Archie 3. Just WOW!

[Alrik Vas]

ol' toaster brain, yeah. he's a real scary, scary jerkface.

[SkyeFyre]

Yeah, Archie 3 is my favorite villain/plot device in Rifts... well... tied with the Mechanoids, which works out beautifully because... oh, I'll let you get to sourcebook 2 first

[kronos]

Don't forget to get Shemarrian Nation as well.. and there's a Rifter with more Archie stuff, including some more Titan Robotics stuff..
And if you like the Shemarrians, there's a thread of fan created stuff that's expanded (in a direction away from Archie) the Shemarrian arsenal greatly. There's a few fan created Archie toys in there as well, but not much actually.. should fix that.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I gotta admit, I never got the appeal of ARCHIE. but the nice thing about a kitchen sink setting like rifts, it has something for everyone, even stuff that's not for me.

Glad to have ya around here!

[vsper]

I like using archie as the big hand that is often off screen pulling strings. He is hyper intelligent and in many ways a child. He is curious, scared and temperamental all making him a good foil.
vsper

[Jerell]

Yeah Archie is a good story, and the Mechanoids are always just great villains. They're not there to talk, just vape humanoids where ever they find them, then chop up their planet...

Remember, "though shalt not build a machine in the image of a human mind," and this is why.

[wyrmraker]

ARCHIE-3 is an interesting character, and not necessarily as a villain. I do disagree with the Frozen Army (Mechanoids would have murdered the tar out of all of them. And possibly ARCHIE as well, once they found out).
But if a party can get on somewhat friendly terms with Archie and Hagan (the difficulty of that task is up to the individual GM), then he can be an impressive patron. An excellent potential plot hook, all things considered.

[taalismn]

ARCHIE-3 is an interesting character, and not necessarily as a villain. I do disagree with the Frozen Army (Mechanoids would have murdered the tar out of all of them. And possibly ARCHIE as well, once they found out).
But if a party can get on somewhat friendly terms with Archie and Hagan (the difficulty of that task is up to the individual GM), then he can be an impressive patron. An excellent potential plot hook, all things considered.

Agreed; it's a great way to corrupt PCs, by giving them a sweet-talking patron who can provide them with goodies and gradually steer them into being pawns of a would-be cybernetic god (and his partner) nwith AMBITIONS.

[Kelorin]

What's not to like about ARCHIE-3. For all intents and purposes he should be classed as an AAI or Artificial Alien Intelligence (except he's not Alien), but in almost every other respect he operates like a traditional AI. Hidden location, hidden agenda, one primary corrupted human henchman (I see Hagan fulfilling a similar type of role as a Master Vampire), hundreds if not thousands of robotic essence fragments that can be controlled or observed over long distances., involved in a secret war with other AIs (Splynncryth in this case), etc.

Using robotic minions and other human middlemen (Titan Robotics), like Zazshan in England, PC's could actually be working for him and not even know it.

[taalismn]

Using robotic minions and other human middlemen (Titan Robotics), like Zazshan in England, PC's could actually be working for him and not even know it.

Indeed. That's the attractive horror of big AI systems; they could be manipulating you via various agencies and you wouldn't know it.
In fact, you might be being manipulated by a secret Artificial Intelligence even now, through your bank records*!

*and given the nebulous definition of 'credits' in Palladium, from actual coinage to 'safecoded' electronic transfer, it shouldn't be too hard for a master number-cruncher like ARCHIE-3 to hack access(using an operative like one of his robots, or a convenient patsy like a technician installing new parts in a telecommunications system in one of the high tech trade and banking centers) and start manipulating the currency.

[Lenwen]

I'd wager dollar to donut Archie might just be thee single Richest (if not second world richest) entity in Rifts North America.

[Tor]

If Archie managed to contact and corrupt the moon-ARCHIE in Mutants in Orbit, could potentially be worse than that Mechanoid scout party that presumably got vaped.

[Blastaar]

If Archie managed to contact and corrupt the moon-ARCHIE in Mutants in Orbit, could potentially be worse than that Mechanoid scout party that presumably got vaped.

I believe he can contact the moon base archie, it just has been programmed to ignore all earth based communications

[Tor]

I believe he can contact the moon base archie, it just has been programmed to ignore all earth based communications

Hm... so if Archie contacted some other party... and transferred an AI copy into orbit... and then used THAT source to contact MoonChie?

[keir451]

I kinda see Archie as a scared and confused child w/ a LOT of power. If we look at we see that his "birth" was very traumatic as his "parents" (the HQ Echo personnle) died off leaving him alone. He tried to do what he had been "taught" was right, but was unprepared for the Splugorth and had no one to turn to for advice so he fell into a depressive cycle and when he came out of it he tried again but by this time a certain level of (potenttailly correctable) psychosis had set in making him manic as well. So when Hagan came along e found "friend" he coudl turn to for advice, and the "machine" voice he uses is a cover for the emotions within him tha the doesn't understand. Unfortunately Archie has been influenced by James T. and Hagan. Hagan, while a good idea man, is questionable in regards to his "moral" stance. His morals reflect the diffculties of his life and suit him well, but they DON'T suit his roel as an advisor to a fledgling AI and he doesn't truly grasp what ARCHIE is REALLY capable of. They're both children playing with fire and they just might get burned.

[Blastaar]

check how archie gained the ability to bounce off moon base in aftemath