T-Balls Pack – Annie

Design Notes

We are moving on to the Dog Boy R.C.C. write up for Annie.  In the world of Rifts, the Coalition State of Lone Star has created mutant dogs, reminiscent of the mutant animals from Palladium’s T.M.N.T. and Other Strangeness, that have psychic powers and are used to help patrol the Coalition States. Palladium has published a Lone Star supplement, but I am just working with the first two books of the Rifts series for this card catalog.  

To start with our stat rolls, we have IQ – 15, ME – 17, MA – 9, PS – 15, PP – 15, PE – 15, PB – 10, and Spd – 11.  That 17 for M.E. becomes a 21 with the bonus die and all Dog Boy R.C.C.s get bonuses to P.S., P.P., and Spd bringing us to 17, 18, and 19 respectively.  As a Psionic R.C.C., Annie is considered a Master Psionic and we will get to her hit points after the Optional Character Tables for dog breed and potential bonuses there.  Rifts also includes Structural Damage Capacity, or S.D.C., to reflect non-life threatening injuries and as an R.C.C., she has 3D6 S.D.C. to start, or 12 but gets a +20 S.D.C. from the R.C.C. to start at 32.

The optional character tables provide a random chart for Height, the Type of Dog that was the underlying subject of the mutation, and a mutant abnormality.  She rolled a respectable and average 5’6’ tall and is derived from a boxer breed! Boxers are described as stocky and powerful getting bonuses to track, I.Q., P.S., P.P., and S.D.C.! Annie has gotten pretty stout from her background.  Finally, her random mutant abnormality is that she is near full human appearance and can speak like any other human. That will help her blend in and not obviously be an escaped Dog Boy when push comes to shove!

The R.C.C. abilities and psionic powers are pretty standard across all Dog Boys so we will note the ability to sense both Psychic and Magic Energy, Sense Supernatural Beings, the superior sense of smell that allows tracking by scent as well as a handful of bonuses to combat and physical statistics mentioned.  All Dog Boy R.C.C.s have the following powers from the Psionic Sensitive list – Sense Evil, Sense Magic, Sixth Sense, and Receptive Empath. For the one optional power I choose See Aura to work on the idea of an intelligence gathering or information gathering type of character.

Because Annie started as a member of the Coalition in their Dog Pack units, she has been trained like a Coalition Soldier with the skills reflecting that including Intelligence, Weapon Systems, Running (further boosting her Spd. to 31), and combat abilities.  In her Other skills, I made the choice to include Literacy as well as writing creating a kind of scribe that would certainly be frowned upon by the Coalition. To keep going with the information gathering theme, between the Other and Secondary skills, I loaded Annie down with radio and communications skills like Surveillance Systems, Radio – Scramblers, and Optic Systems.  A few other skills rounded her out including Swimming and Cooking as well as a bit of First Aid training necessary while she was out in the world away from the Coalition.

For armor, it is pretty simple to give her a suit of Light Coalition Armor, repainted and patched of course.  While most Dog Boys on patrol inside Chi-Town and the burbs have an even lighter armor that isn’t environmental, we’ll go with the CS-2 Light Armor for use on the long range patrol we’ll write into the background.  Weapons are pretty easy to identify since the vibro-blades and Neural Mace are standard. To this, I added a Coalition C-18 Laser Pistol and a Barracuda revolver for S.D.C. damage. Yes, she is running a little light on weapons, but that is part of the start for a Dog Boy R.C.C.  For equipment, aside from the usual survival gear, I went after more of the communications equipment like Radar detectors, Field Radios, bugs, and other gear that will keep playing into our theme of the “Comm” or “Intel” type character.

Looking at Page 18 of the Rifts First Edition book, here are the results of the Optional random tables to round out the character and where I didn’t use them for this character:

• Birth Order: One of a Lone Star litter of genetically engineered dogs 
• Weight: Husky (which works out well for the description already given from the Boxer Breed) 
• Height: Average 
• Disposition: Nice guy [gal], friendly, courteous and hospitable
• Family Origin: Made by Lone Star 
• Type of Environment: Coalition State of the Burbs, Lone Star and then transferred to Chi-Town 
• Sentiments towards Coalition: Indifferent.  Never personally had a bad experience with them [I’ll work on this in the story notes] 
• Sentiments towards Non-Humans:Prefers the company of non-humans over humans.

In the next section, these will be worked into Anie’s character description

Character Notes

Annie is a Dog Boy.  Even the female Dog Boys are called Dog Boys by the Coalition States.  It is another sign of how they are seen as disposable gear rather than sentient creatures.  Created by the Coalition State of Lone Star, the Dog Boys patrol in packs under the command of a Psi-Stalker using their formidable psychic powers in service of their masters.  That was the life Annie was born into and seemed to be well suited for. Her quick mind and able service meant that she received extra training in the radio systems non-psychics used to keep track of everyone and was the deputy communications officer when she went into the field with her pack. She didn’t really have a name, just a designation with the Coalition.

Annie didn’t see anything wrong with how the Coalition treated her and her pack – that was what she was raised to believe.  She still holds some fondness for the imagery of the Coalition that raised her and brought her into being. She isn’t part of the Coalition anymore, though.  When tracking a dangerous Ley Line Walker outside the confines of the Burbs of Iron Heart, her pack and psi-stalker were ambushed. She can’t recall if it was the Ley Line Walker who summoned these shadow demons or if he just led them into a trap, so focused on him that they all overlooked the danger they found.  She is the only one who made it out alive as far as she knows. Bleeding, in shock, and hardly able to know what to do, Jorj came across her and saved her life.

She wasn’t used to a human showing such kindness for her.  That wasn’t how the Coalition taught them. It left her confused but thankful.  Without her pack, she decided to try to return the favor and protect Jorj but the truth was that she was curious.  Jorj’s deviant ways, from the Coalition standpoint, intrigued her because she had been learning how to read and write quietly … she had been breaking the word of the masters and recording what she saw and felt.  Now she had someone who could read it. And she got a name, “Annie” which Jorj said had something to do with her being an orphan of her old pack.

Her curiosity spurred her onward with Jorj as he tried to delve into what secrets Iron Heart had been keeping from its citizens. He had a way with computers that she could scarcely fathom, but her knowledge of the comm systems the Coalition used proved invaluable.  Her mutation appearing more like a human than a dog also came in handy as she was able to blend in far more easily than other Psi-Hounds that had slipped the yoke of the Coalition. It was on one of these quixotic quests that the trouble started – Iron Heart found out about their attempt to infiltrate the base and they were quickly on the run.  Being chased by the forces of the Coalition that raised her, Annie was truly at a loss when they stumbled upon T-Ball running from the opposite direction, also chased by the forces of Iron Heart. In the heat of the escape, the three of them bonded and slipped away. She has stayed with T-Ball’s Pack since then, finding a pack to once again call her own and to try to help them as best she can. To try to record what she is seeing the best she can.  To write what it is to be a Dog Boy unshackled from the servitude of the Coalition States.

T-Ball’s Pack overview Here.

Annie – Dog Boy Character Sheet

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