Forums of the Megaverse®

I am starting a new Rifts campaign soon, and I was thinking about letting someone play an Altara Blind Warrior Woman headhunter. What I was going to do was keep the stat rolls and the psionics and the natural ablities and the RCC bonuses, and use the headhunter skill package. Also, I would keep the cyberware to a bare minimum to not interfere with the psionics. Does anyone think this is a really bad idea? I know this character would be capable of kicking some serious booty.

Captain Shiva wrote:I am starting a new Rifts campaign soon, and I was thinking about letting someone play an Altara Blind Warrior Woman headhunter. What I was going to do was keep the stat rolls and the psionics and the natural ablities and the RCC bonuses, and use the headhunter skill package. Also, I would keep the cyberware to a bare minimum to not interfere with the psionics. Does anyone think this is a really bad idea? I know this character would be capable of kicking some serious booty.

Altara have a genetic memory. It isn't normally possible for them to learn skills other than the occ related and secondary they can pick.

The only way i can see this being even close to possible would be a complete mind wipe and starting from scratch with her memories. Also any more than 2-3 implants reduces psionics and maybe her other powers too.

Captain Shiva wrote:I am starting a new Rifts campaign soon, and I was thinking about letting someone play an Altara Blind Warrior Woman headhunter. What I was going to do was keep the stat rolls and the psionics and the natural ablities and the RCC bonuses, and use the headhunter skill package. Also, I would keep the cyberware to a bare minimum to not interfere with the psionics. Does anyone think this is a really bad idea? I know this character would be capable of kicking some serious booty.

Why not just have them play a normal Altaran?

Killer Cyborg wrote:Why not just have them play a normal Altaran?

I'll be honest, that was my first thought.

Well, the idea that they have 8 attacks and never gain any more didn't make much sense.A lot of things about that RCC bother me. Besides, in my opinion, the headhunter has a better skill selection.Also, the player is new to roleplaying, and practices an alternative lifestyle. I thought that the idea of being a creature who does not reproduce normally, and should have none of the normal sexual urges, and is a beautiful woman who attracts a lot of attention, could be something the player could relate to. Another reason is that I didn't want the character to have any of the Atlantean gear.My idea was that she was the sole survivor of a raiding party that got wiped out on her first mission by the CS or Dweomer. By the way, thanks for the mindwipe idea.If her memories are gone,then I can start the character off as a first level headhunter.Of course,the memories could be buried in the subconscious, maybe accounting for any rolled insanities or phobias.

A mindwipe could do it, but how about this:

An altaran (possibly a rogue) gives birth secretly, away from Atlantis, and the child doesn't know anything about her past or her race.
She believes she's a mutant human, but in reality she's a mutant of her own race, out of touch with the normal skills of her race, but able to learn new ones at the same rate as a human being.


If you're going with the main book, a Headhunter should be fine, but Wilderness Scout or another OCC might work better. Maybe something from Mercenaries, if you're looking for firepower.

As of RUE, IIRC, Headhunters have to be partial conversion Borgs.

I like your idea, but lets try this: yes, she's a child of a runaway. But she was raised on horror stories about Atlantis, and is very anti-Splurgoth, and has little use for magic in general. She also has little use for the CS. As far as headhunters having to be partial borgs,RUE does seem to imply that. But I'm already stepping outside the boundaries of the rules,anyway. Besides, a Rahu-Man can be a headhunter. Do they have to be partial borgs? In my opinion, they'd be stupid to trade in MD flesh and half their ISP( remember, they have all sensitive powers) for a few metal parts, not as good as the originals. Besides, if I really wanted to, I could make her a special forces soldier from Mercenaries, and get much the same skill set.

Captain Shiva wrote:I like your idea, but lets try this: yes, she's a child of a runaway. But she was raised on horror stories about Atlantis, and is very anti-Splurgoth, and has little use for magic in general. She also has little use for the CS. As far as headhunters having to be partial borgs,RUE does seem to imply that. But I'm already stepping outside the boundaries of the rules,anyway. Besides, a Rahu-Man can be a headhunter. Do they have to be partial borgs? In my opinion, they'd be stupid to trade in MD flesh and half their ISP( remember, they have all sensitive powers) for a few metal parts, not as good as the originals. Besides, if I really wanted to, I could make her a special forces soldier from Mercenaries, and get much the same skill set.

I'd go for the Special Forces, actually.
Make her Altaran powers be her "Special" thing, and that's perfect!

As for Headhunters, the original headhunters could have little to no bionics, but that's changed in RUE.
Unless you know of a post-RUE Rahu-Man Headhunter, then that's kind of irrelevent.

I agree that a rahu-man wouldn't logically want bionics, but hey... neither would a Brodkil, and they LOVE bionics...

Killer Cyborg wrote:A mindwipe could do it, but how about this:

An altaran (possibly a rogue) gives birth secretly, away from Atlantis, and the child doesn't know anything about her past or her race.
She believes she's a mutant human, but in reality she's a mutant of her own race, out of touch with the normal skills of her race, but able to learn new ones at the same rate as a human being.


If you're going with the main book, a Headhunter should be fine, but Wilderness Scout or another OCC might work better. Maybe something from Mercenaries, if you're looking for firepower.

As of RUE, IIRC, Headhunters have to be partial conversion Borgs.

The Altarans are sterile

Captain Shiva wrote: and should have none of the normal sexual urges

It never said this. They are 100% anatomically complete. I don't see why they can't/shouldn't have them. As far as i can tell they are just women that can't get pregnant.

Captain Shiva wrote:Another reason is that I didn't want the character to have any of the Atlantean gear.

NP. you are free to change starting equipment as you please to fit the game.

Captain Shiva wrote:By the way, thanks for the mindwipe idea.

NP One thing to think about is that if she doesn't remember her past she'll most likely try to fix her blindness. A simple set of cyber eyes, optic nerve implant ect would do it. This should, however, reduce her other sense abilities somehow. Either a straight minus all the time (5-25%) or a 50% reduction (like the fog/rain minus) in any round that the altara has her eyes open.

Scrud wrote:The Altarans are sterile

I'm sure he ment a "clone" child.

Killer Cyborg wrote:As of RUE, IIRC, Headhunters have to be partial conversion Borgs.

Yep

Killer Cyborg wrote:I'd go for the Special Forces, actually.
Make her Altaran powers be her "Special" thing, and that's perfect! [Okay]

I'd say super spy. She'd fit just fine in the d-bee/mutant for special powers. Plus she'd have a nice selection of skills and equipment.

sawg138 wrote:See, we can agree on something. Though I suppose a head injury isn't spectacular enough to warrant use when one can be mind wiped.

I went with mind wipe because it would make her a clean slate. Head injuries can be tricky and you never know when/if memories will come back. I got the feeling that was what Captain Shiva was looking for.

Head injury is a good way to explain a second occ or an occ that a RCC can't normally have. Good old dain bramage is best for temporary memory lose.

I had another thought. An injured/dying altara tried making a clone in an area with alot of rift/magic energy and the clone could be a bad/mutated clone that just didn't get the genetic memories. That way you wouldn't have to worry about who mindwiped her.

Scrud wrote:The Altarans are sterile

Don't teach grandma to suck eggs.

Atlantis, p. 51
"The cloning process can be artificially initiated and controlled in a laboratory or the women can undergo a strange, natural(?) process of cloning. To accomplish the latter, the woman finds a safe, secluded area, goes into a trance, envelops herself in an ectoplasmic cocoon, and creates a nearly exact, adult duplicate. This 'birthing' typically occurse once every 12 years and when the clone is seriously injured (crippled or dying). The entire process takes only 48 hours..."

That could work. I had completely forgotten about that aspect of their reproductive cycle. I was going off of D-Bees of North America(which omits that info) and hadn't checked Atlantis yet. So, if her dying "mother" had perished before the process was complete, that would account for her not having the skill set or meemories, but having the other abilities. So she was found by a party of mercenaries(of good alignment) who raise her, and give a set of functioning eyes. So she instinctively gravitates toward the military lifestyle, and as far as partial conversion headhunters go, if I decide to really care about the rules that much, I'll just chose another class with a similar skill set. And the cybernetic eyes should not interfere with the psionics or the other heightened senses. I'll have to check the bionics book to see what else I might let her have. By the way, I'm not really happy with the way that whole bionics/cybernetics thing nixing magic is handled. I agree that it should exist, but I know of no consistent system for its application. What I would like to see is a system where X amount of cyberware has X amount of effect on magic and psionics. Has anyone come up with such a system, preferably assigning a numerical penalty value to the various implants?

sawg138 wrote:That's all up to the GM anyway. And variety is good.

OMG. Twice in one thread we agree? I think that's the first sign of the apocalypse. I'm checking out the window now to see if it's going to start raining frogs!

Captain Shiva wrote:What I would like to see is a system where X amount of cyberware has X amount of effect on magic and psionics.

Well, we could take what there already is and expand it. A partial borg keeps all psi powers and 1/2 his isp. That adds up to @69 cybernetic implants max and 4 cyber-limbs, but only 17 that aren't in a limb (not including cosmetic). So that comes out to about -8% reduction per limb and -1% per non-limb implant.

Magic is easier. 2 large or 3 small implants max but any implant reduces ppe by half and prevents drawing ppe for other sources. More than that ppe drops to 10% and no more practicing magic.

However the RUE seems to be much easier on cyber-pychics than before. there appears to be NO reduction in psi ability or ISP for cybernetics till you hit partial cyborg and even then only ISP is reduced in half. (before 1-3 implants reduced every aspect (range, duration, damage) and isp by half and anything more 100% wiped out psionics!

So by RUE you can throw as many cybernetics into the altara as you want and as long as she doesn't get enouph to make her a partial cyborg, her psionic abilities are fine.

Captain Shiva wrote:And the cybernetic eyes should not interfere with the psionics or the other heightened senses.

The reduction in senses was because it's a new sense that the altara doesn't normally have, not because it's an implant. This was covered in the FAQ forum and i expanded it in another thread.

FAQ FORUM wrote:Question: Could an Altaran blind warrior-woman get bio-borg eyes and thus see? I don't think cybernetic ones would work, since they prolly dont actually have optic nerves; however, the bio-borg ones are magical in nature, rather than tech...

Answer: According to their description they are anatomically complete and healthy, aside from being blind and sterile. This, coupled with the fact that they always wear protective eyewear, suggests that they do have eyes and optic nerves (and are light sensitive), but are blind due to genetic factors.
Therefore, both cybernetic and bio-wizard eyes will work, but the formerly blind warrior woman should require several weeks or even months of acclimation and adjustment to the sense of sight, since it is afterall something she's never experienced. It may also be advisable to reduce the range and acuity of the altarans' other heightened senses by 5-30% to compensate for the advantages of vision.

I personally go with a 50% reduction in any round they use sight. All the pretty colors are distracting her from the other senses she has. But when she wants to get down to kung fu fighting, she can just close her eyes and kick butt. In the end it's up to you if you give her a minus or not and how much. Hope that helps.

sawg138 wrote:

elecgraystone wrote:

sawg138 wrote:That's all up to the GM anyway. And variety is good.

OMG. Twice in one thread we agree? I think that's the first sign of the apocalypse. I'm checking out the window now to see if it's going to start raining frogs!

Cats and dogs living together!

http://www.bobrivers.com/ontheshow/brsnews.asp?picofday=yes&artid=7230&cat=11&dismode=article

Now you guys just have to figure out who is who

Killer Cyborg wrote:
As of RUE, IIRC, Headhunters have to be partial conversion Borgs.

Not correct.

The beginning describes how to make a HH partial Borg, but the rest is generic enough that you can make a HH thats not a partial Borg.

Plus, as always, the Player can opt not to have any bionics or even cybernetics.

Nxla666 wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:
As of RUE, IIRC, Headhunters have to be partial conversion Borgs.

Not correct.

The beginning describes how to make a HH partial Borg, but the rest is generic enough that you can make a HH thats not a partial Borg.

RUE, p. 74
"The Headhunter is a soldier of fortune who combines military knohow, combat experience and bionics and cybernetics to make his living in the trenches....
... The first weapons in their arsenal, bionics and cybernetics."

RUE, p. 76
"Game Designer's Note: I had always intended the Headhunter to be a partial reconstruction 'Borg, but somehow when i got around to writing the character description for the original RPG, I didn't convey this aspect."

RUE, p. 74
"A Partial Cyborg is someone who has had one or more of his limbs and/or organs replaced with bionic or cybernetic onces."

RUE, p. 77
"Cybernetic Implants: Has 1d4+1 cybernetic implants of choice, plus one bionic limb (hand, and arm, or leg and foot) and two bionic weapons or components for that limb."

Plus, as always, the Player can opt not to have any bionics or even cybernetics.

Not and be a Headhunter.

sawg138 wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Plus, as always, the Player can opt not to have any bionics or even cybernetics.

Not and be a Headhunter.

Isn't that stated in the Headhunter entry?

That a Headhunter can opt out of cyberware/bionics?
Not that I'm aware of.

sawg138 wrote:The way I'm reading it, the Headhunter can take the cybernetic implants and bionic limb OR go partial borg, which is funny given the definition of partial conversion borg given on page 74. I'd read that as more than one limb (two plus for those counting) replaced makes one a partial conversion borg. One limb and a smattering of cybernetics do not. I love ambiguously edited books...

It's confusing, but it looks to me like the two cybernetics options are both for partial borgs.

I can't say for certain, but it's possible that the "Headhunter Techno-Warriors who are Partial 'Borgs" section is taken straight from the Rifts Canada book, with an outdated specification to "partial borg" even though it's redundant.

But the definition of what constitutes a Partial Borg is clear, and even ONE bionic limb makes you a partial borg.