1st Apocalyptic Cavalry - Geographical Errors

[Gaius]

So I was brushing up on the New West in anticipation of a brand-new Rifts campaign; 2014 marks the 20 year anniversary of my involvement with Rifts. In reviewing the material, I was pouring over the 1st Apocalyptic Cavalry and their various strongholds throughout the Midwest. Now, I am originally from the Midwest, having spent the first 20 years of my life living in Nebraska, with a few years spent in Iowa. I lived in Norfolk until the 6th grade, at which point my family moved to Grand Island. I went to the University of Nebraska in Kearney for my freshman year of college.

So the 1st Apocalyptic Cavalry is based out of Fort Prospect, which is on the ruins of Kearney. Cool, I know that place. Fort Jericho is built on top of Norfolk. I lived there for 8 years! And the book says that it is Norfolk, South Dakota! Whaaa?? Ok, so Norfolk is pretty far north, minor error, whatever. Then I get to Fort Charles, built near old Sydney, Nebraska, which the book pegs at the border of Nebraska and Iowa, when it is in fact way west, in the panhandle right near Wyoming and Colorado!

Ok, so these are niggling details and I would obviously never rely upon an RPG book as a textbook for geography or anything else really academic (it's a game, afterall), but I still can't help but bristle a bit. That being said, have the rest of you spotted any such geographical errors in regions of the country familiar to you and incorrectly translated into Rifts? Just a matter of curiosity. Despite the slight to my native state, I still consider New West one of my favorite books, so Christopher Kornmann shouldn't beat himself up too much.


Gaius

[Ed]

There are similar errors in Spirit West when describing the Native American populations in North and South Carolina. Dinosaur Swamp had some similar geographical misconceptions. Nothing serious just somewhat jaring if you knew where the real places were.

[Crow Splat]

You could always explain it away as having been written by someone after the cataclysm. Maybe the forts are built on some old ruins and they found some signs and assumed it was one city's ruins when it is actually some other town that no one knows the name of.

It may not bee the best solution but given all the other things that get blown out of proportion on rifts earth, I'd say its totally plausible.

[Mech-Viper Prime]

These things happen when you use a group of individual writers vs a group of in house writers, stuff that were in one book doesn't much up with other things in other books and given the time in between when the books were written, but it's ok just things to work around.

[Blastaar]

Rifts: Canada

Hudson's wheigh near gitlam

I lived in the spot they mention, it is gillam and yea farming up there.. not so realistic due to the swampish area
nonetheless i enjoy the new town

[glitterboy2098]

Rifts: Canada

Hudson's wheigh near gitlam

I lived in the spot they mention, it is gillam and yea farming up there.. not so realistic due to the swampish area
nonetheless i enjoy the new town

amazing what 3+ feet of ash can do for a region, right?
i tend to give palladium a bit of a pass when they misidentify terrain types like that.. unless it is something really huge you have to figure that the events of the cataclysm, with all those volcano's and shifting weather patterns and such, would have some effect on the landscape. that swampy area might be good ground for farming after the ash from the ring of fire and yellowstone finally stopped falling. odds are the swamp is now an underground water table.

[Todd Yoho]

Dinosaur Swamp had some similar geographical misconceptions. Nothing serious just somewhat jaring if you knew where the real places were.

No, it didn't.

[kogwar]

You could also IF you wanted a fluff reason assume that these places somehow got d shifted. Though I like the idea of them just building on were they found the sign.