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Grizzled Gryphon
2007-09-20, 02:00 PM
Anyone here play this game? Yes, it is technically Rifts, but I prefer Phase Worlds over Rifts Earth. I have always been a big fan of the space opera setting.

So, does anyone have any cool stories about playing this game? Rifts is the game that introduced me to role-playing, back when the main Rifts book was the only book.

NecroRebel
2007-09-20, 05:10 PM
Heh. While not set in Phase World, my group had a funny series of events early in one campaign. For a bit of background information, my group likes explosives. A lot. It's rare for a character to NOT have a grenade on them, and oftentimes most of the combat-types had a half-dozen or more different bombs on them. We also played with fumble rules; basically, a natural 1 was an automiss, with another d20 to figure out how big a screwup it is.

So, the campaign started with our group, consisting of a Mystic Knight, Juicer, Shifter, and... Something else I'm not remembering right now, all in Atlantis and fleeing from a Slaver barge and a sizable force of enemies. We had been part of a large mercenary raid stealing data from the Kelvanni, and our particular group had managed to get away with a cardreader with the schematics for an advanced form of Dragon Dreadnought on it.

After a short standoff, during which the Mystic Knight read through and Total Recalled the plans (so he could recall them perfectly later), the data card was returned to the Splugorth and we were allowed a head start, which we used to travel towards a small pyramid (which the Shifter knew how to use somehow) that was nearby. Upon arriving at the pyramid, there was a battle between us and some Kelvanni Serpent power armors, during which the Mystic Knight and Juicer got into the underground hanger beneath the pyramid, still engaged in battle against 4 Serpents. This is where it gets crazy.

First, the Juicer, who's primary weapon was a grenade launcher, decides to toss an entire drum full of grenade ammo at the Kelvanni so he could blast it later and set it off. He rolls a 1.

Then, one of the Serpents fired a medium-range missile at the heroes. It rolls a 1. GM rules that the missile actually strikes the grenade drum in midair between them. He then rules that there's a small chance of all the grenades in the drum getting set off. d%... And it's a 2. Grenades go off.

The blast washes over the 4 Serpent Armors, 3 of which still have medium-range high explosive missiles on them. The blast does sufficient damage to wreck the armors' shields where the launchers were... And the GM rolls to see if they detonate. All 3 do. Serpents are all immediately fried by (at this point) 4d4x10+2d6x12 mega-damage from all the missiles and grenades going off.

On the other side of the blast, the MK and Juicer were also getting caught in the blast. Between them, they had another 12-grenade drum, a fire-and-forget medium-range missile launcher with a Plasma Missile, and about 20 high explosive grenades between them. Again, the GM rolls to see if the various bombs go off... And again, they do. Do note that he was rolling completely openly; no fudging on any of this. So, completely legitimately, the 2 heroes and 4 villains managed to deal 4D4x10+1D6x10+2D6x24+5D6x20 damage to everything within a hundred feet. The only "bright" side to this is that they rolled very low for damage, so "only" did 350 or so damage to the pyramid, so it was only half-destroyed, and those of us on top of it were able to use it to warp out.

The worst part was that the focus of the campaign, the Super Dragon Dreadnought plans, went up in flames with the Mystic Knight... So the campaign ended soon after.





As far as games in the Three Galaxies go, the funniest thing that happened to our group was when the GM of one of our games, who doesn't have the best situational awareness ever, managed to put sets of Kreegor power armor where the heroes could get to them. Then, when they put them on (despite not being Kreegor, the only race who can actually use them), they were attacking with supernatural strength, which the GM contested. The players then showed him the book, which says in the entry for the armor:

STRENGTH: 50. This is counted as supernatural
since Kreegor, who have supernatural strength,
are the only creatures that can wear it.

Or something to that effect. He managed to successfully read the first line... And then missed the second and third. Somehow. Despite it being less than half a centimeter down:smallconfused:

Grizzled Gryphon
2007-09-20, 06:00 PM
LOL. I have a good one, too.

This was set in Rifts, not phase worlds. Anyway, this was very early in the history of Rifts, so I think the newest book out was Vampire Kingdoms. Anyway, the group consisted of a Glitterboy, a Headhunter in an Ulti-Max, a Juicer (I think), and some sort of mage... or was it a psychic? Well, it doesn't really matter.

This group was formed at a gaming store, so they were all new to me. I was running this game. The first thing the party needed to do was get to a city. I don't recall which one, only that it was quite a distance away. However, there was an old highway that they could follow, and this highway was still in use. On an aside, I think the mage/psychic were riding in a Big Boss ATV. Or a Mountaineer, not sure anymore.

Well, the trip to this city was part of the adventure. I can't recall all the details, but someone along the way was going to give them some very important info. The first person they met, however, was a bandit. He had several other bandits hiding nearby, and used the old "give me your stuff, or my friends shoot you" line. The party was much too powerful for them, though, and they wiped out most of them with only minor damage to their equipment. They colledted there gear to be sold later. All well and good.

Later, they see a figure on a motorcylce heading there way. With telescopic optics, they look and see that it is an old man on an ancient bike that is only marginally better than a mo-ped. You know, something like a 100 cc engine bike, or the like. This old man has no armor, and no visible weapons. To my great surprise, the Glitterboy shoots him. Of course, this completely obliterates both the man and his bike. They proceeded to tell me that they were sure this guy was another bandit, and decided to deal with him at range. ?? OK, fine, I can give that one to them.

A few days later, they can see off in the distance a small shack off to one side of the road, with one of those wooden barricades across the road like the ones used in road construction. Obviously nothing that would actually stop anything, especially advanced war machines. The shack is also made of wood, and is very obviously a temporary structure. They can see two armored and armed figures outside the shack. Long story short, they blow them and the guard shack to smithereens. In doing so, they also destroy the signs hung on the shack that warn of the bridge ahead being out, due to an infestation of Hydras!! You know, the critters with 12 attacks per melee, and s3everal thousand MDC? Yeah, those Hydras.

Now, I wanted them to have to detour around this gorge, so that another aspect of the plot (which escapes me) can be played out. However, every attempt I made to give these guys a warning was met with an attack. They attacked EVERYTHING that came into view.

So, in the end, they continued to march towards the gorge, with its bridge out, oblivious to the danger that awaited them. Also, the kindom that had set up the warning post was pretty pissed off about there helpful little post being destroyed, and had sent out a small force to deal with them. This kingdom was pretty well off, and had sent a NG Hunter Mobile Gun, 4 Predator Power Armors, and a squad of heavy infantry (read: partial conversion cyborgs) to deal with these criminals. They also had a wilderness scout to track them, I think.

At any rate, they got to the gorge about the time the kingdoms task force caught up to them. My idea here was for the players to either run south (towards the plot idea), or come to there senses, and help the task force fend off the hydra long enough for them all to escape with there lives. There were five mated pairs of adult hydras living in the caves in the gorge, with there 1 offspring each. Basically, an impassible gorge.

Well, our heroes had better ideas. The task force radioed them and told them they were under arrest, and to either surrender or be destroyed.

"NEVER!!" cried our heroes, and opened fire. Not surprisingly, this REALLY pissed off the hydra in the gorge below, and they came out ready to fight. The Hydra started climbing a sloped part of the gorge to attack the party, too.

Meanwhile, the party started to really have it handed to them by the Kingdoms forces, so they decided (how this was a good idea, I will never know) to JUMP INTO THE GORGE. This gorge was 500 feet deep, so you can imagine how bad that went for them. Of course, the Hydra were delighted to have such a big snack fall into their laps.

And that was the end of that adventure. Needless to say, I never played with that group again.

Another good one was a party was the command group aboard a Hunter class destroyer. This gigantic spaceship was attacking a planet they were visiting. (Zentraedi flagship). This was the opening of the adventure. Our heroes, one of which is the captain, aims his hunter at the ship, and engages the FTL drive. After overiding the safety protocols, of course. Talk about a quick adventure. Hey, at least they did win!!