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I've been reading through Three Galaxies, and have definitely seen a great deal of potential with the Demon Planet. However, from all its strengths and abilities, I have noticed a strange absence. Nowhere does it mention the Demon Planet's ability for itself to heal or bio-regenerate. The Immune Defenders all have bio-regeneration, and have even mentioned how they aid in the Demon Planet's healing, but it never mentioned how fast the Demon Planet itself or is tentacles were able to bio-regenerate. Was this an omission, or is this the Demon Planet's achilles' heel, depending on its Immune Defenders to act as its healing process alone? If it's an omission, please let me know what I should use for its healing rate, otherwise I have to assume it's either the minimum for an Alien Intelligence, or that its dependane on its Immune Defenders to repair itself.

Excellent question DtMK. I reviewed my original manuscript and yup...nothing. Only under the Gut Crawler does it mention healing and that it assist the demon planet, but still nothing! Let me think on it for a bit before I give you a solid number.

Carl

Thanks Carl, I appreciate the input. Like I said, left alone as is, the lack of healing without its Immune Defenders would be a HUGE achilles' heel for it. Wipe out the individual immune creatures, then it could only heal itself by magic or psionics, which will only eat up its own PPE/ISP reserves, and attacks as well.

Things do get thru editors once in awhile. It can't be helped.

I just finished reading a novel last night whcih had many errors. It was a great novel!

I've already read it. When I was in high school!

I'll read that one someday!

Best set of fantasy novels ever written and the foundation for all RPG as we know them today. All praise Tolkien.

Conan came before the little hary footed midgets...



(As much as I hate hobbits, I was scared when
seeing their houses I came to the conclusion
that they were a space travelling race once...
...brrr.... dirty little hobbits all around the Megaverse...)

Adios
KLM

I would rather share my house with a T'Zee family.



Adios
KLM

DtMK wrote:Thanks Carl, I appreciate the input. Like I said, left alone as is, the lack of healing without its Immune Defenders would be a HUGE achilles' heel for it. Wipe out the individual immune creatures, then it could only heal itself by magic or psionics, which will only eat up its own PPE/ISP reserves, and attacks as well.

Ok, here ya go....


The immune defenders are obviously like some of the cells in our body. Well the gut crawlers are responsible for the "repairs/healing". So I figure each gut crawler could repair/heal 1D6 M.D.C. per melee, and multiple that by the number of gut crawlers in a given area. So while you may be blasting away at various internal organs the gut crawlers are there trying to heal it, while the other immune defenders come after the attackers.

I would say without the Gut Crawlers it can't heal itself period. Yeah it could cast some kind of healing spells, but a Demon Planet is more likely to eat a planet and with the infusion of materials and P.P.E. pop out a milliom more gut crawlers.

Hope that helps and that you enjoy the rest of Three Galaxies.

Carl

Sounds like an interesting answer, thanks Carl! It would also explain why Demon Planets aren't more plentiful alien intelligences, though they have the size, the dependency of the Immune Defenders, psionics and magic for healing would be the tradeoff. It's unique in the Megaverse, of course it also makes me wonder if it's a brilliant weakness spawned from lack of the original answer! In any case, keep up the great work, and now, I can begin my plans for Planet Hell, or even one of them in a Rifts Earth setting.

I imagine a Demon Planet stumbling along early in the development of the solar system. As Earth was molten and cooling, scientists claim that a planetoid they call Orpheus smacked into Earth, splintering off the remnants that would create our moon, and thus the tides and balance that would help spawn life on Earth. But what if Orpheus was a Demon Planet, fresh from destroying another world that created the asteroid belt we know today, and had hit Earth, the remnants of certain organisms and water on its surface seeding it? It could have finished the job, but something...or someone...stopped it. It was hurt, drifting off to heal itself, but instead of dying as the force thought, it became comatose. Perhaps it was even a precursor to the spells used to put the Old Ones to sleep. Where did it go? Outside the solar system? Perhaps. Or perhaps it actually took up a synchronous orbit on the other side of the sun along the orbit of Earth. it could spawn legends of Albion, or a counter-Earth to balance it out, always hidden from us behind the sun all this time, lying in wait, healing.

Billions of years later, rogue asteroids, meteors and comets, along with stray creatures transported through the Bermuda Triangle and other places of power have fed the comatose creature...but something in it stirred, and started to awaken, reaching out to the life on Earth, perhaps creating a pact with various witches or Shifters. Now that it's fed on scraps, it's time once again to feast...and use what it has found.

Something this epic in ANY setting could be big enough to unite enemies into a common goal, a true epic that could unite superhumans in Heroes Unlimited, be a foil for cult hunters in Beyond the Supernatural, a possible ally/rival force turned enemy in Nightbane, or even join the Mutants in Orbit with the Coalition, the NGR, the Splugorth and other adventurers together against a creature that makes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse look like Juicer Wannabes! Of course, that's just one idea I've been inspired to run. Come on, with Transformers the movie's anniversary dvd out, plus the Fantastic Four 2 movie this summer, giant world devourers will be en vogue! Thanks again Carl!

Thanks for the info Carl!

THX

T'Zee nanotech?

------------------
Another question... How fast are the main tentacles?
I mean they reach out to thousands of mile, and are very
huge... Is it possible to outmanouver them, even with
craft like the Protector battleship?

Adios
KLM

Why use tiny poisoned blowgun darts against
large mammals?

Becuase once it enters the circulation, the results
are outstanding.

But of course, releasing the equivalent of a million
Skelebots on the Demon Planet WILL yield results.

Adios
KLM

Of course, but the Immune Defenders are more-less
human scaled.

Think in terms of human immune system. I.Ds are
the lymphocites - skelebots are bacteria. They can fight.

Now, viruses are at least a scale smaller and our immune
system have troubles to recognise them, at the first plase.

Besides, nanotech, viruses are best pictured as
a self-replicating poison. Inject a small amount,
and given enough time, it will eat, multiply to the
point it kills the subject.

In the "best case scenario" of course.

Adios
KLM

Another question, again... How fast are the main tentacles?
I mean they reach out to thousands of miles, and are very
huge... Is it possible to outmanouver them, even with
craft like the Protector battleship?

Adios
KLM

KLM wrote:Another question, again... How fast are the main tentacles?
I mean they reach out to thousands of miles, and are very
huge... Is it possible to outmanouver them, even with
craft like the Protector battleship?

Adios
KLM

Well ships up to a small freighter would probably have the equivalent of an auto-dodge. Anything larger would not be so lucky. The tentacles are not so fast, but just the size and maneuverability they have alone makes them deadly. If a Protector got that close it would be at a penalty to try and dodge and that's assuming it keeps moving.

Carl

Darkmax wrote:a small craft may be, but not a large one. They are far too clumbersome.

Think again. The main tentacles are 1600 km long.

Let's say, they are travelling with an amazing M20
and are launched against a Protector just 150 kms
away (which is bombarding the surface).

The tentacles are travelling about 6 km/sec - ie. it takes
more, than a melee (over 20 sec) for them to reach
the target.

Now, if that battleship was bombarding with only
cruise missiles, from like 1500 kms, it takes like 3
MINUTES for them to reach the ship.

Mind you, this is for canon ranges and speeds - and M20
is quite a good speed for even starfighters.

Adios
KLM

I'll make it simple for everyone....


Its up to the GM who has final ruling on all things

Carl

Actually, after some counting, the firepower
of a capital ship solves the tentacle problem
with the bigger hammer approach.

It is takes longer, than one action for them
to reach the ship, then they never will reach it.

Except as small, floating, frozen pieces.

Adios
KLM

Ps.: Oh, and Carl, THX again for the answer

Darkmax wrote:it would also be difficult to detect them since they are organic.

Well not really if you think about it. A demon planet has the mass of a planet. So I would think some kind of gravity sensors would pick them up pretty easily. A small body floating in space, yeah that would be hard to pick up IMO.

Carl

Darkmax wrote:it would also be difficult to detect them since they are organic.

That is another hollywoditism I hate.
(nothing personal DM).

Are they invisible? If no, then the Maverick missile
can hit 'em back in the Vietnam War era.

And we were not talking about radar (how many times
were migrating birds showing up on radars?), thermo,
gravitonic and whatever sensors.
(Fish sonar anyone?)

Adios
KLM

Darkmax wrote:no, I am not offended. You got me wrong. From my perception, the tentacle come sout from the bottom of the Protector. Being a tentacle, it would be smaller in profile than it is long. Unless one's system is taught to look for something like that, it might not think it as a threat, but that's remote as well.

Errr... How it is different - from the threat evaluation
perception - from an unknown missile type? Or a meteorite?
Something fast is on collision course.

And big.

Besides... As soon as the Demon Planet is identified as
such a task force can localise its maw (where the main tentacles
are coming out), and begin to plink its a... Well, other side.

As I remember the planet's diameter is greater than the
tentacles lenght ...

However...

Players do not read it...

Since the DM is intelligent and quite capable of performing magic,
it can cast invisiblity superior and time slip to manouver its tentacles
in range.

Adios
KLM

I have to disagree.

Military craft must be capable to operate in the
range of planetary defense systems, right?

So, the demon planet is not too big.

Anyway, you are right, that only the navigation
system will react autonomously. After all, it is
a CCW battleship, so there must be someone who
pulls the trigger.

Also, demon planets are on par with star hives
both in sheer size and in threat level, and the CAF
probably IS ready to deal with that threat (or at
least, have some kind of a plan).

But to give the meatball a chance... Well, it
is intelligent and has access to several divination
spells, so it can avoid task forces.

On the other hand... As the Rifts Earth got
"mystic early warnings" about the Four Horsemen
and the other dangers, the people in the 3 Galaxies
might have the same chance.

Well, it is not easy to be a planet eating alien
intelligence

Adios
KLM

Of course the CCW, the TGE and the UWW
(and probably, the Splugorth kingdoms,
the Golgan Republic, the FWC and most
definitely the Altess ) can defend their
territory from such hazards (Star Hives,
Demon Planet, the occasional Dominator, etc).

Or at least, they can avenge their losses.

The problems start when a smaller, independent
power gets these nasties.

Imagine for example, when the USN spots Godzilla
walking towards Florida - Defcon 2, and the poor
lizard gets rained by every ordenance the US forces
have within hours (especially, if last year they
smeared King Kong all over Washington).

Now, if the USN spots him walking towards like Cuba
what should they do? Castro demonised them for
decades, they demonised Castro, there are deep
wounds on both sides...

Adios
KLM

That is an awesome idea about using hordes of nanites against a Demon planet KLM! I love it!


Just one thing the US military didn't use the Maverick missile until after Vietnam.

Aramanthus wrote:That is an awesome idea about using hordes of nanites against a Demon planet KLM! I love it!

Of course after the demon planet is dead, one have to rid of
the nanites. Deactivate or cleanse them by nukes...

Just one thing the US military didn't use the Maverick missile until after Vietnam.

True. But the fact stands: visual self guidance is the technology of
the late 1960s, early 1970s.

Adios
KLM

Well... First, it evolved from analogue logic to digital logic,
and then into imaging infrared.

Not to mention such small thing, that current versions are not
easily fooled by shadows and such.

But the basic principle hasn't changed.

From this perpective, jets haven't changed much from
late WWII/early Korea period.

They are still propelled by jet engines

Adios
KLM

Darkmax wrote:well, jets are going through a major transformation right now.... scramjets are starting to be experimented for commercial use, although they have long been tested for military ones.

Actually, the V-1 "flying bomb" used a primitive form
of scramjet

Adios
KLM

Nope, the V-2 was a liquid fuel ballistic missile.
(ie. rocket engine).

And it has a reincarnation - the Scud.

Adios
KLM

Darkmax wrote:the V2 was a terror!

Just as its younger sibling, the Scud.

That said, remember the Glow of Dresden.

Signed.

The scram jjet will hopefully be realized in the future before I've passed. (I'm talking commercially that is.)

I've just realized another potential for power and danger with the Demon Planet. For one, it can cast all spell invocations 1-12 and several others. But what would happen if it cast Reduce Self 6 inches on itself?

Also, since it's an Alien Intelligence, I realized it probably has access to the Prototypical Deific powers in Dragons & Gods. The Bio-regeneration powers would certainly help fix it up if severely damaged. Creating its own Deific Realm may be where some of the Demon Planets are currently hiding from prying eyes and mystic forces. And I wonder, given the massive size of the Demon Planets, would there be a reduction in cost in token body investments?

Sorry for the prying questions, but I see a LOT of potential with the Demon Planet, as well as the Minion Wars coming this year!