the idea that the Coalition States lacks super heroes is silly

[Plane]

Anything less strange than the Psi-Ghost (who have the major super ability of Intangibility) should be up for grabs, including even some Alter Physical Structure ones!

Mercs 28 has the super-spy (1 major 1 minor) option, and CB revised 43 still has " Super beings indigenous to Rifts Earth" rules (still that odd Scholars and Adventurers limitation, as if being a Knight or Grunt would interfere...) allowing even more!

I'd normally write out stuff like APS Fire for being too demonic but given Psi-Bat employs Bursters... well if APS Fire is getting excluded maybe it's because the CS figures they can manage the danger of bursters (they run out of ISP, they can't fly) but APS Fire would be too difficult to manage?

Invisibility seems like something they'd allow in the spy division - it's actually easier to manage than Intangibility, far less scary since it has tech countermeasures.

I'd say something like Lycanthropy would be out since it too much resembles supernatural creatures - and probably Bio-Ghost too given hard feelings about life force vampires.

There's so many minor powers whichi, if we assume the CS is utilizing them, answers a LOT of questions about how their bases aern't getting overwhelmed by wizards and demons.

Consider the Armageddon Unlimited powers introduced to HU heroes:
pg 8 Sense the Supernatural (backup for the psi-hounds and psi-stalkers)
pg 11 Alter Dimensional Fabric - likely monitored to make sure they only strengthen the fabric to prevent teleportation of wizards in and out - any caught weakening the fabric would be killed since it's too dangerous

[Library Ogre]

It's interesting that you cite Mercenaries given that, IIRC, one of the NPCs in there is an APS: Flame mutant who fled the CS.

But I think it's important to remember that the CS is human supremacists... they don't like psychics, they keep dog boys as slave-soldiers only, and they don't like mutants... what Bradford is doing in LS is supposed to be enough to end him, if it got widely known.

I assume that, with psychics, there was a level of "There are too many of them to completely demonize them"... if the numbers for PCs hold out for NPCs, then fully a quarter of the population is psychic.

[Aermas]

The CS is slowly becoming a separate psionic based, antimagic race I've heard discussed. As for super powers, there's rules in a few places to do it but I imagine they'd see any super power as mutant at best & D-Bee at worst. You'd have the whole Lex Luthor argument of them being dangerous alien & not trustworthy.

That being said, if you had say, super speed & such, nothings stopping you from wearing a Juicer harness & pretending

[taalismn]

Because 'Captain Coalition' or 'Captain Humanity' doesn't roll off the tongue as well as 'Captain America' or even 'Captain Britain'(there's also a 'Captain Canuck'...actually 'Captain Quebec' isn't too hard to reel off..).

[Marcethus]

The lack is not silly when you look at the CS's human supremacist attitudes. They view all human mutants as not human. They do not tolerate them and actively destroy any they find. That is why you do not see any super-powered CS soldiers.

[taalismn]

And if they had, they'd be part of a Vanguard-type unit under so-secret-you-shoot-yourself-after-reading protocols.
And odds are any equivalent 'super-soldier serum' or treatment would be expected to render the recipient sterile and induce other increasing health issues so as not to engender a threat to the Coalition of its own making.

[Library Ogre]

The CS is slowly becoming a separate psionic based, antimagic race I've heard discussed.

How do you figure "psionic based"?

[Aermas]

Because 'Captain Coalition' or 'Captain Humanity' doesn't roll off the tongue as well as 'Captain America' or even 'Captain Britain'(there's also a 'Captain Canuck'...actually 'Captain Quebec' isn't too hard to reel off..).

Sergeant Skull!

How do you figure "psionic based"?

Just like the Noro or whatever. Just a highly psionic race

[Plane]

It's interesting that you cite Mercenaries given that, IIRC, one of the NPCs in there is an APS: Flame mutant who fled the CS.

There's no mention of the CS on page 47 under Zippo, it just says he was called a D-Bee and hunted like an animal.
Maybe he got called that because someone saw him come in through a rift, or because bursters aren't known to fly so they thought he was one of those crazy Fire Elementals that Shifters are always sending to roast up people for fun.

Pg 48 has the closest thing, which is merely that he uses the C-14 coalition fire-breather laser rifle.

I can see why we'd assume the CS but I don't think they're the only society that's D-phobic.

But I think it's important to remember that the CS is human supremacists... they don't like psychics

Zippo's lover Janice Melborne (a Burster who goes by Lady Arson) is the one with a murky past with the CS, even though we've known at least since WB12 that the CS has been recruiting and incorporating Bursters into their Psi-Battalion.

Her problem (pg 46) is that Janice horribly burned her employer (who survived) in response to being slapped. She was 14 and working as a maid for a merchant's wife in Chi-Town. She panicked and fled authorities, thinking (wrongly, I believe) that the government would "hunt her down and kill her".

You'll note that Lyboc was only attempting to "capture" her even after she and her 3 friends were committing a string of crimes in the Burbs. He probably would've worked w/ Carol Black to try and recruit Janice if it were at all possible, but obviously lethal force is an option considered when someone goes on an MD fire spree.

When she was ultimately surrounded by a lynch mob it was outside of the Burbs - guards were called by 'superstitious town dwellers' and shot and killed her last friend (2 having died previously) causing Janice to burn down THE ENTIRE INN ("killing and injuring several people")

Janice is like a poster-girl for why Psi-Net needs to exist, why all psychics (particular master ones with super psi) should be chipped, and why they should be groomed at a young age to control their abilities and use them responsibly.

they keep dog boys as slave-soldiers only

Rifts 107 does talk about them being created as slaves initially, yeah (but then that's how we already treat animals)
"the creation and enslavement of mutant animals,"
"created for use as laborers, soldiers, and special operatives throughout the wilderness"

however that attitude of apathy did not last, as seen on Rifts 108

• "psychologically, humans quickly accepted, trusted, and liked dogs.
  This leads to an immediate bonding or friendship between the two.
  After all, dogs have been "man's best friend" for eons.
  This acceptance and warm response by humans only serves to make the mutant animals feel loved, cherished, needed,
  and dedicated to the protection of their masters.

So yeah the humans are still masters, but humans accept, trust and LIKE the psi-hounds.

It is a 'self-perpetuating love'

Pg 109:

• Most CS city dwellers are comforted by the presence of the loyal and courteous Dog Boys, and cooperate with them to the fullest.
  Dog Pack mutants are treated well and with kindness.
  They love and care for the mutants
  most Dog Pack mutants don't see anything wrong with how they are treated
  rarely feel cheated or abused, and are happy just to be part of the human pack

Sounds like a very high quality of life! More acceptance and power and freedom than your average Burbs resident, in fact!

Coalition War Campaign pg 188 notes that NTSET psi-hounds are trained to use energy pistols, radios, surveillance, and can even be trained in Scrambler Communications and ANY of the Technical skills (pretty sure that's the category Literacy is in, though there isn't a note like on 189 where it mentions 25% of humans in NTSET are literate)

Psyscape pg 16

• "Checkers scanned his field of fire with his modified C-IO laser carbine.
  The weapon had been shortened slightly and given a folding stock.
  Checkers had requested the changes to the weapon to make it lighter and more manageable"

Psi-Hounds are allowed input to customize their laser rifles, that's a lot of cart-blanche for a slave!

"the others were definitely gone. Not dead. Gone.
Only he and Checkers were left. He hoped the Dog would run like the wind."

Morgan Callaway (7th level Mind Melter Lt) clearly cares about the wellbeing of Checkers - even though it would likely be less dangerous to Callaway if Checkers stayed, he was hoping Checkers would bolt to save himself.

I assume that, with psychics, there was a level of "There are too many of them to completely demonize them"... if the numbers for PCs hold out for NPCs, then fully a quarter of the population is psychic.

Depends on who you ask, it's not good to generalize.

Psyscape 144 says Psi-Bat was established in 85 PA, so Carol Black has been running it something like 25 years now. An entire generation of people has been born with this being present in CS society.

It does mention "Emperor Prosek and other members of the High Command didn ' t feel uncomfortable with giving a psychic too great a position of power" explaining why Carol is merely a Lt Col instead of General - but 145 says she's gonna get promoted to Brigadier General soon.

147 says Joseph 2nd has her confidence so once he takes over for Karl things will likely improve evne more for psychics.

Carol is both a telepath and an object-reader, let's keep in mind, so Karl being paranoid about her is kinda logical since he's a Diabolic evil guy with a lot of secrets. He'd never lend her a pen because he probably stabbed a secretary with it.

To think your average CS citizen (or overall CS policy) would be as diabolical as Karl is going too far though.

they'd see any super power as mutant at best & D-Bee at worst. You'd have the whole Lex Luthor argument of them being dangerous alien & not trustworthy.

Psi-Ghosts

They view all human mutants as not human.
They do not tolerate them and actively destroy any they find.
That is why you do not see any super-powered CS soldiers.

Psi-Ghosts

and honestly - all the psychics are viewed as human mutants anyway, not just the ones with super powers

And if they had, they'd be part of a Vanguard-type unit under so-secret-you-shoot-yourself-after-reading protocols.

I don't get the impression Psi-Ghosts are that top-secret though I'm sure they're kept under tighter wraps than Psi-Hounds or Nega-Psychics.

[taalismn]

I don't get the impression Psi-Ghosts are that top-secret though I'm sure they're kept under tighter wraps than Psi-Hounds or Nega-Psychics.

Misunderstanding. The Vanguard are the secret organization of magic-users that support the Coalition, sabotaging mage threats from within and hunting other supernatural threats. Only Emperor Karl's son seems to be upper-level in-the-know about them.
They're ultimately like The Operative in Serenity; they work for a cause that will ultimately not accept them, but they're prepared to make the sacrifice of themselves to that end.

[Aermas]

Psi-Ghosts

...are ultimately an expression of psychic power/mutation. That's something the Coalition understands. But that's completely different to the mixed bag of ad hoc abilities supers get. You can't just compare a Heart of Stone super with the Psi-Ghost. Psi-Ghosts are closer to Mind Melters than they are to a Sonic Flight, Laser eye blasting guy. I'm someone who thinks that the Coalition are in the subjective right in a lot of ways, but they still hold their one supernatural force they can sort of control (Psychics) on a super tight leash. Supers are all over the place power-wise. I could see an argument for them having develop a "super serum" to make a very narrow expression of specific powers, if you wanted to go that route & maybe put a Suicide Squad of Disavowed together, I think that would be fine. But them openly accepting what are essentially no different from human shaped mutants/D-Bee's into the fold isn't in their interest or M.O.

Now you've made me interesting in creating a "Sgt. Skull" super soldier though, him & his "Skull Squad"

[Plane]

Misunderstanding. The Vanguard are the secret organization of magic-users that support the Coalition

I'm aware of what they are, I'm saying psi-ghosts are an example of super-powered mutants serving PsiBat.

Psi-Ghosts

...are ultimately an expression of psychic power/mutation. That's something the Coalition understands.

Intangibility isn't a psychic power it's a super power from HU, it would be deactivated by Negate Super Powers instead of Psi-Nullification.

Psi-Ghosts are closer to Mind Melters than they are to a Sonic Flight, Laser eye blasting guy.

Sure if you want to go to the extreme end of the super abilities, but there are subtler super powers too.

they still hold their one supernatural force they can sort of control (Psychics) on a super tight leash.
Supers are all over the place power-wise.

It would require a lot of oversight as to what they can do (Psi-Net is good for that mind probing) but in terms of managing a powered person, Intangibility creates one of the most difficult to control situations.

[Aermas]

Intangibility isn't a psychic power it's a super power from HU, it would be deactivated by Negate Super Powers instead of Psi-Nullification.

I know. But the CS doesn't. Psi-Ghosts are Psychics so they see it as an expression or mutation from that

[Grazzik]

A read of the psi-ghost aura should indicate that there is a mutant distinction from typical psychics. However, just this one scenario of a mutant psychic (as well as the Psistalker ability to turn mdc) should not infer acceptance of superpowers generally.

Superpowers are mutations and would be viewed as sub-human to be used in the interests of the State but not condoned outside of military/espionage application or experimentation.

Though as usual, it is the exceptions that prove the rule.

[Marcethus]

As has been said. Psi-ghosts are viewed as a psychic mutant. Though IIRC Psyscape has the number of them in the CS ultra low. Which is understandable given that they are a rare variant to begin with. So using the Psi-Ghost as your reasoning behind thinking that the CS should have a whole slew of Super-Powered Mutants is an issue. The CS is very firm in it's Human Supremacy. The top brass barely accepts psychics as human. They tolerate the Psi-Stalker because of the necessity of detecting the Psychic, Supernatural and Magic that they hate and fear. It is also why they created the Dog Boys. Your average citizen and John Q Soldier who work in the trenches will have a different view as they get to know both the Dog Boy and Psi-Stalker. Though Psi-Stalker acceptance is much lower than Dog Boy acceptance.

Due to the level of propaganda the CS has flooded it's citizens with I don't ever see the average citizen accepting any super-powered mutant as anything but a danger to be reported.

That having been said it's your game and you can do as you please but don't expect it to be accepted as what the CS should do. They are a Human Supremacist, magic fearing and hating and the War on Tolkeen has cemented their views.

[Plane]

I know. But the CS doesn't. Psi-Ghosts are Psychics so they see it as an expression or mutation from that

pg 63 "The power of intangibility, or "ghosting" as they call it, i s not a psionic power, although it requires mental discipline, focus and concentration."

The CS aren't going to view it as psionic because "Dog Boys can sense whenever a psionic ability is used" so they'd be able to see it's not triggering it when they phase.

Superpowers are mutations and would be viewed as sub-human to be used in the interests of the State but not condoned outside of military/espionage application or experimentation.

Of course, 100%, just like psi, and only with certain powers, is my point.

Especially something like "Negate Super Abilities" which is about the most acceptable super-power a human could have!

using the Psi-Ghost as your reasoning behind thinking that the CS should have a whole slew of Super-Powered Mutants is an issue.

I don't know about a slew, ultimately that depends on how many humans are running around w/ random super powers and what subset of those the CS doesn't kill, are able to do a capture+study and groom for military use.

The CS is very firm in it's Human Supremacy. The top brass barely accepts psychics as human.

Sounds like an exaggeration. See pg 141 of Psyscape:

"a growing number of CS scientists contend that psychic abilities evolved as a "natural defense" against the supernatural.
This line of thought has been accepted by the majority of the CS High Command"

Due to the level of propaganda the CS has flooded it's citizens with I don't ever see the average citizen accepting any super-powered mutant as anything but a danger to be reported.

That's already how unregistered psychics are viewed - obviously superbeings would need to be similarly chipped and part of the CS military structure to be trustworthy.

That having been said it's your game and you can do as you please but don't expect it to be accepted as what the CS should do. They are a Human Supremacist, magic fearing and hating and the War on Tolkeen has cemented their views.

Not sure what fearing and hating magic has to do with whether or not they'd incorporate certain types of superbeings.

Powers Unlimited has a power called "Immune to Magic" for example - that'd be a lovely complement to Nega-Psychics and Psi-Nullifiers and I can't really see the CS getting angry at "hey that guy always passes his savings throws"

Something like "Quills and Spines" or "Shadow Shaping" or "Tentacles of Hair' or "Winged Flight" on the other hand is going to generate a lot more suspicion since it creates deviation from the human form.

[Marcethus]

The CS fears and hates magic. They would see super-powers as similar. It doesn't matter if it triggers a Dog Boy or Psi-Stalker's senses it is a strange power that normal humans do not have. Thus they would fear and hate it and want to eliminate those that have it.

[Plane]

unless it's the major super power of intangibility?

The CS would be far more fearful and hateful towards intangibility than something like "Immune to Magic" or "Sense the Supernatural"

Psi-Stalkers can turn into MDC beings at ley lines, if they can be tentatively accepted, would the CS be terrified of a mere 'Healing Factor" where someone stays SDC ?

[Curbludgeon]

Psi-Slayers are mutants as well. The distribution of classes in Psi-Battalion as shown in Psyscape is kind of goofy; why would they have any Psi-Warriors, for one, much less 10%?

As for superpowers clearly some are easier pills for the CS to swallow. Super Vision might not even get noticed, but if someone has Bookworm they get shot.

[Plane]

I expect the 10% psi-warriors thing was written when the class was intended as a more generic one as opposed to having that psyscape cyber-knight kinda thing.

I'd just assume the CS allows them to abdicate Psyscape's monasteries and join them after very careful screenings, or maybe they did just a one time and that abdicator began training new ones serving Psi-Bat

Bookworm isn't really a problem since the CS does allow some people to read in their military.

[Curbludgeon]

Bookworm is rather abuseable. It bypasses ciphers, allowing instant translation of things like alien languages or encrypted messages, and combines well with Total Recall.

[Plane]

forgot about that part, i guess even w/ literacy they'd want to control which languages you know so they can monitor what you have access to

[Sambot]

I think superhero's acceptance by the CS and others would depend on their powers. They have accepted a variety mutants animals, so I can see them accepting some supers. It would just depend on their powers. Some powers would make the mutants, akin to psychics and psi-salkers. Others would get them labeled as d-bees. And the CS does not like d-bees. So they would be very selective in whom they accept.

If I remember right, human experimentation isn't legal but does happen. Bradford did create the Psi-X Aliens?, who are thought to be d-bees. He could have created other super humans. If he were allowed to legally experiment to make supers, I think he'd frame it akin to cyborgs. The volunteers are sacrificing their humanity for the sake of others.

[Aermas]

I'd love to see Bradford or someone else in the CS get ahold of Splicer tech. That'd really push the envelope

[Grazzik]

I'd love to see Bradford or someone else in the CS get ahold of Splicer tech. That'd really push the envelope

In Bradford's basement, there could be all sorts of weird science going on.

• Organitech from Systems Failure.
• Splicer tech.
• Dbee/Human hybrids.
• Experiments to decode biowizardry symbiotes or parasites.
• Golden Age bioscience for getting those Chaos Earth attribute buffs.
• Oganic-based bionic systems more advanced than bio-systems
• Organic interfaces with ARCHIE 2 tech... might work on ARCHIE 3 tech...
• Perhaps proto-mechanoids were developed by Bradford in his basement but rejected and sent through a random rift to get rid of them, only the rift was a portal in TIME and space dumping the proto-mechanoids in the past. The proto-mechanoids continued to evolve in another dimension to become the Mechanoids we now know. The kicker... the organic part of the Mechanoids are actually a highly perverted form of Bradford's own DNA!!! And their loathing of humanoid life is actually a manifestation of a genetically encoded self-hatred for Bradford... but now that they are on Earth, they have an instinctive need to seek out Bradford in Lone Star to destroy him and all that stand in their way... <insert crazed mad scientist laughing here>... okay, maybe taking that too far.

[Aermas]

I thought mechanoids were True Atlanteans screwing up again. It's a lucky thing that only one clan made them or all True Atlanteans might go out & design another tattoo over their grief of making them

[Grazzik]

I thought mechanoids were True Atlanteans screwing up again. It's a lucky thing that only one clan made them or all True Atlanteans might go out & design another tattoo over their grief of making them

SB2 pg 29 makes that vague allusion, but you can't trust rumor or myth. Often it turns out to be something more ordinary. I just don't believe that a magic-weilding society would turn to heavy use of cybernetics for space exploration, unless using cybermagic... which I'll admit is possible, just unlikely. Whether you go with the Atlantean origin story or something else, have fun.

I was just pointing out a wacky idea for what could be going on in the bowels of the Lone Star complex. Maybe it is called Project Atlas since the proto-mechanoids are so strong... hence the creation story mix up.