Results 1 to 30 of 45
-
2008-11-30, 09:57 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- The Pacific Northwest
- Gender
God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
If any of you can recall way back, I've been pondering where I should go from D&D for some time. For a while now, I've owned some books for the Rifts game, but I have yet to actually play it. I really like the whole "mismash of everything awesome ever" approach, and familiarized myself with the basics of the setting. Unfortunately, my gaming friends (who I all know online) were never interested enough to go out and get the books themselves.
Well, at last I've talked them into giving it a try, though I had to go with the "you can be ANYTHING, really" approach to get them to go along. So when we play, unfortunately, I don't think I'll get the luxury of starting with a simple group of out-of-the-book characters. I recently acquired a large number of the Rifts Worldbooks, Sourcebooks and Dimension Books (thanks to living in a fairly large city with some well-stocked used bookstores) so I'm sitting on a huge pile of rules to give the players what they want. The problem is sorting through it all... anyone who's looked at the Rifts books before will agree with me that compared to Wizards of the Coast, Palladium's stuff is horribly organized. So in the hope that someone here has a familiarity with Rifts, I'd like to ask your advice on where to look for something similar to the concepts my friends came up with:
1) A magic-user focused around summoning and controlling Demons/Fiends
2) Some sort of squidlike or similarly horrible alien monster with a suitably advanced hovercraft/hoverchair to cart it around
3) A warrior with demonic grafts/bodyparts welded to his body somehow
Well, Palladium touts Rifts as the game where anything is possible, so I'm going to put that to the test. I'd like to use existing things where possible, but I have no problem homebrewing anything I need if someone can show me where similar things are outlined in the piles of source material.
If anyone can make sense of this request, TIA for any advice and suggestions.
-
2008-11-30, 10:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- M'wakee, 'Sconsin
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
As a guy with well over 30 Palladium and Rifts books in his basement, I wholly sympathize with your agony over the organization. I'm trying to run a Heroes Unlimited in Rifts, pitted against the Mechanoids and A.R.C.H.I.E., and every game is a frickin' nightmare to run, mechanically. Storywise, it's a dream, and my players are having the time of their lives.
I believe you'll get a lot of mileage out of the Federation of Magic book, as well as Atlantis.Last edited by OverdrivePrime; 2008-11-30 at 10:06 PM.
-
2008-11-30, 10:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2005
- Location
- Appalachian Mountains
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
I would recommend running the Rifts setting with another system. Savage Worlds would work really well. I was recently in a Savage Worlds Torg game. I'm sure someone has posted a Savage Rifts adaptation.
Aratos Tell
HP:53/53 AC:19,FlatFooted:16,Touch:13
Active Effects: Speak w/Animals
Spells Prepared: Cure Minor Wounds*4, Flare, Calm Animals, Charm Animal, Cure Light Wounds, Animal Messenger, Flaming Sphere, Lesser Restoration, Hold Animal, Cure Mod. Wounds*2, Speak w/Plants
Megiddo
HP:26/26 PP: 40/40 AC:14,FlatFooted:13,Touch:13
Active Effects:
Spells Prepared: Light*2, Burning Hands*2, Protection f/Evil, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, See Invis., Acid Arrow, Scorching Ray*2
-
2008-11-30, 10:20 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- The Pacific Northwest
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Sounds awesome.
I believe you'll get a lot of mileage out of the Federation of Magic book, as well as Atlantis.
Originally Posted by skjaldbakka
-
2008-11-30, 10:24 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
God help you, sir. God help you.
I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer.
I have seen the Beast itself, and it is terrible.
Ia! Ia! Rifthulhu fhtagn!
I shall seek with my revolver the oblivion which is my only refuge from the unnamed and unnameable.
In truth, my Rifts experiences were coloured by bad DMs. So don't go by mad absinthe-fuelled ramblings.Last edited by FoE; 2008-11-30 at 10:31 PM.
-
2008-11-30, 10:27 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- M'wakee, 'Sconsin
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Running a Rifts campaign means never having to care about balance.
Eh, the Minion of Splugorth (the dude on the cover of the Rifts book with all the 80's Jazzercize clones on his hovercraft) is best kept out of the hands of players. There are a number of lesser Splugorthian mooks that your guy can play, and you can whammy up a hovercraft that will work for him pretty quick by checking out the stats of other vehicles. But yes, like most R.C.C.s, there is a racial progression table for them, if I remember.
-
2008-11-30, 10:48 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2005
- Location
- Appalachian Mountains
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Yeah, I can see that with other systems, since you would have to do some work making the system work for Rifts, but I am pretty sure that there has been a Savage Worlds rifts conversion done already.
Also, Savage Worlds is really cheap. You could buy all your players a copy of the phb for the price of buying a phb for some other games I could mention.Aratos Tell
HP:53/53 AC:19,FlatFooted:16,Touch:13
Active Effects: Speak w/Animals
Spells Prepared: Cure Minor Wounds*4, Flare, Calm Animals, Charm Animal, Cure Light Wounds, Animal Messenger, Flaming Sphere, Lesser Restoration, Hold Animal, Cure Mod. Wounds*2, Speak w/Plants
Megiddo
HP:26/26 PP: 40/40 AC:14,FlatFooted:13,Touch:13
Active Effects:
Spells Prepared: Light*2, Burning Hands*2, Protection f/Evil, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, See Invis., Acid Arrow, Scorching Ray*2
-
2008-11-30, 10:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2006
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
For the summoner, The Shifter OCC is in the core rulebook. should be exactly what you want.
For the guy with all the grafts? I think there's bio borg rules in Atlantis. Maybe the Corrupt in Fed of Magic...
I'm sort of at a loss for the other guy at the moment, I don't own too many rifts books these days
-
2008-11-30, 11:02 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- M'wakee, 'Sconsin
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Another option for the tentacled guy is for him to be a robot intelligence with truly frightening body design. Check out the rules in the Sourcebook 1, which apparently has been recently revised. I've got an archaic copy and the bot-design rules are a hoot.
-
2008-11-30, 11:29 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2007
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Shifter, a class from the Rifts handbook proper, is supposedly a magic-user focused around dimensional travel and summoning demons/fiends. That said, it sucks; its PPE (mana) is too low for it to actually use dimensional travel or summoning spells, its starting spell list is awful, its skill list is weak, and its starting equipment and money are both somewhat lame. Ley Line Walker (generic Wizard) is what your friend will want to be. More PPE and faster growth per level (not that that matters unless you force it to; it will take forever to gain levels unless you routinely give massive xp bonuses) means that its magic is actually useful, it has the ability to choose its starting spells (all lower-level, but that doesn't matter), it has a better skill list, and roughly the same starting equipment all make the Line Walker superior to the Shifter.
That said, neither class will actually be able to summon or control anything without a Ley Line Nexus with a celestial event due to the stupidly high cost of such spells. IIRC, "Summon Lesser Being" costs 425 PPE to cast, while your average Line Walker has ~120 at level 1 and gains ~10 per level (Shifters have ~60 and ~7 per level. Lesser Being in this context refers to essentially anything below the level of full-fledged deities, by the way).
2) Some sort of squidlike or similarly horrible alien monster with a suitably advanced hovercraft/hoverchair to cart it around
I know OverdrivePrime said that they're best kept out of the hands of players, but... Well, to be honest they're lower-mid tier powerwise. Roughly on par with a dragon without a character class, in truth, and those really don't keep up once the rest of the party has 20mil or so in gear. Not too bad.
3) A warrior with demonic grafts/bodyparts welded to his body somehow
Well, Palladium touts Rifts as the game where anything is possible, so I'm going to put that to the test. I'd like to use existing things where possible, but I have no problem homebrewing anything I need if someone can show me where similar things are outlined in the piles of source material.
If anyone can make sense of this request, TIA for any advice and suggestions.
-
2008-11-30, 11:47 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
In the Core Rifts books, there's the Shifter. The Rifts Ultimate Edition and Rifts: Dark Conversions have expanded their propensity to have demon allies. They're otherwise normal spellcasters, just focused on that.
You might also look in Palladium Fantasy, at the Summoner. Their magic is based around magic circles; it tends to last longer than a Shifter's magic, but takes longer to enact.
2) Some sort of squidlike or similarly horrible alien monster with a suitably advanced hovercraft/hoverchair to cart it around
There is also a race known as the Octomen (IIRC) in the 2nd Atlantis book (Splynn Dimensional Market), and I think they were reprinted in D-Bees of North America. Otherwise, you'd probably have to make one; Road Hogs (very old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles supplement) has a mutant octopus that you can tweak how you need.
3) A warrior with demonic grafts/bodyparts welded to his body somehow
Palladium, IME, is a very fun game to play when you relax and let the game flow. Unless you know the rules like the back of your hand, don't worry about all the ins and outs of them... combat boils down to opposed d20 rolls, plus bonuses, with variable damage, and skills are "roll under on d%". The mechanics aren't as bad as everyone is whining about... they're just not well organized.Last edited by LibraryOgre; 2008-11-30 at 11:51 PM.
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
-
2008-12-01, 02:35 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
As for the guy with demon grafts, might I suggest the KISS philosophy?
Just use the borg OCC and reflavour it, that's all you have to do...
-
2008-12-01, 02:53 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2008
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Lol, I'm humored how many of these can be anwsered with "Atlantis"
1. A T-Man with demonic tattoos (basically reflavor the existing tattoos.)
2. Slaver as mentioned
3. Biomanip from Atlantis, and/or the parasites.
Anyway...out of Atlantis....
1. I think one of the witches out of the Conversion book used demons, but I can't remember for sure. Palladium mainly stayed clear of demons and whatnot. Can't really think of anything if you don't reflavor existing things.
2. Splynn Dimensional Market has some fun rules for various tentacles etc. I believe the NGR book has some tentacle things in the Black Forest with the evil mil tree.
3. I'd recommend the biomanipulation still, also check out Mindwerks for some other neat things.
-
2008-12-01, 02:57 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Virginia
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
RIFTS?
Spoiler
-
2008-12-01, 04:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- Oxford, England
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
I concur, the best way to handle a game of Rifts is to keep it very fast and loose. Apply lots of common sense, roll some dice, and keep it moving.
Also bear in mind that one shot from most MD weapons will punch a basketball-sized hole through a city block. Collateral damage is fun!
Oh, and I also recommend going gonzo. If your bad guys are the animated corpse of Bruce Lee with laser-nunchuks, a rocket-propelled clam-dragon, and a necromancer who raises the dead with heavy metal guitar riffs, you're probably on a roll.I write a gaming blog. It also hosts my gaming downloads:
Fatescape - FATE-based D&D emulator, for when you want D&D flavour but not D&D complexity.
Exalted Mass Combat Rules - Because the ones in the core book suck.
-
2008-12-01, 04:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
- Gender
-
2008-12-01, 07:58 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
-
2008-12-01, 08:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
- Gender
-
2008-12-01, 08:45 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- Oxford, England
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Well, you know how the Coalition States get... if you're not dressed as a skeleton and shooting lasers you're on the 'do not want' list...
I write a gaming blog. It also hosts my gaming downloads:
Fatescape - FATE-based D&D emulator, for when you want D&D flavour but not D&D complexity.
Exalted Mass Combat Rules - Because the ones in the core book suck.
-
2008-12-01, 08:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- Carnegie Mellon
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
In my opinion, all three character concepts can be modeled using Glitterboys.
...
Ok, fine, this is totally offtopic, but I can't talk about Rifts without mentioning Glitterboys and how awesome they are. Not mechanically, but, well, mechanically, in the whole "drill your feet into the ground so you can fire your BFG" sense.Love the Third Amendment?
-
2008-12-01, 08:54 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2008
- Gender
-
2008-12-01, 09:15 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- M'wakee, 'Sconsin
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
One of the things I love about rifts is that everyone looooves beating up nazis, and here you've got this whole huge power base of not just nazis, but nazis with giant robots and secret mutant experiments! And then to top it all off, they're Chicago Bears Fans (or would be, if football was still around). To my Packer-loving players, it makes for the ultimate random beat feat.
*random encounter time*
Me: "Alright guys, you have just broken camp, and are heading toward the area you think those weird aliens were coming from, when you notice a big hokin' robot with a skull head cresting the hill to your west."
Players: "It's the Coalition! Let's go F%#@ 'em up!"
Me: "Well, the robot doesn't seem to show any signs of noticing you. You could probably just keep..."
Players: "Screw that! We love to mess with these guys!" {rude plans are formulated}
-
2008-12-01, 10:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
It's a method, though I will add that the best Rifts games I've ever been in have had a unifying theme for character creation... something that everyone has in common.
The first was a relatively low-powered game where everyone was Coalition. We had three humans and a psi-stalker; one of the humans wasn't technically CS, but he was a headhunter who worked for them, so there wasn't any disconnect.
The second was a much higher-powered game where everyone was a True Atlantean... a shifter-turned-witch, a cyberknight, and a psychic warrior are the ones I remember.
This group had done gonzo before, but had a slight problem with one player radically outshining everyone else (and it wasn't even on purpose).The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
-
2008-12-01, 10:46 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Well, magic is (according to the Coalition) the vile force that threatens humanity. You are a Paladin - a force of goodness and righteousness - who also happens to be wielding magical powers. It's like if there was a Nazi Greenpeace group, and you were this blond-haired, blue-eyed hero who kept saving villages from pollution by means of your nuclear cleanup kit. And when you left town you tossed the kids some chocolate Hanukkah gelt.
-
2008-12-01, 10:55 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- M'wakee, 'Sconsin
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Oh totally. Having everyone from the same background, or at least agreed upon power level makes things a lot more enjoyable for all the players. I played a cyberknight in a several-year-long campaign alongside a Heroes Unlimited hero that the player had managed to whine and badger the GM into allowing. He had originally joined as a Juicer and the first few games were great, but then decided he just couldn't do everything he wanted to. Other original players in the campaign were an Operator/DM's Girlfriend, and a Shifter, so things were pretty relaxed for a while.
All of a sudden, the Operator & Shifter dropped out, the juicer turned into a super hero, and we added a Hawrk-Olw a dragon hatchling and an Atlantean Undead Slayer to the mix. The GM had to scale up power through the roof just to make things interesting, which left my poor cyberknight in a lot of trouble and frustrating circumstances. The GM took pity on my character and gave him a magical pair of indestructable boxer shorts because he was sick of my dude's armor being blasted into vapor and then having my cyberknight charge back into the fray butt-nekkid, and protected only by cyber armor.
Eventually I got a sweet rune-sword outta the deal, but I still wound up going through MDC armor like most people go through socks.
My most success as a Rifts GM also happened to be when I was running a Coalition Squad campaign. They eventually went rogue (which was my plan), but since they all had the same starting point and a cohesive background their characters stuck together quite well.
-
2008-12-01, 03:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
dammit... now I'm thinking of running a rifts game...
-
2008-12-01, 05:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- The Pacific Northwest
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Yeah, we were looking at the Summoner from Palladium Fantasy. This guy has basically always wanted to play a Demonizer from AD&D. But when I told him what the other guys were playing, he decided he wanted a "less serious" character to fit in better. So now he wants to be a heavily armed communist-hunting Robot left over from the Pre-Rifts era (or maybe blundered in from a parallel dimension where the Cold War never ended). Any suggestions on how to represent that? Right now I'm thinking I'll just stat him out as a 'Borg and replace any fluff related to organic bits, but if anyone has suggestions for portraying true robots those are welcomed.
The first thing that comes to mind is the Splugorth Slaver; they're in Atlantis, and, IIRC, the first Sourcebook (too lazy to reach over and get the book; it'll disturb my cat). They've got the benefit of a large number of scantily clad Blind Warrior Women (I'd link to an image, but it's moderately NSFW).
There is also a race known as the Octomen (IIRC) in the 2nd Atlantis book (Splynn Dimensional Market), and I think they were reprinted in D-Bees of North America. Otherwise, you'd probably have to make one; Road Hogs (very old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles supplement) has a mutant octopus that you can tweak how you need.
Rifts: Atlantis has Bio-wizardry, which would fill the bill. Juicer Uprising (World book 10) introduces the Maxi-killer, a juicer made from an excess of bio-wizardry. You can also use Wormwood; canonically, the symbiotes from Wormwood don't survive off-planet, but that's probably one of the most commonly ignored rules in the game.Last edited by Piedmon_Sama; 2008-12-01 at 05:17 PM.
-
2008-12-01, 05:25 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2007
- Location
- San Antonio, Texas
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Sourcebook 1 (both the original and the revised edition) have out-and-out robot-building rules. Want to play a sentient robot? Sit down with that book and build yourself from the ground up. A borg will work just fine, especially if he's got a human-like brain. But there are robot-building rules.
He came to earth specifically to satisfy his Japan fetish, attended by his slave/butler/henchman who will be a Hawrk-Duhk, probably using the Assassin class from Palladium Fantasy with customized fighting-spurs. (This is not at all a serious game, have you noticed?)
Awesome. Also, are there any minor types of sentient undead I could use to represent some damned souls? This character, Ulric Von Bloodhaus, fought his way out of hell and grafted the limbs of slain demons to his body and is accompanied by a small company of damned souls that play his themesong, the Bloodhaus Anthem, whenever he goes into battle.
You might also take a look at Africa, Mystic Russia, or PF's Adventures on the High Seas; choose a few Necromancer-like grafts, and say that's a permanent part of him.
***
People make a big stink about Palladium rules being bad. I've never found them to be bad or difficult. They are frequently poorly organized, and in some cases illogical or overly complex, but they're not bad. Modifiers are rarely grouped in convenient tables, and are instead spread out across a large span of text. However, they are, in many ways, similar to the 1st and 2nd edition AD&D rules, in that they're designed to be pretty modular; you can ignore things you don't like pretty easily, and the system doesn't collapse.
A few suggestions, and common complaints addressed:
1) Attributes don't matter unless they're really high; also stated as "My guy with a 20 IQ and a 3 PP is a better gymnast than the one with a 10 IQ and a 20 PP." I've recently submitted an article on how to fix several difficulties with the skill system, but this is really the easiest: For everyone, add the relevant attribute to their skill percentage. If I have a 20 I.Q., then I add +20 to skills where I.Q. would be the relevant stat. If I have a 20 P.P., then I add 20 to a skill where dexterity or agility is the main feature. It's simple and convenient, and doesn't require any retconning of NPCs; you can do it on the fly if you're decent at mental math. Since you're doing this for everyone, there's no discontinuity.
2) Skill percentages are wonky; every skill has a different percentage, and goes up at a different rate. I don't really have this problem, but that's because I have a spreadsheet that self-calculates... everything is entered in at character creation, and I can ignore it from then on out. To fix this requires a bit more work, but is still pretty easy. Change all the percentages to one of three standard ones; every skill goes up by 5% at every level. Rate skills as Easy, Medium, or Hard. Easy skills start at 60%, Medium at 45%, and Hard skills at 30%. Multiply level-1 by 5 and you have anything on top of the base.
3) Boxing lets me shoot my guns faster! Not terribly realistic; it's supposed to represent additional speed in combat because of being a boxer. If it bothers you so much, change it to a +1 to initiative... it will still be taken fairly often, because initiative bonuses don't grow on trees, but it won't be the munchkin skill of choice.
4) MDC is unrealistic. Pretty much true; it's mostly there to represent "This **** will kill you if you get hit." A lot of people fiddle with the ratio of MDC to SDC (1:100 is the standard; a lot of people go with 1:10). I'm happy with it, except in a few cases (like attacking earthen fortifications with energy weapons); that can be ruled on the fly pretty easily.
Those are the most common ones that are coming to mind right now. People who don't like the system whine about it a lot, but most of the things are either stylistic differences (they want the game to run on another system), or are very easy to correct to your own play style.
A conversation Hzurr and I had about something else really helps me sum up Rifts. It's not a good game, but it is an awesome game. Even though it's not a good game, I wouldn't call it bad. The mechanics aren't so inspiring or elegant as to make it a good game, but neither are they so clunky or confusing as to be a bad game. But, in either case, it is an awesome game... a game of awesome.Last edited by LibraryOgre; 2008-12-01 at 05:34 PM.
The Cranky Gamer
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude; the appearance of truth within the framework of the game.
*Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
*Mutant Dawn for Savage Worlds!
*The One Deck Engine: Gaming on a budget
Written by Me on DriveThru RPG
There are almost 400,000 threads on this site. If you need me to address a thread as a moderator, include a link.
-
2008-12-02, 07:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jan 2006
- Location
- The Pacific Northwest
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
Awesome, thanks for pointing this out to me. The character concept was a giant robot (25 feet tall), and I was worrying since none of the mech stats I had seen so far were big enough.
You have an Octoman with an anime fetish? That is awesome!
There's ghouls; they're technically demons, but they work. If you've got Conversion Book 1 or Dark Conversions, those would be your go-to for standard types of demons. Most other books have a few other options, as well.
You might also take a look at Africa, Mystic Russia, or PF's Adventures on the High Seas; choose a few Necromancer-like grafts, and say that's a permanent part of him.
1) Attributes don't matter unless they're really high; also stated as "My guy with a 20 IQ and a 3 PP is a better gymnast than the one with a 10 IQ and a 20 PP." I've recently submitted an article on how to fix several difficulties with the skill system, but this is really the easiest: For everyone, add the relevant attribute to their skill percentage. If I have a 20 I.Q., then I add +20 to skills where I.Q. would be the relevant stat. If I have a 20 P.P., then I add 20 to a skill where dexterity or agility is the main feature. It's simple and convenient, and doesn't require any retconning of NPCs; you can do it on the fly if you're decent at mental math. Since you're doing this for everyone, there's no discontinuity.
2) Skill percentages are wonky; every skill has a different percentage, and goes up at a different rate. I don't really have this problem, but that's because I have a spreadsheet that self-calculates... everything is entered in at character creation, and I can ignore it from then on out. To fix this requires a bit more work, but is still pretty easy. Change all the percentages to one of three standard ones; every skill goes up by 5% at every level. Rate skills as Easy, Medium, or Hard. Easy skills start at 60%, Medium at 45%, and Hard skills at 30%. Multiply level-1 by 5 and you have anything on top of the base.
3) Boxing lets me shoot my guns faster! Not terribly realistic; it's supposed to represent additional speed in combat because of being a boxer. If it bothers you so much, change it to a +1 to initiative... it will still be taken fairly often, because initiative bonuses don't grow on trees, but it won't be the munchkin skill of choice.
4) MDC is unrealistic. Pretty much true; it's mostly there to represent "This **** will kill you if you get hit." A lot of people fiddle with the ratio of MDC to SDC (1:100 is the standard; a lot of people go with 1:10). I'm happy with it, except in a few cases (like attacking earthen fortifications with energy weapons); that can be ruled on the fly pretty easily.
Those are the most common ones that are coming to mind right now. People who don't like the system whine about it a lot, but most of the things are either stylistic differences (they want the game to run on another system), or are very easy to correct to your own play style.
A conversation Hzurr and I had about something else really helps me sum up Rifts. It's not a good game, but it is an awesome game. Even though it's not a good game, I wouldn't call it bad. The mechanics aren't so inspiring or elegant as to make it a good game, but neither are they so clunky or confusing as to be a bad game. But, in either case, it is an awesome game... a game of awesome.Last edited by Piedmon_Sama; 2008-12-02 at 07:45 PM.
-
2008-12-02, 09:43 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Location
- Virginia
- Gender
Re: God help me.... I'm thinking of running a Rifts game
ODP, when I grow up, can I run a RIFT's game too?
but honestly, undead bruce lee with laser nunchucks? I think I just got my next character concept.