crat wrote:My big problem with psi-stalkers is how they get enough"food" to support their numbers. This is especially true when I wonder how they did it when the mutation first occured. While men of magic and psychics are viable targets, they have powerful MDC powers. If the psi-stalkers don't get the drop on them the whole hunting party is as good as misted, no wonder psi's and mages are feared. More powerful prey are mdc to begin with. I thought that while the golden age had a plethora of MD tech, it would be military grade as far as weaponry was concerned. If that was true, then where did the 'stalkers get the weapons to hunt their prey? Their whole society hunts, so the weak are kulled. How would even the strong survive? Perhaps the 1/200 that was an aberration and had other psychic powers would help, but they couldn't support the whole population. So how does that work, did the first generation of 'stalkers find a fully functional pre-rifts MD weapons manufacturing facility and get it up and running? They keep it maintained untill modern times? This is my issue.

Jimmy Crat wrote:My big problem with psi-stalkers is how they get enough"food" to support their numbers. This is especially true when I wonder how they did it when the mutation first occured. While men of magic and psychics are viable targets, they have powerful MDC powers. If the psi-stalkers don't get the drop on them the whole hunting party is as good as misted, no wonder psi's and mages are feared. More powerful prey are mdc to begin with. I thought that while the golden age had a plethora of MD tech, it would be military grade as far as weaponry was concerned. If that was true, then where did the 'stalkers get the weapons to hunt their prey? Their whole society hunts, so the weak are kulled. How would even the strong survive? Perhaps the 1/200 that was an aberration and had other psychic powers would help, but they couldn't support the whole population. So how does that work, did the first generation of 'stalkers find a fully functional pre-rifts MD weapons manufacturing facility and get it up and running? They keep it maintained untill modern times? This is my issue.

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Jimmy Crat wrote:My big problem with psi-stalkers is how they get enough"food" to support their numbers. This is especially true when I wonder how they did it when the mutation first occured. While men of magic and psychics are viable targets, they have powerful MDC powers. If the psi-stalkers don't get the drop on them the whole hunting party is as good as misted, no wonder psi's and mages are feared. More powerful prey are mdc to begin with. I thought that while the golden age had a plethora of MD tech, it would be military grade as far as weaponry was concerned. If that was true, then where did the 'stalkers get the weapons to hunt their prey? Their whole society hunts, so the weak are kulled. How would even the strong survive? Perhaps the 1/200 that was an aberration and had other psychic powers would help, but they couldn't support the whole population. So how does that work, did the first generation of 'stalkers find a fully functional pre-rifts MD weapons manufacturing facility and get it up and running? They keep it maintained untill modern times? This is my issue.

They can feed off of various animals, like dogs, horses, etc.

Jimmy Crat wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Jimmy Crat wrote:My big problem with psi-stalkers is how they get enough"food" to support their numbers. This is especially true when I wonder how they did it when the mutation first occured. While men of magic and psychics are viable targets, they have powerful MDC powers. If the psi-stalkers don't get the drop on them the whole hunting party is as good as misted, no wonder psi's and mages are feared. More powerful prey are mdc to begin with. I thought that while the golden age had a plethora of MD tech, it would be military grade as far as weaponry was concerned. If that was true, then where did the 'stalkers get the weapons to hunt their prey? Their whole society hunts, so the weak are kulled. How would even the strong survive? Perhaps the 1/200 that was an aberration and had other psychic powers would help, but they couldn't support the whole population. So how does that work, did the first generation of 'stalkers find a fully functional pre-rifts MD weapons manufacturing facility and get it up and running? They keep it maintained untill modern times? This is my issue.

They can feed off of various animals, like dogs, horses, etc.

Rimmerdal wrote:If it's Psychic it's food. So a mage or any RCC/OCC would have to possess Psychic abilities to some extent to be 'Edibile'.

Mages are safe from feeding. So whay say Psi-Stalkers are Anti-magc? Maybe thats Stalkers don't like them...oh well.

Animals have "naturally inactive" Psychic abilites so they ar food. Slim but it works..

There's my 2 credits.

Lone Star p.158 wrote:Note: The Psi-Stalker can not feed on the P.P.E. of beings who are not psychic, practitioners of magic, or supernatural in nature.

rellik wrote:Idea: PPE enriched fruits....would that work?

Killer Cyborg wrote:Sure, for a special supernatural tree.

Really, I'm curious about plants and PPE in general... I believe that the books say that all living things have PPE, and plants are living things... so plants should have some.

Of course, unless the plant is a mage, psychic, or is supernatural, then psi-stalkers couldn't drain them.

rellik wrote:but wouldnt a tree that constantly abosorbs ambient PPE become supernatural?

Dr. Doom v.3.1.4 wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:Sure, for a special supernatural tree.

Really, I'm curious about plants and PPE in general... I believe that the books say that all living things have PPE, and plants are living things... so plants should have some.

Of course, unless the plant is a mage, psychic, or is supernatural, then psi-stalkers couldn't drain them.

They could just raid (hehe RAID! ) Xiticix hives for the PPE gunk they eat.

Killer Cyborg wrote:I thought so too, but looking it up....

Xiticix Invasion, p. 41
"the PPE int the goop can NOT be accessed and used by men of magic or PPE vampires."

Also, it's poisonous:
"Furthermore, if eaten by any non-xiticix, it has no beneficial effect and is poisonous inflicting 1d4x10 points of damage direct to hit points (2d6 MD to mega-damage creatures)."
Along with other side effects.

Come to think of it, I should send my characters to harvest some of it just to use as a poison... it's pretty darn effective!

Dr. Doom v.3.1.4 wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:I thought so too, but looking it up....

Xiticix Invasion, p. 41
"the PPE int the goop can NOT be accessed and used by men of magic or PPE vampires."

Also, it's poisonous:
"Furthermore, if eaten by any non-xiticix, it has no beneficial effect and is poisonous inflicting 1d4x10 points of damage direct to hit points (2d6 MD to mega-damage creatures)."
Along with other side effects.

Come to think of it, I should send my characters to harvest some of it just to use as a poison... it's pretty darn effective!

Oh well.

I just wanted to say RAID!

Killer Cyborg wrote:

rellik wrote:Idea: PPE enriched fruits....would that work?

Sure, for a special supernatural tree.

Really, I'm curious about plants and PPE in general... I believe that the books say that all living things have PPE, and plants are living things... so plants should have some.

Of course, unless the plant is a mage, psychic, or is supernatural, then psi-stalkers couldn't drain them.

rellik wrote:but wouldnt a tree that constantly abosorbs ambient PPE become supernatural?