Warning! Violence, War, Magic & the Supernatural The fictional world of SplicersTM is violent, deadly and filled with robotic horrors, evil monstrosi- ties, and weird weapons and machines. Humans have turned to genetic manipulation to create frighten- ing living weapons and armor, horrific animals and strange mutations. War, global destruction, violence and inhumanity as well as murder, insanity, plagues and the end of the world are all elements in this book. Some parents may find the violence and gruesome nature of some characters and story elements inap- propriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion. Please note that none of us at Palladium Books® condone or encourage violence, war or the use of drugs. Sp/icersTM is a science fiction and horror role-playing game. 1 MAJ[STIC Sample file
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Warning! Violence, War, Magic & the Supernatural
The fictional world of SplicersTM is violent, deadly and filled with robotic horrors, evil monstrosities, and weird weapons and machines. Humans have turned to genetic manipulation to create frightening living weapons and armor, horrific animals and strange mutations.
War, global destruction, violence and inhumanity as well as murder, insanity, plagues and the end of the world are all elements in this book.
Some parents may find the violence and gruesome nature of some characters and story elements inappropriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion.
Please note that none of us at Palladium Books® condone or encourage violence, war or the use of drugs.
Sp/icersTM is a science fiction and horror role-playing game. 1
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Dedication To my wife Christina and my daughter Robyn for putting up with all my all-night gaming and my obsession with Palladium Books
when I should've been doing other things. I must also thank my wife for helping me with my spelling and listening to my strange ideas, thoughts and schemes for the book, as well as keeping on me to continue writing when I was getting lazy or was just goofing off.
I need to say a special thank you to Kevin Siembieda for giving me a chance in the first place, not just to write, but to let me design a world and RPG that I have been dreaming about for so long. And thanks to him for giving us more than two decades of role-playing games and enjoyment.
As well as a thanks to all of the members of my gaming groups, past and present, for putting up with all of my weird ideas and for play-testing it all. Although there have been so many people in my gaming groups, the ones who stand out the most are: Ralph Bellamy, Randi and Roger Cartier, Pat Conlin, Randy and Pauline Pare, Brian Paquette, John LaCount, Kevin Solima, Sean Roddy, David Anhorn, Cliff Cartier, Dave Marshall, Dietrich Davis, Adam Gilchrist, Todd Gervias and my little brother Joe Bellaire.
Other Palladium Role-Playing Games ... Rifts® Role-Playing Game
Rifts® Chaos Earth ™
Heroes Unlimited™ (Superheroes)
Ninjas & Superspies™
Palladium Fantasy RPG®
Nightbane® and others
www.palladiumbooks.com
- Carmen Bellaire, 2004
The cover is by artist Mark Evans depicting a Proto-Armor, predecessor to the notorious Host Armors of the Dreadguard and Roughnecks, battling some nameless robot in humankind's crusade against the insane Machine.
First Printing - October 2004
No part of this publication may be scanned, OCRed or reproduced in any way for electronic publication on the web/internet or any other medium.
Copyright 2004 Palladium Books Inc. & Kevin Siembieda
All rights reserved, worldwide, under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews. All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity, without satiric intent, of characters or persons living or dead, is strictly coincidental.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, Coalition Wars®, Megaverse®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Nightbane®, After the Bomb®, Phase World®, and Palladium Books® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Palladium Books Inc. and Kevin Siembieda.
Splicers, Host Armor, Proto-Armor, The Machine, Human Resistance, Necroborgs, Necrobots, Ratbombs, Assault Slayer, Battle Track, Cable Snake, Flying Strike-Ship, Hunter-Searcher Probe, Land Dominator, Popper Mine, Repair Wagon, Sentry Tower, Sewer Prowler, Skitter Pod, Slicer Robot, Steel Trooper, Archangel, Biotic, Dreadguard, Engineer, Librarian, Outrider, Packmaster, Roughneck, Saint, Scarecrow, Skinjob, Technojacker, War Mounts, Gorehound, Dracos, Strider, Zephyr, Living Body Armor, Wing Pack, Eye Pod, Face Wrap, Bio-Comms, Slap Patch, Bio-Weapon, Bio-E, M.D.C., Mega-Damage, and other names, titles, character names, character likenesses and slogans are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.
Palladium On-Line: www.palladiumbooks.com
SplicersTM Role-Playing Game is published by Palladium Books Inc., 12455 Universal Drive, Taylor, MI 48180. Printed in the USA.
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PALLADIUm DOOK5® PR(5[uT5:
TM
Written & Created by: Carmen Bellaire
Additional text, names, and concepts by: Kevin Siembieda
Editors: Alex Marciniszyn
Wayne Smith
Kevin Siembieda
Proofreader: Julius Rosenstein
Cover Painting: Mark Evans
Art Direction & Keylining: Kevin Siembieda
Typography: Wayne Smith
Interior Artists: Drunken Style Studio
Brandon C. Clark (DSS)
Mark Dudley (DSS)
Mike Majestic (DSS)
Liz Refuss (DSS)
Charles Walton (DSS)
Ka Xiong (DSS)
Apollo Okamura
Inspired by The Mechanoids®, Rifts® and other RPG rules, text, characters,
concepts and Megaverse® created by Kevin Siembieda.
Special Thanks to Cannen Bellaire for letting his imagination go wild, the artists at Drunken Style Studio (but especially Brandon and Mark) for going wild with their artistic concepts and rendering, and to Alex, Wayne, Julius, and the rest of the guys who work so hard for Palladium Books.
- Kevin Siembieda. 2004
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Contents The Rebellion Against the Machine • . • • . . . • . . • . 6
Multiple personality disorder ............... 7 The fIrst signs of mental problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Nanobot Plague .•.....•...•.• •...•• 9
Game Mechanics for Handling the Nanobot Plague 11
Length of Time Before the Nanobots React· 11 Hostile Response Table . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Bio-Tech Explosives· Conventional M.D.C. Body Armor . Living Body Armor' . • . . ...•. Proto-Host Armor .......... . Wing Packs ....... .. . . .. .
Splicer Occupational Character Classes Archangel . Biotic' ...
Dreadguard Outrider .. Packrnaster . Roughneck' Saint ... Scarecrow . Skinjob' .. Technojacker . Characters from other Palladium Games The Game Mechanics •..•....••. Character Creation' .. ....... .
The rebellion against the Machine From the memory file archives of Augustus, the third Librarian:
Although the record of events which led to the rise of the machine intelligence, N.E.X.U.S., is sketchy at best, I will try to describe the events for you as best as I can, according to the research I have compiled. I do so to help you understand the struggle you are about to face. I know that you have grown up during this war for survival, but what you do not know is how and why the war began. Any accurate records of the past have been lost to men ages ago. These secrets are locked away in the Machine's vast memory core or stored on one of the many micro-discs that we use for currency (but can never read or view).
One might assume that a war between men and the machines would start with a military computer going haywire or a mass of worker androids developing sentience and rising up in revolt against their human masters. These are the stories and tales that women tell their children at night, but the truth is far more insidious and tragic. It was not some accident or simple fate that turned the machines against us. No, it was man that built the Machine. It was also men who fIrst programmed the N.E.X.U.S.
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computer, and it was the foolishness of man that turned us, their descendants, over to the Machine. It is we who must undo the folly of the past; it is we who must destroy the machines, for it is we who created the beast and gave it dominion over us.
While the dates are lost, I do know that in the Time Before . N.E.x.U.S. (the Neurologic, Electronic eXecutive and Utility System), this small planet was full to the brim with humans, at least eight to twelve billion of us, probably more - the count is very vague. Much about our planet is vague. We do not even know which planet this is, the Earth, our place of origin, or a colony world. Most believe it is a colony world, but because the Machine is constantly reshaping the very continents, we may never make that determination.
As we are wont to do, man made this world a heavily populated hub planet. Wildlife, both native and colonial, had all but vanished from the face of the planet, replaced by buildings, highways and machines. Nature was represented by the cryozoos, holding native, colonial and some alien DNA of animals long extinct in the wild, as well as a few private wildlife gardens. Even the world's atmosphere was on the verge of collapse,