Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Rifts Manhunter rpg As Stars Without Number resource


Scored two items today in the local Thrift Store. The Rifts Manhunter is in nice shape  and the HG Wells War In the Air is great as well. But what concerns me is Rifts Manhunter. I've had the game book in the past and ordered it from an add in Dragon way back in 1994.
The add described the following: 

Rifts Manhunter is a dimension book that brings the Manhunter universe in contact with the Rifts universe. The 200-page book includes information on the Manhunters, their history and their models. The book also includes: 


- 20 new O.C.C.s including the Widowmakers, Cannibals, Smokers, Choirboys, Drivejocks, Bloodletters and Chrome Warriors 
- 11 new alien races, such as the Aglians, Kirn and the Ulars. 
- Information on the colonies, organizations and corporations in the Manhunter universe. 
- New weapons, equipment, vehicles and body armor.
The problem was that the game book was well broken in several places. The book setting is basically the new Battle Star Galactic meets the Federation with a weird background. Described as this: 
"The Manthunter RPG by Myrmidon Press was basically an RPG about bounty hunters in a lawless, dystopian sci-fi setting where known space is divided up between a pragmatic and bureaucratic federation of intelligent space faring races, a militant empire headed by a fairly typical example of the "honorable warrior race" sci-fi cliche, and a loose confederacy of corrupt and Machiavellian human colonies that refused to join up with the main federation when it formed a few centuries back. The Manhunters themselves are a robot army that went rogue and refused to stand down after the end of a war they were created for, and have since fled into unexplored space to build up their numbers so the can continue their mission to contain the human race"
The book clocks in at 178 pages and was originally its own game with some pretty nifty ideas in it.
 


 There were originally three editions of the game. The whole game has this weird quasi 70s grindhouse feel to the setting. " Multi-racial science fiction in a setting that covers a broad range of tech levels. The ATPDS (Aglio-Terran Planetary Defense System) attempts to make it's way in a universe of competing alien powers and vicious robots called Manhunters who seek to eradicate life." vibe echoes throughout the book. So it could reasonable be used for a Stars Without Numbers game with very little modification. The robots are really nasty. The "classes" could be used whole sale and the game these days isn't well known at all. 


Ten Reasons To Use Rifts Manhunter As A Stars Without Numbers Resource 
  1. Each of the 
    1. 20 new O.C.C.s including the Widowmakers, Cannibals, Smokers, Choirboys, Drivejocks, Bloodletters and Chrome Warriors could all be used as inspiration for the three core classes for SWN 
    1. The game book is an antique but the setting is not and could be made to work as an alternative to the SWN campaign or as an add on 
    1. The book fits the SWN concepts better then it does Rifts by a long shot and the various alien races fit in neatly and with little fuss 
    1. The various weapons, mecha, ships, Manhunters are simple swap outs with the stats built right into SWN 
    1. The organizations, corporations and little background NPCs are a nice fit into the already existing SWN world. 
    1. There are several settings within the book including planets, a burned out Earth, and a nasty alien world that make excellent starting ground for a party of PC adventurers 
    1. The Manhunters are terminator style nasties always lurking in the background but the real treat of the system is the bounty hunting theme that threads its way through the book. There's lots of potential adventuring right there. 
    1. The book has a definite grey feel to its morality that you just don't get with many Rifts books. The PCs are the good or bad guys their just guys trying to get by. If this sounds a bit like Firefly then your doing it right 
    1. There's magic which is easily turned into psychic powers in the game book and plenty of backup
    1. The book has the coming of the planar rips errm rifts as an excuse to collide this setting with your favorite space opera. 
 The book is relatively cheap on Amazon and ebay going for 2.00 or less. Thanks To Green Skeleton Gaming Guild for the idea on this one. 
































4 comments:

  1. Cool. I actually have the Rifts version of this, I agree it would make for a great resource for SWN Campaigns!

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  2. Glad you like this one Bill. This book seems to have left an undelable blank on some people's minds. Me personally this is a great resource even if the rules are broken in some places. That's where SWN comes in and bridges those gaps. I used this tonight and the book was glue that got my SWN game back on track! Thanks for the idea btw! Keep up the Rifts sourcebook inspired madness.

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  3. Looking forward to reading your session report about this one!

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  4. The new session report/note is up there Bill

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