Playing a Psychic in RIFTS, Part 10: Putting It Together

By now, you know what kind of psychic your psychic man is. You've gotten into your man's head, so you know where he's coming from and how his thinks. Now, how does your man deal with others?

Good question.

First, a simple and pragmatic matter: you are playing a team-based game, wherein you cooperate to accomplish objectives and deal with scenarios put before you- either self-generated or encountered via emergent gameplay, so it behooves you (and the others at the table) to play well with others, part of which being making a man who does so.

Now, on with it.

Regardless of your man's abilities and level of power, your man is still a psychic and therefore has a unique perspective on things that non-psychics do not share. Exactly what that perspective is will vary--see the previous Archetype posts--but magic-users and mundanes cannot see things as your man does; what your man does, and especially how your man does it, is beyond their capacity to comprehend and as such your man bring a vital asset to any team that your man joins.

Telepaths and Sensitives are good at facilitating communication and unit cohesion amongst a team, either directly through psychic mind-to-mind contact or by facilitating mundane leadership and management skills to get desired results faster. Psycho-Kinetics are able to augment a team's firepower and work as a force-multiplier. Gishes have their own well-defined niches, and Hybrids suggest their own engagement within a team by what they blend together. When making your man, it's a good idea to talk with the others at the table to establish these team relations before you start throwing the dice around; the sooner that everyone is on the same page, the better everyone's gameplay experience will be and the faster that all of you can get to the good stuff and maximize your fun and entertainment.

That last part is a matter that is specific to your table, so I really can't get too specific in advice; what I can do is recommend that you look into non-fiction books about making the most of teamwork environments, and take notes as to how well your man either conforms to or contradicts the proven methods and techniques for successful integration into such environments so that you can play your man accordingly- and, if possible, do this with your fellow players. Even for the most powerful of psychics, the ability to do well with others makes succeeding at your goals far easier and more common than those who lack such social faculties.

And next week, I'll move on to something else altogether: a shift to the sorts of common campaigns in RIFTS.

The Crazy: Augmentation for Expendable Assets of a More Indefinate Duration

In the milieu of RIFTS the use of Mind Over Matter technology, "M.O.M." for short, is the basis for the Crazy type of augmented super-soldier. The performance increases are similar to, but noticeably lesser than, that of the Juicer in terms of physical capability. However, the implants produce psychic powers in those augmented and these powers often compensate quite well to even the effectiveness of both types. It is in the lasting consequences that Crazies got their name; the implants imbalance the brain chemistry of the subjects, causing insanities that increase in number as well as severity over time until the subjects become non-functional due to the aggravated degeneracy of the brain. However, this can take decades to play out and can be quite effectively managed in the meantime if the controllers carefully manage the mental health of their Crazy operatives.

Unlike Juicer augmentation, which lends itself very well to reaping large numbers of raw recruits and augmenting them as Juicers when war-making is immanent and the conflict can be finished within the lifespan of the augmented cohort, Crazies lend themselves to a different form of exploitation. Crazies start off normative, but as the implants damage them and cause insanities the Crazy individuates and compels the controlling agency to increasingly divorce the initial cohort into smaller and smaller subgroups whose insanities--at the least--do not conflict. Veteran Crazies, prior to that final degeneration into non-functionality, are turned into solo operatives with naught but a handler; they may or may not be attached to a group, depending upon the individual's insanities.

The exploitation that this technology facilitates is that of the long-term insurgent or assassin, deployed as a deniable asset by handlers who need something done but are not willing or able to openly take responsibility for it. They're perfect pasties for black ops meant to be blamed on a third party--false flags, in other words--because it does not matter if the Crazy succeeds or not. The Crazy is too nuts to be believed by most if caught, is easily disavowed if captured or killed for the same reason (despite their military training and gearing), but if successful they can be reused without end until either they're killed in action or degenerate into non-functionality.

It is highly unlikely that most Crazies, therefore, are uncontrolled. They may not be under the thumb of their creators, but most are controlled by someone able to come up with the way the Crazy's madness works and manipulate them to serve the handler's ends instead of their own. The most banal and mercenary reason, that it's not cheap to do this, will be sufficient cause to keep their subjects under control thoroughly. That doesn't bode well for a believable milieu anymore than the Juicer technology does; the Crazy, like the Juicer, is not the autonomous actor that they're implied to be- these super-soldiers take too much logistical support in the form of mental health resources to maintain themselves for long outside of such a system.

If the Juicer is a loser, then the Crazy is just as a loser. They trade off a longer lifespan potential for decreased ability to function within it, which means that they just live enslaved (one way or another) longer. This is not a heroic character; this is a victim in denial, as much as Juicers are, and just as pathetic in the end (and as dangerous until then). Not my idea of a good time.